Ahhhh..... On day two of ten. I can feel the stress of the last few months slowly draining away.

On Thursday night I got a call asking me if I would babysit the two students I've babysat for before a few times this year. Although that wasn't quite how I envisioned spending my first day of break, I gladly agreed. The three of us had a good bit of fun. We played "baseball," kicked around a soccer ball, tossed a nerf ball back and forth over the gate, and watched a little tv. (Plus both girls spent a good amount of time playing games on my phone.) The dad got back an hour later than he was supposed to (and still only gave me $30) but I didn't really care enough to fuss about it. It wasn't like I had anything else I really *had* to do.

I went to church this morning, and only was mildly disruptive with my coughing. Enough so so that everyone realized why I hadn't been there the last two weeks though.

The yearbook was submitted on Thursday morning - still with one student's photo missing. Oh well. Hopefully it being nearly two weeks late isn't going to affect the return time too much. I'm just glad to be done with it for another year.

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I ordered a $25 AGC from SBs today, and will have enough for the 5 $5 AGCs by the 3rd of April. I also got an email from Nielsen mobile telling me I'd been awarded more points -- so I traded in my points for a $50 AGC. (I just use my phone normally and earn points each month.)

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I finally managed to mail in the paperwork for moving my IRA from the bank CD to Vanguard on Thursday. I'd had the statement I needed for a couple weeks, but just kept procrastinating on getting an envelope. Hopefully it will arrive in time to get it changed over - otherwise it will be two more years before I can do anything with it. Ugh.

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A number of the teachers/staff that have stayed here for break are getting together tomorrow for an Easter brunch. It should be interesting.

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I had something interesting come up this week. On Tuesday I think it was, I got an email from Citi telling me that I had an overdue balance on my card. Since the only thing I use that for is my Netflix subscription (which should be free after the *bonus* each month) I was wondering what was the problem. I checked the website/statements and figured out that for some reason I hadn't gotten a January statement, but that the January and February Netflix charges were both on the February statement. Thus the balance. I called and they ended up giving me a $10 credit "for your inconvenience" but their reasoning for why it happened was stupid. Something to do with February only having 28 days and the billing cycles .. At any rate, it was resolved with no interest hit to me nor a credit report hit. No more short months before the end of the free year of Netflix, so I don't need to worry about a repeat.

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I talked to my mom for a short bit this afternoon. She told me that the lady she's taking piano lessons from has been giving her "mad minutes" to help her learn the note names. So I asked her to send me copies of those mad minutes.

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Not much else interesting that I can think of right now. Just so happy to have this break. So needed it.

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Happy Easter everyone!

Well I knew better than posting without copying first ... Ugh!

At any rate today was a long, busy day. I had three extra periods of having kids - 4th grade girls came in to check in/out books; journalism kids came in to work on yearbook (per my begging their teachers...), and 5th grade came in and did the photo study presentations (which greatly impressed our principal as well as the parents of a new potential student who was visiting.)

I didn't get much sleep last night thanks to my tooth/teeth/sinuses/whatever it is acting up again. Hoping to have a few minutes to call and get doctor/dentist appointments tomorrow.

Am seriously considering quitting 6 month cohort program. I already have earned 6 credits and one certificate, and the electives I can finish this summer for another 9 credits. By quitting now I'd lose out on 3 credits and one certificate. But I'd also lose a lot of stress and gain back my evenings.

Yearbook deadline is on the 18th, and there is still a LONG ways to go. This Thursday we're having a library discard book sale (same day as p/t conferences.) I just have no energy to try to catch up with last weeks assignments, or deal with this weeks 2 1/2 hr webinar and whatever assignments will go along with that ... then of course doing the final project (which I don't have much done on at all.)

Ugh.

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Last night I did something I'd been thinking about for a long, long time. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing to do or not, but it seems to have opened up a new, more open line of communication. We'll see I guess.

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On Sunday I went to town and spent my $15 in coupons, plus another $20 at Safeway. Looking at the receipt later I realized that I was supposed to have spent at least $75 to use the $10 coupon ... oops!

On the way back I spent some time with my pastor's pets - they're out of town for a week. Thankfully they only asked me to check on them Sunday and Friday, otherwise I might have freaked out. (not really, but I do think I would have had to tell them no.)

Ok, trying to post again.

I don't know if there is a version for Android phones/tablets, but I discovered a new app which allows you to earn giftcards/paypal cash. It is called App Trailers. I downloaded it last night and already redeemed and received a $1 AGC! All you have to do is watch short videos advertising various phone apps, or tv show trailers, etc.

Nice I haven't seen a way to use / get a referral code, but I thought some of you might be interested.

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I have cashed in for my first 4 AGC's from Swagbucks. Tomorrow I'll get my 5th one, and probably a $25 one as well. That will give me $50 in AGC money just from SB this month. I'll have around 800 leftover towards April's giftcards.

I'd like to see if I can earn enough to get $40 of gift cards in April. (This month I was able to do a large deal, but I can't count on that happening too often.)

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Yesterday I went into town and spent $80 at Safeway. $23 of that was spent on Morningstar products. There was a deal - spend $20 on certain freezer aisle products, and get $5.00 coupon towards your next order. So, I got that, plus another $10 off coupon and a $.50 coupon for Stouffer's (I love their spinach souffle.) It wasn't all groceries, I also got asprin, cat food, and a birthday card.

I'm thinking of going back on Friday and if the same deal is still on, buying another $20 worth of Morningstar products (they have the corn dogs!!) which would only really cost me $5... Hmm... Will have to make sure I have enough freezer space.

The only reason I went to Safeway instead of Walmart is because I realized that the 5% grocery deal with Chase probably doesn't include Walmart... oops. I used 3 coupons I printed from SBs - asprin, cat food, and some snack food. I probably would have done better on some of these deals at Walmart, but I also wouldn't have gotten the corn dogs or the $15.50 in coupons!!

I also filled up my car - $3.39/gallon. According to my gas buddy app, my last tank gave me 32.9 miles/gallon. Not bad at all.

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I am so glad it is the weekend! It was a long week. I was kind of sad on Thursday afternoon because I had my last technology club session (I'll be in ABQ next Thursday, and then the following Thursday is PT Conferences .. and then no more after school activities.)

I'm mostly looking forward to the book seminar I'll be going to on Thursday. The seminar itself I'm majorly looking forward to, it's just all the lesson plans I'm going to have to leave for the assistants and wondering if they'll actually even do them!!

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I'm debating the wisdom of sending the $2000 from my refunds straight to my car loan. I'm thinking about holding it out as an emergency fund, which I could then use to send to the car loan in June or July if I see that everything appears to be stable here. I've just been hearing some unsettling rumors about the finances here ... I'm still going to do at least a double payment, but I think I'll be holding off on sending anymore huge extra payments. I'll still have the money to send if everything still looks good, but I think it would help me sleep a little better knowing I have a good stash in cash .. just in case.

Today after entering all the expenses from my recent Baltimore trip, I decided that for the remainder of February I will be under a spending freeze.

The only spending allowed will be submitting tithe/offering checks and possibly paying the registration fee for my NM license (if I have all the necessary paperwork together.)

Yikes! There were two just under $20 purchases that I could have easily done something different for much, much less. Being out of town should NOT have given me the excuse to make those purchases. What's done is done, and now I need to recoup and move on.

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Today we did have a snow day! YAY! I slept in and out most of the morning. It was wonderful.

When I finally got moving, I made a phone call to Vanguard to do something I'd procrastinated about for nearly 8 years.

In 1999 I had $2k left of a bit of a windfall. I was afraid that it would slip through my fingers (because at that time I was rather ... unfrugal to put it mildly.) So I socked it away in a traditional IRA. Sounds good so far, right? Not really ... I didn't put much time or thought into it - just went to my local bank I had an account with and opened an IRA. An IRA in the form of a 2-year CD. A CD that rolls over every other April 15 unless I tell them I want to do something else with it.

Since April 1999, the balance has grown by a whopping $657. I don't want to even do the depressing math on what kind of "growth" that is.

One way or the other though, I now have an IRA account open at Vangaurd and just need to print the paperwork and mail it to them. Then when the current IRA CD matures, it will be invested into the STAR fund. I plan on adding an additional $400 to it in order to be able to invest in the next level of fund.

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I checked my bank account today (the former ING) and saw that I'd received my tax refund already from NM. I also had a weird deposit that just said "Wire Deposit" and nothing else. It was for an amount that looked similar to my bi-weekly paycheck, so I'm guessing that is what it is. (Especially since today is payday.)

I put $500 of the NM refund to my car loan payment category for March, and $25 of it into my Vacation category. (That's the category I raided to pay for my stupid fee of $75 after missing my flight.)

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I have another out of town trip coming up soon (and I think the payment for the registration on that seminar is part of what is making my heart panic at my cc balance ... it will be reimbursed, but not til the end of March probably.) All my meals for that will be reimbursed, so I don't have to worry too much on that front.

I am looking at another conference though in November for school librarians. It's in Hartford, CT. Between registration, least expensive hotel and airfare it'll cost around $900. I am Uber excited about this conference and REALLY want to go. (If you remember, I was part of the group of people who got to evaluate the possible workshops for this conference.) I *really* hope that I can get this approved to be covered by the school, or at least mostly covered.... I can get the best price by registering by August - which means that I'd have to pay for it out of pocket, and then be reimbursed later... Maybe I can use part of my summer school money to pay for it, and then when I'm reimbursed, put the money into the various places I planned for the summer school money?? I *really* want to go to this thing!

Well, I'm back from Baltimore and the Americ@orps conference. Overall, I'm mostly glad I went, although I think maybe some of the younger, less experienced teachers here may have gotten more out of it.

We had three main speakers - Mark Shriver (brother to Maria Shriver, ex wife of Arnie "I'll be Back.") Sister Sissy (can't remember her real name, Sissy is her nickname) and Father Boyle (Homeboy Industries.) Of the three I got the most out of the second and third ones. Shriver was ... well, I felt at least, a bit pompous. Lots of name dropping, and during the Q&A he seemed really offended that some of the kids had Googled him to find out more about who he was .. some of the kids (most of the attendees were 27 or younger) didn't know who the Uncle Jack was that he kept referring to (JFK.)

In addition to the speakers, on Sunday and Monday we had our choice of 4 workshops to attend. I attended 3 because the fourth session the ones I wanted were already full by the time I had a chance to sign up. Two of the three I attended were okay, the third one I didn't really care for too much. Oh well.

The hotel tried to meet the needs of vegetarians, but like many non-vegetarians, they had the idea that vegetarians survive mostly on salads. Ugh. So ... I ate a lot of Subway, a few smoothies from the uber expensive Coffee shop in the hotel, and once at Jimmy Johns (my first time eating at one!)

On Wednesday last week I started to have really bad tooth pain. By Thursday when I went to ABQ to stay at the hotel before flying out, it had gotten much worse. So much worse that I left the hotel after dark to go to Walmart a few miles away. I decided to attack it from the angle of allergies, so I got some sinus meds OTC, but did not get any asprin. Which turned out to be a big mistake $$

The next day by the time we got to our layover in DFW, I had a headache that felt like it was going to split my head in half. So, I paid $7 for a soda and 3 2-capsule packets of aspirin. Those packets lasted til Saturday morning when I was again desperate ... so I paid $8 at the hotel coffee shop for ... a soda, and two packets of ONE-capsule aspirin!

Thankfully that afternoon my co-worker and I found a CVS a fw blocks away where I was able to get a 24 capsule bottle for $5.

I haven't totalled up how much I spent on food and medicine this trip, but I have a bad feeling about it. Much more than the amount I had generously allocated ...

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Of course it gets even better ...

Tuesday morning we arrive at the airport a few minutes before 8 a.m. thinking we were cutting it close for our 8:45 flight. Not even close. We had missed our 8:15!!! flight!!! Both of us for whatever reason had 8:45 stuck in our head, and had not bothered to double check the itinerary email. I've *never* missed a flight in my life, until now.

It cost $75 to book the next flight out ...at 1:45 p.m. My co-worker didn't have a credit card with him, nor did he have enough cash to cover the fee. So I paid for his fee. (He already paid me back this morning.) He was thoroughly embarrassed having me do this, although I really tried to be very non-nonchalant about it.

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By the time we got back to ABQ it was WAY past dark. I called the hotel I'd left my car at to come pick me up. The guy told me to take a taxi and they'd pay for it. Huh? Never been told that before ... so I went outside and found a taxi. The taxi driver knew what I was talking about, and took me to the hotel. I gave him my last $5 bill (the other $5 I'd left as a tip for the hotel maid in Baltimore.)

I needed to get a few groceries, but did NOT want to stop at little G on the way home after dark. So decided to go back to the same Walmart I'd been at on Thursday. Unfortunately, my GPS app had been updated with a HORRIBLE update, and it got me lost. Thankfully though I found a KMART. Well ... sort of thankfully.

While in KMART I ended up picking up a new purse (to replace the one whose strap broke this last summer in San Francisco), a set of full bed sheets, two HUGE stuffed animals on 75% discount, and a few groceries. No bananas though (which was one of the main things I wanted.) About $65 altogether.

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I finally made it into my town a bit before 10 p.m. Kari was SO glad to see me. I was actually glad to see her as well.

Today at work I felt a bit like a zombie. When my kinders were in class, I had to keep reminding myself they were babies and to keep my patience. Even my 3 year olds didn't help revitalize me like they tend to do.

Thankfully today wasn't one of my busier days, otherwise I don't know that I would've made it through. We might possibly have a snow day tomorrow - already have a minimum of a two-hour delay. I'd be so happy for a snow day right now ....

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I have nearly 4k Swagbucks now. I'm considering getting the $25 AGC, although I think I may wait til March, or at least until I have enough to get the $25 AND the March $25. Will see.

I would have made my 14 day streak for February, but the hotel in ABQ's WiFi was TERRIBLE - couldn't even do normal surfing using it. Oh well.

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So sleepy. Probably ought to hit the shower and then maybe watch an episode of Eureka (my latest Netflix addiction.) Speaking of tv ... I received my Person of Interest Season 1 DVDs. I might watch them tomorrow if we have a snow day.

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Oh, the co-worker who I barely tolerate .. this morning she sits across from me and says, "So, I hear you missed your flight. HA HA. I've NEVER (said in a haughty tone) missed a flight. I always get there at least two hours ahead of time." I felt like punching her in the face, but I thankfully restrained myself, and only said, "good for you."

We had a two-hour delay this morning, so I used my time wisely and called the IRS helpline. I explained about how Turbo Tax was insisting that I have to count my award money from Ameri C*rps as self-employment income even though on the 1099 it is listed as other income. I also told him (it was man) that the place my university deals with to send out 1098ts had told me that I won't get one since my tuition was paid for via the education award.

All in all, after spending nearly an hour on the phone with him, the end result was he assured me that I should not count it as self-employment income and that whether or not I receive a 1098 from my school, I can still count the tuition cost towards the Lifetime Learning Credit - I just need to be sure to have some kind of proof of bill showing there was tuition charged and paid. I haven't made the changes yet in TT, but I'm glad I was able to make the call today!

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I also called the place I worked at in TX as a teacher for my service record. The lady there emailed me a copy of my record. So that's now one less thing on my list towards reciprocrating my TX license to NM.

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Today I had the 4th grade boys. I showed them how to make a Voki and then cut and paste their paragraphs about their important person to make their Voki speak. They were pretty impressed - one of their better behaved class periods.

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No money spent yet today, although I may start downloading a couple iTune movies for my upcoming plane trips. A couple of LONG plane rides and one 3 hr layover ...

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My phone is working fine still - it was so sweet though - had two offers of replacement phones. My brother offered me his phone (and he'd just upgrade), and my mom offered me her old phone (she got a new one at Christmas from new dh.)

Of course, Mz. Klutz here had a glass of orange juice on the computer desk Sunday morning. Guess what she forgot to do? Drink the OJ. Guess what happened Sunday night as she was heading to bed? Yep, knocked the OJ over. Spilled on my wireless keyboard and all over the floor. Luckily it didn't get too much of the keyboard, but enough where some keys are really sticky (like the 1,2 and shift keys.) Ergh! I have my old wireless keyboard that just needs batteries I think, so if this gets too annoying, I'll just change them out. (The keyboard with the OJ was my dads.)

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Finally got my $5 AGC from Irazoo - ordered on Jan 13. Also got the 4th AGC from SBs for February. So just need one more then I can order Person of Interest.

While we didn't get the snowstorm like the Northeast did, we did get a couple inches overnight, with more to come over the next few days.

This afternoon I needed to go and do my 30 minute walk towards my weekly gympact, so met up with my coworker. When we started out it was clear and windy. Within a few minutes though, snow started coming down - softly at first, but then a lot more. At one point when we were walking straight into the wind, I turned around and walked backwards because my forehead was freezing!

When I got home I waited until I was inside my house to take my phone out to stop the time. My phone was wet, as was my hoodie. Just as my activity was saved on my phone, it went completely dead.

I tried drying it off and playing around with the controls, but nothing was happening. I was supposed to give my grandma her weekly call, so I texted my brother and asked him to call her and let her know that my phone may be dead. He sweetly offered to upgrade his phone and let me have his.

About 15 minutes after shutting off, I tried the controls again ... and it turned back on! Yay! I kind of was looking forward to having a good excuse to upgrade to the 4S, but am even more glad to not needing to spend the money for a new phone.

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I found out today that there is a second season of Touch - the show about the autistic boy who communicates with his dad through numbers (sci-fi'ish). Sweet! Of course it isn't on Netflix yet, but is on Hulu+. Will wait. Must wait.

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I completed a deal on SBs today that earned 470sbs. So I now have nearly 1700. 500 more and I'll have enough for my March AGCs, then I guess I'll start working on the April ones!

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I'm glad I went into town Friday and did my grocery shopping, because I don't think I'd be able to get into town today or tomorrow (and possibly Monday either!) I spent just under $50. Some of it was probably stuff I should have left at the store ... at least I'm still under budget for February right now.

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I'm half hoping that we'll have a snow day on Monday. That way I can have a chance to make some phone calls regarding my taxes and my certification. I talked to my principal on Friday about how she added the award money to her taxes, and she said she hadn't claimed it ... not sure she understood what I was talking about. I'd really like to get my taxes done so I can make a huge payment on my car.

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Also on Friday I reached the upper levels of frustration with our servers and documents being lost. When I had my 5th grade group in, I had one set of partners that tried 5 different computers to see if they could find the contents of their folder so they could do their blog. Then I had at least 6 mid-schoolers find out that their science fair documents which were 95% finished had vanished into thin air. One of them had their unfinished documents printed out - so I retyped it for him. It was too funny though - I had him and another student standing around the computer as I typed in total awe - "She's not even looking at the keyboard!" "Wow, how fast is she typing??" I told them - years of practice. (I don't type all that fast, maybe 60 - 65 wpm. My mom can do 100+wpm .. that is a sight to see.)

Ooops, forgot where I was going with this. My frustration level being breached, I finally talked to my principal about our school signing on with google apps for education. That way kids could save their documents/work in "the cloud" and the likelihood of things being lost or somehow deleted by accident or by malice would be virtually eliminated. It will mean a bit of a loss of functionality, as google docs aren't as functional or splashy as MS Office, but at this point I think it is well worth it. Thankfully she agreed.

So this coming week the IT person and I are going to work on getting our school started on GAFE. I hope it goes over well with everyone ...

Okay, trying yet again. It's what I get for not following my own advice of copying before submitting ...

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January spending:

Despite the stock ups in late December, I still managed to overspend the grocery category by nearly $50. This was due mainly to multiple trips to the mom and pop store for egg salad sandwiches or bananas +++. Bottom line -- I need to leave my wallet at home, and if I need bananas, take only enough cash for 5 (around $2.) Also, stop buying egg salad sandwiches.

Tithe, etc. --
I didn't have a pen with me the one time I actually made it to church in January. I now have two checks already filled out - one for Jan, and one for Feb. So, no excuses.

Overall, not too bad. Just need to reign in the groceries (namely, the junk food.)

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February Budget--

Fun Money-
I padded my fun money category due to the upcoming Baltimore trip. I'm hoping that I won't actually spend that much (I've been told the hotel we're staying at has vegie/vegan options) but I want to give myself the room/permission if something comes up.

Car Loan -
I will be making a large payment to my car loan this month, which should put it close to $4k left. Depending on when I get my final tax documents and file, March should have a large payment as well.

Car Insurance --
My 6 month premium is due on the 9th. So that will be a good chunk going out.

FIRE (Financially Independent Retire Early) -
This will be my first installment into this category. Until my car loan is paid off, it will remain a small amount. (Like MMM says ... debt emergency!)

Professional -
If I can get all the documentation together, I will be sending in a check for $125 to get my NM certification. Must get this done so I can be rehired for next year!!

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Other --

Swagbucks/Amazon/Discover/TV stuff =

I managed to meet goal 31/31 days for January. It enabled me to trade in for $25 of AGCs in January, and I have enough for my first 4 in February (and after the 5th when I get the 300+daily bonuses bonus, I'll have enough for the 5th card.)

I spent about $60 on books for the library this month - used my AGC credits and the remaining balance of rewards from Discover. (You can only cash out at the $50 mark. I had $26 in rewards and no big purchases I could think of ... so decided to use them.) I'm considering canceling it (Discover) to trim down my card collection.

Normally I spend all of my AGCs on books for the library. However, I have decided to use February's for something for myself. The first season of Person of Interest. It is around $25 on Amazon. Once I finish the last 12 or so episodes I missed thanks to ABC stopping putting the full episodes on their website after getting me hooked .. then I can sell it to Second Spin for a possible $12.

I found out that Hulu+ has the second season of Once Upon a Time. I was SORELY tempted to renew my account for a month so I could watch that second season. I resisted, and instead started watching Jericho on Netflix for free. Eventually (hopefully!) Netflix will have OUAT's second season and I can watch it for no extra cost.

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Health/Food stuff

So, as I mentioned in my grocery section, I've been buying junk food. Way more of it than I should. And, unfortunately, it shows - both in my weight (gained back nearly ten of the twenty pounds I'd lost), and in my general overall health. I was doing so good there for a while. I'm really not sure what derailed me. It'd be even worse if I wasn't doing my nearly daily walks (although they're not THAT much in the good exercise department .. they are at least getting out and moving.)

I am really frustrated with myself. I am trying to get back to where I was with my eating .. Yesterday I did a grocery shop (which I counted for February) and bought some apples along with the bananas. I think where I lost ground is I was eating more sandwiches and less fruit/fiber. Not to mention soda and junkfood. Yeah - the soda I was going to give up. :arghh!:

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School -

I had my first formal teacher evaluation since 2005 on Wednesday. I think it went well overall. The kids participated and behaved well, and I was a little hyperactive due mostly to nerves I think. I was supposed to meet with my principal today to go over her observations, but due to feeling like carp warmed over this morning (thanks to my oh so healthy eating), I stayed home sick.

In other interesting (to me at least) news .. I'm teaching the second graders keyboarding. The maintenance guys managed to find ten defunct keyboards for me, which I had my assistant cut the cords off of. I'm using those for the kids to practice on so that I can have them all within easy eyesight as they are learning. I'm using the whole keyboard method - as in they are learning all the letters for the pinky finger, then the ring finger, then the middle finger, etc. They also are learning about home row and posture. So far they seem to be having fun with it especially when I ask them to practice -- Dog Chews Queen, or Queen Eats Zebra ... etc. (The word/letter/finger association seems to work really well.) They've learned the pinky, middle and pointer fingers so far - next week I'm going to have them work in Word so they can see what they're typing.

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Baltimore trip -

I found out that I'm going to have a roommate. A young thing in her mid-20s. Hope she doesn't think I'm too old fogiesh. (and I hope she's not a partier who stays up all hours of the night being loud ...)

They're having some kind of 3 hour walking historical tour that I can sign up for. I have to decide if I want to do this by the 5th. On one hand, the exercise probably would be good for me. On the other hand, I think I'd rather get my exercise in the hotel's fitness room where it is WARM! and I can listen to music. Hmmm... I probably really should do the tour. Embrace the experience ... (It's free - part of the whole trip. So that's not a factor.)

Today on the way into town for church, my gas indicator reached the final little cell and started blinking about 12 miles from the first exit with a good gas station. I got there, and filled up for $2.95/gallon (much better than the $3.09/gallon in my mini town, but NOT better than the $2.82/gallon I saw on the road to church later!!) ~$31.xx -- first fill up in January

After church I debated whether I should hold off on my grocery shopping til Sunday, or go ahead with it. I figured all I was going to pick up was some OJ and a few treats, so not worth making a second trip.

Umm.... $90 later .... Admittedly, $34 of that figure was replacement shoes for my good dress winter shoes which were falling apart .. but still ... that's a lot of OJ and treats. (OJ, bread, bananas, granola bars, junk food, sweet potatoes, etc...) This will of course be my only grocery trip for January, other than visiting the small mom and pop place in mini town for bananas (and egg salad sandwiches when they're in stock!)

Next up was Walgreen's to get my prescription. I contemplated going inside so I could pick up a jar of Nutella (something I wanted at Walmart, but the only small jar they had had a cracked lid - nope!) However, I decided I'd got enough junky food and did not need to spend any more money on food. So ... $24 for the prescription.

Then tonight I got an email from Choice Privileges which reminded me that I needed to decide whether I was going to stay in a hotel on the 14th before heading out to Baltimore, or hoof it out the morning of the 15th. Looking at the time of my morning flight -- 10:45, and thinking about leaving the house around 6 a.m. .... and then paying $24 to park my car.. I decided to see what I could come up with for a hotel.

I found a hotel with airport shuttle service, free Wi-Fi, a very good comp. breakfast, and Park & Fly service for a total of approximately $60. I think it's the same place I've stayed at before, but it has changed its name for whatever reason. This way I'll have a good nights sleep, a good breakfast, and not have to worry about parking in a tight space in one of those shuttle lots. (Parking was a nightmare last time - I had to have someone guide me into the space .. and I have a tiny car.)

If I leave right after my last class on Thursday, I can be in ABQ by 5 at the latest, and maybe enjoy a nice dinner somewhere (esp. somewhere that can't be found in big G!)

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I almost have enough SBs for my 5th $5 AGC this month. I have met the goal now 19/19 days. My plan is to hit the goal 31/31. This will give me ample SBs to go into Feb with, esp. since for 5 days the most I'll be able to get is with the mobile SBTV app and a few search wins.

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My $10 from GymPact hit my Paypal account. I've emailed them to ask for a way to add a referral link into blog posts rather than have to post it on a person's FB wall. So far, I haven't heard back.

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All of us teachers were given notice - get our NM certification transfers started or completed ... or no new contract. Gulp. I keep procrastinating on doing this .. but must stop! I doubt the NM ed dept. will be open on Monday. I've tried to figure out if I'll still have my TX licenses in addition, or if those will be gone? I don't see why I'd lose the TX licensees ... but stranger things do happen - esp. in education.

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I am GLAD for this 3 day weekend. I know we've only been back in school for two weeks (and not even that, with a snow day and two two-hour delays ...) but I am READY for the extra time off. (Of course, I *really* need to use that time wisely - i.e. working on my electives assignments and my final project ... time is moving fast!)

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Almost forgot!

I signed up with this presentation site a month or so ago thinking I might be able to use it as part of my final project. Tonight I got an email from them saying that if I create a presentation with certain details, that I will be given a $50 AGC!!!! It has to be made by 1/23rd. It is only for new users who receive the email, so I don't know if anyone else could get the same email, but if your interested in trying ... here's the website: presentation tube net

I really must be addicted to this site ... I kept checking ALL DAY LONG, cleared cookies, checked on my computer at work, at home, my iPhone, my iPad ... considered emailing Jeffrey ...


** Yesterday I managed to pull up the recent blogs, but was only able to make comments go through on two of them.

So glad it is back up!!

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My GymPact payment went through PayPal today! Also received the 2nd $5 AGC from Swagbucks, and am about 100 away from my next one. Redeemed for a $5 AGC from Irazoo yesterday.

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We had a two-hour delay today, and are having another one tomorrow -- both due to the temperature. It was something like -5 when I arrived at school today at ..9:30!! Tonight/early am is supposed to be as cold. Yikes!

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I just barely finished doing the evaluations of proposals for the next AASL convention (School librarians.) I had something like 25 of them. It was really pretty cool to get to see some of the possible programs. There was one I was especially excited about because the presenters are two bloggers that I've followed for a while.

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I showed my 7th and 8th graders a cool presentation site this week - meograph.com. It turns a boring presentation into something very fun and interesting. A number of them are trying it out for their final presentations.

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I've had some interesting conversations the past few days with our 5th grade teacher. He's wet under the ears (maybe 22 or 23??) He was first really upset about the idea that next school year his pay will be divided by 26 instead of 22. Then he was upset about the 2% "raise" in SS tax. Today we were talking in the cafeteria (before morning prayers) about good places to do your taxes yourself, and about how many deductions are good to take, and why you want to NOT get a lot of money back in a refund. I also made sure he knew about the educator credit - he was worried about taking it since he didn't have receipts ... somehow I don't think the IRS is NOT going to believe that a teacher spent $250 on classroom supplies within a year's time ... I spent more than twice that my last year in the classroom when I VOWED to NOT spend so much ... Isn't he lucky to be around all these ol' fogies who know a thing or two about handling money?

I know I shouldn't let this get to me, but this particular person is annoying in general, and this just took the cake after an especially busy day.

Me, the 3rd grade teacher and the Title 1 teacher were all standing outside waiting for the busses to leave this afternoon. 3rd grade teacher asked me if I was planning to walk this p.m. I told her no, that I needed to get too much done tonight to make up for what I didn't get done last night (feeling really yucky again last night.) Title 1 teacher butts in and says, "Oh, you weren't feeling good?" I tell her that no, I wasn't - and that I hadn't all of last week, and still wasn't. But that I figured if I still wasn't feeling 100% after a week of laying pretty low, that taking one or two days off from work wasn't going to help.

She then says to me, "Well, that depends on what the work is. If all you're doing is shelving books ..Shelving books seems like it would be such a relaxing activity." Seriously?!!! The only reason the books get shelved most days is because of my awesome assistant! Last year I'd only get them shelved if I stayed after school - the kids were very used to looking on the book cart for books that hadn't been put away yet ..

Most days - but especially Monday, Tuesday and Friday, I am running from the time I arrive until the time I leave. No, I don't have classes scheduled throughout the entire day - with very good reason! I just need to remember *who* the comment came from (she's not very well regarded by most of the staff here ...) Still, it was very annoying.

End of vent.

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Today something kind of funny/cool happened. I had the 7th grade girls working on their research project (they got to choose their own topic.) After they'd worked hard for 30 minutes, I told them they could have the last ten minutes for free choice time. Of the 7 girls, only two of them stopped working on their project. I was duly impressed. One of the girls said as she was leaving later that her fingers sure were cramped up after doing so much typing (nearly 40 minutes of it!) I told her that was pretty normal and to shake her fingers out.

Another funny .. My second graders had started a PowerPoint project where they were making a slideshow telling about what they wanted for Christmas. Due to a variety of circumstances, we hadn't gotten very far on it. I figured after two weeks out that they'd forgotten about it .. and of course it wasn't really relevant anymore .. so had something else planned entirely. Their teacher (as she dropped them off) asked me if I could have them do a short research project next week. Then I saw that they had all brought their sticky note list (of what they wanted) with them ... So I improvised, and we worked on our project! (I was impressed with how much they'd retained from nearly 3 weeks ago - especially since this was their first introduction to PP.)

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Oh, remember those cut away books I got at Costco in TX? (dinosaur and shark) They were HUGE hits. I had to come up with some creative measures to decide who got to check them out first.

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I just cashed out for another $5 AGC from SB. (to make this a little bit financial related...)

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I am actually feeling a bit better tonight, so hopefully I'm on the mend. And hopefully I'll get more sleep tonight than I have the past two nights. It's not affecting me adversely yet, but if I don't get a better night's sleep soon, it probably will. I just have to get my mind to shut off ...

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Oh! I almost forgot another funny! This morning when I went to open the library door, I found that it was frozen shut! I was able to unlock it, but it wouldn't budge. I ended up going in through the computer lab, and then later the maintenance man came by and pulled it open with one nice big pull. When it warmed up later we figured out why it had frozen over like that -- had lots of water dripping off the roof right over the door.

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I got my last paystub for 2012 yesterday. When looking at it, the total YTD would be right for 27 payments, but not for 26. I was paid every other Thursday .. so that would only be 26 paydays, right?? I plan on calling our payroll person tomorrow to clarify - want to have that fixed before they submit my W-2!!

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My January car payment was mailed out yesterday. Another $200 down. It got sent out before I remembered to cancel it so I could add the additional $600. I'll probably just wait til the February payment to do the big payment.

Well today went pretty well overall. A good number of our staff was sick over the break. I'm still not feeling well, but if a week of pretty much laying low hasn't helped, then one more day won't do much.

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I had the Kinders record their sentences about snow today. After the Wednesday group records theirs as well, I'll post a link to it. So cute. their teacher told me that the group I had came back SO excited about getting to be recorded. Just wait till they get to hear themselves (I'm trying to slowly convince the kinder teacher that K can do tech too...)

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I felt really bad for our 5th grade teacher. He got back midnight on Thursday to find that his pilot light had gone out, thereby freezing his pipes - which caused his bathroom faucet to break and start spraying water. His bathroom was flooded, and his wall opposite with lots of kid notes/drawings was soaked, and the carpet in his bedroom too. What a mess to come home to.

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YNAB is looking for an online teacher. The hours could be anywhere from 2 - 12 week. I have the link on my other computer, but you probably could find it in the blog too.

(I'd go for it, but just don't have the time for it right now. If only it had opened up in April!)

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I've met the daily goal on SB now for 6 days in a row. I was really hoping today's goal would be a small one - but nope, 110. Ugh. So I'm doing SBTV On both my phone and my computer and doing my web surfing on the iPad. When what I'd really like to do right now is go to bed..

Tomorrow we have an at home game (basketball). I really try to go to them when they aren't on a Friday or Saturday. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make this one though - if I'm still feeling so sick to my stomach tomorrow. Ugh.

Does anyone know of a prescription allergy medicine with decongestant that is still available? Allegra-D is what worked for me for YEARS, but now that its over the counter only, I can only get 10 days at a time AND its way more expensive - ten days is more than I paid for 30 days of the generic version.

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The joke books I got at the Schol warehouse sale were a big hit, as I bet they'd be. I'd bought the next two books in a series we have that I thought one of my 8th grade girls really liked .... Glad I got them at a discount- because when I showed it to her today I got the " ugh, that series was so boring - I couldn't make it past the first few pages." Oops. Of course a different 8th grade girl was very happy about the new Bluford High book I got ... So you win some and you lose some.

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At our staff meeting today it was decided that we would have a Mardi Gras party instead of a Valentine's Day party due to Lent starting on Feb 13. The kids will still be allowed to exchange cards, just no party. I'm learning new nuances of Lent all the time. Before I came here I knew about it, and I knew about some of the stipulations of it, but had never seen anyone take part in it. Interesting..

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I changed my GymPact for this week to only 4. Right now I'm wishing I'd put it to two. Oh well, I'll manage. Once I have the ~$12 in my PayPal, ill probably be twice as motivated.

Ugh. I think my allergies have actually turned into a sinus infection. I could barely sleep last night even with dosing myself with generic Nyquil - kept coughing due to drainage. Erch. Thought about going to the doctor today .. but by the time I realized that it probably had become a sinus infection, it was really too late to try to get an appt. I think the doctor is only in on Fridays ... not sure though.
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Today I took Kari to the vet to get her nails clipped. $10.79

She's been chewing on the sides of my bedroom doors to get my attention in the morning ... I have the feeling I won't be getting any of my security deposit back when I move ... thanks Kari.

One of my co-workers suggested Bitter Apple Jelly (tried the spray and that didn't work.) Will see.

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Managed to snag another $5 AGC today. So far have hit the goal amount 4/4 days (mostly due to the SB mobile app - 50 SBs a day from that! As long as they don't put any ridiculous amounts like 120, I think I might be able to do the 7 day in a row bonus.

It was kind of funny tonight -- I had Drop 3 going on my main computer (SB game that you just basically start and forget til it finishes ... then start the next game), the SBTV app going on my phone, and was reading the SA blogs on my iPad. Multi-tasking at it's finest.

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I'm almost ready to cash out for another $5 AGC from Irazoo. That site takes *forever* to reach payout level, but still is another way to find snowflakes right?

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I received a gift from my Aunt and Uncle (Egypt) today (currently staying with Grandma in CA.) A beautiful blue embroidered Egyptian style top. I'm not sure when I'll wear it -- maybe for church??

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I'm now up to just shy of $10 with GymPact. A lot of people must not have made their pacts last week because I averaged $.56/day versus the more normal $.35 - .44/day. After this week I'll be over the $10 mark and can make my first withdrawal. I'm planning on only doing the first withdrawal so that I can have statement proof to put on my other blog .. then I'm going to just let it build until November or so. I guess you could call this a snowflake.

**Those of you who have an Android phone - their Android app is now live! If you're interested and would like to help me out, I'd be happy to give you my referral code. (We'd both get $5 after you complete your first pact.)

The other app I've been using AcheiveMint has changed the point value for the daily weigh in from 40 to 10. Oh well, it still is free money for doing something easy and fast - just will take longer to get to it. (I'd figured it would take 90 days with just weigh-in points to get the first $25 card, but now it will probably take closer to 150 days - unless I manage to get some longer walks in.)

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I actually made some progress on my electives today - completed three assignments. Just had to sit down and do it mostly. Still have a LONG way to go on them.

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It has been WAY cold here. The lowest temp I've seen (when awake) was -11 at around 7am - so you know it was lower than that previously!

Financial:

Goal #1:

Pay car off. As far as I can tell, I think this will be a completely doable goal. I can manage $250/mo while still putting money in other savings categories, and then I'll have 3 months with an extra paycheck AND whatever I get back from my tax refund. So, completely doable.

Goal #2:
Get to $5k in EF. This means saving and additional $3500. I *might* be able to do this. I'll get more aggressive on this once #1 is finished.

Goal #3:
Put $3k in my ROTH. It'll really depend on my tax refund - I may take $600 out of it to put in the ROTH, which would make this a doable goal.

Goal #4:
$1k in FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)
Maybe ... This also may become my Moving fund eventually if/when I relocate. I want to do some investing in Vanguard I think, and need at least $3k to do the lower level fund.

Goal #5:
Find a way to earn extra income this summer. I have about 8 weeks in the summer which I could conceivably do *something* with - I'm just not sure what would be the most feasible. During that time though I also need to do some major downsizing of belongings, so that if I *do* end up moving the following summer, I can get by with a small moving truck (thus reducing moving expenses and helping me with housing costs wherever I end up.)

Personal

Goal #1:
Give up soda. I've done it before, and I can do it again.

Goal #2:
Go back to the NO S philosophy (at least in regards to junkfood - only on the weekends.)

Goal #3:
Consistently do 30+ minutes of exercise 5 days a week.

Goal #4:
Let other people's drama be theirs and not let it affect me negatively.

Goal #5:
Finish the stupid class. (without being too negative about it.... )

So ... I spent a good bit of money in December. Some of it was reimbursed, some of it was money I received for birthday/Christmas which I distributed to various categories. My biggest expenses were in the grocery and fun money categories - groceries - I did a large stockup at Costco -- fun money ... some of it probably could've been categorized as vacation, but I generally use the vacation budget for actual travel expenses such as airplane/train tickets. So this was eating out, movies, a few items I've been wanting that I treated myself to which didn't fall into any particular other category ... etc.

I already allocated the $1k I received back from the dealer - but since it hasn't completely cleared yet, I haven't sent the check yet. That's why I have a sizeable balance in my car loan category.



January hopefully will be a much less spendy month. I doubt that I'll have all my tax info in yet for me to do my taxes, but I did add a little extra to my other category to cover tax fees. I'm really hoping that groceries will be significantly less than what I've budgeted, but in case it isn't ... I made the room. I doubt that I'll spend much in the fun money category in January - especially with as much eating out and movies as I've done the past few weeks. Hopefully that's mostly out of my system for awhile.
We'll see.

I got into ABQ yesterday around 10 am and then after picking up my car ($24 parking for 6 days) I headed over to Costco. On the way I filled up my tank at $2.99/gal ($30.xx).

I spent around 2 hours in Costco. I picked up kitty litter, oatmeal, Amy's soups, Lentils, toilet paper, dishwasher pacs, brownie bites (cheaper than Walmarts), hummus, vegge patties, bananas, grape leaves, various veggies, cooking spray and a pair of gloves you can wear and still use your smartphone. All told .. $172. Ouch. The money comes from a variety of accounts though - groceries, household, Kari, and fun money.

Then I headed to Walmart (right next door to Costco )At Walmart I picked up floor mats for my car, a steering wheel cover, chair back massager (on sale), a dash mount for my phone (which I think I might return because I don't think it's gonna work), hand warmer (gift for next year - on sale), vegge corn dogs, various frozen meals, bread, a baking dish, cat food, OJ, some junkfood, sparkling cider (for NYE), auxiliary cable, etc. I can't find my receipt right now (must be in car) but I think it was around $130. Again, the spending will come from various categories - Kari, Fun Money, Groceries, Gifts, Car, etc.

**The groceries I picked up should give me a pretty good stash for a couple months. So I'm hoping that I can keep my grocery spending in January and February to $50 each or less. We'll see.

I received $250 in cash for birthday/Christmas money, so I used some of that to buy some things I'd been wanting (baking dish, aux cable, floor mats, massager, etc.) I also used some of it to do some major stocking up on food goods.

Kari definitely was glad for me to be home. She pretty much has not left my side since I got back.

In the mail I had the $1k check from the car dealership, which I photo deposited this morning. It won't be available until around the 7th. Once it's available, I'll send most of it to my car loan.

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I've been thinking about the advice I received on my last couple posts. I don't think I'd feel good about moving anywhere else as long as I still have debt. Plus I really would like to stick it out with the current group. So ... I think I'm going to give myself one more school year here. It would give me 3 years of experience, put me in a debt free situation again as well as give me time to build up a moving fund, and hopefully in 18 months or so I'll be on a more even emotional footing as well.

This coming ten days (including today) my goal is to focus on cleaning and decluttering my house/laundry/dishes/cooking ahead, (2 days worth of focused time), spend 2 focused days working on electives, spend 1 focused day working on final project, 2 focused days on work/school, and 3 days of just relaxation.

Next week I need to get Kari's nails clipped (sorely overdue!!), return the outfit I didn't wear, contact BofA about dad's estate, and possibly return the dash mount device.

So this morning I received two phone calls - one at 6 a.m. and one at 7:15 a.m. The first one confirmed what I already suspected - a two-hour delay. The second surprised me with -- Snow Day! Looking outside I saw maybe two inches at the most of snow on the ground - even though the forecast was calling for snow throughout the day.

I debated for a few minutes whether I should use this as an opportunity to sleep in a bit and do some housework/school work, or get all the stuff done that I was going to attempt to do after sunset tomorrow. It wasn't a difficult choice - especially when a co-worker agreed to go with me.

We started off by making our first foray ever into the local mall. I was actually quite surprised by the variety of shops in the mall. We checked both JCP and Beall's for an appropriate dress (royal blue for mom's wedding) and found absolutely nothing. Before leaving the mall though, I checked around to see if someone could put a new battery in my dad's train watch for me. The jeweler at JCP did it - $10.xx So now I have a working watch again.

My co-worker reminded me of the Cato's near Wal-Mart, so we went there to see what we could find. No dresses, but did find a very pretty blouse/tank combo and skirt in something pretty close to royal blue. $58.xx I sent a picture of it to my mom, and she liked it. I plan to look for alternatives when I get to ABQ next Friday, but at least I have something on hand in case nothing turns up there. (If I do find something, then I can return this outfit here.)

Next we went to the bowling alley. My friend had never been bowling before. I love to bowl, but am not very good at it. Unfortunately, the bowling alley was not open.

So we decided to go eat lunch. This was my first time eating at a sit down restaurant since this past summer, so that was very nice. I got a veggie burger w/swiss cheese and mushrooms, sweet potato fries, and a slice of cheesecake. Mmmm mmmm! The waitress put my friend and I's bills together for whatever reason - my friend already gave me $7 towards it, and will give me another $5 on Monday. Our total bill was $32.xx + a $5.67 tip. (I didn't ask my friend to pay tax or tip.) (This came out of my Fun Money budget and is my pre-birthday treat to myself.)

Next we headed to Wal-mart. My friend did her shopping for her students Christmas presents (using money donated for that purpose) and I did my grocery shopping. My first real grocery shop for December. I bought a few special things to celebrate my real birthday tomorrow. Sparkling grape juice and Russel's French Chocolate Mints. The total was around $40 - but included cat litter which had a $1.50 coupon on it. I need to crunch the numbers to figure out what the actual grocery cost was.

On the way back we saw gas for $2.98/gallon. I had filled up on Wednesday for $3.19/gallon. If I'd realized the huge price difference, I would have only gotten a couple gallons. Oh well.

We were planning on doing our walk tonight after getting everything put away, but the wind had gotten super bitter cold. So I'm hoping that tomorrow will be MUCH warmer. If not, I'll still have to walk in it in order to complete my pact for the week.

One thing I did not get taken care of today due to being out all day was calling my car loan credit union to figure out how to set up an account. I guess I will have to try them in the morning. (If they're open.)

When I checked my mail I had an envelope from my grandma - forwarding a piece of my dad's mail. I was kind of surprised I didn't have any birthday cards. When I saw the one from my grandma, that's what I thought it was. I think part of me was kind of expecting to see one from my dad... even though I *know* that won't happen.

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Throughout the day I kept getting alerts on my phone telling me the latest updates on the school shootings. I usually have my volume off, but had it turned on last night so I could hear when the phone rang for bad weather news. It just got worse and worse as the day wore on.

My heart is so heavy for the families who lost their little ones today, and for the families who lost a brother, sister, mother, father ... It is just totally senseless.

Today I filled my car up with gas for the second time since I bought it over Thanksgiving break. It was a little bit over 10 gallons and cost about $32. When I entered the information into gas Cubby I found out that my MPG was a bit over 33! Of coarse, when I told this to our nurse here she told me "You're going to cry. My car I regularly get 50+ miles per gallon." Oh well, I'm still very happy with my car.

I had to stop and buy some bananas again tonight. But I managed to get out of the small mom and pop store with only spending $3.86. So not as bad as it could've been.

I got my license plate in the mail today. So now I guess I have to go and find some bolts so that I can put the license plate on my car. The school nurse suggested I go to Napa and ask them if they have bolts. So I may just ask them if they'll put them on for me.

I still have not received my final account number for my credit union account where my car loan is. And I need that so I can set my account yet so I can make my first car payment ! I must give them a call tomorrow and figure out what's going on. I really don't want to have to worry about this when I go on vacation.

I'm doing really well was spending this month. I guess I needed the motivation of a real car loan to get me to finally stop doing all the extraneous spending. I just hope that I can keep up with that motivation.

So Wednesday I chose the books I wanted out of the two boxes of librarian candy that came shortly before Thanksgiving break and added them to our collection. 28 books for approximately $500. Gulp.

I showed my 5th graders the stack of books and told them that they cost about $500 and that the money for them came from the book fair. They were duly impressed. The main books that were competed for (had to choose numbers between 1 and 25) were the two cookbooks, the origami books, and the drawing books.

I think I've done my duty adding to our non-fiction collection and updating the average age for this year. With the bit of money left I'm going to work on adding more graphic novels (which the kids *really* go for) and other good fiction. I still will add more non-fiction as kids or teachers express interest - just won't be so focused on it.

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Yesterday I was showing my second grade group how to do various things in PowerPoint. I was using the Smartboard (touchscreen) to show them how to do different things. At one point as I was looking around the room to see if the kids were following/understanding, I noticed one of the new boys touching his screen in the same spot he was supposed to click. I quietly went over and told him that they didn't have touchscreens, but that he had to use the mouse. It was just so cute and sweet.

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Yesterday and today most of the staff at our school worked on setting up for the Christmas Dinner. Today we had teacher inservice in the morning (which included a presentation on suicide prevention - white youth led in % of attempted/completed suicide per year, while Native American youth came in a close second! Sad.) The afternoon was working on setup. In Santa's workshop we have 3 huge boxes full of beanie babies. It was really cute/funny - one of the beanie babies had a sign "Prom of 1988" or something like that. The 5th grade teacher assistant jokingly asked the 5th grade teacher when his prom was - and then when he saw the year, he said that he hadn't even been born then! Yikes, that sure made me feel old! (It was funny how into beanie babies two of the teachers seemed to be - they were making a game out of seeing how many of them they could correctly name - and were getting LOTS right.)

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So, it looks like I might be making a trip out to the D.C. area President's Day weekend. All expenses paid. It is for the Ameri Corp program. Since this is my second year in the program, it is also my last chance to go. I wasn't planning on going due to my class I'm taking, but my principal talked to me today and sounded like she *really* wanted me to go. She told me that she thought I'd "be a really good representative for our school." So, I guess I'm going - will just have to make sure to find time to work on my class work while I'm there!

I also will have to see if a good friend of mine from high-school who lives near there can come see me. I haven't seen her since ... 1994? Yikes.

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I'll also have an overnight trip into ABQ in March for that same seminar on good children's books I went to last year (only for 2013 books.) That will also be all expenses paid.

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I talked to my mom tonight and it sounds like I'm going to have some crazy days when I get to TX. For the wedding I'll be getting a mani/pedi, haircut/highlights and my makeup done. (I don't even own hardly any makeup anymore since I rarely wear lipstick and even more rarely mascara ... so for formal pics, I guess I should go for having my makeup done.) Then Saturday late afternoon my soon to be stepdad is taking me and the other out of town guests out to Olive Garden. (Yum!!!) Sunday will be the whirlwind of getting ready for the wedding. Then Monday I'll be taking one of the guests to the airport and returning a bunch of rentals ... and hopefully have time to work on classwork (if I can get an extended deadline for the previous week's work.)

I'm thinking of going to ABQ as soon as the Christmas program is over and staying in a hotel -- that would get me in to ABQ around 9:30 p.m. Then the next morning I would need to find my dress and if time, stop at the Schol Book Warehouse (Winter Sale - have about $60 in Schol dollars to spend.) That way I'd also be able to park my car at the hotel while I'm in TX for just $15. If I can't find a suitable dress here in big G next weekend, then I'll probably have to go this route. If I can, then I'll just go in the morning and hit the warehouse sale before my flight. (and then also need to check to see if I could still park my car at that hotel ...)

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I stopped by the local mom and pop store this afternoon to pick up bananas and bread. If it was just bananas I needed, I would have made myself wait. But I needed bread to make my lunches for the next week ... I managed to get out for less than $15! I bought bananas, bread, two brownie mixes, 3 orange juice bottles (the 15oz kind - biggest they have), and a few other junky food stuff which will count towards my fun money. They didn't have egg salad sandwiches, otherwise I would have spent a good bit more.

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I finally got the paperwork from the place that owns my car loan today. In it, it says that you can have a deductible of $1k on comprehensive/collision. So I called my car insurance and changed my deductibles, thus saving me $30/6 months. I have to wait for the letter with my customer number before I can set up my online account with the credit union. I understand why they do it that way, but it is annoying. (I wanted to get it done and setup!!)

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It's supposed to get really chilly here the next couple nights ... lows of 5 degrees or less. Brrr!!! But no snow in the forecast for the near future.

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I finally watched my training video for the evaluating breakout session proposals this afternoon. It isn't too hard, and I'm looking forward to seeing what topics might possibly be included at the 2013 librarian conference.

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I received a $5 AGC from Swagbucks yesterday. So right now have about $60. I'm really going to try not to spend it for awhile. We have lots of new books in the library, so the money can just rest for awhile.

Well I was going to try to make it to Dec 15 with no spending, but today the mid-school had a bake sale. So I bought a rootbeer float for $.50 and gave them a $1 (no change.)

We are working on setting up for the Community Christmas Dinner which is this coming Saturday. Last year I was Mrs. Clause, but we're not having Mrs. Clause this year. Everybody who was here last year was surprised because the kids really got a kick out of it. Oh well. I guess it is a money saving measure.

Tonight I had the pleasure of spending 2 1/2 hours (after staying at school til 5 setting up for Dinner) of "learning" about Google search, gmail and calendar. What did I learn that was new to me? How to make a label. I get to do it again next week, so hope there'll be *something* new for me.

I got a postcard from the credit union that took my car loan, but nothing else. I am going to try to call them tomorrow and figure out what is going on - why I haven't received any paperwork or emails yet to set up my payments.

I earned $1.43 last week with Gym Pact. Today my co-worker and I did our 30 minute walk after everyone left - on the school campus - because it was getting close to dark. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to complete my 4 walks for the week (and then would owe money!)

The same co-worker I mentioned wanted to set WiFi up at her home to run her phone on, but did not have her computer here yet. (She'd ran out of room in her car coming here.) So I took my netbook over - could not set it up with FireFox (which is the only browser on the netbook. The customer service lady I think thought I was a computer dummy when I insisted that NO there was no IE on my computer!) So instead I got my dad's laptop and brought that over - that one worked perfectly (has IE of course!) I'm letting her borrow it til her computer gets here.

I got my PenFed card in the mail yesterday. When I went to activate it, I saw they had an offer to change it to a different type of card. The current card offers 5% cashback on gas and no annual fee. The other card offered 5 pts on gas and 3 pts on groceries - but no cash back, only gift cards. The % and points worked out to be exactly the same (I checked the rewards out.) The problem I saw was that there was an asterisk by grocery store - which more than likely means that Walmart would NOT be counted. I was thinking until I saw that, that maybe that card could completely replace my MyPoints card. But nope - not if Walmart isn't considered a grocery store.

I thought it was weird that I received the card before finishing filling out the paperwork they'd mailed me... Also, I noticed that for the checking account there is a fee if you have less than a $500 balance .. so need to check that out. They pay less interest than ING, so I don't know that I really want $500 sitting there - although the 5% gas rewards might almost make it worth it.. (especially since I have money sitting in an account not earning anything at all in BofA that I could move over ..hmmm...)

Ok, it is way too late and I need some sleep.

I found a new program on Netflix the other night which I am LOVING. It had the prediction that I'd give it 5 stars, and I think they are right. It is called "Touch" and is about an 11 year old boy with autism who communicates with his dad via numbers. There's only 12 episodes which makes me sad because I've already watched 4.

So ... November was a spendy month. The largest expense of course was the purchase of my new to me car + associated expenses. (Car, extra gas expenses, Carfax purchases, and $8 of Fun Money towards treating friend to drink during road trip)

Although the groceries did end up going over the $100 goal mark, it was definitely MUCH better. I think in December I will be able to stay well *under* the goal mark.

Tithe and Offering were higher this month due to a 3rd paycheck, although I did take a portion of that back towards gas money due to taking care of the pastor's dogs. (Although considering that they lent me their car during that time period ... I'm not sure whether I should give that back or not. I did overfill their gas before returning their car (had just at 1/2 gallon when I got it - returned it with a bit more than 1/2 gallon.)

This month due to the car purchase, I had a negative savings rate. But that will change in December.

I had several sources of extra income this month. Sold my Honda - $200, 2 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks, 1 $5 AGC from Irazoo, $50 AGC from MyPoints, $30 babysitting money, $44.46 from Credit Card Rewards. Probably a few things I'm forgetting too.


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I upped my Fun Money spending amount for December due to my birthday coming up and not knowing what I'll need while back in TX over the holidays. (What with my mom getting married and all.)

You might notice that some categories have red balances in them. For all but one of them I just had the amount withdrawn from the available to budget amount for December, and one (Fun Money) I had subtracted from that category balance.

I did some major playing around with the numbers to find the extra $1000 I ended up putting down on my car that I hadn't meant to do. But, I was able to make it work AND still pay a $200 first payment (whenever I get the payment info set up!)

I've agreed to be an usherette at my mom's wedding which means I have to buy a new dress in the color of the bridesmaids dresses. Luckily it's a color I like, but I'm really not sure when or where I'll be able to find one!! (She has said she'll pay for it for me - but it's still a matter of finding one!)

A few months ago I opened up a new Citi card in order to take advantage of the Netflix free for a year promo. This made it so I had two Citi cards (I'd opened the first one a few years ago while in graduate school for some offer I can't remember now.)

So in an effort to reduce the number of open credit cards, I decided that I should go ahead and close that one. (Especially since I signed up for a PenFed credit card last night .... 5% gas.)

When I called about transferring my Thank You points to my new card and closing the old one, I was told that the points could not be transferred. So I had enough points for a $5 Starbucks card which did not excite me at all ... so the customer service agent added enough points for me to get a $10 gift card - Amazon unfortunately wasn't one of the choices, so I got a Macy's card which I'll probably give to my mom.

After that was taken care of, I was sent to the account specialist. I explained that I wanted to close my card and just stay with my new one. Short story -- I was offered 3,000 TYpoints if I spend $300 in the next 3 months. $300 in 3 months is something I could do - even if I take gas and groceries out of the equation. Maybe pay my car insurance and some other things that don't qualify for any of the 2 pts or 5% deals.

Now I guess I'll have to actually put the card back in my wallet!

So last night I was taking a look at all my CCs and bank balances as I updated YNAB 4 when I noticed a pending charge on my Discover Card ...

I was expecting a $2k pending charge for the car, but it showed $3k!! What?

I looked through my purse and found my receipt from the auto dealership, and sure enough, it was for $3k, not 2k. After realizing this, I checked the numbers and realized that neither I nor the co-owner/salesman had noticed this during the transaction. The car loan is for the correct amount (I double checked!)

I'd been told that they could only take up to $2k on a credit card, so I based my check amount + cash amount off of a total down payment of $6k - 2k on the card.

Now though, it appears my total down payment was $7k! It's okay, I can manage to scrounge up that extra $1k before the CC bill hits, I'm just having to do a bit of whack a mole (emptying out various rainy day funds) to do so.

So my gift fund is zeroed out. I took 50% of my medical fund (enough left for my monthly prescription next month.) I hit up Kari's fund (her shots can wait til January ..) I reduced my next Roth contribution to the minimum, and eliminated my EF contribution for December. I also decided to reduce my first payment from $200 to $160, and took money from a couple other rainy funds.. All that plus cleaning out the last little bit of money in the source I didn't want to touch, will pay off the entire $3k on the CC. Whooh! I still have a small EF so if anything were to happen, I'd still be ok.

(I was thinking I might have to dip a bit into my ROTH to do this, but thankfully was able to do it without dipping into anything already put in to it!)

I guess I should have double checked the numbers!!

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In an effort to rebuild my cash reserves as fast as possible ... anyone think that I could get $75 for my Asus EE PC netbook? I bought it for $300 in 2008 I think. It still works perfectly, just the software is kind of out of date. (It would include a carrying case, mini mouse, and protective sleeve.) Or would that be way more than what it's worth now? (There isn't a Craigslist for our area .. not unless the person was willing to drive 50+ miles to meet me halfway somewhere ...)

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Btw - drove my car to church yesterday. LOVE IT!

Yep, although my preference on a Black Friday is to be snug and warm at home, today I braved the shopping frenzy and headed out to the big ABQ.

My co-worker NC and I left shortly after 8 and arrived at our destination a bit after 10.


What was our destination?


A car dealership!

Yep, I bought a car today. Gulp.

I test drove and looked at two - a 2011 Nissan Versa ($10,900, 35k miles) and a 2010 Toyota Yaris (47k miles, same price.)

When it came down to it, I managed to force myself to ask - 10,500 including tax, license, etc? When told nope - not even 10,900 including those ... my friend and I actually walked off the property. Nobody followed us or tried to stop us.

We went to a Jack in the Box a few streets down and had a drink. 30 minutes later we went back, and I bought the .... Yaris!

The big differences between it and the Versa: power windows, power locks, keyless entry, nicer radio/stereo, more get up and go, and THE most important of all ... it is Blue!

I put down $6,000. $2k on my credit card (offering 2% cash back for Black Friday spending), $285 cash (from sale of Honda, babysitting money, etc.), and the rest in a check.

The remainder is being financed at 1.99% for 36 months with no early payment penalties. After signing the paperwork, the co-owner/salesman said that it was the lowest finance charge he'd ever seen ($170 something.) I told him that I don't plan on paying most of it (the finance charge.)

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So now that I have replaced my car, I need to do three things:

1. Pay back the loan
2. Save money for car repairs/next car
3. Get aggressive with saving for EF

My monthly payment is $154 something. I plan to pay $200/month on normal months. Months where I have a big boost in income (3 paychecks, tax refund) half that big boost will go towards the loan. I think I should have it paid off in 18 months or less.

I plan on putting the next $100/mo in the car repair/replace fund. This is a 3 year old car. I have to be ready and prepared for any maintenance items that might come along sooner than later.

The remainder of my savings quotient will go towards the EF, as well as 1/2 of any big income boost months.

This is the plan until I have the loan paid off. After that, I have an idea of what my plan will be.

A few days ago my pastor asked me if I'd watch their dogs and cat again while they go on their trip to see family. I reluctantly said yes - reluctantly not because I didn't want to help them out, but because it is a 20 minute one-way drive.

So today I went out there to get the house key and to make sure the animals remembered me. On my way though I had several cars honking at me. Then I noticed in my side view mirror that smoke was pouring out from behind my car. I pulled into a different lane to see if it was really smoke, or if it was dirt. I also adjusted my side mirror to see if I could see anything. Nope, it was smoke.

I got to my exit and pulled off. While crossing over the bridge, my engine started billowing smoke. Huge plumes of smoke. I immediately pulled over and stopped the car, grabbed my purse and keys and jumped out. (I was slightly afraid the engine was going to explode or burst into flames or something.

When nothing happened after a few minutes I called my brother and told him what happened. He told me he thought it sounded like a cracked radiator and/or blown head gasket. He ran it by our Uncle who knows a thing or two about cars, and he agreed.

Some of you know the saga I've had with my car over the time I've blogged here. You know how many times I have resisted the idea of saying goodbye to it and getting something else. I've kept saying - just a little while longer. It's still a good car. But today ... was the final straw. I thought about putting in another $1k worth of work into a car that probably isn't even worth that much. I thought about having my dragged to the nearest Honda dealer (near Albuquerque) and then having to deal with it from far away. I decided enough.

I decided to send my car to car heaven. The junkyard. Maybe I could have sold it to some young kid who could have rebuilt the engine and shined it up for a little more than the junkyard gave me ($200) but I really don't have the energy for that. I need to keep my focus on school and finding my "new" car.



The head elder of my church was out on his copier run (he fixes copiers) and did a little leg work to find out a junkyard that would take my car. He also is going to work on finding a car in the area for my price range ($5k or less.) My pastor picked me up from the junkyard and helped me get everything out of it. He and his wife then let me borrow their second car until Sunday so I don't have to rent a car yet. (I've also been asked if I'd be interested in being an assistant treasurer for the church ... I said yes, as long as it wasn't *every* Sabbath.)

I bought this car brand new - less than 50 miles on it in June, 1997 in California. It's final mileage was 146,497. So many memories - especially memories involving my dad.

So now the search is on for a good condition, good gas mileage, small 4-door car in the $5k range or under. Wish me luck.

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In other news ... A few weeks ago I applied to be a reviewer for the American Association of School Librarians 16th program. Today I got an email telling me I'd been accepted! What it involves is looking at proposals for programs / breakout sessions for the 16th program and deciding whether they are a good fit or not. It isn't a paid job, but it sure will look good on my resume - especially if they think I do a good job and reinvite me the next time!

This afternoon my two colleagues and I set off on our mostly daily walk. One colleague brings along her dog Zoie (a huge dog, maybe a bull mastif?? but super super super docile and sweet.) We also had another neighborhood dog named Sky tagging along with us.

Sky is what caused our walk to be eventful. She is a good, sweet dog who had puppies in Septmeber. Her puppies are now all gone - either died, given away or humane society. She's gotten really friendly with us because JB who has the dog Zoie feeds her sometimes.

Usually she doesn't follow us out of the trailer park, but today she did. While we were walking along on the road that is just outside of the park, another stray dog came along the road - it looked like a German Shepherd. It was pretty harmless by itself - rubbed noses with Zoie. But then another dog came along - and Sky got separated from us. I was having a BAD feeling in the pit of my stomach ... with good reason apparently because soon we heard the high pitched whine of a dog in trouble.

NC and I both picked up sticks and ran toward the 3 dogs. Both of our sticks broke quickly - so I started stomping and yelling like a banshee. It worked. The two strange dogs ran off, and Sky came slinking back to us. I was glad she realized that I wasn't yelling at her.

We continued on our walk, and came across some more stray dogs. All of us yelled and shooed them away. One kept following us from a distance, but finally gave up (after I gave another banshee performance.)

I really like Sky - she is a sweet dog and I feel bad for her - even though she has a home of sorts, she's not really taken care of that well. But we really can't have her following us like this - who knows if our scare tactics will continue to work.

Ugh.

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I spent the majority of the day today working on a new website for our media center. This was after watching a ton of profesional dev webinars, including a couple on making websites with google sites. I hadn't realized that I could get Google sites to do the kind of navigation I wanted, otherwise I would've started with it a couple years ago. Oh well. I have the basics up, and now just need to slowly add the content.

*This was of course done instead of the housework, working on coursework, or working on electives ... I did get my dishes washed though. So that was something.

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I did also make brownies and bake up my sweet potatoes tonight. This necessitated a run into the local mom and pop store for eggs. I was going to get cottage cheese too for my CC Roast, but not at $2.51 for 8 oz!!! (when I needed 32 oz.)

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I saw this posted on FB the other night and thought some of you might be interested:

Friday afternoon my 4th grade girls were speedy woodpeckers in getting their books checked out, so we had about 10 minutes left before time to go home. So I decided to let the girls look through one of my librarian candy boxes and see which books they thought were good choices. They picked out around 10 - some of them were ones I had planned on choosing, and some weren't. So it was interesting to say the least. (I did explain to them that I wouldn't be able to get ALL of them. One of them asked me how much the books cost, and I told them - anywhere between $17 and $30. They gasped. )

Yesterday I made it to church on time (almost didn't because Kari fell asleep on my lap and I hated to wake her...) I actually stayed for potluck - mostly because I needed directions to the church members house I'm going to on Thanksgiving. We had a yummy sweet potatoes dish AND stuffing AND green cabbage ... some of my favorite foods.

I was thinking about going to a movie in town either today or tomorrow, but neither of the ones I was interested in are playing here (Lincoln and Alex Cross.) So I'm going to content myself with Netflix (currently watching My Boys ... 3 episodes in and not too sure if I like it or not.)

Today I also worked on my long term project for my class (6 month cohort) where I'm going to make videos showing how to create different Scratch projects and then put them all on a website which I'll then have to promote to various educators. (I wonder ... could I propose it as a webinar on Simple K 12 too? That might be kind of fun. )

I also downloaded the apps GymPact and RunKeeper. GymPact is an app where you make a commitment for how often you're going to work out during a weeks time period, and then you make a bet/stake for each workout (from $5 to $50.) If you fulfill your commitment, you get PAID (up to $3.50/week.) However, if you don't fulfill your commitment/pact, YOU pay whatever stake you made.

It is only available for the iPhone currently, and you have to use RunKeeper for tracking your workouts. Workouts must either be in a verifiable gym (not home gym) or be outside trackable by GPS and last at least 30 minutes/2 mph. If anyone decides they want to try this out, you can get a beginning $5 (and I'll get $5 too) by using my referral code: pecdelaura

I used it for the first time today, and it seemed really easy to use.

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Since I realized that I won't be doing a movie this week, I decided to use some of my fun money for eating out -- i.e a sub from Blimpies tonight. Sunday and Monday they have my sub for $5 / foot long. It makes two meals for me.

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I'm making microwave peanut butter fudge for Thanksgiving. It is a recipe that our first grade teacher here made for our Halloween get together and then shared with all of us. I'm thinking that I'll make half the batch just plain peanut butter, and then the other half I'll add chocolate syrup to and maybe some pecans or walnuts. (the second half won't go to the dinner ...)

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I cashed out my My Points today - I debated for over an hour between a $50 AGC or a Walmart card. The Walmart card would have been 100 points more than the AGC, but it also would have ended up not being spent on books for the library - and that's kind of what I have committed my My Points and Swagbucks AGCs to ... to help reduce my real dollars being spent on library books.

Today as I was going into the computer lab, I for some reason or another looked down at my shoes. When I did this, I noticed that the sole on one shoe was cracked. I was really hoping to make this pair of shoes last two seasons (winter) but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that or not. I have another pair of shoes for work which I got from the Christmas Dinner thing last year which I haven't worn yet, so at least I won't have to go through the hassle of shoe shopping. That is something I truly dislike - almost as much as swimsuit shopping.

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On the advice of one of my co-workers, I bought some Rain-x de-icer last week. I've now used it twice. It works *great* at quickly melting the ice. However, both days it almost immediately refroze ... while I was on the road to work. The first day I had sprayed some windshield wiper fluid to clean the windshield, which I thought was maybe what made it freeze over. But it did it again today, albeit not so badly. I ended up driving about 3/4 mile with my window rolled down and my head stuck out trying to see. Not fun (nor very safe, I know!)

Tomorrow I need to make sure I get out early enough to do the deicing several times and see if that works better. (Or just scrape it normally!)

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This afternoon I stopped by the doctor's clinic and paid my balance. I had put it off for a while for no real reason, just hadn't gotten it done. $38.xx

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Yesterday a box of books came from one of the companies which lets librarians "preview" them, then send back any you don't want. I was expecting this box. My heart sank as I looked through the books, because I found *many* that would thrill my kids AND fit into my goal of upgrading the non-fiction. Of course the cost of the many would be upwards of $1k due to library binding.

Then this afternoon just as I was about to head out to the busses, EM brought by another box. This one also was from a preview company, but not one I was expecting. I also looked through it, and found many books I'd really like for our library.

Since I have nowhere near the approximately $2k to get all the books in the two boxes (plus it would leave me with NOTHING for anything else, except my pocketbook) I have decided to give myself a budget of $300 between the two boxes - concentrating on books which fit in the sections that desperately need updating.

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Today was our 2nd of 3 paydays for this month. It's hard to believe that half the month is already over. I know I lamented in an earlier post that I didn't think I was going to make the $100 grocery budget and so upped it a good bit. I still don't think I will make the $100 limit, but I don't think I'll go over it by too much. Especially if I can talk myself out of making stops for "just" a sandwich like I did today. Other than paying for my doctor ofice balance and a $5 donation at a bake sale last week, I have not spent anything since my last grocery shopping trip.

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Next week I'll have the whole week off. I want to do some casseroles that I can freeze into individual servings, do some cleaning and decluttering in my office, get a lot done on my elective classes, spend a day in the library and take in a movie (probably Alex Cross - love the book series!)

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Kari (my cat) is sitting in front of my monitor right now and refusing to be moved. So I guess that is my signal to finish up at the computer.

Before I go though, can anyone explain to me how to set a programmable thermostat? Thanks

My big bad spending categories - groceries and "Fun Money" i.e. eating out. Can't believe I spent this much on food this month. Maybe $30 of it was for the book fair treats, cupcakes for Halloween Festival, and candy for trick or treating .. the rest .. no justification. It's like I see that I'm trying to keep under $100 in groceries and my inner self goes NO WAY.

I have about $60 in cash right now, and will be getting another $30 or so tonight from a babysitting job. I'm going to use that money this month for cash. 2% back on my card isn't worth spending 2x my budget. Maybe I can actually keep in budget this month. (I will say that most of the groceries from my last shopping trip will keep me for a good week or more from now. Still though~!)

(Professional spending was also up there - that included books I bought at the bookfair, the iPad cover, and some books I bought on Amazon for the library.)

The bright side is that even with the overspending in some categories, I was still able to send $286 to my car savings account (about 22% of my net income.)

I would have made it with just one fill up if I hadn't had to run into big G on Tuesday to return some videos to the G-M District Library. They HAD to have them back to send out Wednesday morning. When I got to big G, I was running on fumes, so had to get gas and decided to just fill up ($3.45/gall) because it was a pretty good price comparatively.



In November I will get 3 paychecks. I budgeted the one I got on Thursday for November, and the other two will be for December. I was thinking about making a trip to ABQ during Thanksgiving break, but I think I won't do that. I will probably do a movie and go out to eat during that week though, but I do have fun money available for it.

I need to buy textbooks for my 3 electives, so I will have to take that out of the $1000 I have budgeted towards my car replacement category. Hopefully they won't cost too much, and hopefully I'll eventually be able to sell them again for close to the amount I pay. Then those funds would go back into the car category.

**I know I said I didn't want to talk about October's spending ... but I decided I needed to post it publicly. Otherwise I haven't really acknowledged the problem.

*I can't remember if I mentioned it or not. But I decided to cancel Ting for now. I just could not deal with the Android after having an iPhone for over 3 years. If they ever support the iPhone, then I'll be more than happy to switch over. Until then, I guess I'll pay the premium to keep my same plan. (I have looked and looked to see if there is anything else out there that would be cheaper AND assure me of not getting cut off if one month I use more data than usual. I've not seen anything in my area which gives me enough assurance to quit my grandfathered unlimited plan.)

Monday at school went relatively well for a Monday. Even the group I have to pump myself up about (PMA PMA PMA!) was pretty manageable.

Then I got home and found out that the new module for my online course had opened up. Oy vey! There are probably a good 5 hours worth of articles we have to read and respond/reflect on, plus the ever so dreaded group project. The group project requires FOUR members - there is a total of SIX students. Yeah, um... how's that gonna work??

Not to mention that the completed project is due by Saturday night, and we are just now forming groups... This IS NOT how I like to work. Not at all.

Give me all my assignments for the class and the due dates. Then I can work on them at my own pace when I have the most junkets of time. Not like this!

Yesterday I had tons of time in which I could've completed all the readings and the reflections. But since I had no access to them nor any idea what they were, I instead spent a lot of time watching "Make It or Break It" on Hulu (free version.)

The really "good" news is that from what I can tell, there are a lot of group projects throughout the course. Oh joy.

I have all the articles open in another window, but just getting through the "interactive text" put my brain to mush after a long day. So, I'll read the articles tomorrow. I really hope this isn't going to be as bad as I think it is....

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I stopped and got a sub tonight. My first one since August. The lady there remembered me and my sandwich. $5.33 (footlong - two meals)

Saturday night I managed to snag another AGC from Swagbucks - by using my Android phone to "watch" videos while reading MMM blogs.