Didn't plan for it to be a spendy day. Rejoined weight watchers. I have lot of weight to watch. I bought a 12 week membership. I need to get serious about losing. A 12 week membership is 3 months. I am hoping to lose 20lbs. It would be great to lose 20lbs in the next three months.

Bought the cat his condo. I ended up getting $5 off the price! Woo hoo! I'm not sure what she did but it worked for me regardless. Being a regular and bringing your cat in occassionly is a good way to make friends at the pet store.

In july my promotion came through finally and with it a raise.

I am writing this here so I remember to do this. Check current pay stub at work. Note amount. Check pre raise pay stub at work. Note amount.

Calculate difference in those amounts, and make sure to put that into savings every pay. This is easy savings. Didn't have this money before so might as well save it now I have it. Live on what I had, use the rest to make my future better.

Put 1/2 of this into retirement accounts. Put other 1/2 into general savings.

Left my wallet at work (deep in the side drawer, so I'm not worrying too much).

Picked up the cat from the Boarding Kennel. Poor thing had to pull him out of this tiny "kitty condo" he was curled up in. They told me he loved this condo and they had to work to get him out of it. Visited with them a short while before leaving.

On the way home I went to Petvalu to check out kitty condo's. Of course I brought Mao in there with me - they always worship him nicely when I bring him there.

Checked out the kitty condo, one just like he was sleeping in. She'll give it to me tomorrow (after 6pm when the boss has gone) for $3 off the sticker price.

Forgetting the wallet can be a good thing savings wise

Companies keep saying how customer focussed they are. I really wish they'd shut up about it and start giving us better service.

After driving an hour with my XM radio and getting none of the services I had payed a year in advance for last night I was a wee bit annoyed.

Called customer service (full marks for having a 1-800 and giving me the numbers and not making me figure out what number goes with what letter). Got voice mail jail (deduct all marks for the 1-800 number). The voice recognition software didn't like me. Figures. Finally identified myself. FINALLY figured out how to get transfered to a human. Why can't companies get that we want to deal with people when we phone not with Silicone Sally (and frankly if they do make us deal with her shouldn't we get a choise of her or Silicone Scott?

Had the pleasure of reidentifying myself to said human. She was helpful, but did put me on hold with the obligatory music.

About 10 minutes on the phone, and within 15 minutes after the call I had my service working. I love it. Worked like a charm and I enjoyed it on my ride today (a six hour ride turned into 8 thanks to this being the middle of construction season)

I'm thinking I'm soon going to have to join a no spend challenge just to get a break from the trials of being a consumer.

I ran into a retailer today who didn't have the product I wanted in stock. Talking to a friend tonight she has seen aother product there - one that is very well priced, that she'd like to buy.

Of course its out of stock - at least online.

She used the words "bait and switch". Strong words but it does make one wonder.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how hard it is to buy something. We went to Best Buy to look at an XM radio and I was ready to buy. Too bad they didn't have it in stock. Too bad the salesman waited until after I told him I wanted that item installed today to tell me he didn't have it in stock. After this announcement (and the salesman's silly smirk that accompanied it) I left.

Snr execs at Best Buy should take note. It's annoyances like this that drive consumers to take their money to a competitor. If your bottom line is hurting it is partly due to incidents like this one.

We drove up the road to Circuit City. I was able to buy it there for $10 more (including installation). The other one may have been a slightly better deal but without actually having the product it was no better than a mirage for my purposes.

I'm happy though, I have my radio, they did a nice job installing it and I've paid for a year of service. This will help make my drive tomorrow a lot nicer!

I'm still in the middle of contemplating whether to get satellite radio (yeah yeah so much for being frugal). My car radio is on the fritz. I drive so much a radio in the car is not optional. The car radio on the fritz is what is prompting this.

The cost of the unit is pretty comparable (spend as much as you want for the toys you want), but there is a subscription cost. I'm not so fond of that part of it. However it would be nice to have no huge reception issues.

Looking at both services I'm more interested in XM radio than Sirus

I had one of these at the spa - it was wonderful and my skin felt so soft after - for days! At the spa I went to this cost me about $60. This was much much cheaper. Bought the moisturizer and scrub on sale for about $6 total but they last for more than one of these.. maybe cost of each in materials is actually $1 and could be less.

Did one myself this morning. A home done body polish - all you need is body scrub and moisturizer - and a working shower - not sure this would be quite the same if you had a bathtub with no shower.

Set the shower going at a warm but not hot temperature. Before I got into the shower I slathered myself with a nice smelling body polish/scrub. All over, pretty much every place I could reach - had fun getting *that* spot on my back!! Remembered my feet.

Then into the shower (carefully as I had slathered feet) to clean it off and shower etc.

After the shower I dried myself off and then slathered myself in some body lotion!

I feel soft right now! I want to do one of these every week - right now I think I'm managing to do about one a week.

The walmart sampling site once again as a sample for free deoderant. Not the same free sample for deodorant as they had there yesterday.

This leads me to wonder, is it possible to get ample deodorant and never pay a dime for it?

Yanno, I think I just haven't been working the sales/samples/giveaways as well as I could.

*thinks*

Hang on the last deodorant I got was free with the razor (on deep discount) I use.

Hmm.. when did I last buy this product anyways?

I've been doing lots of things more frugally lately for the following reasons

1. To Save up for retirement
2. To Save for big purchases and so I can enjoy them without debt
3. To establish a solid emergency fund.
4. To control my money. I want to decide where I spend it - not just happen to spend it. I want to get maximum bang for the buck.

Thanks to having spent time paying off debt I now enjoy good cash flow. I want to ensure that for my future while having fun today. I don't think being frugal is about denying myself so much as controlling what i spend and ensuring I spend it in ways that get me where I want to be. Balancing the short term "I wants" with the longer term "I want/need".

And I'm enjoying it. I'm lucky that for me it isn't about being deprived of things. I choose not to do certain things so in the future I can do other things.

Checked out a local farmers' market today. This market actually had farmers at it. I found that noteworthy - I've been to some farmers' markets who have people selling stuff who go to the food terminal and who actually don't grow the food!

Bought some local apples, green beans, a tomato, chives, portabello mushrooms, and some locally grown raspberries that were frozen. Prices were good. Quality was excellent.

I got home and made a pie. Pie frustrates me. Causes much swearing angst and mess. I go through this everytime I make a pie. I swear, I scream and I act unlady like as curse it. I know I should just give in and buy one but pie is best home made. I warn my boyfriend and he makes sure to get out of harms way as he enjoys me fight with the dough.

But dang it, I do end up with good pies every time. Flakey light crust, tasty apple raspberry filling - a bit tart with a nice bite. I was happy with the result.

I might have saved $1 by making it rather than buying it. However its not really about being frugal, its about good pie! Good pie means homemade pie crust!

Today should be nice, though definitely not a no spend day.

Headed up to Sheetz to get a coffee this morning. This was the first morning I had to pay for a coffee. I now have a free one for tomorrow but its going to be a while until I buy enough coffees for more free coffee. Oh well, I love the stuff, and don't buy it cause of the coffee card program - but it is a nice bonus!

The boyfriend is heading home for lunch so I'm going to have to figure out what to make for that. Then this afternoon I'm going to head out to a local farmers market to pick up some fresh produce! A friend is coming over tonight and I'm hoping to make a curry full of fresh veggies!

I want to buy a swimsuit - one I have is old and while fitting its not fitting well. The other one has issues with the spandex coming out. I likely should go and see if any are on sale, but I bet they have been turfed out in favour of the back to school clothes.

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day, and it did start out that way with a wonderful massage from a friend who is trained in massage.

Then it was on to a nice meal at Eat'n'Park where for the first time I was dissapointed with their salad bar. Come on folks - its lunch time, keep it stocked and tidy. The restaurant wasn't that busy. Spoke to the manager rather than wait til I was home to send an email. She apologized, spend time helping her staffer clean kit up and then came and apologized again.

Then home. No mail when I got home. But 1/2 hour later went to the box and found a "sorry you weren't home card". Tried phoning USPS - who have incredibly annoyin g voice mail jail btw. Ended up going to the post office. Of course the package was on the truck so they didn't have it to give to me. ARRG. Told them what happened and was given a number to call.

Now this is where it got surprising. Called the number and actually got handed over that the letter carrier who chose not to deliver it. She explained why, and I understood that - not happy but I understand. However I also explained that I expected delivery as I was home and how did we accomplish that. She gave me directions to where she was and I was able to pick up the parcel (and while I was doing that I managed to hold up a postal truck trying to back into the loading dock by parking in its way - a bit of devine and unplanned retribution on my part )

Got the package. Woo Hoo. Talked some more to the letter carrier and said that when we are expecting something and home we'll let her know via a note in the mailbox - or we'll let her know to drop it off at one of the businesses below the BF's apt. Both of us were happy at this solution for the future.

Then found out that the order I placed for something bounced (if you tried to email me and it didn't go through please try again). I spoke to them. Got the order sorted out. Found out the problem. They called me back. Anyway, they should be shipping today.

What a day. Has turned out to be busy busy, and more stressful than expected.

Thanks to the free coffee this morning today was a no spend day! Yeah!

Did order something online now I think of it but I'm not counting that until they bill more for it - I need to have confirmation of the shipping before I can know how much its going to be.

I walked up to get a coffee this morning in my normal half asleep state.

It hardly can be called a cup of coffee. The extra large, which I buy, is better described as a vat! Makes it easy most days to stick to having only one cup a day!

Fixed my coffee, went to the counter handed her money and my coffee card not realising that I was due a free coffee. Had the money handed back to me and was wished a nice day.

Usually I don't get surprised by being owned a free coffee. This made a very nice start to the day!

Having hair that seems to hate holding colour - red especially, I was in the market for a new colour today!

Checked out the Rite-Aid flyer - Preference on for 6.99. That seemed like a nice price. Checked my coupons. Had a buy 2 get $5 off coupon.

Regular price about 9.70 each, so with the sale and the coupon I ended up with a B1G1 deal.

So, I'm a happy camper. Lets just see if this medium brown colour works. The dark auburn brown had faded to light reddish brown, so this is nice and dark. Let's see if this lasts at all.