walked with mom for 55 min

I knew my parents were really busy today getting ready to go camping so I took over the ingredients to make chili pasta and fixed dinner for them.

I'm really irritated tonight. All week I've been dreaming about sleeping in tomorrow. Every morning when I wake up, I think I can sleep in on Saturday. Well, because other people can't get there work done on time, I have to work tomorrow morning. Stinks!!!

My goals for June were:

June Goals are:

1. Walk at least 25 days for 35 min
Done

2. Pre-pay mortgage - $4000 this will meet my goal for the year of $12,000. Will use all of my 3rd paycheck to help meet this goal.
Done

3. Spend $450 or less on household items.
Done Spent $435.94

Groceries - 155.09
Fast Food - 42.65
Restaurants - 26.61
Nieces - 42.20
Clothes - 25
Books - 20.80
Gas 59.73
Entertainment - 15
Other - 48.83

4. Close the Virtual bank account that I opened for a bonus
Done

5. Get tires replaced - not done, no time

6. Set up new budget - not done, decided to wait after I heard about the changes to our 401K. I will be getting more money back in each paycheck so will wait till I know how much it is before I redo the budget.

My net worth went down 1.35% and that was after putting in a larger than usual amount towards the mortgage.

Finally finished reading the library book Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon. Sci/Fi. Good. I started this book on Monday and it took me all week to finish it. Probably the least amount I've read in a week since I learned how to read which was age 3 according to my mother. Not sure I believe that. But since it took me so long, I now owe .60 cent late charge. If I had finished it Tuesday like I planned I would have been ok.

walked with mom for 55 min

She invited me over for dinner again tonight, baked chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, corn, salad and rolls. YUM and the best part was I didn't have to cook or clean. Nieces and BIL were there too.

I told them I would bring over my leftover chili and make chili pasta for them tomorrow night.

My parents are so funny though. My mom always washed the dishes in a sink of soapy water before putting them in the dishwasher. Then my dad unloads the dishwasher when it's done and dries the dishes. I asked them what was the point of using the dishwasher and my mom very seriously told me "it sanitizes them". Too funny.

walked with mom for 55 min

Safeway has buy 4 12 pack fridge packs for $10 and get a rebate at checkout for $10 on either coke or pepsi products. I'll definitly have to check it out this week.

Slightly better work day today, only worked 9 hours. Broke a blood vessel in my eye, don't know if it's related to all the computer work or not, I know my eyes have been hurting.

Sent off for a $2.99 Hunt's ketchup rebate and my Long's June rebate today.

Read the Kiplinger's magazine.

Had dinner at mom's with nieces. Sister is out of town and mom has them for 2 days. Stayed for awhile and worked on crafts with them. They are both very talented and creative.

walked with mom for 55 min

I finally got the first issue of my 3 year contract with Kiplinger's that I paid $4 something for. Almost 10 weeks ago, but it is finally here. Unfortunately I don't have time to read it I'm still working at 9:00pm started at 8. I have tests running on the other computer. So tired I can hardly think. I can't keep up this pace too much longer. When I was younger 50-60 hours a week were normal plus the occassional 80+ hour week. I just can't do it any more, nor do I want to. I think by Friday I will be caught up and can catch a breath. But then all the home stuff will be waiting for me to catch up on it. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan

Went into work today. Got gas for $2.63/gal. Spent $25.31. Went to Super Salad for dinner on the way home. Spent $6.36

Got free Necafe coffee in the mail. Gave it to my dad, since I don't drink coffee. He was telling me how he used the $100 in gas cards he got for test driving Fords. These were deals that I got for him, so he was pretty happy that he got the gas for free.

walked with mom for 55 min

Made my new 401K choices today. The new company charges higher maintenance fees, which is a bummer, but I found funds that closely duplicated the ones I had. I was invested in the Dodge and Cox stock fund though and I'm really going to miss it. It did very well for me.

Canceled the trial membership to Shopper's Advantage. They even said they would return my $1 trial fee.

Got a free sample of Move Free from Walmart. This was 28 pills a weeks supply, a good size sample. I gave it to my mom. I also got The Healing Garden skin moisturizer sample.

Worked 11 hours, so no reading

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to the grocery store this morning. Spent $56.65. Saved $63.08 more than 50%.

I got the following items for free.

2 packages Ball Park Franks - because the sale price didn't ring up, I got these free.
Sara Lee hotdog buns - free with purchase of 2 Ball Park Franks
2 64 oz bottles Tree Top Apple juice
2 packages Dentyne gum
1 package Dentyne mints
3 ready to serve packages Zataran's Rice
5 4 oz cans Ortega chilis
And I have a FAR for Hunts ketchup which will make that free and give back $2.00

Went to Chili's for lunch and spent $7.83

Spent the day preping for the week. Did laundry, cooked a huge batch of Chili, chopped veggies, boiled eggs, fixed oatmeal for the week. My house is getting really behind on cleaning. I just can't keep up with it and all the hours I work, plus the down time I require to be able to concentrate on my work. I'm seriously considering getting a cleaner in for one time just to get me back to an even starting place.

Finished reading my book Dangerous Tides by Christine Feehan. Romance. Very good.

took my youngest niece to see Xmen. It's rated PG-13 and we checked it out on line and her mom agreed she could see it. She is 11. I liked the movie and so did she, but I was a little surprised at the ending. I wasn't expecting that level of violence and I'm not sure what she thought of it. I was also upset about the previews that they showed for movies like the Omen, very disturbing images for children. We had lunch at the theater and I spent $22.00 for tickets and food.

Next we went to Claire's. This is an accessory store and both of my nieces can spend hours in there. I let her look for at least a half hour before I told her we needed to get going. She bought several small girly items.

We went to Coach House gifts after that and I got her a cool watch for her bday. Spent $10.73

Then on to Barnes and Noble where I spent $14.48 using my free GCs.

Best Buy was next were I got a CD she wanted for her Bday for $15.36 - $10.00 reward certificate I had.

On to Cold Stone for ice cream. I had a coupon to get a free kids ice cream when you buy a medium ice cream. So we did that, only I ate the kids ice cream and she had the larger size. This was perfect I'd like to do this everytime I go there. The kid's ice cream was just the right size and was only $1.50 vs the medium which is $3.96 with tax.

At Longs they had the new collapsable rubbermade containers as a BOGO and I had 2 $1 off coupons so I used those and also bought a couple other items. Total $11.58

Target was next where she bought some flip-flops for a $1 and some nail junk.

Then we went to Big Lots and I spent $8.87.

Last stop was Jason's Deli for dinner. Spent $16.20

By the time I got home it was raining so I wasn't able to walk with mom.

I was asking my niece about college or if she had any ideas what she wanted to do for a living and she really surprised me. She said she wants to go to the Air Force Academy and then be in the National Guard. Who Knew? That's a very unusual career choice for an 11 year old girl.

Finished reading the library book Beach House by James Patterson. Mystery, great book with a very surprising ending.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a Shower to Shower sample from WalMart in the mail today.

Got $10 of gas, just enough to last till I can get in town and fill up at a cheaper price. Spent 2.82/gal

Still working long hours so not reading as much as I would like.

Finished reading the library bok Playing Easy to Get by various authors. Romance. Cute short stories.

walked with mom for 55 min

Only worked 9 hours today. Had a Dr appt. Spent $20 for co-pay. Have to go back on medication for the diabetes, it is very high again. Blehh! Disappointed and slightly blue about that.

I need to dig out some books on diabetes and brush up on controlling it better again. I admit I've gotten sloppy because of laziness and lack of time and stress. Need to pay more attention.

Got a sample of Head and Shoulders in the mail.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich. Romance. Very good, very funny

no walking today. worked from 8am to 10pm. My shoulders are killing me from sitting in front of the computer for so long. Yesterday it was leaden legs, today's it's sore shoulders. Guess I'm getting old

walked with mom for 55 min. It was so hot even at 7:30 I just dragged through the walk, no energy. My legs felt like lead.

I was so glad i did all the meal prep work yesterday, it was so nice to just put the oatmeal in the microwave in the morning and grap a banana and then for lunch, spread some tuna on some bread and then grab some already cut up watermelon. No mess, no thinking, very nice on a busy day.

Got a $10 gift certificate from Best Buy in the mail today. Plus a list of the new funds in the new 401K and the fees they charge for each fund. That's really nice to know. I usually have to search for that kind of information.

Finished reading my book Breadwater by Carla Neggers. Mystery/Romance. Ok

walked with mom 50 min yesterday and today. We're walking faster and have cut 5 minutes off our walks.

I worked 6 hours yesterday and then went to Parents for Father's day. Had steak, potato salad, green salad, jello salad, watermelon and rolls, all very good. Plus lemon pie for dessert.

I have to return the Printer though, that I got dad for fday. The black ink was missing as well as the power cord. What a pain!

I stayed awhile after my brother and sister left and played cards. My nieces were both in very loving moods yesterday, constantly coming up to be hugged. nice!

They went to cousins camp this week. One of my cousins wives had all of the second generation cousins 18 and younger to their house for 3 days. I think there were 8 of them. She must be wonder-woman or something. I can't even imagine being around 8 teens and pre-teens for 3 days, let alone cooking for them.

I worked 2 hours today and then since I know I have to work a lot this week I tried to get a head start on the meals so I won't be tempted to eat so much fast food.

Went to the grocery store and spent $30.60. Then I hard-boiled eggs, made oatmeal, made tuna salad and potato salad and chopped celery, green onions and watermelon. I've been craving watermelon so hope it's good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Very tired today. Worked from 7:30 - 6:30 and have to work again tomorrow morning. Learning something new so brain work is always more tiring than physical work to me.

At my parents my dad finally got the $50 GC from test driving a Ford. I gave him the deal so was glad to see it pay off. He was telling me about how he lost a deal in the local free classified paper today, because he didn't get the paper until late. I asked him if they had a website, he didn't know, but went and got me the paper.

They do have one so I set it up for him and showed both of them how to use it and search for what they want. My mom has to get on craigslist every couple of days and search for him, so i expect she will have to do this too. I keep telling her to make him learn it if he wants to use it, but so far she still does it. He's still trying to buy and sell ATVs. He's made over $6000 so far and it's a nice hobby for him. Wish my hobby would pay that well. He probably spent less than 4 hours total on each deal and I think he's sold about 8 ATVs now. Good return.

I worked so late and since I need to walk while it was light plus show dad the computer I didn't get to eat till 9:00 so went to McDonalds and spent $5.86.

Got a coupon for a free 2 liter bottle of 7-up in the mail today. I have pop coming out my ears with all the free stuff I'm getting. That's not a complaint though

My parents got their CC bills from our Canada trip. We put all our meals on their CC. I owe around $150 for meals. That's pretty good for 13 meals. We had steak a couple times and salmon once.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Dark Desire by Catherine Feehan. Supernatural. Very good.

Walked with mom for 55 min

Got the $20 Barnes and Noble cards in the mail today for a trial offer. So far this year I've recieved $165 in BN Gift Cards. I'd sure like to continue this trend.

My youngest niece gave me a list of 3 CDs she wants for her bday in September. Your Music had 2 of them so I will get them for $5.99 each. I still think that's such a cool deal and my nices are always wanting CDs.

Found a recipe for faux Febreeze on Recipezaar today.

went into work today for a half day. My boss wanted me to work this evening so left the office early and came back home so I would be available later. Then he postponed it till tomorrow. Oh well, as long as I get my 40+ hours in, that's fine.

Used one of my BOGO coupons from the Entertainment book to get lunch and dinner from Captain Ds. Spent $4.07

Finished reading the library book His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Sci/Fi. Very good. It about the history period of the war between France and Britian with Napoleon but they have dragons fighting for them in the air. Really good characterizations of both the dragons and their flyers. If you like Anne McCaffrey you will probably like this author. It's a new one for me and she has two more books out that I put on hold at the library.

walked with mom for 55 min

Sold a book at half.com for $1. Postage $1.59

I started to read the library book Not Buying It My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine but quit around page 90. I couldn't stand it any more. About 30% of the book is about her experiences only buying necessities. 70% of the book is American bashing. We're gready, we're fat, we use too much of the world's resources. Big business is too big, the government is bad. Basically every liberal, environmentalist argument you've ever heard, she brings up. If I want to read a book on politics then I will.

She basically complains throughout the entire book and as far as I'm concerned, she doesn't have a lot to complain about. She decided not to spend money on anything except expenses for a year because she had maxed out a couple of credit cards and was working on the third one. She spent over $1000 on Christmas. Well, who made her do that? It must have been those evil stores advertising all those tempting things, it obviously couldn't have been her fault.

Her and her live-in boyfriend are self-employed. Between the two of them they own an apartment in New York city and a cabin and 40 acres in the Vermont woods. They own 3 vehicles and a bunch of sports equipment. She refers to her second best pair of skis. She makes average wages for New Yorkers. So what does she have to complain about?

The thing that made me stop reading in disgust though was when they went to the MOMA in New York. Apparently this museum and many others offer free entrance on certain nights. They decide to take advantage of that for free entertainment. Nothing wrong with that. But then she turns around and complains that because of the evil government budget cuts the MOMA will raise it's entrance fees from $12 to $20.

Ok, first of all, she's not even paying the $12, she's taking advantage of the fact that tax-payers have supported the museum and they offer free nights. If she thinks it's so important to support the museum she could at least pay the $12 entrance fee instead of complaining that they have to raise the fee to $20, which she won't be paying either.

Everything is the fault of big business, or government, or American selfishness.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but I hate the blame it on forces beyond our control attitude.