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Archive for November, 2005

End of the month...

November 30th, 2005 at 06:33 pm

We did well this month with our money. We spent less than what was budgeted, and earned more than what was expected, reached our goal of saving $5000 this year, and had a wonderful four day mini vacation! Let's hope December goes as well. Each month I put $100.00 into a special Christmas account. I have started to shop, will be using cash only, and, hopefully come January, will have no unexpected credit card bills. For the last 3 years, this plan has worked well. When I shop at Superstore and pay using my debit card or use my Superstore Mastercard I collect points that are good for Superstore groceries. I currently have close to $100.00 saved up on this system and use those every December to buy all the junk food, snack food and appetizers that we don't normally buy at any time other than Christmas season when so much company comes.

Ds11 is having his MMR immunizations today. Both my boys have bad reactions to immunizations. Ds11 had seizures as a baby due to high fevers from his, and ds5 had two immunizations and both times was taken to emergency after because his fevers went so high that he was lethargic. Ds5 hasn't had any immunizations since he was 2. Ds11 is now pumped full of tylenol and I asked his teacher to call me immediately if he feels hot. He'll probably be exhausted because of the medication, but I'd like to avoid the fever route with him! I'm sitting on pins and needles waiting to make sure that he's okay. I have to go pick up ds5 at 11:15 from kindergarten, and would love to check on ds11, but don't want to embarass him in front of his class. Eleven year olds seem to embarrass fairly easily...mmm, this may work to my advantage one day! Does anyone remember the 'Roseanne' show where she walks the kids to school dressed as a hillbilly with her teeth blacked out?

We're going to get some groceries later today. We are completely out of kitty litter...a must have!

Snow!!!

November 30th, 2005 at 02:34 am

We have snow!!! Since we live in Canada, you may think this is a regular occurence, but in the lower mainland we only get snow a few times a year, and because it rains so much here, it doesn't last very long. In fact, it looks like it will all be gone by tomorrow. Our kids don't even have snowboots because there's really no point. Now rain boots we have!

I spent the day in a customer service training seminar. It was informative but more of just a reminder from all the other ones that I've done...was served a lovely lunch with it, though, and I drove with two friends from work whom I really enjoy, so we had a lot of laughs in the hour and a half commute.

I'm going shopping with my brother tomorrow...looking forward to spending some time with him. I have lots of laundry to put away and some groceries to buy, too, but I have two days off in a row this week--very rare occurence.

Things I did to save money today:
1) Gave the kids leftover pizza for lunch--it was free from a meeting yesterday.
2) Had beef dip for dinner made from leftover roast last night.
3) Brought breakfast to work with me and enjoyed a free lunch.

Lazy Sunday

November 28th, 2005 at 12:05 am

Dh and my brother went to Grey Cup today so I woke up at 9:00am (I worked until 1:30) to five kids in the house. Thankfully, my mom came over at noon and took my nephews home with her. Ds is in a really bad mood, due to 1)Being 11 years old
2)Having to spend the bulk of his day rewriting his homework assignment from yesterday because it wasn't done properly, and
3) Being allowed to have sleepovers two nights in a row even though we have a rule that the kids are only permitted to go on one sleepover each weekend. That decision was made by my dh because I was at work yesterday...now he's exhausted and dh is not home to deal with small grumpy people. You may think, "lucky him!', but don't because when he does get home, he'll get to deal with taller grumpy people!

Today was a no spend day. We saved money by eating leftovers and staying in, curled up with a book, a t.v., and a cup of tea. I'm on my fourth load of laundry, the kitchen is tidied, and that's about as far as I've got today...or am planning on getting. Everyone will be hitting the sheets early tonight!

Homework Neglect

November 26th, 2005 at 09:41 pm

Ds11 has an assignment due on Monday...was given 10 days to do it, and pretty much completed it, except for the part where he's actually supposed to use a certain book and not the internet for information. Of course, when he told me this, I whipped him over to the library and the book is not there. So, we went to the library in the next town about 20 minutes away, and, being a good parent, I felt the need to natter at him the whole way about being more organized etc., and then the book wasn't there either. The librarian, however, was extremely helpful and helped us find a way to actually download the part he needed off the computer. When we left the library I asked him what he had learned from all this and he answered "The internet is our friend." I don't know how I raised such a smartass kid...must be from dh! LOL!

Dh is finally feeling better. He took ds5 and dd9 out for a while today to a Fall Festival. I have to work at 3:00, so will be starting to get ready soon. I have lost 4 pounds this week by following the South Beach Diet. I was fine until today when I got a craving for nacho chips. I haven't given in yet, and hopefully the craving will go away soon. I'd really like to make it through the first two weeks, and then maintain the weight. I don't want to lose more than 10 pounds.

Today was a no spend day. Yesterday dh got a bonus cheque of 700 dollars from his summer job because they realized that they had underpaid him! Unexpected and very appreciated. We have reached our $5000.00 goal for this year, and are slightly over, but will be paying the orthodontist 1500.00 in January, so as soon as I can get it to $6500.00 I will be one happy camper...

Hubby still sick...

November 24th, 2005 at 08:33 pm

and I'm still taking care of him! This flu is not fun. At least ds5 is feeling better and finally had a good sleep last night, which means that I had a good sleep last night!

Today is a no spend day. We went to gymnastics and came home. Not much interesting going on around here today. I'll be going to work around 3:00, so maybe something exciting will happen there...not likely on a Thursday night, however.

Things I did today to save money:
1) Used all the leftovers in the fridge and made a chicken, rice, vegetable soup for dinner.
2) Didn't buy anything from the snack machine at the gym--this is actually because I'm trying to lose weight, not because I was trying to save money. The kid behind me bought a bag of Hickory Sticks, and they smelled great!
3) Paid all the bills on time so I wouldn't have any late charges...I know--I'm really fishing for ideas!

Husband is sick...

November 23rd, 2005 at 04:03 pm

and home for the day. He was supposed to have a 12 hour workshop today, but he can't go...coughing, fever, etc. Ds5 was up most of the night coughing again. He seems fine during the day, and then can't sleep at night. He's sleeping right now, though. I'm going to take the other kids to school and then I'll come home and clean up the kitchen and bathrooms, do laundry, and hopefully catch a nap. Nothing too interesting happening around here today.

We seem to have an abundance of money around here lately, and I think it has to do with our envelope system... I'm really liking knowing how much I have for the month and paying for everything in cash. It was nice doing some Christmas shopping, having a big bill, and when the clerk asked,"Credit card or debit?" I got to answer,"No. Cash only."! Love it!

Christmas Decorations

November 23rd, 2005 at 01:09 am

Oh, Man! Our work contracted out professional decorators to come and set up Christmas trees! This is absolutely hysterical to me. I can't imagine what the cost was for this. Anyways, I spent the bulk of my work time yesterday and today setting up the other Christmas arrangements--reindeer, stars, etc. It looks quite beautiful, but, really, how hard is it to decorate a tree?

Ds5 is sick with croup. He sounds like a seal and no one in the house is getting much sleep. Hopefully tonight will be better. I'd feel sorrier for the little guy but he's soooo sick that he spent most of yesterday rearranging every pillow and sofa cushion in the house into a pile at the bottom of the stairs and then diving down into his arrangement. Sick? I think not!

Yesterday was a no spend day. Today I spent almost 50 dollars on groceries. We had no vegetables or fruit left in the house, and I wanted some sliced turkey and cheese for lunches. I'm trying to lose the 10 pounds I've been carrying around for the last year. I lose weight fairly quickly, luckily, but this 10 seems to really like me. My pants are feeling tight and I hate that! So, if I have all the stuff that's healthy for me close by, then I'll go for it. Basically, I like to eat.

Harry Potter

November 21st, 2005 at 04:24 am

What a great movie! The kids all loved it and it was fun to be in a theatre full of people that you know. I debated throwing popcorn at one of the managers, but thought that might lead to an all out war, and then I would have felt really bad for the guy who has to clean up the theatre.

After the movie we came home and pretty much relaxed for the day. I did scrub the kitchen but that was only because I took the 'Start Late, Finish Rich' cd set out of the library and I was listening to it while I cleaned. My brother came over with his sons and watched football all day with dh. The kids played, made their usual huge mess, and were really loud. I hid out in my room and watched HGTV, and folded laundry. Apparently, I accomplish a lot when I listen to CDs. I may have to borrow more...

We had roasted chicken for dinner with noodles, and carrots--dd9's favourite. Kids are bathed, lunches are made, backpacks are ready, and clothes are laid out for tomorrow. I will iron my clothes for work, and we are set for Monday!!

Today was a no spend day. Movie and snacks were free, and everything else for our afternoon company was already in the house. I don't usually buy special for my brother, since his coming over is a regular occasion--a few times a week because they live so close...doesn't even knock anymore before walking on in!

Cleaning Day

November 18th, 2005 at 06:45 am

Had a great cleaning day today. I cleaned all three bathrooms, vacuumed the whole house, thoroughly swept, did 3 loads of laundry and tidied the boys room. Tomorrow I plan on cleaning up the yard, washing my van, and doing the kitchen and bathroom floors.

I had a good night at work. I spent about 2 hours in the restaurant, and went down to my office for the rest of the shift to catch up on some work. The technician came today and finally installed the program into my new computer that I've been waiting for 3 months for. Yippee--more work for me--happy dance!

Things I did to save money today:
1) Let my manager buy me dinner.
2) Fed my family leftovers for their dinner.
3) Stayed away from stores, so it was a no spend day for me!

Pajamas

November 17th, 2005 at 03:08 pm

I'm still in my pajamas because the older kids walk to school with friends on Thursday and Friday. I only go with them on days when ds5 has school. I''m going to clean the bathrooms, wash the kitchen floor, and take ds to gymnastics. We'll be home by 12:00, have lunch, read some books, and then I'll get ready for work. Dh has a meeting this morning but he'll be back by 3:00 when I leave. Leftovers for dinner.

My work won a fundraising contest. It was to raise money for children with health problems, and we went up against other companies in the lower mainland. We had a bake sale, car wash etc. and raised over 10,000 dollars. Because we won, we were given free movies, complete with snacks, at a local theatre for Sunday morning to go see the new Harry Potter movie. It's going to be fun because the only people in the theatre will be from my work...and their spouses and kids. We would have gone to see the movie anyway, now we don't have to wait for it to come to the cheap theatre and it's FREE!!!

Paper Route Day

November 16th, 2005 at 10:23 pm

It's paper route day! Yep, grumpy ds11 (who would like to quit his part of the route but isn't allowed according to very mean parents) will be extra grumpy when he finds out that his special helper sister won't be helping him all week. She's been coerced into doing her cousin's route...same neighbourhood, more papers...cousin is in Disneyland. Should be prime time at our house in about 15 minutes when everyone gets home from school. According to ds he hates Fridays now. Why, you may ask, would that be? Well, his very mean parents won't let him quit his paper route AND he has to deliver papers on Friday. What kind of a weekend is it when you can't even relax on Friday after school? Well, I don't know what kind of a weekend it is, but I do know that some children are learning all about responsibility...life is very, very hard when one belongs to sarcastic parents who make their children actually WORK for their spending money...SHOCKERS!

Ds5 and I had a very lazy day, lounging, reading, watching t.v. and eating junk. Not much to say on that.

Dh and I went out and did some Xmas shopping together yesterday. It was so nice because usually I do it all and I do it alone. Dh has always worked full time and extra long hours around Christmas. That's the way social service agencies have to run. Since he got his new job we have so much more free time together. We went for lunch, got a smoking (not literally!) deal on a gift for ds, and picked up some small things.

Our electric bill is on a monthly plan, and we were under 150 dollars from last year. Yay for us! We're taking the 150 bucks and buying things that will save more electricity over the year. Last year we had 50 dollars and I bought the energy saving lightbulbs and a second drying rack. Yesterday I spent 25.00 on new heating duct covers that we will be able to close if no one is using the room and for the ducts beside the doors. I will also be buying a low flow shower head for the ensuite. Does anyone have any other ideas? I'll have to think about it.

Today was a no spend day. We're having roast beef, potatoes, and yorkshire pudding for dinner. I don't think we actually did anything special today to save money, though. I just finished reading The Weekend Millionaire Mindset by Mike Summey and Roger Dawson. It's a good read and I picked up some great ideas from it.

Dh is owed money for using his car for work. When he added it all up last night, because he wasn't using a company vehicle, he is being paid the maximum amount of $150 dollars for each of the last three months! Our gasoline bills don't even equal that for both our vehicles. So that's $450.00 going into our emergency account...woo-hoo!

Kraft Rebate

November 12th, 2005 at 10:06 pm

As reported in another entry on our moldy macaroni and cheese, I received our rebate yesterday. It is good for one Kraft product up to $3.33--that's an expensive box of orange stuff!
We bought two gifts for the kids' friends parties and spent $24.00. That was fine because I took it out of our gift envelope for the month and we still have $11.00 in there for November. I only have $100.00 left in our grocery envelope...hopefully, we'll make it! I relaxed pretty much all day today, lounged around, picked up a few groceries, and will be getting ready for work soon. Big manager meetings going on there--may or may not pertain to my job. Frustration is hitting me hard and I'm keeping my eyes open for something elsewhere.

Tomorrow we're going to my brother's for dinner. He's making spaghetti, we're bringing the garlic bread! Easy peasy...

Had a great trip!

November 10th, 2005 at 01:24 am

We got back today from our little holiday. We had a wonderful time and I feel very relaxed and tired. The kids were great and we did tons of sightseeing and touristy things. We also spent a fair bit of money, but no more than what I had planned on. We were pretty dead on...the biggest expense was food. We ate out at some really nice restaurants.

I work all weekend. Friday is Rememberance Day, which in B.C. is a civic holiday, so just about everything is shut down, but not my place of employment...the kids and Dh will go to the services near where I work, and then maybe come and visit me for a bit. Luckily I don't have to work past dinnertime, so it will be an early Friday night for me and that is not something that happens very often!

Other than that we have no major plans coming up...the two youngest kids each have a party to attend this weekend, so I'll have to go out and get gifts for these tomorrow.

new library

November 5th, 2005 at 09:07 am

Oh, happy, happy, happy...a new library opened two blocks away from our house. We are a family of big time readers (excluding dh) and we go to the library about every two weeks, and take out about twenty books for me, ds11, dd9, and ds5. We walked in there today and it just smelled new! All the books are new and it was so cool! Now that we have a library so close, maybe we won't have so many overdue books...

Dh went to make a box of Kraft dinner the other day and it was moldy! Yeppers, the macaroni was actually green. It was totally disgusting--has anyone ever heard of this? I emailed the company and received a nice email back apologizing and saying that they would reimburse us through first class mail and we should receive a rebate within two weeks. I'll keep you posted on this...shockers!

Today was a no spend day. I think that makes three for this month...hmmm, I tried so hard last month to have 14 no spend days and failed miserably. This month I decide not to set an amount, and I'm doing so well...could be I'm just jinxing myself.

Things I did to save money today:
1) Went to the library.
2) Ate off the buffet at work--no charge.
3) Spent the morning cleaning the house and helping the kids do their paper route.
It was a productive and fun day, except for the work part. Same old, same old...

Thursday

November 4th, 2005 at 07:15 am

I was treated to lunch today by my best friend. We brought ds5 with us--he loves my friend and was so good in the restaurant. After lunch we went to dd9's class to help with a clay project. I had to be at work by 3:00, so we rushed home, I got changed and left.

Work was fine. We have new managers who are not sure of their place yet, or what they should be doing staffwise. I went down to my office to do some work, but was called on the radio twice within five minutes of being there, so I just went back up to the restaurant and stayed there. After we shut down, the manager from another department took me out for dinner. I was expecting to pay for myself, but he signed the register receipt and told me he was happy to treat me because I'd helped him out a lot lately. So, with two meals out I had a no spend day.

Things I did to save money today:
1) Brought an orange for a snack to ds's gymnastics class instead of buying something from the vending machine.
2) Returned a sweater that I bought without seeing the black spot on the front of it.
3) Froze all the leftover cranberries that were given to me (about 8 cups), to use in baking as needed.

I think that's it. We should do fine this month, and be able to stay within our budget. I used the same envelope amount as last month, and will try not to combine them all at the end of the month. We will be spending money when we go away next week, but I'm taking it out of savings, and I am NOT going to feel guilty about enjoying ourselves and will NOT count every penny spent...okay, I will count every penny spent but I will try very hard to not feel guilty about it!

Wednesday

November 2nd, 2005 at 09:01 pm

After I dropped the kids off at school, I went to WalMart. There was a big sale there on garden supplies so I bought Dh's Father's Day gift, and 3 end of the year teacher gifts, as well as Mother's Day gifts for my Mom and stepmom and two Christmas gifts for the kids. I also purchased a 50% off box of 70 mini Halloween chocolate bars. I'll keep those at work for little munchie times...not that I need them! Altogether I spent just under 60 dollars. Then I went to Superstore for fruit and vegies and some other items that I couldn't find at Costco yesterday. I bought 3 Christmas gifts, 2 sweaters for me for work, and 4 containers of the hair mousse that I like (with a bonus deep conditioner attached to each bottle) and altogether it came to 120.00. My Christmas shopping is coming along nicely. I save all my Superstore points until December and then use them towards a big Christmas shop for our Boxing Day Open House. It's up to around 100.00, so that's pretty good.
I put in some laundry, tidied the kitchen, and loaded and started the dishwasher. I'm going to start dinner, finish the laundry, and get my clothes ready for work. Dd has an orthodontist appointment at 2:00, and I start work about 3:00 today, so it's going to be a bit of a rush. I suppose I'd better detach myself from the computer and get moving...

Things I did today to save money:
1) Bought gift items on sale
2) Ate leftovers for lunch
3) Washed clothes using homemade laundry detergent
4) Pre-planned great dinner for family...using crock pot!
5) Won't buy dinner at work, I'll eat when I get home.

Costco Shopping

November 2nd, 2005 at 04:45 am

Well, the start of a new month means the start of a new budget! Yay! We did overspend a bit in October, nothing too terrible, but I always enjoy the challenge of a new month...we'll pretty much keep things the same as last month, including the envelopes, although on October 30th I emptied all the remaining money, combined it equaled 20.00, and we went to the pumpkin patch. So now we'll be starting over fresh! Today after work, I took the 3 kids and we did our big once a month Costco Shop which cost 178.00, but pretty much supplies all our dinners for the month. I think I had items for 5 dinners left over from October, and we're going away for 4 days next week, so we should have plenty. Dh is happy because he gets his 200 bucks in spending money today, and last month he overspent by about 100!!!! He kept 'borrowing' and saying that I could take it off November's money...if I do that he'll be 'borrowing' from December, so what's the point? We'll see how he manages this month. Sometimes, he's worse than the kids, and I told him last month I'm not his Mom and, as wonderful a Mom as she is, I don't want to be her!

Work went better the last few days. I work 6 days this week, because I'm trying to make sure that I'm ahead when I take 3 off next week...oh, well, hopefully things will be slowing down soon. We'll see.