Jen's Blog

We went out ot breakfast yesterday morning. We used to do that fairly regularly, like once every weekend, but we don't go out as much these days. Still, we chose a restaurant where we know the owner and one of the waiters, and we are always treated so well when we go there. We ran into some friends while we were there, so we all ended up sitting together. It was a fun morning.

Had leftovers for dinner. ;-)

DH, DD and I went for a bike ride yesterday. I needed some more yarn to finish up some scarves I've been working on, so I got DD into the bike trailer and off we went. It was fun. We rode around the nearby neighborhood afterwards and let DD play at a playground for a while. Stopped for $0.99 ice cream cones, too.

I'm currently more in the swing of cooking at home. Kind of fell off the wagon for a while but feel back in control of that this week.

My mom gave me an idea for our hanuted house: instead of using black fabric, get heavier-weight black trash bags and use those. Might work! Would definitely be cheaper, and if we folded things up carefully, reuseable.

We're looking into having some of our trees thinned/pruned/taken out. Not going to be cheap. Not at all. Sigh.

I started picking up some things for the party at the 99 cent store today. I've got just about everything except plates and napkins, and the food - can't exactly do the food yet anyway. ;-) I spent about $20, plus about $5 at target for tumblers and invitations. Oh - I still want to get some Halloween stickers for the goodie bags.

We're going to construct a haunted house using PVC pipe and black fabric. It will be in the garage. I think we already have all the pvc stuff, so I just need to get fabric and we'll be set.

Last year I found a punch bowl with ladle and cups at Big Lots for $10, so I can use that again this year, along with some serving pieces and decorations that are still in good shape. We'll make a trip out to the pumpkin patch and carve up some pumpkins.

Spent some time working out back this weekend. Spent abut $50 on plants for our tiered hillside. Can't say how many times I've tried to make it look nice there, but hopefully this is the time that will work. We have to have an arborist come out to look at the GIANT eucalyptus trees we've got growing and get some options and quotes for dealing wtih them. If any of them were to fall in the direction of our house we would be in BAD shape.

October 1st...I love the first day of a new month.

On the Halloween front, it is time to start giving some thought to the party we're going to have. DD spoke with my mom yesterday, who is going to make DD's costume. She has done this every year - nice to not have to think about it. We'll keep the party fairly simple, but I do want to decorate, get favors, etc. without spending too much money.

Friday morning...my morning to stop at Starbucks before dance. I'm getting a NY Times as well, so I can read about last night's debate.

Add on another $107 for my migraine meds yesterday. Luckily, some of that will be reimbursed by my insurance company. (Must remember to photocopy claim form and get claim in the mail!) DH and DD had leftovers for dinner, so yea for us (OK, for them) for consuming leftovers again and not letting them go to waste.

Made two sales in the last day in the store - that is good news. :-)

Not much else to say this morning. We'll be able to get osme of our medical expenses reimbursed through DH's work. They have a plan such that employees can have pre-tax dollars set aside for reimbursement purposes. It will be nice to get some of that money back. I'm not sure what the tax ramifications are, but supposedly this is a good thing. I'll look into it more so I better understand the whole thing.

Spent about $31 on a prescription for DD today. She has something akin to bronchitis, but sort of like walking pneumonia in that she feels pretty good all day and then starts coughing like crazy at night. It's been going on for nearly two weeks, so I got her into the doctor's office today to have her looked at. It wasn't getting worse, but it wasn't getting better either. Also bought her some vanilla milk at Starbucks, and we shared a pastry. Checked out 12 books and one book (Peter Pan) on CD from the library - I love the library.

I've committed to spending about $200 for a print ad and banner ad in Venus for the next issue, trying to promote DivaTribe's store. Here's hoping it brings in some traffic, and sales of course!

We ended up eating in for all meals while our guests were here and it was fine. They even liked the vegetarian casserole I made on Saturday night.

A friend of mine owns a used bookstore now (I may have written about the store before) and said to let her know if there are any books she can watch out for for me. It's nice to have that connection when it comes to books.

Speaking of books, I think DD and I will go to the library today. Books are due back tomorrow, but today is wide open for us in our schedule.

Money going out today in bills was almost exactly equal to money I was depositing from tutoring. Nice when that happens.

I decided to forego my usual Friday morning trip to Starbucks this morning, before DD's dance class. Just didn't want it that badly.

We've eaten at home every night so far this week, including Sunday. We have leftovers to eat this evening, though going out sounds oh-so-nice. We have guests coming into town for the weekend, so we may go out to brunch on Sunday. Haven't decided yet, actually. I still need to get the guest room cleaned up and get to the grocery store for a few things, but they won't be here until lunchtime ofr a little later tomorrow, so there's time. DH will help, too.

I got some soy 'ice cream' today (am trying to cut out dairy for two weeks) and it was $2.99 a pint. not super cheap, but worth it. I miss ice cream, and this is actually quite tasty, to my surprise.

We have a good deal of our Christmas shopping taken care of, thanks to the great deals DH gets through work. It's a nice load of my mind, knowing that we are more than halfway done with the gift shopping AND that it's also already paid for. I'll likely make some gifts along the way as well.

So what will I be making? I'm not sure. I bought an embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching that I may use for some bags or tops for DD and the younger set. In the past I've knitted, crocheted and sewed things, and tried my hand at lip balms and bath salts. We'll see what i come up with this year.

I spent about $63 at the grocery store today. I think I'm going to go through the last 3-4 months and figure out how much money we've been spending at grocery stores, and eating out. I'd like to think that my efforts to cook at home more and eat our leftovers will be relected in our total spending on food.

DH finished the tile work and it looks nice. A new toilet will be upwards of $200, I think, so we may just keep what we have for now. The next big project is re-tiling around the tub/shower in there.

I got some good deals at Target today on Halloween party invitations and plastic tumblers. The cups were 5 for $1, and I'm going to write the kids' names on them, as part of their goodies to take home. I hadn't planned on starting to prepare for our Halloween party already, but it was a good deal! I got a bunch of plastic bowls and trays last year at the 99 cent store for our party, so I won't need to get much this year, aside from food and treats.

After mailing off a book that I sold on half.com for $5 (woo hoo!) DD and I were driving home and passed a Starbucks. Not so hard to do in this town anymore, I might add. Anyway, I almost stopped for a blended drink, but decided not to. Came home and used some of our mocha latte ice cream and milk to make up milk shakes for DD and myself. Yummy! And much cheaper, too.

And I don't care if it's just a small thing - it saved me money that I can spend on something else now.

OK, I've been pretty happy with saving dinner, adapting the meals with vegetarian alternatives and such, but tonight I saw something that bothers me. Out of this week's recipes, not one of them is less than 40% calories form fat, and some are in the 50-60% range! Now, using soy instead of meat has got to be helping in that area, but I'm bothered nonetheless. Eating in is great, it saves money, she raves about how much healthier the meals are. And I guess they are, if you're eating McDonald's every day! 40-60% of calories from fat - that is unreal.

Another spend-no-money day. Love those! Took a picnic lunch to the beach for a playdate and cooked dinner at home tonight. Also had some money come in for advertising at DivaTribe, so all in all today ended in the black. :-)

DH has been buying things over the past few months from work for Christmas gifts, and tonight we're going to go through them and figure out what we have for whom, and what we still want to get. He can get EXCELLENT deals through his work, so we're reaping the benefits of that.

I'm still trying to do the weekly dinner planning thing. Last week was such a bust. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I only made a real dinner one night. Too dang hot.

I've been line drying clothes this week. The only problem is that I don't have enough line to hang out a full load of laundry. And it feels wrong to do smaller loads of laundry if I don't have to.

Dh grouted the tiles today and it's looking good! This is good practice for when we're ready to tackle our kitchen.

So what's been going on lately? First off, it's been really hot here, so cooking has been the last thing I've wanted to do at night. We ate outside one evening and had homemade pesto, and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and homegrown tomatoes. Went to Jamba Juice one night. Had cereal last night (sandwich for DD). Hopefully it will cool down soon so I can get back to trying to cook most nights.

DH has been burning the candle at both ends with freelance work. After all current work is done he's planning on taking a break from it for a little while. I'm sticking with four students for tutoring for the time being. It's a decent amount of extra money each month.

We still need to do the grouting on the new tiles, and once that's set we can seal it and start finishing up the bathroom. The side of our house is a wreck - toilet, old sink, new sink, pieces of tile. What a mess.

This weekend DH has started tiling our guest bathroom/utility area, and I reseeded the back yard. After the floors are done we're putting in a new sink, retiling the walls around the tub and repainting. The joys of being do-it-yourselfers. We're saving quite a lot of money compared to having someone else come in and do it, but it takes a lot more time. It's going to look nice when we're done.

Our new reward came - woo hoo! I'm glad we finally got around to getting one.

Some friend sof mine bought a used bookstore. The three of us went over to see it yesterday. I'd been there before but haven't seen it since they took over. They've already made some nice improvements, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else they do. Our DDs were happy to see each other again and play in the children's area. It's still going to be a big box of books for $20, so now when I shop there I'll be getting a good deal and helping friends at the same time!

I decided to try a three-month subscription to SavingDinner. We'll see how that works for us. Havng the sample menu planned, and the grocery list prepared, was a huge stress reducer for me, so this subscription may be $9.95 well spent. I know, I know - I could sit down and plan everything out, and I have tried to in the past. the problem isn't that I can't do it, but rather that I don't do it. I resist it, I procrastinate, I feel put out and put upon. I paid out of my PayPal account, which always feels like found money anyway - I never count on that money for anything.

I'm anxious fo rthe new reward credit card to arrive so we can start earning miles. I've got a $500+ emergency room bill and the trash bill waiting, since they both take credit cards. (Anyone reading who hasn't read other entries in my journal - we pay off our credit card each month.)

I received a notice in the mail that we've been approved for the reward card that I applied for a week or so ago. Should get the card in the mail any day now. Free airline tickets, here we come!

I won an eBay auction not too long ago that was a really good deal: 2 leotards (one tank style, the other 3/4 sleeves) plus a dance skirt (for DD) for about $13, including shipping. So unless she has an unusual growth spurt she's all set for the next year or so.

I'm procrastinating on thinking about dinner right now. I think I do better when I get dinner figured out in the morning, or at least early in the afternoon. By the time 5:00 rolls around I'm not in the mood to figure it out. In that way the SavingDinner stuff has been helpful - I don't have to think about it; I just have to choose which recipe to make that evening.

I've been feeling restless and dissatisfied I think. When that happens I start looking at big ticket items: new toys to temporarily distract myself. New sewing machines, new iBooks, new cars. I don't need any of them, and can't afford some of them, but I look nonetheless.

When I was working fulltime and not yet a mother, I had a lot of disposable income (well, it seemed like a lot to me). I shopped as therapy, as a distration. Buying new things made me feel better, but it was always a fleeting feeling.

So while I have those urges now, I also know myself better now and don't act on those impulses but sleep on thm, entertain them, all the while trying to figure out what's prompting them in the first place.

I needed new jeans. I try to buy at the thrift stores or from eBay, but jeans are just something that I need to try on if they're truly going to fit well. I hate jeans that are too long, and I hate when the waist gaps like crazy in the back. I'd seen a pair in the Land's End catalog that sounded promising, and supposedly Sears carries them. So I went to Sears tonight, but no luck. Tried the Gap - terrible fit. I'd probably find a decent fit in the juniors department, but frankly I don't want ultra low rise jeans.

Aswe were heading back to go the car (DH and DD came with me) I saw a Sears brand and thought what the heck, I'll try a pair on. They fit great! And they were two pair for $39, so I spent about what I would have spent on one pair of any other jeans that I'd looked at but got twice as many new pair. :-)

Now I have two brands and styles that I can search for on eBay in the future- the levi's that I already liked but hate paying full price for, and these.

I've made three meals so far from the sample SavingDinner.com weekly menu. I've adapted all of them to be vegetarian, and thus far I've been pretty pleased with the results. They've been easy to prepare, and having the shopping list done for me took the grunt work out of the planning. Will I subscribe to her list for a month or two? I'm not sure yet.

I talked myself out of spending nearly $300 on a pre-packaged curriculum for DD and instead picked out a few books at amazon and Barnes and Noble that will work very well for us. I have plenty of experience writing and planning curriculum, but there was something appealing about buying the whole thing in one fell swoop. Until I got to the checkout screen at the web site, that is. I just couldn't plunk down that much money for something I know I can do myself, given a little bit of time and gethering my resources together.

So instead of $300 I spent about $45.

I spent a little over $13 today on yarn for a poncho for DD. Yarn was on sale at Joanns, so I was able to get some furry yarn for the neck and bottom, too! it is going to be three colors (stripes) and I think it will be cute.

Got to Vons and bought the last few items on my list. Got the world's unfriendliest checker. I've had her twice now and both times she's been grumpy. I'm avoiding her line from now on. I only bought one thing that wasn't on my list - lowfat ice cream sandwches. Yum!

Dinner is cooking as I type, and DH is nowehere to be seen. He normally calls if he's going to be leaving late, so hopefully he is somewhere between there and here.

Tutoring started today. One student paid me for just today's session; the other one had three sessions prepaid from last year. But I do have some fun money now.

Subscribers of FLyLady.net know about Leann and Saving Dinner. I printed out her sample menu for two and am going to try it, with the vegetarian options. We'll see - her menus seem very meat-heavy, and I don't know how well the veggie substitutions will work. But I've done the shopping for the week's menu and am willing to give it a try. Actually, there are a few things I couldn't get at trader joe's so I still need to go to Vons.

Ahhh....Sunday evening. DH and I feel llike we're fighting off the flu, DD is going 100 mph. We took DD to a skating birthday party today, and the three of us wound up skating. It was fun! Not real cheap, however, but fun nonetheless. I'm going to find out what their fall hours and rates are, and I may take DD back a time or two.

I've been putting off going to the grocery store, but I really need to go tomorrow. I don't have any meals planned for dinner this week, and we are even out of bread and running low on cereal. We're having soup tonight.

We were invited to have dinner at some friends' house last night, and it was wonderful. Nothing fancy - spaghetti with homemade sauce, green salad, bread, and we brought some sparkling cider for the kids and homemade blondies - but it tasted wonderful and we had a really great time just sitting around and chatting, and letting our kids play. It was one of those night where everyone says, "We really need to do this more often!" Doesn't cost any more than a regular dinner at home and provides a much needed boost to the spirit.

DH and I were going to start working on fixing up our guest bathroom this weekend, but both of us seem to be lazing around instead. It's nearly noon and DD and I are both still in jammies. I've been messing around with my beads, experimenting with making key fobs. My mom wants me to make some for her gardening friends for Christmas this year. If I can come up with some designs that I like, I may try to make a few extra to sell in the store.

I forgot to mention that we applied for a reward card and should have it within a month or so. It would have been nice to have one last fall, when our dog started racking up these charges, but we didn't.

We're going to see if we can charge our mortgage. If so, we'll be able to earn quite a few miles each year from that alone! But I don't know if we can do that. Right now we have our mortgage automatically deducted from a checking account, and we may have gotten a quarter point reduction in our rate at refi time as a result. Need to check.

Soon we will be earning free airline tickets. Woo hoo!!