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Archive for October, 2008

Holes in my shoes/spending log/weekend brunch....

October 12th, 2008 at 02:17 am

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).

Text is http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-Almond-Coffeecake/Detail.aspx and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-Almond-Coffeecake/Det...

Text is http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sausage-Potato-Casserole-2/Detail.aspx and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sausage-Potato-Casserole-2/Deta...

Text is http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Clarks-Quiche/Detail.aspx and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Clarks-Quiche/Detail.aspx

Text is http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/LEMON-POPPY-SEED-SCONES-106305 and Link is
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/LEMON-POPPY-SEE...

DH is making 2 quiches, one as the recipe calls for and substituting venison sausage for the ham. The other one with broccoli and sausage.

It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks!

October 9th, 2008 at 01:56 am

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!

Spending log/New job

October 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm

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.