Everything is hitting me all at once.

My credit card has a lot of pending charges on it. Ugh. Nearly $1,000 on there once everything posts.

This includes recent vet bills, Christmas shopping, some utility bills, and necessary home/clothing items. Such as a new pair of coveralls since mine's zipper broke, and a new bathroom vent light since ours went out and we are getting too much condensation in there without it.

My Christmas shopping is all complete except for one small item. So I'm glad that it's all done, and now I can just work on paying everything off.

We are signing the remodel contract this week sometime. Scary and exciting.

My goats will start kidding in two weeks! I am so looking forward to that money coming in. Fingers crossed for lots of babies.

I would like to have some input on our budget after considering my raise in January and our new house payment. Just want to make sure we can afford this.

Note: For the first 3 years our house payment will only be $730 and then go up to around $850. (tax exemption) But I would like to figure on the full amount.

2017 Budget

$1,940 His Wage
$740 My Wage
$320 My Wage #2

$3,000 Total Income

Bills & Utilities
$850 Mortgage/Taxes/Insurance
$50 LOC (might be gone)
$75 Internet
$50 Water
$20 Trash
$150 Electric
$50 Propane
$350 Groceries
$150 Car Fuel
$300 Tithes
$40 Date Night
$80 Lunches
$50 Phone
$75 Car Insurance
$75 Pets
$100 Spending

$2,465 Bill Total

Savings & Debt
$120 Car Savings

$415 Remaining
Retirement, Vacation, House


This is our minimum income budget. Usually I work more at job #2, or a get money from other odd jobs. This also doesn't consider Christmas bonuses, tax refunds, etc. All that extra money is used to fund retirement, or vacations.

I paid off my credit card with the medical bill on it today! My checking account is lower than I like, but I have a pending deposit so I went ahead and pulled the trigger.

Got the goat testing results back, all clear. I've paid most of that. Looking at having $150 in vet bills soon, also I need to get my kitten neutered, and I need to go to the doctor for my yearly physical. Yuck! So still lots of little expenses coming up.

Remodel is a go. Just need to sign the contract and hand over the $2,500 deposit. We will be taking the money from the truck fund and the LOC. We will get our new HELOC in a month or two when the work actually starts, at which time we will pay back the truck fund and pay off our current LOC.

So in the next two months we have a mad push to save/pay down debt, and finish some of the remaining home projects before the appraisal. Thankfully it's mostly small stuff and cheap like patching a hole in the drywall, painting the bathroom, finishing the trim, etc.

The remodel is really going to push our financial limits. But we are going to try our best to cash flow as much as we can. No way we cash flow weekly labor. But we are hoping to pay for some of the materials as we go, and pay cash for the finishes such as light fixtures. Any thing we can do to keep the financing only for the big ticket items.

Once the remodel starts we are on a time limit. The bank says we can't refinance into a 30 yr fixed until everything is complete. That includes finishing our upstairs which currently is only insulation and rough in electricity.

So while the crew is working on the addition, we will be working on the upstairs. We are probably also going to do most of the finish work on the addition. But we will just have to wait and see how our budget is going once we get there. Fingers crossed for no major unexpected expenses.

Exciting and scary!

Okay guys! I'm finally to the point where I am caught up and my checks can now but put towards bigger items. But I am unsure on what order I should fund things. So if I list out all the things that need saved for or paid maybe you guys can give me an order to work towards.

I need $640 for winter animal food / testing. This would be spread out over the next several months.

The LOC still has $4,000 on it. Any amount we pay towards it is less debt for when we do the construction loan.

I would like to contribute $1,500 more towards my Roth IRA before tax season.

We need to come up with a $2,500 deposit for our contractor. (We can either save cash to delay getting the construction loan a little while longer, or we can just go ahead and get the loan.)

I'm thinking maybe get the animal stuff out of the way first since it's the smallest amount. But then what?

Obviously we can't finish all of this in the short term, so I'm just wondering where my money is better spent before we get the construction loan. I want to get us as well off as I can before we take on more debt.

We finally got a revised estimate back from the contractor after he accidentally gave us an estimate for double the square footage before.

We were expecting the number to drop by at least 30-40%... Well it only went down like $10k. What the heck?

For example, concrete for the 940sf was like $13k and his new number for the 470sf was $11.5k. Gr. It is half the materials and labor. I realize some costs aren't going to go down, but I feel it should be less than that.

Anyway we had gotten another bid from a different contractor who we really liked as well, and were having trouble deciding who to go with. So now it made the decision easy.

They are going to start siding and windows in the next two months. Then we will have until spring to decide if we are really ready to take the big leap and get the addition.

Mortgage is down to $46,179.70

Our LOC expires in a couple days. I stopped into the bank 2 weeks ago to get renewal papers which they said they would mail to us. Well no papers. So now I am going to have to stop in again and bug them. I hate it when people don't follow through with what they say. The story of my life.

My paycheck has apparently got lost in the mail. It was mailed 2 weeks ago and still hasn't arrived. So they are going to have to resend. Arg.

So I'm in a sticky situation and I need advice.

My best friend married a foreigner, and they can't settle anywhere. He can't work here, she can't work there. They are constantly kicked out of each others countries and keep having a move every few months. She is having a baby, so this isn't a good life style.

They are trying to apply for her husband's green card so he can go to work and school in America and they can settle down. But by US law they need a financial sponsor.

Basically the sponsor agrees that if they can't pay their bills, etc, you take full responsibly for them. You would also be required to pay back any government services they get such as food stamps, medicaid, etc.

While I love my friend she is one of the most irresponsible people I have ever met. I do NOT want to be legally bound to her financial situation. She is at her wits end because literally no one in her family makes the income requirements, or they have been in trouble in the past for tax fraud. So she is reaching out to friends.

She is what I would call a gypsy and has never worked or lived any where more than 4 months. All her friends are the same, and as such none of them have made real wages, or they don't pay taxes.

So that leaves me. The boring person who stayed home and works. I barely make enough to meet the income requirements. When she asked me I agreed to sign for her because I thought I was just vouching that her husband is a good person, and not a bum. But my husband made me back out when we found out about all the financial legalities as well.

Has anyone ever done this? Is it a serious manner, that I am right to not want to do? I don't ever want to ruin my credit, or owe the government for something they do or didn't pay. But if it's mostly just a good faith voucher, I would be fine with that...

I just don't know much about it.

Help?

I still owe $750 on the credit card for my medical bills. Not due for another 5 weeks, and I should have checks in the mail coming any time that will cover it! I'll be so glad to have that out of my hair!!

I am so angry at the USPS. They LOST my package containing all my goat lab samples. I had insurance and tracking, and it's just gone. They can't find it. They are saying that priority mail isn't guaranteed so they won't even refund shipping.

They may pay for the cost of the syringes and vials that were in the package if I can come up with a receipt to prove cost. But that does nothing to make up for the 5 hours it took 5 people to catch and draw that many samples.

They have been nothing but rude and snotty to me, And basically said that since the box contains "biohazard" material that from now on when they see us shipping something similar they are purposely going to put it in the slow mail so my package doesn't accidentally contaminate the other mail. The slow mail takes a week, and the samples can only stand being in transport for a couple days. Ugh. I've been shipping these for years and never had a problem with 1 or 2 day mail. I've even double checked with the lab and they said that shipping in the 2 day mail is allowed, and that the post office workers are just being jerks. (I've had problems with this particular post master with other things in the past, and I think she just hates me.)

So now when I ship again I'm going to have to drive to a different post office, so my package isn't automatically marked for slow travel. Seriously I've been shipping these boxes at least once a year for 8 years, and never once has "biohazard" been mentioned, nor has my package taken longer than 2 days to get to the lab. I just shipped a box last month for pete's sake! They have known what was in the boxes the entire time.


Anyway I'm fuming. Mostly over the time lost with having to redo everything again, and the post office's lack of caring or apology at all. They are just like "oops, too bad." How can they just lose a package, and do nothing?

I don't want to go into too many details for privacy's sake. But a very close friend of ours was involved in an accident and indirectly caused the death of one of his co-workers. Our entire community is very shaken up. My mother was also involved and the only witness and although both her and my friend are unharmed they are both pretty upset and traumatized. My friend is feeling a lot of guilt even though it wasn't really his fault. I would appreciate any prayers or good thoughts for him.

It's going to be a hard road of recovery for him. We are doing everything we can, and have been inviting him to our house daily to hang out so he isn't alone while he is temporarily on leave from work. I pray that this doesn't affect his career choice that he loves and has worked so hard for.

I am so thankful that neither my mother or my friend was hurt. It could have been a lot worse than it was. A man lost his life by avoiding hurting them, and he has been honored as a hero. Hold your loved ones close, life is short.