Counted up the change in my CITB, and was able to roll $12 worth. Adding it to my EF.

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $97.09
CITB Deposit: $12.00
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $109.09

And I managed to hit $100 this month. I would love to hit another hundred in February. But honestly, this first hundred may not even stay in here. Depends on how much I make at work this weekend. I need $48 to pay my LBCC bill, and about another $30 for a second bill. And then there is the matter of having money to survive on for the next week or so.

Let's hope I have a busy night tonight!

Just about the end of the month, and I had one more tiny sale on Ebay end today. Pushing it right to the end.

Sold one of my blind box toys. I think this was the last of them all. Adding to me Ebay sales total is $4.99. So it looks like my final Ebay sales for January will be $172.50!

It makes me feel great that I sold that much in one month. And, I'm about 3/4 of the way into hitting my Feb Ebay goal of $100. I honestly don't think I can keep this up for the entire year, but you never know.

I spent today. I knew I would. But I actually did better than I thought.

My car needed a ton of stuff fixed. $550 worth of stuff. I did save $10 with a coupon I had, so that was cool.

Other than that, I spent $17 on 2 new rugs and a new curtain for the bathroom. Love that outlet store! And I also picked up a cool new cookbook for $5. It uses all types of odd food for the meals. Like potato chip crusted chicken, or peanut butter thai burgers. When I try the recipes, if they come out OK, I'll share them.

Well, I did it. I managed to make yesterday a NSD, and it was my 2nd in a row! Whoo-hoo! It was also my 7th for the month of January.

Today won't be a No Spender. My car is at the mechanics getting an oil change and check up. I'm praying to the car gods that it doesn't need any other work.

When Mums gets home from work, we are going to a local curtain and bathroom outlet store. They have the cutest stuff for bathrooms, plus curtains, rugs, home decorations, and even furniture. Oh, and Mums has a 10% off coupon on our entire purchase. I still need 3 curtains for the new dinning room. I have some from my current living room I can use if I don't find anything else, but they aren't the right length and look funny. I also need to pick up a small rug and maybe toilet seat cover for the bathroom. The ones we have now have been in my bathroom for 6 years, and are disgusting.

So, I will be spending, but I am going to try to keep it in check.

I made good money at work last night. Brought home $83, including $8 in tips. Two of the 5 clients I had said they were impressed and would be back to see me again. Go me.

I also just transferred $25.76 from my paypal account to my checking. I'd like to throw it at the EF, but I need to pay bills first. :P

Happy Thursday everyone!

Finally got my Etsy shop up and open. I only have a few things on there now (real seashell charms and 2 handmade pendulums) but it is a good start. I love making things from natural objects, such as seashells, stones, real gemstones and crystals, etc.

This is my first attempt at Etsy, so hopefully it goes well. Anything I earn there will go towards my Ebay Challenge (along with Ebay, craigslist, and half.com sales).

Check my Etsy ship out: Koppur's Cauldron.

I have to say, I am proud of myself. Today marks my 6th No Spender of the month. I know some other people have had many more, and even No Spend Weeks, but this is great for me. Go me!

Not much else is news. We are supposed to get 6-7 inches of snow overnight tonight, so if we do, tomorrow may be a NSD as well. I won't hit 10 this month, but I will aim for 10 next month.

Almost had a NSD yesterday. But the tummy got the best of me. Spent $20 on ginger ale, alka seltzer, tums, and power steering fluid for my car.

I know, last one doesn't really help my tummy. But I went to go to work last night and I couldn't turn my wheel at all. It had been making groaning noises all week when I turned it, so I figure my power steering fluid is going. Going to put it what I bought last night and hope it fixes the problem. $6 for power steering fluid is a lot better than a trip to the mechanic!

Today I am hitting the post office. I have about 5 things to mail out. After that, more packing and we are making a run to the new apartment with the dreaded books. Hit 20 boxes for 1 bookcase. Ugh. Still have 2 more bookcases to pack up.

I hate the moving process. I think it is because I have so much stuff. Especially books. Tons of books. I don't mind packing, or unpacking, but the actual moving part makes me very anxious and nervous. Probably because every time I moved (twice a year for 4 years of college, and 3 apartments since then) Dads was grumpy and miserable. He complains I have too much stuff, too many books, etc. And I understand it, he's getting older and, well, moving heavy boxes and furniture stinks.

This time, though, I am trying to be more organized. BF and I are packing and moving all my books before the day we move all the furniture. This way there will be no complaining about how many books I own. And, Dads is not helping us this year. I'm going to pay 2 guys I work with to help us. Dads is just getting too old (He's 61).

Anywho, I started packing the books today. Got 2 shelves done of my biggest bookcase. 7 boxes! Still have 3 more shelves of that one, and then another 5 shelf bookcase, plus numerous books spread out through different rooms.

I did run into a bit of a snag when I was packing, though.



That's my kitty Wolfie (short for Wolfsbane). My other kitty Solstice is hiding in terror from the evil brown boxes (she's such a scardy cat).



On a financial note, missed work last night due to this stupid cold that won't go away. Going in tonight, though.

Mums and Dads came up and took me and BF to brunch. Free meal!

And I found a penny yesterday in the parking lot. New Pennies on the Sidewalk total: $.75

Happy Sunday all!

Got payment for 2 of mu 3 Ebay items that just sold. Not taking the full amount out of paypal since I need to pay Ebay fees. And not all of what I do take out of paypal will go to the $20 Challenge (have to pay shipping). But, here is what I felt comfortable pulling out from today's sales.

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $74.90
Half.com DD: $22.19
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $97.09

So close to $100. When I get the payment for my other item that sold today ($15) I will hit my mini-goal of $100 in the EF.

I want to hit $1,000 in my EF this year, and I figure over the course of 12 months I can come up with it. Even better would be if I could do it all with Ebay/online sales. My Ebay Challenge is $100 a month, and to get my EF to $1K by 2010, I need an average of $84 a month or so.

I like those numbers.

I had to give a refund on en Ebay sale. I sent the package, but they say they never got it, so I had to refund them $64. I know I won't get the package/items back. I'm angry cuz I don't have $64 extra just lying around. BUT, I am calmer now than when I wrote this post at first. I complained a little too much in that one. Made me out to be a meanie.

On another Ebay note (trying to not let the anger control me), 3 more of my auctions sold today. The 3 items total $52.98 (this includes shipping). Yay.

Adding this to my January Ebay Challenge brings the total to $167.51. Not all this is profit. Take out shipping, packaging, Ebay fees, and the $64 I had to refund the buyer from Mexico, and it is about $60 or so. I wasn't keeping track of how much it cost for shipping or packaging, so I don't have an exact amount. I know one time I went to the post office the total was about $25, and one time it was about $18, but I shipped items from half.com and Ebay both times. Profit from this last set of auctions will be around $35-40.

I have 3 more auctions going, but I don't think they will be done before Feb 1st, so anything coming from them will go towards Feb's challenge.

Got my DD from half.com for $31.20 Yay! I want to put it all in the EF, but I need some of it for basic bills and stuff. So I am going to put half in the EF and keep half in my checking for regular things.


$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $57.80
Half.com DD: $17.10
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $74.90

Came home tonight from Mums and Dads. Went to use the bathroom and discovered a surprise in the toilet. A penny. Yes, a penny in the toilet. Don't believe me?

Here's a pic:


And in case you can't see the penny, here is a close-up:


I swear it wasn't there this morning. No idea where it came form or how it got there. And no, I didn't pull it out. I think this is one time when it is OK to flush money away.

On a similar note, I found a quarter on the sidewalk yesterday. New Pennies on the sidewalk total: $.74

Just got a DD in my Palpal account for a Pinecone survey. I love that they DD with Paypal now. Saves me a trip to the bank.

Adding it to my EF. I am still waiting for a refund of $59 or so from paypal. A buyer issued a claim saying they never recieved the package I sent (in Mexico). So Paypal debited my account the amount of the sale in case their is a refund. Once that gets refunded all the money I have made in Ebay this month will be there (all the money did was decrease the amount my balance was in the negative) and I can add that to my EF as well.

I was wondering if anyone knew: either the buyer or I can raise the claim to a dispute within 20 days of when the claim was made. Of that doesn't happen, does the buyer get a refund automatically or is it assumed we worked things out/he got his package? Thanks!

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $54.80
Pinecone check: $3.00
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $57.80

Last night 2 more of my auctions ended. These were for antique/vintage beaded purses from the early 1900's. Mums had been given them by her grandmother, but they didn't actually belong to her. They belonged friends of hers. Since they have no family value and Mums was cleaning out, she gave them to me. I never go out to fancy places and I have too many purses already, so I put them on Ebay.

One sold for $22.36 and one sold for $31! So that is another $53.36 for the Ebay challenge, which brings my total to $114.53! I hit my January goal! Yay!

And I have 5 more items still in open auctions, so maybe I can get a head start on Feb's $100.

In other news, I got a second ticket today. Yes, second. Let me explain: Last week I went downtown where it is all on street parallel parking. So I fond a spot between 2 cars and parallel parked. When I came back to my car, the other 2 were gone and I had a $15 ticket for parking in a bus zone. The bus zone was 10 feet in front of me, and, oh, what a surprise, a cop car was parked there. Jackass.

Since I was between 2 other cars I assumed I was safe. There is so much snow, you can't see the curb to tell if it is painted to indicated a bus zone. And there was a car further up than me. So, I said I'm going to fight this. I haven't had a chance to go to court yet.

Today I get pulled over because my car registration is expired (I had no idea). Damn it. That was a $100 ticket!!! But the cop was nice and said if I went and renewed my registration today, they disputed the ticket, the court would throw it out since I got new registration stickers the same day as the ticket. I went to the DMV right away, paid $38 for my new registration. And that ticked I am definitely disputing.

But I think I'll pay the $15 one for a little good karma to come my way. I'll need it to make sure the $100 ticket gets thrown out.

I also stopped at the post office and spent $25 mailing out 8 packages. But at least I get shipping reimbursement for it all.

And then I spent $18 on groceries. We needed cat food, butter, and milk, and I picked up 2 bottles of ginger ale. I've got a tummy virus.

Oh, and I found a penny today. New Pennies on the Sidewalk total: $.49

Now that the reality has sunk in that we got the apartment, my mind is starting to whirl with what new things we want/need.

Some things we will be getting free are:
*a dining room set and matching buffet. This set used to be my parents and I LOVE it. When they got their new dining room set about 10 years ago, I begged them to store the old one in the shed for me so I could have it when I got a place large enough. And finally, I got a place large enough! It is a nice dark wood, and the table is round, but it has leaves you can put in to make it bigger. At it's biggest it seats 12!

*bakers rack. When we moved to this apartment, we gave ours to my sis because we didn't have room for it. If we have room in this new place (depends on how we arrange the furniture), Mums has said she will buy us a new one. Awww, such a great Mums!

*Apothecary Table. This is actually mine, but again, didn't have room for it in the new apartment. Mums and Dads have been so kindly "storing" it in their living room for me. LOL

Things that we will need to buy:
*a new couch. As I mentioned before, ours now is completely broken and pretty much only used by the cats. We found one we like at Ikea for just a couple hundred.

*garbage pails. Ones for outside, that is. This is the first place I will be in where we don't have a dumpster. Gotta get our own trash barrels. Also have to call the city and request a recycling bin.

Things I want to buy:
*A couple of area rugs. One for each part of the double parlor, one for the dining room, and one for each of the 3 bedrooms. Ha! I think we'll start with 1 and work up from there.

*More bookcases. Now that we will have more room, we want to get some more bookcases. It's crazy how many books we have between the 2 of us!

*Futon. I would love to have a futon in my office/library. This way I have a comfy place to read, and we also have a place for our friends to sleep when they come visit.

I'm sure there is much more, but I'm also sure I am boring anyone who is still reading this.


UPDATES:
Found a slightly used IKEA sage green rug on craigslist today. It was originally $30 at IKEA, and the woman is selling it for $15. She said it is 6 months old, like new, and she is only getting rid of it because the color isn't right. It's the perfect color for us! I'm just waiting for her to email me back and tell me if it is still available.

Other things we will need that I forgot about:

*new ice cube trays...using someone elses', oh god, my OCD just flares!

*shelf paper, kitchen sponges, tp.

*curtains. We have enough for the bedroom, my office, and the BF's game room. We need enough for at least 7 more windows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One another note, yesterday was a NSD. We couldn't get out because of the snow. I hate snow, but I love those NSDs.

Saturday I made $79 at the tarot store. Whoo-hoo! The store closed early last night b/c of the storm, so I didn't work.

oh, I am SO EXCITED! We saw an apartment last week that we both fell in love with and applied for. The landlady called today and told us it is ours!! YAY!!

It has a double front parlor, plus a dining room, bathroom (w/2 toilets!), kitchen, small storage room, and 3 bedrooms!! There is a beautiful ornamental fireplace, built in cabinet and drawers in the dining room, working chandeliers in most rooms, and in the front parlor more built in shelves with glass doors. All for $750 a month, which is about $350 less than we pay now. Heat is not included, but it is in our old place, but seeing as how we don't use anywhere near $350 worth of heat a month, we are still going to come out ahead.

As soon as we get in there I will post pics. Now we need to clean out and pack! Will definitely be posting more stuff online to sell now. I don't want to have to move all this junk!

Our lease will start Feb 1st, but the landlady said after we sign the lease (this week we hope), we can start moving things in and she won't charge us rent for the rest of January. Our lease at our current place doesn't end until March 1st, but if we break it early, we have to pay a fee that is more than paying rent for the 2 places together for the month of February. And this way we can use the whole month of Feb to get out of the old apartment and not have to cram it all into one day.

Have I mentioned I HATE the process of moving? But I love this new place, and I can't wait to get in the new place. And I LOVE unpacking and decorating.

We will be getting a new couch for the new place since the one we have now is broken badly enough that it won't survive the move. Right now only the cats use it anyways. And I have a $25 gift card for Target coming to me in the mail from MyPoints that I can use towards an area rug for the living room.

Eeeeek! I'm so excited!!

3 of my 5 auctions that ended yesterday sold. Yay!

I sold a blind box of a vinyl toy I collect, 4 skeins of yarn, and a brand new Bijoux Tener leather purse. Today my auctions of 2 antique/vintage purses from the early 1900's ends.

Total sales from yesterdays auctions is $16.97 (not including shipping reimbursement).

Adding this to my old Ebay Challenge total, and my new total is $61.17! Yay!

I really do have to thank Steve (aka Disney Steve) for challenging us to this Ebay challenge. I am always saying I need to put stuff up online, and I never do. But this challenge has totally gotten me up off my butt and into action. So, thanks Steve!!

As any of you who have sold on half.com knows, they pay you twice a month with a direct deposit. Well, now that we are in the second half of the month, I know how much my dd will be when it arrives next week.

$34.20!! Yay!

So I am adding that to my Ebay Challenge, which was currently at $10.

My new total is now $44.20!

And for the second half of the month, I already have $4.51 waiting for a direct deposit. Hoping I can add to that some more before the next DD.

5 of my Ebay auctions ends today, none have bids, but 4 of the 5 have watchers on them. They end in about 4 hours, so I am hoping they will have some last minute bids on them. 2 other auctions end tomorrow.

Yesterday I had another No Spend Day. Whoo-hoo! Of course it was bitter cold so that just encouraged us to stay in the house and no go anywhere or spend anything. That makes 4 for the month. I would love to hit 10, but we'll see.

I made up for the NSD today by spending a LOT. Most of it was bills, and all of it was necessities. Spent over $220! But it paid the electric bill, gas bill, phone bill, and internet bill, plus included a few groceries (lunch meat, cheese, bread), Q-tips and allergy pills. I hate spending that much money, but I feel good that none of it was on wants.

Still waiting to hear about the apartment...

Not much new to report these last few days. Still waiting for my ebay auctions to end. Did some more cleaning out in preparation for the move and found a bunch more things to put online. Think I will work on that tomorrow.

Today just feels like one of those super lazy days. I can barely keep my eyes open right now. I have to head to the library and post office, and I'm not sure I even have the energy for it.

I guess I'm not too upset about it though, as it has been a good couple of weeks since my fatigue kicked in. But I still feel guilty sitting around the house all day.

Anywho, was all set for yesterday to be a NSD, then we ended up at Walgreens craving sweets. Damn twinkies did us in.

2 more movies of mine have sold on half.com. That makes 7 items in the past week and a half! YAY! Unfortunately, each item is only $2 or so, so after buying envelopes and shipping them I am barely making any money, but hey, every little bit helps and it definitely helps get the place cleaned out before we move.

Of my ebay sales, only one is guaranteed to sell. It is at $10.50, but has 15 watchers! I'm hoping they all bid and I get a nice little bidding war going at the end of the auction. M3 of my other 5 items also have watchers, so we'll see what happens. They all have 3-5 more days left on them.

Worked last night at the tarot store. Make $46 which is nice after only making $11 the last 2 nights I worked. Yup, $11 total! Slooooow week. Hopefully next week picks back up again.

Had a dream that I found 3 dimes on the sidewalk. I'm even dreaming about found money now! LOL In reality I found a penny at the grocery store the other day and a dime yesterday. New Pennies on the Sidewalk total: $.48

This past week Half.com has been VERY good to me! I have sold 3 DVDs and 2 books in the last 5 days! YAY! I am still waiting on my direct deposit from half.com for these items but I checked the payment history on my account and it comes to $26.25! I will officially add this to my Ebay total after I get the dd and after I deduct shipping costs. Hopefully will be around $20.

Last night I spent a couple hours watching tv and listing things on Ebay. I've got 7 items listed in 6 auctions (had 2 of one item). I have 1 watcher on 1 item, and 2 bids on a second one. They are all low prices as right now I am wanting to clean out as much as make extra money.

In other news we saw an apartment yesterday that I am in LOVE with! It is everything I have ever dreamed of having in my dream apartment. Double front parlor, plus a dinning room, 3 bedrooms, ornamental fireplace, huge bathroom, kitchen, in a great area... *sigh* It's FAB! And it's $345 cheaper a month than our place now! We find out Saturday if we got it or not, but I am pretty confident we will be moving in there soon.

I got a notice in the mail today that I was awarded MassHealth!! MH is the state's health insurance program. I will be covered for all my medical needs, including therapy and my MS. Yay!!

Prescriptions will cost $1 a month for generics, $3 a month for brand names, and my birth control will be free!!

This means instead of $90 a month on my prescriptions, I will be paying about $8 a month!! Yippee!!!!!

I am so excited about this! In addition to the savings on my prescriptions, I will also be saving big money on my monthly cost for insurance. I am paying $420 a month, and now it will be either a small fee or no fee.

*Happy dance!!*

One thing I have been worrying about lately is where to get the extra money to contribute to my savings accounts. I am still not working (except at the tarot store), and have not heard anything from SSDI yet.

With not having a steady monthly income, everything that does come in really needs to go to living expenses. All tarot money, online sale profits, found money, needs to go to monthly expenses like rent, food, bills. It's hard to find that extra money to throw in my savings.

I do, of course, put a little in my savings when I can, but it is slow going. I feel like I will never have a decent EF, or enough for a house down payment, hell, even enough for a new couch at $250!

I guess my question is when you are on a fixed income, or getting an income that barely covers the basics, where do you find extra money for savings? Especially when what would normally be considered extra money (ebay sales, etc) has to be put towards the basics so it really isn't extra at all?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, enough worrying...one a quick side note, I worked the tarot store and had only one reading. Brought home $16. Working tonight as well, so hopefully it will be a better night.

One bonus to working last night was that my friend who plays the SIMS games and was going to sell me hers for $60 was in and we worked out a deal. She is going to install the game I have and give it back to me and I am going to borrow her games and install them and give them back. Since they don't need the disc to work, I can borrow them and then play them after giving the discs back. No money spent and I still get all those new expansion packs! Yay!

I just checked my checking account to see what my balance was. I discovered I had X hundred dollars and $4.71 I decided to round down so my balance was an even number and take the $4.71 "extra" and throw it into my EF.

Kinda my little way of being able to have additional money when I know I really don't.

$20 Challenge/EF Old Balance: $50.09
"Extra": $4.71
------------------------------------------
$20 Challenge/EF New Balance: $54.80

Today I met up with the woman from craigslist who was buying movies from me. She ended up wanting 4, so I made myself $10. Who-hoo! 2 others movies have sold on half.com, so when that DD goes into my account, I'll update my Challenge total.

I haven't decided what to do with this extra money. I would love to add it all to the EF, but I know in reality it isn't really extra since I am not getting a regular paycheck and I need to use it to live on. Most likely it will go into my everyday account. But I'll still track how much I make on here.

Yesterday was a NSD. That's 3 this month. Whoo-hoo! Today will be a low spend day. I bought 2 huge jumbo oranges for breakfast this morning. Spent $1.71 I also needed to pic up batteries for my camera to take pics for Ebay stuff. I bought 4 batteries, rechargeable generics from CVS for $10.49 Total for the day: $12.20 Hopefully this will be all I spend today.

Last night I listed 26 DVDs for sale on craigslist at $3 each or 2/$5. I am meeting up with a woman tomorrow who is buying at least 2. I also listed the ones that are in great condition on half.com this morning and have already sold 2 of them. After those payments come in and I meet the woman tomorrow, it will give me about $14 to start my 2009 Ebay Challenge. Yay!

Tomorrow I am going to spend a couple hours listing stuff on ebay. I have so much to get rid of before we move and I need to get some bucks coming in to meet my $100 January EBay goal!

Did pretty good yesterday in terms of spending.

IHOP was so yummy. I had 2 eggs, 2 slices bacon, 2 sausage links, and 2 crepes. The crepes had nutella, bananas, strawberries, and whipped cream. So not healthy on my diet, but at least I had fruit! BF got eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and bacon. Total for the 2 of us was $20.66, but after my BOGO coupon, the total was $13.51 Makes me happy!

We also stopped and picked up cigars for BF and a few things at the Dollar Store. Oh, and put gas in the car. Total spent for the day was $45.08

Hoping to make today a NSD as well. We are going to Mums to do laundry later this afternoon, and I think I may hang out with a friend, but I don't see us needing to spend $ on anything.

When we were in the cigar shop yesterday I found a dime and a penny. Jingly jingly! New Pennies on the Sidewalk total: $.37

Yesterday I signed up for the 2009 MS Walk. I think most everyone who walked on my team last year is going to walk again, so that is cool. And I got my first donation: $50 from an old friend of mine. Wait, the friend is not old, I've just known her for 19 years. Plus my Mums' cousin emailed me and said he is mailing a donation so that rocks, too.

Oh, and my payments to my LBCC posted, as well as the $29 credit for late fee waiver. New LBCC balance is $889.21 I may just get that one paid off this year!

Hello all. My sister just sent me this link. It is a FREE download of Suze Orman's new book 2009 Action Plan.

Just click on the link and follow instructions. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view it, but there is a link on this page to download that free as well.

I checked it out and it is the whole book, all 227 pages!! The link is only good until January 15th!


http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081119_tows_bookdow...

And if you would normally buy this book, add the cost of it to your $20 Challenge!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LOL, Damn, BA beat me to the punch! Just say BAs post. Oh well. Just shows great minds think alike!

It was a struggle but I managed to make yesterday a No Spender. When I was filling in my spending excel sheet, I saw that one day last week I also had a No Spender. I bought a coffee at DnD that day, but used a GC so it counts as a NSD for me. That makes 2 this month and it is only the 7th! Yay!

Would love to hit 5 this month, maybe even the long shot goal of 10...

Not today though. BF and I have been having a massive IHOP pancake cravings for a couple of weeks now. We have been holding off and I'm glad we did. They are now running an all you can eat pancake special, plus I found 6 coupons in the mail this week for buy one meal get one free! So tonight we decided to have IHOP pancakes for dinner. Yummy!

Last night I worked at the tarot store. Had a decent night. 3 readings, 2 over the phone and one in-store, and they were all 30 minute readings. Brought home $71. Yay! $6 of it was in singles, so they went into my personal allowance and the rest is waiting to be deposited at the bank.

Happy Thursday everyone and Happy Elvis Birthday!