Ugh, work has been so ridiculous lately! My employer decided to roll out a very different health plan next year - a high deductible plan with a HSA and a wellness plan. Guess who's been taking all the calls? My boss has been on the road all week doing presentations about the health plan, so the calls are just falling on me. I have two choices: I can do my work OR I can answer calls. Doing both isn't working. If I do my work, I don't have time to call people back. If I take the calls, I can't do my work! Stressed just doesn't cover it at the moment. If that wasn't bad enough, my bossed pushed off implementation of an upgraded payroll software because he wanted some things cleaned up in the old software first. Turns out, there would have been less headaches if we just cleaned it up in the new software. "We" is used loosely... I mean ME! I just ran my second payroll with this software - one I had virtually NO training on. Our payroll company showed me all around the software EXCEPT actually payroll entry. The first week of this coincided nicely with getting the open enrollment packets out and that crazy catalina shopping deal I had in my "spare" time. I just don't feel I can properly convey how difficult these past couple of weeks have been for me! DH is happy he only has to work three days this coming week. I told him that would be nice if I didn't feel like I had to do two weeks of work in those three days. Yikes...
In other news: we're spending Thanksgiving with my MOTHER! We're going to try this out and see how it goes. I'm still having major issues with her these days. So, we're driving up late Wednesday night and coming back here Friday morning. Oh darn, DH had prior commitments for the weekend. 
I think a short trip will be best for everyone. Yes, this does mean we get to meet the roommate/boyfriend I blame for being such a bad influence on all the spending she has done lately. I'm still just sitting back and waiting for that to all come crashing down on her. Not sure what she'll do then.
During the last catalina deal, I asked my brother for a list of things he might like. I'm not sure if he ever went and tried it out himself, but I did tell him he may regret telling me he needed a few things. I've been piling things up for my mother as well. Mom is getting 8 bottles of laundry detergent, tuna fish, mayo, wheat pasta, soup, cereal. Brother is getting a TON of cereal, soup, rice mixes, noodle mixes, hamburger helper, peanut butter, mayo, fruit snacks, etc. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. I had too much fun getting all this stuff and you know I LOVE to share! I have 38.50 left in catalina and I'll be picking up the turkey and fixings tomorrow. I'll just be glad to get this pile out of my house:
This is where the mutt hangs out on the third floor - on her elephant. Who needs a fancy cat bed when you have a huge elephant? The WB Mason boxes in the background have food stashed in them. This is my "pantry" since the cupboards downstairs are all quite full. There's also a ton of cereal and pasta stacked under that turtle tank, and even MORE stacked under the tank to the left. DH says he'd be concerned if so much of this wasn't already scheduled to leave the house. Well... it's not hard to give away FOOD and I have fun getting so much for free.
I updated my sidebar with recent debt totals. I feel kinda stuck paying off my debt "backwards". I'm starting with the smallest/lowest interest because that's credit card debt and who knows where credit cards will go. It does have a "for life" promo rate, but does that really mean anything? I feel like the car has to go next even though that's the middle/middle rate. It's a car and we all know cars are unpredictable. Yeah it's a 2007 Hyundai, but I drive a LOT. I really want that student loan consolidation paid off but it's just so intimidating at the moment! Well, I'm determined and patient. 
I sent 550.00 to the Citi card the other day and I'll send another 350.00 to it on Monday.
I did put a little bit of money into a "fun money" account for DH. Poor DH... I think steam is going to start pouring out while he figures out how to spend it. So hard to narrow down which of his "wants" to get. I'm thinking it will be a TV. Part of the reason I put that money there is because I've been so "selfish" lately buying things for myself. Well, in my defense this is a FIRST for me. I got tired of catering to everyone else first and finally bought myself a few things I've been wanting. First I ordered a 200+ bulb package. I got those all planted last weekend. By the time I was done, I had myself convinced at least 5000 tulips should come up next year! That's what it felt like I just planted... So, we'll see what spring brings.
I've been wanting a new mixer for a while now. If I don't get one - no more of my famous Christmas cookies! No more anything - my mixer is toast. It rattles when I shake it. The speeds are unpredictable. I splurged on a pretty blue KitchenAid aritisan stand mixer. It should arrive on Monday. I feel I got a really good deal on it. I can't wait to try it out! I've never anything nice like this before.
Well I did splurge on one more thing for myself, but I don't have it yet. I'll save that story for another entry. Let's just say I ordered a teeny tiny netbook for myself two weeks ago. I still don't have a teeny tiny netbook in my hands. I've since learned that customer service where I ordered it is quite lacking. I'll file my complaint with the BBB once I see how this ends up. Yes, it's that bad. I should have had this thing in my hands a week and a half ago.
Well, I'm just getting caught up on some boring household stuff today. On that note - back to the laundry!
Oh, just busy!!
November 21st, 2009 at 06:47 pm
November 21st, 2009 at 07:28 pm 1258831709
November 22nd, 2009 at 02:36 am 1258857403
What's this catalina deal?
November 22nd, 2009 at 02:45 am 1258857923
Catalina is the company that runs those little machines that spit out coupons at the register. A lot of grocery stores use these as well as Walgreens with their register rewards system. I noticed recently that a Target near me has also switched over to these machines. Anyways, some grocery chains (not all) have some really insane catalina deals sometimes. Most recently, one near me had "Buy $30 worth of participating products, get $15 towards your next purchase". That "$30" is based on SHELF price though, not sale price. The point is to get your shelf price over $30, but keep your out of pocket costs as low as possible. Combine this with coupons and you can actually MAKE money grocery shopping. You take the catalina from your first transaction and roll that into subsequent transactions. This last sale had a total of: 757.01 shelf price, 469.26 sale price, 137.15 coupons used, 314.50 catalina rolled, 17.82 real money spent, 53.00 catalina remaining = 35.18 "profit". This week I'm spending the leftover catalina. Oh yeah, and I ended up with a ridiculous amount of food!
November 22nd, 2009 at 02:59 am 1258858765
I hope it goes well at your mother's, and that your job gets a bit less stressful soon. Is there anyone you can delegate some tasks out to so your load is reduced?
November 22nd, 2009 at 03:13 am 1258859589
Well, now you sound like my boss. I HAVE an assistant!! Whenever I complain to my boss that I'm so far behind, he always says "Have D help you!" Well no kidding. If she wasn't so buried herself, maybe I could. She DOES help me - it's just not enough right now. Now there's one more person that works for my boss and I WILL be having a chat with the boss about her as soon as I can snag a few minutes with him. No reason for me to feel like this when she spends all day chatting on the phone, texting, and chatting online. The problem with that is, she despises my job. Anything she "helps" with isn't done right and I spend so much time fixing it. It's just not worth it. I'm supposed to be training her as the 2nd backup to payroll and it's just not working out very well. It all just adds to the stress.
November 22nd, 2009 at 06:30 am 1258871428
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:16 pm 1258928216
November 28th, 2009 at 01:56 am 1259373370
Jerry
November 28th, 2009 at 03:05 am 1259377531