Retire@50

The other day I bought a $100 gift card to Walmart from PlasticJungle for $96. I used my credit card so will get another 1% back. This is just under a 5% savings before I buy anything at WalMart. I got the card in about 3 days. Mom and I went to WalMart to walk this morning because it was snowing. I used my gift card to buy 2 single servings of Edmonds lemon merigne pie and a jar of grape jelly. After coupons it was 1.93 which I paid for with my gift card. No problems, the card had $100 on it.

I have a prompt for WalMart and Staples cards on PlasticJungle so if they get WalMart cards with a discount of at least 4% and Staples with a discount of 6% I get notified and can decide to buy or not. Just another way of stretching my dollars a little farther. You can also sell or trade gift cards on the site.

http://www.plasticjungle.com/pjweb/

I finished reading the library book Legacies by F. Paul Wilson. Adventure - pretty good.

Sometimes I have a hard time believing all the free things you can get in this country, but I'm willing to take what companies are willing to offer In the mail today I got a free sample of Dunkin Donuts coffee. Yesterday I got Kashi cereal for free in the mail.

Yesterday I also got a free movie rental from Redbox using a promotion code from the website I blogged about awhile ago. I got Sherlock Holmes. It was pretty good. I fixed popcorn for dinner last night to go with the movie. I made it with half butter and half olive oil. The calories aren't any less but olive oil is a better type of fat, but I like the taste of butter on my popcorn so this is a good compromise.

I also got 2 more Stayfree and made .80 cents on each one today at Walgreens. I only had $1 coupons left instead of the $2 I originally used. That's the last of my coupons. I've made over $10 at Walgreens this week and got 6 Stayfree, 2 Dental picks and 2 shaving gels.

Then I went to Subway and got a footlong meatball sandwich using a gift card I got for xmas - so free to me. I had half for lunch and will have the rest and a big salad for dinner.

And finally today I got another $5 gift card to Amazon free from using Swagbucks.

I'm reading the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. This ia a great cook book. It explains all the terms and shows you basic cooking techniques. It makes you want to cook. I've already seen several recipes I want to try. I may have to buy this one. I don't own very many cookbooks - about 3 - since I mostly get recipes from websites and mess with them to make them unique to me.

I finished reading my book Primal Heat. Paranormal short stories. I only liked the one by Lora Leigh, the rest were just ok.

I went back to Walgreens this morning and got free Stayfree, dental floss and shaving gel again. The Stayfree and dental floss go to the food pantry and the shaving gel goes to the other niece.

About every 3 months I get a $10 gift card to Kohl's in the mail. I stopped by there and got a $32 leather wallet for $4.75 after the coupon. It was on sale for $14.40. I'm always looking for wallet's that will fit in my jeans pocket, have a zipper to hold extra keys, and have a lot of slots for gift cards since I always carry a lot. This one had 20 slots. The most I've seen in a small wallet. It will be perfect when the one I have wears out.

I went back to King Soopers and got 3 more butters for .20 cents each and 2 free Mentos gum. The gum goes to my nieces and the butter goes in the fridge. Colorado recently enacted a sales tax on candy and soda. I didn't realize it was on gum too. I had to pay .09 cents for $2.00 of gum - that stinks. I want government out of the business of telling me what to eat or drink or wear or drive or speak or read or watch or invest in, etc, etc.

They run the government so well they think they can do a better job of running all of our lives too.

I finished reading the library book Shadowsinger by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Sci/Fi - very good

I went shopping today at Walgreens and King Soopers and got lots of cheap and free things.

I went to both Walgreens by me and found out that the new one charges 1% less in taxes than the old one.

I did 4 transactions - 2 at each store.

Transaction 1, 2 and 3

2.99 - 1 24 Ct Stayfree maxi pads
.21 or .24 cents depending on which store
-----
3.20 or 3.23
-2.00 coupon
-----
1.20 or 1.23

I got a RR back for $3. I paid using a gift card purchased with RRs from previous transactions so no out of pocket expense. Made 1.77 - 1.80 on each transaction

Transaction 4

2.99 - Skintimate shaving cream
2.00 - Plackers Dental picks
.34 - taxes
-----
5.33
-3.00 - RR from Stayfree
- .50 - Plackers q
-----
1.49 - paid with gift card so no oop

I got back $3 RR for the shaving cream and $2 RR for the dental picks. I made .36 on the picks.

All the Stayfree and the dental picks go to the food pantry. The shaving cream goes to one of my nieces.

At King Soopers I got the following and saved 75%

13.00 - cans Chef Boyardee
6.00 - cups Velveeta shells and cheese
3.00 - 3 packages Hunts Snack Packs
1.00 - Betty Crocker potatoes
2.00 - 2 Colgate toothbrushes
3.00 - 3 Mentos Gum
3.00 - 3 Country Crock butter
2.00 - 2 Lady's Speed Stick deodorant
2.48 - 1 bag Sun Chips
.69 - 1 long john - splurge
.63 - 1 onion
.12 - 1 rib celery
.78 - 4 bananas
.33 - taxes
-----
38.03
- .15 - reusable bag credit
-4.00 - 3 Chef Boyardee coupons. 2 1.50/4 and 1 $1/5
-3.00 - 3 BOGO q's Velveeta shells and cheese
-3.00 - 3 free Hunt's snack pack wyb 4 chef boyardee
- .60 - .40 q on Betty Crocker potatoes - doubled
- .40 - shortcut ecoupon on potatoes
-2.00 - 2 .75 q's Colgate toothbrushes doubled
-3.00 - 3 .55 q's Mentos Gum doubled
-2.10 - 2 .40 q's Country Crock doubled 1 .50 q
-2.00 - 2 .50 q's Lady Speed Stick doubled
-2.48 - free sun chips q
-3.00 - OYNO q from last week
-----
12.30

The food pantry gets the following

13 cans chef boyardee
2 Lady Speed Sticks
1 betty crocker potatoes
6 Velveeta shells and cheese
1 bag Sun Chips

The gum goes to my nieces. The toothbrushes go to my brother.

I'll be able to send for the Con Agra rebate buy $10 and get $25 in coupons from the Chef Boyardee purchase.

I was really glad to see the butter on sale. I finished my last tub of butter from the last time I stocked up on Saturday. I need to go back and get some more to store in the freezer. I also need to go back to Walgreens for more Stayfree, Dental picks and shaving cream.

I finished reading my book Dinosaur Planet Survivors by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - pretty good

went to an antique fair that they hold in the local high school every year. It's a nice one that has a lot of good antiques and not the collectibles that everyone passes off as antiques at most shows anymore. It was $6 to enter. I took some jewelry my grandmother gave me 30 years ago to see if they could tell me anything about it. They told me it's called goldstone and was popular in the early 1900's. That's more than I knew before. Mom got several pieces of colored glass. They had some beautiful furniture. I especially like the old kitchen baking cabinets where they had all the little drawers to store your supplies, they had several really nice one of those. However I just look I don't buy, no room and not really my style for decorating. I like arts and crafts style and have as much furniture as I need.

Finished reading Aiden's Charity by Lora Leigh. Paranormal - excellent

Also finished the library book Bride by Command by Linda Winstead Jones. Romance - ok

I was reading the Dollar Stretcher website today and ran across two very interesting articles. The first one explains when various portions of the health care bill go into effect

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/timeline-for-healt...

The second one tells you how to speed up your PC for free. I spent much of the day putting these steps into effect on my computer.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/10/10apr19d.cfm?fp

I finished reading my book The Perfect Princess by Elizabeth Thornton. Romance - pretty good

I also finished the library book Iorich by Steven Brust. Sci/Fi - very good.

I bought $5,000 in I-bonds today. I should net 2.33% interest in one year. That's better than any 1 year cds that I've found. Here's a good website that explains I-Bonds

http://www.ibonds.info/rates.html

and here's one that explains why I bought now.

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2010/04/savings-i-bonds-...

I finished reading my book Dinosaur Planet by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - pretty good. I'm slowly rereading all my old books, but since I have almost 2000 it is taking a lot of time inbetween library books and newly bought books. It's interesting to me to see how my tastes have changed over the years. Books that were very good the first time are just ok the second time thru.

My dad has several rental houses. One of his renters called and wanted to know if he had anything bigger they could rent since they are having twins. He is a good renter and since dad can't get a decent interest on his cash he decided to look for a bigger house to buy. He found one that's a really good price $210K and large enough. The last time it sold it was for $250K. The owner died and his parents are selling it from out of state. They are even including all the furniture, a big screen tv and all appliances. The renters like the house so dad went ahead and bought it. He will get $1200/month rent. After he bought it the renter found out the owner had hung himself in the garage. He wasn't upset about that, but wasn't planning to tell his wife or kids. Mom says he needs to because the neighbors are bound to tell her.

Anyways my question is shouldn't the realtor have mentioned that someone died in the house before selling it? Some people might have serious reservations about that kind of thing. I think ethically she should have said something. Dad found out she knew it before selling the house.

I finished reading the library book Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara. Paranormal - excellent series.

I lost my post 6 or 7 times yesterday and had saved it to a word doc. I finally figured out today that as long as I kept copying it to here I would lose it everytime. I had to manually type it in again before I could finally save it. So this is really yesterday's post.

There are a lot of cashback reward sites ont he web for purchasing stuff on the internet - ebates, mrrebates, bing, fatwallet etc. But how do you figure out which one is the best for which store? Here is a tool that tells what each one is paying

http://www.cashbacktool.com/default.aspx

I typed in Borders and got the following

Cashback Site Cashback Percent
bigcrumbs UP TO 5.4%
mrrebates 4%
ebates 4.00%
fatwallet.com 4%

I typed in Target and got

Cashback Site Cashback Percent
bigcrumbs UP TO 6.3%
mrrebates 4%
ebates.com 3%
greenbackstreet.com 3.2%
bing (live.com) 3----7%

Pretty neat tool if you do a lot of internet shopping

I went to King Soopers this morning and got cheap eggs and free spices. Smart Balance eggs are on sale for $1.34 I had 2 .50 cent coupons so only .34/doz. I gave one dozen to mom and dad. Lawry's spices and McCormick grillmates are on sale for $1 each. I had 2 .50 cent coupons each and got 2 Lawry's garlic salt and 2 McCormick grillmates for free. One garlic salt and both grillmates went to mom and dad and the other garlic salt went to my brother.

I finished reading my book Jacob's Faith by Lora Leigh. Paranormal - excellent

I went to a health fair today and had blood drawn to check for cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose. It cost $30 and I was in and out in 15 minutes. That's the kind of health care I like I hadn't done this before, always got my tests from the doctors office. Wait 30 minutes, get blood drawn and pay $20 co-pay and then pay a percentage of blood tests. This is much better.

Mom and Dad have been going for years so I went with them this time. Before they always went during the week and early so they had to stand in line for an hour, because it was 11:30 there weren't as many people. Most people don't like to fast that long. I'd only been up a couple hours and I'm not a morning eater anyways, so no big deal to me. It was hard on them though, but they said it was good they didn't have to stand in line forever.

I also went to Borders and got 2 books for free, using gift cards from my credit card rewards. I used 2 33% off coupons and saved even more. I also went to Home Depot and got basil and parsley seeds, which were BOGO, and picked up a $40 gift card for mother's day. My credit card has 5% rewards on Home Improvement stores this month. Mom always wants plants for mother's day, but it's too cold to plant here then so we either buy them and she stores them in her garage for a couple of weeks or we wait till she's ready to plant and then buy. This year she can go pick out what she wants when she's ready to plant.

She's been collecting strawberry dishes for about 30 years now. I happened to see some real pretty glasses at the thrift store. They only had 5 and they were pretty pricey for thrift store at $2 each, but I think she will like them.

After the Health Fair we went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch and I used up my last gift card that I bought before xmas. They had a deal buy $25 and get $5 extra and I bought 2 for me and 2 for presents.

I'm starting to look at the ads for a new laptop. I'd like to get one for less than $400. I hope there are some good deals soon for graduation. My computer is giving me fits lately and I think I need to have a replacement on hand before it completely dies.

I was watching some cooking shows yesterday and one of them was making chicken noodle soup. They added lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg to the soup. Unusual ingredients for chicken noodle soup. Last night I made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and had a can of chicken noodle soup. I added a little lemon juice to the soup and I did like it. I didn't add the other two spices. I also did something different with the ham sandwich. Instead of slicing onions for the sandwich I sliced an apple and used that. It was pretty good.

I finished reading my book Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs. Paranormal - excellent.

I have the blah's. I don't get them very often, but I have them today. There doesn't seem to be as many bargains or good coupons lately and it a gray rainy day. Nothing seems very interesting today, not even my book. Good day to take a nap and wake up in a better mood later

Yesterday my mom said they spent the day being me. They went to several stores and saved lots of money using coupons or deals I sent them. But she said it takes a lot of time to orgainize which coupons with which deals and which stores. I always hear these stories how clipping coupons doesn't take a lot of time. It does for me. I used them while working, but not nearly as much as I do now. I didn't have the time or energy before. I think going from store to store takes a lot of energy too. It's worth it now that I have more time than money and it's more of a hobby for me than a necessity. I feel sorry for someone who works and has kids and who needs to shop this way. It's like a part time job.

I finished reading the library book Must Love Hellhounds. Paranormal short stories - very good.

Yesterday was a fun day for me. I met a friend for lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and we talked for 2 hours. I haven't seen her for a couple months because she has been holed up in her house afraid to even spend gas money since they went a month without a salary due to some unforseen problems with their contracting firm. It was really good to catch up and I'm sure she was happy to be out and about again. I just had the loaded baked potato without sour cream so I only spent $4.43 with tip.

Yesterday was also my Dad's birthday - poor guy. He can never really like his birthday because of the day it is. Mom invited me over for dinner and to play games after. We had steaks, mashed potatoes, salad, and garlic bread with Swann's lemon pie for dessert. Yum! I only one 1 out of the 6 games we played but to me the playing is just as fun.

I also worked on their computer since mom could print emails but not word documents. Finally figured out it was because they were low on black ink. The emails had some color in them so she could print those while the word docs were completely black and white. They always have the weirdest problems that take me forever to figure out. The longer I'm retired the harder it is to retain my tech edge too. I'm not around people who talk about and deal with technical stuff all day and it seems like that is all such a long time ago and so fuzzy in my brain now

I finished reading my book Restoree by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

On our walk today mom and I saw several signs of spring. We saw robins and we saw our first wildflower of the year - an anemone. The grass has tinges of green here and there. We even heard a few frogs sound off. That doesn't mean we still won't get several inches of snow, but spring is definitely here.

I got a free sample of Ritz pretzel munchables in the mail and mom got a free sample of Weight Watchers Rosemary and Olive Oil Pretzel Thins from Curves. She shared them with me and these are really good, we both liked them a lot.

I finished reading the library book The Shadow Sorceress by L.E. Modesitt jr. Sci/Fi - very good.

When I was working I didn't have a lot of cash reserves. I was in the 30% tax bracket and wanted my interest to be paid in the future so I wasn't taxed on it in the present. I bought some EE and I bonds even though they didn't pay the best interest, because it was deferred and I wouldn't have to pay state taxes. Ironically those are the cash investments that are paying the most in interest right now.

The month before I retired I cashed in a cd paying over 5%. February of 2009 I cashed in another paying 4.25%. Since then I have struggled to get 2%. I have much more of my investments in cash since my retirement as a cushion. Recently I have been looking for places to put my cash that will earn me some money. After reading several articles from this blog I decided to open a 5 year cd at Ally bank.

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2010/03/ally-bank-5-year...

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2010/03/ally-bank-cds-of...

I think interest rates are going to start rising so I was leary of locking up my money for a long period, however I think they will rise slowly and it will be 2 years or more before they are back up to 3%.

The 5 year cd is paying 2.99% interest which is almost double the 1 year rates I'm finding. But the reason I decided to go for this is Ally bank only has a 2 month penalty if you break the CD. If I open a $10,000 CD at 3% I make $300 a year. It breaks even with the 1.5% cd in 6 months. If I have to break the cd I only have to pay $50 in interest which is another 2 months. So at 8 months I break even with the 1.5% cd and if I don't break the cd I earn that interest rate for that many extra months.

Also I can get the interest on the CD monthly, quarterly or annually. I opted for quarterly. I plan to open a few of these so that I would only have to break a small cd if I did need to get money quickly. I don't expect to need any of this money for 5 years but you never know and if for some reason interest rates rise to 5% or more I could still take advantage when that happens.

I went to Walgreens this morning to use their grand opening $3/$10 coupon. One of my credit cards is paying 5% cash back on drugstore purchases this month. I am going to Ruby Tuesday's for lunch on Thursday so I picked up a $25 gift card for that. I also got a $15 gift card for Wendy's and a book of forever stamps. I especially like to buy stamps when I have 5% back opportunities since that's a hard category to save money on. I also got 25 pairs of ear plugs for $8.29 and 9 rolls of Quilted Northern for $4. I use ear plugs all the time to sleep and they are rarely on sale so the $3 off will work for those.

The Quilted Northern finished up a rebate for me. Buy $20 get $5 back, so I will be sending that in today.

I finished reading my book The Untamed Bride by Stephanie Laurens. Romance - excellent.

I'm not a big gadget person. I don't have the room or patience for most of them, but there are a few of those as seen on TV things that I really like. I hate to chop onions, they really burn my eyes to the point I have to leave the room and rinse with cold water. For christmas I got a Vidalia Onion Chopper. I love this thing, it's so slick. I just cut the ends off the onion, cut it in half, peel it and put half in the chopper. Bam! chopped onions - no heavy fumes. Put the other half in and Bam! all done. It's great.

I made soup yesterday that didn't turn out so good, it was too salty. I added water and will see if it's better today. But the onion chopper worked great and made it much easier.

Another one of those gadgets I really like is the Pedegg. This thing works great on my feet. Really smooths the rough, jagged edges.

I went to King Soopers this morning and got 3 more Betty Crocker potato pouches.

3.87 - 3 @ 1.29
-2.40 - 3 .40 q's doubled
- .05 - reusable bag
-----
1.42

And I got another $3 OYNO coupon, so profit The potatoes go to the food pantry.

The new Walgreens is having their grand opening sale and they have $3/$10 coupons. I will have to figure out the best way of using these to stretch them the farthest.

I finished reading the library book All The Rage by F. Paul Wilson. Adventure - ok

I got three free books from Amazon today plus shipping was free too. I get most of the books I do purchase free anymore. These were purchased using 6 $5 giftcards from swagbucks.

Swagbucks is a search engine powered by Google and Ask. When you use their search engine, you regularly receive points that can be redeemed for prizes like gift cards, clothing, video games, etc. for free.If you already use Google or Ask as a search engine, it is a good idea to switch to Swagbucks because it is basically the same thing except that you receive points while you are using it. Swagbucks is completely safe. It does not ask for any personal information such as your phone number or credit card number and there is no spam mail. Swagbucks (Google and Ask) gives people points and prizes in an effort to keep them as a user of their search engine.

http://www.swagbucks.com

I downloaded the toolbar and use it to search each day. I usually get 10 or more points on the second or third search I do this every day. I may get more later - it's pretty random. Once I get 450 swagbucks I trade them in for a $5 Amazon gift card. I generally get one gift card each month. So far I have gotten 20 giftcards or $100 in Amazon books. When I get 6 $5 gift cards I order $25+ in books to get the free shipping.

The other way I get free books is thru Discover. They have 5% rewards on various things throughout the year and I charge whatever I buy on my Discover card. Once I get $20 I can trade it in for a $25 Border's gift card. I get about $150 in Borders cards each year. Then I use 20 - 40% off Borders coupons to make those giftcards stretch farther.

I finished reading my book The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - ok

I also finished my book Shady Lady by Elizabeth Thornton. Romance - very good.

Grocery shopping again. First was King Soopers where I saved 67% and bought a lot of produce.

2.22 - 2 potatoes
.57 - 1 onion
9.28 - 21 Golden Delicious apples @ $1/lb
1.58 - green grapes @ $1/lb
2.00 - King Soopers brand bagged salad
1.50 - 1 lb bag of mini carrots
3.87 - 3 pouches Betty Crocker potatoes
3.99 - familty size Stouffer's individual meatloaves
2.00 - 2 McCormick Grillmates spices
1.00 - Lawry garlic salt
-----
27.01
- .10 - 2 reusable bags
-5.00 - Gift card for subscribing to Denver Post
-3.00 - King Soopers home mailer q wyb $15 produce
- .45 - King Soopers carrots
- .50 - King Soopers bagged salad
-2.40 - 3 .40 Betty Crocker potato q's doubled
- .80 - 2 cellfire Betty Crocker potato q's
-2.50 - Stouffer's q
-2.00 - 2 $1 McCormick q
-1.00 - King Soopers Lawry q
-----
9.26

I got a $3 OYNO coupon for buying the 3 Betty Crocker potatoes so I made money on those.

Food pantry gets the 3 potato pouces and the 2 McCormick spices.

My oldest niece is getting her first apartment in August so I'm stockpiling cleaning and pantry basics for her. She will get the garlic salt.

Next store was Safeway where I saved 67% also.

3.98 - 2 Goldfish
5.98 - 2 Ore Ida Hashbrowns
1.99 - 1 gal milk
2.97 - 3 trial size Tide
1.71 - 3 tomatoes @ 1.49 /lb
.20 - tax
-----
16.83
-2.00 - Safeway Ore Ida q
-2.00 - 2 $1 Ore Ida q's
- .98 - Safeway Goldfish q
-2.00 - 2 .75 Goldfish q's doubled
-3.00 - 3 $1 Tide q's
-----
6.85

Total groceries for me 15.54 and .57 on food pantry items.

I finished reading the library book Altar of Eden by James Rollins. Adventure - very good.

Staples has coupon for a free ream of copy paper but I have 7 reams free from other times so decided I didn't need one more If we do get a VAT tax that charges 20% on everything we buy I will regreat not buying now and stocking up even more, but will not regreat for today :0

here's the link to the coupon if you are interested - it's good thru the 10th of April

http://reg.e.staples.com/c/s/tagfrm/hBLvC4hB7SHGCB8G5lSCXc2Y...

I did go to Walgreens and get 2 18 oz boxes of Quacker Oats for $1.50 each. I had 2 $1 coupons so I paid .50 cents each. Both will go to the food pantry. They also had the Cadbury orange cream eggs 1/2 price so I got a few of those. I love them.

I went to the library and picked up my holds. I found this website that lists Redbox codes. I've never rented one of these but the Sherlock Holmes movie is due out April 27th and I'd like to see that. It takes forever to get DVDs on hold from the library. So many people get on the list. I'm number 800 something for Julie and Julia.

here's the link for the site

http://www.insideredbox.com/redbox-codes/

I finished reading the library book Blood Ties by Kay Hooper. Mystery - excellent

well it's snowing again and mom and I decided not to walk at Walmart today, so another day where I don't have to get out and do anything. But I'm not being lazy today. I cleaned out the cabinets under the sinks in the bathroom and restocked them, ran a load of dishes and cleaned up my coupons.

I took out some of my chunky spaghetti sauce from the freezer for dinner. I blogged about this recipe, which I love, here

http://retireat50.savingadvice.com/2008/08/09/chunky-spaghet...

As I side I will make garlic green beans, another recipe I use all the time.

In a small skillet, melt some butter.
Add a handful of walnuts and cook for a couple of minutes until toasted.
Remove from heat and salt.

In another skillet heat some olive oil
Add about 4 cloves of minced garlic and cook for a couple minutes
Drain a can of cut green beans and add to skillet
Season with garlic salt and pepper
Stir so green beans are coated with oil and cook for about 5 minutes until warmed thru
Add walnuts and butter sauce to green beans
Serve - this makes about 2 servings for me.

I finished reading the library book Darksong Rising by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Sci/fi - very good

WARNING! Whine ahead....

I had to go in for jury duty today, and while I don't mind going for jury duty, it's the stuff around it that I find aggravating. I've been on a jury before and it's pretty interesting.

1. Have I mentioned I'm not a morning person? I had to get up at 6:30 IN THE MORNING which is 3 hours or more before I usually get up. So I found myself doing the "I hate mornings chant' in the shower.

2. Traffic. I had to get up that early because the courthouse is clear downtown in the next town over. It's normally about 40 minutes but since it's early morning it's rush hour traffic on the freeway so I needed an hour.

3. The wind is still blowing 50 - 75 miles an hour here so I had to fight that to get in the building - about 2 blocks from the free parking. It was freezing, we're supposed to get snow again tonight.

4. The lady who sat next to me was all over the place. The chairs were plenty large, but she was just constantly moving and bumping me. She lost her pen and it flew at me, she brought back a cup of coffee which she proceeded to spill all over herself and the floor. When she was walking by me in the wide aisles she bumped my book. I know it wasn't on purpose but after awhile it was getting old.

end of whining

But all in all it wasn't that terrible. They let me go at 11:45. So since I was already in town I ran some errands. Gas prices are usually at least 10 cents cheaper. It was 2.73 here and 2.61 in town. I filled up my tank and my two gas cans using my 60 cents discount from King Soopers. I paid 2.01 a gal. total $46.43. I saved $12 from the gas points and $2.40 from the price difference.

I went to the library and picked up a bunch of back issues of magazines. I went to the used bookstore and traded in old books for new to me books.

I finished reading my book Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens. Romance - excellent.

to all the bloggers and deal sites out there who find great deals and generously share them with the rest of us. To the sites that point me to great printable coupons, freebies and where the best deals are this week. To the ones who explain the deals in detail so I can follow along. To the ones who explain the rules of the game so I can figure them out. To the ones who find the best banking and credit card deals and then explain how to use these to maximize my money. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

These are the deal blogs I read everyday that deserve special mention and thanks for helping me save hundreds every year and donate more to the food pantry than I could on my own

money saving mom

http://moneysavingmom.com/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/moneysavin...

katy couponers http://katycouponers.blogspot.com/

the freebie blogger http://thefreebieblogger.com/

abundant food savings http://www.abundantfoodsavings.com/

common sense with money http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/

it's hip to save http://hip2save.com/

and when looking for local grocery deals becentsable

http://www.becentsable.blogspot.com/

I went to King Soopers this morning and saved 74% on my groceries

3.99 - Stouffer's family size individual meatloafs
3.99 - Stouffer's family size lasagna
3.76 - 2 Skippy's peanut butter
1.78 - 2 Muir Glen tomato paste
5.00 - 2 Hillshire farm turkey kielbasa
-----
18.52
-5.00 - 2 2.50 Stouffer's q's
-2.00 - 2 .60 Skippy q's doubled
-2.00 - 2 1.00 Muir Glen q - made .22 cents on these
-1.00 - 1.00 Hillshire farm q
-----
8.52

The food pantry gets

2 Skippy peanut butter
2 Muir Glen pasta

Mom paid me 1.50 for the lasagna

I got a $1 OYNO coupon for buying the Skippy peanut butter. I should have bought these in two different transactions and I would have gotten 2 $1 OYNO coupons making these money makers.

I finished reading the library book My Wicked Vampire by Nina Bangs. Supernatural romance - good.

I got a free sample of Lever soap in the mail yesterday, which goes in the food pantry bag. I fill out a lot of forms for samples and at coupon sites to get coupons. It's a pain to type in all the information in the forms all the time so I've been using Roboform which I downloaded free. It's a tool that fills in forms with one click. You can set up different profiles to fill in all information, some information, whatever you want. I have one with and without email so I can decide if I want to provide that at the time. It's also a password manager, but I don't use it for that since I don't store any passwords on my PC.

Here's a link if you're interested

http://download.cnet.com/RoboForm/3000-18501_4-10037672.html

Another free tool I use frequently is Ccleaner. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

I use this after I do any banking, investment checking or bill paying. It erases the cookies which contain your userids and passwords that automatically login you into sites. This means I have to relog in to everything after I use it, but I prefer that little bit of extra safety.

here's the link for this one

http://www.ccleaner.com/

The last free tool I use is Ad-aware by Lavasoft. I run it at least once a month. This tool removes spyware and adware

here's the link

http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8...

I finished reading my book Flirting with Danger by Suzanne Enoch. Romance - ok

I went to my sister's today to celebrate several birthday's in the family. Brother's, brother-in-laws and dads. My niece came down from college. I don't give brother or BIL presents for their b-day, but I gave my dad a box of smoked salmon and $30 Red Lobster and $10 Subway gift gards. He's at a point where he doesn't want/need anything and likes food for gifts.

My oldest niece who is in college called my sister at midnight the other night and said she was in the back of a police car. My sister asked her if she'd been drinking and she said 'yeah, a lot'. Then she cracked up laughing and said she couldn't continue. April Fools!

When we were in our 20's my sister was always calling my mom on April fools day and telling her some horrible story and catching her with April Fools jokes several years in a row until mom finally quit believing her. My sister calls my mom and tells her about what my niece did and wants to know if she put her up to it. No, but mom says what a nice payback.

Sister is always telling the girls all the stupid/bad/outragious things she did as a teenager and wonders where they get the idea to do the things they do.

Finished reading the library book Worth the Risk by Nora Roberts. Romance. Ok she has definitly improved as a writer since the 80s.

I can't remember the last time I was this tired. My mom and I went walking this morning and the wind was blowing so hard we really had to fight to move forward. We were both exhausted by the time we finished our walk. The weather guy says we will get gusts of up to 75 mph I think it was sustained gusts through our walk.

I planted some tomatoes today in the hopes of getting some good ones to eat this summer. 2 cherry tomato plants and two big girl plants. I put them in the windowsill to sprout and will transplant late May. Last year my garden got rained out I didn't get anything. My dwarf apple trees bloomed and I got 2 apples but the birds got to them before I did. This year I'm going to try tomatoes, corn, radishes, carrots, green onions, basil and parsley.

I did my March totals today. It was an expensive month. 2 Health insurance premiumns and car insurance put me over the $2000.00 total. April will be expensive too since I paid my property tax this morning - $1267.14. My net worth went up 2% for the quarter which is decent, if that continues it's 8% for the year.

I finihsed reading my book Pegasus in Space by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - disappointing. She spent at least a third of the book on a second plot line, where she was tracking down some sabateours and she had all this evidence and knew who it was and then at the end she just dropped it. Doesn't arrest them, doesn't talk about the final evidence on who all was involved, nothing. Waste of time to build up the plot and then just drop it.

I saw a bit on the news the other day about how the local pantries are desperate for toilet paper. They are so low, they are only giving families one roll per month. They are trying to get 80,000 rolls donated next month. For some reason I never thought about donating toilet paper to the pantry. I guess because it's something that stores forever and I just keep it for myself.

Anyways Walgreens has 12 big rolls of Cottonelle on sale for $4 with their coupon and I had 2 $1 q's that expire tomorrow so I went to Walgreens today to pick up toilet paper and their other freebies this week.

Transaction #1

10.00 - 2 12 ct Cottonelle tp
4.00 - Dove shampoo
2.00 - Dentek dental floss
1.25 - tax
-----
17.25
-2.00 - 2 $1 manufacture q's for Cottonelle
-2.00 - Walgreen q from their April coupon book
-1.50 - Dove q
-1.00 - Dentek q
-----
10.75

I got back a $4 register reward for the Dove and a $2 reward for the Dentek, so I made money on those two items after the coupons

Transaction #2

4.00 - Dove
2.00 - Dentek
.47 - tax
----
6.47
-1.50 - Dove q
-1.00 - Dentek q
-----
3.97

I got back another $4 and $2 reward, so again made money on these 2 items.

Everything I got will go to the food pantry for April.

2 12 ct rolls Cottonelle toilet paper
2 bottles Dove shampoo
2 packages dental floss

I got a sample in the mail yesterday of Kelloggs All Bran cereal and Bran Buds and they will go to the pantry also.

I finished reading my book Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. Supernatural - very good.

I made another trip to King Soopers to pick up a few more free things for the food pantry. One of the reasons I go to the grocery store so often is King Soopers has a coupon policy of only 3 like item coupons per transaction. So if I have 8 coupons I have to make 3 transactions. Plus I find coupons for sale items thru blogs I read or the Sunday newspaper comes out with good coupons.

15.00 - Gift Card
4.00 - 4 Scotch Brite sponges
1.50 - Betty Crocker warm delights
3.00 - 2 Ronzoni spaghetti
.48 - 1 tomato
1.98 - 2 I can't believe it's not butter
1.98 - 2 Bumbleebee tuna
-----
27.94
-4.00 - wyb 8
-2.00 - 2 .75 Scotch Brite q's doubled
-1.00 - .75 Betty crocker warm delights q doubled
- .50 - ecoupon BC warm delights
-2.00 - 2 .75 Ronzoni q's doubled
-1.98 - 2 .60 I can't believe butter q's doubled
-2.39 - 1 free tuna - huge overage on this
-----
14.07 for a $15 GC

The pantry gets:

2 Ronzoni spaghetti
2 Bumbleebee tuna
1 Betty Crocker Warm delights

I budget $20.00 a month for pantry donations and hope to donate at least 100 items each month.

I spent $21.55 - a little over budget, but last month was under a little bit
I dontated 114 items
@ cost .05 each
Total cost before coupons = 125.03

I also made it to 600 grocery points so I will get .60 off gas next time I fill up.

My parents went on vacation last week. Before they left I asked them not to buy me any stuff. Mom wanted to know why and I told her I don't need any more stuff. She said I had to let them buy me lunch for picking up the mail while they were gone if I wouldn't let them buy me stuff. I don't like getting paid for helping out, but would rather have lunch than more stuff. Anyways she brings me a bag of stuff today and I'm thinking oh no, more stuff. It was 4 cans of pumpkin cool! Stuff I can use since I can't find pumpkin in the stores here, which she knows. It was funny. She said when she was in the checkout line several people wanted to know where she got the pumpkin since they said they weren't able to make pumpkin pies at xmas since they couldn't find any pumpkin. This was in Missouri. She got one can for herself too.

I finished reading the library book Born of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Supernatural - very good.

Part of my plan for retiring early is to keep my income very low so that I remain in the 0% tax bracket. According to the IRS I can earn the following before being bumped to the 10% federal and 4.5% state tax brackets.

$3650.00 - exemptions
$5700.00 - standard deductions
$ 500.00 - if I pay property taxes and don't itemize
--------
$9850.00 - 0% tax bracket
$2000.00 - if I fund an HSA
--------
11850.00
+ if I have more than 5700 in standard deductions I could earn even more and remain in the 0% bracket. These are 2009 figures and it may go up some in 2010.

In 1997 I started working for a big company which had a pension plan for it's employees. They froze the plan one year after I started working there. When I retired the company gave me the money that was in the plan. It had grown to a whopping $3906.00. In this situation the pension is treated like an IRA. The fund reserved 20% to pay taxes before passing the money on to me.

If I just spent the money on living expenses I would pay taxes on the money as income and also owe a 10% penalty for early withdrawl. However, if my income with the pension/IRA dispersal is less than the amount to tip into the 10% tax bracket I owe no income taxes on the money.

If I spend the pension/IRA money on medical expenses, including health insurance premiums, dr visits, prescription drugs, lab work, eye glasses etc, I don't have to pay the 10% penalty. There is a caveat on that. You can exclude the amount you paid for unreimbursed medical expenses during the year minus 7.5% or your adjusted gross income for the year. And the IRA/Pension distribution contributes to your gross income. Figuring out the exact amount to withdrawl ahead of time can be tricky unless you know exactly how much you are going to earn for the year and exactly how much your medical expenses will be. I plan to ballpark it in the future and if necessary pay a small 10% penalty on the extra.

So for 2009 I had income including the pension distribution of 7765. My medical expenses were 3140 multiplied by 7.5% means 2558 was exempt from the 10% penalty. That left 1348 to pay the penalty on so I paid $135 in taxes last year and got the rest of my 20% that the fund withheld back as a rebate. To do this you have to fill out form 5329 and select exemption 05. There are only 4 lines on the form so it's not that difficult, plus you don't have to itemize your deductions to do this, you can use the standard deduction, but you do have to have reciepts to back up your claim on how much you spent on medical if the IRS ever asks thru a random audit.

This year I will be withdrawing $5000 from my IRA to pay for medical expenses. This is a ball park figure based on needing to pay $4500 for health insurance and a guesstimate of another $1000 - $1500 in out pocket expenses. My income can be higher since I can open an HSA fund so I shouldn't have to pay income taxes on the withdrawl and the penalty may be anywhere between 0 and less than a $100.

I could take the money from some other funds and not use my IRAs. I know the money gurus always tell you to leave this money till the last, but I have good reasons for doing it this way.

1. Most of my money is in IRAs.
2. Currently I'm in a 0% tax bracket, you can't get lower taxes than that. Taking the money now means less money I will be forced to take out when I am 70 and collecting social security and our government has raised taxes thru the roof to fund all the spending they are doing now.
3. It preserves my other funds, especially my cash for emergencies.

Until I am 59 1/2 and can withdrawl the money without penalty I will try to continue to use this method of funding my health care expenses. That's a little more than 10 years, this could be $50,000 or more preserved in my other funds and money that I won't have to pay taxes on, or very little taxes.

I finished reading my book Beyond the Dark. Supernatural short stories - very good.

When I retired in August 2008 I immediately signed up for COBRA. The COBRA benefits ended February 28, 2010 so I had to get new health care insurance this month. When I worked I paid about $32 a month for health care insurance with a $400 deductable and $20 co-pay plus drug benefits. I kept that same coverage for the rest of 2008 and 2009. In 2008 I paid 182.26 a month for COBRA health care. In 2009 it went up to 212.28 a month. In 2010 my company changed providers and I went to a $1000 deductable and the price went to 372.00 a month. But I only had 2 more months to stay on COBRA and I would be HIPPA eligible so I stayed on.

Being HIPPA eligible is a big deal if you need health care and have pre-existing conditions like I do. It's basically the only way you can get health insurance in my state. Around December 2009 I started looking for my replacement health insurance for when COBRA ran out. I called a health insurance broker that a friend of mine recommended. She was terrific. After talking to me awhile about my sitution she made some calls and found out that in Colorado my only option was to go on the Colorado government health plan - CoverColorado. No private insurers offer HIPPA plans in Colorado at this time. The goverment plan is not cheap and tells you so right in the literature. They basically say this is your only option and you're going to pay for it.

For a plan with a $1000 deductible the monthly payment is 572.03 - $6864.36 a year. The $2000 deductible plan is $440.52 a month. I chose to take the HSA (Health Savings Account) option of $2000 deductable and a monthly premium of 379.45 or $4553.40 per year. With the HSA I can open a tax savings account and leave the money in there until/if I have a major medical expense. Or until the new health care plan starts taxing the plans. I read somewhere that is in the new bill.

It's a ton of money - over one third of my annual expenses will be going to medical care. At least I have it, but I very much doubt things will get better with the new Obama plan, although I might eventually have more options than the government plan.

I finished reading my book Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. Supernatural - very good.

Safeway is having a .75 cent sale on several pantry items when you buy 4 or more. Many of these items are perfect for food pantries. I went this morning and got the following:

7.50 - 10 boxes Kraft mac n cheese
4.50 - 6 boxes Pasta Roni
6.00 - 8 cans Chef Boyardee
----
18.00
-2.00 - 2 $1/5 Kraft mac n cheese q's
-2.00 - 2 $1/4 Chef Boyardee q's
-----
14.00

I thought I hsd coupons for the Pasta Roni until I was checking out and realized they were Knorr's Pasta Sides q's. Bought them anyways since they were a good price for the pantry.

I also got:

5.00 - 4 Suave 24 hour deodorant
.33 - taxes
-----
5.33
-6.00 - 2 $3/2 q'a
-----
.73 profit

I got a travel size of Tide for free after 1.00 q and a bag of salad for $1

At King Soopers they still have their $4 off wyb 8 deal, so I got some more pantry stuff plus a few groceries for me

4.50 - Advil PM
4.95 - 5 pouches Bumbleebee Tuna
4.50 - 3 boxes Ronzoni spagetti
2.79 - 1 Ore Ida Hash Browns
2.00 - 2 Scotch Brite sponges
.99 - Vitamin Water
2.65 - Lays potato chips
3.38 - 2 Oscar Meyer Lunchables
-----
25.76
-8.00 - 2 $4/wyb 8
-2.00 - Advil PM q
-3.00 - 3 .75 Ronzoni q's doubled
-1.00 - Ore Ida q
-1.00 - .75 Scotch Brite q doubled
- .99 - Vitamain Water Free item q
-2.00 - 2 $1.00 Lunchables q's
-----
7.77

The 3 spaghetti's and 5 tunas go to the pantry

I also got the following

1.76 - 2 dozen eggs @ .88 each
3.98 - 2 loaves Earth Grain bread
.98 - I can't believe it not butter
1.00 - 2 Cadbury cream eggs
1.21 - 1 large potato
2.29 - 2 tomatoes
.15 - 2 ribs celery
.40 - 1 onion
1.02 - 5 bananas
-----
12.79
-2.00 - 2 $.55 q'a Earth Grain doubled
- .98 - I can't believe it's not butter
-1.00 - OYNO q from Monday
- .10 - 2 reusable bag credit
-----
8.71
-1.00 - she must have scanned one of the q's twice.
-----
7.71

Total spent on food for me was: 14.03
Total spent for the pantry was: 14.85

The pantry will get:

10 boxes mac n cheese
8 cans chef boyardee
6 boxes pasta roni
3 boxes spagetti
5 pouches tuna
4 deodorants

That uses up all my budgeted $20 for the food pantry with some of the things I got earlier this month. I had only spent a little over $4 till now.

At King Soopers I got a Sunday only subscription to the Denver Post for $28.35 for 6 months. Plus he gave me a $5 King Soopers gift card so really $23.35. Just under $1/week. It costs $1.50 buying direct. Not as good a deal as I have gotten in the past, but better than going out to buy it every Sunday. I already have one subscription but I like to have 2 for the extra coupons. I put the cost of the paper in my food category since the only reason I buy it is for the coupons. It generally pays for itself in about a month.

I got my tax refund $646.00 so that's good, took just over a month.

I finished reading the library book Torch of Freedom by David Weber and Eric Flint. Sci/Fi - very good part of the Honorverse series.

I took my youngest niece to see Alice in Wonderland today. We both liked it. Because it was 3-D they charged us $3 more. What a rip-off. $18 for 2 tickets. $3.75 for junk for her. All the previews we saw were for upcoming 3-D movies. I wish they would just show them regular, I don't think 3-D adds that much to the movie.

Then we went to Coach House gifts in the mall. I collect mythological art, especially dragons. I have several pictures by Nene Thomas. They had beautiful sculptures of the same pictures I have. I splurged and bought 2 for $140

Here's a link to the first one

http://www.faerieglennj.com/nt142.html

and the second one

http://www.faerieglennj.com/nt137.html

We went to Red Robin for lunch where I spent another $19.95 and then on to Target. Finally some bargains. I got a Connect 4 game, 2 Monopoly Card Games and a Scrabble Card Game for $3 total. These will go to Toys for Tots in November. The card games were all $5.24 and the Connect 4 game was $7. I had two $5 coupons for the Monopoly games and then a buy 2 get 1 free for the Scrabble game. The cashier gave me $6.99 for that q even though I told her the game was $5.24. I had a $4 q on the Connect 4 game.

I also bought 3 books, and a 3 qt crock pot. Total spent $40.13

A big spend day for me, but since it's rare it's not a big deal.

I finished reading the library book Spntaneous Healing by Andrew Weil. Non-fiction. Interesting to think about, but I don't totally buy it.