My upstairs bathroom has a nice fresh spring theme. The walls are a spring green, shower curtain is white, spring green and lavender. All of the accesories are lavender, rugs, toothbrush holder etc. It's super cute and probably my favorite color scheme in the house. So DH was cleaning the bathroom while I took a nap (ok that makes me sound like a jerk already). I got up from my nap and went into the bathroom and the rugs went from lavender to grape koolaid while I took a nap. Apparently he washed the lavender rugs with the black rugs from the second bathroom.....the black rugs had never been washed as we just remodeled that bathroom about 6 months ago, and we never use it. So blah. I am super bummed out and we got in a fight about it, I was way more irritated then I should have been. The rugs were a house warming gift from a friend and had been purchased at Kohls, but I know they no longer have that color because I had checked before and was told it was clearanced out a few years ago. I went to Target and the only purple they had was a Royal Purple. My Mom suggested I go look at Walmart, so I will try there too, but it's not looking good. And I know from buying the black rugs they are expensive...I got those on a great sale and it was still like $50. Anyways I guess I am more sad at the way I handled it then at the actual rug situation. I should have sad, "Oh dang, it was an accident, thanks for cleaning the bathroom" Instead of "Awwwwww......and it doesn't look like you swept the floor?!" Well you live and learn. I apologized to DH and am gonna work hard to not over react next time.

My husband and I went to the movie Rango today. It is an animated movie and it was really cute. It has a lot of adult humor, but those jokes would be way over most kids heads so was good for kids or adults.
We used free movie tickets I had earned for donating blood. Then we used a rebate we had for Menards to get candy, and the candy was even on sale too! So the only thing we spent money on was one pop for me and one popcorn for DH - $7.50. Ouchie! Someday I will break the habit of having to have a pop at a movie.

2 Free Matinees - Saved $13.00
4 Boxes of Movie Candy, paid .06 OOP - Saved $3.62
Total saved = $16.62

Total spent $7.50 for popcorn and pop + .06 for candy = $7.56

$7.56/2 = $3.78 a piece for movie and snacks

Ok, normally I am not one to be like "Oh the credit card companies are evil" and yadda yadda. I believe if someone chooses to borrow from a credit card company that is their choice and their decision and every person needs to learn to use this "service" responsibly and not blame their credit card if they have to pay interest or fees cause they didn't follow the guideline. Ok, off my soapbox.... the point of this post was, I feel like our Best Buy CC is trying to trick us into fees! We have a Best Buy CC that we got our laptop on for 0% interest for 18 months. The agreement is to pay at least the minimum payment every month, and pay the entire balance before 12/11 and there will be no interest and no fees. We have done several 0% deals before and have never had any trouble with them as we always follow the agreement and make sure we pay the balance at least a month before the 0% runs out. The minimum payment on the BB card was $10 a month. I was paying $20 a month every month, and even set up a auto pay online to pay $20 everymonth, that way when it was due we only had $200 left to pay and that money is already sitting in savings. So for 8 months now we have been paying $20 a month on auto pay....la la la....everything is fine. They I get this months statement and the min payment has gone from $10 to $25? HUH?! I have never seen a min payment go up as the balance went down......usually if your balance is going down then your minimum payment would go down, or at least stay the same. So I am so lucky I noticed that, cause I could have easily opened it and thought "oh BB is on autopay, so don't need to worry about this bill" and then I would have gotten slammed with a fee plus all of the deferred interest would have hit the card. UGH So really don't get what that was about. Lesson to all, make sure you check your statements even if you know what they are SUPPOSED to say!

It's time for me to start tanning for my MOH job in May. As I am from the Midwest, my mother is a red head, and I am a freckle faced girl.....I need to start getting my tan on 3 months before my friend's big day. So I called several tanning salons today to get some price quotes. I want to get an unlimited monthly package so I don't have to worry about minutes/sessions. I have to start out really low so I don't burn, like 3 min the first time, so if that is counted as a session it would be a rip off for me. My gym has unlimited tanning for $10 a month, which is really cheap, but you can't tan on the weekends, you ALWAYS have to wait in line to get a bed (they only have 3) and the beds don't seem to be as effective as the beds at tanning salons (they probably don't change their lightbulbs as often).
So the quotes I got were:
$18.88 plus buy a bottle of lotion ($10 - $15)
$36.95
$40
$55 - $75 depending on minutes
So looks like the cheapest I could get would be about $30 a month. Our I could go to my gym and get all 3 months of tanning for $30. Hmmmm.....I guess that helps me make my decision, even if I have to wait in line, paying 1/3 of the price is a good deal. Plus maybe it will make me go to the gym more!

I am down 8lbs, at $5 a lb that is $40 extra $ for Deadwood.
My husband is down 5lbs, at $5 a lb that is $25 extra $ for Deadwood.

About a month and a half left, and I have 12 lbs left to reach my goal and my husband has 9lbs left to reach his goal.

I was balancing my checkbook today and it kept coming up $406 off.....wth?? So after reviewing it for a little while I realized that I had made a deposit for $203 and had accidentally put it in the withdrawl column instead of the deposit column! So YEAH! Surprise $406 more in checking then we thought!

I try to balance my checkbook often, and even though I good with money and numbers, I seem to make silly mistakes once in awhile. At least this time the mistake was in our favor!

I had been getting my taxes figured, but didn't have all of my paper work yet. So I thought we were getting back $1500 from federal and $150 from state. But I hadn't put my HSA contributions in yet.... So I entered that and that took federal all the way down to $600 and state down to $75. I am still waiting on one more form, but I doubt it will change it much. So looking like we will only get about $675 back total.

I got most of my tax stuff done, just waiting on my W2s and other forms so I can double check my numbers but looks like we will get back about $1500 federal and state I have not done yet. Most of those funds will go towards our Deadwood Trip since that is my first savings goal for 2011. Anything left will either go to the EF or to the New car savings account.

Have you seen the new show on A&E, Storage Wars? I LOVE IT! It is so addicting and makes me think I can go buy a storage unit and sell everything in it for boocko bucks, lol! But I am sure if I did that I would get a unit full of trash, spider webs and mice. Ewwwwww.......anyways I really love the show and think it is so interesting, and if I was loaded I would totally try that sometime just to check it out. It's just like gambling! Haahahaa!

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy Christmas! I am staying home today and just relaxing. We do our Christmas on Christmas Eve so just enjoying a nice slow day today. My Mom is going to come do a puzzle with me and watch movies. I got 4 new Wii games, so am excited to try those out. Michael Jackson The Experience, Wii Zumba, the Biggest Loser and Mario Kart. So lots of fun workout games. I am already really good at MJ! THRILLER! LOL! Should be a nice cheap weekend. A good time to work on 2011 goals and to think back on the successes of the last year and what we can work on more in the next year!

DH got a check for $250 in the mail today from his great grandma. We haven't decided what to do with it yet. Hmmm.....

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!

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.

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 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.

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. 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!

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!

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.

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.

My blog hit 50,000 hits today! Wow! Thanks everyone for reading. My hope is to share money saving tips and ideas, or at the very least be entertaining on a topic that can be boring (unless you're a dork like me!) THANKS AGAIN FOR READING!

My husband and I are going to be Season 1-2 Jim and Pam from "The Office" for Halloween. I just bought a shirt for $1.25 and a skirt for $1.25 from Goodwill. They are very "Pammy". I already had a cardigan that I can wear with it, and Pam's Keds. Then I will style my long brown hair like Pams. For DH we can just wear a white dress shirt, black tie and slacks. He purposely let his hair get too long so he is all shaggy like Jim, and since he is blonde we got some wash out brown hair color to put in his hair. I have been telling him to practice his Jim faces. Total cost was $2.50 for my clothes (which I can wear again since they are just dress clothes) and $6.20 for DH for the hair dye. YEAH for cheap Halloween!
On the not so cheap side......Halloween Candy....UGH! We live on a very busy street for trick or treaters. Last year I did a tally sheet and we had over 300 kids! Awww! So this year we bought suckers as they seemed to be the cheapest candy, and I will be giving only one per kid. I hate to be cheap for candy, but with that many kids we have to. It still cost almost $30 for that candy. We will have to watch for sales after Halloween and maybe get some candy to freeze for next year.

Aside from the fact that it has been blizzarding here all night and day and I had to have a nice stranger push my car into my work parking lot.......aside from the that I had a fabulous day! I was nominated for and won an award at work! They go around and let the people who were nominated know that they were nominated, then like 10 min later they announce the winner over the intercom.....so you don't really have time to digest that you were nominated before you find out who won. So I was super surprised and excited! It is a very prestigious award at my employer. I won $300 and get the "good" parking spots for all of Nov, Dec and Jan! The Parking spot is probably worth more then the $300 considering the horrible weather we are having. Since I won the Level 1 award, I am now in the running for the Level 2 award, which is a national competition. If I win Level 2, I win $1000 and get flown with a guest to the Level 2 celebration (last year was in Orlando!). And if I win Level 3 (which would be like the craziest thing ever!) I win $5000 and me and a guest get flown on a vacation (I think of my choice, but not positive on it). So I am very happy and proud to have been nominated and won. I worked very, very hard on the project that I was nominated for.
So now the big question is.......What to do with my $300?! They gave it to me today in the form of American Express Gift Checks, so i can use it anywhere, or I can cash them and use the cash. I am NOT going to put it in savings, I am NOT going to take it to the casino, and I am NOT going to put it against the mortgage. I am going to get myself something FUN! Not sure what yet, and am open to suggestions! I'm thinking maybe I should wait till after Christmas to see what I still want after then...... Happy Hump Day!

We use our Discover Card for everything....and I mean EVERYTHING. All daily purchases like fuel, groceries, gifts, going out to eat, vacations and household supplies. As well as monthly bills like our cell phone bill, water bill, utilities bill and gym membership. The only thing we don't put on the Discover is the electricity and the mortgage since they don't accept credit cards. We always pay the balance in full every month, have been doing so since I got a credit card when I was 18, 8 years ago.
So every other month or so we get $50 is Discover Rewards for Free. You can use them for cash, a credit to your bill, or you can get Partner Rewards. Partner Rewards are when you use your balance to get a gift card with a bonus amount. Example would be: You use $45 of your balance and they send you a $50 gift card to Applebees. So the $45 is free cause it is your Discover Reward, and $5 bonus for choosing the gift card option.
Normally I always get the cash automatically deposited into our savings account. But next month we are going to a wedding out of state and will be staying at a Best Western hotel. So I checked the list and Best Western is one of their vendor partners. So I used $45 in rewards and got a $50 gift card for the Best Western which will cover almost our whole hotel bill. Yeah!
I love Discover, they are so convenient, great website and I enjoy their rewards!

My budget for Matron of Honor is $500.00
Bridesmaid Dress = $216.00
Shoes = FREE
Jewelry = FREE
Transportation = None
Lodging/Hotel = None

The Brides Mom told her today that she would be paying for our shoes and the jewelry so that is good. The wedding is in town so no hotel or transportation costs. Still need to pay for gifts, parties and hair.

You may remember a few months ago I was dumb and left my windows on my car open. Well it rained into my car and my radio/clock died. I finally got a new radio, $110 at Walmart, and my brother and his friend put it in for me, all I had to do was buy pizza for supper. Having no clock and no radio in your car for 2 months is torture and I am soooo happy to have it back!

I counted the change we brought home from Vegas, $49.72! Yeah! So I will save that $50 to put towards the mortgage as soon as the refi goes through. Also DH was cleaning out my bag that I took to Vegas and found $30 more dollars that I had missed when I counted the money we brough back. So that is $80 more then we thought we had!

Well we made it back. We did not hit it big But we took $2100 for spending and came back with $1600 plus a big bag of change. We will put the cash back in savings for next years trip, and the change we will put towards the mortgage. I will post new savings numbers in the next few days.

Also my brother looked at my car radio and it is shot, so I will need to buy a new one, but he can install it for me. I went and looked at prices and it looks like it will be about $120.00, that doesn't seem too bad to me.

Ok so on Monday at work I went for a walk on my lunch break. There are a lot of nice areas to walk at around my work so it's nice to get away and get a little excercise for 30 minutes. Well I get back to the parking lot after my walk and I notice my windows are rolled up all the way, normally I leave them cracked about 1 inch in the summer because of the heat. So I go over to my car and roll my windows down....only for some reason I roll them down like 1/2 way......not sure why I did that as I never do that.... Hmmm......anyways a few hours later they annouce there are tornados in the area and everyone needs to go to the designated shelter areas in the building. NO leaving the building. Rain rolls in and proceeds to monsoon INTO my car. So when I do get to go out to my car my seats are COMPLETELY soaked and there is about an inch of water in my console. And the Big bummer.....now my radio and clock do not work.....no juice going into it. My brother looked at it and could not get it to work, but has a friend that is going to check it out too, hopefully it is just a fuse or something. My own dumb fault and I just can not figure out why I rolled my windows down so much!!??? At least a tornado didn't take my car away!

We got our flight for Vegas booked yesterday. Got $59.99 each way, which I am happy with, it had been $119.99 and $99.99 the last few weeks. Crappy thing is Allegiant Air hits you hard with fees. $40 in fees each way. DH got a lot of fees taken off of the bill...ground transportation, seat selection fee, and we will share one suitcase to take $60 bag checking fee down to $30. The day after we booked I heard that you can save about $13 a piece by going out to the airport and buying the tickets instead of buying online (convenience fee), did not know that before, but now that we know we will definitely go do that next year as the airport is only 5 min from our house. So flight costs came out to $400 total and hotel was free.....I am happy with a $400 5 day trip to Vegas! Yeah! Now I am sooo antsy to go!! Counting the days!

DH had worn his khaki shorts out, one pair he got bleach on (have no idea how he did that!) and one pair he has got holes in the butt pockets. He suggested that we go to a thriftstore to look for some new ones. I was surprised at this as I never normally go to thrift store unless I need stuff for Halloween costumes....but thought it would be fun to go check it out. We have a brand new Goodwill store near our house so we went to check it out and I was really surprised at how nice, clean and organized it was, it was really more like Plato's Closet then a thrift store. Everything was sized and color coordinated! DH found 2 pairs that he liked, tried them on, and was happy! They were $3.50 per pair, so I was totally happy to pay $7.00 for 2 prs of shorts for him. But when we were paying the cashier told us the one pair was on sale for $1 and the other was on sale for $2! So 2 prs of shorts = $3!!! Soooo excited! Usually when we go to get clother for DH we go to Target or JCPenneys and it would probably be about $30 for a pair of shorts so I was psyched about the savings. We went to 3 other thriftstores in town, but they were all kind of dingy/dirty and too hard to find anything worth buying. But we were tickled with our initial finds and I will definitely be checking them out for future purchases!

Also that day we went to Coldstone for ice cream and the girl made too much for DH so he got an entire extra ice cream cup for free!

Go hubby!

My 26th BD was last week! Yeah! Had dinner with family and presents last night. Got a couple of nice little gifts and a digital camera which I am very excited about because I was one of the few people left still using a camera that takes film. Also got a nice new blanket and some pampered chef items. Oh and the movie The Hangover, lol can not get enough of that movie!