So far the spending fast is going well. I haven't spent a penny Tuesday - today.

There's been a number of times driving home, etc. where I get the thought in my head "let me just stop and get a drink (soda)" and then I'll remind myself that #1 I can drink water when I get home, and #2 I am NOT spending any money unless I absolutely NEED to. So far, so good with that. (It kind of helps that thanks to my major overspending, I have a stash of not so healthy food in my place ... so when I'm overly stressed the food is already there ... no need to buy it ... good for the pocketbook, not so much for the waistline)

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NE and I did some more talking last night. He wants me to go ahead and do the research/get started on figuring out how to get pre-approved for a home loan. From the various calculators, based just on my income debt/income ratio, we should be able to get something around $75k - or about $600/month total cost (mortgage, insurance, taxes, PMI) That'd be nearly $400/month less than what we're paying in rent currently.

By combining expenses we'll eliminate one Internet bill ($80/month Gulp) and probably cut utilities by 1/3 or so (depending on how big the house is of course.)

He's on board with the idea of a 15 year and paying extra to it so as to get it paid off as quickly as possible. I've also stressed to him that we need to have money set aside for repairs/maintenance/improvements.

I asked a lady at church (at women's ministry meeting) what Realtor she'd used when buying her recent rental property - she gave me the info for her and said she'd highly recommend. Before going with a Realtor though, I want to get the pre-approval thing done. Not sure if I should try through an online place like Cap One or through a local credit union. I'd really like to try to see if I can get the 2.75% rate ....

I read somewhere that some of the first time buyer programs that offer downpayment assistance have clauses such as they get your profit when / if you sell your home later?? I'd kind of get that if they asked you to pay back the money they assisted you with, plus maybe a little extra ... but all the profit? (Not that I think I'd really need to worry too much about that, because whatever house we buy, we will be staying put in - not planning on doing the whole "starter" house thing.)

Like I said though, still need to do some research on this whole thing.

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So ... possibly a little prematurely and presumptively .... based on some conversations NE and I have had recently plus the house talk getting more serious (and him knowing my viewpoint for MYSELF about living with someone I'm not married to) ... my mom and I went to a dress shop while she was here. Yes, that kind of a dress shop.

I found *the* dress. $847. GULP. THE dress. It fit nearly perfectly. (I could possibly get the price reduced, as it is a stock dress. Alterations would be less than $50 ... Sigh.)

I can't do it. I won't do it. But me oh my ... if I had the budget for it ... and a venue/large enough prospective guest list for it ... and didn't want a house more than THE dress ... It would be mine.

Even though I'll more than likely end up getting something off the rack at Macy's or JC Penney's etc., it sure was fun to have the experience and to know that there really IS that experience of finding something that really IS THE Dress. Even if you don't actually get it.

(When/if it happens, it'll be just family and a few local friends. NE only has a sister and a close friend here, possibly a nephew that might come. We have a mutual friend here. I have a slew of family that'd come. Still, the total guest list would probably be under 20, maybe 15. So something *really* simple. Maybe even a courthouse one. My recent experience has made me rethink whether that is totally out of the question or not.)

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I am at home today. Woke up feeling pretty miserable. Yesterday at work was pretty miserable (plus stressful .... Why oh why would someone ask you to do something for them, and then while you are doing what they asked, they go ahead and make their own version? Which of course is *exactly* what they wanted/pictured. And this is the person who's always talking about how she is SO behind and SO overwhelmed. Of course you are - even as you supposedly delegate tasks to me, you are either doing them yourself, or spending 20 minutes plus explaining it ...(whereas a note telling me what labels she wanted created would've been more than sufficient ... I don't have ANY interest in her job, so the explanations have ZERO interest to me ...)

--
So anyway ... since I am at home today during regular business hours, I plan on calling the horrible company that holds me hostage to their prices for Internet. My "promo" expired and went from $67/month to $82/month. Cannot comprehend spending that much money on Internet. (A phone line is included in the cost - it is required for whatever reason. Believe me, I have tried to tell them I refuse to have the stupid phone line. Didn't work.)

First though I'm going to call the *other* company here and see if they have a better offer. Last time they didn't.

It just galls me to pay this much for it, when in NM and TX I paid less than $40/month, and even less than $30/month (in TX.)

===
I got credited for my hotel stays on SBs - 2888SBs. Of course I'd seen they had a credit pending for just the first hotel stay, and I wrote CS an email asking what was going on ... CS credited me with 2888SBs. Only in my ledger it shows as for Groupon. Not Expedia. I wrote them back to let them know they made a mistake, but so far I still have the SBs. So I have enough to redeem for a $50 PayPal with plenty left over ...

Will give it a few weeks though to see if they take the SBs back or not.

Today I got to see what my new salary is with the recent cost of living raise (2.25%). With it, I now make about $.20/hour more than I did before I was downsized from my oil and gas job in 2009.

After work today I went to Target and to HyVee (a grocery store here.) When I submitted my Walmart receipt to the Savings Catcher, it gave me money back for the cat food - saying that they found it at HyVee for $2 cheaper.

Yeah ... it was a different kind. Same brand (Purina) but not Purina One Beyond. I still did buy two bags of it from HyVee because it was $.50 cheaper than Walmart (plus my $2 coupons of course.)

At Target I found the canned food (after asking for help from a store person) which was $.08 cheaper than the local grocery store - had a coupon Buy 8 get 2 free. I only used one coupon. I might go back and use my other 3. (I give Kari one can a week - her Sabbath treat.) I also bought a 3rd bag of her food ($2 coupon only usable in Target.)

I now have $12.50 in Ibotta rebates, $4.87 in Walmart Savings Catcher, and about $4 in other savings apps.
I can cash in the Ibotta anytime, but I think I'll wait til I get closer to the end of the month in case I decide to do any other rebates.

I am SO set on cat food right now it's ridiculous. I always buy the 3lb bags even though they probably aren't the best value money wise, but they also don't go stale before Kari gets through a bag. (I keep it in a plastic container .. but still, I think by the time we get to the bottom of it, it's starting to get stale.)

On my way home I almost stopped at Taco Bell. In fact, I did. But after waiting 6 minutes and still not being at the order board ... I decided to just go home. For the best.

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With SBs giving out the monthly bonuses early today, I have over 3200 SBs! I'm going to wait til the 14th to cash out so I can use my 50SB rebate.

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I'm not sure what is going to happen with my mom's planned trip out here. Brother told me yesterday he'd reimburse me for the hotel if I really can't get it refunded. (It can't be. It was prepaid.) So if mom ends up not coming out here, I'll still have a paid for hotel room here. Hmm ... maybe go and stay there anyway with NE for one night, and/or by myself for the other nights (at least Friday and Saturday.)

I hope we get this figured out soon because mom's supposed to be coming on the 17th!!

Brother says he doesn't want to nail down another date until "he doesn't feel like he's being manipulated." I'm tempted tell him that I already have plans for October and November, and so would rather not change the September plans. If he wants to come out and visit some other time, great, if not, that's up to him. But I can't keep my plans in limbo until he "feels not manipulated" :roll eyes:

Sorry for the venting. Just feeling so frustrated by this situation. I kind of wish he'd never suggested the idea in the first place .. back in February???

The last two days have been so busy and frustrating.

Yesterday at work was the saga of the lost wallet. Today was the saga of the Uni bus drivers not knowing all the places they're supposed to stop ... (new rules for the Uni buses - only stopping at designated stops. Other buses stop at pretty much any safe corner.)

Then of course the hotmail troubles continued today. I woke up around 4:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep ... then preceded to spend 45 minutes in chat with a hotmail CSR - with no resolution. This afternoon I spent another 60 minutes or so in chat with another one. This time managed to create a temporary account so that I could send an email to customer service.

Also this afternoon finally figured out what was going on with the new credit union's website. Now I have to wait til tomorrow night to be able to finish the registration process.

THEN today I got a package from my former employer's 403(b) holding company -- the one I was trying to rollover to Vanguard. They said they couldn't complete the rollover because in their records I was still employed!! It's been ten years folks!

So ... made a few phone calls to deal with that. Got voicemail from former employer of course, so will have to wait and see.

I am just SO tired right now. I think the cream cheese I bought this past Sunday is bad or something - because I ate some on Sunday with a bagel, and ended up with a sour stomach that night. Then I had it again Monday night, and had major nausea/yuckiness this morning.

No spending so far - only 6 days to go for August.

So I tried logging into my hotmail account today to get my reward from Bing, but it wouldn't let me log in! I tried resetting my password - two times! It still wouldn't let me log in, even with the new password.

Next I tried creating a new account so I could email customer service. No good! I got to the part where they test you to see if you're a zombie or not, and I couldn't get the captcha to work - I even tried the audio option, and it wouldn't play.

Ugh!

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I accidentally left my phone at home today ... playing SB Mobile TV. I had forgotten to turn it off (which is also partly how I forgot to bring it with me ...) When I got home I had 240 points - mostly from bonus rounds. Oops. (not complaining!) This weekend I got tons of bonus rounds too. I have the feeling this is some kind of glitch.

--
I went to the gym today for the first time in a month! After I got there I realized I hadn't downloaded my Stronglifts app. So I did my workout from memory (reducing the weight though since it had been awhile.)

Kind of like how when I was at church this weekend and realized that I didn't have my Bible app or my hymnal app ...

I wonder how most apps got redownloaded, but a few didn't (and how did I not notice this?)

Oh well, being fixed now.

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I tried setting up my online access to Liberty First CU yesterday, but kept getting an error message. I'd planned on calling them today during my break, but of course, I didn't have my phone with me.

I'll have to do that tomorrow.

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I have a seed stuck in one of my teeth from my smoothie this morning. It's been bugging me all day!

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You could definitely tell it was the first day of classes for the major university here. We had at least three wallets and two sets of keys left on buses today. One of the wallets created a good bit of drama - I called dispatch about it and was told that the driver HAD the wallet. I checked that the name matched.

The kid stood out there (missing his first class) waiting for the bus. He checked with all 4 of the buses on that route. None of them had it. His mom calls me - I find out the name of the driver who has it - and again, double check the name.

Still no wallet for the kid.

Turns out the wallet the driver had was for another person who'd lost their wallet. The kid's wallet had been taken by another student and turned in to campus police.

It ended well, but was the source of multiple and more frantic phone calls ...

Word of advice. Whenever you ride a bus, make sure you #1 know the intersection you got on the bus, #2 know the route #, #3 know the TIME you got on it, #4 know some kind of description of the driver, #5 a bus number would also be a really good thing to know.

Then if it so happens that you leave something on the bus, you can give someone really good detailed info - making it much more likely we'll be able to locate your item!

You would be shocked at how many people who call in know NONE of that info.

I got my new to me phone on Tuesday (managed to have them hold it at the main Fed Ex place and miraculously managed to find the place without GPS without getting lost.)

Had some trouble getting it set up and almost thought I was going to have to send it back and get a different phone (my computer wasn't wanting to recognize it - several hours later it suddenly decided to recognize it ...)

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Talked to my mom today about hotels for when she's here (in 3 weeks!) She's going to check if she can find a better deal than the one I found (she has a special number or something for the particular hotel.) If not, I'll book it with Orbitz which will give me a $10 rebate through iBotta.

3 nights will be about $300 with taxes and fees ... gulp. Plus one more night in O town (going to stay there Sunday night and then spend the day in O town before taking her to the airport there.)

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Did some grocery shopping today. They had bananas for $.33/lb - I bought a little over a pounds worth. Kept 6 out for this week, then broke up the rest and put into baggies in the freezer - enough for two weeks of smoothies.

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I cashed out on the following this week:
$10 - Receipt Hog
$25 - Swagbucks PayPal (makes $75 this month!)
$5 - Bing AGC
$25 AGC - PerkTV
$100 - AGC from YouGov (survey site)

The $100 one I won't get for a few weeks (in the mail??) If you're interested, I have a referral link in my sidebar. It did take me about a year to get to the $100 cashout, but the surveys are all pretty easy.

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I have about $1.55 til the 1st. (in my August budget) So that means 8 days of NO SPEND DAYS! must happen.
I think the only thing I'll need next week will be apples, and maybe I can figure out something else for my lunch fruit - or just buy $1.55 worth of apples.

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I'll be leaving in about 90 minutes to go to the big University welcome thing. I'm going to get around 4 hours of overtime for it. I might see CreditCardFree's daughter while I'm there.

That overtime money is going to come in handy for paying for my mom's visit here in September! (I unfortunately have had to use the OT money from the school events and most of my vacation fund to pay for the new phone.)

I will most likely be going into my slush fund for the hotel/whatever else we do while she's here. That can be refunded in October when I've got a 3 paycheck month.

4 days went by way way way too fast. I could use another 4 ...

My phone is in a city an hour away as of the last update from Fed Ex at 8 p.m. Sunday. I really hoped it would be here today. Sigh.

This probably means that it'll be Wednesday at least before I can get it (they'll try to deliver it tomorrow while I'm at work of course ...)

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I ended up only watching one movie this weekend - Inside Out. Enjoyed it.

I was going to watch Mission Impossible today, but I didn't want to be out of the apartment more than absolutely necessary.

I did go to Dollar Tree and did open up the checking account for the $50 bonus - plus got the info I needed to change over to it for the 2.5% interest rate!

While watching one of my library DVDs I put all my frozen fruit into one cup portion baggies. There's enough for about 9 weeks of smoothies.

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The KonMari bug kind of faded out by Sunday. I did take all the stuff I wanted to donate to the Goodwill today.

I also took some pictures of my drawers and my closet (although I took more hangers out after the picture) and figured out how to do a shared icloud album so you can actually see the pictures

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B075oqs3q4tKfE

My folding is quite as neat as some other peoples I've seen, but it's a good shot neater than what my drawers used to look like!

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I watched a really powerful movie tonight on Netflix (NE is signed into it on my computer because we watch movies on it sometimes here ....) Ragamuffin: The Rich Mullins story. Full disclosure - he was a Christian artist - Amy Grant used many of his songs, but he also produced his own albums later.

What I love so much about his story is how REAL he is about God, about life, about Christianity, about how none of us are what we *should* be - but God loves us just as we are.

Anyway, the first time I heard of him was in connection to his work with the Navajo kids in Window Rock, AZ. Powerful story.

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So ... here's hoping for a good attitude from myself by 8 a.m. tomorrow ...

Ahhhh.... Can you hear the sweet sound of relaxation and stress relief? Nearly two days away from the phone calls, the endless, relentless phone calls (especially this past week ....)Two more full days away to come - all to fill with what I want to do.

Friday I got a late start on it, but I DID manage to KonMari ALL of my clothes - the only exceptions being what was in my laundry baskets.

I completely filled a medium sized box and a smaller box with clothes/other items to give away. This is after having let go of at least 3 large trashbags full of clothes before I moved here a year+ ago. I probably could still let go of more...

Funny thing is, I think it will stick.

Today after church I immediately hung up my dress (after passing the sniff test), folded and put away my slip, folded and put away my shrug, and replaced my shoes in their place. Granted, it wasn't anywhere near second nature, but that will come if I keep repeating the gestures.

I have taken some pictures of my drawers and my closet, and may post them later. I'm just too much into my vacation mode right now.

--
The rest of today is for napping (check), reading, watching movies (later tonight), and anything else I feel like doing.

Sunday will probably start out with my earned movie (Inside Out I think.) Then brunch out at a new to me restaurant that serves crepes as one of its mains. Possibly a pedi/mani.

Then it will be time to earn my Monday fun. I plan to KonMari my kitchen and bathroom. Then probably also clean them too. The pedi/mani maybe should wait til Monday ...

Oh yes, it will end with making dinner with the SO.
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Monday will begin with Mission Impossible, eating at CiCi's, shopping at Dollar Tree and Walmart, figuring out the best way to organize/put together smoothie packets so I know how many days worth I have of various ingredients, perhaps cooking up some freezer batches of food for lunches/suppers. Then more rest and relaxation. Hopefully also setting up my new to me phone!

Either Sunday or Monday I want to go to the gym and use the pool - since thanks to KonMari'ing my clothing, I found my long lost swimsuit!

I may also add in there doing a major KonMari of my car too. NE is putting me to shame in the way he is keeping his new to him car free of clutter and trash. Mine used to be much cleaner, now it is definitely not.

Mom will be here in less than 5 weeks .... I wonder what she is going to think about my drawers of folded up clothing?

PS - I know all of this doesn't sound like a very frugal way to do a vacation. But it is all being done with money I'd specifically set aside to do a vacation with. Circumstances made it so that it became a staycation ... so I decided to play and splurge much more than I normally would within a 4 day period.

I almost scrapped my play/splurge plans due to the unexpected phone costs, but I just couldn't do that. I REALLY need this break. Desperately. I can whack the phone cost from other categories, and if necessary the slush fund. That's what it is there for anyway.

So I got the SIM card from Ting today. I remembered from last time how to change it out. So I did that. Then I restarted my phone.

It's still locked to ATT!

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I sent an unlock request to ATT ... says it'll take up to two business days.

Sigh.

BTW - I have had absolutely NO RESPONSE from Ting to the email I sent on Saturday about losing my phone. None. I hate to say it, but I'm getting less and less enthralled with Ting's Customer Service.

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My boss today handed me this card she got at an event she went to last week. It was a deal for opening a checking account at a local credit union.

$50 within 45 days of opening with a $50 deposit. That's the only requirement.

It gets better though. If you have a direct deposit sent to that account, do one bill pay per month (free), and 12 debit transactions ... you get ... (drumroll please) 2.5 % interest on up to $25k !!!!

Um .... somehow I think 2.5% interest would be worth the hassles of doing 12 debit transactions a month. I could put all my money into that account. Have savings and checking all in one nice big account. I'd actually earn some real money for interest!

That'll have to wait til I get my Nationwide bonus though.

The Credit Union is Liberty First CU - I'm not sure what the residency requirements are for it though.

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At work today I did the FINAL touches on the 200+ page document which has been causing so much stress for the last six+ weeks. It is done and over with!

My boss let me log off the phone, and took all the window customers so I could 100% concentrate on it. Good thing too, otherwise there's no way I would have finished it on time.

The calls have been insane this week - with school starting today.
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Oh ... speaking of insane ... I have to tell you what came in today to lost and found. Inside of a bus pass folder was a baggie of what looked like .... weed! At least 4 other people agreed that it was very much similar to weed.

I called the police and they sent someone over. He said he thought it was either an organic herb or K2, but not weed. Then told me to just throw it away. ??? So ... I did. Seemed pretty bizarre to me.
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Tuesday after I was done with my school event (went well, kept pretty busy) I stopped at Supersaver again and picked up $20 worth of stuff that was on pretty good sales.

I rarely get to a Supersaver since I have another grocery store just less than a block from me .... so that was fun.

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I got a text from my brother (texting on iPad still works at least ...) I have the feeling that he is wimping out on the September trip. ARGHH! So, it'll just be mom and I.

Hopefully I'll have phone service soon so we can talk and I can find out what is going on.

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Tomorrow is my Friday for this week. I'm SO ready for my 4 days off. SOOOOO ready.

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I cashed out for another $25 PP from SBs today. That makes $50 for August (plus the $25 from July I cashed out in August.) I did the Visa thing for 500 SBs, (connected to a card I don't use, but monitor easily), so am back to nearly 800 SBs towards my next one. Maybe I'll make another $25 in August?

Well ... the good news is that NE let me borrow his GPS unit so I could get to the after work school open house events Monday and Tuesday.

Also good news was that NE hadn't given me back the phone I'd let him use - so it wasn't thrown away by me.

Bad news is that my phone is still missing.

Also bad news was that NE's phone was still on his account, so without Customer Service being open, there was no way to put it on my account.

Oh well. With NE's GPS unit I at least was able to navigate to the school tonight, and will be able to tomorrow again. I just don't have cell service.

The officer who comes by every other week came by today, and I told him about my phone. He told me about an online reporting thing for this kind of stuff. So I've filled it out, and now will see if anything comes of it.

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The event tonight was mostly boring, but it did get busy at some points. Did more info giving than actual selling of passes though. (double checked every one to make sure I didn't make ANY mistakes!)

I stopped at a grocery store near the school (SuperSaver) and bought something called Nibblers - a cheese pack. It was pretty good actually. (I had eaten half a bagel at 3pm. but was still hungry, and knew I wouldn't eat again til 8:30 ...)

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Found out today that the mom of one of my best friends passed away today. She lived in Duluth, and her memorial service will be sometime next week. I'm debating on going possibly. First I need to find out when it'll be ... then figure out if I can make it work or not.

It'd be a bit of a long road trip.

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Not much else to say I guess.

So Thursday is Treat Day at our office. We rotate through everyone who wants to participate - which is 8 people. Yesterday was my turn.

Wednesday night I was really tired and did not feel like making anything. But I also didn't want to buy anything since I already had the brownie mix (bought on sale a few months ago.)

So I started putting the ingredients together about 8:30 p.m. Dumped the mix in the bowl, dumped the water in, broke the egg, ... then it was time for the oil.

Instructions called for 2/3 cup of oil. Somehow in my frazzled brain I read it as 1 2/3 cup.

I didn't realize my mistake - even when I used up all my bottle of oil and had to open a new one ... - until I poured it in the bowl.

So Thursday morning I left ten minutes earlier than usual to stop by the grocery store. $7 later I had the treats for the office. UGH.

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Thursday after work I did the school event - selling passes at the Open House. It went pretty well, although I found out on Friday that I had mistakenly overcharged someone for their two passes. I'd had several people before them buy a StarPass and 20 ride pass so I had that number in my head I guess .. this person bought a StarPass and a 31 day pass.

UGH! When I do the events on Monday and Tuesday, I'm going to just have to go slower, even if it means people have to wait.

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Friday was a no spend day. I was uber tired and just came home and vegged.

Finished reading Marie Knodos book "The life changing magic of tidying up." Overall I liked it (some hokey stuff in it though.) I might start on my clothes this weekend.

Leaving for church in a while. Today will be my second time picking up the Sabbath School offerings (and counting them) for this church. Thankfully the job doesn't require me to be there early enough to distribute the envelopes, otherwise I'd be in trouble. (I just can't seem to get myself going on Saturday mornings .. doing good to get to SS before the praise/request portion is over.)

Tomorrow I plan on going to Dollar Tree to get more frozen fruit. I'll probably also stop at Walmart which is nearby to get my regular groceries.

Then I'll tackle my clothes. That'll be a big project, but hopefully worth it.

Today I got to leave work a little early so that I could take my car in to have the oil changed. I also decided to have the front end aligned because I'd been noticing it pulling to the right a lot lately, and NE had mentioned it too.

So about 20 minutes after I got there they asked me to come back to the garage area so the mechanic could talk to me. Apparently there are 7 points? in the suspension/alignment throughout the car. Something called the Toe? and another one, and then something called the Custer. The Toe and the other one are the important ones that can be aligned. The Custer - nothing to do about it.

Somehow I hit a pot hole or something, and now my Custer is off by 7/8". He told me that there is no fix for it - it's just something that happens sometimes to small economy cars like my Yaris. He reassured me that it isn't a potential safety issue, and won't affect tire wear. He just wanted to make sure I understood why my car will still have a slight pull to the right.

Who knew alignment was so complicated? (I only had the front aligned, he said the back was fine.)

So that was $78. (19.99 for the oil change, $58 for the alignment)

---
After the car was finished I headed to the mall to return my shoes.

You'll never guess what I did though.

I got out of my car and powerwalked all the way to the entrance. I even held the door open for someone and started to go inside.

Then it hit me.

I don't have the shoes with me!

DOH!

My shoes were still in the car.

I had no issues returning them. I'm going to let that money sit in the clothing category - may need to replace some underthings soon. And they're not cheap. A good sale is 2 for $50 at Lane Bryant.

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I did stop at Taco Bell. I was very hungry and didn't plan that very well. For tomorrow when I go to the school event, I'm going to have something extra in my lunch box to snack on.

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I got both of my SBs Paypal cards today. So that was $50. $25 of it counts towards July (I waited til the 3rd to cash it out in order to get it at a discount) and the other $25 counts towards August. I'm about halfway to my next $25 card now.

I also got paid for my second parking garage shift today. $29.xx

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I just need one more Pinecone survey to be able to cash out. Anyone else finding that the surveys aren't coming as often? Or crediting as quickly? The survey I got credit for today I took back in July.

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Recent news almost makes me hesitant to go to a movie theater anymore. Almost, but not totally. Hopefully there won't be any more copycats.

We had a sad crash here today around noon - I found out about it before it was even reported on the news. Someone called saying that two particular intersections were closed down because of a crash - they wanted to know what the detour would be.

I found out later that it was an incident involving a Chevy Tahoe and a 30 yo man on a scooter. Tahoe won.

Please be aware of the motorized two wheelers around you! I always try to give them a wide berth and get extra looky loo before making any moves if I notice one near me. It can just happen too fast.

Today after work I stopped at Walgreen's to pick up a couple of things (had a raging headache, even with Allegra D ....)

On my way to my car I noticed this really really CUTE guy sitting in a jeep parked in front of my car. He must have seen me look at him or something, because he nods his head at me.

At this point I have my door open ... and I proceed to nod my head back at him ... just being friendly.

Instead of smoothly flowing into my seat and driving away .... I end up bumping my chin on the top of my door! Then land in my seat doubled over from laughing at myself.

The guy calls out asking if I'm okay, so I manage to contain myself enough to let him know that I was fine. Just my pride was damaged.

They say that pride goeth before a fall (of which I've done plenty ...) but today it's more accurate for me to say ... pride goeth before a chin bump!

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Work was okay today. Had a good bit to catch up on from yesterday (mail in orders, end of the month bus repair reports -- so funny some of them, etc.) I had a couple of delightful callers - one is a repeat lady who makes me smile big as soon as I hear her voice; and the other was a little old lady trying to figure out the system and just SO appreciative of my help.

Kind of helped to cancel out the guy who was ticked off because the fare box ate his card and kept asking how that could happen. Um ... fare boxes eat cards sometimes?? If you saw the bus repair reports ... it's amazing more bus passes don't get eaten. (He hung up on me before I could figure out exact bus/route/time .. if I had that info then I could have had the driver contacted to check the story and get the guy a new pass.)

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The other day I took a survey abut a local e........y company. One of the questions asked about whether I'd experienced any power outages. Well, in the year or so I've been here (to that point) I hadn't!

Today that changed! A few minutes after I sat down for lunch (finished microwaving) we had a 20-25 minute power outage at the bus station. It was so weird and so quiet.

Today was my 1 yearaversary at work. Talking with my boss made me really wonder if I want to try for something else. It's not always a sure thing that you're going to find good bosses.

Plus I'm thinking about the gym ... if I go to this CC, I'd have a 20+ minute commute home and then a 15-20 minute drive to the gym. Maybe a 30 minute commute straight to the gym (not stopping by home first). I'm worried it'll be even easier to excuse myself from going.

I'm still going to do the application package though ... nothing says I will get a job offer and nothing says I have to take said job offer if it happens. Won't hurt to try.

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Spending:
Amazon - Kitty flea/tick collar, ink for printer - $23.xx after $30 in gift card and $1.50 cash back discover

Walgreen's - $2.75 (major headache cure attempt ... not health food.)

So today is NEs actual birthday, but we did the celebration yesterday.

We drove out to Nebraska City to a Chinese buffet. There wasn't much selection of veggies not mixed with meat ... in fact I accidentally took some mushrooms which had meat mixed with them. NE found plenty to eat though ...

Afterwards his GPS unit took us on a merry chase finding this state recreation area he wanted to check out. We finally did find it - it has a really nice access point for boats to the Missouri river.

When we got back we ate some of the cake I had made earlier (who knew the Jiffy mix was for layer cakes, and not full sized ones? Oh well.) He also drank some of the koolaide he'd asked for ... (said it wasn't quite like he'd remembered - I had him make it himself actually so he'd know how much sugar, etc. was in it.)

I guess I was kind of not in a great spirit because earlier that day I'd had to buy a pitcher in order to make the dang koolaide and was kind of annoyed to be adding all these extras on top of dinner out.

Then of course he's not in the mood to do anything when we get back because he ate way too much. UGH.

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Earlier in the day after my grocery trip and making the cake, I spent a few hours working on the application for the library job. On the background check form they want address history for the last TWENTY years! Um.... I can give you city and state for that time frame, but I barely remember the name of the roads I lived on five years ago (3 different places while going to grad school) let alone 8 or 9 + years.

I tried finding a way to search public records to get that info, but couldn't find a way to do it without paying for it. Ugh.

I have until August 12 to submit all my documents/application. Need to put together a cover letter and update my resume, scan my transcripts (find them first .. they're somewhere around here), scan my certifications (after I locate them ..)

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I cashed out for a $25 paypal from SBs today - got the 50SB swagup. Apparentally there's been some kind of mix up- the special offer swagup should've been up first for 150 SBs. Hopefully that'll get sorted soon - I have enough to get a second $25 PP once that is fixed.

I also cashed out for a $25 AGC from PerkTV - that should come sometime today.

Tomorrow I'll have enough Bing for a $5 AGC.

Once I have the $30 AGC, I'm planning on ordering a flea/tick collar for Kari from Amazon. She's picked up fleas somehow - I've tried a variety of other things which haven't helped much. So I'm hoping this collar will. (Bayer Seresto Flea and Tick Collar) It supposedly is supposed to work for 8 months. It better for how much it costs! ($43.xx)

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So I'm posting in the middle of the day here. Called in sick from work - I think something I ate at the buffet didn't agree with me. In a major way.

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I'm going to see about making an appointment at Brakes Plus on Wednesday to get my oil changed and see if they can do an alignment too. If I get that appointment I'll be near the mall where I can return my shoes.

Then Thursday I have my first school event from 4 - 6:30. Can you say 90 minutes of overtime?!

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I checked my FSA balance. I have just enough for 3 more Synthroid prescriptions. Then the FSA year starts over. I'm planning on upping my contribution by $10/month. I didn't use my dental insurance at all this year, and my Syntrhoid ended up being more than I had thought it would be. I still need to find out if I can do a prescription for Allegra D to have it covered by the FSA - if so, I'll need to up the amount by $30-40/month. (Our FSA year runs November to October.)

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August Spending:
1st - Fazoli's - $13
2nd - Grocery store - $57.xx (groceries, cat, NE birthday stuff)
Chinese buffet - $25 for two
3rd - hopefully none!

So Thursday after work was spent riding/driving to O city and back. Why? NE had found a 2000 Chevy Prizm for $1200 which he decided to buy.

There is some work that will need to be done to it - brakes, driver side window, etc., but mechanically it is in good shape.

I am SO glad to have my car back now (he filled up my gas tank and treated me to dinner at Hardee's as a thank you for letting him use my car this week.)

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I convinced my boss to let me have a 3rd school event in August. That'll make 4 different events I'll be doing.

I figure I can do more than my fair share now since I won't be able to help with any of the football games (they all are on Saturdays or Friday nights. Except for the one after Thanksgiving, which I'll be in CA!) (We run a shuttle service from multiple locations in the city to the local public uni's football stadium.)

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The last two weeks have been a bust financially and health wise. The numbers aren't going to be very pretty .. not as bad as May's, but definitely not as nice as June's. You can probably guess where a lot of the budget busting came from.

Ugh.

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I bought two $9 Net 10 phones from Family Dollar today (sale ended today.) I'm going to be using them for the sole purpose of playing paid videos. I think they'll pay off soon enough to be worthwhile.

I also read this article posted on FB:

http://www.thepennyhoarder.com/ways-to-make-money-at-home/

Many of the things I knew about already, but I did see one thing which interested me. Send Dollars - almost exactly like Inbox Dollars. I signed up for it and already have about $6.80 (out of $30 to cash out.)

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I did this horrible survey yesterday morning which turned out to be mainly about coffee. I somehow managed to complete it - mainly because they didn't ask the one question which would have saved both them and me a lot of time .... Do you drink coffee? Nope - they just assumed that everyone drinks coffee. Yuck.

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I managed to complete the Survey Soiree for SBs this week - 150 SB rebate. I only was able to do this due to waking up around 4 a.m. 3 out 5 mornings ... not on purpose. At all.

I don't know if my tiredness affected my viewpoint today at work or not, but MAN were people ever crabby and argumentative. There were a couple of times I wanted to ask - why are you even asking me this question if you won't take my answer?

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The local community college is looking for a Learning Resource Director. Gulp. They aren't requiring a specialized higher education librarian degree (like most universities would ...) It pays $4/hour more than what I'm making now. I'm not sure what the benefits are.

I'm thinking seriously about applying.

My two big qualms .... 1. It would put me WAY out of my comfort zone dealing with CC students; and 2. It doesn't state what the expected hours/days are.

2 is probably the bigger issue. I checked on the website for the LRC and it shows it is open on Saturdays.

I have the feeling that my stating that I can only work M-F probably would get my application thrown in the proverbial trash without further reading. But, still, it probably wouldn't hurt to try. Who knows how many other ALA certified (well, expired certified?) librarians are here AND know about the job offer. I might have a slim chance.

I do want to see what the benefits are though first - because if I got the job, my commute would change from 6 or 7 minutes to more like 20minutes + - and definitely not walkable. (but would be bussable.)

(And yes, the not working on Saturdays is completely, unequivocally, non-negotiable for me. This is partly why I've hesitated to apply for any of the various public librarian jobs - all of which require weekend hours. As a newbie, I probably wouldn't be able to say - I want Sundays only!)

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Ok, I'm now off to catch up on your blogs. (This is actually a second rendition of my post... thanks to accidentally hitting the backspace button instead of the arrow to move over tabs ...)

NE got the news today - his transmission got water in it. The mechanic is suggesting rebuilding it = to the tune of $3100. That's more than the car is worth.

NE is considering selling the car and getting a cheap $1200 car he found in O city to get by until he has enough to get a more decent car.

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I'm almost to 5k SBs - mainly due to doing surveys and actually qualifying for a few this week. (Working on the Survey Soiree thing.) Can hardly wait til August 3 so I can cash them in (and get the discount.)

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Walked to work Monday and Tuesday so far this week. NE's picked me up both days - kind of fun getting picked up. He's gotten to see some of the coworkers I talk to him about from afar.

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The project at work that never ends may be actually getting close...r to ending. I worked on the table of contents today, and fixing some formatting issues. Of course all I did may be for naught if decision makers decide to change some of the content. Oh well, it was something to keep me busy.

Why do people argue with you when they call in for information? I just don't get it.

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NE and I ended up not going to see Antman on Sunday. All the theaters are owned by the same company, so all the Matinee priced showings were before noon. Way too early for NE (he works nights.) We watched a movie on Netflix instead - something that took place in WW2 on a submarine - a bunch of US soldiers were captured by a German Uboat submarine. Very interesting (can't remember the name of it though.)

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My latest Ting bill closed yesterday. I managed to keep the non-tax part of it to $15! I think now that NE is also on Ting, he's gotten the idea of being very conservative with phone minutes. (Before, he just didn't get why I would get frustrated when he'd talk for 30 minutes before coming over for 3 hours ...)

Compared to my old cell bill of $75/76/month ... I love Ting!

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Tomorrow, and probably on Thursday too, I'm going to have NE pick me up later so I can use the gym at work. This also helps him so he can get up later. (His Wed. shift starts later, and he doesn't work Thursday nights.)

Tuesday night I had my 3rd shift at the parking garage. This time there was a WWE event going on. I got there about 7:40 - 20 minutes early. We didn't end up getting sent to our spots til nearly 9:20 (I clocked in at 7:55.) It seems kind of wasteful to have 8 or so people standing around for an hour+ on the clock waiting for an event to actually end. But oh well, it's more money in my pocket. (I clocked out a bit before 11. So about $33 before taxes.)

Once the cars started coming out, time went by pretty fast. Before I went, I had no energy nor desire to go. By the time I got home though, I was pepped up and couldn't go to sleep for a long time. (Still woke up about 4:45 a.m. ....)

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Before I left for the shift though, I tried calling Vanguard again. I was being transferred to someone when the call ended suddenly. So I called back and got the name and number of the person I was being transferred to. I called and left a voice mail - more than 24 hours later, and I have not gotten a call back.

I'm going to try again tomorrow night (when I don't have to run off to Vacation Bible School like tonight, or have a shift to work.)

Hopefully, third time will be the charm.

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Work. Ugh. Still ongoing saga of 268 page document and the perfectionist who believes there is only one way to do things (she tells me to make a change, I make the change, she insists I should do it her way instead ...) My boss is also frustrated with this person (they had to do a presentation to the other co-workers yesterday - some book the staff is reading.) My boss has told me that if I want off this project, all I have to do is say so. Part of me wants to say OFF, but a larger part of me does not want to do that - kind of feel like being a quitter.

Lady sat up front with me today going over some cross-referencing in the document. I was logged off the phone. Still had at least 6 calls and 7 people come by to buy passes. She got so frustrated with all the interruptions that she told me we'd keep working tomorrow if my boss could cover the not logged in phone calls. She asked me if it always was this busy.

Ummm... the phone wasn't even logged in. Yes, it can sometimes be that busy x50. Other times, not so much. One never knows.

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Tuesday -
DMV - $175 - Car registration
Taco Bell ... $4.19

Wednesday:
Walgreen's - $20.xx (junk, locker lock for gym, deodorant, real food)

Extra Income:
$16 from Pact cashed in

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Okay, it is now 11:08. I am going to try to go to bed and see if I can get more than 4 1/2 hours sleep ...

Tuesday night I had my 3rd shift at the parking garage. This time there was a WWE event going on. I got there about 7:40 - 20 minutes early. We didn't end up getting sent to our spots til nearly 9:20 (I clocked in at 7:55.) It seems kind of wasteful to have 8 or so people standing around for an hour+ on the clock waiting for an event to actually end. But oh well, it's more money in my pocket. (I clocked out a bit before 11. So about $33 before taxes.)

Once the cars started coming out, time went by pretty fast. Before I went, I had no energy nor desire to go. By the time I got home though, I was pepped up and couldn't go to sleep for a long time. (Still woke up about 4:45 a.m. ....)

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Before I left for the shift though, I tried calling Vanguard again. I was being transferred to someone when the call ended suddenly. So I called back and got the name and number of the person I was being transferred to. I called and left a voice mail - more than 24 hours later, and I have not gotten a call back.

I'm going to try again tomorrow night (when I don't have to run off to Vacation Bible School like tonight, or have a shift to work.)

Hopefully, third time will be the charm.

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Work. Ugh. Still ongoing saga of 268 page document and the perfectionist who believes there is only one way to do things (she tells me to make a change, I make the change, she insists I should do it her way instead ...) My boss is also frustrated with this person (they had to do a presentation to the other co-workers yesterday - some book the staff is reading.) My boss has told me that if I want off this project, all I have to do is say so. Part of me wants to say OFF, but a larger part of me does not want to do that - kind of feel like being a quitter.

Lady sat up front with me today going over some cross-referencing in the document. I was logged off the phone. Still had at least 6 calls and 7 people come by to buy passes. She got so frustrated with all the interruptions that she told me we'd keep working tomorrow if my boss could cover the not logged in phone calls. She asked me if it always was this busy.

Ummm... the phone wasn't even logged in. Yes, it can sometimes be that busy x50. Other times, not so much. One never knows.

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Tuesday -
DMV - $175 - Car registration
Taco Bell ... $4.19

Wednesday:
Walgreen's - $20.xx (junk, locker lock for gym, deodorant, real food)

Extra Income:
$16 from Pact cashed in

I called Valic tonight to find out about consolidating everything. Once the rep heard how much I had to move, he was trying to move mountains to get me to the right person. The wait time though was at least 7 or 8 minutes, and I had to leave for VBS. So I'm going to try again tomorrow (with the direct number & notes on my account to speed things up.)

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I am beyond frustrated at work. The document I spent a large portion of Friday afternoon working on fixing? 70% of the changes I had made did NOT stick! I KNOW I saved as I went. So this morning I had to endure yet again being told .. you remember we talked about such and such ... OMW!! YES I REMEMBER! Even though for who knows why the document doesn't show it! UGH!

I am really wishing I hadn't agreed to help out with this project.

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I got my $250 bonus from Amex yesterday. $125 of it goes towards paying NE's medical stuff that he let me put on there (what we agreed to prior, since I was not going to be able to make the $1k spending requirement.) The other half I put towards mainly two categories - Personal Training and Education. I need to save up $350 for PT and $500 for Education (will be reimbursed for classes I take, but only after I receive a passing grade.) The rest of it went in dribs and drabbles to other funds needing a little plumping.

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NE and I watched "The Theory of Everything" last night about Stephen Hawking. Very good movie.

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Funny story. Last week NE was telling me that it was my turn the last week of July to treat for a meal. I told him that it was - treat once a month, not every 4 weeks (back and forth.) That a meal out in July wasn't in my budget.

So last night we were talking about what we'd do next Sunday. He said something about maybe going to a movie .. then was like, Nope, that's not in the budget.

(This was all very lighthearted/teasing.)

I almost told him that what's gotten me to where I am now financially is actually having and paying attention (usually ...) to a budget.

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Tonight I helped out at our church's VBS at the registration table. While the kids were in their various groups I also helped out with a few little projects. Otherwise it was a lot of standing around with my thumb in my pocket... I'll be helping out again on Wednesday, but I think I'll leave once the registration rush is over.

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Tomorrow night I have my 3rd parking garage shift. It'll be from 8 p.m to hopefully no later than 10:30 p.m.

Last time I had a shift someone recognized me - but I wasn't sure HOW I knew them or they knew me. Today on of the ladies from a local agency came by to pick up passes - that was the person who recognized me. We thought it was pretty funny.

Ugh. Just no motivation to do anything today.

I did make my pancakes this morning (banana oat greek yogurt), but other than that .. just can't get going.

Part of it probably is my allergies kicking up again (like CB ... sinus headache ..)

I have been doing some research into a getaway in Kansas City - doing World's of Fun and possibly the zoo and/or Powell's botanical garden. The least expensive hotel I found was $47 for two nights - with taxes $116. Ugh. (would be a 2 hour bus ride to avoid $15 parking fee.)

So I looked at airbnb. Found a place for $25/night which would be an hour's drive from WOF and would have to pay parking fee.

... I'm honestly starting to think about just maybe staying here and not going anywhere, but do touristy stuff around this area. Go to some of the places that are only open on weekdays. Maybe eat at a couple interesting restaurants I haven't been to here yet, take in a movie or two.

I think that actually sounds more appealing to me. Sleep in, move at my own pace, explore, then back home in my own space. Limited driving needed.

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Last night I was thinking about trying to cut down on my closet clutter/clothing. I found a great app called Closet+ which allows you to take pictures of all your clothes, and then create outfits. It also tracks how often you wear things so that you can tell which things are not being utilized easily.

I like this idea because then I can also bring it when I go shopping - can show someone a particular pants/skirt/top to see if it works with what I'm looking at. Also it will help me keep track of what things do go together that aren't your basic solid/solid mix. (So like when my mom is here, she can tell me what tops work with one particular skirt I have, and I can record them in the app so I remember later!)

Anyway, maybe that's a project I could do during some of my off time in August too.

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I'm going to need to ask for some hours off this week so I can go to the DMV. I went to renew my registration online today, and found out I couldn't because they'd sent it to my previous address. (I can't remember if NE brought it here, or how exactly it got to me.) Fun, fun, standing in line. Gotta be done.

So I'm thinking about combining all my investment accounts. I think I want to put them all in Vanguard, but I'm not sure if it is possible.

I currently have two stock/brokerage accounts at Scottrade.

A stock/brokerage account and target fund at Trowe.

A defunct 403(b) account from teaching at some place called Empower Retirement? (used to be at Valic AIG, but my former employer switched companies this year.)

A traditional ROTH at Vanguard.

Almost forgot - another stock account at Cap One - formerly Sharebuilder.

And then of course the accounts I have with my new employer. (These I plan to leave alone.)

The 403b and the TROWE target fund I think can be moved over with no problem. It's the stock accounts I'm not so sure about.

I want to consolidate these accounts as much as possible for two reasons - 1- ease of tracking/accounting, and 2 - less maintenance fees eating into profits.

I know I need to just call Vanguard and ask if it's possible to move stock only accounts over to them, but I seem to think about these kinds of things on the weekend or after business phone hours.

I don't want to sell my stock holdings, just move them to another ... holder? I'm not even sure if that is possible??

Anyway, I have this on a reminder note for the August business days I'll have off to call and get the ball rolling on as much as I can.

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Oh get this! I just got a message from J of airbnb fame ... the "friend" found an apartment and doesn't need her room after all. Too bad, so sad. :roll eyes:

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I've been on a bit of a junkfood binge the past few days. All that stuff I bought Thursday ... I had thought about returning some of it before I actually ate it ... Oh well. It was a good reminder that I actually like how I feel *without* eating all that junk *much* better than the opposite.

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I cashed out Bing for a $5 AGC yesterday. Today I am within less than 600 SBs of my second $25 Paypal for July. (Ngage is back ... which can be "watched" while doing stuff in another window at the same time ...)

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I've set my fitbit sleep thing on sensitive this last week. It sure has shown me why I'm so tired! For example, last night out of 6 hrs 30 minutes "asleep" 85 minutes of that time was "restless" or moving enough to shake the fitbit. Other nights had less hours of "sleep" with roughly the same restless minutes. I wish I could figure out how to change this. Consistent exercise doesn't seem to be the answer. Eating better doesn't seem to be the answer. (the little hours sleep / restlessness are similar for before Thursday's junk food binge - so really made no difference.)

Getting TO sleep isn't the issue - it's once I'm asleep that there are multiple periods of restlessness, and then waking up at WAY too early hours (WAY before my alarm is set, and not being able to go back to sleep very well.)

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This coming week my sleep issues are probably not going to be helped much ... Monday and Wednesday evenings I'm signed up to help out at the local VBS. Tuesday night I'm doing a parking garage shift from 8 p.m. - ?? And of course Sunday and Thursday nights are NE's nights. Somehow I'm going to fit in regular exercise into that schedule.

I just typed up a huge rant about the last few days, but then decided it probably was overshare.

So, long and short .. big project I'd worked on a few weeks ago that I had to send on before it was finished, got published to the public. Meeting yesterday with coworker and boss was about it. Me explaining what happened. Ended with me going on a junkfood spending spree after work.

*This project I worked on was helping out coworker with something. She was out for a week with surgery/recovery while I was trying to finish said project. Was told to send it on to head boss even though I told them it wasn't ready.*

This morning wasn't much better ... but got better once I got working on actually finishing the document. (got pulled from the public)

Am way overtired and hormonal which is probably affecting my reactions to this, as well as Airbnb thing. (Haven't heard anymore from customer service.)

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I've decided to look into other places to go for my getaway. Possibly Kansas City - something called Water World I think NE said is there. I may just do one night away instead of two though, then have two days at my place to r&r. Maybe take in some things around here too.

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No spend day #14 I think

So today as I was heading to lunch I took a look at my phone and saw I had a couple text messages from my Airbnb host. I got a bad feeling ...

Then I read the entirety of the messages.

Apparently this person has a friend who needs to stay in the room, and is coming over to check it out. She'll need it for a month. Which of course falls into my reservation.

J says"I just want to give you a heads up so you can make a backup plan."

I was livid.

I didn't respond right then because I wanted to cool down and also get the opinons of a few others - so I posted a question on FB asking how others would react.

Cancel reservation and contact admin were the two main responses.

So when I got back from the gym tonight (another way to cool myself down more before responding) I got on Airbnb and started looking for a way to contact admin. I'd been planning on just contacting them first to ask their opinion.

IMPOSSIBLE! They make it nearly impossible to contact them with all these "choice" trees - none of which have an option for "other."

So I left a message for J telling her that I was cancelling and why. I was very polite, but very clear.

Then I canceled and found out I won't get my $7 in fees back!!!

I finally figured out how to actually send them an email (chose a choice that didn't really work - but it got me to where I could send an email.) Now I'll wait to see what happens.

In the meantime, I'm going to be looking for a hotel room!!

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I got a message today that I have a meeting with my boss and her other supervisee about contracts. I don't know for sure what it is about, but I do know that the current union contract ends sometime in August. So I'm guessing it's to go over the revised one and have us sign it or something. If that's so, then I'll also get to see what my new payrate will be (probably not starting til September.)

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NE is going to change out our cars tonight after work (he has a key to my place, so won't have to wake me up.) He'll be taking his Honda to get the air fixed on Thursday afternoon. Then he'll decide what to do with the Subaru.

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CCF - (or others who know Des Moines) - please give me suggestions as to what hotels/streets/areas to avoid. And if possible, which ones might be good deals & decent? All I care about is cleanliness, working plumbing and a bed (and that there isn't a big chance of my car getting broken into overnight ...) Hotels.com

The cheapest hotel they have is $60/night - Extend a Stay - 5220 Northeast 14th Street. It has a very poor rating. The next one is $70/night.

Whatever happened to the $30 and $40 rooms??

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No spend day #12

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ETA - Hmm... I just got a response from my email. Basicaly saying the CS person was going to pass my message to the "right" people. Let's see what happens.

Tonight I was just sitting back relaxing and getting ready to enter my receipts from my Walgreen's shopping trip when I got a call from NE telling me his car had broken down just a few blocks away.

The end result is that I'm letting him use my car for at least the next few days. I'll take the bus to work, and he'll pick me up tomorrow and then I can use his second car (no a/c) to go to the gym. (He delivers pizza, and it is WAY too hot to be driving around for hours without A/C - I can survive 20 minutes to the gym and back.)

He's going to have a mechanic friend look at it, but it'll eventually have to get towed and fixed. It doesn't sound like it will be an inexpensive fix.

He's had so many troubles with his two cars (both are 2002/3 models - Honda Civic and Subaru Impreza I think.)

This of course had to happen in the midst of our first major heatwave this summer.

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After work today I went to the UPS customer center and picked up my 2" washers (IOW cheap fractional plates.) Then I stopped at Walgreen's to pick up some more Allegra D ...I also picked up some candy bars ... and a folding chair in a carrying bag. All came out of budgeted categories.

By the time I got home I was pretty hungry, plus this morning I saw I'd lost another pound and was thinking it was going a bit too fast. So I decided to treat myself to Burger King. Again, budgeted. (but no more left for the month in that category!)

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My digital scale died this morning - just after I weighed myself. I was wondering if maybe the reason the numbers had been going down on it was due to a weak battery - so I weighed myself at work. It was only a difference of 5lbs - which made sense (eaten breakfast, drunk water, work clothes, shoes, etc.)

I need to figure out how to get the scale going again.
(It's a Wahoo fitness wi-fi scale, about two years old.)

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NE paid me back today for the two things I put on my Discover and American Express cards. So as soon as that money is available, I'll send it on to the cards.

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Just a month from now and I'll be on my mini-vacation!! Woo hoo! I can hardly wait. 4 whole days in a row away from the phones! (If you're calling for directions, it's a good idea to have something to write on/with, and know the address of where you are and where you want to go ... just saying...)

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Almost forgot! Saturday night I worked my part time job at the parking garage. It was only supposed to be for 90 minutes. But the concert lasted until well after 11 pm. They finally told us to go home about 12:30 a.m.!! That definitely won't work for me on a weeknight ... But I can thank ND (performer) for 2 extra hours worth of pay!

So this past week I kept checking my SBs Shop & Earn ledger to see if my shoe purchase had posted yet as pending SBs. It never showed up, so I wrote to customer service asking where it was.

They replied back to me that I need to wait 5 to 7 business days. I was very annoyed.

Then last night I did my ten videos on Mypoints and then took a look at my points ledger. Guess what was showing as pending?! A purchase from Amazon!

Somehow I must have made the purchase through a Mypoints link rather than a Swagbucks one. Although I thought I'd been pretty careful to go the Shop and Earn tab on SBs, and then to Amazon.

Oh well, either way, it looks like I'm getting points for it.

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Speaking of The Shoes .. They arrived on Thursday afternoon. I have tried them on, but not worn yet (Friday is jeans day.) I'm not sure I'm going to like them as much as my falling apart ones, but I can live with them until Sear's gets the shoes back in stock!!

(they are much firmer material, and the over strap is very thin.

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Remember the 2" washers I ordered to use as fractional plates for weight lifting? They arrived on Monday! Or at least that is when I first got the UPS notice on my door. I love how they come at times when the majority of adults are .. at work!

Tuesday afternoon I called to arrange to have them hold it at the main facility - but first I had to jump through the hoop of the automated scheduler thing. The only option offered to me by it was to have it sent to an "outlet." The outlet would have been WAY close to my work, but cost $6! I was very annoyed, and had to be very persistent to get a live person.

I'm planning on going there on Monday to get them.

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I ordered a bunch of books about MS Office/Word 2013 from the library. Most of them were in yesterday. I need to browse through them and figure out which one will best meet what I'm wanting (something to help me with learning intermediate/advanced skills.)

A couple DVDs came in too - Theory of Everything, and When Calls the Heart (a Janette Oake series movie)

So I now have 3 movies to watch (Boyhood) .. I have SO gotten out of the habit of watching movies/television. (I bought Season 4 of Downton Abbey on Amazon streaming ... quite awhile ago ... and still have not watched any of it ..)

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I've agreed to help out with the local VBS program for two nights (July 20 and 22) ... That means I'll have to change my workout schedule that week because I have to be at the church by 6. I really considered saying NO because I didn't want to change my gym routine which is still in its infancy .. but realized that I probably would enjoy doing this, and it is only one week.

The 21st I have a shift at the parking garage - 9 to runoff. I found out that runoff means about 10:30. I can handle that once in awhile on a weeknight.

I have a 9 to runoff shift tonight, so I'll get to see firsthand what it involves.

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I got very little sleep last night. Went to bed a bit after 11, and woke up about 4. My fitbit sleep thing showed I had about 15 minutes of restlessness during the night. I am SO tired. I will probably try to take a nap before going to the parking garage tonight.

Looking forward to when the good diet and good amount of exercise is going to equal a good nights sleep!

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On YouGov surveys I am only 8k points away from a $100 Amazon gift card!! That is about 16 surveys. (They have smaller denomination ones for less points, but the $100 one is 1 point per dollar value, whereas the others aren't.)

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I almost forgot one of the reasons I wanted to post today!

This morning I got my loaf of bread out because I was going to do toast and a fried egg for breakfast. However when I counted how many slices were left, I realized I only had enough left for 4 lunches this week. I don't think I used any for toast last week (although I may have.)

What this means is that one loaf of the Orowheat Everything bread is NOT enough for two weeks of work lunches. I had thought it would be enough, plus a little extra. I really like this bread because of its size - it perfectly fits my black bean burger patties and is cheaper than the full sized bread (obviously because it is smaller.)

I'm thinking lunch on Friday I can cook some quinoa or something and crumble a burger patty into it, along with my regular veggies. Kind of a burger bowl. That might just work for lunches the rest of the month too so I don't have to buy any more bread. (Especially since the grocery budget is so thin right now.)

I have English muffins I can use for toast (although my PB and my J are running low.)

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My diet/lifestyle and exercise seem to be working. I am within 3 lbs of where I was a year ago. (I have lost/gained/lost/gained ~16 lbs since then.) This is the lowest I've been in 7 months or so. Another 4 lbs and I'll be in a decade I haven't been in since ... ???? (I did briefly flirt with the top of the decade maybe a 1 1/2 ago, but that was all of two or three days.)

It still may be possible for me to be down 30 lbs (from Jan 1 weight) by my 40th birthday (Dec 15). That would be another 18 or 19 lbs. If that happens, I'd be at my lowest weight in at least ten years. Within ten pounds of when I first met NE. Wow.

I'm not really eating that much less of real food... just not buying/eating much junkfood. Amazing how that works, huh?

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Saturday spending: $0 Day 10! (I know I won't be spending anything since I'm not going anywhere til tonight for my parking shift.)

This morning I decided to check the airbnb site again to see if anything new had come up. Guess what! I found a place for $29/night! Previously the best I had found was $45/night. I booked for two nights, so my lodging costs will be $65. Right now I have $176 set aside for my getaway, plus whatever I can add this month.

I'm thinking I will be coming in under budget!!

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I booked the lodging with my Amex card. Between paying for a portion of NE's medical bill (he's paying me back minus $125, which is half of the cash back reward) and then booking the lodging, I finally have my Amex finished! I doubt if I'll ever use it again unless some offer comes up again like the Sam's Club one, or some kind of Amazon deal. Too much of a pain.

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I also finished out my $500 for July spending on my Discover card. (Actually I just realized that I might need to do one more grocery trip with it - because once I take the shoes back, then I'll be under $500 again.) I've put all my recurring bills on it - electric, gym, Internet, etc. I also used my card to pay for the final treatment of Riddles (again will be paid back.)

*Working on spending $500/month from July to November on my Discover card for a $75 bonus. I am not spending anything I would not normally to get this.
I have no debt, and pay my balances in full every month.

August looks like it will be easy too, between trip expenses and car insurance renewal. September should be easy too - mom/brother visit, purchase airplane ticket for Thanksgiving, etc. November I'm not sure what all I'll be able to do to get it.

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Went grocery shoppigng today after the gym. I walked over there, totally forgetting til I passed the pet care aisle that I needed cat litter ... Oops. At least the cat litter and the grocery bag weighed fairly the same.

I bought: apples, bananas, egg salad sandwich, eggs, green bell pepper, Boca crumbles, candy bar, paper towels, sliced cheese, shredded cheese, cat litter.

Total of $28.70

There are 3 more grocery Friday's in July, and I have $39 left in my grocery budget. I'm going to have to try to keep my next 3 trips to $13 or less to stay within budget. That means probably forgoing the sandwich and/or Amy's meal.

(paper towels and cat litter come out of non-grocery categories)

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On the way to the gym today I was nearly sideswiped! There were two left turn lanes. I was in the far right one. I turned into the corresponding lane. Luckily out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the person on my left starting to come over! I beeped my horn and swerved into the extra lane to my right (for right hand turn people.) My adrenaline sure was pumping!

CCF you might know the intersection I'm talking about -- 27th and Hwy 2 heading towards Walmart.

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I had two people at work argue with me today. One was someone wanting directions. I even gave him to the bus driver supervisor, and the caller argued with him!! The other person was someone who came to the window with commuter checks. I told him he needed to fill them out. He told me that "NO, it's your responsibility to fill them out! The lady who I've always dealt with before never asked me to fill them out." I told him that in the year I've worked here, anytime someone's brought commuter checks, that they had them filled out already. He didn't believe me. Finally I just took the checks and gave him his passes.

(We hate commuter checks! They give them two checks for every pass AND the check numbers are LONG. Such a pain in the patookus!)

Before the arguers, I'd been thinking that this had been a pretty calm week - nothing really of note. (at work at least)

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Thursday - No spend day #8!

Friday - spend, spend .. but all within budgeted categories

As part of our contract we are able to take credit classes as long as they have something to do with our job responsibilities. We get reimbursed up to $1200/contract year.

So today I was thinking about the recent project which I tried to help out our purchasing agent. There was a big time crunch, and what she wanted me to do was something I hadn't done before - create a clickable table of contents. So I was on a huge learning curve under a time crunch. Then had to send it on to the main pa before I was finished.

That felt very stinky to me. I absolutely hated sending on a document which I knew wasn't finished.

What could I do to change that for the next time?

I figured out that I could take classes on the various MS Office products and then take the certification tests! That way I'd KNOW I had a very good/advanced grasp of all the inner workings - plus it might be helpful if later on I decide to try for a higher level position.

So I checked with the local community college. I saw they had a program focus for those wanting MS certification, but there was no list of required classes.

I sent an email to one person, then got a friendly response with the name/email of who I needed to contact. So I contacted the first person.

Their response seemed like they hadn't read my email very well. So I sent another polite email repeating one of my questions.

What I got back totally blew me away:

I DON’T KNOW BUT YOU CAN CONTACT OUR OFFICE PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM ....

The rest of the email was in normal writing (not all caps.)

Is it just me, or does that seem like an uber unprofessional response? I can't imagine ever responding to someone in all caps like that in an email. Especially a business email. I kind of feel like emailing the person she mentioned and suggesting that they may want to make sure that the people answering emails know it is impolite/shouting to write in all caps.

Anyway .... while I was waiting for responses I kept looking for other avenues. I am almost thinking that I'd rather just buy the MS Word Study Guide ($14.29) for the certification course and go through it on my own pace. Then take the certification test for it. Then do the next one (Excel probably.) and so forth.

I still want to take some classes though - so maybe Spanish (we have some Spanish speakers that come by), or ASL (had a mute person come by today!) Or something else that I can figure out how to make it fit with my job.

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On FB today I read an article that Amy's is opening a fast food restaurant in CA near San Francisco!! I LOVe Amy's food! (vegetarian/vegan) Next time I'm in SF, I will have to make a point of going there.

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Today at the gym I talked to one of the personal trainers. I first asked him about the barbel weights - he told me that the barbel in the Smith machines was lighter than the one in the power rack - which explained why when I tried to use the pr one, I couldn't do it. He gave me a couple ideas on how to get a barbel that was weighted between decade amounts (I'd been using the fixed barbel weights after realizing I couldn't do the regular barbel.)

I also asked him about Pilates classes. He basically told me that they don't have very many because there isn't much interest. He suggested Yoga. No thank you ... (although maybe I should try one class of it to see if it is all new agey, or just straight poses and no nonsense.)

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I got home pretty late due to having talked with the pt guy. I made a pot of spaghetti with a bunch of kale and 1/2 cup of Morningstar crumbles. It was SO good. I had in my meal plan that I was going to eat the pie that I'd bought at Dollar Tree on Sunday (one slice frozen) but after eating my spaghetti I was so full that it doesn't even appeal to me. So I'll save it for another night.

I'm reading Judy Beck's Diet Trap Solution which is all about retraining your brain - CBT or cognitive based therapy. I'd heard of an earlier version of it (this is a 2014 or 15 copy) but never checked it out. It's pretty interesting so far.

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So I asked my boss today if I could have the Friday and Monday off of the weekend my mom and possibly brother are coming. She said yes, but then reminded me that I had signed up to work an event that Sunday!

It's a 4 hour event.

What would you do?? Should I ask my boss if I can get out of it, or have my mom/brother drop me off and do whatever, then pick me up later? I kind of feel bad either way.

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No spending day #6!

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One more question -- How do you easily measure 1/2 cup of dry spaghetti?

I decided to walk to work today. The weather was perfect for it - 55 in the morning, and in the low 70s in the afternoon.

On my way home today I was about ten blocks away from work when a woman standing at a corner waved at me. I went over there and she asked me "Aren't you the person who works at ....?" I told her that I was. She thought it was funny that I was walking instead of taking the bus. So I told her that I only live 1.5 away from work, and enjoy the walk. However, next week (if I decide to walk) I'll probably take the bus on the way home because it's supposed to be in the 90s in the afternoon.

She told me that she calls me all the time asking for directions. She must have come by to buy passes too, although I didn't recognize her.

On the way home I thought of another way I could possibly take the bus for my return trip. It still would mean walking about 8 or 9 blocks, but then I'd be dropped off within a block of my apartment. I might try that next week.

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My mom has bought her tickets to come here in September - $137! Awesome price! Now we wait to see if my brother actually buys tickets .... or it it'll just be me and her.

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I redeemed for a $25 PP from SBs today, and thanks to my SBs Visa, I am about 300 towards my next one.

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I got an email from the place I ordered the 2" washers from - total cost with shipping is $18.48. SO much cheaper than Amazon's fractional plates. They are already here in the city, so maybe I'll get them tomorrow before I head out to the gym for my next weight lifting workout.

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I was reading "In the Unlikely Event" by Judy Blume today at work (Great story so far!) when a lady came by to buy a bus pass. She asked me if I liked to read. There followed a nice 5 or 6 minute conversation. (She also is an avid reader.) That was fun.

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No spending today. (I think that makes 5 NSDs for July?)

On the local FB sales group, sometimes people list houses for sale. I've seen houses on there for anywhere from 94k to 489k. Mostly they are between 110-40k.

On my income it has taken me roughly a year to save about 5k in my EF (the balance was already there, leftover from my moving fund/EF from NM.)

I pay $430/month in rent, plus between $50 - $100 in utilities. I put about 15% of my post-tax income in a ROTH (which doesn't even get close to maxing it out.)

So if I ever want to buy a house and have the payments be something I can manage on my income, I will probably need 40k+ for a downpayment, plus another 10 - 15k for closing costs, House EF/fix up.

At my current savings rate, that might happen ... oh 9 or 10 years from now? And that's assuming that the simple, not fancy houses (1000sq ft w/basement home for $138k type places) will not have gone way up in price.

And I'll probably be needing another car about that time too ...

I don't make minimum wage - but maybe close to 2x minimum wage. I don't have much in the way of extravagances - no cable tv, watch my pennies. I do have my iPhone and my Internet (which I cringe paying for - so expensive!) I'm also only supporting myself and my cat.

So ... how do people with families do it? How do they buy houses???

I was looking at the calculator for the 138k house, assuming a 20k down payment at 4.5% interest. My payment would be something like $900/month!! No way on God's green earth I could afford that and still save for retirement, or for car replacement, or have any extra left for once in a while vacations, or for home repairs ...

I guess it kind of makes me a bit discouraged. I know, I know ... I could get a teaching job making twice what I make here (or close to it.) But as stressful as the bus job is sometimes, it is only 40 hours a week and I'm done. Teaching .... just not the case. Plus a WHOLE nother level of stress.

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PS - I have an ad for Sam's Club below. They just have to be advertising that they have Nutella on sale this month. Note to Laura - DO NOT ENTER Sam's Club this month.

I did so well all of June with no fast food ... but today at work I was SO tired and out of sorts. It didn't help that a project I was working on was giving me fits and caboodles (ever try making a table of contents in a document that already has a TOC? Yeah, me either til today.)

The phone calls were hopping (with some cranky people) and the window sales were pretty busy too.

So by the end of the day I did NOT want to make my own food, and I WANTED chocolate. I did NOT want to go to the gym.

So .. I did, and I didn't.

I think I may have been a bit overambitious to say I'd do strength training 3x a week right away. 2x a week plus 2 or 3x more going for walks, etc., I think is a better start. (It'd probably also help if I got better sleep ...)

So ...

Wednesday Spending:
Walgreen's - 19.xx - Allegra D
1.00 - candy
Burger King - $4.63 - dinner

I couldn't believe my eyes ... when I was waiting to make a right turn from the gym again today -- the same lady in the humongous SUV was next to me making a left turn! How bizarre! At least it didn't take 5 or 6 minutes this time.

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I went to the gym today (as I said above ) and *almost* chickened out of going into the weight room. I walked for nearly ten minutes on the walking track "warming up" ... (read . getting my courage up) It was full of guys - finally I saw a women go in there. My warmup was over.

With the warmup and a five minute cooldown, I did about a 40 minute workout. I decided to go with a full body compound move workout. When I got there I tried to find out if they have fractional? plates, but I couldn't find a trainer to answer my question.

I think for now I'll just do the dumbbells for now (except for the deadlift - they have extra weighted bars for that.)

I can definitely feel that I put my muscles to the test! My arms are all shaky.

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I got my $25 AGC reward from Perk today - already spent it on my next installment of pea protein powder (for my smoothies) and a drain cleaner thingy someone suggested before (was waiting to get free shipping.)

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For those who read and/or made suggestions/comments ... the boat was not (and won't be) purchased. This came about without me saying a thing. Medical debt will be wiped out. (or nearly so) That's more like what I thought this person would do!

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We had something unusual happen at the bus station today - NO callers or visitors making complaints! That is kind of a rare occurrence.

3 more days til the long weekend!! Can hardly wait!!