Bubble Up! FREEDOM



While FrugalSon and I were at the Car Wash yesterday morning before the Car Show I found two pennies. Adding them to the $20 Challenge.

Also found while there a punch card for a FREE hot dog at the local Coney place which already has some punches on it! I think it's 10 purchases for a FREE hotdog and it's a place I already spend at but no one's ever offered me a punchcard there, so future FREE food, gotta love it.

CashHappySon gave me a gamepiece for an Instant Win FREE Breakfast Sandwich at his place of employment!

Had forgotten that the Block Party would have FREE food. So the four of us had FREE hotdogs, nachos and pop yesterday while there.

I did spend yesterday - $2.61 at Taco Bueno for myself a supper. Fixed everybody else french bread pizzas.

$20 CHALLENGE

1.00 balance forward
+.02 car wash
____
1.02 Oct MTD

Cummulative Total $51.11

September Sales Report In



Went Monday and picked up my check for September's sales from my antique booth.

392.78 Total Sept sales
-39.27 10% fee
-50.00 rent
-05.00 advertising
______
298.51 check

I'm thrilled with it! This is one of the largest checks I've gotten from it - maybe even the biggest, can't recall without looking.

My booth is filled with lots of small things priced -- ohhhh lots under 10.00, and the majority under 25.00, so to come up with a big total is sometimes hard to do.

Once all these small things go that were in my house at one time then I can restock first with the things from my in-laws house - that's what's in the basement now and then move on to bigger items that I pick up at auctions.

Took over the cowboy bathtub and Morris chair this week.

I like having a mix of bigger and smaller items. Because sometimes the larger items sit there a long time before they move. And I don't want to pay rent month after month for things to just set!

Using Jesse's You Need A Budget software, this money earned in September, but paid in October, will not be used to live on until November. It is certainly a nice feeling not to be living paycheck to paycheck!

More Ground Pickin's


CashHappySon gave me .58 cents to feed Piggy for the challenge. Also from ground pickin's!! Did you hear Piggy squeal? It's been a day or two since we fed him anything!!

$20.00 Challenge

0.01 seed money
+.58 ground pickin's
____
0.59 Oct MTD

Go Go Go Sale!!
Round Oak Table Sold



The lady from the antique store I sell at called and I sold my old round oak table yesterday that has been sitting there for a year! So glad that moved on to bless someone else.

What this means for me is I'll have to find something in the basement (never fear it's mounded up down there with Good Stuff) to take over there tomorrow to restock the booth. That table held a bunch of stuff!!

Think I'll take my Morris Chair and the old galvanized cowboy bathtub. I can put some of the tabletop stuff on the chair and loads of it in the tub. Will have to spend a little longer than normal over there reworking the display. CashHappySon is off in the mornings so he can help me haul stuff! YEAH!

This should mean an additional $100.00 of income from the booth! Since it happened yesterday it will be on my September check which I can pick up tomorrow as well. Isn't that great how that all works out?

This is money that I use to stretch out my own personal income of which I have none! Ha! I collect this booth money, the grocery money, the room and board money, my allowance and the household cleaning products & papergoods money and any other money that comes along into my own checking.

I did have another source of income that has decreased over the last 2 years from $720 a month to $360 a month. Last month was the last of those checks, so that income stream has dried up. Sadly!

Anyway, these bits and pieces of money are those from which I fund part of my retirement and other savings and investment projects, plus some of my truck gas, and the groceries, cleaning supplies & papergoods.

August's Check from booth sales was $159.35. I haven't asked how my other sales for September have been going so whatever's above the table sale will be a surprise to me.

It should be fairly good because from the middle of August until the middle of September I held a 30% off Summer Clearance Sale and there were many gaps in what was on the shelves when I went there the other day.

So perhaps there will be an amount equal to August's if not more. Whatever it is as long as I make booth rent $50 & advertising cost $5.00 per month then I'm generally happy with anything over because it means something has left my possession for good and I did try to redeem it without just tossing it away or giving it away.

I do donate lots of stuff to my local women's shelter and the Goodwill, but I prefer to make a little money on the things I can. LOTS of antique stuff in the basement just waiting to GO, GO, GO!!!

Anyway, glad my table sold. I originally paid $125.00 for the table and 6 chairs about 15 years ago at a garage sale. I refinished it for about $5.00 in supplies. We used it for a good number of meals until it just wasn't 'us' anymore and moved on to another style of decor.

I freecycled the chairs last year when I bought a replacement dining set at the auction. The table worked well for my original display at my booth, but it's past time for it AND other things to leave these premises in the countdown towards downsizing for retirement!

Moving On!!

Brownie Magic

Picture Credit: Palmer Cox

Does anyone besides me remember the neat Brownie pictures that were in the old Junior Great Books and The Book House? Neat illustrations of the Brownies by Palmer Cox. I enjoyed looking at those pictures for hours as a kid. So many details...similar to (but far better than) the Where's Waldo type pics. Those Brownies were such busy little creatures.

This morning I was counting Piggy's gluttony and ending the September books on the $20 Challenge. Looks like somebody mysteriously stuck .06 into piggy during the month of September!

Bookie did you sneak in here??? Bookie as a Brownie! Ha!

Anyway those six coppers boosted the September $20 Challenge to $28.04 total. Cummulative total for the $20 Challenge is now $50.09 and off we go towards October. Left .01 cent in Piggy for seed money!

So little Brownies feel free to feed Piggy every night! A Piggy gets awfully hungry long about midnight and four a.m., don't ya know?!!?

And Bookie while you're here, the silver sure could stand a good polishing!

Read The Brownies Canoeing here:
http://members.tripod.com/box_of_delights/canoe.html

Nifty Fifty PLUS!!



Take a good look at that picture and tell me why you wouldn't want to keep up with it? Some people think change is useless. Well, I beg to differ with them!

So, who would think that they could come up with more than fifty dollars in two months time just from loose change that floats by?? Not me! But it's happened.

I mean, I knew that little bits of change add up, but $50 smackers?

CashHappySon handed me .68 cents last night from his 'drive-thru' change found on the ground collections. That put me over the $50 mark. Well, I'm happy to be the recipient!! Thank ye! Thank ye!!! Wheee-doggies, I like FREE money! Don't you???

$20 CHALLENGE

27.30 balance
+0.68 ground pickin's
_____
27.98 Sept MTD

$50.03 Cummulative Total

Mystery Money


Allrighty who put this 3 cents on the ironing board??? Anyone? Nobody knows where it came from??? Really???? You're joshing me right? Going Going GONE! Sold to the Lady with the Piggybank!

I've asked all three of the gentlemen that I live with and none of them claims to being the culprit. Pretty sure the dogs didn't do it.

Must of been The Hubster. I keep asking him if he wants to contribute any of his change to Piggy to fuel the $20 Challenge for accelerated mortgage payoff. So far he has been unwilling to part with any of his change. We are both on a pretty tight allowance so I can understand his reluctance.

BUT-I think he put the change there but doesn't want to be 'SEEN' contributing as I would want him to do it again!!! Ha! He knows me so well.

Okay, I asked and nobody else claimed it so off to Piggy it goes.

$20 CHALLENGE
27.27 balance
+0.03 Mystery Contribution
_____
27.30 Sept MTD

Cummulative total $49.35

I think I'll just artfully arrange Piggy a place to sit on the ironing board, just in case anyone else feels like mysteriously slipping in some gold coins or folding money!!

Or just maybe I should plant some ideas with seed bills on the inside laundry line?? Marked bills of course, just in case somebody got the wrong idea!

Check, Check and Double-check!

The personal checkbook balanced this a.m. Check, check and Double-check! I just love it when it balances! When it matches what my budgeting software says I'm supposed to have? - a THRILL! I'm such a geek as I get way too much excitement out of this simple process!

Kisses for my Pretty!!



Oh I could just kiss him all over! The little accounting guy at our attorney's law office finally got all the federal estate taxes done on the FIL's estate and got us the number we need to get the stock transfers done!

Silly information and identity theft age that we are living in requires that it's all complicated and multi-layered. We have to transfer the stocks from FIL's name to the estate and then to The Hubster and myself. Had to go to the bank to get a certified signature which is different than a notarized one. Who knew??

His siblings do not wish to own any stocks so we are purchasing them from the estate. The sibs will get a one time check only. I don't understand these people. But hey, we'll be happy to own the entire block of it at what will be in a way at a discounted 20% off rate!

The stocks give off nice fat little dividend checks but once purchased and transferred these dividends and capital gains will be reinvested for now.

...and might just make us a nice little income stream during retirement. Happy thought.

We've been waiting since January for this part to be over!

Hohummm...patience is not my long suit.

Teller Is A Magician?



This is no Penn and Teller story, but in clearing up the straggling entries on the September budget I saw that I'd forgotten to write myself a check out of Household/PaperGoods category for 10.00 and that I'd short-changed my allowance by 2.50. So, I wrote a check from our joint account for $12.50 and ran it to my bank while I was out.

Got the deposit slip back and the girl had made the deposit for $1250.00!

Darn my ornery hide, but I asked her if she meant to do that?

I wonder how long it would have taken them to figure it out? I told her, "You would have been working into the wee hours trying to figure out why your till was off" and she said, "No, we only have to account for our cash drawer!"

Ratfinkus - Could of gone shopping had my 'raising' not kicked in!!

You've got to watch them because they are only human and many times the tellers at my bank seem to make errors and more often than not in my case it has been to the bank's favor and not mine!

Another case in point...On the FIL's Estate Checking Account we have deposited a small amount to open it and will deposit proceeds of house sale into it for dispersment to siblings. We just put $100 in it to start several months back and then suddenly last month they decided to take a $15.00 fee from it! OUCH!

The Hubster called and supposedly got it corrected. Then yesterday we got another statement and they had fixed the one fee for last month and charged us another $15.00 for this month.

HELLO!!

The Hubster got back on the horn and asked if we needed to remove our checking and very large MM account to another bank...oh no Mr. HubsterFrugalis, we will get this straightened out for you right away. Un-huh yeah, that's what you said last month!!

Moral of the story? Keep watching your deposit slips and bank statements folks!!

PENNY BADUNKADUNK

Welll....this is embarassing, but I'm telling it anyway. Too funny not to tell....Last night I was in the bed, rolled over, reached around to pull up the sheet and found a penny stuck to the rumpus!

Hahahahaa...

how did this get there???

All I can come up with is that it was on the couch from when the husband was sitting there earlier in the day and I was laying there before going to bed.

Maybe it had fallen out of his pocket?

Hilarious! I rolled and The Hubster wanted to know what I was snortling & snorkling about!!! heheheeee

Well, ya'll said I was lucky at finding money...it was dark and I was hoping it was a quarter, but alas, when I turned on the light it was only a penny.

Now, I've taken some measurements and based on my calc-u-mu-lations - the girth x length (omgaudddddddd - when did that thing fall to gravity???) divided by the hip ratio, I oughta be picking up more than a penny back there!!



If I can't laugh at myself who can I laugh at?

So, my friends, if you're looking for MORE money...might I suggest that you look behind you!!



Adding it to the $20 Challenge!

HOOT!

CashHappySon just contributed .36 to Piggy from off of his entertainment center.

$20 CHALLENGE
25.15
+0.01 badunkadunk find
_____
25.16
+0.36 entertaining
_____
25.52 Sept. MTD

The Penny Tumble

Received in the mail .01 cent in one of those advertising come-ons. Sorry fellows but I won't tumble for a penny! But, uhhhh...thanks anyway! Adding it to the $20.00 Challenge.


$20 CHALLENGE

23.10 balance
+0.01 come-on snubbed
_____
23.11 September balance forward

Hiddy Ho There Neighbor

A big Hiddy Ho There Neighbor to My Corporate Sponsors Proctor & Gamble because in today's mail came $37 worth of their coupons for such items as Swiffers, Febreeze, Cascade, Mr. Clean, Dawn, and etc.! Thank you. Thank You!!! This will get my couponing back up and running. Don't know who turned me on to it, but thanks!!

Here's a link to P&G:
http://www.homemadesimple.com/common/languagejump.jsp

Earlier today went to the clothes resale shop with the dudes. I bought them their pick of clothes for Christmas - to put away till then - 3 pairs of jeans each, 2 shirts apiece, and each a pair of dress shoes.

So for six jeans, four shirts and 2 pairs of shoes I paid 90.87 total or 7.57 per item average. Not bad.

They will be styling come the New Year and will have forgotten by Christmas what we bought! NICE to have that out of the way.

This was budgeted gift money we spent, so nothing to wank the budget out of alignment! YEAH!!

Only thing left to buy for them is to fill their stocking...which usually has candy, batteries, shaving cream, shaving lotion, music CD, paperback and cologne in it...most of which can be taken care of inexpensively w/clearance, coupons, sales, or BOGOs!

This was definitely a spending day...

Just home from the Walmart where Frugal Son added $3.00 to his $25.00 Employee of The Month gift card he got from work and was able to get himself a new pocket watch, a pair of jeans and some new black socks. He did okay! The socks were already budgeted for in his Clothes Escrow.

CashHappySon bought himself some new black socks as well (they need them for the job) and it was his turn to buy the dog-food and I had a $1.00 off coupon. He also had budgeted back for Clothes and Dog Food so all on an even keel here.

Of course this is the child (I mean young man) that saw 3400 gazillion other things that he now HAS TO HAVE Moooommmmmmmmm! Right kid. No problem but sorry Charlie...save up your money because it isn't in your budget today, but you can allow for it on your next paycheck if there's enough left over after you pay your bills.

I'm such a killjoy!


(photo credit: F. Pancake)

All this black sock talk reminds me of that childhood song we used to sing "Black socks they never get dirty, the longer you wear them the blacker they get!" Does anyone know if there are any additional verses? Those are the only ones I ever learned.

I bought file folders and paper for the printer which had gone up in price .62 cents since my last purchase. Uhhhh, price check on aisle 11, I think somebody forgot to roll back these prices!! These two items were already in the Office Supply Escrow budget so everybody got out under budget! YEAH US!!

CashHappySon went by work to see if the boy was there who was going to buy his guitar amplifier. No go on that deal, but both of them got offered some extra hours so home we ran to get their uniforms and now the house is all quiet again. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! Silence - how I love ya, how I love ya silence!!

Oink! Oink! Oink!

Piggy just got fed a quarter by CashHappySon! He's such a good child!


$20 Challenge

11.35 Sept. balance to date
+0.25 found in CHS's pocket
_____
11.60 balance forward

Taking Out The Cash
a/k/a Sweeping Up

People People PEOPLEEEEEEEEEEE...

CashHappySon and FrugalSon both work at fast food central. They bring home money most every night.

From where?

In the TRASH!!!

CashHappySon found $5.76 last night. The five was from a five dollar bill. FrugalSon usually cleans the parking lot and it too is often full of coins.

I've talked to their manager about it - for one fact - neither work the registers so that's not an issue but I wanted to be sure where this moolah was coming from.

Yep, sure enough, people have their ticket and change in their hand when they go to put their trays up and sometimes cash money goes into the can right along with the receipt.

See - Listen to yo'Momma - don't put that money in your mouth, you never know where it's been!

How wasteful and mindless we peeps can be about our money at times!!

Here's hoping that all of you negligent people will shop our store and throw your money where my kiddos will find it!

Why?

Because CashHappySon put the .76 into Piggy for the $20 Challenge.

When you make a deposit please remember, No Checks, Cash Only!

$20 CHALLENGE

10.59 Sept. MTD
+0.76 wasteful burger nut
_____
11.35 balance forward


HiHo HiHo down the mortgage goes!!



Try this link to sweep up your own savings:

Monitoring the Monitor



Awhile back The Hubster went on a computer upgrading spending spree and liked to have given me a heart-attack!! We finally had to have a Come To Jesus Heart to Heart T.A.L.K.


Stop Spending Already!!!


Well, he trades. ALOT. If we were in the old west I'd be up to my hipwaders in horse hock-ey-tooey because he would have been a darned good horse trader.

So, really this isn't a complaint...he just does a bunch of it...a little finagle here, I can sell this there, add to it from here and viola we've got a whole new system hunnnnneyyyy! Yeah right!!

Of course. Sure you can dear.

Yes, he finally sold the old monitor & speakers the other day and was happily getting ready to toddle off with the moola when THE MONEY MONITOR (yours truly) rightly explained to him that...

So Sorry, those funds go back into the Emergency Fund from which I so kindly let you borrow them against all kinds of my better judgement!

Oh yeah, right, I had forgotten all about that! Un-huh, sure ya did...that's what I'm here for lambykins!!

The Monitor is always on duty!

Just'sosya'know!!

Trust me I know how hard it can be. Back in the old days all you needed was a creepy lair and a hunchbacked assistant to watch your stashO'cash.

There is one monitor here that he'd like to have go on the fritz every now and then so to speak, if you KWIM?

TOO BAD, ain't happening Sweet Lips!!

So, that's why yesterday I had to make two bank runs...one to deposit working boys' paychecks and then off to our bank to return the goods ($160) to their hidey-hole! Leak Plugged!!

Thank you vera' much!!

Seven Large



(Photo Credit: Coins In A Bottle by Degno DiAnima)

On the $20 Challenge last night FrugalSon gave me 7 cents to add to Piggy! YaaaaBuddy!! I almost fainted over because he so rarely turns loose of a cent, but twas good for him and good for me!! Atta Boy!!

$20 Challenge

10.52 September To Date
+0.07 Seven Large
_____
10.59 balance forward

(Large - isn't that supposed to mean thousands?? Well SOON then!)

Putting In My Two Cents



"Two Cents" photo by Skez


CashHappySon gave me 2 cents to put in Piggy for the September $20 Challenge.

10.50 balance
+0.02 Two Cents
_____
10.52 balance forward

YTD Cummulative Total $32.57

Adding 10 cents I found in the console of the car to my $20 Challenge money!



10.40 balance for September
+0.10 console dime (description: thin)
_____
10.50 balance forward

The Universe Giveth!



Forgot to let you know that the free Visa calculator and educational books & CD came in the mail last week.

AND

I got the Always sample pack containing 2 sample pads, 2 liners, a bookmark, tattoos, and a little post-it note pad!

A Big Shout Out and Thank You's to my corporate sponsors!! A couple of these things will go into the gift box for future gifting ops!

Tooling On Down to the Mailbox

So, I was tooling on down to the mailbox which for some goofy reason sits on the street to the side of my house instead of in front of my house and when I get there what did I find that made it worth my while to take a hike?

A refund from a train trip that didn't pan out in July! $175.00 smackos!!



I think instead of putting it back in my short term savings account (my own personal project fund) that I'm gonna haul it on over to the Gift fund which is looking kinda thin after the six (6) count them I said six August birthdays!!

Three of those birthdays which called for a specially cooked meal with of course the most expensive of all my recipes requested for their special Birthday Dinner. Three Birthday Dinners, Six Gifts, and Six Birthday Cakes! I am so not eating any cake for at least another 2 months!!

So not only did the Gift fund get a heavy hit, so did the Grocery fund. Anyway, Christmas is creeping nearer so off to the Gift fund it goes!

Ca-Ching! 175.00!! I feel so much better as the projected budgets for the rest of the year were looking pale pale pale in the Gift sector! YEAH REFUND!!

Happier Holidays Ahead!

Now if I could just get the post office to move my mailbox to my street!! It's really goofy and throws all the delivery folks. My house faces one street, but my address is for the street on the side of my house. I get lost coming home myself!! Luckily my refund didn't!

26 Aug 2006 -- Ohhhh yeah - I'm adding that .19 from CashHappySon's car repair fiasco the other day to my $20 Challenge money.

.81
.19+
____
1.00 Balance Forward

Advocating for your children really pays - huh? Maybe not in cash, but in the long run he'll learn to stand up for himself. Wish I'd taken a picture of the giant hole that mysteriously appeared in his oil pan.