No good mail today, it all went in the garbage. I did get a coupon from L'oreal for a free High intensity pigments liquid makeup.
I found it at the store for $12.99, but it is all so dark. Do any of you with light skin use this make up. I was kind of afraid to try it! But I hate to waste a $12.99 coupon!

It sure is nice to see the electic meter is slowing down. Instead of a reading in the high 50's and 60's each day, it has slowed back down to the 30's (kilowatts) I know we still have a few warm days coming,but I love saving on my electric bill.
I am thinking about how to save gas money to add to my challenge. Gas is going down quite quickly, I sure hope this lasts!!

I decided that I need some office supplies. I want a notebook with dividers so that I can put my different savings and money market checking accounts statements inside and keep them all together in one big book.
I also wanted some of that green column paper and a invoice book for my husband hours.
No green column paper to be found, no dividers and the ivoice book was $4.

I came home and found a notebook I could use. I took out the dividers in it, turned them around and will reuse them.
Now I need to find something else that will do for an invoice book.
As for the green column paper, I will have to wait on one of my very few (one so far this year) trips to walmart.
I know I saved at least 6 dollars today by making do with what I have.

Just saw an ad in the paper and it looks like I will be changing banks tomorrow. I like to keep my cash locally because we need it for building houses.
The bank is advertising a new 5.25% rate. I have 107K sitting at another bank earning 4.14%. It is a savings account.
I can't close the account because I would lose the $634 in interest I have coming, but I feel sure I can draw out 106K and open a new account.
It pays about $3.20 a day more. That does not sound like much but over a year that is $1168.00
I use to make about $20 a day in tips. That is the same as not working 58 days!!

My husband put in 77 hours on his job last week. He is the hardest working man I have ever seen. We had a good paycheck today, so I can put extra into our savings this week!

I just got the mail. Home depot sent me a $20 off coupon if i use my credit card. (their card of course)
I have to spend at least $100, so for most people that is really not a good deal. However, I am building a house for sale, so it is no problem for me.
I try not to use this gift cards or rebate if it requires me to spend money I don't need to spend.
But this house definately needs a lot of stuff, like 4 toilets! So that $20 will come in handy!

I talked to the nice lady that is doing a show on the book, "Good deals and geat adventures that you absolutely can't get unless you are over 50"
I wasn't much help to her, cause I live in the boondocks. The closest mall is a 4 hour trip, round trip. I have not been in years!
We have to drive to another state to go to wal mart and to buy liquor.
We are a dry county, so we have no chain restaurants, like Ruby Tuesdays or TGIF.
I love living here. I am not a shopper.
If I need some jeans, I order from QVC. Sure they charge me shipping, but how much does it cost to drive over 200 miles to buy something. I figure about $27 for my car, a half tank!

I need to go and borrow the book from the library. I am sure there are a lot of good deals in the book, but the best deal I think I have already figured out.

I just eat out locally where I can brown bag and not pay for drinks.
I just buy something when I really need it.
I don't spend much money, I try and save it instead.

It seems like when we stay home to save money, it cost us almost as much as going out. i guess that is because we like to cook steak on the grill and by the time we buy two steaks and charcoal, we have spent about $20.
That is about what we spend going out to eat at night.
Yesterday, I bought hamburger on sale for $2. We got free corn on the cobb and green beans given to us. I had some cottage cheese left over from the lasagna also. So our dinner last night cost us about $2, plus I have a hamburger left for my lunch today.

We use to have a garden, but everyone around here has a garden, so you get lots of freebies. My worker had not worked since June 30th. He promised to come back to work last week. He did, he worked 5 hrs. on Thurday.
Yesterday he finally showed back up. He brought a peace offering, tomatoes,potatoes,corn on the cob and some home made salsa.
We went out to eat last night cause dh came home early and wanted to go out.
We will have leftovers tonight and try come of the free corn. I love free food!!

I am going to actually make dinner tonight. The going without spending money last week, has made me think about cutting down on my eating out.
I realized that I started eating out so much in the winter time. It gets dark by 5:30 so my husband gets home about that time. It is depressing to me in the winter because of the darkness, so we started going out to eat every night.
I was thinking that since it is still light out til about 8:30, I could get use to staying home more often until the time changes.
I am going to make lasagna, something I have not made in over 2 years. (when I started my low carb diet) I hope I remember how to make!!

I like Thrifty Ray's blog about what she is NOT going to buy the rest of 2006. So I am making a list too!!
I will not buy:
magazines,
clothes
shoes
books
cd's for the car
jewelry
panty hose
wine
bras
wrinkle cream

I spent $2 for dinner last night. I got hamburger on sale for $2 this weekend. Ou worker showed up Saturday with a bag full of corn on the cob, squash, red potatoes and onions. My dh fixes the best potatoes with onion, butter, olive oil and spices and cooks them on the grill for about an hour.
It was a great meal and I think we have enough for anothe meal tonight.
Wonder if i can talk him into staying home tonight and eating in. That would make 3 nights in a row eating at home!! Pretty good for us!!

I just read mjrube's blog about paying $105 to get her hair colored every few months. I just figured out how much money I have saved doing it myself for the past 35 years, $21,000!!!!
I have got to tell my husband about this.!! I never dreamed that it cost that much!!

Anyone thirsty? I have stocked up all this week at the big coke product sale and now have 240 cans of diet sprite at bargain prices, but 10-2 liter bottles of sprite that I got for free!! I estimate that this has saved me $100 off of regular price, plus the bottles for free.

Besides the money I am saving for my challenge money, I also have other savings. I try to pay myself first everyweek. I aim for 10 % of my dh's pay, and if I don't reach that, I come as close as I can. Of course, I save for Christmas, I have a "car fund" , I take what I was paying on my husband's van every month and put that money in there, now that the van is paid off.
I also started a fund to pay this property off really early!!

I have been so happy over the grocery savings I have had the past two days. I saved on everything I bought at Bi Lo, the other day, I spent about $10 and saved about $10. Yesterday, I got $20 worth of diet sprite for $10.
I told my dh about it and he thinks I am kind of goofy, but I love it.
Then, in yesterday's mail, I got a coupon for a $5 container of dishwasher gel, free!!!
I am going to the store today to pick it up and see if I can get some more of that great diet sprite deal!! I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy!!

I took the glasses that I purchased yesterday, back. They were not comfortable and a bit heavy. I got my almost $20 back. i went to family dollar store to buy a birthday card and some batteries and found glasses there for $5. I think that is where I got my glasses, the last time.
So I picked up a pair of reading glasses to have the next time I have a problem with my glasses. I have several glass cases, so I am going to leave them in the glove box of the car. That way when I leave mine home, I will still have a pair in the car.
So, for less than $10, I left the store with a new pair of glasses, 8 batteries and a birthday card. Good savings!

My dh can do almost anything!! Last night he fixed my glasses, that I love. My $5 glasses. So, I am going to take back the one I bought yesterday and see if I can get a refund!! I also saved some money today but washing some blouses that I usually had dry cleaned. They look fine!!

I went to the grocery store today. I am going to a 4th of July cookout and they asked me to bring chips and paper plates. (they know I don't like to cook obviously)
I found both items on sale, yeah!! But I also found porterhouse steak on sale. I saved over $8 on steaks alone!! I have been marinating 2 pork chops, but who wants that, when you can have steak. My DH can take the pork chops for lunch this week. (give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything)

I colored my hair this morning as I have been doing for about 35 years. I don't know how much money I have saved doing it over the years, what does it cost to have it done in a salon?
Plus I saved $2 on the coloring itself, got it on sale!!

My husband is a builder and really believes in insulating a house well. Georgia has never had any building codes, so many of the builders put as little insulation in a house as they could get away with. The poor owners will have to pay high power bills the rest of their lives.
I have my house temp set at 76 degrees. Although it has been 90 all day outside, it (the a/c) just ran for the first time today. It is nice to have a well insulated house and it saves money too.

Looks like we eat at home tonight. My Dh came home tonight, didn't even come in the house. He got right on the mower and starting cutting grass. It is 7 pm, the time we usually leave for dinner, so looks like we will be dining at home. The good news is, we will be saving money. The bad news is, all we have to eat is chicken.
He cooked chicken on the grill Sunday, legs and boneless breasts. He had chicken (leftover) for lunch yesterday and today. He may rather eat eggs and sausage, I can handle chicken again.

We have some crystal glasses my husband loves to use to have his cocktails in the evenings. Over the past 20 years, many have gotten broken, and he only has 2 left to us.
I managed to track down (by computer) the exact glasses and I even figured out how to order them.
I got the total, over $93 for 8 glasses including s&h. I decided to think on it and I am glad I did. DH did not want to spend that much, we will look around and find something much cheaper. Heck, I like the plastic stemware from the dollar store. I saved money.

I am reading the meter several times a day. I have concluded it costs (me) about 55 cents to run the dishwasher and about 30 cents to run the dryer for 40 minutes. I do run the dishwasher using the no heat cycle. I use to run the dishwasher every other day, but now I will only run it every three days, unless it is completely full.
It is raining here today so that means it is cooler. It also means I have a scared wet dog locked up in the garage.
Oh by the way, my cost per kwh is about .091 cents.

Our worker just showed up with a big box of vegetables, pototoes, green onions and squash. He brought up some last weekend and those were the best potatoes, I have tasted.
My husband cut up the red potatoes, mixed them with chopped green onion, oil, butter, spices and cooked them in alum. foil on the grill. We ate on them for days!!
I know what we are having for supper tomorrow night, chicken and potatoes, cooked on the grill. (squash too)

Well it has been a quiet and frugal day today. A no spend day!! That is 2 this week, a record for me! I stayed home all day, used no gas. We are going to a dinner party tonight and maybe another one afterward, so no food costs!
We are driving the old car tonight, it is a 1933 Ford Victoria. I hope it can make it up that steep mountain.
It is clear today, so I am looking forward to seeing the moon set over the beautiful mountain view!

I have had a no spending day today. This does not happened to me very much because we go out to eat every night except Sunday.
But today, I never left the house. I have supper cooking in the crockpot!
I used no gas! It is hard to believe!!

Ok, May 25th was my official toilet paper countdown day. The first part of the year, I had lots of coupon to buy toilet paper with. I wound up buying 17 4double roll packages. So I have 68 rollds of toilet paper that cost me about $20 for all of them.
I just want to see how long i can go without buying toilet paper.
I bought a large bag of garbage bags and have been using them since Feb. 22nd!
I have stockpiled sprite and have enough for several months.
So, with my diet sprite and my toilet paper purchases, I sit here very happy!!

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!!

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.!!