$1.35 - bus to work (feeling lazy)

$10 - Metro card

$5.27 - sandwich and coffee at Sheetz (on my way to Pittsburgh, ahem, I mean SIX-BURGH!!)

$8.15 - tolls

Total = $24.77

$30 - beers and delicious dinner at Busboys & Poets with Zoe and Lizzy (decompressing after a totally successful Board presentation!)

$10 - cab home

$1.35 - bus fare to work (yesterday's lovely snow has turned into sheets of ice and freezing rain.  DC weather is WHACK.)

$32.55 - groceries to make a pasta-less lasagna (really quite good, the recipe substitutes eggplant for pasta). Recipe here: http://www.recipezaar.com/I-Lost-My-Noodles-Low-CarbSouth-Beach-Eggplant-Lasagna-83464

Smoke-out(ish) Update Week 10

It's been 10 weeks + 1 day since I quit smoking regularly, and I am pretty pleased with the results.  I sat down last night to figure out exactly how much I am still smoking, and am happy to report that there were only 5 days in January that I had a cigarette.  This is pretty great for me!  I still haven't bought a pack, and don't ever plan to again, which is awesome.

Total Money Saved Not Smoking: $178

Total Cigarettes Not Smoked: 675-ish

$6.41 - first two episodes of the new season of LOST (down-loaded from iTunes on Friday)

$30 - prescription

Total = $36.41

Recovery

Thanks to the suggestion of my very wise boss, I took Wednesday off work, and spent the majority of the day in bed, recovering.  Treated myself to a delicious baby spinach-roasted garlic-feta cheese gourmet pizza and Caesar salad ($27.94).  

Thursday and Friday were work-filled and went by suprisingly slowly.  On Friday I splurged on Starbucks ($8.75), squeezed in a doc appt ($25 + $20 prescriptions), picked up some groceries ($29.54), and that evening promptly started sniffling, sneezing, and getting sick.

Spent this past weekend taking it very easy, drinking lots of tea, and sleeping, watching DVDs, and getting caught up on some work ($20.23 on tea, lozenges, soup, etc).  Went out on Sunday morning in search of an internet connection ($14 at Tryst for brunch), and finally found one at Starbucks for $3.99 for 2 hours (pretty much a rip-off when combined with the nastiest drink I have ever had - the Vanilla Rooibus Tea Latte- $4.02).

Back at work, and ready to grind out this week, which ends with a Board meeting where I'll be giving a 30 minute presentation - holy crap!

Total for Recovery from Inauguration: $153.47

Inauguration Celebration!!

After a very fun Friday night out, I spent Saturday (1/17) recovering, grocery shopping ($34.01), watching Netflix and generally taking it very, very easy.  On Sunday, I tried to go to the concert on the Mall, but got there waaaaay too late to get in, and so instead met up with Emma for drinks at The Bottom Line.  From there we went to Buffalo Billiards to watch the Steelers game ($13) with Maureen and friends.  Alexis and Will met up with us there, and the three of us headed to U St for more frivolity at Solly's and Stetson's.  I stopped by 7-11 on the way home for drunk snacks ($9.71), and went to bed very happy that I still had three more days off, and that Barack Obama would be inaugurated in less than two days!

On Monday I spent another very lazy day at home, and then headed over to Ross' on Capitol Hill to spend the night in order to be closer to the action in the morning.  Picked up a 12 pack of Yuengling on the way ($11.98).  Didn't sleep much because it seemed like every firetruck, police car and ambulance in the District was tearing up and down Pennsylvania Avenue with their sirens on full-blast.  It happened so much that when we woke up ay 7am to get to the ceremony the first thing I did was check the internet for some terrible disaster at the Capitol.  Fortunately, there was none.

Had a terrible time getting into the inauguration event, even with a ticket, and even getting in line before 8am, luckily we did finally make it in (lots of people didn't) around 11:20, in time to see all the speeches and hear all the music and generally take note of the magnificence of what was occuring all around us.  The roar of the 2 million crowd from the Mall is a sound I will never forget!  That night, Alexis and Ross organized a lovely dinner at Ulah Bistro for a delightful group of friends ($35), and we spent the rest of night bar hopping ($24) and party-crashing ($20).  I picked up drunk snacks on my way home around 4am ($7.29), and fell to bed knowing that the world was already a better, safer place.

At some point over the weekend I took out $50 from the ATM, but I have no idea where I spent it (cabs, drinks, food, who knows?)

Total $ for Inauguration Celebration: $204.99

$50 - doctor copay

$20 - Metro card for inauguration weekend getting-around

$30.54 - happy hour at Mackey's with Emma and Patrick

$6.93 - Sparks! to take to Ross'

$47.45 - Chinese food for me, Alexis, and Emma  

Total = $124.92

$224.80 - flight to San Francisco in march to visit Ian!!

$20 - parking ticket picked up while in Boston over New Year's (sometime I will visit Boston without getting a parking ticket.  really.)

Total = $244.80

$10.35 - two glasses of wine with Emma at Vapiano's

$1.35 - bus to work 

$7.59 - Power Protein breakfast and coffee from Starbucks

$147.19 - groceries from Harris Teeter (a ridiculous amount to spend all at once, but I got some killer deals on stuff that will last, and then almost killed myself carrying it all home.)

Total = $156.13

Smoke-Out (ish) Update Week 8

It's been 8 weeks of my relatively smoke-free lifestyle, and I've saved $141 not smoking 540 cigarettes or so :)

I have to say the sheer number of cigarettes that I haven't smoked is the most amazing thing to me.  Or rather, what's amazing/shocking is that even though I was only smoking 5-10 a day when I quit, they add up really fast!

Either way, I am still feeling good and loving not being a (regular) smoker!

Weekend Update

Fantastic, super, incredibly fun weekend in New York.  I realized I hadn't visited in over a year and a half, and that is way too long to stay away from one of the most fun cities in the world.  Every time I visit NYC I always have a great time, and this past weekend was no exception!  I took a cab from the office to Union Station ($8) and then the Amtrak to Penn Station in NYC.  Got a new Metro card ($14) and hopped on the train to Astoria to drop off my stuff at Peter B.'s beautiful new apartment.  Since Peter had the flu and needed his sleep, I spent the night in Carrol Gardens, Brooklyn with Alex and Alyson, two good friends from Oberlin who I haven't seen in a long time.  We went out for beers to Minibar, and then drank some more at their apartment ($25), laughing and telling stories and generally having a great time.  The next day I woke up around noon and stopped for a bagel and coffee ($3.75) before getting on the train back to Peter's.  I LOVE New York bagels.  That evening I met up with Evelyne, another dear friend who I haven't seen in forever, and we caught up over drinks at a bar in Penn Station before hitting the PBR rodeo!!  The rodeo was a blast, saw tons of bullriding and drank lots of Budweiser ($25), and generally had a riotous time.  After the rodeo Evelyne and I went to Rudy's, a great dive bar nearby that gives you free hotdogs and has $7 pitchers!  We ate 7 hotdogs between the two of us (gross, I know, but they just kept coming) and drank 2 pitchers and danced and laughed and had a hilarious time ($14).  Took the train back to Astoria at 2am exhausted but happy!  The next day had brunch with Peter ($18) and then took the Bolt bus back to DC, stopping for snacks on the way ($7.05).  When I got back to DC I hopped in a cab over to Ross' ($8) to watch the rest of the Steelers' win and the Golden Globes with Ross, Alexis, and Ben, while noshing on Thai ($14), and then took another late-night cab back to my apartment ($12).

Back to work, and it's a busy week, but I am so looking forward to the inauguration festivities next weekend and am scheming on how to get to the PBR World Championships in Vegas next November. :)

Total = $148.55

$7.35 - Power Protein breakfast and coffee from Starbucks

$10.35 - Cowboy Steak salad and diet Coke from the Brown Bag

$10 - money added to laundry card

$17.97 - Netflix subscription (TV shows rented in the last month: Friday Nights Lights, Freaks and Geeks, The Wire, movies: The Dark Night, Bullrider, Helvetica, Tropic Thunder, Planet B-Boy)

$560 - car rental for holiday travel (got me from DC to Pittsburgh to Boston to DC, so not terrible)

Total = $605.67

$1.35 - bus to work (another gross and rainy day, winter has officially hit DC)

$444.04 - gas, tolls, eating out, groceries, trip to Target for a sweeper and other "necessities", in sum, all of my spending from 12/24 - 1/4, except for my rental car, which was hideously expensive but hasn't posted to my Discover card yet so I'm not posting it here yet.

$22 - drink and dinner with Emma at the Science Club

Total = $476.39

On the positive side, I am very happy to report that although all of this spending occured on a credit card, it has already all been paid off now that I have access to my debit cards and bank accounts once again.  This is NOT something that would have occured in the past.  

This.  This is why I never have any money and can never meet my spending goals.  Because I do stupid things like signing up for multiple food magazine subscriptions (there's a third on the way!), and feeling compelled to give money to my alma maters or matii, or however you would say it.  Even when I am being pretty good and not boozing and dining my $ away, I still find a way to dispose of it far faster than should be possible.  I need to come up with a plan.

$1.35 - bus fare to work (cold and raining and awful outside)

$15 - Food Network magazine subscription

$12 - Everyday Food magazine subscription

$20 - donation to Chewonki, the organization that runs the Maine Coast Semester

$15 - donation to Oberlin scholarship fund

$20 - BoltBus ticket from NYC-DC for Sunday (on my way back from seeing the Professional Bull Rider's rodeo in Madison Square Garden!!)

$35.51 - two calendars (one for home, one for the office), a New Yorker (I should just suck it up and get a subscription even if I don't read it most of the time), and Team of Rivals (book about Lincoln and his cabinet that I have been wanting to read ever since I heard the author speak and ended in tears - she is amazing!)

(Mostly) Smoke-Out Update Week 7

So, while I cannot exactly say that I have QUIT SMOKING in all capital letters or shout it from the rooftops because I have smoked approximately 2 cigarettes per week for the last 7 weeks, all in all I am doing pretty well.  So far I have saved about $124 dollars and not smoked 476 cigarettes, which makes the 10-14 that I have smoked not seem that bad. :)

I have no idea

Exactly how much $$$ I spent over the holidays, or what I spent it on (rental car and eating out, mostly, I think).  But due to the recent loss-theft of my wallet, I had to put it all on one Discover card, so when that total comes through in a couple days, I'll post it, no matter how hideous it turns out to be.

Spending today:

$9.68 - Miss Mae's Cajun Cobb salad (relatively South beach diet friendly, thank goodness)