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Archive for November, 2010

2011 Goals - First Draft

November 29th, 2010 at 03:35 am

Debt Goals
1)Remain debt free other then mortgage
2)Mortgage - Go from $136,800 to $125,000

Savings Goals
1)Deadwood Trip $1000
2)Lawn Mower $200
3)New Car $2000
4)EF $3000
5)Checking Cushion $1800
6)HSA $5000
7)Anniversary Cruise $4000
8)Home Improvement $900

Retirement Goals
1)DH - Continue to contribute to 403B
2)Me - Contribute 6% to 401K
3)Me - Contribute 7.5% to Roth IRA

This is what I am thinking for now. There is always something else that comes up.....but for now this is what it is looking like.

11-28-2010 Coupon Shopping

November 29th, 2010 at 12:16 am

I had a bunch of coupons for household and hygiene products that will expire at the end of the year. So off to Target I went!

$1 off Herbal Essences product (already .30 on sale)
$2 off Venus Embrace Razor Cartridges
-They had a 4 pack for $15 ($3.75 per razor) or 6 pack for $20 ($3.33 per razor). So I got the 6 pack and used the coupon which made it $3.00 per razor.
$2 off deoderant
$1.50 off batteries
$1.00 off any Target product - I got cleaning wipes
$2.00 off Tampax and $1.50 off Tampax
-Also received a $5.00 gift card for Target for purchasing 2 boxes. So that came to $8.50 off the 2 boxes. Which came to .07 cents each, normally .19 each.

So total coupon savings was $11, plus $5 giftcard. So $16 in total savings, and that doesn't count the cheaper per unit prices for buying the larger quantity packages.

$20K Update

November 28th, 2010 at 02:27 am

Current Balance $10,760.00
-$28.00 to ROTH IRA
+$3.00 Even Out Amount
New Balance $10,735.00

:) Rest Time

November 25th, 2010 at 04:41 am

Well I am really happy with all I got done in the last 3 days. Only 2 things left on the list, and I did not get all my reps done for working out, but still really happy. My room is clean and sparkling, my Christmas tree and decorations are up and ready for the hoidays. I don't have to go back to the dr for the year, or the dentist for 6 months and my behind is killing me from the personal trainer. Smile
We will be gone for 3 days for Thanksgiving and hope to not spend too much money while we are out of town.

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL, HAPPY, SAFE AND FRUGAL Thanksgiving! Smile

Done - 1)Wrap BD present for brother
Done - 2)Take coin and gift checks to bank
Done - 3)Buy groceries for Thanksgiving salad
Done - 4)Make Thanksgiving salad
Done - 5)Pack for Thanksgiving trip
Done - 6)Laundry
Done - 7)Clean living room
Done - 8)Shovel driveway
Done - 9)Shovel deck
Done - 10)Clean kitchen
Done - 11)Balance checkbook
Done - 12)Clean bedroom
13)Clean bathroom
Done - 14)Put up Christmas tree
Done - 15)Decorate inside of house
16)Decorate outside of house
Done - 17)3 miles on treadmill
100 situps done - 18)150 situps
10 pullups done - 19)30 pull ups
Done - 20)3 Drs apts
Done - 21)Go to DHs basketball game (cancelled)
Done - 22)Blog
Done - 23)Personal trainer apt
Done - 24)File
Done - 25)Wrap BD present for cousin
Done - 26)Cable guy apt
Done - 27)Donate Blood

Last day - Better get going!

November 24th, 2010 at 04:23 pm

Yikes, lsat day and I still have 11 things left! I better get my butt in gear!

Done - 1)Wrap BD present for brother
Done - 2)Take coin and gift checks to bank
Done - 3)Buy groceries for Thanksgiving salad
4)Make Thanksgiving salad
5)Pack for Thanksgiving trip
6)Laundry
Done - 7)Clean living room
Done - 8)Shovel driveway
Done - 9)Shovel deck
Done - 10)Clean kitchen
Done - 11)Balance checkbook
12)Clean bedroom
13)Clean bathroom
Started - 14)Put up Christmas tree
Started - 15)Decorate inside of house
16)Decorate outside of house
Done - 17)3 miles on treadmill
100 situps done - 18)150 situps
10 pullups done - 19)30 pull ups
Done - 20)3 Drs apts
Done - 21)Go to DHs basketball game (cancelled)
Done - 22)Blog
Done - 23)Personal trainer apt
Done - 24)File
Done - 25)Wrap BD present for cousin
26)Cable guy apt
Done - 27)Donate Blood


Update on To Do List 11/22/10

November 23rd, 2010 at 02:34 am

Done - 1)Wrap BD present for brother
2)Take coin and gift checks to bank
3)Buy groceries for Thanksgiving salad
4)Make Thanksgiving salad
5)Pack for Thanksgiving trip
6)Laundry
Done - 7)Clean living room
Done - 8)Shovel driveway
Done - 9)Shovel deck
Done - 10)Clean kitchen
Done - 11)Balance checkbook
12)Clean bedroom
13)Clean bathroom
Started - 14)Put up Christmas tree
Started - 15)Decorate inside of house
16)Decorate outside of house
1.20 miles done - 17)3 miles on treadmill
50 situps done - 18)150 situps
10 pullups done - 19)30 pull ups
20)3 Drs apts
Done - 21)Go to DHs basketball game (cancelled)
Done - 22)Blog
23)Personal trainer apt
Done - 24)File
Done - 25)Wrap BD present for cousin
26)Cable guy apt
27)Donate Blood

Blood Donors

November 22nd, 2010 at 11:10 pm

If you are a regular blood donor be sure to check out bloodhero.org It tracks your donations and gives you points that can be used for rewards like clothes and giftcards. I logged on today and had enough points for 6 free movie tickets! Awesome! So check it out and get some free stuff for doing a good deed! Smile

$20K Update

November 22nd, 2010 at 10:54 pm

Current Balance $10,660.00
+$75.00 to Retirement hold account
+$25.00 Home Maintenance
New Balance $10,760.00

To Do

November 22nd, 2010 at 03:54 pm

Well I got a jump start last night and got a few things done. But I also thought of a few more....
5 out of 27 done

Done - 1)Wrap BD present for brother
2)Take coin and gift checks to bank
3)Buy groceries for Thanksgiving salad
4)Make Thanksgiving salad
5)Pack for Thanksgiving trip
6)Laundry
7)Clean living room
8)Shovel driveway
9)Shovel deck
10)Clean kitchen
11)Balance checkbook
12)Clean bedroom
13)Clean bathroom
14)Put up Christmas tree
15)Decorate inside of house
16)Decorate outside of house
17)3 miles on treadmill
18)150 situps
19)30 pull ups
20)3 Drs apts
Done - 21)Go to DHs basketball game (cancelled)
Done - 22)Blog
23)Personal trainer apt
Done - 24)File
Done - 25)Wrap BD present for cousin
26)Cable guy apt
27)Donate Blood

Lots to do

November 22nd, 2010 at 02:11 am

Well my time off is going by quickly already and I have LOTS to do before we go out of town again for Thanksgiving. Here is my list to help keep me motivated:
1)Wrap BD present for brother
2)Take coin and gift checks to bank
3)Buy groceries for Thanksgiving salad
4)Make Thanksgiving salad
5)Pack for Thanksgiving trip
6)Laundry
7)Clean living room
8)Shovel driveway
9)Shovel deck
10)Clean kitchen
11)Balance checkbook
12)Clean bedroom
13)Clean bathroom
14)Put up Christmas tree
15)Decorate inside of house
16)Decorate outside of house
17)3 miles on treadmill
18)150 situps
19)30 pull ups
20)3 Drs apts
21)Go to DHs basketball game
22)Blog (working on now Smile )
23)Personal trainer apt
24)File
25)Wrap BD present for cousin

UGH. So hopefully I wont think of anything else.... I have 3 days and 25 things, so I better get cracking asap!
25)

Netflix on the Wii!

November 22nd, 2010 at 02:02 am

We recently got a Wii, and have it set up so we can watch our Netflix subscription instantly on the Wii. I am in LOVE with it! It is so awesome and makes me even happier that we got the Wii. I have been watching movies like crazy. Smile

Out of state wedding

November 22nd, 2010 at 01:56 am

We went to a wedding out of state (6 hr drive each way) this weekend. We did pretty good on keeping it cheap. The hotel was normally $100 a night, but got a discount to $80 a night since it was part of the reserved block for the wedding. Then we had a $50 giftcard from our Discover rewards, so after taxes we only paid $36 for the hotel. On the way there DH brought water and I had 1 bottle of pop and we spent $5 on McDonalds breakfast. The wedding was a night wedding, so we went to supper before the wedding, only spent $16 even though we went to a fancy resteraunt. We just each had appetizers and I had water. Then at the wedding they had a keg, so no money on booze Smile this was a big plus cause we had figured it would be about $50 for drinks for the night. Of course we did donate some money to the bride and groom, but they did not have a dollar dance, and they did not sell the garter. They also had a large bin of drinks and some picnic-ey food so we had a snack and took a can of pop for the drive home today. Drive home we spent $12 on food which was more then we should have spent, but overall a very cheap trip, add in fuel costs and it was under $150 total for the whole trip.

10 Days off!

November 19th, 2010 at 03:07 am

Tomorrow is my first day of 10 days off in a row! Yeah! Excited for the time off even though it will be busy. I have 2 drs apts, 1 dental apt, 1 wedding, 1 major holiday, and about 2000 miles to drive in the next 10 days! YIKES! We will try to keep things as cheap as we can. One of the drives is with my family, so I don't have to pay for gas for that one. Wedding gift and hotel is already paid for. Apts are 2 routine and 1 for $45, routine are paid for and the other will be paid out my HSA.
Kinda freaken out about all the extra we have been spending lately. Between the Wii plus accesories $400, a dead battery in my car $100, and enrollment and 1st months charges for my personal trainer $200, that is $700 in unplanned expenses. Frown I have $300 to put towards the Wii stuff from my winnings, but that is still $400 we did not plan for....ugh.
Also need to finish up the Christmas shopping, hopefully will get some of that done over the next few days.
So my time off may not be as relaxing as I would prefer......but 10 days off is 10 days off no matter how you slice it! Smile

$20K Update

November 19th, 2010 at 02:59 am

Current Balance $10,585.00
+$50.00 to New Car Account
+$25.00 Home Maintenance
New Balance $10,660.00

$20K Update

November 17th, 2010 at 01:51 am

Current Balance $10,455.00
+$100.00 Anniversary Cruise Account
+$40.00 Just cause
New Balance $10,585.00

Biggest Loser Week 7

November 17th, 2010 at 12:59 am

Week Seven
Pounds Lost this week = 0
Total pounds lost = 5.8
% weight loss = 3.17%
Place = 2nd out of 7 people

Hmmm....not going anywhere in a hurry here......
Had my first personal training session today. We did a weigh in, measurements and fitness testing life pull ups, sit ups, 1/2 mile on the treadmill, pushups and stretching. I think it went well and hope it will help give me the push I need to get some real results.

Lets get Physical - Physical! I want to get Physical! Let's Get into Physical!

November 15th, 2010 at 05:37 am

Well we got our Wii today with my award money. We were going to wait till Black Friday sales, but honestly I don't feel like getting up at 4am to stand in the cold for a Wii when I am getting it for free anyways. So we got the Wii for $199, it was the special edition red one that comes with a controler with Motion Plus ($40), numchuck ($20), Mario Bros game ($50), and Wii Sports ($50), so $160 worth of stuff comes with it. Then we got the Wii Fit Plus game with the Wii Balance Board for $100. So all of that was covered by my $300 award checks. Then out of pocket we got a second controller $40, second numchuck $20, and a charger so we don't have to buy batteries for the controllers $20. So about $100 out of pocket, ($80 plus $20 in taxes). We are really enjoying it, played it for 3 hours when we got home. I hope it will be a nice little extra to my workouts and much better for me and DH then sitting on the couch watching TV or playing on the laptop.

I also signed up for a personal trainer. I go to sign the papers tomorrow, but already called and confirmed I am ready for a change. It will be once a week for 6 months and a discounted price of $160 a month. Plus I can bring a friend for free.....too bad none of my friends live here and my Mom is in Mexico for the winter......I may see if DH wants to go since it is free just to check it out. The Wii told him he needs to GAIN 20lbs......wth......lol. They train you once a week and give you assignment workouts for the week and also weigh in and do measurements each week. I am excited for all the new positive things! Back to work tomorrow, but only a 4 day week and then I have 10 days off! Whoo hoo!

I did a free trial day with the personal trainer on Wednesday and still HURT 5 days later! Oh my!

$20K Update - CD Matured

November 14th, 2010 at 05:03 pm

Current Balance $10,355.00
+$75.00 to Retirement Hold Account
+$1.12 CD Monthly Interest
+$13.88 Even Out Amount
New Balance $10,445.00

My CD for our King Mattress has now matured. I transferred the balance into savings until the mattress bill is due in Feb 2011. We used to have several CDs, but that was the last one to mature so now we have none. Eventually I would like to do a CD ladder again for the EF. At one time we had 3 $1K CDs starting our CD ladder, but no longer. Once I have over $2K or $3K in the EF again I will try to get a CD ladder started again.

Biggest Loser Week 6

November 10th, 2010 at 03:32 am

Week Six
Pounds Lost this week = -.4
Total pounds lost = 5.8
% weight loss = 3.17%
Place = 1st out of 7 people

Glad I lost this week, I thought I was gonna go up because I have been a P I G ! Errrr! Today was a good day though, worked out during my lunch break and shared a meal with DH for supper.
We are going on a casino trip the first week of Dec, DH said he will give me $10 of his spending money for every lb I lose between now and then. If I gain any, then he gets $20 of my money per lb......MOTIVATION! My goal is to lose 7lbs = $70.....it is a steep goal, but doable!

What to do with my $300?

November 7th, 2010 at 11:50 pm

You may have read about the $300 I won at work a week or two ago. I have been thinking hard on what to use it on. I had already decided I am NOT saving it, I am NOT using it for the mortgage, and I am NOT gonna blow it at the casino. I want to buy something for myself, something fun. I decided to use $25 of it to install cable in our bedroom. I have been wanting to do that since we bought our house 3 years ago. So that leaves $275 to spend. I am thinking about getting a gaming system that would be nice for the long winters here and something fun that I would not normally spend the money on for myself. I am leaning towards a Wii, but also thinking about a Play Station 3. We already have a PS2, so mainly thinking the Wii. If you have a Wii, are you happy with it? Is it worth the cost? Any other suggestions for non Wii items would also be appreciated. Thanks!

New Mortgage Provider

November 7th, 2010 at 11:44 pm

When we refinanced last month I did not realize that the local credit union that we were going through would not be keeping our loan. They sell all of the loans off to another company. So I had assumed that I would just go in to pay the mortgage like I had always done at our previous lender. I never set up an automatic payment since we always pay extra, and the extra is a different amount each month. Anyways, we got a coupon book in the mail from the new company....I was not very excited about this since now we would have to pay for a stamp each month, and also make sure we mailed it earlier enough to get to the lender on time, where as before I could go in the same day it was due and pay it. But then I saw that they had a website, I registered and logged in to check it out. It is actually a very nice website, you can view payments and history, and also order an amortization schedule. You can also set up auto payments for every month, or you can set up one time payments, along with extra principle payments. So I am pretty excited, seems like a good site to use and track history. We also got an email from the credit union with our new amortization schedule. It is only 4 pages Smile. Our last one was like 7 pages, and the one before that was a book. YEAH!

Downsized - New Show

November 7th, 2010 at 11:37 pm

I just saw the premier of a new show last night called Downsized, it is on WE TV. It is about a family that was rolling in the dough, and spending it just as fast. Then the economy caught up to the husband's general contracting business and now they are struggling just to buy things like groceries.
I really liked the show. The family is a blended family, the Dad came in with 2 kids, and the Mom had 5, so now they have 7 kids. When the contracting business was doing well they estimated they were spending $15K - $18K per MONTH! Then when the sh*t hit the fan they had to declare bankrupcy, their home was forclosed on, and a rental home they owned was also forclosed on. The first episode they were $300 short on rent for the house they are renting (I suppose it would have been near impossible to find an apt to rent for 9 people, so that is probably why they are renting a house). So in order to scrape up the last $300, 3 of the kids went dumpster diving, the Dad took in a large amount of change, and one of the kids sold their baseball glove (no one asked him too, he just wanted to help). It was a very interesting show and I enjoyed seeing the creative ways they were trying to pull together a few more bucks.
The only thing I did not like was when the Mom, who is a 1st grade teacher, said that she makes so little teaching that she feels like she does not even get a paycheck, and feels more like volunteering then a job. While I agree that teachers should be paid better, as the wife of a 5th grade teacher I know that it is not how much you make that determines where you are financially, it is how much you spend. If you make responsible choices you will make things work. If you spend $15K a month.....well that is your choice and see how it turns out. Smile

Biggest Loser Week 5

November 7th, 2010 at 04:01 pm

Week Five
Pounds Lost this week = +.2
Total pounds lost = 5.4
% weight loss = 2.94%
Place = 2nd out of 7 people

Love coupons

November 7th, 2010 at 02:09 am

Used my free Vickie's underwear card today, the free pair is priced at $11.50. Then I had a coupon for Bath'n'Body Works. I don't usually shop there either cause I always have a lot of lotion that I get for gifts, but one of the coupons was a really good deal. I had 2 coupons, one for "Buy any item, get one lotion free up to $12" and one for "Spend $30 and get $10 off". So I bought a $1.50 hand sanitizer that I can stick in with someone's Christmas present and got a free bottle of lotion, priced $10.50. The other coupon I left on the shelf for some other shopper to find and use. So I got undies, lotion and hand sanitizer, grand total was $1.59! Yeah! Also walked to the mall so no money on gas and DH found a penny on the way. Smile

I got a P & G Brandsaver add in the mail today with $42 in coupons in it. Most are for products that we don't use, but there are a couple I will keep, and the rest I will put in the coupon box at work.

We also went to the casino yesterday with a friend and came home up $2! Ha ha! Always happy if we don't lose. Smile

$20K Update

November 3rd, 2010 at 11:46 pm

Current Balance $10,445.00
-$112.00 to Roth IRA
+$2.00 Even out Amount
+$10.00 to EF
+$10.00 to Home Improvement Account
New Balance $10,355.00

Trick or Treaters

November 2nd, 2010 at 12:57 am

Our official trick or treater count was......344! Holy molies!

Luckily we were prepared from having over 300 last year as well so we did not run out of candy. I am going to bag up the rest and freeze it for next year.

Free undies and good sale

November 2nd, 2010 at 12:53 am

Got another free coupon for Victoria Secret undies today. I believe this is my 6th free undies this year.
Also got a good sale on soup today. The grocery store had the large cans of Progresso Soup on sale for .99! They are normally $2.65 a piece, so I bought 30 cans and saved $49! Whoo hoo! I love Progresso and they are really good for lunch, especially in the winter. I like to have half a can for lunch, nice and light and cheap.

$20K Update - Interest (sad interest)

November 2nd, 2010 at 12:46 am

Current Balance $10,400.00
+$5.00 HSBC Savings
+$4.28 ING Interest
+$35.72 Even Out Amount
New Balance $10,445.00