As I look back at the 40 days I challenged myself to not buy any junkfood, and then the 18 or so days since the challenge ended, I have come to a realization.

For me, there is no middle ground. It has been utterly ridiculous the last 18 days.

The 40 days of the challenge I was able to complete it with very little problems. In fact, I got to the point where I didn't really miss the junkfood. I wasn't exactly any healthier during that time (ER visit and bronchitis anyone??) but that probably would've happened one way or the other.

So I have decided that from this point forward I am not going to purchase any junkfood. I am also not going to participate anymore in the office Treat day (this is partly where I think I got myself in trouble ... all that leftover Easter candy people brought to share ... made me want more, more, more!)

I am going to allow myself three exceptions: 1) If someone offers me something/offers to treat me; 2) If I'm out at a restaurant and I *really* want something (such as the vegan place in O - they have some delectable looking deserts) and 3) If it is my birthday, or some other *very* special occasion

None of these exceptions happen very often.

I also cannot go into Family Dollar or Walgreen's or CVS for anything food related. Period.

I have some pretty big financial goals I'm trying to achieve, and spending $50+ a month on junkfood is not going to help me achieve them.

Junkfood = soda, chocolate, ice cream, pastries, candybars, cookies (sugary kind), pies, cakes, etc.

Whenever I start thinking about buying chocolate, etc., I need to think ... is this worth an extra hour answering the phone? Is it worth putting off the house a little bit longer?

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I updated my net worth in YNAB today. My one stock has been quite volatile the past few months and I haven't wanted to see just how bad it was ... but today I decided to bite the bullet. When including the stock, my networth decreased $15k from January. Not including the stock, my networth increased about $2500 since January. (I'm not going to sell the stock. Even with the volatility, it still is worth WAY more than the original purchase price of around $22 - 28.)

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I went to a free concert Saturday night at my church. It was pretty enjoyable. I even bought a $15 CD from the artist - he is just starting out. (is a member of our church) I was needing a good CD to listen to in the car while the local radio station is doing its pledge drive (didn't they just do that at Christmas? Yikes!)

I think this is the first CD I've bought in at least 4 or 5 years.

I got an offer in the mail today for Blue Cash - spend $1k in 3 months get $250 back. I think that's the one I'm going to go with for my medical bills. That way I don't have to fiddle with trying to make sure I get to $3k in spending, even though it probably *could* happen. $250 is enough reward to not bother with the hassle.

Anyone know if they count Walmart in the grocery category?

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So shockers ... my brother never did call this week.

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I've not been doing well with the whole thing of staying away from buying junkfood this week ... My treats category is through the roof, and it's only the 17th. Ugh.

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I got a notice of a package from UPS sent from Best Buy. I didn't order anything from Best Buy, so have no idea what it is or who sent it. I tried making it where they hold it at the office, but they were wanting to charge me $5.00 to change shipping locations!!! Uh, yeah, no. Whatever it is, it can get sent back (because you know the likelihood of them actually dropping a package off at a time people are *actually* home is, right?)

In reality I'll probably try calling again on Monday and speak to a real person to 1. make sure it is actually for me and not for someone else in the apartments, and 2. make sure there isn't a way to have it held there (I'm sure I've done it before!)

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I'm so glad the work week is over. So very tiring. (read .. boring ..)

In other news ... I read a book this week - Zoo - by James Patterson. Very interesting and page turning. A little bit gory. Something's going on with the animals of the world ... and noone's listening to the main character. This is bad news.

I love James Patterson, and this is one of his stand-a-lone books. (He wrote Alex Cross series and Women's Murder Mystery Club series and and and and and ...)

Next week on Earth Day my boss and I will be doing TWO bus station tours for homeschool groups. They'll be my very first tours. I'll probably have to do them by myself after these two groups. Gulp.

On Wednesday I had a trio of skater kids (long hair, pierced lips ... etc) come in and ask about their "wheelies" they'd left on the bus ... Two MONTHS ago... I told the main one that I remembered them (because I was so flabbergasted when they came in) but that we only keep things for two weeks. So they were long gone. The kid looked so dissapointed.

I like it so much better when I can tell someone - Yep! I've got it right here for you!

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NE hadn't done his taxes. He asked me to print off the forms for him - but my printer was out of ink and the cartridge I'd bought wasn't being recognized. So he was going to print the papers off at the library on Tuesday. Didn't go.

Wednesday he decides he'll just file for an extension. We go to the library and he signs up for a computer. As we're walking around waiting we see a display of papers. One of them is an extension form!

Unfortunately it wasn't until we got to my place and I was filling it out for him (his patience level wasn't very high right then and his eyesight isn't good in dim light) that I realized he'd gotten a state extension form instead of a federal.

Instead of rushing back to the library before it closed, he decided to file the extension online. He thought it would be free. It wasn't - it cost 19.95!! Towards the middle of filling the extension out, he had to run home to get his W-2 form (didn't help his mood at all.) But .. got the extension filed.

This is definitely one area he and I are SOOOOOOO different on. Even if I knew I owed taxes, there's no way I could wait so long to file. I also would not want to do them on paper - I SO love TaxAct, etc. for ease of filing. It would stress me out way too much to wait til April 15!!

I tried to casually suggest setting aside 30% of the money he makes from his eBay sales to cover taxes so he wouldn't have to stress out ... yeah, didn't go over too well. If we ever get to the point of seriously talking marriage .. that is something I'm going to insist on. No way am I going to let something so stupid as taxes get me uber stressed out.

(He might have had the money to pay his taxes this year if it weren't for the shoulder surgery and all the costs from that.)

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Redeemed Bing points for a $5 AGC (just couldn't justify the IHOP card for more points.)

So I've been stalking the FB garage sale page for months and months. One time I came really close to getting a futon/couch for $25, but NE couldn't come help me that night, so I lost it.

Sunday night though I saw a post from someone selling multiple things - no prices listed and no location. One of the items was a loveseat. The post was three days old with a "bump" comment saying everything was still available.

I PMd the person and found out she lived fairly close to me and wanted $90 for the loveseat. That was a little more than I was really wanting to spend, but I LOVED the look of it and it looked small enough to fit into my space well.

So I asked her if it would be okay to come over after 7 Monday night. She was okay with it.

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NE calls me Monday about 6:48 to let me know he'd be there in ten minutes. I let him know about the loveseat. He wasn't exactly thrilled to have it sprung on him like that ... (oops - I really meant to email him that morning, but forgot ...)

I didn't have any rope (to tie it to his roof) so we stopped at Walgreen's and then Family Dollar to get rope.

He needed gas ... I texted the person to let her know that we really were coming. (It was nearly 7:30)

Finally we get to her apartment building and I give her a call .. she comes down the stairs. Thankfully she was only on the second floor.

After we got to her apartment and I saw it in person, I knew I'd made a good decision.

NE and I wrestled it out to his car, and managed to get it up on the roof. Then we tied it on and drove the few miles to my place with me holding on to one end of the rope (in the car.)

We wrestled it into my place, and I got it to where I wanted it while NE parked.

Kari right away was super interested in this new thing. She actually slept part of the night on it last night.

So anyway ... here is a picture of it:

It's super comfy, well worn, but otherwise in good shape. I'm glad I stayed patient and didn't breakdown and order a futon from Walmart or something ...

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)

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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!)

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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 got a bill from my ER visit a few weeks ago - just the ER stuff, not the doctors. $3,572. Gulp. This is thankfully *before* insurance kicks in. I'm not sure why they're sending me the bill before they file it with my insurance ... Get this - the two Tylenol they gave me? $72! Ridiculous.

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The event my boss and I worked today was pretty much a bust. The weather was wet, cold and windy. There were only five other booths there. We had maybe a dozen or so people come by ... in 4 hours (we left early.)

I did get to go into the Student Union which I'd never been in. Wow, SO different than the Student Unions at the colleges I went to.

My boss and a co-worker got coffee at a Starbucks clone - I got hot chocolate. (It was really cold, otherwise I would've stuck with water.)

All of us had packed lunches. I'm glad I did, because there was a Subway in the Union. I would've maybe been tempted ...

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Not much else I can think of, so I'll go off to read up on ya'll.

On Sunday I decided to not do a Sam's/Walmart run and instead just filled in with what I needed from the grocery store I could walk to. This was partly because I didn't feel like driving all the way out there, and partly because I thought they'd have my large rewards card ready.* (they didn't)

*I got two rewards cards from this grocery store - a keytag and a large card. I've misplaced the large card - which you have to have in order to use for gas savings. I went to customer service a week ago to ask for a large card (with my points) - they told me it'd be ready by Sunday. So I waited to fill up my car, and of course it wasn't ready. The lady I spoke with said something about them being months behind ... ugh!

I have 11cents/gallon savings currently on my card which I can't use.

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Monday I had a recheck on my Vitamin D levels. Got the call Monday afternoon letting me know my levels were in the normal range.

I don't know if it is because of this or not, but somehow I'm all of a sudden being able to actually lose weight! Even with eating fairly normally. And low activity level.

I'm down 14lbs from my high in January, and almost 2lbs down from my low when I was so sick a few weeks ago. Whatever the reason, I'm NOT complaining!

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I filled up at the gas station for $2.31/gallon (would've been $2.20/gallon if I could've used my card!) I don't forsee any major driving this month, so hopefully that will be it for April's gas.

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After work today I went to the gym for the first time in over 2 weeks. I walked on the track for 30 minutes. I need to figure out a way to keep track of laps or distance - 1 lap is 1/16th of a mile. I didn't push myself too hard, but still felt like I got a good workout in.

Afterwards I stopped at Walgreen's and picked up my Vitamin D and some Easter candy (on sale.)

I have just over 1000 points to get my $50 cashback at Walgreen's. That's just two prescriptions, or a prescription plus a month's worth of walking/logging weight. So I'm starting to ponder what I'll get with my $50 ...

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Tomorrow I get to be away from the office most of the day. My boss and I will be manning a booth at an event at the local university. It would be better if it wasn't going to be rainy and cold ... but still, it's a day away. Plus I get to wear jeans.

I wonder how much free junk ..er...stuff I'll walk away with from the event .. all the vendors give free stuff out - pens, notepads, cups, food, etc.

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 ...)

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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

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

Savings of 630.79 +9%

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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.

So .... I ended up going into work on Friday. Managed to make it the full 8 hours too. Only by spending all of lunch with my head on the break room table, and my 15 minute pm break too.

Even so, I was hacking out my lungs and made use of the mute button quite often so as to not make my callers listen in.

I really don't know what's up with my boss. Part of the reason I made myself go in on Friday was because she sounded so put out when I called in sick on Thursday. But then on Friday several times during the day she said if I needed to go home, to go home.

I really need to sit down with her and have a chat to see if there is something going on. I am wondering if she thinks I got sick *because* of helping out NE during his shoulder surgery. (I'm pretty sure it's allergy related - this is what happens almost every time I have a really bad allergy season. Which has been this year for sure.)

Ugh. Is it 2031 yet (so I can retire?)

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Then after work I came home and slept for a while, NE called and we talked for a bit, then I slept some more. Finally got up about 30 minutes before he came over.

He brought me a thermometer and and an icepack (for headache). When I took my temp, it was 102.7! So off we went to Urgent Care. It was so nice to have him with me.

Their thermometer read 103! They ruled out flu and pneumonia and said it was bronchitis. Great. Doctor gave me a scrip for antibiotics and sent me on my way.

We stopped at Walgreen's and NE went in and got my prescription - and a little extra, a Cadbury egg

Took the first antibiotic around 9 pm Friday night and am already feeling much better - in fact, dare I say it, but my headache may be gone too!

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Gotta say it's frustrating to eat a pretty healthy diet (lots of fruit/veggies/whole wheat, little processed, etc. and recently very very little junkfood) and be getting this sick again. Plus pretty much all I drink is water. Once in awhile Rice Dream, and in a rare instance (like this week) juice. (Soda I go back and forth on - months and months where all I'll do is have a sip or two of NEs and maybe one or two bottles, and then times where I slip back into drinking it much more often. Currently on the rarely drink curve and hope to continue!)

Oh well, if I improve even more by tomorrow, I might even have the energy AND the desire to clean my place. It's in bad, bad, bad shape. 4 days of having the desire but having absolutely no energy .... doesn't make for a pretty sight.

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Bing must be in trouble, or may be in the process of fading out their rewards. When I joined and then up until 3 or 4 months ago, I was able to earn at least 40 points a day. Now only 25 points a day - which made reaching the 475 points needed for the SBs feel interminable. Today I found out that they've increased the price to 575!

I've changed my reward goal to the IHOP giftcard. I need to check if they're stackable, but a few months of those will get me a free meal at IHOP. (not that healthy I know, I know ... )

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On YouGov I'm up to 62k points - I have some good options of rewards, but I still think I want to wait for the $100 AGC (100k) because it's the only one that is penny to point value.

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I have been perfectly abysmal at entering my spending for at least two weeks in YNAB. I'll be able to enter stores and amounts, but will have to guess at what it was for.

For some reason I've gotten into the bad habit of throwing away a receipt as soon as I snap it for Receipt Hog (finally reached 1100 points, but am going on for a higher amount.) Anyway .. I really need to save those receipts until I've entered them in YNAB (mostly grocery type receipts, I don't buy much else.)

All of that to say, my categories are probably going to be a little off for March.

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Ok, so off to catch up with y'all!

Oops, I went back to try to edit the lengthiness and ended up adding length!

So I woke up this morning totally planning on going to work. I wasn't sure how I'd handle sitting upright for 8 hours or constantly being on the phone, but I figured I'd try.

Then ....................I made my morning bathroom visit. Instead of the usual 2 or 3 minutes and blast off, it turned into 25 minutes of quality time - the kind where you lose 3 lbs. Loved seeing the number on the scale

I still was going to try though. So I made a slice pb applesauce toast and got a banana. It too me ten minutes to force down the banana and another ten unsuccessful minutes of staring at the toast. At that point I was like forget it, I'm taking the day off.

Later I did manage to eat the toast.

I walked over to the local grocery store to get some apple juice and stronger pain relief. Took those about half an hour ago, .... waiting.

I think my boss thinks NE and I live together because she asked me if he was there when I fainted.

NE was very nice last night - he only stayed for a few hours - I really wasn't up for much more than that.

I'm a bit anxious about what my ER bills are going to be - At least $150 copay (EKG, CT, etc.) Guess I'll just have to wait.

So Friday night when NE came over we went out to pick up his prescriptions and also got Chinese food. (I'd eaten earlier, but he was hungry ... I went ahead and got veggie fried rice - which I ate on all weekend.)



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Anyway ... I went to church Saturday (had missed the last two weeks due to sick and overtiredness.) Saturday afternoon I joined a church group doing a bike ride in a local park. I went there to walk ... one of the ladies walked with me instead of riding. We had a nice time talking and walking for 4.4 miles!

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Saturday night I spent some time updating YNAB. Ugh. I will not be making my $300 goal this month. If it weren't for some of the extras coming in, I probably wouldn't even have $100 to put in extra to the EF. Gas is one of the major budget busters this month - 4 roundtrips to O does not make for a happy gas tank.

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I got my $75 Discover CC bonus on Friday - have already requested a check (total of $80.xx)

I also cashed out for a $25 PP from SBS today.

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This morning I went to the church exercise class - cardio/pilates combo. It was a tough workout! I think it will be good for me though - both the exercise and possibly making some connections.

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Went grocery shopping this afternoon (walked to the store) - bananas, apple (free w/coupon from health fair), broccoli salad, cat food, 3 cartons of Rice Dream on clearance, etc. $30.29 (after coupons)

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Brother called this weekend - supposedly mom has big bad news that she has to tell us in person. I called her yesterday (not letting on that I'd talked to brother) and she didn't mention anything about BBN. So .... manipulation anyone?? Ugh. If so, she's shooting herself in the foot because he and I were already in the process of planning a weekend here for her and him and I. This whole thing kind of puts a sour taste on it (esp. for brother - who only started talking to her again maybe 18 months ago or so.)

--

I'm going to be making the oatmeal cookies again fairly soon. I think I'll add applesauce to the batter though. I have two fairly ripe bananas, so will be making more. They'll make great after work / before workout snacks I think.

The last few days I have been reading the book "Younger Next Year for Women" which I found recommended in the YNAB forums a month or so ago.

It is written for somewhat older women, but even so, I think it is a good read for younger women too.

It is written by two men - one is a practicing renowned in his field doctor, and the other (at the time) was a retired 69 year old lawyer.

The essence of the book was saying that our bodies were not created for the modern world of sedentarinism (made up word ) and overabundance of food. That when most of our life is spent not doing anything much more strenuous than pushing the chair away from our desk, that it sends the message to our bodies that we are in "conserve" mode. This is especially compounded when we eat large amounts of food.

The "conserve" mode actually starts breaking down our body ... or aging us.

How do we fix this? By exercising HARD for 45 minutes 6 days a week, at least 2x heavy weights. What this does is send our body the signals it needs to send out the stuff that repairs our body ... or reverses the aging process.

He also talks about stopping eating crap (processed foods, saturated fats, etc); being careful with money, and ..

The importance of human connections. "social connections are a more powerful factor in health and mortality than smoking, alcohol, exercise, nutrition or age." (pg 313)

And the importance of giving back/being part of a community.

All in all a compelling and fascinating book. Which caused me to make the final leap to ....

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I joined the $39/month gym!

I went and took a tour of it this afternoon, and already signed the contract.

It has WiFi, up to date cardio equipment, sweet up to date weight machines, two pools, three exercise class studios, tennis courts, basketball courts, racquetball courts, saunas, hot tub, walking track, etc.

My goal is to go there at least 3x a week to feel like I am getting my money's worth. It is about a 20 minute drive from work - so I'll just have to make sure to have my gym bag ready to go. (and have an after work snack ready too so I have some fuel for the workout)

All this working out is going to mean less time on the computer (especially while NE is still in recovery mode and coming over here most nights ...) which all in all is probably not a bad thing.

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I've been having a really hard time at work this last week or so. I don't know if my boss is annoyed with me for taking so much time off (even though she KNOWS why I've been taking the time off.)

I've not been getting the sleep I need - I go to bed at ten and wake up at 4 a.m. NOT ENOUGH SLEEP

So ... I've made some mistakes at work. I hadn't made any mistakes for weeks. Then Friday I made one. KE (my boss) came down hard on me about it. Then yesterday I made another mistake. KE was pretty snippy about it. Today she came out and looked through the receipt book a couple times without saying anything .. I asked her if she was looking for anything. She said she wasn't.

I know I'm probably just feeling overtired which is making me blow things out of proportion, but still ... the last few days have made so badly want to say I QUIT! I'm done dealing with people cursing on the phone, yelling at me because buses are late, telling me I don't know what I'm talking about (when I do know what I'm talking about, they just don't like what I'm saying), etc.

Just so blasted tired and tired of work.

I think the above is partly why I joined the gym too ... hopefully if I can get some more consistent/good exercise, I'll sleep better and feel better about work.

We'll see ...

Monday I got my $25 PP from Swagbucks. I also got an email that my $100 gift card had come from Achievemint.
When I clicked on the link to get it, it gave me three choices of how to redeem it - I chose PayPal. That $100 arrived today.

So on Sunday I'd emailed Fitbit's CS about my fitbit battery/back issues. They replied to me yesterday basicaly telling me they don't have any extra battery doohickeys or backs to the Zip (I can't get mine opened anymore after opening it 4 times with a quarter ... plus assorted other objects in an attempt to find something that worked ...) They also told me that according to their info, my battery was just fine and wasn't dying every 4 - 6 weeks.

Tell that to my dead as a doorknob Fitbit.

......
So ... I decided I was going to upgrade to the One so that I don't have to mess with batteries anymore.

I first checked on Amazon - $97 or $93 - the price difference was due to COLOR! Before I clicked buy though (would've been covered mostly by AGC) I decided to take a look on eBay.

I'm glad I did! I found a brand new one (had sat out on a store shelf as a display unit) for $60 + $5 shipping! It should be here by March 11 at the latest (I really hope it's sooner for a myraid of reasons - one being that I want to walk around the hospital while NEs in surgery and have those steps count!)

I think it's kind of funny/fitting (ha ha) that my reward for tracking steps, logging food, etc, etc, is now paying for a new tracker.

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I stayed home from work today. Just not feeling that great. While I am totally on track with my 40 day challenge of not *buying* junkfood, I'm not doing so well with eating offered junkfood. As in I ate two very yummy homemade sweetrolls at work yesterday. I think I would've been okay with just one. Then on Saturday I made brownies (from a box mix I already had) for a Sabbath School class potluck - there was about 1/4 of them left ....

I am really starting to think that some of my sinus/allergy issues are somewhat related to overdosing on sugar. Until the brownie incident I had been without a sinus headache for nearly 7 or 8 days.

I'm going to have to do some major evaluating of what this might mean going forward.

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NE is in O city having his pre-surgery appointments today.

He is thinking he'll be in the hospital at least two full days, and possibly a third one. He really wants me to come visit him everyday. This means a two-hour drive for me after work at least one or two days, as well as the drive to take him to the hospital.

So ... I'm thinking my gas spending is going to be high, and possibly my restaurant spending as well. Although I could just make myself a PBJ to take with me to eat in the car on the way there or something. I will definitely be doing Hardee's at least once though. (mushroom swiss burger and onion rings - so yummy! w/o the burger of course)

His surgery is on Wednesday. So if he is correct, it'll mean he goes home on either Friday or Saturday. I'll be taking Wednesday off completely from work, and was thinking about taking off an hour early on Thursday and Friday so I can spend an hour or so with him and still get home without having to drive in the dark.

However, I saw someone post that the time change is this coming Sunday? If so, then maybe I can get away without taking off early those days.

Guess I really should wait to see what info he has after his doctor visits today before thinking too much about it all.

--- It's been years since I've been in a regular hospital - do they generally have WiFi available? Do they allow cell phone usage in the waiting areas? Have plugs available for charging?

----
If I get some energy here soon I want to make corn pudding and black bean burgers. I have all the ingredients for both. Maybe also a cottage cheese roast. Plan on freezing portions for later meals - although I've never frozen corn pudding before after it was baked (prior to baking, yes, but not after) -- Hmmm. Doubtful I'll get that energy anyway, but we'll see I guess.

--
Oh, something really cute/funny. This morning I fed Kari, and then went back and laid down for awhile. Later I got up to make something to eat. She had barely eaten anything. As soon as I started making my food though, she started chowing down.

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 ...)


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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!

I've been doing some looking into a trip out to CA in September for my grandma's 93rd birthday. I priced out Greyhound, AmTrak and Southwest. All of them came out about the same price, but Southwest was 7 hrs travel time versus 40+ hours. Driving would be ~29 hours.

Today I ran across a neat little tool - Google Flights. You input the dates you'd like to travel between and it finds the dates which would save you the most money. I found one flight for 340, but I'd have to stay for 14 days ... No can do. But I do think I'll be able to leave from L instead of O, which is what I thought I'd have to do to get a good deal. (just will have to pack very lightly)

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It got COLD here last night and today. Brr! It was -8 at noon today.

Glad I have plenty of hot chocolate to keep me warm.

---

Yesterday I went to a city health fair (during work hours!) and got a nice free chair massage. I also talked to a lady from a local gym.

*indoor track
*indoor/outdoor pool
*pilates classes (included in membership)
Plus all the usual weight, cardio, etc.

The city employee rate is $39/month for a 2 year membership.

I'm really, really tempted. The track and the pool are the two biggest draws to me (really the track is the biggest draw.)

I'm just not sure if I want to commit to $39/month for two years ... I'm most likely to use it when it is either too cold outside or too hot outside for me to feel comfortable walking outside (or most of the winter when it gets dark so early.) However, I would probably use the weights too.

I *can* exercise at home for free. No extra gas spent, and don't have to make sure I'm clothed decently.

I just think a track would help me make actual improvements, vs. stepping in place at home.

It would be about a 20 minute drive (one of the closest places to me. there is a $10/mo place no contract that is about 30 minute drive, but no track or pool)

I think I'd most likely use it Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Maybe Saturday too (too hot/cold to walk to the library)

I also like that for my Pact app that I could just check in and not have to worry about making sure I get enough movement in to count (it has a feature for home workouts which tracks accelrometer movement.)

If I do this and actually USE it, future Laura will thank present Laura for this. (health wise) If I do this and don't really use it, future Laura will beat up present Laura. (waste of money that could've been put towards savings goals)

I'm thinking I might check and see if I can get a one week membership to test it out and see if I will really DO the 20 minute drive after work during the week ... plus to see how crowded it is during the times I'd want to go. I know they'll do a one day trial, but that is hardly enough to really test it.

I just know how hard it is sometimes for me to make myself do workouts even with the motivation of watching a new episode of POI... Will I really be able to make myself drive 20 minutes .....

Sunday night NE and I went out to a Chinese buffet with his friend/wife. It was nice to spend some time with them, and NE was able to have his will witnessed.

I ended up only getting one semi-sweet food - mainly because I was stuffed! (I ate way too many corn nuggets - yummy!)

---
6 days out of 40 are down now in my 40 day challenge! So far I'm not finding it too difficult to stay away from the temptation of buying junkfood ... of course I also haven't had any majorly stressful days this past 6 days. That's when the real test will come.

---
I read "The Mockingbird Next Door" this past week at work. It's about Nelle Harper Lee - the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. It was REALLY good. Towards the end of the book it mentioned the movie Infamous with Sandra Bullock (based on the Clutter family murder in the early 60s in Kansas - which Truman Capote wrote the book In Cold Blood about.)

NE and I watched it on Amazon IV last night (only $2 to rent! paid out of my Amazon credits). I liked it, although I think NE was slightly bored because it was mostly talking/interacting and not too much action.

--
Today I started reading "The Cat Whisperer." I am *really* liking it so far. Ceejay, you might want to check it out if your cats are still having issues.

No spending since Sunday - groceries and dinner - roughly $48 total. With 4 days to do, I think I'll be putting over $1000k to my EF! Wish every month could be like that. (I'd have to earn a whole lot more!)

Yesterday when I got home and got on Swagbucks I saw I had had a 1500 SB infusion. I was wondering what that was from, so checked my account ledger.

It was from doing my taxes on TaxAct! I had clicked through the link when I did my taxes, but hadn't seen anything in the Shop and Earn tab or anywhere else saying pending .. so figured that since I already was a customer of TaxAct that I wouldn't get the points.

Glad I was wrong. I just need 400 more now to get my next $25 PP reward. Sweet!

---
I also had a nice surprise EOB from my bloodwork. I wasn't asked for a co-pay at the time, and was expecting to pay at least $30+ for my part.

Today I got the EOB - My portion? $0!!

I have to say, I *really* like my insurance plan.

---
I walked to the library today and brought back a number of items. Picked up some things that were on hold. One of them was "The Rosie Project" which I'd seen recommended by a number of people on YNAB forums.

The lady behind me saw the book and told me that her book club had just read that book, and that there is a sequel to it (The Rosie Effect.) I told her that I was looking forward to reading both. (I considered asking her about the book club, but I was in my scruffies and wasn't sure what kind of impression she'd have ... )

Later as I was heading out the door, she was behind me. She told me that she'd seen my keytag for the library card and hadn't known they had those - so she got one too. I told her that I found it pretty convenient as long as I had my id with me! (I have my id on a lanyard with the library card keytag.)

---
I'm curious what your opinion is on this ...

Tomorrow NE and I are going to eat at a Chinese buffet with his friend BT and his wife. I'm paying for NE's and I's meal. At the buffet there is a fairly good selection of sweets.

Since I am paying for the buffet as a whole, if I took some sweets as part of my meal, would that count as my buying junkfood?

I'm thinking that it doesn't, since I'd be paying the same amount no matter what. So it isn't like I'm paying specifically for the sweets section.

If I were in a grocery store shopping, then buying a candy bar, etc., would be a clear cut no. Or if I was at a restaurant where you order desert separately. But when it is already part of a meal?

Just curious what you all think.

(This is in relation to my 40 day goal of not purchasing junkfood.)

---
I helped NE fill out his Last Will Friday night. He asked me if there was anything specific I wanted of his ... had a hard time thinking of anything, but finally came up with one of his fishing rods. He's going to have his friend BT and wife sign it as witnesses.

I probably need to do something like this too, but I'm not sure how legally binding something like this really is. A document you get off a CD from Office Depot and print out?

How/Where do you include account information, etc? An addendum or something? Should you include a clause in there about how you want social websites handled?

I don't celebrate Lent in my faith, but after having spent three years working in a Catholic school and seeing how much it meant to the people there, I have thought about making my own Lenten type commitment.

When I was having issues with eating out too much and made the goal of no eating out for 60 days - I succeeded and in the end pretty much completely got rid of the bad habits that had been forming. Not that I don't stop for fast food once in a while, or eat out, but it isn't the norm.

So ... with my recent blood test results (lipids) I realized that there are two things that could help reverse those results. Eating less junkfood and being more consistent in my exercise.

So ... for 40 days (starting Wednesday, the 18th) my commitment is to not buy junkfood (may eat it, but cannot purchase it)and to get a minimum of 20 minutes of activity EVERY day.

My hope is that by the end of 40 days I will have broken through the bad habits I'd fallen back into the past 4 or 5 months with junkfood, as well as regaining good habits of exercise which kind of went by the wayside both with the weather and it getting dark early plus not feeling well often.

This of course will also save me money.

So far so good.

---
I got the new label maker yesterday just before heading home for the day. Today I got to play with it. Our new computer system doesn't allow us to install programs on the computer, so I can't access all of the neat features - at least not until GK installs the program for me.

---
I cashed out Pinecone points for $10 tonight.

---
NE wants to take a friend of his to dinner this weekend (either Sunday or Monday) to tell him about his upcoming surgery, etc. Since he paid for Valentine's, it's my turn to pay. (this will be a cheaper meal - Chinese buffet vs. the V pizza buffet.) I've been in the mood for Chinese for awhile, so it'll be nice.

---
I'm on track to put $1000 in my EF this month - as long as I'm really careful with my grocery spending for the coming week. There isn't too much I can think of that I'll need to get other than bananas and sweet potatoes .. oh, mouthwash too.

---
I saw a recipe on MyFitnessPal for black bean oatmeal burgers. It's a fairly simple recipe, and I'm pretty sure I have everything needed. So I might make those this weekend - would be great for lunches next week, and maybe freeze some too if I have enough black beans to make extras.

http://happyherbivore.com/2011/08/easy-black-bean-burger/

Oatmeal is supposed to be really good for lowering cholesterol. I used to eat it a lot for breakfast, but really prefer the fruit smoothies (frozen fruit, banana, flaxseed, chia seeds, PB2 powder, water, sometimes carrots if I remember to get some ...)

So maybe I can get the oatmeal in at lunch in these burgers.

---
I really need to get to the bank and figure out if I want to try for the $150 bonus. Every time I think about doing it I end up having one of my major sinus? headaches and am not at all productive after work.

I'd think about taking an afternoon off to do that and get my hair cut/highlighted and a few other odds and ends that aren't easy to do after work ... but with NEs surgery coming up in a few weeks I'm not sure how much time I'll need to take off for that.
At least one day for the surgery, and then he'll need me to take him home the next day - might have to take off the third day, or at least part of it. So ... will be using some of my vacation time.

---
I'm thinking that I'm going to CA in September. It'll be my grandma's 93rd birthday. If I can schedule it around Labor Day, then I won't have to use too many vacation days.

My brother and I are working together to have him and mom come here (NE) in May - probably Mother's Day weekend. I'll use a few vacation days for that too.

I haven't heard anything more about my high-school reunion ... am kind of questioning whether I really want to do it anyway. NJ isn't exactly my first choice of vacation destination ...

Friday night NE and I ended up going out to eat at a local pizza restaurant buffet that starts with V. When we first dated back in 2004 I had a surprise birthday party for him there. That was the last time either of us had been there - he was saying that now that we've been back together for almost two years (1 yr 9 mos) that maybe it was time to try it out again.

It was good food, but as is the problem with buffets, it is hard to eat reasonably - and I definitely overdid it. Good thing we don't do that very often!

I gave him the maple syrup (and a card.) He seemed to really appreciate it.

He's really nervous about his upcoming shoulder surgery (March 11) - so much so that he bought a packet of last will/testament +POA from eBay and plans to have his apartment cleaned up by that date.

He'll be in the hospital for at least two days after surgery, and then have at least a 4 week recovery time, two of which he isn't supposed to drive.

--
I got a message from my doctor's office - twice on voicemail on Friday. One of the things I had tested last week was my Vitamin D levels - it must have been pretty low because they called in a prescription for Vitamin D supplements to my pharmacy - take one per week for 8 weeks and then redo bloodwork. Nothing was said about my TSH level, which was the main reason for the bloodwork! If they're open on Monday hopefully I won't have to play voicemail tag with them (they close at 4:30, which is when I get off work.)

---
I have an appointment to talk with my pastor on Monday.

I'm thinking about going to see a movie - Old Fashioned - afterwards. I mentioned it to NE and he had no response .. which usually means no interest. Oh well, I can go see it by myself.

---
I read an interesting article today which was linked to in a journal on the YNAB forums - one of the ideas in it was that what trips most people up when making goals or plans is that they get overwhelmed by everything they'll have to do to reach the goal/finish the plan. The better thing to do is to think about the goal/plan on what you need to do to reach it *that day*.

An example given is "I want to play lead guitar in a rock band." Instead of thinking about how many hours of practice that would take and getting overwhelmed and most likely not doing anything towards that goal, think about what you can do *today*. I will practice the guitar today.

In finances I could see an example being "I want to retire at 55." That could be overwhelming in the big picture. What is a small step? What can be done *today?* I will call my car insurance to see if I can get a better price. (reduce expenses) or I will work on learning *skill* which I can eventually use to earn side income. etc. etc.

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I cashed out for $25 PP a couple days ago and already received it. Then today I cashed out again (after cashing out my Bing points) so should have that by Wednesday or so I'd guess.

I'm getting close to my next $25 AGC with PerkTV - this one's gone much slower because they reduce the point values on some videos.

Today was a very hectic and chaotic day at work.

One thing I do is mail passes out to people who send in order forms/money. TWO different people I mailed passes out to last Wednesday/Friday have not gotten them yet. One of them is a mentally challenged person who can be quite abrasive. The other one is an older gentleman who is frustrated, but polite.

I feel very frustrated because I did my part - got the passes out in the outbox as soon as they came in ... now it's the post office's part. But I'm having to deal with the mail not getting there on time. Ugh.

I also found out I made some really stupid mistakes on Friday - totally forgot to make a receipt for one of the mailed out passes (thankfully had a record of it in the mop book!) plus a couple other things ... my boss jokingly? asked me if it was because I was off probation now ...

It sure didn't help things that by about 1 pm I had a horrible headache - most likely sinus.

By the time I got off work my head hurt so badly that I felt nauseous. I thought maybe food would help ... so I stopped at BK and at Family Dollar ... $13 later ... the food didn't really help, nor did the soda. What did help was a Dayquil and taking a 90 minute nap.

--
Tomorrow I have a doctor's appt for bloodwork at 8:30 - TSH and cholesterol, etc - so no breakfast before going.

I had planned on getting a breakfast crosanwich from BK on my way to work after the appointment as a treat (LOVE them, but very rarely get them) but now I don't know if I should since I spent so much tonight. Sigh. Plus I'm not sure how NE and I are splitting our early Valentine's meal (Friday night) - we've talked about getting a heart shaped pizza from a local pizza place and maybe cheesecake from a local place .. we'll see what actually happens.

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I'd planned on checking out the US Bank offer this afternoon, but because of the headache/nausea didn't do it. There is a branch right near NEs place, which is also near the PO I have a box at (which I need to cancel soon before it renews again!)

I found out at work today that my raise doesn't actually go into effect until my March 5 paycheck. Boo! I understood why, just was hoping to get it sooner.

---
I really hate my allergies. You'd think in winter they'd be non-existent ... They affect my sleep (as in lack of sleep) .. they affect my day at work (as in huge headache can't concentrate) .. they affect my time with NE because if the headache is bad enough that I take some non-daytime medicine, then I get so sleepy / out of it while he's here - but if I *don't* take it, then I can barely stand to hear him talk ..

Ugh!

It used to be I took Allegra D when it was a prescription - reasonable price for a 30 day supply. As an OTC, NOT reasonable price and NOT able to get a 30 day supply (get ten at a time and only once every two weeks ...) Allegra D was what seemed to work best for me without making me so darn sleepy.

Now I have found other stuff that works, is somewhat reasonable, but most of it makes me really drowsy. So .. can't take it during the day.

I got a best offer on a book I've had up on eBay for nearly a year now. While I was contemplating accepting the offer ($4 less than my BIN price) I got another email telling me that same person had gone ahead and bought it for full price! Sweet! It was a book I used for my technology class a couple years ago. After shipping and fees I think I'll make about $8 (not real profit because I paid around $25 for it. But better than nothing!)

Unfortunately I also got an email that the DVD I sold last week had a return request. I admit I mistakenly did not put all the correct info for it. I had used the pre-filled stuff for the upc code and didn't double check it closely enough. Totally my fault. So, now I wait for it to be returned. Ugh. (The cover looked exactly the same, the year was the same, just a slightly different title. made all the difference though.)

Hopefully this isn't going to put a ding on my 100% rating.

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My allergies are really bothering me this week. I've been taking allergy meds which have allowed me to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep most nights ... if I take a full dose, then I'm a zombie the next day. The lack of sleep is really getting to me.

At least the last two nights I haven't been woken up or kept awake by loud vehicles in the parking lot!

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I plan to do some grocery shopping today (don't need very much) and get some cleaning done as well.

I also might make a stop at two local fast food places that have a $4.50 shop associated with them - quick jobs. I will resist purchasing anything!

I redownloaded Receipt Hog last night and plan to start using it again. I'm only 100 points away from being able to cash out for a $5 PayPal. I probably won't though, because you get a better deal if you wait. I'm going to ask NE if he'll let me have some of his receipts because I'll only have one or two a week at most - you can input up to 7. (I need to find mine from last weekend, they'd still be in the 7 day period.)
(If you're interested in Receipt Hog, I have to send a referral link via email - they don't have a clickable one like Ting or Ynab, etc.)
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Tonight NE has agreed to drive me along one of the bus routes so I can make notes on the best places to catch the bus and landmarks to pinpoint them. Eventually I hope to do this for all of the routes - it will make it so much easier on me telling people where to go/where to stand.

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!

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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.

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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.

My apartment building has three parking lots surrounding it. One parking lot is for my building, one is for an apartment building nearby, and the other one is the parking lot for a medical building.

Guess which parking lot is located directly by my bedroom? Yep, the medical building parking lot.

So .. this past week we had a total of nearly 15 inches of snow. This morning the owners of the medical building hired someone to scrape their parking lot. Starting around 3:30 (maybe earlier, but this is when I first looked at my phone) and continued to around 5:00 AM!

I get that they have to do it while there aren't cars in the lot ... but still!

It was kind of funny though watching Kari's reaction - she was standing on my dresser (which is located next to the bedroom window.) If you've seen those cat videos of cats standing on their back legs with nothing to support them ... that's what she was doing. Staring intently at the curtain. I was really surprised she didn't stick her head out the curtain - maybe she was intrigued, but also scared?

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With all the snow this week, I was really glad for the snow boots my mom gave me for my birthday. They don't fit very well (too tight) but they still served their purpose!

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I got my NM tax refund yesterday. It was less than I remembered .. not sure what happened there. I probably need to log on to the Tax site and see if I'm just remembering the wrong amount.

I should have my federal refund tomorrow (according to the IRS site.) No clue on the NE state refund.

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This week at work has been fairly good. Mostly because I have been legitimately busy! Tons of phone calls on Monday and Wednesday asking one question ... Are the buses running today? Then Mon-Thurs fielding lots of calls asking how far behind schedule the buses were ... Lots of buses getting stuck on ice or in snow drifts or in small accidents (somebody backed into a bus!!)

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I almost have all the funds in my Discover bank account to make the $50. I have to have the $5k balance by March 15 - I'll probably go ahead and get the funds in there sooner so they're not sitting at ING (I know, I know) at .75%, and then pull all of them out except $500 until September - just in case there is some problem with closing the account before six months.

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I got an offer for a local bank here - open up an account with a minimum deposit of $25 AND have a direct deposit of at least $500/month for three months - get $150.

There are local branches around here - one not far at all from me. I still need to check into fees and such, plus find out if I can have one paycheck DD to one bank, and the other to another one. If not, I could have them both DD to the one bank, and then just transfer the money.

That would be a pretty sweet kick to the EF!

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I am now officially in my 7th month at my job and am no longer on probation!! I am using my first two hours of sick leave next week for a doctor's appointment. (TSH bloodwork, etc)

I asked my boss about my 6 month evaluation, and she told me she still hasn't heard anything. Booooo! I want to know if I'm going to get a raise! (Possible 2.25%)

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Other than Sunday when I went to Walmart and Sam's, I haven't spent any money this week. I was tempted, but I knew I had so much food here (especially from all the shopping I did at the now closed local grocery store) that I really shouldn't do it!

However ... my dress heels for work are starting to come apart. Walking through slush apparently isn't very good for them to hold together ...These were a $30 pair I got from Sears in July I think .. not sure if it's worth it trying to find someone to resole them? Or better to just get a new pair? I *really* like these shoes. It's hard for me to find good shoes ...

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.)

When I went to bed Saturday night I knew it had been snowing a good part of the day - but it mostly hadn't stuck. Apparently it snowed all night.

This afternoon I went out to go to Sam's Club and Walmart and it took me at least 20 minutes to clear my car off enough so I could see out the windows. That was not even removing the ice - that I had to wait another ten minutes for because my hand was frozen.

The roads were pretty slick. Getting on to the road towards Sam's, there was a semi-truck stuck trying to turn right on the other side of the road. It still was there an hour later on my way home! There were stuck cars all over the place on the side of the road.

I made it out to Walmart with only a little slip and slide at the traffic lights. Of course I didn't write my list down, so I forgot to get the PB2 at Walmart - Sams of course didn't have it. Gas was $1.85 at Sam's, which was only a few cents cheaper than the corner station here.

Walmart - $28.xx (cat food, Fage - coupons for both, 5lb frozen veggies, bananas, etc)
Sam's - $13.28 cat food for NE (he'll pay me back- put on Discover card towards the 1k spending)
Sam's Gas - $14.48 (Discover card)

I now have a load of laundry in the dryer. I need to empty the dishwasher. I'd planned on walking over to my landlord's to deliver the rent check today ... but yeah, no. I'll take it over after work tomorrow - hopefully the roads will be more clear.

I can just guess how many times I'm going to hear the phrase "I'm freezing out here! When's the bus coming?" tomorrow .... Or my favorite - Tell me EXACTLY when the bus will be here ...

Last week was a long, stressful week at work. I spent most of Saturday wondering how I could make it work if I were to just plain quit.

I figured that I could survive at least 9 - 10 months with cash on hand, plus selling my non-inherited stocks - possibly a little longer.

Of course that would mean no health insurance.

I think part of what is so stressful to me is how utterly bored I am most of the time. There are spates of busy activity where the phone is ringing off the hook and I have lots of orders to fill or people at the window. But there is a LOT more time where it is just DEAD.

I've been doing a lot of compensating for stress by ... eating and eating and eating. Not healthy food. The few pounds I managed to lose have found me again. This is bad for my waistline and my pocketbook.

Deacon's Wife (Laura) mentioned that she thinks she might have Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'm kind of wondering if I might have something like that too.

Quitting my job isn't the answer. It might rid me of the stress of having to deal with some of the aspects of the job I hate, but whos to say I'll find something else less stressful or better.

So ... I need to figure out how to be content with where I am at.

How have I been filling my time when it's dead? Mostly by reading books I enjoy or checking out news stories on yahoo and cnn. The yahoo news/finance stories seem to be pretty repetitive, and cnn doesn't change their stories very often.

I do have a set of musical notation flashcards that I have gone through a time or two.

Once I'm off probation, I'll be able to take classes and have them reimbursed if they're something related to the job / department.

So maybe I can figure out a class I could take which could be reimbursed, and then use the dead time to study for that class?

What I'd really like to do is figure out something I could do which would result in more money during the dead hours. Something that would make it so I could retire even earlier than I think I can right now.

I really don't want to go back into a classroom - I've been out of a regular classroom for long enough that I wouldn't be "with it" on the current jargon - not to mention the whole Common Core fiasco currently engulfing education. To get a school library job I'd have to take enough classes to renew my certification and retake the certification test (it expires this May.)

Honestly, I don't know that I want to go back to working 60 hours a week even if it means a much bigger paycheck. One of the biggest benefits of my current job is that when the day is over, the day is over. I have some overtime opportunities coming up over the next four or five months, but not that much.

One of the people I work with told me his wife works at the police department dealing with the people coming in = and that she has people like I dealt with on Thursday half a dozen or more times a day. I wouldn't last long there.

I just am not sure what to do.

If I did quit, I probably could get rehired back at the call center, which would bring in 6 or 700 a month ... but that job was more stressful than this one ... It would make it so I could stretch my funds nearly indefinitely ... just no health insurance and no retirement fund matching. It would also really limit the time NE and I could spend together ... but also make it so I had plenty of time to exercise and make healthy food.

Tonight I did my taxes using TaxAct. It was interesting since I had to do two states plus Federal. When I first went through NM it said I owed $2. I thought that was weird, so just before I submitted the final button to file, I decided to go through it one more time. Good thing I did! Somehow the button had been clicked that I was a full year resident instead of a partial one. That was why they wouldn't let me just input my income from the school library.

So .. I got $540 back from Federal, and $220 back from state. It cost me $36.97 to file them electronically. Once that money comes in, it will be going straight to my EF goal!

I'm glad to be done with it for another year! (and looking forward to next year's which will be so much simpler.)

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Some days my job is tolerable. Others barely tolerable.

Today was a barely.

I had a man come up with a companion (mentally handicapped I think.) He wanted to get an $8 pass for his companion.

I did what I do for *every* person that comes asking for a discount pass. "Sure, I just need a photo i.d. please."

Mt Vesuveus erupted!

The man starts ranting and raving that I shouldn't have to ask for an id. He culminates his rant by pounding his fist heavily on the counter and stomping off.

He didn't even give me a chance to let him know I could take either person's i.d. I just needed an i.d!

It is policy for the low income program. I ask for it from every person no matter how many times I've seen them.

So ... about an hour later he returns with the companion.

He practically shouts at me saying, "Here! Are you happy now?" while holding an i.d. next to his companion. He says something about trust, and then he starts ranting that he'd worked in government before and if one of his employees treated a customer like I did (simply asking for an i.d. per policy ...) that he'd fire them.

I just took the i.d., got the pass, filled out the receipt, took the money, and gave them the pass. Said, "here you go."

Around that time the bus driver supervisor came in because he'd heard the guy shouting - he asked me if I needed help and I told him I was ok. The guy asks me if that was my supervisor - told him no, that my supervisor was in a meeting. He goes "that figures."f

Finally he leaves.

The bus driver supervisor had stayed nearby out of sight, so I explained to him what had happened. He agreed with me that I hadn't done anything wrong.

Later ... I tell my boss what happened. She tells me that maybe we should just stop asking for the id. That some of the other places selling them for us aren't asking for them.

Arghh!!!!

So should I ask for the blasted id or not? How would it be fair for me to ask for it from people, but if they make a fuss, say .. nevermind?? What is the point of having a policy if we're not going to follow it?

I plan on talking to her tomorrow more about this, because it is really really really frustrating me.

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While I was bored out of my mind this afternoon having finished my book (12th of Nowhere by James Patterson) and exhausted yahoo and cnn news stories of interest, I read the local newspaper.

One of the stories was about how NE is thinking of giving a property tax credit to low and middle income people. Not just property owners though! Renters too!!
An example they gave for a renter was someone making $29k/yr and paying $362/mo rent. Um ... I make less than that and pay more than that. Thus I would easily qualify for a credit! I didn't quite get how that would work, but it's still being hashed out as to whether it'll happen or not.

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The brownies I brought for treats today were all eaten up. I even had someone tell me they *really* liked them. Score one for $1 brownie mix!

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I found out that the lady who had jonsed after my job has found a different job with the city in a totally different department. Her last day is Wednesday, which is the end of my 6 month probation. Funny how that works out.

Today I got my W-2 for the bus job. I got mine for the NM job on Tuesday. So now all I need is the one from the call center job and I can do my taxes. I can't wait to see how much I'll be able to put towards my EF goal!

I checked with personnel today to find out exactly when my retirement will start being taken out of my check. They told me the first March paycheck.

So I filled out a new W-4 form to change my withholding to 3. I currently have it at 2, but with my taxable income reduced by 7% I think I'll need it at either 3 or 4 to keep as much of my money as possible.

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When I got home tonight I remembered that tomorrow is my day to bring treats for the office. So I took one of the boxes of brownie mix I bought at the store going out of business and they are cooling now. I think I paid about $1 for the mix.


I got credited for another Pinecone survey today. But my total is now 400 points. So I guess I can redeem after two more surveys for $10. Kind of annoying.

5 more work days til my 6 months probation is up!

Every time I get a call where someone is cussing it reaffirms my resolve to save as much money as possible in order to retire as soon as possible.

Notice people - When I give you time estimates, they are ESTIMATES. I can't control if a bus runs late or runs fast. Also, if I put you on hold to find out the answer to your question, it may take some time. Twice today I had someone hang up JUST as I got back to the phone with the answer to their question!!

MOTIVATED to save!

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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!