I got a card in the mail from ING, that is I open up an IRA, they will give me $50 for free. I did that, so by the end of the month, they will credit my account with $50.
I don't know if any of you want to try that, but if you are an ING member already, go to
www.retiremyway.com/50 and claim your free $50.

Don't forget to wear something green! Even if you are not Irish. I am Irish. My grandparents were both born in Ireland. I don't know what year they came to this country. My father was born here, in Mass, in 1899.

Don't forget to "spring ahead" tonight and set your clocks forward an hour. I love daylight savings time and it staying lighter longer at night! Spring is only 8 days away, even if it did snow Thursday night here.

We have not heard from Broken Arrow in a long time. I miss him!!

WE have used the same guy to install our heat/airconditioning systems for over 20 years. We even used him in our first house.
Yesterday, he came over to start the installation at our spec house.
Dh was telling him about his expensive trip to the emergency room ($7500) and his gall bladder surgery. When dh told him that his hospital bill was over $12,000, the guy asked how dh was going to pay it.
Dh said, I already paid the bill in cash. (we paid in full and received a 15% discount)
The guy could not believe that anyone could have that much cash in a savings account.

This is a middle age guy with two grown children and his own business. I guess he has never had any money put aside in his entire lifetime. I wonder what he is going to do if he ever has to retire?

The funny thing is, he eats out almost every meal. Every breakfast and every lunch, he goes out to eat. He could save a lot of money by bringing his lunch to work like my dh does.

34 years ago yesterday, I met and had my first date with my husband. I did not expect to spend this anniversary day in the hospital all day.

It started with him walking up in pain yesterday morning. He has been having this problem for months and it is just getting worse and worse On tuesday, he had an MRCP and no gall stones could be found.
He was all set to have a EGD procedure on March 18th, but that is a month away.

So, I took him to the emergency room first thing. They gave him some medication, a shot, pill, etc. to ease the pain. Of course, all other kind of tests too.Finally after 3 hours, the doctor wanted to send him home, but I said, no, the pain will just come back when he gets home. He still was not feeling very much better.

She called his family doctor and then they admitted him to the hospital. The specialist that he had been seeing for this problem called at 2 pm and said they would proform an ERCP at about 4:30 yesterday. (this procedure is where they put a tube down your throat to look at everything!)

They found the gallstone! Even tho the MRI did not show anything! He is home today and feeling so much better!! I don't know how much money we spent yesterday (no insurance) but it was worth it.!!

Now he can eat again!

WE got snow again last night. We have a doctor's appointment about 40 minutes away in Blue Ridge, but we are going to try and make it. My dh had another gallstone attack again last night. They are coming every few days so we want something done asap. Of course, this is just a consultation, not the procedure itself. I hope he does not have to wait too long for the procedure.

I just got my bill in the mail. I filled up my tank in late August. The bill was for $1100. I had to fill it again last week and this bill was for $1400.
I have spent $2500 on propane this winter. (I have a 1000 gallon tank.)

Gosh, I keep the house on 64 degrees and wear 2 sweaters all the time. It has just been such a cold long winter and we still have 50 days to go until the first day of spring.

I did buy steak on sale today, so I have $4 to add to the $20 challenge.

Prev. total $1199.00
today 4.00
new total $1203.00

I kept track of how much interest I made last year on cash sitting in the banks and in C.D's. I made $13,788.61. That sounds pretty good, but last year I made $21,824 and that was on the same amount of money. It is obvious that the rates keep going down, down, down.
Dh and I have never had a pension plan. He has always been self employed and I have worked for small businesses. I had hoped someday to earn enough interest to support us, but unless rates go way, way up, that probably will never happen.
The $21,824 was for the year 2009 and in 2008, we made almost $26,000. So actually this year (2010) we made about half what we made in 2008. Rates have really dropped.

Like all of you, I get excited when I find money. Yesterday, I found 2 quarters! I didn't do very well last year. I found a grand total of 52 cents, 2 quarters and 2 pennies) (although I did find some folding money in my dryer which belonged to dh and I kept it)
dh is always so different, when I tell him I have found money. He thinks I should not take or pick up the money. He thinks I should leave it there for someone more unfortunate than myself to get it. Well, how about if I make a donation to our local humane society if/when I find money?? That would be a much nicer deed than just leaving the money. That is what I will start doing.
I did my grocery shopping yesterday and saved $3 using my Ingles card and that will get added to my $20 challenge!

Prev. total $108.00
today 3.00
new total $111.00

In August of 2009, a young women went missing in this area. She was outside, near her own home, talking a walk and talking on her cell phone.
Her boyfriend, who was on the phone with her, heard her scream and the phone went dead. The police was called immediately but she had disappeared. They found her cell phone several miles away.
This was very big news for our small community since this area is considered very safe and crime free.
Kristie Cornwell's story has made nation wide news several times.
Her family has never quit looking for her. Her brother came down from Tennessee every weekend to look for her.
On Saturday, her body was found out in the woods about 9 miles from where she disappeared. Her brother found the body. He never gave up. Dental records proved that it was Kristie.
I am sorry that this had such a sad ending, but at least her family has closure now and she can have a proper burial.

They do think that they know who the killer was. The police were after him for kidnapping and raping his step daughter. Wwhen they tried to arrest him, he killed himself. His phone records traced him to this area on the day Kristie was kidnapped. The cell tower was located just 2 miles from the body. I am glad that this evil person is no longer in this world.
RIP, Kristie.

It is hard to believe that 2 weeks from today will be Christmas eve! The older you get the faster time goes. We have very few presents for each other. I really don't care and I don't think dh cares either. When we really need something, we just go ahead and get it.
Dh has to update his tools all the time. He can't wait til christmas! Last month, our grill tore up and we had to get one right away. We cook out on the grill several times a week. We are just lucky that we can buy whatever we want and don't have to wait for christmas.

What I really want for christmas is for dh to go back to work. He does not have any houses to build, but is trying to get a spec house started. He is ready to pour the floor slab, but the weather just won't cooperate. Starting Sunday, they (weatherman) are calling for snow for 3 days, then rain for three days. It looks like the house will have to sit until we have decent weather! Let's hope we have a few warm days this month!

I have always enjoyed Gamecock's blog. She has not blogged in a long time. I wish she would come back and bring us up to date on her life!! Gamecock, where are you?? We miss you!!!

Petunia asked me about the $20 challenge.

I have been doing this for four years.
You start with $20 and think of ways to add to this money. It can be anyway you want.

You can sell things on e bay, have garage sales, save up all your change, save $1 bills. I add on anything I save when using coupons or grocery store credit cards. I add any unexpected checks, my s.s. check which I have never cashed. I have made a few personal loans to friends and I add the interest I make on that. I get cash rewards back from my credit card and I sometimes get rebates from a home improvement store.
Actually, Petunia, it can be any thing you want it to be. I track the savings on paper and add it to my savings account once or twice a month.

Today was too cold to do anything but take a ride in a warm car. We went to find the Park Model home that our friends purchased this week. We did find the Park Model park but were not sure which home was theirs. It is a pretty neat little park.

I hope everyone has a great day today. Normally, we spend Thanksgiving day alone, but this time we are invited to a friend's house for dinner. They live in Florida but are up here in their vacation home for a week.
So, I hope you all have a wonderful day and don't eat too much!

In yesterday's blog, I discussed that I was upset with a former customer of ours.
They hired dh to build them a cabin. The now have it up for sale for more than double what they paid for it. I certainly do believe that it is their right to make as much profit on the cabin as they can.

What I object to, they told the realtor that my husband charged them $188,000 to build the cabin, when in reality, he only charged them $65,000 for the cabin; everything, labor and materials.

It sounds like the cabin cost over $200 a square foot to build, when it actually cost $80 a square foot.
Realtors sell land too, and are often asked to reccommend a good builder. I don't think we would get many reccommendations if the realtor thought my husband was overcharging.

Actually, I have been told by the past 2 homes that we built, that my husband was very reasonable in his hourly wage. (I say we, cause I handle all the money; my dh handles the building) Works great!

We got a call the other day from a guy looking for a builder. He said he heard about my dh on the internet. Since dh does NOT know how to use a computer and I barely do, I typed his name in on google. Well, the internet did show pictures of a cabin that he built for a couple back in 2003.

They are asking $188,000 for an 800 square foot cabin with no garage or basement for storage.

I e mailed the realtor, asking why the house was priced so high.
She mailed me back, saying that that is what the couple told her they had in the house. Since it was built by my husband, I know exactly how much they had in the cabin.
We built the cabin next door to it and sold it for $115,000. It was 1200 square feet with a walk in crawl space for storage.
We agreed to build this cabin for $64,000 or $80 a square foot. They bought the lot for about $20,000, so they have less than $90,000 in the house.

They are really wanting to make a killing on this cabin. The realtor said that since it was a (insert husbands name) built house, she assumed they were telling the truth! Now my husband is the best builder anywhere cause he does all the work himself, but he sure does NOT overcharge anyone.

They wanted to make $100,000 profit on this little cabin! We would never build for these people again.

I am out of the contest. It is getting below freezing every night, so I have to run the heat at night now. Little Holly has a heating pad to sleep on but Molly, the puppy does not. I am sure Molly is very happy!

A big thank you to all the men and women who have served our country.

I am very proud of my father. He served in both WWI and WWII. Apparently,as a teenager, he lied about his age and joined the army. ( not many birth certificates back then) He was born in 1899.

I am sorry I don't know any of his war stories but I do know he was stationed in France and Germany during world war II. He made the army his career although I think he came out of the army after WWI for a while.

Sadly, he died the week before my 10th birthday, so I don't know much about his youth. I just know that I am very proud of him.

I haven't been on here for a few days. I have been busy taking care of my sick little poodle, Holly. I took her to a new vet last week and she had to have ememergency surgery. The surgery went well, but she just will not eat. She has gone from 6 1/2 pounds to 4 pounds, 2 ounces.

I have been back to the vets several times and have gotten a lot of medicine to help her little tummy. We are having to feed her by hand. We get a little food down her and then she throws it all up.
I finally got some medicine yesterday that is supposed to stop the throwing up.

She threw up several times yesterday, but so far today, the food has stayed down. We are giving her baby food and putting it in her mouth with a syringe.

I don't think she will ever eat dog food again! I think she is feeling better today. I take her back to the vets on Tuesday.

Molly, the puppy, can't understand why her big (but half her size) sister is so quiet and gets so much attention. I am so glad that Molly is so healthy.

I took my little Holly (poodle) to a new vet today. She has had problems for years with a "sick tummy"
I got some new food and medicine for her tummy. But, while doing some blood work and an x ray, they discovered fluid leaking from her uterus inside of her. Believing it to be very dangerous, they reccommended emergency surgery and are doing it after the office closes. Please keep Holly in your thoughts!

We live in a beautiful subdivision. There are only about 20 houses here. We have lived here (in this house) for 15 years, but our subdivision has never had a sign, with it's name on it.
Finally, a couple of the people close to the entrance of the subdivision had a nice big sign made. Today, they asked dh if he could put the sign up. He was very happy to do it and the sign really looks good in front of the stone gate entrance. Now, we are finally ON the map!!

We have a chase business master card. They pay us points back for every $1 spent. We get 3% back for home improvement purchases and my dh is a builder! They just offered me an extra 1000 points back for every $500 purchase. The points are redeemed for cash money!! So, I signed up for it.
I think I will pay the hosptial bills with myChase card to earn the bonus points. Of course, I will pay off the balance in full every month so I do NOT pay any interest.

I do surveys for two places, pinecone, which most of you know about and NFOmysurvey.
I am happy with Pinecone but not with NFO my survey anymore.
Normally, NFO will send me a short survey (under 5 minutes) and I will receive 10 points for it. To get a check for $10, you have to accumulate 1000 points. You can get 150 points for referring someone who becomes a member. Sometimes you will get much longer surveys that will pay hundreds of points.
Lately, the surveys I have been getting, are only paying 5 points each. You know how many surveys you have to do to get to 1000 points? Way too many!

I have also been receiving surveys for NO points. Instead they enter your name in a contest. I don't do those surveys at all.

I have decided to stop doing these surveys as soon as I accumulated my next 1000 points. I had 765 points as of yesterday. I got another survey for 5 points and after I took it, they offered me a survey about financial products that paid 400 points. I jumped on it.

The survey took about 40 minutes and as soon as I finished, I redeemed my points.

Has anyone else stopped doing the surveys because of the low points awarded??

Today, we are going to a wine tasting party hosted by our local Humane Society. It is a bit expensive at $60 a couple, but I feel like our Humane Society is a very worthy cause. It is a no kill shelter and I support them as often as I can.

I always look forward to the being of fall and of spring. (especially spring) For a few weeks, we don't have to run the heat or the air conditioning. I did have to put a sweater on in the house today.

I had planned a no use gas day yesterday until I got a phone call. It seem's like the wife of our "plumber" had lost the paycheck I had given him. I had to run down to the bank and put a stop payment on it.
She found the check last night, but that was too late. I have already been charged a $32 stop payment charge. I will have to take that off of the new check.
DH has worked a few days this week painting at a house he built several years ago. This week, will be our first paycheck that will have to come out of our savings. We are still discussing building a new spec house.

For the first time in 26 years, my husband does not have a house to build.
He had never built a house in his life when we moved to the mountains 26 years ago. He built our Lincoln Log house on the river, completely by himself. That included lifting every log, doing all the plumbing, electric, tile, cabinets, etc., completely alone.
Other people were so impressed they asked him to build their log home.
For the first few years, he only build log homes, but then he branched out cause actually log homes were getting too expensive to build. He has built every type of house now. From 800 square feet to 7500 square feet.

He finished up his last house on Friday and spent yesterday bringing home all his tools. Today, he had nothing to do.

We have the money set aside to build a spec house, but nothing is selling here except real bargains and foreclosures. There are hundreds and hundreds of homes on the market as this area got so overbuilt the past 2 years. (Every body thought they were a builder!!)

He is bored already, so today we went looking at lots. The new cabin subdivisions have not been taken care of and look overgrown. Cabins are the only thing selling here; homes under $150,000. Our last spec house sold for $400,000 and the first couple that looked at it, bought it.

We may have to build a small spec house just so he will have something to do. Otherwise, he will drive me crazy!!!

Anyone want to build a house in the mountains??

Yes folks, today is just three months away from the big Holiday. I only buy for my dh, all others I give money. We have really cut down on Christmas the past few years, because we really have everything we want and/or need. Hope you are getting ready!!

When I was growning up, everyone including all the movie stars, smoked. It made them look glamorous!

My parents both smoked all the time. Heck, they even collected coupons off of the cigarette packages to get some great free gifts.

My mother told me I could smoke when I wanted to, as long as I did not sneak around to do it. At age 12, I started smoking in front of her. I had a job, so I could buy my own cigarettes. I soon became addicted and smoked 1-2 packs a day. Back then, you could buy a carton of cigarettes for $2 (10 packs)
I wish I could tell you that I quit at a young age. But I did NOT! Husband #1 smoked and so did Husband #2. (current hubby)

Finally, sometime in my mid 40's, I decided that I was wasting an awful lot of money and I quit cold turkey. I talked dh into joining me a few months later.

My mother died of lung cancer from smoking, so did husband #1. My best friend's husband got such bad breathing problems from smoking that he couldn't even take a shower or fix something to eat. The last few years of his life he was forced to sit in a chair and stare at the tv, cause he couldn't do anything else.

I had a friend that died this Monday. She and her husband were heavy smokers all their lives. She developed breathing problems about 5 years ago and quit smoking. She begged her husband to quit but he did not. She begged her children. They still smoke.
Her husband developed lung cancer and died within a month; that was 2 years ago. My friend still struggled to breath and was on oxygen all the time.

This Monday, she could not breathe and by the time they got her to the hospital, her heart had stopped.

She was 54.

If you smoke, please stop. If you don't, don't ever start. It is not nearly as cool as all those old movie stars made it out to be! Believe me.

Just thinking of all those who died on 9-11-01. Our prayers are with their families and we will never forget.

I have been busy the past few days with my dh being so sick. I was surpised to get on here today and see all the responses to my blog about the emergency room.
Apparently a lot of you are experienced about gall stones and gall bladder surgery. We were not and it was the very last text the emergency room did; after testing him for everything else.

Monday, we got busy and went to visit the office of the surgeon.
I felt very confident in him and we were sure he would do a good job. After all, dh built his house!

Then we went over to the hospital to fill out form and back the appointment.

On Tuesday morning, we met at the hospital at 10 am. They finally took him into surgery at noon and he was out by 2 pm. He got to go home by 4:30. They don't keep you overnight if you are feeling ok.

Now, he is not feeling great and was surprised that he could not go back to work today. But he is doing ok. The hardest thing for him is getting up and down from the bed and he doesn't feel right if he bends over. I have been helping him get up from the bed so he doesn't hurt himself. Last night, he slept in his recliner and says that is much easier to get out of.

The puppy likes to jump on his lap and sit with him, so we had to put a pillow over his stomach so she would not hurt him.

The hardest thing is having nothing to do! My dh is one of the hardest working men you have ever met. He can hardly wait to get back to work!