Ooh, this has been a pretty tough week, especially where future finances are concerned. I forgot to mention on Tuesday that the friendly neighborhood Real Estate Appraiser dropped by. Our town (as well as our whole county) is in the middle of a real estate revaluation. Hasn't happened in over 10 years, so now it's time. He measured the outside of the house and looked around the inside at the # of rooms, baths, etc. and said I'll get a letter announcing the damage in a few months. A friend of mine in town who was one of the first ones to be reassessed will be paying - are you ready for this - $15,000/year in taxes! Obscene! She lives in a bigger, newer house than mine (4000 sf vs. 3000 sf, approx), but she is on a small plot of land (1/4 acre? McMansion), while I'm on an acre. I currently pay $8300 in taxes and am really sweating this out! Countywide, rates have increased about 40% during this revaluation. My only hope is that they're taking so long to get through the town that the rates won't be ready for 2006. The upside, of course, is that property values have also shot through the roof, but that's of little comfort when it's just a paper gain...we have no intention of selling anytime in the near future.

On a lesser, but more immediate scale, I read in the paper today that the gas company received approval for a 10% rate hike. Not unexpected, I guess...their costs are going up too. I'm on budget billing, and my monthly gas bill is $175. I'm also way over so far, so when they rebalance in November, I'm expecting that it will go up ~$40, not including this hike. At least I don't have oil heat anymore. We converted in 1998. At the time, I think we were paying $.89/gallon, not it's up to $2.41!!! I wish I could stop time for a while...

On a positive note, I finally mailed out the books to ebookdrop.com, for $43.85. I have a few more books lying around that I know they'll take, and about two dozen more that I need to enter and see.

Spending for Wednesday:

Gas $48.02 (SUV - close to empty)
Tolls $1.40
Breakfast $1.22
Lunch $2.95

No great shakes here...just the usual.