Today is called Blue Monday. It is supposed to be the unhappiest day of the year.
First, the weather is bad.
Second, all the christmas bills are due.
Third, all the new year's resolutions you made 3 weeks ago have been broken.

Well, I don't know about you, but i am very happy today!! I had a great steak dinner last night, my windows are sparkling and I am meeting people from my local forum for lunch today, some of them for the first time!!

Happy Blue Monday!!!

It seems awfully cold in this house and I could hear the heat running downstairs. Glad I check it out, the front door was standing wide open. It is only about 37 degrees here.
I think my window cleaner did not shut the door tightly and it blew open. I am just glad my little poodle did not wander outside. So, I am giving thanks!!

Our window cleaner is back. He is the only guy besides my dh that I know, that works on weekends.He was here all day yesterday too. As a matter of fact, he has been here for four days now.
Dh took down all the inside window grids this morning.
He was amazed at how many windows we actually have. I wasn't, I remember paying the window bill 11 years ago and it was over $50,000 for these anderson windows.
Anyway, they are slowly but surely getting down. I am expecting about a $1000 cleaning bill, but it will be worth it to get all the spots off the windows. The spots were caused by the house being pressure washed with hard water. I wish it would quit raining, so he could get done. It is amazing how much stuff you have to move when you get your windows cleaned.

I am doing a load of wash for the car. My dh purchased all white towels for the car that are kept in the garage.
Each towel is used once and once only because there might be a grain of sand in the towel and it would scratch the car. He normally uses 3-6 towels each time he washes the car.
Yesterday, he got home early because of the closing, so he washed and waxed the car. Now I have a home load of towels to wash!
That is ok, my car always looks shiny and new. I had a 98 red camero rally sport and everyone was asking me if it was new when it was 7 years old.
He would never let me take the car to a car wash or let someone wash it.
I think his secret goal in life is to be a car washer. He sure is good at it.

We did finally have our much anticipated closing on our spec house yesterday. However, it really was not a smooth day. After spending an hour in the lawyer's office, we took the check to deposit it in our money market account. Because the check was large, they called the other bank to see if their were funds to cover it.
Imagine how upset we were when the teller came back and said there were not enough funds to cover the check!
We left the bank and went back to the lawyer's office, because the funds were supposed to come out of his escrow account.
It turns out they did not make their deposit yet, so they hurried off to the bank.
We went back about 10 minutes later and the funds were there.
Of course, as I said before, they put a hold on the funds for 7 business days, which I thought was strange. The banks are almost across the street from each other.
The last house we sold was for $280,000 and we were able to write a check on that immediately.
All I was going to do with the money was open a CD at another bank that is paying 5.75%, but I can wait!
We have been on that house for 14 months, so I am glad we can now move on. It is time to look for another piece of land and another plan to build.

The new owners loved the house, they even liked all the fixtures I picked out and said I had good taste!! They checked the house over for a hour and a half and could not find anything wrong with it.
They especially liked the kitchen/hearth room. My husband build all the cabinets by hand along with a built in entertainment center. They said the kitchen ought to be in a magazine. I said, one of his houses was in a magazine, just a few months ago.
Looks like we will be closing in about 2 hours!!

Well, in less than an hour, I am off to show the new owners their new house. They bought it in Oct. and we are closing today. (I hope) When they last saw it, the dry wall was being installed. I hope they like what they see.

Then bank called me today. The owners are flying into atlanta and renting a car to drive up here.
They want to take a walk thru the house before they close on it at 2 pm.
The last time they saw the house, the dry wall was just being put on.
Can you imagine buying a house and not seeing the inside of it??
So, I will meet them with the keys at a 10 am tomorrow to show them their new house. Hope they like everything!!

My window cleaner showed up this morning and cleaned 2 windows!! He said he will be back in the morning. At this rate, he is going to be here a long time, I have close to 50 windows!!
Oh well, I am not paying him up front!

The window cleaner is here. He has been here about 1 hour and is still on the same window. It is cold and rainy. all around us they are having snow and sleet, but we just have cold rain. What a yucky day to work outside.
However, my husband is building a house. For the past 5 winters, he has been outside while building. I wonder why it works that way?? I guess lots of people work outside in the winter.

Get ready to spend some money, we hired someone to wash our windows and he is coming tomorrow.
Our windows are terrible. My dh pressure washes the house every year and we have real hard water. So there are water spots all over the windows. He tried cleaning them, and it would not come off!!
This guy swears he can get them clean. He did come out and work on the window that is on the back door. It took him an hour and a half for one door, but he got it clean.
He is going to charge us $20 a window and he thinks he can get it done in one day. I don't think so.
We have about 45 windows (and that is not counting the side pieces) so the bill will probably be over $1000, but it will be worth it to me.
But why does everything happen at once?? My taxes are due (over $3000), my house insurance is due (over $1100), car tags are due (about $350) and we just spent $1000 on repairs and new tires for the van.
I am just glad I have the money to pay for everything.

Just 2 more days til closing, but I am worried because the new owners are flying in to Atlanta and renting a car tomorrow. They are calling for snow tomorrow and Georgia does not handle snow very well. I hope they can make it up here!
Lux told us to wear our hill billy clothes to the closing tomorrow. That is funny cause being a working builder, my husband's work clothes are pretty bad. Oh they are clean, but covered in paint, etc. and look grubby! He said he is going to wear his grubbiest clothes when he takes me to the bank to deposit the check.
I told the story one time when we went to the bank and told the lady we wanted to open the highest interest paying savings account.
The lady told me she was sorry but we couldn't. There was a minimum of $50,000 to open an account.
I handed her a check for $100,000 and she didn't say a word.
Hillbillie clothes it is!!(I don't own anything fancy)

Yeah, I had a no spend day. I went to play bridge with friends and did not spend a dime! I wish that happened more often.

I don't like Monday holidays. Monday is my payday and the bank is always closed. Today is MLK day, so the bank is closed and I cannot cash my dh's paycheck.
This is one of the few times i allow myself to borrow from one of my envelopes if need be. But I am sure there is enough in the misc. envelope to just use that.
DH informed me Friday that he was getting new tires for his van today. I did not have that in my budget, so I told him to charge them. I will find a way to get it paid off next month.

I can't believe it, but my dh is outside right now, cutting the grass.
On Jan. 14th!!
We mostly just have wild onions that he is mowing down.
I can't believe that man. He went to work this morning and came home early at 1 pm. He has cleaned out and washed his van, my vette,and is going to clean house and cook after he is thru with the grass cutting. I know, I am spoiled!!(I love it)

It is mid january and it is in the sixties right now. I know that Georgia is a southern state, but where we live, the weather is comparable to Maine. We don't get as much snow, but it gets really cold here. We are in the mountains and our county is the highest peak in the states.
I am not complaining tho. It is nice that the heat does not have to run all the time. right now it is warmed outside than it is inside the house.
I checked on my propane usage yesterday. We have used about 200 gallons in the past 3 months which is not too bad.

Over a year ago, I signed up for a survey place called inbox dollars. You do not really take surveys, you get paid to read their ads. It is 3 cents a click plus once in a while they offer you a dollar to fill our form to get free quotes, etc.
You cannot get paid until you get to $30 and it has been a long hard process.
I check my account balance and it is $29.98, so I am just one chick away from finding being able to ask for my money. They take a $3 fee for mailing it to you, which is a rip.
I don't think I will continue with them. I like mysurvey a lot better and have already gotten 2 checks.
Anyone wanting to sign up for mysurvey can send me their first name and e mail address and you will be sent an e mail to join.
My e mail address is juliedenski at yahoo. com

Buyers of a condo developement in New York City can now charge their down payment on their american express card!
Boy, that is one way to get frequent flyer miles!!

I am reading an article about payday loans. It seems that one in five military member in California are payday borrowers. The average borrower pays $660 to borrow $255. You can borrow for 2 weeks and renew the loan up to nine times. Families pay about $500 million in fees per year. wow. Not a good idea.

I have subscribed to this newsletter since it first came out, about 10 years ago. It was called Cheapskate Monthly but changed the name about a year ago. Mary Hunt sugeests that you live on the 10=10=80 formula. You give 10%, save 10% and use the other 80% to live on. she suggests saving the 10% even when you have debts to pay on, because everyone needs to have an emergeny fund.
Does anyone else read this newsletter?

My little Holly had some problems this morning. She gets groomed once an month and has her anal glands "expressed" The groomer had to cancel last month and had not been well enough to go back to work.
So Holly had a problem last night and required a bath this morning.
Now I know why I pay the groomer $32 to bath and clip her. She was not a happy camper at all.
Luckily my dh stayed home and helped me. It takes two people to bathe that 6 pound dog. Gosh she is a tough little puppy to handle, but I love her.

I have started my new bridge classes. Now there is very little teaching and a lot of playing.
One lady played today that has been playing for about 50 years. (the teacher's wife) When things did not go her way, she just got up and quit! She was my partner too! Now I like to win too but she knows that we are beginners and don't know everything. I hope I mellow out when I get to be 80!!

My bridge lessons start this afternoon. I enjoy the game, the only thing I miss is, I get so far behind on these blogs that I love to read. Well, I won't spend any money playing bridge!

It really makes me mad, cause I am losing $56 a day. I have worked hard most of my life, and I have never ever once, made $56 a day. I usually worked for minimum wage!
We build a spec house which we sold months ago. The people are in no hurry to close cause they have not sold their other house.
We finished the house up mid December. I called for inspection on the 13th. I knew it would be hard to close by christmas, but I had hoped by the end of the year.
The lawyer the bank used, closed the entire week after christmas.
The first week in Jan., I got a call. The closing will be Friday, Jan.19th at 2 pm.
That is when the owner's plan to be here and to close.
In the meantime, I am losing over $56 a day in interest and it is really upsetting me!!
Please notice the closing time. I will lose three more days of interest because I can deposit the check until after 2 pm on Friday, so interest does not start until Monday.
When this thing closes, I will be doing the dance of JOY!!!

I don't know if all grocery stores do this or not, but I notice it a lot at Ingles. There will be a "on sale" sign on a item, but when you check out, it scans at regular price.
I bought some sugar free pre packaged pudding for my husband's lunches as a treat. They were marked 2 for $4 or $2 each. When I got home, I noticed on my receipt the price was $2.88. I got ripped off for 88 cents. I think the store does this to hundreds of people a day. The last time I bought kleenex, it was the same thing, on sale, but scanned out at regular price.
I wonder how much the grocery stores make extra each day?/ (I know, I should take the receipt back and demand the money)
From now on, I am going to scan my own groceries so I can catch it right away.

Anon asked me if I had any experience with internet banks. I got a coupon for a free $25 to open an account at ING bank, so of course, I did.
I had planned to add more money to the account and also open one at GMAC. However, my local bank is paying 5.25% interest, so I have stayed with my local bank so far.

Today is the birthdate of elvis Presley. He would have been 72, but he died at the young age of 42 back in 1977. Happy elvis day!!

It is true, my husband did not go to work today. Of course, he is not laying around doing nothing. He got up at 7 a.m., fixed his breakfast and is drawing up a set of house plans for a friend's son.
Of course, he will make a little money on this, but not as much as he usually makes on a set of house plans.
He will probably charge the friend about $250. If you order them out of a magazine, you would probably spend $750 or more. Hand drawn plans are expensive. He has no computer knowledge, so he designs and draws the plans by hand. When he gets paid, i will add that to the challenge money.
I have spent the whole morning paying bills for the houses we build and our personal bills. Good thing i like bookkeeping.

It is a pretty day and I am just thinking about my wonderful husband. He has always been such a hard worker.
I think that is why we have all the things we have. He has never worked a 5 day, 40 hour week.
Even though, for many years, he never made decent money, he always worked long hours to make up for it.
We got used to eating dinner at 10 at night because he would work from 8 am til 9 pm.
He has always worked 6, ususally 7 days a week.
when I worked at the restaurant, I was head waitress. What that means is, when someone calls in sick, you work their shift. So, I know what it it like to start work at 9 am and work til 10 or 11 pm.
When I left this job is was because my husband wanted me to stay home with him in the evening. I only made between $20-$40 a day, so he decided to work even longer hours so i would not have to work.
Now, maybe you know why I indulge him when he wants a fancy car. He is worth it!!

I used to live in volusia county, fla for many years. we had a fellow that fixed appliances and we always called him Mr. Shorty shorts, cause that he what he always wore.
He thought himself to be god's gift to women. This was in the 70's. He had thick black hair, wore heavy gold chains and those shorty shorts! Even on his repair calls, he wore those shorts.
We moved to the Georgia mountains 22 years ago and my husband built houses. Imagine our surprise when a customer bought appliances and they were installed by: you guessed it, Mr. Shorty shorts. He has moved here.

Last night, we went to dinner. Who sat next to us, but Mr. Shorty shorts and his wife!!!
It was Jan. 5th and can you guess what he was wearing. Right again, those shortie shorts!! In January!! (Mr. shorty shorts is at least 65 and still thinks he is a ladies man)