My Knits, Tidbits and Bitch Fits

Well, another 2 months go by…

sabrinajl — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:53:59 +0000

without a post from me. Bummer.

I’m not where I wanted to be with the financial stuff at all. I didn’t take into account all the trips we take and all the expenses that pop up here and there. We’ve almost got it 50% taken care of, but I really wanted to have it down more by this point. I’m a little frustrated with myself. Despite all that, I’m considering going home for spring break. As much as I want to save money, I want to spend time with my family more. Besides, I’m going to consider that my birthday present.

Last month was a complete wash for knitting and reading, but it was still an excellent month. Private Pinhead got to come home from Iraq for R&R. Mrs. Pinhead and Spicy also came to visit. So from 2/2-2/23, I had guests. I took them to do all the touristy things and we had a blast. Then 2/24 was Her Majesty’s 16th birthday (the month was also not good for saving money).

Here’s some excellent news…on the ship’s FB page, it was posted that they are finally headed back in this direction. I can’t say exactly when they will get home (opsec and all that), but I can say that I will see Sailor Boy again sometime before tax day. Time is going to drag now.

I’m back (I hope).

sabrinajl — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:20:27 +0000

I can’t believe it’s been two months since I’ve posted anything. I just haven’t felt like it. We just got back to San Diego a couple days ago and I miss NM already. It’s so stinkin’ warm here. I really do hate it. I loved being at home and playing with the pups in the snow, snuggling up under thick blankets, drinking hot chocolate, wearing warm clothes, etc…

Not to mention I haven’t been staying on track with my frugal goals at all so there hasn’t been much I wanted to post about. We ended up going to NM for Thanksgiving AND Christmas. That was a chunk of money. Then of course Christmas always takes a good chunk of money. We spent less on gifts for Her Majesty this year than we normally do though. Usually we spend $500-$1000 on xmas gifts for her. This year, I managed to limit it to $250. Yay me.

I did give a couple knits for xmas. Sailor Boy’s grandma saw my knitting and asked me to make her a red hat. I actually happened to have a red cabled hat sitting around. I made it because I wanted to, not for anybody in particular. I gave her that and she loved it. When I went over to say goodbye, she was wearing it while doing laundry. So she is going on my ‘knit-worthy’ list. I made a leaf lace shawl for my mom and am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Frugality fail.

sabrinajl — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:33:13 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted because after my last post about trying not to spend money, I had a pretty large fail. No cable means no cable box in the living room, which means no clock in there. I decided to look for a wall clock. 5 stores later, I was frustrated at not being able to find a clock I liked enough that I wanted it hanging on my wall where I would look at it all the time.

I said to myself, “Self, maybe you should just buy a watch. Then you’ll know the time no matter what room you’re in!” Instead of being sensible about it and going to Target to look for a watch, I went to Zales and ended up with this…

It has a mother-of-pearl face and diamonds for the numbers. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s a really beautiful watch. I know it was impulsive and unnecessary but I can’t bring myself to regret it. I reallly love it. I’ve been wanting a nice watch for a while now and this one was 40% off. Sailor Boy said since he’s not going to be here for xmas, that it would be my gift from him. What a swell guy!

I totally need an “Unfrugal Shit” category.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I got the Cox bill yesterday and it was $91. A very refreshing change after it being $181 for so long. I totally did a happy dance and kissed the bill. Seriously

There ya go. Frugal shit.

Cable free!

sabrinajl — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:41:03 +0000

On Monday (after I got done crying like a baby), I called and canceled the cable which will save $90 a month. I unhooked the boxes and took them back. We had regular cable until Friday but now we are tv free. We don’t have the converter things and I don’t plan on getting them. I also canceled the Netflix which saves another $20 a month. So far it hasn’t really bothered me.

There’s plenty of free entertainment out there. The library is an excellent source for that (books and DVD’s). If I feel there’s a show I have to watch, I can most likely find it online and the theater at the base is free. Tonight they’re showing Julie & Julia, which Buddy T and I are going to check out. They’re also showing 500 Days of Summer, but I’m not really interested in that.

Not spending money is harder than I thought. Earlier I went to pay off my Sears card. That’s what we put the plane tickets on and I’m done with having a balance on a credit card so I wanted to pay it off ASAP. While I was there, I almost picked up some bamboo cooking utensils. Not because I needed them, but because I thought they’d look much nicer than the 12 year old plastic ones I have. Which they would, but I’m trying to limit myself to buying things we actually need. The plastic ones are old and ugly but still perfectly serviceable.

Another new development is that Mr. Furious is moving out in 2 weeks. Which will probably cut the grocery bill by about 40%. He’s a really big guy and he eats like a really big guy. Although maybe not because I’m thinking of joining a CSA.

Today is not a good day.

sabrinajl — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:47:59 +0000

Sailor Boy left today. He flew from here to LA to Tokyo to Guam where he will then be flown to his ship. 6 months without my best friend. Sad, tragic and lame. I cried all the way home from the airport.

Bleh.

sabrinajl — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:43:24 +0000

So I’m not back on track. Sailor Boy’s mom passed away on Tuesday. He was supposed to leave on the 18th, but due to some problems on the ship, the deployment was delayed. He got the call about his mom on Tuesday, we flew to NM on Wednesday and the ship left on Thursday. They’re going to fly him out to it.

I really didn’t want to come for the funeral. He had already said his goodbyes 3 weeks ago so coming to the funeral just put us another $700 in the hole. That may sound insensitive, but I’m not big on funerals. I don’t even want one for myself. I want to be cremated, scattered somewhere that I loved and afterward I want everyone to go out for margaritas and talk about how awesome I was. I want my loved ones to celebrate my life and have a good time, not mourn my death by staring at my dead body (which I find super creepy).

Grocery shopping #2.

sabrinajl — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:56:26 +0000

I ran to Ralphs today becuause they had a really good sale going on and I had coupons to pair up with it.

Capri Sun- .99¢ each
OM Bologna- .99¢ each
Nestle water- $3 – $1 cpn = $2
Juicy Juice- $1.99 – $1 cpn = .99¢
Hot Pocket- $1.49 – $1 cpn = .49¢
Nestle chips- $2.49 – $1 cpn = $1.49
Pop-Tarts- $1.98 – $1 cpn = .98¢
lettuce- .77¢

Total $17 (I just round up and put the change in a jar)

That leaves me with $103 for the case lot sale tomorrow.

Grocery shopping.

sabrinajl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:24:37 +0000

I need to get back on track with my budgeting and money saving attempts. Especially now that Sailor Boy is leaving in a few days. I went grocery shopping today. I didn’t buy a whole lot since we still had plenty left from me going shopping right before we had to go to NM (and if spending $750 on plane tix isn’t a budgetary setback, I don’t know what is).

Sailor Boy has decided he wants Thanksgiving dinner before he goes. So tomorrow, we’re going to have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, marshmallow yams, cranberry sauce and rolls. I found a pumpkin pie in the deli section, so at least I don’t have to actually bake a damn pie. This is going to suck because it’s still too warm to have the oven on for hours.

On to the shopping. I spent $127 + $3 for the tip. That leaves me with $120. Which I’m probably going to completely blow on Thursday. I totally forgot that the commissary was having a case lot sale. If I can avoid buying goodies and just stick to buying things like paper goods and household products, I should be fine.

As for what I bought today, the best deals were b1g1 on the cat treats (which Her Majesty’s cat loves), the Lipton tea was free (saved $3.99), the Ponds wipes were $1.49 after coupons and the cheese ended up being $0.86 per package (the commissary had a buy 6 get $5 off coupon on the shelf). I shouldn’t have to buy cheese for quite a while.

Truly awful week.

sabrinajl — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:03:03 +0000

Thursday afternoon while I was taking Her Majesty school shopping (we had registered her for public school for the first time in 3 years), Sailor Boy called with bad news. His mom, who has had cancer for a while, appears to be losing the battle. His step-dad said the doctor gave her very little time. He put in for emergency leave and we flew out to NM on Friday to see her. It was pretty bad. She’s still hanging in there but I’m not sure for how much longer. Sailor Boy leaves on a 7 month deployment in a week and I’m pretty sure she’ll no longer be with us by the time he gets back, so I’m glad he got to say his goodbyes.

On Saturday, my aunt passed away.

On Monday, my dad ended up in the ER. He had a kidney stone too big to pass, so they sent him to Clovis by ambulance for surgery.

On Tuesday, Her Majesty had her first day of school and instead of it being awesome, her lunch money got stolen.

We just got back today. I would have liked to spend more time at home so Sailor Boy could spend more time with his mom and I could help my parents out while my dad is recovering. Unfortunately, Sailor Boy needs to get ready to leave. He also wants to spend some time with Her Majesty before he goes. We didn’t take her with us because she wasn’t at all close to her grandma and we didn’t want her to miss the first couple days of school.

She did have a better day today though. Said she made some friends and gets to play the drums in band (which is what she wanted). Hopefully things are looking up.

Grocery shopping and a splurge.

sabrinajl — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:04:12 +0000

I went shopping today. Didn’t do as good as I did last time, but I still did pretty good. I didn’t take pictures either because today was pretty busy and I just didn’t have the time to set it all out and do that. Lots of running around, paying bills, trying to get Sailor Boy’s uniforms and stuff for deployment, etc… So on groceries, I spent $177. After a $3 tip for the bagger, I have $70 for the next 2 weeks. I did take a picture of the receipt again (well, half of it as the other half didn’t come out so great).

Click to enlarge.

Sailor Boy and I also get an “allowance”. After the bills are paid, and all that jazz, we each get a certain amount of money to last us for 2 weeks that we can spend on whatever we want. I get $75. Normally it lasts me most of the 2 weeks. I don’t usually want a whole bunch of stuff. This time, it’s only payday and I’m down to $10. Season 4 of Supernatural came out today. It’s my favorite show and I’ve watched every season 3 times.

I also bought myself a cute Sigg bottle. I’ve been wanting one for a while and I think this will save money in the long run. I drink a lot of bottled water because the water here tastes funky. I recently started using a Pur pitcher. I think between that and the Sigg, I’ll be able to kick the bottled water habit.