Our last auction of the month ended today. We sold 5 items for a total of $108.48. Not bad at all since we did it very casually and made no serious effort at all.

I was a little disappointed with today's auction since there were 7 watchers and it ended with only 1 bid. I was hoping a few of those watchers would be competing at the end and boost the price.

Of course, I know from experience that with a little effort, we can do far better. My best month ever on ebay I took in nearly $3,000. I've been training DW how to do ebay and a couple of the sales were hers, so she's getting the hang of it. I'm sure we'll gradually ramp up the number of items we post. I'm going to set a goal of $200 in sales for April, nearly double this month. That should give us something to shoot for and still be easy to accomplish.

Well I had an expensive day, but for a good reason. My daughter will become Bat Mitzvah in Sept. 2008. We've already booked the DJ and photographer for the party that will follow the ceremony. Today, we met with the caterer we wanted to use. We know him and his staff well as they frequently cater events at our temple and we have attended many of those affairs.

We spent about an hour discussing menu options and how to structure the evening and ended up giving him a $1,000 deposit to reserve the date. Since he knows us well, he gave us a nice break. Rather than booking us at the 2008 anticipated prices, he booked us at the 2005 prices. So we will be paying $58/adult and $38/child. The bar will be another $3/head if we provide the alcohol or $18/head if he supplies it. That would bring the total to $76/head. Not bad when you consider that our wedding in 1992 was $72/head. And I know I'll get the alcohol myself and save a few hundred dollars.

Yes, we've had money put aside for this for years. I've got $25,000 earmarked for the affair though I'm hoping we don't need all of it.

Little by little, I'm trying to get back into selling on ebay. I used to sell regularly, even full time for a stretch in 2000, but I got away from it for quite a while.

I listed 2 items last week. I had 4 vintage department store credit cards that we found when cleaning out my wife's aunt's house in 1992. I knew there were folks who collected them but even I was surprised by the final price: $46.00. I was happy with that.

The other auction was for a bin full of rubber stamps that my daughter hasn't played with for years. There were a total of 79 items including stamps and several stamp pads. That sold for $24.50.

And two weeks ago, we sold a kitchen knife that we had recently replaced with a better one. That went for $7.99.

So in just 3 auctions, we brought in over $78 on stuff that was just lying around the house taking up space.

2/12 was DW's last day of work. Her last paycheck came a few days later. So we are officially a one-income household again.

I'm really not expecting it to change much on the spending side since we were investing 80% of her salary in her 403b plan (which I have to figure out what to do with). She was actually only bringing home $156/month, and some of that went into savings, too. I think we'll make that up in less gas usage, less clothing costs, more home cooking and more efficient food shopping. And having her happier and more relaxed already is well worth the lost income.

Where we'll take the hit is in our retirement accounts. She was putting $1,250/month into her 403b. No way we can replace that. Also, I may need to trim back what goes into DD's 529. It used to be $225/month but I increased it to $400/month a couple of years ago. I may drop it back a bit but I'm waiting a month or two to see how everything plays out.

Last year, our Rabbi Emeritus tried to put together a group trip to Israel. In a fit of insanity, I decided that we could go and we put down a $1,500 deposit. Fortunately for our bank account, not enough people signed up and the trip was cancelled. Also fortunate because the latest round of violence started the week we had been scheduled to go.

The Rabbi is now again talking about getting a group together. I'm hoping (and have told him so) that he will plan a more budget-minded trip this year. I think the main reason he couldn't gather enough people last year was the cost. He was doing first class accomodations all the way and the trip would have been nearly $4,000/person. Since there are 3 of us, that meant $12,000 plus expenses. I figured about $14,000 all together. Like I said, I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to that.

If he manages to trim costs and make the trip more affordable, we will give it some serious consideration. As much as I'd like to go, I have a tough time spending that kind of money on anything. We also have our daughter's Bat Mitzvah coming up next year and own 2 aging cars, so I see those costs on the horizon.

We'll have to figure it out when we see the actual price of the trip.

I started to work on my taxes today. I'm very good about putting all tax-related items in one folder in my desk drawer throughout the year. Then when tax time rolls around, all I have to do is sort through that one folder and put things together. Makes the job so much easier.

Once I have all my 1099s, I sit down and get organized. I do not do my own taxes. My father was an accountant. When he was alive, he did them for me. Since he died, my cousin, who now runs the family accounting firm my dad and uncle started, has been doing them. He does charge me, but at a considerably reduced rate. Last year, I think I paid $80. It is well worth it to me as i want to be sure it is done right and I have a professional standing behind my return.

My next step is to scan through my checkbook register and my CC statements to check for tax-related transactions. I started that earlier and will probably finish up tomorrow. Finally, I need to compile my ebay sales info. Then I'll call my cousin and set up an appointment to meet with him and give him all the data.

I'm hoping we come out about even this year. It seems that no two years are the same. Just when I think I've got it figured out so that we don't get a big refund or owe much, something changes in our financial situation. For 2006, it was my wife signing up for the 403b plan at work. Since she was putting 80% of her salary into the plan for the last 3 months of the year, that will certainly alter her taxable income. I'm hoping that balances out the $7,200 in dividends and capital gains that one of our taxable mutual funds paid this year. Time will tell where things end up. I'll report back in a few weeks after the returns are completed.

My daughter is a victim of Madison Avenue. As hard as we've tried to fight it, she keeps thinking there is something inherently wrong with store brand products. We still buy a bunch of them, but there are certain things she insists on brand name.

A few weeks ago, we were at the supermarket and she needed waffles, which she has for breakfast most mornings. I showed her the price difference between the Eggos and the store brand. She agreed to try the store brand. I told her if she didn't like them, she didn't have to get them again.

Guess what. She thought they were just fine. We only bought the small box (10) that first time to try them. When we went back the other day, we bought the bulk pack of 48 which made the unit price even cheaper. I didn't figure out exactly what that is saving, but since she eats 3 waffles a day, I know it will add up pretty quickly.

So the next time I want her to try something generic, I'll just remind her about the waffles.

I explained in my last entry that my wife would be leaving her job of 2 years and returning to SAHM status. That's official now as she spoke to the administrator yesterday and will hand in written notice today (as required by company policy).

However, that might not be the end of the story. Her job has been as secretary of our synagogue. Monday nite, she spoke with the Rabbi and let him know she would be leaving. She works closely with him doing his appointment scheduling, typing his dictation, etc., so she wanted to let him know. He has been pushing to get someone to help him part-time, maybe a couple of evenings each week, to do organizational stuff, as he is not the most organized person in the world. He said he would speak with the board about coming up with the money to hire her part-time.

Yesterday, when she spoke to the administrator, she said the same thing. Maybe my wife could stay on on a PT basis. Since our daughter attends religious school there, my wife is already in the building 2 nites a week while our daughter is in class. If they can arrange to pay her to work during those hours, and maybe one or two other times during the week, that would be perfect. Perhaps 8-10 hours/week.

It needs to be proposed to the finance committee, which will happen tomorrow. We'll see what they say.

My wife left her job in Dec. 1994 just before becoming pregnant with our daughter. She remained a SAHM for 10 years. We managed just fine on my income alone, even counting a short period of unemployment and a job change along the way (with a paycut).

Two years ago this month, she went back to work. It wasn't planned. She wasn't looking for a job, but an opportunity presented itself that she didn't want to pass up. She has never been entirely sure she wanted to work, so we tried our best not to become dependent on her income. I've put about 80% of her gross into savings each paycheck. She currently brings home $78 twice a month after the 403b contribution and taxes. We have increased spending a bit thanks to her income, and retirement planning sure got a big boost with an extra 15K/year going in, but overall we've been really good about managing that extra money.

She's finally gotten to the point where she just isn't happy at the job. When she first considered working, we agreed that if she wasn't happy, I didn't want her to feel she had to keep at it just for the money. So we talked over the weekend and she will probably be quitting in the near future.

We've talked about how we are going to have to tighten the belt a bit and go back to some more frugal habits that we have gotten away from the past couple of years. We've been eating out more, buying more convenience foods, food shopping with little regard to sales and coupons, taking nicer vacations, etc. We agree that her being happy is more important than having the extra money, so we're willing to work together to cut costs. Besides, a lot of the less frugal behavior has happened because she is working and we don't have time to do the frugal stuff, so I don't think it will be that tough to trim our spending. I'll definitely be rereading "The Tightwad Gazette" and paying closer attention to the weekly circulars and the threads onine about money-saving tips, so keep them coming.

I knew we had a good year thanks to our savings and great market performance. But I was surprised how well the final numbers turned out.

The net worth I'm referring to is strictly financial assets minus debts. It doesn't include our home's value or any other personal belongings (cars, jewelry, collectibles, etc).

Our year-end net worth for 2006 is up 48.42% over 12/31/05.

During the year, we also boosted our stock/equity fund exposure from 67.3% to 71.9% of our portfolio.

Here's hoping 2007 brings similarly good performance for all of us.