I bought two tickets to see Wicked in NYC on March 21, but then I got invited to a wedding on that day. Sucks, huh? I paid a total of $279.65 for the tickets (with fees and taxes). I just sold them on TicketLiquidator for $320. TicketLiquidator takes a 10% cut of the sale, so that leaves me with $288, so I made a profit of $8.35. Hahahaha.....not much of a profit, but I'm glad that I was able to get rid of them without losing any money!!

I just started a new class and one of the best things about it is that the professor isn't requiring a textbook. So, I'm going to sell my textbook from the last class and hopefully make a little money off of it because it's in great shape. It's amazing how expensive textbooks are. Ridiculous.

I got a brochure in the mail yesterday from Verizon offering $30 off of a new phone. Of course I get this 3 days after I buy a new phone. Jeez.

The offer was for $30 off a phone or 100 bonus minutes. I have a 450 minute plan and never even use more than 200, so the bonus minutes are kind of worthless.

Oh well....

For some reason, when I connected my Blackberry Storm to my laptop, my laptop did not like it at all. It froze up, wouldn't boot sometimes, and when it would, the wireless card wouldn't work. I did some troubleshooting and tried uninstalling the card and then reinstalling it and trying to update the drivers, but nothing worked. And then I was prompted to do a Windows update. I hadn't done one in a long time, so I went through all that. In the end, it said the update couldn't be completed and it would be backed out. That's fine, right? Well at the end of backing all that out, it said that everything couldn't be replaced and Windows XP may not operate correctly.

Ugh.

So, I knew that when I rebooted that it probably wasn't going to work. I wasn't planning on rebooting, but I was focused on homework and when I was prompted to reboot, I clicked OK without even thinking. Now it's dead. It turns on, but nothing boots. It did once and said that there was a fatal hardware failure and the system is halted.

Since I take classes online and I have a meeting tomorrow night and an exam on Saturday to study for, I just bought a new laptop at BestBuy. It's a Dell Inspiron and cost me $750 total. Sh!t. I didn't see this coming. I've got the money, but I like to plan for large purchases like that.

On the other hand, I can't really complain because I've been using corporate laptops for 8 years. I haven't had to buy one of my own because it's always been provided by work and they don't really care what I do on it. So, I guess it was just time to have one of my own?

I only went to the gym 3 times in February!! That's $21.65 a visit. I have to do better that. My goal is to go at least 10 times in March. I think I can do that. It's just so hard with work and school. So frustrating!

I bought a Blackberry Storm yesterday. Not so frugal, huh? My old phone was just a Razr and I wanted something more modern. It cost me $157.49 with tax. I guess it could be worse.

It's going to take some time to get used to, but I like it so far. I'm going to see how it goes. I can return it within 30 days if I en up not liking it.

I also had to add a data plan to my account, so my monthly bill will be about $30 more. I'm not liking that part very much...

My friend asked me an interesting question today: should I stop contributing to my 401K and pay off my car?

That kind of boggled my mind, but she figures that if she's probably going to lose a large portion of the money if she puts it in her 401K, then she might as well pay off her car loan. Hmmmm...not a bad thought. But she'd also give up her company matching contribution to her 401K. I told her that that alone would mean that she's leaving some money on the table. And currently, she's only putting 4% into her 401K, so she isn't at the maximum match that he company will contribute.

She's going to stick with the 401K. I think that's a good choice.

Does anyone have a different opinion?

School is kicking my ass right now. I have an exam this week, another one next week, and a 10 page essay due the following week. I really want to be hitting the gym, but it's not going to happen. Maybe once or twice this week. That kind of sucks. I need to be taking advantage of what $65 a month buys me!!

I only take one class at a time, but the classes are only 8 weeks long. That's a LOT to cram into 8 weeks. I never thought that it would eat up this much of my free time. And December 2010 seems so far away.....

Just bitching here. :-/

My boyfriend has decided that I skipped the chapter about style and fashion in the How To Be Gay handbook. So, he insisted that we go shopping for a some clothes. We were going to a restaurant for Restaurant Week in DC on Saturday and I could use some new clothes, so I went along with it.

At Gap, I got a pair of khakis and a sweater. If you spent over $75, they took $20 off, so my total was $67.95. My bf gave me a $15 gift card, so I paid $52.95 total.

At Target, I got a belt for $24.36. It's reversible, though, so it's really two belts in one. For some reason, that justifies the price in my mind.

At DSW, I got a pair of shoes that were about $80 with 40% off, so I paid a total of $50.36.

So, that's a grand total of $127.67 out of my pocket. For one outfit!!!! That seems a little insane to me. And the shoes don't fit all that well. They're a little big, so I may take them back (even though I hate returning clothes).

I got my big fat check from ebates.com yesterday! It's for $61.03. I did all of my Christmas shopping online and most of it was through ebates, so that's why it's higher than it normally will be. And I know that it's cash back on money that I already spent, but it still feels good to get a check.

If you don't use ebates or another service like it, you can sign up with my referral link and we'll both get $5. If you're going to do any shopping online, you might as well get a little cash back for it, right? :-)

I went back to the gym last night for the first time since September. I've gotten soft and it's definitely time to work off some lbs. And those four months I didn't go at all but still paid $64.95 a month was a complete waste of $259.80. Jeeeez.

So, I'm going to go more often. And I figure that $3 per visit to the gym is something that I would pay, so I'm going to shoot for 20 visits a month and not go less than 10 times a month. That way I'll be paying something like this:

• 20 visits = $3.25/visit
• 10 visits = $6.50/visit

If someone wanted to charge me $6 to get into a gym, I would probably just walk away, but I figured this is a good goal for my return to the gym. We'll see how it goes.

I just joined youdata.com. It's a website that let's you earn a small amount of money to watch ads and visit websites. You don't have an unlimited number of ads to watch or websites to view, but they do feed them to you periodically. As soon as I joined, I was presented with a bunch and earned $2.42. Not bad for a few minutes on the couch!!

They pay you the money from your account every week via PayPal. So, PayPal probably takes out their fees which would reduce the amount you get. I'll keep doing it for awhile to see how it turns out and let you know.

I just reached enough points in my account at Opinion Outpost to request a check. You have to have 500 points before you can request money. I got 512, so I'll be getting a check for $51.20. Not bad for just filling out some online surveys, huh?

That made today a little nicer :-)

ING dropped their interest rates again. This time to 1.85% APY. That's the fourth drop since December. I'm so frustrated.

I love that ING is so easy to use. But, I think it may be time to start hunting for a bank that offers a higher interest rate. Everyone is dropping their rates, but there has to be someone that's offering something higher. Argh.....

So, I had a great time with my friend that was in from out of town this past weekend. Sure, we probably spent too much money, but it was definitely worth it. Well, except for the $15 I wasted to park in a parking garage for 2 hours. I had to drive to meet my friend for lunch before I took him to the airport. I didn't think that parking would be a problem because President's Day being a holiday, but it was much busier downtown than I expected and I had to park in a garage. Argh!! Parking in DC isn't very fun.

So, I'll never see that $15 again.....

I'm a little behind on this one because my company took a LONG time to cut me a tuition check. I've updated the number on my sidebar. It's scary to think that Ive reached half of the amount that my company's tuition program is capped at. I'll be paying for everything in 2010!!! Eek.

My friend got to town yesterday. It's so good to see him!! We grabbed some lunch and went to the Hirshhorn and to the National Gallery of Art. As a DC resident, I don't really ever go to the museums unless I have company. What's best about the Smithsonian is that it's all free! Well, it's paid for by tax dollars, but it feels free. And free feels great! Then we had dinner at a friends place and played Cranium. I had never played it before. It's pretty fun.

Today, I think we're grabbing some lunch and we might see a movie. Tonight will be dinner at Lauriol Plaza. They don't take reservations and it's Valentine's Day, so we expect a pretty long wait. We'll have some drinks at the bar to pass the time. And we may go bar hopping afterward if people are up for it.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

My boyfriend and I decided that we wouldn't get each other anything really expensive for Valentine's Day. So, I got him a card and a $30 gift card to Target so that he can buy a new video game. Pretty simple. Pretty cheap.

A friend of mine is coming into town this weekend, too. That might actually make the weekend a lot more expensive. We're all going out to eat on Saturday and Sunday, but on Friday, we're cooking at home and staying in. That should help reduce expenses from eating out. It may cost quite a bit of money when friends come into town, but I totally think that it's worth it. And I haven't seen this guy in a couple years, so it will be great to finally catch up with him in person. I'm really looking forward to it!!

After thinking it all over, I've decided to not go to Bonnaroo (for now). The cheaper ticket tiers are all sold out, so the only tickets left cost $282.60 a piece. I think I'll just save that money and all the money that I would have spent going and go on a couple different trips. It sucks, but it's probably a good decision since I don't even know what the class I'll be taking in June is like.

Of course, I could change my mind at the last minute and just hit to rode down to Manchester.....

We went to the Washington Auto Show yesterday. I thought that it was a bit disappointing because they didn't have a lot of the really cool concept cars that they usually have. And it cost $12 to get in. It was nice to do something different, but I think I would have rather have spent the time outside since it was so nice out. Is it finally spring?!?! Is this weather going to stick around?!?! I hope so. I'm done with the cold!!

After the auto show, we had a cookout with some friends, so it was a nice cheap meal. I've been going out to eat a lot less, which my wallet is very appreciative of :-)

Bonnaroo tickets go on sale at noon today. I can't decide if I'm going to go this year. Actually, I don't even know if my school schedule will even allow me to go this year. But the lineup looks good and they always add acts as it gets closer to the festival.

The big drawback is the price. They sell tickets in three blocks and each block has a different price. So, the first block of tickets is sold at $224.50 a ticket and when those are sold out, the next block is sold at $234.50 a ticket and when those are gone, all the other tickets are sold at $249.50 a ticket. And then every ticket sold has a $23.10 fee added onto it. And shipping is $10 per order. That's a lot of money!!

Even if I got a ticket from the first block, the total would be $257.60. But if I wait until the first two blocks are sold out (which will happen very quickly), the total will be $282.60. All that money and I don't even know if I could go. I also don't know if I could sell the ticket and recoup my cost. Ah....decision, decisions.

Actually going to the festival means a lot more money than just the ticket, too. I'd have to get all the food together, pay gas to get down there (it's 10 hours away), and pay for things in the festival like food and drinks (it's way too long of a walk to go back to your car to eat....you may miss some bands that you really want to see).

But on the other hand, it's a 4 day festival (actually like 4 and a half days because there's some acts on Wednesday night) and it's tons of fun. Maybe I'll buy a ticket just in case. And if I get a cheap ticket from the first block, then I have a better chance at making my money back if I have to resell it.

Is that a bad decision?

I just got an offer on one of my credit cards for an interest free balance transfer. There's no interest until March 1, 2010. Not a bad deal, huh? This is a card that I've paid off and don't really use. I'm contemplating doing it, but I don't think that I should. I pay my credit card off every month, so I would just transfer my balance at the end of the month and then throw that money into my ING account to earn interest. And there's a 3% fee on the balance transfer, so if I transferred $3,000, I would pay a $90 fee.

Also, I'm hoping to move in the next 6 to 8 months or so. It's probably not such a good idea to be putting a high balance on a credit card. Mortgage lenders don't really care if it's interest free, it's still debt.

So, there you have it. I'm not going to do it. It's very tempting, though!!

I just logged into my ING Direct account and saw that the interest rates have dropped again!!! That's the third time since December. The APY is now down to 2.20%. This is so disappointing because the rates were considered high back when I joined. I guess everyone is cutting their rates, so I can't really complain. But still....

Is anyone taking advantage of the free Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's today? I heard that the lines are insane! It goes through 2pm this afternoon. It would be interesting to see how many people get in on this. Considering the economy, but imagine it's going to be quite a few.

I had a great weekend up at my father's house. It was so good to see him. And it didn't cost too much. I spent about $200, including gas money. It's amazing how much less it costs to go out in a small town as opposed to DC (or any city). A beer costs almost half a much!!

I'm looking forward to going up there again this summer....when there's not 4 feet of snow on the ground!

Forbes has an article that ranks Washington DC as the best place in the world to buy real estate in 2009!! That kind of boggles my mind that it's ranked higher than NYC and London. Their main focus is that there's been such a boost in government spending that those jobs around here are very secure. And all the people filling new positions will need a place to live. It goes on to point out that the unemployment rate in DC is 4.1% when the national average is 7.2%. Pretty impressive!!

I'm actually very interested in buying a new condo within the next 6 months. I have to admit that I'm a little gun shy about the whole thing, though. I think it's definitely a gamble since we don't know if the market will continue to decline or not. And in the meantime, the value of my condo is declining...ugh. I've got quite a bit to do to get my condo in selling condition, so it won't be for a little while. I just hope it doesn't lose so much value that selling it would put me in the red!!

There's an article on CNNMoney about how the downturn in the economy is having an effect on the US Postal Service. They're considering cutting the number of delivery days from 6 to 5 across the board. Another possibility is to cut down to 5 days of delivery only in rural areas in where costs are higher. They're also trying to get Congress to change how the USPS is required to prepay health benefits for future retirees. Some highlights of the article that surprised me:

• 6 delivery days was mandated by Federal law in 1983
• The USPS had a net loss of $2.8 billion last year
• The USPS is the second largest employer in the country

I've wondered sometimes if the USPS would ever go under because of email and all of the other forms of transferring items electronically. It seems that it does have a great effect on them. At the same time, services like Netflix, Blockbuster, and Gamefly rely heavily on mail service. I guess it's not enough to offset the decline, though.

I don't think mail delivery 5 days a week instead of 6 would really affect me. At least we'd be guaranteed to not get a bill at least two days a week!! What does anyone else think about it?

I'm heading out of town on Friday to go see my father. He has a big party every year and I always go up there for it. I haven't been up there since the party last year, which is a long time away for me. The biggest expense of the trip is just going to be the gas. It's 900 miles total....ugh. I'm not looking forward to driving that. And it's just a weekend trip!!

Even though Prosper is in a quiet period, I've still got four loans out (1 borrower paid his off in full after 3 months). I'd still like to lend money out through Prosper, but it's not possible do put more money into it right now. However, this it what my account likes like on the four outstanding loans:

Not a bad return, huh?

My friends and I had planned to go skiing at Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia in February, but we just cancelled it because some people bailed and a lodge is a little more expensive than we budgeted for. It's just too expensive to divide the cost by 3 people instead of 7. Oh well. This will give me a chance to save some money (and maybe study for my midterm).

Still....I'd like to go skiing this year :-(

I won $2 on the Megamillions lottery on Friday night. That's better than nothing, right? I actually spend $5 at a time, so I lost $3 overall. I don't play all the time, but I do like to get tickets every now and then. I'll probably buy some for Tuesday's drawing as well. Not the best use of my money, but it's fun/exciting to check your numbers the next day.

I just computed my taxes and filed them. Woot! It always feels good to get them done and out of the way (and get a little cash back). Here's the breakdown:

Federal: Owe $34
State: Refund $449
Total Refund: $415
Minus TurboTax and Filing Fees: $64.90

Net Refund: $350.10

Not too bad. A few years ago, I realized that I was getting about $3,000 back every year. Since that's just an interest fee loan to the government, I upped my exemptions so that they would take less money out of my paychecks. So, now I owe a tiny bit to the Federal government and get a little chunk back from the State government. I think that this is a good level because if I upped my exmptions again, I'd owe even more on the Federal side and may even owe on the State side.

Wow!! INGDirect lowered their interest rate twice in less than a month!! On December 30, it was lowered to 2.5% APY and on January 20, it was lowered again to 2.4% APY.

Hmm....perhaps I should be looking for another savings account that pays a higher rate. I'll have to look around to see what my options are. Anyone have any ideas as to what could be better and just as easy to use as ING?

I paid off my credit card last month. It just showed up on my credit report and increased my overall score from 767 to 780. I expected a little more, but I wasn't sure how much it would affect the score. Still trying to hit that 800 mark. This is a good step, though!!

My boyfriend and I are going to the Inauguration on Tuesday, so I wanted to buy a warm hat and some hand warmers. Today, we went shopping at Pentagon Row and parked on the street. Unfortunately, the parking meter had a 30 minute limit. My boyfriend was convinced that the parking meter police wouldn't be around, so I didn't run out to pump more quarters into it. Needless to say, I ended up with a parking ticket. There goes $25!! And I didn't even find a hat or any hand warmers!! Ugh.

Seriously, I've been to 2 REI stores, 1 Hudson Trail Outfitters, 1 Target, 1 TJMaxx, and 1 Sports Authority and ALL of them have a very limited selection of hats and absolutely NO hand warmers. I guess I'm a little late. I did get a goofy hat that I didn't really want, but I'm going to need something to cover my head on Tuesday. Better something than nothing. Oh, well.

My second textbook sold last night!! I'm surprised at how fast they both went. I didn't make any money overall, but I only lost $2.25. Paying that much for two textbooks isn't bad at all! Here's a more extended breakdown:

I'm pretty pleased with this. I've never sold anything on amazon.com before. It's easy, but their fees seem a little high. Oh, well. The textbook that I'm using now might be interesting. It's a beast and cost me $83.99!! I'll let you know how selling that one goes in March.

I just sold one of the textbooks from my previous class!! It only took two days on amazon! Better than that, I actually made money on the deal: $2.83. Not a lot, but it's still a profit. Here's the breakdown:

I'm estimating on the shipping costs. I'm hoping I can fit the book into one of the flat rate envelopes. If not, my profit will drop a little, but I don't think it would be negative. Either way, I'm pleased with the situation!!

I have a meeting tonight at 5pm. Because of the late time, there will be free pizza and beer. And while I really appreciate that, I'm trying to eat healthier right now and lose some weight. It seems rude to bring something else to eat with me (and I'd have to go buy something), so I'll just go ahead and eat the pizza (and drink the beer, of course!!).

What do other people do in these situations?

I just downgraded my Netflix account from the 2 at-a-time/unlimited plan to the 1 at-a-time unlimited plan. That means that my monthly charges will change from $13.99 per month to $8.99 per month.

I'm actually thinking of getting rid of Netflix altogether. They're great, but now that I have cable, I feel it's kind of a waste. And I've been so busy with school lately that I haven't been watching the DVDs at all. I'm going to see how the 1 at-a-time plan goes and then decide.

I raided Costco this afternoon. I spent a total of $152.98 on stuff and I had to renew my membership for $50. Ugh. On the plus side, I've got a lot of food to cook instead of going out to eat. I don't remember the last time I cooked. It's been a good month or two. I'm usually pretty good about cooking at home, but I've been really busy with school and have just been grabbing something quick...usually Subway to keep it somewhat healthy and cheap. Now I can get back into cooking at home!!

We had to change health insurance companies at work (because we're located in a different territory). My monthly insurance deduction is going up $5 to $84.20. A $5 increase isn't that bad in my book, but I don't really know anything about health insurance or if what I'm paying is good or bad. What do other people pay?

My class ended on Saturday, so I can sell the two textbooks that I needed for it!! I paid a total of $92.46 for the books. I'm hoping to make that money back....maybe with a little profit. We'll see.

I stopped buying Red Bull yesterday. So, I've only made it two days, but I've quit it before and I was successful. It just gets me going in the morning. I drink green tea instead now. Much healthier and MUCH cheaper. I should be able to keep this up.

Oh, and I stopped smoking about 3 month ago. I didn't say anything because lots of people quit for a few weeks and then start again. The 3 month mark kind of makes it official in my head. I'm pretty proud of myself too!!

My company usually gives us a gift bag at our company Christmas dinner. It always has a few small gifts and a letter informing us of our annual raise. We didn't get a bag last month, though. I was a little worried about it, but I just got a letter in the mail. I got a 4% raise.

I'm a bit disappointed, but I guess with the economy and everything I should be happy for getting any raise at all and for having a job period, right? Well, a raise is a raise and I'm thankful.

Sorry I've been MIA. School has been kicking my ass lately. I just finished up one of my final projects to turn in tomorrow. So glad that it's out of the way!!

I kind of screwed up, though. I created my document in Word 2003 and then went to Kinko's and printed it (all 54 pages). Then I saw that Kinko's has Word 2007 and it completely wiped out my number formatting. Argh!! The printing cost me about $27!!!

I went back home and created .pdf files of the project, went back to Kinko's, and spent another $27 to print it and then $4 to bind it. My mistake cost me almost double!!!

I think I'll just make .pdf files from here on out so I don't run into that again. PrimoPDF is a free tool that will make a .pdf file out of almost anything...even webpages. And I'm not affiliated with it, so I'm not getting anything if you download it. I'm just a fan of the tool :-)