HouseHappy's Personal Finance Blog

The kitty has found a new comfy place... my bathroom sink. Its cute as anything! But I can't seem to get a good pic of when he's sleeping. Still, I thought I'd share.








I'm starting my own personal challange of no longer buying food at work. I've prepacked food for tomorrow. One day at a time

Hope everyone had a good weekend! I did Friday I went to a happy hour & then to a friends to play cards. A guy I'm seeing met up with us at the friends and he & I ended up watching a movie at his place.

Yesterday, I went to a local wrestling show. Kinda like WWF or whatever its called now. A friend was participating in it and a group of us all went to show our support. It was kinda cheesy, but really fun. There were a lot of people, including kids. They have another show in the beginning of March & I think I'll take my nephew to it. And possibly my friend Mike. It would be right up his alley $15 to get in, but the show was worth it.

Today I'm heading to the movies with my mom. Its been months since I saw a movie in the theater. She wants to get out of the house and there's a small independantly owned theater where matinees are still under $6.00. Not too bad!

When I come back tonight, I have a to do list waiting: Do laundry, make a meal plan, clean the kitchen, pack food for work tomorrow. All easily done!

On Thursday, I was given my raise for 2009. 3.13%. Not too bad considering most companies in my industry stopped raises alltogether for 2009 and some are stopping their company match program. I also know that I was at the high end of the scale for raises.

And I inherited a free tv from my sister and nephew. After Christmas, my sister bought my nephew a new 13 inch tv for his bedroom. I took the one that he previously had, with a built in vhs and am putting it in the spare room. I also have a spare dvd player, so I'm going to use it for work out tapes. Plenty of room to work out in the spare bedroom. And when summer hits & it gets too hot to work out upstairs, then I can easily carry the tv down to the basement to set up shop down there

I've been utilizing the library a LOT again. Movies & books, with some magazines thrown in for good measure.

For February, I have 2 mini goals:

1. Pack all meals/snacks for work for the month, with 1 time eating out option
2. Attempt to use as little as possible out of my entertainment budget, but still be well entertained. We'll see how creative I can get!

Went to the store today. I'm back doing Weight Watchers & I've been eating at home/packing lunches more. But I'd eaten down the pantry & freezer. So I needed to stock up.

Ended up spending $93.00 at Walmart and about $11.00 at the local produce stand.

I still have a couple of things to get from the Super G by my house on a few things that either Walmart was out of OR is less than Walmart's price.

So now I'm stocked up. I had a big salad for dinner, with pasta in it.

Tomorrow I am having:

Breakfast: Cheerios & milk, 1c yogurt
Morning Snack: All Bran Crackers
Lunch: Large salad with pasta in it.
Afternoon Snack: Mini popcorn
Dinner: To Be Determined - probably pasta

Tomorrow night I'm having a few friends over to watch LOST. Can't wait for it!

I had a really awesome weekend. 2 friends and I drove to a nearby city to visit a friend staying at her boyfriends for the weekend. They made us a really great dinner of Beef and Bok Choi and homemade sushi. Very very good!

Then we took a 15 minute walk in the freezing weather (and survived) into town. We went to this really nice jazz club, saw a live band and had some drinks. Afterwards, we stopped by a pizza place (2am) and crazy types of pizza. I chose Buffalo Chicken and Waffle Fries, Bacon and Ranch.

We spent the night at their apartment and came back home after stopping for brunch at Perkins. It was a spendy weekend, but SO much fun!

Now its snowing a little and I did some laundry. I am going to go & pack lunch for tomorrow and head to bed early.

Hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did!

Made some calls today. Set up some annual doctors appointments for the first quarter.

Called my electric/gas company & signed up for budget billing. I've never done it before becuase I just set the extra budgeted amounts aside for when the bills are higher in the winter. But then I just decided to make it easy on myself and just have them do it. I confirmed that they still send a statement with the actual cost of the bill regardless of the budgeted amount. Saves me a headache.

Now I really have to dig into being frugal. My take home pay has decreased some due to insurance, ect and it means reworking the 2009 budget. We'll see how it goes. The budget billing will actually help me cash flow wise in the next few months.

Well, I'm still feeling ill. I'll be heading back to the doctors on Monday, but in the mean time, its rest and sleep for me!

Anyway, because of being sick (and still going to work), I've been eating out at work and not going to the grocery store.
Well, at least today I went and got some groceries finally. And I am taking the down time I have today & tomorrow and working a meal plan from stuff I have in the freezer or is easy to make.

I'm back 100% on weight watchers and some people in work are going to do a little contest starting Monday. It should be fun and it'll be an encouraging environment at work as opposed to all the bad food pushing that usually goes on

I've been playing with the new camera and loving it. Please bear with me while I share!


Here is a picture of my older cat. She's a sweetie



This is her doing a Jabba the Hutt impression!




This is the little guy that I rescued back in March.






I was playing with the zoom on the camera. Here is a picture of the trees in my back yard.



And here's a zoomed in picture. I'm loving the zoom on this camera!

I've been sick again. Making it into work, but am sleeping pretty much non stop. And if I'm awake, I have NO energy. Which means I've been buying food instead of preparing it. I'm hoping to feel better by tomorrow or Friday. Once I get back into the swing of things, I'll get on with my packing all food challange.

On the bright side, my new camera came in today. I'm waiting for it to charge & then I'll be taking some pictures. Since its dark out, I'm probably going to be taking lots of pics of the cats and the house

I like to see photos of other people's places, so I think I'd really like to share mine!

A while ago, I posted about having a big WANT for a new digital camera. I didn't buy one though and planned to start saving for one.

I'm glad I waited, because my parents gave me $100 towards a new camera or lamps. I chose the camera.

The original price was $149.95. After the $100.00 cash, a $25.00 gift certificate and $1.56 credit balance on my Amazon account, I paid 23.39! I will have to get a memory card, but I'm going to get that locally from a store. Amazon's prices were a bit high compared to what I've seen.

Can't wait to get the camera!

I've been really busy the last few weeks and a LOT of things have been piling up. My kitchen was disgusting and I had presents, paperwork and stuff all over my living room.

Well today, I took care of it. Did 3 loads of laundry with no use of the dryer. I took my Christmas tree down, and drove it over to the land refuce recycling drop off. Free recycling! Then I vaccummed up the millions of needles all over the floor. Organized my ornaments and packed them all back up. By packing them better, I went from 4 bins of Christmas ornaments, lights & knickknacks to 3!

Then I cleaned up the living room all together. Finally, I moved into the kitchen. Did dishes by hand AND ran the dish washer. Made dinner, cleaned up again. I just need to wash the kitchen floor, but I won't get to it til next week.

And since my January goal is to NOT purchase food/drink at work, I pre-made and pre-packaged food for the week. I have breakfasts and snacks covered. I made a big salad & thawed sloppy joe for lunch tomorrow. Tomorrow night I'll make lunches for Tues/Wed. And then Wed night, I'll make lunches for Thurs/Fri. That way I can catch a break every other day

I budget a large amount for gasoline each pay period. With the prices so low, I'm coming in way under budget. I filled up the car today and I have around $23 leftover. I won't need to refill the tank this payperiod, so I'm setting the funds aside in a savings account for gas for when I travel during the summer

Spent $5.50 on produce today. Not too shabby

I went into the local branch of my bank today. Explained the situation about the mortage payment being duplicated on 1/1, which caused the checking account to overdraw. They refunded the $40.00 of fees that were put on the account. YAY! I didn't even have to come right out & ask, they just offered.

I'll be calling my mortgage company on Monday to discuss their $35.00 fee that they charged. Unfortunately, I think I won't have an easier time of it, but I hope to be sucessful.

Yesterday I was off work, but ended up dealing with doctors stuff all day. Doctors copay & medicine cost $34.70.

I did end up going out with some friends to Buffalo Wild Wings. We sat in the bar area & played trivia on the tvs. I split the order with one of the guys & drank water. Ended up paying $10 including tip. Not too bad for 4 hours of entertainment.

Ugh, Jan 1st & I'm sick AND I managed to duplicate a payment to my mortgage, overdrawing my household expenses checking account. I've set up a transfer from ING Savings to cover the deficit, but man thats annoying. And I only have myself to blame. I've NEVER overdrawn an account before.

Yesterday was awesome. I was let out of work 3 hours early. Had an inpromtu lunch out with some friends. Headed home and got dressed up. Met friends for a quick Happy Hour at the pub. My friend bought the first round and wouldn't accept any money from me. So yay free drink!

Then I headed to a friend's house to help set up for a party. It was a LOT of fun.

Today I had all these grand plans of stuff to do and now I'm just spending it on the couch. I made a quick run to the closest store for food and I picked up a redbox movie.


I already have a yearly budget & January budget set up. Im working on my financial goals, which I normally have done by mid December. But a few things are up in the air & I'll have more info by Jan 15th, so I've got tentative goals until then.

I'm also planning on working on some mini challanges for myself. January I'm going to work on packing breakfast, lunch & snacks for work. With only 1 time expected to eat out (monthly work lunch out). That a LOT of packed food. It'll be a challange.

I've been tracking my Christmas Spending. I've bought a Christmas tree and gifts for my parents, sister, nephew, best friend, best friends boyfriend, two friends, and a small work gift.

Total Spending: $271.88. That includes $65.19 in gift cards used (from cc rewards & MyPoints).

I have 3 small gifts to get still and then I'm done. Estimated expense: $35.00

Woohoo. Almost done!

Took food to work, but did buy a soft pretzel to supplement lunch. Cost: 55 cents.

We just got an email that our work cafeteria is getting rid of the salad bar & the hot entrees. That will leave the unhealthy grill options, pizza and sandwiches. They will have prepackaged salads though. Sign of the times. Our company contracts the cafe out to another company. Its plain to see that they're cutting the budget. But its good motivation to pack my lunch more.

Tonight I watched my nephew for a little bit, came home & hung out on the couch. I made some lunch for tomorrow, already have preportioned milk, cheerios & yogurt set aside for breakfast.

I plan on having meatloaf & baked fries for dinner, but will have to stop & pick up the potatoes first.

Got a lot of Christmas stuff done. My best friend, her boyfriend & I all have known each other since we were kids. We have a tradition of doing some Christmas decoration shopping at some really awesome places, getting our trees, watching Christmas movies, ect.

So yesterday, we went to the Christmas shop (not the Christmas Tree Shop) but an place that is a like a Garden Center/Christmas decor place.

I came away with a few Christmas gifts and a huge tree. Its more cost effective to get the fake trees, but I can't bring myself to do it

Afterwards, we had pizza, talked, played some games & watched Its a Wonderful Life. Good times!

Today, we (my friends & I) went to Ikea cause they just moved & needed some things. I bought a picture and frame ($9.99) to go in my kitchen and a shoe rack ($9.99) to house shoes left in my entry. I also came home with lots of decorating ideas

Tonight I'm watching a library movie, decorating the tree and resting. Tomorrow I have another day off and I'll be doing laundry & cleaning. After I sleep in

Yesterday I made out like a bandit. At work, we had an employee appreciation lunch, so I had a free meal, drinks & desert. I also ended up with 2 extra cans of soda & a bottle of water.

And as a gift, they handed out ice scrapers to everyone. Which isn't that fun a gift, but I needed one

The last few weeks, my boss has been handing out goodies she's gotten from her husband who works for a pharmaceutical company. Apparently, the laws have changed and all the companies are no longer able to hand out swag to doctors & hospitals. So the companies have warehouses of stuff that they've been handing out to their own employees.

I've gotten several things from them - a universal cell phone charger, coffee mug, shoulder bags & more.

Yesterday, she handed out a small lunch bag. Made for the fridge, it will definately come in handy when packing my lunch.

Then last night, I attended a holiday party with my dad. He's a food/beverage manager and apparently one of the only managers liked by the employees. They invited him to a employee organized holiday party at a bar. My mom wasn't going to go & he wanted to pop in for awhile, but didn't want to go alone. So I agreed to go, had a good time and got a free drink, free soda and free food. YUMMY!

Today I have a day off from work. I slept in all the way to 11. Which never happens anymore and was very much needed. I'm spending part of the day cleaning up the house, catching up on some tv, and playing with the cats.

Tonight, I am picking my nephew after school. We'll be having a sleepover. We're taking his WII to my house, playing some games, watching a kids movie, having dinner & basically having a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to it!

Tomorrow, I'm going with friends to get a Christmas tree. I'll be decorating on Sunday. Monday I'm off work and will be doing absolutely nothing until I got to my Weight Watcher meeting that night.

Nice relaxing weekend planned. Just what I needed!

My good friends are moving and have been working to get stuff from one house to the other all week. In the process, I've been given a few things.

First, a spaghetti bowl & 4 plates. Made for spaghetti, they're like plates, but with rounded edges that make it easy to turn the pasta with a fork. Very good idea!

Second, I was given a salad spinner. It's been on my wish list for quite a while. It turns out that they had 2, so they gave me 1. Thanks guys!

Last night I went out with my sister to a local bar/club. Did some dancing and had a lot of fun. The place was in the city (meaning more expensitive) and I brought drinks for my sister. Out of pocket expense: $38.00.

Today I am helping a friend move. I'll be home to take a quick nap, shower & pack then I'm heading to West Chester (about 40 mins away) for a birthday party/outing. I'll be spending the night there and coming home in the morning.

I already have a card & a gift and I plan on spending $20.00 when we head to a local bar for the party.

Sunday I am going to get some stuff done around the house and then Sun night I'll be going to my nephew's 8th birthday party. Its at a roller rink! I already have the gifts for him - Legos! Not one of those Star Wars/Indiana Jones sets, but true Legos that you build stuff with out of your imagination.

Currently I'm trying to NOT purchase a new digital camera. I do not have one currently and I desperately WANT one. But its not a necessity. Since I didn't find any awesome deals around Black Friday, I'd put it out of my mind... until my sister showed me her new one.

Anyway, she was telling me some feature on it that wasn't on the camera we both had previously been looking for. So I went online today. And saw that the camera that she got was down to $89.99. She paid $129 yesterday. I might just give in & buy it. A Cannon 9.2 Megapixal camera for $89.99 is a really, really GOOD deal.

So things have been a little out of control for me lately. With eating and with spending. It's been off & on for a few months, but I've finally hit a wall. I am feeling the ill effects of gaining a few pounds back and of using extra cash for eating out or entertainment instead of focusing on savings.

Well, I'm getting back on track. I have a meal plan for the week (following my Weight Watchers plan) and I have a spending plan for this pay period (which started the 28th).

Today I bought cat food & a few groceries. I skipped getting lunch out and made food at home. I'm staying in tonight. Watching movies from the library and free on Comcast On Demand.

Tomorrow should be a laid back day as well. Tidying up the house, doing laundry, maybe heading to a friend's house to play some board games.

I'm going to start journaling my spending again. Never hurts, right?

The new computer came on Monday. I wasn't able to spend time online until tonight though. I'm so happy to be back online!

Things I've done this week:

-Earned a $25.00 amazon gift certificate with card rewards
-Earned another $25.00 gift card from MyPoints
-Did some really good Christmas shopping using previously earned gift cards from MyPoints
-Applied for a part-time job.

Tomorrow I'm hosting Thanksgiving. I was volunteered by my family but am happy to host since it means less stress for my parents.

I pre-made the stuffing tonight. Bought about 1/2 the groceries, parents supplied the other half. My sister works for a company that has restaurants and brought home some goodies like a pumpkin roll and a cookie cake. Yummy!

Tomorrow morning, my sister is coming over with my nephew. She'll help me prep the turkey/stuffing. We'll hang out for a while & then early afternoon she'll take my nephew to a friends for a bit.

My parents will come over and we'll hang out, maybe watch a holiday movie, maybe play a board game and just catch up. Then my sister & nephew will come back & we'll eat around 5.

I'm REALLY looking forward to tomorrow. We have a really small family now that my grandfather & great aunt have passed.

Hope everyone has a REALLY good holiday!

Hey everybody!
My laptop broke and I've ordered a new one. Paid cash for it, but it won't arrive until after Thanksgiving. I'll be checking out the site when I can, but probably won't be posting for awhile. I have to say, I miss you guys! Have a good holiday next week.

HH

Today was going to be a no spender, but I ended up at the doctors office instead. $24.54 for both the copay and meds. It could have been worse. At least nothing was spent on eating out

And as a side note - I just used up the last of my HSA. $1000.00 for the year, and still 2 months to go.

Lately I've been a lot more social. Which means going out with friends to parties, bars, restaurants, ect. Which means spending money. And I've been spending way too much. I just need to focus again.

SO I declined going out last night & tonight. Made my meals at home. Did some laundry & dishes. And watched free movies from Redbox.

I've premade meals for work tomorrow and I plan on going to my Weight Watcher's meeting and heading straight home tomorrow night. No going out for me

Now I'm enjoying an episode of The Big Bang Theory. I keep getting the random joke references they make - which makes me feel both nerdy and proud! I just got a good reference to the 1930's movie Freaks. Go me

Just a quick note. The heat is still off. I had turned it on for that day or so last week, but its back off. Currently its 67 degrees in my living room, so I'm definately not suffering

Today was really busy. I went to lunch with my parents and some family friends. I ran errands, returned some clothes, took movies back to Redbox, got some groceries and bought a new cat carrier (last one was broken and not fixable).

I took the cat to the vet, where she had some shots and her nails clipped. Then she went to the bathroom in the brand new carrier, poor thing. I must have grabbed her to go right before she would have hit the litter box.

So I came home, I had to give her a bath...not a fun experience. Then I washed out the carrier with vinegar & water. Then I had to put all my smelly clothes (from holding her at the vet) into the washer.

I ended up doing 3 loads of wash and only 1 load went into the dryer.

Tonight I'm planning on playing around with budgets for November, for paying off the student loan & for building up my emergency fund.

I was planning on catching the end of the Phillie's game 5, but it was postponed until tomorrow night. So instead, I'll be watching tv & vegging.

Tomorrow is my do nothing day. I plan on staying in, making my own food, watching a bunch of horror movies, having a big bowl of popcorn, and maybe doing some stuff around the house if I feel like it. So basically, just being lazy!!

Did some clothes & Christmas shopping this weekend. I splurged on myself and got a lot of clothes, shoes & accessories. Got some great deals and a lot of stuff! I had the money in my clothing fund, so it was all paid for by cash.

I had a $20.00 mall gift card, a $10.00 coupon to Victoria's Secret, a coupon for free undies from V.S., and a $10.00 of coupon for Yankee candle. I was able to get a lot of gifts for low cost. Very nice!

I previously mentioned turning on my heat. It stayed on for 2 days, after which I turned it back off since my sinus & ear infections cleared up and the temps went back up a little. I'm hoping to keep it off again, at least until the end of the week (November).

I received the electric bill today... $55.60 down from last month's $61.77. Woohoo!

This week, I'm on vacation. My plans are to do some decorating around the house, maybe some painting. I want to do some organizing, some cleaning. And with the remaining time, I want to rest. Just give myself some down time.

Its been stressful at work lately and I was really sick the last few weeks. I wasn't even able to take a sick day to get myself healed. Nobody would have stopped me from taking one, but I was really needed at work.. so I just pushed myself. Now I'm paying. So I plan on catching up on my sleep, recharging my batteries and getting ready for the holidays.

I have books to read, movies (from the library) to watch, and a bunch of projects that I want, but do not need, to do.

I love this time of year & have been on a big horror movie kick. I've been utilizing the cable and the library to watch a bunch of horror movies, and today I picked up 3 from Redbox for free with a coupon code. I love free!

Hope everyone has a good week. I'll try to post this week, but I make no promises

Had to turn on the heat tonight. The living room has been 61/62 in the afternoon/evening, probably a little lower in the night. Outdoors has been about 45-50 degrees. Tonight temps are supposed to go WAY down and while I've been pretty comfortable, I'm sick right now and the cold is messing with my sinuses. Sinus AND an ear infection. Lucky me.

So, I'm going to turn on the heat to 65 and I'll turn it down when I go to bed. I've put the down comforter on my bed, have pulled out the sweaters and I'll be setting the programmable thermostat to kick in right before I get up for work, to go lower during the day & kick back in right before I get home from work. Hopefully it won't turn on too much.

Anyway, I'm just trying to make it through work tomorrow and then I'm on vacation for 9 days! I have plans for Christmas shopping and doing some stuff around the house. But first I have to rest up and get better.

Tonight, I'm watching The Strangers. I love, love, love horror movies. A friend had rented it from Blockbuster & offered it to me to watch. All I have to do is return it to the Blockbuster, which is right near my work. Easy to do & I got a free movie out of it!

Got a nasty cold and am feeling down right yucky. If there wasn't so much going on at work, I'd stay home tomorrow. So to cheer myself up, here's some numbers!

Today, I spent:

- $3.70 on breakfast & lunch at work because I was feeling too sick to make anything myself.

I received:

- 1 large box of Snowcaps candy from a coworker
- $20.00 gift card to the local mall from my employer

The mailman brought:

- $25.00 Pier One gift card from My Points
- $10.00 off $25.00 purchase to Lowes coupon

My current healthcare plan is:

- Going up $12.00/paycheck or $288.00/year for 2009

A similar healthcare plan option is:

- $10.50/paycheck LESS than my current plan for 2008
- Which is $252.00 LESS than my 2008 plan
- And $540.00 LESS than my current plan for 2009

My current Dental plan is:

- Increasing $0.25/paycheck. In 2009

The alternate Dental Plan is:

- $1.90/paycheck LESS than I am currently paying

(I would like to mention that the two plans are pretty much identical, just with two different companies – both of which prominent in my state)


My Health Care Spending Account will save me an estimated:

- $226.50 Tax Savings

Total Student Loan Payments this paycheck:

- $169.06

And the best number yet...........

.....
.....

Total paid to student loans in 2008 to date:

$8475.20 !!!!!!!!!!!!

I packed breakfast & lunch for work. On the way home, I went to the grocery store and picked up romaine, cucumbers & tomatoes for $6.50. Not too bad.

No heat on right now. My goal is to keep it off at least til November. It helps that the temps have increased a little.

I've already packed food for work tomorrow. I'm heading out to happy hour after work. Expected spending (bringing cash), $15.00.

Saturday, I'm probably going to head into work to get ahead on some stuff. Then Sat night I'm going to a party. Just have to bring some beer with me.

Sunday will be a complete stay at home day. I'm thinking I might try a hand at making pizza dough. I can freeze what I don't eat.

Work is tense right now. The people I work closest with are all competing for a limited number of positions. Not pleasant since I consider them all hard workers.

Tomorrow's happy hour is with people at work, but not directly in my department. I'm interested in hearing their take on things.

Layoffs at work today. I don't really want to talk about it, but just to say that I spent most of today waiting to hear my status.

Some were let go, some were given options to do different things (in a lesser position) or to take severence. I am one of the few in my area whose position remains unchanged. I will take on different responsibilites, but in a good way.

I'm fairly new to this position (compared to others) and people who had been with the company MUCH longer were not spared. I feel relieved and guilty at the same time.

They rolled out of the situation in a way that was secretive. So rumors flew and I was left at my desk for hours waiting for my turn to get info. They were doing things one by one.

I have a plan if I was laid off, but I know there are people in my office that don't have plans or emergency funds. I am sad for the whole situation.

In other news, my heat is STILl off, today was a no spender. I've already packed all my food for work tomorrow.

I am heading to my parents house to fix my sister's computer and just to talk things out with my dad. I've never been in a layoff position before, but he has. And I think it would be good to get some perspective.

Its chilly here and I wanted something warm for dinner. So I thawed spagetti sauce with ground beef, mushrooms, peppers and onions that I had made last week and froze. Then I made a single serving of spaghetti, and took 2 slices of wheat bread and turned it into garlic bread. It totally hit the spot!

I've noticed that when I am focused on Weight Watchers, that I save money because I eat a true portion size, instead of overeating. Which, in turn, helps my grocery bill!

Otherwise, bought some veggies and cat food today. All budgeted. No entertainment spending/eating out today.

Still no heat on