Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

Today is payday (finally!). I sent $100 to the Emergency Fund.

$8095.19 Beginning Balance
+_100.00 Amount Added
-----------
$8195.19 Ending Balance

Premera sucks. It really sucks. Because our dentist is not in their network, they won't pay him directly, even though I've filled out the paperwork to do so and they are supposed to. Instead they send checks to me paid to the order of the dentist and my husband. And not or. Because of this, the dentist can't cash the checks without my husband's signature as well. And of course he's in Alaska for another week.

The dentist says this is the only insurance company that does this. They are trying to force us into their network. Well, we like our dentist and it was hard enough to find him. None of us wants to go elsewhere, that's why we pay a little more than we would in network. If we changed our dentist every time we had a new insurance we would have gone through about 10 dentists by now.

Instead of behaving like grown ups, Premera plays these childish games. I wish DH's company would drop them and choose something else. I'd even prefer to go back to Aetna, who I used to think was really bad until we had to switch to Premera.

I had a dentist appointment yesterday and paid $74.40 from a previous balance. The dentist wants me to go see the orthodontist about my top teeth. I've been getting a gap between my front teeth for the last couple years and it is affecting my jaw and my bite.

I would like to do Invisalign, I think. I know it is $5000 for both top and bottom. I am hoping that means $2500 for just the top. DH is checking into whether or not we even have orthodontia on our insurance. And if we do if it covers the adults. A lot of ortho is only covered in children.

The do have see-through braces that will get the job done in 14 months. Invisalign takes 2 years. But you can take Invisalign out to eat and you can brush and floss your teeth easier because you can take them out. I have a very sensitive mouth, so the pokiness of braces would drive me crazy and hurt. I'd rather go the 2 years with an see-through appliance. Even if I have to pay for it all myself.

I'm in a bit of an annoyed at the world mood right now. I had 2 people in front of me make right hand turns from the left hand turn lane at two different 5-way intersections yesterday and it is still ticking me off. Both intersections had those giant arrows painted on the concrete, plus signs on the traffic light telling you what lane you are in.

Plus a lady tried to go the wrong way up a one way street in her giant jacked up pickup truck. She came out of a parking lot for a store. The only way to get to that store is to go down the obviously one way street and turn in, so she had to know it was one way going in. It shouldn't be something forgotten in the 20 minutes or so she was likely in the store for. Are people really this oblivious?

$8085.19 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Amount Added
------------
$8095.19 Ending EF Balance

I also added $8.17 to the coin jar.

I am nickling and diming my way to $10K. So many people out there think they just cannot save. Even when things were super tight we managed to eek out $10 a week for savings. We let go of a luxury item, soda pop, and instead put that $10 in savings each week. We drank water instead so we weren't replacing the soda pop with another beverage or upping our intake of other beverages we already bought like milk or OJ.

I decided to save all my coins and add them to savings. This eventually turned into all of my ones as well that I got back in change.

Then we cancelled our cable for a savings of $100 a month (back then), and put that money into savings. Just between those three things, We managed to save between $140 and $200 a month.

Even if you can't put aside $10 a week like I did when I started out, try to put $10 a month into savings. It doesn't seem like much, but it does begin to add up. And the habit of putting the money in is just as valuable as the actual money you are putting in. You are learning to save so that when a bigger opportunity to save comes along you are ready to add it to your savings habit.

I cleaned out my purse tonight and added $11.09 to the coin jar.

For some reason I am feeling really anxious about payday getting here on Friday. I guess because going without a paycheck for four weeks, even when you are prepared for it, is not a natural thing.

I'm not out of money or anything like that. I just want it to be here already. I'm feeling the same way about all tax documentation. I want it here, so we can file and get most of our HSA money back ASAP. I want it in the bank and under my control, earning interest for me.

I am seriously thinking about investing in an aquaponics system. As I get older it is getting hard to garden in the ground. My knees and hips are bad, and my back is no spring chicken either. The system I am looking about can be adjusted to waist level so you can simply work on it standing or you can pull up a chair, even.

With the system I am looking at, I could eventually grow enough vegetables to feed us and supplement the rabbits' food as well year round. It would take a couple of years for it to pay back the investment, but it would be worth it for 90 pounds of fish a year plus the fruits and veggies.

It does have a smaller starter system that I think we'd start out with. It can then be expanded to make it bigger as we get the hang of it.

I've been doing a ton of research and I do think this is the way to go if I want to continue to garden with my disabilities. So I am creating a new fund for aquaponics. Time to start saving up.

I ended up buying some things after all that I hadn't planned on. I decided that I needed to get 2 new pairs of jeans. I have been wearing my jeans to do farm chores and they are becoming too shabby to wear off the property.

Then DS informed me he had outgrown all of his underwear but two, and DD informed me that she had outgrown all of her socks. I got DS 3 4 pks of underwear because they were cheaper that way and DD 2 6 pks. DD needed a cheap bottle of conditioner and both kids wanted a new brush because they didn't like the one I bought to replace the broken one. I do like it though. It is way better at getting out tangles. So DD wanted a round styling brush and DS just wanted one like the broken one. I also bought a hair dryer because ours shot out sparks and ceased to work.

Fortunately it was all at one store and I had over $13 in credits on my store card. I also ended up getting $5 credit for my next purchase. I was able to ignore any further suggestions from the kids, one of whom wanted yet another pair of PJ bottoms and the other wanted a new sweatshirt and a shirt. None of those things are needs, though.

Oh, and I did buy a set of headphones, but DD is paying me back out of her allowance. Total spent was $130, with DD owing me $20 of that back.

DD gave DS a haircut last night. Someone called him a young lady when he was out with his grandmother so he decided it was time. It wasn't that long, maybe 3 inches, but it was long enough that it was curling so it did give a little bit of a feminine style, but he was wearing boy clothes so not sure how he got mistaken for a girl. DD has gotten quite good with the clippers. I only had to trim up a bit around his ears. So that saved us $15. It's not quite a buzz cut, but no one will be mistaking him for a girl with it, that's for sure.

Well, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have one more week without a paycheck and then finally next Friday DH gets paid again. I am so glad that I put so much money in savings and stayed on top of all the bills. It has been so helpful in stretching over the last 3 weeks and we'll be fine until the end of this.

I start this next week with $674.63 in the checking account and $75 in cash. The only thing I have to pay for is part of my dental visit on the 22nd. And give the kids allowances. I will have to buy some milk and some deli meat and veggies on Sunday, but other than that, I hope to end up next payday with $500 left to throw at the mortgage.

Since the new year has started DH's paychecks will be fully taxed again so the extra $700 I've been throwing at the mortgage each month will be reduced down to an extra $200 again. Our medical insurance year won't be up until May and then who knows how much things will go up then. So trying to do as much as possible while I still can and if I don't spend this week I can make one last big payment. I think I can get the mortgage under $6000 on payday.

My coin jar was getting heavy and my ones envelope was getting fat, so I rolled coin and counted ones. Altogether I had $42 ready to be deposited.

$8043.19 Beginning EF Balance
+__42.00 Deposit Added
------------
$8085.19 Ending EF Balance

My goal for the month is to get to $8205. I have $119.81 to go to reach that goal. I have 2 more $10 deposits coming this month and I will make my usual $100 monthly deposit when we get paid on Friday. So I will make that. I need to save $167 a month if I want to get to $10K by the end of the year. But I'm trying for $200 each month. I'm also on track for that.

$8033.19 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Deposit Added
------------
$8043.19 New EF Balance

I know what I want for my birthday next month. I want to check into a hotel and order room service and not be a mother for a day. The kids have been at each other's throats since DD came home from school. DD was in a bad mood because of that one crazy teacher she has so she started it. Then in response DS started provoking her on purpose.

Supposedly they were never speaking to each other again. One hour later they're acting like nothing ever happened, but I'm still tense. And irritated. *sighs* Motherhood, it ain't for sissies.

I spent about 2 hours today doing research on aquaponics systems. It is something I'd like to get into in the future. Not so much for the fish, more for the vegetables, but the fish would be a nice by-product. They can be expensive, but there are some DIY systems that can be cobbled together for far less money. Either I need to start saving or I need to figure out what DH is capable of putting together. Or willing to put together.

There are some that are as simple as a small fishtank, a grow bed, and a pump, filter, and bucket. That would probably be a good place to start.

I dropped DH off at the airport tonight, but before we left he emptied his wallet. He had ten ones and a bunch of coins. Altogether I added $14.42 to the coin jar. I also see little piles of coins he's left around the house that I need to go and gather up. He has a bad habit of emptying his pockets wherever he happens to be and not where the coin jar is. Probably I'll find an additional 50 cents or so.

I have a lady who is interested in buying rabbits in a couple of months. She wants to start raising them for meat and is looking for breeding stock for after she moves. I'm crossing my fingers as she sought me out as opposed to me advertising for it. Still, I may never hear from her again, either.

I haven't done Swagbucks since December. I just got exhausted from it. Not sure when I'll start up with it again. Just don't feel like it yet.

I broke my hairbrush tonight so will have to buy a new one. I am irritated. I know my hair is ridiculously thick and long, but a brush shouldn't just snap in two if it hits a tangle. Unfortunately I get a big tangle at the base of my skull where the C-PAP mask strap goes that has to be worked through every day. I am thinking about buying an old fashioned brush with a wooden handle and actual bristles. I'd have to order it online though. I haven't seen them in stores for years but I've seen them online. But I'll have to buy a cheap one in the meanwhile.

This isn't technically a payday report since we are going four weeks without a paycheck, but it is an accounting of all the bills paid this week with the saved money for January, plus what I had left over from the last paycheck in December. There are two extra charges that DH made because he forgot the credit card he was supposed to use at home, so both of those got paid off as well, a Chase Visa and a BoA Master Card.

$1500.00 BoA Visa
__400.00 To Mom for utilities
___90.00 Physical Therapy
___15.52 Chase Visa
___38.54 BoA Master Card
___13.07 Hospital Bill (DD)
___47.52 Phone Old House
__757.82 Van loan (plus extra to principle)
___55.25 Garbage (2 months)
__200.00 Laptop Fund
___34.44 Electric Old House
___72.56 Internet
___40.00 Allowances
---------------
$3261.72 Total Money Out

So DH has been doing a lot of research and he has found an online college that is accredited (and transferrable to our local university) for an A.S. in psychology, which is what DD is interested in doing. And it only costs $1040 per semester. A semester is six months of work but you have twelve months to complete it in.

We think this will be ideal for our daughter because of all of her health issues. Her biggest problem in high school is falling behind because of her absences and teachers who don't make it a priority to give her the work she missed while gone even when she asks for it daily. If she gets sick for a couple of days doing an online college she just picks up where she left off already knowing what her assignments are.

DD wants to do this. She will also be working on the farm once we move there. I'll probably put her in charge of the goats. And then if she can find one, she'll need to work a part time job of 15 to 20 hours a week. All of the fast food places around here are hiring right now so hopefully that will still be the case.

My husband got one of his degrees through an online/correspondence college and it has helped him so much in his field and improved his pay grade. So we know that if you find the right online college that is legitimate it works and is accepted by businesses as well as universities.

This will save us an awful lot of money on college costs. A year at the community college is $7000 and a year at the local university is $10,000. I mean I have $2000 in the College Fund right now and by the end of the month it will be $2100, so enough to cover two semesters right there.

This takes a tremendous weight off my shoulders.

I haven't done this in a few weeks, but so many folks have posted theirs, I figured I'd better get on the bandwagon again. I'm trying to swing back towards only eating high carbs once a day and low carb for breakfasts and lunches. I know I usually only post suppers, but I'm going to do the whole thing for this week at least so I don't have to think about it, I can just consult my list.

Sunday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, rabbit sausage, cucumber slices

Lunch: Salad of lettuce, cheese, hard boiled egg, shredded rabbit meat

Dinner: Rabbit noodle soup (carrots, potatoes, celery, noodles, rabbit meat), coleslaw, oranges

Monday
Breakfast: 2 egg omelet (bell peppers, onions, bacon)

Lunch: Boneless skinless chicken thighs, grilled, green beans

Dinner: Lasagna, coleslaw, bananas

Tuesday
Breakfast: Ham and green beans

Lunch: Poached cod fish, coleslaw

Dinner: Pork chops, fried potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower, apple sauce

Wednesday
Breakfast: 2 soft-boiled eggs and baked daikon circles sprinkled with parmesan cheese

Lunch:
Turkey and leftover broccoli/cauliflower

Dinner: Fried rabbit, baked potatoes, green beans, oranges

Thursday
Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs, sliced cucumbers with cheese slices

Lunch: Baked salmon, green beans

Dinner: Baked potato soup, coleslaw, pineapple

Friday
Breakfast: 2 egg omelet (leftover salmon and cheese) and cucumber slices

Lunch: Chef salad (lettuce, ham, turkey, cheese)

Dinner: Homemade pizza (rabbit sausage, pepperoni, bell pepper strips, onions, cheese), green salad

Saturday:
Breakfast: Eggs scrambled with onion, bell peppers, sausage, and cheese

Lunch: Taco salad

Dinner: Spaghetti and Meatballs (half ground rabbit, half ground pork, garlic and 3 cheeses), coleslaw

This has been a rollercoaster of a week. We lost 2 kits who had digestive issues making the change from nursing to solid foods. There isn't much that can be done in such a situation as it is the mama that limits the nursing. This is the first time we have lost kits for this reason. It was sad. We tried a special liquid food and feeding with a syringe, but it wasn't enough. Very sad.

This week we also got to meet the little girl that my niece and her husband are adopting. She's a lovely little girl, just 3.5 years old, sweet and shy and crazy about her new mom and dad.

We ground up a bunch more rabbit meat and made six pounds of sausage patties. We also got 2 pounds of stir-fry meat, 8 quarts of soup stock, 2 bags of boiled rib meat from the stock, and 1.75 pounds of burger.

So far I've not had to touch any of the money that we saved for January. But I did transfer the $3000 to my main account and it will arrive on Monday. We don't have a paycheck until the 24th and there are a couple of things that will need to be paid before then. The van loan, the BoA Visa, the internet, and the phone and power both out at the old house.

Not much else going on here. We haven't eaten out at all and we've gotten take away only twice in the last few weeks. We are getting much better at that and cooking a lot. I am still focusing on leftover management. The new fridge helps with that a lot because you can see everything and nothing gets invisible at the back of the fridge.

We will have to get gas tomorrow. The tank is running on fumes. Not much else on the agenda though.

I finally got the amount of interest from one of the CU's for the quarter. A whopping 61 cents. And yesterday was the weekly $10 transfer. I added them both to the Emergency Fund.

$8022.58 Beginning Balance
+__10.61 Deposit Added
----------
$8033.19 New Balance

Yesterday DH and I put 6.75 pounds of rabbit meat through our new electric meat grinder.



It worked great and the results were very nice. It looks sort of like ground pork, but not as fatty. DH cooked up some of it for cheeseburgers for dinner last night using his new 17 inch cast iron pan (which I can't even lift by myself). It was fantastic. I never dreamed rabbit burger would be so good. I guess I should have because it is great every other way we've tried it. So we now have a ground beef substitute. Although we will continue to use beef on occasion the organic, sustainably raised stuff has gotten to be $7 a pound.

We've got four more that need to be cut up. I am planning three of them for mostly grinding to burger and one to do up for stir-fry meat. We'll be boiling the bones for stock and canning up some soup with the meat that falls off the bones and the resulting broth.

We also have 8 more that have hit the 5 pound mark that need to be taken care of. We will probably do them this weekend, since it is supposed to be clear.

I've been learning to cook on cast iron. We pulled the 3 pans we were given as a wedding present out of storage and have seasoned them and started using them. We've had one pan too many flake their Teflon off. Even the nicer pans are looking worse for wear, except for the stainless steel ones. The cast iron is working great. It is truly non-stick. I love using it. I just wish it weren't so heavy. I need to eventually get a 12 inch skillet. I am already planning on getting the Dutch oven for my upcoming birthday in February. Maybe I'll get both.

I need to start posting my menu plans again. We have actually done very well. We've only gotten take out once as a family since DH came home on the 19th. DH and I did get Subway one day while we were picking up feed and didn't have the kids with us. Ouch. For the two of us it was just under $25. Although my sandwich gave me two meals, I did not realize they had gotten so pricey.

I can't eat the cheap stuff anymore though. The last time I had McD's I got sick. The last time I had Arby's (with a coupon) I got sick. I think it is because my diet is normally so free of high fructose corn syrup, which they both use in their buns, that I can't tolerate it anymore. In a way it's good I guess, because I'm not spending so much money on that kind of food and am more willing to cook at home. I have better uses for the money, too.

Extremely intrusive ads are still extremely intrusive. Just saying...

Today was the $10 auto transfer to savings. I moved that to the Emergency Fund.

$8012.58 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Amount Added
------------
$8022.58 New EF Balance

Small amounts add up.

I added $16.14 in ones and coins to the coin jar today after DH cleaned out his wallet and I cleaned out my purse.

I've caught up on all the financial housekeeping I needed to do and have set up my January budget. Now I just need to balance the checkbook and pretty much everything will be set on autopilot until the middle of the month.

Interest hit two of my savings accounts, for a total of $7.84. I added this to the Emergency Fund.

$8004.74 Beginning EF Balance
_____.43 Interest from CU #2
____7.41 Interest from C1-360
-----------
$8012.58 New EF Balance

And that, my dears, is how much debt is left to pay off my mortgage. Can't believe I'm under $7K. It feels fantastic.

No one has put an offer on our house yet. People are looking but no one is buying. The holidays are not a good time for it, I know. I just wish it would happen. I know houses can sit for years. I don't want to be one of the people that happens to. And I don't really want to be a landlord either.

I got some nice things from my in-laws for Christmas. I am looking forward to trying the ravioli maker and press. And to using the electric meat grinder. We're going to make rabbit burger this week after the rabbits are finished aging. I'd like to be able to replace our ground beef consumption with it if possible, or at least do a half and half ratio.

What's with the ugly obtrusive ads all over SA? I go offline for a few days and come back to that? Yeesh. It looks awful. One of the things I always liked about this place was how unobtrusive the ads were. Now they are totally in my face. *sighs*

There are a lot of things I would like to accomplish in the coming year. Some are more important financially than others. The three most important are:

1. Finish saving up the first year of tuition for my daughter by August. That means I need to find $5000 to save between now and then. I am pretty sure we can do this. Most of it will come from our tax refund, which will be large due to reimbursing us for our HSA spending. We will be claiming the full deduction for that again this year.

2. Pay off the mortgage. If the house does not sell this year, I have determined that if I pay $700 for the next 12 months it will be paid off by next December.

3. Get our Emergency Fund to $10,000. If we save $167 a month we can do this. I already put in $140 a month as a matter of course, so finding an extra $27 or so should not be too difficult.

Less important, but still important goals:

4. Begin saving for our daughter's second year of college.

5. Start putting something into the husband's 401K. We took a couple years off to get our credit card debt gone, so now is the time to start contributing again. We will start with 1%, which doesn't seem like a lot, but I want to see what the impact of it will be and also whether or not our insurance rates are going to go up before I increase the 1%.

7. Save money for the HSA.

8. Save money for next Christmas so we can have another Christmas paid for with cash.

9. Finish saving up for moving.

10. Save for 2015's unpaid January time off. I should be saving $333 a month for that, but we won't have it from our monthly budget. I figure we'll save $100 a month for $1200 and then save when we get the extra paychecks during the year.

11. Lose the 50 pounds I gained back.

12. Get enough sleep and try to stay healthy.

I added $8.12 to the coin jar today.

I haven't done Swagbucks in a week. My SB toolbar disappeared from my IE and I've tried redownloading it and nothing. The computer seems to think it is there, though it is not showing up in the list of programs when you look to install/uninstall something.

It's still on my chrome, but I find it is easier to use SB in IE than in chrome. Especially to have the SBTV running in the side.

Aside from that I've been too busy to put the effort into doing it right now. I know I'll get back to it in January. I have enough SB right now to cash out for a $30 GC, though I'll probably wait and get the 5 $5 at the start of Jan.

For the last 2 years we gave SIL a $200 gift card to Target. SIL lives at the poverty level despite working two jobs. This year we couldn't afford to be so spendy since DH's bonus was not as high as expected. I feel bad about it, because we like being able to help her out, but we have done a lot for her this year.

We even kept our own Christmas pretty simple. So this year she is only getting a $40 gift card. I am debating about giving her the 2 $50 Safeway gift cards we got from DH's work, since she lives near one and the closest one to us is 30 miles away, but then I think we will be going 4 weeks without a paycheck and that $100 might be something we could use for that time period.

With taking her and her daughters to Disneyland this year, I think we have spent more than enough money on them. I just hope she wasn't counting on the bigger gift card.

Today is the auto transfer of $10 to savings. I added that to the EF and it is now officially over $8000.

$7994.74 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Amount Added
-----------
$8004.74 Ending EF Balance

My next big goal is $10K.

My goal for January is to save $150. January is virtually a no paycheck month, so that is basically my monthly deposit of $100 and since there are five Thursdays in January, an additional $50. Maybe I'll be able to save more, but I can't be sure of that. I will try to make it up in later months.

I really haven't been around much on the blogs this week. It's been a little crazy around here. We bought our new fridge and it is wonderful. I had to get a different type than we had before. While they still make the ones with the regular fridge on top and the freezer on bottom, they no longer make them as wide or as tall or as deep. So I couldn't just get an almost identical replacement, which was what I wanted.

We ended up getting one with a freezer on the bottom and a fridge with French doors on top.



The freezer is really nice. When you pull open the door the bottom bin comes out and the top bin stays in the freezer. If you want the top bin then you pull it out over the bottom bin. I will keep things like ice cream in the top bin so that if I am looking around in the bottom bin for a bit, everything in the top bin will stay cold. I have the top bin pulled out partially for the photo.



The top has three individually temperature controlled drawers. The bottom one stretches the whole width of the fridge and is shallow and it is for things like deli meat and cheeses. And then the other two drawers are for fruits and veggies. I love that I can set the veggie drawer to a higher humidity than the fruit drawer. It also has a shelf that lifts and stacks on itself so you can put a taller item in (the blue pitcher in this case) without having to move or take out a shelf to accommodate it.



It is a deeper fridge than the one we had before. It has 26 cubic feet of space. It uses LED lighting and when you open the French doors (or at least when I do) I feel like the angels are singing Hallelujah! It does light up like the heavenly host, LOL.

It has an ice maker and an interior place for filtered water. None of that is hooked up. We won't hook it up while we are living here, but will when we move to our farm. I really, really love this fridge.

It was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but the low end models just were not big enough. We need something that can hold a lot of produce when we are processing during the garden months and during canning season.

It has a digital read out of the temps in both the fridge and freezer so I don't have to guess or try to find a thermometer to put in there if I suspect something is going wrong like we did with the last fridge. That is a very nice feature to have.

We ended up getting one that cost $1595. I had been aiming for $1200. We got the $149 five year service agreement. That covers as many calls as we might need and if we never use it will be credited back to us for a future purchase at that store if we spend over $799. Since we have bought things over that price range 3 times now from this store in the last 15 years, I figure it will be used one way or the other. We also paid for delivery and to have the old fridge hauled away and recycled.

With tax it all came to close to $2000. I used $700 from the Appliance Fund, $400 from the Vacation Fund, and the rest came from the Christmas Bonus. It was nice to be able to pay for it with cash (which did get us a small discount).

And we bought from a local business instead of a box store, so I feel good about that. We bought it Friday and they delivered it on Saturday. Excellent customer service. One of the guys who delivered it was one of the guys who delivered our bed a couple years ago. I love small businesses with low turnover.

After using this fridge for a day, I love it just as much as I thought I would. It was a good purchase that I don't feel bad about at all. I would have felt bad settling for a fridge that had less than what I wanted. I also would have felt bad if we'd gone for one of the $2500 or $3000 fridges. But this one was just right.

Forgot to put the entry on Thursday, updating the Emergency Fund.

$7983.74 Beginning EF Balance
+__10.00 Weekly Thursday Deposit
-----------
$7994.74 Ending EF Balance

$5.26 to go to meet my monthly and yearly goal of $8000.

The fridge is now registering at 60 degrees F. This is so frustrating. I just did not want to spend my Appliance Fund money for a fridge. I wanted to use it to buy a chest freezer. Now it looks like we have no choice. I just wish we hadn't spent the money on new gaskets now.

We saw a fridge that I liked and was more or less in our price range at Best Buy. But we are going to look at a locally owned appliance store, too, because I prefer to frequent local over box store when we can and if price is not too prohibitive.

I probably lost about $120 worth of food. We kept any condiment that had vinegar in it, like ketchup, pickles, steak sauce and mustard, and threw out salad dressings, mayonnaise, and picante sauce. We threw out all our pizza topping meats (prosciutto, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, salami) which I had just stocked up on. I had to throw out a pound of organic sausage and a package of bacon from the ranch. I also had an $20 ham that was going to be going into the crockpot, some leftover turkey necks from a big batch I did earlier in the week. We had to throw out a quart of goat milk, a bottle of lactaid milk, and a 1/2 gallon of milk from the local dairy that bottles in actual bottles.

Plus there was two cups of beef left of my home canned beef, 2 cups of leftover spaghetti, leftover meatballs, a package of uncured all natural beef hotdogs, a package of organic gelatin cups, 2 cups of natural peanut butter, my yeast, a bunch of green onions, 3 partially used 1/2 pints of applesauce, a bunch of kale, and a head of cauliflower.

What I was able to save were 2 leeks, a bag of carrots, 3 heads of broccoli, a purple cabbage, a jalapeno, a bunch of cilantro, a lime, a dozen oranges, and 2 apples. Also 2 bags of mozzarella cheese, 1 bag of cheddar cheese, 1 2 pound block of cheddar cheese, 1 8 oz block of extra sharp cheddar cheese, string cheese, gouda, parmesan and romano. I was also able to save all of my jams and jellies, but two that had been opened.

So everything we had left is crowded in the spare fridge that my mom and I both use. I am just really grateful the freezer is still working and that I have so much canned meat. Who knows when I'll get my freezer now. Maybe when we get our tax refund I can take some of that money and do it.

I'll have to find freezer space for what is in the fridge freezer at the worst possible time as we have to slaughter 13 rabbits in the next week and I hadn't been planning on canning it all. In fact I'd wanted to freeze at least half and then grind another quarter of the meat up for burger. Maybe if I pull out all the roasts and can them...I guess we'll see. But with 62 rabbits now in residence the one thing I can't do is put off slaughtering any longer.

Some good, some bad, some just surviving. We had two does kindle over the weekend. Phoebe had 9 kits and Andromeda had 4. We decided to foster 2 of Phoebe's kits to Andromeda, the two smallest ones, so that it would be easier on Phoebe. A rabbit can only feed 8 kits at a time so often one can easily miss out on a meal. I was really unsure about whether the runt would survive and it did not, sadly. But the other kit we fostered is now as fat and sassy as Andromeda's biological kits and I don't think she ever noticed there were more kits than she had.

I'll have to make some decisions about Starbuck come spring. I'm not breeding again until late February when the whether warms up. So far he has fathered 3 litters. The first one was a set of seven where one died and one was very undersized and we had to force nurse it for 10 days to get it to the age where it was old enough to eat pellets and thrive on its own. Then this last litter. The second litter he fathered was one of 9 kits, but 2 died. And this last litter he fathered only produced four. So his results are inconsistent and there might be something genetic going on.

But Andromeda was a first time mother and she wasn't exactly receptive during the first half of breeding so the litter size may be related to that as well. We will be keeping one of his bucks, because he is a friendly and amazing buck with really great fur and body type. Those traits I'd like to keep from him.

I think the fridge is dying. We replaced the freezer gasket and it improved for a while, and we will replace the fridge gasket as soon as DH gets home, but I think something might be wrong with the fridge fan, too. We were hoping to avoid a service call, but now we may not. I've had what feels like food poisoning and my suspicions lay on the fridge not keeping things cold enough. We may have to buy a new fridge. I have $700 in the Appliance Fund and I can wipe out the Vacation Fund to make up the rest if I need to. I am just hoping it is fixable.

So it's time to get back to meal planning again. I have been sick and lazy about cooking and relying on some convenience foods. During the holidays this year I need to make up some homemade convenience foods. I'd like to have pre-made enchiladas, lasagna, turkey TV dinners with stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy where I only need to open a can of green beans or add a salad to make it complete. I want some pre-made meatloaves and meatballs. I want to make up a bunch of Korean mandoo dumplings and some homemade French fries for the freezer.

I'd like to have some pre-made freezer kits for making quick stir-fries and for dumping into the crockpot. I need to get some potatoes canned. I need to make more meal plans that follow on from each other, like baked potatoes one night and baked potato soup the next, or spaghetti and meatballs one night and meatball sandwiches the next. I need to be thinking about double and triple batch cooking where I make one for now and one or two for the future.

I just need to make it easier to cook at home than to go get take out food. We are wasting too much money on take out. Anyway, I've made up a plan for the rest of the week, and I will start working on a plan for next week.

Tonight (Tuesday):

Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ham, onions, bell pepper strips.
Salad

Wednesday:
Spaghetti
Meatballs (made with pork and hamburger, garlic, and various cheeses I have on hand) (triple batch, 1 for the night, 1 for the next day, and one for the freezer)
Cole slaw

Thursday:
Meatball sandwiches made on homemade garlic bread
Green beans
Oranges

Friday:
Fried Rabbit
Baked potatoes (triple batch)
Broccoli/cauliflower
Canned peaches

Saturday:
Baked potato soup
Leftover broccoli/cauliflower
Leftover rabbit meat
Fresh baked bread
Canned pears

Sunday:
Chile Verde (double batch, one for freezer)
Fried potatoes made with leftover baked
Fresh baked bread
Canned pineapple

Next week is still a bit up in the air. I'm not sure yet what day we are celebrating with the in-laws. It was supposed to be the 21st, but someone's work interfered so now we are waiting to find out about the 27th or the 28th to see if my SIL can get her daughters on those nights. They are supposed to be with ex-BIL those days and he may not want to give up his time.

I will likely make a couple of lasagnas, one for whatever day we celebrate on. I do have another week's menu plan made up that I can slot into place once I know what is going on.

I know a bonus is just that, a bonus, but I'm pretty disappointed in DH's company this year. They had a really good year, the best year since he has worked there, but it seems like every year the benefits become less and less. Less medical, less dental, less vision. No vacation or sick leave time. And the bonus was a lot less than in any previous year. If this keeps up they won't even have them next year.

Well, all of my plans are for naught. DH will buy his new laptop. I'll save $1000 for getting through January on limited pay and the meager rest will go into the College Fund.

$200.00 Property Tax Fund
$200.00 Propane Fund
$400.00 Vacation Fund
$700.00 Appliance Fund
$400.00 Moving Fund
1000.00 College Fund
__72.00 Water/Sewer Fund
+_95.00 Dues Fund
1000.00 Laptop Fund
-----------
$4067.00 Total Funds Money

$1400.00 BoA VISA
__100.00 Emergency Fund
___19.00 Dues Fund
___72.56 Internet
___72.00 Water/Sewer Holding Tank
__757.82 Van Loan (plus extra to principal)
__100.00 Property Tax Fund
__100.00 Propane Holding Tank
___40.00 Allowances
__200.00 Laptop Fund
__100.00 College Fund
__100.00 Vacation Fund
__109.00 January Money Fund
__100.00 Moving Fund
__100.00 Appliance Fund
--------------
$3370.38

$700 of the payment to BoA VISA was the $700 I had set aside for Christmas presents. Since they were bought with the VISA I used that money to make the payment. I will make another payment next week to cover the other half of the travel expenses for DH.

Also had 3 Medical Bills:

$90.00 Physical Therapy
$10.62 Doctor
$13.70 Sleep Doctor
----------
$114.32