Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Twiddle Dee Twiddle Dum

Twiddle Dee Twiddle Dum



The last couple of weeks have been twiddle my thumbs in boredom days. I occasionally ask my supervisor if there's anything I can work on and she comes up empty and mentions how she's the same way having absolutely nothing to work on. It's ironic, when I actually want to work there's nothing to do, when I don't want to do anything there's tons to get done.

This last week I've been spending my free time on Facebook, which may I add is about the whole 5 hour work day. I try to find other things of a personal nature to do like work on my budget and such but that never takes me long. it almost makes me wonder why come into work at all? They should just pay me to stay home instead of sitting at my desk doing nothing what-so-ever.

At least i'm in good spirits with the beautiful weather we are having today. It's actually going up to about 70 degrees today which is fantastic! I know it won't last but i'm cherishing it while it's here.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Tax Returns

Tax Returns



The beginning of every year can be both shitty yet pleasantly surprising. We always have to pay our taxes but there are rewards with it as well called our Tax Returns. Every year after W-2's and 1099 forms come in, my parents file our taxes with a preparer. He's been doing our taxes for years and always gets us the most out of our tax credits.

This year it turns out I have to pay $381.00 in taxes but i'm getting about 2,400 in my return which is awesome for me. Of course i'm going to use this time to pay off my credit card debt. At least most of it anyway which should immensely help my credit score. No credit like good credit! At least i'm good at paying my cards on time. now if only my dumb butt could stop applying for more credit cards. Now I have 3 physical credit cards, one finance line of credit, and another line of credit that fortunately doesn't affect my credit score. I've decided to only use about $100 a month or the amount that I can pay off in a max of two weeks. Let's hope I can stick to it!



I also decided to get a new phone this year since my old phone is driving me crazy with the autocorrect fails that are still typed wrong even when "corrected" and the shit battery it has. I once forgot my charger at home so I shut my LG V20 off while it was at 64%. Later when I turned it back on it was at 54% then not even 30 seconds later it dropped down to 38%. What really sucked is a I use the public transportation app to store  my virtual bus fare passes.

I have been hankering for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 ever since it first came out. I'm a big Samsung and Android fan. I completely loved my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 that I had until it endured water damage and the audio messed up. The nice thing about the Note 8 though is that it is water and dust resistant. The only thing is i'm clumsy as hell so i'll need a phone case that would have to be a very sturdy one.



I think a lot of the features on the Note 8 are pretty nifty like the face recognition option and the animated picture text option. The dual camera is also supposed to be really good which I will admit was my favorite thing about the LG V20 phone. The note capture feature is awesome too and you can search products by taping an image or a photograph word. You can even screen note. Overall it has gotten great reviews so i'm excited to go all out with my phone purchase thanks to my tax return. I set aside two scenarios. They will either let me trade-in my LG V20 for the new phone or they won't. Either way I have estimated the total budget that I have for phones and accessories. I probably won't need the $120 I put aside for them but they highball you there anyway so best be prepared, right?

The next thing I'm putting some money aside for is to change my youngest son's last name. Since I was legally married when I gave birth to him, and don't judge me too harshly but my then husband wasn't the biological father. Since I was married I had to list my asshole husband as the father or else I wouldn't be granted my son's birth certificate. I think that's absolute bullshit to be honest. So sadly I had given my son his unofficial father's last name, Drvodelic. I had regretted it soon after though which I probably should've thought more about it before picking his last name. My last name is Bar, That is the name he will be learning as his last name since I promised his school teachers that I will be changing it before he enters kindergarten. My mother and I are both putting aside $50 for it so that will finally get taken care of.


If I have any money left over I plan to treat my parents to lunch. I was thinking Red Lobster for my mom and perhaps Buffalo Wild Wings for my daddy. Maybe get a new toy for my son too if I can. Happy Tax Return Season!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Baking: slowly yet surely

Baking: Slowly Yet Surely




Lately i've been in a mood to bake. whether it be cookies, cake, or even doggie biscuits for my furbaby. The most recent thing I baked was a white cake with chocolate buttercream frosting that I found a recipe for that my mother used once. I used a couple heart pans for Valentine's Day and even sprinkles on top which was yummy.

Cooling on the rack

I had made a little "oopsie" and got a little cocoa mixed in with the cake batter but luckily you couldn't really taste it. I needed a couple future reference pointers. Don't spread the frosting out to the ends between layers or the cake halves will slide around. as well as sour cream or buttermilk recipes are better because they make the cakes really moist. Learn something new every day. I didn't do that well with frosting either. I think I frosted the plate more than the cake. Overall I tried and it wasn't too bad being my first cake that i've baked alone. Learned some tricks and at least the cocoa buttercream frosting turned out amazing!