$117.02 - groceries at Harris Teeter (that thing I said before about not shopping hungover?  Still true.)

$3.19 - multigrain bagel and coffee from Starbucks (I am trying to balance my budget with my goals of eating lowcarb, i.e. not spending $6 on the fruit/cheese plate.)

$30 - online order of a DC Metro Smartrip card.  Yes, I have lived in DC for 14 months and am just now getting around to getting a Smartrip card . . Although I paid $5 for the privilege of buying it online and having it shipped to me, I will save 10 cents on every bus trip now that I won't be paying in cash (and I can join everyone else in feeling superior to the poor fools struggling with their change while everyone else waits impatiently behind them, in the rain).  So I only have to take 50 bus trips to make it worth it.  That'll probably happen before I leave DC.

$10 - donation to Maine Coast Semester solar panels challenge

$22.50 - Chinese food for me and Emma

$11.82 - 6pack of Brooklyn Pinstripe Ale

$8 - cab to Jenn's

$40-ish - drinks at 3rd Edition, a lame, lame, lame Georgetown bar (Emma and I have decided we will never go out in Georgetown again)

$2.50 - ATM fee (rrrrrgh)

$7 - cab home

Total = $135.01

Progress

Another $0 day!

Mickey Rourke should have won the best-actor Oscar

$1.59 - diet Coke

$7.50 - ticket to see "The Wrestler" with Alexis.  It was really, really good, and really, really intense.

$22.63 - 3 Stella Artois with Alexis after the show (it was only supposed to be one, but we got talking . . .)

Total = $31.72

Delightful Zero Dollar Day

I spent no money today, which is always good, and also had a very good day.  After work I worked out and then went to Alexis' for a delicious, delicious dinner of flank steak, fingerling potatoes and steamed broccoli, and watched Obama's totally awesome speech to Congress.  Overall excellent.

$8.25 - coffee and fruit/cheese breakfast at Starbucks

$9.80 - salad and diet Coke for lunch

$40 - prescriptions

$27.02 - groceries for dinner with Emma and hopefully enough leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week!

Total = $85.07

$10 - ticket to see Slumdog Millionaire - wanting to check it out before it swept at the Oscars

$9.25 - popcorn and soda - couldn't resist

$27.47 - Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and a workout dvd - had to have the soundtrack!!

$18 - 6-pack and some groceries - for Oscar-watching at Alexis and Ross'

$7.34 - club soda and Camel Lights (moment of weakness, I only smoked 1!)

Total = $72.06

$12.50 - first monthly payment to WAMU, my local public radio station ($150 for the year)

$8.71 - bottle of Famega from Best Cellars

$40-ish dollars - drinks at the Blaguard and Porter's

Total = $61.21 - ish

Trying desperately (but not really, obviously)

2/18/09: 

$15 - Chinese food with Alexis.  Was great to see her and catch up, it's been almost a month, which is ridiculous since we live 5 minutes apart.  

2/19/09:

$8 - cab to get to work due to lateness caused by intestinal issues from previously mentioned Chinese food. Oh well.

$24.62 - dinner and drinks with Emma before going to see 'Milk' with Emma and Zoe - awesome, awesome movie with AMAZING performances

Total = $42.62

Smoke Out Update

It's been 13 weeks and 3 days since I mostly quit smoking.  So far in the month of February I have only smoked on 2 days, which is pretty awesome.  It helps that I have had laryngitis for the past week, but even without that, the not-smoking is still coming pretty easily.

So far, around 900 cigarettes not smoked, and around $220 saved!

$5.01 - milk and cat food 

I am desperately trying to NOT spend any money until the end of the month, so hopefully there will be few to no significant blog posts for a bit (except for Friday night, when I know I'm going out :)

$3.18 - Washington Post and a diet Coke

$122.51 - groceries at Harris Teeter (in addition to not shopping when hungry, I think it is also advisable to not shop while hung-over.  I ended up buying $20 worth of gourmet cheese among other strange and unnecessary purchases. Ah well . . . )

I forgot one of my resolutions, and that is:

8) Go to at least 2 free events/galleries/happenings in DC every month.

$7 - cab to work to get cupcakes in safely :)

$60-ish - Arlington mini pub crawl with Emma, Maureen, and Emily

$6 - cab home

Total = $73

Cupcake Madness

$59.73 - groceries and ingredients to make Brownie Heart Cupcakes and Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream . They both turned out GREAT!  See pictures :)

2009 Resolutions/Aspirations

So I keep forgetting my list of resolutions/aspirations at home, but I think I can remember them all.  So, in 2009 I plan to:

1) Read 12 books

2) Cook for friends at least 2x per month

3) Start volunteering at the National Rehab Hospital

4) Call Gram at least 1x per week

5) Call Mom/Henry and my Dad at least 1x per month

6) Lose 30 lbs (6 down, 24 to go!)

7) Pay off all my credit card debt and save $6,000

(I think that's it . . .)

$37.84 - CVS (it was all absolutely necessary stuff - hair product, Emergen-C, vitamins, etc)

$36.50 - roundtrip bus ticket to NYC on Megabus for March 6-8 (look at me being thrifty and not taking the Amtrak train even though it is a bajillion times more pleasant :)

$8 - happy hour drinks with Emma at The Bottom Line

Exciting Milestone

I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to report that I am now down to making payments on only one credit card.  As of 2/15, I will owe $4,612 on one zero-interest card and that balance will be $0 no later than July 2009.  Wow, just typing those words makes me really happy.  As I near the point of zero debt, paying my credit card bills has actually become a pleasure, and with the end in sight I have this amazing feeling of lightness and imminent freedom, it actually gives me butterflies in my stomach!

Debt-free life, here I come!!!!

(2009 New Year's Resolutions coming soon.  Yes, I know it's February but it took me a while to settle on the ones that were most important to me.)

$35 - cheeses, fresh mozz, veggies at the Farmer's Market

$7.35 - Washington Post and kitty litter

$17.97 - Netflix subscription (movies watched in the last month, in liked most to liked least order: Man on Wire, Riding Giants, John Adams miniseries, Friday Night Lights Season 2, Burn After Reading, Year of the Dog, Darkon)

$50 - part of rental car charge from last weekend

Total = $110.32

$8 - beers at Raven Grill with Zoe

$1.35 - bus to work

$25.45 - dinner and drinks with Emma at cafe asia

$50 - ticket to see the Alvin Ailey dance troupe at the Kennedy Center - with the PRESIDENT!!!

$32 - drinks at McFadden's with work friends

Total = $108.80

$7 - cab to get home after happy hour drinks with Emma (needed to get home quickly so I'd have enough time to make dinner for Zoe and Lizzy -- Peppercorn Chicken with Lemon Spinach and Sweet Potato Gratin -- they both turned out great, and the combo of all the flavors and colors of the meail made for one of my best yet!

My Interview Moment

Holli - thanks for the great questions!!!

1.  Work often feels like nothing more than work.  What is your dream job --- the one that would bring you pure happiness and fulfillment?  Why?   What, if anything, are you doing to turn this dream into a reality?

I have two answers to this question, neither of which I'm sure are it, but I think they are.  Over the last year or so, I have decided that my dream job may be being a stay at home mom.  I want marriage and kids and to raise a family, and I want to raise the kids myself (rather than daycare or a nanny); I think I would find it immensely fulfilling.  It's a bit difficult to work proactively to turn this dream into a reality, but I am trying to become as good and interesting and accomplished a person as possible, so that I can find the right guy, and raise great kids.

My other answer is that I would love to own a bakery or a cafe or something along those lines.  I would want it to be a place where people come to hang out, a very neighborhood-y sort of place, and it would open early and close late!  I think I would find this so fulfilling because it would satisfy my need for community and comfort and lots of people and activity in my life, and also indulge my love of baking and sweets and coffee!  I am doing squat to turn this dream into reality, as I don't think it's a realistic option.

2. If you could travel anywhere with anyone (all expenses paid), where would you go and who would you go with?
Recently I have been thinking about how cool it would be to go to Australia and New Zealand, so let's say there.  I would want to go with a gang of my friends, 10 at least, including my Aussie friend Tim so that he could show us around.  I can imagine the trouble/fun we would get into!

3.  What is your proudest moment in life thus far?  

This was the hardest question for me to answer, I thought about it all day yesterday, and still haven't been able to come up with a defining moment.  I think there are two that I can say sort of equal eachother in terms of making me feel proud and that I have been living a good life.  One is when I got my second job at my current employer, it was such a step up in terms of responsibility and compensation, and really the result of previous good work at the association, as well as a series of lucky accidents I suppose.  I was proud to have been asked to fill the position, and I was proud that I was able to negotiate such favorable compensation for myself.  The other moment is really a series of moments I have had, often at IBYC (my favorite annual summer party), but at other times as well when surrounded by friends, who are all having a marvelous time at a party in my old apartment, or dinner at a friend's house, or something along those lines.  I am proud that I have such an amazing group of intelligent, caring, funny, dynamic and interesting people in my life, and that I know I will have them forever!

4. What character trait do you find most appealing in friends?  What trait are you most attracted to in men?

In friends I suppose it's an excellent sense of humor, my best friends are the people who I love to laugh with, and I find that people who are funny are also intelligent, which is another bonus.  I also really value loyalty in friends.  In men, I am drawn to self-confidence.  Men who know who they are and are comfortable with that can be themselves, and if they know themselves, they are more available to get to know me in a very real way.  I am also a sucker for guys who can make me laugh.  Compassion is also a must.

5. Some lessons in life can only be learned the hard way.  What is one such lesson you've learned? 

This is my softball question, right?   The biggest life lesson I have learned so far, that has to be lived to be learned, is money management.  I got myself into a great big $16k pile of credit card debt, and I am close to getting myself out of it.  Once I am out, I will never be in this situation again.  I think I needed to live this to learn it, as I am not an inherently responsible person when it comes to money and finances.  That being said, I think that when my credit card debt is completely paid off, that THAT will be the proudest moment of my life.

$1.35 - bus to work

$108.76 - groceries from Harris Teeter (I cann;t help myself in that store)

Total = $110.11

$8.25 - breakfast and coffee at Starbucks

$33.83 - The Complete New Yorker on DVD (an amazing deal!)

$9 - lunch and a diet Coke

$34.14 - drinks and wings with Emma after work

$17.23 - groceries

Total = $102.45

Weekend Update

Saturday: 

$5.87 - windshield washer fluid

Sunday: 

$19.13 - gas

Monday:

$5.75 - breakfast bar and a coffee at Sheetz on my way back from 6-time Super-Bowl Champion city!

$24.85 - gas

$9.88 - salad and a diet Coke from Pret A Manger (a new place to spend too much money on deliciously tempting lunches)

Total = $65.48