I couldn't think of a name for my post today, other than one celebrating the fact that it is the end of my work week. Two days off from answering phones (and the one incessant man who keeps calling asking for information and getting annoyed when I try to find out where exactly he's trying to catch the bus at - I cringe when I hear his voice. Oh well.)

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I cashed out for a $25 PayPal from Swagbucks last night. Today I got 200 swagups because my Groupon and Living Social purchases just happened to be within the timeframe of a shopping promotion (not on purpose.)

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I've been reading Forks Over Knives the past couple days at work (Kindle app on computer ) and the book has some pretty appealing recipes.

I haven't made any goals/resolutions/ etc. but in trying to keep this month low-spend, I'm also trying to eat as much as possible from what I already have on hand. Since treats tend to go fast .. that means I haven't been eating as much junk. The scale is liking this.

So .. anyway ... I'm really working on eating more healthfully. Both to save money, and to maybe see if I could get rid of my allergies so I could stop taking Allegra!

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Today at work I got called into the staff meeting and was given a certificate of recognition. I guess that's all there is to that. Oh well, I guess that certificate (with the text my boss wrote) will be a good addition to my application for the librarian position ... being an asset and customer service oriented and all.
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I'm continuing to do well with my minigoal #1. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to say it's a habit yet .. but I think it's pretty close to that.

So, January 16 I'll probably add a second minigoal.
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In January so far, other than bills, I have had 7 NSDs.

I'm not really sure how I came to use this expression. It is a Yiddish term, and I have never really spent much time around Jewish people speaking Yiddish. Perhaps it's a term I read in a book - maybe one of Chaim Potok's books.

At any rate, I picked it up, and used it.

Apparently at least one student had heard me use it more than once. One year for Christmas, I got this:

I haven't kept very many things that were given to me by students through the years, but this is one of the few.

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I got a decent night's sleep last night - not great, but decent. In a much better mood today. (And didn't have to deal with grumpy delivery guy yet.)

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My supervisor just found out about the guy who was let go the last week of December and how he emailed threats to us. She'd not known why the door code was changed.

So today she went into paranoid mode. And now we have to keep the door between my office "area" and the hallway with the bathrooms/breakroom/exercise room closed and locked. Which means I have to have my key with me all the time. Oh well.

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The IT person who comes by every Thursday stopped by to see how my computer was faring. (Another data dump this week ...) She told me that she'd suggested to the person who posts our route detours that I would be more than capable of doing the changes we're talking about.

So, I might be having another aspect of my job added. (This IT lady and I have had a couple opportunities to talk while she does things to my computer(s).)

I know I've already put a picture up of Kari, but there are lots of things she does which make me smile. Some of them would be difficult to catch on camera though - but you can bet I'll try.

Kari just absolutely LOVES the tab from an orange juice container. I presently have two of them floating around the apartment right now, and am not sure what I'm going to do when they both are lost. (Have found out that Orange Juice is NOT vegetarian, except for certain varieties. Plus, I'm just overall trying to not drink juice.)

Why does she love the orange juice tab? I think it's because it has such flexibility and is so light. She bats it around and runs after it for many minutes. (In cat time, many minutes is a long time.)

But what I really love is when she brings it to me to engage in a game of fetch.

In this picture she is sitting next to the tab waiting for me to pick it up and toss it for her.

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Today was crazy busy at work. I was so tired when I got home that I didn't want to do anything - but still wanted to accomplish my mini-goal. So ... I shredded stuff for about 15 minutes give or take. Goal accomplished.

(Kari got in the act by walking on top of the shredder and stepping on the forward/reverse button a few times ...)

One thing I really enjoy is listening to music. Especially live music. Free is even better.

So tonight I made it over to the church for a free concert. Overall, it was a really good concert. Kind of low-key and quiet Christian focused music. Both Matt and Josie were very talented, playing a variety of instruments.


This is Josie who I think wrote all of the songs.


This is her husband Matt who did most of the talking and played at least 5 different instruments.
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After the concert was a soup/supper and board games. I totally planned on staying - for the board games. Even planned on that being my picture for tomorrow. But ... my introvertedness won out.

After more than a 1 1/2 years of going to this church while waiting for the soup/supper portion to begin, I still felt completely out of place and alone. I tried. I really tried to stay. I even tried getting busy by helping in the kitchen, but they didn't really need any help.

In the end, I couldn't stay. It sure reminded me of why I've never liked potlucks. There's only been one place in my entire life where I didn't mind staying for potlucks - where I felt I really fit - that was my last church in TX. Of course, even if I were to go back now, 5 years later, many of the people who were there then are gone. So it would be different.

One interesting thing though - I saw one of the people who comes to buy passes for the door to door service van at the concert. He's the one who when the elevator was broken attempted to climb up the stairs by pulling himself up them backwards ... Color me surprised.

After getting a nice sleep in (sort of - Kari wasn't having me sleep in tooo long) and doing some relaxing computer activities ... I finally got off my duff and productive.

ETA - One of the things I did was set up my budget in the new YNAB program I really kind of like it. The goal setting especially. I'll wait til my trial is up to decide for sure, but I may spring for the $45 subscription. Even if I decide not to yet, I'm still locked in for that discount price if I ever do decide to go to it.

I needed 8k more steps for my 50k step challenge, plus I needed to do a GPS tracked 5k walk for another challenge.

So .. I headed to the park. Brrr!! I foolishly wore my Keds instead of the slightly sturdier tennies. My Keds are starting to get really well worn. As in coming apart at the seams in places worn ...

I got the mileage/steps in with frozen feet and wet/dirty jeans legs.

Got home and changed into something dry and headed out again.

This time to Dollar Tree to stock up on frozen fruit. They were out of most of their other frozen vegetarian options - the freezer section was pretty decimated. $11 (Also got a battery for my smoke detector.)

Then on to Walmart - bananas, apples, PB powder*, Ragu sauce*, Amy's! Chinese Noodles!!, etc. $25
*Had iBotta rebates

On the way home I realized my gas was blinking. So I decided to go a little out of the way to the cheap station - $1.89/gallon - and also get a car wash!
My car hasn't been washed since .... ??????

$19.25 gas; 5.44 car wash (undercarriage+)

Had a weird interaction at the gas station. I pulled into a parking spot to make sure the car wash was operating (doors were closed on both sides.) When I came out this lady annoyedly says "Thank you." I'm like, huh? She tells me that she can't get into her vehicle. I wasn't parked outside the lines, in fact, I was parked fairly close to the line on the driver's side. Just weird.

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Now I'm finishing up a dryer load of sheets and towels (my jeans are hanging dry.) It's been awhile since they've been washed ... I do laundry every Thursday when NE is here, but that's usually only clothes - and definitely not enough space for two pairs of jeans. So I've decided that the first weekend of each month is towels/sheets/jeans washing time!

Ok - off to get my clothes and then eat my surprise find of Amy's Chinese Noodles from Walmart.

Happy New Year everyone!

This is in the spirit of what Patient Saver suggested recently.

My first picture of course is going to be ... Kari!

So ... today at work they had to let go of one of the bus cleaners. He apparently was very unhappy about this - as in emailing threats to the big wigs.

Had two police officer visits - one to pick up the phones/wallets from lost and found, and then the same officer was back to deal with the fired employee threats.

Also had one of the newbie bus driver trainees come by asking about how to sign up for the health insurance. He wasn't too happy to learn he had to wait til he'd been employed 90 days. He had apparently already canceled his other insurance (assuming Obamacare.) Did he not read the new employee information??

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The last few months I've been having trouble keeping my data usage in the small bucket. It was looking like I was going to go over again this month as well. But somehow, someway I was kept in the small bucket! Which means $9 less than I had budgeted. Yahoo!

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Swagbucks was annoying me today. No bonus points on any of the apps, etc. But then I saw I'd had 60 points in coupon redemptions come in! Sweet! Now if only some more will come in on Thursday so I can get my 31 day bonus for sure.

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The new YNAB is being officially released tomorrow. Which means I have until Jan 31st to decide if I want to upgrade for the 10% discount price. I know I'll probably go for it eventually, but I don't really want to have to WAM $45 to buy it right now. Sigh ... maybe I'll come into some extra money in January. Maybe I'll get away with doing my taxes for free this year (I think I can do the state taxes at least on the state website - will have to check into that.)

If you are thinking about buying YNAB4 - you'll have do it today. By tomorrow you'll no longer be able to purchase it. (It still can be downloaded by people who already have a copy, it just can't be purchased.)

After all the hoopla about the 6 - 10 inches and big gusty winds ... Yeah, we maybe got 4 inches? I will say though, it is cold!

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I cashed out for another AGC from PerkTv last night - about five minutes before NE came over. So, that adds $25 to my 2015 extra money total.

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I somehow managed (I think) to not go into the next data bucket on Ting this month. Which means I had $9 to put in my Remote Starter fund in January.

This is a good thing because ...

I'm probably going to have to WAM from that December category to put into groceries.

I tried to talk NE into just using what we already have on hand (other than for the Martinelli's sparkling juice) for NYE dinner. He was really set on doing the homemade pizza. Sigh.

So I'll be getting a Chef Boyardee kit, cheese, and a Martinelli's. He's picking up the hamburger for himself. (We'll split the cost.) I already have mushrooms and pineapple.

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My mini-goal 1 update =
So far, so good! My place was pretty picked up today, so there wasn't much cleaning/picking up to do. So ...I spent about 20 minutes working on my to shred pile. There's still probably about 3 days worth of 20 minute sessions left to go.

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At work today I didn't have a book with me and was desperately bored. So ... I decided to try to see if I could possibly get the Kindle app on my computer without having to download/install. It worked! So now I won't be quite so obvious about reading a book ...

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I'm in two Bounts challenges this week. One is the 50k steps by Friday, and the other is walk/run a 5k by Friday.

I've got about 17k steps so far, and am hoping that Friday will be decent weather wise so I can go for a 3 mile walk in the local park. That would be a cool 100 bonus points between the two challenges.

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It is SO cold in my bedroom/office. If I was planning on staying here another year (in this apartment) I'd invest in some weatherstripping or something. I put a towel at the bottom of the door (one that leads outside) but am not sure what to do about the windows. I think that's where most of the cold is coming from.

I can mostly cover up, but my hands are what bug me the most. I think I had fingerless gloves somewhere ...

After all the hoopla about the 6 - 10 inches and big gusty winds ... Yeah, we maybe got 4 inches? I will say though, it is cold!

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I cashed out for another AGC from PerkTv last night - about five minutes before NE came over. So, that adds $25 to my 2015 extra money total.

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I somehow managed (I think) to not go into the next data bucket on Ting this month. Which means I had $9 to put in my Remote Starter fund in January.

This is a good thing because ...

I'm probably going to have to WAM from that December category to put into groceries.

I tried to talk NE into just using what we already have on hand (other than for the Martinelli's sparkling juice) for NYE dinner. He was really set on doing the homemade pizza. Sigh.

So I'll be getting a Chef Boyardee kit, cheese, and a Martinelli's. He's picking up the hamburger for himself. (We'll split the cost.) I already have mushrooms and pineapple.

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My mini-goal 1 update =
So far, so good! My place was pretty picked up today, so there wasn't much cleaning/picking up to do. So ...I spent about 20 minutes working on my to shred pile. There's still probably about 3 days worth of 20 minute sessions left to go.

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At work today I didn't have a book with me and was desperately bored. So ... I decided to try to see if I could possibly get the Kindle app on my computer without having to download/install. It worked! So now I won't be quite so obvious about reading a book ...

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I'm in two Bounts challenges this week. One is the 50k steps by Friday, and the other is walk/run a 5k by Friday.

I've got about 17k steps so far, and am hoping that Friday will be decent weather wise so I can go for a 3 mile walk in the local park. That would be a cool 100 bonus points between the two challenges.

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It is SO cold in my bedroom/office. If I was planning on staying here another year (in this apartment) I'd invest in some weatherstripping or something. I put a towel at the bottom of the door (one that leads outside) but am not sure what to do about the windows. I think that's where most of the cold is coming from.

I can mostly cover up, but my hands are what bug me the most. I think I had fingerless gloves somewhere ...

Patient Saver's post made me curious to see what my totals were for the year. This is really the first year I've actually managed to almost 100% of the time track my finances faithfully. I've been using YNAB since around 2006, but would go months+ at a time without tracking ...

So ... I think this will give me a good basis to start with at least.

I'm going to go with my biggest expense to smallest, then look at savings.

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Rent - 5,160 - 430/month
Groceries - 2153.25 - 179.74/month average
This is a lot more than I would like to spend on groceries. I would like to get my average down to 150/month for 2016 - including any treat type foods. (This groceries figure does not include treats.)

Tithe - 10% of net - rent (This is what my dad, a pastor told me was a good way to figure for tithe.)

Medical - $1286.91 - 107.24/month
This includes an $800 ER bill from fainting in March. Here's hoping that there won't be any big bills like this in 2016! (Not included is the $700 of FSA money which was completely spent.)

Vacation - 974.88 - $81.xx/month
About $500 of this was reimbursed by my aunt for my CA trip. Most of the rest was from when my mom came out here to visit me.

Internet - 865.91 - 72.16
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. I hate how much I am paying for this, but unless I gave up Internet completely, it is unavoidable. (Nothing cheaper available that has WiFi.)

Restaurants - $545.42 - $5.45
OH MY WORD! This is an entirely ridiculous amount of money to have spent eating out / fast food places. $35 of it is for a restaurants $200 credit, but still. Way too much money. My goal in 2016 is to not eat at fast food place or restaurants unless I'm with someone else. Hopefully this will cut this amount down a lot. (Plus using the $200 credit for gift certificates.)

Electronics - $463.38
Thanks to losing my phone this year ... plus a couple cheap smartphones for PerkTv use, etc.

Electricity - 452.54 - 37.71/average

Giving - 451.80 - 37.65 average
Not as much as I'd like to do. For 2016 I've added two new categories to up this amount a little.

Car Insurance - 433.60 - 36.13 average

Household - 419.23 - 34.94 average
This includes $100 to the housecleaner UGH, plus replacing shower curtain, etc. Cleaning supplies, new to me loveseat, bookcase etc.

Treats - 397.69 - 33.14 average
I think I actually spent more in this category than this that got "lumped" in to the groceries category ... Really need to get this one WAY down.

Gym - 395.63 - 32.97 average
Sigh. I signed up in March and by September pretty much have stopped going. I have a two-year contract - I really need to get over there and see what it would cost to get out of it. Or somehow get myself going there again.

Kari - 337 - 28.08 average
Stocking up on cat food/wet food/litter, replacing litter boxes/scoops, license fees, etc.

Auto Fuel - 326.84 - 27.24 average
Not too bad I guess. This includes several extra tanks in March when I was driving back and forth from the hospital for NE.

Phone - 321.69 - 26.81 average
This includes the ETF from ATT and several months of no phone bills due to Ting credits.

Car Care - 312.11 - $26.09 average
A couple of oil changes, transmission fluid, wiper blades, etc.

Natural Gas - 306.50 - 25.54 average
The sad thing is that there is a $14/month "customer fee" irregardless of actual usage. So really the lowest possible to get this would be about $18/month. And they are talking about raising the "customer fee."

Clothing - 193.51 - 16.13/average
This is two pairs of shoes for work/church, bras, new pair of jeans, and misc. items throughout the year.

Car Tax - 175.09
Yearly car tax

Beauty - 154.26 - 12.86 average
The majority of this is from my treating my aunt and grandma to a mani/pedi at Thanksgiving time

Gifts - 83.01 - 6.92 average
I actually spent more than this, but was able to use Amazon money to pay for most gifts.

Miscellaneous - 80.85
This includes library fines, and other small things that don't really need a category.

Tax Prep - 34.98
This will be less this year since I only have to do one state's taxes.

Entertainment - 15
Bought a CD from a concert

Movies - 10
Two movies (matinees)

iTunes - 6.41
A couple of apps

Savings:
7% of my gross salary is automatically deducted to my 401b, plus a matching 9% from my company.

On my own, I also put $2500 into ROTH savings.

Between cash savings, retirement savings, stock growth, etc., my networth went up roughly 20k this year. (At one point it was up much, much, much more ....)

So .. of my total income this year, I kept ~18% of it, plus the ROTH savings, plus the 7% which was automatically taken from my paycheck.

So, a rough estimate of my savings rate for the year would be about 35%. Not great, but not horrible either.

2016 will be interesting because I'll hopefully be saving a LOT more until August, but then will be spending a HUGE chunk around September.

Thursday morning I woke to my car covered in snow - the first real snow of the season so far. It was a little dicey driving to work - but thankfully not many people out on the roads.

Here are some pictures I took once I got to work:

This is from inside our front foyer looking out at the street.

This is the view from my "office" area of the roof of the bus garage.

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Christmas Eve with NE started off a little rocky. When I got home he was in a pretty bad mood because the rum cakes he'd made hadn't turned out as good as he expected, along with some other frustrations. After talking it out though, he got back into a good mood and we went to the Christmas Eve service, then Christmas light looking. We passed by a Dominoe's that was open and decided to get a pizza - we both were pretty hungry.

His gift for me hadn't come yet, so we are going to wait til it arrives to exchange gifts.

He'll be coming by later today to do tater tot casserole (and maybe try again with the rum cakes). In the meantime, I'm enjoying not having to go in to work! And in a few hours will make some Christmas calls.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Today I got an email with a link to the most recent newsletter for our city department. Each month people are chosen from across the city to be recognized based on a theme.

If I remember correctly from when my supervisor was recognized (I asked) you go to a dinner and get some kind of certificate, maybe a day off work and some money??

This month's theme was about community.

Guess who was picked from the bus company?

Here's what my boss wrote about me:

"Laura has been working for bus company for just over a year, and she has proven to be a great asset in the way she works with the public, both over the telephone and in person. She truly cares about the community, and has participated in several of our public events promoting ridership by assisting with route information and sharing her sunny disposition."

I asked my boss about it and apparently I wasn't supposed to know yet. Oops.

I'm guessing whatever will happen will happen after the new year.

Anyway, pretty cool I think.

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So my property manager is coming to change my furnace filter tomorrow.

Guess what I did tonight? About another 45 minutes of focused cleaning/picking up. My place is looking pretty spiffy about now if I do say myself. Although I do have all the slides, etc piled up in a corner. (I told him that I had a bunch of stuff I'd brought back with me that I didn't have a good place for.)

So, hopefully no nasty email surprise later.

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My brother sent NE and I a box of Harry & David chocolates for Christmas. It came today. I really appreciate it, although now I feel kind of bad because I didn't get him anything ... that's been our understanding for a long time. Not sure why he decided to send something this year. Oh well, it was thoughtful of him. (Been practicing that a lot ...)

After several failed attempts to pick up my afghan from the FedEx drop off, I finally have it home. It is quite lovely I think and warm too.

My aunt made this for me with yarn I picked out when I was in CA over Thanksgiving. She's taught herself how to knit entirely through youtube videos.

Here's a pic (with Kari photobombing of course.)

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So I finally got a sort of non-auto response reply from restaurant.com regarding my $200 credit. This after three exactly the same auto responses.

It basically said to reply to this email if your issue hasn't been resolved and we'll escalate it. So ... I replied and now I wait.

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NE and I were taking stock of what we'll need to make 5 rum cakes (he's decided he wants to take one to work.) What it boiled down to was we'd need another bottle of rum. Ugh. That stuff is expensive! The pecans also aren't going to be cheap ...

At least I already have pretty much everything we need for the tater tot casserole on hand (except the particular brand of veggeburger he wants for it.)

Even splitting the cost .. my grocery budget is going to go over.

Oh well, January I will do better!

Thursday when I got home from work I was SO hungry and SO cold ... but I knew we were going to be eating out, so I didn't want to spoil my appetite.

So .. I bumped the heat way up (it was COLD) and did about 20 minutes or so of cleaning/picking up. Then I started getting ready - actually putting on makeup! and actually fixing! my hair .. :big grin:

My manicure from when I was out in CA was still good on my left hand, but several of the right hand fingers were looking pretty sad. So ... I spent about 25 minutes taking the polish off. Then, just as I was finishing the second coat of polish, NE called saying he was on his way over! Uh ...

So he came over and I finished getting ready. Then before we left I used a coupon code that had come in my email from Restaurants.com to get a $25 gift certificate for $4.25. *Still have not heard back from customer service about my missing $200 credit!*

The fancy restaurant we went to is a repurposed home built in the late 1890s. The restaurant itself has been in business around 22 years. It is really beautiful inside the home. I kind of wanted to explore it, but thought that might be a little unclassy ...

A few minutes after we were seated, our waiter came by to get our orders. As soon as I mentioned that I was vegetarian, he went and got the chef! to come talk to me. The chef (who turned out to be the waiter's dad) sat and talked with us for at least 6 or 7 minutes. I think he was a bit flummoxed when I told him I didn't like spicy foods... When I told him that I do eat eggs, he was like "Oh, a fake vegetarian." LOL! (It was especially funny because NE teases me almost along the same lines.)

A little while later our entrees were brought out. OH MY WORD! The dish the chef created was this HUGE mound of spinach linguine with lots of veggies. I mean HUGE. I ate as much as I could last night, had some for lunch today, some for dinner tonight, and have enough probably for dinner tomorrow too! It wasn't the best tasting dish I've ever had, but it was pretty good.

The cool factor was mainly though that the chef came by personally to figure out what to make for me.

I wish we could have had someone along to take a picture of us outside of the place - very nice backdrop. Oh well..

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So far so good with my mini goals. I've been getting in a lot of practice with Oh Well at work. I also have been making sure to get some cleaning/picking up in each of the past 3 days.

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I cashed out for $12 from Pinecone today (thanks CCF and LibLady for alerting me about the $3 status!)

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I think my afghan came from my aunt today - but I had to arrange delivery to a closer pickup spot for tomorrow. (Otherwise I'd probably never get it - since they like to come at 9 or 10 a.m. on weekdays ...)

Speaking of deliveries - I'm still waiting on the package from my mom - with birthday and Christmas gifts. She mailed them a week ago Saturday - I'm the only person who hasn't received their package yet.

It could possibly be in my mailbox right now ... but of course my mailbox key isn't working again! I stopped by the PO to mail my mom's package (I know, procrastinate much ...) and went to the window to ask about who I needed to talk to. I was told that it was my property managers job to take care of it.

So ... I made the dreaded call and spoke to PMs wife She said she'd have him take a look tomorrow. (Hopefully NOT a look in my apartment ... much better, but still needs work.)

I really do not like the cluster mailbox thing where you have to have a key to get your mail ... (Key was working just fine on Wednesday. But on Thursday neither I nor NE could get it open.)

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My boss and I were talking yesterday and were discussing the person who retired from my position. I mentioned to her how I've had several people bemoan the fact that I don't decorate for all the holidays/dress up for Halloween, etc. She told me she was GLAD I don't do that. What was really funny though was that about 15 minutes after she left, one of the main bemoaners came by to buy a pass!

I'd also said something to her about how it seemed like finally after nearly 1 1/2 years that people have accepted that I'm a stickler for following policy (previous person *wasn't*) Then ... today I have not one, but TWO different people challenge me on the policy. Oh brother!

(For low income passes the only requirement is to show a photo id - plus only can purchase one pass per person per month - this gives a %55 discount from the regular fare pass. The policy used to be much more involved - people had to sign a log with name/address. Then before that they had to prove their income with bank statements/tax returns, etc. So it's NOTHING now - just a photo id!)

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So anyway, I'm glad for the weekend.

On Sunday NE and I will probably do some shopping for our Christmas dinner / Rum cakes. He wants to do 4 this year. 1 for his sister, 1 for his friend, 1 for us, and 1 for a mutual friend.

Thankfully we have plenty of rum left from last year (that was the most expensive thing we bought last year!) He's probably going to come over here early on Christmas Eve to make the first two - since I won't get home til at least 4:45, and the CE concert starts at 6, then we'll be doing C lights looking.

We're doing tater tot casserole (vegetarian) for Christmas Dinner. I know, not exactly traditional, but he really doesn't want to do a vegge dinner roast or tofurkey. So ... we compromised.

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I need to update my sidebar - maybe tomorrow.

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I finally managed to get a doctor's appointment set up for the end of January. It took two days of calling during my breaks and leaving voicemails. But it's set up now. One of the things I'm hoping to do is have the doctor write me a prescription for Allegra D and Flonase so that I can use my FSA money for them. I'd much rather use pre-tax money for that stuff than post-tax .. or maybe pay for it with my regular card, then get reimbursed - so, pre-tax plus cashback.

Anyway, it's past 10, so I should be signing off here. (In preparation for that mini-goal ...)

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes.

It was a pretty low-key birthday ovearall. Tomorrow night NE and I will be going out to a fancy restaurant here (still working on the gift certificate problem ..)

NE stopped by between deliveries to tell me happy birthday in person.

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So ... what are my mini-goals for year 40?

I've been thinking about a lot of the different goals I've had, and how I've managed to do some .. for awhile, and others not really at all. I think maybe part of it was that some of the goals were too big / too much all at once.

So .. I decided that I'm going to try doing mini-goals. I'm going to choose one or two things to focus on for 30 days (or so) and not worry about the rest. Then if those goals are doing well, I'll add something new.

I'm hoping that by doing it this way, the mini-goals will become deeply ingrained habits.

So ... here are some of the mini-goals I'm thinking about:

MG1: Do something for 15 minutes (or more) every day that helps improve my environment. (Cleaning, decluttering, putting up pictures, etc.)

MG2: Say "Oh Well." When someone does something that gets you flustered or upset, or you're thinking that you'd really like something (junkfood) but know you aren't going to have it ... say "Oh Well." That's their problem / I'd rather be healthy / I'd rather have the money for ....

MG3: Do something active for at least 15 minutes everyday intentionally.

MG4: Do something for your spiritual health at least 15 minutes a day (read the Bible, pray, memorize verses, etc.)

MG5: Do something for your personal growth at least 15 minutes a day (play the piano, use Duolingo to practice Spanish, etc.)

MG6: Do something for others at least 2x a week (work on church library, volunteer, etc.)

MG7: Connect with others at least 2x a week (email/letter/phone call) Have at least 1x a week be someone different than the week before.

MG8: Turn off computer/phone by 10 p.m.

MG9 - Floss every day before going to bed.

MG10 - Give yourself a manicure or pedicure once a week.

Others may be added as I think of them.

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Financial Goals:

Main Financial Goal - Make spending decisions based on category balances only.

I have 3 main savings goals for this coming year -

High Priority - House Downpayment. This is where my regular savings, 90% of Windfalls (bonuses, tax refunds, SBs paypal earnings, survey earnings, etc.) will go. I'm hoping to hit $4k by September, and then probably sell up to ten shares of stock to add to the amount. (Goal of house purchase in September. Starting the process in August.)

Medium Priority Car Replacement - This will be getting a set amount of $50/month til #1 isn't needed.

Low Priority Remote Car starter - Leftover amounts in groceries, gas and utilities will be funneled here. (Would like to have $350 by September/October.)

Other Goals/Decisions:

I am no longer going to be purchasing ready made treats/sweets for consumption at home or at work. I can purchase the *ingredients* to MAKE treats for myself (such as chocolate chips to go into cookies) but not store-bought cookies.

Eating out / Fast Food is only going to be something that happens WITH another person.

Soda is an OH WELL item.

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Today I started with MG1 and 2. (My focus for the next 30 days.) When I got home from work, as soon as I changed into something warm, I spent about 45 minutes picking up, putting away, throwing away. The place already looks much better. (It will need several more days of 15 minute sessions to be looking "good.")

I'm hoping I can develop the attitude (in my mind at least) of Oh Well at work in dealing with some of the people that whine and complain. That way maybe I can deal with it for 15 more years.

The Oh Well is also going to be replacing my habit of Coke and Chocolate on stressful days. Oh Well - the day stunk like donkey balls - I'll live another day. (Thankfully there are quite a few short weeks in this coming 30 day period which hopefully will help make this habit easier to form! )

So ... I had lots of ideas and plans for year 39. Those plans and ideas worked about as well as most New Year's resolutions.

Nevertheless, a new decade of life means maybe plans and ideas and goals can be a bit better off than just another set of resolutions. We'll see I guess.

Financially I did okay. As of now I have quite a few LTP (long term planning) funds fully funded and have started on the Car and House funds.

Health/weight wise ... um ... If I remember what I started at last December ... Well ... I pretty much maintained I guess. I pretty much haven't been to the gym in at least 3 months (although I have been exercising - just not at the gym.)

Friendship wise ... While I still don't have anyone here I "hang out" with outside of church activities, I am a little more involved. Maybe eventually that will lead to something. Someday.

Relationship wise .... Mostly good, with some frustrations that rear themselves at times overly much. But that generally tends to happen when I'm way overtired.

Job wise - Most days/most of the time it's ok. I have a great boss, and a couple co-workers I also like. The co-workers who were causing drama before have pretty much completely laid off. So ... it's tolerable.

It's definitely helping being able to take time off now and then to get away. Like today - I took off to have a long weekend as my birthday present to myself. Although I might have taken today off anyway because Sunday I did something to my back, plus feeling miserable cold/allergies. (My back is feeling better tonight, as are my cold/allergies.)

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Yesterday NE and I went to the local urgent care place because NE had a finger infection. (Most likely from him biting off a hang nail ... When I asked him if he was going to stop doing that - Why? 1st problem in 49 years? - Ohhhhkaaayyy.)

While we were waiting for his prescription to get filled, we went over to SuperTarget. I had $2 coupons for cat litter (Scoop Away 25lb) plus the Savings Catcher had 25% off it. I unfortunately forgot my Red Card though - asked at the front desk and was told to bring my receipt the next time and they'd make an adjustment.

Of course ... I wasn't used to having NE along on a shopping trip, so I also spaced using the coupons (but not the savings catcher!)

I went back to Target today and was able to get both the 5% adjustment and the $4 in coupons! (I also bought a 3rd box with a coupon. Kari is SET for litter for a long time!)

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While I was out today I also stopped at Walmart - mainly to pick up a few iBotta items - definitely things I'll use, but didn't need right now. I also was really wanting to find a Terry's Chocolate Orange .... no luck. Stopped at a few other places too. All sold out.

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I cashed out for $20 from iBotta today, and also for $25 PayPal from Swagbucks.

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I got a postcard from my doctor letting me know that I need to schedule a baseline mammogram .... Oh the joys of my new decade. I was going to do it today, but then realized that I don't know what my bosses schedule is like ... so need to get that info first.

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My aunt (who Thrifty Ray has met) has really gotten into knitting since retiring. While I was in CA over Thanksgiving she made me slippers, and had me pick out the yarn for an afghan. She texted me today to let me know that it was finished! I might have it here by Friday. So cool! (Or should I say, so warm!)

Now that we can post pics again, I'll post a picture of it when I get it.

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If I'm on the upward mend of this cold on top of allergies thing, then hopefully within the next few days I'll have the energy to get my apartment back into shape. I'd really hate for the property manager to come in right now ... (not dirty, just really, really cluttered/messy)

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Oh! I almost forgot. I logged in to restaurant . com today to buy the gift certificate for the fancy place NE and I will be going to on Thursday night. Only to find out that my $200 credit seemed to have completely disappeared!! I checked on Living Social to make sure they hadn't reversed the offer I'd purchased or something ...

I wrote customer service and got a form reply telling me how to redeem an offer. Ugh! I replied ... nothing back yet.

SO VEry Aggravating. (I bought a $200 r.com gift certificate for $35 from Living Social. I hadn't used any of it yet!)

Well it seems like I have developed a cold on top of my allergies. Ugh. So having Allegra D (24 hr) and Flonase in my system daily, and STILL sneezing, sniffling and coughing ... not much else to do but tough it out.

I've been incredibly tired and having a hard time getting myself to do anything I don't absolutely have to do. So ... the robe that I was asked to mend near the end of November ... which was needed by today ... guess when I actually started on it? This morning about 5 a.m. I finished it about 8:30 a.m. (Reattaching braiding on edges in places the cloth had pulled away, and sewing armholes together to a less huge gap.)

I took it with me to church today and gave it to the lady in charge of costumes (it's for a drive through Nativity tonight.)

Church was awesome - it was the spoken/musical Christmas story week. I think this year's story was based on a TransSiberian Orchestra musical? (One of the songs was Music Box Blues, the rest were normal Christmas sonts - i.e. Silent Night, etc.) I wish I'd been a little more with it/not so sleepy - but still very much enjoyed it.

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I did not go to the Friday night concert. I realized by Wednesday that I just would NOT be up to it -plus I had that darn robe to do! Part of it also was that I didn't have any money set aside in a concert category - my fun money had pretty much been spent between the Groupon pizza deal and the Living Social Restaurant.com deal. I need to make a separate category for concerts which is NOT to be whacked from for other things. Even if I just put a few dollars in it each month ...

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I was looking on Amazon for a purse (mine is getting really shabby.) While on there I looked at my gift card balance. Ouch! I've been buying ebooks $.99 and $1.99 here and there ... and it's really cut into my balance! So ... back to my old rule of only "buying" the freebies!

I did find a purse that I think will work, but I'm going to wait until I have something else to order with it - free shipping. (The purse is $14)

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Year 40 is quickly approaching. (Like ... Tuesday quickly. Yikes.) I'm thinking about some changes I'd like to make. Some health wise, some financial, one other possible major change ...

I found a house which would be so perfect ... $55k! Has a one-car garage, enclosed front porch, backyard, fence, basement (990 sq ft, 2 br, 1.5 bath)... If there's one out there now, then maybe in August when I can seriously start looking, there's bound to be another one - maybe even more perfect.

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I got my $25 Walmart card from SBs on Friday. So ... I printed it out and went shopping. I had been thinking of getting an Ampore Pedicure device (had a $5 coupon plus a $5 rebate) but just couldn't do $20+ after coupon/rebate. Especially when I found something similar for $10.

After coupons I spent $44.xx total. Minus the giftcard, it was about $19.xx. I got $4.75 in rebates from iBotta, $.60 rebate from MobiSave, $.20 from Snap, $.25 from Checkout 51, and $1 from SavingStar. (None of which I've actually cashed out on yet though.)

I'm $.30 away from cashout on iBotta. I would have been over the cashout limit, but didn't realize one of the items required 2 purchases. Ugh.

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I cashed out for another $25 AGC from Perk today. Will get that on Monday.

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I did some more messing with my YNAB budget this weekend. I realized that my health insurance OOP is $2000, but through my FSA I have about $800. So ... I reduced that category to $1200 and spread the $800 into other categories.

I also eliminated another LTP category, which added $65 into the budget.

What this all means is that I'll now focus my LTP savings on 3 goals - House Downpayment, Car Replacement, and the Remote Starter.

Speaking of the Remote Starter - On Groupon there was a deal to get it done for $170 in O town. Less than half of the price I was quoted here. Unfortunately, there was only $23 in that category. Maybe that deal will come around again when I have the money ready for it.

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Oh! If you remember me talking about the vegge hot pockets I made last Sunday? Well I had a good amount of veggie filling leftover.

Finally on Thursday night I managed to do something with the leftovers! I added a couple eggs, some more flavorings, and a box of Jiffy cornbread mix. Then I formed "patties" and baked them for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

They are YUMMY! Even NE liked them (he wasn't too sure about my adding the Jiffy mix to the batter - but turns out it worked out just right!)

I really need to get the remaining hot pockets and patties frozen though ...

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I almost forgot a funny from my grocery shopping ... two of the rebates were for loose carrots. It didn't specify a quantity. So ... I bought ONE loose bulk carrot. It cost $.10. 1 rebate was for $.50, and the other was for $.20. So ... I made $.60 profit.

NE and I went out for pizza Sunday night. I found a Groupon deal for $9 for $20 worth of food. The waitress was a little bit ... not with it. She wasn't very attentive to us, but when I got the check and was looking it over, I noticed a handwritten $1.75 on the bottom. Not even loudly, I said, "What's this $1.75?"

From across the room, waitress shouts out that it was the drink (NE's.) I figured that out almost as soon as I said it - but it being handwritten had thrown me.
(She'd forgotten to include it on our ticket at first because she thought we were getting the special which included a drink.)

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I also bought a deal from Living Social which I think will be really good. It was $35 for a $200 Restaurant.com gift card. I already used $10 of it to buy a $25 gift certificate for a local fancy restaurant we're going to for my birthday. (It will be pretty easy to spend $50 there.)

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There's a Steven Curtis Chapman concert here this week. I was really, really tempted to buy a ticket. $25. But ... I really didn't want to go by myself. Plus I just haven't seemed to pick up any energy - in fact I went home early from work yesterday.

I've decided to not go.

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I did some shopping on Sunday - made back around $7 between ibotta and MobiSave. Spent about $35 grocery money and $20 cat money.

I also did some cooking. I've been buying single carrots and red peppers, etc., because there've been iBotta rebates on them - so wanted to use them.

I chopped up the zucchini, carrots, onion, broccoli, (actually put in the food processor ... )and then took two cans of Pilsbury's Grands and a can of Pillsubry Croissants (coupon/rebate deal) and made veggie hot pockets! Yummy!

Of course ... I still haven't gotten started on fixing the robe for the Nativity drive through that is happening on the 12th. It really shouldn't take too long to do, just have to DO it!

Other than Sunday, I haven't spent any money this week.

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Hard to believe there is only one week left of my 30's. If what happened at work yesterday is any indication - my 40's won't find me being any less klutzy. (Dropped one of those big calculators and broke it completely. Offered to pay for a replacement - my boss told me not to worry about it.)

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How many of you actually wear robes? I keep being given robes as gifts ... and well, I've never seen the point of them really. So ... they end up hanging around somewhere in my house for years, and then get given away. My mom is sending a robe for NE ... he isn't a robe person either.

Maybe if I was someone more into fixing up my face, etc. before getting dressed or something? Or if I had other people (other than partner) living with me?

Really, what is the purpose of a robe? Just curious really if I'm the oddball out on this one or not.

I obviously did not stick with the moratorium on purchasing junk food/fast food this month. However, I did much better than previous months. So ... there is that.

Some of the spending comes from budgeted money / reimbursed funds. For example, I treated myself and my aunt/grandma to manis/pedis and to a meal out.

I also made the decision this month to make my larger "savings" category more granular. I had nearly the $10k goal amount I set for my EF - but decided to reduce it and spread it amoungst smaller/more specific categories. Some of the money in LTP is new, most is not.

I forgot my password for iBotta, otherwise I'd have another $10 in my extra funds (which would go into the Remote Starter fund.)

I did buy several Christmas gifts, but they were all covered with AGC money. I still have over half of what I started with left too.

Spending
Tithe - 10%
Charitable - 30
Rent - 430
Gym - 41.73
Groceries - 124.65
Phone - 25.80
Internet - 85.07
Natural Gas - 22.36
Electricity - 32.68
Fuel - 15.58
Medical - 12.86
Kari - 22 (license renewal, new scooper)
Beauty - 106
Car Care - 229.65 (transmission flush, wipers, rotation, etc.)
Household - 22.49
Vacation - 75
Treats - 28.17
Restaurants - 61.49

Extra Income
Walmart: Savings Catcher - $5.18
Perk AGC - $25
MobiSave - $13.75
Bing AGC - $10
Swagbucks AGC - $25
Swagbucks PP - $25
Pact - $10
Pinecone - $15
SavingStar - $5.16
Interest - $26.xx

Long Term Planning
01 Income Replacement (expenses only) - Funded
02 House Downpayment - +40
03 Car Replacemennt - +25
04 Car Deductible - Funded
05 Health Ins OOP - Funded
06 Vet Emergency - +611.70
07 Travel Emergency +611.70
08 Future - +$50
09 Remote Starter +9.89
10 New Computer +65
11 New Phone +65

P.S. Thanks everyone for your comments yesterday/today.

PPS - Work was pretty good today.

We had our first real snow last night/today! It was so beautiful this morning when I finally made myself get out of bed and going.

I wasn't sure I wanted to go out driving in it however .. so settled in for a relaxing morning. One thing I ended up doing was signing up for a 3 month Spotify trial for $.99 on Swagbucks - 300 SBs. I gotta say .. I like it so far. Not enough to justify $10/month after the trial, but I do like it.

Early this afternoon the snow started melting ... so I made myself get out and do some errands.

First thing I did was deposit the money my aunt gave me for my airplane ticket. (cash) Then I went to a credit union I'd opened an account at when I first moved here and closed out my accounts - $37.

That $37 wasn't accounted for in my budget (in fact, I thought I only had $35.) So I decided I'd let myself play with the money a bit.

That sent me to Walmart. The first thing I did was take a sample video cassette of each type to the photo counter. I found out it would cost $25 for each 2 hour length DVD -- plus I wouldn't be able to do any editing before hand.

I got the name of two other places in town where I might be able to both watch/edit beforehand AND transfer to DVD. If memory serves me correctly, the videos are going to need a LOT of editing ...

My first priority really are the slides though. The cost at Walmart for 40 slides/DVD was about $25. Ouch. I'd be roughly guessing here, but I think I have at least 3 or 4000 slides. And I only took the ones starting in 1977 - the year my parents got married (I was 2 yrs old.) I don't plan on using ALL the slides, but even if I culled 10% ... this may be a multi-year project. Multi-year Christmas gifts ...

I bought about $20 worth of groceries, etc. at Walmart (3 of which work for iBotta rebates.) It won't come out of my grocery budget though, since it was unbudgeted money.

I had about $13 left. Then I stopped at the library to return some overdue books. I walked out with about $2. Darn you library fines!

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Question ... how would you react?

Every week I do NE's and I's laundry. He only has a few pieces of clothing he wears all week. So I add in my own stuff to make a full load. He provides the quarters. I provide the detergent and labor.

Last night after he collected his clothes from where I'd left them, he made a remark about our socks being mixed together. I was a bit miffed, and told him all it took was 2 seconds for him to pick out his own socks. He replied something about "should do laundry right." I told him he was more than welcome to do his own laundry if he thought I wasn't doing it right.

He thinks I was making too big of a deal of it. Notice - no where in there was any thanks for doing my laundry, etc.

To me, I don't mind doing the laundry. What irks me to high heaven is being told I'm not "doing it right" - especially when coupled with no expression of appreciation for my doing it in the first place. (He thinks he shouldn't have to tell me thanks since he's providing the quarters and I'm doing my laundry at the same time. Notice - he didn't do his laundry while I was gone - even though he had a key to the laundry room here and could've used my soap ...)

Anyway .. just curious about how other's might react in this situation.

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So not excited about going back to work tomorrow. At least I have several holidays to look forward to this month.

Two weeks left of Year 39. Yikes!

Well I took my list of what I wanted to get at CVS, Target and Walmart along with the list of what coupons and available rebates I had and went shopping.

I ran into my first glitch at CVS - they didn't have the 5ct Allegra D 24 hr or 10ct Allegra D 24 hr. I only had a coupon with me for those sizes. Ugh. So I ended up just getting a pack of Orbit gum ($.50 after rebate.)

Then I headed to Target. I couldn't find the bread I wanted, so I got a different kind. Then when checking the cereal out, I realized that the Any Cereal rebate was vamooshed! As was the Any Cookies rebate. Ugh. Both had been there as of 11:30 p.m.

I got out of Target for $47.xx - that was after coupons, Target discounts, and using the 5% debit card (which I got today.) Part of the haul included 2 Terry's Chocolate Oranges (which I have been looking all over for!) and two large jugs of Gold Peak Sweet Tea for NE (thank you gift for taking care of Kari while I was gone.) (I have to mention ... I managed to control myself and ONLY buy two Amy's meals. )

Next I hit up Walmart. I couldn't find some of the things I wanted (like Challenge Cream Cheese) but got most of what was on my list. After using $20.18 in gift cards ($15 from Bounts, $5.18 from Savings Catcher) and ~$7 in coupons, I walked about paying $5.47.

I'll be getting $4.50 back from MobiSave, $4.60 from iBotta, and $3 from SavingStar. I've submitted my new Walmart receipt to Savings Catcher - so will have to wait and see if I get anything from that.

I'll have to go back to CVS tomorrow with a coupon for the 10ct 24 hr Allegra D ($5 off) because I'm down to one left. I found two $5 coupons and a $4 one - all expire on December 29. I'm not sure how I'll be able to use all of them before they expire (unless NE decides he needs some Allegra D ... )

Other than the Allegra though, I think I will be done with spending for the coming week (outside of rent,etc.).

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ION - The great weight loss challenge ... I managed to lose 1 lb this month. Better than nothing, right? NE will weigh in when he gets here later - hope he's done better than me.

I got back to NE mid-afternoon on Friday. Been mostly resting and relaxing since then.

The trip went pretty well. As expected, my brother didn't come. So I ended up going through the shed with all of dad's things by myself on Tuesday. Tuesday night I FaceTimed with my brother so he could pick out what he wanted to send up with our Aunt.

I left everything out on the back porch - most of it was under a roof (one of the last projects my dad finished with a lifetime buddy of his.) Guess what? That night around 3:30 a.m. I woke up to the sound of RAIN!

I ran out to the porch and got everything under cover that hadn't been. A box of books got ruined, but that was the worst of it.

I spent a lot of time on Wednesday going through my dad's slides and trying to repackage them into smaller packages.

Part of Wednesday also was spent taking my grandma and Aunt out for a mani/pedi and out to eat (my treat.)

Thursday we had one guest for dinner. We had WAY too much food for 4 people. There was even a "turkey" - I think they got it at the Village Market (Loma Linda) - it looked like a real turkey - even had a hole where you put stuffing in! Weird.

I took home a LOT of slides and a few other things of my dad's. I had brought my biggest suitcase with the bare minimum of stuff in it. I ended up filling it completely, plus a large backpack of dad's AND a reusable grocery bag my aunt gave me.

Even so ... my suitcase weighed in at 55lb! Which meant a $75!!!!! overweight fee. Ugh!

My aunt lent me a machine to feed the slides into my computer.

I bought something on Amazon for a Christmas gift which apparently gave me a year's unlimited storage space on Amazon Drive. ???? I'll take it! I'm going to have a lot of photos and video's to upload.

That's the other thing I took - numerous home videos in two different formats, and a bunch of recorded sermons on cassette tape. I'm going to have to figure out how to get the videos into a watchable format.

My plan is to get everything onto DVDs and then give them as gifts to Mom, brother, aunt, grandma next year. Hopefully I can get it all done by then.

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Tomorrow I plan on doing some shopping.

I have $21 in Walmart gift card money. I also have about $31 left in grocery money. I also have around $50 in the Medical category (allergy meds!)If I get everything I'm planning on, I'll get back somewhere between $10 - 15 from iBotta, and $5 or so from MobiSave, and a $3-4 from the other apps.

I went through iBotta, Saving Star, MobiSave, SavingStar, etc., and also printed out a bunch of coupons. Tomorrow I'm going to double check the Target app because there were a lot of things expiring today.

I have a printed out list of everything I have a rebate and/or coupon for (that I want/can use.)

I'm looking forward to shopping.

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I redeemed a $25 AGC from PerkTv on Friday.

I completed my 5 months of spending $500 on Discover - so in a week or so I should get my $75 cashback bonus.

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I'm glad to be back, although I was glad I made the trip out to CA!

I had a really bad night of sleep - finally woke up around 4 a.m. and then went back to sleep around 5 ... next thing I knew it was 9 a.m. Oops! I ended up being 25 minutes late for Sabbath School. With the way I was feeling (miserable x 2) I *almost* just didn't go.

Church service was really really good. We had a guest speaker who was born in Russia as an atheist. At the age of 24? he was given one-year to live. Someone gave him a Bible - he read it and started following some of the health principles. Started getting better. A while later he was given a book by Ellen G White about health principles. Now it's 26 years later ...

He was there to talk about his work with the Muslim population and to raise funds for an outreach project which is set to go except for the funds.

Church usually gets out about 12:15 or so ... today was 12:52. He was really good and interesting, so other than worrying about my afternoon plans, I didn't mind.

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So after church (still feeling miserable) I ate lunch with the others who were going to a place here which serves the homeless/refugee/low-income people in our city.

I came very close to deciding not to go.

When we got to the center I was put at a table with one of the staff. We had clipoards with surveys in three languages (English, Spanish, Arabic) which people were required to fill out.

This wasn't *quite* what I'd been expecting to do ... but I went with it.

I'd been there for a couple hours when another staff member came to our table and we started talking.

He came from Iraq in 2013 where he was a university professor (taught Iraq Civil Code or something like that.) We talked about a lot of things - such as how nobody *wants* to leave their home country - to leave behind friends, family, tradition, good jobs. I asked him about what he thought about ISIS/Daesh and about the US involvement in Iraq. He pretty much praised Bush, Jr. for his strong arm/stance and vilified Obama as weak - even saying that he strongly thinks that Obama is pretty much responsible for the rise of ISIS. Something about the US being able to tell people in Turkey? to stop funding the ISIS - but they haven't - and that's what's made ISIS so strong.

When we were talking about refugees - he was telling me about how beautiful Syria is - how the people are very clever/intelligent/beautiful/handsome. He also mentioned that Steve Jobs actually had a Syrian background.

About this time is when we were interrupted to go bag apples.

All in all, I am SO glad that I decided to tough it out and go despite how I felt.

On the way home though I was feeling *really* hungry (only had a sandwich at lunch because wasn't that hungry) and thirsty ... so stopped at Walgreen's for a drink and snack. $5.18. Ouch.

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Oh, at church today I was given a robe to fix the braiding on (for our Christmas drive through pageant) - hope I can do a decent job on it. I can hardly remember the last time I did any sewing. (I have til Dec 12 to get what I can done on it.)

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Now I'm just trying to keep warm without turning my heat on ...

When 4:30 hit today I was SO SO happy. My boss isn't too excited about me being gone (she's going to have to do some of the things I usually do.)

From 4:30 today til 8:00 a.m. December 1 I will not have to answer the question of, "Where's the bus?"

Yahoo!!

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I got my $15 Pinecone payment today, and yesterday cashed out for $10 from Pact. I'm still waiting for my $25 from Swagbucks (PayPal.)

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I think I figured out why my sinus/allergy issues flared up badly again this week. My flonase was just about out! IOW I hadn't been getting any really good sprays.

Yesterday I opened a new one, and it worked wonders! (not that I got much more sleep ... but at least no horrible head splitting sinus headache at 3:30 a.m.!)

I am looking at that MyPurMist thing CB mentioned. Have to decide how to fund purchasing it if I decide to. I have more than enough in AGC, but really don't want to use those for that. But ... there is the AmEx deal of getting $15 back if you spend $60 on Amazon .. or the Chase thing of 10% back of what you spend. (Although AmEx is the better deal by far.) The AmEx deal is good through the end of December I think, so I have time to decide what to do.
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NE and I have decided to do homemade pizza for our early Thanksgiving Sunday night. Since I already have the cheese, mushrooms, and cream cheese, he's going to buy the pizza kit and his hamburger (for his side of the pizza.)

My plane leaves at 7 a.m. Monday morning, and from what I'm hearing it's being suggested to be at the airport 2 hours early. So ... that means leaving here by 4 a.m. Yuck and double yuck. I can at least try to sleep on the plane though.

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I haven't spent any money since Monday I think - except for gas on Thursday. $2.17/gallon ... not bad. (Although I've heard in some places it's under $2/gallon!)

I only bought $15 worth since there's really only a few days left in November where I'll be driving my car. I sent the remainder of my gas category to my Remote Starter fund. A whole $4.66. Yep, I'll get that sometime this century. ($350 needed.)

I am planning on buying some sweet potatoes this week. They are $.36/lb at Aldi's and one of the apps has a $.20 rebate on them.

Ibotta has quite a few real food rebates for November. When I get back from CA I plan on a grocery trip to make use of them. (Probably go to Walmart - have around $20 in gift card money between Savings Catcher, Bounts, etc.)

So yesterday I wanted to check my credit card account which I use for gas only (get 5% back all the time.) Only I couldn't remember for sure what my password was and got locked out.

So this afternoon I got on the site and was looking for the customer service number when the advertisements for the rewards cards caught my eye.

I for whatever reason decided to look at the different cards ... One of which was the same card I have.

I noticed something weird though .. the fine print for the card I have showed a $25 annual fee if you didn't have a qualifying account.

Say what?!

So when I called customer service to unlock my password I also asked about this. I found out that I had been grandfathered in to no account fees, but THIS was the end of the grandfathered period! (November!)

In the end I opened up a money market account with $25 so that I could keep a no annual fee (and the 5% - otherwise it would've gone to 3%.) I can withdraw the $25 from the money market account with no penalties. So stupid the shenanigans.

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My sinuses are killing me, even with allergy meds. I'm beginning to wonder if I don't have a sinus infection. ugh!

Just 3 more days of work!!!!!!!!

Sunday I actually managed to motivate myself to do some housework. In about 30 minutes I got my place looking/smelling almost as good as it did after the housecleaner lady was here.

I also spent some time at the church working in the library. I got the rest of the books recorded in LibraryThing and did some reorganizing/labeling. I realized though that the labels that were left for me aren't going to work. Am thinking about how to do it better ... (Also trying to figure out how to check books out via LibraryThing's app.)

I earned a $10 ECB from CVS for setting up the prescription reminder service. I tried finding things that also had rebates or ECB to make it stretch further. But except for one item with a $1 rebate from MobiSave, CVS didn't have what I was looking for. So I did end up spending just $.40 more than the $10 ECB plus got $1 rebate (MobiSave.)

This month I've gotten $8 from MobiSave - they nearly immediately send the money to your paypal - no waiting to reach a payout amount. Pretty cool.

I also went to the local grocery store and got bananas ($.39/lb) and some other stuff (can't remember right now.) That was under $10.

Sunday night NE and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Seward, NE - we both got fajitas. His were beef, mine were veggie. I had leftovers for lunch today. Yum! (NE's treat this month.)

We're planning on doing something next Sunday as "our" Thanksgiving meal since I'll be in CA next week. Might just make a pizza or something.

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Tonight I was debating about going to see a local high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof. It would have been $8 at the door. I was really tempted, but ended up deciding to stay home instead.

Cooked up my sweet potatoes and a cups worth of quinoa which I'm dividing up for dinners.

Tomorrow night I'm planning on cooking up some veggies and soup, and also grilling/frying those Quorn patties. Then add that to my dinner rotations.

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I think it was yesterday that I cashed out mypoints for a $25 AGC. I'm thinking it will be a long time before the next cash out there.

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NE applied for a Paypal credit card and was approved instantly. (I think that made him feel pretty good.) All the better for improving the credit score. (I wonder if the paypal card has the Fico feature?

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Walgreen's had a really tempting offer today - buy a Fitbit Charge ($129) and get 30k points. That's roughly $40. Maybe they'll have the same deal again next year ... When I get my next Achievemint app money ($100 - 71% of the way there!), I'll set it aside in the Health category so I can get the charge if I really want it next year.

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It makes me so sad what some people are posting on FB about the recent events. And how infantile some governors are acting. Mine included. Ugh.

Today at church our pastor started a sermon series about "reasons to believe the Bible" Today's was about scientific facts in the Bible. Such as the Bible writers talking about the Earth being round - centuries before the idea had even been postulated.

Anyway, it was pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

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After church one of the ladies I have gone walking with in the past asked if I wanted to go today (the official group is disbanded for the year.) So we set a time and a place.

About an hour or so after I got home, I got a hip call from my mom. It was kind of funny because she was talking to someone about what movie to go see - I kept trying to get her attention to no avail.

As soon as I hung up, the phone rang again. It was a high-school friend of my mom's who was in town and wanted to meet me.

So I got going earlier than planned and went and met the lady/husband/son/son's girlfriend. They seemed like nice people. I couldn't stay very long though because I had to get to the park.

We had a good walk - about an hour. My allergies are really acting up right now though. I'm so sleepy and am thinking about going to bed even though it's just past 7 pm!

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I redeemed for a $5 Walmart gc from Bounts today.
I also received $2 in rebates from MobiSave.

I haven't done very well with my moratorium on spending on sweets/fast food this week. I just have to say NO! Not an option!

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I talked to my Grandma today. It doesn't sound like my brother will be there for Thanksgiving. I'm not shocked, but I am disappointed. It actually kind of sounds like it might just be me, Grandma and my aunt there. That'll be interesting.

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When I was talking about my car service a few days ago, I forgot to mention that I found out how much it would cost to have a remote starter installed. $349.

Yeowch! I ... made a category for it. I'm going to throw "leftovers" from groceries/gas into it. If there ever are "leftovers" in the groceries category ... Maybe by next winter I can get it.

One month left in my thirties. Yikes.

My boss let me go early again today. Made a short week even shorter.

On my way home I heard the horrific news about the happenings in Paris. What is our world coming to. It just can't last much longer like this.

I'm relaxing now with a blanket and kitty covering me up and keeping me fairly warm. Haven't turned the heat on yet!

There is snow in the forecast for next weekend .. I'm flying out a week from Monday. Hopefully it won't cause any delays.

I finally got enough Mypoints to redeem for a $25 AGC card today. Now to start saving for the next one.

Anyone else with Inbox Dollars get reduced to one paid email per week? I was at almost $24 and am now earning a measly $.02 / week from emails ... It's gonna be 4ever! to get to payout.

NE and I are going to a Mexican restaurant on Sunday (his treat this month!) I'm hopefully going to be able to get veggie fajitas again.

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Our new bus routes plan has been posted. Already getting some calls about it today. I forsee people being very happy about some aspects of it, and very upset about other aspects. Can't please everyone. I wish they'd mentioned on the announcement that any changes made won't take effect til August of 2016.

(I'm going to have to relearn everything I pretty much know about the bus routes when that happens.)

Hard to believe that in just one week I'm going to have TEN whole days AWAY from work. So sweet!

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Can I just say that Pinecone is really coming through for me recently? After a few s l o w months of surveys, just this week I had 3 in a matter of two days ... and a surprise on my doorstep when I arrived home today. Plus another survey in my email.

This morning I had a surprise visit from NE. He'd gotten some paperwork from a laywer regarding his inheritance which he wanted to tell me about. Before he left I had him look at my transmission fluid to see its color. Instead of being red, it was dark brown.

So ... at Brakes Plus I had them ... rotate tires, change the transmission fluid, replace the windshield wipers AND replace the serpentine belt. To the tune of $217 (after a $25 coupon - bought wipers next door for $28)

The serpentine belt is what was causing the squealing noises. It was dry and had lots of cracks. My wipers were in pretty bad shape - I'd known I needed to replace them (although I sure didn't remember them costing so much! ... 5 or 6 years ago the last time I got new ones on my Honda ...)

So far, no more squealing!

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After I was done there I stopped and got some groceries (since I was right next to a grocery store.)

Then I went home and vegged for a few hours.

This whole time it was raining and a little blustery. The winds haven't been too bad though (although there are lots of leaves on the ground now that weren't there yesterday.)

I just got back from spending a few hours at the church going through lots of donated books. I set up an account for the church library on LibraryThing and scanned all the scannable books from the donated piles which I wanted. Later I'll print out labels for them. I also will need to manually add the ones which couldn't be scanned.

I didn't get through all the donated books, or to scanning the ones already in the library. Next time.

One cool thing about doing this - I now have the access code for the church wifi!

While I was at the church there were a bunch of kids coming for our church's version of boy/girl scouts. Some of them were very excited about ... SNOW! Most of it was melting as soon as it hit the ground though.
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When I got home I saw that I got my reimbursement from MobiSave for the Allegra D - $5.

One of the items I bought today at the grocery store will get a rebate too - $1 I think. Just need to get a picture of the receipt taken.
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All in all, this was a good day off.

So today was one of those days at work.

I had the person who kept interrupting me before I could answer their question ...

I had the person who started taking Jesus's name in vain all because they were going to have a 30 minute wait at the main transfer station ...

I had the person who came to the window on their cell phone and acted very annoyed with every question I asked / every time I spoke to them ...

Then I had someone ask me why we have a sign up about no cell phones at the window --- point to above reason ---

Then I had the person who had no earthly idea of their location and expected me to know where they were by just rattling off some business names (gas station, other places that are multiple locations ...)

So yeah ...

Not to mention that the office is super duper COLD. I think it's colder inside than it is outside! I wore a sweater today which helped, but my hands were still freezing!

Then CW who loaded a time sensitive project on me a few months ago started telling me about a new project she wants me to do. Supposedly NOT a time sensitive one - but to do whenever I have time to fill.

She of course went on and on and on off on different rabbit trails. I told her I'd be happy to do it - I just can't log off the phone very often nor for very long. (Like I had to log off the phone when she came to tell me about this project .. 25 minutes later ...)

Seriously, if she'd stop talking so much to people about how little time she has and how much she is overwhelmed, she might just get done what she needs to get done! I would guess she wastes at least 6+ hours a week talking about this to various people at the office (mostly me or my supervisor.)

She's a nice person, but I try to avoid her if I can just because she can be a time suck.

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I think I've decided to NOT do the transmission flush for my car tomorrow. I did some more reading on it, and it looks like it's not recc'd until at least 100k. I am still going to get my tires rotated and my belts looked at (Toyota Yaris's don't have timing belts - the have timing chains, which almost never need to be replaced.)

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So .. today was not a no spend day. I gave in to temptation. I stopped at Walgreen's hoping they had the chocolate oranges in.

Nope. But I did still end up buying a couple of candy bars and a Coke. Also bought toilet cleaner. ~$6 total

I was also WAY tempted to stop by BK. But I managed to resist that one. Yay me?

Thinking I'd have a sweet potato for dinner. Nope. Checked them and they'd all gone bad. Argh.

So .. finally opened up a box of Quorn Chic'n Cutlets I bought in September? Microwaved two of them according to directions.

Yuck. Double yuck. SO bland. I had to smother them in ketchup to eat.

I think the only thing to do is to fry them in breading or something. Which kind of negates the whole healthy factor (and since I'll need to use eggs to get the breading to stick ... makes them not vegan. Not that I really care about that.)

I've got around 5 more boxes of Cutlets left. 3 boxes of nuggets (which I *think* are breaded.)

These are definitely NOT going to be a good deterrent to my "stop at BK or eat at home" argument with myself ...

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Decided to NOT go to a movie tonight. Just too tired (didn't sleep well last night at all.)

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nasty. I'm so glad I won't have to field phone calls on a day like tomorrow will probably be. Doubly glad to have tomorrow off.

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Almost forgot - a bus funny -

Guy calls me and tells me he left a horse statue on the bus. I clarify with him until I get the picture that it is a 6 inch wooden statue of a horse. He had it sitting on the seat next to him. Not in a bag or anything - just out on the seat.

Another one - guy calls complaining about a couple who brought on two large dogs on the bus. Says that the bus driver told the couple they had to pay $1 per dog.

Um ... Had my supervisor talk to this guy. She figured out that he had no real idea what time this happened or for sure which bus route. She thinks he was making it all up. (No, we don't charge for animals brought on to the bus.)

Bizarre.