Onions

So I awoke the other morning thinking OMG we need to get the onions started. What a way to wake. Love waking up thinking about seeds and the garden. So we were going out that day we decided to stop by the local garden store. And as we were there we decided to do our onions a whole different way this year. Normally we buy bulbs and plant them. Then the wild bunnies will come by and dig them up and move them or turn them upside down, burying the tops. So we fix the bed and then the bunnies do this again. This dance goes on for a few weeks until the onions are too big for them to move and then we are safe.

But this year we decided to get these trays and filled with seed starter and onion seeds. Hundreds of onion seeds. And when they get big enough to move we will move them to the garden. Well and if this doesn't work we will buy bulbs in a few weeks and start dancing with the bunnies. Oh, yes you read that right, hundreds of seeds, in hopes for hundreds of onions. Yes. I like to dice and freeze to pull out for a stir fry and everyday cooking. I like to dry onion. And I'm nearly out, down to one jar. We LOVE onions here.

Next up is shallots. This will be my first year. I tried them last year, but???? I don't know what happened, I think the bunnies just took them. I harvested none. 

Make Your Own Orange Peel

So do you work with orange peel? Have you ever smelled the store bought crap? Too bad it's not smell Internet as my orange peel smells amazing. It's easy peasy and a cost cutter as you never have to buy orange peel from the store again.

My son eats oranges so I buy 3-4 a week. I ask him to save me the peel. I put them in the dehydrator until dry and then throw into the blendtec until it's ground. Can't be any simpler. It smells amazing and you know you have chemical free orange peel for your cooking.

I happened to find some store bought orange peel when looking for something else. Opened up and couldn't believe the horrible smell.

Organic Orange

Store bought on the left, mine on the right. Not only is color amazing, but the smell.

Which would you want?

New Sheriff In Town

So there is a new Sheriff in town. Yesterday was our day of whatever. Basically a day of errands and I didn't care about the money spent, if people needed to be paid off we paid them off. If we had things to do we did them. Our long list included a trip to Cabela's for a new dehydrator. Since Big Daddy is not working I need something to keep up with me. I fully expected to pick up the house model, it was on sale for 159$ thinking of getting two. But at only 800 watts I wasn't thrilled. I couldn't stack them in turn taking up more room in our tiny kitchen. After a 30 minute debate, hubby made the decision this was the one we were to get. I told him we were insane, he told the guy to pull it.

I don't know what happened between telling the guy to pull it and it will take a few minutes to come out of the warehouse? It took nearly an hour of us waiting and waiting and waiting, When you are waiting with three kids and a list of errands to do. I now see why profits are falling? The floor was not the cleanest, things placed everywhere, no prices on things placed. Had lots of time to look over things. I could have had that place ship shape in the time I waited for the dehydrator.

Finally get word it's ready, and we run down and pay for it and ran around back to pick it up, where they open the door and they were in the process of taking it out of the box. Now hubby barely blows his top. BUT he blow his top. After how long of a wait why is it out of the box? Because the guy said you wanted to see it? What? Box the God Damn thing up and load it up!

So it's home and in place. I have given it the name "The Sheriff" So I have "The Sheriff" "Big Daddy" And "Little Pea" LOVE my excel but it can't keep up with me during growing season. So needless to say I may never have to buy another dehydrator again in my life!

After our very loooooooooooong day, the kids came home and wanted me to take photos of them jumping mid air. I don't understand why this is a sport in this house? But yeah set up mom on one end of the couch with a camera and jump on her.

Coat tossed in mid-air. Well kid jumping mid-air.

So our looooooooooooooooong day ended. I balanced the budget and brought down the hammer. We are now on a very tight budget, no more spending. We will now account for every penny, we will save for hubby's newer truck, and then build a savings and work on paying down the house. But gotta tell ya had a lot of fun yesterday, playing catch up on life. We bought supplements, we bought lots of bricks, we bought this and that, played catch up here and there. Bought the Asian store out of mini rice cakes. Bought Tucker all the pants he could fit in and a shirt at goodwill. Cleared a photo card, 400 plus photos. My van was loaded down and full when we got home.

But now the budget is tight, pennies will be counted and watched. I moved all the money to savings, the van was paid off, all medical was paid off, bills were caught up on. For the first time in nearly 10 years we have a savings. If brakes go out we are OK. If hubby hits a deer (OH wait he did!) we are OK. It feels good to breath. 

Let's Talk Money

I highly feel money is something that needs to be talked about, right out there in the open. I think logically if you can't afford something you should say no. I don't think one should have credit card debt, I think one should pay cash. If you can't afford it save for it. To pay cash for something and to know it's all yours, you owe no one anything is such a good feeling.

So years ago we were saving for a newer van, when my old van kept breaking down, it was seriously one thing after another, digging into our savings to repair it and move on. I think the last thing was when the door fell off, Just fell off. Luckily this was right after we dropped of kids at school so I changed my whole day around and found someone in town to put the door back on. Knowing it's on it's last legs and it's costing us more to keep then we had. We went looking. Well needless to say I HATE car shopping. OMG. Although the first van we paid cash for it. We took one of our first tax returns and paid cash. It was a nice feeling and of course we wanted that again, but in maintaining the van in it's last days costs us a small fortune.

So when we saw our current van we put about 1k down and had to finance the rest. Now looking back BIG mistake. We allowed the car dealer to finance us, they had to shop around because the car was over 100k in miles apparently a big no no. In shopping around our credit was checked over 20 times. In doing that our credit score took a big hit. So now I'm pissed because there is no way I would have given permission for 20 hits. Although you don't know this until weeks later when the hits are recorded. Although we stuck to our guns and did a 3 year loan, with a payment we could logically not afford. But we made do, I was able to pay x amount a week and by the due date I was paying the amount if not more. Last year we took a hard look at our money and found money and decided to pay off the van, we paid every extra penny we could find. Although found that was hard. Why?

Well we had kids in school, not just any school. A lovely private school which we adored. But it was pricey, it took our whole tax return to pay for the year. So for a few years we didn't see our tax return. Now we also live about 20-30 minutes away from the school. You drive that daily. You add in errands. And you are spending 125 plus a week in gas. You add in very sick in laws who are asking you to do a lot of extra driving and you hit a wall and have to take a loan out for gas. Of course we won't open a gas cc, no we take a loan from the 401k. And we somehow make it through the in laws medical issues in one piece.

In the middle of last year, I started to really think about the money and all we are spending sending them to school. Not only paying the school, gas, all the extras at school, errands or extra running. Things added up. So after a few month debate it was decided we would bring home the kids at the end of the school year.

One of the best choices we made. Although we didn't "see" the extra money savings for awhile. Maybe about September we started to see it, so I started Christmas shopping, we made a big ole list of what we are getting the kids and family and I went to work trying to get 1-2 things a week, either by amazon, ebay or coupons and deals at stores. The rest of the money savings we started to pay down the van again.

So knowing in December we were going to use the tax return to pay off the van we decided to take on a Mortgage challenge, now that we are "seeing" the extra savings by staying home, I could logically pay the mortgage an extra 100-150 a week. Thinking after we hit x amount we would cut that in half and work on building our savings.

Well NOPE

Hubbys' truck took a turn for the worse and is currently sitting in the driveway well he is taking my paid off van to work and back. He HATES my van. Although I LOVE the gas savings. So I hate the thought of going out and getting another car loan. We will just start saving the extra mortgage money. Well except for the day my brakes went out (well I was driving the van!) fixing my brakes took all we had saved. So we need to start again.

Well except we had a hay emergency come up. Our hay guy is running low and we had to pre-pay for the hay, we LOVE this hay as it keeps our goats nice and big and healthy and I don't have to grain them in turn saving us money. We have to feed less which in turn saves us money. So as of last week the hay guy is paid up through July and starting this next Friday we start saving again.

I'm going to try well saving to throw a little at the mortgage. Still would like to see a dent this year. I also need to find some money and up our retirement. We are lacking there. But I figure as soon as the 401k loan is paid off I will take that money and max out our retirement savings at work. It's a company match, anything left over will go towards Mortgage.

I am reworking numbers and cutting things, but seriously there isn't a lot to cut. We got hit hard with the Payroll Tax hit, like many people did. We had to find 80 dollars a month, who has that just sitting around? So we cut our garbage service down to twice a month. We took his truck off insurance since it's just sitting in the yard. We had to cut the food again.

So we got our tax return last week. The second I saw that I logged in and paid off the van. It's nice to have that gone. We are getting a handful of things I had set aside, I also decided I'm done living in a past due world. All of my bills come in past due. So I don't get bills I get notices to pay by x date or this will be shut off. So I paid off the garbage. I will try from now on to add 5-10 a month to the other bills and get them caught up. I also paid off all the medical we had sitting here. It was nice to be medical debt free for about 24 hours. Well until I got a bill for 500 plus dollars. Talk about crapping your pants. As luck would have it, I sent them a payment that morning so our bills crossed in the mail. I will wait for an updated bill and then figure out how to pay off the rest.

Anything left of our tax return next Friday will be sent to savings where it will sit and hopefully not be touched. Although scared to keep it in savings. Our plan is to keep it in savings hopefully add to it and when we go and talk to our money lady next November we will take the money and finally open our Roth IRA's and start to build a retirement.

I'll tell ya this was the first tax return we got to see in over 3 years. You add that to the savings in gas we see every week, and we are going OK, not great by any means, but OK. Money is tight, and we live without very often. But debt is going down and we should be paying cash for a newer truck soon, we should be able to make a dent in mortgage, maybe not this year, but next, we will be able to start to build retirements.

Now I'm cheap, I am so very cheap, my train of thought now is, do I really need to buy it, or can I do without, or do it cheaper, can I put my savings and send it to the house. How cheap can I go? So I bought spelling for the kids. This program is so very highly rated, but I'm too cheap to by the magnet tiles that go with it. Thinking I can do that myself for next to nothing. So I cut up white squares, I found some abc letters in my stickers. I will laminate them and I have sheets of magnets from other projects  I will use those scraps and for next to nothing I have saved. I am always talking myself out of something, thinking can I wait until x. Well you can wait a little while more, well you can wait some more. Then it goes on sale and I jump all over it.

Amazon is good for used books. I would be shocked if I have spent over 200 in schooling for the kids. Because I watch things we need, wait until they fall into my price range and jump on them. I buy math, English, and history far in advance so I can watch and wait for a good price point. I never need anything today.

Having the garden has helped us saving ten tons on our food budget. As always I'm always thinking can I do this meal cheaper? Can I use one of my jars verses something. Or can I can this to use in the future. Although I have a home depot list going and it's ever long, so every week as we are doing errands we stop by and spend 10-15 a week working on my list. I just got something big off of it so now my list should move pretty fast now. From needing bricks for a new bed, to needing bricks for the new herb garden, to needing compost for this or mulch for that. Just stuff. As we find we need something it's added to the list.

So we will continue to work on the 401k loan, it comes out of the paycheck weekly so I really don't think about it. We will save for the truck, we will work on paying down the mortgage well make a dent in it. We will work on small projects around the house. We will keeping aiming for 100% debt free, well building a retirement. We will continue to live as cheaply as we can.

The boys and I do a money class every Monday, they get their allowance and we talk about where their money should go. Tucker is a big saver and is doing well, Ethan is a big spender and not doing well, so had to install rules for him. X amount must be saved before you spend. Then after the spending another x amount before spending again. That seems to be working today. We are very open with the kids, the budget is often left laying around and if we have no money we are honest, there is no of this because we don't have any money. We have papers on the fridge that keeps track of the debt, so they are seeing the mortgage go down, we have a list of medical and they see that go down as I pay or add as we get a new bill. They have been OK with, well we can't afford that today. If they have questions they can ask anytime. I want us as a family to be very open about money.

As my parents and I are not. And will never be, they hide things and it's annoying. They lost their house but it hasn't closed yet, they won't take my advice. So now that it will close (maybe) in 2013 they will have a very lovely tax bill. I have informed them of this and I was blown off by my mother saying no the bank will pay the tax bill. Hum NO the bank writes it off and the IRS comes after you. You would have thought a 25k looming tax bill would have sent them into high gear to try and close their house before the end of last year? Nope, because they won't take my advice, they have an agent who they think knows what he is doing, now I was an agent, I have closed many short sale homes, we close homes within 30-35 days of a contract, why has this taken 6 months plus to close? Because your agent doesn't know what they are doing. I gave my advice they won't take it I'm done. But they are getting about 3k from the bank in "moving costs" now "if" they see this money, I'm willing to bet the money will be gone within days of receiving it. They won't be saving for that 25k plus tax bill that is coming their way.

But I'm willing to bet I will get the whining about the tax bill won't I? Well lets see you didn't take my advice and I know how to unplug my phone. Honestly I see an agent and a Real Estate office that needs to be sued at this point and I would sue for the amount owed in taxes, forms are not being filled out, calls are not being made, the agent has no idea what he is doing the broker should have taken over. But my parents won't use, nope they will whine when the IRS takes their income and they can't pay their rent. People don't understand when you loose your house it's not a free ride. My parents didn't save a cent from not paying the mortgage, they will be hit with a tax bill that will take all their income, in turn making my mother work long past retirement age, or wiping out retirement to pay off the IRS. I sit here and think, wouldn't it have been easier to pay your mortgage? or not take out a loan on an all ready paid off house? Yes, their house was paid off, but they wanted a motor home (which they are currently selling) and they wanted this and that and before long the 100k they borrowed was GONE. Shocking how fast that money went. It just went and now they can't take the new carpet and new paint and such with them.

This is where I'm installing in the kids to save and then buy. We don't need to take out loans we save and buy later. And yes we had to take out a loan, BUT in laws were very sick and we needed gas money, it's not like we were out wildly spending. It's not a good feeling to owe someone or something. I think of the bank as something. If hubby looses his job tomorrow the loan comes due, we don't have that kind of money. If hubby looses his job we can't afford to pay the house. We almost have three months of mortgage saved up, but only mortgage, we would be sitting in the dark with no TV and only eating food from the garden. So when the 401k loan is paid off that will be a good day. When the mortgage is gone that will be a good day OK week. Last Thursday night was a good night, as I printed a receipt for paying off the van and put it on the fridge. Lots' of tears on my part.

We will get there, lots of baby steps. We have come a very loooooooooooooooong way, from 40k plus in medical debt, not knowing if you can pay the mortgage and to today. We are on a good road now and it feels really good. I want the kids to have this feeling, I don't like the thought of them living in fear over debt. That is not a good feeling.

Keep track on the right hand side of the blog. It's where I have put our debt. Every week I run my numbers, how much has our debt gone down, verses how much have our investments gone up. One day the numbers will even out right? Also every week the kids and I curl up and watch Suze Orman on TV. I have a Dave Ramsey book within sight, I always glance at that and it keeps me on track, because he is watching do you really need to buy that? Oh bought the book at Goodwill for 3 bucks, verses the nearly 30 brand new. Why pay new when you can buy it used? But on the Suze show the kids like the approved or denied part. They are always trying to guess, if the person has debt it's easy she says no, if no debt it's usually a toss up here.

But I suggest opening up your debt, talking about your debt, paying off your debt. The money you are spending in interest is shocking. I know this because I see all the mortgage interest I pay monthly and I am so sick. If you didn't have the debt and could save the money how much would you have saved up? Ever do that math?

Marcie

PAID OFF

See that dirty white van...See it? Well Do ya?

It's all OURS...Yep-o All Paid Off. We sent them the pay off amount last night.

If you notice the right side where I list my debt....So very nice.

Now to work on the 401k loan and the house. OH we caught up on medical bills as well.

Yep that dirty white thing is all Ours.

 

Bank says we can keep the dirt! HA!

COTM: Allergy Free Black & White Cake

OK so it's not in cupcake form. But there is a story there. See I wanted to go and get a big cupcake pan. But that requires me to go to Joann's and us a coupon. But that would require me putting it into the budget and at the moment that isn't happening. SOOOOOO  I used my 9 inch cake pans, last night I baked two chocolate and two white cakes. I used the Divvies Cookbook, I used their recipes so I won't post them there. Just tell ya this is a great book and a must have. See Amazon had it used for .40 cents. YES you read that right forty cents. Well plus 3.99 shipping. But still a steal. I read the reviews and they were good so I bought it. I have been very happy with it. For the flour I used half Tapioca and half Brown Rice Flour.

Cole LOVES to melt chocolate.

He loves to make frosting.

Apparently watching Frosting is exciting. There are actually three heads in this picture.

Cole spread the frosting.

And added the next layer.

And Frosting and another layer.

Then melted regular chocolate and coconut oil and poured it over the cakes.

Here is the cookbook I used for the cakes.

Got the idea out of the newest Food Network Magazine it's where I got the frosting. I will post below. Although my photo looks nothing like theirs.

Allergy Free Black and White Cake

Cake Recipes from Divvies Bakery Cookbook

Frosting From Food Network's Magazine

Adapted by Marcie Dingerson

8 Ounces of Chocolate

about 1/4 cup coconut oil melted

pinch of salt

about 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

I then added coconut milk until it was spreadable frosting

For the cake topping Just melted chocolate and coconut oil melted and mixed and pour.

This got 6 thumbs up.

Now go and play.

What A Week!

You know that feeling after the bus hits ya and you are laying there going, Well I didn't see that coming?

The Mortgage Challenge has been called off. Why you ask? Well Wednesday I was out doing errands and I go to back up and kept going. I had no brakes. I throw it into gear and parked and restarted the van hoping it was a fluke. NOPE. I had no brakes. So made the choice to go 5 mph and hit Trader Joe's. OK probably not the right word there, I ended up hitting no one. But I figured I would finish getting food in case we are stuck at home for a few days. But well there I called Hubby, to call the car guy to see if he can get us in. I babied that van home, going oh so very slow, with the flashers on. Finally made it home, and hubby was going to take the van over and walk home.

Why walk home? Because we took Hubby's truck over early Wednesday morning. Yep, he now had both of our cars. But he took pity on hubby and drove him home. It's not a long walk. But.

So how were we to pay for this? I was hoping my brakes would last one more month for taxes, and they were doing good, until BOOM. So we used hubby's truck fund. It took all 400 dollars too. Hubby's truck has maybe 2-3 more months and then it will die. After that he said bury it. Car guy took more pity on us and only charged us 100 for hubby's truck. So yeah it was a 500 dollar week.

So we have no cash, nothing. No truck fund, nothing. It was decided and boy I fought hard, but lost. The money that was suppose to go to Mortgage, will now be pulled and put into the truck fund. Hubby will need something this year. And I can't fight it any longer. And I refuse to finance another car. That won't happen again! So until further notice we are building a truck fund.

So this is a nightly thing here. It's been really cold and so our outside cat comes in and sleeps with either Sitka or Hannah.

And just a word to the wiser LABEL YOUR SEEDS AS YOU GO! Enough said there!

Taking The Loaf Out Of The Bread

So are you drooling yet? Are you tired of making gluten free bread? And it falling over and over and over again? Do you have jars and jars and jars of bread crumbs?

It got to the point I just stopped making bread. I was done, no more. Then I had a thought. Take the loaf out of the bread? huh, so after some googling I landed here. Huh, a bread with no starch? No crap? Huh. Well next day Coleson and I did this bread. In 20 minutes I was making sandwiches. My husband who hasn't had a sandwich in years. Had a 6 inch by 6 inch sandwich.

I can not tell you how easy this is to make. How easy it is to bake, cut, and make sandwiches. This bread will not fall apart on you.

After I made sandwiches for all. For dinner I took the left over bread and cut it into squares, covered them with butter, garlic, and salt and warmed them up. The bread never had a chance.

So I'm challenging you to take the loaf out of the bread. And make this amazing recipe.

I used the recipe step for step so I won't be posting it here. But go to her site, recipes are AMAZING. Get her book. I can't wait until I can afford her book.

Money, Money, Money

Money seems to be the vein of my existence these days. Back in the day when we had over 40,000 plus in medical debt and a mortgage and not being able to see the end. Is very, very, very scary. Fast forward a few years.

We are medical debt free and we are on the up swing. I think the upswing came when we found a money person and gave her the only money we had on the planet. Since that day two years ago, we have tripled that money and have a very nice emergency fund going. Come next year with this same person we will be opening an Roth IRA and focusing on our retirement.

Because right now we have NOTHING for retirement and that alone is very scary. We do have a matching 401k through hubby's work and when we got married there was 400 in there. Seriously 400 dollars? Since I have taken over we now have over 30k. Which is a lot of money for us yes. But retirement wise it's nothing.

What scares me more then anything else is my parents. How can you be that old, take out a mortgage on your paid off house, and then loose the house? Where does all that money go? They took out the loan for the motor home they bought. The one they might be living in soon. Very fitting I would say? My mother who has a spending habit just spent and spent and spent. New dining room set, new carpeting in the house, new kitchen. About a year ago they bought a new car. They are not paying their mortgage and they bought a car? They didn't need a new car, there was nothing wrong with their old car, except mom wanted a new car and she gets what she wants.

Right now my parents are in a rental home, because they expected their house to close months ago. The house hasn't closed yet, and now with congress not forwarding the tax break they will need when the bank writes off the loss. My parents will be in line for a tax bill they don't see coming. I have spoken with my mother on this. And she thinks, no the bank will get the tax bill not us. No the bank takes the hit, writes off the interest and the IRS taxes you for the extra income. She doesn't get it. Since I'm their daughter they won't listen to me. But they will sure be calling and whining when that bill hits and they have lost everything. Because they have no money. The second a pay check drops my mother pulls out the money and is spending it.

See for Christmas, my sister and I begged her to not go over board, first she can't afford it and second the kids do not need it. Third our house is small I don't have room for all this crap. We asked her to limit her gifts to 3 per child. Did she? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO As she was bringing in the car load of gifts I stopped counting at 30. Just in shock and disappear. Its money she didn't need to spend on "stuff" that will be going to goodwill. I was in tears when she left because she just doesn't listen and I'm tired of it. Did I tell ya I was almost arrested last year? Trying to return two cart loads of "stuff" to WalMart? If finally dawned on them, some of the stuff was too big for me to walk out with. With that money we got a heater which was needed since ours has died and we had no heat in the house. And the kids got one toy each. One toy, they didn't need 20 each, they need one.

My mother was raised with no money, her mother worked, and worked, and worked and they still had nothing. Now that my mother has money yeah I can see her spending and spending and spending. No one ever taught her about money. So of course we as kids were not taught about money. And when you have 40k plus in medical sitting on your dining room table, it shocks you into reality. Luckily I got smart and got a job and worked my butt off. I then found Suze Orman and read, and found Dave Ramsey and read. (found the books at goodwill CHEAP (NEVER pay full price)) We never had credit card debt, we never had bills (except medical ) totally out of control. We started budgeting and being smart about money. Everyone of my paychecks went to paying off medical. We were sued 7 times because the debt got too high at some collections agencies. Often times the day I got paid is the day we were served. I can't tell ya how many times we got money and just picked up a bill and called and paid, next bill called and paid. We kept track and when the money was gone it was gone and we waited for another check to come in. I remember the last check and paying off the last bill and having enough left over for a new stove well and a fridge on clearance. The stove had died (yes too many fires) and the fridge was on it's last legs. But this whole time we had been living off hubby's paycheck. So when the kids begged me to quit and stay home and hang up the phone, math wise it was an easy decision.

We are teaching our kids about the value of a dollar. They have accounts open with our money person. And they have goals and they are reaching their goals. Allowance is split between spending and saving. Tucker is a saver and has about 150 more then his brothers. And math wise if the boys got their total up to about 5,000-10,000 and then left it for 60 years they will have a very nice retirement.

Every Monday we do a money class here. They get their allowance and they decide how to split the money, the split is something a parent must approve. They look at how much money their account has this week. We answer any money questions they have. We just talk as a family. They know all about mortgage and why we are cutting our budget back this year and focusing on paying down the mortgage. Because really we want to be 100% debt free. What a joy in life that would be to be 100% debt free.

We are working towards that goal. This year "if" or "when" we can file taxes that money will be used to pay off the van. We had to take out a loan at the beginning of last year, as in laws were in and out of the hospital and such and asking for some unreal demands on us. But when they are both in the hospital how can you say no? They were asking us to drive to their house daily (30 minutes each way) and then drop their mail and papers at the hospital (another 20 minute drive) It was a lot of gas and gas costs money, money we didn't have. We took out a loan for gas to get use through. In laws are back on their feet and really I don't think of the loan because of the way it's sent up. They take x amount out of the weekly paycheck. It will be paid off down the road, but I'm in no hurry for it.

Any extra money we find we are putting it towards the mortgage. With work messing up Russell's first paycheck of the year we are all ready off track money wise. But we will get there. Even if we don't make our money mortgage goals, at least we have made a dent. Our first goal is to get it down enough to remove PMI, we can't math wise do that this year. But we can get close.

So our goals this year, is to pay off the van, reduce the mortgage, build up a nice emergency fund, and open a Roth IRA and start funding it. Keep working on the loan and have a little cash on hand. We also have a garden to work on. We decided to take 5-10 dollars of the food money every week and hit home depot. Figuring if we can start now, it won't hurt us in the spring when we can't find the money. I have a bed to redo, a swing to finish, an herb garden to put in.

The kids on Monday must declare their money goals for the year. And we will spend the year working towards those. I want them to see the value of a dollar, I don't want them to buy "stuff" just because you have money. I want them to start thinking, I could buy this for 2 dollars or put it into savings and have it be worth 816 dollars in 30 years. Is this two dollar toy worth wasting 816 dollars later?

I do see how very easy it is when you have money, to buy stuff. People are led to believe they need stuff. Well you can't take the stuff with you when you go? You clutter up your lives, you spend time moving and cleaning your stuff. It's been hard here. Because we never have money, so we get 5 dollars oh boy. But I have learned to put the money aside and not touch it for 2-3 days. After that it's like we really need to save that and have it for the future. Like when I have extra money in the checking account. It's been hard, but I'm training myself to send it to Mortgage. I know down the road I will be really proud of myself, but right now it hurts.

We have cut back here a LOT. As we will be loosing 80 dollars a week. It hurts when you make so very little as it is. But instead of cutting every single thing, we have decided to save our sanity and allow us to have one thing left each. Hubby will still be able to buy comic books, and I will be allowed to hit goodwill and hit the dollar sales. Tell ya when you can get a sheet for a dollar. That is a ton of fabric. You can't buy that at Joann's. But this is as money allows, if we have 2 cents in the bank we are not buying a thing.

To me it's sad that Congress doesn't see we need that money. That is 80 dollars a month that won't be going out and about. We cut back garbage, we removed a car from insurance, no netflix, reducing our food budget. But.

Thanks to my mother, I rarely buy anything extra. Because in the end its "stuff" and "stuff" you don't need. Even when I really need something I keep putting it off. I've done a lot of de-cluttering around here. Many trips to goodwill to purge. Trying to get down to bare bones here of things you really need, verses "stuff" you don't. I think with that mind set we have been able to see an extra 10-20 in the bank at the end of every week. It's sent to Mortgage and we start the week again. I keep track of every penny and keep trying to find ways to cut things back.

Last night after a loooooooooooooooong talk with hubby it was decided that he is actually very happy in his position. And has decided not to try and move up the ladder. I have to be OK with that because at least he has a full time job. No it doesn't pay enough, but he is working. He doesn't really answer to anyone and he likes that. He has a boss now that when hubby says something the boss comes in the next day and backs him up. So like if hubby has a fight with a customer, the customer will often call the next morning to talk to the manager. Well...the manager goes off what hubby says and stands up for him. He really likes that. With hubby moving up the ladder we will be seeing him gone for days, right now he works nights, often spends the days with the kids and helping me home school. And leaves about 2pm. With him moving up the ladder he will be leaving early, getting home late and often only seeing the kids for an hour or two before bed time. There is also the travel that isn't covered by work. He won't be at his store, he will have to drive further to other stores. So that is a longer drive time to get to work and home, not to mention the gas it will take. So if hubby is fine in his position then I have to be fine. But we have to be fine living off of what he makes.

Which if we don't get hit with anything major we should be OK? We are simple, we don't need "stuff".

I have updated the debt load on the side bar of the page. Knowing where we are money wise, I'm no longer really stressed about money. But it allows me to be excited about getting into the garden. I so can't wait for spring...

I was out in the green house today cleaning that out. So I'm now ready to go out there. Baby steps as we have to dodge rain showers.

So I have written a book, I will go. But be smart about your money, you work hard for it. You don't need debt, you don't need "stuff" You need to be OK with you. In a few hours my son and I will be watching the Suze Orman show. It's something we watch together, we are both math minds and love it. When he is old enough he will be reading my Dave and Suze books. He will be nothing like his grandmother.

Is It Spring Yet?

So blogger is acting up, had trouble uploading photos and they are really out of order.

So anywho...Is it spring yet? Today was soooooooooooo nice I dragged myself outside and couldn't drag myself in. I have been missing my garden.

So got through Christmas. I don't know how? My in laws stuck to their word and only bought the boys one gift each. But Cole got three because price wise it was equal. Christmas morning we get up to get going to my parents and there was SNOW. 2 plus inches, yeah we are not going anywhere. We are down to one car and if it slides we are up a creek.

So my mother decides to come down the next day. Her car was PACKED I stopped counting at 30 plus gifts. Lordy, what is it with her and having to buy crap, crap and more crap. I give up. My mother will never listen I just don't exist in her world. After she left kids and us had a talk about all that crap and buying stuff. And wasting money. Lord help me.

So well she was here she asked if I would take her dogs well they are gone. Sure...But we are going to ask someone at the camp to watch them first. So Sunday we all head done to Goodwill and my phone starts to go off and texting and such. I have no minutes so I can't answer them. I get home to find out my parents were here, but since we were not home they dropped the dogs off at my sisters house. So I had to race over to my sisters to get these dogs.

So by now I'm Pissed because where is the respect? Where was that call the day before saying we will be down and when? So for New Year's Eve I had 5 dogs, 3 cats, 3 kids, 1 blind bunny, and 2 1/2 inches of new snow.

The boys were out all day Monday playing in the snow. I could not get them in. Oh well.

I'm working on a new quilt. More later.

Now...We were going to start a Mortgage Challenge this past week. Except if one makes plans God laughs right? You see the lovely Congress/House decided it would be fun to fall off a cliff and mess with our paychecks. We lost a lot of money this week as hubby's work messed up his paycheck. On top of that we don't know if we will see the money back? Will they fix next weeks check? On top of that the Payroll Tax hit us hard and I wasn't expecting. We don't know if we are taking an 80 dollar hit or 240 hit yet. We sat down this week and tired to find 80 dollars. We found 50. When you make this little and it takes nearly 3 paychecks to pay your mortgage there isn't much left to cut. If we are taking a 240 hit we are in some serious trouble. Cross that bridge later.

So right now we are waiting and seeing. If there is any extra money it's going towards the van as we don't know when we can file taxes. So when life irons out a bit money wise we will re-work the numbers for the mortgage challenge and get back on it.

The garden I'm sooooooooooo missing the garden. The next nice day we will be out working in the new herb area. But I plan on trying to spend about 5 dollars a week and getting bricks, and manure now. So come spring we are ready to rock this thing out and don't have to wonder where will we find the money. This week I was able to squeeze ten from the budget. So Sunday I will go and get 8 bricks. Very exciting. Way too much to do and not enough time.