When we had the bathroom flood last October, I had to clean out my closet. I bagged up a bunch of fall/winter suits and skirts that I never thought I'd fit into again. The bag of clothes sat in my son's room since then. I forgot about it and assumed it was a bag of kids' clothes. When I finally went to throw it out, I saw what it was. Some of them fit and the others were close. Yahoo! Saves money on the clothing budget...which was promptly spent on a dress for DD's communion. But I already have another event to wear it to, so I feel better about it.

All else is going well. I've been pretty busy later, but things should lighten up considerably once the Communion is done.

I'm cruising along until the end of the month.

The basement has been cleaned up. Bags and bags of junk have been thrown out, with still more to go. We're spreading it out over a few weeks, because we don't know how much the garbage men will take at one time.

Turns out the insurance will not cover ground water. The agent said it's an exclusion on all of their policies...you can't even buy a rider for it. I'm not sure what the final damage will be, but I'm estimating it to be in the $2000 range. Fortunately, hubby had some company stock that we were planning on selling anyway, which just about covers it.

We'll definitely be able to pay off the HELOC (~$6300) using hubby's bonus, so that'll be great. We're waiting until the very end of the month, though, to make sure everything else is paid.

Bought DD's shoes for her Communion. Gotta love Payless. Buy one get one 1/2 off (I bought DS dress shoes too), and got DD a new pair of sandals for the summer for $27. I thought that was a pretty good deal...

I'll be home tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get a few errands run. We'll see how it goes.

The kids are off from school this week, so we headed down to my brother's house in NC. 80+ weather for the last 3 days...a big change from NJ, where it's only in the 50s. It's been a pretty cheap vacation. Aside from gas to get down here, and a trip to the local museum today, we're not spending any money.

When I get back this weekend, I need to finish my taxes. (Ignore my previous posts from January and February, when I talk about getting a jump on them and not waiting until the last minute!).

I sold another book on half.com. Another $2.00 for the old savings account! More importantly, one less piece of clutter in the house. I'm going to check out paperback swap.com. I have a ton of paperbacks that I'll never read again, and they don't sell well on half. Maybe I can trade them in for something else I'm interested in...

April is a big month for us financially. Aside from taxes that are due, hubby gets his bonus this month. I also (finally) submitted the estimate for repairing the bathroom to the insurance company, so I should be getting that check back as well. The goal is to pay off the money we just transferred to the HELOC when the 0% cc promotion ended. That'll be great.

So that's it now...I'm off to enjoy the rest of vacation!

Made out great at Walgreens today, taking advantage of their March rebate specials.

Right Guard Body Spray $4.99 far
Fructis Hair Spray $3.99 far - $1 coupon
Listerine Tooth Defense Mouthwash $3.49 far
Crest Toothpaste $2.99 far - $1 coupon
Reach Toothbrush $2.99 far
Kotex pads $10.78-$1 coup=$9.78 $10 WAG giftcard after rebate
Listerine Cool Blue kids mouthwash $3.99-$1coupon - $2.50 rebate = $.50.

So I paid $29.22 and I'll get back $33.05 in WAG giftcards, plus I got a bunch of stuff I can use. A successful day...

since my last post. I need to get better about posting. It's not like anything out of the ordinary has been going on, other than life itself (which is never ordinary, I guess)!

I must admit that I've been pretty lax with the financial side of things. Not necessarily overspending, just not keeping as close an eye on it as I'd like. The kids are pretty busy in school (it's sad how much they make 2nd graders do!). Plus DD is making her 1st Communion on May 6, so we have that to prepare for. Hubby's been travelling quite a bit, and my job has been hectic and crazy.

Financially, our net taxes due are likely to be in the $1500-$2000 range. Not horrible relative to last year, but I'm not happy about it. Hubby's bonus comes in April, but we're not sure exactly how much it will be. The plan is to pay off the HELOC (we switched about $6800 to it when the 0% cc ran out). I'll have a much better picture of where we stand at the end of April when these variables (and others) are taken care of.

Still working on the reimbursement from the insurance company for DS's speech therapy. And (unbelievably) waiting for the school to schedule his sessions. My final (I hope) meeting with the therapist at school is next Wednesday. The bureaucracy is killing me.

I've slacked off a bit on the diet and exercise but not terribly. I'm maintaining (which is better than gaining, not as good as losing). I need to get motivated to get back on the horse.

So that's been my deal. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone's blogs and start blogging again myself a little more regularly. Until then...

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!

So far so good in the new year. A bit of a setback, as I just checked our credit card balances and between leftover Christmas stuff and the big car maintenance bill from the end of December, it'll be a big hit. But I haven't been spending anything not budgeted, so I just have to hang in until February.

Still doing well with the exercising and eating decently. I'm just waiting for it to become routine, instead of a big deal!

I'm going to revisit some book-selling sites. I did a Google search on ebookdrop to see if I could get a feel for whether or not they were paying out (seems that they are), and it brought me to a site called bookthink.com, which lists about 10 different sites that buy books back. I'm going to create a spreadsheet with all the ISBNs I have and run them through the various sites to see if I can get any money for them. This will meet my dual goal of making money for the $20 challenge and organizing my house!

Speaking of $20 challenges, Chase sent me two coupons for people to receive $50 if they open an account. If anyone read my $20 challenge last year, I made about $750 receiving money for opening new bank accounts. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll send the coupon along...

So that's about it for today...

Today went pretty well, resolution-wise. Not perfect, but pretty well. Walked for 20 minutes on the tread mill, and drank 32oz of water, which is big for me because I hate water! Had unexpected company, so I put out some cheese and crackers and we ordered pizza, both of which I ate, but not as much as usual . Also, hubby paid for the pizza out of his allowance.

I'm off tomorrow, looking forward to a relaxing day to recharge after the holidays!

I need to keep my recent happenings separate from the whole "2007 resolution" thing, otherwise the entry would be 5 pages long!

Went shopping with my SIL. Made out great and was really proud of myself. 1st stop Target. Bought wrapping paper and Christmas cards for next year and a few chotchkas at 75% off. Spent about $20, but I had a gift card, so no cash out of hand there.

At Christmas Tree Shoppe, bought a housewarming gift for a party we're going to next week ($10) and a few more Christmas chotchkas for 50% off. Spent a total of $16.

Finally, at Bath & Body Works, made out great. They had their semi-annual sale. Pretty much bought out all of the American Girl lotions, body wash, etc. that was on sale. DD8 and her friends are totally into both American Girl and frilly stuff for the bathroom, so it's a great combination. I got enough to make 5 baskets for the next 5 birthday parties we go to. Cheap, cheap, cheap!

My brother and SIL are leaving today, which gives us a night to relax until MIL comes back tomorrow for new year's eve. Even that should be pretty low-key, as it will be just the three of us. I'm looking forward to finally winding down after a fun, but hectic few weeks.

The big goal today is to do about 6 loads of laundry, as well as do some cooking to use up leftovers from the week.

That's what we all are here. I think it's the culmination of too many weeks burning the candle at both ends (and in the middle)! Fortunately, the two kids and I each happened to have our annual checkups this week, so I saved $75 in copays by not making a separate trip. Even better, the three different doctors told us the same thing: they'll write us prescriptions for various medecines in case we don't get better over the holiday, but they're generally against knee-jerk RXs for stuff like amoxicillin, so other than a prescription cough medecine, we're taking all otc stuff. I'm really hoping we can kick it by tomorrow, because we have Christmas dinner here, followed by my brother's family for 5 days, and my kids will be on overdrive with his kids.

As for Christmas, I officially, finally, finished my shopping yesterday. Hubby has one bottle of liquor to get today. That's it. Done. I'll tally up the damage later on, but I think I did ok. Either way, I get my bonus from work in the 12/31 paycheck, so I'll get all the bills paid then so I can start the new year off at the right spot !

I do have to finalize the menu for Christmas dinner, and do the grocery shopping. Hopefully today, if not tomorrow (I'm running out of time!). MIL brings the antipasti and lasagna, and other guests are bringing dessert and wine, so I pretty much need to cover just the main meal and veggies. I have a 20% off coupon from Shoprite from a promotion they ran last month, so I'll be applying that for sure. I also have to wrap every single gift in my house...

On the savings front, I'm still trying to wrap up the 2006 numbers and set my goals for 2007. As long as I get to it by 12/31, I guess I'm ok there.

One cool thing I just found out: We have a Citibank Drivers Edge credit card, that gives you 2% credit on everything you buy. I thought you could only redeem the rewards on a new or used car. Turns out that you can also apply it toward car payments. So I'm excited to that, because the rewards expire after 3 years, and I'm not in the market to buy anytime soon, but I do have car payments, unfortunately. This reminds me of one New Year's resolution, which is to (again) go through every credit card, affiliation, organization, etc. that we belong to, and understand the benefits we get from each. There are often things you can take advantage of right under your nose, but you never seem to look...

So that's been my week. We're off to friends' house tonight and home alone (with mil) for a quiet Christmas Eve tomorrow. If I don't post before then, I hope all my Saving Advice friends have a wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy 2007!

I'm totally swamped, but it's all good.

We had our big blowout Christmas party/open house on Sunday. 20 adults and 23 kids over at my house. Sounds scary, but it was 58 degrees out, so they were outside most of the time, and the house came away unscathed. We're already booking a day for next year, and I have a ton of food leftover that I was able to freeze.

All my focus for the last week was on the party. Now I'm in "1 day at a time" mode. DD's birthday is tomorrow. (8 years...can't believe it!), so I had to make cupcakes for her class, wrap her present, etc. I still have some last minute gifts to get, parties/dinner with friends on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So it's all busy but it's all great!

Money-wise, I'm just trying to wrap up the year, update the budgets and lay out some goals for next year. I'm really looking forward (as always) to a clean slate and quiet start to the new year.

So what's new in my little world of finance...

I sold a book at half.com. The topic was how to be an executor for an estate. I bought it a few years back for $.10 from our library, and I made $2.50 on the sale. I'll be the executor for my father's estate, so I thought it might come in handy, until my dad proceeded to tape record step-by-step instructions on how to take care of everything. (He's a bit eccentric, or a control freak, maybe a bit of both)! So the book was expendable.

I mailed out a bunch of rebates today, and have one more to go that I need to get out before this weekend. Then the cycle starts all over again. I never really got into rebates before a few months ago but, man, it's unbelievable the deals that are out there. In some cases I'm getting a few bucks back on things I definitely would have bought anyway, so that's cool. In other cases, there are Free After Rebate (or close to it with coupons) that have allowed me to try new things and/or build up my stockpile of stuff.

I can't remember the last time I paid for toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, deoderant, most shampoo (hubby's brand loyal), hair spray, deoderant, feminine products. Amazing, and I'm not even that good at it, relative to some of the people out there. One of my goals between now and the end of the year is to figure out the best way to track it all...I've been struggling with that one for a while.

Watched the Grinch last night - another classic. It's on Broadway through January, but I haven't heard any reviews yet. (B'way shows have gotten SO unbelievably expensive, with tickets regularly topping $100 each. Even with the two-fers, it's still a lot of money).

2 updates on my last post...Went to the site where I get my discounted gift cards. Amazon, CC, and a whole bunch of others were out of stock, and they no longer sell Target, Home Depot, and Lowes. Yikes...Went to fatwallet.com, and it seems like the contract with those 3 companies may have expired. Went back on the site later in the day and Amazon and CC were available, so I jumped at it while I had the chance. Hopefully it will go smoothly...

It made me a bit more cautious about checking into the site mentioned by StressLess. They sell discounted gas cards, which are also being discontinued on the site I go to. So I need to do some research to make sure that everything is ok there.

I've been lazy about tracking my expenses lately. I usually get this way at the end of the year...I figure I'll start with a clean slate in January, and that will excuse my total disregard for numbers in November and December. I'll try for my own sake to overcome this.

(Have you ever noticed that I go ... alot? I don't know why, but it's really annoying!)

I was at the Grocery Coupon Guide last week and I signed up with a few companies. Today, I received 1 free coupon each for Alberto VO5 and Tresemme. Excellent!

Not much happening on the financial front. I'm waiting until the 15th to get paid and take care of my first round of monthly bills. We got a letter from our gas company, saying that they were going to attach something to our meter to let them read it electronically. That'll be great, because they always estimate my readings, so I never have a true picture of my usage.

THat's it for now...

I read a comment in Ima's blog that someone was set up to ignore entries from another blogger. Can anyone explain to me how to do that? Thanks.

The pool party was a raging success. It amazes me how long kids will stay in the water for! Now I feel like I can relax for a bit...

I managed to get a few things done tonight. I reset the coupon train and will mail it out tomorrow. I also checked into some company stock and options hubby has. I've been meaning to do this for a while and never got around to it. The options are worthless. He needs to hold the regular shares for at least 3 years, so we can sell them beginning next March, if we so desire. No big dollars or anything, just nice to know.

I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow because DS is in his end-of-year show at preschool. I'm planning on taking care of a few more things tomorrow...

Stopped at Staples today to pick up some markers and pens that are free after rebate. (I won't count this toward my challenge, because I wouldn't have bought them otherwise, but the're always nice to have extras around the house). I love Staples EasyRebates...everything is done online! I also sold a book at half.com. It's usually feast or famine with them, so I'm hoping that another 3 or 4 books will sell over the next few days!

Not a great couple of days for spending...I had fast food for lunch yesterday and today (no excuse) and the kids want Burger King for dinner. That's so tempting because they have CCD until 5, so it beats cooking, and hubby is going out for dinner. We also needed to have our watches serviced, cash only

I think I'm at a point where I can pretty much finish up the January budget, so that's my goal for tonight...

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!

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.

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 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.

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'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

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 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...