November 7, 2009 at 3:06 pm (Family, Life in General)
Tags: Grandma
So yet again the Angel of Death has visited my family. This time he took my Grandma, my mom’s mom. I must say I’m handling this way better then I did my dad. A few tears this morning when I was telling my friend that she had passed. She died of natural causes. We think she knew the end was coming, she had recently been talking about grave plots and insurance things these last few months.
We also think she was sicker than she was letting on and that she just didn’t want to tell anyone to burden them. We’ll never know for sure. The funeral is going to be sometime next week.
Now I’ve got two guardian angels looking after me.
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November 6, 2009 at 1:13 pm (Life in General)
Tags: Alvin and the Chipmunks, Netflix, Psych, Sketchers, Space Chimps, Tennis Shoes
Those two things have nothing in common other than me. XD
So I’ve been thinking about getting Netflix for the last couple of months. My dad had it and it seemed like a pretty good turn around. I mean everytime I turned around he was getting new movies. My mom continued the service and she was telling me that I should get it cause she thought I would like it. I decided to go with the two week free trail. I do like the fact that they have a lot of videos to choose from. I signed up for it on Tuesday and I got my first shipment on Wednesday, that’s a good turn around. I got the first disc of season 3 of Psych, Space Chimps, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Alvin and the Chipmunks was okay, I’ll probably never ever watch again and I’m glad I didn’t buy it. Space Chimps was very funny and I watched that twice before I sent it back. In fact whenever I find that for less than $10 I’m so going to buy it. Disc 1 of Season 3 of Psych was as funny as I thought it would be and put so much in perspective for season 4. Once it’s for under $30 it’s on my list to buy. Right now Target has it for $40 and Walmart doesn’t haven’t it at all. Online it’s going for $45…on E-bay it’s going for $50. Overall I’m liking the service and for unlimited video exchange it only cost $20/month. I think I can swing that.
As far as tennis shoes goes I need some I’ve been trying to buy since this summer. The thing is I need serious shoes, not for fashion shoes. I have plenty of those. But I need some that are meant for cross-training. One’s I can wear when I go walking or strength training. Those cost some money. So I’ve been looking and waiting for a good sale to come around. I’m going to get look this weekend. Hopefully I’ll get some this time around.
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November 5, 2009 at 6:56 pm (Life in General, Money)
Tags: Grocery Shopping, Harris Teeter Triple, Target
My shopping trip from Harris Teeter Triples…
All right, here we go, I must state that I did not go into the store with any preplanned list. I had no concrete idea of what I was going to get. I know I said I was going to do a list but I gave up I just didn’t want to go through all that sitting up there on those hard chairs. I figured since my coupons were all nicely organized I could just thumb through them in store and if something was on sale that I wanted/needed I could decided if I wanted to buy it.
For those of you who don’t know Harris Teeter triples all coupons up to .99, so if something is .75 (I’ve never seen one for .99- if it’s a $1 or more it doesn’t triple or double) it will triple to $2.25. That’s a good thing. However there is a limit to 20 coupons used in one transaction, and if I’m not mistaken in one day…it’s linked to your VIC card…if don’t have one go get one now!
Okay so first thing first my receipt was over a foot long. I got some things for free, a lot of things for under $1 and the rest on some good sales. I only had a few rules, only get things that was on sale and I had a coupon for and if it wasn’t on sale I had to have a coupon that made it close to free as possible if not free at all. For instance Bird’s Eye frozen vegetables were not on sale, it was $2.69 and I got for .44. I got it because it’s the Asian Medley…that would be perfect for when I try the fried rice again.
Here’s are some things that I’m really excited about:
- Airwick’s compact I-motion starter kit, originally for $10.99 on sale for $7.99 I had a $4 off coupon, got it for $3.99. I’ve been wanting to try this for a while, since I don’t like air freshener sprays.
- Bounce Dryer Bar (2 months) originally for $4.99, on sale for 3.99. I had a .50 off coupon, tripled for $1.50, got it for $2.49. (Not an awesome deal but it made it worth my while to try a new product.)
- Scrubbing Bubbles Foam Shower Cleaner, originally $3.49, on sale for $2.50. I had a .75 off, tripled to $2.25. Got it for .25.
- I got two Oral B toothbrushes for free ^_^
- Prilosec OTC 14 day originally $11.49 on sale for $9.99, I had a $3 off coupon, got it for $7.99. Again not an awesome deal, but my mom just got prescribed to take these by her doctor. But since they are over the counter, her insurance doesn’t cover them, they way to expensive…$12 for a 14 day supply…really? I’m glad I was able to grab these for her. That’s $12 she can save. And I’m out $8.
In total I spent $31.94 and save a whopping $49.01. Just under $50. I paid just over $30 for $80 worth of food. That’s super awesome in my eyes.
Then I had to go to Target to get some Clorox Toilet Bowel Cleaner Wand Pads Refills, I was down to my last one after cleaning my bathroom today. Harris Teeter had them for sale $3.99 for a 6pk. Well I didn’t have a coupon and my friend said I would be able to get them cheaper at Target. So went there and guess what they weren’t cheaper. Well not really, the thing was their 6pk and their 10pk for some odd reason were the same price $4.10. Of course I got the 10pk, in theory it’s a better price to get the extra 4 pads for just .11 more.
So that was this week’s shopping, for dinner I cooked “Chicken” and Broccoli Alfredo. It turned out all right but the noodles could have been cooked just a bit longer and the fake chicken just tastes funny no matter what I stick it in. *Sigh* Now I’m going to bed.
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November 5, 2009 at 2:56 pm (Family, Fiction Writing, Life in General, Money, Personal Finances, School)
Tags: Grocery Shopping, Internets, MorningStar Farms, NaNoWriMo 2009, Ren Faire, School Project
I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people who can write in a blog/journal every single day. I just don’t think my life is ever going to be that interesting. So anyway, I did start the NaNo story and promptly fell behind. But that’s okay I’m going to catch up one day…like soon. I promise. It’s just so many things distracting me. And I didn’t plan and so now I’m winging it and that’s not an excuse it’s just facts. I haven’t written in so long that I’m out of practice. So I’m not focusing on getting to 50,000 or even 25,000, I’m just focusing on writing a story. I think the basis of my story is awesome. Granted because I’ve been so wrapped up in Halloween the past month that it’s going to have a tinged of dark side in there. But it’s going to be an awesome story even if it kills me…which it probably will because as of now the plot stinks like no body’s business.
In other news I’m breaking down and going to pay for internet. I know shocking, but since last weekend my hacked connection has been very weak. And I don’t like that, not at all. I live off the internet.
I got an A on my fun project…she was really impressed with my knowledge of cartoons and creating websites. Go me. I’ve got some serious papers due this month, another reason why I need the internet, it’s not convenient to come up to the wireless cafe (these seats hurt my bottom) or ride up to campus. I don’t want to be there all day and then I don’t want to ride the with my friend back…her car is still not cleaned out. Plus her husband always wants to ride there and he doesn’t understand the fact that I’m not there to keep him company. It still wouldn’t be worth having a car over either.
So my mom and brother did come last weekend but we didn’t make it to the Faire, I felt like crap the next morning and then it was rainy and muggy and just plain gross. So we opted not to go. Instead we went out to Cracker Barrell, I hadn’t been there in years, in fact I’ve only been there once and I didn’t like it. But they love it so we went and it was a lot better this time. Still can’t eat a full serving of pancakes anymore but the syrup was so good. We then we shopping, so I could find a winter/fall coat…then I realize I don’t wear coats. So I got a hoodie from the man’s department in Target. It’s so comfy.
I tried one of those new recipes I found on MorningStar Farms site, and it was pretty good. I’m going grocery shopping again today because Harris Teeter is have triple coupon. I hope my friend’s husband has to work…I don’t like going shopping with him. He’s like a spoiled five year old who keeps asking are we done and throws a fit if he can’t get something special. I’m still trying to see what she saw in him other than a chance to have a kid without birthing the sucker. Oh well. Laters!
B.J.
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October 31, 2009 at 2:38 pm (Life in General, Money)
Tags: Grocery Shopping
I forgot to write a post about my grocery-shopping trip last week. So I’m going to write and post this as if I had written it last week.
Before I went to the store I stopped and got $40 dollars out of the bank. I had hoped only to spend that much at the store total. I originally only planned on going to Harris Teeter. The on down the street from my house, so you do know neither one of those things happened right?
Okay so we did go to the Harris Teeter, and the problem was that there just weren’t a lot of things on sale in general. Nothing that I needed rather was on sale. I still have a problem of compulsive spending, i.e. two 12pack soda. Granted I spent $2.50 on each. There were too many things I bought that weren’t on sale, but I tried to get things that I had coupons for. In total I spent $35.52, and I saved $17.81.
Why go to the other store? Well, I didn’t get any of my staples, because in general Harris Teeter’s staple prices are very expensive, compared to Lowe’s Food. So we went to Lowe’s Food. I spent way more here, not that many things I had coupons for. For instance like the Pamprin that I needed to get or else I would die from pain. However there were a number of things that were on sale. For instance the Morning Star Farms items were 3 for $9.99 like I said. Although Harris Teeter did have some of the items on sale and for .33 cheaper, but not all of those were the ones I wanted to get. In total I spent $62.80, yeah I know I so didn’t want to spend that much but I needed a lot of things since I was almost out. I saved $20.07 most of that was rewards savings. I hate that they’ve changed their rewards system. Although I never actually cashed in any green points, I wanted to save them for a rainy day. Now I have to wait till I get $5 in rewards before I get a $5 print out. I’m at $1.22. I’m still not sure how the system works; to me it doesn’t seem worth it.
In total I spent $98.32 and saved $32.88. But I now have way too much soda in my fridge, the two 12pks and a 6pk (it was on sale at Lowe’s for $1.35- it was on sale and then there was a coupon on the item itself.)
B.J.
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October 30, 2009 at 2:19 pm (Life in General, Personal Finances)
Tags: Printer, vegetarianism, Dietician
Has anyone seen that movie being played this year on tv? I haven’t, and I’ve been waiting for it. I had to go the clubhouse and check it out cause I wanted to watch it so badly.
Okay so I ended up getting the new printer, I asked enough people who believed it was time to recycle that printer and the price for the new one was a good price. It took a while to get it to set up properly.
At any rate as you know I went vegetarian back in the summer. Well I kind of didn’t do it right, well right in the way that most doctors think you should do it. By slowly eliminating meat from your diet over a period of months. I just stop eating meat altogether in one day. But I have to confess I was craving meat for weeks now. And I hadn’t been feeling so good since then, headache and lethargic and a little dizzy every now and then. It felt like when I’m low on iron.Which I probably was because I hadn’t been taking any supplements. Well yesterday I had to give in. At first I tried to fight it cause I was sure people would say see I knew you couldn’t handle it. But then I was like well I don’t care, and no one was really like that. Very supportive. I ended up going to Wendy’s and getting a small cheeseburger. I had no adverse affects and to tell you the truth my soul was happy afterwards.
I’m not giving up on the vegetarian deal, I just don’t know what to do now. I mean maybe I’m one of those weird people who need to have some kind of meat every now and then. I really need to go and talk to a dietician, maybe I’ll do it some time in November. I did email the one on campus today to see if I can set up an appointment. But I would have to pay the health fee and I think its like $120. That’s a lot of money, if I can make it till January hopefully I’ll get a refund. Well I need to figure out what I’m going to buy for groceries this week. Laters!
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October 29, 2009 at 3:51 pm (Life in General, Money)
Tags: Printer, Camera
I hate when I have to replace things.
For instance I have that awesome all in one printer I got a couple of years ago at the university dorm sale thing, you know where everything left in the dorm rooms is put into this huge room and they sale for .50 cents. At first it didn’t work completely with my IBM, then I got shiba-chan and it worked perfectly. But then Shiba left, so I had a printer but no computer. Well I’ve got Mac Kegor, guess what the scanner no longer works with Snow Leopard. There’s no drivers for it and doesn’t seem like there will be one created. They aren’t even selling that model anymore, or even the model line. In theory I could just suck it up and not have a scanner, but that’s part of getting an all in one to begin with. But that’s not the only problem, the ink for this model is pricey. For the combo pack, it’s $60. For the individual color it’s $25-$40 (various one’s work in the printer) the black on is $25. So I’m looking at $50 to $80 on just ink. And the ink doesn’t last long…last than 200 pages.
I’m thinking I could get another printer for that much. In fact Target has a all in one HP printer for $40 this week. For what I’ve been able to find say’s it’s compatible with Mac. No one has said otherwise. The inks are cheaper, the combo is $35, color-$20, black is $15. But the same problem could happen, what if the scanner doesn’t work with snow leopard. It is a new model so a driver might be developed.
So what do I do? I can’t see me affording $60 on ink, I would have to start a separate savings plan just for ink. But should I chuck the old printer and get a new one? GAH! I need a printer, I don’t want to down grade. I do use the scanner and copier functions a lot.
I asked Jen, she was like well could you use the printer without the scanner and just a black ink printer at that? My sister says if I can budget to get the printer than go for it. S.B. says to get the new printer. What do you guys say?
Same thing for my camera, the replacement charger is $40-50…would it be better to get a new camera? The one I got…it was free.
Replacing sucks why can’t things last for ever?
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October 28, 2009 at 10:06 pm (Life in General, Personal Finances)
Tags: Impulse buying, Piggy Bank, Target
Okay so yeah I know I did this whole post about how I was going to basically tighten my purse strings and what do I do…go and spend money. I know I know…so what I spend?
Well, I didn’t want to cook tonight and I had said once I get some money the first thing I’m going to go do was go to the vegetarian restaurant I so love. And I did, my meal was about 10.50, but I also paid for my friends. It ended up being $20 with tip. Okay that’s not bad…right? Wait there’s more.
Afterwards my friend needed to go and get her allergy shot. Well there’s this Target that I love out there, it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere and not many people go out there. It’s always clean and usually has more things and in stock better than the other Target near the Walmart. Anyways I went in there to hang out while my friend when and got her shot. I wasn’t looking to buy anything. Really, I wasn’t. Walking around and I see the piggy bank I’ve been lusting after still sitting on the shelf.
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October 28, 2009 at 2:33 pm (Income, Money)
Tags: Budgeting, Cooking, Coupons, Grocery Shopping
Oh yeah, I just checked my account and I just got paid! I was down to my very last $6. Let me tell you how happy I am to have some money up in there. Woot! I applied for another savings account to be added on to my other account that way I can keep my money separate from my savings. I went ahead and moved $100 into my savings account for November.
I’m going to wait until Friday to actually go grocery shopping so I have time to make a list and give me time to finish eating the stuff I have in the freezer. Plus I’m gonna try to create a meal plan. A lot of days I eat late or don’t eat all cause I don’t know what to cook. I think my eating out is going to have to be switched from once a week to twice a month. I’ll just have to make sure I cook enough on Sunday nights so that I can eat the rest on Monday. I’m also going to have to stop feeding my friend. Every time she comes over I feel like I have to feed her…and well I can’t afford to do that. It’s not like she doesn’t have a job or anything, she makes more than I do…but she also has to pay for a lot cause her husband sucks and wont go get a job that pays him more.
I want to cut down on my grocery shopping. Why? Well I would still like more money to do stuff with. You know like buy make-up, or other luxury items. I’m a girl after all. I don’t want to deprive myself of things or else I won’t want to keep to this budget living. I looked on the USDA website, according to them the average amount spent on food for a female my age in a household of 1 in a thrifty budget is $147.70, low cost budget is $185.80, and a moderate cost budget is $229.40 a month. That breaks down to about $36, $46, and $57 (respectively) a week. I’m currently average at $40. I think if I try really hard I can get down to $36. This means actually cooking, not buying a lot of frozen pre-made food. My baked spaghetti I’ve been creating from scratch is better than the stouffer’s lasagna, and a lot cheaper.
The Stouffer’s lasagna the larger individual size one (come on the smaller ones are like a snack not a meal) are on sale for $2.50, regular they cost $3.32 at Lowe’s, that’s .23/oz. I buy some spaghetti sauce at $2.19 (.08/oz), some noodles at $1.51 (.09/oz), and a bag of shredded 6 Italian Cheeses at $2.54 (.32/oz) costs me $6.24 (.39/oz). Yeah it looks like the pre-made is cheaper but all that gives me six servings, that’s about three dinners and lunches at $1.04 each. The family size lasagna (if I can ever find one that’s vegetarian and not the vegetable one) cost $8.10, that’s $1.35 a meal. That’s not even accounting coupons I might have for these things, usually the coupons for the Stouffer’s involves buying three or more.
Ughhh…I started this post earlier and had to abandon it for several hours I have no idea where I was going with this so I’m going to go ahead and end it. I’ve got another post to write right after this one.
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October 27, 2009 at 10:52 am (Income, Personal Finances, School)
Tags: Cooking, Financial Aid, LIS 600
Yeah that’s right I said…for some random reason I had a $15 balance on my account that caused it to take that money out of my stipend money. $15 dollars might not seem a lot but when you are on a tight budget that’s a lot of money to be throwing away. Of course I call the financial aid people because I want to know where this $15 came from and why no one bothered to let me know about this. Well the lady talks to me like I’m three so I’m not liking her already. Turns out because of the stipend money being added to my account I was over my cost attendance by $15 so they had to send that money back.
Back? Back where and to who? Don’t I get a say in this? Why wasn’t that accounted for at the beginning of the semester. I would have rather done without the $15 then, not now. I don’t understand…they knew how much the stipend in total would be so why act surprise now? Gah those people irritate me on the deepest level. They always say fin. aid is there to make things easier but you have to do business with the devil it seems like to get anything done. I was talking to some of the other scholars, and I told them everything that deals with fin. aid is in theory because they flip flop and do shady things all the time. You never really know what’s going on even when you think you do.
So now I’m out $15 dollars…which only breaks down to $5 less for the next three months. But you know I could have done something with those $5, that could have been a meal out. I haven’t eaten out in a couple of weeks. I miss the vegetarian fried rice…I tried to make it at home…yeah it turned out tasting like beef stew…I’m not sure how that happened. It was tasty beef stew but not fried rice. I’ve already planned it the day I get paid I’m going to Boba House. Home cooking for one is no fun.
In other news I’ve figured what I’m going to do for that major research project I’ve got due in November. I’m going to look at reluctant readers, in specific males aged 13-16. I plan on doing some covert observations for a week then actual covert interviews…and yes there will be some disguises and spy music happening. I told my friend I was going to recruit the many extra groundhogs that have shown up in Greensboro this year to wear mini cams and run around the library. It’s gonna be great XD.
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