mom-from-missouri's Journal

So far, not a single book I have put on Half.com has sold. But, since it is free, I will keep listing them.

My routine is, first check it on cash4books. If they buy it great, I'll sell it to them. If they don't, then it goes onto half.com. I have about 7 more boxes of books, then some grocery bags full.

Does anyone know of a way to rid ones basments of paperback books and make some $$ doing it? I have put them on craigslist and on the local radio swap. no luck. There are no bookstores or anything around here that buys them either.

I am to sub today, for 1/2 day, and I sub 4 days next week as well.

I sub taught today. Can I add that to my challenge? I had to pay to get the job, passed the break even point, and have come out ahead (will be ahead when I get the check next month). In MO, you have to pay $65 for the fingerprinting and background checks annually. So, the first sub or two that you do, are just to recoup your cost.
So, would that count?

I took some stuff to the Ministers Alliance today. (donations-clothing, boots, coats & some plates--its a place for low income or fire/robbery victims to replenish). I was telling one of the volunteers there that I was planning on doing some childcare at my home-up to 4 kids.

Her idea was, since I live on a farm, advertise it as a "farm daycamp" during the summer months. Kids can learn about farm animals & help feed them, get to ride in the tractor (its safe-enclosed cab with-2 seats) meals and snacks provided, let them each have a section in the garden, and to do my lessons all around farm life.. Would you pay $125 a week for a 2-3 year old or $90 for a kid 4-12 to do this?? Would your kid enjoy it?

I had already planned some nearby field trips this summer that would fit right it, such as to the zoo, the local dairy and bottling plant, a local potato & pumpkin farm.

So, parents--would this appeal to you as a parent??

OK. After a year of reading these. I'm in.
We start with $20, correct? I have $47 left over from Christmas money, so I will throw $20 of that in to start. My goal is declutter, and make $$$ doing it.

Sold some books (twice now) on cash4books. (If anyone wants a link, PM me and I'll send it to you). That will be $13,80 to add, but I won't add it till its in my paypal account. I am sending the box of books in tomorrow. They even pay the shipping.

So total $20.00

It was wonderful. No one wanted to leave! 12 couples are in it. Did you know that once you are in one, you are always in one? The fee is paid one time. Anytime I want to go to another 12 week class, I can-no fee-anytime-forever. All of the website is free. I just have to enter our class code.

I have already read way ahead in the book.

Stayed home today from work. 3 youngest are sick with high fevers. Having to keep a close eye on them all. I don't like fevers.

I found a link on Craigslist regarding a site that bought books. I grabbed about 6 books I don't use out of a still unpacked book in the basement, and out of the 6, they will buy 3 for a total of $6.16 and they are paying the shipping. I printed off the postage paid label, and will mail them off on Monday. They will pay me by paypal. I have about 20 boxes of books, and will go thru them the next few days. The books they are buying are cook book, toddler game book and a girl scout leader book. DH has boxes of books, I have boxes, and many are duplicates. So, its like getting paid to clean out the basement and the bookshelves.
What you do is enter the books ISBN #, and they tell you if they will buy it and the price.
If you want to check it out, go to http://cash4books.net/index.php?ref=27658 I am going to try and locate some of my textbooks from school and see what they are going for. My last class was about 2 years ago, but the toddler book was one of them. I should have another box of them down there somewhere.

Cooked up 2 deer steaks (free) and cubed them. Threw the peices in the crockpot. Added 2 cans of tomatoes from Aldis @ 30 cents each. Added 1/3 bag of carrots-about 50 cents, the last of the potatoes from the garden and a couple of store bought ones, 2 stalks of celery and 2 onions. Salt and pepper added. It completely filled the crockpot. DH is on his 2nd bowl since we got back from the BB game, so must not be too bad. It will be the girls lunch tomorrow at school.

Spent money tonight. The 3 younger daughters are cheerleaders, and its basketball tournament week. So, after I got off from school, we went directly to game 1, then game 2. I forgot and didn't take sandwhiches, so spent $5 getting 5 of us a hotdog, and $2 for DH and I to get into the game (cheerleaders were free). Tomorrows games I will have sandwhiches for us to eat on the way. Saturday is the last game, but eating won't be an issue as we are going from home, not from school.

I am starting to look for another PT job, as mine will end the end of May.

I'd like to work from home if possible, and be able to control my hours during the summer, as I am already committed to being dorm mom at camp 2 weeks.

I put an ad in the local paper (its a weekly deal) offering to do some childcare in my home. I also posted it on Craigs list.

Last night I faxed my resume off to a local comapny that is looking for people to work PT doing medical billing, from their home.

I don't want selling, need the flexability of taking DD#4 to her frequent dr appointments, need to stay by home due to the farming operation.

I don't have DSL-can't get high speed here, and can not have another phone line either (lines are full, phone company has a waiting list).

I don't want anything that is real physical either, so that rules out house cleaning, plus, there is the issue that after school ends, we will be home schooling, and I will have my children with me to be taken care of.

My girls will be in summer school in June at the local public school, so I have my name in for sub teaching for the month already.

Any ideas???

Snow is trying to melt off. Parts of yard are down to just a few inches, others are still 8 inches deep. Some of the drifts are still 3 feet high, but sinking. It all has a layer of ice on top.

I called Cingular today. I think we are going to drop my cell # (still with my old town and area code) and upgrade his then add me on as a $9.99 plan. To do that would be 3 phones for $99.98 before taxes. Right now he is paying $106 for 2, and I pay $36.98. My name is not on his account, so she could not tell me if he was still under a contract or not, but my contract is over.

DH wanted to go to nextel, but when I called them, they don't offer service in our area.

Bad thing is, I will have to change phone numbers. I've had this number for 10 years. But, I live in a different area code now, so can't keep it.

I finally figured out how to add in excell. So, I made a chart and did all the childcare expenses for 2006 for taxes on it. Next I will hit up all the medical expenses, then all the volunteer and donating. Can't forget the milage either to and from drs, hospitals and for field trips I drove on.

Still debating on my moving expenses. I think I can count them. I did get my new job before I quit my old one, so I did move for the job. Had I not gotten the job at school, we would have postphone the wedding till I did get one, or we would have gotten married and I would have stayed at the old house and we would have done a lot of driving back and forth between the 2 houses. New job isn't much, but I had to have something.

Actually, I should say postphoned. 2nd weekend in a row that our Dave Ramsey class has been iced or snowed out. But, guess I am saving money??spent no gas getting there--22 miles 1 way to go.

This is a cow in KS, caught in our little storm. National Guard is having to drop hay from coptors for them.

Started snowing yesterday at exactly 4 pm. Weather station said it would start at 6, so they were off by 2 hrs. Snowed until 11 this morning. We got 6-8 inches. We are supposed to get more later today. But, its 44 degrees out now, so its melting, which is good, because in some spots we have drifts that are 3 foot.
Yesterday evening we went out for steak dinner, but it was a work function for DH, so it was a no spend deal. Had steak, potatoes, green beans, jumbo shrimp, cheesecake from heaven, a real yummy spinish and artichoje cheese dip with nonleaven bread, and peach tea. I brought home a good part of my steak (I ate too much shrimp to finish it). I figure DH can have it for dinner tonight at work. It snowed all the way to the dinner and back, went slow, and we did ok.
Some of the schools around here have already cancelled for tomorrow. Haven't heard from ours yet.
Tonight was supposed to be the first night of the Dave Ramsey thing (was postponed from last weekends storm). Don't know if it will be on or not. I'll have to call around later and see.

Ran some errands today. Oldest twin, 19 (we have 2 sets of twins)is getting ready to go to Paris in March for a class in college. She had to have a copy of her immunizations by 3pm today. Couldn't find hers anywhere. Found 4 daughters, but not all 5. So, had to call the county health, the faxed what they had, but some were still missing. So, I ran into town to the high school there, and luckly they still had them on the computer. They made me a copy, so I scanned and sent to her. While I was in town, I thought I'd go check out the local paper. Since my job ends at the end of May, I am kind of looking for something part time. I put an ad in the paper for childcare in my home, for any hours. I have heard that there is a big need for some of the families at the county fire department where both husband and wife work nights. Maybe I can pick up a couple. I also put in the ad part time and snow days as well. The paper comes out once a week. I about never found the paper office-I could see the sign, but couldn't find their door. Then I figured it out-they are located inside the reality company-go in that door, to the left is the license place, straight ahead is the newspaper desk, and to the right is the realty desk. Same people run all three desk. And, its got an interconnecting door to the next store as well. What really cracks me up, is the man changed hats when we went from the license desk to the paper desk. Left one hat where he was sitting, came over to the paper desk and put on a hat advertising the paper!! Then, he asked how I wanted to pay for it. I told him cash. But, I guess I had other options--he pointed to a sign-needing eggs and wanting some beef. So, if I ever run another ad, maybe I'll pay with eggs....
DH has ordered his spring hogs and sows, and I have ordered my eggs for chickens. I will take the eggs to school and my aftercare kids will hatch them out-I have an incubator reserved from the county extension office. We will make a project out of it. Then they will live in my garage for about 2 weeks, then they will be big enought to be in the pen on their own. I will also get a couple of older layers to have a few eggs. Then next winter, they will go to the buther shop. I get to keep 70% off them in exchange for the buther doing his part, and he keeps the rest for his meat counter (I just can't bear to do it myself after I have fed them all spring, summer and fall). We do the same thing with the pigs. The winters are just too harsh for us to keep them over the winter. If we had one more barn it would be different, but that is a long range goal.
The ice maker in the refrigerator upstairs suddenly started working late last night.??? weird, but saved a service call. We use a lot of ice. My other freezers are too full right now to put trays in, since my last trip to Aldi's and the fact we just put in a deer and I baked a bunch last week. So, I had been keeping the drinks in the garage to keep them cold. Now I can bring them back in. I think we may have a goose or two coming also. We let a neighbor hunt in exchange for a couple every year, and I think he got some. But, he usually waits several weeks before he brings them over. which is fine, no place to keep them now. Last nights mystery brisket turned out very very well. In fact, there was only a little left, but enought for DH to take to work for lunch today. I have been working on our budget on a spread sheet,had to reload excel off my recovery disk, then downloaded a free budget. But, it only shows money going out-no place to put money coming in. But, since thats the same most months, that wont be hard to figure. OK, this is long enough, I can't put off watering the stock any longer. (its up to 27 now-probably wont get any warmer today)

So much for a no spend day.
$450 to fix my vehicle (dashboard controls all quit due to a short in wiring-was lucking it did not catch on fire)
Renters called--HUGE leak in roof. Called a friend of mines DH who does repairs for a living, he went right over, just called me. $250 to repair. Wasnt the roof, but ice/water got into the window, leaked down the casing and inbetween the walls. Good news is he got it in time, only a little stuff to be replaced. Much longer and it would have been sheetrock, carpet and plywood as well. Ugh. I wish that house would sell. But, at least its rented out. If it were empty, I'd be in a pickle-no income to off set it, plus it would have gone unnoticed.

My goal is to use up everything in the chest deepfreeze, then move on to the upright. So, last yesterday I pulled out a package of meat. Its marked brisket. We have no idea where it came from or how long its been there. I thawd it out--it looks & smells perfectly fine, so its in the oven now. But, I still don't know if its beef or deer. One side looks like beef, the other side looks like deer. At the worse, its 2 years old. But, the freezer has never been off, so I'm not too worried about it.
I don't have excell, and my quicken seems to have dropped off my PC. I have searched online for a free budget sheet I could download, but can't find one. So, I am making my own in word. I will also get my laptop fired up. I can't remember if it has quicken on it or not. Last year I had a virus, and had to take the computers in to get repaired. When I got them back, half the stuff was gone. Worse of all, my PC no longer has guinene windows on it, so I can not get updates anymore. That stinks. I am waiting for it to warm up a couple more degrees, (at least to teh double digits)then I am off to water stock, shower and go to town. I have decided to put an ad in the paper to babysit from home part time. My meger income will be ending at the end of May (after school care at school). So, if I could get a couple babysitting jobs starting now, it would help offset that. I earn after taxes, $275 a month-which covers my gas to take the girls to and from school. Since I have to pick them up anyway, this job is no extra gas. But, on the other side, when school is out, we won't be driving back and forth to school, so I won't have as big of a gasoline expense.

It acted like I could-thought I did, but they go away.

I had it all here, hit submit, and boom it was gone.....
Finished washing some windows today. I engaged the younger twins to help. They are too young to think its real work-they thought it was fun because they got on top the counters to help.
Its still snowing outside. Got up to 15 today according the the therm on the kitchen deck. The bedroom deck had 14, and the front porch (faces north) got up to 12. I'll take the 15--it sounds more cozy.
I am making DH John Deere curtains now. Had to take a break from the hand sewing. My machine is still packed, so I have been doing all my sewing my hand since June. I need to unpack it, but when I do I want to put it in its perm home, which still needs some insulation and sheetrock (basement corner by south window).
I have ground chuck going (was 20 cents cheaper a lb than the hamburger). Pizza tonight and chili tomorrow.
DH went to buy some hay. $15 a big bale--going rate is $20-40 right now, and down south 100 miles its going for $80. If this hay is good, we may resell some down south.

Heat wave, Its up to 23 degrees now. First ice storm is thru-about 80% of it missed us, but the 2nd one is just starting. Our preacher preached a little shorter this morning because it was supposed to hit just after noon. So, he cut about 5 minutes off so we were out the door by noon.
Last night I boiled up and picked off a chicken, so when we got home I skimmed off the fat, heated it up, added some celery, finely diced carrots and onion, and some home made egg noodles. Sometimes I add in left over corn, but didn't have any leftover, and a whole can is too much. I also have 2 loaves of bread in the oven. Usually I bake more than 2 loaves at a time, but during the winter when the heat is down, the oven helps heat up the kitchen, so I just bake a couple days worth at a time.
As I thought, they postphone tonights Dave Ramsey class at church due to the ice. It was our first 'frugal decision' as a group. Figured we would save the gas and someones deductable if they got wrecked on the ice. So, I will keep rereading all my frugal lifestyle books. I usually try to reread them once a year.
Will have to go outside later to chop ice and open the gate to the watering tank with the heater where the calves are. Will have to let the other cows and horses in with them as the ponds are now frozen over. But, the calves should be weaned now, so it should work ok.

We aren't exactly iced it, but didn't want to risk it. I think the doors are iced shut on my vehicle. DH car and the farm truck are inside the garage and barn, so if we had to get out we could have. Spent the day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. I moved all the baking stuff, including my stand alone mixer to one area of the kitchen. Then, above that area I hung a small bulliten board that I found in the basement. I am going to use it to keep the grocery list and whatever receipe I am baking at the time on. I also moved all the kitchen appliances that we don't use at least once a week to the basement pantry. (I have a smaller pantry upstairs and restock it from the basement as needed). That freed up a lot of counter space and makes the kitchen look much neater. I also hung a quilt rack above the mud room window. Our mud room is an alcove off the kitchen-on the way to the garage that houses the pantry, cleaning supplies, washer and dryer, etc. That is where DH keeps most of his John Deere collection. So, on top the quilt rack (its the type with a shelf on it) I put some of his collection. Then, I am making him some curtains out of John Deere fabric. They will hang from the rack in place of a quilt. That window is on the north side, so if it gets too cold, I could even hang a quilt or blanket up there. However, the house is fairly new and the windows are the energy efficient type. I also did some baking--used Jodi's pumpkin receipe and made some muffins and bread. Found 8 cents while cleaning. Thru it in my "found money" jar. So far this year I have found $1.93. Last year I found almost $100, but it got a big boost when I found two $20 bills while walking in the park. I am surprised how much cash I find on the ground in parking lots. If I park further from the store, which I often do to get more exercise, the more cash I tend to find.
I hope we still start our Dave Ramsey program tomorrow evening at church. But, with the weather-snow and ice, they may push it back a week. We have had an 'informal' meeting once, but this next one is to actually get our materials and start it. I did once years ago, and am anxious to do this one.

Well, my time arguing with 2 different hospitals was time well spent. Rebeccas stays at the Children's hospital resulted in a bill of $7000, despite the fact we have insurance. After getting itemized bills, and getting statements from the insurance company, and getting mis applied payments on my account straightened out, we now owe $45. This had been going on for over a year.
The other one is from my mamogram. The hospital was charging me $337. I told the woman I already paid my copay, she told me that the insurance didn't pay in full so I was responsible. I called the insurance, and they said no, the hospital signs a contract with the insurance with their rates on it and I was not responsible. She then brought the hospital on the line, and out of the $337, $30 was mine--two $15 copays.
I had a friend once who worked for an insurance company, and they were instructed to deny every 3rd claim...But, now it appears the hospitals can be just as bad!!!

Took 1 bull and 4 heffers into the vet today. (OMG, trying to load that bull into the trailer is another story-he took out fencing, panels, charged us-I think I set a new worlds record for fence jumping...) Had the bull turned into a steer, one calf dehorned, and all 4 were wormed and given their shots, and the one that is preg (2 years old) was given a shot also. I was counting on a $200-300 bill. It was $73.
Guess DH will save some on the meat bill. Yep, he brought them home to eat. The bull was 2 yrs old, 1200 lbs (yes, he should have been cut looooong time ago...)so they are (were) rather...large. Don't think I'll eat any-I will let DH have that dish. But, I guess when you think of it, meat is meat....

DH and I are working calves, and loading them up to take in to the vet. The new little bull, now appears to be a little girl. Thus, she has a name now, "Flurry" per my 10 year old daughter, because she is the color of snow. Lucky for her, she is safe from being next years butchering cow. Now, one of the other cows needs to have a bull for the freezer.

Saturday morning, I had to take the girls to a quiz meet, about 90 minutes away. (but only about 60 miles--city driving-stop, go-stop..) We go right by an Aldi store, (there are none near me) so on the way back we stopped. I spent $157-filled 3 carts with grocery and laundry items. Got speg sauce, olives, corn, green beans, beats, & carrots by the case. I would have liked to have also gotten a couple cases of fruit, but the aisle was blocked and the store was packed and I didn't want to wait around. By the time we got out of there, it was after 1pm, so I did McDonalds thing--we each got 1 thing off the dollar menu, and a cup of ice water. But, I carry a container of drink mix in my glove box, so I pulled over and added it in, so we had orange drink instead of water. Saved us about 79 cents each doing it that way. I can get the powered drink mix at Aldi for $1 each. Orginally I started getting it for the camping trailer, as it weighed less than taking juice with us. Now, I find it nice to keep one in the glove box and one in my mailbox at school as well.
The groceries should last us about 5 weeks.

Worked out well I guess. This is calf #1 for this year. He is sooo cute, arrived at 8 a.m. Baby and momma are doing well. We will be butchering a steer this April that will last us about a year, so he will be the next one to eat. We have 2 more cows expecting calves soon, hopefully one will be a girl at least, to increase the herd. So, as of now we have 8 cows. Since its a boy, don't know that I want to name him. The one we are getting ready to eat wasn't named. Hard to eat them if they are.

While I was on line, I just decided to check out my bank account. My bank gives money back every time I use my check card. So far this year, I have $80.61 earned and I just transferred it into my checking. (I don't know where the .61 came from since everything is supposed to be in $5 increments...)I probably use it more than others, because I even put my house payment on it every month for the house in my old town which I have rented out right now. Before I married, I even put all my utilities on it as well. Rarely do I write a check-in fact, usually just for church offering!

Well, I have now run the local grocery store out of pectin, and still have 1 1/2 bushels left. The one the next town over has 3 boxes left, but they are all out of date-expired in July and Aug...I also need some more pint jars. So, I guess DH and I will make a run to the next BIG town (that would be one with a population of over 3000). He also needs to get 4 fresh turkeys which no one around here has. He is going to smoke 2 and fry 2, with one of each being cajun style.....We will go to my parents Thurs morning, his former father in laws on Thurs evening (his first wife is deceased, but he stays close with her family still) and then again at his moms on Sunday.

Got 4 bushels of Missouri apples. I have now made applesause, apple jelly and next I will make and can apple pie filling. Can't think of anything else I can do with them--they are not juicey enough for juice or cider. I am wasting nothing-First I make the jelly with the juice, then rice them for applesauce. That leaves only the stems and seeds, which are goign to compost.

Took stuff (clothing) into the local 2 consignment stores today. They are mother and daughter owned, next door to each other. One is for children, the other is adults.
The childrens one bought a lot from me. (The items were all nice, but a few years old). The adult one, didn't buy a single thing. Said all my clothing items were "too old" and "not in style". The majority of the items were only a year old--and they are too in style. She was nuts. Since I am now a stay at home mom for the most part, I was weeding out some of my extra "office attire", such as cord pants, pantsuits, suits, sweaters, blazers..... Some were only bought in Jan or Feb. Oh, she told me no one wears blazers anymore....So, I am spreading the word to all you readers, incase you were like me and didn't know that. The blazer she turned down I got in March, brand new from Chadwhicks...I got it on sale-clearance, for $29 & have worn it several times, but I have about 6 and really only need 2 in basic colors now. I was telling another mom at school about my experience, and I had just picked up my stuff that the consignement store didn't want. The other mom just got a job, went thru my stuff (in the parking lot at school) and took a bunch to try on inside-then came out and asked if I would take $75 for the 6 items she wanted. What luck!! The rest I am listing on ebay now. But, my dial up is slow and keeps bumping me off when I try to upload pix.

Saturday we had a cheap party. It cost us under $100 and we had at least 127 people that came to it. We had it outdoors (weather was perfect) and for the most part, people were free to just wander around the farm. We set up horseshoes, volleyball, badmitten, fishing in the ponds,tetherball, & crocket. We also had 1 of the horses saddled up and gave rides in the arena. We had a 4 wheeler and friends brought another one, and older kids gave younger kids rides (helmets were worn). We also had a bonfire for a weiner roast, and ended it with a 4.5 mile hayride. We provided the table service, ice tea, ice, all condiments and baked beans. Each family brought hotdogs/buns/marshmellows and a covered dish to share. It went over real well and we had a lot of compliments. Meanwhile, I heard a woman in a waiting room complaining today that they had a $1500 party last week, and in addition had a huge beer bill on top of that. I think I will stick with what we did again for next year, but next year we will add a haunted house in the barn, and start it a little earlier in the day.