balkong, i'll tell you what i tried to keep on the balcony in winter. japanese yew - smallish, about 12" pot. overwintered twice/bloomed, then died 3rd year. hinoki false cypress - overwintered once. reg english ivy - died sev years when it was dropping into low teens; survived well last winter. this winter should be ok too - so hardy to 17F, sort of? it's in the biggest 18" pot. hydrangeas - overwintered once, but then bloomed very weakly. so not much point. montauk daisy overwinters well in 12" pot, burried in soil in 16" pot . so for me it's good. it even blooms 2nd year farely well. but then i chuck it, since it's weak. overwintered oriental lilies: stargazers once: wrapped the pot in big bubble and then covered with cardboard box overturned and lined in plastic. but easier to just dig in new ones in spring. oh, mums of course survive - but with NE sun won't really bloom. may be with your west sun corner they will fare better. that's about it for me. i had clematis on a diff balcony facing east/south-east. it did not survive winter though. also juniper survives, but it needs sun. may be SW corner will do. This post was edited by petrushka on Sat, Apr 13, 13 at 14:09

I agree with Donna, make a written budget and stick to it. Allow so much for "fun" money out of it too because more than likely you're going to spend it anyway and you need to be accountable for it so you know where your money is going. I allot myself/kids $100 a pay period to just blow on whatever. So much for food, don't go over the amount so before shopping you need to write down what you plan to buy and keep a running total either with a calculator or by rounding off in your mind. I allot $200 a pay period for food and other household items like toilet paper, shampoo and other necessities. Movies, eating out comes out of the "fun" money. Up until I decided to give up sugar I was still buying an occational white chocolate mocha at Starbucks on my way to work. It came out of the fun money. It's amazing when you do a budget how much extra cash you come up with that you were just blowing. 2 1/2 years ago I was living paycheck to paycheck. I had a good paying job and so it was frustrating not having anything left after paying my bills. I decided it was time to get out of debt and started trying to pay off my debts one at a time. Then at the end of the first year I started listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio, I started doing a written budget and paid off as much in six months as I did over the whole previous year. I still have a ways to go and went off his plan a year ago to save for our upcoming trip, using the same budgeting principles. The whole trip is being done with cash. Get rid of credit cards and other loans because that's what eats away your money like it's nothing. I have 3 loans now besides my house payment and those 3 will be gone before the end of the year. Plan for birthday gifts and Christmas by saving for it each paycheck. Less likely you will have to charge those gifts at the last minute. Same with vacations. Oh, and if you blow the budget one pay period don't throw your hands up and give up saying it doesn't work, because you're going to mess up every once in a while. Have fun staying at home and enjoy your kids while you can. Sooner than you think they will be teenagers and heading off to college. ) :

Went out to dinner to Rey's, a local restaurant with New Orleans flair. My in-laws are visiting. I had a spinach salad with warm bacon dressing, bread, broiled salmon with asparagus. They all shared a dessert of Bananas Foster. I'm not much of a dessert person and... I was stuffed. Seems all we've done for the last few days is EAT!

Thanks for the ideas, all. Snidely, I had considered that....washed my face and used my nasal irrigator, which did help some. Arkansas girl, yep.....used peroxide to brush my tongue, and that helped some, too. Moonie, I actually did tell a friend one time, and I was soooo uncomfortable about it! But it was a chronic problem, and I just knew that she needed to see a dentist. Turned out that I was right; she had the early stages of peridontal disease. Lol, Linda....I'd be happy to do the honors!