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Archive for April, 2010

Lost wallet questions

April 27th, 2010 at 01:50 pm

Ok, my parents just came back from an international trip. Dad lost his wallet somewhere along the way. He had $26 in cash, 2 debit cards, his social security card, medicare card, and both his and mom's drivers licenses in the wallet.

Cash - gone but not a huge loss
Debit cards - called the banks, no weird activity noticed, canceled the cards
SS/Medicare cards - ordered replacements
Drivers Licenses - ordered replacements

So, the question is this. Should we report the lost wallet situation to the credit bureaus? If we do, will this mess up their credit situation, i.e. make it difficult for them to get future loans if needed, and if so, for how long. It is unlikely that they'll need any kind of loans, but just in case, you know? My parents have absolutely no debt, no mortgage or loans of any kind, and do not use credit cards at all. They don't speak much English so I will have to call the credit bureaus for them -- is this something I can do online for them instead of over the phone?

What do you guys think? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Decision made (maybe) on the house situation??

April 26th, 2010 at 05:28 pm

Ok, so the house that we were interested in went under contract last Friday --- after just 7 days on the market --- knew it was priced well! I didn't want to get into a bidding war of any sort so we just stepped away from it altogether. Probably for the best anyway as rash emotional decisions are the most dangerous ones!

Now, as I've posted, we have been looking for investment properties for about a year now. Nothing really pushed our buttons until one that we saw a couple of weeks ago. This little house on .75 acres is listed at $119k. If we can get it for $95k, I think it would be worth it to get and rehab. We are estimating about $12k in renovation costs. Then we could rent it or sell it, either option would be good for the neighborhood it is in.

What do you guys think about this little house?





living room



kitchen

Help -- another possible house to buy!

April 23rd, 2010 at 01:24 am

Ok, we've been looking for the right house to buy as ours sits on the market. All the other ones thus far have been a bit out of our price range (if we had to keep our current home) and had more cons than pluses. However, one just came on the market the other day and our realtor showed it to us today. Wow, it fits the bill so nicely. What should we do??? It's priced super well as the sellers want to sell it quickly so I'm afraid it will be gone if we don't act soon. In just the two days it came on the market, they've had 4 showings already. Here are some pics:

Front of house from end of driveway



Fenced in backyard





Our main criteria has been a level yard/lot close into town and this one has both. It just needs some cosmetic updating inside (like removing wallpaper) and the kitchen appliances need to be updated quite a bit, but overall, the house is in superb condition.

This house is 45 years old and is nearly 5000 sq ft big! There is a mother-in-law 2-bedroom apartment with full kitchen/laundry/etc on the lower floor that we could rent out to offset our mortgage. The area can be completely closed off to the main house with its own entrance and so forth.

The main drawing point is the location!! It's literally where we were wanting to be and the neighborhood is so nice. The fenced backyard is a huge plus for our dog.

Ok, so the dilemma is that we haven't sold our current home. We could buy this one and then if the contract is accepted and so forth, we could do a massive price reduction on our current home to try to get rid of it quickly. What do you guys think?? Aaaghh! I wouldn't worry so much except that the house is priced so well for the area that I'm afraid it will be gone...


basement/apartment kitchen


basement/living room with fireplace



front of house - another view


back of house

Indoor plants

April 17th, 2010 at 09:42 pm

I can't remember who blogged about this, but I took the tip about recycling a plastic bottle and pantyhose and look at what has come up already. This is about 2 weeks worth of growth from cucumber seeds! I've never had this much luck growing from seeds before so thank you to whoever it was that posted this process!



Also, just for the fun of it, I have a small Christmas Cactus that I bought in January (I think) and it's blooming. It's pretty so I thought I'd share.

Tax day musings

April 15th, 2010 at 04:59 pm

We filed our taxes back in Feb and just got our state refund this week. The state is in such a cash crisis that I really didn't think we would've gotten it this "soon" actually. Not complaining though! There are still quite a few coworkers that are scrambling to get to the HR Block or whatever today during their lunch hours. Geez -- talk about waiting til the last minute! Hope you guys out there have already done yours by now. Smile


A nice talk with DH

April 14th, 2010 at 02:34 pm

It was a such a nice evening last night. After we cleaned up from dinner, we all went outside to play in the nice weather. The girls were playing with the dog and DH and I ended up sitting on the small bank that overlooks our house watching the activity. We ended up talking about all the things we'd like to do with the outside of the house (flower beds, retaining walls, building steps alongside the banks) - that is if we were to remain living here (the house is on the market). Of course, all these things will cost money so we probably won't end up doing much of what we talked about. We also talked about how we will be debt free, except for the mortgage, for the first time in about 4 years, as soon as I make our final payment to the 0% credit card in May. The 0% rate ends July 1 and I'd like to pay it off within plenty of time to ensure no timing problems. The current balance is $20,000. It will be hard to part with that much cash, but it will be fantastic to be debt free. We had been setting aside $1,000 each month to pay toward this credit card and will continue paying the $1,000 to ourselves once the card is paid off. It's a great feeling to see the light at the end of this tunnel. Smile

Pooey! Got a parking ticket!

April 12th, 2010 at 06:18 pm

DD had to play in a soccer tournament yesterday at the local university. DH dropped us off at the gate and went to park. After the game, we went to the car and found a parking citation on the windshield. The place was packed so DH had parked on the curb along with several other cars thinking that it was legal but guess not... $30 fee!!! That's outrageous! Since it was issued by the University police system, is it a "real" ticket? We'll pay it and consider it a donation to the school, but curiosity had me going. If someone doesn't pay a parking ticket from a campus system, is that ticket on their background checks, etc.? Anyone know?

Mt Dew for cheap!

April 9th, 2010 at 08:45 pm

Wow, what a sale this week at Lowes Foods. Mt. Dew is on sale for $2.10 for a 12 pack here. I've gotten 10 packs so far and will go back for more. I haven't seen 12 pack sodas this cheap in YEARS, maybe even decades. I know soda isn't good for us but DH is addicted to the stuff unfortunately and drinks about 2 cans a day. This sale will last us for months and months... yahoo!

Update on totals for DH's sale of "A"

April 6th, 2010 at 03:00 pm

Ok, drum roll, please...

The total as of today, April 6, 2010 is $11,300!! I was hoping he'd make the $10,000 mark but he's surpassed that already and is still going strong. He still has quite a few of "A" pieces left to sell so who knows how much we'll end up totaling after it's all said and done.

I'm so proud of him! Smile