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!!

Well my dh went to the eyedoctor for two days in a row. His father and grandparents all had glacoma, so he has to have a special test once a year on one day, than a regular exam the next day. The total bill came to $247. Next he will have to get a new pair of glasses. The last pair we got was at Lenscrafter, but that is almost 100 miles away. I think we are going to try Walmarts this time.
I put away $100 a week in a medical account and so far that has always been sufficient. I do not have to dip into the emergency account.

We went to Sears and bought a new refrigerator last night. We don't "need" a refrigerator, but we do "need" a new ice maker.

I bought a GE ice maker when we moved into the house about 11 years ago. i was constantly getting it fixed. So much so, that GE gave me a new one. (This is a stand alone ice maker that cost $900 and was installed in the bar area of our home.)

This new ice maker has given me a lot of problems only making ice when it felt like it. I had it repaired 2 months ago to the tune of $240. It made ice for one day.

We finally gave up and decided to buy the smallest refrigerator we could buy, that had an ice maker in it.

We found a pretty good deal last night on sale at sears, so by Thursday, I should have enough ice. (My husband takes his lunch and fills a large cooler with ice every day. Plus I am an ice fanatic and use a lot)
It certainly seems like the past two months have been spendy months. I hope things slow down.

We just picked up our new car. We have had it ordered for several months. We wanted to take it to my class reunion, but it came in the day after we left.

Now, I know most of you do not believe in buying new cars, but it is my husband's passion. Bless his heart, he has worked 14 hour days, 7 days a week for as long as I have know him. So, he deserves a new car once in a while.

Plus, I am probably the oldest person on saving advice.com and we do tend to spend a little of what we have saved for so many years.

Anyway, it is a 2008 and is very sporty. Anyone want to guess what we bought? (It is american made)

We ordered a new dishwasher today. That will be an additional $600 besides the almost $400 we shelled out yesterday trying to get the old one fixed. This is certainly not in our budget and will have to come out of savings.
I have decided I will never have any appliance repaired again. Out it goes next time!!

The repairman is here right now. He is working on my dishwasher and my stand alone ice maker. It has been 3 weeks since he first came; he has been waiting on the parts to come in.
I wonder what this is going to cost me? If I get by with less than a $500 bill, I will consider myself lucky!

We are going to a party tonight. I have to go to blimpie and have a platter of sandwiches made. The couple having the party requested that everyone bring a plate of appetizers. Since i am not much of a cook (because I eat so funny), I am going to have someone else make up the platter.
So, I will spend about what I would have if I went out to dinner tonight,but this should be a lot more fun.

I have put in my first bid on e bay. I never joined e bay because I did not want to be tempted to buy anything.
However, yesterday, my husband mentioned he needs pencil lead for his drafting projects. We don't have an office supply place anywhere near.
The last time he got pencil lead, he was building for an engineer who lived in Atlanta. He bought it for us and we paid him.
So I googled the pencil lead and found some for sale on e bay.
I bid $10 and so far I am the only bid. I will know by 5 pm today if i win. This auction has 6 boxes, but only two have the size lead we need, and one is not a full box. I will let them keep the other 4 boxes, which go for about $10 a box.
Hope I win it!(Of course, I am not really winning, I am paying for it)

I just can't go to Wal mart without spending money, that is why I very seldom go.
I had to take my dog to the groomer today and he lives half way to walmart. So to kill 3 hours, I went shopping. all I needed was conditioner for my hair and it is cheaper there.
I walked out after spending $47. I did get my dh some new socks and underwear for christmas and i got myself some new reading glasses that were nice and light.

Oh, by the way, they didn't have my conditioner at all.

I spent $36 for gas for my car last night. That is the most money I have ever spent at one time.
That probably seems cheap for a lot of you with big SUV's but was a shocker for me!!
Of course, I have to buy premium at $3.19 a gallon, so I got less than 12 gallons.
However, I did not buy gas last week at all, so this is for 2 weeks of use. I guess I will start buying gas every week so I won't be in shock!

Well, we have been invited to two graduations this week. Both are on the same night, same time, but different schools.
I just finished writing checks to send to both of the soon to be high school graduates, so I am spending money. But they deserve it.
One of them is the little orphan girl that I have been helping out. I will not be able to go to her graduation.
The other one is my granddaughter, and I will be at her graduation for sure.
How in the world did I get old enough to have a granddaughter that is 18 already??
Boy time flies by too fast!!

When I buy something I really don't need, I think I have wasted money. today I bought my little doggie a chair. She is a small (5 pounds) black poodle and she has a little folding tot chair (canvas) that she likes to sit in. When it is cold, we put a heating pad on the chair.
The problem is, she likes to sit in the living room in the daytime, so at night, we moved her chair into the pantry and close the door.
Now, we don't have to move the chair every time, which is nice, but I do feel like I wasted a little money that I did not need to spend.
By the way, the chair looks like a dog. I could have chosen from a bear, a frog or a dog, so i took the dog.
It doesn't go with the decor of my home, but Holly loves it.

I have a white house, white walls, white furniture and white carpet.
My little Holly is very well potty trained, but her little tummy gets upset easily and she spits up.
No,she won't spit up on the hardwood floor, it has to be on the carpet or the white couch.
I have had the greatest carpet spot cleaner and it really works. I have had a huge jug of it for years. Yesterday, two spit ups right before company came, and I used the last of it.
I can't do without it and I can't find it anywhere. My husband suggested that I look it up on the computer. (like he knows how to do that??)
But I found it and I ordered a huge jug again. It will cost me $52 ( includes shipping) but it is just something that I have to have!! I hope it comes quickly!!!

I just requested my state farm credit card check. If you use the card, they give you back 1% of the purchases that you can use on state farm products, like your insurance. They also gave me a $15 bonus for opening the card.
So, I will be getting a check from state farm for $100 to help in paying my house insurance of $1100.00 due in Feb. I mentioned before that Feb. is a high bill pay month.
I owe $283 for car insurance, $1100 for house insurance, $350 for vehicle tags and then my property tax is a total of $2700 for two pieces of property. I have this all budgeted for but because taxes went up, I am about $200 short. This $100 will cure half the problem.

We just had a luncheon for our local town forum, blairsville.com. Everyone wanted mexican except me. I eat plain food, that is all. They all assured me that the mexican place had hamburgers.

Well, the did, for kids under 12. But I persisited and they brought me one, wrapped in tinfoil. I swear they went to McDonald's, got a kids happy meal and gave me the tiny burger.

We were all kidding about what kind of meat they would use for the hamburger, chihuahua maybe?? Anyway, it was not good and I had to pay $3.50 for it.

But I had a great time and met some very nice new people, so it was worth it.

Yes, we splurged last night. we have been saying that when we close, we will splurge and have a big meal. DH really wanted lobster, but no place in this town serves lobster!
So we just had a fancier meal than usual. Our meal usually runs about $16 for both of us, last night we spent close to $30! Plus we left a $10 tip!!
Ok,back to being frugal again. Have to think about the $20 challenge!!

Our co worker accidently bashed my husband's van's taillight with a piece of plywood and broke it.
when dh took the van into get the brakes worked on, the mechanic there broke one hubcap and lost the other.
My husband must have his vehicles as perfect as possible, so of course, he ordered new hubcaps and a new tail light. The bill yesterday was $225. $225 for somebody else's mistakes.
Of course the mechanic said the hubcap was broken and the other one missing. Believe me, they were not!

I have turned on QVC and am so tempted to buy. Quacker Factory is on and they have the cutest clothes. I see a sweater that I really like, but I have not ordered it yet. I have a few of the sweaters and I have not even worn them all yet. do I really need another one?I just ordered a $50 set of screwdrivers for my husband from sears. (for christmas) I really don't need another $50 sweater for me, do I? Talk me out of it!!

I withdrew another $25,000 to put in our checking account and then spent it all, paying the bills for the spec house we are building. So far, we have put $315,000 cash into that house and still have a ways to go on it. I sure would like to have all that money sitting in the bank earning interest.
I have no idea when the closing will be, it will depend on when my husband gets the house done and he is working all alone. He has another job going and that took up 5 days of his time this week.
This will be our last big house. (I hope)

We spent too much for dinner. I usually have something cheap when we eat out, a hamburger or chicken strips.
Last night, we went to North Carolina to a great place called Shoebooties.
They use to have a special once in a while called bourbon pecan chicken!
It is now a regular on the menu and we both got it. Yum, so good and I have some leftover for my lunch today.
I will do better tonight!

I am a pushover when it comes to halloween stuff. For some reason, rite Aid has put a bunch of their stuff on sale at half price.
So, I bought another costume for $17, and a pair of elvis sunglasses for my elvis costume!
Now I have enough costumes for several years, but look at all the money I saved!!(not really, I know I spent it!)

I had to spend $1751 today. The state of Georgia is finally getting around to making builder's get a license and we know have inspectors. What is funny is that the inspectors do not have to be licensed builders, plumbers or electricans. They can be right out of high school.
My dh has been a licensed contractor for 20 years with the state of N.C.(We live about 10 miles away from n.c.)
Georgia is now requiring that all builder's get general liability insurance. Even though my dh has no real employees, he still has to pay it. Our first year's preminum is $1751 and I am told it will go up every year. We have been building 22 years without a single claim, so I feel like I am wasting my money.
But he cannot be a builder here anymore with it. N.C. does not require it. Maybe we should move to N.C.!

I ordered my halloween costume in early august. I for a notice saying they would be in stock the end of the month of august!
As of last week, end of Sept., I still had not received my costume, so I paniced and ordered another one. I received notification that it has been shipped.
today, in an e mail, I got notification that the first costume was shipped! I think i will just keep them both. Maybe i will get invited to two parties!! Probably not. But at least I will be set for the next Halloween!

We tried the new restaurant last night. We are good friends with the owners of the place we go to, every night. A few months ago, they opened a new place, right next door. It was a tex mex restaurant. The menu didn't have anything we liked, so we did not go but once or twice. No one else did either.

They asked our opinion and we said, we did not like the menu. This place needs a steak restaurant. The closed last weekend, changed the name and opened up Friday night as a steak house. We went and dh got the rib eye. He said it was great! However, the price is a bit over our budget. It was about $20 just for his meal. I went and bought steaks for supper tonight on sale, two n.y. strips on sale for under $6. That is a pretty good deal. My dh is cooking them, so I don't have to do anything but make a baked potato.
Hope my friends have really good sucess with their new place and we will be back when we save up our pennies!

I love halloween, it is my favorite holiday. I love to dress up and go to parties.
Well, i should not have turned on QVC yesterday cause they had a halloween show! I ordered a battery operated fright sound machine! I can use it to record a halloween message on my answering machine, carry it with me to the big party and use it at my front door on halloween night!
Ok, I know I wasted $20 on something that I really don't need, but I really enjoy Halloween! But I need to keep the tv turned to the news channel instead!

My dh stands up all day. His feet hurt a lot and he needs a new pair of work shoes about every 6 months. Those who enjoy shoe shopping would love going with him.
If we go to the mall, he goes to every store and tries on every pair in the store. (I buy the first pair that fit me, I hate shoe shopping)
This goes on all day until he finds the best pair.

I won't even go to the mall with him any more. We have a large store locally that sells everything, including shoes. So I send him by himself.
I always tell him, if he finds something he likes, buy two pair.
Then he will have a pair for next time. He went yesterday, found two pairs, bought one! They were $75. He could not bring himself to pay $150 for two pair. So, He will have to go thru this again in about 6 months! Oh well, at least I did not have to go with him!

Ugh!! Now I know why I like new cars. My dh van is sick, not sure what is wrong, but he says it hardly runs. The othe day he couldn't get it out of park. The hot rod will not crank and the old vette has something leaking out of it. Sounds like they all need to be fixed at once!
I even have a burned out side light in my car. Looks like this will be the month of the car repairs!
Dh is at the garage with his van right now, getting worked on. It is his work truck and he cannot do without it. Ihope it is fixable and can last another year or two.
It is only a 2001 but has done a lot of heavy hauling. I am keeping my fingers crossed that is will last a little longer. I got it paid off last christmas and then started a car fund, using that payment and putting it aside every month.

I signed up to take bridge lessons today and I took my first lesson this morning. I am not a morning person and it started at 9 am, but I think I will enjoy it.
So, I spent $25 for the class and $7 for the bridge book.
Then I found a magazine that had several pages of the inside of a house my dh built, so I had to go buy a few copies of those.
Oh well, I think the money was well spent today and I know I will enjoy those lessons.!

It feels so good to be back home, in a nice big house, not a little motel room. I tried to be a little frugal on this trip.
We had a fairly cheap (for us) dinner out the first night. We went to TGIFridays and I had just potatoe skins and dh had a burger. We did share a bottle of wine.
DH really wanted steak the next night, so we had a splurge night, with filet mignon and a bottle of wine!
Anyway this trip was paid for out of the money from my "charge card" envelope cause I haven't been charging much.
DH got to look at a million old cars, and I caught up on lots of money magazines and Mary Hunts book, cheapskate money makeover.

I am going to gatlinburg, tenn. this week. we go every year, to the car show in Pigeon Forge, but we like to stay in gatlinburg so we can walk to everything.
We usually spend at least $500. It is about $200 for the motel room and the rest is food and gas.
The place we like to eat is expensive. By the time we have filet mignon, a bottle of wine and leave a 20% tip, we blow close to $100 just for dinner.
The place we LOVE for breakfast is the pancake pantry. It is so good, but so expensive. Breakfast, which is usually cheap, runs close to $20 with a tip. I just get a plain waffle and water and that is $7.
Food is just expensive in a tourist town. I am going to try and cut down on my expenses this week, but having at least one cheaper dinner, I hope.
I really hate to blow the money but this is one trip my husband looks forward to all year long.
If you have read my blogs, you know my husband works 7 days a week, so this is a real treat to him.