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So . . I took a vacation day on Monday -- I was going to be Miss Busy Beaver and get my place in tip top shape and get meals planned out for the month . Ya da ya da ya da.

Er . . what did I really do? I read books #9 - 13 of the Plum series, plus a couple other books. I *did* go to church -- and then on Sunday I went to the grand opening of the upper grade campus of the school I used to teach at. (Until this year, grades PreK - 12th were on the same grounds as the church. Now, PreK-6 are on the church grounds, and 7th - 12th are at the new campus.)

I dropped all those books off at the library today on my way home from work - to help ensure I don't incur any NEW library fines! Ack!

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Today was my last personal training session with E. It was kind of weird - I've been training with him since October.
I think what I'll miss most in all honesty is having someone to talk with a couple hours a week.

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Thursday afternoon E is going to train me on how the gym policies work, and what I'll be doing. Then Friday afternoon will be my first shift. I'm looking forward to that extra money to put towards my savings goals.

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I'm thinking about stopping my membership with the outdoor club here. The Calendar for July was so full of activities, that I thought I'd have a hard time deciding which things to do. But . . the August calendar has mostly dining out events where it costs $35 min. There had been one free event, but it was canceled.

I think I'll be able to keep myself busy enough on the weekends between the two meetup groups I've joined - and those events will mostly be free.

I haven't completely decided yet though.

This morning my carpooler gave me $10 -- off it goes to my Extra Monies fund.
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After work today I stopped and got gas.

On August 1, my odomoter was: 104,333

Today, my odomoter was: 104,601

That is a difference of 268 miles

I bought 9.382 gallons on Aug. 1.
Today, I bought 8.135 gallons.

A difference of: 1.247 gallons

So . . my gas mileage is 268/8135 =~31mpg

Am I figuring this correctly?

Gas was $3.62/gallon for a total of $29.52

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I stopped by the library today - dropped off items and picked up some more. I unfortunately had forgotten to take two books which were due today with me - so I'll get them in tomorrow on the way home from church. $.70 fine.

One of the books I had to return today was my Vegetarian Slow Cooker book. I made copies of 6 of the recipes that I may want to try.

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Last night I made a start on my Shape It Up weekend by doing a trash run and a dish run.

So far tonight, all I've accomplished was actually eating one of the Veggie Bean Burgers I made a couple weeks ago (and froze!) to see if it was edible enough to include in my meal plans. It was.

I think #9 is calling my name quite loudly right now. I did make some progress in my plan . . . Hello? Stephanie? Yep I guess I'll be checking out your latest adventure here shortly.

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I got an email today from the person who bought the Brita pitcher - she'd picked it up from the PO this morning. She was so happy to have gotten it so fast. I guess I can't begrudge the extra shipping cost (and reduced profit) too much. ;D

Grocery shopping: $25.61

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday - Tuesday: $35.96
Wed - no spending

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today's spending:

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

Groceries: $30.59

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

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

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

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

Yay!!!

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

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?'s

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

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

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

Next ?

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

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

One more ?

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

July:

I kept fairly good track of my spending this month, but even so did overspend in several categories (food being the main culprit.)

I had some extra expenses that I had not counted on with my switch from a landline based DSL to a non-landline based DSL.

I made some purchases that I probably should have foregone.

However, I was able to sell some items, as well as return some items.

So, all in all, financially speaking, not a great month, but not the worst.

August:

I will be starting my second job sometime in August, which will bring in about $28/wk (3 1/2 hours)

I need to make a decision about whether I'm going to pay my gym membership in full for a year at the reduced rate, or just pay one-quarter at the reduced rate by August 30.

The DFWO group I joined in July is doing a 7-day Caribbean cruise at the beginning of January. It cost's $700 + taxes and tips. I'd really like to go on this, but there is no way I'd be able to save enough to go by January, unless I put all my savings + extras toward it.

So, thinking about how excited I was about the Kenny G concert, and how it motivated me to "find" money to be able to go, I've come up with a long term goal.

Starting in August, I now have 3 savings goals.

1. Car Fund (until fully funded):
$220/mo base + all HSBC interest
+ 40% of extra* monies

2. House Downpayment Fund:
$50/mo base (TDAMERITRADE)
+ All ING interest
+ 30% of all extra* monies

3. Cruise 2010 Fund:
30% of all extra* monies

*Extra Monies = Second job, proceeds from anything I sell, survey money, 5th paychecks, ING referral rewards, Carpooler money, overbudgeted amounts in gasoline, 50% groceries, bonuses, etc.

Once the Car fund is fully funded, it still will get all HSBC interest (to help pay for repairs.) But the House Downpayment will then go to 60% all Extra (plus the monthly savings), and the Cruise 2010 Fund will go to 40% all Extra.

I will track all extra money on a page (sidebar). I'm not *too* far from fully funding my Car Fund. I just have to really buckle down and quit spending so much overbudget in a few categories which keeps dwindling down my one-month buffer, which I then have to replenish, so send less to the savings goals.

-- I also think I'm going to track my gas mileage. I need to get gas tomorrow, so I'll start as of August 1.

* I finally received my reimbursement check from the disability insurance overpayment. So, that's $16.25 more which I'll be putting in my Downpayment fund.

* I had an ING referral go through today. So, that's $10 more to the Downpayment fund.

* My carpooler paid me today. I'm probably going to have to get gas tomorrow - so I think I'll put that $10 to my gas fund. $10 worth of gas should get me through to Friday, and a replenished gas fund.

* On Sunday I went on my first outing with the DFW club. There were six of us who ate lunch at the museum (good price/food). Then 4 more showed up in time to do the tour. The exhibit was really quite large, and I really enjoyed seeing works by Monet and Gaughlin etc. in person.

* I used nearly 1/2 tank of gas to go to the museum and back. Ugh.

* I've really been trying to do the gas mileage "tricks". Such as driving 55, not using a/c unless absolutely needed, trying to keep a steady smooth pace, etc.

I'm not sure if all of that has given me much more than an extra 15 miles or so. I'm also not sure if it's worth continuing when I'm having people practically running over me on the tollway. Or, like yesterday on 35, having people tailgating me and giving me birdy signs when they finally pass.

* This weekend I had a very visual reminder of why it's so important - so *vital* to have renter's insurance. Sometime Sunday morning one of the apartments in my complex caught fire. By the time the fire was out, 4 apartments were destroyed, and 12 others were heavily damaged by smoke and water. One person was injured, but I haven't heard anything about pets.

Neither my carpooler nor I had even heard the sirens or commotion because the area where this happened is on the other side of us, closer to the main road.

* I spent a bit of money this weekend on foolish and wasteful things. Things I knew I shouldn't be spending money on even as I bought them. Unfortunately, they are not things that can be taken back.

I got stressed out at work on Friday (over something which I found out today was not even necessary) and the "who cares" monster came out to play. Oy.

* I have signed up for not just one, but for TWO 5k's in September! One is on Labor Day, and the other is on the 14th. I was so happy to find races that weren't on Saturday. I really want to make going to church a regular part of my life again.

* The race on the 14th benefits an organization that does a lot to help underprivileged children in India and the US inner cities obtain an education. I have set a fund raising goal, and made a donation page. If anyone is interested in hearing more, let me know.

* One of my co-workers today told me that her daughter was interested in doing a 5k with me. So I gave her the info for both of the races I've signed on for, and told her I'd love to have the company!

* I've been having trouble with my abductor muscle the last week or so. E, my PT was telling me it could be overtraining. I sheepishly asked him if the problem could also be caused by drinking too much coke.

After telling me what I know already (i.e. soda dehydrates muscles) he told me that for every ounce of soda I drink, I should drink 2 ounces of water to somewhat mitigate the effects.

He also suggested using foam rollers to help work out my leg muscles. Although he said a much less expensive option was just getting some pvc pipe from Home Depot, etc. That it would serve the same purpose. **Bright idea alert! I just remembered that I have two pvc poles that my dad made for me years ago (for some exercise video - which have gone unused) which would work perfectly! Can't get more inexpensive than free!

E will be working at the gym in the morning, so maybe I should take one of them and see if he'll have time to show me what to do.

* E also told me today that due to minimum wage rising, that the gym's monthly fees will be going up as of September 1.

So, since my training session is coming to an end (2nd week of August) I will have to start paying the quarterly fee.

I can either pay for the first quarter by the end of August at the lower rate, then after that have to pay at the higher rate.

OR I can pay for a full year's membership at the lower rate, then once that year is up, will have to pay the higher rate.

Paying a full year upfront will save about $120 over paying the higher rate.

My only quandry though is, what if I do end up moving to CA in March? They have a no refund policy.

Jeffrey or Nate -- I can't post comments on the blogs! I tried at work today, and I couldn't post a comment (even with the subscribe feature turned off). I thought maybe my work computer was being funky.

Now I'm at home on my computer, and I *still* can't post any comments!

Any ideas?

**Weird. I was just able to make a comment on this blog. So, I tried again on another blog I wanted to comment on, but it still didn't take.

ETA -- Ok, I cleared out my temp internet files, as well as my cookies, and now seem good to go.

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Today I finally received my cell phone rebate from AT&T. Yay! Of course, they sent it as a Visa debit card instead of an actual check. Guess they think that for the people who actually follow through and get the rebate, that the hassle of having to use a debit card will be another chance for their money not to actually get used.

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So, as to Kenny.

The last time I updated my Kenny fund, I was up to $37.

Today I am adding the $30 rebate to it -- for a total of $67.

What does this mean? Well it means that I am going to be purchasing two tickets to see Kenny G on October 2 in the next hour or so! Woo Hoo!

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I also received $10 from my carpooler today, plus I closed a bank account and received a check for the remaining balance of $1.69.

So, of that $11.69:

$5.69 --- Car Fund
$5.00 --- Downpayment Fund

Slowly, but surely . . .

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Last weekend when I was at my mom & stepdad's, I asked my stepdad if they did anything with the coke codes. (My mom is a MAJOR diet coke addict - my stepdad likes regular Coke.) He said they didn't do anything with them.

So, I asked him if I could have them to enter on the coke rewards website. He agreed to that.

So far, through a couple caps I had, plus the two codes he sent me that worked (two others didn't work, no matter what letter or number I put) . . . we have 46 points!

I'm not sure how many points movie tickets are, but when I have enough for 3 of them, I'm planning on taking him and my mom out to a movie. That way we all get enjoyment from it.

I finally managed to get my pictures off my cell phone. I'd forgotten that I had placed a "no browsing" hold on my phone, and to send pictures, you have to be able to browse.

I had a blast! We arrived there a bit before 6:30 a.m. I got my timing chip and figured out how to attach it to my shoe, then we just walked around for the next 40 minutes or so. It was still pretty cool weather wise.

Here's me before heading to the start line:



About 7:20 racers started heading towards the start line, so my dad and I followed along. The starting gun went off at 7:35, and about three minutes later the section I was in started moving. There were probably around 2500 people racing.

I had made up a playlist last night of upbeat songs/motivational songs that would take about 50 minutes to run through. I was definitely glad to have my music. I used a combo of my music motivating me, and picking out landmarks to run between.

I crossed the finish line at . . . 43:37!

So I completed two goals - I finished the race (running across the finish line!)AND I finished under 45 minutes! Woo Hoo!

Here's a picture of me after the race:



They had bananas, watermelon, bags of chips and cookies, peanut butter bars for the participants - they also had beverages - including beer and soda, which seemed rather counterintuitive to me, but oh well.

My dad and I went out to eat at IHOP. Much better than the supper of plain spaghetti we had last night.

I am going to check into what 5k's may be in September -- my goal for that one will be 41 minutes or less!

Thanks again everyone for your wonderful support and advice!

Tomorrow morning is my first 5k! I was signed up to do one back in May, but was sick at the time so couldn't do it.

Wednesday after work I picked up my free tank top and a cap which is part of the race day packet.

I was reading this one site about preparing for your first 5k, and it said something about not bringing an mp3/ipod for safety reasons. Does anyone know if that really runs true? I was planning on putting together a playlist for my run to help keep my mind off what I will be doing.

My dad is going to be staying over tonight, then we'll be going over to the race in the morning (*early* morning - need to be there by 6:30 a.m.!) He's bringing his video camera to make a record of the event.

My main goal for tomorrow's event is to . . . well, to finish it!

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I signed up for my first event with the DFWO club - we'll be going to see the Impressionists exhibit at a museum in Fort Worth. This was something I was wanting to do anyway, so now I can do it AND meet new people at the same time! Woo Hoo!

Through the DFWO club I have also found out about a couple meetup groups I wasn't aware of. One is called Random Acts of Kindness, which is a group that mainly visits a nursing home once a month, works with the Salvation Army a couple times a month, plus a few other things.

I'm going to have to actually make use of the Yahoo calendar to make sure I don't double schedule myself. What a problem to have.

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Today was payday (every Friday is, actually). I decided that I was going to go ahead and make my August contribution to my car fund today. August is a 5 paycheck month, and HSBC is running their 3.5% deal through Aug. 15 - so I scheduled $400 off to the Car Fund. It should be in the account by the 27th - probably not in time to figure into the daily average for July, but will help out the August one.

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This Sunday I plan to do laundry and do a whole bunch of freezer ready meals - to hopefully help me keep my grocery spending in check. The more I can keep control of that expense, the less my savings will be slowed down by having added the "Social" category to my budget.

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you you responded to my last entry.

The various comments got me thinking. Tonight after work, I picked up my race day pack from RunOn - got a free tank top and cap. My number is 1004.

When I got home though, I felt very motivated to look and see if I was able to find anything different. So, I did a little googling.

Most of what I came up with was similar to what I've found before. Except for one thing. DFW Outdoors. Oh wow! Remember I mentioned about wanting someone to go visit the new art exhibit? I mentioned something about wanting someone to go biking with, etc? Well, on this months calendar, they have an upcoming trip to the particular art museum exhibit I was wanting to see AND they have a river tubing trip planned, not to mention a bunch of movie nights.

Now. Here's the drawback. Membership costs $25/month, then it costs extra for whatever events you attend (with some free exceptions).

So, deep breath here. What if I commit $120/month to "socializing". That would break down to the $25/mo membership fee, $26/mo for two Vegetarian meetup outings, and leave $44/mo for DFWO events.

To do this, it would mean that my savings goals would slow WAY down. I don't know if I'm entirely comfortable with that.

When/if I start working one evening a week at the gym in August, that will bring in after taxes about that same amount -- so I might break even.

Pros:
Meet new people
Get outdoors, physical activity other than the gym
Have people to go places with, do things with
Maybe make new friends

Cons:
Savings will slow down to less than a crawl
Income from 2nd job previously intended as a boost to savings would go almost completely to this

I also think that I am going to join the DFW running club. It costs $25/yr and besides running events, also has some social events.

So, in summary:

DFWOutdoors: $25/mo base; budget $44/mo events

DFW Vege' Meetup: 2x/mo ~$26/mo

DFW Runners Club: $25/yr, some social events, volunteers needed at some races, special monthly club races

Start attending church again regularly: free

Will all this equal a better lookout on life? I guess time will tell, but mostly I think it depends on me. If I can get up the guts enough to cut back on my savings goals to do this.

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P.S. I signed up for a DFWVege meet - a brunch at one of the organizers homes. So that will just cost whatever the food item I bring costs to make. Yay!

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I listed a number of items on Craigslist this weekend.

One t.v. already sold - Yay!

But what is getting really annoying is the Spanish language materials. First, I had posted an ad with the Computer CD Roms + the various books/dictionaries in the Computer/Tech section.

I got flagged and deleted.

So, I went to the help forum and was told that I needed to separate the computer stuff from the books. Ugh! So, I did that, then reposted the computer part of it in the computer section, and posted the book part in the book section.

The computer part was flagged/deleted!!

I'm about ready to say forget about it!

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Today I went to CVS and used my ECB's to buy cereal. They had Shredded Wheat 2 for 1 ($4.29), so with my $2.50 ECB, it came to $1.79 for two boxes of cereal. Not too shabby.

I also filled up my car. A bit less than 10 gallons for $38.97.

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I checked on the progress of my rebate from AT&T for the phone I bought in the beginning of June. The rebate has been approved and should be arriving "SOON".

As for the rebate I'm owed from the company who handles our company's insurance policies (thanks to my salary being reported incorrectly) I am STILL waiting to see that money. If it isn't here by Thursday, I will be calling them again to find out what is taking so long.

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I have my 19" TV/VCR listed for free on Craigslist. I've listed it before on freecycle as well . . but no takers. I really need to go by the tv repair shop and ask them if they'd take it. Part of me hates to part with it, since it was a Christmas/birthday gift from my family back in 96, but it doesn't work (I imagine it'd easily be fixed though) and I have another t.v. that fits my entertainment center perfectly. I don't need more than one t.v.!

This morning I made Cottage Cheese Oatmeal Banana Pancakes. Besides the obvious ingredients, I added flaxseed, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate flavored protein powder. My batter made 16 1/4 cup pancakes and were high in protein, but low in fat.

Best of all, I was able to freeze 12 of them for 3 more Sunday morning breakfasts (nice and easy ones!) *If you're interested in actual measurements, let me know.

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At the end of May I had disconnected my land line and then gotten dry loop DSL. This apparentally caused my previously combined bill to be uncombined.

Last week I got a "Final Bill" from AT&T that was due upon receipt. So I went ahead and paid it, thinking I was done for July.

Nope. Today I got a bill from AT&T wireless due July 11. I called to find out what was going on. The wireless part of At&T charges a month in advance. When my bill was combined, I guess the parent AT&T company paid the Wireless part, then billed me.

The end game is that instead of having lower phone expenditures this month, I'm having an extra months cell phone bill + activation fee!

Now I'm just waiting to see how I'll get billed for my dry loop - and if I'll have to pay in "advance" for them too. Ugh!

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I was comparing my credit card statement (online) and my Ing account today.

I have three accounts other than a couple sinking funds - which I use each month. One is my Orange Checking which I have direct deposit each month. Then I have my "Coming Month" account which is where I transfer my paycheck to each Friday from Orange. Then I have my Credit Card Payment account which is where I transfer whatever the balance is at the end of my last statement, then transfer it to Orange to pay the card off in full by the due date. (The idea is to get as much interest as possible before departing the money. The interest from all my ING accounts gets transfered to my ING Downpayment account.)

Well, this past month I had a number of expenses that just kind of kept on coming. This was of course after my trip to CA, where I spent more than I really should've.

I had to replace my cell phone, then I bought a new DSL router, then I bought two tickets for the Beach Boys concert in September (mom's birthday), then I signed up at this website I'd been thinking about for over a year, then I bought a Brita filter + filter replacements from drugstore.com, then I mail-ordered a 3-month supply of one of my meds (saved $20). . . . etc. etc. etc.

Some of the things on that list are things that were unavoidable. Some, I should have just waited on or thought about a little longer, some are things that will save me money in the long run.

Long story short, this month, after subtracting the total amount of what is on my credit card from what I have in ING, I officially no longer have a One-month buffer. (I could transfer it from savings (EF/Car Fund), but I DON"T want to touch it!)

This means that for July and August, I am going to really have to watch my spending very carefully so that I can get my buffer back ASAP! I might be getting a second job in August, so that will help a bit - but I also plan to see if I have anything I can sell.

(P.S. The credit card will be paid in full both this month, as well as the coming month. I'm just going to have to use some of my July income to pay it instead of using June's income.)

---Anyone know Sam's club policy on how long they'll take an unopened item back w/receipt??

I made it into DFW Saturday night right abou t 10 p.m.

I had a really great time in CA. There really wasn't any downsides, but I would say my two biggest highlights was getting to ride a couple of carnival rides with my brother, and having the chance to get to really know my sister in law.

I've spent the better part of three hours today updating YNAB. I really was in denial this month of my spending - I hadn't entered ANYTHING since May 6. Ooops!

My grandma and aunt each gave me enough money that completely covered my airfare and shuttle trips for the trip to my grandma's house, then back to my brother's house. That helped out a great deal.

One really big thing that came out of my trip --- the CA family is *really* wanting me to move out there -- specifically to Loma Linda. I'm considering it.

There's a number of things that would have to happen for me to go. The first has to do with a particular situation with a family member here. The second would be that I would have a job with much better pay and comparable benefits lined up *before* going.

I'd possibly be sharing a house with my grandma and dad -- with the intention to save most of my income for two years and purchase a home of my own.

I'm working on a pro and con list for this idea. In another post I may share some of my list and see what ya'll think.

--
My computer is driving me nuts. Whenever I click on one of those click boxes I have to double check that it actually got checked. Also, I can't sign in to HSBC because when I try to do the security key my mouse keeps double clicking the letters! I've ran a spyware and a virus scan, and am not sure what else to do!

Phone Musings:
I checked my latest phone bill yesterday. I saw that I had again been charged the $25 price for my DSL.

Last month I had called to find out why it had gone up ($5). They'd told me a notice had gone out that all the levels would be going up. So I had asked what I could do to bring the price down - was there any kind of contract, etc? Nope. So then they let me know that I *could* go down one level to the very basic DSL and save $5. Told them to go ahead and do that!

So yesterday I called them again to find out why I was still being charged the higher price. I was told that I had made the change two days after the end of the previous billing cycle, but I'd get a credit in my next cycle. I again asked if there was anyway for me to get a better deal - and was again told no.

So, I asked how much would it be to go to dry loop DSL (no landline). I was told it would be the same price - $20/mo -- but that I would lose my $5/mo discount for having the landline bundled with DSL.

I decided to go ahead with the dry loop DSL. With landline DSL I pay $20/mo + $6/mo measured landline + ~$15/mo taxes and fees for landline service. So, I figure that I'll save ~$21 - $5 discount = $16/mo by going to dry loop.

I am going to have to either get my Linkysys wireless router working again, or buy a new router/modem combo so I can continue to get updates for my Tivo. All I need for my Linkysys I think is the installation CD (don't know where it is) and to make sure I have all the necessary cables to connect to my modem.

I think I'll ask my stepdad if he knows how to set up the wireless router and encrypt it so all my neighbors can't use it. Also, need to make sure I can let my Tivo connect to it.

The dryloop won't start till the 26th, so if it takes a few weeks for me to get it figured out, it won't kill me - since there aren't any must see shows to record in June.

Food Musings:
I think I am going to have to go to a cash basis only for food. I continually am spending way too much money on food/groceries - buying things I really shouldn't be buying in the first place.

I'm not going to start this this month, due to my upcoming trip. But for June I believe what I'm going to start doing is do my beginning of the month shopping stock up (generally $40 - 50) trip via credit card. Then I'll take out $60 cash for the remainder of the month. My credit card will be left at home, along with my debit cards - unless I know I'll be needing it to fill up with gas or some other planned expenditure.

I will lose out on the points I could earn on my credit card for those purchases - but it would only be 60 points per month lost. Much better to lose those 60 points per month, and then have the possibility of having the unwisely spent grocery money to be sent to savings and not the hips!

Reading musing:
I've always enjoyed James Patterson's books. Until recently though, I hadn't realized just how many books he had written - and how many of them I haven't read. I am planning on rectifying that glaring mistake as quickly as my library card allows me to.

Two books of his I read recently - which I couldn't put down - "Seventh Heaven" and "Beach Road."

I also have found that the books that have the "Red Dress" emblem on them are quite enjoyable, light, fluffy reading. But I'd found them more by trial and error at the library. This weekend however I googled that term, and found a website listing all the authors of those types of books. Again, my library card is getting a workout.

Vacation/Work musings:
Only 4 1/2 workdays till I get on the plane and head off to sunny San Francisco. I really hope I have more energy by then than I do right now.

There has been quite a lull as far as things for me to do at work this past week. Which has been good in a way, seeing as though I'm still not feeling great. But I do hope things pick up a bit this coming week. I hate feeling like there really isn't much reason for me to be there - doesn't make for a very good feeling of job security.

I was quite annoyed to find out that the hotel I'll be staying at *charges* $15/day for the use of their fitness facilities. It didn't say whether the pool was included in that or not. They also charge $15 to have a small fridge in the room. Ugh! Guess I'll be sticking with lots of walking for my exercise while in SF.

Other musings:
I really need to do a trash run, and run the dishwasher. It is so easy to let some things just kind of slide when its just you.

I was talking with a friend of mine who is going through a divorce. She and her soon to be ex-husband have the arrangement of having their two boys (5 and 11) one week on, one week off. The dad mainly is able to do his work out of his house. The mom works away 8-5 plus an hour commute each way. The boys are both going to be in some kind of summer camp for 5 different weeks. This leaves her with 4 weeks to find care for them.

She has three options: 1) An activity loaded daycare type place $190x2 per week; 2) A run of the mill day care place $110x2 per week; or 3) Her soon to be ex has offered to watch them during the day.

When *I* look at the options, I personally would go for #3! But she doesn't want to go for option #3 because ... "It's not fair! It's my week to have the boys and he'll get to see them all day! I'll only get to see them for a few hours between getting off work and putting them to bed."

I SO badly wanted to point out that no matter which option she went with, she STILL would only be seeing them for a few hours a day! But, I think she already realized the fallacy of her complaint - but isn't willing to give in. So, she's talking about putting the 5 yo in the day camp, and letting the 11 yo be home alone.

Not having kids of my own, I am keeping my mouth clamped shut.

All I can say is UGH! I HAVE to reign in my grocery spending!



Rent: Self Exp.

Renter's Insurance: Sinking Account

Charity: Pledged amount

Groceries: I have done extremely poorly this month with not giving into cravings, etc. Giving into my cravings + not exercising due to having an upper respriatory infection most of this month equaled 5 lbs weight gain. NOT GOOD!

Eating Out: This includes a trip I took with my best friend and her daughter - she paid for the entrance fees, so I treated us to drinks. Also included is a meal I took my dad out for to thank him for his time and effort on getting my car fixed (from when I backed into a pipe sticking out the front of a truck.) Also, I went out to IHOP on my own just for a treat.

Doctor: This is two copays -- first one was diagnoised with an ear infection and sinus infection - second one was dxd with upper resp. infection. Fun.

Prescriptions/OTC: Reg meds + antibiotics/antihistimines etc.

Misc: IRS, Library Fines, and printer ink.

Toiletries: I may end up taking back two of the items in this category because the third item is something that can replace them permenantly. If you know what a keeper is, then you'll figure out what I'm talking about.

Fitness: Remainder of Personal Training fee, registration fees for two 5k races (one of which was supposed to be today, but due to sickness, am not doing).

Entertainment: Treated my dad to a $1 movie (Fool's Gold - good movie). Bought a book.

Car Insurance: Six-month premium

Gas: This was a lot more than usual - due to my dad and I trading vehicles while he took my car to Wayne's to get the rear bumper part fixed - he filled up my car once (I'd given him my credit card) and then I filled up his vehicle. Plus I'd already had to fill my car a 3rd time this month BEFORE we'd traded vehicles. UGH!

Car Repairs/etc: While dad had my car, he took it in for an oil change.

Tolls: Ugh.

Cable: Would really like to get rid of this - just have to decide if I'm willing to let go of my Tivo as well.

Phone/Internet: After a bunch of deductions due to spam text messages plus the phone ordeal with my ds neighbors.

Extra Income:

Carpool: Even though most of one week she didn't ride with me - due to both of us being sick, she still paid me like normal.

Giftcards: I cashed in some of my mypoints for a $50 CVS giftcard (it was cheaper than a Walgreens giftcard) so will be able to get 3 months worth of my meds for FREE (still have the $30 gift card from transferring prescriptions).

Other Income: I did a babysitting job, plus I got a $5 bill in the mail as an incentive to complete an extra survey.

Interest Income: My HSBC interest was down this month - due to the reduced rate and the daily balance being lower. But I moved most of my funds in ING to a savings account, then just transfered it as needed to checking. So, I earned a good bit more interest there.

MAY:

This coming month I had to adjust my budget alot due to overspending in a lot of categories in April. However, I'm still sending a good amount to long term savings, and have a good amount to spend on my vacation.

My vacation is starting to look like it is going to cost me a pretty penny - even though the airfare is free and I have 3 nights in a hotel free + probably free accomondations the remainder of the time. I have the possibility of using my grandma's extra car to get around - but that means a lot of gas money. I also am having to figure out how I'm going to get to the airport, and then back -- both here at home and when I'm out in CA.

I guess this is why I only do this once in a great while!

Yesterday marked the end of the 20 week fitness challenge I was participating in at my church. I succeeded in losing 10% of my starting weight. I won't know where this puts me in terms of prize money ($200) until this coming Saturday. Whether I win or not though, I am still quite happy about the 10%.

I also got my haircut yesterday afternoon. I was going to go for 10 inches to be able to make another donation to Locks of Love, but in the end only did 6 inches. Another 4 inches would've just been too short for me.

A coworker of mine also got her hair cut this weekend. She came out much better than I did financially -- she had a coupon that made her cut only cost $5! I guess she really has listened to me ramble on and on about saving money.

This afternoon I had my Personal Fitness Assessment Reevaluation. I started training with Eric in the middle of October, 2007. The two big numbers that changed are my RHR (resting heart rate) and the 3 minute step test.

In October, my RHR was 72. Today, my RHR was 53. According to Eric, Lance Armstrong's RHR is 48.

In October, after completing the 3-minute step test, my HR was 131. Today, my HR was 117.

I also did a 12 minute run today - which I had not done in October. I completed 1 mile in 12 minutes.

Compare that to January 07 when I did a 12 minute walk/run fitness test and had to walk at least half of it.

Now, the strength numbers did not increase much to speak of (leg press went from 315 to 330, but otherwise no changes.)

So, overall I think that the time and money I have spent on hiring Eric as my PT, as well as using the gym has been more than worthwhile.

I definitely want to spend some extra focus on the strength training though. I really should have improved more in strength . . . and my body fat % only went down 3% from October.

I found this nifty print screen device, and am about to test it out here.



Yay! It worked.

Ok, lets take a look at this month.

Rent: Last month at this rate.

Renter's Insurance: This is going into a sinking fund - so not really spent.

Charity: I only did my pledge this month. Next month I am probably going to start sponsoring a child through Children's International - maybe two.

Groceries: I totally and completely blew my grocery budget this month. But thanks to the nifty YNAB tool where you can see all your spending transactions for a category, I can see that approximately $90 of this spending are for things that will last me through the end of May, and one item which will probably last me through July.

Laundry: Went to a different laundromat. Their dryers were a minimum of $1.25. So 3 loads wash, and then put them all in one dryer load (added a quarter.)

Clothing: Bought a new pair of pants, a couple tops, along with some needed necessaries from Ebay.

Meds: The actual spent is less due to the $25 gift card. Just my allergy med and other normal med.

Haircare: I had six-inches cut at Fanatastic Sam's today. It was 25 for the cut, plus an extra $5 for the length. Then I gave the stylist a $6 tip. Before my CA trip I want to get highlights. Now that my hair is a bit shorter, hopefully the highlights will cost less.

Misc: I am grandfathered in the Delphi Advanced member plan. It is another forum I frequent often. This is the yearly subscription fee. If I let it expire on me, my cheapest option would be $39.95 a year for a lot of stuff I wouldn't even use.

Fitness: $250 is part of the Personal Training session; $18 is for the Sportbrain pedometer.

Car Insurance: This wasn't really spent this month - it's more just an accounting thing for me.

Gas: Only 2 fill ups this month! Yay!

Tolls: Ugh

Cable: Back to normal.

Netflix: I did go ahead and put this on hold. I may end up just canceling it altogether, time will tell.

Phone/Int: This bill was before all the phone tapping mess.

Earnings:

Carpool: My rider was out sick one week.

Giftcards: My CVS giftcard - used to pay for prescription.

Reimbursements: $298 from Root Canal; $68 from Geico.

Interest Income: $100 - Chase Account Bonus; $26.54 from ING, HSBC and TDAmeritrade.

About a month ago or so I got on the ball and got my defensive driving certificate number from the place I took it at and called it into Geico for the 10% discount.

I'd already paid the 6-month premium upfront, so on my account it showed as a credit. I figured that they would just take it off my next six-month premium. Nope.

Last night I got in the mail SEVEN of those fold and tear envelopes from Geico.
All of them contained a check.

Each envelope cost them $3.12 to mail - or a total of $21.84.

5 of the checks were for $3.17, 1 check for $3.15, and one for $49.00 (a total of $68.)

I really wish I knew what their reasoning was for doing it this way!

-----

I made a mistake this week that cost me $3.00. A few weeks ago I opened up a Chase checking account (mainly for the opening bonus.) I had deposited a number of checks into it, as well as taking out enough cash to pay the remainder of my PT session.

Somehow though, I ended up making TWO transfer requests via ING from this checking account. I made one I think on Friday, and the second on Sunday. My big mistake was not writing down the one I did on Friday.

Both transfers went through on Tuesday and overdrew my account. I saw what had happened Monday night and had written an email to Chase about it. But when I saw it had gone through on Tuesday, I spent a frustrating 25 minutes going through voicemail hockey sticks before getting through to a live person.

I was told that if I could deposit enough cash into my account to cover the overage, that there would be no fees. So I went to the nearest ATM and drew out enough to cover the fees, and deposited it.

The ATM fee was $3.00. If I wouldn't have gotten the overage taken care of that day, it would have been at least a $35 fee.

*Mantra* MUST WRITE DOWN ALL TRANSFERS!

Although my grocery budget has already imploded for the month of March, Thursday night I was really really wanting some Peeps. So I decided to go to Walgreens and get a small package.

While I was there, I decided that I may as well get my boxed raisin supply for April (cheapest way to get boxed raisins is Walgreens). While getting the raisins, I noticed that the Blue Diamond almonds were on sale!

Normally, they are $7.99 - which is pretty comparable to the same size bag at Walmart. But these are on sale for $5.99!!! I ended up buying 6 bags of them - which will probably last me the next 5 or 6 months. (I eat raisins and almonds every work day for mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.)

The sale ends tomorrow (the 22nd). If you don't see the sale price marked, be sure to have them scan it at the register to see if your Walgreen's has it on sale.

-----
I deposited my refund check (from root canal) into my new checking account today. I went ahead and took out $200 cash to finish paying for my current personal training session. (Mainly because I didn't want to wait till the check cleared the bank, then transfered to ING, then became available . . . before sending my PT his money.) I'm not sure how well I like this bank - when I made my first deposit a few weeks ago, they held it from Friday until Wednesday as "pending".

However, I did see that I already received my $100 account opening bonus! Yay! That will be heading towards my EF as soon as it transfers to ING.

---
My Quinoa that I ordered from amazon.com arrived, as well as the powdered peanut butter -- both packages are sitting in my apartment managements office right now because they closed for Good Friday. I'll have to wait for the office to open tomorrow to get them. Both items arrived very quickly - free shipping even!

I'm still waiting for my SportBrain (pedomoter) to arrive. The tracking says it's here somewhere -- maybe its in the office as well.

----
Tomorrow after church I think I may go to our local community college's campus and use their running trail. My personal trainer thinks that their trail is probably the best in the area for running - and on a Saturday afternoon should be pretty safe (lots of people around). It also shouldn't be too hot - high of 70 tomorrow. Kind of looking forward to my first "real" trail run.

Finally! I'm not sure if it arrived yesterday or today - but my refund from my root canal finally arrived!

I'm breathing a sigh of relief, because I really wasn't looking forward to going and sitting in their office waiting til I had the check in hand (my plan if I still hadn't received it by today.)

---
This morning I broke my "dark" necklace that was given to me by the bus station supervisor and one of her coworkers (from when I was doing the temp job at the bus company in 2005.)

It's made with brown and black beads - maybe 1/4" round or so. I like to wear it with red tops. I didn't lose any of the beads - so hopefully I can get it fixed fairly easily.

-----
My grocery budget is WAY out of whack this month. WAY out. There's still 11 days to go.

----
Speaking of grocery budget --

I was at Target tonight buying a couple items. One item was marked on the shelf as a "price cut!" Stating that it had gone from $2.19 to $2.04. Um . . I bought that same item many times in the past few months for . . . . (drum roll) $1.99!!!

I got my new phone bill for March -- well, at least I got the bill amount, not the actual bill yet. It was about $4 more than my previous bill, so I decided to take a closer look - considering the problems with my landline recently.

Well, one thing I noticed right away was that I had 15 extra calls. *I have the measured rate which gives you 25 outbound calls a month, then charges $.08 per extra call.

So I called the phone company. I asked to have those charges refunded, plus I asked about how many extra calls there were for the March bill. 59! So, I got those charges refunded as well.

That was a total of $5.93.

Then I called my cell phone company to see what I could do about the spam text messages I'd been getting. I found out that those numbers couldn't be blocked because they weren't real numbers. My only options were to block text messages for a period of time, or change my number.

I opted to block text messages for 3 months. Hopefully by that time my number will go out of the spammers systems. I also got those charges refunded.

That was a total of $1.80

Savings: $7.73

Spent some:

I bought a Sportbrain Personal Assistant (pedometer) off of Ebay for a total of $18.

I went to Walmart and got 3 gallons water (refill); two tops and a pair of Khaki pants (on clearance) for $29.86.

* Have to give myself a shout out here -- the pants? They were a FULL SIZE smaller than the last pair of pants I bought -- and they FIT! Woo Hoo!

Next I stopped at CVS. I had dropped my prescription off there on Friday - but of course they were busy and it would've taken forever for them to get to me.

So, when I got there I picked up my prescription and handed the pharmacist my 2nd coupon. Then I paid for my prescription with the gift card I'd received previously.

So - the prescription was $26.99. Subtract the $25 gift card = $1.99 spent. Plus I have another $25 gift card for the next prescription. (Oh, not to mention I earned $1 CVS extra care buck, so my next prescription should only cost me $.99!)

Last, I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some more quinoa. I had a choice of getting a 1 lb bag that wasn't sorted or washed for $1.69 or getting a 14 oz box that was pre-washed and sorted for $2.79. I decided to take the route of convenience and bought the box. But, because I had brought a reusable bag (purchased at Walgreens a few weeks ago for $.99) I got a $.05 bag discount. So, I spent $2.74.

Walmart = 29.86
CVS = 1.99
WholeF = 2.74

Total Spent = 34.59
Saved = 7.73

Difference = $26.86

ETA:

My Tivo was getting close to running out of programing since its not been connected to the phone line since last Saturday. So, thanks to my dad making me keep all those odds and ends of phone cords, I was able to stretch the phone cord which usually connects to my actual phone in my bedroom, all the way out to the living room! At first I was thinking I was going to have to go buy another phone cord, because the one I had wasn't long enough. But then I kept digging around - and found ONE short phone cord from when I got my current computer - and that made it just *barely* reach. My Tivo is now happily updating - so no worries about missing a new episode of Lost or Survivor on Thursday.

I've been feeling it coming on for a while now. Been reasoning with myself, telling myself that I can handle it. Reminding myself of all my long term goals and how letting it take me over will cause them to take even longer to achieve.

I have a case of Wantitus.

As the weather is getting nicer, and darkness falls later, one particular area is really strong.

I've been running on a treadmill 3x a week for the past few months doing the Couch to 5k program. I'm starting to make some real progress - actually able to run for 5 minutes at a time before taking a walking break.

But . . . I'm hankering to get outside and whet my feet on the turf. See if I can make it out in the fresh air.

While I've been thinking about going outside, I've also been reading about things you "need" to run outside.

A GPS device that also can track your run/walk intervals, pace, distance, etc.

Garmin

A way to keep yourself hydrated hands-free:



A way to help roll
out the aches and pains after running:


You Tube - How To Use Foam Rollers

Then of course there's the clothing - wicking shirts, wicking shorts, wicking bras, wicking socks . . . Oy Vey!

Of course if I really get into all this there's going to be new running shoes and if I *really* get into it . . there'll be race entrance fees . . fuel gels . . . energy bars . . etc., etc., etc!

Save me from myself! Ahhhh!!!

Ok, ok. The two things I really am interested in right now are the foam rollers and the garmin.

I think I would really use the rollers, and they aren't that terribly expensive.

The garmin . . . I already have a wireless heart rate monitor/watch with a stopwatch function/calorie counter - which I haven't used in nearly a year because the chest strap kept unhooking while I exercised. What I'm really wanting the garmin for is the ability to have it track my pace and distance outside, and to be able to set little alarms to tell me when its time to increase or decrease my pace. The geeky part of me also really likes the idea of being able to upload all my data into a website and manipulate away.

Help me out please! Anyone have ideas on how to alleviate this horrible disease? Or maybe ideas on how to get what I'm wanting for less??

I still haven't figured out how to do a screenprint of my excel sheet . . so this may be a bit messy.


Year To Date....Category ....... February
$1,300.00 ......Rent ............$650
$221.00 ........Renter's Ins. ...$198
$250.00 ........Giving ..........$100
$290.65 ........Groceries .......$152.15
$27.38 .........Eating Out ......$15.69
$1,612.12 ......Medentist .....$1586
$40.00 .........Medoctor ......$20
$128.35 ........Med:Scrips ......$70.38
$15.50 .........Gifts ...........$10.50
$145.59 ........Fitness .........$8.73
$74.80 .........Auto:Ins ........$37
$176.01 ........Auto:Gas. .......$67.31
$175.48 ........Auto:Repair .....$0
$80.00 .........Auto:Tolls ......$40
$58.41 .........Cable ...........$23.27
$10.80 .........Netflix .........$5.40
$168.62 ........Cell/Int. .......$84.02
$150.00 ........ROTH ............$75
$50.00 .........TAMERIA .........$50

$4,974.59 .....Total Exp. .......3193.48

SUPPLEMENTAL INCOME

$90.00 .......Other .............$50
$65.02 .......Interest ..........$30.77

Withdrawals from Savings:
$650 ..........Emerg. Fund ......$650

Rent: Self Explanatory

Renter's Insurance: I switched to Geico and paid the 1-year premium up front. I will be setting aside $16.50 a month to pay the premium again.

Giving: Part went to a pledge I made, part went to support a friend doing an Epilepsy walk.

Groceries: UGH! I started out good, but towards the middle of the month I just kept finding myself heading to the grocery store. Unfortunately most of the extra trips weren't for things that were nutritionally valuable or needed.

Eating Out: This is one meal out with a good friend of mine before watching her son's basketball game. Also, it includes one half-price Virgin Strawberry Margarita at a coworker's get together.

Medentist: This includes 50% of the root canal ($650), most of the crown ($832) plus a few other charges. UGH and double UGH!

Medoctor: My copay when I visited my doctor about my heartburn symptoms.

Med:Scrips: Normal scrips, plus the antibiotic that gave me heartburn and the meds prescribed to try to fix that!

Gifts: I found two items for birthday gifts at Walmart on clearance - one's in June and the others in October.

Fitness: Bought a new pair of headphones for my MP3 player - I listen to it almost exclusively while working out.

Auto Ins: I actually paid off the premium in full, and will now just be putting money aside to pay in full each time. They now take any credit card - so that means more points for me! Yay!

Auto:Gas: I managed to get by with only filling up two times this month. Yahoo!

Auto:Repairs: Thankfully, an uneventful month.

Auto:Tolls: Self Explan.

Cable: The normal monthly charge, plus the $5 late fee. The late fee stems from having to get a new credit card number and the ensuing chaos of autopay.

Netflix: The very cheapest plan.

Cell/Int: I am very tempted to block all text messages to my phone. I'm starting to get a number of spam texts. Although they only add up to a few extra dollars at the most. There really is only one friend who actually texts me, and that is maybe two times a month. If the spams keep coming, I do think I will block texting.

ROTH: Self Explan. It just sickens me though to know how much I've contributed to it, and see how much money I've lost of actual contributions. I have to just keep reminding myself of the dollar cost averaging principle, and hope that when the stocks do finally go up again, that I'll have a really nice upswing in value.

TAMERIA: I started an account with T Ameritrade using the Suse Orman "Save Yourself" code. So, a year from now this should net $100 bonus + plus whatever measly interest.


Supplemental:

Other: Carpool money and survey money.
Interest Income: HSBC and ING

Withdrawals:
Emerg Fund: Had to take money out to pay for Dental work. I actually had a 5 paycheck month, so the 5th paycheck + the money from the EF + what I normally send to the EF each month all went to Dental. UGH UGH UGH!

Overall this was a HUGE spending month, with nearly half of it Medical related. However, the one other area I did way overspend in was groceries. Part of the reason had to do with the dental work - I had to get some easier to eat foods for awhile. But part of it also was not justifiable at all.

I am hoping that this next month will be financially uneventful. I am also hoping to find a couple babysitting jobs or something else to bring in a little extra cash.

This afternoon I had the tooth which was root canaled a couple weeks ago get built up and have a temporary crown put on.

Since all but about $300 of my yearly dental insurance cap has already been used, I had the wonderful priveledge of dropping $832 in payment.

In two weeks I go back to get my permenant crown.

I like my dentist, but I kind of wish she'd get a clue.

Each time I've had an appointment with her she's mentioned to me that she'd love to do a tooth whitening treatment on me and that she'd love to close up a gap between two of my teeth. Each time I've told her I'm not interested.

AGAIN today AFTER discussing how much the root canal cost me ($650) and discussing how much I'll have to pay for the crown ($832) and seeing me cringe at parting with that much money - she again mentions about the teeth whitening, etc.

So I tell her that right now I am trying to spend money on only ESSENTIAL and necessary items - and that neither of those things fall in that category. I also told her that I'm saving up for a house downpayment. She misunderstood and thought I was looking at buying a house *right now*. I explained to her that no, I'm looking at more like 3 or more years down the road.

She told me I sure do long term planning.
Yes, I am trying to. I didn't say this to her - but I also probably would never spend the money on either of those things even if I had MORE than enough for everything I want.

I really hope she doesn't bring it up again on my next visit. I really like her and the office, not to mention the fact it's in the same office building as my company. So I'd really hate to have to find a new dentist.

I got started playing around with the numbers tonight in YNAB. I was kind of bored and decided I wanted to figure out approximately when I'd actually be able to reach some of my financial goals.

Making some assumptions:

1. That my pay will stay the same through the end of 2009 (most likely scenario)

2. That I'll still be working at the same place through the end of 2009

3. That I won't have any big major unexpected expenses through the end of 2009

4. That my rent in 2009 will only go up by $10 (like it is this year.)

5. Also assuming that there will be no change in marital status for me.

Keeping those assumptions in mind:

1. My 6 month Emergency Fund (take home pay - savings amounts *6) will be fully funded by March 08.

2. My Car Replacement Fund of $4,000.00 will be fully funded by Nov 08.

3. By Dec 09, I should have close to $6,000.00 in my House Downpayment fund.

-- So, that means that by Dec 2011 and my 35th birthday, I might just have my $18k for a downpayment. LOL! Of course, the big question then will be if I can even find a house in the 80 - 90k range by then!


This will be accomplished by putting 100% of all 7 "extra" paychecks into savings, as well as the $600.00 "rebate", as well as both Christmas bonuses, along with my normal monthly savings amount.

#2 *could* be accomplished a little bit earlier depending on how much money I am able to shave off from other areas in my budget.

This month, there will be no extra whatsoever thanks to my tooth woes. However, that hopefully will not be true of every month.

Wow. You know how I had a root canal on Tuesday and had to start taking a more powerful antibiotic to get rid of the remaining infection?

Well, starting Wednesday night, I began having terrible heartburn. It let up after a few hours, and I was able to go to sleep. The next day I again experienced it a few times, then it would go away after an hour or so.

Today it wasn't too bad at first, but then this afternoon it became more constant.

I finally decided to call my endodontist and see what was going on - if this had anything to do with the medicine I was taking. She told me (through her receptionist) to stop taking the antibiotic and that she'd call me later to figure something else out. Still waiting for that call.

But tonight I posted on another forum I visit about my wonderful week *dripping sarcasm* and someone posted a link to a thread about the antibiotic I was taking -- Clindamycin. OMW! The people on that thread were experiencing the same symptoms as me, and some even worse - being hospitalized, etc!

Needless to say, I will NOT be taking this medication anymore. But I will be calling my endodontist again in the morning because I still need to take *something* to get rid of this infection!

I did also have one person give me a lot of hope that it IS possible to have an infected cyst go away on its own. He'd had a similar situation, and the cyst went away after antibiotics.

I am feeling so out of control financially right now. I don't know where all this is going to end up $ wise or health wise, and I already feel as though I've spent WAY too much money - even though it is for stuff that was absolute needs.

It also is worrying me a lot that I'm now going to have to include in my budget all my copays for prescriptions and office visits for the rest of the year - not to mention however much the crown is going to cost me. I just got way too used to using my Flexible Spending Account money, and not really thinking about how much it was.

At this rate I don't think I'm going to even be able to find the money for my Vacation fund, let alone get my EF fund full enough to even think about starting my downpayment fund. It feels kind of like as soon as I put my mind to really buckling down and watching my pennies and making them work hard, oodles of situations came out of the woodwork requiring the use of not only current money, but also set aside monies.

I'm moving backwards right now - not forwards. And I HATE that feeling!

----

On another note --- My car passed the 100k mark Thursday night! Only took me 10 1/2 years to do it, but I did it.

This morning I had my first root canal of my life. Ugh!

It took forever for the endodontist to get the area numb. The infection hadn't gone down enough with the antibiotics, so the area was still pretty tender.

Then when she (endodontist) had cleaned out all three root canals, she was only able to plug two of them. The third one would not go "dry". She told me that I have a cyst in my bone? which was infected, and the infection was running through that third canal.

So she prescribed new antibiotics for me, a round of steroids, and pain meds. I'm going to have to go back a week from tomorrow to see if the antibiotics and steroids worked. If they didn't, then I more than likely will have to have an oral surgeon remove the cyst!!

The root canal (including my next visit) was $1300.00. I had to pay half today. So that completely emptied my FSA which had $392.xx left, then I had to put another ~250 on my credit card. I also had to put the copays of all my meds on my credit card.

No more pre-tax money paying my medical expenses this year.

I am waiting with great anticipation to see how much the crown is going to cost me out of pocket. NOT!

The one good thing today is that I had less than a 10 minute wait at Walgreen's to get my prescriptions filled! Practically a miracle!

I'm not sure exactly how long ago it was that I first borrowed the CD set of Learn in Your Car Spanish from the library, but I do know it was at least 8 or 9 months ago.

I played the first CD of it, and realized that it wasn't what I wanted. So, I put the CD back in the case. About a month later I took it back to the library.

The next time I went to the library, the librarian told me that there was a CD missing from the case. I was sure I had put the one CD I'd used, back in the case, but went ahead and took it back home. I looked high and low - even did some "spring cleaning". No CD to be found.

So, I took it back to the library. The librarian renewed it for me. Repeat ad nauseum of the librarian renewing it for me.

Finally, about two months ago she gave it back to me and suggested that I take it directly to the library it actually came from and see what they'd say. So, I took it. For various reasons I wasn't able to attempt to find this particular library branch until last week, after the renewal had already run out.

My attempt to find this library branch did not go well. I got royally lost in downtown Dallas. At night. I never managed to find that branch.

So, today after church I stopped by my regular branch to turn the CD case in once again - to at least stop the late charges. I again asked them what I should do, since this seemed to be a never ending cycle. The librarian told me I should talk to this other librarian for better directions to the downtown branch.

So I did. I explained to her what the situation was, and expressed some of my frustration. Unexpectedly, she told me that the situation was over, and not to worry about it anymore! She said the other librarians didn't have the authority to do this, but she did.

I thanked her profusely.

I had $11.25 cash on me, so I paid all but $1.25 of my late fines. So now at least I'll be able to renew my other books.

I am just so thankful that I was finally pointed in a direction that led to the end of this situation!

Ok .... I'm trying to figure out how to post a copy of my spreadsheet showing my expenses for January. I tried copying and pasting, and that didn't work too well. (Read - jumbled up mess.) Arghh - didn't work!

Pointer's anyone? I'm going to try it on one of the pages, because I think you can use html on those.

YTD:.....Expenses.................January
$650.00..Rent:....................$650.00
$23.00...Renters Ins:.............$23.00
$150.00..Charity:.................$150.00
$138.50..Groceries:...............$138.50
$11.69...Eating Out:..............$11.69
$26.00...Dentist:.................$26.00
$20.00...Doctor:..................$20.00
$57.97...Medicine (OTC/Scrip).....$57.97
$5.00....Gifts:...................$5.00
$136.83..Fitness:.................$136.83
$37.80...Car Insurance:...........$37.80
$108.70..Gas:.....................$108.70
$175.48..Repairs & Tires:.........$175.48
$40.00...Tolls:...................$40.00
$35.14...Cable:...................$35.14
$5.40....Netflix:.................$5.40
$84.60...Phone & Internet:........$84.60
.................Total:...........$1,706.11

$40.00...Extra Income:............$40.00
$270.00..Savings:.................$270.00
$75.00...Roth IRA:................$75.00

Rent: I found out today that my rent will be going up $10/month in April.

Renter's Insurance:
This amount will be going down next month. -- Well, actually it won't - because I paid for the whole year in one shot, but am counting it in February's expenses. The actual monthly cost will go down though.

Charity: I pledged a certain amount to something at church, and then gave some that was left from last month, plus this month to the mission trip fund.

Groceries: I spent WAY more than I should have on groceries this month. I think one of my biggest problems was going more than once a week.

Eating Out: This was when I went out with my friend N and her family.

Dentist: Got a cleaning, then had a fluoride treatment.

Doctor: Copay for a visit.

Meds: 2 tubes of orajel for my toothache (lost the first one ). Various prescriptions.

Gifts: Paid for part of Grandma's new divided skillet.

Fitness: This total includes paying for two Callanetic's classes, and my new running shoes.

Car Insurance: Self-explanatory.

Gas: This was a good bit higher than I think it would normally be, due to a couple extra fill ups - thanks to the drama of my car window being smashed.

Repairs: Two new tires (paid for warranty only); Used driver side window from junkyard; Oil change; replaced burnt out taillight; etc.

Tolls: Ugh.

Cable: This is actually two months of charges. When my old credit card number was cancelled due to fraudulent use, I changed my payment info as soon as I had the new number - several weeks before payment was due. Unfortunately, they charged the old card.

Netflix: I decided to keep this - on the lowest plan of two movies a month.

Phone/Internet: This is for my landline, DSL, and cell phone. It's a fairly typical amount for me. -- My landline is the MOST basic, but has ~$17 in fees and taxes!

So, that's my January in a nutshell.