That is what I did, played bridge. I love that game. Also, I don't spend any money when I spend the afternoon playing bridge! We played at my house, so no gas used either!!

We had a great time at the party at my house last night. No one brought any music so we danced to my really old 50's and 60's records. My favorite to dance to is "wipe out" Anyone remember that one?? Gosh, we had a ton of food. My only problem was I bought $22 worth of chicken wings at KFC last night, thinking my husband could have some of the leftovers for lunch, but someone took them all home. I guess they were good, I never tried any!
The white elephant exchange was a lot of fun and we had some really good gifts.

We are having a christmas party tomorrow night. Actually, a bunch of people on the local forum have a get together every year at christmas. This is our 3rd year.
This year they are coming to my house. So, we have the house and yard all decorated.
Now, I am really not suppose to supply anything, but my dh kind of goes overboard when it comes to partiesm so we are making several appetizers and providing quite a bit of the liquor.
We have a big house, but this is a younger group and they like to dance. So tonight, we are going to transform the garage into a party room with a bar!
Now, if someone hopefully will bring some music. I doubt if they want to dance to my 50 year old elvis records!

I am excited! We are also going to have a white elephant exchange which should be fun!

MY dh has needed new glasses for over a year. He finally went for an eye exam and got a new prescription for glasses. We usually go to Lenscrafters. They involves taking a day off, losing a day's pay and a 4 hour round trip drive.
we decided to try out the vision store at the Walmarts, about 25 miles away.
Well, we did not get glasses in an hour, but we will go back and get them in about 10 business days.
While my dh tried on frames, I over heard a man asking about an AARP discount, which he got.
when figuring the total for the glasses, it was over $100 cheaper than lenscrafters, and then I asked about the AARP discount.
They took 30% off the price of the glasses saving us $70. I was thrilled. This money comes out of our medical account, so it will be no problem at all.

Paying all my bills that are due before the 10th. Also, I have to pay all the bills that are due for the houses we are building by the 10th. I did all the books and am caught up to date. I had planned on today being a no spend day but then realized I am all out of conditioner. (I bought the shampoo by mistake) I will pick some up when I go to take my computer class. So far, I don't feel like I have learned a thing. Maybe the light will come on for me someday??

I added up my interest for the month and it came to $2302.76. I really expected it to go down this month because my main bank here has lowed it's rate from 5.25% to 4.2%. I put some money into Vanguard when the money market was paying 5% but now it is down to 4.72%, the last time I checked. Every time they lower the prime rate, it does hurt us savers.

I did my net worth in networthiq this morning and it went down for the first time since I started keeping track of it. It was because the value of my stocks and mutual funds went down in November. I added some cash but not as much as I had planned cause I have several emergencies come up.

My christmas tree is up and all decorated. It looks just beautiful. It has been a few years since we had a real tree because we have cut back on presents so much. The outside of the house is all decorated too. My neighbors across the street decorated a lot, so our end of the block looks really good. No, I am not going to worry about the electric bill this month at all. It will still come in under budget. I am having the bridge group at my house today and I am thrilled that everything is all decorated thanks to my dh. He did it all!!

My dh is outside right now, cutting the grass?? The grass has not grown in over a month. However, we are having a christmas party next weekend, so I think he is mostly cutting up all the leaves that has fallen. Oh well, it is his day off and he always spends any time off, working around the house. I think he will put up christmas decorations later too.

We had our local little christmas parade today. It only lasted 30 minutes, but it was cute. The kids are getting smart now, they bring bags to carry all the candy that is thrown to them.
My dh took off early and went with me. We really enjoyed it.

Happy December 1st! I hope this month calms down. October and November proved to be pretty spending months.
First I went to my class reunion and the car broke down and we were stuck in florida. That cost us about $3000 all told.
Then I decided to get two appliances repaired. After shelling out $400, neither of them worked, so I spent another $1000 replacing them.
My husband had two eye appts. and then had to get treatment at the clinic last week. Another $450 gone!
Yesterday, I spent $400 getting new brakes on my car and having the oil changed.
Ok, I hope things are slowing down. The only major expense I am expecting this month is a pair of new glasses for dh.
I am happy to say I have still not had to dip into my emergency savings to pay for any of this, but have mananged to save up and pay these charges off of my credit card out of the paycheck.
I hope this is a quiet month!!

My first chase business card statement came today. We have being using the GM credit card which gives back 1% on all purchases and I had received several checks, plus $550 on the new car purchases.
This busines card gives you back 3% on all purchases made in home improvement stores and 1% on everything else.
Since my husband uses the car at home depot all the time, it should add up a lot quicker.
I just earned over 4000 points and I can cash in at 5000 points and received a $50 check. I think I am going to like this program!!

I have not thought too much about finances the past few days. Both dh and I came down with a stomach virus. He went to a clinic, but I did not.
I do not get sick very often, thank goodness, but it has been 3 or 4 days of throwing up and not wanting to eat.
I just had my first real meal of toast and chocolate milk a little while ago. At least we have saved money not eating out for several nights.

Wow, One month from today will be christmas day! It is coming quickly!!

I went to a surprise birthday party last night.
The big surprise. It was for me!!

I am on a local forum and one of the girls decided to throw a party for me.
We were supposed to meet for dinner last night and about six, she called me to tell me that her daughter had made me a birthday cake and to please come over to see it before we went out to dinner.

so, we went over at 7 pm. and there was about 20 people all sitting in the living room yelling surprise to me!!

They had all brought food and for gifts they brought canned food to give to the food pantry!!

We had a really great time. It was my first birthday party since I was ten years old and I never had a surprise party!!

I guess this was my best birthday ever!!

Today is black friday but I am not doing any shopping today.
Today is also my birthday. If there is anything good about being my age, it is that I have never had any desire to have all the fancy electronic do dads that everyone else has. I don't even know what they are or what they do??
so, the only store I will hit today will be the grocery store to stock up on soups for my dh's lunches.
We had a very good thanksgiving dinner last night at a friend's house. The only bad problem was that their grandsons were there and they cried almost constantly. So, I had a bit of a headache all night, which is very rare for me.
But the meal was great!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. My dh has gone onto work today, but he will come home early and we will be going over to a friend's house for dinner tonight. I met this friend over the internet, so I am grateful for that.

Don't eat too much and have a great day!!

I had a fetish! It is for ice. I constantly fill up my glass with ice! All day, all night!!
We just got a new refrigerator with ice maker. we got a real good deal on it too. We paid about $370 for it before tax.
It is making ice! So even tho my husband empties the other ice maker every day for his cooler, I still have ice. Doesn't take much to make me happy!!

I just saw my first snow flake today. I had to get some bills in the mail and go and buy a birthday card for my granddaughter. I got a really pretty card at the Dollar store for only 50 cents. I also picked up some canned goods to donate to the food pantry.
Now,I am going to go with my dh to the eye doctor in about an hour. He went yesterday for a test, so I am expecting a pretty good size bill.

My husband's builder's license came in the mail today. Funny, in the 20 years he has been licensed, no one has ever asked to see the license. I still keep it sitting out on the desk in his office. To my knowledge, he is the only licensed builder in our county! But of course, that is because it is a North Carolina building license. No license in Georgia yet but it is coming!

I love being able to check my banking accounts online now that I have a computer.
Yesterday, I checked and the check I wrote to the North Carolina Board of Licensing contractors has cleared.
That means that my renewal form for my husband's business license has been renewed.
They are so picky with those forms. If you make one mistake, they send the form, check and all, right back to you.
One year I wrote the month and year, but did not put the day's date on the form and I got it right back.

At least I know my husband's building license has been renewed for another year. Now, if we would only get the building license that he was granted, from the state of Georgia.

I guess this is one holiday that I really don't enjoy. First of all, I was born on Thanksgiving day, so it means I am another year older.
Secondly, I no longer have any family, so it is just the two of us together on thanksgiving day and I don't like to cook. There are restaurants open here for lunch, but that is all.
so, most of the time, my dh goes to work.

I made my first car payment today. The nice thing is that I did not have to fit this into my budget. I am now using my Ridge money to make my car payment. Plus, I will still have some of the ridge money left over to put into the challenge.
Actually, I have enough money in my car fund to pay the car off, but I think most of us understand about my car crazy husband. He won't buy another car until this one is paid off, so that is why I make the payments for a while.

I went out the get the mail and noticed the new neighbor cleaning up his car outside. He is dressed in a short sleeve shirt and shorts.
I am sitting inside in long pants, socks, a shirt and two sweaters on.
He has obviously lived someone much colder than this.
On the good side, I only spent $1 today to buy some oyster crackers!!

Even when I don't have a car loan, I pay into a car account. I started this back in the 80's when I bought a bronco. When I got it paid off, I just kept making that car payment every month.After several years of this, I had enough money to get a new car and I never miss the money.
So, I have been doing this for over 20 years!!

I took my new car to the dealership today, because it would not lock when I pushed the button.
The service guy explained to me, that the car would only lock when I walked 100 feet away and then it would unlock by itself when I got close to it. It can sense me coming!!
How weird is this??????????

I just got back from the food bank or food pantry as they call it. There was an article in the paper that said the shelves are empty.
so, I went thru my pantry and cleaned it out. Then, everytime, I would go shopping, I would pick up rice, beans, mac and cheese, etc.
I had a big bag full to take in today and I think I will start doing that every week!

Bad credit is the most immediate threat to the economy, according to a survey of 248 member of the National Assoc. of Business Economics.
32 percent said loan defaults and excessive debt were their greatest concern.
Only 20 percent cited defense and terriorism as their greatest economic cern, and bad credit problems were also more worrisome than gas prices, inflation and government spending.
(from MSNBC.com)

It was chilly when I got up this morning. A cool 28 degrees with frost on the ground. Even tho it is only fall, it feels like winter is here. My husband is working on railings on one house. The other house is just having the concrete floor poured tomorrow, so looks like he will be outside on that house for the entire winter.
It seems to always work out that way, I am sorry to say.

I hope everyone remembers to change their clocks back an hour today. I have all of ours changed except the one in the new car. I haven't tried that yet. I read the directions but still have not figured it out. I wish it was simple like in the red corvette.
Maybe I will just let dh worry about it.