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!

Well, this is it. The finals are over, and now it's time to... SHOP! erg. Not so frugal this time... I found my Christmas dress. Not at the most frugal of stores and certainly not the most frugal of prices. But as BF's Gram said to him today, "every girl has to do that every once in a while. She has to make herself beautiful." And boy, is that what I intend to do! The only things left to get are earrings. I need some pretty pink ones... and pink nail polish too, all I have is reds and purples for some reason. My dress is BEAUTIFUL. I love it, and it is one of those dressy but not so much that I have to wear it to a formal event. Actually, I put a suitjacket over it and wore it to host at work the other night. Glamorous. And I got the shoes-- rampage-- for only $23.

And now that the crisis over what to wear has commenced... I need to buy presents. Erg. Now here's the update: I'm crafting gifts. Which is awesome. I love home made gifts. I'm doing hot chocolate jars and cookie tins. The problem: BF. We had decided to not get each other gifts this year, and just go shopping after Christmas for stuff for the apartment, but nooooo. He had to go shopping with his buddy today and got me something... well, he got me 2 things.

He wouldn't tell me what he *bought*, but he let me know that one of my presents was that I didn't have to pay for ANYTHING on the car. WHAT?! He said he's giving me back the $1000 I gave him to put toward the car and that I wouldn't have to pay anything on it, unless I wanted to claim it as my car when it comes time to get a second, and we'll figure it out then. That's a pretty cool deal in my book. He said I'm financially stressed enough, and I work too hard. I'll take it!

Now you're probably wondering what the problem is with all of this, and well.. I dont know what to get him!!! I thought I was in the clear! But nooo. Erg.

The upside is that he said Gram might be getting me all-clad pans!! *Shriek*! I guess they would match the all-clad measuring cups and spoons she got me last year... I always love her gifts I suppose that's the upside to dating a boy that comes from a wealthy family, but sometimes I feel a little akward. This whole foray about what to wear on Christmas drove me up a wall until I broke down and went to the most expensive store I could think of. (I wont even utter the name on this site, I think God would strike me down instantly) The good news is that it honestly wasn't too expensive for what I got, especially considering the prices for most items not on sale there... and I did pay full price. The crappy thing I noticed, though, was that even though I shopped online for about a month before I set out to buy dresses, the selection was entirely different in the store than it was online. This had an up and a down. Up for the dress, and quite down for the shoes. I cut a great deal, but they weren't necesarily shoes that I liked too much. Eh, you win some, you lose some.

But we have a car!!! And I have a beautiful new dress. Life is good right now... ah, must not forget, NO SCHOOL FOR A MONTH!! Woo hoo! Night, all!

One more final to go in about an hour or so. Then I'm *home free*!!! I bought a new book today to celebrate: The Devil Wears Prada... much looking forward to drinking a nice cup of hot tea and curling up tonight. The house is all mine. BF went back to visit friends and family in Ohio, and though I'm pretty jealous, I'm looking forward to time away from eachother. We're always cooped up in our tiny apartment together. No wonder we drive eachother nuts! hehe. Tomorrow I'm going to look for shoes and a dress to wear on Christmas. Saturday I think I'm getting together with a keyboardist to work on some music, and then Sunday me and a friend are going to do some christmas shopping and crafting together. Yay! I feel like I have a life... and the best part is that I have NOTHING to study for. I've just got a list of books I want to read. Happiness... I just have to make it through this french test. Eh. We'll see...

... and I have an incredible lack of motivation. Translation: studying, not so easy. Grr. At any rate, I'm almost done. Other good news: I had a no-spend day. The first in a while... once I get started spending, it's really hard to stop. BF talked me out of going out for lunch. Thank goodness! Erg. I went into my bank account today and updated my spreadsheets... turns out I missed a few things, but the good news is that I had more in there than I thought I did. I forgot to record a deposit for some reason :/ Either way, I'm all up to date, and I'm going to start cracking down on myself again.

Same with my eating habits. I had quite the breakdown last week, and things started getting pretty messy in the eating area. It doesn't help that I haven't gone to the gym in a week. It's finals this week, though, so I'm waiting until all is said and done to get my butt back in gear! Still working on my goals for 2007. There's so much to think about! At any rate, I think it's going to be a wonderful year. 2006 was full of changes and excitement. 2007 is going to be about getting things under control.

I'm pretty sure we're getting a car this weekend. BF is on a mission to find a cheap Honda back home... so lets cross our fingers. I just signed $1000 over to him today to put towards the cost, but I'm trusting him... he's quite the car expert, so I have no doubts. At any rate, it's a very exciting time for the 2 of us!

I still need to finish my xmas shopping. A friend of mine mentioned wanting to come and visit me from back home, and she brought up going shopping together, which I thought was a wonderful idea. We go shopping for our boys every major holiday that we possibly can. Of course, she's single now... it'll be fun either way, though. I love and miss her so much! She and I are incredibly close and dont get nearly enough time together. So let's hope she may come up this weekend. Well then, better get off to work!

Ugh. So I haven't written too much in the last few weeks. A lot of that has to do with the considerable shortage of time I've had between work, school, and working out. Not too mention, things have been much more negative in the financial area. So me and BF have been considering getting a car. It's not a necessity. We could live life without one, and both of us have looked at eachother and said, "what are we DOING??" But still I believe we are getting a car. Splitting the cost will make it a bit more financially "easy," and BF is also graduating in about a year and a half.

That said, we are NOT getting a BMW. I know I had mentioned leasing one in a previous post, but that is not happening. We talked about it, we test drove one, we talked about it a bunch more, but it's not happening. But we are getting a new, or newer car. And we're financing. I think leasing is pretty stupid, personally, so that is A-OK by me. We're getting a mazda 3. This is perfectly cool by me, though I'd be happy with a crappy old honda. We've been looking at older models and doing the research, but we did put a deposit down for one to be held. We get to be the first to testdrive, and if we decide not to buy the car, well then we get our deposit back in full.

We're doing a LOT of research. Insurance is a big mess, but thankfully both my mom and BF's gramps work (or worked) in the field, so we're getting a lot of our questions answered. The problem is, the whole process is rather frustrating and stressful. But we're so optomistic and really looking forward to having a car. Merry Christmas to us!

Speaking of Christmas, I'm not quite done shopping, and dont plan to be for a while... between this car coming up and my expensive healthy groceries, I'm quite short on funds. The good news is that I've been exercising a substantial amount more, and my eating habits have most definitely improved.

Finals week is next week. Ahh! Where did the semester go?? It's incredibly relieving. I'm ready for some time off to work a little more. I'm actually working an extra day this week, and though I'm going to miss my friend's b-day party, which she will not be very happy about it, it was quite unexpected. The good news is that I will save money on both liquor and booze. Not to mention, I'll have some extra funds.

Well, I better get going here. I really do have things that I should be doing. Later!

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 yesterday was a no-spend day, which was great. I made lunch and dinner, and me and BF played my newly bought videogame. Needless to say, I've gotten my money's worth. I've managed to play over 10 hours since I bought it 3 days ago! Eek! Actually, it's incredibly fun and a little more intelectually stimulating than watching a movie, etc. It was definitley a good purchase. And it is keeping me busy as it is too cold for me to want to leave the house.

Which leads us into today. Usually on sundays I get together with 2 friends and study french. My one friend bailed out on thursday, and today I decided that I would rather stay in my cozy appartment rather than venture to the bus to get to the coffee shop... and I'm saving $ as well! He wasn't too put off, considering he celebrated his b-day last night and was feeling a little rough this morning. So I'll be having another no-spend day. 2 in a row??? Impossible, you say??? I thought so too, but apparently not! Yay!

At any rate, I redeemed some points from my national city card and got a $10 B&N giftcard... that'll be a portion of my gift to the best friend. He usually gets me a $20 or $30 for xmas, but I'll get him something else small as well.

Aside from all that, I'm just tugging along. I have plenty of leftovers and food to keep me filled up. I even saved money yesterday by being too lazy/cold to walk across the street to the convenience store to get sour cream. ha! It's my fave on chili, but honestly I did fine without it... hehe. I'm gonna work on some of those leftovers, though I like to cook on the weekends. Hmmm. I guess we'll see. At any rate, the first week of november is about over, and I'm still on track. Lets see if it keeps up! (I hope so!) Talk to you all later!

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!

Well, it's my day off. I talked to BF yesterday about what he wanted to do, and we decided on going to best buy. He plays this silly game called world of warcraft... it's incredibly popular among kids my age (and younger). It's one of those games that millions of people can play together online. He spends a bit of time playing this game.

Now, I've watched him play, and it's pretty cool... kind of a pseudo fantasy game (knights, wizards, etc) and I think I'll like it. Not to mention, if we play together it could be a nice activity with relatively low cost after it's purchased (you have to purchase an account that is so much money a month to participate in the online thingy). Me and BF dont go out a whole lot during the winter, and it'll be even less this year because we dont have a car, so I've decided to buy this game and see what all the hubbub is about.

It's $20 and comes with a free trial month of the online play-time. So not too bad at all.

Last night, I bought a pizza for me and BF because he paid for my bottle of wine. But the poop-head bought a meat lovers! I thought he was getting a hawaiian pizza, so I was horribly dissapointed. He did offer to buy me lunch today because of his "changing of his mind last minute." Let's hope he holds up on that offer!

Perhaps I could shop around for some xmas gifts as well today... ooo fun! I love xmas shopping!

Aside from all that, I've got no news! Just trying to enjoy my day off... I was in great need. Later guys!

So it's getting to be that time of year... the time when it starts getting so chilly that I refuse to get out of bed in the morning, well, almost. BF paralyzed me, I've decided (you know, when they roll over, and cuddle with you it makes you so comfy!). I couldn't move, I just couldn't get out of bed despite 8am class calling my name. So FINALLY, when he rolled back over (he didn't seem to hear me when I told him in that super groggy voice that I had to go) at 7:40, I jumped out of bed, threw some clothes on and bolted out the door. I got to class at 8:05. This is a miracle. Just to clarify, it usually takes me AT LEAST 35 minutes to get to class from my apartment because I walk. Well, I power walked today. Seriously.

As for spending, I didn't eat breakfast before class, so I grabbed a breakfast sandwich on campus (I'm such a sucker) and some juice. It's the end of the month, and I'm trying my best not to buy any groceries until I give BF the check for the rent. So basically, besides ramen, we have nothing in the apartment to eat. So maybe we have a little more than ramen, but it's slim pickin's. I about jump on anything that isn't in noodle form at this point.

I also stopped by the University Barnes and noble to look at "Point Park Mom" shirts for xmas... my mom mentioned something about not having any novelty items to show off my university a while back... that's that. I've decided to make the purchase next month, along with the work shoes I'm buying from shoesforcrews.com (thanks for the advice, my fellow blogger!) I did, however, purchase a couple books on the MCAT. I feel it's never too early to start studying and looking into med schools. They were rather pricey, however.

I also stopped at the dollar store on my way home to pick up razors... I'm out and in desparate need

As for the rest of the day, homework, crocheting, relaxing, then work. Talk to yall later!