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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October 23, 2007
That has to be my favorite function to use on Yodlee.
MaDucky made the mistake of paying the city utility bill behind me last month, assuming that since I’d not taken the bill to my lair, I didn’t have the means to pay it. I didn’t catch her mistake until the check was gone, and so, we double paid last month’s bill.
This month’s bill just came in the mail, and it reads: Credit balance — do not pay.
Great! I get an $85 reprieve this month. So, Mark as Paid, Yodlee, Mark as Paid.
October 18, 2007
Poor hostess that I am, it just occurred to me that I should treat for the steakhouse dinner for BoyDucky’s birthday. His bro/sis-in-law are flying up and bought everyone tickets to the football game which I KNOW cost a bundle even if she won’t admit it.
I assume we’ll split costs on everything else, but one big thing should be matched by another, (yes yes, I’m SO very Asian), and this will be the least burdensome, most equitable event. I’ve already ordered $200 worth of gift cards, but there are 4 of us and they’re … foodies. Very much the appetizer, drinks, salads, entree and dessert types, while BoyDucky and I go straight for splitting a salad and entree with water on the side. We’ll likely go the middle road by sharing an appetizer and both couples will probably share actual entrees, but I’m betting wine will be involved.
That said, I wonder if $200 will be enough. Should I just over-order cards? Either risk coming up short and paying out of pocket, or be left with up to $100 worth of gift card to a restaurant we only frequent rarely. And sort of waste a whole lotta Citi Thank You points. Hmmmmm…..
October 16, 2007
Bridesmaid #3 and I were brainstorming ideas for the bridal shower and I realized that we could take on a couple of really ambitious presents that are frugal and yet, something the bride’d never ever anticipate. She also couldn’t ever put it on a registry, so no one would ever think to do it.
5 years ago, she undertook an enormous quilt-making project for the dozen members of our core group of friends. She had everyone decorate a quilt square for every other member, and she intended to gather all the squares and create friendship quilts. However, thanks to a few procrastinatory members, she never got the rest of the squares, and the project has languished ever since.
It’s just possible that we might be able to locate, smuggle out the various components of the project and do it ourselves. Uh, while I’m also organizing 3 of her parties, BoyDucky’s weekend, helping her plan the entire wedding, counseling and all that jazz, I’m going to organize friends who can sew to try and sew a dozen quilts between now and … January. Uh …. hm. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.
Well anyway, the idea was to have them all made up and ready to go, and give them to her to give out at her own shower, as if she made them!
I just found out that I have to fold 1000 paper cranes for the wedding, too. Or make that happen. I’ve already tapped all my go-to creative people for other things, I feel like I’m overloading them with things to do.
Oh, and for her wedding gift: I wanted to make a “behind-the-scenes” photo album of all the planning and organizing that she’s not participating in. Stuff like our creating her shower invitations, the preparations thereof, the quilt-making party if we do that, the actual showers, etc. It’ll be the companion to her actual wedding album!
What do you think? Too cheesy?
October 15, 2007
I love it when a lunch plan comes together. I confess that I’m terrible at bringing lunch because it involves, oh, thinking ahead, being creative so I don’t have the same things over and over, you know, that kind of thing. Invariably, lunch is just dinner leftovers, which gets really old and boring.
But last week I did really well. Over the weekend, Vons had their salads BOGO ($3.79). That might not be the best price because I couldn’t find a coupon. Regardless, I needed to bring a salad for our grilled steak dinner on Saturday so I went ahead and grabbed two Fresh Express Pacifica Vegetable salads. They’re great! They have the 5 types of salad greens, sugar snap peas, roasted soy nuts, and sunflower seeds. So let’s say that was $2 for the salad. I also bought two mild cheddar blocks on sale for $1.50 each, and picked up another onion. Turns out I already had onions, but that’s ok, I’ll end up using it eventually.
I brought the salad, sliced and diced onion and a tomato, a few eggs, and cheese to work. The eggs, onions, cheese and tomato slices were breakfast for a couple days. This afternoon I put together the salad with the onion and cheese (I’d eaten up all the tomato this morning) and made my own thousand island dressing with the condiments we already had, and voila! Three delicious salads: one for me, the secretary, and Little Boss. And then the secretary toasted up a little chicken pizza and split that with me.
We girls are all feeling under the weather so we did spend $4 each on a big bowl of soup, but we’re going to buy a bunch of canned soups for the winter and leave them here in the office.
Next time, I’ll remember to add my canned corn, bring more tomatoes, and maybe even a cucumber. Buying prepackaged salads has always seemed a bit on the pricey side, especially if I was the only one eating them, but split it two or three ways and it’s still 66% less than buying at $7 salad here!
Salad: $1.75
Cheese: (will last for weeks, I’ll add it to almost everything) $1.50
Onion: (dozens of servings) $1
Corn: (4-6 servings) $0.50/can
Tomato: (if the birds stop eating them, homegrown) $0
Cucumber: $0.80
About $5 for three salads? Mmm…. yummy crunchy salad.
My ride into work was in fog-shrouded this morning, and doesn’t seem to be clearing up anytime soon.
I’ve left my peacoat at BoyDucky’s apartment because I hate toting a heavy coat back and forth, but that leaves me with a plethora of not quite warm enough sweaters, a lightweight zip-up all seasons jacket from Eddie Bauer (gift from work), and my luxurious gift from self knee-length black coat from BCBG.
I found these two lovely midlength coats at New York and Co., a fairly nice business casual store, but of course their smallest sizes are sized for women at an average height of 5’6″! *sigh* They’re pretty to look at, anyway.
October 10, 2007
I know there was a lot of acrimonious debate and many complaints about the quality of E.L.F. merchandise over at Young and Broke, but coworkers and I recently combined our orders to test run these dollar products. It took the full ten days just to process the order, but a whole box of cute make-up hit my desk today, two days after the status changed to “Shipped.” Not nearly quick enough for our patience, but right on the nose for what the company states in their Shipping FAQ.
On close inspection, we’ve decided that these are just fine for a dollar. I love my new quilted make-up bag that will double as a clutch, and the lip products are all fun and tastily scented. Coworker 2 just started licking it right off her finger, no application needed. The brushes were approved of, and the eye shadow was deemed “almost trial-sized, but fine for a dollar.” (Yes, that’s a recurring theme!) I think the lightly tinted foundation-ish stuff Shielding Hydro-Tint SPF 15 will work out just fine, but I’ll wait until I get home to try out the liquid eyeliner. That’s pro stuff, so perhaps I’ll call up a make-up using friend for help 🙂 6 out of 26 items were out of stock, so we’ll pass this deal on to other friends and pick up our last missing items at the same time. It’s convenient to do one order because you save on shipping for each additional person, and always remember to get your Fatcash! That’s another 7% rebate, on top of the 1% rebate on my credit card, as well as the additional 1% flight miles that are redeemed for each dollar I spend. I’m still getting Citi Flight Points with my regular cashback from that Vietnam trip. Only about 7000 Flight Points left to redeem, out of the original 35,000. Anyway, I’m getting off topic.
If you’d like a referral, email me at (my name)@yahoo.com. I’d be happy to pass along any other coupon codes I get via email, too.
October 9, 2007
Tomorrow is payday. I’m $200 short in the expense account. The original plan was to take the money out of savings, and then pay it back from the expense account allocation. But since the expense allocation is calculated to exactly as much as I need per month for bills (aka: STINGY), this deficit won’t go away magically, not just because I SAY I’ll pay back the savings account later. I could rob the insurance savings account to pay the expense account. Not exactly the most farsighted option.
It’s not that I absolutely couldn’t take it out of savings. I don’t want to. You know how there are some things you do that make you FEEL like you’re making progress, even if only by hanging on tooth and nail? NOT touching savings is my thing. Feeling good doesn’t pay the bills, though.
There’s this upcoming trip to NY, as well.
Hm, this all came about because of that stupid truck, and my apathy in making good my threat. It’s only been two months, three counting this month, since BroDucky has missed payments, but that was more than enough time to eat up my entire expenses cushion. $400 a month is NOT pocket change!! Shame on me. Anyway, like a fool who doesn’t want to replace the windshield and deal with the car sale because I’m incredibly busy working on other side projects, I swallowed my fury and spoke civilly to him yesterday. The upshot of the conversation is though I think his “thanks for all that you’ve done and continue to do” is B.S., he’s starting a new construction job tomorrow and may actually try to redeem himself and help out. It can’t hurt if he actually does come through, right?
So, the action plan is thus:
I give him until the 19th to come through with a positive response. Meanwhile, I’ll research windshield replacement shops, and have that ready in case he doesn’t come through. I will go to New York and enjoy m’darned self, and spend no more than $300 and not worry that I don’t actually have it, because I will actually have it later. This will be my one shot at having fun regardless of when the money’s coming. This will be my play-money cut from the bonus, even though I was not planning on playing with any of that. It’s an investment in my sanity and it will be ok.
