Keeping It Frugal

I haven't post too much lately, been pretty busy with work and had a couple days where I felt like I almost had what was a migraine ...

I haven't been spending very much recently .. which is good since I'd spent way too much earlier this month...

This past week I had 5 no spend days. Friday was a spend day ... I had to go get fingerprinted and drop off paperwork for teaching summer school. Fingerprinting/background check cost $44.00. But it'll be worth it in the end ... 3 weeks of Summer School pays ~$3k. (More than twice what I'd make in 3 weeks during the regular school year ...) The background check is good as long as I don't take a summer off ... and it counts for me transferring my TX license to NM (which I need to do soon!)

I also finally managed to stop at Walgreens and pick up my prescription - only was out of it for 2 1/2 weeks!! (last weekend I tried twice, and they were closed by the time I got there.)

I sent home overdue notices last week for students/teachers - letting them know the last day to return books was May 18. In short order I had about 40 overdue items returned ... still need 50 or so. 2 weeks left of regular library classes, then the 3rd week will be making sure all books are in/no check out. Then the final week where I'll start inventory (though maybe I'll actually start it the previous week ...) This school does it much differently than anywhere else I've worked. Our final day of school/classes is May 25, and our final on contract work day is May 25. Everywhere else I've been, there's been 4 contract work days past the final school day. Interesting way to do it - would hate to be a classroom teacher with that schedule though.

We only have 25 yearbooks left (started with 84.) I hadn't realized we sold quite so many til Thursday when I counted them to double check the money. I have the feeling most of the remaining ones will vanish this coming week. I've gotten lots and lots of compliments on the yearbook - although I made 3 big mistakes. 1. left out picture of school nurse (she'd asked me to use last year's pic, and in my attempt to do so, I unchecked the box "use this photo" ...) 2. added an extra kid to first grade class (sibling of student not in school yet who got picture taken at same time ...) and 3. misspelled art teachers name on specials page. Arghh! Next year my goal is to have no mistakes!!

Talked to my mom today since I hadn't heard back from her since she'd returned from cruise with friend JH. Surprise surprise - she's back with M with whom she's had a total of 7?? breakups and get backs in a year's time. Oy vey.

I'm wondering if I can make hummus in a Ninja blender?? I was thinking that'd make a good addition to my lunch salad instead of relying on trail mix constantly. But I figure it'd be cheaper for me to make it myself than to buy it pre-made. (plus I can control how spicy it is ... in other words very little spicy!)

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I figured out today that I still have full access to my Rocket Spanish account - something I purchased back in 2007. At that time it was only good for a year, so I thought it'd expired. But the upgrade/update has made it lifetime access, and I guess that was retroactive. They've made some cool improvements - including this feature where you can record yourself speaking and match it against the instructors voice. I'd gone through about half of the lessons previously, but am starting back from scratch.

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I was looking at the AASL site to see where the next conference is going to be - it's going to be in SC in October. I'm trying to decide if I want to petition to go to it or not ... it would be great to be around a bunch of practicing school librarians, but I was kind of hoping for a site in CA or TX or maybe TN ... someplace where I could meet up with people I knew. I missed that opportunity this year (ALA was in Dallas in January!) I've got a few months to think about it.

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There's 3 movies out (or out soon) that I want to see: The Raven (I love Poe, though this sounds like it might be on the gruesome side even for Poe ...); Men in Black 3, and The Avengers. Luckily I have plenty left in my entertainment fund to do all 3 movies. (Will Smith/Robert Downey Jr ... mmmm mmmm!)

I've been a member of ING since around 2003. The *only* thing about it that wasn't wonderful was that the only way to put money into your account was via transfer from another bank or mailing your check.

Today, that all changed!! They now have the service available to upload images of your check via scanner/camera to deposit, or to use your ING app on a smartphone to deposit checks!! It'll take 5 days to process the check.

I am so excited! I had been depositing checks via PayPal and then transferring to ING. This now cuts the time in half (more really, because I'd often forget to check PP to see if the deposit cleared ...)

Yahoo!

If you don't have an ING account yet and are interested, I'd be more than happy to help you out with a referral link. You get $50, and I get $10. I just need an email address (be sure to post it in a goobly gok way so the spiders don't steal it!)

example: My email ***** 1234 *** kareem **** @ **** yahoo (not my email address )

So I was checking my Mypoints CC statement on Friday and I noticed something strange. There was a charge for $36.xx at a gas station, and then for that same day/time/station there was a credit for that same amount. I know I got the gas, and I don't remember anything weird about the transaction. I'm not sure who I'd ask about why I got the money credited back - someone at the gas station I guess ... though unless the manager is there I don't know who else would have a clue by 4. The gas station is about 20 miles from here, so not exactly a place I can just "stop by" til I find a person who knows what happened.

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I'm considering going 95% vegan. I'm not interested in being 100% vegan because that would be really difficult here, plus I don't want to have to think about every bite I put in my mouth that much or every article of clothing I purchase ...

So anyway ... one thing I'm trying to figure out is how to make a cottage cheese substitute without using tofu. With my hypothyroidism I need to limit my soy/tofu intake as much as possible (which is hard but not impossible as a vegetarian.) I found one recipe that used soy milk instead of tofu, and am wondering if I could use Rice Milk instead for the same effect??

Vegan Soy Milk CC Mostly I want to use this for making casserole dishes (such as my favorite Special K roast.)

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I was invited out to the home of one of our church members yesterday. It was a lot of fun. She'd made Asparagus soup - yum! As well as vegetarian tamales (again - yum!) As we were talking, I found out that she'd met her husband at Weimar while attending an 18-day Diabetes reversal seminar. Weimar is run by the Seventh-day Adventist church and has at it's foundation the idea of NEWSTART. (She was pretty impressed that I remembered most of what that stood for - from 7th grade science.) Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance (moderation), Air, Rest, Trust (in a higher power.) What you eat while there is essentially a vegan diet, and you learn how to cook numerous vegan dishes. You also get daily massages and hydrotherapy (hot/cold water treatments.)

I've thought about going and participating in a session before, but never had done any real research into it. After talking with her and hearing first hand about it, I was even more interested. I did some research last night on it (i.e. cost) and realized it is probably not something I'd ever be able to afford unless I develop health problems where my insurance would be willing to help with the cost to allay the health problems.

So ... I already know that eating ice cream doesn't agree with me very well anymore and I rarely if ever drink real milk ... so cheese, eggs and cottage cheese would be the main things I would need to figure out how to do without. Even with eggs though I generally use the egg substitute ...

My plan is to finish eating what I already have in my cupboards/fridge/freezer but then from now on, whatever I purchase will be non-dairy.

Two things I won't give up will be honey and chocolate. (Which is part of why I'm not going 100% vegan -- really, technically, I'll just essentially be a bit stricter of a vegetarian. Currently I'm considered a lacto-ovo vegetarian (dairy products.)

I was told we have a health food store in big G - so I may try looking that up and see what they have to offer.

I think by doing this, my grocery bill will actually eventually go down. I'm hoping that my cravings for sugar/junk food will be reduced the more healthily I eat, and I'll feel better overall so will have more energy (mental and physical) to actually *make* food rather than be a mainly microwave cook. (I still would do a lot of microwaving - just of food that I prepared ahead of time myself and froze.)

---Anyway, I probably won't get too serious about this til school is out and I have time to really figure everything out. All I know is that I need to do something to stop the direction of my scale and something to give myself the energy to not be a computer potato.

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This week we have a male candidate coming! I imagine he's interviewing for a mid-school position. I bet our PE teacher would LOVE to have another male teacher at the school so he wouldn't be so outnumbered.

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My hot water went out sometime in the last two days. I discovered it Saturday morning as I was about to take a shower before going to church. No one knows the number for the new maintenance person of course. One of my coworkers has already offered me the use of her guest shower, but it still leaves me with a sinkful of dirty dishes (which I'd planned on washing last night.)

I tried relighting it myself (like the person showed me how to do last time) but I couldn't get it to work. Arghh!

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When I was at Walmart Friday I saw a summer dress with beautiful beading on it's front. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. It'll be a great dress for SrN's special retirement assembly (has a very native american feel to it.) As I was heading to the fitting rooms, I came across a display of flat sandals (the kind with enclosed heels and criss cross open straps.) They had a pair in my size!! Normally it takes me months and months to find a shoe that I like and that is in my size - but here I found *exactly* what I'd been looking for last summer, before I'd even started to formally begin my latest search. (the sandals I wore last summer/early fall are pretty much shot - even with the $50 price tag!) The dress and shoes cost $26 together. I'm thinking of maybe going back and getting a second pair of the sandals - just because I know how hard it is to find them (and because I'm thinking of using one pair for church/dressy occasions, and one pair for every day wear.)

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I called the medical clinic on Monday about my prescription not being refilled. No apologies were offered, but they said they'd take care of it. I finally got a message from Walgreens on Thursday that my prescription was ready for me! I was going to stop by on Friday, but forgot until it was too late. Then it became too late yesterday as well. I'm going to call them today to make sure it isn't the generic, then I'll go in a 3rd time to town - maybe take in "Lucky One" while I'm in town so it's not a trip *just* for a prescription!!

On a whim tonight I decided to log in to all my credit card accounts. I made an interesting discovery (ha ha) when looking at my Discover account. Apparantally they pull surprise categories for the 5% cash back thing. Groceries had not been included previously for April - June, but has been added as a category for May - up to $300. So ... I guess I'll be buying $300 of Walmart gift cards in May - Or I'll see how much I spend in grocery categories in May, then get the remainder of the $300 in grocery gift cards. Seeing as though I was already thinking of doing it this way to try to help curb my grocery bill....

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The other night I dropped my wireless keyboard and the batteries fell out. They needed replacing anyway, so I replaced them. As I was working on replacing them I apparently was depressing the enter key -- and was on a SB search page. When I looked up from working on the batteries I found a Searching Too Fast warning. So I wrote to SB support immediately to explain what happened.

Tonight I get an email back from them all but accusing me of cheating - i.e. using a bot or auto refresher. To my knowledge I've never missed one of those stupid captchas, and I definitely know I don't have a bot or auto refresher. I would do nothing to jeopardize my best source of free books for the library!!

My inclination was to write back a bit of a nasty note ... but I resisted. I'm not sure that any kind of a response would be a good idea. Just roll my eyes at their idiocy and make sure that the enter key doesn't get depressed like that again on a search page. Argh!

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I'm just about through with S4 of Pretender - at least the episodes that Hulu + has available. That's part of why I haven't been too active here lately.

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We've interviewed three people here in the last few weeks. One of them has definitely been given a contract, one definitely not, and the last one I'm not sure of yet. Next year sure is going to be interesting ... To put it one way .. the teachers who are leaving are in their mid-20's/30's. All 3 who've interviewed so far are in their mid 50's to early 60's. The one that was hired - I didn't get a chance to really get a feel for her comfort level with technology - though she did state that she thought FB was a big waste of time and she doesn't have an account. While I agree that it can be a waste of time, here it has been a great way for those teachers who are connected on it to communicate outside of school hours.

Anyway ... I better head off to the haystacks ... tomorrow I have no classes (because my normal classes are all off to a Bishop's Mass in little G for the majority of the day) however, I have a lot to do in the library and computer lab.

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I received my AGC from Mypoints today. $50 in books will be ordered soon.

Arghh!! So last weekend I realized I was down to my last 4 Synthroid - so I called Walgreen's for a refil. Oops, I was out of refills so they had to get approval from my doctor. I didn't hear anything AT ALL from either Walgreen's or my doctor.

So today after potluck I stopped at Walgreen's hoping that it was just an oversight that I hadn't gotten a text saying my prescription was ready. Nope. Apparentally when they called my doctor's office, whoever answered told them that my refill request was denied. That the NP who'd prescribed the previous prescription had left (retired) and I needed to see the new person.

Um ... can we say incompetent? Perhaps disorganized? Perhaps some other words that aren't very nice??? I had blood work done in January - because I'd been low on them and rationing, my numbers were really off. So I had to come back and get more done. Which I did, on Ash Wednesday (I remember that because I ended up missing most of the Ash Wednesday Mass at school.) The appt. was only supposed to be for bloodwork, but I was surprised with .. are you ready for it?? .... the new doctor!

So of course they are closed until Monday. I'll be calling them on Monday and raising a fuss, but even if they immediately call in a new prescription for me I will either have to make an extra trip to G ((35 miles one way) or wait til Friday when I'm going to G anyway. I should ask them if they'll take $10 off my bill I just got from them for gas money to make the extra trip! Hah!

I've been out since Thursday (and that was with skipping a dose on Monday) so if I wait til Friday, it would be ten days off of it - which is really not good for keeping the levels stable.

I thought about asking a co-worker who also takes the same dosage if I could have 4 of hers and then when I get my next scrip replace them, but then I remembered that she takes the generic kind. I won't touch the generic kind with a ten foot pole.

I also thought about asking the clinic if they had any samples at that dosage ... but the likelihood of that is slim to none ...

Seriously though, if the clinic got a call alerting them to the fact that I was trying to get a refill and they denied it -WHY didn't they call me and tell me??? If I had any other place to go here for medical stuff, I would go there in a heartbeat. But they are my only option unless I go 30+ miles away.

It actually is probably good they were closed today - I might have bit somebody's head off.

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In other news ... we had a snowstorm today! About an inch stuck for a few hours - mostly gone already although it is still lightly snowing. Thursday we had a high of 68, and Monday the high is supposed to be in the high 60's/low 70's. Crazy weather.

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My stand fan quit working and our swamp coolers are still covered to prevent them freezing. So Friday when I went grocery shopping I bought a new stand fan. I also bought another $60 worth of groceries. I'm not sure why I bought so much at one time - mostly it was canned soups, veggie baked beans, canned sweet peas (had them at the school cafe last week and got a real hankering for more ...), etc.

No more grocery shopping for me this month, that's for sure!!

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I had 4 new tires put on my car Friday. It came out to $269.xx. Gulp. I can definitely tell a difference in the smoothness of the ride and even the noise level (much quieter.) I was going to only get 3 new tires since one of them was only maybe 2 years old, but my dad talked me into getting them all replaced (and sweetened the pot by insisting on paying for the 4th one even though I told him it wasn't necessary.) I suppose when it finally comes time to let go of my car it will be good to have newer tires on it.

On another frugal forum where I read I saw someone post about the idea of "future me." The gist of it is that when you are out and about spending money or trying to find "extra" money, that you put it in the context of your future self. For example, in ten years your future self may need an extra $50 for a tank of gas to go to the grocery store. Or, in 20 years your future self may need an extra $200 to fill a badly needed prescription, etc.

So, just like if a good friend needed $20 to fill their gas tank so they could get to work (and you knew they weren't being frivolous with their spending...) you would find a way to come up with the $20 to help them out. Or if your parent needed $50 to fill a very necessary prescription ... you'd find a way to make that happen.

In the same vein, another person suggested looking at your health in the same way. Yes, eating this donut right now might sound really good to Now Self, but is it helping future self be more healthy? Sitting in front of the tv for several hours when you get home from work may sound good to Now Self, but what could you do for your future self - to make your future self more healthy?

Anyway, I thought it was a really neat way to look at both financial and other everyday decisions - to not consider the consequences/benefits of only NOW, but to factor in Future consequences/benefits. Somehow I think if I did this more, I would make some better decisions - both financially and healthwise.

What do y'all think? Does this make sense to you?

Today I went to ABQ with three of my coworkers - 5th, 6th and IT. The impetus for the trip was to go spend the available Sch $$ before they expired, but of course when you make a 90 minute one-way trip you want to include as much else as possible.

Our first stop was the book warehouse. I ended up spending $134, $91 of which was covered by Sch $$. The remainder I plan on being reimbursed from our book fair cash proceeds. The others with me also bought some books. We all had way too much fun.

6th had a haircut appt, so we headed towards the mall. But first we stopped at Pet Smart where 6th bought dog supplies and I bought cat supplies (including a felliway type collar that is supposed to help calm anxiety in cats ... we'll see ...) At the mall we all got something called Bubble tea - so called because they put these little chewable bubbles inside your drink which you get with most all of your sips. It's good, but different.

While waiting for 6th to finish her hair appointment, the rest of us went to various stores. One was Old Navy where I got a native style top for 60% off.

We were all ready for lunch by this point, so we stopped at Sweet Tomatoes - kind of similar to Souper Salad. It was very good.

IT had never been inside of a Krispy Kreme store, so of course we had to stop there and let her see it in action. We all left with donuts.

I was really wanting some more veggie corn dogs, and 6th grade wanted to go to Sunflower?? Market - so that's where we went next. I didn't find my corndogs, but I did find my very favorite Amy's dish - Brown Rice and Veggies! I got 3 of them at the sale price of $3.99 (Her meals can be up to $5.50 at some places.)

Next, we headed to Costco where I filled up with gas ($3.61/gall ~8 gallons) and also bought 8 veggie/rice burritos for $10.

Our final stop was Papa Murphy's. 5th grade's family has a Good Friday tradition of eating pizza for supper and she was really missing her family. IT and I also both got pizzas (additionally, I bought a $3 S'Mores dessert pizza - couldn't resist for the price/size!) Total for me there was $14 (I added two extra toppings to my pizza - spinach and pineapple.)

Overall I would say that it was a very good day! And I still have 3 days left of my weekend. **Best of all, everything I spent today fits into my budget.

So today the 5th and 6th grade teachers, our Tech person and I all went on an outing together to ABQ. Our first stop was the Sch Book Warehouse. What a blast we had there!

I got quite a few graphic novels, a few sports related books and various other books. I ended up spending $134, $91 of which was covered by Sch $$. Two of the others also ended up buying a few books each. When we were checking out the guy told us that in a few weeks there will be a 50% off sale through May 23rd. We have a half-day on the 23rd. If I can get the remaining Sch $$ (which will be given once Sch gets our book fair check) to NOT expire before then ... can you say Road Trip?!!

After the books we headed over to the mall where 6th grade teacher had a hair cut appointment. Before going in for that we stopped at Petsmart. 6thGRTea bought dog food, etc., and I bought a collar that is supposed to smooth away a cats anxiety (help with scratching, etc.) At the mall we all got Bubble Tea (very different drink - kind of like a smoothie except that most of the times when you sip you get this gel like bubble that you have to chew, and there is something like juice inside of it.)


While we were waiting for the haircut appt to be done, the rest of us walked around the mall. I actually bought a shirt at Old Navy - a very different shirt for me, but I think it'll be good for when we need to wear "traditional" clothing for special masses, etc. It was $12, so not a steal, but a good deal compared to the regular price of $29.

Once we were done at the mall we headed over to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. It is a place similar to Souper Salad.

Next we headed to Sunflower Market (similar to TJs and Whole Foods). Glory be! I found my very favorite Amy's meal - Brown Rice and Veggies. I got 3 of them (I probably would've gotten more if I had a bigger cooler - they were on sale for $3.99 each ...)

Now on to our real treat of the day ... Krispy Kreme! AL (our Tech) had never been to an actual store, so we made sure to watch the process of the doughnuts going through the baking process and got some hot off the press. Mmmm!

Costco was next on our agenda ... filled up with gas ($3.61/gal - 8.4 gallons) and I bought some veggie burritos (8 of them for $10.)

Our final stop was Papa Murphy's. 3 of us bought a pizza (I bought a pineapple/spinach/mushroom one + also a $3 S'mores dessert pizza. Yum!) We stopped there because 5thGrTeacher's family has a Good Friday tradition of eating pizza on Good Friday night.

All in all, this was a really good day. And it all fit into my budget. (The extra money I spent at the warehouse I will probably take out of the cash we earned from the book fair.) If I did this kind of thing very often, then I definitely would need to curb the amount of spending I did ... but it's very rare that this happens, plus it was good to spend time with others - not to mention that it was really good for AL (she texted me tonight asking if the 5th/6th went on outings fairly regularly - I told her that they do, and she asked me if I thought it'd be ok for her to ask to be included - I told her I thought it would be a great idea! I don't usually go with them because they go on Friday nights or Saturdays - but that isn't a problem for her.)

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Tomorrow I'll probably be in G all day. Church in the late morning/early afternoon, potluck, and then movie night at the pastor's house. I'm not sure what I'll do between potluck and movie night ...

We have the next four days off of school! As one of the teachers put it - one perk of working at a Catholic school.

Today I participated in a Passover Seder meal with the mid-school students. It was really nicely done, and the kids did a pretty good job behavior wise. I was telling AL (our IT person) about how the 3 mid-school teachers washed the feet (1 foot really) of 3 mid-schoolers -- and that in my church we have a foot washing service every 13 weeks where all the women wash each other's feet, and all the men wash each other's feet, and then follow that with a communion service. She'd never heard of the practice of foot-washing. (She's not Catholic, but a fairly traditional Apache.)

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So tomorrow myself and several teachers are headed into ABQ to go to the Sch Book Warehouse and spend some money. I *should* have $175 to spend there, but since we didn't get our final book fair check in yet, I only have $91. I hope that the remainder of the dollars can be set to NOT expire before I have another chance to get down there. (All the dollars are bonus dollars for doing different things during and before the book fair.) Otherwise I'll lose half of them in shipping and handling.

Because of our trip coming up tomorrow (and that I'm taking my car) I took my car to the local auto shop to get the oil changed and a general checkup. The oil + balance/rotation was $49. Unfortunately the mechanic found that 3 of my tires have one or more bulges and need to replaced soon. They are all pretty old, so I'm not shocked at the prognosis.

I'll be having all 4 replaced on Monday for about $269 (the 4th one is okay, but is fairly old too - and I decided that it would be better to have all 4 tires the same age/make, etc.) These will hopefully be the last tires I personally put on this car (only reason I'd be putting on another tire would be if one got an un-fixable hole.)

When I got home today I also cleaned out my car -- well... at least the inside of it. The trunk still is about half-full ... but I at least have room for passengers now.

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A few days ago I signed up for Hulu Plus. What I think I'll probably do is do HP 1 month and then Netflix one month - just go back and forth. Part of what made me do this is that I really wanted to watch The Pretender again and only HP had that. Of course the first couple episodes of S1 aren't working right now (on my computer at least) so instead I started watching the program "Awake." Interesting (2 eps in.)

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I checked my BOFA account yesterday, and saw that they'd taken out a monthly fee again! So I contacted the online CS person. They reversed the fee, and assured me it wouldn't reoccur. If it does, I will be closing that account faster than Superman can fly around the world.

Tonight I spoke with my Aunt in CA to make sure that the night I plan on arriving to her city was ok. She was more than happy, and told me that my cousin J will be there too. I haven't seen J since my brother's college graduation - 2001?? So that will be nice to see her again. (She's 12 I think.)

I will be arriving in N CA on Tuesday night July 11. Then flying to S CA on Sunday. Then going home by train again. Can you believe I saved $12 by going on a Tuesday instead of a Monday or Wednesday??

Total trip (minus flight since dad/grandma are paying for that) will be $188.00. I priced out flights for the entire itinerary, and it was close to $200 more. I may buy a second extra battery though for my phone because after reading the documentation more carefully, it doesn't look like the trains I'll be on will have very many electrical outlets. Of course I'll probably be sleeping most of the first leg of the trip ...

I am really looking forward to this! I hope that I get to meet with my fellow SA'rs on the 14th.

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I bought a lazer pointer this afternoon, and then preceded to tease Kari with it for nearly 30 minutes. She was quite enthusiastic about it. Well worth the $1.

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The DFW area got some really major storms today. Tornadoes touching down and everything. My good friend TC who is a K teacher at a school I used to work at told me they were in the halls for two-hours! So far everyone I've heard from was fine. I did hear though that the hometown of an ex-bf was hit *really* hard. I texted my mom, but haven't heard back yet. She is probably still in the middle of tutoring right now (tutors 4 - 9 M - TH) so I'm not worried.

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I redeemed the last of my 5 $5 AGCs from SBs today for April. I have almost enough left for the first 3 in May - if I get credit for an offer I took a few days ago, I'll have enough for all 5. Then I can start working on June's.

*I think most of the March charges have come in and have been accounted for (other than the hotel charge.*

Income: 2 paychecks, dad's gift, state income tax refund, SB AGC giftcards

Expenses:

Offering/Tithe: $170
Groceries: $230.78
Eating Out: 49.08
Phone/Internet: 129.01
Netflix: 8.65
Life Insurance (1 yr premium): 194.50
Prescriptions: $23
Miscelaneous: 42.02
Kari (cat): 40.07
Library: 369.65
Entertainment: 18.52
Gas: 71.13

Savings/Rainy Day
ROTH : 100.00 (300/1500 goal)
EF: 130.94 (1853.75/5000 goal)
Car Fund: 250 (500/5000 goal)
iPhone: 15 (75/210 goal)
Summer Travel: 190 (190/500 goal)

ROTH + EF savings is more than 10% of income this month, but definitely not where I'd like it to be. Part of the reason it's less this month is because I spent more than I'd planned on my two-day trip, and partly because I spent more than I'd planned on books at the book fair. (Otherwise I'd have an additional $258 from tax refund put into savings.)

I also am now starting to divert some of my funds into travel savings/spending categories, so my total % saved (actual savings with no spending goal in mind) is going to go down.

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Groceries/Eating Out - Ugh. Double ugh. I *must* get a handle on this. A big part of the expenses is that I didn't really budget for my two-day trip. When I decided that I was going to postpone the trip I *really* wanted to do for Spring Break, I kind of stuck my head in the sand about planning money for what I'd do instead.

*Must Not Stick Head in Sand!!*

Life Insurance: This is a $50k 20 year term policy. It will expire when I'm 56. I got it partially so that if anything happens to me my funeral expenses are covered. Now of course with Kari, it will also help cover the expenses of whoever takes her in. I figure by the time I'm 56 I'll have enough other assets to definitively cover both instances (funeral expenses and pet care.)

*I had forgotten about this coming up ... so it also came out of what would have been savings this month. I now have set up a category for it so I'll be ready next March and not have to dip into that months savings!

Miscellaneous: A humidifier, a PIF, and an app. *I realized as I was doing this that a $64 hotel charge has not been accounted for. I thought that the first $40 had already been charged, but I can't find
where I accounted for it. (The last $20 is for the pet fee. My coworker paid me for her part + the pet fee in cash.)

Kari: food, toys

Library - hawaiian leis for book fair, food for the book fair, books from book fair, etc.

Entertainment - "Hunger Games", audible.com, app

Gas - two fill ups

Overall, I'm doing okay. It still looks like I'll be able to make my savings goals for this year. I need to be careful though, and watch my spending more closely. **NO more overspending in the library category!!**

This morning I got a phone call from my mom. She told me that she had bought a couple of the mega millions tickets (not too big of a surprise there). She had just checked her numbers against the winning numbers this morning ... and found out that she had won!! Whoa!!

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April Fools (don't I wish it was true ... )

My coworker and I took a road trip to Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. We left Tuesday morning and drove all the way to Taos, then stayed at a hotel in Santa Fe Tuesday night.

We ate at this neat French Bakery in Santa Fe where we both had crepes for lunch on Tuesday. My coworker also introduced me to Bubble Tea - it's the weirdest thing ... chewing on these little flavored bubbles while drinking ... We stopped at Pet Smart, Barnes & Nobles, Trader Joes, etc.

In Taos we visited Kit Carson's home/museum, a couple different churches, and this huge gorge. We drove up there one way, and took a different route on the way back. It was quite beautiful.

I spent more money than I was really planning on ... but overall I think it was worth it.

Here are some pictures I took:
A wooden bridge which was falling apart:



The bridge going over a huge gorge.

A hewed out log bridge with water running from one side to the other.

A sign in the park where the gorge was located.

This morning I woke up feeling like death warmed over, but had to get up so I could meet the truck picking up the book fair stuff. They were estimated to arrive at 10, but I figured I should be there no later than 9:30 just in case they got there early. They got there at a bit after 12!!!

Oh well, I used the time wisely and got a good bit done in picking the library up and got most of our new books cataloged (ones bought from the book fair for our library.)

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When I got home I got several loads of laundry done, and a load of dishes. I also took out a couple bags of trash from around the house, swept the whole place, and scrubbed the bathroom.

My pastor and his family are coming for a visit on Friday .... Motivation!!

Kari wasn't quite sure what to make of all my activity, not a usual occurrence here.

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Well, in the midst of all this activity, I found an envelope on the floor and was about to toss it in the trash bag. Thankfully I decided to look inside of it first ... there was a $10 bill!! It was money someone had given me back in September to pay me back for covering their meal - I'd totally forgotten about it.

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On Sunday a co-worker and I went to G and saw Hunger Games and ate at Golden Corral. I wasn't too enthused about seeing it, but in the end I actually did like the movie and am now probably going to read the books.

I also saw a preview for Men In Black 3 coming out Memorial weekend -- now that, that I AM majorly enthused about! (So May will have two hotties out in movies - Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr (Avengers) -- May will be my happy movie month.

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Tomorrow my coworker and I are heading off to Taos and Santa Fe. We are probably going to drive straight to Taos and do sightseeing, then head back to Santa Fe where our hotel is reserved. We may stop at a hot springs and go for a dip on our way too.

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It looks like I will not be needed to make the trip Friday night for the school kids in the state science fair. Whew! I wasn't looking forward to that (the driving nor the gas money.)

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I was going to go into G today to return the unused food from the book fair, but my coworker pointed out that I could return it at the other Walmart on our way to Santa Fe ... so that saved me a trip.

It looks like I'll be going into April with a mostly full gas tank (after 2nd fill up.) That's good since I'll need that money to help pay for gas on our two-day road trip!

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It sure is going to be hard for me to get up at a regular time again next week!

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I cashed in 7500 Mypoints today for a $50 Amazon gift card.

I also got my internet payment switched over to my Discover card. It gives me 2% cash back for paying my internet bill on it.

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!!!

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.)

I am getting so frustrated with Kari (my cat). She is scratching at me and digging her claws into me in the morning to get me up to feed her (even before her normal wake up time.) Then I'll be sitting in my chair at the computer minding my own business, and she'll start scratching at the side of the chair until she makes contact with my arm. Or, like what's happened twice this morning so far - she'll jump up on my lap and start attacking my feet/legs - clawing and biting. I put her in her kennel the first time (all the while she was digging her claws into my hands and biting) then let her out after awhile. Five minutes after I let her out, she did the same thing over again.

Monkey (Siamese cat I had for nearly 10 years who died in surgery) was never like this!! He never bit me - I don't recall him ever putting his teeth on me. He did scratch me, but again, I don't recall him digging his claws in like this.

I really don't know what to do with her. In taking her in, I feel like I made a lifetime commitment, but I am worried that one of these days she's going to bite me hard enough where it breaks the skin ... and I'll have to get medical treatment for it.

I felt so bad last night ... as I was heading to bed it was really, really dark. I was going slowly because I didn't want to accidentally step on Kari ... but I somehow managed to step on her. I turned the lights on as quickly as I could get to them and sat on the floor calling to her softly. She came over and seemed to forgive me. Then as I was getting up, she ran off and humped her back/raise hackles.

I am having to keep a bag twisted and tied through the upper cupboard handles so she can't get inside them. (She figured out a few weeks ago that that is where I kept her dry food, and managed to get inside and tear a hole in the bag. Ever since she's been obsessed with getting inside that cabinet.)

I've tried to laugh off most of her idiosyncrasies, but the biting and scratching have gotten worse, not better. She is part Siamese and about 10 months old and was spayed in November. I'm her second home - the first person who had her was in the process of taking her to an animal shelter - supposedly because she'd discovered she was allergic to cats. I'm not so sure that was the whole story now.

I'm not really going to give her away ... I'm just feeling really, really frustrated and the option of giving her away seems like an easy solution (one I won't take though, because like I said, when I took her in, I made a commitment.)

I'd really like some suggestions on what to do to make this situation better. I've even thought about a pet therapist$$$ Sigh. My coworkers call her the demon cat just from a few of the stories I've told them (and seeing my arms and hands ..)

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!!!

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.

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.)

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.)

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!!

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.

---
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.

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!

--
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.

---
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.

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.

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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?

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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

Like I mentioned in my post yesterday, I've been spending *a lot* of time helping the mid-school science teacher both in and out of school lately. Well today it looked like she was pretty well on track, so I told her that I needed to take care of some things (like make phone calls and try to make a small dent in the unshelved books) so I'd not be available in the a.m., but would help her after lunch. She was fine with that - just happy for any help I could give her.

So ... my last morning class left at 10:55. I went into the lab and was talking to AL for a few minutes when SrN came in and asked me to help upload some pictures she'd taken for the yearbook. While I was doing that, an 8th grader came in needing to print a color picture. No problem. After Sr N left, the 8th grader asked me to help her a bit, so I did.

While I was in the midst of helping the student, several 7th grade students trooped in (ones I knew were finished with their science fair stuff.) I assumed that their Teacher Assistant or Teacher would be right along. The teacher did come a few minutes later with a couple more kids. She asked if it was ok for them to be there ... again, I assumed she was sending her TA shortly and was distracted by helping the one student .. so I said fine.

More students arrived for a total of at least 8. Only 3 of them were actually working on Science Fair stuff, the others were working on their media project (for me.) When I realized that she'd just left them with me, I felt really used. But it wasn't the kids fault, and I was glad they could have more time to work on their projects ... but still!

I should have told the kids to go back to their room, or maybe have called her and told her that I couldn't supervise them. I didn't - mainly I think because I don't like confrontaion, but also due to thinking that maybe she felt like if I was so willing to give so much of my time to help the science teacher, I must of course be more than happy to take kids off her hands too and that she'd be offended or something if I said no I didn't want them right then.

So ... the kids go to lunch and I go to lunch. I'm feeling like carp warmed over plus very tired and frustrated from what just happened. The science teacher is there and what happened came out in the conversation. She offered to talk to the head mid-school teacher, and after some hesitation, I agreed.

Then ... this afternoon my last class left at 2:30 and I went over to the gym to help with setting up. The 5th graders were in there with their teacher and teacher assistant - it was so cute watching how eager they were to help.

About 3:10 we were all finished and lining everyone up to go home. Suddenly there was an influx of 7th graders. The science teacher had no idea why they were there - she'd not asked for them to come help. No teacher or teacher assistant with them.

The fifth grade teacher called them all to line up while the science teacher went back to her classroom to dismiss her group (her TA was teaching a Navajo class while she was in the gym.) One of the 7th grade boys was *extremely* disrespectful to the 5th grade teacher.

So ... after the busses left, the science teacher and I both talked to the head mid-school teacher about the two incidents. I felt very .... unsure? about handling it that way - without first going to the 7th grade teacher ... like we were almost being first graders who whine to their teacher about a class mate.

The 7th grade teacher is a long timer (i.e. someone who's been here more than the usual 2 years) and so probably is going to be around a few+ more years. I really hate to ruin whatever relationship we may have by creating bad blood. But I also don't want to get taken advantage of ...

The biggest problem here probably is that of assumption I think ... I assumed that she wasn't just dumping the kids on me, and she assumed that it was perfectly ok since I'd been helping out the other teacher all week ..

No good deed goes unpunished??

* Oh, and I think I may have lost my phone .. in all my distractedness today I put it in my coat pocket, but it wasn't there when I got home... Sigh.

---
Update: I found my phone in the library! Yay! I also talked with the head mid-school teacher and the science teacher. We realized that it was the TA who sent the 7th graders into the gym and not the teacher (she was on a bus.) So I told TG (head mid teacher) that I would talk to the 7th grade teacher myself. I think that would come across much better than having TG talk to her. If it continued to happen, then I think that would be a different story. I feel somewhat better about it now.

I just got back from the parent viewing of the projects. A fair number of families showed up. I'm going to be one of 17 judges tomorrow. It should be interesting! (I will be one of 5 people who will be SO glad when 3:30 comes tomorrow!!)

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!!

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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.

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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!

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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.)

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I think I might go to bed early tonight - really not feeling all that great.

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.

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.
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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.