Broke for Two Weeks

Was talking with a friend the other day who is struggling financially currently and she mentioned how she is learning the difference between needs and wants and I nodded my head as if I could really relate.

Well for the next two weeks I will be. We’re on the transition between the old place and the new place, still paying the last of the old bills while paying all the set up fees for the new place (600€ and counting – ouch) anyways I had carefully worked out the budget, I knew money would be a bit tight as it’s expensive moving but we were ok. Well that was true till I got the first phone bill 270€ (70 for the line and 200 for the set up fee)

Ouch.

That pretty much wiped out the extra in the account that I was counting on. But it’s actually not a bad thing, it’s going to force me stretch my dollars. Here’s how I’m going to do it.

Gas: I just gassed up so if I drive slower and take the bus train more with a bit of luck I won’t need to get any gas for two weeks. The Wife’s car is at the airport for two weeks so no driving there

Shopping: shop the pantry, got enough food here

Eating Out: lots of food at home and can always invite myself over to friends for dinner, poor hubby, Wife is on the road for two weeks.

Germany: Joining the Wife for the weekend in Munich Flying out Friday early and coming back on Monday. This will be a bit tougher as it’s a long day Iberia so no meal served, arrive Munich 11am and then train it to Erlangen. It’ll be hard not to spend money but I’d rather save money now to have some for the weekend.

I’m Back

after ignoring my blog for a while I’m back, thanks to Tam from Tampa. My visita computer is back up again, I think the problem was the Internet connection, it was cutting in and out and that seemed to throw Visita off. Long story short called Telefonica and they were able to fix the problem remotely. Than my old computer started acting up so I fired up the new one and it’s working

cross your fingers!!

I hate Vista

mentioned this on facebook  but Vista is a piece of crap, it’s nice looking software but it runs like day old crap. I’m doing this on my old computer becuase I can access the web on the new one, I  need to find someone who can figure out what is wrong.

Take my advice and avoid Vista like the plague.

Time to start blogging again

Well we survived the move, our bank account is pretty much empty (moving is sooo expensive in Europe 4 months deposit hook up fees etc ouch) but we did it all cash (including buying a car I might add)

anyways I’m hoping to get back on blogging on a more reasonable schedule. I’m going to shoot for a once a week posting. And always to keep it short

rob

We Got More Hangers!!!!

An amazing thing happeneds when you move. You find all kinds of long lost things! Like hangers, I’m really picky about my hangers, I like the plastic ones with twisting heads, but recently I”ve been forced to use the steel ones.

Well lo behold with moving and packing I found a bunch of extas, enough that I got rid of all the odd ones

Long live hangers:)

Another No Driving Day

This is a take off of Frugal Trenches no spending days. While we’ve always been a one car family I wanted to take it a step futher and see how little I can drive, less driving means less wear and tear on the car and for sure no need for a second vechicle. A while back we did without a car for several months and even with a bus pass and a huge and cheap public transportation net we still found we need a car, particularly on the weekends. So this is a compromise, one car for the weekends and a bus pass for the week.

We do some driving, the Wife took the car to work and I took the bus, but compared to old days we’ll maybe drive 5K (3miles) vs perhaps 75K (50 miles) when I took the car to all my classes.

There are some minor downsides. I have alot of time to kill between my two classes 2,5 hours, enough time to be bored but not quite enough to come home. So today I will take a paper and have lunch at Starbucks till it’s time to go home.

ONLY ATE ONE COOKIE

Was over at friends for dinner last night and when it came for dessert I took one cooke and put the rest back! It’s not easy but I’m getting used to snacking less

We’re Moving (again)

In 4 weeks, should be the last move for a long time (ahhh we said that when we bought our place in Germany)

Details to follow

ps: gotta watch it cuase moving can really run up the bills!

Thank God for Screen Shots

I’ve lived with a German OS for 3 years so I had no concerns about buying it again. Problem is Vista is so different I can’t ask anyone how to change anything.

Thank God for screen shots, do a quick google search for what you want and go from there. The language maybe different but the windows are the same.

Good bye Nanny Mc Nag (buy vista and you’ll see what I mean)

BTW unlike most techies I think Vista blows away XP

 

 

 

 

it comes up wth a message

New Computer

It’s nice having a new toy (bought with cold hard cash) but moving everything over is a pain. Particularly as it’s XP to Vista. As well we bought Office in German not realizing that the student edition so it doesn’t offer language support. Personally I can live with the operating system in German as long as everything else is in English. So we had to order the UK version to get it in English. I don’t mind Open Office but the Wife prefers Office.

I figure it will a week or two to get everything moved over completely and then the old one will be for web surfing and the odd document (sent over by USB stick)

EDIT:  just switched IE over to English, ahhhh. Didn’t bother with firefox this time.

EDIT2: trying to see if I can change the language in Windows Media Centre, if not I will simply use Itunes.