Blue Eyes Personal Finance Blog

Yesterday, I had another NSD. Actually, I haven't had many of those this month.

I got the yard mowed and did some weeding along my fence. It was extremely hot/humid, but it needed to be done. DS helps me with the yard work frequently, but he was spending the day with a friend.

Today I started my new Saturday job. The hours are 8-2 so the worst part was getting up at 5:30 AM when the alarm went off. The commute is 65 miles one way, but it pays very well since it is located in a large city in a nearby state.

The other staff members were really nice and the day went very well. The time went by quickly also, which was a plus.

At my current Saturday job which I will alternate for now with this job, my boss is very arrogant and frankly I am getting tired of his demeanor. Since we are professionals, I would think that even though he has a higher degree than myself, he would treat me as a colleague and respect my opinions more than he does. Anyway, this and the fact that I always need to initiate the topic of pay increases may make it easier for me to make a decision between the two Saturday jobs. I am extremely reliable and feel I am good at what I practice. Sometimes I feel like I'm taken for granted since I am so readily available for my boss with picking up extra Saturdays. In this profession I should be making more money on Saturdays than I do at my M-F full-time job; however, I do not.

Anyway, sorry about rambling. I guess I should be satisfied and thankful that I have a great profession that so far hasn't been greatly affected by the economy.

I found a penny yesterday at Wal-mart at the checkout area.

I also got a Rite Aid rebate check in the mail for $30.93.

Both of these I will add to my savings account.

I haven't participated recently in the Walgreen's rebate program, but almost always get FAR items with Rite Aid's program.

Have a great day!

Yesterday and today were NSDs for me.

I finally got the temp pay from working in an office a couple of weeks ago. I will add that $503 to my savings account. Normally I get it that same day, but the office manager who writes the checks was on vacation when I worked those days.

Starting Saturday, I will work an additional 2 Saturdays a month. So for a month or two I'm thinking about working every Saturday alternating with the job which I've had for a year now. Since I think that will be too tiresome to do for a long period of time, I will save up some extra money and decide which job to keep and cut back to only 2 Saturdays a month. I don't know, I just don't want to get burnt out. Maybe I can use the extra money to save towards my Home Depot CC that has 0% interest until Jan 2009. I put replacement windows on that CC last year and definitely want to pay it in full before the offer expires.

I've been noticing that for about the last month or so, the coupon inserts in the Sunday newspaper are very thin. The main reason I have home delivery is for the coupons. I had originally thought that the savings in coupons would outweigh the cost of the newspaper. Even though I am not brand loyal, there are barely any coupons in the inserts. Instead it is loaded with advertisements/catalog order items.

I may have to rethink my Sunday newspaper subscription.

Has anyone else noticed the lack of "good" manufacturer coupons?

DD and I really enjoy McDonald's Vanilla Iced Coffee, but it is just getting to be too much of a habit and more importantly too expensive. With the smallest size cup costing $1.99, I've decided I need to come up with a made-from-scratch alternative. I found a recipe for vanilla syrup in a cookbook.

Vanilla Syrup

1 1/2 c water
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp vanilla extract

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, bring water, sugar, and salt to a boil. Stir frequently until sugar is dissolved. Boil until mixture is thick and syrupy, approximately 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla extract and cool.

I make fairly strong coffee, then add some half & half or light cream plus some of the vanilla syrup over ice. The problem is I don't know the proportions that McD's uses, but I just estimate and it turns out very yummy!! I know it will save me money in the long run!

I received a $50 check from Global Test Market from doing surveys. It took less than 4 weeks to receive the check once I requested it. I will add that to my savings account. I already accumulated another 240 points towards the next $50 once I reach 1000 points. I think I like this company better than Pinecone. I get at least 10 survey invites each week. I rarely get any from Pinecone.

Have a great evening everyone!!

On Saturday night, my daughter and I were watching Suze Orman at the usual time--9:00 PM ET. According to the announcement during the show, Suze will now air 6 nights/wk to include M-F at 8 PM ET.

We probably will not watch it every night, but my daughter (age 15) and I always look forward to watching it together. Since she has a part-time job now, I've been trying to give her some basic personal finance tips. The Suze Orman show either reiterates some things that I have already discussed with her, or brings up new ideas which prompt her to ask me some questions. I think that this show is a good supplement as a teaching tool to help her to understand finances, budgeting, importance of saving, etc. a bit better.

While I don't agree with everything that Suze suggests, I am happy that it will be airing more than once a week. Our favorite part is the "Can I Afford It?" segment.

Does anyone else watch this show as a family or with your children?

Today while I was running some errands I found 2 cents!!

I went to Sears to get a bathtub mat. I had a $5 gift card to use there from doing a survey. The cost was $9.99-$5 GC, so I got it for $4.99 + tax.

I hope everyone has a great day!!

I was initially concerned with spending hundreds of dollars to get another professional license in a nearby state. By working 2 temp jobs within the past week in that state, I have regained all the money plus some additional money.

I guess it was well worth it, but at the time I was hesitant in making that move within my career.

We got back last night from our trip to my sister and BIL's cabin. We had a nice time together. It was good to get away for a few days.

I filled the gas tank before we left, then again when we returned. That cost $30 and I spent about $50 on food to take along. So we ended up spending less than $100, which I think was really good.

On the way home, we stopped at a discount grocery outlet store. This store has both brand and store name merchandise for very low prices. Some of the items are a few months outdated, but for the most part the food is good quality and in-date. Some of the items I got were: (2) 1 lb. baby carrots $0.99 ea., cucumbers 3/$1, yams $0.49/lb., bananas $0.44/lb, several boxes of cereal $1.29-$1.69 each, several bottles of salad dressing (Kraft and Ken's)3/$1, seedless, whole watermelon $3.99. I got quite a bit of food and only spent $53. I just wish there was a store like this closer to home. The prices were much better even than Aldi in this area.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!

Last week I had an interview at an office for Saturday work only. Yesterday, I received a call from the office manager stating that I received the job. I will initially work every other Sat. there because I am already working the opposite Sat. in an office where I've been for over a year now. I just need to decide if I want to switch to working every Sat. at this new position because the pay is so much better. I will test it out for a few months, then make a decision.

Anyway, I start in two weeks. I have to decide what I will do with the extra money.

Well, only one more day of temping tomorrow then we leave for vacation for a few days.

Have a great holiday!!

I didn't spend any money today. I also didn't cook any "new" meals. I'm trying to clear the refrigerator of leftovers.
The children and I are leaving Wednesday night to go to my sister and BIL's cabin until the weekend and I don't want to waste the food that was already prepared.

Since I am off this week at my full-time job because the office is closed, I am working M-W doing temp jobs in two different offices. I will be getting a week paid vacation from my regular job plus extra from the 3 temp jobs. I plan to just put the extra money in my savings account. It makes it easier for me to relax knowing I added a bit more to my "cushion". It seems I always have and always will have difficulty justifying taking long vacations!! I feel like I should work a lot since I don't get any financial support from my children's father. I'm trying to compensate for the portion that I was receiving per month due to his disability.

This should be a fairly low cost trip since lodging will be free. I just need to allow gas and grocery money for vacation.

I received my electric bill this week and was pleasantly surprised that it was only $53.96!!! My average monthly bill for the last two years has been $105. Generally my usage in the summer is much less than in the winter. I have electric baseboard heat and in the winter the bill is often over $200 a month.

I am on the time of day plan with my electric company. I have on-peak hours from 9 am to 9 pm and off-peak hours from 9 pm to 9 am. In addition, weekends are off-peak hours as well. The cost for the off-peak usage is considerably less than for on-peak. For June we used 81% off-peak and 19% on-peak. I have always been careful to run the dishwasher and washer/dryer during off-peak times. I try to encourage the children to conserve energy too (by turning off lights/TV/appliances when not in use). In most cases, I don't allow the air conditioners to be on until after 9 pm. We just run the whole house fan with the windows open for a nice breeze.

I've taken ImaSaver's suggestion and have turned the hot water heater off occasionally when it is not needed. I also set the temperature for hot water at 90 degrees instead of 120 degrees. Also, I have turned the computer completely off much more than I have in the past.

I'm able to see that my efforts have been paying off in a big way and I like the decreased numbers I'm seeing on the electric bill!!!

Anyone have any other suggestions for helping me to lower my electric bill even further?

In last Sunday's newspaper I saw a help wanted ad that I responded to by faxing my resume on Wednesday. It is a position for Saturdays only, which is what I'm currently interested in. I received a phone call that same day asking if I could come in for an interview. So I set it up for this morning. Right now I'm working 2 Saturdays/month in an office separate from my full-time position. I either want to supplement that by working 1 more Saturday/month or quit the other job since the pay would be much better in the nearby state where I recently got licensed. Anyway, the commute is 70 miles as opposed to 20, but the pay range is $10-15/hr. more there. I'm thinking even with the rise in gas prices, it may be worthwhile to pursue working in the metro area since I have an economical vehicle (Honda Civic). So the interview went well, and she said it is difficult to find people in the field to work Saturdays. She gave me a tour of the office and introduced me to the staff. She said she would call me back in the beginning of next week to see if my current Saturday schedule would work with when they have an availability. So we will see what happens.

Yesterday, I received a Citibank Reward Check for $63.54. Today I got a TMF Refund from Organix Shampoo for $6.99. I will add both of those to my savings account.

It has been difficult tracking my expenses/income this month (since I've never accounted for every cent), but it's almost the end of the month and it wasn't too bad once I got into the habit of it. Hopefully I can formulate a doable budget since I have a better idea of where all of my money has gone!!

Well, have a great weekend everyone!!

Yesterday, I had another NSD. I also requested a $10 check from doing surveys with Global Test Market since I earned 1000 points.

Have a great day everyone!

Today I went to a family reunion. I made this salad to take along:

Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad


2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 c. corn kernels
1 1/2 c. avocado, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 c. red onion, finely diced

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, salt, and pepper. Add the corn, avocado, tomatoes, and onion and toss to mix. Serve at room temperature. Serves 4-6. This can also be served with tortilla chips.

This recipe was a hit at the picnic. I have never made it before, but I will make it soon again. It was tasty!!

They also had an auction where you can take wrapped, used or new items. The money then gets donated to the fund so that we can continue to have a family reunion to purchase ice cream, paper plates, napkins, cups, etc., as well as games for the children. I was able to get rid of a few items and reduce the clutter in my house.

It was a fun day!

Last night, I went to Texas Roadhouse to do a mystery shop. I will get $35 reimbursement for the meal, which was $41.50. So $6.50 cost for a meal for 2 people.

Today, I had another NSD.

Have a great evening!

Even though it is very hot/humid here--93 degrees--I do not want to turn on the A/C. I have a whole house fan which is on and I have the windows open with the mini-blinds closed.

I got a refund check in the mail for $3.69 for Land O Lakes Butter and I had another NSD. I will add the check to my savings.

I did some yard work earlier and now I'm going to see how much money I spent this week, since this is the first week I have actually tracked all of my expenses.

For the month of May, I spent $139 in gasoline for both of my vehicles. It is easier for me to track now that each time I buy gas it goes on the Discover Open Road CC so that I earn 5% cash back bonus, which of course, I pay in full each month.

Both of my vehicles, a Ford Escort SW and a Honda Civic, get 30+ mpg. While I don't think the expenses for May are unreasonable, I do realize that probably a few months to a year ago I spent under half of this amount. My M-F job commute is 8 miles one way and the Saturday job 2X/month is 14 miles one way.

I do know that since gas prices are approaching $4/gal. in my area, I have been extra frugal with my driving practices. I try to not make any unnecessary trips and run my errands on my commute to or from work. I also have decreased the speed at which I drive the vehicles. In addition, I follow the recommendations for oil changes and air filter replacement more closely.

Have a great weekend!

I'm been having problems every few months with my landline phone service. Usually the problem is something on the exterior of my house with the telephone wiring. The technicians supposedly fix it, then in a few weeks I have the same problem again. The issue is either I don't have a dial tone to make outgoing calls or I can't receive incoming calls. When I try to call in to my phone it connects and turns to a static sound. It doesn't even ring.

Anyway, the beginning of May, I had this exact same problem all over again. Verizon had sent out a service technician to determine if the problem was an external or internal problem. Well they ran a test on the line and it came up that there was a short somewhere. The box outside my house checked out fine, so the technician said he would have to set up an appointment so that I could be home to let him inside so he could check the wiring. Since I don't have an inside maintainence plan on my account (which is $5.99 extra/month), I would be charged $90/hour for them to determine/fix the problem. I did have a Saturday appointment set up for a few weeks ago, and the service technician never showed up. I called the repair center, and apparently someone made an error, since I was told that there are no technicians available in my area code for Saturday appts. Ugh!!

My problem is I didn't want to take off work on a weekday to get this resolved. I guess I really don't have a choice now.

Anyway since emails have gone unanswered, yesterday during lunch I called Verizon again to discuss some of these ongoing issues. When I received my latest bill, there was a charge for the service technician visit for the exterior of $61.50. Now when I scheduled this appt. the technician was fully aware that I would not be home to let him inside, should he need access to the interior wiring. Many times technicians have come out to do work at the outside box and I was never charged a penny. I explained this to the rep and she said, "well, they needed to come inside since they determined the problem was not something on the outside". Anyway, I demanded a refund of the $61.50. So the rep compromised and gave me a credit of $30.75.

She proceeded to tell me that the service technician closed out the repair order and the computer stated that the issue was resolved. WHAT???? If he determined that the problem was in the inside and there is no documentation that an appointment was made to gain access to the house, then I think it is safe to say that the problem with my lack of dial tone/inability to make incoming/outgoing calls is still existent. Within the last week, I decided to add the inside wire maintainence plan to my account, thinking it would pay for itself since this problem is recurring every few months. Since the phone company claims they were not aware I was still having a problem (even though they don't have record of repairing my line), I will not get credit for several weeks of no phone service. In addition, even though I now have this service plan and I report now that I have these same problems, it would not be covered under this plan because it is a pre-existing problem!!!! I asked how it could be pre-existing if the original repair order was closed and stated as resolved by the technician.

Well, needless to say I left the rep know that after Verizon comes out to repair the inside line, I will be shopping around for other phone service. She said, "well I can forward you to a supervisor because we certainly don't want to lose you as a customer". I declined and told her I have had too many issues with them and would most definitely be closing my account with Verizon. I'm just not happy with them and they aren't very accommodating/customer friendly.

So now I'm not sure what company I want to go with. I currently have internet with Verizon which is working perfectly. I was researching doing cable, phone, and internet, but those packages are fairly expensive. Does anyone have any ideas about Vonage for phone service??

I received 2 checks in the mail today totaling $9 from American Consumer Opinion Panel. I will add that to my savings account.

Have a great day everyone!

Despite the fact that my co-workers invited me to go to Walmart with them over lunch break, I declined the offer. I didn't want to end up buying a bunch of stuff I don't need. So, I managed to have another NSD!

Today, I got three checks in the mail. One was a mystery shopping reimbursement + shopper's fee for a breakfast assignment at a local restaurant-$10.89. Another was an A & H Plus Oxiclean Guarantee-$8.24, plus April Walgreen's Easy Saver-$4.99. I will add a total of $24.12 to my savings account.

Today, I had a NSD. I received a $5 gift certificate from Baker St Solutions Panel for doing an online survey. Now I have accumulated $15 of these Amazon gcs.

I've been thinking about purchasing a carpet shampooer...maybe from Amazon with the gcs. I was researching different brands and reading reviews a few days ago. It looks like the Bissell 9200 Proheat model would be a good one. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on which brand would be best.

Have a great night everyone!

I went to Rite Aid today and got A & H Laundry Detergent 100 oz., which was B1G1F. The regular price is $5.99 each. Each bottle also had a $2 coupon on it. So I got 2 bottles for $3.99. I also purchased Samy i style hair styler for $4.49 which will be FAR.

After that, I did a Rita's Italian Ice mystery shop. Next week, I have a Texas Roadhouse mystery shop to complete.

I ran these errands after I ate lunch that I brought to work. Some days I can't stand to sit in the lunch room and listen to all the co-workers issues for a whole hour. It overwhelms me!!

Even though I am aware of my largest expenses each month, I need to be better at finding out where ALL of my money is going on a monthly basis. So starting with June, I'm going to record each time I spend money and what category (groceries, medical, entertainment, etc.) it goes into so that I can actually have a written budget instead of mentally trying to control my finances. This way I will be able to see where I could save even more money each month.

I've decided I need to change my spending habits for several reasons:

~rising gasoline/food prices
~non-reimbursed divorce attorney fees
ex-husband has not paid
~currently not getting child support
effective April 2008 (loss of over
$500/month)

Since I am now licensed in a state nearby (since the hourly rate is significantly higher than in the state where I reside), I am on the list at a medical temp agency should they have any Saturday openings. So I'm trying to increase my income to compensate for being 100% financially responsible for my children.

I'm really excited about tracking my income/expenses as it should be an eye-opener!!

Yesterday, my DD and I had the opportunity to spend the day together. My DS is camping with a friend this weekend. I really miss him, but it is nice to occasionally have some time with DD. Normally, I have more time to spend with DS due to the fact that DD has had a job now for about 10 mths.


So anyway, I went to do the Staples mystery shop. I bought a pack of pens for $6.19 of which I will be reimbursed $5, plus I get a shopper's fee of $17 for doing the mystery shop and entering the info online.

We went to Isaac's Deli for lunch, which is one of DD's favorite restaurants. I spent $21.53 including the tip. We were never at that location before. The atmosphere was nice, and we were there mid-afternoon so it was not busy.

Since DD is getting a different job(as a waitress in a local restaurant), we had to go clothes shopping for some white, button down shirts. At Boscov's, we bought 4 shirts and a pair of jeans. With the 30% off discount the total was $55.21. We also stopped at Kohl's and she got a swim suit and 3 shirts for $66.03 which included using a 15% off coupon.

Even though we spent some money, we had a nice day and bought items that she will need in the near future.

I got two refund checks in the mail from Rite Aid Single Check Rebates ($47.11) and Sambucol Black Elderberry Immune Support Tablets TMF offer ($8.99). I will add those to my savings account.

I also am scheduled to do a Staples mystery shop today and will run some errands in town while I am there in the area.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!!

Yesterday, I received a $100 check which was refunded from the total professional license application fee of $375 that I applied for last month. I will add that to my savings account.

Also, I completed two online surveys today.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I received a $3 check today from Pinecone for a survey that I completed the middle of last week. Now I know firsthand just how efficient they are with their payments!!