My cousin moved back. She goes to college here taking kinesology. She also plays on the hockey team (well she did last year and this summer she had mono so she's really run down still and under orders to keep exercise at a minimum).

It's exciting. She and her sisters grew up with me and my brother like siblings. They were at our house or vice versa all the time. She's the oldest of three.

I have not been keeping up the house this week. I've barely got the dishes done. No zone work. Bad bad. Things are picked up but it's Thursday and I haven't cleaned the bathroom at all. I've been trying ot get into the habit of wiping the bathroom down in the morning but that's not going well.

I'm behind on listening to the Dave Ramsey show archives. I"m always behind.

IT's been a crazy few days. Start with the day before Yesterday (Which is Tuesday I believe). One of my best friends from high school stopepd by to visit on her way to her college. About another 4 hour drive from here (she added I think 2 hours by coming through here but it was nice to see her).

She bought me an answering machine. And then we went to La Senza and she bought me some underwear type things. Some of them are questionable as to whether they really are going to cover anything. Teehee.

3 days until I have a day off. And I even get paid for that day because it's a stat day!! Wohoo.

Filling out my forms to see if DH's healthcare covers my birth control. I've heard they don't, but I have no proof yet. I'll be pissed if they don't.

Considered it's a small amount per month I end up paying ($50/3months) compared to having another kid!! But most compaines cover this expense since they don't want thier employees taking more time off for babies. :P

Oh well, gotta go call and see what's going on with my cousin moving today. They all went out for lunch, something we cannot afford so I"m waiting til they get home.

Maybe we'll have a quick nap.

We watch the same teletubbies movie at least 5 times a day I think. I need to get another. Every few hours DD comes over ... "tubbies gain please" How can I refuse when she asks so nice?

Trying to get DD on the potty today. Not going so well. I need to change her underpants. She's got a horrible rash on the inside of her legs that is hurting her something fierce.

Back to work tomorrow. Maybe I can cut down after Christmas.

For my course it's going to cost me about $50 to write the four exams. $10 for the 3 one hour exams and $20 for the two hour exam. That kinda sucks but I should be done promptly. I have to write up an ad for work asking people to volunteer their kids for my psych research paper. I should whip that up tonight as I should be at that point mid-October and I need to get things set up before that.

ANyway it looks like the tubbies are done for the next hour. Maybe more we're gonna do dishes and have a bath/shower. (I shower first and then she baths. It's the only way I find time to get in there. Every spare second is spent reading my text book or reading email or playing with DD or cleaning the house).

I realized I complain too much about him. But this is the only place I can do it. I can't rag on hima ll the time. I can't tell my mom because she doesn't really like him already.

He did let me stay at home with DD for 2 years without complaining that I wasn't working when we sort of needed it. He is very supportive he's very loving he's great to look at.

He's very intelligent. Somehow he barely passed high school and ended up in college (which he needs to finish). He and I share the same intrests in subjects ... we play the same video games (or we used to when I had time ot play video games).

He's great with DD. He plays ring around the rosie and taught her to stack blocks. He is teaching her to count and her colours.

He does dishes occasionally and makes a few things for supper. Makes me feel like I'm not doing things 100% of the time.

Sounds good so far. I'll edit this and add on as I think of things. I'm looking for supper now.

When DH went out last night to get a pop he took money out of his account. (He already spent his blow money for this month). He says it was because the debit machine doesn't work there. (Actually I know they usually don't take small amounts on debit).

Should I feel guilty for not trusting him? He has a history of not lying, but not telling everything and I usually just let it slide. But I told him explicity that we only have x amount of money until I got paid again on friday. And the money left in our accounts was for food and rent. Now There is no money for food. I could take it out of the emergency fund, which is what he expected to happen. But I'm not doing that. We just won't buy any food this week. I hadn't planned on buying a lot, but screw it.

I'm still pissed off y'know. I want to cry. I'm not sure I completely believe him totally. I feel slightly bad, but damn it he can't do things like that without telling me. Last time he did it cost us $35, which is why we have no money left when there is month left.

Anyone have any tips for convincing a significant other? I think I'll just keep playing Dave Ramsey continually in the morning and maybe he'll come around to that way of thinking eventually.

Well we went and had a hot dog roast in the rain with my mom and her bf and his daughter.

Then we came home and DH says "i'm going to fill up the car with gas." And I thought about it for a while and figured out ... and i said "Just go buy a damn pop."

And he went off and went to visit neighbours/friends of ours. His I guess. I dunno whatever. They smoke and we dont' like to take DD over there so I just stay home ... lucky me.

Anyway.'
I was feeling upset about his pop buying. He buys smokes and he buys a pop here and there. And people have told me I'm going ot feel resentful and I'm starting to. And I came up with a compromise. Dave Ramsey. He can buy pop so long as I can listen to Dave Ramsey. Now if he would come home so I can tell him how I feel and what I would like to see as a solution.

The thing is I don't want to buy stuff for myself. I want him to stop buying things for himself. He whines once a while "When are we going to be out of debt?" And I said we could manage in like 2 years. and he says "well yeah if we never buy anything and i'm not going to do that." well then i guess you've made your choice. I'm frustrated. oh well ... maybe someday he'll figure it out.

Did some laundry yesterday I have another load or two yet to do today. DH is sleeping now :P.

Made muffins, cookies and a second loaf of bread yesterday. We go through bread so fast here that I decided to make an extra loaf and then there is no problem with DH's lunch. (not that he work this weekend). Have to check the accounts to see what has gone out and what hasn't. We just have the car insurance and rent yet to be paid (rent shouldn't go until next friday and i get paid again that day). but i'm fearful now that we did the thing again.

The insurance has gone out. There is enough in DH's account for the rent check and my account is for food. He has his bloody cigerettes. :P And we'll have $10 left after that but I get paid next week. DH took his last week vacation off for Sept 5-11.

My dad and his gf might be coming to visit tomorrow. I think they likely will since he told me already. Like I'm expecting him. *shrugs* I'll be happy if they come. My plan is this time to have him buy some ribs or something and I'll just make supper here rather than him taking us all out. Except that his sister lives here too and I'm not sure what she can eat. So maybe not ... we'll see tomorrow. I get to sleep in tomorrow. Sweet sleep.

Speaking of which it is nap time. So nightynight.

I wore my glasses to bed. Budget is done for teh end of the month. We'll have $12 afer all bills are paid (including food and debt payment). I'm getting almost $200/week. Should be up to that next week or the week after as I will be at 30 hours then. BUt the more hours I work the more union dues I have to pay. So that sorta sucks. As long as we don't walk off the job. :P

A few weeks ago DH lost his keys. He unlocked the door and then they were gone.

I woke up today and my glasses are missing. This is weird because I cannot see past my nose without my glasses. I had them in DD's room last night and then I came upstairs and I'm fairly certain I had them on then. And about five minutes later I went downstairs and straight to bed. I always put them on my nightstand. It's possible that I knocked them off but they are not in the bedroom anywhere I can see.

Dh says I didn't have my glasses on last night when I came upstairs so maybe DD got a hold of them in the middle of the night. I dunno weird.

Hooray. The government found that I should get $300 more on last year's taxes. Of course they took it away (long story that I'd rather not talk about for about 5 more years when I'm far out of debt). But that's 300 some less that I don't have to pay back. I also have to phone and check on something for taxes and then find out how I pay. Blah ... pain in the ass.

Asrai's advice: no fibbing.

DH took money out for a friend's wedding present that I hadn't counted on and he didn't tell me so I didn't subtract it and the gas money (which may or may not have wrecked things) ... anyway I forgot about the insurance going out on the 22-24 (I hate that it doesn't come out on a certain date). SO that cost us $35. I'm totally kicking myself. KICK KICK KICK. It's the third time we've bounced something. I have to go find out tomorrow how to pay this when DH gets paid and we have the money (we don't know because we bought some groceries today which put us near $250 for the month on money). I'm so mad that we did this. ARGH. Dumb dumb dumb.

But I had planned on taking $100 for debt, it's gone down to $50 for this week. Next week should be better. I'm just all depressed becuase we've done this three times on three different payments. I have to get a running written total for DH. Or he has to start paying attention to our money and stop leaving everything to me.

We went used part of my gift certificate for the steam bath tonight. It was okay. Nothing exciting. Made me really tired tho. It was almost too hot. Which is strange from me becuase it very rarely gets too hot for me. I'm in a sweater and jeans when it's 22 C or less. Not kidding. I'm not fun to share a car/house with.

My course (psych 170) towards my Teacher's Assistant/Special needs assistant is here. Which means I have less them for the internet so I have to go drop a few yahoo groups and such.

But I'm excited it's here finally. I only have 3 months to do it but it shouldn't take me that long. Wish me luck

Asrai

There is nothing much to say. It's almost 5 Pm. DD just passed out on the floor. I'll let her lay for about 20 minutes if I go much longer she'll never go to sleep tonight.

Just spent too much time here today. On the computer that is. Bad Asrai.

Browsing through allrecipes.com trying to decide on something for supper.

DH and I are going to teh steambath tomorrow. My aunt, uncle and cousins gave me a gift certificate for my birthday. And this may be our only chance to do it. 7:00 PM. Mom's gonna look after DD for us.

Hopefully my course will be here (tomorrow just to spite me :P).

The new guy hired at work has more hours than me LOL. But I can only work until 1 or so. Right now I could work later but 30 hours a week is quite enough for me. Maybe once my course comes I'll ask about fewer but I don't wnat to do that because I want to get out of debt NOWNOWNOW!!.

Maybe i had a bit more to say than i thought.

Asrai

Easy Chicken Stir-Fry
Serves 4

1 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons ground ginger or grate some fresh
2 cloves garlic -- pressed
3 skinless boneless chicken breast halves -- thinly sliced
(about 3/4 pound)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
6 green onions -- cut into 1-inch pieces
1 green bell pepper -- thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper -- thinly sliced
4 cups hot cooked brown rice

Mix soy sauce, ketchup, ginger and garlic in resealable heavy-duty
plastic bag. Add chicken; seal bag and turn to coat with marinade.
Let stand 15 minutes. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in 10-inch skillet
or wok over medium-high heat. Add green onions and bell peppers; stir-
fry until crisp-tender. Remove from skillet. Heat remaining 1
tablespoon oil in skillet. Add chicken; stir-fry 4 to 5 minutes or
until no longer pink in center. Stir in bell pepper mixture. Serve
with brown rice.

Yummy and cheap. We made like 1/3 of this and it fed me and DD, with a bit for lunch leftover. We also ate some yoghurt I finally convinced her to eat some and she LOVES it. *rolls eyes*

Everyone cross their fingers that I'll wake up with time to eat breakfast before I go to work. Luckily I've managed to wake up in time to make to work without being terribly late.

gonna go play with dd now.

I will be working 29 hours this week. It was 28 but I was asked to stay an extra hour today.

Dh is too tired 'cuase he couldn't get to sleep. :P

Organizedchristmas.com doens't start until next week.

Had someone on my freecycle group try to give away emails. Freecycle is keep things out the land fill. Gmail accounts don't fall into that category.

An other freecyclers out there? Never heard of it? Go to http://www.freecycle.com

I've had two people want something I was giving away neither of them managed to show up to claim them. I've given up. I'm too busy.

Everyone send your good thoughts at my psych course will be here this week. THanks.

Have a good day

Asrai

Someone might find this funny. I do sort of, maybe it'll look better tomorrow

On my carpet. Courtesy DD. I went downstairs to wash our bathing suits from swimming she went through the bag and found the shampooo and voila! instant mess. Well, I have a spot scrubber thing. And it was cleaned up fairly quickly. Thank gods. I'm not sure what I would have done.

I said "I love you" every 30 seconds or so and she hid out behind the sofa because she hates the vacumm/spot scrubber.

We're going to have snack here shortly and then I'll be skipping my pilates again due to lack of time. Night all

DD and I just had some oatmeal. Had the thought that I could make quick oats on the stove which should save me microwave mess and DH complaining about it. (not that I gave a damn when he does complain about it ... it's a cheap and yummy and filling breakfast).

On menu planning. Leanne Ely (savingdinner.com) suggests making 6 different menus for a week and just rotating them. So I have intentions of getting that going with previous menus.

To do list for the day
Make cookies
tortillas
pizzas
Pay gas and water bills.
Put $50 in savings (for later debt payment)
Make at least one week of meals
Make shopping list
Go shopping
Laundry
Renew spirit
Check out organizedchristmas.com. The program starts today.
Clean fish tank. (we can still see the fish so it's not bad yet)
Water plant. (yes we have one plant)
Type out TightWad Gazette Recipes
Copy Saving Dinner recipes from email to computer recipe book
Wash carrots (from our garden)

Yesterday I woke up at 6 AM. The time I was supposed t+o be arriving at work. Oh well. Someone didn't show at all, as far as I know, at least he was 4 hours late when I left. I think he's trying to get fired. Means my hours are not getting cut down.

There is a new hire. He seems okay. Not that slow really. Time will tell. As long as he shows up I don't have a problem.

Bought $25 worth of groceries yesterday. Bringing the total up to $187 for the month. The hope is to keep it under $200. We'll see. There are a bunch of things I want to buy for baking and such. It will be less costly in the long run if I can stock up now. Wish I would have stocked up on sugar when it was 2.99/4 kg. Oh well, live and learn.

DH is going to fill the car up which should last us for a month give or take.

I'm so sleep.; DD was up last night and in our bed and kicking and whining. I love teething.

Worked 6 hours. Tomorrow is 4 and Friday is 6 hours. Total of 28 hours this week I think. Hooray.

One of the bills will be paid off this week. It should take 5 months for the other one. And then my student loan interest releif is over and we can pay that down quick and then the car and then Dh's parents.

I'm just waiting for my bread to bake. To think I used to whine about how long it takes to make bread and it only takes 20 minutes to mix it (without help from DD) and then 30 minutes to bake it. And then I am going to bed.

Home made bread is much yummier as well.

Last week flylady had anti-whining week.

This week I'm reading "The Simple Living Guide" by Janet Luhrs. Very good book.

In it it says that she used to get annoyed by little things like slippers laying the living room. Now she remembers to be happy that there are family members to leave the slippers and spend time with her.

Sunday night I was whining that I didn't want to go to work at 6 AM. Then I remembered why I was going to work (feed the family, pay rent, bills, pay off debt and return to school in the next year or two). I may not enjoy being awake at 6, but I do enjoy the things the paycheck buys for me and my family.

Since then every night I thank the goddess and god for my job. I am lucky that I am able to work and that I have a good job that is giving me many hours of pay.

I have 28 hours coming this week (maybe 30 if they ask me to stay on Friday 2 extra hours). 28 next week and 30 the next week. MONEY!!

I can send $50 or more to debt than thought. Maybe more. We had just enough with me making $100/week. With 30 hours I make twice as much.

DD is teething. We just drugged her. She's so whiney but she's not tired that's obvious. A few more days and they should be through. Then a few months and she'll be getting her 2 year old molars.

I have yet to plan meals for the week yet. Bad Asrai. BAD BAD!!

I realized I need to plan our meals today. Last week is over and so is the meal plan.

I posted this on two different threads on the message boards.

We save money because I plan to use things that are already in our pantry. And for fresh veggies and things that will go bad I know how much to buy so they don't go bad in the fridge either. Right now I don't need to buy many/any fresh veggies because our garden is supplying us with an abundence. So I'm glad we got the garden (we rented a plot from the city, my mom and I). It is saving us money. (We paid about $30/each with seeds and everything). And fresh veggies are SOOOOO good. So much better than store bought.

We hardley ever eat out because I have things planned already and usually something is thawing in the fridge that we need to eat. Sometimes I even cook ahead of time (OAMC type ... not once a month or even once a week but I would like to). DH is only home for supper twice a week.

Alright we are not dressed yet and it's 9:30 AM. Blah .. bad asrai

Just making some pancakes for DD and myself.

Today we are going to make muffins recipe from the Tightwad Gazette II. We need bread so I'm going to make a loaf of that. As well DH needs some mini-pizzas made, so I'll make a dozen or so of those.

Maybe we'll throw together some meals to cut down on time this week.

I made chocolate syrup two days ago. Recipe also from the Tightwad Gazette II. It's just as good as the stuff we buy and it was way cheaper.

Oh I see it's a new moon. I am pagan. But I haven't been following lately. DH thinks I'm crazy. He's an athetist. :P

To market to market to buy a fat pig.

Actually I went to buy honey but only found "organic' from the mountains that I could not afford. So I'll have to wait until September so my cousin can bring some for me when she moves. Way cheaper and i think it's still organic ... :P

I bought a huge bucket of cherries for $8.00 tho so that was good. Anyway I gotta shave my legs for the wedding later. (Friends of ours). Congrats to T and R on their marriage (in 2 hours)

Well, not really. Sorta we took some CD's and traded them in for movies which was nice. DH loves to buy movies so these were more or less free. I was hoping for money for the Emergencey fund/to pay off debt, but now he has movies and he won't need to buy any for a few months (depsite the fact that he got 2 last month ... :P). I got a movie and DD got one as well, and DH got 3 so it works out.

Okay I got to reading email so I'll write some more later.

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey's talk show archives and I just read his book "More than enough" which I have to get DH to read he'll just learn so much from it and it might turn some lightbulbs on in his head. He's not up for it tho ... damn it. GRR

I can't remember where I was going to say next. I'm really tired and I want to do Pilates before bed and DD just pulled a bunch of toys out of the toy box that I picked up 15 minutes ago. GOnna drink another bit of water and then make juice for DH 'cause he's bitchy if I drink it all. (He's not really a jerk I just make him out like one sometimes ... sorry I'll work on that ... I tend to rant here and most of my ranting ATM is about him. Prolly 'cause my mother has a new boyfriend and I hardly see her).

Tomorrow is Dh's day off and we are going shopping because he gets paid. Hooray. Not. I'm stressed. I don't have enough in my budget to buy everything I want. Somethings I don't NEED. But, it would help with frugality, 'cause then I'll make my own. But then I don't have money for the "convenience" food like Cheerios that DH feeds DD most mornings and sandwhich meat, which I guess does cost less than him buying lunch everyday. But it's still expensive. I'll figure that out tomorrow. Right now I have a $50 shopping list that is supposed to las us a week, some of it like the flour should last 6 months and ground beef is on sale that should last us til the end of the month, which just leaves veggies and milk and a few other minor things to pick up. As long as DH doesn't break the list we'll be okay.

SOmeone suggested I donate my clothing and write it off as a tax thing. But I'm not sure they do that in Canada. I know it's a big thing in the States.

The other thing is I need the money NOW. Not next year. We have a few other things to get rid of as well. I'm not too concerned about the loss of monies on the clothing as we got them for basically nothing. (I have two neices a year and two years older than DD so we get all the handmedowns plus all the BRAND NEW clothing from the baby shower when DD was a month and the other relatives and such. Great to have a babyin a small town I tell ya!). So, I can't lose anything since I never paid anything to begin with. It's more a matter of when can we do the sale, and how. We'll figure that out.

This weekend I'm taking in the cans and bottles. We have quite a few so that should be a lil, not much but better than a kick in the ass. It'll pay for part of DH's thermos so he can take coffee to work in large amounts which will cut down on the that expense.

We have $33 left in my account, maybe 10 in DH's not sure if he put gas in the car or not. He gets paid on Thursday $600 and I get $100 or so on Friday. And then I will start the envelope system for some things, like food, gas, Dh's cigs (I know don't lecture me, I'm nagging him DAILY to quit ... for health and money and he just can't won't i dunno ... it's frustrating. Is it THAT hard? I don't know. I guess I can't won't give up my internet either but it only costs $35 compared to $150 ... even if he cut down ... anway), most things are fixed like the phone, water, natural gas, etc. We'll see how it goes. I want to get our food bill down to $250/month.

The good thing is I have 4 kg of chicken breasts in the freezer and work has ground beef on for a $1/lb so I'm buying all we can manage on Thursday and maybe more on Friday we'll see.

Anyway I have to get some jammies on some kid.

Looks like starting the dayhome thing isn't the best thing right now. I don't know. DH smokes, so I have to hide that constantly. And I don't think the lady even really liked that we live in a fourplex. I know it's doable. But mostly I don't think I want the hastle of getting started up.
I'm liking my job at the store. i like the guys i work with. and i think i'm doing a decent job. funny tho that i'm one of two girls in grocery stocking shelves.

We do have to get DD into daycare somewhere. She's going to be an only child so she needs some socialaztion. Maybe I'll try starting her in the morning and chad can take her there for a few hours and then once she's used to it then she can stay longer until she's going full time and then Dh can change jobs or I can or both or whatever y'know. *sigh* We'll see we'll see. If I'm working part time I can defintly get subsidy for it.