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.

Today I found 2 consignment stores-they are 2 doors down from each other. They wernt open yet, but tomorrow when I go to town I will make it a point to go after 10 a.m. to check them out. One is kids stuff, and the other womens. As I unpack from the move, I have been putting outgrown clothes in boxes. Hopefully I can get some winter stuff sorted out to take in and get some cash back from. I also have at least 2 booster seats to sell that were only used a couple of times. And, somewhere should be some outgrown winter coats.

I picked about 1/3 of the apples in the orchard this morning. I found out I can just drive the truck in, stand in the bed, and reach the entire top of the tree, then just put the apples in the bed and drive the truck up to the kitchen door. Very little climbing and lifting! I plan on making applesauce later tonight- I have the A/C off now, and if I wait till it cools down alittle tonight, I won't have to worry about the kitchen heating up.
I have a job now--I do the aftercare at the girls school. Its from 3:30-5:30 every school day. I am out no gas, as I have to pick up the girls from school anyway (no bus), and it pays almost half of their tution, and I am only gone from the farm 2 hours a day. Pretty good deal if you ask me-plus, I don't have to pay for my girls to be in there with me, I can see to it their homework is done, and have daily contact with their teachers!

Finished painting DD bedroom. Hot passion pink. Needed sunglasses to do it. Have most of her furniture in & set up, but hubby is going to have to help me-accidently put the top bunk on backwards, just need to take it off and flip it, but can't do it myself-too heavy. I called to have someone paint it-they wanted $325-$375. I spent almost $30 on paint, rollers, tape and such. So, I saved around $300. Next daughter wants her room painted hot purple with butterflies...
Decorating is easy. Passion pink wanted hers in horses--easy. Put the saddle rack and saddle in the corner, hung up some blown up photos of the horses, some reins, and recovered her toybox in demim and that fake leather stuff (on clearence, and the demim I had for years and years) I still need to hang the mini blinds (gift from the mother n law) and make her curtains-also out of the denim and fake leather stuff, and her room is finished.
Still have about 200 boxes to unpack in the basement. I think about 1/2 of it will go on ebay. I already sold some stuff on there.

Well, the bf and I finally set a date. I now have 2.5 months to sell my house, sell what I don't need, and move what I am going to keep. The kids items are what I am starting with. All the outside toys that they have outgrown I have sold, except for 2. So far the girls have raised $145 from those items. (I am letting them keep what money we get from toys that were theirs.) That money will go to new outside toys when we get moved to the farmhouse. They are wanting a trampolene, basketball goal and wooden swingset/climber. Their old swingset we will have to sell with the house, as it is too hard to move, and the legs are set in concrete. Their playhouse will be the hardest to move. I quickly went thru their closets once, and removed 4 trashbags of clothes they had outgrown, and sold them for $50. I need to go thru their closets again. I know there are probably another 4 or more trashbags full. They get clothes from older cousins, and are the last of the 'girl line'-so no one left for them to pass them down to. Most of what I have sold so far, I have listed on our local ISP website, under the classified ad section.
I was going to take a load of stuff I plan to keep to his house today, but he called and said not to come up. They are getting about 8 inches of snow. We were afraid I would get snowed in. I have been on vacation all week, and it just would not go over at work if I called in the first day back. (Where I work, they fire people for that).I had thought I would take up my canning supplies, and jars, fist tank, and my sewing stuff. His basement has never been finished (new house) and I am cleaning it, and setting up one area at a time as I take stuff there. First, is the basement bathroom. I need to mud, tape, sand and paint it. Then I have a small antique table I plan to move into it. That will free up some space in my bedroom. Next, There is an area in his basement that I plan to lay stake on. One side I will put my deepfreeze, gas cooking stove and extra refrigerator on, and put in some shelves. this will be my canning and pantry area. Those shelves will be about 14 feet long (sturdy boards and concrete blocks)That will be my pantry area, and hold extra food, canned food, bathroom supplies and holiday decorations. Across from it, I plan on putting some cabinets I have (like bottom kitchen cabinets with a counter top on them) that house all my sewing supplies. The main part of the basement we will put a TV, my diningroom set (for holiday dinner overflows) and my couch, which opens up to a full sized bed, and bookcases, and antique pot bellied stove. He has an antique bar, which came out of a railroad car, and plans to set it up there also (even though we don't drink-but its beautiful wood and can be used for snacks and soda). That will give us an extra family/dining/craft area, and with the sofa bed, and private full bath down there, can double as a guest area. PLUS, since he lives in the middle of no where (really does) and is further north, the electric often goes out. The basement would keep us warmer, and would be more comfy if we have to hide out there during one of the many tornados that we tend to have here.
Hopefully tonight yet, I can go thru the twins dressers and closets one more time and clear out some more clothes. I have been doing laundry all day since church, and pulling out all the size 6 and 6x as I go along. I am not sure if I will sell these on the internet too, or wait for a garage sale. I have 2 weeks off in April, that I could have a sale in. My last day to work will be the end of May or first of June, so I have to use all my vacation days by then, or I lose them.
After that, I get to become a stay at home farm wife/mom. Big garden, chickens, going to add more cows, some pigs, ducks, geese, turkeys, sheep--all of it.

Today was my day off. I spent the day doing some deep cleaning and decluttering. Then I listed a ton of stuff on our local classified website and several things have already been sold-not bad for the first day. Made about $80 just today, and still have another $120 listed.

I posted my house for sale on 3 different websites on Saturday and Sunday. This is only Monday, and I already have 2 responses. This may move faster than I thought it would. Plan is sell my house by the end of school, get married and move. Then I get to become a stay at home mom-farm wife. I'm excited, its what I have always wanted to do and who I have wanted to do it with. I have already started going thru the house, planning on going thru 1 room at a time-cleaning and packing. Right now I am planning on just packing stuff to sell. As friends have garage sales, I can put stuff in them, until I have my own.

Well, I thought I had done real good all year long by throwing all receipts & tax related items into a box labeled taxes. I did my taxes myself using "Turbo Tax" and was very pleased with the results. I mailed them off on Moday. Now that I am cleaning up the office area, I find 3 more receipts, medical, that I should have claimed. So, I just finished redoing my taxes (which was easy, since the forms are saved on my computer and I only had to update them). It is giving me back another $160 between state and federal, so it was worth the time I took to redo them. I just remailed my ammended taxes....I am now down to 1 small file left to file away and a clean desk and drawers!!

Today is my day off, and I am spending it cleaning and reorganizing my office. My file doors were so full that I had papers to be filed that were in laundry baskets, because they wont fit in the file drawers. So, I have gone thru the files, burned some stuff and given some to my hamisters (they shred it and I don't have to pay for a paper shredder--how frugal is that??). When everything is done, it should fit in the file drawers. I also set up a large (biggest I could find) 3 ring notebook binder for each member of the family. Each one of us has an ING account, savings account at 2 different credit unions, and a mutual fund account. I also have a couple more-retirement and IRA accounts. Each person now has their own notebook, and they are divided into sections. When we get those monthly statements, I use my 3 hole puncher to put in holes, and then put them in the persons book, behind the tab for that account, with the oldest in the back. My girls seem to have more money than I thought they did. All their baby money and most of their birthday money has gone into their credit union savings accounts. It is starting to add up now. Ideally, I would like them to use one account for college, and have the other for when they get their first home. Just getting all those files for 4+ accounts per person out of the file drawer freed up a lot of room. Some of the older stuff that I don't need, but don't want to get rid of, I will box and move to the attic. So far, I have found 4 savings bonds, coupons for a free bag of chips, and some change on my desk and in the bottom of drawers.

Little Miss is back in school again & I am back to work. I sold some stock that carried us thru the months I was not working. Now I get to buy it back up again-(its an option at work), but the good part is, when I sold it back in Dec, it was worth a lot more than it is now. I will start my option to buy more in March. It also helped by cashing in some of my free gift cards I had from mypoints. I had several for walmart, which I used for gas (and saved 3 cents a gallon at the pump also by using them). If anyone wants info on my points, just let me know & I will send you an invite. Basically I read ads they send me and get points for it-then the points I can convert to gift cards from major companies, such as JCPenney, Red Lobster, Target, Walmart...
I have been pretty tight with the cash since we have been back but I think we will make it. Had a cold snap, which didnt help the heat bill any, but it only lasted a few days, and I burned wood some too. Since I keep the pantry and deep freeze stocked, the only groceries we will need to buy for probably the next month will be milk and eggs.

Am finally back, been gone with a sick little one. I have missed work, without pay, so I am really going to have to be frugal now. Today, I called and dropped the caller ID, the extra dish receiver, and dropped the extra channels on the dish-I am back to having just the local channels for $5 a month. I tried a TV antenna before, and they just don't work at my location. I would drop it all together, but the oldest often needs to watch the news for school homework, and I also like the extra channels as we are going to be in tornado season again here in a few weeks. I am debating if I want to drop the DSL back to basic internet or not. Before I did some work for a work at home company that required DSL. If I can get back on with them, I will keep it. If not, I will drop it. Since I do work for the phone company I do get a discount on it. But, what I did today will save me $37 a month. Not a lot, but thats a weeks worth of gas for me. I have been trying to think of what else I can cut out, but I think I am pretty much at bare bones now. The last few months completely ate up my savings again, so I will have to built that back up again.

ING called and left a message today while I was at work. They said the refinance stuff is almost done, and I should be getting paperwork one day next week to sign. That will save me about $257 a month. Yee ha! I am paying over 9% insterst now, and will be locked in with ING at almost 5%.

Spent no money today. I think so far this month I have only run the clothes dryer 3 times, and I have not used the commerical car wash in probably 2 months. (I've washed it by hand with the bucket--about 10 gallons each time, plus a little more from the hose to rinse it off). I will have to buy gas tomorrow, as DD #2 has a dr appt in the city--about 147 miles round trip. Got a bunch of odd jobs done around the house over the weekend, that my friend helped me with. This probably saved me about $250 for not having to pay a handyman.

Weird. I made an entry yesterday, but its not here today. Spent nothing today, but will have to later tonight. Somehow one of our elves, "not me" and "I don't know" dumped the last 2 rolls of toilet paper in the wet tub-so, will be going on a TP run.

I also have a male friend, who is coming up tonight to do some "honey-do's" for me. I may need to buy some materials or tools for that. We kind of trade off work. When he goes and gets hay, he has to have a flasher, so I do that for him and help him with gardening and yard work. For some of you....a flasher is not that kind of flasher. Its the truck behind the oversized hay trailer & tractor with the flashing lights on...gee, get your minds out of the gutters...

Got some m-m's out of the machine at work. I've been bad-2nd day in a row. Other than that, no money spent. Tomorrow though, I will need to get gas (its down to $2.56 a gallon now), and renew the twins girl scouts for this year, at $25 per girl. Its also their turn to take snacks to scouts, and I need to buy some cereal, as somebody snuck into it and spilled a bunch of it (one of those short people that live in my house named "not me" and "i don't know".) But, after that, should be no more money spent till Thursday when a couple of bills come out of my checking account.
If the weather holds, next week I have workmen coming to tear down my sunroom, and rebuild it. A storm damaged it, it leaks badily now, and is starting to get rot. The first snow will take in the roof, and since 3 of the walls are glass, best fix it now, so those walls are not broken. I think it will take around $2000 to do all that, and I also have a list of other jobs for them as well. I have 3 doors I want replaced--just the doors, not the frames. 2 years ago I replaced the windows with energy eff ones. But did not do the doors. So, now I want the doors done. If it is anything like the windows, they will pay for themselves the first winter, exp 2 of them on the north and west sides.

Had to have popcorn. Was craving it like crazy, so I bowed down before the mighty vending machine. Could have gotten 4 of them for that price at Aldi's. Did have some at my desk, but ate the last of it and forgot to bring in more....

I finally got the quick claim deed from my ex, and refinanced the house today. I went with refinancing it thru ING. Very very simple process, at 1.5% lower interest than the bank, and the closing costs were only $1162-the bank wanted $3572 to close. It will bring my payments down to about 1/3 of what I am paying now, but, I can pay extra principal (to equal what I am currently paying now) and have it paid off in about 7 years. I can't believe the savings in the interest. My current mortage was over 9%. I spent only $25 today, on gas. Stayed out of the vending machines all day at work. I will have to go to the store tomorrow--need to get a bug bomb-found some critters in the house that I don't want...