I decided to call up Comcast on a whim and ask for a deduction in price. I was an Adelphia customer for years before Comcast took over, so I’ve had the cable internet for quite a while now. They had recently increased my rate to $114/month for both cable and internet.

I am now on $79/month for both, plus I get extra channels (including an HBO channel which I’ve never in my life owned one of those special movie channels before), and I’ll be saving a hefty sum throughout the year ($35/month or $420/year savings).

I am still considering signing up for their VOIP service to reduce my monthly bills even more. One of my best friends Mark recommended it, and though I’m still wary about VOIP, I think the benefit in the long run will outweigh my reservations. Especially since our phone bill is about $60/month for unlimited long distance. If I switched to VOIP, I’d be at about $100/month for all three.

This years tax return is going to be a little over $1900, more than I expected, and very much appreciated (again I only claim for half the year, if I had done the whole year, it’d be more).

My plan is to put a portion of it into savings so I am over the $3k mark in the emergency savings, and the rest into the mustang. I may use some of it to pay off the washer, but that I can handle in regular installments so it’s not a big deal either way. The closer I am to no debts at all, the easier it will be to buy this place and of course put more towards my retirement.

My dad called BB&T and asked about the $177 I rolled up in change for him to deposit, and they said they wouldn’t accept it rolled up, only loose *collapse*. Still I wanted to know the total of the coinage before deposit so it was worth it. It’s just a little frustrating that they used to only take rolled coins and now they only take loose. My sweetheart says that’s ridiculous because his bank and most banks he knows do it both ways. Ah well. It’s $177, I’m not complaining.

I was reading some blogs about some stories of people going through other people’s mailboxes and stealing refund checks. Probably mostly for drugs, but how ridiculous is that? I’m glad I e-file, but I’m tempted to invest in a locking mailbox at some point.

I hadn’t intended on being too picky about my auto-refinance. As long as my monthly payments were lower and my interest rate was lower, I’d be satisfied.

I decided to go with HSBC because they are one of the higher interest rates when it comes to banking, and I like a lot of the hip online banking services. They reduced my interest rate by 2% and my monthly car payment by $100. Not bad, though I’m sure I could have received more of a deduction elsewhere. But going with HSBC was quick and easy as opposed to driving around to different banks to fill out paperwork.

I still have a few days if I change my mind. I may still shop around, but at least I’m now saving more money no matter what I do.

Dropped off the old washer at the dump, loaded up the new washer from Lowes, and now we’re set for washing clothes again.

Dad went to the emergency room today on his own accord. Nothing serious, but the rash on his arm got that bad that he needed to get some antibiotics. The fantastic part is everything, including the medications, were completely covered by insurance. (The last antibiotic we got was $160 for 10 pills WHAT).

I’m still going to keep the arm wrapped in oatmeal when I can, to help sooth the skin and irritation.

I was talking to the sweetheart about the house situation tonight, and I also spoke with the nephew who is selling the place yesterday, who seems REALLY sincere about wanting to help me and my father out and letting us know that we can make an offer on the place. I’m thinking I’m going to offer 100k and see where I can get with that.

The sweetheart is also going to be selling his house, which will pretty much pay for this place. Which means we can focus on getting things fixed up around here to resell for like $250-$300k in a couple years, and put that money towards the land we want to settle on. Not to mention that’s like $200k profit, and a fantastic down payment onto our ranch.

It’s a pretty sweet deal if everything works out, and definitely has a lot of promise.

I found out that the landlord’s farm is not as big as I thought it was, so it’s become less desirable for me. Which is fine, because this place might be the better investment in the long run. I still intend to check it out tomorrow while running errands.

In other news, money is tight this month because I’ve adjusted my tax exemptions. I’m thinking about adjusting them back, but I like to do half a year with no exemptions (usually the first half) and then the other half with 2 exemptions so I make sure I get a nice chunk of change back and have no risk of owing money. But extra bills came in, such as the new washing machine, and tag renewals for the mustang ($128, are we like one of the most expensive states or something?).

Fortunately it’s tax season so as soon as the taxes are done I should be in fine shape. I just have to take a ride up to Gettysburg to get them done. (Edit: Aunt is going to be in town on Sunday so I can get them done then, yay)

There’s nothing like half-naked boy men, lots of sex, and being whipped with goat skins.

“Whip My Roman Sex Gods”

Hot pagan sex and lustful gods and ancient wolf goddesses and potential marriage and more sex and more than a little crazed giddy divine animal blood sacrifice.

All followed by some nice light whippings administered by nearly naked grinning boy-men, casual flagellations by goat-skin, some joyful thrashing in the name of fertility and purity and, you know, sex. Ahh, Valentine’s Day……

In true financial fashion, the good energy does come with the bad. Our washing machine has gone up and I am purchasing a new one. 3 years ago this would have been devastating to my finances because I had no savings and was not very good with money. But now I am not worried. We’re going to buy a cheap one because we don’t need a big expensive one (and my dad is hard on them anyway). We’re looking at maybe $300 from Sears or Lowes and will either have it delivered or pick it up this weekend.

Still no committed sales on my electric guitar or bronco headers on craigslist, but unlike ebay or the newspaper, listing on craigslist is free and local (no shipping fees, yay). They also keep your listing up for 45 days (as opposed to 7 days), and you can put up multiple listings within that time frame. These items alone will more than pay for the washing machine.

In other news, my dad called our deceased landlord’s estate lawyer this morning and they have appraised this place for $200k (which is ridiculously cheap compared to the 400k and 800k houses around us). He even said we would be able to negotiate that, so I’m hoping I can get $150k or less, which should be easy (well, easy enough) to handle on just my income. I imagine part of that is contributed to the supposed recession that is looming over our heads.

However I am still interested in the landlord’s farm, so we’re going to call back and see how much that was appraised at. They will definitely be selling it as well, so we’ll need to see if my dad’s friend is still interested in purchasing all three properties.

So the plan is to either:
1. Buy this property for $150k or less, fix it up and/or tear down and rebuild and resell later on.
2. Wait for my dad’s friend to buy the large farm and buy it from her at a small mortgage payment (if I even like the property).

My dad and I are going to run over to the farm on Saturday to take a look at it and see if it’s actually a piece of property that we want since it’s right down the road.

My dads account is overdrawn this month, but it looks like Suburban Propane for some reason had their check cashed twice, which completely fubared his account. I’m going to see if I can talk to them today about reversing the overdraft charge and removing the extra check cash.

Since there’s been nothing lately that requires a big long entry.

• I’ve forgotten how nice it is not to live out of a dresser. To have this beautiful antique armoir given to me by a friend, to have wooden hangers and buy cheap chic baskets for the bottom for socks and things. It makes me feel very fancy yet antique.
• I wasn’t feeling well Thursday so I worked from home. Ironically it was the busiest day at work, ever, and everyone wanted all this stuff done ASAP and I’m like “Whoa whoa, sick here.” I eventually just shut everything down and went and pampered myself with a long lavender bath, japanese clay face mask, and other girlie things that I do maybe once a year.
• My sweetheart just got a huge promotion at work as VP and our combined salaries would now be over 100k/year. Unfortunately neither of us can enjoy the spoils of that arrangement for a while, so my dad and I are still living off my own salary. Still, it’s a nice future thought, and he’s going to be sending me the excess money to keep in my savings.
• Was involved in some good drumming this weekend
• I’ve started paying an extra $80/month towards my car loan in order to work towards getting it paid off two years early.
• No idea what my tax return is going to be yet, but I’ve decided to put a small amount towards going over the next “grand” hump in my savings and then putting the rest into the balance on my mustang. As much as I’d like to buy myself something, I don’t need anything that bad to warrant purchasing over reducing the size of my debt.
• My best friend and I are having a henna date the beginning of March where we henna our hair and then we’re going to go out to the Common Market and buy all kinds of organic groceries (while staying within my $200/month grocery budget for me and my dad)
• I found some cheap coin wrappers on ebay and decided to wrap up all of our loose change today with the purpose of giving it to my father to buy the remaining parts for his tractor. My grand total was $176.31, and I’m sure there is loose change still around the house to start our next coin stash. It just shows that every penny counts and adds up. From eating out often to just emptying your change into a jar everyday. You heard about the guy that paid for a brand new truck in cash that he got from just change he saved up over 13 years, right? Twice. I could very well just put this money into savings, and I was tempted. But the tractor brings in money with plowing gardens in the spring and plowing snow in the winter. Plus I’ve been eating so much better lately, I really want to take advantage of our vegetable garden this year.
• Thinking about selling my electric guitar. Actually I’m pretty set on it. It was bought for me for Christmas by my grandmother when I was 15 (1995) because I was heavy into metal music. I’ve played it about…5 times total, because I love playing the acoustic guitar so much more. If I ever did need an electric, it would be an electric acoustic only. My grandmother paid about $295 I think for the guitar and amp, so I’m trying to figure out how much to ask for it. It’s a black Fender Squire (yes, not a Strat), and is in mint condition (listed now for about $299 brand new). It needs a new case though because the one I have I painted metal bands on in highschool :D. This money will probably go in emergency savings, and free up some space in my room. Maybe I’ll try selling it in the paper.
• I earned $10.32 in royalties from sales on Zazzle from my MUD. In addition, the Grove earned about the same amount in sales from Zazzle.
• I made two bumperstickers, one for my mustang and one for my bronco. I was actually told I wasn’t allowed to purchase them without getting permission directly from Ford Motor Company. I guess they thought I wasn’t going to try and do it, but damned if I didn’t. Only for personal use, but I got permission directly from Ford itself.