October was an expensive month. We lost a week's pay going to Florida. Plus we had all that car trouble to the tune of about $2100.
Then we bought a new car and put down a big down payment. Plus I had to come up with $450 for the insurance on the new car.
Let's hope that November is a little better money wise.

Also, I noticed that when I checked out my banking accounts online, the interest rate has gone down again.

We went to a party last night and it was so much fun. They had live music and they were so good. Without a drum, they managed to play my favorite song to dance to, WIPE OUT!!
I think I totally outdanced everyone there and I was the oldest dancer on the floor!!

I just calculated my networth for the month of October. ( I did include yesterday's bad stock market slide)
to my surprise, the new worth went up slightly, even tho we bought a new car and I put down a big down payment.
So, that is a nice surprise!

I got a headstone for my last dog, Lucy. It arrived in the mail today. We have all 3 of our dogs buried out beside the creek, all with their own little headstone. Do any of you do this?

About twenty years ago, I starting making new year's resolutions or goals. I always write them down and i date them if and when I meet the goal.
One of my goals this year was to earn $20,000 in interest on my savings. During this past week, I have made my goal. I have earned $20,591 in interest sice the first of the year.
I have also met my goal of $20,000 for the challenge (I didn't count the interest that I just talked about) And also my goal of paying off the property that I call "The Ridge at Owltown" (cause that is the name of the subdivision)

I am thrilled with the $20,000 in interest but realize I could not have done that if we were still building spec houses. Then our money would be sitting in a house and not in the bank.
Let's hope the housing market will start looking up next year.

We had a great time on the square last night. Saw lots of people we knew, but no one knew us.
In the restaurant we were recognize more easily. First, we park the corvette out front, so everyone knows we are there. Second, we always sit next to each other on the same side of the booth and most couples dont]'t. We have done this for over 30 years.
So, everyone saw us first when they came in and came over and said, it that you guys??
It was fun to dress up and look weird!

Am I the oldest member of this forum that is going to dress up tonight and go out for Halloween?
Our little town has a big deal. They close off traffic on the square and about 60 people set up tables with candy for all the kids.
We dress up too and walk around with all the kids.
Then we go out for dinner in full costume. Last time, the president of the local bank looked at us like we were crazy!!

Happy Halloween.

I am still around, I have just had a quiet no spend day. I have been working on the material I have to submit for my husband's state contractor license, so I have that all done. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I have yet to turn on the heat in my house. It was 64 in here this morning. When my dh let my little dog get into bed, she went directly under the covers. I have a heating pad in the bed that she sleeps in. I did so well on my electric bill the past 6 months, but I don't control my heat as well. I budget $30 a week for heat all year long. so that is about $1500 a year that I allot for heating. I had 400 gallons of propane put in last month to the tune of $750. So that is half of my budgeted amount for the year. Hope we have a warm winter!

I feel so lucky to be a member of this forum. All the members are so nice, just our own little family. I have been on other forums and there are many "not so nice" type of people on them.
I know we don't always agree with each other, but I love the encouragement on this forum!

I just called to check on car insurance for our new car. The saleman said he would take care of it, but he didn't. So, I have just charged the first six months premium to my charge card. I will pay it off next month in full.
BTW, my insurance for the next 6 months is $450 which I did not think was too bad for a new corvette.
I have a great record, no accidents and no tickets in my life!!

I decided to send the mechanic that fixed our car in Florida a check as a means of saying thank you. He did a great job of taking our car all apart and then getting it back together so we could go home the next day.
I called the dealership and got his name, so the check will be on the way soon today.

Do you have lady bugs? As soon as it gets cool here, they start swarming in. Then we are stuck with them all winter. They manage to get inside the house thru the attic and come in thru the can lights. I spend all day vaccuming them up constantly!! I just wondered if anyone else has this problem? They seem to love light colored stucco houses.

When we bought the new car yesterday, the salesman gave us 2 free t shirts. I love getting free t shirts for my husband. He is a builder and always looks the "part" with his stained and paint stained clothes. We also got a free tank of gas.
So, even tho we went to a party today for 800 people (called the "Bash"), I used none of my gas and had a no spend day.
We went to a party last night, so I got free dinner last night and free lunch today. Saving that money!!

I griped about our terrible car trip yesterday, but I did forget to mention that the class reunion was great. We had a good turn out and some folks were there that I had not seen in 45 years. Boy, did they look old! Even the weather was not too terrible. It cooled down at night (this was in florida) but the misquitoes were not very nice.

We left for my class reunion last Thursday morning and were supposed to be back home on Sunday night.
On Thursday night, after driving almost 600 miles, the car died, in a busy intersection, only 1 mile from our motel.
Luckily we had dh's cell phone (inside my suitcase) and called 911. After an hour, we got towed to the chevy place.

So there we were, carless, at our motel. We finally managed to rent a car late the next day.
It turns out, it was the fuel pump. (vettes have two, why I don't know)

In order to put in a new fuel pump, the whole car has to be taken apart, the rear end, the transmission, the wheels, etc. (That was a 12 hour job)

We thought we would get the car back late MOnday, but they ordered the wrong part and the right part did not come into the service dept til Tuesday noon.

We had a great mechanic and he managed to get the fuel pump in and the car back together by 5pm that day.

So, $2000 poorer, we managed to get back on the road early Wednesday morning and get home last night.

I am very thankful that we got home safely and have a great line of credit on our credit card!! That is why I pay it off every month!

I am back. I went for a 4 day reunion and it turned out terrible!! I will give details later, but let it be known that I am alive and well!!

I will be going to my class reunion soon. I have saved up the money over the months, so i won't have to take any out of my savings.
My dh is very disappointed because he wanted a new car to take to Florida.
We were told the end of Sept., that it would be here in a few days, but somebody told us a fib I think!
I don't use write down what I spend on a trip. do you?
I just know how much money I take with me and count what I have left when I get home.

I use to do a lot of land closing dueing to the fact that we bought land and built spec houses. I was so glad that when we bought our first lot, we used the seller's attorney.
She was really nice, knew what she was doing and very reasonable in price.
Well, she retired a few years earlier, so I have been going to more expensive attorneys.
She recently reopened her office and we just got back from doing a quit claim deed. She only charged me $40!

I don't know how anyone can live without a pet?? I dropped Holly off to be groomed at 10 am. and I missed her so much. No wonder I haven't taken a vacation without my dog in about 25 year!
So, that was $32 spent today, but she sure looks pretty!
While she was gone I colored my own hair , so that was certainly saving money. Dh is coming home early today so we can go to the attorney's office and get the quit claim.

Well, we went to an attorney this morning to have a quit claim drawn up. My dh is giving his 1/3 of the Florida duplex to his middle brother.
then middle brother can go get a loan and fix the house back up.
That is one financial burden that I am glad to be rid of!

Well, to save money I decided to start using regular gas in my car. The owner's manuel says I can and the cost is 25-30 cents a gallon difference.
Well, things went fine the first two weeks, but last week I could hear a pinging sound when accelerating.
So, I let the car get as empty as possible and just filled back up with premium. I spent over $41, the most I have ever spent in my life.
I can remember when gas was 17 cents a gallon and there were gas wars!

I had 2 no spend days in a row. Now it is time to go to the bank. I think the only thing that closed yesterday was the banks, post office and the government. The stock market was open for the day, but went down.

I had a no spend day today, make that two in a row. I also have not used any gas for the past two days.
Today the banks are closed so that is one of the reasons I did not make it to town.
We played bridge all day and had some very good cards. It is always a lot more fun to win than lose.

Gosh, it seems like the cost of food keeps rising and rising. I noticed that even the price of bird seed has gone up.
I keep 4 full time feeders going all the time and those birds (and squirrels) really go thru the feed.
It use to be a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds ran about $15. This week, dh came home with a bag and it was $22!
It is getting expensive but the birds are worth it!!

Right now it has been warming up in the mountains of N. Georgia. I haven't turned the heat on yet, but I did get 400 gallons of propane delivered. (Almost $800)
The air is still set on 76 degrees. Yesterday afternoon, late, it hit 77 degrees in the house, so the a/c turned itself on.
The hottest part of the day here seems to be just about the time we are getting dressed and ready to go for the evening.

Actually, the weather is perfect, cool at night and mid 70's in the daytime. I guess we had better enjoy it while we can.

I finally got around to doing my net worth upgrade for the month of September. It went up more than $12,000 for the month, most of that due to the stock market, which can be pretty fickle.
I keep track of my net worth, both on paper and on networthiq.com.
Do any of you post on networthiq.com?

Well I just got a phone call and my financial class has been cancelled for tomorrow and the rest of the term.
It seems the teacher left the Edward Jones firm and they won't let him use their materials to teach the class.
Too bad, cause I really enjoyed the class!

I spent quite a bit in September. The dishwasher and ice maker both went out. The repair bill was $400, but the dishwasher still did not work, so we bought a new one for $600.
Then I had to pay out $2000 for general liability that the state of Georgia requires for licensed contractors.
The problem is, we paid that last year and no one has a license yet.
To me it is like I have wasted $4000 on unnessary insurance.
I did charge the new dishwasher and hope I can save up and pay it off this month. So far this year, I have not had to take one penny out of my savings, but that is what it is for, right! So, If i have to, I will make a withdrawal, but I will keep trying to find a way to save that $600!

I just totaled up the interest that I earned for the month of September. It was a very decent amount, $2346.59. I know it will go down next month because the interest rate on some of my accounts have been lowered, but I am still happy with that! Very happy!