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'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.

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!

this site, that is. I just haven't blogged for a few days. Combination of being busy at work and not a lot new to report. Until today.

Made progress on a bunch of to-do's from the past few weeks.

First, I called our old insurance company regarding a $100 check I was due for showing up at the gym. (50 times in 6 months= $100). They told me the check was mailed 1/17 and sure enough showed up today.

Also got the $50 rebate from Verizon Wireless for a new cell phone we got around the holidays.

Finally faxed the receipts to the old FSA administrator, so I can get the last $25 in my account.

Then I faxed $69 worth of receipts to this year's FSA administrator.

I still have the $5 Lysol rebate to get out in the mail, which I'll do tonight or tomorrow.

So all in all, not that bad,

One of the things I've been doing on this site is reviewing some old blogs. (I think all this talk of our 4 year anniversaries made me nostalgic). For those of you who aren't familiar with Flash, her entries are SO worth a read! I went to the archives and read them all. The highlights: amazing insights on navigating medicare, grocery shopping, and taking advantage of deals. Amazing.

As a result, I've decided to revisit a few money-making pursuits that fared well for me in the past. The first is the $1/month trial, and you get a $20 gift card. These are pains in that you have to remember to cancel within the month, but I've always received the cards so it's worth the note in my calendar to do these.

The second thing I'm pursuing is taking advantage of bank offers. I think I mentioned that I received an offer from PNC for $150 to open a direct deposit checking account. I'm going to open one, and close an old Citibank account to take advantage of the bonus. I don't really care where I bank, and I probably cleared about $600 (or more?) doing these a few years ago.

Final thing I did today was a health assessment at work. If you filled out a confidential survey of your health profile, they'll credit you $120 against your medical premiums in April. No brainer, because I needed to get all that stuff checked anyway. Unfortunately, I was borderline (on the high side) with cholesterol, triglycerides and weight, but did great with blood sugar. Basically need to get back to the gym and watch what I eat. (What else is new?!). Totally worth it for its own merits, much less $120!

I have had so much dental work done during my life, I joke with my dentist that I want a front row seat to his son's college graduation because I feel like I'm single-handedly footing the bill! I have never had as bad an experience as this root canal/crown that I'm going through. I've had root canals in the past, wisdom teeth pulled, and it's nothing like the discomfort I have now.

After paying the $318.75 out of pocket for the root canal (actually $265 - I got the refund today), I went back to my regular dentist today for the crown. He was stingy with the novacaine...I was numb when he was working, but it wore off at the end of the visit and I felt like I was hit in the jaw by a boxer! Then when I got home, the temporary crown fell out! My appointment to get the permanent crown isn't until the 29th, so I need to call tomorrow to see if I have to get the temp popped back in. The kicker to all of this - my portion for the crown will be about $475! Ouch. Thank goodness for dental insurance. This tooth will cost me over $700 out of pocket, and I have what would be considered really good insurance! So now I'm sore and I'm poor!

The tooth ordeal took up most of my day. (My dentist is 90 minutes away from my house - don't ask). I did make it to Target to return a Christmas gift, only to find that the gift receipt taped onto the box wasn't the right one. Trip wasted, and now I'm stuck with a gift that my kids won't use.

I have one more day off tomorrow, and was planning on finishing up some of my errands. However, DD seems to be coming down with something (perhaps DS's strep throat?) so I need to take her to the doctor tomorrow. Fortunately I have plenty of inside stuff to do too.

On the plus side, DH got his final paycheck for working Jan 1 (holiday) and Jan 2. We forgot he would be paid for those two days, so that's a nice little bonus.

I'm off to take 2 Advil and get some sleep. Hopefully I'll be back to my chipper self tomorrow.

ETA: I added another $63.99 to my medical savings total because the premiums for my plans are less than what we paid under hubby's plan.

Finally made it to the post office, but not without a $20 scare. I mailed my 3 half.com books. Ended up making 13.65-7.34 to mail for a net of $6.31. I mailed my Paperback swap book, and 2 rebates, for a total of $6.79. I also returned a wii game to toysrus.com. I popped it into the envelope and left it with the clerk. When I got back into the car, I saw the invoice that I was supposed to include in the envelope, without which the return would not be processed! I zipped back into the post office and fortunately the clerk had not yet put all of my packages into the big bin so I got it back. I lost the $1.85 that I already paid to mail it, but at least I didn't lose the full $20. That's what happens when you rush!

The pediatrician sent the 2008 invoices to me. I submitted my last 2008 FSA claim for a total of about $20. I'm going to use them for a $5 Lysol rebate as well. Buy 2 lysol products and take your child for a checkup and get $5 back. That one's a no-brainer!

I added $2.39 to the pig, bringing the total there up to $114.27.

Tomorrow I'm going back to my regular dentist to get the crown put on the root canal tooth. I don't know how much it will cost me yet. I'll try to run a few errands while I'm out.

I also made it to the gym today. Nothing financial there, I'm just happy that I actually convinced myself to go in the 22 degree weather!

I'm so excited! Every day I'm coming up with a few different things to pursue to save a few bucks. I feel like it's really adding up!

I called the dentist today. They said they received the check from the insurance company on the 9th and that the bookkeeper was sending me a check for $53.75, so I'm happy that's coming back to me.

Rite Aid sent a $10 gift card for a December program they had.

I stopped at the library (no fines- hooray!) and took out two books. One is called 52 Weeks to Financial Freedom. I've read it once before, quite a while ago, so I figured I'd take it out again and flip through it in case I come across something I can use. Pretty basic stuff. The other book is called Get Clark Smart. I'll flip through that tomorrow as well.

This was an outside shot, but I called my FSA adminsitrator to see if I could up my benefits. Normally, this can only be done during open enrollment, but because DH quit his job on Jan 2, that qualifies as a "life change" that should allow me to change it within 31 days. I need to call my company's benefits department tomorrow, but I should be able to. I only set aside $600 this year, not being sure what our financial situation would be. I'm going for a crown on my tooth this week (that's good for a few hundred), plus $20 for DS's strep throat, so I'll have blown through half of it in the first 3 weeks! It would be great to up it to $900 for the year.

I'm off tomorrow, so I'll definitely be able to get to the post office. I have 4 books to mail, along with 2 rebates and 1 Christmas return. That'll cross alot of my list!

I got back on track today...

I called my pediatrician and asked them to send two December invoices to my house so I can submit them to my 2008 FSA. They should get here in a few days and I'll take care of it right away.

I called my new benefits people to figure out how to submit 2009 FSAs. However, I'm not in the "system" until after the first pay period. So I submitted the 2 bills ($20), and they'll hold them and process automatically as soon as I'm set up.

I called EZ Pass. DH was on the commuter plan, because he used to go over the Tappan Zee Bridge every day. The charge was about $38/month. I cancelled it on 1/5. They cancelled the plan going forward, but said I'd need to wait until the January bill hits my account (Feb 12), then call back to get my credit for the unused January trips. Seems convoluted to me, but who am I to say? I put a note in my calendar to remind me to call.

Speaking of remembering to call, I took advantage of a CVS Extra Care Buck deal, where I spent $20 on a few products and I'd get $10 ECBs. I bought them on 1/4 and never got the ECBs. So I called today, gave the rep the info off the receipt, and she credited me the $10ecb. Lesson learned: Save your receipts! I used to throw them out unless I knew I'd need them (like for a rebate). Now, I'm keeping them all, by month, after I enter them into my grocery log. That way, if I stumble across a rebate after the fact, or if I have a problem like this, I'm prepared. Saved myself $10!

Sold yet another book on 1/2.com ($3.50). I bet if I went through my blogging history, every time I sold 1 book on 1/2, I ended up selling 3 or 4. It's always feast or famine. So now I'm inspired to post a bunch more on there tonight. Each book has been one that I read once (maybe twice) but would likely never read again, and I'm cleaning my shelves in the process!

Went grocery shopping yesterday and spent $109, with $5 coming back to me via rebate. Still within budget on that category. Now that I know my pay for the 15th, I need to run the numbers and see what's what.

Avoided paying for food at work again. Brought oatmeal for breakfast and nuts/fruit/pretzels for lunch. One upside of bring my food: I've been saving some money. Second upside: I lost 2 pounds last week (woohoo!).

Finally, I added $1.09 to the pig. Slow and steady wins the race!

My mother had an expression, "the road to he*% is paved with good intentions". That was her response any time we told her that we meant well, but something just didn't pan out. Alas, I thought of this quote as I looked at my to-do list from yesterday.

I didn't get to the post office. DD had a basketball game at 9:00, and DH was anxious to get down to his mother's for a visit so he could get home before the snow started. So I didn't get to take care of #1-4. I couldn't find any more receipts from 2008 to finish my 2008 FSA, so I need to call our pediatrician and ask her to resend our December bills, which will be enough to wipe out the balance. I'll call them Monday and take care of it as soon as I get them. So that wipes out #5. I was all set to take care of submitting 2009 FSAs, but when I went to my benefits website, I couldn't find the reimbursement page, so I need to call up and figure out where it is. So that's delayed until Monday. And I didn't get around to calling the auto insurance or putting away the Christmas stuff, although I'm still planning on doing that tomorrow.

So out of the 9 things listed, the only thing I managed to accomplish was to complete several loads of laundry! Always the optimist, however, a few good things still managed to happen:

1) I sold another book on 1/2.com (for $1.25), so I'll mail that out as well when I finally get to the post office.

2) DH returned a keg tap and barrel from our annual Christmas party and got the $70 deposit credited back to our credit card. We have one more to return from a different place, that we'll likely do over the next few days.

3) I wrote out the Smart Start rebate form so that's all ready to go into the mail, and I found a bonus $2 rebate for Baileys that I wrote out as well. (Stumbled across it, and the receipt with the keg deposit also happened to have the Baileys on it. I never have that kind of luck!)

4) While I was looking for my FSA stuff, I confirmed that my dentist participates in my new plan. I had a root canal around Christmas, and need to go back to the dentist for the crown this week. Not sure what the final out of pocket will be, but it'll help having him in network.

I also was able to log on to work and get a preview of my 1/15 paycheck. For the month, I'll be a couple hundred lower than where I was hoping to be. I'll need to rerun the numbers and see if we'll be able to squeak by on it, or if we'll need to tap some other money. Hubby received his vacation payout, which we put into an account with what's left of my bonus to use in case of emergency.

I also added another $.89 to the pig!

So the day wasn't a total loss. Onward and upward!

Didn't get a lot of personal stuff done today (actually I got nothing done!). Work was crazy, and I stayed late because hubby will be on a business trip next week so I'll be out of the office alot.

I have a very quiet weekend lined up, however. The kids have basketball tomorrow morning (DD anyway, DS is still recovering from strep). After that - nothing going on. Are there 3 nicer words in the English language? So here's my outstanding list, in no particular order:

1) Go to post office and mail 1/2.com book (~$1.50)
2) While I'm there, return video game to Toys R US (note to self - never buy from an online retailer that doesn't let you return to their stores!) (~%22)
3) Complete and mail the Smart Start rebate (~$4)
4) Complete and mail the Citibank rewards form (~$150)
5) Finish submitting 2008 FSAs (~$30)
6) Submit 2009 FSAs (DS doctor, RX) (~$20)
7) Call auto insurance, if they're in on Saturday
8) 4 loads of laundry
9) Begin putting away Christmas stuff

That's a pretty aggressive list, but at the same time, there's a bunch of money there that I need to claim.

Some random musings for the day, in no particular order...

Made a sale on half.com, my first in months and months. $1.50 + shipping for an interesting book, but one I'd never read again.

Saved $10 on medical stuff today. I posted recently that we changed health plans from hubby's to mine as part of his job change. We had to take DS to the doctor today (strep ). Co-pay: $15 instead of $20 under DH's plan. RX for amoxicillin: $5 instead of $10 under his plan. I'm going to start tracking medical savings on my sidebar, because I'm hoping that I save enough to offset a doctor or two that I want to keep seeing but are out of network.

In the "loose with the money" department: in addition to my $4 splurge at Wendy's, I went to lunch at work and spent $10. I'm not beating myself up too badly, because I've brought food from home for every other meal. Being frugal is like being on a diet...if you starve yourself, it'll never work. Slow and steady wins the race.

In the "loose with the money, 2008 edition", I had to pay a $5 fine to the library for a (really) overdue book. I've vowed to not have any fines in 2009, but I make that vow every year and it never really seems to work.

My auto insurance renewed. My rates went up about $40 for the year, to about $2270 (forget the exact amount). I inquired about changing the deductible from $500 to $1000 on the car we recently paid off. It would save me $45/year, so I'm considering it. Funny, I need to take my own advice. When the rep first told me the difference, I didn't bother, because it was "only $45/year". But if I'm willing to save $3/month by returning things and rebuying them with coupons, I ought to make a phone call back to the insurance company to save $3.75/month! While I'm at it, I can tell them that DH is no longer using the car to commute, which should shave a few bucks off as well. Looks like I owe them a call tomorrow!