Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

$300.00 to Mom for utilities
__45.67 Old House Insurance
__66.62 Car Insurance
__39.53 DH Life Insurance
__32.70 Me Life Insurance
_168.00 Storage
_312.20 Dental (paid off!)
_105.86 FCN Medical
_106.77 PHMG Medical
__54.66 Electric Old House
_700.00 Mortgage Old House (extra to principle)
__45.41 Phone Old House
__72.56 Internet
_757.82 Van Loan (extra to principle)
__41.16 Security System Old House
_100.00 Propane Old House
_100.00 Emergency Fund
__19.00 Holding Tank for Garbage
__17.00 Holding Tank for HoA Dues Old House
__24.29 Holding Tank for Property Taxes
_300.00 Beef Money
_100.00 Cash for week
__70.94 4 Prescriptions
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$3580.19 Total Paid Out

Some of the bills listed here were actually paid out earlier in the week, from the paycheck two weeks ago.

My physical therapist cancelled last minute today so that $90 didn't go out today.

I also spent some money at the feed store to get a bag of rabbit pellets, 2 hay racks, and a nail trimmer. This store is downtown where the old railroad tracks used to be. Feed stores were often located right off the railroad in towns so that stuff could be unloaded right there and the feed store didn't have to pay extra to have it hauled. The big bag of rabbit pellets cost $14.99 as opposed to the $18.59 charged at the other place that is no longer carrying it. I misplaced the receipt, well, I left it in the car, but I spent about $40 there.

I added $110 to the Emergency Fund this week. It is now at $3363.65. $91.35 to go until I hit my April goal of $3455.

I also added $2.82 to the coin jar.

I worked hard today. Let's just say if I never see rabbit manure again it will be too soon. Only of course I will be seeing it. But the garden will be well fertilized. Everything is now squeaky clean in the rabbit shed and in the chicken coop. I think I'd forgotten my body was capable of this much hard, physical work.

Today was a no spend day, which is easy to do if you never leave home. I am looking forward to Friday though. Payday cannot come soon enough, mostly because I need to go down to the ranch on Saturday and buy beef and pork. I still have a couple of chickens, but I am out of hamburger, chuck roasts and pork chops.

I really need to go to Trader Joe's as well and stock up on a few of their items. Particularly spaghetti, organic potatoes, Joe's O's, and their non-BPA lined canned corn. And their tomato sauce since our Costco has stopped carrying the S&W organic tomato sauce in the 15 ounce cans.

So definitely a lot of money will be coming out Friday for grocery shopping.

Not sure what is happening on the overtime front. They haven't been able to find DH a bed, so now he and his immediate boss are trying to get the okay for him to bring the work home to do on his days off. He'll get paid $25 less a day for it, but he won't be working 12 hour days, so it seems pretty win-win. Even though they are crying for the redlines to get done, there is molasses in the approval department. I just really hope it gets okayed.

I'm not all that keen on him having to work while here, but at the same time, the overtime would be so good for us financially right now. I guess right now we just live in limbo and wait and see. I have mentioned before, haven't I, that I don't do patience well?

I recieved interest from my Capital One 360 account today. Oh, that's weird calling it that, but I have decided I am being silly holding on to the name ING. It's been a few months now and it's clearly never going to change back. So anyway, interest was $2.96 for March.

$3253.65 Beginning EF Balance
+___2.96 Interest Added
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$3256.61 New EF Balance

$198.39 left to go to hit my April goal.

I forgot to make up a meal plan yesterday, so did it this afternoon instead. I've got leftover picnic ham and leftover Cornish game hens so will be using those up this week. I am hoping to get down to the ranch this weekend to buy some beef. We haven't been since January, I think.

Monday:
Quesadillas (game hen meat, cheddar cheese, tortillas)
Cole slaw
Oranges
Carrots

Tuesday:
Hot ham sandwiches with provolone (on rosemary bread)
Cole slaw
Oranges
Homemade oven fries

Wednesday:
Enchiladas made with leftover game hen meat
Chips and salsa
Baby spinach and romaine salad

Thursday:
Homemade pizza (pepperoni, picnic ham, bell pepper strips, yellow onion)
Cole slaw

Friday:
Tacos
Canned pineapple

Saturday:
Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Meatballs (ground pork and ground beef)
Cole slaw

Sunday:
Roasted duck
Roasted carrots and potatoes
Drop biscuits with choice of homemade jams
Baby spinach and romaine salad

I'm on a major cleaning binge. I spent a good portion of today cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. I still have to reorganize everything so that I can actually make use of my countertops. I had so much cluttering them up. A lot of it was canning equipment that just didn't get put away at the end of last summer, but there was a surprising number of chip bags with just crumbs and little pieces in the bottom. Mostly plain tortilla chips. My kids don't like it when there are no longer big chips. I don't mind so much, but they were stale. I crumbled them up and gave them to the chickens. I figured it was safe enough since the only ingredients were corn, oil, and salt.

I reorganized my recycle area, so now there is a bin each for soda cans, cardboard, tin cans, and plastic and they are neatly lined up and easily accessible. I keep the paper recycle bag in my room since that is where I look at the mail. I did over a year's worth of paper shredding. I filled five paper grocery bags stuffed full, and two of them were those oversize bags you get from restaurants with the fancy handles.

I did some extra cleaning in the rabbit shed. I swept the excess dropped hay up and the rogue droppings that don't always make it into the bins under the hutches. I spent about 10 minutes cuddling Phoebe. She's such a sweetheart. She is 12.5 weeks now and she's no longer afraid of me. I was hoping she'd settle after a few weeks. She is growing well. She's just a little beyond the age they recommend for butchering meat rabbits, but she doesn't seem big enough to me. Not that she will be butchered, she'll be a breeder, but I was just figuring based on the size.

We are going to wait until May to raise meat chickens. That'll get us through our first rabbit harvest and the birth of the next set of kits, before taking on any more responsibility. I really need to get some grow out cages soon. The current kits will need to be separated in about 3 weeks and I need to be set up well before then. Maybe I'll have time to run around to the different feed stores tomorrow and look at what they have. I can order what I need online, but if I can get it locally I'd prefer that. I like to support local businesses first.

Thank goodness it's spring break. I don't think I could get everything done this week that I want to get done if I were homeschooling this week.

I was able to pay back the $250 I took out of the EF and add enough to meet my savings goal of $3200 by the end of March. It now sits at $3253.65. So my goal for April will be to get it to $3455. My usual amount sent to the Emergency Fund is $140 a month ($150 if there happens to be 5 Thursdays in a month). To meet my goal I will need to come up with an additional $61.35.

While DH has had his overtime approved, there may be trouble with finding him a bed. As they have ramped up for the busy season, they've hired more people and of course the rooms are very tightly scheduled. DH is willing to change rooms on a nightly basis if necessary, so hopefully they will come up with something. Otherwise he won't be able to get it this month.

Because the head people are getting anxious for redlines to be done, and because there is no one who actually is in the position for the work that needs to get done, it's going to sit there until DH can get to it, which means if they can't find the bed now, the work won't get done until they do.

Since it is not part of his usual work which is coming in fast and furious, they can't just pull him off what he's doing either and have him do redlines instead. So whether it is in April or in May, at some point he will need to work six weeks straight through. It's just a question of when. I just hope they can find the beds now. I'd rather he be home in six weeks for rabbit harvesting then miss it. I can handle most aspects of it, but I don't want to do the actual deed on my own the first time.

DH is being given the opportunity to work one, maybe two weeks of overtime for them to do some catch up stuff and it will really help our budget out. One full week would mean $3625 and two full weeks would be $7250. That would allow us to get the rest of vacation paid off without having to dip into the emergency fund at all. Two weeks of overtime would mean I could actually get the special stacking rabbit cages that I want for expanding our rabbitry and throw a little money at the EF.

It would be nice to have a clean slate again. Vacation was worth it, and I don't regret it, but I didn't like the idea of it being May or June to get the balance on the card back to zero.

I'll miss DH, but financially it is the best move for us right now.

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I forgot to mention I bought a great little cookbook magazine at the store yesterday. It's Taste of Home and is one of those digest sized ones that are like recipe cards that was at the checkout and is for easy ground beef. It had at least ten recipes in it that the kids would eat. I always consider it worth it if I walk away with one recipe, so I was thrilled by this one. I will have to make a few substitions since we don't really use processed foods, but most of the ones the kids would eat didn't use those ingredients anyway.

I can't wait to try making these, starting with the Pizza Noodle Bake and the Florentine Meatballs and the Baked Spaghetti. Yum. Since meat prices are going up so much right now, we'll be eating more hamburger and so the variety in all of these recipes will really help out.

I made it all of two days staying out of the grocery store. I got my C-PAP machine today and I need distilled water to run it, so I had to go buy some. It was .99 a gallon and I bought two. And then I sort of decided since I was at the grocery store anyway, that I might as well buy bananas. And strawberries. Bye-bye 100 mile foodshed and buying foods in season.

DD has been throwing up for the past 24 hours so I ended up adding soup and crackers to my shopping cart. I didn't even think about buying onions so I could make stock and make my own soup. And box a of Puffs with the lotion in it, because the killer snot monster from outer space has attacked and my nose is tender and there is just something creepy about the coldness of the Kleenex with aloe in it. It always makes me feel like the tissue is wet.

I don't know if it is allergies or I am catching my niece's cold, or someone else on the airplane's cold. I am hoping it is just allergies, because of the flowering dogwood, flowering cherries, and forsythia all going strong right now. And some kind of orange flower (marigold, I think) that bloomed up until December last year is blooming right now, way early.

Anyway, the shopping got away from me a little. But now there really is no more need for me to go to the store again for a good while, so hopefully I'll have better luck staying out of it for the next few days.

1. To not set foot in the grocery store for any reason. I have all that I need. I might want bananas, but I have oranges and strawberries and canned pineapple and canned pears. Bananas are a want, not a need and they can wait a week.

2. To cook every meal and not go out to eat at all. I have lots of good food available here and an excellent meal plan. There is no reason not to follow it.

3. The only purchase I need to make is gas and that can wait until payday Friday. So no other purchases, period.

4. Set up the April Budget and remember to include the new insurance amounts. Both car insurance and DH's life insurance went up. Also the storage rate went up so make sure to change things accordingly.

5. Clean my bedroom. And clear off the kitchen table. It's for eating, not for storing everything I don't feel like putting away.

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On the spending front I paid a medical bill of $1073.64. Ouch. Love that high $2500 deductible on the insurance. /sarcasm

I also bought 50 pounds of rabbit feed and a second water bottle for Piper and the kits. It cost $18.39 for the feed, $12.39 for the half gallon water bottle, and $1.69 for the Pepsi my husband snuck in. Tax was $2.82, so the total spent today was $35.29.

I picked up five holds from the library today. Two are on building a worm bin or raising worms. I think that may be the way to go for underneath the rabbit cages to keep the smell down (although there is not much of one), and to help with composting things faster. One was on raising rabbits because I still feel like I have a lot to learn. One is on small scale farming and the final one is a pleasure read, a teen sci-fi adventure novel called Ashfall that deals with the aftermath of the Yellowstone Volcano erupting in the near future. I do love the apocalyptic survival type of novel, so unless the author has a style I absolutely hate, it should be a good read.

With the final numbers in, we spent $7,521.76 on our vacation to Disneyland, about $2000 more than I had bargained for. This trip was for seven people (we paid the way for my SIL and 2 nieces). It was a once in a lifetime trip, one they would never have taken on their own due to divorce and the subsequent poverty it brought into their lives, and I think it was well worth the expense to give them this opportunity.

That being said, we may end up carrying a small balance into May. I will be trying my best to pay it off before the due date on April 21st, though. I have paid $5030 of it so far. DH is going to use his miles to get a few free tickets for work, and he has one free hotel stay for frequent visits, so the money that would go toward that will be used to pay off the vacation balance.

I may dip into the EF to pay it off sooner, though. I am used to living with a $1000 EF, so if I use $2000 of it to pay on this, it'll bring it to $1000 again, then I can start rebuilding it. We won't be doing a big vacation again until 2018 or 2019, so and I will be saving up for it starting in June.

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DH's DVD player in his laptop went out so he will now be using the old portable DVD player up at work. I have to start saving up for a new laptop for him. His has other problems as well and it has really been limping along.

My own laptop will have to be taken in as soon as spring break hits. The built in mouse has quit working and I have to use a plug-in mouse with it. My laptop is still under contract so that won't cost anything, but I can't afford to be without it during regular school hours since I use it in homeschooling my son.

If I take it in the Friday before spring break, I should have it back by the Monday after spring break. It usually takes 10 days to fix something since they send it to Seattle. I just hope they can fix it. I know they will replace it if they can't, but it is such a major hassle to transfer everything off one computer and on to the next one. And this one isn't even a year old so I really hate the idea of them not being able to fix it for such a small thing.

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I have been thinking that if we get enough money when we sell the house we will pay off the van. I send in close to $800 a month on van payments (extra to principal), and it would be really nice to knock that payment off. That would mean no debt (besides what I still owe Mom, but that's not on a credit report) going into buying a new house and getting a mortgage. It would also give us more wiggle room to save money and pay for college.

Mom has said we can stay here as long as we like, so we may take an extra year to add money to the downpayment so we won't owe so much when we buy a new house.

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My camera quit working sometime between when I packed it for Disneyland and we arrived in California. I'm not sure how it got damaged since it was in my carry-on. MIL gave each of us $100 before we went on vacation and I didn't spend mine, so I may go to a couple of the pawn shops and see about buying a good camera for very little money.

I use my camera almost daily and I don't like not having one. I don't have to have a top of the line one, but I'd like something more than my cruddy dumb phone camera, and I'm not about to upgrade to a smart phone just for the camera. I've owned my digital camera for ten years or so, and I really hate that it broke. It is possible they could fix it, but I doubt they could do it for less than what getting a new one costs. That is something that really bothers me about technology these days. Oh, well. What can you do?

They had picnic hams on sale for $1.19 a pound for the butt portion, which will fit in my crockpot quite easily. The had the shank portion for .99 a pound, which has to be made in the oven because of its size. I ended up picking up a couple for now of the smaller but more expensive of the two. I know that after Easter they will have a massive sale on these hams and I should be able to get 20 for less than a $1 per pound and freeze them for use throughout the year. I did that last year and I think we ate our last ham from the sales two weeks ago.

I had gone to the store looking for a chuck roast but the only one they had had a price jacked up for Easter. I'll get some next Saturday when I go to the ranch. They keep their prices steady.

Most of these menues revolve around eating down the freezer and the stuff in the pantry. If I'm going to try to get a half a beef I need my freezer to be close to empty. I can still store the hams in the under fridge freezer with a few other things.

Monday--

Picnic ham made in the crockpot (they are on sale right now)
Green beans
Oranges

Tuesday--

Leftover hot ham sandwiches on rosemary bread with provolone
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Strawberries

Wednesday--

Spaghetti and meatballs made with ground pork and ground beef
Oranges
Baby spinach salad

Thursday--

Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ham, onions, and bell peppers on it, mozzarella cheese and leftover homemade spaghetti sauce

Friday--

Roasted Duck
Baked sweet potatoes
Broccoli/cauliflower

Saturday--
Crockpot chicken
Carrots
Pineapple
Green beans

Sunday--
Crockpot beef chuck roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Drop bicuits with choice of homemade jam
Broccoli/cauliflower

I can't tell you how glad I am to have saved up as much money for this vacation as I did. Disneyland is great, but it is even more expensive here than I remembered. I have used up all of the money we set aside for it and close to all of the money that was left of the tax refund. I have not had to dip into any other money so far, but we have 2 more days at the park and then one day of air travel to get through.

If I have to dip into the EF a bit, I will, but I'm hoping that won't be necessary. Disneyland is not an emergency, but carrying a balance on a card again is also not something I want to do. So we'll see. It'll be a few years before we go on vacation again, but I am already planning to set aside so much money a month for it. I think it pays off to do so, just wish I'd started a bit sooner, is all.

We are safe in California and tomorrow:



I'm a trifle irritated with BoA at the moment. They put a fraud alert on our main VISA card. Disney accidentally processed our ticket purchase twice so we called BoA because it was showing up as pending twice. And with something that costs $2030 we wanted to make sure that the extra charge got off, so DH called them. So on the Disney end it was cleared up within 12 hours, but BoA decided it was going to lock us out of viewing our account online.

Even after I answered every single security question (and there were a lot of them) they still won't let us access that account online. We can, at least, still use the card, but I want to be able to get to it online, because I want to double check it got taken off. Then on Tuesday when the money arrives from ING to my regular CU account I wanted to pay off the tickets. *grumble growls*

They won't talk to me over the phone even though I am a joint account holder, not just an authorized user, because DH is the one that talked to them originally. It is stupid. Oh, I'm sure it is all for our "benefit" but it annoys me nonetheless. We did not ask them for a fraud alert and to lock us out of our internet access, we asked them to clear up a simple problem and instead they made it ten times more complicated.

I'm not sure why I expected them to be able to do it right though. It is the Evil Empire, after all. I swear if Alaska Airlines partnered with any other bank I would drop them in a heartbeat.

Record keeping has been a little lax this past week so I'll try to get that updated. My Emergency Fund is now at $3044.20, (or will be with tomorrow's auto transfer of $10) so I need to come up with $155.80 to hit my March goal. $100 will go in on my monthly deposit on Friday, and there will be two more $10 auto transfers this month, so that's $120 taken care of. That means just coming up with an additional $35.80 by month's end.

I added $3.32 to the coin jar yesterday.

Things that have been paid since Friday:

$336.00 Dentist
__90.00 Physical Therapy
_375.86 Mortgage
_150.00 9 Rabbits
_146.40 Feed and supplies for Rabbits
_187.72 3 Prescriptions
_300.00 to Mom for her utilities
_156.29 Doctor
_206.27 Sleep Doctor
_168.64 Doctor
_757.82 Van loan
__50.01 Gas
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2925.01 Total Money Out

I did not pay extra on the mortgage this month. I still might, but with all the medical bills, I chose to be more conservative. I did pay extra on the van loan though. Medical was ridiculous this month and it's only half over. That is just $718.92 out of pocket this month for medical expenses, $1054.92 if you add dental.

I met with the sleep doctor today and yes, I do have a mild form of sleep apnea. It hits me when I go into REM sleep or into deep sleep, which explains why I can get lots of hours of sleep but never feel rested.

I am now waiting to hear from which medical device company it is my insurance will work with. Sleep Doctor told me today that they are separating from Aetna as of May 9th. I asked him if that was because Aetna sucks and he said, well, he wouldn't actually come right out and say that.

But Aetna does suck and they like to deny things a couple of times before they will pre-approve anything and make you jump through lots of hoops. It's covering less and less and less and charging more and more and more. I remember when they used to be a good insurance, and you could go to whoever you wanted, but gosh, it's been over a decade ago. I really miss the insurance we had with DH's former company.

I think I'm now at least halfway to hitting my $2500 family deductible for the year. I just wish that certain things would count for it that don't. Like my physical therapy, which they don't think I need anymore, but every time I skip it I start losing my ability to walk, so I've been paying for it for a while now. Or the chiropractic at $225 a month for the unlimited visits family plan (which is actually cheaper for us than our portion of 4 appointments would be). That's $585 a month that doesn't go to our deductible at all, but thankfully we can use the HSA for. And our portion of dental does not count towards the medical deductible.

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The rabbits are doing great and the little ones are growing visibly now. I have to harden myself a bit to not grow attached to them as they are adorable. I am glad I have not let the kids talk me into naming them. In my book they are bunnies A through F.

The chickens are doing well, too, although I think it is time for Queen to have another bath. Actually, they could all do with one. Because of the heavy rainfall and mud. Apparently no one has told the chickens that when it is raining, it is not a dust bath they are taking but a mud bath. I am just extremely glad I got some Wellies, because I can't imagine walking around back there without good boots right now.

The remodel on the old house is coming along. The walls and ceiling are finished, the windows have all been reframed and the kitchen cabinet doors are done. Part of the flooring has gone down in the dining room and the new doors have been ordered. The bathrooms are being done today.

It is still looking like the end of May before we can put it on the market. The house certainly does not look like the house we originally bought or the house that we lived in. The changes that have occurred in the house have been enough for 3 other people in the neighborhood to ask to hire these workers to work on their homes after they have completed the work on ours.

I am actually becoming a little hopeful that we might get more out of it than I thought we could. Housing prices are finally starting to pick up out there, supply is getting tighter, and this is going to be virtually like walking into a new house when it is done. I will never count my chickens before they hatch, but I think it's possible we could walk away with enough for a solid down payment and to pay off the remaining amount of the van loan, which would wipe out all of our consumer debt.

That would just leave the new mortgage and what I owe my mother. It is nice to dream, but that's all it is right now. Just dreams. But without the van payment to pay each month, cash flowing college would not be a problem. Here's hoping it all turns out the way we want it to.

Today was long, but everyone is now snuggled up safe and warm and happy and we are nine bunnies richer (or a lot of money poorer, but they will eventually pay us back).

Here are the hutches for the does:



And the one for the buck, which has a silver roof instead of brown:



This is Leo the Storm Master, our nine month old buck:



This is Piper, a nine month old doe, with her litter of 3 week old kits:



And this is Phoebe, who is 9 1/2 weeks old and will be a breeding doe when she is old enough:



So far we have paid $551.40 for start up costs. I figure it'll take about a year to earn that back. Plus I want to get another grown doe and buck from a different breeder and we'll need to make a few cages, so that will add a bit. On the plus side, though, we already have someone who wants to buy rabbit meat from us, our daughter's best friend's mother.

I need to find out for sure what license I need to get to butcher for sale. I've saved a couple of .PDFs with the info, but haven't had time to read them yet since I've been reading the stuff on care. We are 5 to 7 weeks away from butchering though so I have time to find out and do the proper legal stuff. And we probably won't sell any of this first batch. I want to keep the biggest, strongest girl to grow up for a breeder and that will only leave five to go to freezer camp. I might part with one. We'll see. She knows it may be half a year before we have enough to sell some.

You ever have one of those days that just gets away from you completely and before you know it's 4:30 in the afternoon and you are sitting in the driveway feeling like you are about to faint and realizing you have forgotten to eat all day long? Today was one of those days.

I spent the morning completely out of it. Didn't sleep terribly well and was trying to get a nap in before physical therapy. I don't usually eat before PT because it quite often makes me want to throw up if I do. By the time I got out I had to pick up DD from school and then I had to run to the credit union to pay the mortgage and get money out to buy the rabbits tomorrow and to buy feed and all the other rabbit stuff like feeders, waterers, hayracks and drip pans. The store only had two hay racks, so I figured the buck can do without one until they get another one in.

Then we ran to the pharmacy to pick up some medication and then went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I started feeling queasy in the grocery store, but I was okay until we got home and then everything started going fuzzy and I thought I was going to faint and that was when I realized I hadn't eaten today.

DD grabbed a honey oat bar and made me stay put while she and DS took all the groceries in. I was a bit better after I ate it, at least enough to go into the house. DD made me lay down and then brought me some better food and after about 20 minutes I was no longer in danger of fainting. She gave me a big lecture about letting my blood sugar get so low. I deserved it, but hearing my own words come back at me like that was a bit surrreal. I guess she's been listening to me these last few years. I think I better keep a stash of honey oat bars in the glove box from now on.

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I spent a ridiculous amount of money today. I mean, I know that the rabbit stuff will pay for itself eventually, but start up costs do hit the wallet hard.

I will do a payday post tomorrow. Right now I'm still not clear-headed enough to do finances and I still have a few medical bills to pay so wouldn't have a full report anyway.

And tonight is setting out to be an insomniac night. Anyway, I had my sleep study done, and it was a doozy of a night. They might call it a sleep study, but it was more a study on how many wires they could hook you up to and then put you in the most uncomfortable, unsupportive bed on the planet, make you sleep on your back and then wake you up every so many hours. It was exhausting.

I do have problems with breathing though. I don't know exactly what but I had 30 incidents during the first two hour test, so then they tested me on the CPAP machine. I did okay until about 5 a.m. when I got stuffed up. Then I used some nasal spray and was fine to put it back on.

Anyway, I go in on the 13th to meet with the doctor about the results and get a mask fitting done. Then on Thursday the 14th, I will get my permanent crown since they screwed this one up and it was an ugly yellow color instead of tooth color. So they will redo it, which means I get to have it 2 days before we go to Disneyland. Ugh. I did have my cleaning done today though. I get them every four months because of some serious troubles I had with my teeth. We are looking at about one more year of that before the healing has been enough for me to go back to the twice a year the insurance actually pays for.

I made a payment on the crown anyway today of $336. I will pay the final payment of $328.57 the first week of April. I may very well be spending my Emegency Fund back down to pay for all of this and all of the sleep stuff if I don't want to carry a balance on the credit card. *sighs*

And our insurance rates just went up. Our portion is now $753.95. It has gone up $107.29, but since it is pretax, it will only affect the take home pay by $65 a month. Only, I say. Since it's now a change of $665 a month between this and taxes, it's getting tighter. Same ridiculous $2500 dedictible per family, $1250 per individual. I will be meeting mine pretty darn soon, I imagine.

I will remind myself in the future that if we go to Disneyland again, we need to get it away from the first of the year when medical is so high because of the deductible. It would be much better to go in September or October. But at this rate we won't be going on vacation again for a good five years or so, so this one better stay in our memories for a long while. Not unless DH gets offered a way better job with better pay and better benefits somewhere else on the slope. *sighs* Not likely right now.

After this trip the belts get tighter and we will push out some of the meager luxury items once again. We barely had them, so we shouldn't miss them too much. And once we get our rabbits going, and our chicken fryers, our food costs should go way down in the protein department. And our massive garden this year should bring down produce costs as well as providing plenty for canning. One way or another we'll find ways to save money and not go back into debt.

Well, seems like the dairy industry is up to its old tricks. Bad enough that it fought to keep bovine growth hormones off dairy labels and won, and that those that label their milk as having no hormones have to also say that the government has shown no danger from it (in this country, anyway) but now they want to put synthetic sweetners into dairy products without having to put it on the label. I can't even... With my family's allergies, this could very well cause serious damage.

Artificial sweetners cause us hives, swelling, respiratory problems, and digestional upset to the point that you feel like your intestines are trying to become out-testines at the same time you are vomitting up your stomach. Making these changes without labelling them is irrepsonsible, reckless, and dangerous to many people. I don't like going to the hospital so that I can breathe and I don't like my kids having to do that, either.

This is taken verbatim from the Feingold Newsletter I received today. Feingold is the diet my son is on due to his food allergies. They fight hard for truth in labelling, because of what lying labels or lack of labels can do.

The dairy industry has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to change their rules governing what is allowed to be put in milk and other dairy products. The industry's main goal is to be able to add synthetic sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose (Splenda), and other such chemicals, to dairy products without having to tell the consumer.

The articles that are coming out on this proposal have been confusing, but that's not surprising since the wording of the dairy industry's petition is vague and confusing!

The petition discusses adding the sweeteners to flavored milks -- marketed widely to schools -- but without labeling the milk as being lower in sugar or calories because the children would not like that. (So they apparently believe that the typical student, with about 12 minutes to eat lunch, is going to actually read his milk carton!)

The dairy industry claims that this will help reduce childhood obesity, even though studies have shown that fake sweeteners actually increase the desire for sweet foods and can cause weight gain.

Moreover, the dairy industry claims consumers don't know that flavored milks are sweetened anyhow, and such changes will "promote honesty and fair dealing." What they have neglected to say is that with the sale of milk steadily declining, this is an effort to boost sales, especially in schools wanting to limit sugar.

/newsletter

Me again. What gets me is that they think we don't know that flavored milks are sweetened. I mean, BIG FAT DUH! We do so. It doesn't come out of the cow that way. And such changes will not promote honesty. How can it promote honesty when leaving it off the label is lying? No ethics whatsover in these people, if they're going to pull that.

The public is not stupid. Mostly. What the public is, more or less, is powerless. Don't stay powerless. At least let your voice be heard. Here is a link to give your opinion of this insane idea. It won't hurt them to put it on the label, but it will hurt countless people if they don't.

We've bought 3 rabbit hutches now for a total of $255. We will be going out to the rabbitry on Saturday and if all goes well, we will be bringing home some New Zealand White rabbits. I know what to check for, no eye gumminess, no ear mites, fur in good condition, no sores on the feet. I will post a few photos here, but probably more on my homesteading blog. I can't believe how fast this is all happening.

Mom is still talking about getting broilers, too. I'll probably come back from California and there will be ducks, too, even though we all decided not to do them this year. Oh, well. It's definitely making this place seem more and more like a farm.

I haven't spent any other money lately, but I will have to pick up milk and pure maple syrup tomorrow.

We have now jumped through appropriate hoops and Aetna has decided that, oh, hey, maybe these two doctors do know what they are talking about in recommending this... I so hate my insurance ($12,000 out of pocket last year alone). Anyway, I now have a sleep study scheduled for Wednesday night, since they had a slot open. Won't that be fun, especially since I'll be getting the permanent crown on Thursday? Oh, well, it needs to be done and now it can be.

I'm glad I have money in the bank right now. That's all I can say.

Oh, I can't believe I forgot to do this. I am a scatterbrain this week!

Monday--
Leftover spaghetti (for the kids) and hamburger
Cole slaw
Pineapple

Tuesday--
Homemade pizza (for the kids) with sausage, onion, and orange bell pepper strips
For me, sausage, onions, and bell pepper strips
Oranges
Cole slaw

Wednesday--
Oven baked chicken
Baked potatoes (for the kids)
Broccoli/cauliflower
Smoothies from fruit in the freezer

Thursday--
Cheeseburgers (no bun for me)
Grilled onions
Broccoli/cauliflower
Bananas

Friday--
Fried Rabbit
Mashed potatoes and gravy (for the kids)
Green beans
Oranges

Saturday--
Pork chops
Fried potatoes (for the kids)
Pear sauce
Salad

Sunday--
Roasted chicken
Baked sweet potatoes
Kale
Bananas

I picked up my first rabbit hutch today and the guy is going to make me two more tomorrow. They cost $85 each. It's an expense that will eventually pay for itself. We love rabbit meat so it is going to be worth it. I am glad we had set aside some of the money from our tax return. I guess we are really going to do this.

We'll go to the rabbitry on Saturday to get our New Zealand whites. It's a big step, but I think it will be just as positive as raising poultry has been. It's a big step on our path to sustainable living.

I also spent $38.52 at the grocery store today. Paleo is a bit more expensive than even the lower carb diet I was on before, but I feel the benefits so much more, too, so I guess that's okay.

I was looking through the mail (from yesterday) today and I got a letter from my doctor from Virginia Mason. The paper he wrote about my case was published in a medical journal and he just wanted to let me know it had come out if I wanted to read it. He had asked me about writing it at one of our follow ups after the surgery and I gave my blessing (or whatever) so long as they didn't use my last name. The joys of being a medical oddity, they do write ups on you. I had actually forgotten about it, since the surgery was summer of 2011.

I cashed out at ACOP today for $17.10. They will be sending me a check in 2 to 4 weeks (usually takes 10 days in reality). That will go into the Emergency Fund when it arrives.

I should be getting a safe driver's refund check in a week or two from Allstate. It's usually between $20 and $30. That will go in to the Emergency Fund as well.

I also cashed out for a 5 gift card for Amazon through Swagbucks today. Hey, those of you who do Swagbucks, where do you find the daily goal you are talking about? I've looked around a bit, but I can't seem to locate it.

I need to try to get my act together on doing surveys again. ACOP sent me two good ones last week and I totally spaced on them.

I might actually be getting rabbits in the next two weeks. First, I thought I was a year out from this, then I thought a couple of months, but the perfect opportunity has arisen and if all goes well, I could be the proud new owner of 14 rabbits. It's $175 for the lot, 2 does, 1 buck, and 11 5 to 7 week olds. That works out to $12.50 per rabbit. I think if we get them we will save the best looking young doe of the babies for breeding and the other youngsters will end up going to freezer camp after they've grown enough.

I can really see this cutting down our food budget in the future. Obviously this lot will be the most expensive, but after we breed the rabbits again, it will just be the cost of feed to get them to size. A few years ago, I never thought I'd be raising livestock, but now I'm turning into a mini-farmer.

The kids are already trying to name the buck Stormaggeden the Destroyer. I'm like, no, I was thinking Leo, Piper, Phoebe and Prue for the breeders. If we get them.

I spent $9.43 at the grocery store today. I ran out of ketchup and also DS wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, so I bought some of the expensive chocolate chips that he isn't allergic to.

The Girl Scouts were being extremely aggressive outside the store. I got pretty mad, but kept my cool and waited to make snarky comments until I was in the car. Don't they realize what a bad name they give the organization with their total lack of manners and in your face sales tactics? Or is that what they are teaching them today? When I was a GS that kind of bad manners would not have been tolerated or dreamed of, for that matter. When people are clearly avoiding you and refusing to make eye contact, you do not jump in front of them waving your arms and shout at them to buy your cookies. Bad, bad form. Especially when they did it to the lady with the oxygen tank.

After the store we went to the library and I picked up my holds. 3 of them are on rabbits and the other 2 are on backyard livestock in general and homesteading. We are likely starting on rabbits sooner than we thought and I need to do a lot more reading still. And we need to build our own hutches since the cost of buying premade ones is hugely expensive. Even used the good ones are $75.

After my deposit of coin jar money yesterday and my weekly $10 auto deposit to savings, plus today's interest at ING, my Emergency Fund is now at $3021.46. My February goal was $3200, so that was met. My goal for the month of March is to get the Emergency Fund to $3200. I am not being overly aggressive this month because we're going to Disneyland. So that will be the usual $100 transfer to the EF, plus the four weekly $10 auto transfers. That'll leave me with $38.54 to scrape up.

We received our property tax in the mail and it's gone down by almost $200 for the year. That means I only need to be budgeting $71 a month for property tax instead of $100. I am going to put the additional $29 into the college fund each month along with the $100 from the Vacation Fund I am eliminiating and the $50 from the laptop fund and the $50 from the appliance fund. So $229 a month will be going into the CF, plus any Christmas bonus DH gets this year and next year's tax refund. That should cover a year at the community college and text books.

One of the courses DD is taking next year at the high school is worth 5 college credits, so that will be one less class to pay for. She is getting pretty serious about doing the peace corp after 2 years at the community college before coming back and completing college. She'll come back from that with $7000 for school, teaching experience, intensive foreign language training, and the ability to live on a budget in a third world country, all things which should bode well for her future. I would like her to go to one of the Chinese language countries as I think Mandarin would be of most benefit to her future, but it's her decision to make.

We have made the decision to start raising rabbits this year and not next. It is a big decision, but my mother was very excited about the idea of doing it. I thought she'd be down on it, but she wants us to raise them and some meat chickens and take out her large flower garden and plant it in vegetables this year. So, I am really getting just about everything we want for our homesteading ventures.

I think part of why my mother is so on board with all of this is because the way the economy is going she doesn't think she'll be able to afford to buy food, just to grow it. I have told her that we will always make sure she is provided for, that's what you do for family, but she still worries. There is a sharp rise in prices right now and there will probably be an even sharper one in a couple of months, so I don't really blame her.

I paid out $90 for physical therapy today.

I'm not sure what we would have done this year if we hadn't managed to get the credit cards paid off when we did. We have lost $600 every 4 weeks to the 2% rise in taxes. Previously that money was going to pay down debt. Our plan for this year had been to start contributing to the 401K. Now it's going to pay for a government retirement program that has no chance of even existing when we are old enough to get anything back. I feel like they are taking our retirement away from us twice. One by not allowing us to have the money to provide for our own retirement, and two, by feeding it into a system that will be bankrupt long before we ever see our 60's or 70's. It is frustrating.

Our 401K is not the greatest, it has NO matching at all. But it is a tax shelter. Just one we can't afford to contribute, too.

I am trying to rethink a lot right now. The idea of cashflowing college for the kids is still, maybe, within reach. It would be so much better if there were jobs available. If I knew they could save a couple hundred dollars a month towards college I wouldn't worry so much. Even my niece, who did manage to get a job last summer, only gets about 3 hours a week because retail is practically moving backwards right now.

So anyway, changes I will be making starting after March is to eliminate the vacation fund of $100 a month. This one is going to just have to last us for several years. And that's okay. It's a luxury and vacations were completely financed by us (no vacation benefits). If we hadn't been saving so long for this one and already had most of it taken care of, I'd seriously think about cancelling it.

I will be cutting the laptop fund down to $50 a month and I will be cutting the appliance fund down to $50 a month. Both were previously at $100 each. Once I know what the property tax is going to be this year I can make an adjustment on my property tax fund. It has been approximately $1060 per year for the last several and our tax assessment went down. They should send out the bill soon. Right now I am setting aside $100 a month, but when I know what it actually is, I will cut it accordingly.

Once mid-April arrives I can turn off the furnace at the old house, which will mean no propane costs. Propane has jumped dramatically this year. We keep the furnace on until there is no chance of the pipes freezing. Also once they are done with the repairs to the old house I can have the water/sewer shut off, saving me $72 a month.

The four person cell phone contract we are on expires this summer. With DS being homeschooled there is no reason for him to have a cell phone anymore. He is always with me or his father or his grandmother. The only person he ever texts he can IM as well. Honestly I wish there were an unlimited texting only plan, no phone calls, because that would be the best thing for our needs. DH and I use Skype when he's in Alaska.

I think when we do move I am going to up our laying hens and start selling eggs. Just one of those sign in the front yard things. If I can make enough to pay for feed for them and some broilers that would cut our food costs dramatically. Also starting to seriously research rabbits. I've talked about it off and on, but it's time to get down to the knitty gritty on it.

If eggs pay for feed I can cut our grocery budget by $200 a month. Then maybe we could handle college and retirement.

I keep trying to keep myself focused on the fact that we are out of credit card debt and we are comfortable. It is mostly luxuries I am looking to cut. It is not necessities. But we've only gotten to have luxuries recently so it is hard to have worked so hard to get here and then feel like the benefits we should have been reaping have been snatched away. We feel the loss of that $600 a month. But I imagine there are a lot of people out there that feel that 2% even deeper.

I had to take my son to the after hours pediatric clinic last night. He has an eye infection. They faxed in a prescription last night, but of course the pharmacy was closed because it was late. So I call them this morning and they have no sign of the prescription.

So then I had to call the doctor's office and then they had to track down who was on call last night and then finally re-faxed the prescription, so now I just have to wait to have it filled. Should be ready in a couple of hours, although how hard it is to stick a sticker on a squeeze bottle of eye drops that comes as needed in a little box, I do not know. It's not like counting out pills.

I really am wishing for the days when they would just write a paper prescription and I could take it to the pharmacy myself and know that it actually got where it needed to be. I also really don't like the fact that the doctor's offices don't want to deal with prescriptions anymore. It's been that way for over a year now. If you need a refill, you have to call the pharmacy to have them fax in the request. I don't really see the difference between calling the doctor and having them fax the pharmacy, instead of the pharmacy faxing them and then they have to send back approval. Seems like it actually takes more time to do it that way instead of saving time.

It is particularly frustrating right now, because I'm in transition between the old doctor's prescriptions and the new one's, so having them fax the new doctor for something he's not prescribed yet, doesn't work. I have to call the doctor anyway. *sighs* Let's just say it's been a long, frustrating morning on the phone.

Last night was the fourth doctor's appointment since the year began so we should be well on our way to meeting the first $500 of our $2500 deductible. I still need to make a couple of phone calls, one to the sleep doctor to see if there is anything further he can do about Aetna denying the sleep study. There are probably some bells and whistles that need to be jumped through.

Then I need to call the regular doctor about blood test results and schedule an appointment. Which I probably won't do until next week, because of DS's eye infection.

On the bright side of things this is my fifth day on the Paleo diet and I have lost 9 pounds. So clearly that's working. I miss potatoes though. I need to buy a few more fruits and vegetables for variety though. Apparently I am fine eating the same ones day after day if I am also eating starches, dairy, and grains, but when I am not, I get bored really fast of my cole slaw and broccoli (not the oranges though). This also means I am messing a bit with my 100 mile food shed, moving it to my west coast food shed instead (which technically I'm on anyway for the California oranges.

I saw some organic strawberries and canteloupe on sale but it is probably from Mexico. *sighs* I think it is still a bit too early to be from Cali. I went digging through the freezer to see if I could find any strawberries, but I guess we have used them all up. I am really wanting them, though. I don't generally get specific fruit cravings. I will try frozen blueberries today instead since that is what I have on hand, but I do want to buy some zucchini and peppers and an onion.

I dreamed about that farmhouse again. *sighs* It really is our dream property. I am trying to get over my impatience with life. I've spent too much time waiting for my future to start. I need to live within my present for now.