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Home > Archive: January, 2015

Archive for January, 2015

Car battery died and other happenings

January 26th, 2015 at 02:38 pm

Yesterday when I went to leave to go grocery shopping, my car wouldn't start. My hubby is now working a new schedule (Sunday through Wednesday 10 hour days) and wasn't home. So I called him and he figured it was the battery and said he would leave work early and get it fixed for me..he rocks! He called O'Reilly's and found they had a battery for $140....he also found a coupon online for $99! Yippe! It's all fixed...he said they seemed annoyed that he had the coupon...oh well...it's not his fault they put out coupons. I guess they hope nobody will be smart enough to look around for coupons?

My parents live a mile from me and my mom was sweet enough to come and get me and take me to the grocery store...I treated her to Starbucks as a thank you.

Since my hubby is now working Sundays, instead of being grumpy about it (thank goodness I work 1/2 days on Fridays), I decided if I didn't have plans on Sundays, I would make it my day to do projects around the house (in addition to regular things that need to get done)......yesterday's project was to clean the fridge and freezer. They look so much better now!

I've got lots of other projects on my list to cross off..and add as they come up.

Resisted temptation/hubby's in Japan/fitness update

January 14th, 2015 at 02:42 pm

Hubby left last Sunday for a work trip to Japan, so I've been on my own since then. Last night after the gym, I was tempted to stop and get take out. I was proud of myself for not doing it. I did splurge on Sunday at got Panera for dinner and grabbed a sandwich there for lunch on Monday.

Last week we were really bad about hitting the gym, so I've renewed my commitment so getting there at least 4 times a week. I stopped Monday and Tuesday this week and walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes. I bought a new (cheap) pedometer to help track my steps. I'm aiming for 10K steps a day, but with a desk job it makes it harder. Luckily I work upstairs in our building so I make about 10 trips down the stairs every day. Hitting the gym is a huge step to meeting that goal. I hit 8667 steps on Monday and 9000 on Tuesday. I'm excited to see what I can get to today!

I hope everyone else's fitness (and financial) goals are going well!

Gift Card Roundup

January 5th, 2015 at 03:14 am

As of today:

Quick Lane Rebate (from tire purchase last year) $1.50

Dutch Bro's coffee $7.00

Starbucks $10.00

Macy's $9.01/$10.26/$50.00

Kohl's $9.50/$25.00

I'm hanging on to my clothing cards to purchase items for Spring/Summer.

Happy New Year and updates

January 2nd, 2015 at 03:36 am

Been a bad blogger these past few months but hope to keep it up much better.

We ended the year on a pretty good note. DH received a 3% raise effective next paycheck. I received $1000 Christmas bonus at work, and finally, my very generous parents gifted us at Christmas, $14,500.

We also met our goals, with the exception of paying off the credit line. This was from last year's bathroom/laundry room update. It was almost paid off and we decided to remodel our mater bath. In October, the balance was about $3000. We added $14,000 to that that by the beginning of December. However, with some diligence,(and using some of the money from my parents) as of January 1st, it is $10,000.

I will blog about the bathroom remodel in another post. I am excited to share how we cash flowed a big portion of that.

We also had our water heater replaced the day after Christmas. It was 17 1/2 years old. As the girls have been in and out for the holiday break for Christmas, we discovered when all 4 of us needed to shower one after the other, some people were getting cool water. DH found a good deal on a new water heater from Lowe's, and for opening a Lowe's card, we saved $80 (and it will be paid in full when the bill comes) and we will also receive a refund of $125 as it is an energy saving model.

2015 goals include: paying of the credit line ($10,000)....getting the mortgage down to $100K (currently at $112K) and cash flowing a new roof in the Spring/Summer(amount unknown....5 to 7K).

That's it for now...off to update the sidebar.

Wishing everyone a Happy and prosperous New Year and good thoughts for meeting our goals!