I hadn’t played poker in a long time and it was nice to play last night at my place. At the start of the year I had tracked my winnings and losings, so that I had a better idea of my overall play. Well I started the year with $40 in winnings in first game (buy in for $20, took home $60). Then I lost $14, leaving me with $26 winnings to play with. So when I started the challenge I had an extra challenge: I had only that $26 in winnings to play with, or else I’d have to dip in to my entertainment money, which I wasn’t sure about. Anyway, we missed a bunch of games, and then I missed some games that were played, so it had been awhile. And I won $47.25! So now I have a separate jar of money with $73.25 ($26 plus $47.25) to keep playing with. Even if I’m a total loser from now on that’s 3 games worth at least.

Miscellaneous note 1: People brought over left over pot luck stuff from work to the poker game, so now I not only have ground beef, salsa, chopped tomatoes, and shredded cheese in the fridge, I scored a nice Ziploc and some Gladware tubs!

Miscellaneous note 2: My recycling income is way down, because of my decreased club soda consumption. Last run was $2.72, versus the usual $ or so. But I have been really finding a lot of bottles and cans on my breaks at work. So I’m picking up the neighborhood and making money.

Miscellaneous note 3: I was a big freebie girl and stopped for a few years, now I’m back to getting the free samples. Just maybe one nice item in the mail each week, but it’s great. I love the sample antiperspirants; I’ve gotten three lately.