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Archive for November, 2012

CC Payoff Progress

November 18th, 2012 at 09:26 pm

All the CC payments have posted for the month.

Big news for this month is that the card with the highest balance just dropped below $10k with November's payment. Smile

Unfortunately, I will not meet my goal of getting the combined debt balance to $13k by the end of December. It looks more like $15k.

Update on the Week

November 17th, 2012 at 09:31 pm

First, thank you all for your kind comments on my last post.

Last Friday I bought DD and DS each a book from DD's school bookfair. $9.

Saturday my mom came for a visit. She stayed until Tuesday morning. It was fun and low-key. The unfortunate thing was DH, DS and I were all sick. Runny noses, sore throats, coughing - that sort of thing. Somehow DD never got anything worse than a scratchy throat. Lucky her.

I *finally* feel pretty normal today.

DD had a sleepover and she and her friend held a yardsale on Sunday. They cleared out some stuff from the shed and made $55. DD gave $5 to the boy next door for helping set stuff out and split the $50 with her gal pal.

I saved some of the better items for another sale and the rest I hauled off to the Goodwill.

We went out to dinner Tuesday night. "Memorial dinner" in Maxx's honor. $75.
This is our one and only meal out for the month.

DH is trying hard to sell a big tool/machine he has. We have it listed on CL for $800. Some of the money he wants to use towards his hobby project he is building and the other half will go to EF or CC. He has had three interested people. One flaked. The other two came and saw it and one totally lowballed DH ($400) and the other said he'd need to think about it.

I am going to repost it and an old motorcycle today. Try to get some extra cash in and some stuff out. Smile

Saying Goodbye.

November 16th, 2012 at 12:38 am

Our "Maxx"..



He was a sweet boy.
The ideal family dog.

It Never Hurts To...

November 8th, 2012 at 11:28 pm

On a whim I called my bank where I have a cc to inquire about any special promotions for my account. I was offered double points on all purchases for the next two months. Smile

Guess what card I will be using to charge Christmas on? (Of course paying it off with the cash we are setting aside.)

By getting double points on this card I will easily earn the $250 cash back I've been working towards before the end of the year. Big Grin

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I am entering a drawing each day to try to win a trip to the fancy Disney resort in Hawaii. It doesn't cost anything to do it. It is through our cable company, so I didn't have to provide personal information because they already have it.

Cross your fingers for us!

Busy Tuesday

November 7th, 2012 at 05:54 am

I started my day at 7:30 with a parent/teacher conference at DD's school. She had a perfect report card and very kind remarks from her teacher. We are so lucky that every year it has been the same - great, great, great. Big Grin

I really give a lot of credit to the wonderful preschool she attended. This is the same preschool that we have DS enrolled in for Fall 2013.

Mid morning I had a dentist appointment. Just a routine cleaning. It won't be covered by my insurance and will cost about $80. I also scheduled my crown for the first week in January. My root canal is scheduled with the endodontist at the end of December. This way I can maximize my dental benefits and pay the least out-of-pocket I have to.

After my appointment I dropped my ballot off. (I filled it out at home, but didn't want to risk mailing it.) It is always neat to see all the different types of voters out and about. Smile

Then I had to stop at MIL's bank. She asked for a $600 loan. This is the second time this year. She always pays it back promptly, so for that I am comfortable. What really alarms me is that they don't have any savings to tap? I'm not saying we are 'The Expert Savers', but we are working on it! (I really understand DH's lack of money management skills when I see things his parents do.)

I bought a banana milkshake from a burger stand next to the bank. It was a serious *want* and it was so gooood! Big Grin Plus, my throat has been sore all day and that shake felt good - wish I had another one right now.

Lastly, I went to work for the afternoon.
It was pretty quiet, so work was the easiest part of the whole day. Wink

Could You Use 30% Off?

November 4th, 2012 at 04:07 pm

I frequently use Diapers.com for supplies. The company has expanded to several websites since I started using them. From now until the end of the year they are offering 30% off a single item (up to $20 off) from each of their sites for first time customers. I have not shopped all their sites so I am planning to take advantage of this for Christmas gifts. The offer is displayed on the homepage of each site, just click on it for the codes.

Diapers. (baby/toddler supplies)
YoYo. (for toys)
Bookworm.(books)
Casa. (household)
Soap. (soap/groceries)
After School. (sports equipment)
Wag. (pet supplies)
Vine. (natural living)

Hope this helps you get a good deal on something!

October Results

November 4th, 2012 at 03:58 pm

We did pretty well in October spending money on *needs* only.

The *wants* that we did spend money on were Halloween, breakfast out for DH's birthday, two lunches out, clothes for DS and a few miscellaneous grocery items. There were several times I wanted something (little things: cupcake, coffee, etc..) but walked away. Smile

Going to continue to stay very strict November and December as every little thing adds up.

Warm Weather. Garden. Side Money.

November 3rd, 2012 at 05:21 pm

The next few days are supposed to be warm, around 80F. It feels like spring.

Two weekends back I cleaned up a lot of the plants in our garden. When I pulled up all the corn stalks I saved them and we used them to decorate for Halloween. We tied them around the light post and put a blacklight bulb in. It looked really neat and spooky too.

I left the tomato plants, the zucchini, the summer squash and the green beans. I am getting ripe tomatoes still and there is squash & zucchini that is ready to be picked anytime. I've been lazy about getting the beans picked so I know there is a bunch of them. Some of the beans might not be very good now that I left them so long and they'll end up being chicken or puppy snacks. I really should plant some more spinach this weekend. The warm weather would really sprout those seeds. Maybe beets too? I need to look at the seeds and see what is good for a winter crop for our area.

This week I had a cat care gig. I made $140. I put $40 toward cc payment and $100 to the EF. I will be taking care of these cats again for a few days late this month too. I'll make less because it's less days, maybe $70? But I'm happy with whatever extra I can pull in. Smile

Rainy Halloween

November 1st, 2012 at 11:39 pm

We had a string of beautiful weather here. Then yesterday afternoon the rain moved in and it rained steadily until 11pm. It was a wet and soggy Trick or Treat experience last night for the kids. That was probably for the best because it was a school night and everyone was home by 8pm.

Today the sun and blue skies are back. Tonight would make for a good Halloween night. It sure doesn't feel like November 1st when it's 70F.

Our Halloween spending was:
$27 - DD's costume (Bo Peep)
$16 - Pumpkin from family farm
$14 - 5lbs of Candy
$ 0 - Two bags of fake cobweb ($5 off reward coupon)
$ 0 - CD of creepy sound effects ($5 off coupon)
$10 - DD's class party (cookies and plates)
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$67

We didn't buy DS a costume. DS wore a rain jacket that looked like a fireman's turnouts, dark jeans and his red "fireman" rain boots. He was given these things as gifts (birthday, I think) so we had them in the closet. It really worked out perfectly because it was raining!




I would have never bought the $16 pumpkin had I known how much it was going to be. We were at the organic apple and pear farm and they had a you pick pumpkin patch. DD picked a rather large pumpkin and she cut it off the vine. It was priced by weight and I couldn't re-attach it to the vine. Oh well, we won't make that mistake again.

It did make a very nice Jack'o Lantern. DD carved her.



It was the only pumpkin we bought this year. We grew four small pie pumpkins in our garden, we didn't carve them, but I did display them, and DD brought one home from her fall field trip. We used that for DS.


Because of the rain we only had a third of the Trick or Treaters as years before. We still have half the candy we bought. Oy!