Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

$1947.00 Beginning Balance
+_500.00 Deposit
------------
$2447.00 Ending Balance

$9322.66 Beginning EF Balance
+_100.00 Monthly Deposit
-------------
$9422.66 Ending EF Balance

$9312.66 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
-----------
$9322.66 Ending EF Balance

Well, I know for sure that I am going to be able to squeeze $500 out of this coming Friday's paycheck to go towards the five weeks when DH won't be working. I might be able to squeeze as much as $750 out, but I'm not sure. Prescriptions are due to be renewed Friday, and I don't remember how much that is going to be now that DD is on the new meds.

We are still waiting to hear if he got the okay to work a few extra days before the shut down. They were supposed to tell him within 2 days of his getting home and he still hasn't heard anything. This employer is so unorganized. He's calling them today to see what is going on.

So far they have not sent out the grocery store gift card that they usually send out before Thanksgiving. On a normal year it would be here by now, but since this is not a normal year, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't send them out at all. I am not counting on it coming. In fact, it would shock me if they send them out with the way they've been behaving towards their employees this year.

I am very glad we have our turkeys taken care of for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And that we have lots of food in the freezer and on the shelves. We will get through this. It'll be hard, and we may have to touch the Emergency Fund, but we will manage. I just wish we didn't have to.

I won't have to contribute to the Property Tax Fund during the month of December since I already put an extra payment in in October for December. Same with the Dues Fund. I have $500 in the Propane Fund plus a $50 credit with the company so I won't have to put $100 into the dues fund next time. We just turned the propane on this week at the old house and it has a full tank. We won't be driving much for half of December as there is no school so gas costs will be lower.

Next year I will try to plan a little better. We've just never had this many weeks to cover before. But I will start saving $200 a month towards next year's shut down in January and put aside one of the two extra paychecks DH gets during the year that doesn't go towards the regular budget. It'll be tight, especially if medical goes up AGAIN and I see no reason it won't, but we'll deal. We have to. It's not like there are a lot of other choices right now.

$9238.16 Beginning EF Balance
+__77.50 Deposit
--------------
$9312.66 Ending EF Balance

Monday:
Leftovers

Tuesday:
Barbecue chicken wings
Fried potatoes
Green beans

Wednesday:
Beef stir-fry with broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and carrots
Oranges

Thursday:
Baked rabbit
Baked potatoes
Green beans

Friday:
Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ham, onions, and bell peppers

Saturday:
Bacon rabbit cheeseburgers
Homemade French fries
Cole slaw

Sunday:
Beef stew
Green beans

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.

$9228.16 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------
$9238.16 Ending EF Balance

I am thinking about buying a new bread machine and was wondering if any of you have experience with the recent models and could recommend one? I'd prefer one that makes a square or rectangular loaf, not a round one. It also needs to have a manual setting for making pizza dough or rolls.

I've been thinking about this for a while now. The bread machine I am currently using is my mothers and it doesn't have the ability to bake the bread because the heating element has never worked since she loaned it to me. I have always just mixed the dough in it and then transferred it to loaf pans for the second rise.

Now that it is cold the dough does not rise very quickly and can sometimes take all day. A fully functioning bread machine keeps a warm enough environment for the bread to rise like it should. Plus I would be able to just bake the loaf of bread in it.

One of the things about not having my own full kitchen is that when I want to use Mom's oven it can be quite an ordeal. She has a double oven, but you can't bake in the small top one or the bread will hit the ceiling and rolls will bake too fast. You also can't roast a whole chicken in the top oven. Stuff has to be pretty flat to cook in it. The large oven, however, is where she insists on storing all of her pots and pans. So then I have to take everything out of the oven and put it on the counters to use it.

We are talking about ten pieces of cookware and I can't stack them inside each other in case they scratch the coating, so they have to be spread out. And then she complains because the counters are covered with her pots and pans. She has plenty of low shelf space, but for some reason doesn't want to use them for pots and pans.

Quite frankly it is why I use the cooktop, crockpot, and microwave so much...because she moans about everything in the kitchen being out of place. Lately I can't even use the counters to put the pots and pans on, because her last 3 canner loads of beans are spread all over it. She won't put them away. We've offered to help, but she'll get to it when she gets to it. It's been 3 weeks.

So I've kind of given up making my own bread but I really want to get back to it. Bread machines don't cost that much and if I can make bread in my area I won't have to deal with the fuss she makes about using the main kitchen. And I can make it at any time of day I want. I'll be able to put the stuff in at night and program it to be ready in the morning.

I've been thinking about this for a long time now and I think I am ready to make the plunge.

Because we have not had a freeze yet, the garden has continued unabated. Yesterday I harvested 5 broccoli plants and 3 cauliflower plants. I had thought there were only 2 that were ready, but I found a 3rd that was so was very happy with that. The ducks, chickens, and turkeys were thrilled to get the spent plants. I've got 2 more broccoli and 2 more cauliflower that I am letting size up and then those will be done.

I will be drying parsley later in the week. There are no freezes predicted for the next 10 days, so I am just letting things continue to grow instead of pulling it all out.

I want the leeks to get a little more size before yanking them and using them to make rabbit and chicken stocks. They are useable now, but the bigger they get the more flavorful they will be.

The kale is still going strong. Sometimes kale makes it through the winter here, so I am going to let it try. I am leaving the sweet meat squash as long as I can, though the leaves are dying down so it is just what is left in the vines that is nourishing them. They are almost at 110 days now which is what they should be at for picking.

I haven't had much of a chance to do anything with the straw bale garden yet, except keep picking green beans. There are a couple of peppers that may be ripe and some kohlrabi. I think the zucchini is done. The tomatoes and cucumbers have been done for a while, though the plants are still alive. I will try to get out there and go through that garden in the next couple of days if there is a break in the weather.

Here's a vid of the hay bale garden, though:

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

Our garden is still trucking along. We haven't had a frost yet and I've got two big heads of cauliflower to use and a couple broccoli. We still have green beans, too.

I have easy meals planned for Saturday, since we will be butchering turkeys that day, and Sunday, since we will be butchering rabbits that day. No one really wants to cook on those days, so something simple and easy to prepare is a must or we will end up going out to eat.

Sunday:
Beef pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Broccoli/cauliflower from the garden

Monday:
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Green beans from the garden

Tuesday:
Bacon rabbit cheese burgers
Homemade French fries

Wednesday:
Rabbit/Duck Egg meatloaf
Green beans from the garden
Corn

Thursday:
Pancakes and ham

Friday:
Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Tacos

Sunday:
Crockpot ham
Green beans
Canned corn

There was a showing on our house last week where the lookers absolutely fell in love with the place. They have not made an offer yet, but they are trying to get financing. I really hope this is the one. The last one was so disappointing. The biggest problem is people can't get a federal loan for poor people. It doesn't qualify, so people have to go with the traditional financing options which are much pickier.

I would love to get this house sold and not have to heat it all winter on our dime to keep the pipes from freezing. Even just keeping the thermostat on 55 burns through a lot of propane. We haven't had a frost yet so I haven't turned on the furnace yet, but I know the day is coming soon. I currently have $400 in the Propane Fund and will be adding another $100 next week. I also have just under $50 in credit on the account.

When DH comes home I will send him out to turn the furnace on and to make sure all the vents under the house are closed to keep cold air from easily getting underneath it. And possibly to see if it needs a final landscaping for the fall and whether we need to pick up pinecones. The trees release sometime in the fall and it can be quite messy on the driveway.

Anyway, prayers would be appreciated that these sellers are the one and that they can get their financing in order and make a good offer.

The interest of $5.56 for the month hit my C1-360 account so I added that to the Emergency Fund.

$9222.60 Beginning EF Balance
+___5.56 Interest Added
-------------
$9228.16 Ending EF Balance

I was able to transfer $1000 to my December Money Fund today. $400 of it was medical reimbursement and $500 was scrimped out of last month's budget. $100 I took off the top of today's paycheck.

This puts the fund total at $1947. I am hoping to be able to save $1500 out of the next 5 paychecks. It's not enough to cover 5 weeks with no pay, but it'll mean that much less out of the Emergency Fund. We can't rely on any kind of a company bonus this year to get through the shut down period.

Mom says we don't have to make a December payment on our loan to her, but I'd like to avoid skipping it. I absolutely hate owing her that money and any month we skip will be that much longer we have to be under that debt. We hit the halfway point today, $55,000 paid off, $55,000 to go. We have 4 years and 7 months left if we stay on track.

We have 2 years and 8 months left on the van loan at our current rate of payment. Maybe a little sooner since I pay a little extra each month, but it's hard to say how much sooner. Probably just a month, possibly two. It's not that much extra.

We will be butchering 2 of our turkeys on November 8th for the upcoming holidays and whichever rabbit kits have hit 5 pounds will be butchered the next day. That will cut the turkey feed bill in half. I'm not going to raise rabbit kits over the winter, so that will cut the rabbit feed bill way down, too, once all the current grow outs are butchered. The youngest kits will be 8 weeks old on Sunday.

The older kits will be 15 weeks old on Sunday. I think they will all be of butchering size by the time DH comes home. 4 out of 8 are now, and I think it is more likely that 6 out of 8 are, but I haven't weighed them in a couple of weeks. I hope they all will be because we need the cage space for the youngsters. I will weigh them tomorrow since we will be cleaning out cages.

I have about 50 pounds of rabbit meat in the freezer currently and after this next round we'll have an additional 20 pounds to either can or freeze since dress out weight is a little over 1/2 of live weight. And then the youngest coming up number 18, so that will be an additional 45 pounds if they all survive to butcher age. There will be plenty of meat without breeding again until late February.

I am also debating on sending the drakes to freezer camp. I don't need them for the ducks to lay eggs, and considering how little meat there is on a Welsh Harlequin, we won't be raising ducklings after all, so we don't need the males. Plus one of them is really beating up on one the girls when they mate. Her wing feathers are in pretty bad shape from it. If I do, that will cut that feed bill down, too, but not too much since they mostly eat what they forage and just fill in with feed when they are hungry.

I've been getting 5 duck eggs a day lately and 4 chicken eggs every 36 hours so the female birds are definitely paying for themselves. I need to make a bunch of meatloaf freezer meals so I can use up some of these eggs. I do sell a few dozen here and there and I give them away to family and friends, but even so, it is hard to keep up with what they produce.

I've still got to do up a payday report, but I haven't finished paying all the bills yet, so will likely do that tomorrow.

$9212.60 Beginning EF
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------
$9222.60 Ending EF

Step by step, bit by bit, getting there.

Today was kind of a Murphy day. Not in a horrible, awful way, but just there. I'm off the no eating out challenge. I ordered a pizza today. It didn't cost me anything though, because I ordered a Montague's All Meat Pizza and they made a King Arthur's Supreme instead. Now we do on occasion get the King Arthur's, but never with mushrooms and olives because I'm allergic to mushrooms and the kids and I hate olives. And the kids heard me order the correct one, so I know I didn't screw it up.

So they offered to give us the wrong pizza as well as make us a new one, but since I didn't want the wrong pizza, they made us the right one and refunded our money, which we had already paid before they brought out the pizza. Which is their policy when they mess up. So free pizza, even if we did have to wait and extra 20 minutes. Worth it, because it was Friday and we weren't in a hurry to get home and do homework.

Then this afternoon I went to the feed store to buy crimped oats. Which I did. The feed bag tag even says crimped oats, but when I went to open it tonight to give to the rabbits, it was chicken scratch grains, which was heavy on the corn. Rabbits can't eat corn. So tomorrow I will have to take it back to the feed store, which won't be a lot of fun because it is an open 50 pound bag. We've got it seat-belted into one of the seats in the car so it will hopefully ride back there without spilling. Fortunately I did not replace my receipt. I doubt I will get a free bag of oats out of this one, though. It was too late to take it back tonight, so the rabbits were out of luck. No bunny crack for them.

Then my physical therapy session was cancelled this afternoon. I'm not actually all that put out since I am still really tired from having had the flu. And still have a really runny nose, which is not fun at PT. I thought I might get some stuff done, but ended up just laying in bed watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix. I don't feel bad about it, though. Clearly my body still needed the rest.

There was a shooting in a high school not too far from us today. It is the same high school that my eldest nephew and niece attended. My nephew was trying to get a meeting this morning with someone to talk about speaking at the school, but it didn't happen. It was one of those crazy things where he could have been there. He's the father of two with a baby due in December, so thank goodness he wasn't able to make the appointment. I like to think that maybe my bad luck day balanced out his good luck. I'll take it, if that's the outcome.

$9202.60 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------
$9212.60 New EF Amount

I think I am finally starting to come out of the flu. I have not been this tired in a long, long time. Now the kids are down with it and both stayed home from school today. Fortunately all they want to do is sleep, so I can still rest.

Last night DH went back to Alaska, so I don't have him to fall back on. And of course last night was a major wind storm that managed to rip one panel of roofing off the turkey coop and leave one panel dangling down the front of it. The piece of roofing that he jury rigged to keep the rain from going in the duck coop window was also ripped off.

I can fix the duck coop, but I don't know what I am going to do about the turkey coop as that requires going up on a ladder and I can't climb ladders with my knee. Maybe I can throw a tarp over that half of it. The turkeys will just have to stay on one side of the coop, I guess.

DH wanted to loan his sister money and I had to say no, because we don't have it. I mean, we physically have it, but it has to pay for all the expenses of December when he is off work for 5 weeks with no pay. And if we loan money to her, we won't be able to meet our own expenses. December is only a month away and there is no way she'd be paying us back on time.

I feel bad for SIL. She was in a car accident that was not her fault and has been off work for a month. She will eventually get a settlement, but it certainly won't be in time to pay us back for December bills. We have helped her where we could, but we just can't do it this time. I can't put my own family and finances in jeopardy for her.

I don't think DH gets how tight things are. I think he thinks that things are as good as they were 4 years ago. But he's bringing home $1000 less each month than he was even two years ago due to higher taxes and bigger medical deductions. I have told him and told him, but it doesn't seem to sink in. The fact that he even asked me shows that. And I end up feeling like the bad guy in this.

But I know if it comes down to it, SIL and niece can move in with MIL and FIL. Or she can get money from her boyfriend. Or from her rich uncle. She's been holding onto a house she can't afford since her divorce several years ago.

I'm very frustrated. I don't like being made to feel guilty. It makes me resentful. Her situation is not my fault. I plan hard to take care of emergencies and times of no income and she doesn't and never has. And I feel like I'm being penalized for it, just because I said no. But I have every right to say no. I know DH doesn't mean to make me feel this way, but that doesn't stop me from feeling it. He just wants to help his sister. I do, too, but not at the expense of our own family. /rant

$9192.60 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
------------
$9202.60 Ending EF Balance

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.

$9182.60 Beginning Amount
+__10.00 Weekly Deposit
--------------
$9192.60 Ending EF Amount

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.

If anyone is interested in signing up for Pinecone surveys (payout is $3 per survey) they sent me a referral link. How it works is I have to forward it to someone's email. I cannot just post the link here. So if you are wanting to try to sign up for Pinecone, you would have to give me your email address. You can leave it here as a comment and then I will delete it after I see it and send the link on.

$9182.60 Beginning Balance
+____.30 Interest Added
------------
$9182.60 Ending EF Balance

Nickeling and Diming my way to $10K.

I got my statement from credit union #3 today, the one where I deposit the weekly $10. It had 22 cents in interest so I added that to the Emergency Fund.

$9182.38 Beginning Balance
+____.22 Interest Added
------------
$9182.38 Ending EF Balance

Every little bit adds up.

Two weeks down, 16 days to go. We are doing really well here. The kids have not been able to talk me into going out to eat in two weeks. There were a couple of days that I really wanted to, too. Having the meal plans firmly in place help a lot. Making meals in such a way as to have planned leftovers helps so much. This week I will be using my homemade spaghetti sauce in 3 recipes and my homemade meatballs in two. I will make the sauce and meatballs tonight and then use them in tonight's meal and in the meals the following two nights.

Last week I made baked potatoes with dinner one night. I threw in enough extra to make baked potato soup later in the week.

Sometimes I will make roast chicken, pick the leftovers off the bones, and made enchiladas and quesadillas as well as using the bones to make chicken stock for chicken noodle soup.

Those sorts of leftovers really help to have on hand so I can make one complicated meal followed by one or two easy ones. I always plan my complicated meal for a night when I have more time and the easier meals for the nights when I don't.

Doing this helps me save money because 1. I don't buy as much food to begin with, 2. I don't end up wasting the food I did buy, and 3. I am far less interested in eating out when I know I can put together a much better meal quickly.

Of course I am still tempted to eat out, but I'm not sure it would be worth the hit to the wallet, or the pain from ingredients I'm allergic to. Since I never know what food additives are used, cooking at home is safer for my stomach, too. And certainly safer for my son's.

I'll need to harvest 3 to 4 heads of broccoli this week so that will play into dinner plans. The zucchini has gone to baseball bat size, so I've just been cutting them open for the chickens and turkeys to eat. If I catch any of the smaller ones at the right size we'll have some of them this week, too.

I've also got quite a few tomatoes and a couple of peppers so those will also be accounted for in the planning.

I cleaned out the refrigerator today. It's my least favorite chore. But it needed to be done. Now all my leftovers are organized and on one shelf so it will be easy to see what needs to be eaten up. Those are generally for my lunches or DH's if he is home.

Monday:
Spaghetti with Meatballs made with homemade tomato sauce
Broccoli

Tuesday:
Pizza made with homemade tomato sauce, rabbit sausage, onions, bell peppers

Wednesday:
Meatball sandwiches made with leftover meatballs, leftover sauce, and on garlic bread
Broccoli

Thursday:
Barbecue chicken wings
Fried potatoes
Green beans

Friday:
Chicken Stir-fry with broccoli,, garlic, ginger, onions, carrots, green beans, and celery
Egg Fried Rice

Saturday:
Bacon rabbit cheeseburgers
Homemade French fries

Sunday:
Homemade Fish and Chips
Broccoli

$250.00 AMEX
$400.00 to Mom for her utilities
__46.00 Salmon and canning jars
$100.00 Emergency Fund
__29.06 Power Old House
__47.92 Phone Old House
__75.65 Internet
__45.30 Life Insurance DH
__44.66 Life Insurance Me
__74.41 Car Insurance
__48.75 Old House Insurance
__41.66 Security Old House
$186.00 Storage
$100.00 Property Tax Fund
$100.00 Propane Fund
$450.00 December Money Fund
---------------
$1789.41 Total Money Out

I do have a few other things that will be coming out of this paycheck, but they aren't due for a while so I will likely lump them in with next week's payday report unless I get the bills before next Friday. I will be buying the kids winter coats and umbrellas. I will be buying hay. I've got a couple of medical/dental bills to round up, too.

$8965.11 Beginning EF Amount
___17.19 Safe Driver Refund Check
____0.08 Interest from CU #1
__100.00 Check from MIL
+_100.00 Monthly Deposit
----------
$9182.38 Ending EF Balance

I am glad to get it over the $9K mark again. Now onwards back to the $10K mark.