mjrube94's Blog

I got my W4 forms in the mail today. Although I don't have all of my mutual fund statements, I felt like I had enough info to get a feel for what the tax picture would look like. Boy did I ever! First cut has us owing in the neighborhood of about $6000! We always owe (last year was about $3000, which was bad enough). We never readjusted our withholding after we refinanced our mortgage (and are paying significantly less in interest). Last year we owed a small penalty (~$30) and still didn't bother changing the withholding! I usually get about $1800 back from NYS, but that's still a huge chunk to pay. Thank goodness for hubby's bonus in April, though we hate the fact that we always need to use it to pay taxes.

I talked to hubby about going to an accountant this year. We've done it a few times in the past, but I hate to pay someone $400 to tell me I owe $4000! But with the AMT, and with the fact that we live in NJ and work in NY, it's getting complicated enough that I'd feel better with professional help. And he should be able to tell us what to set our withholding at once and for all. I hate this time of year...

I went grocery shopping yesterday. Ended up spending $92.xx, which was great considering that I spontaneously bought a 8.5 lb pork loin on sale for $.99/lb! Can't beat that price. I'm going to cut it into 1 lb pieces and freeze. I have a couple of crock pot recipes I want to try, and can always cut them into pork chops. Great deal. So that brings my grocery total to $458/$500 for the month. Next week will be a bit tricky. I usually go shopping on Sunday, which is Jan. 29. I've been averaging about $90/week, but will need to stay way below it in order to make my goal for the month. I think if I stick to the basics (milk, bread, eggs, etc.), I'll be in good shape. Also, that will give me a good head start on February's bill!

I had the massage yesterday, which was lovely...I wish I could get one per week! Usually I get gift certificates for Mother's Day, birthday, anniversary, etc., so they're few and far between...Today I need to put in all of the CVS receipts and a doctor bill to be reimbursed from my FSA.

That's it on a rainy, Monday morning...

Went to the grocery store today, and turned in a whopping $.30 worth of recyclables. (Hey, it's better than nothing!). I also bought the soda and chips necessary for the $10 Pepsi rebate. The store was running a great sale - buy the 4 12-packs of soda for $10, get the 3 bags of chips/pretzels for free. That worked out well for me, because I wouldn't normally have bought the chips, and I did need soda. (We're not big soda drinkers, but I like to have some on hand and I'm completely out from the holidays). So, the new totals are...

New total: $4.24 (thanks to $.30 recycling)

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebook), $25.49 (ebook), $75 (Affinity Bank), $10 (Del Monte Rebate), $10 (Colgate Rebate), $26.67 (ebook), $20 (Norton Security rebate), $20 (Wireless Router Rebate), $8 (Games Make Great Gifts Rebate), $5 (Amazon Rebate - not sure if I'm getting this because I didn't submit the packing slip), $10.57 (ebook), $10 (Kimberly Clark Rebate), $4.58 (ebook), $10 (2nd Kimberly Clark Rebate), $10 Pepsi rebate.

The spa called this morning to say that the girl who was to do my massage went home sick. They couldn't get anyone to come in to take her clients, so I had to reschedule (for tomorrow morning, so it's not that bad). In the meantime, I've had the whole day to myself. It was such a beautiful day (again!) that I walked to the post office and CVS. It's probably about 2 miles round trip, so I was pretty pleased. (As you can gather from my posts, I don't exercise that much! ). I spent $25.xx at CVS, almost all of which will be reimbursed.

I'm just going to putter around for the rest of the day. I looked over the grocery sale papers and made my list for tomorrow, I have some laundry to do, and I'd like to straighten up a bit. Nothing too strenuous...

I don't know if it was the three day weekend or what, but this week absolutely flew!

I'm looking forward to another quiet weekend. Today we'll go to the park after school (high near 60 - can't believe it's January!). Tomorrow, hubby is taking the kids to his mom's after DD's basketball practice. They're staying for dinner, which means I have the whole day to myself ! I scheduled a massage using the gift certificate I got months ago (can't believe I haven't used it yet), so the tip will be the only money out of pocket. Sunday, we're staying home, watching football and using my crock pot (chili maybe?).

I need to go to CVS, probably today, but everything will be reimbursed through my FSA. I'll also try to hit the grocery store on Sunday so I can go without the kids.

I need to figure out what to do with my dependent care Flexible Spending Account. I signed up for the maximum $5000, knowing that I would come in just around there. (DS has 6 months of preschool in 2006@$655/mo, DD has 6 months of after-school care 1 day/week @$87/month, and they both were to have 1 day of after-school care Sept-Dec at $165/mo). That would have totalled $5112, plus any ad hoc after-school care uses thrown in (where I pay per day).

However, I'm starting a new job at my company in the middle of February. Although I'm not quite sure what the new schedule will be (I'm part-time), I don't think that I will need the after-school care on a regular basis beyond March. That means I'm only guaranteed to use about $4200, between DS's preschool and the after school care Jan-March. Although I'll definitely continue to use the before/after school care on a drop in basis, I don't think I'll use it enough to make up the $800! Usually, you can't change your FSA totals unless you have a qualifying change in status. I'm not sure if moving from one part-time situation to another counts. I'll definitely need to look into it though, so I can adjust if I need to. At least this is happening early enough in the year for me to react...

So that's about it for now. Have a great weekend everyone!

I found my next bank bonus. (Actually, it found me!). Chase is opening a new branch in the next town over. They mailed out coupons for different bonuses based on the type of account you open. The one I'm likely to open is a checking account, free with direct deposit. The normal bonus for this account is $50, but if you open the account during a particular 2-week period in February, they'll double it, for a $100 bonus. Minimum deposit is $100, and you need to leave the account open for 6 months. The great thing about Chase is that they allow one cash bonus per customer per calendar year, so I can take advantage of this, even though I already got bonuses from them in 2005. Last year, I also got a $100 bonus from a local branch opening and about 6 weeks later, they sent me an offer for $50 or $75 to open a savings account. Hopefully, they'll do the same thing here! For those of you interested in taking advantage of bank bonus offers, your local newspaper and "junk mail" are great sources for offers like these.

Today's ramblings:

1) My January electric bill came in at $114.40. My goal is $135/month, but the fact that I came in under is a bit deceiving. The $135/month is an average, and my electric use goes up considerably in the summer due some to air conditioning but mostly the pool filter. Hubby has it running 10 hours/day, I think. I know there's a calculation one can do based on the number of gallons in the pool that says how much it should be running. I need to find that before the summer to make sure we're not running it too much. Anyway, I need to build up enough of a credit balance before the summer hits so I can keep to my target.

2) Gas (for the car) spending is going well this month, too. So far, I've spent $251.69/$350 budget. I think I should be able to stay within budget, and this isn't even counting the Shell rebates I'll get.

Overall, I think this should be a good month as far as sticking to the budget. I'll need another week or so before I'm totally confident of this, but so far so good.

I feel like I'm all over the map today. The weather stinks! It's 58 degrees, which would be great for this time of year except for the strong winds and driving rain. Couldn't use an umbrella when dropping off the kids this morning because it was so windy...we were all soaked!

I have a few money-related errands today. I need to deposit some money in the bank, setup direct deposit for my new Affinity checking account, and stop at the library to pick up two books for sale for my $20 challenge. Hubby is in Boston for the day for a business trip, so he won't be home until late, which should give me time to finish up my half.com inventory.

I forgot to mention that Santa brought me an ice cream maker and a crockpot. I've used the ice cream maker a few times already. It's probably one of the few things that aren't cheaper when you make it homemade, but it's soooo good. I haven't tried the crockpot yet...maybe this weekend.

I finished reading "Confessions of a Slacker Mom". It was an easy read about how this woman is avoiding the spoken and unspoken pressure on how to raise your kids "the right way" today, and instead is raising them in the manner that she was raised. Interesting and definitely more consistent with my style of parenting...

That's about it for today. Have a great day.

Stopped by the library today but could only find one of the two books for sale. So I bought the one, combined it with a few others from home and put the order into ebook. Total for the order was $4.58-$.10(cost for book) for a net of $4.48. Not bad.

I also updated my direct deposit for Affinity. When I called to get their routing number, I asked when I should expect the bonus and they said it comes in after the 3rd direct deposit. A bit of a bummer because the earliest I can get it is early March. Better late than never I suppose...

I also have the second Kimberly Clark rebate ready to go out tomorrow, so I'll add that to my list of outstanding items.

New total: $3.94

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebook), $25.49 (ebook), $75 (Affinity Bank), $10 (Del Monte Rebate), $10 (Colgate Rebate), $26.67 (ebook), $20 (Norton Security rebate), $20 (Wireless Router Rebate), $8 (Games Make Great Gifts Rebate), $5 (Amazon Rebate - not sure if I'm getting this because I didn't submit the packing slip), $10.57 (ebook), $10 (Kimberly Clark Rebate), $4.58 (ebook), $10 (2nd Kimberly Clark Rebate).

I had a pretty productive day at home today. I did some laundry and cleaned up a bit. Hubby came home to have lunch with DS and me. We decided to go to the local pizza place and hubby treated.

Then, I took DS to ToysRUs to get a toy. He used his Christmas money. I wasn't really into it, because I think the only reason he wanted to go was because his sister used her money to buy something last week and I think he felt like he needed something new too. Boy it's tough. I feel sometimes like they're twins...they want to go to bed at the same time, get the same things, do the same things, etc. I haven't yet figured out how to get them to realize that it doesn't matter what the other one does...

I also stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a coffee this afternoon. Desparately needed and worth every cent. I'm working tomorrow, then coming straight home after picking the kids up from school.

I sent out the first $10 Kimberly Clark rebate today. I find that rebating goes much smoother if you do it as quickly as possible after bringing the groceries home. I also filled out a second rebate form, and now need to put the info into an envelope and mail that out. I'll be thrilled if I ever see this $10, as I'm sending it to my dad's house (only one allowed per address) and can't guarantee that it will stay there until my next visit. We'll see.

Other than that, not much new on the challenge front. I'm still waiting for the account information from Affinity...should be getting that today or tomorrow. I can't get to the used bookstore tomorrow because I need to run an errand at lunchtime, so I'll miss that this week. No biggie...

New total: $4.04 (no change)

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebookdrop), $25.49 (ebookdrop), $75 (Affinity Bank), $10 (Del Monte Rebate), $10 (Colgate Rebate), $26.67 (ebookdrop), $20 (Norton Security rebate), $20 (Wireless Router Rebate), $8 (Games Make Great Gifts Rebate), $5 (Amazon Rebate - not sure if I'm getting this because I didn't submit the packing slip), $10.57 (ebookdrop), $10 (Kimberly Clark Rebate).

Stopped by the local library with the kids. While they were picking out their stuff, I wrote down the last row of books they had for sale and checked them out when I got home. Ebook would buy 2, for a total of $2.03. Considering they would only cost me $.20, it's worth it. I'll pick them up tomorrow afternoon on my way to get DS from school. I can also add them to 3 books from home that I can sell for an additional $3.12.

I went through my half.com inventory tonight, added a bunch of new books and deleted other books that I've sold through ebook. I still have a few more to get through, sometime later this week.

Finally, I did receive my Affinity Bank account number so I'll set up direct deposit tomorrow. It should be effective for my Jan 31 pay, so I'm hoping that the bonus will come shortly thereafter.

I made it out of the store today with a grand total of $92.91! That's not bad, considering that the kids were with me (added an extra $5 or so to the bill). I also forgot my recyclables. Only about $.25, but I'm trying to be diligent about recycling them. I was also able to stock up on a load of things at the store today, thanks to the Kimberly Clark $10 rebate. My pantry and cabinets are pretty full...good feeling.

After the store, the kids and I met hubby for lunch (we brought our own). It was fun and the kids had a great time. The only other spending today was for gas. So all in all, a pretty good day.

Total groceries so far: $366/$500

I love weekends when I have nothing much to do...I guess because I don't get them that often! We went to Church Saturday night, followed by Chilis. It was fun with the kids, though I don't think they liked it enough to go back. Going to Church yesterday means that today we had nowhere to go and nothing to do. It was beautiful! I made 3 loaves of pumpkin bread, cooked dinner and straightened up a bit. Not much, yet I'm still tired. Go figure.

We're going to meet hubby for lunch tomorrow. I also have to go grocery shopping. I made my list and got my coupons together so I'm all set. I'll need to take the kids (for the first time this year...) but I'm hoping to get in and out quickly and without many extras.

A little more progress on the challenge: I got a $6 rebate in the mail yesterday from BJs that I completely forgot about...it was for buying oj and oatmeal. Today, I hit the local library for their used book sale. Spent $3 to get $10.57. Not bad, and there was a whole other room of books that I can check out next month, so that's promising.

I also returned some items to Eckerd and got their all-in-one rebate form for the Unilever products, so I'll fill that out this weekend. Kimberly Clark is advertising a $10 rebate this week. I think I'll be able to take advantage of that twice, one for me and one for my dad, because we use a lot of those products. Here are the new totals:

New total: $4.04 (+6 rebate - $3 books)

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebookdrop), $25.49 (ebookdrop), $75 (Affinity Bank), $10 (Del Monte Rebate), $10 (Colgate Rebate), $26.67 (ebookdrop), $20 (Norton Security rebate), $20 (Wireless Router Rebate), $8 (Games Make Great Gifts Rebate), $5 (Amazon Rebate - not sure if I'm getting this because I didn't submit the packing slip), $10.57 (ebookdrop)

...and not the kind you eat! I called hubby's benefits group. The term life went up slightly because they recalculated the amount, but mostly because the company raised the rates across the board. I don't know, but a 30% increase seems like a lot to me. (Granted that they haven't raised it for a while, but still). When talking with hubby about it yesterday, he seemed surprised that my 20-year term for almost the same amount was only $30.67/month (I'm only 2 years younger than he is). I think my plan of action is to price out 20-year terms for him. He's due to go to his doctor in March for his annual physical. If things look good (Cholesterol, weight, blood sugar, etc.), I'll bring up the idea again of switching to term. (Point being that he'll have to take a physical for the insurance company too and we want to make sure he'll qualify for the best rate). He may or may not go for it but we'll see.

Continuing to stew...I got my renewal for AAA yesterday - $123!! It includes me and hubby, and AAA Plus, which allows you to be towed anywhere within 50 miles for free. I like AAA, and we've definitely gotten our money's worth out of it with all the car trouble we've had over the past few years. I use a 14-year-old car to do the bulk of my commuting, and between me and hubby we drive well over 30,000 miles per year, so I really don't want to get rid of it. I already eliminated towing from my auto insurance premium (no sense having that if you have AAA). Didn't save much, but every bit helps. My goal for the next week or two is to scour the AAA website and check out all the other benefits they offer. I'd like to take advantage of whatever I can there to help offset this cost!

On the positive side, my gas bill for the cars is $153.73 so far this month. I'm trying to keep it to $300/month, so I'm hoping to come in right about there. I also got my first Shell Credit card statement, and I earned over $57 in credits that will offset any Shell Gas I buy next month. So that's cool. Have a great weekend...

Went to the used bookstore yesterday for my usual Thursday run. Combined with a few things I had at home, I put together a package for ebookdrop that will net me $26.67-$8.67 (cost) = $18! So I'll take out the $8.67 today and add the $26.67 when I get it.

Also, Affinity Bank called today to confirm some information on my application. Everything is a go, and they were sending out the signature cards to me yesterday. I have to say that every interaction I've ever had with them has been positive, which is pretty good for a bank!

I noticed about $.20 worth of recyclables on my counter today (whoopee!). I'll take them to the grocery store this weekend. In my Outstanding Totals, I'm also adding in a few other rebates I have outstanding. My goal for this week is to narrow down my next bank opening offer and get that started. Hopefully I'll shoot to get that done next week...

New total: $1.04

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebookdrop), $25.49 (ebookdrop), $75 (Affinity Bank), $10 (Del Monte Rebate), $10 (Colgate Rebate), $26.67 (ebookdrop), $20 (Norton Security rebate), $20 (Wireless Router Rebate), $8 (Games Make Great Gifts Rebate), $5 (Amazon Rebate - not sure if I'm getting this because I didn't submit the packing slip).

I forgot to add this in my earlier entry...

I got hubby's January paycheck. His life insurance, which he gets through work, went up $14/month!!! He gets x times his salary, so I don't know if they recalculate the total each year and adjust it, or if it's just that he's a year older now, or if they raised the rates on everyone, or a combination of all three, but $225/year is insane! What bums me out even more is that right before the end of the year, I went onto lowermybills.com and checked out 20-year term insurance for him. Turns out it was only about $2/month cheaper than what he had through work. Given that the insurance through work doesn't expire, increases with his salary each year, and doesn't require a separate physical, it was definitely worth staying. I mentioned the increase to him yesterday, and he's reluctant to switch, I think primarily because he doesn't want to take the extra physical and he doesn't like the fact that term insurance expires. I'll call to see what caused the increase, then I'll have to stew about this while I figure out what to do...

On a lesser (but still annoying) note, I got a letter in the mail from our bank. Seems like savings accounts will be charged a $3 monthly fee if the balance falls below $300. This shouldn't be a problem for me, but I'll need to be careful, as this is my "fun money" account and it sometimes falls below that level, also this is the source for the money I use to open other accounts. Hmmm...

I hate to wish my days away, but man am I looking forward to this weekend. I have off on Monday for MLK day, so that means a quiet, 3-day weekend for me! DD has basketball Saturday morning, I'm hoping to go to Church Saturday night, and food shopping (by myself!) on Sunday. THAT's IT!! The rest of the weekend will be spent in PJs, puttering around the house. I still need to put away my Christmas stuff, and straighten up a few things.

Bill-wise, I think I'm staying pretty well on track so far. Hubby and I get paid tomorrow, so I'll write out all of the bills for the month and see where I stand. On paper, it looks like I'll be able to put the $1000 toward my HELOC. I'd be thrilled if I could make this goal each month...I really want this bear paid off by the end of the year.

I'm in NYC today, so I'll hit the bookstore at lunch and see what I come up with. Other than that, a quiet day...

I'm mailing out 2 $10 rebates today. The first is for Del Monte products and the second is for Colgate-Palmolive products. I would have bought the stuff anyway, so I'll include them in my challenge when I receive them. I have another rebate for Unilever in the works. I'm a bit bummed because I didn't think it out as thoroughly as I should have. I'll see what the grand total of the rebate is, and how much I would have bought anyway, and will add that to the total when I get it.

I also cashed in the recyclables at the grocery store for a grand total of...$.65! This is the only part of my plan that I'm rethinking. I notice in my first post, I'm shooting for $100 from recycling for the year. That works out to roughly $2.00/week, which works out to 40 items per week. I'll never come close to this! We just don't drink enough soda, beer, etc. to have the number of cans and bottles needed for this. So I'll continue to do it and add to my total, but I'll need to make up the difference somewhere else...

New total: $9.71

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebookdrop), $25.49 (ebookdrop), $75 (Affinity Bank), $10 (Del Monte Rebate), $10 (Colgate Rebate)

I've never really gone out of my way to take advantage of rebates unless they're right in my face. But as part of my 2006 challenge, I decided to try and take advantage of more rebates, particularly on items I'd be buying anyway, to add to my savings. I checked out the Freebies/Rebates forum on this site (man, does that Kimmie do a good job!), and lucked out with a $10 Del Monte rebate for buying 20 products. It just so happened that during last week's "can can" sale at our grocery store, I bought everything I needed, and still had my receipt. I spent a total of $10.94 for 20 cans of fruit, vegetables, and broth, and will get $10 back. Cool. That inspired me to do the $10 Colgate rebate that's out there. I wasn't going to bother, because I did it last year and must not have sent everything in, because they rejected my request. But last week, I bought 3 of the items I needed to complete the rebate, so it was just a matter of buying 2 tubes of toothpaste ($1.97-$1 coupon each). So for $1.94, I'll be getting back $10 there, too. Thinking I was on a roll, I took advantage of a Unilever rebate. The form I cut out was from a CVS ad, but Eckerd advertised the same rebates. So I went there with my coupons and bought a bunch of stuff. Turned out 1) The form was exclusive to CVS, so I need to make a special trip back to Eckerd to get their form for the stuff; 2) I bought soap and body wash, when the rebate was for soap or body wash; 3) I bought 1 thing of fabric softener instead of 2; and 4) I planned it to get an extra $4 back by buying a certain number of items, but because I messed up #2 and #3, I now have to fix it. Lesson learned: READ THE FINE PRINT and don't buy stuff just for the rebate! I may just go return the whole kit and kaboodle!

The rest of the day was pretty productive. Went to CVS for DD's vitamins and a few other items that will be reimbursed by my FSA. (What a good deal I got on Ibuprofen: 100 Nuprin caplets on sale for $2.15, minus a $2 CVS coupon for a grand total of $.15!). Then I went to Eckerd for that whole rebate mess, spent $33 on groceries, got DS a much needed haircut ($14) and came home.

Total groceries this month: $273/$500.

I took care of my grocery shopping while I did Dad's. No special trip needed, and I was solo, as hubby was at his mom's with the kids. Total spent: $55.55! ShopRite had their "CanCan" sale, with pretty good deals, especially when combined with coupons, many of which were doubled! I'm pretty psyched because I'll definitely come in under my $100 goal for the week. I need to go to the fruit/veggie store tomorrow or Tuesday, but there's not way that will come close to the $45 I have left for the week. Wahoo. I also updated my price book tonight, so I'm keeping up to date with that. Excellent day...

Total groceries this month: $240/$500

I think I'm doing much better with my groceries. My budget is for $500/month (which still seems really high to me, but it's a start). That means I can spend $100/week at the grocery store and $100/month at BJS. My BJs bill yesterday was $94.13 and my grocery store trip last week was $90.xx. So far so good. I've planned my menu for the week, and wrote out my grocery list for this week, and I should be able to stay under $100 again (although that needs to include the grocery store and the fruit/veggie store). I also started updating my price book again and it's already paid off, as there were a few deals in this week's sale paper that I normally would have thought were good deals and now see they're not.

I went to Toys R Us yesterday, and brought gifts for 4 birthdays this month. I had some gift cards, so the total out of pocket was about $35.xx. No other expenses, as expected. Today I'm going to dad's, he'll spring for dinner...

Hubby has a fractured toe. We thought he just stubbed it really badly, but it's been about a week and not getting much better, so he went to the Orthopedist. $20 copay covered by FSA, but at least now it's taped and will be getting better eventually...

I filled up the car today. I'm really digging this Shell Mastercard. My first statement came and I received over $57 in credits that will be applied against my next bill. Most of this came from the 15% rebate on Shell gas (3% on everything else - 1st 60 days) so while it won't last forever, I'll be happy for whatever I get.

I also filled out the reimbursement form for my parking. When I work in NYC, it costs me $20/day to park. I now have the money taken out of my paycheck pre-tax, then file the claim with them to be reimbursed. I haven't figured out yet how I get my money (I think it shows up in my next paycheck?). Painless process, all done online. Good deal.

Other money spent today: $4 on lunch, $10 dues for a local club, and $100 for DD's softball registration. The big hit will come after work today when I stop by BJs. I haven't been for a while, and could stand to stock up on a few things. I'll be thrilled if I can keep it under $150. I also need to hit ToysRUs for 3 birthday presents. I have some gift cards, though, so cash out-of-pocket should be minimal.

This weekend should be pretty low-spend, too. The cleaning lady is coming tomorrow (thank goodness!) but that should be the only cash out. We're going to dinner at our friend's house tomorrow night, but we already have a bottle of wine to bring. Sunday, I'm heading to my dad's to do his shopping and have dinner with him. So other than gas/tolls, that should be no-spend, too. Have a great weekend everyone...

I stopped back at the library on my way to pick up DS from preschool yesterday. I found one paperback there that ebookdrop would buy for $1.30 (cost to me $.10). So I bought it, added it to a couple of others in the house, for a total of $3.81. Cool. Then today I stopped by the bookstore at work. Found 8 books that I can sell for $18.66 (profit of $9.98).

I've spent some unnecessary cash over the last few days. Went out with some friends last night for drinks ($13), and got Chinese food for lunch today ($7.05). Both came out of my allowance for the week, so I don't feel too bad about it.

I still need to submit some remaining 2005 medical expenses to my FSA, as well as to take care of some other housekeeping type issues. Hoping for a quiet rest of the day...

I'm off to a good start on the challenge: My local library was having a sale of about 75 books. I looked through all of the hardcovers, and 2/3 of the paperbacks. Ebookdrop was willing to buy 1 paperback for $1.30 (cost to me = $.10). When I went home to place the order, I found 3 other books I had lying around that ebook would buy. I had been holding off on them because the $ offered was so low, but they've been on half.com for a while now without any movement, so I decided to add them as well. Net profit: $3.81-$.10=$3.71. I'll subtract the $.10 here and add the $3.81 when I receive it.

Today, I went to the bookstore by work. I checked out 6 shelves of books and found 8 that ebook will buy. $18.66-$8.68(cost) = $9.98 profit. Again, I'll take the $8.68 away here and add the $18.66 when I get it.

Finally, I called Affinity Bank, the first of my 2006 bank offers. My kids have accounts there (great deal - 10% interest up to $500. Highly recommend it). Anyway, in one of their statements was an offer to open up a free checking account and get a $75 bonus. (I think this is open to everyone, if you ask). I need to open the account by mail, because it's in California, and I'm in NJ. So I filled out the paperwork today and mailed it out. Not sure how long it will take to get the bonus, because after my account is open I need to set up direct deposit, but hopefully within the next two months.

So that's it for now. New totals:
Opening balance: $20.00
Debits: $8.78 (books)
Closing balance: $11.22

Outstanding Items: $3.81 (Ebookdrop), $18.66 (Ebookdrop), $75 (Affinity Bank)

Good news for me...I found the sheet of ISBNs that I wrote down before Christmas but forgot to go to the bookstore and pick up the books. Anyway, ebookdrop is still accepting the 6 books I had, for a total of $15.23-$6.51=$8.72. I won't forget to pick the books up today!

I picked up the used books today after work. I wasn't able to find all of the books, but found some. I spent an additional $2.16 beyond what I listed above, and I'll make an extra $6.83 in profit.

So my new total is $9.06.

Outstanding items: $3.81 (ebookdrop), $25.49 (ebookdrop), $75 (Affinity Bank).

I finally got my $25 bonus from PNC bank. I opened up a checking account with them in late October. I was supposed to get a $10 Best Buy gift card on the spot (which I did) and a $25 BP gift card 6-8 weeks later. I never got the BP card, so I called the branch, and they told me that they can't get BP cards anymore, but he'll send me a $25 Best Buy card instead. Never got that either. When I called back last Wednesday, the rep told me that he would give me a $25 Visa gift card instead, and leave it with the tellers for me to pick up on Friday. I never made it to the bank on Friday, and when I went there today, the tellers couldn't find it (of course) and he was out to lunch and not answering his cell phone. Ugh! When I finally spoke with him at 3:00, he said they just added the $25 to my account, and it already posted. So the end result was great, but the hassle was a bummer. Of all the bank opening offers I've taken advantage of, this is the only one that I've had any problems with. But at least I got it.

I also finally got the oil changed on the car. I went to Jiffy Lube. I had a $5 coupon from my Shell Mastercard (apparently Shell and Jiffy Lube are connected), and I also get a 15% rebate by using the Shell credit card. I tried to get DS's hair cut, but the place we usually go to was locked up. I wonder if they went out of business, though there weren't any signs to that effect. I'd be bummed if it did, because it was pretty cheap and really convenient.

I took the kids to the library after school. The library was coincidentally having a "fire sale" where they were selling paperbacks for $.10 and hardcovers for $.25. I checked out the dozen or so hardcovers at ebookdrop, but they weren't buying any. There were a few dozen paperbacks, which usually don't sell as well, and also usually get less money, so I didn't bother going through them all today. If they're still there next week, I'll test them out.

Aside from the oil change, the only other money spent was for Oriole-Yankees tickets for a game in June. Hubby and I went to Baltimore last year for a game, and it was great so we decided to do it again. I'll check out the Marriott over the next few days...he should have enough points to get a free night, and I need to book it before the tickets go on sale to the general public so they don't sell out. That's about it for today...

So far so good...I went grocery shopping today (without the kids) and spent a total of $90.xx. My budget for the month is $500, so that's pretty good. I saved my receipts, and need to update my price book with the purchases. No other spending today. Tomorrow I need to take the second car for an oil change (never did that last week). I'm drawing a blank, but I think that should be it. I was also happy to see the payment from the three ebookdrop orders I sent in December for the used books. For some reason (holidays?) they all were paid today. So it's cool that it worked, and I'll be back in the city on Thursday to pick up the next round. I also got some organizing done today - cleaned out a few closets (one per day is my goal).

I love the new year...I like the feeling of a "clean slate". I spent yesterday and this morning finishing up my 2005 recordkeeping. As I've experienced each month, I like looking at my net worth more than my day to day finances, because stuff like 401ks really help out.

I'm going to spend most of today doing laundry and straightening up the house. Our company left yesterday, and my house looks like 5 tornados have swept through! I don't think I need to go out at all today (or tomorrow!) so it will be a quiet day to finish gearing up for the new year!