Gakline's Road to PF

Ooh those stats are pretty cool. I'm such a geek. Nothing like a visual picture for a pick-me-up from the afternoon doldrums.

I'll have to try the pictures... No that's not me. It was my guide while we were out deep sea fishing. I was the only one (beside the crew) that wasn't sick. I was also the only woman on the boat so they elected me to reel in our only catch of the day before we headed back to shore. It's my 25-30lbs king fish. Here's the link to the Florida vacation: http://zorrozretirement.blogspot.com/2006/03/sun-burnt-and-relaxed.html

It's been busy for me. It also seems like I start off every entry that way. I manage to pop in, do a quick, boring update, and then pop out. It must be the engineer and technical writing..Must be concise, no fluff. That's tough one to over come.

On the side though, I've been working on two other blogs. They sort of happened before this new format happened, otherwise I might have just made them here. I may eventually cross it over, once I see more bells and whistles here (such as adding pictures, links, etc). But I've had as much trouble finding time for those as I have for this one... It's nothing personal...hehe for any loyal readers haha. That and I feel bad just relating the same information here and there and trying to retype or put a different slant on things.

Now for the quick in and out. I'm heading to Florida for a seminar tonight. The seminar's till Saturday and I'll be vacationing til Sunday and fly back and go straight to work. We (my bf and I) are visiting with a friend who's working down there for FEMA. So our lodging will be completely free and we'll only have to pay for food Saturday evening till Monday. This includes buying lunch on Monday since I won't be able to pack anything. It will be a nice vacation uh I mean work-related seminar. Friday afternoon, they're taking us on a boat ride through the everglades and then on Saturday it's deep see fishing. I've always wanted to do both and here's my chance.

Well like I said up top, I'm busy and back to work.

It was an easy weekend for me. We helped install 5 outlets in my bf's cousin's basement. Conduit and all...Romex isn't allowed by code. They bought us lunch and dinner that day.

Sunday lunch was paid for by his parents. We were snowed in...just a bit slippery to drive home. They bought us lunch on Sunday.

The only money I spend was on some clothes during the superbowl. I really didn't care enough to watch and I knew the stores would be empty. I found two cute shirts (bogo from Kohls) and then a skirt, bra and jewelry from the cheap (semi-trashy) store.

I even did a pinecone survey so I figure once I get the check, my shopping spree will be about $40.

Our Sunday dinner was 2 frozen pizzas with fresh cheese. Very tasty actually. There was just enough to for lunch today.

Luckily a vendor is coming in tomorrow and we'll have a free lunch.

It feels like fall again. You know when you put on that coat that's been sitting in the closet untouched since last spring? Then you reach in the pocket to toss your keys and you pull out a $20. Found money. It's a great feeling.

I routinely switch purses. I never carry more than my wallet, cell phone, keys, a pen and chapstick. Well all the purses have pockets and I always tell myself that I'll start using them, so I stuff toothpicks and bandaids in them. Well I never remember and I never look again until I do a deep cleaning.

This weekend, I decided to use a purse I hadn't used in a while and slung it over my shoulder and out the door. I noticed what appeared to be bandaids and never glanced again. We went to pick up a movie later and I happened to take a closer look in the pocket. Lo and behold a $50 bill. Shocked me. If there would have been any money it probably would have been less than $20, I never have $50s. I think I know where it came from. My mom's in the habit of slipping me cash, since she feels bad that my dad is making me pay back my down payment with interest ($150/month). So she gave me the money when we were out shopping and I tucked it away and forgot about it for 6 months.

Ooooh it's a terrific Tuesday. I just found out what raise I'm getting this year. Are you ready?

8.9%

Oh this is great. I was only expecting aobut a 5% like last year... but this is so much better.

Now I'm deciding how much to put toward the 401k

(trying out smileys)

Yep, our anniversary is tomorrow. 7 years from that first kiss. We will be heading out to the Museum of Science and Industry for the afternoon. I have a membership so that will be less painful. Then we're heading out to a South American restaurant.

I was an exchange student in Brazil, and I'm always looking for Brazilian food in Chicago. It's really a tough one. A bunch of Brazilian Churrascharias (steakhouses) opened up within the past few years and that has helped with my saudade (homesickness of a sort).

Whatever dinner may be, I'll be ordering a caipirinha with it. Yummmm.

Afterwards we're going to a show. I don't know which one, only that we have tickets. This whole day was planned by my bf and it was suppose to be a complete surprise...but I kind of found out anyway.

It'll be a nice way to end this bearish week.

This is nice guys. I think this is going to be fun.

Can I add pictures? I'll have keep wandering.

So like I was saying yesterday (look two days in a row), I have that anniversary gift to do. Well now it's done! We went to target last night because the bf wanted a new video game that was on sale. He couldn't decide on which one, so I bought them both and a new controller. I was playing a fighting game with him a few weeks ago and lost horribly because I couldn't block. Turns out I broke the controller beating him a few rounds ago. (He'd disagree if he saw this now, so we won't tell him.) There went $75. Well it occured to us that we have a party on Sunday and no presents for the kids. We found 2 shirts and a pair of pants for each boy. I found a new winter hat and we were set. The total bill was just over $135. Shopping done. I just told him he had to wait till our date to open the second game. He paid for the Christmas presents for the kids and I got half the credit (oops) So I picked up this bill. He's happy with it.

He already has our anniversary planned out. A whole 7 years! gees. It'll probably be another 2-3 before married. Ugh! Time to just get it over and done with. But that's another rant.

Of course I've been slacking lately. I think I got burnt out a bit from writing everyday back in March about those no-spend days. I also haven't been following everyone elses journals...so no motivations. Work has kept me busy lately and so has my blog. I've been updating that moreso.

Let's see... The year ended pretty well. I did most of my shopping over a couple of months before December, so my Dec cc bill wasn't bad at all. In past years, I've gotten hit by Christmas shopping in December and then in January a car insurance payment (in full for 6 months), anniversary, and Valentine's. So far I'm not doing too bad. I have a feeling this year will be mild, with the exception of an overseas trip likely to cost $3000.

I got my one of my Christmas presents a bit early...like last week. Well I got a snazzy little mp3 player. It was only $30 for 128mb. Not bad, considering it's so easy to change songs. There's only one bad thing so far. I have been listening to a lot of recorded books, due to my travels and I had hoped to download them onto the mp3 player and listen to while running. (Oops not gym tonight. Tomorrow I promise) According to my library I should have been able to transfer no problem. No such luck. I'm going to try ripping the mp3s from a real cd.

My library is awesome. it got rated one of the top in the country. Anyway, they started a new download audio and ebooks from their website. It's not the full library selection, I imagine from copyright laws, but one of my favorite authors has a few books on there. I'll just keep checking into it.

So yesterday was Thursday and that means car auction day in Bolingbrook. Well my boyfriend has been on the hunt for a new car recently. He has his baby and a beater. Well he's getting rid of the beater right now. It needs some work, and he will just have his dad's mechanic fix it and sell it. So he needed a replacement. His dad owns a used car lot and so has dealer admittance to the auction. In the end my bf walked/drove away with a 2002 Infiniti QX for $14,000. Not bad. It looks in impeccable shape. It came from a dealer so it was clean and probably all fixed. He could probably put a for sale sign on it and make a quick $4,000- $5,000 on it. That's the price they were going for on Carmax. Tempting. I'm not sure how much he's paying for it in cash right now. His suzuki will go for about $4000, and then he'll just pay his parents back maybe $100 a month on the balance.

On another note. We're heading to Indiana Saturday. We have to take care of the car business and also do some quick work at the car lot. His dad really doesn't know computers and we create a flyer for him to put up in the restaurant. After that, we'll head to the restaurant. It's a Greek fast food with sandwiches and ribs and everything else. We'll definately take some home with us. Probably a stack of gyro meat, tzatziki, ribs, chicken and whatever else hits his fancy. btw, it's also the family business. Lunch for the next 3 days. yummy.

Oh well, it was good while it lasted. My day trips down south are over. So that means no more car rentals and no more reimbursement checks. I'll live. It was nice to see that extra come in every few weeks.

Hmmm...Otherwise, I'm still saving and trying to. I'm heading to Vegas for vacation the week before Christmas. My spending money will be a present to myself. I don't gamble all that much. I'm looking forward to a vacation.

I have done some splurging lately. I bought a really cute wrap. It was on the expensive side, but I figure I'd be able to wear it to some X-mas parties next month. My mom also bought me two pairs of shoes. They were only $20 at Marshall Fields (soon to be Macy's).

A few months ago, my Roth almost hit $20,000. Almost. It was short by just under $100 of the mark. Then the market took a bit of a dive and back down to low $19k. But with the recent market swing up, and my recent $500 deposit. I'm sitting on $20,300+...oh that's so nice. Now if only it will keep going up. Total gain since being with Fidelity in a year is almost $2,400.

I always have a horrible time buying gifts for my boyfriend. He comes from a very affluent family and tends to buy whatever he wants when he wants. They often give large gifts. Right now his mom is thinking of giving him $500 toward a new TV. His sister will spend $200+ or give cash. Well you get the idea. We typically spend $150-$200 on each other. I'd be comfortable spending less, as it's a sign of love, but I'll be fine for two times a year.

This year he's come up with a few ideas and they're very reasonable. Two ideas he's come up with are a portable harddrive and a humidor, and a dvd burner. I'm not sure on the harddrive price, but the dvd burner is running around $70 and the humidor is about $30. Very reasonable. Of course I'll have to find something he doesn't know about. But it will be so nice to get most of his presents out of the way. I think we're buying the burner tonight.

I haven't decided what I'm getting my parents and grandparents yet. Those should be very reasonable though.

It's been a while since I've poured my wallet out on the table. Hmmm. Saving has been going fairly well, but it's hard to see that. My cc bills have been very high for the last few months. Almost of it is gas and car rentals. I've been doing a lot of travel lately and driving about 400 miles one day a week for the last 6 months. It definitely made for a long day and lots of books on tape. Well I was renting a car and then have the miles reimbursed. So at about $160 it covered my expenses. I pay just under $40 for a car. I've gotten in good with the rental people and they give me a deal. Then it's about a full tank on any car for about another $80 even with the gas increase. That gave me about $40. A few times I was upgraded to an SUV, it made for a very nice ride but obviously ate more gas. So every few weeks I've been getting checks between $300 and $450. In short my cc bill looks high (By ~500), but my overall income has increased ~$600/ month. It's been difficult to track just by looking at my statements because they include my normal gas purchases....Long story short...the project's almost done. I have maybe 1-2 more trips. Yay!!!!

So I finished stashing away my hard earned after tax dollars into my Roth. I made my final $250 contribution for the year to max out at $4000. Next year should be smoother. I was playing catch up from 2004 in 2005. So my actual payouts this year were around $5500. It will be nice during the holidays to have one less "bill".

Saving otherwise: I signed up for auto billpay of my student loan, $90. It dropped my interest rate to 3.125%. I don't think I could do much better. I've minimized my mortgage payments to $760. I was making more but I'm saving up for a trip to Greece next summer.

I love competitive markets!!!!! I previously lived in Iowa and granted cost of living was cheap, dry cleaning was not. Very rarely would I drop anything off, only if absolutely necessary. So it was ofter over $5 per item! Now that I've moved to Chicago, while the cost of living and entertainment has gone up (not a whole lot actually) Dry cleaning has gone cheap!! Normally it costs $1.75 per item. How awesome. But I had a coupon that saved me $0.25 per item. So with 2 dresses, 2 sweaters and 5 pants it was only $13.50!!! That would have easily been $50+ in Iowa. Ahhh I love it. I don't really do it that often though. I end up taking my pants there about once every 2-3 washes. That way I keep the nice crease and get the cat hair off.

Hmm otherwise. my CCs have gone down a bit this month. They were riding about $800-1000. Things for the house, going out in the summer. Part of that is going on trips for work which I do get reimbursed. But this month my ccs are just under $700. So far so good on my budget resolution.

I also should be receiving a reimbursement check in 2 weeks for about $350. That'll look nice since the bills will already have been paid. I should also be receiving another $5 from Pinecone. This will be my second.

On a sad note, taxes are due. I'm planning on paying it tomorrow. $1400ish. Not going to be fun. It's still better than having an escrow and still getting a bill for what the escrow doesn't cover and earning interest on the whole $2800.

By baselle(08-14-2005 at 01:44 AM)
Cell & satellite - $74, which is about 15% of $498. I know you're probably under contract and its probably going to be more expensive to break the contracts than what you save ... but to the true frugal person, those are completely discretionary. Might want to figure out what you can do to lower your utilities - they look pretty low right now. Student loans consolidated? Parent loans renegotiated? Finally, while the Roth is important, its after tax dollars and you might want to think about lowering your contributions. Not talking about eliminating, just shaving bits from a number of spots to free up money to save.


Thanks Baselle. But I don't have a land line only a cell (no contract) and I do not have any reception with an antenna and satellite is still cheaper than cable (no contract). Student loans are consolidated at 3.37%. Parent loan is part of my mortgage payment of my down payment on my house, 4%. As for the Roth, I will not cut that out, $4,000/year. I'm 25 right now, and I definitely plan on being in a higher tax bracket when I retire. Right now my Roth has gained about 17% in 1 year.

A couple of expenses I did forget to mention:
Cable internet: $20 (split with my neighbor and not getting any lower)
Transportation costs to and from work: $26.50 (Parking and train)

On a positive note. I did pass up a White Sox game yesterday and saved $25 plus dinner.

It's been an expensive summer so far and I really need to cut back. I've had two weddings. Property taxes and 1 coming up. A new bicycle. Going out with friends. I need to cut back. My new goal through the rest of the year (and hopefully beyond) is to cut my expenses to under $1000 a month. This is everything but my mortgage and Roth. Please comment if you see anything. So here are my bills per month that will not change much:
Student loan: $90
Parent loan: $150
Electric: ~$30
Gas: ~$30
Association Assessment: $124
Cell: $47
Satellite: $27
=$498

$500 That's reasonable I think. I will definitely try to keep them down, but I'm not going to sacrifice my quality of living for it. No ramen!

This past weekend was a bit expensive. I went to the fabulous overprice shopping center (Oakbrook for all the Chicagoans.) When there's an outdoor mall in Chicago, you know something's up. But I actually didn't find anything other than a very reasonable priced ($10) shirt. My mom found Naturalizer shoes for $15 (going out of business, not chic enough) and a nice purse (Sears). I even had two coupons for free keychains at Bloomingdale's (hehe not going to shop there. But if anyone wants a 15% off coupon for furniture let me know.) We were pretty cheap there. I really should have had my mom come visit me and go to Marshall's. I found 2 shirts ($13 & $15), a pair of socks ($3), a small purse ($5), and a backpack ($14). Ahhh I love off name brands and discount stores. I think it came out to $57 with taxes.

Hmmm Saturday was ok. We went to visit some relatives and stopped at the mall for a last minute birthday gift. well I ended up seeing a few shirts I liked and a pair of shoes. Well JCPenney had a nice spend $50 get $10 off coupon that we could use over and over. So we saved $10 on the gift. $10 on my clothes. $10 on his shoes. $10 on his shirts (the last two were purchased separately). Thank you coupon in the Friday paper.

That could be my $20 to $5000 challenge. Use my newspaper subscription to make money (stay in my pocket).
I'll have to think about that. I did just save about $80 a week ago. So I guess that's about $120.

Saturday, we had a BBQ at my BF house for about 20 people. It was super hot, as usual, but it went over really well. There were 30 burger, 15 beer brats, sauerkraut, a 3 ft. sub, 2 bags of salads,6 lbs. meatballs, 2 trays of spanakopita (spinach puffs), 1 tray of cheese puffs, 4 bags of chips and a tray of cheese and crackers. Plus plenty of liquids. Obviously we had way too much food. Before we started eating he was thinking of buying pizza too! He's got the Greek ingrained - Must feed everyone 5 times. It was so good though. I think his grocery bill was about $200. But the leftovers will definately feed us both this entire week.

My spending has been going well. It stinks. It seems like every month I will actually be saving more money than usual and then something big comes up. Just like this month, I spent just over $550 for my house insurance and car insurance. Last month, $400, I bought a museum membership and went to school. May, I made a large donation. Next month, $1400 property taxes. I'm so hoping September will be a cheap month. Cross my fingers.

It's been super hot here lately and no rain. So the A/C has been on non stop pretty much. Oh well, atleast I planned for the bill.

I just became a member of the Museum of Science and Industry. Awesome museum. Well I figured out that I would just have to visit 2 times and go to a few Imaxes to to justify the cost. So far so good. We went last weekend and saw the Bodyworlds exhibit. That was amazing. it's a med students dream. We caught an Imax too. Omnimax actually. That was fun. We ended up spending the entire day there. It was so nice to use other peoples cold airconditioning. I was thinking about going back this weekend, but I think I'll wait a bit. My BF is heading out to Vegas in 2 weekends so I think I'll grab my parents and head over there. I have 6 guest passes, free parking, and I-max to cover us all. A bonus too, is that I can write off half my membership dues to a charitable donation.

It's been a crazy week. I've just been running all over the place. I figured that I've spent 15 hours in my house since Sunday afternoon, including sleeping. Granted, I've slept at the bf's house, but still. Tonight will be at my place. One thing nice though. The weather has been much cooler. Yay! I've had the windows open this entire week. I did get my electric bill and only $23. I don't think that included the AC last week.

Yesterday I drove down to Springfield, IL for work. I ended up renting a car. I've figured that I make out better renting a car and buying gas than if I were to take my own car down. My mom went down with me too, and we went to the new Lincoln Museum. That was really neat. It was well worth the $7.50 a person. It was nice to have company for the 6 hours of driving.

Greek classes are going good. I'm learning tons. I ended up taking 2 for about 5 weeks and then 1 for 5 more weeks. Speaking of which, I need to register.

Oh and I did some shopping too. I bought a new blender, 3 work shirts, and a pair of shoes. I got some really good deals on them too. That's been the extents of my shopping. Oh I take that back. I'm heading up to Milwaukee tomorrow. My friend wanted me to go with for a hair cut. So that total price tag will include, lunch, haircut, and maybe a festival. I'm not totally sure on the details yet. Overall it's been an expensive week, since I don't do that much shopping anymore.

I did get reimbursed from my last trip to Springfield though. A nice $160 check. I will be getting another check in 2 weeks for about $180 (from the trip yesterday).

Well I broke down and turned on the AC this morning. It's suppose to be another hot 90 degree day. I figured since I"ll actually be home tonight, that I should turn it on this morning.

Not just getting ready for the high electric bills.

This is great. I just went on a business trip yesterday and drove about 400 miles. Well my company is still stuck in year 2001 and paying $.325/mile. Well since then it's gone up 3 times. 2002 = 36.5, 2003 = 37.5, 2005 = 40.5. Granted it's optional and recommended, but still. Yeah, so at 400 miles that's over $30 to be reimbursed. Well since we're in Chicago, most people take cabs or don't drive less than 10 miles (wahoo that's a whopping 80 cents) Sooooo, I brought up the question to account about 2 weeks ago, and I finally heard back today. The software won't handle it, but I can write in the extra miles +100. This will be so nice to get an extra $30-40.

So since my BF is off his dieting and into the junk food thing for a while, we went out and ate.

First stop: Home for some peanut butter toffee with more peanut butter on top. (His idea)
Second stop: White Castle. We had the coupon for 2 free burgers (Thank you savingadvice.com) Then we split a meal. $6.67 for both of us.
Third stop: It was suppose to be for a funnel cake sunday but they were closed, so it became Culvers. That came out to $4.25 for both.

It's our new resolution to eat at places using all kinds of coupons, and only hit the non-coupon places once in a while. So far so good.

OOoh it was a long weekend. My boyfriend had body building contest in Peoria - about 2 hours away. So we drove down Friday and stayed all day Saturday and left Sunday. It was a long time. But some great news!!! He placed first out of 14 novice. He got a nice trophy. Then he did the lightweights and he came in second!!! Another trophy!!! I'm so proud. He worked his butt off, not to mention his arms, chest, back, abs, and legs. He was one of the best looking people out there for sure. His mother and sister came in for the morning show, so I had some company. It was just so exciting to see him. I hope he never does it again. I'm pretty sure he will not. It was too much of a pain dieting and focus. He just wanted to be able to say, I did that and I got a trophy...in his case TWO!!! Now he can focus to other things. That also means that we can go out to eat again. It was by no means cheaper eating in, when all he was eating was salmon and chicken breasts. Besides we have some great buy one get one coupons we've been saving for when he got done.

Total spending on my end for his trip: $20 I bought dinner. Otherwise, he paid for the hotels and brought food. He said he owed that to me for putting up with his show. Isn't that sweet?

Then Sunday we drove back to his house and then into Chicago. He had tickets to the Cubs vs. White Sox game. He dropped me off a friend's house. We walked all over the North side of Chicago. Well maybe only a mile or so. I did buy lunch and a drink $10. We did some shopping, but nothing looked interesting to me. Probably a good thing. We walked to Wrigley and then I got a ride home. Cubs 4 White Sox 3.

I finally got my bridesmaid dress sent in for alterations. My measurements were perfect for the size, I just really needed the straps attaced and something done about the very pointy bossom area. Apparently the boning won't flex. It took me over an hour to get it done, I was so frustrated. But I think it will look great. I'm having some nice rounding-out pieces added. The total cost: $56. Not to bad I guess. I ended up going to a department store. I know I could have gotten it cheaper, but I know I got better service, especially with the add ins.

I also bought a light jacket. This should last me for a few years. all my clothes were in the black shade, and I finally got a few browns... So I got a tan jacket that will go with everything. I could even wear it as a light blazer.

That was about all my spending with the exception of some food. There is this awesome polish grocery store by me. They have everything and it's huge. It's so much fun to look at everything and figure out what it is. I picked up some things to sate my sweet tooth and some fruit for the other days. I also bought some packaged Polish candy for my grandma. She'll love that.

The weekend was capped about at just over $100. It's amazing how that number gets put into perspective when comparing it to my hourly salary. Good thing I'm cutting back on spending.

I'm in the mood for a wonderfully warm, dry, soothing, relaxing fabulous weekend. But I highly doubt that it will happen. It's suppose to be 50s and 60s!!!! Probably rain too. It's rained all week, so it'll probably rain all weekend too. That's going to stink.

Well no matter what happens, I need to get my bridesmaid's dress altered. I'm not quite filling up the bodice. Oh well. I'm going to try a department store. They said it'd take about a week. Not bad at all.

I can't think of much else. I need to study for a test. My problem is that I don't have a set deadline, so I'm not motivated to take it. It's been on my list of things to do for a loooooong time...hehe we'll see.

That's about it. I don't really need anything except some padded envelopes or packing material for a few more Amazon sales.

I was finishing up some maintenance last night and successfully installed a new doorbell. The old one was yellowed and painted and just ugly. So I shelled $4.26 (w/tax) for a new one. Not bad for a nice white one to go with my new patio door.

I've been really good on spending lately. I think it helps that I haven't gone grocery shopping for about 3 weeks. I do really need to go. Also, I've seen my parents a lot, and they've paid for some things. I did have pay $29+ for a tank of gas at $2.21. Granted that's the cheapest I've seen, but wow, expensive. I'm so glad I don't drive much. Other than that I believe spending is way down. I'll probably make up for it towards the end of the month. My BF and I are going to a bodybuilding show about 2 hours away. He's competing so we'll probably be down there 2 nights. The following weekend I have a bachellorette party to go to. Maybe another $100 or so.

Now for the table. Last year my neighbors bought a glass table and it lasted for a while. A storm came along and it tipped and shattered. They bought another one right away. About a week later, a second storm tipped it and it shattered. They waited a month or so (probably insurance reasons) and bought a third glass topped table. This one lasted less than a week. The winter came and went, and a new glass table showed up yesterday. This morning there was a severe storm. They left the umbrella in the table like they did all of last year too. Well needless to say, the table tipped and the glass shattered. You would have thought they would have learned after the second one. The should just spend the extra $50-$100 and get a metal or plastic or marble or wood table. Issue solved. Their plastic chairs were blowing all over the place too. My patio, which is about 5 feet away, has an old wicker chair and a small side glass table. Both were still standing when I left for work this morning.

OOoh I have some other good news. I've been selling many CDs on Amazon. It's a really good market. Well I made about 30 a few weeks ago and I should be making almost $50 when it gets deposited into my account!!! That'll be my hotel money.

I just noticed the date and I've been away for a while. It's been so busy at work. I'm so glad I get paid for overtime. Granted it's straight time, but still it's something. It seems like all the projects I've had in the last few months decided to have deadlines all in the same week. Craziness, I tell ya.

Well the weekend was fabulous! I visited with the future mother-in-law, and sis-in-law and that went well. I've known them for a quite a while, but it's always wierd. (no we're not engaged yet, but I'm 99.99% positive it's coming) I spend a piddly little amount. It was mostly packing supplies. I've been hot on selling CDs on Amazon. I made ~$31 last week. It was more like $45, without Amazon's commission. Still that's better than them sitting around in my closet collecting dust till a garage sale, where I'll maybe get a $1 each. I just put another half dozen on tonight. I had some pricey ones too, that'll be nice if they sell.

I had my parents install a screen door today for me. It will be awesome to get a cross breeze on my first floor. Then my bf and I grilled dinner for them. It turned our really good.

I spend less thatn $20 for groceries today. That should hopefully last the whole week. I didn't go grocery shopping last week, and I was in desparate need. I just didn't feel like going, and decided to clean out my pantry, and freezer some. Needless to say, there were no fresh veggies. I did pick up some lettuce and tomatoes today, so that should help. I'm getting ready for another busy week. At least I'm not buying lunch every day. Hopefully I'll have some time to surf

Bonus: I just heard they my grandpa might be giving all the grandkids some money. I have no idea how much or when or what's really going on, but that would be sooooooo nice of him if he did that. ( I hope I didn't just ruin my chances by saying that)