Ima Saver's Personal Finance Blog

I got my new $1500 tires today. I guess I should get a chair and go sit in the garage and look at them. Isn't that about what those fancy big screen tv's cost?
My husband loves them. Obviously, it is a man thing!!

I have never gone to the grocery store before and gotten everything on sale. I only needed the low carb Hood choc. drink and some sour cream, but I am also stocking up on 4/12 packs of diet sprite for $10, while it was on sale.
Well, the sprite was on sale and so was my low carb drink and sour cream.
On top of that, they gave me a case of disani bottled water for free. That is worth about $5. I am glad the checker knew me (it was self check), I had no idea the water was free. I make my own, but hey, my machine can take a rest. Good deals today!!

My husband just found out about a class reunion about a week ago. Not too organized, they didn't even send our invitations, just called a few people. He graduated in 1969. Why are they having a reunion in 2006? No one seems to know anything, but I guess we are going. It is the first reunion since 1979. I think we are going to be wasting 4 days pay plus expenses going to Fla., but he wants to go. Oh well!! Hope it is not too hot as I cannot stand the heat! That is why we went to visit his Father in Jan. and still wore shorts.

My husband is a builder. Until a few years ago, he only built custom homes. He does all the inside work by himself, the painting, the trim, builds all the cabinets and built ins, rocks the fireplace, lays the tile, does the hardwood flooring, marble, countertops, plumbing, electrical, etc.
He does it all and perfectly!
He build a nice house in 2000 and it costs about $400,000 to build it. ( He made about $35,000 for the year he spent building it, working 7 days a week, even thanksgiving day)
The lot was $60,000, so they had a total of $460,000.
It has just gone on the market for 1.35 million dollars! Wow!!

I just check my mail, nothing good today. I was hoping my new credit card would come. I have to get new tires, they are on order. Guess I will charge them for a month to get the 1% rebate!

I applied for a new GM credit card that will give me back 1% of everything we spend on it.
We already have an american express that does the very same thing, but you get the credit for it, only once a year. If you should mess up and pay late even one time, you lose the entire amount.
Now, I always pay on time, but I can't control the mail, so this kind of worries me. Right now, we have over $500 coming back off this card around August.
This GM card will pay you by check anytime you go over $100 and request a check. I like that better.
My husband charges a lot of building materials at home depot and that is what we used the American Express for. Now, we can switch over to the new GM card and get money back more often. I will add this to my challenge money when I start receiving it.

My Holly almost caught her first squirrel. I let her out to go potty, not knowing there was a squirrel on the deck. It ran up a post, while she stood on her hind legs to look at it.
It finally lept off into the grass and headed toward the creek.
So did Holly!! She disapppeared down the bank towards the creek and scared me to death!!
Holly is a 5 pound little poodle, not much bigger than the squirrel. I don't know what she would have done with the squirrel if she had caught it. I suppose get bitten pretty bad.
Fortunately, my other dog showed up, and Holly went over to brag to her, and I scooped her up. From now on, she wears a leash.

I had a no spend day too. I don't usually have any of those because we eat out every night but Sunday!!
Last night we had to go to a meeting about licensing for builders. The state of Georgia is requiring that, and there is a lot of paperwork to do.It was a good meeting last night, and before it started, they gave us a free meal. It was just sandwiches and brownies, but hey, it was free and pretty good. I don't like to eat that early, but I managed to eat most of a sandwich and had no trouble breaking my diet for the brownie. I got to walk 30 minutes yesterday, so I will add $1 for that and $20 for not eating out to my challenge money!
prev total $5390.00
today 21.00
new total $5411.00

This has been a no spend day today. I only had to go to town to make my payment on a piece of property that we have a mortgage on. I make my payment every 28 days and I have gotten the interest down quite a bit from when I started.
I borrowed almost $65,000 to buy this beautiful mountain view property. This was in Jan., 2005. Today's payment brought my total owed to just under $30,000. I am so happy, I have paid off over $30,000 in 16 months.
We have to attend a builder's meeting at 5:30, so there will be no supper out for us tonight. Guess we will really be saving money. I had better go get a snack, don't want my tummy growling tonight!

I had a good mail day yesterday. I got a new $1 bill with a survey. I also got my electric bill and it was only $80. That is about the lowest it has been all year and they raised the price per kilowatt hour last month.
I did walk for 30 minutes, so I can add that plus my mail $1 for a total of $2 to my challenge money.
prev. total $5388.00
today 2.00
new total $5390.00

I had run out of all the diet sprite I had stocked up on earlier in the year and was paying full price. I was glad to see that it went back on sale 4/$10. I saved $6 today and will add that to my challenge money.
Prev. total $5382.00
today 6.00
new total $5388.00

I have the greatest husband. We have had several medical bills this past month, so dh decided to work 7 days this week to make extra money.
He came home at 5:30 last night, cut the yard (2 acres) and did the weedeating.
After that, he cooked dinner out on the grill and then cleaned up the kitchen.
tonight, he said he would be home early to clean house!! Gotta love that!!

For someone who eats out a lot, I seem to have a lot of trash. The garbage service will only pick up your garbages if it is in trash bags.
I usually bought a small box of trash bags about every two weeks, 10 for $1.89.
I decided to see how much money i could save if I bought the big box for about $5.99. I bought that box and wrote when I started using the first bag, on Feb. 22nd. That is three months ago and I have a few bags left.
So instead of spending almost $4 a month on garbage bags, I am now spending $2 a month, a savings of one half.!!

I don't know what makes my dog so scared of thunder. I shut her up in the garage and right now she is wedged behind the ice maker. I hope she can get out! She is at least 15 years old and does not hear well anymore, so I don't know why she gets so scared.
My little one, Holly, is not scared a bit!

Well ice cream has been the only food that I have really wanted to eat these past 3 days, so i decided to get some when I grocery shopped today.
I am on a low carb diet, so the low carb type ice cream is $5 a gallon. I was thrilled that it was on sale for half price. I got a few other cents off with my advantage card, so I have $3 more dollars to add to my challenge money.

prev. total $5379.00
today 3.00
new total $5382.00

I haven't done anything on my $20 challenge since I got sick a few days ago. Well, I did do my stair challenge yesterday and I stayed home, so no money spent on gas.
I will add $2 to my challenge money.
Prev. total $5377.00
today 2.00
new total $5379.00

I have been taking old food and throwing it out in the yard for critters. I don't know what eats it, but it always seems to disappear. I also put out corn for the deer. A huge bag if only $5 and lasts forever. Makes me feel better about wasting so much bread every week. My husband eats most of the bread, and he won't eat frozen bread at all.
I saw a groundhog while I was out. I forget sometimes how big our yard is til I start walking around it all.

Anybody know why? You are such a bunch of smart people, I thought someone might know! My puppy (she is 6) loves to eat it if I will let her. Today she spit it up when she came inside. (Thank goodness, not on the white carpet)

Well, I can say I am not too fond of being sick, but I did lose 3 pounds. We went out to eat last night and I got chicken fingers. I managed to eat 1/2 of one and that is all. I wish my appetite would stay this way, but of course, it won't.

I am taking medicine and I think it is making me sleepy. I took the phone off the hook and took a nap for about 2 hours! I never do that!!

I was all excited that I had found a new mouthwash that was much cheaper than the one I use. Mine is $2 on sale, usually it is $2.50. This was $1 and I tried it out, not bad!
So I have used up all my mouthwash and went to get some of this new cheap stuff today. There were only 2 bottles left on the shelf and they were 50 cents each. Looks like they are closing out and not going to carry anymore.
I also save $1.50 on my dog's food with a coupon. Rite aid advertised coke products 2/$5 with a coupon, but they had no sprite at all. All in all, I saved about $2.50, so I will add the $2 to my challenge.
Prev. total $5375.00
today 2.00
new total $5377.00

That is what I had, it is the only thing that appeals to me, and I think I will go and eat somemore. Trying to figure out what to order for dinner tonight. My cable has been out all day, so I don't want to sit home!

Well, I was awfully sick yesterday, but I am feeling better today. I threw up, had chills and diarrhea all day.
We stayed home last night, but both headed to the doctor this morning, cause my husband has had this diarrhea for 6 days.
We got in and out of the doctors, picked up our medicine and spent $90.
Gosh it seems like we have spent a lot on medical the past two months. My husband had two eye appt. and dentist appts. too.

Does anybody remember Clarabelle the Clown. He was on the Howdy Doody show that I use to watch. He just died today.

Ok, I caught something from Thrifty Ray!!How do those bugs travel from Oregon to Georgia.
I woke up throwing up, something I have not done in 25 years. I have a stomach ache,chills and diarreah. I have stayed in bed all morning, but I can't stand it anymore.
I have certainly never seen my dog this sick!!
My husband still does not feel well and we are taking him to the doctor tomorrow. Maybe I can sneak in too.

Well, my husband still has a sick tummy, so he just ordered soup for dinner again. I figure that saves me about $5 which I will add to my challenge money today.
The dinner bill came to $10 and the sweet waitress told me I should not tip her so much. ($6) I encourage her to add it to her savings.
Prev. total $5370.00
today 5.00
new total $5375.00

My dh has decided that my car needs new tires, so he ordered them yesterday. Guess the price???

$1500 for a set of 4 tires. I ask if they are gold plated? He says no, they are the same tires that came with the vette, the kind that can never go flat!

Vettes have no spare tire, now I know why. I am still in shock!!

Ok, time to quit feeling sorry for myself and back to the challenge. I had lots of time alone yesterday, so i got in an hour of walking on my treadmill and 15 flights of stairs. I will add $2 to my challenge money.
prev. total $5368.00
today 2.00
new total $5370.00

Someone asked me if I was a buzz agent for a stop smoking product. The answer is no, but what is a buzz agent?
We built a house for two different heavy smokers. They were both on oxygen and could barely walk. They both died before the houses were finished.

To me, mother's day is a sad day. I lost my mother in 1978 and my dh lost his mother in 1992. To the best of my memory, I have never even received a mother's day card. Yesterday, was no exception.