Layout:
Home > This and That

This and That

March 18th, 2018 at 06:18 pm

3 weeks of six complete on my Stepbet. It definitely is getting me moving more ... like yesterdat afte church I only had 1400 steps but needed 9400 (for a stretch day.) If it weren't for the stepbet, I *might* have gotten in a 30 minute walk and called it a day. But instead I did a 90 minute walk, plus some shopping. So ended the day with over 12k steps.

I looked into the Runbet (new app) but the current game expects a min pace of 15 min/mile 5x in a week. Yeah ... I do good to do a 17 min/mile if I'm trying to do a walk/jog ...

--
On 3rd week of Drop it challenge. That's going pretty well. The scale is continuing to move in the proper direction. Smile

---
It looks like we are going to have to up our gas budget. Currently it's at $300/month. The last two months I had to WAM from groceries because we were over budget. As of last night there is $90 left with at least 5 more fill ups for DH and possibly one for me.

I think it is a combination of DH driving the CRV almost exclusively (much easier on his knees/shoulders) and the higher gas prices.

One of the fill ups will be fairly cheap though - I transferred a prescription to HyVee and got a coupon for $2.05/gallon. I just have to make sure DH uses my Perks card to get the discount.

The next refill (prescription) I'll get a $25 gift card, and the 3rd one I get a $50 meat pkg (for DH).

A bit of a hassle, but worth it for the freebies.

----
I ordered 3 pairs of shoes from JC Penny's via SBs. A total of $106. I may have to send one pair back though - I had triple checked that all were wide width, but the order email I got shows the sneakers as a medium!

I'm not sure how that happened, but I'll try them on just in case.

(I ordered dress shoes for work, sneakers and sandals.)

---
I got my extra paycheck on Thursday. My tax changes and 457 contribution changes both were in effect already. So it made the check a bit over $100 more than normal! Of course health/dental and vision weren't deducted - so that won't be normal.

----
I cashed out $30 from my Citi card. There's nearly $40 on my Chase card I can cash out, but I'm going to wait til the next statement ends so I can cash out the max. (April only pays 5% on categories I don't use, or get higher payout elsewhere.)

I got a new Discover card (they changed my previous one to the It) - for April they only have groceries at 5% - so my AmEx card at 6% is better. So that card will continue to not be used at least for the next quarter.

I'm about 1/2 way to the $500 spend on the US Bank card. It's taking a bit of time to get my utilities all switched over to it.

I cashed out $25 from Earnhoney, and am close to another $25 SB cash out too.

---
I signed up for CBS All Access 7 day trial. 150 SBs deal. I wanted to like it, I really did. But for $5.99/mo it has extremely limited selection and a horrible navigation/UI. I did find the show Limitless with all episodes - so binged on those this past week.

I canceled it last night after watching the last episode. If they'd had full episodes of Person of Interest, or the last two seasons of CSI then I might have kept it for another month or two. But seriously limited selection of full episodes.

---
Update on my standing desk - still loving it! I use it in the standing position about 60% of the day most days. I have an anti-fatigue mat and monitor risers.

---
I have a doctor's apt this Tuesday for my shoulder. The past two weeks or so I have been having some strange pains from my left shoulder/bicep. I'm not really sure what caused it. I've been putting off going to the doctor because I kept hoping it'd go away. But it hasn't.

I'm guessing I'm going to have to do physical therapy for it.

---
I had a dentist checkup this last week. Previously I'd been told that I needed to up my dental hygiene routine. So I picked up a water pik and an electric toothbrush. Apparently what I've been doing worked! I was told I had good improvements and to keep it up.

My visit didn't cost me anything because I had a credit from a previous visit where I was overcharged.

---
At church this quarter the Sabbath School lessons are on stewardship. This week focused on debt. The person leading our class seemed to kind of assume we all were in debt ... He said something about - think about how good it will feel when you're not in debt - how much good you can do ...

Well ... I didn't feel comfortable piping up that other than the mortgage and less than $3k is student loans, I already know what that feels like!

Yes, it IS a good feeling ... but just because you don't have debt hanging over your head, that doesn't mean that you then have tons of money to do whatever you want to. No ... you then have all the things you know are coming up that you need to set money aside for - short term, mid-term and long term. It never feels as though it's enough ..

Then DH and I got into a discussion again about why it's necessary to have money sitting in our account for things like our medical deductible. I told him it's so if something happens where we need to use our whole deductible, then we can pay the bill in one lump sum and save 10% or more. It gives us options. He was like - why can't we just make payments and use that money elsewhere?

I'm not sure if he was pulling my chain or not (he likes to do that) but UGH!



6 Responses to “This and That”

  1. rob62521 Says:
    1521404565

    I hesitate to even write this, but I sometimes think some of these people who talk finance at places of worship usually want to chime in about how much more one could do if they save money. And in some cases that is true, but not always. Sometimes you have to save money in some areas and get things paid off so you can work on paying other things off. I guess that makes me sound a little unfaithful and I don't mean it like that. However, a few years ago the church I had belonged to since childhood decided that they wanted a new building. Originally the plan was to save for 5 years and then find or build one. I was OK with that. However, it was a month or so that they had found the perfect building -- a warehouse that basically wasn't being used and what a great deal it was and on and on. They then had this slick campaign on how we should plan our finances accordingly -- if we were going to retire, wait three years and give them all the extra money. Sign over our stocks and bonds. Take a second job. Do without vacations, buying anything, etc. It was quite the hard sell. They claimed that they could get over $2 million for the current church and surrounding property. Now, I'm not real estate expert, but as fond as I was of that lovely church, considering the neighborhood, and the fact our town was already struggling economically, I couldn't imagine any other church coughing up $2 million. Every week it was the hard sell of give more, give more, give more. They, in the past, were always over $100K in the red by the end of the year and one very generous member would always give them the money to make it up before the new year. But this guy said he wasn't in favor of this hurry and buy this property. So much would have to be done to even get it ready to have a sanctuary. There was still all the things from manufacturing. They still owed money to the parochial school ($1 million) for the gym they promised to help finance. I got tired of it. Personally, I feel God gives you intelligence to think through things. If he wants you to have something, He will show you the way. But I didn't feel this was the case. They bought the property anyway. They didn't sell the original building for a few years and only got $1 million so half. I left. I wanted a church that was more involved with helping our community instead of helping itself.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1521405609

    Rob,
    Yeah, I wouldn't have liked that either. My church is doing a big push now to pay off the new wing and fund remodeling of the main sanctuary. They're having "Bring Ben" to church Sabbaths (i.e. if 100 families bring $100 ...) That's fine up to a point - but the way the person is hounding people about it ... just doesn't feel right. Even if I'd been considering donating $100 towards it - the promo of it would've turned me off completely.

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1521464822

    I have not been to church for a while, I must admit, but I would totally dislike any kind of push like that. I think a donation is called a donation because the money is given voluntarily, not because someone is pressuring you.

    Do you have any tips on how to get in the habit of using a standing desk? I have one at work which I usually use seated; I tried standing a few times and found myself leaning more and more on the desk, and then sat down after less than 20 minutes.

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1521509196

    I agree PS.

    I would start off slowly. Maybe set a timer to go off once an hour and then use it in the standing position for 10 minutes (or even 5 minutes!). Do that for a few weeks til you get used to it, then increase to (10)15 minutes, etc. Concentrate on your posture because that is important (if you find yourself leaning, then sit and try again later. Leaning is a big no no posture wise.) From what I've read, you want to have a mix of standing and sitting - and even while standing, don't *just* stand - move around.

    I walk in place at my desk (with my shoes off) sometimes do knee bends, ballet feet movements ... whatever. I even sometimes use my chair to do a nice back leg stretch (roll way out behind me, and roll back) Obviously if you are in direct view constantly of others you might not want to do all that .. Smile But I have people pass through my space all the time while I'm dancing in place ... oh well if they think I'm strange. Smile It keeps me from getting AS bored and the day go faster.

  5. torrent sites Says:
    1541472473

    Interesting blog. You wrote emotionally and beatifully. I enjoy reading it.

  6. geometry dash Says:
    1546491383

    As of last night there is $90 left with at least 5 more fill ups for DH and possibly one for me.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]