Today at church some friends of mine and I were talking. A mentioned that the reason she didn't pack a lunch yesterday (we did work projects all over the city, 400 volunteers and about 40 projects total) was she didn't have any food to pack. She just started a new job after her internship had been over for two weeks, plus she had to move because her lease was up, and the money was tagged for other bills that she couldn't let go any further. I said 'let me take you out shopping to just get essentials for the week'. At first she thought I was joking, then she realized I wasn't and said she was really tempted. In the end, she let me take her shopping. She just got the basics, plus a couple other things that I encouraged her to buy. Grand total, $25. Total I had left in my grocery budget before today, $37. So I didn't spend any more than I had available, and I'm pretty well stocked for this week. Plus I get paid on Friday. So shouldn't be a problem to keep any spending to $12. As we were leaving the store she commented that when she's able perhaps she can return the favor. I didn't want her to feel beholden to me, this was my gift to her not something she asked for, so I told her instead to perhaps return the favor to someone else if ever she was able and the need arose. She said 'oh like pay it forward?' and I said 'exactly!' I knew the concept just forgot the exact title.

I broke down and put gas in my car today, the second $20 that I usually end up not having to spend. But with going out to my brother's house last weekend I knew it would happen. Plus today I decided to make a couple trips to my storage until to attempt to clear it out. 86 miles later... Ugh. That's another reason to get it cleared out, then it won't be so far away! I was looking in the clear plastic bins as I was putting them in my car and thought 'why am I keeping this?' about some of them. When we first bought the bins years ago, we only put stuff in it we really wanted to keep and gave away or tossed a bunch of stuff in the process. I think it's time to do that again. However I have sooo much stuff to go through that the thought of going through the plastic bins just doesn't sit well with me. So I will wait until I've gone through all the papers I've pulled out of storage. This project is taking a lot longer than I anticipated. I look at whats left and really don't see how I'm going to find room for all that stuff. Even with selling some of it and recycling/shredding a good chunk of it. But it will get done.

I really don't mind the storage project taking longer so long as my timeshare transfer goes through! I heard back from my buyer. I had told her that they listed the dues as being due 9/1 instead of 12/1 like I'd originally mentioned, however my check to them for the dues cleared my bank two days prior to the transfer contract being drawn up. She would prefer (and I don't blame her) to have it in writing that the dues are not due until 12/1. So I'll be calling them on Monday and hopefully they can fax something to me instead of having to wait another week for paperwork. Ok I just checked the postmark, it actually only took two days to get through the mail the rest of the time was probably spent waiting for the contract to be drawn up. Anyway. If they can fax it that would be wonderful. And then I can get this party started!

Ok I think this entry has gotten too long. I could break it up but I'm lazy.

However I also wound up spending all of my grocery budget. I passed by the meat section of Safeway and noticed BOGO on ground turkey and $1.00 off some small steaks on top of the $4.00 savings already tacked on because I have a club card. There's still a few BYOB BBQs coming up so these will come in handy. I hate rushing out and buying something that day since I buy too much, it sits out too long and I can't reuse it. This way I can individually package the meat and freeze it. Pulling it out only one at a time when I need it. I also got a small roast, I'm going to see if I can come up with a crockpot recipe for it. Normaly I don't buy meat unless I have specific plans for it. But it was a good price and I can get it frozen or cooked before it expires.

I also splurged on a deli sandwich for lunch. I didn't feel like eating what I had at home. Which was silly because I have plenty of food at home.

The only thing I didn't buy was salad mix because I just didn't like their prices. I may stop by Fred Meyer's to see if they have it on sale.

All told I spent $25.82 and saved $13.93 The other stuff that added to my list was I realized I needed to bring a side to the BBQ on Tuesday and decided to make my carmel apple salad again. I have enough apples at home for a second, just didn't have the rest of the ingredients (whipped topping, crushed pineapple, butterscotch pudding mix).

We went to the brewfest. It was way too crowded for my tastes. I'm not much of a beer drinker, not to mention I'm supposed to 'avoid' it per my doctors orders. But I had sips of my friends' tastes. (You buy tokens for beer, $1 per token. 1 token gets you a taste (1/3 of the mug) and 4 tokens gets you a full mug.) The best I thought was the Ned Flanders something or other. A close second was the Watermelon Wheat. The rest, too icky for me. I did cave in and buy an Elephant Ear though, $4.

Went for pizza afterwards and my friend paid but didn't say whether or not I should pay her back. It was just a slice anyway. Since I see her often I'll just treat her next time.

Today is the big church BBQ & Baptism out at a local park along the river. It's supposed to rain though so I'm going to call my friend that's in charge of a bunch of stuff and make sure it's still on. It costs $3 to park per car so I'll definately be spending that today if I do go.

What's leftover in the grocery budget is roughly $2. But gas budget still has $20 so I may borrow from that, or borrow from the dollar jar, to get salad mix to get me through the week.

As planned I only spent the $3 for the movie last night. Though by the end of the movie I was wishing I'd opted for pizza as well since I was HUNGRY. But it was midnight at that point and just went home.

I pulled the cash out of my dollar jar, easier to pay with cash instead of debit, and I just marked the set aside amount in my Quicken register as being less by $3. (Instead of the Envelope system I enter things I set money aside for in Quicken with a date set just far enough ahead to when I expect to pay it, keeps things seperate and gives me a total of what's left over).

The item I put in a make offer on eBay expired before they replied to my offer. I suppose that's as good as denial. Problem is the total cost of the item is almost as much as my entire 'personal' budget from a paycheck. I get paid twice a month so that's a little over two weeks. I really don't think I want it that badly. Though I may see if there's enough cash left over next time around, and if it's still available for sale. But I'm not making it a priority.

I'm annoyed because I thought I had butterscotch pudding at home so I didn't buy it when I picked up the rest of the ingredients for the salad I'm making tomorrow. And all I have is vanilla. So that means a trip to the store just for that. Fortunately, I can walk to the store. I'm trying to figure out anything else that I might possibly need while I'm out, and I'm coming up empty. So I'll probably take a couple of dollars from my dollar jar so I don't have to use debit for such a small purchase.

I finally gave in and sent my friend $60 for the storage unit. It just wasn't going to happen this month that I could clear it out. Next month, I'm shooting for next month.

I have too many clothes! Seriously. I have two bags in my trunk for goodwill. My closet is full. My dresser is full. And I have piles on my floor. This stuff needs to go! Hopefully I can make some progress on it. I'd like to sell it but I just don't have the time or energy. I am making a box of other crap to sell so I will hopefully make some money off what I'm downsizing.

So went to meet friend at the mall so we could have dinner and study before the movie. Only when I went to buy food I realized I'd left my wallet at home. Oops. Friend lent me $6 and I pulled 6 ones out of my dollar jar to pay her back tonight with. Anyway, got rather dissapointing pad thai at the food court and then we studied a bit. Around when we told people to meet in front of the theater, we went and found a couple of guys from our group waiting. Walked over to the line and found another couple already there. Love it when people actually show up on time for things.

After the movie we hung out and talked for a bit. When I went to leave though I found out I'd left my lights on. Grrr. I have one of those nifty power station things (so you can jump your car without needing a second car to connect to) but I'd lent it out to someone who I haven't seen in about a month. Called one of the guys who had left the theater but hadn't left the mall yet and he bailed me out. The battery wasn't dead, just didn't have enough juice to start. It's all better now though.

Of course I couldn't go get gas afterwards though because my wallet was at home. D'oh!

This morning I walked to the gym and on the way home I stopped at the store to pick up things that needed restocking plus I have two bbq's that I'm going to that needed me to contribute. One on Thursday I need to bring my own meat plus dessert and one on Sunday where I need to bring a salad. I found a four pack of polish sausages for $2.39, figure I'll freeze two of them for use next time there's a byom bbq, and picked up a pack of generic Oreo's for $2. That takes care of Thursday. For Sunday I'm making carmel apple salad (technically a dessert but I don't care) so I needed whip cream, crushed pineapple, and apples. I spent about $22 total.

I might need to go back on Friday because I think I'm almost out of salad mix. But it goes bad so fast that I don't want to buy it til I need it.

Friend of mine forwarded to me a couple of job opening that looked to be right up my alley. Better pay, using skills I need to use, etc. Unfortunately the application deadline had passed on both of them. One of them was only a couple of days ago so I emailed an inquiry to see if they were still accepting applications. Alas, they aren't but now I have another couple of places to keep an eye out for potential jobs.

And finally I transferred $50 out of my savings so I could write a check to L. A bunch of us went on a mission trip last May/June only we fell way short on raising funds. About $8k short. So L used her credit card to pay the balance for the plane tickets. When we got back we did more fund raising type things and came up with another $2600. Which is good. But still leaves a balance on the card. So until someone comes up with another grand idea to make some money, we all are pitching in to pay off the credit card. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Argh! I had a nice post ready to go, clicked something on accident and now it's gone. Anyway...

I am ditching this hot weather and going to the beach tomorrow, carpooling with friends. I'm borrowing $20 from the dollar jar because it's already in the form of $10 and 2 $5s. I'll pull $20 out of the atm and put it back in it.

I picked up a couple extra items while at the store picking up my meds. Spent $35 on meds and $10.74 on other stuff.

I'm buying some face wash (that will last me at least 3 months) from a friend who sells Arbonne. She's giving it to me at the wholesale price so spending $14.63 of my Personal budget on that.

Totals at end of week:
$30.00 for gas (in bank)
$64.09 for food (in bank)
$20.00 for food and gas on beach trip (in wallet)
$15.37 for Personal (in bank)
$35.91 for CC2 (in bank)

I'm also planning on packing snacks to take with me so I only spend money on one meal out tomorrow (that's what the other $10 is for)

1204.69 Salary
0.60 Left over from last check
-------
1205.29 Total to work with

100.00 Rent (save for August)
93.17 Auto Insurance
250.00 CC1*
60.00 Student Loan (58 payments left)
25.00 Savings
10.00 ING Savings
121.00 Consolidation (save for August)
100.00 Food
60.00 Storage **
170.47 Timeshare
65.01 Electric
35.00 Medical
40.00 Gas
30.00 Personal
20.00 Offering
------
1179.65

25.64 Left Over

* Minimum payment is 417, the only way I can make that payment is to take the money I pay on my cell phone ($66) and my cable bill ($59), put that in as part of the $250 out of this check, and then use the credit card to pay those bills. Not the best of strategies but right now that's the only way to make the payment.

** I'm working really hard to try and empty the unit by the end of the month so hopefully I won't actually have to pay it anymore.

I was going to put the left over amount in my savings account but I think I'm just going to leave it as a cushion so I don't start borrowing from the money I hold out rent and loan. If it's still there when the next paycheck comes then it'll go into savings.

I also think I'm going to start using CC2 (currently empty) for grocery and gas purchases and then pay it off at the end of the payperiod. Because CC2 gives 5% cash back on grocery and gas purchases. I'll still keep within my budget and pay it off before it can acrue interest. It's a game, yes, but I think I can pull it off and make some money out of it.

I'm on Equal Pay with my electric company. That means they take the last 12 months of usage and divide it by 12 and that's what I pay for the next 12 months. Then they review my usage again, make adjustments for the difference, and I get a new payment for the next 12 months.

I thought that June should have been the month that it changed, if it was going to. I also knew that the winter was super cold and that chances are it would go up due to more usage of the heater. But with it being spread out over 12 months it wouldn't be so bad. And we don't have AC so there's nothing to balance it out in the summer. However in June it was the same amount so I thought we just had the same usage.

Anyway, I got my bill in my email just now for July and it went down! From $66.77 to $65.01 I don't know why but hey, I won't complain either.

I really was not thinking when I made my list. If I had been thinking, I would have made sure that only the necessities to get me through til payday (tomorrow) were on it. Argh! About half of the stuff I bought, well maybe not that much but a good chunk of it, could have waited. In the end, I spent $24.82. I had $20 in my wallet since I had a change of plans last night and spent $5 on pizza for dinner (that'll last two nights and fed two of us). Instead of being smart about it and giving the cashier my $20 and then putting the balance on my debit card, I put it all on my debit card. Which means I need to stop by an atm on my way into work and deposit the $20 in my wallet otherwise there's potential for overdraft. Ugh. Or I could just hope that it doesn't actually process til tomorrow when I get paid. Don't want to take that chance.

Hopefully next pay period will be better.

Went grocery shopping today for just fresh fruit and some lunch meat. Came to $7.85 or so, saved $2.67 by having a club card. $2 goes into dollar jar.

This is all I have left:
Gas: $15 (in wallet)
Gift: $20 (in wallet)
Concert: $20 (in wallet)
Bank account: $5.42

I am still hoping for the MyPoints gas card to show up. Friend offered to pick me up for a couple things we have going on in the morning, that'll help too. Right now it looks like I only have to drive out to my cousin's graduation.

I'm making slow but steady progress on de-cluttering my room. Need to find a better place to start putting the items to sell. I cleared off my bookcase and have three paper bags full of books that I'm going to take to Powell's to see if they'll buy them from me. Whatever they don't take I'll try to sell later. If Powell's gives me cash, it'll go in the dollar jar. If they give me a check, it'll go straight into savings. The books aren't in stupendous shape though so I'm not expecting a whole lot if anything. I think I'll take them by on Sunday, I have more time that day. And I'll hit up the one closest to me first before trudging into downtown.

Met a friend for coffee this morning. I'm not supposed to have caffiene so I would have just ordered a house decaff but when I got there, he was already there with his order and there was a line at the counter. Knowing he was on a tight schedule I just sat and we talked for almost an hour. I walked out of there without spending a dime! Of course I was exhausted by 11 and had a small cup of regular coffee from the breakroom, free but I shouldn't have had it. Though once in a while is ok.

At the Pampered Chef show I decided to spend a little more than I was planning on. And then I saw that the shipping had gone up by $1.25. Sheesh. Ok whatever. Anyway I ordered two items, it came to $18 including shipping. There were other things that were tempting but I didn't want to spend more than $20 total and I didn't.

I didn't pick up TP when I was at the store yesterday because Safeway doesn't have any 12 double roll (or 24 roll) packages for less than $6 and I know I can get MD 12 double roll for $4.99 at Fred Meyers. Silly to hold out for a dollar but the chances of me driving by a Fred Meyers at some point before we run out is great so it's not like I'm going out of my way for it. On my way home from the PC party I passed a Fred Meyers so I stopped for bread, tp, baby carrots, and salad mix. Came to $12.28. Change goes in my sunny day coin bank and $2 goes into the dollar jar leaving me with $5 til the 20th.

I need to go shopping on Friday for more fresh stuff. Argh! I'm trying really hard to eat healthier, and I loose weight when I eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. But it's so expensive! It's driving me nuts. I might see if I can go with my friend to Costco and possibly fare better there. I try not to buy too far ahead with fresh stuff because it goes bad before I can eat it usually. But now that I'm intentionally eating more of it perhaps it's not so bad. Work is offering a business membership for $40 but I think I'm going to pass on that and just hit up my friend to take me along next time.

We'll see. I may have to break into my dollar jar to finish out the month. Or my gas money. I'm not going to my brother's after all and I'm trying to make the gas I have stretch til my $10 Shell gascard from MyPoints comes in the mail.

I got in so late last night I forgot to post.

Yesterday I stopped by the store and picked up more fresh produce. Spent $10.45 However I forgot a couple of things so I'll probably stop at the store tonight sometime. Leaves my grocery budget at $20.

I have this light pair of pants. I wore a darker tshirt to work one day with it. It was really hot out. I walked to work. The tshirt bled onto the top part of the pants. What's the best way to get that out? I tried just washing it but it didn't come out so I didn't dry them just hung them on a hanger.

Also went to see another three seasons of Buffy last night (free). Got a ride with a friend (less gas). And did not buy food while I was there even though the garlic bread was tempting.

I walked 5 miles (to church and back) so that was cool.

Donated $5 to a gas card fund for a friend who's moving to Boston for graduate school.

Spent $6 at the movies.

Spent $4 on dinner.

And the best news in the world.... I happened to log into my online banking and noticed my student loan balance looked odd. I thought at first that it had increased, that the interest from this month that I didn't have to pay got added back in. Nope that wasn't it. They'd accidentally overpaid my Sallie Mae loan by $515 and so Sallie Mae sent it back to Wells Fargo who then took it off my balance. Sweet!

So the remaining balances on stuff I spent:

$9.01 personal
$31.00 grocery (because I used cash that was grocery money for personal stuff I now have some grocery money in the bank so nothing goes to the dollar jar)

I'm going to a pampered chef party on Tuesday, I was planning on buying something small anyway. And I already planned on spending some of the extra in my checking account on some personal products from a friend of mine. Plus I have a graduation gift to buy. But I'm going to see if the gal I'm planning on buying the gift from will take payment out of my next check. I see her a lot so I don't think that'll be a problem.

I wish I could go to bed already, but I didn't have time to start laundry til now so I have to wait for that to finish. Well, only if I want dry workout clothes for morning. At least it's only 35c to wash and 25c to dry (normal size washer and dryer).

As I was getting ready to head out for the mystery shop I got a call from the same company about doing Trailer Checks. I've never done a trailer check before but it's pretty simple. You talk to the manager and let them know why you're there (you also have a letter of authorization stating that you're legit), they let you in the theater for free, you write down what trailers are shown (sometimes there's different versions of trailers that you need to look for) and if there's any response form the audience. Then you walk out, get the manager to sign it, and head home without watching the movie. Other checks involve actually watching the movie but that wasn't what this was. Normally it pays $7.50 for the first screen and $2.50 each additional screen. But since it was past due the first screen went up to $10.

Beaverton Theater, 4 screens: $17.50
Portland Theater, 1 screen: $10.00
Mystery shop, small purchase: $19

So for roughly 3 and a half hours of work I got paid $46.50. Of course I spent $9.99 at the mystery shop (had to spend at least $3 but found a pair of shoes I was looking for anyway) and I bought myself some Coldstone when I was waiting for the first showing $3.25 + $0.75 tip = $4. But still think I more than broke even. It'll all go into savings when the checks come. I need to find out if I can mail in my paperwork all in one envelope or if I have to mail it seperately. I've never done more than one job like this before. Well not more than one different types of jobs.

So personal fund -$9.99 leaves $20.01 and grocery fund -$4 for Coldstone and -$1 for dollar jar leaves $35.

Trader Joe's: $45.90 A tad higher than I had expected. However that did include vitamens ($11.99), shampoo ($1.99), and conditioner ($1.99). I still took it out of my grocery budget though.

Fred Meyer's: $20.66 (plus $10 for Rx but that's already accounted for elsewhere). Granted I did also buy three quarts of oil for the car ($5.07) and snack bags ($3.79)

That means I have $23 left over for groceries til the 20th. With $3 going into the dollar jar that makes $20. I might just hang onto the babysitting money I earn tomorrow night and use that for groceries if need be since I'll be picking up more fresh produce at least once, possibly twice before the 20th. And after all, I did spend $24.83 on non food items.

$0.46 going into the change bank.

I still have a $20 in my wallet for gas. I've been driving a lot more this week than I did last week. And with the current plan being to go out to my brother's on the 15th, I'm fairly certain I'm going to spend it. Ah well, perhaps next pay period will be the one I only spend part of my gas budget.

Tonight was our second German class. My friend that I'm taking it with remembered to give me money for the book. I decided to just add it back into my cash on hand so +$12 to grocery fund and then -$5 for eating out after class and -$2 for dollar jar. Leaves me with a grocery budget of $90. I go shopping tomorrow for fresh foods and staples. I need to make a list so I don't buy too much extra stuff. I also need to call in my prescription so I can pick it up tomorrow after work.

I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. I thought I had done well with practicing German but when I got to class it all dribbled out my ear. I picked up (at the library) the cds that go with my book so if I can just find the time to listen to them, perhaps that will help.

I have much to do still to de-clutter my room and my storage area. My goal was originally by September to be completely de-cluttered. Now it's by the end of July to have everything out of my storage unit so I don't have to pay $60/mo for it anymore. I don't know if that will happen or not but I am feeling the need to try. Hopefully I can come up with things to try and sell.

Ok so when I signed up for automatic payments for my newly consolidated student loan it said that the next payment to be taken out automatically would be August 5th. In my mind that meant I would manually make the payment transfer via my online banking (since my loan and checking accounts are linked online). However, when I called today to verify that I would be ok making the payment online, I found out that because of when I put through the automatic withdrawl request, my next payment isn't due until August 5th. Which means...I have $259 that I wasn't planning on having available.

I keep thinking of all the ways I should utilize it. Any suggestions?

a] Make the payment on the student loan anyway. Interest will be added back to the loan because I'm essentially skipping a payment. Total owed $34,448. Interest 6.625%

b] Toss an extra payment towards CC1. Total owed $15,349. Interest 18.99%

c] Pay off CC2 since I wasn't supposed to charge anything to it anyway. Total owed $141. Interst 16.99% Put the remainder on something else.

d] Pay off clinic bill. Total owed $271 and I already have $100 budgeted to pay on it. Currently 0% interest but would free up $100/mo in the budget. Put the remainder on something else.

e] Any combination of the above.

Someone asked about the clinic bill and whether or not I can lower the payment and extend it out since there isn't any interest. There isn't any interest now, but when I called to originally arrange payments they indicated that there could be. So far there hasn't been. The reason I accepted their original payment arrangements of $100/mo was because I was going in at least once a month, and adding to my bill by $20 for every visit. Plus I was concerned about the potential interest. When I went in in May they said I could skip the appointment in June and make one for July instead. But in July I'm having another test run, which will translate into another larger bill once insurance processes it.

I was actually thinking about mentioning to the gal at Curves this morning that this was my last month. My only hesitation was I wanted to wait until after my dr's apt to see if it has helped my heart any. But I do have other aerobic things I can do at home so I will call them later when I have a chance.

The check shows as a pending deposit and since I have a little more time today than I will tomorrow, I'm entering everything in my register now, to be actually paid tomorrow.

Incoming:
1266.78 Salary plus extra
350.00 Roomate's portion of stuff
198.95 Held over from last check
100.00 Pulled from savings to pay CC
--------
1915.73 Total to work with

Outgoing:
575.00 Rent
30.00 Offerings
275.52 Consol Loan (45 pymnts left)
173.00 CC #1 (167 is currently due)
100.00 Grocery and eating out
10.00 Savings
10.00 ING
259.38 Student Loan (240 pymnts left)
29.00 Curves
145.00 Medical bills
40.00 Gas
30.00 Personal
89.00 PCC (German Class)
149.00 CC #2 (remaining balance $141)
--------
1914.90 Total paid

Remaining: 0.83

I'm waiting til my next dr appt to see about dropping Curves. Part of me wants to keep it, the rest of me knows I should probably just drop it for now. Ok well there's a part of me that hopes I'll get a medical reason to not do it temporarily which would mean I keep my membership but don't have to pay for a while.

I started budgeting Misc things under Personal. That way if I need to buy stamps (which I do every few months) or decide to catch a movie, or need to buy clothes, I have money to and I'm not breaking my budget. But once that money is gone it's gone. If there's any left over at the next pay period, it goes into my ING account.

My medical bills allowance I can actually budget correctly starting this check since my student loan consolidation went through. It breaks down to $100 for clinic bill, $10 for 1st prescription, $35 in case I need to pick up 2nd prescription before the next paycheck. Any left over will go into regular savings at the next check. Well in all actuality it'll probably be put towards paying off CC #2 but in theory it will go into regular savings.

Now that I have that all sorted out, I can't wait til tomorrow to actually pay it.