Layout:
Home > Archive: July, 2007

Archive for July, 2007

Just Venting

July 31st, 2007 at 01:05 am

Well, the girls showed up for work today. I was really suprised to see them. I was all prepared to work solo today.

I picked up our tickets from the travel agent today. We are going to St. Thomas for my husbands oldest daughters wedding. Not too thrilled about going. The last time the flight was horrible, we had such severe turbulence all the way there. A lot of people on the plane got sick. I also don't get along with my step daughter...not at all. We are like oil and vinegar. She had a real dislike for me from day one and that is the way it continued, even though I met her Dad 2 years after her parents divorced. I have tried to make amends several times and I got slapped in the face for making the effort. I am only going to this wedding for my husband who doesn't want to go alone. We aren't even staying on the same island we are going to stay on St. John. My husband doesn't get along with his ex. So he wanted to be as far away from her as possible. Other than the one day that we have to attend the wedding the rest of the time there we will be on a much needed vacation. You may be asking why does she have to get married in St. Thomas? Well, we asked ourselves the same question and her answer was she didn't want to have the same old cookie cutter wedding. At the same time she didn't care how much it excluded the people that couldn't fly or afford to hop on a plane. Or how much it is costing the people who are traveling and staying there. Anyway, enough about the wedding. Just had to vent a little there.

I got a scare today with my share builder account. They stated that I was (-) in my account and I new I plenty to cover the trade that I made on Friday in my checking account. So, I called them directly and they said it was b/c I used the express purchase option when buying on Friday and that money has to be in a money market account b/c it gets withdrawn immediately which I didn't know. So I had to trransfer funds. It was only for 1.40 but I didn't know what it was b/f I spoke to a customer service rep. I thought I had really screwed up my account. Well I'll just chalk it up to a learning experience.

Down But Not Out

July 28th, 2007 at 03:45 pm

I'm down about 6K in my Ira today. Do I feel bad? Not for a second. The market will turn around. So, I will wait and ride the wave without panicing. Been through this enough times to know better. I also know that I am diversified enough so that my whole life savings is not wrapped up in the market and never will be.

Being that the market was down yesterday, I bought more funds to add to my new ShareBuilder account. And my husband bought more indivual stocks within his IRA. We tried to take advantage of the past two days bad news and turn it into something good.

The new people that my DH hired, I think will probably not show up for work on Monday. They have only been working for 3 months with us and have already asked for a raise. Mind you one of them showed up almost a half an hour late for work on the day she asked for the raise. Not only that, the both of them have already called in sick, come strolling in 5- 10 minutes late everyday and think nothing of it. They also ask to leave early everyday and expect to get paid for it. When we don't have clients they sit and lay around talk on their cell phones and pretty much don't do anything unless they are specifially asked. So, when they asked for a raise yesterday DH laid it on the line and told him what he really thought of their performance and told them they didn't deserve a raise but if he saw improvement on their part he certainly would not hesitate giving them a raise. My husband is not cheap but he certainly believes in getting what he is paying for. So, on Monday he and I will probably be back to square one working with just the two of us for a while.
Oh well!

My To Do List

July 22nd, 2007 at 11:56 pm

This has been a beautiful weekend. I didn't go anywhere just stayed around the house and visited my Mom and brothers. It was a pretty frugal weekend too. Thank goodness b/c as I have mentioned I really do have to get ahead again on the savings. I am hoping that this week I am able to save 100% of my salary. I am a few thousand dollars behind in my cash savings.
In this effort I took the Sunday paper and clipped coupons and then made a list of the items that were on sale at the supermarkets using the stores flyers. There were a few restaurant coupons that I clipped as well.

This week I have to bring in one of my dogs to the vet for their rabbies vaccine. While I am there I have to remember to get their scripts so that I can order their medication from Petmeds. I am going to try the mail order for their heartworm and tick and flea medication. It seems like a pretty good deal as opposed to buying from the vet.
I have a few things on my to do list this week. I have to call the contractors to schedule a date to perc the land. I need to get a hold of the roofers to send us the certification of our new roof. I need to find a contractor to fix the water damage on the ceiling in the hallway from when my roof leaked. I still need to get estimates on putting down a hard wood floor in the family room this fall. I also need my brother to come over and replace the pole light that fell yesterday in my walkway. It never ends!

Fell off the Frugal Wagon

July 19th, 2007 at 06:06 pm

Frugal things I have been doing this week:
Went to the library,took out a few books on saving money b/c i have been very bad these past two months. So , I thought that I needed a refresher. Took out a cookbook Favorite recipes from around the world. Haven't had any dinners out this week. I also rented childrens books in Spanish. I am trying to refresh my high school spanish so that I can understand some of our clients a little better. Returned bottles. Rented from Red Box instead of big name place. I also self treated my dog for his dermatitis condition and avoided a big vet bill. And guess what it worked. My dog is doing so much better.

Today I have to go to Lord and Taylor and pay off the full balance on the card. My daughter and I needed new dresses to wear to my step daughter's wedding in August. Being that I have to pay off the entire balance so that I do not incur a finance charge there will be little left to save this week.

On another note, I received my 55.00 sign on bonus with Share
Builder today. That was a nice surprise. It's strange that they don't dispurse the money into already selected funds, instead they open a money market account and the money is placed there.

My Weekend

July 16th, 2007 at 06:30 pm

I went back upstate this weekend and took my nephews with me. The weather was great and we all had a good time. Not much money spent either. Just some supermarket buys for meals at home. On Saturday we drove to my cousins home on the lake. Dinner was free and my nephew was able to ride on Quads and jet ski's which he really has never done before. He had such a good time he couldn't stop talking about it all the way home. His memories of this weekend will be priceless.
On the money side of things my IRA was doing well on Friday due to the jump in the stock market but who knows how long that will last. Same with the sharebuilder account. Not such a noticeable difference in the individual stocks.
I'm stil thinking over the property issues and just wondering if it is doable.
It will be one of the largest expenses that we have ever under taken. I guess I have a little bit of cold feet going on.

My Vacation

July 9th, 2007 at 06:48 pm

My vacation was great! Full of activities and site seeing. Montreal was beautiful and we ate at a very delicious restaurant named Gibby's. It was our most expensive meal while we were away but the food was soooo delicious and well worth it.
We spent most of the time in Windham so we didn't have to pay for a hotel. We took a ride over to the log home builders to get quotes on the type of home we are looking to buy for the property. Very, very expensive. We wioll have to consider this very carefully. I hadn't realized just how expensive log homes are. The type of home we are looking at is about 2,700 we already own the property and the cost to build and have the home turn key ready is 400-450 thousand dollars. Yikes!

Anyway, when we spoke to the sales person thye told us that we had to get our land perked before we could go any further. What perking means is that the land has to be check to see how it can handle sewage and then a sewage system then has to be engineered. If this is not possible then the land become useless and not viable for building. She also told that that b/c it was close to the river(not on it) the DEP has made the laws very strict in recent years with regard to buliding near streams, rivers and lakes. So, this testing will be arranged this week and hopefullwe will get good news that our property can be built upon.

The whole trip cost about 500.00. Which is very good for us. Didn't buy any gifts. Which saved us a bundle.

Oh, the hotel that I reserved using hotwire turned out to be fanatastic. It turned out to be the Omni Hotel in downtown Montreal and it was a gorgeous room. It was a four diamond hotel for 103.00/night. I was so pleasantly surprise(not the broom closet that my daughter warned me of).

I hope everyone had a Happy and safe 4th.
Well it is back to work for me