I went out last night, so I didn't have time to make food for today. I'm working 7am to 8:30pm today. I packed stuff that I could just grab, so I was covered for breakfast & snacks, but no lunch or dinner. So I ended up ordering with some coworkers.

I love this local salad place. They give you these HUGE salads & large homemade wheat rolls that are bigger than your hand. Very yummy. The salad was large enough to have a third of it & the roll for lunch & I'll eat the other 2/3 for dinner. All for $8.00 including tip. Very yummy!

Tonight, I'll get back to packing food. I only need to make breakfast & lunch for tomorrow. Dinner will be with friends.

My parents friends bought a new grill, so they gave me their old one. Its about 9 years old, but kept in really good shape. My dad is checking it over to make sure its safe, but free is good! Now I just have to learn how to grill

Yesterday, I only worked 3 hours overtime, but I also got my car inspected. So there was some cash out for the 2 year renewal plus gas.

Today, I packed my lunch, so it'll be a no spender. I'm getting a bit bored with the foods that I'm bringing, so I'm going to set aside some time to meal plan some different foods for next week.

Today was pretty much a no spender. I brought all my meals to work today. After work, I'm going to run to the library to pick up some free books & movies to go through in the upcoming week & weekend. Then I'm going to stop at the grocery store to pick up tomatos & bananas. That will be my only spending today.

I'm back to using cash for groceries because I finally used up all of my gift cards from work. I had $50.00 that I budgeted for myself on the 15th & the 30th. When I just use my debit card, I overspend. With the gift cards, I stuck with that figure (outside of a Walmart run). So I've been thinking about buying some more gift cards and when that money runs out, then thats it. I'm going to mull this one over a little more.

Quick overtime update, I worked 7 hours Monday, 3.5 hours yesterday, 3 hours today. I'll be doing 3.5 hours on Thursday & Friday and a 1/2 hour on Saturday. So my total for the week will be 21 hours.

Couple of updates since its been a few days since I've posted.

I did some major grocery shopping and a little overspending on Sunday, stocking up on some things. Other than the grocery shopping, I hung around the house, did laundry and made some meal plans.

Yesterday, I did some overtime from 8am to 3pm, then grabbed some cat food on the way home. I'm in the middle of a BIG project at work, so of course, I got a migrane from the stress, but it didn't go full blown & I've been able to deal with just taking pain meds.

Last night I weighed in at Weight Watchers. I lost 3.2 pounds for the week & my mom lost 2. I'm happy that she seems into it. I kinda think she'd have quit if I didnt go.

I packed my food for work yesterday & ate dinner at home last night. Today's a no spender-- I packed my meals for work today too. Both days people invited me to order out with them, but I said no.

Since I've overspent in the groceries catagory & I need (WANT) to replace my ailing wireless router, I am going into super non spend mode to save money.

I'll try to post from work, but right now, I pretty much have no internet at home.

I'm waiting for my first electric bill from the summer with A/C. I have really no idea how it'll be. I did turn it off for awhile, but its back in the 90s again and VERY humid, so its back on

Well, as Dave says, it feels like Murphy moved into the spare bedroom. Its just one thing after another for me.

I took my car into the shop today for the check engine light and a belt squealing. I asked them to call with an estimate before starting any work.

So they called me back, trying to upsell me on a dozen different things. She gave me an estimate of 809.85. I said no to most of the upsells, but the major problems are going to cost me $599.95. I have $500.00 in my car repair fund and I'll spring for the rest out of my overtime.

What sucks the most is that I was planning to use that car repair money for new breaks, which I'm going to need soon. Oh well.

I am working on the finding a roommate/2nd job situation & I'm MUCH more highly motivated now.

Also, today I"m at work for the last possible overtime for July. Some of my coworkers are ordering from my FAVORITE place, but I declined and will instead eat the peanut butter and crackers in my desk.

I will be spending tonight though. Here's the background- I've been loosely following the weight watchers plan, but recently cancelled my online subscription to save some money. Over the weekend, my mom started asking me about the plan & to look at my materials. My mom is seriously overweight, with some major medical issues. She's also battling depression. Her doctors have told her that she needs to loose weight, but she's made no effort.

It really hurts my family to see her like this & for about a year now, I've been encouraging her to join weight watchers with me. However, she wants to do the meetings & thats not something I"m really into.

When she brought WW up over the weekend, I jumped on board & told her that I wanted to go to the meetings & would she come along as a buddy & she actually agreed! So I'm going to buy the monthly pass, so that we can go together for the month & once she's into the program, I'll stop going to the meetings (and continue online), but we'll still be weight loss buddies. The monthly pass is $39.95, but well worth it if I can help my mom get healthy!

Yesterday was a no spender. Today, I'll be spending a little on some needed items.

I brought my lunch, drink & snacks to work today, so no spending there.

On my way to work today, I got gas. On my lunch break I'm heading to the dollar store for dishwasher detergant & 2 other things. Then I'm heading to the library, where I owe them a $0.25 fine.

Either after work or tomorrow, I'm heading to the grocery store. I also need to stop by Walmart for some staples. I'll be using gift cards for both.

Its interesting, but its been MUCH easier to stay on my food budget using the gift cards. Its a mental thing, but its kinda like the envelope system for me. Once this last gift card runs out, I"m thinking about getting some more to help me stay on budget.

No news on the room renting front. I've had no responses to my Craigslist ad. So I'm going to keep looking. I also think I'm going to resubmit my ad on there, just to get it back on the top of the list.

Tonight I'm hanging out at home, watching a library movie & reading. Tomorrow, I'll be running errands & cleaning.

On monday, they've opened some overtime, so I'm going in. I also need to drop off my car to the repair shop. My check engine light is on & I have to get my car inspected by the 20th. Hopefully, its just a sensor like I think it is, and it won't be too expensive. I REALLY hope so!

I got paid today & I"m putting all my overtime towards the A/C. This still leaves me with a VERY large balance. I'm transferring money from my ING account to pay it, then I'll be paying myself back. I'm expecting about $700.00 of overtime in my July 15th paycheck. Then about $280.00 in my July 30th check. I'll still owe myself about $1700.00 after that.

Unfortunately, they announced that overtime has stopped indefinately at work. So I'm going to be looking at other avenues to pay myself back as quickly as possible.

Today is a no spend day. I packed my breakfast, lunch & dinner and I'll be having a snack when I get home. I'm out of library books and movies, but I have a large to-do list to keep me busy this weekend.

Tomorrow, I'm packing my lunch again. I have leftover tuna fish and I'll make a salad & some breakfast stuff. Tomorrow night will be dinner at home.

There are several movies coming out soon that I REALLY want to see in the theater. So I'm saving my entertainment budget for this paycheck (which lasts me til the 15th) to buy tickets for Transformers and for Harry Potter. I am VERY excited to see both.

I got an email from one of my credit cards, notifying me that they've increased my credit line. I haven't carried a balance on any of the cards in at least 2 years, but for some reason, they still love me.

I have a few store cards that I use for discounts and coupons. And I have 6 major credit cards. I only use 2 of them, but I haven't gotten around to closing the others. Mainly because I didn't want to mess with my credit bureau prior to buying the house. Now I am thinking about closing some of them.

But right now, I'm just amazed at the credit lines that I have available to me.

CC#1 $2,400.00 limit
CC#2 $3,000.00 limit
CC#3 $4,000.00 limit
CC#4 $6,500.00 limit
CC#5 $7,500.00 limit
CC#6 $13,200.00 limit

Geeze! Like I would EVER use that much if any of the credit available to me.

In a spending update, I brought lunch/dinner to work with me today, only to find it spoiled. So I grabbed a salad from the salad place. A $6.00 super huge salad (I'll have to take a pic next time I get one). It covered me for lunch & dinner AND I finished off the last bit when I got home from work. Not too bad.

Tomorrow, we're having a team outing at work. Except we're staying in to play trivia games. Dull, but not my choice. On the upside, we're ordering food from one of my favorite take-out places! I'm either going to get a sub & split it between lunch and dinner, or get a pasta dish with bread and salad. Which, I'd also split between lunch and dinner. The pasta might last until lunch on Thursday too. We'll see.

Oh, and for an overtime update: I worked 4 hours on Monday, 3 hours today, I'll work 3 hours tomorrow. I might get some time in on Thursday, depending on a doctors appointment, and I'll get 3 hours in on Friday. I'm doing all I can, just in case overtime is no longer available in July.

If that's the case, I'll be looking for a part-time job QUICK!

I was invited to Atlantic City this weekend, with some new friends, but I declined in an effort to not spend right now.

At least we have a movie night planned instead of the weekly bar night we have usually. I'll bring microwave popcorn from home, one of the guys is supplying the movie. Should be fun.

My goal for the weekend is this: to not use any cash, debit, or credit cards. Today, I am working til 8pm. I'm stopping for gas on the way home (I'm on E). Then I'm heading home to watch a library movies and possibly a re-run of House while I clean & pack some food for work tomorrow.

Saturday, I'm planning on leaving my wallet at home. I'm working 8-5. I'll take a 1/2 hour lunch, but I won't be going anywhere. I just plan on playing on the internet for the 30 minutes.

Then tomorrow night, I plan on hanging out at home. I've been working 6 days a week and for the last 3 weeks, my only day off (Sunday) has been packed with family obligations. So I am planning on completely staying home and vegging on both Saturday night & Sunday. Unless the temperature gets too high for being without A/C, in which case, I'm going to camp at my parents house

I'm want to do some organizing and cleaning this weekend, watch some free movies, catching up on blogs and some financial stuff, and generally relaxing. I really need it.

I have food for dinners at home, but I plan on making a stop at the grocery store at some point. I have $29.36 in Super G gift cards left for this pay period. So I'll stock up on some salad stuff & some essentials.

I was going to make some food to freeze ( I have this meatloaf muffin recipe that I want to try), but if its hot, I won't be turning the oven on. I'll just plan on having a lot of salads and tuna fish and pasta salad

So to recap, I'm buying gas tonight. Then no more spending except my gift card to Super G for groceries.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

I forgot that Janet Evanovich's new book Lean Mean Thirteen came out recently. So I went onto my library's website to request it. I'm #275 in line to get the book. However, the total Delaware public library system has about 67 copies of the book. So hopefully, I'll be able to get my copy within a month or so.

I've also been putting myself on the library wait list for a lot of movies. I have a pretty varied taste, but the library has a good selection. Just to name a few that I'm in line for: Blood & Chocolate, Because I Said So, Breach, Epic Movie, NCIS Season 1, and The Pursuit of Happyness.

I've been kinda lost the last few days. Spending more than I like, when I need to reign myself in. So I am going to make some changes. I have been saying that for awhile, but I really need to hold myself accountable.

Also, there's some things I've been wanting to do around the house that I'm either going to put off for awhile or do myself. There's some terrible bramble bushes in between some trees at the end of my property. I was hoping to hold off & get a professional to get in there & haul the stuff away. But now I"m thinking of doing it myself. Maybe do a bit at a time.

In other news, its been really hot and humid here, so being without a/c has been very uncomfortable. We seem to have a break in the humidity tonight, so I'll be able to sleep comfortably.

Monday is the A/C installation day. Its my normal day off, but I usually go in for overtime. So the game plan is to meet the workers myself and about 10am my mom will come over to be around while they're there & I'll head into work for some overtime. This week, I'll have worked 21.5 hours. Next week, probably about 15.5 hours due to a meeting & doctors apointment that I have scheduled.

AND... I heard back from that home improvement store that I had such problems with. The manager of the store that I visited called to get some more information about the situation. He will be calling me back tomorrow. I'll keep you all updated with what happens. I have to share that I was all flattered because he told me that my letter was very well written. I'm so glad I waited until I had calmed down a bit before writing and mailing it.

I have a specialist visit with my gastroenterologist at the end of the month. I used up some of my medical budget on a new medicine I'm trying, so its a little depleted and I have a few 3 month supply of prescriptions to order this month. So, I am going to find little ways to make up the $30.00 copay without having to dig into my medical or other budget catagories.

I also have to get my car inspected, which will likely be a $20-25 fee. I'd like to complete it by the end of the month.

So I want to find ways to come up with $50.00.

First, when I get paid on the 15th, I have $10.00 of the budget going to personal items (shampoo, ect). Since I already have a $20.00 gift card to Happy Harrys (owned by Walgreens), this covers my personal items for the month & the extra $10.00 isn't needed, so I'm starting off this personal challenge with $10.00.

I'll keep updating as I find other funds.

I also came home to a nice surprise. I received the air conditioning repair bill from last week. I had been quoted $322.00 for the visit, but the bill was for $300.00. Yay! When I have the estimate tomorrow, I do plan on asking the guy to consider that I just shelled out such a large amount to their company.

In other news:
-I found out that the $400.00 in gift cards from work is going to come in the form of a Visa gift card as opposed to store cards like last time. I'm hoping to put this amount towards the new A/C unit. I'll have to talk to the company's office, but it shouldn't be a problem. My family has done business with them for years.

-I worked 3.5 hours of overtime yesterday & today. I won't get any in tomorrow because of the appointment for the estimate. But on Friday, I'm going into the office at 7am to do some system checks for the boss, so I'll get in 4 hours of OT, maybe 4.5 if I decide to take a 1/2 hour lunch again.

-And in even better news, the overtime is back on for next week, so I have some opportunity to earn some more OT hours.

Its funny, I keep thinking of the cost of the A/C in terms of OT hours. I'll calculate exactly how much I'll need once I have the figures tomorrow

I already packed food for tomorrow & I plan to have a big breakfast before I leave. So tomorrow WILL be a no spend day for me
Well, I'm off to bed, I'm beat!

I had someone I thought was a work friend say something very hurtful about me to another coworker today. I had to get out of the office for a bit to recompose myself. So I went down to the cafe and bought a soft pretzel for 55 cents. It was worth it just for the temporary peace.

This situation concerns a small group of people and I sort of feel that I'm in a hostile environment when I'm around them. I am able to remove myself from them at times, but this changes how I view my current workplace.

I am seriously considering some changes in my job. I'm going to try to let the situation go for now, not get myself worked up, but I do plan to take some time this weekend to sort some things out.

In the meantime, I spent 55 cents on food today. And I did end up going to a bar after work last night with another group of coworkers. I spend $9.00 for 2 large mixed drinks, an order of fries and the tip (its a small local bar, so its cheap). The $9 came out of my entertainment money.

Today I'm working 8am to 8pm with a 1/2 hour lunch. I packed all my food (outside the pretzel).

Tonight I'm going home & premaking food for tomorrow. Then heading straight to bed. Tomorrow I meet with the a/c guys for the estimate. That should be fun.

Well, the A/C went again. The last visit from the repair guy was a last ditch effort to see if it would limp through this summer. Obviously, it won't. I have the cash to get the new unit, but I want to pay myself as soon as possible.

Also, there was a glitch between my hot water heater timer and my brand new hot water heater, so I had the installation guy come back out to take a look. It took him 5 minutes, but it was fixed.

Today I:
-woke up at 6:45 am.
-was at the grocery store by 7:30 am to buy veggies and some staples
-made food to take to work
-called & set up an appointment with the a/c guy
-called & got 1 more car insurance quote. I'm just waiting to talk to the company who has my homeowner's insurance to see if grouping them together would save me a few bucks
-met with the hot water heater guy
-went to work for overtime from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm
-came home & cleaned the kitchen, living room and downstairs bathroom
-made dinner and premade food for tomorrow.

now I'm resting, playing on the internet & reworking my budget a little.


I'm actually going to be under budget for groceries this pay period! Yay I have $17.56 left of my $50.00 gift card that I'm using for this pay period. I'm going to save it for when soda is on super sale again. I like to stock up when its at its cheapest

So other than groceries paid by the gift card, I had a no spend day today.

Tomorrow, I'm working 8am to 8pm (3 hours OT). I've packed breakfast, lunch & dinner to take with me, as well as some snacks.

I've been running the house fans, but not the a/c since the a/c isn't working. But even if it was, I'd probably have it off, its been so beautiful in the last few days.

My goal for this week is to pack my meals all the way through Saturday. I say that sometimes and I don't follow through. But I will this time. I actually put a sticky note on my debit card. It says "A/C", just as a reminder. When I was saving for the house, I had a sticky with a picture of a house on it. Its a strange little motivation, but hey, it works for me

For entertaiment this weekend, I'm getting a few movies from the library. I've been watching old Poirot movies, which is fun. I have plans to do some organizational and cleaning stuff around the house this weekend. It should be pretty frugal

I spent $1.20 on some fries to go with my salad for lunch. I actually paid out 20 cents cash, and used a 1.00 voucher for my work cafe. Considering I've been at work since 9am & won't be leaving til 8pm, I packed most of my meals, I just got a littler hungrier than I thought.

I plan to go home tonight & make food for tomorrow's meals. I also am finalizing that letter to the store that treated me so badly (see my previous entry on Worst Customer Service EVER). I have the CEO's address, the complaints department address, and the address of the head manager of the specific store that I visited. I want a response. I want to know what they think about the way that I was treated.

In other news, I'm coming in for 3 hours of OT tomorrow & I'll do a 1/2 hour on Saturday for a total of 5.5 hours this week. I have the option for OT on Monday, and they may give us a little during the week again, we'll see. I'll be taking any ot that I can get so I don't have to dig into savings to cover the air conditioning repair. I would be able to 'repay' it quickly, but I'd prefer not to have to.

And just a side note--- we're having a work party next week. I signed up for pretzels only to get publically humiliated for my choice. I was told by a peer... not a manager... that pretzels were'n't good enough & I have to cook something. I told her I'll bring something, but I don't have to COOK anything. She preceded to yell at me from across the aisle. I was PISSED.

If I didn't like my coworker that the party is for, I would have just declined to attend altogether. So I stuck to my guns & told her to write down pretzels. Then about a 1/2 hour later, I changed my item to rolls. I can get them for the same price & they compliment the food we're brining more. Still, it was the rudest thing I've ever seen. AND I wasn't the only person that she did that to.

I went to a home improvement store on Saturday to buy a hot water heater & set up an installation date. I had shopped around and planned on using a $100.00 gift card that I had gotten from work, plus sign up for the store card to get 10% off the water heater. Before anyone worries, I have the cash to pay this off, I'm using the card for the discount & I'll pay it off when the statement comes.

While I was there, I encountered a salesman who got angry about having problems with the store's computer system and at having to fill out the installation paperwork by hand. He began cursing while helping me set up the order & installation. I mean a SERIOUS use of profanity, repeated over a 20 minute time span. It was REALLY inappropriate. I am really not exaggerating.

Then, when I went to customer service to be rung up. The assistant manager that helped me, filled out the credit card paperwork didn't process the 10% discount. When I asked her about it, she starting making excuses:

1. I, the customer, should have told her, the MANAGER, what the store's promotion was.
2. I, the customer, should have told the sales guy that I wanted the discount (which I did). And he should have noted the discount.
3. If she cancelled the transaction & restarted it, then I would lose my $100 gift card because she can't refund gift cards.
4. If she cancelled the transaction, I would have to start COMPLETELY over by going back to the salesman.

At this point, I told her there was no way that I was going back to the sales guy becuase he had flipped out. She finally punched a few buttons on the cash register & handed me cash for the 10% discount.

So basically, she was trying to bully me into giving up on getting the promotion. She lied about having to delete the whole transaction and order. AND she lied about my having to lose the gift card.

I have already written a letter to the CEO of the company, which I will be sending return receipt requested.

I've been in customer service for 14 years and I've never seen anyone behave that way before!

$30.00 specialist copay to eye doctor... I have a floater, if anyone knows what that is. Its very distracting at work, but so far, not a sign of a serious problem (which it can be).

I spent nothing on food today. I packed my lunch. YAY!

I am heading to the grocery store after work. I'm going to use on of my gift cards. I'm trying to limit my spending today, knowing I'll be going back next week to stock up on more veggies and fruits.

I am working on my May totals and June goals over the weekend & I'll post them as soon as I have them.

Just a not-so-quick update

I worked 8 hours of overtime today. The unlimited overtime ends on June 1st. After that, OT will only be available on Mondays for June & likely ending altogether for July.

Halfway through the day today, I called my mom and asked if my family wanted to come over to have some food for the holiday. So my mom supplied baked beans and hotdogs & buns. And I made pasta salad, baked fries, hamburgers and all the fixings. It was completely last minute, but very yummy.

I’ve been stalling on handling my bee problem at the back of the house. But they’re wood boring bees and I’m actually seeing sawdust on my deck from where they’ve dug on the side of the house. It’ll be pricey to get the guys out here, but I guess it’s necessary.

I called around & got several quotes, they all quoted a service of roughly $300-350.00. This includes 2 visits because the bees may come back. Even the guy that came highly recommended to me (the one that did my termite inspection) said $325.00. They are on the roof as well as under the eave, so I can't do this by myself.

I turned on the a/c for the first time yesterday, due to the humidity. However, the a/c sounds like its struggling to work and I went into the basement to check it out and found a big puddle on the floor and it looks like one of the pipes is freezing. So I’m going to make a call tomorrow. I’m ‘comfortable’ right now (my ceiling fans are helping), so I’m going to go into work at 8am for some overtime & I'll call and schedule the appointment for sometime between Wednesday and Friday. I'm hoping this will be an easy fix, but I'll have to wait and see. This problem trumps the bee guy, so I’m going to wait on that for another week or two.

My sister & dad kept playing with my fan in my living room. And they did something to the remote, so I can’t get the fan to respond to the remote anymore, although the light still does. I don’t have any instruction manuals since the fans came with the house, but it’s a Hunter fan, so I’m going to call their customer service tomorrow & see if they can help me. I REALLY hope so!

On Sunday, I signed up for paper delivery (I got caught at a weak moment at the grocery store). So I am going to call and cancel tomorrow.

I also need to call the trash service & let them know I’m going to be putting that broken tv out for pickup. I don’t want donate it, since it’s completely unusable. When I put it out for trash, I’m going to put a note on the tv, so nobody thinks it’s a great find & takes it home.

My electric bill came over the weekend; it was pretty low since I had no heat or air on for the whole month, just the fans when needed. My water bill also arrived. It was higher than I would have liked. It’s on my to-do list to replace the tank parts on both my toilets, since one leaks sometimes and one runs unnecessarily. I’m going to use the $100.00 gift card to Lowes to help with this one.

I’m also going to use the gift card to get a curtain rod, since I 'found' these nice white curtains with flowers embroidered on them from Pottery Barn that I bought in college. I’m going to put the curtains up in my bedroom.

I also need to get something to treat my lawn, which has been neglected. There are a lot of weeds and a large section is pretty brown. So I’m going to buy some lawn stuff to help kill the weeds and grow the grass.


So my game plan for the week is to not spend any unnecessary money. So I’m packing food for tomorrow. I’ll make those necessary calls from work. I do have a few dollars cash, which I'm going to use to get a few more veggies from the store.

I get paid on Thursday & I already planned to send $400.00 to my student loan principle. But depending on the charge for the a/c, I might not send it. It's wait and see for that one. I'd prefer not to dip into my emergency fund right now.

A few posts ago, I made the declaration that I was not going to spend any more money on eating out for the rest of the month. Yup, well that only lasted a few days. I'm in the second day of a migrane and instead of taking meds and staying home, I'm in training at work for a new job that I DONT want to do, that is causing a lot of stress for me AND doesn't get me paid any more. Plus, the tylonol just isn't cutting it.

Today, I ate some food from home & bought take out today. AND I'm planning on doing the same tomorrow.

I've been using some of the leftover money on my birthday visa gift card to pay for the food. Now its gone & I'll be using cash.

On a brighter note, I had a $20.00 gift card to Bed,Bath & Beyond, where I bought a Black and Decker Wet/Dry Vac dustbuter (with 20% off). This way I can clean out my car easily. There are no electrical outlets in the front of my house & I've been pondering how to vaccum out my car easily... I had planned on buying a long indoor/outdoor extention cord & dragging my vaccum outside, but this is a MUCH better idea.

I also got a 3 draw plastic container. I've been wanting one to hold my nails and picture hangers and screws and stuff. I've been using an old tissue box, but this way, things will be much more organized & easy to see.

I also used some cash to buy my mom a pack of those magnetic clasps for jewelry. She's been looking for them for awhile & I saw a pack when I was at the register. She's been buying me a lot of meals recently, so I was happy to get them for her.

I did get 8.5 hours of overtime in last week. I'm probably going to get about 4 to 6 hours in this week. Then I'm going to try to get 4 hours in on Monday (the holiday). And another 4 to 6 hours throughout the rest of next week.

Once June starts, OT will only be able to me on Mondays (my day off). So I'm going to try to take advantage of them for the full month, but we'll see.

I'm reworking my monthly budget. And I'm going to work on setting weekly goals for myself. I'm taking care of that over the weekend.

I also need to shop around for car insurance since my company is increasing my rates and I'm sure I can do better. The company has been good to me, but its getting way too costly.

Here’s some random updates:

-I worked 4 hours of OT instead of 5 because our systems went down and I left early
-I mowed the lawn, but I only had one row left when the mower ran out of gas. So instead of having a no spend day, I spent 20 on gas, to fill up my container that I use for the mower & to put some gas in my car. I didn’t fill all the way because the prices were high for the weekend & I know the prices will go down later in the week. Other than the gas, this was a no spend day.
-I looked up the value of my car on Kelly Blue Book: The Trade in value is $4,775 and the Private Sale Value is $6295 … for a 2001 Hyundai Sonata with 63,959 miles on it
-My car insurance renewal is coming up in June. They were nice enough to send me the new contract along with a letter stating: “Due to increased costs, blah, blah, blah, we are increasing our rates 10%”. They did the same last year & the previous year. Most people I know are saying their rates are DROPPING. So my priority this week is to stop around for car insurance.
-My mom visited some garage sales yesterday & hooked me up with a few books & dvds… Thank Mom!
-I spent no money eating out today… my goal is to do that the rest of the month
-I’m heading to Bed, Bath & Beyond tomorrow armed with a 20% off coupon & $20.00 in gift cards.
-Tomorrow, I’m heading to the bank. I share a safety deposit box with my parents & I’m getting out all my savings bonds. Time to add them up and cash them out. I was just waiting for them to come due

In the last week and a half, I've been VERY lax in my spending. I've been eating out a lot & its cost me... A LOT. I'm not going to make excuses (of which there are plenty), so I'm just going to suck it up and move on.

I am going to get in a much OT as possible by the end of the month. I've had some changes at work, which make the overtime not so beneficial, plus much more stressful.

So I'm going to do what I can with the OT. In the meantime, I am challenging myself to not eat out at all from today to the end of the month.

I went grocery shopping today and I'm going to pack breakfast & lunch for work tomorrow. In fact, I'm going to leave my cash and credit cards at home. I'll bring my debit card (and leave it in the car while at work), because I need to get gas tomorrow. But thats it. I swear.

I haven't been very good at following through lately, so I'm working on it. I will be spending my lunch hour at the library, which should help. I have a few books to pick up AND I requested The Game (that Michael Douglas movie). It was on tv a week or two ago and I didn't get to watch it, so I requested it from the library instead.

I also have Pan's Labyrinth from Netflix (which I am cancelling at the end of the month).

I have been stressed and sick and whatnot recently, so although I've been doing overtime, my goal is to destress as much as possible this week.

So in the interest of relaxing, I stopped by the library & picked up a few things:

-Green With Envy: Why Keeping Up with the Joneses is keeping us in debt (by Shira Boss)
-Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back (by Karyn Bosnak)
-Haunted Honeymoon on dvd (an old Gene Wilder flick, very funny)

I also have the Total Money Makeover to get through.

At the end of the month I'll be cancelling my Netflix subscpription (I've paid through the 25th). So in preperation, I've requested several new(er) movies from the Library. I'm in line behind several people, so hopefully it'll be my turn around the time that I cancel Netflix.

And as for Netflix, I currently have at my house The Good Shepard, The Guardian, and Unhitched.

Financially, I'm still meeting my goal to track all my spending. I've done very well with this. Each day, I write down any spending in a tiny notebook I carry with me. Then each night, I update it into an Excel spreadsheet. Its been a good system so far & my goal is to track for the whole year. I'm almost halfway through!

I also need to redo my budget, I have some changes that I want to make on it.

As for an overtime count:
Last week I did 15.5 hours
This week I've done 11 so far, with a goal of 16.5 plus any Sunday hours available.

The last few days have not been the best. I've been feeling sick again. I have been sick for almost a month now! I am tired, pretty much a Ms. CrankyPants all the time and to top it off, my house is in disarray because all I do is work and sleep.

-So I've been sick.
-My neighbors keep parking in my driveway.
-I'm so ANGRY that my neighbors take advantage of me (and that I couldn't confront them at the time) that I couldn't sleep last night.
-I need sleep because I'm sick
-I bought lunch today & since I collected the money for the group& felt bad for the delivery guy, I put in too much money for tip since others tried to stiff him
-This resulted in me overspending for today
-I was so unable to sleep that I went into work even earlier than I would have and now I"m even more tired. And cranky.

Ok, rant done. Sorry. I just needed to get it out.

Just to throw in a few positives:
-Over the weekend, my mom gave me a huge bag of books that she collected from some friends & yard sales. I love free books and my mom always knows where to find them!
-I finally got Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover from the library...which I'm starting tonight
-I haven't turned on the heat in over 2 weeks
-My parents bought me dinner 2x since last Thursday
-I went to my nephew's karate class and he was a huge show off for his Aunt, it was so cute
-There are new episodes of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on tonight. After which, I plan to go to sleep at exactly 10pm

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

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.

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.

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!