More overtime...

Remember how I am coming up short $142.06 this month for my rent... well my first paycheck in May is going to have 12 extra hours of overtime on it, not 8 1/2... and if i estimated right, that should be an extra $170.00 after taxes (a paycheck greater the 1360).... which means that money will catch up the roth contributions for April and I'll still have $34.74 that I can save to go towards covering the double i'll owe my last month there!

Plus what ever money i get from house sitting i can put towards yosemite now!!!!

Condo's are dropping like flies

I'm have actually watched this 1 bedroom condo go from 220,000 to 166,000 over the course of its listing... which has been the course of my house searching BTW...

There are a lot of condo's to choose from, but sadly they are all in the same areas (which isn't a start investment option...) why buy a condo is an area where 80 other condos are also listed on Relator.com from the same street????? UNSTABLE MARKET-- that's what that means. Which means your property value goes down--- not up.

So who knows if i'll buy right after i get married or not. It might be safer i get an apartment-- work like crazy--- and try for a townhouse... you never know what can happen to the market in 2 years...

My House Downpayment schedule... Drum Roll Please

Here it is. The House downpayment schedule up to me getting hitched (i'll get married after I have the $50,000 saved up--- $40,000 downpayment, $10,000 closing costs and extra Oops thats a new type of bill i didn't know i had to pay...)

The amazing thing about this is that my man is on plan with this. He's personally paying of all his Debt. (I told him i wouldn't marry him till its gone-- and he has blown me away at how he is learning to handle finances... i get so excited for him and I AM SO PROUD OF MY MAN!!!!!!!!! He's also learning how to pay his taxes quarterly since he is a contracted employee instead of getting fined every year in April..... and he's also helping me pay for the house-- we collect his parents recycle and cash it in. We are probably going to go on Monday and cash in a good amount and i'll add it to the house DP.)

Now these amounts don't include any interest i'll get from having my money stored up (which means i'll slowly hit my goals earlier then the amounts listed)--- but this tactic actually helps motivate me along believe it or not! I see what that extra $10.00 does in the long run and it makes me more likely to save it instead of spend it. Here it is!!!!!!

• May $2,040.68
• June $3,031.08
• July $4,971.48
• August $6,911.88
• September $8,852.28
• October $10,792.68
• November $12,733.08
• December $14,673.48 <------- My annual Goal is to get this over $15,000

My Man Can Ask Me To Be His Anytime After this saying his debt is gone

• January $16,613.88
• February $18,554.28
• March $20,494.68
• April $22,435.08
• May $24,375.48
• June $26,315.88
• July $28,256.28
• August $30,196.68
• September $32,137.08
• October $34,077.48
• November $36,017.88
• December $37,958.28

1 1/2 years @ living at home with my mommy--- What she promised me she'd let me do rent free. But if i tell her i'm getting married that summer, i'm sure she'll extend it to help be involved in the wedding planning

• January $39,898.68
• February $41,839.08
• March $43,779.48
• April $45,719.88
• May $47,660.28
• June $49,600.68
• July $51,541.08 <----- I'd also like to drop this off by a month or so by the end of this year
• August--- GET MARRIED

I'll be using the money I get from my raise to start saving for the wedding. I will also Max out my Roth Ira for 2008, 2009, AND 2010 while doing this-- mainly using those extra paychecks 2 times a year and overtime and projected tax returns. Some of my overtime will be going towards my roth at certain points , other times it will be split viva the wedding and the house, or to future spending like Xmas and birthdays.

The faster I save, the sooner I get to be with my best friend every day for the rest of my life. =) not that we don't see eachother every day... actually we haven't been apart longer the 24 hours since a good 3 weeks before we started dating... and that was 4 months ago.

Phasing out Emigrant Direct

Well, i waited for Emigrant Direct to bounce back and redeem itself and offer a better rate then ING ... but alas, they aren't, so i'm going to begin to phase them out.... I have to admit, it is a bit hard to keep track of 3 different online savings institutions--- with multiple accounts at each... and I think i'd rather have just 2 institutions right now with the crudy market and everything and just send more interest to my House dp and simplify things...

it seems like everytime i make a whole bunch of accounts, i then want to simplify them all.... go figure eh???? oh well... i'm just constantly changing things up to figure out what works best for me. meh i'm only 21. i'll figure a system out one day.

I also put part of my emergency fund into another 6 month CD at ING because they bumped the rate to 3.3% for 6 months, and i'm getting 3.28% at IGOBANKING.

I've also decided the 2 CD's i opened with my short term EF, are actually going to be apart of my REAL EF. My Short Term EF is $500.00 padding in ELECTRIC ORANGE.

My Real EF is now $5,700.00. Short term EF is $500.00

okay, how i'm going to stay on track due to the downfall

Well i figured out how to recoup the costs from April's lack of rent. house sitting + May 9th paycheck's overtime= April's deficit (+ a few dollars... Etra will go to yosemite trip)

But to recoupe the costs for May is going to take a bit of time. (i get a raise in May but it won't show up till july/Aug... but they will retro pay me from May 20th... but that's starting my wedding fund-- same with govn't rebate check so this stuff doesn't include the increase)

• May 23rd paycheck 8.25 hours of OT= approx 89.00
• June 6th paycheck: 8 hours of OT approx 89.00
• June 20th paycheck: 4.25 hours of OT approx: 45.00

Plus i worked out a deal with my other roommate. I borrow my mom's steam cleaner and help her go to town on our apartment and she'll give me my $250.00 security deposit back because she's staying and just getting a new roommate. WOOT WOOT

$250.00+ 89+89+45.00= 473!!!!!!

Even if my roommate doesn't give me a dime, i'll still be able to max out my ROTH before the End of JUNE when i move back in with my mom!!! Ha! Eat that free-gin jerk!

kind of a depressing payday

my $1,189.21 paycheck WAS going to be split so that a large chunk went into my ROTH IRA.... but since my roommate is AWOL... I have to assume the worst. I have to assume she's not paying her part of the rent this month.

I have some extra budget money, but its small... They charged my account weird for Sparklettes this month so i had an extra $13.80 (probably cause I complained). I also had an extra 2.87 from my groceries... That will go towards rent now... I transfered the $600.00 from savings to cover DEE's pre-paid rent so i'm fine there, and there is $1.00 in my bank account because my church finally cashed my donation check.

($617.67)
I normally pay $450.00 towards rent...
($1,067.67)
The car crash fund is going bye bye for now... $188.24
($1,255.91)
The past 2 month's I've had some extra money in my gas budget... $52.03
($1,307.94)

Which means i'm short $142.06--- which means i won't put away as much as i hoped that i would be able to this month.

How i'm going to get that $142.06 back:

1. I'm house sitting and i know i'll get some kind of cash... but they probably won't pay me till i house sit for them in May.
2. I have 8 1/2 hours of Overtime on my next paycheck (May)... which means at least an extra $89.34

I know I'll have at least $52.72 from house sitting.

So for now i'll short my roth (savings account for future purchases), and hopefully put that money back by Mid may... So today i'll send $597.15

The extra i'll put aside for trying to cover her MAY rent...

May 1st I go to her parents and try and get her deliquent rent from them.

roommate

Still not one message or text returned in regards to contacting my roommate....

If i don't have her rent by the 1st (meaning i'd already have to cover her butt) , i'm going to stop by her parents house.... man this bites...

.... i don't feel good right now...

you know when you get that sinking feeling in your belly? I have it now...

My roommate (greek Goddess friend) I've only seen 2 days this month... and when I asked her if I could get the rent by the 23rd, she said no problem... and the 23rd is approaching and I haven't gotten it yet.... So I left her a voicemail the other night and told her to forget the ebill since she hasn't been there this month, but that I needed the rent by wed because i'm house sitting and won't be home much to know when its there. *** I'm crossing my fingers and really hoping that she comes through... because if she doesn't, i'm screwed....


Hense why I decided to only put 1,000 in a CD and not the whole 5,000 of my emergency fund.

Retirement

Since i'm on a retirement kick, for that City CalPERS plan i have that will one day equal 1.7 million dollars hopefully...For 2007 i only had to contribute $299.74 for the whole year...

for 2008, i've contributed $100.80 so far...

its ruffly $12.66 a paycheck.

that extra $25.93

gone...

21.67 of it went to groceries.... I cooked dinner at my Boyfriends house last night for his daddy and me, and i had to pick up some stuff to make it a nice dinner, and i noticed a few really good sales i wanted to hit too. Plus a lot of times he'll invite me a long to a resturant and then pays for me so it was nice to do something nice for him for a change.

Today, me and my BF are going to cash in the slew of recycle we have from his house and mine [we have my mom saving bottles, me saving them, him saving them, and his parents saving them too]...
then we're going to put the money into my account to go towards our future house. Should be a fun uplifting day.

----
on another note, since i didn't do any laundry this week (and that means all my work clothes are dirty) i got to wear another sweater to work i haven't worn in a while and i found out that it fits better now then when i got it for xmas... but either way, this means i get to take it home with me to my mom's WOOT WOOT.
----
I'm also unlisting all the books i have for sale at half.com and i will be making a goodwill run with them because they aren't selling and i'm moving soon and i feel the need to unclutter...
----
Also, I get a $25.00 rebate check from my Credit Card in about 2 weeks that I'm going to use over at KIVA.ORG to begin my small acts of charitible giving (since my church still hasn't cashed that check i gave them in the beggining of february) I'm going to buy a corkboard and some pins and mark all the countries after i give a loan there. and I'll continue to find loans with my CC rebate checks.
----
your should check out the walk i'm planning: I Think ISLANDS is going to give us free burgers!!!
http://ambellamy-womaninred.blogspot.com/2008/04/mvcc-hosts-first-annual-walk-your-talk.html

What I do... exactly

In regards to my previous post.... NKLSMOM asked me a question in the comments, so i figure i best post about it for clarification...
that's amazing. i haven't even started those kinds of projections.. what kind of work do you do???

What I DO & How it works:
I work for my local city in a gym basically... but as a city employee we don't pay into social security, we have the CalPERS system instead (so it can't ever go away and i'm really hard to fire too... CalPERS is also the same retirement program they have for teachers) The only thing that can change is the % of money i have to pay into it. Right now i pay 1% of my paycheck, and the city council has agreed to pay the over 6% of my salary... Not a bad match eh??? As long as I work there 5 years, I become vested and eligible. The longer you work, the better the benefits.

The standard formula is 2% at 55... which means if i'm hired at 25 and work there for 30 years and my highest annual salary is 45,000
.02 x 30 (years employed) = 60% of my highest annual salary
.60 x 45,000= 27,000
Annually i'd recieve 27,000 a year for 30 years which equals $810,000 (i'd have to pay taxes on this amount since its new income-- but i could count on having 27,000 every year until i turned 85).

the formula grows a bit the longer you stay working for the city after 55 years of age. the percentage pops from 2% up to 2.5 % at 65. It caps at age 65. But, since i'm so young and already employed, if i stay and work till i'm 65 years old instead of 60% of my salary, i'd get 107.5% of my salary!!!! But i'm also going to continue to max out my retirement accounts and the like because i can get laid off in the even of some really hard times... The longer I work, the more senority I get and the less likely that i'd be let go. So yea, i'm planning for the rainny day if all goes well and i get caught up the creek without a paddle

on the day to day at work:
I'm the girl who sits at the front desk at a local gym and reminds you to swip your membership card, grab a towel and drop it off when your leave. I sign people up, handle the front counter, I clean the gym, pick up trash outside by the pool, lifeguard a good 9 hours a week... and give all the guards their hourly breaks. I also help run the waterslide if were extra busy.

I'm also the "MOD" and run the place on the weekends.... so when the 16 year at the desk screws up, i fix it. I train the new employees, babysit the ones that still need help, and take car of all the daily paperwork and flyers at the desk. More recently i've been designing flyers and I update all of them too. Then I take care of monthly Stat and usage reports for the classes we offer.

Its nice because i do some office work, but i get to talk to members and since i'm a social person, (i'd die in a cubical) it works for me. Members get to know me, ask me about my life, ect.... and sometimes that's also the downfall when your can't stand some of the members or when your just not in the mood... you can't escape.

a light at the end of the tunnel

I'm coming up on my 2 year anniversary with the City I work for... and since i'm feeling a little down right now, I thought i'd go ahead and remind myself of the retirement figures that are reality if i stay with my job till I retire. which i know is really obsurd to think about... but in this kind of field... its impossible for them to fire me.

• If I retire at 55 with the CalPERS system alone (meaning no additional retirements and not a dime from anyone else) I'll receive 66% of my highest earning year for 33 years of employment. This would mean i'd be getting an annual paycheck of $24,585.00 a year till i'm 88.... which equals $811,305.00 before annual taxes

• If I retire at 65 with the CalPERS system alone (meaning no additional retirements and not a dime from anyone else), i'll receive 107.5% of my highest earning year for 43 years of employment. This would mean i'd be getting an annual paycheck of $40,043.75 a year till i'm 108 years old. ... which equals $1,721,881.25 before annual taxes

oh, and this figures that my highest annual salary is $37,250.00.... which is what I made last year.

I think I'll work until i'm 65.

I will retire May 21st, 2051

and if i continue to max out my ROTH while I can, That should be enought to travel with or to help cover the costs of the future hubby.

A lot of random retorical questions...

I find that when you start out okay with a budget, a good sense of what a WANT vs. what a NEED is, the harder it is to save more because you already are. When you have a level head, how do you still continue to find ways to increase your savings with only 1 job? What can I do better that I'm not doing now?

---
What many of you don't know is that for the past 3 months i've been going through my closet in an attempt to wear everything I own. If I don't like the way it looks on me or if I don't wear it by the time I move out, it's getting donated to my roommate (who's bearly here) or to goodwill. When I look at the things i've passed on to others, its mainly the newer stuff I bought and I can't help but get the feeling that it was all such a waste... Is it me, or are newer clothes not just what they used to be???
---

Why don't they write Personal finance articles for people like me... i'm doing good, but I want to do better... but every article i read doesn't really apply to me at all anymore. I took that advice to get where I am now... I'm done with school, I have an entry level full time job that lets me still have time to do what is most important to me, I don't have debt, and i'm saving for a house.... but the thought of living in a condo after all the hard work i'm going through to get a decent downpayment together just doesn't seem to make sense for me. I want a place i can afford, but i don't like my options.... maybe i'll just rent a small apartment or something after i get married and continue to save for the place i really want to live in.

Emergency Fund

Since i'm moving home with my mom in a couple of months, My REAL Emergency Fund does not need to be as liquid as it is currently... and i can get a slightly better rate by putting it all in a CD.... But since the money is over at I-GO BANKING i'll have to do it in small spurts.

Since i have money in my ROTH retirement, I took $1,000.00 from it and opened at CD at ING... and then transfered $1,000 from I-GO to ING DIRECT to replace the funds.

The new CD is at 3.30% for a year.

I'm also going to move the rest of the money into a CD since its a better rate, but i'll have to wait for the money to be in ING.

After the year is up, I may open a CD ladder.


------------
and that extra money didn't go to my grad pictures... I had to buy ink and some stuff for the WALK... so most of it went there... but I do have $25.93 of it left.... but who knows... there is still half a month left.
-------------
I also spent 57.06 to fill up on gas.... YIKES!!! $3.83 a gallon.... [i went early today before they changed the rate... the cheap place that only takes debit was at 3.79--- so that mobil i filled up at will be 3.89 by mid morning.... yeah for an early job]

Now what...

And I thought this was a better alternative to bottled water... What do they expect us all to do now?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24200402

All I want to do is be able to take water to work to drink and not have to use a dang old paper cup to drink it in...

First its bottle water left in cars will give you breast cancer.... Now my portable plastic bottle????

May Budget Grocery Challenge

I'm joining in at Give me my Five Bucks Back (http://krystalatwork.blogspot.com/) for her May challenge. Since it seems that i'm basically buying for two people now that my Boyfriend and I are eating our meals in and not eating out to save money, I need to be careful about my purchases if i'm going to keep it at $120.00 a month.

Grandpa Visit + Walk your talk walk.

Well lo and behold my mom wouldn't let me pay for a single thing when i went to visit my grandpa... So i'm finally going to buy my graduation pictures since i have the money to do so.

In addition, if you guys didn't catch the post about the WALK YOUR TALK WALK of Orange County... http://ambellamy-womaninred.blogspot.com/2008/04/mvcc-hosts-first-annual-walk-your-talk.html

I'm actually running and planning all the donations.... and i've been really busy as its the last month before the event, but things are looking really promising!!! It's nice to give back with my time and efforts. If your in the Orange County area, PLEASE COME OUT AND WALK!!!!!

In other news, with the slight up turn in the market, I'm finally breaking even in my Roth IRA.

Extra Cash... and where its all going

I'm house sitting for a few days in a nice million dollar home... The cash i get from this mini vacation (because its like staying at a resort!!!) is going to help me cover the $140.00 i'm short for yosemite.

• [we might be going with another couple, and if that's the case, they get to split gas and the campsite costs with us-- but because they are still a maybe, i'm trying to save the whole thing]

If i get a $600.00 check from the government, i'm going to use it to start my wedding fund. Then when i get my raise in May (which i probably won't see on my checks until August) that increase is going to my wedding fund as well. --- no i'm not engaged yet--- but he can ask me at the end of January so i figure i should start planning for it.

Any overtime i'm going to try and put aside for some birthdays and events I have coming up while part of it also goes to funding the house dp as well.

Sounds like a solid plan!

Woot Woot Got the E-bill online!!

Cell phone for the month was $54.79... Electric Bill for the Month was $30.41

I normally budget $100.00 to cover the two bills... so that's $14.80 extra I can send to the House... and I have DEE's $10.00 already so i can put that towards the house downpayment too!

I just found $24.80 to send to my house downpayment!!!! Yeah for cooking on the stove and not with the oven.

------- Yosemite --------

• I used some overtime from my last paycheck to cover the camp ground fee for the few days of the trip $100.00-- Done
• If gas goes to $4.00 a gallon, Yosemite is about 300 miles away. I'll have to plan for a tank up there and a tank back... So i'm going to set aside 120.00 for the trip for gas alone.
• Park entrance fees $20.00 per car-- good for 7 days....

So for now i need to come up with $140.00 more bucks (then plan food stuff)

Just so you all know how crazy I am...

When I forget an expense, I create a savings account for that expense so that next year when it rolls around, I have a better chance of remembering about it. Here's my crazy list of savings accounts right now:

Emigrant Direct: (7 accounts)

• Annual Auto Insurance Costs-- GOAL $0/$867.00 ($73.00 a month)
• Car Crash Deductible-- I just started this account, but my deductible is set to $750.00 right now. I put some of the extra money I had from last years Auto Insurance costs into the fund, and while i've never actually been in an accident yet, it's bound to happen eventually. I'll slowly build this up with extra money from my gas budget/ car maint budget
• Car Repairs-- i take my car in every 5,000 miles. I just started this account and i'm planning on calling TOYOTA in the next few days to figure out how much it costs for my cars next check up. (35,000 miles) Then I'll use rebates from driving for work related things and extra gas money left over to get this to where it needs to be. if there is anything left over, I trasfer it to the car crash deductible.
• DMV Auto Tags-- I forgot about this last year and in Feb/March I had to come up with $141.00. So i put 141.00 aside for this expense from the extra annual car insurance. I have no idea when i'll have to start SMOG checking my car. But once i find out how much that is, i'll have another account made for that. (I like to plan)
• Yosemite Fund-- I just made this account for my trip!!!
• Mother's Day-- I'm a horrible daughter and my birthday is right around mom's day and I always forget to put money aside for it, so I did so with my last paycheck so i'm all set and ready to go.
• New Car Fund-- My Camry won't last me forever... so the interest from all my Emigrant Accounts will go here. One day, hopefully it will be the start of my downpayment or something

ING DIRECT (2 Accounts)+ Electric Orange

• Roth IRA-- this is the extra money I'm setting aside to fund my 2008 Roth IRA
• Birthdays-- I'm hoping to take the extra money leftover in the budget from non car related things and set it aside for Birthdays.
• ----I have 3 additional savings accounts over there that are unassigned.

IGOBANKING (4 accounts)

• Emergency Fund
• House Downpayment Fund
• Wedding Fund
• DEE's prepaid rent

I figured out how to dispense my Overtime

It hit me last week that i'm planning a trip to Yosemite in June with my lovely boyfriend and I should start preparing for the costs associated with the trip, my first real vacation. I'm actually taking a week off of work!!! Woot for Paid Vacation. Therefore

• $118.00 from my last paycheck will go to Yosemite. This will cover the campsite costs I'll have to look into park fees, and gas up there and back.
• $70.00 will be kept for my visit to see my grandpa
• $50.00 will be sent to the house downpayment... because i love to see it grow to much not to. =)
• $50.00 will be set aside for mother's day. I also have a free 1800 flowers giftcard that I got from IGOBANKING that i'm going to use to send my mommy something pretty for mother's day.

I have more overtime coming in May because some of my co-workers are taking some time off to cram for finals... which means a lot of overtime, and I also have my 2 year review... so a hopeful 6% raise. Which I've decided to put towards my future wedding fund, that way I don't have to worry about it changing my house downpayment schedule.

I'm off to move the money into different accounts!

Money =)

My house downpayment is at $1,618.20 right now WOOT WOOT.

and i'm sitting on 288.18 of overtime right now. I want to see how much extra i'm going to need for my outting to visit my grandpa since i'm buying everyone lunch and for anything extra that pops up. At the end of the month I might take half the money and put it towards the house and hang on to half of it for a rainy day??? or possibly something else like birthdays or mother's day... but since i'm not sure what to do with it i figure that i might as well hold onto it and ear mark it at the end of the month.

CAR STUFF (INS+ Emigrant

I ended up going back to AAA because Statefarm Quoted me wrong... They were somehow under the impression that I had children.... (i'm 21).... =( So its AAA at $867.00 for the whole year (73.00 a month) oh well.

I also made all my Accounts over at Emigrant Direct Auto related.

• Annual Car Insurance
• Car Crash (Goal $750.00)
• Car repairs/Maint
• Auto Tags/DMV Fees
• New Car Fund

I took the extra money I had set aside and put $141.00 towards my car insurance tags for next April so now i have all that money up front... and 188.00 will go for my next scheduled maint. check so its in car repairs.

The interest from the accounts will go to my new car fund (not my house DP)

I also went grocery shopping on Tuesday... I had to buy stuff to eat what is actually in my pantry, lol.

www.freerice.com

I earned 3,000 grains of rice today for someone whos hungry.....and achieved a vocab level of 35....

What did you do for a break today at work?

www.freerice.com

First Annual "Walk Your Talk" Charity Walk and Family Festival Saturday, May 17th from 9am-Noon at MVCC Campus

Mission Viejo Christian Church is sponsoring a Walk Your Talk Walk on May 17th. This walk has a two-fold purpose. The first is to raise funds for Child SHARE and assist this organization in its recruitment and support of foster and adoptive families. The second focus is to raise awareness of the needs of the foster/adoptive community. With thousands of children in the foster care system and more coming each day, the needs are many.

The 1.3 mile walk will begin and end at Mission Viejo Christian Church, 27192 Jeronimo Road, Mission Viejo, with registration from 8:00-9:00 am. The walk will be preceded by a brief program with multiple organizations involved in foster care and adoption on hand to answer questions. A free picnic luncheon will be served for all who attend, with live entertainment, game booths and family friendly festivities and information booths, making for a GREAT family day! The full 1.3 mile walk will be completed by 11:00 am.

Walkers are encouraged to pre-register by calling 949-465-1940 or downloading a Participant/Sponsor form. Volunteers are always welcome to help on the day of the event, simply by signing up online or contacting Mission Viejo Christian Church directly.

At any given time, there are close to 3000 Orange County children living in some form of foster care. Many of these children are living in group homes, emergency shelters, separated from their siblings, or in placements where they will move multiple times. Every month an average of 165 more Orange County children will enter the foster care system, needing a safe place to live.

Child SHARE (Shelter Homes: A Rescue Effort), is a Southern California based non-profit organization, founded in 1985. It exists to challenge and equip local families, organizations and community volunteers to provide foster and adoptive homes for abused and neglected children. You can also check out

http://www.childshare.org/

www.mvcchome.org/305250.ihtml

Pantry Raid till friday+ "Wedding fund ideas"

I'm trying to see how long I can go until I run out of food in my pantry. I'm moving in a few months (I'm in my apartment for April, May, and sometime in June i'm back at home) so i need to weed out the pantry a bit. But just eating that stuff won't do well for the diet factor either.

There isn't much in there to be honest, But i'm going to see how long I can make it before I have to buy stuff... I'm hoping to make it till Friday. (why friday? Friday is Payday)

Which should be interesting as my boyfriend and I have become quite fond of eating in because it saves a lot of money.... so I'm hoping i won't have to go grocery shopping till friday... and then i'll hopefully buy things that will go with what I already have.

It's a mini Pantry challenge. I'll take inventory of what's in my pantry and i'll try and keep track of my creativity... (which is hard since most the time i'm working during meal times and there is only so much food that you can take with you that only requires a microwave, a can opener, and a toaster.... Should be interesting. Maybe I'll finally eat that darn oatmeal i've got in there.

Also, I think I need to start a wedding fund... Any ideas on how to save a few extra Dollars while saving for a house???????

phone broke part 2

Well i found out about 2 hours after that last post that I couldn't hear a dang thing on my phone when I called (or was called)...

Basicially it could send and recieve text messages only...

I'm glad my DBF is a pack rat (collector really)... I'm using his old phone for a couple of weeks and then i'll go and get a new one after the eligibility thingy is over with. Good thing we both keep useful things around and don't throw away old upgraded "back-up" phones for the providers we use. So now My phone hums the SMIRFFS tune when it rings... (uber cool)

Hopefully I'll be able to get my old phone again because I have the car charger and the head piece too (since that new law goes into place in like 2 months)

phone broke...

3 months ago i killed the cell phone insurance... Today i dropped my phone in the parking lot for the upteenth time... and its now being held together by packaging tape i have to press hard when i open the phone so it doesn't pop off... Lets see how long its gonna last now...

I got the following message on-line about free phone upgrades for my account:

You are not currently eligible to upgrade your device online. This
line may be eligible for an equipment discount on 04/17/2008 .

Guess this thing better last me 2 more weeks... Hang in there my little Pantech C300... (yup, its the go phone, but i have a regular service with it... I got the contract before they made the phone only for the Go-Phone Service...)