Keeping It Frugal

Just 3 days left of my Stepbet. It's looking like the earnings will be around $10. I'm planning on doing another one, but not until after DH and I get back from Chicago.

Yes, we are officially going to Chicago next Wednesday and Thursday. Driving. Partially to buy DH a car, and partially for a quick get away. I'm thankful Friday will be a holiday for me. Sleep!

---
Something sad at work today. One of the new employees who I really liked was let go. She was within her 6 month probation period. Not sure why.

---
At work I learned something else today - about copiers.
When you put paper into the drawer, you should do it "seam side" up. (the seam referring to the paper covering the ream of paper.) You also should do something called "fluffing" the paper (i.e. adding air pockets.)

All to avoid something like this:


(Kind of beautiful in its own way I think ...)
----
Still going strong on the no soda ... though I had a real test a few days ago - the first day the bus routes changed. STRESSED OUT! But I persevered and bought some carbonated water from family dollar instead. (and ... chocolate.)

---
Only 13 days till Trans Siberian Orchestra!!

---
The other day we had a backpack come in to Lost and Found, and inside it was a Nevada Barr book - one I hadn't read!

I picked it up from the library today. (on CD so I can load it on my phone to listen to while walking or in the car.)

---
I bought some parsnips today. I plan on making them for dinner on Sunday. I've never had them, so it should be interesting.

I also bought a bag of fresh cranberries last week. I put about 1/4 cup of them in my smoothie on Wednesday. Blegh! Yesterday and today I only put 3 or 4 ... much better.

---
DH emptied out the transmission fluid from his Honda (which he drove through high water last May?) in an attempt to get it working again. It didn't work.

So now he's on the hunt for a used transmission. He thinks he may have found one two hours away for $150. He just needs to find out if it's vtech or not?

If he can get the car going again for $500 or less, then it should be worth it. Otherwise, he may be ready to sell it. (It's a 2001 Honda with around 149k miles.)

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post. DH and I had our budget meeting for November Thursday night (since I'm going to be gone most of Sunday.) We also discussed the grocery situation and meals. I think we came to a workable solution, but time will tell.

Almost finished with week 5 of the Stepbet. Currently looking at about a $5.56 profit. So .. not much, but it definitely has motivated me to move more consistently.

---
I'm really getting frustrated with the computer and the cat situation..

More often than not, as soon as I sit down at the computer to work/relax, I have anywhere between 2 - 4 cats join me. On my lap or on the desk directly in front of the monitor. It's a constant battle to keep them from blocking my view.

Then there is my monitor itself ... the monitor was a refurbished monitor and is at least 7 years old. It worked fine up to about 2 months ago when I came home one day to find splotches on the screen and a blue line square that wouldn't go away (it did go away about 36 hours later.) The best we could figure out was one of the cats sprayed the monitor, and the display control button kind of spazzed or something.)

The blue line is back today. Plus the little box about adjusting the brightness. It makes surfing the Internet miserable (combined with fighting with cats who like to sit in front of the monitor - one who especially likes to play "chase the cursor")

Add to this my keyboard constantly drops letters or sometimes whole words!

We only have $150 (as of November) in the computer replacement category. My CPU is a bit more than 5 years old. I've reformatted it twice, but am still having issues with performance.

The only idea (temporary) I've had is to figure out a way to raise the monitor so that the cats can sit on the desk and NOT block the screen. It's just that the cord is already maxed out stretched, and I'm not sure how I could make sure the monitor would be on a stable surface.

Ugh!

--
Tomorrow I will be getting between 4 - 5 hours of overtime! My boss and I will be putting the new route maps and schedules in 67 buses. The new routes start on Tuesday.

We've had them available in the lobby for about a week and a half now - I've had to refill them just about every day. We have two signs clearly marking Current and Effective Nov 1, but, people don't read. Which is why we aren't putting the new stuff on til the day before - even though people have loudly been complaining about that.

--

After I'm done with the bus overtime, I'm going to go spend a few hours helping to serve drinks at a many nations food festival.

Then on Monday, I'm spending a few hours sitting at the book giveaway table at our Halloween alternative program.

Tuesday night I'm going to crash.

So last night DH and I were discussing what we were going to do for dinner. Thursday nights are his night to "do" dinner.

(Background - We only have two nights a week where we can have dinner together. Sundays I have the most energy, so that's my day. Thursdays I have little energy, so that became his day. I am vegetarian, leaning towards vegan. DH is meat and potatoes and tolerates veggies and "fake" meats.)

DH half-teasingly suggests pizza. To which I remind him that I do NOT want pizza again, at least not for a few weeks. I suggest that we make something at home. He tells me that we don't have anything that he can make anything with! So I suggest - bean burritos, or spaghetti, or fried rice w/veggies. All of which he rejects for various reasons.

We ended up ordering from a Chinese restaurant. So, I got my veggies, and he got his chicken.

---
Today when I got home I told him that I'd like to hash out the groceries thing on Thursday.

Based on several comments he's made, I'm not sure if the way we're doing things is really working or not.

He eats a lot of his meals from 'bad orders" at the place he works at. Rarely does he buy stuff from the grocery store to make at home.

I of course get all of my food from the grocery store ... I ask him often if I can get anything for him, and try to get things that I think he'll eat.

But then ... he says there's nothing he can make anything with in the house.

So ... based on knowing we only eat two meals together each week, and have quite different views on what constitutes "good" food ...

What, if any, suggestions do you all have? How can we figure this out so that he feels like there is food he can make stuff with in the house (and which may be slightly healthier than the restaurant fare)?

I'm tired of having take out be the defacto go to when its his turn to figure dinner out.

We spent nearly $60 on take out last month, and are on track to spend more than that this month. I really don't like that - it feels like we are going backwards. (When I first moved out here, we were eating out almost every single day. After about three weeks of that, I told him that my unemployed wallet and my waistline couldn't handle that anymore. So, that's when we started doing a meal 1x a month only. Which held til our honeymoon and moving into the house... Now it's 1 or 2 x a week!

When I got home from work today and checked the mail, I found a check for $23.41 from one of those settlement things - Linked in. Yay!

But then just as I was getting ready to go for a walk, I saw that I'd missed a call from DH. I called him back, and found out that my SIL might be needing a liver transplant!

She has had hepatitis for a long time, and drinks/smokes quite heavily. So .. it's not really shocking, just really sad. She's about 9 years older than DH.

I haven't really spent that much time with her, but the few times we have, I like her. We just don't have much in common (other than loving my DH.)

---
I stopped by Ace Hardware ($24) on the way home to pick up a drill bit and a stud finder. I needed the drill bit to put up the removable showerhead, and the stud finder so we can get the mirrors hung.

Our house doesn't have drywall, it has plaster. So we were told we had to do something with tape? whenever we hung anything.

I wanted to get the cat tree project finished tonight before DH came home, but couldn't figure out how to change out the drill bit (I'm going to be attaching it to the brick wall near the fireplace.) DH kind of told me Sunday night, but I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention.

Like I told DH, I've just not done projects like this. My brother or my dad always did them for me. Hanging pictures and screwing the table legs on are about the extent of my handiness (oh, fixing the toilet tank thing too!) (I was ecstatic when I figured out how to use the drill to unscrew a screw = you know, reverse direction? )

So, it's been about 9 days since my last entry. It's been busy and tiring and stressful ...

But ... I'm still doing well with no soda, and fairly well with the DD. Almost finished with week 3 of Stepbet.

Last week I had several pizza indulgences which I think my system did not like at all. Hence being sicker than I have been in a long time this weekend. I'm only now really recovering.

I've told DH I want to lay off on any pizza for a good while. And cheese. Not sure if it was the cheese, the grease, the white flour, or bad pineapple topping ...

I hadn't really wanted pizza the last time, but DH *really* wanted it, so I gave in. Ugh.

--
We were going to go to Denver on Sunday for a car, but DH didn't get enough sleep, so we scrapped the idea. I was so glad because I really didn't feel like driving there and back in one day. At all.

I just wish a car would magically appear within an hours or less drive that was PERFECT for what he wants.. So this car search would be over.

This coming Sunday DHs work is having a 2015 Christmas party ... catered by Outback Steakhouse. Yuck. DH actually wants to go (to the first part at least - second part is a party bus - double yuck.) So ... I'll eat something before we go and see if they have some kind of non-alcoholic non-soda drink ... dreaming, right? (water of course ...)

The following Sunday I have 3 - 4 hours of overtime at work putting new schedules on the buses, and then I'm volunteering at a local church event celebrating world food cultures. That's going to be a long day.

Last week I went out to IHOP by myself, and then I went and saw Sully. I really needed an evening out.
(I liked Sully, although there were parts of it I was going ... come on already! Part of it may be that it was pretty late and I was tired though ...)

DH and I had a pretty frank health discussion. He told me that he pretty much has decided to not really make any changes in his habits yet ... because he has time. My insisting/nagging/conjoling him to at least try something different obviously would not work ...

He also told me he'd rather take a pill than do a diet change.

So ... I guess that's it then. I can't force him to do anything. Sigh.

--
So ... today I found a job possibility with the city ... pays $2.50/hour more. Same hours. Working at the public library - doing some of what I do now, but adding in a lot more MS Office type work. Not a librarian position (those all require weekends, which I can't do.)

So ... I'm applying.

I don't know how I'd get off for an interview if it came to that. The next two months both of the people who cover my responsibilities when I'm gone will one or the other be gone more than they're here.

I guess if it's meant to be, it'll work itself out. the money sure would come in handy.

I think I'm getting into a pretty good routine now. Most days 70-80% of my food consumption is whole grain/fruit/veggie/nuts/low-processed. Now at over a month without soda.

I saw something on the YNAB forum today called a My Soda Pop (or something like that.) For $75 you could get this reusable kit to make your own carbonated water/juice/soda. Same idea as the soda stream machine, but more environmentally sound. I was interested in it til I saw the price ...

Step Bet - Week 1 (ends Tuesday)
1/2 stretch days, 2/4 active days

---
I went and looked at my American Express card offers after seeing what CCF posted. I had the Boxed offer a cable/internet offer. These will help me get to the $25 cash out (currently sitting at $16.)

At boxed I bought toilet paper and Madras lentils.

---
Our poor kitty Baby, the oldest of the brood, doesn't seem to be feeling too well. Thursday night he lost his lunch, and then wasn't interested in the wet food dinner. This never happens. He's a true chow hound.

I made a vet appointment for Saturday morning. I hope it doesn't take too long, because I'm supposed to be doing an announcement for my Sabbath School group at the beginning of service. (Not looking forward to ... but am not going to have to say a word - just be moral support to my teammate.)

I'm wondering if we are saving enough towards the vet category ...

----
DH and I both had dentist appointments this week. DH didn't think he'd have any issues since he's not had a cavity in 50 years ..... So, when it came time to renew dental insurance this year, I dropped it for both of us.

Wishing I hadn't now.

I had a clean bill of teeth health. My DH on the other hand has a receding gum line. He'd mentioned this to me, but I hadn't realized that was the same as gingivitis.

So ... at his appointment they wanted to do what is called a "deep cleaning." Something which would take at least 2 2 hour appointments and cost $150 after insurance. And this is only AFTER he gets clearance from his family doctor (blood pressure) and his orthopedic doctor (shoulder replacement.)

He feels it would be way too stressful to accomplish this before October 31 (end of plan year.) So ... we are going to hold off on it til next plan year. Hopefully he'll have his blood pressure better under control by then too. Sigh.

---
DH and I had a long discussion Thursday night. It ended with me saying that IF he found a vehicle that just absolutely SINGS to him, then I would be willing to move a certain amount of money out of the fence fund. (Also, IF he'd commit to keeping the vehicle meticulous so good resale value later.) I did also make sure he realized that it *could* mean that the fence wouldn't happen right away next spring - unless he sells some of his electronics.

This coming week we are going to be going on a short excursion for car hunting / short get-away. Either to Chicago or Denver depending on which area has the most possible cars to look at.

It'll be nice to get away even if just for a short bit. (2 days) Hopefully we'll come back with two cars so the car search will be over for a few years... (This is why I prefer to buy newer models, so that I can buy once and not have to deal with the search again for a LONG time.)

---
On Sunday we are going to be signing our wills! Also, our DNR statements. It will be good to have that all done. And for free too. (My church's larger organization, called a Conference, has a trust and wills department that does this for church members - all they ask is that the church is remembered in some small way in the will.)

---
I've borrowed a bunch of books on DIY foods, "easy" vegan cooking, etc from the library. So far 3 books into it, and I'm not terribly impressed ... I am thinking of getting a nut milk bag to make my own milk and butter. DH may roll his eyes a bit ... we'll see though.

I went shopping at HyVee tonight - picked up bananas, apples, brussel sprouts (at Dh's request!), chia seeds, and a couple other things I don't remember. $22.xx

---
Oh! DH gave me a nice surprise Thursday. When I got home, I found out that after his dentist appointment he had stopped at the local ABC (Adventist Book Center) to see if they had my fave Wham. They didn't, but he brought home some other TVP product for us to try.

I was really surprised because I wasn't sure he'd really heard me when I'd asked him if he'd stop by there sometime if he was awake and out during their hours .. because I was really craving me some Wham. He heard and he remembered.

DD day 31 = about an 80% with moderate chocolate consumption.

--
I decided yesterday to do something called Stepbet. It's put on by the same people who do Dietbet. The thing I like better about Stepbet is that the outcome is much more controllable.

What do I mean by that? Well, on Dietbet you had to le a certain percentage of your starting weight in order to win. So many factors could workgainst you to make it not work out. Whether or not you were doing the work or not.

With Stepbet however, it's completely up to you whether or not you make your step goals. You don't have to rely on your fickle body, or worry about female hormones, water weight, etc. , etc. You either do it, or you don't.

So, I put up $40 of my spending money saying that I will meet my step goals for the next five weeks.

Tomorrow is the first day that the steps count. They connect to whatever you use to track steps, and come up with an Active Day goal and a Stretch Day goal. You have to meet the Active Day goal 4 x and the Stretch Goal 2x each week.

My Active Goal is 6,675 steps.
My Stretch Goal is 8,775 steps.

Today I'm at over 7k steps, so if the bet had already started, I'd at least have an Active Day in.

I don't want to lose my $40 In fact, I don't want to lose my $40 + whatever else I might get from the pot.

---
My meeting today at Planet Fitness plays into the Stepbet. I met with one of their trainers to design a plan. I told him my goals were to walk/run a 5k in 45 minutes or less, do one real pushup, and one unassisted pull up by Thanksgiving. (I want to do a 5k in the Turkey Trot.)

He put ogether a plan for me mixing cardio/weights. If I follow that (plus make sure I'm more conscious at work about getting up out of my chair and moving around) I think I'll do this with no problem.

DH must actually be listening to all my talk about Dr Greger, etc. Sunday night I was saying how I still feel so tired all the time, etc. He said, "You know what to do. That plant based, whole foods diet." If I hadn't already been laying down, I probably would've fallen over in shock.

He pointed out that the ravioli and bread the church ladies brought us Friday night weren't whole wheat, and had cheese.

Good point DH.

Staying strong on the soda. Doing decently on the DD - still at about 70-80%.

Avoided free pizza today at planet fitness.

---
Planet Fitness .... I was going to sign up just for the $10 plan. But my co-worker told me about the wonders of the hydromassage....

Long story short ... I signed up for the $20 plan. The massage options are worth that alone.

I also made an appointment to meet with a trainer to put together a plan tomorrow (part of membership)

On Sunday I went to the other gym ... even with Sunday traffic it took 30 minutes one way to get there. Not going to work.

--
I spent a bit of money on Sunday and today. Petco, Aldi's and Dollar Tree.

At Petco, besides restocking the canned food, I bought a "black light" ... yes, we have two residents that don't always use the appropriate place. I had $10 in rewards and a 10% off coupon. $43.xx

At Aldi's - almond milk, beans, lemon juice, etc. Also a mat that is supposed to be used to keep rugs from sliding - but I'm using on our dining table - to keep the tablecloth in place when cats run across it. I also bought a fall wreath. $37.xx

Dollar Tree today - frozen veggies/fruit/chicken nuggets/veg empanadas, etc. Found a coupon for the chicken. $12.89

Still doing pretty well getting my daily dozen in most days. (At least about 70 - 85% level.) Still holding strong on no soda.

I'm working on my meal plan for this week, and plan to get some Kale to try out Ceejay's kale chips, and try out Kashi's idea too.

I found a recipe for making baked apple slices in the oven (rather than the dehydrator) so might try that too.

My grocery budget for the first week at least is going to be helped somewhat by a generous gift from my church's ladies group - a belated housewarming/wedding gift. My walking buddy brought it over last night - two kinds of ravioli from Trader Joe's, organic marinara sauce, veggie meatballs, salad mix, can of black olives, two baguettes, a set of measuring spoons and cups, and a silicon spatula. All in a container which can be used as a serving dish.

Pretty neat.

---
Okay, September wrap up:
Mortgage - 526
Extra Principal - 25
Natural gas - 26
Electricity - 139
Phone - 52.27
Water/Sewer - 86.82 (bi-monthly)
Internet/Cable - 54.95
Netflix - 10.71
Groceries - 296.91
Car gas - 274.49 ($50 or so for MN trip)
Tithe - 130
Giving - 30
Car Maintenance - 129.48
Clothing - 23.45
Phone/Garmin replacement - 25.93 (new Garmin warranty, back-up phone DH)
Household - general - 46.95
Pets - cats - food/litter - 70.95
Pets -cats - medical - 24.39 (felliway dispenser)
Pets - non-cats - food - 13.49
Fitness - 41.85
Laura birthday/entertainment (trans siberian) 108
Date night / eating out - 63.85
Catifying - 15.87 (materials to attach cat tree to wall in living room)
Laura fun money - 19.39
Student loan - 51.38
Medical debt - 178

Money was set aside for multiple categories not shown above .. because nothing was spent in them for now.

---
We had our October budget meeting on Thursday night. It was kind of fun due to my 3rd paycheck and overtime hours. We put $200 into each of our spending money categories (been getting about $40 each), an extra $300 into repaying medical debt (actually have enough to pay half of it in full right now - just need to find a card DH would qualify for with a $1k spend and good sign up bonus, or even a $500 spend with good sign up bonus ...) We also allocated extra to some other categories.

DH agreed to do a $100 extra principal payment to the mortgage after I explained to him how making the little boost payments would save us huge amounts of interest / time in the long run.

---
DH made the commitment to only one 20 oz soda per work night, and I have made the commitment to not taking more than one servings worth of chocolate/junkfood into the office at a time. This will be helpful to both of us.

Ok, I need to get my walking clothes on and get out there before it's dark. May go ahead and do some grocery shopping tonight too. (Since I did some cleaning last night before my walking buddy came over ...)

Still going strong on no soda.

The light duty person has been diagnosed with per-diabetes and high cholesterol, so we have been doing a lot of talking about diet, etc. She's a big meat eater, so I suggested she may want to try cutting back on meat by using it as a condiment to her meals, as well as cutting out/back on dairy and eggs.

I've been doing fairly well with the DD. The one item I'm having trouble with is getting my greens.

That's partly why I'm thinking about getting a dehydrator - so I can make Kale Chips (maybe spinach ones too?) Then I can use them to dip in my homemade hummus. Taking care of greens and beans!

I'd also like to do dried apples like my dad's friend Pete does. Every time I go out to CA, I come home with bags of died apples. So addictive.

I found one on Amazon for $50 I like, but plan on checking Craig and FB first. DH thinks that's a good idea in case I end up not really using it.

---
I got an email from the Achievmint app today telling me how many points I'd earned. I've been ignoring them because I thought that I'd earned the max number of rewards. But today I decided to see why they kept sending me emails.

Well, I guess they restructured their program so that even people like me (who earned $200 from them) could continue to earn rewards in $10 increments. I'm halfway to the next $10! Guess I'll start tracking my water again.

--
Also last night I decided to look at the Bounts store ... and was able to snag a $10 CVS card! I tried to get a second one, but it wouldn't let me add it to my cart.

---
I stopped at a Dollar Tree yesterday (Tuesday) and was disappointed to find that most of their frozen vegetarian selections weren't available anymore. At least they had a good selection of frozen fruit.

I also bought 4 plastic canisters to put rice/beans/quinoa, etc. in. I need to buy some more, and also find my sharpie so I can label them.

---
I got a reply back from N e l n e t. They didn't answer whether they accept 3rd party checks or not, but they told me here to send a payment ... So, I guess we can try and see?

DH needs to recertify for the IBR plan. If it's based on 2015 taxed income, he should be okay still. By next year when it'd be based on both of our incomes together, we'll already be in student loan repayment focus so it won't matter. Right now we are focusing on the medical debt.

(Citi gives the option of sending rewards money to either a student loan or a mortgage. Otherwise, I'd send it to the medical debt. The medical debt has no interest, but the interest on the student loans is negligible, and the mortgage isn't bad either. I just want the medical debt gone first. Even if it doesn't totally make financial sense. )

Now I am at 3 weeks of no soda!

I got home from grocery shopping on Sunday, and then went out for a walk. Just as I was getting to the house, DH calls me to find out where I was.

We ended up going to check out some more cars around town, and in Home Depot to check out week whackers, etc.

By the time we got back home, the majority of the time I'd planned for cleaning/cooking was gone.

So ... DH cleaned out the kitty boxes (bleach) while I got dinner on and did a few of the cleaning tasks I'd planned.

Dinner was eaten about 9 p.m. That's not late for DH, but is way late for me.

After dinner/cleanup/conversation, DH asked me to help him figure out the blood glucose meter. Yes, the thing I had gotten him nearly six weeks ago.

What a bizarre and un user friendly contraption that thing is! Finally about midnight DH had had enough and decided to try to find some youtube videos to figure it out. I was beyond exhausted.

Today I managed to get my lunch put together, and breakfast made, so that they were both within the DD guidelines.

--
Why is the Vegas contest idea out?

Well, on Sunday before I went grocery shopping, I stopped by the gym to do my initial weigh in and to ask some questions I had from the packet.

The guy who I talked to had no idea what was in the packet. For example, the packet stated that you could another facility, but would just need to have proof of that. He told me you could ONLY work out there.

So today I emailed the main contact person to clear up the confusion. He said the same thing! Even though the packet contradicts that.

This, plus a few other things, led the light duty person and I to agree to forget this whole thing.

I am thinking about joining Planet Fitness, which would only be a short distance out of my way on the way home from work. And only $10/month. DH thinks this would be a good idea as well.

DH also suggested that maybe I could go use the gym membership I already have (and have to pay til March) on the weekends when traffic wouldn't be such an issue. He's got a good point. Now, just to do it.

--
I'm probably going to go to bed not too long from now. I've a massive sinus? headache, probably partially triggered by the short night's sleep.

DD 20 (Saturday) was a bit of a wash. I had my regular morning smoothie and toast ... but then had a craving for pizza and chocolate ... and gave into it. Didn't get much other of the DD (daily dozen) foods in.

Today is a new day.

-

I spent a little time updating the budget last night. I was thinking that we were going to be getting kind of close to the limit on our groceries, but even after double checking that all receipts were entered, I found that we had nearly $140 left! No way we would need to spend that much in the next 7 days.

So, I moved $70 of that to paying for the Trans Siberian tickets (my birthday category only had $15 in it ... the tickets were $108. Needed to whack some moles ...) I found a few other places I could WAM (move money) from, and fully covered that category.
I would have waited to buy the tickets until I had them funded normally, but by buying them when I did, I saved $40.

I can hardly wait for November 17!

I've had a pretty lazy start to the day so far. After DH woke me up coming home this morning (4:30 a.m.) I managed to go back to sleep til nearly 9. I love Sunday mornings. The cats weren't so happy about my staying in bed til 9 ...

In a little while I'm going to go to the gym to do my initial weigh in for the Vegas Trip Contest, and then go do some grocery shopping. Probably Aldi's, HyVee and SuperSaver.

Then I need to clean/bleach a couple of the litter boxes, sweep, vacuum, clean the bathroom, mop the laundry room ...

I'm planning on doing a simple dinner tonight I think. A Chef Boy'r Dee pizza with a side of broccoli and beans. That'll make DH happy and me happy too. (And won't take 3 hours of prep time.)

I'll bake some sweet potatoes for my work lunches this week, and portion out some of the beans I made last week. (How long are cooked beans okay in the fridge?)

---
I read an interesting post on the blog No Meat Athlete about how to really make lasting habit changes.

http://www.nomeatathlete.com/limitless

I don't believe personally in meditation/mindfulness, but I would like to get back into the habit of spending time daily reading/thinking about the Bible. Usually when I go for my walks, I listen to the podcast Brian Hardin's Daily Audio Bible, but it's easy to let my thoughts wander (especially when he's on the chapters with long lists of names ...)

Ten habits I would like to incorporate in my life:
1. Daily Bible reading (physical book) Start with 5 minutes, and slowly increase to 30. (Read Sabbath School quarterly??)
2. Memorize one Bible verse a week. (Use Memorise?)
3. Play the piano daily. (Start with 5 minutes, and work up to 30.)(Purchase iPad piano app?)
4. Practice Spanish. Start with 5 minutes, and work up to 20 minutes using Duolingo or other sources.)
5. Wake up an hour earlier. (Start with 5 minutes ...)
6. Daily flossing (much better about this, but could be even better.)
7. Practice releasing stress through other means than chocolate. --Say "Oh Well" -- Chew gum --- .....?
8. Spend time daily doing something to make the house more home like (other than daily cleaning the litter boxes) Start with 5 minutes, work up to 20.
9. Average 7,000 steps daily. Or, 30 minutes of movement daily. (Start with average of 4,000 / 5 minutes movement and work up.)
10. Make contact with one family/friend (other than Grandma) 2x a week. (Start with 2x a month, and work up.)

Habits 1 and 2 kind of go with each other, so I think I'll make those my focus for September/October.

What are some habits/small changes that you might like to focus on?

I'm still managing to stay away from soda. I'm finding out again, like other times I've managed to go more than two weeks avoiding it, that it gets to where I'm not sure why I wanted it in the first place. I'm at that point now - where a sip of DHs Cherry Coke doesn't even tempt me.

As far as the Daily Dozen - I'm still doing fairly well with it. I think I may modify it a bit ... such as making beans a 1/2 cup per day UP to 3 servings. Eventually I may work up to 3 servings daily, but most nights all I want is something simple like a bowl of cereal and maybe some fruit. When it gets colder, it'll be easier too ... soup or a sweet potato w/beans, etc.

DH didn't like the spaghetti squash too much. We have 3 mo I'm going to try making a spaghetti squash "pizza" and see if he'd go for that. I had lots of leftovers to eat this week because DH wasn't too keen on any of what I made on Sunday. I'm going to have to toss some of it, because I couldn't even eat it all.

One thing going to work on this weekend is coming up with a meal plan mainly using what we already have on hand, but using it in a different way (to make it more palatable to DH.) He was mentioning to me that he thought we shouldn't be buying more perishable items until we used up what we have. (I didn't say that if BOTH of us were eating them ....)

*Exercise - Fallen a bit short on this this week, due to 2 days of evening meetings and a road trip. Got in a 30 minute walk today though!

--
DH may have found his winter vehicle - just an hour away! Thursday when I got off work DH called me and asked me if I wanted to take a road trip to O city to see the car. Although I was pretty tired and really wanted to get a walk in, etc., I said yes.

It's a 98 Subuaru - not sure how many miles - $1400. Needs new tires and a driver's side mirror and the windshield replaced. DH was supposed to call the dealer today to talk to them - I forgot to ask him if he did or not.

I really hope this car is workable. A 1 hour road trip is much preferable to a 12 hour roundtrip!

---
One of our local gyms is running a contest starting on Monday for a trip to Vegas. You enter as a team of 4, and earn points based on exercise, tracking food, weight loss, participation in nutrition events, etc. You get free access to their gym for the duration of the contest.

The winning team of 4 gets a 3 day/2 night trip to Vegas. Airfare and hotel only.

So ... I got the light duty lady to agree to partner up with me - we'll be assigned two more people.

Doubt we'll win, but it'll be fun anyway.

(This contest is mainly a marketing gimmick to get people to join their gym - it's a new company taking over the locations a defunct gym.)

It's free. (Although you can earn more points by buying stuff at some place, or also by scheduling a chiropractic consultation / visit (sponsors).) I may go ahead and do the chiropractic thing - check to see if a visit would be covered under insurance.

---
I ended up getting 6 hours of overtime this week! Two meetings from 5 - 7, and then a 3rd meeting I wasn't supposed to be at initially, from 3 - 5. Due to my union contract, that 30 minutes of OT HAS to be 2 hours.

2 of the meetings had about 125 people each, and one had 49 .... lots of twiddle the thumb time at that one.

---
I received my signup bonus for the AE Charge card - 25000 points plus another 1000 for my "purchase." (paid medical debt) Let's just say I'm underwhelmed at the choices.

Most likely we're going to go with using it as Amazon credit. 26,000 points translates into $182 at Amazon.

Or we may keep it around in case we do some traveling, and then we could use it on a more dollar for point basis at hotels com.

---
I'm going to try contacting N e l n e t again tonight to see if they accept a 3rd party check. I've already sent them two emails through my husband's account (that I set up for him online ...) with no response. (student loans)

DH and I agreed that if we don't get a response within two weeks this time, that we'll send the $600 in rewards from Citi to the mortgage instead. That'd be more than a one-month payment. (The mortgage company responded to my inquiry within about 6 hours!)

Once that finally clears out the rewards points, then I'm going to check into having that card changed into the Double Cash back card (that doesn't have an annual fee.)

No Soda. About an 80% on the daily dozen. Chocolate bought and consumed.

--
The day didn't start well. I tossed and turned more than slept. Then when DH got home he tells me he's decided his car is "safe" for a 6 hour shift, so wouldn't be using mine. After a 2 hour "discussion" he promised to come straight home and change cars if he had the slightest hesitation about the wheel bearing. (DH got home about 3:20 a.m.)

As soon as I turned the lights on at work, I had a customer - one of the agencies. I later found out that I gave them the low income version instead of the full fare. I was blurry eyed and a bit foggy AND had two calls on hold before I'd even logged in. uGH.

After lunch I found out that the route changes are being postponed til November 1. Citing that the city budget has not been passed.

This is a mixed blessing. On one hand having more time to finalize prep will be very helpful. On the other hand, we have spent a massive amount of time advertising an Oct 3 start date. Now we get to explain that there's a new start date...

BTW - if anyone has an interest in bus driving, we are looking for drivers. ASAP.

---
I helped out the first open house about the new routes tonight. 120 people showed up! Less than 7% sounded disgruntled, and of those, most of them we were able satisfy them.

It was actually kind of fun. Tomorrow I get to do it all over again. 4 hours overtime, thanks much.

Day 15 of no soda.
Had a Kit kat gifted to me by the lady doing light duty. I'm a milk chocolate gal - rarely dark.

I think I got an 87% today. Lots of leftovers from dinner.

I think DH and I are both getting tired of roasted veggies. I need to come up with something else. Not salad. He won't eat salad. Veggies have to be cooked.

---
So, how did DH save the day?

Well last night I was afraid I had fried my blender and my InstaPot. The blender would be a horrible loss due to daily use, and the InstaPot, I'm just starting to figure out what to do with it.

I'd tried everything I could think of. DH had me try plugging the blender in another outlet, and it worked! So then we thought that the outlet went bad.

But when I plugged something into it, it worked!

So, we thought maybe just the IP had fried.

But then DH made the wonderful discovery (which he will tease me about forever) - the removable plug in cord was NOT plugged in to the back of the pot!

Crisis averted. Wooh!

---
Of course, on the other hand .. since DH hadn't made an appointment to get his car looked at (the wheel bearing fixed) and had just let it go and go (he did buy the needed parts ...) he tells me on Saturday he needs my car.

It probably will be most of this week before it can get fixed.

Ugh.

And of course this week just so happens to be when I have two evening meetings in a row after work.

Thankfully my boss said she'd be ok with me riding with her to the meeting, and taking me home on Tuesday. Wednesday won't be an issue since DH doesn't work til 9 PM.

But still... Ugh.

---
I needed a few stamps to mail something, and since after I got home, DH had the car, I walked to the next closest gas station which sold stamps. (I called first!) Got a good 35 minute walk in too.

On my way home, a lady that I've seen quite a number of times on my walks was in her driveway unloading groceries with her son? She said hi to me and asked me if I lived in the area. I told her that I lived just around the corner.

She then told me that if I ever wanted a walking partner, just bang on her door after 3 pm and she'd throw on some shorts and go! COOL!

--
Something else pretty good. I got a call from my doctor's office about my blood work. They said that my platelets had improved a good bit, and to stay on the iron supplements - they seemed to be working!

I need to call back and make an appointment for another retest, and also ask what the numbers were. I hate how they don't give you a copy of the results unless you ask. It's so annoying. I want to track these things myself!

---
So, I've been pretty frustrated with one of my paid to exercise apps - bounts. It works fine, but I haven't been able to redeem for a reward in a LONG time. I have enough points for at least $15 worth of rewards.

But they are all out of stock. Except one - Crutchfield. A $25 reward. I need another 2k points or so for.

I had been wondering why I'd even want that. But then I got a catalog in the mail today (or I should say DH did) and it was for ... Crutchfield! I browsed through it and at first thought everything was WAY out of my price range and nothing I'd really want.

Then ... then I saw it. A little device you plug into your stereo which works to make your stereo bluetooth compatiable. That just means that you can listen to your iPhone music without any cords connecting to your speaker system. $50.

This is a goal I can work towards.

---
Something else I forgot!
DH agreed to go to a real concert with me! Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Nov 17. It'll be an early birthday celebration for me. Thank goodness the guitarist he likes is in this particular group (I guess they divide the group into two to cover more territory.)

Now I just need to buy the tickets!

I had my first real test today regarding soda... DH got a Mountain Dew from Runza while we were out looking at car lots. I was thirsty, but I had water with me. Not even a sip.

So today is going to be difficult to assess.

This morning when I got back from my walk, I didn't want to just make a smoothie. I wanted something a little different. So I decided to make "ice cream" using my usual smoothie ingredients, except less liquid and more cacao powder.

Unfortunately. I way overdid the cacao powder and no matter what I added, I couldn't get rid of the bitter taste. I managed to eat maybe half of it, one painful spoonful at a time.

Like my husband likes to say - Laura, taste and add, taste and add. Ugh.

--
My great northern beans turned out pretty good I think. 25 minutes in te Instant Pot. My hummus is ok, but I really need to find my food processor so I can make it smoother/creamier.

Another disaster - I put a spaghetti squash in the IP to cook for 6 minutes. When I cut it open, I realized it needed more time. But .... the outlet isn't working anymore! I tried resetting it, but did no good.

Hopefully when DH wakes, he can figure it out.

I have tofu "steaks" marinading right now, and probably should get the veggies in the oven for roasting.

I would have gotten more done today, but DH woke around 11 and wanted to go around the car lots. A ride with DH is much more appealing than cleaning.

We found one vehicle he liked, but it didn't have a price tag. I'm betting it'll be way out of our price range. We'll see I guess.

Today makes 13 days sans soda. I don't really miss it that much.

I did buy and eat some chocolate on Friday, but much less than normal. I actually ate an apple instead of eating the chocolate right away ....

I'd say Day 12 was about a 85% and Day 13 about a 65%. I had leftover pizza for lunch today (from Thursday Little Ceasar's) and it wasn't all that appetizing.

I was going to go on the Saturday afternoon hike with some fellow church members today, but after I finished my earlier post and started to get ready, I realized I just wasn't up to it.

Instead, I took a 90 minute nap.

Even after getting up from my nap (to see DH off to work) I still wasn't feeling very good. So, no walk today.

I'm really hoping I'm feeling better by the morning because I'm way behind on cleaning, and I need to get food ready for the week. Tuesday and Wednesday will be late evenings for me (helping explain the new bus routes to people) and I don't want to derail my healthier eating.

I'd really like to hire someone to come in and assist/push me to get the cleaning done. Maybe some organizing too. Also have someone help me figure out how to make the house smell better ... Sigh.

----
I did some grocery shopping the last few days. DH agreed that if I made a big pot of Great Northern Beans, that he would eat them throughout the week. (This was after I read to him the section on how people were able to eat 1/2 cup of legumes daily on top of their regular intake, without it causing weight gain. In fact, it caused the opposite. Plus helped to regulate the blood sugar, etc.)

The beans and chickpeas have been soaking since Friday night. I am going to take them out of the water in a few minutes. Maybe use the Instant Pot for the GN beans so hubby can start eating them.

I bought from our local "Farmer's Market" store - almond milk, spaghetti squash, eggplant, red onions, apples, oranges, 2 lbs of Great Northern beans, 1 lb of chickpeas (going to make hummus and roast some too), 1/2 lb of Brazil Nuts (eat 2 a day to help with thyroid, plus heart health), two Medjool Dates ($$$$$$) and some other things I can't remember. $26.xx

From HyVee, 3 candybars (3 for $1), red seedless grapes, ?? $13.xx

From Dollar Tree - multiple bags of frozen broccoli florets, frozen asparagus, a couple spices, etc.

$9.89

From another local grocery store (Russ) -
bananas, ten different spices/herbs (ground mustard, bay leaves, chopped basil, ground ginger (to keep at work), sesame seeds, ....

$14.40

I also looked at buying Chlorella and liquid B 12 ... but couldn't stomach the cost. I was thinking about buying some fresh kale too, because the fresh/non-bagged stuff was on a good sale, but I didn't know for sure what was the kale I wanted (3 varieties) - I wanted to try making Kale chips. So I didn't get any.

----
I'm about halfway through How Not to Die taking notes. Some of the recommended stuff is SO expensive. I'm thinking I'll stick to the recommendations that are a reasonable cost, and then IF something happens to me, then I can go for the more expensive stuff (like Chlorella ...)

A part of me is really frustrated that I'm feeling so poorly even with having been eating much higher amounts of fruits and veggies for nearly two weeks, and little junky food.

I'm not giving up though. Something has to work to get me feeling energetic again. Maybe if DH sees it working for me, he'll be more willing to expand his choices as well...

---
Redeemed a $25 Walmart gift card today from SBs.

Also used a $30 Petco gift card I earned last month by setting up "repeat delivery) to order some grain free cat food and more litter. Cost after rewards and gift card - $6.86

---
Almost forgot! The mortgage FINALLY posted to my credit reports! I got a call from the fraud alert place my company uses that there were two alerts - one that the mortgage had been added, and one about the inquiry from Chase.

Later I'll post another one, but only have a few minutes right now.

Let's see:

1. I'm 40 years old, and will be 41 in December
2. I have furkids, featherkids, and shellkids only. Too many of all of them.
3. I am a newleywed - married April 24. DH is why I am mom to so many non human kids.
4. I was an elementary teacher for 8 years, a tutor for two, and an elementary school librarian for 3 years at a mission school for Navajo children.
5. I live in Nebraska. Nebraska is something like state #13? for me.
6. In January, I will have been blogging at SA for 12 years!
7. I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. Far from perfect, but trying. I would NOT have voted for Ben Carson if he'd somehow gotten on the ticket.
8. I am a vegetarian. Currently I still will eat eggs and cheese and ice cream ... however ... I am trying to wean myself off of all those things.
9. If chocolate could be my main food source, I'd be a happy woman. Sigh.
10. My DH and I met the first time online in a SDA dating website in 2004. We dated a few months, went our different ways. In March, 2012? I called him. In May we saw each other again, and have been together since (except for a short stint ...)
11. I have family in Texas, Tennessee, California, Ohio and Egypt.
12. One of my dad's younger brother's and his wife have lived more of their adult life in the Middle East than in the US. They started as paid missionaries, and now are sponsored by various organizations to do a health ministry.
13. Walking is my favorite form of exercise. Especially walking outside.
14. Lifting weights is my second favorite form of exercise ... although I don't do it consistently.
15. I love to read, although between keeping up with various forums, blogs, etc., plus taking care of my non human kids, have not left me much time to do much reading lately.
16. Music is like an elixir to my soul. Listening to it (most types except heavy metal/punk/rap) and singing loudly off key are two of my favorite ways to enjoy it. I did not inherit my mom's singing ability. Nor my brother's.
17. I have one younger brother (35) who lives in CA. He's a pretty awesome dude all around. I'm very lucky to have him.
18. I've had the opportunity to meet several SA bloggers in real life. MonkeyMama, LookingForward, ThriftyRay and another one (sorry, brain disturbance ...) That was a blast!
19. I feel so blessed that nearly 12 years ago I came across this website. It's not just a blog site to me, it's part of my family. DH doesn't quite get it, but he humors me when I talk about my blog friends.
20. Ok, I must really get going. I am going to be late for the afternoon "hike"

Later!

Day 11 of no soda consumed.

Chocolate was consumed, but only one piece. (a Hershey Nugget - so very small piece - leftover from yesterday)

Was hungry waiting for DH to wake up (still waiting ...) and had an apple and some triscuits w/hummus.

Had Little Ceasar's for lunch ..($10). DH wanted it, and I felt like going for it since he hadn't eaten in more than 24 hours ... I have two slices left for either dinner or lunch tomorrow. Mushrooms and pineapple (my usual toppings)

Depending on what we end up doing for dinner, I'm at about 60% today. I'm okay with that since it wasn't a normal day.

-----
DHs appointment - His colonoscopy went well. It was pretty quick overall once they took him back. The nurses were great - one of them was someone he went to high-school with! DH was a little embarrassed to have her see him in the procedure.

My appointment - For some reason the lady who usually sticks me in one shot, had to really dig around today. Ouch.

---
So between the two appointments, I went to work for about 2 1/2 hours.Busy busy busy. Wow.

Our new route maps came in, and I got to help move out the old boxes and move in the new ones ... in my dress work pants with my hair down.

So, even though I didn't go on an actual "walk" today, I think I probably burned as many calories. Sure sweated enough!

I really like the lady who is doing light duty. She's really trying. She used my computer a little bit today (I'd shown her the basics yesterday.) She told me that I need an assistant..

The phones are pretty busy due to the new routes. Complaints, people wanting to know when they can get the printed schedules, people wanting help figuring out their kids new routes, etc. etc. But lots of complaints. Plus the normal calls of course.

Today I scored 91% on the daily dozen.

Mainly lost points due to only walking 30 minutes.

I also ate chocolate. Mainly because I had some left from yesterday's purchase.

Must only buy single serving sizes. Must not keep extras in house...

I finished listening to the book this morning on the way to work. After work I stopped at the library and picked up the hard copy. I plan on taking notes on it tomorrow while I wait for DH's procedure to finish.

I tried a cup of water with ginger and a bit of honey tonight. Not too bad. I might buy some ginger to keep at work in case I feel one of my bad headaches coming on.

Someone told me that possibly they *could* be migraines, even though they don't last more than 6 or 7 hours (the worst part at least) and are helped by sleep, dark and a cold cloth.

---
I'm kind of looking forward tomorrow - most of the day I have off from work. In the morning accompanying DH to his appointment, then go to work for two hours, then go to my own doctor appointment (getting my iron retested.)

I'm really curious to see what the retest is going to show. I still am not a ball of engergy, but I do feel like I have a little more energy than I did before.

---
DH found a car he thought he wanted (winter delivery car) in Minneapolis. He decided since he was going to take Wednesday night off from work anyway (knowing he was going to need to be near a toilet ...) he decided to drive out there to check the car out.

So, this morning around 4 a.m. he headed out. He hadn't asked me to get cash out for it, and was bemoaning how frustrated he felt not having cash on hand to just go buy a car if he found one.

I told him I'd be okay with taking out a certain amount of cash that was already budgeted for car replacement to keep in the house. It wouldn't affect our interest earnings *that* much.

He seemed happy with that.

However, we still had to figure out how he was going to pay for the car.

I didn't want him to put it on our daily use card, because that would put us close to 60% utilization. So I tried to set up the new Chase card which actually has a higher limit than our Citi card. ???

The phone activation system didn't recognize the card number. The website activation didn't recognize the card number. Finally, I called the customer service number and got the car activated.

DH got on the road. He got back home about 6 p.m. and told me that he ended up NOT getting the car.

Sigh. (of relief partially ... wasn't looking forward to driving to Minneapolis and back on Sunday ...)

So, he's back on the hunt.

Friday I'll probably go ahead and take out the balance of the car fund to help alleviate DH's frustration.

It's a small thing to compromise on.

Going on 9 days of no soda! I almost gave in to temptation today, but told myself that no, I didn't need it. It was just habit - in CVS, get a couple of sodas ...

Day 8 I had about 79% of the Daily Dozen, and today I had about 98%.

I tried adding a 1/2 cup of oatmeal and 1/2 cup of black beans to my smoothie ... Hmm... interesting. I will have to experiment with how much liquid (was too thick.)

In listening to the book when I went on a 40 minute walk in the rain this afternoon, he was talking about the health benefits of ground ginger.

Headaches/Migraines, Menstrual cramps, PMS symptoms, etc., etc. I'm wondering if it would help me with my sinus headaches ... Doesn't hurt to try, right?

---
I hadn't spent any money this week since Saturday (ok, did buy some stuff from Amazon yesterday - silicon baking mats, a cookbook for the InstantPot and Miso)

This afternoon though I had to stop at CVS to pick up my DH's prescription for preparing for his colonoscopy. $50. Ouch.

I'm really trying to keep myself out of there unless there is a *really* specefic reason to be in there (like picking up a prescription)

I managed to get out with just buying a *little* bit of chocolate (which, yes, I ate ...)

I'm almost finished with listening to How Not to Die and now am waiting for the hard copy from the library. There's so many things I want to take special note of, but he goes so fast sometimes, or my "person" who tells me how long I've walked, etc. cuts in for 20 seconds+ ...May end up buying a copy ... (if I can find it used)

Although it is only 2:40, I already know what I'm eating the rest of the day, so I figured I'd go ahead and record it here.


++No soda consumption
++No chocolate consumption (ate it all last night ...)

Beans (3 servings) ...........3/3
Berries (1 serving)...........1/1
Other fruit (3 servings).......2/3
Cruceferious Veg (1 serving)...1/1
Greens (2 servings)............2/1
Other Veg (2 servings).........2/2
Ground flax (1 serving)--------1/1
Nuts (1 serving)---------------1/1
Spices (1/2 tsp Turmeric)------1/1
Whole Grains (3 servings)------2/3
Water (5 servings)-------------5++/5
Exercise ......................65/45

I went for an approximately 65 minute walk/jog this morning - about 3.6 miles. When I got back I had my fruit smoothie -frozen mango/berries and a banana with flaxseed, chia, protein powder and my new additions of turmeric and cinnamon ... and an incident with the black pepper. OOOO Lesson ... do not remove the spice container lid, especially not black pepper.

Let's just say that even though I attempted to remove most of what went in, judging from the taste, I was not altogether successful. (Seeing as how I'm not a big fan of black pepper in the first place ... but am trying to like it more ... Yech.)

I'm going to snack on some broccoli and hummus here in a little bit to tide me over til we get back from the Wills and Trust meeting.

I marinated and then baked a bunch of tofu "steaks" for dinner, and am roasting a pan full of bell peppers/onions/broccoli/eggplant/butternut squash/spinach right now. I'm also baking some sweet potatoes for my lunches this week.

In a bit I'm going to cook some brown rice to also add to lunches this week.

I'm also soaking some cashews which I'm going to blend with some nutritional yeast flakes to make a "cheese" sauce for the roasted veggies/tofu steaks.

Hoping DH will like this .. trying to change it up a little.

---
I finally figured out a good solution for my dust mop /bucket issue. A dishpan! I put a good dose of murphy's oil in the dishpan and some water and stirred. Then got mopping (and scrubbing ... of course by tonight there will be new cat chuck spots to take the place of the ones I scrubbed up ...) Worked perfectly.

--
Got our bi-monthly water/sewage bill. It was nearly $24 more than the last one. Yelp. I had to massage a number of categories to fund it, but I found the money. I will probably just set aside $50/month for it from now on, rather than just $30. Then once I have the actual bill, I can reassign the money to other places.

+++
No soda consumed
2? servings of fruit

Checked on Google to find out what Dr Greger's Daily 12 consists of - had heard him mention it in the book, etc., but I'm not there yet. Only on Chapter 12.

Apparently there's an app to help you track it too ...
The Daily 12 is a list of things he feels important to get in ... daily. (Dr Gregers Daily Dozen)

Beans (3 servings) ...........0/3
Berries (1 serving)...........0/1
Other fruit (3 servings).......2/3
Cruceferious Veg (1 serving)...0/1
Greens (2 servings)............0/1
Other Veg (2 servings).........0/2
Ground flax (1 serving)--------0/1
Nuts (1 serving)---------------1/1
Spices (1/2 tsp Turmeric)------0/1
Whole Grains (3 servings)------1/3
Water (5 servings)-------------3/5
Exercise ......................10/45

Saturday Score: 17/67 ~39%

Not my best day to start scoring ... wasn't feeling very good and didn't eat terribly good for me stuff, other than at my first meal (cereal w/banana, watermellon, whole wheat toast w/pb)

We won't talk about my "dinner" .. except to say that chocolate and pizza ...

---
I went to a local grocery store tonight (partly to get a Totino's ...) but also picked up some more hummus, snap peas, oranges and ground ginger. Spent about $15

--
Sunday we are *finally* meeting with my church's wills and trusts guy. This is our third appointment - both of the previous ones were missed because of me ... (spaced the first one, was during house buying process ... had to cancel the second one due to coming home from work early sick)

I'm realy curious to see how this works. DH and I spent some time discussing who we'd want our executor to be, and who'd be an alternative, etc. We both alreaady know what we want done if we die (cremated and ashes spread to the wind) but probably need those wishes written down somewhere in case we both go at the same time.

I'd like to set up a trust of some sort for animals, maybe have it go to the local no-kill cat shelter or something. DH probably would like that too (this is if we both go at the same time.)

----
I got my Chase Rewards Unlimited card in the mail today. Just need to activate it now, and send a $500 payment to DHs medical debt. Then probably by next statement will have the $150 cash back. Which will then be put towards the medical debt as well.

Anyone know how long it should take for a mortgage to show up on your credit report? My credit scores all still say "No recent installment info" ...

I've had the mortgage since June...

I'm also looking for a good sign up bonus for a card DH could qualify for. He has some dings on his report in the last few years (before we got back together)

I probably need to wait awhile before opening another card (looking at the Citi Double Cash back card ... though I wonder if they'd switch my current Citi card (with an annual fee) to the Double Cash card (with no annual fee) ... Hmmm.... with no credit pull.

----
I was reading something on the MMM forum on Friday that got me intrigued about some of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I checked a few books out from the library, and have put a few more on hold. None of them though seemed to deal with what happened in the stadium those few days - the rumors I heard about that seemed the most horrific ... so was kind of curious to see if anyone had written about the reality of it. Will have to see though.

+++
Day 4
No soda bought or consumed
Got in 4 servings of veggies/fruits

Day 5
No soda bought or consumed
Got in about 8 servings of fruits/veggies
Tumeric/Cinnamon/black pepper in smoothie

- - -
Day 4 and 5
Too much chocolate bought and consumed.

Am thinking that I am going to keep the focus just on eating lots of fruits and veggies and no soda. Not worry about the chocolate intake for now.

--------------------
Thursday when I got to work boss pulled me aside and basically told me what I'd planned on saying to her .. That it made the most sense to put the extra person at the extra desk/table rather than me.

The phone didn't start working properly til today - after a bit of magic by the phone/IT guy.

Extra person I think hadn't caught that the plan had NOT been for us to be sharing desk/phone space. At first she was wondering if I'd had an issue with her invading my space, or if my boss had a problem with her.

I told her that no, it had been the plan from the beginning to have her at a separate phone/space, but that we hadn't figured on "retired" person being here doing training and using that extra desk/space.

She seemed to accept that ...

So, essentially I guess this isn't that big of a deal. Maybe more of a miscommunication between my boss and I.

I can deal with the situation as it is now for the next 4 or 5 weeks. Hopefully with less chocolate intake then the last few days ...

Thank you everyone for your thoughts/comments/suggestions. They all are greatly appreciated.

++++
30+ minute walk
Smoothie with cinnamon/tumeric
Got in about 7 servings of fruits/veggies
Didn't buy or drink soda

--
Ate chocolate (bought yesterday)

----------------

So ... I like most things about my supervisor. There is just one thing that has slightly irritated me over the past two years. Almost every time I come back from taking a vacation of more than I few days, I find my office space / work supplies rearranged.

I get told that this is done because the way I have things arranged don't make sense to my supervisor and she can't find anything.

(When I am gone, she basically does my job as well as her own. Just she isn't logged on to the information line, so there are somewhat less calls to answer.)

So ... I sort of get this. I get used to the changes, put some things back where I prefer, and move on.

Only to have it happen again the next time.

Oh well. Not a big enough issue to bring up.

But ... a month ago or so I'm told that one of the bus drivers is going to come in and do "light duty" by answering the phone. She would wear my earpiece and I would still sell passes, etc. I was also told that I would "get" to sit at the extra desk.

Um... ok. I didn't like this idea very much (other than not having to answer the phone constantly) but I decided that if it was only for a few days, then I would just deal with it.

It turns out, that it didn't happen.

Until yesterday.

I had a lot of mail in orders that came in over the holiday weekend, needed to enter the work order reports for August, and a few other things - which I needed my computer for. Also, with just a few hours of listening to the light duty person answer the phone, I realized I needed to be there..

Plus, the extra desk is presently occupied by our "retired" accountant who is training our new accountant.

My boss was gone yesterday. So, I stayed put at my desk in my office space. There were multiple times where both lines lit up, and I tried to explain to her how to hear that, and how to deal with that ... but she for some reason couldn't hear the beeps ...

So today my boss comes back and is wondering why I'm sitting at my desk with her. I explain why and she's fine with it.

Then a little while later she comes in and tells me that the others in the back were complaining about the phone not being answered. Um ... not much I can do about that!

So the IT guy attempts to install a second phone line towards the back of my office space, by the lost and found cabinets. I'm told that this phone will be for me. That they'll set up a table or something for me there to work on. Um .. okay.

So .. the person who has no computer skills and is doing what comprises 50% of my work most days, will be sitting by MY computer and using my earpiece. While I will be sitting in the back of my office space with just a phone and a table.

No. Sorry, that just isn't going to work. Not only would I be bored to tears, but there are multiple things I do as part of my job where I NEED my computer.

The phone isn't working yet, so I'm still at my computer. But ... this person is talking like she's going to be here for at least the month of September.

If it was just for a few days .. I could deal with it. But for an entire month? NO WAY JOSE!

I already feel like I get the short end of the stick with absolutely no privacy in my office space. People are constantly walking back and forth in the back of my office space (to the conference room area, lunchroom, bathrooms, etc.) I don't mind this, really. But because just by virtue of being at my desk, anyone walking into the lobby assumes I'm available to help them, I can't make personal phone calls at my desk, eat lunch at my desk, etc. I HAVE to do that in the lunchroom.

I feel kind of ... maybe, disrespected? Like they think I shouldn't care about giving up my space for someone else. Like they can make changes to my space without asking me if I'm okay with it - it's more important for the space to make sense to them - people who spend less than five hours a week in my space.

I'm seriously, seriously irritated right now. I want t approach my boss tomorrow about this, but I'm not sure how best to do it.

We have a pretty good relationship overall, but still, I want to be careful.

I thought about asking her how she'd feel if she was told that she was going to be given an assistant, who was going to do half of her work, and be given her desk space, while she would be relocated somewhere else without all the tools to do her other 50% of the work. Or, how would she feel if she came back from vacation to find that someone had decided to redesign her office for her - to make that space work better for the person redesigning the office.

I'd really like to ask her if they're trying to get me to quit. But I don't really think that's the case. I think she's just not getting how this is sounding/feeling to me. (There's very little that makes this job tolerable. Putting me at a table with just a phone and no computer will drive me beyond bonkers with boredom.)

Please SA, your words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

So .. Day 2.
++
Did'nt buy soda.
Put tumeric and cinnamon in my smoothie..
Had a total of around 8 servings of fruits/veggies.
Got in a 30+ minute walk

--
Bought and ate chocolate..
Had queasy stomach all day.
Had headache all day - maybe allergy related.

Keep forgetting to tell you all about the allergy appointment - was told that I'm ONLY allergic to a couple types of grasses. Makes no sense at all to me.
Sigh.

--
Got a surprise bill from former Internet provider. I'd looked into keeping their service at out house, but was told the fancier service with TV wouldn't reach our house, and we'd have to get Dish TV. Said no thanks!
Apparently something triggered in their system and I got sent a bill for service in September - $120 AFTER $40+ in "credits."

Uh .. no.

Spent about 40 minutes on the phone. Wrote down name of rep and confirmation number. Hopefully is taken care of.

Then called current Internet/Cable company. TWC. My 4th call regarding the "deposit" they charged me.. Supposedly I have been given a $50 credit. We will see. Name and rep# written down.

After the phone calls I went to Walgreen's and used my $10 credit (from connecting my fitbit to their walking program) - bought chocolate and an Amy's meal.

Then to HyVee where I got some bananas, tofu, and veggies.

Then to Aldi's where I returned an impulse purchase, and bought a couple cartons of Almond Milk (DH likes it.) and some peanuts for DH.

--
I don't know if the pherenome / felliway thing is helping at all. It says it can take 30 days ... My miss Kari seems to be getting worse ...

So last weekend I saw the book How Not to Die (by Dr Greger of nutritionfacts.org) mentioned in a couple different places. I put the audiobook on my library reserve list, and picked it up on Saturday.

Wow. I have to say I'm super impressed so far. And I'm only about 6 chapters into it.

One thing I already plan to do is add 4 brazil nuts each month to my diet. I also am adding a teaspoon of tumeric to my smoothies - I'd already been using tumeric on the roasted veggies, etc., but after hearing all the things it can do ... Yeah, a teaspoon in my smoothies! Probably will add cinnamon too.

My mom and my brother have both agreed to read/listen to it and then we can discuss it together. DH is a little bit more reluctant ... though he did somewhat patiently somewhat listen to me talking about it this afternoon.

So.. I am officially giving up soda. 100%. Not even a little sip of DH's at a restaurant. I also am limiting myself to no more than $2/week on any kind of junk food. Been spending way too much fun money on it/ eating WAY too much of it.

This is Day 1. Maybe I'll try to update a little like CB - though probably not daily.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in preventing the top 15 diseases that kill you ... And saving money on medical stuff.

---
So DH called me tonight and let me know that he got into a fender bender. His fault. Low speed. He's fine - but the person he hit (beater of a truck) appears to be claiming injury. Sigh.

This will be interesting to see what happens.

Now to figure out where the $150 ticket/court costs will come from.

----
Almost forgot! I actually got ALL of my thank you notes written tonight!! Some of them are even addressed!

Now they are on the counter waiting for DH to add his signature, and a short note of his own on some of them. Then I'll get them addressed and stop at a post office.

Woo hoo! Finally will have that albatross off my neck!

August was a spendy month in a number of categories - due to car repairs on DH's vehicle, and changing some grocery habits (i.e. buying more fresh produce since DH is actually eating it now!)

So ... the numbers: (expenses only == lots of money was put in various holding categories)

Mortgage/Extra - $0 (Was a month ahead in payments, so decided to distribute this money elsewhere.)
Natural Gas - 41.86
Electricity - $0 (paid August's bill in July ... )
Phone - 60.67
Internet/Cable - 55.35
Groceries - Fast Food - 8.86
Groceries - 347.30
Car Fuel - 223.09
Tithe - 130
Giving - 30
Car Maintenance - 474.04
Clothing - 85.71 (mostly DH replacing jeans, shoes, belt)
Household General - 263.69 (bedframe, misc., piano bench)
Medical - 139.38
Pets-cats=food/litter - 59.10
Pets -cat-medical - 102.26
Pets - non cat - food.shelter - 70.34 (chicken cage, food)
DH birthday dinner - 40.84
Date Night = 17.30
Student loan - 53.51
Medical Debt - 1000

---
DH requested that for the next budget meeting if it could be done on the iPad laying down he'd appreciate it. So thankfully YNAB's iPad app has much more functionality than the iPhone app..

We did our September budget meeting on the iPad while lounging on the bed. We had about 500 more to work with this month due to DH not having any nights off for packing/cleaning his old apartment, etc. Still ... the money went fast!

We may be purchasing a vehicle for DH this weekend. He needs something that is good for delivering in the snow. The car replacement category and the car repair category got the most money for September.

For the medical debt, I'm looking for another credit card offer with a good sign up bonus. I have about 600 available in that category to make another large payment. Are there any spend $500 get $100 deals out there?

We also bought DH a new phone - he found a used replacement for $10 on eBay. He currently uses a Keocera flip phone ... He joked that he wanted an iPhone. I told him sure, if he could wait a few weeks til the new model comes out, then the iPhone 5's will be an absolute steal. Would be a good starter smart phone.

---
Ok, so bank account interest is weird.

In July we had just slightly less money spread between two accounts. Both qualified for the 2.5% interest. We earned a total of $28.50 between the two accounts.

This month all but about $1.5k was in one account. Only one account qualified for the 2.5% interest. We earned $41.86 in interest.

I really don't get how we earned nearly $12 less in interest having nearly the same amount spread between two accounts (maybe a difference of $900 in ending balances)

The amount we earned in interest this month is about what I'd figured we should have earned last month. So ...???

So it's been a busy week.

Interesting tidbits...

DH and I worked together Thursday night to make stuffed bell peppers. So yummy! I meant to take a picture but forgot. The filling we made actually was enough for me to use on a sandwich the next day, and still have enough to stuff maybe 3 peppers.

Friday night I had a big scare. I was sitting at my computer relaxing, when all of a sudden I heard Kari and Sunny fighting right next to me. I put a book in between them to break it up, and Kari went off into a corner. The way she was huddled made me realize she was hurt.

So I went over to her and picked her up, and had some blood drip on my leg!!! Her eye was all scrunched up.

I panicked. I called DH and he told me to call the vet and see if they thought I should bring her in or wait and see.

I called the Vet and they told me that I should bring her in if she was got in the eye.

So I commenced trying to get her in the kennel ... Ten minutes later, and multiple scratches later, I had her in the kennel and in the car.

Then DH called to say he was five minutes away. I waited for him to come so he could look at her eye too. By the time he got there, Kari was opening her eye again.

We could see then that it was only the corner of her eye (the 3rd eye??) that looked a little bloody. So ultimately we decided to wait and see.

This morning she seemed fine, and the scratch looked healed.

We are discussing what we are going to do about Sunny. She is the only one of our cats that uses her claws to hurt the other cats (namely Kari) or destroy furniture (my office chair ...DHs speakers)

We see maybe 4 options. 1 and 2 - let go of one of the two cats - Kari or Sunny. 3 - Get Sunny declawed or 4 - try something like Soft claws?? to see if they would stay on Sunny and actually work.

I also ordered some Feliway spray today. I've had mixed opinions about whether it really works or not, but I'm going to try.

I don't like options #1 -3 at all, but if #4 doesn't work, then I'm not sure what else to do. We can't keep having Sunny take pieces out of Kari (she took a piece out of one of her ears a few months ago.)

Sigh.

---
In more positive news ... today DH let me cut his hair! I'd bought a clipper set from Aldi's about a month ago and he kept putting me off, or when he had time I didn't.

Today though we both had time at the same time. It took me about an hour, and I think I did a decent job for my first time. Definitely need to watch some more videos about how to cut the top part.

Today's haircut basically paid for thee clippers. Any future cuts will be money saved!

---
A new Dollar Tree WITH a freezer section opened up less than 1/2 a mile from our house on Thursday!!!

Color me ecstatic! They have the frozen fruit! They have the chicken nuggets DH likes. They don't have any of the frozen vege options of the other store ... yet. I will be letting them know they need to get those in there ASAP.

I also found that they have those organizing fabric bins that you would normally pay upwards of $5 each, for $1! (For those cube organizers.) I bought two to try out the quality and usefulness.

Tonight is the last night I can't take anything for my allergies other than nasal spray or icy hot. Thank goodness for that, because after four days of not too bad, today it got miserable. Just have to get through the morning tomorrow, and then can take my allergy meds again!

---
I worked Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the local university's welcome celebration event. A dispatcher and I passed out tons of route maps and hand sanitizer, and answered a few questions.

It was fun about the first 2 1/2 hours ... then I was just tired and hungry and wanted to go home and see DH. Thankfully Jimmmy Johns came by with free 1/4 sandwiches - turkey, ham, and veggie! So that gave me a little boost of energy.

--
I completely overslept on Sunday, (took a nap before going to event) and did not get any veggies cut up. Tonight was exhausted and stressed from work, and so did not feel like cutting veggies.

So ... went to Russ's and bought a couple packages of pre-cut veggies. Made a sauce of olive oil, paprika, tumeric, salt and garlic, and roasted them for 30 minutes.

(mushrooms, asparagus, rainbow bell peppers, onions, red potatoes, zucchini, etc)

Here's what it looked like in the pan:

Tomorrow I WILL cut up some of the stuff I bought on Saturday night.

----
Hubby is doing really well with his eating I think. Not perfectly, but baby steps, right? I'm really quite proud of him. I think he has taken it to heart where I've said before that he needs to figure out changes he can actually live with long term - not just things that work short term. (I've REALLY been trying to keep my mouth shut and let him work it out on his own ... other than just making sure the fridge/counters are stocked with fruits and veggies .. )

Now I just need to do as well with staying away from soda and chocolate ...

---
The groceries I bought today (pre-cut veggies and a couple packages of firm tofu) cost about as much as our two entrees from the local Chinese place last night. (Which gave us enough for two meals each ... DH commented that the rice (white) just didn't stick with him as well as the meal of roasted veggies/tofu/cauli rice ... don't think I;ll ever get him to eat brown rice, but this is an amazing admittance!)