I woke up this morning to find a hallmark card, a valentine cake, a bag of hershey kisses and a chocolate bar waiting for me on the kitchen table.
I tell my husband every year, not to get me anything.What do you do about a husband like that?
I get especially annoyed about the cost of the card. It was $6 and I feel like it is a waste of money.

What did I give him? Old cheapskate me, I gave him last year's card. (again)

Molly continues to go into the vet once a week to get a blood test. Her blood sugar is better, but still not down to normal, she gets 7 units of insulin, twice a day.
I got more needles from the vet. They would work for Molly's shots, but were a much bigger needle.
I did some research online and found the needles that we had been using, a smaller size (gauge 31. I found out that the bigger the gauge the smaller the needle)
The vet had sold us gage 29 needles.
I ordered the new needles and returned the others to the vet for a credit.
Her insulin is only good for 6 weeks after it is opened. The six weeks will be up on Feb. 15th. I looked online and found her insulin (novolin N) for $78 versus $140 at the pharmacy.
I was a little leery of ordering at first, but they assured me that it would come packed in dry ice.

I ordered Wed. afternoon and by 2 pm Thursday, it was delivered, cold, in dry ice. I did not even have to pay for overnight shipping.

Molly is worth a million dollars to me and I would spend it on her gladly. But if I can find a bargain on needles (They were $15 for a box of 100) and insulin, then I will go for the bargain as long as the quality and the brand names are the same.

Please think good thoughts for Molly, the sweetest Malta-poo ever born!

My husband went back to the foot doctor yesterday. He explained that his foot was feeling no better. He was given another shot and charged $195. We have now spent $450 for 2 visits and his foot still feels the same. This shot did not seem to help either. We don't know what to do next?

My hubby has been limping for aa few months, so this week he went to the foot doctor. They gave him a shot and some insoles for his shoes, to the tune of $254. He felt better for a few days,but now he is limping again. They have suggest $400 custom made arch supports. I am not sure if he will spend the money. He goes back this Wed.

Imoved into my new home, 20 years ago this month.
In the past few years, I have replaced the refrigerator, the stove top and the dishwaher.

Last year, the downstaris ac/heat went out and I had to get a new unit.I was not happy with the new one. I have always used Lennox (in allthe homes we built)
This was is a trane and it has a heat pump. It does not stay warm in winter and my electric bills have gone way, way up.

In February, my double oven went out. I have not replaced it yet, because I still have one working oven and I don't like cooking.

Last week, my upstairs a/c gave out. I thought I would need a new unit, but they told me the circuit
board went bad. They replaced that this week, so we have a/c upstairs again.

Tuesday, we noticed we had no hot water. The hot water heater quit working. Lucky for us, I thought, we had a back up unit. We have a 2nd water heater for the jacuzzi tub. We tried it out, but it has quit working too.

So, today, my husband bought two new hot water heaters for a total of $861.00 and replaced both of them. Lucky for me, he is so handy. But he does not work on air conditioners, so we don't know how much that repair will be. It has been a costly week.

I would love a new house where nothing needs to be repaired. Hubby is balking on that, tho.

He really likes our property that we built on. It is a level two acres with lots of trees (that we planted 20 years ago) with 500 feet on a nice creek. He has 2 garages for all his cars (5) and stuff! He says, we can't find any property as nice as this because we are in the mountains and level lots do not exist.

So, I guess we will continue fixing up and just stay right here.

Ou A/C unit upstairs quit working. I had the downstairs unit replaced last year. I have always had a lennox, but my regular dealer does not carry them anymore. I replaced it with a trane that has a heat pump. Let me say, I do not like the heat pump at all. My winter bills are double what they use to be and the house seems very cold.
I was happy that the Lennox unit upstairs just need repairs. It is working now I am happy to say. I have not yet received a bill for the repair.

My husband builds houses and we have been building spec houses for the last few years.
We just lowered the price of the spec house that we put on the market several months ago. It was listed for $272,000; we have lowered it to $250,000.

I watch the tv show about all the homes for sale, and I wonder why this one is not selling. I saw a terrible looking house, needing lots of repairs, for sale in queens, n.y. for $980,000. I guess the word is location, location, location!

This house is located in the beautiful mountains of north georgia. It has 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, rec room with kitchenette, laundry room, etc.
We have only had one serious looker. They were a young couple and could not get a mortgage due to their high student loan debt.

I might also mention that the home is brand new, has a mountain view and is on a creek.

We have $245,000 in the house, so after realtor comission, we would be selling at a loss. I guess everyone is looking for a bargain, but it makes me wonder if we should continue building spec houses.

My husband prefers it cause he can draw the plans and build it the way he wants to. (It has to be perfect, or he is not happy)

We have already started a second spec house, but it will be cheaper. People seem to want something in the $200,000 range, so this will be a two bedroom, two bath cabin, with a killer view. (and lake access)

What are new houses going for in your neck of the woods?

I am sure that buying a new tv is nothing to most of the members of this forum, but to us (dh and I0 it is a very big deal.
First let me say, we have 3 tv's. One is seldom used. It is upstairs in my husband's office. He has his drafting table there (yes, he still draws all his house plans the old fashioned way, with pencil) and I have my computer there.
Our second tv is in the kitchen-dining part of the house and is used quite a bit in the evenings.
After supper, we watch the 3rd tv in the bedroom.

When DH built this house 20 years ago, he put the kitchen tv and the bedroom tv into built in cabinets. That way, we could close the door and no one would suspect that we had a tv in the room.

Our tv's are quite old. I know we bought the upstairs one with us from Fla. and that was 30 years ago. Yes, it still works great!

Our bedroom tv is the problem. About 2 years ago, the remote quit working. I can remember well when tv's had no remotes. You had to get up to change the channels. Guess what? That still works; so I get up and change the channel. (I can also remember when we had only 3 stations and color tv cost $600, so we only had black and white for many years)

A few days ago, something happened to the picture. It is now a terrible picture, much lighter on one side than the other.

The decision, we need a new tv!! First of all, to find one small enough to fit into the cabinet. It could not be any bigger than 21 inches. We bought the smallest one they had at wal mart. It fits, but you cannot close the cabinet door.

It is hard to believe that the new tv can be held in just one hand! The old tv was huge and dh had to struggle to get it out. (I bet it weighs easily over 100 pounds)

WE are extremely old fashioned (remember, I have never had a cell phone, nor do I want one), so this new tv was a mystery to us. Somehow, we got it working, we don't know how. I did have to go thru each chanel, one by one, to get the chanels to program in. I am sure there was an easier way.

We also, could not believe the price, $129. WE have always paid $400 or more for a tv. When your tv acted up, you called a tv repairman. I am sure they don't exsist anymore.

So, we have a tv in the bedroom now that works with a remote. I cannot say that I like the sound on the new tv as well as the old one. I guess we take the old tv to the dump! It kind of makes me feel sad to just throw it away.

WE even stopped and looked at new laptop computers while we were there, cause I do need a new computer. Mine is about 10 years old and is giving me trouble. I did not understand the new computers at all. I don't think we will ever make it into the modern world.

Heck, I even married a man 7 years younger than me so that he could figure out all this stuff! He hasn't been able to figure out all the stuff in his new car yet!

Guess I will go and watch the Braves game on my old tv upstairs in the office. It belonged to my mother and she died in 1978, so I don't know just how old the tv is??

Hubby went to the eye doctor yesterday, Eye exams, eye tests and a new pair of glasses cost us $833. I am glad Ihave a medical account for such expenses.
(P.S. I wear my old dollar store glasses (cost $5) and still passed the eye exam (for driver's license) without them.)

That is the name of a real old song. However, My husband is back from Florida and I am so happy not to be alone every night! He spent way too much money on taking his family out to lunch. Can you say free loaders! His bother and wife went out to lunch with his father and girlfriend both days. The total was $125 for lunch two days. They never offer to pay for anything. I think they take advantage.

About 3 years ago, we began buying land.Land that had been selling for over $120,000 was now going for $45,000. My husband is a licensed builder, so we are always looking for mountain view properties for spec houses.

I had no debt. My house has been paid for since I was 32 and I have paid off all 5 of the cars. I pay my credit car in full every month.

However, over the last 3 years, we have found some good deals on land, so I financed them at 3% interest. We wound up with 7 pieces of land all mountain view or creekfront.

Today I paid off one piece of property. Now, I just have 2 pieces to make payments on. I will use this payment to add to the other payment, so I can pay off the most expensive piece of property next. This is a real nice acre of property with a lake view and a boat dock!!

I took my dog to the groomers this morning. She looks very cute now, but the groomer told me that she had some fleas. I have never had a flea problem. I bought some stuff to put on her and the other dog, Molly. It was $18 a tube and I had to buy two tubes. So, it has been an expensivve day so far!

I did something today that I do not do very often; I went shopping.
I went shopping for baby clothes. My oldest granddaughter is having her baby shower this weekend and I wound up buying the new baby 4 new outfits. Now, I don't really believe that babies need a lot of clothes; they out grow them too quickly.
I do admit that I did my shopping at the dollar store. I think they have some cute things, but inexpensive. I am not really being cheap. I am going to give her a check to buy the things she really needs. (like diapers and formula) Gosh, it is expensive to have a baby these days.
Did anyone besides me use cloth diapers??

I took my car into get the seat fixed on Friday. The driver's seat has never gone up and down. The seat works fine now, but somehow, I have lost the mirror on the passenger side. I am assuming that it just fell out some how! I am having it replaced next Tuesday, but I will have to pay for it. On a corvette, the price will be about $150 for the mirror.

I had to buy tag decals for all the cars last week. It came to $606.00 Ouch! That hurt!

The $30 a day challenge is going well. I am on day 10, so I have saved up $300!! So far, so good! Both os my puppies got groomed this week and one had a heartworm test, so it was a bit of a spending week for me. But they are so worth it!

It is October 11 and I have not put the heat on yet. It can get quite cold here in the North Georgia mountains. This morning it was 37 degrees. I got my propane tank filled up and paid $1.89 per gallon. What does it run in your neck of the woods? My bill was for $1100.00

I took my dog to the vets this morning to get her teeth cleaned. They had to put her to sleep, so they kept here almost all day.
What a lonely day today was; being home all alone. I don't know how anyone can live without a pet. They bring so much happiness in our lives.
Well, she is home now; pretty sleepy and tired. I haven't even checked out her pearly whites yet.
Tody, I only spent $5 at the grocery store. Of course, I spent $150 on the dog, but she is certainly worth it.

I am happy to say that I did not spend a penny today. We went to a friend's house for Easter early supper, so even the food was free.
We did go out to dinner last night for the first time in a while. We spent $24 for dinner and left a $6 tip, so a total of $30 spent.

We went dancing last night. It is the first time I have been in quite a while. We use to have a place that opened every Saturday night, but it closed down. They had a 6 piece band from Chattanooga that was pretty good and played music from the 50's, 60's and 70's. They even played my favorite song to dance to, "Wipe Out" We spent $25 on admission, but it was worth it!

I got Molly, my malta-poo, groomed today and she looks beautiful. I try to get her groomed every 6 weeks so that she does not get too matted.
I had an appointment to get her groomed the first week in December and the groomer got sick.
Then it was the first week in January and the groomer is sick again.
The next appointment was last week and we all got snowed in.
Finally today, she got done. I had to pay $65 because this groomer comes to your house in a special equipped van and does it inside the van.
Dogs can be so expensive but I love them to pieces!

Well, our property taxes are due tomorrow. I mailed off the check on Friday. I wish they were not due so close to Christmas. I am sure it hurts a lot of families.
Like many people on here, I save to pay my property taxes ( and car and house insurance) out of each paycheck, so I have the money on hand when I need it.
I know I am lucky. My property taxes are probably a lot lower than yours. Mine are around $3000 but will go up next year cause I just bought some land.
Just glad I have the money to pay them!

We went to a land sale this morning. We went to one a month ago and learned a valuable lesson. Make sure you get the early appointment. By the time we got there for our noon appointment, almost everything was sold.

This time we had an 10 am. appointment and we got there before 9 am. They did not let anyone look beforee 10 am, but we got to talk with our sales guy and tell him what we were looking for. He reccommended a property with a good mountain view.

This was in a new subdivision, but the bank had foreclosed on the unsold lots and had priced them a lot more reasonably.

The subdivision is gated, has a clubhouse, tennis courts and a swimming pool. Our lot was 2 acres with a very nice far off mountain view.

The original price was $119,000 but the bank had priced it at $42,000, so we bought it. We may build a spec house on it, but I wouldn't mine living there at all.

My birthday is in 3 days, so I told dh that this would be my birthday present!!

We usually have 4 bird feeders going all the time. 3 of them have sunflower seeds in them, and the other one is a hummmingbird feeder.
Well, dh brought home another hummingbird feeder. He thought is he had two of them set apart, it would keep the hummingbirds from fighting. (it didn't work)
So, now we have 5 feeders going and they have to be filled almost everyday!!
Dh brought home a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds last night and MORE hummingbird food. The seed has gone from $15 a bag to $29!!
I told dh that he is working for the birds!!

Gasoline is starting to become a real budget buster!! Last week, we spent over $200 on gasoline and this week we are up to $180 so far.
I gave my husband his $80 allowance on Monday and I had to give him another $40 today.
You all know we have 5 vehicles, 4 of which take premium gas. One of those, the older corvette is never driven, but the rest of them are.
Last night we took the hot rod. We had to stop and put $40 gas in that one. Right now, we are paying $3.55 per gallon for the hot rod and 2 vettes.
I am really making a point of having as many stay at home and use no gas days.
Yesterday I needed milk, but I did not go to town. I waited til we went out to dinner and then stopped and bought milk.

It is mostly my husband that uses so much gas. The two jobs he has going on right now are about 17 miles apart from each other and he is constantly having to drive to town for materials.
Oh well, I am just thankful he has enough work to keep him busy!!

I give my husband $80 a week for allowance which he uses to buy gas. I had to give him $40 more the other day, he was so low on gas.
Last night, we put over $50 in the yellow vette and today I put $23 in the red vette.
That is $200 a week for gasoline!! Twice as much as eating out!

I got the propane gas that we use for heating, delivered this morning. I was afraid to even ask how much it is per gallon. When I ordered in Sept., it was $1.79 a gallon, but I know it has gone up. Some of you say you are paying over $3.00 a gallon.
I am only getting 200 gallons this time, but I have 1000 gallon buried tank. I still have 180 gallons left, and I think this will get me thru the rest of the winter. I write this down also, and we seem to be using about 130 gallons a month.
Gosh, I remember when I first moved here, I could heat the whole house for about $300 for the entire winter. That was 12 years ago!

Do birds eat more in cold weather. I filled up the feeders at noon yesterday and they are already empty. And we have 4 BIG ones!! My dh is going to have to get an extra job just to feed the birds!!

I have had all kinds of expenses the past three months, both planned and unplanned. First my dishwasher and ice machine both went out on me.
I had them fixed, but the "fix" did not take, so I bought a new dishwasher and a new refrigerator.
Then my car stopped. It need a new fuel pump and the repair was almost $2000.
Christmas came and with that came $3000 worth of property tax.
Today I got the bill for the annual house insurance ($1100) plus the car tags ($551).
I know life happens, but I sure wish it could happen a little cheaper for a while. I am ready to do some major saving and no more major spending.
Of course, the money for the property tax, house insurance and tags is all budget for. I put away $160 a week to pay those bills, so I am prepared!

My new refrigerator is going back to the store. I bought it mainly for the ice maker which drops about 24 cubes of ice in a 24 hour period. that just does not cut it!
Also, the freezer is definately not cold enough. My dh talked to the owner of the store and I should get a new refrigerator on the 28th of November. so far, both refrigerators have been charged to my credit card and we are supposed to get a credit when this one is picked up.
I went to Walmart's today for the first time this year and spent about $80. However, some of that was for a few gifts for my dh and we desperatly need a new blanket.
My dog also got groomed today, so it was a spendy day. But she looks pretty with the pink bow on her head!!