DH has been unemployed for 15 weeks. So far I have withdrawn $14,000 from our Emergency Fund to live on. Of that $3597 has gone to pay for insurance premiums, $2970 went to pay for out of pocket medical costs the month we had no insurance, and the stuff insurance does not cover, $1100 went to cover 2 eye exams and 2 pairs of glasses, and $560 went to pay for dental. So $8227 of the $14,000 withdrawn so far has been for medical related expenses.

Of the remaining $5773, $1325 has gone to pay for utilities. $681 has gone to pay for storage. $292.92 has gone to pay for life insurance, $327 for our family gym membership, $91.23 for Netflix, $26.07 for hulu, $350.70 for our cell phones (4 phone basic plan), $242.46 for internet, $200 on feed and bedding for the turkeys, ducks, and chickens (the rabbits are self-supporting), $100 on toiletries, and the rest on groceries, which is about $700 a month or $2100.

Medical costs will remain high. There is no way around that, but we certainly won't have to worry about glasses again for a year or more and dental will be spaced out so we don't get a big hit all at once and will just be cleanings for the four of us.

So there is $6000 left in the Emergency Fund and then I'll have to start dipping into the $45,000 down payment fund. DH has had two phone interviews with one company (not an oil company) and is scheduled for an in person interview with them on the 14th. If he gets it, it won't pay very well, we'll still have to use savings, but it will help until he can get back on elsewhere. And it will be very valuable experience in the aeronautics industry.

The oil companies seem to be holding off on hiring until after the Electoral College confirms Trump as president. One or two have said they are waiting until after the swearing in ceremony, just to be sure. I don't think at this point the election results will be overturned, but the industry is very jumpy still. Hopefully they will be hiring by the time unemployment runs out. Unemployment has all gone to medical, not that it is very much to begin with.

We're getting by. It's hard to see our savings dwindle, but this is precisely what I worked so hard to save this money for. On the bright side it appears as if DH is going to get some sort of company bonus for the portion of the year he did work since they sent him the paperwork asking if he wanted to deposit it to the 401K or just be sent it as a check. No idea how much it will be. It's been running around $3800 for the last several years. With only 8 months instead of 12 months qualifying, it'll probably be 75% of that. Or less.

Whatever week we receive it, we won't get unemployment for that week as it will count as income, obviously. So that will stretch the unemployment out another week. If he does get 75% of the usual, that'll be $2850 which will stretch out our Emergency Fund a little while longer. Then we'll have our tax refund in the February since we always file immediately. We might be able to stretch through February without touching the down payment fund if the timing is right and DH doesn't get hired before then. One can hope.

DH has officially been unemployed for 10 weeks (and 3 days) now. I did the math for what we've been spending up until now. So far I have withdrawn $9000 from our Emergency Fund, which works out to $900 a week. We don't use it like that, my withdrawals have been $2500, $3500, and $3000, and we go until it runs out before I transfer more. Close to $2000 of that went to pay for glasses and eye doctor visit, dentist visits, doctor appointments, and prescriptions during our uninsured month.

We have also received 4 unemployment payments, but one came today and is going towards November and the other we haven't used yet so is also going towards November. It will pay for the November medical insurance and whatever other medical we have until it runs out. Each payment is two weeks of benefits. So we have used 4 weeks of benefits, which is $1576. That has all gone towards paying for medical insurance, co-pays, c-pap supplies, and prescriptions.

We have 14 weeks left before DH runs out of benefits. He's worked a job that has paid into unemployment insurance for 32 years, far more than he will ever see back in his lifetime. It's too bad that he can't withdraw based on what's been paid in for as long as he needs to. I'm still hoping he'll find a job by the end of the year, but if not benefits will run out by the end of January and we will have to cover our insurance and other medical costs without any help.

There is $11,000 left in the Emergency Fund, so at the rate we are going that should last until the middle of January, at which point it will be gone and we would have to start dipping into the farm down payment fund of $45,000. I don't want to have to do that, but if we have to it gives us the option of another 10 months or so. After that I don't know what we'll do.

I think if the refineries don't start hiring in November we're going to have to tighten our belts. I know its not as tight as it could be yet. I've not wanted to go full on if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I know where to cut and I'm prepared to do it.

DH has been unemployed for 6 weeks now with not a lot of progress, unfortunately. He did have his resume accepted by a local refinery and was contacted to say he had been placed into the pool of candidates to be considered for upcoming jobs starting November through February. And that's pretty much what we've been hearing. Most jobs in his field won't be hiring for a few months.

A short term (4 to 6 month) job listing came up today here in town for a job he is qualified for, probably over-qualified for, so he sent a resume in for that. Even if there is no prospect for a job before the refineries start hiring again, we will be okay for a while. But I do hope he finds a good job soon. I am trying hard not to put pressure on him, since he is working hard at looking. These lulls happen. He's just never been caught in one before, and shouldn't have gotten caught in this one, but you've heard that rant already.

I made the second withdrawal from our Emergency Fund today, $3,500. We should be able to get through most of October on that, plus the unemployment when it comes again. That brings the EF down to $13,500, but remember we still have $45,000 in the House Down Payment Fund we can tap if we need to. And a few hundred in the Moving Fund.

The reason why we won't make it through the whole month on the $3,500 is that we will have to make an insurance premium payment and that is somewhere between $1100 and $1200. Ouch. I'm just not sure when. We will likely charge it to get the cash back points. We finally got approved and our acceptance letter came today with a paper we can use temporarily until our cards come which should be later on this week. That will put our prescriptions at $10 each and regular doctor visits at $20 each and specialist visits at $45, period, without the deductible kicking in. It is a $5000 deductible for everything else for the family.. No vision or dental for anyone but DS, since it is law to require it for anyone under 18, but they don't care about adults (even though 75% of the population in the US wears glasses or contacts).

We ended up going with a silver plan, because when we plugged in all the numbers it was going to be cheaper for us to do a silver plan than a bronze plan. And while the gold plan has a $2000 family deductible, it wasn't worth the difference in costs since doctors visits and prescriptions were so reasonable outside the deductible.

Both DD and I had to buy glasses in September out of pocket as we both had severe prescription changes in just one year. Out of pocket costs were close to $1000 (including her eye exam which happened after losing our insurance). But seeing is necessary, and it has made a tremendous difference for me. My headaches are gone and they were getting quite bad.

I didn't post much in September. I pulled that muscle in my back again and was in a lot of pain. Still am in some, but it is starting to improve. I have to budget what I can do, though. I have to make choices. If I need to go grocery shopping, that is all I will be doing that day. If I need to can tomatoes, they get chopped up one day and canned the next. I finally made dinner tonight for the first time in a while, but had to have help with chopping things. And it was exhausting.

DH has had to take over my rabbit duties. I miss them and have only managed to go out twice in three weeks to do general health checks. Good thing I did, as Ruby had an abscess. DD (vet tech student) was able to drain it and treat it, but if I hadn't checked on them no one would have known to do so.

I didn't get too much of a fall crop in, as the time I should have been planting was when the muscle pull happened and I went down really hard. I can still plant some carrots and turnips and put some greenhouse plastic on the supports that normally hold netting to keep out the birds and squirrels. I can put in radishes, green onions, and kohlrabi as well. I just have to have the energy to do it. I worry about bending over the garden bed, too, even from a chair, as I don't want the muscles to spasm again. I have another month until I need to plant my garlic.

We are getting kale, lettuce, broccoli, kohlrabi, peppers, tomatoes, basil, and sage still. Chard will be ready to start harvesting in another week or so. No sign of the first frost yet, but that usually doesn't happen until Halloween at the soonest, sometimes not until well into November. Last year it was December before we got a frost hard enough to kill anything except the tomatoes and we overwintered kale and chard.

Tomorrow I need to chop and freeze peppers. I have serrano, ancho, jalapeno, Anaheim, and sweet bells. And we need to start chopping and freezing onions, too, though they will last a lot longer than the peppers without it. I'll have to take it in steps with DH helping me. Fortunately peppers are easy to do, just have to wear gloves.

Not much else to talk about, though I'm sure I'm missing all kinds of things.

DH finally got paid by unemployment, he's been unemployed for a month now. They pay 2 weeks worth at a time, so he got $788, or $394 a week. 4 weeks of this should cover our monthly insurance premium with enough left over to cover our prescriptions. That will make our Emergency Fund stretch a lot further. I do wish he was getting WA state unemployment instead of AK state unemployment as that is $600 something a month. Oh, well, this still helps so much.

So far for September I have used $3000 from our Emergency Fund, bringing it down to $17,000. I will end up using at least another $1400 this month. Right around $520 will go to pay for our 6 month car insurance premium due on the 28th (though we are looking at other insurance, we are not really seeing much savings). $90 will go to physical therapy. $392.12 will go for the autopays that come due the first week of October. $400 goes to Mom to pay the utilities for October. And the rest will be for groceries. So maybe some of that will count towards October money, but it still has to be in the account by the end of September.

DH submitted his resume to the local refinery owned by the English on Friday and got an email yesterday saying it has been reviewed and passed on to the next stage of consideration. They are going to be hiring in the next 3 to 4 months for numerous jobs DH will qualify for. Hopefully he will get something there. It would be even better than a job in the next county over.

We have not heard anything from the mollusk refinery in the next county that will presumably be hiring in the next 3 months yet, other than that they will be using the placement company DH is signed up wtih, but there aren't any official rumblings so that's to be expected.

DH still has not heard back from the school he signed up with to pursue his BS in Electrical Engineering, though the money has been charged to the card. How long does it take to review transcripts anyway? It shouldn't take a month. I'll need to prod him to follow up with them again.

Not much is going on here otherwise. Some canning of tomatoes and some freezing of peppers. We lost Firefly, but she was getting old. One of the chickens is recovering from an injury. One of the other chickens swatted her off the roost and she fell 4 feet onto her wing and leg. She couldn't walk for a couple of days, but is standing now. We have her in a cage so the others won't pick on her. Chickens can be really mean to their wounded. We keep her in the garage at night, but leave her outside where the other chickens can socialize with her during the day. If they forget about her, reintroduction later will be brutal, so they need to see each other every day.

That's about it, I guess.

$99.15 Starting Balance
+38.84 Interest from C1-360
---------
$137.99 New Balance

$45.15 Starting Balance
+15.00 Pinecone
+20.00 Rabbit sale
+10.00 Egg Money
+_9.00 Coin Jar Money
--------------
$99.15 New Balance

$2400.85 to go.

Now that the EF has hit $20K, I am starting a Moving Fund. I will be holding off contributing to the EF further and funneling that money into the new MF. I know that we still don't know anything about DH's contract situation, but I am going to plow forward like we do. If worst comes to worst this money will just end up being dumped into the EF to live off of.

My goal for the Moving Fund is to save up $2500. I think I probably only need $1500, but I always overestimate things like this and then if I need more I have it. We'll need to be able to rent the biggest U-haul for 3 to 5 days and to pay the mileage variance for several trips, plus insurance.

We'll likely be eating out during that time period at least once a day, possibly twice or at least getting deli meat and chips for sandwiches, so I'll need to have money for that. I'll need $400 set aside for utilities for my mother, to pay for the final month after we move, since the bills will be for the previous month.

I'll need around $200 for piano movers. Maybe less if we don't go as far as the next county, but it'll still be $150 if we move in county. (And I'll need money for a month later when it will be tuned as that is how long the thing has to settle before it will hold a tuning).

Of course we'll need gas money above and beyond the norm, both for the U-haul and for the van. And we may or may not need deposit money for new electric, gas or propane, garbage, and internet hook-ups. With our credit history we shouldn't, but who knows?

I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared. Anyway, so the opening deposits are these:

$24.50 Coin Jar and Egg Money
+20.65 Remainder of normal EF Monthly Deposit
---------------
$45.15 Opening Balance

$2454.85 to go.

$19,870.62 Starting Balance
+__,129.38 Monthly Deposit
________________
$20,000.00 New Balance

My monthly deposit is usually $150, but now that I've hit $20K, I am going to take a break from adding to the EF for a while and work on our Moving Fund. So the remainder of that deposit will go there instead until I get it where I want it to be.

$19,807.97 Starting Balance
+__,_62.65 Refund Check from the ENT doctor
---------------
$19.870.62 New Balance

$129.38 to go to hit my milestone goal. I should hit $20K next Friday.

$19,715.97 Starting Balance
+__,_92.00 Amount Added
-------------
$19,807.97 New Balance

$192.03 left to go to hit my milestone goal of $20K. I will hit that this month. I am excited.

Between the Emergency Fund and the Down Payment Fund we have $64,523.97 in savings. I've never had so much savings in my life (not counting 401K). It is a good feeling, especially considering where we started.

Another deadline for the contract announcement has come and gone. It's very frustrating. But we could live on our savings if we have to, which is very comforting, even if I would hate to see it go.

$19,679.92 Starting Balance
+__,_36.05 Deposit added (C1-360)
----------------------
$19,715.97 Ending Balance

Currently I have $284.03 to hit my milestone goal of $20K.

I also sold $74.35 worth of rabbit so that will be going in on Monday.

We had some sales so I was able to add even more to the Emergency Fund today.

$19,591.92 Starting Balance
+__,_88.00 Farm sales and Coin Jar
------------------
$19,679.92 New Balance

$320.08 to go to hit $20K. So, so close.

$17,591.92 Starting Balance
+_2,000.00 Overtime Money Deposited
------------------
$19,591.92 New Balance

$408.08 left to hit my milestone goal of $20K. I don't know if I will hit it before I have to give my mother the $10K lump sum. It would be nice if I could just for the sake of doing it. But if not I'll have the new goal of getting it to $10K.

$17,392.32 Starting Balance
+__,199.60 Medical Check Refund
----------------
$17,591.92 New Balance

The first of the medical checks for things that got caught up in the time period where the deductible was met, but it hadn't fully processed, came. I put it in the EF.

$408.08 to go to hit my next mini-goal of $18K. I may have more to add today still. I have someone coming to buy 2 rabbit hutches for $45. And I possibly have someone coming to buy 3 hens for $25. But I don't know if it will all get sorted before it is too late to put the money in the credit union.

$17,127.32 Starting Balance
+__,265.00 Deposit Added
------------------
$17,392.32 New Balance

It may be a month or two before my mom needs the $10,000 out of my Emergency Fund, so I am just going to keep adding to the total and won't worry about adjusting it downwards until the time comes. When it all washes out though, my new goal for the year will be to have the thing at $10K instead of $20K.

I ran the numbers and in order for me to hit my goal of $20,000 in the Emergency Fund by the end of 2016 I need to come up with $1672.68 total beyond the $150 per month that I deposit normally now. That is $209.08 a month extra I'd need to be saving, or a total of $359.08 a month.

With the interest I earn on my savings accounts of $35 or so a month, I can bring the $209.08 down to $174.08 extra each month to scrape up. I'm not sure if that is going to be doable. It would have been before the pay cut, but I don't know otherwise.

If I drop my goal for the year down to $19,000 I would only have to find an additional $84.08 a month, minus the $35 for interest each month, so $49.08. I usually manage to scrape an extra $50 or so together each month between farm sales, the coin jar, and any non-allocated money left at the end of each pay period. So I know I can actually hit the $19,000 goal as long as nothing unforeseen comes up.

I might be able to hit the $20K goal if I am able to sell some rabbits or rabbit meat often enough, but not just from general scrimping and saving.

I think I need to be realistic in having $19K be my goal for 2016, with $20K being more of a stretch goal that I can aim for, but not get discouraged if I can't actually hit that. If DH gets any over time, assuming his job stays stable, we can hit $20K, because then I can grab a $1000 chunk from the OT paycheck for the EF. But that is not something we can depend on.

I know he has one day of overtime coming up, but that is not anything like a full week of it. Still, that one day might help sway the balance towards hitting $20K. Or at least $19,500. I really, really, really want that $20K.

$20K means that we would have 5 months of tight living expenses or 6 months of extremely bare bones living expenses in the bank and from there it would mean we would probably have 6 months of tight living expenses by mid-2017 since part of the tax return would go into it. At which point I could head towards $30K, which would mean 6 months of comfortable living expenses or 7.5 months of tight living expenses or 10 months of bare bones living expenses.

Once I get to $24K I feel like I can start laddering six month CD's and start earning a little bit more interest than I am earning now.

All of that to say, $19K is my reasonable goal and $20K is my hopeful goal for this year.

$16,977.32 Starting Balance
+__,150.00 Monthly Deposit
---------------
$17,127.32 New Balance

So I've hit my second 2016 mini-goal of $17K. My next mini-goal is $18K. I have $872.68 to go for that. And $2,872.68 to go to hit my next milestone goal of $20K.

Last month I found that some money seemed to be missing from one of my savings accounts. I was sure I hadn't made any errors, and my paperwork supported me. I adjusted my numbers accordingly until it could get figured out.

Now that missing money is suddenly back in the account. No explanation and no one seems to know what I am talking about. So I adjusted the EF accordingly again now that it is back. So my new starting total for the EF has changed.

I have made $30 in farm sales so far this month. I sold two flats of strawberry plants for $20 and 2 dozen duck eggs for $10. Not bad. I also received a $12 check from Pinecone. All of that goes to the Emergency Fund. I am so close to $17K now I can taste it.

$16,892.30 Starting Balance
+__,_12.00 Pinecone Check
+__,_30.00 April Farm Sales
+__,_43.00 Leftover March Grocery Money
+__,___.02 CU #2 Interest Income
---------------------
$16,977.32 New Balance

$22.68 to go to hit my second mini-goal of the year of $17,000.

$16,604.95 Starting Balance
+__,_35.78 C1-360 Interest
+__,__1.27 CU #1 Interest
---------------------
$16,642.01 New Balance

$357.99 to go to hit my next mini-goal of $17K.

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.

$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.

$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.

$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.

I got my Costco rewards check in the mail a couple of weeks ago and my Costco AMEX rewards check in the mail last week. We made it over there today and got those cashed. The first one was $51.75 and the second one was $42.37.

I went ahead and threw the change in the coin jar, rolled up the coins and got all my bills from there as well and made a deposit to the Emergency Fund of $138.50.

I have also decided to stop making the $10 weekly deposits to the Emergency Fund. We are going to be closing that credit union account and while it was a really good tool to save in the beginning when we couldn't put much away, it seems a little redundant now.

So from now on I will do a monthly deposit of $150 instead of a monthly deposit of $100 plus 4 to 5 weekly deposits of $10 depending on how many Thursdays were in a month.

$16,002.00 Starting Balance
+____51.00 Costco Rewards
+____42.00 Costco AMEX Rewards
+____30.00 Coin Jar Cash
+____15.50 Coin Jar Coins
----------------------
$16,140.50 New Balance

$859.50 to go to hit my second mini-goal of 2016 and $3,859.50 to go to hit my next milestone goal.

P.S. to Laura and PatientSaver, I bought some organic chicken pot stickers at Costco and they also had just vegetable ones. I did not see anything in the ingredients that wasn't vegetarian (it might have even been vegan, but I can't remember if it had eggs or not). Anyway it is Bibigo brand and the chicken ones are fabulous. They beat the Trader Joe's ones hands down. Thought you might like to try them if they have them in your area. They're in the freezer section.

$15,830.42 Starting Balance
+__,171.58 Deposit Added
-----------------
$16,002.00 New Balance

First Mini-Goal of 2016 met. $998 to go for second mini-goal. $3998 to go for next milestone goal.

$15,803.42 Starting Balance
+__,_20.00 Leftover Spending Money
+__,__2.00 Coin Jar
+__,__5.00 Farm Sales
------------------
$15,830.42 New Balance

$169.58 to go.

$15,793.42 Starting Balance
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------------
$15,803.42 New Balance

$196.58 to go.

My daughter used my card to order something off of Amazon. She reimbursed me. I tend to absorb those sorts of things into my payment each month, so any money she pays me back goes into the Emergency Fund. I also had some ones in the coin jar so deposited those, too.

$15,715.42 Starting Balance
+__,_78.00 Deposit
----------------
$15793.42 New Balance

$206.58 to go to hit my next mini-goal. I am hoping to do this by the end of February.

$15,681.94 Starting Balance
+__,_33.48 C1-360 Interest
------------------
$15715.42 New Balance

$284.58 to go for my first mini-goal of 2016.

$15,671.94 Starting Balance
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
----------------
$15,681.94 New Balance