walked with mom for 55 min

Went to the library and got my holds. I have a book on tape that I'm listening to. I would have finished it Friday if I hadn't had to go into work unexpectedly and it was due Friday, but since I'm halfway through and I can't renew it I decided to keep it and finish it on Monday. I'll probably end up owing about 30 cents, but it's worth it to finish the story

I went to the miniature store that's near me today. It's funny how there isn't a miniature store in the big town near me, but there's one in our little town. Anyways she always sends out coupons for 15% off everything you buy around your birthday. I've had mine for quite awhile since I haven't had time to work on miniatures. So I used it today and only spent $41.33 which comes out of my miniature budget.

My mom gave me a list of 3 things she wants for her birthday and xmas. One was a victorian doll lamp from a catalog so I ordered it today. Total is $64.70 which comes out of the xmas budget.

I see that I got paid $4.49 from half.com so after postage I made 2.52

In the freebies section there was a post from mjrube94 about HSBC giving a $35 sign up bonus for a $1 min deposit, so I opened an account with them today. Supposed to get the bonus 45 days after the initial deposit.
Thanks mjrube94 for the link. I've been doing a lot more of the freebies stuff lately. Recently I've gotten several samples and coupons in the mail. It's nice, I'm getting things for family members too. I got the free JCPenny t-shirts coupons for my sister and my mom and I got free starbucks coffee coupons for my dad. I also finally talked my sister into using the discounted gift card site and she's real excited about it now.

I finished re-reading the library book Shattering the Two-Income Myth by Andy Dappen. This book has a ton of ways to save money. It's like the Tightwad Gazette I re-read it at least once a year to prompt me to new ways of saving. It's a really good book.

Here's a quote from the book that really struck me this time around:

"When you work for a business you give people you may not even know, like or respect the best energy of your life. You give them action and that makes them money. Now it's time to give that energy to what you care about most - your family, yourself. Once you have identified your goals and made the choices necessary to pursue those goals, action is all that spearates you from success."

I think that it's difficult to take actions that we know will benefit us sometimes, things like calling a company and asking for a lower rate on a service or even changing companies. Things like starting and keeping a price book, or cooking meals or fixing a lunch to take to work. Things like doing maintenance on our possessions to make them last longer. Almost everyone's lives are so packed with work responsibilities that it's difficult to find the energy to do the things that benefit us both financially and mentally.

Thursday drove into work. There was snow on the mountains, very pretty, but not sure I'm ready for winter yet. Went to the bank and got some cash to add to my at home stash for an emergency.

Stopped at Walgreens on the way into work to get some Excedrin on sale and I had coupons and used my rebate gift card. Total spent $9.60

Long day at work, my boss took 80% of my work away and put me in charge of a new team that's tasked with getting a big project done by the end of the year. Spent a lot of time in meetings. Management isn't really my thing, I prefer to do the actual work. He promised me it would only be temporary, I sure hope so.

I didn't leave work till after 6:00 put in a 10 hours day. Got gas after work paid 2.79/gal I had a 10 cent off deal from King Soopers. Spent $29.92

Went to Barnes and Noble and used one of my discounted gift cards to renew my membership so I'll get 10% off all purchases. Spent $31.77 bought a couple financial magazines plus the 25 renewal fee.

Last stop was Souper Salad. I had a coupon if you buy two meals they are $1 off each. So I bought two for $10.72 Had one salad for dinner last night and one for lunch today and still have 2 cups of pasta salad, 1 cup of chicken salad and 1 cup of red beans and rice to use up.

It was after 8 by the time I got home yesterday so I didn't get to walk. I was so tired I didn't even get on the computer to update my journal yesterday.

Because of my new assignment I had to go back into work again today. Bummer! But I left early today at 3:00. Went to Popeyes for dinner had a coupon for buy one 2 piece meal and get another one free so I spent $4.48 for two meals. Had one tonight and will eat the other this weekend. I have tons of leftovers right now.

Total spent so far this month = $296.61

Tonight I caught up on everyone's journals. There are so many active journals now I had to go way down to the bottom of the page to find mine

I finished reading the library book Point Blank by Catherine Coulter. Romance/Mystery. Very good book

walked with mom 55 min

It's been chilly this week. It rained very hard for awhile this afternoon and the temperature got down to 50. I actually had to dig out my coat for my walk. I was okay with my sweat pants on this evening, but it won't be too long till the furnace will have to be turned on again. I hope to put it off as long as possible. I'm sure this will be another year when gas prices hike up. Last year had a 30% hike, wonder how much is will be this year.

I got my phone/internet bill today. I use Qwest. Every month this bill pi$$e$ me off. It's not the amount of the bill it's all the little extra taxes and fees they add on. My base bill for phone/DSL is $39.87 but they add $12.40 in fees/taxes. That's 31%. What other industry can charge you 31% in taxes? And when they quote you figures for service they never tell you how much they will tack on in extras.

Finished reading the library book Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn. Sci Fi. Good book

walked with mom 45 min

Mailed my Alavert rebate for $6.50

No other financial news today.

I watched the Biggest Loser tonight. 14 people go on national television to lose weight and the one who loses the most wins $250,000. I have to admit this show fascinates me. One I am overweight and it's the one area of my life I can't seem to control. I'm happy with every other area, but this one kicks my butt over and over, so I'm interested in watching other people tackle and win in this area. I like to watch the Discovery Body Challenge too. Two I can't imagine baring my soul, let alone my body on national television. The blogging is annonymous so it's much easier to bare yourself, (so to speak) in this format, so watching these people's emotional issues regarding their weight speak loudly to me. Three the winner gets $250,000 and basically a new life and body and this seems to happen overnight, or at least very quickly. I think everyone fantasizes about winning the lottery or losing 20 lbs in a week, so it's a way of putting yourself into their shoes and wondering what if.... or maybe I could...

Read the library book The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. A Novel. This book was really interesting. It was about an autistic man and how he perceives the world. This isn't my normal type of book. I read it because I like Science Fiction books by Elizabeth Moon, but this is a different Elizabeth Moon and I didn't realize that when I put it on hold at the library but once I started reading it I was hooked from the first page.

Got a $5 replay reward certificate to Media play in the mail today. Also got my latest batch of discount gift cards.

Went to my sister's house for my youngest nieces b-day. She is 11 today. We had pizza and ice cream. She liked all her presents. She especially liked the Trixie Beldon books and the Herbie game boy game I gave her.

My sister got a $3000 profit sharing from work and she was real happy because she said they replenished their savings account. They had spent it all on car repairs. Their savings account is $1000. I'm glad they have that much, but it sure seems skimpy to me considering what their bills are. But she's happy at that level of savings. They also bought a new microwave, flat screen tv and dvd/vcr player. No moral judgements here, they can spend it where they want. I'm just amazed sometimes at how different all three of us kids are regarding money even though we were all raised/educated the same way. I think she is much more of an optimist than I am. She always expects things to work out well for her and they usually do. I hope things will go well, and they usually do, but I plan for things to go wrong and then I don't need to worry about it. My brother doesn't worry or plan or work, he just expects my dad to provide for him and so far that's working for him. All of us are happy with our own way of dealing with money.

I finished listening to the library book on tape Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich. Very good, very funny.

I also finished reading the library book Lifeguard by James Patterson. It was Ok. I think a lot of his other books were much better. Kind of feel like he phoned this one in, just did it for the money.

DirectTv has a free movie weekend this weekend for the Starz movie package. Everytime they have a free weekend I have to struggle to find even one movie to watch. They played the Bourne Supremacy last night at 11:00 and I taped it. Hope to watch it sometime this week. Tonight they had Van Helsing but I'd already seen it and as much as I like Hugh Jackman I wasn't in the mood to watch it again. Good thing I'm not paying for this

Denver has a miniature show once a year and I always go with my niece and a friend of mine. Denver's about an hour away from me. We drove up and went to lunch first at Red Lobster. My niece and I love Red Lobster. It's a real treat for her to go. Lunch was $18.78 I used one of my discounted gift cards.

Tickets for the show were $14 for me and my niece. I gave her $20 to spend at the show. I only spent $17.17 which is very cheap for me. I usually spend a couple of hundred dollars and I had planned to spend that much this time. But as much as I love to look at the stuff today it was so crowded and hot, I just couldn't stand it. I hate crowds I start to feel claustrophobic. So I didn't spend as much time looking as I normally would.

After the show we went to Cold Stone for ice cream where I spent $7.78 with tip. Next we wandered around the Container store which is a favorite of mine and we don't have one close. I love organizer stuff and so does my niece, but I didn't buy anything because I already have all the organizer stuff I need for now. I did get a great idea for both nieces for xmas. They had a really cool CD organizer where you puch a button and the CD pops out. My niece really liked it except for the colors. Maybe they'll come out with better ones before xmas. They had pink, green and blue and she wants purple. I could get green for the other niece.

Next stop was Target where I bought a few misc items and 2 books. Total spent was $23.82. Looked at some clothes at Target and I really like the fall colors. They are my colors, (charcoal blue, olive green, eggplant purple) but they had long sleeve sweaters and I wanted something with short sleeves so I didn't get anything.

We went to Subway for dinner and I spent $14.29

I took her home after that. I love spending time with both of my nieces, but my oldest niece is very special to me because we have so much in common and like so many of the same things. Reading, Miniatures, organizing and we seem to think the same way about things. While I never wanted the responsibility of raising a child I do like imprinting some of my values and view points on both of my nieces.

Anyways after that I went to King Soopers and got groceries. Spent $34.63 and according to the reciept I saved 34%. I also got a rebate item for which I will get $5.79 back.

Total spent this month = $210.12 I'm really going to have to watch it for the rest of the month if I want to remain under $400.

I put $35 a month in my miniatures fund and $31.17 will come out of that for today's mini purchases.

walked with mom 55 min

Spent most of the day cleaning the house. Did a little reading too.

Finished reading Urban Alert! Emergency Survival for City Dwellers by Mary Ellen Clayton. Good book. Made me think about a lot of things. In her book she describes how they got all their emergency stuff together and then did a three day trial run to see how it would work in a real world situation. They turned off their electric and taped their refrigerator and toilet handle so they wouldn't use it during the trial. During the first trial things didn't go so well and they gave up after the first 24 hours. The second trial they learned from their mistakes and made it through the three days. I think this would be a good experiment for most people. Could you live on what's in your pantry for 3 days with no electricity? Could you stay in your house for three days and not use the phone or watch TV or even use the computer. That would be tough, but it might be better to find out how you would react in a pretend situation before you have to find out for real.

It might be interesting to try the experiment in the summer when it's hot and in the winter when it's cold since that would add other challenges to the experiment.

walked with mom 55 min

Paid my 6 month car insurance premium today. $363.67 According to their statement my premium has been adjusted for the following:

Multiple Line 44.81
Vehicle Safety 8.63
Accident Free 91.09

That means I could be paying as much as 144.54 more every 6 months. Nice to know what you're saving money on.

Took a friend to McDonalds and spent $10.43

Total spent so far this month = $90.82

Finished listening to the library book on tape On a Wicked Dawn by Stephanie Laurens. Romance. Very good

Also finished reading the library book The Breaking Point by Suzanne Brockmann. Romance/Mystery. I love her books. The characters are great, story is great, very absorbing books.

walked with mom for 55 min

No money news today. Went to the library and picked up 10 holds. Lots of books to read.

Finished reading the library book Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff. Supernatural. Very good book.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a rebate for Sargento cheese for $2.99 in the mail today.

Bought $100 worth of Barnes and Nobel gift cards and $100 worth of JC Penny gift cards for 12% off at the gift card site. The JC Penny cards are for my mom. I'm going to use one of the Barnes and Nobel cards to renew my membership so I can get 10% off all my purchases. So those two combined will make it 22% off all my BN purchases.

I made chili pasta tonight with leftover chili from Sunday.

4 cups chili = 3.28
8 oz wide egg noodles = 33 cents
1 cup frozen corn = 25 cents

Total = $3.86/4 = 97 cents per serving

Finished reading the library book Final Justice by Jasmine Cresswell. Mystery. Good book

walked with mom 45 min

I love reading stories that include descriptions of how people deal with money. Especially stories of early America. I like the Little House books where Laura describes how much money she makes by teaching school or sewing and what she spent it on. I like a Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith where she talks about making a bank out of a can that they put 5 cents at a time into. Walden by Thoreau where he describes how much money he spends for the year. These and many others are always fascinating to me.

The characters in these books seem to have an appreciation for money that I believe is missing in many Americans today, including myself at times. I think many of us are jaded. Money for basic expenses is often fairly easy to get. It's the money for the toys or the level beyond basics that frustrates most Americans, because they can't have everything they think they want and deservce right now. I'm not putting anyone down here, but just trying to describe how our/my attitudes towards money are different from previous generations when money was scarcer and meant survival instead of another toy.

I was talking to my mom about how money doesn't have as much meaning for me as it used to. If I want to buy something for $100 I can and it really doesn't make much of a dent in my lifestyle. I don't usually spend the $100 because there's not that many things I want anymore and I'm in the habit of saving up for big things. But if I wanted to I can spend that $100 and not miss it. Even a $1000 doesn't have a lot of meaning any more. What the $1000 represents has more meaning than the $1000. To me a $1000 represents 10 days of retirement.

When I went to college my real dad gave me a $1000. He had never even paid child support before that point, so that amount of money was a huge shock. I remember feeling so overwhelmed by the amount, it was enormous to me at that time. It was like winning the lottery. I had something like $300 in my savings account that I had saved for 2 years. I made like $1.75 an hour in 1979 so that much money all at one time, in one place and all mine was stunning. This was before my saving days, so the money got frittered away over the next year. I've always regretted that.

I remember when I got my first paycheck. It was about $37. I was 16. At that time, that was a fortune to me. I felt rich at that moment. That money represented so many different things that I could buy. At the time I had a lot of wants and hadn't even started on the concept of saving.

With my first full-time job and living on my own, after paying my bills and food I had $10 a week left to spend on misc. That $10 also had a lot of meaning to me. It had to stretch a long ways and many times I didn't make it last and had to borrow. Money was much more important in my life when I didn't have as much and when my wants were greater.

Then around age 25 I started saving my money. Between then and now I've gotten most of the things I want. Car, House, furniture etc. Now my basic needs are easily covered. I'm at a point in my life where I don't have a lot of big wants anymore. My greatest want now is more time, which to me means retirement. I like saving money but it's more about the game of getting more for less than it is about the actual dollars. In many ways I feel that I've become jaded about money. I kind of miss the reverence/respect I used to experience regarding money when it played a bigger role in my life. On the other hand I definitely like not having the worry that went along with not having enough money for basic needs, let alone wants. So I guess I'll take jaded over worried anyday.

I'm really tired tonight and a little blue. Too much thinking I feel like I'm rambling and not expressing my thoughts on this subject clearly, but hopefully people understand the main point and I didn't offend anyone.

walked with mom for 55 min

Did a little cleaning today and made potato salad but spent most of the day reading. My favorite kind of day.

Read the libray book Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper. Mystery. Very good. One of my favortie authors.

Read my book Never Look Back by Linda Lael Miller. Romance/Mystery. Good book

I think my ratio of library books to books I buy is about 6:1 lots of money saved there I also think reading gives you one of the best entertainment values for the buck. Especially when it's free books from the library. But even reading a new paperbook at 7.99 for 3 hours is only $2.66 hr.

Got a newspaper for $1.25 this morning then went to King Soopers for groceries. Spent $55.71. According to the reciept I saved 41%

Total spent so far this month = $80.39 not off to a good start this month since I've spent almost 20% of my budget in 4 days. I did stock up on some items. Got 2 cases of 16 oz bottles of water for 2.99 each. That was a good deal.

I picked up my mail this morning and I got a rebate check for $27.35 from one of my credit cards.

I found a copy cat version of a Wendy's chili recipe at www.recipezaar.com and made it today. It was really good, I love Wendy's chili and this was just as yummy. I had a bowl for supper with corn on the cob. The corn on the cob is the best I've had all year too. I'm going back to Safeway tomorrow to buy some more to freeze. They have it at 6 ears for $1.00

Cost of 1 serving of the chile = .82 cents

Makes 12 servings

2 lbs ground beef = 2.00
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce = 1.29
1 (29 ounce) can kidney beans = .90
1 (29 ounce) can pinto beans = .90
1 cup diced onions = .25
1/2 cup diced green chili peppers = 1.25
1/4 cup diced celery = .20
3 medium tomatoes = 2.49
2 teaspoons cumin powder = .15
3 tablespoons chili powder = .25
2 teaspoons black pepper = .10
2 teaspoons salt = .05

Total = 9.83/12 = .82

I'm so glad I had a 3 day weekend. I needed to relax. I've been able to read quite a bit, plus get some housework done. I usually resent the time spent on housework on the weekends since I feel my free time is so short, but this weekend it hasn't been so bad.

Read the library book Haunted by Kelley Armstrong. Supernatural. Good Book

Donated $100.00 to the Red Cross for Katrina. My company matches donations 3:1 so they will add $300 to my donation making it $400 total. They plan to donate $3 million total, which is very nice. I like to find groups that will match my donations when I give.

Went to the library to pick up my holds and saw I had a .40 cent late fine. One of the books went under the seat of the car and I didn't realize I hadn't turned it in on time. Oh well, accidents happen at least this was a cheap one.

Went to Safeway this morning to stock up on sale items. Spent $23.03. I'll go to King Soopers tomorrow for more groceries. Lots of sales this weekend, so worth stocking up on things.

Total spent so far this month = $23.43 The donation comes from a different fund, not my $400 household fund.

Fixed grilled salmon with onions, baked potato and the best corn on the cob I've had all year. So good!

Grilled salmon with red robin seasoning and garlic salt and pepper = $1.35 based on 3.98 1b + cost of seasonings. salmon portion was 1/3 lb.
Grilled onion = 2 cents based on 1 onion slice
baked potato with green onions, red robin seasoning, pepper = 20 cents
corn on cob with butter and salt = 20 cents based on corn at 6/$1

Total for meal = $1.77

Read the library book Dark Moon by Lori Handeland. Werewolves. Pretty good. A popcorn book.

walked with mom 55 min. I found a pink body pillow from Linens n' things still in the original package for $9.99. The closest store is 40 minutes away from me so I gave it to my Dad and told him to take it back for a refund. He might only get $8.00 back but it's free money. He working on a project over there for a couple of weeks and goes within a mile of the store.

My goals for Sept are:

1. Only spend $400 for groceries, gas, entertainment, clothes, household basics and misc.

2. Walk at least 20 times this month for at least 45 minutes each time.

3. Only go to fast-food restaurants four times and only eat at regular restaurants four times.

4. Save $880 above my 401K contribution

5. Increase my emergency preparedness
5.1 Adding $100 to my cash.
5.2 Increase my emergency stocks of water and easy to eat foods etc.
5.3 Reallocating some of my emergency money to be more liquid.
5.4 Reviewing my insurance policies
5.5 Reading Urban Alert! for more ideas.

I finished listening to the library book on tape Truth or Dare by Jayne Ann Krentz. Romance/Mystery. Very good book.

I also finished reading Vigil by Robert Masello. Horror/Thriller. Interesting book, not really my usuall type, but worth reading.

walked with mom for 55 min

I had a really, really, really, really bad day at work today. Needed 3 clones of myself. The walking really helped with the stress build-up. And after watching the news I realized my day wasn't that bad since I wasn't in New Orleans or Mississippi.

Reading some of the new articles made me rethink my emergency planning. We have some pretty bad snow storms here occassionally. A couple years ago I was trapped in the house for 3 days because of the snow. We had drifts over 10 feet high covering the roads. Fortunately the electricity didn't go off so I was able to work. I had enough food in the house so that didn't bother me either.

But it could be a bad situation if the electricity went out for an extended amount of time. During the early eighties there was a large movement about survival preparedness. Everyone thought we would have WWIII with Reagan so it was a big topic. At the time it made sense to me to have some extra put aside for emergencies. I've always had a pretty full pantry and stored water, paper products etc. This storage really helped me out when I was laid off in 1994 and spent the next year living on my savings while going to school.

In 1982 I bought a book called Urban Alert! Emergency Survival for City Dwellers by Mary Ellen Clayton and Bruce Clayton. Ph.D. It provides an overview of things to stock up with and how to survive in various situations.

Based on what I'm reading about the hurricane victims I think the following would be a good idea to me to strive for to be prepared.

1. Water. I keep 2 6 gal containers of water and 2 cases of bottled water in my house. I think I should add a couple more cases of water. Water is very precious when it's scarce and it's very cheap to stockup on.

2. More foods that are easy to prepare in an emergency. I need to stockpile more canned goods, crackers, , canned fruit, canned milk, cereal, peanut butter and chocolate. Foods that taste good will help in a stressfull situation.

3. 1 month emergency fund in cash. A lot of the people in Mississippi can get to some stores, but no one is taking credit cards, it's cash only for gas and groceries. I have some cash at home, but a couple hundred dollars doesn't go very far. Would I really miss the extra $20-$30 in interest this cash would make in the bank by keeping the money at home?

4. 6 months emergency cash in liquid bank funds. I have 6 months saved, but some of it would be a little hard to get to. Need to move some money around and make it more liquid. A lot of these people have lost everything, but they still have the bills. They still have to pay for the car that's gone, the house that's gone, the furniture that's gone. They've also lost their jobs and once they are moved out of New Orleans will have to pay to live somewhere. They need liquid money to get them over the hump until they find new jobs. Hopefully most of them are insured.

5. Extra paper products and hygiene products. Toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste etc. Should keep a 3 month supply of these on hand.

6. Consolidated financial records that I can grab and take quickly if I need to evacuate my house. I have these in 3 places need to put them all in one place.

7. Good Insurance for replacement of all personal possessions. Need to review my policy when it's up for renewal.

8. Some form of emergency lighting and heating equipment. I have the emergency lights, but need to look into an emergency heat source.

I'm going to reread the book and see what else I should be doing. I think it's a lot smarter to be prepared and maybe not need it, than to expect the government to step in and supply your needs. They don't seem to be able to do much in this situation.

I'll list my Sept goals tomorrow since this is getting kind of long.

I finished reading my book Tripwire by Lee Child. Mystery. Very good. His books always suck me in and are difficult to put down.

walked 45 min with mom

Went to Taco Bell and spent $7.12

Total for the month = $309.89

Here's the breakdown for the month

Groceries = 151.59
Fast Food = 31.50
Restaurants = 23.33
Nieces = 1.45
Clothes = 0
Books = 0
Gas = 46.72
HBAs = 17.46
Entertainment = 0
Other = 37.84

Gifts = 145.44 - (not included in the $400 budget)

My goals for Aug were

1. Only spend $400 for groceries, gas, entertainment, clothes, household basics and misc.
Did really well on this goal $90 under budget

2. Walk at least 15 times this month for at least 30 minutes each time.
Done

3. Only go to fast-food restaurants four times and only eat at regular restaurants four times.
Missed this by 1 for the fast-food and was one under for restaurants so evened out

4. Save $880 above my 401K contribution
Saved $1135 + my bonus of 865 for $2000 total

5. Cook meals at least 2 times a week.
Done

So made 4 out of 5 goals and could call the 3rd one a draw.

Also computed my networth and it went up 1.8% last month. A lot of my stock funds fell due to the hurricane and gas prices. Oh well, at least it didn't decrease.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Ideal Bride by Stephanie Laurens. Romance. Very good

walked with mom for 55 min

It was so hot today, it was 89 degrees, but since I drove into work my car sat outside all day and when I got in the car I couldn't even touch the seatbelt clasp to close it, it was burning my fingers. When I got home I turned the A/C back on, I was wilting. Wanted to leave it off for the rest of the year but couldn't make it. Part of the problem was it got really hot after a couple weeks of much cooler weather, we didn't build up to the heat making it more bearable.

Stopped at Walgreens on the way into work and used my new Visa card, so now it goes in a drawer till I get my $100. Spent $5.09 on packing tape, sunflower seeds and a banana nut muffin.

Before leaving work I checked http://www.ahding.com/cheapgas/ for the best gas prices. There was a King Soopers by work that was within a penny or so of the cheapest prices, plus I had 10 cents off with my Sooper card so I went there. Paid 2.49/gal for a total of $25.49. I was just recently complaining because I paid more than $20 for a fill-up and now it's $25. I know the hurricane is raising prices and I know they always go up before a holiday weekend and it's still only a few dollars more per month, but it's so rapid it seems like a bigger hit than it really is.

Stopped at Wendy's on the way home for supper and got a Chili for tomorrows lunch also. Spent $7.13

Total spent so far this month = $302.77

walked with mom 55 min

Sent off my August Walgreens rebate for $10.00. This was a great deal, buy $10 worth and get $10 back, plus I had a buy one get 1 free coupon on 1 item and 50 cents off the other item so ended up getting 3 items free + 50 cents + 10% more for using the Walgreens card + 5% more for using a CC that rewards for drugstore purchases. So instead of spending 13.49 I get 3 free items + $1.25 cash. Good deal

Got my new Sony Visa card, it's supposed to give me $100 after the first use. Don't know when I'll use it though maybe tomorrow when I go into work, but don't think I need to buy anything except gas and I plan to use my Discover card for that since it's giving 5% back till Aug 31. Maybe I'll think of something I need on the way in tomorrow

walked with mom 55 min

Went to the grocery store and got the newspaper as well as a few fill in items, like milk, grapes, radishes, green onions and salmon. Spent $15.28

Total spent so far this month = $265.06 If I only get gas this week I might keep it under $300 for the month

Spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and chopping veggies for the week. Took a long nap in the afternoon, it felt great I must have needed it. I usually only sleep about an hour on weekend naps, but I slept for 2 1/2 hours today. So I probably won't sleep tonight.

Summer's almost over so it's almost to my favorite part of the year. It's cooler, but there's still some greenery, plus a lot of new colors everywhere. Makes me feel great.

I finished reading the library book Crystal Soldier by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Sci Fi. Good Book. She always creates great characters and has great interactions between characters.

Went to Home Depot this morning and got 6 furnace filters at .56 cents apiece. Spent $3.59 a whole lot better than $8 apiece.

Next picked up my SHARE order. I got a Jr order this time for $11.00 which I already accounted for.

I got the following items

8 oz. Chicken nuggets
15 oz. Boneless chicken breast fillets
7 oz. Italian meat balls
1 lb. carrots
1 Head lettuce
3 ea. Yellow onions
6 ea. Colorado Potatoes
2 ea. Tomatoes
1 ea. Rocky Ford Cantaloupe
5 ea. Colorado Peaches

Pretty good haul for $11

Total spent this month = $249.78

My BIL and sister went out to eat and a movie to celebrate thier anniversay so I got the nieces from 3 - 10 today.
We watched Finding Neverland which I borrowed from the library. It was a good movie, but sad. The girls liked it too. We went to Subway for supper. Sister gave me $20 and I spent $21.45 but didn't tell her, I don't like her paying me anyways.

I listened to the library CD Loco Motion by Cowboy Troy. I liked a couple of the songs a lot, and the rest were just ok. That's why I like to watch the Sunday papers for new releases of movies and CDs and then borrow them from the library before deciding to buy. Saves me a ton of money.

walked with mom 55 min

I had a busy money day. First I sold my first book on half.com for $3.00. Now I need some advice from people who have done this before. I went to the post office after work and mailed the book using Media Mail but I only used a Delivery Confirmation reciept that cost .55 cents intead of the insurance and tracking reciept for 1.45 it seems ridiculous to me to insure a $3.00 book. If it was $5+ I think I would go ahead and insure it. What does everyone else do?

Spent $1.97 postage and confirmation reciept.

Total spend so far this month = $244.74

I sent $2000.00 to my Vanguard Growth Index fund. The $880 I planned to save this month + $865 from my bonus and a little bit more I had sitting around added up to the $2000.00

Made another car payment so now I only have 3 left. Woohoo!

Got my package from UFB Direct and verified my money was deposited. Expect the $25 bonus in a couple weeks.

Before I started this journal here I didn't know financial blogs existed. In the last couple of months I've been reading some blogs on other websites. When I find one I like I read the past blogs. Today I found one I really like called Personal Finance for the New Age.

http://newagepf.blogspot.com/

While I was reading the past logs I found a link to open an ING account and get $50, and you don't need a referral. I sure wish I had known about this before I opened my account. I guess sometimes it pays to procrastinate This is only for new accounts. I sent the links to my sister since she hasn't opened accounts for the girls yet. Don't know if she'll do this or not.

Anyways here's the info if anyone else can use it.

http://www.ingdirect.com/taxcut/

enter the code 58978755

This code is valid until 12/31/05.

walked 45 min with mom

Went to McDonalds afterwards it was almost 8 and I was hungry. Bad timing. Spent 7.24

Total spent so far this month = $242.77

I haven't had to run the A/C for almost a month now. We've had rain or clouds almost every afternoon which cools it down enough with the ceiling fan that I don't need the A/C. I turned it off altogether today and hope I can keep it off. Now the plan is not to turn the furnace on till the end of October.

Finished reading the library book Harshini by Jennifer Fallon. Sci Fi. Third in the series. It was a good series I enjoyed it.

Best wishes to anyone in the path of the hurricane.

Went into work today. Stopped at the bread store on the way home and spent $3.78. Next stop was the bank where I deposited a rebate check and some rolled coins into my account. This will add another $20 to my Extra Fund.

I went to Kmart next for household items. When did furnace/air filters start costing $8+ ? I remember buying them for about $1. That's ridiculous. Especially if you change them every month the way they want you to. I don't change them that often, instead I look at them and change them when they are dirty. I went out looking on the Home Depot website and they have them for $1.81 each. Much better. I need to stop by and pick some up this weekend. I drive right by there on the way to pick up my SHARE order.

I bought an electric timer from KMart for $6.29. This weekend I'll plug my hot water heater into it and turn the heater off between 11:00 pm and 7:00 am and see if that saves me some electric/gas costs.

I spent $13.87 at Kmart but I used my discounted gift cards at 12% off so it really only cost me $12.20, but that's too complicated to figure out every time so I'm just going to use the $13.87 figure in my totals. I'll have a few extra dollars show up in my checking account over time. As long as I'm not overspending I don't care about tracking every dollar that goes in and out of my life, just most of them

Next stop was Souper Salad. I love this place. For $6.22 I get 3 meals. I always get it to go, because you get a lot more than what you can eat in the restaurant. I get a big styrofoam container that I put a huge salad with all the veggies, eggs and sunflower seeds as well as a baked potato, that's tonight's supper. Then I get two soup containers so I get two large bowls of soups for lunchs, I got Baked potato soup and Adobe Chicken today. Then I get a container for the salad dressing and one for the bread. I get 3 pieces of the blueberry bread and have one with each meal. For eating out 2.07 per meal is a real bargain.

Total spent so far this month = $235.53 looking real good to keep under $400

Last stop on the way home was the library to pick up more holds.

I finished listening to the library book on tape On a Wild Night by Stephanie Laurens. Romance. Very good. Another in her series of stories about the Cynsters.

My work has an individual contributor award that they give to employees who accomplish alot and are nominated by thier supervisors. I got the award for the first half of the year. $1755.00 that's a weird number and I don't know what it's based on, but I'll definitely take it, or at least half of it. Taxes and deductions were 51%. I get $865.90 take home. About $300 of it went to my 401K so I'll max that out early this year and will get some more of it in December. Either way I was pretty happy about it, not just for the money, but for the fact that my work was recognized. I plan to put it and this months savings into a mutual fund this weekend.

I had a hamburger, potato salad and sliced tomato for supper.

Tomato = 20 cents

Potato Salad = 45 cents

Hamburger = 1.16
1/3 lb hamburger = 33 cents based on 99 cents/lb
Large english muffin = 67 cents based on 4 for 2.69
1 slice cheese = 6 cents based on 16 for a $1
mayo, ketchup, salt, pepper, red robin seasoning, onion and tomato slice = 10 cents - guesstimate

Total for dinner = $1.81

Read my book Master of the Moon by Angela Knight. Fantasy/Romance Pretty good book. A popcorn book.

I sent referrals to both my nieces for ING and if their mom sets up the accounts for them will give them my $10 referral bonus. I explained the deal to her and she said she would look into it. If she lets the girls do it, they could both get $45 for their $1. $25 for signing up, my $10 referral and then each girl could refer one parent for another $10. I hope she follows through on it.

Have to go into work tomorrow so made tuna salad to take along with crackers and grapes. I've had a funny stomach all last night and today, don't know what's wrong. Hope it's not a flu bug or something like that.

I was watching a show on Food Network about lunch foods and they showed peanut butter slices. They are just like cheese slices only made out of peanut butter. I've never seen them in my stores and wouldn't buy them anyways, I like extra crunchy peanut butter. But I just thought it was a weird thing.

I finished listening to the library book on tape Four to Score by Janet Evanovich. Mystery. Very good. Very funny. I love the main character Stephanie Plum. This series is pee-your-pants-laughing funny. It's dangerous to listen to this while driving my car

I found a website where you can print graph paper today. I thought that was a neat idea for last minute school projects. Unless you're taking geometry or achitecture who needs to buy a whole pad of graph paper? Although while I was waiting for my townhome to get built I went through tons of graph paper organizing furniture in the rooms. But by the time it was built I knew exactly what I wanted and where it would go.

http://www.incompetech.com/beta/plainGraphPaper/

walked with mom for 55 min.

Bought a paper this morning for $1.25 there were 3 coupons in there for $2.50 that I could have used when I went shopping for groceries on Friday. I bought the exact same items That's why I usually wait to shop for groceries till after I read the Sunday paper. Oh well, I'll have to remember for next time.

There was an article in the paper that compared all 3 of the local grocery stores to Wal-Mart and said Wal-Mart beats all of the other's prices overall even after using the store cards to buy sales items at the regular grocery stores. All the regular grocery stores admitted that they can't match Wal-Marts prices but said they can compete with service etc. I don't know about that. I don't use Wal-Mart now because they are in town about 15 miles away and it's always crowded. I hate crowds I get claustrophobic in crowds.

They are supposed to be building a Wal-Mart in our little town next year. It will be about 4 miles away then. I'll probably rethink shopping there then, just pick times when it won't be busy. The other thing about Wal-Mart is they don't have sales flyers that often, so I can't see what's on sale each week. I plan my buying list by the sales items each week. So I may still shop the grocery stores for groceries at least.

Total spent so far this month = $211.66

I cleaned my master and half bath today. The shower in my master bath has a textured fiberglass floor that I haven't been able to get clean, it always looks dirty to me no matter what I do. I tried the Mr Clean Magic Eraser on it today and it worked great! It looks clean for the first time in months. It was so easy too, no tons of scrubbing was needed. It also just wiped away the soap scum from the side of the floor. I definetely recommend this product. I've used it on my refrigerator and on scuff marks on the garage door and it worked great on those too.

I finished reading the library book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling. Excellent book. This is such a great series and the best part about it is how much it's inspired kids to read. Both of my nieces are reading the series and have read other science fiction books because of this book's influence.

walked with mom for 55 min today. We went to Village Inn for Dinner afterwards. Spent $11.00 got a piece of Banana Cream Brownie Pie for tomorrrow. Yum!

Total spent so far this month = $210.41

I went to the ecard site and bought another $100 worth of Outback GCs, $100 worth of Olive Garden/Red Lobster GCs and $50 worth of Amazon.com GCs. Spent $220 and will save $30 or 12% of face value when I use the cards.

I couldn't sleep last night so got up at 12:00 and read till 3:00 am. Finished the library book Lie By Moonlight by Amanda Quick. Historical Romance. Very good, another favorite author.

I've been putting in a lot of extra hours the last 3 weeks on a project at work. I finished it at noon today and took the afternoon off as comp time. Went to the library and picked up my holds, then went to King Soopers for groceries. Spent $22.98 saved 30% according to the receipt. I've also spent $100 for the month so I'll get an extra 7 cents off on their gas. That plus the normal 3 cents off will be 10 cents a gal cheaper. Since I would have bought the groceries anyways, it's a nice bonus.

Next I went to Safeway to cherry-pick. They had my brand of butter on sale for almost half off. I stocked up and will freeze the extra. Spent $7.02 and saved 51% according to the reciept.

Stopped at McDonalds for lunch $5.54

Total spent so far this month = $199.41

I opened a new bank account at UFB Direct. If you put $200 in the account for 4 months you get a $25 bonus. That's 12.5% on top of the 3.65% APY they are paying on their accounts. Pretty good. Plus they compound daily. ING compounds monthly and only pays 3.3% APY.

Here's the link if anyone is interested.

http://www.ufbdirect.com/ufbdirect/index_main.asp

I finished reading the library book The Good, The Bad, and the Undead by Kim Harrison. Vampire/Witch/Werewolf/Elves Fantasy. The story was good and unusual, which I liked, but something I hate is when main characters do stupid things by reacting emotionally. Gets on my nerves

walked with mom for 55 min. Took a lasagna and half a loaf of French bread over to my parents for dinner. They supplied salad and watermelon. Very good.

I've been getting a lot of offers for Dish Network and Adelphia for cable, but I really like the service I have with DirectTv and don't really want to go through the hassle of changing. I just have the basic package, but since I rarely watch Network TV and the types of shows I like are only on cable I think it's worth it. I like HGTV and Food network, TLC and anything like biographies or history or archeaology related stuff.

So anyways I called DirectTv today to see if they would lower my bill to match some of these promotions and they said they would take $5 off a month for the next 6 months. Since I wasn't going to change anyways I thought this was cool. So now the monthly bill is $33.99 vs the $38.99 it was before.

I also called the Insurance company to get auto insurance quotes. This company checks a bunch of different insurance companies and then tells you which one has the cheapest policy. They said Progressive was the best quote they got, but it was still $125 more every 6 months that what I pay now with State Farm so obviously I'm not going to switch. At least I know I'm paying as little as possible for something I don't particulary enjoy paying for

I finished listening to the library book on tape Falling Awake by Jayne Ann Krentz. Romance. Good story. She's another one of my favorite authors.