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I had a bit of a shock the other day when I logged into my online banking and found a $130 credit card charge that we didn’t recognize! I had to call up the bank and get them to cancel my card and start a fraud investigation. :( We also found another $170 charge that hadn’t shown up on my account yet. They bought two textbooks! Is that some kind of credit card scam? I suppose textbooks might be easy to re-sell. Anyway hopefully the issue gets resolved soon and really I’m just grateful that it wasn’t a bigger amount that we might lose. It would suck a lot to not get the money back, but we’ll be ok. I wonder how they got my credit card numbers.

horseshoes, anyone?

It’s been really nice out today and yesterday. Yesterday we went out for an hour walk around the big park near our house, and today we walked down Main Street all the way from 1st Avenue to 33rd Avenue. We stopped at a cafe on the way and Scott got a latte and I got a blueberry mimosa that did not taste like blueberry at all.

Now Scott is out playing Pitch and Putt with Brian, and later Zsofi and Dylan are coming over for homemade pizza and the Canucks game. Fun weekend! I should get back to my anatomy study notes right now though. Adios amigos.

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The Current Swell concert the other night ended up being a bit of a bust. Instead of being upbeat like the Youtube videos I listened to, they were downright depressing. They played a whole bunch of slow songs and looked sad. :/ Their last two songs were a bit better but by then it was too late to salvage the show.

The green men made an appearance for unknown reasons.

We liked the opening band better (The Matinees), although we only got to hear their last song.

I tested out a few new settings on the camera. Still learning, obviously.

That night at the Commodore was pretty much the total opposite of the last time we were there, for the Oh Land and Sia concert with Jess and Winnie. Actually turns out that was Sia’s last concert EVER! I have her on Twitter and she’s written a few times now that she does not want to be in the public any more and won’t be touring again. I’m glad we went to that show because it really was a lot of fun and I’m glad I got to see one of my favourite artists live.

Scott and I don’t have anything planned for this long weekend, except watching lots of movies and hanging out with Rosemarie on Monday when she gets back from her trip. I have to study for anatomy, but I don’t have a lot of other homework to do, which is nice. My allergies are back so I’m not feeling super great but I think this afternoon we will go on a walk to get some exercise and also try taking some outdoor pictures with my new camera.

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Today feels like a Friday. My Wednesdays always feel like Fridays because of the way our schedule is set up, but today feels especially end-of-week-ish because it’s sunny and I’m home early and I don’t have any homework and we’re going out to have a BBQ and see a band tonight. Nice.

The band is Current Swell, who I have never heard of before. But he (they?) seem(s) to sound very Jack Johnson-esque.

Maybe I’ll be able to test out my camera a bit tonight. Better than just taking pictures of myself with the fish-eye setting. VERY FLATTERING.

Two more midterms done. Both went pretty well.

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I think my allergies are over. I did not have any symptoms for the last three days. Woohoo! Maybe I’ll have the same issues next year but at least now I know what to do (DRUGS!!).

I water marbled my nails last night while watching Jaws with Scott. I like the patterns I made but I think the colours are ugmo. I didn’t get to use the colours I wanted because all of my cheapo nail polish has become quite globby. Globular. Glob-tastic. It’s over a year old now, I guess that’s what you get for $2/bottle.

I’ll probably remove it pretty soon. Long weekend coming up so maybe I’ll try again then. Can I thin nail polish? They’re pretty much garbage at this point so I might as well try.

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We spent too much money on food and drink in March. We’re usually very thrifty but last month we got sloppy I guess. We went out to eat a lot, drank at bars, and spent a lot at the grocery stores.

To get back on track we’ve decided to try and bring that food and drink amount way way down, and back under budget for April.

Some ways that we cut costs:

1. Don’t eat out as much. Duh, that one is a given. If we’ve been invited out we can eat at home first so that we don’t end up hungry while out, even if it means eating at an awkward time of day.

2. Make a meal plan. Scott and I do this together on the weekend. We try to plan ahead for the next 5 or 6 days, so that we have lunches and dinners arranged and can do all the shopping at once. I’m pretty sure that you spend less when you do the shopping once than if you do the shopping every day. And we almost never end up having to buy lunch at work/school.

  • check the flyers for sales, and plan a menu around that. The stuff on sale is usually the stuff that is in season, so as well as saving money you are getting nicer quality.
  • take inventory of the food you already have in your fridge, and plan a menu around that, so less gets wasted.
  • plan out meals that have similar ingredients, reducing produce waste.

3. Eating cheaper stuff. This doesn’t mean we have to eat Mr. Noodles every day, just maybe not eating steak every day. This blog has tons and tons of very economical recipes: http://budgetbytes.blogspot.ca/ Nearly every single thing that Rosemarie or Scott or I have made from this website has been a success. I’ve mentioned her blog before and I continue to stand by it. She’s got an amazing website there.

Um well I can’t think of anything else at the moment. Some common sense tips that you probably would have come up with on your own. Saving money isn’t too hard!