Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I tend to keep my decorations for minor holidays by my front door and in the entryway... but Christmas is another story and I can't wait till Thanksgiving to put everything up even though we won't really be in town for Christmas. SCB won't know what hit him.

If your wondering where all the "halloween" went, It was a marriage compromise on my part. SCB has grown up for so long with more of a harvest theme than halloween and he thinks halloween decorations are kind of cheesy unless you can invest 5k into a horror house... (He's not a bah humbug. He told me he would dress up, pass out candy, and even go to a party with me if I was so inclined...) 

So he told me I could buy new decorations if it meant that the halloween ones would find a new home... (which they did at work... I decked out the gym front counter). and as an FYI, these were bought before the dental incidents occurred or it wouldn't have happened at all. 

Weekly Updates (Spending & Money Goals)

Weekly Update:
Our week has been nicely average... Not too many highs, not to many lows... but what I'm loving is the fact that I have 2 days off this weekend... It's amazing! I spent Saturday morning cleaning my house and I actually got most of it done before lunch time! :) and Sunday I finally filled out my Marathon entry form and charted out my progress for the race and when I need to do my walks. My Friend and I carved out a good 6.5 miles too. It was good for me and I felt invigorated afterward as I polished off a homemade BLT (made on homemade bread with Harvatti cheese and turkey bacon). mmmmm

My husband and I did our date night mid week this week since we received a promo email from Chili's for Free Dessert and we had a Halloween party on Friday night and we hosted "church" at our house on Saturday so it was mid week date or nada. So since we have been trying to do more budget friendly date nights since we are working on the dental bills, we decided to go to Chili's and take advantage of free dessert. We kept our drinks to water and we each chose an item from the $2 for $20 section since you got an appetizer included and we liked the choice options that night. Then add the fact that we had our free dessert coupon and bam... a three course yummy dinner with no clean up and leftovers for me the next day all only $26.00 with tax and tip!

We also went ahead and cut the first mini payment to the dental loan for $200.00 since we received the first statement in the mail and it had the $312 deduction correctly stated... We didn't toss more onto it in case there are more credits coming our way and we didn't want to worry about getting a positive balance on the account and then having to wait 60 days and then fight the folks at wells fargo for a check down the line.

Weekly Spending:
We did our grocery shopping for this upcoming week on Saturday so it will go in next weeks update.

October 23rd:

• Fresh & Easy: $32.87

October 24th:
October 25th:
October 26th:

• Chilis- Date night: $26.00
• Band-aids & Gum: $4.10

October 27th:

• HOA Bill: $262.50
• Mini Dental payment: $200.00
• Cox: $41.57

October 28th:

• Gasoline: $35.78
• McDonalds: $12.01 (quick bite before our friends party)

Work Updates:
I'm really enjoying some of the event work I've been doing at work lately. While I might be working weird hours at times, I feel its something I can really just go gun-ho about and I like that my work has a great focus to it.

Apparently out of the blue they announced that 6 guys would be laid off in the Cabinetry division at SCB's work. Apparently the company is moving buildings and they decided it would cost too much money to move all the cabinetry work and re-set up the shop that they are just going to eliminate that department all together... Only one of those 6 guys asked if any positions were opened in other departments that he could transfer to. The boss told him he could create another one in the same area my husband is in (framing for deliveries) and the guy thanked him and that day started working side by side with my husband to learn the ropes. Apparently the guy spent 2 years laid off and looking for a job before he found his old one and he wasn't going to put his family through that again... even if it meant asking for a demotion to manual labor to stay employed. I know it sounds bad, but I'm just glad they didn't offer to keep the cabinetry guys on if they wished to do other jobs and then laid off the newer workers... (that move would have left SCB without a job).
 
Money Goals:
Dental loan: 100% Saved. With SCB's last paycheck (despite missing a day of work) we came in with enough to cover our dental loan. We will sit on the money and make small payments to the loan until the dental issues get resolved for the time being.

Roth IRA: $301/$5,000.00 6% there :) Hopefully we can see some real progress by the end of the year :)

Furniture Freebies

I spent all weekend cleaning our house when I wasn't working... and I was a little upset when I came home on Monday and walked into this:

After I got passed the books on the floor, the desk and SCB hiding behind it came more into focus.

Apparently his work is switching building offices and this wooded desk was bound for the trash heap. In case you didn't know, SCB had to leave his HUGE wooden desk with drawers and everything back in Utah because A) it wasn't going to fit in our home, and B) his parents weren't parting with it.

Since then he has talked non-stop about wanting a real desk. When we resurrected my old one from my mom's place, SCB was fine with it because it was free... but when faced with a free wooden desk option, all sense of reasoning was abandoned and telling him "no" was out of the question. In his defense he did ask me about bringing his dream desk home... and I told him that he should measure it, and then we'd measure the space when we got home and them drive up there in my mom's truck if it were a go...

He took that to mean he should strap it to his beater and drive it down the freeway home THAT very same day...

I walked into a house that was completely a mess (after cleaning it all weekend too) with my friend on the way over to join us for dinner....

Then he realized it was too big for the allotted space...

So I did what I could do to help him since I knew it was going to break his heart to get rid of it or "modify" it to make it smaller. I found a way to make it work and moved our smaller bookshelf under our bar area in the kitchen (since its also housing my electric keyboard at the moment-- We are loan/giving it to SCB's parents when they come out to visit. Essentially they will store it and use it as much as they want to until we ask for it back).

So now we have a HUGE desk in our little living room... but it kind of works and it makes him happy. SCB says I can paint it black after he sands it down if I want to and add little knobs to the drawers. What do you think, Should I paint it?

Why I Married My Husband... (Reason 2)

It seems like every so often I just get in one of these horrible moods and I feel like i'm just one more emotional upheaval away from crying a river and flooding the state of California.

Exaggeration aside, a few weeks ago I was having a really hard time emotionally. I remember vividly the time right before our honeymoon. No matter what happened that entire week I just couldn't get anything to go my way. After work one day I just climbed into bed and pouted. There is no other words for it. I pouted like the cute 7 year old child I used to be. I was upset from everything from the uncleaned bathroom, to things that were out of my power at work... I was upset that the laundry wasn't folded and put away... that my "family" kept stressing me out... and I just felt under appreciated as a whole.

I didn't want to cook dinner, clean the house, or even watch TV...

The final straw for me came when I got mad at the weather man. Yup, that's right. I was upset that I was teased with the hope of rain that never came. (Just FYI, I love it when it rains and it always makes me happy--at least when it rains and i'm not working outside working in it).

My pouting fit was not one of my better shinning moments... In fact, I even threw a stuffed animal in a fit of pathetic-ness (yes it made me feel better) before I hid under the covers around 8 pm at night and declared the day officially over...

Yup, in summation, I just wasn't feeling like "me."

This is where we all feel bad for my wonderful husband who was trying to just calm me down every way possible and was coming up dry. In the end he left me to my own devices while I tossed and turned in bed-- a whiny mess of hormonal wife (what he lovingly refers to as "bat shit crazy mode.")

While I sat clinging to the stuffed animal on my bed that I had thrown (and retrieved to tell it I was sorry) my husband kept going through drawers and both the closets on the hunt for something in particular...

He stumbled upon it a few hours later when he came to bed... and I heard it.

Rain.

My husband spent 2 hours searching for an old hand me down CD that his parents had bought for one of his older brothers when CD's first came out and were all the rage. It was one similar to one of those cheesy "wild animal sounds" or "songs from nature" CD's that are always on the store ends with the little "play a 15 second clip" stations...

but it wasn't cheesy. It was soothing instrumental music with the sound of rain falling in the background... it was so real sounding that I made my husband open the slider door and turn on the porch light to prove to me it wasn't really raining... (for the record... it wasn't but I totally thought it was)

But my husband made it rain for me... the sadness and crazy lifted and again, I just laid there knowing that this was another one of those moments where i'd look back on it years down the line and know that this was one of those reasons I married my husband.

If you like this story, check out my other post: Why I Married my Husband (Reason 1)

Friends of Fresh & Easy

If you have been looking at my receipts from the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed they seem a bit longer then usual... and not because I've been buying more food items.Yes folks, the rumors are true. Fresh and Easy's "friends" program has rolled out in my area and i'm really excited about it! Just so you all know, this isn't a sponsored post or anything like that. This is me just loving on a company for making me want to shop there even more then I already do.

So, whats the deal?

Fresh & Easy is now rolling out a points system with downloadable electronic coupons that are linked to a "Friends rewards" card. What I love is that the prices in the store are the same if you do or don't have there card. Other stores make you get their "loyalty card" to save money but at Fresh and Easy that isn't the case. You get the same price with or without the card, but by using the card they will give you 1 point per dollar spent in their store (kind of like the Ralphs/Kroger rewards system). Once you get at least 500 points, you go online and transfer those points into cash rewards. 500 points = $5 to spend in the store and each additional 100 points is another buck!

This month it's double points on everything in the store and with my 250 point sign up, i'm already sitting pretty with a little over 800 points. I combine this with their weekly coupons and everyday same prices and its just another way we can save money!

They also let you select a few coupon point offers to load to your card each week. They have 2 categories with 6 coupon offers and you get to select 3 from each area. Last week they had 100 point bonuses for buying deli meat or bakery items.

All it takes is a few minuets a week to do, and its saves us money. I give them 2 Green thumbs up for this one!!

I don't think I like California anymore...

I just did a mock run of our taxes to get an idea of how things look now that SCB has a real job. It doesn't look too shabby on the Federal end. We won't be getting gobs of money back, but a nice little chunk to the tune of $500 to $600.

But not for California... no no. We essentially will owe around $600 to the state. Why?

Because the tax rates are really high... and the standard deduction is really pitiful. From my understanding, you can only itemize your state taxes if you itemize your federal taxes... and since we can't itemize federally, we can only deduct the standard deduction from our state taxes and we fall into the second highest tax rate their is...

If anyone is the wiser about California Taxes, I'd love more information. I always end up using Turbo Tax for both because whenever I try to do it myself I always miss some huge savings somewhere that the machine finds.

but from what I gather, we will owe $600 to the state and that's just really lame. :(

Kiva Updates (October 2011)

Kiva is an awesome micro-lending group that allows people all over the world to give a helping hand and allow people to better their lives. I love it because its a hand up and not a hand out. To date I've taken the same $150 and turned it into $675 by re-lending it out once a loan was repaid.

New Loans:

This solidarity group is made up of three members who are dedicated to different economic activities. They live in the Las Delicias community in the town of Trojes. Doña Santos Ancelma is the coordinator of the group. She is 59 years old and has 10 children. She is a committed and friendly person. All of her children are adults and married. They help her financially, but Doña Santos doesn't like to feel like she is a burden. For this reason, several years ago, she started selling general grocery products and this has allowed her to support herself without any problems. She tends her store by herself and works from 6:00 am until 8:00 pm to receive deliveries for her business. To purchase other products she has to go to the market. Doña Santos Ancelma is requesting a loan to buy basic grains, dairy products, meats, pastas, vegetables, fruits, soft drinks, juices, bread, churros, butter, soap and other products. With the help of this loan her store will be better stocked and her customers will have more products to choose from.  Her goal is to keep her business going. Her fellow group members are Iris Antonia, who sells donuts and nacatamales [Nicaraguan tamales] and Santos Tomas, who sells pork.  This is her sixth loan with FAMA and she expects to make her payments on time.


Diamante Group:
Repayment Term: 9 Months
Location: Honduras
What its for: To stock her store with grains, food, and other materials.


Current Loans:

Juan Fidel Velasquez Lopez
Repayment Term: 20 Months

Location: Guatemala
What its for: Tailoring Supplies
Amount Paid Back: $0.00

Shamshad Samuael Masih's Group
Repayment Term: 13 Months
Location: Pakistan
What its for: Buy Goats for animal sales business
Amount Paid Back: $20.59









Paid Back Loans:

Atim Irene's Group
Location: Uganda
What it was for: To buy supplies for a medical clinic in bulk to lower the cost.


Eal Nub
Location: Cambodia
What it was for: To purchase the stall she rents in the market each month.

Karla Vanessa Montiel Barahona
Location: Nicaragua
What it was for: To tile the floor of her home that she and her 3 kids live in.

Rashidat Mumuni
Location: Nigeria
What it was for: Purchase more cartons of fish to sell. 

Seccelambras Group
Location: Peru
What it was for: helped the group buy grocery products and other merchandise for sale.


Dustmatov Eralboy
Location: Tajikistan
What it was for: a pedigree bull.


Paz Y Amor Group
Location: Dominican Republic
What it was for: Purchase products for her business (Fruits and Vegetables)


Mobateli Plus Group
Location: The Democratic Republic of the Congo
What it was for: purchase bags to pack clean water for sale.


Elizabeth Aidoo
Location: Ghana
What it was for: To buy Yams in bulk for sale. 


Zenaida Daing
Location: Philippines
What it was for: purchase a sprayer and 2 bags of certified seeds for growing rice.


Altantyya Lhasuren
Location: Mongolia
What it was for: To purchase meat to sell in her business.

Fight for Progress Group
Location: Sierra Leone
What it was for: to buy palm oil, rice, and oranges in bulk for sale. 


Siguikadi Group
Location: Mali
What it was for: to buy shea butter and plastic bins for their business. 

Obama Group
Location: Tanzania
What it was for: to sell water, juice, and sodas wholesale. 


Lyunge Group
Location: Burundi
What it was for: To purchase beans to sell to her customers. 


La Esperanza Group
Location: Paraguay
What it was for: to buy materials such as sugar cane, flour, sugar, and coal. 

Gbawulu Group
Location: Liberia
What it was for: To buy cement to make blocks. 


Hawa Gull Group
Location: Liberia
What it was for: to buy bags of rice, onions, peppers, palm oil, and beans. 


Mamile Orozalieva's Group
Location: Kyrgystan
What it was for: to purchase more cattle for breeding


Olga Francisca Cano Romero
Location: Ecuador
What it was for: To buy fabric, down, thread, fasteners, ect for her business

Janet Ajubyi Ayieko
Location: Kenya
What it was for: to open another 2 stores in town to sell her goods. 


Flores De Dolores
Location: Mexico
What it was for: to buy shawls to sell in nearby towns. 

Jose Elias
Location: El Salvador
What it was for: To install electricity in his business premises.