Today I received the codes for $20 of Amazon.com gift cards from Swagbucks. The 5th one should be coming very soon. (If it happens like last month, it'll probably be there by morning.) So right now I have $70 in my Amazon account.

I am 7 points away from being able to redeem for my first Amazon card with irazoo - thanks to a 33 point search win this evening.

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Today I took another practice test - the last one I can take before the real thing on the 29th. The legalese said to expect it to take 5 to 7 business days to find out how I did -- the score came back in less than two hours. I did *exactly* what I did on my last practice test. An 81%. Ugh! It's passing yes, but by a very slim margin. I really need to hit the flashcards hard the next two weeks.

Only one week till classes officially start for me. (Should I say ... class.)

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I got a letter from my local bank today. Essentially it said that starting in February, I will be charged $8.95 a month for my checking account with them. Unless: 1) Direct Deposit of $300+; 2) Maintain a balance of $1500+, or 3) Student under 25 years old.

I'm going to have to do some checking around to see if I can find anything less. Or, I may just put my scholarship money in that account - that would hold off the charges for 3 or 4 months maybe ... If it wasn't for the fact that I need a local bank to make cash deposits at, I'd go totally online. But I get paid mostly in cash ...

Chase at one time only charged $6.95/month. Before I look into changing banks though, I'm going to talk to the ladies at my branch and see if there are any other options there.

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I filled up today for $2.829/gallon at Walmart using the shopping card for the 3cent discount. $29.29

On Saturday I had to get gas at this little expensive station on my way home from church - was running on fumes. $2.99/gallon gulp! (3 gallons)

If I would have filled up on Friday at Walmart, it would have been $2.78/gallon. I thought I could hold out til Monday, and the price might be better ... oh well.

Hi everyone! I have my first tutoring appointment today at 1:15 p.m. so I don't have a lot of time right now, but I just wanted to stop by and say hi!

My stepdad and I arrived back home at 2:40 a.m. this morning! Boy, was it good to get back to my own room again.

I had a great trip and did a lot of fun stuff. I'll try to post a bit more about that soon.

Today though I worked on updating my sidebar with one of my financial goals for this year -- tracking my earnings with the various rewards sites. My goal is to earn $800 by November 11. I'm including the $50 I earned from Swagbucks in 2010 towards that goal.

I made a financial leap of trust (or stupidity, depending on what happens ...) today. I took out some money from my Roth IRA and used it to purchase shares of one particular stock. I read a lot about this particular company over vacation, and all of my California family members have put money into this particular stock. This could turn out to be a fantastic decision, or one where I lose most of what I put into it. Either way, in the grand scheme of things, it isn't a lot of money. (There won't be tax consequences as the money I took out came from my own contributions.)

I am starving right now, so I probably ought to go get something to eat, and then get ready for my first session with my new student.

Ugh! I was almost finished with this post when I decided to check something, and without thinking, hit "search." Goodbye post.

Anyway ...

I had a good day with my mom on Friday. We ate at Olive Garden, and then went shopping. She bought me a red coat from Costco, and an HP ePrinter from Wal-Mart. Then we watched Beezus & Ramona at her apartment. (Sweet!) Then I signed her up for Swagbucks. My second referral!

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Sabbath School class on Saturday was chaotic. My usual helper wasn't there (told me last week) and of course there was the Christmas program. So at 10:30 I had 15! kids, and then at 10:35 I had 6 kids. The program was fantastic! By the time we ate potluck after church and got the money counted, I got home around 5:00 p.m. It was a long day - but good.

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On Sunday I worked with my senior high-school tutoring student helping her fill out college applications. I'm really glad we went back through them, because on one she had flip flopped the GPA numbers (i.e. where it asked for her GPA, she put 4.0, and where it asked for the weighted score, she put her actual GPA.) She gave me a giftcard which turned out to be an Amway gift choice. After entering in your redemption code, you are given a selection of possible gift options. There wasn't anything which really stood out to me, but in the end I chose to get a fish aquarium thingy for beta fish. Might be a nice stress reliever.

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I now have enough Mypoints for a $50 Wal-mart gift card. Of course, there are none available right now, so I'll have to wait until January. I also have nearly enough Swagbucks for a $50 Amazon gift card (5108 - need 5900.) I'll probably just wait til January and get the $25 (5 $5's), and then keep on doing that till I have enough for *both* a $50 and a $25.

Swagbucks and Mypoints are my two main focuses, but I am also using a number of other sites. They include: irazoo, zoombucks, sidetick, beruby, and beezag. Of all of these, I think irazoo is probably the easiest to make money from - easy 100 points a day, which equals one $5 Amazon card per month. Beezag is interesting in that you watch these commercials and then enter numbers at the end to prove you watched it. Each commercial is worth a different number of points. Once you reach 8000 points, you can cash out for $8.00 PayPal. Most videos seem to be between 50 and 70 points, and you get two - three a day. Zoombucks I think I'll probably focus more on just entering zoom codes whenever I see them, and maybe go search once a day. Otherwise the site is kind of annoying. Sidetick ... it finally seems to be crediting me properly. Essentially you can earn $.50 a day by opening an email and posting a comment on the daily blog post. Payout is $25.00. BeRuby is something I just started using. All you do is click on websites (CNN, Yahoo, etc.) and get paid from half a cent to one cent each. Payout is $10.00 Paypal.

So ... I decided that my goal in doing all these different sites is to earn $650 by November 1, 2011. This money will be used to purchase a new computer (assuming my current one doesn't die on me by then.) I already have $50 towards this. So .. 600/10 .. that means I need to average about $60/month from these sites. Hmm... I may have to supplement this money from other sources ... I think $30/month is completely doable, and perhaps $35/month, but $60 is really pushing it.

... Maybe I can count the money I get back from statement credits using my credit card rewards points? Today I redeemed 3000 Chase Freedom points for a $30.00 statement credit. On my Citi card, I'll be getting 2000 Thank You points for my GPA this semester (if I can figure out how to get an acceptable grade statement for them.)

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Ok, I probably ought to be going. I need to make sure YNAB is up to date so I can update my YNAB app for the trip; plus there are still a few things I need to do packing wise. SD is taking me to the airport at 5:45 a.m. Gulp! That's the earliest I've had to wake up in a long time.

I don't know how often I'll be getting on here in the next few weeks ... So in case I miss it ...

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy New Years!

I'll start with the Good News. I had to file an appeal for the second half of my scholarship. One of the requirements was that you are enrolled full-time - meaning 9 semester hours for graduate students. Since I only have 3 credits left, I had to file an appeal.

Well, you can guess where this is going. I got an email today telling me that my appeal had been approved. In early February I will get the second $1000 scholarship money! Woo Hoo!

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Not so good news. My birth certificate that dad mailed out to me on Thursday did not come today. So after I was done with my tutoring students, I stopped at my storage unit and opened a few more boxes that were possibilities. Nada. When I got home, I looked in the one and only possible place I could have it, and ... nada.

So, hopefully it will come tomorrow before I have to leave for my evening tutoring students. If it does, I will have the pleasure of spending part of my birthday in the DMV. If it doesn't, then I hope that they'll take an expired driver's license...

I mentioned awhile ago that I had signed up to be a group leader in a weight loss program my church is holding in the new year. Well, yesterday we had our first volunteer meeting after church. I found out that the program coordinator had told a friend of mine (church assistant treasurer who I help with counting money each Sabbath) that she wasn't needed. Doh! I count it as the age of this person (she has to be in her early 20's.) But seriously, when are there ever *too many* volunteers for a church function??

Anyway, today I finally got around to reading the group leader handbook. By the time I finished it, I decided it wasn't for me. First of all, it was pretty offensive in how they discussed people with weight issues. Secondly, the time commitment required of a group leader was more than just the once a week meeting - it also involved calling 6 - 8 group members on a daily basis. Thirdly, I just plain did not agree with some of the ideas in the lessons.

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Has anyone else been having problems with Mypoints recently? I've been a member since 2005, and have earned nearly 90,000 points (redeemed 83,200) and until November, never had an offer or email not credit. In November, I had two offer sign-ups not credit (freebie things), and in December I had two sign-ups that have not credited yet, and one survey non-qualifier. I contacted customer service regarding the survey non-qualifier, and one of the November offers (waiting for the 30 day period to pass on the others.) I finally did receive credit on the one offer (Pet Centric, upload a picture of your pet to their site, then share it on Facebook - 165 points total!) And customer service gave me "goodwill Points" for the survey non-qualifier.

I'm afraid to complain too much about offers not crediting because I've heard too much about people being deactivated without warning. I have nearly enough points right now for a $50 Wal-Mart card (need about 120 more.)

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I got a good bit done today that I'd been slacking on. Cleaned out my closet, and found my two sweatshirts. (I'd put them in a suitcase a few months ago for a Sabbath School lesson, and forgot I'd done that!) Cleared my drawers/bookshelves, etc. of accumulated junkmail, etc. Did three loads of laundry. And still managed to spend a lot of time on the internet.

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I got comments from my professor today on the grant proposal my partner and I did. From her remarks, I think we may have gotten a good grade. She said that she thought our proposal was unique and a contender. So, I just may still have my 4.0 going into Spring semester.

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I was reading a blog focused on Swagbucks today, and indirectly was led to a freebie site on Facebook. Then as I was reading through *that* I found out about two new interesting money making sites. One is a social network where you supposedly can earn $15/month *just* by logging in every day, reading any email in your site inbox, and making a comment on the main blog post.

The other site I found out about, is one where you watch these advertisement videos. During the videos two numbers flash across the screen randomly. Then at the end of the video, you enter those numbers to earn credit. 800 points = $8.00 (cash out) I spent about 10 minutes checking the site out and watching videos, and earned 39 points.

I'm going to play around with both of these sites and see if they really pay out, then I'll post their names here. The first one (social site) you get $1 for every referral, and $.25 for every person your referrals refer -- but you do use your real name. So .. I probably would only give my referral link to people here who already know my real name.

Anyway, none of these sites really take that much time, and if they really do pay out, it's a nice bit of extra money each month.

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Did you hear about the roof collapsing on the

Metrodome in Minnesota where the Vikings play? If the other team hadn't been rerouted on their flight plan, and it had happened just a little bit later in the day ... Yikes!

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Tomorrow night I'm meeting 5 other ladies from my church for a December birthdays get together at Soup Or Salad. I think that sounds like fun. With my birthday being so close to Christmas, I usually get left out of any birthday rememberances at work or church, etc.

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My birth certificate didn't come yet, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow so I can get my license taken care of before Wednesday (when it expires.) If I have to, I'll go to the DMV on Wednesday, but that day is SO full already. Besides, do I really want to spend my birthday at the DMV????

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One last thing ... Restaurants.com is having their 80% sale right now. I think this code expires today?? But if you enter code: Joy at checkout, you get a $25 gift certificate for $2! I bought one for a vegetarian restaurant near where I'll be visiting my dad/grandma in CA. So, I'll be able to treat to a really nice meal for around $27 (after tip and required spending amount of $45.)

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This week I think I'll probably only have tutoring through Wednesday. I know my high-school Junior was trying to get out of Thursday, and definitely Friday. My Senior might still want to meet on Thursday - hopefully - we've been working a lot on college entrance essays, so that's not dependent on a school schedule.

This evening I got email confirmation of my 5 Amazon gift cards I'd ordered from Swagbucks for November. So now my Amazon.com account has $50 just sitting there waiting to be put to use. I already have enough Swagbucks for my January $25 -- I may just try to get a $50 one this month ... hmm...

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Monday and Tuesday afternoon I worked with the College Freshman on his research paper. It was on the Chosun Dynasty and the four hereditary classes (Korea.) I was mangling the pronunciations so much, that he finally said, "Just say Y" (for Yangin.) LOL! Between the two days I worked with him just under an hour. So, I only charged him $20.

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If the family of the two boys I work with on Wednesday nights can reschedule their boys math tutor, I will be having a second night with them. They want my mom to work with their two oldest boys at the same time as I am working with the two youngest. If it works out, that would be an extra $200 per month. The boys are quite pleasant and fun to work with.

Actually, I can't say that I have *any* tutoring student that I don't enjoy working with - ... well, maybe one who can sometimes be quite frustrating, although I know it isn't his fault ...

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On to the Driver's License Renewal Troubles:

Yesterday I was driving to my late evening tutoring session when it dawned on me that I needed to renew my license ASAP! Why? Well, if I want to get on the plane on the 21st to go to CA, it would be a good idea to have a current license!

So, this morning I get on the TX DL site and enter my information to renew online. DENIED! What??? After reading the eligibility criteria closely, I saw that you can only renew every other time online. That means that in order to renew, I must go in person. Ugh!

Well, I figured that all I would need would be my current DL, and my birth certificate. Nope! Not good enough. When I go in, I will need my birth certificate, plus two other forms of i.d. (I'll be taking my SS card, and a letter from my car insurance stating I've had continuous coverage for more than 2 years.)

As you may know, I have a lot of my things tucked away in my storage unit. Guess what one of those items are? Yep! My birth certificate. I was ready to order a new one from my birth state rather than dig around and through all my boxes ... but luckily I called my dad first. Guess what he had, and knew how to get to it in less than two minutes? My birth certificate should arrive by Saturday or Monday. I'm hoping my assumption is correct that they'll give me my new license right away - otherwise I won't have any current picture i.d. This would be very bad.

I know this whole ordeal is my fault due to procrastinating (and not having a central place where all my important documents are kept within easy finding.) Still, though, it irks me that I have to go to such lengths to prove who I am, and that I can't just renew online again. Oh well, guess that's life.

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Oh! I ordered the flashcards for my certification test. They came on Tuesday. I haven't done much with them yet, but from what I've seen, they look like they'll be helpful.

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Last night my mom and I were talking after finishing our tutoring session. She asked me if I wanted the Nook as a birthday/Christmas gift. I told her thanks for the thought, but my iPhone does the job just fine - and is only one device to carry. So she asked me what I'd like ... I told her a mani/pedi and a bike saddle seat. (She was looking for the $100 range.) I'm going to go over to her apartment next Friday and set her up on Swagbucks, as well as maybe watching a movie and dinner somewhere. (My birthday is Wednesday, but neither of our schedules work out to do anything that day.)

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I am curious to see what my January tutoring schedule is going to look like. If new students/hours keep at this rate, I am going to be one busy lady!

Groceries - $77.89
Auto:Gas -- $74.32
Auto:Insurance -- $206
Auto:Repairs $127.50
Gifts - $57.36
iTunes -- $11.30
Prescriptions - $45.30
Subscriptions/Fees - $60

Groceries - Two main reasons I think this category was under budget this month. One is the challenge between my mom and I (me, limited sugar; mom - one 12oz coke/day.) Two, was I cooked and froze 2lbs of pinto beans, and 8 servings worth of lentil soup - plus ate quite a bit of homemade burritos. It could have still been less, but on the most recent shopping trip (after the challenge) I bought more sweets than I really should have.

Auto:Gas - This would have been less if I hadn't made an extra trip to L************ to help the local church school teacher. This extra expense was offset though by her giving me $20 in gas money - which I first refused, but then accepted.

Auto:Insurance - My six-month premium with Geico. Reflected is a 10% Defensive Driving discount, plus an additional $6.60 for Roadside Assistance. (I canceled my $3/month RA plan with AT&T as of Friday.)

Auto:Repairs -- Replacing three outside belts to stop my car from squealing constantly.

Gifts -- Mostly Christmas gifts, but also one Mother's Day gift. All bought via Mypoints or Swagbucks.

iTunes -- Got a bit carried away with purchasing tutoring apps for my new preschool student.

Prescriptions - Renewed Walgreen's Prescription Discount card, plus monthly prescription.

Subscriptions/Fees - $60 - Renewed professional memberships in American Library Association and Texas Library Association.

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"Passive Income"
In November I earned around 1200 points at Mypoints. I need another 1200 points to redeem for a $50 Wal-mart card. I may be able to do this by sometime in January. (Most of the points are from two sources: clicking on paid emails, and survey non-qualifiers. I did make one purchase this month (gift) which gave me 200 points, and I did upload a pet photo for a contest and shared it on Facebook - for another 225 points.)

I redeemed 2,250 Swagbucks for $25 in Amazon.com gift cards. Plus I have earned an additional 2,109 Swagbucks in November. I will most likely use those to get another $25 in Amazon.com gift cards in December. I have at least one family member who may sign up under me (mom), and am going to try for two others over the holidays.

I redeemed 8900 Chase CC points for $89.00 in statement credit.

I found out yesterday that I earned $2.86 in advertising income through my Frugal blog for Amazon.com. Of course, I can't get that money until it reaches $10. Which may be never (considering this was from a sale in August ... the only sale so far.)

Tutoring Income
Also in November I acquired two new tutoring students. This added an additional $150 income. Which almost made up for the week of Thanksgiving where all but my new students canceled.

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Future Spending/Income

In December I am pretty sure that both my gas and groceries categories will be a good bit less with my going on vacation from the 21st thru the 3rd. My family will pretty much not let me pay for anything. Although I will offer - and I am looking for the $3 deal for a $25 Restaurant.com gift card. I'd like to treat to this one particular vegetarian place.

Also, I should receive the scholarship money I was granted in November. However, I will also be paying my last semesters tuition (Due December 20?? I think.

We had a pretty small group for Sabbath School this weekend, just six kids. Of course, church itself was pretty empty. I guess a lot of people out traveling.

Yesterday I got an email from Amazon telling me that they had money for me, but didn't know how to get it to me. (I'm an Amazon Associate on both of my blogs.) So I went to the site to find out what they were talking about. I had to search all the way back to August to find ... one person had bought two items (quinoa and something else)through one of my links! My advertising profit? $2.87. Of course, the minimum payout is $10, so I'm not sure why they were stressing about me setting up a payment method. I think its so funny that I made my first "sale" through my frugal blog on which I have *very* few Amazon links, rather than on my book blog in which I have links everywhere!

This weekend has been incredible with the wins on Swagbucks TV. From Thursday through today, I have had an average of ten wins per day. That's nearly half of a $5 Amazon gift card! (The normal average is two-three a day.)

Today my stepdad and I went over to my moms new apartment and helped her get more settled in. We brought Buddy with us - he was so happy to see mom. He followed her everywhere she went. On the way back home I asked SD to stop at a gas station because I wanted a Cherry Coke (challenge is over! thank you very much) Buddy went nutso in the car with SD while I was in the store. I think the little guy is getting a really bad complex.

Friday I went out grocery shopping pretty late. If I hadn't needed to fill up with gas for the weekend, I would have just skipped it.

I had about 15 items in my cart - all the lanes were packed (that were open.) So I chose the one with only one person who had two FULL carts. I figured that the one person had a better chance of getting through quickly than a line of 5 people with 15 - 20+ items (more chance of um... problem customers.) So anyway, while I was waiting, a cashier opened up the register just behind me. When I noticed it, she was about to start ringing a guy up behind me. He saw me notice it, then looked at my cart, and told me to go ahead. Really cute guy too. (Probably early to mid-twenties though. Too bad.)

I forgot to make an actual list, so didn't pick up spinach. SD picked that up today for me though.

So groceries -- $27.40 (fruit, cheese, Rice Dream, Orange Juice, hot chocolate, marshmallows, etc.)

Gas - $2.49/gallon $22.86

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November Spending:

Gas -- $74.78
Groceries -- $77.99
Auto Insurance -- 206.62
Subscriptions & Dues - $60 (
Prescriptions, etc. - $45.30
Gifts - $57.04
iTunes - $11.xx
Auto Repairs/Maintain - $127.65
Phone - $80.62

I did really well with my grocery spending this month. I think doing the challenge with my mom had a large part in it. Also, making crockpot beans and freezing them, as well as lentil soup, and eating lots of homemade burritos, cut down expenses.

Gas was okay. It would have been less if I hadn't gone down and volunteered at the local church school (I could have waited till December to fill up.) But .. I did get $20 in gas money from the principal/teacher (which I did try to refuse, but she insisted.) That isn't figured into the gas amount.

Auto Insurance - I chose to stay with Geico. The amount reflects the Defensive Driver's Discount, and adding back Roadside Assistance. I called AT&T on Friday and dropped their RA, which cost $3/month versus $1.xx/mo for Geico.

Subscriptions/Dues - After much thought I decided to renew my membership in the two professional organizations. Hopefully next year I'll be working in a library that will provide those dues for me, but for now, it will be good to have on my resume.

Prescriptions, etc. - My monthly scrip, plus a renewal of Walgreen's Prescription Club Discount card.

Gifts - Most come from an order with Lakeside Collection. VERY slow shipping. The order also earned some points through Mypoints. A few of the others are from two different photo deals I did through Swagbucks. My Christmas shopping is done. Oh yes, almost forgot - one gift was for Mother's Day (also a Swagbucks deal.)

iTunes - Got a bit carried away finding apps for my new tutoring student (pre-schooler)

Auto Repairs - Replaced three outside belts when the squealing got really bad in my car.

Phone - This should go down a little bit next month, now that I've canceled Roadside Assistance

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I did have some unexpected new sources of income this month, such as the two new tutoring students, and the reimbursed gas money. I also redeemed $25 worth of Amazon gift cards (through Swagbucks) which are currently sitting in my Amazon account. Not to mention the scholarship I found out about!

So, I definitely could do better next month. After the 21st, I doubt I'll be spending much of my own money (being out in CA.) I will offer - but will more than likely be turned down. (I am hoping one of those $3 Restaurant.com codes come out so I can get a gift certificate for this one restaurant out there and "treat" for at least one meal!)

I have truly been enjoying this weekend. I have next week to look forward to with only one tutoring session, and the end of the challenge with my mom (me = limited sugar; mom - limited soda).

Yesterday at church we again had 14 kids! I just can't say how much I loved it, even though it was quite crowded. Most of the reason we had so many was because the school was putting on a Thanksgiving program. So, in the middle of our lesson story, half of our class left to go practice. Hopefully those who don't normally come will be interested in coming again. Of course ... we don't really have space for more ... God will take care of that.

Other than church yesterday, I didn't really do much of anything.

Today I slept in a little bit. Oh luxury! (Can't sleep in too much, otherwise an anxious puppy will let me know how badly he needs to go!) I goofed on the net for awhile, checked out the coupons and advertisements for this weekend, and then goofed some more on the net.

This afternoon I was getting ravenous. So I decided to make a burrito. I used a tortilla which had been bought at Sam's club two years ago (frozen and moved several times - recently dethawed.) A 1/2 cup portion of the beans I made a few weeks ago (from the freezer), spinach, shredded cheese, and rice. It was so yummy and SO filling!

After I was done eating, I made my

Grandma's Corn Pudding Casserole. I was going to make it on Friday, but by the time I finished with an assignment that was due, it was after 5 p.m. I was tired, and just didn't feel like doing it. *The link goes to my Living Frugal blog with the recipe and pictures. (I'm freezing it for Thanksgiving.) I entered the recipe into the Swagbucks recipe contest. Crossing my fingers!

I have my first Swagbucks referral! Woo Hoo! Well ... it actually is my dad. I talked him through the process step by step over the phone.

The bananas I got on Thursday are already going bad. SD got some more today - they're much greener than the ones I'd found.

Tomorrow I'll be going to the church school and helping out the principal/teacher for the day. I can't donate much in the way of money, but I can donate time once in awhile. I do have two assignments I'll have to do this week, plus I may try to complete two of next week's assignments to get ahead a little bit.

I hope my mom decides quickly about whether or not she's moving out on Friday or not. If she isn't, then I'll make an appointment with the University Health center for my TSH (thyroid) test. (Discount days start on Friday.)Hopefully the traffic wouldn't be too crazy around the university.

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Spending:
iTunes - App store: 4 different apps for pre-schoolers. ~$6.00 (prepping for tutoring)

York Photo - $7.xx - two photo magnets (Christmas presents)

Tomorrow anticipated spending:

Either Acrylic Paint or Fabric Paint, Masking tape (Christmas presents), Spinach (my bag is going bad already)


**Any ideas on how to keep a bag of spinach from going slimy so fast? I eat it as fast as I can, but ...

Last night I worked with two new tutoring students, a 2nd grader and a 5th grader. They're both great kids and I think it is going to be lots of fun finding things for them. Their mom insists on them having homework between sessions. My mom had been working with the fifth-grade boy, as well as his two older brothers. But she wasn't able to work with the second grade boy.

Today as I was waiting for my high-school boy, I ran into the mom of two of my mom's former students. (She'd exchanged hair styling for tutoring.) She asked me if I'd be willing to work with her 4 year old daughter and help her get ready for kindergarten. One or two times a week for an hour each. Right up my alley! We'll possibly start in January.

Then near the end of my tutoring session with the high-school boy, his host mom came home. She's the same person who has essentially helped me get most of my students. She asked me if I thought I could tutor someone in Algebra 1. I gulped, and said that I thought I could. I'd have to get some books and such from the library to review, but I think I could do it. As long as I stayed ahead of the student.

Wow! if both of these new students pan out, I'm going to be quite busy! Yay!!

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Grocery Spending:

11/17 -- $8.01 supper, chocolate oranges (2)

I needed something to eat before tutoring my two new students. CVS had the chocolate oranges on sale 2 for $5. I *love* those oranges, and that is a good price. So ... they are put away until Thanksgiving when the challenge is over.

11/18 -- $7.06 bananas, shredded cheese, green onions, frozen veggies, cream corn,

I decided to make the corn pudding for potluck on Sabbath, so needed a few more ingredients.

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Wow! Yesterday I completed a special offer on Swagbucks for comparing insurance offers. (It gave me enough to get my 5th Amazon card, and have 300+ left.) This morning I was inundated with phone calls and emails. On Tuesday I had written a blog post on

how I've managed to stump car insurance agents. This morning to my utter shock, someone actually managed to beat my rate by $3 (per six-months.) I told them I didn't want to make a decision right away, but would need to think about it. Or, in other words, research the company.

Good thing I did! It has absolutely terrible ratings for customer service and claims handling. As I was talking to the five different people (the ones I actually answered the phone for) a reoccurring statement made was that I had only been insured for one-year. I thought that was really strange since I was pretty sure I'd been with Geico since at least 2001. I also found out that Texas passed a law raising the amount of the mandated minimums.

So I finally went ahead and gave Geico a call. I found out that most agents when making a quote will just automatically put one-year, and that I had been with Geico nearly 12 years. I also found out that I won't need to worry about the increased coverage rate until my May renewal. Then I asked the agent to add roadside service back to my plan. I couldn't remember why I had taken it off my plan in the first place ($6/term). He reminded me that it usually is only available for people with comprehensive, but that since I've been with them for so long, he'd make an exception. It just so happened that he was a supervisor!

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As I was typing this I got a call from the mom of the 4 year old. She and her husband have decided to have me work with their daughter twice a week! Yes! Apparently she has to pass a test to be admitted into the particular Kindergarten. The mom is going to talk to the pre-school teacher to find out what skills need to be worked on. I'm really running the gambit here - working with 4-year olds all the way through college!

Last night around 10:30 I was typing away on an entry here, when Poof! the power went out. It stayed out for over 90 minutes. We'd had a little bit of thunder and lightning, but nothing major. So ... that was weird.

I cashed in for my 4th Amazon $5 gift card yesterday, and deposited the second one in Amazon. I love free money.

Last night my mom asked me to help her with two of her tutoring students on Wednesday nights. This particular family has 4 children. I'll work with the two youngest, and she'll work with the two oldest. That adds an extra $200/month for me! Woo Hoo!

Today I spent quite a bit of money (well, for me anyway.) I decided to renew my memberships in American Library Association and the Texas Library Association. A total of $60 for both of them (student rates!) I'd been debating on it ever since I got the renewal notices. I finally concluded that if I want to have any chance of getting a job, it probably is a good idea to have a professional membership.

I did something else really unusual for me today. I opened up a credit card offer! It was for a Citi Visa for students. Even more highly unusual for me is that I applied! What got me? Two things: 1 - You can earn up to 4,000 points per semester based on your GPA; and 2 - Every month you pay on time you get 25 points. Boo Ya! Easy free points! I was approved for $4,000.00. I'm hoping that I can send them my grades for Spring semester and get the first 4,000 points. It'll motivate me to work even harder to make sure that one class this semester that's making me nuts becomes an A, for another 4,000 points.

Speaking of Credit Cards. Today I checked my Chase Visa account, and I had enough to redeem for $100 cash. Before it changed over to Chase Freedom, I could just apply that as a credit on my statement. But now they have a feature where you can apply a credit to your statement for *specific* purchases and purchase amounts. This is good and bad. I'll probably use it more often, since there is no incentive to save for a better deal on statement credit. However, it is very rare that an item is exactly within a certain range. Like today, I didn't have anything that was in the 70 - 75 range, but I did have a number of items in the 23 - 25 range. So, I ended up using 8900 points for an $89.00 credit. Next statement I'll have enough for a $20 credit (the minimum.)

I was supposed to buy bananas tonight, but totally forgot. By the time I was finished with my high-school boy (we worked 80 extra minutes) and made it through the construction traffic, my brain was fried. So, no banana for breakfast tomorrow.

I watched last night's Dancing with the Stars tonight. Wow! I just so love Jennifer Grey. She is so fantastic. I haven't heard the results yet from tonights vote off, but if a certain person on there stays, and Jennifer goes ... ARGHH!

Today was an interesting day weather wise. This morning it was rainy and windy, then by noon it was very warm and humid. Coming home from my tutoring student I had to put my a/c on high. Then by about 5 p.m. it was cold and windy again -- so much so I had to put a jacket on when I took Buddy out.

What can I say ... that's Texas for you!

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I did a bit of grocery shopping today. I had a total of $37.xx left ($17 from last week, plus this weeks $20.) I did a bit of a stockup, and got one little extra.

4 cans mushrooms, 2 cans refried beans, 1 bag shredded cheese, 2 half-gallons orange juice, 1 loaf of bread, 1/2 dozen eggs, bag of spinach, bag of cornbread mix, Rice Dream (milk), generic Ziploc quart bags, 1 pkg wet dog food, and 1 box of small dog treats.

I unfortunately did not have any coupons for any of the items.

The total came to $24.11. The only thing I can think of that I'll need to buy in the next two weeks are bananas. I didn't get them today because we have a few left, and I'm hoping SD will get more on Sunday. We go through bananas quickly in this house.

That leaves me with about $13 to go towards next weeks spending budget.
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I was thinking about making my cornbread casserole and entering the recipe and a picture of it in the Swagbucks recipe contest. That's why I got the cornbread mix at first. I wavered on doing it this week though. I may do it next week (deadline is next Friday) and make it for our Thanksgiving church potluck. Two birds with one stone. There's a few other ingredients I'd have to get, so I'll have to see where my grocery budget is at.

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Speaking of Swagbucks. I redeemed SBs today for my third $5 giftcard. Then I did a few easy peasy special offer deals, and am back up to 230. I just need 220 more for my next giftcard. I decided to link it to my Facebook account. It will only post 3 - 4 times a day, when I get search wins and when I get SBs for finding a code. So hopefully that won't be too annoying to others, and maybe I'll get a few referrals.

I just checked my email and found out that I was awarded a scholarship for the Spring semester! Yahoo! It didn't say how much it will be for, but I'm hoping it'll be at least $400 like for this semester. That'll definitely help put a little extra breathing room in my budget.

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Last night I was really, really bored and not feeling like doing school work. So I made the first video for my Living Frugal blog, and then I also made a second video for my Children's Books blog. It's a book review in an interview format.

Book Talk with Dan and Laura.

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Spending Report:

Filled up with gas: $23.57

Bought bananas: $1.43

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I'm about 70 Swagbucks away from redeeming my 3rd Amazon gift card -- and I haven't even been doing it for two full weeks yet! Of course, the proof will be when I am able to actually redeem the gift cards.

I did some Mypoints emails today, and looked at the rewards page. Recently, it had looked like 60% of their gift cards were gone. But it must have just been a glitch, or maybe they restocked. I have about 5600 points right now, so I could get a $25 gift card, or wait a few months more and get a $50. I'm debating on getting a Walmart card and use it for new clothes, or get an Amazon card to add to my SB winnings for something larger. I'll probably end up waiting to have enough for a $50 card.

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I feel really badly for my sixth grade tutoring student. Last week he had his finger slammed between 50lbs of weights when he was in weightlifting class. He actually broke the tip of it! So today I had him do his vocab quiz orally, and then I was his scribe for our essay writing work. (It was his writing hand.)

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My mom may have found the house she's going to move into. She's going to leave Buddy here for the most part so that he's not alone for 8 or 9 hours a day. He's going to be one confused little puppy.

Today was another NSD.

I redeemed some of my Swagbucks for a second Amazon gift card, and have 200 towards the next one. My earnings are going to slow down a good bit probably, because I finished all the profiles, and completed most of the special offers which didn't require a phone number or credit card info (or a download).

I think I'm going to stop recording no spending days, and just record when I actually spend money.

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I finally input my paypal address to Adgitize so that I could get my money. Adgitize is an advertising company for blogs. When I was more active with my living simple and childrens books blogs I actually bought an advertisement one month -- and thus earned most of the cost back. Until today however, I just kept forgetting to put my paypal address in!

So ... Income: $11.97

Sabbath School and Church went relatively smoothly today. We had one girl who is deaf, but wears a hearing aid. I really hope I didn't make her feel like I was condescending to her - was just trying to make sure she understood what was going on. My sign language skills are *very* rusty.

Came home and goofed around on the net a little. Signed up for a couple of special offers on Swagbucks, none of which have credited yet. Ugh. I'm up to 300 without those offers, but if they go through, I'll have enough for another gift card.

Took a nice nap, which I really needed. Then I looked on my school website and saw I'd received my grade for two assignments. One was 100, the other was an 89. Boo. Oh well, I have 100's for everything else in that class. Overall, all three classes seem to be winding down on the amount of work for each week. So if I do get the new tutoring student, it won't be too difficult to work school around him.

I'm thinking about watching a last movie from Netflix (my current month didn't end until the 10th, so will cancel tomorrow.) Yesterday I checked into what it would take to take money out of my ROTH. T Rowe has excellent customer service! The person who responded calculated how much of my account was my contributions, and told me I could "redeem" any amount of that to my bank account. It would take two to three business days. The sad/funny thing is, with all the ups and downs of the markets the past few years, my balance is almost exactly equal to the amount in my account. Knowing I have this fairly easy option to access more money helps me to breathe a bit easier. Of course, I won't do it unless I am out of other options (other than asking family for a loan.)

I tried reading Jan Karon's book "In The Company of Others" today, but was just too sleepy. (It's the second book in the Father Tim series. Father Tim was the main character in the Mitford series.

Tomorrow I'm working with Korean Boy at 10 a.m. in an attempt to write a rough draft of an essay due Monday. We've already spent the majority of two sessions working on it, and are not very far. Then I need to put the final touches on the second major assignment for one of my classes.

I don't know why I have such a difficult time trusting that God is truly watching out for me. I think it's a case of "easier said than done."

This morning 3 things happened which reminded me that I truly am not alone.

1. If you remember, one of the upcoming expenses I was stressing over is my 6-month doctor visit and blood work. Last time it cost me approximately $200. This morning I managed to get in touch with a real live person at my university's health clinic. I found out three things: a) TSH test cost $41 on Nov. 29 and 30; b) Physicians visit (for prescription) is free, and c) I would need to pay a $15 service fee since I am not a campus student. So, for less than $60 I will be able to get my prescription renewed!

2. I received a call from the person hosting Korean Boy and College Korean Boy. She had a 4th tutoring student possibility for me, the son of a friend of hers. It would be a possible $400 - 500 month extra if it works out.

3. The biggest of all three! I took my car to the place I get my oil changed at. The mechanic who met me at the bay just so happened to be a former Honda dealer mechanic. I explained to him about the squealing noise and that I thought it might be the timing belt. He looked at me and was like, "It's not the timing belt. The timing belt wouldn't squeal, it would just break." He asked me when I'd had it changed last, and I told him it was about 60k miles ago. He said it didn't need to be changed for at least another 20k. Then he said that what probably was causing the squealing noise are the outside belts (can't remember their names.) AND he said that to change them out with parts and labor would run about $120! I told him to go for it!

An hour and half later my car was finished. I'd also asked him to look over it and see if there was anything else I needed to be aware of. He told me that overall it looked pretty good, but that one of the three engine mounts was bad. I asked him what kind of time frame I was looking at to get that fixed -- he said it could be 6 months, 1 year, or even 3 years. So ... I'm not going to worry about that right now.

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I did a couple of surveys on Swagbucks today (finally qualified!) and completed a few of the profiles. So am now up to 175 SB's.

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Spending log:

Decided I didn't need any groceries this week. So I spent of my $20 for the week: $1.50 - stamps; $1.39 bananas. That leaves $17.61 to add to next week.

Not buying junk food really cuts back on the expenditures!

Mechanic:

$127.65

For the past few months my car has been emitting a squealing noise from time to time. At the time of my mom's neck surgery, a tutoring student of my mom's was riding in my car with me and mentioned it. The Korean Boy student also has mentioned it (although he thinks my windshield wipers going on when we go over a bump is hilarious.)

I've been worried about it, but have pretty much ignored it. Hoping for nothing to happen. The last week or so, it has gotten progressively worse. To the point that today it was almost constantly squealing.

The people I've mentioned it to think it is probably my timing belt. I think that is very probable. It's probably been about 60,000 miles+ since it was last changed, and 7 or 8? years.

Tomorrow I'm taking it to a place across the street from the school I tutor at. I'm hoping that the guys there will look at it and confirm for me if the timing belt is the problem, or if it might be something else. If they think it is the belt, then I'll have to check and see if the *trusted* person our family has used many, many times is available. It is a 40 mile trip to him.

I've already called my Sabbath School assistant and told her that I probably won't be able to come on Sabbath. I'm scared to drive my car right now more than I *absolutely* have to.

If you recall, my funds are *very* *very* low. Replacing the timing belt will just about wipe them out.

So, I am back to considering the option of taking money out of my ROTH. I need to make sure I can do that without tax consequences or other penalties. There isn't much in there, but it would at least help relieve some of the pressure.

I feel so conflicted with all of this. I want to trust that God will work it all out in the end, but then I know that we're also supposed to do our part.

SD was suggesting that maybe I should check and see if my dad's side of the family's offer to help me buy a new car was still valid. With having no guarantee that I'll even find a job which pays enough to live on *and* repay a loan, I just can't stomach the thought.

Ugh!
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On a lighter note. I redeemed 449 Swagbucks last night for my first $5 Amazon gift card. It says that it'll take between 10 and 14 days to arrive. As of right now, I have 60 SB's towards the next one.

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Spending Log:

$1.39 - Bananas

Korean Boy finally paid me today. I'll be making a deposit tomorrow.

Today was a NSD.

I'd finished my big assignment for the week, so took some time today to goof around on Swagbucks. As of now I have 448 SB's, and will have 3 more once a video credits. That will give me enough for my first $5 amazon gift card. Yay!

Today was fairly cold again, but no rain. I need to find my close toed shoes, because my feet were getting really cold today.

My crockpot beans turned out pretty good. However, I learned a lesson. Don't cook beans overnight! I cooked them over Saturday night. I got up around 4 a.m. to check on them, and my mom got up around 5 a.m. to check on them. The smell of cooking beans is hard to ignore when you're trying to sleep!

Brrr...! I think I spoke to soon yesterday about wondering when winter would ever arrive. Cold rain and temperatures in the 50's are a complete turn around from yesterday. I really need to find my umbrella!

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I'm liking Swagbucks for the most part. So far I have 355, so am almost able to get my first Amazon gift card. There are a couple things about it that annoy me, but not enough to not take advantage of the opportunity for a little extra spending cash.

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Walgreen's

$25.30 -- Monthly prescription
$20.00 -- Renewed Prescription Discount Card

I called around again this year to check the prices on my monthly prescription. Even with the extra $20 for the PDC, Walgreen's price still was lower. I didn't refill my prescription in October (oops! missed a few days), so that budgeted overage amount covered the card.

In my previous calculations, I forgot one large (for me) expenditure coming up soon. My doctor is going to insist on seeing me again before renewing my prescription. Minimum of about $200. I know that I can get thyroid testing done at the university, but I need to find out if they'll write a prescription, or you have to go to a doctor to have the results read. I really can't let this go again. After leaving teaching, and before getting the oil and gas job, I went for about 8 months without taking it. My dosage when I got back on it was exponentially higher. (I take brand name Synthroid. Yes, the generic is cheaper ... in the short run, but can wreak havoc with your numbers in the long run.)

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ETA: I forgot to mention that due to the rain today, I fear that I might be receiving a red light ticket soon. I was going the speed limit when the light turned yellow and wasn't sure if I could make it through. So, I started slowing down. Of course I couldn't brake too hard because of the wet roads. I realized a split second before the light turned red that I wasn't going to be able to stop -- so went on through. Ugh! Just what I don't need!

Happy November everyone! Today sure didn't feel like it was winter around here. I don't know what the temperature was, but I was sure quite warm.

I just finished my first draft of the second big paper for one of my classes. We had to assign peer review partners within our groups. That was some interesting drama. One person proposed that we partner up by last name. Normally I would have no problem with that, however, in our group we have at least two people who consistently turn in assignments late. Luck would have it that she'd be my partner.

So, I proposed the option of pairing people up with the person who posted the previous assignment before or after them. A few others already had an idea of who they'd like as a partner. We ended up doing a combination of my idea, and choosing your own partner. 4 people chose their own, and 9 were paired up via posting time. Whooh!

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Spending Report:

$1.50 - Stamps for my brother's birthday cards. He's turning 30 on November 4! Yikes!

$24.26 - Filled up the gas tank.

Income:

Korean Girl paid me $75.

Korean Boy did not pay me today - says he'll have it tomorrow. This is a regular occurrence with him, but he does eventually pay. I didn't work with College Korean Boy today, but probably will tomorrow.

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Buddy's leg seems to be doing better today. But then he started having multiple sneezing fits. Hopefully he's just allergic to something, and it isn't anything else.

I am tired!

Today was a no spend day. Of course I'm almost out of gas, so will have to get that tomorrow.

Added $40 tutoring College Korean Boy. I helped him with writing a movie review of "Labyrinth." That was interesting, considering I haven't *seen* that movie! LOL!

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This morning when I should have been working on the big points assignment for one of my classes, I was instead distracted by our family's dog Buddy. I took him outside to do his business, then went back in to finish breakfast. SD was sitting at the table, and noticed that Buddy was licking one foot obsessively. Then we noticed that when he would sit or lay down, he was greatly favoring the leg - as well when he would walk. After awhile of watching (and trying to see if there was something wrong with his paw), we decided we needed to take him to a vet. The vet however didn't open until 1 p.m.

Mom was out at a tutoring job, and by the time she came home it was nearly 1. Buddy seemed to be doing much better at that point, and they (mom and sd) decided to not take him to the vet. The best we can figure is he got stung by something.

If he was my dog, and I had the money, I probably would have taken him to the vet today - even though he started looking like he was doing better. Oh well.

Today was a no spend day for me. Not too unusual for a Saturday since I spend most of it at church.

I went ahead and signed up for Swagbucks. Unfortunately, I didn't realize you had to have the referrer send you a link for them to receive credit. I've already earned 78 SB. I can see how it would be possible to earn enough for a $5 Amazon card about once a week with not too much time. I'd rather the Paypal card (i.e. cold hard cash), but it costs a lot more in SB's.

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I had a frustrating experience this morning. The lady who had committed to being my assistant for teaching Sabbath School, and who had previously missed all of July, August and September ... called me as I was driving to church to tell me that she wasn't going to be able to help me, AND that she hadn't had time to do the ONE project I'd asked her to prepare. (The project took me all of about six minutes to do - but it was six minutes I needed to finish something else!)

Thankfully the other lady who's been helping me reliably the past four months agreed to continue helping me until I can find someone else. (She'd do it indefinitely, but her husband is wanting to church surf.)

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Tomorrow (Sunday) I am working with High-School and College Korean Boys starting at 2 p.m. The CKB could bring in anywhere from $50 - 75 depending on how much help he needs with his essay. That'll be a nice boost to the checking account.

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I have a crockpot of beans cooking tonight. They soaked since Friday afternoon until about 10 tonight. I changed the water once. Hopefully that will help to relieve some of the less desirable traits of beans.

This afternoon I was working with the Korean Boy. His sponsor came home and started talking to me about working with him in June to help him finish two classes via home study. At first I was saying, well it will depend on whether I've been hired on somewhere else or not. Then she mentioned, wouldn't my job start in August (if I got one!)? I realized that she was right - even if I did get hired somewhere, the earliest I probably could go and start putting the library together would be July. So, I told her that I would be willing to do it.

On my way home I was thinking about our conversation. It dawned on me that most public school employees don't get their first paycheck until the end of September.

So, when I got home I updated my budget, making sure that all my accounts matched, etc. Then I took the positive balance and subtracted my Spring tuition (roughly $900). I then subtracted my 6-month car insurance premium due in November ($216). Then I subtracted other expenses for November, other than the rent (which has already been paid). It left me with roughly $1000.00 total.

November is going to basically have 3 weeks of tutoring. December is going to have maybe 2 weeks of tutoring. So, that means that in January, I'll most likely have to use some of that buffer. Feb. should be a full month (wait no, it might not be - my big test week will probably be in Feb.) March will be 3 weeks (Spring Break). April and May should be full months. If Korean Boy stays, June will be an extra month. That leaves July, August, and September. *If* I get a library job, I will have moving expenses, setting up the library expenses, and of course, living expenses.

This is of course assuming nothing goes wrong with my car.

I am going to have to cut my costs wherever I possibly can. I've spent way way too much on stupid things.

The only places I can really cut are food and Netflix. I don't really use Netflix that much, so putting it on hold for a while won't kill me. Food ... I think I'm going to have to go to a beans and rice, rice and beans, and throw in some oatmeal diet.

If it weren't for the fact that I have two responsibilities at church which I've committed to, I might consider changing to a church that is closer by to save on gas. But overall, it wouldn't really save that much more. I will definitely have to not do any extra trips though.

I really can't do *any* extra spending. No more .99 apps. No more junkfood (will fit in with the challenge!). No more $1 movies. Nothing that I can't unequivocally post here and defend as a necessary expense.

I think I may ask my family to pay the renewal on my iPhone AT&T driving app for birthday/Christmas. For me, it has become an essential. It saves so much gas and time in my not getting lost.

If I don't do this, I may still be in the clear by June -- but come August ... (or July if Korean Boy doesn't happen in June).

I am going to attempt again to post all my expenditures. If you see something that you question, please feel free to question me.

Also, please feel free to offer any suggestions.

*Something I've thought of that might help when/if I do get a library job -- Take with me only what I can fit in my car, and leave everything else in storage. Then rent a room from someone short term. Once my paychecks begin, pay for movers to load the truck and have someone drive it to wherever I am. That would also give me time to really investigate the least inexpensive places to live in my new town.

If I don't get a job .... I really don't know what I'll do. I guess that would be about time to cash into my retirement money.

***I just had another realization hit me. All the above figures don't take into account travel expenses for interviewing for the supposed jobs. When I was a teacher in the SDA denomination, those expenses were taken care of. From what I've heard, that isn't the case in the public school system. Oy vey.

***Edited to add - My dad pays my phone bill. At first he was just going to pay the difference ($30) for the iPhone, but he's ended up actually sending more than enough each month for the entire bill. So cutting that wouldn't help.

In today's mail I got a nice little surprise. An invitation to join Phi Kappa Phi. I was nominated by my university because of my grades. If I pay ... $70 initiation fee, then in December I get to attend an induction ceremony where I'll receive a certificate. I also can use their seal on my resume, they have some insurance discounts, as well as discounts at other places.

I was inducted in the Psychology honor society when I was in college (can't remember its name) but I don't think I had to pay anything for it ... I'm not really sure how I got in that one, since at that time my overall GPA was barely hanging on to a B- -- wait, that was the semester before my two C's (Statistics and Chemistry.)'

When I was in high school I was nominated for the Who's Who in High School. That one my parents actually paid the money for a book - my picture and a bio. That was definitely an ego booster only thing.

So... what do you all think? The invitation sounded really salesy. Like it was really trying to puff me up and consider it a great honor. If it's something that might actually be useful, as in getting a job, maybe I'll go for it. But if all it will be is something I can say about -- oh yeah, I'm a member of Phi Kappa Phi. Aren't I so smart? (Not!) Then I think I'll pass on the $70 initiation fee, and then the membership dues which increase each year up to the third year of $130.

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Korean Boy made me really mad today. I got a couple emails from his math teacher asking to get together with both of us. So, at the time we normally tutor, we met with his math teacher. She pretty much was saying that she doesn't think he's ready to do Pre-AP Pre-Cal due to a couple different homework assignments he'd completely failed, as well as the fact that he'd have to read and understand the extra material mostly on his own. He stubbornly did not listen and insisted that he could do it. I reiterated that Pre-Cal is Greek to me, seeing as though the highest math I had was Algebra 2 and Statistics.

So we get in my car. He doesn't have any homework to work on because he's taking the PSAT tomorrow. So I'm just going to drop him off at home. I tell him that we'll stop by the bank so he can pay me for the week. That's when he tries to tell me that I shouldn't be paid for today, since I'm not working with him.

Arghhh!! Really? I'm there at the school at 3:30. I met with you and your teacher about your classwork. I'm driving you home. Do you really think I'm doing all that out of the goodness of my heart???

So I said to him that although we may not be working on schoolwork together, I still have given him at least 30 minutes of my time. That is worth at least $15. So, $90 total for the week, since we won't be working on Wednesday (due to the PSAT). He agrees that's fair. We stop by the bank and he doesn't have enough money. Arghh!!!

Next week they're having a 2 1/2 day Fall break. So I'll be working with him only two days. as well as Korean Girl. Between the two, that means a loss of $100 for that week. 60% of my weekly income.

In some ways I really enjoy tutoring. In others though, I really, really, hate it!

This past week has been crazy busy. I put in a total of 12 extra hours tutoring one of my mom's students. Today I worked with her again for 3 hours. I also had my permanent crown on Tuesday. The kicker was this one huge assignment for one class that was giving me nightmares. It was due Friday, but by some miracle, the professor granted us two extra days!

I am SO tired right now. Not sleeping well at all. Had a few charley horses in early morning hours, which I hadn't had for a long time. Nearly fell going down the stairs *twice* this week. Last night Buddy slept in his ex pen instead of my bed - was hoping I'd sleep better. Didn't work very well.

Oh, last week I met with Korean boy and girl's academic dean regarding my concerns about their ability to do the English classwork. This Tuesday we have another meeting where the teacher will be included. Apparently she'd been told "No Modifications." Both Korean students are majorly stressed out - the girl is a senior and really worried about what's going to happen when she applies for colleges with an F in English. For me to really be able to help her, I'd need 4 or 5 more hours a week at least to help her read and understand the material. Ugh!

I read this fantastic book for one of my classes - I have to write a journal quality review of it. Once its graded, I'll post it on my website and link to it. It's a great book for boys in third or fourth grade.

Speaking of books ... I joined goodreads.com a while back. Recently I signed up for a bunch of different "First Reads" contests. I won a free book! It's a dog story. I can hardly wait for it to arrive.

Next weekend we are having a special potluck for the Primary students and their families (as well as a few special guests). I'm planning on making Danish Aebleskeber's, and the others are bringing more to fill the edges. Our class is moving into a new room next week as well. This actually is a good thing, because it is not a shared room. This means I'll be able to leave most of my materials there each week, and put up a few posters, etc. I'm planning on putting together a birthday poster, and probably a memory verse poster, and figuring out a way to display the kids sticker cards (cards they earn points on for attendance, etc.)

We watched a predictable, yet cute movie last night - "When In Rome." I wouldn't pay to see it, but if you have a chance to see it for free (on tv, via netflix, etc) I'd go for it.

Speaking of movies. Has anyone seen "Ramona and Beezus"? It's still at the dollar theater, and I was thinking that maybe I'd try to see it if I get a chance. Will probably wait till Netflix has it though, with my school and tutoring schedule.

As I've mentioned before, Buddy got some matts pretty soon after his first grooming appointment. I tried a number of tricks to get them out, but they were just getting worse instead of better. So Tuesday we got him shaved. What a difference fluffy hair makes! Without it, he looks so fragile and so much tinier.



Yesterday my mom went to the doctor for a follow up visit on her surgery. She got a good grade, but was told that she would need to take longer for full recovery. In other words, she shouldn't start back with her tutoring yet. So, one of her students has gotten really behind without her there to help her. I was asked if I'd be willing to work with her until Mom is able to again.

So today (Thursday) I worked with Korean Girl and Korean Boy from 2:30 - 5, then drove over to Mom's student and worked with her from 6 - 9. Before working with all of them, I was working on a big paper for one of my classes which I spent several hours floundering on, trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do! Long day.

Oh .. Korean boy dropped one on me today. He tells me "I have book journal due Tuesday and book proposal." I emailed his teacher and found out the book journal was actually due on the 14th! but she's giving him until the 22nd. If this was all he had to do, it would be bad enough. But he has an essay due on
Tuesday which is worth 50% of his first test grade. We have Friday and Monday to do all of this. (3 hrs)
Oh .. he hasn't read the book yet for the journal -- though maybe he'll have started it tonight if he can find it online. I would ordinarily say "let's work on Sunday afternoon" but I've already said I'd work with Mom's student on Sunday for a few hours - and I need to leave some of that time for my own school work!

Oh .. mom's student will be at least 6 hours, possibly up to 15 hours before all is said and done. At $25/hr. I don't tend to do much school work in the evenings, so for a week or two, this should work ok -- and give me a good boost of income!

The Long Day could have had a horrific ending. As I was driving home I got to this one spot where it is essentially a blind spot. Right before the road becomes divided with a median. I ended up on the wrong side. Only by the grace of God, and drivers who were paying attention, did I make it to a place where I could get back in the lane going the correct way.

Took about 5 years off my life.

Also made me decide to never take that way home again in the dark. My stepdad told me he's had that happen to him at that same spot - where cars all of a sudden are going the wrong way (with him the correct way).

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Tomorrow Buddy goes in for his snip snip. We're hoping it'll help with his barking. Tonight a friend of my stepdad's was visiting. He has a beard (not sure if that was the problem), but Buddy just plain *did not* like this guy. He wouldn't stop barking or settle down till mom took him in the bedroom and closed the door. He'll do that with us sometimes too -- just start barking his head off. Sometimes if he hears me/sees me coming down the stairs and he's on moms bed, he'll start in. Other times if I have him at the table with me while I'm eating, and stepdad comes down the stairs, he starts barking. And on and on.

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This coming Tuesday I'll be getting my permanent crown. I was just thinking about calling the dentist to find out what was going on with it, when they called me. Good timing.

This has been an interesting past few days ... to say the least.

On Thursday I get a text from my brother asking me if I'd heard how mom was doing. I hadn't, so asked him what he meant. He told me he thought she'd gone into the hospital for an evaluation of her heart. I panicked because I knew she'd been having a lot of shoulder/neck/arm pain, and so thought maybe she'd had a heart attack. Called her and found out that she had been in the hospital for an MRI to find out what was going on with her neck/shoulder - nothing to do with her heart.

Results of MRI showed that she had three bulging discs which were on the verge of causing paralysis. More visits with doctors, etc., and she has a surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning to replace three discs with artificial ones.

Stepdad told me that if there was any way I could talk her into coming back here where we could care for her, to please do it. She'd told him she wasn't happy with her new "friend" but felt trapped. New friend lives on third floor of an apartment building, and with her neck/shoulder issues, she could not move out herself -- and he wasn't willing to help her move out.

Mom texts me on Friday and when I call her tells me that if stepdad is willing to not talk/ask about his and mom's relationship status for the next two-three weeks (so focus be totally on recovery) that she was ready to end the "friendship". I told her to name the time and he and I would be there to get her out.

Stepdad agreed to mom's conditions with no qualms. We got there a bit before 7 p.m. Mom texted me and told me that if stepdad came in, "friend" would call the police. So that meant that I got to carry everything out of the apartment, and then met stepdad on the second floor landing. I met my exercise quota for the day plus quite a bit. It took about 30 minutes of steady trips with oversized loads, but we got out of there with minimal drama.

Buddy is *estatic* to have mom back home. He follows her everywhere. Even though I've been the main one responsible for his care since he was brought home, he still somehow gets that she is his actual "owner".

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I was thinking that tomorrow I'd go get a haircut since I have some cashflow again. The last time I got one was in early December. I need to check and see what places are around here. I'm hoping to get away with spending $20 or preferably less.

Sabbath morning I woke up feeling yucko and my tooth really bugging me. All day Sunday it got progressively worse. Finally Monday morning came, and I called the dentist and changed my build-up/temp crown appt. from the 21st to today.

Dmontngrey - my tooth is/was cracked/cracking, so a crown should work well enough. If not, then in a couple years maybe I'll have dental insurance again and/or will be in a better financial position to afford a root canal and crown.

I started with a new Korean student today. A girl. She is really super sweet. So now I have Korean boy and Korean girl. They both are about the same age I think, although one is a Junior and the other is a Senior.

With the 3 students I now have, I can make up to $900 a month. A fourth student will probably start next week, and will give me another potential $100/ month.
Four students would be a total of about 12 1/2 hours a week actual tutoring, plus another 6+ hours commute. That is about perfect with my school load this semester.

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Any ideas on how to keep mats from forming in a Maltese's fur? Before Buddy was groomed, I brushed him 3 or 4 times a week and he never had a mat. Since he was professionally groomed, within three days he had at least two mats. I was able to work one out, but the other one was too set. He now has a total of four mats, one fairly good size. (I took care of him while mom was on her trip, and we're keeping him till after his vet appt. on Friday.)

I forgot to mention in my earlier post this week that I finally went to the dentist. I had X-rays, exam and cleaning done for $150. He (dentist) told me that I do need a crown on the one tooth, but he didn't see the need for any fillings. (previous dentist said I had two cavities ...). He also is not going to charge for the buildup - a savings of $150. I can pay for the crown in two installments. I was pretty impressed with him - previous dentist was a friend of family and was offering no breaks.

So today in the mail I got two checks from my dad. The one he sends every month for my phone bill, and another check to pay for the dentist. My brother, grandma and dad all agreed to go in together for the dentist.

If my income stays steady this year, I may have savings left over. I will then repay them. At least for the dentist - I doubt my dad will accept anything back for all the other help over the past year ++. Probably will need to set it aside to help mom out eventually.

Wow! I'm not complaining or anything, but why couldn't some of these people have showed up this summer when my income was completely dried up?

It looks as though I have a possibility of two more students. One would be directly before the 6th grade boy on Wednesdays, and the other would be directly before Korean boy on M, Tu, Th. Roughly an extra $90/ week.

If all of them come through, then I will just have to see if it is more than I can handle along with class work.

Classes started Thursday. Nothing is due until September 10, and the last assignment is December 9. One class looks like it will be a real doozie, but the other two look doable.

While my mom is on her trip, she's letting me drive her car. A 2010 Mazda 6. My car is a 1997 Honda Civic. I jokingly told her that she's going to have to fight me to get her car back. A working radio, windshield wipers that work at all speeds, cruise control, alerts when there's a car beside you when you want to change lanes .... luxury. The keyless entry and start up thing took me a while to get used to, but I'm really enjoying that aspect as well.

Too bad a Mazda 6 will probably never be in my budget category, even once I get a full-time job again. Too many other priorities.