I just figured our May net worth and we FINALLY made it to over $50,000. Woo hoo!!! I can remember when I first started budgeting it was around $12,000. I feel like we're actually making some progress now.

It encourages me to see that chart taking an upward direction and strengthens my resolve to continue paying off the debt.

DS#2 graduates from high school a week from this Saturday. We are keeping it simple this year. He has refused to have a party, so that cuts expenses. We are giving him more money as a gift than we gave the 2 oldest since we won't have that expense. And to be honest, it's nice not having that pressure hanging over me with all the preparations.

We've only been invited to one other graduate's party, so that will certainly save also.

The next thing on the agenda will be for him to find a car to replace the one he totaled in April so he has transportation back and forth to college.

Right now the class is in Toronto for their senior trip. They head back to the States this evening. They had a fun agenda planned and I'm sure they've enjoyed all the experiences. They started out with a jet boat ride on the Niagara River. Then in the evening they had a dinner cruise.

Yesterday they did a mini Amazing Race through part of Toronto that ended at the Toronto Climbing Academy to enjoy some indoor rock climbing. Today they are visiting the CN Tower and going to Casa Loma.

I wish they had had senior trips like that when I was in school!

I have a question about auto insurance and haven't been able to get an answer anywhere so I thought I'd pose it on my blog and see if anyone out there knows the answer.

What is the reasoning behind a doctor refusing to see a patient that has been involved in an auto accident? DS#2's neurologist refused to see him after his auto accident in April. He is already an established patient. The only answer I got was that he doesn't see 'no-faults'. I couldn't get any further explanation out of them. Does it have to do with billing horrors, not as much compensation for them, or what?

DH has been carpooling for several years now with a friend that works at the same place as he does. Last week they added a 3rd rider so he'll only have to drive his truck every 3rd week. Well, in order to do that, he will need to take my car the week he has to drive since his truck would be a bit crowded for 3 grown men. So that means I either drive the truck or start carpooling.

The only reason I haven't been carpooling is that most everyone I know that works in the same town I work in leaves before kids go to school in the morning. I really don't want to leave the kids at home alone to get ready. I did that one year and suffered from horrible guilt the days it was storming out and they had to walk in it.

So I'm on the search for a carpooling partner that leaves around 7:30 or later in the morning. I have yet to come up with anyone and only have another week before DH drives again. I can drive the truck, but I'm not comfortable with it and would rather not.

The search continues...

I attended the personal finance symposium this week. I was really overwhelmed with all the information we were given. I had never realized how much information was out there to be used and was surprised to learn that a lot of it is free!

I came back with a tote full of material that I have yet to spend any significant amount of time to look over. I am hoping to present what I learned at our next meeting and get the librarians excited about offering personal finance classes for their patrons. I have material for ages 5-8, preteens and teenagers and adults.

The material I am most interested in is for teens. I guess that's because I have teenagers and know that they are not taught anything in school about personal finance. I met and talked with one lady that is working at getting accepted to come into the schools and teaching a 6-part course to them. She even gave me an extra copy of the teacher's manual and a student workbook so that I can go over it and implement it here in the libraries.

I am hoping that people begin to realize the importance of financial education in the coming months as finances for a lot of families get tighter and they start looking for ways to cut corners and save anywhere they can. I would like to see our public libraries ready to meet the need.

Here are some websites that are free that I learned about at the symposium. Enjoy!

My Money

Alison

NASAA This site has a game geared toward preteens,Fraud Scene Investigator.

I got an email today that the statement was available for the Discover card that we use for home improvements. I was glad to see that our $20 cash back bonus was available to redeem also. I immediately had that transferred to my ING account and designated it for gasoline.

I came home from work yesterday to find that DH had replaced our upstairs bathroom sink. The old faucet had leaked ever since we moved here. It had gotten so bad that the last year we've had to turn the water off under the sink at the shut off valve, and even then it was still running.

We had been putting this repair off until we could afford to gut the entire bathroom and replace everything. We really didn't want to have to pay almost $100 to just replace the faucet. It's the old type that is 3 separate pieces rather than just one. Well, that's not going to happen soon, so DH bought a new sink yesterday and put it on the old cabinet. Doesn't fit exactly, but it will do for a while longer.

We now are not wasting water or natural gas because of hot water just running down the drain. That should save on the water and gas bill each month. We're making progress!

I got an email yesterday from Zander Insurance saying that they needed the name, address and phone number of the doctor that ordered my kidney scan back in 2006 and the reason why I was diagnosed with renal failure. Huh??? First I've heard of that!

I sent an email back giving them the information about the doctor and explained, again, that I had the kidney scan to rule out problems with my kidneys when I was sick. I also explained, again, that the problem turned out to be a reaction to the blood pressure drug Benicar and that since I've stopped taking it and have been taking Lisinopril instead, the problem has gone away. For Pete's sake...

And no, I'm not talking about my $39.95 I pay to Weight Watchers every month. Of course, it won't be long and I won't have to do that though.

I am 4.6 pounds away from my official Weight Watchers goal weight so once I make that and maintain for 6 weeks, I'll be a lifetime member and will no longer have to pay unless I gain more than 2 pounds. Good motivation to keep that weight off.

The expense comes in the purchasing of new clothes. I had saved a lot of my old clothes when I got sick and began to gain weight, but I've pretty much blown right past those sizes and need smaller ones now.

I went shopping tonight because I have no dress pants to wear to the financial conference next week. I ended up with several shirts so that I have more than just a couple to choose from, a skirt and one pair of pants. I'm going to have to find at least one more pair before I go.

I read the article on the MSN Money site, Will Our Kids Be Dumb and Broke, today and agreed whole-heartedly with it.

We NEED to start teaching our children how to manage money. A lot of them graduate from school having no idea how to do basic personal finance tasks like write a check, balance an account, or figure out how much money they can afford to spend on a house.

You can go to the Jump$tart Coalition's website to see if your state requires any personal finance classes for students. My state has no requirements. I would really like to see that changed.

This is one reason I'm excited about the seminar I'm going to next week. We really need to start offering the public some resources on personal finance and I'd really like our public libraries to be a part of that.

DH and I have been talking about what repairs need to be made to the house this year and decided that the priorities are the new roof on the garage. He'll do that to save money and probably have DS#3 help with it. The other things that we feel need to be done are any sort of improvements that will increase the energy efficiency of this 120 year-old house.

So we're going to replace the final 4 windows that we haven't done yet, replace the faucet in the upstairs bathroom that leaks hot water continuously and finish trim around doors and windows that hasn't been done yet. We are also looking into a wood stove for the basement. We are hoping that by having a wood stove in the basement, the rest of the house will stay warmer meaning we'd go through less coal and wood pellets for the upstairs stoves. We can get a wood stove from a friend fairly cheap, and probably would be able to get free or fairly cheap wood. We'll have to check into all that.

Also, I got some grant money for school for next semester. So that means that I will be going to school half-time. Between the grant money and the CE money from my job, most of the cost of enrollment will be covered. I've started saving my weekly pocket money and survey money to help with book costs.

Today our stimulus payment was deposited into our checking account. I have it ready to be transferred to our home repair account on ING Monday. I'm transferring it there with the hope that we won't need it for repairs and that I'll be able to apply it to the mortgage instead. That's probably a pipe dream, but I'm going to hold onto it.

Still haven't heard a word about my term life insurance application. I've forgotten now when I even started this long, drawn-out process.

Still waiting to get the bill for DS#2's helicopter ride. I've heard to expect to owe about $3,000 after the insurance has paid.

DH filled up his truck today and that came to $75. Yikes! I heard Dave Ramsey say this week that these rising gas prices should not hurt your budget. Well, when you're still digging out of debt it puts a pretty good squeeze on it.

On a brighter note, my speech class is finished. I gave my last 2 speeches this week and now am just waiting for my final grade. I'm enrolled in Business Law for the fall semester and will take one more class if I am able to get financial aid. Still haven't heard if I will or not.

Tonight is DS#2's Senior Night at school. In order to graduate, they work on researching a chosen profession for their junior and senior years, ending in a presentation that they develop for the entire community.

DS wants to be a flight medic so he has chosen to set up a mock accident on school grounds and have the fire department respond. Hopefully, they will be using his wrecked SUV and one other car. DS#3 and a friend will be the victims. They will have makeup applied so that they look like they've been injured.

Once the fire department responds they will request Mercy Flight to be put in the air and, if weather cooperates, Mercy Flight will land at the school. Mercy Flight is the helicopter that flew DS#2 to the trauma center just last month, so this project is quite appropriate. Almost too much for me.

The only hitch is that the weather doesn't appear that it is going to cooperate. They're calling for thunderstorms this afternoon. He's going to be so disappointed if this can't all come together. He's worked long and hard on coordinating all of this and it really would be a great project.

But, even if Mercy Flight can't get in the air, the fire department will still be there regardless of weather. I just hope the storms will hold off for him and it can happen as he has planned it. He's already been told by his advisor that there is no way he's going to fail whatever happens.

I went to work today never dreaming that I'd spend the day planning a trip to a financial seminar! We got an email on our library listserv that the Office of Financial Education is holding their 2nd annual Common Wealth Symposium. The topics all look very interesting and I have CE money, so off I go!

I signed up for a pre-conference workshop that will cover "Right on the Money" a program that uses children's books to introduce financial concepts to children aged 5-7. It also gives parents tools to reinforce what their children have learned. I would love to get something like this started in our System's library in each community.

Another session will cover fundamentals of insurance, investments, and retirement planning.

There will be a workshop that introduces you to many of the resources available to teach personal finance. I can't wait for this one.

The last session I'll go to is to learn how to design a local financial resource kit for your community. I would love to do this for our libraries.

I think that with the uncertain financial situation the U.S. is in, that many people will suddenly become interested in personal finance as their wallets start to feel the pinch. The library is the perfect place for them to turn to get information and find resources. I want to have that information ready for them.