Can anyone here advise me on a furnace maintenance plan for my mother's furnace? She has a gas furnace that was just installed in the last year or two. Her fuel company added the charge for the plan on her bill (she's mad about that) and I'm not sure if this is something we should get for her. I know nothing about this stuff and I'm hoping someone here might!! Is this a good deal and is it recommended to have something like this in place? Any insight welcome!

It includes:
- periodic burner tuneup, system inspection, and cleaning of the heating system as needed.
- adjustments are made as needed, to ensure your maxium econonomy and environmental protection.
- tuneups are performed during normal business hrs M - F.
- all parts will be replaced as necessary at the previling rates.
- 24 hr emergency burner service is provided at no labor charge.
- $18 monthly $180 yrly

I just sent her $150 to help towards the property taxes and this is very much an unexpected expense. At least going forward I should have a better understanding of what's going on at her house.

Thank you!

Went over my mom's budget again since she got paid friday. She's in "OK" shape I would say. I did have to send her $150.00 towards the $325.00 property taxes. No choice here as there was a $40 late fee plus high interest rate if it was late. She would like to start putting money into a separate account for the property taxes, but she's just not at that point yet. She doesn't know that I already started an account and there is 50.09 (yay interest!) accumlated so far. No harm done for me at this point since I can always dump that money back into my main account if she manages to find the money before the next payment is due this summer. Well, after all is said and done, she has just over 20.00 to get by until 12/14. Gonna be tough with Christmas coming and her known spending habits. She did buy some groceries and gas up her car. She was conscious of staying below the $80.00 I had budgeted between the two expenses. Keeping my fingers crossed here! If she can make it, and also not run out of fuel to heat the house, then she can make a payment to the heating company for another delivery next check. We're just not sure when she will run out.

We went to Mystic Aquarium yesterday using some free passes I received this summer. I don't think I would pay full price to get in there, but well worth it for free! It just cost us the gas to get there plus $4.12 we spent at BK for lunch. My husband was like a little kid around the penguins!! I could have stared at the fish, especially the cichlid display, for hours. I'm a cichlid junkie and he has quite the soft spot for penguins. They are quite cute!



The aquarium gave me a good chance to try out my new camera. It takes GREAT videos! Pics are ok, but it's really tough to take pictures of fish in tanks. I've mastered it at home, but I think people would have looked at me funny if I had been laying on the floor to take pics. That's really the only way I've found it to work.

In other finacial news, we're really looking forward to the new year so we can "renegotiate" our allowances. Neither of us feels it's enough to do what we want to do. There will be more wiggle room next year since we'll be saving so much on our health insurance premiums.

Hmmmm.... I also got my boss to agree to pay me for my days I was unable to use this year! I also have to work on Dec. 22 and 29 (office closed the 24th and 31st) since I can't afford to lose Monday and Tuesday of my weeks. To make up for this, boss will pay me for hours worked (I'm salaried so this is extra) plus one day pay plus one extra day off next year. Not a bad deal since I'll only have to work maybe half a day. Sure beats coming in those Mondays. Too bad DH has to work on the 24th - until 6 pm.
And we have a party to be at 2 hours away! He'll never make it. I'll already be up in NH and he'll be commuting from there.

Enough from me for now!!