So it's come to my attention that I'll be back home in Ohio in less than a week. Holy crap. heh.

I've been trying to prepare for this for a while now, and each day it gets a little easier and I get a little more excited. I was dreading my return not a month ago, but I feel I'm finally ready. It's time.

Money is going to be INCREDIBLY tight until January. My grace period ended on the student loans, and I'm paying out about $400 a month until I'm enrolled back in school. The good news is once I am enrolled, my loans will be deferred again and I'll be getting my GI Bill-- with kicker. Which means the army will be giving me more or less $500/month. That's on top of paying for my school. So I'll still hold at least a part time job, and be good to go.

Until then, however, I have work to do. I'm lucky in that I'm going to be living with my best friend in her house, and she wants no rent from me. I'll secretly hide money in her pockets come November, but for the next couple months, I'll likely take advantage of that while I get back on my feet.

I'll get my bonus money within the next 2 months. After taxes that should net me somewhere around $8000. A chunk of that is going into a savings account for emergencies and my travel savings. The rest will be used to put a down payment on a car. I'll definitely need one come the wintertime. For job and school purposes. Until then, I'll be pedalling it on my bike and bumming rides.

I was looking at the local YMCA website, seeing if they had military discounts, and I went out on a whim and looked at job postings. They had a few, and I filled out the online application for the hell of it. Got a call a couple days ago from the director of the childcare department. I have a job interview the week I get back. I'm rather excited about that. I love kids, and I think I would like it a lot. I do need to discuss what I would be getting paid/hours I'd be working. At this point, however, it's nice to know I have the job hunt started. And with the way the job market is looking in Ohio these days, even if I'm getting close to minimum wage, something is better than nothing. I've got bills to pay.

Even if I dont get a very high paying job, the good news is that I get $150/month in drill pay. Not much, but it's something. And I do my fair share of babysitting. And I'll be getting back into my music once I get home, with a friend who is an exceptional guitarist. We're hoping to start playing out in the next few months. It would be great if that generated some income as well. Every little bit helps.

I'm going to post my financial goals here in the next week. I'll be posting much more often once I get home. My internet access out here is limited, so it's rather inconsistent. I also have to establish said goals, so look forward to them!

I've started doing some lightweight budgeting, but it's hard when I have no clue what my income is going to be. So it's a rough draft thus far. It's going to be pretty tight for the next couple months for sure. But I'm okay with that. Lucky for me, my friends and I do many cheap(er) things for fun... like playing board games and drinking haha. I'm definitely looking forward to spending time with my friends. Particularly my best friend. We'll call her DW, because on facebook we are technically married. haha. Her husband is actually returning from his deployment next month as well. It's going to be quite the party.

The only clear goal I have is going to Kenya next summer. I'm budgeting $2k for plane ticket and spending while I'm there (which will be minimal). If I use a chunk of my bonus money, monthly saving wont be too bad. But we'll see. I've been trying to get out of the country and see the world for a while now. I think this is my chance. I'm rather excited about it

So I think that's enough for now. Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll post again soon

So this has been the best day I've had in a while. It was a great start to what will hopefully be a great week.

BF and I went and looked at an apartment today that is perfect. It's much bigger than we thought it would be, less than $500 a month, has 2 big closets, plenty of counter space, a little storage closet that would be great for BF's gas-soaked work clothes, on site laundry services, a little yard. It's a 2nd floor apartment, so I wouldn't have to worry about leaving my windows open at night, it feels really secure.

It's also within walking distance of a bar we frequent, the restaurant where BF's family goes all the time, the grocery store, and closer to my mom, BF's family, and good friends of ours. It's $20 extra per month for pets, but that puts it at still cheaper than any of the other apartments we were considering. So when I finally get my puppy, we'll be set.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about it. I was really not all that thrilled to be moving again, until I saw this apartment, and now I'm totally stoked. We were going to look at a few more places, and we still may, but I'm pretty sure my heart is set on this one. It's the best price we've found yet, and in the perfect location.

Adding to all that, when we got home from looking at the apartment, I got a call from a woman about my application at the bank. I have a phone interview tomorrow at 3pm. That's 2 job interviews this week

I made decent money at work today-- about $45. Much better than any day last week. Told my boss today that I was looking around for another job. He understood. No one at the restaurant is making any money, which is quite the bummer. It's a really fun place to work, and the food is really quality. It's just a really bad location, especially in the summer months when there aren't as many people downtown.

I had my first job interview of the week this afternoon, and it went well. After talking to the owner of the record company for a while, he gave me an application so they could do the background check and all that fun stuff. It seems like it would be a fun place to work, but there would be some running around to do. I think working for a bank may be a little nicer. It's more stationary (for days that BF has to drop me off, etc). But it's really going to depend on what branch I would be working at, what hours I would be working, how much I would be paid, etc. Those are the kinds of questions I'll be asking tomorrow, of course. BF's sister used to be a bank teller, and she said she made around $9/hr. Which is about the same as what I would make as an office assistant for the record company.

So we'll see... Regardless, it seems like August is going to be an exciting month, between a new apartment and a new job.

Last night I picked BF up from his unit and made dinner. The greek salad turned out amazing. Tonight after my interview I picked BF up from his grandma's. He was cutting her grass. We stopped at Dairy Queen and picked up a couple blizzards. Definitely an uneccesary expense, but it was such a nice warm day and it had been way too long since I had icecream.

I didn't buy any food at work. I packed my sandwich, and some leftovers. That $2 I saved was spent on icecream. lol.

I made dinner again tonight. I made a lemon-dill chicken salad, which turned out really good. We ate it with the leftover salad. In addition, we have enough for at least 2 or 3 more sandwiches. I'm out of chicken now, so I'll have to figure something out for the rest of the week :/ maybe we'll go all-vegetarian for the rest of the week. We have stuff for salads, so we should be fine. I've been quite the chef lately. I'm looking forward to moving into a bigger place. I miss inviting people over. I want to have people over for dinner more often

BF and I seem to be getting on the same page with not spending money. I like that a lot. For instance, he was talking about a bedroom set he wants to get for the new apartment. He said it's "only" $700-some dollars, and it's really nice. But I explained that I think it's uneccesary to get anything like that. We have everything we need, and the closets in the new place are huge, so we dont really need another dresser. I told him I'd prefer it if he put the $700 on his CC. He agreed Sometimes you just have to talk some sense into these boys! haha.

He went off to work, and I made him a sandwich to take with him while he was packing. He also took a few cans of the diet mountain dew we bought on sale in cases, rather than blowing way too much money on it at gas stations.

This week shouldn't be terribly pricey, until sunday. It's BF's sister and nephew's b-day, so we're going to a water park. I think they sell discounted tickets at the grocery store, but I'm not sure how much it's going to cost, or if you are allowed to bring food into the park, etc. Guess we'll see. I work friday and saturday nights. Hopefully this week I wont get sent home early both nights, and I'll actually make some money. That would be nice :P

I have a couple more things to list on craigslist/amazon. I'm going to make a couple more peices of jewelry, too. I need to work on generating that extra income. Last month I did pretty good.

A couple little victories I noticed today:
*I haven't bought a book for non-school reasons since April.
*I haven't spent any money on clothes since may, and the month's total then was $3.40

Trying to keep up the good work in July

Hope everyone has a great night!

Well, this weekend has been pretty fun thus far. Last night I went to work, but it was so slow that I sat for an hour with nothing to do, and they sent me home. I work again tonight, hopefully with much better luck.

This morning I sent another resume out for an executive/office assistant position. It's 30 hours/week and it only pays $8.50/hr, but it's still far better than what I'm making currently.

I went grocery shopping with a friend of mine. I introduced her to the glory of ALDI. Then we stopped at Giant Eagle because there were a few things that I needed that ALDI didn't have.

The damage:
ALDI
12 pack of Toilet Paper $5.29
1 Grapefruit $0.59
3-pack cucumber $1.19
1 Red onion $0.49
1 Bag of spring mix salad $1.99
1 quart soymilk $1.39
5 tomatoes $3.95
1 bag radishes $0.89
1 can chunk pineapple $0.89
1 box granola cereal $1.59
1 tub yogurt $1.59
1 tub cottage cheese $2.29
1 thing peanutbutter $1.39
1 can black olives $0.99
1 bag baby carrots $1.19
Total with tax: $26.05

Giant Eagle:
Feta Cheese $2.00
Soy Sauce $3.09
Can Chickpeas $0.60
Sesame oil $2.99
Firm tofu $2.99
Green onion $0.79
Total: $12.46

Complete total: $38.51

It seems really high, but BF will be reimbursing me part of it. Also, shopping today convinced me to cook lunch with my friend as opposed to going out to chipotle where we each would have spent $10. He bought the avocados, I bought the tomatoes we needed to make our shish kabobs and our tomato-avocado salad.

Also, I have to confess... I've been cheating a little. I bring my sandwich to work every day, but that's never enough food for me. And I know this, of course. So every day I've been splitting a meal with my coworker. I only usually spend a max of $2.25 every day, but if you take an average of $2x5 days of work, that's $10/week. $40/month. I bought extra groceries so I cook more, and I'll be taking my leftovers to work.

Speaking of work, as I was getting back from grocery shopping, I got a call from the place I sent my resume to this morning. We talked a bit, and set up an interview date-- monday at 3pm. Yippee! I need to figure out what I'm going to wear now...

Monday morning BF and I are looking at an apartment. We really need to figure out where it is we're moving to. The lease is up the first week in august.

So my friend and I went to my mom's and we cooked lunch. It was nothing short of amazing, and we both had leftovers to take home. And mom got a nice meal for free. All she had to do was the dishes It was a really nice time.

Tonight I have work, tomorrow I have some cleaning to do around this apartment, and I'm getting together for lunch with my coworker. Then it's off to the drive in to see Wall*e again after BF gets home.

Got a pinecone check in the mail today

This coming week is going to be a very busy one. Still chugging away at that to-do list, it's been a slow process, but I see things looking up. Anyhoo, time to finish getting ready for work!

Everyone have a nice evening

Yesterday was a blast. It was indeed a bit pricey, but I still managed to have a wonderful time and dinner was FANTASTIC. The boys were incredibly impressed. Even mine, who doesn't particularly care for eggplant

Today we're off for more shopping. There were a couple stores along the way we wanted to check out yesterday on the South Side, but a lot of things were closed by the time we got to them. Not on that list was the Culture Shop (my all time favorite store there). They were having a sale- 50% off all clothes. I was doing very well not buying clothes for the last few weeks, but seeing this really changed things I cant usually get a skirt there for less than $40-- the reason why I own none. But $20 is much better, so I bought a skirt and a pair of pants (so comfy!) for $35, which is really good. If I could buy clothes like that just anywhere, it wouldn't have been an issue, but I dont see too many indian import clothing/accessory/jewelry/home decor stores. heh.

Work tonight, so I'll be making a little more moolah. Then out to the bars, but I'll be drinking cheap. Our friends leave tomorrow morning, and I'm happy to say I'll be relieved. It's been great having them, but entertaining is quite a bit of effort (and money)!

Later guys!

So I'm still attempting to eat all in my fridge without wasting or throwing anything out. I'm eating my stirfry for breakfast (yes, as BF would agree with you, anything very not-breakfasty for breakfast may not be orthodox, and to some slightly gross. It's all food to me, though, so I'll do it anyways. hehe). I still have enough for one meal, though.

I got a call yesterday from a classmate of mine I havent seen, well, since the semester ended. I was so excited to have heard from someone from school (once summer came about, it seems we all lose touch), and I'll be doing an early dinner with her pre-work at Primanti's (bar and grill, fantastic sandwiches). I'm alotting $15 including tip, for a sandwich and a beer. On second thought, I might just get a basket of fries. That'll knock the price down a couple bucks, I'll just eat something small before I go. I know I said I wasn't going to go out to eat until vacation, but I consider this more of an entertainment expense than a restaurant expense because I'm spending time with a friend.

Sooo. I'll be making White Bean and Sausage Soup with Peppers for lunch and saving the leftovers. This is another silver palate recipe, though I'll be doing some substitutes. I have a bag of mixed beans that I've had since before we moved. For some reason, I haven't found a recipe to try with them, so I figured to substitute the mixed beans for the white beans. It wont be the prettiest of colors, I'm sure (you puree the soup before adding the sausage and peppers), but I'm sure it will taste just fine.

Well, that's about it for today. I'll cook, I'll go to the bank downtown, and get dinner with my friend before work. Then work. We have a party of 35 coming in tonight, so it's going to be a busy night. Yay US open. Cross your fingers I earn some moo-lah!

I completely forgot to mention my [super] frugal picnic last night! BF and I decided to do dinner IN, rather than out. Well, we were certainly OUTside, but eating yummy things bought from Aldi about a week ago... We grilled brats and these chile lime chicken burgers from Trader Joes, and I boiled the corn with chives and it was quite good! And certainly cheaper than going to a restaurant! In light of my new camera (which was the best gift, EVER), I hope to be posting more pictures. Here are a few from our picnic last night:


A view of the pool outside my apartment building, the picnic area is right next to it.


A picnic table, and our cooler :P


Our bounty.


A dog done right.


The sun was setting on our lovely meal. So pretty!

Aside from the picnic, work was long (yet profitable). As it turns out, my schedule will be awfully hectic next week, what with the US open. I work 6 days, 3 of them doubles. :P This, while good for my wallet, will be incredibly tiresome. It'll be a long week. At any rate, I'm hoping the weather's nice tomorrow. I'm going to try and relax before work.

I need to continue working on my friend's surprise-- a scarf I'm crocheting for her! I'll have to post pictures! Yay! Night, all!

So a couple of friends came over last night, we played the wii and drank a bit. Made sure to stay in. It ended up being much cheaper that way! This morning one of them was still here, so I made us breakfast to avoid heading out to get breakfast. Also a good choice. As for the rest of the day, I'm going to clean up the apartment a bit, then head outside and lay by the pool. It was a bit too chilly yesterday, unfortunately.

By the way, my artichoke came out pretty good yesterday, especially for a first-timer. I'm not sure if I'll make another anytime soon, as BF doesn't eat them, and eating an entire globe artichoke by myself constituted dinner. They're a bit of a pain to eat as well, it seems. But tasty! Tonight I think we'll grill, as BF will be home and we have brats and corn-on-the-cob.

Tomorrow it's back to work, which is both good and bad, I suppose. I enjoy my days off and tomorrow is my double, but the $$ coming in is always nice! I think it'll be a low-key night, perhaps I'll watch a movie later. At any rate, everyone have a good day!

p.s. On a final note, I canceled my world of warcraft subscription... $15 a month I'm saving. Yay! I dont think I'll miss it too much.

Ahh... my day off. What to do? I already slept in til noon The great abundence of odd, vivid dreams tells me I [finally] caught up on all that sleep I've been missing out on since the weekend. Either that, or I'm going crazy. Those dreams certainly were. At any rate, I'm planning the course of the day.

It's sunny, and supposed to remain that way, so I might go lay out by the pool for a while and read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I've started it, halfway through it, and love it. Cant wait til the 7th book comes out. I dont know what I'm going to do when the series ends, though. It'll be a shame. I'm always so sad when the books end.

Friends of ours may be coming over later, but we have enough alcohol leftover from the party to intoxicate an army, so there will be no need to buy more. We could easily barbecue using the food we have here. Come to think of it, we really should make that corn.

I was going to cook an artichoke, too. haha. I saw one in the store and realized that I haven't had one in YEARS. I honestly dont remember where I had one, either. It certainly wasn't with my parents. Either way, I intend on making one. Let's hope it comes out alright. We bought one at Trader joes, and it was quite big. I read in a cookbook that the medium-small size taste the best (after I bought them, of course), so I hope this one turns out okay. It's not huge by any means, but it is certainly on the larger side of medium. Cross your fingers!

After all that's been said, I think it's going to be another no-spend day. Yesterday was, save my bus fare. I finished off my pasta this afternoon as well, so I'm out of leftovers. Just the right time to get cooking again! I was thinking of baking cookies today as well. Mmm. Work last night ended up being better than expected. My focus is now on saving that money I've earned. I'm thinking of listing a couple things on amazon and taking a trip to the exchange. We'll see... Well, have a great day, everyone!

...I'm cracking down on this spending. For real. With vacation quickly approaching, I've realized that I should have MUCH more saved up than I do right now. I calculated out how much I'll need, approximately, and how much I'll make between now and then. It's a bit startling, but I also made my estimates based on lower income than usual. The restaurant's been doing very poorly for the last month. Lucky for me, the US open is coming up, and before vacation. I'm hoping this brings in quite a bit of traffic. The only downside is our big booming business is going to be majority foreign, so I cant expect booming tips (though if I do get them, I'll be VERY pleasantly surprised!).

My coworker has been teaching me some japanese here and there, I want to learn how to at least carry on a small conversation with my customers. Here's what I learned yesterday:

onomimono wa doonasai masuka?
(what would you like to drink?)

More will follow! It's been quite a while since my last japanese class, so the refreshment is nice. Work tonight, but it's all you can eat. erg. Not the best of nights, most of us servers dread it. Bad tips, noone really buys appetizers or desserts, and it's a total mess. More work, more I have to tip out to chefs... poo. But money is money, so I'll just have to look at things optimistically.

As for the time spent before work, I haven't decided. I bought the 6th Harry Potter book the other day (got 30% off because I'm friends with the guy at the bookstore). I believe I'll be reading that for the better part of the day. Now, where is the real question. BF has class at 2:45, and I usually ride with him downtown at that point. HOWEVER, I usually end up spending $10-15 when I do that because I'm sitting around downtown for 3 hours and the evil forces of Starbucks, etc draw me in. The other option is to take the bus. This would cost me $1.75, but that's a bit less than $10. Not to mention, I'd be able to eat dinner at home. I suppose I could pack my dinner to take with me, but I was going to eat leftovers.

I got the Silver Palate cookbook for my birthday (thanks Gram and Gramps!) and I tried a recipe yesterday: Pasta Primavera Gregory. I cut it in half and still ended up with tons of leftovers. Not that I'm complaining I love leftovers. I did, though, have to buy bags of things (produce), so I'm going to be scouring my cookbooks for recipes to use the excess before it goes bad. I hate wasting, afterall...

Speaking of wasting, it's been bothering me quite badly lately. I'm trying to be much more eco-friendly and conservationistic. I bought 2 canvas bags at trader joe's for my groceries and started trying to recycle my paper products and such. But I keep noticing all the foodwaste that goes on here in the US. I work at a restaurant, and we put veggies and potatoes and such on the plate with our eentres. 70% of the time, those veggies go untouched and get thrown away. Same with rice. Same with fruit on the plate with icecream. I went to Chipotle when I was in Ohio. I told the boy I wanted a veggie burrito, so he heated up my tortilla and slid it to the next boy down, who put beef on it. When the first boy told the second that I wanted only veggies, he threw it in the trash! A bit heap of rice, beans, and chicken! I would have told him I would still eat it, but he threw it away before I had the chance. It kills me all the wasting that is done in restaurants when there are so many starving all over the world. There are days that I want to load up syrofoam containers with the untouched food that my restaurant is throwing out, and hand it out to the homeless! Or take it home... haha. Our veggies are pretty good, you know

Either way, sorry for the superlong post. Everyone have a great day!

...end up buying 5. I guess that's how clothing stores go. I needed a new tie for work. Bad. I went to Burlington Coat Factory, because that's where I like to find cheap ties (that are also very cute!), and I left with not only a tie, but a new bathing suit (I needed a longer top), a pair of shorts (I only own one pair), and a new teeshirt (something a little more spring-like). I forbid myself from spending any more money on clothes this month, I dont care if my birthday IS coming up. Usually I'm not one to go hog-wild on clothes (I usually break the bank in restaurants), but this nice weather has me buying all sorts of stuff, especially with vacation coming up next month (Eek!). I regret no purchase made today, but I'm putting a cap on the clothes spending for the month.

As for work, it was rather slow. I walked out with about $50, which really isn't bad considering we didn't have a whole lot of customers. I'm off for the next two days, and I'm still deciding what to do. Because I'm on summer vacation, I have no papers to write, no textbooks to read. I'm positively excited. I think I'll sit outside, read a book, and sip on wine all day. Then make dinner for BF and I. I'm going to make spaghetti with mushrooms, zuchinni, chicken, and broccoli. Perhaps I'll do a butter and parmesan topping as opposed to a tomato sauce, make it a little more summer-y.

Thursday I believe BF and I will be buying roller-blades. This is a purchase I've thought about quite a bit. I think I'll ask my parents to reimburse me for them for my birthday, but we'll see. Regardless, I want a nice pair. I love to skate and haven't on a regular basis for years, but it's excellent exercise, something I can do about anywhere, and after the cost of the skates, it's free! I'm not talking those crazy stunt skating gigs, just in the park when it's nice type of deal, and there are surprisingly a couple paths downtown for bikers and skaters, so it's something I could do leisurely downtown as well. I'm imagining picnics at one of the nice parks by our apartment, then skating on warm afternoons. Mmm.

Aside from all that, just more reading and such. And working out. I've been doing a great job keeping up with this exercise routine. Hopefully we'll start seeing some great results! Eating better helps as well! heh. At any rate, I'll update again soon (perhaps when I stop in for another glass of Pinot Gregio tomorrow afternoon amidst Prozac Nation). Later everyone!

So I got a call from the coffeeshop owner today... all the biscotti I gave him (40 pc) is gone! He called to order 60 more pieces. I guess everyone loved it! That's pretty exciting, and he couldn't have had better timing because I'll have plenty of time tomorrow to do some baking. I dont have a class until 6:00pm and BF will be at class the better part of the day. So baking and homework it will be! Not sure what kinds to make, and I really need to hit the store. I could use more nuts and eggs. Nuts are where the majority of the money is spent... last time I made pistachio biscotti, too. BF's favorite The cranberry orange is pretty good as well. I was thinking about making chocolate biscotti this time, but I'm still up in the air. I'm not sure how it will turn out as I use the same recipe for every kind I make, I just change what goes into it. The texture is perfect and I dont want to mess with that... we'll see though. At any rate, there's a few extra bucks I'll make! And of course, adding it to the challenge... This month seems to be pretty profitable afterall!

I bought some food on campus today, but only about $3 worth. Pretty good for 2 weeks. I didn't want to go home to eat because it was snowing pretty hard and I didn't feel like walking to my apartment and back. Talked to my mom for a bit about a bunch of things. We'll be paying a visit to my Great Grandmother some time in February, which will be nice. I haven't seen her in ages and it seems that she's really excited. I'll have to bring her something tasty She's a great cook, as many housewives were back in the 50's. It's amazing how the times have changed... At any rate, I'm pretty excited right now. I've had 2 great weeks of class, and my business ventures are picking up! Woo!

So I've been pondering this idea for a couple weeks now... There's this new coffee shop that just opened up near my apartment. It's a really small, quaint place. I went to check it out yesterday and I inquired the owner about who does thier baking, mentioning that I do some myself. The guy gave me a free cup of coffee and said he'd try some of my baked goods. So last night, I made some Chocolate-dipped almond biscotti and one of my chocolate chip coffee cakes and brought it to the coffee shop this morning on my way to class. He gave me another free cup of coffee this morning and told me to come back later and he'd tell me how he liked it. So on my way back from class I stopped in and it turns out that he really liked the biscotti! He told me to make another batch, and told me to cut him a deal on it and he'd sell it in the shop!

I'm totally excited. For a couple reasons... I've always wanted to bake, whether I owned my own bakery or made baked goods for a restaurant etc. And even though I wont be able to make a huge profit on this biscotti, it's something! I dont mind putting in the extra time if it's baking. I love to bake!

It costs about $6 a batch for supplies. I figured if I charged him $15 per batch I'd make $9... not bad for 2 hours of work and made from scratch. If he sold them for $1.50 each, or even $1.25 each he'd still make a profit of $15-$10 per batch. He said he didn't get around to trying the cake yet. That would probably be a bit more profitable because you can cut it into more peices. At any rate, the idea of making a little extra cash while doing something I enjoy is enough for me!

I'm just proud of myself for asking. They say you never know until you ask, and I went for it! And I got 3 free cups of coffee and a cinnamon roll in the process! Doesn't quite make up for the supplies necessary to make the first batches I gave to him, but regardless I think it was worth it to make the connection.

In other news, I used my coupons and did some grocery shopping.

Campbells healthy select soup... on sale .90 off, coupon doubled makes an additional $1 off 2
Total price: 2 for $1.50 or 0.75 a can
Total saved: $2.80

Coupon for 1 free Pria Energy Bar
Total price: $0
Total saved: $1.35

Prego Sauce $2 each. Coupon doubled makes an additional $1 off 2. And I'll be mailing in to get one of them free. After rebate...
Total price: 2 for $1.50 or 0.75 a jar
Total saved: $3.00

Cottage cheese doubles 1.12 each. Coupon doubled makes 1.00 off 2.
Total price: 2 for 1.24 or 0.62 each
Total saved: $1.00

Glade air freshening spray on sale for 0.88. Coupon buy one get one free.
Total price: 2 for 0.88 or 0.44 each
Total saved: $1.00

Pure Protein bars on sale 1.00 each. Coupon buy one get one free.
Total price: 2 for $1 or 0.50 each
Total saved: $1.50

Total saved: $10.65

Yay!!! More to add to the challenge... totals to be posted later

Well, the detectives came to my house, and I have much good news. I was able to identify the woman. And it happened to be the gal they thought it was, so they'll be making an arrest, and I'll be taking her to court. Trying to get this woman off the streets and where she belongs-- in jail.

Aside from that, I'm just trying to get things back to normal. I got my ID replaced, along with my glasses (thanks mom!) and purse (thanks Gram!). I worked last night, but didn't make too much money. Lucky for me, Gram paid me and BF both $50 to take down all the xmas decorations. I cant say it was worth quite that much (more like a $30 job), granted it was definitely a chore (BF mentioned that they employed half of Mexico to get the lights up, and there were plenty of them). Honestly, though, we would have done it for free. Especially after they replaced my purse AND took me and BF to Sam's Club and bought us close to $250 in groceries and paper products. I'm incredibly lucky to have such wonderful people in my life, really. They've been more than helpful since me and BF moved in together, and they were very concerned when they heard what happened to me. I love them like my own family... which is good I guess because they will be sooner or later!

I sold a book on amazon, and need to ship that off tomorrow. Also on the list is taking a lovely trip to the bank. It seems that the $600 purchase Ms. Wonderful tried to make with my card-- the one the bank claimed was denied-- went through with another $30 purchase I didn't make, and now I have overdraft fees as well. Tell me how the bank didn't see those when I went in the branch the LAST time?? Funny how it appeared on my internet banking but wasn't on their system... grr.

I went grocery shopping yesterday (yes, even after that Sam's Club run) to get perishables. Last night I made dinner for me and BF. Parmesan crusted sole. Yum. Tonight we're having a couple friends over (coworkers) for dinner and I'm making spaghetti and stuffed meatballs (stuffed w/ cheese, that is). I think it's due time to break open that bottle of wine the parents bought me for xmas. I need a little celebration.

Me and BF are in the middle of a great project right now. Cleaning and organizing every room in the apartment. After we returned from Ohio, and consequently Sam's Club, we really needed to reorganize our cabinets and frige to fit everything. Thank goodness. Much was thrown out, and there were things in my refrigerator that had been in there just a little too long... Last night we attacked the closet and filled 2 big paper bags with clothes and shoes to go to goodwill.

I need to get to campus for a couple reasons. I need to replace my student ID, then switch a class before the semester starts next week. I also have to buy my books. Ugh. May have to dip into savings for that one, but we'll see. I'm lacking in that $100 of B&N giftcards my parents got me for my textbooks.

At any rate, dinner tonight should be a good time, and I'm enjoying the fact that things are getting back to normal. Class will be starting soon, and I'm definitely excited to get back. I've found my love for cooking all over again, and though buying a lot of produce gets a bit pricey, I'm enjoying entertaining. I hope everything keeps up and that I can tie up loose ends with this whole robbery thing soon. I'm happy to say I'm feeling alright despite the occurence, and the only time I get a little anxious is if I'm alone in the dark. I'm holding on tight to BF from now on... anyways, thanks for reading if you got this far! It was a bit lengthy.

Have a great day, everyone!

Well, much time has passed since my last post. I only have 2 more people to buy for! I still have yet to wrap my presents, but that will all be done tomorrow before I LEAVE FOR OHIO! WOO! I'm a bit excited...

At any rate, a friend of mine and I went shopping the other day. I bought all ingredients needed, then made cookies, biscotti, chocolate covered pretzels, homemade chocolates, and hot chocolate jars. Whew! It totalled 7 hours all together. I took some of my bounty into work yesterday, everyone was pleased. I put together a tin to go to BF's grandparents, but am also making one to go to my parent's house and my grandparent's house. I need to make more biscotti! It turned out awesome and consequently I ate too much of it. Yet another task to complete tomorrow before I leave.

We got the car. I finally saw it when BF came back home. 2001 honda civic, pretty cool. He just has to teach me to drive it now... manuals... ugh. So things are all well and today is my last day of work until right before new years eve. Exciting! I haven't had a vacation like this since I started, so it'll be nice. Spend some quality time with my family and friends...

At any rate, I hope everyone has a great holiday! It sure creeped up on us quick! hope it didn't catch anyone with thier pants down I know it did me! (heh. I'm not quite sure what that means, but it sounded appropriate. haha). Later everyone!

hehe. Just a tad, anyway. Coworkers buying me drinks after work is a dangerous business. At any rate, it's my day off anyhow, and we had a good time. Slept half the day away, though, and I always feel guilty about that, like I've wasted time. Oh well!

Yesterday's spending at Burlington was great. I ended up spending about $56, but for all the stuff I got, it was pretty good, and everything was greatly needed. I bought:
1 work shirt from the little boy's dept (hehe)
2 ties, both incredibly cute
1 winter hat, greatly needed
1 pair of gloves, desparately needed
1 sweater, also needed... I dont have a whole lot of "winterwear" for some reason.

Really, I made out like a bandit. BF found a suit he liked, which is miraculous. He's a really small guy and it's hard for him to find suitjackets that fit him right. We also picked out some nice dresshirts and ties. Fun! We did end up eating out... wendy's. I always forget how cheap it is to eat fast food. I dont eat it but maybe once a month. I do enjoy it a lot that once a month, though. Mmm. Junior Bacon Cheeseburger... for only a dollar! It's amazing.

Last night I did buy 2 of my own overpriced drinks where I work, total of $10, and then I paid for me, BF, and my coworker to eat at the 24 hour place circa 4am. It ended up being about 15 for the 3 of us. Not bad... My coworker paid for the cab up the mountain, so it was definitely cool. At any rate, today is a no-spend day. I'm relaxing. I've got no school this week because of thanksgiving, but I wont be going back home until wednesday night. I cant wait to see everyone!

So I've went over the budget in the clothes area becauuse of yesterday, but no remorse. They were all practical and cheap things. No frivilously expensive mall clothes... though I've been tempted. The good news, though, is that I've managed to not go to the grocery store for a long time! ha! I think I'm gonna need to take a small trip at some point, but perhaps not. We really need milk, but that's about it. My boss brought up an excellent point to me the other day: why dont I spice up my ramen? Honestly, the thought had never really occured to me to eat it any way other than plain with a flavor packet in it. haha. But today I experimented with putting veggies in it. Tasty! I'm thoroughly pleased. Found a site dedicated to ramen and recipes including it. I'll have to try a couple of them because we have so much ramen! And frozen veggies are pretty cheap and healthy (though ramen isn't really healthy).

Speaking of healthy, I really need to get to the gym again now that I have time. I think I've gained a good 5 pounds since the beginning of the semester. I'm not positive of that, but my sides have definitely experienced an increase of plushiness, as well as my hips and thighs. grr. Luckily my schedule will allow me to get on a decent excercise plan next semester, but for now I'll have a lot of time off anyway.

At any rate, that's enough rambling for today!

So after reading the posts on my last blog, I've decided to keep some money in my national city account, and transfer the rest to an Emigrant Direct account. 5.05% sounds so nice! After thinking about how much to deposit, I've decided to not put too much in now. Tuition payment is coming up, and I need that money to be VERY readily available. After tuition is taken out, I'm going to leave the minimum in my savings, $300. Then I'm going to put $200 in the ED account. Combined, they will be my emergency funds. $500 covers my bills and leaves some room for groceries: a month's worth of expenses. I was going to leave that $500 in my National City, but I figured that if I could make higher interest on 40% of the total, why not?

Sometimes I wish I could just forget about those silly student loans. Many kids do while they're in college. I know I could be living life quite comfortably that way, but when I think about all the money I'd rack up in the meantime, and the weight it puts on me just having that 4, soon to be 5-figure dollar amount sitting there for me to pay back, I know I cant. It would be too irresponsible anyway, and that's not my style

In the meantime... I applied for an ED account, my initial deposit $25. That goes towards my $20 challenge.
ED initial deposit: $25
November total: $256.75
Running total: $467.26

This means that I reached my goal of putting $250 towards the challenge! Woo! I'm reaching all of my goals way ahead of time this month. It feels great! I really feel in control of things. Last month I only put $210.51, so things are looking up! And for all of you who dont know, my $20 consists of all money put into savings or towards loans. It includes my piggy bank, which I deposit into my savings every month. Not sure if that's how the challenge is supposed to work, but I have totals for little bits of money I save here and there as well.

As for other news, it's going to be a no-spend day today (I'm up to 7 this month, I think there's a miracle happening). I believe I'll be making those pumpkin cookies and relaxing until I have to go to work. The thermostat is set on 66 and I'm in comfy clothes. I said yesterday while hugging BF: "this is how I'm going to save money this winter." and he says, "how? by hugging me?" and I said yeah, and he replied, "I'm gonna start charging you for stealing my heat." hahahaha. He is too funny. Silly boy :P

So my new work shoes came in today from shoesforcrews.com. We'll see how they fare. My last pair cost me circa $20 from walmart (Dr. Scholls) and lasted me--painfully during the last few--7 months. These cost me $48 with shipping... the work shoe challenge!

As for other financial news... mom called today (always a pleasant suprise). We discussed the holidays and such. I'll only be in Ohio for 2 days for thanksgiving unfortunately, because my boss is a slavedriver. The upside is that I wont eat out once while I'm there. That's usually my financial falling when I'm back home for visits. And aside from that, mom is mailing my perscription to me this month, which means she'll be paying for it too! (yay, saves me $25!)

As far as xmas goes, I told mom not to get me anything too big. Of course, I tell her that every year. Sometimes she listens, sometimes not. I told her the 2 main things on my wish list were gift cards: Giant Eagle and Barnes & Noble. I LOVE to grocery shop. And it's something that will most certainly not go to waste. The B&N gift cards go toward textbooks. So really, I'm just asking for practical gifts... ooo... or world market. Me and BF LOVE world market. Such cool things for the apartment! Hehe. That's actually what I'm getting BF though...

On the non-financial front, my brother is possibly going to be released from the home he's in right now by thanksgiving! He's a paranoid schitzophrenic, and they have him in this awful half-institution with very little freedom... he should be at home. He needs the support. So a big hurray for his probation officer! (This is a biiiiiiig looooooong story for another time, but it's wonderful that they're letting him out early. There's no help for him in that prison)

At any rate, cooked chicken tenders and tomato lentil couscous for dinner. Mmm. Too bad BF is asleep... he might like some too! Ah well, more for me. Serves him right for being a sleepy-poo

So I have this incredible weakness. It's called luxury. A friend of mine told me once that I'm a girl with a champagne lifestlye, kool-ade budget. hehe. Boy, was she right. I managed yesterday to head to the Giant Eagle Market District- which is the mothership of all Giant Eagles. I'm talking the produce/bread/meat section of the store is the size of a normal store, and the selection is wonderful. they have an entire cheese section and a candy store. Talk about my dream... Besides the fact that me and BF always forget that we should skip a meal before going (free samples run free in this place), we always forget that we always spend waaaaay too much here. But to continue my story...

Before we left the house, me and BF picked something out of my wonderful Jamie Oliver cookbok to make for dinner. Quesedillas. So we had to stop at the store. The Market District pulled me in, and I ended up leaving not only with the fixins for this tex mex dish, but 8oz of brie, fancy crackers (BF's incredibly wealthy grandparents have turned me on to this delicious snack... I am way too spoiled), 2 bars of lindt dark chocolate w/orange and one with pear. mmmmm.... The rest of the food I got was real grocery food, but I must say, this was a tasty snack that was well worth the extra $.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's really important to me to have that little bit of snooty luxury to offset the eating-ramen-because-I-have-no-money moments. I wasn't even planning on grocery shopping yesterday, but I'm glad I did because those quesedillas were really good! And BF liked them too! I'm loving this cooking at home bit, I'm finally cooking things that he will eat and request in the future! Speaking of which, we got another package of the zatarain's jambalaya mix as well because he liked it when I made it last week. woo! We picked another zatarain's mix. We'll see how it goes.

I knocked a couple off my list yesterday as far as xmas goes, but I didn't set foot in a store. Many of you know the pleasures of mypoints. Well, I participate as well, but national city has a very similar program going right now, and they're giving bonus points for specific stores. Target happens to be one of them. So I took care of my lil brother and either a professor or friend of mine. It's a sort of bath gel/lotion set thingy, and really it would work for either. So we'll see... 20 bonus points per dollar is good for me!

total spending yesterday included: $20 for my copy of WoW (thanks all who commented on MMO's... it made me smile), $16 on lunch, because it ended up being much pricier than I had thought, and didn't want to make BF pick up the total bill, even though he told me he'd buy me lunch. $31 on groceries, but BF is going to reimburse me for some of the food I bought. I dont mind putting the initial down on my card, I earn points that way! I calculated it out, and he owes me $12, so It'll be $20 total.

Overall, not too shabby. Today will be a no-spend day. I've got chili to make before my ground beef goes bad, and WoW to keep me busy before work. I'd have to say it was a good investment!

I recieved a request for one more post. This time for my pumpkin soup recipe.

To tell you all the truth, I have no idea how much of anything really I put in, but I'll try my best to remember...

Ingredients:
Celery
Sweet onion
butter or margarine
2 13oz cans of pumpkin puree
2 jars sweet potato baby food
1 jar carrot baby food
1 can chicken broth
2 cups applesauce
Spices: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon
Half and half

Well, first I cut celery and sweet onion into very tiny pieces. I'm not sure how necessary these two ingredients are, but they seemed logical in a soup, so I stuck em in there At any rate, I sauteed them in butter until cooked, but still a bit crunchy (well, the celery is still crunchy anyway).

I poured about a fourth a can of chicken broth in and let them simmer a bit more, then added one 13oz can of pure pumpkin puree. I mixed everything until it was well mixed.

Now, I got 3 jars of babyfood at the dollar store for a dollar total- 2 jars of sweet potatoes and one of carrots mushy babyfood style. I have no kids, I just figured it would be a lot cheaper to add these instead of fresh. hehe. And it has the same consistency of the soup, so why not?? I'm sure there are many ways of going about this, it's just what I found cheapest. At any rate, I added these next.

After everything was mixed and smooth again, I added my second can of pumpkin. I then added about 2 cups of applesauce... the recipes I found online mostly had apples in the mix, and once again, applesauce is kind of the same consistency and we happen to have a lot of it.

At some point, I added the rest of that can of chicken broth.

The only other things I added to the soup were spices and half and half to make it a bit creamy. The spices I added to taste, but included: nutmeg, a bit of cinnamon, a bit of ginger, and a few packets of equal to sweeten it up. That was it, really. The soup ended up being a bit thicker than originally planned, but when I got home from work, I mixed a little milk into it to liquify it a bit and it tasted just as yummy!

As you can see, this was a trial and error type of thing, and I cannot say it's perfect, but it's totally easy and does the trick. Not to mention, it makes a bunch! I filled 2 medium sized tupperware containers and freezed them after the 2 meals I made of the first bowl. Great comfort food! ( I can vouch for that one...) Yay for pumpkin!

I've already posted today, but I felt it was necessary to post, because I did in fact run to the grocery store (silly me) to get the ingredients needed to make soup. I originally wanted to make butternut squash soup, but because my grocery store is stupid and has crap for selection, it ended up being pumpkin soup- only because I could find it canned. But in the end, it's very yummy. I browsed for a long time online trying to find a recipe I liked, but I ended up "winging it," as I like to call it. I'm like a mad scientist when I do this. Maniacal laughter and the addition of every random ingredient I can find in my kitchen. It turned out really good, and it was super easy. I could probably add a little more liquid to it, it's pretty thick, but other than that, it's all good! Not to mention, it made so much that I put 2 tupperware containers of it in the freezer for later. BF doesn't eat soup, so it's all mine...

At any rate, I feel a lot better than I did earlier. Probably because I was craving a gourd-like veggie, and because I got to cook (that always puts me in a good mood. hehe) I think it just proves that soup makes things much better, for the most part. ha.

Talk to y'all later! I promise I wont post again today

So like other bloggers here, I've noticed that october is roughly half overwith. So I took a look at my spending and my budget and noticed a few things. First matter... where in the heck did all my money go?? I'm sure we've all said this before, but I still stand pretty baffled. I guess I did go way over the entertainment and misc category, but I went out of town last weekend, and that pretty much zapped all of that. Not to mention, I dropped one of my classes since changing majors, and I'm eating at home now more than I had anticipated, so I've spent more on groceries. I'm still under budget on food bought on campus. But aside from that, I still grabbed my highlighter, ready for a rampage of "what useless silly things did I buy THIS month?"... but when I looked through the list, I honestly found nothing. Nothing that screamed "pointless purchase," so I put down my highlighter. All of my outlandish spending was in the restaurant category when I was out of town, that's it. I am SO PROUD of myself! haha. I've spent very wisely... I guess next month I just need to allow myself a little more in the ways of groceries and cut back on food on campus, and give myself a little more in the misc category... or better yet, spell it out... clothes, dining out, etc. I guess this trial run was a nice eye-opener. I may be over budget this month, but it wont be for silly reasons!

And aside from all this, I baked cookies today, that, once again, prove that my skills in cooking are something short of normal. I have this tendency to pick recipes that are just a little... off. So BF deemed these cookies the "muffin cookies"... they were a little less cookie a little more spongy cake-like, but they were delicious! And me and BF cant get ourselves out of them. haha. I think I'm going to take some to work tomorrow. I've got a huge over-abundance of cookies. And the only thing I had to buy was baking soda! A whole $0.99 for the batch of cookies yay! At any rate, gotta get to sleep. Have my psych exam in the morning!

So I baked this apple pie today because we had so many excess apples... I got a recipe online and all seemed well. Smelled delicious! When I took it out it looked GREAT [see picture]. Tell me that doesn't look delicious! Well, I cut a peice and it was for lack of better wording, apple soup. Much like many of my other attempts at cooking, it just didn't seem quite right. But I'll tell ya, apple pie vanilla icecream soup is pretty darn good. hehe. Any suggestions for what I did wrong?? Thanks guys!