Yes, I know I am on a strict debt diet, but hey sometimes opportunities present themeselves that just can’t be denied. OH Crap! maybe that is how I got into this mess.. Oh well another day! So on Friday I am taking a much needed and much deserved vacation. We have a new project in Las Vegas at work and so my dad is going out there to oversee and is staying at the brand new Palazzo (part of the Venetian) in a 750 square foot suite, bigger than my first apartment mind you and more expensive than I would ever be willing to pay. And he said I could come out.

He said I was welcome to grab a couch and enjoy free lodging. Gotta love that dad! As time moved on he called and changed the suite to a two bed, so no couch for me only the pure enjoyment of a sweet bed and cozy sheets. I know that sounds gross considering its a hotel, but its luxury there, right? AHH if you know different don’t burst my bubble at least wait til I get back to say I told you so!

So my ALL TIME favorite thing is Cirque du Soleil.. I adore it, would pay any dollar amount to see it and have seen about 5 shows since first hearing about it in 2000 while in Orlando. And my dad bought us tickets to go see “O” at the Bellagio on Friday night and I am SUPER pumped! I might even go check out “Mystere” while I am there too. Any good advice about what shows not to miss in Vegas?

I am flying out Friday afternoon at about 3pm and staying until Sunday at 9 pm and look forward to having a weekend hanging with my dad, watching him gamble (really I will save money there except my 15$ club credit I will  use at the slots), shopping, well imaginary shopping at all the Venetian stores that are WAAY out of my pricerange, fancy meals and a luxury spa visit.

Really this is my first trip for me. What I mean by that is that I have no one to tell me lets do this, lets do that and all kinds of normal scheduling and planning that comes with a trip of more than one person and let me tell you what I could not be more excited. My dad and I have already talked about it and he is okay with that too as he plans to gamble alot, he is really good and to relax without a phone or any worries  

I can’t wait to see what I end up doing and I will provide you with a full recap. I dont plan on spending more than 300$ and only that much if I end up doing the 50 minute spa treatment and massage at Canyon Ranch.

Thirty things I want to do before I am 30.. Gives me approximately 4.5 years!!!

My Version of the Bucket List but in smaller increments

©      Take DBF on a whirlwind trip of Boston, including a Fenway Park tour. He is not a fair weather fan, more diehard

©      Save 50K in retirement , on top of my 3-6 months of living expenses in savings, guess I better get my butt in gear

©      Buy my own home, something with a back yard and a big fancy deck. It has to have at least 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and two car garage with a HUGE living room and kitchen and a finished basement perfect for entertaining. I would also like all the wall painted and it to be either brand new or fairly new

©      Spend a week or two in Europe without a plan, just traveling seeing whatever I want to see whenever I want bouncing all across the countries

 ©      Donate everything in my closet besides the absolute favorites and start all over again and build a very classy and sleek wardrobe, no hoodies or tshirts in sight. You know a grown up collection.

©      Jump out of an airplane, I am actually terrified but I really think that this would be cool well okay mostly for bragging rights and a good story

©      Take a dance class, have fun and helps me lose weight.. two birds, one stone. I haven’t danced in years and miss it though I think I know lack coordination so I have to prepare to be laughed at.

©      Of course the marriage and kids thing, but that isn’t just up to me it takes two so hopefully DBF will be up for the challenge

©      Join a book club to satisfy my inner nerd. I always wanted to do this at the local library and now we might be moving next to one and I can find the time. I need to be all intellectual none of my friends enjoy reading.

©      Donate my time to charity not just for a day or a month, but actually find something that I feel really great about and begin to give of myself and make an impact in the charity.  

©      Really start writing; I want to write a book. Surprisingly about budgeting because I feel like although I am not personally the best at it, I am surprisingly good at helping other people figure that $$ crap out.

©       Find a way to help DBF with his goal of owning a Porsche before he is 30. Maybe not brand new, but something so he can reach his goal my car lease is up in 2.5 years maybe then I’ll start looking.. Did you know you can have custom pink leather in a Porsche, don’t think he will go for it, but I sure will!

©      Read the classic books I have sitting in my library that are about 60 years old and haven’t been read by me

 ©      Have the most organized and insane closet, I mean the kind that makes all my girlfriends drool, all of which will be insanely excited that I am now a size 4

©      Travel to Mexico and the Caribbean, I love me some sandy beach and crystal clear waters.

©      Find a haircut I love and really looks great on me. No more crazy colors, just cuts.

©      Increase my pay in my career by at least 50%, weather this is a job change or a career change, I am still young I can be flexible

. ©      Keep up a journal.. like this website it is a great way to reflect on where I came from and where I am going.

 ©      Also keep taking pictures and scrapbooking. I love to look back and see how things were and remember the times and experiences I have had. It’s a great way to break the ice at get togethers too. Makes for some really special stories.

©      Have NO debt, that’s right zero, well okay maybe a house!  

Okay so I only got 19 things, but I don’t want them to be lame and I will totally update them as I go and maybe, just maybe I will make some progress in achieving my goals.

All I can think about is jetting off to Vegas tomorrow afternoon and it didnt help that I dropped my Dad at the airport today. Hopefully the work day will go quickly so I can run to meet my trainer for an hour and the hop on home to do some laundry and get all packed up for tomorrow.

 I just found out an old friend from high school, in a different state from which I currently reside, will be in Vegas at the exact same time so we might make plans to meet up. What fun!

I am working on a spreadsheet with my current debts and assets and will post some updated information later. Hopefully, the day isn’t busy but flys by, is that even possible?

o   Monday:             Shredded BBQ sandwich (which I made out of beef in my slow cooker) it was the most delicious yummyiness that my slow cooker has made. (This was a Christmas present I got from my DBF’s mom). I also had some peach cobbler that I made for the superbowl out of a box, but it was no good. I won’t be doing that again, next time maybe scratch.

o   Tuesday:             Dinner at my sister’s house since it is One Tree Hill and catch up night. I don’t know what’s on the menu but something yummy im sure. She got a super duper mixer for Christmas and has made some of the most delicious things. Think homemade cinnamon/honey butter, peanut butter chocolate muffins that tasted like cake.. MMMM just thinking about it makes me starved.

o   Wednesday:     It is DBF’s fathers birthday so I am going to make some spaghetti for dinner. It is his favorite and I have all of the stuff at home to make some fancy chicken and hot sausage spaghetti. Plus I have the frosting for a cake, hopefully I have the stuff to make a cake from scratch.

o   Thursday:           I am going to make a chicken bake of some sort. I have some chicken breasts thawed and ready to go and some noodles, so I am going to look around for a recipe that makes that all. Plus of course we will have some veggies, probably green beans..

 o   Friday:                 I will be in Vegas so DBF is on his on for the weekend. My none frugal ways will be showing there colors this weekend, but no worries I didn’t pay 1 cent for either hotel or airfare.. Keep posted Ill explain later J

Wow!  It has been so long since I have written on here, ridiculous I know, but much needed. See I went to the doctor back at the beginning of December with weird pains in my side. I spent day after day for about a week taking tests that made me drink weird things, be pushed, poked and prodded til I cried. First they thought it was my appendix, then my gallbladder, then it was nothing, then this and that. It went on for too long and then mid December I went in for surgery to have a laparoscopy to just look around.

Turns out I was born a mutant!! My appendix was the source of my pain but what was odd was that it was located up under my rib cage basically under my boob and between my spleen. It is supposed to be closer to your hip. With all my mutantness I still haven’t figured out my super power Needless to say my Christmas was a HUGE event since here I was staying with my parents, since my mom is home in the day and I literally couldn’t get myself up without her help if I needed something to drink or to go to the bathroom, you get the idea and hadn’t started my Christmas shopping.

I took the weekend before Christmas hobbled over in pain holding an ice pack and wondered through the malls on the lookout for the perfect Christmas gifts so budget and the whole frugal but thoughtful idea basically flew out the window! And the month of January has been a month of catch up and oh Shit not quite there moments. I plan to update daily again so that I can be held accountable for myself.

There are some changes I have made and some great things coming down the pipe that I can’t wait to share with you and get your feedback, if there is still anyone out there? Otherwise it will help me help myself too! One big change with this site is I want it to be more inclusive than simply debt, though my primary focus, I want to update my exercising and dieting successes and failures, fun stories or plans for the weekend and daily wardrobe journals. Basically an online journal waiting just for the world to see and for me to keep track of myself.

*** I must say as slacking as I have been in the writing myself side of things, I have absolutely kept up with the reading of your blogs and have found probably WAY too many that I love so look for the updating sidebar of my regular reads. Or if you want to be featured on here then send me a note and we will see what we can do, I will say I only put the blogs on here that I read religiously***  

***Pour yourself a cup of hot chocolate, turn the on the tivoed Oprah and catch up on my blog and please feel free to say hi or let me know what you are interested in hearing about, I love to know. Me personally I am a fan of blogs that are very opinionated, go into detail about purchases, life and just really share themselves, which I what I hope to do here.

I just wanted to let you  know that I am still here living my debt free ways, but some stupid health issues have got me pretty much drained, I will be posting later this week, hopefully i’ll be back to my old self.

I was slacking all week long trying to write on here but here is an update of what we did for dinner this past week.

• Sunday: We had pork tenderloin and three cheese rice. Not so good. We are usually never disappointed with the pork, but this time it was too watery, I think it was in the freezer too long so we decided those are an eat right away thing going forward. And the rice, it was some rice a roni parmaseon cheese rice stuff, icky, too cheesy tasting, never again.

• Monday: My guy had to work late so I ordered those p’zone things from Pizza hut! BLAH!! Bleck, they were terrible, it made for two meals for each of us that we did choke down since we didnt want to waste and they were only 13 with tip total, but now we know why. Never again.

• Tuesday: I had grilled cheese and my guy had leftover lasagna. He makes so much fun of my version of grilled cheese. See I am wierd I will admit it and hate cheese unless its cheddar, so for my grill cheese, I butter the pan, lay down a slice of bread and put a bunch of mustard on it and then sprinkle ALOT of shredded cheddar cheese and then put the other slice on. Now its great, I love it, I could eat it everyday, well not really cause it leaves a greasy pit in your belly, but sometimes it is just right.

• Wednesday: We went out and I treated. I know I know, but some friends wanted to go out and my guys really hates staying in every night so we went to local Mexican restaurant and had delicious food, I mean so good it was Wednesday and we still had to wait 45 minutes for a table. With dinner, his milkshake and tip I spent 37$, not too bad, but I would have much prefered to spend 0$.

• Thursday: My guy was on call for work and so we didn’t eat dinner together so I just mixed some lucky charms and berry burst cheerios together for a fast, but good dinner. And I got rid of both boxes from the pantry since they were both nearly empty. I know breakfast isnt a dinner, but it is almost the only time I eat it since i don’t have time in the mornings for it.

• Friday: I don’t know what is for dinner yet, either we will go out upon my guys insistence or I will make some sort of chicken something, since I put it in the fridge yesterday to defrost. Its from one of my BOGO sales. But a friend of mine is talking now about going to a dinner and movie, so I don’t know what we will do since we are going to Hobby Lobby’s last day of 50% off ornaments after work to stock up on what we want.

• Saturday: I am working my second job (It’s my FIRST day) and then immeidately I am heading over to a friend’s house for a bachelorette party that is starting by having dinner at a place called Shelby’s. I haven’t ever been before so I have no idea how much it will cost, but I am sure not too much. And then we will be drinking downtown, though I don’t plan on drinking too much since I have to work Sunday morning too.

• Sunday: Since I work and my guy will probably be watching football with his guy I will just eat some leftovers or a sandwich for dinner on Sunday.
  

On my lunch hour today, I headed over to Michael’s, which is only about 3 minutes away, and started looking for some great Christmas decorations. Nothing that we would use and then throw out cause they are lame, but some stuff that could be in our family forever, basically nothing crap.

I only bought things on sale and I found some really great things. I got a Christmas tree type greenery wreath for the front door and I bought a big red bow and some holly floral picks to add to it. Then I found a really great candlebra that had two rod iron candle holders and the rest was the greenery.

Then I got three 9 foot garlands and bought some white lights and extension cord and TONS of holly and pinecomb picks to add to the garland for around my front door and window.

I got 7 poinsetta flower bunches (fake) to add to my flower pot outside the front door. I tried real flowers and they weren’t as pretty and I think I have a black thumb.

I can’t wait for Christmas, I want to put all this stuff up now and enjoy it for the rest of the year, but I will restrain myself until the day after Christmas and then all bets are off, I am going to decorate like a madwoman. This year is extra special since its technically the first Christmas that me and boy have celebrated together, since we often moved at the beginning of December and decided against decorating since we just moved, or I was back at my parents because of school and money, so we are really getting into this. AND I ONLY SPENT 45$

The morning after thanksgiving, we are going up to this place that lets you cut down your own tree ( I dont beleive its too expensive) and then you do a hay ride and have hot chocolate. I cant wait and the pictures will be spectacular, if I can figure out how, I will most definately post the pics here.

What we still need:

• Stockings (two)
• Christmas Tree
• Ornaments ( I have silver and blue from an after christmas sale, but boy doesnt think they are festive enough)
• Lights: I want icicle lights for around the outside of the townhouse we are in
• A cinnamon plug in and candle
• And maybe a nativity set so we can remember what we celebrate for
• Brown craft paper and beautiful green, red and silver ribbon: I think that is how I want to wrap all our packages
• Tape
• A make your own gingerbread set, I have wanted to do one of those practically my whole life
• A great Christmas CD to play all month

My job is nuts, I am super lucky to be able to do what I do. I work for my dad’s company that was created back in 2001, I was hired on as a receptionist basically, while I was in college, I was immediately put on salary and was still paid for those 2 days a week I didnt come into the office, really I was truly blessed with the job I had. And I get to do things that I didn’t have any qualifications for and was able to learn as I went and it offered me training and experience that makes me more marketable.

Now, I am still at that job, however my role has taken on a HUGE change. Basically the way our company is seperated is there are a few sales people and the rest computer technicians and then me. Well my job is everything that sales and techs don’t do; I answer phones, I AM the human resources, accounting, marketing, billing departments. I do it all and keep the office running where the CEO and CTO don’t, its great; I manage ALL of the finances of a multimillion dollar company. Yes, I may have difficulty with my own because I have a weakness for clothing, but with the company I am as frugal as they come.

My job pays me well, after 3 years at 30k (as a receptionist) in May I was bumped up to 42K a year, now I also get a gas card (I have a gas guzzling jeep), I get a new top of the line cell phone paid and tons of cool electronics at no charge, I’ve gotten two ipods, a dell laptop, 37″ LCD Tv, Xbox 360, a desktop the list really goes on, I have great perks, yes I don’t have a 401K but everything else well makes up for it.

So on Monday we are having our corporate Christmas party because its the only day between now and Christmas that everyone is the office and not at a clients so I planned a big shindig at a local video game place, (Dave and Busters) I planned a nice dinner, everyone gets game cards, we play a team building game that includes games and trivia and 2 hours of pool. All in all it is going to be a blast, especially since all the guys are “computer nerds” so video games rule!

Then as our company gifts I chose a really cool jacket that is reversible, one side fleece and one side microfiber in navy blue (black for me) with our logo on it so the guys will love them and I can’t wait for them to get them. Then my dad decided he wants to give the guys and me (whoowhoo) a really cool crate with 2 new york strip and two ribeye steaks in each one from the BEST place in town. So I am so excited for everyone to see this on Monday, it is going to make the day so much brighter.

THEN to top it off I get an email from the CEO that he wants to do Christmas cash bonuses, Wow! I think but then I see the amounts thinking a couple hundred and I almost fell to the floor. The bonus amounts ranged from 500-2000 and I was lucky enough to get TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! I am so excited and can’t wait to get my hands on that check on Monday.

At first I was thinking of all the ways I could have a blast with it and then I decided I am going to use the entire amount to pay off debt. Im really excited because with that and this weeks paycheck I think I can pay off all my credit card debt except for my 6k balance. So then all my previous debt payments can go to that and student loans, I am so happy right now I can’t even believe it.

 

the proud owner of 80$ CASH! I am meeting someone to sell something else off of craigslist and I can’t wait. Unlike before where the entire amount went to debt, I am taking a little out for myself in order to buy some wax and sticks so I can have my sister do my eyebrows for essentially free, all it will cost me is about 8$ and it will last approx. 10 waxes both for her and I. So it is a great frugal way to have my eyebrows waxed instead of paying the 15$ plus 3$ tip to have them done at a salon. I love that my sister can do this so well. I will update tomorrow with exactly how much of the cash went where. But I do solemnly swear that the rest after wax goes to debt repayment. Like I said, I am getting good at this!