I was able to leave work today at 3 pm. I mowed the lawn and did my monthly investment statement, which looks sweeeet.

My net worth as of today is $650,633. That's more than $18,000 more than last month. Most of this....$573,000.....is tax-deferred money in IRA and 401k accounts, accumulated over a lifetime. I have $76,999 in taxable accounts. The house and car are paid for. And I have a real job now. Life is good.

Yet, all it would take is a market correction, probably overdue. Then, I would have to rebuild savings without a bull stock market acting like the wind in my sails. It would be more of an uphill climb.

My retirement savings goal for year's end was $623,000, so I've already exceeded that goal. In fact, my goal for the end of 2015 was $673,000, so it's entirely conceivable I could hit that goal also. These are specific, tangible goals I set for myself in order to save $908,000 in 5 years time, after which, I could probably retire. (Although my "number" has long been $1.25 mm, but I don't think I want to work that long.)

Home Depot never called me this past week as they said they would, to schedule a time to come to measure my front entry so I could get a new door. They charged my credit card $30 for the measurement fee, which goes toward the door purchase price if you wind up getting the door.

But I'm annoyed at their poor customer service already, not doing what they said they would do. I'm just too busy to chase after them. I called the credit card company to dispute the charge so I can get a credit and go elsewhere, but they required me to attempt to resolve it with the merchant, so then I called Home Depot but she said I'd have to talk to customer service, and evidently, they closed early becus the phone just rang and rang and rang. I'll try again tomorrow.

I also thought I would stop in at my local, in-town Windowland to check out their doors.

Tomorrow I've got an appointment at the local State Farm office to buy another $10K worth of 5-year CDs with IRA money that's earning practically nothing in my Vanguard money market. I think the rate I'll be getting is 2.15%. At least it's something. It's long-term money so I won't need to access it.

Yesterday there were more layoffs at the bank. Not on a massive scale, but selectively done. There were some long-timers, no doubt with much bigger salaries than I have, that were among the casualties. It was upsetting.

Also on the weekend's agenda: installing new bamboo shades in my upstairs bathroom, vacuuming, laundry and attending my town's Labor Day parade with a friend on Monday.

I got yet another new credit card, my 3rd or 4th (!) with Bank of America...the Better Balance Rewards card. You earn $25 cash rewards each quarter you charge something each month and pay more than the minimum balance, on time.

There's no minimum spend requirement, just that you spend something each month during the quarter and then pay more than the minimum required, on time. So it works out to $100 a year, which is equivalent to many other credit card up front bonuses I've gotten, but those offers are getting harder to find as I've gone thru most of them, and this at least lets me earn that $100 a year over and over again, if I keep the card as one of my long-term cards. It's a fairly painless way to earn free money, so that's what I'll do. The hardest part will be making sure I charge SOMETHING in each of the 3 months within a given quarter. Otherwise, no reward that quarter. I have so many cards, that can be tricky, but as soon as I accumulate enough rewards to redeem, I'll be wanting to close down some of these excess cards. Like, my Discover card will be the first to go.

While we're talking credit cards, I'm also going after an Amex deal where if you spend $50 at Stew Leonard's (a local grocery store around here), you get a $10 statement credit. I don't think it's much more expensive than any other grocery store around here, and I always need food, so why not.

Luther and Waldo have become so jaded. They won't even bat at the string I toss for them. Stop taunting us, they seem to say. We know it's dead. We like the real thing better.

After a fair amount of time researching CD rates (I'm determined to do better than the measly .06% I'm getting with my Vanguard money market), I decided to put $10,000 in an Everbank 5-yr CD earning 2.30%.

I called last night and since it was after hours, he emailed me the forms I'd need to fill out. There were 3 different forms with over 25 pp. After using up a good deal of printer ink, I saw in one form where they actually ask for your employer's name and how much annual income you make.

This is ridiculous. Since when do banks ask for this info? I'm aware of some credit card applications that ask for income and type of occupation, but this is going too far. And frankly, I don't see the relevance of my earnings when I'm handing over ten grand.

I've opened up CDs before (at State Farm, last year, most recently) and never had to disclose this.

I called to confirm that this info was in fact a requirement and she said yes, it was. I voiced my disagreement over the phone and again over email and then tossed the printed out application forms.

Truly annoying and way too invasive. I'm tired of having to disclose every nuance of my financial life whenever I want to do something. So I won't.

In the interest of eating healthily and frugally, I continue to find new and enjoyable ways to prepare all the fresh produce I'm getting from the CSA.

Last night I whipped up some Baba Ghanoush... my first. I regret not measuring out one-quarter cup of lemon juice instead of just juicing 2 lemons, because it came out with lemon being the predominant flavor. At the same time, I ran short of the 3 tablespoons of tahini that was needed; I had only 1.5 tablespoons left.

I picked up some more tahini at Stop & Shop on the way home from work and improved it. It was quite tasty with the pita bread yesterday, but tonight slathering it like butter inside the pockets with chopped cucumber and tomato was even better. Yum.

I decided to finally do something about the $37,000 sitting earning nothing in a Vanguard money market account. Everbank emailed me the paperwork; since the it's an IRA I'm transferring, they need a real signature. 2.30% is better than .06%. It's a 5-yr CD, but this is only a portion of my cash position and I won't need to access it. I think I'm in for $10,000. If rates rise within that time, as I expect they will, I have other money I can use to ladder some more CDs.

Today at lunchtime I walked for 45 minutes; tonight at home I mowed the lawn for 30 minutes. So fit in some good exercise there.

Tonight I applied for a Bank of America Better Balance Rewards card where you earn $25 a quarter as long as you charge something every month and pay it on time and make more than the minimum payment.

I was disconcerted to not get an immediate approval...probably becus I already own 3 BankAmericards. I hope I get this one.....

Looking forward to a long holiday weekend next weekend, and of course, getting out a few hours early on Friday.

We have a new gal on our team who wasn't aware of the Thursday Farmer's Market in the city where I work, so I suggested I take her there next week. She sits where most of my group sits (I'm in another location) and there are several people there who have never struck me as especially friendly, so I do feel for her a little, being new.

My neighbors behind me are making some moves I don't approve of. We had a talk last night. I am looking the other way that they have 3 illegal tenants up there now, their solution to allowing them to remain living in their home instead of selling (which they haven't been able to do) and moving to Tennessee, home of cheap real estate.

However, she told me last night that her husband's daughter and two granddaughers are coming to live with them from England. (He's British.) His daughter is divorced, but the father sees his girls once a week, although he hasn't always been a regular part of their lives.

They are due to arrive here in the States next week, and apparently are not planning on informing the father they are leaving. My neighbor kept saying disparaging things about the father, that he was not a good husband, doesn't make good money and that his ex lived in a very bad neighborhood and needed to move to protect her children. Well, they could have moved somewhere else in England....She made it seem like the move to the US was the ONLY solution.

She said oh, the father can come visit us here. Like yeah, that will be easy?? It's outrageous to me they would disregard his paternal rights so casually.

In the meantime, they have now acquired 2 cows. The first cow kept mooing constantly for the several days it was alone and then suddenly, things went quiet. They had gotten a 2nd cow, thank God. I felt bad for the cow; it was the first time it was separated from its mother, the first time it had ridden in a trailer, for 40 minutes, and everything was strange to it. At least now it has company.

So sad to hear about Robin Williams' death. It's sad when anyone commits suicide, but all the more startling when a funny man does it.

It just goes to show you, that even with a loving family, rewarding career, respect, fame and financial independence, depression can cause horrible things to happen.

And, while debate over legalizing marijuana has gone on for decades, a perfectly legal substance known as alcohol held someone like this within its inexorable grip.

So sad...

I find that when I'm busy (aka, working f/t) I am uber-productive on my weekends.

I got all these things on my list done:

1. Weeded the driveway. (Yes, many cracks...some day I will have to repave it.)

2. Weeded the veggie garden. (I pulled the rest of the onions, and while they are pint-sized, about the size of golf balls, they are very oniony-tasting.)

3. Weeded various perennial beds and the brick patio while giving wide berth to the growing paper wasp nest, which is now the size of a basketball. The weeding is by no means complete, but at least I did a fair amount.

4. I picked up my half share of veggies from the CSA and got my biggest haul yet: 5 cucumbers, a pint of cherry tomatoes plus a pound of small regular tomatoes, a head of lettuce, a few more yellow squash, 2 bell peppers, 2 skinny eggplant, a pound of string beans. I think I forgot to take some potatoes. The farmer is looking very, very tan/red these days.

5. I watered the grass I sowed this spring, but unfortunately, this is the time of year, very warm with little rain, when whatever grass I plant partially dies back and weeds take its place. I let the watering go for probably a one-week period, and that's all it took. I am SOO tired of watering this particular plot of grass, dragging the hose around, plus a much smaller patch in the backyard where I have to haul water in a large plastic watering can.

6. Also watered the veggie garden after weeding.

7. I made my lunch for the 1st 2 workdays: cheese tortellini with sliced cherry tomatoes and croutons with a bit of salad dressing, plus sliced cucumbers on the side.

8. Stopped in at Dress Barn looking for a nice top to wear at my Thursday picnic, but didn't find anything.

9. Did the final touch-up/coat of paint on 2 windows in my office.

10. Pulled down the Virginia creeper vines that were climbing over the roof of my toolshed.

11. Had a nice lunch with a girlfriend at a new restaurant in town that is very nice with its reclaimed barnboard ceiling and brick interior walls. I had lobster bisque and a beet salad, plus she wanted desserts, so the bill for lunch came to $62 with tip!!!! I can't believe the prices!

Her big news was that she had a melanoma removed from her face, and is having more surgery this week to remove some squamous cell moles elsewhere on her body. She is fair-skinned with red hair.

12. Went over my mother's to talk to her about having an aide come to the house a few times a week. Response: No go. We got in a big argument. I give up, for now. It's too exhausting. Guess we'll have to wait til the next medical crisis comes.

13. Filled up the gas tank and picked up a few groceries.

14. Picked up a few $3 tank tops to sleep in at Wal-Mart.

Plus, I did these things that weren't on my list:

1. A load of laundry.

2. I made a pitcher of ice tea, which I like to bring to work with me in my Thermos. Much better than drinking soda!

3. Swept the upper part of the driveway where the rhododendron leaves always fall.

4. Took a walk on one of the town's walking trails - very peaceful.

5. Took a walk around the block tonight to squeeze in some more exercise before dark.

6. Used my electric trimmer to tidy up an azalea and another shrub in front of the house.

This evening before dark i noticed a silver pickup zipping up and down the street. It had flashing lights and stopped at my neighbor's, then pulled up my driveway before going up the very long driveway to the people who live behind me up the hill. A fire truck followed them up. They were there about 10 minutes, then left. I called my neighbors to make sure they were okay, and she told me someone (they don't know who) complained about all the smoke caused by the fire in their fire pit. She had been sitting outside with a book and a glass of wine and was quite startled to find a fireman in full gear on the property. They live in the middle of the woods.

I'm so grateful for another Friday...although when the weekend comes around, I feel like it's just another kind of work I've got to do.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for lunch in town at a new restaurant. That's the only really "fun" thing I'll be doing.

Yesterday I worked at home becus my landline was not working and i had to let the AT&T guy in. When I got home Wed. night, however, I discovered the phone was again working, but I decided since I'd already arranged it, to still work at home, which is rare for me during the summer months unless I have a doc appointment or something.

So I was able to make some much-needed phone calls which is incredibly difficult at work since I work at a cube and there's NO privacy.

So I scheduled my physical for September, after my new health insurance kicks in, so I can earn $50 I think it is just by doing a "wellness" thing and getting that physical. There are a bunch of other things like that you can also do to earn money, up to a max of $250 a year, and I intend to try to do every one of them! As you can see, I'm still thinking frugally, even after getting the big new job, and I doubt that will ever change.

I still haven't restarted Netflix. I am so busy with yardwork and that kind of thing now, so I may wait until late fall to renew since I'll have more indoor time then. I've gotten used to free Hulu's very limited selection of shows.

I called 2 home health aide agencies to get help for my mother. Both were recommended by 2 people I know. The next step would be interviewing the 2 aides one of the agencies would send to meet me and my mother. This all takes so much time, considering I can't do this during the week. While I worry about my mother being alone so much, at her age, I also worry about the proclivity of any aide we might hire to possibly steal small items (of which there are a lot) from my mother's place. Or worse, I could see my mother asking them to help her with the computer, which she often has problems with, and the aide gets a hold of her email password. From there, she could eventually get her credit card numbers, bank account number or who knows what. I'm hoping to feel more motivated and energetic about it to schedule something for next weekend.

So, here's some financial news....Earlier this year I contributed $6500 to a traditional IRA, not knowing I would get a perm job at the bank. I'm realizing in hindsight that with my $80K gross salary, my Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) for 2014 might exceed $70K, and that would mean that the traditional IRA I contributed to earlier in the year would not be tax deductible.

I recently started contributing (the max) to my new 401k at work. Thinking about how disappointing it would be not to be able to deduct that IRA, I decided to sign up for the $5500 catch-up contribution for those age 50+.

I checked the gross I made at the bank while still employed by the agency, and it was actually a lot less than I thought, what with my mandatory week-long furlough and all those unpaid holidays. So I calculate that my gross income from the agency and the bank will be just $63,140, and after subtracting my 401k contribution ($4,264 for a partial year) ad the catch-up contribution but then add back in about $1400 in taxable interest from investments, I figure my MAGI will be just $54,776, well below the $60,000 threshold to be eligible for a full deduction on the IRA contribution.

At the same time, I'm still working on earning a 2.5% bonus on my taxable contributions I've been making into my Barclay dream account. I figure it's worth about $114 to me. I should have already earned it (you have to contribute any amount up to $1,000 for 6 consecutive months to get a 2.5% bonus on the total interest earned on the money in the account) except that either I or they screwed up one month when I could have SWORN I contributed to the Dream account but apparently contributed to my OTHER Barclay money market account. Anyway, I have 3 more months of contributions to go and then I should earn it.

Garden news:
I've begun picking small cherry tomatoes and a few smallish tomatoes from my bushes, and I've pulled up a number of small yellow onions, too. Also occasionally picking beets and there's a cucumber that's almost ready. The wineberries, at least the ones I can reach, are pretty well spent. I was able to freeze at least 4 bags holding about 2 cups each. I'm satisfied with that and would rather stay Lyme-free than diving into the brambles for more berries.

It's been a fairly cool summer(no, not complaining at all), and so my tomato plants are holding onto the green tomatoes longer, I think.

For my birthday, my sister gave me a cute little thistle feeder and the birds have discovered it. Some goldfinches and also chickadees. I enjoy watching them. And she gave me a dozen or so oranges expressly for the Baltimore Oriole feeder she gave me last Christmas. I've hung it out and have seen Orioles in early spring, but haven't seen any at the feeder.

Possible home maintenance projects on this weekend's list which I likely won't get to but have listed anyway include:
*Paint Thoro Plug over patched areas of concrete wall in basement so it's all a uniform white
* Finish painting the trim in my office (will take 5 minutes, but the clean-up is a pain)
* Pull vines off the toolshed

I'd also like to get a haircut and figure out what I'll wear to the work picnic up in Massachusetts next week. I may buy something new. I'm not really looking forward to it becus it's ALWAYS an incredibly long day, having to drive 3 hours up and 3 hours back in the same day. In addition, becus the employee who usually rents a van/SUV and drives everyone is on vacation, that leaves just me and my boss as the only employees going, with 4 different contractors. Since a contractor isn't allowed to rent the vehicle and drive, that leaves me and my boss, and my boss has already told me she doesn't want to drive. I can't blame her since she goes up there every other week, but the difference is that she stays 3 or 4 nights, while when the rest of us go, it's up and back same day. I have never driven a van or SUV before, so now I'll be driving 5 women in a van on this long drive. I can think of so many other things I'd rather be doing, believe me.

I had an appointment to meet with the director of the assisted living place they're constructing in next town over. While the private apartments were small...just 600 square feet for the 1 bedroom, probably the coolest thing about it was that they recently "bought a farm," and in a few years time, they expect to provide 85% of all the food served at the place from this farm, including veggies, grass-fed beef, eggs, and even milk.

They have a lot of communal spaces including an art studio.

But it doesn't really seem doable, given the incredible cost. For the one bedroom, it's $6,550 a month, or $78,600 a year. If I calculate the sale of her condo, her savings and what my mother gets annually in Social Security, she'd deplete her savings within 4 years. Yes, um, 4 years, when she would be 84. After which she'd have to leave, probably for a nursing home, whether she was ready for one or not, becus at that point she'd be broke.

I also studied the website of Masonicare assisted living, which is right in my town. This place is different becus it's non-profit. Unlike the first place, they require a large ($110,000) lump sum down, but then the monthly cost is in the range of $2,100. In that scenario, her money would last for 12 years. Big difference.

Both places handle the meals and offer local transportation to shopping and doc appointments when needed.

Seems that first place I visited is really designed for wealthy families, not us.

My sister and I are going back to talking about hiring someone through an agency to come in on a regular basis to do whatever or just be with her. That won't be cheap either, but I think it will be cheaper than the above 2 scenarios and she wouldn't have to give up half her stuff to squeeze into such a small space. Although the big plus about the assisted living places is their built-in social aspects with lots of activities and other people to get friendly with.

The hardest part will be getting my mother to go along with any of these options, once she hears the price. Having power of attorney and a joint bank account with her, I could just go and do it, but I'd rather she didn't hate me for doing that, so I'll have to be patient (NEVER my strongest virtue) and wheedle her into it.

Tomorrow's my birthday, so we'll be over there and bringing lunch. We will bring up the topic, although I'm not prepared to talk in great detail as I haven't done all my homework. There is so much to be done, and at work I have ZERO privacy to talk on the phone, so whenever I make a call I have to go to the stairwell, and people can't call me back given my lack of privacy.

I want to try to get my mother to give up the computer, for good. She's been calling me lately about how she can't remember her password and is leaving me frustrated messages. She really doesn't need it and mostly uses email, but mostly it just stresses her (and me) out.

I found a third yellow jacket nest in my lawn, but since it's been sort of rainy all day, I won't spray tonight.

I cooked up a bunch of zucchini and squash tonight in a casserole with sun dried tomatoes, onion, parmesan cheese and cubed stale foccacia I'd frozen a month ago. It came out pretty good. I am so tired of sauteed, watery squashes, or even roasted.

I filled up the gas tank and bought a few groceries (well, $70 worth, that's more than a few) at BJs.

Hooray, Friday and the weekend are here!

I got my first full paycheck today. By the time the federal and state deductions sucked their share, I wound up with less than I thought. However, I did contribute my 15% ($461) to my 401(k).

Hooray for the 401(k)! The first I've owned in 5 years!!

Yeah, as Petunia noted, the stock market was a bit of a downer in the past few days.

I've been keeping tabs on the largish paper wasp nest that's growing directly behind my house, maybe 8 inches from the safety of my window. It's about the size of a basketball now. At one point recently, I noticed a largish gash on my side of it, maybe 2 or 3 inches long. It was almost like a stretch mark or something, like maybe the hole was made by the weight of the nest itself. I'm not sure, but what really fascinated is that a day later, these hornets had neatly patched the hole with a live rhododendron leaf. It was really amazing. I don't know how insects can do that. It must have been a collaborative effort. Really, really interesting. To me, anyway.

My birthday is coming up on Sunday. I will be ancient then. Stash Tea sent me a deal where if I spent $20, I get $10 off, so I went and spent way too much time browsing their site and finally placed my order for $24 so I could try some interesting new teas and enjoy them in a new turquoise Stash mug.

I will also make use of a $10 off birthday coupon from the car dealer, for my next oil/filter change.

I got the lawn mowing out of the way on Wednesday and Thursday.

In another 2 weeks I'll have to make another trip north, to Massachusetts, to a team barbecue. However, because the company has instituted a new expense reimbursement policy, we can no longer drive our own cars and get reimbursed if it's over 150 miles. The trip to our office up there and back is about double that, and the barbecue will be, too. That means I have to go to the trouble of renting a car through a certain travel agency. Which will be a pain because I have no one to drive me to the car rental place, wherever it ends up being. If they don't have some sort of service to drive me home, I'd have to leave my car there, if they even permit that. Not something you want to have to mess around with, considering all the paperwork and then when you're tired coming back, to have to drop it off, etc. UGH Hate it.

I have an appt. to meet with someone and get a tour of an assisted living place near me. For my mother. I just want to get all the particulars. It would be a huge uphill battle to even get her to consider moving into one, especially if she knew the cost, but she has serious short-term memory problems. I don't think she can live alone much longer.

It's a huge task. I can't even barely think about it because if I do, I'll feel overwhelmed. My sister at least agreed to check out 1 or 2 places in her area.

Much as I love supporting the local organic farm as a member of their CSA, I've decided I won't renew my membership next year.

Today is just the 4th Sunday I'll be collecting my half share of produce, but I've already found myself with certain veggies I either don't have time to cook up or don't care for all that much.

Part of the problem is that half share owners pick up on Sundays, not before 1 pm (Full share owners pick up on Saturdays.) I'm never quite sure what we will be getting until I pick it up, so I can't plan ahead with certain recipes picked out that make use of those vegetables. Sunday afternoons I don't like running around so if I'm missing an ingredient or two, that means I have to run to the store.

I also don't much care for Swiss Chard, and we've gotten that I think every single week so far. (It's easy to grow.) I've frozen a bunch for winter soups, which is fine, but I feel I have enough and don't want to totally take up space in my smallish freezer. I already gave some produce to my mother last week, but umm, I paid top dollar for all this organic produce and here I am giving it away or hoping I don't get ever more Swiss Chard or zucchini.

I'd probably do MUCH better cost-wise to simply shop at the farm on my own, to get exactly what I want and nothing more. I don't really see any advantage to having to take produce I don't necessarily want.

I was pretty productive this weekend. I tackled the stupid back wall of a hall closet again, using some special primer that's supposed to work well on problem surfaces and stop peeling. It didn't completely work on the back wall,which had been damaged 2 winters ago now by ice dam leakage from the roof. I already overpaid a contractor and all he did was compound over it several coats. When i tried painting regular primer on top of it, it began peeling in spots when it dried.

I'm so sick of this particular job. I decided to "give up." I painted over everything and it's just one smallish area near the bottom where you can't really see it where it's still peeling. It's just not worth my time or aggravation, and I'm tired of looking at the pile of sheets, blankets, pillows, etc. on the floor. So after it dried, everything went back in.

I also was able to install a new set of bamboo shades in my office. They look quite lovely. I had been making due with two panels from a single set of curtains in my office for YEARS. They were a navy/white plaid and didn't exactly match the wallpaper in here. Now that I've gotten rid of the curtain panels, I really like the minimalist and contemporary look of the bamboo shades which, being bamboo, also remind me of my hippie youth, for some reason.

These are now the 3rd set of bamboo shades I've purchased. The other sets are in the sun room and my bedroom. Each one's a different pattern. They do take more time to raise or lower each day as i have to wrap the cord around and around and around the little thing you mount on the side of the window trim.

My new Frigidaire dehumidifier is working like a CHAMP in the basement. It's taking a ton of water out of the air down there and has done an EXCELLENT job of drying out my concrete floor, which had been getting progressively wetter with all the humidity and after the breakdown of my older DeLonghii dehumidifier.

The DeLonghi is still at Jeff's Appliance. They are trying to determine if it's just a broke sensor or the "control board," which sounds a bit ominous. Maybe they are setting me up to pay more than the $60 or $80 they quoted me on the phone (admittedly sight unseen).

This one is in the ground. I was walking across the lawn, up the slope toward the house, and there it was, plain as day. A hole in the ground where hornets were coming and going. If I had approached it from any other angle, I likely wouldn't have seen it.

I banged a wood post in the ground about 3 feet from the nest to remind myself to mow around it. I'm not sure I can go the rest of the year without mowing there, but maybe I will.

My veggie garden is pretty haphazard this year, but the onions are bigger. Too bad I didn't plant them deep enough; some are flopping on their sides. The beets are also finally taking off. I may dig a few up this weekend to see how big the roots are; i can always eat the greens.

I've also got 5 tomato plants scattered around the property (not in the garden, due to blight disease problems), in areas close to the house and fenced off to deter deer. Oh, and 1 cucumber that has lots of flowers but no cukes yet.

Nearly every year I have my annual run-in with hornets and their nests. It's hardest to spot them when the nest is in the ground. Then I'll inadvertently run over it with the mower, and that's when I get stung, on the back of the leg, usually. My leg will swell up for a week. If you've been stung, you know what it feels like...like someone's taken a small knife and twisted it into your leg. OWWWW.

A few times, now, no doubt from the trauma of being stung, I've been alert enough to spot a ground nest before I mow over it. I can spot them sometimes by noticing a lot of insect activity, of flying objects coming and going in the same area. If you stop and peer at it more closely, sometimes it turns out to be hornets going to their nest.

Earlier this year I found a small hornets nest under the broad-leaved canopy of a huge viburnum. It provides excellent shelter from rain, no doubt. I had to spray the nest because it was kind of close to the driveway, where a deliveryman could brush up against it, and actually that's what I did myself when I was mowing. The nest actually fell on the mower, but even more surprising, the hornets didn't go after me. Still, I felt I'd better spray.

Yesterday, I found an even largest hornet nest, about the size of a cantaloupe, in a rhododendron that sits very close to the house, on the back wall.

Because I know that hornets, like bees and wasps, play a critical role as pollinators, I am happy to be able to leave this nest alone until the frost kills them later in the year. It's in an area where no one will go, and I have the perfect vantage point indoors to watch as the nest gets larger.

I plan to collect the nest after a hard frost and bring it indoors to put on a shelf. To be sure no hornets are left in it to hatch when I bring it inside (they shouldn't be, according to the hornet life cycle I've read up on), I'll put the nest in a clear plastic bag and seal it for a day or two indoors. Just to be doubly safe.

I would like to post a photo of the nest but as mentioned before, I'm having trouble now adding images.

I finished up my 1st week as a perm employee. Today I got my last check from the headhunter agency, and I'll have to wait 2 more weeks, til Aug. 1, to get my first check from the bank.

I've signed up for healthcare, my flex spending account, dental care and 401k. I'll be contributing 15% to start; I may sign up for the catch-up contribution later after I get a sense of my comfort level and how much discretionary money I have left over. Just have to wait to get my ID card.

As usual, i have a ton of stuff to do this weekend. Uppermost in my mind is driving 45 minutes to drop off my dehumidifier for repair. The new one's been running and working like a champ.

I picked up a pizza tonight on my way home from work. It was the 1st time in the 19 years i've lived in this town that I tried out this particular pizza place. I don't know why that is, but it is. The pizza was pretty good and cheaper than the pizza place i used to go to, where it was hard to justify their prices.

Well, it's barely mid-week and I already made myself a long list of things to do this weekend. Sigh.

When I got home from work, I went out with a bowl to see if I could pick off some ripe wineberries. Looks like another banner year for them as they envelop my property from nearly all sides. I only picked enough to top my breakfast cereal in the morning. But I think more should ripen by the time the weekend comes. I hope to pick as many as possible and freeze a bunch for winter.

My membership in the CSA this season is forcing me to cook things I don't usually cook. Like, I know beets are considered a "super food," but if I bought them in the past, they'd be pickled in a jar. Not bad, but not very fresh.

So last Sunday I got 4 good sized beets with my haul, but also the tops. I went online to my default recipe source, food.com, and tried out a simple recipe where you basically just cook raisins (plumped up with boiling water first), walnuts, garlic and scallions with the shredded beet greens, just long enough to wilt the beet greens. BOY, WERE THEY GOOD. The sweetness from the raisins took away the sometimes bitter taste of greens. I could have eaten a lot more of them, cus once you cook them down, what looks like a huge pile of leaves ends up being much smaller.

I may just email the recipe to the farmer's wife. And I've been toying with the idea of volunteering my time to help them write a newsletter going out to all CSA members, which I believe is over 100 families. I know they can't pay me, but I am so into the whole CSA thing, plus I love to cook and try new recipes. The person who did something like this before moved to Maine, so at the moment they are "newsletterless."

Plus, being a writer, this stuff comes easily to me. I was also wondering if they've ever done a survey at the end of the season to ask people, for instance, to name their top 5 vegetables they'd like to get in the CSA and what they thought of the program in general.

But, it is a commitment and I don't want to start something I can't stick with. I seem to always be going in a hundred different directions.

Last weekend was nearly all "chores" and not much "fun" stuff, save for an early Sunday evening walk on my favorite paved walking trail here in town. I've done that walk a zillion times before but I enjoyed it so much nonetheless. I had the place mostly to myself. The meadows reminded me of famous Andrew Wyeth's painting, Christina.

So, back to my produce. I still have a bunch of kale and 5 zucchini/yellow squash to do something with. The problem is, during the week i'm usually too tired to do any fancy cooking but yet i hate to leave farm fresh produce linger in my fridge all week. I wish I could get my produce earlier than Sunday afternoon, cus by that time, well, I'm running out of weekend time to do some cooking.

Due to the extreme high humidity, i haven't walked on my lunch hour all week; instead, I've gone to sit, or recline, actually in my car with the radio on.

Last weekend I spent some time researching the cost of cable TV with either Charter, AT&T or Fios. They all offer even the cheapest TV at a far higher price than I want to pay. When I gave up cable in 2010 (post-layoff), I was paying just $18 a month for it! Now, even if you get it as part of the threesome package with phone and Internet, you're still paying $30 a month and usually just for a year or two and then you have to renegotiate the whole thing again. I absolutely HATE having to do that, as is the case now with AT&T for my phone and internet. I'm quite sure they're counting on your not bothering to do that or not having time or being lazy or whatever so you wind up paying the higher price after the promo rate is over.

For now, I guess I'll stick with plain old, limited Hulu. The only shows I watch regularly are:
* House Hunters
* The Bachelor/The Bachelorette
* So You Think You Can Dance
* American Pickers

What I miss the most is:
* My local news stations
* American Idol
* HSN, I'm embarrassed to admit. As a marketing writer, I'm fascinated by their sales pitches and how they pull you so that before you know it, you've just got to have the latest whatever it is they're selling.
* Channel 13

Little by little I am doing the things I'm required to do as a new employee. Working for such a big company, it's frankly ridiculous to have such a complicated mountain of stuff to read and do, but of course it's all mostly necessary. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to set up my direct deposit. Then on Thursday I should be able to do some other things, like health insurance (won't be able to switch til Sept 1) and my 401k elections. Then of course I'll have to get through a pile of Group Learning Modules, which are self-directed online courses you have to take each quarter. I've been doing them all along; even as a contractor you're required to take them. Kind of a pain. There was one I flunked and so I have to retake it until i Pass. Yikes.

Oh. Last night, I found my new Frigidaire dehumidifer sitting on my front doorstep, delivered via Amazon.

I managed to get it out of the box and into the basement. Plugged it in, turned the power on and it started right up. There was next to nothing I had to do, which is the way I like it. Thus far I am using the container you have to empty once it fills up cus I only have one laundry sink down there and I have decided that yes, I will also get the DeLonghii dehumidifer repaired....another chore this weekend to drive it 50 minutes to New Haven where the authorized repair guy is.

The basement floor is STARTING to dry out; I'll have to remember to empty that bin in the a.m. before I go to work so it doesn't stop working all day when I'm away.

When I get the DeLonghii repaired, I may run both down there but I may also need to get an electrician over here to put in another electrical outlet in the corner of the basement where I want to put the Frigidiaire. I have to search down there first to see if there's one I haven't noticed before. Would be nice if there was one. You're not supposed to use an extension cord and since I do worry about things like fires, I won't do that....

Here's some not very good pix of the ailanthus tree that was taken down last weekend.

http://www.savingadvice.com/blogs/image.php?blog=3743&id=12651

http://www.savingadvice.com/blogs/image.php?blog=3743&id=12650

Photos used to be so easy to do here and now I'm having trouble. Something has changed.

Saturday a crew of 4 burly guys came to take down a 65-foot-tall ailanthus tree near by house.

They had a bucket truck and a small payloader (?) to carry large trunk chunks to the truck to cart away But what really impressed me was the surgeon-like precision with which they lowered chunks of the tree down a pulley system that avoided hitting either of two sets of power lines on either side, or nearby trees. It was very impressive. Glad that's done.

Today's haul from the farm CSA includes: 2heads of garlic, a bunch of kale, 4 beets with green tops, a bunch of Swiss chard, three zucchini and 2 yellow squash.

I blanched and froze the Swiss chard. I plan to roast the beets and use the greens for dinner tomorrow. I would have done it today but it's just too hot and humid to be using the oven.

I ate the last of the kale from last week. I also used 2 cups of shredded zucchini to make a very good chocolate cake.

I took a very enjoyable walk on one of our town's paved walking trails. I even snoozed and took a longish nap, due to the heat.

I went to the supermarket and got some stuff, then made a quinoa cranberry salad for the next few days' lunches.

Tomorrow I get my new 70-pint dehumidifier delivered, and it's badly needed. The basement floor is all damp/wet due to the humid air. It's much worse than usual since my regular humidifier broke down.

Yesterday I installed some new bamboo shades I bought for my bedroom. The dark brown really looks good with my cherry bedroom furniture. I already ordered another set (my 3rd) for my office.

I got a call last night from the neighbors behind me. The happy news is that they AREN'T moving!

You may recall earlier posts of mine about their plans to move to Tennessee (land of cheap real estate) because they over-improved their house and then he lost his high-paying job. They could no longer afford to pay their property taxes, which amounted to yes, $18,000.

They originally listed the house in the $900s. After lowering the price several times, down to $699K, with nary an offer, they decided to create an illegal apartment and a room for rent.

They will be living there too, of course, so I'm not too concerned about it. She feels that the income from the renters, plus income from her husband's future job, will be enough to pay the bills.

Right now, the husband, who worked as a toy designer, is trying to get his own puzzle business off the ground. While things still look very promising, he can't draw a salary for at least a year.

But she wants him to get a f/t job and continue the toy business thing on the side. Any job, she said, any job. He's a very talented guy, but not in a conventional way.

He has long wanted his own mini farm. They tried chickens, once, but when they became infested with some kind of parasite, he had to kill them all because the fleas or whatever they were infested everything in the barn and he was bringing them in the house on his legs, etc.

She would rather not have the mini farm because she feels it's too much work and as they get older (they are my age now) they won't want the responsibly or expense.

But now they've bought a miniature cow and they are also on the lookout for a sheep. I tried to convince her that these are herd animals that do much better in at least a small group, but she feels the sheep and cow will consider each other as their "herd." They also got another 20 chickens.

They want the cow for milk, the chickens for eggs, of course, and the sheep for, well, eventually they will eat it.

It does sound like a lot of work. The cow will need to be milked twice a day, every day. All the animals will need to be safely put away in the barn each night so the local coyotes don't bother them. (Good luck with that.)

They also started a vegetable garden.

I am glad they intend to stay now, for they have been super nice neighbors and have helped me out from time to time. I hope they get good tenants

I got fingerprinted on Wednesday for my job and it looks like i should be official on July 21.

So this past week has been my mandatory furlough from the bank.

I have to say that Monday and Tuesday, spent visiting family on the Jersey shore, were the best part of the week thus far.

Back home on Wednesday and Thursday here featured awful humidity and heat and I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I did somehow manage to mow part of the front lawn last night. Oh yeah, and yesterday I went to Idea in New Haven (a once a year event, partly because it's a 50-minute drive) and got 3 really nice baskets, some lingonberry jam and 2 plants, which I re-potted when I got home. I also enjoyed a Swedish meatball lunch in their cafeteria. Can't shop on an empty stomach!

I also made a few calls to see if repairing my DeLonghi dehumidifer would be worth it. One of the sensors is not working and I was getting an error message on the digital display. Because I may need a 2nd dehumidifier in the basement, I may buy the new Frigidaire I have my eye on first, then, if the 70-pint Frigidiaire can't handle it alone, I will cart the 50-pint DeLonghii back to New Haven to the authorized dealer/repairer, which will probably cost about $100, not including gas and inconvenience of getting there. I bought the DeLonghii dehumidifer in 2003, so would rather not spend $100 on an 11-year-old appliance that's smaller than needed unless the Frigidaire needs help down there. However, I will delay ordering the Frigidaire on Amazon until mid-next week until I earn about $30 in Amazon dollars from my participation in some forums I belong to.

Today, unexpectedly, was much lower humidity and temps, and even downright cool! It's also been raining on and off all day.

So to take advantage of that, I spent some time in the kitchen making orange-date muffins, a cold pea soup and an apricot berry salsa that I'll mix in with yogurt.

I also hit BJs to return a $30 item, stopped at Shop Rite and Trader Joe's in the past few days. And I was at Macy's today and picked up a few summer tops. Spent $90. I picked up 6 DVDs from the library (it's getting harder and harder to find foreign films I haven't seen) and I've been watching one each night.

I stopped in at town hall yesterday and determined that my property taxes would not be lowered much if I sold or gave away the easement land my neighbor's driveway occupies. In fact, because we're in a one-acre zoned neighborhood, I could only sell up to a half acre, and the assessor calculated that selling that half acre wouldn't do much to lower my taxes because it's not part of the building lot, which holds the most value. That 1/2 acre is considered "excess land," and so my taxes would only fall by $110 a year! What a surprise. I had no idea that land would be valued differently by the town.

Today I also vacuumed, refreshed the hummingbird water and made some iced tea.

I stopped in at Lowe's and was thinking of re-staining my stockade fence, but when I was told I'd need to wash off the mildew first (I guess I did that last time), suddenly it seemed like so much work, especially since the fence is completely overgrown. I may just skip it for now. I don't feel like doing battle with the jungle out there.

So here it is Friday, and I haven't done ANY of the home maintenance projects I set out to do. Mostly painting stuff. There's still the weekend.

I spoke to HR about the salary and benefits of my new perm job at the bank, where I've been doing contract writing for the past 9 months.

I'll be making $80,000 with benefits. I'm not eligible for a bonus.

I'm very happy. As a contractor, I had been making the hourly equivalent of $73,000 and my contractor friend repeatedly warned me that the bank makes contractorss take a paycut when and if they go perm. I not only didn't have to take a pay cut, I got a $7,000 bump up.

I haven't earned anything approaching this since 2009, five years ago.

I nudged a little to see if I could go higher, but the HR person said the job originally was set at $78,000 but that my boss really pushed for more, so they increased it by $2,000 but that that was as far as they could go.

I was completely prepared to push hard and had all my arguments lined up and my research on what other banks pay their writers, but I had been expecting them to offer something in the 70s. Honestly, I am quite happy with this salary and it will feel like even more since I have paid off my mortgage. I'll also be saving roughly $2,000 a year on the cheaper but very good Cigna health plan the bank offers, compared to what I'm paying now for an Aetna plan offered by the agency.

Tomorrow I will get an email where I need to electronically accept the job offer and then they will run a background check on me and send me a phone number I'll need to call to schedule a fingerprinting. Sometimes they let you provide the fingerprints electronically, which makes the process go faster. So I will be perm, she said, at the latest by July 21st or so.

The benefits include 22 PTO days that I can use for whatever I want. They'll be pro-rated this year, which I think means I earn them as I go, so if I am perm as of Aug. 1, for instance, then I would be able to get 9 days off for the rest of 2014? Can someone confirm that? Then when I started in 2015, I would get the full 22 days, but am wondering if I have to rack up the time before I can use them.

I have so many plans for the extra money. I need to create a new monthly savings plan, for retirement, of course, but I also want to ramp up some deferred home improvement/maintenance stuff. I'm thinking generator and new kitchen. And maybe restarting my Netflix.

At the same time, I want to rein in what I see as wasteful spending. It is just too easy to go down to the cafe at lobby level for an easy lunch, and I've gotten a little too used to Chinese takeout on Friday nights, so my dining out expenses have approached $100 monthly. Well, that included a $30 lunch when I took my boss out to lunch for her birthday. Money well spent, I'd say! But otherwise, I really need to tone down the eating out; it makes me go off my vegan diet and put on weight.

I'm so happy to have gotten this news during my furlough week off. NOw I can really enjoy it!!!

I was so excited to pick up my first half share of organic produce from the farm here in town. I paid $420 last fall, so now I'll be able to enjoy ultra-fresh organic produce every week thru Mid-November.

Here's what my first pick-up included>

* A head of red leaf lettuce
* a bunch of garlic scapes
* A bunch of spinach
* A bunch of Swiss chard
* A head of bok choy
* A dozen farm eggs
* A $25 gift certificate to buy whatever I want throughout the season

This is an amazing story about the power of a bull market.

First, a look at my investments (not my net worth) for the past 5 years:

Jan 2009 $315,226
Jan 2010 $434,872
Jan 2011 $486,302
Jan 2012 $461,436
Jan 2013 $519,228
Jan 2014 $587,831
June 29, 2014: $642,770

If I hadn't mentioned "bull market," you may have looked at these numbers and thought wow, she's a great saver. Truth be told, I was not only not saving any money until 2014, but I was also spending sizable wads of cash on some major home improvements (and a new car).

So despite FIVE YEARS of not saving any money, I managed to more than double my net worth!

I was laid off in September 2009, and immediately after that I stopped contributing to savings of any sort. I did, however, complete an already started screened porch-into-sun room renovation and spent $6,176 doing so.

Then in May, 2011, I plunked down $14,000 for vinyl siding and in October of that year, I threw $17,000 at a mortgage prepayment, eager to pay the darn thing off. (I finally did pay it off in 2012.)

In January 2013 I paid off a pesky sewer loan for $2900, and in May, I spent $20,000 cash (no car loan for me) on a new Honda Civic. That summer, I spent another $5,800 for a new roof.

I didn't restart saving until January 2014.

My asset allocation is pretty plain vanilla. I mostly use low cost index funds with Vanguard and T. Rowe Price in the following allocation:

Domestic stock: 45%
Small Cap 12%
Large Cap 33%

Bonds 23%

International Stock15%

REIT 7%

Cash 10%

Total 100%

Next week is my mandatory contractor furlough. The company has so many contractors working for them, it saves them money to furlough them during holiday periods like the upcoming fourth of July.

This should be my last furlough before I become a permanent employee.

My plans for this time include the following:

* Visiting my dad on the Jersey shore
* Tackling some small home improvement projects, like interior painting, re-staining an outdoor stockade fence so it doesn't rot, stuff like that
* R&R
* Making a rare trip to Ikea, which is far enough away that I make the trip maybe once a year or so, though I love browsing in the basement level for stuff.
* Getting 2 appliances repaired
* Getting estimates for either central air OR a generator that would keep critical things like the fridge/freezer operating in the event of another outage. I have felt insecure about this every since two weeklong outages during Irene and Sandy.

Trader Joe's charged me for some very expensive organic grapefruits I didn't buy. I bought organic plums, and somehow the cashier screwed up, so I will make a point to get a refund for that. I'm also returning some moldy cucumbers to BJS; none of the 3 cucumbers were fit to eat the day I brought them home, but being in a package, you can't really tell. Every time I buy bagged produce from BJs, I end up with a fair number of bruised pieces.

I still have poison ivy. I feel it's a recurrence of the original outbreak, because after I took the last prednisone pill 1.5 weeks ago, I STILL felt a little itchy, and i had the sense it wasn't COMPLETELY gone. Now i have plenty of spots all over again. I spoke to doc last night who felt I must have re-exposed myself becus she said the meds were powerful enough to have gotten rid of it. And that the only thing she could do is another course of prednisone, which I don't want to do. Prednisone leaches the calcium out of your bones.

So for now I plan on toughing it out and am hoping this new outbreak could be fairly mild. I'm not really scratching it, i have nothing like blisters, just red spots on my face, shoulder, neck, hand, behind my ear, etc. The itch, of course, is bothersome. I have some over the counter stuff for that which works pretty well but is impractical to use on my neck, for instance.

People in my dept. have been congratulating me this week following the surprise announcement by my boss's boss that I would become an FTE (full-time employee). It still isn't final since I have not discussed salary/benefits with HR and I have no idea when they will call me. I asked my boss if I'll have to finish out the original 10-month contract term before making the transition to FTE, and she said she didn't think so but that it still may not take place til September.

When I return, I will follow up with my boss to try to get some kind of time frame for how things will happen, should I expect a call from HR, etc. When I said goodbye to her yesterday and asked if she would miss me (with a smile) she actually did seem worried, so I said she could call me at home if there was any kind of "emergency." Truth be told, I'd rather not think about work at all during my week off, but knowing I will soon be perm, I wanted to score some brownie points for doing so. Plus, I will charge for any time spent on work, as I always would, as a contractor. It IS nice to feel needed, and I certainly do feel needed at this job. Not only have I seen many old letters there were grammatically inept, impersonal and unfriendly, but some were even written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, so it appeared the bank was shouting at them. I shake my head, but it makes it easy for me to add value.

So my boss was urging me to apply for my job online, as soon as it posted online. That happened this morning. My boss said it would only be up for 48 hours, so apply for it asap.

Later this morning, my boss's boss chaired our monthly team meeting with about 40 people present. I was totally surprised when she brought up the contractors' status. She said that of the 153 contractors working for the company, they can "flip" only 9 to FTE status. (That's full-time employee status.)

I am one of the 9, and I'm the only person she referred to specifically, saying, we NEED a f/t copywriter, we put the bank at risk without one, patientsaver's been doing a good job and she's going to be a f/t employee.

It's all a little weird and maybe a tad premature as I have yet to negotiate salary with HR. I guess in a way this gives me more confidence going into the salary negotiations becus they wouldn't want this person embarrassed by not having the deal work out after she announced it.

I have done my research on Glassdoor and found a handful of writers working for other banks, all making fatter salaries than me. So this I will present when the time comes.

Most of the people I work with directly (about 5 of them) all sent me personal emails with congratulations. Another person who sits next to me wants to take me out to lunch. Even the coworker I don't get along with congratulated me. Oddly, the one person who DIDNT say anything, although she was at the meeting where the announcement was made, is another contractor who joins me for lunchtime walks on a nearly daily basis. I've been talking to her all along about what's going on although nothing seemed certain until now. Her job is ending in August after a 2-year stint with the bank. I'm wondering if she's jealous, but geez, you'd think a friend would be happy for you.

She is a bit of an odd duck in that way. She doesn't reach out to others in a supportive way. I like her, but I have noticed this about her.

I had my weekly status meeting with my manager today. I hadn't PLANNED on talking job title or salary of the new position, but yes, it did come up.

I told her that while a job title is unimportant in a contract position, I hoped we could improve on my title when I move to the perm position. Like for instance, putting the word "Senior" in front of "Copywriter." Just to reflect my experience (and possibly affect raises and/or promotions).

She said my title WOULD be different...probably Marketing Manager, not becus that's really what I do, but because they have a range of job titles and that's the closest one that fits.

It would be Marketing Manager I, II or III. This is apparently being determined by my manager's boss. The title comes with a salary range attached to it. That is why they needed to match my title to some preexisting title. I know that a number of other people in my dept. have that title. I cannot start the job at anything higher than midway in the range.

I also told her I had heard that when moving from contractor to perm, it usually comes with a pay cut, and that i was concerned about how big a cut that might be, particularly because I felt my current pay was already below market rates.

Mind you, I would be a fool, of course, to pass on this job, I know that, so if the pay cut was firm, I would, in the end, accept it, but I have learned THE HARD WAY that you should try to negotiate compensation whenever possible or you'll lose thousands for being the polite and passive female.

All the more important given that she mentioned that for the past 2 years, everyone making over $75K has received no pay increases, while those making under $75K received 2% pay increases. So whatever salary I wind up with at the starting gate may be something I'll have to stick with for a while.

I was surprised when she told me she didn't even KNOW what I was making, that they just paid the agency a certain fee and what I made was between the agency and me.

She said if you want to tell me what you want to make, I can tell you if I think that's in the ballpark or not. I wasn't quite prepared to name an exact number, so instead I told her I was now making just $35 an hour. She told me that while moving to perm does typically involve a pay cut for some more senior level people, she was pretty sure that my perm salary would not fall below what I'm making now.

SWEET! I was thrilled to hear that. There may even be a small INCREASE.

Right now I am still waiting for the job posting to appear on the website.

After a long five years of underemployment and well over a dozen part-time, contract or freelance jobs, I stand at the threshold of reentering the world of the gainfully employed.

On Thursday my boss told me her boss, who manages a team of about 30 staff, was working on securing funding for a permanent writer position for me. Yesterday after work, I went out for drinks with my boss with one other coworker, and when the coworker left for the restroom, my boss said the position would soon be posted on the careers section online and that I would have to apply for the job. The job will still have to be advertised internally and externally (which makes me nervous).

I asked her if this was all sort of a perfunctory thing and she said yes, they'd been wanting a writer in Marketing for a long time and I'm the one they want.

I still have no idea what kind of salary they will offer. I have heard from others that when you go from contract worker to perm worker, they make you take a pay cut and justify it with all the benefits you'll get. But I'm worried about how much of a pay cut it would be. Some quick research online and it appears it could be anywheres from a 10% pay cut to 50% paycut.

I'm making $72K now but feel this is already under market for my experience, by about $10K.

I have thoroughly reviewed their benefits and they ARE very good. You get 18 days PTO (paid time off) and you can use these for whatever you want: vacation, sick time, whatever. There are 10 paid holidays and 3 excellent Cigna health insurance plans to choose from. The one I want costs just $400 a year (compared to $2100 with the plan I've got now with the agency) and I can set up an HSA with it. I'm very excited about that as I've never had an HSA and I understand you can save money in that account, pre-tax, for future medical expenses, even after you leave the company. So I could actually save money for medical expenses in retirement. They give you an HSA debit card that you can use whenever you have an uncovered medical expense to pay.

There's also a 401k you can start immediately, with a company match of 5% after you've been there a year; it fully vests after 3 years. There is another employer contribution of 2% of your pay made after you've been there a year.

I calculated that the benefits are worth at least $10,000.

I am very, very excited. There have been so many anxiety-filled days when I wondered if I would EVER find a permanent job again. I took up so many extremely frugal habits; some I may not drop, some I think I will.

I'll be happy to stop doing Pinecone surveys at $3 a piece. So tedious. I'd like to begin my Netflix subscription again or maybe even basic cable.

I am still a contractor now, and we have a mandatory furlough for all contractors coming up the first week of July. I am heading down to the Jersey shore that Monday to visit my dad, and them come back the next night. It's just a brief visit, but I am SO looking forward to just a break in my work routine, as I've been working steadily since last October with just occasional single holiday breaks and i really need some downtime.

Hopefully next Saturday, the tree guy will be coming to take down a 65-foot ailanthus tree that towers over my house. It's a peace of mind thing that is costing me $1500.

They added close to $100 in tax to the invoice, which I hadn't been expecting, but they said I could avoid it if I paid with a personal check instead of a new rewards credit card i just got. So that's what I did to avoid the tax charge, plus I'm now using that rewards card on other spending to earn another $100 back in bonus probably in a month's time.

Pursuing credit card bonuses is another frugal habit I adopted when I really needed the money, but as long as I can keep finding cards like this, I'd like to continue doing it since I'm spending anyway.

So, I feel an incredible lightness of being knowing that I should soon have this job in my pocket. The job is not too stressful, people generally all leave there around 5 pm and not much later, my boss is very nice, my coworkers are pretty nice and I find the work interesting. They really seem to value the work I do. I also don't have to stress out on bad winter weather days as everyone there has a laptop and you just work from home. They have a small free gym there I have yet to use.

The only things i DONT like about the job is that becus there's no real privacy in the cubes, it's not possible to make a personal call that others cant overhear. You'd have to walk into the garage or the stairwell to do that. I also can't access my personal email account during the day, which I hate, but the bank has super tight security on stuff like that. Oh, and I don't like parking in the garage; my car has already been scratched by someone who parked like 4 inches from mine and then jammed their car door into my passenger side to get out. Now I make a point to park on the top level, just to avoid stupid people.

Still, I could see myself coasting into retirement from this job in just a few years. Like 5 years. Sweet.

When I bought my house, it came with an easement running across my property. My neighbors, who have an interior lot behind my house, have rights to use that easement, which is a very long strip of land about 10 feet wide (6 feet for the driveway and an additional 2 feet on either side) to access their house.

I wasn't crazy about the easement when i bought the place, and didn't really understand what legal ramifications it might have.

I am on very good terms with the people who live in this house. They have had their over-improved house on the market since last year becus they can no longer afford their mortgage or property taxes after he lost his job.

They have lowered the price of the house at least once, and hope to move to Tennessee to start over, where real estate prices are much lower.

Years ago we briefly considered my selling them the land their driveway occupies. Their driveway had been deteriorating for years, but they had resisted fixing it because technically they didn't own the land, I did. They finally were forced to becus in the winter they couldn't make it up the hill and had to leave the car and walk to the house a distance of over 100 feet on a treacherous slope. It cost them $50,000 to repave the entire driveway.

Fast forward to today. They're having trouble selling their house. They doubled the square footage of the house to 5,000 sf and it is magnificent (in a very modest neighborhood), in a very private setting, but i am sure the long rather steep hill is a detriment.

I was also thinking recently that the existence of the easement would be a negative in any would-be buyers' minds, and I was thinking of again offering to sell my neighbors the easement, this time for basically nothing.

It could help facilitate a sale since their realtor would no longer have to "explain" the easement thing. For my part, I would also benefit by not having the easement on my deed AND my property taxes would at least somewhat be lowered becus I'd have less land. Their driveway runs at least 300 feet long and as mentioned, 10 feet wide.

So I was thinking of saying you could buy it for $100 plus whatever legal and remapping fees would be involved.

Do you think this is wise? Years ago when I first offered to sell it to them, I'd talked to a few realtors to try to determine the value of the land I was selling. I had hopes of getting $5,000 to $10,000 for it but after brief consideration (the husband liked the idea, the wife didn't) they declined because while we didn't get to the point of even discussing numbers, they felt it would be spending a lot of money and not getting anything tangible in return.

On my end, the land could never be built on, obviously, since it's not a lot, and the realtors basically said the value is established by the owner and buyer. The land is of no value to me and i treat it, for all intents and purposes, as their land. I don't use their driveway or maintain it in any fashion.

Reducing my property taxes, if only by a few hundred a year, would be a big plus in my book as I currently pay $5800 a year.

Today, given my neighbors' precarious financial position, I am pretty sure they would not be interested in buying the land from me for anywheres near $10K, or even $1K. But if they only had to pay the associated fees involved (so I wouldn't be out of pocket in anything), they could be interested in doing so as a means of facilitating the sale of their home.

The other thing to know about this situation is that the husband has huge money-making potential. He was working for a toy designer for a well-known company when he was laid off, and after the layoff he started building his own company. He knows a lot about the business and used to travel to the factories in China to oversee production. Last time I spoke to them, their business was looking very promising, he's gotten lots of orders from different toy stores, etc, but they don't feel he can take any salary for a full year until the business takes off.

So I don't know, but another possibility would be to arrange the deal would be to say you owe me $X in 1 or 2 years from now, presumably when they could afford to pay me. Although even that is maybe too iffy.

This morning I picked my mother up and then we went to another town about 40 minutes away where she was dropping off her art for an exhibit next week.

After that, we went to Whole Foods and wandered around, sampling all sorts of things including the king salmon!

We both did some damage there. Then I filled up her gas tank for her, we went home, I carried all the groceries up and while she made us a salad for lunch, I vacuumed her condo. After lunch, I helped her deal with bills and forms.

It was all kind of exhausting and by the time I got home, not having done many of my own errands, it was already 3:30 pm.

I chilled out some with a bottle of beer, did a little bit of garden work, refreshed the hummingbird water and made a vegetable slaw for next week's lunches.

A friend of mine called and he's coming over in the a.m. so we can take a longish drive to get get some new fish for his pond. The other fish were all killed after his neighbor sprayed insecticide on her patio that washed down into his pond. Not sure why that won't happen again. My friend is not a confrontational kind of guy. I will have to ask him.

So I won't get too much more done from my long list of things to do, but anyway....one needs to get out and do something fun. We'll probably get lunch after he gets his fish, but he'll have to drop me off after that becus the fish will be in oxygenated water and need to go in their new home fairly soon.

When I first started blogging here over 5 years ago, my big thing was saving for retirement. Now, I can see a real shift in focus to taking care of my mother's personal finances. It's not a little thing.

I never really imagined I would be assuming control of my mother's personal finances, nor was I prepared for what it involved. It's certainly been a learning experience. Here are some of the nitty gritty details of my efforts to come to grips with it all.

My mom turned 80 this spring. I have noticed some serious memory problems and she has great difficulty understanding different bills (too many numbers) or even things like reading the instructions on her new cell phone. This has been a gradual decline. She's not ready for assisted living, but she definitely needs help in the areas of managing her finances and housework, for instance.

Last winter I took my mother to my own attorney, who happened to be an elder law specialist, and accomplished some very important things: I became my mother's power of attorney (POA), we got her a living will and we updated her regular will, which still contained her old married name. (I can imagine the probate delays that might have caused.)

More recently, my mother agreed to let me handle her bills after months of weekly phone calls telling me she couldn't make sense of this bill or that one. It was stressful for her, as, like me, she has always been extremely punctual and careful to pay her bills on-time, and it was stressful for me, because it was nearly impossible to troubleshoot things over the phone, and working f/t doesn't leave me much time to go over there.

So after getting the POA, the next thing I did, just 2 weeks ago, was to go to her bank with her to turn her checking account into a joint checking account, with my name on it. I doubt I'll need many physical checks, but I ordered some anyway, just to be sure.

I spent more time at my mother's yesterday calling different creditors of my mother's, waiting on hold to talk to a rep to get myself added as an authorized user to my mother's account. For her homeowners and car insurance, I had also faxed in my power of attorney paperwork earlier last week.

With each creditor I called, I spoke to them a while explaining that I wanted to begin paying my mother's bills and to have them either emailed (preferably) or snail mailed to me. Then I had to put my mother on the phone to give her permission. Then I got back on. It was a pain in the neck, but I did manage to get myself added as authorized user for:

1. Her Amex card (which automatically pays 3 of her bills)

2. Cable TV

3. Her homeowners and car insurance, through the same company

4. AARP Roadside Assistance (automatically renews and billed to her Discover card)

All the paperwork will be either mailed or emailed to me now so I have to be really careful these things get paid. It does feel strange since, not having children or even being married, I've never really been responsible for another person's finances before. It feels a little scary, to be honest.

So now I can access my mother's checking account online. At some point soon, I'm going to need to balance her checkbook. It hasn't been balanced in over a year, and that's a big source of concern to my mother (as it should be). However, I don't have the time or energy to try to find the error or errors in over 12 months of statements. I mentioned to her before that one way to determine the right number is to not write ANY checks for a full month, but she has too many bills that are automatically debited from her checking. So I don't want to mess with that.

The good news is that the roughly $2,000 difference is in her favor. I still think it may be helpful to not have her write any checks for a month, and then I can monitor her account online and see when any automatic debits go through. Once they do, I can then give her what is hopefully the correct account balance to use in her checking account register.

I may also call the bank guy who helped us put my name on her account, and ask him for his advice on how to reconcile her checkbook.

I have so many phone calls to make related to my mother, and some of them can't be made in the evening. I recently learned that I will have the first week of July off from work becus it's a mandatory furlough for all contract workers.

Note to self: This would be an excellent time to take care of issues like this.

My mother can't find her Discover card so i couldn't take care of that one yet. I also still have to transfer over her AT&T bill (internet and phone), CL&P and one other credit card.

My mother gets less than $1,000 a month from Social Security, yet I see from her Amex bill online that she spent over $100 on vitamins last month, plus $54 on a stupid emailed health newsletter which I'm pretty sure she's not even aware she was billed for. I will have to talk to her about that later. Much of the vitamins are probably a waste of money because she is very nutritionally aware and eats extremely well.

Sorting thru all this stuff is definitely a time suck. I am still going into her email on a daily basis (without her knowledge) and deleting junk email and unsubscribing to as much as I can.

The need for me to step in and get involved with all this has been building for the last year or two. If nothing else, I hope to reduce the number of stressed out phone calls she makes to me about her bills.

Most recently, she withdrew $100 cash from the bank and then lost it. Of course, I have to listen to the whole story and there's little I can do except ask if she looked thoroughly in the car, etc.

Then yesterday she called to tell me she "thinks" she found it. She found over $300 in a stash of cash in a certain place she'd put it to keep it safe. She's not sure if this is the money she lost from the bank or if this is money she stashed there earlier. I'm guessing it probably does include the money from the bank.

I didn't get as much accomplished at my mom's yesterday as I'd hoped, partly because my mother's central AC broke. (She said she was waiting for a call back from a neighbor whose friend does HVAC work, etc.) But it was 82 degrees in her condo becus the windows are hard to open (for her) and they were all closed. So I opened them all up to cool down the place a little; i don't know if she slept with them open or what. I also called her neighbor to see what was going on and he agreed to call his friend again, but I told my mother not to wait too long for him and that she might have to call someone else to fix the AC becus the weather will be getting very warm soon. She's on the 2nd floor of her condo building.

I took her shopping for a lightweight vacuum at Best Buy 2 Saturdays ago and we got one i thought would be great for her as it was cordless, lightweight and bagless, but she had trouble putting it back in the charging station so i wound up buying it from her yesterday for $95. I didn't especially need it but i will keep it as Best Buy has a strict 2-week limit on returns.

I already know my mother should really be hiring a housekeeper to do that kind of heavy cleaning. I have brought this up with her repeatedly, but unless i take charge of finding and hiring someone myself (and I would feel obligated to be present during the cleaning to make sure they didn't steal from my mother with all the little tsoskes laying around there), I know it's not going to happen.

Maybe I'll just plan on vacuuming next Saturday.

I've also begun surreptitiously grabbing small handfuls of old newsletters and magazines she picks up free from the health food store (dating back to 2011) to throw away. She has too many piles of paperwork all around the condo and i actually feel the piles in the bedroom constitute a safety hazard. She says she's going to read the stuff, but if she hasn't read things from 2011, i doubt she ever will. I may also start doing the same with the piles of books on her bookshelves, not enough that she would notice them missing, but i know she won't read the old encyclopedias and stuff like that. The more I do now, the less I'll have to do later. She has piles of old records but no record player, so I'd like to sell them and get a little money for her. That is something I'll have to talk her into.

I also grabbed one of those Chase Bank offers where they give you $125 if you open a checking account with them. Being on a fixed income, I know $125 is a lot of money to my mother, and I could see her opening an account with them just to get the money. Heck, that's the kind of thing I do with credit cards, but having another checking account would really complicate things just when I'm assuming control of everything, so yes, I grabbed that little Chase offer and tossed it. Call it tough love.

As you can see, attending to my mother (as much as one can 1 day a week) is becoming a job in itself.

At some point I may want to inform my mother's brokerage, where she has her mutual fund investments, of my power of attorney status. I don't think it's really necessary now as she makes only infrequent withdrawals from her accounts there, as far as I know, anyway. But it would be good for this to be taken care of now, because if or when my mother's health deteriorated to the point where I needed to move her to assisted living, that would be a whole new pile of paperwork and issues to deal with, and already having the rest of her finances under control would make it easier.

Lessons learned so far? Getting the power of attorney was the most important thing I could have done. A good friend of mine had been telling me repeatedly to get this done, and soon. It was a process. As with other things, my mother didn't agree to this immediately.

The POA really smooths the way and facilitates a great deal when you are dealing with creditors or anyone else.

The one thing I meditate on is finding more patience within myself to handle all this with grace and kindness. I am a very impatient person.

Year to date, I've earned $390 from credit card bonuses:

Feb: Discover card bonus $150
May: Capital One: $32
June: Bankamericard Susan G.Komen and Amex card bonuses: $208

I'll be starting to work on a new NFL card bonus soon that Bankeramericard issues. Actually, I'll be able to earn the $100 bonus for this one in one fell swoop as I plan to use it to pay for the $1500 tree takedown in my yard in a few weeks.

Tiny green mulberries are already beginning to form on the mulberry tree outside my office window. the birds will be picking them off soon before they're even ripe. I love being able to watch them from my vantage point at my desk.

I had to go to doc tonight after work to get some prednisone pills which I'll take for 12 days, starting tomorrow. She said it will make me irritable but energetic. It's ITCHY! Welt on my eyelid, behind my ear, neck, upper chest. Not fun.

I am still working on getting my mother's creditors to start sending me the bills. I discovered that it would probably be easier with most of them to just call them with my mother present and then have her get on the phone to add me as an "authorized" user. I had been trying to fax my power of attorney paperwork and it was just a pain waiting on hold for someone to get the fax number, etc.

So tomorrow for the 4th Saturday in a row i am schlepping over to my mother's. It's the only day of the week I can do this unless i take time off from work, which I'm not about to do.

At least I now have access to her bank account online, and the new checks have been ordered.

Speaking of time off, there is a mandatory furlough for contractors at the bank for the first week of July. I'm not happy about going without a paycheck that week, but I have no say in the matter. So I've arranged to spend an overnight at my dad's on the jersey shore for 2 days, and then hope to get some home improvement-type work done around the house. And squeeze in some MUCH needed R&R.

Three of us walked at lunchtime today, and we were all looking forward to the ice cream truck that parks outside the bank every Friday from 3 to 4. We were so disappointed to not see his truck there....he is on vacation. I did grab Chinese to go for dinner tonight as a consolation prize.

OK, let's face it...I'm a flipper. No, I don't flip houses but I sure to love to "flip" credit cards to earn those lucrative upfront rewards.

Since 2013, I've gone through 19 rewards credit cards. Currently, I have 7 cards:

1 & 2: USAA VIsa and Amex Cash Card are my oldest cards, and so while they both have lousy rewards, I'll hold onto them to maintain a decent credit score.

3 & 4: I'm partial to my Cap One Visa Platinum and BankAmericard Cash rewards card because with the former, I got to personalize the card with my own design (a peacock feather closeup) and with the latter, a small portion of every dollar I spend benefits the World Wildlife Foundation.

5. Citi Forward

6. Discover

7.BankAmericard CashRewards

I finished the spend requirement on my Barclaycard MasterCard and should get the $100 bonus soon.

Then it occurred to me that since I am having a large tree taken down in my yard in a few weeks, to the tune of $1,500, this would be the perfect time to get another bonus reward card to defray a part of that cost.

So I applied for and was approved for another "spend $500 in 90 days, get $100 back" card...the NFL card where you get to pick your team logo for the card. I'm not a big sports fan, but I'm running out of card offers, so what the hey.

As for the tree, it's a 65-foot-high ailanthus tree. This is considered a "junk" tree and it was the tree featured in the story, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, for its tenacious ability to grow right up through a concrete sidewalk.

This one is a little too close to my house for comfort, maybe about 25 feet, and in Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, several large branches were shorn off and carried by the wind to land even closer to my house.....like 10 feet away. I've also noticed some kind of insect damage that extends from the base of the trunk up about 10 feet. This alone is reason enough for concern, I think. This is a humongous tree. At the base, it looks to be 3 feet in diameter.

I had been pricing getting this tree down last summer, but while the estimates I got then were in the $1200 to $1400 range, it didn't include taking the wood away, and I've got so many old tree stumps, logs, branches and other debris in the woodsy periphery of my property, that I just want this wood taken away. Leaving logs here would attract ants and termites. So $1500 with removal seems in the same range.

And when I researched the one guy I was thinking of hiring last year, I discovered online that he had come here from Pennsylvania with a long string of customer complaints about taking people's money and not finishing the job. Then I think I was having money issues as I wasn't working steadily, so nothing ever got done.

The tree is on the shared property line with my neighbors. If my neighbors weren't senior citizens, I would ask them to go halfies with me on the cost, since the tree is very close to their power lines coming in off the street. Or at least to chip in something. But I know they're on a fixed income and I don't have the heart to ask. They have given their permission to have the tree crew drive their truck across their yard to access the tree, cus on my side there's a whole lot more overgrowth and it's just tighter quarters. So at least that's something.

I've asked them to do the work on a Saturday so I can watch and take pix. I've had trees taken down before, and there are many different ways I've seen it done, but it's amazing how well they can control the drop of tree limbs so they don't crash down in the wrong place.

I had to have a talk with my boss about a coworker I sit next to who is difficult to work with. She gets very personal and sent me a nasty email last week and she's very emotionally unstable, coming in crying and sniffling one day and then all chirpy happy the next so I can't concentrate on my work. I had a lightbulb moment yesterday about it and I really think she's schizophrenic, meaning she has extreme highs and lows. (This used to be called manic depressive.) It fits her to a tee.

My boss (a woman) was very receptive to what I had to say. I'm not the first to complain about her. She actually decided to tell the other woman she can work at home 2 days a week (she now works at home 1 day a week but takes extreme liberties by leaving work early using various excuses) and that i could work at home 1 day when she is in, so that we'd only have to work together 2 days a week!

You would think it would be easier to move someone's seat, but that's not really true where I work. I told my boss that while I appreciated the offer to work at home, the 2 of us should be able to work things out, and personally, I'm not sure that inability to get along with a coworker is a good reason to work at home. Our boss is incredibly understanding. She encouraged me to get together with the coworker to talk things out. Which I will do, but i think there's a risk of a big argument, but it needs to be done, becus every time she's made a sarcastic comment to me or sent her snotty emails, I've not responded at all, because i care about my reputation where i work and if i were to respond, there would a cat-fight which EVERYONE could hear. We work in cubes with very little privacy. I think things have gotten worse with the coworker because she interprets my non-reaction as not defending myself, and it's emboldened her to say whatever she likes.

My coworker once told me she found her job to be "incredibly boring," and she likes to dabble in my job, which I don't appreciate. As project manager, she's supposed to shepherd various writing projects, usually letters that I write, through the review/approval process. She's supposed to review the copy and is able to make SUGGESTIONS to me if she sees something amiss, but she acts like she has the final say, which she doesn't. She also can be very arrogant and makes a big stink if I don't take her edits. My boss has reiterated that as the writer, I make the call on anything related to the copy (punctuation, grammar, style etc). That's what they hired me for, after all.

The good news out of all of this is that my boss reiterated that my coworker's job is definitely done by year's end, while they want to make my job permanent. My boss said her boss is working on getting the funding for the position. (I do hope it's a decent salary, but guess I'll deal with that when the time comes.)

Today I completed my $500 credit card spend with the BankAmericard cash rewards card. I did it in the first month of having gotten the card, so when I get my bill in another few days, I should be able to collect the $100 bonus pronto. I love these offers.

I see from My Money Blog that Chase Freedom is offering a $200 bonus after just $500 in spending. I may call and see if I can do the offer after having done it once before and then cancelling the card. I hear this can be done.

Let's talk finances and not let spammers make the site useless.