Is She Typhoid Mary? LuckyRobin's Avoidance Fever

I seem to have caught LuckyRobin's Avoidance fever! FrugalSon is off today and I used that as an excuse not to work on the budgets but to rearrange furniture!

We have completely moved my room back to it's normal bed position after the window & blind installation got completed this weekend.

Moved The Hubster's dresser out of CashHappy's room and into our bedroom and taken the ugly bookshelf of Hubster's audio & media stuff out of our bedroom and put it in the place the dresser was in CashHappy's room.

Too much stuff - too little house.

Actually I have a big house it's just that folks want everything on the main floor when some of it could concievably be better accomodated in the basement.



This moving of furniture will allow the door-hanger guys to get to The Hubster's closet to put in a closet door. There hasn't been a door on his closet since we moved here! Only a curtain over it. I'll be so glad when this gets done!! They sent a second guy out to measure the other day as the first guy just wanted to be sure he got it all straight. Nothing here is standard measurements!!

The Hubster called the window people today - they are the ones putting in the sliding door and asked when they were coming back! They took off the awnings and threw them in the yard...they were supposed to haul them off. They've left broken glass in the yard, also supposed to be gone and hadn't bothered to notify us of when they intended to come back and put in the sliding glass door.

Okay - they haven't got paid the second half of the balance as the sliding door isn't installed yet - they have to rent a concrete saw, but hey, get the trash out of my yard if you're just gonna drive off into the sunset peeps!!

Oy vey!!

He says they are planning to show up Thursday - now wouldn't it have been nice of them to check and see if Thursday works for us???? Oh well, I will make it work!

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!

In For Life with No Parole It Looks Like



Yesterday was The Hubster's 40th Anniversary at his employment!!! Do many people do this anymore? I don't think so!! I am so proud of him for sticking it out thru the tough times and marking a milestone!

I sneaked (sshhhhhhhhhhhh!!) and called his boss yesterday (short-timer) and let him know of the anniversary and he sent someone out for a cake and a card. Very nice. Hubster will get to pick a nice reward (one year was a big screen tv) at the end of the year when they make a presentation at the company Christmas Awards Ceremony, but that's a long ways away and he often feels shorted when he started on the 2nd of the year to have to wait a whole 'nother year to get recognized. He was however, one of the five people at his work of over 500 people to get a bonus this year!

Last night he and I took one of the restaraunt gift cards we received for Christmas and took ourselves out just us two and did a little celebrating of our own.

Here's to only 6 more years until retirement!!! Or maybe shorter if the great motherload of investment returns shows up!!!

Congratulations Hubster - Job Well Done!!

Wow - 40 years. Imagine that!! I am awed by your fortitude!!

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

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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!!!

Tired Already!

Yesterday - Sunday November 5th 2006, was a no spend day! YEAH!

I did have to go into FrugalSon's work last night - thought I was going to have to *beat up* the asst. manager (really only a pup himself) for taking $5.00 from FrugalSon for a scratch that another kid put on his truck! SHEESH!

Anyway, that was FrugalSon's money for getting his haircut today! Ohhhh I was steaming! This place he works at is a mad house I tell ya and the supposedly adult managers are the worst of the bunch!

Yes, we got the 5 spot back but only after making a special trip and no the kid-manager would not come out and talk to me...I think he was scared. He ought to be VERY VERY scared as he has pulled an offense or two w/my kids that could easily land him in jail for a very, VERY long time!! ARRRGGHH!!

We just had an hour long conference with the main store manager on Friday. Good grief what a pain in the posterior!!

FrugalSon is 20 years old but tall, skinny looking couldn't beat his way out of a paper bag kid and he has some 'issues' that left him developmentally delayed. When people go to messing with him I'm ready to go to full scale war! Do not mess w/this Momma's cubs or you'll come away without a limb. That this JERK was trying to take advantage of him did not set too kindly.


Poor Hubster, I was out of my nightgown and into my clothes and out the door so quick that he didn't know what was even going on hardly when pft-zip-shazam I was back w/kid and dollars in tow! I did manage to tell him to be prepared to come bail me out of jail if I need you in a few minutes before we left.

Wha-happun????

heeheeee!

Today I'm going over to rework my booth this afternoon - right after FrugalSon gets off from work, gets his haircut and can go over to help me rearrange the big pieces of furniture. Thankfully he's off from burgercentral this afternoon and CashHappySon is already off at his new job and will be there till 5:00.

Sheets are in the dryer, chicken is in the marinade, dishwasher is run, 2 loads of laundry already done and ready to be put away. While I'm out I'm off to our joint checking bank to make a deposit into our 'Future Foundation' fund of $174.00.

When I get back I have major reading to do on selecting FrugalSon's health insurance coverage for the new year.

I'm tired already!

Here Comes Pride in the Backstretch

And the race is on...

Nahhhh....really the race is over! The Hubster had a treadmill test back in April I think it was, that cost $500.00 more than our insurance would pay! He passed the test so that was good news.

The bad news is that our 'MedicalPrescriptionCoPay Fund' did not have 500.00 in it at the time the bill came starting in June. The hospital agreed to take payments so at $50 a month I've been whacking away at it. I could've put them on the CC, but they weren't charging any interest so I just let them carry it! That way my $500 stayed in the bank earning interest in our Emergency Fund!

Yesterday I paid the last payment on it! Sheeeeewee! I'm glad that's over.

That's the same thing The Hubster said when the treadmill test was over. He also said it's hard to run on that thing and suck your gut in at the same time when they put cute little nurses at the helm!


I told him that they put them there for exactly that reason...a man's pride will keep him running longer if NymphoNancyNurse is there monitoring him than if Nurse Rachet was on duty!

heheeeeeee...

Nothing like a pretty young filly to spur a guy on!!

...whatever, it worked!

Pride! While it may be frowned upon in the Bible it does ocassionally have it's uses!

Catching Up Update - Up Up I say!

Sunday was a no spend day. FREE breakfast in Sunday School class. Somebody brought Braum's sausage biscuits which were really good. I had never eaten one before. There were other things such as FREE muffins, FREE coffeecake, and FREE coffee. Hallelujah!

Monday was also a no-cash spend day for me. The Hubster did however make the downpayment on the windows which we'll be paying cash for! No payments, yeah!!

Over the weekend FrugalSon had to make a big car repair expense to his lil' truck, a whopping $2.17 for new fuses so his horn could beep once again.

Yesterday morning The Hubster was looking for his snackcakes (his one big requirement for a happy worklife) and so we trotted down to the basement to the freezer only to find that everything in there was thawing out! Glad we made the visit.

When I returned from my morning errand CashHappySon and I worked on throwing out what needed tossing ($$'s down the drain) and getting the rest into the cooler. Then upstairs to shuffle the refrigerator's freezer to fit in as much as we could.

Ended up cooking some of the meat in the crockpot for the dogs. Nice treats! ...and cooked about three packages of sausage links for the boys.

Those wouldn't fit into the upstairs freezer. They had a nice breakfast and lunch on them and still have some leftover. SIGH! Bad freezer!! We checked and no the breaker hadn't switched off or anything. Boo!

Later The Hubster calls and has me plug it into another socket. Ta-da it works! It is an older freezer that I got from my Mom when she replaced hers.

I'm thinking at this moment in time I'm just going to leave it empty and unplugged unless someone wants to gift me with a side of beef or a hog or something! Saving on electricity.

I just don't think I utilize it as much anymore w/just the four of us at home right now along w/the inconvenient trek to the basement to stock it or retrieve something. If it were upstairs maybe! It's TOO TOO TOO Ugly for upstairs though.

Along with that is the car maintenance that The Hubster had done yesterday. I sent him in to get his scheduled oil change only to discover that it is time to do the 30,000 mile maintenance in order to keep his warranty in place.

This little bit of sunshine cost us $534.00 on the CC!! Jeepers! November is looking slimmer and slimmer as we also had his $626 crown thingy earlier this month that went on the CC!

The E.F. is definitely taking a hit, as there is no way I can cover all that out of current income and still be able to eat and have utilities, much less have gasoline for work commute!!



Okay Lord, I need a lot less money going down the drain and much more money coming up out of the drains! Up Up I say! And again I say UP!!

Hey Big Spender - How Consoling!!



The Hubster gave me a quarter out of his console this morning when I told him the month was near to closing out and it looked like I might not meet my challenge this month.

What a trooper!

$20 CHALLENGE
12.51 balance
+0.25 console
_____
12.76 Oct MTD

Cummulative Total $62.85

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

Mr. vs. Mrs. Spending Battle



Saturday, October 14, 2006 was another no-spend day for me. Now The Hubster on the other hand (whose spending we are not officially tracking here) spent money.

At the big box home repair place he bought stuff to make mr. fixit stuff go. He did buy something not on the list $2.50 for a new elcheapo measuring tape. So he's not altogether too dangerous to let out in the hardware store alone. He spent $25.07 to fix the faucet, fix the sprayer, and got galvanized nails to put up some trim boards that needed replacing outside. Also he spent $11.93 for vacumn cleaner bags. Goodness me, but can our next vacumn be one of those bagless ones? I hate paying money for something to 'throw away'. The door repairs he did cost zip but the elbow grease and his time!

0.00 spent Mrs. vs. $37.00 spent Mr.

I WIN!! ...and got my stuff repaired! Woo-hoo gotta love being a gurrrlll!

What Has Got Into That Man??



The Hubster has gotten himself into gear today. Helping with the moving of stuff into the basement, PLUS he did some repair work on my couch...it was trying to run away with itself a bit of stuffing at a time was leaking out...The Hubster installed some new foam strategically to keep the old stuffing in and no more from coming out!

Then as if that wasn't enough he has decided that today is the day to fix my kitchen faucet that has been dripping and possibly he'll get to the front door that isn't closing properly! FrugalSon is at work and The Hubster and CashHappySon are off now to the bigbox home repair place to get parts. Before nightfall I may have a sink that doesn't drip and a sprayer on my kitchen sink again! Woo-hoo! Big doings!

The Hubster is a wonderful guy but he normally puts off the household repairs until, well, NEVER! He hates doing them, but doesn't want me to hire it done either.

If I could get into my kitchen I'd bake him some hot rolls, but he's got all the cleaning supplies out from under the sink, the faucets off in the kitchen and in the living room the couch is upside down until he gets home w/some more vacumn cleaner bags. Maybe he'll get hot rolls tomorrow!

At any rate I'm thrilled. Don't know what got into him, but I'm hoping this new handy fellow shows up again sometime during this quarter!!

He has been so busy getting his Dad's house cleaned out that he couldn't of done anything here if he had wanted to. But delayed repairs are starting to snowball, so I guess he figures he has to get on it or things will start to tumble around our ears!

Whatever got into him, I'm grateful!!

OMGosh, I just realized I turned the guy loose w/o me in the 'toy' store w/a debit card! This could get ugly!

Caulk Me Baby One More Time!!



YEAH - the guy came early this morning and started doing the caulking pre-paint style. So far it isn't too bad, only one window trim board is rotted out and needs to be replaced that we didn't know about. There is one other one we already knew about. Not too bad for a 1942 house, heh?

We may experience rain at the beginning of next week so I'm tickled to at least have this portion started. I had to pay the paint contractor $940.00 last week - 1/2 of the estimated price.

It makes me nervous to pay someone money when they don't exactly start work that day...so to see the power-washing and caulking done I'm feeling some better after handing over the dollars!

We made the decision to have them do all of the work. We are just exhausted with what painting I've done on the house and what The Hubster has had to do at his Dad's house this year!

Also of note is that the Federalist style corner cabinet that came from F-I-L's house back in July and has been laying in my living room floor has finally found a place in the basement this morning. It's too tall to fit in the upstairs! BooHiss! That's how it is when you live in a house that isn't built to current standard building codes! Well, it isn't too tall - my ceilings are just too low!!

It required a corner of the basement to be cleaned out which required the hideyhole (storm) room to be cleared out first...we did that last weekend. Then it required enough strongmen (The Hubster, FrugalSon and CashHappySon) here to lift, tote and carry. DONE! I can walk thru my living room again! YEAH TEAM FRUGALIS!!

I see progress! While digging out the corner I was able to pull enough boxes of stuff out to start pricing for a basement/estate sale!

Dentist Picked Himself Some Dollars

The Hubster lost a crown the other day and his teeth needed cleaning...all to the tune of $626 that went on a %^!$@ Credit Card. Now to decide where to come up with the dollars to pay for it!

OUCH that hurts - in more ways than one! More of our hard-earned assets kissed gooooo-bye!

There is a Dental/Vision Category in our budget, unfortunately not near enough funds in there to pay them in full.

Hurrrrummmmpppppphhhhhh!!! And triple dog spit! Spit! SPIT!!!

Of Course It Would Happen Now



Just yesterday I decided for some strange reason ?? foreboding maybe ?? that we needed a Furnace/Plumbing Category in our Anticipatory Budget/Spending Plan. Don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. We had 3.69 left in our zero based (I just can't make myself believe I can go all the way to zero w/o freaking myself out) budget for the month of October. So I set up a little sub-account and moved $1.69 on over.

Late last night the handle on the toilet decided it would break! The Hubster (My HERO) fixed it today w/a $6.40 part. So I'm already down $4.71. Or should I say I'm ahead by $1.69?? At any rate there is money in the Rathole Money to pay for it, but of course it would happen now just as I decided I needed to start funding this new account!

Oh well.

Here's another friendly little reminder - something I had forgotten to account for...our driver's license renewals. Just happened to be thumbing thru an old check register when I spotted that one.

So, am off to fund another little subaccount (told you I can't get all the way to zero!) with 2.00. Mine isn't due until late 2007 and The Hubster's is next year too...so we've got time to fully fund the Driver's License Renewal Category.

NOW I am zeroed out for this month. If something else comes up - well it's off to the Rathole to find some MORE cheese!

And The Cable Snaps!! Stop The Insanity



Okay, the cable bill came and really it was me who snapped! Right to attention. They upped my bill by $2.00 w/never a by-your-leave, kiss-my-patootie or nothing. No notice whatsover of anykind last month, and nothing here in the bill this month explaining the increase.

This would make my cable bill for cable tv and internet dsl or whatsit called for the computer to be 54.41 and I was already griping about the 52.41.

I have gotten The Hubster on board and we will be shopping for new service from someone else. This is ridiculous. I don't want to build their infastructure for them...I just want a little 'juice' to keep me up and running!

I guess the part I hate the most is the 'no notice' deal!

Phhhppffft on them! This craziness of raising my rates has got to stop!!

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

I'm High Stepping Now!!



Just now got on the phone with my mortgage company and got a little booboo on their part straightened out (it only took 3 of them to figure out their loverly accounting and be able to explain it to my satisfaction -- and they wonder why I'm confused!! HA!!!) and while there I finally made the extra principal payment from our money market interest that The Hubster finally agreed to release all to the tune of 253.04 extra to principal. YEAH TEAM FRUGALIS!!

This includes August's 22.05 - 22.04 = .01 left in piggy as seed money from the $20 Challenge. It won't post until the 29th when I'll get back online and update the totals over at the side.

The sound of wonderful.

"WOOPEEDEE!!!"


And before you ask -- the answer is...

Nope. Definitely not. Although that does kind of look like the reform school (I mean jr. high) I busted out of!

BLEW ME AWAY!!


The realtor called me Friday morning and told me to sit down as she had a rather insulting offer. I should say so!!

We have listed FIL's little house for $65,000.00. The offer was for $37,000.00. I guffawed. Really! Right out loud! Waa-Waa-Waa!

You've got to be kidding me? When most houses in the metro area sell for over 130,000.00 and closer to a couple of million she wants to offer 37,000.00???? Funny! I've heard of low-balling before but by that big of a margin? You gotta admit the lady's got nerve.

When I told The Hubster he said "tell her I don't want to sell the garage separate." Funny man! We counter-offered w/a thousand off the asking price. This lady wasn't even in the ball-park and nowhere near the bandstand!! The realtor told her she would tell us the offer, but wouldn't insult us with a contract.

Uh...no but thanks for thinking of us. The deallywho is this lady's brother lives next door and she wants to move nearby. Well, I think about six or seven neighborhoods over she could find something in her price-range. Even her sister-in-law who lives next door admits that her house is not nearly as nice and has no dining room in it, and they paid about 55,000 for it six or seven years ago and it has no garage, and no covered parking, no back covered patio, no fenced garden area, etc. that comes with the FIL house. I would buy this house myself if it were in my town.

I think we'll just wait. The realtor is planning to hold another open-house next weekend. Worse comes to worst, we'll find a leasing manager and lease that bad-boy out.

There are similar houses on the street, one of which is The Hubster's uncle's house and they are asking 69,500 for it and it is ramshackle as can be and FIL's house is move in ready with fresh paint, new carpet and has been babied all thru the years. We should have no problem moving it at or near the price we're asking. This house is no dog.

Still laughing!

Why Am I Dragging My Feet?


Photo Credit: Little Taylor

I have a victory to report!! It's a major concession by The Hubster. He's finally given me permission to take the monthly interest money from our Money Market 4.57% and use it to pay extra on our mortgage 6.75% principal! YEAH Hubster.

Now I've got to figure out why I'm the one dragging my feet. I've been 'cussin & discussin' with him about this for months now and suddenly he said yes about 2 weeks ago and I have yet to move on the deal.

Why is that?

Perhaps it's the idea of those dollars not compounding with the rest of them although I KNOW it is costing us 2.18% difference in the amount we have going out vs. what's coming in. I'm being silly and first thing tomorrow I'm getting online and making the extra principal payment.

Gotta move off of dead center here!!

Unless you guys can offer me good reasons why leaving it growing in the Money Market is a better plan. We are planning to retire in about 6 years so of course I would like to go into retirement with no house payment, but we might move before then.

What say ye, O Wise Ones???

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!!