Blueknitter's Personal Finance Blog

Obviously it's been a couple weeks since I last posted. Between the sickies, the holiday, and the weather, I just have had to cut down on computer time in favor of other things. Mainly fire duty.

We heat with wood in a vintage parlour stove that lacks only it's bright silver, pointy and oh-so-elegant crown. It was a big bargain back when we bought it, almost a decade ago. We paid 40.00 for it then, and recently found it's twin (with crown) for 250.00 in a flea market/antique store.

My point, oblique as it may seem, is that our little woodstove isn't technologically advanced. It's cast iron, pretty, but basically just a box. It can get really over hot, or it can decide that it doesn't want to work, which means messing with the flue, or the other little thing that I can't name at the moment due to sleep deprivation. Because the stove burns best for 99 minutes at a time. Which is how long I sleep between "feedings" overnight, every night that it's below freezing.

When we first went to all wood heat, it was because our propane company refused to deliver to us in the wintertime. This was unacceptable, so we dropped them and hauled this stove into the house and got it set up. We figured it saved us about 750.00 that first winter in heating costs. Propane prices have since doubled in our area, to the point where if we were still heating with propane, we'd be looking into alternatives now. Instead, we just haul deadwood in from the woods and chuck it in the stove.

In other news, the habit I need to work on is posting daily. I've been keeping track of my daily savings and freebies in a little notebook, but getting online to log them is just not happening. I've read it takes between 21 and 28 days to make a habit. If I'd been awake enough the last two weeks, I would almost be there. I guess I'll just have to take another deep breath and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Prior balance was 49.00, I believe, on my savings tally. Forgive the huge list about to start.

Lotion samp. .25
Pepcid samp. .50
Veggie Wash 1.00
Female items 1.00
2 bubble bath 12.00
Dinner for 3 6.00
Sale/free shipping
for a gift 20.00
3 books 3.00
3 mags 3.00
3 sweaters 3.00
Stovetop percolator 15.00
Popcorn .50
Facial cleanser .50
Lunch for 3 6.00
Plant in pot 1.00
Cash for running errand 7.00
Pen 1.00
Veggie Times 1.00
12 bars of hm soap 6.00
Bento box and shipping 14.00
BY Poultry 1.00

New total----------- 162.25

Saturday was gorgeous here in the sticks, so after a bit of rushing around, we took a trip up to my Mom's house for her birthday. She doesn't like eating out by herself, so we took her some yummy Chinese take-out (from our favorite cheapie place, which also has fantastic food), as well as some gifties.

On our way home, we stopped to let DH get a haircut while the kids and I hit a Russell Stover chocolate outlet for some Christmas giftables. All of their Halloween candy was half off, so we picked up some treats for the freezer, as well as a box of factory seconds for nibbling this week. I used my allowance for this, so it needn't be accounted for.

We did get a nice oil lamp shelf from my Mom, and a free mag in the mail, so I'm adding 6.00 to my tally for those.

Grand total is 49.00 so far.

I deposited 41.75 of that in our ING accounts, as well as the cash for some sock yarn that I really wanted online. I decided that I wanted to save for the house we want to build worse than more yarn. Being a grown-up is hard, sometimes.

Sunday was a lazy, lay-in day. I roasted a chicken for dinner, made pancakes for brunch, and didn't do a lot other than knitting and napping the rest of the day.

My DH is paid every other week, and today happened to be the current payday.

The kids and I headed to town, where I stopped to get our allowances and grocery money from the bank. DH and I each get 20.00 pocket money per payday, and the kids each get a dollar per year they are old.

We then headed for our favorite hole in the wall Mexican joint for a bite of lunch. To die for, and very inexpensive.

Afterwards, we headed to Dollar Tree, where I spent 21.00 on groceries and household items. From there, Walmart to drop off film and buy the rest of the grocery items we needed. That came to 46.00. We were lucky to find DS's favorite Asian pears on sale, 2/1.00 and pomegranites for the same price. Great buys, both.

As we went to check out, the cashier tried to charge me for baby bok choy when I had the adult version, but I caught it and that saved me 4.50. I won't count that in my savings tally, though, as I wouldn't have paid the price for baby bok choy anyway.

A final stop at Dollar General to pick up cat food (we have a herd of cats, and a dog), as well as the Thin Mint alternatives that DH loves, and back home again. 14.00 at Dollar General, which wasn't too bad.

Total spent on groceries and household: 81.00

I generally allow 100.00 per week for our family of four, so this is well within budget. With the upcoming holiday and not knowing what I will need to contribute to a family get-together, the extra won't go to waste.

I received a sample of girly items in the mail today, .75 savings, and a set of address and Christmas package labels, 1.50 savings. A total of 2.25 added to my tally today, then. Grand total of 43.00 so far.

Thursday made the third no-spend day this week, which is pretty rare. Normally we go out on Wednesday for Scouts and Youth group, but this week with the rain, the creek was up and we couldn't get across. No mail, either, so nothing new to add to the savings tally.
Still at 40.75.

I did end up craving fast food, though, so I dug in the freezer and found a single veggie bbq rib thing and had that on fresh bread with pickles. Very tasty and much cheaper than McD's. We also made corn chips from corn tortillas and then oven fries, as well. The chips were to go with a multi-bean chili and cheese. The fries were just because. DS won't eat fries out, but will eat oven fries. I don't really know why, but won't complain too loudly.

Wednesday was another no spend day.

We also had 24 hours of rain, which we needed badly. Living as rurally as we do, the ongoing drought has really worried us. If the well goes, we literally have no choice but to either spend thousands to have a deeper well dug, or we have to move.

When we originally moved out here to the "wilderness", we really thought that we would be able to save money hand over fist. Reality set in shortly thereafter, I'm afraid, and it's just like anywhere else. Saving money is work and takes time and effort. And planning, lots of planning.

We received two more free magazines in the mail on Wednesday, which brings our total savings this week to 40.75.

Thanks for the very warm welcome! It was a very happy surprise today when I logged on. I wasn't expecting it, but it made the rest of the day much easier to deal with.

Today was a no-spend day on our little mountain. After just having a weekend away in a large city to visit friends and do a little shopping, it's nice to just stay home and breathe. The breathing got a little labored, though, when a friend of my husband's got home from his weekend trip as well.

This friend hauled an old car off for us, and promised to bag a deer for us in exchange. (He sold the car to the scrap metal dealer and we let him keep what he made for his efforts and gas money.) He was just back from hunting and decided to deliver our winter's roasts to us on his way back home. Still on the hoof, so to speak.

Our normal procedure when presented with a deer is to take it to the processor and then pick up the results, with the price per pound normally in the .50 to .75 range. This time, however, my husband was talked into home processing by his friend, so our afternoon was spent filling the freezer with our acquisition.

In the end, we added about 75 pounds of meat to our freezer at no cost to ourselves. The cheapest animal protein I currently buy is whole chickens at .49/lb, so this has saved us 36.75 on our grocery bill for the winter.

We also received two free magazines in the mail: "Backyard Poultry" and "Hobby Farms". I generally count a free magazine as a dollar, so two more dollars saved today.

That gives us a grand total of 38.75 in savings today. Not too bad for only day two of this blog.

Have you ever been in a place in your life where you're wanting more, but not sure how to get it? Knowing that just over the hill, there are possibilities and opportunities just waiting, but you can't decide which shoes to wear? That place is where I am, but I want to see beyond the hill I'm facing.

Perhaps this will only be a spending log. Or a savings log, maybe. We shall see, as I'm sure it will become more than it is now, which is just one step in the right direction.


I'm going to wear my blue mary janes. You?