Jen's Blog

Yesterday's spending...
Coffee and scones - $10
Sodas at the amusement park- $5
Balloons - $14
Dinner - $47

Today's spending...
PT- $75 (but about half of that will eventually be reimbursed)

Tonight we're having leftovers for dinner, and tomorrow night we're going to DH's parents' house for dinner.

I got a coupon in the mail today good for $100 off any dental work from DD's dentist. I didn't have it two days ago when we were there, but I am going to make sure they honor it when we go in next week to get that cavity filled. That was a welcome surprise in the mail!

I stayed and watched DD's ballet class this afternoon. They're rehearsing for their spring performance. I know I'm going to cry happy tears when she's actually up on that stage, dancing.

Spending today:

7 items to the dry cleaners at $3.95 per item
$15.50 for a haircut for DD
$6 on modeling clay for DD
And a visit later this afternoon to the dentist for DD - don't know yet what that will cost.

We were going to go get smoothies for lunch, but I ended up coming home instead, and now I'm glad that we did.

I spent a lot of time out back yesterday pruning and weeding. Dumped five wheelbarrows full of yard waste. A friend is in town for a few days, so we're having an impromptu potluck here at the hose this evening. Should be fun. Everyone is bringing something to grill and a side dish to share, so it won't really cost us anything extra. I told DH I didn't mind having the party here and would, in fact, like that, but I didn't want to do any extra shopping for it. He agreed, and everyone else has been fine with that too.


Edited to add -

Dentist was $93 today, and next week DD has to get a small filling Her dentist has been watching this molar for about a year now, and it's to the point where she needs to go in and get it filled.
Price for that is about $165, I think.

Spent about $41 at the grocery store on beer for tonight, snacks for tomorrow's outing, milk, cereal, yogurt and a couple of other small things.

I suddenly feel quite tired and down...

I've added a couple more bills to my online bill pay through the credit union. I like the convenience of it and just need to remember to record these payments that I schedule.

For the first three months of the year we've stuck to our budget overall. Individual categories may need some tweaking but we're on the plus side which makes me feel good about our efforts.
More later....

DH and I have been working hard - and working more hours - to build back up our savings, and onthe first of each month I add up all of our accounts to see where we're at. Slowly but surely we are creeping back up to where we want to be! We're very close now, but the credit card bill is coming, so I really can't count that money. It's going to feel good to see our accounts back where we want them to be. Tutoring all but ends for a couple of months in the summer, and one of my students won't be coming once he's taken his AP test, so some of the extra income will be falling by the wayside before too long.

I added up some spending for March:
Groceries: $415.81
Restaurants: $292.02
Starbucks: $5.50

That included the ski trip. Higher totals than we budgeted, but we'll get back on track in April. Starbucks was lower due to gift cards from a friend as a thank you present.

Edited to add that I sold another book today and netted about $9. Woo hoo!

I spent some fun money today and took DD to see the movie Ice Princess. We had fun. Tickets and goodies bought elsewhere came to about $15. Sitting with DD, watching her watch the movie, was enormously fun for me.

I got that book mailed today as well, for $1.42, so that's taken care of.

We have friends coming to visit this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Haven't decided if we'll cook Saturday night or get take-out. They're potty-training their daughter and taking her to the potty every half hour, so going out to eat is out of the question for them. I can't wait to see them - it's always a good time!

Today is shaping up to be a no-spend day. I'm watching one of DD's friends this morning, and I have two tutoring students coming over this afternoon. DH is tutoring tonight, so I'll fix something quick for dinner. I still need to get that book mailed out, but I can do that tomorrow morning.

Edited to say that it was indeed a no-spend day. DH is out tutoring right now and will bring home $40-$50. One of my students today cancelled due to illness.

Tomorrow I want to take DD out to do something fun and out of our ordinary routine. Haven't decided what to do yet, however. We have the whole day, basically, as she doesn't have ballet until late in the afternoon.

I haven't spent any money today, though I think DH stopped at Starbucks this morning. I made coffee for myself here at home, brought lunch to the park and am planning on making something simple for dinner. Saw two students for tutoring today, and DH emailed me and said he has our medical reimbursement check for the expenses we submitted for January-March. Another good day financially, when you look at it in those terms.

DH does freelance web development on the side, and it looks like we'll have a chance to fly out to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the next month or two on someone else's dime. We've done this before. We usually end up paying for DD's plane ticket, a little extra for mine and DH's, and a little extra for the car rental. Room and meals are covered. It's a working trip for DH, but we manage to have a good time nonetheless. I'll take DD to the children's museum and then spend some time exploring while DH does his training/consulting. It's not a done deal yet, but it will likely happen.

Sold a book at half.com this evening. I can't remember the last time one of my books sold. It's been a while, to the point that I was halfway considering just yanking all of the listings and donating the books so that I wouldn't be looking at them anymore, sitting in a box. I made about $5 on the transaction - nothing huge, but easy money. I was just at the post office today, so I'll have to go again, but that's not the end of the world.

DH made dinner while I was at yoga - Thai noodles from Trader Joe's, plus some tofu and chopped carrots and broccoli. It tasted pretty good.

Money spent today wasn't bad - shipped three books to a friend to review for DivaTribe (that cost less than $3 via media rate), bought some stamps, and that's it. I deposited a big check today - all of the money I was awaiting from my visits to the headache clinic came in one check - and met my new student today, too. So all in all it was a good day, financially.

Still need to get the car smogged and pay the registration fee, and DD and I both have dentist appointments in April. Fun.

I got the napkins and DD's dress done. Did I mention before how much I hate putting in zippers? No matter how many times I do it, I always mess up some part of it. At least this time my mistake is at the top, and DD's long hair will hide it. On the other hand, I love my serger. Eight napkins took hardly any time at all by using the serger to do rolled hems. Very nice.

Tomorrow should be a nice, relaxing day. UU in the morning, brunch here at home afterwards, and then maybe some more sewing in the afternoon. It's been a good weekend so far. Funny how yesterday afternoon I was feeling pretty rotten about something, and now I'm feeling rather content. A nice change.

I had a little over $20 in Joann'sgift cards, so I went there today. I have a new pattern my mom bought for me for reversible tote bags and handbags (

you can see it here, if you're interested). I bought fabric and interfacing to try each style. I also bought fabric to make a dress for DD for tomorrow that was $2.19 a yard, and fabric at 50% off to whip up some cute napkins for brunch tomorrow with my serger. Got a few goodies for DD's Easter basket, too - all 50% off. So two bags, a dress, eight napkins and basket goodies cost me about $12 out of pocket. Of course, now I have to get sewing this afternoon/evening. The dress fabric is in the wash as I type.

Next, I went over to Vons to get a tall latte from the Starbucks there. I swiped my Vons card and it turned out that today's was my free one. I hadn't been keeping track, so it was a great surprise. I upgraded to a grande, lol.

We had DD's friend from across the street and her mom over for dinner last night. Dad is out of town right now, and it seems like we all had a trying week, so it seemed like it would be fun to just hangout together for the evening. I made spaghetti and dinner rolls (ahem, I heated up frozen dinner rolls) and opened a can of sliced pears. Our friends brought over ice cream with a yogurt sauce to spoon on top. And we finished off a bottle of white wine that we'd had in the refrigerator. The girls played and dyed some eggs, and the adults enjoyed talking and relaxing. It was a nice way to end the work week and start off the weekend. It is nice to be friends with our neighbors and not merely friendly.

My cat's vet exam was only $51 this morning, which is less than I was prepared to pay, so that was a pleasant surprise. A dental cleaning is recommended, and at her age she would need the blood and urine work-ups first. We'll probably go ahead and do it.

We're having DH's parents over for brunch on Sunday. I already have eggs, coffee and OJ, and they're bringing fresh fruit, so we're basically set as far as the menu goes. I have some blueberry muffin mix, so I might make those up, too. Still need to get a few goodies for DD's basket and egg hunt.

One way to have a no-spend day? Spend it in bed with a migraine. I don't know if it's breaking or if the meds are simply taking the edge off, but I feel human again - able to sit up without my head exploding. It's been incredibly windy here today, and that is never good for my head. I need to refill a prescription tomorrow.

Cooked dinner at home last night - an Italian tomato soup mix, plus leftover mac and cheese for DD, cherry tomatoes, and sliced strawberries and bananas for dessert. It was pretty good. I'll add more pasta if I buy that mix again.

I made a rough list of all the possible entrees we can make with food currently in the frig, freezer and pantry, so that DH and I won't have to think so hard about what to make for dinner, and also so we can see what we might need fom the store to round out an otherwise decent meal.

A few bills coming our way in the next month or so - dentist for all three of us, one cat to the vet for one vaccination, and DD is due for one vax, too, I think. I need to take the car in to get smogged this week so that I can pay the registration.

$126 at the grocery store today. I prefer shopping at Trader Joe's but I had 45 minutes to shop while DD was in Spanish, so I went to the closest Vons instead. They don't have the best selection of things I do want, they're more expensive, and they have aisles and aisles of things I *don't* need. I find I skip entire aisles while I'm there. Anyway, that task is done and we have some food to tide us over for a while.

I spent some time this morning just getting organized. I paid bills, signed DD and I up for our classes for spring, added class times and dates to my calendar, filed papers, put checks written into Quicken, scheduled dentist and vet appointments, etc. etc. Feels good to have a lot of nagging things taken care of.

I just added up grocery shopping for the month. Bearing in mind that some of that was vacation food while skiing, the total for March is up to $400.87 for the three of us. I haven't looked at the restaurant total. Don't want to.

One other thing - it looks like my insurance company will cover approximately half of my PT bills. I've got four checks due to me now, three months of PT plus an extra check due from my initial visit to the headache clinic. I need to stay on top of this - it adds up to a tidy sum.

Three days left on the credit card cycle, counting today. And today most certainly counts, as I need to go to the grocery store something fierce. A chance to stock up and save on the going out to eat bill.

I'm feeling better compared to that last entry. I talked about it some with DH. It helps just to get it off my chest and out there, instead of trying to pretend I never feel that way. Not that anyone expects me to not feel that way - I just hate to admit it to myself.

Our electric bill was down $5 from last month - $38 versus $43. Our spa's heater stopped working at some point, so while I'd love to feel good about all that line-drying I did, I don't think that was all of it. It's still a good habit to get into, regardless.

I have one head of lettuce that is starting to look pretty good, and I found some berries set on my strawberry plants. The raspberries have some buds now too, and I have two tomato plants form my mom to get into the ground. Things are coming along.

I've realied that I am envious, to a certain extent, of people with more money than me. I'd like to be able to go to Starbucks without thinking about it *and* go on a ski trip, too. I'd like to be able to hire someone to clean the house and not think twice about it. I'd like to be able to go out to the movies or a concert without having it feel like a big deal.

It's all about choices. I feel good about the choices DH and I have made as far as foregoing a second full-time income is concerned, but I'd be lying if I said I don't wish I had some of the trappings of the good life too.

What gets me the most is when someone has plenty of money *and* plenty of time to enjoy it too. I can console myself with trade-offs (I have time but not tons of extra money, they have money but not a lot of free time), but when someone seemingly has both? Sigh. I wouldn't, if I were still teaching or otherwise earning a paycheck outside of the home. Well, maybe with some jobs when you leave you really are done, no nights, no weekends. I don't know - I started teaching right out of college.

I'll admit it - when DH and I are angry, feeling really emotional (not at each other) we go out to eat. It's what we turn to so that we can just talk, and not worry about the cooking, the cleaning. We can just *be* with each other. But when things are stressful work-wise (and they have been for DH lately) or whatever, that gets expensive. We went out again last night, and had leftovers tonight.

There. I've been embarrassed to even post about it. But it's the honest truth.

Dinner tonight was a frozen gorgonzola and pear pizza from Trader Joe's, a salad, broccoli and apple slices. Dessert was chocolate cake. All of this was food we already had at home, so one day down and a bunch more to go.

DH is taking receipts in to work tomorrow to submit for the medical reimbursement plan. We have roughly $380 in out of pocket expenses to turn in thus far. Once I get reimbursed for my physical therapy visits from January an Februay, I will turn in the receipts for the remaining out of pocket costs for those, too. It will be nice to get the $380 - straight into savings it goes.

DD's Spanish class is going up in price by $2 per class. I'm not surprised. It used to be in the teacher's home, but a neighbor complained to the city (oh, the horror - small groups of children being educated - some people need to get a life) and now she has to rent out some space. I'll still pay for DD to go - it's an awesome class and she is getting so much out of it. Not to mention she adores her teacher.

One of my former students is coming back for tutoring again beginning tomorrow, so I'll have a little bit more income this week, which helps make up for spring break, when I don't do any tutoring.

Groceries: $249.20
Dining Out: $154.19
Starbucks: $0

No, it has not been a frugal month where food is concerned. Sigh. Maybe a good challenge will be to eat out of the pantry, frig and freezer for the next couple of weeks (aside from milk and fresh produce).

I got (well, I ordered) new prescription sunglasses today. It'll be the first pair I've ever had, and I'm looking forward to getting them. It was still expensive, even with benefits, but it qualifies for our medical reimbursement plan, so it'll work out alright.

Today or tomorrow I'll take a look at spending through the first two weeks of March and see how things are going. I paid for my mom's night out with cash, so I'll have to remember to add that in when calculating the restaurant total. I rarely have cash, but one of my stuents pays me in cash, so there you go.

I went out with a few other women last night for a mom's night out. We haven't done that in about three months. We went to an Indian food restaurant this time that happened to be within walking distance of my house, which was nice. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed my meal. The companionship was pleasant enough too.

My aunt passed away last night. It was not unexepected, but it is sad nonetheless. I expect we'll be heading up north in the very near future for a memorial service.

I was reading from the newest evangelical Christian in the forums who seems to believe that if you aren't her brand of religion then you need to "think" and see the light. Gives Christians a bad name, spouting off like that. Shoot, gives religion in general a bad name.

We went out to dinner last night. The car's battery died this morning. Money is slipping through our fingers right now like water.

I got sad news last night, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit around the house, so we all went out. It didn't change anything, but it got my mind off of other things for a bit. At least we'll have leftovers for dinner tonight.

DD and I biked over to Joanns today (I biked, she rode in the trailer) and I spent about two-thirds of my gift card. I bought handles for a purse I'd crocheted over a year ago as well as a book on knitting. I also have a gift certificate from my birthday for a terrific yarn store in town, so I'll pick out a project to try and go over there for the yarn. I was going to get fabric with my Joanns card, but now I'm waiting until I have the pattern and know exactly how much I need to buy.

I wish I lived in a bike-friendly town. Riding with traffic is nerve-wracking when I have DD with me.

We got a couple of $10 Starbucks cards as a thank you gift not too long ago, so DH and I went there yesterday and treated ourselves.


Shouldn't have any major spending today. DD has tap this morning, but I've already had my fill of coffee here at home. We might go to a park playdate later this afternoon, and if we do I'll bring along some snacks and water. I'm thinking about riding my bike over to my local Joann's, with DD in the trailer. I have a gift card from my birthday that I haven't spent yet, so that would be fun. My mom got a pattern for a tote bag that I want to try out, so I may use my gift card for fabric and interfacing for that.

I'm way past due for a haircut and touch up on my highlights. I haven't been in since November. I think I'll call today and see if she can see me tomorrow. If not, maybe next Friday (she only works a couple of days a week).

DH and I stopped by a shoe outlet near us yesterday. They sell Uggs, Tevas, and Simple shoes. We got four pair of shoes and paid about $42. Awesome deal.

Edited to add that we made a stop at a dance store that's closing, to stock up on the next size ballet shoes, leotard and wrap sweater for DD. Everything was 30% off.

Gee, guess what? Another f&*%ed up medical bill.

I got a bill today for $30 from when I took DD to the walk-in center in January. Seems the copay I paid that day hasn't been applied to her account. I'm waiting for a call back from the billing department. Stuff like this ticks me off more and more each time it happens. If I didn't pay attention to these things and just paid all bills as they came to me, who knows how much money I'd be paying that I didn't need to? It feels almost fraudulent, to be honest. Why can't billing people do their jobs so that I don't have to do it for them? It's not that hard. And just where did the $30 that I paid go? Whose account got credited for it, if not DD's? And what if I'd paid in cash and had no receipt for some reason? I'd be up a creek, so to speak.

Edited to add I just got off the phone with the billinng department and all is well now. Seems "the system was down that day" - whatever. DD's account has been credited now. We'll see when the next statement comes in.

On a different subject, I've been doing some thinking the past few days about how to get DivaTribe more exposure. I found some sites that link to book reviews, so I contacted a few site owners/editors to suggest that they take a look at DivaTribe's library section and see if they think it will fit in with their other links. I've also contacted a couple of money saving sites to talk about link exchanges. I submitted a few of my own articles to an article directory, but I have no idea if that will prove to be helpful at all.

DivaTribe brings in a fair amount of money for something that started out as a hobby and something fun to do. Current sources of income include amazon purchase, commissions through the consignment shop, google ads and various advertising (newsletter, banenrs, etc). Ideally, DivaTribe would bring in enough money to pay for itself, pay for advertising if/when I choose to advertise it in print or online, and leave enough leftover to give me a bit of a draw as well. I've done print advertising in Bust and Venus, and that's a pricey way to go (even though it reaches a great target market for the site). Bitch magazine emailed me the other day to talk about advertising with them. I'd love to advertise in Brain, Child one of these days, just because I think it's a cool magazine for moms.

I spent $12 at the farmer's market today, and another $70 at our local health food store. I know that I can get some of the things I bought today at Trader Joe's for less. Oh well - I was at least supporting a locally-owned business that values the things I value, environmentally speaking. But for $70 I would have brought home more food from Trader Joe's, so part of me does feel a bit bummed.

I bought some dipping chocolate yesterday, and DD and I made chocolate dipped dried apricots. Today we're going to dip a few of the gigantic strawberries we bought today. I can't wait for plum, pluots and other summer fruits to make their way back to the farmer's market.

Groceries: $86.86
Dining Out: $98.12
Starbucks: $0

This includes the ski trip, so things are already much higher than I would like a typical month to be. Ideally, the restaurant total bill stay right there while we work on keeping our food bill down for the rest of the month. Ideally.

Didn't spend any money today (so far). I packed snacks and water to bring to the park today, and DH made coffee for us this morning. Dinner will be whatever he puts together, as he does dinner on Mondays while I'm at yoga. We do need cat litter and a grocery run, so maybe that will happen tomorrow.

I'm trying to figure out how often I should update Quicken. Once a month I'll import credit card purchases, and I'm thinking maybe I should pick one other day during the month to catch up on checks that I've written. I don't want to be thinking about money 24/7 if I can help it.

Checking in after the ski trip. It was expensive, but it was so much fun that we're going to take a look at how much we spent, figure out what worked and what we would have done differently, and then budget for the trip next year. We really did have a good time.

We had dinner out twice and ate at the condo once - three guesses which meal tasted the best. Yep - the one we prepared ourselves. One to record for our "what to do differently next year."