It's been a week since I last posted.  So busy, yet nothing really to report.  Getting ready for a trip to Hawaii for 10 days.  Just me, dd and my mom.  Should be a terrific fun girls time!  Plus Mom is treating on this trip, so not much cost to me, other than a few new summer clothes.  I'm outgrowing (in the waist area) my old clothes.  I haven't had a new swim suit in years (and the last one I bought is now too tight). I bought a cute one at Kohl's.  The top is kind of long to the waist and then I bought a black skirt type bottom.  Kinda hides the love handles :-)
I also bought some khaki shorts at Kohl's at $20 but then decided I could probably find 2 pair of shorts at Walmart for that price.  I took the Kohl's shorts back and got 2 pair for $20 bucks, plus a pair of capri type shorts for $14.  We're staying in a condo with a full kitchen, so will save money by eating in a lot.  I plan to use some of my spending money I take to either treat mom to a nice breakfast or dinner out.

I purchased some coupons on Ebay last week.  Got 20 $1 off coupons for some Crystal Light tea.  The boxes I buy are currently $2 each at Walmart, so will be quite a savings and good stock up. Dh goes thru several boxes a week.  I paid less than $3 total for the coupons and will save $17 overall then. Not bad.
I'm still not couponing as much as usual, but hopefully after a nice relaxing vacation I can get myself on track again.

Clutter and the cost

My work desk is a cluttered mess! More so than usual lately.  And now I've lost $8 in Rite Aid UP Rewards and a $3 coupon I was going to use this week.  They have just seemed to vanish!  Sunday I figured out my deal, clipped the UP rewards off the bottom of my receipt and printed/cut the coupon I needed....I haven't really been at my desk much since Sunday as I worked at the office the past 2 days, but sat down this morning to grab my coupons and can't find 'em.  I even (sorta) decluttered and still can't find them.  It's driving me nuts.  There really isn't anywhere else they would've ended up but on my desk!  My UP coupons and the deal expires on Saturday...so I'm sure they'll turn up on Sunday..........GRRR!

Lunches and more expenses

I took some leftover hashbrown casserole to work yesterday.  Today I took some awesome macaroni salad that Dd made - that's all I ate - just a big bowl of macaroni salad!  It's such a yummy recipe we got from a friend.  Macaroni, ham, onions and petite peas.  We halved the recipe and still have a huge bowl of it.  Got lazy (as usual) about dinner and went and got tacos, but at least those are cheaper than say McD's.  We stopped at Winco Foods on the way and picked up some fresh bagels for breakfasts the next couple of mornings. I love their bagels.

Yesterday I had a big $112 expense - Nasonex spray for Ds's allergies- OUCH! There is no generic version and Ds's insurance only covers generics.  But worth it to not see him suffering as bad, plus he only really seems to have allergies bad enough to need this expensive stuff for about a month every summer.  He also takes Zyrtec, but we got a bottle of a years supply, 365 pills, for free a few months ago.  Ds's girlfriend's mom got a great deal at Costco with some coupons and got a 2nd bottle free, so she gave it to Ds.  That probably saved me close to the $100 I'd normally spend on it during allergy season, so guess it all evens out in the long run. Plus Ds doesn't take it all year long, so with the expiration date on it, it will be enough to get him through next years allergy season too, so really $200 savings overall. If Ds needs Nasonex for more than one month I might consider calling his doctor and see about trying Flonase...the pharmacist said it is alot cheaper and there is a generic version out now.

Spendy Sunday

So much for not spending much last week.  Made up for it today.  On Friday I purchased oil and filter to change oil in dd's little truck.  Now today Dh tells me he needs to change the oil in his truck, needs an oil filter for the riding lawn mower and needs blackberry bush killer.  That all came to about $75 (plus the $20 I spent on Friday for oil and filter).  Plus, while we were at Walmart I bought a shower curtain liner for kid's bathroom.  Decided to go with a cloth type liner, so that I can throw it in the wash machine regularly.  It was $15, but hopefully will last a good long while and maybe look a little nicer too.

And here I had planned not even going anywhere today....I guess I should at least be grateful Dh and Ds can change our cars/trucks oils themselves instead of spending more to have it done somewhere.  My uncle had a new car just like mine and said his oil changes cost like $50! (special "Dexos" synthetic oil supposed to be used).  We spent $30 doing it ourselves.

Dinner was a cheesy hashbrown casserole - yum! and best of all I have leftovers for work the next couple of days :-).  I always brown bag it, but I really don't like sandwiches that have been sitting in a bag for 4 hours, so I usually take Soup at Hand, but at $1.50 each - leftovers is an even cheaper option. Plus, I am sick of soup!

Need some energy

My goodness, I CANNOT get motivated today! I'm working from home and feel like I've hardly gotten anything done in the past 2 1/2 hours.  I didn't even get in the shower first thing this morning and just now got out - very unlike me.  Now, I'm sitting here trying to get motivated to put on some makeup and fix my hair.  I don't know what is wrong!  Just very tired, I guess.  Maybe if the weather would show just a little sign there is such a thing as summer, it would help.  It's only 10 am and I feel like I already want a nap.  I know I didn't sleep very well last night, so that could be it.  I just want to feel like I have some energy!

There are a couple of deals this week at Rite Aid I could roll my $8 UP rewards into but I've now waited until the end of the week to get my butt there, so they will probably be out of stock.  Safeway has Pepsi products 24 case on sale for $5 each, today only, so guess I'd better get there and grab a few at that price.

Over and under

As usual, I've blown my budget on take out food :-(.  I was so tired when I got home from work on Monday and hadn't decided yet what meal I was going to make and then dh said he'd like Wendy's...so of course I jumped right on that.  Good thing is when we do take out it's usually only just for dh and sometimes ds, too.  Dd and I will just have a snack at home or something light for dinner.  Yesterday was Dh's birthday and I did manage to go under budget a bit on that.  Was planning on Chinese takeout (approx. $23) but forgot this restaurant is closed on Tuesdays, so dh opted for Arby's.  I had a coupon so to feed 3 of us (ds was at school) was only $10.70.  I made the birthday cake, so that only cost a couple of dollars.  I had budgeted $50 for gifts and ended up spending $38 total, thanks to $20 Kohl's cash and 15% off coupon I had.

I swear I saw a commercial on tv advertising McDonald's egg mcmuffin's as buy 1 get 1 free.  I decided to stop in this morning and pick up 2 for dh and my breakfast. Nope, they were full price, so I spent $5.38.  Guess it kind of evens out - I was out to mail a payment that needed to go out today for the company I do bookkeeping for as my side job, so basically I earned $5 for the 10 min. I added to my time :-)

At least none of this is major dollars, so far nothing major has come up this week, knock on wood!  I bought ds's textbooks online this morning.  The college bookstore wanted $70 each and I got them for less than $45 each, plus one of them I was able to go through MyPoints and earn 400 points, equivalent to a few dollars on a gift card.

Kept within budget

I managed to keep my grocery total within my weekly budgeted amount! I budgeted $125.  I actually only spent $90 on food and was able to spend the remaining $35 of some weed killer, 2 pairs of flip-flops, dog treats and some shop towels.  With what I purchased and what I have in my pantry I was able to plan for 6 nights of dinners and only one "take out" night.  Tonight's meal was a "chicken sandwich ring".  Tomorrow will be spaghetti.  The rest of the week will be chili dogs, homemade 4 cheese and bacon mac & cheese, steak, and leftovers one night.

I was able to get a few things that were good deals at RiteAid and Target.  At RiteAid I got 4 of Dh's SpeedStick deodorant for .99 ea after UP Rewards.  At Target I got some Banana Boat sunscreen and lip balm for $7.59 and I also received a $5 Target gift card back.  The sunscreen is much needed anyway, so I will use the $5 gift card towards dog food next week.  I have a $2 off Purina One dog food coupon, plus the $5 gift card and I'll also get 5% off using my Target Red Debit card.  A nice savings on the dog food!

Still no mail

It took a trip to the Post Office and and an additional 45 minutes, but I did finally find out what happened to our mail.  This is a good sized post office that is always busy - but always only has 2 people working it most of the time.  Walked in to a line back to the door and 2 people working the counter (though they have registers for 5). About half way through my wait in line the counter goes down to one person (Dd was like "seriously? this is considered a good time to take a break?).  The poor lady in front of me got up to 3rd in line and had to leave, she didn't want to be late for an appointment she had.  Finally get our turn and tell the guy we are wondering why we haven't gotten any mail for a week.  He acts like I'm dumb -- "did you stop your mail?". He spends 10 minutes in back looking for it (all the while I'm feeling terrible that I'm holding up this long line behind me) and comes back and says they don't have any of our mail and our mailbox is "clean" meaning no problems with it. He says, "I guess you just haven't had any mail sent to you".  Good grief.  I can't recall a day that goes by that I don't get junk mail - let alone for 7 days?  I persist with him and he finally realizes (I guess) that I mean I have gotten NO mail at all, not even junk mail.  He goes in back to talk to his supervisor. Another 5 minutes goes by (I'm so sorry folks behind me!) and he comes out with another lady carrying - guess what? Our mail!

She explains that our neighborhood locked mailbox had a key broken off into the main lock that the carrier uses to leave our mail, so she hasn't been able to deliver (all outward appearances of our mailbox look ok).  I ask - "and she couldn't leave a note on the box letting us know to pick up our mail at the post office?".  "Nope", came the reply, "that is not our responsibility".  OMG!  How inefficient.  A 30 second note by our carrier would have saved them 15 minutes of looking for my mail at the post office! No wonder they are going broke.  She said someone was supposed to repair it that day, but it's now 2 days later and still broken.  Guess I'll be making another trip to pick up mail - wonder how long it will take them to locate it this time....

No spend and no mail

I've managed not to spend anything at all the last 3 days!  After all the expenses last week/weekend it sure feels good to not have to pay for anything and at least have the money sitting in my checking account for a few days.  We have not had any mail for the past 5 days! This is so strange, that something must be wrong - I can barely recall going one day without some sort of junk mail, let alone 5 days.  If there is nothing today I know something is wrong, as the weekly store ads always come.  If not, I guess I will be making a call to the post office to find out what is going on.  It's always something to deal with, isn't it?