This past week I’ve had two instances of being overcharged. The first time was at the grocery store. Scanning my receipt as I was walking out, I quickly saw that one item rang up as a dollar too much. While to some people, a dollar might not seem worth the trouble of going to customer service and getting it corrected, but to me it is. I also happen to live in a state that has a scanner law. What this means is that you get the difference, plus an additional bonus of up to $5. For me, the dollar overcharge became $6 back in my pocket. Glad I was paying attention! [Read more…]
Our first load of wood was delivered yesterday, all $450 worth! While the person we buy from is cash or check only, it still feels good that we are in a position to do so. In the past, paying for all the irregular expense that come our way would have had us reaching for a credit card. We sure have made some very positive changes since starting this journey! In another month or so (read: when money permits!), we will order another load of wood. We still have a fair amount left over from last burning season, but it is good to have more seasoning for the coming year. Such a vicious cycle. Lol. If you’re interested, I’m hosting a wood stacking party for anyone who’d like to stop on over. I’ll provide the wood! 😉 
Today’s post is brought to you thanks to a reply from a comment I made over at Sluggy’s blog, 
I am thrilled to report that our driveway work is complete! It looks fantastic, and best of all, we will now be able to get up and down it without any difficulty…well, except perhaps during snowy, icy weather! Can’t say that I’m too concerned with that though, as the snow and ice have always melted quickly on the hill. My hunch is that with the recycled asphalt, it will melt all the quicker. The three culverts were already put to the test last night with heavy rains. Thankfully, no signs of a ravine! Not that I wanted to spend extra money, especially at this point of our debt free journey, but it was necessary. For that, I feel it was money well spent. 
Our budget is super tight right now, but we did make a little more progress this past week with three debts seeing a decrease. The beast (aka Discover) is now down to $7,800. The car is at $5,635.45. Citi is at $6,580. The Visa remains the same and won’t see another change until next month. The overall decrease from my report of last week is $571.13. We also paid August’s mortgage payment, which feels good to have out of the way for another month. 
Other than giving a total of where our debt stood, I missed my last update. This post shows where we stand as of today.
Just because you are digging out of debt, it doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish other goals. Ever since moving to our lake house three years ago, Hubs has wanted to build a dock over the rock jetty we have on our frontage. Our best guess is that these rocks came from the excavating of what is now the basement of our house. To say that we live in a very rocky area is putting it mildly! No matter how the rocks/boulders got out there, it made for the perfect place to add a dock. As to how we paid for our new dock, keep reading! 
Today the office in which I work received word that the 80+-year-old secretary had passed away earlier this morning. As sad as the news was, it didn’t come as a huge surprise. I had visited with her twice since she retired, and I could sense that she had given up. Work was her life. Although receiving a terminal diagnosis of cancer is the reason she retired, I don’t feel that is what took her. It was knowing she would never again return to the office. 
I am back from my trip! Had a great time, but it is always good to get back home. I was gone a total of five nights, although it felt like much longer than that. I’m guessing this is because I hadn’t gone anywhere overnight for well over a year. Three of the nights were in hotels, and the other two were on a couch at my brother’s lake house. I won’t bore you all the details (or at least not in this post), but I spent time with my new grandbaby, my son along with his wife, two siblings along with their spouses and kids, and of course, my elderly father. 