I finally sat down and read some of my comments and notice that thrifty ray had challenge me in stair climbing. She mentioned 25 times a day! I don't know if I could do it, but I can try.
What I have started doing is using poker chips upstairs. Every time I go back down the stairs, I take a chip and put it on the newel downstairs.
The first day I made 17 trips, which is
544 steps. Yesterday, I did 13 trips which is 416 steps.
Ok, Ray, let's have a go! (Do you need to lose weight? I do!)
I won't feel bad if you win a lot, I think I am probably older than you.

I just had lunch with my dh. He is working in the neighborhood today. The neighbor wanted all of the tile chipped out of his counter tops, new tile and sink put back in.
His lunch consisted of a frozen chicken patty and a can of potatoes, that I got a great bargain on, 4 cans for $1. Now we have to eat them.
Speaking of eating, the birds have really been here the past several days. I fill the feeders (4) up in the morning and they are empty by three pm. Well, that is one thing I can't be frugal about, have to feed the birds.
I use to buy the sunflower seeds at the grocery store, but it is much cheaper to now buy them by 50 pound bag at the feed store.

Well, I tried to put in some smilies, dancing, but they didn't show up. Since I am Irish, I am doing a little jig today.

Well I went to the store and looked at all the people not wearing green. There were a lot of them, but no one that I knew. I figured that I had better not pinch a stranger.
Of course, once I pinched them, they would not be a stranger.
I had to mail some bills to a customer, but I use the same envelope I mailed to her last time (she gave it back) so that saved about 30 cents. I went to the dollar store and got a birthday card for my grandson and it was only 50 cents. He doesn't care about the card, just the check inside.
Happy St. Paddy's Day to you!!

I thought I would keep track of how many times I go up and down the stairs each day. We have 16 stairs, so that is 32 stairs each time.
I have never used one of those stair stepping things. How many stairs do you usually do on one of those machines?
Just thought I could count it as exercise.

My husband is out washing the car before we go out to dinner tonight. I guess the repair on the vette is to his satisfaction cause he did not wash it until after it was repaired. He is very unhappy with the basement we just paid $20,000 to have poured. It is off by several inches and he is having to build wood walls to correct the problem. At least he is passsing all inspections since they just started them a few months ago.
Have a wonderful evening!

They are putting alcohol by the drink on the ballot this summer in our little county. I don't know If I am for this or not. I like brown bagging, it is so much cheaper. alcohol, beer and wine are not sold in this county and that won't change. this is just an effort to get some of the larger chain restaurants to come to the area.
I kind of like it small, can't decide how to vote, but I am sure it will pass with or without my vote. Oh well!
Stayed home yesterday and spent no money til we went out to dinner.
My husband takes his lunch every day. Yesterday, one of his framers was complaining that he had just got back from lunch. a burger, tater tots and a drink for $9! Glad my husband likes leftovers.

WE ate out at our favorite place last night and the owner showed us the new menu of the new restaurant she is opening about 2 stores down. It is going to be a tex mex restaurant, but there were plenty of items on the menu that I could eat. (I am a funny eater) Looking forward to having a new place to go that will allow brown bagging.
Monday is always a spend spend day. I cash the paycheck, fill my car up and go to the liquor store. Hope to get back on track today, but I do need to buy some hair conditioner!
Hopefully there is a crew working on my husband's new spec house. We have been waiting on them for months.

We got no sleep last night. The neighbors from hell came home. He moved in with grandma across the street 10 years ago and has been nothing but trouble. He was 15 then, he is almost 26 now. Never had a job, just slept all day and stayed up all night.
Kept all the big flood lights shining in our bedroom window all night, even tho we called a hundred times and asked them to turn them off.
His dog wrecked havoc with our yard, tore up bushes, scratched at the doors and windows and attacked me and my puppy whenever we went outside.
Three weeks ago, he moved out. But yesterday he came back with a moving van. They have been coming and going all night, doing what I don't know, but I finally moved to the couch at 5 am.
Hopefully, he will be gone for good, the house is going up for sale and maybe we will get nice neighbors this time!

Beautiful day here today, up to 77 degrees, unusal in the mountains. This is the warmest my house has been since October. The heat has not run in 2 days. We went to get something for dinner and spent about $8 at the grocery store. We will cook pork chops out on the grill tonight, plus I am cooking cube steak in the crock pot for my dh lunch this week.
Looking forward to having a mixed drink and sitting outside tonight!!

Can you imagine someone my age crusing the town. That is what we did last night after dinner. Cruised in our 1933 ford victoria, called Miss Vicky, She is bright red and real pretty. Too bad she takes high test gas!

Under general discussions, a thread titled Great free gift, told how to own a piece of land in every state. It is only 1 sq. inch, but hey, it is free!! Cute idea.

Thanks to this site, I just acquired land in Hawaii, Alaska and California. The kind of land I like, no taxes, free land!

Good news, I just got my car back a day early. My husband has not seen it yet!!As sorry as I am about the accident happening, I am so glad that I did not have to pay for it.
I got 2 $5 off cards in the mail today for my grocery store. Of course, I need to spend $50 to get it, but that is not hard to do if I buy meat.
Well it is time to go out tonight for dinner and celebrate!!

Well my husband took his van into the shop today. An alignment and something else, I know he spent $80, Now he has to take it somewhere else tomorrow to have the tires rotated. He is self employed, so he is loosing pay.
My car has been at the shop for 2 days and we hope to get it back on Friday. It won't cost anything cause the man that hit us is going to pay the shop directly. However my husband is already talking about getting a new car, cause he says the paint won't match and the car will never look the same. I hope he is wrong, that will cost us a bundle.
He has not washed the car since it got hit. I know he can not stand to look at it.
He has washed his cars every day or two since the first day we met.
I have not been to town in two days. I am afraid I will get to town and the car won't start for me, so I have just stayed home. Oh well, I save money that way.

I have to agree with Money talks$, buying lunch out can really add up. My husband use to have a crew to help him build, and everyone of them had to take an hour or more off for lunch every day. Not only did they lose that hour's pay, but they spent a minimum of $5 for a lunch.
My husband makes his lunch every morning. Very often it is left overs. If we find a roast or chicken on sale, we make enough for several lunches.
I wonder how much money we have saved over the past 20 plus years by taking our lunches? Even when I worked in a restaurant, I took a sandwich to work every day.

Well I am driving my 28 year old car for the next few days.It is a pretty blue vette, but hasn't been driven 100 miles the past two years. I am a little leary of it, so I will spend most of my time here at home. I wonder how the old car likes this $2.50 a gallon gas? Last time this car got gas, it cost about $1.20 a gallon. Oh well, I will save money if I stay home this week.

I just got our mail, it comes late. My friend sent my husband a birthday card and it came today. His birthday was Feb. 24th. Do you sent cards late? I feel like it is a waste of money. I put cards out to look at before my birthday, but after that I throw them away.
So she spent $3 on this card and I am just going to throw it away.
I have found my grandchildren don't card about the card, just the check inside. I buy my birthday cards at the dollar store for 50 cents each. Is that being cheap?

I am trying to type this with my puppy on my lap. Since she is standing up, this is not easy,
Need to got to ace and buy some bird feed, we go thru about 50 pounds a month. I know it is money but I love feeding the birds.
I will put a roast that I got for sale inthe crock pot for my husband's lunches. I will be back when i am not being licked to death. My puppy is almost 6 and is named Holly.

Well I splurged yesterday, got a sandwich form blimpie with the thought that it would do me for 2 lunches. Well, I have just been invited to meet some ladies at lunch, so what will I do with my half sandwich. Guess I will just go eat in for breakfast. Can't waste that money!

What is wrong. All of the blogs from March are missing on the left hand side? I like reading all the new ones.

A thought to cheer me up, it is less than 3 weeks til spring. We went to look for some lots today and wound up taking two of them.
It is hard to believe that we sold our first spec house just 3 1/2 years ago for $112,000. Now we just paid (or will pay) $80,000 for each lot! Ouch!!
Land is just sky high around here!
It is warmer outside than it is inside. we don't have screens, so i can't open the windows.
Happy 1st day of March and come on spring, I am ready for you!

I am kind of upset today. I talk on a local forum a lot. Yesterday, one of the newer members mentioned that her son need a trumpet for band and she could not afford it.
I asked if it was possible to make payments on it cause I did not know the cost.
Well, another old time member just jumped all over me about saying that.
She talked about me online and made it obvious that I had made the new member feel put down. (she would not do well on this forum as we ask each other questions all the time)
Actually, I was going to offer to pay the payments on the trumpet myself, so she could have it for free.
Trying to do something nice and is caused a big controvery!!!
Guess I just saved myself over $300!

I mentioned going to a hot dog bonfire/ccok out last night. It was held for members of a local forum but only 9 of us showed up. No one knew each other. How suprised I was to find that I went to school with one of the ladies there. We graduated from the same high school in florida only 2 years apart.
Looks like we are staying home tonight and cooking on the grill. Wish it was warm enough to sit outside, but it is so windy!

This is my husband's birthday. I went to work with him to help him put wire mesh down in the basement before the concrete is poured on Monday. Poor guy, he can't get any help and he pays $18 an hour. I wonder if I should pay myself today and put it in our challenge money.
Well it is time to go out to eat and to celebrate.
Not much celebrating when you get our age, no presents, no cake. He is getting a $1000 new tool that he ordered and we are both on diets.
But we will enjoy our night out together!

I have only seen my husband cry about 4 times in his life. When his mother died and when our dogs died.
My husband cried last night.

You would have to know my husband to understand what kind of car fanatic he is. The first date I had with him, he had to wash his car first. He has washed our cars almost every day for almost 30 years. He wants cars that are perfect.

My mother died in 1978 and left me a little money. Being young and foolish, I used it to buy a car, something we both wanted, a 1978 corvette. Back then, you could get a car to come into the dealership in primer paint and this one did. One of 16 that year. It was painted tu tone blue with pin striping.
I still have that car and it has never had a scratch on it.

We bought a new vette a while back, a bright red one. My dh washes it almost every day. He spent an hour and a half on it yesterday cleaning it before we went out to dinner.

We were the last people in the restaurant, only two cars in the parking lot. The other car managed to hit our red vette as they were leaving.
my husband was so upset because now it is a damaged car and he does not like damaged cars. It can be fixed, but it won't be the same to him.
He cried. Today is his birthday, not a very good birthday.

My husband, who is a builder, has 3 projects going, 2 houses and a garage. All three are just sitting. Our helper has not come to work all week. We just found out that he fell (while drinking) and broke a bunch of ribs last weekend. That means he can't work for months.
No one around here wants to work. This is really frustrating, cause he pays well I think.

Happy Birthday, George Washington. I don't think anyone has remembered that it is your birthday today. We all celebrate president's day.
But my goal is to keep more of your pictures in my wallet and not spend them.

Well, I was ready to stay home and save money last night, by not going out to eat. I think my husband is just so used to going out, that when I mentioned it, he say, oh no, lets go out. So out we went and enjoyed it of course.We went to a friend's house for supper on Monday night. I guess we couldn't not go to the restaurant two nights in a row. The owner calls us her stock holders. She is opening a mexican restaurant right next door, but I don't really like mexican food.

Well I have had two no spend days and two stay at home days in a row. I decided to take my little Holly for a ride. In case you don't know who Holly is, the is the cutest little black poodle who weighs about 6 lbs. and loves to go riding in the car.
I had a bill that really needed to be paid today, so I rode downtown to pay it. I use to ride around and pay all my bills but now with the price of gas, it is cheaper to mail the bills.
Gas has gone down to $2.33 premium around here.
It is a gloomy cold day here and I am looking forward to being with friends tonight. We built their house and they still like us!! Not many people can say that of their builder, but we have remained friends with all we have built for.