I use to shop the day after easter to get stuff on sale for the following Easter. I liked getting cute things on sale for the Easter basket. I did not buy candy of course. It really saved a lot of money at Easter time.
Now, I don't have any baskets to fill, so I don't buy anything.
I did look today for some Easter colors M&M's on sale today, but they were sold out.
Did you get anything on sale?

I saved money on Money magazine. I have subscribed for years, but in January, I decided not to renew for a while. I got an offer in the mail yesterday to renew for $10 less than normal. So, I am taking them up on their offer.
Happy Easter day to all!!

Yesterday, I was playing bridge with 3 other ladies. We were talking about soup cause one lady had not been feeling well and was eating lots of soup.
She mentioned Progresso soup, chicken noodle.
I had purchased a can of that soup on sale for about $1.50 and I liked it. However, when I went to get another can of it, the price was $2.50. I just can't make myself pay that much for a can of soup and I told her that.
She said that whenever she goes grocery shopping she never looks at the price of anything she buys so she is always shocked at how much her grocery bill is weekly.
Gosh, I can't imagine not looking at the price, can you?

I guess so. The leaves are coming out on all the trees and shrubs. However, they are calling for snow tonight and tomorrow. Hey, I don't live up north. I live in Georgia!!! We don't need snow in april. Oh well, I have no say in the weather! We will see what happends. At least the braves won their first game!!

I talked to a friend this week and she mentioned that she got her hair trimmed and colored every other month. The cost was $125.
So, I figured out that I have saved over $27,000 over the past 37 years by coloring my own hair. Surely my money would have at least doubled over 37 years, so I have saved over $50,000 just by coloring my own hair. I wonder if my dh knows what a bargain I am? lol

April Fools Day!!


(still happily married after 32 years)

We spent the morning at Home Depot this morning. We picked up all the plumbing fixtures for the big house that dh is finishing. (5 bathrooms, 2 kitchens) Luckily, I had gotten a 10% off coupon in the mail, so we were able to save $200!! I am excited about that.

My dh just called me to tell me that the power got turned back on, in the big house he is finishing!!
That means we will get a normal paycheck for about the next two months.
This week's paycheck had to come out of savings because he does not have much work to do.
He has been waiting to start back on the big house ever since he signed the contract last Thursday morning.
He took over all his tools yesterday as well as the appliances. He bought the wood to continue on with building the cabinets. But without power to run the saws he could't do much.
He decided to try and paint this morning even tho it is dark and rainy.
But before 10 am, he got power!!
So we are back in business for a while!!

We bought two new reclining chairs for the sitting area in our bedroom. But now I am stuck with the two rockers with ottomans which are now sitting in the garage.
In florida, we would just put them out on the street with a sign that says FREE.
But we live on a dead end, with a private bridge, so we get little traffic.
I just asked my cleaning lady and she wants them. Now, we are both happy!!
She gets free chairs and I get a less full garage!

I got my taxes done yesterday. I took the paperwork to H and R block yesterday and by the afternoon, the taxes were done. I knew I would owe money, but it was not as bad as I thought.
We had quite a bit in capital gains. Does anyone know how much you pay in capital gains for 2008?

Last year, my husband worked on a large house for the better part of the year. It was his dream house. He designed the house and drew the plans.
Sadly, the owners ran out of money and the bank foreclosed. Dh had to pack up his tools and leave.
About a month ago, the bank asked several builders to put in bids to finish the house and my husband put in a bid.
We got the call yesterday that he was chosen to finish the house. We just went and signed the contract today.
It is only 2 months of work, but he will get to finish his dream house!

On the CNN news yesterday, they mentioned that the sale of furniture was up in the U.S. I wonder if I helped a little.
We got two new reclining chairs for the sitting area in our bedroom and dh brought them home Thursday. He also ordered a new table and four chairs for our breakfast room. He picked out the furniture all by himself too.
I am happy with the chairs, he did a good job. Now, I hope I like the breakfast room set too. When we moved into our house 12 years ago, we bought all new furniture. The sitting room chairs and the breakfast room set are the furniture that we seem to use the most. It is nice to have new stuff once in a while. (also glad that dh and I have the same taste. He is working in N.C. now, so that is where he bought the furniture)
He also scored a 20% discount!!

It is hard to save money when your spouse or SO is not on the same page as you are.
I have always saved 10% of my pay right off the top. Granted, that was not much because I never made very much money.
I got married at age 20. (He was 27) We did not agree on money at all. He wanted to spend, spend, spend and did not have a dime saved when we got married. I had to use my money for our first rental.
He was always into going to the dog track and playing poker. I have nothing against gambling IF you can afford it, but we really couldn't.
I was an abused wife. The first time he ever hit me, it was because I said, we can't afford it when someone asked him to go to the dog track. Of course, he went anyway.
It was not a happy marriage.
Now, I am married to a man who is a hard worker and lets me manage all of our finances.
I hope you all have spouses that are "on the same page as you are" when it comes to finances. It sure makes life easier!

Things are really getting tough in this area. We are a mountain town and have grown a lot in the past 20 years. Most work here is involved with building and it has just stopped.
I have had two friends in their early 60's who have lost their homes in the past few months.
Yesterday, really hit home. I have worked with the head bookkeeper at the local building supply place for at least 15 years. I have paid my bills to her, she makes me copies, she does my notary work, etc. I was so upset when she was laid off last summer because things were slowing down, building wise.
We saw them at a picnic last summer. Our husbands had just gotten their building licenses for Georgia and we were all so proud. Her husband was working on a house and so was mine.


About 2 years ago they bought 10 acres and built a new house.
Now, her husband has finished the house he was building and she cannot find work. I heard yesterday that they cannot make the payments on their house, so they are being foreclosed on. I feel so badly for them. He is in his early 60's.

I have been critized a lot for paying off my home early instead of investing in stocks and mutual funds.
To be trueful, when I was young, I knew nothing about stocks and mutual funds. IRA's had not been invented yet. So, I paid off my house.

I can't tell you how good it feels to have my home paid for and know that I am not in danger of losing it. My dh is almost out of work too, he finishes his last house next week, but we will be ok.

I just reccommend that no one has a mortgage to pay when they turn 60!

This is a special day for me. 32 years ago today, I met my dh.
It was a blind date in another town. It was set up by a girlfriend. I met him at her house and we went dancing. Then we came home (her home) and stayed up all night talking.
I asked him to take me to a wine and cheese tasting party the following night, but he already had a date. (He had been dating her for a while.)
I went home and slept all day.
When I put the phone back on the hook, it rang. It was my blind date, ready to take me to the party. (he cancelled his date)
It was love at first sight. we never spent another night apart again!

Wow, what at week that was. I got to see Elvis in person and 3 nights later I fell in love at first sight!!

If I get two more visitors to my blog, I will have hit the one million mark. I am speechless!! (Ima, speechless??)

Yesterday, I wrote a letter asking for a refund. we had ordered one of those edenpure heaters that have been advertised so much. It was supposed to help my husband by heating the inside of the house he is building. It did not do much of anything, so we sent it back.
It took 2 weeks, but we finally got credited back the $397 we spent on it.
So, I decided to ask for my shipping costs back. It cost almost $28 to send it back UPS. The cover letter said we could sent it back at their cost! so, I sent a copy of their letter and the UPS bill to them.
I really doubt that I will ever get that money back, but it does not hurt to ask.

A big thank you to crazyliblady for the prilosec ( and other) coupons you sent me. I got them yesterday and will put them to good use.

I have a jumbo CD coming due tomorrow. I was getting 4.8% interest, so I was going to call around on Monday to see what the other local banks are paying.
This morning, the bank called me. It seems that they are now paying 3.75% for a one year c.d. and 4% for a 2 year c.d. I was very impressed that they called me.
I will still call around town to get rates from the other banks. However, I doubt if any other bank will beat the 4% rate, so I will probably go for that.

Today is inauguration day. The president who gave the longest inauguration speech was William Henry Harrison. He refused to wear a hat or a coat and he gave a two hour speech.
He caught pneumonia and died one month later.
Better wear your hats and coats today if you are outside!!

This week has been unusual. We have stayed home six out of seven nights. We usually eat out almost every night. The car auction has been on, so we stayed home to watch that. I thought we would probably go out last night, but then it started snowing. So, we stayed home and ate pancakes. The funny thing is, we have really not saved that much money by staying home. One night we had KFC and another night we made home made pizza. We usually spend about $17 for a meal out for two (we take our own drinks) and these two meals cost almost as much. Plus the fact that we have to use the oven, clean up the kitchen and run the dishwasher.
Tonight, we are having steaks and baked potatoes. I think I will be ready to go out more next week. Of course, they are calling for snow Monday and tuesday, so I may change my mind.

Last summer, my bank offered checking accounts for 3.19% interest with a $1000 minimum. So, I changed all my accounts over to these 3.19% checkings. I opened one for business checking, one for personal checking and one for savings checking.
I have never kept much in my personal checking but instead left it in the envelopes. I put away $175 a week to pay my property tax, home insurance, insurance on the 6 vehicles and tags for the 7 things we need tags for. (6 cars and a carhauler)
Now, i am putting that cash away in my personal checking every week and keeping track of it on paper.
So I have sub accounts, one for taxes and insurance, one for filling the propane tank once a year, one for christmas, one for a new car fund and one for house expenses and vacations.

This week, I earned $28 in interest in my personal checking account. I have decided to write a check for that amount and donate it to our local humane society.
Our local humane society is a no kill shelter. They do not put an animal to sleep unless it is severely ill. I like that. So, my interest will go to a very good cause!!

I did a pinecone survey about 2 1/2 weeks ago but never received my check. Just for the heck of it, I e mailed pinecone and told them about it. ( I figured it got lost in all that christmas mail) I got an email back today saying that they will reissue me a new check. I just wanted to let you all know that in case it happens to you.

Suze is usually not on Friday nights, but she was last night. She was giving advice to a lady in serious debt.
The husband brought home $9000 a month ( nice pay) but they owed $232,000 in credit card debt. They also paid $6000 a month house payment on their million dollar home.
Suze advised her to sell the house and use the house payment to pay off the credit card debt. Of course, she told Suze that that was NOT going to happen and "something" will come up to solve the problem.
She was so in denial and Suze was so frustrated about it.
What can this woman be thinking of??

I don't watch Suze Orman much, mostly cause my dh does not like her. However, I do watch CNN a lot and once in a while, she is on there.
She was on CNN for about 30 seconds on new year's eve.
Her advice: Take social security as soon as you are able to.
She gave no reason why! My guess? She is afraid it might run out.
Well, that is what I did. My family does not seem to live a long time. I lost all 4 grandparents by the time I was 11. All my aunts and uncles died by the time I hit my mid 30's.
My father died of a heart attack at age 55 and my mother got cancer at age 55. My sister died at age 59.

So, I signed up a few months before age 62. You do not get s/s on your 62nd birthday. You have to wait til 2 months later. You also do not get a check on the first of the month. It depends on your birthday. The checks come out on Wednesday's and mine is the 4th wednesday of the month.

I decided to take my social security check and save it every month. So far, have never spent a penny. I don't feel a bit old, so I will save it for my old age. What do you think you will do?

I hope all of you have a happy and prosperous New Year!!

I got a job working at Surety Building and Loan back in 1977. If you have ever seen the Jimmy Stewart movie, "It's a wonderful life" you would know what Surety Building and Loan was like.
Just like in the movie, we made mortgage loans only.
We had 3 types of savings accounts that we offered; DI's, OS's and CD's.
The DI was for daily interest. Those accounts had the interest paid daily and paid 5.25% interest.
The OS's were Optional shares. Those accounts had the interest figured monthly (if you deposited by the 10th you earned from the first) and paid 6% interest.
The CD's were, of course, certificates of deposit, and they paid 8%

All of the home mortgages had an interest rate of 9%. Of course, mortgages were much smaller 30 years ago.

But I sure wish we could get those saving rates now.

BTW, I was the bookkeeper (one of 3 employees) and I had to figure out all the interest by hand. We never had a computer.

Just thought I would remind everyone that today, Dec. 7th is Pearl Harbor Day. This was the beginning of WWII. Thank you to all our veterans and men and women in the armed forces.

We went on a trip to florida this week to visit the in laws. It was a pretty frugal trip. Gas prices are down, so we only spent about $100 for gas. Since it is such a long ride, we pretty much ate fast food and ate in the car while we drove.
I got to shop in target for the first time, but only spent $25 and that included 2 christmas presents. The hardest part of the visit was that my in laws do NOT eat dinner at night and their little town has no restaurants. But we had big lunches out every day and we brought home the left overs. No, we did not loose any weight like I hoped we would.
I sure missed you all!!

I just heard the news. Somewhere in New York, a 34 year old worker was trampled to death as he opened the doors at a Wal Mart store. Isn't that terrible. To think, that shopping means so much to so many, does not make sense to me.What a way to start the Christmas season. So sad.