I baked 2 dozen Blueberry Banana muffins last night. Yummy. Ate a few & froze the rest.

Tonight I made 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies. Most of which, I'll be taking into work tomorrow.

Its cold in my house right now. 49 degrees outside, 63 inside. Not too bad with the heat off. But I'm chilly. The stove kept the kitchen warm for awhile, but now I'm freezing again. I'm layering up and am cozying up on the couch with a blanket. My goal is to keep the heat off as absolutely long as possible. I get cold fairly easy, so I have to work hard to stay warm

And since my entertainment budget is blown with a work lunch out today, I am making plans for the weekend. Watching my nephew for a few hours tomorrow night. Doing some computer work at my parents on Saturday. Saturday night will be movie night in. Sunday will be a cleaning day.

I have to pick up cat litter and some veggies after work tomorrow, but after that, except for going to my parents (who live 10 minutes away), I really don't have a need to leave the house. No heat, no gas, no spending

Got paid today. Paid my mortgage & normal monthly bills. Put gas in my car and put $237.00 in an extra payment to my student loan.

I put the extra money from the electric budget ($37.23) and a few other catagories into savings. I like to build up a small amount in a freedom account for any expected 'unexpected' expenses (if you know what I mean).

Since I have all these planned savings and planned overpayment of my student loan, I sometimes have a tight month cash/spending wise. But its by choice. I want to meet my goals and for the most part its not a hardship for me to do so.

Last month, I had a lot of events - camping, a concert, and a wedding. So I spent more entertainment/gifts wise. So this motnh the entertainment budge is a little smaller

I also filled up the tank and made a BIG grocery run. I plan on doing some baking and I wanted to try making my own bread. Now I'm set except for getting some more milk and veggies later next week.

So now, after all is said and done, I've got a small amount left for discretionary spending.

From today until the 15th, I have:
-$16.02 in the gas budget (But I usually only fill up once a pay period).
-$36.96 for groceries
-$19.21 for entertainment/spending (this was already a lower amount than usual)
-$6.00 for cat litter
-$15.28 for personal items (really need to stock up in this catagory)

My goal is to stick to all of those budgeted amounts. To not go over in any catagory AND to not move funds from one to another. Its doable, mainly I just need to plan food and keep myself entertained VERY cheaply

Luckily, there's a lot of good tv on right now. And what I don't watch during the week, I can catch up on with Comcast On Demand and the internet

For meals,

I plan on having oatmeal for breakfast, tomato & cucumber salad & a cheese sandwich for lunch. Dinner will be pasta most likely

Thursday: Cheerios & milk for breakfast, pasta salad for lunch, meatloaf muffins for dinner.

Friday: Cheerios & milk for breakfast, salad w/ meat for lunch, tacos for dinner.

Happy 1st day of Fall! I'm enjoying having the windows open

Today, I went over in my grocery budget. It resets on the 15th, but I'm probably going to need one more run to the produce stand in the meantime.

I went over knowingly though. I found a good deal on blueberrys (end of season?) and bought 4 pints. I've already frozen them and will use them in blueberry banana muffins. Very healthy muffins and much less calories than store bought ones, which is great since I'm doing Weight Watchers. Blueberry muffins are kind of my guilty pleasure

I have already prepacked food for tomorrow and have snacks to put in my desk drawer.

I worked out for 1/2 an hour tonight and plan on taking a walk tomorrow. Either heading out to a local park or just walking around the neighborhoods close to mine.

Its a happy Friday for me because I have a day off from work and the only goal I have is to do nothing I have the windows open and its almost chilly in the living room.

I'm still in my pajamas. I already made breakfast and lunch and am watching an Agatha Christie movie "Murder Most Foul". I REALLY love mystery movies.

Its been a busy week for me, and the down time is much needed. And as a side benefit, today will be a no spender because I am staying home all day.

A/C is still off. I've up to 13 days of no A/C this billing period.

Yesterday, I stocked up on books, cookbooks and movies from the library.

I got a TON of free stuff from our work outing on Wednesday. In addition to the free lunch and fun that we had, I took home a bunch of leftovers. 3 cans of soda, a bottle of water and a HUGE catering pan of salad. With all the good greens, peppers, cucumber, and more.

Stopped me from having to go to the produce stand for a full veggie trip. I just quickly grabbed tomatoes (1.46) and carrots (2lbs for $1.49). Saved approximately $6-8 dollars.

And I had a nice big salad for lunch and am planning another with dinner

I did some grocery shopping this week and was able to get some good deals. I've also had to change the way I buy some things due to packaging downsizes and/or prices.

Doing Weight Watchers, I consider 8 oz yogurt a serving. Only Acme carried the individual 8 oz yogurts. but they just downsized to 6oz. So I have switched to the 32 oz Dannon container and am just portioning it out into plastic containers for easy travel to work.

At the Acme, I was able to get a couple of good deals, including .... 101 oz Olive Oil for $9.99!!! A good deal around here is 50 oz for 9.99, so this was a steal!

I spent some time at the Dollar store yesterday. I needed to stock up on cleaning supplies, hand soap, and food storage containers.

I also scored with large bags of hashbrown potatoes at the dollar store. Its tough to find any frozen potatoes where the only ingredient IS potatoes. So I bought two!

On my grocery list was popcorn kernals. Acme had a 2 pound jug of them for... get this... $6.99! Walmart, where I usually get the popcorn was $3.99, up from $3.49. But now they carry a 2 lb bag of generic kernals for $1.50. Great deal compared to Acme's $6.99! And I just put the kernels into the old jug from my last purchase.

Soda prices are increasing and since I already have an unhealthy addiction, I'm working hard to cut back on my soda use. I'm drinking more water and I made a pitcher of generic crystal light fruit punch. No soda today so far.

I've started thinking about Christmas and plan to make my list this weekend. I have rough ideas, but I'm going to nail down gifts for each of the people on my list. Also, my Mom's birthday is coming up. I got her a book for $7.99 and I plan on cooking dinner for her and my dad.

This weekend, I have to get a wedding gift from Bed, Bath & Beyond. I have a 20% off coupon and plan to spend about $25.00.

So lots of spending, but a very tight budget. I'm hoping to save money any way that I can, including coming underbudget in my entertainment catagory. Time to get creative!

Lots of stuff going on. Cleaning, organizing, laundry, ect.

Returned a poncho to Kmart since it was unopened during the camping trip. $4.99 back in my pocket.

Returned the dress that I had bought for a wedding. Using one from my own closet

Did 3 loads of laundry today, only used the dryer once. And thats because I ran out of doors to hang the sheets/blankets on - no outdoor drying line.

Turned A/C back off tonight, although it wasn't running all that much even when its on. Its nice to have the fresh air coming through the house! I've guestimated that I've had 10 A/C off days in this billing period, which doesn't end til the 27th.

I'm working on my grocery budget. Its been challanging to eat healthier on a strict budget.

Packed breakfast and lunch today, but splurged on a soft pretzel. I've already packed breakfast for work tomorrow, but no need to pack lunch! We're having a work outing at a local state park. Free subs, yum.

I have a great idea for the outing tomorrow. Since the park charges by the car, not the person, we're parking in a local shopping center and carpooling into the park. We should be done around 2, I'll carpool back to my car and then I'm going to use the parking pass that the driver used and head back into the park for an hour walk. Gotta work off that sub

Packed breakfast for work, but forgot (translated into was too lazy to make) lunch. So I spent 1.03 on a salad, .55 on a soft pretzel, and .85 on baked doritos. I did have dinner at home though!

And I spent some time this evening making a large salad with pasta for lunch tomorrow.

Today, the A/C was off all day, and it rained earlier, so its nice and cool with just a tad of humidity. I am getting excited for Fall. I get this sorta nesting feeling this time of year. I want to bring out blankets and candles and prepare to snuggle

Tomorrow, I am heading to my parents house after work. I'm supposed to watch my nephew for a few hours and set up my dad's new computer. I will probably get dinner out of it.

I have to prep for my camping trip. Pick up a poncho (roughly $7) since its going to rain this weekend. I'm sharing a tent with some friends (free). My share of the camp site for the weekend was $20.00. And two of the girls are going to buy food on Thursday night, so I'm looking at probably another $20.00 towards that. I am really excited to be going, even with rain!

And, I forget if I mentioned this or not, but I'm going to a wedding at the end of the month and its pretty fancy. So I went shopping last weekend for a dress. Is it me, or did all the stores stop carrying dresses except for in the juniors department? I finally found on, which I liked all right, but was pretty expensive. Well, I remembered the cute dress that I wore to my high school reunion last year and suddenly I have a dress that I love! Taking back that other one on Thursday!

I ended up going to a party last night instead of staying in. Brought some drinks from my fridge as a contribution, so no out of pocket spent.

This morning, I slept in, made breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. Premade food for tomorrow. Deep cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the living room. Cleaned the upstairs bath including lots of scrubbing. Did three loads of laundry and only used the dryer once for bathmats. Hung everything else inside.

I cleaned out the closet and put together four more large bags of clothes to donate. Mostly went through old suits and dress clothes that no longer fit and are not needed in my current work situation.

I painted my toes, gave myself a facial, organized my jewelry. Played with the cats, talked to some friends, made lists of things to do and goals

And I still managed to watch some tv, take a nap, and generally enjoy myself. I feel like I got a LOT accomplished!

The A/C has been off since last night. And the best part was that today was a no spender.

Went to the movies and an early dinner with mom today. She needed some cheering up and it was well worth it, but it was spending (from my entertainment budget) that I was hoping to avoid today. Oh well.

Turned the AC back on this evening. Its very hot and humid and unlike most days in the last two weeks, I'll actually be home tonight and all day tomorrow. Might was well be comfortable.

I am working on a meal plan for the week. I'm hoping to not spend any money Monday through Thursday. No eating out, no snacks at work, no happy hours. It used to be that these days were common, but lately, I've been all over the place with my spending. Time to get back on track.

I earned a $25.00 Amazon gift certificate from a credit card that I use & pay off each time. It was a planned benefit and that gift certificate is going towards my Christmas shopping.

I also stocked up on soda at the store today. Its rare to see a sale on 12 packs at 5 for $10.00. So I stocked up. I then took the codes from the 12 packs and signed up for Pepsi Stuff for the first time. Sometime next year, I might get something free from that. Never hurts. I'm also going to ask coworkers to give me their points if they're not using them.

I turned the A/C off Thursday night and its been off ever since. Weather has been beautiful here. Lots of breezes and fresh air blowing through the house. I'm loving it! Plus so little electric used!

Today I was going to head to the beach, but I woke up in the middle of the night with the nastiest sinus headache and I decided that the beach wasn't such a great idea after losing hours of sleep.

So I slept in, took a drive through a very scenic area about a half hour away and then went to a different, but local State Park. $3.00 admission, since I never got around to buying my yearly pass. This trail was 3.6 miles. It should have been an hour hike, but... took a wrong turn on the trail and ended up backtracking a bit due to some missing signage. I ended up hiking for an additional 40 minutes! I was beat by the time that I was done, but I made it

No eating out today. I made myself breakfast at home. A sandwich for lunch at home. And I'll be making dinner at home later. I was thinking about getting some take out since I'm 'on vacation'. But I'll be having dinner out with friends tomorrow, so I'd better save it for then!

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

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