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).

Earned: $781.25

Saved: $323.90
- Savings: $202.44
- IRA: $121.46

Interest: $0

eBay Challenge: $49.63

Survey Money: $0

Overall a pretty good month. I can't believe how much I made via half.com. I hope July will be just as good!

May was a pretty good month .

Made: $724.08

Saved: $430.27
-Savings: $213.06
-IRA: $217.21
*I had to take $149 out of savings for the deposit/app. fee for the apartment.

Half.com Sales: $27.98
-New Average: $48.11

Survey: $0

Earned: $83.66

Saved: $24.16
-Savings: $24.16
-IRA: $0

Interest: $.50

Half.com: $0
-New average: $54.44

Survey Money cashed: $10

April was a "Meh" month. An odd ball really. May will be better though.

March was a pretty good month.

I saved a total of $349.88. That breaks down into:
-IRA: $131.19
-Savings: $218.69

On Half.com I made a total of $11.40, bringing my total for the year to $217.77. My average for the year so far is $72.59, above my goal of $40/month.

No no no no no no no no no.

NO.

A friend of mine, whom I do love as a friend, recently asked me for $100. This is the same friend who borrowed sums of money ranging from $20 -$100 from other friends and forgot to repay them. So when she asked me for some money, I smiled and said that I couldn't spare $100 right now. Mumbled some excuse about this and that and tightening the belt...

What I felt like saying was, "Are you kidding me? Do I look like an idiot? I wasn't born yesterday in case you didn't know."

Ah.. friends.

My daddy got into town late last instead of this afternoon. He, my boyfriend, and myself ran a couple errands and had lunch. The three of us will be going to a local sandwich joint for dinner and then ice cream. Brother was in school while we had lunch and doesn't feel like joining us tonight. He's being a party pooper but oh well.

Tomorrow is the end of Feb.

I have made a total of 11 cents in interest on my savings and 6 cents on my IRA. I have not sold anything this month on half.com but I was expecting that. I've adjusted the price on all my items a few times so I am just going to sit back and wait. If I find anything else to sell I will list it but I am not optimistic on making money in March on half.com.

Savings: $403.41
IRA: $140.00

Grocery Money: $100.00
Gas Money: $100.00
Spending Money: $75.00

Survey Money Cashed: $10.80

In a week or two I'll be cashing out another $10.00. I received a survey from mysurvey.com worth 500 points and my new total is 970 points. I just need a couple more surveys and then I can cash out. Yay!

Here is a quick review of my first month on the envelope system:

(The totals for gas, grocery, and spending are rounded up because I decided to save all ones and change.)

September Totals:
Savings: $337.73
Gas Money: $65.00
Grocery Money: $90.00
Spending Money: $75.00
IRA contribution: $200.00

The first month went pretty well. I like this system. Definitely going to be sticking with it for awhile. I need to change the amount I alloted for grocery money though. I'm going to up it to $100. I also didn't realize how much harder this is than credit cards. I've heard many people say that you really check your spending when using cash, but as with most things, one never truly understands it until one realizes it for oneself.

I also have wonderful news concerning my parents. My dad is doing very well at a new job and they are financially stable now. They still have a couple unpaid bills to pay off but they say those will be paid in October. It is a contract job ending in January but there is a permanent job that my dad is interviewing for. He says that the interview went really well.

I'm also considering taking Karate classes. I joined the Karate club at school (kind of pushed into by boyfriend, but I'm really enjoying it) and would like to take it more often than twice a week. Good news is that the sensei who teaches at the university has a studio and all involved in the Karate club get a reduced rate for classes.

Overall September went really well. I still have some work to do on making myself sticking to the budget but I know I can do it.

On September 10th I spent the last of my spending money.

$75 sure does go away quickly.

But I was also saving all of my change and ones (totaling about $9 from the spending category only).

I bought a game for my nintendo DS (Zoo Tycoon). I don't like it that much so I'm thinking of reselling it on half.com. I also bought another Betta fish and a fish tank. That came to about $30 plus another $20 for the game.

The rest of it was spent at Port of Subs. I have a break for lunch in my class schedule and I haven't been bringing lunch or a snack to school. I definitely intend to bring food from now on.

Even though I've spent $75 in 9 days, I made $96 in the same amount of time. Two more of the textbooks I put on half.com sold and minus the cost of shipping, I made $96 on the three books. The money from half.com is being directly deposited into my savings.

Sunday should be interesting. There is a wedding of 36 but they are ordering off a menu.