After 4 long years of waiting, I finally received a pay raise! I'm glad for the money, but it really feels like I have sold my soul to the devil. These people don't do it for you, they do it so you can be obligated to them. We lost another receptionist, she quit, so they are hiring for the other location which means the extra hours I would have worked there are gone. I don't really mind, as I would have used lots of gas to get there! I am learning more back office work and figure I will use the training for more job experience. Lots of bookkeeping stuff. Hope I don't screw it up! :-)

Well, due to my last post, I have been AWOL. I have been working a LOT and busy every other second! I've been on field trips too and had a fundraiser for DD1's Girl Scout trip to New York city. Working a lot will have its perks in my paychecks, but I am TIRED and I am spending too much eating out. Need to take stock of food and make meal plan. I'm just too tired. Round and round it goes! I did get a Dove free sample from Walmart and today is a NICE Schick Quattro razor for DH. Love freebies!! Can you believe they are rationing rice at the club stores. A little scary!

Okay, I'll make a long story long. Over a year ago we had a change of management. The ladies came in and took over and most of our office agents left and most of our staff is gone now too! We have one lady that wants to control EVERYTHING and will drive you nuts till you quit if she doesn't like you. Sooooo, while they have been ditching office staff, we have been picking up the slack of missing people. No raise, just more responsibility. Soooooo anyway, today another lady walked in and quit. So we are down to 4 receptionist for 2 locations. It looks like I will be getting more hours, and I made the hint that I would like more money. Of course that fell on deaf ears. Sooooo...anyway, I will be working lots of hours, lots of weekends and have even MORE responsibilities. At least I have a job.

I paid the bills with DH's check last week. Had to borrow from the savings acct. Now, this check will be less than I had expected and I need to make DH's car payment (aka, the garage paperweight) and pay to see DD2's talent show and I need gas, oh, and then the regular grocery expenses. Ugh. I know somehow we will make it through, but I hate feeling like a desperate kid that wants to go to the movies with her friends, or buy a new blouse. It's aggrevating to be an adult and to feel this way. Yes, I could use a credit card and alleviate my frustrations, but I really want to stay the course and reverse process. Ahhh.... a nice whine. I feel better now!

With best intentions, I went to Walgreens to use my $5 off coupon with $20 purchase. I bought DD2 a flat iron and I bought a couple of things for the Girl Scouts "April Showers" event. However, after dropping off DD2 at her babysitting job, picking up "the girls" for bunko, and making sure I had money for bunko, I realized I forgot to use my stupid coupon!! >( Doggone it! As a useful bonus however, DD2 does not like the flat iron and wants to return it. Ugh.

DH will be paid tonight through the auto payment. It is already spent, but I will get to see what our exact salary will be now that I have upped our deductions to 5.

Went to the grocery store. Bought 64.42 worth of groceries for 46.41!

I went to work for my Pampered Chef friend. She had my gift card payments for my work last month. I got $60 to Walmart, $22 to Home Depot and $40 to Chevys. I got a LOT of stuff for my Walmart GC! I am proud! I got 5 Colgate toothbrushes for .26 cents each! We have a donation drive this weekend for the Girl Scouts. They pick up personal care items to give to local food pantrys. I will put some of the toothbrushes in for that. I got 2 Crest toothpastes for .50 Each. Would have got more, but they did'nt have any more. So anyway, good shopping deals today! I am planning on using the Walgreens special tomorrow (Happy Couponing mentioned it in her blog).

Will play bunko with girlfriends tomorrow night. $5 for an evening of fun with the girls is quite a bargain. Have really stretched my garage sale money out!

I have'nt posted much, because I am in auto mode. Paycheck comes, is divvied out and we wait for another pay day. Ugh. Soooo sllllooooowwwww. Feel like I will be in debt for ever.

Had my own garage sale. Pretty good. Was so sick, DD1 did majority of work on it. Made about $120, gave DD1 $40 cut for her hard work. Still have tons of stuff to put out. May set up again if subdivision has a sale. Gave my neighbor TONS of clothes. She brought down her wagon and we loaded it up so high she had to have her daughter hold onto it to get it home!

Thinking about starting my own website to see if I can bring in extra money. Doing a little research into it and asking some other online friends how they do it. Can't think of anything catchy to call it. Would like to stick with Boomeyers in the name, but what would go well with that?? Thoughts??

Wow, less than a week later! Now that is service! I already have planned out how all the refund money will be allotted, so I just consulted my chart and sent out a payment. Payday is tomorrow too! I again will just follow the pay off schedule. I have been following my meal plan, but I have to redo it because I forgot about Lent! Got to change my Fridays meal plans!

Two no spend days in row! Woo hoo! I do need some hairspray desperately! It was 75 degrees today! Humid weather and no hairspray equal disaster! Good thing it will be snowing again in a couple of days!

I found this cartoon on justabeachkat's website and had to share!!


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Okay! I have pics of the garden. As I said before, we had a great seasoned garden at our old house, but well...we had to leave it there!
DH and I butted heads on this garden. Since he did most of the work while I was at work on weekends, he got his way. Hopefully we will yeid some kind of crop. We put in lots of different tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and watermelon. We would still like to add in some green beans.

Some posts and chicken wire, does a garden be! We added lots of rabbit poop and some Miracle Grow.


A little tomato plant!


Hope this garden produces!

Some of the money came rolling in!
We received a $30 rebate from Circuit City for something DH got.
We received $40 for some surveys I did.
We received $23.25 back from State Farm AND they lowered our auto insurance. Said they had a better year than expected!! Yeah!
I plan on sticking this in the savings account!
I'm going to try to post the pics of the bathroom. Wish me luck!
The shower curtain was'nt exactly what I wanted, but the price was right! The little fish on the shelf was from the Bahamas!

You can see the rainbow fish pictures on the left. I bought them for a great deal on ebay!

This is a windchime I bought on the ship. I just thought it was cute!

We also switched from brass to a chrome finish. Will sell the old fixtures in the garage sale tomorrow.

Can you believe?? I am religious bill payer, but the HELOC messed with me. I once made my December payment early, in the end of November, and they charged it to November and refused to count it for December. So I have gone out of my way to pay the stupid thing in the middle of the month, instead of the beginning with the rest of the bills. Weeellllll... this month, because of the funeral and everything, yep I FORGOT to pay a bill! What a brain fart!

I have purposefully set aside today to try to catch up (and get ahead)! So far I have straightened, done dishes, a load of laundry and painted the mailbox post, put on stencils and new brass numbers. Just those little things made it look great! (Okay, not sure about the stencils, we'll see what DH says) but what a difference!

Boy were we up all night! We live in Missouri and got quite a shaking from one top of the state to another. Hoped the hail would get us new windows and siding, but all it did was make noise. The storms covered the state from top to bottom and sooo many tornados. Hellooooo spring!

Home with DD2. Stomach flu, yuck! Will miss time at my 2nd pt job. I am so lucky I have such flexibilty at both my pt jobs. So I can be here for my family, the most important thing. That is why I have to get off the McD wagon and get to financial security!
Will spend the day cleaning (and disinfecting!) and going thru the fridge and pantry. Then I can make my grocery list. One of the local stores had $10 off a $50 purchase on Thursdays. And the other local stores honor it. So I can see who has the best deals (with coupons) and go there. I think I will balance the checkbook too. Getting paid from one pt job today or tomorrow. Will use this check to pay ahead on 2 CC's and put some in both saving accounts. Hope my plan works! Had to spend $300 to keep our little dog alive this past weekend. Did'nt plan for that, but did'nt have to put it on a CC either!
:-) And yes, she is doing better!
Better stop rambling and get moving! Will try for a no spend day today! All my errands tonight SHOULD cost nothing!

Hi everyone! Busy day today! Just finished service time at the Humane Society for DD2, getting ready to go to soccer game for DD3. Free dinner tonight though! Grandpa treating after soccer game. Then DH and I will curl up in front of the Oscars (he is a movie fanatic!)
Rainy icky day today. I have been following this blog for a couple of months now and feel like I know everyone! I am a born spender, my husband a born cheapo. We have debt and for a while I convinced myself this was the American way to be. But because of job security and my DH's health, I would like to spray some magic "debt be gone"! Our big goals are to pay off all CC debt, HELOC, and save for 3 months expenses. I have my own little challenge account that I started with $20 in and it is now up to $97! I do a little ebay, coupons and I try to learn new things. I signed up for some of the online opinion things and got the entertainment coupon (thanks to retire@50!)
Later!