Well I got my dad to come and try to fix my leak. Turns out I have 2 shut off valves and that I got the right one to shut off the outside faucet and not the rest of the house. SOoo I can use everything again without fear. Bad new is, it's still broken. Something about a pipe not fitting. But my dad's going to come back and fix it for me.

Last night I was really tired, and bored and couldn't do any thing with water (or so I thought) so after working late, I headed home and stopped at McDonald's. I can't remember the last time I did that. I spend $2.05 for 2 cheeseburgers. I also noticed that gas was $2.31!!!!! Whoa what happened since the day before? It jumped over $0.15

No spend days 17/31. Not too bad for my first month of counting.

Oh I did find out that my Greek class got cancelled and I'll get my refund, but I think I'm going to try and take a different class. That stinks.

Since I've moved into my townhouse, things have been great except for the water. I've had all types of things go wrong, from clogged showers, to leaking under the sinks to today''s event. UGH!! I went to use my spigot outside and wouldn't you know it, I hear nothing, no water, nothing. So I turned it off and then back on, wahlah water, but I also hear a crack. Well being as I'm the second unit in, and I didn't unlock my patio door, I had to run around the place, to the front to unlock the patio door/ see the water gushing to turn off the spigot again. Well that stinks. I managed to get access to the pipe that burst, so that shouldn't be bad to replace, but all my carpet is soaked in one corner. Now would be a good time for pergo. Now I wiped up any excess I could get (not much really) and put two fans blowing on it to dry. Looks like I'll have a nice weekend project to do. I'll call my dad.

So any suggestions? I've turned off the water main to my house. If I turn it back on, it's not leaking out of the pipe so does that mean I can take a shower tomorrow? Anyone?

Hmm other than today, it's been busy, lots of work. From the weekend, I spent less than $200 and got quite a few outfits that should last me for all summer. The most expensive thing I bought was $30 for a pair of summer shoes and $30 for a skirt. 14/26

Sunday was better. We just went to visit my grandparents and celebrate. I did buy gas, but that was because it was cheaper by them. 14/27

Monday...hmmm I've already forgotten much about yesterday. I didn't buy anything and I worked most of the night. See the easiest way to not buy a thing. 15/28

Today... nothing so far. I may be making a trip to the hardware store later tonight.

Still busy... I just found out I have another project going out. Good.

For Kashi's sake, I'm an electrical engineer. I do building electrical design meaning I put in all the outlets, lights and make sure everything that needs power has it. I was doing the same thing at my last job, but, I believe, my last job didn't have any work because their overhead was tooooooo high.

Hmmm, my spending has been up, I needed to get more eye drops - too much staring at a computer. I did have a $3 coupon and got free qtips, hehe. I did need to buy gas too. Oh and I was so pissed I forgot my lunch too. it was sitting in the frigerator. So my new lunch consisted of $4.35 for an awesome, awesome calzone!!!! and fries. I figure that was pretty cheap for Chicago!!!! Gas was $25, not awesome.

No spending days: 14/25 I've been slipping too much lately.

This weekend is going to be expensive. We're going out for my friend's bridal shower (in town with 3 of us) we're going out to lunch and then do some spring shopping. I've already been clipping coupons out of the paper for a few stores, so it might not be too bad. Cross your fingers.

Well time to run again.

Originally I thought this week was going to be nice and laid back at work, but nooooo. It's been really good though. I haven't had to any over time, and my days are busy. It's so nice actually. My previous job didn't have any work for me for over 6 months. I was literally surfing the internet, and playing games. I even found a website to learn Greek. I'm so much happier here. My boss also talked to me yesterday and said that he and our boss wanted to take me out to lunch for doing such a good job on some reports. (I didn't really do anything special. All I did was review some other peoples work, and edit it. I also assisted in putting in some pictures and making them 'pretty') So I'm a little confusedas to why they want to take me out. Maybe it'll be something cool like a raise. Only time will tell..

Otherwise. I've paid almost all my bills for April today. Most are due at the beginning of the month anyway. I don't know if I would consider that a no spend day, but it doesn't matter. I need to get gas anyways.

Spendless days: 13/23

Well nothing like the Bangles to sum it up. Monday wasn't that bad really, I did manage to keep my spending in check. I just went grocery shopping. I spend ~$52 and that should last quite a while. There were some great sales going on. $0.87/ lb for chicken breasts. There were lots of buy 2 get 2 free. I also picked up 2 dozen eggs for $1.49! I didn't know they got that low. I even had some free beef jerkey (saved $5.99!).

I also went to the bank and cashed a rebate check!. It feels like free money, because I've already paid off the previous purchase and now I get $20.

THen today out of the train station, they were handing out free orange juice! But today will be a no spend day!!!

So that's 13/22.

Well that was a nice weekend.

Friday was the last day of my upholstery class. I gave the instructor my mom's chair to finish. I didn't want to pay another $200 to take the class and finish it myself. I know he'd do a better job, for probably the same price too. This is going to be my birthday present for her (a little late from March 15th). Then we headed out for a late dinner. We went to a burger place, and it was really good. We also had a buy one get one coupon from REd Robin, courtesy of Kimmie Thanks. No spend day: 11/18

Saturday was a bit more pricey. I tried to get my oil changed, but the wait was 3 hours. I'll wait till next weekend. Then headed over to Menards. My boyfriend picked up a tool chest for $40! It's a decent sized one too. This also means that I'm going to inherit his small one for my tools. Then in the afternoon, we headed to Panda Express for lunch. He said he was going to take me out, so he paid. Then it was off to the mall. He needed to get a filter for his refrigerator (no such luck on that end). We were mainly passing time though so we stopped a few places to get there. I'm looking for a bedroom set (no luck) but we did stop at the bakery outlet. I picked up a loaf and the good whole wheat English muffins for $2.22. Yeah, I could have paid less for white bread, but this is so much healthier and tastier.

Then on our way home, we stopped by the cheap theaters to check on the attractions. Then we had an hour to kill, so off to Borders. Yes, we splurged and ordered drinks and browsed magazines and books. I paid ~$10 Then I bought two clearance cookbooks for $7.40 Then off to the theater. I paid for that too. $14 for two, with popcorn and drink. We saw Hitch. It was hilarious and well worth it! THen it was off to dinner, and he treated me again.

So ~$33 for a day of entertainment, not bad.

Sunday was relaxing. I did my first spring cleaning. My place was getting pretty bad. So I cleaned everything. Then I went to visit my parents, my dad had an Easter performance. I managed to come back with some food, a rug and some misc stuff. I stopped by my bf's house and we cooked dinner using a recipe out of one of the new books. It was great!!! It was ground turkey stir fried and then put into a lettuce leaf. I even have left overs for today. Then I ended up finishing watching The Incredibles. I had fallen asleep about 30 min. into it on Friday. That is a funny movie. No spend day: 12/20

And now here I am on another Monday morning. Unfortuneately today will be a spend day. I need groceries. I haven't done some serious grocery shopping for over 2 weeks. We're going to cook at home again tonight.

Spendless days: 12/21

Well, I haven't eaten out in quite a while, and since there's a convenient restaurant in my building that was serving up corned beef and cabbage, I just had to go. It was good. I did spend about $15 for lunch though. Oh well, it's only once every few weeks. I've think I've gotten it down to once every 3 weeks. Usually I don't spend that much though.

Tonight I need to do some other shopping. I need to stop for some cat litter (~$8-9,clumping kind definately, generic if possible), cat food (~$2, generic), dishwashing detergent (~$2, generic) and eggs(

I just read in the paper today, that the price of coffee is going up. It wasn't much, maybe 30-50 cents, but it made the front page. It even said that the average starbucks cup could cost over $4.00 and that the average coffee drinker has 3.4 cups/day. That's $13.60 a day!!! Wow I couldn't imagine spending that every day. I bring coffee from home...so if that goes up 30 cents, I think i'll be ok.

Sunday was relaxing. I didn't do much at all. I did end up doing some work, but I didn't have to go to the office. We made some fabulouse tillapia for dinner. It was fresh from the meat market.

Sunday = no spend day = 7/13

Monday on the other hand was horrible. My project was going out, and at the last minute every trade added another electrical device. I was expecting to just work 4 hours on it, but that turned into the whole day. I was so exhausted. I even got up an hour early to get to work.

Then right after I got home, I had to head out to my condo association meeting. I'm a board member at large (I guess that's my title). I figure it's my first step to political office, if I ever go that way. So our usual meeting was over in 45 minutes, but then I found out that we had 2 complaint hearings. That was a learning experience about the they said/I said dispute. we found both guilty, but only one had a fine of $50. I hope both get resolve. They were between neighbors. People need to talk more with each other.

Monday = no spend day = 8/14 I finally beat the 50% mark.

Tuesday is going well so far. It's a bit more relaxed, but I'm still getting stuff done. It's looking like today will be another no spend day. I'm going to put together stew tonight for the crockpot tomorrow for dinner. So I'm going to predict my spending today and stick to it.

Tuesday = no spend day = 9/15

Wowo, my orchid's blooming. I always seem to never get them to do that. Specially since I moved, I haven't paid as much attention to them. Well I think one was getting very dry and figured it was on it's last life, so was going to shoot out a flower stalk. That will be a nice change from the winter.

Business wise, I've been busy. It looks like I'll have to go to the office tomorrow. Bummer, but atleast I won't be spending. Since I ddin't have any time on Friday, it was a no spend day. My mom came to see me and she paid for coffee. 5/11

My last upholstery project is almost done!!! it'll just require about 30 minutes. Just in time for class to be over with too.

I did some spending today. We ate lunch out together at Panera. I haven't been there for quite a while either. I picked up some of their fabulous bagels for breakfast for this week ($19.68). On the way back home, we stopped at a meat market store. It's now my new favorite place. I could never be a vegitarian, I love meat too much. I picked up some meat for lunches, smoked fish, spices and also beef for a stew this week. The place was so nice too, they threw in some free potatoes. Total there $14.73.

Then I stopped at Aldi's like I said i was and picked up some staples, mainly milk, bread, canned goods and fruit. $11.89

Meals for the week: 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, 4-5 dinners and snacks for just over $30. Not too bad. I must say that I will not scrimp on groceries. I'll cut coupons and shop at the cheap places, but I will not cut out the things I like or trying something new because of the price...no i don't buy $50/ounce of caviar or anything like that. I just cut out stuff that's bad for me and weeding out a lot of the processed foods.

Total no-spend days: 6/12

Winter needs to be over. We're suppose to get another 1", yucky. Not much that I can do though.

Today has been a spending spree so far...well almost. I filled up with gas. I probably could have waited, but I wanted to hit it before the weekend. The lowest that I've seen it is $1.91. Some other ones are around $2.05 Ugh. Total ~$22

The second spending trip was for coffee. Usually I make my own, but I forgot to set it up last night and I didn't remember till 10 minutes before I left. Oh well, that's twice lately. I'll definately have to cut back. Coffee $1.49

Bonus today though: Payday, direct deposited. When I did my closing on Monday, I found out I'd have to pay some extra fees unfortunately. Just the way things worked out and credited, I'll have to pay about $930 by tomorrow. So I think that'll get taken care of today.

Wednesday: No spend day

no-Spend days: 5/10

AIRFARE!!!! I feel like a Geico commercial. But I really did save that much. It just made my day.

I have been planning a trip to Helena, Montana for the past 2 years. I just never made the time to do it and tickets are expensive. My friend is finally moving, so I'm running out of time. Tickets run about $393 for the average weekend. Well I was getting pretty close to a free ticket with my UAL card, but I was going to have to buy about 4,000 miles, plus pay some fees. I figured it would cost me about $150. But then today NWA sent me their e-cert discounts and it would have cost me about $250. Then, I dug out my old mileage acount number and registered and did all that great stuff, and then I see I have 25,210 miles!!!! enough for a free ticket. YIPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!!!

I only paid $10. I am so happy!!!!!!! This is great!

So my no-spend days are at 4/8, but I don't think this one should count.

It was rainy so I didn't make my usual coffee for the train. It get's really tricky holding a mug upright, bag on the shoulder, umbrella in the other hand and then trying close the umbrella. It's not worth it. I also knew I had to go on a job site, so I splurged and bought a coffee. $1.37. I did bring a lunch, but it didn't matter. I ended up going to another job site before the other one, so I had no time to get back to the office and pick it up. So lunch on the road: $7.16

At least no-spending at night. I made it to the gym and worked out and then played video games. Ahhh the fun.

Total no-spend days: 4/7

I made it though the weekend and into the week. So far so good. It was a busy weekend, but I managed not to spend too much. I don't remember much of Saturday...no I was not drunk. I ended up just taking it easy and relaxing. I did some cleaning, but of course it's never enough. It's already a mess. Oooh I remember something now. I reupholstered my 3 bar stools. I didn't even bother taking off the old material. They look a 1000x better. We went out to eat that night to Weber Grill. Yummy!!! My bf paid for everyone, so I guess it was a cheap no-spend day for me. 3/5

Sunday was nice too. I read the paper, cut some coupons and then visited my parents. Granted I drove my car, but I didn't have to put gas in. My mom took me shopping too. I found a few cute shirts and some border wallpaper and soaps. Of course this was all on sale and I think our total bill came out to $45 for 6 shirts, 1 pants, soap, lotion, and scrubs. Thanks Mom! Then we headed back to her house and she made dinner and I got to take some leftovers home. Nothing like a home cooked meal for a few days for free. That's another no-spned day: 4/6.

Here' my update on Friday.

Lunch: $6.75 cab ride, ~14 for lunch, $7 for cab ride back.

I exchanged my basket and packed it up. It turned out cute.

Upholstery class was good. I almost finished another chair. It should only be another hour or so to finish it up. I made a few mistakes, but the it was along the back and I was planning on puting it in a corner anyways.

Dinner was great. We hadn't been out for a while and met up with some friends. It was ~$25

Ugh, no more shopping, no more eating out (but it was good).

I was suppose to go to Michigan tomorrow, but I don't know if I will. I'd probably be driving over 3 hours one way. That's assuming I don't hit traffic...and I'd be diving alone. hmmm. I think i'm going to call and cancel tomorrow.

No spend days in March: 2/4

is not to spend it. Easiest way not to spend, always be busy. It's been nuts for me the last few days and this weekend will be too. Hmmm I don't even have time for details.

Wednesday was a no-spend day. It was suppose to be but I didn't have time. My daily train ride home had a dispatcher strike at 4:30pm and all trains were canceled in and out. So a bunch of us got a company car and drove home. It was too late to go bridal shower shopping.

Thursday was a spend day. I bought the dreaded Girl Scout cookies, $3.50, and ate about half in one sitting. Then I had to go to a site visit for work and that went through lunch, so I bought: $7.16 (expense I'm not use to). THen I did my outlet shopping and picked up enough to make a gift basket for martinis. I ended up spending ~$85 there ($5 was for me) and ~$20 at Target. But the gift is almost done. I need to get a larger basket (same price as the other one though.

Today I will be spending. Lunch with a friend, and a half day of work. Then after work, and upholstery class, is out to dinner for my BF's birthday. He does have a 2-1 coupon though.

Tomorrow will be long and gaseous. I'm driving to Michigan tomorrow on the dreaded 80/94...meaning stuck in traffic for hours. There's really no other way around it. Literally no other way around the lake that wouldn't involve 3 days. This is for the bridal shower, and then driving back. I'm hoping to time it for better traffic though. So that'll be atleast 1 1/2 tanks. Then we may be going out to celebrate his birthday with friends.

Sunday, you ask, how could the spending get worse? Actually I don't think I'll be doing anything. Groceries would be the expense if any. I'm going to sit on my butt and probably do some work for work. I have a 20,000 sq ft building to design in a week. So another busy week next week, so by the time I get home, the stores won't be open.

I avoided temptation twice today. One thing I'm just putting off, and the other is gone. I had the opportunity to buy girl scout cookies. Oh I love the caramelm chocolate, coconut ones...and there were 3 boxes ready to be bought. I even had money with me and was so tempted. BUT I WON. no cookies for me. I'm still dreaming of them.

Now the second episode: I have a bridal shower to go to Saturday, and I haven't picked anything up yet. I'm still getting ideas, so if anyone has any suggestions I'm open. The few ideas I got were for some sort of alcohol gift, like a margarita gift. Well there happens to be a Crate and Barrel Outlet right by me and it's a real outlet with real low prices. It's great. Anyways, I was going to stop there sometime this week and look for something. BUT I DROVE RIGHT BY. I'll spend $ tomorrow or Thursday. I figure if I can start the month off with no spending, it can only improve, right?

I did buy some groceries yesterday, but that doesn't count towards March.

Spendless days in March: 1/1