Retire@50

walked with mom for 55 min

Went into work today. I couldn't sleep last night, this is the second night in a row and tonight doesn't look much better. I go through these insomnia phases and always hate them.

After work went to King Soopers and got 4 4-roll packages of Angel Soft TP. It was on sale for .88 cents. Also got a small container of milk to get me by till next Wednesday when my Vacation starts. Spent $4.57

Got gas at King Soopers. Had a .10 cents off deal. Paid 2.66/gal. Spent $27.37

Went to Wendy's and spent $6.30. Had a coupon for a free Frescata Sandwich when you buy one, so I had one for dinner tonight and will have the other for lunch tomorrow.

Got a free sample of Garnier Fructis hair products in the mail.

walked with mom for 55 min

My dad loves wheeling and dealing. Lately he has been buying almost new ATV's and selling them for $400 - $500 profit each. He's sold 6 in the last month. He finds these deals where people have bought new ATVs for $7000 - $8000 and put less than a 100 miles on them and then sell them to him for less than $6000. These people either have too much money or are very foolish. On top of the ATVs he's had people give him $100 goggles still in the original package, new gloves, trailers, saddle bags all kinds of accessories that were never used. What a waste!

Anyways, he's exhausted the deals from the local want ads in the paper so I introduced him to craigslist today. We'll see how that goes. My mom won't be happy with me. His wheeling and dealing drives her nuts. But it's his hobby now that he's retired and he enjoys the deal making. He tells everyone about his deals. He takes pictures of his ATVs and takes them to church to show off. I think it's funny

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to King Soopers and spent $14.97. Got a free 14 oz bottle of French's mustard and a free newspaper.

The newspaper had a free sample of Crest dental floss in it.

Went to Walgreens and spent $10.77 used my Walgreen's rebate gift cards. Got a free bottle of 24 ct Excedrin. $3 rebate + $1 coupon = free.

Met my parents at Tres Margaritas and spent $8

Printed out the $25 restaurant.com coupon that I got for buying an Entertainment book. Planning to eat out with my parents and grandmother on Thursday.

I sent an email to the Aquafresh music place about the 3 downloads I didn't. We'll see if they reply.

Free stuff this week

6 free music downloads - should have been 9
John Freida hair care samples
Pantene Pro-V shampoo samples
Crest dental floss sample
Free local newspaper with coupons
14 oz French's mustard
24 ct bottle of Excedrin Migraine

Finished reading my book How to Save Money Every Day by Ellie Kay. Finance. Pretty good. Good stories and good advice. Mostly coupon related and christian oriented. She has a website with links to freebies and deals if anyone is interested.

http://www.elliekay.com/

Need to go finish up my chores for the weekend - making oatmeal and boiling eggs. Did two loads of laundry earlier. I really like the fact that I don't have to spend most of the weekend cleaning now, since I'm doing it on Thursday nights. Makes the weekend so much more enjoyable.

walked with mom for 55 min

Took my niece to Village Inn for breakfast. Spent $16.18

Went to King Sooper's for contact paper for floor of miniature room. $4.25. Also bought the latest John Sandford paperback, Broken Prey, for 25% off. Spent $8.

Went to Subway for lunch. $9.78

Spent 4 hours on the computer trying to get the 3 free music downloads I got with each tube of Aquafresh toothpaste. I think they make this as aggravating as possible so you don't redeem these. First you have to download their software to download the music. It took 20 minutes, ridiculous with DSL. Then you had to reboot your computer. Then you had to log back in to Aquafresh and get your numbers redeemed to get the code, then you had to go the music place and register there and log in there and get another code to use. Finally you got to pick 3 songs. Once you did that, you could download them. Another 30 - 40 minutes to download the 3 songs.

I had 3 sets of 3. On the last set of 3 my niece couldn't think of any more songs she wanted and the system timed out and logged us off of the music place. When I logged back in it said I had already redeemed the codes. Stinks!!!

The whole thing was extremely frustrating. 4 hours wasted in my opinion. But I guess my niece is happy with the 6 songs she did get.

We spent the rest of the day working on our miniature room project. Currently we are working on two dorm rooms. Same furniture, walls and floors in each room. One room will belong to a neat and proper girl and the other room belongs to a messy and unconventional girl. She's very excited about the project.

After I took her home, stopped at mom's to walk and they invited me for tacos and then I stayed and played games. Now I am exhausted and can't wait to go to bed

walked with mom for 55 min

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

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

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

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

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

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

no walking today, it rained all day.

Got John Frieda hair care samples today.
Got another CD for my nieces Bday delivered. $5.99 and got the Miniature camper I ordered for her on Sunday. Very fast delivery on that.

My mom called in a panic because she needed to print out 48 postcards and their ink wasn't working. So she forwarded the doc that I created for her last year to me and then they came over with the postcard papers. It took maybe 5 min to print them out.

While she was here she told me she was telling my Dad I would be really proud of them because they saved $160 today. I don't preach about saving money, they have plenty, I just like to talk about the good deals I find and I like to share them when I think they are applicable.

Anyways, I asked her how much she spent to save $160. She spent $160 I guess Walgreens had Nature Maid vitamins as a BOGO. They take a lot of vitamins, probably 15 per meal. Some of them are $30 and $40 a bottle, like for the flex ones. I don't know what they're called but they are for flexible joints. If they're going to take that many vitamins anyways, it's a good deal to get them half off.

Finished listening to Callahan's Key by Spider Robinson. Sci/Fi Very good and funny.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got the last of my computer rebates in the mail today. $30 I got over $500 back in rebates for the purchase, it was aggravating doing all the paperwork and waiting for the money, but I guess it was worth it in the end.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to Village Inn for dinner. Early bird special. Top Sirloin steak, salad, large baked potato, corn, cheese bread and half a piece of pie for $6.99 and it was surprisingly good steak. Total with tax and tip $9 Brought the pie home for later.

Cancelled my membership with Great Fun. Thanks Flash, for your blog listing the URL with the phone numbers. I couldn't find the number and remembered you had listed a website so I browsed your blog till I found it and used that to find the number. The process was relatively painless, didn't take more than 10 min total, including hold time.

Sent my $1500 pre-payment to the mortgage company today.

Booked our car rental for the Canada trip, plus the show we wanted to go to opened up and we got tickets for that. Spent another $134.82

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Bodyguard by Suzanne Brockmann. Adventure/Romance. Very Good.

walked with mom for 50 min. They invited me to stay for supper and play games so I did that after the walk.

Got 2 free samples of Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner for frizzy hair from WalMart. Will give them to my niece. She's always worried about frizzy hair. I'm so glad I'm not a teen-ager anymore

My goals for May are:

1. Walk at least 25 days for 35 min

2. Pre-pay mortgage - $1500

3. Spend $450 or less on household items

Not a lot of goals this month, since I won't have a lot of time to meet them.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to the grocery store this morning. Spent $41.39. $8 on a book and 2 newspapers. Got 3 large tubes of Aquafresh toothpaste for free. Plus each tube gets 3 free music downloads. I'll give them to my niece. I also got 2 free packs of Dentyne Ice Gum.

My goals for April were

1. Walk at least 20 days for 35 min

Done

2. Pre-pay mortgage - $1500

Done

3. Spend $450 or less on household items

Spent $510.37 went way over. Partly on groceries because I did a lot of stocking up and also because I shop on Sundays and it was a 5 Sunday month. I also overspent on gas and I'm not sure why it's $35 more than I expected. I know it went up, but not that much and I didn't drive more than normal. This is a bit of a mystery right now.

4. Get my mutual fund paperwork from last year updated and organized in their binders.

Not done, worked too many overtime hours this month to fit this in. I know it won't get done next month either because of my vacation. Will put it back on the list in June

5. Re-do budget.

Not done. See excuse for goal 4.

Not a great month goal or budget-wise.

Net worth increased by .99% at least it's an increase

Sold a book on half.com it's been over a month and a half since my last sale so that was nice, even if it was only $2

Ordered a miniature camper kit for my niece for her bday. $24.94

Free things this week

Schick Midnight Razor
Glad Flex bag
Wendy's Frescetta sandwich
Dentyne Gum and mints
2 packages of Dentyne Gum
3 tubes of Aquafresh toothpaste
9 music downloads.

Finished reading the library book Lara Croft Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life by Dave Stern. Sci/Fi Adventure. Ok

Went shopping with mom today.

First stop Barnes and Noble. Got 2 books for my niece and 2 for me. Had a 15% off one item coupon that I printed out, one for me and one for my mom. Spent $26.83

Next stop Family Christian bookstore. Mom had a 20% off everything coupon. I found a financial book I'd been looking for for a while called How to Save Money Every Day by Ellie Kay. Spent $5.12

Next stop the bank where I deposited 2 rolls of quarters and several rebate checks. I also got cash and travelers checks for my vacation

We went to Fargo's for lunch. It's an old fashioned pizza parlor. We had a coupon for buy 1 salad get 1 free. We each had a salad and split a small pizza. Yummy! The total was less than $10 and mom paid since I drove.

We went to the mall and I bought nothing.

Next stop Linen's n' things. Found some strawberry glasses my mom wanted so got them for mother's day. Had a $5 off $15 purchase coupon. Spent $23.97 With the book I got her, mother's day is done now.

Went to JoAnn's where I bought nothing.

Went to Target where I bought a lot. I wish there was a super Target close to me, the prices on the groceries were terrific. I get sugar free Log Cabin Syrup, at the grocery store it's $3.50 the same bottle was $2.59 plus there was a $1 off coupon attached. Got 2 bottles. Walnuts are very expensive in the grocery store, got 2 lbs for about half of the grocery price. Got 21 oz of mixed Macadamia, almonds and cashews for $6.94 they sell for $9.99 in the grocery store. It would probably be worth the gas to go there once a month and buy non-refrigerated groceries. I saved $16 on just 3 things that I buy a lot.

I also bought some fun stuff for me, using my extra fund. A small CD player that I can move from room to room while I'm cleaning and listen to CDs. $25. The new Toby Keith CD. $14, a book at 25% off, 2 plastic drinking glasses and a bunch of snacks for the trip. Total spent $91.87

Next stop was Wendy's were I had a coupong to buy 1 get 1 free for their Frescetta sandwiches. Spent $4.18 Had one for dinner and will have the other for lunch tomorrow.

Final stop was Maggie Moo's for ice cream. Mom paid again.

Got my mail when I got home and got a 6.99 rebate from Gillete razors in the mail and Free Dentyne Gum and mints.

Fun day but very tiring.

snowed again today so no walking. Just a light snow, but it lasted most of the day.

Doing some searching for rental cars for our Canada trip. We need one to get from Calgary to Edmonton. It's looking like $200 for the 2 days. It'd be a lot cheaper if we were returning the car to the same pickup. Need to make a decision and make the reservations this weekend. I wanted to go with Enterprise since they pick you up, but they are closed that day. It seems like Monday, May 22 is a holiday in Canada. Victoria Day. Who Knew?

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

walked with mom for 55 min

mjrube94 I sent you an email.

I decided I was going to start cleaning my house on Thursday nights instead of waiting till the weekend and taking all my weekend time. I worked for 2 1/2 hours tonight cleaning the downstairs and I am really tired. But it feels good knowing it's done and I'll have more free time this weekend.

Got a free Sckick Quattro Midnight razor in the mail today.

Finished reading my book Decision at Doona by anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi Ok

walked with mom for 55 min

Got the $20 Exxon gas cards from Great Fun in the mail today.

mjrube94, if you still want to swap,
reply to this post and I'll send you an email with my address and you can send me yours.

I also got a free Glad Flex trash bag.

Does anyone know of a good website to buy cheap nuts?

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Body of David Hayes by Ridley Pearson. Mystery. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

I got two $50 checks in the mail for my computer rebates. I think there is one more left. I also got a $25 GC to Barnes and Noble from My Points. So $125 total. Very good mail day

The ground was covered with white stuff when i got up this morning, but it quickly melted. It was still chilly when we walked at 5:00 but it was blue skies and gorgeous. We've been seeing some of the first wild flowers on our walks. My parents live in a forest and I love walking there, it's always interesting.

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

we had a small snow storm and it was cold today so no walking.

I could not believe this day at work. I feel like I had 50 million interruptions. First one way, then another way, then on to something else and most of it was a total waste of time. I felt so frazzled by the end of the day and don't feel like I got anything accomplished.

But since I didn't walk the evening felt longer and I was able to relax and enjoy it.

Finished reading the library book Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag. Mystery. Very good. Also read two of the Money magazines I picked up at the library.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to King Soopers for groceries this morning. It just wasn't my day. They were out of radishes, jewish rye bread, and Dove chocolate. I spent $31.93 on food and $12 on books and magazines.

Went to Walgreens and spent 1.07 then to Albertson's were I got the radishes that King Sooper's was out of the onion I forgot. Spent $3.79

Got gas for 2.76/gal spent $15.58, ouch!

Went to TGIF for lunch. We had a $5 off $20 coupons. I spent $8.25

I fixed a big batch of chili, a big batch of oatmeal and chopped up all my veggies for the week.

Parade had a big article about how the American Dream is impossible for most people anymore. It gave examples of people who have too many bills and no savings. I realize that some people have things happen that make it hard for them to get ahead. But a lot of the so called middle class make enough money to live better than they do, they just don't having the knowledge and/or self-discipline towards money. Waiting to save up the money for something before buying it instead of putting it on the credit card and paying for it two or three times.

It's the tone of these articles that get to me. Like this state of affairs was imposed on these people and they have no say in improving thier situations by spending their money better, by going back to school and getting an education in different fields, by getting better jobs or by doing any of the hundreds of things people can do to make a good life for themselves in America. Things that they don't have the luxury of doing in other parts of the world.

Millions of people live the American Dream in America. Millions of people save money. Millions of people have a good life and raise a family on less than $50,000 a year. How come we never see articles about these people? Maybe it's because they aren't victims and have taken charge of their lives instead of going around blaming the government or business or society for their inability to save money.

walked with mom for 55 min

Filled out forms for 3 rebates today. The $25 Great Fun/Buy.com rebate. The 14.95 Kingston USB rebate and the $10 NetMagazine rebate.

Used my new USB to back up my PC. So easy!

Got a $30 rebate in the mail for my computer. Still have 2 outstanding rebates from the original 11.

I got my bill from DirectTv today and it shows they will have a free Total Choice Premier weekend May 19 - 21. Free HBO Starz, Showtime, Cinemax and 3 sports stations. I'm going to be on vacation that week so will miss it.

Went to the library and checked out some back copies of Money and Real Simple. I like the Real Simple magazine, but man do they have a lot of advertising.

Finished reading my book Sharper Than A Sperent's Tooth by Simon R Green. Sci/Fi. Very good series. Smart. I've always like reading about mythology and this series is a modern twist on a world where gods and mythical beings are real. Lot's of references to my past mythological readings.

walked with mom for 55 min

I had a good mail too. I got my other book from Barnes and Noble. Got my free USB and I got the CDs I ordered for my niece's bday.

Need to fill out the rebate forms tomorrow and get them in the mail.

By the way if you have a Discover Card and go to Barnes and Noble through their site you can get a 7% cash back bonus. That could be doubled depending on how you cash in your rebates from them. Probably best reward deal out there for Barnes and Noble.

Finished reading the library book Crazy Cool by Tara Janzen. Romance. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to Village Inn for dinner. Spent $7

Was a good day for allergies only had to take the pills once. I'm hoping the 12 doses I got in the Tylenol Severe Allergy pills for .49 cents will last through the whole season for me. I usually only get the allergies for a few days in the spring and then again in the fall.

Got one of the books I ordered from BN today. The one for mother's day.

Also got my flex health payment reimbursment for medical expenses.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts. Romance. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

The worst thing about allergies is they make my eyes water and then I get sleepy.

Sent for the $20 in Exxon Cards from Great Fun. They replied to my email saying their records say it's Exxon and not Circuit City, even though I printed out the page that shows Circuit City. They want me to call an 800 number. But I'm not going to mess with that since someone offered to swap cards with me. Much easier to do that.

I do feel that it stinks that they do that, especially when I told them there isn't an Exxon Station in Colorado so the cards were worthless here.

Finished reading The Ship Avenged by S.M. Stirling. Sci/Fi. Ok.

went into the office today. Spent 3 1/2 hours in meetings. I'd like to know when they expect me to get any work done.

Went to Staples and got printer ink. Had an old cartridge to recycle so got $3 off. Spent $56.37 This comes out of my maintenance/repair fund.

Went to Barnes and Noble and had a 15% off coupon on top of my 10% off membership. Spent $6.56 on one book. Still using my free GC.

Went to Wendy's on the way home. Spent $6.42 got dinner and chili for lunch tomorrow.

Got an email from Great Fun telling me how to get my $20 in Exxon Cards. The deal was I would get $20 in Circuit City cards. I sent them an email saying I wanted the Circuit City cards since we don't have any Exxon stations in Colorado and they would be worthless to me. We'll see what happens. That stinks changing the deal after the fact.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got my haircut at Great Clips. Spent $11 had a $3 coupon I printed out from the Entertainment website.

Ordered a year of Family Circle from the magazine website where I get $10 back. Spent $11.97 but it's only 1.97 after the rebate. I figure I should get the 1.97 back in coupons.

I have a bunch of rebate forms I need to fill in and send out. Maybe this weekend.

Had my first allergy attack of the season and it was brutal. My eyes were watering so bad I couldn't trust myself to drive to moms to walk. Vicious headache too, but it's cleared up now. I had some free allergy pills to take and they eventually kicked in.

Got groceries this morning. Spent $51.57, saved 39% according to the receipt. Salmon was on sale so I stocked up, which is why it was so high. Got 2 free 3oz bags of Starkist Fresh Pouch tuna.

Canceled the Mypoints insider's club membership today. I don't do enough online shopping where shipping costs are involved to make the monthly cost worthwhile. It nice that you can cancel online and not have to call them.

Had grilled salmon, potato salad and watermelon for dinner, very good. Watermelon was on sale at 49 cents/lb.

Free stuff this week

1 GB USB flash drive
Greeting Card
Swiffer Duster
Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste sample
Degree Ultra Clear deodorant sample
2 3oz bags of Starkist Fresh Pouch tuna

Finished reading the library book Memory in Death by J.D. Robb. Mystery/Romance. Excellent books. Love this series.

walked with mom for 55 min

It's my dad's bday today so gave him his presents. I had already given him the Entertainment book, but also gave him a $25 GC to the Outback and 2 bags of black jelly beans, his favorites.

Went to my sister's for a turkey dinner. Spent quite a bit of time with my niece picking out CDs that she wanted for her bday from yourmusic.com $5.99 each and no S&H. She picked 6 CDs and her mom wanted one too. I ordered 5 of them to be sent right away and put 2 of them in my queue to be sent at the end of this month and the next. Spent $29.95 and my sister gave me 5.99 for the CD she wanted, so total for Niece bday so far is $23.96 for 4 CDs.

I went to buy.com earlier and found a 1GB USB flash drive for $38.95 with free S&H and a $14 mail in rebate + the $25 GreatFun rebate, plus I get 3% back by going through Nesteggz rewards so the total cost will be -1.22 cents I've been wanting a USB for a couple months now.

I also went to Barnes and Noble online and ordered a book for my mom for Mother's Day and The Average Family's Guide to Financial Freedom by Bill and Mary Toohey for me. I had a deal from Citi card that if I used thier website I would get $10 back on my first purchase plus 4% of the purchase price rebated back. I spent $32.35. Shipping and handling was free. I'll get $11.29 back from Citi, and I saved 10% with my membership card. The finance book for me cost $2.16 vs the full price of $13.45 and the book for my mom was $17.99

Got a free greeting card in the mail from WalMart.

Finished reading the library book The Prey by Allison Brennan. Mystery. Ok too cliched and too much foreshadowing. It gets boring when you know what's going to happen next.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a free Swiffer Duster sampler in the mail.

I read several finance blogs a couple times a week. One of the blogs is

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/

Today they had a link to
http://www.magazinepricesearch.com/

Which compares prices on subscriptions.

They showed a 3 year Kiplinger's Financial Magazine subscription for $4.91. 14 cents each! I buy Kiplinger's a couple times a year and read it at the library most months. It's my favorite of the financial magazines because I think it's geared more towards average people than the others.

Any ways I clicked on the link and was told to use code DCMPS40D $40 off of 10 magazines. I completed the order and I was only charged $4.91 after the discount. But it gets even better. When I checked out I was given the change to join GreatFun for $1 and get a $20 GC to Circuit City. Plus if I joined GreatFun I would get $10 discount on another magazine. What a deal!

But wait there's more. (I had to do that ) I checked on fatwallet and when you join GreatFun and you make a purchase at Buy.com you can get a $25 rebate. There's no minimum purchase so you can just spend $25. I did this last fall and it worked great although it took quite a while to get the rebate back. Here's the url for the rebate form
http://www.ecustservice.com/premiums/greatfun/25buy/

So to reiterate
3 years of Kiplinger's personal finance magazines for $4.91
1 month trial at GreatFun $1
Total spent $5.91
Get $20 GC to Circuit City
Get $10 discount on another magazine purchase
Get $25 rebate back from Buy.com

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

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste sample and a Degree Ultra Clear deodorant sample in the mail today. And they both came with coupons so I can get trial sizes for free too

I signed my parents up for the Red Robin e-mail club because it's my Dad's Bday on Saturday. They got the email to get a free burger and are planning to use it tomorrow.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a $10 GC from Walgreens

Finished reading my book The Truth About Love by Stephanie Laurens. Romance. Very Good. It took me 3 days to read this, which is a long time for me. It' only 421 pages long, I just haven't had a lot of time to read.

walked with mom for 55 mni

I've been working till 10 or 11 everynight for several days now. I decided to take tonight off. Went to Rosie's for dinner. Spent $8.50. This will be a bad month for eating out. When I work so many hours I don't want to fix anything and I don't plan ahead.

Got gas $2.59/gal, spent $24.24. The station accross the street had it at $2.69 so I figured I should fill up before it went up another 10 cents. Totally ridiculous.

Got a $50 rebate from my computer. I think there's only 3 left.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Freedom's Ransom by Anne McCaffrey. Sci Fi. Very good. This is one of my favorite series from her. Basically rebuilding civilization type of story.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got lots of bargains today.

Got groceries early this morning. Spent $25.64. $2.25 for newspapers and $7.80 for stamps. Got a free 8 oz bag of egg noodles.

Got $10.00 in gas

My niece came over and we went to lunch at Reb Robin. Spent $6. Had $10 free GC from xmas.

We went to Kmart and I spent $28.64. I got a plastic portable file storage box for $9. I was looking for a footstool to put my feet on under my desk, to help my legs. This was the perfect height, the price was right and I figured it could double as storage. I also got a v-neck t-shirt for $5 and a bag/purse/organizer to carry on the airplane for our trip. It's big enough to carry a change of clothes, plus it has organizer stuff for noteblooks, sunglasses, credit cards, pens/pencils etc. It was on sale at 30% off. I paid $14 for it, black leather looking material.

After that we went to see Ice Age II. Spent $10.25. It was really good. Cute.

Next stop was the Dollar Store. Last year I bought several Fiesta Ware plates from Linens N Things one at a time using the 20% off coupons for about $5 each after coupons. The Dollar Store had the same plates for $1 each and bowls. I bought two plates and two bowls and 15 Peeps for the nieces to share. Spent $5

We went to Cold Stone and got ice cream. I had a BOGO coupon so only spent $5 with tip.

Last stop was Walgreens. I spent $9.66 and saved $11.46 plus I get $3.50 back in rebates. They had 50 ct Excedrin on sale for $5.49 + $3.50 back in rebates making it $1.99. I had a $1.00 coupon so I got 50 ct of Excedrin for .99 cents. Very good deal. They had Tylenol Severe Allergy 24 ct on sale for $3.99 plus a Walgreens coupons for $2.50 and I had a manufactures coupon for $1.00 so it only cost me .49 cents. Very happy with both of these purchases.

Free this week

Sample Dove Calming soap
1 8oz bad of egg noodles

I came home around 6:30 and started working again. Hope to finish by 11:00.