Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

$11,371.20 Beginning EF Balance
+__,178.00 Monthly Deposit (plus)
------------------
$11,549.20 New EF Balance

$3450.80 to go to hit my $15K goal and $450.80 to go to hit my mini-goal of $12K.

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.

$11,047.70 Beginning Balance
+__,323.50 Deposit Added
---------------
$11,371.20 New Balance

This is survey money, egg and rabbit sales, and coin jar money. I decided to wait on buying stock so that money is going into the EF instead. I really want to get the EF to $15K this year. I would just feel more secure with that amount in the bank.

$3,628.80 left to go to hit $15K and $628.80 to hit my first mini-goal of the year. Tomorrow is payday and I have $78 even left in the checking account and that will get sent to the EF tomorrow. Not sure yet if I'll have the monthly $100 deposit out of tomorrow's payday or next weeks, though. We have some medical bills to pay so we'll have to see how that changes things first.

This is the first paycheck with the 401K, also, so I don't yet know how much of a difference that will be in planning my budget.

$11,037.70 Beginning Balance
+__,_10.00 Weekly Deposit
----------------
$11,047.70 New Balance

We've got some people who are close to making an offer on the house. I am not holding my breath, but it would be really nice if this time it panned out. We've had five showings since Christmas. Only 1 out of 5 has the credit scores necessary to buy, though, but that couple has really good credit. Why do people look at houses if they don't have their stuff worked out for buying? I am tired of Looky-Lous. At least it is not our agents showing it to those types, but others.

Gas prices are making folks think that living out there won't be too hard on the commute if they work in town. I hope someone buys before gas prices rise again!

Again, I am not holding my breath. This has been a long process. We are prepared to drop the price yet again, but are hoping that won't be necessary. There were a couple comps that sold for more than that recently (and our house is in better shape), so there is hope. But like I said, I am not holding my breath. If it happens, it happens. I am not prepared to think about it too much until a contract materializes, and even then, after what happened last time, not going to get excited until I know the financing is set.

Yesterday I decided to give Swagbucks a whirl again. It has been several months since I've bothered. My only real goal with it is to earn at least 100 points a day, so I can earn $25 a month. I quit when they were having problems with the toolbar and malware, but so far so good.

I haven't gotten any surveys from Pinecone in two weeks, which is weird, because generally I get at least one a week from them, plus a couple of screeners, and there before Christmas I was getting 2 a week for a couple weeks.

I am waiting for some things to credit to ACOP and then I should be able to cash out for $10. I like ACOP, but they take forever to process stuff. It takes a minimum of 2 weeks (usually longer) for a survey to be credited to the account and then you can only cash out when you've earned $10 or more and then that takes 2 to 4 weeks to process. It does come eventually, but I have no clue why they have to take forever. This stuff should be automated.

I miss some of the older survey companies that have gone out of business, but were always reliable. Or that changed their methods so they aren't as lucrative. Oh, well. At least there are still a few.

It was 50 degrees out today. That's practically tropical for this time of year. While the sky was pretty overcast, there were patches of blue and the sun peaked through from time to time and other times was backlighting the clouds in a gorgeous fashion. It is nice to have a break from all the dripping.

I didn't make it through my planned ten days without spending money. I bought a jacket today. I was able to get it today only at 50% off both the jacket and the shipping. I've been needing a new coat. I have my parka for the really cold days, but it is too hot to wear if it is over 40 degrees. But 40 is too cold for just a sweatshirt. It is also waterproof, which is a necessity here.

My other lighter weight jacket I use when I take care of the animals, and it is a good coat for this type of weather, but it smells like barn, plus it has gotten a bit ripped up by the rabbit claws. I don't like walking around smelling like barn in public!

It is a really pretty shade of blue and it will go very well with the new purse I got for Christmas. They are both a pretty jewel tone. I love jewel tones. The deep colors look good on me. I'm not one who can wear pastels or browns, oranges, or yellows. But the deep colors of blue, green, red, burgundy, and purple and the brights like teal, lime, turquoise, hot pink, and magenta, I can do very well. So I am happy to find a coat in a good color for me.

The diet is coming along. I have lost 6 pounds so far. I had a bit of bad day a few days ago and ate some fudge my son had made. By some I mean 4 pieces. It is gone now. I made the kids eat it and take it to school. So that made my loss stand still for a couple days. If it is not in the house I won't eat it. I shouldn't have let him make it in the first place. I need to be much more further along before I can resist things like that. I'm not against a treat now and then, but I need to stay away from chocolate.

I am glad that payday will be here on Friday. It has been a long, long time since the last one. But we made it through without having to touch the EF, which is wonderful. I feel very positive about our finances right now. I hope that feeling stays with me for a long time.

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon garlic powder
3 cups water
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

Instructions:

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

2. Add water to dry mix 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly until a paste is formed

3. Scoop the paste into a sauce pot and, using a whisk, add remaining water.

4. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.

5. Add tomato sauce, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Makes 4 cups

For enchiladas you will need:

4 cups of cooked rabbit (or chicken) meat
1/2 a batch of enchilada sauce
Cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
Tortillas (10 inch)

Put a thin layer of enchilada sauce down on the bottom of a glass baking pan.

Lay out a tortilla on a dinner plate. Add 1/8 of the rabbit or chicken meat starting at one end and stopping 2 inches from the other end of the tortilla.

Spoon some enchilada sauce over the meat. Not too much or it will make the tortilla get wet.

Add cheese. Roll over once and then fold empty two inch end towards center of tortilla. Continue to roll up enchilada and place seam side down in baking pan.

Continue until you have finished rolling 7 to 8 enchiladas or whatever will fit in your baking pan.

Pour enchilada sauce over top of enchiladas.

Sprinkle cheese on top, as much or as little as you want. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve.

If you would like to see the recipe with photos accompanying each step it is on my other blog here:

Monday:
New York steak
Green beans
Salad with bell peppers

Tuesday:
Roasted garlic chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli
Cole slaw with bell peppers

Wednesday:
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw

Thursday:
Enchiladas
Cole slaw

Friday:
Fried Rabbit
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Salad
Green beans

Saturday:
Beef Stew
Cole slaw
Corn

Sunday:
Pork chops
Fried Potatoes
Cole slaw
Green beans

I've lost 5 pounds so far on my diet. That's exciting. My diet bet started today. I've got all my breakfasts and lunches prepared for 4 days. It made a nice difference with not having to think about what to eat.

Email notifications for comments started working again today. I got 54! I'm pretty sure that's a good six week's worth all at once. Yikes. Hmm, I wonder if that means the side bar editing is working again, too? There is some obsolete stuff there I've been trying to take off for ages, like links to sites that no longer exist. I wonder if the ability to add photos the SA way instead of having to set up a photobucket image url has been fixed yet?

Since there were some really great ideas posted last month when I asked about go to meals, I thought I'd ask for crockpot meals this month. I am trying to increase my repertoire of these easy to make meals.

My favorite is pulled pork made with a pork butt roast, a jar of arrabiata sauce (from Trader Joe's), 4 oz can of green chiles, and a pint of canned tomatoes, drained. Cook on low for 8 hours.

So what is your favorite? It'd be great to see some that don't rely on cream of something soup or dry onion soup mix, but go ahead and post those, too, if that's your favorite.

Today is the weekly $10 deposit to savings. usually it is on Thursday, but because of the holiday it didn't transfer until today. I added it to the Emergency Fund.

$11,027.70 Beginning Balance
+____10.00 Amount Added
--------------------
$11,037.70 New Balance

Although my dietbet doesn't officially start until the 3rd, I had my starting weight approved yesterday and started eating properly and drinking extra water yesterday as well. This morning I had lost 2 pounds. So I am off to a good start.

I wanted to end the old year on a good note with a healthy day of eating and I wanted to start the new year off with it as well. It would have been easy to tell myself that I could eat whatever until the official start date, but that could have led to a lot of junk food bingeing and who wants that?

It's kind of like when you are trying to get out of debt and you see this big hill in front of you that you have to climb. You might be tempted to put off starting for a few days, get in a last hurrah of spending before you settled down and put your nose to the grindstone of paying off what you owe, but why? Why make it worse for the psychological thrill of buying a few more "extras" when you can start to get your life back today. No need to make the hill higher or the hole deeper or whatever metaphor you like. Once the mind is made up, it is better to just let the body follow.

$11,020.00 Beginning Balance
+_____7.70 Interest
--------------
$11,027.70 New Balance

This is the interest of $7.22 from C1-360 and $0.48 from CU#2.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I decided to sign up for dietbet. I did a $30 one. I figured maybe if I had some monetary skin in the game it would make it more likely to hang in there during the hardest part, the first month. Once I get my groove on, I generally do pretty well, and with having been off soda for probably a year now, this time I'll be doing it without my biggest temptation.

I am using survey money. Anything I win will go towards the DRIP thing I'll be starting up. The initial investment will go back into Dietbet for the next round. I want to lose 15 pounds this month, but I'd be happy with just making progress.

I have gained back all of the weight I lost before, plus another 15 pounds. And it is making life difficult. This time I need to make the changes permanent. I really hope I'm finally ready to do that.

In other news we lost Lemon today. She had hurt herself a few days ago and while we had been treating her injuries, she just couldn't recover. She died this afternoon. That brings our duck flock down to 4 females and one male. It is sad, but it doesn't hurt as bad as it did when Sienna died. Ducks are not affectionate by nature, and while they make me happy with their antics, they are not something I have cuddled with. It puts more space between me and the loss.

Aside from the auto deductions and the AMEX bill, which have money set aside for them, I am hoping for a no spend week starting tomorrow and going through next Tuesday. We have plenty of food, milk, and medication and toiletries in the house and no reason to spend any money on anything, so this week should be a breeze to get through. I won't have physical therapy again for 8 days, which I will have to pay, or I'd be trying to go no spend until January 9th, which is our next payday.

Today we spent $75 on rabbit feed and oats and I spent $90 on physical therapy.

The kids start back to school on Monday and normally I would buy lunch meat, but I am just going to make an extra pizza on Sunday and then they can take that for lunches. They both like cold pizza over sandwiches anyway and since I make it with lots of onions and peppers it is reasonably well balanced.

My husband taught my FIL and my mom how to butcher rabbits so they could help do it and DH could keep his injured finger out of them, so on Monday they butchered 10. These ones were a few weeks older than our norm, so it'll be close to 35 pounds of meat and about 2.5 pounds of livers. I will be working on cutting it all up tomorrow for grinding. We should get about 35 pounds of burger after the bones are taken out.

Then I will boil up the bones, pick off the remaining meat, and can the stock. I might even make up some ready made soups to can with the meat from the bones, although generally I save that for making enchiladas.

I am about ready to start cooking again, even though I'm not over this illness. My brain is starting to unfog, which is good. And since DH just left for Alaska and won't be able to help, I am glad I feel like I am capable to start at least making dinners again.

Monday:
Rabbit stew
Fresh bread
Cole slaw

Tuesday:
Chicken stir-fry
Rice

Wednesday:
Fried rabbit
Fried potatoes
Green beans

Thursday:
Roasted chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli

Friday:
Homemade pizza (onions, peppers, pepperoni, prosciutto)
Cole slaw

Saturday:
Sloppy Hoppies
Cole slaw

Sunday:
Meatloaf made with ground rabbit and duck eggs
Mashed potatoes
Green beans

Recently DH and I made the decision to make a small investment in new dishes. We don't have a lot of plates and bowls anymore. The kids have broken a lot of our old set over the last few years and since it has been discontinued, it is almost impossible to find. In pricing new dishes of any quality (not china, but not melamine, either), I found them to be about $7 to $8 a plate.

So instead I went on ebay to look and see what they had in the way of old dishes in good condition and I found they had some that matched the stuff my grandmother had when I was a little kid. We were able to buy 13 plates, 10 of which were in mint condition for less than we would have paid for new, and they are all usable. The small chips in the 3 plates are fixable, though I would still like to get 2 more plates that are in mint condition.

Last night I found 12 matching bowls, so we will be getting those next. They have the same pattern on the outer rim, but the picture on the bottom of the bowl is different from the one on the bottom of the plate. They complement each other nicely.

They do have matching tumblers, but they are more expensive so I don't think we will be getting those now, but it is something to keep my eye on.

These dishes make me so happy and remind me of all the time I spent with my grandmother. And the whole family really likes them, too. The best part is they are dishwasher safe because of how they were glazed. The design won't wear off like with some of the older china.

$11,010.00 Beginning Balance
+____10.00 Weekly Deposit
----------------
$11,020.00 New Balance

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 made the most I have ever made on farm sales in a month this month.

$67.50 rabbit meat sales
+39.00 egg sales
+20.00 live rabbit sales
---------------
126.50 total farm sales

I am excited to see it doing so well. That was enough to cover a month of rabbit feed and a month of turkey feed and 1 bag of duck/chicken layer feed. That's not what I'm doing with it though. I have decided to take my farm sales money and my survey money and start investing in DRIPs.

I would like to end up with enough in drips that by the time I am 65 I can switch from reinvesting to getting the dividends paid and make enough income from it to provide about $2000 a month for retirement. I know that I'll have to add more money to it than what I can make with the farm and surveys, but I think we can manage that.

We got the van back on Thursday night. The cost to fix was a total of $2439.89. That is a big chunk of money that I definitely could have used somewhere else, but at least we had it and didn't have to touch the emergency fund. And we got to drive the loaner for a week for free. The dealership actually loaned us the minivan they use as one of their shuttles to drive customers to and from the dealership when their vehicles are being worked on.

Today is the first day it has rained hard since we got it back so it will be the first test of whether or not the roof still leaks. It hasn't in the sprinkling that has been up to now.

The starter and battery seem to be working fine, though. We're going to give the van a long run today and go down to the farm we buy our beef from. Since DH ended up getting the extra weeks we don't have to pinch like I was afraid of, so we are going to buy some beef for canning. Having canned beef is such a time saver for me and very convenient when I am sick. Beef stew is so easy to make with that on hand.

We have been going through our canned potatoes pretty fast so I am also going to go out to Safeway this weekend and use some of the gift cards to buy several pounds of organic potatoes to can. I much prefer having canned potatoes on hand since they don't sprout. Less waste that way. And they can be used for everything, mashed potatoes, fried, hash browns, casseroles, stews.

We have gotten presents bought for DH's mom and dad, DD, me, DH, and some of DS's. We still need to buy for SIL and youngest niece since DH never did get around to talking about not exchanging with them this year. We also need to get our wrapping paper out of storage and bring it home.

I am still pretty tired and sinus-y, but a lot of the virus seems to be passing. Just wish the exhaustion would go. It makes it hard to do things or be enthusiastic about the holidays.

I forgot to post my meal planning for this week, but I still did it. We made up a big batch (16 cups) of brown rice at the beginning of the week, added corn and carrots and peas, and some soy sauce and have been using it as sides. I love having a rice cooker. I'm going to post the whole thing, even though it is already Thursday, because I often go back and look at the ones I have posted before to get ideas for future weeks.

Monday--
Teriyaki flank steak
Rice
Green beans

Tuesday--
Fajitas with chicken, bell peppers, onions, cheese, whole wheat tortillas
Rice

Wednesday--
Black pepper chicken
Rice
Man du dumplings (Korean, cabbage, bean sprouts, pork, mirin)

Thursday--
BBQ Chicken Wings
Rice
Cole slaw

Friday--
Homemade pizza (rabbit sausage, onions, bell peppers)
Cole slaw

Saturday--
Sloppy Hoppies
Cole slaw

Sunday--
Fried Rabbit
Fried potatoes
Green beans

Today is the weekly deposit of $10 into savings.

$11,000.00 Beginning EF Balance
+____10.00 Deposit Amount
-------------------
$11,010.00 Ending EF Balance

Back to making baby steps for a while, but as I always say, even baby steps move you forward.

I tried to use my checking account to pay for an order on Amazon because I didn't want to use a credit card. I've done this before with no problems and there is plenty of money in the account. But they won't accept it. I wonder if it is some kind of fraud protection since it is Christmas time? I don't know, because there was no information as to why.

So I ended up using the card and will just send that amount to AMEX, but I don't like having to take that extra step, when I should have been done with it in one step. I am starting to think that these companies are going to force us to use credit cards no matter what.

The Christmas Bonus came in the mail yesterday. We weren't expecting it until the 19th. It was the same as last year, gross, but less net as they took out some for 401K and 25% for taxes, which they do for all bonuses no matter how big or how small. Gubmint has to catch those super bonuses after all from those tax evading CEO's, by going after everyone who gets them right off the top. We'll get most of it back when we file our income taxes, though.

I am tentatively setting aside $1000 for DH's bachelor's program, and $1000 to the Emergency Fund. I'm not going to decide on the rest of it until I know for sure the exact dollar amount on the van repair. I'd like to set aside more for the bachelor's program. Ideally I'd like to have enough for two classes that he could take back to back. He does one at a time. And then we'd have the income tax return to pay for the next couple classes by the time he'd finished the first two.

$10,000.00 Beginning EF Balance
+_1,000.00 Amount Added
-------------
$11,000.00 New EF Balance

No, not really. But DH and DS flew to Portland today. They should be back home in a couple of hours. DH needed 500 miles to attain gold status on his frequent flyer program and did a companion fare for DS who would have lost his miles if he hadn't flown this year.

Gold status is pretty important to DH since he flies every 2 weeks and it frequently gives him upgrades to first class which makes everything so much easier when you are 6 foot 3 and broad shouldered. He also gets free digiplayers and headphones, better food, and if he wanted, free alcohol.

It didn't cost too much and they get to spend a father/son day. It's a clear day today so the view from the plane window should be pretty great.

They'll have a meal out in the Portland airport so will likely spend about $30 there and then parking for the day is $12. All in all, about $500 for DH to maintain his status and get his perks. Since one upgrade to first class would be about $1000, and he generally gets them 12 times a year for free with his gold status, that is a bargain.

Sold a NZ red doe kit today with DQs, so at a discount. $20. A pedigreed red that was at the SOP would go for $30. This one had a white spot on her face so was not show quality. I gave my son his third of $6.66 and my 2/3 of $13.34 goes into the feed money jar.

The ducks are only producing 2 to 3 eggs a day this week. Makes it easier to keep up with them, but I hope they are still laying in January as I have a lady who wants to get some hatching eggs then. Our four chickens are giving us 4 a day, so we still have enough for sales.

Today is payday and I was able to achieve my goal of getting the EF to $10K by the end of the year. Exactly $10K.

$9676.22 Beginning Balance
+_323.78 Amount Added
---------------
10,000.00 Ending Balance

My goal for 2015 is $15K, with a mini-goal of $12K.

Between what I saved for December/January bills and today's paycheck we have $6067.22. $2100 to $2500 will go for the car. $1000 to Mom's loan. $225 to the chiropractor. The early January bills it will need to cover will be $500 or so. That leaves us with $1842.22 to cover Christmas and anything else between now and the next paycheck on January 9th. And we have $200 in grocery store gift cards. We should get by on that just fine.

The Christmas Bonus comes on the 19th or thereabouts. We have no idea of how much it is going to be and it will be mostly relegated to the EF and DH's bachelor's program.

The important thing is that despite the curve ball of the car repair, we won't have to touch the Emergency Fund to cover anything. I am so happy about that.

Well, it is going to cost around $2100 to fix the leaky roof of the van. I will never buy a vehicle with a moon roof or sun roof ever again. I didn't care one way or the other about having them. We almost never even use the things. If we lived in a better climate I wouldn't worry about it, but since it rains here 8 to 9 months out of the year almost every day, this isn't something we can ignore or we'll end up with a mold problem.

The whole point of buying a new car was so we could avoid expensive repairs for a good seven to ten years. I won't go for that logic ever again. This thing is only 3.5 years old. The whole point of buying a Toyota was that it had the reputation of being solid and not having major issues (well, that and good resale value). We plan to drive this vehicle for many years, drive it into the ground actually, but I think next time we'll be going back to Ford (used, of course). Never had a problem with them. Lesson learned.