We finally finished our taxes the other night – glorious. We get a little more back than we expected…but had the unexpected expense of having to pay to file. We had borrowed my dad’s tax program, and unlike the free one online, you had to pay for both state and federal taxes. Not cool. Then, if you wanted to pay your filing fee by just subtracting it from your refund (the logical and lazy choice), you had to be $35 extra! That is insane. As M was objecting to the ridiculousness of the entire process, I whipped out my credit card. (This was the FOURTH time I had read out our W-2’s to M while he entered the info, and I was not doing it again…) Oh well. Way to go Turbo Tax…you suckered another one.
I’m really excited about getting a refund, but I am more excited about our “incentive check” that’ll be coming as well. We’ve already decided to put the whole amount toward our outstanding credit card debt…but I have the feeling I’m going to be accosted with requests for “Rock Band” when we have all that cash in the bank. I love Guitar Hero, and Rock Band is soooo much fun – it’s just that the game is $150…and that is a bit nutty to me. Oh well, M is amazing, so I should probably drop the stingy wife routine for a bit, eh?
We had book club last night – next up is Little Children by Tom Perrotta…and we decided to read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov after that. I’m super excited about both – I’ve read Lolita already, but it’ll be good to be able to discuss that book – it’s a little racy. And by a little I mean very very unsettling. Problem is, I want to buy Little Children! The cover art (NOT the movie tie-in cover, I can’t stand those…I could talk about that all day…) is so great – with little goldfish or tiny cookies and grass… The cover is just innocent-looking, with a slightly-menacing feel. I love it and I want it. Oh well, we’ll see.
In other news, I didn’t win my office’s NCAA pool – oh well, I really wasn’t expecting to…but what HAPPENED to UNC in the Final Four? Talk about losing it…
Anyway, sorry it's been so long since I posted...but things have been crazy with work and school (I have two tests this week)!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Books, Books, Everywhere...
I’m going to keep this short because I’m absolutely exhausted – thanks to my latest reading adventure. I started My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult on Tuesday after class…and I’m almost done today. I’m a pretty fast reader, but this story has just sucked me in and isn’t letting go. Therefore, I stayed up reading until 1:30 a.m. last night, long after M went to sleep (the kitty too!). The sad/great thing is, I want to just drop everything and finish the dang book!
I’m kinda a bibliophile. I love love LOVE books – not just reading, but also owning them. Now, I am not opposed to libraries – like my best friend S – I even thought about becoming a librarian after college – but there is something about those titles lined up on a bookshelf. I had a really tall, five-self bookshelf growing up, and I think it slightly fueled my obsession. I would leave books lying around the house all the time…usually two at a time. When I got older and had even more books, it saddened me to have to move my American Girl, The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley books to an attic box. In college, as an English Literature major, there were even more books lying around.
Borders and Barnes and Noble continue to be soothing spots for me (I love used books stores too; I’m really not being picky. There are just so many more BIG bookstores) I always knew books were pricey, but after I graduated from college it really hit home. $20 for a paperback? $35 for a hardback? That is NOT cool. Still, from time to time I’ll give in and go on a tiny spree, and occasionally I’ll get a gift certificate and go nuts. M and I have two Target bookshelves in our place, filled with colorful titles that range from classic to trashy – and I love every one of them.
Anyway, this is kinda random – but comes back to personal finance, I promise! If you count up all the books that I own, it would be a LOT of money. Now, it’s not quite as bad as Carrie Bradshaw owning $40,000 in shoes…but my books aren’t $400 a pop! Anyway, it’s a vice that I am trying to get over – I’ve been frequenting the library much more often (when I’m not reading for class or for the book club I started – I know, I’m a huge dork)…and I think I’ve only bought one hardback book since I completed my Harry Potter collection. So, I’m doing better. But I still have to hold myself in check when I aimlessly browse a Borders…
Well, this wasn’t that short…but I could talk about books forever! Happy Thursday!!
I’m kinda a bibliophile. I love love LOVE books – not just reading, but also owning them. Now, I am not opposed to libraries – like my best friend S – I even thought about becoming a librarian after college – but there is something about those titles lined up on a bookshelf. I had a really tall, five-self bookshelf growing up, and I think it slightly fueled my obsession. I would leave books lying around the house all the time…usually two at a time. When I got older and had even more books, it saddened me to have to move my American Girl, The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley books to an attic box. In college, as an English Literature major, there were even more books lying around.
Borders and Barnes and Noble continue to be soothing spots for me (I love used books stores too; I’m really not being picky. There are just so many more BIG bookstores) I always knew books were pricey, but after I graduated from college it really hit home. $20 for a paperback? $35 for a hardback? That is NOT cool. Still, from time to time I’ll give in and go on a tiny spree, and occasionally I’ll get a gift certificate and go nuts. M and I have two Target bookshelves in our place, filled with colorful titles that range from classic to trashy – and I love every one of them.
Anyway, this is kinda random – but comes back to personal finance, I promise! If you count up all the books that I own, it would be a LOT of money. Now, it’s not quite as bad as Carrie Bradshaw owning $40,000 in shoes…but my books aren’t $400 a pop! Anyway, it’s a vice that I am trying to get over – I’ve been frequenting the library much more often (when I’m not reading for class or for the book club I started – I know, I’m a huge dork)…and I think I’ve only bought one hardback book since I completed my Harry Potter collection. So, I’m doing better. But I still have to hold myself in check when I aimlessly browse a Borders…
Well, this wasn’t that short…but I could talk about books forever! Happy Thursday!!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Postscript
I really want to put some art on our dining room wall. And I want it to look like this. Right now we are about 1/6th of the way there…with one photo (bought off etsy.com) nicely framed and hanging smack dab in the middle of the wall. Sigh. Sometimes my mom’s Martha Stewart compulsions just take over and I want to decorate…too bad it’s so expensive to do so.
It doesn't help that I recieved THREE home-decorating-and-general-prettiness catalogues yesterday. Boo hiss. We still have a few hundred dollars left on various Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma gift certificates (left over from the wedding), but I really wanted to save them and put them towards a console table. Alas, that dream is quickly fading.
It doesn't help that I recieved THREE home-decorating-and-general-prettiness catalogues yesterday. Boo hiss. We still have a few hundred dollars left on various Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma gift certificates (left over from the wedding), but I really wanted to save them and put them towards a console table. Alas, that dream is quickly fading.
Food, Food, Fantabulous Food
Last night M and I went to our local ginormous grocery store and spent a wad of cash - $108!! I originally had our food budget down as only $150…which is ridiculous because my husband is 6’ 1” and loves to eat. As in a sort of human garbage disposal. So THAT budget item needs to be increased. However, I felt OK about the $108 or two reasons:
First, I spent a good 30 minutes poring over the Kraft quarterly magazine, picking out meals that were easy, looked yummy and had a short “needed ingredient” list. I hope that this will give us something to look forward to – not only cooking together, and then eating the deliciousness, but yummy leftovers as well too. (I don’t mind taking these for lunch. M, on the other hand, doesn’t enjoy it so much. He works with a lot of women, and although they will bring their lunch, the men in the company all seem to go out every day. Which is ridiculous. But, I understand why he is more compelled to eat out than I am…)
Second, we may have spent $108, but we saved over $25 with coupons and store specials. We also bought a lot of generic items. Really, when you think about it, $108 is not a lot of money. We bought items for breakfast (bread and yummy strawberry jam for me!), lunches (lunch meat, provolone and Dijon mustard), four separate meals and dessert (chocolate-peanut butter cookies…yummm). If we ate out instead of cooking, the four dinners alone could cost us anywhere from $80 - $120. So I’m trying to chill about the grocery thing.
I’ve been trying to be Suzie Homemaker and cut out coupons, create recipes, etc., but sometimes it’s just exhausting to come home after class (I don’t get home until 9 p.m. two days a week) and cook a meal. Sometimes I’ll get M to make something while I’m gone, sometimes he’ll make me a grilled cheese or omelet when I get home, or sometimes its just cereal – which is fine! It’s just amazing to me that my mom came home after work and always made an amazing meal. When I think about the time and money that went into all those home-cooked meals, I get a little choked up!
On another food note, M and I went to an out-of-town wedding this past weekend. It was great, and thankfully we didn’t have to pay for lodging since we stayed with friends – but we still had to pay for the meal on Friday night and the subsequent partying all weekend. On Friday night we went to a really nice restaurant – we got looped in before I could see the menu prices…$25 entrees, etc. – but we did relatively well and only spent about $75 for the two of us. But then you have to tabulate the money spent on gas and drinking…not cool. Although the weekend was probably only $150ish, that is still $150 I wasn’t planning on. (And we still haven't bought the wedding present yet)
Good news though, M might be getting promoted at the end of the month! I really hope it comes through – the extra money would be great…we need to get that credit card paid off!! One last note - last night I was cleaning up the place and found a $100 gift card to Macy's - the same gift card that I though I'd lost in the move! SuperSweet!!!
First, I spent a good 30 minutes poring over the Kraft quarterly magazine, picking out meals that were easy, looked yummy and had a short “needed ingredient” list. I hope that this will give us something to look forward to – not only cooking together, and then eating the deliciousness, but yummy leftovers as well too. (I don’t mind taking these for lunch. M, on the other hand, doesn’t enjoy it so much. He works with a lot of women, and although they will bring their lunch, the men in the company all seem to go out every day. Which is ridiculous. But, I understand why he is more compelled to eat out than I am…)
Second, we may have spent $108, but we saved over $25 with coupons and store specials. We also bought a lot of generic items. Really, when you think about it, $108 is not a lot of money. We bought items for breakfast (bread and yummy strawberry jam for me!), lunches (lunch meat, provolone and Dijon mustard), four separate meals and dessert (chocolate-peanut butter cookies…yummm). If we ate out instead of cooking, the four dinners alone could cost us anywhere from $80 - $120. So I’m trying to chill about the grocery thing.
I’ve been trying to be Suzie Homemaker and cut out coupons, create recipes, etc., but sometimes it’s just exhausting to come home after class (I don’t get home until 9 p.m. two days a week) and cook a meal. Sometimes I’ll get M to make something while I’m gone, sometimes he’ll make me a grilled cheese or omelet when I get home, or sometimes its just cereal – which is fine! It’s just amazing to me that my mom came home after work and always made an amazing meal. When I think about the time and money that went into all those home-cooked meals, I get a little choked up!
On another food note, M and I went to an out-of-town wedding this past weekend. It was great, and thankfully we didn’t have to pay for lodging since we stayed with friends – but we still had to pay for the meal on Friday night and the subsequent partying all weekend. On Friday night we went to a really nice restaurant – we got looped in before I could see the menu prices…$25 entrees, etc. – but we did relatively well and only spent about $75 for the two of us. But then you have to tabulate the money spent on gas and drinking…not cool. Although the weekend was probably only $150ish, that is still $150 I wasn’t planning on. (And we still haven't bought the wedding present yet)
Good news though, M might be getting promoted at the end of the month! I really hope it comes through – the extra money would be great…we need to get that credit card paid off!! One last note - last night I was cleaning up the place and found a $100 gift card to Macy's - the same gift card that I though I'd lost in the move! SuperSweet!!!
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