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Home > Archive: June, 2014

Archive for June, 2014

Playing a bit of a money game

July 1st, 2014 at 03:45 am

When my husband moved in 2 years ago, he brought a flat screen tv for the living room. We moved the flat panel tv I already owned into the spare bedroom.

However, it doesn't really work for his video games, so we battle over 'rights' to the nice downstairs tv. After the wedding & all, we decided we would like to get a new flat panel for the living room and move the current one to the spare room.

Eventually, I would also like to replace the tv in the bedroom with a much smaller one.

So what I suggested to my husband was this: Why don't we take the time to clean out the basement and sell some the items in the basement that are just clutter. We can use that money towards the new TV without detracting from debt repayment and a new house fund.

I look at it like a game. Should be fun!

Meals/Meal Planning and an unexpected $75

June 29th, 2014 at 01:00 am

I just opened a checking account to accompany the joint household account that I have at a bank with my husband. My first direct deposit went in yesterday & I guess that they were running a special, because they gave me a 'Direct Deposit Bonus' of $75! That money goes to the Christmas Fund!

Anyway, DH went to the grocery store & I went to the Farmer's market after work. We are pretty much set for the week! I forgot to get an ingredient for sloppy joe, but will pick that up tomorrow.

Last night, we had random stuff from the kitchen. This morning, I made scrambled eggs and hash browns.

We did have lunch out with a friend, but lunch was on him as we'd done him a favor. Yummy!

When we came home, I took pork chops out of the fridge, threw chicken in the crockpot and made shredded barbeque chicken, made a side of pasta salad and made meatloaf muffins.

DH grilled the pork chops for dinner & I made baked potatoes. He also grilled chicken to be used for salads for work lunches.

I packaged the muffins into 3rds. 1 pack went in the fridge & 2 into the freezer. I split the BBQ chicken in half - half to fridge & half to freezer.

The Pasta salad is going to a friend's for lunch at their house. We are going to meet their new daughter!

We now have easy to make/put together meals for the week!

Financial To-Dos and Money Savers and Freebies

June 28th, 2014 at 02:42 am

I have been doing lots of little things to save money. Here's a list of what I accomplished today.

-Worked my full work day
-Earned 100 in a work rewards program. That is halfway to enough points to purchase a Christmas present!
-Downloaded a $2.99 Soduku app for free
-Downloaded a $4 To Do List app for free
-Used Walgreens Balance Rewards card when picking up a prescription, earning 500 points
-Bought lunch (splurge) at Burger King & filled out survey on receipt for a free sandwich with drink purchase
-Called Walgreens about a photo order that was not right. This is the 2nd one that they have send me, so I requested a refund. Will use another online service. $4.98 refunded to my account and without any asking, they offered 25 free 4x6 prints for inconvenience.
-requested free sample of sunscreen
-In desperate needs of pajama pants, I utilized a sale (15% off plus my Old Navy bonus rewards plus free shipping) to get the following for $6.90 out
of pocket
-2 pairs of pajama pants, 2 pairs of flip flops (leather), 2 work appropriate tops, a pair of workout pants and a tank top
-Signed up for a free photo book from MyPublisher
-Requested $32.64 in a credit card rewards check (to go to Christmas fund)
-Did Bing searches and requested $5 Amazon gift card
-Work gave out a free bag of Fritos (snack size) and a full size candy bar

I was paid today & tomorrow will pay bills. I have budgeted $956.70 towards credit card debt this pay period!

Lots of To-Dos today!

June 26th, 2014 at 10:05 pm

Lots of To-Dos

Today, I worked from home and was able to get some things done.

-Called cc about returned payment (due to changed checking accounts and reversed digits). They refunded the $25 returned check fee and $1.19 of intereste (balance is at 0%)

-Changed over my ING direct debits to the new checking account

-revised joint/personal budgets

-upped 401k contribution by 2%

-Set paycheck budget for tomorrow's payday

-did 2 loads of laundry & hung dry 1 of them

-folded laundry & brought in laundry racks from deck

-made breakfast at home and lunch at home

-hit the grocery store at lunch for food for dinner tonight

-cleaned the kitchen

I am working until 6:30 and then have a few more To-Dos

-clear personal email
-go through mail
-go through recipes and create meal plan
-make dinner
-spend time with my husband Smile

Back and MARRIED!!!

June 2nd, 2014 at 01:16 am

Lost my post for the 3rd time...ugh! LOL

Well, 3 weeks ago, I married the love of my life! We are so happy Smile I have been offline for a few months while taking my professional exam and wedding planning.

After the wedding, we spent 8 days in Mexico for the honeymoon. Paid for in cash! My parents generously paid for the bulk of our wedding and we cashed flowed any incidentals!

Our friends and family were incredibly generous and we received many household items as gifts. Both my Husband (HUSBAND!) and I came into the marriage with old/mis-matched/threadbare items that we accumulated in college and from GoodWill.

We were given dishes, new pots/pans, lamps, bed linens and many thoughtful gifts - rugs with our monograms, hand made items, etc. These thoughtful gifts are incredibly sentimental to us already Smile

Out of the items that we replaced, we are selling some older items, donating some and keeping things like some old towels as rags.

Thank you notes were mailed a week after we came back from the Honeymoon. I am BIG on thank you cards!

We came out of this with no additional debt. we have the same financial goals although I am definitely the nerd in the relationship when it comes to details. We definitely balance each other out though. It just means, I will probably take over finances once my name change is complete and we finish combining finances.

I have many things I am working on financially and will be saving those for my next post.

I am SO happy to be back!