Ima Saver's Personal Finance Blog

Last week, a young man from this are went on a short hike on the applachian trail. (which runs thru out county) When he did not get back by dark, emergency personel was called. His car was in the parking lot of the trailhead.
An 18 month old bloodhound named Lacey and her trainer were called out to help. They got the young man's car unlocked and Lacey got a good whiff on his shoes. There were 3 trailheads to chose from, and Lacey headed down the middle one. The weather was in the 20's with a 15 mph wind blowing. Everyone was very worried because the young man had on only a light jacket and a pair of shorts.
Within an hour, Lacey found the young man (and his dog). His body temperature had already dropped dangerously low, but thanks to Lacey, they will both be ok. I hope the young man realized how lucky he was.
Thank you Lacey, you are a great dog! We are all very proud of you!!

It was an interesting stock market day. First the market was way up, then way down and it finally settled to just down a little bit! Lets hope tomorrow is an up day.

$20 challenge

Prev. total $2352.00
today 20.00
new total $2372.00

My husband had to go to the dentist last week (oral surgeon) to have a tooth pulled. They quoted us $700 for the tooth (plus $221 for the consulation), but if we paid cash, they would knock off 10% ($70) No checks, just cash money.
Of course, to save $70, we did pay cash. Has anyone else heard of this ?

$20 challenge

Prev. total $2331.00
today 6.00
new total $2337.00

I opened up a new account at GE capital bank this week. They are paying 1.05% on savings accounts.

My local bank is paying me 1.25% on a money market, but that rate will end on Feb. 20th and I do not see anything even close here locally.
I also opened a Mysaving direct account at Emigrant Bank online. They also are payaing 1.05%.
I guess I will transfer some money into both of the new accounts when my local account matures. I have to keep quite a bit of cash on hand to fund the new houses we are building. I sure wish rates would go up!!

Today is Elvis' 80th birthday. It is hard to believe that he has been gone that long. But I listen to his records a lot; the radio station in my car is set on the elvis station.
Update on the $20 challenge:

Prev. total $2317.00
today 7.00
new total $2324.00

I am trying to open a new savings account at GE Capital Bank and link it to my local checking account. But, My computer still won't let me into see my accounts at my local bank. That is frustrating. It keeps saying that the internet can't find my bank, Community and Southern bank.

I said I am going to do better this year to include my Ingles advantage card savings when I use the card. Last night, we went grocery shopping and I saved $9 using my card. It is added to the $20 challenge.

Prev. total $2300.00
today 9.00
new total $2309.00

I am posting the last of the interest that I earned for the month of Dec. (or the 4th quarter with my credit union). It was $221 for two accounts. I had an introductary rate of 1% on one account that ended Dec. 20th and I am still getting 1.25% on another account that does not end until Feb.20th. I will probably close the first account and look around for an account locally that pays better. I will add this interest to my $20 challege.
I am feeling frustrated because I cannot go online to check out my local accounts at Community & Southern Bank and I don't know why?
Right now, I am keeping track of my accounts by telephone, but I would rather use the computer to see what is going on. Any suggestions?

Prev. total $2947,oo
today 221,00
new total $2268.00

A good question to start off 2015. What was the best day of your life? Why??

Mine was May 13th, 1977.
That is the day I got married to my wonderful husband. We had a small wedding at my house and then on a cruise for our honeymoon. I even learned how to eat left handed so we could hold hands while we ate our meals. We are still holding hands.

I am adding my capital one interest to my $20 challenge. This week, I withdrew most of my money from Capital One. I feel badly about that because I have been with them for a long time. I started with an ING account back in 2004, before capital one bought them out.
Their rate have not been very good. I was only earning .0075 on my savings account; even less on my checking account. I switched most of the money to Mysavingsdirect, which is at Emigrant bank. They are paying 1.05% now. I wish the good old days of 5% interest would come back. I earned $9 in interest this month. I am still leaving a small balance at Capital One.

Prev. total $2029.00
today 9.00
new total $2038.00

I begin my new year with a great start to the $20 challenge. Quarterly, I receive my interest from melrose credit union. I am rceiving 2.9 and 2.8% interest on my two c.d.'s.
This Jan. 1st, the total interest came to $2007 which I will add to the challenge I started yesterday, a day early!(since I reached my goal of $20,000 on Dec. 30th.)

Prev. total $ 22.00
today 2007.00
new total $2029.00
($2007 was my total interest for oct. nov. and dec.)

Looks like we will be just staying home this year! I hope you all have fun and drive safely!

I did not do a very good job this year adding in my Ingles advantage card savings. This year I vow to do a better job. I am already starting my new $20 challenge since I hit my goal of $20,000 yesterday.
Advantage savings today was $7.

Prev. total $ 6.00
today 7.00
new total $ 13.00 (my lucky number)

Yes, I met my $20 challenge this year of $20,000 with just one day to spare! So I will start over tomorrow (new year's eve) and shot for $20,000 again next year!

Prev. total $19,991.00
today 12.00
new total $20,003.00

Happy New Year!

I have a framed picture in y breakfast room. It is a picture of a couple of cute dogs and the caption reads:

Acquiring a dog
may be the only opportunity
a human ever has
to chose a relative.

I guess I have been pretty luck so far. I was born, younges child in the family, youngest grandchild, youngest niece, etc. At an early age, I lost my father and all 4 of my grandparents. Later, I lost my mother, all my aunts and uncles, my sister and all my cousins!

I have had several chances to acquire a wonderful, furry (dog) relative; my nicky, dixie, dusty, nicky II,lucy and my little holly.
Now, I have my beautiful, sweet Molly and my bossy little Abbey. What a wonderful family I have to start the new year with!! (My SA family too)

WE had a quiet christmas day. We pened gifts in the morning, the dh made home made soup while I made (and ate) sugar cookies. I love sweet things.
No company, it was just alone with our little girls, Molly and Abbey! We watched the Christmas Story all day too and dh managed to wash and detail both of the corvettes. I managed to add some money to the $20 challenge.

Prev. total $19,968.00
today 6.00
new total $19,974.00

Can you believe we are so close to our $20,000 goal?

My girlfriend is hosting christmas eve dinner tonight. She is calling it "the orphans dinner"
There will be a total of 8 of us and all of us have lost our parents. (except my husband)
We also have no other family. The others have no children and my only daughter died in 2013.
So, I think it is very nice of her and her husband to have all of us together on Christmas eve.
She is serving prime rib and is worried about how it will turn out!
I don't care if we were just having soup, it will be nice to be all together. I am so lucky to have my wonderful husband!!!!
Merry Christmas!!

I got a capital one check in the mail today, for a rebate of 1 1/2% on all my credit charges. We also have a chase credit card that pays 3% back on home improvement shopping. Since my husband is a builder, we use that one a lot, but it is nice to get something back on regular shopping. Of course, I pay it off each month. As a matter of fact, I put the money in an envelope everytime I pay something.

Prev. total $19,412.00
today 22.00
new total $19,434.00

It was about time to empty the change jar, so I took in the change on Friday and received $44, which I am adding to the challenge.

Prev. total 19,337.00
today 44.00
new total 19.381.00

It is hard to believe that christmas will be here in just a few days. We have our tree up and a few presents for each other, but that is about it. I send checks to my grandchildren and great granddaughter.

Qualcomm paid me a dividend of $89 yesterday. That will be added to my $20 challenge m oney.

Prev. total $19,248.00
today 89.00
new total $19,337.00

I just opened a savings account at MYSavingsDirect, a division of Emigrant Bank. They are offering 1.05% interest on savings accounts and my local savings account that offers 1% interest is going to run out next saturday. The term was only good for 6 months.
Does anyone else have an account with MySavingsDirect?

I have not met either one of my goals this year, but I have come close. I wanted to save $20,000 in the $20 challenge and $7000 in mutual funds. So far, I have saved $6200 in my mutual funds and the $20 challenge stands at $19,199.00. All in all, I am pleased.

Molly, my little malti-poo has not been acting herself lately. We took her to the vet and the vet determined that her neck was out of joint. She corrected the problem and now Molly is acting more like her old self. We are so happy to have her feeling good again. It is like a wonderful Christmas present to us! We can't stand it when our little girls, Molly and Abbey, are not feeling well.

I did my grocery shopping today at Ingles and saved &8 using my advantage card. That is pretty good since I only spent $38. That will be add to the $20 savings. I have aimed for sving $20,000 this year. I am getting awfully close.

Prev. total $19,169.00
today 8.00
new total $19,177.00

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. There are not too many people alive who remember that day! (Myself included)

UPS paid a $74 dividend. Whenever possible, I have my stock dividends reinvested, so no cash money was added to the challenge which stands at $19,138.00.

It is nice to be important,

But, it is more important to be nice.

Today I went to the grocery store. When I came out, the car parked right next to me had a Vietnam Veterans tag on it.
I had some post it notes in my purse with flags on them. I left a note saying "Thanks for serving our country" Do you think that was ok? I am sentimenal over service people ( My dad was in WWI and WWII and served in the army for over 30 years)

How do you feel about late birthday cards? I got one today, December 2, 2014.
My birthday was Novmeber 23, 2014.
Now, I am grateful for every card I get, but I wonder why this one particular person is always so late.

I put my cards out to enjoy no matter how early I get them. (which is probably why I mail my cards a week early) This girl friend always sends my birthday cards late. She buys them weeks in advance, but never mails them until the birthday is passed!

What do you think? Do you save all your cards? Do you display them?

When you were born? I thought that would be an interesting question to post!
For me, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Who was your president?

I got my Capitol one interest posted yesterday and it will be added to the $20 challenge.

Prev. total $19,114.00
new total 10.00
new total $19,124.00