There seems to have been a sudden shift in the subject matter on here. That’s because there has been a sudden shift in us.
I talk a lot about saving money now , saving on electricity, going off-grid(on some things, not everything!) J
I’m going to repeat myself here and say we were well on our way to being debt free by the time Charlie turned 35. Then the business derailed us, or rather, we allowed ( taking ownership here), the business to distract us from that goal. Along with making wants into needs, placing them on credit cards for instant gratification. This didn’t happen yesterday. It happened several years ago and we’ve been coasting ever since. In denial I suppose or disappointed in ourselves for being so close to the finish line and then detouring and never crossing it.
We know the tricks of tightwadding. It isn’t something we have to relearn. Once you’ve done it you will always have the know-how. What we lacked was motivation.
Slowly over the past few months, seeds were planted in our minds. We did not make resolutions , although we did sit down together as a family and discussed goals we would like to accomplish this year. The change just happened to coincide with the beginning of the new year. A large part, truth be told, probably being that the first two months are always constant bills. Everything falls due at once. Those once-a-year costs attack January and February with a vengeance. .
For us it is the following:
Property taxes
Membership for insurance
Safety deposit box fee
Life insurance premium
Auto insurance premium
House insurance premium
Annual vaccinations for the critters
Termite station inspections
Income tax prep fee
Along with hospital bills still pending from Charlie’s allergic reaction
Lab fees associated with it as well.
Plus the regular monthly bills, mortgage, utilities, cell phone bill, etc.
They say fear is a great motivator, well I’m here to say that so is disgust. Disgust is what I’m feeling. I’m tired of paying “the man“. Granted that some of those bills will never waiver. We can’t eliminate them all. But if we paid off our house and credit card bills, then that money could be saved. We are lucky to have paid off our shop. Both our vehicles are paid for as is the boat. But there is still work to be done. And a nest egg to build. We are tired of working for the money and ready to make the money work for us! We have gotten serious about it once more.
A few things that we are doing to work toward our goal:
We are burning wood instead of using the gas wall heater. We do use the one back in our bedroom to knock the chill off before bed on the coldest of nights and then turning it back down before hopping in bed. A warm comforter helps as does a snuggle buddy. J Zach’s room is upstairs so all the heat naturally goes up there. We actually have to worry about his room getting too warm. Luckily he is cold natured. J
I’m making everything form scratch that I possibly can. Chuck provides the meat for the freezer. And we buy lots of beans and rice. Stocking up when things are on sale helps too. Drinking water or kool-aid at supper. (We have given up tea. Charlie can only have the decaffeinated and it’s three dollars a box and for some reason decaf never goes on sale. If I can find it at the discount store I buy it but otherwise it’s water at supper.)
Not using paper products in the kitchen keeps expenses down too. And it isn’t any more work. I’m washing dishtowels anyway, might as well toss in cloth napkins.
I only wash when I have a full load now. I line dry all the clothes. Having the wood stove helps with this. I can wash and dry four loads of clothes in one day. The wood heat draws the moisture right out. In the winter this allows me to put them away the same day just like those using electric dryers. In the summer time they go on the outside lines.
I have been using a rain barrel to help fill up my washing machine on the initial fill up. The rinse comes directly from the meter as always.
Turning off lights during the day. I only turn on the lights when we are in school or I need one while cooking. I also unplug anything that isn’t being used and has a light. For instance the coffee pot and my cell charger. I also unplug the tv and dvd player. Anything that has a remote is never truly off, it’s on standby and drawing energy. Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
I’ve started making half of the dog and cat food. I still buy dry food but I use dried out bread, corn bread, and/or biscuits, then a layer of dry food, then I drizzle homemade water and flour gravy, seasoned with beef bouillon and liquid smoke, over the top of it all. The gravy tastes great! I’m using up the beef bouillon instead of tossing it, Charlie can’t have it anymore due to his allergy to beef. Big Dog, Bowie, loves this concoction. He even eats the new dry food I bought that he didn’t like. The cat prefers her dry food plain and her gravy on the side. Buddy is a little more picky. He gets a light sprinkle of cheese on his( he loves cheese and it adds extra calcium although this might be a problem in older dogs as they sometimes become lactose intolerant and should limit milk products. At any age dogs should have limited milk products. It’s hard on their digestive tracts- as told to me by our vet.)
We will once again be having a garden this year. ( I missed it last year. I missed a lot of things last year.) We will also be firing up the boat to restock our fish in the freezer. Once our blackberry bushes start bearing we will have homemade jelly.
We’ve implemented a “twenty dollar a month for groceries act” as a guideline. It isn’t set in stone so don’t freak out on me. We are mainly able to do this because we have food storage to supplement, plus his harvesting our meat during the season.
The twenty dollars a month puts things into perspective. For example, I’m willing to drink water at supper as opposed to $3-a-box tea so I can buy our $3-a-pack toilet paper. Priorities are a wonderful things, am I right about it? Ha!
It’s quality time together cutting wood. It’s playing board games instead of being scattered about the house playing on computers or watching tv alone. It’s eating stove popped popcorn that tastes better than microwave popcorn.
I’m not going to lie, it isn’t always fun. It means more work for all of us, but not so much that it isn’t worth it.
And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered. 2 Chron. 31:21
"God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where He wishes us to be employed; and that employment is truly our Father’s business’. He chooses work for every creature which will be delightful to them, if they do it simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may always be sure, whatever we are doing, that we cannot be pleasing Him, if we are not happy ourselves."- J. Ruskin
Have a great day!
Motivated and moving forward in 2012!
Kristi.
