Government agencies are handing over unpaid public fees such as library fines, parking tickets, court fees and moving violations to private collection companies.
These companies can report these fees to the 3 major credit bureaus and that can affect your credit score.

I was looking up a stock price and saw a question on that same cnn page. It was asking my age and my income.
Then I compared myself with the average american.
The average person my age only has a net worth of slightly over $200,000.
The average person with my income (really my husband's) only has a net worth of slightly over $100,000.
That means that most people entering their retirement years do not have nearly enough money to live on. I wonder what they will do? I sure could not live on $500 a month social security.

I really love this forum. I am on a local forum and if you mention anything at all about money, they jump all over you.
They say "you can't take it with you"
On this forum, you get so much encouragement. I don't think there is a negative person on here.
Obviously, the people on the forum are like me and I guess we are in the minority. I would love to teach the others how to save and budget, but they won't listen to what they don't want to hear.

I have started keeping track of how much interest I earn in my savings, checking, money market and c.d. accounts every month.
For the month of April, I earned $2,069.46. Not too shabby!!

I stopped at the bank yesterday to open a jumbo C.D. The lady said they are only paying 5%. I asked her to ask the prsident of the bank if he could do better.
She just called and they will give me 5.5% now, plus I can have it as long as I want. I wonder how long I should take it; 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5??
Anyway, it pays to ask and that will earn me an extra $500 a year.

I asked at the building store for a rebate and got back several thousand last year and already over a thousand this year.

Just ask and see what happens!

I just want to wish everyone a happy May day. When I was a little girl and lived in Virginia, they celebrated May day at school. We even had a May pole. I don't know if they do that anymore or not.

$1583. That is how much my net worth increased yesterday. That was the amount of interest that was credited to my money market checking account yesterday.
I know that soon I will have to take some of that money, buy a lot and start a new house for sale, but right now, it is nice to let that interest accrue.

Start young. Save 10% of all you make and invest it in a good mutual fund. Never touch it and you will retire a rich person.

It looks like a blizzard outside. The wind is blowing 40 mph and the snow is just pouring down. It is mid april and I live in the south!! What is going on??

Happy Friday the 13th. I like 13, it is my lucky number!! When I moved up here from florida, my zip code ended in 13. My Post office box number is 13. My account at Ace and the movie rental store starts with 13. My telephone number starts with 13.
When I bought the vette, I picked it up on the 13th. The temp. tag number started with 13.
My husband's social security number ends with 13.
We got married on Friday the 13th, in May of 1977! Yep, 13 has been good to me!

I am having lunch today with a few friends. We all met over the internet at a local forum. We have had lunch before, but there is always someone new to meet.
we were all going to meet in the park, but it is supposed to be cool and real windy today, so they are coming here, to my house, instead.
It will be a frugal lunch, we are all bringing our own lunch, plus something to share,if we want to.
I bought some chips and chocolate fudge, my favorite. someone else is bringing blueberry crunch! Sounds like fun!!

Well, I broke down and ordered propane this morning. I was going to try and wait until next winter, but it is just too darn cold. I checked 2 weeks ago and I had 100 gallons, but I am just afraid of running out.
I had a great time playing bridge today and only spent $4. I stopped and bought some colorful little bowls to serve snacks in. I certainly ate about 10,000 calories in candy today!!

There ought to be a law requiring the names of bad builders to be published. We just came back from looking at a spec house at the owners request.
The house is dangerous. Even I could tell the floor was sagging and the doors would not close. The roof was sagging!
There was jacks in the crawl space, holding up the floor. The rock had all fallen off the fireplace. The list of things that had failed inspection was 2 sheets long.The large windows in the bedrooms were above my head, that is against code.(You have to be able to crawl out a window in case of fire) There was no way to even fix that without tearing off the roof. What a mess!It will take a lot of money to fix what can be fixed and a lot of it cannot be fixed because the house is too far along. I wish we had better news to give to the owners.

My dh had to run to home depot this morning because his clorox ready mop quit working.
He came back with an easter present for me. A new toilet seat. Got to love him!! (He got the new mop too)

Happy Easter day everyone. My dh actually took the day off. so far, he has cleaned the house and now he is shampooing the carpet. we have no family, so we will be alone today and cook steaks on the grill for supper. It got very cold last night and by the time we got to the car show, everyone had left. Sadly, it looks like all the leaves on the maple trees got frozen, but as always, they will come back. Have a great day and don't eat too much!

I can't believe it, but it is snowing here in North Georgia!! It is not expected to lay on the ground, but snow is coming down. There is a car show on the square tonight for old cars, so I am sure we are going. It is supposed to be 20 tonight and windy. I wouldn't mind so much, but we are taking our old car down there, a 33 ford victoria! (described to me as a ZZ top car)
The car has no heat!! It will be a cold evening but at least the show is free.

For the first time, in over 2 weeks, the heat is running again. I kept it set on 60 and it was cold yesterday, but still about 62 in the house. It is supposed to get down to 20 tonight and this weekend.
I thought I was thru with worrying about ordering propane until next winter. I still have 100 gallons left, so i can probably make it.
The first old car show is tomorrow night on the square. I am sure we are going, cold or not. One nice thing, it is FREE!

I just watched the weather. Everything is blooming here and looks so pretty. Now they are calling for below freezing weather for the next 5 days. Oh no, will that kill all the pretty buds and flowers?? Time to take OFF the shorts!!

We decided to stay home and skip dinner out tonight so dh can work in the yard. He usually does that on Sundays but it rained all day.
I started to make lasagna, but figured out by the time I bought all the ingredients, I would spend about $8 and then dh would be stuck with eating lasagna for the next 4 days. (I only eat one piece)
So our old standby, is breakfast for supper!! It is quick and it is cheap!!

I got another gift card in the mail today from Ace Hardware. I just redeemed one for $135 and got myself a new firepit! This one is only for $25 but it is still nice to get freebies! We buy a lot of paint from Ace. I played bridge today and the only money I spent was less than $2 buying brown eggs.

Well, I am glad to see that things are back to normal here at savingadvice today. I did not say anything about the bright new colors yesterday, but I really did not like it that much. However, I love this site so much, I will not ever put down anything Jeffrey and Nate do. At least we can say we had a colorful day!! But today, is much easier reading. I play bridge today. So except for stopping and picking a few things up at the grocery store, I should have a no spend day.

Well, we went to the casino in Cherokee, North Carolina yesterday and I lost $20,000 gambling last night. I am in shock cause it was the first time I have ever gambled big time. (Oh you guys know me too well. April fool!!)

I wish I had written down the first day that the heat did not run at all. I checked the propane tank about 2 weeks ago and noticed I only had about 10% full. I debated about ordering some more propane. I have a big tank, so 10% is still 100 gallons.
I am guessing is has been close to 2 weeks since the heat ran at all. I know that I have not put the a/c on yet.
It got quite warm last week, up to almost 80, but now temps are more normal, down in the 50's.
My house is well insulated, so it is a very comfortable 65 in here.
I can tolerate cool temps., but I hate it when it is hot.
No matter how frugal I am, I cannot stand the house to be too warm.
The hottest room in the house is the room with the computer and the treadmill. Of course that is the room I spend the most time in.
I think I can make it thru April without ordering any more propane! I figure I spent about $800 this winter heating the house. I remember when I could do it for $300, but propane has doubled and we now heat a two car garage with bathroom and bonus room.
I have over $600 built up in my heat (propane) envelope. Maybe I should put that away and earn interest til next October!! Oh well, happy april!!

We had a very nice dinner out last night. I met a nice lady on the other forum that I am on. She lived full time in florida, but has a vacation home here. She e mailed me to ask who to get for paving her drive and we began talking back and forth.
Last year, they invited us over for a cookout.
Yesterday, she came to visit, bringing me cookies and wine.
so we all met up for dinner last night, with her husband and 12 year old daughter.
I was so happy to hear her husband ask for separate checks for dinner. I do that a lot, and sometimes it feels awkward.
I am looking forward to when she moves here some day.
Except for dinner out (which was planned) it was a nice, no spend day.

Did you know that right now is a good time to build a house? Because things have slowed down, building materials are the lowest in years. Any of you thinking of building, this is the time to do it. We are in the process of looking for a lot for a spec house. Materials have come way down in cost, but everyone is sitting on their high priced land. We like to build something affordable, so we need a lot with a decent price. Nothing around here under $70,000 for a small lot.

It is just nine more months until Christmas. Gosh, for years, I started christmas shopping in January. Now, I only shop for my husband. We finally hit that age when we know we just don't need any more "stuff". As a matter of fact, we really need to get rid of some of the "stuff" that we already have.
We collected stuff when we were younger. I have a large collection of hummels. My husband collected bottles and beer cans. What do you do with 700 beer cans at least 25 years old or older? Sell them along with the house. (they are on shelves in the garage) I would love to sell the hummels too, even if I just get what I have in them. Most of them are 30 years old too.
Oh well, you all start looking for good bargains for christmas!! It is a coming!!

I was watching a news program this morning and they interviewed a guy that just wrote a book. I wasn't paying attention and did not get the name of the book, but it was about ways you could save money on your electric bill each month.
One of the biggies was "always wash your clothes in cold water" He explained that the washing machine uses very little electric. It is the heating of the hot water that uses so much power.

Well, I have always washed in cold and my hot water heater is OFF 23 hours a day. I am saving money!

I play bridge with 3 ladies every week. They all get their hair and nails done every week.
I got my hair done when I was young, those were the "teased hair" days. I have never gotten my nails done, ever. I don't even know how much it cost to get your nails done.
Do people really look at nails anyway? If they do, I am going to be a real disappointment to them.

My husband is a builder and things are really slowing down around here. It seems like about 10 years ago or so, half of america decided that they wanted to move to the North Georgia mountains and building was booming.
Suddenly, everyone started building spec houses, everyone. Doctors, lawyers, grading people, everyone.
Everyone we knew was having a spec house built to resell for a profit.

Now, it has stopped, mainly because all of the Florida people wanting to move here, cannot sell their homes in florida.

This week, a guy that does our framing called and asked for a job. The framing crew has nothing to do, no houses to frame.
The guy that does our grading called too. He has no work and wondered if we had something we needed done.

I am not worried. I know we will be ok. We will find a nice lot and we will build a spec house. The trick is, we will build the BEST spec house in the entire area. If any house sells in this area, ours will!!
If it doesn't sell for a while, we will still eat well!!
No worries, be happy!!!!!!!!!!!

We stayed home last night and enjoyed the evening. My dh put our "free" fire pit together last night and he had brought home scrap wood from the job, so the cost was nothing.
We pulled our chairs up close to the fire, even puppy dog had her chair. She had never seen a fire before.
We had an enjoyable evening sitting out and watching the stars. Eventually, we grilled some steaks and it was a very nice evening!