Saving for a Rainy Day . . .

Ok, so those who really know me, know I love organization (but I never quite get there). I lay in bed at night thinking about ways to improve my house to make it as functional as possible. When I drive long distances by myself, half the time I don't have anything playing in the car, I think about how to make the best of the space I was given. I love that when someone in my family asks where something is (I so try to train these people but, again, never quite get there!), I can tell them exactly where to look and lo and behold, there it is. In fact, my hubby had an ah-ha moment when he was looking for a charger for his iPad. He started to ask where one was, caught himself and said never mind. He walked straight to the storage closet, opened the door, pulled out the labeled box and got himself a charger! I practically did a dance!! I also jokingly told him "good boy" and balanced a treat on his nose because you always want to reinforce that good behavior! In all honesty, he actually said it was nice to know where things are. Now if we can just work on him and his car keys!!

So I was reading some articles about how to organize money and I was intrigued by an idea I had read in one article. In our house, I am in charge of all the bills. My hubby takes care of long-term savings/retirement, but I am in charge of the monthly bills. For us, the biggest challenge is saving money for large bills that will be due in four months - especially when I come across a great sale while out shopping!! Anyone else have this problem?? I have money in my account so why can't I buy it?? We refinanced last year but chose to not have an escrow account so we pay our homeowners insurance, flood insurance, and property taxes on our own. This saves us a lot of money monthly but made me nervous about paying the big bills!! In the article I read, the writer talked about using Ally Bank to set up different accounts. It's an on-line bank and you can have as many checking and/or savings accounts as you want. I on-line chatted with an Ally customer service rep to ask questions and he patiently answered them for almost 20 minutes! There does not appear to be any hidden costs or loopholes. I read a bunch of customer reviews and the biggest complaint was the difficulty in setting up accounts. I set-up all my accounts in about five minutes and had no difficulty whatsoever.

Here's the game plan, I set up the following accounts: Homeowners Insurance, Flood Insurance, Property Taxes, Christmas, Car/Home Repairs, Rich's Life Insurance, Gator Season Tickets, Medical Expenses, Travel, Rich's Travel, Overdraft.

We should be getting our tax refund soon and when it clears my Regions account, I am going to transfer money to each of these. You can transfer money back and forth between Ally and a non-Ally bank for no charge, it just may take a couple of days so I have to plan ahead when paying a big bill. Most of those accounts are savings (ie - Life Insurance, Flood Insurance, Taxes) and the checking ones (Christmas, Rich), get a debit card. I don't plan on using the Christmas card on anything other than Christmas or birthday gifts. We recently gave my oldest her own small prepaid debit card for when she is out with friends. That account is at Regions and they charge us $5 a month. If this Ally Bank thing works out, I am switching her to one of these accounts.

So that is our new financial, organizational goal. In my head, it works like a charm and I picture myself happily buying airline tickets from our travel fund and skipping through the mall at Christmas time making purchases with my Ally card, no, little forest animals do not escort me (but that might be fun!). I will let you know how this works out but that is for another post!

Backyard Progress?

Ok, so I have shared with you all the fun I have had painting the pool deck, remember that?? Well I am so sad to report that is all that has been done in the backyard, no new improvements *sigh* but I do have projects being planned out.

The first being, me touching up repainting all the patio furniture. Now I thought I could just touch it up but the touch up paint containers you get with your furniture, have all withered up and died. I tried a couple different types/colors of paint and decided this one worked the best.

I only had one can of this paint as I was testing them out and was bummed to know it only covered about three chairs. Yawza! We picked up 12 more and I will be painting furniture next week. Hopefully it goes fast well!!

Missing paint and just a little but enough to annoy me.

I am also on the hunt for new cushions for the bar stools. You can see they are just a beige here. Last year, we splurged and bought new deep seat cushions for all the chairs and left the barstools alone. We went with a basic beige and figured we could spice it up with some fun pillows and accents.  Here are a couple choices I am thinking about - you like?

These are the front runners but no love here yet. I have orange and off-white striped outdoor curtains I am going to hang so something to go with them but afraid I am going too monochromatic. I like the green and it would definitely add some great color but then I would need to find a green, orange and burnt red fabric for pillows and that would tie everything together?? I am super lucky this is my major concern today!!

I also had the lawn guy come give me a quote for all new mulch, some additional sod and trimming of the trees. All quotes were super reasonable so just waiting for the tax man to send us back some money! Fingers crossed! And yes, we have lawn guys. I fired the last one (my hubby!). 

So, my daughter is planning a backyard birthday party in the middle of April so I guess I better get my act together and finish it up, but that is for another post!

Bitch List -Part One

Ok, so I was aggravated today while driving down the road and I felt the need to just *bitch* about it (sorry if this word offends anyone but I am trying to use my college-educated brain for a better word and I still feel like this word works best!).

Bitch Number One . . .  The One-Finger-Salute Drivers

Now I am driving down the road (58th Ave S passing the cemetery to be exact for my St. Pete friends), when the road merges from two lanes to one. Now, I drive that road almost every day, several times a day, and I know to keep my eyes on fools who continue to drive in the second lane, even though it no longer exists. This guy in a big, black truck comes flying up behind me, tries to pass and realizes there is no room so he gets behind me and then has to slam on his brakes because we are stopped for pedestrians in the crosswalk (not only is there a school here but this is also part of the Pinellas Trail.) He starts waving his hands, honking his horn and being downright belligerent. Now me being the super-nice-never-yell-or-interact-with-other-drivers kind of driver *cough*cough*, point out the walkers who are plainly visible. This fine, outstanding gentleman proceeds to give me the bird!! I mean seriously, what did I do wrong? People like this need to be tarred and feathered! Too much? Ok, maybe just sent to time-out? I don't know but I don't think me waving and smiling back at him helped calm him down.

So that is my Bitch Number One - a driver who gives you the bird when they are the erratic, at fault driver.

Needless to say, I drove just under the posted 30 miles per hour speed limit all the way down 58th Ave.  That will teach him to salute me!

On an entirely different note, I was planning on painting the final coat of paint on my garage doors tomorrow but looks like rain is going to force me inside. Guess I will now have to tackle the laundry and cleaning - ugh!

I sign off with a salute to you (but not a one finger one!). More to come but that is for another post!

Easter Hangover . .

Ok, so yesterday was just a great day. We did have to drag ourselves out of bed for 9:00 church service (not even the sunrise service) but had a great service with a great sermon. Our pastor, Pastor Reeb, is such a dynamic speaker I really enjoy listening to him speak. I laugh because my youngest is not really into the sermons and gets to draw on her bulletin during that time, just like I used to. Here's a couple photos of her latest drawings -

Just to clarify ANY misunderstandings here, those peanuts are dancing! That is it so please get your mind out of the gutter and keep my baby innocent! I actually burst out laughing, in church, when I saw the one on the left. Someone said "bless you" to me so I just went with it and sniffled a couple of times! Aren't they a hoot? Is it wrong that I want to save these for her keepsake box?

Getting ready to open baskets after church.
Wish the bunny brought me a new camera!

Egg hunting time -
the bunny hid the eggs extra hard this year.
Please observe the beautiful decking but not the rest of the yard!
The lawn guy just sprayed for weeds and since that was the only
green back here, it is now almost all gone!

Sitting down to brunch.
Is it just me or is only half of this photo blurry?

We had our favorite brunch, Amish Breakfast Casserole (this is absolutely delicious and reheats nicely for later meals), an easy cheese danish  (which we liked but did not love), cut fruit and boiled eggs. It was nice to actually sit down for breakfast since we usually eat it in the car on the way to school. Anyone else do that?? Just us?

My youngest wanted to try something she had seen on Pinterest . . .

And I think it turned out great and tasted even better.

All-in-all, Easter was really great this year. We missed being with our whole family as we usually do but it just didn't work out this year. My sister and her youngest daughter did to come to hang with us for the better portion of the day while they waited to pick the rest of their family up from the airport at 11:45 p.m.!! It was super nice just hanging out and catching up. A perfect way to end spring break and get ready for one heck of a busy month, but that is all for another post!