A Little Assistance Please?
ARG! Can someone get me out of this blah mood please? I am tired of this, no money sucks, having nothing to do sucks, this rain and gloom sucks…blah! I bought my plane ticket for my sisters graduation which is a yay but that isn’t actually happening until the end of May. I am as always tight on money but should hopefully at least keep out of negatives and I have at least finally gotten smart enough to have an account just for the stupid car payment so that money doesn’t get spent while waiting the ridiculously long amount of time it takes that man to cash a check. I am just grumpy and angry and have been feeling unhappy for the past few days and cannot get rid of the feeling. I don’t want to go to work and am dreaming of the weekend and yet not looking forward to it at all, the only thing I get is I don’t have to deal with work and even better is I can sleep as much as I want and as late as I want. Boo, blah and grrr…
bleh…blarg…just a little off
Blah! I am tired…oversleeping maybe? I don’t know but I like sleeping so I am going to keep aiming for a wake up time of noon ish.
I weighed myself on the wii fit this morning and I am excited, I am down to 142.9…I don’t even know when I last weighed that. My goal is to break out of the 140′s entirely sometime hopefully soon-ish. Obviously I have more specific goals that are more oriented toward toning and what I can actually do like how many push ups and stuff, but it would just be cool to see something other than 140. I think in general weight goals though are good guidance aren’t as good as some other ones. I guess it also all depends on what you are going for but a lot of people want that all over toned look and seem to think that will be achieved simply by reaching this magic weight and though some people are that lucky most of the time it takes things other than simple weight loss. Not to mention if you are toning than a specific weight could be an issue because adding muscle causes you to weigh more but still look better and be healthier.
I wish people would be more on the ball. I mailed out a check forever ago and the guy still hasn’t cashed it and it is really bugging me. I like having money in my account that I can actually use rather than constantly having to recalculate and account for this large chunk that is technically spoken for. And I don’t like the idea that if I slightly overspend my check will bounce and that person can’t get their money. It is just extra annoyance and I am about to send him another check and deal with it all over again. Can’t wait until this stupid thing is freaking paid off. I am also trying to account for money properly because we have to get the uhaul and any money that doesn’t go to that I want to try to put toward that car so I need to know what is actually free in my account. Unfortunately I also need a good idea how much gas will cost and I have no idea whatsoever…stupid variables. Whatever the case the uhaul will get here and with it so shall my husband. I am super excited, if it works out right two weeks after however many months of waiting…a year if you want to count since I went to basic…crazy.
I still don’t feel well…I don’t think it has anything to do with alcohol, that time has passed, I just feel weird. Still super lazy but that isn’t totally new, it is cold outside and it just doesn’t seem worth the effort to put on however many layers for dryer sheets. I will just wait until I go to work and just do it all together. But I feel generally odd, like I cant get a comfy temperature at all…one second I am burning hot then I am freezing cold and I am a bit dizzy here and there, nothing big just slightly weird. Meh, I think my body can’t decide if it is over the cold or not…
A constant
ARG! What’s for dinner? This constant eternal question and problem I have. I always go through and find a bunch of recipes I want to try but by the time I am looking at them I want something quick and easy and don’t want to bother with the nonsense of full preparations and everything. Must start planning ahead more. I think I am setting myself up with a project this weekend, I need to make a recipe book and put in a bunch of these tasty looking recipes I have found, then I am gonna randomly flip to a page and that will be what I make the next week, then I can buy the ingredients and be prepared. Project number 2 I think will consist of cooking a whole chicken and cutting it up and seeing what I can do. I have checked out online and it looks kind of easy, lol, hopefully I have some good knives and shears in my kitchen. If I can deal with a whole chicken than that will be much cheaper than the boneless skinless chicken breasts I usually buy and I am all for saving money.
I want to try to trim my bills as much as possible and save so I can have extra money for whatever. Some to put toward bills, some to maybe actually decorate my apartment. I am tired of being in this constant state of broke. I have enough for stuff, just not a lot of stuff. I can pay my bills, eat, affford gas plus some extra but it seems to disappear too fast. I want to get my debts paid down as quickly as possible but I also don’t want to tighten my money to the point that al I do is sit at home so I don’t spend anything. I think I will do my best to keep better track of my money this month. I want to see where it is going and where I can save. I know part of it goes to eating out so I want to cook at home as much as possible. I was doing really well with that before I left but then I got down to nothing in my fridge and I didn’t want to fill my fridge when I would be gone for 2 weeks. But, now I am back and I can shop and set myself up.
I also want to get more in shape. I had PT today but it was very basic quick strength training with the squadron (what’s left of it due to holiday vacations) and then on our own cardio. I pushed myself pretty hard today and honestly it felt good. It hurt, and I could barely breathe, but I felt good doing it. I realized I was reaching some sort of happiness about working out, or at least pushing myself. I still have a long way to go to really get where I want but the mentality shift is an awesome thing and will make the process easier. I figure I can eat healthier if I cook for myself, I can make my own tasty meals and save money doing it. It is win win so why not? with any luck I will be in decent shape when hubby actually gets out here and I can surprise him. Supposedly it takes about 2 weeks to start seeing results and I have 3 so maybe I can make a noticeable dent, lol. If I can’t for when he arrives then it is still a good general goal. I definitely have to improve by my PT eval, I have until April I think so I have a while but I want to actually do well rather than just passable. I have crunched some numbers and if I at least get back to where I was in basic I will be beyond passable and that took me two months, with more time I think I could maybe gain the 2 points I need for excellent. Then again, in basic it was 6 days a week of PT so that could make a big difference…
Back to Washington
I am home in Washington. I got in last night, my supervisor picked me up and took me to my car which was parked at the shop. Apparently while I have been gone Washington has been cold and wet, not a good mix for my poor car sitting outside with no cover. I tried to open the driver door and it was frozen shut. I laughed, I have never been in a situation like that, my supervisor laughed and said, “aw, poor you, you’ve never had your car frozen shut before?” and then came and pulled it open for me. I was kind of worried I would break something when I first grabbed the handle so I guess I was just too scared to really pull hard enough. Anyway, I put the key in and luckily it started…barely, it was a slow quiet start but it got there. I flipped on the defroster and went to sit in her warm car until it started working on the ice on the windows. When it started to defrost I figured it was warm enough so I let her go home since it was late and went to sit in my car. It still wasn’t warm, just a little warmer than the ice, lol. It took a few songs on my CD before I was somewhat warm and I had things clear enough to take off home. It was a fun new experience though hopefully it gets warmer and I don’t have to deal with it again. Apparently while I was gone the hill that my apartment complex is on got icy so as my supervisor was driving down it to get to the main road she couldn’t stop. Luckily there was no one in the way and she made it onto the road fine but I am very glad it wasn’t me dealing with that. She said even if I had been there she would have driven me because she doesn’t trust me in my car (it is a midsized SUV with rear wheel drive) to make it on ice. Glad I can car pool with her if things get bad enough, hopefully it doesn’t but it is still only early winter.
Hubby is stuck in California still, it is sad but at least I know he will be out here soonish. He needs to call some people tomorrow and get his transfer pushed through but one way or the other he is getting up here. If he does it soon enough then we can go on a snowboarding trip that my friend is planning with her husband and his friend and maybe another co worker of ours. I kind of hope he gets out here in time because that sounds like a lot of fun and I was planning on doing a snowboarding trip when I got back anyway. Once he gets his transfer pushed through we can reserve the uhaul and then soon I will finally have him here and have all of my stuff here…which is a lot. I was talking to him earlier about maybe renting a house out here but I am not sure how well that will work out anymore. It would take extra money for a deposit which I don’t really have right now plus I can barely furnish my apartment let alone a house, also I think the utilities would be a bit more expensive than the apartments utilities and I would like to save as much money as possible and put it toward knocking out some debts. I figure maybe sign on for another 6 month lease and see where we are at the end of that, hopefully better.
Day 2
So first day of recovery down. So far all seems to be going pretty well, took my pain meds every 6 hours as instructed, brushed my teeth very carefully this morning and used some of the mouth wash stuff they gave me. I am still sticking with the pretty much liquid diet, I feel like I could eat more but I would rather be safe than sorry so I will stick with it for a little longer. Luckily I have more than enough supplies to last me through a while of liquidish diet so I am set. I am not in pain, perhaps that is because of the pain meds or it could just be that they really don’t hurt much. I am sore but can open my mouth fairly easily, I think the third day is supposed to be the worst for pain but if it is close to this I should be able to handle it. I haven’t even started on the heavy pain medications they gave me, just the Ibuprofen so I should be good.
So I got charged a ridiculous amount on one of my bills and I seriously say it is a mistake. It was for my internet card and they said I more than doubled the allowable limit and that I had reached my limit by the 19th. I don’t see this as possible because I was working and going to bed early because that was before our big inspection and then I was gone for a week. So, basically they are telling me that in a little more than a week I had doubled my monthly limit that I have never even come close to before. I have used more internet this month and still haven’t touched my limit so I call bull. Whatever, they cut the charges in half which is still a ridiculous amount and I have decided that the stupid little internet card will be put away for a while and not used unless absolutely necessary. I paid that bit but I paid it on my credit card so it wouldn’t affect my actual Christmas budget. I could have bought Christmas presents on the card but I would rather use my debit card for the presents so I keep track of them better. Silly but it is just the way I chose to do it, though now I have more to pay down on my credit card. Bleh, after holiday shopping is done I will put the extra money toward putting my credit card back down to where it was and back on track.
After watching the first season and half of the second season of Sex and the City I have decided that though the show is ok I am not terribly impressed. Miranda drives me insane as a character and the show is kind of repetitive. Good for short quick entertainment but not a show I will invest a lot of time in I think.
Edit: So Sex and the City has grabbed my attention, it apparently just took a bit to pick up or I am just that bored, and my new food of the moment is chicken broth and egg. It is yummy and filling (at least for a bit), a good thing to have when you can’t really chew.
I think I can, I think I can…
Another weekend almost, yay! I am so ready for it. I am trying to get everything set for when I leave for the week and it is so much more to deal with when you have pets to account for. I love them but man, they were being a pain in my neck today. First I need to make reservations to get the boarded, then they need proof they have their vaccines. Fine, I totally understand that and I can get proof for one but unfortunately the other one hasn’t had shots for a while and I don’t even remember where he had them. So now I have to try to schedule him to get his shots, the vet down the street is booked on Saturday so I have to try to mix my work schedule (right before a crazy important inspection) with a vet schedule and do it mostly on my stupid phone that gets pretty much no reception on base. Very frustrating. I finally got him booked, now I just have to get hubby to fax the shot records for the first cat and actually get the other cat in his carrier and to the vet for his shots. Not to mention spend the money, which I really don’t have. I then came home to the cats who are cute and cuddly and sneakily bratty. I was trying to make myself some food so my little one stats twirling around my legs as he always does when I have food (I do not feed him my food, that is bad for cats, but it doesn’t stop him from begging and trying to convince me otherwise). After I finally convince him that he won’t be getting anything he runs over and starts tearing up my couch. This is the first couch I have ever bought myself and one of the first pieces of furniture and I want to keep it nice. I yelled at him, he ran before I could do anything else but I think they are making this a habit when I am at work which is not good. I keep discovering new little holes in the material. They have a little scratch pad but it has cat nip in it and my cat gets so tripped up on it he goes crazy and flips the mat and then can’t scratch it. Well after he gets yelled at for that I sit down to eat and the little fool jumps on my counter! I have been trying to train them not toand the other one gets it but mine is just special and slow, I love him but anybody who knows him knows he is. Pain in the butt! Both of them! I love them but sometimes, arg…
I was crunching numbers yesterday and I am so beyond broke it isn’t funny. I have enough to pay my bills but anything beyond that will be a struggle. I should be ok, usually when I am accounting for bills or extra expenses like gas I round up, better safe than sorry, but still, it will be tight. My mom is supposed to be giving me money to pay me back for a tire I put on her car while she was out of town but she hasn’t done it yet. I am trying to not be pushy but I really need the money so unfortunately I am probably going to have to do that horrible thing where I call her to ask her about money. Luckily her apartment is rented by apparently awesome people so she will be ok and I need to talk to her anyway so I can just do it all at once. I need to figure out how to shop really cheap, I think it is going to turn into some crummy food for the next month. After a month I will be set but starting this payday I am struggling. I have pretty much nothing in my fridge, really I think there are a couple of lemons (that probably need to be thrown out), some green onions (that also should probably be thrown out) some V8 that is my breakfast tomorrow and will probably be gone along with my last yogurt, some spaghetti sauce, various condiments and honestly I think that’s about it because I just ate my left overs. Oh! bean sprouts, artichokes and eggs. My freezer has some cookies (Iced oatmeal cookies are best when they have been frozen, a lesson from my grandfather), taquitos (enough left for one serving), a bag of mixed veggies and ice. I think tomorrow I will make bean sprouts, rice and mixed veggies, that should last for a couple of days, or at least dinner tomorrow and lunch maybe dinner the next day. Then I will move on to the rest of the random stuff, the taquitos will go quickly, then some mac n cheese easy mac things and yummy, Ramen with eggs and a can of mixed veggies (I actually really like it, I have used it to survive often and it is still really tasty). I think I have some cous cous left and last but not least, spaghetti o’s. He he, I have an interesting mix of stuff coming up but if I minimize the shopping I will be able to make it and it will be interesting to see how well I do. Also, on the subject of finances, I am trying to switch over my accounts. I have wanted to switch around for a while but was always too lazy because everything for my bills direct debits so no worries for me, well because of stuff going on I am switching around and it is really the pain and hassle I imagined it to be, especially when I am already juggling my money. So, I have to wait for some bills to get paid and then switch them to direct pay from the new account and I have to hope that my direct deposit goes into the new account as soon as it is supposed to because otherwise there is no cushion and things won’t get paid. This just means I have to pay close attention to things that I normally glance at to make sure nothing funky is going on and go on about my day. I have to now watch it constantly to make sure that if something goes wrong I can fix it before everything costs me more (stupid overdrafts). blah, I am trying to streamline this whole being a grown up thing and it is a twisted process, but it is slowly smoothing out…I think…
Been fighting to have time to talk to hubby. He is now working and is apparently pretty busy and unfortunately as a mechanic he can’t really talk on his phone or text so that has lessened my time. After that I don’t know, he works until about six, showers eats and then I go to bed, lol. I go to sleep early and he is usually kept busy anyway so *shrugs* we try but it’s a struggle. I just can’t wait until this whole mess is dealt with one way or the other. December…only have to make it to December…At least he has a job now, it makes him happier and it means I get to keep more of my money. Now he will be able to pay his half of the bills and whatever else he needs and I can pay a chunk less, yay for more money! So in general things should start going better soon, this new year should definitely be a whole new beginning one way or the other. I don’t make resolutions, I make big changes.
So, I think I can make this money thing work, barely but I can do it; I think I can make it through the craziness at work and deal with my pets and I think I might even be able to make it to December…but I’ve been wrong before…
An Early Weekend…
I have an early weekend! I am so happy, I get to sleep in and really relax and unwind without having to get up early. The day started out a little rough but it is moving better now. Hubby called me around 4 this morning and realized he had a lot of stuff to do before the movers came to pack all my stuff so I got to be with him on the phone for a while. Poor guy didn’t get any sleep at that point but he did manage to catch and hour or so eventually. I can’t feel too bad for him though, he totally did it to himself. I also had to go to an annual health check up thing. They ended up making me pee in a cup which I hate plus get an immunization and blood draw. I guess that is one of the parts of being in the military, you get poked a lot. After all of that though I got released to go home and called my husband and found out that the movers were there packing. I have been talking to him on and off during the process and they are moving fast, they should be done soon and he will have a room free of all of my crap, I can’t wait to get pictures. Supposedly I will have my stuff in about a week and a half and all of the moving nonsense will be done…unless hubby decides he is moving up here in which case there will be another chapter, but that’s ok. I do still have to take time off and drive back to pick up my cat and maybe some miscellaneous stuff but that is not a big hassle to me.
Anybody have any good (and fairly easy) recipe ideas? I need to plan out my menu’s in advance because I am trying to save as much money as possible. At this point it hasn’t really worked because I have to buy so much stuff to cook with that I still spend a ton but that should level out soon. This week has been tacos, sloppy joes and soon I will make spaghetti. It worked out pretty well and for longer than I thought it would so I am happy about that. I had chicken stuff the week before, soup, lemon caper artichoke chicken, that was all pretty good too. Unfortunately I am a little limited in my cooking skills and my amount of recipes so I need to start hunting for more so I can set up for this week. At some point I want to buy a crock pot or something and make stew and corned beef and stuff but I think that is waiting a little longer, I don’t necessarily have the money and honestly crock pots kind of scare me. The idea of leaving something cooking and unattended just doesn’t seem right and with my luck something will catch on fire (I already almost lit my kitchen on fire once, no need to do it again). I will branch out eventually just because you can make amazing things and don’t have to do much but for now I rely on the basics. I also need to buy a bread maker, I miss the home made bread we used to have.
Also, anyone have good budget ideas? I guess I already kind of know them all I just have to wait until I get really settled in to use them. You can’t budget as easily when your pay isn’t settled yet and you are buying stuff to set up for an apartment. Unfortunately I have looked at my money and I won’t have much of it soon. All of the bills leave me with very little left over cash. I can’t wait for most of the stuff to get paid off but I think it is going to take a while, I have 2 car payments (one of which is for a totaled car, must get gap insurance next time), a maxed out credit card and a bunch of stuff that hubby needs (including $9000 worth of dental work). I am already going to switch my phone plan, I think I will still be paying the same amount but overall I should be getting more stuff that makes it worth it, not to mention a signal at work. I am trying to put more where I can but it will still be a while of struggling. I have to turn in my orders to my car loan people (for the not totaled car) and have them drop my interest rate, that should help a bit. I already got my credit card interest rate dropped to 4% (I love USAA) and my insurance rate is dropped because of my area, so overall I think I have scaled back and saved a decent amount, it is just always nice to find those extra things.
So I guess I have just figured out what to do this weekend, budget, plan meals, cook, shop…honestly, it sounds pretty good to me.
