I not only got my paycheck, but I ended up only putting in $10 toward our party anyway. Still, it's so difficult to control anything while at school. Diet, money, exercise, friendships... Over the summer I had the time to get OCD over tracking my entire life on Excel. Now I barely have time to shower.

It doesn't help that my school is essentially a US News-ranked summer camp. They should add a category: "Shirts optional". This place is ridiculous. I can't study when at 2pm...
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I'm officially 2 weeks through the first month of the grocery challenge. Goal, to reduce grocery bill and eating out by 25 percent, to $725 a month.

Two weeks to go. And EEK, we only have $244 left in the grocery budget. Eating out has really killed us this month.

Every time my mom babysat, we went out to eat as a date, plus throw in some restaurant breakfasts for hurricane evacuees, and then a MLS soccer game that cost us $34 in concessions, and well, you see how it adds...
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My computer was getting an "error 104" message a lot. I decided to Google it and found a site that claimed it would fix it with a free download. RegCure, it was called. It scanned my machine and found many things that needed fixing. But I had to buy a bigger version to actually fix most of them. Well, I looked around a little and it seemed legit. When I got to the part where I charged to Paypal, I thought it said it was $9.95. So I bought it. Then I get a message from Paypal...
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So, the topic recently seems to be not about our usual spiel about whether people save enough, but whether savers like us actually spend enough? Do we, savers, actually have a problem with spending?

Maybe that's not the exact point of discussion, but at least that's how I saw it. Well, even if it's not directly aimed at me, it's got me thinking and wondering if I actually have a spending issue!

Well, I like to think that I don't... but people who are in denial say that...
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As I've mentioned before, we do not have cable. Instead we borrow DVDs from the library and have an obnoxious set of rabbit ears on our bedroom TV so we can kind of tune in to local channels if we get desperate.

The big TV is in the basement family room, which we rarely use so all it's hooked up to is a DVD player. When it's too icy to run outside, I will go downstairs to run on the treadmill and put a movie in the DVD player so I don't go stark raving mad from boredom.

However,...
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Thanks to everyone who commented on my previous post! Definite food for thought. I'll visit the topic again in the future, as it's one that I still struggle with from time to time.

Today was one of those wonderfully lazy Sundays in early fall ... the Georgia sun is beating furiously down on us all, but I still detect a hint of crispness in the air! And right now I'm watching Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture' on GPB. He was a really inspiring man.

Did some grocery shopping this...
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We went on our first vacation of the year, 3 days in Gatlinburg, Tenn. My husband loves old cars and every year they have a show in Pigeon Forge called "Shades of the Past"
We stayed at a nice hotel right down town, had several excellent meals and really enjoyed ourselves.

However, all that changed when we got home. There was a message on the answering machine that said someone had found my husband's youngest brother dead in his house. He had not been sick. He was only...
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Well we went out on a search today for a product that we never did find. How hard IS it to find a flat plain black license plate frame for a reasonable price?? I want to make my own custom frame to match some things in my car, but I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a piece of plastic. Anyways, did not yet find what I'm looking for.

Did buy a few things though. Got two pairs of shorts at Walmart for $7 each. Great since I only had one pair of shorts that fit me!!

Also...
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It seems like as soon as you get paid, your paycheck is gone. This is nothing new to most people I'm sure. Just something that frustrated me a little bit today. (I get paid weekly, therefore I pay my bills weekly, IE Credit card)

My weekend spending:

Perscription: 49.78
Gasoline to fill the tank to full: 20.00
Gift: 3.00
Other/Misc: 8.00
Groceries: 55.00 (45.00 under budget!)
CC Payment for this week: 100.00
Downtown parking for work: 85.60 (last time I have to pay...
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is dealing with the stuff when you get home. I have several gifts occassions in September. Youngest nieces b-day, best friends daughter's b-day and parent's anniversary.

Last Wednesday I took both nieces to see the Mummy 3. 20.25 for tickets. 14.50 for junk and 10 for food court dinner. We went shopping for youndest nieces b-day. The mall had a promotion for every $100 you put on your Discover card you get a $10 Discover gift card. I spent $115 on her presents, dinner and a...
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So the summer is over. We swore that after the wedding of C&P that we would get back on our financial track. I guess this blog is about forcing myself to be mindful about the way I spend money.

About Me
Here's all you need to know...
- I'm 28, and my FH is 33
- We're planning to get married in August 2009
- We live in Southwestern Ontario with our puppy N
- I work full-time and study part-time at the School of Graduate Studies (UofT)

My Goals
- Pay off the mortgage!
-...
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DH does not teach a class on Fridays, so after breakfast we took a leisurely drive over the Santa Cruz Mountains. The day was sunny and clear and the traffic very light. We drove up Hecker Pass Road, stopping at two wineries along the way for some free wine tasting (only me, since DH was the DD). Then we made our way down and over to the tiny town of Corralitos, famous for the Corralitos Market and Sausage Company that makes the best sausage in the western USA if not the entire...
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After last week of my first days on two courses, I realize that my work is cut out for me.

While I am still very excited to have the opportunity to pursue a Business degree, a part of me is worried about the challenges that I will have.

I love the English professor. She actually retired 5 years ago and now teaches 3 courses a semester purely out of the passion to teach and passion on the subject. The SF Bay Area is very rich with culture, history, minority writers who are...
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Well, I have had my share of glitches with things (broken dryer, problems with computer's server, etc). My dryer remains broken (still carting laundry over to my mother's though this is getting very tiring), but after unplugging everything and rebooting the computer I at least fixed that problem!

DH's trip to FL to look at yachts with my father was postponed due to Gustav, Hannah, Ike and Jenna (I think that is the J name I heard). He is crankier than ever because the work...
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I received some Fiber One samples for cereal and a cereal bar in the mail. I signed up for them a few weeks ago, as it is always nice to get something free!

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A few days ago I signed up for Quicken online to track expenses and utilize a budget upon other blog members recommending it in the past, and more recently Monkey Mama had mentioned that she uses it. It is very convenient to have bank , credit card, investment accounts, etc....
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I'm... debating whether to blog this or not. Might keep it, might not.... But I'm a big boy, right? So....

Saturday night, hanging out with a bud, and he tells me he's got a couple of free tickets to a nearby strip club.

Now, mind you, I simply do NOT go to these types of establishments. In fact, I don't even go to bars, raves, clubs, or even the bowling alley! I'm just not that kind of person. (You know how seedy those bowling alleys can be. Joke.)

But... we were...
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Paid a lot of bills yesterday. Water was really high this month because it included the Annual Parks Charge. That was worth more than $55. The gas was also quite high because of higher winter usage. Can't wait for the weather to start getting warmer, which should cut down our gas usage. So utilities this month is more than $350, I guess they are coming due all at once since we didn't have any last month.

Also paid credit card bills, they weren't too bad.

Later this month...
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I am feeling like I achieved a fair bit today which is good!

We went vege shopping at the markets today and spent approx $50 (including $10 dog food as we are looking after parents pup).

I made a batch of vegetable pasta sauce which made approx 2 nights of dinners (4 meals) and lunch for BF for the next day, packed in separate containers and frozen.

I made a batch of mexican bean stew (good for nachos/tacos/enchiladas etc) approx three nights dinners (6 meals), packed...
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Friday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $15 lunch + $102 dinner & drinks

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 brunch + $10 produce

My surprise guest is kashi!

DH and I met with Kashi and her SO Friday night. Most of you old-timers remember her; for those who forgot, or are new enough that you've never run across her blog, let me be helpful:

http://kashi.savingadvice.com/

I hope that I'm not stealing too much of her thunder, but she looks fantastic, her SO is very sweet, she's working part time in a photography portrait studio (my big, big question - keep pursuing photography, Kashi, your pics are fantastic!), and she's on a vacation between jobs (she was also escaping the effects of the convention). Hopefully she will catch us up a bit after she gets back to Minnesota.

The four of us ate and drank a couple of cocktails alfresco along Pike - a wonderful 2 hour wide ranging catchup. The funny thing was that DH and Kashi's SO seemed to click even more strongly. If an objective observer looked at our table, it would have appeared those two had the reunion rather than the two of us! Could that be an effect of blogging - Kashi and I could quickly catch up through our blogs, while DH and SO did it the old fashioned way?

Kashi mentioned that just ran out of things that she wanted to blog about - I can readily relate. Its hard to write if things are going well, and if you feel like you are bumping up against the same issues, well, posting those over and over gets problematic.

Kashi and SO put up a bit of a fight when I nabbed the check. It's the end of your vacation, you two, allow me. Besides, it was the very best money I've spent this year.

I promised that when DH and I visit the farmette in Wisconsin, we will look them up in Minnesota. And if they are more serious about moving to the PNW - please visit for a week in February. Late summer is Bali-Hai season in Seattle ... it leads tourists to their doom.

Now what you've all been waiting for - pictures!

An action shot of Kashi doing what she does best ... and using the PricePlus gambit.


Baselle (in black) and Kashi (in blue) walking away...


And after all that...

"Good night, Kashi," I said.
"Good night, baselle," Kashi said.
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By now, even if you didn't watch, most of you are aware of some of the comments made at the Republican National Convention regarding, ahem, "community organizers."

The comments and laughter that accompanied them made me bristle. Despite still being young and having little experience, I feel as if I've been in the journalism field long enough to believe for myself that a politician is a politician, no matter what party s/he is affiliated with. In my mind, America has been built...
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