What do you do

when a coworker asks you if you're coming out for drinks the following week with other coworkers? Except the only issue is I was never invited to this soiree. AWKWARD! In an attempt to not sound like a loser, I claimed I had a previous engagement & wouldn't be able to make it even I had been invited. Watching Lost is a previous engagement alright. Sometimes I feel like I am in highschool all over again.

Doh!

So I ended up buying a bunch of things from costalscents.com not taking into account that all the prices were in USD. So as a result I spent way more than I originally thought I was spending. Probably would have been a good idea for me to just buy the palettes and other things from a Canadian retailer or even directly from mac.

Upcoming expenditures

So that trip I talked about a while back. Well I am going! Which means I've started making a list of things I want to take with me &/or purchase for the trip.

One thing is a makeup palette. Either one from MAC or perhaps coastal scents since it fits the same sized shadows. This way I can depot all my shadows into one compact, travel friendly case instead of carrying a bunch of single ones. If I go with Coastal Scents, I am also going to get this 88 colour palette because I would never buy all those colours & I've wanted to get it for over a year. I know quality doesn't compare but, oh colours! So I am going to up my clothes & beauty budget for the month taking away from the eating out category.

February Spending Recap

This month was a fail! A big fat fail. I did fairly well in Jan and with Feb being a shorter month I thought I was set. Well things didn't go as planned to say the least. Here is a quick recap of how things went.

• Clothes & Beauty: Budgeted: $30, Actual Spend: $96. This was a fail on two levels because I blew my budget and I also failed my lotion & potion challenge. I do however like the Purity cleanser I purchased & it is something I know I will finish up. I just wished I waited till I finished my current one before purchasing it.
• Eating out: Budgeted: $130, Actual Spend: $160. On family day, I actually went out for lunch w/ the family & paid for the lunch. It was expensive paying for 4 people but I don't regret it one bit. It's nice being able to pay for my parents but not so nice for my budget.
  
• Entertainment: Budgeted: $50, Actual Spend: $10. Went glow in the dark mini golfing w/ the bf & it was fun. They always give you a 2 for 1 coupon every time you play so we never actually pay for 2 tickets anymore.
• Gas: Budgeted: $150, Actual Spend: $117. Hurray for cheap gas prices!
  
• Groceries: Budgeted: $100, Actual Spend: $130. Went a little overboard here but bought things like cereal, oatmeal and other things that will last me a few months.
• Misc: Budgeted: $20, Actual Spend: $42. Doh! So last month this category was $50 & I didn't spend anything that fell in here. I figured it would be the same for this month. Wrong! I purchased my toilet flapper, a candle holder & scissors that fell in here. A random assortment of items I didn't forsee myself purchasing but it happened. I absolutely needed the flapper & scissors. The candle holder though only $5, I didn't need. It was just so pretty & a steal that I had to get it.
• Total Budgeted: $480, Actual Spend: 552.
  

Grr, over by about $70. I am disappointed at myself for going over.

So next month, I am abosolutely going to come in under budget. I am determined! Plus the bf is travelling so a I think the eating out category will come in light. For March, I am going to take away $20 from my eating out category and move it to my clothing & beauty section. I am just itching to buy some eyeshadow.

Success!

I have successfully survived the cold. I decided that if I didn't start feeling better by Sunday morning, I would go ahead & purchase ColdFX. Those guys aren't cheap! So I took what I had on hand: some vitamin c, some fishermans friends & lots of soup. I am not sure if those actually helped & the cold just ran it's normal course or if it shortened the length of my wonkiness. Either way, I feel fine & dandy now.

As a result of being sick, I didn't get around to cooking too much for this week. I've been taking frozen dinners in for lunch. Not a big fan of those because 1) they don't fill me up and 2) it's hit or miss in the taste dept. After trying many brands, my current favorite is SmartChoice which I normally only buy on sale. Anything over $2.50 is too much for a frozen dinner IMO. You hear that Amys Kitchen?

Citi Mastercard Rebate 2008

I recieved a $166 cash back rebate from my lovely Amex card earlier this year for my 2008 spending. For all the places that refused to take my amex, I used my citi enrich mastercard which gives users a 1% cash back on all purchases made. Well I just got my rebate for 2008 and it's $23 which means I put about $2300 on the card. Not much but not bad for not doing anything additional.

Adding up my Amex purchases & Citi purchases brings me to a total of about $14,000 put just on credit card for 2008! Wow, if you asked me how much I spent in a year on my credit card, I would have never guessed $14,000. I would've certainly quoted a lower number. I guess that's why people encourage tracking & budgeting. It helps you realize just how much you spend.

I fixed my toilet for $6!

My toilets been doing this weird leaky thing for the last few weeks. Loud enough that I could hear it when I was sleeping but not really doing any sort of damage that I tended to it right away. I am a lazy bastard. After some investigating online & looking @ my septic tank, it looked like the flapper wasn't closing properly. I didn't even know what a flapper (see image on left) was until a few weeks ago but thanks to google I am now educated in the ways of the toilet. Did you know that there are forums dedicated to toilets & helping you fix them?

So off to home hardware; $6 later, I had a new flapper. I thought I would need to call in some recruits to help me replace it but it was dead easy and took less than a minute. I feel so accomplished and am glad I only had to spend $6 to fix it.