The following little factoid came across my screen this morning from the Money Fun Fact Feed at SavingAdvice.com, and I just wanted to make sure the folks here noted it.

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"The richest person ever was John D. Rockefeller whose wealth was estimated at $900 million in 1913, the equivalent of $189.6 Billion today. His first job in 1850 paid him $3.57 a week." Source: guinnessworldrecords.com

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The interesting thing is that if you read Titan a biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., you will note that Mr. Rockefeller from a very young age 1)TRACKED every penny and dime AND was 2) EXTREME in his cost cutting efforts AND was 3)QUICK to develop new business ideas and opportunities.

All three ideas which we here at Saving Advice can use to fatten our bottom lines as well. If it was good enough for John D., well, it ought to be good for us as well.

And, JUST because I like you, (said in my best car salesman voice) I'm going to throw you a little bonus thing you can do so your bottom line can begin to fatten like John D.'s - 4)he tithed. Many people are unaware of all the churches and schools he was charitable towards.


http://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr/dp/1400...

To recap, he did the following:
1)Tracked Income & Expenses
2)Extreme Cost Cutting
3)Quickly Develop Business Ideas
4)Tithe


If you get a chance, read Titan with your pen & notebook in hand (I'd say highlighter, but I'm a librarian I can't go around telling you to mark up books!!)

While he was no angel, he is not the total devil some might make him out to be. An interesting, informative read.

~~LuxLivingFrugalis

P.S. You'll find out which bank is still around today that was started w/Rockefeller dollars.

Perfect!!! FrugalSon just gave me $6.25 left from his December Entertainment budget - "to help you with that pizza from the other night Mom", you know the one we invited his girlfriend over for? What a trooper!

Wooooot!!!

Now normally the Frugalis family makes pizza at home which I can make a couple of nice pizzas for about $5 or less, so even w/the coupon the other night it pained ol' Mom's Frugalicious Gene (TM) to pay for pizza (no, I didn't say a word as it was my idea to do it this way), so this is a nice surprise.

Unexpected, so, I'm taking it to the challenge!

Plus, the dryer fairy left me a penny. Thank you muchly!!


$20 CHALLENGE
$001.46 balance
+006.26 pizza rebate & dryer fairy
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$007.72 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $7.72
Cumulative Challenge Total $536.33

Okay this one's for Shiela who asked about how my fold up bed works. The key is in the piano hinges that allow the doors to be folded back out of the way.



This was the only bed I had for about 3 or 4 years when I was a young single upwardly mobile chickista. Proving that you can sleep with a metal rod across your back and live to tell the tale!

Wow, I opened this up today for the first time in a couple of years and all dustbunnies aside found the sheet (I paid $8 to replace)I've been looking for!

Ta-da!!

Here it is!



And to think I've been accusing the young manchildren who live hereabouts of having it scrunched up in some deep dark (Mom, you REALLY don't want to look in there) place!!


See the blue taped thingawhichy over there against the closet? Hang tight, that's my next How I Turned $5 into $125 project. Details to follow as soon as Hubster gets it put back together for me.

Updating the mortgage balance...

If we continue on the track we're going down we'll shave an additional 1 year and 10 months off the loan, saving interest payments of 807.27.

New balance after payment on 1/1/08 is $19,705.71. Finally, under that $20,000 bar!

Contractual term left 6 years 4 months
Actual term remaining 5 years 7 months

Projected early payoff in July 2012!




And a nearby picture of the recent ice-storm! Hubster did go buy himself a new Stihl chainsaw the other day and while he was off on his Christmas vacation worked about 8 days all day EVERY DAY on cutting up trees in our yard alone and STILL the entire backyard and behind the creek is full of gigantic downed limb piles remaining to be cut up! That was an unexpected expense of apprx. $325 that came out of the Emergency Fund.

Adding to the $20 Challenge $1.01 from CashHappySon.

$000.45 balance
+001.01 donation
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$001.46 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $1.46
Cumulative Total $530.07

I can see an additional expense coming up as my calculator is now ghost operated. I was sitting here last night at the desk and the calculator started calculating without me!! Just clicking away like a wild thing!! The number 2 on the keypad has been sticking for awhile, so it's about time to take it in for a tuneup if it's going to take off on it's own doing who knows what?!!?!!

Will have to run her in to the metro area to find out if she's worth putting dollars into or if it's time for the old scrap heap!

Warning, Warning, Warning, Photo Intensive, so those with slower computers might wish to back away now!

I always enjoy seeing pictures of Fern's house so, since the house is halfway clean this morning as we had company last night, I thought it was the appropriate time to snap a few pictures. Welcome to a partial tour of the Frugalis Homestead.





Do not adjust your screen folks. Remember, my house was originally built in 1942 and everything is slightly off kilter from one view to the next! I promise I did not hit the nog last night!! House has been added on to and added on to, so it is a bit of a maze!



Yeah, when you come to visit, I'll let you sleep in the foyer! Ha! That's probably my favorite piece of the furniture in the house. That table w/the stained glass has a full size fold-out bed in it. I got it as a gift a million years ago from my Mom & Stepdad when I bought my first home - a little efficiency condo. It's moved with me a bunch of times. That sucker is heavy!!! No, really, we'll just throw the egg-crate foam on there and you won't feel that foldy-up-the-bed-bar in your back hardly at all!




The little gossip bench was another early gift from my Mom & StepDad! Thank God for my parents thru the years or we would have no furniture!!! That little seat has moved w/me many, many times!! Okay, who forgot to put the phone book back?

Need to repaint the floor trim & next on the HoneyToDoList is to put up crown molding all thru the house. I think I'll have to spend a small fortune on caulk though, because as you can see there isn't a straight line at the ceiling anywhere in the house! All those variations at ceiling line? Not painter's errors, but wavy ceilings!

Okay, let's back track and go to...


Next, a small hint of the Sun Room, well, it's got a cool old wavy glass door and the floor is the pits right now w/stacks of books, so ummmm...yeah, we won't go any farther in here today.

But, yes, that the big club chair I bought from Mom last year w/some money I had saved for that purpose. And the curtain is sooooo cool. I bought it to resell, but haven't been able to turn loose of it yet. It's rather on the coolish side. I paid a dollar for it last year on vacation at a thrift store in AZ, & will probably resell in about the 18 dollar range! How's THAT for a return on my investment?




The 500 lb. monster TV we want to replace! The LAUGH sign was a Christmas gift from my ex-SIL, that's not it's permanent home, will have to find it another spot, but, you'd laugh too if you had all that crappy filing to do!! EGADS it's about to topple!! The old green desk is a cool architect's drafting table that I begged for until I got it from my Step-Dad. Came out of his shop! I LOVE IT!!

It's old & chippy and the top of the table tilts up and has a coolio little brass doo-hickey-ma-bob that holds it the designated angle. Really cool. Would like to put an aluminum top on it someday. With my extra cash, doncha' know???? One of my pipedreams I suppose. Have yet to price it out though, it might be much more reasonable than I'm imagining.



And here we come to...



Here's where I'm a'sitting and typing to you my dear friends & faithful readers.

Yeah, I get the big chair. It belongs to Hubster as it was a Father's Day gift about five years ago, but I abscounded with it awhile back. I log more hours at the desk. Hubster gets the little chair in the evening times to play Halo2 or whatever it is he is cuzzing & discussing at over there.

This is a neat, neat old desk we share that I got at a barn sale. It is over 150 years old and I love it!! Chippy, crackly, creaky, unevenness and all. The white spot on the end there is from some kind of laminated paper that is clearly from the 40's or 50's.

I'd eventually like to cover it with some patterned leather, but yeah, it is cool just like it is. Operations central. New curtains from Mom, need to iron!!! It's always something!! That's the door to the sunroom...

My nice wooden end tables are missing as they are over at FIL's house 'dressing' it for sale.








Ooops, I forgot a couple of ornaments in the put-away the other day! Love my oak plate rack! I paid way, way too much for it, but yeah, it's a keeper. Aren't the cute little feety egg cups I got from my niece adorable?! Love Them!!!






I paid 50 cents for the oak beveled mirror over the stove! A certified STEAL...women, do not let your men price or man the garage sale alone, okay? I'm just saying. They could've easily gotten $50-65 for it. That's the utility room you can just glimpse in the mirror. Remember last year me getting Hubster to finally put trim sticks around the kitchen cabinets. They were HORRID w/o them!!





Okay, this is the possum belly table that holds way too much stuff!! I paid a God-awful amount of money for this puppy, but I really love it. Ya think it's going to sink my houseboat someday??? But, I only paid $8.00 for the beautiful brass lamp at the thrift store!! The matching one sits in the living room. Hey, who crammed those styro cups up there??



Okay, the rest of the dining room and stuff is kinda piled up, so maybe later, huh? Honestly, now just where did you think the rest of the crap from off my desk was hiding???

The Hubster and the rest of the crew are still sacked out in the other rooms and I'll have to go click some pics of the newly repainted bathroom, utility room, bedrooms, etc. later! So, folks, that concludes this portion of the tour.

Thanks for stopping by! Ya'll come back now, ya hear!!!! Any time!!!

Keep scrolling down...









Of financial note: Speaking of OLD & NEW...maybe it's just me but is everything blurry & quiet in here?? The Hubster and I signed up for his HSA this year. Hope he gets his official paperwork soon as I see an eye exam and a hearing test in my future.

At church last Sunday I couldn't see one of my favorite little girls' face while she was in the baptistry waters! Granted, I sit in the balcony, way at the back but still....

Ughhhh!! I think it is a bigger issue than just being at a distance...like maybe I'm turning into an old fossil??

AND,

I couldn't hear the people at the other end of the table in my Sunday School class. Granted, it's a big class, but, still, I like to participate. Need to be able to hear to do that!! Maybe I'm just full of funky earwax?? Hear's hoping that's all that is!

Hopefully the little bit we put towards the HSA will cover both those expenses. We are newbies at this HSA thingy, so we didn't plop a lot of money towards it. 2008 is our test launch year and I think he either put $400 or $500 on it, either of which should be easily hit.

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Cleaned the desk off yesterday while preparing for FrugalSon's date. My desk is in the living room, so um, yeah, it had to have a clean sweep! Found a dime and someone had left 35 cents on the lazy susan in the dining room. The waitress (dear Ol' Mom) claimed it.

FrugalSon's 'The Girl' came over bearing a chocolate cake last night and we had Domino's pizza (yes, w/a coupon) and watched Godzilla -the relatively?? new one.

Wooohoooo Party!!

Huuuu!! I fell asleep during the first part but was enough of a party animal to be awake from about 11 on til about 1 a.m. Big time fun. Well, for us anyway.


2008 $20 CHALLENGE

$000.00 balance
+000.45 desk cleanup & waitress tip
_______
$000.45 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $000.45
Cumulative Challenge Total $402.95

Anyway, I pray that everyone of us here at SavingAdvice.com will prosper during the coming new year!! Let the clock start ticking!! I'm off to make my mortgage payment.

OhJoyyyyyyyAndHappiness!