Just barely though. :P

I have been so busy this past week and a half with school and work and family... I've been popping in and out, reading a post here and there, or reading a thread.

Last week I did try a new recipe, but it wasn't from any of the cookbooks. It didn't turn out too well. In fact, I hated it. Fiance insisted it didn't taste that bad but I think he was lying to me to spare my feelings. Lol. Tonight I will not be trying a new recipe, but rather a new thing.

Chicken thighs with bone and skin. I have NEVER cooked chicken thighs or breasts with the bones and skins. I always buy them boneless and skinless. But, it is more economical to buy them with the bone and skin still on. We'll see how it turns out. I've seen cooks add herbs and spices underneath the skin so I think I will try that.

School is going well. Info Systems is really boring but really easy. I really like my accounting class. The only class I don't like is probability theory. It is challenging, which I like, but I don't like probability. Which is a bummer because several people have told me to consider becoming an actuary.

Fiance and I are doing well with not spending a lot of money. We went to sushi over the weekend and got all you can eat for $30 for the two of us for dinner. We even got a coupon for the next time we go. But we both agree we won't be eating out again this month.

I will be sticking to Walmart to do my grocery shopping. Last week I went to a different grocery store that my friend said is really good and not expensive and ended up spending a little over $50! I got the same items I usually get at Walmart. So I'll be doing my shopping at Walmart for groceries, with the possible exception of fruit. Sometimes the Walmart here doesn't have the best fruit so I'll go to another grocery store (same shopping center) for that if I need to.

So far my half.com total for this month is $21. Not bad.

I think that is all so far... it seems so little to update on for the past week.

Every once while someone does something that is so annoying you just gotta rant about it.

That happened today.

Around lunch time I was walking from one class to another. The hall was very crowded as there were a lot of people in a small hall. The girl walking in front of me was texting and just randomly stopped walking.

I bumped into her. She gets irritated at me that I bumped into her (when she turned around to say something snarky is when I noticed that she was texting while walking).

Why the heck are you getting irritated at me when it was technically your fault I bumped into you? It is not like we were walking in a wide, open field of daisies and I had my mind set on running into you. Text and walk if you want to, I don't care. Just don't get upset with me when I run into you because you stopped suddenly!

Jeesh.

Ok, happy news!

A friend gave me a cookbook. It is a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It is a special edition and it features favorite recipes from the 1930's until now. Some of the desserts are so mouthwatering it was hard not to eat the page! I'm very glad to have this friend back. She was gone for two years on a religious mission and is now attending the same university as myself. She's really gotten into cooking as myself so we'll probably end up exchanging a lot of recipes.

I also bought a cookbook yesterday. It is a gluten-free, sugar-free cookbook (the recipes are gluten-free, sugar-free, not the actual book ). I don't know if I am going to go gluten-free but I bought it for a couple reasons:
1) A relative of fiance has Celiac disease. I was curious about what kind of recipes that relative could have.
2) The back cover really upset me. My mom had fibromyalgia, along with a couple other auto-immune disorders, and the back cover said that going gluten-free could help with that illness (among others). So it played at my heart strings.

My total for August for half.com was $162.88! One of my most profitable months! I even sold a book this morning so September is off to a great start.

As for savings... I'm not sure. Fiance and I did put money into savings this month but then we had to take money out because of school. So I think we ended up saving a negative number this past month. But that just reinforces the importance of a savings. We'll make up the lost amount over the next few months (hopefully).

Fiance and I have a slightly older TV that would need a converter box to get the over-the-air channels.

Not wanting to buy a converter box right away, we decided we would wait until later to buy one. It's only been a few weeks, but I must say that I don't miss it at all.

When I came home from school today I did want to watch some TV. So I grabbed my computer, went to fancast.com, and looked through the shows. I watched an episode of Psych and then watched a couple cooking shows. Sometimes it pauses while "buffering" but that's no big deal to me. It gives me an extra second to soak it in. Lol.

I returned the textbook I did not need today and should be receiving the refund within the next week or so. I'm not sure how long refunds take but I have my receipt just in case.

I sold two more books on half.com! I will ship them tomorrow before I leave for school.

Is how much money I have made on half.com this month. I have sold 19 books this month.

What started as four boxes of books waiting to be sold has become three boxes of books. I can't wait until they are all gone. Too bad I don't have a never ending supply of books waiting to be sold. Lol.

I will be receiving a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble in the mail very soon. I have a credit card with them and they have a rewards program where every 2,500 points (1 point= $1) you get, you receive a $25 gift card for the store. It is automatic so I don't have to do anything (besides using my credit card that is). And no annual fee.

I'm thinking a buying a cookbook or two with the gift card. My dad said James Beard is a great cookbook author to look for. I was also thinking of getting a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I could spend hours in Barnes and Noble (and frequently do) just browsing so it might take me a looooooong time to decide what to do with the gift card.

I called AT&T because I was worried about my bill. Or the lack of bill I should say. I signed up for internet about a month ago with them and no bill so far. So I called and the representative hunted down my account and told me they mailed my bill on Friday so it should be arriving within a week. If it doesn't arrive then, call again. I am very relieved to hear that it will be arriving soon. I thought I had missed it in the mail!

I did the grocery shopping this morning and spent $40.74. It was higher than usual because I had to buy cat food and litter. While there I completely forgot to buy notebooks for fiance and I so I must go back to Walmart again to get the notebooks. I won't buy them at the student store because one notebook will cost about $7! And I need 10 of them (or 2 five-subject notebooks...).

My first class begins in about an hour and a half so I have to get ready for it.

I ended up not going to the party yesterday. Didn't really feel like it. So instead I watched some DVDs, went on a walk, did some cleaning, and re-planned the menu for my housewarming party tomorrow.

I sold two books today, making $11.46! Before shipping of course. My total for the month is now over $120!

And speaking of half.com, I have a confession to make. I bought a purse. Well, a tote technically. I used some of the half.com money to buy it. It was $51, including shipping. It's a really cute tote and very roomy making it perfect for school.

One of the things I will have to get used to now that fiance and I have combined finances, is having to ask permission to buy something. Well, not really asking for permission but more double checking that he is ok with a large purchase like that (and he was fine with it). I have never really had to double check with anyone before I made a large purchase. With my parents, any allowance money I earned was mine to spend as I wished as long I didn't buy anything inappropriate.

Sometimes I wonder how people put up with me.

I am invited to a block party being hosted by a friend. And I want to go but I also don't want to go. I don't feel like being alone tomorrow (no work for me but fiance works all day) but at the same time I want to be alone.

I need to figure out what I want to do tomorrow... I told the friend hosting the party that I want to come but also don't want to come. She laughed and said she gets it and to call her when I make up my mind.

It is quite the pickle, ain't it? I just got off the phone with fiance and I asked him how he puts up with me and he said, "Carefully."

I sold another book yesterday and that brings my total for the month so far to about $110! It is a shame that eventually I'll run out of books to sell and there will no longer be any half.com money coming in... but that day is far, far away.

The weirdest thing has been happening lately. The past several weeks I have been hungry all the time! It is so strange... I haven't noticed any weight loss or gain. I don't track my calories so I am thinking I should do that- track my calories for a few days or a week and make sure that I am getting enough every day. How many calories am I supposed to get in a day anyway? I have no idea. There's probably a few sites that I can use to track what I eat.

I sold a textbook on half.com yesterday and made about $63 from that sale. That brings the total to $106.53 for the month so far!! I'm thinking of putting this money towards fiances' IRA instead of the textbooks.

I think I have lost something. I don't know what, I just have this feeling that I have. It is this nagging feeling that I have forgotten about something (either an item or an event or something else entirely) but I don't know what! I wish I could figure what is missing/lost/forgotten because I'm worried that it was something important.

Fiance and I have been pretty good about our fun spending. We went to the movies once ($18) and that's about it.

But school... omg.

Fiance and I bought our parking permits today. $200 for two permits for the entire school year. We went from a $200 permit to a $100 permit each. More walking but less money.

$200 for all of fiance's textbooks. $100 on my textbooks so far and I will spend another $3-400 on textbooks tomorrow. One textbook I might be able to split with a friend because we are taking the same class. We'll see.

Fiance has prepaid tuition so his scholarships are extra money. That will cover the cost of textbooks and part of my tuition (which is about as much as textbooks!).

I'm still in shock over how much my textbooks cost. In the past I have been able to get the textbooks for so much less. Guess I chose an expensive major and minor. :P

I sold another book today. I made $4.14 pre-shipping. Shipping will cost about $3. I'm going to apply this month's half.com money to textbooks/tuition and next month's money will go towards fiance's IRA. He didn't contribute to it last month. After we will probably use the half.com money for spending money. Every little bit counts.

Tomorrow I have to be at work at 5:30 in the morning! That means I have to get up at 4:30! Ugh. I like mornings but that is a little too early for me. This week I am working several days which is very good. My last paycheck was for $428 so this next one should be at least that.

I went grocery shopping today. I spent $26.48. Last week I spent $22.96. I have budgeted about $50/week on groceries so we are coming in way under budget. Next week's grocery shopping is going to be more expensive because I have to buy food for our party. I think it will add another $15-20 to our grocery bill, leaving us still under budget.

I have to do laundry at my dad's and I need to do a little bit of cleaning there today too. But it hurts to move! Fiance says the sunburn looks better today but I don't believe him.

My back!

My friends and I went up to the lake and I got a bad sunburn on my back. I did use sunscreen, SPF 30. Normally that is enough for me. I wonder if the higher altitude had anything to do with it (the lake is a couple thousand feet higher than our town) but most likely I didn't give it enough time to set before I went into the water.

I wanted to go swimming after I got home by there is no way. It hurts to wear a t-shirt let alone the swim suit.

Aside from that everything is good. We are having a house warming party soon and I finally have the recipe planned out. I am going to make Parmesan Mushrooms and most likely Zucchini Fuislli. I might change the latter dish.

Tomorrow I will ship the books I sold. I haven't sold any others this weekend so hopefully I will sell more this week.

I sold two books yesterday, bringing my total for the month so far to about $25. I shipped them today and spent about $4 on shipping the two books.

I decided to go through my inventory and double check the pricing on everything. I even listed another item (a video game- $17). I noticed, though, that I have a couple books that have been listed since October 2008.

That's almost a year!

I'm wondering if I should remove the listing and donate the book. All of my books are in 4 boxes in the pantry. I don't need the space so I'm not really concerned about getting rid of the books in a timely fashion. I just don't want them and figured I could make some money off the books.

How long is too long to keep something listed on half.com? At what point should I accept that the book won't sell and donate it?

Or does it not really matter?

Oh, I have determined that I am not meant to be a plumber. I have the WORST luck with plumbing and everything related to it! Our garbage disposal broke yesterday and it has to be replaced. Fortunately, we're not paying for it, the apartment complex is.

But let's recap the past year and all the bad luck I have had with plumbing:
1. My apartment with grandma- my shower was leaking into the downstairs apartment and the workers tried several times to fix. Finally they decided that it would have to be replaced. I didn't have a shower for about a month and a half.
2. A couple months after my mom died and I moved back into my dad's place, we discovered some serious water damage. Turns out a pipe wasn't installed correctly and was leaking. Mold grew and it took about a month and a half for everything to get back to normal.
3. And now this! Agh. Let's hope it doesn't take a month and a half to get a garbage disposal.

Maybe I should just avoid any and all plumbing from now on.

Yesterday evening I sold one of my more expensive books on half.com. My total for the month so far is $17.81. If I'm lucky, I might be able to off set the cost of one book through half.com sales.

I have purchased two of my textbooks so far. One I bought for $65 and the other I bought for $25. Neither was available in the international version. However I paid considerably less for almost brand new copies of the book online than I would have if I had bought them at school used. I can't find the other three anywhere, but I'm still looking.

A friend of a friend is an accounting major and has two of the books I need. I will be calling her tomorrow and asking her if I can buy the books from her. She might not want to sell them since she is an accounting major.

August is off to a good start so far.

I sold a book on half.com today. I will ship it tomorrow morning. Luckily we moved across the street from a post office so I don't even have to drive to ship the book.

I made about $5 before shipping costs so I am expecting to make about $3 in profit.

What is with me and books lately?

I found the book I had to sell and was able to ship it today. The book had been packed in the wrong box.

I had rented a few books from the library a few weeks ago. They were due yesterday. Guess where they are right now? On my couch. I'm going to the school tomorrow so I'll return them then. I don't see the point in going to school today when I'm going there tomorrow.

Here is an interesting article:

I sold a book over the weekend and was planning on shipping it today.

Only problem: I can't find the book! I have like four boxes of books waiting to be sold and the book I did sell isn't in any of them! I'm hoping I left it in the car by accident but I won't find out for sure until fiance gets home. I know it is somewhere but finding the location is proving to be difficult.

Ahh.. it is very good that I have until Wednesday to ship the book.

I discovered a big surprise today!

I logged onto my credit card website to check the balance and when I have to pay the bill. I noticed that the available line of credit was higher than I expected. I thought that I had miscalculated how much credit I had left (not that I would use what is left, I just like to keep track of what I have spent). But it turns out that my credit line was raised!

It went up $300, from $1,500 to $1,800!

I'll probably receive a letter from the bank in the next couple days explaining that my credit line was increased.

Half.com should be making a payment next week. For the first half of the month I made $25.85, minus whatever I spent on shipping (about $12 I think). The month is going pretty well so far.

For the first time, I have a repeat customer on half.com! Whoever it is, has purchased a few books from me within the past week and a half.

My total for this month so far is about $26.

Work today was a doozy. So much going on. We had a small fire at work today. Fortunately it was at the end of the banquets so all the customers had already left.

I created a file document of recipes I like on my Kindle. There are a few recipes I have memorized, but not all. This way I don't have to re-print the recipe when I want to make it again (pieces of paper do not stay clean for long in my kitchen) and I don't have to lug my laptop to the kitchen and awkwardly try to keep it from falling asleep. I can eve have the Kindle read aloud the recipe to me so I can listen to the steps as I go along.

I've recently discovered MineSweeper. I hadn't played it before a couple weeks ago and now I'm almost addicted. I think fiance is regretting introducing me to the game; now I'm taking over his computer to play it.

I was not expecting to have today off. I was supposed to work but they didn't need me so I got to go home.

Of course I won't get paid for today but that also means I get to hang out with my friends tonight. And spend money instead of making money. :P

Things have been going very slow lately financially. Fiance and I added him to my checking account so we can write checks for the rent and pay for groceries and things. Now we are talking about completely combining finances, having a joint savings instead of separate savings. We're still discussing it and trying to figure out if that is the right thing to do. We both trust each other with money and there's no doubt about the other mishandling the money. We're not going to make a decision soon but the idea is on the table.

My last class ended today! Yay! No more classes until late August; what am I going to do with my free time?

On the same note, I am thinking of enrolling in a cooking class later this month. It cost $85 and is a 2-3 hour class, everything supplied for me. It will teach basics of cooking: using a knife, etc. Perfect for me as I need to master the basics. We'll see.

So far I've sold about $20 of books on ebay. I have about 30 more books I was thinking of selling. I changed my mind but I have 55 listed (I added more!) and I just want to get rid of the books. So I will donate the books to Goodwill.

But better than nothing.

I sold another book last night so I shipped the two books today. I had to buy an envelope for the books because the books would not fit in anything I had (they were sheet music books). Total came to $7.91.

I earned $11.86 on the books, so my profit is $3.95. Not too bad.

Yay!!!

We signed the lease toda and turned in the rest of the deposit!

We aren't totally moved in just yet. We moved in a few boxes and I will move more tomorrow.

While we were moving, a neighbor was also moving in. Turns out he lives right next door to us. He is also a student at the university we attend and is a really nice guy. We helped him unload his furniture and this Sunday he will be helping us move our furniture.

My grandma is paying for a U-haul for us. So we will probably be able to get in trip. Which would be wonderful!

I forgot to take pictures of the place today, but I will definitely be doing that tomorrow. I have to go back anyway to return the apartment checklist and bring some more stuff to it.

I'm so excited! I even sold another book today! I made $8 and change, so after shipping it will be about a $6 profit. Yayness!

I've been doing some packing every day this week. A little here, a little there. Yesterday boyfriend and I picked up some glass jars for the pantry. I will use them to hold things like flour, cornstarch, pasta, etc.

I'm really anxious to move in. 3 more days! Wednesday we will sign the lease after my classes and we plan on bringing several boxes on the first day.

I sold a couple more books. My total is around $45 now. This month has been pretty good. I found about a dozen more books to add to half.com. I'm not sure I'm going to add them though. It takes some time to list them all but I don't want to put in the effort. Lazy, yes. I'm not going to give them away just yet. I've put them in the box with all the other books I'm selling for the time being. I'm going to wait a few weeks to decide what to do with them.

I think I'm going to make spaghetti tonight. I've been craving spaghetti lately.

Billy Mays was found dead today. Cause of death has not been announced yet. May he RIP.

Today I sold three more books on half.com to the same buyer. I made $8.12 after commission. Shipping should come to about $5 as I had to put it in two separate packages. If it would be cheaper to send it in a flat rate box, I will do that.

My monthly total so far is: $40.53.

I also listed four more books today for sale. Hopefully they will sell quickly!

I went to the school library to check out a couple cook books. I couldn't find them! Or, I couldn't find any I liked. The only ones I could find were vegetarian cook books. I did check out a few interesting food related books: Julie and Julia, Dictionary of Culinary Arts, and The Gallery of Regrettable Food. I checked out a couple others but I can't remember the titles.

The heaviest, and most expensive, book I had listed sold today!

The book old for $7 + shipping. After commission I made $9.02. I compared the prices of shipping it and Media Mail will be the cheapest. It will cost $3.16 to mail.

This sale brings my June total to $32.41!

I finally reached a decision about the parking permit situation.

I had two options. Option A was to stick with my current parking permit and pay $205. Option B was to "step down" and go with the cheaper permit and pay $105.

My main concern was about walking to and from my car if I were to park in Option B. Since a shuttle does not stop in that area, there is less foot traffic coming and going. But I went over my schedule for the fall and the latest I get out is at 4 pm. Even during the winter, there is still some daylight at 4 pm.

So I have opted for Option B.

I also sold another book this morning! I made $3.48, bringing my total to $23.39 for the month. I'm starting to become a regular at the post office.

Woo-hoo!

Another sale! Another $3.28, bringing my total to $19.91!

A conversation about my sales went as follows today:

Me: My books are selling so much faster than usual.
Boyfriend: Don't you have more listed than usual?
Me: Yes.
Him: So doesn't it make sense that the more you have listed, the more chances you have to sell one?
Me: Shut up.

Don't you just hate it when SOs point out the obvious to you?

Honestly, I'm surprised at how fast my books are selling on half.com! I'm very happy though- the more that sells, the better!

I sold (obviously) another book today. After commission I made $3.28. This brings my total for the month to $16.63.

I don't think I will mail it off tonight- I don't feel like driving to the post office. So I'll mail it tomorrow before my classes.

I sold another book this morning. After commission I made $3.48.

I'm going to mail it in a manilla envelope instead of buying an envelope at the post office. I had started to reorganize the bills after work yesterday (it is a lot easier than I expected because I already have a system in place) and while doing so I found a stack of manilla envelopes that I haven't used.

The book is going to CA so shipping should be cheaper than usual. I don't think I'll need to use Media Mail.

So Monday I will ship the book on my way to class.

Current June total: $9.44

My boyfriend and I both did very stupid things last night.

He left his laptop in his car with all of his windows rolled waaaay down. I left the key to the house in the door lock on the outside all night.

His laptop was still there this morning and fortunately nothing was taken out of our house.

Talk about lucky!

I didn't make as much on the books. The shipping was $3.15 + .99 on the packing. So I made $1.82.

Listing all those books finally paid off. I sold two yesterday evening to the same person.

After commission I made $5.96. It will cost $2.77 to ship plus another $1 for the package... so I'm looking at about a $2 profit. I'll take anything.

Boyfriend and I had a huge fight last night. We're ok now but last night was not fun. After we made up we went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream. The fight started because last night I had so much homework and couldn't make dinner or do the chores so I asked him to come right home from work to help me. He got upset because he wanted to spend time with his friends. Ironically, the time we spent fighting and then getting ice cream took more time than the cooking and cleaning would have taken.

I'm going to be so happy to have my dad back home and me be able to move out. I love my brother, but he is causing a lot of stress between my boyfriend and I. My grandma has said that if I wanted to move into my apartment officially before my dad comes home she can stay with my brother until dad gets here. I am seriously considering doing that.

Speaking of moving, we are getting a sleeper sofa from boyfriend's parents. They have also offered us an entertainment center but I don't think we are going to take that- it is really big. They are still undecided about the book case but that's fine.

Has anyone been experiencing problems with SA lately? SA and the blogs haven't been loading properly the past couple days. Earlier I tried to make a blog and every time I clicked on "New Entry" I kept getting an error. I also couldn't read comments on others' blogs. And the forums have been loading weird too.

I finally got my butt in gear and went to the storage unit to get some books to sell. I came back with about 65 books to sell.

I listed most on half.com. Several were not available on half.com and a few others weren't in a good enough condition to sell.

I started yesterday with one item in my inventory on half.com and now I have 56! It took awhile to list all those books... but at least for awhile I don't have to worry about not having enough inventory.

Now I just sit back and wait for something to sell.

Today was a good day.

My bike tire pump broke so boyfriend and I went to Sheels to get a new pump. Yeah, we could have gone to half a dozen places that are closer but Sheels is fun to walk around. We spent several dollars playing games and riding the ferris wheel. It's also near a beautiful (man-made) lake so we had a picnic.

Tomorrow we'll go on a bike ride.

I sold another movie on half.com! Before shipping I make $5.79. It will cost aout $1.00 to ship (DVDs are light) and I don't have to pay for an envelope.

I really don't want Monday to come. I don't want to take this English class. Unfortunately it is required. I'll just suffer through it.