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Archive for October, 2010

Halloween is my favorite too!

October 31st, 2010 at 10:05 pm

I love dressing up for Halloween. Sometimes we dress up for parties, other times, we just dress up for Halloween and go out to eat.
Our little town has a big Halloween thing going down on the square (which is round) on Halloween.
Some good friends of ours usually have a party for Halloween. Last year, my dh won first prize. Year before that, I won 2nd prize. The year before that, dh won first prize again.
There was no party this year because of health reasons, so for the first time in years, we are staying home to pass out candy!

I saved $3 on Halloween candy on sale plus yesterday was a no use gas day, so I have $5 to add to my challenge money.

Prev. total $15,127.00
today 5.00
new total $15,132.00

I forgot about my check this week!

October 30th, 2010 at 05:47 pm

Because of my little Holly's unplanned surgery this week, I forgot all about my monthly check that comes the 4th Wednesday of the week. Since I never spend any of it, I always add it to my challenge money.
(BTW, Holly is doing fine, but refusing to eat anything but people food since she is sick.)

Prev. total $14,641.00
today 486.00
new total $15,127.00

New pet bed for 1/2 price!

October 29th, 2010 at 06:25 pm

i was able to get a new pet bed for Molly today, for 1/2 price. Molly is my younger dog. She is a Malta poo. (her mother was pure bred poodle (black) and her father was pure bred maltese (white) She is all white. Even tho she is a year and a half old, I still call her a puppy. She sure acts like one.

She has ruined her last two beds by pulling all the stuffing out of them. So, I am going to try again with a brand new bed, hoping she will leave this one alone. The beds usually run $10 but I got it for $5.
I will take the $5 I saved plus a $3 pinecone check to add to my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $14,633.00
today 8.00
new total $14,641.00

Holly is home!

October 27th, 2010 at 06:27 pm

I picked up Holly this morning. She had emergency surgery late yesterday afternoon. She had pyometra. That is an infected uterus. It is often fatal so I was quite lucky that I had taken her into the vet for an unrelated problem.
The vet did some blood work for an uncoming surgery (to remove a turmor) and discovered a problem, The x ray showed the problem with the uterus. The vet reccommended immediate surgery and when they touched the uterus, it exploded. She probably would not have lived much longer than a day or two.
This was a new vet that I tried and she will certainly become my all time vet.
I do reccomend when you get a new puppy, get her spayed to prevent this problem. Holly was so little, I was afraid to have it done. I do regret that.
So, it was a very expensive day for me, but so worth it. Holly is worth a million dollars to us.
She is home now, resting and so far, so good!

I did come in under budget on my electric bill, so I have $40 to add to the challenge.

Prev. total $14,593.00
today 40.00
new total $14,633.00

My baby is having emergency surgery today!

October 26th, 2010 at 09:37 pm

I took my little Holly (poodle) to a new vet today. She has had problems for years with a "sick tummy"
I got some new food and medicine for her tummy. But, while doing some blood work and an x ray, they discovered fluid leaking from her uterus inside of her. Believing it to be very dangerous, they reccommended emergency surgery and are doing it after the office closes. Please keep Holly in your thoughts!

It's beginning to look a lot like.........

October 25th, 2010 at 08:07 pm

Christmas. Yes, just two months from day!! Dh and I only buy for each other and I give the grandchildren cash to buy what they want.
I finally got the first gift for DH. It is two tee shirts with pictures of his beloved cars on the front of them. I call it "three vettes and a vicky" (Ford Victoria, 1933)

We had a grest weekend. On Saturday, we went to a big bar b que for over 700 people. This one couple has been throwing this party in October, for 29 straight years.

That night, we went to a mexican themed party with a full supper served and even live music.

I have been getting behind of the challenge, but I know I had 3 no use gas days last week, so that is $6 more to add to the challenge.

Prev. total $14,587.00
today 6.00
new total $14,593.00

BIL is broke!

October 20th, 2010 at 07:48 pm

My dh went to visit his father in florida last week. He came home with some unusual news. BIL is now broke! (That would be his younger brother)
BIL started a very sucessful business about 30 years ago. He made great money and had about 12 employees.

He and his wife built a new house on the lake. They bought vacant lots on the lake. His wife and oldest daughter went into their hobby with a passion, horses! They acquired 6 of them, along with all the trailers used to haul them to horse shows and the heavy trucks required to pull the trailers. They bought vehicle after vehicle and went on costly vacations constantly.

Now, that things have slowed down in the economy, his work has slowed down too. He has no employees. He admitted to his father that they are broke, have 3 car payments and are $50,000 in credit card debt.

Not that we have ever counted on getting anything from my FIL when he passes on, but dh was surprised to find that he has been written out of the will and everything will go to the broke son, because "he needs it". I am sure that has hurt his feelings and I feel so sorry for him.

I saved $9 today using my bi lo bonus card today and of course, they will be added to the $20 challenge.

Prev. total $14,578.00
today 9.00
new total $14,587.00

Alone!!

October 15th, 2010 at 03:52 pm

For the first time in about 20 years, I am home alone.
Dh left early (6 am) this morning to go and visit his father in Florida. Today is his 89th birthday.
We have never traveled with 2 dogs in a corvette, so I decided that I would stay home. The older dog, Holly has traveled a lot, but the puppy, Molly has not.
Plus, my FIL and his girlfriend now have a new dog, so I think 3 dogs together would be too much!!

So, I am all alone here with my two little buddies!They are very good for protection too. You can rest assure that Molly won't let a squirrel get within 4 feet of this house.

I have not kept up with the stock market this week; the braves are no longer playing, but I did have a no use gas day this week, so I will add $2 to my challenge. (Ugh, gas is now $3.05 a gallon here. I use premium and need to fill up today.)

Prev. bal. $14,576.00
today 2.00
new total $14,578.00

Clean Money!!

October 14th, 2010 at 04:26 pm

My dh is planning on taking a trip and he asked me to wash some clothes he had not worn in a while. While unloading the dryer last night, I came across 7 , well washed and dried, bills. Two 5 dollar bills and 5 $1 bills, for a total of $15!! Finders , Keepers! I will add that to my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $14,561.00
today 15.00
new total $14,576.00

Last check from MYsurvey!

October 12th, 2010 at 10:34 pm

I received my last $10 check from nfo mysurvey today. As I mentioned in an earlier post, you have to earn 1000 points in order to receive a check. The survey company has lowered the points they give you for taking a survey from 10 points to 5. In some cases, they ask you to take the survey for NO points!
I also did not like the fact that this time, they charged me 150 points ( $1.50) for sending me a check.

So, I am happy to get my final checkand add it to my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $14,551.00
today 10.00
new total $14,561.00

Clean windows!!

October 9th, 2010 at 08:51 pm

One plus to my husband not having much work (or a house to build)is that he is keeping up with our house. He does have some part time jobs, but he can't work on them til next week.
Today, he was home most of the day so he washed all of the windows. We have lots and lots of really big windows in our house, so he stayed busy all day. The house looks really good now.

I had a no use gas day and the braves won, so $3 will be added to my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $14,548.00
today 3.00
new total $14,551.00

subdivision sign

October 7th, 2010 at 10:22 pm

We live in a beautiful subdivision. There are only about 20 houses here. We have lived here (in this house) for 15 years, but our subdivision has never had a sign, with it's name on it.
Finally, a couple of the people close to the entrance of the subdivision had a nice big sign made. Today, they asked dh if he could put the sign up. He was very happy to do it and the sign really looks good in front of the stone gate entrance. Now, we are finally ON the map!!

I love those bonus points!!

October 7th, 2010 at 08:15 pm

We have a chase business master card. They pay us points back for every $1 spent. We get 3% back for home improvement purchases and my dh is a builder! They just offered me an extra 1000 points back for every $500 purchase. The points are redeemed for cash money!! So, I signed up for it.
I think I will pay the hosptial bills with myChase card to earn the bonus points. Of course, I will pay off the balance in full every month so I do NOT pay any interest.

Good Monday!

October 5th, 2010 at 02:48 pm

I had a very good day yesterday. Not only did I play bridge, one of my favorite things to do, but I also received 3 checks in the mail.
Two of the checks were payment on the two personal loans I made to a couple. I count the interest on this every month towards my $20 challenge. The amount of interest this month was $174.
I also received a rebate of $540 from a building supply company.
The total of $714 will be added to my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $13,834.00
today 714.00
new total $14,548.00

NFOmysurvey

October 3rd, 2010 at 04:05 pm

I do surveys for two places, pinecone, which most of you know about and NFOmysurvey.
I am happy with Pinecone but not with NFO my survey anymore.
Normally, NFO will send me a short survey (under 5 minutes) and I will receive 10 points for it. To get a check for $10, you have to accumulate 1000 points. You can get 150 points for referring someone who becomes a member. Sometimes you will get much longer surveys that will pay hundreds of points.
Lately, the surveys I have been getting, are only paying 5 points each. You know how many surveys you have to do to get to 1000 points? Way too many!

I have also been receiving surveys for NO points. Instead they enter your name in a contest. I don't do those surveys at all.

I have decided to stop doing these surveys as soon as I accumulated my next 1000 points. I had 765 points as of yesterday. I got another survey for 5 points and after I took it, they offered me a survey about financial products that paid 400 points. I jumped on it.

The survey took about 40 minutes and as soon as I finished, I redeemed my points.

Has anyone else stopped doing the surveys because of the low points awarded??

Today, we are going to a wine tasting party hosted by our local Humane Society. It is a bit expensive at $60 a couple, but I feel like our Humane Society is a very worthy cause. It is a no kill shelter and I support them as often as I can.

Extra blanket

October 2nd, 2010 at 05:05 pm

I had to put an extra blanket on the bed last night. I don't know how cold it was, but it was in the 40's outside when I got up They are calling for it to get down to 36 by Tuesday.
So far, the heat is still off. I spent almost $1100 filling the propane tank up. Last year was a cold winter and the full tank did not last the entire winter. I hope it is warmer this year. We have a 1000 gallon tank.This year the propane was $1.59 a gallon, a good bit cheaper than last year and the year before.
I have $5 to put into my $20 challenge.

Prev. total $13,829.00
today 5.00
new total $13,834.00

Happy October 1!!

October 1st, 2010 at 09:57 pm

I always look forward to the being of fall and of spring. (especially spring) For a few weeks, we don't have to run the heat or the air conditioning. I did have to put a sweater on in the house today.

I had planned a no use gas day yesterday until I got a phone call. It seem's like the wife of our "plumber" had lost the paycheck I had given him. I had to run down to the bank and put a stop payment on it.
She found the check last night, but that was too late. I have already been charged a $32 stop payment charge. I will have to take that off of the new check.
DH has worked a few days this week painting at a house he built several years ago. This week, will be our first paycheck that will have to come out of our savings. We are still discussing building a new spec house.