I had a no spend day yesterday. My dh had to go to the dentist, but he came home with the blank check. The dentist had to fix a broken tooth and there was no charge. Got to love that!!

I have started keeping track of our net worth on a monthly basis. I posted it here the other day, but a friend from my other forum thought I should delete it. I have "stalkers" that follow me here from the other local forum and she thought I should not post my net worth.
I am certainly not rich; my husband has to keep working everyday cause we cannot live on the interest. We will never get a pension. There will not be anything other than a small amount from social security for us to live on.
So I have to save and hope that someday we can live on what we have saved.
My net worth did go up last month about $11,000. My stocks went down, but my mutual funds went up.
I was also able to add several thousand dollars to my savings last month.
My husband had some pretty good pay days since he has worked 7 days a week the entire month.

I have started keeping track of the interest that I earn on my savings, money market and my checking account. I only have one checking account that pays interest and the amount is tiny, .005%, but it is better than nothing.
I have a money market checking account and I can write 3 checks a month, but that is all.
I keep our spec house money there. I also opened up my first cd the end of January. So the total amount of interest that I earned for the month of March 2007 was $1993.05.
That is less that February, but my biggest account covered 33 days last month and only 28 days this month.
Interest is so cool!! Free money!! (I will be so sad when I have to start using the money to build)

I just got back from getting a brand new fire pit. I have always wanted one, but it is something you do not use a lot. It is nice for cool spring and fall evenings when you want to sit in front of a fire to keep warm.
I wanted something I could put on our back deck which is tiled and this one is perfect.
Best of all, I got it for nothing. I had a rewards card from Ace Hardware for charging paint at my last spec house and the card was for $135!!
So I got the firepit and some always useful "can" lights for nothing.
Now, if I only had some wood. Here is my husband, a builder, a carpenter and his workmen have taken home all the wood. Oh well, I will find some!! I am excited and can hardly wait to use it!

We have those little divided things, that we put our pills in; you know, one for each day of the week.
My husband takes prilosec and it comes in a "bubble pack"
His pills container has to be refilled on sunday after he takes his sunday pills.
I noticed him refilling it last night. But there was already pills in there for today.
When I looked, I realized that he had put in 6 pills in the container. Where was the 7th? They come 7 to a pack.
I looked in the garbage and sure enough, the 7th pill was still in the pack.

So I saved 71 cents!! He will probably think I am crazy or maybe I just shouldn't even tell him??

I am now receiving a monthly check that I have never received before. I mentioned that to my waitress last night and her first question was, "what cha going to buy with it?"
I said, I am not going to buy anything, I am going to save it.
She couldn't understand that and said "oh buy yourself something pretty"

After she left, my dh asked me if we were in about 5% of americans that cared more about saving then spending.
I told him no, I think there is a lot more than that, but probably only about 20-25% have our same mind set.
We started thinking about the people we knew, and could only come up with a few people that we knew that lived comfortably and had no money worries.
None of these people were "spenders"
I know one couple that we built a beautiful big house for.
He just retired from a big job with the state of Georgia and has a six figure retirement pay plus social security.

They do travel, they have parties, they have fun, but they do it all on a budget. They allow so much for these things and don't go overboard.

I guess for the rest of the people that we know, all they think about is what can they buy with their money.

I just totaled up the interest that I earned on savings (money market, checking and a c.d.) and it totals to $2242.58.
That was what I earned for the month of february. wow, free money!!

I love my long distance plan from a company called Lightyear. Although my dh calls his father long distance a lot, my bill is usually under $5 a month.
I got this past months bill and they are now charging $3 a month extra to send out a paper statement.
Even though I am no good at computers, I managed to figure out how to go to their site and sign up for automatic bill paying on my credit card.
That will save me $36 a year in extra charges!

Dh and I were talking about the good old days. When we moved here 23 years ago, he built our house and we lived on our savings for a year. So we were pretty broke back then.
Besides building houses, we tried to sell Lincoln log home kits, but we lived so far in the boonies, we got few lookers.
We finally sold one and the commission was $2000 but there was a catch. DH had to built the house and the land was a 2 hour drive, one way.
He took the job to make the $2000 plus the $10 an hour for building the house.

Because of the long drive, he would go to work 3 or 4 days a week but not come home. He would sleep in his van most nights. He found a cheap motel ($21) and he would stay there one night. He did this for many many months to support us.
I remember him coming home from that job hungry cause he had run out of money and did not eat that day.
I guess that is one reason we don't like to waste our money. I was working at the time making $3.15 an hour and when ever I bought something, I thought about how hard my dh had to work and could I do without? Usually the answer was yes!

It is amazing how much we have been able to save the past 20 years.
So, if you are 40 and just starting to save, it is not too late!!

My bank, where I keep most of my money, is in Money Magazine!!
Under the list of best places to get a 6 month C.D., my bank is listed 2nd. You can get a 6 month c.d. for 5.43 with a minimum of $10,000. The name of the bank is Appalachian Community Bank.
Send your money to
Appalachian Bank and Ima will watch it for you!!

I colored my hair first thing this morning. I was born brunette, but always wanted to be blond, so i have been coloring my hair blond for 35 years. I wonder how much money I have saved in the past 35 years for doing my hair myself. I think I should remind my husband how lucky he is, that I am not a high maintence woman!! That has saved him some big bucks!!

That was during the great depression. The savings rate for last year has not been this low since 1933. It is a negative 1% which means people spent more than they earned and saved nothing.
The lowest in 74 years. That is sad! I am glad we have a group of people on this forum that is out to change that statistic!!

I just check my new c.d. and the money is showing up and I already made $15.53 interest for the one day. The nice thing is, the check has not cleared my bank, so I earned about $15 interest in that bank too. I have decided to keep track of all the interest I earn each month. It would be neat to add this to my $20 challenge, but I don't think that will be fair.
I did not get my "big" check into the bank until the 22nd and interest was paid on the 19th, so no interest will be included for the big check this month.
Total interest I earned in the month of Jan. from my savings, money markets, ing account and checking account (it pays a little) was $464.31!!
That is $464.31 in my pocket for just saving money!!

I bought my very first certificate of deposit yesterday. I getting a c.d. at 5.75% for 6 months.
All I got was a piece of paper. I don't know what i thought I would get. I am glad I finally know how to look up my bank accounts online. I am anxious to see if this shows up this morning!!
I love having that big sum in my money market account, but I know I should spread it around to make sure that I am covered with fdic insurance.
So, I put in $100,000.
I think I will put the next $100,000 in my name only. The way I understand it, you can have $100,000 in joint names, and $100,000 each in your name and your husband's name only.
Any banker's out there to confirm this??

On the local forum I am on, I started a thread entitled "what frugal thing did you do today?"
On the whole, that group does not want to talk about money at all. They do not believe in saving at all and their come back is, "you can't take it with you"
I don't want to. I just want to be comfortable while I am here.
One of the frugal entries yesterday, was "I got a pair of pants on sale for only $76!!
I know what this group would say to that. To buy clothes you don't really need and to pay $76 for one pair of pants!! Now, I know why they have no savings.
The funny thing is, many of them, dislike me. They dislike me because they think I have to much money!! Hey, I save my money, that is why I have it.
The people on that forum make just as much money as we do.
The thing is, I keep part of my money; they spend all of theirs!

The big check from the house sale that I deposited Friday afternoon has shown up in my money market account today.
Until I take out the money to buy the next lot and start the next house, that money is earning me $64 a day.
Do you realize that I have never earned $64 a day in my life. I have never made more than minimum wage which would come to about $41.20 a day, before taxes.
When I was a waitress, I usually adveraged about $20-40 a day in tips and about $16 a day in wages.
Makes me hate to have to take it out to start the next house.
Building is slow right now, so I am going to let the money sit for a little while. Just let it sit and enjoy it!

Well, I am $390,113.02 dollars richer right now. We finally had the closing and we got the check.
However, we had to sign something that we really do not have access to that money for 7 business days, which will be Jan. 31st.!! That's ok, there is nothing that I want to spend it on!!
I just want to watch it earn interest!!

Our house closing is 3 days away, this Friday at 2 p.m. I can hardly wait. We have been working on that house since November of 2005. That is a lot of money to have tied up for over a year.
The lawyer called this morning and said there was a problem with the contract. I just about got sick to my stomach.
But it turned out it was nothing major, just the mortgage company wanting to change something in the contract.
We had offered $4000 off so they could pick and buy their own appliances. The mortgage company wanted us to apply the $4000 to the morgage closing costs. All in all, we still come out with the same amount of money.
So, we went and signed the new contract this afternoon.
Keep your fingers crossed for us, and if you hear loud screams coming from North Georgia Friday afternoon, you will know that Ima Saver and dh have just deposited a really BIG check into their money market account!

I finally did my final click for Inbox dollars and earned my first survey check. It will be for $27 but they state it won't be processed until March 1st.
I have been doing surveys for mysurvey and have had much better luck. I got 2 $10 checks in the past two months and I just requested my third one.
Several people from this site have e mailed me and I sent them an invite that earned me 150 points each time.
This adds up pretty quickly and you can redeem for cash when you get up to 1000 points!! Most surveys are quick and only take a few minutes. The only long survey I took, was about 45 minutes, but they paid me 1000 points, or $10.
Gosh, this is fun! I love getting checks in the mail this way.

I have been looking for the south beach diet book to see if I would be interested in trying that diet.
Our libaray does not have it. I found it today at CVS and it was $7.99 for a little paper book.
I started reading it to see if it was worth the money and wound up reading the whole thing in about 15 minutes. It is a lot like the atkins diet, except they allow a few more things, but those were things I don't like anyway.
I am glad I saved my $8 but I am not going to add the money to my challenge.

Interest on your savings is a nice thing. We kind of keep track of how our mutual funds and/or stock is doing, but I never keep track of how much interest I am earning. This year, I got a notebook and starting this month, I am going to keep track of how much interest I earn each month. Does anyone else do this?

Don't be afraid to add small amounts to your savings account. I enjoyed saving money when I was quite young, but I was always embarassed about just depositing a few dollars at a time. (That was when you could go to the movies and have two boxes of candy for a quarter)
For several years I worked as a bookkeeper/teller at a very small savings and loan.
We were alway thrilled when children came in to add to their savings.
The same with adults.
If you put it away right away, you will not be tempted to spend the money, or have it just slide thru your fingers.
So make those small deposits and make them often!

I ordered 300 gallons of propane in Sept. I already had about 200 gallons left from last season.
I have a 1000 gallon tank, so that made my tank about 50% full.
I did not turn on the heat until about the middle of October, so it has been on for about a month.
I went out and read the gauge to see how much we have used.
I am happy to say the needle is just below the 50%. So obviously keeping the house set at 60 degrees has helped a lot!
Of course, It is not that cold yet, but I am happy with the results so far!

I got my bank statement in the mail today. I got $484.29 in interest just this month in my money market account. Woo ho, free money!!!!!!!

It has been 23 days since I have run the air or the heat. I have not even cheated and turned either one on, even for a minute or two.
The lowest the temp. in the house has fallen to is 65 and that is ok with me. The a/c is still set on 77 but it has not warmed up over 70, so nothing has run. That is great!!

I got the bill for long distance calls today, it was a little over $4. We had ten long distance calls. DH calls his father a lot and talks over 25 minutes each time.
I love this company, it is so reasonable. The name of the company is Lightyear. It covers all long distance calls that go to out of state. We have alot of subs that live just across the state line (we are 10miles away from the state line), so dh has to call them long distance.
I buy a calling card and use that when I make in state long distance calls. A $10 card will last me a year.

I forgot to mention, that I heard back from TGIFridays in Gatlinburg. I was complaining about the 20% tax we paid that night at their restaurant and the much lower tax we paid at a different restaurant.
It seems that TGIFridays has a huge tax on liquor (we had a bottle of wine) and the other restaurant does not.
I did not, of course, get a refund. but, she did send me a gift card good for one free appetizer, so it was well worth my 39 cents to write.
Now if we just had a TGIfriday's around!

$473.34 I opened up a new money market account at my local bank last month, It is paying 5.25% interest.
I looked at my account online today (I figured it out) and it has been credited with $473.34 today.
Wow! That is more than 2 weeks pay for me! Even as a waitress, I never made more than $200 a week.
Just for sitting in an account for 30 days, $473.34. I wish i could add that to my challenge money, but no one else it, so I won't.
Maybe next year, I will take the money I have saved in the challenge and add the interest that THAT money makes.
Anyway, this is fun!

I think I should keep track of how many days I can go without air conditioning or heat. I cannot open the windows cause my dh does not like screens on windows.
I have not had the heat on yet, but I have run the a/c some in the past few weeks. It usually gets hot upstairs and I wind up turning the a/c on for a little while when I am up here.

I don't think I have run anything for a few days, but I am going to start with today and see how many days I can go.
I can't let it get too cold in the house cause I don't like alone. I have a dh and a tiny dog that likes to be warm.

Oh well, hope this is day one! It is still below 60 out right now. It was 42 when I got up.

The price of gas has really gone down the past 2 weeks. I buy premium gas and I have been paying over $3 a gallon for what seems like forever! I noticed that the corner station has gas for $2.54 (premium, 2.34 regular). That is about 50 cents a gallon less than I was paying two weeks ago. I only fill up once a week. I think I will take that 50 cents a gallon and add it to my challenge money. I also called about propane.
They advertise that propane was on "sale" this summer for $1.79 gallon. I just called and the price is now $1.69 gallon, so I ordered 300 gallons.
Hopefully that will keep us warm for a couple of months. I keep the house at 60 in the daytime and 63 at night for my dh!