Lux Living Frugalis

The Doorman Cameth!



The door man came (with his girlfriend no less on a holiday???) and measured all our openings for new fittings. The doors in this house are not a single one a standard size that you can pick off the showroom floor.

He'll go home, enter his figures into the computer and we'll go back maybe tomorrow to the big box lumber outlet and pick out what they say they can make work in our weird sized openings and can squeeze out of our door savings account.

I'm very excited about getting some doors on two of the closets and a door on one of the bedrooms and two new exterior doors and glass storm doors installed (what will it be like to live here w/o the winds blowing thru the cracks????). Some of the other doors may have to wait. We'll see!

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!

Pedal to the Metal



Okay to start gunning on the 2007 $20 Challenge, I'm adding $1.71 that is sitting here in my coaster in change!

$20 CHALLENGE

$00.00 balance
+01.71 gunning it
______
$1.71 January '07 MTD


2007 Total $1.71
L.L.Frugalis' Cummulative Total $124.71

Bring it on Ima!!

How was your 2006 financially speaking?

(Following is my answer to the above forum question - thought I'd post the answer here as well so maybe I can keep up w/what's been going on in our financial life! Hopefully we'll be golden in 2007!!)




Great! But could be better!

Got FIL house empty and ready to sell, painted, roof repaired, carpeted and listed w/RE agent. Not so good in that much of this has cost us money that is still out - house has yet to sell. Estate has yet to settle and keeps having to borrow from us to keep the utilities on (cold weather winters).

Upped The Hubster's 401-K contributions to 10%. Currently 60% vested (he's worked at the same place 40 years come January 2nd, but a buyout a couple of years ago set him back to zero on this vesting point).

Have automatic deductions set up for his/her Roth IRA's. Not maxed this year. We had some big house remodel expenses on our home that were near necessities AND trying to keep lots of cash available until the estate settles - all of which kept the IRA's from being maxed this year.

The Traditional Rollover IRA from the above said buyout (profit-sharing plan monies) is up 16.45% for the year. And we are getting ready to reallocate some of it into one of those Targeted Date funds. Set up the Fidelity Income Management Account during November which I'm really looking forward to watching it purr along come 2007.

First meeting with financial planner tells me that we are doing all the right things to get ourselves ready for retirement in 6 years. An A++ from the CFP certainly was a high spot for the year.

Best for me was these last two points: 1)that we stayed on budget all year with only slight variations from our monthly target goals - all of which adjustments were able to be made by underspending in other categories - so each month the budget balanced!!! A big thanks goes to Jesse Mecham at youneedabudget.com for his zero balance budgeting software which made this doable by being able to see it all at a glance. I was rather anal about this as I didn't want to see any of my categories off target and having to be shorted on the next month!

In reality w/just one of us working our margins are so small that any variation from the plan caused a nasty ripple effect and the software makes it visible! In mid-2006 a $75.00 charge on the CC that was forgotten to be entered into the checkbook whould have made a nasty lil' dent in the next month's spending and had to reach }}}}}}shudder{{{{{{ into the carefully hoarded EF to make it work - so that it became an incentive to make sure it didn't happen again!

2) Continued to use our credit cards as aids only and not a crutch. Anything that was charged was fully paid off on every single billing cycle!

Bad points: I have had the cash crunch come out of my wallet - if money was tight it was MY spending and the grocery budget was often too TOO tight this past year. Christmas was also rather scimpy for my tastes. Need to up those three areas in the budget. Hopefully the year 2007 will see a little loosening in those areas as some of our biggest expenditures are now out of the way (house painting, house windows and the already saved for doors that are coming in the next little while).

On the horizons for a targeted savings goal is putting in new carpet at perhaps the end of 2007/beginning of 2008. We think we may downsize in a few years, but I refuse to fix my house up at the last minute to sell for someone else to enjoy all the new goodies. We're doing stuff now - enjoying it and hoping that it will enhance the sellability of our house in the future.

2007? Bring it on!!!

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?

Auto Insurance Unexpected DISCOUNT



Earlier in the month when I paid my auto insurance for the year which is a big ole whopping amount I was trying to do it by phone and the girl told me that since I was paying the entire coming year's premium that I would get a $43.69 discount! YEAH!!! That was certainly a nice surprise!!

I'll take it!!

(...but it makes me wonder that if I'd just sent the check in the mail if they would have refunded anything, you know what I mean????)

Anyway, an unexpected little gift from good old Santer' Clause!!

Inch By Inch



Adding .27 from CashHappySon.

$20 CHALLENGE

4.37 balance
+.27 inch by inch
____
4.64 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $97.63

I also notice that I didn't post last Saturday's Bank Run of $2.78.

Total Cummulative Bank Runs $32.98.

Best of Craigslist 2006 - Shout Out To Broken Arrow

Are You An Actuary???

Pamper Me Pamplona

Okay - Between Flylady's posting about pampering ourselves and my extended family acting all crappy about Christmas I decided that the last two days was a PAMPER MYSELF necessity!

FrugalSon and I went to see 'The Holiday' with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law! A very nice movie that I would watch again and again.

Watching that reminded me that I'd been wanting a haircut and I'd had mine styled similarly to Cameron's before so I went for it -- a cross between Diaz



and Sandra Bullock's.



While at the Supercuts (I wanted to go to a nicer place where the stylist takes more individual time with you - but the budget did not allow PLUS I had a Supercuts coupon!) ...anywazsoz' I decided while there I should do something else for myself that I've been wanting to try. I was up until yesterday an eyebrow virgin. Meaning I never pluck, shape, sugar or do that weird thing with floss.

I had my eyebrows waxed for an expenditure of about 12.50 or so. It was good. The shop was virtually empty so all three of the girls 'did me!' One cut my hair and the other two did the eyebrows. Fortunately both eyebrows match!!

THEN, I went further and went to Cato Fashions. I had been reading my MissusSmartyPants stuff and thinking I needed a fresh look. So while there I got myself a new pair of basic black pants that actually fit me perfectly. As you ladies know that is a Major FEAT unto it's own. There is usually always something a bit off. These were regularly priced at 19.99. And I got a very cute and flattering top to wear to Christmas at my Mom's and will work well with the pants and also go with a long black skirt for church later. My color, a flattering blue/green that makes me ol' hazel eyes blue for the duration. Daring decollatouge' and all. Woo-hoo it was on the clearance rack for $5.99 velvet bodice ribbon and all! A SCORE!

Next up was a trip next door to the Payless Shoe store where I was able to purchase at the BOGO sale and got myself a very nice black flat everyday type (working world) dress shoe and a pair of black tennis shoes.

I know I know I said I wasn't going to buy any more shoes this year so I've blown my Vow (See Thrifty Ray's Vow post). I needed new walking shoes in the worst way. I've had three foot surgeries and shoes that fit and are on sale are hard to run into in the same breath. I promise to only wear them once this year to Mom's (it's an outfit) and then will put them away till January 1, Thrifty Ray!!

Okay, so I went a little wild. But hey, I look hot, and my feet will thank me later!

So a day of pamper me luxury - a very rare thing - and if my internal adding machine is working I'm somewhere in the $99 dollar range. Not too bad - but I don't make a habit of this kinda thing. Matter of fact I can't even remember the last time I did such a thing (maybe four or five years ago) which tells you it was long over due!

Wow -- Broken Arrow - it really does feel good to confess our indulgences! BTW, I love the tea-light lamp!!

Tres' Chic!

Like the 'new and improved' me!

Flagging Challenge

The challenge seems to be flagging out on me as Christmas plans take center stage. Or should I say I'm the one flagging out on the challenge?!

Here's adding .57 cents to try and fan the flames into life again!



$20 CHALLENGE
3.80 balance
+.57 fan the flames
____
4.37 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $97.36

Do The Dew!



CashHappySon bought a Mountain Dew yesterday and gave me change from his purchase of .91 cents. Captured and to the challenge it goes.

$20 CHALLENGE
2.89 balance
+.91 Dew
____
3.80 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $96.79

Twenty Four and Counting

The Hubster and I celebrated our twenty-fourth anniversary on Sunday - well, we actually had it on Sunday and went to celebrate last night. Pizza at Mazzios, for which I had a free mini pizza coupon w/a $5.00 purchase - I had him use our Discover card so we could get their current 5% cashback on restaruants.

We should have been charged 14.49 plus tax and when The Hubster reached the table w/a ticket for 19.53 I sent him back for a refund of 3.53. Left a tip of 1.50, so we're ahead of our Discover bill by 2.03 at this point. Instead of adding it back to checking I'm taking it to the challenge. Hubster took leftover pizza slice, garlic bread and the mini pizza for lunch today. Happy Anniversary to Us!!




$20 Challenge
$0.86 balance
+2.03 mazzio
_____
$2.89 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $95.88

Adding $0.36 to the $20 Challenge



Here we go, watch me now!

$20 CHALLENGE
$00.50 balance
+00.36 watch her go
______
$00.86 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $93.85

It took me an hour this morning to slide FrugalSon to work - even with my truck loaded down with snow in the backend. It took 45 minutes to get back home as some of the traffic had cleared out.

The truck even had frost on the inside of the windows which is a new one on me as I've lived here ALOT OF YEARS (I almost slipped and told you how old I am!) and have never seen it do that before!

I did pass a place this morning on the way home, not in my normal track, but they had a Wanted: shop helper sign up and I called and I'm going to take FrugalSon by there on our way home this afternoon to see if he can get that job and do away with the burgercentral position.

They've got decent pay at this place - hope he gets the job then he could go to having one full time position instead of the way we've been doing it! Send up your prayers if you're the praying kind! Thanks!

Perhaps we can go sledding this afternoon once he's through with the interview.

Past Belated Birthday - Yah Yah Me!





"There was a star danced, and under that was I born." - William Shakespeare

One day during the past three weeks I celebrated the day of my birth!

"Friday's child - loving and giving [Friday (vendredi in French) is ruled by Venus. "Friday's child is loving and giving" might refer to the Venus nature, that is, a person who is loving and receptive to love.]"

"Who keeps an arrow in his bow,
And if you prod, he lets it go?
A fervent friend, a subtle foe-
Scorpio! -author unknown"

***%%%00O00%%%***

"Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words." - Plautus

Although it was a long day that day and my extended-peeps weren't acting their very best and I was near tears The Hubster did manage to take me out to the local rib place and bought me a nice dinner with just us two! Yeah Hubster!!

We celebrated w/a bit of inbibing - something we normally never do - I was just in that 'I need a good stiff drink' mode so I ordered a glass of wine, he a bottle of brew. I ordered a three-meat salad thingy which was jumbo and about $8.00. Sorry, but my Frugaliscious Gene (TM) kicked into gear when I found FIVE - count them 5 - large chunks of browned lettuce stem in my salad.

The Hubster hates it when I complain in restaraunts but after I pulled the fifth one out and set it aside on a napkin even he agreed that we needed to talk to the manager. For eight smackers you can buy more than one or two heads of lettuce and throw in the meat and cheese and still turn a profit. The manager was very nice and comped my dinner! SWEET! Dinner 17.47 on the CC - yes, already deducted from the checkbook!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"We are all born naked and screaming and if you're lucky that sort of thing won't stop there." - Unknown



Cracks me up!!! Loved this story - hope my future 'old age home' is as much fun! All ya'll aging rocksters give me a shout so we can coordinate our first annual blow-out!! Of course, my birthday is in November so socks & bowties for men and socks & earmuffs for women will be the appropriate attire. Maybe a nipple cozy should go on my 120th birthday wish list?? I mean, really, a birthday girl has got to have some way to differientiate herself at her own birthday bash!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(self portrait)

"Your future goes beyond the wooden floor of third dimension.
It goes beyond the endless sands of time that sift in the wind.
It stretches beyond the seas and the flow of creation.
It reaches above the sky, the stars, and the universe.
It is endless. Always look ahead, your lessons learned.
If you 'look' within your soul, you will see your future." ~Ellie Crystal

I'm learning from a dear soul-friend the art of looking ahead instead of behind me. Hoping to have our family foundation funded and fully going by the time I hit my 50s. A little legacy to hopefully benefit mankind.

-------------

"From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash." - Sophie Tucker



So, I'm here between thirty-five and fifty-five and hoping my personality is at least somewhat pleasing as I'm getting a head start on looking for some good cash in the future!! A nice roll of cash would not be an inappropriate gift in my humble estimation!

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

Downsized

While my brother was in the hospital we got a call that FrugalSon's morning job will be downsized out of existence as of the end of the year. Budget constraints due entirely to the fact that one man on staff could not control himself morally and left the place in a financial shambles as a result. ARRRGHHH.

FrugalSon still has his afternoon / evening job at burgercentral, but we are on the lookout for one full time job that will pay him enough so that he can quit job 2 as well.

Mom doesn't mind the not having to drive 20 minutes each way to drop off and pick-up, but I was hoping that he'd be able to keep that job for a long time!! Nice benefits and a 403b. Oh well. He would have been there 2 years this coming February.



Have to keep stepping up that stairway of success and try not to trip on the broken rungs, eh? This has resulted in FrugalSon learning that our moral /social behaviours often affect others whether we mean for it to or not. He has learned a life lesson here and is confused/saddened/angered all at the same time by the resulting loss of respect he felt for the man along with the financial repurcussions to his own concerns!

I'm hoping that this all leads FrugalSon along a better path and an even brighter future.

Does anybody know if FrugalSon would qualify for unemployment if he still has some compensation from the second job??

Sick Pup



Miss Carmel 'Carmie' Corn is sick w/diareaha. We took her to the vet today and he told us to dose her with Pepto (two tablespoons) at noon and two more before bed this evening and again 3 times tomorrow. If she is still sick on Monday morning we are to bring her back in. Hope this helps the poor little thing. She has been out having the best time running joyfully thru the snow & ice!

Vet Visit - No Charge
Pepto at the Dollar General - $2.18

CashHappySon reimbursing me - PRICELESS!!

Laundry List of Ailments



Finally have enough time and a cable connection that I can post about my brother's hospital stay. He was admitted to the Indian Hospital even though he had lost his CDIB card in a fire about 4 or 5 years ago. This not having it when he needed it now is typical of his lifestyle. He could have gotten it replaced many times but never did.

He had NO Identification on him except a receipt from a state trooper that had collected his license when stopping him and finding him driving w/an expired license. Another case of not bothering to take care of the bare necessities in life.

My Dad had picked him up that day to get his help on a farm project when he sees that he has swollen up by about 40 pounds. Can you say Congestive Heart Failure? Yes.

He was shipped out of the Indian Hospital by ambulance to a metro area public hospital. After a long litany of tests we have a laundry list of multiple diagnosis - (diagnosises???).

COPD - Emphyasema (sp?)
PAD - Periphial Artery Disease (legs & feet were purple/black-OH MY!!)
Heart Attack
Congestive Heart Failure

His heart is very damaged and enlarged and operating at about 20% of normal. His breathing on a scale of 1-10 (10 being normal) was running about 2 at the highest and about 1 1/2 sustained.

Lucky him - no blockages. Luckier him my Dad was an emergency room/intensive care nurse & nursing professor for years and could see his critical state. They took 20 pounds of fluid off of him in one day's time!

He has worked very intermittently throughout his life and we are hoping that he has enough work credits to enable him to begin collecting SS disability. Our tribe will be paying for the majority if not all of his hospital care.

He's 54 years old. He has always pushed the family away. He has five children and only one of them came to see him in the hospital as the mother of the child brought him as he's still a teen. The other grown kids didn't bother. None of his "friends" came to see him.

Sadly, these friends have always been more important to him than family. BUT, he was surrounded by his sisters, parents, nieces and nephews. Hopefully through this he will see that we really do love and care for him. Even when it's hard and for many years it has been next to impossible to get close without getting screamed at and pushed away. This is my brother whom I believe is undiagnosed bipolar.

The medical team at the hospital were all very nice except for the one lady who kept trying to treat him for diabetes and wouldn't believe any of us when we kept denying that he had it! They tag-team doctor at this particular hospital and I can't say that I cared for it - we never saw the same doctor twice and we were there for 8 days!!

Anyway, they released him right before Thanksgiving and he went home on oxygen and is currently staying at my Dad's house. No telling how long he'll willingly submit to that.

That's all for now - I just wanted to record some of it here for my own memory's sake and to thank all of you who prayed while we were there! The prayers were needed and are much appreciated.

To make this financial in nature - I had to raid the petty cash here at the house to the tune of about $60.00 in order to keep running up to the hospital and feeding myself while I was there on 'my watch'. Now will have to resupply that money from somewhere in the budget.

Piggy Starts A New Gain Weight Challenge

Piggy is just not getting fat enough. We start a new month and plan to reach a total of $30 for the month of December. Adding 50 cents that SOMEBODY put in my coaster yesterday.

Love that somebody whomever he is!!



$20 CHALLENGE

$00.00 beginning balance
+00.50 Somebody
______
$00.50 Dec MTD

Cummulative Total $93.49

Updated November $20 Challenge



Counting out Piggy's contents and SOMEBODY slipped some more money in there! God bless their heart whoever they are!! The Mystery Man strikes again! Going to have to set up a spycam!

Total November $20 CHALLENGE = $22.49

Cummulative Total $92.99

Little House So Very Small
Just Room Enough For Love That's All

Somehow the LOVE is missing this weekend. At least for my mortgage holder.

Okay - we are blanketed with the blizzard this past week and this weekend and Wednesday night the cable line snapped in the onslaught. Today they finally came to fix it. Because I sometimes pay more than the set amount on my mortgage I don't have it set on automatic, but just log on at the end of the month and make the next month's payment.

Yesterday comes and STILL no cable. No logging on. Nope - no can do. How to make payment - I get on the horn and think I'll just phone in my payment and they can take a check over the phone like so many others do. Yes, I can do that but it's a $15.00 fee to do so....augh!!! I'm halfway thru the AUTOMATED payment process before they finally tell me there is this DUMB fee!!! Can I talk to a HUMAN BEING with feelings please???

Oh well, I went ahead and did it rather than be late on my payment. I tried to call them today and ask to have the fee removed or payment cancelled or something because of the blizzard - so I could log on and make the payment at no charge but there are no service reps there today. I will try again on Monday.

SHEESH - $15.00 bucks! Oh yes, did I mention that they also have stopped sending statements so there is some little bit of difficulty in even trying to mail them a payment and getting it accounted for correctly. Go ahead - ask me how I know!! I dare ya!

No really - You probably don't wanna ask as I don't think it would be pretty! Did I mention that I hate Countrywide?

No?

I hate Countrywide.

You can't tell I'm disgusted, can you????



$15.00 bucks to take my payment - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHH!

Updating the Mortgage Info:
New Balance as of 12/01/06 $23,674.36
Contractual Payoff 7 years 5 months
Actual Payoff 7 years 1 month

Bank Run - 02 December 2006



Bank run for today was $2.58. The Hubster had to drive me as we boondocked over the washboard ice from the blizzard! We had to get out to take FrugalSon to work anyway. He missed yesterday and the day before that because of the snow. CashHappySon didn't work yesterday or today because of it as it is too far to drive in this ice!

The Hubster dug out from 8:00 a.m. to 11:50 yesterday morning in order to get his car out of the driveway and went in to work and left at 4:00. The day before it had taken him 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home from what is a normal 20 minute commute.

Okay, back to bank runs - I didn't get to do some during my brother's stay in hospital (8 days) so November came up a bit short.

The Bank Run money IS deposited every week when I can get it there (and haven't spent it on crappy hospital cafeteria food) and then moved the same day to Emigrant in a specially marked retirement account there where it resides until I decide WHERE I want to invest next.

Right now I'm closing in on close to $750.00 in this account and will probably pop it off to some other investment at that time depending on the interest rate climate at that time. This account is also fed by a line item in my personal budget each month.

December Bank Runs $2.58

Cummulative Bank Runs $30.20

Whole Hog


Piggy goes Whole Hog and gets a supersize meal today of $12.29 in a purse cleanout to try and meet the November challenge! $6.29 was in (HEAVY) change alone -- oh my aching shoulder thanks ye Piggy!! A penny of this was found in the parking lot of FrugalSon's employment this morning.

$20 CHALLENGE

$08.02 balance
+12.29 whole hog
______
$20.31 November MTD

Cummulative Total $90.85

Missed November It Seems

It seems I have missed November!

Adding to the $20 Challenge is $2.94 that CashHappySon has left in my desk coaster.

$20 CHALLANGE
$5.08 balance
+2.94 coaster
_____
$8.02 MTD

Cummulative Total $81.04

Offline A Few Days



Just a note to let folks know I'll be off the boards for possibly a day or two as my brother is in the hospital w/a newly diagnosed heart condition. He's 54 and not married and so my sister and I are taking turns sitting with him as his patient advocate!! Which everyone needs when they're in hospital in my opinion. Anyway, please put us in your prayers. Thanks guys!

Nibble Nibble


Photo Credit: Citron

Piggy got a nibble from CashHappy last night.

$20 CHALLENGE
7.51 balance
+.05 nibble
____
7.56 Nov MTD

Cummulative Total $78.10

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.

Piggy Gets A Snack



Found a quarter under my keyboard. Piggy gets a snack!

$20 CHALLENGE
7.26 balance
+.25 snack
____
7.51 Nov MTD

Cummulative Total $78.05

Bank Run Challenge 11/11/06



Adding $2.56 to the Bank Run Challenge.

$2.52 balance
+2.56 11/11 deposited
_____
$5.08 Nov MTD

Cummulative Total $27.62