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Archive for January, 2008

I went shopping

January 31st, 2008 at 08:52 pm

I went shoppint at Rite Aid and Walgreens, and bought:

Rite Aid
7 Soy Joy $1.39 x 7 = $9.73
Less coupon $1.39 x 7 = $9.73 Free
L'Oreal Hair Color $8.99
Less coupon $2 Rite Aid q. $2 man. q.
Less rebate $4.99 Free
Shampoo $2.99
Less coupon $1
Less rebate $2.99 $1 profit
Laundry Soap $5.99 for two BOGO
Less rebate $2
Tax $1.39
Final oop $4.38

Walgreens
Softsoap body wash $4.49 FAR
Lip Stick $5.99 FAR
Energy drink $4.49 FAR
Clear care $5.99 FAR
Shampoo $3.99 FAR and less $1 coupon - means profit
3 Energizer battery $1.99 each after Walgreens & Man. coupons $1.99 x 3 = $5.97
Chap stick $2 RR $2 free
Tax $2.40
Less Walgreens coupon $5/$20
Final oop $2.37

I had enough GC balance to pay for all the FAR items, so I didn't have to use my cash Smile

NSD yesterday

January 29th, 2008 at 07:05 pm

Yesterday, I stayed in the office all day, and went straight to school. Thus, No spending day. Oh, I returned one item at Rite Aid and got $8 back. So, it was positive in terms of cash flow. I bought some FAR (free after rebate) items at Rite Aid last week, and noticed one of them didn't ring up correctly and didn't qualify for rebate even though it was the qualified item. Somebody must entered wrong information in their computer. It wasn't something I desperately needed, so I just returned it and got my money back. New rebate period started at Rite Aid as well. I'd better check and see if they have anything good.

I'd better start working on our tax soon. All the paperwork is piled on my desk, and I haven't really organize them, yet. Tax time is also good time to get some free software. Staple normally offers tax software bundle deal this time of the year.

I was going to go FAR item shopping during lunch time, but it's raining..... again..... I guess I will just stay here.


Some weekend spending

January 28th, 2008 at 09:27 pm

I spent some money socializing with my friends on Saturday. One of my friend's friend is a Mary Kay consultant and I was invited to do a make over. I actually had a good time and learned something about make up, like how to apply mascara. I bought eye make up remover and acne solution for my DD. Total $22.

Then, I went out with my friends for a drink. We ordered bruschetta and pot stickers, and I had a cosmopolitan. My share was $12 which isn't too bad. Everything tasted good and we had a nice girls' talk.

We were really low on fruits and vegetables, so I went to Trader Joe's. I really don't care if things are organic or not, but their price is very reasonable. I bought 4 Fuji apples, bananas (19 cents per lb.!), a dozen eggs ($1.19), chocolate taffy cake (full size cake for $1.99), a package of tomatoes, a bag of tangerines, a bag of green beans, 3 green peppers, a package of mushrooms, a package of bok choy, a bag of small red potatoes, a loaf of sour dough bread, and paid $23.81.

Walgreens started new rebate period yesterday. I didn't buy anything for Walgreens rebate last month because there wasn't much. There are some good ones this week, and I am planning stop by after my class tonight.

School schedule - frustrating....

January 26th, 2008 at 08:07 pm

Looks like I have to change my class planning. I was going to take two accounting classes, but I could only get in one of them, so I need to shuffle class planning.

I originally had a seat in international accounting class, but swapped when I found tax classes was added. Well, guess what? The tax classes got cancelled.

To make a long story short, I will be taking financial accounting and a computer class that I need to take anyway. I wanted to take this computer class during summer because this class is on Saturday, and I didn't want to use my Saturdays for school anymore.

I guess I have to do what I need to do to get through.

At the end, this could be a good thing for me because our budget season starts February, and it will be a lot of discussions and meetings until April or May. If I took international accounting, I would have to leave my work at least by 4 p.m. because the class starts at 4:30 p.m. That may be pretty difficult to do.

So, I'm trying to tell myself it was meant to be. Plus, extending my graduation by one semester isn't a big deal, after all.

Low key day

January 24th, 2008 at 10:26 pm

This has been a slow day at work which is good. I don't need any surprises that causes extra reconciliation work to do.

I checked my 401K and it is down 8K since Jan. 1!! What will I do? Nothing. LOL I increased my contribution this year to take advantage of down market, and hoping this will pay off 10 years from now. I am not quite retiring, yet.

One annoying thing happened about my school, though. I signed up for the international accounting class on Tues & Thurs, starts at 4:30 p.m. Sometimes, it is not easy for me to leave work early, so when I found the school added a tax class that starts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, I jumped on it and dropped the international accounting. Well, guess what? The school cancelled the tax class, and now I am in the waiting list for the international accounting class I originally had a seat. Grrrr!

As for money, today is going to be a no spending day.

EF addition

January 23rd, 2008 at 04:42 pm

Transferring $191.92 I earned from selling textbook at Amazon to EF.

Previous EF balance $1,538.14
Addition $191.92
New EF balance $1,730.06


Some thoughts about $800/$1600 payment

January 22nd, 2008 at 11:29 pm

I heard about the $800/$1600 payment from the government, and it reminded me so much of what I had experienced in Japan when their economy tanked in early 90's. It was a very similar situation. Real estate price went crazy in mid 80's, and people were buying real estate left and right. Banks loaned money to anybody and everybody. After that, there was a huge bad debt which banks had to deal with, and the government was trying so hard to re-bump the economy.

They did similar things. Lower interest rate. Yap. Japanese prime rate has been so low, my friends' mortgage rate is 2 to 3%. Yes, 2 to 3%. Keep in mind, interest rate for savings is like, 0.1%. My friend who moved to Bay Area a couple of years ago told me he was shocked to see "interest" in his bank statement that he hadn't seen for years.

Giving people money? Yap, done that too. The government paid about $200 per child, and I received $200 check for nothing. My friend has 4 kids, so she received about $800. Did it energize the economy? Of course, not LOL Their economy still hasn't fully recovered today.

I know we cannot conduct a simple comparison between US and Japan economy because I think US economy is much more flexible and dynamic. But I think it is interesting to see some similarities in economic downturn

Taking care of plastic

January 22nd, 2008 at 09:28 pm

I took care of a couple of plastic issues today.

One is cancelling my United Mileage card. This has $60 annual fee and it is due in February. I was going to cancel it last year anyway, but forgot about it and paid annual fee. I cleared the balance last week and called them today to cancel it. Sales rep. was pretty nice about it and closed the account right away without bothering me much. Maybe it's because I told them I switched from their mileage card to reward card. Technically, they didn't lose a customer.

Another one is my flexible spending account card. I thought the benefit company will send me new FSA debit card this year, so I threw my old one away. Well, it turns out that the card was good till its expiration date. I called the benefit center and requested new card. I really like debit card system because I don't have to worry about paperwork.




Safeway breakfast deal

January 22nd, 2008 at 03:28 pm

Stop by Safeway and grabbed:
2 boxes of oatmeal
2 boxes of granora bars
6 boxes of oatmeal to go
$2 each $2 x 10 = $20
Less $10 promo
Less $5.70 in coupons
Paid $4.30

Rite aid today

January 21st, 2008 at 11:15 pm

Stopped by Rite Aid to buy some FAR items. There are some free stuff that are good only till tomorrow.

I bought:
Electrasol $2.99 (used rain check from last week.) less coupon $2.25 Final price 74 cents.
GE light bulb $2
Organic shampoo $5.99
Hair serum $7.99
Hair glaze (kind of highlights, I guess) $7.99
Flu reduce $6.99
Tax $1.62
Total $33.32 and I will receive rebate $32.46. Oop 86 cents.

Weekend and planning deal hunting

January 21st, 2008 at 01:02 am

I've done a couple things to fulfill my new year's resolution.

Saturday: Went to get my pedicure. Check!

Sunday: Went for a walk for an hour. Since I could not go for a walk this week, I combined and made it for an hour, instead of 30 min. Check!

Now, I'm planning to do a couple of deals at Safeway. There are several deals going on at Safeway, and some are really good one.

One is breakfast deal. Buy 10 item and get $10 off. Quaker products are participating products and they are $2 each. That means, the price will be $1 each after buying 10 items, and can even lower using coupons.

I already bought 10 boxes of granola bars for 50 cents each. I still have coupons for oatmeal and oatmeal to go. Oatmeal will be 30 cents per box after promotion and coupons. That's pretty good. We still have some left from last Quaker deal, but expiration date for oatmeal is quite a long time.

Campbell's select soup is another deal I’m looking at. It is part of “Buy 10 and get $5 off” promotion, and the price is $1.5 each. After buying 10 of them, the final price is $1 each, and I can use five of .40/2 coupon that will bring the final price to $8, 80 cents per can.

I don’t feel like going anywhere now. So, I will stop by the store tomorrow after work.


Hawaii pic.

January 16th, 2008 at 06:15 pm

Here's some pictures I took when I was in Hawaii.

We went to whale watching and a bunch of dolphins started racing with our boat!! They were so playful and cute.







Also, we saw an ocean turtle when we went to north shore. Waves were huge in north shore side and I actually saw a surfer doing pipeline! It was awesome.




Back to reality

January 15th, 2008 at 09:03 pm

I came back from Hawaii last night. Now, I'm back to work, back to reality.

Hawaii was just great. Last time I visited Hawaii was about 12 years ago, so, I totally forgot what it was like till I arrived there. I didn't need any long-sleeve shirt even in winter. It was about 80 degrees every day.

I stayed at my friend's house, and she took me around Oahu. It was so beautiful, and we had a lot of fun. Since I got home late last night, I haven't even unpacked my suitcase. I will post some pictures when I have time to download them.

One thing I was surprised was Hawaii is so Japan! There are more than one Japanese TV channel, many Japanese restaurants (some actually from Japan), and Japanese grocery store. I ate Japanese food, read Japanese newspaper, and watched Japanese drama. It wasn't like this last time I was there. Since food is very important part of life in Japan (Japanese don't eat to live, they live to eat), my friend told me their transition from life in Tokyo to Hawaii was easy. Well, she is a white girl from California, but she spent more than 10 years in Tokyo, so she got used to life in Japan, I guess....

As for money, yes, I did spent quite a bit for the trip. Airfare was little over $400, and bought some souvenirs for my family and friends. But, I didn't have to pay for hotel and a car. I think I saved more than $1,000 by staying at my friend's house. I am very grateful that she took time to show me around between driving her kids to school and other activities.

Also, spending time with my friend was priceless. We talked, talked and talked LOL We amazingly didn't run out of things to talk about. It was like a slumber party!





I am in paradise

January 9th, 2008 at 02:50 am

I arrived Honolulu this afternoon.

Ohhhhh, it is paradise. The weather is just perfect, and people are walking around with T-shirts. I'm sitting in my friend's living room and feeling totally relaxed. She drove by Waikiki beach and it is beautiful as usual. It's amazing how ocean is so clear.

I really don't have any plans to do anything. I just want to relax and enjoy the nice weather, I guess : )

Leaving for Hawaii tomorrow and etc.

January 7th, 2008 at 06:22 pm

My back pain is almost gone. At least I can move around. Thank God!

I am leaving for Hawaii tomorrow morning, so I really wanted to get rid of my backache. It made me realize being healthy is so important to do anything! I was going to get a pedicure on Saturday, but could not go because I couldn't move an inch. I felt I wasted a whole day that really sucked.

I managed to get several copies of newspaper yesterday, though. It was such a great coupon day.

We are low on Nyquil and I was looking for a deal. 6 oz. Nyquil is $4 this week at Walgreens and they're having "Buy $20 and get $10 back" deal. There was $1.50 coupon yesterday. So, I am planning to buy 5 Nyquil.

$4 x 5 = $20
Less $1.5 x 5 = $7.5
Less $10
Final price $2.50 for five 6 oz. Nyquil.

By the way, all of my grades are posted. I got an A for Cost Accounting, Operations Management, and Tax. But, stupid A- for my Philosophy. I wrote a really baaaad paper for the final. I mean it was so bad that I received a D!! I have never ever got a D for my paper before. That shows Philosophy is not my thing. I hardly studied for the class so I shouldn't complain for A-.

Now, I am preparing to get my tuition reimbursement. I am getting $1,561.60 back for my tuition and books for last semester.

Yesterday started good, then....

January 6th, 2008 at 09:24 pm

Yesterday started really good after stormy Friday, then it went downhill....

I went for a walk for about 35 minutes after I got out of bed. My new year's resolution was to go for a walk twice a week and I did it for my first week in 2008. Check!

After I came home, I started scooping leaves in our pool. It took me a while to scoop all these leaves, and what I didn't realize was I twisted my back while I was scooping leaves.

I started feeling pain in my back and could not even move in the afternoon! I had some chores I wanted to do, and was invited to our friend's birthday party. But I could not do any of it because I couldn't move one inch. Ohhh, it was just terrible.

It feels little better today, but I am still careful and not moving around much. I want to go and buy some newspapers, though. Today's is a great coupon day and I really don't want to miss out.

I'm hoping this pain will go away completely very soon.

Crazy weather!

January 4th, 2008 at 06:37 pm

Our weather is CRAZY today. It was scary driving this morning to work. I had to hold on to my steering wheel and maintain control of my car. I just talked to my daughter and she told me our fence just fell down due to heavy wind. I heard the wind should die down a little by noon, but I don't know. I was thinking about avoiding free way when I go home but I also heard many signals are out. So, I guess I will leave work early and drive slow on free way. There are accidents everywhere and the traffic will be pretty bad anyway.


Free Dimetapp

January 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm

Walgreens have free Dimetapp this week. (They're $4 and you will get $4 off coupon good for next purchase.)

Wyeth rebate is still good till the end of this month and the limit is 2 per household. So, you should be able to make $10 if you get 6 of them. I know I won't use the medicine because my DD is too old, but I have friends who have small kids. So, I think I will just give them away.

By the way, their holiday items are 75% off. I went to shopping splurge and spent $7 : )

Got my free credit report to review

January 3rd, 2008 at 05:08 pm

It's time to get my free credit report. So, I went to annualcreditreport.com and reviewed my credit report. I do this every four month to take advantage of free credit report from three agencies. (For example, I pick TransUnion in January, Experian in April, then Equifax in August.) I normally skip knowing my credit score because it cost about $8. My concern is accuracy in my account information, so I don't bother about the score. At least, not this time.

Reviewing my credit report is also a good reminder to close accounts I don't really need. I may close my Nordstrom account because it has been inactive for at least two years now.

Reviewing my resolution

January 2nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm

I set up 5 resolutions, and 2 of them have number goals.

For my $5,000 EF goal, I will use my ING savings account. Currently, I have $1,538.14. So, I need to save $3,461.86 more in this account. That's $288.49 per month. Hmmmm... How do I do that? Let's see.

For my auto care account, I will use my Sharebuilder account for this. I know stocks are not suited for such a purpose, like auto care, but I kind of made up this account just a sake of saving for something. Maybe I should rename it for "just because" account. Anyway, I will be investing $100 per month for this account.

Back to work!

January 2nd, 2008 at 09:48 pm

I'm back to work. I wake up really early, like 4 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. So, I decided to get up around 5. Prepared and packed my breakfast and lunch, changed, and left home about 6. I normally leave home between 6:30 and 7, so it was early for me. I stopped by Starbucks and got some regular coffee, not my usual caramel latte. I found their brewed coffee is less expensive. (Well, of course....) I paid $1.65 and the gal filled up my coffee mug. Well worth the money.

It took only about 30 minutes to get to work because there was no traffic (it's 30 miles driving), and I got a nice parking spot close to my office building. I guess it's good to be an early bird sometimes.

I'm planning to leave work early since I came early. Probably will go and check out a couple of deals at Walgreens and Rite Aid.



Happy New Year!

January 1st, 2008 at 06:49 pm

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2008 will be another successful year for
all of you.

It's beautiful in Sacramento area this morning. Very cold, but beautiful blue sky.

I went for a walk this morning and returned DVD. Hollywood video is about two miles away, so I walked about 4 miles this morning. First accomplishment of this year : )

Then, I applied for Chase freedom credit card that is offering $100 cash back and 3% cash back on my purchase. I have no CC balance because I pay off every month. So, I will add this Cash rewards to my EF when I receive it.

Off to a good start for this year.




Last day of 2007

January 1st, 2008 at 06:01 am

I watched the New Year's countdown in NYC. Well, it's only 9 p.m. in CA when it happened.

I also called my mother in Japan, and it's already afternoon on January 1st over there.

OK, I'm ready for 2008 LOL

I've been thinking about New Year's resolution, but could not really come up with one. Let's see....

While healthy finance is important for me, looking good is as important : ) Especially after turning 40, gravity is such an enemy LOL Luckily, I do not have weight problem. I've been 115 lb. for 16 years since my DD was born, and wear size 2. HOWEVER, I know my body is becoming "softer" and some body parts need to be tighten. So, I will be focusing on taking care of our finance and myself.

1. Save $5,000 in EF.
2. Save $1,000 for car care fund.
3. Keep record of coupon savings.
4. Go to pedicure once a month.
5. Go for a walk for at least 30 minutes twice a week.

Now, I'm really ready for the new year.