3 years...

Three years ago today my mom died. I spent last bawling and have cried sporadically today. I didn't think it would be so hard this many years later. I think hurts more now than it did when she died because I had my husband, dad, and family. All I have left is my husband and I feel alone in this world. Does it ever get easier?

AT&T, I dislike you!

I have spent almost an entire hour this morning on the phone with AT&T wireless. That 50 minute phone call was bad enough, but the worst part was the customer service rep barely spoke English and would get upset with me each time I couldn't understand what he was saying in his very thick accent!

Anyways, on with the problem. I have an app on my iPhone that allows me to set up automatic payments to them. Well I had a payment set to go out yesterday since I got paid. It paid the bill in full for January. Well this mining I got a text from my bank stating AT&T had taken out $181!! I was really confused about that amount because my bill is always $147. I called them as I was driving to work and found out they signed me up for automatic bill payment and averaged my bills to $181. Grr! They refused to refund me my money, but cancelled the automatic bill payment. At least I won't have to pay the bill in march! Oh, how I miss Verizon!

Spinach/Artichoke recipe

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped finely
10-ounces of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
8-oz. yogurt, plain, lowfat
1 cup mozzarella cheese, low fat
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion
Garlic powder to taste

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine all ingredients; mix well. Pour mixture into dish and bake until warm (20ish minutes).

Sunday Night Chit chat

Joining in on the chit chat from http://halfdozendaily.blog.com/

Reading?

The only thing I've been reading is the LCSW study guide and my bible. I'm oh so boring!

Watching?

Facing the Giants in anticipation of the Super Bowl!!

Listening to?

Just got the new Newsong cd at the winter jam concert and it's been on repeat in my car.

Cooking/Baking?

Just finished a spinach/artichoke dip for my church's Super Bowl party.

Happy you accomplished this week?

Staying under budget!

Looking forward to next week?

The art of marriage conference and our church's valentine banquet.

Thankful for today?

This beautiful sunshiny day!

Still alive!

Still alive! Just temporarily forgot about the blog. We've kept up with out plan to not spend excessively. All the bills have been paid on time and without late fees. We haven't went out to eat or shopped for anything except groceries. We did go to Winter Jam 2012 in Evansville. The tickets were $20 total for both of us, we got two CDs for $10 total, & bought two sodas and a water for $13.50! My hubby did get a raise and it'll bring in about $200 extra a month and that'll go directly into the EF for a while. Hope all is well!

I love couponing

Just because I'm excited about this I thought I'd share it early.

Today's coupon trip from CVS. I paid $22.42 out of pocket, received $5 ECB and just mailed in a $10 rebate for my Brita pitcher...so technically I will have only paid $12.42 for all this:

That's 12/12 packs of soda, a Brita filter, hand lotion, mascara, and 3 hallmark cards. LOVE IT!!!

Weekly spend total: $1,275.24

This week we spent a lot of moolah! This week my grand total of spending was $1,275.24! This week was the first week of the new year that my hubby and I got paid so we paid a lot of our bills and bought groceries for the first time in a month. I had three days of no spending at all again. It continues to be gasoline that kills me. My high point this week in spending was getting free tickets to see the globetrotters and receiving free sodas there, so no money was spent at all at the event! My low point in spending this week is my meal at Taco Johns…I still wish I would have waited until I got home to eat.

Sunday: Grand total $1
Walgreens $1 on two newspapers (the rest of the total was paid from register rewards)

Monday: NO SPEND!!

Tuesday: NO SPEND!!

Wednesday: Grand total: $1,050.28 (OUCH!)
Gasoline $32.01 for my car and $7.91 at Taco Johns (I unexpectedly got stuck driving two states away transporting a kid & had to stop for dinner finally at 8pm). Paid cell phone & internet bill ($178.74), car payments for both hubby and I ($688), water bill ($48.42) & loan ($95.20).

Thursday: NO SPEND!!

Friday: Grand Total: $93.74
(Weekly couponing trip-includes everything in picture plus 2 gallons of milk not pictured) CVS: 13.51 spent, but I received a $10 CVS gift card and $5.75 in ECB. Walgreens $16.23. Gasoline for me $34.00 and gasoline for my hubby $30.

Saturday: Grand total: $130.22
Went grocery shopping for at least two weeks worth of groceries at Wal-mart $129.15 (used $27.85 worth of coupons). Picked up a huge bottle of bleach at the dollar store $1.07.

I still have another 10 days until payday and we still have plenty of money left in our couponing/grocery budget as well as enough for gasoline. We put our extra money into our savings account for the EF. Tomorrow we will be paying money for a marriage retreat at church and our church’s valentine banquet that follows the weekend marriage retreat (total is $70 for both). Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!