I worked at the gym from 8 to 3 today. It was pretty uneventful, except that one person came by who was interested in joining. If he joins, I'll get a bonus. On Friday a woman came by who was interested in personal training - she set up an initial appt w/E, but wasn't able to keep it. But if she ends up signing on, I'll get another little bonus.

After I finished at the gym, I met my former OM in front of our office building. She gave me my severance check, and a few items I'd forgotten in my haste to leave.

For some reason, looking at that check took me back a few steps in dealing with the loss. I was a zombie for the next few hours - even through my doctor appt and stoping at Walmart.

When I was putting my groceries in my trunk, I realized I still hadn't brought in my box of stuff from my former life. It had sat there since Friday.

Once I got home I checked my mail. There were a number of important letters.

2 of them were from Texas Work Force. 1 said that as of Feb 22 I have to complete at least 5 work jobs each week - submitting an application, contacting an employer, attending a seminar, etc.
That sounds like a lot to me, especially when I see what the job listings look like. But . . I'll do whatever it takes.

The third piece of mail was a summons to serve on the Jury on March 9. I wonder if Work in Texas will exempt me from the 5 thing if I get picked for a jury, esp if it lasts more than a day? I've had Jury Summons before, but never made it to the courthouse. My group number always seems to get dismissed - maybe it's because of my last name being in the latter part of the alphabet?

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Thursday's Accomplishments:
1. Worked gym from 8 to 3
2. Dropped off severance paperwork
3. went to doctors appt
4. grocery shopping (spent too much, bought some junkfood.)
5. Worked on work in texas resume

*no exercise, no cleaning, didn't look at Craigslist

Fridays Goals/Plans:
1. Work gym from 11:45 - 5
2. Get to gym by 10:15 to workout/cleanup
3. Prepare 3 blog posts
4. Clean counters
5. Cash gym check
6. Check Craigslist

Today at work one of the things I was doing was hole punching a bunch of articles my manager had pulled out of various oil and gas magazines. Some of the pages needed to be turned so that the articles title would be facing up.

For some reason an article about a well in Kentucky caught my eye. The article was from 1991. A long time oil man had drilled over 7,000 wells over a period of 39 years. But none of them had been really great ones. He always had the dream to find an amazing discovery.

By a fluke of luck, he happened to acquire the mineral rights to a patch of land near the Kansas and Tennessee border. On it were a couple wells already that were producing, but not very much.

He chose one of them to deepen.

Several days after the redrilling began, his drilling foreman ran over to him with a worried look on his face. The well, which had previously been producing only 5 barrels of oil (BO) a day, was now GUSHING oil.

There just so happened to be a man at a nearby gas station with a couple backhoes on his way to another job. They got this man to come to their well and start digging pits to put the oil in - because otherwise it was going to go into a nearby creek.

The man with the backhoes stayed for 3 1/2 days and dug 10 pits for the oil. All of which filled up as fast as the pumpers they hired could drain them.

The well was now producing upwards of 300 BO per HOUR!

Needless to say, this was the fulfillment of a lifetime long dream of the oilman. He never gave up, even after drilling over 7,000 wells all over the world and 39 years.

I was just completely riveted by this story. I really wish I had a link to it so you could all read it for yourself.

It just spoke to me. I have dreams that I sometimes wonder if it's even worth it anymore to even keep dreaming about. Dreams I've had since I was little. But here's this man who never gave up after 39 years - and he finally made it!

If he could keep his dream alive, then so can I!

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There is this Cat/Dog blog which I check on a daily basis. There is this amazing story of how a dog helped an old man and how God works in our lives.

Dog Story . Have a kleenex nearby when you read it. Seriously.

*link fixed - sorry about that!

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I have new posts on my blog. Today I talked about a really special gift that my mom made me.

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I shopped at Walmart tonight. $29.02 for 3 bags of groceries. Ugh. And . .I forgot to get bananas.

I've been staying up so late the last couple weeks and am getting more and more tired - just dragging through my days. One thing I've noticed is that the more tired I get, the easier it is for me to justify spending money - namely on food - more precisely, on junk food. Barely a week into February and I've probably spent more than 45% of my food budget. Not good.

I really need to focus on getting to bed at a decent hour, so that I can also keep my focus on keeping a healthy budget and diet. And of course, getting to bed at a decent hour would help me be more likely to actually get to the gym for a workout!!

I think my tiredness is also partly why I've let some frustrations with the gym and the *other* company get to me more than they might have normally.

So . . confession time. I stopped at Sonic tonight and got a grilled cheese, onion rings and blast - $7 (including tip). Btw - they remembered not just a straw, but a spoon too!

This morning I felt much better, so I went to work. I was *very* busy all day long.

I made a pretty big mistake though. There was this report I was working on to send in to the Railroad Commission. I had all the numbers figured correctly after having painstakingly entered a years worth of them for two different companies on a spreadsheet - then calling the companies to verify my numbers.

I needed to finish that report today, and get it sent off. So, I figured out the total, and started entering it on the first line. However I caught myself making a 6 instead of a 9. Fixed it with a little white out.

Sent it to the manager who has to sign the paperwork. He signed it and gave it back to me. I put it in the mail.

6 hours later . . .

Sh, the person who asked me to do this project, came to me and showed me the folder I'd filed the copy of the form I'd mailed. Changing the last 9 to a 6 wasn't my only mistake. I had also replaced the 9's in the thousands place with 0's - and hadn't caught it.

I *really* thought I'd done a good job on it. And yet, I muck up again. Ugh!

I've written a letter to the RRC to explain the accounting mistake, and hopefully rectify the situation. We'll see what happens I guess. (I had the numbers written correctly on the draft sheet - but somehow got 0 in my head!)

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So E calls me tonight - leaves a voicemail. Not word one about the bounced check - just 'Laura could you help me out by opening g2 in the morning?'

I called him back and left a voicemail telling him I'd do it - but that we needed to talk tomorrow - in my most serious unhappy sounding tone possible.

He leaves me a voicemail (this time I purposely didn't answer) and tells me thanks, and sure we can talk tomorrow. All in a cheery voice.

I don't think he gets it does he?

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I bought groceries tonight.

$11.67 from Walmart - fruit, frz dinners, pizza, chocolate

I could have just gotten the fruit and been fine - but yesterday got craving pizza and almost ordered delivery - so decided to buy myself a Totino's for $1.12 instead tonight.

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My post tonight: How To Save Money on Your Home Phone.

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Sorry for kind of a downer post.

Yay! I got another ING referral bonus today:

+$10 for Downpayment fund!

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I don't drink a lot of soda . . but my mom does! She's addicted to diet Coke. So I got an email from Tom Thumb and one of the deals was buy 2 12 pks of Coke, get 3 12 pks free. I stopped by after work yesterday, and for a total of $12, I bought 5 12 pks of Coke - 4 for my mom, and 1 for me.

Today was my stepdad's birthday, so I called to wish him a happy bd -- and also to tell him about the deal. He's very much like me in that he likes to find ways to save money wherever possible.

The thing I was wondering though -- have 12 packs *really* gone up to $6??? I don't remember the last time I bought a 12 pk, so maybe they've been that much for a while .. but OMW that is a LOT of money for soda.

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Today at work I was making some copies at the end of the day and just happened to glance in the trash can. There was an empty 20oz bottle of fanta -- so . . I absconded with the lid. (mycokerewards)

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I was supposed to do my training today after work for the gym. But E called me and said that he'd had a new client who wanted to train at 5:30 today - so would I be willing to train in the morning. Of course, I said yes.

So I'll do my training in the morning, and have my first shift in the afternoon! Look out - here I come - ready to make $6.55/hr! So at 3.5 hrs, plus maybe another 30 minutes training =4 hrs = $26.20. -- Almost a tank of gas! LOL

I will have to find out if they pay weekly or monthly and if they do direct deposit. I hope they do dd, but I kind of doubt it.

Grocery shopping: $25.61

I stopped at Walmart tonight. They had the Boca Burger's in a bun 2 for $4. That made each complete sandwich $1. I bought 5 boxes of them. (They're pretty good - I've had them before.)

As I was driving home I was thinking about how much I could spend on my various meals per month if I didn't have too much variance.

30 days worth of breakfast - 2 large cannisters of oatmeal + 2 large containers of egg sub, maybe 4lbs of bananas = ~$20

Work lunches - 20 days - 20 Amy's burritos from Target at $1.69 ($33.80), 1 large bag frozen veggies ($2) -- ~$35.80

Home lunches (10 days) - pb & j sandwiches, boca burgers, etc - $10

Supper - 2 bags Quiona, 1 bag brown rice, 1 bag lentils, frozen veggies ~$30

Snacks - (string cheese, almonds,) ~$10

So, theoretically, I could get by on less than $110/month. Work lunches could cost even less when I make my own burritos (but not that much less really).

So, where does all the other money go in my grocery budget? Let's see . . last month I broke down and bought a pizza from Pizza Hut . . I also found a store that sold Nestle Treasures & had Orange Crush Jelly Belly's . . . I bought a couple varieties of squash (expensive stuff!) . . . I bought some unhealthy junkfood items . . plus other things not coming to mind right now.

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Before I even got started with all this thinking this afternoon, I'd asked to take Monday off as one of my vacation days.

I've gotten more and more behind in my housework and haven't been preparing meals ahead of time -- which has led to my doing a lot of the impulse convenience food shopping of the past few weeks.

This weekend I only am planning on going to church Sat. morning, then Sun afternoon I'll be doing my first RAoK meetup with the Salvation Army.

That means I'll have from 11:30 a.m. on Saturday until 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, and then all day Monday to be productive.

My plan is to give my apartment a through cleaning by Sunday afternoon. Then, on Monday I am going to plan out my meals for the rest of the month - attempting to use ONLY what I have on hand already as much as possible.

If I accomplish both the goal of having my apartment in Impress a Stranger Shape, and have my meals planned out (and prepared ahead as much as possible) for the month by 2 p.m. on Monday, then I'm going to treat myself to a movie. -- I want to go see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2".

What that means is that when I get home tomorrow (after stopping at the library) with the 9th book in the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series, I will have to make a decision between sitting down and reading that first, or get a head start on the cleaning. If last weekend repeats itself, Stephanie Plum will win.

I posted the Brita pitcher that I'd had listed on Craigslist on another site I frequent. Someone bought it - $15 + shipping and handling. Great!

So yesterday I took off from work a bit early and stopped by the PO to mail it. The postal worker was miffed at me because I hadn't taped the box. Understandable I guess, but I also remembered from when I was selling my teacher supplies that they always wanted to check what was being mailed ++ I didn't have any tape. So . . . I ended up mailing it Priority to get the "free" tape (I also misjudged the weight of it w/the box - so an extra $5.40 in shipping alone).

So, $21.10 - $.92 paypal fee - $11.60 Priority Shipping = net profit of $8.62.

I think I'm about ready to take all my Spanish materials to half-price and see what they'll give me for them. Even if it's only $10 for the lot, it'll be more than I have now, right?

Or . . if anyone is interested in various computer programs for learning Spanish + books, let me know. I also have a box of 10 Brita Pitcher filters I want to sell.

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Last night when I got home I was all settled in and reading "Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich when I got a call from my dad. He was needing new ink for his printer, and he couldn't get his old cartridge refilled at Walgreen's because it was leaking.

So, he'd found one on ebay for $8 and wanted to know if it was a good deal. We spent the next hour talking it through over the phone, then eventually yahoo messenger when his phone died. I tried to talk him through using my paypal account to buy the item because he wanted to do "buy it now" but it wasn't letting him add his address. Finally I told him to email the seller, apologize, and say he was a newbie ebayer and would pay as soon as possible.

Tonight I went ahead and set up a paypal account for him (with his input over the phone) and paid for the item via his account.

Trying to help someone do this over the phone is NOT my idea of a nice relaxing evening. But at least it is now done - hopefully the ink cartridge will come quickly.

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I've done some spending the last few days - unnecessary spending - mostly on food.

Sunday - Tuesday: $35.96
Wed - no spending

$4.56 of that was lunch on Tuesday because I forgot to bring my lunch to work. The remainder of the money was almost completely not needed and not good for me.

I'm going to deduct it from my grocery budget and move on - but one way or another, I'm NOT going over budget this month. I've got more than enough food already in the house that needs to be eaten.

*Almost forgot -- I got out one of my last large containers of eggs on Monday morning to make my oatmeal/egg breakfast. I didn't get back into the kitchen till Tuesday night (other than to grab a banana). Guess what was still out on the counter? At least it was only 1/4 full, so not a whole container wasted.

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My gas gage has been acting funky on me, so I'm not really sure what to think. But today it was hovering between 1/2 full and a bit more than 3/4 of a 1/2 full after having driven 220 miles. Normally 1/2 tank gives me around 160 miles.

So, either my gas gage is acting *really* funky OR I'm getting darn good gas mileage!

I'll find out the real story on Friday when I fill up again.

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I think I've decided to go with the Garmin Nuvia 200. I'm going to wait until my current cc statement closes to buy it - that way I can budget money in August and September for it. That'll happen around the 15th of the month.

Today's spending:

Gas: $3.73/gallon - 9.382 gallons bought
...........=$35.08 Odomoter: 104,433

Groceries: $30.59

Bought: red/green grapes, 3 bananas, 4 red del apples, 1 can mandarin oranges, lg cannister old-fashioned oatmeal, 5 16oz containers of egg whites, 1 32oz mixed frozen veggies, 1 box Morningstar veggie links, lg container Rice Dream milk, 1 sm box Junior Mints

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Woo Hoo! Remember how in my last couple posts I mentioned about how I was trying to figure out whether I should go with the quarterly membership plan at the gym, or cough up the money for a full year?

Well, today near the end of my workout session with E, he confirmed with me that I do have the job (after work on Fridays 3 1/2 hrs) starting a week from this coming Friday. He also mentioned that since I'd be working at the gym, my membership would be FREE!

So, not only does that mean I don't need to pay for the quarterly fee (roughly $64), it also means that I don't have to put it in my budget to save up for the next quarterly due!

Yay!!!

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When I was doing my grocery shopping today, I noticed something that slightly annoyed me. First of all, Wal-mart has stopped carrying the large container of generic egg substitute. Wah! Secondly, the next least expensive brand that is in a large container cost $4.89 for 32 oz, while the 16oz containers cost $2.44/each. So, you would at first assume it would be cheaper to buy the 32oz version + greener (due to less trash) - but obviously you would be wrong!

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?'s

I'm going to a Vegan/Vegetarian meetup brunch tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing a fruit salad, but I'm not sure if the mixture I'm thinking of will work right or not.

Here's the fruit I was thinking of: red/green grapes, sliced bananas, chopped apples, mandarin oranges, maybe some canned pineapple chunks?

Is there anything that I should take out? Or do you think all those tastes/textures would work ok?

Next ?

At the gym, I will be an independent contractor. This year I will make less than $600. Do I have to do a Schedule C for it? Or can it be listed under "other income" for tax purposes?

Next year, I would make a bit less than $1200. Would that be enough to make me have to pay self-employment taxes?

One more ?

Anyone have any idea why my Cruise 2010 ticker is so long? It's cutting part of my sidebar off! I checked the code and it looks the same as the other tickers. Weird.