Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

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.

It was so nice to get back in the pool yesterday after about 8 weeks away due to the cold/sinus infection/general yuck thing I was dealing with last year. The prednisone seems to have seen it most of the way out the door and I have energy to do things again beyond the minimum. I'm off the prednisone now and hoping it doesn't come back, but so far seem to be doing okay.

Anyway, I did a water aerobics class yesterday. It was a full hour and boy do I feel it today, but it felt great, I am happy to be back. I will go again tomorrow.

I have lost 7 pounds so far since the start of the year. I am sure part of that is my commitment to cooking at home right now. About six days a week are from scratch and one day a week is maybe a convenience type thing. Last night was mini chicken tacos from Trader Joe's, so the ingredients at least, are not suspect. More sodium, of course, than I would use, but as long as we keep that kind of meal to a minimum, not so bad.

So far I have spent $35 of the $80.06 I have left of the original $400 I am trying to keep this month's grocery spending to. I need to make the rest of the $55 last until the 22nd and I will have made it through the month on half my grocery budget. Not an easy feat, but it seems to be working okay so far.

I am being diligent with sticking to the meal plan this week. My only alteration was making the mini-tacos instead of actual tacos last night. And sometimes I switch the fruit around as I may not be in the mood for the fruit I planned, but all of the planned fruit still gets eaten in a week.

I have stayed on top of leftover management quite well, too. I haven't had to throw out anything this week, but have made sure it gets eaten for lunches or breakfasts, or rolled into later meals in the week. This makes a huge difference, as well.

I think all of the savings will get eaten up by medical expenses, though. I had hoped to put it in the down payment fund, but at least I shouldn't have to take the money I normally put in the down payment fund each month and use it for the medical expenses, so that is something.

I signed up for both a six month Transformer and a 4 week Kickstarter again this year. They started on January 1st. So far I have lost 6.2 pounds. I just wish I hadn't gained back all but 17 of the 50 pounds I lost last year. But I am determined to do this again. Last year I about doubled my money, which sure beats any interest rate I can find.

My husband also signed up for a Kickstarter. He has lost 70 pounds in the last 6 months, so I told him he might as well earn some money doing it.

I am sticking to my meal planning pretty closely and that will help a lot with this, too. It snowed this morning so I didn't make it to the pool. Hopefully it won't snow again tomorrow. The club parking lot is nasty to get in and out of when there is snow. I miss being in the water, though and want to get back to it.

I got about 1/3 of my kitchen reorganized and deep cleaned today and cleaned out the rabbit grow out cages and dropping pans, so I did get exercise in and plenty of movement.

I also knit 32 rows on the baby blanket I am making for my niece, who is due in May with a little girl. I did 5 loads of laundry, too, and am now caught up, including putting it all away.

All in all it was a very productive day.

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 didn't have time to write about this when I started, but 12 days ago I did one big grocery shop with the intention of cutting my grocery spending for the month in half. I gave myself a budget of $400, and spent $319.94. That left me with $80.06 for things like milk, bread (if I don't bake it), lettuce, and fresh fruit.

Yesterday I spent $11.85 on 15 pounds of oranges, and $8.99 on a quart of fresh organic strawberries. So that is $20.84 and it leaves me with $59.22 to get through until the 22nd of January. $60 for 20 more days. I have 2 gallons of milk left so I am fine there, and I still have some greens growing under my little umbrella green houses, so I may not need to buy lettuce at all. I also have a loaf of bread left and plenty of ingredients to make more.

The $400 I am hoping to save (my usual budget is $800 a month) will go into the down payment fund. I have been successful in saving anywhere from around $200 to $250 for the past couple of months, but I really want to try to make this goal.

I do not have to buy any meat at all. The freezer is still packed with chicken, rabbit, beef, pork, and lamb. I have a ton of home canned food still on my canning shelves, and some frozen fruit and veg as well. So this is very doable as long as I don't get lazy. So far I have been sticking pretty well to the meal planning, though I've switched things up a couple times when I wasn't feeling as good. But it was all stuff we had available.

We also have not eaten out in that amount of time and I am hoping to make that go for the entire month long period as well. I am in full on savings mode. The faster I can save, the sooner we can move.

This morning I sold 2 dozen duck eggs for $10. It's nice to already have a sale for 2016! I am going to try to track my farm sales a little better this year. I'll be setting up a spreadsheet specifically for that.

$15,365.03 Starting Balance
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
---------------------
$15,375.03 Subtotal
+__,_31.32 C1-360 Interest
+__,_16.01 CU#1 Interest
+__,__0.11 CU #2 Interest
---------------------
$15,422.47 New Balance

$577.53 to go to hit my first mini-goal for 2016. It is nice to be almost half way to that mini-goal on January 1st! $4,477.53 to go to hit my next milestone goal of $20,000.

Well, we are no worse the wear for our earthquake last night. For those who don't live in the PNW there was a 4.8 earthquake about 11 miles from Victoria. Vancouver Island is not that far from us as the crow (or seagull) flies. My bed rolled forward about a foot, then went backward the same way.

Normally I would have been asleep so close to midnight, but my daughter had a sleep study and it didn't start until 1 a.m. because her sleep pattern is that screwed up.

None of my canning jars fell off the open shelves, but they did move. Fortunately it was sideways. Number one priority is to get some guards in place. If I had lost any jars, it would have been a big mess of glass and food all over the carpet.

In the rabbit shed some of the cages had shifted and the water bottles on the shelves out there had also shifted. Again it was sideways so it wasn't a big deal.

The hay bucket had fallen over and so had the bucket of oats, but I didn't notice anything else amiss. It does get me thinking about a few more things I need to get in order though. We did have flashlights and water and plenty of food, but I still haven't bought a propane space heater or a small generator for my c-pap machine. We didn't lose power, but it is always a possibility. There is a solar rechargeable generator that I have been looking at. I guess it is time to start saving up for that.

It was a lot different than the baby earthquakes I've been through before which just sort of vibrated or lightly swayed things. But it still wasn't much more than just a big surprise. We have never had a bad one here in my lifetime, except the one that accompanied Mt. St. Helen erupting when I was a kid and I both felt and heard it, and it cracked a pane in my bedroom window even though we are quite a ways away.

Most people seem to have just slept through this one.

Wednesday:
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Green Beans
Apples/apple sauce

Thursday:
Baked chicken
Baked potatoes
Oranges
Salad

Friday:
Garlic Ginger Rabbit Stir-fry

Saturday:
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw

Sunday:
Crockpot roast beef with carrots, potatoes, and parsnips,
Cole slaw
Oranges

Monday:
Meatball subs
Cole slaw
Apples

Tuesday:
Tacos
Canned nectarines

I finally made it to the credit union today to deposit my Pinecone check, the $75 from selling a rabbit, and the rolled coin in my coin jar. I've had them for a week, but with the holidays, just hadn't had the chance to deposit them. I added it to the Emergency Fund.

$15.255.53 Starting Balance
+__,109.50 Deposit Added
------------
$15,365.03 New Balance

$634.97 to go to hit my first mini-goal for 2016 and $4,634.97 to go to hit my new big goal.

$15,245.53 Starting Balances
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
---------------------
$15.255.53 New Balance

$36,000.00 Starting Balance
+_1,000.00 Deposit Added
__________________
$37,000.00 New Balance

$43,000 to go to hit my goal of $80K.

$15171.18 Starting Balance
+___10.00 Weekly Deposit
+___21.35 Extra Funds
+___43.00 Egg Sales and Coin Jar
---------------------
$15245.53 New Balance

Wednesday:
Pancakes and Ham (leftover picnic ham)
Canned Nectarines

Thursday:
Macaroni Rabbit Bake
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Grapes

Friday:
BBQ Rabbit Wings
Fried Potatoes
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Apples

Saturday:
Homemade Pizza--Italian sausage, pepperoni, bell peppers, onions, ham (leftover picnic ham)
Oranges

Sunday:
Steak
Baked potatoes
Green Beans
Drop biscuits with dandelion jelly

Monday:
Fried Chicken
Baked potatoes
Green Beans
Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

Tuesday:
Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Meatballs (lamb, beef, rabbit, Italian sausage)
Garlic Bread
Salad

I am really, really unimpressed with the new Dr. Scholl's socks that I bought. I bought two 3-packs at $14 each and each pair I have worn has been down my heel and halfway down my foot in the amount of time it takes to walk from the house to the car. They simply will not stay up.

It ticks me off. I expected the Dr. Scholl's name to live up to its reputation. After all, they make excellent shoes and inserts. But apparently they haven't a clue how to make good socks. Unfortunately you can't tell until you actually wear them. There doesn't seem to be enough elastic in the cuff.

It isn't just them either. The last set I got from Reebok and the last sets I got from Hanes and Fruit of the Loom like to slip down, too. I never used to have this problem. Are they just making crappy socks these days no matter the brand name?

I really don't like throwing money away like that. The only socks I haven't had major problems with this year or last are the big fuzzy slipper socks from Costco, but they are hard to get into a shoe. This is why I'm trying to learn to knit socks properly.

Anyone know if Kmart's Joe Boxer brand of socks stays up where it belongs? Or of any decent brand that does? I don't mind paying a little more if they actually work. They just can't be wool as I'm allergic.

DH's Christmas Bonus arrived in the mail and as you can see from the previous 3 posts I disbursed it amongst the Down Payment Fund, the College Fund, and the Emergency Fund.

This is the first deposit I have made to the Emergency Fund since...well, I can't remember. Since I hit $15K back in May or something. I had stopped adding to it to get other funds up and growing. I had intended to restart it in January, but figured I might as well get a bit of a jump on it. Hopefully I can get it to $20K by the end of 2016, but that's just a pie in the sky goal. It will much more likely be around $3K saved to get to $18K. But who knows? I like to aim high.

I was able to top off the College Fund so there is now enough for the first semester of my daughter's vet tech course, which she wants to start in January. Since she will have 18 months to complete the semester, I am not worried at the moment about adding any more to that fund, other than $100 a month going foward.

I also added $2000 to the Farm Down Payment Fund. I had also planned to set aside an additional $1000 to medical savings, but the bonus was $1000 less than it has been for the past few years, so that was just a tentative plan. We have always managed the medical, so I'm not that fussed by it, but I would have liked to have it set aside. Oh, well. We will be okay without it. If something huge comes up once the ridiculous deductible starts over, well, that is what the Emergency Fund is there for, loathe as I would be to touch it.

I need to buy a new microwave. The one I have has been limping along on its last legs for a while now and likes to shut down if you use the microwave for more than 10 minutes in a row. It comes back on again about 10 minutes later, but I don't imagine that can possibly be a good thing. I need to remember to measure the space it is in and make sure any new one I buy isn't too tall.

I have been knitting like crazy for the past few weeks. I have completed a scarf for my daughter, a scarf and a hat for my son, and a scarf for me. I have managed to knit two socks, the first of which is not wearable and the second of which looks lumpy, but is wearable, comfortable, and warm.

I have never knit socks before, so I consider the first one to be a learning sock. I unraveled it when done because I had dropped too many stitches. My biggest trouble is making the toe. I can do the cuff and the heel and the foot of the sock just fine, but I keep screwing up the toe when I try to attach it to the foot. I had to redo it twice for it to even look somewhat right. I am tempted to just get a sock loom and see if that helps.

I will try to knit the matching sock at least before going the sock loom route. I am sure it just takes practice. I really want to move on to mittens or gloves, though. Mittens should be straight-forward. Gloves will be more difficult, but I still think they will be easier than socks.

I do want to get good at socks though, because I want to make some booties for my niece. She's due in May so I do have some breathing room to practice. And booties don't take long, but if you can't master sock toes, than you can't master bootie toes either. I guess I can always knit a blanket instead if I can't figure it out.

$15,000.00 Starting Balance
+__,171.78 Deposit Added
---------------
$15,171.78 New Balance

My next goal for the end of 2016 is $20,000, but I will be happy to get to $18,000.

$34,000.00 Starting Balance
+_2,000.00 Deposit Added
---------------
$36,000.00 New Balance

$44,000 to go to hit my goal of $80K.

$629.75 Starting Balance
+870.25 Deposit Added
---------------
1500.00 New Balance

Goal for first semester is met.

My son and I went to view two of the farms yesterday. And the one house and all its outbuildings that I thought would be perfect were perfect, except there was a ton of water pooled under the house that you could see through the door to the crawlspace and the well pump house was also flooded. And those things would take a pretty penny to fix and at the current price of the home absolutely was not worth it. Also it had owls in the barn, which might be fine if you are raising large livestock, but not when you are raising rabbit kits.

The second house was...adequate. It was spacious and had land and a couple of outbuildings, one of which had a canning kitchen. But the barn had a badly cracked cement floor. There had been severe upheaving, so that parts of the floor were 8 to 12 inches higher than other parts. With my history of tripping over everything, that was not acceptable, and again would require quite a bit of work to fix. And I don't want adequate. I want it to be pretty and not need rewiring.

So neither house is a go. And maybe I should just take that as a sign to wait and not to jump the gun. Although I did see another house that I would really like to check out. It has 12 acres and is still within our price range. But...I think we will still hold off for now. It is probably wisest to wait until after the new contracts are signed at DH's work in March, anyway.

There are 3 very nice farms for sale right now. One is utterly perfect and two are quite doable. We have enough money for a 10% down payment on two of them and will have enough for a 10% down payment on the perfect one by the end of this year. And I'm swayed quite hard in that direction.

We would be able to afford the payments, all of our expenses, and still save a little each month. It would mean being a lot stricter with the budget. We've got a lot of play right now so that could be accomplished and we'd still have some breathing room.

We'd also be in our home for the first time since 2009. There is stress in living so long with my mother, even though I love her dearly and we get along quite well. I yearn to be able to have my own kitchen and do things my way and not have to schedule around her timetable, which is erratic at best and annoying at worst when you are trying to feed a family.

If we do this now, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about doing a 30 year mortgage. We would have to. I don't particularly like that idea, though, because we have only ever had a 15 year mortgage, and a 30 year mortgage would mean we could be 75 and 76 years old when it was paid off. Oh, I'd throw more money at it as we had it, but that would probably have us finishing at 65 to 70 years old.

The thing is, the practical thing anyway, is that if we buckle down and save super hard this coming year and throw everything at our down payment fund, we could have enough for a 20% down payment by December 2016. Which means we would lower our monthly payments significantly and have a 15 year mortgage. And it would be paid off by the time we were 61 and 62 years old, with no extra payments being made. With extra thrown at it, we might pay it off by the time we are 56 and 57.

The numbers make sense to wait out another year and save like the dickens. My head says that is the smartest thing we could possibly do. My soul says it is not quite sure it can cope with another year of living only in 1000 square feet with 2 teenagers and my husband. And only one bathroom.

We simply have no space. None. The house is very large, but this is the only space she allows us to use, plus we can cook in the kitchen (but must keep all our dishes and cooking stuff in our 1000 square feet). That frustrates me, too, because she has a huge kitchen with lots of cupboard space, two large living rooms, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms for just herself. And two of those bedrooms are almost empty.

I am torn. I know what makes better sense. I really do. But it has been seven years. Seven very long years. And we wouldn't be struggling if we did it now. I feel like we are struggling though with the emotional part and being packed in like sardines. I want space. I want room to move. I want freedom.

I guess the thing I need to decide is what do I want most? Financial security is so freaking important to me. It is only one more year. Yet when I think about that year it is like a massive weight pressing down on my shoulders. One of these homes could be our escape hatch.

And 2 of them have open houses tomorrow. I will take my son and go look. Maybe in person they won't be as good as they are on paper.

I had 5 points from my shopping at Safeway in the last 30 days, which meant I got 50 cents off per gallon. If I keep careful track each month, I can gas up right before points expire, which generally coincides with when I need to fill the tank. It's a lot less these days now that we are homeschooling again (did I tell you guys that?) and I am not driving to and from the high school twice a day five times per week.

So I ended up paying $21.60 for 14.037 gallons of gas. That is $1.54 per gallon! It was priced at $2.03 per gallon if you used cash or $2.13 per gallon if you did not. I had cash. I cannot remember the last time I paid such a low amount of money for a tank of gas.

$380.06 Starting Balance
+_10.00 Weekly Deposit
-----------------
$390.06 Subtotal
+___.19 Interest from CU #2
-----------------
$390.25 Subtotal
+_39.50 Egg Money and Coin Jar
-----------------
$429.75 Subtotal
$200.00 Glasses Reimbursement
----------------
$629.75 New Balance

$870.25 to go to pay for the first semester. $5370.25 to go to pay for the full vet tech A.S.

I've switched to a Wednesday through Tuesday system, since I go shopping Wednesday mornings, generally. But I forgot to post it yesterday.

Wednesday:
Chicken Fajitas
Fresh pineapple
Pumpkin bread

Thursday:
Club Sandwiches
Salad
Cameo apples

Friday:
Bacon Cheeseburgers
Fries
Fresh Pineapple
Cole slaw
Pumpkin Bread

Saturday:
Teriyaki Beef Flank Steak
Fried Potatoes
Green Beans
Oranges

Sunday:
Slow-cooked turkey necks
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Roasted zucchini and yellow squash
Ambrosia apples

Monday:
Southern Fried Rabbit
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Broccoli and Cauliflower
Grapes
Pumpkin bread

Tuesday:
Tropical Rabbit Stir-fry
Canned pineapple

$340.78 Starting Balance
+_29.28 C1-360 Interest
------------------
$370.06 Subtotal
+_10.00 Weekly Deposit
-----------------
$380.06 New Balance

$5619.94 to go.

$330.78 Starting Balance
+_10.00 Weekly Deposit
--------------
$340.78 New Balance

I am going to nickel and dime my way there. $1159.22 to go.

$1000.00 Down Payment Fund
__225.00 Chiropractor Family Plan
__136.65 AMEX
___15.00 Checks
__120.00 Physical Therapy
___77.82 Internet
_2000.00 Chase VISA
---------------------
$3574.47 Total Money Out

$33,000.00 Starting Balance
+_1,000.00 Deposit Added
------------------
$34,000.00 New Balance

$46,000.00 to go.

$254.78 Starting Balance
+_66.00 Coin Jar, Egg Money, Farm Sales
+_10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------------------
$330.78 New Balance

$5669.22 to go.

I went ahead and added in tomorrow's auto deposit so I didn't have to do two separate posts. The cost of the vet tech program my daughter wants to do is $1500 per semester, so a total of $6000 for 4 semesters. It is a work at your own pace online college, fully accredited. You have 18 months to complete each semester. She wants to start in the fall, so of course my first goal is to hit the $1500 mark.

We have been lax on college savings. We used to have some money saved up, but when we paid off all of our debts we used that money, since DD had no clue what she wanted to do after high school and for a time we weren't even sure she would graduate or go to school at all. DH has used some of it on his education, too.

I'm not terribly worried about it. I'm more concerned with saving up for our down payment and our retirement and staying debt free than our kids' college. College is less and less a good deal for the student, saddling them with mountains of debt and not ensuring them of a good job when they get out anymore. Especially if they get the useless degrees so many kids get. In fact the cynical part of me is viewing college and its massive loans as part of the government's way of keeping money coming into the federal coffers while keeping average citizens as a debt slave for the next 30 years of their lives. Add to that the nastiness going on at many universities these days and I'm not sure I want my kids to have any part of it.

My son will go to the local technical college for engineering, which will save us vast amounts of money and likely end him up with a job as good as the one DH has, with all the nepotism and connections DH can use where he works to land the kid a job in his field.

So for now I will be putting all coin jar money, egg sales, and other farm sales money in the College Fund as well as any extra money I end up with from the grocery budget that carries over from the previous week. That usually goes into the coin jar until I can make a deposit. I'll probably add a line item to the budget as well of $100 a month. We'll have enough when the time comes as long as I keep focus on it.

Monday:
Baked potato soup
Leftover lamb and beef pot roast
Salad

Tuesday:
Tacos (beef, onions, tomatoes, seasonings)
Apples

Wednesday:
BBQ rabbit "wings"
Fried potatoes
Green beans
Oranges

Thursday:
Rabbit stir-fry with onions, peppers, broccoli, carrots, celery, and snow peas
Pineapple

Friday:
Sloppy Hoppies
Cole slaw
Apples

Saturday:
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Salad
Grapes

Sunday:
Rabbit stew with potatoes and carrots
Cole slaw
Canned nectarines