Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

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.

I created the March budget today and then set about "paying" the bills for the first week of March, which basically just involved me duducting all of the autopays that will come out of the checking account next week and actually writing out and mailing one check.

So bills that "went out" today are:

$153.00 Storage
__41.16 ADT security Old House
__46.63 Old House Insurance
__59.89 Car Insurance
__32.70 Life Insurance Me
__39.53 Life Insurance DH
__30.35 Electric Old House
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$403.26 Total out

I hate looking at that monthly storage bill, but what else are we going to do? Living in a space that is 1000 square feet, but having stuff for 1600 square feet does cause an imbalance. Hopefully the house will sell this summer (assuming the workmen ever get done) and we can buy something and move from here and not be paying storage fees anymore.

I will write Mom a check on the first for utilities, $300. I will have $90 go out on Friday for physical therapy. And I will pay out $25 on Friday to the kids for their allowances. Otherwise there will be no expenses due until I pay the mortgage on the 8th.

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I should not have to go to the grocery store before than, either. DH picked up milk today and I'm not drinking it so it will last longer. I was very displeased to see that Organic Valley milk is no longer coming in a full gallon size, at least at the Haggen by our house. It is 96 ounces instead of 128 ounces for 5.29 (was $5.99 for a gallon).

Why the heck would anyone want to purchase a jug with only 3 quarts in it? Half gallon or gallon for choices is much better. Honestly, I think they are trying to get away with selling less milk, but hoping people won't notice there is an entire quart missing from the jug. They've made the jug more square shaped, and redesigned the lid and the label, so I think they are hoping to pass it off as a full gallon jug for a while. I bet the price will go back up to $5.99 a jug in about a month or so, too.

It's like the switch from 16 ounce cans of fruits and veggies to 15 ounce, or when they made the big box of cereal narrower but retained the height and lowered the ounce size, hoping no one would notice. This kind of packaging jiggery-pokery does not fly with me.

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I added $1 to the coin jar today.

DH and I went grocery shopping this morning at the food co-op. I'm skipping going to the ranch this pay cycle, so I bought quite a bit more fish than usual, some rabbit, duck, sausage and a roast. I also stocked up on extra virgin olive oil, walnut oil, and lots of veggies. I spent $153 on groceryies.

Because I am leaning towards Paleo eating this week (which means no cheese for flavoring), I bought some more flavorful foods. Also no grains and no starches, except carrots one night. The only oils I will be using are E.V.O.O. and walnut oil. I am seriously going to miss butter, but I need to give this diet an honest test run.

Anyway here's the plan for the week:

Monday:
Rabbit fried in olive oil
Cole slaw
Bananas

Tuesday:
Pan-fried cod
Cole slaw
Oranges

Wednesday:
Oven baked salmon
Broccoli/cauliflower
Pineapple

Thursday:
Roast Duck
Salad
Oranges

Friday:
Pork chops
Pear sauce
Cole slaw

Saturday:
Baked Codfish with a homemade mayo garlic sauce
Cole slaw
Bananas

Sunday:
Beef chuck pot roast
Broccoli/cauliflower
Carrots
Oranges

It does feel weird not to inlude pasta, bread, rice, or potatoes. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Because of my just under the borderline test for diabetes I am only eating one fruit a day. I want to make sure my insulin levels stay under control so that I don't have to worry about one day having to take it artificially.

Just got a denial of medical services from Aetna. Seems that they in their infinite wisdom don't want to pay for a sleep study for me, despite the fact that two doctors highly suspect I have sleep apnea. Of course Aetna knows all. /sarc. Well, I was going to call on Monday anyway and talk to the sleep doctor's office.

Apparently there are several hoops we will have to jump through to try to get them to reconsider. Aetna's just moved up the Evil Empire List list to second, right under the middle school that allowed my son to be assaulted so badly it took him 6 months to recover from the brain injury, and above Bank of America.

I don't know why Aetna cares so much anyway. We will still have to pay for it out of pocket because of our $2500 deductible. It's not like they'll be out any money. But if they approve it, it would at least count towards our deductible.

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I've started back on a diet today. I'm quitting soda cold turkey...well except I took a caffeine pill so I don't go through withdrawal. Despite everything else in my diet being pretty much unprocessed, the Pepsi Throwback habit was getting out of hand.

I am aiming towards the Paleo diet. I did a test this week and didn't drink any milk. Last night I had milk and within 20 minutes my throat hurt and my nose was stuffing up. That will make it much easier for me to give up dairy. Grains I could always give or take.

So for the next week I will eat nothing but lean meats, fish, eggs, leafy greens, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and other non-starchy vegetables, walnuts and fresh fruit (but not too much fruit). I will cook only with olive oil. And all dairy will be eliminated. I will miss cheese and butter.

It will be hard giving up homemade pizza but with the crust being a grain and the topping being cheese and processed meats it's not going to be a choice for menu planning.

Honey is okay in small amounts and since mayo is made with egg, oil, lemon juice, a bit of mustard (I'll use my own homemade), and some salt, I should be able to make my cole slaw dressing just fine. I'll just have to use olive oil for the oil instead of canola.

I had physical therapy today, so spent $90 on that.

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Today was payday, but I have not done anything about it yet, other than distribute the children's allowances, $15 to the 16 year old and $10 to the 12 year old. Nothing is due until the 1st and it will come out of the account as autopays.

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I emptied DH's wallet of change. Wish I had done that before I made the EF deposit yesterday as with it I was able to roll both nickels and quarters. So, yeah, with next Thursdays auto transfer I will definitely hit the $3000 mark on the EF.

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My jaw still hurts from the crown.

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I need to call the sleep doctor on Monday and see if the preapproval came through for my sleep study. They were supposed to call me when it did and make an appointment, but it's been over a week now and I think somebody dropped the ball somewhere.

I also need to call the regular doctor and make an appointment to discuss my blood test results that my other doctor never really talked to me about, just put me on a new med.

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We have flooding. We have had a major storm today, lots of rain and wind. The basement is being pumped. I so do not ever want to live in a house with a basement again.

I went in to the dentist today to have my second crown started. This was on the other side of my mouth, but also the six year old molar. This tooth had a gigantic silver amalgam filling in it which is now gone. I am glad. I never liked having metal in my mouth and this was an old, old filling from before they talked about getting mercury poisoning from them. It feels like he gave me enough anesthetic to put down a small horse, but he still had to stop in the middle and give me another one. It is supposed to wear off somewhere around 7 or 8 p.m.

Anyway, the temporary crown is on now and I go back for the permanent one on March 7nth. Hopefully I am making sense here, as I am on a pretty powerful pain med, so if this rambles more than usual, that is why.

While I was there I finished paying off the first crown, $233.90 and I have the paper with what will likely be our portion for this one, $665.35. Not as much as the first one as we had less dental benefits left for 2012 as I had a porcelain filling to replace a cracked silver one and a sealent earlier that year. This probably uses all my dental benefits for the year (except for cleanings), but the dentist says everything is in great shape now and I shouldn't need anymore work done.

I talked to them about maybe getting the gap between my front teeth fixed. I never used to have one, but over the past five years it has gradually gotten bigger. They may be able to just fix it cosmetically with veneers or I may have to go to an orthodontist and get an appliance or something like Invisalign. I don't want to do actual metal braces. I know how much they hurt my daughter. I have a low pain threshhold in my mouth even though I have a very high one everywhere else. But the gap does bug me. I had perfectly straight teeth up until it started moving.

I'll need to have DH check and see if our insurance covers orthodontia. Otherwise I will have to save up for it. I know veneers can cost about $900 per tooth if we go that route.

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I cashed out at Swagbucks again yesterday for a $5 Amazon gift card.

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I added the AMEX cash back and my coin jar savings and the weekly $10 autotransfer I've had set up for years to the Emergency Fund, a total of $136, making the total in it now $2981.35. That leaves me with $18.65 to come up with to meet my February goal of $3000 in the EF. Next Thursday will be another $10 autotransfer, so that will leave me with $8.65 to scrounge up. I am so close.

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DH and I are still working on our meal plan for Disneyland. I think we are going to pack along a cheap crockpot. That way we can put a roast or a chicken in when we leave in the morning and have it ready for us when we come back at dinner time. Despite the condos having full kitchens they don't have crockpots, which I really think they should. It makes a lot of sense to have one in a place that caters to Disneyland goers. I will also pick up some of those crockpot bags to make it easy to clean. Usually I consider those a waste of money, but in this situation I'll splurge for them.

I just realized that our debt to income ratio is at 33.3%. You know, it's been a long time since it wasn't somewhere near 50%. Once the mortgage is paid off it'll be closer to 26%. I like numbers like that. I feel so much more freedom.

DH and I keep coming back to that farmhouse. We have discovered that it flooded in 1950 and in 2000. In 2000 it was actually high enough to get an inch or two of water into the house and the garage and barn both flooded since they are not up on foundations. Every other flood of the river it has not gotten as close as the barn.

Here is where it gets interesting. The city is going to put in retaining ponds. It is starting this summer and will continue doing so over the course of the next ten years to mitigate flooding issues the town has every couple of decades. So that will defnitely help keep flooding off the property.

So in thinking outside the box, DH and I had a thought. Because of the way the buildings are laid out, we could encircle the house, garage, barn and shed with our own levy. It wouldn't have to encompass the whole property. We could bring in topsoil and build up a three foot levy, planting it with grass, and leaving only the driveway clear. Then we could have enough sandbags in the barn that we could cover the gap of the driveway in case of flooding, which there is always plenty of warning of.

There would be access to the rest of the property by simply driving onto the grass instead of the driveway. And even with the sandbags up, we would be within walking distance to the grocery store and if the buses were running, the transit station is across the street so I could go into the main city if I needed to (it doesn't flood over there). If I took my van to my in-laws to keep it out of the flood zone, they could drop me back at the house or as close to it as we could get.

Lots of people near the river build levies and their houses did not flood during the 2000 storm or the 1950 one. It is possible this might be a worthwhile thing to do, especially if we can get them to lower the price on the house. We have found out that the previous owners died and that their five children have been trying to sell the house and property for over a year now. So if we could get it for $235,000 instead of the $265,000 they are asking for it we could afford to build that levy.

It could still be more hassle than it would be worth, except it has so many things that are just perfect for what we want. The only negative is the 100 year flood risk. Which is more like 50 years in actuality.

I don't know. It will require much thinking.

It sure doesn't seem like there's much to report in on now that I'm not trying to pay off a bunch of credit cards. The mortgage and the van loan are things that happen once a month.

I did go to Costco today and got my AMEX rewards coupon check cashed. I will go to the CU tomorrow and make a deposit of that and the coin jar money.

I also bought cheese, toilet paper, and a case of oranges while there. I spent $41.61. I didn't think about olive oil which I am getting low on, but I have half a bottle so I think I'm okay for another month. If not, I'll shlep myself over there.

I did price the S&W organic tomato sauce in the #10 cans. It is $2.59 for 101 ounces, so 2 cans would be 202 and $5.18. They have stopped carrying S&W tomato sauce there and have switched to their own store brand. Because of DS's allergies we have to be very careful on brands and ingredients. But if we were to buy their brand it would cost $6.99 for 12 15 ounce cans for a total of 180 ounces. So obviously the #10 can is a better deal. I hope they are not phasing it out completely and I will still be able to get the big cans for a while.

I did put up some sauce last summer, but the kids will only eat it mixed with store sauce. Next year I won't bother putting up sauce, it's not worth the labor if they won't eat it. I'll just put up diced tomatoes. It's just not cost effective, either, to do sauce. Anyway, I will be making a trip back to Costco at some point to buy several of the larger cans and then every time I open a can I am going to put what is left of it into quart or pint containers and freeze the rest. It is much more economical and I don't have to worry about the allergy issue.

I have thought of just recanning it, as well, since I've seen where people have successfully recanned the large containers of ketchup and mustard. Should be safe, though I might want to add a bit of lemon juice to each jar if I do that.

Speaking of mustard, I am getting low so I will be making a new batch soon. I am going to add some cayenne this time. I want it to have a bit of a kick. It was good last time, but a little mild for my liking and since I am the only one who eats it, I can tinker until I get it to where I like it.

Well, I suppose that's about it. Oh, I got 2 $5 gift cards from Swagbucks today. That puts my Amazon gift card amount at $100. I should have enough to cash out again tonight or tomorrow.

I am a bit outside my 100 mile food shed this week with both fresh pineapple and fresh kiwi, but not outside my West Coast food shed with the Cali oranges and orange bell peppers. We've been fighting sniffles for two weeks here, so a big boost of vitamin C was in the cards. And everything was on sale, so didn't bite the budget too badly. I may not be terribly seasonal on anything but oranges with the fruit but the veggies are in season except the canned green beans.

I still have frozen prunes, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, not to mention six kinds of jelly from summer, but some days you just want to go a little more tropical. I will be planting far more peppers this year to freeze and hope to be getting a couple of cold hardy kiwis once we move. They can grow in Seattle so I think they will grow here okay. If I ever have a greenhouse I will try to grow pineapple bushes and some miniature citrus trees, but those are still pretty unlikely to thrive here.

Anyway on to the food:

Monday--
Homemade pizza with homemade sauce, mozzarealla, orange bell pepper strips, ham, onions, and pepperoni
Pineapple

Tuesday--
Oven baked chicken
Baked potatoes
Cole slaw
Pineapple

Wednesday--
Braided chili loaf
Cole slaw
Oranges

Thursday--
Spaghetti with Meatballs
Green beans
Oranges

Friday--
Baked Wild Pacific Salmon
Broccoli/cauliflower
Carrots
Homemade sweet potato fries

Saturday--
Bacon cheese burgers
Homemade French Fries
Kiwi fruit
Cole slaw

Sunday--
Roast Duck
Roasted potatoes and carrots
Broccoli/cauliflower
Drop biscuits with choice of homemade jam

Today we did some major shopping. Mostly it was too replace things that are past re-mending (i.e. things that have already been mended once, often more than once).

We ended up spending $325.05 and supposedly saved $63.55 due to clearance and sale prices. DH got 3 pairs of jeans. He told quite a hilarious story of ripping out his jeans right before getting to the airport and having to mend them with duct tape because there were no sewing kits available. At least you can pass through airport x-ray machines with a duct-taped crotch. Good to know.

DS got a pair of Wellies, 2 sizes up, yikes, a pair of flip flops for vacation and summer and a new pair of tennis shoes. He also got several pairs of underwear. He's growing like a weed. He'll probably be as tall as me by the end of this year.

I got three shirts, slightly nicer than t-shirts, but not super dressy. I was happy to find one in kelly green. It is a hard color to find so when I saw it I jumped on it. There is a rather violent perdominance of neon colors in the stores right now. Painfully neon bright.

DD got a pair of flip flops, 2 pairs of sweats and a t-shirt.

Then for the household I got 6 new washcloths. I used to have 20 white ones, but my mother keeps stealing them. Just because she got the twenty pack of white ones from Wal-Mart once upon a time, she thinks all of the white ones are hers. Well, 4 turquiose, one hot pink and one bright yellow, should stop confusing her on that score.

I also bought a new sheet set for the king bed. The turquoise sheet finally gave up the ghost after a couple of sewing repairs. I plan to make linen napkins out of the side that isn't all ripped up. The replacements are a sort of bluish green sea foam color. Sheets are expensive. I got the moderately priced ones, but I still thought they were expensive for not all that much fabric.

The kids got headphones and batteries and DH got some body wash. We should not need to make any such purchases again for quite some time.

I added $3 to the coin jar today and sent $854 to the Vacation Fund. The puts it at $1119.65.

...I've started a new blog. I will still be doing this blog, but some of the things that are less on the financial spectrum will be covered over there instead. Things like gardening and poultry and sustainable living, homeschooling, and eating from the 100 mile food shed as much as we can. I will probably still touch lightly on those things, because they do affect the budget and what we spend money on, but there will likely be a lot less chicken photos, etc.

Anyway, the new blog site is here if you want to follow:

It was a very weird feeling indeed to realize that with all of the credit cards paid off, I had quite a bit of money left over today. Of course it's going into the Vacation Fund, but once the trip is over, that extra money will be going to build the EF. Over the years we've had a little extra money now and then, but usually closer to $50 or $100. Never an extra $1000 out of one payday.

I have paid everything for the month. Nothing else is due until February 1. We have one more payday this month (the short one) and that will cover everything due between now and the next payday on March 8th. I set aside $240 of the money into savings for physical therapy.

Just for reference, any credit cards shown in the bill pay section are now paid off monthly. BoA is used for DH's travel expenses (flights, hotels, travel food, and his monthly allowance expenses). It also has autopay for our cell phones, Netflix, and our gym membership. It can vary from $1200 to $1500 a month. AMEX is for gas, eating out, and the occasional grocery trip (if I forget the checkbook). But mostly for gas. I paid both of these in full today.

Bills that went out today:

$1201.69 BoA VISA in full
__314.10 AMEX in full
__225.00 Chiropractic Family Plan
___90.00 Physical Therapy
____3.78 Labcorp (Medical)
__144.00 Water/sewer at the Old House
__418.85 Propane at the Old House
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$2397.42

I had the water/sewer money already in savings as well as most of the propane money. I will be adding about $800 to $1000 to the Vacation Fund. I am waiting until after we go shopping to have the exact amount. DS needs new shoes, DD needs 2 pairs of sweat pants. I could do with a couple of new shirts (somewhere between t-shirts and blouses, nice, but not fancy).

I added $10 to the Emergency Fund. That brings it to $2845.35. I received my AMEX awards coupon in the mail today. I have to physically go to Costco to have it cashed, though. Annoys me. But it will go into the Emergency Fund. It is $85.95. So I've decided to up my EF goal for February to $3000. I have $32 in my coin jar (added $10 today leftover from the past week), so to hit $3000 by month's end, I really only need to come up with another $36.70. I think I can do that.

It feels like I'm playing in an entirely different game now. I know we still have the mortgage and the van loan. I know we still owe Mom money. I know we still need to build the EF. But despite that I no longer feel owned, like I did with the credit card debt. I feel like our lives belong to us again.

After our March vacation we will put our heads down again and work hard on everything. Meanwhile, I will take the next month to breathe. We are in the light at the end of the tunnel. We can take a few steps before we step into the next one. Not going to go crazy or anything, no eating out five times a week or going out and buying crazy things. Just taking my foot off the gas and pulling into the overlook to see how far we've come.

It is official. The tax refund hit our account this morning. I just paid off the Chase VISA. We are officially OUT of credit card debt! After 10 years of being in it, and the last 7 of working very, very hard to pay it off, we have fired our last shot at the Evil Empire and we sunk their battleship.

And now it's time to start to upgrade our rickety picket fence (baby EF) into a wall of stone. I added $1000 to the EF, put $1000 into the MacBook Fund. The other $1903 I'm not sure what we are doing with yet, we're waiting until after vacation, so I transferred it to ING with the rest of it, just so it's out of our account and can't be frittered away.

The new EF amount is $2835.35. I am adjusting my goal of $1900 by the end of February to $2900.

And cue music...

I'm walking on sunshine, woo ooo,
I'm walking on sunshine, woo ooo,
I'm walking on sunshine, woo ooo,
And don't it feel good!

I hit another 450 points today at Swagbucks, thanks in large part to a 50 point birthday award, so unexpected. So I cashed out for another $5 Amazon GC. Love it. This is really going to take a dent out of Christmas 2013 if I keep this up.

I added $2.83 to the coin jar.

The tax refund is supposed to be in the account tomorrow. Here's hoping it comes when they said it would, because if it is, in a little over 9 hours, we will be free of all credit card debt forever.

Today is my birthday and I can't say that 43 feels at all different from 42. We got pizza today since I didn't want to cook and spent $27.18. No cake though. Just didn't feel like baking one and the problem with cake is that it is then there every day for a week. I figured one bad food choice this week was enough. Since my Christmas present was so expensive we made it a combined b'day/Christmas present. And I'm still loving my hard ice cream maker so I am not feeling in the least little bit deprived. And DH comes home tonight at 8:30 so that's the best birthday present of all, anyway.

Tomorrow starts three days worth of appointments. I go to a consultation with the people that do the sleep study. Then Thursday, I go back to the new doctor, and Friday I see the physical therapist. I had to fill out a boat load of papers for the sleep study place. Oh, shoot, I keep forgetting to run over to the lab and ask them to shoot my new doctor a copy of my labs from December. I'll need to do that in the morning.

I'll also need to remember to tell them when we set up the sleep study about getting my new crown because I'll be on narcotics for a couple of days and don't want that interfering with anything.

There is not much else going on. The chickens are still loving their expanded space and Georgie hasn't gotten out on the driveway side for days, so no more chicken hopscotch. They do hop the other fence to go to the neighbor's yard when she doesn't have the dogs out, but she likes them.

Coming home is funny now, because they recognize the sound of my van. They come running (quite like that scene in Jurassic Park with the velociraptors) so fast I'm actually glad the fence is there. They are expecting treats now as we had some bread that went bad, picked out the moldy bits and gave them all the good bits over the course of a few days. Now they expect it.

We are getting about ten eggs a day. It helps that nine of them are pullets. That rate will slow down as they age. I still miss having duck eggs for baking, but the chicken eggs are pretty fantastic. They beat store bought by a mile.

The mortgage payment hit the account today. New total is $13,943.05. $10K seems so close. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I can get excited about paying down the mortgage.

As for tax return, it's a waiting game. 2 more days supposedly for it to hit the credit union. Not that that stops me from checking! I've spent so much of 2013 just waiting. Patience is clearly not a virtue that I am particularly acquainted with. In fact people used to tell me to be patient and I would say, "I don't do patient." I still don't, or at least not very well. You would think with all the practice I've had I would be better at it.

If I can swing $1600 a month the mortgage would be paid off this year. But I don't know if I will do that, because I really do want to build the EF up. Maybe it's not all that necessary with the amount of work there is for DH right now, his job security is pretty high. But I'd feel better with at least $10K in the bank.