I am proud of myself. I finally got around to filing that small box of to be filed STUFF. I am using the file box that I set up when I was reading the financial freedom book by ????. Anyway while I was doing that guess what I found.

I will say I did look in this box while trying to find my CC for that laptop repair call. I found a total of 3 credit cards not including the store card I had also found when looking before. I totally forgot I even had the Wells Fargo Cards, they are for the overdraft of DHs checking account. I think I may have canceled them but I am not 100% sure. I think I need to call and find out.

While cleaning my table, still working on it, I came across a staples rebate check for $3, and a $4 instore credit check for Menards. My Kitchen table where papers go to stay. Sadly is also found some coupons that were mailed to me from the manufacter, sadly they expired the 31st of July. They included a coupon for a free bottle of ketchup. I really need to do something with the paper clutter in my life.

Oh well I am taking one step at a time, and made good progress so far.

Today I started by packing up my new laptop and dropped it off at Fedex.

I then spent a while recording and packing up stuff to drop off for donation on Monday. It is a Holiday for me but a school day for DS so I can run errands and such without the child tag along which tends to slow things down.

I then watched a movie with DS, and finished a book I was reading.

Finally installed the hot water heater blanket, then took a shower. I am still a little itchy but that will stop as I think it is just mental at this time. Kind of like how your heat starts ti itch every time someone says the word LICE!!

Is your head itchy??? LOL

My NEW HP laptop bought July 9 of this year will not boot up,

First they dont package bootup disks anymore. You have to see the fine print on a piece of paper and it says that they recommend you follow the following steps to create your own incase the f11 option thing does not work.

Well my problem was not just my lack of bootup disks. Seems my hard drive is bad. They will send me a hard drive right now if I give them a credit card number as collateral that I will send them the broken hard drive. Well guess what...The credit card I have been using expired on the 30th of September. I dont think they sent me a new card.

I thought my other credit card was in my office which is why my office is now cleaner, had to look for it even though I was 99% sure of where it was...Nope, had to order a new one which I will get in three to five days.

I have a debit card but heck no am I giving them that number. I dont even know what the amount that would be charged if they never recieved the hard drive.

So they will send me a box and I send in my whole computer they will fix it and mail it back. Actually since the guy on the phone was saying it could be more than the hard drive that is wrong why would I want to send them the hard drive then get a new hard drive and it still not work then need to mail then something else.

Whatever...I got the office a little cleaner out of the deal.

Now I need to call credit card # 1 and find out what the deal is with the credit card I dont think I got in the mail, and I want to cancel one of my store cards. It is not worth having and i wish I could cancel all my store cards but the remaining card does offer great savings even if I can never get their online bill pay to work and end up going into the store to pay rather than mail a bill and chance it getting lost.

Tiday is my day off and last night instead of coming home and tackling my to do list, a relaxed and read a book. So today I tackled:

1. Pretreated my winter coat for stains, I may have to just break down and buy a new coat,
2. Scraped lawn mower
3. Spray out lawn mower
4. Spray out lawn mower basket
5. Move BBQ to back wall
6. Move Smoker to back wall
7. Move weed eater to back wall
8. Move small snow blower to front
9. Move Large snow blower to front
10. Made space for Garbage Can in garage
11. Cleaned and organized 75% of the STUFF in the garage
12. Box up Razor scooter

It snowed last night but not much, their was a little snow on the roof tops and on cars that parked on the street, a few yards had a light dusting of snow when I went to drop DS off at school, but nothing I needed to shovel. I dont like shoveling and after this springs flooding I an hoping for a light snow year.

All that is really left in the garage is the area in front of the two cars, the third stall is organized and pretty. Most of the clutter is the tools that need to be organized and stored nicely. I may deside to work on that little bits at a time over the next few weeks since the rest of the garage looks so nice.

It is suppose to snow tonight at 6pm. Actually Snow has been in the forecast since friday afternoon but because I had to work this weekend I was hoping that would not happen. SO now I must get these things done. I am thinking of going home for lunch just so I can knock a few things off the list during my lunch hour.

1. Empty Ball Valve in Underground box, open last drain out – Sprinkler System - DONE @ Lunch
2. Scrape lawn mower
3. Spray out lawn mower
4. Spray out lawn mower basket
5. Move BBQ to back wall
6. Move Smoker to back wall
7. Move weed eater to back wall
8. Move small snow blower to front
9. Move Large snow blower to front
10. Move Garbage can into garage
11. Move Truck on the driveway closer to the road to allow more clearance for snow blowers and garbage to go in and out of garage
12. Cut back Roses- DONE @ Lunch
13. Cover Roses- DONE @ Lunch
14. Disconnect hose- DONE @ Lunch
15. Box up Razor scooter
16. Close the Garage Attic Access (why does this seem to always pop open/ajar the first cold snap of the yard?)
17. Install Bike Hooks in garage ceiling
18. Hang DH Bike
19. Hang DS Bike
20. Move Chemicals into house (do not want to run garage heater until DH returns home)- DONE @ Lunch

I am wondering as we get closer to Christmas, less than 90 days away, what to do about gifts. I already bought a Christmas present for my husband ($135 clearance) and he will get that once he gets home in late January. He mentioned another item which I will either try to get him for Valentines Day or our anniversary. It should be about $30 I expect; I am just not sure where to look for it.

I always go crazy spending easily $200 per person and that is including the step children. Well this year I got NO response what so ever from the Birthday gifts I mailed so I have decided that they will not miss receiving a Christmas package. If they say anything then my husband can send them a LATE Christmas Check once he gets home. Of course it will be my money, since he will then be underemployed again etc but it will be signed from him so it will be like he got it done when he was able to.

I am trying to come up with a list for our Son, I do not want him to have any more legos since we went through a point when he would start building a set, not finish it and leave it on the floor and not put them away even when I asked. So I have a huge bag of legos hidden away that I picked up and he will get them when he grows up and starts taking better care of his toys.

He has shown an interest in a Camera and I am hoping to get him one on Black Friday for cheap. Last Year I was able to snag a Kodak 10megapixal 4.5 inch screen camera for his stepsister for $35.00 at CVS after ECB rebates and Overage from there Black Friday Deals. I would LOVE to be able to pull a deal similar this year; but since looking the closest I have seen is an off brand for $49.00. I will be watching the clearance section until black Friday and looking for a deal on that day also. I found him a cheap $19.00 one but it did not take SD cards and it did not have an autofocus, with I have learned are much needed. The $19 camera would lose all the photos when the batteries went dead or the battery latch was opened. So that got returned.

I plan to get him one game for his Leapster 2. Not sure which one yet but I have plenty of time and I am sure he will change his mind twelve times before then. We bought him a leapster2 last Christmas even though he had a vSmile (which I will be trying to sell here shortly to reduce his vast toy collection and increase debt payoff money). He is on this wanting a Nintendo DS kick but he is not going to be getting one. I will get him a new game for his Leapster2 but I will not spend $200 to get him a Nintendo DS and all the small add on and games. He needs to show me he will take better care of his toys first.

I find it so hard to wait until the last minute to find out what he will be asking Santa for but that may actually be the cheapest way to go. I could get him the camera and Leapster2 game and I already have a Free DVD, a Small Lego Bianicle set for his stocking. I am going to buy some Fruit Snacks or snack packs to fill out the rest of the stocking which will be set aside for use in his Cold Lunches. Then getting him two items from Santa, one as a present and one for his stocking.

Last year I started shopping early like I always do and when it came time to wrap presents I was amazed at how much I had hidden away for DS and DH. This year I will keep it super small and easy. This year I just have to remember not to buy anything early (before Black Friday) unless it is a super deal on a clearance camera.

Wash Laundry- Done
Dry Laundry-Done

Clean Livingroom by Front entry - Done
* this meant taking the boxes that were moved from the office when we were putting the floor down back to the office, I had been slowly going through the boxes of paperwork and tossing/shreding and condensing!! So happy to have it down to three boxes! Because the office is over run with items I need to track so I can donate these three boxes had to be placed in the back area of the family room where I have the ceiling sheetrook and insolation.

Clean front hall closet-done
Mopped livingroom - done
Fixed curtain rod bracket in livingroom - done

replace burnt out light in kitchen - done
Clean Kitchen - done
Unload dishwasher - done
Load dishwasher - done

Mow Grass -done
Fill low spot by green utilite poles with dirt - done
Use up remainder of open grass seed bag on bare spot in backyard - done

Not Done!!!
Clean Garage
Fold Laundry (8-10 loads)
Clean off Kitchen Table
Clean Master bedroom
Clean living room by exterior wall
Deposit rebate checks


*I really dont want to do anything with this day off I just want to sit and relax and read a book today. (no-school so had to take day off since son is only enrolled in an afterschool program) So I am thinking putting it on my blog may help me keep going!

this is the link to the pictures of the before and after shots of my summer spent putting down dirt and grass seed.

http://couponaddict.savingadvice.com/2009/08/21/landscaping-pictures-and-total-_53088/


now that it has been a month I wanted to show you the finished pictures. By finished I mean good enough for now, I had to get two sprinkler heads replaced so there is a area that is not growing and two spots where I need to put down more seed. But here is my pretty sight today after I mowed the grass.



And one mid project one incase you did not want to go back.

Well I got a total for the landscaping that I did this year. I am sure a few receipt will show up after I post the total but.........$608.01

I had pre-saved up at least $1122.73 to do this project and that was without me planning to do the border. I say atleast because that is the amount I transfered into savings from closing my $20 challange account.

Overall the professional estimate for this was $5,000+ which is not bad as our neighbor spent $15,000+ on his yard.

Here are some pictures!!
Before



The two shots above are the side of the house which you will notice in the first of the afters is nice lush and green now!


An example of the backyard before
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The After Shots

The beginning of this week


The backyard, dirt down seed down, just waiting for the grass to grow. Dirt has been placed down everywhere it is yellow. I used roundup to kill the crabgrass, weeds and filed grass. The picture does not show equal brown dirtness because of the fact I took this picture after the sprinkler system had wet some of it.
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The border, now it is not completely done all the way around as I am scouting out ads for free river rock so I can finish without spending $4.98 a bag on rock. But this is a little taste as having the film down is truthfully enough for me right now.
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The front flower bed which next spring will be filled with flowers!! The bricks are just to hold down the plastic until I can fill with flowers and mulch. The bricks were what we had used to frame the flower bed right in front of the house but it was not easy to mow around so I pulled them out and will try to sell them for cheap/ or donate them once they are done serving a purpose.