Eh... not so much

: eh_notsomuch; January 8th, 2008

Current Mood:: accomplished

Good news: according to the guy at the tire place my friend recommended, I can get away with just replacing two tires, not all four. The tires on the right side are much more worn down than the ones on the left. So they will move the left front tire to the back, and replace the front two. Which is good, this being a front wheel drive car and all.

(I figure in another 6000 miles, I will rotate the newer tires to the back, and replace the front two again.)

I got to the garage right at 7:30 this morning, the guy checked out my tires, gave me his opinion, went back & priced 5 different tires for me (I went with Pirellis 4-season), and I was on my way to work with one of their servicemen by 7:45! I still got to work on time. This rocks!

So now I just have to find someone to give me a ride home after work, but lots of people go down that road. Shouldn't be a problem.

I totally knew that $700 for Bridgestones -- and the guy today told me Bridgestones are overpriced -- at the dealership was bogus. He never even suggested just replacing two. I'm so glad I didn't cave.

Tags: car, economizing

Today's bullet points re not getting a damn thing done!

: eh_notsomuch; December 31st, 2007

Current Mood:: bored

I am at work.

And hardly working.

The odds of us getting out early aren't great.

I finally bought a cool new camera bag the other day, and naturally I found it online this morning for cheaper. Arrrrgh! Oh well, way to support a local merchant? Sheesh, between this and the engine flush crap, I spent way too much money that we don't really have. Must do more research in future.

Speaking of the camera, I am trying to buy a replacement lens cap for my telephoto lens. It is 62mm wide, not 67 like my other lens cap. Or 52 like the 50mm prime lens. ARGH. If I buy it online, even via Amazon, I will pay a redonkulous amount of money for shipping. I tried calling the local camera store, but no one was picking up. I just want to know if they will be open today, so I can swing by and grab the right size lens cap.

Just reinstalled Greasemonkey on my PC, and added a ton of Flickr and LJ scripts. Shiny!

So I really did go to the gym this morning around 5:50 a.m. to do a Turbulence Training strength workout... aaaaand the gym was closed. They must be opening later due to the NYE holiday. So of course I turned around, went home, read LJ, and didn't work out at all. My plan now is to get on the treadmill this evening, before the NYE party. Not only will I get a workout in, I will earn useful activity points for party noshing. Plus working out after dinner seems to keep me up late, so I should make it to midnight!

I need to make backup plans for when I can't work out. I still tend to be a little all-or-nothing when it comes to exercise.

redstapler's gym is not only offering a free weight loss plan to its members, but you can win valuable prizes! Weight loss + prizes = \o/

Hubby thinks we can move the fridge downstairs to the rec room, if we get rid of the sofa down there, and then I can still park my car in the garage while the remodeling is going on! Hmmmmm. I don't know if that will work. But I appreciate him trying to devise a way for me to not have to park in the driveway this winter.

PS, we will have a lot of furniture to donate: two sofas, a dining room set, coffee & end tables. Everything is in pretty good shape, except the small two-seater sofa which has been used as a kitty scratch pad. But if you're handy, you can re-cover it and it will be fine. If you are interested in any of this stuff, please let me know. Otherwise it's all going to Homefront.

I have a funny concept for today's and tomorrow's Photo of the Day. I hope I can make it work.

Tags: camera, economizing, exercise, husband, money, nye 2008, remodeling, work

Yippee!

: eh_notsomuch; November 10th, 2007

Current Music:: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, on Spike TV

It’s not even 10:00 a.m., and Hubby and I finished all our food shopping for the week! Here’s our dinner plans:

Today: grilled chicken and barbecue baked beans
Tomorrow: split pea and barley soup. (Subject to flipping around if it doesn’t stop raining today)
Monday: Roasted Tofu & Cauliflower Curry, a new WeightWatchers recipe
Tuesday: Frozen mahi-mahi
Wednesday: Leftover grilled chicken with tomato sauce and pasta
Thursday: Frozen tuna
Friday: Dried black beans and brown rice in the slow cooker, with salsa

The bill this week was $93, a lot more than last week. But last week we were using up stuff we already had. 20% of the bill was for the chicken, and we probably got more than we actually need. Two pounds of chicken breast, and almost 3 pounds of chicken thighs, all boneless. So we’ll freeze what’s left! I need to find more uses for the thigh meat, because that’s $1.50 a pound less than the breast. I wouldn’t want to eat it all the time, but once or twice a week is OK.

So yay! I’m going for a haircut at 11:30. I’m going to try out a thrift store I have heard good things about with Dr. H later this afternoon. And tonight, Hubby’s alma mater takes on Oklahoma State in NCAA Football, and it’s on TV here! Go Jayhawks! Enjoy your Saturday!

Tags: economizing, food, remodeling

Fun with Whole Foods

: eh_notsomuch; November 4th, 2007

Current Mood:: accomplished

So today was our first attempt at saving money while shopping at Whole Foods.

No, seriously.

I started off searching through the pantry for stuff we already had that wasn’t being used. I found about a cup of red lentils. Hey, red lentil pasta sauce (one of the staples of my diet when I was a stoodint in the UK)! And we have plenty of pasta! Great, one night’s meal plus a lunch for each of us and we didn’t even have to go to the store.

I also found one leftover piece of frozen chicken, and a bag of frozen sugar snap peas. It’s a fairly big piece of chicken, so if I throw that in with a stirfry and brown rice, that should stretch it out.

As I mentioned before, we’re going to try and stick to the following rules: only one meat purchase a week, more frozen fish (much cheaper than fresh), and more meatless entrees. So here’s the list we came up with:

Today: red lentil pasta sauce, makes 4 servings
Monday: Slow cooker turkey chili, makes at least 6 servings
Tuesday: Chickpea and spinach curry, 4 servings
Wednesday: Frozen fish with sweet potatoes
Thursday: Chicken and vegetable stirfry
Friday: Leftover chili
Saturday: Go shopping again

The problem I find with doing our grocery shopping on the weekends is that we end up with no fresh fruit or veggies by the weekend. So maybe if we shop on Saturday morning instead, that will be better.

I also like having extras and lots of servings, so Hubby has good stuff for lunches and he doesn’t have to buy a sandwiich. This is healthier and cheaper for him! He says he’s going to stay away from the packaged deli meats and Skinny Cows, because they’re very expensive.

OK, so we hit the store, with our nicely typed shopping list. We also brought WF plastic bags, because they give you 5 cents for each bag you reuse.

We stuck to our list with a couple small exceptions, and I picked up some stuff for my office Thanksgiving food drive.

Our total today, after 30 cents’ discount for reusing bags was $60.89!!!

We spend on average around $100 to $110 a week there, easy!

So we were really excited by our economizing. If we can stay in the $70-75 range, we’ll save well over $100 a month, all of which can go towards paying for our remodel!

Tags: economizing, food

Oh hell to the NO

: eh_notsomuch; November 2nd, 2007

Current Mood:: annoyed

The AMC near my house has the Nightmare before Christmas in Digital 3D rerelease playing this weekend. This will probably be the last weekend, so maybe I should go. Then I checked ticket prices.

$9.75?!?!?

The matinee price is $7.00. If I go to the 10:30 show. That's 10:30 in the morning.

Who goes to the movies at 10:30 in the morning?!?!?

And they wonder why people don't go to the movies anymore. Because it's $20 for me and Hubby to go to the theater, and it's $16 a month to get it from Netflix. Do the math, Hollywood folks.

Tags: economizing, movies