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Archive for September, 2007

Did a good deed for today.

September 30th, 2007 at 10:20 pm

Well, my husband did. He went and put a built in heater in the bathroom wall of an 84 year old lady. Hers had not worked for a while and she wanted a new one. I say good deed, cause he did not charge her anything.
She is kind of all her own and I am amazed at the things she can still do on her own.
Holly and i went along for a visit, but other than that, I had a no spend day.
I am even fixing supper tonight, dh had a craving for meatloaf, so meatloaf it is!

A few dollars for the challenge

September 29th, 2007 at 07:03 pm

Well, I haven't added any money to the challenge in a few days. The braves only have 2 more games to play, so that is coming to an end tomorrow night.
But they did win last night and I walked a mile, so I have $2 to add to the challenge.
I also sent off $3000 to open a money market account with Vanguard. They are still paying about 5%, so i will send some money there out of my local bank which has lowered its rate to 4.75%
Prev. total $21,079.00
today 2.00
new total $21,081.00

Finance class

September 27th, 2007 at 09:18 pm

I take a local finance class every thursday and I really enjoy it. There a very few people in the class and i wonder why? Of course, it is taught by a young man from Edward Jones and all they sell is load funds. I have all my mutual fund money in no load funds.

The stock market has gone up two days in a row, so I will add $2 to my challenge account.
Prev. total $21,077.00
today 2.00
new total $21,079.00

Last big electric bill

September 26th, 2007 at 03:43 pm

This should be my last big electric bill for the year. August is usually the hottest month. I was surprised to see that this bill was a few cents lower than last months. I budget $160 a month because that is the highest bill I have ever gotten since living in this house for 11 years. This month's bill was under $117 which is not bad. I have a really big house plus 2-2 car garages, one with an eff. apt. above it.
My envelope with the electic money has kind of built up and I have $120 left over in it to add to the challenge.
also, the stock market was up and the braves won, so I will add $122 to my challenge money.
Prev. total $20,955.00
today 122.00
new total $21,077.00

Home depot check came

September 25th, 2007 at 05:18 pm

My home depot check was waiting for me when I got home yesterday. The company made an offer to buy back the shares. I have not been happy with the store and the service for a long time, so I decided I did not want to own the stock any longer. I am going down to the bank and put the money in my money market account. Then I think I will dollar cost average it into my vanguard star fund.

Will you leave your money to someone who is not "good" with money?

September 24th, 2007 at 04:35 pm

I have been wondering what others think about leaving their money to someone in the family who just squanders their money and is not a saver.
I have seen it happen. I know one 20 year old who got a lot of money from her grandfather's passing and blew it all in less than a year.
And she had nothing to show for it.

I am thinking about my FIL. He is giving his house to his three sons. It will be sold and 2 of the sons will squander the money in less than a month.

I am not leaving anything to my adopted daughter. She has had 38 years to get her act together and it just is not happening. She is still on the "system", does not work and only gets in touch with me when she wants more money.

I honestly want to leave my money to people that will take care of the money and put it to good use.

What are you going to do?

Yesterday, I saved $4 at bilo buying meat on sale and the braves won, so that is $5 more to add to the challenge.
Prev. total $20,950.00
today 5.00
new total $20,955.00

ok, back to saving!

September 23rd, 2007 at 01:49 pm

Well I need to get back into my savings mode. DH and I discussed our situation and we are just not going to automatically offer to pay for the whole roof. At first, we are going to offer to pay for just 1/3 and ask them to get loans. If they don't want to, we are going to ask that either we quit claim our share of the house to them or them to us. We don't care. We just want to be out of the mess.
We can't take care of a house that is 600 miles away.
Plus, things are really slowing down here and who knows how much longer we will have work to support ourselves.

So, I have my term insurance money to add to the challenge today, plus I walked 2 miles and the braves won on Friday (I forgot to check on Sat.)but I will assume that they did and add $55 to my challenge money.
Prev. total $20,895.00
today 55.00
new total $20,950.00

ps, the braves won, so I won't take the dollar back!!

Depressed

September 22nd, 2007 at 01:54 pm

Depressed, yes that is how I am feeling this morning. I am not the type of person who feels depressed very often.
I did not have a perfect life, but who does? I am so grateful for all the wonderful things that I have in my life.

So, I hope some of you can send me some cherry thoughts.

When we got home last night there was a call on the answer machine from FIL.

Of course, my dh called him right back. It seems that his house has a bad leak and he needs a whole new roof, not just new shingles. It will cost $12,000.

Of course, he does not have the money. (I don't know why, they have been toHawaii 4 times the past 6 years)

DH has 2 younger brothers, but the youngest is a real bum and probably does not have $50.
The other brother has his own tile business, lives in a lake front house, has lots of big vehicles, owns 5 horses and vacations all the time.

Ok, my dh said he would give his father half the money for the roof. FIL says no way does son #2 have the money for half. Dh has to pay for the entire new roof.

There is no way FIL can ever pay us back. He is 85 and he and his girlfriend live on social security only.

So, I am depressed that I work to save so hard and now I have to basically give away $12,000 to people that don't try to save anything.

I know you all probably will understand. We clip coupons, take surveys, do anything we can to save a few dollars. To give our money to a good cause makes us happy, but to give it away to people who squander their money everyday on lottery tickets and cruises makes me feel depressed.

I know, I will get over it and I should just be happy that I have the money to give!

Grrr, interest rates down!!

September 21st, 2007 at 09:33 pm

I just checked my money market accounts and they have changed the interest they are paying. I have been getting 5.25% in my local bank for over the past year and I noticed that they lowered the rate to 4.64% durn, I was having fun watching that interest add up.

Rent is so high!!

September 21st, 2007 at 06:20 pm

I was looking at the paper and all of the homes for rent. I had no idea that rent was so high. Most homes were renting for $1000 in this area. How do people afford this?
That is $12,000 a year. The most I ever earned in my life was about $8300 a year. I guess if I was single today, I would be homeless.
I feel so sorry for people who are working minimum wage jobs.

3 games in a row

September 20th, 2007 at 08:06 pm

That is what the braves have done, won 3 games in a row, so i owe $3 to the challenge. The stock market went up 2 days in a row, so that is another $2 to add. I also got a $5 pinecone check in the mail, so there is $10 more going into my challenge account.
Prev.total $20,885.00
today 10.00
new total $20,895.00

Free dinner out!

September 19th, 2007 at 11:37 pm

We went out for dinner last night. We talked to a young man we have been trying to help with a problem. (He bought a very poorly constructed house)
When we got up to pay for dinner, we discovered that he had paid for our dinner which was very nice.
I will add that $20 saved to my challenge money.
Prev. total $20,865.00
today 20.00
new total $20,885.00

Expert witness

September 19th, 2007 at 07:34 pm

We went to court today. It was small claims court, but you can sue for up to $15,000. My husband was an expert witness because he is a licensed builder and has been for over 20 years.
I went along for moral support cause he gets so nervous.
This was not the first time he has gotten called to be an expert witness but we hope it will be the last.
Sadly, this house was built by a first time, unlicensed builder and the house was caving in. There was nothing supporting two of the main walls in the house. The whole house was sagging.
The owners paid $400,000 for the house about 2 years ago.
Please be careful when you buy a house. Get to know the builder and his reputation. None of the builder's in our area are licensed because it was not required, so my dh got licensed in No.Carolina which is only 10 miles away. A Licensed builder had to build by southern standard building code and must have the assets to be sued.

I physically save

September 18th, 2007 at 06:04 pm

Someone asked me if I just save money on paper for the $20 challenge, or physically put the money away.
Everytime I blog about the $20 challenge I have the money, bills or checks, sitting right next to me.
When I finish my blog, I immediately go and put the cash/checks into a money box I keep in this room.
Once or twice a month, I take that money to the bank and put it in my money market account to earn 5.25% interest. I keep track of the amount on paper.
Today is one of those days. Got to go and get the money in the bank before 2 pm. bye!!

Catching up

September 18th, 2007 at 03:12 pm

When I did my budget last night, i realized that I had not added my ridge money to the challenge last week. So today, I will add my ridge money for both weeks ($165 a week) plus, I walked a mile and the braves won their past two games. That is a total of $333 to add to my challenge money.
Prev. total $20,532.00
today 333.00
new total $20,865.00

O.J.

September 17th, 2007 at 02:51 pm

Gosh he is going to be in the news again for the next year?? What do you all think about him??

A nip in the air!!

September 16th, 2007 at 07:10 pm

Last night and this morning, there was a nip in the air, a bit of coolness. It was about 52 degrees when I got up in the morning. I love the weather when it is like this.
Of course, the electric company probably doesn't. I will have at least a month (I hope) of this cool weather, which means no a/c or heat probably. The a/c has not run yet today, not even upstairs where it gets so hot.
I should have a decent electric bill next month. This month should be my highest of the year.
I went to the grocery store this morning to buy something for dinner and saved $4 on steak. I will add that to my challenge money.
Prev. total $20,528.00
today 4.00
new total $20,532.00

Back to the $20 challenge

September 15th, 2007 at 08:50 pm

I haven't put anything in my challenge money for a couple of days, but the braves shocked me by coming back to win their game in the 13th inning last night. Also, the stock market was up for two days in a row.
I also received at $22 check from state Farm. I had received 2 checks earlier for the vette and the van, but did not think I would get anything for the other two because they are classified antiques,but I got a check on the 33 ford victoria . So that is $25 to add to my challenge money.
Prev. total $20,503.00
today 25.00
new total $20,528.00

Ordered a new dishwasher

September 15th, 2007 at 03:44 pm

We ordered a new dishwasher today. That will be an additional $600 besides the almost $400 we shelled out yesterday trying to get the old one fixed. This is certainly not in our budget and will have to come out of savings.
I have decided I will never have any appliance repaired again. Out it goes next time!!

$380 and i don't feel so lucky

September 14th, 2007 at 08:35 pm

The bill for repairs on my dishwasher and ice maker came to $380.00
The bad thing is, the dishwasher is not fixed at all and will have to be repaired.
I just came home from a very long 3 hour lunch and after 4 hours, I do not have one piece of ice.
So I paid $380 for absolutely nothing. I am going to try not to let that ruin my day!
I did have a lot of fun at lunch and met two new nice ladies!

He doesn't know what is wrong

September 14th, 2007 at 03:50 pm

After working on my dishwasher for an hour and a half, the repairman has decided he does not know what is wrong. The switch that we waited on for 3 weeks has already been installed and has blown the minute we turned the dishwasher on.
His advice was to buy a new dishwasher.
I said that a month ago.
This has been a very annoying morning! I was looking forward to a pleasant lunch out at the local park with friends I met on my local forum. I sure hope I can still make it.
The next step is that the repairman is going to try and fix the icemaker.

repairman

September 14th, 2007 at 02:41 pm

The repairman is here right now. He is working on my dishwasher and my stand alone ice maker. It has been 3 weeks since he first came; he has been waiting on the parts to come in.
I wonder what this is going to cost me? If I get by with less than a $500 bill, I will consider myself lucky!

Disagreed with the teacher

September 13th, 2007 at 08:51 pm

I went to my finance class today. He was discussing money market accounts and made the statement that they were NOT fdic insured.

I told him that my money market accounts at the local banks were all fdic insured.
I think what he meant is that money market mutual funds are not fdic insured and they are not.
But I guess he really thought that ALL money market accounts were not fdic insured.

Classes today

September 13th, 2007 at 01:26 pm

I will be in class most of the day today. We have a talk across the table bridge class this morning. I really love to play bridge, but some of the people really should not be in this class. They belong in beginner's class. When you get stuck with a person like that all morning, it is not much fun.
My second class is about finance. I enjoyed the first class.
I feel sorry for the teacher. Only 4 people signed up for the class and he advertised in the paper too.
No one is interested in finances. I don't have one single friend that I know that is interested in how to manage their money.
I guess that is why they don't have any money!

Money for the challenge

September 12th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

The stock market finished UP on Monday and Tuesday; the braves won last night and I walked a mile on my treadmill yesterday. That is $4 more to add to the $20 challenge.
Prev. total $20,499.00
today 4.00
new total $20,503.00

Selling home depot!!

September 12th, 2007 at 04:26 pm

I just got a call from my broker. He is sending me a check for my shares of home depot.
Several weeks ago I got a letter from Home depot asking if I wanted to sell my shares for $37. They are buying back their own stock.
I am a buy and hold person, but I have not been happy with the service in the Home Depot store that we visit in our home town. The last time i took something back, there was one register open, the return register. So if you were buying or returning, everyone had to stand in the same long line. There are hundreds of cars in the parking lot, but only one register open.
My dh goes there everyday and it is so frustrating to him.
I loved home depot many years ago; the service was great. Now it is not.
I bought my stock in the 90's, so I will make a profit on it, thank goodness.
Plus, I am getting $37 a share and right now it is selling for $34 a share.
I think I will put the money in my Vanguard Star fund.

Adding up the change

September 11th, 2007 at 08:16 pm

I took all of my change to the bank today. I also took all the change that has been sitting on my husband's dash in his van.
He did not want to donate it to the challenge, so I am giving it back to him.
I had $40 in change, he had $12.
I also stopped and bought his prilosec for $6 less than usual, cause it was $2 off and I had a $4 off coupon.
That is $46 that I can add to my challenge money today.

Prev. total $20,453.00
today 46.00
new total $20,499.00

9-11

September 11th, 2007 at 02:24 pm

Please take a moment to think about those who died on September 11, 2001. That was 6 years ago today. I am sure you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the terrible news.

$108 to the dentist

September 11th, 2007 at 02:20 pm

My husband went to the dentist yesterday. The bill was $108 for cleaning his teeth. I have a medical savings in my checking account to pay for anything medical for us, including the dog. I try to put away $100 a week into this account, but when there is a smaller paycheck (like this week) that account does not always get funded. DH took off 3 days this week to go to Gatlinburg and being self employed, he never gets a paid day off.

Bridge day

September 10th, 2007 at 05:41 pm

Today is bridge day at my house, so I have been quite busy. I did get to the bank and the grocery store for some bread and deli ham. I did my budget when I got home and discovered that I need to add my Ridge money to the challenge, plus the $1 I saved with my store card.
Prev. total $20,287.00
today 166.00
new total $20,453.00


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