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Archive for September, 2015

Farm Down Payment Fund and Old Remodel Payment Situation

September 26th, 2015 at 11:15 pm

$31,500.00 Starting Balance
+__,500.00 Deposit Added
-----------------------
$32,000.00 New Balance

Also, on the money we've been holding for the guy who remodeled our old house and then immediately went through bankruptcy before we could pay him, we were finally able to make a $5000 payment yesterday and then in 21 to 28 days we will be able to make the remainder payment of $36,000. I will be so glad to not have that money in our credit union account anymore.

I mean, yes, the interest we were collecting on it was nice, but I still didn't like the situation. With the $5000 he is able to open his business account and get all the proper licensing and then when that all runs through, he can then take the additional $36,000 and put it in the business and then he can pull from that gradually as he needs income since he is allowed to pay himself a salary.

What a mess this has all been and I am really glad to see it nearly done.

Menu Planning and Eating Out

September 26th, 2015 at 11:06 pm

Househopeful reminded me with her post that I haven't been menu planning in a while and it is something I want to get back to. Especially since we are trying so hard not to eat out. This week was a bust, though. DH and I went out to eat on Thursday since it was the 25th Anniversary of our first date. We didn't spend too much there, it was $41 including a good tip. I had a chicken quesadilla and garden salad and he had beef fajitas, rice, and beans. We went at 4:30 so we could still get lunch prices and portions, but still eat close to dinner time.

Then yesterday my fever spiked and I lost all interest in cooking and DH was still jet-lagged, so we got take away from the Polynesian place, which was almost $50. So there can definitely be no more eating out.

I have enough leftovers between the Mexican and Polynesian foods for my dinner tonight. The kids have enough leftovers from last night. I'm not sure what DH has, but he can have some of my rice and build around that. Plus there is some leftover lasagna, too.

So my meal plan will start with tomorrow.

Sunday:
Rabbit Macaroni Casserole (from the freezer)
Salad
Watermelon

Monday:
Barbecue Chicken Wings
Fried Potatoes
Cole slaw
Watermelon

Tuesday:
Sloppy Hoppies
Oranges
Cole slaw

Wednesday:
Korean Short Ribs
Sweet Meat Squash, mashed
Green Beans

Thursday:
Rabbit Stir-fry with peppers, onions, broccoli, carrots, celery, snow peas
Oranges

Friday:
Rabbit Chili
Garlic Bread
Salad

Saturday:
Pork Chops
Applesauce
Cole slaw

Payday Report

September 26th, 2015 at 08:22 am

I haven't been doing these for a while, but felt like I wanted to get back to recording stuff in more than just my spreadsheet.

$1753.84 Travel BoA VISA
__100.00 Checking Cushion
__120.00 Physical Therapy
__203.77 Groceries (Trader Joe's)
___23.84 Groceries (Safeway)
__100.00 Cash for Week
___50.00 Allowances
__248.87 AMEX
___48.24 Pharmacy
__500.00 Down Payment Fund
___15.00 Pharmacy
---------------------
$3163.56

We will be buying some clothes tomorrow for DH and DS. I am hoping to keep it under $200.


More to the Christmas Fund

September 25th, 2015 at 11:57 pm

$186.81 Starting Balance
+_68.00 Deposit (Egg Money, Coin Jar, Surveys)
---------------------
$254.81 New Balance

$745.19 to go.

Christmas Fund

September 25th, 2015 at 03:07 am

$176.81 Starting Balance
+_10.00 Weekly Update
--------------------
$186.81 New Balance

$813.19 to go.

I haven't been posting much. I've been sick. I'm still sick. My biggest symptom is exhaustion. Low grade fever, mildly stuffy, a little bit of a scratchy throat. As colds go it isn't miserable, I just can't get to the point where I am not tired. The first few days I slept constantly. Now I just wish I could. Hopefully it will pass soon. It feels a lot like mono, but I had that as a kid and it is my understanding you cannot get it twice.

Finances are on autopilot. We do have to do some shopping, though. DH has lost about 50 pounds and his pants are falling down. He needs a new belt, some new jeans, and some undergarments. And DS needs the same as we never did get him any at back to school time and he's grown several inches since last year. We will try to keep the spending down, though.

I need to get some new long-sleeved shirts. My old ones are too big. I want turtlenecks to protect my throat. I will probably order them from a catalog though in a variety of colors. I hate shopping for clothes.

Sometime in the next month or so we need to get a new microwave. Ugh. I also hate shopping for appliances. Actually, I just hate shopping.

Christmas Fund Update

September 17th, 2015 at 06:28 pm

$136.54 Starting Balance
+_10.00 Weekly Deposit
+_10.00 Egg Sales
+__1.00 Coin Jar
+_19.27 Safe Driver Refund Check
----------------------
$176.81 New Balance

$823.19 to go to hit my goal of $1000.

I should be able to add to this a little more substantially either tomorrow or next Friday. Depends on whether or not they take the medical out of tomorrow's paycheck or the next one.

Laptop Fund About to Be Funded Again

September 10th, 2015 at 05:00 pm

As a side note, I am starting a Nook Fund next payday. DH really wants one and since we have been holding on not getting smart phones and because he travels so much AND because we have been talking about it for about a year and it doesn't seem to be an impulse want, I am putting it into the budget. I will call it the Nook Fund, but I will keep track of it in the category of Laptop Fund.

And speaking of the Laptop Fund, as soon as the Nook is funded and purchased, I will begin saving for a replacement laptop for my old Windows 7 machine. So far it is doing okay, but it has a couple of glitches. If you tilt the screen back too far it shuts off. I'm sure that means a loose wire. The fan doesn't always work and the DVD player is broken. When it does work it sounds like an airplane taking off, but most of the time it won't even start anymore.

This is not a deal breaker, as I have a portable USB DVD drive that I can use with it. The only DVD player I have access to is with my computer (and DH has one in his). I have a lot of series on DVD's that we own and many we can borrow from family and we get DVD's from Netflix because not everything we want to see streams, so it would be nice to have a more functional one. We don't have a TV anymore, so we don't have that as an option to hook up a regular DVD player.

So while I will muddle on with this computer until it stops functioning, I want the money in place for when it does.

Christmas Fund Update

September 10th, 2015 at 04:56 pm

$126.54 Starting Balance
+_10.00 Weekly Deposit
---------------------
$136.54 New Balance

$863.46 to go to hit my goal of $1000.

Starting next payday (9/18) I will be able to start contributing more substantially to this fund.

Another Christmas Fund Update

September 5th, 2015 at 05:41 am

I deposited a check today from Pinecone and some money from the coin jar.

$89.85 Starting Balance
+30.00 Pinecone
+_6.50 Coin Jar
+__.19 Interest
----------------------
$126.54 New Balance

$873.46 to go.

Christmas Fund Update

September 4th, 2015 at 02:43 pm

$79.85 Starting Balance
+10.00 Weekly Deposit
--------------------
$89.85 New Balance

$910.15 to go.

1/4 Beef and Wind Storm

September 1st, 2015 at 04:12 pm

On Thursday we picked up 1/4 of a beef cow (yes, cow, not steer) at the butcher's. The meet itself was $475. The cut and wrap was $195.71. Total cost was $670.71. It worked out to about $3 per pound for grass fed organic beef. I also got 40 pounds of tallow. I only asked for 10, but they give it away, so now I have an overwhelming amount of frozen beef fat to render.

It is for making soaps and lotions, though, so it will all get used eventually. I might also use some for the deep fat fryer. Tallow used to be what all the restaurants used to cook their fries in before they all switched to hydrogenated vegetable oil for "health" reasons, only we know now that is far worse.

It has filled up 3 compartments in the freezer. It is amazing how little space it takes up. If I hadn't had the tallow it all would have fit in two compartments, which is 1/8 of the overall chest freezer space. It will last a long time, though.

We had the first meat from it last night for dinner and it is very flavorful.

We lost power on Saturday in the massive wind storm Western WA had. We were out of power for a little over 8 hours, so we ended up getting takeout from a place that still had power. We spent $48 for 4 people. If it had gone more than that day we would have gotten out the camp stove and started using it to cook on. We had hot water since our water heater is gas and the pilot light was still on.

I made a couple of videos from the day of the storm and the day after showing damages.

Text is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciaxrDMHtE and Link is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciaxrDMHtE

and

Text is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ElDGouEDk and Link is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ElDGouEDk

It got pretty bad in places, but most of the county has power back as of today. We lost a bush and had a lot of damage to some squash vines, corn, and tomato plants, but otherwise came through pretty unscathed. The animals were okay, especially after we put the shutter up over the windows of the rabbit shed. All of their roofs stayed on.

The first half week of school went well for my son. Although he is already starting to pull some of the same stuff as last year. We are nipping it in the bud, though. It's not my fault if he stays up too late playing video games after being told to go to bed. He doesn't get to be "sick" and stay home and sleep because he made wrong choices. He gets to go to school anyway. And his video game machine gets to sleep in my room until the weekend.

My mom had her 76th birthday on the 28th and then my husband had his 46th birthday on the 30th, but it was all very laid back. We had too much work to do to really celebrate. We had to clean 18 rabbit cages over the weekend, plus we were canning. Farm chores and garden preservation do not stop just because someone is now a year older.

It has been raining pretty non-stop for the last two days. Since it has only rained twice prior to this the entire summer, it is very good for the area, but I feel spoiled after such a nice summer for wanting it to stop. And I'm worried it will spoil and split the rest of my tomatoes. The weather is supposed to get nice again by Friday, at least for a few days.

Capital One 360 Interest to the Christmas Fund

September 1st, 2015 at 08:11 am

$49.00 Beginning Balance
+30.85 Interest Added
----------------------
$79.85 New Balance

$920.15 to go to hit my goal of $1000.

I did receive a Pinecone check in the mail today, so will be depositing that and whatever is in the coin jar tomorrow as well.

Why is Tomato Sauce so Cheap?

September 1st, 2015 at 06:28 am

It is amazing to me that 2 3 gallon buckets of tomatoes from the garden, an onion, 2 bell peppers, and 5 cloves of garlic boiled down for 4 to 5 hours are what it takes to make 4.5 quarts of spaghetti sauce. How the heck do they sell it so cheap in the stores? I don't get it.

Even the organic tomato sauce is cheap. Yet tomatoes, even in season like now, are freakishly expensive when you don't grow them yourself. And ketchup? How is ketchup so cheap? I seriously do not get it after all the processing I've been doing.

Oh, well. I now have a total of 4 quart jars, 5 pint and a half jars, and one pint of completely homemade spaghetti sauce. And judging from the tomatoes still on my table and the unripe ones still on the plants, there is no end in sight. It tastes amazing though.