Today is Monday, Sept. 25th. Only 3 more months til christmas!!

Looks like I am having a no spend day today. I have not been out of the house. I did my grocery shopping yesterday and got steaks on sale for dinner tonight.
This is at least my fifth day in a row of not running the air or heat. It has warmed up here and i was temped yesterday, but I just used the fan.
I have been invited to join some ladies for lunch tomorrow, so don't know if I will spend the money for lunch or not!

I don't know how much he spent, other than 2 1/2 hours, but the van is fixed for now. Thank goodness, we now have two functioning vehicles again, now to get the hot rod fixed! I wish my husband's hobby was not cars, but chickens. At least we would get free eggs.

They reassessed all the property in our county. I got the assessment in the mail today and it was a shocked. My house has doubled in value since they last assessed it! I guess that means my property tax is going to double too.
I guess I should not complain, most of you pay much higher taxes than I do.

This is the 3rd day in the row (at least) that I have not used the a/c or the heat.
I have been trying to be good all summer, but when it hits 80 upstairs, I do turn the a/c on. I have it set at 77 downstairs, and when it gets to 78, I do let it run.
We have a great theromostat. It turns the a/c at 78 and when it cools to 76, it turns itself off. I guess it runs more often, but not for as long. My bill should be under budget this month and even more under budget for last month.
This is one of the few bills I can control. The water bill is always the same unless we have to water the grass. The phone bills are the same too, because I use a card for long distance.
I am still reading my meter and writing it down. I am happy to say that most days I am using less than 40 kph!

I bet I am the only person on this forum that carries a back scratcher in my purse. My back itches sometimes so i take one on trips. Last year, I found one that telescopes and will fit in my purse. It is so handy! Do you carry anything weird in your purse. (Do you carry a purse broken arrow and bookie?)

My husband is taking today off and is pressuring washing the house. We have hired this done several times, but they never seem to do a good job, like my husband does.
I wish I could say that this saves money but it doesn't. He loses a whole day's pay plus has to rent a sprayer.
It would be 42 degrees this morning!! I know he is out there freezing and soaking wet (the sprayer leaks)
But, I will have a nice clean outside stucco house and I won't be ashamed of anyone coming to the front door.
We never use the front door or front porch and it tends to have little black "buggy" spots. It will be nice and clean soon!

I think i set a record yesterday. We went to Wal Marts and I did not spend a penny!
Now, going to wal mart is a pretty big chore. We don't just pass one everyday. we have to drive to another state to visit Wal Mart. It is about 30 miles just one way.
We needed to go to North Carolina to order some tile for the front courtyard and also make a liquor run.
We went by Walmart to take back two items that I decided I did not need. So instead of spending money I got a $15 credit on my charge card! That is good!

We had dinner out as usual. I thought about having something expensive to celebrate our possible sale of our house we are building! But decided i would wait until we were really sure.
The poeple want the house and they gave me a deposit. But they need to sell their house and some other property, and arrange for financing. So I am hoping and keeping my fingers crossed.
When we get a contract, i will splurge then!!

We got our first lookers at our spec house today. They came back and took a picture and that is a good sign.
With this slowing housing market, I was getting (and still am) worried.
We started our building small mountain homes with a view and they sold quickly. Some how this house is going to be 3500 square feet and cost over $350,000 just to build.
I just think about all the interest I am losing on this money. However, at least I am not paying interest on the house.

I wish the weather would stay just like this. It is cool, 72 and sunny and pretty. It will be a good night to go out to eat and then cruise the town in our '33 vicky!! That is just what we will do!

We ate at TGIFriday's, friday night. The next day I looked at the bill; I paid $7.99 tax on a $40 tab. That is 20%, so i called them and was told that that is what sevier county charged for everything, 20%!!
The next night, I ate somewhere else, this time my tax was a little over $5 on an $82 tab. No where near 20% not even 10%!!
I would have never done this before I joined this forum, but I am writing to the manager, sending the two bills, and asking for a refund of the overpaid tax. Wish me luck!
(By the way, I did tip the girl $10 on the first check, so I am not being a cheap skate)

I am leaving this morning to go to Gatlinburg. Now, don't you guys go doing anything exciting while I am gone. I know I will never be able to catch up on all the blogs I will miss while I am gone! I sure will miss this site and I am going to try and practice being as frugal as possible while I am gone!!It will be a car show for dh and lots of reading for me and Holly. (no shopping, I hope)

WE are packing tonight, heading out to gatlinburg in the morning. I hope this cool weather is in Gatlinburg too. It has been a perfect day today , no air running the entire day. If I had screens, I could really cool the house down, but alas, they are packed up in the attic.
We are also saving by not going out for a big meal tonight, just burgers at Wendy's! We have a $20 off coupon that we must use it or lose it by tonight, so we will head to Home Depot and buy something for the spec house.

I took my first pinecone survey today. thank you so much to the person on here, who gaves me the information to sign up. Thanks a bunch. I am looking forward to my first check!! I hope. I do the click thru ones also, but at 3 cents a clip, it takes forever to get my total up to $30, that is when you get paid.

I read somewhere that the only credit score that counts is equifax? Is that true? If so, why do we have 3 agencies reporting?

My hsband has just about finished a house (she needs shower doors) and the lady is moving in and going to spend the night, tonight.
So, she wanted the a/c heat installer to come by and hook her up, so she can run the heat tonight.
I am sitting here in shorts and 80 degrees wondering why she is going to run the heat tonight?? (She is in her 80's)

My husband usually works 7 days a week, starting on Monday and ending on Sunday. So, Monday is my usual payday. Of course the banks were not open yesterday, so today is pay day. I AM REALLY BROKE TOO. This seems funny cause I have quite a bit of money sitting in envelopes that I could borrow, but i don't. I have been doing things this way for so long, I never worry about cheating!

The restaurants are all closed around here, so we are eating home tonight. dh came home from work at 5 and is cutting grass, so i am going to actually cook. I guess that will be some money to add to our challenge account.
I am feeling pretty broke today. Usually payday is on Monday and I had to go into my misc. envelope to buy some prilosec. I will pay it back tomorrow.

I bet my husband is the only one celebrating the day the correct way, he is laboring!!

It is cool and rainy this morning. I hope that means it will say a low electrical power day like yesterday. It is nice on savings, but makes it hard to get the grass cut.
Hope this does not spoil anyone's picnic!

We went out to eat last night. One of my husband's favorite meals is prime rib. They have new menus and I noticed the prices have gone up. Prime rib went from $15 to $17, pretty expensive in our area. Good thing my meal is usually only $7. I noticed the prices have gone up, but waitresses still make only $2 something an hour. I think that is awful. I started waitressing in 1985 and i was earning $2.01. Now, 20 years later, they make about 12 cents more an hour. That is terrible!!

There is going to be a car show down at our old courthouse, on the town square.We are going, driving our 1933 ford victoria. I also have a 778 vette, but i am leaving it at home, cause I don't like to drive at night.
The car show is free and should be fun tonight! Afterwards, we will go out to eat. Just wish this rain would quit, so the show will have lots of cars!

The end of the month, I do a sheet on our net worth. Not really total net worth, but I keep a list of mutual funds, IRA's and stocks and I update the totals once a month.
I don't add in the cash in savings and money markets, because mine goes DOWN every month. I know that is NOT what it is supposed to do, but the only time my savings goes up is when we have a closing on the house we have been building. The rest of the time, I am taking money out to pay the construction bills.
I am happy to report that my mutual funds, ira's and stocks increased about $7000 last month.
Does anyone else keep monthly checks on their stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc?

My husband was reccommended to a guy that is looking for a builder. Lake lots go for a half mil and up around here, so we knew it would be a nice house.
My dh just went and picked up the plans. He doesn't know the amount of square feet yet, but says that the house plan looks like a resort. He said it will take years to build that house!
I would love for him to take it, but he has no crew and the locals just won't work more than 20 hours a week.
It would be really good money I am sure, but he is just one guy!!!

Well, it is the first day of september. It is still warm, but hopefully, the electric bill will start to go down. I budget $160 a month for it and so far, I have been under budget every month. This month, i was only $5 under budget, but at least I was under!

I got a catalog in the mail yesterday, from Hammacher Schlemmer. On the cover is 120mph electric car. You can drive it 40-80 miles on one charge. (Is it 40 or is it 80, big difference??)
It is pretty ugly and only 39 inches wide, the passenger sits behind you.
Are you ready to order this? Think of all the gas you can save!!
The price tag?? $108,000!! Seriously!!

At $20-30 a week for my gas consumption, it is going to take me a while to justify the cost of this car. Think I will keep the vette!

Sunday night, we had drinks and watched the sunset at the house we are building. We also watched a bear in the back yard eating berries from a bush. The next morning my husband went to work at the same job, He was laying rock when 2 big bucks just walked up to him. Country living is nice!

I closed a savings account yesterday (almost) and took out the 107K I had in there to take to a bank a block away offering 5.25%.
I thought it was so funny when the teller asked me how I wanted it??
Of course, I said cash!! I would have loved to have a shopping bag full of hundreds!!
But all I got was a check!
I wonder if you can get large amounts of cash ??