Spring Fever

I received my Gurneys and High Country Garden catalogs. I love to plan my spring garden. I know I will plant a few tomato plants, but I have to choose a few others. I have grown pumpkins, green beans, snow peas, corn, herbs, jalapenos, bell peppers, carrots, green onions, cucumbers, and lettuce. I've been reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". It's inspiring me to grow more food. I'm thinking of planting foods that come back year after year. I love asparagus and strawberries. I will try make two additional beds in the next two years for growing these. My boyfriend and I made the bed above and it's worked well so far.

Half way to debt freedom!

My credit card debt is under $3000. My beginning total when I decided enough is enough was $14,400. I have $7018 left in debt. Wow! I'm half way there! I didn't realize I was near a marker until just now. Sweet!

Christmas money

I receieved $500 in gifts for Christmas. I gave $80 to my boyfriend (I owe him $4000), put $80 in my Kauai fund, $10 in my furniture fund, $230 to my credit card, and I spent about $100 on groceries. I did some bulk purchasing of coffee, tangerines, salad mix, baking staples and frozen shrimp and chicken. I also bought less used spices like saffron to try new recipes.

Weekend Mountain Trip

I spent the last 3 days in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It was a beautiful (and long) train trip to the mountains through canyons and along a river. We stayed at an old hotel and swam in the hot springs pool. It was very nice and relaxing. I ate too much food and took leisurely walks around town. I visited several used book stores and tried trout for the first time. It was quite cold so obviously I didn't take the pictures on this page, but you get the idea! My boyfriend's parents paid for most of the trip so I was responsible for my food and shopping money.

Opening Christmas Presents...

It's true! We opened presents on Christmas Eve. My family and I have opened presents on Christmas Eve ever since I can remember. We always eat beef stew (my grandparents had oyster stew too.) After dinner, the kids would clean the dishes (I am one of 7 brothers and sisters so I didn't take too long.) We would then put on our matching pajamas that my mom made and continue to open presents. Then we would go to midnight mass. I remember being so sleepy at Church!
I continued the tradition today except T and I opened Christmas presents before breakfast. I received Incredible Hulk punching gloves (we are kids at heart), rollerblades (haven't been for many years, a personal heater for the bathroom, and an electric wine opener. It was a lot of fun and we went and rollerbladed after lunch. T loves his Wii Pitfall game I got him and we haven't played Guillotine yet but I expect we will soon. That's all for now.
I didn't spend a dime today. Just free family fun. We helped to put my niece's Barbie Dream Yacht together. That was entertainment enough!

Is it time to go outside yet?

Dreaming of spring!

Merry Christmas!

I need to take some Winter Pictures! I have too many summer!

Car insurance payment - just smarter!

I usually make 4 car insurance payments a year. My insurance company charges $3.00 for each payment not made up front. I didn't realize that they were charging me an extra $3.00 for each time I didn't make a payment (even though it's not past due). I took money from my savings account and paid up until May. The money is not earning enough interest to pay $6.00 in fees. I am now saving up to make the full six month payment in May 2009 so I don't have to pay these dumb fees!

Christmas Schedule Warped

The past two weeks, I have taken off a few extra days. Some were unpaid. I am going to have to figure out how to budget for this lack of money. I think I can do it. I will have to be a lot more frugal. I have enough food in the fridge and gas is pretty cheap so I should do ok. Plus I will be spending time with my family which is cheap and I get free food! I already purchased a variety of cheeses and nuts to bring to family gatherings. Merry Christmas for those of you still around!

Early Weekend!

I'm taking a few days off work here and there the next two two weeks so I won't have a consistent pay check for a while. I hope to make some extra money working at my second job to make up for it. So I budgeted my money the best I could. My goals for December and January are to have $800 for Kauai and to pay $475 to my credit card company.

I also bought my parents tickets to see a concert. These tickets are from all the kids so everyone will pay me back. I hope to get $280 from them in the next two weeks so I can pay off my credit card ASAP.

Everyone have a great weekend!

E-mail clutter!

I spend some where between a 1/2 and an hour responding to e-mails. This time could be used for much more important things. I'm going to go through old e-mail accounts and see if I can get rid of any of these. I also need to go through the process of "unsubscribing" to clothes companies and other people I have purchased from in the past. I get a least of few a day and I'm tempted to look at all their sales.
After a little more research I got rid of Your2Cents, too. I haven't qualified for a survey in 3 months. This will get rid of a lot of e-mail clutter.

Dumping some survey companies!

I have been doing online survey for about a year now and I can say I've made a few extra dollars here and there. Sometimes it's nice to get a check for $10 or even $3.00. Lately these companies have been going down the tube. I have filled out 10 minutes worth of survey and then they tell me I don't qualify. This has happened about 5 times with Opinion Outpost which used to be the most profitable survey company. I have made $1.50 since September. Not worth my time. I've unsubscribed to Opinion Outpost.
I also belong to: Your2cents.com
Mysurvey.com
Global Opinions
Pinecone
I might dump some of these too. The only one I regularly get a check from is Pinecone. Any thoughts?

Good times. Good times.

I had an exciting three day weekend of cleaning and painting. I've painted my kitchen pantry. I wanted some more color in our kitchen so I painted the shelves wine red and left the sides and back an off-white color. So far it looks good, but I have to take the tape off to see the final result.

T and I also cleaned the basement which is monumental task because T takes his work home and makes a mess down there. It's been slowly building up for six months so I helped him with the clutter.

I bought two pairs of sweat pants from Kohl's for $27.00. I bought a fern and another spikey sort of house plant to brighten up the house. I also bought some orange tulips that I will grow indoors.

I purchased a bottle of wine and lunch at Carl's Jr. for my boyfriend and I.

I feel like I've accomplished a lot and didn't spend too much money.

Feeling much better

After running yesterday, I feel much better. I wasn't able to run outside because it was dark by the time I got home. I had a relaxing evening afterward.

This weekend I'm going to try to get outside and enjoy the chilly air and the bright sunshine. I'm thinking about starting a blog with just gardening stuff in it. I've seen other blogs and people do such a wonderful job on it. I like to take pictures and be outside so maybe I'll give it a whirl!

I lost 2 lbs in the last 2 weeks or so. The exercise is paying off. I've been going to the gym 6 days a week and watching what I eat. I have about 8 more lbs to go before Kauai.

The winter blues

I have the blues again. I get this way for about 3 months starting at Christmas time. I feel sick (headache, tired, achy) and I want to just go back to bed. Luckily I'm not this way everyday during the winter, but some days I don't even look forward to anything. Does anyone else get this icky feeling? I want to go somewhere warm and green! I want to dig in my garden and plant something pretty!
I haven't wanted to be social either. I know that staying in bed and not doing things will only make it worse. So I'm trying to motivate to do something besides read and watch movies (both very fun things to do).
It's about 50 degrees outside so instead of going to the gym tonight, I will go walking outside. Fresh air and sun. I'm going to leave a little bit early today. I've taken Monday off and boyfriend and I will take my new sled out if it snows enough this weekend. Yes, I like to sled and I don't have any kids. Otherwise I'm planning to enjoy the next few days outside as much as possible. Sorry, such a Debbie Downer post. I'll feel better tomorrow.

ING Bonus!

I received a bonus of $20 from my ING checking account. In order to get the bonus, I had to use my ING ATM card 5x in November. I sent an extra $20 to Citibank. Love free money!

Have you ever played Guillotine?

I did a little online shopping and I bought my boyfriend a card game. It's called Guillotine and I thought it was pretty fun when I played it a few years ago. It's a stocking stuffer. I paid $16 for the game.

In order to get free shipping, I had to spend $25.00 so I bought myself a hat from Columbia Sportswear. I have one winter beanie and it has a company logo on it. (Cheesey). So I spent about $30 for both of the hat and the game.

Relaxing Tuesday Night

My boyfriend worked late last night. I sat next to the fireplace read some "East of Eden" and made some Potato soup for dinner. I made enough so I would have leftovers today. I was asleep by 10.

NO CAVITIES!

THAT'S ALL!

MONEY MONEY MONEY!

I received a check from my second job for $130.00. I am putting $60 to my debt and $25 in my savings. The rest is going for petro and any other little expenses this week.
I'm only $200 from paying off half my debt.

Monday morning update.

I'm going to the dentist today. I flossed extra hard last night! It's just a cleaning so it should be quick. I don't have to pay anything for it.

I spent $13 on gas.

Cool storm cloud 2008!

Some of my hobbies include taking pictures of storm clouds. We have severe weather here in the spring time and I love to see funky clouds and lightning (from a safe distance!)

Shopping Saturday

I bought a Vera Wang cardigan sweater for work for $25.00. It was originally $70, but it was 1/2 off and then I got an additional 15% off. I wear sweatshirts to work most days so I thought I could dress up my jeans with some nicer shirts and sweaters.

I bought 12 pairs of white athletic socks for $3 at JcPenney with their $10 gift certificate.

I also spent $35 including shipping at Victoria Secret for a pair of cotton pajama pants, a brown v-neck sweater and a red scarf. I used my $10 gift card and scarf was free with the sweater!

Lands End has long sleeved t-shirts 2 for $20! Now I have a t-shirt for every day of the week.

Safeway offered me a $30 gift card for switching my prescriptions so I spent it on tissue, cat food, and some toiletries. I went $15 over my gift card.

Spent $98 this weekend.

I have only purchase a few clothes items like underwear, socks, and t-shirts for the past 3 years so I am in serious need of clothes. My clothes are quite embarrassing and I have wanted to update my clothes for a long time. I used to dress nicely so It's been hard for me to give up new things. I'm not totally into fashion, but I do want to feel attractive, you know?

Gift Card Weekend

I am going to do some shopping this weekend.

I received a $10 gift card for JcPenney's in the mail and I'm going to get some socks.

I got 2 Victoria Secret gift cards for $10 a piece so I'm going to buy some soft cozy pajamas.

Safeway offered a $30 gift card to switch my prescriptions to them. I was going to switch anyway, so $30 for me!

I'm going out to dinner with my boyfriend and his friend from college tonight, so this weekend should be relatively cheap. I will also work at my second job part of tomorrow so I should make an extra $80 or so.

Have a great Weekend!

I hate Citibank!

I received a notice on my Citibank statement that they are increasing my interest from 4.99% to 16.99% for no reason. I am furious. I called them and opted out. By opting out, Citibank will close my account when my current card expires. This will lower my credit score. The Citibank rep then tried to sell me another balance transfer. Jerk!

I have never been late and I've had an account for three years. Those bastards made a lot of money on me! I found this article at the MSN blog Smart Spending.

One person said:
"He's taking Citi up on the offer to opt out instead of accepting the new rates. He can use the card at the former rate until it expires, at which point the account will be closed. "Sure, they'll close your account, but I'm sorry, better credit card offers are still out there and you should look for them,"


Not that I'm bitter or anything. :)

2009 Goals Addendum

My goals for this upcoming year are stretch goals. You know the kind that would be ideal. I feel like I'm getting so close to getting rid of credit card debt that I'm excited and stressed out at the same time. If I look at all the things that are possible with some hard work, it motivates me to work even harder. If I put an extra $50 a month towards credit card debt each month I could be out of debt a month earlier. I'm soooooooooooo close. I want my money to make money for me!

With that in mind, I paid an extra $30 to my Citibank today.

2009 Goals

I'm very excited for the new year because I think this year I am going to accomplish a lot.

Dec 08 Goals
-ING Savings account to $650.00
-Citibank card from $3376 to $3100
-Put $200 in Kauai fund

Jan 08 Goals
-Put additional $200 in Kauai fund
-Snorkle in Kauai

July 09
-Pay all credit cards off
-Start Subaru Impreza car fund

Aug 09
-Pay boyfriend $300 a month
-Up retirement savings to 20% of my salary

Nov 09
-Start saving $3000 for mutual fund purchase

Overall 2009 Goals
Pay off Credit cards
Max out IRA
Start long term investment savings
Save for Subaru Impreza (used)
Buy some stinkin’ furniture (my poor parents are still sitting on bean bags!) I want grown up furniture!
Start paying debt to BF
Just get into the habit of saving money and think about purchases.

November Goals

1) Pay off Chase. (I have only $170 left. ) I paid off Chase early in November.

2) $725 in ING savings. I still have about $500. I haven't been saving as much as I'd like.

3) $100.00 into Kauai fund. I put in $50.00. I paid back $100 to my boyfriend instead.

I did so-so with my goals. I have $260 in my Kauai account and will need $250 more for the trip. I'm thinking of some goals for December now. Hmmmmm...............

Weekend update!

I had a nice long weekend in which I slept at least 10 hours a night. It was glorious! I barely did anything useful. I was a sloth. Besides going to the gym, I was in my Pj's most days.

I've done very well with going to the gym every day. That is part of my weight loss plan. I want to work out six days a week for at least 40 minutes and one day of the weekend for longer. I'm also cutting back on my portions of food.

I probably spent way too much money, but I've been scared to look at the damage. I went out to eat on Saturday and did some Christmas shopping.