A very nice benefit of relocating is that, if you move to a nice place people are interested in visiting, you will get visitors!

Last weekend my aunt & uncle stopped by on their way back to the West Coast from doing volunteer work in Mississippi. They were road-tripping and we are not yet in a position to put people up overnight, so they did not stay long, but we did enjoy a lovely, leisurely early dinner together and a couple hours of wonderful chat before they had to head to their next campground. They took backroads and enjoyed seeing lots of wildflowers!

This evening a friend from overseas is flying in for the weekend, stopping by on his way to a convention in Vegas. [He decided to detour to Austin just to see us. Whether he wants to see us or sees this as an opportunity to check out Austin, I do not know. In either case, we're happy he's coming!] That means dinner and more friendly chat for all of us tonight, then a fun day of golf for him and DH tomorrow.

I need to do my end-April net worth statement and update my "Journey to Balance Sheet Affluent" progress, but right I'm just more in the mood to play hostess to my visitors than play with my spreadsheets!

As Suze Orman says: "PEOPLE FIRST, then money, then things."

Have a nice weekend everyone!

I've been in earning mode lately ... Taking on extra shifts to earn OT when available, and busting my backside to get performance bonuses at work. Since I'm currently doing work that is intermittent temp assignments, I figure I might as well "make hay while the sun shines."

This weekend I got a full 2-day weekend (No extra shift available).

I'm happy for the bonus money when it's available, but I'm also happy for the "bonus" time this weekend!

Another bonus I've been enjoying is my first ever wildflower season in Austin. One nice thing about living in a brand new place is the chance to see seasonal changes in a completely different way than what you are accustomed to.

The wildflowers are really weeds, so they pop up anywhere you would normally see weeds, such next to roadways, so there is no need to go out looking for them ... I see lots each day on my way to and from work and when out walking the dog. I'm quite captivated and trying to learn how to identify them. The ones I'm seeing the most these days are pink evening primrose & bluebonnets.

I did not take these photos, they are from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website:

New jobs always come with "issues" don't they? I hesitate to use the word "issues" in this case because it sounds so negative, when really I just have "things that need to be worked out."

1. Auto Deposit: Friday was my first payday for my new job. I signed up for auto deposit. No deposit yet. Probably just a glitch somewhere, something that I need to get worked out either with my bank or the payroll department. Glad I wasn't desperately waiting for that money to pay bills!

2. To Buy or Not to Buy a 2nd Car? DH just returned from a business trip, so tomorrow will be the start of my needing to get to work every weekday and us having only 1 car. Taking the bus is not an option (the nearest bus stop that goes to my office is 70% of the way to work, so no point in driving that far and not driving all the way in, and I haven't been able to find a carpool. [Parking is free BTW.] As far as I'm concerned, the pay for the job does not justify the cost of a 2nd car, not to mention the fact that it's temp work, so I don't want to buy a 2nd car just because of this job. The distance from home is so far that it doesn't make sense for DH to drive me every day. I've suggested that we try something like I drive myself 3 days a week, and 2 days a week DH drive me in & pick me up so that he can have the car for golf, errands, etc. We are probably just delaying the inevitable of buying a 2nd car eventually, but I do still want to delay it as long as possible. We'll see how it goes ... Hopefully being home without a car (and unable to go hit balls at the driving range) won't be too hard on DH.

3. Clothes = Not Want or Need but "Kinda Sorta Ought to Get"???: I think we need a word for something that is neither a want nor a need but something in-between. I could really use some new clothes for this new job. I have never been what you'd call a clothes horse ... sssh, it's a secret, but DH has always had at least twice as many clothes as me! For a long time I worked in the corporate world, then when I owned my own business the "dress code" (or lack of) was very very casual. Prior to our move, not knowing what would work in the new climate or what type of work I would be getting in to, I did things like let my one remaining pair of tennis shoes wear down to where there were holes in the bottom of the soles, then I just tossed them before we moved. [Didn't buy replacements as it would mean one more thing to move.] Now I'm working in a casual office environment, where the corporate suits don't work and the super casual clothes might not get me fired but probably wouldn't enhance my rep either. I do have enough clothes that fit in to the "in-between" world and work in this much warmer climate where I don't actually NEED to buy new clothes(I could keep wearing the same things over and over if I honestly did not have the money to buy anything new), and I don't like clothes shopping or spending money unnecessarily so I certainly don't WANT new clothes. However, it probably would be a good idea to buy a few more pieces so that I can have a bit more variety in my wardrobe, don't end up wearing the same things over & over, and don't have to panic if the laundry doesn't get done right on schedule. [Although this work is temporary, I should have recurring temp assignments in the same work environment.] I do have the money to buy clothes, and haven't bought any for such a long time, that there's really nothing to stop me other than my dislike for clothes shopping.

Well ... I went ahead and made a list of what I could buy that would add the most variety to my wardrobe, and I've come up with a shopping strategy (hit Goodwill first, then a consignment store where I'm going to sell some things as well as look for some new for myself, and finally the clearance rack at a couple retail stores). I'm going to try to find a day when I have enough time and energy to get everything I "need/want/???" in one day. Just get it over with!

Today is one of those days ... I have the time and energy ... But glory halleluiah many stores are closed because of Easter so I have a reprieve until at least next weekend!

Great Brunch Out: Today DH & I went to Olive Garden for an early lunch; we both had the all-you-can eat soup/salad/breadsticks combo ($5.95). We had a $4 coupon, so the total with tax & tip for 2 of us came to $10.34 ... Not too bad for a tasty lunch with lots of veggies (tho the lettuce was iceberg), no dishes to wash, and a date with my favorite guy! We don't eat out a lot, so it's always a much-relished treat when we do! [And in case you're wondering, we combined our brunch out with running other errands, so there was very little gas expense.]

Broccoli: Oh I'm still smiling about this... It's been so long since I found a good deal on FRESH veggies! Super Target had a sale on broccoli, the cello-pack bunches for 2 / $3. I had a coupon that I had printed out on-line for $1 off, so I got 2 big bunches of broccoli for $2. Since they charge by the bunch instead of by the lb, of course I chose the heaviest bunches!

Staying Put: We decided to renew our lease, so we'll be staying put for awhile. We do think home prices will drop a bit more, we are completely contented where we are, and it's lovely having our costs so low, so why not wait?
I am kind of burned out on househunting, and am relieved that there is no reason to do any more of that until the fall, when we can get serious about looking (and then hopefully buying) again.

New Job: Forgot to mention that I got a job. It's intermittent full-time ... not contract work, but off & on temp assignments, challenging & enjoyable; I will likely stick with just this until we buy a house.

Housing market ... blah ... blah ... blah!
I'm sure many of you sick to death of hearing about the housing market, right? If so, I understand. However, as I am "on the ground" right now in the market (house hunting), it's on my mind almost constantly, and so I'm gonna keep blogging about it. Sorry.

So much going on since my last update.

1. Went back & looked at the "more than we originally wanted to spend" house that DH was getting dreamy-eyed about. Had a serious talk, and reconfirmed that it is indeed more than we want to spend. It's out of the picture for now.

2. A couple of houses we've been looking at have taken one or two price drops, and still have not sold.

3. We have expanded our search to include not only Austin but also San Antonio and all points in between.

4. A small to mid-size builder whose homes we had looked at and liked stopped all operations last week. Still uncertain whether they will declare bankruptcy or what. They have quite a few homes under construction, some under contract to buyers and some are spec homes. I feel incredibly sorry for those buyers whose homes are sitting there half-finished. What happens in a situation like that? And I feel sorry for the people who live next to half-finished homes when construction ceases; I am guessing that most of them haven't yet figured out what is going on. DH & I had thought we might consider buying a house that was almost finished, but now we are committed to not making an offer until the last nail has been pounded in!

5. We both have a list of our "top 3 houses we have seen so far" and we have 1 house in common. However, we don't feel we have a clear enough grasp of the market yet to make an offer.

6. DH & I have had some disagreements about how far we think the market will fall. But Suze Orman said something on her show about a week ago that we could both agree with: She said that if you could buy a house at 2002 prices, you are getting a good deal. The question for us is how to determine what 2002 prices were. Sales prices are not published here in Texas, and we haven't yet figured out a way to get the hard data we need. Back in good old King County (Seattle), you could find data on what every single home sold for, although you knew there was a bit of fudging because of buyer's bonuses, mortgage point pay-downs, throwing in the appliances, etc, etc. But at least you could get a decent general idea. [Note to Texas Realtors: If you would cease your lobbying against making house prices public record, maybe some of us fence-sitting buyers would climb off the fence and buy that house you are so eager to sell! Since when did non-transparency make a housing market better?]

7. Speaking of realtors ... It boggles my mind when they do not return calls from potential buyers. Two homes we wanted to see, the agents never called back. [In one case I was so interested in the house that I actually called twice.] In a third case, the agents called back 3 days later explaining they had been out of town ... Don't they know how to retrieve their voice mail? [Note to sellers: If your house is priced right and houses in your area are selling while yours is not, take a long hard look at your agent.]

Have We Reached The End (a poem by A.A. Milne)

"Have we reached the end?" asked Pooh.

"Yes, I suppose it seems so ...
and yet,"

"Yes, Piglet?"

"It is also the beginning."

----------------------------------------

Thank you to all of you who posted well wishes on our move! I am writing this from beautiful, sunny Austin, Texas.

The move could not have gone more smoothly.

My mother and brother came to our place on Thursday (Sept 27). We had our farewell party that evening, and it was perfect! Everyone had a great time and the food was terrific. Even tho' 2 people cancelled at the last minute, we still went $21 over our $500 budget because more wine was consumed and more people took after-dinner coffee or tea than I had expected. It was money I was absolutely delighted to spend. We received $350 in gift cards --- gotta love it, everyone knew that the last thing we would want was one more thing to have to pack! I was also given a small framed old family photo that had belonged to my late grandmother, which I was more than happy to pack and which I will treasure forever.

On Friday morning we picked up our rental truck, and DH & my wonderful brother got about 2/3 of our things loaded that day. On Saturday morning my family left town, and DH & I worked on finishing packing and cleaning and loading. We were comfortably on schedule so decided to go out to eat at DH's favorite Chinese restaurant.

On Sunday morning we did the usual last-minute stuff (including loading our mattress) and left early, a full 1-1/2 hours ahead of schedule and without any last-minute scramble.

We stayed over 3 nights in Motel 6's along the way. DH had decided he was not comfortable towing a car behind the rental truck (it was the first time he had driven a truck of any kind) so I did end up driving our car separately. It was easier on DH, and definitely easier on our pooch who got to stretch out across the entire back seat instead of having to lie on the floor of the truck between our seats. I was really glad we had previously sold one of our cars and were down to just one car, so that last minute change of plans was possible.

The entire drive went very smoothly, and we saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. We did not stop to do any sightseeing, and that was fine.

BTW, kudos to Discover Card's fraud division for calling me on my cell phone on day 2 to question the "suspicious activity" (gas purchases in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming) on my card ... Nice to know they were watching out for us!

We got in to Austin on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday we finished unloading and returned the truck. I waited to blog until I had the "essentials" (kitchen and clothing) unpacked.

What is amazing is that all of our possessions (including the paperwork and office machines for 2 businesses) fit in to a 16-foot rental truck with a bit of room to spare! Aggressively selling off possessions really worked out well for us; not only were we able to do the move 100% ourselves (with loading help from my darling brother of course), we were able to rent a small truck, and we are now living in an apartment much smaller than what I could have ever imagined back when we developed this plan to relocate. Not only did we save on moving expenses, our monthly expenses are waaaay down too.

This is something that you fellow frugalites will appreciate ... A couple days before our move, a friend came over and looked around at the boxes and packing supplies in disbelief [I had visited her house when she did her last move, and she was sitting on her couch watching TV while a moving company was packing up her stuff] ... She said to me, " ... xxx ... You have money, why don't you just pay someone to do this for you?" I held my hands out to gesture at the packing stuff and replied " ... zzz ... THIS is WHY I have money." To which she could just reply "Yea ... I suppose you're right."

Boy, it sure feels good to have this great big project almost completed (although I still have quite a bit of unpacking to do).

Next project: HOUSEHUNTING!!! WHEE!!!

Next time I blog it will be from our new home ... 2,400 miles away from where we are now! For those of you who are new here, we are moving from the Seattle area to Texas because the cost of living (and especially the cost of houses) is substantially less expensive. In Texas, we chose Austin because it is beautiful and offers a high quality of life. This is also a chance for us to have a "grand adventure" and try living someplace completely new & different.

We leave this weekend. I have family coming in to town tomorrow, and we still have the farewell party, the last rush of packing (it's going well tho), a run to the dump, and final cleaning up of the house to do, so I won't be back on-line until the computer is set up in our new digs.

I am happy to report that the marriage is still intact. Those of you who have done cross-country moves will know what I'm talking about! Only once did the thought, "You go right ahead and move to Texas, and the dog & I will just stay here" cross my mind, and I managed to bite my tongue and just waited for it to pass. If DH has had the same thought (and no doubt he has), he has also kept it to himself.

Thanks for letting me share this big change with all of you. I'm excited to start reporting on life in our new town!
See you all in a week or so (maybe a bit more).

Lots and lots of move-related stuff going on, but I will try to keep this update focused on things that have to do with finances.

1． Adios Tomato Plants: I gave them away on Freecycle. Best response to anything I’ve Freecycled so far --- 10 people wrote to say they wanted them! The kind recipient Emailed me and asked me for my “secret” to growing such healthy plants … Ummm, inexperience? Ha ha. The best I can hope for now is to break even on my $20 Garden Challenge, and for reasons I’ve already explained that is okey-dokey.

2. Books: Pulled the plug on Half.com sales early in the week, packed up the remaining books and took them to Half Price Books. Came home and listed the bookshelf on Craigslist, where it sold within an hour.

3. Yard Stuff: Final yard waste pickup was yesterday. [Could have kept one final pickup on the schedule after our departure, but naturally I didn’t want to pay for that!] Listed all of our yard care tools on Craigslist and someone’s coming by to get them later today.

4. Ebay: The last couple auctions end in a few days, and then I’m completely done with the pre-relocation sell-off. Glad to be done with that, let me tell you. [The elephant is essentially gone.]

5. Final Sell-Off Tally: After I had exceeded my goal of $3K, I stopped keeping track of how much money I had recouped by selling things off prior to our relocation because I felt it wasn’t the best use of my time. However, I estimate our final tally is in the $3,600-3,700 range. This doesn’t include the sale of one of our cars and my husband’s sale of his office furniture (because that money has gone back in to his business). Beyond the cash in hand (well, in the bank actually, in a high-yielding MMA of course), the sell-off means that we are able to do this move ourselves instead of hiring movers, are able to rent a smaller-than-expected moving truck, and are able to rent a smaller-than-we-ever-could-have-imagined-six-months-ago apartment. Total Savings? Huge! Lots of work has been involved, and it has most definitely been worth it all.

6. Free Meals: Have been treated to 4 very nice meals out by friends.

7. Eating At Home: So far, we’ve been able to eat normal meals at home (with the exception of when we are being treated to a meal out). So far, we haven’t fallen back on the “eat out, take out, buy frozen stuff” routine that is so easy to do (and completely understandable) when preparing for a move.

8. Farewell Party: All but one person RSVP’d positively, so our farewell party will almost certainly hit our budgeted amount of $500 and may even go over by a bit. We are more than happy to spend it. We carefully considered cost when choosing where to host the event, and we did pare our guest list to only those people we care about the most, but beyond that this is one of the times when we are very happy to spend the money. So much better to have everyone come and go a bit over budget than have people not come!

9. DH Went to a Focus Group: Thanks to this site, I had heard about focus groups and how participating in them could pay off quite handsomely. Awhile back I got a call about joining a focus group; I did not qualify for that study but I did register with the market research company. [If I hadn’t heard about them here on SA, I probably would have thought it was a sales call and just hung up.] We got called about another one, and this week DH went to a focus group and earned $125. Yea! Thank you SA Bloggers!

That's it for now. Gotta get back to packing ... Whee!

If anyone is planning a move and could use a little guidance, I highly recommend the book "29 Days to a Smooth Move" by Donna Kozik and Tara Maras. It's written in a workbook format with lots of checklists and spaces to write notes, so you don't just read it, you actually use it as your master moving organizer.

The authors spell out the major categories of things to do before a move as:

1. Readying the house for new occupants
2. Condensing your goods
3. Packing your possessions
4. Preparing the children (in our case we can substitute the much much easier "preparing the dog")
5. Organizing paperwork (estimates, change of address forms, etc.)
6. Saying goodbye

I have these written on a board in my office, and I make sure I am making progress on all of the categories (except number 4, the one about the dog) every single day.

No doubt this book falls under the "money well spent" category.

Well, time to get back at it ...

Hi All! I got back from Austin late on Sunday. Everything went really well there. Austin is a beautiful place full of lots of friendly folks.

Temporary Housing: Great news! I had found a sublease on Craigslist and was keeping my fingers crossed that it would really be as nice as it appeared to be on-line. It was, so that is where we will be living. I drove to the sublease place as soon as I landed in Austin to check it out. The couple that has the lease had already moved out and cleaned the place, so I was able to give it a good lookover. [I had some alternate places lined up in case the sublease didn't work out, but fortunately didn't need them.] The rent has been paid through the end of Sept, so DH & I are taking it over from October which is perfect. The lease is up in April, so if we find a house to buy we won't be locked in to a really long term. The best news is that because we are taking over the existing lease we are paying $180 per month less than what the same floorplan in the same complex is currently renting for.

Friday evening I went out and bought cleaning supplies and brought them to the apartment.

Saturday morning I called carpet cleaners and found one that could steam clean the carpets same-day; they showed up within 3 hours. I took our application (pre-completed here at home) to the leasing office; they had a pretty slick system, just typed some info in to the computer and said right away "You're approved." Was glad to hear it.
Then I went and opened up an account at a local bank. Finally, I detail-cleaned the entire apartment, even tho' the previous tenants had done a pretty good job cleaning up.

On Sunday I went to Costco and bought some basic staples (dry goods, shampoo, TP, etc.) then went to the apartment and got it stocked. I even ran some bleach through the clothes washer so it is all sanitized and ready to use as soon as we arrive. [You frugalites will appreciate this: I took the hotel soap and stuck it in the shower, so that as soon as we get the shower curtain hung we'll be able to wash the road off.]

I kept thinking about my DH & pooch as I did all of this, and it felt really good knowing that I was giving them the "gift" of being able to arrive at our new place after what will probably be a long and exhausting road trip to find a well-stocked and sparkling-clean apartment waiting for them.

I'm home now for just 2 days. Tomorrow I leave on a 5-day trip to my mom's. There are some things that she wants help with around her house, and since I am "not working" this is a good time for me to go give her a hand. When I return, I'll have just 2 weeks until our move day.

Whew ... I may not be working for pay right now, but that sure doesn't mean I'm not working! I did come up with a temporary "title" for myself which you can see in my blog description.

I've really missed keeping up on all of your blogs ... I'm going to give them a quick scan right now, and hope that I don't miss anything too terribly important.

See you all again in about a week!

Tomorrow I'm off to Austin to choose our temporary housing (a rental apartment or house). After much eye-reddening searching on the internet and phoning, I have what I think / hope is a good plan. If it all works out, we'll have a good deal on a perfectly acceptable place to live temporarily. I think I have all of the documentation I need to do the whole apartment-application thing. [Copies of tax returns since we are self-employed, application forms pre-signed by DH since I'm the only one going, checkbooks and locations and hours of banks in case we need cash since I don't use ATMs, and even phone numbers of carpet cleaners in the area and the address of Costco ... More on those last 2 bits later, afer I return.]

I really cringe at the thought of giving out my SS# on an application and handing over a copy of my tax return, but there's no way around it. I can't even remember the last time I gave a "stranger" my SS, and after reading MonkeyMama's blog about ID theft it's the one part of this trip I'm dreading.

I'm flying down using DH's airline miles (paid a $10 fee), I'm staying at a place using his hotel reward card points that includes free continental breakfast, and I booked my rental car ages ago at a great weekend rate of $13.23/day base (it will total $41.42 for 2 days once all of the taxes and surcharges are added).

Typing this out reminded me of something ... I just stopped typing for a second to grab the $5 Starbucks gift card I got free for answering surveys on-line at Harris Interactive, just in case I need a late-morning or early-afternoon pick-me-up. [I drink coffee but make my own at home, so going to Starbucks will be a real nice treat for myself.]

I'll have to eat lunches & dinners out; I think as soon as I finish typing this I'll go to Subway's web site to scout out their locations where I will be. If I am going to be eating "fast-food" type stuff, I may as well go with the best alternative (fairly healthy, and a decent value for the money).

I'll also have to buy gas ... I think Mapquest has a feature where you can check out the cheapest gas by location, so I'll do that as soon as I pinpoint Subway stores!

Well guys, I hope you all have a great weekend, and I will be back after completing this big step in our "Relocating to a lower cost part of the USA" journey!

Today, Labor Day, was the last day I provided service to my clients. Friday was my last busy day with work, and things started really winding down over the weekend. No fanfare and no feeling of finality, tho', as I still have a fair amount of "wrap up" work to do. Of course, there was a tinge of sadness, but it was much less than I expected.

I started my business almost 4 years ago, and now it is ending. I have a feeling of accomplishment knowing that my little business was a success and made my clients lives easier & better.

Perhaps the lack of sadness is because I've been so busy with "forward-looking" things. I thought I would be done with my pre-relocation Ebay sales, but I am still chomping away at that elephant. And I have spent much of the last several days shopping around on-line for a rental in Austin and planning my scouting trip.

So ... What do I call myself now? Temporarily retired? Between jobs? In transition? On hiatus? On a very long vacation? Bumming around? I got my first "real" job (with paychecks and tax witholding) when I was 14 and except for a couple brief periods between jobs when I was actively looking for work, I have worked ever since then. For the first time in my life, I am not working and am not looking for work! It does feel a bit strange.....

Forgot to mention that we sold one of our cars over the weekend. It all happened so fast that it still doesn't seem quite real. It was the Subaru Outback, the one we just bought in February at a terrific price, and the one for which we bought new tires and a new HD radio/CD player & speakers.

One of DH's friends wanted to buy a car for his son. The son wanted something with a decent audio system, and with enough space to hold equipment for his band. The parents wanted a reliable safe car that would never end up in a street race.

The dad knew the story of how we got the car and asked if we'd be willing to sell it. He said he'd reimburse us what we paid for the car, plus everything we had added to the car, including a major tuneup at 60K miles. The family came over to look at it and decided to buy it on the spot.

We decided to go ahead and sell it. It's a great deal for our friends who bought it. And it's a great deal for us too, because it means we won't have to drive it to Texas. Instead of DH & I driving separately, we'll all be able to go together in the truck, towing our Camry behind.

My last day of work is Monday, so we should be able to easily get by with one car. We're going to go as long as we can with just one car, at least until after I start working again. I think it would be great if we could try to get by with just one car period, but we'll see how that goes. Cars are such a money drain, not only with the purchase cost, upkeep, and gasoline, but also insurance & licensing.

Even tho' we spent "life energy" researching and buying the new tires & radio, and getting the Subaru serviced, what it boils down to is we got to use that car for a little over 6 months for just the cost of gasoline and insurance. Not too bad.

I'll admit I'm gonna miss that HD radio tho' ... sigh.

Today & tomorrow (Aug. 23 & 24) Ebay is having a promotion where you can upgrade to a 10-day listing for free. Not quite as good as free listings or 10-cent listings, but I'll take it!

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200708.shtml#2007-08-22170025

Haven't done a real blog entry for awhile because so much has been going on ... I've been busy and unable to organize my thoughts well ... I decided to do just one big long entry that covers a whole lot of things ... Sorry.

1. Business Closing / Moving Countdown: One-and-a-half weeks to go until I shut down my business. I've been saying many good-byes. I am glad they are spread out and not all coming at once; it's easier to take emotionally, absorbing just one or two good-byes per day. Five-and-a-half weeks until we leave for Austin. Got a free map of the USA from AAA and plotted our route on it, then hung it on the wall above my desk. It's exciting to look at it, knowing the date our new adventure begins is getting closer and closer.

2. No, I really don't have 4 weeks to prep for the move: I'll be travelling out of town for one week (going to Austin to choose an apartment, attending my alma matter's Reunion weekend, and going to my Mom's to help out with some things). I'll also have wrap-up work on my business, and my DH needs some help with his business. Also, my family is coming up for our final weekend here which of course is wonderful but takes up time. So, I estimate that gives me 2 weeks (broken up a bit here and there) to prep for the move. Should be plenty of time as long as I draw up a good plan/calendar, stick to it, and get enough help from DH. [Thank goodness I have the book "29 Days to a Smooth Move" ... It is the best resource for moves!]

3. Farewell Party: Reservation has been made; Guest list is 28; Invitations get mailed on Monday; final budget is $500. A nice restaurant near us does a very nice and reasonably-priced buffet once a month, and I chose to do our party on that day. I will pre-order some decent but moderately-priced wines and have them out on the table. Of course, people will be free to order other drinks, but knowing the wonderful group we are inviting (not a wine snob or big spender in the bunch), they will be perfectly happy with my selections. My goal is to put on an event that is both a really enjoyable event for our beloved guests and a wonderful send off for DH and I, but that doesn't break the bank. Given the plans made so far, I think all criteria will be met.

4. Ebay Sales: Still plodding along. Some things selling for more than expected, some for less, some not at all. Will be glad when it's done.

5. $20 Garden Challenge: Still enjoying plenty of fresh herbs and microgreens. It's been quite cool here, and I'm starting to wonder whether I'll actually see a tomato before the move! There have been lots of blossoms and some have dropped, but not one piece of fruit yet.

6. DC & NYC Trip: Booked my plane ticket and accomodations! I'll be travelling a total of 9 days ~ I'm so excited!!! I decided on a budget of $2,000. Yes, it's a lot of money, and yes, it will be worth every penny. I am renting a studio condo with a kitchen in downtown DC. I'll be flying from Austin to DC, and between DC and NYC I'll take the bus. [ThreeBeanSalad kindly suggested the Chinatown Bus, but I was able to find an even cheaper fare on Greyhound thanks to a fare sale, plus the scheduling with Greyhound is much better.] My younger sister & brother will be joining me in DC. They have both always wanted to go, and decided that since I was going already they may as well tag along. I'm super happy they will be coming. I'm not going to let them pitch in on the accomodations, but told them they could stay with me (my treat) in exchange for them feeding me one meal per day each. My sister will get groceries and cook dinner for me (say ... I'll have my own personal chef for a couple days ... outstanding!) and my brother will treat me to lunch while we are out sightseeing. My older sister is not going to join us because ...

7. Older Sister is Taking Baby Steps Towards Financial Security: Awhile back I wrote on the forums about how my sister's financial life was a wreck. She had to have her cat euthanized and did not have the money to pay for it.
Well, since then she has made some progress but it has definitely been a "2 steps forward and 1 step back kind of thing." A big breakthrough was when she thought about joining us in DC but decided that she really should not because her priority is building up her EF. Oh yea! While it would have been great to have her with us, I really respect that she seems to be getting her priorities straight.

8. Caught Another Checkout Pricing Mistake: I know this entry so far has had a lot to do with big spending, but as I have said before I believe in focusing on the big AND small things. The other day at Office Depot when I was buying envelopes to mail the party invitations, the price rang up at $7.29 even tho' the posted price was $5.99. I had them cancel the sale and went over to customer service. They were very nice, walked over to the posted sign with me, admitted that the sign was wrong (apparently the price had increased but they hadn't changed the sign), and honored the posted sign. They also took the sign down and changed it, so I was the last person to get the envelopes at that price. [Yikes - I thought $5.99 for 50 envelopes was a huge amount of money. But I decided not to waste time & money driving to another store.] I couldn't begin to count how many times I have caught mistakes like that; I am always courteous, but never shy about letting the cashier know about the error, and I have never had a store fail to honor the posted price. Always check the prices!

9. "Subprime Mortgage Meltdown in the News": I agree with those who say, come on, what is the news?!? A few years ago when DH & I started reading about the types of mortgages people were taking out we couldn't get over how insane it was. That was years ago. Frankly, we were surprised it all didn't happen sooner; we were expecting it about a year earlier. I'm glad we sold our house when we did, and I know that this will not make me popular with people who are facing difficulties with their ARMs, but we may end up in a pretty good bargaining position when we buy our next house because we will be paying cash while other potential buyers will be facing the credit crunch. We'll either be able to get a deep discount from someone who needs to sell fast and has a shortage of potential buyers, or we may end up buying a foreclosure.
BTW, when we bought our last house we made sure that we could not only easily handle the mortgage payments, but that I could easily handle them on my own if (God forbid) something happened to my DH. My income is less than my husband's, and we thought it prudent to make sure the lesser income alone (mine) could easily support the house payments, so that I would never be in a position where I felt pressured to sell the house in a hurry. And we did refinance our mortgage once, but we refinanced for a LESSER amount and we went from a 30-yr fixed to a 15-yr fixed at a much lower rate. Never had a HELOC or a 2nd mortgage or a piggyback loan. Eventually, we paid off our mortgage early. Goodness, no one could imagine why we were being so conservative. They thought we were being downright silly. But I am here to tell you that you should never be afraid to go against the crowd, swim upstream, dance to a different drummer, etc, etc... Conventional wisdom isn't always so wise.

10. "The Jonses" Foreclosure House: I sent an Email to the bank that now owns the foreclosed house in our neighborhood letting them know we might be interested in buying it, but a real estate agent friend told me not to expect to be able to get a great deal on it, so I'm not holding my breath.

11. Feels Like Fall: I've covered a lot of ground in this post, some of it a bit heavy and/or preachy. I'll end on something light. It's been cool here, really starting to feel like fall. I have been thinking about changing my blog's color scheme to more fallish (instead of springish) colors ... But that may have to wait a bit, as I have bigger projects to tackle ...

If you actually read all of this long and rambling post, bless you!

This morning I revisited the Penske truck rental site, because DH and I were discussing whether we could downgrade our reservation to a smaller truck (because we have been successful in selling off or getting rid of so much stuff). I ran a "test reservation" and found out the rates are down A WHOLE LOT from what they were when I reserved our truck. [I booked with Penske because their rates were much less than the other truck rental companies, especially considering I got a 22% combined discount for booking on-line and being a AAA member.] I called Penske to see if I could cancel our reservation and re-book, and they said that they could adjust to the new rate for us, and still apply the Web discount and the AAA discount. On top of that, even tho' the rate for a car carrier had increased I could stay locked in at the old (lower) rate. So, in about 30 minutes time this morning, I saved $1,200! Wow - Thank you Penske!

Of course I was excited, and I also loved how my DH got excited when I told him! [In our marriage, we both play offense and defense, but he's definitely the 'head of the offensive team' while I'm definitely 'defensive coordinator.' It's really motivating for me when he appreciates my efforts to save money every chance I get.]

In other relocation news:
- The charitable donation guys did a swing through our neighborhood yesterday & I put out one more big box of stuff for them to pick up.
- We freecycled away some big heavy storage units that were in our garage... No way did we want to move those! So glad that we won't have to deal with them, and that someone else can put them to good use.
- When getting the donation box put together, I found a few more items to list on Ebay. I really need to keep chomping away at that elephant...
- The half.com sales continue to trickle in. And I've decided that once the final Ebay sale is shipped off, the half.com sales will stop too. Any books that are left will get boxed up and taken to HalfPrice Books. As long as I'm going to the Post Office to ship Ebay stuff, I might as well keep selling on Half.com. But once the Ebay sales are finished, no more runs to the Post Office.
- We're continuing to let things run down and run out. I'll admit that I'll be glad when we get to Austin and I can just go to Costco and buy one great big container of laundry detergent instead of standing in Fred Meyer trying to estimate how many more loads of wash I'll be doing before our move!

13 items listed on Ebay in the past 2 days --- I think that's about 1/3 of everything. I'd like to get everything else listed in the next 6 days, so that the auctions can end and we can get everything shipped off by the end of the month. Chomp ... chomp ... chomp ... burp.

Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time!

I have a small-size elephant I need to eat this month.

Two days ago I packed up 3 big boxes of things I wanted to get sold on Ebay prior to our move and hauled them off to a "Trading Post" that I found through Ebay. I thought this would be a way to get that project completed easily, even tho' it would mean paying a rather hefty commission. The trading post's info included a physical address and drop-off hours, with no mention of restrictions on items, in fact they said that they will sell anything. Turns out the address was just for a UPS store. I called the phone number for the company from the parking lot. They told me that they are a national company, and that the UPS store would ship the things to them, but that I had to open an account with them and each item had to be worth at least $30. Forget about that!

Chalk that up as another "live and learn" experience. So, I am going to list and sell those items myself, which is a rather big project to be tackling this close to the move.

The biggest hurdle I faced was getting packaging materials for everything. I know Ebay and the USPS have linked up to send free Priority Mail boxes to your house, but when I had checked several months ago it was for some huge number of boxes (like 50 for each size), and I had of course thought ahead and wondered what on earth I would do with all of the leftover boxes not to mention where would I keep them?

Well, the "where to keep them" part is easy now. I have already sold off so much through Craigslist and our garage sale in May that I have plenty of room.

And, I was most pleasantly surprised to find out that it is now possible to order the free boxes in multiples of 10. Yea! So, I ordered 10 of each size, and went ahead and listed a few things last night. I'll keep listing a few every day, as many as I can. Since DH's business has slowed down, he'll be the one making the post office runs when it is time to ship things.

I'll just keep reminding myself, one bite at a time. Even if I just get one listing done, that's still something.

Yesterday was a milestone in my 2 major countdowns:
- Exactly 4 weeks until my final client visit (I'll still have some "wrap up" work to do after that, but won't be making any more money from my business)
- Exactly 8 weeks until we depart for Austin

Add to that a broken fridge/freezer, dealing with some tax stuff from DH's business, trying to plan a couple of trips, planning a good-bye party and final visit from Mom & brother, plus starting to get the "we want to get together with you before you leave" invites and I'll admit that I've begun to feel a bit overwhelmed. I made long lists of the things I need to do, and am working on a master calendar. Once everything is laid out in front of me I'll probably still feel a bit overwhelmed but much more able to cope.

I decided to do the following to help cope as well:
- I am no longer tracking the $$$ amount of my pre-relocation sell off. I already exceeded my goal of $3,000, the amounts I'm making now are relatively small (no more furniture), and the most important thing at this point is that I "just get 'er done" rather than tracking the results. I'll probably do a final rough estimate, but no longer feel the need to input everytime I sell a book through Half.com
- I am going to gather up the things I still want to list on Ebay and take them off to a Trading Post and let them sell everything for me. Yes, they'll take a big chunk as their commission, but once again at this stage in the game the main thing is to "get 'er done."
- DH is going to get hit with a great big "Honey Do" list when he returns from his business trip on Wednesday. On previous moves, pretty much all he has had to do was show up on moving day to load and drive the truck. Not this time!

Since I don't want to give Broken Arrow too much of a big head, I will try to remember to title my entries related to my "Journey to Balance Sheet Affluent" something other than "Journey to BA"

Well, even tho' I revised my goal upwards by quite a bit, we still managed to exceed our 1st quarter goal quite handily. Our current estimated* Net Worth is 1.51 times our expected net worth according to the "Balance Sheet Affluent" formula [Age x .112 x Total Realized Annual Income].

*I say estimated because the current balance in DH's business account is just a rough estimate. Just before he left on a business trip, I asked him, "How much do you have in your business account, minus what you owe, plus what people owe you" and he gave me a very round figure as he did not have the time to calculate it precisely. After he gets back and gets all caught up, I will be able to get a precise number from him. Also, DH took all of our foreign currency with him on his trip, so I entered that amount as "zero" even tho' I expect he will bring some back with him.

These are the things that helped us on the positive side this quarter:
- DH's business has been excellent [His busiest season falls in this quarter, and it has been a very good year]
- My little business had been pretty good too
- We got the money from our garage sale in May, plus additional funds have come in steadily from Half.com
- I made $20 on Pinecone surveys ... Hey every little bit counts, right? I am one who believes in focusing on the big AND small things when it comes to personal finance
- Interest earnings: I have gotten our bank accounts (MMAs and CDs) narrowed down to a few banks that have consistently offered the best rates over time. I may not be getting the very best available rate at any given moment, but I'm also not seeing my rates suddenly drop or having lag time waiting for funds to get transferred from one institution to another.
- Mutual Fund Investments: Our choices are quite conservative, and the results for the quarter were fine.

Necessary but unusual expenses this quarter (and there are always going to be some unusual expenses, so we have to anticipate them) were:
- Car repair
- New tires for car
- Teeth cleaning for dog
Unnecessary but very nice "want" purchases this quarter were:
- New radio & speakers for car
- New driver for DH (to replace his old one which had cracked)

My "Journey to BA" goals for this 2nd quarter are primarily related to our relocation:
- Finish pre-relocation sell off
- Keep relocation expenses as low as possible (the less stuff to move the better; keep costs while on the road down)
- When chosing a rental in the Austin area, choose a cheap one!!! [It is so tempting to go for something nicer, but I must remember that it is only temporary housing and it makes no sense at all to spend a lot of money on a rental.]

Just made our hotel reservations for while we are on the road during our move from Seattle to Austin. We're staying in Motel 6's all the way. After a bit of looking around I realized that Motel 6 consistently has what we want:
- Cheap rates, and even cheaper if you book on-line with their "Click 6" rates (all we want is a place to sleep after a long day of driving)
- Pets Welcome with no extra charge
- Located right along the major freeways
- Parking all around the hotels. Hopefully we can park our moving van right outside our room to keep an eye on it (and within range of the baby monitor I bought used at our community garage sale for $3 for added security, thanks to the great suggestion from debtfreeme).

This big move is really starting to feel real!

Last weekend I posted a few items to give away on Freecyle. They are items that did not sell at my garage sale, that I held back from the donations pile, and that I was unsuccessful selling on Craigslist (and they are too inexpensive or bulky to list on Ebay).

I love the idea of Freecycle, but I have to say that it is quite a bit of work. For some reason, people respond to postings really promptly saying they want something, but then either don't reply to arrange a pickup or take their sweet time coming to get things.

I will probably accumulate some more things that I will Freecycle just prior to my move, but I will post everything on just one day when I am going to be home all day, and I will stipulate that things must be picked up within the day. Anything that doesn't get picked up, will be donated to charity.

For anyone interested in Freecycle who is not familiar with it, here is the web site: www.freecycle.org

After averaging 2 or 3 books a week for months, I suddenly sold 6 books in the last 2 days! And I know wyozozo and koppur have been getting good book sales as well. Anyone know what's going on with half.com? Have they been advertising? Sending out subliminal messages? Or is it just that the only stuff on TV right now is crap, so everyone's hitting the books harder than usual (as I have been doing)?

Whatever is going on, I hope it keeps up. And if anyone has been waiting to list books, I'd say jump in and do it!

Well, since I already announced that the results of our garage sale mid-May pushed me over my goal of $3K, this is a bit anti-climactic, but here it is.

In May I netted $1,061.07 from selling off stuff (mostly at the garage sale, but also a bit on Half.com and Craigslist, plus my DH sold a few of his books to a local shop) and earned $11.28 in interest on proceeds from the stuff I've sold.

My grand total is now $3,181.69.

I am going to continue selling things, but probably won't report again until just before our move in September.

My focus has shifted from raising a certain amount of money to seeing just how much I can pare down and still feel comfortable. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking: "How small of a house could we live in without feeling cramped." I definitely don't want to feel squeezed in; been there, done that, don't ever wanna do it again! But I know that a smaller house means not only a lower purchase price but also significantly lower upkeep costs and monthly expenses (especially in Texas where AC is so necessary yet expensive), not to mention that it is better for the environment. The house we choose is going to have a big impact on my goal of becoming "Balance Sheet Affluent" by age 60 ... It all ties together, doesn't it?

----------

And to completely change gears, I have had a really rewarding month in terms of my business, both emotionally and financially. After sending out letters to my clients that I would be closing my business, I was overwhelmed and gratified to receive many phone calls, Email, notes, and even one boquet of flowers. They all said how much they were going to miss me; it was really surprising and touching. My husband commented: "Wow - This is almost like attending your own funeral, isn't it?" And he was right. I've also had quite a few people decide that they want to use my business one last time before I leave, so I have been very busy the past couple weeks and my schedule is very full right up to my last day of work. To be honest, I had expected just the opposite, that people would start looking for someone new when they found out I was leaving. The extra income is going to be a nice boost, and I am glad that I've already done so much pre-relocation-sell-off since the next few months are going to be busy with work.

When doing my pre-garage sale sort, I came across 2 boxes of books in the garage, many unread. Oh my, how embarrassing! In the past few years I have been very good about just checking out books from the library, but prior to that I obviously had a bad habit of buying books that I did not even read!

Okay, lesson has been learned, and now it's time to move on and recoup some of that wasted money.

Yesterday I listed those books on Half.com and have already sold 2 of them.

I now have a special book that I keep on my bookself; it is one of those blank journal books and I wrote "Books to Read" on the spine. In it I am noting the books I am posting for sale that I am still interested in reading ... so that I can check them out from the library in the future!

Community-wide garage sales are the best! A charitable organization makes the rounds of our community the Monday after our garage sales, picking up leftovers as donations. All we had to do was haul our leftover garage sale stuff out to the curb this morning, attach a sign to it, and "voila!" it is gone someplace where it will be put to good use. We held back a few things that we will try to sell on Craigslist or Ebay, and sent 5 boxes of things off to a better place.

Whew! 2-Day Garage Sale wrapped up about 1-1/2 hours ago.

Our take was $997 ($1,005 - $8 for stickers).

Thanks so much to everyone from SA who offered their encouragement and their "Atta Girls"! You have no idea how much it was appreciated; it really buoyed my spirits. My DH did eventually get on board and even came up to me on Wednesday evening and said very sweetly "You've really been working hard on this, haven't you?"

We are lucky to live in a Master Planned Community that holds a community-wide garage sale that they advertise for us. I did post a free ad myself on Craigslist, but that was the only advertising I had to do.

We are also lucky that our house is on one of the "main drags" so pretty much everyone cruising the garage sales drove past our place.

On Friday, the weather was great so we set up in the front yard and had terrific traffic. Today, it was cloudy so we set up in the garage in the alley, so did not get as much traffic but still did okay considering it was Day 2.

About half way through today, we started selling BOGO and posted big signs. During the last hour of the sale we set a bunch of stuff out on the front lawn and started selling "Fill A Grocery Bag for $1" and we were waving signs around by the street. Both of those moves really helped us draw in the bargain shoppers, and we cleared out some stuff right at the end that otherwise would not have sold.

I am now officially OVER my goal of $3,000 raised from selling stuff prior to our relocation. I am a tired, happy camper.

Dear Self,

Re: DH and his "Garagesaleitis"

Just remembr:

1. You love the guy. Really you do.
2. This too shall pass.

Yes, you asked him to do some things weeks ago, and he has been watching the garage sale pile growing for MONTHS. And yes, he has waited until the 11th hour to do those things and he is grumpy and cranky and fussy because it is "just too much." But remember, he does have a way of making things happen fast, and even if he does not take your careful and methodical approach, and even if he is pretty upleasant to live with at the moment, as long as it gets done that is all that matters.

Yes, he did agree when you guys decided to make this move that you could sell absolutely anything that you wanted to. And yes, one of the main reasons you are trying to sell as much as possible is for his safety (less stuff = smaller truck = safer drive for him). And yes, now that the time has come he has started to pull things out of the pile. *Sigh* Well ... just remember that the guy does seem to have a stronger emotional need to have "stuff" around than you do, and he did agree to sell one of his beloved golf trophies and that is HUGE.

Yes, he does expect "Atta Boy"s for every little thing that he does, and you have not gotten a single "Atta Girl" which you really, REALLY could use. Well .... not much to say, just oh well...

So, with this garage sale now 2 days away, just:
- Keep giving him clear tasks
- Let him do them however he wants
- Stay out of his way!
- Hang in there!

Yawn!!! Nothing exciting to report. March & April results are:

Sales of some stuff on Half.com & Craigslist = $151.23

Interest = $23.07

Grand Total, Jan - April = $2,109.34

Perhaps I should say I THINK the results are ... Our computer had a meltdown and we had to run rescue disc and my spreadsheet was lost. I pulled numbers from what I had printed out and what I had recorded previously in this blog.

I have 4 more months to go to reach my goal of $3,000. Our garage sale is going to be in mid-May, so this should be a pretty big month; I'm hoping to get over the $2,500 mark.

OTHER NEWS:

***We chose our rental truck (Penske, 22% discount for AAA members who book on-line)***

***We decided on what to do for our farewell party. We played around with the whole range of options, from doing nothing to having a fancy catered affair for 100+ folks. We decided to host a dinner at a nice but moderately-priced restaurant, and we decided to pare the guest list down to only those who mean the very most to us. We'll invite around 40 w/ an expected turnout of around 30, and a budget of $600 (tho' we know it could go as high as $800 if everyone shows up, and we think that would be great)***

***I mailed out letters to my clients letting them know I would be closing my business.***

***I thought seriously about changing the name of this blog category from "Relocating to a lower cost part of the USA" to "Relocating to a fantastic part of the USA" because the more I learn about Austin the more excited I get about moving there! However, because we began this journey as a way to boost our finances long-term, and since this forum is about personal finance after all, I decided to keep the name the same, and I hope you Texans don't take offense!***

March pre-relocation sales were very lackluster ($72 for a few things on Craigslist and Half.com) and I am feeling too lazy to calculate interest right now, so I'll post sales results for March & April together. Selling stuff wasn't a priority this month.

I did do a huge paper purge of my business files. DH was a way for a couple weeks so it was a good time to do that. [We share one computer that is in my "office" and the inevitable mess that comes from sorting plus the shredder running is a big distraction for him, so it's better to do that while he's away.]

Also did some sorting and gathering of stuff for our big garage sale in May.

I'm also winnowing our possessions by not replacing things when they wear out or run out; instead, I'm making due with alternatives. [For example, when my long underwear got so full of holes that they no longer provided warmth, I started wearing pajama bottoms under my pants. I figure I won't need long underwear in Texas!]

The biggest thing that happened was that we took a brief detour by making an offer on a house in our area that is in pre-foreclosure. We did not get the house, but we are keeping an eye on it and if it goes to foreclosure auction we may bid on it. Even tho' we are moving ahead with our plans to relocate, we are also keeping all of our options open. If a "nest were to fall from a tree" (in other words, if we were able to get a screaming deal on a preforeclosure in our area), we would take it.