mjrube94's Blog

I was pretty productive today. Here goes:

(X) Sign kids up for Basketball and Indoor Soccer ($350 ouch).
(X) Update credit cards / budget spreadsheet.
(X) Contact Caregivers Marketplace re rebate
(X) Contact Staples re Easy Rewards
(X) Mail dad's credit card bill

I emailed Caregivers Marketplace because I was expecting a rebate of $13.75, but the check I got in the mail was for $11.75. The customer rep emailed me right back and told me that the $11.75 was for a previous rebate I submitted, and I'll be getting the $13.75 next week. Hot dog, that's another $11.75 to my $20 Challenge!

I also picked a penny up on the street today, so it's actually $11.76. (Baselle, I'm still amazed that you found $20 in a year. I work in NYC and was sure that I'd find a few cents each day. I've been looking for about a week now, and that penny is all I've seen).

I planned out my next attack for the $20 challenge. I like the book/dvd thing and most of the libraries in my county have used book sales. I went online and got the schedule for each one, and I'm planning on hitting them over the next few months. I'll write down the ISBNs, use the library computer to check right away what will/won't be accepted, then buy the ones I can resell. In most cases, hardcovers are $.50-$1, paperbacks are $.25-$.50 and DVDs are $1 or less. I'm hoping that I'll strike some gold (or silver at least). I'm not at all a garage sale person, but I bet the same approach would apply there, especially for DVDs.

Big day tomorrow, with lots to do. Here's the list in advance, so I can get cracking on it first thing:
( )Drop off gift cards
( )Go to bank
( )Close Citibank Checking account
( )Submit and mail credit card rewards form (there's about $450 there. What am I waiting for?!)
( )Finalize menu for Saturday and grocery shop
( )Laundry (DD needs uniform for Saturday, so this is a must!)

I managed to do everything on my list yesterday, except for 2 small things: 1) I deposited the checks at the bank but didn't schedule the xfer to the emergency fund. 2) I picked up the grocery gift cards, but didn't drop them off to the person who needs them. I'll take care of #1 today. I'll have to take care of #2 tomorrow.

Some interesting (or not) facts from yesterday's to-do list:

I submitted the receipts for the kids' dentist visits. Their dentist is out of network but we like him so much that we continue to go to him. No worries, as fortunately our plan still pays 100% for the regular checkups, even though he's not in the plan. Good deal. Bad news: They only cover flouride 1x/year and he gives it to them 2x, and for one of the services, he charges $15 more than their reasonable and customary. So the total bill was $450, and I'm going to have to pay $180 out of pocket.

I enrolled in my 2010 health plans at work. Same plans as I have this year, but my premiums are going up by $192 for the year. I'm still pretty happy with it, though. Medical, Dental, and Vision for a family of four will be $3,192/year (or $266/month), and the coverage is pretty generous. Can't complain. I'm just thankful that I have the insurance!

I also signed up for $1800 in my Flexible Spending Account. I only had $1500 this year, and I blew through that in January and February thanks to a root canal and crown. Next year, hubby and I will both need glasses, and we'll have the same dentist issue as this time, along with our prescriptions and regular costs, so I have no doubt that we'll use it all up.

Other happenings: Got an email from Cash4books that they received my package. I didn't credit my $20 challenge account yet because the money is not in Paypal, but hopefully I'll see that by the end of the week.

Today's to do
1) Transfer funds to Money Market
2) Call gym for appointment for DD
3) Sign up for event at DD's school
4) Plan menu for Saturday dinner (another couple is coming over, and I'm going to be super short on time).

I'm inspired by everyone cranking through their "to-do" lists, so I'm going to try posting my top 5 to-dos on my blog to keep me accountable. So here they are:

1) Complete the paperwork to be reimbursed for my kids' dentist visits.

2) Deposit check at the bank and set up transfer to money market emergency fund.

3) Go to post office and mail paperback swap book.

4) Pickup grocery gift cards for school fundraiser.

5) Register for 2010 health benefits at work (it's open enrollment time!).

Let's see how I do...

OK, on to my class trip rant. I'm all for kids going on field trips to enrich whatever learning goes on in school. But it's costing me a fortune! Last week, 2 permission slips came home in the backpack for DD. The first is for them to see a Broadway show ($102), the other was for a teambuilding field trip ($34). She had one earlier in the year for Ellis Island ($32). DS already had a field trip for ($28). This was all unbudgeted (though you'd think after 6 years in the school, I'd realize that I get hit for stuff like this every year and plan for it. Lesson learned for next year!). Anyway, is it all really necessary, or can they sit in school and do reading, writing, and arithmetic?

$20 challenge update: I received notification from second spin .com that they accepted my order and deposited $11 in my paypal account. Not bad for getting rid of 4 dvds that we never would have watched again. The turnaround time was pretty quick - less than 2 weeks from order to payment. I'd definitely recommend them. They also take cds and video games. So that brings my $20 challenge up to a whopping $24.25! Woohoo!

I went grocery shopping today and scored a few good deals: Pert shampoo on sale for $1.99. I bought 3, and had $3.50 in coupons, so I got 3 for $2.50. I bought a 2-pack of Hot Pockets on sale for $1.99 with a $.75 coupon doubled = $.50. 12-pack of Rayovac AA batteries for $.99 after coupon. You get the picture.

Sat outside for a FREEZING cold, damp, windy soccer game. Sprung for Dunkin Donuts hot chocolate - totally worth it.

Didn't get around to making my butternut squash soup today, but I have all the fixins and will hopefully get it done tomorrow.

One more book gone on Paperback swap. I'll get that in the mail tomorrow.

I also got a bit of organizing done in DS's room on Saturday. I have a bag of clothes that no longer fit ready for goodwill, and another bag full of garbage. His room became the storage place for everything in the house that had no where else to go. It's not perfect, but it's a major step in the right direction.

Should be a quiet week financially.

I had 4 more books claimed on paperback swap so I have to get them to the post office.

We're going to a concert tonight. Bought the tickets before I got back on the frugal bandwagon. We're having dinner at home before we go so it should be an inexpensive evening. The weekend is looking just as quiet. We're having dinner at a friend's house tomorrow, and soccer Sunday morning. After that, I'm all about cooking - soup, bread, maybe chili.

I don't know what's up with east coast weather. It snowed yesterday, and was about 39 degrees when I picked the kids up from school. Brrr. Damp and rainy to boot. The heat's on, but we're keeping it at 63 degrees for the day.

Totally off topic, what's up with balloon boy and his family? I don't know if it's a hoax, but that father is guilty of being a little kooky.


That's about it. Not much to post about, but I wanted to stay in the habit...

I put a bunch of kids books on Paperback swap last week. 4 were claimed right away, as customers had them on their "wish list" so as soon as they were posted they went. Four more books were claimed over the last few days, which will go out in the post office tomorrow. I also received a request for someone who wanted to get a 3 for 1 deal on some Magice School House books that are really small, and should hardly count as 1 credit each. That's 11 books out of my house in one week. I'll get credit for 9 of them.

I also received 2 Paperback Swap books in the mail today, both on frugality/saving. I haven't read either of them previously, so I'm looking forward to it.

Folded 2 loads of laundry tonight

I sometimes feel like I've got a money angel on one shoulder and a money devil on the other shoulder.

Money angel made me stop at the Target on my way to Dad's house to return DS's pants that I bought last week. $14.99 credit on my card. Bought dish detergent at the store with a TMF mail in rebate. Paid $1.79 and will get $2.99 back.

Now for the devil. I had to drop off mail to my brother. Mess doesn't even begin to describe what this man has done with his life. Deadbeat dad, alcoholic, pathological liar, sponger, on and on. He has mail sent to dad's house (because he doesn't have a permanent residence) and he asked me to drop it off to him. I got there, hugged him, gave him his mail, and was about to make a hasty retreat when the request came: "ah, hey, do you have $20 on you?". I should have lied, said no, and hightailed it out of there, but the devil on my shoulder said "no, he's worse off than you are, you can part with it". So I gave him $20. It came out of my personal fun money (because Hubby has a much stronger backbone than I do, so it can't come from house funds). The whole way home I rationalized it by saying that I only see him once or twice a year, it's easier to say yes than no, but I'm still upset with myself for not saying no. Uggggh.

DD had a soccer tournament today. First game was 9:45, second game was 4:30. In between, we went to Applebees with the team for a team lunch. One of those bonding things that's tough to get out of. I was pretty pleased, though. We had a fabulous lunch for $54 (4 people). I was so full at 6:30 tonight that I didn't have dinner! I thought it would be more (usually is when there's a large group and the check is split), so I feel pretty good about that. Other than that and a gas tank fill-up, no money spent.

Not much on the docket tonight. I'm sipping a glass of wine (ok, more drinking than sipping), planning my grocery store run for the week. That's about it. Oh, and more laundry

When I decide to do something, I usually obsess and focus on it non-stop (except losing weight! lol). I've been so focused on getting my finances back in order that I didn't do a stitch of laundry this week. Until today, when hubby and DS informed me that they have no more socks. Oops! So I did 3 loads.

On the financial front, I opened up a money market savings account at BOA for our emergency fund. Right now we have a bunch of accounts all over the place, and I wanted to consolidate. The rate is 1.05%. I checked out ING and their rate is 1.30%, which is a difference of $25/year on $10,000. So I opted to keep it local at BOA. Not sure yet how high we'd like it to go, but certainly higher than it is now. I'll track it on the side, and we're planning to add $250/month to it.

Soccer was not cancelled. The weather guy's report was wrong (go figure). I always say that if I did my job as inaccurately as they do theirs I'd be out of work!

I didn't get to Target to return the clothes. I also didn't get to BJs, which was on my list. I should be able to take care of it on Sunday. But I did get to the Post Office, so that was something.

We have a 3-day weekend. Lots of soccer, shopping for Halloween costumes, BJs and Target are all on the list. And I'd like to spend some time on Sunday cooking. Butternut Squash soup, banana bread, meatloaf muffins maybe. mmm.

I signed up for an account on cash4books and sold 6 books for a total of $12.99, plus a 3% Paypal Bonus = $13.38. I'll box them up and get them to the post office tomorrow, and add that to my $20 challenge when I get the money.

I also signed up for an account on second spin and sold 4 DVDs for a total of $11. The bummer is that I need to pay for shipping, which will eat into the profit a bit, but still better than nothing. The difference will go to the $20 challenge also.

Four people requested books that I posted on Paperback Swap. No money for these, but I'll get them out of my house, and I'll get credits for books that I want to buy in the future. Those will go out tomorrow as well.

And finally, I have a rebate check for $13.75 from the Caregivers Marketplace that will count toward the $20 Challenge. For anyone who doesn't know about Caregivers Marketplace, you should check it out. They give you rebates on all sorts of items that caregivers (both of babies and elderly) would need. For example, Diapers, Depends, Polident, Ensure, etc. You submit your receipts and they give you $ back for each (usually $.75-$1). They're prompt with the payments. This will be the third rebate I've filed with them.

I'm not planning to include coupon/rebate savings in my challenge unless it's something I would have bought anyway, or if I made a profit (e.g., free after rebate and a coupon). In this case, I bought stuff for my dad during my monthly shopping trip for him that he reimbursed me for. The rebate is gravy, so I'll count it.

I'll update my sidebar to keep track of my Challenge on the progress. The books could work. I had some success with that a few years ago. We'll see.

Tomorrow should be quiet. It's supposed to rain all day (no soccer practice? Fingers crossed). I have to return some clothes to Target. And of course, get to the post office!

I logged most of my books into Cash4books.net. I can sell 5 for about $10 (but one of them I want to read again before I sell, so I'm going to make good use of my long commute tomorrow, then process them tomorrow night).

I cross checked the books on ebookdrop.com, but they weren't buying any of them. At the same time, I logged any books I didn't sell onto paperbackswap.com. You don't get paid for these books (members swap them for free), but for every book of mine someone wants, I get a credit to get a book for free. Comes in handy to buy Christmas gifts, kids' summer reading lists, etc.).

Then, someone in the forums mentioned secondspin.com as an option for selling used dvds. I logged a bunch of our dvds in. Many were only getting $.25 or $.50, so I'll hold onto them, but quite a few were getting $2 and one got $5. Initially, I think I'll part with 4 (for $11) and see how smoothly it goes.

So I'm going to process these orders tomorrow night and assuming I get the checks, that will be an extra $20 or so toward my challenge. Hmmm, a 100% return in 1 day. Wish I could keep that up!

Here's the good, the bad and the ugly for the day, ugly first:

I made the second payment on the cc that was due 10/5, so it's now paid off in full. I'll have to wait until my next statement comes out on the 13th to see what the late fee / interest damage is. At least I have a week to work on my story for the customer rep...

The bad:
Bought pizza at work yesterday, $5 on my id. This is the first slip up since I started.

Bought a bagel and coffee this morning, $1.94. Paid cash out of my allowance.

Went to Target to get fall/winter clothes for DS. I knew it was coming (he's growing like a week) and it was budgeted. Used my debit card. The key: I was all by myself. In and out in 1/2 hour, spending less then I would have if my "helpers" were with me.

The good:

Paid off the credit card.

Balanced my check book and projected out through the end of the month.

Starting the $20 challenge (see below).

Printed out a bunch of rebate forms, matched them up with coupons I have. Showtime has a $25 Visa gift card rebate for signing up for 3 months. We just signed up a few weeks ago so we could catch Dexter (one of our favorite shows) with the intent of dropping it after the season is over. If the rebate goes through, that will just about pay for the 3 months.

I have some money from my birthday, so I'm going to take $20 and start the challenge. I'm going to start slow, post some books on half.com, check cash4books, bottle deposits, some coupon and rebate savings. I'll get more creative after that...

I'm swallowing a tough pill as part of my "get organized/back on track" plan.

We had a HUGE credit card bill this month. I always pay the balance off in full each month, but my timing was off getting the funds to cover the bill into my checking account. As a result, I was only able to pay 1/3 of the bill, and I made the payment online the night it was due, which means it didn't hit until the next day (late!).

The balance of the bill will be paid on Thursday, but I'm still going to get hit with interest on the outstanding amount. I'll also get hit with a late fee, though I'm going to try to call them to get that waived.

Ouch! Tough lesson learned. This one will hurt for a while . I'm now moving away from the credit card and onto the debit card. Much safer. Eventually I'd love to use an envelope system, like I've read on some blogs. Slow and steady...

DD has soccer practice every Monday night, next door to the neighboring town's library. I've taken advantage of it by borrowing 3-4 CDs each week, which I then go load onto my Itunes. In most cases, I'm getting songs that I really like, but definitely wouldn't pay $1.29 for (yes, they raised the price from $.99!). Great way to build my music collection for free, and little opportunity for late fees because I'm there every week.

Didn't spend any money at work today, though I'm hungry because I only brought breakfast (not lunch) and I haven't stocked my file cabinet with food yet. No worries, we have a machine on the floor where we can get free coffee, tea and hot chocolate, so I'll grab a hot chocolate to hold me over until I get home.

Finished reviewing the September bills and tried to plan out the rest of the year. We have some emergency funds in 3 different accounts and we're looking to consolidate. Wow, rates are low right now. Even ING is only 1.30%. Our regular bank has a money market deal that's at 1.05% so we'll open the account there, even though the online rate is higher. (Net difference - $25/year on $10k. I'd rather have one less account).

Has anyone done Dave Ramsey's plan? I looked it over but haven't completely bought in. We have a manageable level of debt (though none would certainly be better) - a mortgage, car payment, and heloc. Details on my sidebar. The HELOC is the one that really stresses me out, but I can't get over his idea that I should only leave $1000 in my emergency fund until all non-mortgage debts are paid off. Doesn't seem like a big enough cushion to me. Anyway, I'd love to hear about everyone's experience with his plan.

I had a great Saturday. I spent an hour in each room and did whatever I could to straighten up the room during that hour. When the hour was up, I moved on. It felt so productive and not overwhelming, because I knew that when the hour was up, I was done. Of course the place is such a mess that I need many more hours to get rid of all the clutter and get organized, but I felt like it was a great start.

I also got through many loads of laundry, including folding them instead of just leaving them in the basket!

I spent money at the grocery store, wine store, and for a friend's birthday. The wine was unplanned, but a good deal.

Today should be a no-spend day. MIL took us to the diner for breakfast, her treat. Unfortunately I have to get some work done today (in between football games) and I'll update the September numbers later tonight.

I'm on a roll with the "not eating at work" thing. Haven't spent a dime at work all week, and have no plans to today. Wahoo...

On Wednesday I went to Dunkin Donuts with DS ($3.85) and went out for drinks with friends ($20). Both came out of my personal funds from birthday money I received and not house money, so I'm ok with both. We did take out pizza last night (even though I had chicken set to go in the fridge). I was outvoted 3-1 on that. Looks like I have some work to do with the rest of the family .

I called Verizon and cut my wireless bill by $15/month. We had signed up one of the phone lines for unlimited downloads and internet surfing, which is so unnecessary, and we were barely using the service at all. So that's done.

I'm also looking for a new "in-network" doctor. I switched plans in January and none of my doctors are in the new plan. I'm not that picky, though, so I'm choosing a new one, which will be free (no copay for well visits) instead of $100 or more if I paid out of pocket.

So all in all I feel like I'm slowly getting myself back in gear. Being on this site more regularly definitely helps!

I just cancelled my weight watchers subscription. I was a member a year or two ago and let my subscription lapse. At the end of July, I let myself get totally sucked into a "Free 7 day trial" and figured I'd get back on, make sure my points and info were still the same, and cancel within the 7 days. Of course I didn't, and was charged $65 for a 3 month subscription that ends 10/29, and $16.95/month thereafter. Even though I go on the site, I still don't get much out of it that I can't do on my own, so I just went in and cancelled. Unfortunately, no refund, so I still have use of the site until the end of October, but at least I won't be charged after that. Bummer...

Good News: 2nd straight day without buying food at work. In fact, yesterday was a no-spend day, except for a car maintenance repair that needed to happen (and was huge).

I started going back through my budget to the beginning of the year and realized that I've become really sloppy and undisciplined.

The first: I've been spending an average of $65/month eating at work! It's so easy to get breakfast and/or lunch there. I can use my id and have it deducted directly from my paycheck, so I don't feel it as much as when I pay cash. And I'm NOT a morning person,so getting out of bed 15 minutes earlier to eat at home is not happening.

I need to put a stop to it, so today I grabbed something quick at home and brought lunch. The key is having stuff I can just grab in a hurry. So my goal is to not eat at work unless I have to go to lunch with someone for a meeting, which only happens once or twice a month...

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. Thanks to Lux for the kick in the pants to get back here. No good excuse for why I've been away, other than the usual "nothing new / been busy". I've definitely been more lax about my finances while I was away. I haven't updated the budget, I've been spending on totally frivolous things, and I need to get my act back together. So while I can't swear that I'll be back daily like I should be, I'll try to use my blog to get myself back on track...

Our accountant tells us that it looks like we should be getting some money back for our taxes this year. I'll believe it when I see it, because we always owe. (In fact, if it's true, we may have him take a look at the last 2 years to make sure I didn't miss anything). So that's the good news. The bad news is that we're not actually going to see the money. Because DH has his own company, he needs to pay estimated and other taxes each quarter, so we're going to apply the money toward that. Oh well, at least it's not coming out of our pocket!

I finished March numbers today. I'm really pleased with how we're doing on things like groceries ($515 actual, $500 budget), gas ($160 actual, $200 budget). Unfortunately, we haven't been scaling back as much as we should. We ate out more than we should have (a bunch of fast food / pizza / chinese trips that could have been avoided), spent too much on clothing and other categories that we could have managed better, etc. On the one hand we're not feeling particularly deprived and we're still getting by, on the other hand, I'd prefer things to be not quite so tight.

I'm happy to see Flash back on the site. One of my favorite bloggers ever! I was inspired by one of her recent posts about "using it up" day. I know there are more than a few things in my refrigerator and pantry that are approaching their expiration dates, so I'm planning on spending some time tomorrow tracking down what they are and planning accordingly.

I went through all of my receipts since the beginning of the year and matched them up against rebate forms that I need to get out. So far I'm up to $44.50, but $6 of it is for wine that I got my dad, and they want the labels soaked off the back of the bottle (are you kidding me?). I'll ask him to take care of that for me and pick them up next time I see him. I also need to print out new rebate forms and plan my shopping accordingly.

Kids are off from school this week. MIL is doing Easter so I don't need to worry about that. I'm still busy at work, but hopefully I can use the week to catch up a bit.

Usually I'm either swamped at work or swamped at home, but not both at the same time. And usually I'm swamped or hubby's swamped, but not both at the same time. Since the beginning of November, when I took on a new job at work, and hubby prepared to leave his job and kick off his own company, we both have been swamped at work and at home. Not a great thing.

Thankfully, it's all good and challenging and relaxing, but it's tough keeping it all together. We've gotten a little lax about the spending over the past month (buying food at work, eating out more, buying things not necessarily on impulse but also without shopping around). I need to buckle down, but also need some time to do it.

Anyhow, I know there are about half a dozen rebates that I've saved receipts for. I need to print out and mail in the forms. I also have to get to the post office to mail another book from Paperback Swap. com. Hubby's travelling for work this week, and I have a few work at home days, so I'm hoping I'll be able to make a significant dent into the to-do list.

Other than that, nothing much going on with the financial front. Haven't heard back from the Accountant yet, hopefully later this week.

I've been posting here for years. And usually, around Feb 10th, I post about how I'm collecting all of my tax stuff and getting ready to do them then...nothing. Then I'll post again around April 10th absolutely flipping out because my taxes aren't done and it's so close to the deadline. (I usually owe a ton of money, too, so that never helps)!

Well not this year. One of the benefits of DH starting his own company is that we now have an accountant do our taxes. Yes, I know this is costing us money, but the peace of mind is priceless. Especially with me so swamped at work.

No doubt, we'll still owe, because he worked through the end of the year, as did I. But if I have to owe anyway, I may as well not have the stress.

So I'll report back about how we made out. In the meantime, what to do with all the time I'm NOT spending on taxes? Hmmm....

Keeping It Frugal in Texas is keeping me honest! Yes, things are going pretty well so far, but I would definitely be better off if I posted more regularly, so here I am, second night in a row!

My thought for the day: I rented (for free) 2 dvds from my local library, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Dark Knight. Now Roger Rabbit's been around since I was a kid, but Dark Knight is a really recent release - it'd be $5 at Blockbuster! I'm going to have to take advantage of this some more. We had friends over Saturday night (super cheap - baked ziti and home made bread, thank you very much), and we started talking about all of the classic movies I've never seen (Godfather, Stripes, Close Encounters). We must have come up with 100 movies. So my goal is to watch one a week until I get caught up.

Speaking of getting caught up, I need to check my rebate sites - a bunch of new ones are out there that I'd like to take advantage of, but it requires some planning. That'll be my goal for the next day or two.

Yes I've been a big slacker about posting. Ends up Facebook hasn't been taking up so much time, I've just been absolutely swamped at work!

I did manage to tally up my February spending. The good news: I'm meeting my goals for the "every month spending". Most of my utility bills are fixed (I pay the same each month). My grocery bill was $510.59 (budget $500), Eating out was a mere $12.58, and gas for the car was $160.14 (budget $200).

Two areas where I got hit hard: hubby's life insurance. During the transition from his old job to an individual policy, we ended up having to pay a few months at once (plus a rate hike). Also, we bought DD a cell phone for Christmas, so the cost of the phone and extra line hit on the credit card this month. Finally, we had a pretty big "entertainment" bill - DD's birthday party (~$250), company for dinner, and a dinner out in support of our PTO.

So overall, we spent a bit more than last month, but are still doing fine.

Other miscellaneous financial stuff: I sold 2 books on half.com, got a few rebates back, still staying on top of those types of things.

Yipes, haven't blogged for a week, though I have been staying caught up reading everyone else's blogs. Not much has been going on...I guess when you're trying to be really tight with money, you don't spend so much so there's not much to write about.

I paid my bills on the 15th. Looking forward to the end of the month, it looks like I'll be a little worse than last month, but still ok. We had a few unanticipated expenses that cropped up, including a big hit for DH's life insurance, as we were a few months behind on the premium due to his job change (the premiums are no longer coming out of his check). Ouch.

And I'll admit it, the real culprit is Facebook. I finally signed up last week and it's more addictive than I thought it would be. It's pretty fun catching up with some old friends, but I don't know what will come of it. I do know I can't spend hours a day on it! lol.

I'm also keeping tabs on my dad, from a distance. He's 84 and seems like he's doing a bit worse over the last few months. I'm an hour away, so it's hard. I need to get down to see him a little more frequently.

So a lot going on, but not much financial.

Wow, did my grocery budget take a hit yesterday. It was already high from the previous week, when we had guests for dinner. On Friday, I was all set with a pretty modest list taking advantage of great sales prices. But it went to pot (shout out to Michael Phelps!) ON Saturday.

First, DD asked if she could go with me. She's in that pre-teen stage where she doesn't know if she wants to hang out with me or be all independent, so if she asks to spend time together, I usually try to accomodate. We had to wait for hubby to come home before we went out. I'm not quite sure why, but it was a bit hectic and I left without my list. I remembered the big sale things I needed, and the other staples on the list, but I ended up with about $25 worth of stuff that I didn't anticipate buying. Then to add salt to the wounds, I actually had coupons for about half of the extras I bought, but could only find about 1/2 of them in my envelopes while we were waiting to check out. Ugh...

I need to update my grocery log...I have to enter the last 2 weeks and I don't want to get too far behind because it's so tedious. I also have 2 rebates to fill out and send in. I should be able to get to that tonight or tomorrow.

Now that I'm paying more attention to my receipts than usual, I've noticed something: many times at the bottom of the receipt, a company will list a 1-800 number and request that you complete a survey about your experience. Often, they'll throw in a freebie. Here are the 3 recent ones I got:

Children's Place - 10% off my next purchase
Burger King - Free Whopper
Dunkin Donuts - Free small coffee.

Now, I'm sure many of you are thinking "what are you doing going to Burger King/Dunkin Donuts in the first place?!", but that's not the point. If you ARE there, you may as well get something extra out of it. The surveys are painless and usually take only a few minutes.

We completed our first month on 1 fixed income and ended up only $47.05 short! This is tremendous, because we gave up about 60% of our fixed income when DH left his job to start up his own company. We cut down on our savings, cut out some unnecessary expenses and basically just watched things a little more closely, but at the same time, didn't really feel like we were sacrificing that much. So we're happy about that. We have a few big hits coming up in February which will make it a little worse, but as long as we're within about $500 or so, we can cover that with hubby's earnings.

Here are some highlights:
Groceries - came in at $493.53 when the budget is $500.
Gas for the car - $169.58 with a $200 budget. This was betweem $400 and $500 last summer when we were driving every day and gas prices were through the roof.
We were definitely helped out by some refunds, rebates and other credits that came in as well.

Over the next few days I'll project February and see where the rough patches will be. We spent some money yesterday for guests we had over for dinner. I'm breaking out the stuff that was for dinner into the "Entertainment" category so I don't blow my grocery budget day 1.

I have a few more receipts to enter into my flexible spending account. I finally got my crown taken care of last week. While I was there, he saw that another filling cracked, taking 1/2 the tooth with it, so I'll need a crown (no root canal) on that tooth. I set up an appointment in a few weeks.

I also have one more rebate to fill out.

That's about it. Other than that we'ree just hanging out at home getting ready for the SuperBowl.

I went grocery shopping today. Found 3 items that I had rebate forms for, so I picked them up (paying separately so each had their own receipts). I filled out 2, but I need to hold off on the third because there was a problem with something else on the receipt. Quaker granola bars were on sale for $2.50 each, but when I got home, I noticed that they still charged me $3.79. So next time I'm back at the store I'll bring my receipt with me and show them the error. I'm hoping that they'll end up giving it to me for free . Another thing I'd do for $3...

I've been tracking my groceries on a spreadsheet. Really helps me to see how I'm doing. It's a bit tedious, but I've been entering the info as soon as I get home so I don't get behind.

I also updated my monthly spending. Won't be finalized for another few days but it's looking ok so far. Woohoo...

Ahh, peace and quiet. Hubby took the kids to Grandma's for a sleepover, so I had the house to myself for a few hours. I went through the grocery ads for the upcoming week and cut and organized my coupons. Also went on a website where I can check out rebates, and printed out a bunch, including a few that expire on 1/31. Tomorrow morning I'll go shopping, then get the rebates out the door.

Had a good mail day today. I got a $50 coupon from our auto dealer for the next time I get service. We always take the car back to the dealer (I know, I know, it's probably a rip off, but I like them and trust them more than any locals I've used). So given that we're using them anyway, the $50 coupon will come in handy. In the mail I also received a $10/$10 or more coupon from Liz Claiborne, so I can check out the clearance rack to see what they have.

I received my $13+ deposit from half .com a few days ago. Cool.

We're going out to dinner tonight, on hubby's new company. His friend put together his website, and did a great job, but wouldn't let us pay him for it. So we're taking him and his wife out to a local restaurant instead. Much cheaper than what we budgeted for in the start-up costs!

So that's about it for today. Looking forward to the end of the week so I can see how we did our first month on 1 steady income!