Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

I received the two five dollar Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks today and immediately dumped them into my account. I how have $45 in gift cards to be applied when I'm ready to make a purchase there. This bring the total of gift cards I've earned from swagbucks to $55.

Today in the mail DH also recieved a $40 gift card to Safeway as his Thanksgiving perk from his job. The only Safeway near us is a 40 minute drive away. We did make it out there last year, but we still have $9 left on last year's GC. I had a hard time spending there because everything was so high priced in comparison to where I normally shop, and the organic section was very small.

I'm not even sure if we will be doing Thanksgiving this year since DH will not be home and I don't want to go to the bother of cooking it and having tons of leftovers without him around to help eat them. Maybe I can get a prime rib roast or something. We love prime rib but I've never made one because of the cost. I think $49 would come close to covering one. Or I could just get a turkey and a ham for Christmas.

I still have a duck in the freezer that would make a nice Thanksgiving dinner without leaving a ton of leftovers. Cornish game hens might be a nice way to go as well.

I suppose we could do it early and invite my mom and eldest sister. Then there would be a couple people who would take some leftovers away. I don't know. I still have some time to figure it out. Mostly I just want to treat it like an ordinary day as far as food goes. Just not in the spirit of it this year. Nor do I want to do the bulk of the work on my own. So kind of blah about it. We'll see.

DH and I went to Costco last night. I had not figured out what I wanted to do with my allowance, but I figured it out when we got there. They had a digital crockpot, with a timer for up to 20 hours. The cheap crockpot I got for Christmas last year is already malfunctioning, so I wanted to get a good one at some point.

Some point converged with the present last night. They had the $40 stainless steel one on for an instant rebate of $10 off and then additional mail in rebate of $5 off, so when all is said and sifted, I got a good quality crockpot for $25 plus tax. This will make cooking easier again. I won't have to worry about the crockpot burning.

Still not sure what I will do with the rest of my allowance, probably just set it aside.

We didn't buy too much else there. A case of toilet paper, some prosciutto, and a case of oranges.

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Last night we defrosted and inventoried the mini chest freezer. There is quite a bit of food in there, mostly protein. I still have to inventory the other two fridge freezers, but I pretty much know what is in the main one and can more or less see at a glance what is in the secondary one.

In beef I have 4 packs of stew meat, 1 flank steak, 4 chuck steaks, 3 ribeyes, 2 pounds of hamburger, 4 premade hamburger patties with cheese and bacon mixed in, 1 filet mignon, 2 strip steaks, 1 New York steak, 2 mini-steaks, and 2 packages of prepared Korean beef ribs.

In chicken I have 1 pack of stir-fry chicken, 4 family size bags of thighs and legs, 6 packages of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and 1 and 1/2 packages of chicken wings.

In pork I have 6 packs of Kirkland low sodium bacon, 1 pack of Trader Joe's uncured bacon, a package of Canadian bacon, and 2 porkchops.

In fish I have 3 12 ounce packages of wild caught salmon.

There are two bags of egg fried rice (one Chinese, one Japanese) from TJ's, a penne pasta meal in a bag from TJ's, a pound of organic broccoli/cauliflower, some cheese, 3 quarts of Italian prunes (home grown), 1 quart of raspberries (home grown), and 1 pint of strawberries. Most of the fruit is in a different freezer.

Starting with next week's meal plan I will be trying to get this meat used up. Pretty much none of it is organic and is left from earlier this year before we started our journey to sustainable, organic eating. I think we can get it finished off in the next couple of months.

Once we buy our new chest freezer, the mini one is going to be used strictly for chicken. It is big enough to hold thirty whole chickens. When we buy our beef it will go in the new freezer, possibly with a half a pig. We'll see how the money flows at that point.

Monday--
Roasted Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli
Pears

Tuesday--
Beef Pot roast
Baked Potatoes
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Oranges

Wednesday--
Beef and Broccoli (carrots, celery, onion)
Egg fried rice

Thursday--
Homemade chicken noodle soup
Cole slaw
Oranges

Friday--
Pizza (pepperoni, onions, bell peppers, prosciutto
Cole slaw

Saturday--
Bacon cheese burgers
Homemade french fries
Pears

Sunday--
Spaghetti with lamb/pork meatballs
Salad

Lunches this week will be leftover chicken and low carb meatloaf. Breakfasts will be Bacon and eggs, oatmeal and eggs, or pancakes and eggs.

Life can be a real pain in the neck sometimes. It seems as if you get through one thing only to be slammed with something else. Earlier this year my father died. With elderly parents you always have it in the back of your mind that something could go wrong. I was expecting it to be with my mother. I wasn't expecting it to be with DH's much younger father.

If you'll recall a couple of years ago FIL had an aortic infarction (I think that was what it was called). He had some kind of attack which took him to the hospital ER and just as they were opening him up to do surgery it burst. If it had happened at any other time, he would have been dead because that's how fast it happens. They were able to repair the bulging part of the aorta that comes right out of the heart, and they've been keeping an eye on the rest of the aorta.

A few months ago they said he would likely have to have that part repaired in a year. He had an appointment a couple of days ago and they've moved up the timetable to he needs to get it done in the next six months.

The part of the aorta that is bulging is the part that goes into the spinal column and feeds it with blood. It is a very delicate surgery in which the flow of blood will be cut off to the spinal column while it is repaired. It has with it a chance of paralysis from the chest down. If he doesn't have it done it will lead to certain death.

Unfortunately there are not many doctors who have done this type of surgery more than once or twice. To have the best shot at surviving without being paralyzed, he needs to go to a doctor who has a lot of experience with this procedure. There is no place he can go locally. His choices are Minnesota and Texas. Either place will involve FIL and MIL getting there (either flying or driving) and hotel and food costs. MIL doesn't really drive anymore, but there are lots of problems involved with flying, the most important of which is MIL's morbid obesity. We don't think she can fit into even a first class chair. It's a mess.

Last time FIL had surgery it took six weeks in a nursing home to recover and even after that it was a slow road. FIL takes care of MIL because she isn't physically able to do much. She has a hard time even walking out to the mail box. He does the shopping and most of the cooking. I can't even imagine what would happen if FIL is paralyzed.

Maybe SIL would move in with them and become qualified to be a caregiver under medicare. I think it pays more than the job she works, which is minimum wage. She's being required to sell her house under the divorce settlement (ex-BIL waited a few years to enforce this) so she'll need a place to go anyway.

I don't know how FIL and MIL will afford this. FIL is still working, but is also old enough to get his full social security check. MIL doesn't get social security because she never worked. Once FIL can't work anymore they won't have much income. It's not like we can really help financially. We're still paying off our own medical debt that we put on the credit cards years ago.

I don't know what they did with their inheritance from FIL's mother's house (around $50,000). I don't know where they stand financially anymore. They used to have a lot of debt, so hopefully they paid that off and maybe all they have is the mortgage. That would be nice, but somehow I doubt that's what happened.

The uncertainty of life sure can leave you staggering. Medical debt can be crushing. All I can do is hope for the best scenario, but even the best scenario will cost thousands of dollars. I don't even want to think about the worst.

I have monitoring on my credit report. It's an expense that is worth it to me because we are heading towards buying a house in the next year. I'm always afraid a medical bill from the past has slipped through the cracks and ended up in collection. It happened once about eight years ago, and once almost three years ago when we moved and it wasn't forwarded to our new address.

Since DH doesn't have any credit that isn't linked with mine, but I have a few things he doesn't have, we figured monitoring mine was the best way to go and then when we are closer to ready to buy a house he will send for his free ones.

Anyway, my score went up from 780 to 787. That bodes well for when we pay off a big chunk if not all of our unsecured debt with the Christmas bonus. Ideally I'd like to see it at or above 800 when we apply for a mortgage so we will be offered the best possible rates. Our credit union is currently offering 2.9%. I have liked having our current mortgage with them. They don't sell their mortgages like many banks do, so I would like to stick with them.

Yesterday DH ran the rest of the money through the HSA account. We've maxed it out. Actually we've paid more like $10,000 out of pocket on medical this year, which is substantially more than we can claim, but nowhere near the over 7.5 percent of income, so we won't need to itemize. Since we can claim the full deduction for the HSA, though, we should get back over $8000 like last year.

I've stashed every single paid medical bill and receipt in a file folder labelled with the year, just like I did last year. I don't remember how long we have to keep them for, seven years or ten years, but we have to back up the deduction if they ever ask. I'm kind of hoping that next year's medical expense isn't so outrageous.

Today is payday and for once I got to sit down early and do everything. As of today the only bill that hasn't been paid for the month is the internet bill. I don't think it has come yet. That means the vast majority of next week's paycheck can be split between credit card debt and Christmas. It feels nice going into the holidays without having to scramble this year.

DH's boss called him yesterday to let him know that he will be working an extra week on his next hitch. They still don't know about January. They'll have a better idea of that after he works the extra week. But one guaranteed extra paycheck is great. Especially if he has the three weeks off. I can just save it for that time period and if there is anything leftover put it toward debt.

I hadn't paid the car payment yet, so I'm including it here, but the money for that was from last week's payday. Here's what went out today:

$1700.00 to BoA credit card
_757.82 to car loan
_300.00 for glasses (3 months same as cash, paid in full now)
1000.00 to Mom
__37.68 Garbage
_100.00 to Vacation Fund
__72.00 to holding tank for water/sewer
__44.87 Phone at old house
__23.00 for kid's allowance (DS owes me $2, so that's lower than usual)
_300.00 for beef money
_100.00 cash for miscellaneous stuff
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$4473.05

DH is going to be buying a new pair of workboots, too. They will be around $200. They are steel-toed, steel-shanked, electricity proof, water proof, and Arctic safe. The last pair lasted him about 5 years so that works out to about $40 a year. Not bad for safety gear.

Or you know, nothing much happened here at the Robin's nest. I paid out $90 for physical therapy, $6.93 for two prescriptions, and $225 for the monthly family plan at the chiropractor. DH spent $3.69 for a gallon of milk. Found a dime and a penny.

Homeschool went pretty well today. I didn't have to do math, DH did it. It was square roots in area. DH is going to explain it to me tomorrow. There is no way I was going to get it today. DS understands it, thankfully. I did everything else, though, which is pretty good considering I didn't sleep last night. We got the fall writing sample ready to send off. I think DS did a very good job on it.

Lady continues to ignore the new Fort Knox of a duck den and is still bunking with the chickens. I don't think she wants to be alone and also she feels more secure with the other birds. I'm not entirely convinced she doesn't think she's a black australorp chicken the way she hangs out with Half-pint and Pipsqueak all the time. Of course half the time I think those two chickens think they are ducks, so who knows? We've decided to let her be since she's putting herself in the coop when the chickens go in about a half hour before dark.

We came home today from a trip out and there were a dozen crows in the yard. It was really weird. DS went to scare them off and they flew up in a swarm and landed on the roof of the house. As soon as we got onto the porch they were back on the lawn. It was like a scene from The Birds or something. Usually they stay away because they don't like the chickens or the chickens scare them off but because of the extreme wind today none of the chickens were out of the enclosure.

We still haven't had a frost. It's 42 F out tonight so I don't think we will get one, but it's definitely starting to get colder.

My physical therapist was telling me how her mother was volunteering with the Red Cross in a poor neighborhood in Queens. They are very disorganized. No one was in charge so her mother (who is a pharmacist) decided she would be and got things going and found an interpreter since a lot of the people in that area only spoke Spanish. They've been climbing up stairs and knocking on every door to see if people are okay or need medical attention.

A lot of folks had run out of necessary prescriptions for high blood pressure, heart problems, or diabetes, so she had to put people in charge of finding out which pharmacies were even open and if they were open, whether or not they had medicine available to fill prescriptions. They have no idea when there will be power again. I can't even imagine being elderly and trapped on the 18th floor without power and medicine.

I mean I've been without power for several days before, but never without the woodstove to provide heat and a place to warm food up. And never without necessary medicine. It boggles the mind.

Or you know, nothing much happened here at the Robin's nest. I paid out $90 for physical therapy, $6.93 for two prescriptions, and $225 for the monthly family plan at the chiropractor. DH spent $3.69 for a gallon of milk. Found a dime and a penny.

Homeschool went pretty well today. I didn't have to do math, DH did it. It was square roots in area. DH is going to explain it to me tomorrow. There is no way I was going to get it today. DS understands it, thankfully. I did everything else, though, which is pretty good considering I didn't sleep last night. We got the fall writing sample ready to send off. I think DS did a very good job on it.

Lady continues to ignore the new Fort Knox of a duck den and is still bunking with the chickens. I don't think she wants to be alone and also she feels more secure with the other birds. I'm not entirely convinced she doesn't think she's a black australorp chicken the way she hangs out with Half-pint and Pipsqueak all the time. Of course half the time I think those two chickens think they are ducks, so who knows? We've decided to let her be since she's putting herself in the coop when the chickens go in about a half hour before dark.

We came home today from a trip out and there were a dozen crows in the yard. It was really weird. DS went to scare them off and they flew up in a swarm and landed on the roof of the house. As soon as we got onto the porch they were back on the lawn. It was like a scene from The Birds or something. Usually they stay away because they don't like the chickens or the chickens scare them off but because of the extreme wind today none of the chickens were out of the enclosure.

We still haven't had a frost. It's 42 F out tonight so I don't think we will get one, but it's definitely starting to get colder.

My physical therapist was telling me how her mother was volunteering with the Red Cross in a poor neighborhood in Queens. They are very disorganized. No one was in charge so her mother (who is a pharmacist) decided she would be and got things going and found an interpreter since a lot of the people in that area only spoke Spanish. They've been climbing up stairs and knocking on every door to see if people are okay or need medical attention.

A lot of folks had run out of necessary prescriptions for high blood pressure, heart problems, or diabetes, so she had to put people in charge of finding out which pharmacies were even open and if they were open, whether or not they had medicine available to fill prescriptions. They have no idea when there will be power again. I can't even imagine being elderly and trapped on the 18th floor without power and medicine.

I mean I've been without power for several days before, but never without the woodstove to provide heat and a place to warm food up. And never without necessary medicine. It boggles the mind.

The mortgage payment hit today, with $77.42 going to interest and 303.42 going to principal, with an additional $124.14 going to principal. The new mortgage balance is now at $15,377.85, so after my December payment the mortgage will be under $15K. I know that we will probably sell it before it is paid off, but I still like to see it going down.

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We're still waiting to hear whether or not DH will be working an extra week or two between now and the end of the year. It's a little frustrating because he needs to know so he can buy the appropriate tickets on the appropriate dates. And of course the longer you wait, the more expensive plane tickets are, especially around the holidays.

He comes home at midnight tonight. I will be glad to have him back as I am really worn down at the moment. Both kids are sick again and I can't really tell if I am at the end of getting over a cold or at the start of a new one. It could go either way, but I'm hoping it's getting over the last of one.

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Yesterday I mailed in my voter's ballot and went and made the Chase payment. I also pulled some green onions from the garden. I can't believe we still haven't had a frost. I need to get moving and get the potatoes dug, but I'm kind of being really lazy about that. Without an impending frost on the horizon it doesn't seem very urgent.

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My doctor is retiring at the end of the year, so I need to find a new doctor. And I really don't want to as this guy has been my doctor my whole life. He delivered me and we have a great relationship. I'll have DH get me a list of the doctors on our PPO list that are accepting new patients, and I need to make up a list of the medications I am taking and their dosages. I will probably have Dr. A write me prescriptions for a year's worth of meds to send into my mail order pharmacy so that I don't have to deal with meds right out of the gate with the new doctor.

I also need to make a list of all the medications I can't take due to adverse reactions/allergies, namely penicillin and codeine. And the ones I can't take the generic of but must take the name brand of.

I so do not need this right now, but I knew it was coming. My doc is in his 80's.

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I ordered some Christmas presents for DS and was notified that they shipped yesterday. I ordered them last week so it's good to hear they're out the door. I'm trying not to be last minutey this year.

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The car payment statement came in the mail yesterday so I will write out the check and send that off. I hate dealing with their website or I'd pay it directly. It is nice to see the amount going down substantially now. The first year of payments was like it barely budged. Now I can see the progress being made.

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I've spent some time looking at houses online over the weekend and prices seem to have taken another dramatic drop. I am now seeing houses in the $215K to $245K range that a couple of months ago were in the $279K to $250K range. And ones that were in the $300K to 350K are down as well, about by the same amounts. I see more and more of them are pending sales as well. I'm not sure what that will mean for our prospects when we go to sell. Of course we are not going to be overpricing the house to begin with, which I think may have been going on with some of these other houses.

I just wish they'd get done already with fixing up the house since we can't put it on the market until they are.

Today I cashed out $10 worth of Amazon gift cards at Swagbucks. That brings my account to $35 of GC's. I didn't use my 3 free digital downloads for music though. I didn't realize they expired on 10/31. I also cashed out at ACOP, $14.05. I am not sure what I am going to do with that money. I'm not particularly sure what I'm going to do with my monthly allowance, either now that DH and I can afford taking them again.

At the moment there isn't really anything I need. I am considering saving up for a really good set of kitchen knives. I only have 3 good knives, a 7 inch chef's blade, a biscuit cutter/spreader, and an Ulu knife. I have several mediocre knives as well, but they are all in storage.

I definitely want a cleaver and a butcher knife, a filet knife, 12 steak knives, a 9 inch chef, a bread cutter, a cheese knife, a paring knife, a very good pair of poultry shears, and a few others I can't think of. The set I want is about $2000. It comes with a really nice butcher block and I wouldn't have to buy knives again for the rest of my life. I'm just tired of cruddy knives. I'd be saving for quite some time to get that. Or I could just save it for Disneyland. We'll see.

It is so warm out today. It's 64 with this really warm wind. I wonder if we're getting hit with another Pineapple Express. I haven't been watching the news online because of politics and political commercials, so basically the forecast in print form is all I've seen. But it feels like a Pineapple Express.

I've already filled out my ballot and will be mailing it tomorrow. I am sick to death of hearing about politics. There was a commercial for one resolution that I am actually in favor of, but was almost reconsidering it after seeing it about 100 times on HULU just because of media saturation. I will be glad when voting is over and we get a break from the hype for the next couple of years.

Lady survived the night in with the chickens. The new duck den was delivered today and the birds were all very curious about it. It's very strong and sturdy looking. Hopefully it will do the trick.

I am so happy it is November. No more $500 payments to the doctor for DS's treatment. We will have one more $300 payment for glasses this month and then we'll be done with big medical for a while, I hope. Although we still need to save some as come January we will have the $2500 deductible again. Hopefully this coming year it will not be met so quickly. I will have to have two molars fixed, but I am hoping to use part of DH's Christmas bonus to do that.

I did send the extra $230 to AMEX along with my regular payment. Here's how it all broke down this week.

$730.00 AMEX
_100.00 Chase (no interest)
_300.00 for Mom's utilities
__92.97 to the Freezer Fund
___7.03 to the Emergency Fund
__32.97 Electric at the Old House
__25.00 to the Holding Tank for Garbage
__72.00 to the Holding Tank for Water/Sewer old house
__39.53 DH Life Insurance
__32.70 Me Life Insurance
__59.89 Car Insurance
__45.63 House Insurance for old house
__41.16 Security system for old house
_153.00 Storage
__17.00 HoA Dues for old house
_100.00 Property Tax for old house (Holding Tank)
_500.00 to Mortgage for old house
_100.00 to Holding Tank for propane (old house)
_100.00 to MacBook Fund
__28.20 Dental (DH)
__15.69 Medical (DD)
_100.00 DH's monthly allowance
__15.00 DD's weekly allowance
__10.00 DS's weekly allowance
_267.32 on groceries (did a major staples stock up, plus OTC meds)
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$3075.09

I will also be making the car payment out of this payday, just waiting for the bill to get here. I took $100 in cash out for miscellaneous needs. And I will be depositing $46 from the coin jar on Monday, which puts my Freezer Fund at $1000 even. And the MacBook Fund is now at $300. I had $7.03 left after fully funding the Freezer Fund so that went to the Emergency Fund, which now sits at $1008.36.

I'm still trying to use up what is in the freezers so that I can defrost. And we have a ton of broccoli coming from the garden this week that needs eating so meals will reflect that.

Monday--
Roast chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli
Oranges

Tuesday--
Chicken enchiladas
Mexican Fried Rice
Broccoli
Pears

Wednesday--
Beef stir-fry with broccoli, carrots, celery, bean sprouts, green beans, onion
Egg fried rice

Thursday--
Homemade pizza with homemade sausage, ham, onions, and bell peppers
Cole slaw

Friday--
Baked potato soup
Cole slaw
Pears

Saturday--
Korean BBQ ribs
Egg fried rice
Oranges
Broccoli

Sunday--
Beef pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Corn

I will be making meatloaf and chicken noodle soup from scratch for lunches this week. Breakfast is the usual, pancakes and eggs for DS and sausage and eggs for DD and me. DH comes home mid-week and he usually has eggs and oatmeal or leftovers.

Racoons should not be strong enough to pull out 1 inch construction staples. They just should not. It's been a very tough day today. That bleeping racoon managed to pull just enough of the chicken wire loose on the duck den in the middle of the night to reach inside and try to get at the ducks. Patches went down defending Lady and that darn critter tried to pull him through a 3 inch opening. He did not survive it. At least his body blocked the racoon from getting in and killing Lady, too.

Lady is tucked into one of the nesting boxes in the chicken coop for the night. At least racoons can't yet seem to pull out 4 inch screws. I am just so upset and angry at that racoon. It's hard to lose 3 animals in the space of a few days, especially when you have raised them since they were a day old. The ducks were not pets, but they were more than just livestock. They were productive members of the household, producing eggs for food and lots of antics for our enjoyment.

After the first attack we reinforced the duck den but commissioned a new one made with screws and locks. It'll be delivered tomorrow. I'm not sure if Lady will want to go in by herself, though. I just wish Patches had made it; then there would be two.

We put a notice up at the Feed Co-op saying we were seeking 2 to 3 grown ducks, preferrably Cayuga to keep Lady company. Don't know if we'll get a response or not, but hopefully there will be someone who got baby ducks at Easter time and now are done with them (a frequent occurrence, sadly).

Hopefully I'll feel up to doing my payday post tomorrow. Right now all I can think about is those poor ducks.

I never, ever thought when I planted this garden in early June that there would any chance of harvesting anything in November, let alone tomatoes. I can't even remember a year where we hadn't had a hard frost by Halloween. Not only have we not had even a light frost this year, but the forecast for the next ten days is in the mid-50's with rain. And I picked a whole lot of tomatoes.

I wrapped this set in newspaper and put them in the garage to ripen.



I brought in all the paste tomatoes and anything that was slightly turning color and anything that had split or bruised. They are sitting on my table to ripen.



And the red ones are here along with some last gasp green beans and the surprise of the fall, a bit of cauliflower.



I pulled up the spent broccoli and cauliflower plants and the bean plants and gave them to the chickens and ducks. The six tomato plants can't go to the birds (the leaves and stems are poison to them, but they can eat the fruit) or to the compost. Even though there is no blight on them, I practice prudence in not ever adding them to my compost bin. Into the trash they went (since the yard waste recycling is done for the year). I could have let the tomatoes go longer but the rain was really making things split and that doesn't bode well for wrapping and storing to ripen.

In the main garden I have four broccoli plants left growing, two kohlrabi, and the zucchini plant which is flowering. On the other side of the house I have several more broccoli plants that are heading up and 3 bunches of green onions yet. And there's plenty of chard for greens. I really hope this means we are going to have a mild winter. I'm still not over how much snow we had last winter. Mild weather would be great for the grocery budget.

I've been reading a survival blog for about a week or so. It's by one of those people who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. It's been interesting reading, especially in light of what has happened on the East Coast this week. I imagine in some places it really has become the end of their individual worlds, especially for those who were not prepared for the wrath of Sandy.

It's definitely made me think about how prepared I would be to handle a similar emergency. Although we don't get hurricanes here, there is always the chance of one of the volcanos blowing again. Depending on the wind, we could get hit by ash from Mt. Saint Helens. Mt. Baker is a constant steamer, if it ever woke up we could get hit by more than ash. And of course there are always earthquakes living here in the ring of fire. Though we are most likely to be stuck at home due to a Nor'easter blizzard than anything else.

I think the longest I've ever gone without power was five days. But we had the wood stove and we had water and ice and a good store of canned goods. We had kerosene lamps and candles and I could charge my laptop off the car battery.

I decided to inventory what we do have if the power fails. We have enough canned goods to get through about a week. More if you count all the jam and tomatoes, but I'm talking more canned meats and vegetables. I think that is something I should probably rectify. I have plenty of food in the freezer but that does not help me much if the power fails.

I also need to set in a store of water. I mean we have the rain barrels, three of them, but any water from them would have to be boiled, so I think I should get in several gallons of drinking water. I also need to work on canned meat and canned fruit and a bit more canned veg. Pineapple is my number one priority for fruit as it would hold off things like scurvy or vitamin C deficiency. But we should have more green beans on hand. I'd like to keep a fairly balanced diet and that would help.

I have been watching videos on how to can your own beef, chicken, or venison, so as I get a surplus going I may do that. I'd rather know where my meat is coming from and can it myself, but meanwhile I have 12 cans of beef, 2 cans of chicken, and four cans of tuna.

I'd really prefer to be able to survive more than a week without a grocery store. In the case of a disaster it could be several weeks before we got our infrastructure back.

How about you guys? How long could you survive without power?

ING posted my interest today so I added that to the Emergency Fund. It seems so weird to be adding money to the EF again, but nice.

$1000.00
+___1.33
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$1001.33 New EF Amount

I also added .24 to the coin jar and replenished the 50 cents for parking that I used yesterday. I try to always keep 2 quarters in my wallet. I consider parking money to be a use tax since that is really what it is.

Tomorrow I will be sending the $230 left in checking to the credit card along with the usual payday payment. Take that, Evil Empire.

I went down to the courthouse today and paid the property tax. I was off by $6.44, but I had plenty in checking to cover that. I'm glad I checked it beforehand and didn't just write it out for the amount I thought it was, which was actually last year's half year amount. I guess I didn't update that on one of the spreadsheets.

I also went to the library while I was down there. It is across from the courthouse. I had two books on hold, Why Gender Matters and The Artist's Way. I need to hurry and get through the book I'm reading now. I wasn't expecting the holds to come in so soon since I was a ways down the list.

I paid 50 cents for parking and $1 on library fines. Oops.

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We ended the day with as many birds as we started the day with, always a good thing. No duck egg today, either. I think Lady is still freaked out. Five chicken eggs though. I'm going to have to make a meatloaf and a quiche to use up some eggs.

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I think I am finally almost over my cold/infection/flu/general case of the yucks. I still am a little stuffy but that might be allergies. Still a little draggy, but that's probably just general tiredness. I hope.

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I am really looking forward to payday Friday. We finally get to start making forward progress again now that the medical is paid off. I am so sick of debt. I just want to be done.

The heavy rains have brought a lot of water into Mom's basement. We've had the sump pump on all day. Mom doesn't want to run it while everyone is sleeping for fear that it might go dry and burn out. It's not looking likely that it will let up overnight, but I understand her concern. I put on her Wellies and went down to lift it up onto a shelf for the night because there is always the chance of it getting underwater during the night and the water getting into the motor and ruining it.

When I look at stories from the East Coast I am grateful that it is only a few inches of water we are having to deal with and not several feet. I can't even imagine how folks are coping with that. We've flooded pretty badly before, national disaster badly, four of five feet of water, but somehow it just doesn't compare. Usually our serious flooding comes from rapid snow melt, not violent winds and torrential rains. I've never experienced a hurricane. You folks over that way are certainly in my prayers and thoughts.

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Physical therapy today was brutal. It felt like the muscles on the side of my thigh were stacked on top of each other. P.T. meant $90 out that I had forgotten about, but I still should have an extra $210 left to send to debt when payday comes Friday.

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I gave in to a craving after P.T. I has 25 minutes to kill before it was time to pick up DD, and DS was at a homeschool field trip with Mom. It is so rare for me to be alone anymore ever because of homeschooling. I don't eat before P.T. because it makes me nauseated if I do. I made the decision to swing through DQ and get a burger, fries and a bottled water. I spent $5.86. And I enjoyed every bite of it while I read my book and waited in the school parking lot.

I've done pretty well on the not eating out front. I've certainly broken the drive-thru habit. I think this is the first time I've been to a drive-thru since spring. It was good to get a little something and I feel like that's satisfied me and I can get on with the home-cooking.

I had $60 in cash left from last payday, so I took the money out of it. That left me with 4 ones and some change for the coin jar. I added $4.13 to the regular coin jar and a penny to the Canadian coin jar. Whatever is left of that cash on Friday will go into the Freezer Fund. That and $100 on Friday will top off that fund.

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I'm going to pull the tomatoes tomorrow, I think. Half of my kitchen table will be devoted to ripening them. I hope we have enough newspaper to wrap them. I do have several brown paper bags that I've saved that I can use as well.

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The remaining ducks survived the night. I was afraid the racoons would be back. The ducks look so sad though, wandering around and trying to find the missing two and calling for them. They really were a social flock. It's a little heart-breaking. Lady didn't lay today. I think she might have been shocked out of it. We'll see if there is an egg tomorrow. We got six chicken eggs, though. Life goes on.

I utterly hate them. They are savage, evil animals in a deceptively cute package. Early this morning a raccon killed two of our female ducks. Did it bother to fully consume either of them? No. It ate half of one and killed the other without eating it. I understand nature, but you know, take what you need, don't kill more than necessary. I swear those racoons are having a good time with it.

So Noisy and Len Tao are gone, laid to rest, leaving us with only Patches and Lady Henry Inigo Montoya. We won't be letting them out until at least 9 a.m. from now on. At least by then we can be sure the predators are gone. At least the chickens are fine. Times like this, I wish we had a dog.

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Last night I transferred the money from ING to pay the property taxes on Wednesday. Since I set aside $100 a month and property tax is $518.17, I had some surplus money in that category, so I took $1.61 to even out my Emergency Fund, which now sits at $1000 exactly, and then the rest of it I dumped into the Freezer Fund. Along with another $10 I shifted, the Freezer Fund now sits at $851.03.

That's basically it, I'm just saving up for the sales tax now. My usual $100 per month will be added next month, plus whatever coin jar scrapings there are and it will be done. I think an even $1000 is a good place to stop. So nice to see a goal within sight. Once I hit it, I'll resume adding money to my emergency fund to build it back up.

I'm not exactly sure when we will purchase the freezer. I guess it will depend on how fast our house sells. If I know we are going to move away from here shortly after it sells, it feels kind of senseless to have it here and then have to move it again. Seems like it would be easier to just have it delivered to our new place when we buy it than to have to move it later and risk the damages that always seem to happen during moving. Well, it won't hurt the money to sit there collecting interest until we know what we are doing.

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This morning when I took DD to school the rain was pretty fierce. The street was flooded about six inches, because leaves were clogging the drain. Our basement is flooding too, but we turned on the sump pump early so it's not too bad. We're actually having a clear patch right now with more rain due tonight. But a little sun is better than no sun. And a little rain is better than what they are getting over on the East coast.

I utterly hate them. They are savage, evil animals in a deceptively cute package. Early this morning a raccon killed two of our female ducks. Did it bother to fully consume either of them? No. It ate half of one and killed the other without eating it. I understand nature, but you know, take what you need, don't kill more than necessary. I swear those racoons are having a good time with it.

So Noisy and Len Tao are gone, laid to rest, leaving us with only Patches and Lady Henry Inigo Montoya. We won't be letting them out until at least 9 a.m. from now on. At least by then we can be sure the predators are gone. At least the chickens are fine. Times like this, I wish we had a dog.

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Last night I transferred the money from ING to pay the property taxes on Wednesday. Since I set aside $100 a month and property tax is $518.17, I had some surplus money in that category, so I took $1.61 to even out my Emergency Fund, which now sits at $1000 exactly, and then the rest of it I dumped into the Freezer Fund. Along with another $10 I shifted, the Freezer Fund now sits at $851.03.

That's basically it, I'm just saving up for the sales tax now. My usual $100 per month will be added next month, plus whatever coin jar scrapings there are and it will be done. I think an even $1000 is a good place to stop. So nice to see a goal within sight. Once I hit it, I'll resume adding money to my emergency fund to build it back up.

I'm not exactly sure when we will purchase the freezer. I guess it will depend on how fast our house sells. If I know we are going to move away from here shortly after it sells, it feels kind of senseless to have it here and then have to move it again. Seems like it would be easier to just have it delivered to our new place when we buy it than to have to move it later and risk the damages that always seem to happen during moving. Well, it won't hurt the money to sit there collecting interest until we know what we are doing.

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This morning when I took DD to school the rain was pretty fierce. The street was flooded about six inches, because leaves were clogging the drain. Our basement is flooding too, but we turned on the sump pump early so it's not too bad. We're actually having a clear patch right now with more rain due tonight. But a little sun is better than no sun. And a little rain is better than what they are getting over on the East coast.

Since today is supposed to be the last sunny day for the next ten days, and because I abhor working outside in the rain, and because I feel pretty darn good today, I spent some time in the garden. I pulled up several spent plants and tossed them in the chicken enclosure. The chickens seemed happy to get them.

I noticed that some of the broccoli plants that I thought were never going to do anything have small heads on them. These ones were the first planted but seem to be the last to do anything, even though they had plenty of time. Same type as I planted on the other side of the house, too. With at least ten days of non-freezing temps I think there will be some to harvest in about 10 days.

Thank goodness broccoli thrives in cool temps. I was so disappointed that they didn't do well over the summer, but I was too stubborn to pull them up, hoping for an Indian Summer, and I'm glad I waited. Now I'm wishing I had gone ahead and planted some lettuce at the start of October. It's so unpredictable. I do not remember a year that we did not have a good hard frost by now.

If I am able to harvest every broccoli head that is presenting when it gets to full size, it'll likely be another ten pounds of produce. And organic broccoli in the store is currently $2.99 a pound so about $30 worth. If any more appear and the weather continues to be mild, who knows what I'll end up with? I really was not expecting to be harvesting anything so it's wonderful that I can. Every little bit helps reduce the grocery budget for the month and allows money to be reallocated elsewhere.

Aside from all of that, I added 47 cents to the coin jar that I found when I cleaned out my purse.

I got a full night's sleep and have some actual energy today, thank goodness. I think my fever broke, too, so that's always a bonus. First thing I did was go down to the grocery store and buy a couple bags of organic white flour, organic milk, a bell pepper, and orange juice. It cost me $35.82. I should not have to spend any money between now and Friday. I am still trying to use up the stuff in my freezers and I still have broccoli and kohlrabi and a few green beans left in the fridge, so menues will reflect that.

Monday--
Sausages (from the ranch)
Fried potatoes
Kohlrabi

Tuesday--
Chicken and Broccoli stir-fry (including celery, carrots, onion, green beans)
Pears

Wednesday--
Homemade pizza with ham, pepperoni, onion, bell pepper, and diced tomatoes

Thursday--
Braided chili loaf
Broccoli
Pears

Friday--
Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Meatballs
Homemade garlic bread
Kohlrabi

Saturday--
Meatball sandwiches
Canned pineapple
Kohlrabi

It seems like I seldom have one of these anymore, but since I was too out of it to drive again today and the weather didn't cooperate with walking, I didn't go to the store and buy flour. I really must manage it tomorrow because it's hard to make a menu plan for next week without one of my main ingredients. Well, I do have whole wheat flour but I use it in 3:1 ratio (white being the 3) because it doesn't rise well if I use just whole wheat.

I'm just glad I have plenty of eggs, because they are figuring prominently in breakfast and lunch without flour to make bread. Speaking of eggs, the last two holdouts (the black Australorps) of the new chickens started laying yesterday. It's so funny seeing pullet eggs because they are so small, but they size up pretty quickly. So with those two laying we got 8 eggs today (2 duck, 6 chicken).

We have not had a frost yet. We were to get close on Thursday, but it didn't drop past 36, so my gamble to leave the tomatoes on the vine has paid off. The lowest temp in the forecast in the next 10 days is an overnight of 43 F, and that is November 5th. So I'm going to continue to gamble and try to let those tomatoes ripen. It's supposed to rain all but one of those days, so the tomatoes may not make it due to that, but I am still hoping to extend the garden season as long as possible.

The level of food in the freezers is definitely going down. I can see it visibly now. I am trying to use up the items in them over buying new because I want to defrost everything. If I am very careful with my spending over the next 6 days, I will have $300 leftover from the last pay cycle. I am going to throw it at the credit card.

I have to pay property tax on the 31st. The money is sitting in the account just waiting. This is the second time I've budgeted for it, saving $100 a month. It is nice not having to scramble at the last minute.

I have over 3/4 of a tank of gas so I am good there. Other than buying the flour and some milk and orange juice, I shouldn't have to spend any money this week before payday.

So the plan for tonight was pizza for dinner. Homemade, mind you. There was absolutely no reason for me to think that would be a problem, but when I went to make the dough all I had left was one cup of flour. Um...what? I always have flour. Always. And I'm the only one who gets into it. And since I haven't made bread in a couple of weeks I've had no need to keep an eye on the flour level. I always know how much I have on hand and when I need to buy more. Then I remembered DS's paper mache project with his dad last weekend. Made me sick to my stomach because I realized they had used the organic flour to do it, too.

So, no pizza for dinner. Don't think the idea of delivery didn't flit through my head because it did. Instead I threw together a meatloaf, the ingredients of which were easily at hand. I will buy some flour tomorrow. I just couldn't stand the thought of driving today, not even the six blocks to the store and with my cough it is too cold and rainy outside to walk. Not that I have the energy today anyway.

Seriously, today was a day when I really felt my disability. I just did not have enough spoons.

Did you ever have one of those days where everything you are looking for seems to not be in the places they belong? The keys, the checkbook, your jacket? I swear that every spoon in the house must be in hiding or in the dishwasher, because there aren't any in the drawer. Hence my title. Even though most of my symptoms are gone, my throat remains sore and raspy. Ice cream helps, but it is a weird experience eating it with a fork. Still, whatever works.

I cancelled my appointment today. It saved me $90 for the week. I am still just too worn down. I rescheduled for Tuesday.

I found a dime in the cupholder in the van so added that to the coin jar.

Yesterday I spent $40 on a prescription, $33.23 on OTC cold medicine, $4.44 on a pill splitter, and $12.93 on orange juice. The orange juice was not a planned purchase, but I was really craving it the way you do when you're deficient in something. So I bought 2 gallons.

I am very tempted to get takeaway for dinner, except I don't want pizza and they are the only place that delivers. I don't have the energy to make baked potato soup, which was on my menu plan for today. It's labor intensive. I think today will just be chili from a can with leftover baked potatoes and green beans from a can. It's warm and hearty and the capsicum clears my sinuses. It's also a quarter of the cost of takeaway, maybe less.

Three of the chickens are now laying eggs in the box on the back porch, Curious, Georgie, and Queen. Guess the fence repair just made them learn how to fly over taller fences. Still, farm fresh delivered to your back door can't be beat.

I reconciled my checkbook with my account this morning and it came out to the penny! After making two errors in the last six weeks or so, it was nice to have everything match up exactly as it should.

I also updated my spreadsheets. After my appointment today I will be able to record the final medical payment for the month and close off the October spreadsheet. November's I set up last week so it's all ready to go. I left a note on it to remember to provide for haircuts for DD and myself this month. It's been six months for me and I definitely need the ends trimmed properly. I am also thinking about going with bangs. Right now they are past my chin.

The mortgage balance has posted and it is now at $15,801.43. If I pay $100 extra to principal for the next two payments it will be under $15,000. I like the idea of finishing off the year under $15K.

The rumor mill has it that this year's Christmas bonus will be double last year's, which will make it 10% of yearly income. But even if it is only 5% like last year it will be very nice. Since DH is going to be working an extra week or two more than he did last year, even that 5% will be higher than last year's 5%. Between that and our big tax return due to medical, we may be able to pay off the last of the credit card debt. At least I hope so. I just want it gone.

With a definite chill in the air, the garden has slowed way down. It was quite cold this morning when I got up to take DD to school. I think if it hadn't been raining we might have gotten a light frost. Tomorrow is supposed to get down to 37 F.

Here is today's harvest:




I decided to pull most of the kohlrabi and just left two out there. I cut three of the Romanescu broccoli and pulled up their plants since they won't produce side shoots. The chickens were very happy with the freshly disturbed dirt. They grow more like cauliflower, but are supposed to taste more like broccoli. There are several more out there that just need to gain size so I'm going to let them go for a bit longer hoping the weather will cooperate.

I pulled all the tomatoes on that side of the house though. They were just volunteers anyway. That side is less protected and will get a frost sooner. The other tomatoes I pulled the yellowish ones, but decided to chance it a little longer on the green ones. I also left the bunching onions in. It's a gamble trying to beat the first frost.

There will be plenty of delicious home grown veggies this week just with what I did harvest, no need to purchase any. And the kohlrabi will keep for quite a while if I cut off the leaves, so they can provide veggies for next week.

I checked my spreadsheet and I have saved about $800 on produce by growing my own this summer. That is after taking out the cost of the sugar for making jam and the salt and lemon juice for canning tomatoes, the cost of the rings and lids and jars for canning, and after the cost of the starts I purchased. We harvested about 400 pounds of organic food and that does not include the potatoes I'm going to dig tomorrow. I reckon that will be about 100 pounds of potatoes if it did as well as last year.

I think that's pretty darn good considering the space and time constraints and only doing a halfway job of gardening. I think I can probably double that next year by starting earlier and watering more often during the worst of the summer heat. And my main garden helper won't be dealing with a concussion like he was this year so it won't fall mostly on just me and my wonky leg. Plus I'll have lots of homemade compost to ammend the soil with come spring.

I found $4 in the pocket of my winter coat when I put it on this morning. I'm not sure where it came from as I usually put all money in my purse when I get change. If it were a spring jacket I could understand where it came from, but in the winter I always have my purse with me. Oh, well. Maybe the money fairies put it there. Anyway, I am adding that to my coin jar.

I also found a quarter in the washing machine. The rule in this house is that if money falls out of your clothes when you wash, the person doing the transfer to the dryer gets to keep it. That ususally gets the kids checking their pockets before they throw something in the hamper.

So that's a total of $4.25 to the coin jar with the eventual desitanation of the freezer fund.

Today is an airport day, so DH is getting ready to go. He emptied his wallet and added $5.45 to the coin jar. I'm really not looking forward to driving again. DH does most of the driving when he is home. I really don't like to drive in high traffic areas, and that whole side of town is very high traffic. I take the back roads as much as possible, but at that time of day it's impossible to avoid all of the traffic.

He got gas last night, too, half a tank to fill it up cost $33.32. That should be the last expenditure for the week if all goes to plan.

I've got a lot of broccoli and some pears to use up, so that will figure prominently in meals this week. I am planning all protein for what we have on hand in the freezer. I am going to try not to go to the grocery store at all this week. I think we can get through, though milk might be iffy. We have a gallon and a half, but the soup I am making takes 7 cups. I'll start baking bread again tomorrow. I have been buying it for the last several days. I know I'm exhausted when I am too tired to put the ingredients in the bread machine.

Monday--
Beef and broccoli stir-fry (will include carrots, celery, onion, and green beans)

Tuesday--
Pork chops
Broccoli and cauliflower
Pears

Wednesday--
Roasted chicken
Baked potatoes
Leftover broccoli and cauliflower

Thursday--
Baked potato soup
Homemade drop biscuits with choice of homemade jams

Friday--
Pizza (homemade sausage, bell pepper, onion)
Pears

Saturday--
Steak
Fried potatoes
Broccoli

Sunday--
Beef pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Pears