Introducing Sunshine and Midnight…

Posted on by March 5, 2012

I just adore hatching chicks.    They are so sweet and noisy.  They try SO darn hard to get born, all on their own.  You just can’t help them.  I know mammal babies have it rough too, but at least their mamma is doing most of the pushing.  Baby chicks, they gotta do EVERYTHING… from that first huge pip crack to chipping for hours and then finally cracking the shell and pushing out.  What a struggle for someone so little!

I love to be there when they are just about ready to push free.  You can tell they are tired, they are not peeping much.  So I just whisper little “go chickie go” encouragements to them and sometimes they will get a little burst of energy and make it happen.  And then they get to see my beaming smiling face as I tell them welcome to the world!  I hope that somehow, they get some imprinting that humans are good, and that they weren’t alone.  Yeah, maybe they don’t care, but I do.  It’s just a nice and gentle thing.

Well these two are early birds… wasn’t supposed to get major hatching until the 6th…  but they managed to get here on the 5th.  Sunshine was first, at 9:30 PM.  I checked and according to the chick on their back test, he’s a roo.  Doesn’t surprise me, by the time Midnight hatched, Sunny was up and att’em, walking all over and just bold as could be.

Midnight is a little girl, and she came out of a beautiful green egg.  Our green eggs are from our first generation Maranacunas!  So she is actually a second generation chick to hatch here at the farm!  Her daddy and grandpa are probably Bucka Roo…  haha….  ahem.  Well, hillbilly chicken relations are always a little, well, touchy there.  Will be very curious to watch her grow up and see if she looks more Marans or more Amerucana!

Well, it’s been a rough day here at the homestead…  I thought it would be a nice Monday, but then I had to get a dang gall bladder attack and that pretty much laid me out for most of the day and evening.  I’m finally feeling a little more human, and the early chicks sure did help to distract me from the awful pain of it all.  Thank goodness, they are very few and far between.  I know it would be nice to just get the dang thing out, but unfortunately, I do not have insurance, so it’s going to have to wait.  Usually I can manage it very well, but sometimes, who knows why, but it just acts up and it’s just blindsiding!  Thankfully, that is why working at home works for me and us.  If you need a day off, you can usually take a day off.  Especially since I spent the whole weekend working and got a lot done.  I guess in some weird way, my body must have known this was coming and I geared up, just like a storm or something!

Well, nuff of that…  probably TMI, but that’s life.  It’s not always hugs and rainbows, even here at the homestead.  But having a couple new little babies to play with and admire, sure does help!  Two more are pipping, so I suspect we’ll have two new ones in the morning!  Seems to be taking them about 5 or 6 hours after that first big crack!  I love that they are in there peeping away, encouraging their egg mates to wake up and join the crowd in the new world!!!

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Spending… Week Three

Posted on by March 4, 2012

It’s Week Three and I’m once again, slightly startled, at the amount of money we have spent, when I thought I was being super careful. Apparently, not.

As I go through the receipts and consider everything, it’s apparent to me that we are being just a little too careless with some of our funds. Household and extras are really adding up. They are at 1/3rd of our 3 week costs. Almost $500. Quite the eye opener. Sure, I understood that those $10 here purchases and $20 here purchases do add up, but what I am really seeing is that there are no true $10 purchases. Every outing is an average of $28. Not $10. I am seeing the small purchases and ignoring the larger ones! Selective memory, I suspect.

Now I was pleased to see our actual total of the household expense dip considerably. Only $130 this week. That is almost a half the last two weeks. Not quite but real close. I attribute that to staying out of the dollar store and the local expensive grocery stores. I did not visit a single time. I waited until Thursday when we went to the big city and I did any household shopping there, at Aldis and GFS. (Both discount grocery type stores) And I took a list… AND I STUCK TO IT.

One thing I noticed was that Aldi’s and GFS do not have much in the way of money wasters. Magazines, knick knacks, little cheap overseas products. Now, granted, you might overspend a bit on a good deal for canned goods or a big box of hot dogs, but I think that pantry items are way better than another dumb magazine. And I didn’t even miss them.

Now, I know the idea is to spend normally, but I am glad that I found this one little issue and corrected it. (Taxes and a big electric bill are due, so hey, you find a leak in your sinking rowboat, it’s probably a good thing to plug it up fast.) And I did try to adjust the phone bill, etc., but that didn’t work as planned. I did finish the last of the web site conversions yesterday night so that brings the total of found revenue with budget slashing up to almost $400 a month! But, I did my best to not fuss with anything else.

Here are my totals for the week.

Gas for Blue 8%
Kerosene 7%
Feed 16%
Eating Out 17%
Household 34%
Extras 19%
Bills 0%

15 purchases for the week, with a grand total of $385 or $25 an average purchase.

And so far my 3 week totals…

Bills 23%
Gas 9%
Kerosene 9%
Feed 13%
Eatingout 8%
Household 32%
Extras 17%

And we have spent $1487 for the past three weeks.

(That kind of floors me a bit. I mean… well, I guess maybe not… I have thought that we are living on about $1800 – $2000 a month. I suppose that is pretty much in line with our projection here. Still. Seems like a lot to me when you consider we don’t have rent or a mortgage or a lot of bills.)

Hmmmm. Well, I can see that we are pretty good at the “extras” and letting them slip in. I think we need to watch that idle spending. Thrift stores or no thrift stores… buying stuff just to shop as entertainment and cluttering up the house, well, that’s really not a good way to steward our funds. And I think that we could run a little leaner on the household area as well. Our pantry is pretty well stocked but the problem is, we’re allowing our laziness to creep in and we’ll change our minds about dinner and either go out or go and fetch this or that odd item to make something we hadn’t planned on. I am certain that a good meal plan would really help us to curb that behavior.

We ate out 4 times this week. Two times were dinner. Twice, lunch. Now to be fair, in the past, we really abused this category, so I’m actually pleased to see that we were NOT being careful this week and letting the chips lay where they may. I will say though, that the two dinners were WAY more enjoyable and really economical, than the other two, expensive fast food lunch that really were not as enjoyable as the nice dinners out. Lesson learned? Ditch the fast food for the most part and enjoy a dinner or two out, at most. Perhaps just one. Make it a nice special occasion. Life is short and we should be able to enjoy it.

So… meal plan, eat nice once a week, no fast food, shop online for household items, no dollar store and expensive rural groceries. These are some of our new rules that I’d like to try when our next 3 weeks are over.

I’m pleased to see that our animal costs are not that high. 13% and considering that those animals feed us and provide some wares to offer (wool, offspring) I think they are not too bad of an expense. If asked 3 weeks ago, I might consider that they were a bit pricey, but know, I think otherwise. And this is in the thick of winter when EVERYONE is being feed a complete feed diet. As soon as bugs and green grass return, the feed costs should drop considerably.

Extras this week included a piece of horse harness, a singletree for Cody. It’s the wooden and iron power piece that the sides of his harness will attach to, that will then attach to a cart, a drag, a sled, whatever draft item we choose. I bought an used one off Ebay. $25. Brand new? Easily a hundred or more. So it was spending to save money! Haha… I heard that once called Spaving. Yeah. I’m the queen of spaving. Sadly, but true.

The funny thing is that I don’t even have a harness for Cody yet, or even know if he will accept it and all! Talk about getting your cart before your horse! But I knew it was a good deal and at the very very least, if it doesn’t work out, it will look awesome hanging on the side of the barn.

(Oh, justification for spending is just not pretty. Look away, gentle readers….)

And the other big expense this week in the extras department was a trip to Hobby Lobby…. where some fabric, some woodworking supplies and a big box of ceramic clay beguiled me and made me buy them. As if I don’t have enough going on that I decided I wanted to sew and make some little pottery pieces, haha… Oh well. My girls were excited and we will have fun with it for sure. Was it necessary this week? Ah, no. I was weak. I caved. I guess it could be shoes or clothes, or maybe cigarettes or booze… but it’s not. It’s craft supplies. And thrift stores. Oh yeah and horsie things. I am weak! (gg)

Well… it’s all good, and it’s a learning experience. I am sooooo happy to be done with the last of the website conversions. That really ices the cake for me. And I think…. I hope… that we should have the water fixed by the end of the week. We are waiting to find out if the ground is dry enough or frozen enough for the well guy to get his rig back in the yard to pull the pump. He said he could rush it, but that if we could wait a wee bit longer, it would be a lot easier. And I hope that ease will reflect in the cost. Sure. What’s another couple days after 2 months??? And after that, our only big blob on the budget horizon will be taxes… both property and personal. But they are reasonable, so I’m happy. Seeing a little light on the edge of the horizon. Sales are perking up over all, and spring is right around the corner! I’ve noticed a drop in energy costs, it’s just not AS cold and that is helping greatly.

Thanks for riding along on this budget tour… and I hope our honesty and examination of our budget will help you to consider checking your own. A penny saved is a penny earned, so they say. I know that we are going to be better educated for the experience. And if we can adapt even a few good changes, it will be for the better!!!

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Cards, Cards everywhere!

Posted on by March 2, 2012

You know that sinking feeling… that I’m overwhelmed and I just can’t seem to get a break, grab a breather, find a bit of relief?

Yeah, even I get there at times. I know, I am a pretty eager, perky, and enthused individual, but don’t let that coating fool you, even mobile home women get the blues.

Two weeks ago, I was feeling particularly overwhelmed. Just a kick in the gut sort of reaction but yet, I was a little surprised because I only had like 20 farm to do cards and 11 work cards. And most of those were big projects that I wasn’t ready or prepared to get started on. Some required better weather or more funds! (Ain’t that the truth???) So why was I feeling this way? I laid down to do a little reading, flipped on my bed so I could watch out the window at the foot of my bed, back into the courtyard. And then I thought, hmmm… I forgot to add a card about making a more permanent latch for the courtyard gate. And oh, I wanted to move the naked lady lilles that the sheep were eating, into the courtyard. And I wanted to fill up the little garden beds with more compost before spring. And I needed to get that door fixed to the potter’s shed. And I wanted to get a little red bud tree to plant.

In the span of like 3 minutes I had half a dozen cards in my mind JUST FOR THE COURTYARD!!!

Oh no…. I knew what the problem was. I was carrying way way too many to do items in my head!!! I started to think about that and suddenly, I was coming up with work cards and family stuff I needed to do and so on! Oh my gosh… I got right up and went and got a stack of cards and went back to sit up against a few pillows, and slowly walk through the farm and my life and see what I was missing.

Well, apparently, a lot. I ended up with 125 farm cards… and 45 work/personal cards!!! AGH!!! I felt drained, relieved yet staring at the cards almost filled me with more dread and worry… I have over 170 cards of to dos!!! AGH!!!!!!

So I did what any self respecting overwhelmed person did, I took a nap. And I just went through the things in my mind, in that pre-sleep dozing that I thought were pretty important. I mean, setting up some bricks around the little chicken coop for a flower bed was hardly a priority. When I woke, I sorted them into a couple piles… easy and fast do nows…. MUST DO Oh my gosh I nearly forgots…. nice for better weather…. when money allowed… and that really helped. And then, I just got started.

That was two weeks ago. I am happy to report that we have whittled it down some. 105 farm cards. 30 work cards. 35 cards done in 2 weeks. Trying to get 2 or 3 done a day, and at the very least, one a day. (We don’t count daily chores in there, just too many cards to write out and all that.) It’s feeling a little better now, some days are wonderful, other days, well, that over 100 thing kind of bothers me. I know that many many of the farm cards are dependent on nicer weather and funds. And they are more “wish” cards, that are goals we would like to meet but may take most of the summer and that’s fine. And work cards, nearly all my client needs are fulfilled and they are mostly company projects and “wish” cards as well.

We’re just coming out of a very slow period and money has been really tight. It’s getting a little better and we’re whittling away at some of the large bills that seemed to drop into our new year’s laps! Still have taxes coming up… well to fix (real soon) and our gigormous electric bill. (Thank goodness it was ONLY $267 for February. So much nicer than $690….) We apparently really cramped down on space heaters and such. And I know that for March, it will be MUCH better, and getting back down to normal… under $100.

And the website hosting money and lack of storage unit is helping… I can feel relief from that hard debt reducing work. I went yesterday to the phone store to work on that bill and oh my gosh… what a disaster that was. I’ll attempt to relate the adventure here, but it will be much shortened and missing the part where my head was about to explode….

I went in, sat down with a nice lady and began to tell her my story. That I had 4 lines, long story, but really only needed two. And that we hardly used our phones and were on the largest plan, so hopefully, we could limit that. Remove texting, etc. on a line or two. Oh sure, they can sure take a look.

Oh. No, none of your lines are off contract. The soonest are the daughters’ two lines… in September. Hmmm. Not even mine? I haven’t updated my phone in YEARS! Haha… she laughs, yeah, that is one old phone. Laughs again and calls her manager over and he is amazed, wow, that phone is in such good shape for being SOOOO OLD… You know, 4 years old. So I’m puzzled. Why is that line renewed of it’s contract then…. I didn’t renew it, I would have gotten a new phone, right? Or been offered…. Oh yeah, of course… well, gee, someone did. Back in June. June. Hmm…. June… OH MY yeah, someone ripped my account back in June and bought a phone out in California… the fraud department cleared that after my 127 phone calls. haha.. okay 126. She types, she puzzles at her screen… oh… you’re right. Gee. That’s to bad. Good thing you didn’t have to pay for the phone. She smiles. And waits. I’m like… so… I didn’t renew my contract, the bad bad person in California did, so you can take that off. Oh, no, that’s a corporate thing, I can’t do anything about that. Let’s look at plans…. oh…. you’re an old Alltel customer. Oh. Your plan is already way lower than anything new Verizon has. That is such a good deal you have for four lines, man, I would kill for that, I pay over $200 for three lines and sometimes more because my boyfriend really uses the data sometimes and…

Miss? Miss… I could really care less about your data-abusing boyfriend and your freakish high bill…. you mean, I can’t lower this at all? Only if you disconnect three lines and keep one phone only, hmmm…. with the early cancellation fees, that would be… oh…. $600. Would you like to do that? $600???? Ah, no. I calculate in my head. I have 6 months until I can turn off three lines. And right now, they are costing me $40 a month. That’s $240 bucks to keep and use them, right? Shesh. Well, in the meanwhile, I ask her, can she check one of the phones, because it has a bunch of photos on it that a friend who had the 4th line was using and he’d like back. And I can’t seem to get them off, tried a bunch of things. Oh sure, she can do that, no problem. She’ll transfer them to my phone which can email them to a computer. She leaves. Another gentleman comes over and we start to chat and he overheard that I was rural and had aweful internet service. He was rural too, but he had their new 4G service and it’s awesome and proceeds to lure me in with the siren call of faster internet and up to 10 gig a month in data! Oh my gosh… And it would only cost me $80 extra.

Hmmmm. I do hate our satelitte service with a searing anger only reserved for true evil. I work from home, and it takes me forever to do some stuff for clients… not to mentioned the measured service of only 250 megs a day download allowance… hmmm…. 10 gig? Oh and he’ll make me a deal, the little router thingy is only going to cost me $50… hmmmmm…. I’m thinking, wow, that would be nice. But I am afraid. Every gig over is $10. I am doing the math in my head…. 250 mg a day, 4 days would be a gig, 31 divided by 4, add 27.5, remove the cosign of 4 over the 10th power… faster speeds? like pages that load instantly instead of giving me time to go to the bathroom or let in the dogs? Oh my…. I think okay, yeah, maybe… ah… I’m caving, he’s smiling, oh yeah, a 2 year agreement? Hmmm… I feebly nod, and he starts to get it going but then NO! Oh, you have a back due balance. (First of the month, suddenly it’s late) He can’t process the new thing until the old balance is paid, hey, can I do that AND the device? Oh, no. I can’t not today. Oh. Then he can’t give me the awesome deal.

Chicky walks back with manager. Oh, they’re sorry, they accidently wiped out all 200+ of my contacts on my phone. I die inside. You’re kidding me? All? 4 years of clients, family, friends, repair guys, music contacts… gone? Did you get the pictures? No? Can’t because there is something wrong with the phone…. shesh, I said that in the first place, didn’t you listen to me? Agh!

So I think, God is telling me to get the heck outta this place. They can’t help me with the bill, they just wrecked my social life and made it so it will take me a month to get that all back in there and all, they can’t give me wonderful internet and they are trying to get me signed up with MORE debt and another contract.

I get home and in the calm of our home I figure out that their highest package of 10 gig is the same nearly as 250 mg a day. Thank goodness I didn’t fall for that. Yeah, it would be faster. And probably more reliable, but hey, spring is near and I’ll not be on as much and so that will be fine. I’m fine with it. And in September, I will ditch most of the lines and all will be well. I will keep just ONE line. Very limited and get the girls a pay as you go minutes phone for the house, for that now and then when I’m gone sort of emergency.

Ah…. what is wrong with customer service these days? Is it too much to ask for something that you’re paying through the nose for? I’m so beginning to think the Amish have it so much better. Technology is just so so… frustrating at times!

Well, I’m glad to report our budget shaving is working pretty well. Here is the total so far.

Storage Unit -$30
Website Hosting -$270
Car Insurance -$18
Internet -$20
Phone -$0

Thats a monthly reduction on fixed costs of $338 buckaroonies!

And as soon as I get this one website done (hopefully this weekend) I can turn off the last of the sites and net another $35 in savings a month for a grand total of…. $373!! A month! That is huge. $4,476 a YEAR!!!

And I have to report that since I used Soap.com I have not set foot in a dollar store all week long! I bought pop at a gas station and pet feed at Tractor Supply. No extra junk in this week’s spending. Nothing. No cute spring garden doo-dads, no magazines, nothing extra. I think that will help too, at least another $50 a month or more. It’s all good.

Thanks for all the good ideas and well wishing in the comments and emails! I do read them all and I just love some of the ideas. I love Snapple peach tea… and I looked online for how to make it at home!!! And I just made a batch… it’s pretty good, close and like a fraction of the cost for sure. And no plastic bottles! Yeah!

Can’t wait for the warmer weather… and getting the garden going, getting some of those to do cards down and done! We’ve having thunder storms today! I love it. It’s dark and gloomy but the sound of the rain and the thunder lets me know that we are getting so much closer. I’m working on a few cards today… and of course more this weekend! Heading to Hillsdale tomorrow unless the weather is just totally dreadful. And pretty much just staying inside for the time, getting more work cards done if possible!!!

– making an egg flyer and stickers for Maggie’s egg sales
– backing up photos and stuff off my old computer and adding to my newer computer (jessy and I switched)
– backing up all my work computer stuff
– a newsletter for a client
– email blast for Opry show on the 12th…
– finishing up the Hot Licks site so I can cancel the hosting and save that $35

Hope you have a full plate and lots of stuff planned to keep you busy!!!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings on… haha…. I’ll try and get some more interesting posts up this weekend… got a few good ones planned! Take care…

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