Found this on another forum which may help\; Microsoft has a free download for Vitural PC. With this program running in your Windows Vista 64 bit environment, you can run a Windows XP 32 bit environment, and launch an MS DOS environment from there. Additionally, you can create as many of these virtual environments as you want. Unfortunately, Microsoft requires you to have both a Windows XP licience iand a Vista Licence if you are going to run both Vista and XP (even with one in the virtual world). If you own a regerestered copy of XP, I'm told that a work around to this potential problem is to reinstall your virtual XP environment when the preceeding one experies it's 30 day registration requirement. Or; Download virtualbox from Sun for free and run a virtual instance of win xp 32bit, win vista 32bit ...I would suspect licencing for whatever os you choose ie XP or Vista would also apply after the trial period. I have never tried this , just reporting what I have found

Hope you caught these persnickitydesign posts: "It was pretty much a full time job (plus overtime) and it still took a year and a half for me to get everything purchased & everyone lined up. ...One of my oldest & dearest friends' DH owns the HVAC company. He did our house at cost. Another owns the company that did our fireplace and garage doors. He also worked at the lumber yard for years and gave us the names of many of the subs that we ended up using. ...our friends came by to help us out and worked for free" "Our permits were $433. We're on county water & sewer and did have to pay a tap-in fee of $1067. There were no charges for the gas and power." "We are fortunate enough to live in an area where the cost of living (and cost to build) is extremely low. Plan prices are not mentioned. Also, keep in mind the year of the build--2008. There was a wee bit of a recession going on then, centred on the collapsing housing market. Trades were desperate for work, suppliers for customers. I had the fortune to build in earlier declines. With cash in hand, you were like a god.Now, not so much.

Thanks for your thoughts, Gibby. :-) I was working on this last night, and making decisions about what to lump together in more general catagories, vs. what to spread out (basically, what I wanted to be able to track later). One of my dogs was just diagnosed with a medical problem that will require monthly meds for life, so I wanted to track those separately from standard vet visits, etc. And some of my groceries are for the dogs rather than us humans, so I wanted to separate those out too, to get a clear picture of thier food budget vs. ours monthly. I think I ended up with more specialized catagories than I'd really thought I would. I created two different catagories for Entertaining vs. Entertainment - because we throw at least one large party and several smaller ones every year, and I wanted to track how much we actually spend on those events, exclusive of things like renting movies & going to shows, etc. So I broke them down into fairly detailed sections. Already I've been using the Pocket Quicken - haven't even synced it with the desktop yet. Our desktop PC is in our office, and I rarely have more than 10 minutes in the morning to check my email...that's about all I look at it per day (today, I made some extra time to check newsgroups, but that's rare even on weekends). But my PDA is always with me - including when I'm sitting in my living room chair being a couch potato after work. This morning I already put in our vet expenditures for the day, and a "cash deposit" to me from my hubby to get to the end of the month. ;-)It's not that I mind bookkeeping, I just want to be able to multi-task...ie, watch TV while I'm doing it, etc. And with it on my PDA, I can enter transactions on breaks at work too...not have to wait until I get home to enter them. I still use checks for most things - my debit card has a daily limit that is okay most of the time, but just frustrating the rest of it, so I just prefer to not hassle with it and use checks instead. I have duplicates so I don't have to keep track right when I write the check - I balance my checkbook online a couple times per week (usually at work on breaks). I rarely have cash...a few times per year at best. I spend it much more easily than if I'm writing a check or using my credit/debit card, for some reason. ;-) The company my husband works for was just sold (closing on the 31st), and we had a bit of a panic in the last couple of weeks thinking he would be looking for a new job (he has just about 3 months of salary stashed away, but still, not fun). He's decided to stay with the new company for awhile, but I'll admit that part of my wanting to get things in order is just "in case" he ends up looking for work in the near future. Like you said, I want to be able to know exactly where we can cut costs if need be, from one month to the next. But I think I'm on the right track! I have a few more catagories I'd like to add, and obviously I can tweak it a little in the coming weeks, but for now it's set up, and in use. I feel way more "in control" of everything now, and I think this will really be a good way to figure out exactly what I spend on "what" every month. Hopefully I can use the budget feature later to put more money towards paying off our loans/CC's too. We're not doing too badly, but I'd feel better if we were doing "better". :-) Thanks again! Jamie

I make cakes too -- these were fun to see. But about storage: Yes, I'm doing something very much like you. My boxes are plastic and have lids to keep out dust. I have boxes for the following in my pantry: - Cake decorating items -- this is just decorating tips, bags, etc; I got rid of all my "character pans" because they took up too much space, and I keep my sets of nested pans in a big plastic box in the attic - Cookies and cupcakes (cookie cutters, holiday sprinkles, cupcake corers, etc.) -- cake holders and cupcake holders sit on the shelf next to the boxes. - Cheese making accoutrements - Canning items - Paper plates, napkins, etc. bought on clearance for next year - Beer brewing materials When we move, I want to start larger boxes for each holiday, and they'll store in the walk-in attic space. My husband is BIG into his Big Green Egg grill, and he has quite the collection of grilling accoutrements; however, he has an outdoor "shelf" for storing them, and it's not really adequate -- but we don't have space here. One of our kitchen-priorities in our new place is carving out enough space for his grilling gear.