I will sure miss my printable coupons.

I JUST realized that I am going to soon lose a source of printable coupons!!

For the last I don't know how many years, I have had a nice color deskjet printer on my desk at work. In my lovely cube, with enough privacy to print any printable coupons that I found and needed. Then if it was a really good one, I could print a second one or two at home after work. This has worked out well for me for years.

Now, our company is moving to a new building....with no cubes...and no printers on desks. We will be working in an "open environment" at "workstations" instead of in cubicles. They look like this:

The only diffenence is that several of the people in my group have dual monitors, so there will be 2 monitors, but other than that, the above is it. I am adaptable...I can adapt to this. After all, years ago, I left a job with a nice office to come to one in a cubicle. (Better job at least.) And I adaptad. My boss and one co-worker, on the other hand, HATE the idea. My boss is leaving an office to this! At least he will be on an end pod, near windows.

Anyway, we will have printers to use, but I think that it might not be the wisest thing to print coupons and race the printer hoping no one would see them first. LOL!

Though, depending on what lunchtime looks like in the new building, I might be able to print someme then. That is when I print them now, as I TRY to limit my internet surfing to my lunchtime, which is pretty flexible. LOL!

So, I may look my extra printable coupon source. Bummer.

On a bright note, I got a perfect attendance award at work for the 4th Quarter of 2010. Accompanying the certificate was a most lovely $100 American Express giftcheck.

Of course, it is going in the bank.

Happy Monday, all!

We had a a really nice weekend and I am looking for a pretty calm week.

On Saturday, Hubby and I went to Dollar General for some stock up items. I had a $5 orr $25 coupon and knowing that we were going to shop there anyway, might as well go when the coupon was good. LOL! Sometimes, Hubby will just run there during the week and pick up any items that we need, that we usually buy from there. This time, I told him we had to go on Saturday to use the coupon. LOL!

Then we went to eat a a local BBQ place that Hubby had found a coupon for. It was yummy! The evening was just spent relaxing.

Yesterday, I watched some tv in the morning, then went to the grocery store. I didn't have a big list. but got some deals and a few necessities. I still managed to spend $63. What is up with that??? Still, everythin I got we need and will get used. Our bill is about the same amount as it has been for a while, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Especially since I pick up a few care package items for Chance on every trip. I boxed a good one up for him yesterday and Hubby will mail it today.
 
I spent the evening working on our computer. We have had it a couple of years and, though it is still a kick ass computer, it has been slowing down and having some errors. So I decided to recover it back to factory condition. Of course, that entails backing everything up and deciding what will and will not go back on it. I finished the recovery but did not play on it last night. I made sure we could access the internet and that our favorites were reinstalled, so Hubby could use the internet today.
 
I still have a lot more work to do, but we are getting there.
 
Happy Monday everyone!

So much for saving money this month.

Since we have had several months of spending like we had money. Well, we did have it...I just didn't want to spend it. I think that makes me a Scrooge, but I don't care. I overcame myself and did spend it.

So, this monthy, I wanted us to be on a money diet and only spend what was necessary. There was no real plan, just not to spend like crazy.

Well, Hubby went camping 2 weekends. Admittedly, he spent "his" money. Money earned from selling on ebay. Really, all our money is "our" money, but he opened an account to do ebay and it is for him to play with with my blessing.

For a couple of month's Hubby's brakes have been squeaking. Not squealing, not terribly loud. But it bothers me. It doesn't bother him...he just turns up the radio. But I hate it, since it makes us sound like people that cannot maintain their cars. Or worse, people that don't care if they maintain their cares. So, we made an appointment and took it in this morning.

We go to Brake Check. We LOVE our Brake Check. They take great care of our vehicles and their prices are very reasonable in our area. We had a major brake overhaul a couple of years ago, I think. It was all "lifetime warrantied", so I knew it would not cost us a fortune this time.

We took it in and left it and I got a call a couple of hours later with the verdict. $438. Ugh! But for that amount, we are getting:
1 new rear drum (apparently Hubby went through a pothole or something and it dented the drum.)
1 rear drum resurfaced
2 front brakes resurfaced
1 brake flush
1 serpentine belt
4 spark plugs (mighty pricey ones at that, but we HAVE replaced them before and they are pricey)
Spark plug wires.

The brake part isn't that bad, but since the car has almost 97,000 miles on it, they recommended new spark plugs and wires. We have never replaced the wires, so it was time. We also needed a new drive belt since the current one is cracked. Since we had bought one for a different car several years ago I knew that they were not cheap, but it is only costing $57. Hmm....maybe the other one was not cheap because it was done somewhere else. There is also labor on the warranty work. But at least we don't have to pay for parts. I was really not too upset at the cost. We have had nothing, except oil changes, done to this car for the last year and a half, so I won't complain at all.

But I can whine a little that my money diet was sidetracked this month. I guess we will have to try harder the rest of the month and let it carry over to next month.

How did all that stuff fit in there?

Happy Monday, everyone!

I did not reorganize my stockpile as I mentioned last week. Instead, I finished weeding out clothing. I tackled my dresser drawers and the shoe graveyard under my bed. I have 4 dresser drawers and cannot believe the amount of things I had in there that I did not need anymore. Old raggedy pjs that I don't wear anymore, socks I don't like, purses I will never use again and bras that do not fit.

Why did I keep bras that were too small?? Ummm because I might fit back into them someday? I don't even know. But I loaded up a kitchen trash back of clothes, purses and shoes to be donated. And a small plastic grocery bag of stuff went to the dumpster. I will not donate old socks, even if they are not raggedy. They are not pristine and white, so they were not donate worthy. I never liked the style...they were not comfortable...but just never threw them away. That was just silly.

I also had a bunch of pairs of gloves...new ones. My mom would send me a pair or two every winter and they just don't wear out. So I had quite a few pairs.

I referred to the shoe graveyard under my bed. That is where shoes that I don't like, but were in too good a shape to throw away lived. One pair I wore once. They were not comfortable, so I left them under the bed. Silly me. They, and a couple other pairs, are being donated. Now all that is under the bed is jam. LOL!

I ran to Walgreens and Kroger on Saturday. I stocked up a bunch of things from Walgreens to sent in care packages to Chance. I did one order of the stuff that would get RRs, then did a second order that had no RR items and used the RRs to pay. That way I don't have to worry about getting back there within 2 weeks. I spent $27, but saved $70. I know I could have spent less, but Chance doesn't ask for much, so I willingly spend a little extra for things he does really like.

My Kroger bill would have been pretty low, but Hubby had asked me to buy some ground beef, since we were out. (No good sales in a while.) I did not even KNOW it was on sale for $1.57/lb. Not cheap, but cheaper than it has been in a while. So, I bought 15 lbs. I may go by today or tomorrow and get a little more. I have not decided. I really miss $.99/lb ground beef.

I took my girlfriend to see Black Swan, and I loved it as much the second time as I did the first time. Then we went to eat a late lunch at Chilis. It was yummy.

The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing. I love those kinds of weekends.

Alone again....

naturally.

Anyone remember THAT song? LOL!

Hubby has gone camping again. "There are 4 football games on this weekend." Ummmm...okay.

He actually made this reservation several months ago and this week decided to cancel it since he just went last weekend. But, if he canceled this week, he would have lost the money he already paid for the reservation. I told him I didn't mind if he went. I am not afraid to be alone.

Since he will be gone, that derails my idea of going through all our books this weekend. He needs to be there, as a lot of them are his. So, I think I will be cleaning out and organizing my HBA stockpile. It currently lives under the counter in our second bathroom and it is pretty disorganized. I will pull everything out and put back in a nice orderly fashion. I think there is probably some stuff I can donate as well. We seem to have a TON of lotion and haven't bought any for years. Clearly we do not use as much lotion as I thought we did when purchasing. It will also make it easier to know what we have and where there are holes.

I will also spend much time relaxing. LOL! I will of course have to go to the grocery store and I have a list of Walgreens deals to pick up. But I think that will be the extent of my travel away from home on Saturday.

Sunday, I am taking my girlfriend to either lunch or dinner and to see Black Swan. Her birthday is next Monday, so we are celebrating a little.

Happy weekend to all!

More Decluttering

This weekend, Hubby went camping for 3 days, so I decided to do some more decluttering. Yesterday, I went to work our master bath sink. I was pretty ruthless and filled up a plastic grocery bag with stuff to donate and another one with stuff to trash. (No one wants my grubby old makeup bags.) Would you believe we had SIX bags of cotton balls??? For some reason, Hubby would forget to take cotton balls when he went camping and then would stop somewhere and buy them. I condenced them and now have 3 bags. I told Hubby not to buy ANY MORE cotton balls. It is nice and roomy now. I found that we had a plastic shoe box FULL of travel size and hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, etc. I am going to figure out a place to put those so that we remember to use them when we go on trips.

Then, I tackled the drawers of my nightstand. I just throw stuff in them and have not gone through them since we moved. LOL! I don't know how the stuff in there seemed to accumulate like it does. Most of the stuff in there that needed to come out was just stuff to go to the dumpster. I did have fun reading through cards and letters that Hubby has sent/given me over the years. Yes, I keep them. I also had some cards and special notes from the kids. They are all still in there, but both drawers are much neater and less cluttered.

I told Hubby we need to tackle our book collection next. Though they are out of the way and neatly organized on multiple bookshelves, it is time to go through them. We plan to move to a downstairs apartment next year and I don't want to pay someone to move 30 boxes of books. I know I can find a home for some of our beloved books. I rarely read books more than once, so I will keep a few. Hubby reads some over and over again, so of course we will keep them. But the "meh" books can go to new homes.

So, that was my productive Sunday. Oh, and I also did some laundry. (Saturday was running errand day.)

Inspired by Sluggy

Inspired by so many of Slugmama's posts about cleaning, decluttering and donating, Hubby and I started off the year by cleaning!

Well, first the big New Year's celebration. I was off on New Year's Eve, so Hubby and I went out for lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet. He loves to go when I have a weekday off and surprisingly, even with all the days off I took last month, we did not go until New Year's Eve. After eating, we went to the grocery store. Yes, I allowed Hubby in the grocery store. LOL! We did our weekly shopping to get it out of the way and Hubby did NOT make us go over my comfortable amount. (I won't call it a budget, since it is rather flexible, but I prefer to keep it around $50 -$60 a week. Note to self: Never go to the grocery store on New Year's Eve. I don't know why so many people were there. They were neither buying party stuff or using up about to expire coupons. They were just shopping.

We relaxed the afternoon away, then went out to eat Mexican Food....our traditional New Year's Eve "out." But afterward, instead of going home, we went to the movies and saw The King's Speech. Excellent movie! We got home around 10:30, but I was wired from drinking "leaded" iced tea at dinner, so I stayed up until about 2am. I got to welcome in the new year at midnight. WooHoo! Sometimes Hubby and I are asleep before then. LOL!

New Year's Day, we planned to just hang out all day. But I decided to start taking down the Christmas tree. I told Hubby that while I was at it, I would go through the 6 boxes of Christmas stuff we had and see if there was anything I could weed out. I ended up with 2 boxes to donate and our decorations are down to 4 boxes. Yeah! (This was what was inspired by Sluggy.)

Sunday, Hubby decided he was inspired to clean out the second bedroom closet. It is just used for storage and it is where the ebay stuff lives. We ended up being pretty ruthless with stuff and bagged up 4 bags of donations. 4 tall white kitchen trash bags, not some little bags. I was impressed with our donate pile!

Usually, we do this kind of thing when we are getting ready to move, but we haven't moved in a while, so I guess it was time. And lest anyone think our timing was bad and we should have donated a couple days earlier for the tax deduction...we don't do that. When we want to get rid of stuff, we don't mess with receipts and lists and stuff. We are just keeping it from the landfills.

Thanks for the year long inspiration, Sluggy1

FREE ebook 1/5/11 only! Debt Free for Life

I just got an email about being able to get a free download of David Bach's Debt Free for Life . I haven't read it yet but it got some good reviews on Amazon.com. 

I figure we might learn something and it's free! Go get it!