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Home > Archive: March, 2016

Archive for March, 2016

Farm Down Payment Fund Update and a Lot of Other Stuff

March 29th, 2016 at 05:53 am

$41,000.00 Starting Balance
+__,500.00 Deposit Added
------------------
$41,500.00 New Balance

It was a little discouraging to only put $500 into savings this month for the down payment. We've been putting away $1500 most months this year, but we had a lot of medical bills with DS's surgery come through and all the medical stuff with DD. At least we have met the deductible now, so that'll ease up. Unfortunately there was a lot of stuff that was being processed all at once so some of it we got billed for anyway because it was all "in process." So we will get checks back from the doctors who end up getting paid by us and by the insurance.

Also, we won't be able to save $1500 each month going forward, either, because of the pay cut DH was forced to take. I really don't like the way the new budget looks. We will have to be very strict if we want to save $1000 per month. I am going to try to cook more from the pantry and freezers. We will have greens soon in the garden so that will help.

I think we are going to be stuck here through 2017 now. We just won't be able to save enough by the end of this year like I'd planned on before the pay cut. I know this is a lot of whining, I am just feeling frustrated and anxious. We still don't know if the company got the new contract, which means individual contracts are still up in the air. We should know soon, but even if they do get it, it does not mean the employees will get their old wages back.

Some days I really think about just moving to rural Idaho or Montana where the cost of living is so much cheaper. But I love where we live and I don't know if I would love Idaho or Montana the same way. They are both beautiful states, but they aren't home and that is a hard thing sometimes to get over.

I think I will settle down some after the contract news. Well, if it's good. If it's bad I'll freak out for a while. I hate uncertainty. It is the worst thing for me.

Emergency Fund Update

March 20th, 2016 at 04:56 pm

I received my safe driver rebate check in the mail this week and deposited it and the contents of the coin and dollar jar, which included egg sales money, into my Emergency Fund. I also missed 4 cents of interest at some point so added it here.

$16,544.52 Starting Balance
+__,_21.90 Safe Driver Rebate
+__,_60.40 Coin and Dollar Jar
+__,__0.04 Interest
----------------------
$16,604.96 New Balance

I have $395.48 to go to hit my next mini-goal of $17,000.

Emergency Fund Update and Musings

March 12th, 2016 at 09:06 pm

$16,322.85 Starting Balance
+__,221.67 Deposit Added
--------------------
$16,544.52 New Balance

I have passed the half-way point on my second mini-goal of 2016, which is to get the EF from $16K to $17K. $455.48 to go. I was hoping to have met that by the end of April, but with DH's paycut going into effect at the end of the month, I'm not sure I will. It might be the end of May.

One of the things I am debating is whether or not I should keep saving for the down payment or if I should just start shoveling everything into the Emergency Fund and if the contract is won at the end of June, then just transferring the money to the Down Payment Fund then.

It all goes into the same bank account. I know it is just a question of where to put it on the spread sheet, but I have told myself I will not touch the money in the DPF until we are ready to buy a house, unless it comes down to needing it to live on. I guess it is a mental thing.

Well, and then there is the mental thing of only touching the EF if there is an Emergency and not really even wanting to do it then. So if all goes well I still may have a psychological problem transferring the money to the DPF from the EF. I don't even know what that is. Maybe a little of my OCD coming through?

Maybe I need to set up a short term holding tank, from which I can easily move stuff later. I shouldn't have to play these kinds of mind games with myself to funnel money to the proper location. Anyone else go through these things or am I just sort of on my own there? I know it is rooted in the financial insecurity we had in the past, but I really thought I would have gotten over it by now having been out of consumer debt for almost a year.

Paycut and Meat Inventory

March 9th, 2016 at 10:45 pm

DH is going to have to take a 9% paycut at work. I am not thrilled about it, but one of the results of having no debt is that it won't send us topsy turvy. That'll be about $715 with my preliminary estimate, which is a big chunk. It means that we won't be able to save as much towards the down payment each month, but we still will be able to save towards it. And we won't have to reduce our 401K percentage either, though of course it will go down in dollars since he won't be making as much.

We still don't know what is going on with the contract and now it looks like we won't know until the end of June. I knew these low oil prices were going to do something to us, and while I don't like it, we can weather it. These cuts sound like they are across the board.

It is harder emotionally since he hasn't had a raise in several years, but health insurance went up every year. Our storage, car insurance, and life insurance have all gone up or are going up in the next month or two.

I don't think we will be able to save anything on the down payment this month. Paying the rest of the medical bills is going to be around $750 (with some of that actually being dental). And we are buying half a hog. I haven't heard from the seller yet this week, but he said the week of the 11th and it is that week, so I figure it will probably be right on Friday. They were estimating it will be around 200 pounds for our half.

I will also be getting all of the leaf fat from the whole hog, as the other person doesn't want any. They don't charge for the fat as they would just have to throw it away. I will render it into lard and then we won't need any cooking oil for the rest of the year, either. We still have beef fat I haven't made into tallow yet, either, so all of that together may take us well into 2017.

We won't have to buy any meat for the rest of the year, though I might still buy a lamb this fall. Right now we still have beef from our quarter cow share, plenty of rabbit meat, maybe 80 or 90 pounds, 2 or 3 whole ducks, and at least 30 pounds of chicken. I will still buy pepperoni and Canadian bacon for pizzas and breakfast sandwiches and if I don't raise a turkey or two this year we'll buy one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. I'm not sure if we will do meat chickens or not. But otherwise, we will be set.

And the garden will start producing in May and we'll start getting strawberries at the end of May and then go through blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, plums, and apples so that will help, too. I see our grocery bills going way, way down.

I have found an English Muffin recipe that is easy and tastes great, so now I can completely do homemade breakfast sandwiches for a fraction of the cost. I love doing these because they are filling, but are a controlled amount of calories. I don't have to think about it, I know it is just under 300 calories for ones with Canadian bacon and just under 400 for ones with sausage. I don't get sick of them at all and it is a great way to use up all the duck eggs.

Emergency Fund Update

March 4th, 2016 at 06:26 pm

$16,172.85 Starting Balance
+__,150.00 Monthly Deposit
--------------------
$16322.85 New Balance

$677.15 to go to hit my next mini-goal of $17K.

Farm Sales

March 2nd, 2016 at 08:49 pm

I sold a dozen duck eggs for $5 and a dozen turkey eggs for $6 the last week of February. For a short month I did pretty well on egg sales.

I am hoping to sell a couple of live rabbits this month as breeding stock and I will be selling a butchered one, so March will probably go fairly well.

C1-360 Interest to the Emergency Fund

March 2nd, 2016 at 06:30 am

$16,140.50 Starting Balance
+__,_32.35 C1-360 Interest
----------------
$16,172.85 New Balance

$827.15 to go to hit my next mini-goal.