So today, I was going to a work outing at a local park about a half hour away. My coworker & I were in my car on a very major highway (I-95) with lots of traffic when my car suddenly died. There was a loud bang, something MAY have fell off the bottom and tons of smoke started pouring out. We were able to get safely to the shoulder & as we did, a guy on a motorcyle (who had been behind us) yelled "your car is on fire!"

We hopped out of the car. I did not see flames, but there was a LOT of smoke. I called 911 and received help from the fire dept & the police. I called another coworker & asked them to stop & pick up my friend that had been riding with me.

The policeman gave me a ride home, I used my limited AAA membership to have the car towed. (extra miles since I wanted it towed more locally probably will cost about $30).

The tow truck took the car to the wrong repair place (they were right next to each other). So they fixed their mistake - but it meant the repair place couldnt look at the car today.

My car insurance wanted to start a claim, but it wasn't an accident, so I don't know that they will help me out at all. I will find out tomorrow what the issue is. But what I do know, is that the car is most likely a goner.

I do not have the savings to be able to buy a new to me car outright. So I am going to look into my options. I certainly do not want a car payment, but to get any kind of reliable vehicle, I may have to get a small one. I will take my time figuring it out.

My parents very nicely let me borrow one of their cars for tomorrow. I had plans to work 7am to 2pm & then meet friends to go to a Dave Matthews Band concert. We're tailgating & I'm bringing some beer from the fridge, but the tickets are already taken care of, so I shouldnt have much out of pocket.

My friends are driving, so I will bring the car back to my moms & my friends will pick me up there. They live in the same neighborhood as my parents, so they will drop me back there after the concert & I will crash on my parents couch.

Tonight when I got home, there was a problem with my kitchen sink. Its been tempermental since there's a problem with the garbage disposal. My dad is nice enough to volunteer to come over Friday morning (I already had the day off planned) and help me try to fix it.

So ugh, I have a bunch of extra expenses now. I'm going to emergency superfrugal mode and plan to spend AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. Wish me luck!

Well, now that I have a roommate again, I thought I'd talk about what I'm doing with the rent money.

June 9th, I was paid $475 for the month.
- $100 went into a rent utility fund in my savings. None has been spent so far.
- $50 went into a savings account for 'fun' money. None has been spent so far.
- $325 went to credit card payment. ALl of which was paid to the cc

July 9th, I will be getting another $475.

- $75.00 will go to the rent utility fund. I will already be using $10 of that to go to the increase in the electric budget billing
- $75.00 will go to fun money savings, to be used on my beach vacation
- $275.00 will go to a credit card payment
- $50.00 will go to house repairs.

Today is the last day of the June Lunch Challange. I packed breakfast & will be supplied lunch for free at a team outing to a local park.

I have succeeded in the challange. I bought lunch one day & a snack one day. I did not technically meet my goal of eating out only once, but I'm perfectly fine with that as the snack was needed the other day due to not feeling well.

I hope everyone feels they did well. I know some of us do this on a consistant basis and it was not as much a 'challange' as being aware of your habits. I feel that I got something out of this and I hope that you did too.

Had a good relaxing weekend! Got a lot of things done yesterday, including finishing updating the downstairs bathroom. I still have to put baseboards on, but I'm waiting to have a little more cash to do that. It really won't cost much, but I have a lot of one-off expenses in the next month. I hope to put up pics of the bathroom tomorrow.

In addition, to what I already accomplished yesterday, I watched some movies, created a budget for the next payday (Wed), made cookies, made a big thing of pasta salad, planned my meals, did some gardening, cleaned up the cat area and got my hair cut.

My mom stopped by to see the bathroom & the hair - I got about 7 inches off. Not loving the cut, but the hairdresser did what I asked - I just impulsively asked her to cut it to my shoulders.

Tonight, I'm watching redbox movies (to be returned before 9 tonight). I will catch up on True Blood at 9 & am in bed by 10.

Monday, Tuesday & Wed should be no spenders. I'm hoping anyway

Well, its in the 90s today & has been since about 10am. Ugh. Good thing I woke up early this morning. I went & ran my errands - Grocery store #1 for ground turkey, Farmer's market for fruits/veggies, Walmart for cat litter, the bank, and gas station. I also picked up a few movies from Redbox at $1/day, its a good deal!

I came home & put a chicken breast covered in chicken broth in my mini-crockpot. Perfect for single size & I plan to shred the chicken and put hot sauce in it for some buffalo chicken salad later.

After that, I have taped off & painted the bathroom ceiling. It will need a second coat, which I hope to get to late this evening.

The new roommate is working out well. Apparently she will rarely be around on weekends. She left last night & won't be back until Sunday evening. She finally did some grocery shopping and with her stuff now in the pantry, fridge & freezer, I thought it would be a good time to take inventory & make meal plans to use up some of the older (and the new) food.

Forgive me if this is dull for you, I just wanted to lay the list out there - it does not include condiments and/or spices.

Freezer -
2 fudge pops
1 and a half packs turkey pepperoni
2c frozen strawberries
1 pint blueberries
5 servings sloppy joe
1/2 loaf wheat bread
8 bagel thins
1 banana
2 packs diced chicken for salad
12 meatloaf muffins
1 lb chicken breasts - need to invite family over to use up
3 flat out wraps
6 individual serving chicken breasts
1 lean cuisine

Fridge -
1 pitcher water
1 pitcher pink lemonade
lots of beer (leftover from party)
pasta sauce
salad fixings
plum tomatoes to make homemade bruschetta
cottage cheese
3 individual puddings
grapes
3 bananas
spinach
snap peas
scallions
Weight Watcher mexican cheese
1 lb ground turkey - to be browned with onion & frozen in individual servings

Pantry -
pasta sauce
pretzel chips
pasta - penne, spaghetti & shells
fat free croutons
popcorn
peanut butter
sugar free jam
ff chicken broth
diced tomatoes
green beans (2 cans)
canned pears
tuna pack
4 cans tuna
shake n bake
stovetop stuffing

I've been seeing lots of updates in personal posts, but if you want to chime in with a quick note on how you're doing, that'd be great! I'll do a final Lunch Challange post on the 30th & we can all share how we did overall.

So far, I have bought lunch 1 time and bought a small snack 1 time (.55). I'm pretty happy with my results and will likely set a goal for July too, maybe with a little more leniency.

How are you guys doing?

I have a tight budget for the weekend. I'm going to a girls only product party Friday night. I have $20 and a bottle of wine (recycled gift). I will buy 1 small item to support my friend, but thats it. Afterwards, I'm staying behind and we (my friend, her daughter & I are watching a horror movie).

Saturday & Sunday, I have absolutely NO plans. My goals are:

1. Walk or hit the gym each day (FREE)
2. Finish painting the downstairs bath - have to paint the ceiling (FREE - have all the supplies)
3. Put up toilet paper & towel racks as well as mirror in downstairs bath (FREE - already purchased)
3. Replant some basil plants from medium to larger pots (FREE- reusing pots, using leftover soil)
4. Clean the house (FREE)
5. Grocery shop - Budgeted
6. Hit Barnes & Noble - still have not spent my gift card & I want to pick up the new Janet Evanovich book if its out (FREE with bday gift card)
7. Watch movies from library (FREE)
8. Read books from library (FREE)
9. Make a few new recipes (FREE-ish)
10. Organize all the junk in my bedroom closet (FREE)

One of my coworkers reminded me this morning, that there are 6 months until Christmas. I'm planning a cash only Christmas, so I have been saving. I'm right on track to meet my goal.

I have to add a few more people to the list - sister's boyfriend's kids. So I am going to work hard to funnel a little extra money to the budget catagory.

Today at work, we felt the building shake. Someone on a phone call in a nearby office came out & said they were just on the phone with the office in Canada & the office had to hang up becuase they were in an earthquake. A minute later we felt it here. Tiny shaking, lasting only 30 seconds.

Security for the building said it was really a termite inspection, but we have a huge building and all 3 floors on all sides felt it. Two hours later, the local online paper confirmed it. We had a tremor all the way here in Delaware. Kinda crazy. Never felt that before.

*****warning -disturbing information to follow *****

There have been some recent abductions and rapes occuring close to my home and work. Two by the same man who basically carjacked the women, forced them to drive around at gunpoint, raped them several times, then set them free after he took their licenses and told them to not talk about what happened because he had their address. I'm happy to report, that as of today, the police have caught the guy.

These things can happen anywhere, but they are very much at the forefront of our minds in the community. A result of this community awareness is that different organizations have offered free self defense classes and I will be attending one tonight.

I'm glad they caught the guy and I'm very sorry for his victims and their families. I'll never understand violence, especially against women.

Well, I woke up in the middle of the night with a migrane I am staying home today, eating food from home, taking meds & sleeping off & on.

Today will likely be a no spender. Unless I suddenly make a good enough recovery to meet my friends tonight for a birthday. If I did, and right now its not looking good, I would have a soda & stay an hour. But I don't know that is even a possibility at the moment.

Hope everyone's doing well today.

HH

I am a library lover. The librarians know me by sight, one knows me by name. I wore out the keychain library card I had - they have been unable to scan it for 6 months and then it fell apart altogether 2 weeks ago. I even had my library card # memorized. And I've already done the same with the new card #. So yes, I use the library a lot!

I like to borrow books, movies, books on tape, cds, all kinds of fun things. I"ve heard some libraries have video games to borrow, but I haven't seen that in my library yet.

What I currently have on loan:

DVDs -

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials dvd
Angel Season 3 discs 3 & 4 on dvd
Jennifer's body on dvd
The original Stepford Wives dvd

Books -
Good Housekeeping light and Healthy cookbook
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

I had a great weekend. FRiday, I went to a friends house to watch horror movies. BRought snacks - $2.00. We watched movies already owned by people in the group.

SAturday, I went to my nephew's baseball game. They're in the playoffs and the games are pretty exciting. I spent a few dollars at the concession stand.

Sat night, I went and saw a friend in a play. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Its a little theater, not the big one I go to with my mom. But the production was really well done & they're doing Chicago soon. I'm definitely putting that on my to-do list.

Sunday, I hung out at home & did some chores. Then I painted the downstairs bath. I admit I tend to rush this work & it can cause problems. For example, I got paint on the ceiling & will have to re-paint that now too.

And the best - and funniest - mistake was that I got a little clumsy trying to paint around the toilet that I lost my balance and planted my butt right into a freshly painted wall. I was able to fix the wall, but the shorts are ruined. Splatters on them wouldnt matter, but pretty much the WHOLE backside is covered in paint, which dryed hard & stiff.

All in all, a great weekend!

I went to my nephew's Little League playoff game. They had lost the last one and this is a double elimination tournement, so it was very important they win tonight.

The game was really cut-throat. The other team's managers were actually being a little shady - trying to influence the ump and insisting that a base coach pushed a kid when in reality, he patted him on the back to keep running (causing the kid to be out). I understand there are rules, but the coach - a grown man- practically had a hissy fit.

Still, the game was close, tied 8-8, went into an extra inning, we went up 3 points & then our pitcher closed out their batters, winning the game.

It was great! I took a chair & a snack and sat with my mom and my sister, screaming my head off. Very frugal outing.

And I found out my nephew is doing baseball camps this summer. 2 weeks for 5 hours a day for a total of $330. I pledged $15 towards it since I'm on such a tight budget this month.


Oh, and as a lunch challange update - I am holding steady - 1 breakfast bought & 1 snack. Woohoo