1. Car Insurance Discount: Geico is good! After DH finished his on-line defensive course, they instantly applied a 10% discount to our auto insurance premium. I thought they would apply a credit to our next bill (for the period already paid for), but they cut us a refund check that we already received. Those guys are fast!

2. HSA: DH went in and got his teeth cleaned, and paid using our HSA. It was the first time we have used our HSA. He said it felt good knowing he was paying with tax-free money. He also said the dentist was great. The January edition of "Austin Monthly" magazine included a "Top Dentists" ranking, so I used that to select a dentist (called several rated as top general dentists in our area, and chose the one that was taking new patients and had the most professional office staff). Someone posted in the forums about dentists being crooks, but I've almost always had great dentists --- only had one bad experience and that was with a guy who was subbing for my regular dentist. I've always relied on personal recommendations when choosing a dentist, but since we are new here I thought the magazine ranking would be a good substitute for word of mouth. The only bummer was that the new dentist doesn't offer a cash discount, but I suppose if you are a "Top Dentist" you don't have to ... or maybe offering cash discounts just isn't as common here in Austin as it was in Seattle.

3. New Account Bonus: Haven't received my $75 prepaid Visa gift card from Wachovia yet (for opening a new account), and it's been 6 weeks... They said allow 4-6 weeks. Guess who I'll be calling tomorrow? Did they think I'd forget? They don't know who they're dealing with!

(Update: Oops --- It's only been 5 weeks! My bad.)

4. Interest Rates: I have a CD maturing Friday. This is a little reminder to myself to try to not get upset when looking at renewal rates and deciding what to do with the CD funds. I already know rates are down, and I can't control the rates. I can negotiate but I can't control. I'll do the best I can and try to be thankful and proud that I have money in the bank.

5. House Hunting: Our current lease will be up in a couple months, so we are at a point where we have to decide if we want to renew the lease (and if so for how long), give notice, or go month-to-month. We went back to look at one house yesterday that we liked and was a good size & price, but ruled it out because of location (nice neighborhood, but in the middle of nowhere). It was disappointing because I had pretty high hopes for that one. Oh well. There are still two houses on our "short list," but I think both are more than we ought to spend, are too big, and will require too much ongoing expense in terms of maintenance, property taxes, etc. So, I am going to step up my efforts to find something small and affordable that DH will like.