My main credit card is a GM mastercard. I use it because it gives me 1% cash back or 3% towards a GM card.
My dh uses it the most, charging all his materials from home depot. He generally spends about $4000 a month.
The cut off date on my credit card is the 14th of the month. But I never receive it until the 24th of the month, 10 days later!!
It is due on the 4th of the month.

This month, I did not get it on the 24th. I emailed customer service. Oh, I can pay it on line, but I am nervous about that. Besides, if I do it, I have to sign up to do it every month.
I don't want big sums to come out of my checking account without me knowing.
I could pay by mail, but that is a $15 charge. Why should I pay anything?

Why don't they get me the bill on time? They insist that they mail it out 3 days later, on the 17th.

I finally got the darn bill yesterday at 4 pm. July 17th, 10 days after they say they mailed it. They can claim slow mail, but I have always gotten it late for the past year.

I think they are trying to make sure that they get a lot of late fee charges.
Anyway, you can be sure that I wrote out the check and drove to the post office to mail it yesterday before 5 pm.

As soon as we get our next rebate check or apply the amount to a new car, I am thru with them.

I also have a state farm visa. It came in a week ago and I have until the 10th of next month to pay it. This giving you 7 days to get your check in, is a bunch of balony!!

I realize that I have handled a lot of money in my lifetime. Not my money, but money belong to others. We have built about 75 homes over the past 23 years, most of them custom homes belonging to others.
I always ask for draws and pay all of the bills myself. That is a lot of paper checks, I have written in the past 23 years.
I estimate that I have handled about 15 million dollars and have accounted for every penny of it. Good thing I love bookkeeping cause I sure am not getting paid for it.

What did the dow do yesterday. I had to go out to Home depot and I missed it. Did it go up or down? Right now it is flirting with 14,000!

One of the girls could not make it, so we had to call off bridge today. I really miss it. It is good for the old brain, I think.
I got an offer from a credit card company to write a check for anything. No interest for over a year and no fee to do this. The problem is, I cannot find the card and they only gave me the last four digets of the card.
I am still thinking about doing this, but I don't know my credit limit. Any advice on how I can find out. It is a citi card.

My dh and I went out for a late sunday lunch. we were both very frugal. He even ordered water to drink. I always do. We went to waffle house and spent less than $6. He spent the morning drawing on different house plans. Now he is out in the yard working. He is always such a busy guy.

Make this your lucky day!!

Is anyone watching the Dow?? Right now it is hitting an all time high!!

My dh has finished up the two houses that he has been building.
His next project is a house that needs lots of fixing. It is a brand new house but it is really a mess. He got the outside fixed up and today he is starting on the inside.
Most of the rock had fallen off the fireplace, so I think that is where he is going to start, re rocking the fireplace with new rock.
It is a shame that a buider can do this type of work and get away with it. I hate the fact that he is working somewhere, right now, for someone, in my little town.

My husband broke ground on a new house yesterday. We met these people eating out a month ago.
Our waitress was waiting on them and told us these people are looking for a builder.
I went over to talk to them to tell them who NOT to get. Then they came and sat with us to talk. The next day they came over to look at dh's house he was working on and asked him if he would build their house.
We already have a very big (4600 sq. ft.) house lined up and really did not want another house at the time, but they are in no hurry.
We said, we could get it dryed in and Gary could finish it next year, which was fine with them.
Plus, they are letting us pick stuff out and do the house the way we want. That makes things so much easier.
With building so slow right now, we are fortunate to have so much work to do, plus our money can sit in the bank and earn interest until we start on our next spec house.
So see, sometimes eating out can make you money!!!!!

When I first started investing, I did so in mutual funds. I did a lot of reading and did my own investing. After several years of that, I decided to invest in stocks. The Edward Jones company had recently moved in our little town, so I used them for investing. (I know that is way too expensive but it was the only way I knew how at the time. No computer use either)
Most of my stocks have not done that well. I started just in time to hit the big crash in 2000-2001.
However, I still have them thru Edward Jones, but I also have joined some DRIP plans.
I got my statement from Edward Jones yesterday and noticed that I have over $140 sitting in their money market fund. I sent them a note asking for a check. I am sure their money market pays less than 1% and I can get 5% in my money market, so when that check comes, I will add it to my challenge money!

My little poodle is a very expensive dog to feed. She does not like dog food at all. I have tried every kind of dog food there is. The only thing she will eat is Beneful wet dog food.
I just stopped at the store and bought 2 containers. It was almost $4 for them. ($3.96)
My little Lucy used to eat anything and everything, but not my little Holly.
Oh well, she is worth a million to me, so I will keep buying beneful!!

My dh always believes in making plenty of food when we have company over. So, for sunday night, he cooked 16 hamburger and 6 brats for 8 people.
We had 9 hamburgers and 5 brats left over, not to mention tons of fried potatoes and baked beans.
Guess what we are having for lunch every day this week?
We were supposed to stay home for supper last night and work on a cost sheet, but we took it with us and went to the restaurant instead.

Our little party-cook out, went well last night. We sat out over the creek for about an hour. The two kids went wading in the creek and they went so far upstream we got worried. finally, they came back.
When you live in Florida, you don't see creeks very often.
As usual, my husband cooked way too much food. He cooked hot dogs and brats for 8 people and we have enough to eat for the rest of the week, easily.
We had a little scare when my puppy jumped off a chair, landed wrong and limped for a while. However, she seems fine now. I thought we might have to make an emergency trip to the vets.
Guess I will have a burger for lunch before my bridge gals get here.

My husband has been a busy bee today. He is always like that when we have company over for dinner. We went and bought the rest of the groceries this morning. Then we came home and made a homemade chocolate cake from scratch.
Next he cleaned and vaccumed the house. He cleaned the kitchen. He bleached the carpet (it is all white)He did the weedeating (cut grass yesterday in the rain)
He has hosed off the back deck and is now working on the deck over the creek. He has washed the back windows on the deck.
He will fix all of the food and then cook it all too.
I sure was a lucky gal when I met this guy. He makes me tired just watching him!

That is today's date, 7-7-07. I saw on the news that today is the most popular day to get married!! I remember one couple that got married on 7-7-77. I wonder if they are still together.
We got married in May, Friday the 13th of 1977. Seven has always been a lucky number for me, as has 13.
There are lots of 13's in my life. My post office box is 13. When I moved her, my zip code ended with 13. My account numbers at Ace and the movie rental store start with 13. My corvette came in on the 13th and the temp tag started with 13. My husband social security number ends with 13. My credit card has a 13 in it. My phone number starts with 13. Lucky 13!!

I had a no spend day yesterday. I spent no money and used no gas all day. Last night we went over to a new friend"s house ( I met her on line) for a very nice cook out. When it got dark, they put on a very nice display of fireworks. I was very impressed. They are going back to florida on tuesday, so we are having them over for another cookout on Sunday night.

We received a flyer in the mail yesterday inviting us to a free dinner. Ironically, it is at our favorite local restaurant, and we eat there every night.
It is for next Monday or Tuesday night. We have to listen to about an hour of presentation on something to save energy.

I asked my husband about it last night, but he doesn't really want to go. What would you do?? We are going to be there at the restaurant anyway!

Today I opened up a new money market account at my local bank. I have been worrying because I have too much money in that bank, far more than what is allowed for FDIC insurance.

You are allowed to have $100,000 per depositor, per insured bank.
That means a joint account with 2 names is insured for up to $200,000.

Today i opened another money market, paying 5.25% in my name only. It is a P.O.D. account, know as a payable on death. My husband is my beneficary and because this is considered an informal trust, it is also fdic insured for up to $100,000 for that account.

That is a relief off my mind. (Not that I expect the bank to fail)

The pencil leads that I bid on e bay, well I won them. I think it is cute to say, I won, because I am really paying for them. I promise, I won't look at e bay very often. I can see that you can get some good bargains, but only if it is something that you really need.
Now I have to buy a money order for $12 to pay for the pencil leads. In case you wonder why we need them, my husband draws all his own house plans by hand and we do not have an office supply store anywhere.

A very nice lady that I met online has invited us out for dinner at her place for 4th of July. She lives in florida, but has a vacation home in this area. they want to retire here some day.
Her brother and sister in law are here too, along with her husband and 13 year old daughter.
They buy about $500 worth of fireworks each year and have a big party. we went over last year, so this is turning into a tradition!
Of course, my husband is working all day tomorrow, but he will come home early so we can attend this party. Can't wait!!

I closed a small savings account yesterday. I had opened it a few years ago when the bank was offering a pretty good rate.
Last year, my local bank started offering 5.25% rate on a money market, so I took most of the money out of that account and opened a new account.

I let the old account sit there because they only pay interest every 3 months and I had several hundred coming due to me. Since then, I have just let the account sit there.
I noticed yesterday that this account is only paying me 1% interest. It is only $1300, but still I am losing money.
I closed the account yesterday and will be adding that $1300 to my money market account this coming week.

Do any of you have any little accounts just sitting around? I have another little money market account with about $1000 just sitting too. As so as I get a new bank link with ING, I am going to close that one too. I have too many account!

Happy first day of July. I love 4th of July. I am so happy that we all celebrate our county's birthday!!

There is one drawback to being a custom house builder. That is, we often wind up paying other people's bills.
I love the fact that I can now check on my checking account online. I checked today and my business account is getting awfully low.
One customer left to go to Washington and his account is in arrears. The other is a new customer. I emailed asking for a check, but have not gotten it yet.
So, I am heading out in a few minutes to withdraw $10,000 from our money market account to put in business checking. I wonder how many hundred's of times I have done this.
Now, before you lecture me, I always tell a new customer this. "It is not my intention to build your house with MY money!"

Stuff happens!

I am on a local forum. Once in a while, I will mention that I saved money using a coupon. The other day, a guy, said big deal, you saved $4. What do you want to save money for, to leave to your kids?? I said, no, but I don't want to be a bag lady either.
Why should I care if he thinks that way? But I do. I just don't understand some people. I am critized for saving money.
This guy is 40 and lives in a mobile home. I live in a house worth 1/2 million and it is paid for.
I am not critzing anyone for living in a mobile home. I might downsize and live in one someday. My dh lived in a mobile home when we met. That is fine!!
But I do not feel like I should be made fun of because I save my husband's hard earned money.

Dh took a rare day off today to attend a local car show. I had to take my Holly to the vet, so i got there late. There were lots of cars there, probably 200 in the show, which is a lot for a small town.
It was a $10 donation to enter your car. It all goes to raise money for relay for life and our little town raises a lot of money. We have been in the top 3 towns of our size several times.
I came home early ( we took two cars) but dh stayed for the judging. I am so glad he did. He won one of the 20 trophies for the top 20 cars! That just made his day!!
So, it was a spendy day, but it was a good day. We found out that Holly is ok and my dh won a trophy!!

My little poodle Holly has been sick on and off this past week. She has always had a sensitive tummy and has a bout like this every few months. Dh insisted that I take her to the vets and get her checked. I did that a few years ago and they did every test possible and could find nothing wrong.
So off we went again this morning. Again, they did all the tests, even took x rays. The verdict was: she has nothing wrong with her, just a sensitive tummy. She has to go on a certain brand of canned dog food.
No one ever believes me, but Holly will not eat that food. She will stand there, starving and cry, but she will not eat it.
So this cost me $371 to find out that she has a sensitive tummy!!
I am giving her some medicine and she is not supposed to have food or water until tommorow. She just stands and whines at the empty bowl. Pretty soon, I am going to cry too. Poor puppy!!

I find this very weird.

My husband is a builder and considered the best builder in the area. He is a true craftsman and does all the work himself, tile, hardwood floors, trim, cabinets, plumbing, electrical, etc.

He is considered a craftsman.

He is building a big house way out in the boondocks. He has been on it for a year. Yesterday, I went to see the house for the first time.
I could not believe what I saw.
The owner was there as he is every single day of the week.
He was never more than a foot away from my husband the whole time.
Dh would walk to his big table saw to use it, Mr. Customer would follow him and stand there watching him.
Dh would walk back to the kitchen with the cabinet door, Mr. Customer would follow him and watch him hang the door.

After an hour of this, I could not stand it and I left. How has my husband put up with this for an entire year? I would have quit the first day!!

I almost said something to Mr. customer. My dh says that the house is almost finished so he doesn't say anything.

How can anyone work like that. I couldn't have someone standing on top of me watching me all the time.
Could you work like that????????????

I am waiting for it to go up. It has been under $100 a month since last summer. It is starting to get really hot here and I do like it cool in the house. I think this month's bill (which will be read tomorrow) will be higher, but ok. In July and August, the bill should be much higher.
Too bad I spend most of my time in the hottest room in the house. The upstairs bedroom is so warm, and that is where I keep the treadmill, tv and computer.

We had a vet come to the house and put our dog, Lucy, to sleep yesterday. She was so weak and had not eaten in over 5 days.
We found Lucy in Jan., 1992. She was hiding in a barn, starving and freezing. I took food to her for about a week before she would let me get close to her. Finally, when the temp hit a high of 7 degrees, I decided to bring her home and find her a good home. That turn out to be our good home.
She had a wonderful life, no leash, no collar, no fence; she could do what she wanted. (lucky, we live in a neighborhood with very little traffic)
She pretty much stayed in the yard, but since my dh built many of the houses in the neighborhood, she would sometimes walk up the hill to visit for a while.

She was my first ever "outside" dog. But, I do not believe in leaving a dog truly outside all the time, so at night, she slept in the garage on her electric blanket. We got her a new blanket every year. Sometimes, she came inside, but most the time she like to be outside exploring.
Like the "Old Shep" song says, "If dogs have a heaven, Lucy has a wonderful home"
Goodbye Lucy. She was about 17 years old and will be sorely missed.

I got an offer for a new credit card. It was from citi and offered me a $100 gift card after we charged $300 on the card. Since the gift card was from home depot, I mentioned it to my husband.
He said, go for it, which surprises me.
So I have filled out the application. Then we will charge $300 , pay it off immediately and see if we get the gift card.
At least it won't cost us anything!