The funniest thing...

I was reading this blog from a link someone sent me, and I saw the last entry was in March of this year. I was thinking, I wonder what happened to the writer, when suddenly it occurred to me - this is MY BLOG! What a dummy. Arg! Honestly, I'd forgotten all about this place, due to the chaos that is my life. Let me try a quick update: My husband found another job in May, and it's a local job. The pay is 25% less than he was making, but the fact he is local and not gone all week is worth it! We did end up getting meat rabbits, and we've harvested (such a nice word, don't you think? Better than murder.) and bred them several times in the past year. We also built out one of the small barns into a chicken coop and we now have 15 chickens. Unfortunately, 2 of our chicks ended up being roosters. We're going to have to harvest them because they have shown aggression toward us. :( We also got our garden up and running, complete with garden gate and raised beds, and pathways, and everything that is good. We had an AMAZING produce harvest this past summer. So much so, that my almost 8 year old son and I have decided to start a roadside veggie stand this coming winter and fall. My husband and I built a Quonset greenhouse - a hoop house - so we can grow in the winter. It's 10 feet wide by 24 feet long, and it's almost done. We still need to get the windows installed, and the plastic put up, and then make some interior raised beds, although I may just use pots for awhile. I haven't decided yet. We painted it a bright red with brown trim, to attract bees. I didn't do so well with my no-spend year. I was going along great till about September, and then I don't know what happened. It's my goal to restart my no-spend year in January. So stay tuned!

A lot's happened.

My husband unexpectedly lost his job a little over a week ago. It was a huge blow. We immediately lost our insurance (we'll be buying Cobra), and he had some excellent benefits there. He worked there for seven years, doing quite well for himself. I'm happy we have a savings to fall back on and he is looking for work as if it's a full-time job in itself. I'm surprised he's scheduled for a couple of phone interviews already. I spent $150 on food and household supplies last week. I'll have to spend money on a garden fence if we want our plants to reach maturity, or the animals will get into them. What a boring post.

Been awhile...

We've been crazy busy around here.

We built a raised bed out of cinder blocks my husband picked up for me on Craigslist for free. We reclaimed chicken wire found on the property, for the bottom of the planting bed, to keep our pesky moles out. I need to find a way to deal with the moles, and I'll probably have to buy a trap.

I've been doing extremely well on my no-spend this year. I had a setback a week or so ago, and bought a couple of minor non-needed, but wanted, items. We need to scale back, because the bank may be taking a huge chunk ($1,200) of our money when we lose our dispute against the dealership that didn't fix our truck properly. Crossing fingers and holding my breath that the other dealership gives us the letter we need to fight this charge.

I did buy a bedsheet to use for staging as I try to offload a ton of stuff on ebay. I felt that was a need.

Food

We're planning out our garden and I see Mother Earth News has an online garden planner that looks completely awesome for $25 per year. Need or want? Will it improve out success and output of homegrown goodness? I think likely, but I'm going to think on it some more.

Husband brought home 2 large rabbit carcasses. I had no idea they were so expensive ($9/lb where he got them!), or I would have nixed the idea. However he got them, so we'll cook them up and see how they taste. Husband is very worried the rabbit will taste dry, but I'll do my best to see that doesn't happen. Apparently, the butcher told him that the cosmetic industry is buying up all of the rabbits? Why? That makes no sense, unless it's for testing or for an ingredient. Heh.

Meat Rabbits

I've decided to go ahead with my meat rabbit farming idea. I found a lady selling several hutches (used) at a decent price, so I'm headed out there to take a look today. I really should calculate how many rabbits we would need for a family of 6, note to self. It looks like it would be an easy and positive experience, especially since they are low fat/high protein, and procreate like, well... bunnies! Meat is one part f the budget I'd like to trim down, but more importantly, it's a need for us to know our food intimately, since our food sensitivities are so rampant.

I'm also considering chickens, but we can't eat the eggs. We could sell them though, and eat the chickens. I'm still uncertain of how I would do killing a creature, but if I get lame, maybe I can pay someone to do it for me.

We cut off cable tv. $75/mo saved, and we only meant to have it for a short time anyway. In lieu of tv, we'll have the 'net and Netflix.

New toy!

My Kindle arrived yesterday while I was out at the park with a friend, and my daughter messaged me that it had arrived. I was excited, since I'd waited an extra day to get it (thank you UPS, for missing it on your truck. Grr.), and I drove home with anticipation. I opened the box and started setting up the e-book, and the excitement left me like wind out of a sail. The high of aniticipation had left me. I know I will use the device, and will probably do so daily, but I was feeling like a kid in a candy store. It's ridiculous. I get high from buying STUFF.

Not so bad.

Today was an easy no-spend day, but I really had nothing to do but chores and take the kids to their lessons. For dinner, we had leftovers, and I realized we are low on meats. I tried to call around to different local farms earlier, because I'm interested in raising meat rabbits. I think it would be a good idea to try some first - maybe I will hate the taste. And could I REALLY kill a rabbit? Of any animal, I could probably kill a rabbit, but I feel guilty about the ant poison I put down this week, much less murdering a rabbit. I don't know.. on the other hand, it would save us some money and give us some lean meat to eat. My daughter says to call around to butchers to see if they will butcher the bunnies, if we ever get any.

Oh, and the Kindle I bought on the last day before my no-spend year did not arrive today as it was supposed to, so the gratification I would get is being painfully drawn out.

The objective.

I'm attempting this no-spend year not because I really need to do it, but because I want to control my own future without the burden of consumerism weighing me down. There is always room for improvement, but I think this is a reasonable goal to achieve.

Today was difficult. I went grocery shopping with my kids, and I saw so many things I wanted, but did not need. I didn't think I spent that much extraneously, but apparently I do more than I thought.

Not a big spender!

Today marks the start of my no-spend year. What does that mean? I cannot spend on anything that is not necessary and/or new. I also have to budget my food expenses, which is huge for us since we are on a special diet, and work on trimming down our budget for other things.

Now, what is necessary spending?

• Items we need to get by - like food (work on the cost!), basic clothing (used), toiletries, gasoline, electricity, etc
• Renovation materials, services, tools, and anything else that will allow us to complete the house to make it livable.
• Children's lessons, classes, and homeschool materials, within reason
• RV park fees and basic expenses related to travel, including entrance fees to parks

What is not necessary?

• Toys, except related to the outdoors
• Really, it's anything we don't NEED

How I will help myself accomplish this:

Before buying anything, I will ask myself, "Do I NEED this, or do I want it?"

I will set-up a clear budget for monthly expenses, and out of that will make discoveries for what needs trimming out of the budget. I'm not the best budgeter, and I'm not much of a planner by nature, so this will take serious commitment from me.

Certain things I may find I need, while others may disagree. For instance, I need a haircut within that year. Nothing fancy, no styling, just a nice haircut. I also need to buy a few books here and there, although at the moment, I have a nice stash. The biggest factor for us will be food, since that's where we spend most of our money, and paying certain bills on time. I'm horrible about writing things down and keeping a calendar, in my personal life anyway, and that will be a goal of mine this year. I want to avoid fees and charges too, whenever and wherever I can.

There are a few things this year I already planned to budget for that are outside of this realm, and make me a bit of a cheater. One being a tablet computer. Ha! I don't need it though, and perhaps I will change my mind as time goes on.