Thanksgiving is over. I had a lot of fun this Thanksgiving. My husband helped me cook–very nice of him. The turkey came out great according to my husband. I did not make pumpkin cake because after baking pumpkin pie, I thought we had way too much foods for 2 people. So I plan to make the pumpkin cake today instead.
On Thanksgiving night, my husband went to bed at a little bit past 10. I am not sure if he was tired from the turkey he ate or from playing football the morning of Thanksgiving with the guys from our neighborhood.
On Black Friday, my husband and I spent time shopping. Not much though. We weren’t on planning to spend much money so we didn’t really look for anything. Just browsing through stuff. My Christmas shopping list is pretty short. I pretty much only have … mmm, let’s see… about nine people maybe. My husband, my bestfriend, my facialist, my little sister (from Big Brothers Big Sisters)+ her 2 siblings, the postman, and the 2 little boys who live next door. So far, I am done shopping for my little sister+2 siblings, the 2 boys next door, and the postman. I might get some toys for the 2 little boys next door next week. I will see if there are any sales going on closer to Christmas at the toy shop. Or perhaps I will buy them bunch of used books from the library. The gift of knowledge is precious from where I come from.
I am thinking about Christmas right now. I don’t want it to be over… I know it hasn’t even started yet. I like the feeling of anticipating Christmas. Everyone is in a good mood and feeling joyful. I love those feelings. I want that feeling for the rest of my life.
Thanksgiving is here. I have a mixed feeling about the holiday today. But most of all, I am so thankful for everything I have in my life at this moment in time. First of all, I am thankful for my husband. Then I am thankful for my families. I am thankful for the two new wonderful friends I have at work. I am thankful for my pets. I am thankful for my health, my luck, fortune, my job, my church, my faith, my house, my community, my car, my everything I have.
I don’t know what next year’s Thanksgiving is going to bring but for today, I would like to savor every minute of it with joy and happiness. For one day, I want to feel that. For today, I want to remove my worries and sadness. There is not time to worry about anything today. It is time to enjoy life and to be thankful for what we have no matter how little it is.
I wish I could help all the less fortunate this year. Those who lost their homes due to foreclosure. Those who are homeless. Those who are old and sick. Those who have no money left in their pockets.
Yesterday, as I drove home from work, I passed the homeless center in downtown and there was an awfully long line for the dinner being served. I wish we could do that everyday; every year. Serve foods to those who are less fortunate.
Today, my husband and I are celebrating Thanksgiving at home without families. My families live outside the country and they don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving so no point of even mentioning it to them. My husband’s families live far away from us. So it’s just me and my husband.
I have became a vegetarian for over two years so I have not eaten Turkey for Thansgiving for that long. And today is no difference for me. This year though, my husband has requested me to cook him Turkey for his Thanksgiving dinner. So on the weekend, we went get Turkey. I am going to roast it after I come back from church today at 1.
I have so many other things I am going to make today: mashed potatoes, green beans, mixed green leaves, sweet potatoes casserole, corn, honey glazed carrots, rolls, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cake.
I am off to start cooking. I want to wish everyone a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. Remember to thank those you hold dearly in your heart.
I am excited for tomorrow to come. First my husband will be coming home tomorrow evening. Second, Apologetic class is also tomorrow evening (which will end about 2 hours before my husband flight arrives). So tomorrow will be a super exciting day for me. Plus, Wednesday marks the middle of the workday.
I plan to cook some meals tonight. I am in the mood for some porridge. So I am going to make a batch of that. I’ll probably cook something else to last till the end of the week. I am thinking of making Pinneapple Upside down cake for my husband!!
I am running low on money. Good thing payday is this Friday. And I think this payday I am going to pad the saving account with our local bank to $500. Just in case. The Emigrant Direct account has $3508 now. My goal is to make our saving account with local bank goes up to $2000 by the end of November. That way we’ll have $5000 in both saving accounts for just in case. This should be doable. I hate the feeling when we are running low on money in the bank.
Today was another boring day at work. There were not much to do around this time of the year. I had dentist appointment at 3 today so I left work earlier than usual. The dentist took almost 2.5 hours long. But this should be the last long treatment. They had to numb my mouth so now the whole mouth feels weird. I really am hungry and I want to eat but I can’t feel anything so I’d have to wait I guess. The next appointment in two weeks is just for consultation/follow up so should not take that long.
Today was so nice outside. I took a little walk to the bank to deposit some money. What a beautiful day it was. The temperature was so nice. Mid 70s with a little breeze. Just perfect.
I had so much time to pray again at work today. Every hour, I’d say prayers on my desk. I didn’t do it loudly of course. Just to myself. No one had to know I was praying. It’s a personal thing.
Ok. I better get cooking now. It is amost 7 and I am starving already!!
My husband is working at his part-time job tonight (from 6PM – 1AM). And I just got back from grocery shopping. I bought everything I need to make next week’s dinners and lunches for both my husband and I. I still have quite a few ingridients I can cook from last week so I didn’t buy much this week. I bought some extra items: 2 jumbo packs of baby diapers ($22) and 3 cans of tuna ($3). The baby diapers are to be donated at my church tomorrow and the canned tunas are for the homeless man who I see everyday at the bus stop.
Dinners and lunches for my husband next week are going to be Bulgogi, Lasagna, and meatballs. I actually still have to buy some extra ready-made mashed potatoes (buy-one-get-one-free) tomorrow. I have some veggies (cauliflower, brocolli, and carrots) I am going to blanch or roast to accompany the main dishes I am making. I bought some canned soups to eat for lunch next week. Some days I don’t feel like eating much so these canned soups come in real handy.
I stopped by at Petsmart today before I went grocery shopping. I bought 2 boxes of cat litter and 1 big bag of cat food. I have a $15 off coupon so I ended up spending $38 only for everything.
The handyman (from Handyman Connection) came by this morning for a free estimate for fence installation. Labor was estimated to be $3000. The materials should be between $1000 – $2000. So worst case scenario, to fence the whole house, we might need to spend $5000. We’re going to ask for several other bids within 2 weeks for comparison. We’re looking to fence the house this month.
This afternoon, my little sister (from Big Brothers Big Sisters) and I went to volunteer at a homeless center in downtown. We helped them to bag lunches for the homeless. We also did a tour around the facility. The whole thing truly was an eye opener for us. I thought I had it bad; I was wrong. These people who live in the facility had it worse. Some of these people hit the bottom of the bottom. They had no money, no job, no place to go, and some don’t even have families. Thank Godness for homeless center like the one we visited today. They help men, women, and children. The facility is now at its full capacity with more than 100 people on the waiting list. They did say the turnover is high–which could be good or bad. It broke my heart to see the little kids at the facility. Sure, it’s better than being homeless on the streets but in a perfect world, kids are suppose to live in a place where troubles are non existent. Apparently what I saw was a dose of the reality and it wasn’t pretty. The whole experience makes me so so so so so thankful for everything I have in my life–my little money+saving, my families, my husband, my house, my pets, my job. My life is beautiful the way it is now. I am truly thankful for it.
Two more days to payday. Yay. I have been very good for *almost* the past 2 weeks. I brought lunches from home and at them at the office building cafetaria. During lunch hours, I sometimes have time to walk to the library or the park. Because of this I have lost 3 pounds in the last a week and a half. Both my husband and I save a lot of money by bringing our lunches from home and eating dinner at home. Tonight, I got free dinner. I went to a class held at my church and they provided dinner for free. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll go for the free dinner and extra knowledge!!
Not much happening since earlier this week really. Work is fine; so far so good. I cannot wait to get it through March next year. The time when we will finally pay off all our debts except for the mortgage. I am so looking forward to that day. In less than 6 months my husband and I will be debt free!!!!!!!!! What a feeling that will be. And knowing that for the rest of that year we’ll be able to live on my husband’s income alone is a very heavenly feeling. I gigle everytime I think about that. I have this big huge smile on my face just imagining that moment in March 2009. We’ll be able to save all my paychecks. Wow. Amazing.
You know another thing I want to talk about this evening is the power of prayers. I know some people don’t believe in God and it’s fine with me, but for those who believe in God… isn’t God amazing? I mean, I was experiencing some really hard times earlier this year and I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed… and God answered my prayers. It was beyond happiness to me. I felt that I started getting to know God very well at the beginning of this year. Everything just happened. Just like that. And I turned to God. He has been helping me with everything in my life ever since. The power of prayers, my friends, please do not underestimate it. God hears our prayers.
Whenever I feel down or unhappy, I always seek comfort in the words of God. I now have the habit of reading the bible before I go to bed. I also read the Novena prayer before I go to bed. Sometimes, I read it during lunch hours. I read it over and over. The words are so beautiful they bring tears to my eyes sometimes.
I didn’t know what I was looking for in life before. Then I asked God for guidance. He’s been holding my hands ever since. I feel at peace. I feel comforted. I feel safe. I know that no matter what happens in this world, God is watching me and protecting me. Now I feel that I have a purpose in life.
Lately, with the way economy is going, I have seen a lot more homeless people on the streets. There is this one old man who “lives” inside a bus stop close to my office building. I see him twice everyday; in te morning and in the afternoon. Sometimes I see him 3 times! this is on one of those occasions when I decide to go somewhere with my car. Anyways. This man is always greeting everyone; good morning, good afternoon, have a good day, have a bless day, etc. So one day, I asked how he was doing and he replied, I am hungry and all I want is foods. Normally I would just pass him by but that day I stopped. I looked at him and I said, well you know there is a food bank close to here where you can get foods. He said, yes I went there this morning. He didn’t ask me for anything. I don’t know why I pulled out my wallet and I gave him the last $20 I had that day. I said, spend this on foods please Lord is watching you. He thanked me many many times. I left him and while walking to my office I thought in my head…. what if he spent that money on alcohol???? I assured myself what matters was my intention. I had good intention for him. He did not ask me for money. I gave him the money.
So later that day I saw him again on my way to the parking garage. The man was there. Sitting on the bus stop bench. He had a smile so big on his face when he saw me. When I was about to pass in front of him he said to me, Miss I would like to show you something. I stopped and he showed me a backpack filled with canned foods and crackers. He bought foods with my money!!!!!! He said to me, this should last me for 2 weeks. And again, he thanked me many many times.
I wish I had a lot more money to help homeless people. Not just to give them money but perhaps I could open a shelter for them. Perhaps I could help them to get back on their feet with some sort of job trainings. I can’t imagine the live of those homeless people. Winter is approaching soon. Where are they going to go for warmth and comfort? I don’t know. Maybe I am naive but I believe in the goodness of people. That we should help others when we can. I help people whenever I can because I want to help. Because I have a tiny hope in my heart that someday, when that person I help is back on his/her feet that he/she will help others. And many others that he/she helps will help many many others.
My husband starts his part-time job tonight. He will be working from 6.30 PM – 1 AM. He will also work on Sunday from 11AM – 6PM. This part-time job is only from October – May. He should be able to bring in an extra $400 – 600 each month from this gig. Not bad for a part-time job.
Tomorrow, we are going to a home and patio show. We plan on going to the show early in the morning. My husband’s football team is playing at 3.30 tomorrow and I have an appointment with a dog trainer at 3.30 as well. After that we are going to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua at the movie theater. Two of our Chihuahuas look like the 2 main characters.
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This week, for 5 days straight, I was able to not go out for lunch or eating out for dinner!!! I usually bring lunches from home but sometimes I get tempted to buy something else during lunch. But this week I was really good. So I am happy for that. Also, my husband and I have been eating dinner at home this whole week. Tomorrow, we might get lunch somewhere–we have tons of buy-one-get-one-free coupons. I still have some grocery that I can cook to make lunches and dinners for maybe couple days next week. My husband still has about one loaf of meatloaf. I plan to make him Turkey chili tomorrow for dinner. The weather is starting to cool and I think chili would make a nice dinner on a cool evening. I don’t know what else I am going to cook for him. I think the grocery store has some chicken on sale so I might get some for him.
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Today I was having a debate with myself on what I should really do with the money my mom is going to send. She is sending me $20,000 to fix up the house. My husband thinks we should pay off our debts (or at least some of them).
I feel bad that everytime I ask for money to my mom I always tell her it is for the house but then we always use it to pay our debts or something else. This time my mom is being super generous and she is giving us $20,000 to fix up our house. I was so excited. I want to have a pretty little house. I don’t want my house to be the ugliest house on the block. My house is pretty small comparing our neighbors’ house but that does not bother me. What bothers me is that I see very, very little improvements in my house since 3 years ago when we bought it. I really really really want to put fences around my house so I can let my big dogs outside during nice cool days. They could use more exercise in the backyard. I also want to start enjoying my porch with my dogs in the afternoon. I have nice big porch but since we have no fence, I can’t really let my dogs out in the front porch. They always run to the streets and I hate that. So having my house fenced is definitely on top of my list. Also another thing I want is to have my kitchen done. I am not talking about having a super duper kitchen. I want a real kitchen. Something simple. And I want a laundry room. I am tired of going to the laundry room every weekend. I hate it.
At the same time, I also want to save money. I wish I could save all the money that my mom sends me. All $20,000. That would make our emergency fund up close tol $24,000, which translates to 8 months of living expenses should both me and my husband lose our jobs.
To make things complicated, I also want to make a dent in our debts. That $20,000 would make a serious dent in our debts. That would actually wipe out all our CC debts–mine is about $6000 and my husband’s $14,000. If we paid off our debts, we’d wipe out about $800 in CC payments every month.
$5360 (total combined take-home income per month) – $3075 (living expenses + 2 cars payments) = $2285 —> per month that we can save!!!!
This sound SOOOOO good. I am actually tempted to do that. Wipe out all our CC debts. Gosh. That would be nice. But I also want to fix up the house. Part of me wants to use the money to completely fix up the house and part of me want to wipe out our CC debts. But I feel that our CC debts are our responsibility and it is not fair to use the money my mom gives me to wipe out the debts when she wants us to use the money for the house. If we use all the money to wipe out the debts, it will take us about 10 months to save $20,000.
In March 2009, I should be getting about $13,000 in bonus money.
Ok let’s say we used the money my mom gives me to wipe out the debts. So this month, we’d be out of CC debts. That means, we should be able to save at least $2000 (I won’t count my husband’s part-time income) each month. And by end of March, we should be able to save $12,000 (2000×6 months). Also in March, I will be receiving $13,000 in bonus money. So, $12,000 + $13,000 = $25,000 in 6 months.
My husband’s part-time job should give us extra money as much as $5000 in total by March 2009. Plus come to think of it, I should be getting a raise again in December to be effective in January 2009. I expect to get $200/month raise (after tax and after 2% increase to my retirement account).
If we want to go crazy, we could use the $25,000 saved by March 2009 to pay off our cars (should be less than $20,000 by then). This would lower our expenses by $625 to $2450 per month. Assuming our take home income was going to be $5500/month, this would make a possible saving of $3050 every month. Holy Cow. Do you know what this means? This means, my husband and I can live on one income!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His income alone would be sufficient to support both of us!!! That would be a life transformation for us really. And this also means that starting March 2009, we would be able to save at least $3000/month. And we’d be able to use the money to fix up our house.
What do you think???
What a tiring day today.
I started my day waking up at 8.30AM. I had a 9.10AM class at the local Catholic church followed by mass at 10 – 11AM. Then I stopped by at the church’s bookstore to get some new books.
My husband and I did laundry as soon as we got home. It took us an hour to finish.
The fun part of the day was when we went to take a short cruise at the ocean. Just me and my husband. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes long. Never done this cruise before so we had fun. And then we had a nice lunch together at a restaurant in front of the marina. We overspent by $14!!!!!!!!! Budget was $40. But it was worth it. I had leftover I brought home for lunch tomorrow. My husband and I walked around the surrounding area close to the marina. It was a nice day today. I saw an Italian gelato shop and I couldn’t resist to try. I had a Banana and Vanilla gelato ($4.20). Yum. I shared it with my husband. He didn’t like it much–too sweet he said. I liked it.
The weekend is almost over. Tomorrow is Monday already. I can say this week went pretty fast but I enjoyed it. I am looking forward to another busy and fun week!!!
Lastly, this is kind of random, I want to say that I am in love with my husband all over again. I am soooo glad I married him. Can’t imagine my life without him. I am so thankful for him in my life. He is one of the best things happened in my life. I will cherish the rest of my life with him.
My husband is helping his grandma right now. He’s only been gone for over an hour and I miss him already. I cooked but my husband is not here so I ate dinner alone.
My husband just called. He said that his grandma gave him a twin bed set. We happen to need one for our family room–for a daybed. So this is good. We won’t have to buy one which translates to money saving. Yay.
Today was so boring at work. I just couldn’t wait to go home. Tomorrow is Friday so I am super excited. I have no plans so far though. I think I’d like to wind down somewhere. Maybe at a small restaurant somewhere where they have live music.
Ok. Got to go. Bath time. The Office is coming up soon.
I am still not in a good mood today. I don’t know why. The weather was gloomy. Someone stole our cat food (that we left outside to feed the stray cats). What is going on in this world? Oh and I got slapped with 4 more overdraft charges although I have not done any financial transactions involving my debit card since last week. I am closing my account tomorrow. I am tired of this. The idiot at Compass bank who I talked to on the weekend lied to me. He did not refund the overdraft charges from last week. That was my last straw. If he could not keep his promise, how could I trust the bank in general???? I hate Compass Bank. I have asked my payroll person to stop my direct deposit to my bank so this Friday I am getting an actual check until I have a new bank account. So, now I am shopping for a new bank. I am thinking Wachovia just because one of its branches is close to where I work and there is actually one branch in my neighborhood as well.
I am hungry but don’t know what to eat. I have been so lazy cooking lately. I wish my husband knew how to cook that would be nice. I am tired today.
I hate my job. I guess it is nice to have a job in this current economy. As crazy as it sounds I want to win the lottery. I want to be able to go to church every morning at 7.30. And help with the church. Volunteer everyday at different places. Build a no-kill animal sanctuary. Pay off my debts. Pay off my house. Buy the house accross the street. Donate this house to a family that needs it. Travel to my home country. Buy my mom diamonds and jewelries. Pay for my sister’s wedding. Send her to honeymoon around the world. Open my own grocery store. Organic grocery store with a bakery inside and a little book shop. Spend time with my dogs.
Ugghhh. I cannot wait for this workweek to end. I am just so sick of this week. It has been a bad week from day 1.
I guess I am going to eat something now.
Another day I started early.
I woke up before 8AM. But I didn’t really get up until about 8.15AM. I went to catholic class at 9AM. Class started at 9.10AM. Another nice class. Today was our 3rd meeting and I enjoyed it so much. My husband joined me at church for the 10 o’clock mass. We enjoyed free donuts and coffee after mass. I know it’s kinda bad but I thought it was nice of the church to provide us with free donuts and coffee after each mass on Sundays.
We did laundry after church. We spent $7.50 today. Oh yeah, we had seafoods for lunch today. We had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon so we used that. Lunch for two was $16.00 (tips included). I had some leftover lunch so I will take that for lunch tomorrow.
After laundry, we went to Target to check out some of their Hallowen stuff. I didn’t buy anything for Halloween yet though. Maybe in a week or two. I am waiting for candy sales. I am sure stores will be having some serious sales soon. I am excited. I think Halloween is the start of the holiday season. Ok sure some people think Halloween is satan’s holiday but I don’t think that way. I didn’t grow up in this country and back home, we did not have Halloween. So to me, Halloween is just a fun day to give out candies to little kids. I always give out good candies too–chocolates mostly. I don’t give kids nasty stuff. I plan to spend between $25 – $30 on candies this Halloween. But if can get them on sales, I probably don’t have to spend as much. I am going to decorate the house again this Halloween. My husband is going to register our house as one of the safe houses in our neighborhood so kids can come and do trick-or-treating. It’ll be fun.
Back to today’s activities. After Target, we went grocery at Publix. I spent about $50 on grocery today. Got a lot of buy-one-get-one-free deals. We bought meats (pork chop, T-bone steak, and ground beef)for my husband to eat for the week, olive oils, spinach, sweet teas, dog bones, gallon water, fruits, dry pasta, and 2 pieces of tilapia fish. I made my husband pasta with meat sauce for dinner tonight. There were enough to make 2 dinners and 2 lunches. I baked 4 garlic breads as well–frozen. Tomorrow, I am thinking I can grill the steak for my husband. I have some fresh green beans I need to cook tomorrow. And some spinach too. Yum.
Ok. I am so tired now. I cannot wait until our house is completely done so we can relax on weekends at home. Doing nothing. Nothing. Just relaxing with the dogs…..
