One of Those.....

Ever had one of those days? That turns into one of those couple of days, that turns into one of those weeks, and then one of those couple of weeks? That is where I am.

Three weeks ago, my mom and I went to look at a motor home. I have been looking for one since I started making my trips. My mom started thinking it would be a good idea as well when I told her I was going to start camping because I could not afford the cost of the hotel every time. I got this full size van with a seat that lays down into a "bed", why not use it? She agreed that it was a good idea, until she went down in the summer and she was too hot. I continued to camp and we brought fans with us to plug in and blow on us. We made it through the summer last year, although my said she would rather have a camper. So we have been looking since the middle of last year. We found one about 150 miles from our house(there are no decent ones locally). We went and looked at it. It drove nicely, has nice tires, not really any rust, it just looked really good. It needed new exhaust, but that usually is not too expensive. The guy that was selling it told us that they took it down to Florida and Texas every year for the winter. They were selling it because he had knee surgery and could no longer climb into the bunk above the cab. He told us how everything worked and where to put the settings for all the stuff. I was not super happy with the camper, but was not totally disappointed either. It was old, and some of it was ugly, but that is cosmetic. I talked to mom and we decided to go for it. I paid the guy for it and started home. About 30 miles from their house it died in the middle of the road when I slowed down for the railroad track crossing. It started right back up, but I had to drive with two feet to get it home. This is when the bad feeling started. We stopped at a Meijer on the way home for a few groceries. It died in the parking lot when I stopped. I was not too happy about that. When I did finally get home, it died again. So every time I slowed down too much or tried to just idle it would die.
I took it to my mechanic and asked him to check everything over. I told him I was not planning on taking it on my trip that weekend (it was Wednesday) and that he could take whatever time he needed. I went down that weekend to see my son. My poor van was having some serious problems by the time I got into the mountains. It kept missing and not shifting properly, and it was running a little hotter than usual. My visit itself was nice. I don't know why my van is running so awful, so I do not put into overdrive and drive about 55. It keeps missing and chugging and just having a rough time. Then about 2/3 of the way home we have to take a detour because there was a vehicle fire on the interstate. Fortunately I have a CB radio and knew about it miles before hand and could exit early. I followed a state route north. I was shortly joined by the other interstate traffic. I was chatting with the truck drivers. We were only running about 35. I was okay with that though. If we are on an unfamiliar road (I wasn't-I had been detoured to this road multiple times before), then take your time rather than crash and cause another delay. Then some of the truck drivers say to take a certain turn-off. I say I am going straight, I know that it is faster. So three truck drivers say they are following me. We get back to the interstate and we are ahead of all the rest of the traffic. They thanked me and took off. They lost me pretty quickly from site although I have about a 6 mile range on my radio so we could chat a little longer. By the time I make it home, my car is driving just fine. Uuugggghhhh. How am I supposed to have it looked at if it won't do anything when I take it in?

I get home and my mom is out of state for work. I have to keep going to her house to check on her cat and house, pick up her papers and mail, and just keep an eye on things. I also had to get the motor home back to my house-which needs new exhaust, and the carburetor adjusted, but other wise ran okay for him, clean my car out from my trip, try to figure out if I would be able to watch my sisters girls and get ready for my weekend trip to Paducah to visit my cousin. all in four days, after work. All this while hoping to do a hounding deal or two. Boy was I frazzled by the end of the week. I went to bed early Friday night as I was planning on leaving around 6 am on Saturday. I get into the car, get gas and a breakfast sandwich and I'm off. Of course I am driving 55 with out overdrive again just to be sure.
Four hours later and with only about 15 minutes left in my trip, my van overheats. I pull of the side of the interstate, and the van is steaming like crazy. I call my cousin to let her know and tell her where I am so she can come and wait with me. I then call the help line on my cell phone to have them tow me to her house. My cousin arrives, the tow truck arrives, and off we go. Later that afternoon, I go out to see if the motor is cool enough for me to take a look at things. It is, so we get a pitcher of water to fill the radiator to see if I can see where the leak is, or if it is just the normal leak I always have. I fill it up and turn on the van.
No leaks. I am feeling pretty good. Til we go inside and I can't find my keys. They are still in the van.....which is now locked...UUuggghgghhghg. So I have to figure out how to break into my van, as I do not have lockout service on my cell plan or car insurance. Finally I get a window open to reach the lock and open the doors. I go back out about 2 hours later to see if the van will leak now when I start it. Yep it does. It pours out the bottom. I turn the van off and we go to the U-haul dealer to rent a truck and tow dolly or trailer to pull the van home. My cousin has only lived there a couple of months and so had no idea where to call for a mechanic. The uhaul folks don't have anything to pull my van home. So we ask if they know of anywhere that can fix my car reasonably, and not try to pull the wool over my eyes. They both recommend the same place so we go outside and call them. They could look at it, but they close in about 30 minutes. They will reopen on Monday, I can bring it in then. Great another missed day of work because I have a broke down vehicle. Oh well, I will just enjoy the day away.
We take it in Sunday night for them to look at first thing Monday. They finally call and say they can't get the part in until the next day. But they can rig it up to work for a while so that I can get home and have it fixed my my mechanic. Works for me. So I have my cousin come and get me and take my to my van. I pay and leave for home. It of course takes me hours because I am afraid to drive fast for fear of something else breaking. I do make it thank goodness.
Tuesday I spent catching up at work, since I had left early on Friday and then missed Monday. I go home and clean the camper out. It was not really dirty at all, just needed a bit of cleaning. I was bummed because I found a spot where water leaked in. Not majorly, but still some water damage. This makes me not happy as the guy made sure he sat on that particular seat while we were looking at it.
Wednesday I am still trying to catch up at work. Everybody was apparently busy while I was gone. Wednesday night I plug in the camper at my house and start loading it. All the outlets work, the air works, the microwave works. The fridge doesn't. At least on electricity. I don't panic just yet as the guy said they used it with the gas. I just keep loading it. All the while having this really bad feeling about it.
Thursday, I keep loading it, but the bad feeling just keeps getting worse. Friday morning at work, I wait for my mom in the parking garage to tell her I think we should take her car, as I have this feeling that if we take the motor home I won't make it in time to see my son. She pulls up in my sisters car. Hers would not start. Ooohhhhhh this is bad. Now we have no car to take down. We decide to leave work really early to get a head start so that we have plenty of time. We load ourselves into the motor home and start driving. I just have this awful clenching feeling in my gut telling me this was a mistake we should not be driving it. We make it out of town, then out of the state, then through the first leg of the trip. We keep going and make it through the second leg of the trip. Then we hit really bad traffic and a backup just outside of Louisville. The motor home is doing okay. Then just as we start to pull out of the backup, it starts smoking. I check all the gauges and everything looks okay. We pull off at the next exit and go to the gas station. I see smoke coming out the back the whole way.
At the gas station, I crawl under the motor home and see that it is leaking transmission fluid. I check the level and it still says that it is okay. We decide to get gas and some more tranny fluid. They don't have any. Okay, let's start driving and see what happens. there is a truck stop not too far down the road, I am certain they would have some. We only get about two miles down the road when it starts smoking big time. I pull off the side of the road and want to cry. It is after 6 so the chances of a rental place being open is slim. Same with a repair shop. Fortunately, mom thinks of the airport. We turn around and go to the airport, park the camper and go find the rental cars. I had called ahead to reserve a car. We check it out and go back to the parking area to get our stuff out of the camper. We have to get in, load and get out in less than 10 minutes or pay the daily parking fee. We made it!
We get back on the road. I call to reserve a hotel room for two nights. We get down there safely. We enjoy our single day with my son. One day is totally not enough. I want to start out as early as possible on Sunday while sleeping in just a bit from the exhaustion of my stress. Off we go back to the airport. We load our stuff back into the camper in the 10 minutes and do not have to pay the parking fee. We return the rental and hike back to the camper. Now to just make it home. The stinking camper did not smoke a single time on the way home. I decided on the way home the camper was going bye-bye. I do not want it. I will now sell the camper and try to sell my van, which is starting to need a gob of repairs if I want to keep driving it. I still owe on it so if I cannot get at least that much I will just keep it and use it for local trips. It seems to do fine here where there are no hills and mountains. I am going to take the money I get from the camper and buy a small vehicle that is really good on gas. I will still camp out, it will just be in a tent. In the meantime, I will rent cars to make it down there. I figured the amount of gas and wear and tear on my moms car which already has 200,000 miles on it compared to renting a car and the gas it would use. It will be about $25 more expensive to rent a car. The wear and tear on my mom's car would cost me that much. Her suv is a gas hog so the rental fee and gas would only be about $25 extra dollars-to drive a new car that most likely will not break down anywhere. I will take it. I just won't be able to do that and pay for a hotel every time. So I would like to have a small cheap car before I have to start staying at a hotel again.
In the meantime with all of this going on, I lost my flash drive for work with all my documents for work saved on it; My phone broke, I can still use it, but it really needs replaced now; I lost my umbrella and of course it has been raining a lot. I also misplaced several more items at home that I have no idea where they went.
Today, things are turning around. I found two people already that want to look at the camper, I found my flash drive, I found my umbrella, and I have managed to finally get caught up at work! I think this may be the end of the "one of those days"! And it is about time, is all I can say!

So that is why I have been out of commission lately. So how are you doing?

Challenge Update-The Weekend

I went to walwart on Friday night after work. I do not have my receipt with me today as I need to return/exchange some of the Kraft dressings that I bought. I was buying it up for me and my mom to use as marinades, and it turns out she will only use the fat free ones. So, I will take it back to get fat free.....I will post my actual totals when I am done with that reciept, but my savings were somewhere around 50%. Not too shabby for walwart.

Saturday morning I took my van in to get the windshield replaced. I went to the used parts junkyard which has an agreement with a local company to put windshields in at a reduced rate. Yeah, it's reduced cuz they do a lousy job. There is a gap on the outside molding at the bottom of the windshield. I called and they contacted the guy who did the replacement and he said it should be fine. Just take a hose to it to make sure it does not leak. But surely it will be okay. Oh we shall see, with my luck it will leak. He already had informed me Saturday he did the best he could and to leave the tape on the window for at least a day or two to make sure the glass did not come out. Let the glue and all that dry.

Since I could not use my van on Saturday, I did not get all my errands done. I called my sister to borrow one of their vehicles. I got to use their car. Compared to my van, it feels like I am sitting on the ground in the car! It feels really weird driving something that low and small. So I first go to wags to see if they will let me use my rr which expired the day before. NO we will not. So I leave. I will try tomorrow with my favorite cashier. She is really nice and does not complicate orders by arguing about my q's.

Then off to cvs. I was not sure about going as I lost my extra care card. The cashier told me to call 1800 shop cvs and see if they would help me out. I do plan to call today. I am not making any phone calls as I am still waiting for the return call about my windshield. She gave me a new card to use temporarily. I did pretty good.

For my first order, I used my rain check for the command strips 2 for $5 and get $5 when you buy $15. I bought my six and used my six $2.50 off q's and also purchased the bayer meter. I had one q for it and got my $5 for that. I only pay 1% tax on the monitors. I pay 7.75% on the general merchandise. My subtotal was zero and my tax was $1.31! Not too shabby for getting $10 in EB back.

On my second order I got four boxes of the Kellogs cereal which were $2.00 a piece. I also bought three ragu pasta sauces. I only had three q's for this, and did not have any q's for the peanut butter as I had already used them. However the 3 for $5 on the pasta sauce is a good price here anyway. I found CFL bulbs on sale for $1.49 which is a super price! I got two of those. I can always use light bulbs. I am trying to replace all my old light bulbs with the cfl's as the old ones burn out. I used four $1 off cereal q's, three 30 cents of ragu, and my $10 EB from the previous order. I paid $1.14 total on the second order. No EB but I was not sure if I would keep this card as my cashier said if I call the 800 number and explain what happened, they may be able to print off the eb again and send them and a replacement card. That would be cool if they can.

So my total cvs purchases this weekend was $2.45 for $143.21 worth of merchandise. I can live with that. I gave some of my purchases this weekend to my mom. I have not donated the monitor yet as my mom was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Her doctor wants to wait and see if her numbers change after being on the sleep machine at night. If they improve, then I will donate it. If they do not and she has to start checking her blood sugar, then she will not have to buy the machine. I also shared some of my q's with my sister at walwart this weekend when we went shopping together. She used the q's and did some price matching and she saved around 50% as well. Not too bad for either one of us this weekend. I added to my stockpile relatively cheaply, and my sister started hers.

Here are a couple of pics of my deals this weekend. The first is the walwart run and the second is the cvs run.

After I went to cvs I decided to run to walwart again to get more diet pepsi as it was marked down to $4.98 a case. On my way there, the check engine light comes on in my sister's car! I call to tell her, run to walwart and then run by Advance auto so they can see what is wrong with it. I take it back to her because it is something to do with the emissions but it will run okay for now. I swear at this rate no one is ever going to let my use their car, I can't keep any of them running!

Challenge Update

For Wednesday:

I will have my car greased tonight. My mechanic says it will only take him a few minutes. I asked him what he would charge and he did not answer me. I will probably give him $10 for his time and grease even if he says no charge. I do not want to be greedy and take advantage of him.

I gave my cats a treat this morning of a can of tuna. I can usually get tuna cheaper than cat food. I use only one can of tuna and two cans of cat food. The only time I get canned cat food is when Kmart is doing their doubles. Then I can get the food for cheaper than the cheap-o tuna.

I made my lunch for today. I made tuna salad, found some leftover taco soup ( not really sure how long it has been in there, but it smelled all right!), and brought some green beans. If I need a snack of some sort later, I have some popcorn that I keep at work.

Tonight, I am going to meet up with a friend of my dad's. She is a single mom(I think), and she has four kids. She wants to learn how to coupon! Hopefully another new face on The Pound!

I have been turning the heat down to 58 or 60 degrees. The heat does still come on occasionally. I did turn it up yesterday morning and this morning while I was getting ready for work and I was cold. I just turn it down before I leave for work.

I keep the lights off in the rooms I am not in. In fact, the two upstairs rooms have no items plugged in at all. The storage room downstairs only has a lamp plugged in, the kitchen has only the fridge and stove that stays plugged in because I unplug all appliances when not in use. The living room only has one lamp and one "nightlight" plugged in to timers to come on at some point in the evening. The lamp goes out fairly early, and the "nightlight" goes out in the morning when it starts getting light outside. I do not even have the t.v. on a power strip, it is just not plugged into anything!

I will try to find something to fix for dinner if I get home early enough to have for lunches and freezer meals. I had several errands to run last night and did not get home early enough. I ended up being at my sister's house until around 11:30!

I ordered a windshield for my van at the car recycling center yesterday, and they have a guy that will put it in on Saturday's for a discounted rate. It will save me about $100 going through these folks. The crack in my windshield is now pretty large and you can definitely tell it is there. I want to get it fixed before I get a ticket. Then I would have to pay for the ticket and to repair the windshield anyway. I had to get the money from my dad though. I did not have enough money to pay for it right now.

I do not plan any shopping today. I have no money right now. Thank goodness Friday is payday!

Challenge Update

I did spend money Monday. I got $50 worth of gas. I cannot say I filled the gas tank because as gas prices creep back up again, $50 does not fill my tank. I really hope prices do not keep going up again for the summer.
Other than that I spent no money. I did however cost myself some money for Tuesday. I stopped by to see my dad. I ended up staying longer than I meant to and did not have time to cook anything before I dropped into bed. I was really tired from my trip home and by 8:30 I was ready to fall asleep standing up. I managed to get some q's clipped and that was all. Since I was not able to stay up longer, I did not cook any food for my lunch on Tuesday. I did not have anything in my freezer ready for lunch either. I have apparently used all my pre-made meals up and did not realize it. So I will get a pizza from the pizza dude at lunch today, and will make sure that I make food tonight for lunches this week. And extras for days like this. I will also batch cook this weekend again.
Since I was not home for very long before I went to bed, I used next to no electricity last night. Lights were only on for about an hour. I also did not eat dinner last night, so no food costs.
For Tuesday, I am going to buy pizza for lunch. They are $5. I am not going to any stores so I will not spend any money there. I do plan to swing by my mechanic's house and have him grease the front end of my van. When the "other guy" fixed it, I don't believe he greased it very much or at all. It has started creaking and groaning as I am driving. It did that just a bit for the first couple of weeks, but in the last week or so, it has gotten substantially worse (louder). I am not sure what he will charge for that, but am certain he will not charge too much. He may tell me nothing, but at that point I would insist on paying him a little bit. I do not want to take advantage of him. He has a family too( a S/O and four kids!).
Tuesday night I will do a load of laundry in cold water and hang the clothes to dry.
I also plan to go to my sister's house for a bit to get a couple of wipe tubs to repurpose for my q's. This saves them from going to the landfill, and saves me from buying another container for my q's since the one I am using is now too small. I am taking some magazines to her that I think she will like which saves her money from buying magazines to read (they are freebies that I receive).

How are doing on your challenge?