Suit Up And Head For The Exit!!



Among other things my folks got me a gift card to JC Penney's for Christmas. FrugalSon and I took off this afternoon and made it into the big city and hit the store. I've been reading my Missus Smarty Pants stuff...

http://missussmartypants.com/

...and trying to follow along on some of her advice. I determined before I went what I NEEDED and went and got that.

And if I think I may re-enter the corporate world anytime soon what I needed was a plain solid black blazer. As luck would have it JCP's was having a nice sale and I was able to get the suit skirt to match. Ta-Da!! Done! I only had to add a few CASH dollars to the gift card to get both pieces so I'm tickled with the purchase.

Just got off the phone with the Mother Figure to let her know what I was able to get and to thank her! YEAH MOM!!

Of course I did take a small gander at a few other trendy things but was easily able to leave them behind. In, suited up and then we hit the exit - time in store 15 minutes tops!

QUICKIES ala Broken Arrow Style



*Adding to the Challenge money from CashHappySon donation.

$20 CHALLENGE
$35.43 balance
+00.83 generous manchild
_____
$36.26 Jan MTD

2007 Challenge $36.26
Cumulative Total $162.37

*FrugalSon worked yesterday, Hubster dug out ice in driveway and CashHappySon and I went to the movies to see Night At The Museum which was pretty cute. Somewhat better than I expected. Of financial note is that our matinee movies have now gone up to $2.25 from $2.00. Have to readjust my yearly entertainment budget now from $24.00 to 27.00! OWWWWWW!!
Not painful, but still I'd rather that they hadn't hiked it! Even a quarter makes my Frugalicious Gene (TM) pucker!!

*FrugalSon got a dime raise on his check yesterday.

*I got headhunted for a very nice job - went for the interview - turns out it would be commissioned based sales and I'm just not interested in sales. Was nice to be sought out though and the commissions would be quite substantial but still I'm just not into sales - I've done it before and it's not quite my cup of tea.

*Hubster and I went and spent about 3 and half hours picking out the doors and hardware for our interior/exterior doors and they are now coming up w/a quote as much of it will be custom cut to fit our odd sized doorways. Hoping to get loads of the doors done for little cash, but that might be asking a bit much!

*Quote for CashHappySon's car insurance is ridiculous. Both boys are going to go together and each pay their own amount based on their respective vehicles, but they'll get a multi-car discount. Still, too much though!! OUCH!!! Hubster and I do not want them on our insurance - as we would hate to be financially liable if they were to seriously hurt someone in a car accident.

*Estimate from the country treasurer says that our house taxes are going up by a mere $5.00 next year - which isn't too bad you know!

*Think I'll go drink a cup of serenity!

Increasing Income by Decreasing The Stacks



I'm increasing my income by decreasing the book stacks around here. Many of the things I'm selling are books I had for the kids when they were homeschooling and we aren't going to need any longer. Purging the stacks!

You can too if you click on the logo below (in the interest of full disclosure this is an associates link):

Even Happier Holidays



Sometimes a failing memory can be delightful. I don't remember The Hubster getting a bigger check last January, but I suppose he did.

I just opened his payroll envelope (yep, we do direct deposit) and find an extra 96.08 in there for holiday pay. YES!!! We'll take it!

Just when I was getting ready to suck wind again after upping the 401-K contributions, this will give a tiny breather - and possibly buy Hubster a new pair of cuuuub-boy boots he needs.

Yeee-Haw!

A Stay At Home Sunday

Today has been a stay at home Sunday for us - working on getting all the new plantation shutters up and adjusted, painting out one of the windowsills that had to be replaced and working on getting all four (CashHappySon, FrugalSon, mine, and Household) of our 2007 January budgets in place while upgrading to the new YNAB 3.1 version.

I'm a slow learner on new upgrades, besides it being the change from one year to the next and on top of that we each have boo-coo entries in our checkbooks for December as we closed out all our orange savings and CD accounts. Much to keep straight as to where it goes!!

I've got FrugalSon's done and caught up to the moment - only three more to go!

DEEP SIGH!!



Budgeting and book-keeping is something I usually enjoy - when I'm somewhat current. With so many transactions it does get confusing!

Staying at home makes it a no-spender for me!

Home James!



CashHappySon got his driver's license today! YEAH! Four down and one to go!

After he chauferred me home he gave me .83 for the $20 Challenge. See, it does pay to hang out down at the DMV!

$20 CHALLENGE
$2.91 balance
+0.83 DMV tip
_____
$3.74 Jan MTD

2007 Challenge $3.74
Cummulative Total $129.85

Only 363 days until 2008 and we have football fever here. No, not your everyday boob tube football fever, no tail-gate parties, no crisp air, hot cheerleader's kinda' fever.

Boring football fever.

Boring that is unless you have the dna of a fruggie. Gifted with the Frugalicious Gene (tm), that is.

Yesterday FrugalSon and I were cleaning out his room when we came upon some of the leftover boxes from when my FIL lived with us.

In there was one of those little plastic football shaped coin purses from the 60's and 70's like the one pictured above. This one was even decorated like a football and in it was .94 cents.

The Hubster says I can have it for the $20 Challenge. Thanks Pops!! I miss you!

~~~~~~~~HOLLABACK~~~~~~~

!!TOUCHDOWN!! She scores!

$20 CHALLENGE
$1.71 balance
+0.94 Pops was a team player
_____
$2.65 Jan MTD

2007 Challenge YTD Total $2.65

Cummulative Total $128.76

Day 364: Updating 2006 $20 Challenge Final Tally a/k/a Stuffing Piggy




I just now got Piggy down off his shelf and counted his contents in order to get ready for bank deposit.

Somehow in the mad rush up to Christmas
?somebody? tended the sign and stuffed more money in there than I knew about.

$20 CHALLENGE
30.01 balance
+3.11 extra stuffing
_____
33.12 Dec 06 MTD


Which makes the 2006 grand total $126.11 instead of just $123.00.

Adding then the 1.71 that we started off with yesterday brings the Cummulative Total to $127.82!

YEAH PIGGY STUFFERS!!

Warm Cockles and Budgeting Done Right



Here's hoping there's a chicken (or TWO) in every one of your pots for 2007!!

After this post I'm off to make a big pot of chicken soup for the hungry hordes who are bound to come out of hibernating some time this year! In the crockpot is the traditional New Year's hoppinjohn (blackeyed peas & ham).

Ta-da, just now checking the mail from the last few days and here's the tag notice for Hubster's car. Happy I am that the money is sitting there all nice and pretty in savings waiting to pay the little sucker!!! Anticipatory budgeting does work if you do it right!! Yeah Frugalis Family!

Just updated the mortgage information over to the right! Oh how I wish that bugger was gone! Good to know that zillow.com states my equity is inching upwards quite nicely! Warms the cockles of my heart!!

Ummmm...I'm with disneysteve, moving and selling is quite the chore. That's why if The Hubster and I do decide to downsize it'll be one last hooray right about the time he retires. Getting his Dad's house ready to sell was a MAJOR chore and still we have no buyer in sight! I'd hate to be trying it when he's pushing 70's or beyond! Makes me tired just thinking about it!

My mother just recently built a home and she is still a year and a half later disconcerted when trying to find her stuff to bake and get ready for the holidays!!

NEW always sounds fun and exciting...but a wise person counts all the costs, eh? Seems more and more I turn things down because of the effort it would require.

How about you?

Day 365:Cinching the Ol' Belt Up A Bit Tighter!



Photocredit: hooodlumm

I like the countdown idea - let's go backwards...it is day 365 here! And off we go counting 'er down! Tomorrow is day 364.

Have been out and walked down to the creek bridge this morning already and come back to read that someone else has beaten me to it. Ima we are way too much alike!! But, I love a good competition and will use you as a carrot dangling in front of my face. Like I said on the forum...I keep thinking "What Would Ima Do?" The air is cold and brisk here this morning - fine day to step it off so you can hurry back to the house for a cup of hot joe!

Checking the Fidelity statement this a.m. we are up over $6,000.00 this year w/o any additional contributions from us, so that was good news. Two of our better performers were FSIIX up 26.15% and FSUTX up 30.08%.

I haven't set any specific goals yet for 2007 - am still mulling it all over! I've been busy trying to cross most of the '06 goals off that I haven't really spent much time thinking about '07 YET!

I like to do things incrementally (either percentage or $$$$ wise)- so t'will be helpful to get all of 2006 reports in and then take off from there!

You guys are all so very inspiring to me!!

I do know one thing that I'm working on for 2007 is to pay an additional $60.00 monthly from OUR family budget on the mortgage this year. That's the projected figure that Countrywide's new little calculator tells me I need to add to each payment in order to pay it off by retirement schedule! Sooooo, there is that.

However, I just increased The Hubster's 2007 401-K contributions to 10% and the first paycheck came in last week with that out of it - so it's smaller and things have already been scrunched up tight!

We've been pretty successful in living only on our own current income during 2006 and staying out of the inheritance money and the emergency fund and I would surely like to continue doing it that way!

???Where??? to come up with the additional $60 is going to be interesting!!

At any rate I was able to do it with the payment just posted 12/29 (hehee!! extra interest deduction captured) for January so we're good until February. I'm working on the final draft of January's budget right now (which will include February's house payment) so I'm just going to MAKE IT HAPPEN!

What won't happen is - I will not decrease our Roth IRA contributions to make this happen. The investments have a possibility of growing to MORE THAN we put in. While the mortgage payoff is a definite set return (6.75%), but the house payments are still certainly doable even w/the possibility of an economic down-turn or even into our retirement if it doesn't get paid off before then.

Yesterday was a no spend day for me! I actually made it to stay awake til midnight last night!! That was a total fluke and unplanned. Usually I'm beat and hit the sack around 9:30 or so only to rise at 2 or 3 in the morning to read under the cubbies!

Slacker Redeemed at the Ninth Hour



Whhheeeeeeweeeee! (barely ducking in under the wire!)

I freely admit with all the family bickering, holidays, mom-taxi-ing, home remodel projects, Hubster vacationing at home, and all the other life stuff that's been going on this month I have slacked on my $20 Challenge.

However, luck would have it that FrugalSon came up with about $50 in Christmas cash that he gave to me yesterday afternoon to prepay on his truck loan that he owes Mom & Dad.

Well, I'm appropriating $25.00 of it (yes he gets credited w/all $50.00 on his payment schedule) to add to my $20 Challenge and adding the remaining .37 cents from a wallet clean-out to get to the fatter $30+ I said early in the month that I wanted to meet on this month's challenge.

So...to wrap up the year on a good note...

$20 CHALLENGE
$04.64 balance
+25.37 last minute save
______
$30.01 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $123.00

The Thrill of Victory!! Off to a rocky start, but I'm hot on your heels Ima!!!

Will definitely try to get my mind back in the game now that most of the house stuff is done!

Big Orange Can Kiss My Rosy!



Well, one of the reason's besides the holidays that I haven't blogged on is that I've been having a whoo-ha fest with the savings account people who like to throw the color orange about - (NOPE, I'm not even giving them free advertising while I gripe about them.)

I was locked out of my accounts for many days as I was later told we had 'too many' accounts (see unlimited doesn't really mean unlimited number of accounts - they do have their limits). It took them about five or six days to figure out the problem and only after I'd made about three phone calls.

I was told "You NEED to consolidate." No, I don't NEED to, you NEED me too. There is no beneficiary contigent to their accounts. It was a pissing contest of sorts because I was named as joint owner on all The Hubster's accounts and both of the kids at home numerous accounts, as well as my own. Good thing I waited to open the ones I was going to for the nine grandkids and one great-grand-kid heh?

I was also VERY RUDELY told that I "should talk it over with my husband". Now, I don't know about you girls, but at my house I make 99% of all the financial decisions and to be told in the year of our Lord 2006 that I need to discuss it with the man of the house just ripped it for me.

I had been hanging mostly with the orange people because of having all my accounts set up there - savings and CDs and even their IRAs, but let me tell you I couldn't move OUR money fast enough after that little statement. OMGosh that did it -- hello orange people -- there are plenty of others out there who pay better interest and happen to live in THIS CENTURY -- not the dark ages.

So, goodbye orange. Take your men CSR's and give them a little sensitivity training, would ya? No, we are not high-rollers and you probably won't miss our money too much, but I'll be happier with it somewhere that knows that a majority of all household financial decisions are made by the lady of the house THESE DAYS.

So, yes, I've been gone celebrating the holidays AND though time consuming also liberating my family's dollars from the female-bashers and putting it somewhere else where they appreciate those of the fairer sex.

Kiss Off Big Orange! Why Yes,YES you CAN kiss my rosy!

That sounds fair doesn't it?

I Made A Discovery

Just to note - on October 31st I made my online request for Discover Reward $'s to be paid out. Their deposit hit my bank account on November 2nd.

Sometimes it does pay to Discover*!


Have you discovered if they owe you any money??

*No, we don't carry a balance from month to month. Our CC's if used are paid in full on the first of every month.

Lincoln Lover

FrugalSon gave me 80 cents before he left for burgercentral!

I really appreciate him feeding Piggy as it is truly hard for the kid to turn loose of money! He pinches those Lincoln's baby.



Adding it to the challenge:

$20 CHALLENGE
6.46 balance
+.80 Lincoln Lover
____
7.26 Nov MTD

Cummulative Total $77.80

A Laundry Tip & Margaritaville



First off let me just apologize to Jimmy Buffett as I'm not into stealing your hits man!

I'm having to adjust myself to the new schedules of folks around here. Moving the laundry to the dryer (formerly CashHappy's chore upon arising) this morning I found a quarter.

FrugalSon used to fold & put away in between job 1 and 2 at lunchtime and I'm trying to eliminate him coming all the way home in the middle of the day and we're packing him a lunch so when I pick him up at job 1 I can just drop him at job 2 w/o going back out! This taxi business is aging me! The Hubster does his own laundry (his choice) on the weekends. Now I've got the guys starting their wash at night before bed, and I'll move it to dryer in the mornings.

FYI: According to an article in SouthportToday, "Americans spend between seven and nine hours each week cleaning their clothes, according to a survey by Procter & Gamble. That’s a whopping quarter-ton of dirty laundry per person every year."

Uhhhh, I think folks are going to need to leave a bit more than a quarter in their pockets if that be the case. With four of us here currently that means we'll be doing a ton of laundry a year, literally! Egads - remember the days of seven at home!

Even so with just currently four the laundry lady may have to up the anty a bit then!

Taking it to the challenge:

$20 CHALLENGE
6.21 balance
+.25 laundry tip
____
6.46 Nov MTD

Cummulative Total $77.00

I saw a sign once - a smiling apron wearing lady of the 50's thereupon said "I finished your laundry - the ashes are in the fireplace!" heeeheeeee Cute! Guess I'll just waste away here doing the laundry!

I have that same exact washing machine in my garden with one of those neon green Margarita (ornamental sweet potato) vines growing in it! This plant really pops w/it's bright color and looks good trailing over the sides. The bottom of wash tub is painted black to match the shutter trim on the garden barn. Found it in the dump area that the renters/former owners had back behind the house by the creek. We literally had to dig it out of the creekbank.


Pretty!

Emptying The Old Mail Bag

Time to update you on the generosity of Team Frugalis' Corporate Sponsors!



This past week we received thanks to our hard-working mailman:

1)Swiffer Duster by Proctor & Gamble.

2)Two samples of Cover Girl Advanced Radiance foundation.

3)Coupon for FREE 6.5 lb. bag of Purina One Dog Food.

4)Sample of Tide Vanilla & Lavender Laundry Detergent.

5)Sample of Downy's Rose & Violet Fabric Softener.

6)Coupon for FREE 5 lb. bag of Lassie Natural Way Dog Food.

7)Sample of Folgers Gourmet Selections Vanilla Biscotti Flavor.

8)Sample of Folgers Gourmet Selections Lively Columbian Flavor.

9)Eight Chews of Viactiv Calcium Chews - 5 Caramel and 3 Milk Chocolate.

10)Two Poise Pads - Extra With Wings.

11)Three Samples of Dove Advanced Color Care Shampoo, Conditioner and Reviving Mask.

12)Two Samples of Dove Sheer Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner.

12)Two Samples of Dove Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner.

13)Sniff Sample of Candie's new Heartbreaker fragrance. YUMMY!

14)Large Sample of Cheer's True Fit laundry additive.

15)Sample tube of Olay's Definity Highly Defined Anti-Aging Intense Hydrating Cream.

Many of these were courtesy of Walmart's Sample Program, so thank you Walmart and THANK YOU THANK YOU Corporate Sponsors!! YEAH!!

Today was also a no-spend for me! YA-LA-LU-YA!!

Regained the $35.00 I loaned to CashHappySon this past weekend for his jeans and end-tables. Good thing as this was part of my allowance and part of husband's allowance money for later in the month. This will balance the ol' wallet back to where it's supposed to be!

Last night The Hubster fixed the wire hanger on the back of the great new mirror I got at the garage sale ($3.00 for this huge big ornate mirror) so it can hang a different direction and got it installed by the back door! Looks good!


FrugalSon is making spaghetti for supper. Smells really good - gotta go get me some!!

Skimming, Rebalancing, and Good Pension News



Purchased into a new Fidelity account this morning in The Hubster's Traditional IRA - which was a rollover account - in the amount of $2500 to FSUTX - Fidelity Select Utilities Growth Portfolio.

This was done by skimming off some of the profits from some of the other funds in his portfolio that have been performing extremely well.

I call it skimming the gravy - the pro's call it taking or booking a profit. This is how we have been able to diversify and grow this IRA without putting in additional funds.

FSUTX is up 23.62% this year-to-date. Hope it continues!! Cross your eyeballs and hold your tummies in as we all know that past performance is no guarantee of future performance. So far this year we are up about 5,000.00 in this account. YEAH TEAM FRUGALIS!! Wish it were more of course but very grateful for the positive results.

FSUTX is into telecommunications and electrical utilities as their main investment focus.

Also done this morning was an account rebalancing in his 401-K. Made a big play in one particular small-cap that has been doing well the last couple of years - 45% of future contributions into Allianz NFJ Small Cap (Growth) and 22% into American Funds Growth Fund R2 (Growth), 8% in Vanguard 500 Index (Growth & Income), 15% in American Fund Cap Inc Bldr R2 (Equity Income), 5% Pimco (Bond), and 5% Templeton Foreign (Growth). I will be keeping a close eye on performance. The trouble with the 401-K is that we are very limited in the funds available to invest in.

The Hubster has absolutely no interest in finances, just brings home the paycheck. He's signed over administration of his accounts to me - thankful I am that we are seeing positive results then, heh???

I do discuss everything that I do on the account and get his go-ahead first and I have even insisted that he get on the phone w/the CSR and do a few trades that I've suggested just so if something happened to me he wouldn't be a total newbie. So far he seems satisfied with my results. I do appreciate the vote of confidence but it does tend to make one nervous as I'm taking a somewhat more aggressive tack than what's recommended for someone his age it's just that we have limited time to make up for the disappearing pension!

There is some good news on that front but still iffy and even if the rumors I've heard are true then it's good news/bad news stuff. IF we can get some things straightened around with his employer (they claim they have no interest in seeing this thru as it happened before the buyout). We did find out recently what company is holding the funds purported to be in the 4 1/2 million dollar range for the group of about 390 employees but they are missing a contributor's list WITH UPDATED ADDRESSES and have refused to pay out to any more new retirees until said list is updated. SHEESH!!

Anyway - the way they explain it makes sense in some ways but not others...too complex to get into here. I dunno about you but I'd hang on to the 4 1/2 million too and claim that we can't make any more payouts but I think the government and lawyers might have something to say about that. Can you say CLASS ACTION???

But it may be forthcoming!! We have approximately 6 years to get it straight! This investment company that's holding the pension funds is a big one probably one of the top four or five of it's type so it's not likely to disappear, but how to unclench their tight little fists may be the challenge.

Even though present company is not playing along nicely I do believe by law that they are required to do some certain amount of performance like making old records available.

At any rate the monthly $$ amount being touted about is on the smallish side (no worry, we'll happily take what we can get) and will be cut in half upon his demise!

Ladies - SAVE YOUR MONEY you may need it one day!!!

The Last Red Hot



CashHappySon gave me .72 for Piggy. This may be the last of the CashHappySon donations for awhile as he was called on Thursday to come in to his new job! YEAH!!!

He got four hours on Thursday and ten on Friday and will be going in to work from 7-12 today! This job is a grown up man's job and like I said in an earlier post will give him a lifelong skill and one that he could support a family on if he'll stick with it.

Of course he had to go make expenditures of $109.00 to get himself started with steel toe boots, gloves, safety goggles, box blade, lunch supplies (no more free meals at work ) and a cell phone.

Some days he'll be able to put in 12 hours a day. This boy is 18 years old and still does not have his driver's license. Working on the permit and we'll try to get over and take the written driver's test on Tuesday when he takes off for his orthodontist appointment.

So, in case he gets the extra hours he needed some way to contact me and let me know not to come and get him at 5:00 p.m. AND, once he starts driving himself WE WILL BE in contact about his whereabouts, and his car isn't the latest and greatest, so he bought himself a pay as you go cell phone.

Yes, he has a car but no license. I've been toting him to work for over a year and since he wouldn't put in the work to get the license I saw no need to put the miles on my truck so he anteed up his dollars and bought one earlier in the year. Not the greatest but fit his budget and he was able to pay cash for it. He knew I was going to be going to burgercentral anyway because of FrugalSon who is 20 and only has a driving permit.

Now, FrugalSon does have some learning difficulties (another whopper of a tale) and that may be all he'll ever be able to do, but CashHappy just took it as his right to just ride along and coast on the getting the driver's license dealy-who. Go figure! The Hubster and I both lusted after the freedom that driving would allow us as teenagers. We haven't quite figured out why these two aren't rushing for the gates! Too easy at home I guess. The other three kids took off early in their driving flight for freedom. The difference is that the last two were homeschooled in comparison w/the other three going to public school where peer pressure had to play some part.

So therefore and forthwith, Mom was the big bad meanie who wouldn't let CashHappySon sign a cell phone contract. He's too flightish at the moment to be hooking himself into payments. He's getting better and did make the year at burger place so he's on the right track, but still I didn't want him to be locked into monthly payments on a cellphone.

This ability to pull 109.00 out of the thin air (from HIS Emergency Fund) on a moment's notice has finally shown him the wisdom of Mom's ways. He had fought me tooth and nail over putting his money back, but yesterday he was glad of it!

At any rate the last of the red hot contributions to my challenge may have come to a screeching halt. I think him gaining useful skills and bigger money is worth it! Don't you?

I mean really, at some point we have to wean these babies when they are taller than you and have a five o'clock shadow at noon!! We do, don't we????

$20 CHALLENGE
$2.16 balance
+0.72 last red hot
_____
$2.88 Nov MTD

Cummulative Total $73.42

Mind Games & Dining Out Treats



Yesterday I finished reading 'Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman' by Elizabeth Buchan which was pretty cute. This book was a gift. It's still in perfect shape so will be re-gifting for Christmas to someone else on my list. Currently reading 'A Random Walk Down Wall Street', which I picked up for a quarter at a garage sale this past week.

Yesterday FrugalSon went to work in his costume. He went as a Manager from his place of employment at burgercentral. The managers in this operation all wear a different color shirt and a tie. Funny thing is that everyone thought that he had been promoted which just blew a few of their lil' minds!

heheeheee!!

I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall in the break room. He hasn't been employed there all that long, maybe 6-8 months. Can't you hear their wheels spinning, "To think that newbie could have been promoted over me!" I loved that he came up with the idea all on his own. Too cool!

CashHappySon gave me $2.16 for Piggy. Plus he took me out to eat at a local chicken place yesterday for lunch and treated me to a $1.09 sausage biscuit from Braum's this morning as we were out running his errands.

$20 CHALLENGE
00.00 balance
+2.16 generous son
_____
$2.16 November Month To Date

Cummulative Total $72.70

Gratuitous Mentions In Movieland



CashHappySon was feeling rather generous yesterday and took me out to the movies where we saw 'Employee of the Month'. Slacker finds redeeming benefits of work in the quest to get the girl (Jessica Simpson).

It was 'cute' but there were WAY TOO MANY references to ahemmm....'men's testicular area'.

Well!

The movie would have been much better in my opinion without all of that. I'm no prude and I would have probably not thought too much of it if the words had been used once or even twice in the script. But come on people, after about the 10th or 12th time already - ENOUGH!!!

Oh and don't forget the 'MUST HAVE' for teen movies - the ubiquitous fart joke!

Please.

Afterwards CashHappy wanted a maltie thing w/M&M's in it. We went to Carls Jr.'s and got in their drive thru line but he only had $6.00 left and was going to buy for the group. Their malts w/additions were $2.89 each so after careful calculations on his part we bolted out of line and moved on down the street. In the end he bought The Hubster, myself and himself .99 cent Frostys from Wendy's ("After all Mom, you guys deserve some stuff sometimes." - the boy's quite the orator, eh??)and we added our own M&M's from home!

Then he gave me .11 cents of the change to add to Piggy.

FrugalSon was working during all this and missed the day's entertainment. He's the 'word police' around here and wouldn't of enjoyed it anyway. We did save him some 'Smoked Piggies In A Blanket' for a late night snack.

Shhhhh! Don't tell Piggy we're eating his relatives.

$20 CHALLENGE
12.20 balance
+0.11 entertainment droppings
_____
12.31 Oct MTD

Cummulative Total $62.40

Treasure Chest

In cleaning out the sunroom in order to make the new recliner fit in (tiny room - BIG OL' HONKING CHAIR) I found a little treasure cask w/ $1.84 of mostly dimes.



$20 CHALLENGE
10.36 balance
+1.84 treasure cask
_____
12.20 Oct MTD

Cummulative Total $62.29

Bowling for Dollars


Jesus was a Bowler??

CashHappySon went bowling with his grandparents and brought me home change of $1.96 to add to Piggy. S.T.R.I.K.E.!

Jesus was a Bowler?? Who knew?

FrugalSon helped me scrub the stove today and get the house ready to receive the new reading chair I bought for myself!

It's one I've been searching for - for about two years now. Bought it from my Mom! Ha! They'd only had it about a year when they decided to build a new house and it didn't fit in the new, so had been in storage. When I went to visit Sunday/Monday they were having a garage sale.

I had thought it would cost me about $600 to buy what I wanted, but got this recliner that looks like a great comfy club chair for 200.00. I've been saving up so I'm good with the purchase as it was well within my budget.

It is my new domicile. When you can't find me? I'm in the sunroom, reading! Do Not Disturb!


$20 CHALLENGE

$08.40 balance
+01.96 bowling for dollars
______
$10.36 Oct MTD

Cummulative Total $60.50

OINK - Piggy Eats Roughage

To add to the $20 Challenge, CashHappySon brought me two dollar bills to feed Piggy. Piggy's happiest when he gets some folding money each month to eat! OINK!



$20 CHALLENGE
$5.80
+2.00 roughage
_____
$7.80 Oct MTD

Cummulative Total $57.94

THREE DIGITS

CashHappySon brought me home 3 quarters, 2 dimes and a nickle for Piggy and the $20 Challenge.



$20 CHALLENGE
$4.80
+1.00 three digits
_____
$5.80

Cummulative Total $55.94

Team Frugalis Scores Again


Photo Credit: Scott & VanAltena

Time to give a big THANK YOU to all of our Corporate Sponsors and our dear postman. In the mailbag so far this week:

From YOGI Tea comes three delightful smelling tea samples: Calming made w/Chammolmile, Peach DeTox made w/Organic Dandelion, and Raspberry Ginger made w/Organic ingredients. All three are Caffeine Free. Says right here that YOGI Tea of Eugene, OR is serving your Spirit! Also included was a nice coupon for 50 cents off on any box of YOGI Tea! Check them out at yogitea.com. As soon as I'm thru with this entry I'm off to have my spirit served some of that Raspberry Ginger tea!

Wellness from within as they say. Thanks Yogi! Ohhhh...they have some Morocco Orange Spice that sounds interesting.

Next is a sample of Olay's Definity - highly defined anti-aging intense hydrating cream. This was thru the Walmart sample program. Thanks Olay!

Up next is a very generous sized BIZ Stain-Activated Laundry Booster for colors and whites. They also provided us with a $1.00 off coupon on any size of Biz Stain-Activated Laundry Booster AND one for .50 cents off of any Mean Green or Pine Power product. Thank you BIZ. Check them out at bizisbetter.com.

The Frugalis mailman has been very busy this week! We received from our Corporate Sponsors Nescafe' Taster's Choice with a heaping bunch of coffee samples! 7 free samples of Nescafe Taster's Choice 100% Pure Instant Coffee, 3 free samples of their 100% Columbian, and 4 free samples of their Decaffeinated coffee. They considerately gave us 2 - $2.00 off coupons. Thank you Nescafe Taster's Choice! Visit them at tasterschoice.com.

From one of my all-time favorites Jergens comes three free samples. One each of their Ultra-Healing Extra Dry Skin Moisturizer; Skin Smoothing Cellular Renewal Moisturizer and a Shea Butter Skin Enriching Moisturizer. If you haven't tried Shea Butter you're missing out! Thank You very much Jergens! I look forward to trying these out but you'll be hard pressed to beat out my all time favorite Jergens product which is the original
cherry/almond scented lotion that Granny used to wear! YUMMERS!!

Whewwwweeeee - the poor postman!

Next comes a sample of each of Herbal Essences's Hello Hydration Moisturizing Shampoo and Hello Hydration Moisturizing Conditioner made with Orchid and Coconut Milk. Sounds delicious! Say hello to lush hydration and bring your hair back to silky, all the way to luscious. Thank you Herbal Essence! This was another Walmart sample so thanks Walmart! Drink up hair!! ...and live hydratedly ever after. They're located at herbalessences.com.

Did I tell you he was busy? BUSY BUSY!!

Last, but not least comes a very generously sized 3.0 oz. sample of Unilever's Dove Deep Moisture Hyrdration Profonde Nourishing Hand Wash. Nourishes while you cleanse with 3x more moisturizers than the leading moisturizing liquid soap. Check them out at dove.com. They also sent along a 75 cent off coupon. Thanks Unilever Dove!

Okay, I'm thinking I better plan on a nice tip for the postman this Christmas.

First National Bank of Frugalis



On Saturday I loaned FrugalSon 3.50 in quarters to wash and vacumn his truck. This morning he paid me back $4.00. When I asked him if he needed change back or would he like to contribute the .50 to the $20 Challenge he voted to feed Piggy today! YEAH FrugalSon.

Now this is the kind of interest I like earning on my money!

$20 CHALLENGE

1.64 balance
+.50 loan interest
____
2.14 MTD

Cummulative Total $52.23

Did I Mention...??

Nope. I didn't.

Why? Because I had to recharge the batteries for the camera. (and now I can't get the system here to take the picture and upload it! RATS!)

FrugalSon entered his little 1988 Chevrolet S-10 Extended Cab Tahoe Package pickup in the church car show yesterday. He won!! Yea!! It's only just now turned 70,000 original miles and it's a little gem.

He won 2 of the door prizes. One was a big bottle of driveway cleaner. The other was a big sack full of car cleaning stuff, wax pads, air freshener, sprayer for garden hose, wax, some extra high gleam hotrod stuff, etc.

Thank you to our corporate sponsors again - a big Hoo-HA thank you to Auto Zone for graciously donating the door prizes! Team Frugalis thanks you very much!

Then he won Best of Class for 75-Present Truck Division. Woo-hoo! Got the trophy. There were 5 or 6 other trucks entered in this class.

Mom here was especially tickled since some jerk at FrugalSon's 2nd job was giving him a hard time about entering his later model truck into a car show!

Welllllll...phhhtpppttttt and Double phhhppttt on parade rainers!

I hate when people do that!

This is an EXCEPTIONALY GREAT & Hardworking kid I have here and he deserves some good stuff. So Mom is tickled pink he won! No, not the tires, nor the rims, but still...

He had to leave the car show early to go in to work so I went back over and sat with the truck until they announced the winners and handed out the trophies.

Now ordinarily I stay away from their jobsite while they are working but on purpose because Mr. Snooty made the wisecracks I just HAD TO take the trophy in and let FrugalSon know that he won and let him show it off to everyone! Even baby brother CashHappySon was pea green. Other coworkers gave the big pat o'back and he ate it up!

TAKE THAT Mr. Snooty Snot!! Well, yes of course, I made absolutely certain that Snooty got a good long look at it!

Didn't let him touch it though! HA! :P

Chalk one up for the good guys!!

P.S. Over to the right in the pic is the stalk of bananas we got off of our banana tree today! Also, today was a No Spender! Yeppers!! $$'s still in my pocket.

Enticed Him With Those Cookies I Did!!



The Hubster is finally on board (at least temporarily) with the $20 Challenge and has made a very generous donation of .37 cents this afternoon! Must of been those cookies I made the other day! Soon I'm going to have to instigate Donor Levels.

Frugal-lite = donations under 50 cents
Frug Meister = donations 50 cents to 99,999.99
King Frugal = donations over 100,000.00

Oh well you get the picture. Those seeking to make a donation may write me privately off the board!

Today The Hunkster (I mean Hubster) even helped me clean out the hidey-hole room of the basement and set it up with tables so we can price some stuff for either a garage sale in the next week or so OR early next spring. This weekend we got 15+ (I stopped counting) bags of leaves & limbs bagged up {Ima - rethink that wooded property there is lots of upkeep on this kind of land too!}; rocks up against bases on one of the long fences; extra rocks and bricks stacked neatly; the banana trees taken up and stored away; holes they came out of filled in; the extension ladder put away for the winter, a siding tile down that was rotting so I can go try to find another before the painters come; the washer tubs put away and hoses coiled up (leaving them out til the painters get thru) and the outside is beginning to look 'winterized'. Phhheeewwweeee, we are tired now! What a man, What a MAN!! All that, good looks and money too!

He found and killed two snakes in all the leaf piles! MY HERO!

$20 CHALLENGE

1.27 balance
+.37 in-house donation
____
1.64 MTD

Cummulative Total $51.73

One Fourth of a Dollar



CashHappySon just donated .25 towards feeding Piggy. This is my Challenge money.

$20 CHALLENGE

1.02 balance
+.25 fourth of a dollar
____
1.27 MTD

Cummulative Total
$51.36