Tuesday night I had my 3rd shift at the parking garage. This time there was a WWE event going on. I got there about 7:40 - 20 minutes early. We didn't end up getting sent to our spots til nearly 9:20 (I clocked in at 7:55.) It seems kind of wasteful to have 8 or so people standing around for an hour+ on the clock waiting for an event to actually end. But oh well, it's more money in my pocket. (I clocked out a bit before 11. So about $33 before taxes.)

Once the cars started coming out, time went by pretty fast. Before I went, I had no energy nor desire to go. By the time I got home though, I was pepped up and couldn't go to sleep for a long time. (Still woke up about 4:45 a.m. ....)

----
Before I left for the shift though, I tried calling Vanguard again. I was being transferred to someone when the call ended suddenly. So I called back and got the name and number of the person I was being transferred to. I called and left a voice mail - more than 24 hours later, and I have not gotten a call back.

I'm going to try again tomorrow night (when I don't have to run off to Vacation Bible School like tonight, or have a shift to work.)

Hopefully, third time will be the charm.

---
Work. Ugh. Still ongoing saga of 268 page document and the perfectionist who believes there is only one way to do things (she tells me to make a change, I make the change, she insists I should do it her way instead ...) My boss is also frustrated with this person (they had to do a presentation to the other co-workers yesterday - some book the staff is reading.) My boss has told me that if I want off this project, all I have to do is say so. Part of me wants to say OFF, but a larger part of me does not want to do that - kind of feel like being a quitter.

Lady sat up front with me today going over some cross-referencing in the document. I was logged off the phone. Still had at least 6 calls and 7 people come by to buy passes. She got so frustrated with all the interruptions that she told me we'd keep working tomorrow if my boss could cover the not logged in phone calls. She asked me if it always was this busy.

Ummm... the phone wasn't even logged in. Yes, it can sometimes be that busy x50. Other times, not so much. One never knows.

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Tuesday -
DMV - $175 - Car registration
Taco Bell ... $4.19

Wednesday:
Walgreen's - $20.xx (junk, locker lock for gym, deodorant, real food)

Extra Income:
$16 from Pact cashed in

---
Okay, it is now 11:08. I am going to try to go to bed and see if I can get more than 4 1/2 hours sleep ...

Tuesday night I had my 3rd shift at the parking garage. This time there was a WWE event going on. I got there about 7:40 - 20 minutes early. We didn't end up getting sent to our spots til nearly 9:20 (I clocked in at 7:55.) It seems kind of wasteful to have 8 or so people standing around for an hour+ on the clock waiting for an event to actually end. But oh well, it's more money in my pocket. (I clocked out a bit before 11. So about $33 before taxes.)

Once the cars started coming out, time went by pretty fast. Before I went, I had no energy nor desire to go. By the time I got home though, I was pepped up and couldn't go to sleep for a long time. (Still woke up about 4:45 a.m. ....)

----
Before I left for the shift though, I tried calling Vanguard again. I was being transferred to someone when the call ended suddenly. So I called back and got the name and number of the person I was being transferred to. I called and left a voice mail - more than 24 hours later, and I have not gotten a call back.

I'm going to try again tomorrow night (when I don't have to run off to Vacation Bible School like tonight, or have a shift to work.)

Hopefully, third time will be the charm.

---
Work. Ugh. Still ongoing saga of 268 page document and the perfectionist who believes there is only one way to do things (she tells me to make a change, I make the change, she insists I should do it her way instead ...) My boss is also frustrated with this person (they had to do a presentation to the other co-workers yesterday - some book the staff is reading.) My boss has told me that if I want off this project, all I have to do is say so. Part of me wants to say OFF, but a larger part of me does not want to do that - kind of feel like being a quitter.

Lady sat up front with me today going over some cross-referencing in the document. I was logged off the phone. Still had at least 6 calls and 7 people come by to buy passes. She got so frustrated with all the interruptions that she told me we'd keep working tomorrow if my boss could cover the not logged in phone calls. She asked me if it always was this busy.

Ummm... the phone wasn't even logged in. Yes, it can sometimes be that busy x50. Other times, not so much. One never knows.

---
Tuesday -
DMV - $175 - Car registration
Taco Bell ... $4.19

Wednesday:
Walgreen's - $20.xx (junk, locker lock for gym, deodorant, real food)

Extra Income:
$16 from Pact cashed in

Tonight I was just sitting back relaxing and getting ready to enter my receipts from my Walgreen's shopping trip when I got a call from NE telling me his car had broken down just a few blocks away.

The end result is that I'm letting him use my car for at least the next few days. I'll take the bus to work, and he'll pick me up tomorrow and then I can use his second car (no a/c) to go to the gym. (He delivers pizza, and it is WAY too hot to be driving around for hours without A/C - I can survive 20 minutes to the gym and back.)

He's going to have a mechanic friend look at it, but it'll eventually have to get towed and fixed. It doesn't sound like it will be an inexpensive fix.

He's had so many troubles with his two cars (both are 2002/3 models - Honda Civic and Subaru Impreza I think.)

This of course had to happen in the midst of our first major heatwave this summer.

---
After work today I went to the UPS customer center and picked up my 2" washers (IOW cheap fractional plates.) Then I stopped at Walgreen's to pick up some more Allegra D ...I also picked up some candy bars ... and a folding chair in a carrying bag. All came out of budgeted categories.

By the time I got home I was pretty hungry, plus this morning I saw I'd lost another pound and was thinking it was going a bit too fast. So I decided to treat myself to Burger King. Again, budgeted. (but no more left for the month in that category!)

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My digital scale died this morning - just after I weighed myself. I was wondering if maybe the reason the numbers had been going down on it was due to a weak battery - so I weighed myself at work. It was only a difference of 5lbs - which made sense (eaten breakfast, drunk water, work clothes, shoes, etc.)

I need to figure out how to get the scale going again.
(It's a Wahoo fitness wi-fi scale, about two years old.)

---
NE paid me back today for the two things I put on my Discover and American Express cards. So as soon as that money is available, I'll send it on to the cards.

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Just a month from now and I'll be on my mini-vacation!! Woo hoo! I can hardly wait. 4 whole days in a row away from the phones! (If you're calling for directions, it's a good idea to have something to write on/with, and know the address of where you are and where you want to go ... just saying...)

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Almost forgot! Saturday night I worked my part time job at the parking garage. It was only supposed to be for 90 minutes. But the concert lasted until well after 11 pm. They finally told us to go home about 12:30 a.m.!! That definitely won't work for me on a weeknight ... But I can thank ND (performer) for 2 extra hours worth of pay!

This morning I decided to check the airbnb site again to see if anything new had come up. Guess what! I found a place for $29/night! Previously the best I had found was $45/night. I booked for two nights, so my lodging costs will be $65. Right now I have $176 set aside for my getaway, plus whatever I can add this month.

I'm thinking I will be coming in under budget!!

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I booked the lodging with my Amex card. Between paying for a portion of NE's medical bill (he's paying me back minus $125, which is half of the cash back reward) and then booking the lodging, I finally have my Amex finished! I doubt if I'll ever use it again unless some offer comes up again like the Sam's Club one, or some kind of Amazon deal. Too much of a pain.

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I also finished out my $500 for July spending on my Discover card. (Actually I just realized that I might need to do one more grocery trip with it - because once I take the shoes back, then I'll be under $500 again.) I've put all my recurring bills on it - electric, gym, Internet, etc. I also used my card to pay for the final treatment of Riddles (again will be paid back.)

*Working on spending $500/month from July to November on my Discover card for a $75 bonus. I am not spending anything I would not normally to get this.
I have no debt, and pay my balances in full every month.

August looks like it will be easy too, between trip expenses and car insurance renewal. September should be easy too - mom/brother visit, purchase airplane ticket for Thanksgiving, etc. November I'm not sure what all I'll be able to do to get it.

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Went grocery shoppigng today after the gym. I walked over there, totally forgetting til I passed the pet care aisle that I needed cat litter ... Oops. At least the cat litter and the grocery bag weighed fairly the same.

I bought: apples, bananas, egg salad sandwich, eggs, green bell pepper, Boca crumbles, candy bar, paper towels, sliced cheese, shredded cheese, cat litter.

Total of $28.70

There are 3 more grocery Friday's in July, and I have $39 left in my grocery budget. I'm going to have to try to keep my next 3 trips to $13 or less to stay within budget. That means probably forgoing the sandwich and/or Amy's meal.

(paper towels and cat litter come out of non-grocery categories)

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On the way to the gym today I was nearly sideswiped! There were two left turn lanes. I was in the far right one. I turned into the corresponding lane. Luckily out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the person on my left starting to come over! I beeped my horn and swerved into the extra lane to my right (for right hand turn people.) My adrenaline sure was pumping!

CCF you might know the intersection I'm talking about -- 27th and Hwy 2 heading towards Walmart.

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I had two people at work argue with me today. One was someone wanting directions. I even gave him to the bus driver supervisor, and the caller argued with him!! The other person was someone who came to the window with commuter checks. I told him he needed to fill them out. He told me that "NO, it's your responsibility to fill them out! The lady who I've always dealt with before never asked me to fill them out." I told him that in the year I've worked here, anytime someone's brought commuter checks, that they had them filled out already. He didn't believe me. Finally I just took the checks and gave him his passes.

(We hate commuter checks! They give them two checks for every pass AND the check numbers are LONG. Such a pain in the patookus!)

Before the arguers, I'd been thinking that this had been a pretty calm week - nothing really of note. (at work at least)

---
Thursday - No spend day #8!

Friday - spend, spend .. but all within budgeted categories

So yesterday I talked a bit about my car registration expense of $170 and how I was thinking I'd pay it in July, but not count it til August's budget. The more I thought about doing that, the more I didn't like it.

I knew the expense was coming up (couldn't remember exactly how much, but I knew it was probably a July expense.) So ... I could have set money aside for it. I think I didn't do that mainly because I was working off the idea of just "cash-flowing" these kinds of expenses. Which would work fine if it wasn't for the fact of my making a new goal/challenge of taking half of "extra" money for June and July and putting it towards a getaway.

When I thought about having to subtract $170 from my extra amount for the month, it made me not want to do it!

But the more I thought about "cheating" the budget, the more I didn't like that idea.

So I spent some time today reworking my budget. And putting the $170 for car registration in July's spending.

I then figured out that even with taking that out of the equation, if I was really careful this month, I should still have at least $200 for my getaway. $102 for two nights lodging. $36 for park admission, $15 for living history farm - leaves about $50 for gas and food. Might still be doable. Plus maybe in August I can just budget an extra $30 or so to the Vacation category to give me a little leeway.

I also decided that maybe I should just go ahead and go back to setting aside monthly amounts for known, or possibly known expenses which don't occur regularly. So, I readjusted my July budget to reflect that. It drastically reduced my "extra" funds, but I think it probably is also a better reflection of reality.

My system worked for six months, but now some of those "irregular" expenses are coming up and like with the car registration, I almost feel resentful taking them out of my extra cashflow. If it's set aside already, then it won't (maybe) feel so painful/annoying.

---
Oh about the shoes! I was almost ready to bite the bullet and purchase the DSW shoes when I decided to give Amazon one more try. (I'd looked on there several months ago when first looking.) I found a pair that aren't *quite* the same, but very close. In the size I need. $37.98. I had $26.xx in my gift card balance (thanks Perk and Bing!) and $1.xx in Discover cashback. So my final cost was 11.78. They'll be here sometime this coming week. (Womens shoes also just happen to be in the 4SBs per dollar category right now.)

If they work, then I will return the other shoes. If not, then I will return them to Amazon and go back to DSW for that pair.

---
Doing Stronglifts the weight increments go up by 5 - 10 lbs a workout. That is a lot of increase for a woman. What is suggested to make the increase go a bit slower is to use fractional plates. I checked at the gym on Friday and they do not have them.

On Amazon they have a set for about $50. That's not too much, but of course I wanted to check first to see if there was a cheaper alternative. There is. I bought 6 2" washers for a total of 11.67 (don't know shipping yet - but probably about $7.) They'll be shipped ground, so might be a week or two before I get them. Until they get here, I'll probably just stick with only using the barbell (the barbell by itself is 45lbs.)

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People were shooting off fireworks til at least 1 a.m. last night. Then for whatever reason I woke up about 6 and could not go back to sleep. Got up, but was so tired I ended up skipping church and church picnic/ walking group. Still feeling really tired.

(eating the chocolate desert bread meant for the picnic probably didn't help my tiredness .... no more junk food for me this week!)

So today was the day. I finally made the trek to Dollar Tree to find out if they had the frozen fruit deals like Laura (other Laura ) had mentioned awhile ago.

The first Dollar Tree I ventured into did not have anything other than ice cream. It did however have a mom who was being incredibly rude to her daughter and the mom caught me giving her a dirty look while pressing my lips together to keep from saying something.

So I headed on to the next Dollar Tree - the one that is about 8 miles from my home. (It's a LONG way when you work only 1.5 miles from home and have a grocery store within 1/8th of a mile!) That one had the frozen section!!!!

I bought ten bags of frozen fruit (mangoes, strawberries, peaches, and pineapple), 3 bags of mixed frozen veggies, two vegetable samosa thingys that looked good, a little Hershey's pie, and a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. (I was getting really hungry at this point ... my earlier shoe expedition took WAY longer than expected.)

In all ... I spent $17!! The frozen fruit should probably last me a good 6 weeks, maybe more. The veggies should be enough for July. I'm thinking about taking the frozen fruit out of the bags, putting one cup servings (mixed up) of them in sandwich baggies, and then putting those baggies into a large freezer baggie. That way I'll really know how many servings I have (and it will save me ten or 15 seconds in the morning ...) Maybe I'll do that with the veggies too, that way my servings of them are a little more ... even. (somedays I have a lot more than other days.)

Next time I go up there I'll need to stop at Walmart and/or Sam's first to get non-freezer items to help make the trip a little bit more gas friendly.

---
I did buy shoes today. They're not exactly what I'm wanting, but they're the closest I could get at the mall. I spent over an hour going into every store that had a shoe section in the mall. Sears had the shoe I wanted, only not in WW. Online they HAD it in WW, but it was out of stock!! ARghh!!

If anyone knows where I could find black MaryJanes with medium/low heels and a rounded/box toe, in an 8 1/2 W or 9 W, PLEASE tell me or buy two pairs of them for me and I'll paypal you the money and shipping! Seriously.

Why do stores make it SO darn difficult to find WW shoes?? With as many ... larger ... people as there are, you'd think there'd be an incredible market for them.

I SO hate shoe shopping! When I got my last pair, I KNEW I should have gotten two pairs right then and there.

Here is a link to the exact shoe I'm wanting:
http://www.sears.com/i-love-comfort-women-s-mary-jane-girly-black/p-05487533000P?prdNo=22&blockNo=22&blockType=G22

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Okay, so besides Dollar Tree and Mall walking, I also got my library books dropped off, filled up with gas, did some more grocery shopping (at the store 1/8th of a mile from home) and got in a great workout at the gym!

Groceries: $27.80 -- canned black beans (for black bean burgers for lunches), loaf of Orowheat Everything bread, bananas, big bag of washed/cut kale, bag of apples, zucchini, Amy's frozen entree (my Friday night treat), loaf of chocolate bread (for church picnic tomorrow) and a can of Off! spray. (holy cow! Nearly $6 for the Off! spray!!! it better last a good long time!)

Gas: $25.70 - got .07/gallon discount from local grocery store loyalty card.

Shoes: $26.73 (am going to hold off on wearing them until I just can't possibly wear the other ones ... in case I find the ones I really want and can take these back!)

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Workout! I did my second Stronglifts 5x5 workout today - first one using the app. Even though I did it only using the barbell (not adding weights) and it didn't *feel* like it was very hard ... I was sweating majorly by the end.

When I was done though, I did about 15 minutes more of walk/jog/run intervals. Was *really* sweating by the end of that!

--
Now I think I'm going to finish my Alex Cross book (Hope to Die by James Patterson) and just have a nice relaxing evening.

Tomorrow is church, church picnic, and the church biking/walking group. Might finally watch "Boyhood" tomorrow night (borrowed from library.)

Sunday will be my oatmeal banana/greek yogurt pancakes, making a triple batter of black bean burgers to freeze, laundry, another workout, and then going out to eat somewhere with NE (his turn to treat this month!)

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Almost forgot! On the way to the gym I stopped by my PO box (need to close it - was about to close it this last time, but got charged for it before I'd sent in the forwarding order.) I got my bill for my car registration. I knew it was either July or August. Apparently it is July. $170.

Oops. I kind of forgot to budget for that. I'm kind of thinking of cheating just a little bit ... I'll put it on my Discover card for the July spending requirements, but I won't actually count it out of my budget til August. (the CC won't be paid til then anyway, especially if I wait til July 20 or so.)

The reason for this of course is that if I take it out of July's budget, then I'll have very little to put towards my getaway or extra for the EF.

In August I know I'll be getting at least ten hours of overtime (which would count as at least 15 hours of pay) so that would pretty much cover it.

Note -- I will be making sure to set aside $15/mo for next years registration!

I think my personal challenge / getaway goal worked pretty well.

In my Everyday Expenses categories:
Groceries - $103.92
Medical - $40.64 (Allegra D)
Kari - $9.05 (food and litter)
Treats - 18.78
Movies Out - $5
Gifts - $39.50

SO much better than May!

I earned extra income in June:
$78.xx - parking garage job
$50 - PP GC from Swagbucks
$25 AGC from PerkPoints
$10 - AGC from Bing
$10 - Pact

Besides my usual ROTH contribution and my 10% to my EF, I had $313.06 left over! That means I have $156.03 to put towards my getaway in August. (The other half goes to my EF.)


In July I'm going to do the same thing, really try to keep my spending down as much as possible. There are a few things I know I'll have to spend on though:

new shoes!!
higher electricity bill than the past 5 months or so
possibly have to renew car registration?

I know I have at least one shift at the parking garage in July, and I might be able to manage $50 from Swagbucks again. I'm also going to put some more things up on eBay and FB ... see how that goes. I think $100 more should make for a nice trip.

---
My EF is at $8220.25 of my $12k goal. Sloooowwwlllyy moving towards the goal.

Sunday afternoon NE and I went on another little joy ride into the country. We went out as far as Hickman (for those who know NE area) and visited a couple lakes there. We stopped at the local "grocery store" called Jack and Jill and each got a drink. (He treated )

We also stopped at a large hotel that had a lot of brochures for tourist attractions in the area, and took a number of them to look at further.

It was a nice way to spend a few hours.

---
Right now it is looking as though I'm going to have about $300 in "extra" money this month. That is .. if I continue to resist temptation til a week from tomorrow.

That means I'll have $150 or so to put towards my little get away. That will pretty much cover lodging and gas. So July will be all about getting the money for food and entertainment.

I have $11 left of the $100 I allocated for my groceries category. Must resist temptation. (SO wanted pizza this weekend -- delivery pizza! But resisted!)

--
I'm trying to make the Allegra last a little longer by not taking it on the weekend ... not sure that is such a good idea. Because I have a bad sinus headache right now. Wasn't bad Saturday or Sunday, but maybe it was because I'd built up over the previous 5 days ...

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I checked the Dollar Generals here, and :**( no frozen fruit. So I had to get the frozen fruit from the local grocery store - $3.29 for 1lb.

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Spending: Saturday - none
Sunday - $13.33 - frozen fruit, etc. (groceries)
Monday - none

I have a good amount of stock in an electric car company - mostly inherited, but some that I personally bought with my own cash or with money rolled over from a company 401k fund. I've been wanting to diversify it a bit with another single stock, but hadn't found anything cheap enough or interesting enough.

With the recent IPO of Fitbit, that changed.

I love my Fitbit, and from the many articles I've read, it seems to be a pretty healthy company (ha ha - no pun intended, really) with good growth potential. I'd forgotten about the initial IPO date, so unfortunately wasn't ready to pull the buy card at the start of the bell Thursday.

So I pulled it this morning. I had $170.00 cash in my brokerage account which was leftover from the rollover where I purchased electric car stock. So I bought 5 Fitbit shares. I want to buy more than that though, so I went ahead and sold 5 electric car shares, which netted a bit over $1k after the trade fees.

I tried buying more Fitbit after work today, but I got a popup saying that if I put the new order through, my other one would be canceled. ???? So I guess I'll have to wait til Monday and hope the price doesn't go up too much by then.

All of this trading and selling and buying was done in an IRA account, so whatever tax consequences there will be won't happen for another 20 years.

When I put my own cash money into the electric car stock, it was roughly around $1k. Enough to buy a good amount of stock, but not enough to hurt if I happened to lose money on it. That's kind of how I figured how much stock I'd go with for Fitbit.

I'm curious to see where this will go.

---
Hectic afternoon at work today. Have a new story for my bus chronicles - might do one tomorrow.

---
Did some grocery shopping this afternoon. bread, fruit (bananas and oranges), cheese, frozen vegges, chocolate, soda ... $18.41

Also stopped at a local green grocer type place (OH) and treated myself to some stuff from their deli - curried tofu, cajun yams, and a spinach/lentil, etc. patty. $6.31 It was either that or give in to my strong desire to order pizza ...

---
I'm reading a really good book by Elizabeth Musser right now - Swan House. I've read other books by her, and they were also very good. (Christian, romance, historical, major issues like racism, poverty, etc.)

---
I got paid for my part time parking garage job! $73.65 - that is one 8 hour shift (although it wasn't actually a full 8 hours, because I left 30 minutes early after being told I could if I wanted to.)

I don't know when I'll have another shift though, because it seems like all the available ones are on Saturdays. Sometimes having beliefs that are so different from the mainstream can sure make it hard to find the extra income (and sometimes the main source of income too ... so many jobs I've had to turn down over the year due to Friday night/Saturday issues ...)

Note - I am an Seventh-day Adventist. Similarly to Jews, we celebrate Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

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I think I have settled on what my August trip is going to be - Des Moines -- Friday - Living History Farms; Saturday - Memories Day (visit church my dad was pastor of, visit various places we lived, etc.); Sunday - Adventureland!; Monday - drive home and recover.

I still need to get the addresses from my brother - our dad kept a list of all the places he lived his entire life. My brother has it somewhere. We lived in three different houses in Des Moines. I'm most curious about the house we lived in where my bedroom was in the finished attic, we had a lake within close walking distance, and I had an awesome friend named Tara who lived across a hayfield from us that had a small stream running through it. Lots of good memories there.

I was in 3rd grade when we moved from there to New Mexcio.

---
On Sunday I plan on going to Dollar General to buy frozen fruit, and also stop at Sears to see if they have the shoes I want. (dress shoes for work to replace ones that are falling apart) I'm going to try to hold off til July to actually buy them though so I can put it on my Discover card and have it count towards July's $500 spending.

I've also been thinking more about the Nationwide thing of using the debit card 8x in a month to avoid fees. If I give myself a budget of $20/month for treats (which would be much less than I have been spending) that would mean 2x a week I could get about $2 worth of a treat. So in reality it would be money I'd spend anyway (realistically) and $20 not put on the Discover or Swagbucks cards isn't going to be that big of a deal. And it's only for 3 months + 2 weeks.

---
A good friend of mine and her family are doing fundraising to pay the fees to adopt a baby boy from Papau, New Guinea. They were missionaries there this past year and were asked to adopt this particular child, but before it could happen, they had to come back to the US. I'm thinking that this might be where my charitable giving will be going starting in July.

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So that's all for now folks ... (bet you thought it was never going to end ...)

So Tuesday night after much hemming and hawing I decided to go for it - or at least see if I could find a parking space in a safe area and reasonable distance from the jazz concert.

I left for the concert about 5:40 with my phone at 56% ... Not smart.

Had to use Google maps to find my way there. Even so, got turned around. Finally found a parking spot that was somewhat reasonably close, and had lots of people / other cars.

Put $.25 in the parking meter - after 6 the spots are free, and I parked about 5:50.

I started walking in the direction I thought it was ... only went two blocks when I saw a woman at an outside restaurant - asked her where the place was and was told to turn around and turn left.

About ten minutes later I found the Jazz concert! I was carrying a book, a water bottle and a blanket. The temperature was a cool 97+ degrees ...

I had brought a $5 bill with me in case there was some vendor food that tempted me, but I didn't even see where the vendors were (although I saw a lot of people with vendor type food.)

I found a place to spread my blanket out and preceded to try to be comfortable sitting on the ground on a blanket in the "cool" weather. Not too long into this my phone died. Oops.

Shortly after 7 the band began playing. It was pretty good music. After about 6 songs though, I'd had my fill of sitting on the ground. (I have circulation issues with my feet ... sitting on the ground for very long makes for sleepy feet.) Amazingly that was the same time they broke for intermission - so it made it easy to slip away.

I'm really glad I went, even though the weather made it almost miserable (saved by good breezes.) However, if I were to go again to something like this, I DEFINITELY want to procure a lawn chair! It also would be nice to have company ..

---
Walking into work today I found a quarter laying on the ground. Thought it was pretty funny since I had just spent a quarter the night before.

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Today was kind of stressful at work. The phone was going constantly - with quite a few memorable calls. Not all for good reasons. I also had a slew of mail in pass orders for the football bus shuttle. I had to really pay attention so I didn't put an bus shuttle order into the front desk receipt book.

I decided to treat myself after work ... Walgreen's has their candy bars on sale 2/$1 - not a great price considering that's what the NORMAL NON-Sale price used to be ... but better than today's "normal" prices.

---
My rent check hasn't been cashed yet. Usually it's cashed within a few days of my putting it in the box. I sent the property manager an email tonight to see if I can find out what's going on. I'd sent her an email a few weeks ago too though, which I haven't gotten a reply on. Hope nothing is wrong.

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I got two more medical bills stemming from my ER visit. One can be paid with AmEx and the other can't. Sigh. I still am not sure how I'm going to get to $1000 spent on that darn card. I'm at about $300 right now - it's so hard finding places that take it. The lure of the $250 cash back made me not consider carefully HOW I could actually do it. I'd always heard that AmEx is'nt accepted everywhere, but the reality is now sinking in ...

I *really* don't want to go the route of gift cards - but I'd rather do that than lose $250! Maybe I can purchase gift cards for the airline I'll most likely book for my CA trip in November .. hmm... (haven't figured out which airline yet.)

---
Tuesday spending:
$.25 - parking meter

Wednesday spending:
$3.89 - treats from Walgreens

Earnings: $.25 from in front of bus garage

So today I wore my sandals to church. (went better with my outfit than black heels .. really need a pair of white sandals, but I've never been able to find a pair that stays on my feet.)

As I was walking to the building, I walked over wet ground and may have stepped in a small puddle.

I get to the church, greet the greeter, and then start down the stairs to go to Sabbath School.

As I reach the second step down, I did my own version of slipping and sliding. My left wrist, forearm, elbow and left side of the ol' gluteas maximus(sp?) took the brunt. Both of my ankles seemed to get into the action as well.

Thankfully no clothing was ripped or dirtied. Also, thankfully I was able to get up and walk (...limp a bit) to the SS group.

Have some majorly sore areas on my left side now though! (One bruise has already shown up on the gm, and I have the feeling another one will be appearing on my forearm.

---
I just signed up for an offer with a $200 bonus after 90 days. All you have to do is open an eChecking account with Nationwide and have one direct deposit of $200+ within the first 60 days, and then two-three more of $25+ (to avoid the fee.) You can close the account after getting the bonus with no penalty. The interest rate is abysmal (although not bad for a checking account) Ooohh... reading the fine print a bit closely ... to avoid an $8/month fee you have to make 8 debit card transactions a month. Yuck. I'll have to figure out how to do that without messing up my trying to spend very little (or you have to have a 10k balance. Can't quite do that.)

Well .. if you're interested, here is the link:
http://www.nationwide.com/sem/nf-echecking-personal.html

---
I signed up at church today to go to a Kids Against Hunger food packing event next Saturday afternoon. I didn't realize at first, but you are supposed to make a donation to participate. Minimum $10. I already did my charitable giving this month, but I guess I can take it from next months category. I suppose I really should wait til closer to the end of the month to decide where to put the non-tithe charitable money to be sure I have some to put in things that come up.

---
Tonight I'm planning on going to a free concert at my church - The Allen Family. I'm pretty sure I went to a concert of their's here last year in June. The name sounds familiar (and so does their picture.) If it is, I remember I really enjoyed the music.

I had been planning on going to help one of our elderly church members pack their moving truck tomorrow morning, but I'll have to see how my arm is doing.

--
NE and I will be going out to eat tomorrow night - it's my turn to pay, so we'll be going to Hu Hot's where I can use my $50 gift card. We also are going to do some driving around the local lakes. Hopefully it won't be too muddy.

---
I decided to bake a frozen pizza I'd bought back in Jan/Feb from the local store that was closing. Let's just say that it's not a brand I'd get again even if I could.

So ... I spent about an hour entering all the transactions for May into YNAB. I hadn't entered anything since the 12th ... Let's just say it wasn't pretty at all.

The good: $207 in extra income (FB sales, SBs, Pact, Perk, etc.)
Sent 10% of net to EF + $37 ...

The bad: Only had $37 left after an extra $207 in income. Which means I came dangerously close to having to dip into my 10% deposit ... for no real reason.

The ugly: Spent roughly $360 on food/fast food/treats
The most I think I can ever remember spending in one month in those categories ...

-----
So ... June goals.

The past few months I have been doing an experiment where I did not set out any particular amounts in my flexible spending categories for my budget. For a few months this seemed to work okay ... May though has totally busted this idea. So for June I have decided to modify this approach - I have given myself budgeted amounts in certain categories (Groceries, Treats, Restaurants) and then left the rest unbudgeted (since it isn't the other categories tripping me up.)

My plan/goal for June and perhaps July is thus: 50% of the unbudgeted money will go towards my normal goal of the EF extra deposit (above the 10%.) The other 50% will be used in July (maybe August) to go somewhere for a few days - i.e. get out of town.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been feeling the travel bug. Feeling kind of restless, listless ... bored in a way. So my idea is that the less money I spend in June (and possibly July), the nicer my little out of town excursion will be.

I could say NO FAST FOOD in June - but I'm hoping that knowing that every time I get Fast Food or get some junky item that it is reducing the quality/length of my getaway, will work better for motivation.

We'll see. (Snafu - the cash thing might work, except I have a bunch of cash on hand right now thanks to the FB sales this month. Getting to the bank to deposit it is a major hassle. So if I did cash only for fast food, etc., I'd have a lot of leeway for it.)

--
I'm hoping to get a training shift for my part time job this coming week, so that money could definitely help the "extra" category - and help me also maybe to not be quite so bored ...restless.. listless. Hopefully.

So NE and I did a road trip to Glenwood, Iowa on Sunday. It was really quite enjoyable. All the rain we've had recently has made everything really green up. We stopped at Mills Lake on the way there - a small, but pretty lake in the Loess Scenic Byway? We also ate at a Mexican restaurant El Portal. It was an awesome place because .... they had veggie fajitas!!!! Usually at a Mexican restaurant I have the option of enchiladas or quesedilas or .... It was SO nice to have something different to choose. It was really yummy too - they included a pineapple ring - so good that flavor plus the other veggies.

Right as we got our check the waiter brought out a desert and told me Happy Mother's Day. Uh thanks ... maybe someday, but probably not.

I didn't end up getting to bed til nearly 11:30 .. on a work night. Still, it was so worth it.

(NE paid for dinner - it was his turn. )

----
Anyone else getting that super annoying ad covering the bottom of your screen for CoverGirl? I get it on the blogs and on the forums - it slows the forums down majorly, and when logging in I accidentally clicked on it twice!

I don't mind ads as long as they're not obtrusive like that!

---
So it seems my allergies are back at it in full force, even with taking Allegra D. The last couple days not only have I been overtired, but I've also been miserable with sneezing and coughing and just feeling generally ill.

Ugh and double ugh.

---
I was reading on a blog or forum or something about how someone felt like their home finally looked like an "adult" lived there and not a college kid. It made me kind of think ... if someone were to come into my apartment, they probably would think "college kid" and not 39 year old.

There's not a whole lot I can do to change that look I think without spending money I don't want to spend. But ... I'm wondering if maybe getting rid of all my moving boxes which are currently stored in my bedroom - some under the bed and some next to it against the wall .. would help. When I move again I'd have to buy new boxes, but boxes aren't *that* expensive ...

I also am thinking I need to let go of my stereo. It was a college graduation gift (half from my dad, half from my pocketbook) which has definitely seen better days. Kari's claws definitely did not help its look.

Then there is the baby dresser which I have hauled around with me since I moved out on my own in 97. It was used for me and my brother ... I'm thinking maybe it's time to finally let it go.

There also is the portable dishwasher ... one of my last major gifts from my dad. I have it sitting next to my loveseat right now as sort of an end table ...

Getting another bookshelf or two, finishing hanging pictures, getting rid of the foldup table, etc., probably would also go a long ways toward "adultizing" my place.

Growing up all our houses were set up so nicely - decorated, good furniture, etc. So I know what it could/should be ... but for some reason I can't make it like that. Somehow the gene of dressing well, doing hair well, caring about makeup, creating a home instead of just a place I live in ... skipped me.

I don't know ... I guess I'm feeling like here I am almost 40 and I'm not married, I don't have kids, if it wasn't for inherited stocks I'd barely have any retirement money (they are 1/2+ of my assets ...) and my place looks like a college kids. This so isn't what I hoped my life would be like at this point.

Not to mention when I see articles say something like "on the low end of the scale are salaries of $35,000/year ..." and I'm thinking - I'd be jumping ecstatically if I made that much! (And at one time I actually made more than that .. had no idea how good I had it.)

And then there is the factor of not really having anyone to talk to/hang out with other than NE here ... and all the friends I've had over the years that I kept in touch with for the longest time .. have kids, have families, have way busy lives ..

I spent a lot of money in April. Mostly medical, some overspending in groceries and treats. Bought a couch.

Thank goodness for a 3 paycheck month! I barely squeaked by with putting my 10% of net (of 3 paychecks) into my EF this month. But it got there!

--
Must Spends:
Giving: 10% + 30.00
Rent: 430
Gym: 41.73

Flexible:
Groceries - 160.66
Internet - 65.75
Natural Gas - 23.57
Electricity - 26.93
Auto fuel - 24.26
Restaurants - 14.47
Medical - 877.59
Clothing - 13.48
Household Goods - 113.56
Treats - 52.40
Entertainment - 15.00
Misc. - 26.00

Savings:
EF - 10%
ROTH - $200.00

Extra Monies:
$25 - Swagbucks
3rd Paycheck
$17 Pact
$5 AGC from Bing

Savings Percentage - 17% Gross to Employer Pension, 10% to EF (3 paycheck Net), $200 to ROTH
Roughly 40%

Total EF - 7,992.77

-- $4,007.23 to go to make goal!

I've been way too loose with the pocketbook so far this month, especially considering I have some large bills coming up (medical expenses.) Fast food, junkfood, Trader Joe's, Goodwill, WalMart, Family Dollar .... Over the course of the past few days I've spent at least $150. Ugh.

Trader Joe's, GoodWill and Walmart are at least shopping trips which were mostly necessary. I think part of what spurred the fast food visits was being really tired of what I had in my house (and my pantry was starting to get pretty empty ..) So I bought some ready made dishes at Trader Joe's, and a few at Walmart. Hopefully that'll curb my inclination to get something out instead of from home.

At Walmart they were having a big clearance sale on all sorts of stuff - an asst manager was there and if there was something you wanted, you made an offer and if he ok'd it, you got it. I bought an ice scraper (more heavy duty than my other one) for .50, a long handled snow brush for $1 (something I'd really wished I had this winter a number of times), and a mandolin for $13 (had a $50 one on my Amazon wishlist for at least 6 months ...) They didn't have a potato masher (something I've been looking for, but not wanting to pay $8 for!)

I also bought a few things for something that the bus company I work for does in partnership with the local women's shelter - called "Stuff the Bus" - about $8 worth of items (paper towels, hairbrushes, etc)

----
Wonder of wonders, my brother actually called me today! (We'd set up a time for him to call Saturday night ... which of course didn't happen.) He's talked to mom and told her about our plans, and also told her that he'd try to get the 3 of us on the phone either Monday or Wednesday night. He's also said he has another weekend free - one in June - so I told him I'd really prefer the June weekend over the May one.

So ... we'll see ... Is this really going to happen? At least there's some movement forward - and now mom knows ... (Of course she called me after talking to him and never let on that he'd told her - she was going on and on about wanting the 3 of us to get together sometime, and I was being all non-committal. The turkette!)

---
So much for my weight loss ... along with the spendiness the last week or so, there's also been a lot of junkfood consumption. 3 lbs found their way back. Sigh.

So my goal is for the remainder of April - no more fast food purchases and only 1 serving size worth of candy/junk on a regularly scheduled grocery trip.

---
I did get in 3 exercise sessions this week. 2 x walking on the track at the gym (today I actually did a bit of walk/jogging) and a 4 mile walk with some ladies from church yesterday.

The indoor lap app I'd found was worthless. (tried it today) So hopefully I can find another app I used to use on my other phone - it won't count laps, but it does the timing thing (run 30 seconds, walk 90 seconds, etc.) and estimates distance. (I think it was called iTreadmill)

On that walk one of the ladies who runs Women's Ministries and knows I've been a librarian, asked me if I'd be interested in being the Women's Ministries librarian. I told her that sounded like something I'd be interested in doing.

---
Oh, at Goodwill I bought 4 t-shirts. With exercising at the gym, I realized I needed some oversized short-sleeved t-shirts to work out in. Spent $7.47 on the 4 shirts ($3.99 for one, then $1 each for the others.)

--
Got $25 PP from Swagbucks today.

So ... I got a wild hair and decided to see if my EOB's were online yet for my ER visit.

Yep, they were. At least some of them.

So far my part is at least $840. There's a few other EOB's pending.

So, I'm thinking this might be a good time to go for one of those cards I usually could never do with my normal spending .. i.e. $3k in three months.

I'm thinking maybe one of those travel rewards cards - something I could fund my next flight to CA with.

Any ideas? I usually ignore posts about these kinds of cards since I usually would never come anywhere near it.

Thankful for my 3 paycheck month ... my ER visit will take pretty much that whole 3rd paycheck, and maybe more. Sigh...

I really thought that I had spent a lot more than February in March, but it really wasn't that much more. I only spent about $30 more! There was a whole lot less extra income at the same time though, so the extra to send to savings of course wasn't as nice of a big number as last month.

Overall,I think I did okay. I'll definitely be glad to not have the round trips to the hospital to deal with in April (gas, time, exhaustion ...)

----
Must Haves:
Tithing - 10%
Giving - 60
Rent - 430
Car Insurance - 36 (sinking fund)
Gym - 20.21 (prorated first month - new category)

Everyday Expenses (Variable)
Groceries - 129.18
Internet - 64.90
Natural Gas - 51.55
Electricity - 26.43
Auto Fuel - 60.31
Restaurants - 31.00
Medical (non-FSA)- 38.02
Clothing - 33.16 (shoes I wish I hadn't bought ...)
Household Goods - 4.92
Kari - 62.39 (food, litter - doesn't include AGC $ I spent on her)
Toiletries - 5
Treats - 19.68 (mostly from the hospital, and one other slip up)
Electronics - 70 (my Fitbit One)
Beauty - 3.27

---
Savings
EF - 430.79 (10% + leftover budget money)
ROTH - 200
403a - 9% of gross

Savings of 630.79 +9%

---
Extras
$25 SBs PP
$14 Pact
$15 Pinecone
$100 Achievemint
$50 Disc. Chking bonus
$80 Disc. CC bonus + Cash back
-- $284 in Extra Income

So, a savings rate of only about 40% this month. Yikes. Hopefully the ER bills won't be the big bite I'm expecting, and I'll be able to have a much better savings rate next month.

April will be a 3 paycheck month. I had planned on putting it straight to EF, but will probably put it in the slush fund until I know what bills the ER visit is going to create.

I was waiting to make this post until I could know for sure whether my third $25 PP would deposit before March or not ... it didn't, so it'll go for March.

Extras:
NM tax refund - $87
NE tax refund - $142
Fed tax refund - $540
Swagbucks PP - $50
FB sale - $30
PerkPoints - $25 AGC
Pact - $16
Pinecone - $10

Total: $900

Expenses:
Tithe: 10%
Giving: $30
Rent: 430
Car Insurance: Pd 215 6 mo. premium, added 36
Groceries: 69.30
Internet: 64.96
House Gas: 39.36
Electricity: 44.53
Auto Fuel: 14.53
Restaurants: 39.24 (2 ff and Chinese buffet for two)
Kari - 22.66 (stocking up on food w/coupons)
Treats - 23.21 (before starting 40 day challenge)
Gifts - $12.13 (NEs Valentine's)
Tax Prep - $34.98
ROTH - $200
EF - 10% + $1,068

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So ... for this month it gives me an approximate 70% savings rate (I'm not including the car insurance payment in this calculation because it was previously accounted for in expenses only in monthly "installments")

My groceries category is way low this month mainly because I was eating the food I purchased in January from the store that went out of business, plus the frozen fruit I bought from Sam's in December managed to last til Friday (supplemented by two bags of ff I'd bought from closed store.)

I expect my grocery bill to be much higher for March, but that will be countered by no money spent on treats (until March 31 ...)


--
March is going to be interesting. I'll not only have my 2.5% raise going into effect, but I'll also have the 7% retirement contribution be taken out AND I changed my deductions from 2 to 3. Of course that income won't factor in til April, but I'll at least get to see what it's gonna look like.

--
After factoring in what I know I'm going to spend in March and estimiating some other expenses, my goal is to put $300 extra into my Efund in March. (above the 10% minimum)

However, there are some items I'm contemplating ...
Shoes - $20 x 2 (my work shoes are pretty much shot - I am planning on ordering two pairs so I have an extra pair on hand in case this style goes away before I need it again - good, comfortable dressy shoes .. worth their weight in gold.)

Kari supplies - ala Cat Whisperer - second litterbox with high sides ($12), one or two mechanical toys to help with boredom while I'm at work ($30-40), food puzzle ($10) automatic food dispenser ($50)

The litterbox and food puzzle are the only two items I'm sure I'm going to get, the others I'm still contemplating. I have roughly $90 in AGC, which would easily cover what I want, plus some. I'm also hoping my reward from Achievemint will arrive soon ($100 visa gift card)

Gym - $39/month ... I won't have a chance to check it out this weekend, but I plan to next Sunday. I also want to see how my paycheck pans out for March to see if I'll feel comfortable deducting $39 from it ...

Fitbit upgrade ... I love my Zip, but the cheap batteries I got from eBay don't last more than a month or two. They were 5 for $2. To get a battery that lasts 4-6 months, it'd be $10+. So ... I'm thinking about upgrading to the next level where you don't have to have a battery - you charge it via usb cord. This would be approximately $100, although I saw a mention on YNAB forums today of someone seeing it at Walmart for $29!! If I see it for that, I'm grabbing it, no question!

Today I finally had my 6 month evaluation - my boss thought she hadn't gotten the paperwork yet, but A let her know that I wouldn't get paid for my sick leave (for upcoming doctor's appt) if I wasn't finalized. That's when A also let her know that she'd sent her the paperwork in her email.

So .. the end result is that I am offcially off probation AND got a 2.25% raise. About .40/hour Better than nothing - especially since starting with my 3/5 paycheck I'll be having 7% taken out for retirement.

Work was crazy busy all week - I didn't have time to be bored. So many calls about "Are the buses running?" or "How far behind schedule is ...?"

We had about 15 inches of snow between Saturday and Wednesday. I was super glad for the snow boots my mom gave me for my birthday!

---
I got my NE and Fed refunds this morning.

My Discover Checking is now fully funded for the $50 award after March 31.

I think I'm going to have at least $1k to put to my EF this month if I'm really careful with my spending - maybe more.

---
This weekend I hope to actually be productive and get some cleaning and maybe some cooking done. We'll see what actually happens though ...

I do hope to get a couple walks outside in since the temps are supposed to be pretty good.

January up til the last week or so looked like it was going to be under control ... sigh. I will do better this month.

Tithe: 130
Giving (other) 70 (hadn't put it towards anything for a few months)

Rent: 430
Natural Gas: 36.97
Electric: 37.97
Auto Fuel: 15.48
Internet: 65.60 Sigh...
Groceries: 256.xx Huge sigh (a lot of this was from a local store closing ... at least $120 worth)
Restaurants: $16.64 *hardee's twice*
clothing: $4 (washing clothes/ drying)
Kari - $3.61 (canned food)
Toiletries: $6.49 (hairspray and deodorant)
Treats: 36.13 (I think the number is higher than this .. I just didn't track as carefully out from groceries the whole month.)
Beauty - $25 groupon for highlights/cut for future
Tax Prep: 34.98 (federal + two state efiled)

Savings:
EF: 471.91
ROTH: 200

Extra Income:
Swagbucks: $50 PayPal
PerkTV: $25 AGC
Pact: $17
Pinecone: $5
eBay: roughly $16 after fees/shipping

Will be coming -- $100 Visa ecard from Achievemint (cashed in about two or three weeks ago.)

I know I've been going back and forth quite a bit about different budget plans / allocations the past few months.

I haven't totally been happy with any of them.

Today though I read something on the MMM blog about his 2014 expenses, as well as a couple comments, which really resonated with me.

To put it simply, MMM doesn't go by a formal budget - he simply makes values based spending decisions.

For me, before I spend money from now on outside of the basics (rent, car insurance, giving, Roth, 10% of net EF) I am going to ask myself a series of questions (from MMM blog).

1. Will buying this really improve my overall lifetime happiness?

2. Is there another, more efficient way to meet this same need?

3. Can the same benefit be had if I delay the purchase?

4. (my own question) If I purchase this item now, how will it affect future me? I.e. Is the item worth the opportunity cost.

----
I redid my whole January budget. I emptied out all categories that had positive balances to put them back into the Available to Budget (ATB).

Then I created a new category - Slush - which I funded with $1000. The rule is that if it ever goes under $1000 then it is the first category to be refueled.

I still have umpteen number of small categories - they just are not funded. After asking the series of questions if I decide the purchase is worth it, then I'll spend the money in which ever category it belongs to.

At the end of the month all money that was not spent will go to the EF until I hit the $12,000 goal. I am going to focus 100% on this goal until I reach it.

This is not to say that I won't be taking any vacations or trips - I just will be scrutinizing the expenses and value of them very hard.

---
So for example if I am really wanting some chocolate I can ask myself if the chocolate is really going to help me be happier overall. Let's say I'm really wanting a whole bag of chocolate. Buying a whole bag isn't going to help me happier overall, and it won't help my future self be happier or healthier. However, if I purchased a small single chocolate bar I would get my chocolate, but at a very small cost. ($.50 vs $3.49)

----
Purpose of slush fund: Let's say there's a month where Murphy hits hard and I have a large expense which uses up all of the ATB - I can then use the money in the slush fund.

---
Here's January for an example:
Must Haves:
Giving: 10% of Net from prior month
Rent: 430
ROTH: 200
Car Insurance: 36
EF: 10% of Net from prior month

All other categories use the ATB money.

I have 322.93 left. All $322.93 goes to the EF category.

When you add up ROTH, EF 10% and EF ATB, it gives me an approximate 48% savings rate (of Net) for January.

Once my retirement starts being subtracted, I'll look at two savings rates - Net and Net+7%.

Yesterday I stopped at the store that is closing - they were up to 25% off everything.

I walked out with $24 spent. However, I found out while I there that frozen foods were 40% off. I hadn't got a cart when I went in, so didn't get much in frozen foods.

Today I stopped by again ... and got a cart.

The damage? $44 in frozen foods.

It is all foods I can use for lunches and weekend meals for a good while. It barely all fit in my freezer.

However, it does make me about $40 over budget for January.

---

I was reading a blog post by MMM today and all the comments. The one on his 2014 spending.

It is making me consider doing something a bit different with my budgeting. I'm still ruminating on whether I want to make this change or not, and exactly what it would look like.

---
NE went to see the special specialist for his shoulder issues today. The SS had two possible options for him, but wasn't sure which one he'd recommend. One was a reverse shoulder replacement, and the other one involves taking bone grafts from a cadaver (ewww!!) and grafting it onto NEs humerus head. Also taking parts of tendons from other parts of his body to repair the multiple rotator cuffs that are not just torn, but are withered up.

This all could have been avoided if he could have just gone to the doctor when it first happened. UGH!

I got my replacement DC in the mail today. I'd misplaced my old one (think I may have shredded it since I never used it ...)

I signed up for the offer - spend $1k by March 31st and get $75. Normally I wouldn't go for something like this, because spending that much on my CC isn't likely to happen.

However, this just so happens to be the quarter where my car insurance renews.

So here is my plan for the 1k spend:
$215 - Car Insurance
$375 - 3 months tithe (can pay via CC online!!)
$130 - 2 months Internet (too late for January)
$225 - 2.25 months groceries
$100 - 2 months utilities (can put electric on card

I'll also put gas on it since they're offering 5% CB on that to give me a little extra buffer for the 1k spending (not that an extra $35 or so is going to be that much ... 2 months gas ... if prices hold)

And ... that does it.

---
I *finally* got confirmation that my Discover checking account is open. I'm glad I didn't wait til February to start the process!

The deal is open an account with $500 by 2/28. Have a balance of $5000 by 3/15 - get paid $50 if you still have a $5000 balance.

So I'll have the 500 opening balance in there, and add the rest in March - probably the first week in case it takes it awhile to transfer over.

The bonus money will of course go to my Windfall category.

As soon as the $50 is paid, I'll close out the checking though. DC pays .9%, which is ok, but not as much as Barclay's. $50 beats out one month of interest at Barclay's though by a long shot.

A few months ago when my Prime account was up for renewal at $99 for the year, I decided it was not worth it. I wasn't buying much from them with not working in the library anymore, and the few things I did buy were mostly subscribe and save items anyway. The couple shows that I'd want to watch, I could purchase full streaming seasons for less than the $99.

But today they have it for $72. Hmm... I just looked at Downton Abbey and Suits ... purchasing season passes for those two shows would be less than $40. So that means I'd have to find $32 worth of other shows I really want to see to break even ..

I think I just talked myself out of this temptation.

(BTW - I have more than enough AGC credit to pay for this without cutting into my regular budget. The only reason it is a temptation for me.)

Last night Ne told me that a local small grocery store was officially going out of business. It's one that is only two and a half blocks away from me.

I stopped there after work today ... which probably wasn't a good idea because 1) I was hungry; and 2) I was feeling very stressed out about work.

The end result was I spent $25 or so on mostly junk food. Everything was 15% off, and I think they actually lowered their prices on some things. I did get a few non-junk food items like the egg salad, prunes, and Bush's vege baked beans ... but the rest was plain and simple junk food. Chocolate.

I ate one bag of chocolate tonight for supper. Real healthy, right? ugh

(NE likes to tease me about being so frugal but not making my own egg salad ... I'd have to buy mayo to make my own egg salad ... I don't use mayo for anything else, so it'd probably go bad or something before I used it to make egg salad....)

I'm tempted to go back to the store tomorrow to get more Nutella. It was $3.24 with the discount. Cheap. But I know how I am with Nutella. Maybe if I have NE keep the all but one jar at his place - he doesn't have the same problem with it.

---
I redeemed a $25 AGC from PerkPoints tonight. I should have it by Friday.

---
In my mail I received two offers from Discover.

The first offer was $50 for putting $5000 in a new checking account for about two or three weeks. I'm thinking of doing that. I just have to make sure I can do it without touching the money in the dream account - withdrawing money from that would make me lose the bonus APR at 6 months for no withdrawals.

The second offer was to get $75 if I spend $1000 in 3 months.

I'm thinking I *might* be able to do that. It would mean putting my SBs card away and maybe switching some bills over for a few months. It might be worth it. I think Sam's Club takes Discover, so then I wouldn't have to use my Debit card which I don't like doing since it doesn't earn me any points.

---
One bit of good news at work today. I got my retirement benefits information!

The account is with Ameritas and has quite a few Vanguard funds to choose from, along with Fidelity and Morningstar, etc. I already figured out my allocations. Now I just have to get two people to witness my signing the beneficiary information page. (Harder than it sounds. My boss would do it I bet, and NE would do it ... but they'll not likely be in the same place at the same time anytime soon. So .. I've got to figure out a second person.)

I also found out that I get 71,000 of life insurance for $.42/month. The city pays the rest. I will be cancelling my current term insurance. That will save me 15.68/month.

There is also something for post employment health benefits where the city contributes so much a month. I get to elect how I want that money invested. That was fun playing around with percentages.

I also found out that the whole Early Retirement / Regular Retirement stuff was just terminology. No real meaning behind it. So if I'm ready to retire at 55 there'd be no additional benefit to working nine more years to make the 63/25 years of service level. I'd be 100% vested and that's all that really matters.

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Cripes! It's 12:20 a.m. I must get to bed if I'm going to be at all coherrent today.

Yesterday I went with NE to his follow up MRI appointment. He should have the results in time for his appointment with the ortohpaedist on Tuesday.

Afterwards we stopped at Arby's and he treated me to a chocolate turnover. Yum! (This doesn't count for my one time a month chocolate expenditure since he treated. ) I think I know what I want to be my expenditure though ... the Mint Chocolate shake at Arby's. Looks so yummy! (But is 720 calories, so definitely not something to do on a day I'm not getting a lot of exercise.)

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This morning I did my laundry. The first washer I put my stuff in wouldn't work in the cold/cold mode (which is what I always use since I mix colors.) My landlord came over and gave me a dollar (I didn't know that it was just that mode not working - he figured that out.)

Spent $2.


I also got a load of dishes done.

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I spent $25 at Groupon from my spending money to purchase a partial highlights deal. I bought it through Swagbucks (8 SBx per dollar) with my SB credit card.

That is one of the things I asked for for Christmas/birthday and my mom just sent me the cash to do it myself. So not only am I getting what I want, but I'm getting some extra Swagbucks for it.

I don't know when exactly I'll use it - it's good for 150 days. Maybe in March if NE is done with his shoulder stuff.

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I stopped at Russ's to do some grocery shopping.

My list had 7 items on it, but I only got 6 because they didn't have Fage yogurt. I may still get that later.

3 grocery items - $7.21
3 Kari items - $3.61
1 treat/spending money item: $3.65
1 Toiletries - $2.77 (with coupon)

I had a $.75 coupon for two packages of Oreo's that I almost used, but they had the Oreo's for 2.69 each and I know I've seen them for $.1.99 each before. So .. avoided temptation.

Here is my updated grocery spreadsheet for details:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11GJKzDizNZEKsSYZIS4C...

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I finished a book on Friday called "Penny Pinchers Club" by Sarah Straohmeyer. It was pretty funny and sad, and had some good lessons about jumping to conclusions. I think it would be something many of you might enjoy. I am planning on getting more of her books in the future. (Right now I have 4 of the Evanovich books I need to read and return ... so first things first. )

I've updated my book list in the sidebar with read and current reads.

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I came across an interesting link today in the MMM forums about planning and organizing. This is a pdf book about 52 pages long with spaces for you to list everything you can think of about yourself - finances, email accounts, location of documents, etc. The purpose being of course that if you are somehow incapacitated or die then your caretakers/survivors would have an easier time of it.

Here is the link: http://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm

Ok, now I'm off to catch up on the blogs.

In the YNAB forums someone mentioned that if you get paid bi-weekly on a thursday or Friday that there are THREE months this year with 3 paychecks.

How awesome is that???

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I got my $25 PayPal from Swagbucks today.

I also sold an item on eBay for $16 during the night - printed out the shipping label before going to work and mailed it off.

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I got my gas bill for December - 36.97. That is down from 42.83 for November. So ... turning down the thermostat from 67 to 64 saved me ... ~$6?

Although my electric bill went up nearly $8 .. mostly I think due to the electric heater.

So ... I'm kind of wondering if using the space heater is all that more efficient than using my gas furnace at 67. Kari loves the space heater, but overall I'm not sure how much it really helps to heat the room.

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I got the bill for my doctor's appointment on Dec 15. ALL I'm being charged is the $25 copay. I'm not having to pay anything for the bloodwork!

Ummm... I think I'm going to like this insurance plan.

We got a good bit of snow last night (Saturday) so I wasn't really sure I wanted to go out shopping today or not. However, once I got out on the roads around 4pm they were all fairly clear.

If you would like to see a more detailed breakdown of my grocery trip, go to this link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11GJKzDizNZEKsSYZIS4CgdhNBmVXf2dqXIMyU19VHfE/edit#gid=0

I set out with the goal of not purchasing more than ten items. And I did it! (with one caveat - I made one purchase for NE which he'll reimburse me for later - he ended up not coming with me.)

The total of the ten items I purchased for myself is roughly $56.46. Of that, two items were not grocery category items.

So grocery spending today: ~$51.20
Spending Money - ~$1.28
Toiletries - ~$3.43

I also filled up with gas at Sam's for $1.93!!!
Total - $15.58 for 8.037 gallons.

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I did laundry, dishes, cleaned the kitchen, did a trash run, and got my lunch ready for tomorrow.

I've also watched the first part of Labor Day ... wow, so not what I was expecting. I'm anxious to finish it.

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I also posted a couple new items on eBay as well as relisting some.

When I got home from shopping though I had an awesome email from eBay -- I sold a DVD for the BIN price! $6.99. I've already got it packaged up ready to go tomorrow.

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NE will be coming over in a bit, so I'm going to enter my receipts into YNAB and then maybe read a bit on the forums - hopefully not getting lost in a rabbit hole like I did last night ...

OH! I forgot. I also did 30 minutes of stepping while watching Labor Day today. (I have a step I got from freecycle years ago.)

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Next time I go shopping I'm going to make sure I eat something before I go, even if I'm not really hungry. I got so hungry while shopping that I got a Payday bar - technically not chocolate. But still kind of stretching it a bit.

On my way home from work today I saw gas for $1.99 at a local station! Sweet!

I plan on going to Walmart on Sunday and possibly Sam's for a largish shopping trip, and also to satisfy my curiosity about Sam's gas price.

So far no spending in 2015 (outside of bills)

I am having to pay a $.97 late fee on my last electric bill - I saw it and then totally forgot about it. Ooops! Now I have it set up on automatic payment to my credit card so I don't have to worry about it. My most recent bill was up about $10 from last month - still within my budgeted amount, but I'm going to be even more careful about keeping lights turned off.

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I redeemed for $20 worth of AGC yesterday and today from Swagbucks. Although I think I won't redeem for the 5th one tomorrow - I'll keep that for a $25 PayPal instead.

I'm mainly using my AGC credit for buying my pea protein powder for my breakfast smoothies, and I only need to get that ever other month. Plus I am earning AGCs from PerkPoints ... so I think I'd rather get cash when I can.

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On Thursday I did 40 minutes of stepping while watching an episode of POI. I found out that I can still play Ptv while using the Pact app to track movement. Sweet. 3 things at once.

Today at lunch I was able to walk around the conference room for 15 minutes.

I weighed in this morning with a .1 lb loss.

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Work was crazy busy today, but I did manage to finish my Shopaholic to the Stars book by Sophie Kinsella. I LOVE that series. So funny!

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I was looking at the union contract today, and saw that once I hit the 6 month mark, I'll have a required 7% retirement contribution with a 9% match from the city! Wow! I couldn't find anything that says what happens if you contribute more than 7% (i.e. will they match more? or is 9% the max match?)

I'm thinking that next week when our Payroll person is back I'm going to ask her about that.

So one area I would like to improve upon is my grocery spending AND on the quality of what I'm purchasing.

This will help me financially and health wise too.

In light of knowing I need to improve in this area, I have decided to create a Google spreadsheet where I am going to enter all my food purchases this year.

Here is the link to it:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11GJKzDizNZEKsSYZIS4CgdhNBmVXf2dqXIMyU19VHfE/edit?usp=sharing

I am hoping it'll help me in two ways - 1. By making my groceries public, I will be less likely to buy a lot of junkfood; and 2. Because I won't want to have to enter all the information in very often, I will be more likely to limit my grocery shopping trips!

I'm also going to track which items I use coupons for and where the coupons come from (SB = Swagbucks; P=paper)

It can also function as a pricebook so I can see when prices are at stock up level.