Maismom's every day life

It's Friday. It's payday. So, I splurged a little.

Breakfast: I got myself a Grande caramel latte from Starbucks, and bought a dozen donuts for co-workers. My intern asked me "Why did you bring in donuts?" I said "Because I felt like it." If $6 makes everyone in my office happy, I'm very happy : )

Lunch: Went out with my friend, and had a nice juicy Avocado burger. $6.79 with a drink. We talked about going skiing sometime soon. Tahoe area finally got some snow, and I'm so excited!!

I was looking at the stock chart of my former employer. I worked for them from 1986 to 1999, and stock split five times while I worked for them. I participated employee's stock purchasing program, but I was in my 20's and wasn't making a whole a lot of money, so bought 10 stocks here, 15 stocks there. Those small investment grew over time with multiple split, and they were worth about 35K by the time I left the company. It gave us a nice start when we moved to the States with nothing but some cash in our hands.

Thinking back.... everything is about timing, and I really feel there's the God somewhere. My family struggled financially because my father passed away when he was 43. I was 18, and my brothers were 13 and 11. My mother never worked before. While my mother moved away with my brothers to live close to her family, I stayed in the area because I was going to school there. I had NO money. I was working as a waitress at night, and hated my life.

I was still saving, though. I worked at the restaurant on Navy base, and I could earn tip. (We don't tip in Japan.) I normally received about $10 to $20 a day, and saved most of it. I saved about $2,000 after two years working there, and took a trip to San Francisco where my DH is from.

Finding a job with my former employer was a totally serendipity. I don't even know why they hired me, but my life became so much better after I started working for them. People were super nice, and the pay was good for 20 year old girl. I met many nice people there, made long-time friends, and it was financially rewarding, too.

As long as I keep walking on the right path and don't do anything stupid or destructive, I guess there's someone out there who will help me during rough times.

I've been getting free crackers (Nabisco Cheese Nips) at Safeway. They are 10/$10 till tomorrow, and $6 off promotion kicks in when I buy six of them at once. I got 18 of them so far. I went to the store yesterday, but didn't get anymore because I was running out of shelve space for them.

Campbell's Select soup are also 10/$10, so I bought six of them because I had three of .50/2 off coupons, makes them 75 cents each. That triggered a catalina and I got $1 off coupon for next shopping and $1.75/7 coupon for Campbell Select. That will make them 61 cents per can. So, I am stocking up on these soup as well. They are handy when I need one more dish.

Pastas are also cheap this week. Gold Grain kind is 10/$10 and I used .55 coupons to make them 45 cents each. Egg Noodles are also 10/$10, and used .50 cents coupons to make them 50 cents each.

By the way, I was at Safeway buying 6 boxes of Cheese Nips, 6 cans of Select soup, 4r boxes of pasta, and a box of tangerine oranges ($4.99 for this one), and I paid $8.10 for all of these items. The lady behind me kept looking at the total shown on the display like she couldn't believe it LOL I used three $1/1 Nabisco coupons that gave me nice overage.

I love it when the deals work as I planned.

Rite Aid: Harshey's candies are 5/$10 and there's $5 rebate. There's man. coupons $1/2, so use two coupons and make them $3 for 5 bags of candies.

Safeway: Cheese Nips are 10/$10 and it's qualified to get $6 off Nabisco promo. I just bought 6 boxes of cheese nips and they ended up being free.

I also bought some Aquafresh toothpaste. They are also 10/$10 this week, and I used .75/1 man. coupons to make them 25 cents each. I don't need any of them but will donate them to the program for underprivileged families.

And this is a really sad one.

We ordered flowers for a funeral that will be held on Saturday. Our friend's daughter passed away two days ago. She was 17 years old and had been fighting with leukemia for more than 2 years.

Chemo worked for the first time, but the cancer came back. She caught phenomena and did not make it this time.

It is really sad to experience loss of such a young person. I really feel sorry for her father who was very close to her, and loved her so much. I don't know what to tell him...

I'm very thankful that our daughter is very healthy. I cannot imagine losing a child. Just a thought itself almost makes me cry.

I didn't do much today. It was pretty low key, quite day.

I went to Safeway this morning, got 2 gallons of milk, 2 loaves of bread, 5 boxes of granola bars, a case of water, and a newspaper. I also got my latte, there.

At Safeway, I bought 4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars. Sale price is 4 for $10, and the register takes another $4 off when you buy 4 at once. So, the final price is $1.50 per box. Not super great, but cheap enough since my DD takes them for her lunch.

I also checked Rite Aid's ad for this week, and they're running "Spend $100 and get $20" promotion starting today. I hope they will have some good rebates going on in December to make the deal sweeter.

We've been eating leftover all day today. Leftover ham for breakfast, turkey for lunch, beef dish, mashed potato and veggies for dinner.

I still have more ham and turkey I don't know what to do with!!

We are visiting out friend's house tomorrow, and I was assigned to do some appetizers.

I am planning to bring:
Clam Dip
Onion Dip
Guacamole
Three types of chips
Veggie sticks
Garlic cream cheese & Basil spread
Bre cheese
Salami & Cheese on Crackers

If these are not enough, I also can make some Bruschetta. I have some basil and tomatoes anyway....

I already made clam dip and onion dip today. I will cut up some veggies tomorrow, and make garlic cheese spread.

I hope people will like my appetizers.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

This weekend was really busy one.

I had a class yesterday morning, and another commitment in the afternoon. We will have a guest from Japan next week, so I had to clean the house.

My DH and DD went to the field show for DD's Marching band yesterday, and didn't come home till 1:30 am.

Today was another cleaning day. And, I will have my cost accounting exam tomorrow, so I was studying here and there, finding some time between chores.

I managed to go to Longs and Target. We were out of paper towel, so I really had to buy some.

Longs
Viva paper towel $6 x 2 ($3 rebate)
Eggs (one dozen) $1.19
Alagio shampoo $3.99 (FAR item)
Healthy gums rinse $7.99 (FAR item)
Two newspapers $.99 x 2
Used $5 off cpn from Entertainment book
Tax $1.52
Paid $23.67 and will receive $14.98 in rebate
oop $8.69

Target
Shower curtain liner $9.99
Daisy sour cream $1.27 x 2
Less Target coupon .75 x 2
Less manu. coupon .50 x 2
(Final price is 2 cents for 8 oz tub)
Rayovac AA & AAA batteries
$1 x 4
Less Manu. coupon $1 x 4
Tax $1.01
Final price $11.04

Yesterday was no spending day : )

Lunch: Left over chicken dish
Dinner: Pork cutlet, salad, kabocha-pumpkin flitter, rice

I will do some shopping today as we are really low on laundry softner. Actually, we're using our last box. I will go to Walgreens and buy 8 boxes of Snuggle fabric softner. I just received coupons I ordered yesterday for the softner.

$1.99 x 8 = $15.92
Less .60 x 8 = $4.8
Receive $5 catalina
Final price $6.12. 76.5 cents per box.

I also need to buy DH's deodrant. He is VERY particular about the deodrant he uses which I can hardly find any deals : (

Some people were talking about the increase of food price in their blogs. Yes, they're up.

I just came back from Safeway, and prices are higher than before.

Milk is now $4.49 per gallon. I always buy 2 gallons at once because my husband and daughter drink milk every day, and I get discounted price if I buy two. Price for two is now $6.39. It was less than $5 not too long ago.

I mainly bought meat and vegetables today. I have enough stockpile for other items. I still spent $54.71 which is a lot for me.

This includes Tri Tip value pack ($13.89 at $3.99 per lb. Regular price would have been $26.07.), stew meat $2.99 and Pork loin $3.34. The value pack of tri tip will make at least four meals for us.

I should sit down this weekend and plan out the meals for the week.

I stopped by AM/PM which is the cheapest one, and their price is $3.29 a gallon. I filled up and paid $40. This will last me 4 days for commuting, 33 miles each way.

I stay in the office during my lunch time these days because I don't want to use any extra gas.

This morning, one of TV news was talking about possibility of gas price hitting $4 a gallon. Of course, higher gas price bring everything else up, including grocery.

There's no public transportation around here, and even they had one, I will not use it because my office is located in one of dangerous places in the city.

Maybe I should set up a saving account to get myself a Hybrid car.

I finally stopped by Walgreens today. I bought a couple of Thera Flu products, and paid $2.06 for them including tax. I really needed them because I am catching cold. Actually, I am writing in my bed. It's not too bad yet, and I want to get rid of the cold before it gets worse. I don't have time to get sick!!

I also bought two Glade flameless candles. I saw a TV commercial advertising for BOGO coupon on their website. So, I printed it out and use it with $4 off coupon. I paid $5.36 for two including tax, and will get $6 rebate from Walgreens.

OK. I needed a break. I ate dinner at the university cafeteria last night and bought a cup of pumpkin cinnamon latte this morning. I will get paid tomorrow, so I thought I'd give myself a little break from being so tight.

Gas price has been going up like crazy. It's about $3.25 a gallon around here. I drive over 60 miles every day, so it really hurts. I used to have a carpool buddy, but she moved away : (

I really need to go grocery shopping today. There's nothing in our fridge now. Since I have been pretty busy, I wasn't in the mood to do anything. No deal hunting, either. I haven't been to either Walgreens nor Rite Aid this week. Maybe I will make a quick trip tomorrow....

We got our operations management exam back. I scored 93%, and it was the highest in the class. I'm happy, but he doesn't curve. That means I cannot slack off for my final exam. I don't have to write any more papers for the class which is a relief.

Stopped by Walgreens and got a new type of Purell for free using $2.5 Walgreens coupon and $1 manu. coupon. I have three more manu. coupons, so I will go there and get three more.

I should just walk there since the store is in a walking distance. I need little exercise anyway.

.....saved 100K in my 401K in 7.5 years.

And, I don't make six figure salary. My wage was $18 per hour when I started with my current employer 8 years ago.

Method:
1. Pay yourself first
2. Set a clear goal
3. Challenge myself and be creative

1. Pay yourself first
I like saving money this way because any money I have in my bank account is my spending money. If it goes down to zero, no more spending. And, I don't stress out like "OMG! I have no savings!" I do have savings, and it is done before I know it.

2. Set a clear and measurable goal
My first goal was to save equivalent to my annual salary. The balance grew very slowly first, and it took me almost 4 or 5 years to reach this goal. After I achieved my first goal, I set my second goal that was to save 100K. It took much shorter time to achieve my second goal. Now, my next goal is to save 250K. I don't particularly set the deadline for it because I still have almost 20 years till I retire.

3. Challenge myself and be creative
I set my contribution percentage at 20% before tax and made myself used to the income after the deduction. Since cash flow was always tight, I became frugal and creative. I started packing lunches instead of buying lunch, look for coupons for anything I do, borrow instead of buy, sign up for survey, etc. When there's a will, there's a way.

I'm sure anybody can save money if I can. There was another blog about "10 things you need to do before you turn 40" or something. Yes, I used to go to exotic places for vacation, I have the real watch, I have real Louis Vuittons, and I used to pay $300 for a pair of shoes.

I changed my mind-set from finding a pleasure from material things to finding a pleasure from challenging myself. Saving money to me is like playing a game, a game to reach larger balance in my net worth. Like I said, I could do it, so anyone can do it. Really.

I have been so busy lately. All I do is go to work, go to school, and come home. I cannot believe it's almost Friday.

Here's my week recap for spending.

Monday: I took my friend out to lunch. She helped me by editing my papers for college classes. I promised her I will buy her lunch because she helped me so much. I used an Entertainment cpn that was about to expire. $8.20 for both of us.

Tuesday: I had to go to San Francisco to renew my daughter's passport. So, this was the biggest spending of the week. Fill up on gas even the gas tank was half full, because everything is so much more expensive in bay area. Gas $22.76
BART from Richmond to Embarcadero. $7.40 round trip.
Toll $4
Grabbed a coffee cake and a cup of coffee. Approx. $5.

Wednesday & Thursday: NSD.

I'm done with my mid-terms! Yay!!!

I took my last mid-term on Saturday morning. I felt like I used all my energy and I felt really exhausted after that. Fortunately, I've been doing pretty good on all the subjects I'm taking. So, I think I can relax a bit from now on.

Since I was focusing on my exams, I did a minimum deals last week, even though Walgreens had a super good deals last week.

On Saturday (the last day of sale cycle) I bought:
3 Crest tooth pastes $1.99 x 3 = $5.97
Less Walgreens store coupons $1 x 3 = $3
Less Manufacture's coupons $1 x 3 = $3
Final price Free

2 bags of M&M Dark chocolate
$2.5 x 2 = $5
Less Walgreens store coupon $2
Less manufacture's coupons $.75 x 2 = $1.50
Final price $1.50 for two bags

Tylenol Allergy $4.99
Less Tylenol printable coupon $5
Final price Free

I knew I could get 4 Excedrin for free, but didn't even bother getting them.....

Then, I recouped my energy yesterday afternoon. I went to Rite Aid. My Sunday paper didn't have a Rite Aid Weekly ad, but I knew there were some FAR this week. It turns out it was really worth a trip because they had many FAR items available. Also, L'Oreal Vive Pro shampoo & conditioners are BOGO sale this week. So, more free shampoo and conditioner!

I had to go to our supplier meeting, then, I found Target on my way home. Perfect! I stopped by and bought:

4 bags of Kit Kat
$1.66 each. Used 2 $2 off Target cpn. and $1 cpn. (I only had one manu. coupon left...)
$1.64 for 4 bags of Kit Kat.

3 Purell
$1.52 each. Used 3 $1.50 off cpn. 6 cents for three 2 fl oz. Purell

1 Renu contact solution
Target gave me a $1 off cpn. last time I shopped. So, I got the travel size which is 99 cents. So, free.

I noticed that they are very careful about accepting coupons. The cashier examined my coupons carefully, then called her manager and the manager also examined my coupons and produts. She told me there are so many troubles with coupons. I hope people are not abusing coupons

Another thing I noticed was prices are going up. Milkbone (Dog treats) used to be $1.98, but it was around $2.30 now. Sigh....

Higher gas price pushes other prices up, too.

It was kind of a quiet weekend. No too much was going on.

I decided to go to Rite Aid at the last minute on Saturday evening to see if they have any FAR items left in their shelf. To my pleasant surprise, they had most of them. It seems that they stocked up their shelves pretty well this time around. I got 11 FAR items worth $63.19 this week. Most of them are cold related items, so I guess I'm ready to catch cold LOL (I just don't have time to be sick, though.)

I spent most of my time reading the textbook for cost accounting yesterday. We have a test on Wednesday and I need to prepare for it. It is not a difficult class, but still have to study. Actually, it's an interesting subject and gives me some good ideas I can use at work. Went to Safeway for grocery shopping and used $10 off with $50 cpn, and $4 off catalina I got from buying cream cheese. Bought some necessary items, like milk, cheese, chicken, ground beef, pork, vegetables, etc. Also checked prices of some items. Paid $46 after using coupons, and my receipt said 48% savings.

There are some good deals going on this week. I didn't have time or energy to do it yesterday.

Some Tylenol products, Excedrin and crest toothpaste can be free at Walgreens. Target have some cheap candies (less than 20 cents per bag after coupons),free Excedrin, and cheap granola bars. Egg noodles are $10/10 at Safeway, and I have few .50 cents coupons make them 50 cents per bag. I need to plan my shopping trip.

I'm taking a tax class this semester, one of requirement for accounting mojor. My professor is an accountant, and he is also a lawyer. This guy cannot be more than 40 years old. Yes, he is pretty young to be an university professor.

Anyway, I don't like the way he teaches because his teaching style is not structured, and confuses me so much. But, I study quite a bit and prepared for the mid-term exam. I think I did all right. I know I missed some, but at least I understand the concept and could answer most of questions.

It turns out, the exam was exactly the same as the last semester and some student had an access to it. (All they had to do was to ask other students who took his class last semester if they kept the exam.) My friend told me the professor didn't even change the numbers in the test. It was exactly the same.

I'm really feeling bitter about this, because this teacher knows his test is hard so he will curve the grades. That means if some students knew the answers and scores high, that will set the bar and I don't think it is fair at all.

Well, the mid-term for this subject is already over and there's no way to find out who had an access to the previous exam at this point. (Other than the guy who told us about it.) I wonder if I should suggest the professor to change the numbers in problems for the final.

This week has been great! I got a lot of free items from Rite Aid, free crackers from Safeway, free gum from Walgreens.

To conclude this week, I got Tylenol for free.
4 Tylenols $7.5 x 4 = $30
Less:
$5 x 4 = $20 printable cpn.
$10 catalina
Final price: FREE

I am sending a $5 rebate form for them, so it will cover the sales tax I paid ($2.34) and a stamp .40.

My husband only takes Tylenol, so I was always looking for the deal for it. This is the very first time I got Tylenol for free, and I am very happy that now we are stocked for a while.

I went to Walgreens to return some items that I forgot to send out the rebate for. I bought a couple of packages of bathroom tissues there since we are running low. (I'm soooo waiting for the wonderful Kimberly-Clark deal again....) Also bought some gum for my DD.

2 Scott bathroom tissue (4 rolls package) 3.99 x 2 = 7.98
4 Trident gum 1.25 each
Less:
Walgreen coupon for bathroom tissue $2.98
Walgreen coupon for gum $2.80
mnfc coupons for bathroom tissue .75 x 2 = $1.5
mnfc coupons for gum 1.25 x 2 = $2.5
Final price including tax $3.67

Then, I went to Safeway to buy my lunch and get some free crackers.
1 Eating right lemongrass chicken $2
1. Organics Green tea with honey $1.19 + .05 CRV
5 Nabisco crackers $2 x 5 = $10

Less:
Kraft promo $4
Progresso promo $5
mnfc coupons for Kraft crackers .55/2 x 2 = 1.1
Safeway Organics coupon $1
Safeway Eating right coupon $1
Final price $1.14

That was fun!

By the way, both Safeway and Walgreens are located in the corner I call "The golden intersection." LOL In one intersection, (YES, ONE!) there are Rite Aid, Walgreens, Longs Drug, Safeway, and Bel Air. (What were they thinking??) It's great for me because I can go to three drug stores in one drive and they are close to my office.

I went to PBWC (Professional Business Women's Conference) a couple of days ago. It's a great event for women, great key note speakers, multiple sessions, etc. My company hosted few tables for us, free seminar, free food : ) (Actually, I go to these events for free food LOL)

Anyway, one of sessions was about personal finance and the speaker was Sharon Kedar, the co-author of "On my own two feet."

Well, it was o.k. Yes, just ok. She didn't talk about anything I didn't know. Save for EF, retirement, save XX% of your income, blah, blah, blah. Also, she only referred the page number for her book to answer a couple of questions from audience. I know she wants to sell her book, but I thought she should have answered the question, not just telling us, "Oh, that's a great question. Actually, you can find your answer in the page 103 of my book!"

I would much prefer to go to a seminar about "How to find the greatest deal and coupons."

Sometimes I wonder about the life without couponing and how lucky I am to find the website about couponing a couple of years ago. It changed the way I shop completely. I used to think $1 store was a good deal, or getting a cleaner for $1.99 was a good deal. Now, I look around my house, and there are so many things I got for free or really cheap with coupons. Dish soap, dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, cake mix, flour, tooth paste, tooth brush, shampoo, conditioner, body soap, salad dressing, deodorant, razors, hair spray, hair color, make up, bathroom cleaner, furniture cleaner, cereals, oatmeal, crackers, butter, soup.... the list goes on and on and on and on. It sure made a huge difference in our grocery bill.

Funny thing is, many people are not willing to take advantage of it. I don't understand why. It takes less than 30 minutes to go through inserts and find the coupons I use and cut them up and put them in my coupon folder. I am not a hard core couponer, so I don't hunt deals like some ladies do. And I know I am missing out a lot of good deals, simply because I don't have time to do it. I still save a ton of money. I hope more people realize how much money they can save by using coupons and paying attention to deals.

It is an awesome week at Rite Aid. They have so many free stuff for cold related items. I already bought 8 of them, and will go back and see if they re-stocked items that were not in the shelf.

The beauty of Rite Aid rebate is, it's online. That means you can send the receipt for FSA reimbursement if you have a FSA money left over since most of them qualified as an over-the counter medicines. (It's too bad I spent all of my FSA fund between my dd's oral surgery and my crown....)

DD took a driving test this morning, and passed! She is an official California driver now. No more driving her around. It feels strange....

KRAFT promo is still going on at Safeway, and it got better. Now, they're giving out a $4 catalina for cream cheese purchase.

I bought 6 tubs of cream cheese (8 oz)
$2 x 6 = $12
Less $4 from the Promo
and got $4 catalina.
Final price 67 cents per tub.

Time to make some cream cheese wonton!

How to make cream cheese wonton
You need: Square wrap, cream cheese, water, and some vegetable oil.

Scoop small cube of cream cheese and place it in the middle of a square wrap. Wet edge of wrap (water works as glue) and fold it in half. Deep fry till golden brown. Serve with Jalapeño jelly while they're still warm.

I didn't send rebate forms to Longs and Walgreens!!

This is the first time I missed the deadline, and I am kicking myself. I left these envelops in my car, and totally forgot about them. They were stamped and everything, and all I had to do was to drop them off the the mailbox.

Oh man.... I have been crazy busy but I need to calm down a little.

I returned some itesm to Longs, so I recovered the cost with them. I will have to go to Walgreens tomorrow, and return some items, too. Sigh....

Lessons learned. Don't be lazy and don't think "I will do it later."

Today is the last day for this week's sale cycle.

I stopped by Longs Drug and got 4 more Vive Pro shampoo and conditiners. I also found a nice backpack with rollers for $6. This is exactly the kind I was looking for but didn't want to pay much for it. It was maked down 75% off, and of course I bought it. Finally, I have a decent backpack I can carry my textbooks.

Also stopped by Walgreens and bought 4 bags of candies for $1 each. (Snickers, Reese's, Milky way, and Kit Kat) I checked how much candies I have for Halloween, and looks like I accumulated enough.

I still may go and get a couple of more bags. $1 a bag won't hurt my wallet. And they don't expire any time soon.

They also had Thai Kitchen Pad Thai for $1. Used .50 coupon and bought them 50 cents each. They make nice quick lunch, and yummy.

I found four more Vive Pro coupons when I was looking for other coupons, but not really moticated to get more even they're free.....

It's our benefit enrollment season and I'm thankful both my husband and I work for companies offer good benefit packages.

I set up a worksheet to see what is the best arrangement for us. Since both companies charge more to cover spouses who have the health insurance coverage from other source, my husband and I will use our own employer's benefits.

Yearly premium for my husband is $4,893 and he gets $3,939 credit from his employer. So, his out of pocket is $953 a year, about $40 per pay. ($80 per month because he gets paid twice a month.) We will only cover him with his plan because if he covers our daughter, our out of pocket will jump to $1,973 a year. That's $1,000 more a year.

My yearly premium covering my daughter and I is $7,239 and I get $6,582 credit from my employer. My yearly out of pocket is $656.5 for both of us. (DD & I)

All and all, medical insurance premium for three of us is $12,132. Less credit from our employers $10,522. Our out of pocket is $1,610 a year. ($134 per month) We can live with that, and I am very thankful for our employers for offering such great benefits.

I could not see my husband's other premiums (like dental and vision) because his enrollment doesn't start till next week. We need to sit down and figure out about other insurance and FSA as well.

I just came back from taking my philosophy mid-term. I like philosophy. It's so useless, and fun LOL All they do is saying this and that, and there's no right answers whatsoever. I wouldn't major it, but it's fun to take it as a general education subject.

Tax exam is next, then, cost accounting. The last one will be operations management. One down, three more to go.....