Anyone know anything about foreclosures. They are published in the paper every week that they houses will be sold on a certain date on the courthouse steps.
However, I have seen the same foreclosured houses in the paper for months and months.
Is that because the houses just don't sell? Will the bank not take less than what is owed on the mortgage??
Just curious.

I have been paying myself ( $20 challenge fund) $1 every time I stay home all day and don't use any gas.
It is 9 miles from here to town, round trip. That is about 1/2 gallon of gas used. So, when I stay home, I pay myself $1. Well, gas just went to $4.02 a gallon here, so I need to start paying myself $2 every day I stay home. Today, I HAD to go to town, but maybe I can stay home tomorrow.

Today is my anniversary, we got married on Friday the 13th!! It has been 31 wonderful years! I have been so lucky to have such a wonderful, talented husband. I think I am going to keep this one!!!

That is the price for premium at the corner store. I just can't believe it!! I played bridge all afternoon so I spent no money except for groceries this morning.

Tomorrow is mother's day but dh and i do not celebrate because both of our mother's have passed away.
I was thinking about my mother this morning. My father died before I turned 10, so she was a widow at age 47.
She had never worked (women didn't work much back then), so she had to take a job making about $20 a week to support the three of us.
Until I married at age 20, I never saw my mother buy herself anything. She made sure she paid the bills first, bought food and that was that!
I guess that is why i find it pretty easy to be frugal, I learned by example.

Have a happy mother's day tomorrow.

I decided to put some of my cash into a c.d. paying 4%, out of money sitting in a money market account making 1.98% So I did that last Satuday.
Today it hit me. Now that my money market account is below the minimum required, they are going to hit me with a $15 fine!!
Well, at least I am making double the interest. Now, I need to get that m/m back to the minimum required! Lesson learned!!

My husband is now a licensed residental contractor for the state of Georgia.
Georgia has been working on having all builders in Georgia licensed.
Now everyone that owns a hammer ( and some that didn't even own that much) can no longer build homes that do not come up to code.(Before this, there were NO codes)
We had to turn in a lot of paperwork to prove that he has been building houses for a while. we had to get certifcates of occupancy for many of the homes and reference letters for all the homes we have built in the past several years.
Dh has been a licensed builder for the state of North Carolina (10 miles away) for about 20 years.

His license number is #399!! Good luck 399!!

I am never late on any of my bills. I just noticed that my electric bill had not been paid and it is due today. I have bridge people coming over in a few minutes, so i will have to drop it off at the bank after 5pm! The late fee is not much, but I am paranoid about paying my bills on time. I don't know how I forgot it! Must be old age or something!! I put the surplus money in my challenge account last week, but just neglected to actually pay the bill.

I just filled up my car this morning. It took 12.8 gallons and cost $49.70 to fill up. I can not imagine what some people must pay weekly just to drive to work. We live in remote area. Our little town does not even have a taxi. Everyone must drive.
Well, I don't work, so I do try and stay home more than I use to.
I don't see how some families are even making it around here!!

I drove to another county to open a c.d. this morning. I am getting almost 2% at my local bank and this bank is offering c.d.'s for one year paying 4%. This will pay me an extra $1000 in interest.(for $50,000) Actually, I could have given them another $50,000 but if my accounts (local) go to low, they will put a 10 day hold on the checks that our customer gives us to build their home. So that money will have to sit and earn the low rate. Any way, I am getting a little more interest right now!!

The rates on my money market accounts went down again. Now the bank is paying 1.98% Just a few months ago this account was paying 5.25%. Now I know why retirees that live on their interest, get upset when the rates go down!! It seems like every time I move my money, the rates just go down again.

May is my favorite month. It is warming up, but still cool at night. That means no heat or a/c yet! Everything is turning green and blooming. When I lived in florida, all months were about the same. Now, here in the mountains, spring time is beautiful! I even got married in May. What a beautiful month.

I add up my interest earned every month. Of course, because rates are going down all the time, the interest is going down every month. In april, I earned just slightly over $2000, $2017 to be exact.
I had a c.d. come due yesterday. I was going to move it to a bank out of town, but the difference was only 4/10th of a point, so I think I will leave it. I like having money in all of the local banks.

I thought I might have a no spend day, but Holly acted sick yesterday. Upset tummy, throwing up, diarreah. She has a sensitive tummy and does this a lot.
She was still sick today, so I got her in at the vets. I spent $75 and hope she feels better soon. She is such a funny eater and can no longer have "people food" which is all she likes to eat.
I am going to have to listen to her cry cause all she can have is dog food the rest of her life. Glad I am not Holly!!

Happy first day of May. this is my favorite month, I got married in May. When I was a kid, we celebrated May 1st with a Maypole dance. I wonder if anyone does that anymore??

Gping to play bridge today. A good way to have a cheap afternoon. See you later!!

We have 4 local banks in town, I try to have an account in all of them, but there is one that has given me a hard time.
I tried to open a c.d. for $100,000 last year. I went on a saturday and the customer rep. was busy. Finally, she waited on the lady ahead of me who was there to stop payment on a check. I waited for a while and then left. I opened a c.d. at another bank.
Yesterday, I decided to try again. I have a c.d. coming due and there are NO good local rates.
This bank has a checking account that pays 4% but you have to do a lot of little things to earn that rate. (online bill paying, direct deposit, debits) All things that I have never done.

So, I tried again. This bank needs to hire more customer reps. This time the lady was on the phone and after about 20 minutes, I walked out again.
I have a jumbo c.d. coming due the end of the month and no one seems to want my money!

Did the fed lower the rate again this week? If it did, I must have missed it.

I just got a good deal on a new telephone. My upstairs phone quit working a while back. (It was an elvis phone) I have to go up and down stairs every time the phone rings.
They had a sale on at rite aid. The $14.99 phone was on sale for $7.99, plus it has a $3 rebate, so i will get the phone for $4.99.
I guess the only bad thing is that I won't be getting all that exercise!

Everything is blooming and it snowed yesterday! The heat is back on and running. We are all so ready for spring.
I hate all the doom and gloom that I am hearing on CNN right now.
Everything is going up in price. We have someone call us every day looking for work, it is getting scary.
I did have a no spend day yesterday and won two games of mahjong, so that is $3 to add to the challenge.
Prev. total $6877.00
today 3.00
new total $6880.00

We finally picked up the new van this afternoon!! Now I don't have to worry about dh breaking down on his way back and forth to North Carolina!!
But now we have 6 vehicles! They would only give dh $3000 for the old van, so dh is keeping it for right now.
He plans to keep some of his larger tools (big table saws) locked in the old van and leave it at the job.
That way he won't have to load and unload the van every time he wants to pick up a load of wood.
I also got a real good interest rate on the van financing, 2.9%. I will keep my money in the bank earning 4.8% and pay the 2.9%!!
Then maybe I will open a used car lot!!

I have not been on here much the past two days. Dh brought home a sample of hardiboard that he is having painted on the house he is building. The shingles are brown, but the paint color was gray. I just realized that he must be a bit colorblind. So I have been driving back and forth the past two days trying to pick out colors for the paint, the soffits, the rock, and the porch tiles.
Thanks goodness, the painters had not gone too far with the house. They have the new paint on the house now and it looks great!! Dh says I will pick out the colors from now on!!

Dh ordered a new work van today. He did what I told him to do. Yesterday, he called the sales manager at the Ford place and told him he was not happy with the salesman that waited on him. The manager apologized to him and gave him a new salesman. The new guy located the vehicle he wanted and called him right back. Dh went over to sign the paperwork this morning and we should be able to get the van by tomorrow!!
BTW, he drove the new yellow corvette over to sign the papers, but still had on his old work clothes. (This is in another state, we have no ford place here)

Wow, I switched the channel to QVC and five minutes later I had spent $60 on something for the yard. It is spring fever for sure. Now, I remember why I never turn it on that channel!! I won 3 games of mahjong yesterday, so that is $3 to add to the challenge.
Prev. total $6815.00
today 3.00
new total $6818.00

I went on a picnic today with some of the gals on the other forum!! We had a lot of fun, but it was a little on the cool side! I should have been frugal and brought a sandwich like the others, but I had no fresh bread. (we don't use much bread) So, I spent $4 to get a blimpie sandwich. I only ate half, so I have lunch for tomorrow!! You can't always be frugal all the time, but I do try usually.

We sat outside last night, on the deck (porch) and listened to the creek. We also had a fire in the fire pit. It was so nice!! I had a no spend day yesterday and the braves won, so $2 gets added to the challenge.
Prev. total $6813.00
today 2.00
new total $6815.00

I have a little 5 pound, black poodle, named Holly. She is the boss of this house! We are thinking of getting a new puppy, but Holly has never been around dogs. When she sees one out the window (we have really low windows,) she screams and barks at them.
My new neighbors have 2 small white dogs, brother and sister.
So, I just took Holly over to meet them (her on a leash, of course, in case she tried to bit them)
She was pretty good, real excited, but not one growl. On the other hand, they both growled at her. Hopefully, she will be ok with a new puppy!

Yesterday, I won 7 games of mahjong and the braves won. (even got a grand slam)
Prev. total $6805.00
today 8.00
new total $6813.00

Dh just came home to get his hot rod to take to the car show on the square. (which is round BTW)
This is the first car show of the year. Unfortunately, it is raining, so I doubt they will get a very good turn out. I usually go, but, I MIGHT melt!!

Braves didn't win, stock market went down, but I did win 5 games of mahjong. I will add $5 to my challenge money today!!
Prev. total $6800.00
today 5.00
new total $6805.00

I just heard on today's news that the AVERAGE cost of a wedding today is $27,000. What are these people thinking??

I have only ever been to one big wedding!!It was huge with a sit down dinner and open bar. The father of the bride even paid for the hotel rooms for the guests. It must have cost $50,000 for that wedding. One year later, the couple divorced.

My wedding was at home. We provided appetizers and liquor. Someone gave us a small wedding cake. Everyone took pictures with their cameras and gave them to us later. Our entire wedding cost $100. It was a party and we all had fun!! I would not change a thing about it if I could go back! That was 31 years ago. We sure got our money's worth!!