The Simple Life - Day 23

Today was such an easy day.  Woke up, got dressed, attempted to make myself look pretty, then found a corner of the house that didn't look too messy or obnoxious and sat down for an hour Skype interview with a high school in Germany.  Every once in a while I get asked to do an inspirational talk to high school students about life in Hollywood.  Mostly I just talk about staying in school and tell them funny stories from my life.  Its kind of cool, and I'm always amazed by how smart and interested many of the students are, often tossing out ridiculously thought provoking questions.  I'm not exactly sure how I got involved with it, but I've been featured in a Japanese - English textbook (there is a whole chapter devoted to me, with pictures....I still get fan mail from students who are practicing their English) and spoken to students in countries all over the world via Skype.

Interview done.  Must do some shopping for tomorrow night's Holiday Game night that I'm hosting with Joe and Grace.  Since I have a ridiculous budget this month, I've had to be more creative than normal to get supplies.  So today I accepted a Secret Shopping job.  Essentially, I go to an assigned store, take notes, talk to a few sales associates, and have to spend X amount of money.  Great!  Beer, pizza, cookies, shrimp, and a few other random groceries purchased and I only went  $1.83 over budget.  Which means I will get re-imbursed for all my shopping except $1.83.  Party shopping done!

Dinner.  Thanks to secret shopping I have shrimp to use for dinner.  Using what I had in my fridge, I was able to whip up a super easy Fettucini Alfredo with peas and shrimp.  Delicious!  And leftovers for a couple of days!

Finally had to finish up with the holiday stuff.  Again, using what I had around the house: giftwrap = an Ikea curtain that I had planned to donate to Goodwill, gift tags = old postcards, and envelopes for the holiday cards were made out of Japanese fashion magazines.  Creative recycling has been a lot of fun, and something I hope to continue doing throughout the year.

Total spent for the day: $1.83
Total spent for the week: $9.83
Total remaining to spend: $65.17