Day 7

The end of week one. I started out strong and then fell apart a bit towards the end. I spent a ton of money today although a lot of that was bills. However, I ate out for lunch and dinner for the third day in a row, this time telling myself that it was ok because I had a extra SPX money. It wasn't ok, though...you don't save money by spending it as soon as you get it. I'll turn it around next week...

In theory. I'm spending four days in Los Angeles next week. For a wedding, no less. It's going to be difficult but I'm going to try. We'll hit a store and get snacks and stuff for the room. The only big purchase (besides the hotel and airfare) is going to be a pair of Disneyland tickets since Robin wants to go. So...maybe we can be frugal. Who knows?

Finances
1 - Coffee: $2

You know what I should start doing? Making my own coffee...

2 - Church donation: $20

I had a good SPX so I felt compelled to give a little extra at Church.

3 - Gas: $30.60

I need to start biking to work again. Maybe tomorrow?

4 - Lunch: $12.21

I had to go to the office today after church so I grabbed some lunch on the way. I made a note that I should stash some frozen lunches in the freezer at my job for days like today.

5 - Groceries: $49.93

I buy meat and produce at Whole Foods, everything else at Safeway. Today was Whole Foods day. I picked up: chicken, steak, strawberries, bananas, cashews, dried mango, cold cuts (roast beef, turkey, and swiss), bread (Seeduction, of course), and a bottle of Cabernet because it was on sale. So a weeks worth of lunch, three nights worth of dinner, and some snacks.

6 - Cable: $150

Cable isn't normally this high but I underpaid last month by accident (forget to pay for a PPV movie) and deiced to overpay this month. I like to have extra money on my account so I don't get hit with late fees due to my own forgetfulness.

7 - Student load: $150

Overpaid this one a bit, too.

8 - Car payment: $320

Slight overpayment.

9 - Dinner: $30

By the time I got home from grocery shopping it was already kind of late so Robin and I just went across the street. I spend way too much money eating out - this is probably the number-one place where I can curtail my spending habits. We need more quick-dinners around the house, for starters.

10 - Amazon: $32.99 ($27.71 of which was paid for with a gift card)

So this one only cost me $5.80 since I used a gift card. I purchased an annotated bible with the apocrypha. I always wanted one, I had a a gift card, so I figured why not. I feel like it was a smarter purchase than a graphic novel I'll read once.

Food
1 - Eucharist and a sip of wine

Heh...I'm sure they have some calories to them, need to count them.

2 - Indian buffet: small serving of chicken curry, medium serving of butter chicken, small serving of tandoori chicken, small serving of malai kofta, small serving of rice, half of a serving of naan, and one of these cheese dessert things.

It really was just one plate of food, not piled all that high. I took small spoon fulls of each item to get a good variety.

3 - Two pumpkin loaf samples at Whole Foods
4 - Cobb salad

It was pretty big but I didn't eat all of the blue cheese and bacon, focused mainly on the chicken, egg, and avocado. I had the vinaigrette on the side.

5 - Four strawberries, a piece of dark chocolate, and a cup of pomegranate juice

Workout
I didn't work out today. I really wanted to do five days this week but I had to settle for four. I was a bit...hung over in the morning. Woke up just in time for church and then went to the office until 6:30. Grocery shopping, dinner, and then more work - it just wasn't a good day for it. All excuses, I know, but four days isn't horrible.