Homebody Getting Back to My Roots

Attempting work today. Hopefully I make it through my 7 hours. That's all.

I think I am going to survive, Tamiflu seems to be helping, that's all.

Yesterday was payday and since I woke up a little early I decided to get up and check the bank accounts and go ahead and pay for the new washer and dryer. I process that payment at my bank web site, then I consider maybe I should go ahead and pay my AMEX bill.

Then the dilemma is should I pay everything that is owed to this point or just the balance due (closing date 9/30). I pay my Amex in full every month, but sometimes I pay several times a month so I don't have a huge payment at the end of the month.

Okay I will pay it all off, so then I download into Quicken the transactions. Costco, Coleman Co, AT&T, Direct TV, Costco, Comfort Inn, Comfort Inn, Costco.....wait Comfort Inn. The motel charged us??? We paid with gift certificates from our local radio station shopping show. We had to give them our credit cards in case we made a long distance call or something.

Grr.... get them on the phone, starting the conversation with them when DH says, "we didn't stay at the Comfort Inn". Fraud alert!! "Have your manager call me when she/he gets there at 7:00 a.m. please".

I immediately call AMEX and cancel my card, dispute the charges. I am fuming.... someone stole our information. I have been a victim of forged counterfeit checks several years ago, so I was very upset.

So I finally get off the phone with AMEX, am 15 minutes late to work. I call my mother's bank to check her VISA card to make sure there was no fraudulent activity since she also gave them her credit card (I am on my 80-year-old mother's accounts). No everything is fine on her account.

About 10:30 I realize Comfort Inn has not called yet, so I call them. Oh yes, she was just going to call me back. She remembers me, I was coming up for the US Figure Skating competition. Um... gulp... Yes "she is sorry, we did not call to cancel and they were booked solid so they charged my room"....

OMG I went to the wrong motel! No wonder Best Western Horizon Inn did not have a reservation for us when we got there (they had empty rooms though)!! That should have been my first clue.

"I am an idiot, I am so sorry". Assistant manager giggles and says "that's okay, I can refund you one night, but not both".

Umm yeah, I am lucky they didn't charge four nights of rooms since I also made my mother's reservation using my credit card.....

I'm telling you menopause does something to your mind. Luckily my dear sick husband was very nice about it. He didn't feel good enough to laugh, but told me "things happen".

So I might as well have set a match to a $100 bill. Ugh!

The Marine Corp 234th Birthday Marine Ball is on November 6th this year. Last year my granddaughter was 3 months old and I went back to take care of her so my YD and her DH could go (I had just flown home for 8 weeks after being there the first month after she was born).

This year my coworker grabbed that week off before I could... So DH is going back to take care of our little southern belle.




I found a flight on cheap tickets for $530.00 from here to LA to Dallas to Savannah, but it involved an overnight stay in LA. So he said try United Airlines (which is DH's business Visa Card). Their price was $630.00 out of here (which is cheap, we usually pay somewhere around $1000.00 for round trip from here to the Carolinas).

Anyway he says let's just check if we can use miles. Now may I just say we have never been able to use miles out of Humboldt except once when it cost us 40,000 miles to fly to Las Vegas. Otherwise there are simply no seats. We have to drive to San Francisco or Sacramento to use our miles.

So to humor him I pull it up on the computer and low and behold, we can book the round trip flight November 4-10th with miles. $10.00 fee and we splurged on the 5 extra inches of leg room for $79.00. Wow I could not believe it. First time ever. People must not be flying as much.

Now DH just needs to get over the flu that he came down with yesterday. DH is rarely sick so it is quite difficult. AND expensive. Yesterday he wanted Nyquil. Today he wants Thera-Flu. We were just at Walmart in Oregon (no sales tax)and I looked right at the Nyquil and thought we still had some... but no we don't. So yesterday I spent $8.96 on Nyquil and today $7.03 on Thera-Flu! Hopefully tomorrow he will not think of a different cold/flu medicine he wants.

Hoping I don't get it....

I ordered up the black yarn to finish up the ladybug sweater. I hope I get it by Saturday. I really want to finish it in time to send back with DH.

We are leaving soon for a trip up to Oregon to see my 10-year-old nephew participate in the US Figure Skating 2010 Western Regionals.

Our local radio station has a Saturday morning advertising/shopping show in which I obtained 6 nights (2 for us, 2 for my brother, 2 for my mom) at the local hotel for $44.00 a night. This is a $25.00 savings over the special price for skating visitors. I also purchased $40.00 worth of "blue money" for the restaurant across the street for $20.00.

One of my favorite quilt stores is in Medford and I am not even going to visit. Better to just stay away than fight urges that I vow to beat for the entire year (ending 9/30/2010). I am hoping to finish the red yarn portion of Ally's ladybug sweater over the weekend. My brother's family lives in Seattle, so this is a nice chance to get to see my nephew skate live and it is only 3 hours drive!

I am pretty sure the rooms have microwaves and I cooked enough oatmeal this morning for my breakfasts. We already have bottled water and I made iced tea to pack and take too. Still have some individual packs of that yummy trail mix from Costco with the M&M's in it.

While in Oregon which has no sales tax, we are making a stop at Walmart (closest from us is 1.5 hours) for some general merchandise including their almond face scrub. We were going to buy tires up there and have them put on but DH called the local chain tire center and they matched the savings so they are down being put on now. Cost $426.11 for 4 tires for my Toyota Camry.

DH is getting on board more and more and last night made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with the last of the ham cooked last weekend. He used the last 2 Costco sandwich rolls too. They were yummy with the addition of the last of the avocado and tomato. Unfortunately we ran out of milk and didn't want to get more since we are leaving town for a few days.

My friends daughter will be feeding the dogs:



Lola's old blanket that she curls up on to sleep at night (behind the love seat in the TV room) is in the new washer right now. It is so nice to not have to go to the laundromat to wash bulky items. Plus the last time we washed our bulky items it was about $5.00 a load!

It's a beautiful fall day on the North Coast of California, but a storm moves in Monday.

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend.

I bought a new washer and dryer set on Saturday. However, we paid cash for the Whirlpool Duet set with the steam option. I am hoping to save money on dry cleaning and the water savings should pay for our garden next year. This was a planned purchase so should not count for the no buy anything for myself year.

I have been really down the past few days after seeing my granddaughter on Skype. She is growing so fast and we are missing so much. DH will probably travel to see her the first week of November. I cannot go since my coworker beat me to asking for that week off (she is going to a Nascar race) that the kids need us to babysit so they can go to the annual Marine Ball.

This is what makes me happy/sad:




I have not seen her since August 21st and will not see her again until the end of the year when I managed to get a week off. I hope Ally remembers me and greets me like this:



I am knitting this:


I should have it done by the time DH goes back to South Carolina.

Time to get up and use up the last of the zucchini in this:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/zucchini-gratin-recipe2/index.html

and then if I have enough energy left I am going to make this:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/shortcakes-with-warm-strawberry-sauce-recipe/index.html

Up and at em!

A new Kohl's opened this week in our area. While this may not be a difficult challenge for some of you, we have Ross, Sears, Target and K-Mart and now a Kohl's.

We received a $10.00 off coupon in the mail and DH needed some new T-shirts so we decided to go yesterday. First we went to our business for DH to make a schedule for the employees and take care of the cash register. Then we went over to his mother's house and had breakfast (I brought some bacon and some frozen french toast made last week to use up some bread). Finally it was after 9:00 a.m. and off we went. Well if we filled out a credit card application we received 20% of all our purchases that day and received another $10.00 coupon. DH and I both filled out applications so we had a total of $30.00 off purchases.

DH said he admired my goal of not buying anything for a year, but he thought it would be "okay" to get something. I admit I sort of looked but thought NO!

So we used the cash off to get my granddaughter a book and a Christmas Ornament. DH got about 10 new T-shirts at $4.80 a piece and my FIL's 80th birthday gift of an insulated looking long sleeve shirt with a matching Columbia Fleece Jacket.

So I did it, passed up the cute shoes, the Simply Vera Wang and the Dockers pants that would have been a nice addition to my work wardrobe (I live in jeans and T-shirts otherwise).

My five things for the day:
1. Got up, made coffee, let the dogs out and then tried to keep them quiet until DH woke up (we both rarely sleep in but wish we could).
2. Fixed the hem on 2 pairs of my winter wardrobe work slacks.
3. Doing laundry (this should count for more than 1).
4. Just got off the phone with Direct TV and got the HD football added for free after I screamed and yelled about their misleading advertising in their flyer and told them I would not pay the cancellation fee and it could go to collection for all I cared and actually it probably would fit a class action lawsuit if I could get enough people to say they had been misled too.
5. Going to go sit and knit and try to calm down after getting all worked up with the customer service people and getting transferred 4 times... yes 4 times before getting #4 resolved.

DH's 5 list:
1. Made breakfast.
2. Cleaned up kitchen really well including Clorox Cleanup on the drainboards.
3. Took a 1966 console stereo for the elderly folks next door to a secondhand shop since it still works and they hated to dump it.
4. Making split pea soup even as I type for same elderly neighbors for their dinner.
5. Has had lots of patience all day with menopausal me.

My self-imposed 1 year not buying anything that I don't absolutely genuinely need. No clothes, no shoes, no socks, no undergarments. No new makeup, unless I actually run out of something. No new moisturizers (I probably have enough assorted brands to last 5 years). No books, no magazines..... No nothing!

I had my first evaluation at my job yesterday and had no negatives or any place I needed to improve. That felt good. Today I saw the worker's comp doc and I felt ready to bump back up to 7 hours a day. My shoulder is much improved.

We had Direct TV installed today saving $17.00 a month over our cable TV with many, many more HD channels too.

DH is on board for this year, which is going to really help since he does 95% of the cooking and household/grocery shopping.

Our Christmas present will be flying back to see our sweet granddaughter, oh yeah and YD and SIL too.

September is traditionally the most beautiful month here on the North Coast of California and this year was no exception. However, looks like the temperature is going below 50 the next couple of nights so we need to harvest our butternut squash.

We have decided to not waste our time on tomatoes next year. The time, effort and water used to try to eak out a few is just not worth it. Besides FIL grows them 1.5 hours south of us and we get plenty once he starts harvesting.

In fact this weekend DH made salsa and jalapeno poppers from his dad's garden bounty. Earlier in the week I had made roasted tomato sauce for a chicken cacciatore dish, enough for our elderly neighbors next door too.

Has anyone noticed that 3 paycheck months don't actually seem like the extra check comes that month, but the month before or after? This month it was before and I was able to save $2200.00 this month.

Also our renters owed us the summer rent money since they were out working all summer. Another $1300 now and another $1900.00 by October 1st.

Then yesterday YD told me that when my SIL gets his re-enlistment bonus they are paying us back the money they owe us. So that is a nice surprise. I told her I would rather they just save it and we won't buy them Christmas presents this year, but she said no, they want to pay us back. Why is it so hard to take money back from my kids that I loaned them??

So the big news is that DH has agreed on a frugal year with a goal of saving a fairly large amount of money by 9/1/2010. My two older sisters and I have challenged one another to an entire year of buying only what we need, no wants... Of course I had to let him buy the gun safe at Costco (actually I encouraged him to buy it) since we really should have a gun safe now that we have a granddaughter visit (not that we keep loaded guns around, but you get the idea). It will also be a place to keep our important papers as it has a few shelves in it too.

A Kohl's opened up yesterday in our old Mervyn's at the mall. We did not go, nor do I actually plan to since I am embarking on a no spend year. Mmmmm..... that doesn't start until Thursday October 1st and I do have a doctor's appointment in town tomorrow after work.....NO!! I don't need anything. I can make it a year without new clothes or shoes or socks or under garments and so can DH!

My one exception to this rule will be yarn. I started Ally this over the weekend:
http://www.petitepurls.com/Fall09/fall2009_ladybug.html

But I will only buy yarn for a specific project that I am starting immediately like this ladybug coat. I hope to have it done by Christmas and hopefully before.

This month's spending:
Food/eating out: 431.89 (eek a little high except we have been feeding our neighbors too at least once a week, 2 meals out).
Gasoline: $327.80 (we both filled up over the weekend, mine will last 2 weeks).
Household: 788.47 which includes cleaning supplies, garden spending, pets and the above gun safe.

I ordered up Direct TV which will be installed Thursday October 1st. That is going to save us $17.00 a month over cable with more High def channels, more normal channels and fox business (that we don't get now, it was going to cost more, which motivated me to finally call Direct TV) so I can watch Dave Ramsey and stay motivated (I love personal finance stories).

We order DH's work boots every couple of years and when ordering today, the online store gave me 10% off for no apparent reason. Of course the fact that they cost $227.00 a pair might have had something to do with it and my wait on hold....



Anyway what a nice surprise. So I thought I would give a shout-out to:
workingperson.com

Tomorrow is probably going to be my last 4 hour day since my shoulder is definitely getting better. I see the doctor tomorrow and I imagine they will increase my hours.

So I guess I'd better get back to getting things done around the house.

Have your husband, partner, significant other or friend color and cut your hair for you. I waited for DH to get home from work Saturday morning to color my hair. He has never done it before and the last time I did it myself, when I washed it out I still had gray, so I figured he would do a better job. He did. He then trimmed it off for me too. Savings: $60-80. I used Nutriese Garnier Golden medium brown. It was a shade darker with a little more pizazz than my own hair. I found a coupon this week in the Sunday paper and it is on sale at Rite-Aid so I will be purchasing my next box for $3.99.

Now I gotta go find some change to pick up!

I have been buying oatmeal every morning at work for $1.00, but I know my Irish oats bought in bulk at Winco and cooked at home is even cheaper than that. So I have 4 days worth cooking on the stove right now. I have successfully frozen it and microwaved it at work in the past. I just needed to get back in the habit.

Also my neighbor across the street borrowed my large crockpot to process a bunch of apples into apple pie filling and brought be a pint when she brought the crockpot back yesterday. I have a pie in the oven too.

It's amazing how much more I can get done around the house only working 4 hours a day. My shoulder is feeling a lot better and I am probably going to have to increase my hours when I see the doctor again, next Thursday. Until then I am going to balance getting stuff done around here and sitting with ice on my shoulders each day.

By the way have we all been watching "Hoarders" on A&E?? Everyone seems to be purging... me included.

Edited to add: Just mixed up apple muffins to put in the oven when my sweet potato fries are done! What has gotten into me?

I so wish I could keep up with posts. If only I could get on at lunch time at work, but practically every site is blocked, even ones I need sometimes.

Yesterday was DH's birthday and tomorrow is our 31st anniversary.

Not sure what my problem is, but this is the 2nd month in a row that I entered my mortgage payment in Quicken and then failed to actually make the payment. Since my mortgage is held by ING, I just transferred from savings so it would be credited immediately. Then I transferred $2500.00 into savings along with making a payment to AMEX which is mostly Costco shopping and gas.

August was an expensive month paying for this:




But paying for the kids flight home AND the party was still cheaper than us flying to South Carolina, renting a house and a car for a week.

We also had 2 weddings and my mother's 80th birthday party this summer. Since DH and I did all the planning and most all of the cooking (my siblings all live out of state), they (the siblings) ended up paying for all of the party and the quilt I made for mom.

I am still trying to figure out what type of savings plan to start for granddaughter. College is already covered due to her daddy being a Marine (not sure how this works, but that is what SIL tells us). We are considering a DRIP or mutual fund or savings bonds.... have not made a decision yet, but need to soon. I told the kids that I was not going to buy my grandchildren crap, but would do savings accounts for them. We did buy a ladybug set of bath toys from Costco.com for her. That is a ladybug cake she demolished.

Our garden is still growing, just made a yummy zucchini gratin last night for both us and our elderly neighbors next door who were happy to get a home made meal (made mashed potatoes and baked pork chops, homemade rolls). I should say not frozen first. Their daughter (who lives 7 hours away by car) comes up and makes and freezes meals for them as often as she can.

I am cut back at work to 4 hours a day from a comp claim on my shoulder. It somehow became frozen (probably from working 7 hours a day on a computer). It is doing a bit better after some physical therapy and exercises. Another reason I am not here as much as I would like!

I absolutely hate working full-time. I just don't have the time to keep up anymore. Like Ceejay I read nearly every entry each day. I still read as often and as many as possible.

In the meantime, the garden is in, the new budget/plan is in place and I am on my second successful week of taking cash out on Saturday and making it last until the following Saturday. I take $200.00 a week out for groceries, gas and spending.

The only reason I have time to post today is I am home with a migraine (almost time for another pain pill). Meanwhile every hour I go change the hose to drip on another rose.

I know Suze Orman would tell us if we wanted to buy a 6-pack, we could not afford it, but I just cannot wait to see my granddaughter again in August. People first then money, right?



DH used United Miles for his recent trip to the Carolinas where he helped YD's family move from North to South Carolina (30 minutes from Savannah) so I think that has been the cheapest trip ever for either of us back to the Carolinas.

Need to find a nice rental cheap on the South Carolina Coast and will be using miles hopefully again to fly back so that will help with the costs.

This is the reason I do not use coupons:
This week's Sunday newspaper coupons:
1. Ken's Dressing 3-$1.00 off various products.
2. Trident Gum, 2 coupons, 1 for 75 cents and 1 for $1.00 off 3 packs.
3. $4.00 off a DVD when you buy Sunmaid raisens.
4. $3.00 off Mega Red (better than fish oil).
5. 1.00 off 5 pounds of Cuties and 55 cents off 3 pounds(mandarin oranges).
6. Coupons for Olive Garden (the closest Olive Garden is 3-4 hours away).
7. BOGO and $1.00 off Airwick spray.
8. JC penny's portrait, assorted coupons.

That's it. Last week's are equally worthless to me. So I don't use coupons. It is rare to see one that is something I would even CONSIDER buying, much less something I regularly buy. Oh well, watching for sales on things I buy works.

Last week Walgreen's had Blue Emu cream on sale for $9.99 for a little jar. I bought 3, saving $24.00 in one swoop. DH uses this stuff on his elbows and when my back was flared up I used it. Today I bought Classico pasta sauce for $1.99 a jar, which is usually over $3.00 a jar. I bought 18 jars. (We don't have Trader Joe's or I would buy that brand, which I do whenever I am near).

Yes it is cheaper to make my own and I do sometimes, but it is nice to have it ready to doctor up a bit too.

Smell cleaning products before buying. I just, thank goodness, finished up my one and only bottle of Clorox Greenworks "Natural" toilet bowl cleaner cleaning both bathrooms this morning.



It stinks like a skilled nursing facility, seriously. Will never buy it again. The frugal part of me could not just throw it out even though every time I used it I could hardly stand it.

Now watch one of you guys will think it is great. Another one to avoid... Orange Glo. That sickeningly sweet orange smell is just too much for me. I would rather use ammonia and bleach (separately of course).

Okay back to your regularly scheduled blogs.

My Valentine's Day was uneventful except for 1 big thing! DH was out of town working, but he called to say he wished he could be home to make me a nice dinner. He then told me how much he appreciated how hard I was trying to stick to the budget and get our savings back up.

Now maybe this doesn't sound that big, but most of the time I feel like a receipt nazi, hounding him for every receipt, constantly talking about saving, saving, being frugal until I'm sure he would like to gag me! So it was nice to hear he actually appreciates it!

I had an almost no spend week. I spent $3.00 at a back sale for The Boys and Girls Club being held at work (hospital). I bought cupcakes for a few coworkers. They were 2/$1.00.

Otherwise, we have not grocery shopped now for 8 days, but I'm sure DH will stop into Winco tomorrow. I am certainly rubbing off on him. He took out a package of leftover noodles and cream sauce and a package of turkey Italian sausage and cooked it up along with the rest of the asparagus and a red bell pepper leftover from the week. It was pretty tasty even though the frozen cream/noodles mixture was leftover from a seafood dish that the shrimp and scallops were eaten out of. Ha Ha. Yes that's how cheap we are!

My lunch for the next 2 days is homemade mac and cheese with broccoli I fixed for myself Saturday night. I made a pitcher of iced tea and Crystal Light Raspberry lemonade that I mix half and half and take to work along with a container of milk and cereal for breakfast, nuts for snacks and an individual container of applesauce.

I am going to a luncheon on Thursday, which will cost me $12.50 and a couple of cans of food. The speaker is the chairman of Operation Homefront, a charity that is near and dear to my heart.

I have not spent any of my $100.00 allowance this month, so it will come out of that envelope!

I rolled more coins today with the help of my older sister (visiting from Salem, OR) and my mother, who lives nearby. I definitely felt like my mother's daughter, who couldn't come over until she took her clothes off the line outside!

Ended up with $109.50 and have dollar coins left to roll, but need to get some rolling papers from the bank. Note to self: As DH to check with the bank tomorrow. The bag is so heavy I could not pick it up since it included $54.00 in pennies!

This would have been a total no spend week, but my doctor called and between the 2 of us, decided I needed a few more days of Bactrim. Otherwise, no spend week!

DH was out of town again for a few days, splurged and stayed at the Motel 6 one night. I deposited $138.00 in rolled change yesterday, along with my $100.00 allowance for the month. I discovered over $50.00 in my wallet so I figured that could do for the month.

I will be transferring over $3000.00 into ING today to savings. Woohoo. It's amazing what a mind set, a real job with benefits, sticking to a plan and having DH on board can do!

I am starting to feel like the kindegartner who didn't go to preschool and see to be picking up every bug at work. This week I was home on Thursday with a stomach bug. Luckily I was able to return Friday.

Found out my oldest brother is having a heart procedure (angiogram maybe) down at the SF VA. This finally also hit DH between the eyes (10 years older than us) and we are committed to exercise and eating less (we eat right just a lot!). I have been using our treadmill, DH has not. So looks like the treadmill is going to get more use. So instead of couch potatoes we will hopefully be treadmill zucchinis!

DH is at Costco so much that he got to know the head butcher. Turns out he lives around the corner from us. One day he was at our car wash and DH turned on the self-serve for him. A week later he brings us a huge package of pork chops on his way home.

Today DH is in Costco and goes by the meat department and the Butcher has 3 prime grade steaks set aside for him. He did have to pay for these though. They rarely get prime grade in and DH had expressed interest.

So I run the drill
ME: where's the receipt??
DH: I don't know, somewhere (vaguely looks around) $22.00 for these 3 huge steaks.
ME: How did you pay for them I ask?? DH: Cash.
ME: Your allowance?
DH: Yes.
ME: Never mind I don't need the receipt, your allowance is already budgeted out.

Hey if he is so desperate for some steak he spends his allowance on it, who am I to complain! And he really is trying to save all receipts for me and go along with the no eat out thing for the month.

So yummy barbecued steak, I ate about 1/4 of mine with the fingerling potatoes and barbecued asparagus ($1.48 lb at Safeway yesterday). DH had a hard day at work.

Budgeted amount Spent amount
Income total: $7,793.73
Charity : K-Love Radio Station $40.00
Charity : Miscellaneous $5.00

Utilities : Gas and Electric $32.74
(overpaid last month)
Utilities : Water $0.00
(Paid in December)
Utilities : Phone & Internet $87.55
Utilities : Garbage $46.90
(Billed bi-monthly)
Utilities : TV $114.64
(Yes I know, what can I say)
Utilities : Cell phone $30.00
Food : Groceries $319.69
(woohoo)
Food : Restaurants $27.25
(Okay so things went downhill after my Costco hot dog/drink fiasco!)
Transportation : Gas & Oil $216.13

Medical/Health : Miscellaneous $12.66
Medical/Health : Reimbursable $124.57

Personal : Allowance-Cheryl $100.00
Personal : Allowance-Ron $100.00
Retirement: Roth IRA-Cheryl $50.00

Insurance : Auto insurance $306.68
Household : Cleaning supplies $20.29
Household : Miscellaneous $1,937.95
(December AMEX charges)
Household : Pets $54.82
(toys and grooming, almost out of food!)
Household : Holidays $5.35
(Christmas cards for next year)
Debt : State Farm Bank $200.00
Debt : RSB Bank $141.00
Investments : Car wash $486.70
Gifts : Ally $51.15
Gifts : Miscellaneous $125.97

Gifts : Katie and Jimmy $21.47
Total Spent: $4,651.35
Balance in checking 2/1/2009 $5,720.74

I paid off my Amex this month weekly, reflected in the various categories. I am especially proud of our groceries for the month. Hoping to do the same in February along with really a no eating out month! It's a short month, I should be able to do it! I was surprised by our gasoline costs, but some gas was reflected in investments and DH filling up going back and forth to the new business.

I went over in the car insurance category. Our monthly rate for 3 vehicles is $107.00, but somehow pay my Toyota Camry every 6 months and that hit this month.

Our income was higher than usual due to a $3000.00 dividend check. I already put that into savings along with paying my mortgage 2/1/2009 to ING Direct.

I had a rough week, ended up in the ER twice, once for a UTI and 45 minutes thereafter for a reaction to the medication they gave me. Luckily I work in the hospital, so it was close! DH went out of town and brought me a lovely lunch the day he left (Wednesday) so that was the eating out along with breakfast purchased in the hospital cafeteria since I was feeling sorry for myself after being diagnosed Friday. Ended up being told to go home by ER doc, which I did, a coworker drove me home and I dozed watching Lifetime movies the rest of day/evening with my doggies close by.

DH came home last night and today we went to pick up my car at work, then went to Safeway for their sale. Ended up getting 8 packs of Diet Pepsi for $1.00 a piece (in store unadvertised special) and then 4 packs of Diet Coke for 7.99. We cherry picked other on sale stuff, some veges, canned goods and Cranberry juice and managed to spend the required amounts to get both $10.00 off and a free $5.00 pepperoni pizza!

DH made a leftover turkey goulash type dish with side of fingerling/sweet potatoe roasted. Yum!

Time to go see what's happening with the Super Bowl.

Okay if there was a question about Costco, it definitely ended today. I need to take time off work to not incur overtime. I can't seem to get out of work early, so today I decided to take off and extra 2 hours in the middle of day around lunchtime.

DH and I used to eat out for lunch approximately once a week when I worked at home and had a flexible schedule. We have not gone out to eat for lunch during the week since I started my new job 10/15/08. So I grabbed the chance, called him and even though I packed up both a lunch this morning, we went out to one of our favorite places, Rita's. We ordered the cheapest things on the menu and drank water. We are good tippers, which meant we spent $15.00 for lunch.

I told DH I was starting over tomorrow and shooting for another month of no eating out. So the date would be February 27 or approximately the entire month of February.

Anyone want to try to join me?? Chickens!!

DH again thinks I am being too rigid, but I told him we cannot continue the same behavior (not sticking to a budget) and expect a different outcome (more money in the bank!).

He leaves again tomorrow for another business trip, and we talked about ways for him to cut costs on the trip. I am grateful for his participation (finally)!

We have to spend $500.00 to pay our deductible tomorrow when I pick up his truck at the body shop after his little accident when he hit some ice.

DH and I went grocery shopping at Costco and Winco. I ate a hearty breakfast and took my own ice tea to drink, but after stopping at MIL's first to visit a bit, then onto Winco where we saw a few people we knew, stopped to chat. By the time we got to Costco I was hungry. I ate lots of demo food (the Asian Salad kit is yummy), but got a hot dog and soda for both DH and I as we left since it's another 25 minutes back home.

Now my OD says that didn't count, what do you all think?

We spent $67.46 at Winco and 25.27 on food at Costco keeping it under $100.00 for the week the third week in a row at $92.73, plus $3.22 for the hot dogs and soda making a grand total of $95.95.

DH filled up my Camry at $16.66. He filled up the car last Thursday so that represents about $3.00 a day in gas costs for commuting for me.

We also bought toilet paper at Costco and granddaughter a cute new pink sleeper with ladybug print. It will go in her first Easter basket. So the Costco total was actually $55.28, pretty good for Costco. Also half and half, eggs, turkey lunch meat and salted mixed nuts (all on the list).

Winco included some longer lasting items including 2 packages of tea, a small jar of jam, some sugar free pancake syrup and Chex Cereals that had a coupon stuck on each package, $3.00 off any 3 making it $1.38 a pack. Cherrios were also $1.50 and I bought a box of those. Another great find was peanut butter and choco chip rice cakes. It will be interesting to see how they taste. 2 pounds of Tillamook cheddar was green tag, $1.00 cheaper than Costco's price, but still higher than last year at $6.78.

This week's menus:
Tonight: Carnitas
Monday: Chicken cacciatore
Tuesday: Fish
Wednesday: Leftover Chicken.
Thursday: Tacos

All meat from the freezer including the already cooked carnita meat that was cooked, sealed and frozen a few months ago. Fish is either orange roughy or salmon frozen from Costco.

I went to K-mart yesterday to get vacuum cleaner bags and was shocked at the price, over $3.00 a bag. I need to find a cheaper place to buy them.

So again, another no spend week is planned.

That's a no spend week! On Thursday I got up and was scrounging around packing my lunch and was considering buying lunch in the hospital cafeteria. I started thinking about Suze Orman on Oprah earlier this month challenging everyone to not eat out for a month. I started thinking and realized I have not eaten out yet the month of January. Well that's it. I am making it until the end of the month!

What makes this a lot easier is last month sometime DH found little chicken sandwiches at Costco "on sale", which made them 50 cents a piece. It is really easy to grab and thrown in my Coleman "lunch pail". I don't get sick of the same thing day after day, well okay I am sort of getting sick of them now after eating them almost every day for a whole month. Uh oh, I just went out to the freezer. I have 2 left, which means I need to plan for this coming work week. Safeway has bags of lettuce on sale for $1.00. I will probably get a few of those and see if I have some canned salmon. If not I can cook up some chicken breasts (in the freezer) and use those in my salad.

I get my $100.00 allowance for February next Sunday. This month I spent $95.00 of it on January 1st shopping with my mom and sister. The last $5.00 went to the little boy scout across the street selling raffle tickets for a cord of wood.

Speaking of Boy Scouts, etc, the little girl we bought Girl Scout cookies from the past few years has gotten totally lazy. We came home from work to a phone call asking us to call her if we wanted to buy cookies this year. I am sure her sales will be way down. We live in a neighborhood so it is really easy for her to go from house to house. I was pretty surprised. She must have saved the phone numbers from last year's form.

One more item of interest: For those of you who have considered taking 0% interest money and sticking it in a savings account, making the minimum payments, then paying in full before the 0% runs out. I did it. I was so worried I would miss the pay off date, I kept thinking never again! So back in June Bank of America called me and said they could loan me $23,000 until February 2009 billing cycle and it would cost me $99.00 "transfer fee". She caught me on a bad day and I agreed. I immediately transferred it into ING Direct and paid it off 2 weeks ago. Never do that again I thought. Then I added up what I made from it. $350.00 after the $99.00 fee. The key is that it has to be a large enough amount to make it worth you while. I doubt another offer like that is going to come along.

I have a long list of to do's for the weekend including the sock box and hopefully cutting out one of the summer outfits for my granddaughter. I bought the patterns for $1.00 each and the fabric 50% after last Easter. She was not born yet, but I knew I would want to make her some clothes.
So I could start with this:



or this:


Here she is wearing a sweater I knitted:




Okay Saturday is off and running with lots to do, getting back to my roots. Happy frugal weekend everyone!

So it's Saturday, grocery shopping day. I have been craving beef bourginon the last few days, so asked DH to make it this weekend. Ah yes, he says, whole sirloins are blah, blah, blah at Costco. He will buy one and make a big pot of bourginon. Yeah good. Off he goes to work early with the plan to call me later for grocery list and shopping (Costco 2 blocks from work).

I am still recovering from my cold so my goal for the weekend is to get the laundry caught up. So I bring my morning cup of coffee in here to the computer and start catching up on the blogs. It suddenly hits me that WAIT A MINUTE! Buying a whole sirloin to make one dish and freezing the rest is what the old us would do. The new us would buy a smaller amount of beef or see if there is something in our freezer we can use. So I called DH and told him my thoughts. We are supposed to only be spending $100.00 a week on groceries and if we buy a whole sirloin that would most likely put us over.

He agreed somewhat reluctantly, but came home having spent a total of $68.48 at Costco and Winco for the week. He's getting pretty good on the self-check out at Costco.

My only spending for the week was $35.75 to fill-up my Camry (DH actually drove it to work on Thursday so he could fill it up at Costco, cheapest gas in town) and $5.00 donation/raffle ticket from the little Boy Scout across the street.

DH has gone to the local college basketball game with a friend and is getting a hot dog at the game for "dinner". I had leftover chicken and S&W piquinto beans. I think I will finish off the Dreyer's Peppermint ice cream in the freezer tonight.

My low-energy day was spent comparing TV packages and I think I have found one through Direct TV that will save us about $30.00 a month over our current local cable company. Luckily I can add the sports block to a cheaper plan to get even cheaper a plan than I originally thought.

Now I need to work on the cell phones, since our contract is up in about a month. I rarely use mine, but DH uses his a lot with his work and traveling.

We offered to pay for YD, SIL and granddaughter to fly home for a visit. They really are trying to not let us pay for it, which I appreciate. If they can't come by March, I am going to have to fly back to NC. It's been 2 months since I saw my granddaughter and I am sure she has changed so much. She will be 5 months old tomorrow.

so I can't come up with a catchy title. I figured I would write something up before I hunker down with the TV, DVR, some Kleenex and OJ, hot tea.... My cold is full-blown and DH is out of town.

I spent no money all week. The Costco soup DH bought came in handy, I ate the last of it Thursday night.

Thursday was potluck at work for a coworker who was leaving. I managed to make ravioli and sauce, took it in to work in the crockpot, turned on low until lunch. I received rave reviews, which is a total crackup because the raviolis I am totally embarrassed to say were WAAAYYYY past their use by date in the freezer. However, the delicious sauce, based on a jar of Trader Joe's vodka sauce covered up any lingering freezer burn taste. I'm sure the last of the fresh parmesan cheese we had on hand helped too.

There was about 2 bites left in the crockpot at the end of lunch break.

I didn't use all the sauce though and ate the rest last night with some more frozen raviolis that were NOT past their due date that are in the freezer too.

So DH left Wednesday for a business trip and drove the "back way" across rural Northern California, managed to hit an icy patch in the road causing some damage to the truck. Luckily my procrastination has paid off. I had not yet raised the deductible like I planned on. We have not had a claim that was "our fault" in 21+ years. Boy do I feel old writing that. 21 years, most of you have probably not even had auto insurance for 21 years.

OD called me from her bed in her new bedroom this morning at 7:00 a.m. The sun was coming up! She "locked in her rate" at 5.75% for 30 years, which is not maybe what she could have gotten now, but she is happy with it, so I did not say anything. She plans on living in her new home for as long as she can see into the future. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with a lovely master suite. DH and my bedroom is on the first floor so as we age, we don't have to climb stairs (of course we have about 20 to go before that is a concern).

I have not been this sick with a cold for a long time so my plan is to do nothing but relax and watch TV (DVR movies) and drink juice and tea and blow my nose. If I feel energetic, I may knit, but probably not!

So I talk to DH this morning. We need milk, orange juice (since I am now getting his illness) and half and half.

What does he come home with:
The 2 gallons of OJ-check.
1/2 gallon of half and half-check.
but also:
Tub of chicken noodle soup-$9.99
2 doz eggs -$3.19 AND
Pork Twists??? Dog treats- $9.99

He claims to only "tolerate" the dogs! Ha, as if, he spoils them worse than I do.



He stopped at Safeway and got 1/2 gallon of milk, since I am sick, 2 gallons from Costco seemed a bit much when it was dated January 10th.

I wish I could make myself do the shopping....

Okay for full disclosure, he took out $100.00 cash and spent $40.37, which means we still have approximately $60.00 to last the until next Tuesday. And the dog treats actually go into the pets category, not food, which means we really have $70.00. We had the chicken soup for dinner and it was delicious with plenty for another meal or two.

I pulled out a plain envelope and put the rest of the cash in it.

I am determined to stick to this even with his impulse purchases.

So after my last post I did order my credit report and guess what, there is a "ding" on it. It was a credit agency in NC for Progress Energy Carolinas. Well I live in California, but my SIL and YD and granddaughter all live in NC. So I called them and asked if that name was familiar. My SIL said it was their old water company when they lived in an apartment, before they bought their house.

The report was made October 2008. My DH and I did cosign for YD who was 19 with no income and my SIL was in Iraq when we moved her back to start college and await his homecoming. SIL immediately ordered up his credit report and the "ding" was not on his report. YD was ordering hers up next and I have not heard from them yet on that. They insisted they paid up everything when they moved to their house.

The interesting thing is I would not known if the whole HSBC letter had not come and I felt motivated to find out what my limit was because I blogged about it. (By the way, my credit limit was also $10,500).

Good idea Ima, I may give them a call. First I need to find my credit cards in my file cabinet. I always throw new ones in there that I don't use, but yes I have decided to make a small purchase occasionally to keep them opened.

So my advice, it's a good time of year to order up your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com

It costs $7.95 to get your FICO score, which I did not do, but free to get your report from the 3 different reporting agencies. Unfortunately I could only get one because I have a hyphenated name and the other 2 companies would not give it to me online.

What new club? Well I received a letter on Friday from HSBC saying they were lowering our credit limit. We have not used the credit card in 3 years or so. I have to say they lowered it to $300.00 which is really low considering our limit was $10,500.

Oops just reviewed DH credit report and it says it is closed. I must have had one in my name. Something tells me it is time to order my free credit report and get some things organized and figured out.

I watched Clark Howard's first show on Headline News or CNN or one of those. He did say that lowering our credit limit will effect our FICO score. Normally I would not care, but with interest rates so low I am considering refinancing our house since it is currently a 7/1 ARM from ING Direct with 5 years to go.

I think it's time to get off the computer and start getting some financial records organized!

Just wanted to post briefly to say Happy New Year to everyone too!

Goals for 2009:
1. Savings back up to $10,000.
2. Attack last CC debt.
3. Replace sink and faucet in kitchen.
4. Stick to $100.00 per month each allowance (includes new clothing).
5. Get on treadmill every day I am not sick or have a migraine even if it is only for 5 minutes, but shoot for 30 each morning before work.
6. Cash for purchases, no more putting everything on AMEX "for the rebate". (We are up to a $462.00 rebate with 1 more month to go, plus we get another directly from Costco). I am sick of huge AMEX bill, plus theoretically we spent more right when using the AMEX right? I do pay it in full every month though. This month it is over $1700.00! What did we buy this month?? It runs a full month from the 1st to the end. Well okay, $300.00 on DH's truck and $258.00 to the DMV for registration of same truck... along with the usual Costco and gas and some eating out and Christmas.... it adds up fast.
7. Assign each room in the house a day for deep cleaning (or superficial depending on how tired I am).
8. Keep up better on laundry.
9. Try 1 new recipe each month or more.
10. Track spending (and keep tracking all year) with YNAB.

DH has been really good about receipts and is much more amenable to paying with cash than I thought he would be.

I already have spent my entire allowance except for $5.00 today. VS is having their semi-annual sale and I really did need new foundation garments. I also ran into Borders with my sister and mom and found some Christmas books half off so I bought a few for baby Ally along with an Easter book of baby animals. My mom bought me a jacket since she owed me for dinner out the other night for sister's birthday.

Then I stopped at K-Mart on the way home and bought a jug of ammonia and vinegar for the home cleaning I am doing over the weekend. DH also needed some Zicam and Vitamin C because he feels like he is getting another cold. I used my debit card for that, but that is still "cash" to me.

Luckily DH finally made a sweet potato pie today. It is cooling right now. I have been craving it all holiday season but we were so busy we kept buying pies and were never satisfied, even threw a couple away after having a piece or two, but then would buy another in the hopes of satisfying that craving....

Here's to a Happy 2009 for everyone! Eat more pie!

We traveled to OD's for Christmas since MD and YD are together with granddaughter and SIL back in NC.

DH loves to cook and loves to visit grocery stores when we are traveling. (He found the Southern grocery stores really fascinating)... anyway he visited Whole Foods here in Reno, NV yesterday. Now DH is a foodie and will pay what I consider too much for food sometimes, but he was shocked at the prices at Whole Foods. He had a small list since we are only here another day and a half, but the bread prices are what did him in completely. Anyway, we will be sticking to Trader Joe's in the future for grocery store fun when traveling (we have no TJ's in our area).

OD and I did brave the after-Christmas sales and boy did we have fun. Having my new job, I am still building my work wardrobe and I made some nice additions at very reduced prices. We did not get beyond Macy's. (We have no Macy's where I live, heck we have only Gottschalks). My favorite purchase of the day was a pair of petite Jones of New York wool black pants regularly $129.00, I got for just over $25.00. I bought 8 tops, a long cardigan and the pants. I think my winter work wardrobe is complete.

My only silly purchase was a Ralph Lauren coat for my granddaughter that should fit next 2 winters since it is a size 3. It was marked down from $95.00 to $38.00. But aren't grandmothers supposed to buy silly/lavish gifts for their grandchildren? Heck I don't know, maybe $38.00 is a good price for a child's coat?

I think part of my clothes buying craziness has been because I am losing weight and clothes are starting to look better on me, but I do need to curb it like now! I'm thinking with what I have and a couple of things I bought yesterday that will work in the spring, I hope to not buy any spring/summer things until Memorial Day weekend sales. Don't tell me to check second hand stores. I have. We live in an area well let's just say secondhand clothes have not much worth buying.

So the next issue is that my salary is above and beyond what we need for our basic living expenses. So with so many posting their 2009 goals, I am thinking through mine and have been discussing with DH. We have things we need to do to our house that have been put off and we need to do landscaping on our rental property this spring/summer. We need to hammer out our priorities and then go from there.

One goal is to track our expenses even when I travel to visit back east. I completely blew it this year when I was in NC for six weeks when my granddaughter was born. But since I have a job now, my trips will probably only be 1 week. DH is getting geared up, bringing me every receipt since I told him we are starting over so that is my only for sure goal.

We are traveling home tomorrow to the coast of California from Reno, NV. Let's hope the weather cooperates. Luckily we have a 4 wheel drive truck. It took an extra 2 hours to get here Christmas Eve due to the snow.