MA Sheep and Wool Festival

Last Saturday me and Robert Gerard took a LONG journey to the MA S&W in Cummington, MA. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there and man was it a long ride. The boy offered to take me since he was too busy when the NH and ME festivals were in town. Ironically the one in our own state was farther away, go figure.

My goal for my first S&W was to learn something from the spinners there, at least get to observe them, buy some new roving and a new drop spindle. I achieved two out of the three. The spinners there were friendly enough but I was a little intimidated to ask any questions since I am a very shy person, but I still got some roving and a new drop spindle! A gift for my Robert who got lots of kisses after =)

We saw some cute sheep while we were there of course. This one was my favorite.

Here is me and Robert in one of the barns, sadly the ice cream I am holding was dropped about 5 seconds later.....I was very upset =(

Doesn't he look thrilled to be there? Lol he was such a good sport through the whole thing and like I said, he bought me a new spindle too!

Here is it, my Kundert 1.1 oz spindle. It spins like a dream, way better then my others ones and I LOVE it. It is shown here with a wool batt I got in a swap last month, my first try at spinning a batt and I must say I quite like it. I need to get more......

After a long hard day and the festival we found ourselves getting snuggly with Roberts baby Titan, the cutest dog in the world. And we brought someone else into the family.....

Meet Carlton the beta fish! Lol Rob just loves him, we picked him up when we were buying a new harness for Titan, isn't he cute? Haha, all in all it was a great Saturday =)

Budgeting Away

I HATE MONEY! There I said it.....money is the root of all evil in the world. And it seems there is just never enough of it to go around. I can afford my car, I know that, but that leaves little room for anything else. I have credit cards, student loans, a phone bill, gym membership, and now insurance and car payments.....and it all adds up to a hell of alot of mulah!

So I have decided to make a hardcore budget for myself in order to replace some of the savings that were lost during the purchase of the car. This is going to be tramatic folks because all I am giving myself in $100 a week to spend. This includes gas, food, and gifts ( holidays and birthdays). Now this might seem like alot of money, I thought it did at first until I realized how much I eat out and spend on entertainment with one Robert Gerard. It adds up to ALOT! This will take alot of will power and will probably get very stressful if you think about it!

The Plan:

I opened a banking account seperate from the one that gets my paycheck direct deposited. This bank account will only contain $100 or less at any given time. I am going to write down my budget in a little notebook that will go with me everywhere. With this I will record my purchases for the week and deduct for my alotted amount of $100. When the week is up, I will replenish the funds to add up to $100 again. The goal here is of course to spend as little as possible so all that is left over at the end of the week will go into my savings along with the rest of my money that isn't used for bills.

I am going to take this budget for a test run this week to see how I do. It will definately take some getting use to, but I am hoping I can handle it. No more little extras, no more throwing away my money on silly things. If I make a purchase or want to, it needs to fit into my budget. The weekends are going to be the hardest because that is when I usually spend all my money, I MUST NOT BE WEAK! If I am ever going to get my apartment, this is how it has to be!

Disappointment Rears its Ugly Head

One week. I have to wait one week before I can drive my car off the lot. Do you want to know why? Because the dumbasses at the dealership sold me the car, told me I could take it home on Tuesday all registered and everything, but there was just one little problem....THEY DON'T HAVE THE FRIGGEN TITLE!!!! I mean are you kidding me? They sold me the car and they don't even have possession of the title? Who the hell does that!

Evidently the car the was repossessed and the lien agency that has the title to the car hasn't sent it over yet and it will take about a week. I am so pissed I can't even see straight! They had the nerve to have me put down 3K and tell me I can have the car on Tuesday and now I have to wait a whole WEEK to get it! Like I said before my family only has one car between the 3 of us, so I called my mom all upset because we couldn't pick up the car.....and my mom called them.

Now my mom is not one to mess with.....I mean she puts the fear of God in people. I have seen her make grown men cry on more then one occassion ( I am not exaggerating, she really did) and personally I have never had the nerve to push her buttons. So she calls the salesman up screaming about how he ruined my first experience buying my first car and how I will live with this the rest of my life and so on and so forth. Basically at the end of the conversation I had a rental car and 4 free oil changes to use any time I want. God bless my mommy. I now have a Kia Spectra to drive around until my car is ready, not the best car...in fact I hate it but it gets from point A to point B right? Beggers can't be choosers I suppose.....

Hmmm....How am I Going To Do This?

Hmmm.....I have a little dilemma that I have been pondering since I bought my beloved car. I have two vacations planned this year, both to my beloved Disney World. I already talked about the one in August but my friend Amy also invited me to go in December for the Christmas Celebration which I am psyched about! Wish Robert Gerard was going though, I always wanted to share that with him =(.

So my problem is......can I afford both of these vacations? I mean before August I need to shell out $750 for my plane ticket and annual park pass. The park pass alone will cost $500! I mean I could buy the $320 pass that Rob is buying, but since I am going twice the annual pass is more frugal, not to mention if I end up going again next year my trip will be even cheaper. Amy has points with Jetblue and said that she will buy my ticket for me for my birthday and Christmas present so I wont have to worry about that. And both trip I won't have to pay for the hotel because they are timeshares.

So the more I have been typing this the more I am realizing that I am taking two trips to Disney for less the $1000, so why am I complaining? It is still alot of money up front before August so I am going to have to save my tail off =(.....this month has been the most expensive month of my life between putting a down payment on my car and my sisters baby shower and it is only the 5th! Happy Cinco De Mayo to me! Lets see if I can pull any off this off without going into financial ruin!

P.S 15 Weeks from today I will be in Disney!

New Car!

Thats right I got a new car! The last few weeks have taken a toll on my little hyundai accent and my sisters car shit the bed Saturday night meaning we had one car between the three of us (my mom's) . All that lit a fire under my ass to look for a new car and a new car I found! A 2005 Toyota Corolla that better LIVE FOREVER or else!!

This isn't the actual car but the pictures I took didn't come out because it was a little rainy when I bought it. Sun roof, power locks and windows...and my favorite...AIR CONDITIONING!! Something I haven't had for 3 miserably hot summers. Ahhhhh, but now I do =). I gave my sister my car because all it needs are new ball bearing which her boyfriend ( a mechanic) can fix no problem. She needed it more then I did and I wanted a new car anyways.

I have made preparations for my new car too, I canceled my spunky fiber club (i am sure i will rejoin eventually) and netflix which will save me about $30 a month toward car payments. I am going to be brown bagging my lunch and cutting entertainment costs. Hopefully I won't notice to much haha. I am not sure what the final payment will be, but the guy said $223 or under depending on what rate I get. This includes all sales tax, fees and a 4 year, 48,000 mile warranty! whoo hoo!!! And I got great, but cheap insurance through my work which will cost me about $90 a month through payroll deduction which is way better then I thought it was going to be!

I go down there tonight to sign all the final stuff and they register it in the morning! So tomorrow night I will be cruising around in my first new used car! haha