i just did the work to get my monthly rebate from my citi rewards card. It will be for $115 but I won't actually add it to the $20 challenge until I get the check.
My husband can't understand why I get excited about getting money back on my credit cards, but I love it!
I always pay the balance in full, so I never pay any interest, ever! When I do use the card, like for groceries or prescriptions, I immediately put the cash money in an envelope so I always have the cash to pay the bill when it comes due, so I feel like I am being very responsible.

A Few months ago, (October), I established what I call, the MAWW account. This is where I track "money accumulated without working" or MAWW.
This is what my MAWW account looks like for January:

Builderway rebate $ 17.00
Citi card rebate 123.00
mortgage interest 897.00
Chase card rebate 39.00
stock dividends 65.00
s/s check 529.00
MSD interest 47.00
GE bank interest 13.00
Barclay bank int. 8.00
navy c.u. int. 54.00

Jan. total $1795.00

Of course, I save this every month and add it to a new savings account that I opened in July. That is called my Wright account.
Since July, my "Wright" account has grown from zero to $27,524.00.

That is what I paid per gallon of gas this morning. Gas is selling at Ingles for $1.45 per gallon, but with my advantage card, I got 20 cents a gallon off, for a total price of $1.25 per gallon.
Do you know what most people do with the money that they are now saving on gas. (According to a news show I watched, they are using the money to eat out more. What a shame.) They should add it to their savings.

Last year, a new dollare General store was built just right down the road from me.
I don't know if you like dollar stores or not, but I am finding this one so handy.
First of all, I hate paying $5 for a birthday card and they have them for 50 cents or $1. Most people just throw their cards away after a few days and it seems like a waste of money.
For valentine's day, my husband bought me an expensive chocolate bar costing $4. (Sort of like a hershey's candy bar.) I find that the dollar general own brand of chocolate bar is just as good. (and all proceeds go to charity)
I am sometimes amazed at how much cheaper I can often find things at the dollar store.
I just got back from buying a birthday card for a little girl. I noticed that Miracle Whip was $3.50. I had planned to pick some up this week and noticed that it is $6 at the grocery store.
When I really need something, I often try the dollar store!

I visited 3 local banks today to find out the interest rates on savings products, money markets and c.d.'s. Even tho I want to keep some money here locally, none of the banks come close to the rates that you can get using an online bank.
I got a good deal at Navy Federal credit union, but that deal went away in Jan. I guess I will just keep looking for specials online. (Navy had a 2.5 c.d. for 30 months.) If you see anything good, let me know!

I went to renew the auto tags today. That has to be done before my husband's birthday on the 24th. It was $360 for 5 auto tags and one utility trailer.
While there, I realized that the early voting place was open at the courthouse.
Darn, I wish I had been prepared. There was no one in line and I could have quickly voted. But, I have not yet decided who to vote for. I don't vote for the party; I vote for the man. (or woman)
They are calling for snow tonight, so I did my duty, went to the grocery store and bought bread and milk!
I also paid my builderway bill so that I could get the nice discount they pay me, as long as I pay by the 10th. This is an arrangement that they started with their top builders about 25 years ago. I think we are the only ones left. But, I love a discount!!

Yesterday, I totaled my MAWW account for the month of January. MAWW stands for "Money Acquired Without Working" This is the money that I, personally, bring in during the month:
Builderway rebate $ 17
citi card rebate 123
mortgage interest 897
chase card rebate 42
stock dividends 65
s/s check 529
MSD interest 47
GE interest 13
Barclay interest 8
Navy fed. interest 54

total $1795

Today, we are getting our first real snow of the season. I know it has snowed before, you can see the snow on the mountains in the distance. We live in the mountains and the highest peak in Georgia is Brasstown Bald, here in Blairsville, just a few miles away. As a matter of fact, the cabin we are building (and have already sold) has a wonderful view of Brasstown Bald and the mountains.
The snow came down quickly starting about noon and has already covered the ground. I called dh and he came home from work. He does not want to get stuck over at the cabins.
Because we live in N. Ga., we don't have much of a snow removal system. Snow is pretty, but I am glad it does not usually last too long.
I talked to Navy Federal Credit Union yesterday. They got the check I sent them and they opened my Certificate of deposit over the phone.
Unfortunately, the great special that they had on c.d.'s ended on Sunday. It was 2.5% for 30 months.

I have a big c.d. coming due on Feb. 28th and I had planned to put it all in this Navy Fed. C.U. special cause they thought it would last until April.
Now, I will have to find some place else to put it.

Navy Federal still has a 20 month c.d. for 2% but the maximum amount is $20,000. This c.d. I just opened was perfect, cause it had no maximum, but, sadly, I won't be able to take advantage of it cause it has closed.
I hope something else good will open up about the time I need it.
(p.s., I did get to open up a c.d. special for the 2.5 rate, but only one.)

I am so glad that my mortgage holder is so prompt in paying her mortgage each month. The amount is due on the 25th of each month, she dropped the check off today, Jan. 11th. Of course, it goes straight to savings.

I just want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. Let this be a great year for saving!

For the first time since June of 2006. I noticed that Mysavingsdirect lowered their savings rate from 1.09% to just 1%. It is so hard to make any interest on your savings these days.

I totaled up my Maww account for the month of November. I acquired the following money:

Building material discount
(2 houses) $ 627
Citi credit card rebate 76
mortgage interest 900
chase card rebate 43
s/s check 529
mysavingdirect interest 84
GE bank interest 12
Barclay bank interest 6
Barclay credit card rebate 248

Total for the month $2525.00

This is the money I earned in the Maww account, which stands for Money aquired without working.
It won't be this high next month. The building material discount will start to go down as the houses are now both dried in.
Still , it makes me feel good that I am able to contribute to the family finances even tho I no longer work.


y husband is not a high earner. He makes about $60,000 per year. That seems like a lot to me since I have never earned very much, but in today's standards, that is probably a low income. We have never had a real high income, ever. But as I say, it is not what you make that counts, it is what you keep.

I watched extreme cheapskates on tv last night. I don't know if it has been off the air or what, but I have not seen it in a long time.
I consider myself frugal, but I have to draw the line when I see some of the poeple on the show.
I do not buy much in the way of clothes any more, but I draw the line when it comes to dumpster diving for food from a grocery store, or not flushing the toilet. I think some people go too far!

We went over to friend's house for dinner the other night. I was telling them how I was now keeping track of all the money I acquired during the month, in a MAWW account. MAWW stands for "Money Acquired without working". Since I do not work, I thought it would be fun to keep track of how much money comes in each month thru rebates, credit cards rebates, s/s, the mortgage we hold, interest earned, basically, any money that comes in that I have not earned.
Today in the mail, I received a $2 bill from my friend, who said he greatly admired my finiancial ability and wanted to add to my MAWW account. How fun! It will be added. (I wonder what catagory I should call this?)

I have started tracking money that I acquire and I am calling it the MAWW account. That stands for Money Acquired Without Working!!
Even tho I do not have a job and have not worked for several years, I decided to keep track of the money I bring into the household without working.
October was the first month that I have tracked this. The break down is as follows:

Builderway rebates $717
Citi c/c rebate 38
Mortgage interest 902
Chase c/c reward 143
stock dividends 65
MSD interest 91
GE bank interest 13
Barclay bank int. 5
s/s check 529

monthly total $2503.00

Actually, I am shocked that the total was that much. The mortgage interest is for a 25 year mortgage that we decided to hold on the last new house we built.
I don't expect the totals to be this high every month. (Oh, MSD stands for My savings direct, a savings account that pays 1.10% interest)

What do I do with the money? You know me! You can answer that!

I got an offer in the mail for a barclay credit card, so I opened on line yesterday.
My rule with credit cards is to charge only things I need (like car insurance) and pay it off as soon as the bill comes in.
I do not like credit cards that offer gift cards or a credit to your account. I like cards that offer cash back.
That is why I have a Chase master card that pays back 3% of home improvement purchases. (but only to a limit of $2000 charged each month.) We use that at home depot almost every day. (Hubby is a builder)
I have a citi mastercard that pays back 2% on all purchases and a quicksilver cards that pays back 1 1/2% on purchases. This month I got back $143 from chase and $38 from citi.
Barclays is offering $200 cash back if you spend $500 in 90 days. They do not offer a check (which I like) but they will deposit it in your savings acct.
Since I already have a barclay account, that sounds like a winner to me. I love cash back, don't you?
I have just started keeping track of all the money I received without having to work. I am calling it my MAWW account. Money acquired without working. I will let you know the October total, in a week or so.

I waited until the mail came yesterday and then I called the young couple for whom, we are holding the mortgage. She ran into my husband on Oct. 9th and told him that she had just put the mortgage check in the mail that day. It is not due until the 25th of Oct.
The check has never arrived and yesterday was the 17th. That means that after 8 days, the check never arrived. (She mailed if from just 6 miles away.)
Obviously, it got lost in the mail.
She showed up this afternoon with a new check. I guess she will have to put a stop payment on the other check. I just wonder where it went?

WE got a good rebate from thebuilding supply place that we do business with, mostly because the bill was so high. (Over $13,000) So I have 1 rebate of $620 to add to my $20 challenge.
Also, I have to go to home depot today. For some reason they charged me $19.98 for a propane tank??
I have always had a charcoal grill and have never used a propane tank. (escept for the 1000 gal tank to heat my home) I am hoping to get that taken off of my charge card without any problems.

Prev. total $14,488.00
today 620.00
new total $15,108.00

Well, I have a Barclay dream account. They promise to pay an extra 2.5% on the interest you have earned for six months, plus 2.5% more if you have made no withdrawals on your account.
The catch is, you can only deposit up to $1000 per month. So, on my account today, I earned $4.54 in interest plus a bonus of 68 cents ( 34 cents and 34 cents for the 2 bonuses.)

I use my credit cards to make money. I have no idea what the interest rate is, because I never pay any interest. I always pay my cards off in full each month.

My husband has a Chase credit card that pays him back 3% from home improvement stores (up to $2000) each month.
I was using a capital one quicksilver card which pays me bac 1 1/2% on any purchase each month.
I charge things that I usually pay cash for each month, like my electric bills and my many car insurances. I check first to make sure that they do NOT charge me 3% to use my charge card. (Like they do if you are paying your property taxes with a credit card.) That would completely defeat my purposes. But, My electric bills and insurance payments do not charge a fee.
I immediately put the cash I would have spent in an envelope and when the charge card bill comes in, I pay it off in full.
This month, I earned $42.68 from quicksilver and $60.51. I get these back in the 1) actual check and 2)deposit to my checking.
As you can see, I have earned over $100 this month, just for using my charge cards.

That is the only way I would reccommend that anyone use charge cards!

My saving direct ( a division of Emigrant bank) raised their savings rate today. They are now paying 1.24 on a savings account, the highest rate I have found.

I did my first transfer today from My savings direct into my local checking account. I do a lot of transfers during the year, because I am always moving money from my savings into my local checking. I use my local checking to pay all the bills on the spec houses that we built.
I did keep my money locally in the bank, but in February they stopped offering accounts that pay 1% interest. Instead they are back to pay 1/10th of 1% interest which is what most banks now adays.
Since I keep a lot of cash in savings accounts, I am always shopping around for the accounts that pay the best interest rates.
One of these banks is My Savings Direct (Emigrant Bank) which is paying 1.05% interst.
I ordered the transfer this weekend and the bank noted that it would be processed on April7th (today)
I was happy to see that the transfer took place this morning and when I checked with my local bank, the money was already there. I am glad to see it went so smoothly.
I think I am really going to like Mysavingsdirect. I really also like the fact that they post interest, month to date, every single day!!

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?

Has anyone ordered propane for heating yet? I received a flyer that propane was $1.99 a gallon. I checked and could not find it any cheaper locally. I also received a $25 off coupon if ordered before Sept. 1st.
What are you paying for propane this year?

My four mutual funds are: vangard star, am. century heritage, janus, and invesco health. (Plus I have others, but these are the 4 I am funding right now. I recently added to 2 of these funds.

Star fund $200
janus fund $300

That makes my year to date total in mutual funds $2600.

Sadly, I knew nothing about mutual funds when I was younger. It was not until I had moved to this area and was in my 40's, that I began reading about mutual funds, mostly in Money Magazine.

I opened my first mutual fund in 1988. I chose Twentieth Century Funds. (Now American Century) I still have my first statement of account. I liked twentieth century because they had no minimums. You could open an account for any amount and add to it whatever you could afford.
At that time I was a waitress, making $2.01 an hour and tips were very poor. We lived in an area where the locals had never heard of tipping. I usually made around $12 in tips a day, more at night.
I would come home, count out my tips and put a few dollars away every day, to start a mutual fund account. My first fund was 20th century Heritage, now American century Heritage. I still have it.

I realized a few years ago that no one uses wrapping paper anymore. Everyone uses gift bags.
Several christmas' ago, I stocked up on christmas gift bags while they were on sale at QVC. I use the same gift bags over and over at Christmas. (There is just the two of us, my husband and I)

Last week I bought a birthday present for my great granddaughter and went to buy a gift bag to put it in. The bag was $5! I couldn't believe it! I managed to find a gift bag at home.

While at the birthday party yesterday, I asked my granddaughter what she was going to do with all the gift bags she received. (presents for the baby)
She replied that she was going to throw them away! A $5 gift bag.!!!

I was shocked and she asked if I wanted them. I said, yes, of course, I do! I will never have to buy gift bags again.
I guess everyone thought I was cheap, but I am the only one with the paid for house and cars. (all 5 of them)

I decided the end of March, to close some accounts to pay off the last piece of land we owned.
I chose to close two old mutual fund accounts that had not progressed very much.
I also chose to close up 4 stocks.

Well, the mutual funds closed rapidly, but the 4 stocks have taken forever. I chose Johnson & Johnson, Intel, Wendy's and Tim Horton Inc.

Then I found out that I could not close Tim Horton without a broker, so I transferred that stock to my Edward Jones account instead.

I chose another mutual fund to close. It was my only load fund at Fidelity and I have had it since Peter Lynch was there. (Anyone remember him?)

Tim Horton's has transferred and I am glad of that. I have decided not to cash it in at this time.

I finally got my first check yesterday from the stock sale of Johnson and Johnson. It is on the way to the bank to make up for the money I spent paying off the land.

The land I paid off was very nice. It is a lake view lot, with lake access and a boat dock. We plan to build a spec house there someday.

I did it. Yesterday, I paid off my last piece of property. We bought 7 pieces of land over the past 3 years at various auctions and now it is all free and clear. That will save me over $200 a month in interest on the last two pieces.

About 2 years ago, my husband and I bought up several lots at different auctions. A total of 7 lots all together, that we plan on building spec homes on. Yesterday, I paid off one of the spec lots. I only have one left that I still owe on. Once I pay that one off, I will be completely debt free, including my home. (which I paid off years ago) No more paying out interest!!