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Archive for December, 2008

Upside of bad economy

December 23rd, 2008 at 07:56 pm

Upside of bad economy is that there are bargains everywhere.

Our DD finally gave us her wishlist and I went to American Eagle. They're having buy one get one 50% off deal, and I had 40% off coupon from DD being a member of the store. I bought a coat, three sweaters, and a cami. The original price would have been over $300 (like I would ever pay the regular price...), and I paid $98 for my entire purchase including tax.





I can see!!

December 21st, 2008 at 10:28 pm

I went to Lasik surgery yesterday. The procedure itself only took about 15 minutes (or less). It was a lot more easier than I expected, and I have 20/20 vision now.

AMAZING!!

I haven't been able to see this well without any glasses or contact lenses for more than 30 years. It was worth the money for sure.

I don't know why but the Lasik center gave me an extra discount, and the final bill was $3,228. Kind of random discount on top of 15% discount from my vision provider. Of course, 'm not complaining!! Better than original estimation of $4,000.

Like I wrote before, I have some fund in my FSA account and DH's vision insurance will pay me $500. So, final out of pocket will be only about $500. Not too bad.

It's over and I'm done!!!

December 18th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

Until January 26th, I have a break from school. I took my final exam on International Accounting last night, and that was the end of this semester. Done. Finished. No more. Yeah!!

Amazingly, I only have 2 more classes to finish my degree. 2 classes!! It seemed forever when I went back to school back in fall semester of 2001. I took one class, American history, to see if I could survive, and I did. I cannot believe there's only one semester left to go.

November & December have been super expensive month.

November: DD's truck needed a break work and new tires. $860..
December: Our dog got really sick from dental problem. We ended up taking him to vet and he had some of his teeth extracted. The final price tag, $1,500.

And, I'm getting Lasik surgery this Saturday. Estimation was more than I expected because my vision is really really bad. $1,999 per eye. So, $4K total. My vision insurance company has a 15% off deal with them, so it will bring the price down to $3400. I'm also covered with DH's vision plan that will pay $500 for the surgery. With that, the final cost should be $2,900 and I have $2,200 in my FSA account. This is my Christmas gift to myself : )

Good day

December 13th, 2008 at 04:59 am

Today was my birthday and had a very nice day.

I got some gifts. One of them was a beautiful hand made quilt. My DD gave me a pair of slippers that I wanted. My co-worker took me out to lunch, and few people text me wishing me a happy birthday.

Today was also bonus pay out day. I can pay off my tuition before getting reimbursed. Also, I am getting lasik surgery. With my FSA fund and the bonus, I don't have to finance my Lasik.

My DH & DD are at DD's school's football game. (This is a BIG one.) I'm home alone and actually really enjoying quiet moment. I'm grateful that I have a nice life, my family is healthy, and have good friends.

The weather forecast is rain this weekend. It is about time. I will be studying for my finals next week.

Cheap laundry soap

December 11th, 2008 at 11:55 pm

Got to love Walgreens.

They have Buy $25 get $5 off coupon till Saturday.

Arm & Hammer laundry detergent is sales with their in-ad coupon. The beauty is, $5 coupon is generated BEFORE coupons!

So, I bought 4 of 32 loads laundry soap, $7.49 each, used in-ad coupon to knock $22 off, then used two $1/1 coupons.

Final price, $6.58 including tax and got $5 off coupon back.

I'm planning to go back for some more as free (or almost free) laundry soap is hard to come by around here.

Making profit by shopping

December 7th, 2008 at 06:08 am

It's been a while I did a serious deal as I was super busy with work & school. But I found an easy money making deal at Walgreens, and here I went.

-Reach tooth brush 4 X $3 2 BOGO coupon, got 2 $6 catalina coupons after 2 seperate transactions.
-Reach floss 2 x $3 used $1/1 coupon, got $6 catalina back
-Rimmel mascara & eye shadow $6.99 for mascara and the eye shadow was free as it was BOGO sale, used 2 $1/1 coupons
- Vicks Nyquel 2 x $5.99, used 2 $1.5/1 coupons, got $4 catalina coupon
- Puff tissue, used buy 2 Vicks get a free Puff tissue coupon
One of my transaction was more than $25 before coupons, and I got $5 off catalina

So, after coupons, I spent about $24 and got $27 catalinas. Free products & nice $3 profit to cover sales tax.

These catalina will be handy next week for Zicam deal. Buy 3 Zicam ($3.99 each) and get $5 is going on next week, and I have $2/1 coupons. So, it will be $3.99x3-$2x3-$5=97 cents for 3 Zicam.

What will I do with all these cold medicines? There's always places to donate Smile

It's Thursday

December 4th, 2008 at 07:51 pm

I have become a regular at a farmer's market. I stopped by this morning, and bought a broccoli, 5 tomatoes, 4 onions, and a daikon radish for $4. It is fun to see how vendors change their products by season. All the summer and autumn fruits are gone, and now they have apples, persimmons, and oranges. I love fruits but not so much of winter fruits. I love summer fruits, like peaches, apricots, and nectarines. It is a huge advantage of living in CA because I can get really fresh fruits around here.

Really, really busy at work. I just submitted a request for a temp person. Our business is growing and we were told to cut our overhead cost. It's such BS. Instead of giving us percentage goals (like, ask us to limit our overhead cost to under certain percentage of sales), they gave us an absolute number. We need to be at the 85% of our overhead cost in 2007. That's really stupid because our business volume pretty much doubled. Now, I need to whip up a presentation to convince our mgmt. why we need more people.