Friday - feeling rich

Yesterday was our company employee meeting and our bonus checks were handed out. Mine was $3630 gross, $2445 net after the high tax rate taken out. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of that back on my tax return, since I'm not at a 25% tax rate. For now it's going straight into my savings account. I did tell DH that I was getting a bonus, but never said how much or when exactly....that way it can sit there as long as possible :) I did think I was going to use about $400 of it to transfer to DS so he could get some snow tires for the truck (probably a necessity in the Great White North) but now he says he changed his mind. He does have a loaner car, an older Mazda he is using, so that should get him where he needs to go, especially as he's not working yet.

I also took advantage of Capital One's offer for a $75 bonus for opening a savings and a $125 bonus for opening a checking (and using their debit card 5 times). So, in about 50 days or so I will be $200 richer. It's really nice to be able to have the extra money to be able to put $500 in a savings I can't touch for a month or so. DD opened the savings too, and will get the $75 bonus. They didn't approve her for the checking account. Even though she obviously has a checking account to transfer the money from, she apparently doesn't have the credit history yet. Last month we tried applying for a Kohl's and Target store cards for her, but she wasn't approved, so guess she's just going to have to wait awhile and try again.

I'm taking young pup into the vet today. He needs some annual vaccinations and I need them to figure out his itching problem and his occasional yelping in pain problem. I'm budgeting a couple hundred for this, since he has issues to deal with. I was able to route some other earmarked money towards this vet visit. DH still drinks that "diet shake" mix almost every day for lunch, so I'm still spending $55 a month for that. Well, my  mom had tried it - went on it then off then back on then off (she was driving me nuts because I was the one who had to keep going online and changing it for her). She called the other day and said she had a full unopened bag to see if we wanted. We were just due in a couple of days to have another bag shipped so I quickly got online and suspended it for a month. Then I realized that over time we probably have and extra half a bag more ourselves (as there are occasional days DH doesn't drink it), so I went back online and changed my new monthly ship date for 2 weeks even later. Now, I don't have to pay it again until January, and it will start coming out of my mid-month paycheck, instead of my first of month paycheck.

ok.........off to try to sign up for Obamacare......again.........