Playing Hopscotch with My Money

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.

Fiance and I went to a movie last night. We saw "Julie and Julia". It was my choice. Fiance ended up liking the movie- it was really funny. At some points, it had the whole theater laughing so loud you couldn't hear what was being said! Definitely worth seeing.

Yesterday I sold five books! One person ordered one book and another person ordered four!

Yay!

I made about $14 from the books, so that bring my total for the month to almost $39!!

I've made a decision about the textbooks. After doing a lot of looking on the internet, I have determined that the cheapest way to buy two of the three is through the school. So there goes $314. The third textbook I will order online for considerably less than what the school is charging for it. Tomorrow I will pick up the textbooks from school.

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.

I went to the student store today to look for my textbooks. I couldn't find most of my textbooks online and wanted to see the books in person so I would know what I was looking for.

Turns out a couple of my textbooks have access codes that come with the book. Now I'm not sure if I should buy the books at the university or online.

I don't know.

And I think I accidently bought the wrong edition of a book. I received the book yesterday. But today when I looked at the book in person, it has a different cover! Same author, same edition, same copyright year... so why the different cover?

Tomorrow I think I will go back and compare the book I bought to the one on the shelf. If most of the pages are the same, then I have nothing to worry about. The other math textbook I bought is exactly the same as the one in the store so no worries there.

Ugh. Why does this have to be so complicated?

I haven't decided yet what I am going to do about the access code issue. I'm still looking around. Maybe the publisher's website will have the code sold separately and I can buy the book and code individually.

One of the books that requires an access code I can buy as an e-book. It cost about $40 and if I do that, it is cheaper than buying the regular textbook and access code (or the package being sold at school). I am wondering if it would be a good idea to buy an e-book. As long as I get the right edition and everything I should be fine.

I don't know what to do!

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.

It pays to read everything carefully.

The dish set that fiance and I bought is made by Better Homes and Gardens. It cost $34.96 for a 16 piece set. When I opened the box, I noticed one of those subscription cards was included in the box. At the time I didn't think anything of it and tossed it on the table.

I was cleaning up today and picked up the card. It said I could receive a free one year subscription to BH&G with my purchase. I thought about it but decided I didn't want a subscription to BH&G. Just before I tossed it out, I noticed a little box of fine print. I read the fine print.

Apparently, if you do not want the one year subscription, you can receive a refund for $6 (the cost of the subscription). All you have to do is include a copy of your receipt with the subscription card.

So I mailed that off today. It will probably take a couple weeks to receive the $6, but I can be patient. I'm glad something stopped me from throwing it away. Makes me wonder how much money I have thrown away without realizing it...

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.

Ok, maybe not, but it feels that way.

I looked online for the list of textbooks I need. I need 5 books, and the total for buying them new at the university (none of them are offered used) is $491 for FOUR of the books. The fifth does not have a price as of now.

So I am going to look for international versions of the books first and then look on half.com and textbooks.com after that. I have a feeling though, that I won't be able to find one of them anywhere but the university. It is a binder of papers for the accounting class. I *think* it was put together by the teacher. And for some reason it costs $132! Crazy. Keep your fingers crossed that I can find cheap versions of all the books.

Last night fiance and I went shopping. We bought a lot of stuff and the total came to $100.96- the gift certificate was for $100. So we did pretty well. We bought:
-16 piece set of dishes
-Set of three whisks
-Utensil caddy (not needed, but very useful!)
-Hand mixer
-Sheets
-Trash can
-Set of three glass casserole dishes
And I think something else but I can't think of it...

I got a free lunch today. A local deli offers one of those punch cards (buy so many get one free) and I found one on the ground the other day. I added the card I found to the punch card I already had (I frequent this deli) and I was able to get a free sandwich.

I'm off to hunt down some books.

Yay for relatives!

My grandma and aunt have given fiance and I a gift certificate to Walmart. So the two of us will be going to Walmart later tonight to do some shopping.

July was incredibly busy. It really flew by and I just realized I only have a few more weeks until school begins. I can't believe my summer is 2/3 over!

I also paid a few fines this month. I returned my library books a couple days late ($1) and then the excessive use fee on my savings for excessive transfers ($10) and I just had an overdraft fee ($10) because a check was cashed that I was not expecting to cash so early. Oh well. Live and learn, right?

I'm hoping that August will be a little less busy. I haven't had much time to post or even read a lot of blogs here. I'm going through withdrawals! :P

Fiance and I have been living in our apartment for a couple days now. We have to move our desk into the new apartment this weekend.

I called AT&T today and ordered internet. It is possible to have internet without a landline. There is about a $70 one-time fee and then it is $35 a month. The service is month to month so we can change to a lower internet speed later if we need to. (For those wondering, I'm currently at my dad's using his internet.)

Not much else is going on. I haven't had work the past couple days so I've been mostly reading. It's been nice. I have several books on my Kindle that I downloaded for free and I have been meaning to read. Wuthering Heights is up next on my list.

Fiance and I bought a couple plants and they have died. They probably would have lived longer if we had remembered to water them.

That's about it for now. Life is pretty boring right now and I'm enjoying it.

I have been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog.

We are moving officially into our apartment tomorrow! I'm so excited! We have already moved many things into the apartment but still have a lot left! I say this a lot, but I am constantly surprised by how much stuff I have. I've given a lot to Goodwill. I'll probably be dropping off more stuff later.

For the first time ever, I had to pay a fee at my bank. I completely forgot that there is a limit to how many withdraws you can have a month from your savings account. I kind of went over. By a lot. I'm not going to ask the bank to reverse the fee as it was my fault I went over my limit.

Which brings me to the main point of this post... would it be a good idea to keep a higher amount in checking to prevent another excess use fee? I think keeping a $1,000 in checking would be a good idea. At the beginning of each month I would make sure there is $1,000 in the checking. Then that money will be used for rent and bills and groceries throughout the month. My checking does earn interest, just not as much as my savings. Would this be a good idea?

I better get back to the laundry... I still have several loads to do before we move.

(Removed for now)

Well. To make this post financial related, my fiance and I combined finances yesterday. We now have $9,100 split between a savings account and a CD.

We also need to decide when we will be getting married. And then start saving for the wedding. We both want a very casual wedding. After working numerous weddings, I am very sure I do not want a formal (or even semi-formal) reception. Have the ceremony at the cathedral and the reception at a relative's house is what I'm thinking.

So much talk of weddings right now!

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'm really torn.

There is a cooking class in three days that I really, really want to take. It costs $85 so I'm a little hesitant to sign up for it.

Yesterday at work I got $45 in cash tips, totally unexpected. I was thinking of using the money I got for the class and the remaining $40 will come out of the paycheck I get tomorrow.

But... I also want to use the $45 to buy some things for our apartment. All we need now is some kitchen knives. I probably won't buy a full set, but just a few knives to start with.

I'm so torn! Fiance says to do both, and while I'm really tempted to do so, I don't think it is the best idea. We're combining finances tomorrow so we'll have about $9,000 in savings after tomorrow.

I feel like I've been spending a lot lately. When looking over what we have spent, we spent about $500 on stuff for the apartment this past month. That includes a bed, small appliances, cleaning supplies, towels, and some plants. Even though we have spent a lot, the vast majority of things in our apartment are from family and friends.

Plus we will need to pay tuition soon and buy books. Fortunately, fiance won't have to worry about that. He receives more scholarship money each semester than what his tuition is and can buy books with what he gets back. I, on the other hand, have to pay a little each semester plus books.

BUT...if I don't take the class, I will regret it. I've been looking forward to it and the class won't come again for a few months. And my dad has like three sets of knives and has said that I can borrow some knives until we can buy our own.

I think the way to go would be to borrow some knives from my dad and take the cooking class. Then a month or two from now buy some knives for ourselves.

I have this entire week off from work. Fiance and I have decided that the 25th (this Saturday) we will move officially into our apartment. My brother and I need some space from each other. So this week will be spent moving the last of our stuff into the apartment. I can't wait!

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.

Today was such a busy day.

The maids came over early, which worked to my advantage as it gave me a jump start on my errands. After they left, I went to the post office, mailed a package, and then headed over to the student services building. I needed to get an official letter from the registrar that I am enrolled as a full-time student for the fall semester (my insurance will not accept a print out from the online registration). After that I had to go to the car insurance office to drop off some paperwork.

And then I went to the apartment, dropped off a bunch of stuff (purses, some clothes, the bikes) and did some cleaning. I lined all the shelves with shelf liner, washed most of our new appliances, and mopped the floor.

And then I realized I forgot to get a jalapeno pepper for one of the recipes I'm making this week. So I went to the store to buy one.

Yes, one jalapeno pepper.

I'm not quite sure how much I was expecting it to cost, but I was not expecting it to cost $0.02 (how much it did cost). I'm lucky I had a nickel in my wallet. I normally don't carry change (unless I find it on the ground) and I wouldn't have been able to use my debit/credit card for that purchase.

The guy ringing me up thought it was hilarious I was buying one jalapeno pepper. He asked me why I was buying one and seemed surprised to hear me say that was all I needed. He probably doesn't see a lot of people buying jalapenos one at a time.

I don't like buying things in bulk. It is just my fiance, brother, and myself (and soon will be just my fiance and I) and we don't need to buy food in bulk. Most of it will go bad before we eat all of it and our freezer isn't big enough to freeze everything.

Fiance and I have decided to go ahead and completely combine finances. He has a CD that will mature this Sunday so Monday we will add him to my savings. We might rollover the CD (with my name on it this time) or we might add that to our savings. We'll probably roll it over for another 3 months.

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.

Last night fiance and I went to Walmart to get a few things.

$19 toaster oven
$25 bakewear set
$17 fire extinguisher
$9 first aid kit
$20 5 qt slow-cooker (probably too big for us but fiance did not want to get the smaller one that was $5 cheaper)
$14 blender

We also bought some pantry essentials: vinegars, stock, rice, pasta, etc.

I don't think we need to get anything else. Some sheets, but we don't need to buy a comforter. Everything else we got from family. Including a microwave.

I put off grocery shopping and now I have to do it. So I'm making a menu for this week right now. Whole watermelons are only $0.50 right now so I'm trying to find recipes utilizing that.

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.

Wow!

The past few days have been such a whirlwind that I've barely had time to sit down.

First thing is first:

We love our new apartment! We have all the furniture (well, almost, we need at least 2 dining chairs) in place and need to move clothes and some random things. We've been moving a lot and have made a couple friends in the building. We've been spending a lot of time there because...

I am at my wit's end with my brother. I do not want to watch him anymore. I know my dad is coming home in a few weeks but I really cannot take it anymore. I'm thinking about asking my grandma to take care of my brother until my dad gets back starting next week. My brother has made it perfectly clear that he does not want to treat me well, and nothing my dad says will change that. I'll probably ask my grandma later this evening or tomorrow.

Onto more happy things...

I'm engaged!

Boyfriend--er, fiancé now!--proposed a few days after we started moving stuff in. He used a fabergé egg to propose. My ring is so beautiful. It is white gold with a sapphire stone and two small diamonds on either side. Very understated and elegant. Fiancé did a good job picking out the ring.

We are waiting to tell family that we're engaged until my dad comes home. We want to announce it to the entire family at once (else we'll hear "You told so-so before you told me?!?!?!"). We have told a few close friends- and now the SA community!

There is so much more to talk about but I don't have the time! I have a final tomorrow and one the day after so I need to go study (unfortunately).

What he proposed with:


The ring:

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!

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!

Today boyfriend and I finally bought a mattress.

We found a really good deal. Mattress, box spring, free delivery, and sales tax included for $299! It is a really comfortable mattress too, a Sealy.

Now the only other thing we have to buy is at least two dinning chairs. Everything else we are getting from family or can live without for a few months.

Unexpectedly, we are having a dinner party tonight. Boyfriend's two best friends (twins) are in town for only a couple more days (one is marine stationed in Japan and the other goes to school year round in Arizona). Because I pointed out to boyfriend that he doesn't have any more spending money (and can't go to the casino), he invited them over to the condo. Which is fine, but I have to somehow figure out how to feed 4 17-22 year old men who have stomaches the size of Mars on a meal that is only 4 servings (and I mean real servings- not the Americanized servings). I have a feeling I am going to come up with something extra to feed the five of us.

I finally got around to listing about half of the books I had found on half.com. I'll add the rest over the next couple days.

Two more days until we can begin moving in!

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.

I'm really starting to enjoy cooking. It is fun- a lot more fun than I used to give it credit for.

Boyfriend and I start to move in on Wednesday (I can't believe it is so soon!) and I want to make sure we have some things in the pantry before we move in officially.

So, how do I start a well stocked pantry? When I moved into my dad's, I didn't have to worry about that. My dad has pretty much everything you could ask for. All I needed to do was to keep it stocked.

I have a list of items I would like to get to get us started but I feel like I'm missing stuff. Any thoughts?

1. Olive Oil.
2. Canola Oil.
3. Flour
4. Brown Sugar
5. Sugar
6. Buttermilk (dry, you add water)
7. Apple Cider Vinegar (quickly becoming a favorite!)
8. Some canned veggies (tomatoes, green beans, carrots, etc)
9. Cornstarch
10. Canned tuna and chicken
11. Chicken Broth
12. Pasta
13. Rice
14. Peanut Butter
15. Salt
16. Panko
17. Oatmeal
18. Some canned soup (chicken noodle, cream of potato, etc.)

That's all I can think right now. These are the items I've used the most frequently over the past couple months but I plan on trying a bunch of new recipes (and making some of my own!). I'm just not sure what else I need. I would like all the items in my pantry to be able to be used in several recipes, not just a few specific ones.

Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died yesterday.

Regardless of how you might have felt about either, everyone deserves to be mourned.

May they both 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.

Yippee! After depositing my paycheck I now have $2,113 in my IRA!

Along with this good news comes bad news. I think I lost the debit card to my dad's checking. I can't find it anywhere. There is a chance it was thrown out last evening. Hoping to find our trash bag, I went to the dumpster this morning but it had already been picked up by WM.

I'll search for it tomorrow morning before class and if I don't find it I'll call the bank when they open.

One place I haven't looked is my boyfriend's car. I might have dropped it in his car.