It's been so long since I wrote in my journal!
Argh!
News:
I have someone coming over this weekened to buy my bass guitar. That should bring in $200!
We bought a digital camera. We'll use it in our business - so it can be written off. I'm also thinking of selling some things on ebay, for which we can use this camera.
My husband got a temp job! We just needed something well paying for the spring. It pays well, but it will mess my commute up as he currently picks me up and drops me off at the train.
I figured out from the bonus I'm expecting in April, that I can pay off one of my student loans and buy a used car. Then we'll have 2 cars for two people.

Also this weekend, I spent a few hours on my wardrobe. I keep a large box in my main closet of items that need either handwashing or mending. Since it's been so dry in my house, clothes have been drying in a snap. I handwashed 4 sweaters and two tops.
I also sewed up some holes in 3 tops so that I can continue wearing them. I won't feel like I have nothing to wear anymore! (hopefully)

We also installed our new dishwasher. It was so simple, only took 15 minutes. Since we have a new, larger car we saved on delivery costs and installation! We saved $335, which is half the cost of the dishwasher itself. Oh, happy days ahead...

We bought a new dishwasher last weekend, which was supposed to be in yesterday. We called to see if it was in, and they said yes, it had arrived the day before.
So we drove all the way to the store to be told that no, it's not here. "It's at a different warehouse and you can get it yourself tomorrow - we'll reimburse you for the mileage."

We didn't really have a choice, so we agreed to it. It's only 3 miles past the store we went to. They gave us $50 for our inconvenience and mileage!
Wahoo! Finances are such a rollercoaster. Sometimes you're up, and sometimes you're down.

I came up with a new idea recently, of how to use the leftover pasta sauce we usually have.
I bought a bulk bag of yummy meatballs at BJs. I defrosted a few hot dogs buns, and reheated the sauce with the meatballs in it. Voila, meatball subs with plenty of sauce! I'm going to make it a habit to have the subs the next day for lunch whenever we make pasta, which by itself is a frugal meal.

It certainly pays to think ahead.

There is a lot of turnover in my office. Everytime one of my friends leave, we do a goodbye lunch, or dinner and drinks out. Today it was coffee and cookies, but she's not leaving until Friday. I can forsee going out for drinks on Friday.
I don't want to be a brat, but all of these goodbyes add up! We usually chip in and pay for the person leaving, so its even more than I'm receiving.

I'll have to add this into my budget! Wowza.

Also, in grocery land...
When I couldn't find a scratch and dent store nearby, I started looking under different names. I found a coop of retail grocers who have a warehouse open to the public.
It was a bit of a drive, but sooo worth it! This place was great. It catered to business as well as small families. You could buy 50 pounds of olives, or just a 10 oz jar of olives: i.e. products in all sizes.
I stocked up on marshmallows. They are never on sale at the grocery store, although they advertise the regular price once in awhile in their flyer. It pisses me off when the advertise the regular price as being on sale, so I haven't bought marshmallows in years.
Rice krispy treats, wahoo!

We've made some major purchases in the last week. First, we bought a brand new car. Second, a brand new dishwasher with Christmas/housewarming present that we received two years late...Third, two new cell phones.
I know this all sounds extravagant but we got really good deals on everything and we needed the car and cell phones for my husband's new business.

By paying the same monthly amount, we've increased our cellphone minutes by 400 and can now talk to each other for free, which is the majority of our calls. We switched our main phone line to metered, so its only $16 a month new versus the $45 we had been paying. We also canceled dial up and switched to business DSL as we'd have to pay for each minute online and tie up the business line. We had to upgrade to new phones but are receiving $150 in rebates and I negotiated the chargers to be half price.

We drove across half the state to find a damaged dishwasher at the Sears outlet store. They only had 5 dishwashers! I couldn't believe it, they had at least 200 fridges, so we left emptyhanded - they had no stainless steel. We ended up getting a new dishwasher from sears which will come on Thursday. Now that we have a bigger car we can pick it up ourselves and save on the delivery/install charge.

I've decided to sell a few of my things. It's not that we're so hard up that we need the money to eat - it's just that I want a particular student loan with an outrageous interest rate to be paid off. It's such a thorn in my side.
AND - I don't use the items anymore so they're just taking up space.
I intend to sell:
my amp
Fender bass guitar, in awesome condition
about 30 books

I'm also giving away my old entertainment center on freecycle. This will free up our 'junk room', or the third bedroom we don't use. I plan on adding a large desk from a piece of finished wood we already have, to sew on and also as a second desk. I do freelance writing on the side, so it will motivate me to write more if I have a specified place to write.

I was sooo bummed out when I couldn't get any turkeys on (a good) sale after Thanksgiving. We bought 1 last year for super cheap, and enjoyed staying indoors having a nice turkey dinner in a snowstorm.

When I went to the grocery store two nights ago though, I saw them on sale for 49 cents a pound! for as long as they lasted, that is. So, I picked two of them up for a total of $10.
We have one in the fridge and the other in the freezer now.

Patience is a virtue

Frozen fish is 50% off this week. I had a 40 cent off coupon (which was doubled), which in addition to the half off sale meant I got a package for 65 cents. When I cooked some up last night, I found another 40 cent coupon inside!
I'm going to open all of that brand's packages I have tonight, and then buy more packages this week for a double whammy!
We usually don't have fish because it's too expensive, so this will help round out our diet, and it's just as cheap as eating an all-veggie meal.

You gotta love the sale/coupon combo.

I usually make a large Sunday meal because I actually have time to, on Sundays.
Yesterday, it hit me that I could spend just a bit longer in the kitchen but make many things at once. This would save me time, energy since the stove wouldn't need to preheat on other days, and aggravation in the middle of the week when I'm too tired to cook.
By planning it out, I made:
banana bread
foccacia from scratch
Pasta e fagioli soup

It only took me 2 hours too! (the foccacia had to rise for 1 hour)
Now that my husband is home, he'll more likely munch on these instead of eating pre-made, processed food.

I bought a brand new car this weekend.
And it was frugal!
Unfortunately we had to finance it, but we got a GREAT rate. That's the only reason I went new, was to get the great rate. The hubby got a new very part-time job last week, which will more than cover the car payment.

I successfully negotiated $500 off, and caught an error of $1400 (that we would have had to pay) by double checking the figures. They did their math wrong THREE times! You just can't trust these guys.
We bought a great security system which will pay for itself in the long run since we'll get a 35% discount on our insurance. It's a peace of mind issue, and it's a recovery system so we wouldn't completely lose the car if it was stolen.

We're picking it up tonight!! So exciting...

I already had the day off yesterday, but everyone else had to stay home due to a snowstorm. No school!

We made a yummy breakfast of coffee, OJ, scrambled eggs and sausages and hash browns that both were buy one get one free.
I had a can of tomato soup for lunch that was dented, so I only paid 60 cents.
I made shepard's pie for dinner, which we always have leftovers for lunch - it's already in the fridge here at work! The ground beef for that was on sale about a week ago, which I had frozen.

My hubby got a little job today to help pay for a new car we need for the business he just started. There isn't a huge committment, so it works out great.

I went out for lunch with friends today. I feel really guilty, especially since my husband went out too (but with some of my family). Side note - the fire alarm went off in the middle of it - I've never had that happen before!

The electrician did all his work in the kitchen yesterday. At $60 an hour it sounds like a lot of money, but he's so worth it. He always installs fixtures and appliances for us when he doesn't have to and has great ideas. What a pal.

Also...one very important cabinet we added was a large pantry. I was able to move up all of the food we bought in bulk that was in our cellar, into this pantry. We have tons of crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and coffee that I bought on great sales.

It will be easier to make meals this way.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've had time to visit my journal here. It's been really crazy.
I have an unexpected house guest right now, which is tough for the wallet. She loves to shop and is always in debt, so she's hard to please. I know she was expecting to go out for dinner last night, but oh well. We had pasta and homemade cake, and it was good.
BTW, I got cake mix for 60 cents in the dented cart at my grocery store. Everytime I go to that store, they have dented cans of the tomato soup I like, so I always get 2 for 45 cents each. I add leftover rice and its a meal for 2 for 90 cents!

We're in the midst of renovating our kitchen right now. We painted the vinyl floor instead of replacing it, and it looks great. We didn't have any upper cabinets, so we added several. The electrician comes today to wire in a disposal and range hood. We'll buy a new stove and dishwasher next week. My mom gave me a late housewarming present of CASH for the dishwasher.
It will look so nice when it's done...all stainless steel.

Also, we got a great deal on granite tile for the countertops. We had been planning to buy some granite at Home Depot - 5 square feet for $9 and change. That's a great deal. Of course, when we went to make the purchase, they were sold out.
After some investigating we found out that the granite was clearance so we had to drive an hour to find more. Apparently contractors were buying it all up since it was such a good deal.
We had to make 2 trips but it was worth it!
I'll let you know how it comes out...

I finished the scarf and donated it to the homless kids' shelter
this morning.
Finally got around to sending out the Christmas cards. I didn't have time to do it last year, and I've felt guilty ever since.
I got the cards this year for 75 cents, they are beautiful - illustrated winter scenes from New England. I love yard sales!

I made rice with that new seasoning I bought at BJs last night - and it was awesome! The rice was fluffier and felt much healthier than the storebought, and it was cheaper! Little things like rice seasoning excites me too much...

free food again today. Pasta and some cheesecake. The pasta will be tomorrow's lunch. That means I only paid for one lunch this week, which was only $1.
The game was good last night, although dinner wasn't so hot.
My husband bought 3 fleece blankets (on sale) and handed them out to homeless people. It was so nice to see their faces. It was about 18 degrees last night. Brr...

in other news, someone stole the present off of my desk at work that I was about to donate to a children's charity. It's a shelter for homeless kids and they are organizing christmas presents for everyone. I'm very bummed. Luckily, I had one more present to bring in, and I'm making a scarf that I've yet to finish up.

So many things on my to do list....

we went to BJ's for the first time this weekend. We had been getting a free membership card in the mail for months, so we decided to give it a shot since it wasn't costing us anything.

Some items actually will save us money, some I can get for cheaper when they're on sale at the grocery store. It's a good thing I remember sale prices and what we usually pay (still haven't done my grocery price book).
We spent nearly $100, but that food will last us forever.
One great item we bought is rice flavoring. I make a meal out of flavored rice and frozen veggies usually once a week, costing about $1.10. I never pay more than 99 cents for the rice.
But, with this flavoring, I only need white rice (which I always have on hand for cheap) and a tablespoon of this flavoring.

I calculated it will save me $14 per bottle. Wahoo!

We've had soooo much free food around the office lately. Whenever we have large meetings or training sessions, they have the event catered. There are usually leftovers which they put in the kitchen and will be thrown away if not eaten.
Lately, I've been scoring big and not having to heat up the can of soup I'd planned on eating. I've had four days in a row of free lunches.
Also, I won tickets to an NBA game tonight. We'll go out for dinner beforehand, to make a date out of it and celebrate the launching of my husband's new business. One could argue that my meal will be free considering what I saved on lunches, so I don't feel too guilty.

went out with the gals from work for dim sum, for lunch the other day. It was so cheap! You can't get a burger at nearby restaurants for the price we paid. We got a lot of food.
We're lucky to have a Chinatown nearby.

In other news...we're thinking about trading in our car for a mini-van. My husband needs something that can haul supplies, and still work as a family car. We have a garage and that's it: no space to park an extra vehicle so we cannot have a van and a car. Besides, I loathe vehicles so I'd rather not have my own.
My better half wants to buy a new van because you can get better interest rates.
This is something that I'll have to spend a month researching: it's a major deal.

Only two of the belts sold. One of them sold yesterday which is great because only one sold at the craft fair. It was in a corporate office, for employees only so there wasn't a big market. My friend kept them on display in her office, so that's why the second one sold.
That means, I pulled in $18, or in other words, I made my money back. I do have several left over which I'll give to friends and my sister at Christmas.

So we splurged and bought $22 worth of Christmas decorations. All of them are artificial, so they will last for years to come. We bought 2 wreaths, enough fake greenery to wrap our front porch and 5 very large bows to hang with the greenery.

The house looks beautiful now. All we need is the tree! We spent $40 on a beautiful tree last year. I'm vowing not to spend more than $20 this year

The craft fair is today. My friend is manning the table to sell my items along with several of her friends.
The trouble is, all of her friends bailed out at the last minute. And I didn't have enough time to make a ton of product to sell (belts and bags).
We're not sure if people will even come over to the table since there won't be much on it.
I'm excited - it starts in 1 hour. I hope I make a little cash for Christmas money!

I forgot to tell you. Last year, there were fabulous sales on turkeys after Thanksgiving that we bought one and made it the day we put up the tree. It snowed too: it was a great day.

So we decided to buy 2 turkeys this year. On Saturday, we ran into the store to pick up something for some impending guests, and noticed that good-sized birds were going for around $5 each! It was a great deal but we were in a hurry so we didn't get one.
We went back the next day and they were all sold out. We went to the next store, and their's weren't on sale at all. We're very bummed.

I think I'll try BJ's tonight. I need to use my 3 month free membership card with them.

I only went into one store for Christmas presents this weekend, and it was enough to turn me off of the whole shopping season. It's so crowded and people are so pushy, just to see nothing.

i did manage to buy 3 really nice presents for $15, and a stocking stuffer for my mom. I'm glad that I made a bigger dent into my shopping list.

I keep buying apples because they are still on sale, but we can't eat them all now. I chopped up 5 more apples last night and have them in the freezer right now spread out nicely on a cutting board. I'll put them in a tupperware tonight for storage. It'll be much faster when I want to make apple muffins or apple bread to not have to spend the time peeling, coring and dicing apples.
And the best part is I'll have apples all winter long at sales prices!

I have about 2 pounds more to go...I'll do one more pound tonight.

I also have to make lemon squares and banana bread tonight for Thanksgiving. We're driving out of state tomorrow, and I'll be busy on Wed. making apple pies.

Last year I remember buying so much food the week of Thanksgiving, and not because I was forced to, but because there were such great sales.

Where are all the great sales? The flyers this week were full of turkeys and hams, ok, but the rest were products they were advertising as being 'on sale' but they were the regular price! I hate it when they do that.

So, all I bought were eggs, some flour, and frozen pizzas for dinner last night. I made my own bread since we went out for a surprise brunch with visiting family.

I'm having 4 teeth pulled tomorrow, which will not be fun. At least I'll eat a lot of soup and liquids, which are cheap.

The other good part is that I'll use up $250 for this. I have way too much money in my medical reimbursement fund that I need to use up before next Friday.
I'm told that aspirin and contact lens solution bottles count, so I may be doing some stocking up to get all of my money back, or I'll have lost it.

I won't join that program again, the little percentage I may save doesn't make up for the worrying and risk of losing the money

I bought quite a few belt buckles last night, and made two belts. I hope enough belts sell to make up for my costs incurred. I figure if they don't sell I can always give them to my sister who loves these things.

I forgot the extra rice I made for dinner out on the counter all night, so I couldn't bring it in for lunch today. Grr....sometimes I don't know where my head is. So, it's soup again today.

Also, apples have been on sale since it's that time of year, so I made a triple batch of apple muffins and froze most of them.

They only need about 30 seconds in the microwave to thaw and heat up for breakfast. They're nice for taking with you out the door (as I had to do this morning).

For the rest of the apples I didn't use, I peeled and cut them up, froze them on a cookie sheet, and then put them into a tupperware for storage. The next time I need apples for a recipe, most of the work will already have been done and I paid the sale price for apples.