That is what I am paying for gas! It is cheaper to eat out than buy gas!!
Yesterday, I had a no spend day and the stock market went up a little. Today, I picked up a couple of steaks on sale and saved $3 there. So, $5 more to add to the challenge.
Prev. total $6795.00
today 5.00
new total $6800.00

I am making up a deposit to take to the bank and put in my savings account this morning. I have $100 in Ridge money to add to the $20 challenge.
Prev. total $6695.00
today 100.00
new total $6795.00

Wow, we have had 3 days without the heat running. However, that has just about come to an end since it is colder today. But it was nice while it lasted. I figured out that on a really cold day, it was taking between $5 and $6 a day to heat the house. It will be much cheaper to run the air conditioning!

I noticed that someone added their interest to their $20 challenge. I had wondered about doing that, but decided that I would not. Our interest totaled $2112 for the month, which was about $430 less than I earned last month on less money. I hope rates don't go much lower. This rate cutting is not good for us savers!

My net worth went up for the month of March even tho every mutual fund and stock that I owned went down. But, I was able to add some cash to my savings. I had my monthly insurance premium (which I cancelled) to add to my challenge money today.
Prev. total $6655.00
today 40.00
new total $6695.00

The braves finally won their first game. (they lost the first three) The stock market went up on Tuesday and I had a no spend day yesterday. That is $3 to add to my challenge money.
Prev. total $6652.00
today 3.00
new total $6655.00

Earlier I wrote a post about being called a millionaire lady! Now let me tell you what happened to my husband because of the way he dresses!
Neither of us dress up and dh wear work clothes. He is a carpenter. all of his work clothes have caulking or paint or something on them. I can buy him new, by tomorrow, those clothes look like work clothes with stains on them.

He has been having trouble with his work van since last summer. He has had it fixed, but the transmission is not working right, the heat and air don't work and it needs new tires. It has 150,000 miles on it.

He just took on a new house to build in the next state over. His old van is not going to make it, so it is time for new.
He stopped at the car place to talk about buying a brand new work van, and no one will even talk to him.
He is not dressed well enough. They don't think he can afford a new vehicle.

I remember when he tried to buy me a new vette for our 25th anniversary and no one would even bother with him.
This has happened at banks too, when we go into open an account that is paying a high rate. The lady will tell us, sorry but you can't open that account. You have to have $50,000 to open it! So I give her a check for $100,000.

I told him to go back to the dealership and talk to the manager! He would have bought one yesterday, if someone would quit treating him like he is just wasting their time.

So what if clothes are not our passion!!

Maybe he should tell the next car salesman that he is married to the millionaire lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Think that will work???

Dh called yesterday. He had to meet with the truss guy down at the local building supply place and he needed a set of plans that he had left on his drawing table. So, I took the plans down to him.
After I met him there, I went to talk to the new bookkeeper in the office.
After I left the building supply place, one of the younger salesladies came up to dh and asked, "Do you know the millionaire lady?"
Dh said, "who is the millionaire lady"
She said, well she is that blond lady that you spoke to. She always drives a red corvette and she pays a really big bill here every month. That is why we call her the millionaire lady!
Dh said, "yes I know her, that is my wife"

Hey, if you have to be called a name, millionaire lady is a pretty nice name to be called!!

Today was a good day for the stock market. I hope it continues. I checked all my stocks and mutual funds and everyone of them are down for the month. I guess this means my net worth will go down for the month of March. I will update my net worth tomorrow! Ican not believe how far C.D. rates have fallen. I have one coming due in a month and now the banks are offering 2.5% !! Good gosh!!

Well, next I was going to tell you all that I was going to get rid of my 3 vettes and get an old car to ride around in.
By now, you know that I am having fun on April Fool's day!!

(I won't even tell you about the best trick I ever pulled on a friend, but he thought he was being arrested. I posed as April Fuller from the sheriff's dept.) (get it, April Fooler??)

Ok, this is my new resolution!! I am cooking dinner at home from now on. Every night!! No more eating out!! I am resolved to love making menus, cooking a meal and cleaning it all up, every night!!























April's Fool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went out to dinner last night a little late. We just sat down, when Mr. and Mrs. Pest showed up and asked if they could join us! These are easily the most boring people in the world!! they use to pull this on us all the time. I think it is so rude to just show up and join people for dinner! Needless to say, I did not enjoy my evening out!

Durn. I just checked my money market accounts and the bank has lowered the rate to 2.2%, down from 2.9%. When I first opened the accounts, they were paying 5.25%, so they have really come down a lot the past several months. I need to keep some cash locally, but I guess I need to shop around a bit! If I had to live on my interest, that sure would have been a sharp cut in pay this past 3 or 4 months!!

Well, the fed cut the interest rate again, today. I guess this means all of our savings account rates will go down again. Darn!

I just got home from playing bridge and I see that the stock market went up 21 points. They were expecting a big down turn today, so things were not as bad as I had expected. I am so glad!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy St. Patrick's day. Be sure to wear something green today. My grandparents were both born in Ireland, so I really do have some Irish blood in me!!

We went to talk to a couple about building a house, yesterday afternoon. We have really loved building spec houses. That way we could build a house the way we wanted to and they all sold quickly.
However, there are now 700 houses for sale in our small area (county population is 19,000) so we do not need to do any more spec houses for a while.
So, we are back to building custom homes but right now, no one is building anything.
so, we don't know yet if we have this house to build or not.
We are working on a big house now, so dh is staying busy for now. We just don't know what the future will bring.
So far, we are not too worried, but it would be nice to get another house to start on. Keeping fingers crossed!!

I tried to save money last night, but cooking dinner. I had a meat loaf all made up and ready to cook.
Dh came home all excited. It warmed up yesterday, no rain in sight and he was ready to drive his hot rod. He had not driven it since early October because of a tail light problem.
He took his birthday off and worked on the problem and finally got it all fixed last week.
So off we went, out to dinner and cruising the town in his 1933 ford victoria!!
He was happy as a clam and so was I. He is eating the meat loaf for lunch for the rest of the week!
(I just wish the hot rod had a heater!)

Does anyone save aluminum cans and sell them. I do not because there is no place around here to sell them. However, I overheard a man at Sears last night, talking about selling them for $1 a pound. Can that be true??

It went up 417 points today. That is good news for today anyway! I got my deposit in the bank today before 2 pm. So I earned an extra 20 cents in interest today!!

I just looked back at my mutual funds portfolio for the past 3 months. On Dec. 12th, I had 46K more in my mutual funds than I had yesterday. Let's hope today things go better!!

I had a no spend day yesterday and should have another one today. I am going over to a friend's house to play bridge, and that costs me nothing! These no spend days are getting easier. for sure!!

I hope you all remembered to "spring ahead" last night and set your clocks. I did not. The atomic one is confused and still running an hour late.
Also, my husband's cell phone did not change time either. They told him at Radio shack that it would change all by itself, it didn't. I will enjoy the extra hour of daylight for sure!!

I was asked what the JU key on the computer means, at the local restaurant? It is my usual order that I place almost every night. (It stands for Julie's usual)
My usual order is a plain hamburger (no bun), a side of spagetti, with the sauce on the side. (cause I only use one spoonful) The cost is $6.99 and I take about half of it home with me. (for Holly) All the waiters and waitresses there know "Julie's usual"

We eat at a local restaurant a lot, so much so that the owner calls us her "stockholders"
Last year, they switched over to using computers for their food orders. Because I eat there so much and usually get the same thing, they had the computer programmed with a special button that reads JU! That stands for Julie's usual!! Now, aren't I special!!

I was thinking of all the things I have bought in my life time, my dogs have been my best purchase! I paid $300 for Holly and I would not, honestly, take $3 million dollars for her.
My dogs have brought so much joy in my life. I am all for getting a puppy or grown dog at the animal shelter, but I love little poodles and they are not given away very often!
Yes, she is my buddy and my protector!(not that anyone is scared of her, she only weighs 5 pounds)

It has been snowing all morning. Our power went off for a while and it was pretty cold here in the house. I splurged and turned it up to 65 when the power came back off.
I checked my propane gauge yesterday and we should have enough to get us thru the heating season, but I will be happy when the temp. is about 70 all the time.

That is about how much money I have handled for our home building customers the past 24 years.
We don't give contract prices, my dh just builds by the hour. We can give them a pretty good estimate, but we can't control how much they spend when it comes to picking out fixtures, countertops, etc., etc.
I keep each account in a notebook, pay all the bills and give the customer a copy of the notebook, and all the paid bills.
That way, each customer knows where there money is being spent down to the penny!
Now, I just wish there was someway I could have earned interest on that 25 million!!

They are calling for it to snow tomorrow. The leaves on my weeping willow tree are coming out. I don't want any more snow!!! I think everyone is ready for spring!! And that extra hour of daylight too!

y net worth did not go down in Feb. as I originally thought. All my mutual funds and stocks went down, but I managed to add enough cash to my savings to make up for it. My net worth went up slightly. I hope the market gets better!