My work has been systematically cutting back on perks because they are doing what they can in light of poor sales to keep everyone employed. The majority of the cuts have been met with little grumbling, as they were perks and definitely not something the average office has. They also took a long hard look at a few other areas (travel for example) and have been working on ways to save money in that respect. Even with all that, we still let people go. Just 6, basically one from each department. But still it's one of those things that makes it hit home, makes it more personal.

But we thought it was all behind us. However recently a few more items have been announced as being cut and more push for revenue through as many means as possible.

Today it was announced that they were dropping the employer contribution to our simple ira accounts from 3% to 1%. Apparently that was the straw for some people. At least it's got them grumbling.

Don't get me wrong, I would prefer to not be affected quite so personally by things however...I'm totally willing to loose $60/mo if it means I keep my job. And really, if you do the math, if half the people at my company contribute to their simple ira and the company matching is the same as mine...cutting that 2% means saving one person's job. I have no problem with that.

I did the math over the weekend. Cut out everything I possibly could. Even cut out gas since I can probably borrow my roommate's vehicle if I needed to, or catch rides, or ride my bike, or walk. And the killer is, if I have to go on unemployment and try to pay for cobra, I'm still about $200 short. I cannot afford to go on unemployment. And my friends who have been laid off...can't find jobs to even apply to.

So for me, I'll take whatever the company opts to give me for a matching. I'll reduce my contribution when the time comes to match their matching. And be happy that I still have a job.

I am just off this month. I marked two bills as paid, one for $81.97 and another for $58.47 but I neglected to actually mark them in Quicken. I caught the first one before my CC payment actually went through so I was able to cancel and resend minus the $81.97 but I didn't catch the second til this morning. It's ok though, it's why I have a cushion for that random 'just in case whoops' moment.

I went to a concert last night and debated about buying a band tshirt. In the end, decided it wasn't necessary and $25 stayed in my pocket.

This morning at Curves I noticed that I was building up callouses again. Last time it had to do with my work environment (freight dock) this time it's due to Curves. They have gloves there to avoid just that issue, they are nice, padded, fingerless, and only $8.95. So I went ahead and bought them since I had cash on me. Of course I decided on them after my workout so will have to wait til Monday to see how I like them.

I have $837 left on my CC that is supposed to be empty. I have been able to drop it hugely these past couple of months but that is going to be slowing down here soon. Still though, with the money I know I have coming in it will be paid off by the end of May.

Once it's paid off I'm going to charge my car shop visit to it. I don't drive my car much but the last time I had it in the shop they said my clutch was slipping and they would need a day to figure out where the issue was and what the cost would be. On the one hand, I don't drive it often. On the other, I don't want it to totally die when I really need it. Plus lately the few times I have driven it, there's been random times that whitish smoke has come out of the back and I think that needs attention too. Whatever the charge ends up being, I plan on pulling $400 out of my EF to pay on my CC and the rest will just get paid off with whatever I have extra each month like before.

Plus I have it built into my budget to transfer $75/mo automatically to the savings account I would be pulling the money out of. So building it back up is already part of my plan. We'll see when the time comes what the damage really is.

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And in other news...my brother called me the other day because he and his wife are switching back to Verizon Wireless. They had to go to Cingular when they moved because it was the only company that serviced the area they bought their house. But now, two years later, Verizon signal can be gotten out there and they haven't been too happy with Cingular.

At any rate, through the company he works for he gets a discount on his Verizon bill. At the bottom of the paperwork it had a place to add family members phone numbers to get the discount as well. Since my other brother and I are also on Verizon, he put our numbers down. Who knows if it will actually process but it's nice to know it's a possibility.

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My bus ticket thing seems to be working just fine. I currently have 21 tickets left for the month and 20 rides that I know I'll need tickets for providing I keep up with my walking home 3 days a week.

For the month of April I am experimenting. My friend opted to not continue in her work's bus pass program (they renew for free every year if they want to) so while that was the cheapest option it is no longer available.

A monthly pass for 2 zones costs $65. A bus ride one way is $1.75.

In April there are 22 work days, so 44 bus rides, totaling $77.

However, I am training to walk a half marathon in June and a walk relay in August. In doing so I am walking home three nights a week (Mon, Wed, Thurs). There are 13 nights I will be walking home in April. That leaves 31 bus rides, totaling $54.25.

They sell bus tickets in packs of 10. For April, I bought 3 10 packs at $52.50. My theory is that chances are I'll get at least one ride in from my roommate over the course of the month to negate needing 31 tickets.

Of course all this hinges on my Actually walking home three nights a week. But I'm anticipating that only having X amount of bus passes will encourage that.

Plus I can think of other ways to 'save' bus tickets. I have a chiro apt on Friday and my chiro is maybe 1.5 miles from work at most. I usually park near my chiro office and catch the bus (when I have a pass) because there's no bus service between my chiro office and home and sometimes I need to go places right after my apt. So I'm thinking I can park at the chiro office like usual. If it's early enough, walk to work. After work, jet out right at 5 and walk to the chiro. Possibly saving one or two tickets. But at the same time, if I'm cutting short time wise, I do have the tickets to use.

We'll see how this works out. I'm hoping to wind up with a couple extra tickets each month so by the time I need to go back to buying a pass, I can prolong it a little.

I don't have time for much by way of 'that internet stuff' I used to do when I had lots of free time at my old job. So posting here has mostly slacked by the wayside. I do keep up my sidebar, even if I don't post my full networthiq results every month. It's tough to balance it all out and I feel ultra behind. But I'm still chipping away at my debt!

Have I mentioned, I love the place I work for? They have decided to take a look at what the employees actually want/need as far as benefits go, for health insurance and other potential perks, and look into ways to changing things.

As a result they have formed a Benefits Committee made up of a representative from each department. That representative is responsible for collecting ideas from their department and relaying to the department what went on in the meeting.

The representative for my department is ME! I asked for it and no one else wanted it so I got nominated. I'm excited. There were things brought up at the meeting that I'd thought about but forgot at spur of the moment when asked on the spot for ideas.

Whether or not thing actually change, I appreciate the time/effort my company is making into having things that are not only beneficial to the employee but also wanted/used by the employee.

I really hope we change from FSA to HSA.

I just finished my taxes and I'm not happy with the results.

For federal I am only getting back about $100 more than last year. I'm disappointed only because I left my withholdings at 1 for longer than I did the year before so I expected a little more of a refund. However at the same time I worked a side job that barely taxed me so it makes sense.

For state, ugh I owe! This is the first time (aside from when I was an independent contractor) that I've had to pay! Last year my return was only $18 so I was anticipating cutting it close once again. I did not expect to have to pay $172!

I'm going to go over it again later but if I do have to pay you can bet I won't be turning it in until I get my federal back.

I've been at my new job for a week and a half now. Things are going pretty good. Got my last paycheck from old job on the 5th, used it to pay for all the rest of the bills for October (but only paid for food and gas for the next two weeks since I will be getting other checks in this month). I still think I'll be ok as far as money stuff goes, I won't know though til I get my first check and see what actually starts coming in.

I really don't need to grocery shop as new job offers plenty by way of food for breakfast and lunch during the week. However, I'm also trying to watch my waistline so I'm mostly bringing in my own food and just supplementing it here and there as needed. For example, I don't buy fruit anymore for my lunches because there's always a plethora of bananas and apples in the kitchen.

I should be seeing my first check, which will only be for 40 hours, next week sometime.

Ran across this article today http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5964

What's your take on it? On the money or just nonsense?

Well there is good news, my roommate is engaged. They set the date for September and she hasn't decided yet when she's going to quit her job and move out there (they'll be living where he is already about 4 hours away). I am really excited and happy for her and just knew it was going to happen.

However for me that poses a slight problem. I'll either need to get another roommate, or move. If necessary I can trim down a few payments and actually be able to keep living there by myself but I don't know that I really want to do that. However, I have an awesomely cheap apartment (rent and utilities split is only $350 each) in a perfect part of town (1.1 miles from the gym, 1.3 miles from work not to mention close to grocery and bank and other friends).

Part of me wants to see if perhaps I could get one of those free apartments in exchange for light on site management duties. But I hate moving.

I don't know what all she'll be taking with her when she leaves. She owns most of the main area furniture, most of the dishes, and most of the cookware. So the possibility of moving into a room in someone's house is actually appealing after a fashion. But moving any further away means that my gas budget will have to increase...lots to factor in.

Ages ago (it seems) I did have an offer from some friends to move in with them. However since then, the gal who owns the condo has gotten pretty serious with her bf and is practically engaged so I'm not sure I want to move somewhere and then move again. Besides, that place is way further away than my current place.

Nothing really to be done about it til I know her future plans. So I'm just waiting and pondering my options so I'm ready when the official word comes in.

After all that fun with the bank yesterday my brother wasn't able to make it in before they closed. He was 5 minutes late. He was going to deposit money in via atm to see if he could skate by on that so I suggested he put in $25 since he was short by about $24. (There was some money in the account just the bank when it auto transferred transferred way more than he needed so I had told him to ignore the extra since they would probably take the overdraft fee out of it).

This morning I checked his accounts....his checking is positive and his savings has no extra charges!! He just barely skated by. I will be talking with him this weekend about where we go from here. He was considering taking the summer off of school and working, right now that's a fine idea since I don't know how he's going to pay for it if he doesn't.

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I gave my friend a check like I do every month to pay on the croatia trip we took last year. She asked 'Why are you still giving me money?' A valid question considering I gave her $1k a couple months ago just so what we make with our monthly payments as a group will actually make a difference. I don't feel right leaving her holding the bag, even though she choose it. She only choose it because she thought it would be temporary, not drag on for over a year. Unless everyone else can pick off their portion like I did, I don't feel right stepping back. Although on the flip side, that $50/mo I give her could be used elsewhere in my debt reduction plan. It boils down to, I feel I have a moral obligation to give her money every month until the card balance is $0 or until the others in the group take on their own portion of the debt.

My youngest brother, the one that I've been supporting off and on since he started school, is really really leaving me frazzled!

I forgot about the 6 transfer limit on savings accounts and with the way things have been going we went over that. I'm only on his savings but not on his checking so I can only deposit to savings. He transfers to checking and goes on his merry way.

So for starters, he got a $10 charge because we did a 7th transfer. Then it all went downhill. I put some money in his savings, just so he'd have money in there, and he overspent and got overdrawn. Well, his overdraft protection kicked in and...transferred from his savings incurring ANOTHER $10 charge and transfer #8 this month.

I dropped in another $20 so his savings account wasn't at -$10 and sent him a text reminding him that he has NO money and to not use his card for Anything.

Today we were talking and he desperately needed some cash for food. So I went and dropped another $40 in his savings account and I called and told him he had $40 in his SAVINGS that he could pull out and that I couldn't transfer it without incurring another $10 fee and possibly incur the wrath of the bank (they mentioned something about his account might get closed if he has too many transfers). I also informed him that that was it for this month so he'd better spend it wisely.

That was a little over an hour ago. I log onto his bank account just now and guess what I found? No just guess. Yup, he pulled the $40 out of CHECKING where there is....NO MONEY. So he's overdrawn AGAIN.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I sent him a text even though I knew he was in class and he's going to high tail it to the bank soon as he's out of class and try to straighten it out. Sometimes if you catch it same day they are lenient but I dunno at this point...

I'm trying to convince him to go to a cash system. Perhaps he'll actually listen to me this time.

I've always wanted to do tax preparation as a side thing. I just got a flier in the mail from H & R Block about their classes that start soon. Like end of this month soon. There's two phases and it looks like they cost $249 each. Ouch, I could have sworn last time I looked into it it was only $150 but that may have been through someone else. Anyway...

None of the times work for me really. 9-12 cuts into work and 6-9 I get off work at 6 plus the nights it's offered I usually babysit. Now, I might be able to make arrangements with work for the 9-12 one where I come in after class two days a week and then start 1.5 hrs earlier the other three days to make up the time. I don't know if I can do that but it's a possibility. I'd rather do that then just use vacation time.

But if I take the first section then I need to be able to take the second and I don't know yet when that will be offered. I wouldn't mind cutting off the babysitting if it were further out that it was starting. I can change that schedule but I prefer to give them a little more warning especially since I just started.

And it'd be almost $500 total. Is it worth it? I mean, working part time assuming I got a job doing tax prep, am I going to get enough hours in the amount of time I need it? Last I heard you were supposed to do like 750 hours in 2 years for something or other. But things may have changed since then. Ugh. Decisions decisions.

I think I'll wait and see what other places offer. It's not that it's too early to start thinking about it just I have too much going on and I know Jackson Hewitt offers courses in the Fall.

So we have this new thing in Portland...Metro-Fi has made portions of the city wireless. You can access it for free if you can put up with ad banners, or you can pay $20/mo for it. Because of where I live, in order to pick up the signal I'd need to buy something to boost their signal. Which costs about $120ish. Right now I'm paying $48/mo for Comcast.

I wish I could try the service out at home first without having to shell out so much for the wireless modem. I think it would be a great deal that would balance out soon enough...but I'm a little skeptical to try it.

My interview seemed to go well. They asked for references, which I sent them. Don't know when I'll hear back. I figure I should give them at least a week or two and then figure they don't want me.

I have been steadily dropping weight for a while now. Taking it easy, going slow, making sure I'm dropping it for good not loosing it to just gain it back again later.

The downside...

Well I have a job interview tomorrow. The dress code for the company, seeing as how it's a marketing type company, is professional business attire. Or so I'm assuming. I prefer to overdress for interviews.

I had a stash of what I called my Interview Clothes. About 3 pairs of pants (black, black with white pin stripes, and black and white check), three or so shirts (two silk, one cotton that paired well with the pants), and two black blazers.

EVERYTHING IS TOO BIG AND LOOKS AWFUL ON ME!

So this stash that I thought I had, that I thought I could make work should the need arise that I had to wear professional type clothes is gone.

And I have almost nothing to wear to the interview tomorrow.

Fortunately, this random nice shirt that I found on clearance ages ago and bought even though it was a little snug at the time, will do ok for the interview. Since I'm actually interviewing for a tech job, I'm hoping I can get away with wearing what I consider business casual (khakis, cords, knit or cotton shirts) for the actual job should I get offered and accept it. I'm fairly certain my current work wardrobe of TShirt and Jeans will not cut it. But I'm ok with that, I'm sort of getting tired of it anyway.

They asked me for salary requirements. Ugh that's the worst I think, I'd prefer to know what they are expecting to pay before I apply. But anyway, I did some research on how to properly phrase it (I had no clue that a range was acceptable I thought you had to give them a solid number), took my current pay, gave myself a 10% raise, and made that the minimum of my range. And they still want to talk to me. So either I'm at the low end, or right on target. I'm hoping I'm right on target for what they want to pay.

They also have some great perks, so even if I got exactly what I'm making right now I would be making more. Trying not to get too excited about it til it actually happens. And if it does, I have no idea how I'm going to break the news to the powers that be. But one step at a time....

We are on the main page as far as in the top running for votes. Voting ends on the 28th. As much as I hope we get it, it's hard to say that I hope we beat out some of the other ones that are in need of more than we are.

If you haven't checked it out yet (I don't remember if I posted again once the voting started) check us out here: http://www.robinhoodfund.com/cast-your-votes/wish/id/2310

Basically our wish is money to pay off a shared debt on a credit card that was generated when we didn't raise enough money to go on a serve trip. We could have chosen not to go but the airline tickets had already been purchased for us by a third party and we would have had to pay for it regardless.

Anyway...

Happy Monday! No wait it's Tuesday, I took Monday off so I'm all out of wack.

I'll probably write more about my trip later. But just a couple quick things..

1 - Safeway has these salad things on sale, I think it's called Essential Salads, they're something new near the lunch meat. Anyway, they're on sale right now 10/$10 and there's a coupon dispensor right next to them with a $1 off coupon for it as well. So it's free. I picked one up today...

2 - I found this website, http://www.robinhoodfund.com and posted a wish request. Registration is free and voting begins March 28th so please register before then and vote for us once voting begins! Check it out at: http://www.robinhoodfund.com/cast-your-votes/wish/id/2310

I got my first statement from Citibank on the loan I acquired from them. First payment is due 3/2, totally do-able but the first one will just be for the actual minimum required. I called the phone number on the statement to inquire about making payments online, since the guy who processed it said I'd be able to, and they informed me that I had to call a different number that only has people working M-F. I called today, and actually talked to someone. I guess it's not a holiday for Citibank.

She informed me that the only way to make payments online is to set up a Citibank checking account, that way I can have online access and include the loan in what accounts I see when I log in. Because it's a 'dummy account', only open for internet access to my loan, I only have to keep a dollar in it and all fees will be waived. Of course, Citibank doesn't have any branches in Oregon so I have to wait for paperwork to show up. Which means I'll be mailing in my first payment. I haven't mailed in a bill in a really long time, how early should I send it to arrive right on time?

Ugh. Ah well. I like online bill pay so it's worth it. Especially since there are no fees.

Now I'm just waiting for my last CC statement so I can pay it off directly then wait for a $0 balance statement so I can start using the balance transfer option to keep up with the Money Shuffle that will hopefully ensure that I do indeed pay off all my consumer debt by April 2010.

I got all excited yesterday because my quarterly statement for my 401k came from the new company. Apparently that still doesn't mean that the money's been transferred yet so I still can't re-allocate my funds to the new options available.

The one nice thing though that I noticed was that the new company listed my Personal Rate of Return. For the last quarter, it was 5.94% and for the whole year it was 11.06% Is that good? Ok? Bad? Well it's obviously not bad since I made money but..I really don't know much about this stuff.

I am anxious to actually be able to do my taxes and give things an extra push. Just waiting on one more piece of mail but since it hasn't shown up yett then I won't be getting my return til March 2nd. *sigh*

So I have been really excited about being able to use my YakTrax again this winter. I wore them a lot yesterday with a lot of walking that I did, to the bank, to a friend's place, to another friend's place, then home.

This morning I actually went into work (they called me yesterday before I'd left the house and said don't come in) and on the way I stopped by Fred Meyer's to pick up a prescription. I left the store, put the YakTrax on, got to the edge of the parking lot and realized I only had one on. I thought it shouldn't be too difficult to find a black item in white snow...boy was I wrong. I retraced my steps twice and still no sign of it. I realize that it's got a rubber band type thing holding it on so I have a feeling it flew when it came off. Obviously not ahead of me or I would have noticed.

I'll check their lost and found on Friday when I go to drop off another Rx just in case it was found. Otherwise I'll just have to wait til next fall to replace it. I did notice though that the shoe with the YakTrax didn't slip when the one without it did. So they do work, I just don't like finding out that way.

I'm also saving gas because I'm not driving anywhere. Another plus I suppose. But I have stuff to do tonight that requires the snow to be gone or at least more drivable. Hopefully it will be later.

I'm itchin to do my taxes and see if I guessed right on my withholdings. Around April I went from 1 to 2 and after my last check in December I went back from 2 to 1. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't have to owe. If I break even that'll be good. If I get any back then it's bonus.

My regular job usually gives us the W2 with our last paycheck of January, so the 20th. FedEx sent me a $3 bonus in January after I quit last December so I'm anticipating something from them. And I have my new part time childcare gig that will give me a W2 at some point too.

I've used TurboTaxOnline for years and as soon as I start getting the W2s I'll be inputting the information in so when I get the last of it I can submit it imediately. Unless I owe. Then I might hold off. But I don't think that'll happen.

I just like to get it over and done with. Plus if there is any return then I have plans for it.

I have participated in Pinecone Research for a while now. I love getting the little $5 checks in the mail (although they're going to be doing it via PayPal in the future). I really have fun with the surveys knowing that I will actually be paid for it instead of a 'we'll put you in a pool of names to be drawn for $xxx'.

I got an email a while back stating that it was a followup and I thought it odd, I'd never gotten one of those before. But I didn't take it because I wasn't really sure what it was. The day after the last day to submit the survey, I received a package from Pinecone Research with another item to test out at home and give feedback. The light went on, apparently I had been sent something to test but I never got it! It wasn't the item I'd just received because the project numbers were different.

I emailed Karen and explained the situation thinking that perhaps there was a signature required and that's why I never got it. I just happened to be home from work the day I actually received a package. She explained that signature wasn't required and if I didn't get the original item it was too late the survey was closed and they didn't have any more. No problem. I thought that was the end of it.

About three weeks ago I got an email stating that the company wanted the test items back, you know the one I never got. I was going to reply to Karen and say 'don't forget I didn't receive this so don't send me the return materials' but I never got around to it. Sure enough, about two weeks ago a large envelope showed up at my door with packing material for the item and a $5 check as a 'thank you' for sending it back.

I don't have the item to send back.

I emailed Karen again, replying to our prior string of emails so she'd know what I was talking about, asking where to send the check back to because I don't have the item to send back. I haven't heard a word since.

I know it's the holidays and she probably has a slew of emails to go through. But I did get one recently regarding the switch to PayPal.

Do I just send it back to their address as listed on the return address when they send stuff out? Do I cash it? Do I just do nothing because it's not really mine to have?

I'm going to give her til the middle of January to respond and then actually do something with it.

Unfortunately according to CNN he was found dead. I can't imagine what it's like for his family right now, esp the wife and kids that went through the ordeal as well.

I was looking at my 401k quarterly statement and wondering if I needed to rebalance it. I basically just set everything when I opened it 8 years ago and haven't looked bad. I've had my good quarters and bad quarters. But overall I'm still quite pleased that even though I lowered my percentage of contribution (work doesn't match anything), I still had an investment gain of 3 times what my contribution was for the last quarter.

So here's where I stand right now:
Balanced fund. Originally set at 50% currently at 49.73%
Cash Reserves. Originally set at 5% currently at 4.41%
Common Stock Fund Z. Originally set at 20% currently at 20.49%
Large Cap Growth. Originally set at 20% currently at 18.64%
Technology. Originally set at 5% currently at 6.65%

When I make my contributions, the original percentage is how it gets applied to the various funds. But when you look at the grand totaly, the actual percentage each fund contributes to the total is the current percentage.

The categories break down as follows:
Cash Reserves Fund is a Money Market
Balanced Fund is Moderate Allocation
Common Stock Fund Z is Large Blend
Large Cap Growth Fund is Large Growth
Technology Fund is Specialty-Technology

I have no real idea what any of that means. It sounds like it's mostly stocks with perhaps a few bonds. I'm honestly not sure. We changed companies in the mix, they just transfered our stuff over to their comperable funds. Then that company changed hands and merged with someone else. It's really confusing. Half the time I don't know that it's my quarterly statement in the mail til I open it. Though the size of the envelope usually gives it away.

I have a list of all the possible funds, their current quarter returns, and their predicted, or maybe past, returns. I just wish I knew more about this stuff to figure out if I should change things up or not. It seems to be doing ok on it's own...

I have a couple things I'd like to sell. Well I don't really want to sell them but I have no use for them and they're just taking up space in the garage so I'm going to sell them. From what I can tell, eBay doesn't have local listings anymore. I don't want to deal with shipping so I'm not going to eBay the items. Which leaves Craigslist. However I have no idea what to price them (which is why eBay is appealing).

If y'all wouldn't mind taking a look at the items and telling me what you think I might be able to get for them that'd be awesome. I did do some checking around, eBay and craigslist, for pricing ideas.

Christmas Dishes:
Mostly service for 8 includes 8 dinner plates, 7 smaller plates, 8 saucers, 8 mugs. 6 serving dishes, 3 of which are oven/microwave proof. One tea pot. One cake plate with serving utensil. And finally one extra serving platter that doesn't match exactly but it's always been used along with everything else. I actually know I have more pieces somewhere, just don't know where to start looking for them. Original price paid, unknown. They were bought at least 15 years ago and have been used a few times. One of the boxes has a price tag of $39.99 on it. Pictures are available here: http://www.goingthere.net/gallery/Dishes

Singer Featherweight:
This one was either my mom's first sewing machine, or it was my grandmother's. We had two at one point, but I only have a vauge recolection of the other one. It's the machine I learned to sew on. I have another sewing machine that someone gave me a few years ago. I know quilters are fond of the Featherweights. It could probably use a tune-up. I checked eBay and some good condition ones were going for about $170. Pictures are available here: http://www.goingthere.net/gallery/Singer

I have an idea of what I could probably get for them but I don't want to price it too low or too high.

I called my auto ins agent today. Told her I wanted to accept a quote from the new company but that I also had a speeding ticket. She looked up my ?clue? file and did Not find the speeding ticket (it was almost a year ago so it should be there) but instead found a small accident in September and a tow in December. Uhhh. Wow. Apparently because I was on the same policy as my brother when he rear-ended someone, it shows up on my file because we were on the same policy at the time. However, I was back with the agent that's working with me now when the tow happened (brother's wife's car). Feh. She was hoping to call me back by 5 to let me know the status. But since it's almost 6 I'm guessing she won't be able to call me back til tomorrow. Since the ticket's not showing up that means (I think) that I get the originally quoted rate which would only be $88.60/mo for 10 months. I can so handle that. *cross fingers*

I applied for a job today. There's a local company that some friends of mine work for that's hiring for an accounting related position. It's actually doing some other admin stuff too but I think that'd be a good starting point really. The only catch is, I have no clue what the pay is. I don't know what my friends make, I never thought it appropriate to ask. The gal who sent me the job description said she didn't know what the pay range was either. So that's a potential downer. I cannot take less than $18/hr. They are only requiring a HS diploma. The jobs I've seen that only require that don't usually go above $13/hr around here. Especially with the added commute, it would definately stretch my budget even at my lowest required pay.

So I guess we'll just wait and see. I know I can do the things the job requires. However my resume doesn't exactly show that. I probably should have written a cover letter but it's already been submitted with a personal recomendation from my friend that works there so perhaps that will balance out. They really do prefer to hire from withing their own circle (ie people who know people who work there) it would seem. So I guess we'll just wait and see.

Though every time I see I have a new email I pause and wonder if I really want to check it.

Man I spent so much in gas already. But I sort of knew that would happen. I have $6 left in my gas budget to last another week. I walked to the gym and to work today. I have no plans after work so I won't be driving anywhere today.

Of the days until payday (8) I only need to drive 3 of them. A total of about 50 miles. With the gas prices these days, I think my $6 worth will just barely squeak by.

I am bound and determined to not spend more than my budget amount for gas. Even with going to the coast and driving out to the other side of town a couple of times(not normal occurances). I was tempted to pull the $3 I have in my dollar jar and I might if something comes up and I have to drive more than I'm anticipating.

But for now, I'm enjoying the no drive day.

The Carnival of Personal Finance is up over here: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2006/09/carnival_of_per.html

I scanned through the posts and picked out just a couple that I thought might be interesting to read. I did note that there were a couple on teaching kids to save, so there might be something of interest to those of you with kids as well as just regular saving tips. Anyway.

Enjoy!