2013 Goals!

I will be going into super saver mode this year. I've picked up so many tips along the way, and I've been applying a bunch of them, but sometimes I slack off and get lazy. Here are the goals I've come up with for the upcoming year.

1. Pay off my mom and dad. I owe my parents $592. I'm not even sure what it's for...but it's going to be the first priority this year.

2. Continue saving 10% of my net paycheck each week to put towards a new car. My car is 12 years old, but I know I can make it last until I save up enough money to pay for a new one with cash.

3. Earn $1000 in "extra money" (and gift cards). I participate in a bunch of rewards programs, so I'm hoping between those, mail in rebates, selling unwanted items on ebay/craigslist, credit card rewards, mystery shopping and taking surveys I can rake in $1000 in extra cash and gift cards.

4. No spending money on clothing or shoes for myself. This will be a tough one, but I did an inventory of my closets and drawers and I have more than enough clothing. I am most likely getting a promotion at work in a few weeks. This will require a completely new set of uniforms, however, my agency will provide me with a purchase order that should cover the expense of all of my new uniforms and equipment. So while there will be some new clothing coming into my home, it won't be paid for by me.

5. Continue trying to make the majority of my meals at home. Treating myself to take out when I work a double shift seems to be a good compromise.

So that's it for the year. Clothing and eating out are where most of my discretionary money gets spent, so hopefully that will help out big time. What are your 2013 goals?

Review of 2012 Goals

I’m trying to get back into blogging. Although I didn’t post much of anything this past year, I was scrimping and saving just the same. Here’s how I did on my 2012 goals I set for myself in this post here.

11.       Have 3 “no spend days” each week. I’m not sure if I passed this one or not since I stopped keeping track about three weeks into January.  One thing I did learn over the past year, is if I make something too difficult, I won’t keep up with it. I tried to be so organized at the beginning of 2012 by creating a spreadsheet to keep track of what I was spending and saving, when I was exercising, how much water I was drinking each day…all that in addition to the spreadsheets I use to do my budget and keep track of my rebates. It was just too much. My guess is that I averaged 3 “no spend days” each week, but I don’t know for sure. FAIL.

22.   Get my emergency fund up to $10k. PASS!

33.       Pay off my mom and dad: I paid them down. I owed $1700 at the beginning of the year, and I’m down to a little over $600. This will be my first priority in 2013.

44.       Build a short term emergency fund of $1000. For a while this was a PASS! But I had to dip into it, and it only has $300 in it now. Second priority of 2013 is to get this back to $1000.

55.       Save for a new car. PASS! Once my emergency fund was up to $10k, I started putting 10% of my net paycheck into a separate savings account for a new car. I have over $3300 saved so far.

66.      Work out. PASS!  Again, I didn’t keep track of this, but I worked myself up to being able to run 6 miles over the summer (all at once…without stopping!) I also bought a few dumbbells, kettle bells and a yoga mat and did some weight lifting each week.

77.       This was a three part goal….Do a better job of eating more healthy: Pass! I all but gave up on drive thru food. I had a sundae from McDonalds once, but other than that, I didn’t get anything from McDonalds or Burger King all year. I did hit up a  Wendy’s one day and Taco Bell a few times, but that’s such an improvement over how often I was eating that stuff before. Drink more water and less soda. I all but gave up soda too. I think I averaged maybe one soda a month...again, way better than have 2-3 per day like I used to. I bought myself a Brita water pitcher for home and use the water cooler at work all the time. Bring lunch/dinner to work: Pass! I was pretty good about this most of the year. I allowed myself to get take out for one meal on days that I was working a double shift. There were definitely times that I was too lazy to pack something for work or didn’t have anything in the house to bring, but overall I did a pretty good job.

88.       Find a storage solution for the alcove in my dining room. Pass! I bought a buffet table last winter and I absolutely love it.

Crest 3D White Whitestrips Intensive Professional Effects Review

I received these in the mail the other day from Influenster to try out (for free! woot woot!).  I was psyched to get the opportunity to try these since I've been thinking about getting my teeth professionally whitened for a while now, but didn't want to fork over the cash. These boast that they will whiten your teeth as well as a professional treatment. The downside is you do have to wear them for two hours a day for seven days. After just two days I can see a little bit of improvement but I'm hoping to see much more once I finish the entire set of strips.

These strips are very sturdy and I haven't had a problem with them sliding off of my teeth like I've had with other varieties of whitestrips in the past. I even took a short nap with them in yesterday and had no problems. Today I did some house cleaning and some reading while they were on and barely noticed they were there. Some reviewers complain of tooth sensitivity, but I haven't experienced any. Fingers crossed!

At the end of the seven days I'll post my before and after picture!

From Crest:

Introducing our most effective teeth whitening treatment yet for your more glamorous smile that is sure to turn heads. Intensive Professional Effects penetrate beneath the enamel surface to whiten as well as $500* professional treatments. Transform your smile and boost your confidence with noticeable results in 1 day.

• Professional-level teeth whitening at home.
• Apply once a day for 2 hours.
• Start seeing results in 1 day.
• Advanced Seal Technology no-slip grip. As effective as $500 professional* treatment. Advanced Seal Technology no-slip grip.
• For level 5 whitening on whitening meter.
• Enamel Safe: All Crest 3D White Whitestrips use the same enamel safe whitening ingredient as the dentist.

Have you ever tried these? What were your results like?

Guess? Not.

It's been a while since my last post, but I had such a horrible customer service experience with one of my favorite places to shop for clothes. I've been a loyal customer and have exclusively worn their jeans for at least the past 10 years. We won't even discuss how many pairs of shoes I've bought from them.


I'll start from the beginning...on May 18, I placed an order from Guess.com for a dress, a sweater, a pair of earrings and a necklace. The total, including tax and shipping, was $180.51. I had a gift card for $96.13, and I put the remaining $84.38 on my credit card. About a week later the order arrived. I was a little disappointed to learn that the two clothing items didn't fit as I had hoped they would and that I wasn't as in love with the necklace as I thought I would be. 


I decided to return the three items to the local Guess? store rather than pay to ship them back. Their return policy is as follows:

"GUESS.com gladly accepts unworn, unwashed or defective full-priced merchandise for up to thirty days after purchase date. Original receipt, hygiene strip and tags must be attached. Unfortunately, pierced jewelry are final sales. Sale merchandise may only be returned to a store for an exchange.

Refunds for items returned within thirty days of the purchase date will be credited in the same form as the original payment type. The only exception to this are returns made to a store that were purchased online through PayPal or Bill Me Later®. These returns must be refunded via a merchandise return card. If the item was a gift purchased online, send it back to GUESS.com along with your online gift receipt. Refunds will be in the form of a merchandise credit redeemable with your next purchase online or at any GUESS store."


When I arrived at the store, the associate looked at the items I brought in to return and told me they don't accept returns on jewelry. Their policy states they don't accept returns on pierced jewelry...nowhere does it mention they won't accept returns on necklaces. The original tags were still attached to the piece. I was annoyed, but rather than argue, I decided I would just have to mail the necklace back for a return. 


The associate then goes on to say the dress and sweater were purchased on sale, and that they can't be returned. I did decide to argue this point, and she relented saying I could only exchange them. I asked if she had either item in a different size and was told no. I then asked if I could just have the amount put on a gift card/merchandise return card as I was a bit pressed for time. I was told I had to pick something out that day or I could not return the items. Fine. At this point I was really irritated, but I went through the store and picked up a pair of jeans and a top. I end up owing them $18.XX. Beyond irritated. I went to the mall expecting $84 back on my credit card and a new gift card with about $55 on it.


When I got home I packaged up the necklace and the invoice and returned it to Guess.com. Last night I received a confirmation email that the necklace had been received and that the refund was processed and put back on a gift card.  I emailed them back a short time later and advised that I had charged $84 on my credit card from that order and would appreciate it if the refund could be put on the credit card instead. 


I got an email a little while later "apologizing for the confusion" but stating that they can't refund the money to my credit card.  I wrote back explaining that I was frustrated and disappointed with their return policy, which I quoted, and also told them I didn't understand why I couldn't be refunded on the credit card I used to pay for nearly half of the order. Furthermore, I stated that if I did not get a refund on my credit card, I would no longer shop at Guess? and would be sure to share my story with my friends, family and co-workers. 


What did I get in response? Nothing. The $32 was put back on the gift card and my email was not answered. Sounds pretty typical these days, but I thought that a more "high end" company whose customers pay a lot for their wares might treat their customers a little better. Guess not... 


I am sticking to my guns though...once I use the gift card, or gift it to someone, I won't shop there ever again.






For the record, I returned another part of an online order just two days ago where I had paid the same way...with both a gift card and credit card... and I received the full amount back on my credit card and a partial refund to a gift card. 




*UPDATE: Moments after I posted this, I received an email from Guess? again stating they can only refund  thegift card since that is how I paid...I guess they're ignoring the fact that I also put $84 on my credit card that day. 

Review: Dr. Oetker's Ristorante Pizza

A few weeks back, I posted that I had received my bzzkit from Bzzagent that included two coupons to try out Dr. Oetker's Ristorante Pizza for free.

I finally got to try it out last Sunday. I got the quattro formagio variety because I'm a cheese lover.

I followed the instructions on the package....preheat oven to 450 degrees, then place pizza directly on the oven rack to cook for 10-12 minutes. Easy peasy.

Mine was done after 10 minutes and it looked almost exactly like the photo on the box. I didn't even think to snap a photo since I was so hungry and it smelled so good.

I was surprised at how good it tasted! You definitely wouldn't mistake this for delivery pizza, but it still rocked. The cheese didn't get weird like it normally does on frozen pizza which I was grateful for. I was a little nervous about two of the types of cheese since I had never heard of them, but the cheese was great.

The crust was nice and thin and cooked perfectly.

I don't think I would have ever tried this pizza on my own, so I'm glad I got the opportunity to try it out through Bzzagent. I can definitely see myself buying this in the future. It made great and easy meal last week when I declared a "lazy day".

What I did to save money last week....

1.  I went to dinner on Sunday night with a few friends at On the Border. I had an email coupon for a free bowl of queso. I also had a $10 gift certificate, so I used that. My total out of pocket cost for the meal was $4.00 and I had enough left over to take to dinner to work the next night

.

2. On Monday morning I made a huge batch of home fries to help me save time during the week on breakfast. I made enough to last all week, so I just had to reheat them each morning and make a quick scrambled egg sandwich.

3. Received two rebate checks for $1.75 & $1.00.

4. Sold an old text book on half.com for $119!

5. Received a Bzzkit in the mail with two coupons for free frozen pizzas.

6. Money maker transaction at CVS.

7. Deposited $131 into my emergency fund.

8. Received and accepted an invitation into a Bzzcampaign for a Phillips epilator. I’m actually very excited to try this out and I’ll definitely post my review as soon as I receive it.

9. Carpooled 4 out of the 5 days I worked this week.

10. My dad’s birthday was yesterday, and he asked if I would help my mom out and take care of buying a cake for him. I decided to make one instead using this recipe I found on (where else?) pinterest. I picked up a few of the missing ingredients (buttermilk, margarine, unsweetened chocolate & coffee) plus a dozen eggs on Saturday night for a grand total of $10.41. It came out great. My mom, who normally doesn’t like chocolate cake, liked it and said she’d have it again.

11. I did horrible this week on bringing dinner to work. I didn’t do my grocery shopping until Thursday (I normally go on Sundays) so I didn’t have much to bring. I tried to choose inexpensive places to eat and drank only water from the cooler at work so I didn’t have to buy soda.

12. My dad and I picked up my buffet on Friday morning. As I mentioned in a previous post, having it shipped to the store and picking it up saved me a $75 delivery fee. It is all set up and looks awesome!

13. I stayed in on Saturday night instead of going out to a bar to see a cover band with my friends. I was pretty tired and was looking forward to relaxing at home so that’s exactly what I did.

14. I listed about 8 items on ebay this week. I have a few more things to list in the next few days.

15. Submitted the reading on my water meter so I get an actual bill instead of an estimated one.

Sunday:   $4.00 On The Border

Monday: $57.87 Gas

Tuesday:  $7.00 Center Pizza

Wednesday:  No spend day

 Thursday:  $5.00 Moe’s

                     $24.33  S&S

                     $4.99   Shaws

Friday:  $1.71 Chipotle

Saturday:  $3.49 Michaels

                   $10.41 S&S

Railings: Before & After Shots

A few weeks back I mentioned that I had gone to Lowes to pick up some paint and supplies to paint my kitchen cabinets and counter tops. I ended up using some of the paint to do my railings over. I was inspired by this photo on pinterest....(Have I mentioned how much I love this site??)

I followed this tutorial. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, although it was a bit time consuming.

Here are the before & after shots: