About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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June 10, 2008
This might be considered cheating because I’m not spending any less. But, if the end result is saving some cash by being creative about the spending, then it still counts.
My budget for Con is $300 from my travel fund, of which $92 is earmarked for reimbursing my friend via comics. That leaves me $208.
If I recall semi-accurately, I usually fill up once before I head out to San Diego, and once more when I come back. That includes the 100+ mile drive down there, 5 round trips between my housing and the convention center, and a trip back home. This year, I’m required to cut the trip short by a day because of a business trip, so I only have to account for 4 days of driving. But, I’ve factored in an extra trip to the airport to pick up BD who will be joining me for a day. Total, I’d say that’s just a shade under 400 miles. My car can, on a good day, make about 400-450 miles per tank, but I may be ferrying passengers on some days, I might be stuck in traffic for five hours coming or going, who knows?
I’m going to estimate the trip to require about 20 gallons of gas to be on the safe side.
By the end of July, $5.50/gal gas is probably not unthinkable, considering the Shell is at $4.45 right now. Conservatively, I now expect to spend more than half my budget on gas alone. That’s before I’ve factored in parking, food, or even a bit of shopping for gifts. Oh, and my ticket for next year. Oy, I thought my budget was HUGE a few months ago.
My brilliant idea? Gift cards! Browsing the Thank You points rewards the other night, I discovered that they have Shell gift cards. Sadly, they only offer the $50 for 6000 points exchange rate which I despise, but it’s still gas money that won’t come out of pocket. My ideal solution would be to earn another 2000 MyPoints and redeem 7350 points for a $50 GC, and redeem 12,000 Thank You points for another $100. It’s not likely that I’ll be able to get another 2000 points via MyPoints between now and Con, though, so I might have to bite the bullet and burn 18,000 points.
If I use no more than $150 on gas (dear Heavens I hope I don’t!) then I will have saved my Con cash stash entirely! That would be wonderful. The use of that many Thank You points and the lost opportunity to redeem for shopping GCs is sad, but I can repurpose any leftover Con cash to later travel, I can’t do that by hoarding TY points. Besides, I can always earn more points.
June 9, 2008
Southwest is running a promotion for a $25 discount when you purchase a $100 southwest gift card.
There are a handful of restrictions, so I would be very careful when deciding whether or not to purchase it.
Purchase dates (for the gift card): June 1st-30th (still have time.)
Requirement: must use Visa. It can be any cobrand as long as it’s US-issued. (Great, I carry one Visa and one Mastercard at all times. It’s not my preferred points rewards card, but it’s still a rewards card.)
Limit: one per Visa cardmember and/or e-mail address. Visa cardmember will earn one $25 fare discount on a $100 or more single card transaction. Shipping and handling fees do not qualify towards the total transaction amount. The $25 fare discount will be sent via e-mail to the Visa cardmember’s account. A valid e-mail address is required to receive the discount. Allow four weeks after the conclusion of the promotion to receive the discount. (Wait, shipping and handling? Just pop the thing into an envelope and throw it in the mail! 42 cents! And BD and I can each buy one, if I have need of two round trip tickets in the near future.)
Discount Valid: Purchase must be made between July 1, 2008 and August 30, 2008 for travel August 18, 2008 through November 19, 2008.
This promotion does not include Business Select, Anytime, or Senior Fares. (Does that mean it’s only good for the Wanna Get Away fares?)
Despite the numerous caveats, I think that I will pick one up because as I look at upcoming travel, I was unexpectedly invited to a wedding in August, and have got a sporting event to attend in October. It’s only good for the event in October, and I’m looking at paying $100 for $125 purchasing power. As long as the flight prices hold until July 1st, or whenever I get that discount, I’ll be able to purchase a $149 ticket for $75 now, and an additional $24 later. Not bad, I say!
My go-to cosmetic routine consists of Oil of Olay’s 4 oz bottles of facial lotion with SPF 15 and some Vaseline for my lips, or any other lip balm if I leave the house without moisturizing. This weekend, BD went on a drugstore run, and my lotion had expired a few months ago, so I asked him to pick up another bottle for me. I almost yelled: “Don’t pay more than $6!” but I just figured that he knows me well enough not to need that extra nag.
He sure made me proud: Longs Drugs had Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renewal Moisturizer (2.5 oz) for 30% off, which brought the total to $9.44. Then there’s a $6 rebate on top of that, bringing the total to $3.44!
I believe the deal’s good for two more days, or at least the sale is (6/12). The rebate is good until July 3rd.
I’ve never used this lotion before, but I’m sure it’s fine. It smells like every Fructis product, yummy!
Yesterday was full of taking care of people. Visited my friend and his dad for a couple hours, visited a girlfriend who has been experiencing chest pains, ran errands for BD so he could get out of town on time.
Later, my girlfriend called: she was so stressed and anxious that her pain had gotten worse and she couldn’t breathe. I went over armed with some meds, gave her a massage and head rub and sat up with her until she could sleep. Soooo glad that I didn’t have to work today.
I’m grateful that I have access to decent medical care, and a doctor who takes the time to discuss all aspects of my life to see how it affects my disease. If I couldn’t manage my own health, I would not have been able to spend time caring for friends in need.
I’m two thirds of the way through my triathlon of appointments today: dentist, doctor and doctor.
Surprisingly, my dentist did not charge me a copay. In years past, I always had to pay fifty dollars worth of copay a year out of pocket. This time, they just had me sign paperwork stating that I was ok with their billing the insurance directly and receiving the payment that would normally come to me. I’m not sure if that means that my insurance has gotten better, the dentist has better billing relationships with the insurance or if they were just ripping me off all those years!
Anyway, I’ll probably call the insurance when I get home to see if my coverage has changed.
My second appt didn’t charge a copay either, so I should only be making small inroads into my FSA today.
More for my other uses!
June 8, 2008
I just found that another good friend’s father is in the hospital. He’s been in and out for the past month, and his condition has steadily deteriorated to the point of serious concern. I’m going to visit him this afternoon, and I’m praying for his recovery. I don’t think our group can stand another loss this soon after losing one father and two grandparents.
I once counseled a good friend: Figure out what you love doing, what you REALLY love doing, something you would do whether or not you were paid to do it. Then figure out how to get paid for it.
His dad overheard and congratulated me for my insight.
Now, I just need to take and tweak my own advice: develop a passion for something that will make real money! 😀