Last night Ne told me that a local small grocery store was officially going out of business. 
It's one that is only two and a half blocks away from me.
I stopped there after work today ... which probably wasn't a good idea because 1) I was hungry; and 2) I was feeling very stressed out about work.
The end result was I spent $25 or so on mostly junk food. Everything was 15% off, and I think they actually lowered their prices on some things. I did get a few non-junk food items like the egg salad, prunes, and Bush's vege baked beans ... but the rest was plain and simple junk food. Chocolate.
I ate one bag of chocolate tonight for supper. Real healthy, right? ugh
(NE likes to tease me about being so frugal but not making my own egg salad ... I'd have to buy mayo to make my own egg salad ... I don't use mayo for anything else, so it'd probably go bad or something before I used it to make egg salad....)
I'm tempted to go back to the store tomorrow to get more Nutella. It was $3.24 with the discount. Cheap. But I know how I am with Nutella. Maybe if I have NE keep the all but one jar at his place - he doesn't have the same problem with it.
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I redeemed a $25 AGC from PerkPoints tonight. I should have it by Friday.
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In my mail I received two offers from Discover.
The first offer was $50 for putting $5000 in a new checking account for about two or three weeks. I'm thinking of doing that. I just have to make sure I can do it without touching the money in the dream account - withdrawing money from that would make me lose the bonus APR at 6 months for no withdrawals.
The second offer was to get $75 if I spend $1000 in 3 months.
I'm thinking I *might* be able to do that. It would mean putting my SBs card away and maybe switching some bills over for a few months. It might be worth it. I think Sam's Club takes Discover, so then I wouldn't have to use my Debit card which I don't like doing since it doesn't earn me any points.
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One bit of good news at work today. I got my retirement benefits information!
The account is with Ameritas and has quite a few Vanguard funds to choose from, along with Fidelity and Morningstar, etc. I already figured out my allocations. Now I just have to get two people to witness my signing the beneficiary information page. (Harder than it sounds. My boss would do it I bet, and NE would do it ... but they'll not likely be in the same place at the same time anytime soon. So .. I've got to figure out a second person.)
I also found out that I get 71,000 of life insurance for $.42/month. The city pays the rest. I will be cancelling my current term insurance. That will save me 15.68/month.
There is also something for post employment health benefits where the city contributes so much a month. I get to elect how I want that money invested. That was fun playing around with percentages. 
I also found out that the whole Early Retirement / Regular Retirement stuff was just terminology. No real meaning behind it. So if I'm ready to retire at 55 there'd be no additional benefit to working nine more years to make the 63/25 years of service level. I'd be 100% vested and that's all that really matters.
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Cripes! It's 12:20 a.m. I must get to bed if I'm going to be at all coherrent today.
Didn't Resist Temptation ...
January 15th, 2015 at 06:21 am
January 15th, 2015 at 07:03 am 1421305436
January 15th, 2015 at 08:55 am 1421312107
Mayonnaise has a long shelf life and many uses vegetable fritters, coleslaw, cucumber salad, Avocado LT sandwich, devilled eggs, dips like cheese, Ranch, Artichoke, tartar sauce. Remarkably good for non edibles since it cleans wood, hair treatment, facial, cuticle treatment, soothes sunburn, removes sticky labels, sticky doors, shines plant leaves all come to mind.
I hope you'll give cancelling current life insurance a second thought; check if employer life insurance can be carried forward if you leave this employment. If you were to apply for coverage 10 yrs in the future it would be at a higher premium for example.
January 15th, 2015 at 10:51 am 1421319102
January 15th, 2015 at 12:52 pm 1421326320
Snafu - I don't really have too many easy options anymore since I've been trying to make myself actually *make* something for supper rather than just microwave or snack. So ... the bag of chocolate had a lot more appeal than waiting for a sweet potato to bake, etc.
I can take the life insurance with me when I leave, otherwise I wouldn't be considering cancelling my current policy.
January 15th, 2015 at 01:06 pm 1421327162
January 15th, 2015 at 02:58 pm 1421333928
January 15th, 2015 at 03:07 pm 1421334464
I really think you should make your own egg salad. It's so easy! You can buy a small jar of mayonnaise and it lasts practically forever in the fridge. As Snafu says, there are lots of other things to do with mayo, too. I can't imagine that commercially-made egg salad is very good.
January 15th, 2015 at 09:00 pm 1421355644
Then you could make your egg salad without worrying about wasting mayo.
January 15th, 2015 at 11:45 pm 1421365511
Thanks Thriftorama and CB .. the reason why I decided to try to limit myself to purchasing chocolate 1x a month was partly because chocolate was again becoming a large portion of my dinners .. I was doing well til this week.
I get the deli made egg salad, so not commercially made. But LR I will definitely check out that 1 cup recipe! That may just be perfect!