Yep, today was a no spender. I haven't had one in quite a while. Today my nephew came over to play with the kitten and we watched The Bee Movie (borrowed from the library). Then I drove him to his Little League game, where I hung out with my mom.

Afterwards, my nephew went with my mom & I went to the park for a 2.6 mile walk. It felt great.

After that, I stopped back at my parent's house, because I promised my nephew I'd play Wii with him. Spent an hour doing that while my mom ran a few errands. (My sister, who is my nephew's mom, was at work today).

After that, I came home, got a shower, make myself meatloaf muffins, baked fries and a tomato salad.

Now I'm cleaning up and organizing and watching tv. Tomorrow will be more cleaning and laundry, with a walk at a different park. I will be spending for gas, though.

I have several outings planned for this upcoming week, but I'm trying to keep my entertainment spending low. We'll see how that goes.

Tuesday, my work group is going out to dinner with a peer from a site in a different state. He doesn't know anyone here, so we're trying to keep him company in his off time. I'm hoping I can keep my dinner bill under $10.00.

Wednesday, a group of coworkers from my old department are heading out to a local pub. We have reservations for the upstairs deck and we plan to enjoy cheap drinks, dinner, and good company. I'm hoping to keep my bill under $15.00

Thursday night, I'm meeting my sister and some of her friends at a different pub. This night could probably be accomplished for under $15.00.

Other than those outings, my entertainment will have to be free. I'm planning on taking food to work, and entertaining myself at home or at one of the great parks around my house.

Yesterday & today are/were no spenders due to being sick. I had to leave work early yesterday.

This morning, I did run to Walmart (5 mins from my house) to return a Redbox movie that I had meant to return yesterday. And I returned a shirt and pair of pants that I had bought a few weeks ago. $26.00 credit back to my account.

For the rest of the day, I'll be lying around. I tried some food, but its not sitting too well. I REALLY have to go back to work tomorrow, so I'm going to take things VERY easy.

I have all the windows/doors open in the house. Two days ago, it was back into the low 60s, now its in the mid 70s. I'm enjoying the weather tho.


As for spending, I now have the two days of no spending. But I did waste some food. I packed a sandwich, salad and milk for breakfast/lunch at work yesterday and I left it there. The milk will be salvagable since it was in the fridge, but not the sandwich/salad.

In other news, I sent an additional $65.53 to the student loan. I've been slacking lately because of all my clothes spending. I pretty much got myself a whole new wardrobe. And it was worth every penny


For the month of May, my focus is on my grocery spending. I joined the challange over at Krystal's blog over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

My budget is $50.00 per every pay period ($100.00 per month). I've spent $22.60, leaving $27.40 until the 15th. Definately doable since I will only need some veggies, lunch meat and soda between now & then. I'll keep updating on how I do.

Today, I brought breakfast & lunch to work. I did spend $3.49 tonight to the veggie stand to get romaine lettuce and tomatos. I wasn't going to buy any more groceries, but I really wanted the stuff for salads. So now I'm set for the week grocery-wise.

I didn't spend anything at the car repair shop, but they also didn't fix the problem. Somehow, they say that the fact that the driver side controls don't work for the passenger window has NOTHING to do with the fact that they just fixed the passenger side window. And to fix it, would be over $400.00. So I told them to forget it. I hate that place. I only took the car back there last week because if the squeal was due to the belt, it would have been covered under warrenty at their shop. It was, but then I let them do the window. Big Mistake!

I'm going to shop around prices and my dad said he would take a look at it. We'll see.

In other news, I got 3 free cans of soda at work.

And the best news of all, after a few weeks of a plateau, I lost 2.8 pounds this week. Less than a pound and a half, I'll be at the 30 pound mark! Hopefully, that'll be next week!!!

Today was a no spender and a beautiful day! I spent about a 1/2 hour on my deck, in the sun. But it was still too cool to stay out there all day

Monday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal & pears
Lunch: Olive Garden linguini marinara, one breadstick and salad.
Dinner: Taco Salad made with MorningStar crumbles and baked tortillas

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Hard boiled egg, oatmeal
Lunch: Meatloaf muffin, salad
Dinner: Turkey BLT, baked fries

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Hardboiled egg, oatmeal, pears
Lunch: Pasta salad, baked chips
Dinner: Sloppy joe over egg noodles, green beans

Thursday:
Breakfast: Cheerios, Granola bar
Lunch: PB&J sandwich, small salad
Dinner: Meatloaf muffin, leftover baked fries, green beans.

Friday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, bran crackers
Lunch: Leftover Pasta salad, baked chips
Dinner: London Broil, baked potato

Saturday & Sunday are up in the air. But if I'm home, Saturday's dinner will be shake n bake chicken with corn muffins and Sunday's will be tilapia with rice.

My private student loan is down to $4,013.09 with another $542.05 on its way now! I am chugging along with this thing. March will be a challanging month. My budget is SUPER tight.

I have an expected large expense in the form of a car repair. I'll get a diagnosis & estimate on Tuesday, when I take the car in.

I also have several non-regular expenses to deal with this month. I am hoping to cashflow as much as possible.

-I have a bigger than usual electric bill. I budget $120/mo and its $132 and change. I have reallocated funds from other household budget catagories to cover the overage

-I need to take my Advanced Defensive driving class ($27.00 fee) to ensure my car insurance rate at the lower amount. This will be be good for 3 years.

-I have a broken bifold door on my pantry and I really want to replace it. If its within the budget at all, I'd like to replace it this month. Estimated cost $40-45

I am also working with a slightly lowered grocery budget ($40.00 from 3/1 to 3/15) since I ridiculously splurged at Walmart on Monday and stocked up on LOTS of things. My goal is to buy only veggies and a few small items until the 15th.

At least yesterday & today were both No Spenders. Tomorrow will be too. I'm hoping to keep Saturday & Sunday as frugal as possible, but plans are up in the air and I don't know what my expenses may or may not be.


I also have an unexpected hiccup in the February-March Lunch challange, which I'll go into detail about later.

For February, I have been able to put a lot of extra funds towards the student loan.

$18.00 State Tax Refund
$393.00 Federal Tax Refund
$3.21 Leftover from car insurance
$63.73 Savings Account Interest
$478.32 Metlife Insurance Inheritance

WooHoo! Plus the balance is down so much that most of my payments are going directly to the balance.


As for the Februrary-March Lunch challange, this week is going well. I have moved around some meals in my meal plan. So tonight I had sloppy joe instead of Friday, but its all working out

Plus, today, I had a bit of free food from work. Some of the people I work with made snacks for the baby shower. I had a cookie & a small bit of fruit and pudding. It was good


Today was a no spender. I came home from work, did some laundry, worked out, made dinner. Now I'm going to veg out & watch Mr Woodcock, which I borrowed from the library.

I currently have a REALLY tight grocery budget. But as I've been noticing grocery prices rising, and my pantry assets decreasing, I have been thinking about buying a large amount of my normal staples.

As a single person, I don't keep a lot of extras in my pantry. But now that I've been watching my weight, I've been investing in better food choices that cost a bit more. I've been utilizing a SuperWalmart about 20 minutes away from my house to get the best prices on these items. But I've been watching the Walmart prices go up as well.

And I've been hearing that grain based products especially are going to see price increases. I've already seen some of that.

For example, I eat Barilla Plus pasta. This has always been my big splurge. Wheat/Enhanced pasta is SO much better for me. Currently $1.98 up from $1.47 (from December).

So I am thinking about taking some money from other areas of my budget and stocking up on some of my staples.

So I'd stock up on the pasta, stuffing, olive oil, cereal, oatmeal, granola bars, Good Seasons Mix, wheat wraps (can be frozen), canned veggies/fruits and more.

I figure it'd be a good investment. What do you think?

Today I brought my breakfast & lunch to work. Plus I scored a free sandwich from leftovers from a meeting of the higher ups.

For breakfast, I had:
Hard boiled egg, plus 1 egg white
18 All Bran crackers

Lunch: 1 diet soda brought from home
Large salad with lots of yummy extras
Turkey Sandwich on Rye (free!)

Snack: baby carrots

I utilized free water at work for the rest of my drinks for the day.

Dinner will be at home - haven't decided what yet.


This weekend I'll be working on a meal plan for the week and I'll be posting my daily food report. I am really committed to this challange. Thanks to Krystal for coming up with challang! For more details, go to http://krystalatwork.blogspot.com/2008/02/february-march-lun...

Today's start to the lunch challange went well! I did stop by the grocery store tonight to pick up salad fixings. For tomorrow, I will have:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, fruit cocktail
Lunch: A BIG, yummy salad and all bran crackers
Snack: Carrots and pudding.

Then tonight, I made a TON of phone calls, all financial related.

-First, my car insurance to confirm the final payment was received to pay through July. It was. There was also a 'convenience fee nicely tacked on for $4.00, which the rep kindly waved. ($4.00 saved!)

-Second, I called a company that I had signed up for a trial with as part of a Cash Crate offer. The shipping & handling was supposed to be for 99 cents. But my card was charged for $1.89. The rep said that they only billed for the 99 cents, but since the credit card is showing $1.88, they would credit back 99 cents to the charge. I pointed out that then the amount I paid them was only 89 cents and she said thats fine, she could only credit back in the amount of the 99 cents. (so 10 cents saved!)

-Third, a RIDICULOUS phone call with Comcast. They had made a billing error last month and charged me for phone & internet, but not cable (although they gave me the $10.00credit for the special I was on). I had pointed out the error last month, but the rep told me it was a system glitch and they would fix it in the next month's statement. Well, they did find the error & decided to charge me $50.00 for it. In reality, I should have owed about $40.00.

So I called to challange the charge and talked to what had to the be stupidist person alive. It took him 40, yes 40, minutes to understand that I was being double billed this month because I was not billed last month. All I wanted was for the bill to be corrected by $10.00 and the guy just kept reading the bill to me over & over. Then he refused to get me a supervisor. So I asked him to just transfer me to one of his peers. I figured a different set of eyes on the problem would help. He also refused that. I didn't want to hang up, because the hold times were ridiculous. If I could get an in house transfer, it would be a lot quicker. But he still refused.

Just when I was going to hang up on him, he put me on hold (without my permission) and then he transferred me to the New Jersey Sales department, which couldn't help me, even though they tried. I got a 2nd rep on the phone who helped me in like 5 minutes and gave me an $18.96 credit, which was more than I was even asking for! I got to talk to a supervisor after that and the guy told me that he was going to pull the first rep off the floor right now to have a discussion about what he did. Whether the supervisor did that or not, I don't know, but I seriously hope he did. (So, $18.96 saved!)

-And as I apparently am a glutton for punishment, I decided to start calling credit cards that I am no longer using (for over a year) and wanted to close. I closed
- Gap
- The Limited
- Chase (I actually transferred the line to another Chase card prior to closing it)
- Sony Visa.

All closed me within 5 minutes, with very little hassle! I received a lot of 0% offers, but refused them all. I don't have any credit card debt to transfer anyway. (No monetary savings, but I did get a big splash of peace of mind!)

I still have two store cards & 4 major credit cards open. Although I am not going to be using credit cards, I am keeping those few open for the time being.

I plan on keeping it a low key weekend this week. I have been fighting a migrane, we're in for a big snowstorm and truth be told, I'm just stressed about some familiy stuff.

I have some library movies & books and I've taken to pulling stuff from my dvd collection that I haven't seen in awhile.

Also, I put up an add for a roommate on Craigslist. Last time that I did it, I mostly got scams and scary people. So hopefully, I'll do better this time around.

I only have a few bucks left in my entertainment/spending budget, so I'm planning a frugal weekend.

I'm planning on getting through some paperwork, cleaning, organizing, ect. I have a couple of movies from the library. I'm so into Agatha Christie movies-- Poirot, Ms Marple, ect.

Tomorrow's big plans are to take my cat to get her hind nails clipped. I had her declawed (where they take the front claws), but the back ones are still there. And they're long. My cat gets too freaked out for me to try to clip them myself. And of course, it creeps me out. So I'm happy to schlep her over to Petco and pay them $10.00 to do it. Its not something that has to be done regularly, but its budgeted into my petcare budget.

Then I may go over my sisters. She's been ill and her bf just broke up with her (what a jerk). So if she's still sick, she'll be staying home from work. IF she does, I'm going to head over with comfort food & movies.

If not, I've rented Saw IV and Sydney White and I'll be chilling at my house. Maybe heading to my friends for dinner and video games. (boy, its like college all over again)

Sunday is going to be fun. Dorky, but fun About 5 or 6 friends of mine decided we'll be having a movie marathon of the Lord of the Rings movies. We'll all be contributing food and drinks and we'll watch the movies in our pjs.

My contribution will be corn and blueberry muffins for breakfast, a big salad to go with lunch, and sodas. It looks like we'll be having wings, meatballs, beef and more. We'll probably talk through most of the movies, but it'll be a fun and relaxing day.

I am working on my mealplan for the upcoming week. I have been trying to make one freezable meal each week, so that I have a mix of options in the freeze.

Two weeks ago, I made sloppy joe. Last week, I made meatloaf muffings. This week, I'm going to make meatballs for meatball subs. And maybe I'll make some chicken taco filling. I am looking for new recipes, so if anyone has any suggestions, please share!



And I've decided to start sharing my library list. At any given time, I have several movies, magazines and books borrowed from the library.

So here's what I have at home right now:

-Agatha Christie's Ms Marple: Sleeping Murder
-Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse
-Bones Season 1, Disc 1
-Cooking Light Annual Recipes
-Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Incredible Theft
-Agatha Christie's Poirot: The King of Clubs
-Mission: Impossible III
-Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
-Weight Watchers 365 day Menu Book
-Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook
-You're Broke Because You Want to Be by Larry Winget

I cut back on my grocery budget and am trying to really plan meals to get the most bang for my buck.

So today, I headed out to Super G, Acme and the local produce stand. All of which are within 10-15 minutes from my house.

I spent $26.96 total. Which is awesome! I was able to get almost everything on my list. What I didn't get, will be taken care of with a trip to Walmart tomorrow. Its 5 mins from my house. I am only planning on picking up some wheat pasta, microwave popcorn and crackers.

I even got a free 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper. For today only, no purchase necessary, no minimum requirements. Very nice

Today I did the shopping. This afternoon, I hung out with my nephew. Tonight I'm playing on the internet and watching the Simpsons' movie, which I borrowed from the library. Very low key.

I went from Saturday until yesterday with no spending.

Today I used my HSA debit card for the first time. I went to the doctors. $20.00 copay. Got a prescription to fill, which I will do tomorrow. Probably $10.00.

Tomorrow, I have to go for a test. $20.00 copay. Then from there who knows. I am so glad that I filled the HSA account. Because if this health problem is what I think it is, its going to mean some procedures.

In the meantime, I took lunch to work and am having dinner at home. I'll be packing lunch for work tomorrow.

Tomorrow night, my sister's throwing a surprise party for her boyfriend's birthday. I'm the excuse, so I get to bring him to the bar a 1/2 hour after everyone else. No drinking for me because of my health problem. But I'll be buying a shot for the birthday boy.

Then I'm planning a low key weekend. Not feeling so hot, so staying home is a good idea. Maybe I'll have my nephew over to watch some movies and play games. He's a lot of fun

Today is another no spender. I am bumming around the house, doing laundry, meal planning, cleaning, ect. I have set up my meal plan, which can be subject to change. But mostly, I might switch out one dinner for another.

Monday:
Lunch: Meatloaf muffin & small salad
Dinner: Chicken Taco Salad w/ green beans

Tuesday:
Lunch: Pasta salad with Turkey Pepperoni
Dinner: Egg salad w/ baked potato

Wednesday:
Lunch: Morningstar Chick’n wrap and small salad
Dinner: Sloppy Joe over pasta w/ green beans

Thursday:
Lunch: Leftover Sloppy Joe over pasta
Dinner: Shake n bake chicken, baked potato & salad

Friday:
Lunch: Peanut butter & crackers, small salad
Dinner: Turkey BLT and salad

Saturday:
Dinner: Pasta w/ chicken

Sunday:
Dinner: Tilapia


Breakfasts will consist of the following:
Oatmeal, rice chex, all bran crackers and breakfast potatoes

Lunches over the weekend will be at whim.

My goal is to have no spenders until Friday of this week. For a total of 6 days. 2 down, 4 to go!!

First, I finally got my electric/gas bill. January was my highest month last year, but I did well. I recently lowered my budgeted amount and I was worried I might go over this month. But I came in under budget by $7.40!! Nice!

I have already gone over my entertainment budget for this pay period. I know my budgeted amount probably is just too low, but for now, I'm leaving it where it is. I'm taking the overage from leftover amounts in other catagories (like personal care, which I don't need anything for right now) to cover my entertainment overage.

I worked all day, brought my lunch. I stoppped by the library & picked up some books, magazines and movies because I'm making this a stay in weekend. I've been out 5x in the last 7 days, so I could use the rest

I also stopped at a local produce place by my house. I've only been there once because it looks kinda sketchy from the outside. But someone recommended it and I went there today to use up the last of my grocery budget for planned veggies.

I was able to get a ton of veggies; a 10 pound bag of russet potatoes, 3 cucumbers, 5 large tomatoes, a bag of carrots, a large green pepper and celery for $12.19!

Right now, in my area, the veggie prices are astronomical!

I was most excited about the potatoes & tomatoes. The 10lb bag of potatoes was $2.99, which is the same price as a 5lb bag at my nearest chain grocery store.

The same with the tomatoes, I would have had maybe 2 or 3 small ones for the amount I paid $2.74!

I'm definately going back there for now on. And I can't wait for summer to get all kinds of goodies there.


Since I'm all set on gas & groceries. I have no upcoming plans that would require spending. So, my goal is to have no spenders Saturday to Thursday. It will be a stretch for me, but I like a good challance I'll keep everyone updated.

Today, we had a belated holiday lunch at work. They served a ton of stuff, but in an effort to watch what I eat, I stuck with a very small portion of ziti, steamed grean beans, red potatoes, lots of salad and 2 breadsticks. It was really good. I also came away with 3 sodas & a bottled water by the time they were done. Nice! So now I don't have to bring soda to work next week.

Edited to add:
When they were clearing away, I was able to grab 2 bottled waters and some leftover salad, which I'm having with dinner tonight. Yummy

Today was a no spender. I stuck to my guns and ate the lunch I packed for work. I had a nice dinner at home tonight.

Tomorrow, I packed a turkey wrap for lunch. We're having a belated office holiday meal at the office, but they haven't announced the menu and since I'm watching what I eat, I decided to plan a meal anyway. Maybe they'll have some salad or veggies that I can grab to go with my wrap.

Tomorrow night a bunch of my work buddies from my old department are going out to a pub. I'll be meeting them there. I plan on having dinner at home and I think I might have a light beer with dinner and have just one out. I'm trying to keep my entertainment/eating out spending to a minimum.

Today was payday and I went a little crazy. I packed my lunch, but still managed to buy breakfast and lunch at the office cafe. Thats not what I want to be spending my spending/entertainment money on since I have a lot of things coming up in the next two weeks.

Oh well, tomorrow's another day. I did some grocery shopping to vary up my meals this week. Tomorrow, I'm having a turkey pita and salad for lunch. For dinner, I'll have the lunch I packed today, which was sloppy joe over pasta.

Part of the problem was I didn't do my meal plan this week. But I finished one tonight. I have a plan and I'm going to stick to it.

Just a reminder to myself. The reason I don't want to use my spending money for eating at the cafe are as follows:

I want to:
-Go to Work Night Out at a local bar on Thursday
-See Cloverfield in the theater on Friday
-Buy a new book

I forgot my wallet today. Luckily, I packed food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm working from 8am to 8pm today. I was going to stop at JC Pennys on the way home to look for a dress to wear to my 10 year high school reunion. I have nothing appropriate and its been years since I bought a little black dress. So I'm going to invest in one, knowing I can reuse it for things coming up in the future.

So Today will be a no spender

I figured I'd share the Mealplan for the rest of the week.

Thursday: (working 11am to 8pm)
Breakfast: Southern potatoes (leftovers)
Snack: All Bran crackers
Lunch: Large salad with chicken
Snack: Peanut butter & crackers
Dinner: Pasta salad (leftovers)
Snack: Banana

Friday: (working 8am to 8pm)
Breakfast: Banana and hard boiled egg
Snack: 1c Rice Chex
Lunch: Tuna wrap (leftovers)
Snack: Tomatoes with Italian dressing
Dinner: Meatloaf muffin and baked fries

Saturday: (working 7am to 5pm)
Breakfast: Hash brown Casserole (with meat)and banana
Snack: 1 c rice chex
Lunch: Large salad with chicken and croutons
Snack: Popcorn
Dinner: Chicken taco salad, with cheese, tomato & lettuce over baked tortilla

Sunday:
Breakfast: Turkey bacon BLT
Snack: apple
Lunch: Large salad
Snack: baked tortillas
Dinner: Eating out, To Be Determined

I had this grand plan of not spending money at all this week. I made a meal plan and prepacked my food today. Then it all went to heck when I got into work . I ended up spending $0.55 on a soft pretzel because I was SO hungry this morning. Even after my breakfast.

Well, now I know better. I am going to bring extra snacks for these types of situations. Also, I think I'm going to leave my wallet at home tomorrow.

I packed my breakfast, lunch and dinner for work today since I'm working 8am to 8pm. But I spent some money on a soda and some pretzels from the vending machine to settle an upset tummy this morning. I'm fine with it, since the funds come from my entertainment spending. And I'll still be eating the rest of my meals today.

For lunch I have a tuna wrap with shredded lettuce and a salad. For dinner, I have pasta salad with more veggies than pasta. I have a banana for snack. I was in the mood for ligher fare when I planned my food for today.

Tomorrow will be a large salad for lunch and meatloaf muffins with baked fries for dinner. Very yummy

Today is my only day off this week. I worked about 10 hours of OT last week. Not a lot, but I really needed the break last week. I could feel myself getting run down. So tomorrow I’ll be working 9am to 4pm (7 hours) and my goal is to get 3.5 hours of overtime Tuesday through Friday. We’ll see how it goes.

I interviewed for that Quality job on Tuesday. I don’t know how many people I’m up against, but I think it went well. We’ll see. And if I don’t get it, I’m content where I am and as long as there’s overtime, I’m financially comfortable. I’ll be keeping an eye out for jobs though, either in or outside of the company.

Today, the temp was in the high 80s. I kept the A/C off and the fan running. I organized my pantry to take stock of what I had in there. Then I did laundry, cleaned the basement and started putting out some fall decorations. It was pretty funny to be putting out Fall & Halloween stuff while in a tank top and shorts 

I called Comcast today because my promo rate was ending and the rep told me that it was actually not ending until December. I thought I had a 12 month promo, but apparently its 14 months. So my whole speech that I had prepared was for nothing. I’ll shelve it for later.

I made a meal plan for the week and prepped some food for tomorrow & Tuesday. Here’s the Meal plan (which can be switched around as needed).

Monday:
Lunch: Salad with chicken, Tuna on honey wheat wrap
Dinner: Barilla Plus pasta with hunts mushroom sauce, sautéed veggies & ground beef

Tuesday:
Lunch: Pasta salad with Turkey Pepperoni
Dinner: Meatloaf Muffin and baked fries

Wednesday:
Lunch: Tuna on honey wheat wrap
Dinner: Sloppy joe over no-yolk egg noodles

Thursday:
Lunch: Chicken strips and Honey mustard Pita
Dinner: Turkey bacon BLT

Friday:
Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich
Dinner: Shake n bake chicken

Saturday:
Lunch: Pasta salad
Dinner: Taco Salad

Sunday: To be determined

Ok, so last night I was at home, fixing a problem with my computer and half listening to House on tv. A credit card commercial came one. I didn’t catch which one it was, but the slogan registered in my head. I missed the beginning, but the ending went “… for when you want it NOW”. Can we all say SHAMELESS?? Credit card companies have cajones, if you’ll excuse my language. They have no shame in plugging the want it now mentality of America. I am guilty of having that feeling from time to time, but its pretty bad when the credit card companies aren’t even subtle about it. Ok, rant done. I just had to share.

In other news, I packed food for work today, but my team is having an outing. Free lunch, YAY! It was rescheduled from last week. We’re going to Bennigans and I’m having the Kilkenny Country Chicken Salad with grilled chicken instead of fried and with fat free honey mustard (in keeping with the Weight Watchers). Anyway, the salad is HUGE. So I’ll be taking the other ½ home for lunch tomorrow. Or dinner tonight if I can’t wait

The air has been off in my house and the windows open. I love this time of year. I have to put together a list of things to do to winterize my house. I also need to get some dry cleaning done. I have 2 pea coats that I like to get cleaned before winter starts.

I’ll be updating my numbers soon. I also want to compare where my balances stand today compared to January. I think it’ll be pretty morale boosting.

Also, its that time of the year for health insurance selection. My work offers several different plans. I really like the one that I’m on. The price is going up $3.90 per paycheck $(93.60 a year), which sucks, but I some of the other plans jumped up even more. And the smokers went up VERY much. Thank goodness I don’t smoke. It costs just to buy those things and then you have to pay for the probable effects on your health. I’m also looking into an H.S.A this year. I have to make my decision by the 12th, so I’ll be doing a little research over the weekend.

Well, I’m feeling regret over all my purchases, but still I’m going to be using everything that I bought. So now I’m in Buckle-down mode. I am making a meal plan for this week. I already packed all my food for today: Breakfast is a banana and Rice Chex. Lunch is more snacky, than a real lunch, but I’m having strawberries, a banana, a hardboiled egg and one hard boiled egg white. Snack is popcorn. Dinner is Turkey Sloppy Joe over whole wheat no yolk egg noodles. This is one of my favorite meals, so YUMMY J If I get hungry at any point after dinner, I have instant oatmeal to snack on.

I’m working on Christmas stuff. Some of my friends/family are hard to shop for, but I want to get it all done by the end of this month. I have a $25.00 amazon gift certificate to put towards it and I’m requesting another $25.00 gift card from my points. I have $400.00 in my Christmas fund budget and I am planning to add another $100.00 towards it for a tree and outdoor decorations, which I didn’t have much of last year.

This month marks my 1 year anniversary in the house and I have to say I’m still loving it !!! I am looking forward to the winter. I love bundling up under a mound of covers J

In other news, I’m going to have to be making some big decisions soon about work. I love what I’m doing, but the job itself is getting tedious. I love the unlimited overtime, but I really don’t know how long that’s going to last. Anyway, a quality position opened up with means going to an Exempt status (which means no OT). There are some trade offs, such as 4 weeks of vacation. I think it comes with a raise, but now sure of the dollar amount. I would need it to at least match the 10% shift differential that I’m currently getting, plus a bit more. The main benefit would be the possibility for further advancement. Hopefully it’ll lead me to higher positions.

My manager asked me to apply, and I did. I have an interview today. If I get the position, I’m really going to have to punch down my budget. I’ve gotten a bit sloppy, knowing the overtime will carry me if I go over budget in some categories, like groceries and eating out. We’ll see how it goes.

- No overtime this week since I was sick, but I'm feeling MUCH better now
-Packed my food for the week, but did buy bottled water one day and a soft pretzel the next. Normally, I have a cup at work for water, but I took it home to put in the dishwasher & forgot it.
-Today was payday- I paid my electric, water, amex, cell phone, cable and student loan
-I was able to sent a total of $730.00 extra to my student loan!
-They announced overtime was extended through September at work, which is AWESOME!
-I have some new savings goals that I need to think about. My friends and I are thinking about renting a house for a week in the Outer Banks next year and I need to plan for some new clothes once I reach my goal weight (I have a while to go)
-And by the way, I lost 1 lb this week (slow but steady wins the race!)

I'm fighting off a cold & its not fun. The non-stop rain isn't helping, neither are the many coworkers who cough & sneeze all day around me. But I'm holding on

I'm planning to work about 14 hours of OT this week. Its a little less than normal, but I switched my day off from Monday to Saturday so I could attend a birthday party. So Between Monday & Friday, I'll get 14 hours in, which is still awesome.

I did some unexpected spending over the weekend, but I'm holding strong now. Yesterday was a no spend today. Today may or may not be the same. It depends on if I stop at the store on the way home for some vitamin C. We'll see

I didn't get a chance to do my meal planning for the week, but I am planning on packing my food again for tomorrow.

Yesterday I brought food for work, but still bought a soft pretzel because I was extra hungry. I also gave $5.00 towards a gift for a coworkers baby shower. Then I grabbed some groceries --- normal stuff, plus veggies, cheese & pepperoni to make pasta salad for the shower. So yesterday was a spendy day, but all planned, except for the pretzel.

Today is a no spender, I brought breakfast, lunch & dinner. I'm making that pasta salad tonight after work.

Tomorrow I'm packing breakfast & a snack, but lunch will be covered by the food at the shower.

Tomorrow night, I have a friend coming over. We'll be making dinner and watching a movie. Yummy.

I'm doing a lot of stuff tomorrow, but it'll still be a no spend day if I can help it

Overtime update-So far I've worked 14.5 hours of ot this week. I'm aiming for over 20. Definately attainable.

I was asked after my last post to give examples of all the food that I bring to work. (Thanks Moi Aussi!) I usually pack some food for breakfast, lunch & dinner, all of which I’ll eat at work during the week. At least while the overtime lasts.

I’ll admit to being pretty lazy and/or tired, so I try to make things easy on myself by preparing food on the weekends and putting it in the freezer to be able to grab and go later. I also make a lot of salads, which are really quick to make & can be prepared a day or two ahead of time. I also use fruit, which is easily grab and go or quick to cut up. I’m not above using canned fruit or veggies either.

I also take time once a week or so to make up individual servings of snacks that I can grab & go… like dry cereal, crackers and baked Cheetos. I just have a basket of baggies that sit in my pantry ready to grab when needed.

All of this helps because I’m very portion-conscious. I’m not a fan of leftover and I’m watching what I eat, but I refuse to eat only diet food.

Here are some examples of my breakfasts. I mix & match, but usually have one fruit & one grain-type item.

-Strawberries & Splenda or Lite Cool Whip
-Sliced green apples
-Fruit cocktail
-Banana
-Dry Cheerios
-Dry Rice Chex
-Oatmeal (the individual packs that you just add water to)
-Granola bar


Lunch Examples (sometimes I switch lunches with dinners)
-Sandwiches – turkey & chase, peanut butter & jelly, tuna salad. I vary them up by using different types of breads, pitas and wraps
-Different types of salads
– Big ones with Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, green pepper and I vary my dressings a lot, as well as change things up with toppings (green beans, sunflower seeds, croutons, bacon bits, cheese, chicken and/or turkey)
– Cucumber & tomato salad (a summer favorite)
– Pasta salad with a little pasta & a lot of veggies and turkey pepperoni (very filling)
-Crackers with Peanut butter
-Crackers with sharp cheese & turkey pepperoni
-Soups in the winter-time


Dinner Examples, which could easily become lunch examples:
-Pasta with meat sauce or with red sauce & chicken strips
-Sloppy Joe (easy to freeze) with toast, bun or over pasta
-Meatloaf muffins (made with ground beef & stuffing – also easy to freeze)
-Chicken – lemon, shake-n-bake, barbeque
-Veggie burgers (can be cooked in the microwave) with bun
-Breaded chicken patties – on a bun or with a side of pasta
-Beef stew (easy to freeze)
-Chili (easy to freeze)

Sides/Snacks- baked cheetos, fruits & veggies, green beans, peas, apple sauce, baked fries (sliced potato baked with Old Bay), crackers and microwave popcorn

I drink lots of water (a minimum of 64 oz a day), have sodas at my desk (limit to 1 a day).

Hope this is helpful to anyone looking for meal ideas!

-I made a financial goal of tracking all of my spending from for the whole year. I've kept up with the tracking and its actually gotten pretty easy. Its crazy to see some of the numbers for catagories. Once the year is ending, I'm going to reevaluate my catagories.

-I counted up all my overtime hours from January 1st through last week... 316 hours! Plus 18.5 that I'm working towards for this week. My goal is to get 20 hours a week for the next three weeks.

-Just a few updates for today: I worked 7am to 8pm, with a trip to the library on my lunchbreak. Today was a no spender. I packed my breakfast, lunch & dinner. I already have tomorrow's food planned. When I get home tonight, I'm going to take a quick walk, then make the food, then veg in front of the tv for awhile.

I recieved a $24.67 cash back credit on my Amex card! I use it for gas, so that'll go to my next purchase.

Today work has been going SOOOOO slow! Its because I'm taking vacation days for tomorrow & Saturday, making a 4 day weekend out of it. I usually work on Monday, my day off, but I'm staying home that day too. I'm not going anywhere, but plan to veg tomorrow & get some stuff done over the weekend, ending with yet another veg day on Monday!

This week, I managed to add 18.5 hours of overtime into my week. I brought lunch to work yesterday, as well as dinner, but when I took out my bread to make a pb&j sandwich, I found mold on the bread.... Ewwww! So I ended up buying a salad & soft pretzel from the work cafe for $3.09. Since I'd already spent that day, I did grocery shopping after work, picking up a few 'treats' to enjoy this weekend.

I packed my food today- A banana and strawberries & cream for breakfast, a big salad for lunch, sloppy joe & green beans for dinner. And a few snacks in between.

Tonight after work, I'm heading out to a local bar for a few drinks. We call it The Pub. Its a bit of a dive, but we know the bartender and the drinks are cheap. My goal is to only spend less than $15.00. I'd REALLY like it if I spent less than $10.00, but I think I might buy the guys a beer. They got me last time.

So tomorrow is going to be a no spender. I'm planning on staying in, making some of my favorite meals, enjoying some fresh fruit & ice cream for snacks. I have several movies from the library, as well as a few movies from my own video collection that I wouldn't mind watching again.

Enjoy your weekend everybody, I'll probably be MIA for a few days, since my internet at home has been spotty.