My dad and I went to get our SHARE orders this morning. I got the Christmas special for $26 which consists of the following items

3 lb. Boneless honey tavern ham
3 lb. Boneless turkey breast
9" Apple pie
15 oz. Can pineapple
15 oz. Can French cut beans
12 ct. Brown and serve rolls
1 lb Carrots
1 Bunch celery
3 ea. Yellow onions
6 ea. Russets
4 ea. Apples
5 ea. Bananas
5 ea. Navel oranges

Everything looked really good and now I don't need to go to the grocery store this week. I think I'll cook the Turkey tomorrow and then cut it up and freeze most of it. I left the ham frozen and may cook it next weekend.

I also got my new CITI CC with the $100 reward points. I'll check out their reward site tomorrow to cash it in. I still haven't got the $100 from Visa and it's been almost 3 months they said it would take 8 - 12 weeks so will give them to the first of the year before calling to find out what's going on.

Finished reading the library book Ill Wind by Rachel Caine. Sci Fi. Very good. This is a new author for me, but she has 3 more books out in this series that I will get and read.

Had the day off for vacation time so met a friend and her child for lunch at Zios. Spent an hour and a half catching up. We exchanged gifts. Her little girl is so cute, she's 4, but she talks so low I have a really hard time hearing her in a noisy restaurant. I got a $20 GC to Barnes and Noble. I exchange tons of books with this friend so she knows that's a good choice for me I bought her 4 new books and her child a My Scene doll with motorcycle, a sticker book and crayons to color the bath with.

I ran errands while I was in town.

Post Office - picked up my package from Yves Rocher. Really liked he 2 cute pine tree candles I ordered. They look great in front of one of my dollhouses. Perfect size.
King Soopers - got a $25 GC for my grandma's xmas present. That's the last one, xmas shopping is complete!
Barnes and Noble - $6.52 had 10% off one item printable coupon
Big Lots - tried to return the coca-cola silverware I bought for my mom's b-day that was missing 3 servings. I had the reciept but they wouldn't refund my money because I had purchased it two months earlier. They said I should have opened the box when I got home and returned it then. I explained about it being a b-day present that had just got opened on Sunday, but they wouldn't budge. That makes me really mad. They ripped me off and won't do anything about it. I don't know about anyone else, but I often buy presents months in advance and put them on a shelf until I need them. I don't open the boxes, unless it's a mail order item and then just to verify I got the right item and it's not broken. Anyways I won't be going back there to shop.
Staples - $68.80 on print refills for all 4 colors and $5 on a No Soliciting sign to put in my door. Had a 12% off coupon that I printed out from online. The print refills come out of my maintenance/repair budget.
Bank - deposited refund checks, added 20.98 to my Extra fund
Zios - $14.82
Sonic - got a $10 gift card for mom to replace the silverware
Red Robin - $50 got two $25 gift cards and got $5 extra for each card. This comes out of my stock up budget
Library - picked up my holds

Total spent this month = $334.92

Got a $5 Media Play certificate in the mail and a $3.62 Walgreens rebate

Finished reading my book Drew by Leigh Greenwood. Romance. Ok popcorn book

walked with mom for 35 min

Invested $3000 in my Small Cap index fund at Vanguard. Last investment of the year aside from my 401K for the year.
Increased my 401K contributions back up to 19% for next year.
Increased my W4 deductions from 0 to 2. I hope I'm back on track for income taxes next year.

Had another Pinecone survey today. I'm getting about one a week, which is nice.

My mom collects Coca-Cola stuff and I had bought her a set of Coca-Cola silverware as part of her bday present. When she opened up the box it only had one set of silverware, it was supposed to have 4. I bought it at Big Lots in Oct so I know they won't have another one. I'm going to try to get my money back, but not sure I can, even though I have the receipt, since it was purchased 2 months ago. Real bummer for her. Now I need to find something else for her present and give it to her for xmas. I don't have any ideas right now.

Finished reading my book Forever Blue by Suzanne Brockmann. Romance. Good popcorn book.

Went into work today. Lot's of people on vacation right now, place was emptier than usual.

Spent $5.50 for lunch in cafeteria
Got 10 cents a gal off gas at King Soopers. Paid 1.99/gal and spent $15.29
Got my free Souper Salad meal on the way home. I got a free meal for buying a $25 gift card.

Total spent this month = $308.58

Finished reading my book Red Lily by Nora Roberts. Romance. Very good. Third in a trilogy. Reading is a big priority for me, it's my number one way to reduce stress, relax and enjoy myself. I like a wide variety of books so it seems like there's almost always something new out by an author that I like. I don't know what I would do without the library. I could easily spend $150 - $200 hundred more per month than I do now if I didn't have library books to read. I'm also very fortunate that I can listen to books while I'm working at home. Anytime I'm working on something that doesn't require a lot of concentration I can listen to a book. I probably listen to books about 3 hours a day and I usually read between 3 and 4 hours a day. Since I don't have to commute most days I get a little more time out of the day. I used to average a book a day, but I don't think I read quite that much anymore. My eyes tend to hurt more in the evenings and I get sleepy, middle-age creeping up on me I probably average 5 books a week now.

walked with mom for 35 min

Went to post office and mailed half.com book. Spent $1.42

Total spent this month = $287.79

Mailed my property tax check for next year for $1333.80. I'll probably owe a little more once I get the actual bill. I pay it early to take the deduction on this year's tax return.

Mailed the Tums rebate for $3.99.

Got a $5 check in the mail from Pinecone.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Eleventh Hour by Cathering Coulter. Romance/Mystery. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to King Soopers and spent $59.75 which is a lot for me. But they had Kuner's beans on sale so I stocked up with pinto, kidney and chili beans. .50 cents a can. They also had Kroger diced tomotoes on sale at .50 a can and I stocked up on those also, as well as hamburger for 99 cents a lb. $7.00 of the 59.75 went for a paperback and a newspaper. The reciept says I saved 30% or $26.

Went to Walgreens and spent $14.24 and will get $3.59 back on a rebate for Tums Cocoa and Cream 60 ct. I had a $1.00 coupon so they paid me to buy this. Also got other household items on sale, like Kleenex and wax paper. Saved 47%

Total spent this month = $286.37

My mom's b-day is tomorrow, so my brother and sister and her family and I all met my parents at Macaroni Grill for lunch. Dad paid. I gave mom her b-day present of silky pajamas, coca-cola silverware and cinnamon bears. She seemed to like it all.

walked with mom for 55 min today, felt good.

Got my haricut, had a $2 off coupon, spent $12
Got some sugar cookie dough and frosting and decorating stuff $17.27
Went to McDonalds for lunch $7.66

Total spent this month = $212.98

I got a Longs rebate in the mail for $10.98
Sold a half.com book for $4

My sister and BIL had a party to go to so they dropped my nieces off at 4. We baked and decorated 48 sugar cookies. We made a paper plate of cookies for my mom and dad, my sister and bil and both girls, 6 plates total. We had a good time. It always amazes me how creative they are. Unfortunately I have a bunch of left over cookie dough that I froze as well as 2 mostly full cans of frosting. Don't have a clue what to do with them since I shouldn't be eating them. Hate to throw them away, but if I keep them I know I'll eventually give in to the temptation. I think I'll ask my mom if she's planning to do anything that needs frosting in the near future.

We ordered the Dominos Pizza 555 deal. 3 pizzas for $5 each. My nieces don't like the same food, ever, so it was just easier to get everyone their own pizza. My sister paid for it. I sent the leftovers of the girls pizza home, but I still have 2 meals of mine left for this week.

We watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone since it was on TV. It's amazing how young those actors look in the first movie. Then we watched one of my old videos, a musical called Bugsy Malone, with a young Scott Baio and Jodie Foster. The kids loved it. I like musicals and have several of them on tape. My oldest niece has gotten very interested in them lately and wants to rewatch all of them.

I finished reading the library book The G-Index Diet by Richard N. Podell. This book was better than the last one I read about the G-Index. It gave a lot more information about what foods you can and can't eat and more ideas on menus, plus a whole chapter on eating out. I figure right now I need to keep researching this to reinforce the things I'm reading.

Here's a website where they have a really cool video of a house with xmas lights that blink in time to music. It takes a bit of time to load. My first thought was someone has way too much time, but I still thought it was neat.

http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM

I started working this morning and about 9:00 I went to fill out my timecard for the week. I noticed I have 40 hours of vacation left, but I'm only scheduled to take 3 days before the end of the year. We have to use it or lose it. Anyways I'm waiting for other people to do work before I can do my work and was just doing fill in type work updating documents, cleaning out mail, etc, until it was ready so I called my boss and asked for today off, since I'm waiting anyways. So I got an unexpected vacation day. I still have 4 to take before the end of the year.

The sun was shining and the weather got up to 37 so I went into town. Met my parents for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's and spent $9.56. I love their salad and baked potato combo. That's pretty much what I order every time I'm there. I'll get 4% back on my CC for eating there. Then we went to Borders and I showed my mom a Dragon calendar I want and gave her a 15% off coupon that I had printed off from the internet. I have lots of dragons, unicorns, griffins, gargoyles etc in my house. I especially like dragons.

Total spent this month = $176.05

I went to the big library in town and picked up some books on tape, a magazine and some reading books.

Then went to the local libary and picked up my holds.

Went to the dollar store and spent $7.49 on gift bags and wrapping paper. I have a lot of big gifts this year and don't want to wrap them so got 2 big plastic gift bags for $1 ea and 2 big paper gift bags for $1 each and then some wrapping paper that I can use for some of the smaller items.

I got a $10 refund from Media Play in the mail.

Finished reading my book Pete by Leigh Greenwood. Romance. Ok, nothing special.

well it got back up to 30 today still cold but not so unbearable.

I was supposed to get my shower installed tomorrow, but the installer has strep throat so they rescheduled for Dec 19. My niece had strep throat this week too. Must be going around now. That's another benefit of working from home most the time. I'm not around so many sick people and since I'm only in the office one day a week I think my immune system is strong enough to fight the germs off for that one day

I've been so busy with work recently I haven't had a lot of time to spend on finances, but in the back of my mind I've been mulling over ideas/goals for next year. I'm about 90% sure I'm going to start pre-paying my mortgage. It's more of an emotional decision rather than a numbers decision. I want to get it paid off before I retire and 5 years is not a lot of time to pay off $135,000. I'm about 1 and half years into the 30 year mortgage so the money I pre-pay now goes a long ways towards saving on interest payments. If I pay an extra $1000 a month I save $2500 in interest payments. Hard to beat that kind of return. I lose some of that in tax refunds but not very much at the beginning of the mortgage.

My mom and sister are both bugging me for xmas ideas and I still can't think of anything. I just told them either forget about, it won't bother me if they don't spend as much as usual, or if they have to, then I'll take gift certificates. So I gave them a list of book stores and restaurants that I go to all the time. I'm sure they'll do the GCs over not buying anything, but I truly wouldn't mind. However, I think they would mind. My birthday is in Jan and they want ideas for that too.

I told my mom I was looking around last night and thinking about it and I just said to myself I truly have everything I want for my house. I can't think of anything I need/want right now. And most of the time I do feel blessed. Nothing is ever perfect and I bitch as much as the next person but when I truly think about my life I am so happy. I have a life that is perfect for me. I have a beautiful townhome that has plenty of space. I don't have to take care of the snow or yard. I have a great view of the mountains from my office. I get to work from home 4 days a week. I have a good job that I enjoy 80% of the time. I'm appreciated in my job and make good money. I have more than enough to meet my bills and can save a large amount of my salary. I have nice furniture, books, CDs, cable, a good car, good food and money to indulge in my hobby. I have good friends to get together and do things and talk with. I have family close by, who I get along with and who help me out as needed. I have two nieces who I love and who love me. I am mostly healthy and am working to make myself healthier. I have a good life. What more could I ask for?

Finished reading the library book Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris. Mystery. Ok. I like some of her other series better, like the Shakespear series with Lily Bard and the Vampire series with Sookie.

It's -13 right now, this is the coldest it's been around here for a long time. I'm quite ready for it to warm up to at least the 30s. A neighbor stopped by to check on me and told me my garage door was up. That might be part of the reason my furnace has been running so much. I must have forgot to close it when I brought in the trash can yesterday.

I got some good news today after the company merger early next year they will increase our 401k match from 5 to 6% and if the company does good financially they could kick in another 3% making a 9% match. Good deal, free money. Also there is the possibility the new company will have bonuses in the first quarter. Not counting on anything, but it's nice to know there's potential for profit

I purchased the Christmas special from SHARE today for $27.50

Total spent this month = $166.29

I was cleaning my shower tonight and a big picture I have on the wall fell down and the glass broke into a million pieces. Had to spend an extra half hour cleaning it up and now I need a new piece of glass. I might just buy a new frame from Michaels with a 40% off coupon. I was in my bare feet so I had to really careful getting out and getting to the next room for shoes.

Finished reading my book Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Adventure. Very good.

no walking today it snowed again. I think if I want to continue the benefits of my walking regime I'm going to have to start using my treadmill, boring! It's hard for me to talk myself into using it, but the way it's snowing every other day that might be the only exercize I get all winter.

I drove in to work this morning and the sun was shining, a beautiful day. It started snowing around 11:00 am and it's still snowing, supposed to snow through tomorrow. Currently it's -2 and the high today was 15 degrees. I came home from work early, (around noon), because I heard they were having whiteouts up where I live. I worked a few hours after that then quit early because of a sinus headache. I usually get those with quick moving weather.

I have the heater set to 62 degrees and it's been running non-stop all afternoon.

I was watching a show on HGTV called Designed to Sell where people fix up their houses so they can sell them for more money. The concept of this amazes me, why spend all that money and hard work fixing up your house just to sell it? Why not fix it up and make it look great while you're living there? I don't get it, don't they want to live in a nice place? Why fix it up for someone else to enjoy?

Thanks to all of Flash's shopping tricks I went to the YvesRoche site and spent $9.83 on a last minute gift for my oldest niece. $4.95 of that was shipping, but I get a real pretty crystal watch and earring set as a free gift with my purchases that I'm sure she'll like, as well as 3 candles for myself and a sampler of their products which I'll give to my niece also. They had two cute candles that look and smell like pine trees. My hobby is miniature rooms and I'm hoping to use them in one of the rooms if they are the right size, if not I'll use them as decorations. I overspent on the younger niece and had to buy something small to get the amount right between the two of them.

Got another Pinecone survey to do today. Sent off for my Parker Bros rebates on the Monopoly and Twister games I bought. $5.00

I finished listening to the library book on tape Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich. Mystery. Excellent as usual.

walked with mom for 35 minutes. The roads were pretty slick, but the sun was shining. I told mom if we wait for good walking conditions we won't walk all winter so we should at least try on sunny days. It was still freezing and very icy, but nobody fell. I fell on the ice about 20 years ago and bounced. I broke my ankle in 3 places so I'm very leery of ice. I don't want to have that experience again, but I also don't want to lose the momentum I've built up walking for the last 8 months.

Finished reading the library book The G.I. Glycemic Index Diet book by Rick Gallop. Pretty Good. I'm reading a bunch of stuff about the G.I. Diet right now as an aid to losing weight and controlling diabetes. I started it today and feel really good. Not hungry at all and the food was all things I like to eat. So far, so good. I'm reading more books about this subject as I go to reinforce the concepts. This may not be the best month to start, but I feel like I'm ready so I'm going for it.

I woke up this morning to blue skies and sun. The snow started to melt so I decided to go in town after all.

Safeway, spent $26.46
Walgreens - $21.10 - will get $10 gc back
Albertson's fuel - $16.06 1.94/gal
Media Play - $101.08 (triple points day so will get 15% back + 4% back on CC) $65.47 of this was for youngest nieces xmas gift. Got her two gameboy games (Narnia and Pokemon), a CD and a Polly Pocket toy. The rest went for 3 books for me and a new CD.
Outback $14.00 - met parents and used 10% off gc, brought half my steak home for another meal.
KMart - $16.10 - a little miffed about this. Yesterday my niece told me she wanted Twister. I wish she had told me earlier. On Thanksgiving day these games were buy one get one free. Even yesterday they were 25% off, but I had to wait to buy them when they were full price Oh well, I do have a $2 rebate for the game and I know she gets something she wants
Barnes and Noble - $6.52 had a 10% off coupon, plus get 10% off with membership card, plus paid with 10% discounted gift cards

That completes my nieces xmas and now I only need to buy a gc at King Soopers for my grandma and I'm done shopping for xmas. Now comes the worst part, wrapping.

Total spent so far this month = $138.79

It snowed today and snowed and snowed and snowed I think we have about 6 inches right now. Bad thing is it's supposed to snow for the next 3 days. I had things I wanted to do in town tomorrow, but don't plan to go in now. If the snow quits for a while I'd like to make a quick trip to the grocery store that's close to me and the library to pick up my holds. We'll see.

I was actually being good this weekend and working on cleaning my house, (long overdue) when my sister called and asked if I wanted to go see Harry Potter with her and the girls, well I couldn't say no to that. So we went and had a good time. It's a very good movie and wasn't too crowded. When we came out of the movie though the roads were really bad. The freeway was a mess and we crawled home. Glad I wasn't driving.

Spent $5 on movie. Total this month = $19.04

I got a $5 check from Pinecone in the mail and a notice from the Home Owner's Association that our dues will go up $10 a month starting next month It seems like no matter what you do to cut your expenses other expenses increase and you're basically back where you started. I guess it's better to tread water than to go under.

With Direct TV I get free Showtime movie channels this weekend. So far I haven't seen one thing I want to watch. Good thing I'm not paying for this.

Paid for my car license today 145+ less than last year since car is one year older.

Got my new CC that gives 3% back on the restautant purchases plus $100 the first time i use it. I used it tonight at Village Inn. My dad drove my car into the service station for recall work for me so I wouldn't have to take off work and wait while it was done. Mom was going in town so they got my car and dropped it off and then went ahead and did their stuff in their car, then they picked my car up and brought it home. Very nice and a big help to me. We went to dinner and I spent $14.04 I picked up taxes and tip for all 3 meals, plus got another piece of their pumpkin pie to bring home.

Total spent so far this month = $14.04

Finished listening to the library book on tape Contest by Matthew Reilly. Adventure/Sci Fi. Very good

Finished reading Chet by Leigh Greenwood. Romance. OK

I think I'll go to bed early tonight, for some reason I'm really sleepy.

walked with mom for 35 min

I get 3 paychecks in Dec instead of the normal 2. Always a good thing

My goals for December are:

1. Set financial goals for 2006

2. Save my 3rd paycheck

3. Save 1000 over my 401K contribution

4. Keep within $450 budget for groceries, gas, household expenses, etc

5. Walk for at least 35 min 20 times or more

I finished reading Kissed a Sad Goodbye by Deborah Crombie. Mystery. OK this was a new author and I have another book by her which I'll read, but probably won't get anymore of her books. It took me three days to read because it wasn't capturing my attention.

walked with mom for 35 min

Spent $2.26 on postage for last half.com book

Goals for Nov were

1. Spend $100 on clothes. I need a new coat, and a hat to warm my ears and a smaller pair of jeans, but don't have to have the jeans right now, so unless I find a good deal on a coat and hat I probably won't get the jeans just yet.

Spent 204.21 way over, but it was things I need, just maybe not right this minute. Hard to pass up good buys when you know you need something soon. I got a new lambskin coat, a hat, a scarf, two pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of sweat pants and a sweat shirt.

2. Only spend $450 for monthly basics - groceries, gas, hbas etc

Over in this area too $456.73

Groceries $148.10
Fast Food $29.40
Restaurants $45.76
Nieces $39.74
Books/Newspapers $15.03
Gas $25.87
HBAs $56
Entertainment $10.50
Misc $86.33

3. Walk for at least 30 min a day for at least 20 days. Since the days are shorter there's not going to be enough time for my normal 55 min walk.

Made this one.

4. Save $1000 over my 401K investment

Made this one, but still waiting to use the money on my new shower whenever it gets installed.

5. Get my shower redone and paid for

This is delayed to Dec 9 because the materials didn't get here yet.

6. Put $100 more in my cash reserve fund.

Put $200 in the fund so this is done now.

7. Only eat at fast foods 4 times and only eat at restaurants 5 times this month.

At at fast foods 5 times and restaurants 5 times so missed by 1.

My networth increased by 5.91% in Nov, that's very nice, I'd like to see that again in Dec

I also spent $217.35 on xmas gifts in Nov and $40 on stocking up on sales items from my $200 stockup budget. Most of my xmas shopping is done now. Just two more people to finish up, my grandma and youngest niece. I hope to finish both next week.

I put $50 a month in my xmas fund so I have $600 to spend. I buy 8 gifts for family and then also contribute to Silver Key, Toys for Tots and Care and Share from that budget.

I'm mad at myself because I had a $3 rebate for the Monopoly games I got to give to Toys for Tots. I took the games in to donate yesterday and went to fill out the rebate form today and realized I didn't write the UPC down. DOH! I'm going to try to remember to check if the grocery store has the games in stock and get a UPC from there this weekend. I might go to Media Play this weekend for their triple points days and I can check there too.

First day back to work after a 5 day vacation. So hard to get up early to get to work on time. I've always been a night person and it's way too easy for me to get used to sleeping in. It was freezing this morning. The temp was 18 degrees. BRRR!

I went to Souper Salad on the way home from work I had a coupon for a $1.00 off the meal and when I was paying I saw they had gift cards that give a free meal with a $25 purchase. Meals are normally $5.99. That's almost a 25% savings and since I eat there pretty regularly I bought a card. This will come from my stock up money.

Total spent so far this month = $488.13

I had the day off today and mom and I went shopping.

My first stop was the post office to mail the latest half.com book. $1.42
When I got home tonight saw I had sold another book for $6. Since I have to go into the office tomorrow and won't have time to go to the post office my mom offered to take it for me. I'll leave it in the door for her to pick up tomorrow.

We hit a bunch of stores today. Here's the list.

Walmart - $49.48 ($21 for xmas gifts and $28.48 for 2 pairs sweat pants and sweat shirt for me. Mine are getting too big for me)
Kmart - $5.99 xmas gift
Ruby Tuesday's - $10.26
Foleys - $0
Hallmark - $2.18 xmas card for grandma.
Mervyn's - $0
Sears - $0
JC Penny's - $0
Christmas store - $0
Bed, Bath N Beyond - $8.58 xmas gift, 20% off coupon
Hobby Lobby - $0
Bank - deposited $13.95 in rebate checks and $15 in loose change
Oak Express - $0
Walgreens - $11.33 receipt says I saved $12.59

Total spent so far this month = $482.77 overbudget again

walked with mom for 55 min

Thanks everyone for the congrats on paying off the car. This is the first new car I've ever owned. I always bought used before. I decided to go new this time for peace of mind. When I drive into town it's 15 miles of freeway with no place to walk to for help. And I don't have a cell phone. I wanted a car I felt comfortable with for reliability. I plan to keep it for a minimum of 7 years and hope for 10 years. I only put about 6000 miles a year on it so I shouldn't have a problem keeping it for a number of years.

As I hoped my headache left about midnight last night just about the time the storm finally got here. It was such a relief. It went really fast. I was lying in bed and all the sudden it was gone. I just gave a big sigh of relief and thought to myself, "Oh, that's so nice!" We only got a tiny bit of snow, but it was so cold while we were walking. It was 32 degrees but the wind was blowing like crazy, that always makes walking harder.

I bought some old-fashioned oatmeal yesterday and fixed it in the microwave for breakfast. I forgot how much I liked oatmeal. I tend to get into habits with breakfast and lunches where I eat the same thing every day. I put some maple syrup on the oatmeal and it was yummy!

I finished re-reading my book A Stroke of Midnight by Laurell K. Hamilton. Romance/Fairy. Excellent book. Fourth in the series.

I have one more day off before I have to go back to work. I'm going shopping tomorrow and hope to finish up most of my xmas shopping.

walked with mom for 55 min

I've had sinus headaches almost everyday this week and have another one today. So tired of it. We're supposed to have snow tonight and tomorrow, maybe after it blows through my headaches will go with it.

Went to the grocery store and spent $36.69 I try to check my receipt afterwards before leaving. I can't watch the register that closely. Lately it's wrong so often it's a major pain in the butt. I had to go the customer service to get $9.98 refunded. There were buy one get one free on 2 items I bought that didn't ring up right, they charged me the full price. Grocery sales go from Wednesday to Tuesday so the fact that it's Saturday and this item is still ringing up wrong, tells me the grocery store just doesn't care if they get it right or not. It's hard to believe no one in the state noticed this before today. Since the cash register is driven by computers and I imagine the sales prices are input in one place and downloaded to all the stores, it's hard to believe they couldn't know this is wrong 3 days into the sale. Just makes you feel ripped off even if you do get your money back.

Total spent so far this month = $431.58

On a more positive note I made my last car payment today. WOOHOO! I'm SO glad not to have that monthly bill even if it was 0% interest and I made money by not paying cash upfront. I just hated that bill every month, it felt like I was paying extra for the car since I'd been driving it for so long. This will free up $344 a month for savings.

BTW my car is a 2003 Saturn ION and it's been a really good car. Gets almost 30 miles per gallon and I haven't had any problems with it at all. It's only needed regular maintenance and I had to replace one of the tires when I ran over a nail. And I had one recall notice on a part that they replaced in about 45 minutes. That's it, very happy with it.

Sold another book at half.com for $3

Finished re-reading my book Seduced By Moonlight by Laurell K. Hamilton. Romancy/Fairies. Excellent book. This is probably the third time I've reread this book. I love this author and this series. I like her vampire series too, but I like this series about a modern american fairy princess the best.

walked with mom for 55 min

Sold another book at half.com for $2

I was planning to make a big batch of Wendy's chili today and since I know it makes so much I asked my mom if she wanted me to bring some over for supper tonight. She said that was fine so after our walk I went to Safeway to get two missing ingredients - Kidney beans and Fritos. I like Fritos with my chili. Spent $4.88

Total spent so far this month = $394.89

I went to the library and picked up a couple of books also. I've been doing some research on the Glycemic Index for controlling diabetes and weight loss. I found two books, so need to read them and see if it's something I want to try to follow.

Made the chili and put half of it in food storage containers before I took it to mom's. All of us had 1 and half bowls each and I left the rest for them to have for lunch this next week. We played games after that and had ice cream for dessert.

I finished reading my book Night Game by Christine Feehan. Romance. Excellent book. I love this author, she has so many great series going right now. She has the Carpathians (vampires), the seven sisters (witches) and the enhanced psychic abilities series, which this book belongs to. I like all of her series.

walked with mom for 50 min.

Bought a paper for .50 cents and looked through the adds. I'm looking for a computer, preferably a notebook, and there were some really fantastic deals. I tried to get online to Best Buy all day since the add said they had special online deals today, but I never got through, the site was down everytime I tried. That's going to cause a lot of ill will from customers. I refuse to go to the stores tomorrow, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see if anyother good deal comes along.

My sister and I went to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner. It was packed, it wasn't nearly that busy last year. I guess more people go out to eat on Thanksgiving than used to. Her husband takes the kids to Kansas to see his mom every year for Thanksgiving and she refuses to go with them, so we usually go to lunch and a movie on that day. We both had chicken fingers and I brought both of our leftovers home and had them for dinner tonight. Spent $11.50

Then we went to the Mall to see a movie. We were early for the movie and Kmart is right next to the theater so we went in there first. They had some really good unadvertised sales. The had a lot of board games on sale at buy one get one free, plus there are 2 or 3 rebates on a lot of the Milton Bradley games. I got two Monopoly games for the Toys for Tots drive. They were $12.00 for the two games but I get a $3.00 rebate. One of the items suggested for gifts for the Toys for Tots was board games, but after I bought them I started wondering how much kids play board games anymore. I know when I was a kid we played them all the time. My bother and I used to spend hours playing Monopoly after school. I also bought a scarf for myself for walking in the cold for $5 and I bought a package of 8 MM flavored chapsticks for my youngest niece. Total spent at Kmart = $27.85 of which $22.85 was for xmas gifts.

My sister took everything to the car while I went to buy the tickets for the movie. I spent $10.50 on the tickets. I had expected her to pay me back, but she never did. Oh well, she drove so no big deal. We saw Walk the Line and it was a real good movie. I'm going to look for the soundtrack and see what's on it. There were a lot of good songs in the movie. I recently bought the Essential Johnny Cash CD which is 2 CDs and has aroung 36 songs on it. I think I've played it about 8 times now.

Total spent so far this month = $390.01

I have a 5 day weekend since I'm using up some of my vacation. Hope to have a very relaxing day tomorrow, yet also get some of my housecleaning done, and maybe try Best Buy online again.

walked with mom for 55 min. Found a pair of sunglasses while we were walking today. They are perfectly good, so I guess I'll use them.

I had a half day off for comp time today from working Sat morning. I got in a quick nap, but I've had the nastiest headache the last two days. Finally got rid it of it by taking some sinus pills. I always start with Excedrin migraine pills because they work 80% of the time but every once in a while it's a sinus headache and I don't recognize it at first.

I bought $5250 worth of I-bonds today with the money from the EE bonds I sold a while ago.

The stock market is really doing great right now, hope the upward streak lasts the rest of the year.

I got my first $5 check from Pinecone today and had another survey to do when I checked my email. This is cool. It will be even better if they send me samples of the two items I surveyed so far. I got a Bertolli olive oil and pasta sauce sample in the mail today.

Finished reading The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton. Mystery. Ok. This is a new author for me, but the book wasn't interesting enough for me to read any more of his books.

walked with mom for 45 min. very cold

Went to dinner with parents at Village Inn. Spent $11 got a piece of pumpkin pie to have with lunch tomorrow. I love their pumpkin pie, it's a good thing they only have it for about two months out of the year

Total spent this month = $362.51

Signed up for my 2006 benefits today. Most everything stayed the same except my Flex Health Care fund which I decreased since I have extra this year, which fortunately they changed the law and I can use until March next year. But that means I need even less in reserve for next year.

Half.com is depositing $48.56 in my account. That's a bunch for two weeks. I have some more books I need to list. Maybe this weekend.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Lonely Men by Louis L'Amour. Western. Good

Finished reading my book Flashback by Cait London. Romance. Good but not as good as some of her other books. Lots of repetition, which I find boring. She tells the same story from two or three viewpoints.

walked with mom for 35 min

I sent in two rebates today. $11 from Longs and $10 from Del Monte.

Nothing else to share today.

Went to bed last night at 10:00 and woke up at 8:30 this morning. Felt very good. Walked with mom for 55 min. Went to the grocery store and got some more gourmet foods for my brother's xmas along with my groceries. Spent $37.63 on my groceries and $22.88 on him. Bought him Jerky, sausage and speciality coffees and cocoa packages and a big box of chocolates. I still want to get him some crackers and cheese dip.

Had a real relaxing day. Cut up my veggies for the week and made tuna salad for lunches and read the paper. Then around 4:00 I went to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. My mom usually fixes dinner for our immediate family the weekend before or after Thanksgiving since she goes to her sister's for Thanksgiving. Really good. But way too much food. I brought a piece of pumpkin pie home since I didn't have room to eat it there.

Got to talk to both my nieces for a while and asked the youngest what she wants for xmas. She tells me a Playstation PSP and says it costs about $500. I told her she wouldn't be getting it from me. Maybe in a couple years when it comes down to a couple hundred mom and I can split it for her. She gave me some other ideas so at least I can start buying stuff for her.

Played several games of cards with my parents after everyone left. That's always fun.

Total spent this month = $351.51

We had our fvo today where we put our softward product in production. It was scheduled to start at 2:00 am this morning. I generally don't sleep well when I know I have to get up in a few hours and it seems easier to me to stay awake than sleep a couple of hours and then wake up. So I didn't go to bed. I logged into work at 2:00 am and found they weren't ready for us to start yet, but everyone had to hang around until they were ready. Well I wasn't able to start till almost 5:00 am. I did my testing and dropped off the bridge at 6:30 then since I was hungry I went and cooked eggs for breakfast. Right when I'm done one of my co-workers calls and wants me to get back on the bridge to check something out. So I do that and tell her yes it is a problem. Then I get off again. It's my job to find breaks not fix them

My parents had placed a SHARE order that needed to be picked up between 9 and 10:30 this morning and they couldn't go do it since they left home at 7:00 to drive to my grandpa's funeral. So I told them I would get it for them. Since I knew I had to leave in a couple of hours I didn't lie down. Instead I forced myself to stay awake and I drove over to the SHARE pickup at 9:20. It had snowed most of the night and the roads were really slick. I get to the SHARE place and the foods not there, they said come back after 10:00. On the way back home I saw something I've never seen before. The Shell gas station had a sign out saying Gas Sale today. I looked and it was $2.09/gal it's selling for $2.19 everywhere else. So I stopped and filled up my tank. Spent $20.37

I drove back and got the SHARE food about 10:30. Then I went home and finally went to bed. But by that time the sun had come out and it was really bright and I just fell asleep when I got a phone call from Yellow Book with an automated message telling me they had delivered my phone book. Like I couldn't figure out what that big book on my front porch was. So then I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and cleaned my kitchen and read a book.

My parents called on their way home from the funeral and I met them at the Village Inn for dinner. My dad paid as thank you for picking up their food for them. Afterwards they came to my house and got their food.

I finished reading the library book Crystal Gorge by David Eddings. Sci Fi. Very Good. Third in a series.

Now I'm extremely tired and hope I'm not so tired I won't fall asleep. Seems ridiculous but that happens to me sometimes.

Total spent so far this month = $313.88

The other day http://www.mymoneyblog.com/ had a post about a CITI CC that offered 3% back on restaurant, office supplies, auto rentals and gas stations and a $100 gift card when you sign up and make one purchase. I applied today and was accepted so I should get a new CC soon. I should be getting the $100 back from the Visa card I got a couple months ago. This new card will be good for me because I eat out quite a bit and at least I will get a little bit back. The site had another card for another $100 back, but I don't think I'll get that one. At least not yet since I would only use it the once to get the $100. A free $100 is hard to turn down though, especially when I know it won't hurt my credit rating enough to matter.

Went to the Mountain Man store and bought a bag of hot peanuts for my brother's xmas and a bag of cinnammon bears for mom's bday. Spent $9.18

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Promise in a Kiss by Stephanie Laurens. Romance. Very Good.

Finished reading my book Sins of the Night. Romance. Very Good.

walked with mom for 30 min today. The weather was supposed to be sunny instead a freak snow storm blew in right when we started walking. It was freezing and the snow pellets were blowing in our faces. But we finished the walk anyways. My new coat kept me pretty warm except for my face.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Perfect Lover by Staphanie Laurens. Romance. Very good.

Can't wait for this week to end for some reason it seems like forever.