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Archive for November, 2015

Snow! Errands ... Last day of Vacation :(

December 1st, 2015 at 12:47 am

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. Smile

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. Smile

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

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 ... Smile

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. Smile

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

A Bit of Shopping

November 29th, 2015 at 11:36 pm

Well I took my list of what I wanted to get at CVS, Target and Walmart along with the list of what coupons and available rebates I had and went shopping.

I ran into my first glitch at CVS - they didn't have the 5ct Allegra D 24 hr or 10ct Allegra D 24 hr. I only had a coupon with me for those sizes. Ugh. So I ended up just getting a pack of Orbit gum ($.50 after rebate.)

Then I headed to Target. I couldn't find the bread I wanted, so I got a different kind. Then when checking the cereal out, I realized that the Any Cereal rebate was vamooshed! As was the Any Cookies rebate. Ugh. Both had been there as of 11:30 p.m.

I got out of Target for $47.xx - that was after coupons, Target discounts, and using the 5% debit card (which I got today.) Part of the haul included 2 Terry's Chocolate Oranges (which I have been looking all over for!) and two large jugs of Gold Peak Sweet Tea for NE (thank you gift for taking care of Kari while I was gone.) (I have to mention ... I managed to control myself and ONLY buy two Amy's meals. Smile )

Next I hit up Walmart. I couldn't find some of the things I wanted (like Challenge Cream Cheese) but got most of what was on my list. After using $20.18 in gift cards ($15 from Bounts, $5.18 from Savings Catcher) and ~$7 in coupons, I walked about paying $5.47.

I'll be getting $4.50 back from MobiSave, $4.60 from iBotta, and $3 from SavingStar. I've submitted my new Walmart receipt to Savings Catcher - so will have to wait and see if I get anything from that.

I'll have to go back to CVS tomorrow with a coupon for the 10ct 24 hr Allegra D ($5 off) because I'm down to one left. I found two $5 coupons and a $4 one - all expire on December 29. I'm not sure how I'll be able to use all of them before they expire (unless NE decides he needs some Allegra D ... Big Grin )

Other than the Allegra though, I think I will be done with spending for the coming week (outside of rent,etc.).

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ION - The great weight loss challenge ... I managed to lose 1 lb this month. Smile Better than nothing, right? NE will weigh in when he gets here later - hope he's done better than me.

Back in NE

November 29th, 2015 at 05:48 am

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. Smile

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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!

Interesting Afternoon

November 22nd, 2015 at 02:05 am

I had a really bad night of sleep - finally woke up around 4 a.m. and then went back to sleep around 5 ... next thing I knew it was 9 a.m. Oops! I ended up being 25 minutes late for Sabbath School. With the way I was feeling (miserable x 2) I *almost* just didn't go.

Church service was really really good. We had a guest speaker who was born in Russia as an atheist. At the age of 24? he was given one-year to live. Someone gave him a Bible - he read it and started following some of the health principles. Started getting better. A while later he was given a book by Ellen G White about health principles. Now it's 26 years later ...

He was there to talk about his work with the Muslim population and to raise funds for an outreach project which is set to go except for the funds.

Church usually gets out about 12:15 or so ... today was 12:52. He was really good and interesting, so other than worrying about my afternoon plans, I didn't mind. Smile

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So after church (still feeling miserable) I ate lunch with the others who were going to a place here which serves the homeless/refugee/low-income people in our city.

I came very close to deciding not to go.

When we got to the center I was put at a table with one of the staff. We had clipoards with surveys in three languages (English, Spanish, Arabic) which people were required to fill out.

This wasn't *quite* what I'd been expecting to do ... but I went with it.

I'd been there for a couple hours when another staff member came to our table and we started talking.

He came from Iraq in 2013 where he was a university professor (taught Iraq Civil Code or something like that.) We talked about a lot of things - such as how nobody *wants* to leave their home country - to leave behind friends, family, tradition, good jobs. I asked him about what he thought about ISIS/Daesh and about the US involvement in Iraq. He pretty much praised Bush, Jr. for his strong arm/stance and vilified Obama as weak - even saying that he strongly thinks that Obama is pretty much responsible for the rise of ISIS. Something about the US being able to tell people in Turkey? to stop funding the ISIS - but they haven't - and that's what's made ISIS so strong.

When we were talking about refugees - he was telling me about how beautiful Syria is - how the people are very clever/intelligent/beautiful/handsome. He also mentioned that Steve Jobs actually had a Syrian background.

About this time is when we were interrupted to go bag apples. Smile

All in all, I am SO glad that I decided to tough it out and go despite how I felt.

On the way home though I was feeling *really* hungry (only had a sandwich at lunch because wasn't that hungry) and thirsty ... so stopped at Walgreen's for a drink and snack. $5.18. Ouch.

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Oh, at church today I was given a robe to fix the braiding on (for our Christmas drive through pageant) - hope I can do a decent job on it. I can hardly remember the last time I did any sewing. (I have til Dec 12 to get what I can done on it.)

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Now I'm just trying to keep warm without turning my heat on ... Smile

Ten Days off! :D

November 21st, 2015 at 04:00 am

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. Smile (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. Smile 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. Smile

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. Smile (Probably go to Walmart - have around $20 in gift card money between Savings Catcher, Bounts, etc.)

Glad to Be Locked Out!

November 18th, 2015 at 01:03 am

So yesterday I wanted to check my credit card account which I use for gas only (get 5% back all the time.) Only I couldn't remember for sure what my password was and got locked out.

So this afternoon I got on the site and was looking for the customer service number when the advertisements for the rewards cards caught my eye.

I for whatever reason decided to look at the different cards ... One of which was the same card I have.

I noticed something weird though .. the fine print for the card I have showed a $25 annual fee if you didn't have a qualifying account.

Say what?!

So when I called customer service to unlock my password I also asked about this. I found out that I had been grandfathered in to no account fees, but THIS was the end of the grandfathered period! (November!)

In the end I opened up a money market account with $25 so that I could keep a no annual fee (and the 5% - otherwise it would've gone to 3%.) I can withdraw the $25 from the money market account with no penalties. So stupid the shenanigans.

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My sinuses are killing me, even with allergy meds. I'm beginning to wonder if I don't have a sinus infection. ugh!

Just 3 more days of work!!!!!!!!

Cooking, etc

November 17th, 2015 at 03:27 am

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. Smile

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. Smile

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. Smile 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. Smile (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. Smile

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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.

Surprise Call

November 15th, 2015 at 01:23 am

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. Frown 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 ... Smile Maybe by next winter I can get it. Smile

One month left in my thirties. Yikes.

Let Go ... Early :)

November 14th, 2015 at 01:22 am

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

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

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. Smile

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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? Smile 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. Big Grin Plus another survey in my email. Smile

Car Service ...

November 12th, 2015 at 01:21 am

This morning I had a surprise visit from NE. He'd gotten some paperwork from a laywer regarding his inheritance which he wanted to tell me about. Before he left I had him look at my transmission fluid to see its color. Instead of being red, it was dark brown.

So ... at Brakes Plus I had them ... rotate tires, change the transmission fluid, replace the windshield wipers AND replace the serpentine belt. To the tune of $217 (after a $25 coupon - bought wipers next door for $28)

The serpentine belt is what was causing the squealing noises. It was dry and had lots of cracks. My wipers were in pretty bad shape - I'd known I needed to replace them (although I sure didn't remember them costing so much! ... 5 or 6 years ago the last time I got new ones on my Honda ...)

So far, no more squealing!

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After I was done there I stopped and got some groceries (since I was right next to a grocery store.)

Then I went home and vegged for a few hours. Smile

This whole time it was raining and a little blustery. The winds haven't been too bad though (although there are lots of leaves on the ground now that weren't there yesterday.)

I just got back from spending a few hours at the church going through lots of donated books. I set up an account for the church library on LibraryThing and scanned all the scannable books from the donated piles which I wanted. Later I'll print out labels for them. I also will need to manually add the ones which couldn't be scanned.

I didn't get through all the donated books, or to scanning the ones already in the library. Next time.

One cool thing about doing this - I now have the access code for the church wifi! Smile

While I was at the church there were a bunch of kids coming for our church's version of boy/girl scouts. Some of them were very excited about ... SNOW! Most of it was melting as soon as it hit the ground though.
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When I got home I saw that I got my reimbursement from MobiSave for the Allegra D - $5.

One of the items I bought today at the grocery store will get a rebate too - $1 I think. Just need to get a picture of the receipt taken.
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All in all, this was a good day off. Smile

Work, etc.

November 11th, 2015 at 03:45 am

So today was one of those days at work.

I had the person who kept interrupting me before I could answer their question ...

I had the person who started taking Jesus's name in vain all because they were going to have a 30 minute wait at the main transfer station ...

I had the person who came to the window on their cell phone and acted very annoyed with every question I asked / every time I spoke to them ...

Then I had someone ask me why we have a sign up about no cell phones at the window --- point to above reason ---

Then I had the person who had no earthly idea of their location and expected me to know where they were by just rattling off some business names (gas station, other places that are multiple locations ...)

So yeah ...

Not to mention that the office is super duper COLD. I think it's colder inside than it is outside! I wore a sweater today which helped, but my hands were still freezing!

Then CW who loaded a time sensitive project on me a few months ago started telling me about a new project she wants me to do. Supposedly NOT a time sensitive one - but to do whenever I have time to fill.

She of course went on and on and on off on different rabbit trails. I told her I'd be happy to do it - I just can't log off the phone very often nor for very long. (Like I had to log off the phone when she came to tell me about this project .. 25 minutes later ...)

Seriously, if she'd stop talking so much to people about how little time she has and how much she is overwhelmed, she might just get done what she needs to get done! I would guess she wastes at least 6+ hours a week talking about this to various people at the office (mostly me or my supervisor.)

She's a nice person, but I try to avoid her if I can just because she can be a time suck.

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I think I've decided to NOT do the transmission flush for my car tomorrow. I did some more reading on it, and it looks like it's not recc'd until at least 100k. I am still going to get my tires rotated and my belts looked at (Toyota Yaris's don't have timing belts - the have timing chains, which almost never need to be replaced.)

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So .. today was not a no spend day. I gave in to temptation. I stopped at Walgreen's hoping they had the chocolate oranges in.

Nope. But I did still end up buying a couple of candy bars and a Coke. Also bought toilet cleaner. ~$6 total

I was also WAY tempted to stop by BK. But I managed to resist that one. Yay me?

Thinking I'd have a sweet potato for dinner. Nope. Checked them and they'd all gone bad. Argh.

So .. finally opened up a box of Quorn Chic'n Cutlets I bought in September? Microwaved two of them according to directions.

Yuck. Double yuck. SO bland. I had to smother them in ketchup to eat.

I think the only thing to do is to fry them in breading or something. Which kind of negates the whole healthy factor (and since I'll need to use eggs to get the breading to stick ... makes them not vegan. Not that I really care about that.)

I've got around 5 more boxes of Cutlets left. 3 boxes of nuggets (which I *think* are breaded.)

These are definitely NOT going to be a good deterrent to my "stop at BK or eat at home" argument with myself ...

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Decided to NOT go to a movie tonight. Just too tired (didn't sleep well last night at all.)

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nasty. I'm so glad I won't have to field phone calls on a day like tomorrow will probably be. Doubly glad to have tomorrow off.

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Almost forgot - a bus funny -

Guy calls me and tells me he left a horse statue on the bus. I clarify with him until I get the picture that it is a 6 inch wooden statue of a horse. He had it sitting on the seat next to him. Not in a bag or anything - just out on the seat.

Another one - guy calls complaining about a couple who brought on two large dogs on the bus. Says that the bus driver told the couple they had to pay $1 per dog.

Um ... Had my supervisor talk to this guy. She figured out that he had no real idea what time this happened or for sure which bus route. She thinks he was making it all up. (No, we don't charge for animals brought on to the bus.)

Bizarre.

Made an Appointment for Car Service, etc

November 10th, 2015 at 01:06 am

So today I finished lunch with ten minutes to spare (helps to bring a PBJ sandwich ...) so gave Brakes Plus a call. I set up an appointment for Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. to get my transmission flushed, tires rotated and belts checked/possibly replaced (they've been squealing.)

In all, it will come in at around $200 after a $25 coupon I have. All accounted for in my car care category. Smile

The weather forecast is saying that Wednesday isn't going to be pretty - bad thunderstorms / possibly hail. Hopefully I'll not be out when that's going on.

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Wednesday afternoon I'll be going to the church to work on the library some more. (I've been asked to be the official "Church Librarian."

We've bought some new shelves, some book containers, and weeded out the oldest/grungiest books. Not many books were left ... (maybe 100.)

The pastor apparently has several boxes of books for me to go through and possibly add.

I'm going to set up a LibraryThing account for the church library. I'm also going to be looking for volunteers to staff the library after church to assist with check-in / check- out. (Using either a laptop or a small tablet.)

... I'm not sure I'm going to get much cleaning/cooking done on my day off. Big Grin

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I've seen several people mention seeing The Intern and saying it was funny. I may end up going to see that Tuesday night. Although that's also when the storms are supposed to start ... so I'll see. I haven't been to a movie in the theater for a good while.

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Free entertainment for my cat = the little lid you pull off from an orange juice container. Kari loves to play "fetch" with it (with me throwing it) or play with it all by herself. Smile

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So far - 7 NSDs in November! My budget's loving me right now. Smile

Coupons and MobiSave

November 8th, 2015 at 08:05 pm

So I realized that I was about out of allergy medicine today. I remembered that I'd gotten an email from CVS a few days ago offering me $5 off $15. Usually they won't let you use those on psueduedorphine (SP?) products ... So I looked to see what else they had.

Toilet paper .. buy $15 worth and get $5 in ECB. Ok, I'm down to my last 4 rolls (from about a year ago or so ... big pkg from Sam's.)

So I go to CVS planning on doing the toilet paper deal, use the $5 coupon on the toilet paper, and then the $5 ECB get some chocolate. (Technically NOT spending money on it ... Big Grin )

Well when I get there I ask at the pharmacy for the cost of the Allegra D and my Syntrhoid just in case it's cheaper than Walgreen's. The Allegra D is cheaper! (Synthroid is the same.)

So I buy the Allegra D - the lady uses the $5 coupon on it! I tell her that I didn't think it could be used for that .. but she says, "it worked" shrug. O....kay.... So instead of $16.96 ($2 cheaper than Walgreen's) it was $11.96.

I have a coupon on the MobiSave app to save $5 on Allegra D 24hr 10 count. So 2 weeks worth of Allegra is ending up costing me about $7! Suh-weet!

I also decided to go ahead and transfer my prescription to them. (CVS)

Then I picked up $15 worth of toilet paper (actually, $17 after taxes.) That should last me a year. Smile

I did end up spending $2 after the $5 ECB for chocolate. I was really hoping to find a chocolate orange ... but they only had a dark chocolate version. So I got some other items.

It made me happy to do everything I wanted to do in one store. Smile (The cheaper Allegra D also definitely made me happy! Here's hoping the MobiSave coupon keeps repeating indefinitely!!)

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I also paid my tithe/charitable giving today for October and November.. Oops. Totally spaced doing it last month. It works out though, because I put it all on my Discover card and it puts me close to the required $500 spend for November. If I use it while in CA, I should have it easily covered. Then I can stop using it!

(I'll have completed the spend $500/mo for 5 months get $75 deal.)

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I have Wednesday off. I was thinking about seeing a movie Tuesday night ($5 all day Tuesday) but just don't see any I care enough about to see.

I'm thinking of doing a cooking / freezing / cleaning day on Wednesday. So today I'm taking it easy. Smile It will be so nice to have a 4 day work week.

Then not too long later, I'll have TEN days away from work in a row! Oh my, I won't know what to do with myself ... Big Grin (5 of those days I'll be here, 5 I'll be in CA.) Not looking forward to that at all, nope, not at all. Smile

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Almost forgot:
Redeemed $5 AGC from Bing
Redeemed $25 AGC from PerkTV

Spent $45.xx AGC for 2 canisters of protein powder (bought 2 to get free shipping - instead of trying to figure out something else to get to $35 for the free shipping - will last a LONG time.)

First Spend of November, Strangeness, Good news for NE

November 7th, 2015 at 01:15 am

Today I stopped by the grocery store after work and picked up some fruit and and an Amy's meal. It's gotten cold here (today!) and so I wanted something warm and easy. Smile

Spent $9.98 and didn't pick up any sweets, etc. Smile

When I was checking out, the cashier said, "Hi neighbor!" I had to do a double take - and realized that he was a neighbor I met a couple weeks ago in the laundry room. He and his gf live in the apartment above me.

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Something kind of strange at work today ... about 4pm my boss calls me to her office. She tells me to go ahead and log off the phone at 4:15 and head out without saying anything to anyone or turning lights off, etc.

There was someone in the office with her, otherwise I would have asked what prompted this.

Instead I just said, Ok ... thank you!

I sure don't mind getting off work 15 minutes early. Big Grin

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NE called me this evening to tell me he finally sold his car! It's been sitting on Craigslist for 6+ weeks with progressively lower price. It sold for $300. He's just glad to be done with it. (A 2001 Subuaru Imprezza?? with lots wrong with it.)

Another piece of surprising news - we checked his credit reports last night and paid for one credit score. The number was MUCH higher than either of us expected.

We talked about him getting a Paypal credit card to add a revolving account (he's got lots of installment accounts - i.e. student loans) to improve it even more.

I'm now very curious about how our two credit scores would merge together for when we're house hunting next year. Do they just average the two scores?

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I'm leading the SS discussion tomorrow. WAY WAY WAY out of my comfort zone. The only reason I said yes was because the person who usually does the first Sabbath discussion was in a major car accident a few weeks ago (is out of ICU now, but still in hospital - will be going to rehab next week possibly.)

It's about Jeremiah and the different symbols / symbolisim used in the Bible - such as the clay and the potter. It's a topic I really enjoy, but the breadth of what one weeks lesson covers ... Ugh. I much prefered the SS lessons for the early primary age kids - simple story, simple activities connected to it, a couple of songs.

Am hoping for a SMALL group.

4 days of No Spending!

November 5th, 2015 at 04:36 am

Today makes 4 days of no spending! Of course it helps that I still have a bit of a stash of chocolate from October ... Smile When that runs out, things will get more interesting ...

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I kind of realigned my budget last night. I decided that instead of putting all my savings into one lump EF sum, etc., that I'd divide it out a bit more. I also changed the name from "savings" to "Long Term Planning."

My categories are: Income Replacement (Expenses only) - $6k; Car Replacement - 10k; House Downpayment - 7k; Health deductible - 2k; Car Deductible 1k; Vet Emergency - 1k; and Travel Emergency - 1k.

I downgraded my slush fund to $200, and moved the $800 into Long Term Planning categories. Income Replacement, Car Deductible, and Health Deductible are fully funded. Vet and Travel Emergencies are 1/2 funded. At the moment, there is just a bit more than $10k in the Long Term Planning category.

I think I like this structure better than having a huge amount just labeled EF.

*Vet emergencies are for things not covered by the Kari category - over and above shots, etc.

*Travel emergencies are for sudden trips - such as attending a funeral, or other unplanned but necessary travel.

Day 2 of Junk/Soda and Fast Food Moratorium - 10% Challenge

November 3rd, 2015 at 01:01 am

So far so good. No spending at all so far this month. (Said on day two ...) Of course I still have some chocolate left over from October ... the real crux of the moratorium (on buying only) will come when I've run out of all chocolate sources ...

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NE and I have begun a challenge with each other. Lose 10% of our weight by May 1. Each month we lose weight we each will put in $50 into the pot. At the end of 6 months (May 1) if we've both lost at least 10%, then we'll use that money to take a trip together somewhere. We're going to have a monthly weigh in (as close to the 1st as possible.) Last night was our first one.

$600 could be a pretty nice trip. Smile

Reconciling and October Budget

November 1st, 2015 at 08:59 pm

Today I spent probably 3 or 4 hours reconciling ALL my accounts. It was a bit of a mess ... but now all are to the penny. I don't know how I missed some transactions, but I did. From August and September.

They were even spendier than I realized.

So ... for October. Did I manage an actual spending freeze? Ummmm no. Did I do better than August and September? Definitely, yes!

October was a 3 paycheck month for me. With the third paycheck I ... covered the airplane tickets for Thanksgiving (will be reimbursed), replenished the slush fund to $1k, added extra to the EF, added money to a number of rainy day funds needing a boost, and sent extra for tithe and giving.

I definitely overspent in the treats and restaurants categories - although the restaurants categories include two meals out with NE. Treats ... well I guess I wanted to get some before starting my 62 day treats, junkfood, fast food moratorium.

I did end up filling my car up after the roadtrip. I might have been able to get by til today, except I had three unplanned trips this week - enough to use up the last fumes.

2 trips were related to my church's Halloween alternative program, and the third one was related to helping NE out with a flat tire on Saturday.

So, without further ado, here is my October spending.

Groceries - 154.53
Phone - 18.82
Internet - 77.44
Nat gas - 23.20
Electric - 54.36
Fuel - 47.50
Medical - 50.94 (dentist, etc)
Clothing - 45.29
Treats - 57.96
Restraunts - 74.73
EF - +289.22 (8936.76 as of 10/31/15)

Extra Income:
Swagbucks - $75
Pact - $10
Bing - $5
Interest - $23.89