Retire@50

walked with mom 50 min yesterday and today.

My modem burned out, so I'm using mom's computer. I stole her modem yesterday so I could work, it's a good thing she lives so close. I ordered a new one for $60. Hope it gets here soon.

I'm on vacation this week, so at least it happened at a better time. Could have been a lot worse if I had to work.

DirectTv has Showtime free this weekend. So far there hasn't been anything I want to see. They had Sahara, which was a good movie, but I've already seen it and don't want to spend time re-watching it.

Got a free sample of Dove moisturizing lotion in the mail. It's a really cute bottle and pretty big for a sample, about 4 inches.

Spent $5.10 at McDonalds.

Finished reading the library book Into the Storm by Suzanne Brockmann. Romance. Very, very good. Excellent dialog. I love witty dialog.

walked with mom for 50 min

Lately I feel like I'm coasting thru my day-to-day life. Not really paying attention. Most of my brain is going to my work all the time and everything else is taking a back seat. I don't like it. I'd really like to wake up again and get back to living my life instead of sleep-walking through it.

Finished reading my book Morrigan't Cross by Nora Roberts. Romance. Very Good.

walked with mom for 50 min

Good mail day today. Free Downy sample, free Schick Titanium Razor and a Jerry Reed CD from yourmusic.com for $5.99
Coupons to King Soopers and coupons from 7-11 for free coffee, big gulp, hot dog, donut and slurpee.

Gave mom the Downy sample and dad the razor and coupons for free coffee and big gulp.

Phoned the credit card company to get $200 in Target gift cards for mom and dad for their credit card rebates. Mom's pretty happy, she wants to use the 'free' money for xmas presents.

no walking today since it was raining.

Met a co-worker for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's had the salad bar and baked potato. Yum! I could live on baked potatoes. $10

Had left over chowder for dinner.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Dark Prince by Christine Feehan. Supernatural/Romance Very good.

walked with mom for 50 min

Got all the paperwork together for the Del Monte rebate and sent it out today.

Got a sample of Advil PM in the mail

Tried a new recipe called Grandmother's chowder. I really liked it so it goes in my keep pile. Plus it let me use up 4 of my cans of Del Monte veggies

Cost per serving = .35 cents

1 1b ground beef = 1.00
1 med onion = .25
3 cans diced potatoes = .90 (or free if using the rebate cans)
3 cups water = free
2 cups milk = .80
1 can corn = .30 (or free)
1 cup sour cream = .80
2 Teaspoons dried parsley, salt and pepper .10

Total = 4.10/12 servings

Finished reading the library book The Younger Gods by David and Leigh Eddings. Sci/Fi Very good.

walked with mom for 50 min

Went back to King Soopers this morning to see if they had changed the price on the rice yet, they hadn't so I bought 3 more cans of veggies at .60 each and got 2 Family size bags of Uncle Bens rice for free. They did pull the tag to change it today.

Went to Walgreens and got 3 Gillete deodorants that they gave me 3 cents to buy. The deal that it was on sale for 99 cents and I had 3 $1 dollar coupons so 3 cents to me. Gave 2 deodorants to my dad and will give one to my brother for xmas. Also got the family size of Garnier Fructic shampoo FAR + $1 coupon so made a $1 there.

Took my parents to Ted's Montana Grill for thier anniversary. Spent $56. It was ok, but none of us thing it's worth the price. We prefer Outback. I had Pecan incrusted trout. It was kind of blah! I brought half home to have another night.

Does anyone watch Big Spender? It's on A&E on Sundays. I saw 4 shows today. I have a hard time believing what some of these people say. There was one couple, he works 9 hours a week and thinks he's working really hard for his family. She's a stay at home mom and is happy to mooch off her dad until she finds a job she likes. The dad works two jobs to support them. Good Grief. They're just lucky that they are in a situation to live that way. Join the real world where you provide for yourself. So many adults seem to think it's just fine to live off of their parents anymore. It's almost an epidemic. I couldn't wait to live on my own and pay my own bills. Be independant. The whole concept of living off of someone else's work is really foreign to me.

Goals for October:

1. walk with mom at least 25 days
2. work less hours and catch up with my life
3. Put $1000 in savings
4. Put $500 in an I-bond
5. Start xmas shopping, buy at least 2 presents.

I did my networth last night. Went up 2.26% I'm pretty happy with that. What I'm not happy about is how many hoops you have to go through to get to your accounts any more. Treasury Direct added new security questions, Vanguard added them and one of my banks added them. It takes forever just to get logged into all the sites to do your totals. Pain in the butt!

walked with mom for 50 min

Got groceries today at King Soopers. Some really good deals. Got free box of Electrosol dishwasher tabs - $2.99 with coupon. Spent $36.07 and saved $37.56. I also bought stamps and King Soopers gift cards to get the last little bit of my 5% back on credit card deal before it expires in Oct.

My best deal though was on the Del Monte rebate offer.

Del monte has a $10 rebate offer when you buy 18 items, with at least one from 3 different categories of items. Flash did her calculations earlier this week. Here's mine.

King Soopers had Del Monte veggies on sale at .60 each and Tomatoes and Fruit for $1.00 each.

If you bought 12 cans of veggies they also took $3 off at the register.

I had 2 coupons for .40 cents off of 4 cans, which they doubled.

There was a coupon that if you buy 3 cans of veggies and a package of Uncle Bens rice you got a second package free.

So my deal worked out at follows.

I bought 14 cans at .60 cents each = $8.4
I bought 3 cans of Tomatoes at 1.00 each = $3.00
I bought 1 can of fruit for 1.00
Total = $12.40
The register gave me back $3 immediatedly for buying 12 cans bringing the cost down to $9.40
2 coupons at 40 each - doubled took another $1.60 off the total making it $7.80
Plus I will get $10 back for the rebate meaning they paid me $2.20 to buy this food.

I got the 2 packages of rice also. One was free with the coupon for 1.79 and the price rang up wrong on both of them so they gave me one package free.

So I was paid $2.20 cents and I got
14 cans of veggies
3 cans of tomatoes
1 can of fruit
2 packages of rice

Wish these types of deals came along more often and I had the time to figure them out and take advantage of them

My brother has not had a job for close to 6 years and mooches off my parents. So for xmas every year I try to see how many groceries I can get for $50. I give him lots of free samples and rebate items. This year he's going to get both packages of rice, plus several cans of the veggies and the can of fruit.

Finished reading the library book The Bookwoman's Last Fling by John Dunning. Mystery. Very Good.

walked with mom for 50 min

Went to Village Inn for dinner. Spent $13.50 They had a surprisingly good sirloin steak.

Sent out several rebates totalling almost $30, Walgreens, Advil Cold and Boost.

Finished reading the library book A Taste of Darkness by Nina Bangs. Supernatural/Romance. Very good.

walked with mom 50 min yesterday and today.

Good mail day today. Got my $25 Barnes and Noble gift card from My Points. Got a package of free post-it note products. Got a free Herbal Essences shampoo sample. Got 6 coupons for $10 off a $50 purchase at King Soopers. Gave one to my parents, will probably give them some more, it's difficult to spend $50 a week in groceries and it's one a week for 6 weeks.

It was such a beautiful fall day today, I had a very hard time sitting here working.

Finished reading the library book Megan's Mark by Lora Leigh. Supernatural/Romance. Very good. Another new author.

walked with mom for 50 min

Went to Walgreens and got some rebate deals. Spent $32.56 and will get $18 back in rebates

Went to Kmart and spent $13.95 on a pair of pants. I had a left-over gift card from a previous return item that had .12 cents on it. The cashier thought I was pretty ridiculous to carry the card around for .12 cents. But it's still money.

Went to Barnes and Noble and spent $5.21 on the Sunday paper and this month's Money Magazine. The Magazine is about retiring and making your money last in retirement. It was pretty good. My B&N membership card expires this month, but I'm not going to renew it. I don't think I spent $250 on books at B&N last year, so It's not worth it to spend $25 for a card that gives you 10% off. I'm using the library more and most new bestsellers are on sale at King Soopers for 25% off so I'm buying more books from the grocery store when I do buy.

My mom and dad took me to Outback for lunch because I picked up their mail and papers when they went on vacation. I keep telling them it's not a big deal, but they persisted. Brought half my steak home for dinner tomorrow night.

Finished reading the library book Smitten by Janet Evanovich. Romance. Very good, very cute and funny.

walked with mom for 50 min

she made me a big batch of snickerdoodle cookies. Haven't had those since I was a kid, they were really good.

Lazy day for me, got in a good nap. Went to the new WalMart. Took a long time to get groceries since I didn't know where anything was. Not sure I'll shop there for groceries every week. The sizes of a lot of things are too big for a single person. For example the green onions were sold in a package of about 20. Way too much for a week for one. They will last for two weeks, but that's too much for two weeks too. Spent just under $45, but splurged on some big boxes of junk food, such as a 15 pack or popcorn. large can of nuts, etc.

Finished reading the library book Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen. Mystery/Romance. Very good.

no walking today it was raining and really cold. I even turned the furnace on for about an hour.

I only worked 40.5 hours this week and it's the first weekend in a couple of months that I don't have to work. Really looking forward to it. I'd love to spend it just reading, but I've let my house go for so long I can barely stand it.

My dr called today with my diabetes checkup. I'm very happy, the number is 6.2 which is great. They want you to be a 6.0 to be 'normal'

Sold a book at half.com for a buck. I sold one earlier this week and one last week as well after about two months with no sales.

The WalMart opened this week. Our little town is getting big. I'm going to see how busy it is on Sunday and maybe visit it then.

Finished reading my book Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara. Sci Fi. Really good. This is a new author for me and she already has the sequel out. Love that! Will have to find it when I go in town on Sunday.

walked with mom for 50 min

Thanks everyone for the welcome back comments.

Cashed in some of MyPoints for a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card.

I'm starting to relax finally after the several hard months of work. I was telling my folks that even if I retire at 50 I'll have worked as if I was 62 years old. I've always worked a lot of overtime. When I was a machinist it was great because I didn't make a lot and time and a half was a big incentive. Now that I'm salary and get the same pay regardless it's a lot harder to do for long periods of time. There's no tangible reward.

I was looking at our statistics at work today for the new release. We've had the release for 4 days. 149 tests have been run by 15 people. I ran 100 of them. Something really wrong with this picture. One of my co-workers gave her two week notice a couple weeks ago and tomorrow is her last day. I'm happy for her, but I kind of think it stinks not to give more notice for a release. We are swamped, I have no idea how her work will get done, hopefully it won't be by me.

Finished reading the library book Invasion USA by William Johnstone. Action/Adventure. OK

walked with mom for 50 min

I guess if you don't post for a while your blog goes into hibernation too Basically I've just been working so much I couldn't stand looking at the computer for another few minutes everyday to keep up with the blogging. I did get on once or twice a week to catch up with my favortie blogs.

I haven't been keeping up with my spending, but then again I've been working so much I haven't spent a lot either. Mostly on things like fast foods though which is bad.

I took my niece to the annual miniature show in Denver a couple of weekends ago and we had a great time. She's taller than me now and so beautiful. She gets her driver's permit this week.

Went to the youngest nieces bday party. She's almost as tall as me too and she's 3 years younger than the older one.

Hopefully my life will get back to normal and I can start catching up on all the things I let slide the last 4 months. I got my mid-year review and it was great. My next level boss told me he hopes I know how much he appreciates my work. I kind of laughingly told him, if he didn't think I was doing a good job, it was his problem not mine . On a team of 17 people I did 20% of the work for the last 4 months. That's insane!

Thanks to everyone for inquirying about me and letting me know you missed the blog, I appreciate the comments.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to grocery store this morning. Spent $18.34 Saved 45% Use another one of my 5 free bottles of coke coupons. I have one more left. I also will get $2.69 back for buying Aqua Fresh toothpaste and I had a $1 coupons so I made money buying it. Plus it has 3 free music downloads on the box.

Fixed oatmeal and potato salad for the week. Took a batch of chili to moms for supper. My grandmother is in the hospital with knee surgery and mom and dad are driving 120 miles every day and spending most of the day with her, so it was good that they didn't need to cook.

Finished reading the library book The Man From Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller. Romance. OK

walked with mom for 50 min

Went to the library, cleaned the kitchen and the bedroom. When I was cleaning the bedroom I was dusting and picked up the phone and wiped it off with my dust rag. When I hung up the phone rang and it was the Police department. They said they recieved a 911 call from my house. I apologized and said I was just cleaning my phone. I have no idea how the cleaning rag could hit 911 in just the right combination. I guess it's nice that they checked back though.

Got a Dove shampoo sample from WalMart today.

Finished reading the library book The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Mystery. Very good.

walked with mom for 50 min both yesterday and today.

Got a free sample of Tide detergent from WalMart.

Went to Netmagazines and asked for a refund on the Family Circle mag I ordered in April. It kept showing I was supposed to get it in July, but it's almost 4 months and that's ridiculous.

Went to Village Inn for dinner. Spent $8

Finished reading the library book The Wrong Hostage by Elizabeth Lowell. Mystery. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Mom mailed the book I sold on half.com for me today, since I couldn't make it to the post office. Spent $2.07

Finished reading the library book The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockmann. Romance. Good

Walked with mom for 55 min

Went into the office today because I had an eye appt after work. Co-pay was $30. Left eye is going far-sighted. I had my RK surgery 12 years ago this year. Still think it's one of the best things I ever spent money on. My right eye is still 20/20 and my left eye is 60/20, it was 600/400 before the surgery. I still don't need glasses because between the two eyes I see 25/20

Met a friend for lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. Spent $11.

Got gas for $2.85/gal. Spent $26.39

HBAs = Household basics

Aug goals are:

1. walk at least 25 times for more than 30 min

2. Put $1000 in savings for next years Roth IRA

3. Buy $500 I-bond for girls college fund

4. Spend $450 or less on household expenses - groceries, gas, etc.

5. Post budget.

6. Close one of my bank accounts that was opened for the bonus.

7. Get new tires.

walked with mom for 50 min today

Had pizza at mom's with sister and her family.

Sold a book at half.com for $2 today.

My July goals were:

1. Walk at least 25 days for 35 min
Because of rain and vacations we only walked 19 times. I think that's the first time I've missed this goal in more than a year.

2. Put $1000 in emergency fund. - Done

3. Put $500 in college fund - Done

4. Spend $450 or less on household items.
Way over on this - $520.11 - mostly because of niece time. But don't regret that, some months are higher than others.

Groceries - $191.30 - this was higher than usual too
Fast Food - $51.61
Restaurants - $28.19
Nieces - $102.09
Clothes - $29.26
Books/Newspapers - $30
Gas - $27.38
HBAs - 416.70
Other - $43.01

5. Get tires replaced

Not done - too many hours working

6. Set up new budget

Done - will try to post next weekend.

Finished reading my book Born to be Wild by Catherine Coulter. Romance. Good.

walked with mom for 50 min

Went to Borders and bought 2 books. Spent $15.98, but I used my Discover reward card so no out of pocket money.

Went to Barnes and Noble and bought 1 book. Spent $7.91 Had a 15% off coupon plus my 10% off membership. Also used a gift card so again no out of pocket money.

Went to Macaroni Grill for my sister's bday - dad paid.

Got some rebates together to send today. Walgreens and Advil PM.

Watched The Brother's Grimm video from the library. OK. Glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater.

Finished reading the library book Dates From Hell by Kim Harrison. Supernatural. OK.

walked with mom for 50 min

Went to grocery store and spent $36.59

Mom went to the Super Target and got me the free lb of hamburger we had coupons for and also picked up some walnuts for me, since that's the cheapest place I've found them. Spent $13.41

Finished reading my book Much Ado in the Moonlight by Lynn Kurland. Romance. Good.

walked with mom 55 min yesterday and again today.

I took off most of the day yesterday. Ended up working 2 hours in the morning. Despite taking the rest of the day off, I still ended up working 44 hours this week.

Took youngest niece to Red Robin for lunch. Spent $15.29

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. I liked it, but thought it was little intense for her. I really don't understand her mother. She took her to see this movie too, but wouldn't let me take her to see Monster House, because she thought it was too intense. Pirates starts out with people in cages getting their eyes plucked out by birds! How intense is that? It has cannibals and hugh monsters and voodoo queens. I don't get it. Anyways, spent $10.50

We got ice cream when the movie was over. Spent $3.86. It was a long movie - 3 hours.

After that we went to a glow in the dark miniature golf place. That was fun. She won a free pass for the next time. Spent $14.00

Went to Kmart and bought another shirt for me, plus a game of Rook for my parents for xmas and a think of tic-tacs for niece. Spent $16.57

My niece category is going to be pretty high this month for spending. Oh well, they're only young for a short time.

Got a sample of Sensodyne toothpaste in the mail. Gave it to mom.

I haven't read a book this entire week. I think that's the longest I've ever gone with completing a book. I have about 120 pages left on one that I started Sunday. Hopefully I can get some reading done this weekend.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to Rosie's for dinner. Spent $6

Got Ban sample and Dove shampoo samples from WalMart.

Was supposed to get another comp day tomorrow, but now boss is trying to reneg. I've already worked 11 extra hours this week. I'm taking the day anyways since I promised my niece, but have to work before and after. Really, really, really stinks and as soon as this crunch is over, I'm going to make a hugh point out of how unfair this situation is.

walked with mom for 55 min

Mom invited me over for a baked potato bar tonight with the girls. Very good.

I got a very funny, if unexpected, email at work today. The manager of the development group made a mistake on one of our systems and sent me an email to ask me to fix it. So I did and sent her an email telling her it was done.

She sent an email back saying:

"Thanks, Sorry for the incontinence."

So I replied NP

She finally figured out what she had written and sent me another email saying:

"Wow - I've got to check my use of spell check... Ahem. I meant to say - sorry for the inconvenience..... ;-) "

I got a good laugh out of it though.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Dark Guardian by Christina Feehan. Romance. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went into work today to meet the new boss. Forgot to take my lunch. I had it all ready too, but left it in the fridge. Spent $4.37 for lunch. Then had a 4 hour meeting with new boss and she wanted me to show her some stuff, so I didn't leave work till after 6. Was starving by then and spent another $4.83 on dinner at Wendy's.

Good meeting with boss. She's very straight forward, which I like. I hate people who talk around things. She wanted to know what I liked and disliked about my job and what my frustrations were. She's been with the company a long time so knows a lot of what I'm talking about when I say standards have slipped. I came away feeling somewhat better about the overall situation. We'll see if she's just talk and no action.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got groceries this morning, spent $35.30. Finally found the 20ct of Advil in stock so will get $3.49 rebated back, plus I had a $2 coupon thanks to flash, so made $2.00 on the deal.

The grocery store had ranier cherries, which I hadn't heard about before. They looked good and I wanted a sample, but I couldn't find a produce person, oh well, I wouldn't have bought them anyways, because they were $3/lb. Maybe next week I can get a sample if they are still there.

Went to Chilis for lunch with parents. Spent $12

Made oatmeal, harboiled eggs, tuna and chopped veggies for week.

I washed my hair this morning with the Herbal Essences shampoo sample I got yesterday. It came just in time since I finished the Nexxus sample yesterday. Anyways the Herbal Essences shampoo made my hair really big! I have very short hair that's layered. My top layers are up around 3 inches high from my forehead vs usually 2 inches or so. It feels kind of weird to me, but not complaining it's free shampoo. I guess if you want a lot of body it would be good to buy.

Our newspaper had a coupon for a free lb of hamburger at the Super Target in the Target ads. I probably won't get there this week, but my mom thinks she might go. She got a coupon too and if she goes she will pick up the hamburger for me. I wish we had a super Target that was closer to us.

Finished reading the library book A Simple Choice by Deborah Taylor-Hough. Simplicity. OK

walked with mom for 55 min

I took a comp day Thursday but then needed to work till midnight last night and worked 10 hours today. So much for comp time. I have no one to blame but myself though. I just can't stand work that's not done and so after 4 months of waiting for someone else to do something I gave in and did it myself.

Got a free Herbal Essences sample. A very nice size of both shampoo and conditioner.

Got a rebate check for $5.99 from Longs.

Went to Subways and got a large sandwich which I split for lunch and dinner. Spent $8

Finished listening to the library book Wicked Widow by Amanda Quick. Romance. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a free sample of Oasis mouthwash from Walmart.

Transferred a $1000.00 to HSBC account.

Purchased a $500.00 I bond

Finished listening to the library book on tape River of Ruin by Jack DuBrul. Adventure. Good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Clinique finally had a free sample deal so I took a comp day off from work to take my niece in to Dillards to get her makeover, which was part of her bday present from June.

She was so excited and loved the finished product. I thought she looked gorgeous! Many people have compared her to Sandra Bullock. I bought her the foundation and blush that was used in the makeover and she got a free lip gloss and moisturizer sample. Spent $40.64

We went to the Driver's license place in the mall and picked up a driver's handbook for her too. Her parents keep 'forgetting'.

Went to Kmart and I bought a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt for me. Spent $22.26

Next was Barnes and Noble where I had a 15% off coupon and got the other niece a book for her bday in Sept. Spent $5.34 Also picked up a form for her to get a free book if she reads 8 more books this summer.

Longs was next, where I got some pressed powser for my niece, plus they had Garnier Fructis styling products free after rebate and I had a $1.00 coupon. Bought a couple of pairs of earrings for me, Kleenex for .89 cents a box and index cards on sale for .34 cents.

We went to Jason's Deli for dinner. Spent $15.35

Next stop was Walgreens. The had Herbal Essences free after rebate and I had a $2.00 coupon so got that for my niece. Also picked up Sunsilk shampoo, FAR and Cura-Heat FAR. Got 2 packages of notebook paper on sale at 2/$1 and a rebate of $1, so free. Niece picked out 3 new nailpolishes that I got to finish up her present. Got some dixie paper plates on sale for $1.99. Have a form to get a $10 Blockbuster GC when make any Dixie purchase. Spent $20.95

I will get $13.50 back in rebates and a $10 GC to Blockbuster.

Last stop was Albertson's for gas. Spent $2.86/gal. Total $27.33

So all in all a very good day. She was very happy and that made me very happy.

To top it all off I got a $25 Borders GC in the mail for my Discover card rebate.

Finished reading the library book Danse Macabre by Laurell K Hamilton. Supernatural. Excellent. Love these books.