My only ish? The 1 week hold time on deposits.

Yeah, I can't see using them as my primary account for just that reason -- but the whole reason I like them is that the little delays it takes to process deposits or transfer money back and forth between them and my local bank makes me less likely to touch that account unless it's something I've thought through first. As I said, I'm very happy with them as a way to keep my money just slightly out of reach!

We are building an end of the bed chest so our arthritic cat can climb on the bed. When we had two that was two many things in bed - because every so often there would be a cat fight at 2am - which DH slept thru. I wouldn't want dogs on the bed, or even the couch - but I like big dogs.

DH is being productive, I am not

My plan is to get an ING account when our saving account hits the easy 3 months of savings - and then every time we hit that amount in reg saving to throw more in the ing account - with the plan to do the ladder CD thing they have. But who knows when and if this will work

My Annakitty sleeps with me, all snuggled up when it's cold, but right now when it's so hot she sleeps a way from my body but still where I can have a hand or arm next to her.

When she was young and I was in high school, I'd lie on my stomach to read and she'd curl up on my back and take a nap.

My parents always had cats that slept on the bed. Dad had two monster toms (Simon and Garfunkel) who would start off the night next to you and then in the morning I would wake up clinging to the edge and one of them would be sprawled out taking up most of the single bed.

Online banking rocks so hard. It makes it so easy to set up structures that suit your own idiosyncrasies.

For me, aside from the 401k out of each check, my mid month check feeds a certain amount into my ING account. Then when each paycheck hits, I take whatever amount was still left in my checking from the last check and slide that over into a different interest-bearing savings. I don't stress if I need to dip into that every so often, but mostly I don't, or it's not a lot of money. When that account hits a certain dollar amount, I transfer most of it into the ING savings.

Total trips to bank: 0
Total checks mailed: 0
Total fees paid: 0

For me, this is way more effective than any more normal savings method. I've learned that being flexible with myself short circuits the "but what if I need that money" panic that otherwise can stand in the way of putting anything into savings.

All of that is in flux right now with the condo purchase stuff, of course, so we'll have to see if I need to make adjustments.

Yay for online banking! I don't have a complex savings strategy, but online automatic bill-pay has made such a difference to my quality of life, and probably my credit score.

What bon said.

Oh god, yeah. No way I could have rehabbed my credit over the past five years, leaving me able to even think about doing what I am now, without online/auto bill pay.

My whole saving scheme just sort of developed organically - not sure I could have come up with something like that from the start.

Well, this may be a glimmer of hope. I walked up while my downstairs neighbor was talking to one of the new owners and overheard that they aren't looking to go condo in the near future. If that's true and it's just a monthly rent increase we're looking at, I have a much better chance at remaining in my home. And possibly becoming a pauper, but at least I'll have a place I love to come home to after a hard evening's panhandling.

Also, they're water blasting the building exteriors today. Hasta la vista, festering windowsill squirrel nest!

Brenda, the place is beautiful!

I'm home. Got all but my earrings put away (how much do I love coming HOME with a suitcase of clean laundry?! MUCH!) and have eaten and found the Devi. Sad to not be around the nephews. Played Transformers with D this morning (I've got those things whupped! Laughing in retrospect at all my brother's grad school friends who were stymied by them) and redraw the purple stickman on his forehead with a sharpie (don't ask. He's probably one of the few 4 year olds whose parents have given up the sharpie battle and draw on him themselves.) T woke up in a brilliant mood, so I got a lot of smiley happy baby time. Managed to get two long belly laughs out of him (he's just getting the hang of that now.) Love that. Then he fell asleep on me doing that painful, but adorable, pinchy hands thing. I have baby soothing powers!

Anyway, need to make tomorrow's lunch (blech) and go get my keys still.