HouseHappy's Personal Finance Blog

I was all excited that I received notice that the book The Total Money Makeover was available for me to pick up at my local library! During my lunch, I drove over to the library only to find it closed! Thursday is their normal closed day & I forgot! For some reason, I keep thinking today is Wednesday! Ooops! So now I have to wait until tomorrow

Today was a no spend day... the first of the month! I packed all my food & drinks for work today & I have meal plans for Friday and Saturday.

I'll have completed 10 hours of OT by Friday, and if there are any hours available on Sunday, then I'll work then too.

Yesterday I sent an additional $75.00 payment to my school loan.

I was paid on the 30th, paid all my bills that I pay out of that check. Then I set aside cash for expected expenses between now & the 15th. Since I received the $50.00 visa gift card for my birthday, I decided to use that for some of my expected spending (groceries & gas) and use that extra $50.00 cash towards the student loan. I also used a 10.00 deposit (received for signing up on e-statements on my checking). I also squeezed another 15.00 from the budget.

So between now & the 15th, when I get paid again, I have:

$18.75 Spending money
$40.00 gas money
$10.00 gift (need to plan for mothers day)
$20.00 oil change (need to do asap)
$20.00 medical (expected 3 month supply of 1 prescription)
$6.03 clothes (which I'll be carrying into June)

Plus I have some money sitting in my house checking, ready for my mortgage, water, ect.

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey pretty regularly, so I decided to get the Total Money Makeover from the library again. I'll be picking it up on my lunch break. I'm excited to re-read it.

My goal for May is to limit my discretionary spending as much as possible. I need to prepare for the loss of overtime at the end of May. I also need to look to find alternate sources of income. Fun stuff

And for any Lost fans out there... did you see last nights episode?!? It was SO good. I hear the season finale is going to be a 2 hour episode! Woo hoo!

Today the road in front of my work was closed due to a school bus driver being stabbed to death on the side of the road. If you look at the attached link, the brick building in the background is my work.

Luckily, this occurred before any children had been picked up on her route. But still it is such a sad thing. She was only 31 years old. I feel for her family and friends.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/NEWS/70502019

What really gets me is that people were more concerned with being late to work than with this tragedy. I don't know if its desensitization to violence or just plain selfishness, but I don't understand why my coworkers aren't more affected by what happened.

I ended up at the Dollar store yesterday & ended up with a bunch of stuff. I got sandwich bags, snack bags, freezer bags and aluminum foil. All of which I last bought (from the dollar store) when I moved in October. So they lasted a long time. I also got a container that I can put my cat food in since the bag keeps ripping open & I ended up with stray cat food in the kitchen. Then I got a couple of birthday, congratulations and thank you cards (all .50 each!). I also picked up a couple of gift bags for my gift box that I keep for unplanned gift giving.

AND the best thing... I bought 2 large posters of Spiderman for my nephew. He can hang them in his bedroom with the Batman posters that he already has. Very cute

I never checked my mail on Saturday and I grabbed it on the way into work this morning. It’s a good thing that I looked through it before I went to the doctors. In the mail was an offer where you get $25.00 off any purchase if you bring a new prescription into the local Happy Harrys. So I took my antibiotic in. They wouldn’t allow me apply the $25.00 to the prescription (which ended up being 8.92), so I got a $20.00 gift card to the store, to use for future prescriptions. And I go some candy, a drain strainer for the kitchen sink, and a body poof for the additional 5.00. I had returned something to Lowes earlier that day and was issued a 9.91 credit on my Chase Amazon card, so that, combined with the $25.00 statement credit paid for my co-pay & prescription, so it was no money out of checking. And I still have 5.99 left on the credit 

Then, for my family birthday, we went to Texas Roadhouse. Very yummy. My sister gave me a $50.00 visa gift card (which was really too much), my 6 year old nephew gave me an XBOX game (Spiderman… more for him than me), and my parents gave me a digital camera. Its pretty nice, not the one I was drooling over. But seriously, I never would have bought that one, it was way too much. I am SO psyched over the camera! I plan on taking lots of pictures & sharing!

So just to tally for April, I received a 25.00 Chase credit, a 5.00 Pinecone check, 20.00 Happy Harry’s gift card, 5.00 of free stuff from Happy Harrys, and a $50.00 gift card! I also got those pillows, a couple of really nice dinners, and the digital camera! For May, I’m looking at a $400.00 gift card from work (I made the 160% production), and a $10-20.00 deposit in my checking.

And here’s some April Totals:

April ING interest $39.18
April Emigrant interest $9.70
April Savings Total $3328.04

Ugh, after a real weekend off (first in quite a while), I went back to work today for some overtime. I'm working 8am to 2pm, then I'll run a few errands. I have a 3:15 doctors appointment & my family is taking me out to dinner tonight for my birthday.

I plan on being home by 8-ish. So I can premake food for tomorrow and then sit down to watch the new episode of Heros. I am SO addicted. By the way, any Veronica Mars fans out there-- the new season starts Tuesday! I love my shows

I packed my food for work today, but I will be shelling out for the office visit & medicine. Oh well, I have the money for it. I'll use the 25.00 credit I have on my chase amazon credit card, and I have some money sitting in my medical fund.

I have a whole to do list for this week, entailing cleaning & organizing around the house. I also want to gather some video games and some dvds to sell in the resale shop. Due to my planned and unplanned spending for this month, I didn't put ANY of my overtime money towards savings out of my paycheck today. So I am looking at other ways to do that. Every little bit counts.

I am happy to note that I have not turned on the heat. I am using the fans some, but not a lot. My electric/gas bill went down consideribly and should be even lower for May.

I also put an ad up on Craigslist to rent my room out. I had a couple of interested parties. I'm still not 100% committed to renting the room out to somebody that I don't know, so I figure I'm going to go really slow about this

Well, my ear infection is back & since I didn't use my primary care for the first appointment, the only way I'm going to get antibiotic is to go in to see her, so I'll be spending $20.00 for the office visit & $10.00 for the generic antibiotic. Not fun.

I'll be heading in for overtime tomorrow, I'll be working around whatever time I can get the doctors appointment.

I have to call & set up an appointment for someone to come in & get the large bees nest in my gutter. I'm not able to take care of it myself. I'm probably looking at $100.00 for the visit

Today, I bought groceries (part of the normal budget) and new sneakers. I got a pair of New Balance for 32.00 on sale. My last pair of sneakers lasted about 5 years, so I don't mind spending a little more to get long term wear out of them. My old sneakers were ruined when I mowed my lawn. (I didn't think ahead and they turned green). Well, they were pretty grungy anyway & since I wear jeans & sneakers to work on Fridays & Saturdays, so its definately time to get a new pair.

I've been shopping around for furniture for my deck. I think I found the set I like, and its a little more than I was wanting to spend, but definately less than most places. Then again, I might hold off on buying a table & chairs altogether. Mainly because I don't know what I want.

On the upside, money-wise. I got a 25.00 credit on my chase amazon credit card. They had a promotion, so I used it for some normal purchases (paid it off immediately) and got the $25.00 credit. I've also received a $5.00 Pinecone check.

Also, I'm looking at $10 to $20 for switching to online statments for my checking accounts. I'm not sure if I'll get $20.00 since I technically have 2 accounts with the same bank, but we'll see. The deposit will be made to the account by 5/30/07.

AND the best expected income is a gift card that I'm hoping to win at work. If I make 160% of my personal expected production for April, I'll get a $400.00 gift card to wherever I want. As of Thursday, I was at 174%! I'll probably ask for a prepaid visa card, so I can spend it as I like.

Well, I'm hoping that May will be as frugal a month as possible. I'm reviewing my monthly budget & I'm going to try to find some areas that I can do better. There always are

I'm having a great birthday weekend Friday night, my nephew came over for a sleepover. We watched movies, played video games, ate junk food... all the stuff an aunt can do before sending him home to his mom

Yesterday my best friends took me out to a fabulous dinner. Italian food... I had crab dip, cavatelli pomadoro, and tiramisu. VERY Yummy!

Then we went to Pier One for some quick shopping. I ended up loving some pillows for my couch & my one friend grabbed them from me & bought them as my birthday present. Here are some pictures. I already had the all blue pillows, the striped & embroidered ones are the presents







Then we went back to my place, had margaritas, snacks & watched movies. We had a lot of fun!

I found my way to the blog Iwillteachyoutoberich.com and found an interesting post. The author asked readers to share their debt stories. It was a very interesting read. If you want to check it out, just go to

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/tell-me-a-story-about-your-debt

Well, I was sick for about a week and a half. Lots of time off work (all paid), but no overtime. This week, I'm still recovering, so I've decided to do no OT this week either. Plus, I've already scheduled off for Friday & Saturday for my birthday.

On the spending front, I've been very very bad. Being so sick, I haven't been feeling like cooking, so I had some food delivered & my mom dropped some stuff off for me (which I reimbursed her for).

Plus I ended up in the doctors office twice, once on the weekend. Since my primary doctor doesn't work weekends, I ended up in the local medical center (not hospital). I had to pay a $30.00 specialist copay instead of my normal $20.00 copay, plus all the meds, but it was necessary & I'm FINALLY feeling better.

On the planned spending side-- I bought a push lawn mower. $134.99 from Sears (with my parents retiree discount). Then I bought a bike chain & tarp to cover it since the townhouse doesn't have storage for the mower.

Although I spent most of my time last week sleeping, I did get the energy to go buy handles and pulls for the vanities on both bathrooms. They were gold, but all the fixtures on the bathrooms are silver, so I switched them over.

Then I bought some Allen wrenches ($17.99) in an effort to fix the existing towel bar that keeps falling. It didn't work, so now I have to buy a towl rack. I'm getting sick of hanging the towels on the door & over the shower curtain pole. I'm keeping the Allen wrenches though, because they'll come in handy for later projects.

And while I was sitting on the couch all week recovering, I found out that I have bees. Big ones with a nest that's in my gutter. Lucky me... why, oh why couldn't one of my neighbors get it?? There's no way I'm going to be able to get up there to spray the nest, and no spray will reach it since its on the roof, so I"m going to have to hire somebody.

AND the worst part about being sick was that my bedroom tv broke, so I couldn't lie comfortably in my bed, I had to veg on the couch for the time that I was awake.

When I first started having problems with the tv, I actually took it apart, fiddled around with some wires and it worked fine again. Then it completely blew up the other day. Definately not fixable.

So I'm in search of a new tv. I know its a bad habit, but I fall asleep to the tv and I'm having a hard time without the white noise. I think I've found a good price on one, I've been doing a lot of research. So I'm going to pick one up tonight after work.

On the upside, I haven't used my heat in about 2 weeks. All the windows are open & in the last 2 days, I started using ceiling fans. Only in the room that I am currently in. I can't wait to see my electric/gas bill this month

And here's a cute story about my 6 year old nephew! Last weekend he went to TWO birthday sleepovers for friends. On Monday, my mom was telling him that it's Aunt H's birthday this week and she asked him what do you think we should do for it. He says to her "Oh, maybe she'll have a sleepover!" And I know in his head, he was picturing my parents, him, my sister & some of my friends all having a sleepover It was very cute.

So I decided to have him over for a sleepover on Friday, then on Saturday I'm going out with my best friends, Sunday will be family stuff.

I'm hoping to be on track with spending. I need to hit the grocery store & organize some stuff around the house.. its gotten a bit messy due to being sick.

Up until this year, I've always been on my family's AAA membership. I've used the services a few times & I really feel that its important to have that help since I'm a single woman who knows nothing about cars

So this year, I signed up for the AAA membership on my own, since my primary address is now different than my family's. I used a link through MyPoints, saving $10.00 off the annual fee, and getting 2 extra months as part of the deal. Then I used my Chase credit card, which had a $10.00 credit from making $100 of purchases last month. I had put my gas and groceries on there and paid it off immediately. So my true out of pocket expense for the membership was $39.50! Plus I'll get points towards a gift card through mypoints.

I feel like I got a GREAT deal!

I went to work yesterday & ended up leaving on a 1/2 day due to being sick. I called off work today too. I'm starting to feel better, so I've been playing around with my crappy free digital camera. After some fiddling, I got it working again. (PS, I should warn you, I'm a little silly due to the cold/flu meds I've taken)

So I took pictures of the abandoned piece of lumber on my property and posted it free on Craigslist. If someone comes & takes it away, it'd be a huge help to me



Then I took a picture of my cat Colbi, cause she's just so darn cute.



Then I took some pictures of my spare room. I put an add up on Craigslist earlier this week, and I wanted to email some photos to the replies.





Since todays a really nice day... the first one in a week or 2, I have all the windows open. And today I found out that I have a nest of HUGE bees. They're not the bumble variety, but the really HUGE ones! I think I see a nest on eave of the 2nd floor. Its something I'm not goign to be able to take care of by myself, safely. So it looks like I'm going to have to hire someone. Plus I think there might be a 2nd nest on the roof. I saw a dozen of those bee things today. Definately needs to be handled soon.

Oh well, I'm going back to work tomorrow, it'll be a slow day since its Saturday & I am feeling better. Then I'll have Sunday off again & if I feel like it, I'll do a little overtime on Monday.

Well, I won't be doing any overtime this week. I stayed home sick today and I've slept most of it. Since I'm used to working over 60 hours a week, the fact that I'll only be working normal hours should be helpful when I go back tomorrow. Instead of working a 10 or 11 hour day, it'll just be 8

So I'll get to sleep in a little & take it easy. I think I just have a virus, so I didn't go to the doctors. But I don't feel bad enough to justify staying home again tomorrow. AND I don't want to waste my sick time.

Well, I'll have to bust my butt on the OT next week. We'll see how it goes.

I feel happy that, although its been pouring non-stop since yesterday & the wind is really howling, I haven't needed to turn on the heat in a couple of days. Its a litle chilly, but I just put on my slippers & the cozy robe that I bought on sale recently. I can't wait til it turns warm & I can keep the windows open.

I've been working hard at overtime, working nearly 7 days a week. Its something Big that I've been doing to meet my savings goals, but it has been taking its toll on my health. So I'm going to slow it down some & if I don't meet my goals by the time the overtime stops in May, then so be it. I'll find other ways to do it.

I worked 6 hours of OT today & originally I was going to work 7 or 8 hours tomorrow. But since my stomach problems have been acting up, I'm going to see how I feel when I get up, but if I do go in, I'm only going to work 4 or 5 hours. Then I'll doze away the afternoon on the couch

I premade food for tomorrow, so if I do go in, I have food to take & lunch to come home to Dinner will be a veggie burger & baked fries, both of which are in my freezer.

I was asked in my last post what my savings goals are for 2007, so I am here to answer I also updated savings figures to the left.

First, I'd like to say that I've been very fortunate to have overtime available to me since January. This has negated taking on a second job and/or a roommate, which I originally planned to do.

I had several savings goals for 2007:

One of which is to track my spending to the cent for the full year (which I have been doing). Tracking has curbed [some] of my spending.

Another is that I put extra money towards my student loans each month (an average of $200.00 currently).

Here are some specific numbers for my savings catagories. The funds are held in ING & Emigrant Direct accounts.

Emergency Fund to: $6,500.00
Car Repair Fund: $500.00 [done]
Vet Fund (for yearly check & misc)$250.00 [done]
Christmas 2007: 400.00 [done]
New to Me Car Fund (not looking to buy for a few years yet) $2500.00 [done]
House Expense Fund includes:
-HOA fee 2008 $90.00 [done]
-Sewer bill 2008: $200.00 [done]
-Lawn Mower Fund (to be purchased soon) $200.00[done]
-Landscaping (i.e plants) 50.00 [done]
-Deck Furniture $300.00 [done]
Plus I'm using interest for Misc House Stuff: 33.55 total (so far)

I've overexaggerated the amount needed on some of the goals, just to give myself a cushion.

My savings had been good this year due to overtime, an unexpectedly large tax refund, and a small inheritance.

I figured that I'll need to work roughly 100 more hours of overtime to meet my Emergency Fund goal. Definately doable. I've already completed 24.5 hours between last week & this week.

Once I meet my emergency fund goal, I'm going to start paying down the student loans even more aggressively.

Work announced that the overtime will likely go away in late May/early June & the announcement has put me back in focus. I've been a little lax in some of my spending due to the overtime & starting today I'm going to live in my very strict budget that I have set up when there is no overtime. So I'm going to cut down on groceries, eating out & misc spending.

I plan to get a 2nd job and search for a roommate to suppliment my income once the overtime goes away, but in the meantime, I am REALLY going to buckle down. If I start now, then it won't be as much of a shock when my paycheck goes back to base pay only

Also-- I FINALLY got around to playing with my colors. I like the blue, but I may keep playing around with it.

They put our paychecks up online at work a few days before we get paid. So I checked mine today & my paycheck on Friday is going to have 683.90 in overtime money! All of which is going straight to savings! Plus 130.00 from another monthly bill that I only pay 8 months of the year! So it'll be a total of $813.90 to savings on Friday.

I only worked 3.5 hours of OT last week, but I"m going to do between 14 and 20 hours this week (depending if we are open on Sunday). I am $1810.86 away from my 2007 savings goal (to be completed by 12/2007). I would have been a lot closer, but I have been throwing some of the extra money at my student loan. Once the savings goal is completed, I'm going to put all extra income towards paying down my student loan.

And here's a few quick updates:
-I spent .55 today for a soft pretzel, although I packed my lunch & snacks today
-Yesterday, I had dinner out with my parents & spent $16.65.
-I had 4 no heat days and I'm back to using the heat, but I am keeping it low.

No spending yesterday or today. For Easter, we had brunch at my sister's work. She and I were to split the bill, but she wouldn't let me. Apparently her boss compped (spelling?) her for 1/2 the bill. So she refused to let me contribute. Which I REALLY appreciate. The brunch was GREAT!

Afterwards, my parents & I went to see The Reaping. My parents treat, they wouldn't let me contribute either.

I got some goodies for Easter- a decorative basket, some toiletries, and a few knick knacks. No candy since dieting.

On Friday, I received a $2,500 check from my Aunt's estate. I've known for a year that this money was coming, and I've planned to set it aside in a New-To-Me Car fund. I figure I've got about 2 or 3 years left in the car I have currently, so it'll come in handy

I'm working 6 hours of overtime tomorrow and then I'll head to the bank to make a deposit.

I have a $5.00 Pinecone check, the $2,500 inheritance check, the cash I had planned to use today and the $40.00 found money from earlier this week. All of which is going into my savings, plus 20.00 of my bimonthly 'spending money' that I'm not going to use before I get paid again.

Tonight I'm working on a meal plan for the week. I'm planning on packing my meals for work through Saturday breakfast, lunch & dinner at work (working 9am to 8pm most days). It's easy to do as long as I plan. I have most of the stuff at home already, but I do need to pick up some veggies from the store tomorrow. I'm hoping to come underbudget on groceries for the next few weeks, since I overspent last month (stocking up on some great sales).

Oh, and because I just got around to totalling my March spending, here's my March savings total! $1179.45

I have accounts with both ING & Emigrant and I've decided to start tracking the monthly interst on savings.

March's total : $42.12
Year to Date: $106.84
Month to Date: $6.46

A digital camera has been on my wish list for a long time. Its definately not something I could put on my birthday wish list (too expensive), so its been sitting on the sidelines. I have no camera at all. The crappy one that I got for opening an account with a local bank died after the first use. And the bank was crappy too, so no shock there.

its sad, but I google cameras on a daily basis. I REALLY want a Sony Cybershot. The version that I like (not the most extravagent) retails for around $150.00. I have been looking at alternatives, so if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

I've earmarked all my overtime money to savings and when I meet that goal, then its going to my student loan. So I've been thinking of ways to come up with funds for the camera without using the OT.

So I've decided to take the $40.00 of my 'found' money (see today's earlier post) and start off my camera fund. We'll see how it goes from there.

Ironically, one of the things I'd like to do with the camera is take pictures of things I'd like to sell on Craigslist. I defintately wouldn't make enough from the sales to justify the camera, but I'd like to get rid of some stuff since its clutter.

I am SO anti clutter. I came from a home overrun with stuff and junk and space-wasting crap. Its REALLY bad. And I just can't take it. So while I may let a pile of clothes grow in the corner of my bedroom, and I may leave the sales inserts on the coffee table for a few days, for the most part I am organized. And that comes from being clutter free. Now I just have to get rid of some stuff from the basement and I'll be all set

I just realized that today is my 1 year Blogiversary! Its great to see what's changed in the last year. I've taken a more active approach to finances, bought a house, changed jobs and much more!

I've learned a lot from the people on this site and I've gotten a lot of support. So thank you all! This is a great group to be a part of!

AND as a nice surprise, I found $40.00 today! I was cleaning out some old photos/memorabilia that I had taken from my great aunt's house and I found the money tucked into an envelope. (She was known for hiding money all over the place). Since my mom is the beneficiary of the estate, I called her to let her know I found the money & she told me to go ahead & keep it. I'm turning around & using it as part of my contribution to Easter Sunday brunch. It was a planned expense, but now I'll be putting that $40 I had planned to use into savings.

Also, in an effort to be more healthy, I've been walking some. But on rainy days I've been doing nothing. Since I'm into video games, I've been toying with buying this game called Dance, Dance Revolution, which requires you to step around on this dance pad (its a VERY active game). My friends had bought the game a year ago & never play it, so I borrowed the game and the dance pad from them. Well, the pad was broken, so I sucked it up and bought a new pad online for $13.00. I'm taking the money out of my 'Entertainment' budget. As soon as it arrives, I'm going to use it as an alternative to walking! I'm very excited because the game is fun

I've taken a break on the overtime this week (just to give myself some 'time off'). I'm started back today and will get in enough next week to make up for the time off this week. I still have that goal of an average of 10 hours of overtime per month.

Oh, and one last thing! While yesterday was a no spend day, today was not. I ordered that dance pad and I had lunch out. All within my budget. My mini goal is to have no spend days all next week!

I spent all day yesterday enjoying 70 degree weather. I had all the windows open, a nice warm breeze flowing through the house. But when I got up this morning, it was about 60 degrees! I am SO glad I was off yesterday to enjoy the weather.

I got some cleaning done, took care of all my laundry, and watched back episodes of Lost. Now I"m all caught up. And I feel all happy and organized

Today, I packed my lunch, so its a no spend day for me!

Today is a no spend day! And I'm working 6 hours of OT. When I get home tonight, I'm going to be premaking food for the week and cleaning. I feel better when I'm organized, so I've been working hard at keeping my house clean & planning my food.

I've made a meal plan for the week. Since I'm pretty much working 7 days a week, I'm planning a lunch out each week. Just to give myself a break from working 10 hour days then coming home to cook. Its all within my budget, and my diet. As long as I plan ahead

I'm going to get my March totals together. I've been keeping up my goal of tracking ALL spending for the year. 3 months down, 9 to go!

Just paid 165.45 to savings! Now I'm $2,721.42 away from my 2007 goal!

I've been looking at this goal as almost a debt to myself. I owe it to me to get the rest of the amount by the end of the year

I'm keeping up with the overtime- Working about 11 hours this week. I have worked 53.5 hours of overtime for the month of March (Up from 40 hours in February).

I'm going to aim for 60 hours in April. Definately doable !!

UGH. Since when are my copays for office visits $20.00? Oh yeah, since 2007. I remember waaay back in 2005, when my office copay was $5.00 and my SPECIALIST copay was $15.00! Geeze. I don't want to think about what its going to be like in 2010!

Ok, sorry for the sarcasm, its all out now. I feel better

Well, for the $20.00, I got to talk to my doctor about my migranes, get 3 prescriptions AND to schedule a follow up in 2 months.

I've always had migranes, but they've been more severe and frequent in the last 3 months. So I'm hoping these meds will help. I'll be taking a daily med for prevention, a medicine to take when the migrane starts & and a high-falooting pain med that WILL make me very goofy, but definately feel better. Hopefully this will help

On the upside, I packed all my food for work today, but they treated us to pizza so that was nice. Yesterday, they treated us to pasta & salad & my team had an outing. We got to go bowling, which was pretty fun.

I'm giving myself a treat tomorrow & I'm getting something from the salad place I love so much. That'll be dinner for tomorrow night & lunch for Friday. Not too bad for $7.00.

Still working on the OT, but not so much this week. I'm getting back on board tomorrow. I just had to enjoy the nice weather we've been having.

Oh, and so far I've lost 6.5 lbs on the weight watchers. YAY!

I haven't gotten the bill with the breakdown between gas and electric yet, but the website gives me the total and I am happy to say that my electric AND gas went down by $38.19 !! This is based on a much larger month than the February was. So even though there were more days in this cycle, I still paid less.

I really want to see how much my gas usage has changed... mainly because I installed that new programmable thermostat. And I didn't install it until about a week into March, so I still should see more savings in April. I'm also hoping that it'll warm up soon & I won't be using heat as much. I was able to open my windows up on Sunday (it was beautiful out!) but then it was back to heat on Monday.

Overall, I'm happy at the savings and the extra between what I budgeted and the actual amount will be going directly into savings!

They served pizza at work today & tomorrow they're buying subs us. VERY nice! Just a way to try to gain more interest in overtime, but hey, it works for me!

As for the overtime update: I worked 17.5 hours last week & I'll be doing about 10 this week. I have a few appointments, so I can't come in early 3 of the days I normally do. Still doing well though

After 5 straight no spend days, I spent..

$0.55 on a soft pretzel
$7.80 on a book of stamps
$0.95 on a library fine

I picked up Stephen King's Lisey's Story from the library. I've heard good things about it!

I've had FIVE, yes, FIVE no spend days in a row. Tomorrow may or may not be my 6th. It depends on whether or not I stop at the grocery store on the way home from work. I probably won't, but we'll see

I was browsing links from my public library & I came across a great thing! There's a Delaware Money School. Its a school of free financial education classes! I've signed up for a few, I may know some info, I may learn some new things, but no matter what, it should be interesting.

And its possible that I might meet some like-minded people.

I signed up for:
-Investing for your future
-Women & Wealth
-Think Rich: Mind Your Money
-Everybody Needs a Will

Fun stuff! I'm very excited. Good to see that theres information out there to the public

Fern commented on my last post, which made me realize that there may have been some miscommunication in my last post, so I wanted to clarify.

I'm using my bank's Financial Services Company to sign up and aid in the rollover of my 401k to an mutual funds IRA. This is not a bank account, but an investment account. I have picked several strong funds to work with.

The reason that I chose to do this face to face is that I did my research before hand, but I wanted help in making the conversion as easy as possible. They were able to give me a prospectus for each of the funds (although I already had most of the info from online) and I was able to discuss other options for my finances as well.

I am definately trying to make my money work for me!