September 1st, 2014 at 04:13 am
Today I was supposed to unpack a lot of boxes and get things more organized.
What did I actually do?
Surf the Internet (bubblews, YNAB forums, Facebook garage sale forums ...)
Watch Suits on Amazon Prime
Went over to NEs and got my frozen stuff - also washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Needed badly.
Other than that .. not much.
I found a table I'm picking up tomorrow for $20 (no chairs, but chairs I can find more easily than a nice table.)
I also found a paper shredder to replace the one I left behind on accident ($15 for about the same size one I had.)
I also talked to my brother for awhile, which was good.
Oh yeah, I also worked on my YNAB budget -figured out where my retirement accounts were at, and guestimated my monthly budget. The retirement accounts look nice, but the monthly budget looks abysmal. Adding in rent and utilities to the mix leaves almost nothing for savings.
I'm hoping that the reality will look a little rosier.
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I've been really overconsuming on the junk food. Really a lot. I'm kind of scared to get out my scale and see what it says.
I'm hoping my food budget will help to reign me in on this. We'll see. I think I might try taking back a couple things I bought tonight.
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I figured out as I was doing my budget that I had overpaid one of my credit cards - the one I use for gas. By $335. I set the wheels in motion to get that sent back to me so I can use it for expenses.
I also figured out that my retirement accounts had all grown nicely - mainly thanks to an electric car.
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I saw Target had a microwave on sale for $38 today. I was going to go get that, and return the one I bought for $49 (same exact one) from Walmart. But before I drove out there I called - they didn't have any left of course.
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August 31st, 2014 at 03:05 pm
First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who offered their thoughts and advice on my last post. He's been much better about helping me - I think he got the idea that I was pretty upset. He helped me out on Thursday getting my Internet set up - not a word of complaint (needed someone here to let the Internet guy in to get things set up.)
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I've now been moved into my new place for a full week. Today and tomorrow I plan to do a lot of unpacking and organizing. I'm hoping to get most of it done so I don't have much to do later and can feel actually settled.
Last night I bought some needed items to replace things that I'd left behind or sold previously (when I was going to grad school.)
I bought a microwave, a toaster, a crockpot, a kitchen trash can, a couple of skillets and a cooking pot. What this means is now I can actually cook things here rather than eating PBJs or buying fast food.
I also bought a bed from Mattress Firm. It was about $376 or so after taxes and delivery charges. The mattress itself was $298. Not the best one by far .. but I'm hoping it will do the job and last a while. It is the first bed I actually bought for myself .. ever. All my previous beds were either hand me downs, or provided by the place I was renting.
I plan on going by Goodwill today to see what they have in the way of kitchen tables and love seats - also any kind of cabinets. I am in major need of storage space for pantry and cookware/dishware. Of course if I manage to find anything, I'm not sure how I'd get any of it home.
I really do NOT want to employ two men and a truck again ... I don't know anyone with a truck that could haul it for me. I really need to get most of my boxes unpacked first anyway though before adding more to the mess ...
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I'd really like to highly recommend Bubblews . com for writing whatever you want and getting paid for it. I have made close to $170 since June. I have a link to my profile page in the links section - that is where I've spent a lot of my short Internet time lately.
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I'll be getting my second paycheck this coming Thursday from my bus job. I'm hoping that the union mandated pay raise will take effect Once I see that, then I plan on working on a budget. I haven't been operating on a budget or any real kind of expense tracking for awhile ... and my bank account and credit cards show it. I won't be carrying a balance on any of my cards, but the bank accounts will definitely be slim after paying them ... (I do have my emergency fund still fully intact in a separate bank, but was not wanting to spend all I had in my regular bank ..)
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I think my cat Kari is much happier being a single cat than one of many. Almost within two days of being here, her entire attitude seemed to perk up and go back to her usual self. I hadn't seen her tail straight up in happy signal for a long time.
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I need to edit my sidebar since I accomplished my two big goals and figure out what my new goals are. Will have to wait til after my next paycheck though so I have a better idea of what I'm working with.
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August 24th, 2014 at 08:13 pm
I haven't written much about NEs and I's relationship since I got to NE. To put it mildly, we've struggled. Today was move in day to my new apartment.
NE was talking about making a 7 hour round trip to buy speakers for his eBay business today. Fine, whatever. Turns out one of the items he wanted was gone. So no trip.
I ask him if he'd be willing to help me hang pictures. His response, why do you need help?
I ask him this morning to carry out a couple boxes to the car. Why do you need help?
He's at the apartment sleeping.
He worked last night til 4 am. So I understand him sleeping. But if he was going to make the trip, he'd have gone without sleep. Afterall, he doesn't work til Thursday again. But to help me out... Why do you need help?
Maybe I'm judging him against my dad. I wouldn't even have to ask.
Just like I offer to help carry boxes out for NE when he's shipping stuff - without having to be asked or making a big deal.
Am I wrong to feel ticked that he's expecting me to do all this by myself? If we were broken up that'd be one thing, but supposedly we are in a relationship. Isn't part of that helping each other??
I should add that I hired two men and a truck to move my stuff from storage to here. It was me and them. 2 hours charged. $287. Ugh.
Part of my upset probably has to do with my realizing just how inadequate this apt is for storage. I'm going to have to buy something for pantry space and for my baking and cookware. There simply isn't enough cupboard space.
I'm sorely missing my little house in NM right now.
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August 10th, 2014 at 04:33 am
All in all, I think I am going to really like my new job. The part that scared me the most about it - figuring out bus routes for people - has gotten easier and easier everyday. Other things I do, such as sell passes to people at the window, is pretty interesting. Some of the people who come there ... are quite characters.
My boss, K, is pretty funny. On Friday we moved my phone to the other part of the desk so that I would not have my back turned to the window when on the phone. We realized that the phone cord wasn't long enough. So after a bit of trial and error, we got a 25 ft cord. When it arrived, I was on the phone. K proceeded to use it as a jump rope, and then pretended it was a lasso ... all while I was somehow not bursting out laughing. (K is at least 55+)
I also got two hours of overtime in on Wednesday helping out selling passes at a school open house. Kind of cool getting paid for doing stuff after regular work hours. Not something I'm used to. In a school, you just do it - no pay expected.
I *think* my health benefits may start as soon as September 1. I need to double check this since the person talking about it went really fast. My retirement benefits won't start until February 1. I can't take a sick day or a vacation day until after February 1 (but they start accruing already.)
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I haven't heard from my new landlords about my apartment and when I'll be able to move in. I meant to call tonight, but forgot.
I am really ready to be in my own place again. Really ready.
Other than my job, I am struggling with this move.
I have tried out most of the area churches affiliated with SDA, and thought I found one that fit. The people in the Sabbath School class I've attended 3 times now seem really friendly.
But I'm still sitting by myself during church service.
I knew going into this that NE would not attend church with me. I hoped I would meet people who'd invite me to sit with them or something, so I wouldn't feel that loss so much. But obviously it hasn't happened.
NE isn't much into doing anything other than lounging in his apt or surfing the net. I was really hoping to meet people at church who might want to do things with me. Hasn't happened yet.
I guess I'm feeling really lonely. There was a free concert tonight at the church, and I decided to not attend mainly because I just couldn't face sitting by myself yet again.
This was part of the reason why I didn't attend church very regularly in New Mexico. I had no one to really sit with the majority of the time. I so was hoping that would change with a bigger church.
NE has tried to accommodate me with doing things once in awhile ... but makes such a big deal out of it, I'd rather not do anything in the first place.
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I've gained 8lbs since moving here. Lots of it I think is from stress eating (i.e. junkfood) and some of it also from the first month where we were eating out *a lot*. I'm really hoping that once I move into my own place and have more control over kitchen/food/ etc that I'll be able to get back on track.
I did work out 4 x this week - 2x at the gym at my office - running (ha ha) barefoot on a treadmill.
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Almost forgot - I'd love ideas on how to make it easier to clean 5 cat litter pans? It's killing my back every time I do it ... which makes it so I'm not doing it daily like they need.
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