Jen's Blog

I spent $6.12 at Rite Aid today, with $3.69 coming back in rebates, for a total spent of $2.43. Picked up some degree deodorant, some softsoap shower gel and some colgate total toothpaste. That comes out to an average of 81 cents per item, which isn't too bad. I have a rebate for the Colgate and used a coupon as well, so I'll come out $1 ahead on that.

Slowly but surely I'm learning how to do this coupon/rebate thing.

I had another day of no unnecessary spending yesterday, which makes a grand two for the past week. It's amazing to me how hard it is to go a whole day without spending even a couple of dollars on something I truly don't need.

DD had a wonderful time at the birthday party yesterday, and taking my in-laws out to breakfast was enjoyable as well.

I think I'll tuck some sandwiches in a cooler for our playdate after church. It'll be right about lunchtime, and I think we'll be glad to have them.

I've got a $10 rebate to fill out a a $5 gift card to send for, both from Petsmart. Need to take care of those tomorrow and get them in the mail. I also need to fill out the paperwork for DD's new account (well, an account for college). I printed it out at least a week ago and still haven't sent it in. Need to follow up on the new car's payments as well - we've had it a month now and still haven't received a payment coupon book. Need to take it in for its 1000 mile service - I have an appointment already made but need to look it up as it isn't on my calendar. Things to do...

DD and I went to the fair, and DH met us there about an hour later after work. We rode some rides, ate fair food and ran into some friends. DD saw a friend from ballet whom she's known since they were both about three, and they had a blast riding rides together. It's 9:30 p.m., we're all tired, but DD is still going strong.

The kittens are running back and forth between the bathroom they stay in and the hallway. Pitter patter pitter patter...16 little feet running back and forth. They are happy to have their people home.

Some budget updates for August:
Groceries: $43.28 (budget: $300)
Dining out: $33.02 (budget: $120)

I'm due to get a few things from the grocery store, and there's a recent trip DH made that I haven't entered yet.

We've got some more medical receipts saved up, so I think next week I'll gather them together for DH to take to submit at work. Which reminds me that I bought some vitamins not too long ago and forgot to save the receipt for reimbursement. Bummer.

I've sold about $30 worth of books this week at half.com. Nice to see the pile dwindle, and nice to get the deposit from half.com too. Not tracking my challenge anymore, but if I were this would go into it.

Yesterday was a good day for not spending. Aiming for another good day today, too. Tomorrow evening we're going to the fair. Our tickts and ride tickets are already paid for, but I know we'll be eating some fair food for dinner.

Read a headline that CA gas prices are likely going to go up 20 cents a gallon. Wow.

One of the things that has been on my to-do list is take some money that we've had set aside for DD and find a better way to invest it. I have some funds bookmarked, so this month I'm going to go back and look at them and try to take some action.

August...four weeks left of summer for me. Time has gone by way too fast this summer. I still have a lot to do and figure out so that I am comfortable the first day of school.

I'm almost ready to put DD's new loft together. I'll check to see if anything needs a little more paint, and I'll see about getting some 3/4" plywood to support the mattress, and then it will be ready to assemble! DD is looking forward to trying out her new bed.

Lunch tomorrow with friends fell through, so I don't need to worry about getting things together for that. Hopefully DD and I can get to the pool at least once this week. Things have cooled off considerably around here, and we are back to having thick fog in the mornings. If it burns off before lunch the afternoon will be nice. I'd like to go to the pool, given we have passes tha are already paid for and so it makes for what fels like a free activity.

Have I mentioned the kittens lately? They are doing great. They are on to kitten food now, though I still give them some milk in a bottle once or twice a day too, just to be sure. I had to move them into our bathroom, as they were climbing up and over the enclosure that I had them in. I have some recent pictures; I'll attach one. They are so fun.


Climbing my leg...

I listed a couple of things on Saturday on Freecycle and got rid of them today. I got quite a good response to the listing. It's a nice way to unload things that might not necessarily find their way to good home goingthe thrift store route.

Speaking of thrift stores, I dropped off about eight bags of clothes, shoes, toys and books today. Felt good to unload those things. We have a thrift store for the women's shelter in the area, so that's where I took my stuff.

Good day for letting others have things we don't need and/or weren't using.

Lately I find myself being much more willing (and not embarrassed!) to speak up when something goes wrong. Today, I noticed a two dollar coupon didn't get scanned. Once upon a time I may have just said oh well, but now? No way! I politely returned to the cashier to get my two dollars. And the simple green thing? Beofre I would have just figured that without a receipt I was out of luck. But now, I know it's worth contacting the company because they're likely to come through for a customer!

We work hard to earn our money, I work hard learning ways to stretch it further. I'm willing and able to speak up about it when need be, and it's a good place to be.

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!

Last night we had a tomato, basil and mozzarella salad with homegrown tomatoes and basil. It was excellent! I'm making pizza tonight and topping it with tomato and bell pepper from my garden. It is fun having a decent garden this year.

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 had my first acupuncture appointment today, and I have another scheduled for next Friday. I'll submit these to my insurance company and see what they cover.

Nothing really to report - I think it's a process rather than a one-time thing.

I wish insurance covered massage - I'd do that every week in a heartbeat.

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.

I am trying acupuncture this Friday to see if I can get some relief from my migraines. I'm going on 48 hours of this one - it comes and goes in term of its intensity, so at least there are some breaks.

I think my health insurance covers acupuncture, though to what extent I do not know.

I hope it helps - I'll post an update if anyone is curious.

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.

DH and I went shopping today for a new sink and fixtures for our bathroom. We saw one we liked, but they couldn't order it anymore - only the floor model was available. I asked if they could offer a discount, and he said he'd ask the manager. Long story short, we got a $298 sink and a set of $138 fixtures ($436 total) for $250. All because we weren't shy about asking! I'm pleased.

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.

Well, well. I got a check today from ebookdrop. No letter of explanation for why it took so long, no apology, no mention of my BBB complaint. Just a check and a promotional postcard encouraging one to use their service! Poor all around, but at least I got my measly six bucks.

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.

I got a rebate check in the mail today, and my free Swiffer duster sample (along with some coupons that I'll stick in the coupon train for Swiffer products). That was all that was in the mail, amazingly enough. No junk mail, no bills. Just that stuff.


Auction: $51.34
Rebate: $4.99
Total: $56.33

Pending:
Rite Aid rebate ($20+) (waiting)
Survey $5 (waiting)
Survey $2 (waiting)

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

Auction Update:
+56.80, -2.51, -2.95 = $51.34 to add to challenge total.

Total to add for June: $51.34

Pending:
Rite Aid rebate ($4.99) (waiting)
Rite Aid rebate ($20+) (waiting)
Survey $5 (waiting)
Survey $2 (waiting)

The total for my three auctions came in at $56.80. eBay final value fees come to $2.95. Once I know my PayPal fees I'll have a grand total to add to my challenge.

I'm glad that I listed these. I have some more to try, so maybe I'll do that some time this week.

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.

Saved another $5.20 with coupons today, bringing my net savings total up to $23.03. Vons had some things on special that I also had coupons for, which was good. In fact, I think all but one item that I used a coupon on was also on sale. They don't double coupons anymore, unfortunately.

Slowly I will get the hang of making the most of coupons, find coupons for the items I buy, and so forth. Today's purchases would have been about $76; I got out for about $56. A 6-pack of beer and two bottles of wine really impacted the overall total. Maybe they should go in the entertainment category instead of groceries, since it's for our dinner party this evening.

I emailed Vons/Safeay with a complaint today about a recipe I tried on the box of a store brand item. It was awful; truly, it was so bad that I felt compelled to write to them and see if there had been an error in printing the recipe! We'll see if I get a reply.