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Archive for April, 2012

Another Payday, More to Savings, Hubby's Upcoming Trip, and Other Random Stufff

April 29th, 2012 at 03:03 am

I got paid yesterday, so more went to savings and retirement. I have already paid the water bill, trash bill, and bought gas for the car. I still have to make a payment to the credit card. I have already bought groceries and will begin my weekly cooking spree tomorrow morning.

I will have all-day meetings on Monday and Tuesday and the entire afternoon on Wednesday. Ugh. No fun.

The other cool thing is that I finally got my garden going. I had to work really hard to get the holes dug, Zoom fertilizer put in, and water and compost put in with the plants in. It was starting to pour rain when I had only 2 out of the 4 plants in the ground. They look great and the guy at the farm store swears by the Zoom stuff for making tomato plants produce lots of tomatoes. My goal is to become less dependent on the grocery store so that I can spend more money on getting out of debt, saving for retirement, and fixing up my house. Plus, I will be able to eat vegetables I grew myself that are not polluted with chemicals, so yea!! The weird thing about my garden is that I had a couple of four-legged visitors to my garden (dogs). I just hope they don't dig up the plants!

Hubby is leaving on a 2 day trip tomorrow at about 12:00 just after lunch. He should be back by the early evening on Monday.

Like I said, I have already done the shopping for food and such. After planting those tomatoes today, I was beat and could not manage to do any more cooking but make meatloaf. So, I will start tomorrow with making lentil soup. I will also making some tuna/egg salad for the hubby to eat as a sandwich before heading out on his trip. I will also make some spaghetti sauce and put together salads for my lunches. Here are my meals for the week:

1) Spinach salad with tomato, onion, and tuna or chicken. 3 meals

2) Lentil soup with ham, onion, seasonings, and broth. 4 meals

3) Leftover chicken noodle soup. 1 meal

4) Chicken breast and steamed veggies. 1 meal

5) Hamburger patty and steamed veggies. 2 meals

6) Oatmeal with banana, almond milk, honey, cinnamon, and flaxseed. Side of ham. Juice. 3 meals

7) Eggs and ham or chicken, grapefruit with honey. Side of ham. 4 meals

8) Meatloaf and steamed veggies. 2 meals

Conference Update

April 6th, 2012 at 11:55 pm

My hubby had previously stated he wanted to come with me on the conference trip, so I had budgeted for that (food for 2 people, etc.). But now, he has decided he doesn't want to. Yeah for me! Because I can eat where I want and what I want. Translation here: somewhere much less expensive. He always wants to eat at somewhere kind of like an Applebee's, which can be expensive. So, the cost of food will be at least 1/2 of what I budgeted for. So, whatever funds are leftover out of the budget I plan on sending directly to the credit card with no stops in between. I have a $20 gift card for Darden Restaurants, the company the owns restaurants like Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc., but I would really rather just go to a local grocery store and buy a salad off the salad bar. So, I figure I can get my first evening meal there for about $15.00. No problem. The hotel I am staying at has breakfast for free. I am also taking along some of my own food to compensate for food allergies and just because it's cheaper to buy them at a grocery store than most other places. So, I will have a small bag with 4 bottles of iced green tea, 4 packages of snack nuts, my travel mug, and gluten free oatmeal. My second meal will be a work meeting with a company my work deals with and should be no more than $10 or $15. The gas will probably be $50 to $75 and the car rental $140. My conference registration is already paid for. As much as I hate, no matter what I spend, I will only get back $122.00. Ugh. But I will also funnel that directly to the credit card.

Another Payday. More Debt Paid Down. Savings and Retirement Increased.

April 2nd, 2012 at 02:06 am

Hello, everyone. I just got paid on Friday. I have already paid the internet bill, the water bill, 4 other small bills, and went to the bank to pay the mortgage. I also paid the credit card bill, including what I had charged on it plus extra to get it paid down. I bought groceries on Saturday. I also set aside $140 for attending a conference I will attending next month.

Because it has been so hot here lately, I have been trying to do most of the cooking on 1 day of the week to avoid heating the house up too much. So, on Friday evening, we had spaghetti, and Saturday evening and Sunday lunch we had leftover spaghetti. Early Sunday morning, I starting doing the weekly cooking. I made egg salad, Irish stew, meatloaf, and put together my lunches for the week. The egg salad is mostly for my husband, so I doubt I will be eating any of it. My meals for the week will include:

1) Tuna or salmon salad with raw veggies. Side of nuts and orange. Iced tea. 3 meals.

2) Oatmeal with raisins, almond milk, cinnamon, and honey. 3 meals.

3) Eggs with side of ham. Grapefruit. Half of a serving of oatmeal. 3 meals.

4) Peanut butter and gluten free crackers. Cucumber slices. Side of orange and nuts. Iced tea. 3 meals.

5) Irish stew. 3 meals. Here is the recipe:

Text is http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grams-irish-stew/detail.aspx and Link is
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grams-irish-stew/detail.aspx

6) Meatloaf and side of veggies. 2 meals.

7) Hamburger patty and side of veggies. 1 meal.