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Archive for March, 2007

Sticker shock and other stuff

April 1st, 2007 at 03:00 am

Went to the grocery store today to load up to fend off the family this week. Geeze the cost of food just keeps climbing!! So makes me want to get the garden put in and grow my own food! I have been using coupons and saving quite a bit, but I have gotten to the point where I shop for what the family LIKES and WILL eat for sure to avoid food wasting!
My goal is to cook dinner every night this week (except Sunday when we eat at moms!)Got to keep the fast food monster at bay. I only have to work Sun/Mon this week, so I think I will be able to accomplish this!
Have a couple new projects to work on. I am going to redo the girls bathroom in rainbow fish. I have almost all the stuff bought, but I think I will change out the light fixture and the shower head. I need a shower curtain too.
The great deal on the bedroom comforter set I bought is FINALLY being shipped from Domestications. Everything including the dust ruffle and curtains and sheets, decorative pillows is all included for $100. So all I need to do is paint and rearrange the furniture. Spring is the season to redecorate!
I was planning on having a garage sale, but I think I am just going to load it up and give it to charity. I don't have a weekend free until June! And I need this clutter OUT! Guess I'll just have to claim it on taxes instead!

Unexpected money

March 29th, 2007 at 05:41 pm

I was filling out a survey for SurveySpot and it said it was a $5 survey. I have done these before, but never knew how to cash them in. This time I paid attention and followed the links and lo and behold, I had eccured $40 since last year! I immediately asked for a check to be sent. I know NFO has a $10 cash out waiting as well. Plus, my sporadic part time job has not paid since last year and I have built up about $70 from there. So the plan is to cash in all of these and put them in my savings account! Yeah!
My expeditures from the trip were not too high, but I still have some debt that I will have to post and start working on again. I am really going to try to get the EF savings account to $500 first!

Going in!

March 29th, 2007 at 04:47 am

I'm heading into the websites of all my creditors to determine a new "state of our state". I have been guilty of throwing things on the credit lately for the trip and stuff and now I have to find out how much I need to pay the piper. (We planned limits, and I think we stayed within reason, but I need to KNOW!)
Suck it up... here I go.

Cutting hours

March 27th, 2007 at 05:02 am

Well, things are really slow at work, so they are having us leave after 4 hours instead of 6 or 8 unless it is the weekend, then we get 6. I have been working lots of hours right now covering for someone else, so I am not so worried about the cut now, but when I am back to regular hours, it will be a bummer.

All the bills are paid for April except one - yeah! But not enough coming in to pay ahead on any CC's. Guess I will just have to be content that they are paid for the month. Not anticapating any extra cash coming in either.

We are gearing up to take the kids to Florida at the end of the month to tag onto DH's business trip. Doing lots of online research to try to make it affordable. Found round trip tickets and a rental car (mini van) with unlimited miles for only $240 per person. Not bad! Will keep checking things out. Going to try to Cocoa Beach for a couple of days, then just hammer out the Orlando stuff, Disney, Universal, Sea World.

L@@king for my landlegs!!

March 23rd, 2007 at 06:33 pm

Well, it is quite the bummer that yesterday morn I was on a cruise ship and this morn I am sitting at my desk at work!

The cruise trip had its ups and downs. The BIG plus was that I did NOT get sick! :-) Woo hoo! I took the Bonine (lower dose form of Dramamine that does'nt make you sleepy.) and that with "mind over matter" worked wonders! We got along great with our friends that we went with and were very compatible, plus we met lots of nice people. We ate, we drank, but kept the spending well below what I thought we would spend! There was lots to do and the beds were soooo comfortable, I wish we could have brought one home! We slept like logs every night!

The down side was that the seas were VERY rough (even the seasoned folk were complaining) and I still have'nt gotten my "land legs" back yet! It was cloudy and cold every day, but the last day, yet I still managed to get sunburned in places where people just should'nt! The water was very cold too! That and the fact the food just was'nt what I imagained. While good and edible, it did'nt really knock my socks off. It was like a regular restarant and buffet.

DH and I are probably not the cruising type. We did have a very nice time, but we were bored sometimes too. And sitting on the beach, gazing at the ocean with a fruity cocktail is fun, but maybe for 3 hours, not 6. The islands we went to (Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay) were private type islands with not much to do (DH tried to go deep sea fishing, but it got cancelled due to rough seas). The other place we went was Nassua Bahamas and that was much more our speed, with a beach, shops, Atlantis and a whole island to explore!

Our airfare and car was an awesome deal and if you are planning any travel, you should check out Allegiant Airlines! They have limited flight areas and times, but if you can drive a little farther and be a little flexible you can save a LOT of money!!

Crusin'

March 15th, 2007 at 05:26 pm

DH and I are off to go on our cruise. We will be back March 22nd!
Can't say it has been frugal. The trip and the flight are paid and we have saved up spending money, but getting the wardrobe together has not been cheap! I have the stay at home mom, midwestern winter wardrobe - not condusive to warm sunny climates! Who knew swimsuits were soooo expensive?? (Not something easily bought used!)
Anyway - bon voyage! Cross your fingers I don't get seasick the whole time!!!!

Happy Blogoversary!!

March 5th, 2007 at 10:15 pm

My indicator on the right tells me today is my 1 year blogoversary!! Hooray! Thank you to everyone who give such super support and ideas! Your the best!!