The dow is below 10,000 right now. The lowest it has been in about 9 years. I know I am a lot poorer on paper than i was last christmas. I am just glad I am a saver and have a good bit of cash in the bank.

When we moved here, the very first person we hired to help us build houses was a young guy (30). Part of his crew was his wife, his brother and his brother's wife. They would help dh frame in the houses and put on the roofs. Over the years, we kept in touch and the two guys did a lot of work for us. He was a very heavy smoker and so was his wife. His wife got ill and quit smoking and begged him to quit too.
Last month, just out of the blue, he found out he had lung cancer. He died last night.
Please,if you smoke, quit smoking. I know how hard it is. I started smoking when I was 12 and quit cold turkey after 35 years. Think of all the money and years you will save!

i just got propane delivered this afternoon. The cost was $1821 for 697 gallons. I remember the first winter we lived in this house, I heated the whole house for $300. I am hoping that this will last me the entire winter.

Happy October. I hope this month is better than last month!!!

I have been writing down my totals in mutual funds over the past year. Since Dec. 10th of last year, my mutual funds are down $93,000. I lost over $20,000 just yesterday. I know I keep too much in cash, but this year I am glad it is sitting in the bank, earning me a little interest.

Did anyone else notice that christmas will be here 3 months from today?? Time to go shopping!!!

This area is starting to really have tough times. The North Georgia mountains has done well the past 15 years because of real estate sales and lots of home building. Now, all of that has stopped. There are almost 800 homes for sale in this small county with a population of only 19,000. No one is building anything. I have friends who are getting foreclosed on. One friend yesterday told us that he is getting his old house back. He sold it a few years ago and held the mortgage. Now the new owner can no longer make the payments on the house, so he is giving it back to the first owner.
The previous owner has since retired and was counting on the payments to help fund his retirement.
A truck driver friend says that lots of states are doing just fine, but Georgia sure does not seem to be one of them.

Funny thing, we all worked so hard to get our Georgia's building license and now there is nothing to build. We have to have liability insurance to keep our license and it is so expensive but we have to pay even if we are not building. If we drop it, we lost our license. I really can't see things getting better next year either. I am just glad that we have savings to tide us over.

I had heard of gas shortages in Atlanta, but we were having no problems here. Yesterday, dh called me from Murphy, N.C. where he is building a house. There was no gasoline at the stations!!
I remember the gas shortages in 1976! It was terrible. My dh has to drive his work van about 60 miles round trip to work every day, so he really needs the gas. I told him I would fill up the vettes and he could use them for work. Luckily, he was able to fill up his van at the corner last night, so he should be good for a few days. He spent close to $140 on gas yesterday. He even filled up his old van, just in case.
Things are not looking too good right now.

My dh is a very talented builder. We have stacks of letters of reccommendations.
He can do almost anything. He does the plumbing, the electical, lays tile, hardwood floors, builds his own cabinets, furniture, etc.

So, he is always being called to fix something. I don't mind that, but I don't think he charges enough.
Last weekend, he had to do some plumbing work in a neighbor's shower. He spent two hours over there working, plus made two trips to Ace hardware to get nuts and bolts.
His total bill for labor and materials is $50. I think that is too cheap.

Once a year, I have to call the a/d guy to come out and add freon to the upstairs airconditioner cause there is a slow leak somewhere. (And he installed the air conditioner, so it's his fault)
He always charges me $115 and he is here for less than 10 minutes!

No wonder, dh has so many friends!

(btw, I meant to say a/c guy)

I just got back from sav a lot. I know they do not have a lot of brand items, but they do have some. Their prices are much cheaper than at Ingles. I have been using their olive oil and I think it is fine and much cheaper. I also can buy my brand name link sausage for $1.50 less than at my usual store. Do any of you shop there?

I can't get over the stock market today. Did I see it right? Has it been way up and way down today?? When my dh comes home from work, he asks me how much money he lost today!
I don't even want to look at my funds right now.

dh and I sat out on the back deck last night, listening to the creek and thinking back. We have both worked very very hard since we were young teens.
I remember wanted to move to the mountains before I turned 40! And we did it.
We came here not having any idea what we would do for a living. My dh drew house plans back in Florida.
In the N. Ga. mountains, there was very little building going on and no need for house plans.
We lived in a travel trailer for almost a year and my dh built our Lincoln Log home completely by himself. He could not find anyone to help him. (to hire) He lifted every log by himself.
After that, he got an offer to build another Lincoln Log home.
We became a dealer for Lincoln Logs, but we lived so far out of town, we had no lookers.
Finally someone contacted us. They would buy their home kit from us if dh would come to Franklin, N.C. to build the house. That was close to a 2 hour drive one way, but we wanted that commission so badly, he took the job.
He would drive there and spend days there, alone, at the job site. Again, he did everything alone except for help putting the roof trusses on.
He slept in the back of his van to save money and washed up in the creek.
He did that for months until he finished the house. It was a long and gruleing time for him.
I worked as a waitress. Most days I only made $20 for working all days, some days it was much less.
So, we both were working pretty hard.

Oh yes, the commission that we made for the sale of the house. It was around $1500 and we were so happy to get it!!

Because of the hurricane, it looks like the price of gasoline will be going up for a while. That does not affect me a whole lot because I do not do much driving, but my dh does. The house he is building now is about 25 miles away, one way. What I am most worried about is the shortage of gas for the next few weeks. They say the refineries will be shut down for about 10 days.
I guess when his work van runs out of gas, he will have to carry his tools in a corvette. At least he will be going to work in style!! lol

Gasoline in this area went up a dollar since yesterday. Some of us were warned and filled up our tanks. I don't drive that much, so I only spend $11 to fill up my tank, but my husband spent over $100. They say the price went up because of the pending hurricane, but oil was down to $100 a barrel yesterday. Raising the price because of what MIGHT happen, does not make sense to me!! Did gas prices go up where you live?

We went on our first vacation of the year, 3 days in Gatlinburg, Tenn. My husband loves old cars and every year they have a show in Pigeon Forge called "Shades of the Past"
We stayed at a nice hotel right down town, had several excellent meals and really enjoyed ourselves.

However, all that changed when we got home. There was a message on the answering machine that said someone had found my husband's youngest brother dead in his house. He had not been sick. He was only 47. Needless to say, we are in shock. They will do an autopsy to determine the cause of his death.

Hug your family!

We are going to Gatlinburg today. There is a car show in Pigeon Forge that my dh has not missed in 25 years.
Gatlinburg is the reason we moved to the mountains. I had lived in Fla. since a child and so had dh. When we married we went on cruises on vacation.
One year, friends asked us to go with them to Gatlinburg. I fell in love with the mountains and shortly after, we found an acre in the mountains on the toccoa river and bought it. The cost of the acre was $13,000. (Now they go for $250,000) We moved to the north Georgia mountains and have loved it this past 25 years.
I have changed a lot in 25 years. Now I can go to Gatlinburg and not buy anything! Just love the good food that you can get there!!
See you soon!!

I got my new credit card in the mail today. Last Monday the fraud dept. at chase called me to see if I purchased $252 worth of make up. Of course, I had not, so they told me to cut up my card. It has seemed funny not to have a credit card for the past 8 days. Not that I have needed it, I am just use to having my credit card with me.
I am glad the fraud dept. was on the ball!!
I try and remember to check my statement every day, but it takes about two days for something to post to my account.

I did my net worth today. It has increased a little since last month. I have not been putting as much into savings as usual.
Now, that I have a personal checking that pays as much interest as my savings account, I have open several sub accounts in the account and are keep track of the money on paper.
One account I opened was a "house account" I need to have some things fixed up around the house. First, I paid to have the house cleaned for 2 days.
Next my dh wants to take a few days off to pressure wash the house and retile the back porch. We also need a couple of items of new furniture, so I have been putting most of my "other" savings into this "house account" (I keep the $20 challenge money separate. This is my usual weekly saving out of the paycheck)

And that is what the day means to us, it is a Labor day. Dh has gone on to work as he has every labor day for the past 30 years. That is how long it had been since he has had a paid day off!
Hope you are enjoying your day, if you are off work today!!

The economy is getting pretty bad in our area. I just noticed that a real estate company that has been here for ages, has closed down. No body is looking for real estate and no body is buying anything.
I have a friend who is experiencing some rough financial times right now. I know that this is depressing her right now but she is trying to work thru her depresssion by going shopping a lot.
I think we all should be saving as much money as possible right now.
When the going gets tough, the tough do NOT go shopping!!

I mentioned yesterday that our medical fund (that I fund myself) took a big hit this week with about $750 in expenses the past two days.
We had medical insurance for years and never used a penny of it, although we spent $90,000 in premiums.
A few years ago, we dropped the insurance, but everyone has warned me how stupid that was.
Well, I decided when I was young, that I would never be sick! So far, that has worked out well for me!! I have only been to the doctor's twice in my life.

However, my dh does get sick once in a while. So, we went ahead and got medical insurance on him, but with a $10,000 deductible. It runs about $200 a month. I am holding on, waiting for medicare!! But I am putting away $400 a month in a medical fund!!

Our medical fund fund is taking a hit this week. We paid out $140 to find out that dh does NOT have to have a colonoscopy done this year and today, I took him to the oral surgeon. That bill was $695 but they knocked off $85 cause we don't have insurance.
Even tho he got put to sleep, he wanted to go back to work this afternoon. I made him stay home and rest. Just so glad that we have a medical fund when we need it. I put aside $100 a week for this.

dh went to the doctor last month for a check up. The doctor suggested that he needed a colonoscopy and stated that he no longer did them. Dr. set him up with a specialist, and we went there yesterday. It was $140 charge just to become a new patient.
We see the specialist who says that dh does NOT need a colonoscopy for another 3 years. He only does them once every ten years if no polyps were found the first time.
So, we paid out $140 for nothing plus lost at least 4 hours of work!! grrrr...

My old water distiller gave out on me last November. I ordered a new one, just like it and was told it was back ordered til february. Obviously, it is no longer being made since I have never received it.
DH and I drink a lot of water. That is all we drink all day long and I am getting tired of buying bottled water. It is not the cost so much as I hate all those plastic bottles being thrown away.

So, I bit the bullet and ordered a new water distiller yesterday. It was $169 but my last one lasted me 11 years, so it will pay for itself. I am so excited to get to start distilling my own water again.
I also checked on my Chase reward master card and I have earned another $50 check. so I will put that in my challenge when it gets here. Life is good!!

Yesterday, I had some young ladies come to clean my house. Sort of a spring type cleaning. So, I did a lot of reading and forgot to see what the stock market did yesterday. Did anyone watch?? Did it go up or go down??

They are coming back today. Yesterday they cleaned all of the upstairs, today they are doing the downstairs. It will cost me some money, but I will have a very clean house!! Next to rent a pressure washer and clean the outside!!

I opened up a new personal checking account last month. I don't keep much money in my personal checking because I put in just enough to pay the bills.
However, this new checking account pays 3.1% interest, so I am keeping all of my weekly budgeted money for property taxes, car insurance and house insurance in this account.
Yesterday, this account paid me $12.98 in interest; the first time I have ever earned interest on a personal account in my life!! This is great. The only requirement is that I must keep $1000 in the account in order to be paid interest.
I love it!!

We had a yard sale this morning to help a needy single mom get ready for school and band!! We had a dollar amount in mind, and we made it!! I am so happy! It was worth getting up at 6:15 am and standing up for 5 hours!! Plus we got rid of a lot of "stuff" I am taking the leftover new toys to toys for tots!! (Plus I am resting my feet)

Well, 08-08-08 turned out to be a lucky day not only for the chinese but for the stock market today also. The dow went up over 300 points, so maybe our net worth will look a little better tomorrow.

We decided to eat at home last night and save money.
I bought hamburger on sale for $3, polish sausage on sale for $3, buns for $1, potatoes and onion for $2. Then i bought an apple pie with a dollar off coupon for $4. We used about $2 worth of charcoal.
Plus, we had to run the oven for a hour for the potatoes and another hour for the pie.
Then dh had to fix up the lettuce, tomato, onion, meat, etc. Afterward we had to clean up and run the dish washer. Total cost with counting the things we already had on hand, $15.
We eat out at our usual place and get our usual meal for $16!! And someone else does all the cooking and cleaning!

hmmmm?????