Moneycents Personal Finance Blog

Today marked the end of the 3rd quarter for the year. I think that I am ahead of last year in the savings department. But I will not know for sure until 12/31/07. That is day when hubby and I go over al the investments and savings for the year and set our goals for the new year. We started this New Years tradition about 3 years ago. We look forward to it very much. We actually make a day of it and afterwards have a nice celbration.

The only thing that I know of that will affect next year is building the cabin. Which for now is still on hold until we can get septic and building permits. To tell the truth I am a little scared about taking on such a huge expense at this time. But my husband and I are not getting any younger and we want to do this before we get too old and no one wants to loan us money. We will be putting down a large down payment and that will be coming out of savings(nervous). We will also be making smaller payments for stuff such as building plans and 10% down for the kit. I am just wondering if we will like the place so much that we will make that our permanent home and sell this house? The taxes and the cost of living would be so much cheaper.

On another note, I have tried the paperback swap and it is a really nice site to trade books. It is very easy to use and the members are very friendly.

This weekend will be a big spend weekend. I am taking my Dad upstate for a wedding. My Dad is the kind of person that likes to keep his hands in his pockets if you know what I mean . So I will be paying for almost everything. I don't really know this side of the family so when he asked if I would take him I was hesitant but then said sure. He never goes anywhere. Anyway that is how I am spending my weekend.

Stock market is back up again and so are the funds. Just trying to play catch up with the bills since vacation. It ususally takes me a while. And for some reason September is always a big bill month.

In other news our new employees just got a 2.00/ hr raise today. Needless to say they were very happy about that.

Extra payment was applied to the mortgage this month. New total=169,534.00.

So, all in all, things are looking up.

Nothing special going on in the savings department. A lot of bills this month. More than the basic bills I pay every month. Professional license fees ,DD's Life Insurance, Malprctice insurance,Upstates schools taxes and so on. It certainly has not been a good month for savings. On top of the huge financial gift we gave to my husband's daughter for her wedding. It is time to play some serious catch up. I also have to pay my brothers something for all the work they did on my house while we were away. The end of this month is the end of the third quarter for this year already and I think we are way behind last year in our savings. I know right off the bat we are 16,000.00 behind instead of ahead. Hopefully we will be able to recoup that and then some by the end of the year. Here's to hoping!

While I was away I finally had the ceiling repaired. What a difference. My driveway also got a facelift with a new black top seal coating. I was so pleasantly suprised when I got home . All this work was done by my brothers while they wre babysitting my dogs. They didn't ask for any money but when I get the bills for this month straightend out they will certainly get paid. They also threw in a few extra's like washing and detailing dh's car and doing some landscaping around the house. Now the only thing left on the to do list for this year is to get the wood floors done. That will be a major and expensive job. I have one very large great room that has carpet over a cement slab and I want it replaced with hardwood flooring not laminate. Then my living room and dining room need the wood floors refinished. So, I think this week I will get a few numbers and call for estimates. I intend to pull up the carpeting and move the furniture myself, saving myself a few dollars in the process.

Vacation was great! Went to St. John and stayed at a very nice resort. The place was just beautiful and well maintained. Everything was very pricey. To try to save some money we ate only breakfast and dinner and skipped lunch. At dinner we only had water with our meals. We took a few excursions which cost big bucks but when it comes to scuba,snorkeling and fishing in the waters around the islands there is nothing like it. So it is a justified expense.

My stepdaughter's wedding on St. Thomas was okay. It was very hot and on the beach. She had about 50 people there. Mostly family and a few close friends of the bride and groom. Her gown was beautiful. And everyone behaved themselves(big potential for words and fists to be thrown). We gave her a very large cash gift. For which we have not heard a thank you from as of yet. I guess she thinks easy come easy go. Who knows? I'm just glad it is over!!!! Life returns back to normal.

Back at work and things are slow again. I hope it picks up next week when we are back on regular schedule.

For me, the advice I would give is to do whatever you can do yourself and not pay someone to do it for you.Such as mow your own lawn, wash your own car, clean your own home, do your own garening,clean your own pool. Wash your own dogs. Grow your own veggies when you can. Mind your own money unless you absolutely can't. Always sign your own checks. Always make sure your are getting what you paid for. Pay your cc's off every month. Always try to find the best price on what ever it is you are purchasing. Try eating at home more. There are many others but these are the one's that came to mind right away.

Put money into my share builder account. Saved the rest in cash. Boy when you think the market can't get any worse, it does.
Cashed some bottles in today. 2.00 worth.
Picked some more fresh tomatoes. Made all meals at home. Gas is down around here 2.89/gallon.
DD leaves tomorrow to go to Chicago with her boyfriend. She got a great deal on her hotel. Right in the center of downtown Chicago, 89.00/night. She used travel ticker. I just hope her room is nice for that price. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Sold a total of 4 books on Half.com today. Mowed my own grass. Shopped for and made my own meals. Washed my own clothes and ironed them. And took my two nephews to the ocean. That's what I did today to save money. Oh! and went to work.

It was a beautiful day here on Long Island. Went to the beach with DD( used my empire pass) and it was perfect. The weather was great no bugs and not too crowded. We had a good time. Had pizza for dinner and picked up a movie from The Red Box.

Started my walking routine again in hopes that I will be losing a few pounds before the wedding. I know, the pizza is not a diet food. But it sure tasted good. I am still at 160 maybe I will lose something this week. One can hope.

Unable to save anything this week due to paying alot of the regular bills. Sold one of the two books that I had on Half.com. Not much else going on around here. Just working and watching all the rain.

Dinner with DS was really great! We had a very nice time and it is so good to see him doing so well for himself. His apartment is very cute and he has it decorated so nicely. He has recently been collecting antiques. His newest purchase was an old victrola. It is such a beautiful piece of furniture. Other than his antiques he lives very frugally. Even the antiques he does buy he gets them from thrift stores or give aways and ebay.

I am so pissed at myself. Today I went to pay my bills on billpay gathered them all up and as I was paying them realized that one of the bills to the cc company was due yesterday. God, I can't stand those late fees...which by the way will be more than what I put on the CC. It just kills me. I should be more careful but for some reason I had it in my head that all the bills were due around the same time.
I thought I had a good system but I have to do better.

Purchased some shares today of AT&T,Kraft Foods and Pfizer. Put two books up on half.com.

As a money saving idea and b/c I was fed up with the high prices of tomatoes I decided to grow my own tomatoe plants this summer, along with green peppers and eggplant. I used a container garden for these plants. The tomatoes have been fantastic. I bought a starter pack of seedlings with 6 different plants in May. Now I have cherry, grape, Roma, beefsteak, early girl and I can't remember the last one. Everyday I have plenty to bring in the house and I am starting to have enough to start giving away. The peppers were a disappointment. But the eggplants are a suprise. I didn't think that they would grow. So long as the bugs don't get to them I think they wil do very well. The outlay for all these fresh veggies was about 20.00. I had to buy alot of potting soil at the start to fill the containers. It's funny b/c everyone is involved in taking care of them now. They love the fresh vegetables and it was fun watching them grow.

I started receiving repayments to my Kiva account. This makes me very happy!

Tonight, we are meeting our son in the city for dinner. He has been so busy we haven't seen him in a while. He wants us to try this restaurant near his house that he thinks is great. DD and I will be taking the train into Queens and meeting hubby and son at the train station. Should be fun.

This week was a good savings week. Finally! Cooked most meals at home and didn't do any unnecessary spending. I really can't remeber going to any stores this week other than Walmart and Costco. And I didn't buy much while I was there. Just necessities.

The girls are on their best behavior at work . Hubby promised them if they keep up the good work he will give them a raise in 2 weeks time.

This past July our forbearance for our mortgage was swept into our principle. So, when I get the mortgage statement this month I should notice a significant drop in the balance. We pay our mortgage every 2 weeks instead of once a month.

We are going to the property this weekend to meet the contractor and to ask him to perc the land, from there we will drill for water and then site the house. If all goes well we should be getting our builders permit soon after.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 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

For the 4th of July hubby and I decided to go upstate again and try to speak to someone about the log cabin. This time we actually have an appointment on a Saturday afternoon. We will spend a few days up there and we also decided to take a quick trip to Montreal.

Montreal happens to be one of my favorite cities. The people are friendly and it is very clean and well cared for. Their public transportation system is excellent. My daughter also loves it there, she will be going in Sept. to see a concert and staying over night.

With regards to this trip, last night I was trying to find a good rate on a room. I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I really don't spend much time in the room(just to sleep). I tried Hotwire.com. It was kind of strange. This was my first time using this site. You select which grade of room you would be interested in and the price, without knowing the hotel name or it's exact location. They tell you the ammenties and its general location and that is all the information you get until you pay. After you pay they give you the name of the hotel, the address and then you are able to access the hotel's website directly. I was afraid to submit payment. I had my daughter telling me not to and my husband saying what the heck go ahead and try it out. After submitting payment, I found out that I was given the Omni hotel in downtown Montreal which is a 5 star hotel for 103.00/night plus tax. Wow I couldn't believe my good luck. Now I just have to wait and see the room. My daughter is still warning me. She said that they will be booking me in the broom closet. We will see. I will let you know how it worked out when I get back.

Today was pay day and I am happy to report that I was able to put most of it away into savings. Hubby and I picked our 2 DRIPS for the month.

Summer is moving along so fast...My tomatoe plants have sprouted tomatoes in the last two days(sooo cute). I sure hope they taste good.

Windham was great the weather couldn't have been more beautiful. At night it got kind of chilly but it was great sleeping weather. The trip didn't cost too much, a couple of dinners out and gas.

Hubby and I went over to the log home builder, which is why we went upstate in the first place but they were closed on Sunday. It figures. Anyway we got to look around at some of their models and we have narrowed it down to two. We would need some modifications on both but now the deciding factors are if the modifactions can be done and how much to have it built and be in turn key condition. We already own the land. Today DH will make a phone call and set up an appointment to speak to someone. We are set to go up there in about two weeks. Someone from the area also told us that if we wanted to start breaking ground for next year now is the time to get the ball rolling. So, we shall see what the next few weeks bring us.

Pay day was yesterday. I was able to save 100% of it.

Not doing too well in the weight department. Haven't lost an ounce. Very discouraging.

Still deciding which DRIP I will participate in this month. Most likely will be GE.

Will be going to Windham this weekend and then heading over to PA to check out the property and to find out infromation about purchasing a log cabin to place on the property. Hope we will be able to swing it.

Put $85.00 into the $20.00 challenge today. This money consisted of rolled coin(from returning bottles), a dividend check and some cash that wasn't spent from my pocket money. Today I am walking around with 0.00 in my wallet. Tomorrow is pay day. I feel that I am on track.

I went to Home Depot today to see if I could find some energy saving devices. They didn't have the CFL's I was looking for and they didn't have a low flow shower head either. I left there and went to Lowes and it was the same story there. Totally frustrated. My daughter had complained to my husband this morning that the toilet wasn't working, so he took the lid off and the both of them had this look on their face when they came out with the filled plastic bottle I had put there, the day before, to conserve water. I think they think that I am going too far with my conservation. I don't. There are so many things that can be changed in my house to make it much more efficient. My wish list is an attice fan, a programable thermostat and a new front door. Oh well with everything else in the works I guess I'll have to wait.

I got some great looking steaks on sale today. So guess what's for dinner. Steak, some onions and mushrooms, mashed potatoes and veggie.

All my changes to both my IRA and the set up of my sharebuilder account have gone through with out any problems. Hopefully, now I will see and improvement in my returns.
I was able to save all of my paycheck this week. Which is good b/c I haven't been able to save too much lately b/c of the repairs and bills. Anyway I hope that I am back on track.

My husband has me so steamed right now. He is one of those guy's that don't believe in doing too much. Everything is such an effort for him. Mind you he has absolutely no health issues at the present time or has he ever. He does nothing around the house inside or out. That is left for me or outside help. When outside help comes he is never home, he always schedules the appointments on days when he will not be around. But then he has the nerve to complain about everything and anything. I was the one who found the roofers and hired them. I'm the one that made the arrangements to get my deck done. I'm the one that got the trees taken down in the backyard. I was the one that was home yesterday when the pool guys came to check the filter. And today it is my fault that the pool is not up and running. Can you believe it????

My biggest peeve that I have with him right now is that I had purchased a boat for him. A really nice 19 ft. Sea Ray a few years ago b/c he was interested in boating. I got a great deal on a 2 year old. I bought it, he used it a few times and then just let it sit in the boat yard. Now b/c he hasn't kept up the payments on the rental space for the last few years. The people at the boat yard have let the boat deteriorate. There was a cover on the boat(shrink wrapped) but not anymore. There is a hole in the hull. And the whole thing looks like such a mess that I want to cry. When we left it there a few years ago it looked brand new. Anyway, I asked him to please resolve the boat issue. I got a song and a dance b/c he did not want to go down there and speak to the person. Finally he went and when he came home he said that I wouldn't get much for it b/c it was old and it wasn't in such great shape anymore and that it was too small that people are buying bigger boats these days. I went online and checked the book value of the boat and it was valued at 15-18,000.00. So, I don't know who he spoke to b/c he also told me that I would probaly wind up having to give the boat yard about 4,000.00. I got so pissed at him that I told him to just pay the fee and to get the boat out of there and take it home and I will keep it, sell it or give it away. I am so sorry that I ever ask him to do anything...Do any of you have a husband like mine???? LAZY,LAZY,LAZY.

I have done a lot of frugal and unfrugal things this past week. So I guess that means that I broke even.

Yesterday, it was raining here most of the day so I was checking out share builder through COSTCO and decided to open an account. I already have an IRA as noted in my previous entry but there were a few other funds that I found interesting but ING did not offer these ETFS. So I thought that I would open an account get what I wanted and use the dollar cost averaging approach. It was a very easy process and COSTCO gives you a sign up bonus. I was feeling so good after my purchase that I finally committed to the KIVA site, instead of just visiting it. I fininshed off three people's loans( people who are close to the totals on what they are requesting) and also made a donation to KIVA itself. The amount of my loans totaled 300.00. It went to women who were seeking to improve their business thereby increasing their income. As I have mentioned it is a loan. But in the impoverished countries that these people are from there is a good chance that the loan may not get repaid. I realized this an thought that it was an acceptable risk.

So, for me there were two kinds of investing going on here yesterday. One for the bottom line and one for the soul.

Just finished getting off the phone with ING. They hold my traditional IRA account. One of the funds in that account will mature on June 15th. I had to make a decison on what to do with the funds. Since it really didn't make to much of a gain since inception(2002)I have decided to invest the 15,000.00 in that fund into a new fund. The new fund that I chose was the Fidelity Contrafund. Morning star rated it pretty highly with a fairly good outlook. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it does well. There were other funds in my porfolio that just weren't living up to expectations, so, I reallocated them as well. So, Fidelity Contra fund starts on June 15th and the new funds start after 6pm tonight. The money for these two new funds came from a Money Market account inside my IRA that was performing so poorly at 0.4%. This was established back in 2002 by the banks finacial advisor. Now that I am more knowledgeable. I can't believe that the advisor put me in such poor funds. As of today I do not have any of the original funds that I had started with. And the only time I hear from this advisor is when she is trying to sell me something with a huge upfront load. No thanks!

Most of my projects are completed at this point. In September I will start the floors. The deck came out beautiful and I am very happy with it. Total cost including materials $1500.00. Not bad. It is a very large deck, it runs the width of our house.

I didn't save anything this week b/c I had to replace what I took out of savings for the deck. I didn't charge any of it.

The stock market is doing well this week and I just checked on my IRA and it is doing great.

I think that I am on target with most of my goals that I set in January. Now that today is June 1st and pretty much the half way mark. I think I will have accomplished most of what I set out to do by December. Hopefully the weight issue as well.

All in all it has been a very good and productive week.

The deck was finally finished yesterday. Now I just have to wait two days for it to dry so that I can put down the sealer. I can do this myself if my brothers do not return. My front door also got a good sanding and a coat of high gloss polyurethane. The house is starting to look like its old self again.

On another note I have to really start getting serious about my weight. It started going down in Jan. and now I have gained the 4lbs. that I had lost. I really need to lose 20 lbs by the end of August. I am starting to take it seriously as of today. No more goodies for me and a lot more exercise.

I have to cash in some bottle returns today. And clean the inside of my house. I may go to the office for a little while to catch up on some paper work.

With all the projects going on around here, I still have been able to save some money. This obviously makes me very happy. We are pretty much putting the savings towards retirement. The only big purchases that we forsee in the future are to develope our land in PA. We would like to put a nice sized cabin on the property. My DH would also use a portion of the cabin as business space. He would like to set up a fly fishing office. He would take customers out on the Delaware River to fly fish, have fly tying lessons and casting lessons. He would also be writing his own books on his experiences on fly fishing the different enviroments he has fished in his many years as a fly fisherman. The property faces the Delaware river. We purchased it several years ago and have been waiting for the kids to finish college before we started to break ground.

The other purchase would be to buy a town house on Amelia Island in Jacksonville FL.. This area is so beautiful and the weather is so great. The only thing is that the real estate there is still so very expensive. I don't think that they are facing the same housing problems as the rest of the USA. Any way my thoughts on this are to buy something soon and to rent it out for the next 10 years or so. Until I am ready to live there on a part time basis. This way hopefully the mortgage will be paid.

My time frame for both of these projects are over the next 10-12 years. This is what is driving my frugal ways. It may turn out that I will never have the property in FL. but that is ok too. I have also considered the possiblity of renting when I'm ready for 6 months of the year.

So, getting the two properies and having enough money to live comfortably on are my driving forces. So when I see something that I want at the store I ask myself do I really want to waste my money on it or do I want to save it and get what I really want.