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Archive for October, 2005

Quiet Sunday

October 23rd, 2005 at 09:54 pm

Woke up with my knees and back really aching so not doing much other than pain pills, resting and reading. Finished an Anne Tyler book. I'd seen her books around, but had never read one till I picked up this one at the thrift store.

Got our Discover card bill yesterday and momentarily choked when I saw the total. I had forgotten we had used it for a business trip that will be fully reimbursed. We earned almost $20 for cash back from the trip so that was nice as they are giving 5% back on restaurant purchases and one of the places we stopped was a quilt store owned by a smorgasboard, so my quilt book purchases ended up with a 5% rebate too!

Just goes to show how credit card bills can add up, they are so easy to forget you made them and you just keep adding things on.

Gail

Ticked OFF!

October 21st, 2005 at 05:22 pm

Well it all started with a laptop purchase two months ago with several rebates that went with the purchase. The first two rebates sent me an email a month agao stating they were sending the rebates ($200 & $35) to an address what wasn't ours with a zip code that didn't exsist. Okay I managed to get that one straightened out and finally received the money. Got another email two weeks ago stating our rebate ($70) was on the way. Didn't get it, so called today to find out where it was. Yet again they had us at a different address in a different state than where we live! Got that straightened out I hope and shortly we should get that rebate. We still had one more ($25) rebate that I hadn't heard about so at this point I'm suspicious. I call up, and they have no record of receiving a submission (of course I haven't gotten it back in the mail). The only way to resubmit is to send copies of everything again to them, which means going to the store and getting a copy of the UPC as we don't have a copy--most of us don't have copy machines here at home! Since I had to fill out 4 different rebates forms, I find it interesting that I could have possibly filled out my address incorrectly on all of them--NOT! All I can think of is this is their way of getting out of paying out for these rebates, hope people forget they sent them in, and send them to a wrong address where they will end up being sent back to the company and go back into their kitties. Makes me really mad, as I was extremely careful filling these out-checking and double checking that I had done everthing correctly. OK done venting!

Gail

Flare up

October 20th, 2005 at 03:07 am

Had a great day yesterday. Hung laundry on the line (nice windy day), got alot done for the on-line book business. Around 6PM, hubby came home and took me back up to the shop/home building project to show off what he had done. I now have stud walls and can envision the size of the enomours walk-in closet, big bathroom, sewing room, bedroom, living areas upstairs. Downstairs he has the bathroom and office stud walls up. The rest of the area will be a big great room concept where he will have his 9' concert grand piant when he gets done restoring it (after the piano projects that he gets PAID for). By the time I got done looking around, I realized I was getting really sore and by the time we got home, I was into a major flare-up--pain city! Couldn't sleep at all last night I hurt so much. I ended up balancing the checkbook at 2AM, cruising the internet, etc. anything to try and take my mind off of the pain.

I was planning on running errands today, including buying a new sheet as ours was falling apart. We only have one sheet set that fits the bed. I have never spent so much on a set a sheets like I did for these, nor have I ever mended sheets so much either. I did manage to mend them again today and saved the expense of buying more, especially since I couldn't walk well enough to leave the house. This is the first time I ever had 100% cotton sheets, so I don't know if that is why they keep getting tears or what, but I've had sheets that had lasted years without falling apart and this set is just 2 years old! I'm going to really have to hunt down a good bargain.

Anyhow, with not feeling good enough to run errands, I didn't spend anything other than order some items for resell on ebay-hopefully for a good profit, otherwise egg on my face with hubby Smile

Gail

Date Night

October 16th, 2005 at 09:08 pm

After a busy week at work, hubby declared date night last night. We went to a well known chicken place for dinner then next door to Barnes & Noble where we spent a few hours browsing, plus I picked up a new magazine, two new books including Janet Evanovich's latest, and paid our B&N membership fee. I was having major pain most of the day and hubby was too after so much physical work, so we ended up with an early night. He started in not feeling well and I joined him in it a few hours later. I was up and down all night, so not much sleep. First thing I did this morning was dump the leftover chicken in the garbage and told hubby I had no plans on going there again. So much trouble sleeping during the night, I missed church.

I did get to put in some last minute bids for some ebay auctions today and won 8 of them--all some informative magazines that will help me out in my book business. I got them for a great price. I'm trying to stay within half the price I would have to pay the publisher for back issues. Always like getting a good deal.

Think I'll go and try to do some sewing and maybe a walk later.

Gail

My son

October 15th, 2005 at 04:03 am

Got more sleep last night, so was better able to face the day. Walked to the post office with some things I'd sold and met my youngest son walking over to my house, so he walked with me to the post office and then home while we discussed what to do with his 401K from his last job. This kid is 22, going to school full-time, took out a loan for school, but is paying all his own apratment and living expenses from earning and his savings. anyhow, the job he quit last December so he could go to school, he had been at for 4+ years starting in high school. He has been faithfully contributing to a 401K during that time and had $4400+ to roll over into something else. As he thinks he may need the money next year if he doesn't find a job right away he was trying to figure out the best place to put the money. He had figured out a 3 month CD. I reminded him of the interest his ING account was paying, so we decided to put the money there. Ended up walking to the bank with him to deal with that. Took him on home and cooked him spaghetti and watched our MASH DVD with him. He also helped with dishes before he went home. Assuming he gets a decent job when he is done with school, he will be a saving crazy dude! He reads all my frugal books over and over. Not only did he have that 401K money stashed away, he had over $9000 in savings when he started school. How many kids do you know who could do that. To top it off, he is high functioning autistic! At one point in his life, I never thought he would talk, then I thought he would never graduate high school (he did with honors), wasn't sure how he would do with a job. He is nervous about getting a job for what he is training for and has already instructed us not to have any graduation celebration UNTIL he has a job and has passed any probation period! He is so funny sometimes. But what a great kid!

Gail

Running on empty

October 14th, 2005 at 02:34 am

Only got about 3 hours sleep last night. I was hurting alot and tossing and turning. Made for a rough start today. I did manage to walk over to the bank and get my banking done (should have done it yesterday, but couldn't walk anymore). Really pushed myself to work on my on-line business and got some mailings ready to go out. Hubby came home early, walked in and said he was hungry and started scrounging in the fridge. Before I knew it, he had eaten what he wanted for supper. I ended up going to Burger King and a quick run over to the grocery store (same plaza). Spent about $10 at the store, so I think I've spent about $47 in groceries for the month, so I'm doing real well with my goal of staying under $250.

Had another ING referral today from this board-thanks! which makes my $5000 challenge up to $200! ING has changed it's referral process, now people have to deposit $250 to get the $25 bonus and the referrer get the $10 bonus. Still a great deal.

Time to hit my new stack of mystery books to get even more relaxed before I go to bed and hopefully I'll SLEEP tonight! The joys of arthritis. some of the pain you can ignore while doing things and then you go to bed and its like the pain is coming out of the woodwork-yuck.

Gail

Library Book Sale

October 13th, 2005 at 04:05 am

Our library is having a book sale. I usually go to pick up books for resale on line. Didn't find much for resale this time, but did find a bunch of the kind of mystery books I like to read so came home with a huge stack of new reading material. These books seem to go well at www.frugalreader.com also so eventually as I read them, I'll be getting even more books.

Ended up taking two walks today. One to go get blood work and another to take some sold books to the post office. We have only one working vehicle so when hubby is at work, I have to walk or not get something done. The bloodwork was necessary and I had promised the ebay buyers that I would send their stuff today. I should really sleep well tonight as that was a lot of exercise for me today.

Leftover roast for supper, but ruined the rice in the microwave so had to start that all over again. Don't like wasting Uncle Ben's rice as it is so expensive.

Gail

Another no spend day

October 9th, 2005 at 08:54 pm

Feeling good today. Went to church in the morning. Have a roast in the crock pot. Have no plans for spending any money today. Sold something from my eBay store, so that was nice. Just have the rest of a lazy day to do what I want.

Gail

Spent money today

October 9th, 2005 at 12:03 am

Found a great way not to spend money, is to be so sick you can't leave the house for days on end! Finally today felt well enough to go out. Visited to thrift stores and got some things for resale and some clothes for me. Stopped at Walmart for some groceries $37.22. Still need to get milk and I'm hoping some nice fresh apples which are in season here now.

Got the paperwork to fill out to get rebates from our trip which will go into my Sharebuilder account towards my $5000 challenge. My Discover card rebate should be here in a week or so and I'm trying to decide how to cash in our Visa card points--take in cash or get a higher value with gift cards. Cash I would invest in Sharebuilders, while gift cards we would end up spending the money. It's about $160 worth. this is the card my husband charges his business expenses to and the house building materials. They used to spend us Barnes & Noble gift certificates and so I didn't have to think about what to do with the money. Now playing eenie-meenie-mini-mo trying to figure this out.

We got our side of beef delivered compliments of canceling cable. We've had to packs of the hamburg so far and it has been delicious. I'm going to try a roast tomorrow and see how it tastes. Total that we paid including packaging was $1.67#. Our grocery stores don't even sell ground meat for that cheap so this was a great deal! Our freezer is supposedly full (I haven't seen it yet) which should certainly keep us going for the year.

Gail

Way Behind!

October 3rd, 2005 at 06:31 pm

Got back from our trip and promptly got sick again so am way behind on everythins. Just today, I finally pulled the rest of our clothes out of the suitcase and we got home last Wens.! The only good thing about feeling so nasty so often, is at least I'm 'earning' my SS disability! Looking forward to catching up on reading journals as I feel better.

Did get a major savings on our trip. We always get a handicap room at hotels because of my physical problems, and wouldn't you know, the handicap seat on the toilet was loose. In the middle of the night, it slipped so bad that it not only pinched my thigh, it drew blood! We got that night free, all our phone calls free, and 10% off the prior night! If you have a legitimate complaint--do it. Plus the maid for some reason seemed to think she could just walk into our room at 9:15AM without knocking!

Except for one day, we had beautiful traveling weather which we hadn't expected. We also got a chance to dip our toes in the Atlantic ocean and had a chance for a very romantic kiss in the waves, till we realized how COLD the water was. Hubby had never before been to an ocean. Picked up a beautiful shell on the beach as a souvenir. Those few minutes made memories for a lifetime and cost absolutely nothing!!

I'm crashing yet again, so signing off.
Gail