Homebody Getting Back to My Roots

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.

I noted in the ad this morning that they are selling prepaid Visas with $5.00 off any 3. So essentially you buy 3-$25.00 cards for $70.00.

If you know you are going to be doing some after Christmas spending, why not buy some for yourself and get your after Christmas purchases even cheaper?

Gottschalks also had an extra amount off any regular or sale priced items and if you combined the two, using Gottschalks coupons AND Visas you paid for with a discount, you could really save some money.

My head still hurts and my husband did all the laundry and is now vacuuming the livingrooom. We are having crab cakes tomorrow for my birthday dinner and leftover crab stuffed potatoes tonight. Cheap eats this weekend!

Seeing Sara Bareilles in concert last night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Bareilles

She is a local girl made good, nominated for 2 grammy's this year. Small venue, but dinner before was $$$$. Our friends ended up paying for dinner, since we bought the concert tickets, but we left the tip. We did not expect them to pay for dinner. Theoretically it was my birthday gift, since Monday is my birthday.

The opening band was so loud, I would have told my own kids if they were playing the music to turn it off! Then I realized I didn't really like rock concerts when I was a teenager, why would I like them at 50??

But Sara's beautiful voice and talent made it all better..... I almost felt young again!

Noise and flashing lights unfortunately did bring on a migraine by the time we got home, so today has been a low energy day. The same friends we went out with last night dropped off 2 dungeness crab, which DH picked and made crab stuffed baked potatoes with lots of crab left for tomorrow.

I swear they were better than last night's restaurant salmon dinner that was $24.95!

The direct deposit doesn't kick in until the next paycheck. It was interesting to note that paycheckcity.com was almost exactly correct with their calculation. It was only a 32 hour paycheck and already have 6 hours acrued for vacation! A paid vacation? What a concept. Having been self-employed for 10 years, I welcome that!

So I signed up for a webinar with YNAB for Sunday evening. I was doing great until going to North Carolina for 6 weeks this summer/fall. I have not used YNAB since and there is a new upgrade coming out very soon, so I want to be well prepared for starting 2009.

DH is out of town working on our new car wash and I am spending the evening with the doggies on my lap or half on my lap, and planning our 2009 budget with the help of paycheckcity.com computations of my new payroll amounts with my health insurance and FSA deductions starting with January 9th paycheck AND my 15% 401K contribution starting with March 20th paycheck.

Can we be out of debt (except for the house) by the end of 2009?? That is our challenge and it should be doable.

Working in a hospital, I did not think I would get to take advantage of "drug rep's" freebies. Well I was wrong. The medical staff secretary's office is kitty corner to mine. She comes in to our common area with 3 trays, one of veges and dip, one of little pinwheel sandwiches and one with little dessert bars of some sort. Apparently they were left over from a presentation the drug rep had given some of the docs at the hospital.

I had a ziploc quart bag I filled with the little sandwiches and another with veges. I chopped the broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots and bell pepper up, added a cubed sweet potato and roasted at 375 degrees for 1 hour after tossing in olive oil and garlic salt. Had that for dinner along with leftover standing pork roast. DH is taking the little sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

Unfortunately it was a spend day. DH paid our property tax, bought us each a Columbia fleece hooded jacket for $19.99 at Gottschalks and found J Henckles Knife sets regularly $138.00 for like $29.99. He bought a set for his parents who need them for Christmas. He also found a miniture snow globe with our granddaughter's name on it! Spelled wrong, but we think we can change an I to a Y!

He also picked up a prescription for me at Costco and a few pictures our daughter downloaded of our granddaughter. The prescription is a certain cream that perimenopausal women use. I was shocked at the price, did they run it through my insurance, almost $100.00!?! My new insurance takes effect January 1. I am thinking maybe I should up my FSA contribution. I started with $50.00 a month.

We are on the Do not Call list so we rarely get a call, but tonight an 800 number comes up. I answer and it just so happens DH was standing behind me looking at an e-mail we had received. The nice lady asks for "Mr. Smith". I hand the phone over to him and duck out of the room.

She is trying to sell him that disability coverage or something for our one outstanding credit card debt. He told her if things were so bad he could not make the payment, he might as well "end it all". I started laughing so hard, he could barely get off the phone. Maybe you had to be there....

So dropped off my purchases for the 10-month-old little girl who's name I pulled off a giving wreath at work. DH and I dug through Costco's well priced Carter's jammies to find the right size for her, along with 2 outfits, Baby Einstein books, a really cute little jacket and a Catipillar toy that you roll balls down (a woman in Target said her daughter loved it).

I noticed only one name left on the wreath I picked off of. If no one takes it by Friday, I may be shopping for another child.

Today was the first official day of employment at the hospital that I have been contracting with for 10 years. I have settled in and am looking forward to saving money especially on our medical insurance premiums.

I have to wait 90 days for eligibility for the 401K, but am ready to start.

I have to say asking for the day after Christmas off was strange, even though it is a paid holiday anyway. I have to get my mind shifted away from the freedom I have had for so long. I could not ask for a nicer boss and nicer staff that I work with. The past 6 weeks have been really good and this job came at exactly the right time in my life.



However, it is 2 weeks since I visited the granddaughter and boy am I missing her. Hopefully they will all come home for a visit in February.

I spent $1.00 today on oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch was leftover frittata and an apple. Dinner was salad with leftover turkey and ham diced up in it. My bottle of salad dressing did not have the lid on tight and when I shook it up it splattered all over the clean dishes in the dishwasher and floor. The dogs were happy!

DH is on a business trip. Oh did I mention we are broke? Or I should say almost broke. That's what happens when you take 90% of your savings to invest in another car wash. Like I said the job offer came at the right time!

Frugal list for the weekend:
1. Breakfast leftover recipe from below, frozen and reheated in microwave both Saturday and Sunday.
2. Homemade chicken soup made from leftover roast chicken carcass, carrots, potatoes, the last of the celery, onion and swiss chard from my mother's garden (2 day process).
3. DH trimmed my hair this morning.
4. I did my own waxing...
5. Rented 3/$3.00 movies that are not new releases, but we had not seen.
6. Bought a can of frozen OJ instead of a carton.
7. Received a $3.00 off coupon for next Safeway visit when buying #6. Promptly went in and used it to buy a 4-pack of Skinny Cow cones that I passed up when buying the OJ because I thought they were too expensive, $4.50 down to $1.50! Usually I forget I have a coupon so glad I went right back in and used it.
8. DH split a pack of turkey lunch meat from Costco and vacuumed sealed the second package so it would not go bad before we ate it up.
9. Spent $20.00 on a turkey for Thanksgiving which is what we are contributing towards family dinner at the in-laws.
10. Had steak, roasted rosemary potatoes and carrots/cauliflower for dinner with enough steak leftover for tomorrow. Steak from freezer.
11. Treated doggies with Frontline bought on line for way cheap in bulk that we drew up in a syringe ourselves.

French Toast Casserole (great for making the night before Thanksgiving or Christmas for easy pop in the oven breakfast).
1 pound italian/french bread cut in cubes
8 ounces cream cheese (I use that low fat neufatschel cheese)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional (I would use almonds if using almond extract, but have not tried it)
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Place 1/2 of bread cubes in 9 x 13 greased pan. Microwave cream cheese until melted. Stir in half of the sugar and the extract. Pour this mixture over the bread cubes (or dab it around). Sprinkle nuts over cheese layer. Top with remaining cubes of bread. Beat the eggs, milk, cinnamon and melted butter. Pour over bread cubes. Let sit overnight in fridge or freeze at this point. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Serve with syrup, fruit or powdered sugar.

NOTE: If frozen, take out of freezer night before, then bake as usual. Leftovers also freeze well, reheating in microwave in individual squares.

Enjoy!

Today at Costco. DH just called to tell me. We are historically one of the highest places in the country.

I'm home from North Carolina and had a great visit with my granddaughter, daughter and SIL.



So the job I tried out, I have accepted. It is a huge lifestyle change for me, but I am adapting. This week all I could do was work, come home, walk the dogs, eat dinner and collapse with jet lag. Hopefully I will start having more energy so I can get some chores done.

Working in the hospital it is tempting to buy my food there because it is so cheap, but I can still bring it from home cheaper. I do occasionally buy breakfast or lunch, but generally have been doing well packing my breakfast, lunch and drinks. I get to work around 7:00 and stop to eat about 8:30. We have a frig, toaster and I brought a microwave for my office which was very exciting for my coworkers. Of course everyone is welcome to use it.

Starting January 1st, I will be saving $450.00 in health premiums alone. I am covered at work and to add my husband is only $30.00 biweekly. There is also a flexible spending plan and a 401K, but no match.

I need to figure out the amounts to deduct for the FSA since of course you lose whatever you don't use.

I am thankful to have been offered this job with such good benefits in this economy.

So DH bought 4 pairs of Wolverine DuraShocks aabout 10 years ago thinking they were slippers, for my daughters and I for Christmas one year (we all wear the same size shoe). The girls hated them and promptly handed them over to me. The most comfortable shoe I had ever worn. Well my 4th pair is finally starting to look pretty shabby. I had an appointment and decided to wear my black slip on naturalizers. I was sitting and realized they felt a little funny on the sole of my foot, I took the shoe off turned it over and low and behold a hole! I checked the other and sure enough one on the right shoe too!

Time to buy new shoes. I hate buying shoes, hate, hate, hate it. DH needed a break and decided to go with me. Ugh, the cute ones slipped on my ankle. Another was just ugly. Another was too tight in the top of the foot area and slipped on my ankles. I finally ended up with two pairs of leather ballet slippers and a pair of clogs because I was sick of the slipping on my ankle. DH pointed out clogs would not slip on my ankle, why didn't I try a pair?

The older I get the more I need comfortable shoes, so what can I say, 3 pairs of Clarks for $169.42 and that was with a 20% off discount. Ugh. Hopefully I can go another 5 years or so since I can still wear the Wolverines and the naturlizers around the house.

Onward to Costo where I exchanged the jeans for a "short" pair since they were just too long and picked up an additional brown pair since I have been offered the supervising position of my current job, which means I have to leave my house and drive the few miles to the local hospital and work "in-house". Double ugh! So I am "trying it out" and will work 3 days a week for a few months to figure out if I can committ to it and if my body can stand working so much. Luckily my boss is very understanding about it and if it doesn't work out I will go back to my contract position. But with times being what they are I think I really need to give it a go. The health insurance and retirement would be a nice thing to have (well theoretically anyway!).

Gas was $3.6999 a gallon yesterday and was down 4 cents today when DH filled out the truck.

It was so cold that I stopped at a local coffee drive-through and got a latte' but I have gift certificates so it cost me a dollar in a tip.

Today DH invited his parents, his brother and SIL from out of town and SIL's mother all to brunch tomorrow along with an additional brother. So we went to Safeway (since our usual Costco and Winco are 15 miles away) and spent 56.61 on brunch items and a $10.00 bottle of wine. Oh yeah, that's why we rarely shop at Safeway.

So spending log:
10/10 Gottschalks shoes -169.42
Gottschalks, Columbia fleece zip jackets-$51.46 (29.99 x 2 x .20 discount + tax) DH and I got new ones.
Costco - 68.95, (lunch meat, milk, avocados, bottle of pinot grigio, an additional pair of pants, 2.5 pounds cheddar Tillamook, and tub of salad lettuce.
Costco - Toyota Camry fill-up 53.00
Coffee - $1.00 tip

10/11 - Safeway 56.51
Costco - Truck fill-up $73.00 (DH estimate, too cold to go dig the receipt out of the truck)

Brunch menu:
French toast casserole
Clark's quiche
Sausage potato Casserole
Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
Raspberry Almond Coffeecake (substituting blackberries grown wild locally).

Spending log:
10/04: Lunch out $21.00 (oh yeah that's why we don't eat out much, but is was yummy!)
10/04: Costco - $108.70, (what?? oh yeah, 2 extra bags of puppy food for the rescue group out front, new pair of jeans,then the usual food purchases).

10/06: Safeway- $5.00 or so.

10/08: Safeway - $15.00 or so.
Where are those receipts??

Anyway so I already quit the new job. I was using the mouse too much and my back and right shoulder were so bad I knew there was no way I could continue the job. I'm not 30 anymore and my body does not like sitting at a computer for 8 hours using a mouse intermittently.

However, my supervisor at first job is leaving so there will probably be more regular transcription, which is a bit easier at this point. Voice response is not quite there yet. Well okay maybe there for perfect dictators, but mumblers and stumblers, you might as well just type it yourself.

Okay I know things are bad. My brother and his family are not going to Mexico for Thanksgiving for the first time in 7 years. They cannot afford it.

My middle daughter asked for a raise in her contract after 7 years at the same rate for a group of docs and not only did they refuse, they only want to pay for keystrokes, not what prints out on the page. I may be talking in a foreign language to some, but there computer programs that use short-cuts for transcribing, such as typing "tp" and "the patient" prints out on the page. She has decided to give up her flexible lifestyle and get a "real" job. Luckily 911 dispatchers make decent wages and she has 3 years experience.

She passed all the testing and was offered a conditional job (based on passing lie detector, fingerprinting, etc) right when we found out we were having an addition to the family. She stupidly passed up the job knowing she would want to stay in NC for an extended period of time like I did. Of course she is kicking herself now. Should have taken the job and asked for a week off and it would probably have been granted.

OD was at her new job for 2 months when new granddaughter was born. When hired, she told the docs (she is an ultrasound tech) what she wanted a week off for her first niece's birth. What could they say, they are perinatologists..... of course she got the week off.

Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, right?

DH killed a buck last weekend so between that one and the one SIL got last week, our freezer is full. You can only take 5 pounds of dry ice on an airplane, so he could not take that much venison home, but he took what he could.

Okay the doorbell just rang, thank goodness the dogs were in the back yard and not in the house. Second time today a little boy has arrived at my door selling something. First was a raffle ticket, I gave a buck for that. This time I don't want that Boy Scout popcorn, but it was the cute little boy across the street so I just gave him $5.00 in lieu of the yucky popcorn. Trying to eat low carb anyway! Time to stop answering the door!

First spending:
10/1-gas fillup for truck $85.16 Costco
10/1-prescriptions $124.16 (asthma inhalers, migraine pain pills)

10/02-Grocery store for tea, sugar cubes and cream for our coffee, estimate 10.00 since DH left this morning to hunt and I forgot to tell him it's a new month and we are keeping track of everything again.

So I have a new job. My current contract has been a bit slow in paying and I think it's time for back up income. So I applied on Monday and by Thursday I was training. I guess my testing went pretty well. It will be interesting to see how much I make. It is editing per line (medical records). I have not done this before, so as long as it is more than an office job, I will be happy. Besides it's better than leaving the house every day and having the costs incurred with working outside the home. It will take a good month for me to get my speed to optimum.

Our new checks came for US Bank today. DH feels like he doesn't need a separate account for groceries anymore. I am not sure how this is going to work, but I am willing to try it. Since we are both being pretty frugal and are committed to it, hopefully it will work. We should know by the first of the year and can always open another one if we feel we need to.

I am going to get back on YNAB which went totally haywire with me being in NC for 6 weeks. Starting back up today.

My computer is having memory issues, it's very annoying and is starting to freeze up. Using the internet seems to really suck it up. So I have a computer guy coming next week to work on it. Luckily that is tax deductible since I am self-employed.