Sunday rambling

Not a whole lot happening this past week. Yesterday was a super nice day about 63 degrees. I did a bit of yard work and helped DH with some stuff. Now we are back to rain for the next week. I worked a half day on Friday and thought I'd get my shopping done at noon. I got to Costco at noon and it was a complete zoo. It took me 10 minutes just to get out of the parking lot at the light, because of road construction. Then I stupidly decided to to my grocery shopping at a different store. I get gas there and also had a $6 rewards coupon (sent out quarterly, this was from Christmas shopping there) to use up. This store is always a zoo too. I don't know where everything is, the aisles are narrow and by the time I'd find what I was looking for they either were out of it or didn't carry it. Or, way more expensive. Two thin ribeye steaks were $21. I get them for about $11 at Walmart. About halfway through my list and spending most of my time just trying to avoid running into all the other people, I said forget it, I'm done. Went and paid what I had and went and finished my grocery shopping Saturday morning at Walmart - where it's never that crowded and the aisles are twice as wide.

Another arrest made last night of one of our neighborhood scum. This is a woman, almost 40 years old, that sometimes (when they don't kick her out) lives with her parents down the road. She is a total PITA and directly involved with both the drug houses. She has a history of domestic violence and got arrested last night on Felony Domestic violence court ordered violation, malicious mischief and assault.  She apparently had warrant also, for failure to appear for her previous 2 similar charges. That part kinda makes me mad, because we have been reporting her and her constant activities in and out of our street for month and months, and the cops could have easily picked her up on her warrant any time. Anyhow - VERY happy that she is in jail, now too. I doubt she will stay there long, but better than nothing.

I've been working the numbers.....for mortgage loans, estimated taxes (new state has state tax) and estimated tax savings (no sales tax) etc. Mortgage lady got back to me Friday afternoon and told me we could do a $450,000 house, with the payment I want......but I think she was forgetting that I want a 15-18-ish year mortgage repayment plan. It does help that we'll have about 15% to put down (versus her 10% estimate). The highest I'd be comfortable going, with what we will have as a down payment and wanting to pay off before I'm 70 is $425,000 max. I'd rather be at $400,000. So, we'll see what this home builder guy says he can build us a 2000-2500 sq ft home and a shop for. If he's in our price range, then I  have a feeling we will build, unless we see something come up for sale that we fall in love with.  I have no plans to tell DH that she said $450,000 house (at 10% down).....because that's exactly what he'd start looking at. I've learned what I can and can't tell him, though sometimes I slip up.  Not this time. LOL.

I printed out the state tax return form and plugged in the numbers from my 2014 federal tax return. I really don't know what we spend per year here, on sales tax (non-food items) but I'm going to guess $100 a month. Net it all out and I'm estimating an additional $200 a month in taxes, but I'm probably guessing low on what we spend a year here, in sales tax. Sales tax gets added to a lot of our bills too....Comcast bill, gasoline, cell phone bill, etc. I'm sure I  probably spend more than $10,000 a year (at almost 10% sales tax) on non-food stuff.  I'll have to keep track for a month and see. I asked our friends what they have to pay in vehicle license tabs each year. It's quite a bit higher than what we pay, but anything over 11 years old can get a permanent tab for a flat $240, so we'd be able to do that for DH's pickup and not have to pay on it again.  Property taxes are lower, but we'll also be living in a more expensive house then we currently have, so will end up paying more than we do here.

I also just read a news article last night that says based on a recent study, May is the best time to sell a house in our market area. Perfect - as that is when we plan to list it. It said homes typically sell for 1.2% more here, in May, than other months. Well, for us that could be an extra $3000. That would pay our moving expenses.

DH's good friend took off last Monday for another trip to his new home in a new state. He has so much stuff to move, because he has a business with lots of tools and equipment. DH has helped him so much and he keeps telling DH he's going to fly back up here and help DH when we move. DH told him don't worry about it. He's doing it to keep busy. DH told me that he didn't tell him the real reason....because friend is a big old softy and he'd just start crying. DH spent over a year going through all his best friends shop, selling it all off, for his wife, after he died. The whole time he wished he'd have spent all that time in the shop with his friend before he got sick. So, he's going to spend as much time with this good friend (of over 30 years) as he can now. Yep, friend would have cried if he told him that's the real reason he was over there almost every day helping him.


On tap today is just cleaning house.