Well this may or may not surprise you, but I still haven't received my Chase debit card yet. So much for it arriving by the 23rd. Ugh.

Maybe it'll be in tomorrows mail. I wouldn't be able to get to the bank until Wednesday anyway.

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I've added my two new blogs to my sidebar. They're still not quite the way I want them, but they're close enough to where I'm ready to share and seek any suggestions.

Living Frugal and Simple


Children's Books for Storytime and Beyond

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Yesterday after church I had lunch with some friends and then spent the afternoon with them chatting. One of the other guests is a financial planner. He was saying that he advises all his clients to be debt free, have two months expenses in cash, and 10 months expenses in silver coins. He also believes that the dollar is going to completely tank by the beginning of next year, and that the US is not going to remain divided by states, but be divided into ten districts.

I thought he was a bit off (more than a bit really) with all that he was saying, but then later I was talking to my dad and he said that he'd heard some similar notions.

This guy also was saying that he and his family have a one-year supply of food on hand, and he really urges everyone to start their own garden.

I'm not really sure what to think about all that. I don't believe that our media presents us with all the facts, and the ones they do give us are usually slanted to one end or another. So just because this info isn't in the mainstream media, I don't think that means much.

As far as if it'll really happen or not? Who knows. I don't see that there really is much we can really do about it, other than get out of debt as quickly as possible and maybe have backup plans.

I'm out of debt, but as far as a backup plan .. if the dollar fails ... then I have no clue, because what good will all my savings be then?

Oh yeah, and then of course there is the swine flu which has already killed people in Mexico - people my age - and has already reached the US, including Texas.

I checked my unemployment account last night, and was VERY happy. It shows that I've been sent a payment for each of the weeks that I made a claim, and that I should receive my debit card by April 23.

Woo Hoo!

I'll be even happier once I have the debit card and transfer the funds to my checking account - because then NO MoRE dealings with UI!
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I'm torn. The company where I have my two blogs at has demoted a majority of the bloggers from pay per post to just pay per unique visit (me included.) A lot of people posted on the forum expressing their disappointment. A good number expressed that they may not post as often on their blog. From what I have gathered so far, everyone who expressed even a hint of taking a bit of a break from posting, or cutting back on how often they'll post, has been locked out from their accounts.

This means that they no longer are able to use their blogs nor earn money from visitors.

I feel strongly that this was very very very wrong, and don't know that I wish to continue with my blogs there. But ... I've put a lot of time and energy into both the frugal and storytime blogs and really don't relish the idea of starting over somewhere else.

The other thing is, is that I have two referrals - people who clicked on a 'paid to blog' ad from my site. If I leave before they become qualified referrals (30 posts) then I lose the one-time referral fees.

I'm just not sure what to do.

Leave and start over somewhere else - which means losing at least $10 plus having to figure out a new system.

or

Stay and keep my mouth shut about what I think about how they treated their loyal bloggers, and maybe get the $5-10 eventually, and not have to learn a new system.

Well, the third time must have been the charm, because I got a phone call today from the UI people!! The lady I spoke with said it was *still* stuck in the investigation mode, and she wasn't sure why. She told me she'd put a bee in their bonnet to get it taken care of ASAP. So . . we'll see where it goes from here.

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I got another phone call today! From a Craigslist job posting I responded to several weeks ago for a data entry job. It'd be full-time w/benefits and about $2.50/hr less than my former job. But . . it is closer driving distance -- and, well, it's a job! with medical paid! I just might be able to put a little in savings again!

So, I have an interview with them on Monday - it's a group interview. Not sure if that means they'll be interviewing several people at once, or if there'll be more than one interviewer in the room.

I wish I still had the job posting description for it.

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Today I wrote a post about

More Ways To Reduce Your Debt

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Yesterday the lady who is leaving the gym asked me if I'd come in a couple hours earlier than I was supposed to, so she could take off early on her last day. I told her no problem. So, I showed up a bit before 1p.m. and found the gym locked up and dark. What?! I opened it up and went inside, and found everything like I'd left it last night.

So, I called E and asked him if we were closed for Good Friday - the only thing I could think of. He said that we were, and he was sorry he hadn't let me know. To make up for my time and gas, he told me to put $25 on my time card. Pretty fair I thought.

I also asked him if there was anything I could do to help ease his hectic schedule (which is part of the reason he's so confounded forgetful about so many things!) He told me that he has a binder of over 600 waivers that need to be gone through and checked - to see if any of those people are still around and if there's anyway to talk them in to coming back for a membership. If the job on Monday doesn't work out, then I'll start calling those people from the waivers - if any of them join back up, then I'll get a referral fee from them.

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I bought some groceries at Walmart today -- I didn't go to Tom Thumb yet because I want to plan that trip out carefully. While at Walmart I picked up last Sunday's paper with the bunches of coupon inserts. I'm hoping there'll be a few that'll be useful.

The Sunday paper is now up to $3!!! I was quite taken aback - it used to be you could get a double edition (early edition + normal edition) for $2. I really hope there's at least $3 worth of coupons I can use in the paper.

Last week I responded to an ad on Craigslist for a Market Research study. They called me on Friday, but needed me to come in on Monday morning. I couldn't do that because I was at the gym then.

So today I was just finishing my second children's book post when I got a call asking if I could come in today at 2pm. I of course said yes!

It was a very different study, using electrode nodes attached to your head and a video they measured your responses to. But, it made me a cool $75 for less than an hour of my time.

If I could only do a couple of these a month ...

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Today my Single Frugal and Loving Life blog (yes, I changed the title - better words for search engines) continues my series on living within your means by exploring

Ways to reduce debt and begin to live below your means

On Storytime For Children I added two new books:
Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin Jr. and The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry.

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I think I mentioned before that my desktop computer was giving me some trouble. Well, it is working fine again now - not sure exactly what happened.

But now my wireless keyboard is giving me fits and caboodles -just stops communicating, then will start up again. That makes it very difficult to write anything.

So, again, I am very thankful for my little netbook. However, I am going to need to figure out how to get my keyboard working right, because for my blogs I have to do a lot of pictures, and this little baby can't handle too much pictures saved on the disk without majorly compromising performance.

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I did not spend any money today - even though my market research place was very near a dairy queen. Speaking of dairy queen, if you go to their website and join their 'team" you get a coupon for a buy one blizzard get one free. Just saying.

So . .. I didn't sleep very well last night. (Let's just say that when you have a bottle of vegetable oil from 1997 and you're not sure if you should use it or not - no matter how much you want to make the brownies - DON"T DO IT!)

While I was tossing and turning, my mind was scheming as to what to do about my storytime blog. I'm thinking the likelihood of getting publishers to give me a carte blanche go ahead to read their books from cover to cover on videotape without having to pay royalties or something, is probably pretty slim. Especially without having anything established other than the one post.

So, I've decided to go ahead and do something similar to what I was thinking - except without the videos. I'm going to focus on different children's authors/poets and/or themes. I'll write short histories of the author's, give ideas on how to use the books or poems in a homeschool or classroom setting, and provide either links to already created activities or my own suggested ideas.

I also am going to see if my dad would be willing to record himself saying his children's stories. My dad was a pastor for 35 years, and I've never heard better children's stories. So, if he's willing, then I might put up two of those a month with a transcript.

Eventually, if it gets established enough, I might be able to add in my original idea. I still might make videos showing how to read a story to a group of children, or how to engage one child on your lap in a story. You would think most people would have those skills naturally, but from what I've seen, that's not so.

I need to get an amazon code from today for linking to the books, so it may still be a while before I get it really going.

I may be asking those of you with little ones 10 and under to give me suggestions of some of their favorite current authors. I know quite a bit myself, but there's so many out there that I may not have heard of them before.

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Can I live on $838/month?

The answer to that question is no. But I *can* live on $1000/month.

Why am I asking myself this question? Because that is what I'm probably going to be doing for the next couple years.

I think I'm going to give up on the job search for now. (Not that it's going so great anyway.)

If I work at the gym 32 hours a week - M, T, TH and F that will give me roughly $838/month income. The monthly difference will have to be made up through my savings.

What this will allow me to do is:
1. Have 4 days a week where I will have plenty of time to study and work on my blogs while getting paid.

2. Be in a place 4 days a week where I can work out.

3. Have my Wednesday's free to volunteer at my local library branch to start getting some real world experience.

3a. By getting my foot in the door at the library as a volunteer, I *may* be able to be in line for a paid position eventually if one opens up.

So, here is my budget:

Income: 838
Rent: 665 (Utilities are paid)
Phone: 50
Internet: 20
IRA: 50
Insurance: 200 (Health, Car, Renter's)
Gas: 40
Food: 50
Other: 10
Total Output: 1085
Difference: 246.60

246.60 *12 = 2959.44

So, at least $3,000 will be used from savings. I will have to use savings also for any taxes owed, medical costs, or car repairs. So I'm thinking roughly $4200 for one-year above my income.

I will pursue other avenues of income, such as from my blogs and babysitting, but that's not consistent enough to count.

My food budget will basically be this:
loaf of bread - $4
jar of peanut butter - $3
2lb bag of pinto beans $2
quinoa or lentils - $10
RiceMilk (2 lg containers) $7
Oatmeal $4
Fruit - $5
Frz Veggies - $6
Other -- $9

A day's meals would look like this:
Breakfast: Oatmeal w/milk banana
Lunch: Beans and veggies
Supper: Quinoa w veggies
Snack: peanut butter toast

I have some of these things on hand already, as well as a good number of other food items, so any grocery money not spent will be kept back for months when the gym is closed for a holiday.

I think I can make this work. It won't be easy - especially using up my savings. But if in the end I have my Master's and have library experience for my resume, I think it will be worth it.

What do you all think?

Saturday night I went with some friends (and a bunch of their friends) to the Magic Time Machine. It was the first time I'd been there.

We had to wait about 90 minutes to get a table. While we were captive... er waiting for our table, we went upstairs. The upstairs is filled with ways to part with your pretty penny ... a Magic Show for $3/person, arcade games, a bar (not sure if they serve other than soda ..), and several people who'll do a caricature. Other than soda and water, none of us parted with any pennies upstairs.

Finally we were led to our tables (one for the adults, one for the young'ones) by two swashbuckling pirates.

One of our group who was celebrating her 40th birthday was dressed up as a granny - gray hair, fake glasses, droopy parts , a walking cane, etc. N, who was the person who helped me get my job at my previous company, will be having a birthday soon, and so he dressed up as Duff Man, the Redneck. To put it mildly, both of the celebrators, plus various others in the group, didn't need a drop of alcohol to get into the 'spirit.'

After ordering (food way overpriced - I had a baked potato for $5) we were all led on a Salad Car Train. One of our group needed to use the restroom, and was thusly led on the "needs potty training" walk.

The kids all had a blast getting autographs from the various characters, and the adults had a blast having permission to act like kids.

It really was a fun evening, which ended up not costing me anything because my potato was taken care of by my friends who'd invited me.

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Today I spent a lot of time on Craigslist. I found the gigs section, which somehow I'd missed before. I ended up emailing 3 different ads.

One I got a reply on quickly - asking me for $10 to cover 'training materials.' Next.

A second one sounds a lot like Ch@Ch@, except you are based in a building and you do a lot more than just look up answers to questions. The pay per hour is about $1/hr less than what I was making, but I would get full benefits, plus have the possibility of merit raises.

I had to google the answers to 3 questions and include the links to where I found my answers in my email. That was kind of fun.

The third one was for a Nanny position taking care of two 3 year old twins. From what I could tell, it is a 4-day a week job (Tue - Fri at 1p.m.) Amazingly, the pay is slightly more than I made per week at my former job, but no benefits. (Well . . I'd say playing all day with two little ones counts as a big benefit.)

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Tomorrow I have to call work in Texas and figure out why I can't log in to the site. Well, it will let me log in, but not actually go anywhere - it says there is no account associated with my log in??? I will be *majorly* annoyed if my information has been lost, because I spent *numerous* hours putting together the info for the resume on it.

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I found out how much my UI will be. It's roughly 55% of my former paycheck.

I can send in a form to have 10% withheld for Fed Tax if I want to. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that or not.

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Monday plan:
1. Call Work in Texas about website logging in
2. Call Cobra company to find out if TX is participating in the 65% deal, and when it goes into effect -- also if they *must* have a paper coupon
3. Make bank deposits
4. Exercise
5. Work gym from 11:30 - 5
6. Finish trash run - do dishes
7. Check Craigslist

This morning I made it to the Work Force Center about 8:20. The seminar I was going there for started at 9, but I thought I'd get there early in case there was a typing test or something else I could do.

At first when I asked one of the ladies at the front desk about the seminar, she looked like she didn't know what I was talking about. Then when I told her the name of it, she was like, "Oh! WIA. Are you in the WIA?"

Trying not to sound stupid, I told her I didn't know what the WIA was. (I'm still not sure what the letters stand for!)

She told me that it was a program for people who had been laid off and want/need training in job skills in order to get a better job. Also, she told me that the seminar I came to attend was one of the requirements for the program - that most people didn't choose to attend it. Luckily I'm not most people, right?

Another lady who was nearby spoke up and told me that WIA was a great program. That it was paying for her to go through training to be a medical secretary. Not only are they paying her tuition, but they also are giving her gas cards for getting to school (and presumably a part-time job.)

Hmmm.... this sounded interesting.

I am going to attend the next orientation session on Tuesday to see if I qualify, and what all it entails. (There is a session on Monday afternoon, but I'm working at the gym then.)

I'm just thinking that going the route of being a medical secretary wouldn't be a bad idea - or at least the training for it. Will have to check into pay scales on it though.

Another possible route is to take computer training on Quickbooks or other accounting software - both of which seem to be asked for quite often in the admin asst ads I'm looking at.

****Would it be bad of me to take advantage of this program if I qualify, considering I do have financial resources available to me, while others may not??***

The second thing I learned today was at the seminar. It actually became a one-to-one session because the room it was to be held in was occupied, and the presenter only had space for one person in his cubicle. The other two rescheduled for tomorrow.

The seminar was going through the functionality of the work in Texas website. I'd already signed up on it, as well as done a good bit of exploring, but he was able to show me a lot of things I had not figured out yet. He also gave me a lot of great hints and tips.

So, my visit this morning to the Work Force Center was well worth my time - even though they don't have an official typing test.

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Accomplished today:

1. Seminar at workforce center
2. Checked Craigslist
3. trash run, dish run
4. updated blog
5. Filled gas tank - $18

*Did not exercise, nor update applications, nor cash gym check.

Thursdays goals:

1. Work at gym from 8 -3
2. Give former OM severance paperwork
3. exercise
4. update blog
5. work on resume/application info
6. Check Craigslist
7. Clean counters (kitchen and bathroom)

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This afternoon my mom treated me to seeing "Confessions of a Shopaholic." I absolutely LOVE the book series, and the movie was really pretty good too.

Afterwards we ate at TB ($3.01 for both of us!) Then went off on a wild goose chase looking for a book she needs to read before her interview on Tuesday.

My lateness getting home is partially why I did not accomplish some things I wanted to.

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I have two questions about the Stimulus bill which recently passed, and am hoping someone may know the answer(s).

1. Is Cobra being subsidized at all?
2. Is there a certain amount of UI you can make without Federal Taxes being owed?

The reason I ask, is because both items were brought to my attention as things that were being proposed as part of it, but were not confirmed as to whether they were passed.

Thanks for any info!

Have any of you noticed a recent upsurge in grocery prices? I know that most prices have been going up for awhile, but it seemed to have leveled off for the most part.

I've been looking for a bottle of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. I like to have that for special occasions - such as birthdays and holidays. Usually Walmart carries it,and it's around $3 for a bottle.

Walmart doesn't seem to carry it anymore. So tonight I decided to stop in Tom Thumb and see if they had it.

They did. For $8.99!!! Yeah - like I'm going to pay $9 for a bubbled version of apple juice. NOT!

Something strange I noted though at Walmart yesterday. The Ben & Jerry's ice cream had risen to nearly $3.34 for a pint at one point. Yesterday, they had it for $2.75!

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My post today is about

reviving the lost art of letter writing.

What I *really* need to do is revive my running motivation!

This afternoon I stopped by the gym location where E was working to pick up some more laundry soap, since I'd used the last of it this morning.

He told me that one of the gym patrons had been asking when I was going to come back and work out. oops

I told him I'd been having a few too many late nights. When he asked why, I told him part of it was because of working on my blog.

So . . .I told him the name of it (again) and he pulled it up before I left.

About 20 minutes later I was at the other gym and I get a call from E. He'd just read my post on the Economy Affecting Gyms. I explained to him that I'd been pretty ticked off when I wrote it, but that by the time I finished it, I had calmed down a good bit.

He told me he agreed with me about the problems gyms are facing. But then he asked me a question I didn't have an answer to.

What is the solution?

I was stumped.

I really am not sure that there is a solution right now with the way the economy is going. I think that it probably is going to get worse before it gets better.

I wish I had the answer.

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Today is Day 5 of my series on How To Show You Care Without Breaking the Budget -

Musical Memories

I'll be heading over to my mom's tomorrow night, but will have new posts up Saturday and Sunday (Simple Pleasures and Sunday Sustenance).

I've been staying up so late the last couple weeks and am getting more and more tired - just dragging through my days. One thing I've noticed is that the more tired I get, the easier it is for me to justify spending money - namely on food - more precisely, on junk food. Barely a week into February and I've probably spent more than 45% of my food budget. Not good.

I really need to focus on getting to bed at a decent hour, so that I can also keep my focus on keeping a healthy budget and diet. And of course, getting to bed at a decent hour would help me be more likely to actually get to the gym for a workout!!

I think my tiredness is also partly why I've let some frustrations with the gym and the *other* company get to me more than they might have normally.

So . . confession time. I stopped at Sonic tonight and got a grilled cheese, onion rings and blast - $7 (including tip). Btw - they remembered not just a straw, but a spoon too!

Yesterday I stopped by my apartment's management's office to pay my rent and also to check about my lease.

I mentioned to the lady working there that I was trying to figure out what the best thing was to do, go month-to-month, or do a 6-month term.

She told me that whether I go month-to-month or 6 month, I still would have to give a 60-day notice, or pay the reletting fee. If I go with the 6-month term, and leave before it's up, I would be charged the reletting fee, plus probably the remainder of the lease.

I mentioned to her that I had been surprised that the price variation between the month-to-month and the 6 month term was so little - just $45. And that was part of what was making it hard for me to decide.

She then tells me, "Just stop having your nails done, and that will give you the extra $45/month."

She didn't know this of course, but the last time I had my nails 'done' was over two-years ago - and that was a gift from a friend. Of course, even that wasn't really what I think she was talking about. I think she thought I had those fake nails - those would definitely cost in the $45 range.

Nope, just have naturally long nails. I usually don't even notice their length until one of them breaks - then I chop them all off.

It was good advice really, just not anything that helped me much! LOL

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This month I am doing a series of posts called: Twenty Days and Ways To Show Someone You Care Without Breaking The Budget.

Todays post:

Day 1: An Indoor Picnic

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I stopped at Albertson's tonight on my way to the library. While there I picked up a couple of the individual portion ice creams, along with some other grocery items.

When I got to the self-checkout and scanned them, the disembodied voice of the scanner told me that the item was recalled and couldn't be purchased.

So I guess you could say that the recall saved me from myself!

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Oh, I almost forgot! I updated my sidebar last night. And . . .

My Car Fund is Fully Funded!!! Woo Hoo! Now I can concentrate on my House Downpayment fund.

I will still continue adding to the Car Fund with HSBC interest, because of course there will be car repairs here and there, so better to have a bit more than a bit less.

Yay! We were let out of work an hour early today due to ice storm warnings.

Traffic and weather weren't bad at all on my way home, so hopefully it remains that way for other people today.

We had a birthday party for our company's owner today. The most delicious ($40) chocolate cake and ice cream.

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Thanks to dmontgrey, I realized that my today.com blog wasn't letting non today'ers leave comments. That's all fixed now.

My post today is probably pretty funny considering just how much I'm into sports and all.

How To Celebrate Superbowl 43 Inexpensively.

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When I got home tonight I had a note on my door from the apartment management. It told me that if I signed a new long-term lease, my rent would go up by $5/month. Or, I could go month to month and have my rent increase $50/month.

Somehow, I had thought that the month to month rent was much higher than the long-term lease.

I'm having a lot of debate in my mind over whether to keep the question/possibility of CA alive or not. Given the state of the economy right now, and the utter lack of job availability I've seen so far in the area I'm wanting to go to . . . plus the fact that I have a job that in a few weeks I'll have been at for 3 years . . ????

I'm just not sure if I should go for the 6 mo lease for only $5/mo more than now, and then less flexibility if a job should miraculously turn up that fits my criteria, or bite the bullet and go for the month to month lease for the extra $50/mo.

Right now I'm really leaning towards telling my dad I've decided NOT to pursue the idea of moving out to CA. I just am not firm enough on that to make the step of signing on the dotted line of a long-term lease.

Okay, I'm going to start with the good.

Work was good today. I stayed very busy the whole day, and a vendor bought pizza for all of us. Free food.

If you remember, I lost my TollTag sometime between Dec 24 when driving to my mom's and Jan 6, driving back home. I had the feeling that it would be okay for me to continue to go through the Toll Tag area, even though my tag wasn't on my windshield. I had found my tag on the floor of my car a number of times before *after* getting to work, and had never received any violations.

However, Tuesday night my mom made me worried that maybe I had been wracking up violation fines. So, W, TH, and Fri I went through the pay booths. Ugh.

Tonight I stopped at the Toll Tag office on my way home from working at the gym. I explained the situation, and was told that I was right. Since my license plate is registered to my Toll Tag, it automatically goes against my account - no violation fines. Whew!

I had to pay a $25 fee (can be refunded if I find my tag) to deactivate my old tag since I didn't have it to turn in. Thankfully they have gone to a new type of Toll Tag that is similar to the car registration/inspection stickers which stick to the inside of your windshield. I guess enough people complained about how often their tags fell off that they changed the design!

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I was looking at my stats today for my today.com blog. It shows you what websites your unique visits are coming from, and if any of your posts are showing up in Google searches.

Guess what? I had TWO unique visits from a Google search which gave them my post on

MyPoints Visa vs Chase Rewards Visa! Woo hoo! I've been indexed!

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Unfortunately my day turned less great when I got home and checked the mail. In the mail there was a letter from Chase telling me that my last gym paycheck had been returned for NSF.

That by itself really made me annoyed.

But, it's worse. By the 13th, I figured the check had cleared and it was safe to go ahead and move it, plus some other money to ING. So, I scheduled two withdrawals for the 14th. There would be about $20 left in my account after the two withdrawals.

The check bounced on the 13th. (Must have been after I checked my balance.) The first transaction went through fine. However, there was only $88 left in the account when the 2nd transaction of $100.00 went through.

So, in one day's time, due to one bounced check, my Chase account is now in the negative.

This is the second time I had a gym paycheck bounce. The first time it *only* cost me a $10 NSF fee, which was eventually refunded by E. (It took until the next payday to get the bounced check + fee refunded though!) This time however has cost me $35 in NSF fees and caused my account to go negative.

I was NOT a happy camper.

I sent E a screen shot of my bank account page showing the numbers so he' have "proof" of the numbers. I also told him that I wanted to have the full $82.xx in CASH by no later than Wednesday so that I can bring my account back in the positive.

I also told him that I had lost any confidence I had in him telling me the truth when he says 'the money is there to cover it.' From this point on, I will be calling their bank to see if the money is actually there to cover it.

I was pretty close to telling him that I had had enough - to find someone else for the job. But then I got to thinking about the average $150/mo (including the cost of free membership) that I'd be losing . . and bit my tongue enough to give him a chance and see what he'll do.

I vented my frustrations in as positive a manner as I could by writing about how the Economy is Hurting Gyms .

Personal Goals:

* Find a balance between making more money and having a life.

--What this means:
-----Limit myself to 10 hrs a week doing anything related to ChaCha.
-----Accept only one extra gym shift per week.

Well... I have kind of been on a ChaCha hiatus since a bit before Dec. 15. But instead I've added my today.com blog which is taking a lot more time than ChaCha ever did. BUT I have kept to just one morning a week at the gym.

* Build existing friendships
----Contact at least one friend each week via email or telephone.
----Invite a friend(s) to my place at least once a month.

I have contacted a friend at least once a week. However, I haven't invited anyone over just yet. My excuse is that I was in CA for two weeks!

* Build new friendships
----Attend at least one Vegetarian meet up per month
----Join and attend bookclub once a month

Um . .. moving on.

* Give Back to Others
-----Participate in at least one volunteer activity each month

I did sign up for something this past weekend, but then overslept and missed it. Ooops.

* Have home be able to be company ready in 15 minutes (similar to flylady w/o the emails)

Nope - not even close.

---Do an initial cleanup run - trash, dishes, etc.

Did do that before CA. Need to do again.

---Divide apartment into cleaning and decluttering zones. Focus on each zone for one week.
Not Yet.

Financial:

Car Fund: Finish funding to $4,000.00

DONE! (After this month's interest from HSBC at least.)

House Downpayment: Save $5,000.00 towards it.

Cruise 2010: Save $500 towards it

Vacation(s): 2, possibly 3. I'm estimating needing roughly $1,000.00.

Okay, definitely a case of progress but not perfection.

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Today was a SPEND day!

Gas: $17.27
Walmart Groceries: $26.25
Target Groceries: $16.90

I made it out of Target without picking up any junkfood! All I got were Amy's Burrito's for my work lunches (10 @ $1.69 each!)

Today was also a good day at work. A coworker and I went out to lunch at a mall (she treated) because she needed to exchange something. That was fun.

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My today.com post today is about

How to Get Healthy Without Spending A Lot

I can only say this now, since there wasn't much damage done and there was no loss of life (as far as I know at least) but someone asked me in a previous blog entry if the Mobile Home was on a fault line.

Apparently the answer is, if it's not ON one, it is NEAR one!

I talked to my dad this afternoon, and he told me that they had experienced an earthquake on Thursday evening! It was only a 4.5 or so, but it's epicenter was in San Bernadino which is near Loma Linda.

Even though he'd lived in CA when he was younger (late high-school/college) this was his first earthquake. He said it felt like an explosion or a large crash.

----
Ugh. Some one thinks I want to hear their rap music. They're sitting out in the parking lot with their windows open and car stereo loud.

It would be nice to have some kind of electronics scrambler to point at vehicles of people who insist on sharing their version of music with the world. *evil laugh*

(Someone must have said something, the decibels moved down a couple notches -though I can still hear it.)

---
Today was a no spend day.

---
E asked me if I'd like to take over opening the gym on Monday mornings. I told him that I had made a promise to myself not to do more than one morning a week (unless an emergency.) That my exercise routine just suffered too much when I did the extra shifts. He was understanding. -- The extra $13/wk sure would be nice, but my workout days are already reduced to just Monday to Th - not worth $13/wk to lose another morning.

Yay! Two days in a row where I was busy the whole day! Plus, I have enough left over to keep me occupied for at least the morning tomorrow.

My company switched HR companies as of Dec. 26. As soon as I got the email with the sign up information, I filled out all my info and signed up for all the benefits I'm eligible for.

I didn't get it done though early enough for my Jan 2 check to be direct deposited. Our Office Manager has been out sick yesterday and today. So this afternoon I asked the owner's daughter if she could see if I had a check in our OM's desk. I did! (I was slightly worried because she told me that our OM hadn't gotten a check on Jan 2.)

I realized tonight that January is a 5 paycheck month.

I'm considering putting $400 of it to my Car Fund, which would finish it. Then in February I'd be able to concentrate really hard on my house down payment savings.

But, I'm also wondering how much I'm going to owe in taxes this year. Last year I owed $144. I made pretty much exactly the same this year at my main job, but from ChaCha and the gym I've probably made an extra $1500, plus I've made a lot more in interest income. So, I'm wondering if I should set it aside for taxes, then whatever remains of it can go towards whichever savings goal I have that needs funding.

OR, I could just go ahead and put $400 of it into my Car Fund, then once I know how much my taxes are, I can just fit it into my budget for March and April.

Hmm.. . I think I like the last idea the best. I deposited my Jan 2 paycheck, and my gym paycheck, plus some cash my dad gave me (for the baggage fees) into my local checking. Once I have transferred them to ING, I will count my Car Fund as fully funded! Woo Hoo!

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I have found another way to make a little side income. (So, yes that means I'll have 3 places I'm earning side income from.)

The website today.com is accepting new bloggers. It can be about any of a variety of topics - but need to be at least 100 words or more per entry. (Ha! No trouble for me!) They pay you for one post per day, plus for page views.

I've been coming up with ideas of things to write about there that are somewhat different from what I post here, although still on a similar vein. It will be challenging for me to keep my posts close to the 100 word mark - but probably good for me too.

If you'd like to check my blog out, it is:

http://thesinglefrugalton.today.com/

I'm going to add it to my sidebar as well.

Oh, if you do join, and get accepted, let me know and I'll add you to my blogroll!

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spending today:

Wal-mart: $9.96 (bananas, Rice Dream, sweet potatoes, 1 frz dinner, sm box Jr Mints)

Updated sidebar. I'm within $400 of fully funding my Car Fund! Woo hoo!
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I pulled into my parking space around 7 p.m. last night. It was so good to be home. I had a really good trip, and was really really spoiled . . but it was so good to be home.

I didn't sleep very well at all last night, even though I was really tired. Even so, I managed to make it to work this morning on time.

Most people seemed happy to see me back, and I was happy to see most of them.

There was a good stack of work waiting for me on my desk, and more was added to it through the day. Yay!

I seem to be missing my toll tag. I noticed it this morning just after I breezed through the first toll station. Ugh. It's not in my car - it has a habit of dropping off the sticky tape and falling on the floor. I need to do a through search of my apartment in case I for some reason decided to put it in here for 'safe' keeping.

After work today I stopped by the library and dropped off about 10 items, and picked up 7 new ones. Most of the new items are part of a series I started reading out in CA and wanted to finish, the others are by the same author.

--

Of the 5 applications I submitted in CA, 3 of them have already been filled, and the two others I have not heard about yet.

My dad and grandma *really* want me out there in CA with them.

While I was out there we stumbled across a really great deal on a mobile home. It was in the same mobile home park as another home they really wanted me to see. (I think they get that I'm not too excited about sharing living space with them.)

The Mobile Home park itself is *very* nice and very well kept. They are in the process of remodeling their Social Club building and swimming pool area.

The lot fees are $600/mo (may possibly be less). (For comparison sake -- a cheap/very trashy mobile home park in the same city has a $350/mo lot fee -- another slightly more upscale mh park w/smaller lot spaces has a $1200/mo lot fee.) The lot fee includes sewer, water and garbage, plus community upkeep.

I fell in love with this home. The land around it is mostly covered with gravel = minimal outside upkeep. There is a fully grown and producing orange tree. There is a roomy covered porch (where I could place a porch swing!) There are two good-sized storage sheds, plus a covered parking area on one side of the house. In the backyard, behind the storage sheds, there is enough space where I could put in a veggie garden if I wanted to.

The house is over 1500sq. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The dining room/family area has a gas powered fireplace. The kitchen has a really good sized pantry. The laundry area is more spacious than at my mom's house! The master bath has a double sink with a curved counter (very pretty) and a spa tub. The appliances (fridge, stove, washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc) go with the house. They would also be willing to sell me their dining set (mine is falling apart.)

The roof is less than 4 years old. The AC unit is less than 4 years old. The flooring is parquet (sp?) throughout, and ceramic tile in the bathrooms, less than six-months old.

It is very well kept inside and out.

The family who is living there right now, is wanting to move back to Argentina to be near the husbands mother. They are an SDA family (I'm SDA as well.) The house is mortgage free. My dad broached the idea of them possibly carrying the note . . . they sounded very willing to discuss that idea.

My grandma has stated that she'd be happy to help me out with a loan. I'm not sure if that means she'd match the loan she gave my brother (which he's already paid back) or possibly more.

I haven't totally played with the numbers . . . but here's what's kind of running in my head.

Homeowner is asking 55k.

I would offer 53K (including dining set) with a down payment of 30k. The remaining 23k would be paid in monthly installments plus 5% interest for 7 years. (I'll ask for 10, but be willing to settle for 7.)

The 30k down payment would break down like this:

$7500 - First time Homeowner Credit (have to check if I could get this for a mobile home where it is not a bank mortgage)

$5500 - From my savings - would have to use part of my emergency fund, plus housefund - but would still be left with at least 3 months expenses (with house).

$13,000 - I would borrow from my grandma with a payment term of 10 years at 5%.
(Depending on how the First Time Buyer Credit works, may have to initially borrow 20,500k.)

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Property taxes are $300/year. Average utilities for a family of 4 running a home based catering business $180/mo.

---
I'm guessing it will run me around $1300 - 1400/mo for the first 7 years.

On what I make right now, that would not make ANY sense at all. (Be roughly 80% of my take home!)

BUT, the only way I'll even move out to CA is if I find a job where I make a good bit more than I make right now (and has comparable or better benefits.) So . . if I could get that amount to be more like, oh . . 60% or less . . I might bite.

Yes, I do know the wisdom of keeping housing to 30% or so of salary (is that take home or gross though?) *Remember, I have no debt - no car payments.*

I'm also aware that Mobile Homes aren't known for their appreciability. I'm willing to take the chance that in another 5 years if I wanted to sell, I'd be able to at least get my money back, plus possibly some more -- or at least get most of it back. To have a place of my own . . .

Needless to say, this all really is probably a huge pipe dream - because in order for it to have an iota of a possibility --- I have to find a job in CA while living in TX!

----
You may have gathered that I don't have a strong belief that I will be able to find a job in CA. My dad on the other hand strongly believes that I will. LOL

I have to tell my apartment management by January 30 whether or not I will be signing a new lease. My actual lease isn't up until March 30 - but they require a 60 day notice.

If I don't sign a new lease, and am still here, I would have to go month to month. That would mean an increase of at least $120/mo (maybe more).

However, if a miracle were to happen, and I *did* find THE job in CA, then having the flexibility to move within a few weeks time would be very handy.

--
Seriously, I wish I hadn't seen this place. I told my dad I thought it was really silly to go looking at housing (especially to be talking to homeowners!) before even having a job lined up! Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Le sigh.

The damage is done though. I am besotted with the idea. Maybe though I'm so besotted with the idea that the reality of that much money going to housing isn't hitting as hard as it should.

Sure, I'd be more than doubling my living space (including yard/storage areas) -- but I'd also be nearly doubling my housing costs.

This afternoon I got a call from T's husband inviting me to a Cookie Party at Mr. B's house. (Mr B was my teacher aide for a year, and was also T's aide for a year - amazing, giving, selfless man - such a hard worker.)

Of course I said yes!

Mr B had baked 4 or 5 dozen sugar cookies in star shapes and tree shapes. He'd also made several kinds of fudge, several types of regular cookies, and loaves of 'friendship' bread.

It was really good to sit and chat with everyone. At first the kids were decorating the sugar cookies, but then they got tired of it. So . . us adults got to get in on the fun.

Mr B sent us all home with a huge bunch of goodies.

I can't have that in my home for more than tonight, so am going to take it into work and share the bounty. (Have already eaten a few too many of the goodies.)

I've invited both T and her family, as well as Mr B and his family to my place at the end of January for a Danish Aebleskeber brunch. I had them all over to my place maybe a bit over two years ago - so it's way past time to do it again!

(Mr B has a long last name that is hard for kids to say. So everyone just called him Mr B--. It just kind of sticks.)

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On my way to the party I stopped at Half Price Bookstore.

I dropped my bag of Spanish materials at the sales desk, then started looking around.

I found a nice calendar for my stepdad, and a book for me.

Finally, I was called to the sales desk. I was offered $6.50 for 5 Spanish learning books/dictionaries, and 3 computer programs (1 of which cost $100.) I just couldn't do it.

I think I'm going to try Craigslist again after I get back from CA. There has to be *someone* who wants to learn Spanish!

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I earned $13 this morning working the morning shift at the gym.

I didn't get any exercise in today, other than the stairs from the garage to the office and back.

I spent $10.48 (calendar and book - but it was off of a gift card I got for my birthday.)

Didn't really do much today so far. Guess you could say I'm catching up on rest?

Got a call from E asking me to open G2 tomorrow morning. Said I would. An extra $13 before going away for 2 weeks doesn't hurt.

Finally about 4:15 I made myself get dressed all nice and warm (27 degrees) to go pay my rent and check the mail. All there was was junk mail. Oh well.

When I got back I made myself a cup of hot chocolate with the second packet of specialty mint chocolate mix. Yummy!

There's still a good number of hours left in the day - somewhere here I'll get motivated to actually do something productive.

Tomorrow after work I'm going to stop by Half-Price books, see what they'll give me for my Spanish language materials, and see if they have any train calendars. My mom says stepdad would like something like that.

(I give my mom and stepdad the turkey that I get from my company for Christmas, and a gift card for an expensive steak and crab place that one of the three honcho's gives us (they used it the last two years for their anniversary dinner.) Then I give them something I actually bought for each of them.

--I could use the gift card for myself - just buy 3 or 4 of their desserts and take it home. But that would kind of defeat the whole thing of trying to live healthy.


ETA: Yay me! I did manage to get busy (sort of) and got all the clothes picked up and put away from around my apartment. Also got all the dirty dishes from various places to the kitchen. Progress!

Today we had a meeting where we learned about the new HR company that will be administrating payroll and healthcare benefits for us.

My insurance will be going from United Health Care to Aetna Std. It will still be fully covered by my employer.

We still have the FSA option. Unfortunately, this new company has not gone into the realm of the debit style FSA card but are stuck in the realm of faxing in receipts and getting reimbursed. Yuck. I've been very spoiled.

We were told that we can not enter any of our information on the website until December 29. There will be an email sent to our work email with the link and password info.

A coworker of mine is going to forward that email to my personal address, so that I can fill out the info even though I'll be out in CA at that time.

Unfortunately, even if I get the info all filled out on Monday, the 29th, it is highly unlikely that the direct deposit will be functional by Friday the 2nd (payday.)

So, that means I will receive a hardcopy check. I will still be in CA on the 2nd. I won't get my paycheck for the 2nd, until the 7th - almost in time for my next paycheck!

This is why I'm so glad I don't live paycheck to paycheck. For me, this whole matter is just a small annoyance - a loss of a bit of interest. It would be so much worse if I was counting on that money to be IN my checking account to cover a rent check or some other expenses.

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Today was a NSD.
30 minutes on bike at gym this AM.
Did a trash run.

Absolutely incredible.

Tonight I got home from work and checked my mail. I had several birthday cards, a couple Christmas cards ... and then a letter from the Clerk of PA court.

When I saw that I was going 'What in the world??'

Finally I sit down and open it. At first I'm reading it and going 'Uh, ok.' Then I get to the last page and it hits me what it is about!

In a nutshell back in the area of 2003 or 2004 I had $139.xx removed from my checking twice. I had no idea who the money was going to, nor what it was for. I called my CU and let them know that I did not know why the money was going out ... and asked them if they could figure it out. If I remember correctly they were able to give me a phone number to the place, I called them and told them to cancel whatever it was. Then asked for a refund of my money. I was told I'd get it in 60 days. Several months later I called again, and was told it would be put on priority. This went on for at least a year, then a whole bunch of life happened and I forgot about it. Never got the money.

According to this document I received, this happened to a WHOLE bunch of other people as well. Wachovia let this company open up accounts, then they would call people with some mis-leading telemarketing call to get their bank info, which lead into Wachovia cashing unsigned checks. (I think that's the gist of it.)

So, there is now this class-action suit being brought against Wachovia. At first I thought all I would get would be the $35 refund for bank charges (I did end up bouncing a check as a result of the withdrawal at the time.)

THEN I looked at the last page. On the bottom was a check for $139.xx - a refund for the amount that was stolen from my account! I don't think I ever had any of the money returned to me - but don't have the paperwork to show it anymore - so I am EXTREmLY pleased with this amount!

Needless to say I am going to show the teller the paperwork and ask if they can verify the check as legitimate before actually depositing it. But . . I think this really is the real deal!

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I received a $100 from my Grandma for my birthday also in the mail today.

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It was below freezing today here. I had planned on getting to the gym 10 minutes early to get extra running time in, but it ended up I needed all that time plus a bit just to get my windows deiced.

At least I got my 2.1 mile run in this morning. Then today after work I did roughly 40 minutes strength training/stretching.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been doing some thinking and reflecting on what I would like my goals to be for this, my now 33rd year.

The goals fall under personal, health, financial and spiritual.

Personal Goals:

* Find a balance between making more money and having a life.

--What this means:
-----Limit myself to 10 hrs a week doing anything related to ChaCha.
-----Accept only one extra gym shift per week.

* Build existing friendships
----Contact at least one friend each week via email or telephone.
----Invite a friend(s) to my place at least once a month.

* Build new friendships
----Attend at least one Vegetarian meet up per month
----Join and attend bookclub once a month

* Give Back to Others
-----Participate in at least one volunteer activity each month

* Have home be able to be company ready in 15 minutes (similar to flylady w/o the emails)

---Do an initial cleanup run - trash, dishes, etc.

---Divide apartment into cleaning and decluttering zones. Focus on each zone for one week.

Financial:

Car Fund: Finish funding to $4,000.00

House Downpayment: Save $5,000.00 towards it.

Cruise 2010: Save $500 towards it

Vacation(s): 2, possibly 3. I'm estimating needing roughly $1,000.00.

--If I move out to CA, I've promised my mom that I would come back to visit her at least twice a year. If I stay here, then I will want to go visit my dad/brother out in CA.

--The third possible vacation would be this June. The highschool I graduated from was closed several years ago. Many of us have found each other on Facebook the past few months, and are discussing the possibility of a school reunion.

Change my work situation:
--1. Find a way to make my current job feel as though I am contributing to the company's good on a consistent basis. Also, be able to show why I am worthy of a raise (due to being productive, etc.)

--2. Find a job in CA. It may just be a starter job (i.e. not more money) but may find a good lead in to something later.

--3. Do 1 or 2, but in the meantime take coursework to go into another field - perhaps medical - which would eventually lead to a better paying job.

Health:

Diet --
---Eliminate soda from diet
---Limit cheese and ice cream
---Limit soy products
---Avoid fast food
---Limit processed foods (i.e. frozen meals, etc.)
---Create a meal plan for the month, including treats -shop only from that list
---Create a set of cards with sayings or buzzwords I can laminate and keep on my keyring for when the 'Beat Laura Up Monster' (BLUM)appears and urges me to eat junk beyond the realms of normalcy (i.e. normal - 2 or 3 Hershey kisses -- me, a bag of kisses.)

*Note - I am not saying one word about wanting to lose weight. My diet focus is solely going to be on eating healthier and on learning to control the BLUM.

Fitness:

Cardio: Consistently do 30 minutes of cardio at least 4 x a week.

Strength: Consistently complete at least 2 35+ minute weight training sessions a week.

Stretching/Flexibility: Consistently do a 20 minute Pilates session at least 2x a week.

Participate in a 5k race at least once a month. Improve running time to 38 minutes or less.

Possibly participate in a 10k by November.

Spiritual:

Renew relationship with God
---set and keep prayer time appt daily (beyond blessing food at meals)
---set and keep daily bible study time
---attend church at least 3 x a month

---look into seeing if anyone would be interested in some kind of a bible-based book group study

---look into possibility of being a greeter at church

--- Resolve tithe issue (I give to the local church with no problem - its sending money to the 'head' church that I have not resolved with myself. In SDA denomination, tithes go to the local conference (i.e. leaders of all area churches, such as Texas.) and is then distributed for pastor salaries, missions, etc.)

Good news and not so good news.

I found out today that a third lady from my office has signed up at our gym. This is good of course for E and for the gym.

It is however not so good for me personally. These three ladies and myself all will be in the gym at about the same time in the morning - all of us needing to be DONE at about the same time as well. Not to mention that there are two other new ladies who've been coming in the mornings.

There are two shower stalls in the ladies locker room.

Now, good news part.

One of the ladies who signed up for the gym actually also signed up for a PT course from E. She had asked me personally to introduce her to E.

So I found out today that as staff, I get a $20 referral bonus for her!! I may get another referral bonus for a second of the three ladies who joined up - I didn't directly refer her, but I've talked to her a good bit about the gym and about E - so we'll see on that one.

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I've now used my netbook two times at the gym doing ChaCha. It really works pretty well.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the keyboard.

I'm needing to do a bit of cleaning this evening, my kitchen especially. So I'm going to do what my coworker suggested to me today -- put my netbook on the kitchen table, turn the volume up loud as possible, then work on cleaning in between questions. That way I can get my cleaning done, but also keep making a bit of money. Ahh. . . the convenience factor.

This coming week I have two extra early morning shifts at the gym, plus my Friday morning early shift and afternoon shift. I started thinking about how much money I'd received from my last 3 gym paychecks which I hadn't allocated yet to any of my Extra Monies funds yet (due to the bounced check). Then I thought about how much I'd be getting soon from ChaCha (at least $145).

I made the leap.

I bought a netbook -- at Target -- for $300.00.

It is the ASUS Eee PC 900. It's just over 2lbs in weight and the screen is 8.9" diagonally.

I have books that weigh more than it, and that are thicker than it.

I also bought a usb mouse to use with it, and a carrying case.

Tonight I connected to my home internet network with it and downloaded the ChaCha toolbar and was able to do a couple queries. I will def. have to use the mouse for that though - at least till I get more accustomed to the touch pad.

I also called my dad and grandma on Skype - which came preloaded. I thought this had a built in webcam, but I found out that it doesn't. So, I'll have to see if I can find an inexpensive one -- but that will come later - after I pay back the loan to myself.

So, at this moment I have a loan of $350 that I owe myself. I will be keeping track of what I earn doing ChaCha at the gym, as well as how many hours of extra gym shifts I do beyond the Friday afternoon shifts (which is what I originally signed on for.) I wonder how long it will take me to pay myself back?

---

Oh yes, I must mention the bit of drama in the purchase. My card was initially declined. Imagine my surprise!

The people at the electronics counter graciously let me use their phone to call customer service. Apparentally my trying to make a $350 purchase at Target flagged my account as "unusual activity". I had to answer a bunch of questions and confirm a number of charges from the past few days - then my card was reactivated.

The man on customer service was apologetic, but I told him that I was *thankful* for the flag, even if it was a bit of a hassle and delay. I seriously LOVE how alert WAMU is about their customers credit card usuage. I would SO much rather have my card declined, than to go check my account and see thousands of dollars worth of charges on there that aren't mine - that is SO much more hassle and headache.

* I updated my Extra Monies pages, as well as my tickers.

* The gym paycheck that bounced as well as the next one I got have both been finally taken care of. I picked up my check today (which includes the $98.25 + $10 bounce fee + last two weeks work hours) and was told that I *do not need* to worry about this one bouncing. I'll be putting it in tomorrow. If it bounces, I'm going to insist on money orders from here on out.

* I bought a few groceries at Target this weekend. I wasn't paying close attention to the register, so missed my Morningstar corn dogs ringing up wrong. Luckily I checked my receipt and caught it. The lady at customer service gave me $3 in cash back. Free corndogs! Yay!

* My brother's birthday is tomorrow!! He's going to be 28 years old. He was born on the day Reagan was elected. Hopefully he'll celebrate his 28th birthday with Obama being elected.

* I've been doing quite well with not buying junkfood or eating junk at work. So well in fact, that I've lost nearly 10 pounds since my last post! (Mostly water weight I think though.)

* I'm still considering a laptop. Although a comment made by E on Thursday night when I picked up the keys to be able to open the gym on Friday's has me wondering if it is a good idea or not. He mentioned that they may have to let go of some of their employees.

* I won another weekend contest for ChaCha last week. $10 Yay!

* My mom and I did a 5k together last weekend. We both walked away with first place trophies for our age categories. ......... Of course, we were the only females competing in our respective age categories! LOL!

I was so very proud of my mom for finishing and not taking any shortcuts. We were the last two of 25 people to cross the line. My time was the same as my first 5k (43:37) and my mom finished in 50:00. (She can't run due to joint/bone problems.)

* I finally got to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was showing at a second run theatre near where we did our 5k. It cost $3 for my mom, me and my stepdad to see it. Cheap entertainment.

* I think my car's stereo speakers are dying. Today when driving home the sound kept coming in and out, getting louder and softer, going from one side to the other. First time I've noticed that.

How expensive are car stereo speakers to replace??

* I paid $2.11/gallon for gasoline today. I am loving the falling gas prices!

Bear with me folks, this is a bit long today.

This is pretty sad really, my post today. The scale has been going up and up in the past few months, but I kept consoling myself that I was still less than when I started Sparkpeople back in June 2006.

Then this morning I get on the scale and find out that that is no longer true.

What's really sad is that I am exercising, although not as consistently as before. I even have a 5k I'm participating in tomorrow, even though I've not been able to complete 2 miles on the treadmill in 30 minutes for several weeks.

What has happened though is that I've gone back to most of my *really* bad eating habits. This has been affecting me both financially (food costs + needing new clothes) and health wise (weight gain, not able to run as fast).

I can't even begin to explain how frustrated and discouraged I feel about this whole situation. One totally of my own making, and my own control.

So . . . I'm working a good bit of hours at the gym. Probably once a week get called to cover an extra shift after work. Then of course, this coming Friday I will start doing the Friday early morning shift for the next 8 weeks.

Usually I spend most of my time at the gym when working, reading. I have attempted to do a weight routine while on shift, but there were so many interruptions I kept losing my place in my counts.

As I've mentioned before, I also am working for ChaCha.

So, I'm thinking that maybe I can knock out three objectives with one stone.

1. Get back on track with food/exercise
2. Reign in spending on junk/extra food
3. Make more side income

The way I'm thinking of doing this is by allocating whatever money I earn from "extra" shifts, as well as the early Friday morning shifts for the next 8 weeks, to a laptop fund.

In order to actually access the money though, I have to earn it. Kind of do a matching funds type thing.

For example:
One day where I don't spend any money on any type of junkfood or unnecessary food, as well as don't consume any office supplied junkfood equals $5.

For every 5 days, I would get a Fund Match of $25.

Once I have "earned" at least $200, I will go ahead and order the laptop I'm thinking of:

Sylvania G Netbook and then make a "loan" to myself that I will be able to pay off much faster by using the laptop at the gym to do ChaCha. (Until the loan to myself is paid off, any money I earn doing ChaCha at the gym would go towards the loan.)

I am guessing, if all goes well, it will take me around four weeks to get to the initial $200 mark. Then, roughly another three weeks (when adding additional ChaCha income) to pay it off. So, that would give me 7 weeks of getting back into my good habits, which hopefully would stick even after the laptop is paid off.

---
By the by . . if anyone knows of another laptop that would work with Firefox and in the $400 or less range, I'd love to hear about it!

Also, I think I'm right that I could use the laptop purchase as a tax write off on Schedule C since it is largely being purchased to do the ChaCha job. Am I right?

Like I mentioned yesterday, my mom and I were going to go clothes shopping today.

I wanted to get several under items, a pair of pants, and some tops. I had set my budget at $250. I don't buy clothes very often, and a good number of my tops were starting to look worn and/or "shrinking".

Our first stop was Costco. We picked up three cute tops (same top, 3 colors) for $24 + tax. My mom actually paid for these, said they were a special treat for me from her. Yay!

Next, we stopped at Grapevine Mills Mall. The first store we went to was Dress Barn Woman. I bought a really pretty flowy type dress with a lime green shrug. It originally was $69.99, but was on the sale rack and came to $23.34. I also bought a t-shirt type top for $8. So, that total was about $32.

Next we stopped at Hanes. I was fitted, then bought 3 regular bras and 2 Champion sports bras. That came to $73.

Last we stopped at Lane Bryant. I tried on LOTS of clothes. Finally I handed my mom the things I knew I wanted, then chose two items I'd get depending on how much the other items rang up to.

The clerk told me if I signed up for LB card that I'd get 15% off the entire order, plus 25% off the highest priced item. To me, it was worth doing, even worth losing the points on mypoints card.

After everything was added up, and I added the extra 2 items plus a third one - it came to a total of $101.23.

I got: 1 pair pants, blue striped button up blouse, pink striped button up blouse, plain white button up blouse, a black swingy loose jacket, and a light material blue sweater with a buckled waist.

After that mom and I went our seperate ways.

On my way home I stopped at Walmart. Since I was well under budget, I decided that I'd go ahead and see if I could find a good replacement for my purse. (The one I have the lining has ripped out and some of the seams are looking pretty loose. I've had it for about 6 years I think.)

I found a good replacement for $10, plus got a 7 pack of undies for $6.

So, for approximately $245 today I got: a new purse, 7 prs undies, 3 bras, 2 sports bras, 1 pair pants, 1 dress w/ sweater shrug, 1 black swingy jacket, 3 buttoned up blouses, 5 other office appropriate tops.

Eventually I'd like to see if I can find a brown sweater shrug to go with my dress as well, but by the end of the day I felt all shopped out!

I'm very happy to have come under budget and gotten much more than I thought I would be able to. Good quality brands too. I'd love to be able to shop at a thrift store and get much more for the same money, but if you are over a size 12, there is not much to find at a thrift store.

I wonder if anyone at work will notice my new duds.

I was sure that I had scheduled two transfers from my Chase checking to ING to go out on Tuesday. But when I checked, they weren't showing up as pending. I kept checking through the week, and still they weren't showing up.

So today I did a Yodlee check up which I hadn't done in a few days and noticed that my Chase checking balance was pretty low. Curious, I clicked on the link to see what was going on.

In bright red it showed me that my gym paycheck of $98.25 had bounced, and that I'd been charged a $10 fee. Ugh!

I called E and he apologized and told me that he'll have $108.25 in cash for me on Monday.

I'd been warned by another gym independant contractor about checks bouncing - but this was the first one that actually bounced.

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I'm off to my mom and stepdad's here in the next hour or so. I'll be doing laundry tonight, then tomorrow my mom and I are going to go clothes shopping! I've budgeted $250 for it. I'm hoping to get a few under items, a pair of pants, and then as many tops as I can with the leftover money.

I've unfortunately NOT been going in the right direction lately with my weight, and my current wardrobe has many items which have "shrunk". I'd like to say that I'm going to take the bull by the horns and get back on the losing track . . but I've said that over and over for the past few months, and the pounds have crept up instead of down. So . . I've gotta deal with reality.

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*Disclaimer: I put everything I possibly can on my Mypoints credit card, which I then pay off in full each and every month.

I redeemed 9800 mypoints today for 3 $25 giftcards. They're all Christmas gifts - brother (I'd also gotten my brother a gift card through Mypoints for his birthday which I received a few weeks ago), dad, stepdad. (I got my mom her gift from Amazon a few weeks ago.)

*Almost forgot - at the same time I got my brother's birthday gift card, I also ordered a gift card for the Office Christmas Grab Bag we do on Christmas Eve.

I have 2300 points left, so by the end of November I should have enough to get one more $25 gift card.

First, the good stuff.

My second monthly ChaCha payment went through of $131.74. $10 of that was money from a contest I'd won. I lurve ChaCha!

I also picked up my check for the gym. It was for $65.50, but then the $20 overpayment from the previous check was subtracted, so it came to $45.50.

So, between ChaCha and the gym, in October I have added a little over $275 to my Extra Monies funds. Most of what I do for both of these require very little effort - just time and consistency.

It looks like my next paycheck for the gym will be at least in the low $100 range - due to an extra shift already worked, 3 Friday afternoons, plus starting to work the early morning shift on Friday Oct 31. Me likey.

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Rant.

Today I went out to eat with two of my coworkers. One of them had a buy one get one free coupon for specific items on the menu - none of which could be turned into a vegetarian friendly food. Not a problem - I'm used to it, and can deal with it.

I've eaten at this place a couple times before, and have found that the Grilled Cheese Panini w/ a side of sweet potatoes can be had for $6 +tax and is filling.

It is however on the children's menu.

So, I place my order for it. I am then told that I can't order off the children's menu. I reply back by saying that I have done it both times I've come before with no problems.

The waiter tells me that if I'd like to speak to the manager he'd be happy to get him. I very briefly considered this, but then decided that I did NOT want to make a scene. I told the waiter that I am a vegetarian and that there was NOTHING else on the menu without meat. He suggested that I get the quesedilla entree and just have the chicken left out.

The quesedilla price: $8.95
The pannini price: $5.95 (includes side dish)

I went ahead and ordered the quesedillas and asked to have spinach and mushrooms added.

Later when I saw the bill, they had charged me $9.95 for my item. I can only assume the extra dollar was for the oh so much more costly than chicken - mushrooms and spinach!

OY VEY!

Needless to say I will NOT willingly go there again - nor will I recommend it to anyone!

I would REALLY like to know just what the problem is with an adult ordering off the children's menu?? The portion size is going to be the same whether an 11 year old orders it, or an ahem.. 32 year old orders it. Is it really worth $4 to them to completely lose a customer??

So I watched CSI:Vegas online this past weekend. It was a very good episode, but I was getting annoyed by all the starts and stops.

I decided it was time to go up to the next DSL tier. It was only $5 more and I felt it would be worth it.

So a few minutes ago I called to upgrade my DSL speed.

YEOW!

There is no $25 option anymore. They don't even have my $20 option anymore. The next higher speed than what I have is now $35!!!!
I just about hung up.

The lady kept trying to tell me that AT&T had given me free installation and that they'd felt like they had lost money with the free installations which is why it had gone up so much. Then she tried to tell me you don't have a phone line charge . . . etc, etc.

Finally I told her, that may all be true, but I don't have $35/mo in my budget for internet. That finally got her to back off.

I guess I will be living with the hiccups of watching tv on the lower speed.

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In other news. E asked me today if I'd be willing to fill in on Friday mornings at one of the gym locations from the end of Oct to Dec 19. It will mean an extra $13/week! Yay! It also will mean that I'll have to get there by 6:20 a.m. which is an hour earlier than I usually get there for working out. For 8 weeks, I can deal with it.