I went onto Mypoints for the first time in months, and realized that I'm REALLY close to getting a $25 gift card somewhere. I've been getting their emails, but have been too busy, tired, distracted to even click on them. I finally went on to check my balance today and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had 3190, and need either 3250 or 3500 for most $25 gift cards. So my goal over the next week is to see if I can boost that total up and cash them in!

I also placed another order with PeaPod today (home grocery delivery). I haven't been doing it regularly because I've been pretty fanatical about checking the weekly sale ads at the local stores, which I'll still do, but I'm coming to the realization that I actually spend less money with the home delivery! My total order today was $62.15 (no meat or veggies). I don't need the meat (have plenty in the freezer that I should be using up anyway), and I get the veggies from the farm stand. I'm sure if I were in the store it would be much higher. So those will be delivered tomorrow morning!

I have a few hours to myself this afternoon while hubby and the kids are at grandmas. I need to go fill an RX at CVS and go to the veggie store. We're going to hit church tonight so tomorrow will be a total pajama day. They're the best kind...

Posting once a week just isn't cutting it...I need to get on here more often. So what's been up?

First, the 2007 Weight Loss Challenge is progressing nicely. As of Monday I'm down a solid 7 lbs from the beginning of the year. I'm doing 40 minutes on the treadmill 4-5 times per week, and I'm still excited about it. So wahoo there!
Speaking of the challenge, PricePlus, are you out there lurking? Haven't seen a post from you for a while, and wanted to make sure you're doing ok...

Second, it's been rebate-central at my house these last few weeks. In addition to the $4 or $5 ones I've been due, I just got back 2 $50 rebates from Verizon for new cell phones we got for Christmas, and I got a check for $375 from my credit card company for rewards that I cashed in. Although February has been a great month financially, I'm still making up for the blows I took in January (brakes for the car, water softener leak), so the extra money will definitely come in handy.

Haven't been inspired to revisit the taxes since my first go-round last week. I need to, though, just so they don't continue to hang over my head.

Did I mention in a previous post that the insurance company is not covering DS's speech therapy yet? Turns out that the diagnosis code used was too vague, so the therapist needs to give me a new one that will be covered. That will be a nice check if/when I ever get it, but until then, it's a hefty chunk of change to lay out. (Also met with the school today regarding the therapy they're going to start giving him. Can the bureaucracy be any worse? It'll be another 2-3 weeks before the next and final(?) meeting, then he can start. Ugh...)

So that's the deal here. Hope everyone is doind well...

We're all wearing them. It's snowing, with a possible 3-6" by tomorrow morning. I'm planning on working from home anyway, so I'd LOVE a snow day for the kids!

Took the first stab at my taxes last night. Looks like I'll owe about $2000 Federal. This is much better than last year, when we owed $7200! I usually get about $1800 back from NY, but I have to look at Turbo Tax to figure out what's wrong. It looks like they double count our income (we get W2s for NY and NJ). Once I figure out how to stop the double counting, I'll see what I'm due back from NY. So it looks like I'll need to up the amount of our estimated tax payments, but at least we won't have to deplete our emergency fund like last year...

I held steady during my weigh in on Monday. Not bad, considering I was only on the treadmill 4 days last week, and went overboard eating rotten food on Saturday. So all-in-all I'm happy just not to have gained anything. And I'm back in the saddle this week.

It's been a really quiet week, money-wise. I ended up buying lunch at work one day, my first since the beginning of the year. Other than that, I've brought breakfast and lunch from home each day.

Haven't had any unexpected financial surprises, which is great after the ones we had in January! I'm still going back and forth with the insurance company. Turns out the speech therapists put down a diagnosis that's too general, so the insurance co. won't pay it. Now I need to get new invoices from the doctors with a more specific diagnosis and resubmit. Oxford has 30 days to act on claims (and apparently uses every last minute!), so my money won't be reunited with me for a while.

Trying to see the glass half-full, I figure that we're getting by fine paying all of this out-of-pocket, so if/when the check finally comes back, it will be like a windfall. Nothing more frustrating then just waiting...

The diet/exercise thing is still going strong (amazingly). I'm still walking on the treadmill most days, and I'm eating better. As of last Monday I'm down 5 lbs from January 1st, so I'm pretty excited about that, though because I see myself all the time, I don't really notice a change yet. Slow and steady wins the race.

I need to get motivated to do my taxes. Perhaps this week when hubby is away on business. We always get a big chunck back from NY, and usually owe something to Federal. But instead of mailing in NY's early and using that check to pay Federal, I wait until April 15th to mail it all. Not this year...I need to get them done this week.

So nothing too exciting, which is good...

I was all set to write about my January successes, but I was too lazy to gather all of the info! Thankfully I read Jodi's blog about the cost of laziness, so I figured I'd opine on that.

Laziness costs me a ton of money. ATM fees when I'm too lazy to go to my bank's ATM; library fines when I'm too lazy to drop off my books on time; takeout when I'm too lazy to cook dinner; I could go on, but I'm too lazy !

I'll have more exact figures next time, but overall January was pretty good. Groceries were down, but not as much as I'd like, gas was down, I exercised and ate well, and life moved along pretty smoothly. A few major things got in the way (new brakes and tires for the car, the flood from the water softener) so it wasn't a great month financially. I'm not going to sweat it too badly, though, as both of those things were pretty much out of my control.

Weigh in tomorrow. On to February!