Sheer Randomness.

This blog post is going to be completely random in nature, quite frankly because I have a lot of things I want to get written (typed?) down, and no real way to structure it.

Things I've learned today:
- Adding Cream of Mushroom soup to a pot roast makes it taste even better.
- Friends will let you down, and get bent out of shape over piddly stuff.
- The glue on bags of french bread from the store sometimes doesn't hold up after you've baked it.
- Knitting projects won't knit themselves, no matter how much you glare at them.
- When you're looking for something that is important, you all of a sudden can't find it.
- Vinegar will take off hard water stains and tannin stains (from brewing tea in a teapot).
- De-cluttering the drawers of your desk is a good thing. You often find things you thought you lost.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm still trying to find the title for the truck I got rid of, if you happen to see it, will you tell it to return to my apartment? Thanks.

Snow

My cousin took this picture while she was out hunting today. Sure is beautiful in Big Sky Country.

I'll be taking pictures from my mom's house tomorrow, hoping to get some mountain snow shots.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Picture of afghan, as promised.

Here's a picture of that afghan I finished. I think it turned out quite nicely. Already working on another one, hopefully it doesn't take me as long as this one did!

Old Man Winter comes to visit...

Hooray for snow! We just got our first (and hopefully not last) dousing of snow for the winter. 7 inches in one night! Woke up this morning to the most beautiful carpet of white outside my windows. Unfortunately, the snow was the wet heavy kind, so it clung to the power lines, and caused quite a few of them to break, causing lots of power outages. Also, with it being wet and heavy, there were quite a few downed trees in the area as well. There was one branch that fell from one of the pines on campus, the branch alone was over 7 inches in diameter, to give you an idea how much snow it took to break it off. My mom had over a foot at her house, 30 miles away.

Finished my mom's afghan finally, I will have pictures of it as soon as I get the batteries charged for my digital camera and get pictures taken. It's quite pretty, and it used about half of the yarn the pattern called for... because I screwed up the pattern. Whoops! Ah well, it still turned out, and it's going to be a nice present for my mom for Christmas. Only 4 more to finish! Right now I'm working on my scarf, as the snow this morning reminded me just how cold it can get, especially with nothing covering my neck. I'll probably work on this a bit longer tonight, get to bed, and start on another afghan tomorrow after school.

I'm looking very forward to Thanksgiving, I get to spend it with my mom's side of the family, and my grandma is coming over for it as well. I haven't seen her since October, she's such a fantastic lady, and I thoroughly enjoy spending time with her. Mom says there's going to be anywhere from 19-28 people at her house for Thanksgiving.

Things here at the house are going well, R and I are getting antsy for school to finish out for the semester. Hard to believe we only have about 2 weeks of actual classes left, then finals week to tackle. Seems to have flown by, and yet creeped along, all in the same breath. I feel that my brain is going to start leaking out of my ears if I have to cram very much more information in there. I will have to start forgetting things, I think, in order to make room for the next two weeks. What was your name again? Hehe, I'm just kidding... I think.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I'm thankful for a lot of things this year, everything from learning to be on a budget, to paying off debt, learning to knit (Thanks Jen, you've been so fantastic, I don't feel that I can thank you enough), making new friends, spending time with my family, expanding my cooking horizons, and overall just being alive. Certainly better than the alternative!

*sigh*

Ya know, today was supposed to be my day to relax!

Didn't have school today, due to it being Veteran's Day, so I got to stay home with my vet, except for going to lunch with my momma.

The meal plan is going well this month so far, only had to switch out one evening's meal so far, which is perfectly fine.

Oh, read this today, R and I signed up because he's a Veteran.


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Copied this info from LLNOE Forum:
Dave announced on his radio show today the offer of FREE FPU online for military vets. The ONLY way to take advantage of this is to email the following temporary email address before close of business this Wednesday 11/14.

The address is: fpuvets@daveramsey.com

Since it's a Vets Day special offer, Dave asks that people NOT call into their customer service office, or use any other form of contact, as they do not have staff to handle inquiries another way.

He said that they will respond with passwords/access info via email as well.

_________________________________________________________

We sent in an email, and got a response with all of the information within 30 minutes, so we're taking FPU! Our FPU evenings are going to be Thursdays, since roomie isn't home, and we each only have one class.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Grocery queen rides again!

So, last night, I posted that I would give my total grocery bill for all the shopping we've done over the last two days. Yesterday's total was $96.00. Today's total was $108.00, saved over $40.00. Looks like we went $4.00 over budget, right? WRONG! Roomie paid his third, so we've spent $138.00 of our budget, and all we have left to buy will be sodas through the month, milk, and some bread products that we don't need until later this month, and we have no room in the freezer right now to freeze any, so we'll just pick up as needed.

Can't complain one bit about how we did! Nice to know that 99% of the groceries for the month are paid for and in the cupboard!!!

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Now playing: Styx - Come Sail Away
via FoxyTunes

Yay!!! Tentative dinner menu done for the month

So, I made up a tentative menu for the month, subject to be switched around, but this pretty well looks good to me.

11/6/07 - Spaghetti, French Bread, Salad
11/7/07 - Cheesy Enchiladas
11/8/07 - Broccoli pasta with Garlic and Pine Nuts
11/9/07 - Baked chicken in cream of mushroom soup and rice
11/10/07 - Having dinner out at my mom's, no cooking
11/11/07 - Beef Stew
11/12/07 - Tortellini Alfredo
11/13/07 - Cheeseburger brownies (basically cheeseburger pie, but have to make double)
11/14/07 - Breakfast for dinner
11/15/07 - Chicken with Shelby's Asian sauce and rice/veggies
11/16/07 - Burgers
11/17/07 - Potato soup
11/18/07 - Grilled cheese sandwiches and leftover potato soup
11/19/07 - Chicken Sandwiches
11/20/07 - Microwave ravioli casserole
11/21/07 - Pork chops and homemade Mac & Cheese
11/22/07 - Thanksgiving, going out to my mom's, but I need to make my Baked Potato supreme casserole
11/23/07 - FFY (Fend For Yourself)
11/24/07 - Chicken and Dumplings
11/25/07 - Pot Roast
11/26/07 - Burritos
11/27/07 - Tuna Noodle Casserole
11/28/07 - Hot dogs, fries
11/29/07 - Homemade chili, with venison burger
11/30/07 - FFY
12/1/07 - Chicken with Shelby's Asian sauce, rice/veggies
12/2/07 - Beef Stew
12/3/07 - Steak, baked potatoes, salad
12/4/07 - Baked chicken with cream of mushroom soup and rice

So, there's my menu until R's next GI Bill check comes in. We'll see how well we stick to it.

Edit to add: Went grocery shopping for part of the menu, only bought what was on sale. Spent $96.00 on about $150 worth of groceries, left me with 26 items to buy except for milk and soda for the month. I waited until the ads for Albertson's and Safeway changed over, and 18 of the items I need for the rest of the menu is on sale, mostly for 1-2 dollars per unit. Finishing off the grocery shopping tomorrow night, will post the final tally for the month when I get home. That figure above doesn't include roomie's portion of the bill, if he helps with groceries this month.

Also, got the prescription for Chantix, and a "quit kit" from the doctor. I now have neon orange Playdoh. I miss how this stuff smells. 4 weeks until I start the Chantix, 5 weeks until my quit date.

Break Stuff

If you're familiar with the song "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit, you'll understand how my day has gone, so this entry will be fairly short and simple.

Have Dr's appointment tomorrow to get prescription for Chantix. I will be starting it 12/5/07 (one month from today), for a quit date of 12/12/07. Why am I waiting? Quite frankly, it's because I'm scared of the side effects and how they will affect my school, not to mention the withdrawals from the nicotine itself. At this point, being SO close to graduation, I can't afford to screw it up, so I'm not risking anything at this point. I figure if I quit on 12/12, it gives me 2 weeks essentially to get over the withdrawals, because I start Wintersession classes on 1/2/08. Been smoking for going on 12 years, will be weird to be a "non-smoker".

Roommate still considering moving, but he paid his rent for the month, so that's a good thing.

Picked up the yarn for Dad's girlfriend's Christmas present (afghan). They didn't have enough of the one color I needed, so doing a dual color one, one yarn is a really pretty true red, the other is a variegated black, gray, and white. Should be pretty. Still finishing Mom's afghan, it's a little under halfway finished. Really need to finish my scarf, been neglecting it. Worked on it a bit yesterday, but didn't make much progress, because I was watching a movie at my mom's (The Illusionist) and it was really good, spent more time watching the movie than my needles.

Monday's almost over, thank goodness. Tomorrow's gotta be a better day, it just has to be.

November's budget

Well, here it is, my first post, baring my budget to the world:

Income: $1326.00

Rent: - $550.00
Bresnan (this is Cable/Internet/Phone package) - $120.00
Groceries - $200.00
Gas - $50.00
Shelby's Cigs (please read below) - $90.00
Entertainment (read below) - $60.00
Date nights/dinners out - $30.00
Pets - $10.00
Car registration (R was just given a 93 Geo Metro from his brother, gotta get it titled and tagged for this state) - $100.00
Christmas (in case of yarn shortage) - $50.00
Shelby's Visa - $66.00

Ok, I know the first thing that will be under attack is the cigarettes. Yes, I know I need to quit. Yes, I know I'd be out of debt faster if I did. I am currently checking to find out if the pharmacy I use is carrying Chantix. If they are, my quit date will be 12/15/07. If they aren't, R and I are going to have to discuss how the prescription will be paid for. We do not have prescription coverage, and because of my tribal affiliation, I don't pay for medication, provided I'm willing to drive 45 miles to the pharmacy. Spending ten dollars in gas is way cheaper than paying full price for the medications I take.

Gaming - Both R and I play online role playing games (MMORPG's). He has 2 accounts for World of Warcraft, I have one account for World of Warcraft, and one account for Lord of the Rings Online. This is the entirety of our entertainment budget. We each spend essentially a dollar a day to get hours upon hours of enjoyment out of a game. Cheaper than going to the bar once a month, or going to a movie, plus, it's an activity we do together.

However, we've had a bit of a monkey wrench tossed at us. R's brother, whom lives with us, may be moving. There was a bit of a household blowout a few days ago, and he claims he's thinking about moving out. We'll see how much truth there is to that, as he's mentioned before that he wants to move out but hasn't yet. Extremely long story that I don't want to get into here, but that's where it is.

We'll see what happens, but I am already thinking of ways we can trim the budget back by $225.00, and quitting smoking is one of them. Also, we've discussed cutting the cable TV out of our package with Bresnan. Just having the cable internet and the phone will be approximately $85.00 a month. R's brother is the only one that truly watches the TV, so if he leaves, it will be gone as well, as it is truly a waste of money for R and I. Also, as funny as this sounds, the grocery budget will get cut back if he leaves. Before R's brother moved in, I was able to count on having leftovers after meals. Apparently the way his brother sees things, if the food is there, it must be eaten. I haven't had leftovers in this house since June of 06, at all. I can make a 13x9 pan of lasagna, and I might eat 1, 2 pieces tops. R eats 2. Now when I cut up this lasagna, there's about 12 decently sized pieces, and I have ZERO leftovers. Oink? If I can start having leftovers to work with, things will get easier in that department.

Oh, and there's no blow money in the budget, because R and I both have "jobs" and the money garnered from those "jobs" (he's a TA for a class, and I clean a house once a week) is our personal "blow" money. If R's brother leaves, that money will be budgeted as well, rather than just free floating.

So, we'll see what happens.