DH has been using miad for the past 6 nonths or so since his 6th used laptop from eBay in 2 years died... So today he comes into the office and tells me iPad is dead - won't charge, or turn on. I test this out too. reaching the same conclusion.

I call the Apple store in O town and find out the next appointment isn't till Friday at least. The person did tell me about some local places - but didn't know their schedules.

Just on Sunday I worked through a joint budget. I'd put $200 in computer replacement category. Knowing how both DH and I like to be on the computer, I didn't relish the thought of however long it would take for an appointment to even find out if this is fixable or not.

So ... I told DH - let's get you a Chromebook. We'd looked into them before, but had put off getting one. We bought him a 15" Chromebook at Walmart for $179 plus a $40 2 year warranty. Normally I wouldn't go for that ... but DH is tough on computers.

---
I added an offer to my Aexpress card to spend $75 at chewy.com and get back $25. Then I went to chewy and ordered 160 lbs of cat litter and 48 lbs of cat food. The total came to $102.

I then added "autoship" for 16 weeks from now to get $15 off. Which brought me to $87. Once I have the $25 credit, my order will cost a measly $62. This will also add rewards dollars to my account - I ave 14 sitting in Limbo until I reach 25 and can cash out.

---
DH took me to see Finding Dory on Thursday. Loved the movie, but loved even more that DH took me to a movie he didn't really want to see in the theater.

We were hit with sticker shock though ... unwittingly we chose seats when asked what we wanted. I thought I heard the guy say that'd be $25.50 but was sure I was hearing things. I wasn't. Apparently we chose premium seats. Shows how long its been since we've been to a movie ... yikes!

---
I spent some time today cleaning the hardwood flooring and living room carpet. Most of what needed cleaning was dried cat upchuck. I'd been dreading it and putting it off ... but when it came to it, the swiffer type mop and floor cleaning spray left by the former homeowner, made it pretty easy (relatively). Hopefully DH will notice when he gets home tomorrow ... I need to get some more of that spray stuff!

--
I'm in charge of the food drive at work this year. I set up three fundraisers, as well as putting out the barrels. A guessing jar, a team challenge to "feed the pig" and selling casual day tickets. To say its not going well would be an understatement.

Oh well. I tried.

---
Did I mention that the dog is gone? For almost a week now. His owner paid us the $300 he'd said he would, and said he'd reimburse us for the $150 in meds. Waiting.

That first day I walked in and was only greeted by cats ... heaven.

---
Ok, I'm going to get a walk in before heading to bed. Hopefully I won't run into any fireworks.

We had our house inspection this afternoon! R, our inspector was pretty awesome I think. He had spent a couple hours going through the house before we got there checking everything out. Then with us there, he took us through everything and pointed out a huge variety of things.

He told us that overall, the house is in very good shape. The main concern is the 23 yo water heater .. There was SO much information ... but he's going to be writing a 17 page report with the same info so we can refer back to it when we need to.

We told C, our agent ... Go ahead! None of the issues raised by R are anything we can't easily do ourselves (well, with a little help from youtube ...)

One thing we found out was that the couple selling the house have just had their 70th!! wedding anniversary! The husband is turning 95 soon. We were SO off - we thought they were maybe mid to late 70s at most.

They also are the original owners - they designed the home themselves - back in 1952. The husband custom made the cabinets (he's way into woodworking.)

I didn't get any photos today - just way too much to take in to also take photos. But I will take some soon!

---
One thing R told us was about the flooring used in the kitchen/formal dining room/hallways - it's a wood vaneer? He basically said that you don't want to let it get wet, as it can ruin it quickly.

So ... um ... with all our cats, and possibly dogs in the future .. some with possible "issues" of the liquid variety .. We won't always be home to catch "issues" right away. So .. there's gotta be something we can put on it to protect it? Right?

--
So, our next hurdle is the appraisal. Then of course getting the stocks sold for the downpayment. (The T stock has been so UP and DOWN - wish I'd sold it on Wednesday!)

--
Just two weeks from now, and my brother/grandma/aunt will be here from California!

I still have SO much to do. I stopped at Dollar Tree and SuperSaver to get some napkins/plates/cups/plasticware for the rehearsal dinner/reception. I couldn't find the plates I wanted, so I might have to go to Party City for them.

I was going to stop at this new store FreshT for some great produce deals, but I hadn't eaten since lunch and was getting a sinus headache. Maybe I'll go there on Sunday after meeting with the photographer.

---
I finally made it to 100k points in the Achievemint app again. Sadly though, after I redeemed my points for my $100 gift card, I was told that I'd reached the max reward limit. So, I guess they only let you get 2 $100 awards.

This was a slow way to accumulate extra funds, but it was relatively simple and painless. So I'm sad to not have it as a tiny bit of extra motivation.

---
I probably should try to do my thank you notes tonight so I can hand most of them out at church tomorrow. Save on postage you know. That probably won't happen though, plus it might be kind of rude ... I don't know.

---
Question about homeowner's insurance and liability -- let's say we had a boat and it was within our fenced in yard. Some yahoos decide to climb our fence and get in the boat and goof off and end up getting hurt. Would we be liable? If so, would it be homeowner's insurance or liability for boat insurance that would cover it?

Mr FT and I were having a discussion about this today (as we were discussing where to check at for homeowner's insurance.) BTW - Anyone use Farm Bureau Insurance? R told us about it, and that they have only one deductible for whatever you have insured with them. (house, car, boat ..)

I wrote a long entry, and then forgot to copy it ..

Oh well.

Jist of it -

*Been very busy helping Mr FT with a huge project this week. Still lots to do, and not lots of time to do it in ..

*Signed the mortgage paperwork with J on Thursday. Inspections are scheduled for the 8th, and the appraisal will be after that.

*Debating on the timing of selling electric car stock (begins with T) and withdrawing from ROTH. The market has been SO topsy turvy. Especially the T stock.

*Aunt and Uncle (who paid for wedding dress) got their first T car - a the X one. Uber excited. My brother will get to drive it - lucky duck. (I could too, just would mean a California trip.)

(The above Uncle is the one who got my dads whole side of the family to invest in the T stock when it was still under $30.)

* Bridal shower is tomorrow! I'm not sure what to expect, since there is another bridal shower at the same time at the church! I wasn't expecting to even have one, so whatever happens, will be great!

*I've been coming up with many ideas/ways to spend money regarding the new house. Almost as bad as Mr FT with his landscaping/animals ideas. Good thing I have a strong penchant for keeping a strong EF! But will give ourselves a little bit of money to play with in setting up house.

*Finally had a Groupon deal come out for a mani/pedi. There seemed to be a dearth of them for awhile. Maybe because of it being winter? Anyway, I got a deal for 3 gel mani/pedis at a local beauty school for $43. Not too shabby I think. (One will be for wedding.)

*Got my interest for the Brink's account! 3 months worth at 5% - $57.68! I'm glad I decided to wait patiently and see if it would actually pay out 5%!

- Will now probably fund the Netspend card I opened a while ago, but got discouraged about actually using due to not having interest the first month show up. Will only put $40 on it to get the $20 bonus though. Later may put more on there.

* I started the Culinary PX program. I haven't gotten very far with it due to Mr FTs big project, but what I have seen so far, I like a lot. I think it's going to be well worth the $50.

So yesterday (Thursday) I went home from work early due to feeling majorly "crummy." I ended up sleeping for at least 5 hours before Mr FT came over. I wasn't the greatest company for him, but he was understanding.

This morning I still wasn't feeling all that great ... so decided to stay home again. I had a doctor's appointment already to get some bloodwork done (recheck TSH) so called and had an appointment added to see the doctor.

I slept most of the morning after getting the appointment made, and would have slept more, but got calls from the Realtor and from Mr FT.

---- We may have found a house that works for us. Two possible ones actually. One is $52k and the other is $120k. The 52k one doesn't have a basement, but it does have a HUGE garage/storage shed. Mr FT thinks we could partition off part of it, insulate it, and make it part of his "man cave" instead of using a basement. Hey, if it works, and we get into a house for $52k ... I'm all for it!

The $52k house was built in 1880! About the same time the town was started. Yep, you're reading that right. Both of the houses we are looking at are NOT in L town. Both houses would mean a commute of about 35-40 minutes.

Yuck I know. Especially in winter.

But ... both houses come with LOTS of land. 1 acre for one, and 1/2 an acre for the other.

We're going to go actually look at both of them on Sunday.

---
I got a weird text from my boss today. She was asking me if I was unhappy at work. I texted back that I wasn't, with a couple of question marks, but no response.

My first thought was that maybe the CC I applied to back in January? didn't respect my request to NOT contact current employer. But it seems like its been a long time for that to happen...

The other thought was that she was thinking I wasn't really sick this week, and just taking time off because I don't want to be at work. In case that's the case, I got a note from the doctor. (felt kind of like a little kid doing it ... but, whatever.)

The third thought I had was that little miss busy body had taken my little off hand joke on Thursday morning as literal, and gone to my boss about it. One of our copiers has a bad part. The technician was in another town, and so talked me through resetting the code over the phone. One of my co-workers (who is invited to the wedding) jokingly told me that now I can add copier repair to my resume. I found that funny ... and without thinking, when talking to busy body co-worker, repeated that.

If it's the first issue - then that's going to be a headache to clear up. And is going to make me quite upset at the CC.

If it's either of the other two issues, then I think those will be easy enough to clear up.

Oy vey!

---
Mr FT has asked me to go with him on Wednesday to get his suit / tux picked out. Whew!

April 24 is getting closer and closer ....

Tuesday I have my makeup trial. Hopefully she can work miracles with undereye bags ... and make my eyes actually look open when I smile (I squint when I smile big - when I concentrate on NOT squinting, my smile looks all weird.)

---
I cashed out for $9 from Pinecone, and $5 from Bing.

Yesterday (Monday) I still wasn't feeling well, and so decided to take the day off from work.

I spent a few hours in the morning working in Turbo Tax after calling Nationwide to find out why I hadn't gotten a 1099 for the $200 bonus. It turns out that they counted it similarly to a credit card bonus! Wish all the other banks had done that!

In the end, I ended up owing $357 Fed, and getting a $33 refund from the state. I paid $23 to TurboTax for efiling and keeping an archive.

I made sure I got the email confirmations telling me that not only had my returns been received, but they had also been accepted!

I think maybe the step we missed with NE was inputting the confirmation number for the payment.

---
After that, I did the online defensive driving class. It was supposed to only take four hours, but I kept falling asleep .... so about five hours later I finally finished it.

I ended up going to bed about 9 p.m.

--
We're about 2/3rds of the way through our spending on the Citi card. Thanks to taxes and the driving course .... that's about $500 right there.

---
I received the $9 from Pinecone and the $25 PayPal from Swagbucks today.

---
I have my dress at home (hidden behind the bedroom door - couldn't hang it in my closet because the rod was too close to the ground.) The alterator told me to try it on again two weeks before the wedding to make sure it still fits - if it needs anything, just let her know.

Mr FT hasn't even gone to look for his suit/tux yet. I'm trying to not nag him about it. But ... 47 days .... and he's not a small guy in any shape or form.

The ladies making my bouquet had taken it all apart when I got there - it's a mom/grandma team. They told me they're excited to do mine because it's different from what they've done before (using snapdragons as the main focus.) I love the colors they found, and think it's going to be gorgeous.

Mr FT asked me if using fake flowers is normal ... well, if it isn't, I don't really care. It's what I'm doing (plus, I can keep my bouquet forever without having to have it "preserved" or whatever if I want to - or resell it!)

Is it weird that no one has bought anything off the registries yet? The bridal shower is about three weeks from now ... And only one person has paid for their room at the b&b. I've had four RSVP's, and two of those are from a co-worker and her husband.

Um .... April 24 is coming up real quick. (I asked for RSVPs by the 15th. I *know* most of the people I invited ARE coming with or without the RSVP, but still ...)

---
Last week at our pre-marital counseling session we were talking about some of our favorite dates. Mr FT mentioned the restaurant we'd gone to for my birthday this past year. The pastor had never heard of it, but was really intrigued. He emailed me this weekend to ask me the name of it (he'd mentioned it to his wife, but couldn't remember its name.) So I emailed him the name, as well as a code to get a $25 gift certificate for $4.25 from restaurants.com.

I'd actually been thinking of getting a certificate for the pastor and his wife as a thank you for our PMC sessions - although it looks like they may be going before I can do that.

I wasn't feeling very well yesterday, so after going to the church to do my duty of collecting the Sabbath School money (this is my month to do it) I came back home.

Somehow I came across a mention of the site cooksmarts.com. It is a meal planning site (as low as $6/month) but it also is a site with TONS of resources for learning how to cook.

I think I must have spent four or five hours on that site. I ended up adding some things to my registry too.

I think I may sign up for it, but I'm going to wait until either we move into a house, or they offer a discount price. As I went through their FB feed, I saw they've offered discounts multiple times in the past at various times.

What I like most about it is that I can customize the meal plan for both Mr FT and I's food preferences, and have one handy grocery shopping list. (They have original, gluten free, paleo and vegetarian options for each of the 4 days of meal plans.)

I may end up getting Plan to Eat later on too, though that will have to wait til their Black Friday sale in November.

--
House hunting ... sigh. There just isn't anything in our price range that Mr FT and I can agree on .. except the FSBO house we looked at a few weeks ago. We both want to keep looking, but we also are worried that if we wait too long, that house will be gone.

If I was willing to go up another $20k in my price point, there've been several good possibilities. To do that though would mean needing to sell stock to get the loan value low enough so our monthly expenses wouldn't make it so we had nothing left to do anything else. I don't want to do that - especially since that stock has been going up the last week or so (back above where I sold some a while ago.) Plus, both of those houses in the $20k extra range seem way too big just for two people and a lot of cats.

Both my mom and my grandma think it's weird that we won't be living together right away after getting married. Well .. neither of our places is big enough to handle both of us AND the cats. Which is why we need a house. Maybe unconventional, but we get to write the rules for ourselves, right?

--
I have a possibly final dress fitting today at 1, then am going to go look at my bouquet to see if I like their design, and then go to a Women's Ministry meeting.

Then of course Mr FT will be coming over later.

I'd kind of like to cancel on all of it except Mr FT because all I really want to do right now is keep a heating pad on my back and do nothing. But, you do what you have to do, right?

---
I had two Pinecone surveys this weekend. So once they credit, I'll be able to cash out $9.

I also cashed out 2200SBs for a $25 AGC, and will be cashing out for a $25 PayPal today.

---
I helped Mr FT with his taxes last year. He had filed an extension, and then in September we used TaxAct to file them. We went through all the steps and even paid what he owed to the Feds. He was due a refund from NE. He got confirmation of the Fed payment.

He still hadn't received his refund or a tax bill from the Feds (fees and penalities for extension) so last week he logged in to TaxAct and was informed that his taxes had never been filed!

He went to his bank and got a printout of his bank statements from last year. It shows that he paid the Federal taxes AND that he paid TaxAct. So I do NOT get how his taxes were not filed!

In all my years of doing my taxes online, I've never had any issues. Of course the first time I convince him to do his online, this happens. Ugh!

I spent about five or six hours last week getting this figured out - contacting customer service; ordering the "archived" copy of his forms from last year, printing two copies out (one for him to mail in, and one for the mortgage process), etc.

Hopefully this isn't going to cause any issues for him. (Other than extra penalties and fees, although I don't think it should be too much for $495 in taxes.)

TaxAct's customer service is a joke. They make it nearly impossible to figure out how to actually send a question in, and then you get back essentially a form letter.

Oh well. I have no idea how to prove that we did complete the necessary steps to file. So mailing them in and hoping for the best is all we've got I guess. I just wish I'd been more cognizant of the fact that he'd ONLY received confirmation of his federal income payment.

Ugh!

I'm glad I took Saturday "off" - ended up sleeping a good portion of it (partially because my Internet went on the fritz, so sleep sounded good.)

I did go to Walmart Saturday night and picked up $40 in groceries and a gift for Mr FT. I have about $15 left in groceries for the month, but that should be fine as long as I stick to just the bare basics. No Trader Joe's for me this month though.

--
Sunday was a long and busy day. I started out by getting to S's house at 10 a.m. to help make the food for the Valentine's Ladies Tea. Another lady showed up to help also thankfully. Between the three of us, we were able to get out the door by 1:15 p.m. One of the things I did was make egg salad sandwiches, cut the crusts off, then cut in 1/3rds. Enough for 60 people.

Then we raced over to the place where the Tea was being held. Raced around getting things set up and adding a few last minute appetizers.

The tea itself took about two hours. Afterwards I helped clean up (and got to take home leftovers!)

I got home about 5 p.m.

About 6:10 Mr FT showed up with this:

He had a box of breadsticks thrown in for free because they'd forgotten to print our ticket, and so our order was late.

After we finished eating, we worked on the home loan application. Submitted about 9 p.m. Yikes!!!

Mr FT left about midnight.

Long day. Soo glad for today being off.

--
I've got a spaghetti squash, butternut squash and 7 sweet potatoes in the oven right now. Later I'm going to cook up a big pot of quinoa and veggies (broccoli and carrots.) Using up stuff in my fridge before it goes bad - plus lots of pre prepared lunches/dinners for the next few weeks.

I'm going to be making my new invitations today. Hope to get them out in the mail tomorrow.

Later today I am meeting with the potential photographer.

Oh, almost forgot! I found someone to do the video for $35!! DVD and highlights!
---
Cashed out PerkTV for a $25 Amazon Gift Card (should be here Wednesday.)

I will probably need to get some more gas today.

---
Mr FT and I are continuing budget negotiations. Figuring out just how we're going to merge our finances and make a budget work for two different styles (more regimented and more go with the flow.) We're figuring it out.

Cars and "toys" are going to be our own responsibility. (Toys = boat, large screen tv for Mr FT; home gym equipment for me.) Cable is in discussion ... (I have no use for it, but Mr FT misses it a lot (football) and doesn't buy that I won't ever watch something with it.)

Today I went for my first fitting. The person had quoted me $75 for doing the bustle, taking in the top part and possibly adding some invisible straps. After looking at what would be involved for the hem, she quoted another $100. I decided to go for it - she's going to have to take an entire section of lace off the bottom, and then reattach it. So, yeah. A lot of work and time.

I'd bought a corset off Amazon to wear underneath the dress, but after trying it on with the dress today, I don't think I'm going to use it. It goes up too high and would possibly show. The dress fits fine without it.

The shoes I got have really low heels. And they aren't exactly white ... but since they're open toed, hopefully won't matter too much. Not that many people are going to see my feet!

--
I've borrowed a bunch of books on communication from the library. One is called "Crucial Conversations" - I'm liking it so far.

---
I got my Citi Premier Thank You card today. Yowsa! Can one say overpackaging or what? Thankfully it came before my car insurance 6 month premium was charged to another card - so, that's $233 out of $3k out of the way.

---
I got some laundry and housecleaning done on Sunday - badly needed.

---
Tomorrow I meet with the first of two caterers. The lady doing my alterations told me that the people in her office go eat at this place for lunch all the time and absolutely love their food. That was good to hear.

Wednesday I need to stop by the bakery again - Mr FT told me he does NOT like buttercream frosting, but wants the "normal" frosting for cakes. When I called the bakery, the person told me that buttercream IS the usual frosting. She suggested I come by and pickup a cupcake for him to try.

---
I just have to say that I am glad I sold the stock shares I did when I did. That $203 price point would be down to less than $150 now .... Ouch.

---
Another thing I did on Sunday - I finally did something with the Quorn cutlets. I put all of them in a baking dish, covered them with a can of tomato soup and some spices/herbs, and a can of sweet peas. Baked at 350 for 25 minutes. Turned out to be passably good. I'm using them for dinners this week.

---
I got my $25 PayPal from Swagbucks today, plus a $3 payment from MobiSave (bought Allegra D on Sunday.)

MobiSave has quite a bit of rebates on produce this week - they are pretty much an instant payment via Paypal.

---
When I picked up my wedding shoes on Sunday at Sears, I also bought a new purse (desperately needed.) It was too funny though - the name brand is LS (my name, Mr FTs name.) It was $23 (40% off sale.) Mr FT actually noticed I had a new purse when we went out to eat.

My treat - $17.39 Noodles & Company.

Well, as of Thursday we have our marriage license, and we also completed our first pre-marital counseling session.

This afternoon I finally got a couple returns mailed off to Amazon.

I am seriously exhausted. I'd like to take a week off from wedding planning .. but have appointments Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week - all dealing with wedding planning.

I know it's my fault for having set it up like this. I guess I'm hoping that by having the majority of it taken care of early on, that I'll then be able to relax a bit for awhile before the wedding.

--
I'm beginning to reconsider having a video of the wedding.

Question: How many of you had a video made? How often have you actually looked at it?

Another question: Did any of you play the shoe game at your reception, or perhaps seen it played? What did you think of it?

---
I've done pretty well with spending so far this month. Other than wedding related spending, bills and groceries, not much else has been spent.

Of course, it still is just the 5th.

---
I had a bloodwork appointment this morning. A few days ago in the mail I got new insurance cards with my married name on them. I thought that was weird, but was reassured that it didn't mean anything (by personnel benefits person.)

Today though I found out that my name has been changed in the system for the provider as well. What should have been a 3 minute in and out trip, took nearly ten while they figured out what to do.

I just hope it doesn't cause issues in getting things paid! (I have been reassured that this does NOT mean that I'm going to start getting charged couple premiums.)

---
Do any of you have any good books/resources for someone who has a tendency to clam up/clench up/not be able to get words out when upset or talking about something difficult? That's me.

At the PMC session we got our "scores." Both of us scored low for self-esteem. I was higher in assertiveness (not all that surprising, at least in dealing with public situations or customer service people ...) Overall it said we were a "vital" couple. (Next to best rating I guess.)

I was seriously interested in the personality profile assessments though. One of the most accurate ones I think I've ever seen - for both of us. Kari's asleep on my lap right now, so I can't get it, but I think it's called SCORE or something like that.

Edit -- Nope, its called PREPARE-ENRICH.

---
Another question: What did you do for your guest book?

What I'm thinking about is either having guests take a picture of themselves and then writing a note with advice or memories. Then pasting them in a scrapbook. We could add other stuff in there too. --This would mean I'd need to find a Polaroid camera ...

Or I could ask people to bring one - three photos of themselves with either of us & them, plus a note.

---
Cashed out for a $25 PayPal today from Swagbucks and a $5 AGC from Bing.

Got a $.90 rebate from MobiSave from my shopping trip today.

When I was working as a school librarian in New Mexico, I was part of a program called Americorps. As part of that program you get an education award for each year of service. I earned two awards.

I used about 30% of it for a certificate program, but have had no use for the rest of it.

With marrying Mr FT, my plan was to transfer the award to him so he could pay off his student loans.

I'm almost POSITIVE I read that the only qualification was it had to be an immediate family member.

But ... tonight I was doing a little more research into it to refresh my memory. Unless I was reading something way different, I really messed up.

Apparently you can only transfer it to a child or grandchild AND only then if you were 55+ years old when entering into Americorps service.

If this is truly the case, then we won't be able to pay off his student loans in one fell swoop. So .. I guess that means that we really have no reason to wait to actually buy a house til after we're married. (I figured it would take a few months for the award to be transferred, and then pay off the loans.)

What a colossal waste of money. The award money will expire in 5 years (7 years from end of service.) I have absolutely no desire to go back to school for anything.

Ugh and Double Ugh!

--
We sure got some snow here this morning! There was nothing by 2 a.m., and then when I looked again at 4, there was at least 4 inches. By noon, there had been at least 10!

I got stuck trying to get out of my parking lot and couldn't find my shovel. So I improvised and used ... a mop! Then when I came home tonight, I had to make 3 attempts to get up the little hill into the parking lot!

I kept track today of how many calls I took asking about if the buses were running. Over 100 total, but 45 of them were in the first hour! Other people were also taking similar calls.

It didn't help that Omaha shut down their bus system. I think that got a lot of people here panicked that we were going to do so as well. How nice would a snow day be ... (did you notice how well I slept last night? Yeah.)

---
I may have misunderstood the Brink's PrePaid deal. I have an email in to customer service to clarify, but from what I can gather, it pays interest 1 x per quarter, not monthly. Which is why I didn't have any interest show up for this month. The .50% is for amounts over $5k, so it still should be 5% for the first $5k.

Waiting now for clarification.

---
I received my $25 AGC from SBs today. Pretty fast since I only ordered it yesterday!

The first time I talked to Mr Ft about getting a picture of us in a photobooth was back in 2004. Yep. The very first time around for us.

Finally, today, it happened. Just took getting engaged to do so!

So .. here is a sort of engagement photo. (I was trying to get my ring in the photo, but it cut that part off.)

--
When we got back to my place, Mr FT and I started talking budget and finances in preparations for talking to the mortgage originator on Wednesday. We've agreed that whatever assets/liabilities we each have as of April 23rd, those will still be ours to deal with/use. From April 24 forward, we will combine whatever we bring in.

I emailed him the link to my YNAB budget program where I had put together two sample possible budgets based on varying levels of contribution from each of us. He's going to look them over and see what he thinks.

We also discussed how we're going to fund the downpayment. I'm going to pull $10k from my ROTH (which I've had since 2007, and in a sense had really thought of using the money for something like this.) Then together we'll come up with another $10k + whatever we need for closing costs.

It was a very good conversation. The only thing we need to figure out is groceries. I average around $130 - 50 / month. He averages more around $200-30 per month. I could only come up with $225 for groceries ... Hopefully we can figure out how to trim groceries for both of us (like maybe I'll do less stocking up? Only buy for the week ahead? Meal plan? Although that'd be difficult with a vegetarian and a carnivore ...)

---
I picked up my dress today! Tomorrow I'll have to start calling the alterations people and get that going.

Before going to get my dress, I stopped at Party City and picked up DIY invitations for $10. Also a garter (something blue), and paper lace placemats/doilies for the reception.

I also stopped at my beloved Dollar Tree - frozen fruit and cheap veggie food!

I stopped at CVS too - the lady at the register recognized me (she buys a bus pass from me!) But she told me that I looked so much nicer out in public! LOL Probably because I was wearing makeup and had my hair down/fixed - don't wear makeup to work usually, and always have my hair back so it doesn't get tangled in my earpiece. I bought Flonase and Nascort - both of which had rebates (MobiSave and SavingStar.)

Finally I did a bit of grocery shopping at Walmart. Some of it was eligible for rebates.

I'm counting some of my grocery spending for February - I would have waited on most of it til next week if t hadn't been for me being in that part of town already for picking up my dress. (I had to wait til 1pm when the store opened.)

---
It looks like I not only have my centerpieces taken care of, but I also have teacups! The women's ministries leader texted me a picture of 24 teacup mugs she got at Goodwill this morning. Beautiful!

---
Some weather reports are predicting 1 - 3 inches Monday/Tuesday. Some are reporting anywhere from 8 - 16 inches, but 40mph winds. Would it be really awful of me to call in sick on Tuesday? (Won't do it, but am tempted!)

---
Cashed out $20 from iBotta.
Cashed out $5.75 from MobiSave
Will eventually cash out $8.75 from Saving Star when my purchase processes.

I adjusted my withholding to 3 this year since I was having 7% of my gross taken off the top to my retirement plan. I guess I overdid it a bit ...

After inputting my W2 and interest income, it looks like I owe $364 Federal, and will get a $31 state refund.

I still need my W2 from my parking garage job, but I only made a few hundred dollars with that, so I don't think it should affect it too much.

---
I got my invitation, etc. order from Vista print today. Oops. Major oops. I read it over and over and over before hitting order. Still, I missed something big. Like ... the date. Not on the invite at all. Luckily I have plenty of time to get it redone, plus I think I'd like to use a different picture (the one we're getting done on Sunday.)

Sigh. At least it wasn't 150 invitations, right?

---
I checked into the catering place C told me about - $2000 min. on a Sunday. Next!

--
Tomorrow I'm going to be picking up my dress, and also stopping at the rentals place.

I haven't heard back from the bakery - although the lady may have told me the person didn't get back til tomorrow.

--
Cashed out for $10 from PACT last night.

This morning I posted on a local facebook group asking for recommendations for a photographer and person to do hair/makeup. I must have posted at a perfect time, because I got a lot of responses! Good thing too, because my post was deleted! I'd even said in my post that if it wasn't allowed, please tell me where to post.

Oh well, I still got lots of good leads. In fact ... I may have a lead on a photographer who will do the ceremony/formals/reception for $500! This includes 100 edited/retouched images on a disc with full reprint rights.

I've contacted this person to see if they're available on my day or not. It also looks like they might have a symbiotic relationship with a hair/makeup person - who'd do it for $70.

That'd be awesome if it could work for that much!

---
The roads were nearly clear by after work today, so I headed out to the bakery where Mr FT's mom loved their white cake so much. (Well, it's a new location actually - the one she went to closes at 1 p.m.) The lady who was there took my information and what I wanted and is going to pass it on to the person who does the cakes. At least I've got that started!

--
I called one hair place here this afternoon, but they aren't open on Sundays.

I couldn't for the life of me remember who I was going to call during my break today. It finally hit me - the rental place! (chairs/tables etc.) I made a reminder on my phone for me tomorrow.

--
I scheduled our first pre-marital counseling session for next Thursday. Also today I filled out a bunch of paperwork to add Mr FT to my insurance plans and change beneficiaries.

It was SO weird!!!! Writing LAM instead of LAN. After writing my LN signature, I stopped and wrote the new signature a dozen times on another piece of paper. To try to fix muscle memory. (I was using my new name because the paperwork/change won't be in effect til after 4/24 but it has to be turned in at least a month prior.)

--
I was doing some research on recessional songs, and came across some really amazing songs.

You and I by John Legend
You and I by Michael Bubble (same name, different song)
From This Moment On by Shania Twain
First Day of my Life by Bright Eyes
Don't Stop Believing (Journey) Vitamin String Quartet

And I also remembered one of my favorites -
We've Only Just Begun - Carpenters

How to choose? How to choose?

I've unsuccessfully been trying to find samples of ceremonies - like how many songs/special musics, readings, etc.

Other than my brother singing, all our music will be iPhone via nice speakers. I need to figure out who to be in charge of making sure the music plays at the right time ...

--
I got a call that my dress was ready to be picked up. Maybe I can go by on Friday and pick it up. Then start the process of finding the person to do alterations. And finding shoes and underthings to hold me together in it.

--
I now have my W2 and the healthcare form thing, plus about half of my bank interest forms. So I could get started on my taxes ... Maybe on Sunday.

--
I cashed out for $6 from Pinecone, and it came today.

I think I am going to have to drop back from posting a photo a day. I've got a few too many other things on my mind now. I will still post a picture when I find something that easily works though. Just not every day.

---
So Mr. FT and I have discussed finances before, and we both have agreed about the idea of joint finances.

Once we are married, I'll be able to add him to my health insurance plan and he can drop the Obamacare plan. (Am really curious about how this will affect taxes /subsidies. I *think* even with our combined incomes, he'd still qualify for the subsidy since it'd be based off of 2 people instead of one.???) That will save a few dollars in monthly premium - but more importantly, the OOP and other co-pays will be much less than his current plan.

What I'm a little unsure of about how to handle though is the inherited stock from my dad. About 1/3rd of it I moved into a ROTH IRA account about two years ago. So that's not touchable. But the rest is in a regular brokerage account. If we're really truly combining finances, then this should be part of it. But I think I might be a little bit on the touchy side about using it anytime soon. (Especially since we seem to be in a season of stocks where NOT selling is a good idea.)

Would it be unreasonable of me to say that I am okay with considering this a part of our joint finances, but with the caveat that it won't be touched for at least ten years, or in a case of desperate need. (As in we both lost our jobs and have run through every other resource.)

The complicating thing is that he's still waiting on his small inheritance check. So to be fair, I'd have to say that he could use it however he felt best, right? Even if that meant he used it to buy a boat instead of paying off medical debt or towards the wedding/house downpayment.

--
As far as the wedding goes ... I sincerely doubt that his sister is going to offer to help pay for anything that the groom's side traditionally pays for - even if/when she gets her inheritance money.

My aunt has offered to pay for my dream dress, and my mom has offered to pitch in some money too.

Other than that, it's him and I who will be footing the bills.

So ... since we haven't combined finances yet, do we divide the expenses by the traditional groom's family / brides family - where he cover's the grooms side and I cover the brides side? Or, would it be better to come up with a figure, and each of us contribute 1/2? Subtracting the cost of the dress and my mom's contribution.

I found a local photographer who has posted prices of less than $1k. I contacted him to see what he would charge for a Sunday morning wedding and a total of maybe 3 hours between the before ceremony, ceremony and reception. (We won't have dancing/drinking, so it's a much shorter shindig.)

I spent way too many hours on knot.com yesterday. Yowsa. I'm thinking I'll put together a wedding website - but want to get Mr. FTs opinion on the background first. (It's free on the knot.)

If I can make myself go outside today, I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble and use my gift card I got for Christmas to buy a wedding planner book. Glad I didn't spend it on something else!

I asked my mom to take charge of figuring out hotel accommodations for out of town guests and also to get me the addresses I need to send people invites (whether or not they're ones that would really show up.)

---
Engagement parties aren't really necessary are they?

I think I've decided to not have a bridal party -i.e. MOH, BM etc. We'll have few enough people in the audience as it is. I'll probably ask my mom to help me with getting ready/finishing touches.

---
I told some people at church yesterday. Mainly the people in my Sabbath School class. They were pretty happy for me.

I was going to talk to R about what would be involved in using the church, but she was pretty preoccupied with getting potluck ready.

---
It is SO cold outside. The wind doesn't help matters.

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I really want to invite my boss. Mr. FT is okay with it. But ... how do I do that without inviting other people from the office? Just tell her not to mention that she's invited?

Our tagline for guests is family and mutual friends. But my boss wouldn't work as a mutual friend - Mr. FT hasn't met her.

---
I was feeling really bored with my food choices last night. Ended up making a toasted cheese sandwich which was okay.

I just have to remind myself that staying out of the grocery store / fast food places is helping my budget AND my waistline. It's worth it, even if I really want a Cheese Frenchie from Amigo's or a burrito from Taco Bell ...

This morning I made my oatmeal/greek yogurt/banana pancakes and tried adding some chocolate syrup to them. Yeah, no. (The ones I did that to, burned a bit.)
---
If you were registering for pots/pans, other kitchen/household stuff, what would you register for?

One thing I think I'll put on there is an InstaPot. Maybe really good kitchen knives? My dishes I've had since 1997, so maybe replace those? I don't want China or silver. Wouldn't have a use for them.

Would it be rude to put a paypal link on your registry page for gift donations towards a house downpayment fund? I saw that suggested in an article on the knot.

--
I cashed out for a $25 AGC from PerkTv today. I really need to get my extra phone set up to earn the points faster. It's been sitting in my closet for a couple months now ... (a cheap $10 phone.)
---
Sorry for the all over the place post. I have lots of stuff running through my head right now.

--
Okay, I'm going to catch up on everyone's journals, then force myself out the door to the store.

--
ETA - Just thought of a question. Do you have your engagement /wedding ring(s) insured through renter's insurance or homeowner's? I've never had an expensive piece of jewelry, and knowing how hard I'm on watches ...

Also ... the ring went ON my finger fine. And I can turn it around with no problem. But I can't get it off. Should I have sized up 1/2 a step? Or wait and see if I will keep on losing weight?

So today wasn't the best day at work. One situation in particular really made me need the OH WELL!

I wasn't doing very well with the Oh Well ... when up from dispatch came the wallet of a local university student who had lost it on a bus earlier that day. He'd called me and sounded nice enough.

So when I opened his wallet, I saw this:

Okay, not exactly this. I couldn't exactly take a picture of his photo id. But what he'd done was to draw in a very oversized mustache on his face. It just looked so funny, I couldn't help but laugh.

I showed it to someone else, and they thought it was pretty funny too.

So, thanks MB for providing me with a good, needed laugh today.

---
I decided to set a stop loss of $203 on the stock I'm planning on using for part of a downpayment. That way I can be sure to have at least the minimum I want from the stock. This way I also don't have to watch it like a hawk ...

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Several of the SBs apps have not been running well for a couple of weeks which has been quite aggravating. Tonight I decided to try deleting and reinstalling ... Voila! It worked!

I got my $25 PayPal from SBs today. Yay!

Can definitely tell on PACT that the New Year's Resolutioner's are going strong. After 3 weeks of nearly $4 rewards, this week I got $2.12 At least the veggies are nearly instantaneously being approved. (Have to have $10 to cash out.)

Tonight I was in the cooking mood for whatever reason. I made a corn casserole, a big pot of quinoa, and am still working on roasting the butternut squash.

It's amazing I have any energy right now, seeing as though I woke up about 3:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep ...

---
Work was so so today. Pretty busy at times, and had a meeting to discuss how we handle getting out route detour information to the public, as well as an issue related to the big route changes coming in August.

--
Speaking of work ...

Remember quite a while ago I mentioned that there was a librarian position open at the local community college? I kind of bailed out on actually applying for it - just couldn't do it to my boss.

Well ... the person they hired for that job didn't work out. The position is available again. Taking applications til the 18th.

A part of me is wondering if this is God nudging me to where I need to go. I didn't listen the first time, so He's giving me a second chance.

The job description DOES state clearly that they want someone with at least 1 year of *college* level library experience. If that is truly a big factor, then I won't have a chance anyway.

But I'll never know if I don't try. I am going to try. Gulp.

As much as I love my boss, I don't know if I can really take 15 years of giving directions over the phone ... and dealing with some of the people I deal with on a daily basis.

---
So ... on to the other topic. What am I talking about? 5% interest? Unheard of!

Well this is something I saw I the MMM forums a few weeks ago and decided to test it out for myself. I wanted to see how easy it would be.

Here's what I did - I signed up for a Brink's Mastercard PrePaid Card. Once I got it, I activated it and started the process of adding it as an external account to my checking account. Then I had to verify the transactions.

Next, I set up a money transfer from checking to my card. That went through today.

Finally, I moved the money from the card and set up a savings account.

The savings account pays 5% interest up to $5,000. If you ever want to get money back into your checking, all you have to do is move the money back onto the card, and then do an ETF/ACH transfer.

To avoid the inactivity fee, I also set up a recurring transfer of $2 to my card from checking once a month.

That's it. All there is to it.

A more detailed guide: http://thefinancebuff.com/netspend-5-percent-savings-account.html

Now, I also earned an extra $20 right up front - by using a referral code. That person (from the MMM forum) also received $20 after I funded $40+ on my card.

This is a great way to put away up to $15k per person (see detailed link) that you are saving for an EF or a house downpayment, etc.

If you are interested, and would also like to help me out My referral link is: http://www.brinksprepaidmastercard.com/prepaid-debit-card/applyNow.m?ctxName=b_raf&uref=3469171546

Mango is another card which pays 6%, but requires a lot more work. This card (Brink's) is paying you $270 (in a year) for less than an hour's work.

If you have read many of my blogs, especially when I have just hit up Target .... you have read of my favorite find of 2015. Amy's Chinese Noodles w/Cashew Sauce.

I lucked upon 2 containers of it on a recent Walmart trip, and today enjoyed the second one.



----
I'm continuing to do pretty well with my Mini-Goal of spending 15 minutes+ a day doing something to improve my environment. So far, I'd say I'm at about a 90% success rate.

I also have played around a lot more in the New YNAB app, and am more and more leaning towards migrating 100% to it. It will be even better once they get reports, etc. added, but right now it's pretty fantastic I think.

I cashed out for a $25 AGC from Swagbucks last night - one of the ones on sale for 2200SBs. I'll probably be able to cash out for the $25 PayPal card by the end of this week, if not sooner. (CC rewards, Monthly bonus, Shop&Earn etc.) Not a bad start to the year.

I can't remember if I mentioned this already or not, but I was able to cash out $10 from PACT very recently. It was pretty funny in a way - two weeks in a row of close to $5 payouts - guess a lot of people weren't keeping their PACTs. Bad for them, good for me. (I'm saving all the cashouts from PACT and eventually from Achievemint to purchase the Fitbit that has GPS - can't recall it's name. That way I won't have to use the GPS on my phone - save data!)

Am now just goofing off a bit on the net while I wait for NE to come over. He's supposed to have my Christmas gift with him - should've arrived Saturday. Here's hoping!

After all the hoopla about the 6 - 10 inches and big gusty winds ... Yeah, we maybe got 4 inches? I will say though, it is cold!

--
I cashed out for another AGC from PerkTv last night - about five minutes before NE came over. So, that adds $25 to my 2015 extra money total.

--
I somehow managed (I think) to not go into the next data bucket on Ting this month. Which means I had $9 to put in my Remote Starter fund in January.

This is a good thing because ...

I'm probably going to have to WAM from that December category to put into groceries.

I tried to talk NE into just using what we already have on hand (other than for the Martinelli's sparkling juice) for NYE dinner. He was really set on doing the homemade pizza. Sigh.

So I'll be getting a Chef Boyardee kit, cheese, and a Martinelli's. He's picking up the hamburger for himself. (We'll split the cost.) I already have mushrooms and pineapple.

---
My mini-goal 1 update =
So far, so good! My place was pretty picked up today, so there wasn't much cleaning/picking up to do. So ...I spent about 20 minutes working on my to shred pile. There's still probably about 3 days worth of 20 minute sessions left to go.

---
At work today I didn't have a book with me and was desperately bored. So ... I decided to try to see if I could possibly get the Kindle app on my computer without having to download/install. It worked! So now I won't be quite so obvious about reading a book ...

---
I'm in two Bounts challenges this week. One is the 50k steps by Friday, and the other is walk/run a 5k by Friday.

I've got about 17k steps so far, and am hoping that Friday will be decent weather wise so I can go for a 3 mile walk in the local park. That would be a cool 100 bonus points between the two challenges.

---
It is SO cold in my bedroom/office. If I was planning on staying here another year (in this apartment) I'd invest in some weatherstripping or something. I put a towel at the bottom of the door (one that leads outside) but am not sure what to do about the windows. I think that's where most of the cold is coming from.

I can mostly cover up, but my hands are what bug me the most. I think I had fingerless gloves somewhere ...

After all the hoopla about the 6 - 10 inches and big gusty winds ... Yeah, we maybe got 4 inches? I will say though, it is cold!

--
I cashed out for another AGC from PerkTv last night - about five minutes before NE came over. So, that adds $25 to my 2015 extra money total.

--
I somehow managed (I think) to not go into the next data bucket on Ting this month. Which means I had $9 to put in my Remote Starter fund in January.

This is a good thing because ...

I'm probably going to have to WAM from that December category to put into groceries.

I tried to talk NE into just using what we already have on hand (other than for the Martinelli's sparkling juice) for NYE dinner. He was really set on doing the homemade pizza. Sigh.

So I'll be getting a Chef Boyardee kit, cheese, and a Martinelli's. He's picking up the hamburger for himself. (We'll split the cost.) I already have mushrooms and pineapple.

---
My mini-goal 1 update =
So far, so good! My place was pretty picked up today, so there wasn't much cleaning/picking up to do. So ...I spent about 20 minutes working on my to shred pile. There's still probably about 3 days worth of 20 minute sessions left to go.

---
At work today I didn't have a book with me and was desperately bored. So ... I decided to try to see if I could possibly get the Kindle app on my computer without having to download/install. It worked! So now I won't be quite so obvious about reading a book ...

---
I'm in two Bounts challenges this week. One is the 50k steps by Friday, and the other is walk/run a 5k by Friday.

I've got about 17k steps so far, and am hoping that Friday will be decent weather wise so I can go for a 3 mile walk in the local park. That would be a cool 100 bonus points between the two challenges.

---
It is SO cold in my bedroom/office. If I was planning on staying here another year (in this apartment) I'd invest in some weatherstripping or something. I put a towel at the bottom of the door (one that leads outside) but am not sure what to do about the windows. I think that's where most of the cold is coming from.

I can mostly cover up, but my hands are what bug me the most. I think I had fingerless gloves somewhere ...

I know it's not quite to the end of 2015, but I don't think I'll be getting any more snowflakes this month. I'm not sure if I got everything possible - I kept changing how I recorded things, so I may have missed a few things.

Here are the main sources of extra income this year:

Achievemint - $100
Bing - $105 (including a $5 cashout in by next week)
Checking Bonuses - 300.00
AmEx bonus - $250.00
DataXCoup - $14.90
Discover Card bonus +some cash back - 83..90
Interest - $104.39
Ebay / cash sales -171.02
iBotta - 47.25
MobiSave - 19.60
Pact - 130.00
Perk - 150 (I think there was more - but can't verify)
Pinecone - $102
parking lot job - $137.13
SavingStar - $5.16
Class Action - $29.23
Bounts - $10
Walmart Savings Catcher - 5.18
YouGov - 100
Swagbucks - $720
ReceiptHog - $10
Walgreen's Balance Rewards - ~$70
MyPoints - $50

$2714.86

When they say that every little bit adds up, it does! I actually hadn't realized that I'd made so much with Swagbucks this year. Wow.

I'm thinking of doing a fresh budget in YNAB to clean up some of the payees / categories for 2016 - so hopefully I can also make it easier on myself to track extra income.

---
I also was looking at my networth from January til now. It had some amazing highs (namely when one particular stock was nearing $300 ....) but overall has grown roughly $16k.

Thursday when I got home from work I was SO hungry and SO cold ... but I knew we were going to be eating out, so I didn't want to spoil my appetite.

So .. I bumped the heat way up (it was COLD) and did about 20 minutes or so of cleaning/picking up. Then I started getting ready - actually putting on makeup! and actually fixing! my hair .. :big grin:

My manicure from when I was out in CA was still good on my left hand, but several of the right hand fingers were looking pretty sad. So ... I spent about 25 minutes taking the polish off. Then, just as I was finishing the second coat of polish, NE called saying he was on his way over! Uh ...

So he came over and I finished getting ready. Then before we left I used a coupon code that had come in my email from Restaurants.com to get a $25 gift certificate for $4.25. *Still have not heard back from customer service about my missing $200 credit!*

The fancy restaurant we went to is a repurposed home built in the late 1890s. The restaurant itself has been in business around 22 years. It is really beautiful inside the home. I kind of wanted to explore it, but thought that might be a little unclassy ...

A few minutes after we were seated, our waiter came by to get our orders. As soon as I mentioned that I was vegetarian, he went and got the chef! to come talk to me. The chef (who turned out to be the waiter's dad) sat and talked with us for at least 6 or 7 minutes. I think he was a bit flummoxed when I told him I didn't like spicy foods... When I told him that I do eat eggs, he was like "Oh, a fake vegetarian." LOL! (It was especially funny because NE teases me almost along the same lines.)

A little while later our entrees were brought out. OH MY WORD! The dish the chef created was this HUGE mound of spinach linguine with lots of veggies. I mean HUGE. I ate as much as I could last night, had some for lunch today, some for dinner tonight, and have enough probably for dinner tomorrow too! It wasn't the best tasting dish I've ever had, but it was pretty good.

The cool factor was mainly though that the chef came by personally to figure out what to make for me.

I wish we could have had someone along to take a picture of us outside of the place - very nice backdrop. Oh well..

---
So far so good with my mini goals. I've been getting in a lot of practice with Oh Well at work. I also have been making sure to get some cleaning/picking up in each of the past 3 days.

---
I cashed out for $12 from Pinecone today (thanks CCF and LibLady for alerting me about the $3 status!)

---
I think my afghan came from my aunt today - but I had to arrange delivery to a closer pickup spot for tomorrow. (Otherwise I'd probably never get it - since they like to come at 9 or 10 a.m. on weekdays ...)

Speaking of deliveries - I'm still waiting on the package from my mom - with birthday and Christmas gifts. She mailed them a week ago Saturday - I'm the only person who hasn't received their package yet.

It could possibly be in my mailbox right now ... but of course my mailbox key isn't working again! I stopped by the PO to mail my mom's package (I know, procrastinate much ...) and went to the window to ask about who I needed to talk to. I was told that it was my property managers job to take care of it.

So ... I made the dreaded call and spoke to PMs wife She said she'd have him take a look tomorrow. (Hopefully NOT a look in my apartment ... much better, but still needs work.)

I really do not like the cluster mailbox thing where you have to have a key to get your mail ... (Key was working just fine on Wednesday. But on Thursday neither I nor NE could get it open.)

---
My boss and I were talking yesterday and were discussing the person who retired from my position. I mentioned to her how I've had several people bemoan the fact that I don't decorate for all the holidays/dress up for Halloween, etc. She told me she was GLAD I don't do that. What was really funny though was that about 15 minutes after she left, one of the main bemoaners came by to buy a pass!

I'd also said something to her about how it seemed like finally after nearly 1 1/2 years that people have accepted that I'm a stickler for following policy (previous person *wasn't*) Then ... today I have not one, but TWO different people challenge me on the policy. Oh brother!

(For low income passes the only requirement is to show a photo id - plus only can purchase one pass per person per month - this gives a %55 discount from the regular fare pass. The policy used to be much more involved - people had to sign a log with name/address. Then before that they had to prove their income with bank statements/tax returns, etc. So it's NOTHING now - just a photo id!)

--
So anyway, I'm glad for the weekend.

On Sunday NE and I will probably do some shopping for our Christmas dinner / Rum cakes. He wants to do 4 this year. 1 for his sister, 1 for his friend, 1 for us, and 1 for a mutual friend.

Thankfully we have plenty of rum left from last year (that was the most expensive thing we bought last year!) He's probably going to come over here early on Christmas Eve to make the first two - since I won't get home til at least 4:45, and the CE concert starts at 6, then we'll be doing C lights looking.

We're doing tater tot casserole (vegetarian) for Christmas Dinner. I know, not exactly traditional, but he really doesn't want to do a vegge dinner roast or tofurkey. So ... we compromised.

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I need to update my sidebar - maybe tomorrow.

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I finally managed to get a doctor's appointment set up for the end of January. It took two days of calling during my breaks and leaving voicemails. But it's set up now. One of the things I'm hoping to do is have the doctor write me a prescription for Allegra D and Flonase so that I can use my FSA money for them. I'd much rather use pre-tax money for that stuff than post-tax .. or maybe pay for it with my regular card, then get reimbursed - so, pre-tax plus cashback.

Anyway, it's past 10, so I should be signing off here. (In preparation for that mini-goal ...)

So ... I had lots of ideas and plans for year 39. Those plans and ideas worked about as well as most New Year's resolutions.

Nevertheless, a new decade of life means maybe plans and ideas and goals can be a bit better off than just another set of resolutions. We'll see I guess.

Financially I did okay. As of now I have quite a few LTP (long term planning) funds fully funded and have started on the Car and House funds.

Health/weight wise ... um ... If I remember what I started at last December ... Well ... I pretty much maintained I guess. I pretty much haven't been to the gym in at least 3 months (although I have been exercising - just not at the gym.)

Friendship wise ... While I still don't have anyone here I "hang out" with outside of church activities, I am a little more involved. Maybe eventually that will lead to something. Someday.

Relationship wise .... Mostly good, with some frustrations that rear themselves at times overly much. But that generally tends to happen when I'm way overtired.

Job wise - Most days/most of the time it's ok. I have a great boss, and a couple co-workers I also like. The co-workers who were causing drama before have pretty much completely laid off. So ... it's tolerable.

It's definitely helping being able to take time off now and then to get away. Like today - I took off to have a long weekend as my birthday present to myself. Although I might have taken today off anyway because Sunday I did something to my back, plus feeling miserable cold/allergies. (My back is feeling better tonight, as are my cold/allergies.)

--
Yesterday NE and I went to the local urgent care place because NE had a finger infection. (Most likely from him biting off a hang nail ... When I asked him if he was going to stop doing that - Why? 1st problem in 49 years? - Ohhhhkaaayyy.)

While we were waiting for his prescription to get filled, we went over to SuperTarget. I had $2 coupons for cat litter (Scoop Away 25lb) plus the Savings Catcher had 25% off it. I unfortunately forgot my Red Card though - asked at the front desk and was told to bring my receipt the next time and they'd make an adjustment.

Of course ... I wasn't used to having NE along on a shopping trip, so I also spaced using the coupons (but not the savings catcher!)

I went back to Target today and was able to get both the 5% adjustment and the $4 in coupons! (I also bought a 3rd box with a coupon. Kari is SET for litter for a long time!)

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While I was out today I also stopped at Walmart - mainly to pick up a few iBotta items - definitely things I'll use, but didn't need right now. I also was really wanting to find a Terry's Chocolate Orange .... no luck. Stopped at a few other places too. All sold out.

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I cashed out for $20 from iBotta today, and also for $25 PayPal from Swagbucks.

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I got a postcard from my doctor letting me know that I need to schedule a baseline mammogram .... Oh the joys of my new decade. I was going to do it today, but then realized that I don't know what my bosses schedule is like ... so need to get that info first.

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My aunt (who Thrifty Ray has met) has really gotten into knitting since retiring. While I was in CA over Thanksgiving she made me slippers, and had me pick out the yarn for an afghan. She texted me today to let me know that it was finished! I might have it here by Friday. So cool! (Or should I say, so warm!)

Now that we can post pics again, I'll post a picture of it when I get it.

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If I'm on the upward mend of this cold on top of allergies thing, then hopefully within the next few days I'll have the energy to get my apartment back into shape. I'd really hate for the property manager to come in right now ... (not dirty, just really, really cluttered/messy)

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Oh! I almost forgot. I logged in to restaurant . com today to buy the gift certificate for the fancy place NE and I will be going to on Thursday night. Only to find out that my $200 credit seemed to have completely disappeared!! I checked on Living Social to make sure they hadn't reversed the offer I'd purchased or something ...

I wrote customer service and got a form reply telling me how to redeem an offer. Ugh! I replied ... nothing back yet.

SO VEry Aggravating. (I bought a $200 r.com gift certificate for $35 from Living Social. I hadn't used any of it yet!)

Well it seems like I have developed a cold on top of my allergies. Ugh. So having Allegra D (24 hr) and Flonase in my system daily, and STILL sneezing, sniffling and coughing ... not much else to do but tough it out.

I've been incredibly tired and having a hard time getting myself to do anything I don't absolutely have to do. So ... the robe that I was asked to mend near the end of November ... which was needed by today ... guess when I actually started on it? This morning about 5 a.m. I finished it about 8:30 a.m. (Reattaching braiding on edges in places the cloth had pulled away, and sewing armholes together to a less huge gap.)

I took it with me to church today and gave it to the lady in charge of costumes (it's for a drive through Nativity tonight.)

Church was awesome - it was the spoken/musical Christmas story week. I think this year's story was based on a TransSiberian Orchestra musical? (One of the songs was Music Box Blues, the rest were normal Christmas sonts - i.e. Silent Night, etc.) I wish I'd been a little more with it/not so sleepy - but still very much enjoyed it.

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I did not go to the Friday night concert. I realized by Wednesday that I just would NOT be up to it -plus I had that darn robe to do! Part of it also was that I didn't have any money set aside in a concert category - my fun money had pretty much been spent between the Groupon pizza deal and the Living Social Restaurant.com deal. I need to make a separate category for concerts which is NOT to be whacked from for other things. Even if I just put a few dollars in it each month ...

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I was looking on Amazon for a purse (mine is getting really shabby.) While on there I looked at my gift card balance. Ouch! I've been buying ebooks $.99 and $1.99 here and there ... and it's really cut into my balance! So ... back to my old rule of only "buying" the freebies!

I did find a purse that I think will work, but I'm going to wait until I have something else to order with it - free shipping. (The purse is $14)

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Year 40 is quickly approaching. (Like ... Tuesday quickly. Yikes.) I'm thinking about some changes I'd like to make. Some health wise, some financial, one other possible major change ...

I found a house which would be so perfect ... $55k! Has a one-car garage, enclosed front porch, backyard, fence, basement (990 sq ft, 2 br, 1.5 bath)... If there's one out there now, then maybe in August when I can seriously start looking, there's bound to be another one - maybe even more perfect.

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I got my $25 Walmart card from SBs on Friday. So ... I printed it out and went shopping. I had been thinking of getting an Ampore Pedicure device (had a $5 coupon plus a $5 rebate) but just couldn't do $20+ after coupon/rebate. Especially when I found something similar for $10.

After coupons I spent $44.xx total. Minus the giftcard, it was about $19.xx. I got $4.75 in rebates from iBotta, $.60 rebate from MobiSave, $.20 from Snap, $.25 from Checkout 51, and $1 from SavingStar. (None of which I've actually cashed out on yet though.)

I'm $.30 away from cashout on iBotta. I would have been over the cashout limit, but didn't realize one of the items required 2 purchases. Ugh.

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I cashed out for another $25 AGC from Perk today. Will get that on Monday.

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I did some more messing with my YNAB budget this weekend. I realized that my health insurance OOP is $2000, but through my FSA I have about $800. So ... I reduced that category to $1200 and spread the $800 into other categories.

I also eliminated another LTP category, which added $65 into the budget.

What this all means is that I'll now focus my LTP savings on 3 goals - House Downpayment, Car Replacement, and the Remote Starter.

Speaking of the Remote Starter - On Groupon there was a deal to get it done for $170 in O town. Less than half of the price I was quoted here. Unfortunately, there was only $23 in that category. Maybe that deal will come around again when I have the money ready for it.

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Oh! If you remember me talking about the vegge hot pockets I made last Sunday? Well I had a good amount of veggie filling leftover.

Finally on Thursday night I managed to do something with the leftovers! I added a couple eggs, some more flavorings, and a box of Jiffy cornbread mix. Then I formed "patties" and baked them for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

They are YUMMY! Even NE liked them (he wasn't too sure about my adding the Jiffy mix to the batter - but turns out it worked out just right!)

I really need to get the remaining hot pockets and patties frozen though ...

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I almost forgot a funny from my grocery shopping ... two of the rebates were for loose carrots. It didn't specify a quantity. So ... I bought ONE loose bulk carrot. It cost $.10. 1 rebate was for $.50, and the other was for $.20. So ... I made $.60 profit.

I obviously did not stick with the moratorium on purchasing junk food/fast food this month. However, I did much better than previous months. So ... there is that.

Some of the spending comes from budgeted money / reimbursed funds. For example, I treated myself and my aunt/grandma to manis/pedis and to a meal out.

I also made the decision this month to make my larger "savings" category more granular. I had nearly the $10k goal amount I set for my EF - but decided to reduce it and spread it amoungst smaller/more specific categories. Some of the money in LTP is new, most is not.

I forgot my password for iBotta, otherwise I'd have another $10 in my extra funds (which would go into the Remote Starter fund.)

I did buy several Christmas gifts, but they were all covered with AGC money. I still have over half of what I started with left too.

Spending
Tithe - 10%
Charitable - 30
Rent - 430
Gym - 41.73
Groceries - 124.65
Phone - 25.80
Internet - 85.07
Natural Gas - 22.36
Electricity - 32.68
Fuel - 15.58
Medical - 12.86
Kari - 22 (license renewal, new scooper)
Beauty - 106
Car Care - 229.65 (transmission flush, wipers, rotation, etc.)
Household - 22.49
Vacation - 75
Treats - 28.17
Restaurants - 61.49

Extra Income
Walmart: Savings Catcher - $5.18
Perk AGC - $25
MobiSave - $13.75
Bing AGC - $10
Swagbucks AGC - $25
Swagbucks PP - $25
Pact - $10
Pinecone - $15
SavingStar - $5.16
Interest - $26.xx

Long Term Planning
01 Income Replacement (expenses only) - Funded
02 House Downpayment - +40
03 Car Replacemennt - +25
04 Car Deductible - Funded
05 Health Ins OOP - Funded
06 Vet Emergency - +611.70
07 Travel Emergency +611.70
08 Future - +$50
09 Remote Starter +9.89
10 New Computer +65
11 New Phone +65

P.S. Thanks everyone for your comments yesterday/today.

PPS - Work was pretty good today.

We had our first real snow last night/today! It was so beautiful this morning when I finally made myself get out of bed and going.

I wasn't sure I wanted to go out driving in it however .. so settled in for a relaxing morning. One thing I ended up doing was signing up for a 3 month Spotify trial for $.99 on Swagbucks - 300 SBs. I gotta say .. I like it so far. Not enough to justify $10/month after the trial, but I do like it.

Early this afternoon the snow started melting ... so I made myself get out and do some errands.

First thing I did was deposit the money my aunt gave me for my airplane ticket. (cash) Then I went to a credit union I'd opened an account at when I first moved here and closed out my accounts - $37.

That $37 wasn't accounted for in my budget (in fact, I thought I only had $35.) So I decided I'd let myself play with the money a bit.

That sent me to Walmart. The first thing I did was take a sample video cassette of each type to the photo counter. I found out it would cost $25 for each 2 hour length DVD -- plus I wouldn't be able to do any editing before hand.

I got the name of two other places in town where I might be able to both watch/edit beforehand AND transfer to DVD. If memory serves me correctly, the videos are going to need a LOT of editing ...

My first priority really are the slides though. The cost at Walmart for 40 slides/DVD was about $25. Ouch. I'd be roughly guessing here, but I think I have at least 3 or 4000 slides. And I only took the ones starting in 1977 - the year my parents got married (I was 2 yrs old.) I don't plan on using ALL the slides, but even if I culled 10% ... this may be a multi-year project. Multi-year Christmas gifts ...

I bought about $20 worth of groceries, etc. at Walmart (3 of which work for iBotta rebates.) It won't come out of my grocery budget though, since it was unbudgeted money.

I had about $13 left. Then I stopped at the library to return some overdue books. I walked out with about $2. Darn you library fines!

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Question ... how would you react?

Every week I do NE's and I's laundry. He only has a few pieces of clothing he wears all week. So I add in my own stuff to make a full load. He provides the quarters. I provide the detergent and labor.

Last night after he collected his clothes from where I'd left them, he made a remark about our socks being mixed together. I was a bit miffed, and told him all it took was 2 seconds for him to pick out his own socks. He replied something about "should do laundry right." I told him he was more than welcome to do his own laundry if he thought I wasn't doing it right.

He thinks I was making too big of a deal of it. Notice - no where in there was any thanks for doing my laundry, etc.

To me, I don't mind doing the laundry. What irks me to high heaven is being told I'm not "doing it right" - especially when coupled with no expression of appreciation for my doing it in the first place. (He thinks he shouldn't have to tell me thanks since he's providing the quarters and I'm doing my laundry at the same time. Notice - he didn't do his laundry while I was gone - even though he had a key to the laundry room here and could've used my soap ...)

Anyway .. just curious about how other's might react in this situation.

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So not excited about going back to work tomorrow. At least I have several holidays to look forward to this month.

Two weeks left of Year 39. Yikes!

I got back to NE mid-afternoon on Friday. Been mostly resting and relaxing since then.

The trip went pretty well. As expected, my brother didn't come. So I ended up going through the shed with all of dad's things by myself on Tuesday. Tuesday night I FaceTimed with my brother so he could pick out what he wanted to send up with our Aunt.

I left everything out on the back porch - most of it was under a roof (one of the last projects my dad finished with a lifetime buddy of his.) Guess what? That night around 3:30 a.m. I woke up to the sound of RAIN!

I ran out to the porch and got everything under cover that hadn't been. A box of books got ruined, but that was the worst of it.

I spent a lot of time on Wednesday going through my dad's slides and trying to repackage them into smaller packages.

Part of Wednesday also was spent taking my grandma and Aunt out for a mani/pedi and out to eat (my treat.)

Thursday we had one guest for dinner. We had WAY too much food for 4 people. There was even a "turkey" - I think they got it at the Village Market (Loma Linda) - it looked like a real turkey - even had a hole where you put stuffing in! Weird.

I took home a LOT of slides and a few other things of my dad's. I had brought my biggest suitcase with the bare minimum of stuff in it. I ended up filling it completely, plus a large backpack of dad's AND a reusable grocery bag my aunt gave me.

Even so ... my suitcase weighed in at 55lb! Which meant a $75!!!!! overweight fee. Ugh!

My aunt lent me a machine to feed the slides into my computer.

I bought something on Amazon for a Christmas gift which apparently gave me a year's unlimited storage space on Amazon Drive. ???? I'll take it! I'm going to have a lot of photos and video's to upload.

That's the other thing I took - numerous home videos in two different formats, and a bunch of recorded sermons on cassette tape. I'm going to have to figure out how to get the videos into a watchable format.

My plan is to get everything onto DVDs and then give them as gifts to Mom, brother, aunt, grandma next year. Hopefully I can get it all done by then.

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Tomorrow I plan on doing some shopping.

I have $21 in Walmart gift card money. I also have about $31 left in grocery money. I also have around $50 in the Medical category (allergy meds!)If I get everything I'm planning on, I'll get back somewhere between $10 - 15 from iBotta, and $5 or so from MobiSave, and a $3-4 from the other apps.

I went through iBotta, Saving Star, MobiSave, SavingStar, etc., and also printed out a bunch of coupons. Tomorrow I'm going to double check the Target app because there were a lot of things expiring today.

I have a printed out list of everything I have a rebate and/or coupon for (that I want/can use.)

I'm looking forward to shopping.

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I redeemed a $25 AGC from PerkTv on Friday.

I completed my 5 months of spending $500 on Discover - so in a week or so I should get my $75 cashback bonus.

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I'm glad to be back, although I was glad I made the trip out to CA!

When 4:30 hit today I was SO SO happy. My boss isn't too excited about me being gone (she's going to have to do some of the things I usually do.)

From 4:30 today til 8:00 a.m. December 1 I will not have to answer the question of, "Where's the bus?"

Yahoo!!

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I got my $15 Pinecone payment today, and yesterday cashed out for $10 from Pact. I'm still waiting for my $25 from Swagbucks (PayPal.)

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I think I figured out why my sinus/allergy issues flared up badly again this week. My flonase was just about out! IOW I hadn't been getting any really good sprays.

Yesterday I opened a new one, and it worked wonders! (not that I got much more sleep ... but at least no horrible head splitting sinus headache at 3:30 a.m.!)

I am looking at that MyPurMist thing CB mentioned. Have to decide how to fund purchasing it if I decide to. I have more than enough in AGC, but really don't want to use those for that. But ... there is the AmEx deal of getting $15 back if you spend $60 on Amazon .. or the Chase thing of 10% back of what you spend. (Although AmEx is the better deal by far.) The AmEx deal is good through the end of December I think, so I have time to decide what to do.
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NE and I have decided to do homemade pizza for our early Thanksgiving Sunday night. Since I already have the cheese, mushrooms, and cream cheese, he's going to buy the pizza kit and his hamburger (for his side of the pizza.)

My plane leaves at 7 a.m. Monday morning, and from what I'm hearing it's being suggested to be at the airport 2 hours early. So ... that means leaving here by 4 a.m. Yuck and double yuck. I can at least try to sleep on the plane though.

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I haven't spent any money since Monday I think - except for gas on Thursday. $2.17/gallon ... not bad. (Although I've heard in some places it's under $2/gallon!)

I only bought $15 worth since there's really only a few days left in November where I'll be driving my car. I sent the remainder of my gas category to my Remote Starter fund. A whole $4.66. Yep, I'll get that sometime this century. ($350 needed.)

I am planning on buying some sweet potatoes this week. They are $.36/lb at Aldi's and one of the apps has a $.20 rebate on them.

Ibotta has quite a few real food rebates for November. When I get back from CA I plan on a grocery trip to make use of them. (Probably go to Walmart - have around $20 in gift card money between Savings Catcher, Bounts, etc.)

Sunday I actually managed to motivate myself to do some housework. In about 30 minutes I got my place looking/smelling almost as good as it did after the housecleaner lady was here.

I also spent some time at the church working in the library. I got the rest of the books recorded in LibraryThing and did some reorganizing/labeling. I realized though that the labels that were left for me aren't going to work. Am thinking about how to do it better ... (Also trying to figure out how to check books out via LibraryThing's app.)

I earned a $10 ECB from CVS for setting up the prescription reminder service. I tried finding things that also had rebates or ECB to make it stretch further. But except for one item with a $1 rebate from MobiSave, CVS didn't have what I was looking for. So I did end up spending just $.40 more than the $10 ECB plus got $1 rebate (MobiSave.)

This month I've gotten $8 from MobiSave - they nearly immediately send the money to your paypal - no waiting to reach a payout amount. Pretty cool.

I also went to the local grocery store and got bananas ($.39/lb) and some other stuff (can't remember right now.) That was under $10.

Sunday night NE and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Seward, NE - we both got fajitas. His were beef, mine were veggie. I had leftovers for lunch today. Yum! (NE's treat this month.)

We're planning on doing something next Sunday as "our" Thanksgiving meal since I'll be in CA next week. Might just make a pizza or something.

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Tonight I was debating about going to see a local high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof. It would have been $8 at the door. I was really tempted, but ended up deciding to stay home instead.

Cooked up my sweet potatoes and a cups worth of quinoa which I'm dividing up for dinners.

Tomorrow night I'm planning on cooking up some veggies and soup, and also grilling/frying those Quorn patties. Then add that to my dinner rotations.

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I think it was yesterday that I cashed out mypoints for a $25 AGC. I'm thinking it will be a long time before the next cash out there.

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NE applied for a Paypal credit card and was approved instantly. (I think that made him feel pretty good.) All the better for improving the credit score. (I wonder if the paypal card has the Fico feature?

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Walgreen's had a really tempting offer today - buy a Fitbit Charge ($129) and get 30k points. That's roughly $40. Maybe they'll have the same deal again next year ... When I get my next Achievemint app money ($100 - 71% of the way there!), I'll set it aside in the Health category so I can get the charge if I really want it next year.

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It makes me so sad what some people are posting on FB about the recent events. And how infantile some governors are acting. Mine included. Ugh.

Today at church our pastor started a sermon series about "reasons to believe the Bible" Today's was about scientific facts in the Bible. Such as the Bible writers talking about the Earth being round - centuries before the idea had even been postulated.

Anyway, it was pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

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After church one of the ladies I have gone walking with in the past asked if I wanted to go today (the official group is disbanded for the year.) So we set a time and a place.

About an hour or so after I got home, I got a hip call from my mom. It was kind of funny because she was talking to someone about what movie to go see - I kept trying to get her attention to no avail.

As soon as I hung up, the phone rang again. It was a high-school friend of my mom's who was in town and wanted to meet me.

So I got going earlier than planned and went and met the lady/husband/son/son's girlfriend. They seemed like nice people. I couldn't stay very long though because I had to get to the park.

We had a good walk - about an hour. My allergies are really acting up right now though. I'm so sleepy and am thinking about going to bed even though it's just past 7 pm!

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I redeemed for a $5 Walmart gc from Bounts today.
I also received $2 in rebates from MobiSave.

I haven't done very well with my moratorium on spending on sweets/fast food this week. I just have to say NO! Not an option!

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I talked to my Grandma today. It doesn't sound like my brother will be there for Thanksgiving. I'm not shocked, but I am disappointed. It actually kind of sounds like it might just be me, Grandma and my aunt there. That'll be interesting.

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When I was talking about my car service a few days ago, I forgot to mention that I found out how much it would cost to have a remote starter installed. $349.

Yeowch! I ... made a category for it. I'm going to throw "leftovers" from groceries/gas into it. If there ever are "leftovers" in the groceries category ... Maybe by next winter I can get it.

One month left in my thirties. Yikes.

My boss let me go early again today. Made a short week even shorter.

On my way home I heard the horrific news about the happenings in Paris. What is our world coming to. It just can't last much longer like this.

I'm relaxing now with a blanket and kitty covering me up and keeping me fairly warm. Haven't turned the heat on yet!

There is snow in the forecast for next weekend .. I'm flying out a week from Monday. Hopefully it won't cause any delays.

I finally got enough Mypoints to redeem for a $25 AGC card today. Now to start saving for the next one.

Anyone else with Inbox Dollars get reduced to one paid email per week? I was at almost $24 and am now earning a measly $.02 / week from emails ... It's gonna be 4ever! to get to payout.

NE and I are going to a Mexican restaurant on Sunday (his treat this month!) I'm hopefully going to be able to get veggie fajitas again.

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Our new bus routes plan has been posted. Already getting some calls about it today. I forsee people being very happy about some aspects of it, and very upset about other aspects. Can't please everyone. I wish they'd mentioned on the announcement that any changes made won't take effect til August of 2016.

(I'm going to have to relearn everything I pretty much know about the bus routes when that happens.)

Hard to believe that in just one week I'm going to have TEN whole days AWAY from work. So sweet!

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Can I just say that Pinecone is really coming through for me recently? After a few s l o w months of surveys, just this week I had 3 in a matter of two days ... and a surprise on my doorstep when I arrived home today. Plus another survey in my email.