Getting Stuck

Hi, my name is Tessa and I have arthritis.  

I'm 26, which in joint terms is not that old.  It started when I was 17- I remember this very clearly.  I took dance lessons from age 5 to age 15 and then danced on my high school dance team from age 14 to 18.  If you do the math, that's 13 years of wear and tear.  During my senior year, we were learning this really cool (and somewhat difficult) dance.  One move involved going from a standing position to a squatting position, turning in a circle, and then coming back to a standing position.  My knees started hurting a bit whenever I had to do this move, but I ignored it.  

In college, I had to climb a flight of stairs every day to get to my psychology classes.  That made my knees hurt, too.  When I stood on my feet for long periods of time while working at a pharmacy, my knees started swelling and burning.  By age 19 I was taking a Glucosamine/Chondroitin supplement daily.  This helped a lot.  

Within the last year, two things have happened.  I have had to increase my Glucosamine dosage and my hip joints started hurting.  I was not pleased.  During a pain management class in grad school, I observed an acupuncturist for a day and thought I might try that in the future.

A couple of months ago, I visited my nurse practitioner.  She thought I might have Rheumatoid Arthritis- the crippling, potentially disabling kind.  My initial blood test came back clear and I decided to try something different.  Now I am going to an acupuncturist.

People, it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My knee pain is GREATLY reduced.  My hip pain has had less success, but I am thrilled with the results.  Definitely not frugal, but 100% worth the cost.  Even if I do have to lie there for 20 minutes with a bunch of needles sticking out of me.  :P

Battling the Cranky

I'm at home sick today, and as I've discussed before, I am not a good sick person. I am cranky and bored. My good friend Amy called me to check on me and brought me some cold medicine (the good stuff), so that warmed my bitter little heart. And is making me feel slightly strung out, but better.

Anyhoo, I am trying to entertain myself on the internets. One blog that I enjoy is Stuff Christians Like. It's in a similar vein to Stuff White People Like, but, you know, with more Jesus. It has a lot of funny stuff on it. I just laughed out loud at this post. If you've ever been to a Christian concert or heard a Christian CD that was recorded live at said concerts, you've heard that guy that screams "Jesus!". It's funny 'cause it's true.

Updating the Coupon Binder

The time has come to update my coupon binder. I have had it for almost two years, and it was falling apart at the seams (literally!). It also was too small. I was able to get a new binder free after rebate and I used dividers that I already had- sometimes it pays to have an office supply addiction. The baseball card holders were fine so I just transferred them over.

Here is the front of the old binder:

Inside the old binder- it's nice and messy:

Also inside the old binder:

Here is the new PINK binder. Complete with a ClipArt decorated front cover and of course a label on the binding (not shown). Because I enjoy looking crazy.

Inside the new binder. One new thing that I have done is buy two of those zippered pencil pouches. In the front pouch, I put the coupons that I am going to use in a particular store. Then I can just grab the pouch and not have to take the whole binder with me. In the second zippered pouch I keep scissors for easy access.

The Sewage Incident: A Pointless Post

Last week there was an incident at the casa de Tessa. There will be no pictures to accompany this post as I do not document disgusting-ness.

Occasionally my air conditioner unit has (supposedly) been backing up and I will have puddles on my kitchen floor and in the garage. The kitchen, garage, and ground floor bathroom are all located near each other. Last Monday, it started again. My landlord- who normally is really quick to respond- had seemingly disappeared (later I found out that he had gone out of town). By Thursday, the floor in the kitchen near the bathroom had a lot of water and I was struggling to keep up with getting towels dry enough to put down. On Friday morning, sewage started to back up in the bathroom.

I do not do well with gross things. I have serious issues with public bathrooms due to the pure disgusting-ness that lurks within. But after a few phone calls to family members and then to a plumber, all was taken care of. The plumber came within ten minutes of my phone call and had fixed the problem within ten minutes of arriving. Thank God for this going smoothly!

Of course I had to go buy a Shop Vac and then complete a five-step cleaning process: vacuum, sweep, scrub on my hands and knees, mop, and wash towels one million times until I feel they are approaching clean again. But I am getting reimbursed for the plumber costs ($60- I should have been a plumber) and all is well for the time being.

Except that now I have dreams of finding puddles in the floor. :P

Irony

Here I am at age 3. I was crying because my brother (age 8 at the time) got to go to school and I didn't. I even went so far as to make up my own "Pretend School" and every day I would go off to "Pretend School" when my brother went to real school. That's about where it would end, though, because I had no idea what one actually did all day in school. I just thought it sounded very exciting.

If I had only known that I would be in school for 21 years, maybe I wouldn't have been crying.

I'm Back! With a Walgreens Post!

Of all the things that I do for this blog, I find it the most amusing when I get home from a shopping trip and try to artfully arrange groceries and HBA items so that I can take a picture of them. I don't know why, but I find that pretty funny. :D

Anyhoo, as you may or may have noticed, I have been absent from this blog lately. This means that I have been absent from deal-shopping, too. When I saw the $10 off $40 coupon WG put out for yesterday and today, I decided it was time to get with it. Incidentally, those coupons are also how I typically solve the toilet paper problem. Frugal folk with easy access to CVS are ALWAYS getting free TP, but the closest CVS is an hour away. I use toilet paper as filler to get up to the required amount when WG puts out the $10 off X amount coupons.

Today's purchases and totals:
3 Quilted Northern (3 x $4)= $12.00
2 South Beach Living Cereal Bars (2 x $2.50)= $5.00
2 Crest Rinses- I had the cashier ring them up separately- (2 x $4.49)= $8.98
1 Nivea for Men Body Wash= $4.99
1 Chemistry Hair Product= $7.99
1 WG Acid Controller= $7.99
1 LypSyl Lip Moisturizer= $1.99
1 Excedrin Express Gels= $3.99
1 Revlon Nail Polish= $4.49
__________________________________________________________
Total: $57.42
- $16.00 coupons
= $41.42
- $9.00 Register Rewards generated from the Crest
= $32.42

AND I will be getting $31.44 back in rebates, so my total was .98 before tax (I paid 2.86 tax). I also got a couple of coupons that printed with my Register Rewards. One was for Glade Wisp ($3 off) and I will combine it with the $5 manufacturer's coupon whenever that goes on sale to get it for free.

Most of the stuff was free after rebate or free after Register Rewards. I thought the cereal bars were a particularly good deal as they were .50 per box after coupons.

This is why I love coupons and rebates.

Nothing to Post?

Nope, nothin'. I haven't done any new and exciting frugal things lately. I'm drawing a blank...