Creteman, come on over. We have property near Greenbank that I have not been to for a few years. My husband was over there a couple weeks ago, things have grown up so much. Do you ever go on the Whidbey garden tour?, it sounds fantastic. Cindy, This morning the Northwest Arboretum garden judges are coming here (8 of them).......Should be very interesting, I think I am a very little Tetra swirled into the bigger ocean. I did this as a challenge to myself, and can see already where I/the garden could use some good solid education behind me, but that is after I retire and will take the Master Gardeners program. The draw back to their visit is that they do not share the critique with you, and I REALLY wanted that. Now back to the real discussion A couple of New things. I love the jagged edge spheres!!!!! and Creteman, would love to see your work, however there was an internal error so could not go beyond the first pic. Dena

A budget is the plan that one makes seeking to block out what one's expected expenses may be during a coming period. The crunch comes with the accounting - writing down all of one's expenditures. Did you note that I said, "all" of one's expenditures - that's where one finds out where the money is going. Best to write it down daily for a while, to get into the habit of keeping track of it in one's mind. If one buys stuff for cash without getting a receipt - write it on either individual slips, or one ongoing piece of paper. Reconcile the amount in the wallet and what the report in the account book shows rather frequently, in the beginning, until the habit becomes established - then maybe once a week will do. I have a large sheet of paper, with five columns on the left for date, info, Income, Expenses and Balance on Hand. When I find that there's less in the wallet than the record shows, if I reconciled fairly recently, usually the missing amount is a single item, which makes it easy to remember what item I forgot to write down. If it's only a couple of items, it's not so bad - but when it's 5 or 6, that's when it gets difficult. Then, usually the next step is to quit, saying, "This thing isn't working"! But - if one persists - the payoff can be quite surprising - in terms of more money on hand. Then, over on the right side of the large page, I have a number of columns, headed by the various items that I've included in my budget. I enter each item purchased under the appropriate heading, sometimes splitting them between two when they relate to several disparate items bought in a store that sells a wide variety of stuff. Then at the end of the month I add the various columns to see how closely those amounts are to the amounts that I'd budgeted monthly (or 1/12th of the annual amount) for those issues. While it's not a good idea to write one's budget in stone and force one's self to conform, it's easier if one adjusts the budget to conform to one's needs. If one feels too confined by the budget, the chances may be stronger that one will decide to dump the whole project. The system is meant to be liberating, not confining. The only one to whom one must answer for one's expenditures is one's self - you don't need to apologize to anyone (except immediate family, maybe) - certainly not to us. Quite often one finds that when all of the expenses are written down, some of the totals at month end cause quite a surprise - and one decides that one does not want to spend that amount of money on such an item in future, so some adjustments are in order. The purpose is to redirect one's spending to items of higher priority on one's scale of important systems in one's life. If one saves early in life and can afford to make a 25% down payment on a home, rather than 15%, that saves a lot of dollars of interest expense, over a number of years. Money that can be used for other things. This whole issue is about building greater freedom for one's self, financially, as the years go by. Have a great week, everyone. ole joyful

Greetings pjn6, You haven't said anything that I noted about your own residence. You own a home, I assume. Remortgage-able, to free up some cash, if you need some (and when)?? As for lifestyle ... no expenses for life or property that aren't **absolutely** necessary for an extended period! Eat turnips, potatoes, beans. Meat only on special occasions: too expensive for routine use! Do you have a bread-maker? Get one! I figured for a time that I should get one ... found one at a yard sale, lady asked how much I offer, while I was mulling over whether I should offer $20. ... or was $10. too niggardly ... she said, "How about $7.50?" I accepted. A great variety of stuff can be included in bread ... and you'll make more saving on the exotic stuff: it's even more cheap than those kinds of fancy breads in the store. Ask for recipes on the Kitchen Table on THS Gardenweb. Bike to work. If you have a Thermos now, haul coffee to work ... lacking a Thermos, don't buy one: drink cold coffee, brought from home: don't buy any, out. As a matter of fact, since coffee has no nutritional value ... cut it out. Cigarettes? Forget that! Home phone with bells and whistles? No - basic service only. Cell phone? Only if *essential* for work (in which case ... work should pay for it). If boss expects you to be on call after hours ... are you compensated? Cable TV? Non-essential frill. Entertainment outside? Forget that ... you can't afford it. Parties? Invite good, frugal friends over for conversation. You can learn a lot of good stuff, that way. Minimal costs for food ... no alcohlic drink: too expensive. Educational stuff (including movies) at the library. Vacation? You're kidding! Forget that, too If you have a kid... disposable diapers? Forget them - cloth diapers may mean the difference between allowing you to keep both of those homes ... or flushing at least one of them down the drain. Use a spatula to flush the baby's residue down the drain instead. So you consider that residue a four-letter word? So it is ... but if you were a farmer, you'd be getting right close to a lot of it ... and you'd survive it. As for cloth diapers ... buy them from the store only as a last resort. Shop at yard sales. Write down names, phone, email of all of the people that you've known since you were a kid. Send out message over that network saying that you need some cloth diapers (or whatever) ... anyone know where you can find some? Use that database for other stuff that you need, as well. As you cruise the streets before garbage day ... keep yur eyes open for stuff that you need. Talk to some 80-year-olds in the residential homes about how to get by on less. If you want to keep those homes. My daughter, after hearing Dad's recent suggestion (repeatedly) that she sit on her hands (and her money) for a while ... ... bought a home a couple? of months ago, in/near Phoenix ... ... saying, "Maybe you'll soon be saying, 'I told you so, Dad'". She has sufficient back-up: her only issue is whether she could have bought cheaper, later. She loaded the moving van in a suburb of Toronto ... yesterday. I'm not big on the "I told you so" game - it's each person's responsibility to live his/her own life. She's capable of managing her own effectively. And we need be able to deal with such consequences as may ensue. It's a good idea to have various contingencies covered, as well. Sometimes having neglected to do so ... can get messy. Good wishes for success in covering all of the necessary bases over the next few years. It won't be easy. I hope that you can do it. North Americans have some major lessons coming about tough times, I think. Those who've changed from being big creditors and exporters to being big debtors and importers need to face the reality of their changed existence. ole joyful

Greetings again, folks, And when did you ever see a G I C ... ... produce any growth? The only return that they'll produce ... is produced now ... and taxed now ... at top rate. The stock that I bought 45 years ago for about $4.20 or so was paying about 10 - 12 cents annual dividend ... which was taxed then at low rate, plus for the latest six years at an even lower rate. In June of '07, when I could have sold it for $107.00, it was paying me $3.08 per year, at that even lower tax rate than earlier, and the annual payment increased to $3.48 later that year. Their involvement with the U.S. financial fiasco resulted in the price of the stock sslliding tto $40.00 - but they maintained the dividend at $3.48. The price has recovered to about $75.00 now ... and they recently increased the dividend to $3.60. That current income is taxed at a much lower rate than interest that I might earn. And I haven't had to talk to the income tax people about the increase in value of the asset, during all of those years. I don't have to report to the income tax people until I either sell the stock ... or die ... neither of which I plan to do, this week or next. When I sell the stock, I deduct the $4.20 that I paid from the, e.g. $74.20? proceeds of sale, to produce a capital gain of $70.00 ... and I pay tax at regular rate on half of that amount. But not until I sell, or die - nothing till then. However - if I transfer the stock to a charity, I get a tax-deductible receipt for the full amount - and I pay no income tax on that increase. And didn't pay about 2.5% of the value annually to a management company, as I'd have to with a mutual fund. You figure it: 45 years at 2.5% of the ongoing value of the fund ... comes out to about 112.5%, doesn't it? No wonder few mutual funds grow faster than the segment of the market in which the manager operates! Looks like a good deal, to me. ole joyful