I had my followup appointment today with my regular doctor. Of course I forgot to ask her some questions and forgot to mention things. Having NE at the Urgent Care place Friday night was good because he was my backup brain. Anyway, she said that it doesn't look like there is anything to worry about - just rest and get better (I accidentally typed read Freudian Slip?)

On my way home I wanted to stop at the library because my copy of Laura: Pioneer Girl had finally arrived! When I got to that intersection traffic was backed up because of an accident just past the intersection on the side going away from the library.

I ended up going and paying my rent first, and then came back that way. I finally got to pull in and get my book. Now here was the fateful decision I made ... I drove out the backside of the library and debated on whether to go straight or right. Habit made me choose right. For about 30 seconds I thought it was going to be just fine.

Then as soon as traffic cleared coming my direction, there was traffic from the other direction. This went on for 3 or 4 minutes. It only got worse though the closer to 5 it got. Now 90% of the traffic on both sides were those huge honking SUVs.

I had people on my side stop for me several times, but when I'd look to my right, I could not see a thing of what cross traffic looked like.

This went on for ten minutes. There was a line of traffic behind me probably cursing me out. (If no one had been behind me, I would have tried backing up and going the other way ... it's generally a very quiet street.)

Finally someone stopped coming my way and realized that I could not see if the other side was clear AND SO signaled me that it was clear!

This was a good reminder of why I prefer to go to that location on Saturday afternoons instead of a weekday!

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Work was ok today. Very busy and left me feeling pretty drained. I didn't have a sit down with my boss, but she seemed to be in a better mood or something. The vibe was just better I guess.

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I did something I kicked myself for last night. I decided to spend some of my perk tokens on drawings (that's all they're good for.) I saw a drawing for $100k cash. 500 entries for 5000 ... tokens I thought. I had around 30k tokens, so started entering. My token value didn't go down. Weird. I entered again, My token value didn't go down. Stupidly I entered again. Only this time a horrible thought occurred to me ... and I checked my points balance. The balance you can exchange for giftcards ... and it was 15k points less!!! I wanted to throw my phone across the room. Those 15k points represent about 3 weeks worth of running those Perk videos.

So ... no $25 AGC from Perk for me for March. Sigh.

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In good money news, I received my $50 bonus from Discover Checking. I haven't been able to find anything that says how long you have to keep the account open, but I think I'll be safe to withdraw all but $500.

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It is now Friday morning. I sure didn't get much sleep last night. Oh well.

NE brought some bleach over last night and I poured some down my bathroom sink and tub. (opened windows and used the blower too) Worked like a charm. Btw - anyone know where I can get a hair stopper for the tub? I've tried one before, but it was too big for the drain.

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End of 40 day personal challenge!

Although I had a few slip ups, overall I feel pretty satisfied with how it went. I really didn't miss buying junkfood all that much. Going forward I don't think I'll put any restrictions on myself, however, I would like to limit myself most of the time to purchasing only one serving on a trip, and that trip should be one where I have to walk to get it. So if I *really* want something, I have to put forth extra effort to get it.

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I'm going to be adding some projects to my sidebar. Let's see how long it takes me to check them off.

So .... I ended up going into work on Friday. Managed to make it the full 8 hours too. Only by spending all of lunch with my head on the break room table, and my 15 minute pm break too.

Even so, I was hacking out my lungs and made use of the mute button quite often so as to not make my callers listen in.

I really don't know what's up with my boss. Part of the reason I made myself go in on Friday was because she sounded so put out when I called in sick on Thursday. But then on Friday several times during the day she said if I needed to go home, to go home.

I really need to sit down with her and have a chat to see if there is something going on. I am wondering if she thinks I got sick *because* of helping out NE during his shoulder surgery. (I'm pretty sure it's allergy related - this is what happens almost every time I have a really bad allergy season. Which has been this year for sure.)

Ugh. Is it 2031 yet (so I can retire?)

---
Then after work I came home and slept for a while, NE called and we talked for a bit, then I slept some more. Finally got up about 30 minutes before he came over.

He brought me a thermometer and and an icepack (for headache). When I took my temp, it was 102.7! So off we went to Urgent Care. It was so nice to have him with me.

Their thermometer read 103! They ruled out flu and pneumonia and said it was bronchitis. Great. Doctor gave me a scrip for antibiotics and sent me on my way.

We stopped at Walgreen's and NE went in and got my prescription - and a little extra, a Cadbury egg

Took the first antibiotic around 9 pm Friday night and am already feeling much better - in fact, dare I say it, but my headache may be gone too!

---
Gotta say it's frustrating to eat a pretty healthy diet (lots of fruit/veggies/whole wheat, little processed, etc. and recently very very little junkfood) and be getting this sick again. Plus pretty much all I drink is water. Once in awhile Rice Dream, and in a rare instance (like this week) juice. (Soda I go back and forth on - months and months where all I'll do is have a sip or two of NEs and maybe one or two bottles, and then times where I slip back into drinking it much more often. Currently on the rarely drink curve and hope to continue!)

Oh well, if I improve even more by tomorrow, I might even have the energy AND the desire to clean my place. It's in bad, bad, bad shape. 4 days of having the desire but having absolutely no energy .... doesn't make for a pretty sight.

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Bing must be in trouble, or may be in the process of fading out their rewards. When I joined and then up until 3 or 4 months ago, I was able to earn at least 40 points a day. Now only 25 points a day - which made reaching the 475 points needed for the SBs feel interminable. Today I found out that they've increased the price to 575!

I've changed my reward goal to the IHOP giftcard. I need to check if they're stackable, but a few months of those will get me a free meal at IHOP. (not that healthy I know, I know ... )

--
On YouGov I'm up to 62k points - I have some good options of rewards, but I still think I want to wait for the $100 AGC (100k) because it's the only one that is penny to point value.

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I have been perfectly abysmal at entering my spending for at least two weeks in YNAB. I'll be able to enter stores and amounts, but will have to guess at what it was for.

For some reason I've gotten into the bad habit of throwing away a receipt as soon as I snap it for Receipt Hog (finally reached 1100 points, but am going on for a higher amount.) Anyway .. I really need to save those receipts until I've entered them in YNAB (mostly grocery type receipts, I don't buy much else.)

All of that to say, my categories are probably going to be a little off for March.

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Ok, so off to catch up with y'all!

Oops, I went back to try to edit the lengthiness and ended up adding length!

So I woke up this morning totally planning on going to work. I wasn't sure how I'd handle sitting upright for 8 hours or constantly being on the phone, but I figured I'd try.

Then ....................I made my morning bathroom visit. Instead of the usual 2 or 3 minutes and blast off, it turned into 25 minutes of quality time - the kind where you lose 3 lbs. Loved seeing the number on the scale

I still was going to try though. So I made a slice pb applesauce toast and got a banana. It too me ten minutes to force down the banana and another ten unsuccessful minutes of staring at the toast. At that point I was like forget it, I'm taking the day off.

Later I did manage to eat the toast.

I walked over to the local grocery store to get some apple juice and stronger pain relief. Took those about half an hour ago, .... waiting.

I think my boss thinks NE and I live together because she asked me if he was there when I fainted.

NE was very nice last night - he only stayed for a few hours - I really wasn't up for much more than that.

I'm a bit anxious about what my ER bills are going to be - At least $150 copay (EKG, CT, etc.) Guess I'll just have to wait.

The last few days I have been reading the book "Younger Next Year for Women" which I found recommended in the YNAB forums a month or so ago.

It is written for somewhat older women, but even so, I think it is a good read for younger women too.

It is written by two men - one is a practicing renowned in his field doctor, and the other (at the time) was a retired 69 year old lawyer.

The essence of the book was saying that our bodies were not created for the modern world of sedentarinism (made up word ) and overabundance of food. That when most of our life is spent not doing anything much more strenuous than pushing the chair away from our desk, that it sends the message to our bodies that we are in "conserve" mode. This is especially compounded when we eat large amounts of food.

The "conserve" mode actually starts breaking down our body ... or aging us.

How do we fix this? By exercising HARD for 45 minutes 6 days a week, at least 2x heavy weights. What this does is send our body the signals it needs to send out the stuff that repairs our body ... or reverses the aging process.

He also talks about stopping eating crap (processed foods, saturated fats, etc); being careful with money, and ..

The importance of human connections. "social connections are a more powerful factor in health and mortality than smoking, alcohol, exercise, nutrition or age." (pg 313)

And the importance of giving back/being part of a community.

All in all a compelling and fascinating book. Which caused me to make the final leap to ....

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I joined the $39/month gym!

I went and took a tour of it this afternoon, and already signed the contract.

It has WiFi, up to date cardio equipment, sweet up to date weight machines, two pools, three exercise class studios, tennis courts, basketball courts, racquetball courts, saunas, hot tub, walking track, etc.

My goal is to go there at least 3x a week to feel like I am getting my money's worth. It is about a 20 minute drive from work - so I'll just have to make sure to have my gym bag ready to go. (and have an after work snack ready too so I have some fuel for the workout)

All this working out is going to mean less time on the computer (especially while NE is still in recovery mode and coming over here most nights ...) which all in all is probably not a bad thing.

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I've been having a really hard time at work this last week or so. I don't know if my boss is annoyed with me for taking so much time off (even though she KNOWS why I've been taking the time off.)

I've not been getting the sleep I need - I go to bed at ten and wake up at 4 a.m. NOT ENOUGH SLEEP

So ... I've made some mistakes at work. I hadn't made any mistakes for weeks. Then Friday I made one. KE (my boss) came down hard on me about it. Then yesterday I made another mistake. KE was pretty snippy about it. Today she came out and looked through the receipt book a couple times without saying anything .. I asked her if she was looking for anything. She said she wasn't.

I know I'm probably just feeling overtired which is making me blow things out of proportion, but still ... the last few days have made so badly want to say I QUIT! I'm done dealing with people cursing on the phone, yelling at me because buses are late, telling me I don't know what I'm talking about (when I do know what I'm talking about, they just don't like what I'm saying), etc.

Just so blasted tired and tired of work.

I think the above is partly why I joined the gym too ... hopefully if I can get some more consistent/good exercise, I'll sleep better and feel better about work.

We'll see ...

Today I was absolutely miserable at work - sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose. At least I got more sleep last night than I did on Tuesday night - mostly thanks to taking some Dayquil (the Nyquil works, but I don't like taking it on work nights - too groggy.)

I ordered a bottle of oregano oil capsules - something I've used before which seemed to really help. Then after work today I stopped by OH, a local whole foods/trader Joe's type place and bought 8oz of local honey. I already had a piece of PBH toast. Yum. (I'm not counting the honey as a junkfood purchase - I'm counting it as a medicinal purchase. Believe me I was tempted by some yummy looking fudge ... but I persisted and resisted!)

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I got my first paycheck with my raise / retirement deduction / new w-4 deduction. It was about $7 less than normal. So it seems that changing from 2 to 3 on the W-4 was the right thing to do.

I'm curious ... I know that you can start withdrawing from a 401k when you turn 55 penalty free - but what I have at the bus company is a 401b. On my paystub it lists the deduction as "pension." I know I have 15 1/2 years before really needing to worry too much about this .. but it's something I haven't been able to find too much about online.

Also I'm wondering if I'll still be able to claim the tax savers credit since I now have a workplace retirement plan?

15 days down of 40! Surprisingly it really hasn't been all that hard. Really the better word would be MIND BLOWINGLY.

Monday I got my $25 PP from Swagbucks. I also got an email that my $100 gift card had come from Achievemint.
When I clicked on the link to get it, it gave me three choices of how to redeem it - I chose PayPal. That $100 arrived today.

So on Sunday I'd emailed Fitbit's CS about my fitbit battery/back issues. They replied to me yesterday basicaly telling me they don't have any extra battery doohickeys or backs to the Zip (I can't get mine opened anymore after opening it 4 times with a quarter ... plus assorted other objects in an attempt to find something that worked ...) They also told me that according to their info, my battery was just fine and wasn't dying every 4 - 6 weeks.

Tell that to my dead as a doorknob Fitbit.

......
So ... I decided I was going to upgrade to the One so that I don't have to mess with batteries anymore.

I first checked on Amazon - $97 or $93 - the price difference was due to COLOR! Before I clicked buy though (would've been covered mostly by AGC) I decided to take a look on eBay.

I'm glad I did! I found a brand new one (had sat out on a store shelf as a display unit) for $60 + $5 shipping! It should be here by March 11 at the latest (I really hope it's sooner for a myraid of reasons - one being that I want to walk around the hospital while NEs in surgery and have those steps count!)

I think it's kind of funny/fitting (ha ha) that my reward for tracking steps, logging food, etc, etc, is now paying for a new tracker.

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I stayed home from work today. Just not feeling that great. While I am totally on track with my 40 day challenge of not *buying* junkfood, I'm not doing so well with eating offered junkfood. As in I ate two very yummy homemade sweetrolls at work yesterday. I think I would've been okay with just one. Then on Saturday I made brownies (from a box mix I already had) for a Sabbath School class potluck - there was about 1/4 of them left ....

I am really starting to think that some of my sinus/allergy issues are somewhat related to overdosing on sugar. Until the brownie incident I had been without a sinus headache for nearly 7 or 8 days.

I'm going to have to do some major evaluating of what this might mean going forward.

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NE is in O city having his pre-surgery appointments today.

He is thinking he'll be in the hospital at least two full days, and possibly a third one. He really wants me to come visit him everyday. This means a two-hour drive for me after work at least one or two days, as well as the drive to take him to the hospital.

So ... I'm thinking my gas spending is going to be high, and possibly my restaurant spending as well. Although I could just make myself a PBJ to take with me to eat in the car on the way there or something. I will definitely be doing Hardee's at least once though. (mushroom swiss burger and onion rings - so yummy! w/o the burger of course)

His surgery is on Wednesday. So if he is correct, it'll mean he goes home on either Friday or Saturday. I'll be taking Wednesday off completely from work, and was thinking about taking off an hour early on Thursday and Friday so I can spend an hour or so with him and still get home without having to drive in the dark.

However, I saw someone post that the time change is this coming Sunday? If so, then maybe I can get away without taking off early those days.

Guess I really should wait to see what info he has after his doctor visits today before thinking too much about it all.

--- It's been years since I've been in a regular hospital - do they generally have WiFi available? Do they allow cell phone usage in the waiting areas? Have plugs available for charging?

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If I get some energy here soon I want to make corn pudding and black bean burgers. I have all the ingredients for both. Maybe also a cottage cheese roast. Plan on freezing portions for later meals - although I've never frozen corn pudding before after it was baked (prior to baking, yes, but not after) -- Hmmm. Doubtful I'll get that energy anyway, but we'll see I guess.

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Oh, something really cute/funny. This morning I fed Kari, and then went back and laid down for awhile. Later I got up to make something to eat. She had barely eaten anything. As soon as I started making my food though, she started chowing down.

I was waiting to make this post until I could know for sure whether my third $25 PP would deposit before March or not ... it didn't, so it'll go for March.

Extras:
NM tax refund - $87
NE tax refund - $142
Fed tax refund - $540
Swagbucks PP - $50
FB sale - $30
PerkPoints - $25 AGC
Pact - $16
Pinecone - $10

Total: $900

Expenses:
Tithe: 10%
Giving: $30
Rent: 430
Car Insurance: Pd 215 6 mo. premium, added 36
Groceries: 69.30
Internet: 64.96
House Gas: 39.36
Electricity: 44.53
Auto Fuel: 14.53
Restaurants: 39.24 (2 ff and Chinese buffet for two)
Kari - 22.66 (stocking up on food w/coupons)
Treats - 23.21 (before starting 40 day challenge)
Gifts - $12.13 (NEs Valentine's)
Tax Prep - $34.98
ROTH - $200
EF - 10% + $1,068

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So ... for this month it gives me an approximate 70% savings rate (I'm not including the car insurance payment in this calculation because it was previously accounted for in expenses only in monthly "installments")

My groceries category is way low this month mainly because I was eating the food I purchased in January from the store that went out of business, plus the frozen fruit I bought from Sam's in December managed to last til Friday (supplemented by two bags of ff I'd bought from closed store.)

I expect my grocery bill to be much higher for March, but that will be countered by no money spent on treats (until March 31 ...)


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March is going to be interesting. I'll not only have my 2.5% raise going into effect, but I'll also have the 7% retirement contribution be taken out AND I changed my deductions from 2 to 3. Of course that income won't factor in til April, but I'll at least get to see what it's gonna look like.

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After factoring in what I know I'm going to spend in March and estimiating some other expenses, my goal is to put $300 extra into my Efund in March. (above the 10% minimum)

However, there are some items I'm contemplating ...
Shoes - $20 x 2 (my work shoes are pretty much shot - I am planning on ordering two pairs so I have an extra pair on hand in case this style goes away before I need it again - good, comfortable dressy shoes .. worth their weight in gold.)

Kari supplies - ala Cat Whisperer - second litterbox with high sides ($12), one or two mechanical toys to help with boredom while I'm at work ($30-40), food puzzle ($10) automatic food dispenser ($50)

The litterbox and food puzzle are the only two items I'm sure I'm going to get, the others I'm still contemplating. I have roughly $90 in AGC, which would easily cover what I want, plus some. I'm also hoping my reward from Achievemint will arrive soon ($100 visa gift card)

Gym - $39/month ... I won't have a chance to check it out this weekend, but I plan to next Sunday. I also want to see how my paycheck pans out for March to see if I'll feel comfortable deducting $39 from it ...

Fitbit upgrade ... I love my Zip, but the cheap batteries I got from eBay don't last more than a month or two. They were 5 for $2. To get a battery that lasts 4-6 months, it'd be $10+. So ... I'm thinking about upgrading to the next level where you don't have to have a battery - you charge it via usb cord. This would be approximately $100, although I saw a mention on YNAB forums today of someone seeing it at Walmart for $29!! If I see it for that, I'm grabbing it, no question!

I don't celebrate Lent in my faith, but after having spent three years working in a Catholic school and seeing how much it meant to the people there, I have thought about making my own Lenten type commitment.

When I was having issues with eating out too much and made the goal of no eating out for 60 days - I succeeded and in the end pretty much completely got rid of the bad habits that had been forming. Not that I don't stop for fast food once in a while, or eat out, but it isn't the norm.

So ... with my recent blood test results (lipids) I realized that there are two things that could help reverse those results. Eating less junkfood and being more consistent in my exercise.

So ... for 40 days (starting Wednesday, the 18th) my commitment is to not buy junkfood (may eat it, but cannot purchase it)and to get a minimum of 20 minutes of activity EVERY day.

My hope is that by the end of 40 days I will have broken through the bad habits I'd fallen back into the past 4 or 5 months with junkfood, as well as regaining good habits of exercise which kind of went by the wayside both with the weather and it getting dark early plus not feeling well often.

This of course will also save me money.

So far so good.

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I got the new label maker yesterday just before heading home for the day. Today I got to play with it. Our new computer system doesn't allow us to install programs on the computer, so I can't access all of the neat features - at least not until GK installs the program for me.

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I cashed out Pinecone points for $10 tonight.

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NE wants to take a friend of his to dinner this weekend (either Sunday or Monday) to tell him about his upcoming surgery, etc. Since he paid for Valentine's, it's my turn to pay. (this will be a cheaper meal - Chinese buffet vs. the V pizza buffet.) I've been in the mood for Chinese for awhile, so it'll be nice.

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I'm on track to put $1000 in my EF this month - as long as I'm really careful with my grocery spending for the coming week. There isn't too much I can think of that I'll need to get other than bananas and sweet potatoes .. oh, mouthwash too.

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I saw a recipe on MyFitnessPal for black bean oatmeal burgers. It's a fairly simple recipe, and I'm pretty sure I have everything needed. So I might make those this weekend - would be great for lunches next week, and maybe freeze some too if I have enough black beans to make extras.

http://happyherbivore.com/2011/08/easy-black-bean-burger/

Oatmeal is supposed to be really good for lowering cholesterol. I used to eat it a lot for breakfast, but really prefer the fruit smoothies (frozen fruit, banana, flaxseed, chia seeds, PB2 powder, water, sometimes carrots if I remember to get some ...)

So maybe I can get the oatmeal in at lunch in these burgers.

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I really need to get to the bank and figure out if I want to try for the $150 bonus. Every time I think about doing it I end up having one of my major sinus? headaches and am not at all productive after work.

I'd think about taking an afternoon off to do that and get my hair cut/highlighted and a few other odds and ends that aren't easy to do after work ... but with NEs surgery coming up in a few weeks I'm not sure how much time I'll need to take off for that.
At least one day for the surgery, and then he'll need me to take him home the next day - might have to take off the third day, or at least part of it. So ... will be using some of my vacation time.

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I'm thinking that I'm going to CA in September. It'll be my grandma's 93rd birthday. If I can schedule it around Labor Day, then I won't have to use too many vacation days.

My brother and I are working together to have him and mom come here (NE) in May - probably Mother's Day weekend. I'll use a few vacation days for that too.

I haven't heard anything more about my high-school reunion ... am kind of questioning whether I really want to do it anyway. NJ isn't exactly my first choice of vacation destination ...

I didn't go anywhere today. Wasn't feeling very good and it was just too cold outside (colder than yesterday.)

I did however manage to go through about five boxes in my living room. Three boxes of books, plus another box of odds and ends will be heading to Goodwill either tomorrow (if they're open) or Tuesday.

I also went through my DVDs and picked out 3 that I definitely could not get rid of. The rest (17 of them) I took a picture of and posted on the local FB garage sale page. Tomorrow afternoon I should have someone coming by with $30 to pick them all up! Sweet!

I also found a futon for $25 on the FB garage sale page, but NE ended up not coming over tonight, so I might lose out on that one. (He has a luggage rack on top of his Subaru so we could have tied it on to there.) If it is still available tomorrow, I'll be getting it.

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I made enough on PerkTv tonight to redeem for the $25 AGC. Should have that by Monday night.

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While looking on the FB garage sale page I found something I'd been looking for for awhile - I just hadn't been sure what it was called. A perpetual calendar. People ask me all the time what the date is - so if I had one on the counter, they wouldn't have to ask. (I'd just have to be sure to change it each day!)

The one on there already had a taker, but I found one on Amazon. None on Office Depot (which is where we are supposed to order all office supplies from.) I'll have to talk to my boss about it on Tuesday to see what can be done.

Wow! I don't know if my emailed apology did something or what ... but the buyer closed the return - they decided to keep the movie even though it wasn't the one they thought they were getting! Now I just have to wait and see what kind of feedback (if any) they leave me.

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I am so looking forward to this long weekend. It was SO nice sleeping in a little on Thursday (had a doctor's appt in the a.m.) If I could start work at 10 and be done by 5 I think that would be just about perfect ... Oh well.

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NE has been talking a lot about pure maple syrup lately .. so I decided to pick up a *small* bottle for VD. That stuff is expensive - $7 for 8 oz!

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At work on Wednesday we had a whole big issue with the copier. I've been printing single labels and sometimes multiple labels for one of the people there - reusing the same sheets. Apparently that is a big no no in copier world according to the copy repair man who came out.

So ... we were talking about the option of a typewriter or a small printer. CT our office manager found something evn better though - a label printer! It prints labels of all sorts of shapes and sizes and can be hooked into a computer so you input the label info into a spreadsheet or word document and send it. You can do singles or multiples.

As soon as GM is back from vacation I'll be sending her my order for it, along with label rolls to go with it. (she's our order person - we only order office suppplies through Office Depot.)

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I'm really enjoying having a 15 minute break in the afternoon. I'm now getting nearly 25 = 30 minutes of walking time = split into 12 and 13 roughly, but still is more than I was getting during the work day.

My boss and CT though are ending up having to be there while I'm on break because the others who signed up to cover the shift don't really know enough of the route info, etc. to be able to answer questions if they get a route info call (some people know the direct number, so route info calls get through even when I've logged off.)

I feel bad for them, but I'm just too happy to have the break!

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We all got new computers today at work!! It was a bit of a mess because one of my two screens couldn't attach to the new computer without an adapter. Then once we got that going, the AVL (how we track the buses) wasn't loading right.

Also I lost all my bookmarks in FireFox that I constantly use, and some of them I didn't realize weren't there until people called with questions where I needed them!

I think I'm all set now though. I'm just glad we're using Windows 7 and not 8!

I asked about what they are doing with the old computers - they are going to be set up in various places around the bus depot for employees to be able to check their paycheck statuses online or do other online work related requirements. (If they didn't have a plan for them, I was going to suggest checking with local schools ... )

Today was a very hectic and chaotic day at work.

One thing I do is mail passes out to people who send in order forms/money. TWO different people I mailed passes out to last Wednesday/Friday have not gotten them yet. One of them is a mentally challenged person who can be quite abrasive. The other one is an older gentleman who is frustrated, but polite.

I feel very frustrated because I did my part - got the passes out in the outbox as soon as they came in ... now it's the post office's part. But I'm having to deal with the mail not getting there on time. Ugh.

I also found out I made some really stupid mistakes on Friday - totally forgot to make a receipt for one of the mailed out passes (thankfully had a record of it in the mop book!) plus a couple other things ... my boss jokingly? asked me if it was because I was off probation now ...

It sure didn't help things that by about 1 pm I had a horrible headache - most likely sinus.

By the time I got off work my head hurt so badly that I felt nauseous. I thought maybe food would help ... so I stopped at BK and at Family Dollar ... $13 later ... the food didn't really help, nor did the soda. What did help was a Dayquil and taking a 90 minute nap.

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Tomorrow I have a doctor's appt for bloodwork at 8:30 - TSH and cholesterol, etc - so no breakfast before going.

I had planned on getting a breakfast crosanwich from BK on my way to work after the appointment as a treat (LOVE them, but very rarely get them) but now I don't know if I should since I spent so much tonight. Sigh. Plus I'm not sure how NE and I are splitting our early Valentine's meal (Friday night) - we've talked about getting a heart shaped pizza from a local pizza place and maybe cheesecake from a local place .. we'll see what actually happens.

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I'd planned on checking out the US Bank offer this afternoon, but because of the headache/nausea didn't do it. There is a branch right near NEs place, which is also near the PO I have a box at (which I need to cancel soon before it renews again!)

I found out at work today that my raise doesn't actually go into effect until my March 5 paycheck. Boo! I understood why, just was hoping to get it sooner.

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I really hate my allergies. You'd think in winter they'd be non-existent ... They affect my sleep (as in lack of sleep) .. they affect my day at work (as in huge headache can't concentrate) .. they affect my time with NE because if the headache is bad enough that I take some non-daytime medicine, then I get so sleepy / out of it while he's here - but if I *don't* take it, then I can barely stand to hear him talk ..

Ugh!

It used to be I took Allegra D when it was a prescription - reasonable price for a 30 day supply. As an OTC, NOT reasonable price and NOT able to get a 30 day supply (get ten at a time and only once every two weeks ...) Allegra D was what seemed to work best for me without making me so darn sleepy.

Now I have found other stuff that works, is somewhat reasonable, but most of it makes me really drowsy. So .. can't take it during the day.

Today I finally had my 6 month evaluation - my boss thought she hadn't gotten the paperwork yet, but A let her know that I wouldn't get paid for my sick leave (for upcoming doctor's appt) if I wasn't finalized. That's when A also let her know that she'd sent her the paperwork in her email.

So .. the end result is that I am offcially off probation AND got a 2.25% raise. About .40/hour Better than nothing - especially since starting with my 3/5 paycheck I'll be having 7% taken out for retirement.

Work was crazy busy all week - I didn't have time to be bored. So many calls about "Are the buses running?" or "How far behind schedule is ...?"

We had about 15 inches of snow between Saturday and Wednesday. I was super glad for the snow boots my mom gave me for my birthday!

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I got my NE and Fed refunds this morning.

My Discover Checking is now fully funded for the $50 award after March 31.

I think I'm going to have at least $1k to put to my EF this month if I'm really careful with my spending - maybe more.

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This weekend I hope to actually be productive and get some cleaning and maybe some cooking done. We'll see what actually happens though ...

I do hope to get a couple walks outside in since the temps are supposed to be pretty good.

My apartment building has three parking lots surrounding it. One parking lot is for my building, one is for an apartment building nearby, and the other one is the parking lot for a medical building.

Guess which parking lot is located directly by my bedroom? Yep, the medical building parking lot.

So .. this past week we had a total of nearly 15 inches of snow. This morning the owners of the medical building hired someone to scrape their parking lot. Starting around 3:30 (maybe earlier, but this is when I first looked at my phone) and continued to around 5:00 AM!

I get that they have to do it while there aren't cars in the lot ... but still!

It was kind of funny though watching Kari's reaction - she was standing on my dresser (which is located next to the bedroom window.) If you've seen those cat videos of cats standing on their back legs with nothing to support them ... that's what she was doing. Staring intently at the curtain. I was really surprised she didn't stick her head out the curtain - maybe she was intrigued, but also scared?

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With all the snow this week, I was really glad for the snow boots my mom gave me for my birthday. They don't fit very well (too tight) but they still served their purpose!

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I got my NM tax refund yesterday. It was less than I remembered .. not sure what happened there. I probably need to log on to the Tax site and see if I'm just remembering the wrong amount.

I should have my federal refund tomorrow (according to the IRS site.) No clue on the NE state refund.

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This week at work has been fairly good. Mostly because I have been legitimately busy! Tons of phone calls on Monday and Wednesday asking one question ... Are the buses running today? Then Mon-Thurs fielding lots of calls asking how far behind schedule the buses were ... Lots of buses getting stuck on ice or in snow drifts or in small accidents (somebody backed into a bus!!)

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I almost have all the funds in my Discover bank account to make the $50. I have to have the $5k balance by March 15 - I'll probably go ahead and get the funds in there sooner so they're not sitting at ING (I know, I know) at .75%, and then pull all of them out except $500 until September - just in case there is some problem with closing the account before six months.

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I got an offer for a local bank here - open up an account with a minimum deposit of $25 AND have a direct deposit of at least $500/month for three months - get $150.

There are local branches around here - one not far at all from me. I still need to check into fees and such, plus find out if I can have one paycheck DD to one bank, and the other to another one. If not, I could have them both DD to the one bank, and then just transfer the money.

That would be a pretty sweet kick to the EF!

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I am now officially in my 7th month at my job and am no longer on probation!! I am using my first two hours of sick leave next week for a doctor's appointment. (TSH bloodwork, etc)

I asked my boss about my 6 month evaluation, and she told me she still hasn't heard anything. Booooo! I want to know if I'm going to get a raise! (Possible 2.25%)

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Other than Sunday when I went to Walmart and Sam's, I haven't spent any money this week. I was tempted, but I knew I had so much food here (especially from all the shopping I did at the now closed local grocery store) that I really shouldn't do it!

However ... my dress heels for work are starting to come apart. Walking through slush apparently isn't very good for them to hold together ...These were a $30 pair I got from Sears in July I think .. not sure if it's worth it trying to find someone to resole them? Or better to just get a new pair? I *really* like these shoes. It's hard for me to find good shoes ...

When I went to bed Saturday night I knew it had been snowing a good part of the day - but it mostly hadn't stuck. Apparently it snowed all night.

This afternoon I went out to go to Sam's Club and Walmart and it took me at least 20 minutes to clear my car off enough so I could see out the windows. That was not even removing the ice - that I had to wait another ten minutes for because my hand was frozen.

The roads were pretty slick. Getting on to the road towards Sam's, there was a semi-truck stuck trying to turn right on the other side of the road. It still was there an hour later on my way home! There were stuck cars all over the place on the side of the road.

I made it out to Walmart with only a little slip and slide at the traffic lights. Of course I didn't write my list down, so I forgot to get the PB2 at Walmart - Sams of course didn't have it. Gas was $1.85 at Sam's, which was only a few cents cheaper than the corner station here.

Walmart - $28.xx (cat food, Fage - coupons for both, 5lb frozen veggies, bananas, etc)
Sam's - $13.28 cat food for NE (he'll pay me back- put on Discover card towards the 1k spending)
Sam's Gas - $14.48 (Discover card)

I now have a load of laundry in the dryer. I need to empty the dishwasher. I'd planned on walking over to my landlord's to deliver the rent check today ... but yeah, no. I'll take it over after work tomorrow - hopefully the roads will be more clear.

I can just guess how many times I'm going to hear the phrase "I'm freezing out here! When's the bus coming?" tomorrow .... Or my favorite - Tell me EXACTLY when the bus will be here ...

Last week was a long, stressful week at work. I spent most of Saturday wondering how I could make it work if I were to just plain quit.

I figured that I could survive at least 9 - 10 months with cash on hand, plus selling my non-inherited stocks - possibly a little longer.

Of course that would mean no health insurance.

I think part of what is so stressful to me is how utterly bored I am most of the time. There are spates of busy activity where the phone is ringing off the hook and I have lots of orders to fill or people at the window. But there is a LOT more time where it is just DEAD.

I've been doing a lot of compensating for stress by ... eating and eating and eating. Not healthy food. The few pounds I managed to lose have found me again. This is bad for my waistline and my pocketbook.

Deacon's Wife (Laura) mentioned that she thinks she might have Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'm kind of wondering if I might have something like that too.

Quitting my job isn't the answer. It might rid me of the stress of having to deal with some of the aspects of the job I hate, but whos to say I'll find something else less stressful or better.

So ... I need to figure out how to be content with where I am at.

How have I been filling my time when it's dead? Mostly by reading books I enjoy or checking out news stories on yahoo and cnn. The yahoo news/finance stories seem to be pretty repetitive, and cnn doesn't change their stories very often.

I do have a set of musical notation flashcards that I have gone through a time or two.

Once I'm off probation, I'll be able to take classes and have them reimbursed if they're something related to the job / department.

So maybe I can figure out a class I could take which could be reimbursed, and then use the dead time to study for that class?

What I'd really like to do is figure out something I could do which would result in more money during the dead hours. Something that would make it so I could retire even earlier than I think I can right now.

I really don't want to go back into a classroom - I've been out of a regular classroom for long enough that I wouldn't be "with it" on the current jargon - not to mention the whole Common Core fiasco currently engulfing education. To get a school library job I'd have to take enough classes to renew my certification and retake the certification test (it expires this May.)

Honestly, I don't know that I want to go back to working 60 hours a week even if it means a much bigger paycheck. One of the biggest benefits of my current job is that when the day is over, the day is over. I have some overtime opportunities coming up over the next four or five months, but not that much.

One of the people I work with told me his wife works at the police department dealing with the people coming in = and that she has people like I dealt with on Thursday half a dozen or more times a day. I wouldn't last long there.

I just am not sure what to do.

If I did quit, I probably could get rehired back at the call center, which would bring in 6 or 700 a month ... but that job was more stressful than this one ... It would make it so I could stretch my funds nearly indefinitely ... just no health insurance and no retirement fund matching. It would also really limit the time NE and I could spend together ... but also make it so I had plenty of time to exercise and make healthy food.

Tonight I did my taxes using TaxAct. It was interesting since I had to do two states plus Federal. When I first went through NM it said I owed $2. I thought that was weird, so just before I submitted the final button to file, I decided to go through it one more time. Good thing I did! Somehow the button had been clicked that I was a full year resident instead of a partial one. That was why they wouldn't let me just input my income from the school library.

So .. I got $540 back from Federal, and $220 back from state. It cost me $36.97 to file them electronically. Once that money comes in, it will be going straight to my EF goal!

I'm glad to be done with it for another year! (and looking forward to next year's which will be so much simpler.)

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Some days my job is tolerable. Others barely tolerable.

Today was a barely.

I had a man come up with a companion (mentally handicapped I think.) He wanted to get an $8 pass for his companion.

I did what I do for *every* person that comes asking for a discount pass. "Sure, I just need a photo i.d. please."

Mt Vesuveus erupted!

The man starts ranting and raving that I shouldn't have to ask for an id. He culminates his rant by pounding his fist heavily on the counter and stomping off.

He didn't even give me a chance to let him know I could take either person's i.d. I just needed an i.d!

It is policy for the low income program. I ask for it from every person no matter how many times I've seen them.

So ... about an hour later he returns with the companion.

He practically shouts at me saying, "Here! Are you happy now?" while holding an i.d. next to his companion. He says something about trust, and then he starts ranting that he'd worked in government before and if one of his employees treated a customer like I did (simply asking for an i.d. per policy ...) that he'd fire them.

I just took the i.d., got the pass, filled out the receipt, took the money, and gave them the pass. Said, "here you go."

Around that time the bus driver supervisor came in because he'd heard the guy shouting - he asked me if I needed help and I told him I was ok. The guy asks me if that was my supervisor - told him no, that my supervisor was in a meeting. He goes "that figures."f

Finally he leaves.

The bus driver supervisor had stayed nearby out of sight, so I explained to him what had happened. He agreed with me that I hadn't done anything wrong.

Later ... I tell my boss what happened. She tells me that maybe we should just stop asking for the id. That some of the other places selling them for us aren't asking for them.

Arghh!!!!

So should I ask for the blasted id or not? How would it be fair for me to ask for it from people, but if they make a fuss, say .. nevermind?? What is the point of having a policy if we're not going to follow it?

I plan on talking to her tomorrow more about this, because it is really really really frustrating me.

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While I was bored out of my mind this afternoon having finished my book (12th of Nowhere by James Patterson) and exhausted yahoo and cnn news stories of interest, I read the local newspaper.

One of the stories was about how NE is thinking of giving a property tax credit to low and middle income people. Not just property owners though! Renters too!!
An example they gave for a renter was someone making $29k/yr and paying $362/mo rent. Um ... I make less than that and pay more than that. Thus I would easily qualify for a credit! I didn't quite get how that would work, but it's still being hashed out as to whether it'll happen or not.

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The brownies I brought for treats today were all eaten up. I even had someone tell me they *really* liked them. Score one for $1 brownie mix!

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I found out that the lady who had jonsed after my job has found a different job with the city in a totally different department. Her last day is Wednesday, which is the end of my 6 month probation. Funny how that works out.

Today I got my W-2 for the bus job. I got mine for the NM job on Tuesday. So now all I need is the one from the call center job and I can do my taxes. I can't wait to see how much I'll be able to put towards my EF goal!

I checked with personnel today to find out exactly when my retirement will start being taken out of my check. They told me the first March paycheck.

So I filled out a new W-4 form to change my withholding to 3. I currently have it at 2, but with my taxable income reduced by 7% I think I'll need it at either 3 or 4 to keep as much of my money as possible.

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When I got home tonight I remembered that tomorrow is my day to bring treats for the office. So I took one of the boxes of brownie mix I bought at the store going out of business and they are cooling now. I think I paid about $1 for the mix.


I got credited for another Pinecone survey today. But my total is now 400 points. So I guess I can redeem after two more surveys for $10. Kind of annoying.

5 more work days til my 6 months probation is up!

Every time I get a call where someone is cussing it reaffirms my resolve to save as much money as possible in order to retire as soon as possible.

Notice people - When I give you time estimates, they are ESTIMATES. I can't control if a bus runs late or runs fast. Also, if I put you on hold to find out the answer to your question, it may take some time. Twice today I had someone hang up JUST as I got back to the phone with the answer to their question!!

MOTIVATED to save!

I decided to stop by the post office today to check my mail there - still have my box from when I first moved here. (need to get it canceled, just keep forgetting)

Part of the reason was it had been a few weeks since I'd been there, and part of it was I hadn't had a good day and wanted chocolate. Which I got .. before the mail.

So anyway ... I got my mail. Saw two envelopes from a place I didn't recognize and an envelope from my former 2005 employer's retirement company. Opened that up in my car ... Balance $0!!

Ensue panic attack!

Ensue rushing home.

Try to calm myself and call retirement company. Find out that my 2005 employer changed companies as of January.

They don't have the number for the new company, but they did know the name.

Google name of new company. Call customer service number. Find out my money is there.

Get very aggravated registering for an online account so I can SEE my money. Finally manage to get in and see it is still there.

I received absolutely NO communication about this impending move. My money will be moving again soon - to Vanguard, but now I just have to figure out how to move it from this new company.

I DID not like finding out about this like that. At all.

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I got in touch with someone who should know about talking with the pastor / not being a member. Haven't heard back one way or the other yet, but I'll see her on Saturday. Am feeling really frustrated with life right now.

I realized that I missed my ten-year blogaversary! January 17, 2005 I posted my very first blog here. Very few people remain here who were there then.

In some ways I'm better off financially than I was in 2005 - more retirement/stock savings. But a good bit less in cash savings. My job has fairly similar benefits, although I'm making about 15k less than I did in 2005.

I had no debt in 2005, and I have no debt now. Back then I was in uber savings mode preparing to quit teaching. Now I'm in sort of uber savings mode preparing to retire and buy a home ... in 15 years or so.

Interesting to see where I'll be in ten years from now.

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Today at work one of my coworkers pointed out to me that there is a librarian position posted on the city website ending on Friday. This is not someone I'm cozy with to say the least. She knows I have my librarian degree. She also has a friend who wanted my job - and applied twice for it.

How would you take this?

NE surprised me twice on Friday - He showed up at my door at 7:30 just to say hi before I left for work (he was heading to SM - the store closing down.) Then he showed up at my door again at 4:50, just a few minutes after I got home. He had his eye on a speaker in O and thought I might want to go with him.

We did end up taking a road trip to O. I like going there because they have a Hardee's - Their mushroom and swiss sandwich (burger on the side for NE) and onion rings are SO GOOD.

NE did buy the speakers, and is planning on getting them up on eBay this weekend probably.

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I found out from my boss on Friday that starting on February 9, I will be getting a 15 minute break in the afternoon. I could have asked for one in the morning too, but there's only 3 hours before my lunch break, so I thought that was kind of pointless. She was relieved that I didn't ask for the morning break.

My plan for the afternoon break is to walk on the treadmill while reading a book. Get more steps in daily and be away from the phone!

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I finished up all my retirement benefit/life insurance paperwork. It won't get delivered til Tuesday though.

I ended up going with a supplemental 10k Life Insurance because if I decide I need it later for a larger amount, I'd have to be medically approved. So for about $1.80/month I'll have 81k of life insurance. If I leave, I can take it with me, the amount I pay would just go up.

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I received $25 PayPal from Mypoints yesterday. I also got my $25 AGC from PerkTV. I now have about $100 in Amazon credit.

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My goals for this weekend - Today is just about relaxation and rejuvenation - probably a trip to the library.

Sunday - Get the living room cleared of boxes and all pictures put up.

Monday - Make veggie patties, cc loaf, etc. to freeze for future lunches. Do some cleaning.

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Weigh In News: Even with my chocolate indulgences and Hardee's last night, I am down almost 2 lbs since my last official weigh in.

I decided to stop at that store that's going out of business again after work today. This time though I wasn't starving nor was I too stressed out from work.

I spent $16 - 2 jars of Nutella, a box of Belviata cookie, 4 boxes of brownie mix, and something else I can't remember.

The brownie mix will be used for when I'm supposed to bring in treats for the office - they were $1.25 a box plus 15% off.

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Office politics. UGH!

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I am SO looking forward to 3 days off from work in a row. Having a day off during the week is okay, but not so much of a break as a 3 day in a row break.

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I'm planning on finishing both Inferno and #19 in the Stephanie Plum series tonight. Nice and relaxing.

Last night Ne told me that a local small grocery store was officially going out of business. It's one that is only two and a half blocks away from me.

I stopped there after work today ... which probably wasn't a good idea because 1) I was hungry; and 2) I was feeling very stressed out about work.

The end result was I spent $25 or so on mostly junk food. Everything was 15% off, and I think they actually lowered their prices on some things. I did get a few non-junk food items like the egg salad, prunes, and Bush's vege baked beans ... but the rest was plain and simple junk food. Chocolate.

I ate one bag of chocolate tonight for supper. Real healthy, right? ugh

(NE likes to tease me about being so frugal but not making my own egg salad ... I'd have to buy mayo to make my own egg salad ... I don't use mayo for anything else, so it'd probably go bad or something before I used it to make egg salad....)

I'm tempted to go back to the store tomorrow to get more Nutella. It was $3.24 with the discount. Cheap. But I know how I am with Nutella. Maybe if I have NE keep the all but one jar at his place - he doesn't have the same problem with it.

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I redeemed a $25 AGC from PerkPoints tonight. I should have it by Friday.

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In my mail I received two offers from Discover.

The first offer was $50 for putting $5000 in a new checking account for about two or three weeks. I'm thinking of doing that. I just have to make sure I can do it without touching the money in the dream account - withdrawing money from that would make me lose the bonus APR at 6 months for no withdrawals.

The second offer was to get $75 if I spend $1000 in 3 months.

I'm thinking I *might* be able to do that. It would mean putting my SBs card away and maybe switching some bills over for a few months. It might be worth it. I think Sam's Club takes Discover, so then I wouldn't have to use my Debit card which I don't like doing since it doesn't earn me any points.

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One bit of good news at work today. I got my retirement benefits information!

The account is with Ameritas and has quite a few Vanguard funds to choose from, along with Fidelity and Morningstar, etc. I already figured out my allocations. Now I just have to get two people to witness my signing the beneficiary information page. (Harder than it sounds. My boss would do it I bet, and NE would do it ... but they'll not likely be in the same place at the same time anytime soon. So .. I've got to figure out a second person.)

I also found out that I get 71,000 of life insurance for $.42/month. The city pays the rest. I will be cancelling my current term insurance. That will save me 15.68/month.

There is also something for post employment health benefits where the city contributes so much a month. I get to elect how I want that money invested. That was fun playing around with percentages.

I also found out that the whole Early Retirement / Regular Retirement stuff was just terminology. No real meaning behind it. So if I'm ready to retire at 55 there'd be no additional benefit to working nine more years to make the 63/25 years of service level. I'd be 100% vested and that's all that really matters.

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Cripes! It's 12:20 a.m. I must get to bed if I'm going to be at all coherrent today.

In the YNAB forums someone mentioned that if you get paid bi-weekly on a thursday or Friday that there are THREE months this year with 3 paychecks.

How awesome is that???

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I got my $25 PayPal from Swagbucks today.

I also sold an item on eBay for $16 during the night - printed out the shipping label before going to work and mailed it off.

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I got my gas bill for December - 36.97. That is down from 42.83 for November. So ... turning down the thermostat from 67 to 64 saved me ... ~$6?

Although my electric bill went up nearly $8 .. mostly I think due to the electric heater.

So ... I'm kind of wondering if using the space heater is all that more efficient than using my gas furnace at 67. Kari loves the space heater, but overall I'm not sure how much it really helps to heat the room.

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I got the bill for my doctor's appointment on Dec 15. ALL I'm being charged is the $25 copay. I'm not having to pay anything for the bloodwork!

Ummm... I think I'm going to like this insurance plan.

So NE signed up for health insurance through the Nebraska state site in December. He went with the plan that had the best numbers - low deductible, low out of pocket and low premiums.

He went to the doctor today and found out that his right shoulder is dislocated, and then went for an MRI to see about his rotator cuff, etc. (He didn't finish the MRI, but will be going back to finish it in a different open machine.)

While he was at the doctor's he found out that his particular plan is going belly up as of Feb 15. So ... he's going to have to find a new plan.

I wonder if that would count as a life event where you would be able to get insurance past the open enrollment period?

So very frustrating.

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I talked to my boss today about the retirement stuff. I found out that I'll be vested 100% in 7 years. Also that there is something called early retirement and regular retirement - early means 25 years of service and at least 50 years old; regular is 25 years and 63 years old. She didn't know what exactly that meant though (and she was dismayed to find out it was 25 and not 20 years ... she's close to the 20 year mark.)

I wonder what the difference is between when you're vested and the early/regular retirement designations are? If I am ready to retire at 55, I'd be vested, but wouldn't qualify for early or regular retirement. If I work there 25 years, that would put me at 63 and regular retirement. (UGH! Cannot imagine doing this job for 25 years. DOUBLE UGH!)

I also found out that the retirement contributions used to be even sweeter - as in for every $1 the employee put in, the city put in $2 (up to a limit.) Some group got upset about it and so they changed the plan to what it is now. Can you imagine? Contribute $50 and the city matches $100?

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For the first week of January I am down ... 5 lbs! I think a good bit of it is water weight, but I'm just glad to be heading the right direction again.

Although I have been tempted a time or two or three ... I have not stopped at a fast food place or at any other type of convenience store in January.

Tonight I watched episode 5 of POI while stepping for most of it (about 35 minutes, sat and rested for the rest of it.)

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I am thinking more and more about investing in dividend stocks. My discretionary funds are already stretched pretty thin with my various goals, but I'm just really itching to do something like that.

I do have a goodly sum in an old 403(b) plan that I want to move over to Vanguard. Maybe I could put it in a brokerage account and use that to buy dividend type stocks?

If anyone could point me to some good resources (i.e. simple language) to help me figure out what to do, I'd appreciate it. I know quite a few of you invest in DRIPS, which I *think* are dividend stocks, right?

Email notifications of post replies seemed to work for a short while ... however they aren't working again.
(to clarify - I am talking about notifications of responses to other people's posts - not my posts.)

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So I tried baking a potato in the oven sans foil twice now. Ehh... it works, but I really don't like how dry the skin gets. Almost too tough to eat. It was saved by the juice from my baked beans I topped it with, but often I like to eat my sweet potato plain. I did top them both times with olive oil and cut slits in them.

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Five no spend days in January so far! Yesterday I squeaked by temptation just barely ...

Work had some stressful (majorly) elements to it and I WANTED chocolate. I resisted though.

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I got a package from my brother today that UPS "attempted to deliver" during the workday of course. :roll eyes: So I had to drive over there to get it this afternoon -- it was a framed photo of my brother and I the last summer I was out in CA with him. How sweet

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I did two really dumb things yesterday - thankfully no consequences from either one. First, I left my purse in my car when I went in to work. I only realized this at lunch time ... I had to sit on my phone for 20 minutes before it would turn on.

Then when I got home I left my keys in the door AGAIN! The only way I found out about this is when NE came over and found them in the door. UGH!

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I watched episode 4 of POI season 3 tonight .. while stepping of course.

I also redeemed 2500 SBs for a $25 PayPal cash, and have received all $20 in AGC from SBs.

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At work today I hauled a huge load of boxes up from the schedule room on a cart. I think I may have overdone it a bit ... my back is really protesting tonight. Ouch.

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Ok, off to catch up on blogs!

Today makes 3 days of January with no spending (other than bills.) Tomorrow will not be a no spending day. NE and I will be doing a Sam's and Walmart run.

Between the two stores I am going to try to keep my list to ten items (or perhaps less.)

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I decided to stop at my landlord's after church today to drop off my rent check rather than try to include it on my library walk. It would have been on the way - but the library is on one side of a busy road and their house is on the other side. It would have been a hassle.

It was funny because when I got there someone else had just come from their porch dropping off their rent check - must be from a different property though because I didn't recognize her.

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When I got home I had a nice warm meal of toaster grilled cheese, tomato soup and a small piece of banana bread (bought a few weeks ago on sale - two loaves - put one in the freezer which is the one I'm eating now.)

Finally about 2 p.m. I worked my courage up to get bundled up and walk to the library. Last week I finally managed to remember to sync my iTunes music library onto my new phone - so I had music to listen to!

The walk was pretty chilly - at 5:30 it's 23 degrees, so I guess it was around 20 or so when I went out. We're supposed to get more snow tonight. (Low of 0degrees)

On my way back home I had a lady ask me about the bus schedule. LOL Even away from work I can't get away from work. I gave her an estimate of when the bus should be coming by (the outbound one had passed me ten minutes earlier, otherwise I'd have no idea other than the bus come once an hour on Saturday.)

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I've got a sweet potato in the oven right now while sipping on some hot chocolate ... yummy

I'm probably going to watch a couple episodes of POI tonight - one of the things I got from the library is Season 3 of POI - that way I can post my copy on eBay and if it sells then at least I can finish watching it! I want to get it on there (eBay) before everyone who's interested has already seen it.

I also do want to watch Labor Day - NE actually watched it on his own last week! Now he's anxious for me to see it so we can discuss it.

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The scale seems to be going down right now. Who knows if it will continue or not. Hope springs eternal and all that ... I'll do an "official" weight loss post on Thursdays - since I made my first weigh in on a Thursday. However I do weigh myself just about every day and record it on an app - mainly for the ten points it gets me on Achivemint (which I'm less than 900 points away from a $100 Visa card!!)

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I'm so glad to be getting notifications of responses to other posts now! I was able to find a few people responses to comments I'd made, but couldn't remember which post it was on.

Now if the photo issue could be fixed ...

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OH I almost forgot a question I was going to ask.

Are there alternative methods to wrapping a potato in aluminum foil for baking in the oven? I'm going through a lot of foil, even when I manage to reuse a piece.

On my way home from work today I saw gas for $1.99 at a local station! Sweet!

I plan on going to Walmart on Sunday and possibly Sam's for a largish shopping trip, and also to satisfy my curiosity about Sam's gas price.

So far no spending in 2015 (outside of bills)

I am having to pay a $.97 late fee on my last electric bill - I saw it and then totally forgot about it. Ooops! Now I have it set up on automatic payment to my credit card so I don't have to worry about it. My most recent bill was up about $10 from last month - still within my budgeted amount, but I'm going to be even more careful about keeping lights turned off.

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I redeemed for $20 worth of AGC yesterday and today from Swagbucks. Although I think I won't redeem for the 5th one tomorrow - I'll keep that for a $25 PayPal instead.

I'm mainly using my AGC credit for buying my pea protein powder for my breakfast smoothies, and I only need to get that ever other month. Plus I am earning AGCs from PerkPoints ... so I think I'd rather get cash when I can.

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On Thursday I did 40 minutes of stepping while watching an episode of POI. I found out that I can still play Ptv while using the Pact app to track movement. Sweet. 3 things at once.

Today at lunch I was able to walk around the conference room for 15 minutes.

I weighed in this morning with a .1 lb loss.

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Work was crazy busy today, but I did manage to finish my Shopaholic to the Stars book by Sophie Kinsella. I LOVE that series. So funny!

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I was looking at the union contract today, and saw that once I hit the 6 month mark, I'll have a required 7% retirement contribution with a 9% match from the city! Wow! I couldn't find anything that says what happens if you contribute more than 7% (i.e. will they match more? or is 9% the max match?)

I'm thinking that next week when our Payroll person is back I'm going to ask her about that.

I looked out my window at 7 and it was nice and clear - thought to myself - good! won't have to scrape my windows. Then at 7:40 I headed outside to find my car covered in snow!

It snowed pretty much all day today. The temp is supposed to go in the negative tonight/today. Brrr!!

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Last night NE and I went to Walmart and did some shopping for the week. I spent $14 on two bags of cat food for Kari (using 2 coupons) and $7 on groceries.

After that we happened across another area of town that was beautifully decorated, so of course we meandered around there for a bit.

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I totally spaced on getting my eBay item out today. Will definitely have to do it tomorrow to keep within my two day turn around time. Oops.

I plan on taking workout clothes with me to work tomorrow and using the bus gym after work. I haven't been *quite* as exhausted lately, so maybe I'll actually be able to make myself do it.

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I stopped at the library today - had a book to return and a book to pick up.

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On FB today I saw someone in a YNAB group post say they managed to feed a family of 5 on $25/week!!! Um.... I can't even imagine. That's not even $1/day per person. I was feeling kind of good that I got my grocery spending (minus junk food) down to less than $150 for the month...

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I'm thinking of letting go of my crockpot and rice cooker/steamer. I bought them two? years ago and they both are still in their boxes.. I keep meaning to USE them but it just doesn't happen.

Can you cook sweet potatoes in a toaster oven? If so, then I could let go of my toaster too and get a toaster oven. It seems really silly to get my oven going for just one potato - but I just don't feel comfortable cooking more than one at a time (botulisim or whatever it's called that can happen in baked potatoes in the fridge ...)

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I'm wondering ... I'm getting emails about replies to my posts, but I'm not getting notices about responses to other people's posts. I've noticed a few posts with new responses by pure chance ...

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My hands and feet are SOOO cold!!

I hope everyone has a very good Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate.)

We had a pancake and egg breakfast at work today - they have a rotating grill that a couple of bus drivers were making made to order pancakes and eggs. I was so full that I didn't eat my lunch til 3 p.m.!

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Redeemed $9 from Pinecone and $17 from GymPact today. Will go into my Snowflakes fund.

Also got a Christmas card from my mom with $50! I'll put half of that into my spending money (for a treat) and the other half to my savings goals.

*are pictures not working anymore? I tried to upload one of Kari and it's not giving me the usual link to add.

I am happy that this coming week is a 4 day work week. (And so is the next week!!)

Christmas Eve NE and I will be going to a program at my local church. I was bowled over when he said he'd be willing to come with me ... He wants to come late and leave early - I told him that would be fine with me. Just having him there with me at a church event will be all the Christmas gifts I could ever want (well, ok, maybe one other thing could be as good or a little bit better ... )

Christmas Day we'll be cooking a meal together. He really wants to have Rum Cake which is something his mom made for Christmas when he was growing up. I've never had it - never even bought any kind of alcohol before in my life. It's going to feel really weird checking out with a bottle of rum ... (Yes, I know the alcohol cooks out .. still, it is out of my norm.)

We'll be going shopping for the missing ingredients tomorrow. One thing we're going to check the local Goodwills for is a bundt cake pan. For some reason he thought I had one already ... hopefully we can find a cheap one.

He'll have to stop by a local ABC store to pick up the dinner roast on Tuesday. It's only open Mon-Th from 8 to 5, so no way I can make it there before it closes. (It's the only store in town that I know sells the vegetarian dinner roast.)

The local paper has a running list of good places to look at Christmas lights. A running tradition in my family has been to go light looking on Christmas Eve. NE has accommodated me on this last year, and will again this year.

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NE surprised me by getting me a birthday gift! I had told him that dinner and a movie of my choice was a great gift all by itself. He got me a pair of thermal socks all the way from England! (I'm always complaining about my feet being cold.)They are so nice and warm.

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I cashed out for a $25 AGC card from PerkPoints on Friday and had it in my email the same day! Sweet!

I also cashed out for a 500SBs code on Bing today and had it in my email two hours later. Sad though that it's gonna take a LONG time to build it back up at 25 points a day ...

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I had some good news today about one of my banking accounts - Barclay's has raised their interest rates to 1% and 1.05% (savings/dream account) So I decided to keep my money there and not move it like I was thinking about doing. I wonder if Cap one will be raising their rates soon too?

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I spent some time updating my YNAB ... oops. It looks like I spent $68!! on fast food/non-essential food already this month. That is totally ridiculous. I only got fast food 3 x, the rest of it was soda and junkfood (chocolate, banana bread, etc.)

I think I'm going to limit myself to one fast food treat stop per month, plus eating at a restaurant one time per month (if invited/asked.) I'm also putting a moratorium on going into Walgreen's, CVS, Family Dollar and SunMart unless there is a *specific* non-junkfood item I'm getting - if it is just a prescription, I'll go through the drive through!

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I walked to the library today to return a book (Switch) and checked out a couple more. When I got home I checked my email and saw that a book I'd put on hold had come in! It will still be there next Saturday, so I'll get it then (good excuse for a walk!)

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I started using my space heater again yesterday. I hadn't turned it on since I rented the room from the Craigslist landlord from double hockey stick. Kari was so funny - so afraid of it at first, then curious, then fell absolutely in love with it. She's barely moved from in front of it (as long as I have it on.) Guess my lap isn't as warm as in front of the heater!

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I watched a fabulous show recently - The Librarians on TNT. I'd loved the movie trilogy with Noah Wylie, and they brought him back for the tv series. I was sad though to find out that TNT website only let me watch the first one - after that I had to have a cable subscription to stream it.

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