It's been a busy past couple of days. I turned 46 on Friday and made a fantastic from scratch two layer yellow cake (in my new Kitchenaid mixer) with milk chocolate ganache frosting. I received a beautiful locket from my daughter and an amethyst pendant on a super flimsy silver chain from my in-laws. I will have to replace the chain if I ever hope to wear it. I don't do delicate chains well at all. My son cleaned out the van with some help from his sister (a lot of help).

Today we spent a couple of hours at a thrift store and I was able to find a couple of greenish/teal/seaglass glass canisters with bail and gasket closures. They actually had 4, but 2 of them were pretty scratched up, but I didn't get those ones. They match the mixer and the new toaster.

DH picked up another pair of jeans (he's losing weight so fast we are buying jeans once a month at this point, hence the thrift stores. He also bought some shirts that were dressier, but short-sleeved.

I got a barely used wallet. I did find two plates in our pattern, but they were marked up and it didn't look like it would come off with scrubbing so I didn't get them. I purchased a nice waterproof winter coat for $20. It was a Lane Bryant so I know it was at least $100 new. The old coat I have is not waterproof. I also picked up a $10 waterproof jacket for my son and it fit him so I gambled well.

DD came with us and bought some stuff with her own money as well. She has an affinity for grandpa style sweaters and teenage boy style hats.

We did a little grocery shopping, but kept it limited. If I hadn't needed toilet paper and quart size freezer bags I wouldn't have gone at all.

We also picked up prescriptions at Walgreens and some OTC meds as well. I have to build my stash of Sudafed back up again. Now that my son is taking Claritin D all the time we have to have one licensed driver get the one, and another get the other. Then DD will get one for the medicine stash. This way we'll have a couple on hand for when we all get sick again and no one feels like driving. I miss the days when you could buy a 90 day supply of Sudafed over the counter. Stupid meth heads ruined that for all of us breathing challenged types.

I hope after DS's surgery he won't have to use the Claritin D anymore. That would be wonderful.

We may be going to look at a couple fixer upper houses tomorrow. They are low priced sold AS IS. The barns are in good condition and are both almost 5 acres each. We'll have to see about the houses. I know it is jumping the gun and all, but we are just looking. We are not buying yet.

My son had his CT scan and the results are that he will definitely be needing surgery. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I am waiting for them to call to schedule. I don't know why I couldn't just schedule while we were there. Probably an insurance authorization was required.

I'm always saying can't we just schedule and if the authorization doesn't come through, cancel? They don't want to do that, even though I said if the insurance doesn't come through we will pay for it directly as it has to be done. The kid needs to breathe. But whatever.

I'll have $272.03 in medical bills I'll need to send out tomorrow, plus that is also the payday for the $250 for the monthly chiropractic family plan (which does not count towards our deductible since we bypass insurance and pay it directly). And the $120 for tomorrow's physical therapy, which is also out of pocket. They don't think I need it anymore, but when I don't go, I start having issues walking. I am down to 3 times a month instead of 4, though and hope it will continue to improve to 2 times a month.

I think we'll have met at least $1000 of our deductible soon.

I am so tired. I finished my last dose of prednisone today and it's been 5 or 6 days since I finished the antibiotics. I am really worried that the bronchitis and sinus infection are going to start coming back. I see the doctor on Tuesday for a follow up appointment, since he also was worried I would relapse again so wants to catch it early if it does.

On Monday I am going to the foot doctor to have surgery on one of my toes. I have a badly infected and ingrown toenail on one of the little toes and he's going to kill that part of the nail bed permanently. It feels like fire to walk on. Or like I am walking on bone. I wish I had not inherited my dad's crazy toenails.

On Thursday my son goes in for his CT scan. I'm not sure how long things will take after that. Since the office has its own machine and is a surgical suite as well, everything gets done onsite. So they might be able to read it right away or not. I really don't know.

On Friday I have physical therapy in the morning and an appointment with the sleep doctor in the afternoon. I am taking my machine in because I think a part of it is broken.

My FIL's cancer biopsy came back and it sounds like it is the most treatable sarcoma. He has had to take a medical leave of absence from work because his leg hurts so much. I'm not sure when he will have surgery, but it sounds like it will be soon.

I am debating whether or not to have DH bump his 401K rate up another 1% or not. Since we are saving so hard right now for our goals I'm not sure I want to see that money go down a black hole right now when it can go for something tangible like our down payment fund. Yet at the same time he's 46 and I'll be 46 and we really ought to start saving more.

It just doesn't feel like saving anything when the account just keeps going down and down. Just keeping money in savings right now is staying ahead of the 401K earnings. I know I'd rather own our future house outright than have a ginormous retirement fund. I've done the math and we can live on $2000 a month in retirement if we own our house and have no debt. That will cover all of our expenses with a $500 a month cushion. So whatever we end up with just needs to generate an income of $24,000 a year.

Some of that will be generated by the sale of eggs, chicks, ducklings, turkey poults, rabbits, and meat. Possibly kune kune pigs and Kinder goats as well. I might even do a CSA program if our future aquaponics goes well. We'll see.

Still I'm leaning towards bumping the 401K up anyway. I worry about having all of my eggs in one basket.

I am so far behind in reporting things it is ridiculous, but I am working to catch up. At least my spreadsheets are all up to date.

$1700.00 BoA VISA
___81.87 Garbage (cleaned out the attic, so high)
___28.47 Medical DH
$1500.00 Down Payment Fund
__268.82 Farm and House Materials (Lowe's)
___26.37 Prescription DD
__120.00 Physical Therapy
___21.02 Gas tank fill up
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$3746.55 Total Money Out

I already have $347.33 in medical bills that will need to be paid on payday and I'm expecting a bill from the dentist yet. All of them are from services in December so they won't count towards the deductible. And I'll have to prepay the next month of chiropractic care so that'll be somewhere between $225 and $250. They are raising their monthly family plan. It won't be above $250, but it'll be above $225.

They haven't raised the rates in 5 years. We pay outright for chiropractic as this plan allows all 4 of us to go as many times as we need to in a month. We can use our HSA (which is empty at the moment) and we can deduct it from taxes, but it doesn't count towards our deductible. It is cheaper for us to do it this way, though.

My son has an appointment to see the ENT on the 19th and we'll likely schedule the surgery at that time. I am assuming it will be in March since it is usually at least six weeks out to get surgery following a consult. Which means that the timing may be right for us to pay it directly out of our tax refund and not have to touch the Emergency Fund. We always do our tax refund as soon as possible.

I am sure we will have to pay up front the full deductible. The nice thing is that they have a full set of surgery suites at their offices and it should be an outpatient procedure. No hospital expenses and no hospital stay. At least that is what I am assuming. At least it ought to meet the full deductible, and then the rest of the year we'll only have to pay a small percentage for our medical expenses.

My daughter will go for a follow up with the sleep doctor on the 12th and we are likely looking at getting her a C-Pap machine, so there's another expense. But it can't be helped. At least the sleep study got done on December 30th so we barely have to pay anything for that, which also hasn't come yet.

It would be so easy to be overwhelmed by all of this if we weren't in such a good financial place right now. It might set back our plans, but it doesn't ruin them. Being free of consumer debt changes everything.

So my son has had the worst time in the last year trying to breathe and shake his chronic sinus infections. It had been 3 years since he had sinus x-rays, so the doctor ordered some when I took him in on the 31st.

We were all shocked to see how bad of a deviated septum he has. He hasn't broken his nose or had any trauma to it. The only thing I can think of is that about a year ago he started getting bruising on his nose that he couldn't trace to anything, but it was always coming up. It would fade and come back. It was a small bruise, but it was noticeable.

Anyway, almost his entire left side is blocked off. He is pretty much only getting air through his right nostril. On Monday we call the ENT doctor and make an appointment, but he will likely have to have surgery to repair this. I did and mine was not nearly so bad. Of course it might be now, being as I broke it in the summer, but that is neither here nor there.

So it is very possible we will be looking at a big bill coming up. Our deductible is $5000, so we would have to pay that before the insurance will even cover anything. It would be a major chunk from our Emergency Fund and it would take some time to get it back up to size, but that is what the fund is there for.

We will have a sizable tax refund again this year due to this year's medical expenses, so we will be able to build the fund back up, but I had been hoping to dump all but $1000 into the down payment fund and the $1000 would have gone into building the EF even higher.

It will slow everything down, but the kid has to be able to breathe. So priorities. But still.

I am struggling a little bit with wanting to eat out right now. I don't want to do it because it is expensive and I'm trying to save money. I know it is simply a reaction to being in pain. Well, it's more a reaction to having an almost constant headache.

Between the broken nose and the mild concussion, it just almost never goes away except when I am sleeping and that has more to do with the narcotics the doctor gave me knocking me out for the night. Headache pain has always been much harder for me to deal with than any other type of pain because it always makes me feel like I'm not myself.

It is really hard to want to make meals from scratch when you feel sick, but pain is even harder, at least for me. But I don't feel up to driving either. I had to drive Thursday to go to my doctor's appointment and my son's doctor's appointment. I don't want to drive again for a while. It takes too much focus. So that is keeping my spending in check.

Since I am fundamentally against paying extra to have food delivered to my home, and not much delivers here anyway, I am trying to focus on simpler meals, or meals my daughter can make while I am nearby for help or reassurance. I have been teaching her to cook more things this year, but she lacks confidence to do it without a lot of hand holding yet.

The doctor says the break still looks straight, but the swelling isn't fully gone and we can't determine everything until it is. So far it is looking good enough he doesn't think I will need to go to an ENT doctor. Now that there is a lot less swelling I can actually feel the break when I touch the bridge of my nose. There is a little ripple there that was not there before. It's nothing you can see, though. The abrasion has almost completely healed. I really wish I didn't wear glasses right now, though. I know they are adding to some of the discomfort.

More concerning are the concussion symptoms, at least to me. The doctor doesn't seem to be worried, though. I am a little forgetful and find myself searching for words a lot more than usual. And I feel like a space cadet. Just a lot of brain fog. I am not used to having headaches. I haven't had them since I took all of the additives and preservatives and MSG and stuff out of my diet several years ago, except on very rare occasions or with a sinus or kidney infection or lack of sleep or my neck was out of alignment. And those were quickly remedied.

I know I will get better with time, but it is hard to push through right now. I am getting as much rest as I can. That is what the doctor said to do. But I still have animals to take care of and a garden to keep under control. The kids are helping, but I can't just check out like I could if DH was home. He will be home the day after school starts so I won't have to do too much driving in the early a.m. when I am not alert and am very foggy. In fact, if DS rides his bike the first 2 days of school I won't have to drive at all. Hopefully it won't rain.

So far I am managing to stick to my meal plans. I know I haven't been posting them, but I have still been making them. They are generally easier foods, though. No one is up for super complicated.

I do find that I'm not eating much outside of dinner. It's too much work. I'll grab a string cheese so I can take my medicine without it making me queasy, but that's about it. Not very healthy. I ought to make up some hard-boiled eggs so I'd at least have something a little more substantial during the day. I do have my electric egg cooker and it turns off when done, so I don't have to pay attention to it. Maybe I should do that.

Okay, this is getting long and rambling and may or may not make sense. I am not the best judge of that right now. So I'll stop babbling for now.

Aw, life...you give me only one day off after getting over the stomach flu. I wouldn't call this a Murphy event, this was just a stupid freak thing, but I managed to drop a box fan on my face. I was sorting through a box of stuff under the window and I must have moved the box in such a way as to pull the cord on the box fan. The edge of it came down and hit me in the bridge of the nose sending my glasses flying across the room.

Well, the doctor had a cancellation and I was able to get in and it is definitely broken, but as far as breaks go it was real even and didn't need to be set and there isn't really anything to be done at this point. It just hurts a lot, and I'm to use 800 mg Ibuprofen and ice (which I had already done) and call if the pain gets worse and then they will give me something stronger.

My eyes are blood shot from it breaking some blood vessels and I am starting to get black eyes, but I put ice on right away so hopefully they won't be too bad. The swelling is affecting my breathing though, just a little, I can still breathe, but it is definitely not at full capacity, and I am not sure if I will be able to use my c-pap mask since it is the kind that goes up my nose.

And I had to go get my glasses fixed because they got bent out of shape. And she loosened the nose pads for me because of the swelling. She said to come back when the swelling went down. Of course the break is right where the glasses sit, plus there is a cut there, too, so I have to pull my glasses down my nose a bit to use them.

Hopefully this won't end up being too expensive. If I re-deviated my septum and have to go through sinus surgery again, I will be the unhappiest of campers.

At least the stomach flu is over though. I can't imagine doing the kind of throwing up where it comes out your nose right now. That's fun enough when the nose isn't broken.

Other than hurting, I actually have a pretty good attitude about it. It could be worse. I could have given myself a concussion while I was at it. And I have a ton of ice packs for my knee, so I will be able to keep ice on my nose as much as I need to, which really works far better than the ibuprofen at this point.

At least DH is home and DD is well. Since DS had ingrown toenail surgery on both big toes today and can't do anything, at least I will have help with farm chores.

It is a weird feeling to have paid almost all of the bills for the month of August out of the July 31st paycheck. I only have 2 payments left to make, one mid-month that is reoccurring and then the monthly payoff of DH's travel credit card towards the end of the month. I will also be putting an additional $225 in the JMF, but that's not a bill, that's savings.

I seem not to blog too much when things are going smoothly and this is the sort of thing that feels very smooth indeed. Saving up for things does not seem to have the same urgency that paying stuff off has. We are not striving to pay off a mortgage anymore. We are not striving to pay off huge amounts of credit card or medical debt. We are not striving to pay off a car loan. It's almost a bit of a let down feeling.

Maybe it is because we spent so much of the last 15 years paying down debt. Maybe it is feeling like there is a lack of focus since the consumer debt is gone. I mean, I don't want it back, at all. But it was almost like there was always an over-riding uber purpose to our financial life. This is totally a first world problem, I know.

I know that when I don't blog, there is much more of a tendency to fritter money away. I'm not sure quite where that balance is yet. I wish I could get more excited about savings. It just seems like it is going to take a long time to get where we are going and most of what we save is now so automatic. I pay savings like I pay any other bill.

Maybe it is because there are no big ups and downs anymore. I mean, I do stress when unexpected stuff comes up, but we are able to handle it now, and without touching the Emergency Fund.

Am I even making sense? Has anyone else gone through this sort of loose ends thing after they've paid off their consumer debt? Maybe it is just me. Maybe I am so wired now to pay off debt, I really just don't know what to do now. On paper I feel like we are doing all the right things, but in my head, it still feels like we should be working against something massive, something with urgency. I have to wonder if I will ever get used to not having that anymore.

I should just count my blessings. The last two weeks have shown me that life can change at the drop of a hat and at least we don't have out of state hospital costs and funeral costs to be paying.

We will be having some medical expenses coming up, though, that I will have to work through, 2 more pairs of glasses, in-grown toenail surgery, some dental work, all for the kids. All of that will probably be about $1000 out of pocket. We've maxed our HSA for the year already. But we won't have spent enough to do more than take the standard deduction. Honestly, I think we ought to be able to deduct as much medical as we pay out, but I very much doubt that will ever happen. Oh, well. At least at this point in time, we can afford it.

We got a big refund check from the pharmacy that DH gets his BiPap supplies from. Apparently when we bought the machine we hadn't met our deductible, so we paid for it out of pocket, but by the time it had finished processing we had met our deductible so the pharmacy did get paid by the insurance, so they cut us a refund check and it came today. $711. Which will make up for the fact that I had to take $280 out of this last paycheck to pay for the first hospital visit. And the rest of it will be saved to cover the second hospital visit once it goes through and any of the doctor's visits my daughter has had this month.

I thought it would be a super tight month or else we would have to use the Emergency Fund to cover some of these medical bills. Instead we can use the refunded money to do that. I am happy as I really didn't want to touch the EF at all.

TMI medical stuff, so go away if you are squeamish or don't like female reproductive problems. My daughter has been very sick and we've taken her to the hospital twice in the past 2 weeks. We've been to the doctor twice and on the phone with him or the nurses more times than I can remember at this point. Please pray for her to heal.

We are pretty sure she has what I had all those years ago that caused the $150,000 worth of medical debt, endometriosis and carcinoid tumors, but of course we don't know that without surgery and they are still just wanting to do chemical intervention which has not worked so far.

Mostly we just want the blood loss to stop or at least taper off enough that she can go back to school without soaking a pad every hour. Her anemia is getting quite bad at this point with 8 weeks of bleeding. So she starts the shots today. Hopefully they will be more effective than 3 BCP's a day.

She had missed a lot of school because she has been bleeding through her clothing and the district is getting snippy about absences, though the school itself knows what is going on and is a bit better. So prayer that they will let her graduate would be appreciated. And that the new medical costs don't bury us alive.

I'm not sure I'm going to get a chance to sit down and write one really long blog post this weekend to update everything, so I thought I'd try to get some snippets in of what has been going on and some things DH and I have decided on.

We moved 1 cubic yard of dirt today. We have completed one 8 x 4 foot garden bed and 3/4 of another one. Unfortunately the dirt place closes at 4 on Saturday and we didn't finish getting it unloaded until 3:45. I think it is kind of silly for a business that sells topsoil, compost, bark, etc., to close that early on a Saturday. Especially in spring. Especially when they are only open until 5:30 on weekdays. Especially when they are not open at all on Sundays.

So now we have to wait until Monday to get anymore dirt. It is okay, really, as I won't be planting those beds until May 1st or so, but I still wanted to get it done, have a few days for it to settle and see if we need to add more. We lost all day Friday due to rain and 35 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 60.

DH and I are going to build 3 more 8 x 4 foot beds this weekend. At least one will be built after supper tonight.

Yesterday we bought what we needed to get the irrigation system set up along with the wood for the beds we are going to build. It came out to $259.76. Plus the dirt for $25. It's a lot but we will be able to use it for years to come and we will be able to take it all with us (including the soil) when we move. And it is so worth it to have 2 foot tall beds.

I did all the shoveling on a badly hurt foot. I got it caught under something without realizing it as I was stepping upwards, so pulled it very hard up against the underside of a platform. It made a little snapping noise, but I don't think I broke anything. It was on the side of my bad knee and this also jarred and twisted the knee, which uses any excuse to swell up, and jarred the hip, too. I did this on Thursday.

You wouldn't think something like that would hurt so much, but it does. There is a massive bruise and swelling. I wore an ace bandage ($5 for one that actually had clips and is reusable, those self-grip ones are useless after five or six wearings) on my foot and ankle and my knee brace while we worked. I am keeping ice on it while we rest. I can't really afford to stay completely off it as we need to get this stuff done while DH is home and before it is time to plant in earnest.

Creditcardfree's post reminded me that I have got to get in to see the eye doctor. Fortunately the insurance covers the exam fully. It has been too long since I've been in and my distance prescription has definitely changed. I am also getting headaches after reading for more than an hour.

Our insurance will only cover up to $100 on frames and $100 on lenses every 2 years. Unless you go to really cheap frames (as in low quality that fall apart a few months later, not as in inexpensive) that doesn't cover the cost of frames. Low end quality frames are $150. And the type of lenses I need (tri-focals) are, of course, much more expensive than regular lenses, but even with a single focal lens they still cost more than $100. I think it usually ends up being around $350 to $400 with insurance just cover about half.

I do have an old set of frames that I may just use again to cut costs. They are in great shape and I still like them. I can't use my current ones, because it takes 10 days to get them back and I can't go that long without glasses.

Most of the time I don't like most of the frames available anyway and end up buying something that looks similar to what I already have. Unless I see something spectacular that really knocks it out of the park, I don't see a need to really get new ones.

I also need to get a hair cut. My hair is getting really long again and annoying me with the tangles. I'd like to go get about 8 inches chopped off. We are in for a hot summer here according to predictions so having my hair short sounds like a good idea. I am thinking nape of the neck and just a simple, easy style that falls into place with a brush and no product. I hate having to fuss with my hair.

So yesterday I sent for 2 more $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks. I can order the last $5 one today. Then in a few days I should have enough to get a $25 gift card. So that will give me $50 total at Amazon. I am going to use it to buy a case of the olive oil based Miracle Whip that has no high fructose corn syrup in it. All of the stores around here quit carrying it and I won't go back to regular.

A case of 12 is $95 on Amazon, with no shipping fees. That works out to almost $8 a jar. So with $50 in Amazon gift cards I can get it for $45, which works out to a more reasonable $4 per jar. 12 jars should last me 2 to 3 years. I only eat it with tuna fish, which I don't eat terribly frequently.

Pinecone sent a letter that isn't even accurate to how much money you can cash out at now. They were all, you can just cash out with the $3 option and then add the quantity multiple times so we only have to send one check. But there is no $3 option anymore. I had sent for a $15 check and a $5 check. Now I know that means that I could have cashed out the $5 choice 4 times, but I wasn't even thinking about that at the time.

But considering how I feel about the changes, I probably would have cashed out $5 four different times a few days apart. So they got off lucky with me cashing out for 2 checks instead of 4. They will probably just send the $15 and $5 cash outs in one check. The letter didn't say that, but I'm assuming. It won't matter in the future. I will cash out every time I have at least $5 in the account from now on.

We've completed all the extra stuff on the house to bring it up to code. The wood stove fix was $567. The hot water tank replacement and install was $800. The cost to bring the outlet valve up to code and install earthquake/tornado belts on the hot water tank, also to bring it up to code, was an additional $326. He worked on it for 6 hours. His company is one of the very few who will install hot water heaters into this type of home. And the cost to take off the front porch, pour a concrete pad underneath it, and put the porch back on was $400. $1000 of that will be refunded to us by the buyers on closing.

L&I has signed off on what it needed to sign off on. So their bank will come out sometime in the next two weeks and if they find all to be well and find it appraises properly, then we are good to go for signing. We are hoping to sign by the 24th, though the official closing date is on or before the 26th. DH will only be home from the 12th to the 24th. It would be easier to do it in person than for him to have to find a notary up there at work. Though they did say he might be able to sign in advance.

Then we have to deal with the fact that the female half of the couple is pregnant and due in six weeks, but has already had to go to the hospital once to have early labor stopped. So that may upset the apple cart as well. It does make them more apt to want to sign early if possible, though. They really would like to be settled before the baby comes.

Anyway, I am counting down the next 3.5 weeks. I am finally starting to believe this is really going to happen. And getting a little excited about it, but not too much because the bank could still decide the house isn't worth that much, though it appraises $17K above what they are paying.

I want that check in my hot little hands so badly. I want to pay off the remodeler and the van, bring my EF to $15K and then dump the rest into savings for a down payment. I just want to be there with no more consumer debt hanging over us.

I have a doctor's appointment today. My cholesterol numbers were so good at my blood test that I am going to ask him about either stopping the medication or reducing it. I'd like to get off it. I want to see if I can try going without it for a month and then have another blood test to see if the levels are doing okay. Crestor is expensive and I've changed my eating habits enough now that I may no longer have issues with it. Or to get a cheaper medication. Another option would be to get the 40mg pill and cut it in half. It would be cheaper in the long run.

My insurance has decided it is going to cover my blood pressure medicine 100%. I was in shock the other day when I picked it up. Last year it was $40. That is so helpful to the budget. That is $480 a year I can put towards the farm down payment savings.

My ultimate goal is to get off the BP meds, too. But I think it will take me at least a year of weight loss to be at that point. And weight loss may not be enough. High BP runs in my family. We tried reducing them once from 40mg to 20mg and I felt awful, so definitely need to lose the weight before trying that again.

And if I lose enough weight, I can have a new sleep study done and I might no longer need the sleep apnea machine. I don't have too many breathing incidents, so this might really be achievable. Then I wouldn't have to buy filters, hoses, masks, etc., as they wear out.

Speaking of weight loss I am now 14 pounds down. I think finding dietbet was the best thing that ever happened to me.

There really hasn't been all that much to write about this week. I've lost 9 pounds since December 31st, so my diet is going pretty well. We haven't spent much money this week.

We may have some house expenses coming up. Apparently there has to be an inspection of the foundation and we will have to pay for that. I'm not sure why the sellers have to pay it, though. It seems like the buyers should have to pay for all inspections, but I guess not in this case. I swear, I never want to deal with this type of house again in my life.

So, so far, it looks like we're going to have to pay $1000 between the wood stove fix and the foundation inspection. So I probably will end up taking money out of the EF. Since DH also is having dental work done tomorrow and just had a second sleep study done and will have to buy a B-PAP machine, which is more expensive than a normal C-PAP machine, and since our deductible started over insurance won't cover much if any of it, we may really be seeing a dent in the EF.

DH says I can take most of his school money ($800 of the $1000 we set aside) since he doesn't think he'll be ready to do that until after the income tax refund comes back anyway. I hate to do that, though. Of course I hate depleting the EF even more, but we'll see.

Our real estate agents (husband/wife team) wants to sit down and discuss our looking at houses as soon as the sale closes. I don't want to and don't like the pressure. I think we will need to save for an additional year before we are ready to buy a house, possibly longer. I just want a bigger EF and a bigger down payment so our mortgage payment doesn't cost an arm and a leg every month. I just don't think I am ready to go through the stress of looking at houses. DH is probably going to have to tell them to back off.

Plus I want to enjoy being totally debt free for a while (except the loan from Mom), which we will be once we pay the guy who did the house repairs and pay off the van. I just want to have all that stress free time to save like maniacs. Of course that is assuming we can put up with Mom's particular brand of crazy for another year. At the very least we want to finish off the school year, here, though.

Also DD is talking about moving in with two of her friends in the summer of 2016 and if that is the case we can actually look at some smaller houses. She wants to find a job after graduation and work for a year, saving as much money as she can, before getting an apartment. We will try to pay for one class a semester at the community college for her. She'll have one credit when she graduates because her Psychology class counts as a college level credit.

The ducks laid two eggs today. We haven't gotten 2 eggs in a day from them since December, so either they are starting to gear back up again due to the longer days or one of the 2 new ducks has relaxed enough to start laying. Wade has been mating both of them so that might have kicked one of them into gear. Both ducks have been completely accepted into the flock now.

Nothing else really going on around here. Sticking to the meal plan and not going out to eat.

$1700.00 Bank of America
$1000.00 Loan to Mom
__225.00 Chiropractor
__103.00 Medical
___90.00 Physical Therapy
___42.88 Prescription
___50.00 Allowances
___20.11 Gas($1.84 a gallon!)
__100.00 Cash for Week
---------------
$3330.99 Total Money Out

It was good to finally get to payday. This year I am going to start much earlier on saving for the shut down that occurs every December at DH's work. As in, this paycheck. And in April when things cycle around so that we'll have an extra paycheck, I will put a good chunk of it into that fund as well. It was nice to be able to get through that time period without touching the Emergency Fund and I am glad we did not rely on the Christmas Bonus as that went to pay for the car roof repair and Christmas. There was nothing of it left for living expenses.

The paycheck is about $100 less for this pay period than it has been due to the new 401K withdrawal. Not too big of an amount to absorb easily. We'll see how it goes for the whole month before we decide to up it a percent, though.

Payday Report:

$800.00 to Van Loan (including extra)
_400.00 to Mom's utilities
__24.28 Electricity (old house)
__75.65 Internet
__48.60 Phone (old house)
__46.00 Security Monitoring (old house)
__41.94 Garbage (two months)
__13.75 Medical
__29.85 Medical
__66.61 Medical
_100.00 Allowances (two weeks, 2 kids)
_100.00 Cash for Week
_178.00 Emergency Fund
_100.00 Property Tax Fund
_100.00 December Money Fund
_100.00 Propane Fund (old house)
---------------
2224.68

The Propane Fund now sits at $700. The December Money Fund is at $233.55.

Potato peeler: 5
DH: 0

We spent a couple of hours in the emergency room today. DH managed to peel a chunk of flesh off his finger when he was peeling potatoes and we couldn't get the bleeding to stop. It wasn't the sort of injury they could stitch up, either. It took a long time get it to stop and even now it's still leaking a bit.

We got to spend a couple hours alone together. It was much more restful at the ER than at the in-laws house. SIL and her daughters were fighting as usual and it was particularly obnoxious, so it was nice to be able to get away from that for a while, even if it wasn't good circumstances. The ER was deserted so we got taken right back.

They did numb it for him and put on a vasoconstrictor (sp?) gel that helped constrict the blood vessels. Cautery would have been the best thing for it, but I guess they don't do that anymore. It's going to leave a dime-sized scar anyway. They also gave him a tetanus shot because it has been a long time since he had one.

If this had to happen, I'm glad it did before the deductible resets in January. ER visits are usually a few hundred dollars. We only saw a nurse and PA, though, no doctor, so that should help with costs.

I'm not sure how we're going to get the rabbits butchered now. I knew DH putting it off this long was going to come back and bite him in the butt. Hopefully we can get someone to come help.

I hope everyone else had a less eventful Christmas. Now my wish for the new year is to have far less crazy!

I spent $90 on physical therapy today. I've moved my day to Tuesdays until January. My PT's schedule is crazy for Fridays this month and I don't want to deal with it. I like consistent times.

I am still sick and I am going to try to go back to the doctor tomorrow. I am just not shaking this. I have been sick for over 2 months now and I am tired of it. I don't think I was on the antibiotics long enough. I don't know why doctors are so stingy with them. I told him flat out that a ten day supply would not be enough and I needed a full 2 weeks or I'd likely relapse. And what happens? 2 days after the antibiotics are done, the minor improvement I saw was gone.

I hate training new doctors. I miss my old doctor so much. They just don't make them like him anymore.

I also did two surveys from Pinecone on Monday and already got payment notification. They really seem to be peppering me with them the last couple of weeks. Not that I'm complaining!

Yesterday was payday.

$1800.00 BoA VISA
__800.00 Van Loan plus extra
__400.00 to Mom for utilities
___90.00 Medical
__100.00 Property Tax Fund
__100.00 Propane Fund
__110.84 120 pounds of Organic Turkey Feed
__112.34 (2 bales hay, 150# of oats and duck/chicken feed
-----------------
$3513.18

Last night frost threatened so I went ahead and harvested my sweet meat squash. I ended up with 4 good squash and the ducks ended up with some that had too much insect damage to store. Right now they are curing at room temperature for 2 weeks and then they will be moved to an unheated room. Sweet meat is storable for 6 to 8 months, with best flavor developing after it has been stored for 2 months, so we will be trying our first one around January. If it turns out we don't like them, which I doubt, we can feed them to the birds.

We should have enough turkey feed for 2 months now, as we are butchering half our turkeys (and one drake) later today. And we should have enough duck/chicken feed for about six weeks. The rabbits will go through the hay in a month and the oats in 2 weeks. Maybe a little longer as we are butchering 8 grow outs tomorrow. But then again, the 18 kits growing out will be eating more as they get bigger, so we'll see.

I've decided for sure not to breed rabbits again until February. I don't want to deal with births when it is very cold out or trying to keep very young kits alive in cold weather. And the rabbits eat a lot more feed in the cold months to stay warm, so it makes more sense to hold off during those time periods, especially since we can breed enough during February through August to meet our meat needs. That also puts our last butcher dates in late November/early December before we get tons of snow or it is always frozen out and hard to work outside. Unless we have some very slow growers, we shouldn't have to butcher after that until May when the weather is much nicer for it.

I finished paying the bills for this payday. I took the checkbook down to $3.81, but I have $90 in cash to pay for any incidentals that come up between now and Friday. Plus there is a cushion in the checking account that I don't count into things.

$1000.00 Loan to Mom
___45.30 Life Insurance DH
___44.66 Life Insurance Me
___74.41 Car Insurance
___90.00 Physical Therapy
___48.75 Old House Insurance
___41.15 Old House Alarm Service
__186.00 Storage
___31.99 Old House Electricity
__300.00 AMEX
__144.22 Groceries
___50.00 Allowances
__100.00 Cash for Week
__100.00 December Money Fund
___21.66 Medical Me
___12.10 Medical DD
__600.00 (Will go towards car payment, temp savings)
--------------------
$2843.58

I found out last night that instead of having to take 4 weeks of unpaid time off in December, DH is going to have to take 5 weeks of unpaid time off going into the new year. I'm pretty sure we won't be able to handle this without dipping into the Emergency Fund.

DH is going to try to get a little overtime, but they have not really been forthcoming with it this year, so we certainly can't rely on that.

We have plenty of vegetables and fruits canned and meat frozen, so we could get by without having to buy too much in the way of groceries in December. Mostly just things like milk and lettuce and oranges. Between our five laying ducks and our four laying hens we have plenty of eggs.

I am a little concerned about Christmas, though. We don't buy for many people anymore, but I still need to come up with about $500 for it.

I hate not being prepared for things, but when they jacked up the portion of medical insurance we have to pay this year the paychecks really took a hit. It wouldn't have been so bad with a lower deductible, but $5000 out of pocket is a lot on top of that. We've got 3 people on medications that are quite expensive so we'll be slapped with that again when January hits, since the don't cover prescriptions until the deductible is hit.

With the end of those tax breaks a couple years back, DH is effectively bringing home about $1200 less every month than he was when he first started working for this company. And they decided they wouldn't be giving raises out this year after all. It frustrates me. Especially since we can't rely on the Christmas bonus to make up the shortfall of no pay for five weeks. We used to be able to save for this, but this year has just been one thing after another.

We have decided to start DH on his bachelors degree. Since there isn't really any place he can go right now to get a higher income, this is the most sensible move. We'll have to pay $100 to have his transcripts reviewed from his A.S. in Electrical Engineering, and then the first class he will take will cost $800. We may dip into the Emergency Fund for that, too. I know it's not a true emergency, but it'll get us to the tax refund time and then we can pay for the schooling out of that and some how or another start setting some money aside as well. How? I don't know yet. It's something we will have to figure out.

Well, I finally got the reimbursement for my daughter's glasses from the insurance. I'm not sure why my son's didn't come, too, since I mailed them in on the same day. Hopefully it will come tomorrow.

The reimbursement is $200 so that will go into the December money fund. Of course now that my daughter is 18 they sent the check in her name, so I had to have her sign it over to me. I do not understand why they do not just send them to us since we are the ones paying for the insurance to begin with. We asked if there was a form she could sign, but no. Laws are stupid sometimes.

It just adds an extra layer of stuff we have to do to get our money back. It would be one thing if she were independent and on her own insurance, but she's not. She's still a kid in high school even if she is legally an adult. At least we don't have to worry about it with our son for another 3.5 years.

$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

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.

I am trying to keep a positive attitude right now, but I do feel like I am being overwhelmed somewhat. With them taking so much more out of DH's paycheck for medical now, I kind of feel like we are back to living paycheck to paycheck. I know we aren't really, but the only things I feel like I am able to plan ahead for anymore are property taxes, upcoming propane costs, and dues. Besides those and the EF, I haven't been able to fund any of my funds.

I like having an Appliance Fund, a Christmas Fund, a Computer Fund, and such that I send money to each month. Now I can't do that. And I can't do a college fund, either. My daughter has decided she is going to work for 2 years after high school and save everything for college. At this point, we can't contribute. I'm not even sure college is right for her anyway. She's not really cut out for it.

Every year for the past 3, things seem to have gotten tighter and tighter, despite paying more and more things off. Taxes went up and took $500 of take home pay away from us, just as we paid off the credit cards. When we paid off the mortgage this year, it finally felt like we were going to have breathing room, but we don't. The increased medical, the increased plane fare, and the increased storage fees basically replaced the mortgage.

I know this won't last forever. We have less than 3 years left on the van loan. It's gotten down enough that we are only paying about $70 in interest each month and the majority of the payment is going to principal. I love our van and I still think it was a good decision to buy it, but I don't think we will ever buy a new vehicle again. And we'll not finance one again, either.

We have 4 years and 9 months left on what we owe to Mom. That's the big thing. If we didn't have to pay that $1000 each month things would not be tight. Or they'd be tight by choice because we'd be saving part of it and funneling the rest to retirement.

If our house sells it will make some differences. We won't have to be paying electricity, phone, water/sewer, security, HoA dues, property tax, and house insurance. We can save that money until we are ready to buy a house. Which at this rate won't be until we pay off the van.

DH hasn't gotten a raise in over 3 years. Which, no one has, but this year is a new contract and they are supposed to be doing raises. The new contract was signed a while back. The new medical is being deducted, but so far no one has received raises and it has been months. I am starting to think the company is going back on its word. Each year, with more money being taken out or going to taxes or going to increased plane fare, it is like taking a pay cut.

I know we have enough. DH's income is excellent. We are in a lot better shape than so many people. But I want to get ahead, not just tread water. It feels like we sacrifice and sacrifice to pay off all this stupid medical debt and our house and still have nothing to show for it. Which is stupid, because we do. We've taken trips and we've got decent things. We have a paid for home. But it still doesn't feel like it. I just want to be free of it all. Free of all debt. Every single scrap of it. And with enough money in the bank that I don't ever have to worry about it again. I don't know. Maybe that's a fantasy. But it's how I feel.

Well, thanks for listening now. I feel better getting it all out and I think I can stop feeling sorry for myself for a while now.

$1000.00 to Mom for Loan
$1500.00 to BoA Visa
___55.46 to Paypal
___90.00 Physical Therapy
__130.00 Animal Feed
___80.00 Canning supplies and an electronic timer
___90.00 for buying potatoes/peppers/onions for preserving
___15.38 medical
___48.60 Phone (Old House)
___75.65 Internet
__144.00 Water/sewer (Old House)
___96.56 Prescriptions and OTC medications
-------------
$3325.65

We also ordered 3 new rabbit cages this week and 12 urine guards. It came to $221.35 and they are supposed to arrive on Monday. Hopefully, they will.

$120.00 Physical therapy
$300.00 Groceries/animal feed/canning suppies
$757.82 Van loan (plus extra)
__27.88 Power (old house)
_100.89 EF
_100.00 Property Tax Fund
_100.00 Propane Fund
__20.00 Dues Fund
_400.00 to Mom for utilities
__89.95 Medical
_164.24 Vision (Glasses payment, 3 months same as cash)
__54.35 Baker Lawn Care (Old House)
----------------
2235.16

We have decided since it is so hard to get up to the old house right now and because the weather has been constantly in the mid to high 80's, to hire a guy to mow the lawn at the old house when it gets out of hand. So about every 3 to 4 weeks. He did a good job and he lives in the area.

So I've been back on a controlled carbohydrate diet for a week and lost 6.8 pounds. I always lose a lot the first week and then it settles down to about 2 to 3 pounds a week if I stay on the diet and don't cheat. I am not eating anything processed at all except for organic soy sauce, tomato sauce, and organic condiments, mostly our homegrown rabbit and chicken or the organic, sustainable beef and pork from the farm we go to, and a lot of vegetables and a balanced amount of fruit, corn, or potatoes at one meal a day. It is nice to be able to go outside and pick my salad daily. The freshness makes the lettuce so good.

If I have any bread products, which so far I have not, I will bake them from scratch. I might make my own noodles if I decide later on to have pasta, but I do have a few boxes of organic kicking around, so may not.

According to the x-rays I got on the 22nd I have degenerative bone loss in my knee, which I think is another way of saying osteoarthritis. For every pound of weight I lose, it will take 6 pounds of pressure off my knee. So to begin with I am aiming for a 50 pound weight loss. That seems doable to me, especially considering I am 14.7% of the way to that goal. 85.3% or 43.2 pounds to go. If I can lose 2 pounds a week, which I have done in the past on this diet, I should have lost 50 pounds by the 21st of December. After that I will set a new goal.

Next week after I've done their course of treatment for a week, which is hydrocodone, ibuprofen, and elevate and ice the knee, I can get an MRI to make sure there isn't more going on like the doctor and I both think there is. This is just what we have to do to make the insurance company happy. We have met our deductible now so the insurance company will be paying the majority of this bill, thank goodness.

I don't like the course of treatment as the hydrocodone makes me spacy and queasy, but it does help some with the pain. Not enough to be worth the symptoms on a long term basis, though. And I don't want to go on any of the arthritis drugs as they have nastier side effects than that.

I am using my knee brace a lot and that helps a bit. I've been able to hobble around the last couple of days and get a small amount of outdoor work done. Not much, mostly picking veggies. And I was able to do the grocery shopping. Most of that was at Joe's Garden and Goode's produce stand, with just a quick run to the store for our glass bottled milk and a few odds and ends.

We are meal planning quite closely now and trying to do a lot of prep work on the weekend. While the others are not dieting, they have all gone non-processed with me, since it is easier not to have junk in the house. I am hoping that the grocery budget will go down now that I am not buying TV dinners and chips and $5 loaves of bread for the others. If I could save $100 a month off the grocery budget, that would be really nice.

I went to the doctor today for my knee and he thinks I am probably right, it is likely a torn meniscus based on how I reacted to his manipulation of the knee. Then I went and got an x-ray, because of course the insurance won't pay for an MRI unless you have had x-rays first. Which is dumb to me because it isn't a bone injury, it won't show up on an x-ray, and they end up having to pay for two things, not one, and so do I. At least I've met the $5000 deductible now so they will have to pay a lot more than I will.

I got a call back from the nurse at 6, but just missed it since I was eating corn on the cob and had butter all over my hands. So that probably means they got the x-ray results back. Do you remember back when it took 24 to 72 hours to get an x-ray film back? Now it is so fast with digital x-rays on the computers. All we have to wait on now is for it to be read, which they do pretty quickly.

Anyway, so I have to call tomorrow and find out what is what, since of course due to privacy laws they can't leave an actual message with any medical content, even on my private cell phone that no one but me can access the voice mail on. And likely schedule the MRI.

I did manage to hobble around the garden today with my cane and my daughter (to make sure I didn't fall) and my camera so I did some filming. I did 5 vids today, but will only be uploading them one day at a time. I had to check on everything so figured I might as well do all my weekly updates for my farm blog at once.

This week I have picked 5 tomatoes, 3 zucchini, 1 quart of yellow French beans, 1 cucumber, and a bag of salad leaves. Below is the tally based on local organic produce prices:

1.5 pounds zucchini $2.00
2 pounds of beans $2.60
1.5 pounds tomatoes $4.75
1 pickling cucumber .50
Salad greens $2.50

Total: $12.35

$212.00 Previous Total
+_12.35 Most Recent Tally
-----------
$224.35 YTD Produce Tally

Fruit Garden Update: