Trying to cool down

We broke down yesterday and I went and purchased a portable air conditioner unit. We really tried to suffer the heat, but it just got too much (worse for DH). The first couple of weeks of the 80 to 90 degree days (with a few 70's thrown in the mix) it was cooling down enough at night that we were leaving our sliding door and some windows open and the house was nice and cool in the morning and we'd then shut it all up and it would at least stay cool all day, until about dinner time. But the past few days it's been over 90 and not cooling down enough at night. Yesterday morning when I got up it was still 78 inside the house.

I took off work a couple hours early (took no lunch break and will just make it up the rest of the week) and drove yet again into the city to buy one at Lowes. I had received a coupon in the mail with my notice that my credit limit got upped that I could take 10% off (instead of the normal 5%) or take 18 months no interest financing on purchases over $299. The unit I choose was $400 and I took the 10% off and saved $40. When she scanned the coupon she then said I still qualified for 6 months no interest, so I said sure, why not. I'll pay it off anyway, but if some emergency came up in the next few days, hey, at least I have that option.  I then stopped at Subway to bring home some dinner. Another free meal (and no cooking!)- since I still have money left on the $50 gift card we have.

I got home a little after 5pm and DH got the unit set up. He hadn't wanted me to get a window unit because all of our windows open sideways, instead of up and down and he didn't want to deal with trying to block a big open area above the unit. He didn't realize these types have to vent through a window, still, but once we looked at the directions, it's a much smaller area to cover. Just a small width and they give you some strips of cream colored metal to put above the venting part. It was easy to set up and within an hour or two the living room started feeling much cooler. He left it going most of the night and got up and turned it off sometime in the middle of the night. Still nice and cool in the house this morning. I also shut the doors to our spare bedroom, guest bath and our big walk in closet - we don't need the cool air trying to get to there (it's not that big of unit!). We always keep our laundry room door shut. If my office room still gets too warm, I'm just going to buy a little desk fan and that will work for me in this room.  At least this portable unit we can take with us when we build our house.

I started this post yesterday so will add it to this one!:

It costs us about $9 or $10 to make a drive to the city and back (110 miles RT), so with that in mind I always try to make it pay for itself. I try to find coupons to use for the purchases or take advantage of a sale or just compare the prices to what I would have paid here in town and calculate the savings. A grocery shopping trip at Walmart saves at least the cost of gas, compared to the prices here at town grocery store.

Sunday's trip, though was to see friends that live almost 40 miles from us, still included the extra 15 miles from their house into the city. I needed to pick up a big tarp at Harbor Freight that DH needed. It was $40. I know Harbor Freight ALWAYS has 20% off one item coupons. Always. As I parked in my parking space I sat in my car an extra minute and pulled it up on my phone and had it loaded and ready to use at checkout. Saved $8 and paid for the gas to the city.

I currently have $90 in Swagbucks built up and $5.47 pending when some online shopping purchases go through. I'll cash in when I get to $100, I think. I do not understand their new "Linked cards" program. I linked both of my debit cards, but have never received any points from using them, so I'm not really sure what good it's doing me. I think I'll probably just unlink them and one less security issue to worry about.

3 more days left in the month to see if we make our sales goal for the bonus. GAHHH!! We are getting close! It'll be Friday at the last hour, of course.

I made our black dog a vet appointment for next Monday morning. I'm budgeting $150 for the visit and shots. I really can't remember what I usually have to spend on the annual checkups or if the price will be different here. It is a vet that takes the Care Credit, which I have. I haven't used it since all my dental work a couple of years ago, but it's nice to have in case there was some huge vet emergency with one of the dogs. They always seem to offer 6-12 months at no interest and can't beat that for helping with the monthly budget, if the need arose. I just looked it up on my banking search option and I paid $140 for the yellow dog to see our old vet for his annual checkup just before we moved.  I took off his collar today, so we don't have to keep listening to his tags jangling every time the poor pooch has to scratch. I thought I had some benadryl, but I couldn't find it in the bathroom cabinets. I was going to run to the store in town later and pick some up but then I remembered the shoebox I have in the kitchen that I had packed all our meds, vitamins and ibuprofen in when we moved. That's where the benadryl bottle was. I've given some to the dog and I think it is helping a little bit, at least.

Then the doctors office I had set DH up with an appointment for Thursday called and needed to reschedule it for next Monday morning. Ok. sure. So then I had to call the vet back and reschedule the dog for later in the day. Can't be two places at once.

I track my credit score via the credit card I have and it went up another 2 points this past month. My bank now also offers this service for free. Now up to 728 and I just got a notice in the mail from Lowe's that they upped my limit to $2700. It was $1700, but when I just logged in it's still showing the $1700 limit. I always use my card when making purchases there, to save the additional 5%, so I just logged in to pay off the $36 I charged over the weekend to buy the screws, stain and poly sealant.

We went out to dinner Monday night. Just too hot to cook at 93 degrees. I don't mind going to our town restaurant every so often.  Dinner for both of us costs $20, which I don't think is bad at all. They have good burgers and fries and the waitresses are sweet. Our regular was serving a different section and just getting off for the day, but she came over and chatted with us before she left. It was busier than usual there last night, so I'm sure lots getting out of their hot houses. Plus we had a free dinner at friends house on Sunday night.

I was going nuts with my computer on Monday and yesterday. I stay logged into several websites during the day, plus keep my log ins saved so I don't have to type them in every time when I do open them. Monday morning everything was logged out and once I'd log in (like Facebook, Swagbucks, my email for my side job) they would just randomly log me out several times during the day. Finally, I think I figured it out. Somehow my Firefox setting got changed to clear cookies when clearing my history. So far now, everything seems to be back to normal. Thank goodness I keep a log with all my various log ins and passwords because I had to look several up and enter them again.

3 more days of work and then a week off. I think I need it more than I realized.

Here is picture of portable a/c unit venting out window, that Kay requested. Not the best picture but DH was taking a nap in the living room and I didn't want to turn the lights on or open up the blinds LOL.  The unit comes with the window installation kit. Not the nicest looking thing to have in the living room - but better than the heat!