A couple of weeks ago, I bought a canister of Simple Green wipes at Big Lots. Opened them today and found that there were NO wipes inside!

I emailed Simple Green this morning and have already heard back that they will ship me a replacement canister of wipes.

Thumbs up to Simple Green's customer service!

Yesterday was a no-spend day, aside from scheduling some bills to be paid. I need to go through my coupons and see what is expiring soon and check to see if there are any sales going on for any of those items. I do need to buy cat food and dog food this week - I think I'll try to use the coupons for free food from Nutro. I don't know if our local independent pet supply store will take them, but I'll bring them along just in case.

DD's bed gets delivered this Saturday. I'll paint it in the garage and then assemble it in her room. I'm not looking forward to doing that, but it will look nice once it's all done.

I have enjoyed reading the no spending for a week thread in the forums. Kind of inspiring.

Not finance related, but cute...

I called around to find the cheapest price on the kitten formula I have to buy the last time I bought some, and when I went in today it was marked down by a dollar. That was a pleasant surprise. The kittens are growing nicely, and eating more and more each day.

Here is a picture from last Saturday.

The Toyota dealer called - a car will be in port on the 6th, which means it'll get to the dealer anywhere from three days to three weeks from then. We weren't picky about color - asked for anything but white or black. So by month's end, probably sooner, we;ll have our new car. Fun

The kitties both had good check-ups this morning. Our 19-pounder who had the bladder issues a couple of months back and has been on a diet since then (his weight being unrelated to the crystals in his urine, but something to take care of regardless) lost about a pound. Good news there! Our older kitty, however, has put on a pound in the last year, so we need to keep an eye on that. Got some more science diet food while we were there. Total bill: $142. The dog goes on Friday.

Spent about $100 at Trader Joe's today but feel well-stocked on many things. I paid attention to prices of organic milk there: $5.99 for a gallon and $3.19 for a half gallon. Much better than the grocery stores, Costco or Smart & Final. I thought that was true but hadn't paid close attention in a while, so it's good to verify that.

The kittens seem to be doing OK - it's a lot of work, but it's fun work. I've always loved kitties, and it's kind of nice to learn how to do this fostering and bottlefeeding routine. I've been getting up once at night to feed them. Once they're a bit bigger and eating more at one feeding, I'll stop doing the 1 a.m. feed. So far I've spent about $23 on food, extra nipples and hand sanitizer. I was given the first can of formula along with two bottles and nipples. I grabbed two bags of sample science diet kitten crunchies while at the vet today, for down the road.

Got a bit of a headache today. Need to sleep better and eat better.

DD and I agreed today to foster four kittens. We think they are about 10 days old, and they are sooo cute!

Nothing financial here - just wanted to share some fun news and a sweet picture.

This morning, DD and I spent some time at the library and brought home a big stack of books. This afternoon, we spent an hour outside with the scooter (DD's) and roller skates (mine). A fun day on an otherwise dreary, gray, June-gloom kind of day.

Tomorrow we have plans to meet a few friends at a park near the beach, and on Wednesday I'm taking DD to the zoo (membership is already paid for).

I got DD a razor scooter at Target yesterday. She's currently practicing in the house. :O Probably not the best idea.

A parent of a friend from her class set up a web page to organize different play dates and outings over the summer. I think that's a great idea - she'll serve as a point of contact, so when someone has something to suggest, she can add it to the page. We all have each other's email addresses and phone numbers already, so getting in touch with one another is pretty simple.

I'm off to school today to meet with one of the teachers and go over what curricula and resources are available for teaching the 7th grade class next year. That's the one class I feel like I need to concentrate on the most, as it doesn't have a great curriculum already in place from what I understand. I could be wrong - that would be a good thing to be wrong about. I found out that my first class starts at 8 a.m. which is also when DD's class starts. I was hoping I'd start later, but it didn't work out that way. I still need to work out when I'll be teaching my other two classes.

DD and I got DH his Father's Day gift, I got DD a new swim suit, and I got myself a couple of swim suits and a couple of tank tops. Old Navy had tank tops for $6 each, and swim separates for $10 each, so it didn't cost too much, all things considered. The last time I bought a swim suit DD was an infant, so I'm not going to feel too bad about spending $40 every six years.

DD's suit is super cute on her - oh, to be 6 again and have swim suit shopping be fun.

We're off to the pool today for our frist ever swim in the new pool! We're both looking forward to it. So grateful for sunny weather and summer vacation!

I looked up information about the community pool here in town. It looks like I can buy ten passes for DD and I for a total of $60, so I think that's what I'll do. We'll see how often DD and I go this summer - it sounds fun, and the pool will be open every afternoon for recreation swimming/playing.

We have our zoo membership, so any trips there this summer will only cost us gas for the trip. Same goes for the natural history museum, although I think that one runs out in August.

We may go roller skating too. I have skates, so we only have to rent for DD.

The park and beach are, of course, free. As is the library.

DD agreed to go through my cookbooks and pick one new recipe to try together each week. I think that will be good for both of us.

DD and I made smoothies for lunch today, and I think later on we're heading out to target. She won a $25 gift card there and wants to see what they have for Polly Pockets - in particular, she wants to get a Polly house. So we'll head over there in a bit and see what they have. She got a $25 gift certificate to a local bookstore, so we went there a couple of days ago to pick out some new books. Lucky girl.

Tomorrow is her last day of school. I need to look into getting some sort of pass for the community pool so that we can go when we want without having to worry about carrying cash around all summer. I'd like to think buying a pass would be cheaper too, but who knows.

I think we'll have polenta lasagna tonight - I have all the ingredients, including enough basil on my plant to use homegrown basil.

Just kind of plugging away, trying to keep unnecessary spending to a minimum and necessary spending low.

Saved another $6 using coupons today, bringing my total up to $29.03

Boy oh boy was the Vons here unhappy about my using my two coupons for 10 free 2 liter bottles of soda. I got into an agrument withthe mangaer - can you believe it? I ended up so frustrated that I walked out, leaving all ten bottles at the register, in the cart. And that, my friends, is not something I normally do!

I walked to another store in the plaza where they happily took my coupons.

I need to craft a letter to Vons' headquarters, outlining the entire experience, from the checker who didn't greet me or even smile and referred to me as though I weren't there when talking with the manager, to the manager who claimed he couldn't do anything because it was "policy" but lo and behold that policy kept changing during the course of the interchange. Top it off with their disdain that I wouldn't swipe my d@$& club card and I'm done with them altogether.

Almost every coupon has the words "One per purchase" printed on it - the majority do, at the very least. Now, does this mean you can only use one coupon for your entire purchase? I don't think so! This is what the manager and checker tried to tell me. If I have two coupons and buy what's required for each coupon, I can use each coupon. If it said something like one per customer or household, well, that would be different. But it doesn't.

I'm still angry at how I was treated. I am the freaking customer! It was a bad experience all around.

My auctions are up around $20 and end tomorrow night. Glad I put the magazines online - someone is going to be glad to have them, and I am starting to declutter and free up some shelf space.

The dinner party last night was very fun. It was nice enough to eat outside, so we all sat around and chatted in the fresh air. DH strung our mini Chinese lanternesque lights, and we had the white lights on around our out-building as well. It looked festive.

Looking at Quicken, on average each month so far this year we're spending...

Groceries: $337
Dining Out: $162
Gasoline: $162
Utilities: $120
Education: $407
Gifts: $53

I'd like to see groceries come down under $300 and dining come in around $120. Gasoline is about as low as it can be; DH bikes to work and I carpool, so there isn't a lot of room there to whittle it down. Utilities are OK - that's gas, electric and water. Education is basically ballet and school tuitions and niether is negotiable, but if I can get to a 75% position at DD's school then we'll start getting a reduction in tuition. I have gifts given budgeted at about $50/month, so we're doing pretty well there.

Interesting to look at.

DH got us a reduction in our DSL for a year, I think, so that's down to about $14/month.

Our mortgage is currently about 35% of DH's take-home pay, but at least it's a 20-year loan and not a 30-year. I think we have less than 17 years left on it. Might be nice to actually make a note of when our last payment is due, assuming we don't send along any extra payments along the way. The percent of income goes down by about 5% if I actually factor in all the extra income from DH's freelance work, his tutoring, my tutoring, etc. Counting my salary next year and no extra income at all, the percent will be about 30% of our take-home. That's the whole idea behind my working - make enough so that DH doesn't have to do any extra work if he doesn't want to, or he can work the hours extra he wants to and we'll be able to get ahead of where we're at now.

And I'm trying to keep it that way. I'll be spending tomorrow - brunch with a friend, groceries, possibly gas for the car - so today is a good day to not spend anything. And, I'm trying to simplify my record-keeping, so the fewer receipts to deal with the better.

I made smoothies for me and DD after school, and they were really good - lemonade, frozen strawberries and vanilla yogurt. Hopefully that will eliminate the Thursday afternoon cravings for something to eat and drink while waiting for her at ballet.

Dinner tonight...probably something easy like bean and cheese burritos. Nothing elaborate, but it will taste good enough.

We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow night, and I have a few things to get tomorrow. One family is bringing a salad, and I need to call the other family to see what they want to bring (they offered to bring something as well). I'm planning on pasta - good for adults and kids alike, and easy to make a lot of (there will be 6 adults, 3 kids, 1 toddler and 1 baby).

I'm having brunch with a friend tomorrow who's going to be in town unexpectedly. I'm looking forward to that very much - seeing her, that is, although the brunch will be nice too.

I filed a complaint today with the BBB, as I have never been paid, and I have tried twice to contact them, with no reply.

BBB contact info:
BBB of Metropolitan New York
257 Park Avenue South
New York,NY - 10010 7384
www.newyork.bbb.org

You'd think they'd send a lousy $6.84 and be done with me. I even mentioned in my last note that I was considering contacting the BBB.

A long time ago I started making a price book, but it's been a while since I've looked at it, let alone used it. I started a new one in an Excel file this morning. I'm not going to try and list every single thing I might possibly buy, but rather am starting with some of the most common things I buy and going from there. The theme of my life's growth - it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Shades of gray are acceptable. Comparing some prices is a good start, even if I don't list every single thing I buy in a given shopping trip.

I had to follow up on a third charge for a membership that should have been cancelled. Very, very irritating. I'm still trying to get esticker to reverse a charge, to little avail. I may have to initiate a chargeback with my credit card instead.

Our seedlings continue to grow, and I continue to battle the snails. Much as I hate to do it, I may need to put out some Sluggo. I don't want to compete with snails for food. The strawberries look great when snails aren't getting to them first.

I took a huge pile of coupons to the natural food store today. I think that may have been a first for the cashier there. She asked me how I managed to get so many - I told her I still had a huge pile I wasn't using today. The store had a coupon too for basically 10% off your total purchase, so it was a good trip. I spent a decent amount of money for really healthy food that I can feel good about.

I signed up for a couple of newsletters today from Organic Valley and Seventh Generation - hoping for some good offers from both of those companies.

I had enough points accrued at the old credit card to cash out for a gift card, so I took care of that today. I have to keep the credit card open if we're going to use the hotel or car vouchers that I have, but other than that I'm not using that card anymore.

I took advantage of a free shipping offer at drugstore.com and got points for my shopping there through mypoints at the same time. I needed more of one of my supplements, and then they had Luna bars on sale so I bought a box of them. At less than a dollar a bar it was cheaper than the grocery store.

I have to drive to DD's school twice today - I drove this morning for the carpool, an then I have to go back again this evening for a parents meeting. Thank goodness for carpooling - it has really helped with time and money this year.

We took our neighbors out to dinner last night, to thank them for the times they've done pet-sitting for us. It's nice to have good neighbors to rely on.

I sent off another complimentary email to a company whose cereal I love, asking to see if they publish coupons. We'll see what the response is. I have gotten favorable and pleasant replies from everyone except Newman's Own Organics.

No big plans for the day. I'm taking DD shopping after school for gifts for her grandmothers and for DH for his birthday. I have $20 in Bed Bath and Beyond gc's to use, so we'll go there and see if anything strikes our fancy for the grandmas. I think they sometimes publish percent off coupons as well - I'll look through the paper and see if I see one. Anyone know about that?

No word back from the tutoring student. Think he thought I was a free service?? Oh well.

I got two things of laundry detergent today at RiteAid for the price of one. Also got two tubes of Arm and Hammer toothpaste - two for $4.

Wrote a letter to cancel a trial membership, and signed up for a new one ($20 in Lowe's gift cards). Now that I know I can repeat offers using a different credit card, I'm going to keep an eye out for more offers that appeal to me, and particularly offers that come from My Points so that I can get points in the process as well. I wasn't a member of My Points when I did the first round of gc's, unfortunately.

Hung two loads of laundry yesterday and today.

DH took a huge load of things to the thrift store over the weekend - it was nice to get it all out of the house. Our guest bed was basically covered with things to donate. DD also agreed to let her small hippity hop go. She'd outgrown it, and it was good to get it out of the house.

I won an hour long massage for $20 in DD's school's auction in the fall, and I'm finally getting around to using it today. I'm looking forward to that.

I'm going to spend some time going through the list of organic food sites that flash put together on her grocery coupon site and see if I can get some coupons through any of them.

--later--

I am getting my second samplet to test via one of the survey sites. The first sample has been nice to use, and I am actually looking forward to trying out the next one, too! Kind of fun.

I went to Joann's today with my 40% off coupon and bought some fabric to ake new slip covers for our window seat. What would have cost about $80 ended up costing around $48. And who knows what it would cost to have them made as opposed to doing it myself. Now I have to actually sit down and make them.

I have some pink terry cloth that I bought while back for a robe for DD. I still need to sew that up.

Joann's had yarn on sale that I've been keeping an eye on for an afghan for my SIL, for Christmas. I bought what I think will be enough for basically a lap blanket. It will be cozy, and I'm pretty sure she'll like it. I have spent about $15 on that project. For my boutique, I like to use special yarns that can't be bought just anywhere, but for this afghan the lionbrand yarn will be fine.

--later--

Here I thought I was doing a great job - turns out I didn't buy enough fabric. grrr....I'm going to see if I can get by and use something else I already have on hand for, say, the bottoms of each cushion, rather than buying more of this fabric at full price.

I hate mistakes like this. They make me feel stupid.

--later still--

I ought to be able to make this work. I have enought to do all but the bottoms, so I'll recycle the muslin that's currently covering the cushions and use it for the bottoms. I'll have more than enough muslin, and it won't show. I've made the first two covers already (minus the bottoms), and they're going to look pretty nice. At least it will be a nice change from the muslin look we've had for 9 years now.

Thought I'd go through my goals and see how I'm doing.

*Increase 401k contribution by at least 1-2%. haven't done this yet
*Increase ING monthly transfers by $25 (went in and increased by $10 for January) haven't done this yet - 4/21/06 DONE
*Keep dining out expenses under $160/month on average - move any money saved to ING each month keeping the expenses down but haven't been moving money over
*Keep grocery spending under $300/month on average - move any money saved to ING each month haven't come in under $300
*Launch new business by 4/1/06 launched 4/6/06
*Increase tutoring and homeschooling adsense revenues - need more new content and link exchanges work in progress
*Update advertising options at DivaTribe - better bang for the buck for advertisers, steadier revenue stream for DT working on this

I am going to be sore tomorrow...

The grass we attempt to grow out back has not been cut in a very long time. So I decided to get the push mower (only mower we have) and tackle it. Ohhh myyyyy. I am tired. Someday we will have little to no grass and just plants, and I will be a happier camper.

I planted the two bell peppers and basil today. Still need to figure out where to put the watermelon. I also trimmed back some more lavender, this time out back. I love how it smells - that's one clean-up task I don't mind in the slightest.

It's been nice, having such sunny weather. I heard we're due for some rain this weekend, possibly.

Two of my pochos got mentions in a couple of blogs today:

Reclaimed Cotton Poncho at Modish
Soy Poncho at Great Green Goods

Happy day for me.

After lots of rain, we've had a few sunny days and it's been great to get outside and do some major clean-up in the gardens. We don't have a front lawn but rather lower maintenance plants like flax, lavender, rosemary, etc. I also have some stock that keeps reseeding itself, and some alstromeria that have finally taken off and will be good candidates for dividing.

There is a lot of weeding to be done, and more pruning, but I got a good bit done today and DH got some done yesterday.

DD and I are going to go to the nursery and see what there is to see. She's wanting some gardening gloves for herself - she used to have pairs and pairs of them (gifts) but outgrew all of them. I want to go look at vegetables and herbs. Seeds are cheaper, and I usually talk myself out of buying plants, but we'll see what happens. I have five tomatoes going already but I'd like to get a few more edible things going.

--later--

We came home with four little seedlings: watermelon (have no idea where I'll plant it, but DD wanted to try to grow some), two bell peppers and a basil. Also got some seed packets - more basil, spearmint, green beans, chives and chamomile.

I won't get those in the ground until Wednesday at the earliest, most likely. I have two big pots with trellises in them that worked well last year for snap peas, so I'm hoping they'll be good for the green beans.

I have some rasberries that I'm watching. I see new little plants but haven't seen any of the old canes leafing out yet. You don't get berries until the second year, so I'm hoping the canes will produce.

I bought a month's worth of blog advertising this morning for my boutique, and the owner of the site said she'd like to feature one of my products before the ad runs. Cool! I emailed her back, so we'll see what happens.

It's April 15th and Earth day today. Saving money, frugality and environmetal awareness can go hand in hand. Reducing consumption, reusing items, recycling, buying used, cutting back on unnecessary driving - all of these are good for the bank account and good for the planet.

I

posted a few ideas to explore for Earth Day at DivaTribe:

1. walk, ride a bike, use mass transit or carpool
2. clean up a park, beach, lot or street
3. bring your own bags to the store, or decline a bag if you don't need one
4. wash your clothes in cold water, or line dry them
5. air dry your dishes in the dishwasher instead of using the dry cycle
6. set up recycling at home or work for paper, aluminum cans or 1 and 2 plastics
7. find your nearest thrift store or used book store and take some time to explore it
8. buy organic this weekend for produce or milk
9. save gift wrap and tissue paper to be ironed and used again
10. grow something edible in a the ground or in a pot

Have a good Earth Day everyone.

DD has a "fairy cooking" cookbook and is itching to make something from it. Almost everything she's picked out has at least one ingredient that I don't already have here at home. I told her we could make one thing and that I'd take her to the grocery store to buy what we're missing. She wants to try the fudge that calls for pink marshmallows. Not what I'd pick, but then I'm not a 6 year old girl.

We've got eggs boiling right now, to dye either later tonight or tomorrow. We're going to a potluck birhday party tomorrow night - Mexican food is the theme. I have plenty of beans and cheese on hand, as well as tortillas, so I ought to be able to come up with something.

Sunday we're having bunch with DH's parents, sister and her two (grown) kids. Ought to be a nice meal.

Not much to report in the realm of tutoring, teaching or work. As for the $20 challenge, I have about $12.50 outstanding in rebates and $30 outstanding in gift cards. If the gas vouchers come through, that will be another $20, but I'm not counting on that. AdSense is at about $11 so far this month.

+$5.00
+$2.40
-$1.59
-$0.75

Total to add to challenge: $5.06

It's nice when the shipping reimbursement is more than the actual shipping - helps make up for the commission.

I tried to order two books yesterday, used, from B&N.com, and both times I got emails back syaing those books weren't in stock. That isn't right - if the sellers can't supply the book then it shouldn't be listed. And I cna't leave feedback about it either. It isn't a huge deal, but it's bothersome.