Normally the dogs barely wake up when C leaves for class on Saturday morning. But not today. Today they are up and barky and wanting to play tug with my clothes. Foster dog Howie keeps asking to go outside. Finally, on the fourth out, the one I have to put on shoes and a sweatshirt for, he does something.

And, this all seems worse than it really is because I feel like crud. I have since Monday night, but there’s been work to be done, hard decisions to be made, and now, when I have a Saturday in front of me, where I could do chores or I could just curl up in bed after finishing my morning blogging, the dogs won’t let me be.

Yes, I’m whining. It’s my blog. I get to do that. Now on to this week’s links.

I got my tax return this week. Funancials tells us that almost 75% of Americans getting tax refunds are putting it toward debt or savings. Ours went to a combination of savings, allowance, and adoption fees.

This is also the time of year my company looks at raises. Over at Wealth Informatics, Suba gives us some tips on how to negotiate a raise, even in a tough economy.

Money Beagle has slowly been doling out his history to us in small doses. This week we got the story of the only time in his life he has been let go.

I just recently started reading Step Away from the Mall. This week, he asks us “What’s your worst money habit?” That’s easy- if I have cash, it gets spent. I got $5 last weekend. I spent $1 every day at work on junk food I didn’t need. (I’d blame the facts that it’s been a stressful week and I don’t feel well, but even if neither of those things had been true, the money would have been spent.)

Given that’s my worst money habit, I also thought I’d link to this older post from The Finance Geek (partly to nudge her into posting again) about her buyer’s remorse for an unplanned meal out.

Also this week, we got our yearly email from the power company that tells us what our commitment to pay more for our power use green energy has done for the environment. We helped prevent the release of 18,001 pounds of carbon dioxide into the environment. And the fact that we do pay extra also apparently helped create jobs. Why am I telling you this? Well, this is one easy (if not inexpensive) way for us to support sustainability. It works for us. And as Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog reminds us, in the Tenets of Sustainability, doing what works for you is always your best option.

And now, because I need a reminder of serenity, here is a picture we took near sunset from Land’s End in Wales (the western most point in England) looking out across the Atlantic.

Land's End, Wales