Month of January , 2010

* 3rd Costco Shopping this year, 3rd time this month.

I believe I'm doing good with saving mone.  I didn't spend money for fun today. Even with gas, I spent less than $70.00

I bought some more Costco tote bags, because my friends and family keep taking them.  :)

* 3rd Costco Shopping this year, 3rd time this month.

I have a family gathering coming up tomorrow, so I bought some treats for my nephews.  Then I picked up some items for myself (shirt, egg, v3, carrots, tuna).

While I was at it, I took my car in for tire maintenance.
Remember my tires?  they are now 1 yr old.  Maintenance was free.

I spent $122 today.  From that, $70 was for my nephews.

* 2nd Costco Shopping this year, 2nd time this month.

I dropped by at Costco today for a hotdog.  Also I went to buy some items I absolutely needed.

Costco is having a sale on about a dozen or so vitamins.  A lot of vitamins have instant rebate of $2.00 and up.  I saved $5.50 on these two vitamins. So check your vitamin supply and stock it up.  Most vitamins are good for 2 years.

*Saving Money: I did good today with Costco shopping.

* 1st Costco Shopping this year, 1st time this month.

I am being very careful not to buy things I don't  need.

I saved $25.75 with coupons

I spent well over 1 hour looking at everything.  I looked at some shirts and exercise pants, but I decided not to buy them.

I never get tired of Costco shopping - I had so much fun.

I bought pork chops - so what am I suppose to do with them?

*Saving Money: I should have saved $9.49 by NOT buying Pepsi. I should cut down my soda intake to 2 cans a week max. I will take soda as special treat during the weekend or when I have an unusual craving for it.

$9.49 is 11% of my total bill $87.18 today.   I could have spent $77.69 instead.

I love this drying rack.  I wanted to buy this for several months.  I was happy that I found them at Costco. It was $21.99 after $8.00 off at checkout. 

*Saving Money: If used wisely, this rack will pay for itself in less than 1 year.  Then I will be saving money afterwards.

This is it, the first coupon book of the year.

Happy new year everyone

What are your new year resolutions?

My 2010 will be all about saving money.

I think I spent too much money on everything last year.

In 2010, I will tell stories about how much money I put into savings account.

I will not tell you the Dollar amount.  But I will talk about how much % from the paycheck I saved.

In 2009, I put in about 5% of my take home pay to savings account.  I spend more than 50% of all my paycheck on bare essential living expenses.

This will be difficult - But it has to be done. 
Home ownership is what I am after. It may take 5-10 years to buy a house, but it will only happen if I start saving money at some point.

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My basic rule goes like this

• Don't get sick, drive careful.
• Keep working on personal projects.
• No major purchases for 1 year.
  • No guitar, no camera, no LCD TV, no furniture
• Never withdraw from savings account.
• Spend less than $40.00/m on clothing
• Spend less than $20.00/m on snack
• Re-use everything.

Exceptions

• Build one computer from scratch.
• Buy 60 pairs of socks (my next personal project)