Well I was away from the blog for a bit, so what has been happening?? Lets see....
I went yard sale-ing two weeks ago. I found a very good replacement vacumn for $18 and it works much much better than the junker I have at home. It is bagless which I like. Plus I got a Samsonite carry-on roller luggage piece - like new - for $5. Tomorrow is another day of yard sales - great!
I got my new credit card, and according to the web site after confirming the card, I'm supposed to be getting my 0% $0 bank transfer to do some rate arbitrage. Hopefully this money will appear soon.
Went with my train hobby club for 3 days to do a major display, and boy, was I tired when it was all over. Glad I did it, and will be happy not to do that for some time. LOL
My clothing expenses so far this year - $3.00. Two shirts for a $1 at a thrift store closeout, and another shirt at a yard sale. I don't know how long I can keep this up, but when I open my closet I still see shirts and pants like new just waiting. Its nice to see this excess clothing not go to waste. (and putting the saved money to use for me)
I finally cut down how much I am paying on my mortgage, but I hated to do it. There is nothing nicer than seeing that number drop faster, but I realized cutting my extra payment down could help me buy other investments and help me more in the long run. Intellectually I know it, but emotionally I hate it.
I have my one-third of a year progress report on my net worth (should it be called "one-third annual report"?). My home equity is up almost $3K. DRIPs are up about $2K, and my retirement numbers are up almost $10K. Alot of the increases are due to investing savings, but the market has done well this year. Other savings (MM, CDs, checking) are down slightly, but not a major amount. Hmmm, if I can keep this up I will get an increase of $45K for the year. I could live with that.
Percentage-wise the increase for the three months is less than 4% which looks bad, but that is due to my net worth being heavily weighted by my home, and I haven't tried to re-estimate its value. I am using $400K for its value, though I know identical homes have sold for over $450K near by in the past year. Removing my home from the calculations, the net worth increased about 14% over four months. Now thats a pace I could enjoy seeing for some time.
Catching up on life
April 29th, 2006 at 04:53 am
April 29th, 2006 at 03:45 pm 1146321925
April 30th, 2006 at 12:18 am 1146352728
May 1st, 2006 at 12:54 am 1146441258
Lets see, I also got 3 pipe clamps for $2 (if you don't know, these are used in wood working). They cost maybe $7 new. Also got my week's groceries at Aldi's for $25.01. Talk about being real close to my goal of $25 a week for groceries!
And, finally, thanks everyone (here and previously) for any and all comments.