Two or three days ago, I found a penny at one store and a dime at another. Yesterday, it was the same thing. I don't know what the significance of that is, but maybe third time is a charm and some wonderful luck (other than finding pocket change) will come my way. I'll keep looking!

A friend of a friend is supposedly interested in some of our horses, but they "need a week or so to get their money together." I used to get excited when people were interested like that, but not any more. It almost always translates into no action. If we had just 1/2 the money that's been supposedly coming our way from other interested people over the years, we'd be very very rich by now!

I hate fleas. I can't seem to get rid of them on my dog(s), no matter what I do. We only keep one dog in the house, but now she's had puppies and they have fleas too! (They aren't in the house anymore. Once the puppies turned 3 weeks old, I moved them all to our barn.) There isn't a lot you can give the mama dog when she's nursing, and not much will work on the puppies except frequent, frequent bathing and a touch of flea spray. Ugh!

Yesterday, I moved our birds outside, prepared for flea bombing (well, actually a spray), and set it off & we left for a few hours. When we got back, I did a thorough cleaning. I'm sitting here on the computer this morning, and felt a flea on me. What?! Can anyone tell me something that really, really works? I've heard steam cleaning the carpet will help. I might do that next too.

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In better news, I found 11 cents this past week, and I got a $5 rebate check for Zantac. The funny thing is that when I bought the Zantac which we might or might not ever use, it was $4.89 or something like that. I had a $5 printable coupon, so I got it for free. But I knew that I would get the money back a 2nd time from the rebate, so that's why I bought it. LOL.

I've got some other rebates to organize. I think one of them was for $10, but I've got to find $30 worth of receipts for "grilling items" - meat, condiments, napkins, ice, etc. It shouldn't be a problem because it doesn't all have to be on one receipt, and it covers a 6-week period of time, I think. Just finding the time to dig thru my receipts is what I'm having trouble with. I don't know why though. It can't possibly take me more than an hour, so that would be $10 an hour that I would have earned for that hour!

The overall problem is that I seem to be having organizational breakdown lately. I spend a lot of time accomplishing nothing. I haven't even been on here much, so I can't blame it on that. I just can't seem to get my act together to organize the bills or paperwork or the house for that matter. Yesterday was a good start with the cleaning, so maybe I can build from there. I think what has really zapped my time lately is spending time in the garden or working on what we pick from the garden, so to say that I "accomplished nothing" isn't really true. It just seems that I don't balance that with all the other stuff I need to do.

Well, maybe I should quit writing about it, and just go DO IT!!

I've never really heard those words when they've meant something good, until today. I noticed that 2 items on my grocery bill didn't ring up at the price on the shelf. They rang at $2.20 instead of $1.99 each. I had a coupon for $2 off each one, so the plan was that I would get them for free. In a split second decision, I went to the customer service desk to get my 40 cents refunded.

Sometimes I bother and sometimes I don't when there isn't much money involved. Today for some reason I did. The clerk looked at the items and studied the receipt, and punched her info in the cash register. I looked up and she was handing me $2.50! "If it's priced wrong, you get one free. That's our policy."

My jaw dropped! Where I lived before, that was a state law, but I don't think it is in this state. Plus, I've shopped at other stores in this same chain, and requested a refund on items that scanned wrong, and they've NEVER given me the item free. It was a nice surprise. I suppose I should have argued that with my coupon I already got both of them free, but who am I to argue?

I noticed my debt ticker had vanished. I guess I hadn't updated in several months (I didn't know tickerfactory would get rid of them after a certain period of time). Oh well, I didn't update it for the same reason I haven't updated the list on the sidebar since May. Things have swung in the opposite direction and I can't handle seeing the reality of it.

Instead, I put my weight loss ticker. I've at least made progress (small progress) with it.

I also had fun on the H&R Block website the other day. There are all sorts of nifty calculators to estimate taxes, etc. Plus, I saw some cool widgets so I added one of those to my sidebar. I really didn't want it to take up such a large amount of space so I may not leave it there forever, but for now enjoy!

If you are interested in the tax calculators, they are at:

I made a quick stop at Walmart tonight after a town hall meeting. It's always an eye-opening experience when I go to the stores in the city. Interesting outfits, bizarre makeup, and just some odd couples.

The best part of tonight's trip was the 2 conversations I overheard. The first was in the produce department where a woman was VERY LOUDLY proclaiming that their produce was awful! I kind of chuckled, thinking that she was just announcing this fact to anyone that would listen. In fact, she was calling it out to her friend across the produce department. "The bananas are way overripe!" Well, she got my attention, so I had to take a glance at the bananas. Everything I saw was very yellow, with green still at the top. I don't know WHAT she was looking at. They looked wonderful to me! Now, I'll admit that a lot of times I've seen better produce elsewhere, but tonight everything looked ok.

The second was in the bread aisle. A man & woman were looking at the english muffins and trying to decide. She picked out some whole wheat ones and he said "no thanks, I want the real deal". Huh? White bread is the "real deal"?

Now this really has nothing to do with finances, except that it's interesting to hear what other people take into consideration when shopping.

I wish I'd had a camera phone, because I would have attached a picture of the big rollback sign they had over something in the freezer department. "2 for $5.00 ~ Was $2.50". Hmmmm....you do the math.

And, the last entertainment, was in the pet food department. I was crouched down trying to get a case of canned puppy food without having to pick up individual cans. I had to shift some cans from one box to another. These are the "boxes" that are really just 1-2" tall that keep the cans together, sort of. A lady walked behind me by the fish tanks and announced to me "you have a dead fish in this tank." I guess I looked like I worked there!

AKSaves entry got me thinking about personal grooming and an ad that one radio station is airing now. In the ads, the morning show announcer (a female) is gushing about how laser hair removal can save you so much time, and she is well on her way to becoming "hair-free". The other announcer (a male) teases her sometimes by calling her Hairy. Supposedly, the time savings is from not having to mess with razor or creams or waxing or anything. It also will save you from embarrassment when you are wearing shorts or a skirt and realize you forgot to shave.

I don't know what the laser hair removal treatments cost, but logic tells me they are probably not cheap.

How much time do you really spend shaving that could make it worth it? I don't think I spend more than 15-30 minutes a week. I just grab a razor in the shower and it's done while my hair is conditioning.

Maybe if I lived in a beach area, my answer would be different. Or, if I had some type of hormonal or glandular problem that gave me a female mustache, I would do it. But just for normal, everyday life, I just can't see it.

(As I said this, a vision of a kid I knew in my 20's popped up. It was a guy and he had hair on his nose, dark noticeable hair. He was a nice guy, and I always felt bad for him. I hope he does laser hair removal!)

Our refinancing appliation was turned down by the loan company. "Turned down" sounds a tiny bit better than REJECTED! I'm so bummed. This was a different loan company located out of state that specializes in rural loans. We were hoping we could get it to go thru now, before our mortgage is up for renewal in March 2010.

It would have lowered our payments by close to $300/month. So....if we can afford it now (barely, but we don't tell them that), why wouldn't we be in a better position if we had a lower payment? I know, I know, it's just too risky for them.

I had to send a mountain of paperwork too - 3 years of tax returns and a lengthy application. They said they normally destroy the paperwork, but could send it back if requested. I told them to send it back so I don't have to re-copy everything again for the next place we try.

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Just as I finally get around to making an entry, DH walked in and is looking for dinner. I don't have it ready since he was gone all day and gave me no idea when he'd be back. So, I guess I'll cut this short.

I found a penny today and another one yesterday. Maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day, and I'll find a million dollars somehow! (okay, we don't need that much, but a girl can dream)