Well, after two days of no heat, the heater kicked on this morning for the first time. We have 70's weather for two days. Now it is down to 28 and the heat is back on, but I know I saved a few dollars. Still have not gotten my propane bill, so I don't know how much it is per gallon.

Ok, I had another no spend day. I did go to town after the storms left the area, but I just did my errands, picked up a check, paid a bill.I have had several no spend days here lately and that amazes me! I use to run to town everyday and I always stopped at the grocery store. I am getting better at this!

I really did!! I have some large tins and I have always used them to save for different goals. Then I put a picture on them to remind me of these goals.
For example, for the past few years, my goal has been to pay off a piece of property that we bought in a small subdivision. It has fantastic views of the mountain. The subdivision was called "The ridge at Owltown"

I took a picture of the view from the property and put it on one of my tins and called it "The Ridge" money. I tried to put something in that tin everyday, even if it was only $1. I thought I had all the money out of the tin, I paid off the ridge almost a year ago.
Today, I was looking around in the cabinet and looked in the tin. 3 $20 bills were in there, so yeah, now they go into the challenge money.
Prev. total $1910.00
today 60.00
new total $1970.00

It hit 75 degrees yesterday. I even put the air on in the car. ( you don't actually put it on, you set the temp. and it comes on when it needs to)
It was much warmer outside than inside of my house, which I keep set at 63 degrees.
So, the heat has not run for the last 24 hours and that helps the budget a bit!

I just figured out that I am losing money by not paying cash for a new car, but not very much a month. Plus, it keeps my husband from wanting a new car every year. We were discussing insurance also and how much young men have to pay for it. When we got our first vette, young men were paying $1200 every 6 months.And this was in 1978. The most I have ever paid is $450 every 6 months! I guess it is my age and the fact that I have never had a ticket or an accident.

I use the Ridge money for my car payment, but there is more in the envelope than I need to pay on the new car. I add the balance to my challenge money every few weeks or so.
Prev. total $1910.00
today 280.00
new total $2190.00

Don't look at the dow today. Bad news for sure!!

I got the propane gas that we use for heating, delivered this morning. I was afraid to even ask how much it is per gallon. When I ordered in Sept., it was $1.79 a gallon, but I know it has gone up. Some of you say you are paying over $3.00 a gallon.
I am only getting 200 gallons this time, but I have 1000 gallon buried tank. I still have 180 gallons left, and I think this will get me thru the rest of the winter. I write this down also, and we seem to be using about 130 gallons a month.
Gosh, I remember when I first moved here, I could heat the whole house for about $300 for the entire winter. That was 12 years ago!

My dh and i were discussing car payments last night. It is the one and only debt that we both do not mind!! I think that is kind of funny that we both agree on that.
I cannot stand to owe money on credit cards or have a mortgage payment, but I am ok on having a car loan. It is sort of like the electric bill, it is just something we have to have!! Cars, they are a pleasure to us and also a necessity.
Unlike a house, where the majority of your payment is interest, I always make sure that the majority of the payment goes to the principal when I buy a car.

I understand that most of you will NOT agree with me, but we are just "car people" Some women have to have their hair done every week. I probably spend less on car interest each month then they do on their hair. Gosh, I have not had my hair "done" in over 40 years!! I wear it long and straight!! (and blond)
Instead, we indulge in cars!!

Well my car is fixed. It seems that someone left out a bolt when the car was put back together in Florida. You may recall that my car just stopped when i went to Fla. for my class reunion. It turned out that the fuel pump just quit working and the entire car had to be taken apart.
Apparently when they put the car back together, he forgot to bolt the shifter cable back on or something like that!! Anyway, it is fixed and ready to come home and go back in the garage with Ole yellar!! I miss that car!!

I drove ole yellar to the bank today. The car has 1200 miles on it now and it is only the 3rd time i have driven it. Too bad it was raining and I got it dirty. Today is payday.
I love payday, coming home and putting money in all the envelopes! Now, I have to get ready for bridge, so it should be another no spend day like yesterday!!

Well, I had a no spend, no use gas day yesterday. I also walked a mile. So, I am adding $3 to the challenge money.

Prev. total $1907.00
today 3.00
new total $1910.00

Woke up to a rainy day today. Actually, that is good cause Georgia has been having a drought! Finally, the creek is starting to look good again!

My husband is building a big fancy house for a lady who is going to sell it. (spec house) She has hired a young man to make videos of it, while it is being built. Yesterday, he came over and had my husband talk on the video. I left them alone while they did it, but I know my dh was nervous. It took them almost an hour to make a 3 minute video.
Next time, dh wants me to do the talking. I think this is really neat!! I hope it helps sell the house, cause NOTHING is selling around here at all!!

I did my net worth for the month of January. I knew it would go down because of the stock market, but it was not as bad as I thought. Because I was good in saving, my net worth only declined by $6000. Not too bad, better than I thought!

Ileft the house early this morning to go and start on my errands! I needed to go to two banks, a drug for prescription and another drug store that had "kissables" on sale. (we eat those for a bridge snack every week)
First, I took back a $4 carton of cottage cheese that I just bought last week. My dh opened to take for lunch and he said it was black inside.
So,I am happy that I got my money back, but when I came outside, I started my car and there was something wrong with the shifter!! I could not get the car to do anything but roll backwards.
Apparently something broke on the shifter, so we had to get it towed to the chevy place in north Carolina.

My dh brought me home and I took out the nvew yellow vette for only the 2nd time since we got it!

Errands are done, now I just want to get warm again!!

I really expected last month's electric bill to be higher. We had a christmas party, so we had a big tree. Then my dh really put up a lot of christmas lights outside and we burned them every night up and including New Year's eve.
I was surprised when the bill came to less than $100. Since I budget $160, that gives me $60 left to add to my challenge money.
Prev. total $1847.00
today 60.00
new total $1907.00

Hmm, 1907. That was the year my mother was born!! A very long time ago.

The stock market went up two days in a row! Of course, no way did it make up for how much it went down the month of january. I figure that my mutual funds are down by about $30,000 for the month. However, I can add $2 to my challenge money for the two UP days.
Prev. total $1845.00
today 2.00
new total $1847.00

I just totaled the interest that I earned for the month of January 2008. It came to $2012.88. It would be nice if this amount would go up every month since I have not been using any of the money. Unfortunately, with rates going down, my interest payment will be lower too.
Next I am going to work on my net worth, which will be lower also. My mutual funds really went down last month.

I check my accounts at the bank almost daily. I had two accounts (money market) at the same bank. When i opened these accounts, they were paying 5.25% for amounts over $50,000. This has gone on for over a year. In October, the rate fell to 4.75% and has been declining ever since. For the past month or so, the rate has been 3.44%. I checked today and the rate has fallen to 2.96%
My gosh, what are us savers supposed to do?? My goal was someday to earn enough interest to live on!! That is never going to happen at less than 3% interest being paid!

I took in all my change this morning. I try and take it in once a month. So, I now have $42 to add to my challenge money.
Prev. total $1803.00
today 42.00
new total $1845.00

I ordered 2 checks from my Chase Reward Master Card last week. That makes a total of 3 $50 checks that I received from Chase during the month of January. So I now have 2 more $50 checks to add to the challenge.
My dh uses that master card at Home Depot and Lowes to buy plumbing and electrical supplies for the house that he is building. Keep on charging, I love those Reward checks!!!!!!!
Prev. total $1703.00
today 100.00
new total $1803.00

Gosh, I am glad the month of January is over. It seems like such a dreary month. Plus, at least one month of winter is past and spring is a little bit closer. (my favorite season)
February is the month for my husband and my oldest granddaughter"s birthdays. It does not seem possible that she is turning 19 already. My how time flies!