Keeping It Frugal

I just checked my bank account balance, and saw that my first ChaCha payment has been deposited!

From Aug 26 - Sept 15 I made $101.01 in my spare time. Fun!

I also received my second check from the gym for $49.13. It would've been more, but I didn't have my timecard at the location where I worked the Friday before payday. It'll be on my next check.

So, from gym job (2 paychecks)
1st one: $67.14 and 2nd one: $49.13, then the $101.01 from ChaCha, I added

$217.28 to my Extra Monies fund for Septmeber. (Granted, some of the money was earned in August - but I don't count it as earned until I have it IN the bank.)

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I am SO glad AIG got bailed out. I have my 403b (from when I was teaching) with AIG Valic. That is 5 years worth of contributions. My Roth, 401k and TRD IRA, are all at different places, but combined are maybe 20% of the value (at least what it was two weeks ago) of my AIG 403b.

It makes me sick to look at the value of the 403b though. It is down over $1k from where it was when I made my last contribution June 05. To some, a 1k drop isn't much, but percentage wise for me, it's HUGE.

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I just realized I hadn't posted about my latest 5k!

This past Sunday I completed my 3rd 5k race. I finished with a 43:04 which didn't beat my previous time, but I was satisfied with it. I had to stop to tie my shoes once, the course was much hillier and there was a good gusty wind both ways (nearly blew my hat off a couple times!)

The really really cool thing though is that with my Dad being in CA now, my mom and stepdad have stepped up to be my cheering section at my races. Even better, my mom has said that she would like to participate!!

There is a 5k on Oct 26 which is closer for them to get to - and has a fun walk built into it. So, we're going to do that one together. Well, not totally together, since I'll be running and she'll be "speed" walking.

What is this it, you may be wondering?

Well this it is gasoline! With all the extra driving I did the past two weekends, my tank of gas just wasn't going to make thru to my usual Friday fill up.

I was starting to get a bit worried because prices were going up and up.

My gas light was on most of the way to work this morning, and then all the way home till I got to the gas station with the $3.39/gallon gas.

I bought 9.117 gallons of gas, and my Odometer was at 105,505, or 319 miles since my last fill up.

So . . my mpg was approximately 34. Not bad at all, especially considering I had my AC on some of that time.

Oh, just for comparisons sake. Another gas station near my apartment had gas for $3.59/gallon.

A friend asked me to fill out a reference for her. I wasn't able to think of a good reason to say no right then, so now am in a bit of a bind as to the best way to fill it out.

I've never said one word to her about what I think of her skills in this area, mainly because I didn't think it was my place or my business. Now I guess I'm going to have to put it out there.

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Sat night I went to the Beach Boy's concert with my mom. We had a BLAST! The crowd had an amazing amount of energy. We got them to come back out and do 3 encores! The venue for the concert was a bit strange - in the same hall where the Dallas Symphony Orchestra plays (they actually accompanied the Beach Boy's). I wasn't accustomed to seeing so many Hawaiian shirts at a DSO concert.

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I'm almost up to $70 with ChaCha. My goal is to reach $100 by the 14th, so I can get paid on the 15th. I think I'll be able to do it, even though it won't be a full month.

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I have another 5k coming up this Sunday. My mom and stepdad will be coming to cheer me on.

I've found at least one race in Oct Nov and Dec that is on a Sunday - so that works well for me.

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I've decided to drop my membership to the Outdoors club. There just wasn't enough things I was interested or able to do to make the monthly fee worthwhile.

Between my meetup groups and my races, I'm really keeping myself pretty busy anyway.

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I got an email from my dad tonight. He was saying that he is near the Texas/NM border and will be crossing into NM in the morning. Getting closer to CA!

He must be quite the sight to see. A huge Penske truck, then a car trailer w/his vehicle on it, then his little trailer. The little trailer my family purchased back in the early 1980's (around the time my brother was born!) It's gone many many miles through numerous states.

Today I got a call from E at the gym asking if I could work the 5:30 to close shift. I was only planning on watching a movie tonight, so I said sure, why not.

While I was at the gym in the afternoon, I found out that we get paid on the first business day of each month, and the 15th of each month. So that means I have a paycheck waiting for me at the other gym location. I'll pick it up on Friday, which is fine, since I won't be able to get by a bank until then anyway.

Then tonight I got another call from E asking if I'd be willing to come in *early* tomorrow and open. The person who was supposed to do it is sick. I of course said YES.

I think I'm going to REALLY like my next paycheck.

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When I checked my email tonight I saw that I'd received another ING referral bonus. YAY!

Of course, I'm still waiting for two of the last three bonuses to go to my available balance column. I think they still earn interest though, which really is all that matters.

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I'm now up to nearly $28 in ChaCha earnings. I think I've become slightly addicted to the sound of a doorbell.

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A new company has moved into our office building. They are taking up at least two complete floors.

This morning I arrived at around 7:15 a.m. and found that the ENTIRE row where I normally park was completely full!! Normally when I get there at that time, there *might* be one or two cars in that section.

So it looks like I'll be parking up on the next level from now on. That's okay though, because that is the same level that the gym is on.

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I forgot to mention yesterday . .

On Sunday my dad and I found mini-blinds at Walmart for about $8. It took us all of about 3 minutes to remove the old ones and install the new ones.

That saved me at least $27.

While we were at Walmart, we also had them fill my tires with air and move the hubcap on my one tire so we could get to the airstem. They did it for no charge.

My sidebar is updated I added a page for September to track my savings and extra monies. I am not including my income from Cha Cha or the gym until I actually receive payments.
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This morning I ran my second 5k race. Going into it I wasn't expecting great things because I felt like I hadn't been training like I needed to.

Well! Guess what? I BEAT MY TIME! Woo Hoo!

This particular race didn't use the timing chips, so I'm not sure of what my *exact* time was - - but as I passed the finish line the clock read 43:00!! I started near the middle of the crowd, so I probably could subtract a few seconds. Even so, that is an improvement of at least 37 seconds!

One kind of downer though. Most of the second half of the race there was this older lady who I kept trading places with - she'd run ahead of me a bit while I was walking, then I'd run ahead of her a bit while she was walking, etc. We both reached the 3 mile marker at the same time and agreed to run it the rest of the way together.

I wasn't able to run it the whole way because the first part of it was over dirt with lots of tree roots. I figured rubbery legs + tree roots = possible injury. Once I got to the section which was just dirt, I ran again. The older lady ran the whole way.

She made it across the finish line about 15 seconds before I did. I'd finished and drunk a couple cups of water (and my dad had finished the end of the race video) when we noticed someone laying on the ground being fanned. A few minutes later, paramedics came and put her on a stretcher.

It was that same lady I had ran to the finish line with. The ambulance stayed at the lake, so she probably was okay. Just kind of a bummer to see someone you sort of ran with go down like that.

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In other news, I've now made nearly $16 with ChaCha now. It really is kind of fun and easy.

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Saturday night I took my mom and stepdad to a local baseball team's game. I'd gotten the tickets for free from my company. The tickets included free food and parking. We all ate way too much - but had a great time.

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Today was probably the last time I'll see my dad until at least Christmas. A week from tomorrow he will be heading out to CA next Tuesday. So now it's just my mom and I left here in Texas.

I noticed yesterday that some of the gas stations had gone up by 5 - 10 cents except for one. So today I decided to fill up even though I still had a good amount to get me through the weekend. I didn't want to take the chance of the $3.34 price becoming the $3.45 price of another station (or worse!)

8/22/08 Odometer: 104,917
8/29/08 Odometer: 105,185

=268 miles (trip to mom and stepdads, trip to Mckinney (Museum), regular driving)

Purchased 7.764 gallons@ $3.34 =$26.00

Mileage = 268/7764 ~29 mpg

Hmm . . that number seems off somehow. It's strange how each time I fill up, my mileage seems to be going down by one mile.
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Today was kind of frustrating at work. I was *very* busy. That is a good thing. But one of the frustrating things that happened was that I worked through my normal lunch hour to finish getting some documents certifed mailed. Then, when I took my lunch time, I had only finished eating a few minutes, when my OM saw me savoring the last few minutes of break time and was like - L, do you know DW has stuff he needs you to do? And that he said you'll have to stay here till it's done?

Arghh! Yes, I knew he had stuff he wanted me to do. I knew that it wouldn't be something that could be done quickly, and that he wanted it done before leaving for the weekend. I know she wasn't saying it to be mean or malicious or whatever, but at that point it just sat so totally wrong with me!

Then later on I was attempting to make copies of these HUGE documents. He wanted them in color. There is only the one color copier. I had managed to make one good copy, and had a second one set when the copier started whirring with a big print job. Usually I can handle that without outwardly showing any frustration. Today my frustration showed and was noticed by the person who'd sent the print job.

I know it can't be helped when there are a dozen people hooked up to the same copier/printer. Even so, it can be SO annoying when you're in the middle of a copy job to all of a sudden have a print job start up. It's nobody's fault, and can't really be helped. All the same, it still can be quite annoying.

Some of you may recall that a few months ago I was considering a move to CA. After considering pros and cons, I developed a list of 5 signs/events which would need to happen for me to feel certain it was the right way to go.

Well, tonight I got a phone call letting me know that the first item on the list has happened! This is incredibly exciting news for the main person involved, as well as for the whole family.

So . . . one down, four to go.

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My apartment complex management have become anal about appearances. A few weeks ago they sent a notice listing a bunch of different possible violations and their fine value.

One item was regarding the mini-blinds on the windows. Admittedly, the condition of some of the mini-blinds in the complex is atrocious, so I can kind of see their point. But . . I got a fine notice on my door today.

The blinds in my bedroom are fine. Nothing broken, and they hang all the way down.

The blinds in my living room are the problem. While my beloved cat was alive, he destroyed a good number of mini blinds in the various places we lived. I tried to avert that from happening by making sure the blinds were lifted from the windowsill enough for him to stick his head under.

Didn't work. So, I have one blind that has half of about six sections that are broken out. Then, the other mini-blind is stuck in the position where there is about two inches of space between the windowsill and the bottom of it.

So, I have to replace the one mini-blind myself, or have the management come in and replace it for $35.

Ugh!

Thankfully my dad is coming up Sunday so he can be here for my 5k on Monday. We're going to go to Walmart, etc to see if we can beat that price. I'm really hoping for something more in the $10 - 15 range, if not LESS.

What really irks me about this is that I've never been charged for the blinds in any of the other places I've lived - never even came out of my security deposit.

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I put another few hours on ChaCha tonight. It was a bit on the slow side - had plenty of time to surf the net between questions. Made a couple more dollars while doing what I'd probably be doing anyway.

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I went to deposit some money into my WAMU account today via the ATM. But when I got to the point where I put the deposit envelope into the ATM, I got the message saying that they couldn't help me any further and I needed to contact my financial institution.

I've had a $0 balance in the account for a couple months now, but if it was deactivated (which is the only thing I could think of) then why did it even accept my pin #??

I am now proud to say that I hold three jobs. My first job (the one that pays the bills) is of course the one at the oil and gas company.

My second job is the 3 1/2 hours on Friday afternoons at the gym.

My third job, which I just started today, is with ChaCha as an expeditor. In slightly over 90 minutes I made $3.30. I know, not a whole lot of money - but it's money I wouldn't have otherwise made in that time period.

I wish we had Firefox on our computers at work so I could do some ChaCha during lunchtime.

My goal is to make $20/week. So, that translates to roughly an hour a day. If I'm able to put in an extra two hours on the weekends, then I could make up to $100/month (give or take).


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Remember my savings goal of a Cruise in 2010? Well, I realized today that I'll turn 35 in December of 2010. So I've decided that it will be my 35th Birthday Cruise. I'm thinking that for the next couple of birthdays/Christmases I'll let everyone know that any cash gifts I receive, half of them will go towards my Cruise fund.

I'd been getting frustrated with myself - stopping to get something to eat nearly everyday on the way home from work -- usually something not needed at all.

So . . on Sunday I took out all money related items - credit card, debit cards, CVS ECB bucks receipt, cash, etc. Left in my change purse was about $.07.

Monday after work I was famished and was really tempted to stop and get something instead of coming home and making something.
Today, I was really tempted to just stop somewhere and get something.

But guess what? I was forced to overcome the temptation. I couldn't have given in to it even if I'd really wanted to.

So, I think I'll keep my purse money free until Friday. The only reason I'll have my card then is in case I need gas. But . . if I still have a quarter tank left by then, I'll wait till Monday to fill up (new month's budget!) and not take it then either!

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This past weekend I went to the Heard Natural Science Museum with some other members of the DFWO club. There were a total of 8 of us. It was *very* humid, but not terribly hot. We walked roughly 2 1/2 miles on various trails, and then came inside to the cool air conditioning and checked out the exhibits.

Afterwards we ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I had a grilled eggplant sandwich. OMW it was SOOOOO good! None of us got dessert.

Later Saturday night I went to my mom and stepdads. While my laundry was getting washed, we watched the "Bee Movie" which I'd borrowed from the library. It's so cute - we all really liked it.

On Sunday the three of us went to a play at Theater Arlington called "The Perfect Wedding." The whole audience was laughing out loud through most of it - myself included.

My stepdad has bought season tickets for Theater Arlington for many years. Since he met my mom (and I moved back up this way) he has made sure to include a ticket for me whenever there is a play I'm interested in. Sunday's play had a much younger crowd than usual (normally there is a large contingent of senior aged people, with a small spattering of my age, and a smaller spattering of younger than me.)

Anyway, I've really appreciated that he does this for me. I'm really looking forward to this weekend - I'm going to be taking my mom and stepdad to the local baseball team's home game. I think its playoffs - I've been told it was sold out. These are the same type tickets I got for FREE from my company for my dad's birthday July 5.

I wonder if gamecock's baseball boy will be playing there?

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I have my next scheduled 5k on Monday - Labor Day. Oy vey! I am so not ready for it! I've really slacked off on my running. The last two runs I did on the treadmill I felt ill most of the rest of the day - even with only having a very small amount of food in my stomach.

I think I'll have to be satisfied with finishing the upcoming race again, and not worry about beating my previous time.

Maybe by my next one (Sept 14th) I'll be back in gear.

Car trouble:

1 - My dad's GMC Jimmy - some kind of ball bearing or some such thing in his front driver side tire broke. He was here, visiting me, we were about a mile from my apartment. Took about three hours, but a friend of his brought a big trailer up and loaded his Jimmy on it. Short term fix cost about $161, long term fix (replacing whole front axle, big and small bearings, etc) cost another $900.

My dad says that the steering is so much more sharp than it had been and is glad he went ahead and did the whole shebang. His Jimmy has close to 200k miles, was bought used, and has been paid for a bit over a year.

2 - My tires -- My tires are low. I know all I need to do to fix this is find a tire pressure gauge somewhere and fill them with air. However, one of the tires had the hubcap put on in a weird way (it must be one of the newer tires) and the stem is not in a reachable spot.

So, I need to go somewhere where they have one of those tools to take the hubcap off and put it back on with the stem reahable. My dad suggests Walmart (where I bought my tires.) However, I really really don't look forward to sitting around for an hour or two just to get air in my tires -- so have been putting it off.

That one tire (with the strangely placed hubcap) is looking really low . . .

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New job:
Today was my second shift at the gym. Like last week's, it was completely uneventful. No one came in to workout . . so I had pretty much the whole time to read, or if I'd wanted to, I could have called someone and talked on my cell. The only things I really did was to fold towels that had been in the dryer, and start a new load of towels.

Last week I made it very shortly after 3:00 p.m. Today was a different story. At 2:54 p.m. my main boss saw me walking down the hallway and called me in to ask me to do some copying for him - and he needed it right then.

What was I going to say? Um, can't do that for you because it'll make me late for my other job that pays minimum wage. Yeah, that would be a NO.

So, I ended up getting there 10 minutes late. I'd told E that this was a possibility, but that I didn't think it would really happen. Of course, it did have to happen - luckily not on my first shift!

When I'm sitting in the gym wondering how I can make time pass faster . . I remind myself that the reason I'm doing this is to help me get to my house that much faster, as well as my other savings goals. That helps the time to pass just a bit more easily.

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My carpooler started making noise a couple months ago about how she didn't like the 7a.m. leaving time and that she was going to find other rides. At the time, I told her that was fine - she needed to do what suited her needs best.

So, for the last 3 weeks or so, she's been riding with me pretty sporadically. Last week she rode with me twice - didn't give me any money. This week she rode with me twice, and gave me $5.

So, it appears that $40 of my extra income pool may dwindle to more like $10 - 15, or perhaps less a month.

The only way to change that would be for me to go in everyday at 8a.m. which would mean no time to workout at the gym in the morning. Not going to happen.

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I had to fill up today. I ended up paying an extra $.21 for it because I decided to pass up the station selling for $3.39/gallon to see if the station which had been lower in price the day before would happen to be lower again today. They weren't.

So . . . $3.41/gallon
Bought: 10.449 gallons

Odometer on 8/8/08 = 104,601
Odometer on 8/22/08 = 104,917

So, mileage would be 316/1050

Which equals ~30.09 mph

That is a bit less than last time, but almost all the driving was done in town.

I was also surprised to see a number over 10 gallons when filling up. I think thats the first time I've seen it go over 10 gallons since I can remember. I really thought I had a gas tank slightly smaller than 10 gallons. Maybe I really was smelling fumes coasting into the gas station.

Yay! I got another ING referral bonus today:

+$10 for Downpayment fund!

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I don't drink a lot of soda . . but my mom does! She's addicted to diet Coke. So I got an email from Tom Thumb and one of the deals was buy 2 12 pks of Coke, get 3 12 pks free. I stopped by after work yesterday, and for a total of $12, I bought 5 12 pks of Coke - 4 for my mom, and 1 for me.

Today was my stepdad's birthday, so I called to wish him a happy bd -- and also to tell him about the deal. He's very much like me in that he likes to find ways to save money wherever possible.

The thing I was wondering though -- have 12 packs *really* gone up to $6??? I don't remember the last time I bought a 12 pk, so maybe they've been that much for a while .. but OMW that is a LOT of money for soda.

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Today at work I was making some copies at the end of the day and just happened to glance in the trash can. There was an empty 20oz bottle of fanta -- so . . I absconded with the lid. (mycokerewards)

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I was supposed to do my training today after work for the gym. But E called me and said that he'd had a new client who wanted to train at 5:30 today - so would I be willing to train in the morning. Of course, I said yes.

So I'll do my training in the morning, and have my first shift in the afternoon! Look out - here I come - ready to make $6.55/hr! So at 3.5 hrs, plus maybe another 30 minutes training =4 hrs = $26.20. -- Almost a tank of gas! LOL

I will have to find out if they pay weekly or monthly and if they do direct deposit. I hope they do dd, but I kind of doubt it.

Cha Ching!

$10 ING referral bonus

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So . . I took a vacation day on Monday -- I was going to be Miss Busy Beaver and get my place in tip top shape and get meals planned out for the month . Ya da ya da ya da.

Er . . what did I really do? I read books #9 - 13 of the Plum series, plus a couple other books. I *did* go to church -- and then on Sunday I went to the grand opening of the upper grade campus of the school I used to teach at. (Until this year, grades PreK - 12th were on the same grounds as the church. Now, PreK-6 are on the church grounds, and 7th - 12th are at the new campus.)

I dropped all those books off at the library today on my way home from work - to help ensure I don't incur any NEW library fines! Ack!

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Today was my last personal training session with E. It was kind of weird - I've been training with him since October.
I think what I'll miss most in all honesty is having someone to talk with a couple hours a week.

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Thursday afternoon E is going to train me on how the gym policies work, and what I'll be doing. Then Friday afternoon will be my first shift. I'm looking forward to that extra money to put towards my savings goals.

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I'm thinking about stopping my membership with the outdoor club here. The Calendar for July was so full of activities, that I thought I'd have a hard time deciding which things to do. But . . the August calendar has mostly dining out events where it costs $35 min. There had been one free event, but it was canceled.

I think I'll be able to keep myself busy enough on the weekends between the two meetup groups I've joined - and those events will mostly be free.

I haven't completely decided yet though.

This morning my carpooler gave me $10 -- off it goes to my Extra Monies fund.
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After work today I stopped and got gas.

On August 1, my odomoter was: 104,333

Today, my odomoter was: 104,601

That is a difference of 268 miles

I bought 9.382 gallons on Aug. 1.
Today, I bought 8.135 gallons.

A difference of: 1.247 gallons

So . . my gas mileage is 268/8135 =~31mpg

Am I figuring this correctly?

Gas was $3.62/gallon for a total of $29.52

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I stopped by the library today - dropped off items and picked up some more. I unfortunately had forgotten to take two books which were due today with me - so I'll get them in tomorrow on the way home from church. $.70 fine.

One of the books I had to return today was my Vegetarian Slow Cooker book. I made copies of 6 of the recipes that I may want to try.

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Last night I made a start on my Shape It Up weekend by doing a trash run and a dish run.

So far tonight, all I've accomplished was actually eating one of the Veggie Bean Burgers I made a couple weeks ago (and froze!) to see if it was edible enough to include in my meal plans. It was.

I think #9 is calling my name quite loudly right now. I did make some progress in my plan . . . Hello? Stephanie? Yep I guess I'll be checking out your latest adventure here shortly.

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I got an email today from the person who bought the Brita pitcher - she'd picked it up from the PO this morning. She was so happy to have gotten it so fast. I guess I can't begrudge the extra shipping cost (and reduced profit) too much. ;D

Grocery shopping: $25.61

I stopped at Walmart tonight. They had the Boca Burger's in a bun 2 for $4. That made each complete sandwich $1. I bought 5 boxes of them. (They're pretty good - I've had them before.)

As I was driving home I was thinking about how much I could spend on my various meals per month if I didn't have too much variance.

30 days worth of breakfast - 2 large cannisters of oatmeal + 2 large containers of egg sub, maybe 4lbs of bananas = ~$20

Work lunches - 20 days - 20 Amy's burritos from Target at $1.69 ($33.80), 1 large bag frozen veggies ($2) -- ~$35.80

Home lunches (10 days) - pb & j sandwiches, boca burgers, etc - $10

Supper - 2 bags Quiona, 1 bag brown rice, 1 bag lentils, frozen veggies ~$30

Snacks - (string cheese, almonds,) ~$10

So, theoretically, I could get by on less than $110/month. Work lunches could cost even less when I make my own burritos (but not that much less really).

So, where does all the other money go in my grocery budget? Let's see . . last month I broke down and bought a pizza from Pizza Hut . . I also found a store that sold Nestle Treasures & had Orange Crush Jelly Belly's . . . I bought a couple varieties of squash (expensive stuff!) . . . I bought some unhealthy junkfood items . . plus other things not coming to mind right now.

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Before I even got started with all this thinking this afternoon, I'd asked to take Monday off as one of my vacation days.

I've gotten more and more behind in my housework and haven't been preparing meals ahead of time -- which has led to my doing a lot of the impulse convenience food shopping of the past few weeks.

This weekend I only am planning on going to church Sat. morning, then Sun afternoon I'll be doing my first RAoK meetup with the Salvation Army.

That means I'll have from 11:30 a.m. on Saturday until 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, and then all day Monday to be productive.

My plan is to give my apartment a through cleaning by Sunday afternoon. Then, on Monday I am going to plan out my meals for the rest of the month - attempting to use ONLY what I have on hand already as much as possible.

If I accomplish both the goal of having my apartment in Impress a Stranger Shape, and have my meals planned out (and prepared ahead as much as possible) for the month by 2 p.m. on Monday, then I'm going to treat myself to a movie. -- I want to go see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2".

What that means is that when I get home tomorrow (after stopping at the library) with the 9th book in the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series, I will have to make a decision between sitting down and reading that first, or get a head start on the cleaning. If last weekend repeats itself, Stephanie Plum will win.

I posted the Brita pitcher that I'd had listed on Craigslist on another site I frequent. Someone bought it - $15 + shipping and handling. Great!

So yesterday I took off from work a bit early and stopped by the PO to mail it. The postal worker was miffed at me because I hadn't taped the box. Understandable I guess, but I also remembered from when I was selling my teacher supplies that they always wanted to check what was being mailed ++ I didn't have any tape. So . . . I ended up mailing it Priority to get the "free" tape (I also misjudged the weight of it w/the box - so an extra $5.40 in shipping alone).

So, $21.10 - $.92 paypal fee - $11.60 Priority Shipping = net profit of $8.62.

I think I'm about ready to take all my Spanish materials to half-price and see what they'll give me for them. Even if it's only $10 for the lot, it'll be more than I have now, right?

Or . . if anyone is interested in various computer programs for learning Spanish + books, let me know. I also have a box of 10 Brita Pitcher filters I want to sell.

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Last night when I got home I was all settled in and reading "Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich when I got a call from my dad. He was needing new ink for his printer, and he couldn't get his old cartridge refilled at Walgreen's because it was leaking.

So, he'd found one on ebay for $8 and wanted to know if it was a good deal. We spent the next hour talking it through over the phone, then eventually yahoo messenger when his phone died. I tried to talk him through using my paypal account to buy the item because he wanted to do "buy it now" but it wasn't letting him add his address. Finally I told him to email the seller, apologize, and say he was a newbie ebayer and would pay as soon as possible.

Tonight I went ahead and set up a paypal account for him (with his input over the phone) and paid for the item via his account.

Trying to help someone do this over the phone is NOT my idea of a nice relaxing evening. But at least it is now done - hopefully the ink cartridge will come quickly.

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I've done some spending the last few days - unnecessary spending - mostly on food.

Sunday - Tuesday: $35.96
Wed - no spending

$4.56 of that was lunch on Tuesday because I forgot to bring my lunch to work. The remainder of the money was almost completely not needed and not good for me.

I'm going to deduct it from my grocery budget and move on - but one way or another, I'm NOT going over budget this month. I've got more than enough food already in the house that needs to be eaten.

*Almost forgot -- I got out one of my last large containers of eggs on Monday morning to make my oatmeal/egg breakfast. I didn't get back into the kitchen till Tuesday night (other than to grab a banana). Guess what was still out on the counter? At least it was only 1/4 full, so not a whole container wasted.

---
My gas gage has been acting funky on me, so I'm not really sure what to think. But today it was hovering between 1/2 full and a bit more than 3/4 of a 1/2 full after having driven 220 miles. Normally 1/2 tank gives me around 160 miles.

So, either my gas gage is acting *really* funky OR I'm getting darn good gas mileage!

I'll find out the real story on Friday when I fill up again.

--
I think I've decided to go with the Garmin Nuvia 200. I'm going to wait until my current cc statement closes to buy it - that way I can budget money in August and September for it. That'll happen around the 15th of the month.

So today at 1:00 I was supposed to be arriving at, or already be at the nursing home for my first meetup with this particular group.

Instead, I just walked in through my front door a few minutes ago.

How'd that happen?, you may ask.

I left my mom and stepdad's a bit after 11 a.m. which *should* have given me plenty of time to get home, put my clothes away and change.

Instead, somehow I got it in my brain that I needed to take 121 S to get home. 45 minutes later after going through parts of Fort Worth TWICE, I finally stopped and got directions to get back to a familiar road.

So, what is this NEED I'm saying is not a want anymore? Some kind of a GPS device - a foolproof one!

Today was especially annoying because I've driven this route MANY MANY times and so I would think that my normal directional cluelessness wouldn't come into play. But, it did.

So, I ended up wasting a whole bunch of gasoline, plus a whole bunch of time -- and am now going to be a no-show for my first RAoK meetup.

Please give me some suggestions as to the least expensive way for me to go in a car GPS unit. Knowing me, I probably need something that will say the directions out loud - maybe yell at me "get in the left lane for the next turn!".

---

In other news . . my mom, stepdad and I went to see "Mama Mia" last night. It wasn't a great movie, but it was a fun movie. I thought the girl who played Meryl Streep's daughter was really pretty, and it was kind of weird/fun to see Pierce Brosnan breaking out into song.

My stepdad had some more coke codes for me to enter, so we're now up to 154 pts - nearly halfway to our first movie ticket.

So, I made the fruit salad. I thought it turned out pretty good - colorful.

I went to the vegetarian/vegan brunch meetup. I think I was the only one who had any fruit salad. Oh well - I'm going to take it to my mom and stepdad's tonight.

The food was good. There were maybe about 13 people all together. Everyone seemed pretty friendly and everything. But . . you know how sometimes there are like two or three people who talk non-stop? Yeah, there were a couple of those kind of people there.

If I'm in a group of people I know well, or especially in a smaller group of more like 4 or 5, I can be talkative. But get me in a group of people I don't know, esp. when there are a couple of non-stop talkers - I end up having little to nothing to say.

I'm kind of reminded about why I didn't keep going to these group things before. My first reaction in a new group is quiet, shy, etc. It was so much easier to make friends in school.

heh. I was talking with this one guy. He told me what he did for a living, and then asked me the same thing. Not two seconds after my telling him that I work at an oil and gas company, he was gone.
I checked his profile on the website - he's buhuddist (sp?) so . . just as well.

Here's hoping that my adventure tomorrow at the nursing home will go better.

Today's spending:

Gas: $3.73/gallon - 9.382 gallons bought
...........=$35.08 Odomoter: 104,433

Groceries: $30.59

Bought: red/green grapes, 3 bananas, 4 red del apples, 1 can mandarin oranges, lg cannister old-fashioned oatmeal, 5 16oz containers of egg whites, 1 32oz mixed frozen veggies, 1 box Morningstar veggie links, lg container Rice Dream milk, 1 sm box Junior Mints

---

Woo Hoo! Remember how in my last couple posts I mentioned about how I was trying to figure out whether I should go with the quarterly membership plan at the gym, or cough up the money for a full year?

Well, today near the end of my workout session with E, he confirmed with me that I do have the job (after work on Fridays 3 1/2 hrs) starting a week from this coming Friday. He also mentioned that since I'd be working at the gym, my membership would be FREE!

So, not only does that mean I don't need to pay for the quarterly fee (roughly $64), it also means that I don't have to put it in my budget to save up for the next quarterly due!

Yay!!!

---

When I was doing my grocery shopping today, I noticed something that slightly annoyed me. First of all, Wal-mart has stopped carrying the large container of generic egg substitute. Wah! Secondly, the next least expensive brand that is in a large container cost $4.89 for 32 oz, while the 16oz containers cost $2.44/each. So, you would at first assume it would be cheaper to buy the 32oz version + greener (due to less trash) - but obviously you would be wrong!

----
?'s

I'm going to a Vegan/Vegetarian meetup brunch tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing a fruit salad, but I'm not sure if the mixture I'm thinking of will work right or not.

Here's the fruit I was thinking of: red/green grapes, sliced bananas, chopped apples, mandarin oranges, maybe some canned pineapple chunks?

Is there anything that I should take out? Or do you think all those tastes/textures would work ok?

Next ?

At the gym, I will be an independent contractor. This year I will make less than $600. Do I have to do a Schedule C for it? Or can it be listed under "other income" for tax purposes?

Next year, I would make a bit less than $1200. Would that be enough to make me have to pay self-employment taxes?

One more ?

Anyone have any idea why my Cruise 2010 ticker is so long? It's cutting part of my sidebar off! I checked the code and it looks the same as the other tickers. Weird.

July:

I kept fairly good track of my spending this month, but even so did overspend in several categories (food being the main culprit.)

I had some extra expenses that I had not counted on with my switch from a landline based DSL to a non-landline based DSL.

I made some purchases that I probably should have foregone.

However, I was able to sell some items, as well as return some items.

So, all in all, financially speaking, not a great month, but not the worst.

August:

I will be starting my second job sometime in August, which will bring in about $28/wk (3 1/2 hours)

I need to make a decision about whether I'm going to pay my gym membership in full for a year at the reduced rate, or just pay one-quarter at the reduced rate by August 30.

The DFWO group I joined in July is doing a 7-day Caribbean cruise at the beginning of January. It cost's $700 + taxes and tips. I'd really like to go on this, but there is no way I'd be able to save enough to go by January, unless I put all my savings + extras toward it.

So, thinking about how excited I was about the Kenny G concert, and how it motivated me to "find" money to be able to go, I've come up with a long term goal.

Starting in August, I now have 3 savings goals.

1. Car Fund (until fully funded):
$220/mo base + all HSBC interest
+ 40% of extra* monies

2. House Downpayment Fund:
$50/mo base (TDAMERITRADE)
+ All ING interest
+ 30% of all extra* monies

3. Cruise 2010 Fund:
30% of all extra* monies

*Extra Monies = Second job, proceeds from anything I sell, survey money, 5th paychecks, ING referral rewards, Carpooler money, overbudgeted amounts in gasoline, 50% groceries, bonuses, etc.

Once the Car fund is fully funded, it still will get all HSBC interest (to help pay for repairs.) But the House Downpayment will then go to 60% all Extra (plus the monthly savings), and the Cruise 2010 Fund will go to 40% all Extra.

I will track all extra money on a page (sidebar). I'm not *too* far from fully funding my Car Fund. I just have to really buckle down and quit spending so much overbudget in a few categories which keeps dwindling down my one-month buffer, which I then have to replenish, so send less to the savings goals.

-- I also think I'm going to track my gas mileage. I need to get gas tomorrow, so I'll start as of August 1.

* I finally received my reimbursement check from the disability insurance overpayment. So, that's $16.25 more which I'll be putting in my Downpayment fund.

* I had an ING referral go through today. So, that's $10 more to the Downpayment fund.

* My carpooler paid me today. I'm probably going to have to get gas tomorrow - so I think I'll put that $10 to my gas fund. $10 worth of gas should get me through to Friday, and a replenished gas fund.

* On Sunday I went on my first outing with the DFW club. There were six of us who ate lunch at the museum (good price/food). Then 4 more showed up in time to do the tour. The exhibit was really quite large, and I really enjoyed seeing works by Monet and Gaughlin etc. in person.

* I used nearly 1/2 tank of gas to go to the museum and back. Ugh.

* I've really been trying to do the gas mileage "tricks". Such as driving 55, not using a/c unless absolutely needed, trying to keep a steady smooth pace, etc.

I'm not sure if all of that has given me much more than an extra 15 miles or so. I'm also not sure if it's worth continuing when I'm having people practically running over me on the tollway. Or, like yesterday on 35, having people tailgating me and giving me birdy signs when they finally pass.

* This weekend I had a very visual reminder of why it's so important - so *vital* to have renter's insurance. Sometime Sunday morning one of the apartments in my complex caught fire. By the time the fire was out, 4 apartments were destroyed, and 12 others were heavily damaged by smoke and water. One person was injured, but I haven't heard anything about pets.

Neither my carpooler nor I had even heard the sirens or commotion because the area where this happened is on the other side of us, closer to the main road.

* I spent a bit of money this weekend on foolish and wasteful things. Things I knew I shouldn't be spending money on even as I bought them. Unfortunately, they are not things that can be taken back.

I got stressed out at work on Friday (over something which I found out today was not even necessary) and the "who cares" monster came out to play. Oy.

* I have signed up for not just one, but for TWO 5k's in September! One is on Labor Day, and the other is on the 14th. I was so happy to find races that weren't on Saturday. I really want to make going to church a regular part of my life again.

* The race on the 14th benefits an organization that does a lot to help underprivileged children in India and the US inner cities obtain an education. I have set a fund raising goal, and made a donation page. If anyone is interested in hearing more, let me know.

* One of my co-workers today told me that her daughter was interested in doing a 5k with me. So I gave her the info for both of the races I've signed on for, and told her I'd love to have the company!

* I've been having trouble with my abductor muscle the last week or so. E, my PT was telling me it could be overtraining. I sheepishly asked him if the problem could also be caused by drinking too much coke.

After telling me what I know already (i.e. soda dehydrates muscles) he told me that for every ounce of soda I drink, I should drink 2 ounces of water to somewhat mitigate the effects.

He also suggested using foam rollers to help work out my leg muscles. Although he said a much less expensive option was just getting some pvc pipe from Home Depot, etc. That it would serve the same purpose. **Bright idea alert! I just remembered that I have two pvc poles that my dad made for me years ago (for some exercise video - which have gone unused) which would work perfectly! Can't get more inexpensive than free!

E will be working at the gym in the morning, so maybe I should take one of them and see if he'll have time to show me what to do.

* E also told me today that due to minimum wage rising, that the gym's monthly fees will be going up as of September 1.

So, since my training session is coming to an end (2nd week of August) I will have to start paying the quarterly fee.

I can either pay for the first quarter by the end of August at the lower rate, then after that have to pay at the higher rate.

OR I can pay for a full year's membership at the lower rate, then once that year is up, will have to pay the higher rate.

Paying a full year upfront will save about $120 over paying the higher rate.

My only quandry though is, what if I do end up moving to CA in March? They have a no refund policy.

You know, I really should have checked the dates before I got so excited and started putting money in a special fund.

So, if you remember from my last post, I had saved enough to go see Kenny G with a friend. Today at lunch I went to the website to purchase my two tickets, and was greeted with the fact that October 1 and October 2 are WEEKDAYS!

I could probably handle going to a concert on a weeknight, and getting home late. But my friend T more than likely won’t be able to do it. I hate to not go with her, because its almost become like a tradition. Anyone else I can think of, probably wouldn’t want to do it on a weeknight either.

I don’t want to go alone – especially at night in downtown Dallas.

So . . . I guess I’m going to have to pass on this one. I will check with T to be certain, but it not only is a weeknight, but it is a schoolnight for her as well.

Ugh.

Jeffrey or Nate -- I can't post comments on the blogs! I tried at work today, and I couldn't post a comment (even with the subscribe feature turned off). I thought maybe my work computer was being funky.

Now I'm at home on my computer, and I *still* can't post any comments!

Any ideas?

**Weird. I was just able to make a comment on this blog. So, I tried again on another blog I wanted to comment on, but it still didn't take.

ETA -- Ok, I cleared out my temp internet files, as well as my cookies, and now seem good to go.

----

Today I finally received my cell phone rebate from AT&T. Yay! Of course, they sent it as a Visa debit card instead of an actual check. Guess they think that for the people who actually follow through and get the rebate, that the hassle of having to use a debit card will be another chance for their money not to actually get used.

---

So, as to Kenny.

The last time I updated my Kenny fund, I was up to $37.

Today I am adding the $30 rebate to it -- for a total of $67.

What does this mean? Well it means that I am going to be purchasing two tickets to see Kenny G on October 2 in the next hour or so! Woo Hoo!

---

I also received $10 from my carpooler today, plus I closed a bank account and received a check for the remaining balance of $1.69.

So, of that $11.69:

$5.69 --- Car Fund
$5.00 --- Downpayment Fund

Slowly, but surely . . .

----

Last weekend when I was at my mom & stepdad's, I asked my stepdad if they did anything with the coke codes. (My mom is a MAJOR diet coke addict - my stepdad likes regular Coke.) He said they didn't do anything with them.

So, I asked him if I could have them to enter on the coke rewards website. He agreed to that.

So far, through a couple caps I had, plus the two codes he sent me that worked (two others didn't work, no matter what letter or number I put) . . . we have 46 points!

I'm not sure how many points movie tickets are, but when I have enough for 3 of them, I'm planning on taking him and my mom out to a movie. That way we all get enjoyment from it.

So today I decided to test the waters again at Craigslist.

It was a mixed bag of results.

I posted my 19" TV/VCR in the freebie section. An hour later I had met a man in the McDonald's parking lot, and he drove away with it.

I also reposted my ad for the Brita Pitcher + filters, as well as the Spanish learning books. I toyed with the idea of reposting the Spanish learning computer programs as well, but was told it probably wouldn't be a good idea. I think I'll probably end up taking them to Half-Price bookstore and see what I can get.

So far the Brita pitcher ad is still up and going. But . . for some reason my Spanish learning books ad got flagged!!

UGH!

-----

I was planning on doing a bunch of meal prep for the week today - plus meal planning and maybe even my laundry. Guess I was in too lazy of a mood to do all that though.

I did manage to make a triple batch of Veggie Bean Burgers - yielded 13 burgers. I ate one for supper, and the rest are flash freezing right now. I didn't quite follow the recipe, which I think is why not all of the "burgers" held together very well when I flipped them in the skillet.

I was going to make Vegetarian Sloppy Joes tonight, but then I realized that the recipe calls for cooking at least 10 hours in the crockpot. So, I put together all the ingredients, and will dump them in my crockpot in the morning before heading to work.

---

This was a no spend weekend for me (dad treated for IHOP yesterday.)

I got a text message from AT&T that my rebate from my cell phone purchase had been mailed - finally!

I still haven't received my refund from the overpayment of my disability insurance. If I haven't gotten it by Wednesday, I will be calling them again. I seriously hope they don't do this to me again next year. (My salary was reported as over 15k more than it really is -- so they held out the concurrent amount to pay for the disability ins. premium for that pay amount. This happened last year as well.)

I finally managed to get my pictures off my cell phone. I'd forgotten that I had placed a "no browsing" hold on my phone, and to send pictures, you have to be able to browse.

I had a blast! We arrived there a bit before 6:30 a.m. I got my timing chip and figured out how to attach it to my shoe, then we just walked around for the next 40 minutes or so. It was still pretty cool weather wise.

Here's me before heading to the start line:



About 7:20 racers started heading towards the start line, so my dad and I followed along. The starting gun went off at 7:35, and about three minutes later the section I was in started moving. There were probably around 2500 people racing.

I had made up a playlist last night of upbeat songs/motivational songs that would take about 50 minutes to run through. I was definitely glad to have my music. I used a combo of my music motivating me, and picking out landmarks to run between.

I crossed the finish line at . . . 43:37!

So I completed two goals - I finished the race (running across the finish line!)AND I finished under 45 minutes! Woo Hoo!

Here's a picture of me after the race:



They had bananas, watermelon, bags of chips and cookies, peanut butter bars for the participants - they also had beverages - including beer and soda, which seemed rather counterintuitive to me, but oh well.

My dad and I went out to eat at IHOP. Much better than the supper of plain spaghetti we had last night.

I am going to check into what 5k's may be in September -- my goal for that one will be 41 minutes or less!

Thanks again everyone for your wonderful support and advice!

Tomorrow morning is my first 5k! I was signed up to do one back in May, but was sick at the time so couldn't do it.

Wednesday after work I picked up my free tank top and a cap which is part of the race day packet.

I was reading this one site about preparing for your first 5k, and it said something about not bringing an mp3/ipod for safety reasons. Does anyone know if that really runs true? I was planning on putting together a playlist for my run to help keep my mind off what I will be doing.

My dad is going to be staying over tonight, then we'll be going over to the race in the morning (*early* morning - need to be there by 6:30 a.m.!) He's bringing his video camera to make a record of the event.

My main goal for tomorrow's event is to . . . well, to finish it!

---

I signed up for my first event with the DFWO club - we'll be going to see the Impressionists exhibit at a museum in Fort Worth. This was something I was wanting to do anyway, so now I can do it AND meet new people at the same time! Woo Hoo!

Through the DFWO club I have also found out about a couple meetup groups I wasn't aware of. One is called Random Acts of Kindness, which is a group that mainly visits a nursing home once a month, works with the Salvation Army a couple times a month, plus a few other things.

I'm going to have to actually make use of the Yahoo calendar to make sure I don't double schedule myself. What a problem to have.

--
Today was payday (every Friday is, actually). I decided that I was going to go ahead and make my August contribution to my car fund today. August is a 5 paycheck month, and HSBC is running their 3.5% deal through Aug. 15 - so I scheduled $400 off to the Car Fund. It should be in the account by the 27th - probably not in time to figure into the daily average for July, but will help out the August one.

---

This Sunday I plan to do laundry and do a whole bunch of freezer ready meals - to hopefully help me keep my grocery spending in check. The more I can keep control of that expense, the less my savings will be slowed down by having added the "Social" category to my budget.

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you you responded to my last entry.

The various comments got me thinking. Tonight after work, I picked up my race day pack from RunOn - got a free tank top and cap. My number is 1004.

When I got home though, I felt very motivated to look and see if I was able to find anything different. So, I did a little googling.

Most of what I came up with was similar to what I've found before. Except for one thing. DFW Outdoors. Oh wow! Remember I mentioned about wanting someone to go visit the new art exhibit? I mentioned something about wanting someone to go biking with, etc? Well, on this months calendar, they have an upcoming trip to the particular art museum exhibit I was wanting to see AND they have a river tubing trip planned, not to mention a bunch of movie nights.

Now. Here's the drawback. Membership costs $25/month, then it costs extra for whatever events you attend (with some free exceptions).

So, deep breath here. What if I commit $120/month to "socializing". That would break down to the $25/mo membership fee, $26/mo for two Vegetarian meetup outings, and leave $44/mo for DFWO events.

To do this, it would mean that my savings goals would slow WAY down. I don't know if I'm entirely comfortable with that.

When/if I start working one evening a week at the gym in August, that will bring in after taxes about that same amount -- so I might break even.

Pros:
Meet new people
Get outdoors, physical activity other than the gym
Have people to go places with, do things with
Maybe make new friends

Cons:
Savings will slow down to less than a crawl
Income from 2nd job previously intended as a boost to savings would go almost completely to this

I also think that I am going to join the DFW running club. It costs $25/yr and besides running events, also has some social events.

So, in summary:

DFWOutdoors: $25/mo base; budget $44/mo events

DFW Vege' Meetup: 2x/mo ~$26/mo

DFW Runners Club: $25/yr, some social events, volunteers needed at some races, special monthly club races

Start attending church again regularly: free

Will all this equal a better lookout on life? I guess time will tell, but mostly I think it depends on me. If I can get up the guts enough to cut back on my savings goals to do this.

--
P.S. I signed up for a DFWVege meet - a brunch at one of the organizers homes. So that will just cost whatever the food item I bring costs to make. Yay!

I'll start with two positives.

1. My carpooler gave me $12 yesterday rather than the normal $10. So that makes my Kenny G fund up to $37.

2. Work has actually kept me fairly busy lately.

-----

I have a good life. I have family who love and support me. I have friends. I have a job, roof over my head, food to eat, etc. It should be enough, right?

But the thing is, I don't have anyone to really talk to. I mean *really* talk to. Talking to my parents - how much can you really say to them anyway? Talking to my friends - esp. when I hardly get to see them or talk to them - its hard to really *talk* or keep up a real relationship. It especially doesn't help when nothing seems to change.

Most of the time I can fight these feelings off by reminding myself how much better I have it than 90% or more of the world. But sometimes I can't. More often than not lately, I can't.

I wonder what is the point? It's not like doing a fantastic job at my work is going to get me a raise anytime in the next 10 years - the most it will do is help me keep my job.

It's not like all my consistent exercise of the past couple years has done much for me at all. A person meeting me for the first time is most likely NOT going to think that I look like someone who ever has seen the inside of a gym, let alone spends 5 days a week at one!

It's not like putting myself out there on singles websites or joining singles dating services (in the past) have gotten me anywhere.

Recently, I've been hearing from a good number of friends I've had through the years via facebook. The one thing that has very consistently run through all of our catching up is the fact that 99% of them are married, and or have children.

Tonight, I for some odd reason decided to check in at this one singles site I used to have a profile on, and saw that a recent success story was of this strange looking guy who'd been a member of the site since before I'd joined it - over 9 years ago!

Here I am, supposedly in what should be the prime time of my life - idling. Having achieved only the goal of being a teacher (for a short while), but none of my other dearly cherished dreams.

I really don't see how this is going to change. I keep grasping at straws, keep searching diligently for glimmers -- anything to give me some small shred of hope. Meanwhile, I have this strong feeling that all my efforts are futile.

I'd like to have someone who I could just say - Hey, you want to come over and watch this movie I borrowed from the library? Or, hey - you want to go check out the new special exhibit they have at the museum on Tuesday (free night)? Or how about - hey, you want to have a card game/board game whatever game night? Or, just even someone who would actually be *interested* in hearing my oddball thoughts about things, or hearing about what happened at work. Or someone who'd be interested in going for a bike ride, or a run in the park, or just even laying out on a blanket in a park enjoying nature? It would be really great to have someone who doesn't think I'm odd because of what I *do* and *don't* eat or drink.

Ok, to be REALLY honest -- I miss touch. I grew up in a household of touch-oriented people. In the grown-up adult world of work and even friends - people just don't touch each other. It's understandable, with the litigious society we are, but it's also really sad.

Like I said, I *do* have friends. But, with the exception of N and T, they are only within the reach of a phone call -- and we've really not kept in touch very well. T is married and has two young kids plus lives about a 30 minute drive from me. N is almost divorced w/two kids - the only topic w/her is her soon to be ex - she's really not someone I'd have chosen to be friends with (we met at a lifestyles program that an exbf had encouraged me to go to) - she's actually the ex-sil to the ex-bf of mine's ex wife. (Say all that in one breath!)

I think I need to accept that two of my dearest dreams - dreams that defined who I thought I would be - are never going to be. I need to figure out new dreams. I need to figure out just how a person can be single, happy and feel like a contributing member to society.

The weird thing is that right now I'm actually feeling okay about work. It's usually when I've had a long spell of hardly anything to keep myself occupied with at work that I get these feelings of how pointless and aimless my life is.

This last week or so, almost every night I have completely blown my healthy eating plan out the window. I've gained back at least 7 of the 12 lbs I'd lost. I stopped at a store this afternoon, in the pouring rain, just to get a soda and some ice cream.

Something's got to change. I just wish I knew how or what.

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If you actually managed to make it all the way to the end of this . . . Thanks, I appreciate your "listening."

This weekend I signed up to become a ChaCha guide. Tonight I spent about 20 minutes going through their registration process, and taking the fitness assessments. I finished all 3 parts within the time limits - but got the message at the end that I wasn't needed! Arghh! That would've been such a perfect and easy way to make a little extra cash doing what I normally do - surfing the net in my free time. I wish I knew what the problem was. Oh well, will just have to keep looking for something else.

---

This weekend, inspired by my desire to earn enough money for my Kenny G tickets, I did two things I'd been putting off. First, I took a couple items back to Sam's Club which I did not need anymore due to finding an item which replaces them for the next 10 years or so.

Second, I took a couple DVD's and some books to Half-Price bookstore to sell.

Sam's Club Refund = $26.59
Half-Price Sale =$8.00

I decided to put 50% of my "new" money towards the Kenny G tickets, since that was what had truly motivated me to get off my duff and get those items done.

So . . . $17 to Kenny G
.........$ 8 old balance =
.........$25 out of $65 needed

Then, I decided to put 25% of the remainder to my Car Fund, and to my Downpayment Fund. So, that is an extra $8.50 to each.

----

I stayed at my mom and stepdad's this weekend. We played 3 hands of Uno, and I won all of them.

Then today we went to a play called "The Boyfriend". It was a musical spoof of 1920's era British comedy. It was pretty funny -- I loved the dancing - the Charleston and the Two-Step. The plotline was so-so. I also loved the flapper girl dresses -- funny thing though, my mom had never heard the term "flapper girl."

She asked me where that term came from, and I wasn't really sure. I'm thinking maybe from the style of the dresses? The pleats kind of "flap" when you move in them?? Probably could find this out on Wiki - maybe check into it tomorrow.

This morning my carpooler handed me $8 and told me it was for me to treat myself to lunch.

My lunch today was a veggie omlette (made in my bowl I keep at work) and a handful of french fries from the catered lunch given to us by one of our vendors (a seafood/steak place).

The $8 goes to my Kenny G Ticket Fund!

Woo hoo!

Old balance: $0.00

New Balance: $8.00

Saved $8/$65

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I also got two emails today about my TV/VCR combo from Craigslist. So it looks like I'll be able to get rid of that pretty soon!

About a month ago I purchased two tickets for the Beach Boys concert which will be in September - for my mom's birthday. I actually splurged a little on getting somewhat nicer seats than usual.

Tonight I was adding the concert on my facebook page, and while I was getting the correct url . . . I saw him.

Him who, you may ask. Kenny G. Yes, he is back in my town again. The man with the lusciously sweet locks, and even sweeter melodies. The man who my best friend T and I went to see a couple years ago - sitting in the section where we had quite a view of his backside.

The tickets are not on sale yet for the average non American Express card holder, but I imagine they will be in the next month or so. (Concert is first weekend of October.)

So . . . two tickets to the concert (backside section) plus handling fee would be right around $65. So, how to come up with the $65? I could ask my friend T to pay for her ticket (because of course, I'm going to have her come with me!) But I really hate to do that because she and her family treat me so very often when I go places with them.

I'll have to figure something else out. Ok -- I've got it. Maybe *this* will be the extra motivation to not spend ONE penny more than necessary on food for the next two months. Hmmm. . . maybe I could also allocate all carpool money towards the tickets - not just add it into my slush fund.

Oh I can hardly wait to call T and tell her about this! She is SO going to flip out!