Hellobee Boards

I returned $200+ of DH's stuff to Banana Republic (DH had me pick it up last week with his 50% off coupon, but he didn't like any of it), and I returned something to Old Navy that I'd bought for LO but wasn't as cute as I thought ---- and I bought nothing else while I was at the mall!!!

@tinyperson: its always so tempting to get something new so good for you! I went to Target last week to make a return and ended up spending $17 :-P.

@looch: haha, super stealth! Ours are only $1.50 each, but they're horrible and half the time they rip & you need two bags instead of one

Well, yesterday I accepted a job offer where I'll make nearly 3x as much as I did before still pretty excited about that!

I returned 150 worth of clothes and am 400 dollars away from paying off two credit cards! Oh and, because we changed our insurance, my husband's knee surgery is going to cost us ZIP!

@lilteacherbee: Congratulations! Ooooo...what kind of job?

@PurplePumps: What really, really makes me angry about this situation is that the whole dispute was/is over an unnecessary test--that my doctor TOLD ME would be free~! Which is the only reason I said yes, we could do the test.

Long story short....when I was pregnant, my doctor told me that the Maternity21 test was new and they were offering it free to his patients during a trial period. So I said, sure! I'll do it. Seems cool to know if there are any genetic issues so early.

And then I got a freaking bill for 2000! And then my insurance company said they'd only pay $470 or something and no one at my doctor's office had record of the "free trials" because I didn't get a bill until a few months after my LO was born and the test was done almost 7 months before by that point.

Anyway, the whole situation is totally maddening and makes me insane when I think about it for too long.

@gilmoregirl: so excited that B outgrew MSPI! I fear we may be headed to the world of gluten-free, but so far, we're doing OK on the groceries.

Not today, but this week I spoke to my boss about some issues I have with my job. I think that in the long run this will result in more opportunities (and therefore more compensation) for me at work.

@lilteacherbee: awesome! What are you doing now?

I went out to lunch but with a $5 coupon. We get one drink and one water when we go out.

I would like to cancel cable when I go back to work. Need suggestions though on how to record some tv shows. We already have Amazon and Netflix.

I like the idea of cleaning out the freezer before thanksgiving.

Does breastfeeding all day and night count as a money saving tip?

LO and I are both home sick today. We drove DH to the airport, went to the mall, and went to her doctor's appointment and came home. We didnt spend any money on anything! These kind of days are so tempting for things like snacks and coffee and meals out, but we didnt do any of that. Yay!

I called our mortgage lender to request the surplus in our escrow account be mailed via check. $743 for us, woot! This is the result of me reshopping our homeowners insurance and getting a policy $1000 less per year. Now we get the surplus back and a lower mortgage payment.

@lilteacherbee: Congratulations on the new job! So convenient that you'll be in the same school as your DH as well!!

Just sold a bunch of baby clothes and my clothes/purses. I'm also trying to sell some diaper bags I never used so I can pay for our family photo shoot this year

@Mrs. Jump Rope: It still requires an initial investment (a media player, I got the HD Homerun Prime ~$120) and a small fee to rent the cable card ($2 for me vs $7 for the cable box). Then you set up and use Windows Media Center and you can watch TV via your laptop or PC like normal and record/watch up to 3 channels. They even have a WMC remote control so it's totally like still having a "real" cable box. It'll pay itself off in 5 months and then start saving $25 a month with all the same functionality

@Espion: Whoa, do you guys have one with a timer? That's what we use, and i don't think we saw a big jump in our bill.

@sunny: I've been wanting to do it for 3 years or so now, but was too lazy to look into it. Been wasting so much money and it was so easy to set up! I should have done it so much sooner.

@Freckles: A timer would be awesome. I'll ask DH if he can find such a thing. He left it plugged in basically 24 hours a day. And it is warmer here than where my sister lives in Dallas!

After the shock of the bill, I'm actually proud of ourselves for tracking down the cause. We're (read: I'm) pretty good with turning off lights and I can't imagine that our darker and shorter days caused that much of a jump in our bill for having room lights on longer. But DH calculated out the wattage and basically made up the exact difference based on the outputs from the engine block heater. (And when I looked at our electric company's "winter tips", the very first one was "unplug the engine block heater"!)

@Espion: DH said it's any timer where you can set the time, and that should work with your block heater. We would set it up so that the block heater turns on about 30 minutes before we had to leave the house. Hope that helps!

@Mrs. Jump Rope: Yes, I think the HD Homerun prime is a tuner and it replaces the cable box. The cable card (you rent it from your cable company) provides the descrambler information. Typically, the cable card is $2-3/month rental. You can then get rid of the cable box + DVR charge (~$20).

Here's how we have it setup at our home.

To record: Desktop computer with a Ceton Tuner mounted in a slot in the back (similar to the HD Homerun that PurplePumps has). We rent a cable card, and it fits right inside. We run coax cable from the tuner to the wall. The computer runs Windows 7 with Windows Media Center (WMC) and we setup shows to record through the WMC.

To watch: Xbox 360 hooked up to the TV. Xbox 360 can connect to the WMC and we can watch our recorded shows or live TV. Alternately, if your computer is in wired range of your TV, you can always run a cable to the TV. Ours is in our office, and the TV is downstairs so we need the Xbox.

Caveats: I know PurplePumps has said it was really easy, but I actually think it has its challenges sometimes. Second, Microsoft seems to be discontinuing the WMC product. There aren't really any other hardware manufacturers building Windows Media Center Extenders (e.g. ways to connect to your WMC and bring it to a TV elsewhere in your home).

If you wanted to cut cable and just watch OTA channels (but maintain DVR capability), you can do that with this setup as well.