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+ $75

November 14th, 2007 at 01:22 am

$20 challenge:

$9,186.87 - Balance 11/5

$ 75.00 - Focus Group

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$9,261.87 - Balance 11/13
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Um, dh went to a weird focus group today. LOL. It was about ice cream. But bizarre. (& no ice cream there either. Bummer).

But $75 richer for 1.5 hours of "work." Not bad. We aren't so disciplined this year as we are restoring our reserves, but if the focus groups continue to flow in, um, I think I might just earmarking them all for IRAs. I could see saving up a $1k easy throughout next year at the rate we have been going. Not bad.

They won't be so easy to drop everything at a moment's notice to watch the kids come spring either. So we'll see. But the rest of the year certainly a really good income stream. Beats minimum wage work he has looked at. I'll take this any day.

Oh I brought up the Thanksgiving thing to dh and he flipped out. My mom was not too keen either. Whatever. They love their Thanksgiving at home I guess. (No worries, I don't really do much - it's their thing). So much for that idea, but dinner at our house will be cheaper.

I did hear that 2 relatives are coming (through my mom - but dh's relatives). Yeah, thanks for telling us. As usual. I told dh to call and figure that out today. Is a week notice too much to ask for this stuff? Yeesh. Are we cooking for 6 adults? OR 8 or 10? It makes a big difference, don't you think? (I am still annoyed with dh's parents for switching their mind at the last minute to stay overnight before Florida. Fine with me if anyone was going to bother to tell me... So this sounds like more of the same).

As far as the challenge, I am fairly pleased. I never really mentioned much of it to dh and so I mentioned it over the weekend. I Said we saved close to $10k doing things "different." He didn't believe me in the least. LOL. It's funny. I'll break it out and show him when the year is over. IT is amazing how it all adds up.

I also am not stressing on the $10k thing. I would LOVE to make $10k. But um, if I think about it I know we have saved almost $1k easy (if not more) in saved gas and groceries this last year. We have changed our driving habits a bit and both our gas and grocery bills are down in times of rising costs. IT is a lot harder to quantify these results. But if my challenge only gets to $9.5k, I'll know we have done our part in more unquantifiable ways to bridge the gap of that last $500. I was trying to calculate gas savings with me just driving dh's car more but all I Could come up was like $5/month or something when I tried the math. I am obviously missing something big. Our gas bill has been on average $50-$100/month less than "usual." So I give up on trying to quantify it. Just have to take my word for it. (In general his car gets twice as good gas mileage and I have been drivibng it 2-3 days a week, if not more. Particularly on days I have to drive multiple places - preschool and aerobics and stuff). But dh used to HATE it when I drove his car and he has been better at allowing me to drive it - sometimes every day. The grocery savings is all him. I don't "do" groceries. Wink He has also mastered the art of $50 groceries which saves us 10 - 15 cents per gallon by store. Big Grin I Swear I don't know how he does it. The bill is usually $50.01 or something. LOL. & I tend to use them mostly in the van which holds twice as much gas. Yup, all that stuff adds up.

2 Responses to “+ $75”

  1. baselle Says:
    1195020717

    How did they make the ice cream focus group bizarre? Bizarre flavors, shapes, odd things you can do with ice cream, drug laced sprinkles? Big Grin Inquiring minds want to know!

  2. monkeymama Says:
    1195050725

    IT was actually about a marketing campaign. So just not what expected.

    One question the asked on the screener call (rather random) was if you could have lunch with anyone in the world (dead or alive) who would it be and what would you discuss? I mean seriously, they usually they call and ask you 5 quick questions to screen you, but they were asking him all these questions that seemed to have little to do with ice cream.

    Anyway, this particular ice cream company is working on a fundraiser/marketing campaign to "save the bees." I didn't know much about this bee thing, but dh did. I guess if the bees aren't saved, ice cream is in trouble. Yikes!

    But yeah, I think dh wanted ice cream and instead talked a lot about saving bees. LOL.

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