Walked with mom everyday at WalMart

I plan to retire sooner than 50. Right now the goal is March of next year. It depends on how bad the market does this year.

I made a list of what I wanted to do while I was retired. Mostly it all came down to time.

Time to cook healty, tasty, simple meals
Time to exercise
Time to be organized
Time to keep house cleaned
Time to keep on top of chores
Time to shop for the best deals
Time to study whatever I happen to be interested in
Time to experiment with new skills
Time to garden
Time to do miniatures
Time to do jigsaw puzzles
Time to read
Time to spend time with nieces, family and friends
Time to think
Time to be creative

I finished reading my book Country Comes to Town by Toni L.P. Kellner. Mystery. OK

I finished reading the library book The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry. Adventure. Good

I finished reading the library book The Mom's Guide to Earning and Saving Thousands on the Internet by Barb Webb with Maureen Heck. Money. Excellent. I read this last year but wanted to re-read since there were a lot of tips and websites to check out for money saving ideas. Very good book.

walked with mom for 55 min

I saw that the Entertainment books were on sale for $7.99 + 1.00 shipping so went to buy another one for me and one for my parents, but the checkout says $12.99 + 4.99 shipping. Since the main page says $7.99 and click here to buy I was rather frustrated. Sent them an email to find out how to get the $7.99 price. If I buy them thru NestEggz I get an extra 21% rebated back to me. We'll see if they reply.

Walgreens has a sale on the 4.6 oz of Aquafresh this week. .99 cents. My dad said he was going so I gave him two coupons for $1.00 off. One for him and one for me. We he bought the larger size for $1.99 cost of .99 after coupon. It's a learning curve matching prices and sizes and coupons. I made him keep both of the toothpastes though since I have several tubes and I'm not going to pay for more, free is a different story. The boxes had more of those get 3 free music downloads though. So I will use those to get 6 more music downloads.

I also pointed out the Advil free after rebate and $2.00 coupon so he got a raincheck for that since they were out. My mom lost the $5 Nature Made coupon she got after I signed her up for that program. That's a high value coupon to lose. Oh well, live and learn.

Finished reading Rational Simplicity by Tim Covell. Simplicity. OK.

One of the things I liked in this book is a saying I've heard before and is what motivated me to go back to school to get my computer degree.

"Sometimes people complain that waiting 15 years for retirement is too long. They say, "in 15 years I'll be 45!" I reply, "how old will you be in 15 years if you don't save? Wouldn't you rather be 45 and free of work, than 45 and doing the same things you are doing today?"

walked with mom for 55 min

Got her signed up with the Nature Made program. You get a $5 coupon for the first 500 points, but for the second 500 points you get a $7 coupon. She had enough points for $12 in coupons.

Got Nexus shampoo and conditioner samples in the mail.

Watched the library DVD Mr and Mrs Smith. Very good. I thought it was really funny. Gave it to my parents to watch with strick instructions to return it on time for me to give back to the library. My mom wanted to know if I could get other DVDs from the libary and I told her I could so she had me reserve While you were sleeping. An old Sandra Bullock movie. I'm gradually bringing them into the computer age

Finished reading my book The Average Family's Guide To Financial Freedom. Finance. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

My niece is spending the night. We watched 3 of my musicals tapes. The Wiz, Robin Hood, Men in Tights and the Unsinkable Mollie Brown. It's amazing how many things we have in common. We both love reading, we both like miniatures, we both like musicals. There's other things too, but I love it and am flattered by it, since I think she likes these things because I do.

She told me she sent a letter to Dr Phil about her mother. Her mother is a control freak and makes everyone's lives miserable. I sympathize but can't do much about the situation. I think she must feel desperate though to write to Dr Phil. For her sake, I hope he doesn't reply. I can't imagine what her mother's reaction would be. Make a bad situation much worse.

We went to the miniature store this afternoon and I spent $11.76. We ordered pizza for dinner. $15. My niece doesn't even weigh 100 pounds and she ate 3 large slices of pizza. I only ate two and was stuffed. Plus she had an afternoon snack about 2 hours earlier. I wish I could eat like that and be skinny

I was looking at the Walgreen's rebate booklet while at my mom's and saw that if she buys a box of Aleve, which my dad uses daily, they can get another $10 GC with the 2 bottles of vitamins they already bought. I'm pretty sure I have a coupon for Aleve, that I'll have to dig out and give to them. Even if they paid full price it would be $6-7 dollars for something they use and get $10 back.

Finished reading the library book All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi. Financial. OK. It was pretty basic information and nothing that interesting to me. I don't like how they demonize Credit Cards. I know they are a problem for a lot of people, but if you use them right, they can save or even make you money.

Also everyone always gives you the advice of freezing your credit cards, which is stupid, IMHO, because I rarely have my card in front of me when I order stuff on the computer, I just use the last bill and type in the number from that. I've memorized the 3 digit security code. I don't need the card to buy stuff.

walked with mom for 55 min

Besides walking and going to the library, I've been stuck in front of my computer working all day. At least 10 hours.

I have 3 tons of work to do in the next month so probably won't be doing much reading or anything else for a while.

Last night I finished reading The Mom's Guide to Earning and Saving Thousands on the Internet. Make money with mystery shopping, surveys, and point programs by Barb Webb with Maureen Heck. Financial. I thought this was a pretty good book. Especially if you are new to these subjects. Lots of good websites are included in the book too.

walked with mom for 55 min

We faxed our booking form to the Canada people for our trip.

Went to King Soopers and spent $20.35 for groceries. Didn't need much this week. Went to Village Inn for dinner and spent $7. got a free carwash at the Restaurant. It was raining pretty good and my car is cleaner than it's been in a while. Seems like everytime I'm in town around a car wash it's been snowing for a month, so the car was pretty dirty.

Got a rebate returned saying I didn't send all the proofs and I know I did, so I need to reply to that and see if I can get the $30.

It's nice to have a free movie weekend, but it means I don't get much else done. Watched Ray, which was really good. Watched Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island. Love looney toons. Watched part of Catwoman, which was ok, won't watch the whole thing. Plan to watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse later tonight.

Finished reading the library book Working Less, Live More by Bob Clyatt. Finance. Ok, nothing new.

walked with mom for 55 min

We had an all-hands meeting at work today where the main boss told us the news, no raises this year. It seems that the company that bought us gives out their merit increases the first week of Jan. So since they took over the second week, everyone in our company is out of luck till next year. Gee! do you think they planned the timing of that move? PLEBHHHH!!!

But according to our manager we should be happy because next year we'll probably get 10-15% raises. Yeah right. Assuming we all still have jobs by then. Regardless that would be 5% each year and money today is always worth more than money tomorrow.

I had alreay increased my 401K contributions in anticipation of at least a little raise. I was working on my budget and I'm $17 over each month. I don't count extra money that comes in like rebates, etc and I don't count the two months were i get 3 paychecks so I can easily cover the $17, but I wanted to loosen up a little and maybe save/invest even more.

Speaking of 401Ks that was the other kicker. The old company matched 5% and the new company will match 6% with a possibility of 9% depending on how much money they make. But that doesn't kick in until July 1 and when it does kick in all the matching money goes into their stock and you can't sell it. Hasn't anyone learned anything from Enron, etc? It is not a good idea to hold so much company stock. Who knows what the value of that will be in 5 years when I'm hopefully ready to retire?

The old company match went wherever you directed it. All of that money and all of my weekly paycheck contributions still goes where I direct it, but they are talking about changing our investment provider, so who knows what the new options will be?

But we should all be very happy about this. I think that's what ticked me off the most, the manager kept telling us what opportunities there were and how we should all be excited about all of these changes and next years raise, etc. Standing in a pile of cr@p and he can't smell anything. Don't tell me what to think or how to feel about the fact that you're screwing with my money. They are basically telling me that all the work I did last year has no merit, because the company was took over the second week of January.

Then for the last piece of news. The managers finished our reviews, LATE, but HR mandates that they have to deliver them to us and have them signed and returned by next Friday. So of course the managers have no time to talk to everyone, so we're supposed to just go out and read our reviews, sign them and return them and don't bother asking managers to take a lousy hour out of the whole year to actually talk to you about your job. Some people had to write their reviews. What's the point, just skip the whole ordeal, it obviously means nothing, since there is no merit attached to it.

Sorry for the rant, but this has been stewing all day.

Got a free sample of Olay Regenerist in the mail today.

Finished reading the library book Yes, You can still retire comfortably! by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth. Finance. Good. The book details some scary scenarios about the future for the baby-boomer retires. Mostly about how they won't be able to retire because they spent everything they earned their whole lives and how the government is over-burdened and won't be able to provide for them with Social Security and Medicare. It had some ideas on how to invest for retirement, but they are too conservative for me. The book if very short, 180 pages and worth reading. There's some very funny lines in the book, which I'm sure came from Ben Stein. He has a very dry sense of humor.

walked with mom for 55 min

Every Sunday I always feel like the weekend has just slipped away, with nothing to show for it. On Friday night I feel like I have tons of time ahead of me, but by Sunday afternoon I wonder where it all went and can't believe it's almost time to go back to work.

Went to King Sooper's for groceries this morning. Spent $37.77 saved 36% according to the receipt

Spent much of the morning cooking for the week. Made oatmeal for breakfasts, a big pot of pinto beans in the crock pot for lunches, and potato salad.

I re-read my book Shop, Save and Share by Ellie Kay. Saving Money. This is a very good book, the focus is saving money by using coupons and rebates. It's very funny and easy to read. I have several finance/money saving books and I re-read them periodically to give me motivation and to prompt me to try new things or firm up old commitments to saving.

walked with mom for 35 min

Another stressful day at work, if I could just work on something without being interrupted 20 times with other people's problems, I could get things done. Instead I start on something, get interrupted and have to start over. The reason I have to start over is I get logged out of the website I'm working in because of security reasons, plus I lose track of what I'm doing and have to rething where I'm at. And the things I'm getting interrupted for are stupid things that the people should be able to deal with themselves, they are entry level things for our work that anyone with more than 3 months experience should know. All these people have 5+ years of experience. They're just lazy and don't want to do their own work. I've started telling them to go look it up or do it themselves, but it makes me frustrated. I got hit by 3 people with the same problem this morning and everyone of them should have know how to deal with it on their own. I did finally finish the thing I was working on, but it took me 4 hours and it should have only taken 1-2.

I finally got around to putting $4000 in my 2006 Roth IRA today. I should have done it last week. I missed a good week of stock run-ups. But work has been such a zoo, I just didn't get around to it till this morning. I wrote myself a note and did it first thing.

I also ordered the book Stop Working, Start Living. If anyone owns this book, you have a gold mine. It was listed for 80+ on Barnes and Noble and 50+ on Amazon. I did find someone selling a copy on Barnes and Noble for $18.50 so I ordered it. I figure if I decide to sell in a couple of years I could at least make my money back. I'm going to have to look for this book in used bookstores. Spent $22.39 with shipping. I didn't see Jorge's link before I ordered it, but thanks for the information.

The author of the book lists several of the finance books she grew up reading in her parents house, its funny because I had read most of them also. I think she's close to my age. Most of the books were written in the late 70's, early 80's. My parents had several of the books and I still own How to Live Rich When You Are Not by Rebecca Greer. This basic philosophy of this book is to not waste your money on things you don't care about, but spend it on the things you love, that way you don't feel deprived. For example, instead of eating fast food at Taco Bell everyday, you brown bag and save for a trip to Mexico instead. If that's more important. The point is figuring out what's important to you and then deciding how to get that by giving up things that aren't as important and are more habit that anything else.

Total spent this month = $147.06

I bought a yam last week to try. I know I never liked the sweet potato and marshmallow casseroles we always had at Thanksgiving so I thought I would try a baked version and see if I liked it. The yam/sweet potato is low on the glycemic index and I figured if I did like it, it would be another vegatable. But it was yucky. I just don't like the texture or the taste. Oh well, you don't know till you try. I had it with my leftover steak from yesterday.

Finished reading the library book Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. Mystery. Good. Not great, probably won't read anything else by this author.

walked with mom for 55 min

My 45th birthday is in 2 days so my parents took our whole family to Outback for lunch to celebrate. My sister wasn't there because she's in Las Vegas on a business trip. My parents gave me $100 and my nieces gave me some rubbermaid stainfree food storage containers, a bottle of Lady Stetson perfume. a vanilla scented candle and $10 in Wendy's gift certificates. I brought half my steak home to have tomorrow night.

I now have 5 bottles of Lady Stetson perfume. I told my sister last year that I wasn't using it as fast as they were giving it to me but I got 2 more bottles this year one for xmas and one for my b-day. Maybe I can return one to Longs or Walgreens. I don't know how long perfume is good for. I like the perfume but I only use it once or twice a week when I go to work or go in town so it doesn't get used very quickly.

I ran some errands before meeting everyone for lunch.

King Soopers - $3.14 - 1 dollar for newspaper
Walgreens - $14.87 - will get a $10 rebate, also got 2 14.5 oz cans of salmon for $1 each, excellent price.
Albertsons - $3.22 - bought another newspaper because the coupons were very good today. Also bought 3 bags of Brach's spearmint hard candy that was 75% off after xmas.
Barnes and Noble - $4.63 - had a coupon for 20% off one book, plus 10% off with my membership card and paid for with xmas gift card.
Safeway - $9.19 - 12 giant rolls of Quilted Northern TP for $5 and had two 75 cent off coupons so got 24 rolls total, very good price

Total spent this month = $124.67

Had leftover pasta with tomatoes and grilled some shrimp from my freezer for dinner. Yum!

I finished reading the library book Stop Working, Start Living by Dianne Nahirney. Personal Finance. Excellent book. I highly recommend this book. Thanks robex for recommending it. This is one I would like to own so I'm going to look around tomorrow to buy a copy. This book re-inspired me to strive for early retirement She has a lot of the same philosophies towards money and work that I have.

Drove into work today. Went early and stopped at the Walgreens on the way. Picked up Jif Peanut Butter on sale 2 18 oz jars for $3 and Egg Noodles pasta on sale 3 12oz bags for $1.00. Paid $4.00 total.

Met a friend for lunch at Applebees - $8.50

After work stopped at Longs and got the battery recharger I got the raincheck for on Saturday and bought 1 18 oz jar of Skippy PB for .99 - .60 coupon or .39 cents total. Very good deal. Spent 22.23 total.

Was proud of myself for not stopping at a fast food place on the way home.

I read a book called The Average Family's Guide to Financial Freedom by Bill and Mary Toohey that I got from the library. Very good book. I recommend it. Basically the book is about how they saved almost half their income and still managed to live decently and raise kids. Lot's of good thought provoking ideas.

If you want to read an article about them where they discuss their book and philosophy go to this link:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com:8100/WileyCDA/Section/id-7902.html