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Viewing the 'Frugal Single Life' Category
March 24th, 2012 at 09:40 pm
Well ... the good news is that we met AND exceeded our $2700 goal for the book fair! The total is just a bit over $2800. So that means that SrN will be dressing up in a clown suit -- we did not make the higher goal of $3000 which would have meant two teachers dressing in tutu's and me dying my hair temporarily purple.
I did spend my own money to help bump us up over the goal, however the majority of the books are ones I would have bought anyway. They were priced right (even when compared to Amazon) and if I waited to purchase them through the resource catalog, I would have had to pay shipping.
We will be taking the cash option, which gives us about $640! I already have ideas on how that money will be used - $60 or so of it will be used to purchase some books for this year (from a box of books we already have at the school - 6 books.) The remainder of it will go to purchase 3 or 4 Junior Library Guild subscriptions for next school year. That will basically give us 3 or 4 new books each month.
I have also spoken with the person who will be principal next year (it's official! I'm very happy with who it is) and she's ok'd a Fall book fair instead of a spring one. I think we might have done even better with having a day for previewing by all classes (which we lost due to the snow day this year.) Also, having it in the fall instead of the spring will help it to not be *right* on the heels of the yearbook deadline - AND people will be thinking of Christmas gifts about that time ...
$$I bought $258 worth of books. Graphic novels, novels, picture books, sports books, etc. I think they'll all be great additions to our library. Of course this wasn't really planned spending ... so I guess my state tax refund could cover it.
Oh - I wanted to let the person know who sent Crank (novel in verse) to me that I got it this week! Thank you!!
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At our teacher meeting on Wednesday I found out that summer school (our portion at least) will be from June 18 - July 6. That was good and bad news. Good, because it means an extra week of pay (at $30/hr from the county), but bad because I'd already gotten my dad excited thinking I'd make it out to CA for his birthday.
Thankfully he was understanding and not too disappointed. I decided that I'll go to my brother's first, and then after the SA meet up, will head down to my dad's. I was going to take the train, but my dad and grandma insisted on covering the cost of a flight (from my brother's to my dad's). Can't say that I'm fighting them too hard on that -- I'll treat them to a meal at Cheesecake factory or something.
TR, our principal to be, told me yesterday that she'd like me to do some classroom teaching for summer school - more specifically math!! I just about choked on my own tongue ... she clarified that it would be remedial math ... I swallowed really hard and in my most cheerful voice said I'd be willing to help wherever and however was most needed. Oy vey! There's a reason I taught first and second grade most of my teaching career ... and that the highest grade I taught where I was responsible for math was 5th grade ... Deep breath .. I can do this ... just have to take the book home and try to stay ahead of the lessons!!
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What sold the most at our fair (besides the junky items and posters ...) were Star Wars related books and of course Hunger Games related books. We didn't have ANY basketball related books/posters, which of course is what a lot of the boys were asking for. We actually sold out of one of the cookbooks (for adults) and I had many adults comment on Nicholas Sparks book Lucky One (coming out as a movie soon - never had heard of it previously though I love Sparks!) I had many comments on how much more selection we had, and how nice it looked. That was a relief to me, because I was so afraid that it was too crowded to be workable -- but it did work!
My 8th graders helped to set up the whole thing in 2 hours (and then I spent a few hours by myself doing finishing touches), and then it took us only 20 minutes to break everything down and put it away for the truck to pick up on Tuesday. One of the girls said when we were done - "it looks like a library again!"
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It looks pretty positive that I'll have an assistant next year. More than likely it will be our current Technology Coordinator. She's been having some bad seizures, etc and has been told that she MUST limit her screen time to no more than an hour or so per day. We get along really well, and I know she is intelligent and works hard -- so I can definitely give her plenty to do that will have nothing to do with computers! I really really hope that this is approved!!!
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March 19th, 2012 at 08:31 pm
Today was to have been the book fair preview as well as the day the mid-schoolers brought back their permission slips to help me out tomorrow during the p/t conferences (our first day of sales.) Of course it snowed something like 5 inches during the night, and the forecast showed another few inches of accumulation today (although that hasn't seemed to pan out.)
Oh well ... the bright side of it is I'm getting to have a Crossing Jordan marathon. I also might be able to return some of the food I bought for the teacher preview (that was to be this morning.)
Last night when I was thinking about what I would do if it was a snow day, I had these grandiose plans of watching an episode of CJ and then doing something productive for 30 minutes, and then repeat. Hah.
Oh well .. at least I'm not spending any money today, right?
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I tried out my humidifier for the first time last night. I think it actually did help me sleep better - even with the darn light. Someone on FB suggested I cover the clear/light section with duct tape. Sounds good to me! (I like a room to be as dark as possible when I'm sleeping -- and as quiet as possible. Always was a problem when traveling with my family and staying at a hotel - both my parents could only fall asleep with a tv on.)
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March 17th, 2012 at 03:27 am
Monkey Mama's blog about life insurance reminded me that this was about the time last year that I got some. Then I was looking at my various credit cards, and I saw that I'd been charged my yearly premium. --Something I'd forgotten to include in my budget. Oops.
Then today I went into town and did some grocery shopping - both for myself, and for the book fair. On Monday (if we don't have a snow day!!!) I'm having refreshments for the teachers during the teacher preview. Then on Tuesday (again, if we don't get the monster storm predicted ...) I've promised to provide snacks for my mid-school helpers.
I also stopped at the Party store, Big Lots and Family Dollar ... all in search of cheap plastic tablecloths to cover the various boxes so I can put them on the tables. The least expensive one I found was $3.25. Ugh! I think I'm going to try just cutting one of the tablecloths provided in half (I get to keep them) and then if that works ok, I'll do the same to the rest of them. Total budget buster today of about $95 between Walmart and the other stores.
At Party City I did see they had some luau themed table trimmers .... at $20 each. NOT!!!! My tables will go undecorated thank you very much!
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Today we did the set up for the book fair. I had 5 8th graders and two 6th graders helping me. They all worked hard for most of the two hours they were with me. On paper my plan for the setup seemed like it would work really well, but in reality ... it is really really crowded. I'm going to have to go in there on Sunday and spend a few hours++ to see if I can figure out how to get a better flow to the whole thing. Next year I hope to have the book fair in the fall (to potentially avoid snow days!!) and I hope to see if I can have it in someplace larger than the library.
I really hate to think how long it would've taken me to setup what we have done by myself ...
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I got my leis yesterday from amazon, which was relief. (Although at this moment I'm afraid they are buried somewhere in the library classroom ...)
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Today when I was in town, I decided to stop by Carl Jr's and get a shake (was really thirsty and out of water ... justify....) This white truck pulled up behind me with three people in it, and I was struck with the urge to do a PIF. So I told the lady at the window that I wanted to take care of the people behind me ... figuring it would be at least $20. After I got on the highway I looked at my receipts ... they'd gotten a small drink ... $1.50. LOL! (The only reason I share this is due to my expecting the bill to be so much more than it was. Too funny not to share.)
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I think that this month I'm going to be doing good to save 20% of my income ... I guess that is okay, as long as it doesn't become a recurring theme. I'm not going anywhere in April (well, at least I don't think I am ... we do have a 4 day weekend -i.e. Easter - so who knows what might happen then ..) and May also shouldn't be too spendy (I hope!!)
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I'm really looking forward to my July trip. It already was going to be good, getting to spend time with my brother and other family, but now with the SA get together, it'll be awesome!!!
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March 14th, 2012 at 12:55 am
Today when I got home I checked ING just in case.... and found that my state tax refund had come in finally!! Yay!
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Today at school I was talking with one of the Navajo teacher assistants and she told me that the 8th grade teacher had a Roset@t@a St@ne program that teaches the Navajo language!! I had no idea that such a thing was available. I Googled it, and after much searching around I finally found it.
There are two options - Online subscription for $75/yr with no included headphones/microphone; or a one-time purchase of the software w/included headphones/microphone for $200 +$45 shipping.
I am very interested in this. If I really do end up staying here for a good number of years, I think it would be very good for me to know the language very well. This way I can learn it on my own, and then see if I can find people to practice it with in person. I'm kind of leaning towards the online subscription, because I think I could find a good pair of headphones/microphone for $50 or less. So I could subscribe online for 3 years and still come out ahead of buying the package deal.
I'm going to think about this some more, and perhaps talk to the 8th grade teacher and see if she's found it to truly be valuable or not.
Any suggestions as to a good pair of headphones/microphone for a computer? Really, I think I would only need the microphone aspect since I don't have to worry about anyone else being disturbed by it. I could use the cheap microphones I got from Walmart a few months back, but their quality isn't that great (hence the $8 price.)
What do ya'll think?
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I submitted the yearbook Monday night at 6:41 PM!! Yahoo! I'm glad I decided to go over it ONE more time before submitting, because I realized that one of the staff members had been left off the staff page!! I had his picture, but had just forgotten to check the box saying "use this picture." Oy vey!!
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All the materials for the book fair came this morning - thankfully about ten minutes before my first class came in. 7 carts full, plus boxes on top. Wow. We aren't setting up until Friday afternoon.
I really hope that we don't get snow Monday night (4" are predicted!!!) Our first sale day is Tuesday - it also is parent/teacher conferences.
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Today I wore my hair in a side braid. I like to braid my hair sometimes, but had not done it here so far (at least not where I wore it to work.) I had SO many adults and kids compliment me. I even had one of my 6th graders tell me that it made me look younger (not that that is exactly something I care to hear ... but I thought that was funny.)
I might just do a braid more often.
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I've been showing my classes the Book Fair video this week for class. Most of them seem to have been pretty interested in it. Some have had more reactions than others. Both my 7th and 8th grade classes got free time on the computers after checking out books - something neither grade had gotten at all this year. I hadn't realized that til yesterday - so I figured it wouldn't hurt.
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My Spring Break seems to be filling up little by little. At first I'd been planning on it being rather low-key and home bound. But now I have a two day road trip with a co-worker, and then I have agreed to go with our students who qualified for State (Science) the second weekend of break. It'll probably just be that Friday night to make sure that any papers that need to be signed are, but it'll still make for a late night.
I normally wouldn't agree to do something like this on the Sabbath, but there are several reasons I decided to: 1. It's the first time our school has had students qualify for State, and they need someone from our school there supporting them; 2. The mid-school science teacher, not knowing that kids would qualify for State nor when it would be, had already made plans with friends in Phoenix for that weekend - two of whom are flying in *just* to see her -- so co-worker was majorly stressed about choosing to not go to the planned for weekend (6 months in the works) or not going to be there for the kids, and 3. I'm pretty much the only teacher who'll be around that weekend.
I'm hoping that most of it can be taken care of before sunset (especially now that the sun sets after 7 p.m.) but if not, I'm not going to stress about it. I feel like I'll be doing a good deed.
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I ordered the Hawaiian leis for the book fair today. I'll be giving one to each person that buys something on Tuesday. I tried calling our local party store this morning to find out if they had any or not, but I never could get an answer. I'd been planning on ordering from Oriental, but the cost of the leis ($16.99) + the cost of 3-5 day shipping ($15) was more than I could get them for on Amazon. So, I ordered them from Amazon for $24, with guaranteed delivery by this Thursday. I also ordered the book "Bad News for Outlaws" which a student has been asking me about over and over ...
My giftcard balance was down to $13.xx, but then I had my AGC come in from irazoo and from Swag, so I am back up to $23.
I also got my payment from Beezag a few days ago - so I have $8 in Paypal that I need to transfer over to put in my EF.
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We have a bit of a scary situation here. Last night some gunmen shot and killed a number of people. It's not on the news - but people say they (the gunmen) started near our town, then went up to G, and are now out and about on the reservation. There's a rumor that they might do more shootings tonight. Schools in G had a two-hour delay and then were on lock down all day. We had quite a few students absent - quite possibly due to the shootings. Hopefully these people will be caught soon so everyone can breathe a bit easier.
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I never did get a call in to a dentist - but my tooth/teeth are feeling better. Who knows what is going on - just glad it's gone for now.
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I've been watching season one of Crossing Jordan on Netflix the past few days. Jill Hennesey is so awesome. I didn't remember Woody being so ... different when he was first introduced.
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March 6th, 2012 at 03:21 am
My tooth is really bothering me. I'm not stuffed up, so I'm thinking it may be a real toothache. I SO don't need this right now/don't have the time for it! The yearbook deadline is in 6 days!! I'm still scrambling to get all the photos I need. Then of course as soon as the yearbook is done, I've got to get on the ball for the bookfair. Ugh! I'm hoping that SrN will let me out of one of the two teacher in-service sessions this coming Friday so I can work on the yearbook. Otherwise I see a *very* long Friday afternoon, Sunday and Monday.
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Speaking of the book fair ... a school in Chicago which made blankets for all the students/staff at Christmas time has offered to donate to the library their profit from their own upcoming book fair!!! That's really huge because they are a large school (maybe 500+) so they probably have double or triple our sales. So today I went through the catalog (where you can spend the non-cash dollars) and made a wishlist of 50 items/sets. I told SrN that it is a good thing I wasn't making a wishlist from books *outside* of the catalog. This will make it a lot easier for me to take the minimal amount in Sch$ and the rest in cash.
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I also received today in the mail the brand new 2012 caldecott and newberry posters. I'd asked how to get ahold of those kinds of posters to update ours on my librarian listserve about a month or so ago. I had a Follett rep contact me for my address .. and now I have two of the posters I wanted for free! It is surprising to me how often the kids actually look at the posters and then actually ask me to help them find books off of them.
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I baked a sweet potato in my oven last night and tonight. Last night it took 75 minutes at 400 degrees, and tonight I had it in there for 70 minutes plus another 10 minutes in the microwave. I poked it thoroughly and wrapped in aluminum (took out of course for microwave!)It was delicious, but I was kind of annoyed with how long it took. Kari of course was going nuts - she heard the microwave go off and sprang off my lap. I took my time getting there, and found her sitting on the counter next to the microwave watching for me. Guess what? She likes sweet potatoes too.
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Only 9 weeks of school left after this week (not including Spring Break). Wow! Today my 8th graders did their presentations - they'd created a chart and graph which they then put into a one - two page newsletter and wrote a paragraph+ explaining their graph(s). SrN came by and got to see most of them - she said she was impressed with their work. Most of them did either sports figures or musicians/bands, while a few did candy (which color Skittle is your favorite, which candy bar is your favorite, etc.) The 8th grade TA and I figured out that I'll probably only have them in class maybe 6 more times this year. We're not going to be able to get very far with the website unit. Oh well, at least I'll get them started, and if they're interested I can show them where to learn more.
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Last night I read "I've Got Your Number" by Sophie Kinsella. LOVED!!! I could not put it down til I finished it (past midnight).
I also had a very welcome visitor about 8 pm. One of the maintenance guys from the mission - he got my pilot light on my water heater working again AND showed me how to do it myself. It was sweet relief to have hot water again! (It went out probably on Friday due to the high winds we were having. It'll more than likely go out again.)
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March 4th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Last night I had a blast with several of my coworkers. We had "game night." We played two games from start to finish (Redneck Life and Quelf) and partially played Pop Culture Trivia DVD (it was getting really late.) One of my coworkers made homemade burnt brownie ice cream (something she discovered last year when she attempted making brownies here for the first time) and I brought soda.
I hope we do this again soon. (Kari wasn't very happy with me - gone pretty much all day, breeze in for five minutes, then gone again for 3 hours ..)
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I filled up my car yesterday - $3.48/gallon. I'd only made 234 miles on the last tank, nearly 80 miles less than normal. I asked one of my coworkers if she thought it was possible someone was siphoning gas. She told me that she'd been getting less gas mileage too - most likely due to driving against the wind.
I also stopped by the library and dropped off the two latest Evanovich books and picked up a new Kinsella book (author of Confessions of a Shopaholic series - LOVE!)
Then made a ~$30 stop at Walgreens (prescription+), and a $44 stop at Wal-mart.
While I was waiting for sunset in the Wal-mart parking lot, I had a chance to talk to the lady I'd stayed with the last few months I lived in Texas. She and her daughter had moved into a new home over Christmas, and are really loving it. They've had a spate of bad luck though with cars - two cars wrecked by drivers running red lights - but thankfully no one injured!! It was really good to talk with her.
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I went to take a shower Saturday morning and found out that the pilot light on the water heater was out -- so no hot water. Then found out that the mobile home park manager quit last week ... doh! Still trying to get in touch with someone to relight it. I have several places to go to take a shower, so am not worried about that - just can't do my dishes.
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One of my co-workers and I were talking about Spring Break plans and ended up deciding to take a bit of a road trip. It'll be her last year here, so I let her pretty much decide. We're going to go to Santa Fe and Taos. I found a hotel room in Santa Fe for only $38 which allows dogs (she has two dogs.) I'll have my Discover card by then which will give me 5% cash back on gas purchases. I've been to Santa Fe before (when I was in elementary) but I don't remember ever being in Taos, so that should be fun. Even with gas, I don't think the trip should cost me more than $130 or so, since we'll be splitting the costs.
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I looked into Amtrak tickets and airplane tickets for my summer trip to CA. Going to where my dad/grandma are, then up to where my brother is, and then back here on Amtrak would cost $265. Doing the same route/dates via flying would cost $370 + driving to/from Albuquerque and a hotel stay (so getting pretty close to $500). So ... I think I'll be doing Amtrak this summer. I just need to find out for sure when summer school ends to finalize my dates. I'm hoping to be able to be there for my dad's birthday (July 5.)
I checked what the amenities are on Amtrak nowadays (last time I was on it was in 1988?) It looks like the seats have electric plugs, so I'll be able to plug my phone in and enjoy myself reading or watching movies. That'll be good, because I'll be having a lot of travel time. (The one thing I'm wondering is how you secure your luggage if you're traveling alone and need to use the restroom or go to the lounge car, etc? No checked baggage on most of the trip.)
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I've now redeemed 5 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks for March. I have enough left for 5 in April and almost enough for the first one in May. (I applied for a Discover card - 3600 SBs and then actually *completed* two surveys and did an offer that cost $.99 which netted 408 SBs. Nice!)
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I've had a tooth that's been bothering me for the past few days. I'm really hoping that it'll pass soon. I have no desire to find a dentist in the area just yet.
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Just talked with one of the teachers who does summer school. The last day will be June 29 - will only be two weeks long. The pay is $30/hr, so somewhere around $1800 - $2100 for those two weeks (before taxes of course.) Sweet! If I go to CA for two weeks, then that will give me a month or so here to work on various projects in the library before school starts again, plus the boost to my EF/car fund. (So in two weeks I'll be making almost as much as I make in a normal month at the mission school - summer school is paid by the county.)
With the rising cost of gas, I'm thinking that the sooner I book my summer travel, the better. I'd also maybe even book my Christmas tickets, but without knowing exactly what my mom's situation will be then ... (she's broken up with person she was with at Thanksgiving ... again.)
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March 3rd, 2012 at 12:34 am
On Tuesday (I think) I applied for a Discover card, mainly to get the 3600 SBs (translates into $40 of Amazon gift cards). I was credited on Wednesday - So yesterday and today I redeemed 1800 of them for 4 $5 AGCs.
Today I had two more of my AGC's from SBs come in, bringing my total in my Amazon account to $25. If I can control myself from spending my balance, I'll have around $60 in gift cards within a few weeks. Nice.
Of course I have a list of books I'd like to get a mile long ...
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Over Christmas I'd opened an Ebanking account with BofA. The thrust of it was that to avoid any fees, there must be NO interaction with a teller by *anyone.*
There were two reasons I opened this account; 1 - I needed a bank with an ATM nearby to deposit cash and checks, and 2 - I needed a way for my dad to be able to deposit his "gifts" easily. And of course, I wanted to do away with the monthly fees that Compass had started charging.
So both the person who opened this account and I explained to my dad that he *could not* use the teller at the bank to make a deposit into this account. He had to do an online transaction - which he was walked through.
He's made two deposits since then - both of them via the teller. I can't say that I was surprised.
Today though when I checked my account, I saw that a monthly maintenance fee had been charged. So I chatted with an online customer service rep to confirm the reason for it. After she confirmed that it was due to the two teller transactions, she asked me if I had anything else she could help me with.
I jokingly replied, "Sure, you could reverse the fee for me!"
And .... She did!!
I know it is unlikely to get my dad to make further deposits via an online transaction unless I am there walking him through it step by step a few times, so I'm going to ask him to just send me checks as long as he continues to "gift" me.
I can deposit them easily via PayPal, and thus avoid the $8.95 monthly charge.
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I still haven't received my state tax refund. I need to see if I can figure out if they have some kind of website with an estimate. I'm anxious to add it to my savings!!
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March 2nd, 2012 at 03:32 am
In my effort to be more consistent with taking care of my finances and to be more accountable, I am sharing my end of the month budget recaps and thoughts.
*I use YNAB 3 to track my income and outflow. The money I budget to spend in February was earned in January (other than gifts or tax refunds which I budget to the current months savings.)
*Categories with overspending are generally funded by "Whack a Mole" - i.e. taking money from other categories which are "plump" and can withstand losing a few dollars.
* I put everything I possibly can on credit cards, and pay them off in full each month (usually two weeks before the due date.)
Inflow:
2 paychecks, Tax Refund, Gift Money, Swagbucks AGCs
Expenses:
Tithe: $150
Offering: $20
Groceries: $176.32 ($56.32 over budget)
Restaurants: $32.77 (2.33 under)
Phone/Internet: $130.98
Netflix: $8.97
Doctor/Dentist: 47.80
OTC Meds: 6.90
Kari (Pet): 9.00
Library: $166.08 ($150.08 over budget!)
Miscelaneous: $26.62
Entertainment: 30.20
Gas: 29.51
Car Insurance: $155.10
ROTH: $800
Savings:
EF: 933.67 (1757.81/5,000 goal)
CarFund: 250 (250/5,000 goal)
iPhone: $15.00 (60/215 goal)
*EF savings represents roughly 39% of total inflow.
Expenses:
Groceries: It really should have been a much cheaper month than
last month. However, I succumbed to the lure of the
nearby stores more than once. Also, I bought some things to
contribute to a bake sale, and then of course bought some stuff
at said bake sale ... For March I am setting my budget at $150
and hope to actually meet that, even with the longer month.
Restaurants: $20 gift card, plus several cheese subs at local sub shop.
Phone/Internet: I think this will be the cost going forward. If I could find a cheaper internet service, I would. Unfortunately, this is it here.
Netflix: After not using Netflix in January, I realized that it was much cheaper and simpler to just do Netflix.
Doctor/Dentist: This was partially a co-pay from a doctor visit this month, and partially paying the remaining amounts due on previous visits (after insurance paid.)
OTC Meds: After finding out that NM refunds the cost of prescription meds and copays, I decided to seperate any OTC purchases. This is stocking up on generic Nyquil.
Kari (pet): dry and wet food
Library: This is 3 technology programs, 4 point and shoot cameras film processing, and a $1.01 balance after gift card for a book.
Miscelaneous: GPS app subscription (1 yr) and State Tax efile fee
Entertainment: 2 movie rentals (physical), 1 month reduced fee audible . com (probably am going to cancel), and $11 worth of music from iTunes ($.69 cent songs)
Gas: Somehow I managed with one tank of gas again this month. I only went to church 2 x, which is probably why. This was one of the places I "whacked a mole" from to cover my overspending in other areas.
Car Insurance: my 6 month premium (I set aside money monthly for this)
Retirement: My normal $100 plus an extra $700 to take advantadge of the savers credit
Savings:
EF: Most of this comes from the tax refund since I used part of what I'd normally put here to fund my ROTH.
CarFund: This is where I've decided to put the money sent to me by my dad each month until the EF is funded.
iPhone: This category may need to be speeded up ... am going to give my current phone another week to see if any more issues occurr.
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All in all not the best month. I still need to get the grocery category under control. I have plenty of food in the house - there truly is no need for me to get more between grocery store trips. I am truly thankful the closest pizza delivery place is 35 miles away - otherwise it might be worse.
The library budget is also a black hole. But ... it is much much better than it was a few months ago. A few months ago that is where most of the money was going which should have been going to savings instead.
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February 29th, 2012 at 03:21 am
Someone (I think Retire#50) was asking about Amazon Prime streaming videos. I mentioned I hadn't used that feature before, although I have a student prime account. So tonight while looking for things to do, I mosied over there just to see what movies they might have. They had "The Bodyguard!" I'd wanted to watch that when Whitney Houston died, but Netflix didn't have it and of course I was pretty much out of Entertainment budget so I couldn't rent it from iTunes. Sweet!
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While I was watching the movie I decided to check Facebook on my phone and my email. When I opened up FB, it totally froze on me. I attempted to get back to the home screen and nothing happened. Finally the black screen with the apple appeared. It took several tries to restart the whole thing. Finally, it appears to be working again.
I'm not sure what is going on with it, but I'm worried I may need to end up replacing it sooner rather than later. I was *really* wanting to hold out for the 5 in September, but if it does this again, I may have no choice. I have to have a working phone.
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I checked my ING account today and saw that the $771 from the IRS (federal return) had been deposited into my savings account. Yay! Now I'm just waiting on NM to send me my money.
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February 28th, 2012 at 07:49 pm
If only the snow day would've happened yesterday .. then I could have participated in the SBs birthday bash .. oh well.
I got an email from Credit Karma today and decided to go ahead and update it and see what my score was. The last time I did it was maybe 7 months ago?? My score then was 726, and today when I checked it, it was 776! Even if that isn't reflective of my real credit score, still that is pretty darn cool I think.
One of the cash back cards they suggested was a Chase premium card where I could get $500 cash back if I spent $3000 in 3 months. I looked really hard to see if it was possible to spend that much in 3 months (only on my credit card) and realized that even if I paid for my summer trip AND for my Christmas trip, that I wouldn't come close.
So I looked at the $200 cash back card - for that I'd only have to spend $500 in 3 months. Easily doable (with moving some automatic payments to it..) However, I think I already have the card (thanks to Chase buying out the previous owner of the card) so wasn't sure if they'd let me get a second one.
So ... I decided to look at SBs and see what offers they had. I found a 3600 SBs offer on TrialPay for Discover. That equals to $40 in AGC (spread over 2 months.) They also are offering 5% on gas for March. I went ahead and applied for it, and after calling to confirm my physical address, was approved. (Now have to wait for the SBs to credit.) With this additional card, I now have almost an equal amount of credit to annual income. Scary isn't?
I'll have to look at the way they do rewards and see if it would be worth closing my Chase card and then a few months from now opening a new one for a cash back reward. If I opened an account requiring $3k in 3 months in say ... June?? I might be able to manage that - summer travel, Christmas travel, buying new iPhone, renewing car insurance ... might come close.
---
I shocked myself by qualifying for a survey on SBs - 65 SBs which credited immediately. With that, I'm up over 100SBs from where I started this morning.
---
Maybe this snow day isn't too bad of a thing ... I'm kind of debating on whether I should give the $50 I was thinking about to the grandmother of the girl who got her hair cut by another student. It really isn't in the budget ... but then again, I spent $12 at the mom and pop store Monday night getting stuff for the bake sale (to donate) that was supposed to happen today, and that sure wasn't in the budget!
I'll keep thinking on it tonight. I do think that if I do give it to her, I'm going to do it anonymously - just drop an envelope in her mail box. Might make it less weird/uncomfortable?
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February 28th, 2012 at 05:30 am
I can't remember now if I mentioned an incident that happened on Friday in the library or not (brain dead right now a bit ...) but it has caused me to learn something about the Navajo culture - or at least the traditional Navajo culture.
On Friday I usually have the 6th graders from 11:15 - 12:15 and then from 12:40 - 1:40. However, due to the Science Fair, I was not going to have them in the afternoon. So I had each group for 30 minutes - just to check out books.
Towards the end of the second groups checkout time the majority of students were seated at the table reading or looking at yearbooks (one of their favorite things to do - look at old yearbooks.) A few were still up and browsing. One 6th grade boy spied a pair of safety scissors on top of the bookshelf and for whatever reason decided it would be a great idea to snip off a small piece of a girls hair.
When he realized that he'd done something *really* stupid by the reactions of those around him (and the girl), he decided to compound his poor decision making skills by cutting a bit of his own hair. I checked the girls hair, as did the TA and neither of us could tell that any hair was cut (nor did I see any hair on the floor.) The girl involved did not appear to be visibly upset, especially after the TA and I both told her that we couldn't see anything actually cut. I had the boy sit down at the table (he was acting quite contrite.)
Later at lunch I noticed the girl crying in the bathroom with several other girls surrounding her, and SrD talking with the boy involved. I explained to SrD what I'd seen happen and that I really didn't think the girl had lost any hair, but the boy did cut a small piece of his own.
I didn't hear anything more about it due to the Science Fair (I was a judge.) Then tonight I learned on FB through a post of one of the mid-school teachers that in strongly traditional Navajo culture (which this girls family is), having your hair cut is akin to losing power and being in danger (no matter how little is cut - a cut is a cut). The only way to restore this power/safety is through an expensive ceremony (at least $150+). The boy (also Navajo) does not come from a strongly traditional home and so did not realize the seriousness of what he'd done til after the fact.
The grandmother/guardian of the girl is one of our TA's. I'm thinking of giving her $50 towards the cost of the ceremony. Partly because I feel bad that this happened on my watch, but also partly because I know she can hardly begin to afford the ceremony. (She's taking care of at least 3, maybe 4 grandchildren as their sole support and guardian. She makes quite a bit less than I do.)
I've been reassured that this is not reflecting badly on me, although that was not a major concern (somewhat of a concern, but not major.) I am however putting away the scissors when I get in tomorrow!
---
All the teachers rode busses again today. The bus I rode on today ... well... it put me in mind of an extended version of a wooden roller coaster ride minus the hills and valleys. The housing conditions were amongst the worst I've seen since coming here. The driver told me of one place we didn't go today due to the student being absent - the student doesn't have running water at her home, so she showers at the thrift store (near the school) every day before school. The area around her home is also akin to a junkyard. They do have electricity, but apparently the ground is too rocky to dig water lines or a well.
---
I cashed in my Beezag points this weekend and should have the $8 cash by Friday or so. I also received 2 $5 AGC's from Swagbucks, and redeemed points for 2 more (making 5 total for February.) I also redeemed points on Irazoo for a $5 AGC. I didn't get in on any of the birthday codes today ... oh well.
I'm within a few 100 points of redeeming MyPoints for a $50 Walgreens gift card.
---
I watched all of FlashForward this weekend on Netflix. I'd watched the first couple episodes when it was on network tv, but then got too busy with schoolwork and tutoring to keep up with it. It was good - too bad it didn't get a second season.
This weekend I also got all of my color laundry done and my towels. I still need to do my whites/sheets. I was going to do them tonight ... oh well.
The next couple of days will be long ones. Tomorrow and probably Thursday I'll be staying til 5:30 to keep the computer lab open for kids wanting to finish their media projects (due Monday and Tuesday of next week.) Wednesday is our last home basketball game of the season, so I'll probably volunteer at the concession stand. Whatever is happening on Friday, I'm going to be home by 4.
This weekend I missed church due to oversleeping. Kari woke me around 8 a.m. demanding I feed her. So after feeding her I went back to bed. My alarm should've gone off at 8:30, but for whatever reason it didn't. The next thing I knew it was 2:00 p.m. Ooops. I don't want that to happen again this coming Saturday, so I need to make sure I get to bed early on Friday night.
Ok, I'm rambling now, so this is a good time to sign off!
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February 23rd, 2012 at 02:56 am
So today I went to the doctor. It was only supposed to be for a blood draw to check my thyroid level. Well when I got there, I found out that they'd set it up as a new doctor/patient visit! That would've been fine if I hadn't gone there expecting to be in and out in 20 minutes!! It took nearly an hour (between the wait and the "visit w/new doctor.") Not to mention the fact that they added an $85 dollar charge for the doctor seeing me. Ugh. In a way it was a good thing though, because I got some antibiotics for what I think is a sinus infection. But still!!
--
The past few days have been really, really long. Our science fair is on Friday and the parents are invited to view tomorrow night. With all our snow days and printer/ink problems, the kids didn't get as much done as needed. So ... the Mid-school science teacher and her assistant have been spending long evenings and most of their long weekend trying to get everyone's boards finished. I spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening helping, and then stayed late yesterday and today to help. As well as pretty much every minute I haven't had class. *Two other teachers have also been giving of their time to help get everything done. Oh, and the assistant isn't getting paid for all the overtime he's doing (they're paid on an hourly basis. He's the one I'd love to steal for next year.)
I am SO tired right now!
I also found out that we again are not going to have electives tomorrow. We didn't have any last week, and we didn't have them today due to having Mass (Ash Wednesday). So ... I have 4 class periods left before the yearbook deadline... We still have a lot to do. Ugh.
---
Kari managed to get into the upper cupboard where I'd put her new bag of food - and of course she tore into it. Luckily she didn't make too big of a hole. I've loosely tied a plastic bag through the cabinet handles to try to keep her out - we'll see how well that works. If you saw her around food, you'd think that I starve her or something!
--
I cashed out tonight for a $5 AGC from Irazoo, and almost have enough for another one from SB (need 25 more!) although I'll probably wait til after the birthday bash to see if any good cards go on sale (although I doubt the $25 would go on sale again so soon, though it doesn't really matter since I have nowhere near enough for one.)
---
I think I might go to bed early tonight - really not feeling all that great.
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February 19th, 2012 at 04:53 am
Tonight I filed my taxes thanks to finally receiving the W-2's from my summer job. I'm getting a refund of $423 Federal and $293 State. (New Mexico lets you deduct medical expenses that you can't deduct on Federal!! If I'd known that!!! I will be keeping really good track of them this year for sure!)
I thought I was getting more back, but I guess I calculated wrong before. Oh well. I qualified for the saver's credit - I contributed $200 to my ROTH in 2011, so got a credit of $100. If I'd put another $700 in my ROTH I would have gotten a $476 credit instead. I thought about it, but decided against it since my EF is so shallow right now.
I'm considering putting the whole refund in my ROTH for 2012, because that plus my $100/mo contribution would put me close to $1800 which I think would be a $900 credit next year?? Although I probably should see how much I earn for summer school, just in case I won't qualify for the credit. (I can't remember now what the upper limit was for a single person.)
I'll probably just put it in my Emergency Fund, and then in December see how my various goals are going and see how much I can siphon to the IRA.
Most of what I got back I think is due to moving expenses and the teacher expenses. For 2012 I'm going to keep my deductions at 0 and see how I come out. If I'm still getting a refund of $100 or more, then I'll consider changing it to 1. Of course as my savings grow, my interest income will also grow ... so will have to take that into consideration.
One thing that really hurt me is that my scholarship money that I received in 2011 was counted as income. I'd paid all my tuition expenses in 2010 and 2011. So the scholarship money was hardly in excess of expenses, but because it came *after* I already paid the tuition expenses it counted against me. Ugh! If I'd realized that, I wouldn't have been so quick to pay!!
2012 is going to be such a nice easy tax year. One, maybe two W-2's and interest income - nothing else.
--- I also tonight calculated what my bi-weekly paycheck is going to be for next school year when it's divided into 26 payments instead of 22. It'll be $70 less per pay period. Ergh. Starts in June.
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February 18th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
So I went to church this morning and after church needed to go to the library to return my books (two weeks overdue!) I had a very vague idea of how to get to the library after having been there once.
I opened up AT&T Navigator and did the search for library, picked the one I wanted, and then hit Drive To. As soon as I did that, instead of giving me the directions, a message popped up saying "Your account has expired. Call xxx0xxxx0xxx." I was very annoyed at this point. I'd used the app about two weeks ago and had not been given ANY indication that my subscription was about to expire, nor had I received any notification of any kind on my AT&T bill. (The subscription I had was charged to my phone bill annually - I assumed on auto renewal because the last time it renewed automatically.)
So I called the phone number. The first time I got disconnected. I called back again. I could barely hear the CS rep even with my volume on high. I explained to her that I had a yearly subscription and that I'd received a message that it was expired and wanted to know what was going on. She preceded to check my most recent bill and didn't see a charge for it. I explained to her at least three times that I had the annual subscription before she finally *got it*.
After putting me on hold for a good 10 - 15 minutes, she comes back on and tells me that the feature had been removed from my phone. When I asked her why, she could not explain it to me, but just kept repeating that it had been removed from my phone. Then she told me that I had to install the app and choose my subscription plan. I told her several times that the app was *already* on my phone and had worked just fine two weeks ago. She just kept repeating that I had to install the app!!!
I was getting *seriously* ticked at this point and realized that I wasn't being very nice, so apologized to her for shouting. Then I told her that I thought it was totally ridiculous for me to have to delete my current app (thus losing all my stored data) and reinstall it again just to resubscribe. I was also worried that I'd need WiFi to do it (that took several times and several rewordings for her to get what I was concerned about.)
Finally I pretty much hung up on her (not really ... I told her that it was apparent she couldn't help me and that I'd figure it out on my own. -- I just could not deal with talking to her a second longer.)
So I delete the AT&T Navigator app from my phone, and then go to the app store. The app has a two star rating! Hah! I left kind of a nasty review (no bad words, just let it be known that I was ticked and why.) Then I reinstalled it. When I opened it up it asked me for my phone number, and then asked for a six digit verification code which would be texted to me. I waited at least 20 minutes for the stupid code to be sent (it finally arrived about 20 minutes ago, nearly two hours after I requested it.)
I got tired of waiting so I went back to the app store and read some of the reviews. One reviewer mentioned that TeleNav which is what AT&T Navigator runs on, was available in the app store and cost 1/3rd of AT&T Navigator! So I checked it out. Happily I found out that not only was it less than AT&T Navigator, but that it was on sale! Instead of paying $70 a year for the voice turn by turn directions, I am now getting the *same exact service* for $10 a year!!!
I think what upset me the most about all this is that as a seriously directionally challenged person I have come to rely on the GPS app extensively. I *could* have easily found my way directly home from where I was, but what if it had happened at night in an unfamiliar area?? To unceremoniously lose access to an app I rely heavily upon without any kind of notice, is just inexcusable to me.
**I realize that I probably way overreacted to this. I'm not really sure why ... I usually can handle things like this much more calmly. I don't remember ever having gotten this upset on the phone talking to a CS rep.
---
Unfortunately my upsetedness caused me to want soda and chocolate, and I ended up going to Walgreens where I got stuff. I bought some Allegra too, but ended up spending $16 on pure junk over and above my grocery budget. I wish I wouldn't do stuff like that and could figure out something else to do when I'm that upset. Ugh.
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February 18th, 2012 at 04:03 am
Today was our teacher in-service. I got up and talked a bit about the upcoming book fair, as well as the yearbook. One of the things I mentioned is that I'd like to make a goal to sell $200 more than we did last year, but wasn't sure what wild or crazy thing I could offer to do (or teachers would be willing to do) if the kids made the goal. Someone spoke up that they had a clown costume, and then our principal offered to wear it for a day!! Way cool! Too bad it will happen after the yearbook is put to bed - but the newspaper can still cover it.
In the afternoon I had a couple hours to just work in the media center. I got all my grades caught up and did my written Feb lesson plans (and March) that I have to turn in on Tuesday. I decided to keep the other stuff I need to do for Sunday (mainly reshelving books.)
Then I went to the PO where to my *very ecstatic* joy, I found that my voice mail had not gone unheard from a week ago. My final W-2 from my summer job had arrived!! Woo Hoo! I was thinking of going straight home and doing my taxes , but then I saw one of my coworkers pull in. She told me she was WAY stressed (she's the science teacher, science fair is next week) and needed desperately to go into G to relax and rewind.
So she and I went into G and ate at Sizzler (I used my giftcard) and then I helped her have her first experience of depositing a check at an ATM, and then we went to Walmart. I got my groceries for the rest of February, as well as cat food (wet, dry and treats). I haven't calculated it all out yet, but I think I may have gone over my grocery budget a little bit.
(I spent a total of $41.xx, but about $9 of it was cat stuff - so that comes out of Kari's budget and not the grocery budget.)
My friend and I are going to go into to ABQ on Monday. She wants to do some computer shopping and do some other stores as well. I'm more than happy to salivate over computers plus we'll stop at a party store to see if they have leis cheaper than Oriental Trading (they have 100 leis for $11.99.) Going there on Monday just means I'll have to get everything done for Tuesday on Sunday. I think I'll either offer to fill her car up, or just give her $10 for gas money. It'll be nice to be out and about in a big town.
---
I have enough SBs to buy another AGC now, and am getting closer and closer to cashing out on the other places.
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One thing my coworker told me that seriously shocked me -- the PE teacher/coach has decided to stay another year. He's been moaning and groaning *a lot* the *WHOLE* year on FB about how much he hates it here and wishes he was somewhere with real clubs, etc. He apparently has really high child support payments and doesn't have another job to go to .. so he's staying here. Real good reason to stay somewhere you hate.
----
I'll probably do my taxes tomorrow night, and then finish my audible book. It will feel so good to have them done and know for sure how much I'm getting back!
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February 17th, 2012 at 04:23 am
Today we actually had school even though there still was quite a bit of snow still on the ground. I only had my 4 year olds and first graders in the library. Mass was canceled so that teachers could use the time to get caught up on two days worth of missed classes (and I think the priest was sick.)
At breakfast the 6th grade teacher/science teacher asked me if I could I could help her out by finding print resources for about 20 kids' science fair projects. She'd gotten an email from the head person of the organization telling her that their resources (amongst other things) needed to be corrected by the end of today.) I said I'd be happy to help. I was able to find sources for most of the projects, but there were a few that I could not find anything at all on. I worked on it right up to 4:45 when I had to stop to get ready for the webinar.
The webinar was for Scho lastic in regards to the upcoming book fair. I earned $25 in Scho $ for participating. It lasted 95+ minutes. Ergh. I just kept reminding myself of the two or three books I'll be able to get ...
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I ended up signing up for audible yesterday. I looked at all the various deals, and ended up going through SBs and doing the $7.49/mo for 3 months deal. I bought the newest Nevada Barr book (Anna Pigeon series) for my first month, and will buy #17 and #18 of Stephanie Plum with the next two months. Then the cost goes up to $14.95 and I won't be willing to spend that much of my entertainment money on an audio book, so will probably cancel. I'm about 3/4 through with the Nevada Barr book - loving it.
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My mom called me yesterday shortly after I wrote about being so bored. That kind of helped to break the boredom (sort of - that + listening to my new book.) I told my mom about my idea of visiting dad this summer and her over Christmas - she *really* liked that idea ... I haven't brought it up to my dad yet because every time I talk to him he either has Grandma with him or his good friend Sweetie Petey.
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I was so tired and hungry tonight that I gave in and stopped at the sandwich shop/gas station tonight. I bought a foot long sub and two cookies (will be supper tomorrow night too.) $8.10 I need to record what I've spent on food between today and Tuesday so I have an accurate amount for this weekend when I do my final February grocery trip. I'll probably use my Sizzler gift card to eat before or after the movie (which I'll be using the Valentine's money from my mom for - partly anyway.)
--
I'm *very* close to cashout on Beezag, Irazoo, MyPoints and Swagbucks.
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February 15th, 2012 at 07:32 pm
Can't believe I'm saying this, but I am really and truly bored. I went to bed around 8 last night not feeling very well. I came *this* close to buying the audiobook of Evanovich's 17 because I didn't want to read with my eyes open, but thought I could stand to listen to a book - the $23.95 price tag stopped me in my tracks though. I ended up going to sleep pretty quickly anyway.
I've read a book already today, and earned around 100 Swagbucks via the dailys and SBtv (while reading.) The snow seems to be melting and it seems like cars are going out and about. I'm really tempted to go into G and play a bit. I have a gift card for a restaurant there, and the $20 my mom sent me ... so I could do dinner and a movie ... I'd rather wait til Monday though in a way (when I'd kind of planned on doing something like that anyways ..)
Man, if I'm this bored right now, I wonder how I'm going to do over Spring Break ... especially since I've already decided to not do the trip I'd thought about doing until next year. There's lots of things I *could* be doing, and probably *should* be doing, just no motivation to do them. lol!
What a strange week this is turning out to be. We're going to end up having only two days of school this week because Friday is a teacher inservice day. Tomorrow won't be much of a real school day either between Mass and President's Day assembly. I'll only have two of my four Thursday classes. That'll be good in a way so I can prepare for my presentation on Friday - will be talking about the seminar I went to in January and also talking about the Book fair coming up. As the 6th grade teacher noted astutely on last Friday after I got in front of mid-school to make a couple of announcements - I don't like talking in front of people very much.(Which is partly why she and I laughed really hard a few weeks ago when I was in her classroom and she asked me to make some comments about the 6th graders presentations, and I just said - you said it well enough. She responded - there's a shy one (or something like that) and one of the 6th graders was like, "Miss N? Shy?!" Later we laughed so hard about how incredulous they were about the possibility of me being shy. If they only knew.)
I probably should shovel off my porch. There's probably a good 6 inches of snow on it right now. Though most of it probably will be melted before night fall (hopefully.) I had fun getting my door opened yesterday around 4:15 - already a good couple of inches at that time. I could also use this time to do some cleaning, or to do some cooking, or, or, or, or .... Yech.
When I stopped at the PO yesterday (for 5 minutes and had to scrape my windows when I came out) I got a couple Valentines cards from family (including the $20 from my mom) and the latest book I ordered from Amazon (with SB gift cards!) It was one of the books that I learned about at the seminar, and that I think will be perfect for one of my 8th grade boys - Hidden. It's a novel told in two styles of free verse. I'm thinking maybe I could read that this afternoon ... hmm...
Ok, enough rambling (can you tell how bored I am yet???) I wish I could do my taxes today, but I'm STILL waiting on the w-2 from my summer job processing insurance forms. I've emailed and called trying to get across that my address changed, and I received a phone call back on Friday (which I returned promptly to voicemail.) I guess I could call that person again and see if anything is happening. Next year's taxes will be so much easier - no tutoring income, no two states to worry about, and much easier places to get W-2's from (one, possibly two places if I get to do summer school here - the county pays for that instead of the mission.)
Ok, for spring break I really need to make some concrete plans of what I'm going to do otherwise all the money I'm supposedly saving from not taking the trip I wanted to do isn't going to happen.
STOP!!! Enough rambling!~!
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February 14th, 2012 at 02:21 am
We had a snow day today! Even though the forecast said there'd be no snow accumulation and that the snow'd stop by 8 a.m., they were wrong! The snow didn't stop til nearly 11 a.m. and there was maybe 2+ inches. It of course was mostly melted by 3 p.m. I had a nice day so far - read two books, did some Swagbucks (got one $5 AGC, bought another one, and have nearly 200 SBs towards my next one) and am going to watch a movie in a bit - maybe two.
Yesterday I made the decision to purchase a couple of all in one technology programs to finish out the year. TechnoKids programs are something I've looked at since last summer, but hadn't bought any. I'm planning on having my 7th/8th graders do website creation once we're finished with our current project - so one of the programs I bought has a unit all laid out about creating a website with HTML. I could have designed it myself, but that would have been a good 20 hours or more of work, which I really don't have. (although if I'd known we were going to have a snow day today, I might have gotten quite a bit done on a unit of my own ...) At any rate, I do feel it is worth it. I may ask SrN if there are any funds in the technology fund to reimburse me, but I'm not holding my breath. ($100 for 3 programs, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th, 7th/8th)
Otherwise this whole weekend I pretty much took it easy. Friday at school I was starting to feel like I might be coming down with the flu, so decided to take it real easy just in case. I'm feeling much better than I did on Friday, so I guess the extra sleep worked.
--
I have also been trying this whole weekend to get Kari relaxed enough to clip her nails. I set the nail clippers (cat nail clippers) on the computer desk. I don't know how, but she seemed to have a sense of what they were, because she did not like the look of them at all! Every time she's on my lap, even when totally relaxed, she makes sure that her front paws are out of my reach. The few times they aren't, the moment I go for them, she hides them away. Ugh. I really, really need to clip her claws. My hands and arms look like battlefields.
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February 7th, 2012 at 12:46 am
Today I received a reimbursement of $497.27 for the seminar expenses from the county. I thought that was pretty darn fast! It has been added to my Emergency Fund. I also received money from my dad (I've told him to stop sending it to me, that I have a job and am not in school anymore ... this money is going to a new fund ... take care of the parents someday fund ...)
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I checked my Paypal account today to see if the check I took a picture of a few weeks ago had been deposited yet. It was in my account on Feb. 3, and I have now made a transfer to my ING account. Oh, and now that I know how to take good pictures of checks, it only took me one try to "deposit" my reimbursement check.
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I looked online about how to fix a corrupt itunes file (the movie I attempted to download yesterday) and it looks like this is a common thing. I tried all the suggested fixes, but nothing has worked so far. So I'm going to see if I can get a refund. Very annoying because I actually really wanted to see the movie!
Oh well.
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February 5th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
When I got home today from working at the school (fixing the grading program that was messed up Friday) I looked under the driver's seat for whatever reason. Guess what was there! My $20 bill that I thought was gone forever. Yahoo! I will be so happy to be rid of the cash in my purse so I have no more chances of losing it.
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It took me about 2 hours today to recreate the spreadsheet that was totally messed up on Friday afternoon. All I can say is .. nobody but me from now on is messing with those spreadsheets!
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Saturday I made the mistake of venturing to Walmart - not only the night before Superbowl, but the first weekend of the month when everyone's gotten paid. Yikes!
I spent a bit under $50, but feel pretty stocked up for the next two weeks. I will have absolutely NO more visits to Family Dollar or the mom and pop grocer here - one exception - may need another can of wet cat food (though maybe I can have Kari go without the wet stuff for a few days, or just give her smaller portions ...)
I also filled up with gas - $3.09 - a bit over $28 in all.
Then I went to Walgreens to pick up the photos a friend dropped off for me yesterday. The photos were from 4 of the 6 cameras that I'd given the journalism kids. $60!!! later I had the photos. I'd say of the 4 sets, maybe 15 photos are usable. Next year I am going to insist on getting a couple inexpensive digital cameras for the journalism class. It would be a whole lot less expensive!!!
--
I finally watched the two DVDs I've rented twice - they were due back today. Post Grad and 500 Days of Summer - I liked both of them. I stopped by the video store to return them, but it was locked up tight. I'll have to be sure to get by there tomorrow.
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I rented a cute movie (All About Steve) from iTunes (I saw previews of it on one of the movies - Sandra Bullock). I've tried downloading it several times now, but it keeps saying the file is corrupted so won't download. I'm not sure if I should try from my phone, or see if I can get a refund. (Netflix doesn't have it except on DVD.)
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I redeemed points for a $5 AGC on SBs yesterday. The last 30 points were earned via SBTV while reading a book.
Now have 400 or so to go to another one.
On irazoo (similar to SB) I'm about 600 points away from a card (need 3000 for them) I mainly just go there when they have treasure codes and then check for videos, etc.
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February 4th, 2012 at 12:49 am
Today was a teacher inservice day. The morning wasn't too bad, the general teacher meeting stuff and we watched a movie about a transgendered Navajo youth who was murdered (called Two Spirits). It was kind of interesting because just last week I was talking to AL (tech coordinator) about how the Navajo/natives view gay people due to one particular 4th grade boy who ... um.. shows some signs. (Funny enough today at lunch one of the teacher assistants brought up this same exact student - she'd worked with him in 2nd grade ..)
Lunch was good - pizza - the cafeteria people made a whole plain cheese one for me and TY (also vegetarian) which I thought was really sweet and thoughtful.
After lunch we were all to go to our classrooms/work spaces and work until 2 pm. then would be free to go. I was thinking that maybe I'd go in to G and do my grocery shopping since we'd be getting out so early. It wasn't meant to be however.
First, the pre-k director SrM came by asking me to help her set up labels to print for her binders. That wasn't too time consuming, and she was so appreciative of my help.
Then the 3rd grade teacher came over and wanted me to delete a couple of her students from the grading program who'd left in the first quarter. I hadn't done it before because, well, I knew it would be really time consuming and I had multiple other things to do. So anyway, I said sure, let's do it. UGH!! I wish now I'd told her I would do it, and not to worry about it.
Long story short, the spreadsheet (and the grading program) is completely messed up now. She had to leave for a doctor's appointment at 3:15, and I continued to work on trying to fix it until 4:30.
On Sunday I'm just going to completely redo the spreadsheet, because the more she (and later I by myself) tried to fix the errors, the more messed up it got. So starting from fresh, while annoying, will probably end up being much quicker.
And like my title states ... chocolate (and soda and a cheese sub from Blimpie!)
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I got an email from SB letting me know I got another $5 AGC. I'm about 200 away from redeeming my next one. Lots of videos out right now thanks to the Superbowl, and soon I'm sure the V-day ones will be out too.
I'm about 2000 away from cashout on Beezag, and about the same on MyPoints.
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February 2nd, 2012 at 01:51 am
I sure ended up with a character for a cat. Last night I was eating one of those individual pizzas - I'd eaten 3/4's of it and was about to go for the last slice. Kari grabs it off the plate and runs off. I run after her and grab it - but not before she takes a good size chunk!!
Then after I was in bed almost asleep, Kari decides to climb the curtain next to my bed. She loses her grip and falls off - onto me. One of her claws swipes my nose, instantly making me wide awake. It bled for awhile, so I put a bandaid on it. I took the bandaid off this morning and it had stopped bleeding.
This is my nose:
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Yesterday I stayed after school and helped out at the concession stand - we had a home game basketball session. I actually kind of had fun. One of the refs recognized me from church ???? (I didn't recognize him...)
Today I stayed late so some of the mid-schoolers could use the computer lab after school to work on projects which are coming due soon. I had a pretty healthy response - though I think most of them just wanted to listen to music. I let them, as long as they are working productively.
I was supposed to return my two DVDs yesterday ... but it didn't happen. Since I hadn't watched them yet, I decided to re rent them today. I also ended up buying a pretzel . $9! About the same price as a Netflix sub. It'll come out of my entertainment budget, so I'll have to choose between doing Netflix this month or watching "One for the Money" in the theater (I'd been thinking of going to see it over the long weekend.)
I also was really jonesing for some chocolate, so stopped at Family Dollar and picked up some chocolate and some sparkling water (better for me than soda, sorta.) Another $5 ... though this was also partly to break a $20 bill so I'd have change for the game tomorrow (not a home game, but played at the public elementary next door to us.) Excuses, excuses...
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Normally I never use cash, but I had $70 in my purse since Christmas. On Saturday I found a Bofa ATM, but my ATM card was a temporary, so it had expired. Thus I couldn't deposit my cash. So I decided to spend the cash just to get rid of it.
And the reason I hate using cash .... somehow $20 is gone.
I spent just under $30 on Saturday for meds, etc., so that should have left me with $40. All I had in my purse as of Tuesday was a $20. I've searched everywhere I can think of. This stinks donkey balls!
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January 29th, 2012 at 04:43 am
Although it isn't quite the end of January, I don't plan on spending any more money this coming week, so I decided to go ahead and post my accounting. One of my goals this year was to be much more consistent with recording my spending/saving in YNAB, and to facilitate that I plan on posting my monthly spending/savings summary.
Some of the money I spent was from Christmas gifts and was spent for stocking up - also some of the money was spent on a reimbursable seminar trip - I should be getting reimbursed by March (hopefully.)
---
January Spending/Savings
Tithe - 150.00
Offering - 10.00
Groceries - 218.57
Restaurants - 39.10
Phone & Internet - 142.41
Household - 66.04
Office - 14.50
Prescription/Medicine - 52.21
Miscelaneous - 360.66
Kari (Pet) - 32.88
Library - 10.90
Entertainment - 11.72
Gas - 32.29
Car Repairs/Maint - 9.51
Savings
ROTH IRA - 100.00
Emergency Fund - 652.93
iPhone 5 Fund - 45.00
---
Groceries - I ended up getting a bit lazy with my grocery spending after coming back from the seminar trip - probably accounts for an additional $20. Also included in this amount is my Costco trip, where I used part of a gift card to stock up on food supplies. Next month I hope to keep this category to $100 or less.
Restaurants - This is all reimbursable from my seminar trip.
Phone and Internet - I somehow did not pay December's internet bill, so this represents my normal cell phone bill and two months of internet. (I now have the internet being paid automatically so I won't miss any more deadlines.)
Household - Mostly this is stuff for my dishwasher (soap, etc), stocking up on things at Costco (laundry soap, shampoo, etc.) I won't need any of this again for a long while.
Office - Ran out of black ink for my printer.
Prescriptions/Medicine - This includes my normal monthly medicine (Synthroid) which increased by $2, as well as the generics of Nyquil and Dayquil, a 5 pack of Alavert and a 10 pk of Allegra D. Ugh. I really need to find a cheaper way to handle my allergies.
Miscellaneous - This includes my dishwasher (I was given the money to purchase it), my reimbursable hotel stay, and the watch/face wash which I actually took back to the store (and added to the EF.)
Kari (pet) - This includes stocking up on cat litter (Costco) and also stocking up on wet food (Family Dollar).
Library - Two books I bought in CA on sale.
Entertainment - 4 DVDs I rented, plus $2 in fees for using a CC, and a slurpee. (Have decided to go back to Netflix.)
Gas - I don't remember the last time I spent this little on gas in a month. This represents 1 1/2 fill ups. One was here in my small town, and the half fill up was at Costco. I have about 1/4 tank left right now.
Car Repairs - Lost gas cap at fill up.
Savings
Roth - This is the minimum I can send each month. Until other savings goals are reached, I can't increase this.
Emergency Fund - I lucked out this month on "finding" various amounts of money which hadn't been accounted for previously - which all went to the EF. I also redeemed some credit card rewards points for a statement credit, which I put in the EF. December was a 3 check month, so that helped also.
My goal is to have this funded to $5000 by June, and then move on to working on my car savings.
iPhone 5 - I want to eventually replace my current phone. I hope to have the $200 saved by June.
Rainy Day Funds
Car Insurance, Clothing, Doctor, etc - also all received some funds
Other Income:
Christmas money - (including dishwasher) ~$450.00
Swagbucks - $10 AGCs received
My EF and Roth savings total approximately 40% of my December income. I go by the YNAB philosophy of using last months income to generate this months spending plan. (January is the first month I've been able to allocate BOTH paychecks completely to February's budget plan since I was laid off from my oil and gas job in February 2009. What a great feeling!)
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January 27th, 2012 at 02:30 am
Yesterday I took the day off from work - I hadn't been feeling that great since this past Thursday and had been sleeping as much as possible to try to fight it off. Finally I decided to take a day off - seemed to have helped a bit.
--
One of our wonderful SA family messaged me on FB a few weeks ago to ask me if I could use any of the books she was cleaning out. I received the package today (it may have come yesterday ... but I didn't get out of the house then.) Thank you!!
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I called my doctor on Tuesday to see if she'd write me a prescription for generic Allegra D because buying it 10 tablets at a time OTC is extremely expensive and extremely annoying. (I can't get more than 10 tablets at a time because I get the 24 hr kind ... the kind which messed up people think are great for making meth out of - ugh!!)
So I found out today that even the generic of it is not available through prescription anymore. So ... it's ten tablets at a time until the generic comes out OTC. I have been using Nyquil (generic brand) and Alavert 24 hr to try to keep my allergies at bay - but it really isn't healthy to constantly use Nyquil, and Alavert doesn't work all that well for me. I'd tried most of the other allergy meds out there, and the generic of Allegra D is the one that worked best for me. (letting my allergies get ahold of me is the main way I get sick ...)
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I took my two DVDs back to the store today - two days late. I apologized to the store owner -- the nice thing about living in such a small town (and being the librarian where I am) - he forgave me the late fines. (His son goes to my school.) I won't make a habit of it, that's for sure.
However, I am thinking that I am going to reinstate Netflix. Between the two movies I rented earlier, plus the two I rented tonight, I spent nearly $10 (due to a $1 charge for using a credit card.) If I do reinstate Netflix, I'll wait until I really want to watch something. Not having to worry about late fees in itself almost makes it worth it. I still do need to check and see what the library has - although they charge too, so not really that much of a deal over the video store or Netflix.
----
I received my W-2 today from the school. I'm still waiting for my W-2 from my summer job. I emailed one of the people I worked with there to find out how to make sure they have my new address. Maybe they'd be willing to email me a PDF.
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I gave all my paperwork for my travel reimbursement to SrN on Tuesday. Today she came by the library while I was just starting class with my second graders and told me it was missing a paper! I looked through my papers, and didn't see it. Thankfully, she called me later and apologized - she'd found it! So she's going to turn it in again to the right people.
I wonder how long it will take to get it?
----
I had the opportunity to go to Baltimore, MD next month for 5 days for an Americorp convention -- all expenses paid. I declined and deferred to next year ... mainly because of one of the people going. I was very glad I had declined, because not even a few hours later on FB I saw this person stating that he was going to introduce the other two ladies going to the club scene there. If I'd have gone, I'd have been seen as a wet blanket - having NO desire whatsoever to take part in any kind of club scene. Next year I will go though, and hopefully get to see a good friend of mine who lives in D.C. who I haven't seen since 1994 or so.
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January 24th, 2012 at 03:36 am
We had a bit of a snow/ice storm on Saturday evening. When I went into the school on Sunday afternoon, it was a bit slushy and there was a couple inches by the library steps.
This morning as I was following the mid-schoolers to the chapel, I watched as one of the 8th grade girls slipped and fell on the ice. Silly me took her same exact path - guess I thought if I took it slowly enough ...
Nope. Slipped and did the splits bow legged. Thankfully I wasn't wearing a skirt! Also, thankfully only teachers/adults witnessed my fall! I had several people come up and help me up. Lots of people heard about it and asked me throughout the day if I was ok. Other than my hip and lower back being a bit sore, I am/was fine.
I'm just glad I didn't re-injure my tailbone. (Wincing even at the thought!)
---
We are supposed to get more snow/rain/ice tonight and possibly in the morning. If we do, I wouldn't be shocked to get a two-hour delay, or possibly even a snow day (ok, I'd actually be shocked for that - because we're only supposed to get a couple inches.)
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Today I finally introduced my 8th graders to the remainder of the books I'd bought over Thanksgiving. I found out as I was cataloging them yesterday that we already owned two copies. Oy! Before I do my next book shopping extravaganza away from a computer, I must get our cataloging system upgraded -- then I'll be able to have a searchable book app on my phone and can avoid purchasing books we already own.
Anyway, most of the new books I intro'd went right away. One of my students did a book talk on "13 Reasons Why" by Asher. He was the second student to read it (maybe third?) but after he finished I had two girls clamoring to read it next. They actually were trying to take it away from the student who had just renewed it that day.
I was really surprised that some of the boys took out titles which I'd kind of thought only the girls would go for... Sara Dessen/Rebecca Friend/Meg Cabot. Books about relationships and high-school ... maybe that was the draw, high-school. These are definitely books that I won't let anyone under 14 check out. So, some of my 7th graders would qualify, and all of my 8th graders.
I've had several requests for the one Sonya Sones book we don't have - I'd almost purchased it before, but some of the reviews made me question the wisdom. However, as I've been seeing some of the other books in our library, and if I kept it limited to 8th grade ... I'm also looking at the book series that starts with "Crank" -- School Library Journal says 8th grade and up. It was requested by several students today.
Of course, I am all out of gift card money right now, so unless we get another monetary donation ... the kids will have to wait. I just love seeing teenagers (especially boys!) so into books.
One other book I intro'd to the 8th graders a few weeks ago - The Scoripo Races - was checked out for the second time today. (It helps that a fairly popular boy read it and liked it .. he's also the one who did the book talk today) -- It won the Printz Honor today. Printz is an award for outstanding literature for young adults.
The majority of the books which won the various awards and honors today, I have not read. However, as I have Scholastic Dollars or gift card money, I will be changing that.
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Oh! Today at the teacher's meeting SrN said that a donor called and was very upset at hearing about the pre-school being broken into and wanted to know what she could do to help. So SrN pulled out our wish lists and gave the donor some ideas. I'm curious to find out what (if any) items from my list will come. I'd be most estatic about a second slanted book cart - although if I really do end up having an assigned assistant next year, it won't be such a big deal.
Truly though, I'd be ecstatic with anything off the list.
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So ... I've had several spendy days in a row this weekend. Saturday, Sunday and today. Not a whole lot in the grand scheme (maybe $30 worth total) but probably at least $12 of it was completely unnecessary.
I didn't go into the big town for church this weekend - ended up sleeping/resting most of Saturday and part of Sunday. I guess I was really tired (Friday morning I was 5 minutes late for work because I kept pushing Snooze.)
I really need to call my doctor about getting a prescription allergy medicine. One of the things I bought this weekend was a 5 day dosage of Alavert --- $6!! Ugh and double ugh! I don't know if it will work or not for me yet, because I had one dose left of the OTC Allegra D. Will find out tomorrow.
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I also need to contact the company I worked for this summer to make sure they have my current address. Just waiting on their W-2 to do my taxes.
I have all my paperwork put together for my seminar reimbursement -- should be about $468 if they accept all my per diem receipts.
Between the tax refund and my seminar reimbursement, my EF will have a nice boost in February.
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January 21st, 2012 at 01:03 am
Today SrC came back to school. She's been out most of the second semester sick. She was my Secret Santa, so she brought my gift today. It was a $20 gift card to Sizzler and a bag of Reese's Peanut Christmas trees. Yum. Well worth waiting for.
--
This afternoon I talked with SrN (principal) about the possibility of having a full time assistant assigned to me. She told me that she'd been considering resplitting the position into computer and library, and letting me have my pick. I told her that I enjoy doing both, but I just don't have enough time to do my best at both. If I had someone assigned to just me that I could train and *count on* and would be accountable to me ... that right there would save me hours of work. Which would make it possible for me to get much more done! It sounded to me like she was agreeable to the idea.
So ... next year I *really* may have an assistant!! (I'd love to steal the 6th grade assistant away - cuz I know he is a hard worker, very computer literate, intelligent, and we get along really well ... but I don't think that will happen.)
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Yesterday I stopped at the local video store to see their prices. I ended up renting two videos - older ones - $1.99/5 days. New releases are $3.99/3 days. I don't see myself getting videos there all that often, but maybe once in a while.
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I sent home overdue notices on Tuesday (well, I gave them to the teachers to send home Wednesday.) Out of about 8 books which I marked "Lost" and added the cost of replacement, as of today, 5 of them have been returned. Amazing what seeing the figure $19.99 next to a book your child checked out and hasn't returned in over two months will do! On Monday we had over 100 books overdue, and as of this afternoon, only 49 are still out. Only one person paid their fines though ... but at least most of the books are back!!
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I showed the 5th and 6th graders a number of book trailers today. It got several kids interested in a book (Because of Mr. Terrupt) that I'd previously book-talked unsuccessfully.
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Don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but on Tuesday night when I filled up my car, I left my gas cap at the station. I didn't realize what I'd done til I got to the hotel. So last night I stopped by the station in the off chance that someone had turned it in. Nope. So I stopped at the auto parts store to see if they had one. The lady there told me that she was getting one in Friday -- of course I remembered this about 15 minutes ago ... after they were closed!
So I guess I'll have to get it on Monday. Hopefully another 60 miles or so of driving without the cap won't hurt my car too much.
And ouch! The replacement cap will be $8.19!!
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I'm going to have to get some more Allegra D OTC tomorrow. My allergies have just been awful lately. I meant to call my doctor today (and yesterday too) to see if she'd prescribe the generic non OTC version (so I could actually get a months supply for less than ten days of OTC Allegra D!) Unfortunately I got way too busy both days to do it.
I'll have to see if she's open in the morning ...
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Oh, I spent my Amazon money, plus $7. One of the books actually came from the donation order, but the original seller couldn't locate a copy. The other two (yes, only two!) were ones recc'd by Judy Freeman -- Press Here and 10 Experiments that Failed. There were a ton of really good books I was tempted by, but these two looked to be most immediately beneficial. (And now I have to wait for my next giftcards .. Could be awhile because Swagbucks has been kind of stingy with search wins the past week or so - both few in number and low in amount. )
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January 19th, 2012 at 04:41 am
This morning started out with a made to order omlette and a danish for breakfast. Yum. Then I was off to Judy Freeman's seminar about the best children's books of 2011. A few of them I'd purchased for the library (Okay for Now, Charlie Jackson's Guide to NOT Reading, and another one ..) but most I had not heard of before. There were two or three that I'm hoping Scholastic will have so I can use some of our funds to purchase - although I saw great possibilities in numerous books. She showcased 80 of her 110 best book picks.
I didn't get any free books, but the seminar guide has about a dozen Reader's Theater's which will be helpful.
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For lunch several of us ate at this Mexican resturaunt next door. I had the vegetarian enchaladia. It was good, but it was supposed to come with sopapillia's and honey - the waiter never brought them. As I was checking out, I mentioned it to the cashier and she gave me a to go bag. But of course I was full by then and several hours later after the program, they were cold. Yuck.
After the program I went to Costco. I filled up with $2.79/gallon gas (about $10 worth - I'd filled up in my town on Tuesday for $3.09/gallon!) Then I went into Costco. I bought 3 containers of kitty litter, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, shampoo, oatmeal, spinach & something patties (vegetarian), broccoli soup, rasins, bean/cheese burritos, cinnamon, diced onions, and garbage bags.
Total -- $129.xx
I had 90.12 left on my Costco gift card, and then paid the remaining balance with my ING debit card. I think I am pretty well set for most things for a good while.
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Seminar reimbursable expenses:
Seminar - $299
Hotel - 89.xx
Per Diem - ~~$30.xx (only get back what I spent)
Mileage - ~$150.xx
So I estimate that my EF will soon be about $568 higher. Just have to get all the receipts turned in.
I got a nice little vacation out of this - stayed at a NICE hotel, day off work, eat at nice places, shop at Trader Joe's and Costco PLUS got to put more than 600 rewards points on my credit cards (food and gas places are double points.)
Sweet.
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The only NON-Sweet thing about my trip ... When I did my first fill up on Tuesday, I somehow got distracted and forgot to put my gas cap back on. Ooops! So, that means I need to buy a new one. Ugh. Unless by some miracle the gas station still has it! I will have to go by and check tomorrow. *cross fingers*
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Just checked my Chase rewards points balance -- I had enough to redeem! So I chose a statement credit. Then I sent that money directly to my EF!
EF addition -- $23.63
I also signed up for the current points promotion - gas and Amazon. I wish I'd known gas was part of it -- already filled up (completely) twice this month, and probably won't again til Feb. Oh well - will make sure to use it in Feb and Mar, then back to MyPoints for gas. I wish now I'd waited to order my dishwasher til January too - that would've been a nice bit of extra rewards points. Really, other than gas in Feb and Mar, I don't see myself buying anything off of Amazon. Oh wait - I think there is a book I pre-ordered (5th in a series one of my 8th graders is way into) that comes out in March .. however I have enough gift card money for that already. Will have to see how the months go I guess.
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January 17th, 2012 at 01:54 am
Sheepish smile After searching all over tarnation for a faucet adapter and coming close to ordering one off of Amazon, I decided to check *everything* one more time. Guess what? I found the adapter!
I hooked up the hose to the faucet. It leaked for a while till I finally figured out how it needed to be positioned. The long cycle took about two hours. Most of the dishes came out pretty clean. It doesn't do well with peanut butter, so I'll have to be sure to pre-rinse any spoons/knives with pb on it.
I didn't do too much today other than laundry and a load of dishes. I really should have gone into school for a few hours, but still am not feeling 100%.
Tomorrow straight after school I head off to Albuquerque where I'll spend the night. Then Wednesday I'll be attending a seminar given by Judy Miller about the best books of 2011 for children. I'm hoping to come away with some free samples.
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I put Netflix on hold last night. I do use it and enjoy it, however I'm not sure if I really get $9/month use out of it. I'll probably just use iTunes or maybe Voodo (sp?) for a few months whenver the urge hits to get a movie. If it starts looking like I'm running up against the $9/month average, then I'll turn Netflix back on. Otherwise, I think it may be cheaper for now at least, to go this route. Summer may be a different story.
(I would have waited til I got back from my trip to put it on hold, but my next charge date is the 16th, so I would've ended up paying for another month.)
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I'll be doing a Costco run on Wednesday after my seminar. Although really other than cat litter, I'm not too sure what all I'm going to get there.
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I'm getting reimbursed per Diem for my trip ... so I plan on eating out tomorrow night and after the seminar too. I get up to $35 per day.
All the money I'm spending on this trip I have budgeted from funds I already have. When they are reimbursed, they will be going straight to the emergency fund. Altogether will be around $700. So that will be a nice bit of a boost.
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I need to contact the company I worked for this past summer to make sure they send me my W-2 form here. I'm so ready to get my taxes done and over with this year. I expect a nice bit of a refund I think (all of which will go to the EF, except maybe 10% or so for some treat or another.)
I've been debating about whether or not I should continue putting my retirement savings in a ROTH or a traditional IRA. If I stay here, my salary is likely to never go up, or if it does, it would be very incremental.
The advantages of continuing to put money in a ROTH is that in cases of dire and extreme emergency, I *could* take money out. (And I do mean *dire* emergency ... I came close to it where I was just about completely out of money ... then I got this job!) However, it seems like tax wise later on, ROTHs are better for people who think they'll be making a large amount in retirement. ...Considering how much I have saved right now in retirement and stocks (roughly $30k for a 36 year old) and that for at least the next three - four years I'll be able to add *maybe* up to $1500/yr to that (until I have my EF and CarFund savings up to par) ... I don't think my income at retirement is going to be much to write home about.
So ... if I put my retirement money into a traditional IRA instead, I would get a small portion of it back each year. That money could then be either put towards cash savings, or right back into the IRA, helping to beef it up a bit.
But then if something happens where I get a job in the future that pays twice what I get here (which would be laughably easy - at least in the public schools, not necessarily getting a job, but being paid 2x++ what I make here), and I have a 401k again plus maybe be able to make larger contributions to an IRA, therefore creating a larger retirement income ... using a Traditional IRA wouldn't make much tax sense. I think.
I'd almost go with splitting my IRA funds between two types, but my ROTH fund now requires a minimum of $100/mo (it used to be $50/mo), and if a Traditional one required the same ... well, it is not feasible. Plus it would greatly reduce any immediate tax refund benefits.
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I got another AGC from Swagbucks today. So far I have $20 in Amazon credit. It's nice to see it build back up again. I've been doing really well resisting the temptation to buy books for the library. Of course, the generous donations helped to get a lot of that out of my system.
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Sunday and Monday - No spend days.
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Oh, on the Per Diem, they only reimburse what you actually *spend,* otherwise I would be spending the bare minimum. But I figure if they'll reimburse me, I may as well enjoy a couple nights of nice restaurant meals.
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January 15th, 2012 at 03:37 am
So tonight I stopped at Home Depot to get the faucet adapter so I could actually run my dishwasher. .... They don't carry them! The guy I spoke with suggested I try Ace on Monday. I will call them before going, because that would mean an extra trip which I'd really rather not make!!
I'm also going to write Amazon's customer service and shake some cages about why this part was not included as advertised.
Ugh!
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I decided to skip Sabbath School today - the extra rest was really needed. I stayed after for potluck, and then went to the nursing home and sang with three other people. We all had about the same level of singing skill (namely, not much) but the people still seemed to appreciate it.
After the nursing home our group went to the hospital to visit the pastor's wife who'd just had a baby girl this morning (1:02 a.m. by c-section after 17 hrs hard labor - her tail bone was twisted??) What a sweet little thing.
--
After Home Depot I went to Walmart where I returned the watch and the skin moisturizer/spf. The watch I returned because I found my other one, and the moisturizer because I used it once and it got in my eyes and burned (plus I was having a really hard time stomaching paying almost $11 for something like that.)
Since my dishwasher will still be out of commission for who knows how long, I bought a good bit of canned soups and microwavable meals, as well as some plasticware. If I end up actually getting dishes washed by hand tomorrow and don't need the plasticware, I'll just take it back.
I got a refund of $17.08, and spent $47.xx on grocery type items. That pretty much wipes out my grocery budget for January (except for my $100 Costco card). I think though that I have enough food in the house to last til February, with or without the convenience of the dishwasher.
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Oh! The organist who was in a car accident last week was in church today. He had a neck brace on and seemed to still be in a bit of pain. He has a daughter in town who is helping him out with meals and such not.
I also found out today that most people here had assumed I was in my early to mid-twenties. :roll eyes: The head elder told me, "Whatever you're washing you're face with, keep doing it!" lol! Ummm, I don't really wash my face with anything ... I also hardly ever wear makeup.. if I do, I might use Cetaphil. I also sometimes use ponds cold cream (I think Ima mentioned once that she uses it ...) But more often than not I do *nothing* in regards to skin care. Which probably is why I was having such a hard time paying nearly $11 for a moisturizer/spf cream.
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