Walked with mom for 35 min.

Got two computer rebate checks in today's mail, one for $20 and one for $40.

Did my monthly net worth calculations and it went up 1.17%. Not as good as last month, but still very good. If I could get this every month I could retire now.

February Goals were:

1. Pre-pay mortgage by 1500.00 - DONE

2. Walk 20 times for at least 35 min - DONE

3. Spend $450 or less for household items - Only spent $334.54, partly because it's a short month and partly because I've been so busy at work, there's no inclination to go anywhere and spend money.

Groceries - 160.30
Fast Food - 24.63
Restaurants - 44.46
Clothes - 15.00
Gas - 41.89
HBAs - 18.96
Misc - 30.20

4. Try to follow Glycemic Index eating plan. Hit and miss on this, getting better, it's a learning process.

5. Go to Dr and get checkup on Diabetes numbers as well as Cholesterol and Triglycerides. - DONE

6. Finish taxes. - DONE

I made 5 out of 6 goals and partially made the 6th one.

walked with mom for 35 min

Went to the Dr today for lab results and new prescriptions. Blood pressure is still too high, 146/102 even with medication so increasing the meds. She combined two pills in one somehow so I still only have one prescription. That will save some money.

She also agreed to let me have 3 months to get my diabetes, cholesterol and triglycerides back under control through diet. That's great since I don't want to go on more pills. So now my new financial goal is to lose weight. If I can lose weight and control my diet, I will save a min of $20 a month in new prescription, plus if I get my blood pressure down, she will take me off the new meds, saving me another $10 a month.

Spent $20 on dr visit.

It never fails that you will see tons of great deals on things you're not interested in buying, but as soon as you are interested you can't find any of them. I've seen the Target ads for getting a $10 gc for new prescriptions forever, but now all the sudden when I need one filled, can't find an ad anywhere. I'll keep looking. I need to get this filled this weekend though.

Got the email notice to redeem my $25 restaurant gift certificate for buying the Entertainment book. I didn't know this was the same as restaurant.com or I might have waited for a different deal. They never have any restaurants that are close to me or that I go to listed. Most of them are bars, but I have a year to redeem so maybe something will come up.

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 55 min. Then they invited me to stay for lunch so had hamburgers with them.

I got a $5 pinecone survey check in the mail today.

I got the following items free this week.

2 - 18oz boxes of Quaker Oatmeal - free after double coupons and sale
1 Adidas Deodorant - full size
1 Dove Deodorant - trial size
1 Downy plus whitening - sample
1 pkg Bounce - sample

Finished reading the library book Dead Secret by Beverly Connor. Mystery. Very good.

I was planning to take my youngest niece out to a movie and lunch this weekend, however, her mom just called and cancelled it saying she's grounded for the forseeable future. Bummer! I guess I'll save some money this month, but I'd rather have the niece time.

Finished reading my book Sleeping With The Agent by Gennita Low. Adventure/Romance. Very good. Smart writing, which I like.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got my DirecTV bill today and the $5 discount I've been getting for the last 6 months is finally gone and I have to pay full price again. Plus they sent a statement saying they're raising the price $3 a month starting next month.

I'll have to start paying attention to the cable and dish TV offers that come through to see if I can get a better deal.

My results from my blood tests are in and as I suspected, my diabetes is not in control anymore. In fact it's the worse it's been. That means more prescriptions. Bleagh. Have an appointment to meet with the Dr again on Monday for scripts.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Visions In Death by J.D. Robb. Mystery/Romance. Excellent series.

walked with mom for 55 min. It's staying light late enough that we can get a walk in if we go at 4:30, but it sure gets cold when the sun starts to go down.

This is a 4 day work week. So far I've had one 3 hr meeting and one 1 hour meeting. Tomorrow I have another 3 hour meeting, a 1 hour meeting and Friday there is another 1 hour meeting. 9 hours out of a 4 day work week, when am I supposed to get my work done?

I fogot to mention that I purchased the Entertainment book yesterday through My Points. Flash's email reminded me. I got $10 off plus 750 points and will get the $25 gc to a restaurant. I didn't see the deal about reimbursing S$H and the $10 rebate. Maybe when I get my email in a couple of days, I'll see that information. I've been waiting for the book to go on sale. I get one every year, but only after Jan since the price always goes down then. Spent $23.49

I usually have trouble using all the Safeway grocery coupons, they are $5 off a $50 purchase. The cool thing is that King Soopers takes them even though they are for Safeway, but I rarely spend $50 at the grocery store, I average $35-40 each week. You can't use them to purchase stamps or gift cards, which I would buy to get my total to $50. I'll just have to wait till meat or toilet paper is on a good sale and stock up, or since Media Play is out of businees and I used to buy most of my books there I could buy the best sellers at King Soopers, because they are 25% off, a couple of paperbacks would bring the total up, and if I would buy them anyways... I ended up giving two of the coupons to my parents last year, since I couldn't spend that much, but I definetly get my money's worth out of the books. Another cool thing is they have online coupons for things that aren't in the books. For example, I get my haircut at Great Clips and they have online coupons for $3 off.

I was in such a hurry to get to my mom's so we could walk before it got dark tonight that I forgot to wear my new shoes. They were still in the box on the counter. So I don't know how they'll work for walking.

I'm not a shoe person. I own 4 pairs of shoes, 1 pr for walking, 1 pr for work, 1 pr of slip-ons that I buy for $3 every year and wear most of the time until they wear out and 1 pr of slippers that I usually get as xmas or bday presents. I go barefoot as often as possible. I don't like to wear shoes, the first thing I do when I walk in the house is kick my shoes off. That's one of the reasons I don't like winter so much, I like being cold vs hot, but I hate having to wear slippers while working.

went into work today

Went to the bank and deposited the $150 rebate check and a $5 pinecone check.

Stopped at Walgreens and picked up the Adidas deoderant that's free after rebate this month and 2 jars of Jif Extra Crunchy PB. It was on sale at 2/$3 and I had a $1.00 off coupon so only $1 each. I got a raincheck and have coupons for 4 more jars. This was paid for with my Walgreen's rebate cards so no money out of my pocket.

After work I went to King Soopers for gas. Got 10 cents off/gal. Spent $19.88 paid 2.01/gal. Lowest I've seen in quite a while.

Went to KMart and got a new pair of walking shoes, some aluminum foil and ziploc bags. Spent $20.61. I buy men's tennis shoes for my walking shoes, they are cheaper, fit better and seem to provide the arch support I need.

Went to Borders and bought one new book for $7.22. Had a 15% off coupon and used my Border CC rebate card.

Read the library book Manhunt by Janet Evanovich. Romance. Real Cute, fun.

walked with mom for 55 min

Did a lot of food prepping today. Made Oatmeal for 5 breakfasts, a big batch of chili, 2 tuna salads for lunches, and coleslaw. Also chopped celery, and onions and divided grapes into snack portions for the week.

There are many reasons that retiring early has been my goal since I was 25. One of the major ones was plain not wanting to work. But one of the other ones was thinking that there were so many books I wanted to read and so many hobbies and studies I wanted to pursue, that even living to be 400 wouldn't be enough time.

For some reason I never thought I would live to be very old, meaning more than 65. Partly because of my health problems, but partly because I just can't envision it. Financially I'm planning to live to be 100, but I don't really think that will happen.

So I want as many years of not working as I can get, hence the goal of retiring early. I'm going to be very pissed if I saved my money all these years and then die or become bed-ridden before I can enjoy a few years of retirement.

Finished reading my book Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Supernatural. Very good.

Groceries again at King Soopers this morning. Spent $36.03 - saved 24%

Had another Pinecone survey.

Watched more movies on the free movie channels today. Saw Ice Princess and the Aviator.

Finished reading the library book Changelings by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Sci/Fi. Good.

still cold so no walking. It was absolutely beautiful outside today, blue skies, just gorgeous, but so cold, -10

Went to the library and read some magazines for a while then checked out a bunch of my holds.

Next I went to King Soopers and spent $8.40. They had oatmeal on sale 18 oz for $1, normally $2.69 and I had 2 50 cents off coupons which they doubled so they were free. Love that I'll get some more on my normal grocery run tomorrow since I have 3 more 25 cent coupons which will make them 50 cents each. For double coupons you can only use 3 of one kind of coupon at a time.

I did some research about high blood pressure and potassium was recommeded so that's what I went to the grocery store for, they had the brand I like on sale at 50% off, so I bought a bottle of them.

In a previous post I mentioned that I had started adding cinnamon to my oatmeal in the morning, because it is supposed to help with diabetes. I was reading a magazine today and ran accross these two references in two different articles.

Consuming just 1/4 tsp of cinnamon a day lowers diabetes risk by up to 29%

USDA research shows that just a 1/4 of a teaspoon a day can boost your metabolism twentyfold. Turns out cinnamon makes fat cells more responsive to insulin.

I don't believe everything I read about this or that food that's a cureall for everything, but I figure since I like it on my oatmeal anyways, it can't hurt to try it.

DirectTV has a free Starz movie weekend this weekend and for a change they've had several movies that I wanted to see. So I've spent most of the day watching movies. Saw Blade Trinity, National Treasure, Home on the Range and The Pacifier.

Finished reading my book The City Who Fought by Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling. Sci/Fi Good.

It's so cold, -4 right now. It's been snowy and cold for three days and no end in sight. Supposed to be cold and snowy through next Thursday. I hope not, we can't do any walking in this weather.

Went back to the Dr's this morning to get the blood work. They took my BP again and it was down to 140 over 90, still high but much better.

My parents invited me out to dinner tonight so we went to Rosie's. Spent $10. I was talking about how much I didn't want to go back on medication. I don't like taking the pills and I don't like spending the money for them. My mom says something like I know it's $50 but it's your health you have to do it.

I said I know have to do it, but I don't have to like it. I'm not stupid, if it's necessary I will go back on the meds regardless of the cost or aggravation, I just want to bitch about it for a bit.

I need to get more serious about my diet and weight though. I've been playing with the glycemic index eating, but I cheat a couple times a week so I need to take the time and follow the program. My plan of creating a set of menus and repeating them works very well most of the time.

There are two big trouble areas, days when I go into the office, I usually pick something up on the way home and that's fine if it's a salad, but at least 50% of the time it's fast food. So I need to make it a salad 100% of the time of cook when I get home.

The other problem area is when I don't plan ahead and have everything ready to fix after work. If I've had a long, difficult, frustrating day, (which is most of them), I don't want to have to think, I just want something fast and tasty. When it's spelled out in a menu and the food is chopped and thawed. It's not an issue to cook it. Most of my meals take 15 - 20 min to prepare.

I also need to learn to deal with stress better. I have a very high stress job and the last 6 months have been insane.
I need to learn to let go a bit, but my personality is if it's not good, I can't stop until it is good. I don't do things partway or just ok, it has to be right. I don't want my name on a shabby project. I can't turn the ticker tape in my brain off at night and relax. I need a big pair of scissors

I got last month's walgreen's rebate in the mail today $14.49

I had a dr appt this afternoon. I need to get bloodwork for my diabetes. That's scheduled for tomorrow.

My blood pressure was so high at the dr's office they wouldn't let me go home, because they were afraid I would have a stroke. It was 181/118 So they gave me some medicine in the office to bring it down and I had to stick around for an hour before it got low enough that they would let me leave. They gave me an EKG also, but it was ok. She gave me a prescription for blood pressure meds.

I've been under a ton of stress lately with my job and it seems like I have a prepetual headache. So I wasn't really surprised, but I hate taking medication. I hate taking it and I hate paying for it. She thinks I may have to take as much as 3 meds to bring it down. That would be $30 a month. Then if I have to go back on the meds for the diabetes, that could be another $30 a month. I know it's worth it if I'm healthy, but I don't have to like it

Spent $20 on co-pay and $10 for prescription and $6.11 at the grocery store. King Soopers has baked chicken breasts at the deli now. That's a very cool deal for me since I can buy just one and not have to cook it.

Finished reading the library book Mary Mary by James Patterson. Mystery. Very good.

walked with mom for 35 min

Mailed my half.com book for $1.59, nothing else moneywise for the day

walked with mom for 55 min

It's finally getting light enough in the evenings that mom and I can go back to walking after work and walking longer instead of walking on my lunch hour. Depending on how cold it is, we should be getting more walking in again.

Went into work today. Didn't have time to make lunch so bought it in the cafeteria for $4.67

I had planned to run some errands after work but I was tired and didn't feel like going into stores. I had a massive headache and was stressed out. So I thought the thing that would make me feel best would be to hurry home and try to get a walk in before dark. This is such a major change for me, preferring to exercize over anything else. Especially going to a bookstore, which was one of my planned errands. But it worked just as I hoped, my headache went away about half way through the walk and I felt so much better when it was done.

Got my first rebate check for my computer. It was a big one for $150. It was the online one. I wish they had more like that.

Sold a book at half.com for $2

Finished reading my book The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Sci/Fi. Ok

Went to the grocery store this morning as usual. Spent $49.18 but only 35.38 of that was for groceries. I also purchased a book of stamps and 4 boxes of Kleenex for $5.

It's always a game in the grocery store. Usually I look at it as a challenge but some days I feel like it's a fight to retain my money and get the best deal.

You have to look at everything, it's like they deliberately try to trick you. For example, I was looking at Campbells tomato soup. The individual cans were .69 cents each. Then they had a pack of 4 sitting right next to the single cans on sale for $3. Well that is .75 cents each or 24 cents more than buying the 4 individual cans. Bleagh!

I know that the grocery store always has lots of things on sale that aren't in the sales brochure so while I'm making out my grocery list I notice what coupons I have and at the bottom of the list I will list the item with a ? next to it. Then while I'm in the store when I go past the item I check to see if it's on sale. If it is, I'll buy it. For example, I had 2 coupons for 35 cents off Hillshire Farm sausages. I buy the lil smokies to eat with beans or omelete. They were on sale this week at $2.50 and normal price is $3.69 so I bought 2 for $5, they doubled my 2 coupons and discounted $1.40 so I got 2 for $3.60 which is less than one at the normal price. Good deal, and I can freeze them till needed.

I got a free box of Kleenex this week. I had a coupon. Love freebies

My friend bought a Papa Murphy's pizza and came over to spend the afternoon. The pizza was excellent. Very good.

We watched the Bourne Supremacy that I had taped from one of the free movie weekends I get with Direct TV. It was pretty good. I liked it. Then we just talked for several hours. It was great to relax and spend time with a friend.

walked with mom for 55 min

There's nothing like inviting company over to spur me to clean my house I cleaned the kitchen including the freezer and inside of the refrigerator, both downstairs baths and vacuumed upstairs. Plan to vacuum downstairs in the morning.

I got a free Electrosol dishwasher sample from Walmart in the mail.

I was watching Crossroads tonight on CMT. They paired Bonnie Raitt and Lyle Lovett. It was great. She plays that guitar like no one else, absolutely gorgeous.

it snowed today so we didn't walk. Only got about an inch but it was bitterly cold. It's 3 degrees right now. Almost a full moon and the sky is clear so it's very pretty out.

Not much on the money front today. Paid a couple of CCs online. I pay them in full every month.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Countdown by Iris Johansen. Romance/Mystery Very good

Finished reading the library book A Rumor of Bones by Beverly Connor. Mystery. Also very good.

walked with mom for 35 min

Sent off the $70 for the miniature class registration, but it used my last stamp, so when I got the mortgage prepayment check for $1500 ready to mail I realized I'd have to wait until I get some stamps. Hope I remember when I go to the grocery store this weekend.

My parents wanted to go out to eat tonight so they picked me up and we went to Village Inn. I had two coupons one was buy an entree and 2 drinks and get the second entree for free. I gave that one to my parents to use. My dad was pretty happy about it. The second was buy an entree and get a free piece of pie. So I got a piece of pumpkin pie that I brought home to eat tomorrow

I spent $9.82

I finished reading my book Rebel Ice by S.L. Viehl. Sci/Fi Very good. 6th in the series. I like series books when they have strong interesting characters to follow.

walked with mom for 35 min

I go up to a Miniature store in Denver a couple of times a year to get supplies for my hobby. I'm on their mailing list and they always have a sale in Feb/Mar. They sent me their latest mailing and they are producing classes to teach miniature making.

One of the classes is a 4 hour class called Picnic Time. It costs $35 and you learn how to make a Picnic table, a "Weber" style grill, picnic basket with tablecloth and chips, beverage cooler, plus fill a food cooler with ice, food containers, foil wrapped plastic packages, potato salad and sandwiches. This is really a good deal, it would be difficult to purchase all that for $35.

Anyways I thought it would be a perfect thing for my oldest niece and I to do together. I got her mom's permission today for her to spend the night and then we'll go the class the next day. It's March 12. I need to register tomorrow, but I'm exicted about it. I think it will be so much fun.

I have a bunch of old musicals on tape and she likes to watch them so we'll problably watch a couple when she spends the night. She's trying to learn to cook and I've shown her two recipes last year, I'll have to come up with another one I think she might like.

I need to come up with something good to do with the youngest niece. I take turns and it's her turn next, so I need to do something with her before March 12.

Maybe I'll take her to see Nanny McPhee, It looks good, haven't heard anything from anyone who's seen it. I know she wants to see King Kong, but not sure I want to see that. The story doesn't do anything for me. I'm looking at the local movie listings and I see there is another PG movie out called Hoodwinked. Maybe she'd like it. I need to call tomorrow and see when she's available and what she might like to do. Maybe we'll do two movies since the sleepover and class are a bigger deal. I try to keep it fairly even although I count the experiences for as much or more worth than the money spent.

I finished listening to the library book on tape Blow Out by Catherine Coulter. Romance. Very good.

Drove into work today. Traffic wasn't too bad for a change.

Stopped at Wendy's on the way home. It was almost 6 and I was starving. I brought my lunch, but ate it at 12:00 didn't last long enough. I was so busy the afternoon flew bye.

Spent $6.94 at Wendy's

Finished reading my book Farther Than Any Man The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook by Martin Dugard. Biography. It was very interesting.

Walked with mom for 55 min

I didn't have to work today, because I got a comp day for working so many extra hours the last couple of weeks. I woke up and looked at my clock and it said 10:30 I couldn't believe I had slept that late. It turns out I hadn't. I have a new atomic clock and somehow it was set for central time zone instead fo mountain time zone, so it was only 9:30. Still late but not near as bad as 10:30. I used to be able to sleep all morning, I've always been a night person, but lately it's all I can do to stay up till 11 and I notice I'm waking up earlier than I used to also.

I hear all these stories about older people waking up at 4 and 5 in the morning. Don't know if I could take that I like being awake in the middle of the night, when no one else is up. It's so quite and peaceful.

I finished filling out all the rebates for my computer today. I put them and the taxes in the mail. Between the two I have about $1000 coming back to me in the next month or so.

Went to the library and picked up my holds. Finished reading the library book 7 Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly. Adventure. Very good.

I was watching Semi-homemade on the Food Network while I was making out my grocery list this morning. She was making a dish that I thought looked pretty good, so I added the ingredients to my grocery list.

Coleslaw, mixed with mandarin oranges, cashews and chicken tenders from the deli. I had it for supper and it was really good. I liked the oranges and coleslaw combination. I think I might try it with a leftover chicken breast instead of a chicken tender next time.

I spent $37.71 at the grocery store and will get $10 back in rebates. I saved 39% according to the receipt. That's before the rebate.

Met my parents at a new Mexican place that opened a half a block from me. It was really good. I spent $11. I walked to the restaurant but it was so cold and the wind was blowing like crazy so mom and I decided to skip our walk.

I checked my taxes again and decided all the numbers are right so put them in the envelopes ready to mail.

I started working on the rebates for my computer. Got about 6 ready to send, have 4-5 left to do. They take so long to get all the pieces together, but it's definitly worth it. The smallest rebate is for $20. One of the rebates for $150 I just had to go to the Best Buy website and type in a couple of numbers plus my personal information and it's done. That's the way to go, I wish they were all like that.

I finished reading my book, Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Sci/Fi. Very good. Much better than the movie, but I almost always like books better than a movie, they explain so much more.

walked with mom for 55 min

Spent about 4 hours on my taxes. It was pretty easy using the TaxCut software except for the stock option part. It took me almost 2 hours to figure out the values and how to record them. I had to go back and find old emails about purchase price and market price and selling price, etc, etc...

I also spent some time on the IRS website looking for examples on how to report this. I found them and then just had to do the math. Hope I did everything right. I'm going to look at the numbers again tomorrow to make sure I entered everything correctly. Need to do that when I'm a little clearer-headed and haven't been looking at numbers all day.

If I did it right I will get $424 back from federal and owe state $51. I'm happy with that. I'll send the federal off on Monday and then wait awhile to send the state.

Finished reading the library book All Night Long by Jayne Ann Krentz. Romance. Very good.

Walked with mom for 35 min. Walked yesterday for 35 min also.

I've worked so many hours this last two weeks I feel like I haven't done anything else. I was so tired of computers last night that I didn't even post.

Went to McDonalds for dinner tonight. $6.40 another bad thing about working long hours, I'm too tired to cook and eat right at night.

I have a 3 day weekend though. I got Monday off as comp time for working so much. I need to dig out, the house is disgusting. I also need to do my taxes and fill out all the rebate forms for my computer. I hope to get some reading in also.

Got a $5 pinecone check in the mail and a free sample of Gain detergent.

Finished reading The Musashi Flex by Steve Perry. Sci/Fi. Good.

went into work today. I needed to go inside the bank so I went on my lunch hour. I only make drive-through hours if I go before or after work. Picked up Wendy's to eat going and returning. Spent $4.70

Went to the bank and deposited $44.75 in rebate checks, pinecone checks and $15 in loose change. All went to my Extra Fund

After work went to Staples to return the unneeded printer cartridges that I bought last month and now have a new printer, which needs different cartridges. They let me trade and the new cartridges were $18.25 cheaper so they put that money back on the card.

Next I got gas at King Soopers where I had a 10 cent/gal disount. Paid 2.12/gal and spent $22.01

Went to Border's where I had a 20% off coupon. Bought 1 book for $7.25 and used my rebate card from Discover.

Next went to Barnes and Noble and bought one book for $7.72. Had my 10% off membership and used my CC rebates.

February Goals are:

1. Pre-pay mortgage by 1500.00

2. Walk 20 times for at least 35 min

3. Spend $450 or less for household items

4. Try to follow Glycemic Index eating plan.

5. Go to Dr and get checkup on Diabetes numbers as well as Cholesterol and Triglycerides

6. Finish taxes.