First one in MONTHS!!

Now, let's just start racking them up again!

I was hoping I had enough point from MyPoints to get a $10 gift card to Wal-Mart to put towards the AC, but I didn't have enough. Intead I went through MyPoints (I earned 2 points per dollar!) to purchase it. There was no shipping fee, since it is getting sent to our local store and we will pick it up there. tax was $4.80. Overall total: $100.80 Yay!

I used money from the EF, but when I get my stiumulus payment (anyday now, people!) I will replace it.

Old EF Balance: $981.83
New AC: -$100.80
-----------------------------
New EF balance: $881.03

and I'm not even talking about Dr.s visits and prescription meds. Friday I woke up with a really bad sore throat. It was also a cold and rainy day. I ended up spending Sat, Sun and Mon at home, on the couch or in bed. And today, Tuesday, I am still out of work for one more day. You'd think with not going out anywhere I would have had a few no spend days. Nope.

We don't do well with keeping the cupboards stocked up for thing like clds and such. So, Saturday, I walked next door to Walgreens and bought tissues, generic day-quill, and picked up one of my prescriptions. Sunday for dinner we ordered in Sushi so I could have the Udon bowl (a big bowl of wheat noodles, veggies, and beef broth). (We didn't have any soup in the house. We could have picked some up next door at Walgreens, but we wanted Sushi...I know, I know...bad.) Then Monday, my chest was tight from the cold and I was having trouble breathing. So, BF went back to Walgreens and got me some expecterant and Vicks vapor rub.

I am feeling somewhat better today, and I think we now have everything I need for my cold (and if BF gets sick now). It just kills me how we didn't go out for 3 days and still spent money.

I want to get a hang of things and start stocking up on things so when this happens again we won't have to spend money.

I just have noticed that we spend way too much and need to stop. I think we got comfortable with my good paychcek, but we need to be realistic and stop spending so much. Stocking up in advance with sales and coupons and BOGOs will help with that.

That being said, anyone want to teach me the CVS method??

Yesterday my sister and I went to a Library Book Sale. I love these. You can get a great variety of really cheap books, plus the money goes towards stocking the library with new books, or library repairs, or whatever the library needs.

I was able to pick up some great finds. I got 11 paperback books in a series my BF reads. He already had 2, but for $1 each, it was OK. He was very happy.

I also got 4 hadcovers for myself. They will be great additions to come on my book collections. $2 each.

But my favorite find is a paperback copy of the Tightwad Gazette!! I was so excited when I saw it in the pile! This is the first one I've ever read, and I have so many new ideas! Cost: $1

So, for $20 I got some awesome new books, gifts for the BF, and the grand poo-bah: ways to save more money!!

Well, after MONTHS, we have finally found an apartment we love, that we can afford, and is a much better commute for me for work. As long as we get approved, we're in. I think we will, since it was not too long ago we were approved for a small mortgage for that condo we loved. Let's just keep our fingers crossed!!

The new apartment is a 2 bedroom in Quincy! It is only 7 miles from downtown Boston! That makes me commute about 1 1/2 hours shorter AND $180 cheaper!

The rent is more expensive, but it includes heat, electricity, and hot water, which we didn't have here. And then the money saved on the commute, plus the fact that we will use WAY less gas in the car because I will public transportation it the whole way to work, allows us to magage a bigger rent payment. So, it looks like as of March 1st, out new budget will be:

Rent/Electric/Heat 1095
Meds 150
Car Ins 82.08
Cable 53.27
Cell Phone 50
Home Phone/Internet 55
Gas (car) 100
Groceries 300
Communter Pass (for 2!) 120
LBCC 100
ATTCC 200
Total expenses 2,307.08

Since I paid first, last, and security when I moved in here 4 years ago, we can pay rent at the new place for March, and the rent for this place will have already been paid for our last month. So, we can either move out over the course of the month, or maybe be out by the 15th and get half that last months rent back. That's what I am really hoping to do, but I don't know if the landlord will agree to it. He's kinda a slumlord.

Anyways, I'm just VERY happy and VERY excited! Now, all the packing....*groan*

The other day we had a big snow/ice storm, and I didn't clean off my car. The next day when I went to go to work, I had a layer of ice 3 inches thick covering my windshield. After 20 minutes, I ended up with a small space to see out of, two broken windsheild wipers and a broken snow scraper. Sheesh! Went to Wally World today and got new wipers (the whole part, not just the blades) and a new snow scraper for about $10. Dad showed me how to attach the wipers, and now I am good to go.

I love car repairs I can do on my own.

Magazine: $4
Dinner out: $32

Not bad, but still too much. I just found out I get paid ONCE a MONTH, at the END of the month, so we really have to be careful and be on our budget as much as possible. I also found out since I am considered a freelancer, I don't get taxes taken out. Which means not only do I have to save for this years taxes, but I will need to save for next years taxes. Grumble, grumble...

I am really going to try to stick to my budget, as I found out today I get paid once a month! Eeek! Time to be responsible! That being said, here are my expenses for the past 3 days.

Jan 1: No Spend Day
Jan 2: $18.07 CVS (meds ($10), deoderant, twizzlers)
$3.00 post office
Jan 3: $1.25 bagel
$3.00 coffee
$7.75 ride to Boston
$4.00 subway tickets
$250 monthly T Pass Jan
(much cheaper than $19.50 each day!)

The bagel and coffee were on my way to/from work today. Tomorrow I am going to bring something from home for breakfast, and try to resist the hot cup of latte that made my hour train ride relaxing on the way home!

Picked up some new tops for work the other day. It's pretty casual where I will be working, but I needed some new tops that weren't stained somehow. I ended up buying everything at the Lane Bryant Outlet Store. I got a great deal. Saved $145 and spend $123. I LOVE it when I spend more than I save!

Seems like a lot, but for $123 I got: 5 cami's, a pair of pj bottoms, a black turtleneck, a black and white sweater, a pink top, and 2 pink sweaters. Very happy with this!

Yay! Just realized yesterday was a No Spender! Hopefully I can wrap up a few of these this month. I already know today will be a BIG spend day. I have so much to do:

*pick up meds
*pick up night/Day Quill for BF (he's so sick right now)
*mail a book I sold on half.com
*pick up the last x-mas gift for my BIL
*get a new battery for our cordless phone (right now the battery lasts approx. 3 minutes. Ick. But it should be cheaper than a new phone. Hopefully. If not, then I'm getting us a new phone.)
*pick up a gift for BF that Mums wants to give him (luckily she'll pay me back for that!)
*pick up gift for friend A
*gas in the car so I can do all these errands since I am riding on fumes at this point

and then a whole bunch of other non-financial errands. Gonna be a busy day today. Which is kinda sad as I am in the middle of a awesome book and it is about 20 degrees (F) outside and I just want to curl up with my fave blanket and a cat and read all day. Actually, that's what I did yesterday.

Anyways, I'm a little afraid to see how much the spending total will be today. But things have to get done. I'm sure you're all just dying in suspense to see how much I spend today, so I'll post my totals when I get home. Til then my financial buddies...

Spending yesterday was great: picked up the newspaper, bread, ginger ale for my tummy, and some sacks for my BF and spent less than $10. Yay! Not much planned for today. Got some errands to run: deposit at the bank, stuff to mail at the post office, that kind of stuff. Nothing too exciting.

Oh, but it looks like I am going to be hired to do 4 freelance projects this month! Yay! Should bring in about $600 or so.

Hey all. As many of you know, I constantly have issues with my car tires. Had all 4 slashed a few years ago. One needed replacing last summer. About 2 weeks ago 3 needed replacing, etc. Well, the one tire that I didn't replace a few weeks ago (ironically,the tire that was replace last summer) has been going flat. I've been fillin it with air every other day or so until I got some money to fix it. So I went to my guy yesterday. Turns out there is a HUGE nail in it. Son of a tire!! *sigh* But at least it didn't need replacing. So, my guy fixed it in 10 minutes, for $12. Not bad!

In other news, the tarot reading went great! Afer 2 hours, the host asked me to stay for another hour. Of course! I ened up reading for 3 hours, and at the end of the night, the host gave me a check for $200! (# hours of reading plus a tip b/c everyone was saying how awesome I was!) Sweet!

I just need to decide what to do with the money now. I was originally thinking Vegas, but then I am thinking maybe I should put some of the bills. My first unemployment check won't be in for another week, so...

Decisions, decisions.

I walked back to get the car. YAY ME!!!

Cost $75 at the mechanic to fix everything. Was happy with that until e told me the shaing in the car was from bubbled tires and 3 of my 4 tires needed to be repalced. Ugh. Said it was dangerous to drive on the freeway with them. I have a 45 minute commute to work on the freeway twice a day. Double ugh. So, since I had the day off, I headed over to TirePro.

Got the 3 cheapest (safe) tires I could, flirted like mad with the guy, and he gave me a $5 discount off each tire. LOL Hey, I'm big, but I'm hot!

Total cost for the tires was $364. Ouch. Put it on the CC. Double Ouch.

BUT, was able to make a $400 payment in the cc to cover that cost yesterday.

CVS (Shampoo, conditioner, deoderant, body wash): $19.00
Elance fee: $69.00
New business cards: $6.00
------------------------------------------
TOTAL: $94.00 :P

Trying to make today (10/02) a no spender.

I just renewed my yearly membership to an online freelance place. It's a great place. I can go in and bid on projects, or not bid on any if time right now is tight. I half-heartedly did it last year and earned $300. This year I am planning on going for jobs much more aggressively. My membership had run out last month, but I decided to go for it. If nothing else, I will do enough with them to recoup my yearly fee of $69.

I mean, ya gotta spend money to make money...right?

ha!

Oof, been spending a lot lately again. Shame on me.

Yesterday I had a snack from the vending machine at work of a soda $1.50(!) and pb crackers .75 Then at lunch I was eating my ham sammy and reading. I wsa reading Fast Food Nation. I got to a gross part and literally started gagging on the ham. I had to throw it out. I got a bagel from DnD for $2.00 I'm not sure, but I think it will be a while before I can eat meat again. And finally, we were hot and lazy for dinner, so we ordered pizza for $28.00

Bad bad bad.

Going to try to make today a No Spender, but we'll see. That caffine boost from the soda yesterday was fantastic!

This past weekend was my MONEY MAKING EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Eh, it went OK. I made about $40 at the yard sale, which was disapointing, b/c I made over $200 on the one I had in the srping. That $40 is gone, went to groceries.

I made a profit of $70 at the psychic faire. (Made $90, but spent $20 to support them). $5 went to mailing boks out from half.com sales, $10 went to picking up meds, and $5 is staying in my pocket for fun money. Of the $50 left, I am going to split it between the ATT CC, Vegas, and my EF. $30 to the CC, $10 to Vegas and $10 to the EF.

This friday is payday, and I have about 6 hours of OT on it, so it should be a decent paycheck.

...right out the window to bills. *sigh* It's so frusterating. $120 for a student loan. $70 to LBCC. $65 to ATTCC. $160 for the phone/internet bill (this was for 2 months though, so that isn't too bad). $56 for cable.

And boom! Over half my paycheck is gone. I need to make more money!

$3 on breaky
$52.50 on a new cell phone (my old one died and I couldn't get new parts for it). BUT, this phone also had a $50 Mail In Rebate, so once I do that, the phone will have only cost me $2.50 Yay!

Total: $55.50 (with a $50 MIR in about 2 months lol)

Gas for car: $28

Other than that, nothing.

Gas for car: $27.00
B-day gift for BF: $37.50
TOTAL for Tues: $64.50

Going to aim for the next 3 days to be no spend days!

No Spend Day! Yay. That's 3 this month so far.

OK, here's the recap:

Wed: No Spend Day
Thurs: No Spend Day
Fri: $5 on breaky, $10 on lunch, $20 on dinner (don't worry, I'm hanging my head in shame)
Sat: Ice Cream $12, book $3.00
Sunday: $30 at SEMAPPD, $90 on groceries.

NO SPEND DAY!!!!

No Spend Day!

Spent all of Labor Day in our pj's watching tv, playing on the computer, "napping" hee hee hee. Had a great day and didn't spend a dime!

Did a good amount of spending today. Went to Plymouth to see Plymouth rock and there was a festial there. Spent $66. Then did some grocery shopping. We needed everything! Spent $140.01 there. Ugh. Adds up quick.

Total Spendings: $206.01

Had a great day yesterday. Went to lunch with my Mums, my sis and my best friend. Then we poked around in some stores for a bit and went to the movies. We saw Hairspray. Can I just say, I LOVED the original, but I think this was even better????? It was so funny! I loved it!

So my spendings were:
movie ticket: $7.50
water for me and Mums: $7.35
Total: $14.85

Mums was fab and picked up the tab for lunch for all of us! I also got a kick-ass pair of sneakers (black with white skulls and crossbones, iron crosses, regular crosses and fleur-de-lys's on them!!!) which Mums picked up the tab for. Awwww, how sweet is she?!

$.75 on M&Ms.

I was having a serious breakdown and needed chocolate.

NOT DIME! Hell, not even a penny!

No Spend Days rock!!

(Pssst...that's 2 this week! Call me Buttah, cuz I'm on a roll!)

Meds: $10
Bagels for breakfast: $6
Gave a friend $.50
Total: $16.50