Does anyone have any information on or can anyone point me to some good information on seller carried mortgages when the seller acts as the mortgage lender to the buyer of a house? I want to research it as it may be our only option at this point with these buyers.

And where else could we get a guaranteed 8% return?

My first week of not eating out is complete. The menu planning went fairly well last week, though on Saturday I decided not to cook and instead we ate up the leftovers from the week. And today, instead of making what I'd planned on, I made fajitas. I was just in the mood for Mexican food.

This week won't be too bad, I don't think. The hardest part always seems to be that first week. I've got plenty of protein, but I do need to go and pick up some lettuce at the store. My garden lettuce is done and I've been craving a big, elaborate salad, so I'll do that this week for a few of my lunches.

Monday:
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Broccoli from the garden

Tuesday:
Shrimp stir-fry with broccoli (garden), carrots, onions, celery and green beans (garden)
Egg fried rice

Wednesday:
BBQ Chicken
Cole slaw
Corn

Thursday:
Beef stew
Green beans

Friday:
Homemade pizza with pepperoni, onions, bell peppers trips, and basil

Saturday:
Bacon Rabbit cheeseburgers
Homemade fries

Sunday:
Pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans

Well, the kids have not yet persuaded me to eat out. They were wrangling for pizza last night, so I deviated from the meal plan and made a homemade oregano and basil pizza. They just weren't in the mood for enchiladas so I made them up and then put them in the freezer wrapped individually so they can be eaten in the future as an after school snack or for my lunch during the week if I don't feel like cooking.

I don't foresee going out this weekend either. I really don't even want to change out of my pajamas, though I will need to for a trip to the library.

$8940.22 Beginning EF Amount
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
-----------
$8950.22 Ending EF Balance

Things have gone great with the no eating out challenge so far. I've made all food at home for the past 3 days, and am on track for today as well. When we were at the grocery store yesterday, the kids wanted me to buy them a couple of premade soups from the salad bar, but I felt like that would be cheating on the intent if not the letter of the challenge.

Then there is the fact that each one of those soups costs $4, so $8 for soup when I can make a big pot of soup for a lot less money, that will feed us about 8 times the amount of that soup. And I'll be using the leftover potatoes from last night's meal to do it.

On tonight's menu is baked potato soup. So they only had to wait a day for soup. And while it is not savory pot roast soup, we just had beef stew on Monday with all the same ingredients, so I don't feel like I'm disappointing them any by making a different hearty soup. Plus its on the menu plan anyway. They can live with it. And they always like my soups and stews better anyhow.

I feel better when we eat this way. Even eating out once a week makes me feel cruddy afterwards and almost like I am hung over the next day from the excessive carbohydrate intake.

So far I feel if I continue to plan well for this, that I won't have any problems making it through the month.

The biggest thing I am noticing is how there isn't nearly the garbage without the eating out. And none of the food is getting wasted at all since I am making planned overs and those get eaten up in the next meal or the one after that. It's much more efficient, since I am using the oven less for long-term cooking, and then being much quicker on the stove top the next day by using leftover ingredients. Less waste will lead to saving more on the grocery budget since everything gets used up.

Hopefully I will stay this together and focused as we head into October, the second half of which is always my big cold season starting.

My goal for the next 30 days is to not eat out once, so I'll be joining Laura on the first half of her challenge. Maybe the second half, too, but lets see how I do for the first month. I've gone two weeks before without eating out, but it's been a long time since I've gone longer than that.

My family will be doing it, too, except my husband, who does eat out on the days he flies. Not really much we can do about that since he's usually travelling for 24 hours with no access to anything but restaurant food. But he will when he's at home and obviously will at work since they provide all meals onsite.

I plan to bank any savings.

So here is my menu plan for the week.

Monday:
Beef stew with potatoes and carrots
Green beans
Nectarines
(Everything in this meal is home-canned)

Tuesday:
Chicken stir-fry with onions and bell peppers
Fried rice

Wednesday:
Roast chicken
Baked potatoes
Green beans
Nectarines

Thursday:
Baked potato soup made with leftover baked potatoes
Homemade bread
Broccoli from the garden

Friday:
Chicken enchiladas made with leftover chicken
Spanish rice
Salad

Saturday:
Fried rabbit
Fried potatoes
Green beans
Nectarines

Sunday:
Barbecue chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli from the garden

I've been able to get out and do some serious work in the gardens this week. I've got a lot of food coming in, though never in the huge quantities I had expected for some of it.

The hay bale garden has been far more successful than the straw bale garden. It has had far less weeds and the growth has been phenomenal in comparison. So next year I think I will skip planting in straw bales at all and just go with the hay bales, if I do this again.

So far I've yielded $357.25 of organic produce over the price of my start up costs for the gardens. Next year if I start things from seeds instead of buying organic transplants, start up costs will be lower. Since I got started late though, I did the transplants to catch up some time.

http://youtu.be/N_5RvnetdYc

If all goes well with the house sale and if we find a small farm and if we can actually buy it before next spring, I will be building raised beds out of rabbit bedding and rabbit manure, which can be used right away, and setting up compost piles for the bird waste and bedding, since it needs to compost for at least six months before using. We will use wire and t-posts instead of wood to keep things loosely in place and will build it up at least 3 feet tall. With the amount of bedding we could compost in place that will be by far a better method. Then we will have deep mulch as it breaks down to between 1/2 and 1/3 of its original size. It'll still be a foot off the ground so I can pull up a chair to do my gardening.

I'm not going to rush buying a farm, though. We may need longer than that even if the house sale does go through. I want to make sure I find the right place and that we have a big enough down payment that we are not struggling at all with making a mortgage payment again.

I am picky about what I want. It has to have a well for water. It needs to have either a creek or a pond on the property, but not too close to the house in case of flooding. It needs to have either a good barn or several outbuildings, preferably one with power and water, but at the very least power. It needs a house that is one level only, preferably with handicapped accessibility, and at least 1600 square feet with a minimum of 3 bedrooms, though I'd prefer 4, and 2 bathrooms.

The kitchen needs to be of a decent size for canning and processing meat. It needs adequate pantry storage. It needs a garage and no basement as most basements around here have flooding issues. It needs a wood stove and a propane or gas stove. It needs garden space, fruit trees and nut trees, and at least 2 acres of pasture and 2 acres of wooded land. Fencing around the pastures is a must. It needs a good site for a green house for aquaponics and growing dwarf citrus trees, and a good site for solar panels and possibly a wind turbine. Wants, but not must haves are a willow tree and a flowering cherry tree or two.

We will probably buy 5 acres, though if we can save up enough, I'd prefer 10. We don't ever intend to move again after buying our farm so I want it to be right or at least easily able to be made right, like planting my own fruit trees and nut trees, willow tree, and flowering cherry trees.

We got the roof and the ceiling leak repaired. The roof cost $160 and the ceiling cost $20 for his time since we had all the supplies on hand from the last time we had to do it.

The buyers have an inspection scheduled for Wednesday. We've got the permit application in and paid for ($80.70) for the wood stove. Apparently the people who put the stove in before we bought it never had it permitted when they put it in, so now we have to do it. Not that big a deal, but you'd think our realtor back when we bought the house would have caught that then. Or maybe the WA state laws have changed since then, who knows?

The only problem with that that I foresee is that there is only one guy who checks the wood stoves for three counties, so it might be a while. Hopefully it will be before the closing date, though.

Not sure when their bank will do their appraisal for the loan. Hopefully not too long. I'd like to know one way or the other. They do have way more than a 20% down payment though, so hopefully if the bank does think it is overpriced it won't be too much of an issue. Zillow thinks it is worth more than we are selling it for, so hopefully their bank will, too.

I know that they want to move in as soon as possible, so hopefully they will stay on top of things.

I am trying not to worry that it will all fall apart, but I'm not so good at that. And I hate living in limbo. It drives me right up the wall.

$8930.22 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
-------------
$8940.22 Ending EF Balance

Well, my hit counter went over 60 million hits last night. I find that absolutely crazy, even if I have been writing this blog for almost 8.5 years. How neat is that? Thank you to all my readers. Your help, advice, loyalty, prayers, and readership mean a lot to me.

We are under contract. Just $4000 under our asking price. Now we just have to wait for the inspection and the loan appraisal. If all goes well they will take possession by October 31st, or sooner if everything shakes out right and we will no longer have that house hanging over us. Please pray that all goes well. Now to keep from counting all my chickens before they hatch...

We have people meeting with their loan officer today to see if they can get a mortgage to buy our house. We haven't gotten the offer yet, no earnest money has been put down, but our realtor is very hopeful. This is the closest we've come to actually selling the thing. Prayers and crossed fingers would be appreciated. There were also two more showings this week.

Unfortunately the nasty rain storm we had last Monday moved some flashing on the roof and caused a small leak in the hallway by the furnace. So now we have to get a roofer out to fix the flashing around the furnace outtake pipe and/or patch the roof. Then our handyman will redo the inside ceiling where the rain damage came through.

That roof is 14 years old. It's supposed to be a 20 year roof, but we've had several leaks. If the original roofer hadn't had a heart attack and gone out of business, this would be covered in the warranty, but as it is, we have to come up with the money to pay to have it fixed. Last time flashing came loose it cost $150 to have it repaired. If it is more than flashing, it may be much more.

If it turns out the roof is bad altogether, we will offer a reduction in the price of the house so they can afford to get it reroofed. The only way we could do it would be to take out a home equity loan and then pay it off with the house sale. I don't want to do that, especially if the sale falls through.

Things are going fairly well on the farm front. The newborn kits are all still alive and doing well. They have their fur in now and they should be opening their eyes today or tomorrow. Aren't they adorable?

http://youtu.be/AoB3B5CgBY4

$1500.00 BoA VISA
_1000.00 Loan to Mom
__300.00 Beef and Pork bought at the farm
__120.00 Physical Therapy
___90.00 Physical Therapy
__200.00 on prescriptions and OTC Medications
__100.00 on layer feed, turkey feed, crimped oats
__200.00 Glasses
____6.29 X-ray
___35.50 Medical
____9.08 Blood Work
____0.82 C-Pap filters
-----------------
$3555.40

$400.00 Utilities to Mom
_100.00 Emergency Fund
__20.00 HoA Dues
__28.97 Electric (Old House)
__48.60 Phone (Old House)
__75.65 Internet
__41.94 Garbage (2 months)
__45.30 Life Insurance DH
__44.66 Life Insurance Me
__70.86 Car Insurance
__48.75 House Insurance (Old House)
__41.16 Security System (Old House)
_186.00 Storage
_800.00 Van Loan (plus extra)
---------------------
1951.89

$8920.22 Beginning Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
-----------
$8930.22 Ending EF Balance

I had a bunch of medical stuff come up with my daughter, so I ended up taking some money out of the Emergency Fund to pay for it. I also deposited $100 back into it from the last paycheck, plus $3 from an overpayment into another account.

New EF total: $8920.22

Who knows what is coming up, either? My daughter has to have an ultrasound next week. We are suspecting gall stones. She's also having some other issues that sound very much to me like the endometriosis I was plagued with before my hysterectomy. So I need to see if I can find a female gyno that is taking new patients and takes our insurance.

I also have my MRI for my knee next week.

If my husband ever gets around to submitting the information for the kids' glasses to his insurance company, we will have some money coming back. It should be around $400. That will get dumped back into the EF. Hopefully we won't have to then turn around and spend it on upcoming medical bills. I am hoping to absorb most of that into the budget, but it isn't always easy to do that.

I wish DH's company would be more forthcoming about raises. They are majorly dragging their feet. It was supposed to happen months ago. The new insurance withholding that should have coincided with raises is really wrecking the budget.

Well, it was a long day, but we have 19 newborn kits. All were born healthy and all three mothers are doing well.

http://youtu.be/z41OYIFk_lU