My roommate is driving me crazy!

HUGE RANT!!!! You've been warned

Most of my good and true friends are spread out so i see them a couple times a month if i'm lucky so we plan outtings. My best friends are totally cool with cooking in or just hanging out and playing games even if we only see eachother once a month. Well swing by the grocery store or heat up leftovers or what not. They also know that we end hangout around 9:30pm so i can hit the sack and SLEEP for at 4:30 am my alarm is going off.

my boyfriend also hangs out with the same group of friends (my roommate included) so if we hang out at his place, they know that at 9:30pm, i'm curling up on a couch and taking a nap till he takes me home and sometimes he will wake me up at midnight, or eleven and that's fine with me. he gets to hang out longer, I get sleep. Bueno.

I make a point of hanging out when he can't, and He hangs with people even when i can't, or i'm sleeping. every tuesday I hang out with my friends for college group, roommate included. I leave around nine or nine thirty to get home to go to bed.

Since boyfriend and I are trying to save money and since he doesn't get much work these days, we tend to eat dinner together every night of the week. His parents will cook and i'll eat there, or i'll cook and he'll eat with me. Occassionally we go out with friends for dinner, or occassionally i'll cook for his whole family (i even clip coupons i get in the mail for his folks if we frequent those places. They love me.

When we as a couple call it an early night by not going out to dinner 9but hanging out before), or simply passing if we have seen them already this week our friends understand, but my roommate doesn't. She gets mad that i ditch her and don't go out with everybody. My new work hours aren't making things very happy with her either... She makes comments about me not hanging out as much and keeps throwing me daggers and makes remarks about how I go to bed at 8 or 9 at night. (i get up at 4:30am to go to work 4 days a week (tuesday-friday). So on friday, by 9:00pm i'm tired because i've been up for 16 and a half hours... so ya i want to go to bed cause i'm getting up at 6:00am for work on Saturday.) Sundays she works and I go to church. Mondays i do laundry, clean the apt and have my day off-- she works on mondays and has monday nights free... but i have to go to bed early on mondays because i have to get up at 4:30am in the morning. My afternoons are free, but she works.

It's not my fault and i'm tired of getting crap for it but i can't be this candor with her because she's this huge drama freak.

I've told her if she wants to hang out, then well plan something in advance so I don't make plans for a night and we can hang out for a few hours. I make plans witha ll my other friends, why can't she get that???

But no, she gets mad at me that she spends nights alone in our apartment because i'm having dinner at my boyfriends house with his family when she doesn't give me any advance notice that she wants to hang. I'm not going to cancel plans i've already accepted, that's rude and i'm not going to sit at home every night incase she's home to hang out. I have a life.

And it's not that I'm not nice and accommodating. If i'm cooking dinner, like last night, i'll chat with her ask her how her day is... but I'm not going to fuel the fire with her complaining about a million things either. She's hunting for sympathy and attention and she needs to grow up and realize that the world doesn't revolve around her (i've reached that maturity, she hasn't). Last night she started giving me attitude and slamming kitchen drawers because she felt like she shouldn't be in the kitchen because my boyfriend and i were having dinner...To which i told her she didn't have to "run away" to her room, she wasn't in our way, never is... so she stayed and hung out with us. THE CRAZY PART is that i have to do that every time i'm in there.

After dinner we made an effort to hang longer, had dessert and then sat out in the living room for a few minuets... but we didn't say much (i was tired) and she wasn't trying to carry on a conversation so i called it a night. On the way to my room she makes comments about how I don't hang out and i'm not chatty.


about 2 weeks ago i came home at 9:30 ten-ish and wanted to go straight to bed because I was exhausted... through the closed door i heard her tell my boyfriend that "I might as well go to bed since SHE WON"t Stay up!" She then slammed her bedroom door so loudly it echo'd off the place!

She spent the night alone in the apartment that night. Never texted us asking us to hang, nadda-- just assuming we should know she was lonely and had no plans.

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California Residents... free $2.00 subway giftcard

FREE $2.00 SUBWAY GIFT CARD

Apparently this is apart of a settlement because not all their stores honored some promotions, but it'll make a $5.00 footlong $3.00

yesterday, I went to jack in the box and got 2 free taco's sinc they were having that internet promo (i actually got 4 because the guy was trying to hit on me... hahaha to him because i'm already taken and i got free lunch)

LA Marathon: Child Share

I'm participating in the LA Marathon this year in honor of my favorite charity: Child SHARE. last year my friends and I did a charity walk for them and we raised over $10,000! This year we are taking our walk to the LA Marathon, and i'll be walking/running the 5K.

Child SHARE is a 501.c.3 non profit group whose main goal is to place kids in really great foster care homes, and they do 3X better then any government programs. Older children get adopted, children with disabilities find love, and kids get homes. They also have one of the only ESL programs in the area.

If you passionate about this organization and would like to sponsor me, you can do so here:
Donate HERE!!!!

I'll also place the link in my sidebar. All donations are tax deductible. THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED POST.

here's this for being budget savvy

I really needed to go and get a couple of new bras. A few of mine have seen better days, and one just doesn’t plain fit anymore. Now I don’t really budget for new clothes. Normally I’d take some overtime money, birthday, holiday, or even money that’s leftover from the month from utility bills, gasoline, etc, and I’d use that for a mini shopping spree… well since overtime is few and far between these days and all that “extra” leftover money will be heading to my Roth IRA account this year… I decided to get more creative.

I naturally clean my apartment and do laundry (or at least tidy up my bedroom) on my days off. Well, as I was going through some paper work that needed to be shredded, I stumbled upon the presents I bought my half sister and her kids for Christmas… still wrapped. She was supposed to come see me in January after she cancelled in December… In a nut shell, she hasn’t called, come by, and probably won’t.

Needless to say, due to some fun family circumstances, I hadn’t seen her kids since they were born… so I went a little over kill and bought them a few presents to make up for being an absentee auntie... and I made my half sister her present since we weren’t exchanging gifts this year (I made her a blanket… took me DAYS to finish so I’m a bit ticked off that its still wrapped in my closet). Since the odds of me actually seeing them are about 1% of a million, I decide to unwrap the presents I bought at target and keep just a board game for the family and the present I made my sister.

I took the gifts back to target and used my two “I don’t have a receipt” for the year and got a combined gift card of $39.00. I then proceeded to buy three cute bras on clearance, 5 cans of tuna, and some margarine (which were cheaper there then at the grocery store). And I still have $5.00 left to play with when the dollar isle gets nifty and I have a hankering to buy something dumb.

Now I have lunches for the week at work, three new bras that fit good (me minus 7 lbs made some of them fit funny)… and I have margarine for my toast in the morning… now that’s budget savvy since it cost me zip.

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In other news, I went to CPK with a friend of mine to chat about life and ministry stuff… kind of mentor mentee relationship. When I go there, I normally order one of three things: Bowl of tortilla soup (the best on the universe), the California chicken club pizza thing, or the chicken Caesar grilled sandwich that comes with a side salad or soup (and I’d go with the soup because as I mentioned, it’s the best there is.) Sometimes I’ll even order the soup with the pizza, have a cup of it and two slices of pizza and roll out with a doggie bag. =)

Now, I had soup since it was cold out and my friend ordered the Chicken Caesar sandwich. I noticed that as we waited, bread never came to the table (which I normally enjoy with my soup… but I didn’t mind since I ordered extra crunchy strips with my soup). When our food came, I was happy with my big bowl of soup but my friend and I noticed the change to her meal. Normally, the food is overflowing on the plate. Today, the salad was a mere handful of lettuce on the plate, and the sandwich was way smaller and didn’t really fill the plate. It looked like a dainty top chef portion if you know what I mean. If you don’t, in lame man’s terms it looked as if she had ordered a lunch portion of a meal at the dinner price.
It was really pathetic looking… and a turn off.

I mean, it’s probably closer to what a serving should be, since most restaurants gorge out on the calories and portions… but it just doesn’t sit right with me... I kind of feel cheated and I didn’t even order the thing (or pay for lunch for that matter).

While I know I’ll still occasionally frequent the place because they donated to the charity foster care walk I put on last year for Child Share (childshare.org) that’s probably the only reason… well that and the soup and that one pizza dish. Yum.

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In other news, every where I look I see empty places at business centers. Yesterday my friend’s mom and dad treated us all to lunch at Rubinos, the place next to it—vacant.

The “new target” still has a lot that’s completely empty next to it… just waiting for someone to buy it and put something there…

The car dealership is still vacant in the city I live in…

There are about 5 stores that are closed that I pass on my way home everyday…

And more and more short sale listings keep popping up like wild flowers on redfin.com

Jobless rates in California

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BankruptcyGuide/the-misery-index.aspx

Of course my area isn't listed... figures.....

Unemployment in California

Bakersfield, CA 11.8 Increase of 2.4% in one year
Chico, CA 10.3 Increase of 2.9% in one year
El Centro, CA 22.6 Increase of 3.9% in one year
Fresno, CA 13.2 Increase of 3.4 % in one year
Hanford-Corcoran, CA 12.9 Increase of 3.0% in one year
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 8.8 Increase of 3.8% in one year
Madera, CA 11.9 Increase of 3.1% in one year
Merced, CA 15.5 Increase of 3.6% in one year
Modesto, CA 13.6 increase of 3.7% in one year
Napa, CA 7.4 increase of 2.3% in one year
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 8.0 increase of 2.3% in one year
Redding, CA 12.2 increase of 3.6% in one year
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA10.1 increase of 3.6% in one year
Sacramento-Roseville, CA 8.7 increase of 2.8% in one year
Salinas, CA 13.7 increase of 2.8% in one year
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 7.4 Increase of 2.4% in one year
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 7.0 increase of 2.4% in one year
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 7.8 increase on 2.7% in one year
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA 7.1 increase of 2.4% in one year
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA 7.2 increase of 2.1% in one year
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 10.0 increase of 2.8% in one year
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 7.0 increase of 2.3% in one year
Stockton, CA 13.0 increase of 3.6% in one year
Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 8.6 increase of 2.7% in one year
Visalia-Porterville, CA 14.3 increase of 3.5% in one year
Yuba City, CA 14.9 increase of 3.8% in one year

Calpers mortgage guy called me back

... now i wait to see what i'm approved for. Should hear back today.

Calpers has suspended their my community mortgage's for the time being so I'd have to do an FHA.

UPDATE!!!!!

I GOT APPROVED!!!! WOOT WOOT WOOT.

Talked to an actual realtor

Yup. Had a lovely conversation with a realtor... and its nice to start the process he was impressed i'd done my homework on the property.

I'm looking to get pre-approved with a calpers FHA loan. I'll pay .33 points and get around 5.0% for a rate! which is awesome.

once i get pre-approved i'll start viewing up some places.

A journey to the bank… Interest to the Roth… and the temptation to purchase property…

Today I went by my bank to get some cash out. There are really only one or two things I ever actually take cash out for (laundry quarters, and offering)… so I always go to the teller.

Don’t ask me why, but I’ve never really liked the invention of the ATM machine. Sure, in the past I‘ve used them to access cash when the bank is closed, and for that they are great…. But when the ATM because your sole access to the bank, your just asking for trouble in my opinion.

So instead, I choose to wait in line for a few minuets and actually be able to take out only the $25 bucks I’d wish to have in my wallet… not the 40 I’d have to take out if I went to the ATM. It’s amazing how easy it is to spend that extra $15.00 when it’s just sitting there in your wallet… especially when you need to break one of those twenties just to get a $5.00 bill.

While I was at the bank, the teller decided to inform me that I was automatically eligible for a 9,000 credit card with zero APR for an entire year. She asked me if I wanted this card. Told her no, she decided to “put me down” as undecided… which means the next time I pop into the bank I’m going to be asked if I want that card.

I know some people would jump at the offer of a zero percent Credit card right now… but I already have a visa with my bank… now they want me to have a MasterCard? Thank God I’m a 23 year old with her head on straight. No racking up debt for me. The funny thing is that the teller asked me what my APR on my other CC with that bank was… thinking I’d open the account for a better percentage… When I told her that I didn’t carry a single balance on any of my credit cards and only use them sporadically to stay on the grid… she looked at me like I was a crazy woman. Didn’t help that I was in sweat pants at the time mind you, but she looked at me like I was bloody crazy just because I didn’t have any consumer debt.

Plus, with online savings accounts earning crap now a days, it isn’t worth the risk of missing a payment just so my cash can earn 2% in a online savings account when I have a 2% cash back Credit Card. Plus the new card would give me more incentive to spend on things I really don’t need. So poo on them for trying to tempt me and I again exercised my right to say NO to another card. MUAHHHA

In the land of exercising my right to say NO, I turned down a few more outings this week, my sister twice in fact. Once due to a migraine, the other was to reschedule since she cancelled on a hang out that wasn’t going to cost either or us a dime. So when we re-scheduled for dinner, I reminded her that I didn’t have any more cash for the month to go out so she agreed to stay in an order pizza on her since I’m driving to her place. Bueno.
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I also decided that any interest I earn at ING (including my CD’s) is going to go to my Roth IRA until it’s maxed out. I was previously putting this money towards the house down payment fund, but since there isn’t much extra money coming in at the time being… and frankly more and more unexpected financial obligations to meet that interest will go to helping me turn dimes into dollars. I’ll still be adding my interest from IGO Banking to the house down payment fund.
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In other news, with my house down payment finally in the land of the double digits, I’ve been antsy with the possibility of owning a place of my own… I drove by two places and called a mortgage company to see if I could get prequalified or to at least get more information on the loan process.

The latter doesn’t bother me, it’s the fact I drove around to 2 places. One is in this area I love… the other made me want to pass. (which is good cause that one was a bit outta my league with my current down payment and the fact that my lease isn’t up until December 31st.

But the government keeps tempting me. If you purchase a home by Dec 1st… you get 8,000 in tax right-offs over three years with the new stimulus plan. And to be honest that’s tempting when I’m looking at condos. Maybe at the end of this year I’ll be able to take the plunge and go… and take advantage of the free money… or I may in fact just wait it out. I’ve never been one about making rash decisions.

learning to say no

Prepare for a long winded post... cause I feel like it. I'm learning to say no...

lately I notice that the more I hang out with friends, the less that remains in my wallet (no duh?). That 30 bucks left over in my gasoline budget doesn't get saved for car repairs like it used to... nope, it goes to another night out with my friends... But i can't really be doing that anymore... My work has massively cut back on overtime to none. I've had under $400 from overtime this year and all those hours were worked LAST year and just paid out to me in the begginning of this year... and went toward moving costs.

The problem is, annually I rely on a lot of overtime to agressively save for my future. No where in my budget do you see monthly amounts going towards My Roth IRA, my wedding, that $800 bucks I need to buy my final invisiline retainers, my annual car tags for CA 155 this year (310 next year... crapy CA).....

the list goes on and on. I need to be saving the extra remnents from my monthly budget to cover these things since I can't just pick up a shift at work like I used to.

Luckily, I've made smart choices and have not finacially over extended myself. I know I have the money at any given time to pay for any of these things. But there are things I really want out there in life... enough to sacrifice for them. I want to own a place... a real home... something I've lacked for years emotionally. I want to one day marry that handsome boyfriend of mine and there are no family members of mine to chip in. I want to have a retirement system set up so I won't be a burden to others. Frankly, I'm morphing out of the early 20 something mentality into the mindset of the late 20 early 30's... (and i'm not even 23 yet.)

This will be the last year I agressively save for my house downpayment. I'll have 21,000 so Next year I'll be plugging in line item amounts in my budget to cover the stuff I used to rely on Overtime for, thus reducing the amount that can go towards the house.

But for the time being, I must rely on good budgeting strategies... living like a broke college student, and saving the extra, no matter how small. I must learn to say no to just going out and doing stuff i'm not that interested in doing.

and I have been lately. When half my fun money was blown in 2 days I knew I needed to change my mentality. Most of my friends live at home and don't have rent payments or "real obligations" financially. Mom and day pay for their tuition and books... they mainly pay for their cars, half their gasoline... cell phones... all luxury stuff.... So of course they still want to go out to dinner all the time, and what not, but i'm learning to suggest over things... and when I do they tend to be well accepted. (A few of my friends are jobless at the moment and that helps. I'll also pull out coupons for resturants for a free meals and suggest we go there instead cause it will be cheaper.)

Since we are normally a hang in crowd anyway, and therefore have games, movies, and things to keep us occupied at someones house, i've been suggesting that we hit the grocery store, each chip in a few bucks and make food at someone's house and hang in. It helps that we have an amazing chef in our circle of compadres.

We're board game lovers, pool players (boyfriend has a table at his parent house), jacuzzi sitters (my apt), and park fiends if its warm and sunny.

With boyfriends work more and more sporatic, I tend to treat more since he can go weeks without a gig... or inbetween paychecks. (they have up to three weeks to get the dang thing in the mail...) which means I need to stay more careful with my cash.

The other day the guys wanted to all go out and get a bite, and I flat out said I wasn't hungry (totally true since I had a late lunch... and if we would have gone out I would have ordered something anyway... not good for that waistline thing i've been trying to curb). So instead we picked up some stuff at the grocery store, the boys made chicken pasta and while they ate i made peach cobbler in the kitchen and joined them for some dessert.

honesty is the best policy. I'm still down around 7 pounds from January but i've started workingout so some of that is muscle that's still hanging around. =)

If i'm going to spend my money on a luxury, its going to be something I want to do... not something others are interested in. I can just pass and say no.

lack of kiva updates...

Lately I haven't been using my Credit Card with the 2% rebate as much (I have a 3% gas card... and during the move month I used my debit card and wrote more checks then I have in a long time...) and that means I haven't earned much back in Rebates for last month...

Which makes me a bit bummed cause I couldn't do a new loan for KIVA in Jan... and I don't think i'll get to do one in FEB.

I have enough "funds" on deposit with my Kiva account to make another loan, but I like to wait until my loan is paid in full before i re-loan anything out.

But I should be able to get a new one in March. so that's hopeful.

No overtime/ Puppy sitting /Federal return/ Roth and House updates:

I turned in my time card for this up coming pay period… and my boss just had to make the comment that this is my first paycheck in a long time that has not had any overtime on it.

Realistically, they have asked all employees to balance their hours to avoid overtime. I.e. leave early on another day if you had to stay late to work on a project….

I had to do this on my last paycheck so I wouldn’t get an hour of overtime… So I can’t count on much overtime (only holiday pay and holiday worked… and the occasional sub shift for extra income.)

BUT

I did do some puppy sitting for 2 days while some acquaintances were out of town, so my little extra for February won’t be squashed by my boss. Hello $60 bucks for living in a house worth at least 2.5 million (even in the crappy market). And I get to go back in March. Don’t know for how long I’ll be there, but it’s the same commute to work so its nice to get a few extra dollars from this.

I also had some issue with a gift card I received for Christmas. I tried to use it on books and such, but they forgot to activate it. It was from one of my mom’s friends. (who hates me now… but whatever)… While I told her it wasn’t a big deal, she ended up writing me a check for $75.00 (the value of the card because apparently the store never charged her for it in the first place)… now that the card is cash, it’s harder for me to want to spend it. It’s going to sit around a bit longer with the $60 from puppy sitting. I may use it for some really good sunglasses (I’m lifeguarding more at work…) or it may eventually go to the ROTH… but for now it gets to sit.

I got my federal return yesterday. $1,634.00….. But California owes me 186.00…. which I’m still waiting on.

Roth IRA =$2,832.62 +186 the State owes me +1124.08 (approx value of my extra check in June) = 857.30 to find to max the thing out for 2009! Woot woot

House DP: $9,435.46 Bueno
Wedding fund: $20.79

Finished my taxes

1820 Combined Fed and state return...

*****I want my money*****

lol