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Home > Archive: September, 2014

Archive for September, 2014

Quick Update

September 30th, 2014 at 05:37 pm

Did get a good amount done on the horse shed. We also put in all our storm windows, and cleaned out our sun room which was way overdue. We still had unopened wedding gifts from 2 years ago in there!

Kuzco is doing great with the goats now. I was scared at first, but I think he is a permanent addition. Sadly he has been limping for a few days and I have no clue way. I felt him over and couldn't find anything wrong. He probably just pulled a muscle. I will keep an eye on him and if he doesn't get better soon he will be going to the vet.

Money is a slow process. Have about $150 put back for the car, and have been working on paying some of our recent expenses off. October will be better!

Going to try to work on our trim this week, and we are attending a wedding this weekend. Lots going on.

Horses, Dogs & Cars

September 22nd, 2014 at 03:55 pm

Started working on the horse shed yesterday. I'm buying the first set of materials today, and hopefully will get a good amount accomplished this evening on it. Has some lumber at home for it, so that will save me some money.

Not much progress on the money front. Went shopping this weekend for some much needed clothes, and a couple unneeded ones. Didn't spend too much, but still. It did feel good after our month long spending freeze.

Set internet payment up on a automatic credit card payment.

The Jeep is fixed and running again! Only cost $75 in parts, and many hours in free labor.

Kuzco is officially moved in with the goats full time. For 2 weeks every single day he would dig under their pen and get into it while I was at work. We kept blocking the holes but it was futile. So we decided to just leave him in there. He hasn't dug out since. I'm still nervous, but so far he hasn't hurt anyone. He does chase them a bit, and they hate him and are very scared. But I think they are slowly getting used to each other. *fingers crossed* Goats can be very dramatic.

Juno is still a spitfire, and will hopefully be moving in with the horse over the winter, so she will have more room and warmth.IF we can keep her from digging or climbing out. She is CRAZY. But she is learning.... very very slowly. It takes a couple years with these dogs, as I have found. Kuzco has came a long way with time.

Fall Checklist

September 17th, 2014 at 03:58 pm

Winter is quickly approaching and I'm about to go into full panic mode. There is so much to do to winterize, especially when you have a farm with animals. So I wanted to collect my thoughts, and make a list of what needs done, in order of importance BEFORE the snow and really cold hits.

Things completed

Repair goat house latch
Build new ramp
Clean out barn
Make buck pen
Fill propane tank

Has to be done

Put in storm windows
Put middle on horse shed
Side front of horse shed
Get hay cut and put away
Close in goat house windows
Insulate buck house
Warm solution for Juno
Get straw and put around outside of house
Make kitty bed
Finish living room/dining room archway
Find solution for leaky front door
Clean and check space heaters


Would be nice
Paint sunroom windows
Repair & paint sunroom door
Finish kitchen archway
Indoor goat manger
Move Kuzco in with goats



Had to do yearly testing on the goat herd yesterday. That took $100 out of my car money. It's a necessary expense for the business.

Good Weekend

September 15th, 2014 at 03:26 pm

Well a super stressful weekend turned into a pretty fun and productive one!

We did lots of community volunteer work, we got the entire barn cleaned out(which took over a week last time), stacked 100 bales of hay in the barn, got my new buck pen put up, sold a goat, got the yard cleaned up, and finished putting poly on the living room archway trim.

Husband, uncle, and father-in-law worked on the Jeep for about 4 hours yesterday too. They replaced the broken part, and now the jeep can start, but it seems something is wrong with the ignition switch too. So they are going to explore that and hope it's a cheap and easy fix.


Got my first tank of propane order. Money came out of our budget billing which I've been paying all year, so no scrambling for cash. Got propane at a steal, for only $1.79 a gallon! Whoot, Whoot!

Feeling accomplished, and glad we we got a lot of necessary work out of the way that needed to be done before winter. Next big project is finishing the horse barn.

I have $275 in cash put back for internet/car payment. I might have to steal some of the money to buy the first set of materials for the horse barn though. Cold weather is setting in quick! It's been in the low 40's the last few nights. So it needs done ASAP.

Car payoff may be pushed back until Oct. Frown But have to think about priorities.

Small Update

September 12th, 2014 at 03:24 pm

With the goat money, and husband's paycheck I have put back all my cushion, paid all our bills, and have $130 left over.

It's nice for husband to finally get a paycheck again! But we lived through the gap without just fine. Yay for thriftiness and budgeting.

I still have not received a bill for our internet, and have no idea when it will get here or how much it will be. So I am just going to hang onto the extra money for now.

This weekend is going to be very stressful, so keep my family in your thoughts and prayers, please.

Well I Guess That's Decided...

September 10th, 2014 at 02:58 pm

I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to go ahead and pay my car off today since I have checks in the mail coming to me or if I should wait until they actually come in. Well I finally decided to do it....

Then I stopped in this morning to pay my car insurance, which I was going to put on my credit card because it wouldn't be due until November. I could just pay it off at my leisure.

Well something was wrong with the system, and they couldn't take credit, only check. So I had to use every penny of my car money, and $250 of my cushion to float the difference. Frown

So the good news is, I don't owe anything on my credit card. The bad news is, it's going to take me a while to build back up my cushion and save another $500 for the car payment.

Oh well. I'm hoping after my checks come in, I will be able to still pay it off in September. And it does feel good not to have the car insurance money hanging on the credit card. Baby steps.

Whoot! Getting back on track.

September 8th, 2014 at 03:23 pm

Making some good progress.

Was able to put $150 towards car. Leaving only $275 left!!

There is a $200 check in the mail for me right now, for goats. So I think I will go ahead and pay grandpa the balance on the car Wednesday!

Mortgage payment hit. It only dropped about $20, since last month they didn't take out escrow, they had to take double. Boo. But it's still under $50k. So I'm pleased.

Still have a couple payments to me pending for freelance work.

October is an extra pay check month, and also I have goats being sold then. So I am really hoping to dig myself out of this mess by November, and get my savings back on track.

Finally Some Progress

September 5th, 2014 at 03:13 pm

Things are starting to slowly look up. Somewhat anyway.

The Jeep is still deader than a door nail. It may end up that we will have to sell it and keep both the cars for now. Very stinky since I was hoping to use the sale of one of the cars to help pay down the $5k we owe from fixing them up and the fence. We will have to wait and see. We just can't believe the Jeep is broken. It has never given us problems, and had no warning signs.

Went ahead and put new license sticker on Cobalt so I can drive it around legally.

Internship is going well. He gave me a $200 check yesterday to cover his share of internet for the year. He also buys me dinner every time I meet with him, and he gives me $10 to cover gas for my trip. It's almost too good to be true!

He is also going to help me with a project I've been wanting to do for a long time now. It will take a while, but once it's up and going it should produce a small steady income.

Internet is hooked up, and oh my goodness we are like kids in a candy store. It is amazing how much we missed it.

I decided to put the $200 to use and will just have to come up with internet money when bill arrives monthly. I couldn't stand just having the $200 sitting there doing nothing for months, so I went ahead and made my house payment today. I also paid off the credit card completely, and put back $75 for a car payment. It feels great not to have anything on the card, but on Tuesday it will go back up when I put the $465 for insurance on it. Frown Boo.

Sold a goat, and money should be arriving sometime next week. Will use that for paying off car. Big Grin *happy happy dance*

"Real" job is stinky as ever. Just trying to get through each day.

Payments

September 2nd, 2014 at 04:13 pm

I send $157 to the credit card today. That's about all the debt reduction that is happening around here right now. Sadness.

Staying pretty close to budget. Only have $40 something left to groceries for the next two weeks, but have everything I need for this week. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can make it. Everything else is on budget.

Internet is getting hooked up today.

Jeep is still broken, and I'm driving the Cobalt. And it's license plates are expired. Sigh. Hoping the jeep gets fixed soon, and I don't get a ticket until then. I forgot how much I love that car. Driving it is bad for me, I'm getting reattached to it.

Couldn't stain our archway trim because of the rain. Darn. That was our weekend project. But we did clean up the house, and had a party. So that was fun.

Paying grandpa for Neon tomorrow, and then I am going to kick it into high gear to pay the last $500 by the end of September.

I also need to start winterizing the goat house, and finish the horse shed, so we don't have nosy neighbors calling animal control again this year.