Lots of samples in the mail today. I think the mail lady has been hoarding them to deliver all at once. Anyway, two different olay samples, Clean & Clear cleanser, nexxus shampoo and conditioner, and a free t-shirt and sample of protein powder from Isopure.

I used to save my MyPoints points for Christmas time and get Toys R Us gift certificates, but the one in our town went out of business, and though I could order from them online, when I do my Christmas shopping I like to really see the toys up close and personal.

Anyway, I decided to cash out my points for gas cards instead, so I should be receiving 4 $10 gas cards from Shell. There's one halfway between here and town and its right off the highway, so easier for me to get to than the Exxon that is by the airport or the Exxon in the IGA parking lot, which can be very hard to get back on the highway from, even turning right.

So those should show anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks, but I usually get them in about 10 days. With this and the 2 Exxon cards I have in my purse from one of my trial offers, I'll save $60 off my gas budget.

I did a product evaluation this morning, well it is in two parts, I did the first part, and have to wait for the product to arrive before I can do the second part. It pays $23 but part of that covers S and H, so really it is a net of $13.50. It's already in my account. I have had a lot of luck with product evaluations, more so than with trial offers. This one is for something that if it works I would actually buy it.

I also found $2.19 when I cleaned off my computer desk. Courtesy of DH, who likes to plop his change in various nooks and crannies around the house, even though he knows full well where the change jar is located. Sigh. Oh, well, it makes for nice little surprises from time to time. Better a surprise like that then the ones my kids like to leave me (half eaten hot dog behind the couch that has mummified, for example).

I had my massage therapy appointment this morning and feel so much better. I have one more on Friday and then I think I can put this muscle strain behind me. I can walk without pain and I can sit without pain, but the getting up from lying down and the getting up from sitting and the trying to bend down still is painful, though not the excruciating pain of when I first did this. So the total hit of all four appointments is $200. Insurance will reimburse half if they decide it was justified. I'm not holding my breath.

I was able to hang laundry. Yesterday it hurt a little to do it, today it wasn't that bad. I did five loads, as that is all my clothesline will hold. We are still behind badly from all the rain. It's a good thing we have so many clothes, although it takes forever to get them all clean and then I feel like we have too many. Admittedly, I'm also washing all the spare bed linen as I just put fresh on everyone's beds and washing the winter blankets so I can put them away until October.

Put $20 worth of gas in the car when I was in town. I went to the Arco closest to where my appointment was, which was $3.15 a gallon. The cheapest Arco is $3.13 a gallon, but since I was only getting $20, I would have spent more than the amount I saved, driving the five extra miles. At least its not $3.29 like the vast majority of stations around here, though the Citgo is at $3.21.

What I would really like to see is a 2 for that first number. Wildest fantasy would have a 1. My parents talk about when candy bars were a nickel or a dime and buying their two story house and 1/2 acre property for $23,000. I wonder if I'll be telling my grandchildren (not yet born, oldest is only 9) someday about when you could use a 20 dollar bill to fill an 18 gallon tank and get change back and when a starter home could still be bought for under $100,000.

Okay, that got tangential (and that probably isn't actually a word).

I did four surveys today. Only one of them paid in money, the other 3 were all points, though one was a lot of points. I got my first survey invitation from ACOP today, that was the one that paid $4. Not bad for 15 minutes of pointing and clicking and about 50 words typed in.

Now that I have been paid by both the trial offer/survey places that I had made it to the cash in amount on and know that it is legitimate, I will go ahead and do some more offers.

I have to call two places tomorrow to cancel trial offers on their face creams. One made my skin red. The other was nice, but at $89 for a one month supply, I'm not switching to that after the trial is up.

I also need to cancel a couple of other autoships that I never got to when I first started blogging almost two months ago and went through my big cancellation frenzy, Feature Films for Families and Lifescript personalized vitamins.

Both kids are in school tomorrow so I can spend some uninterupted time on the phone.

My other plans for tomorrow are to do a ton of laundry if it is sunny (it cleared up this afternoon and was really nice for Rose's soccer clinic). It is supposed to be nice tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it. And maybe get some weeding done in the garden if my back will put up with it.

I got my first check from Send Earnings in the mail today. $49.82. This is so cool. So far this month I have been paid $99.82. For surveys and trial offers. Who knew? I will deposit the money in long term savings on Wednesday when I go in for my next massage therapy appointment. I had one today, too and am feeling a lot better so hopefully the next one will have me back to moving normally again.

The sun is finally out today so I can hang laundry again. We actually had to dry a load in the dryer last night. But now I can hang some out today. Last month we had to dry clothes in the dryer four times, so my goal for this month is four times or less. It should be less. It is June. June should not be as rainy as May, but the PNW never goes in much for what the weather "should" do. If I can keep cutting back on dryer useage, I should really start seeing it on the electric bill. I am also limiting how long the kids can stay in the shower, so that should help, too.

Well, I was right about never seeing that $5 from the neighbor again. And I probably never will.

Yesterday my DH let him use our lawn mower, despite the fact that it was the first sunny day in over a week and our own lawn was way too long and the forecast said it would rain today (which it did). And of course, the idiot neighbor promptly plowed it into a rock that bent the blade at a 90 degree angle from its previous direction.

Did he come tell us right away? Oh, no. He tried to "fix" it himself. With a sledge hammer. When he couldn't fix it, then he finally came over and told DH. DH tried to fix it, but because of the sledge hammer, there was no fixing it.

The neighbor did some hemming and hawing and said "Guess it looks like you need a new one." DH goes "Yep." Neighbor goes, "I guess I should buy it." DH goes "Yep." Neighbor says, "Well, I can't buy it until Tuesday, why don't you go buy it and I'll pay you back." Right. Like he paid back the $5. I don't think so.

We had the kids's recital last night so we took off shortly after and didn't get home until really late. First thing we see when we pull in is that the neighbor has left both our gas mower and our old fashioned push mower on his front lawn instead of bringing them back or locking them up in his garage.

So DH went and got them. He left a note saying he had so they wouldn't think they were stolen, though I was tempted to just let him think they were stolen and see if he came over to even tell us. But DH said no, and added to the note that we were sleeping in and not to come over in the morning. We were exhausted from the recital.

Anyway, the guy had the nerve to come over this afternoon and ask if he could borrow the mower once we got the part fixed. DH said no and that he couldn't borrow it anymore at all. Neighbor wasn't happy and DH was even less happy. The guy has been there 2 months. Its about time he bought his own lawnmower or asked for one on freecycle.

FIL came out tonight with the replacement part and it is at least working again. It only cost $17.55, but that is $17.55 that could have been used for something else.

Oh, well. We are done being good neighbors. Now we will just be indifferent neighbors. I like it better that way anyway. And besides that, the guy was starting to give me the creeps.

Vehicle expenses for this payday.

$34.67 Oil/Filter change and maintenance check for the Blazer
$40 gas for the Crown Vic (@ $3.13 a gallon, it has dropped 4 cents since last time, averages gas stations around here have dropped from $3.29 to $3.25, so its going down all around, looks like)

Today was payday. Payments made today:

$800 Bank of America Visa
$400 House Mortgage ($375.86 + $24.14 extra principal)
$104 2 month water/sewer
$175 Medical
$50 Physical Therapy (with an additional $50 PT on Monday)
$115 Eye Doctor (DH), but most will be reimbursed through insurance
$34.67 Oil change and maintenance check on the Blazer
$12.45 Library Fines (need to keep a closer eye on this, utterly unnecessary expense)

I got my first payment from Vindale for their market research surveys! $50. Whoopee. We had to open another checking/debit account so we could transfer it from my new paypal account, since DH already has our regular checking account hooked up to his paypal account. I was planning on it anyway, as this new one is hooked to the savings account our long-term savings is in. When the checks come in I can write my first check to open my new online account with the good interest rate. So it will be a week before the routing information comes through so I can actually move it from paypal to my checking, and then to my savings until I set up the online one.

But when it does come through it means my long-term savings will be at $310.52. Not bad.

I also deposited the $17.11 into my freezer money account bringing it up to $181.19.

I have also been issued a check from another company that should arrive in the mail sometime in the next week. It is just under $50, that will be added to long-term savings.

In my quest to find extra income sources, I am currently reading the book, "The Mom's Guide to Earning and Saving Thousands on the Internet." It is interesting. I found out about 3/4 of this information on my own or through others from this site, but it gave me 1/4 of the book more information to investigate further that I had not discovered on my own. I am not quite finished with it, but I am done with the earning part, now its going into the shopping, rebates, and couponing part.

Today's electronic funds transfer of $10 brought my long-term savings account up to $260.52. I still have $20 set aside to add into that account next time I make it that CU. I just haven't done it, yet. Tomorrow is payday, so hopefully I will get it in then. I also still have $17.11 set aside to add to the freezer money account, also.