Thrift-o-rama

Well, our $400 weekly budget went out the window for March, thanks to my knock-down drag-out 40th birthday festivities. I'm not complaining. These are the things we WANT to spend money on: visits with out of town friends, tickets to shows, and overall time with our good friends. So yes, it was worth it. 40 was definitely memorable. Now I'm paying the bill! So yes, back to austerity, although it's totally worth it.

I'm not complaining. I love the $400 a week budget. It's going to serve us well.

In other news, as anticipated, my editor does not yet have a replacement for me for my weekly freelance project and has asked me to stay longer. He wanted a month. I stewed about it all weekend. Technically, it's not my problem because they've already had nearly 2 months to find someone and have been dragging their feet. But, since I want to leave on a good note and the editor is my friend, I agreed to two more weeks. Ugh. Luckily, it was easy to secure interviews for those two articles. I did those interviews yesterday and don't have to do much more work on them. I just have to write them and turn them in.

Still. I am ready to move on with my life!

If I can stick with the $400 a week budget, I will be able to send my remaining freelance pay for the year (about $1800) directly to my IRA for 2015. That will be less money that comes out of the savings account come tax time next year, so that is good.

Our tax refund came today and we sent 75 percent of it to the mortgage, a total of $3,000 to principal. When it posts, hopefully tomorrow, we should be down to $32,200. I'm trying to get this house paid off as fast as I can. Each $1,000 in extra knocks one month off the pay off time, so this is 3 months off!

Some of you may remember the drama surrounding my freelance income. I did the taxes, realized I wasn't making any money, so I put in my notice.

Yesterday, I get an email from the big boss asking me to name my price to stay on the weekly project. I'm supposed to be finished in two weeks, and this makes me think they haven't found a replacement.

It threw a wrench into my life, debating what to do. So, I ran the numbers, and even if they more than doubled the current rate, it still wouldn't be profitable after I paid the taxes. I'd still get "paid" more in the form of a tax refund if I didn't work. And, after childcare, I would still have to pay to work.

Ugh. This is so depressing!

So, after much thought, number-crunching, and crying to my mom, I stuck with my decision to leave. Of course, I'm now convinced that at the last minute they're going to beg me to stay on for a another month because they clearly have no plan B.

If you want to see the dirty depressing math of my situation, go back to my main page and scroll back a few posts. I've got it all laid out there.

I'm finishing up the taxes, and the software does a year by year comparison. It's interesting.

First, we're accelerating our mortgage pay off. We hope to have the house paid off in 2017, about six years after we bought it. Even though the balance doesn't seem THAT much lower, we paid $1000 less in mortgage interest this year than last. This makes me happy because mortgage interest is money in the trash in my opinion.

And most strangely, as a household, we made $2000 more last year, despite my cutting my freelance income in half. Looks like DH has been getting bigger raises than I thought. Because I cut my freelance income our refund was $3000 more. I hate that there is a disincentive for two spouses to work!

As some of you know, I put in notice at my main freelancing gig. It's a weekly article for the newspaper. I've been writing it for 6 years, and the pay has not gone up once. It was never a lot of money, but when I started I had just left the newspaper as a full time staffer and was home with two little kids. I naively thought that I would be welcome back to a full-time job once the kids got older. Alas, my boss has hired four people instead of me in that time, and only once briefly considered me, before backtracking because he essentially didn't want to hire a mom with childcare concerns. (I swear he is a nice guy in real life and probably doesn't even realize the gravity of those kinds of actions) So yes. This is the world we live in.

Anyway, I put in notice because after taxes (self-employment), I was only making about $25 on each article. Ouch. After I paid for childcare, I was paying to work. That was a cold hard fact to swallow. When I put in my notice, they said can we pay you to stay? Then immediately said sorry, we can't afford to pay anymore. Way to make you feel special for busting your butt to meet all those deadlines!

That is the end of my rant. All of this has made me seriously reevaluate work and my work life. I have to accept that giving this weekly gig up isn't just giving up a job. It's giving up a career. Journalism is dead. I mean, I work in the industry and even I can't remember the last time I paid to read the news. It's nothing but layoffs and no future. I'm 40, so I'm too young to just wait out retirement.

Although, I do still get editors calling me to write for them. I'm lucky in that I don't have to seek out work, it seeks me. I just wish it paid more. Which brings me to what I've been ruminating about.

Yesterday, another editor asked me if I wanted to write an article for a special monthly Sunday section. I've written for him before and I like him. The problem: The same crappy pay rate, for a story that requires more planning and more interviews. I filled with dread when I got the email. I used to be excited at the prospect of another check, another byline, etc. but I guess the thrill is gone.

I was debating whether I should say yes or no (Yes being, a check, and maintaining a good relationship with this editor in case I need work in the future. No, being low pay and more time working when I have other things I need to focus on: my novel, my kids, my garden, etc.)

I re-read part of Your Money or Your Life last night and it was a very poignant reminder that work is paid employment-- the small part of your life when you do something to earn money, and as such, you should seek to maximize what you earn for the hours you spend working.

So it all got me thinking. Maybe I should stop feeling so obligated to a company that offers me only low pay, no full-time gig, and shrugged shoulders when I quit.

Maybe instead of saying yes, I should just make it clear I'm only taking assignments that pay at a certain level or above. My level would be 2x what the weekly gig and this Sunday story pay. Those jobs do come along. I'm working on one for that rate now for a different editor, and another magazine within the company always pays me at that rate of higher. I Wouldn't be working nearly as often, but when I did take a story, I'd at least be making more for it.

Any thoughts?

I'm wrapping up my last few weeks at my weekly gig. I think I have four more articles to write before my time is up. I'm looking forward to moving on.

The snow is finally (I hope) gone for good and I've spent the last few days working in the garden and getting ready for spring planting. I'm so excited another growing season is beginning.

This year I hope to reach near-maximum production. I have about 1000 sq feet dedicated to fruits and veggies, and I've been experimenting with season extension to extend the number of months we can pull fresh food out of the garden.

I do have a new goal this year. I want to feed my family, yes, but I also want to grow enough to provide fresh fruits, veggies, and canned goods to my mother, and another family (dear friends on a shoestring budget who have three adult and three kid mouths to feed). This friend came over not too long ago and was stressed out trying to reduce her grocery bill. She spends $900/month for six people, which is actually pretty good, but she needs the money other places.

They do grow a few of their own fresh veggies, but don't have the time or experience to can. I figure if I show up once a month with a giant bag of produce and homemade jam, ice cream, pasta sauce, etc., it will be well received.

I also want to grow and donate to the food bank again. The local food pantry would jump up and down with excitement when I brought in fresh produce from the garden. I had no idea how much they needed it.

So, growing food around here comes with a few expenses. Big ones.

First, I ordered $400 worth of compost, to top off all the beds and to have some on reserve throughout the season. ( I need to refresh the compost between plantings) I just can't seem to make enough of my own compost, but am hoping to refine my composting systems so that I don't have to keep ordering so much of it every year. I'm adding more and bigger compost areas so I can not only process our household scraps but also more of our own yard waste (and faster) into usable compost.

And, I've spent about $50 out of pocket on seeds, soil, and plants so far.

I'm about to add another $50 to that for transplants for things I don't grow from seeds, and another $100 or so on fruit trees. We have four apple trees and are adding two sour cherries and possibly a peach or plum.

I'm also growing brussel sprouts for a friend who really likes them. I'm giving him three transplants I've grown, and I'm going to plant three of my own to see if they do anything. I'm planning to give the other 18 seedlings away or trade them.

We did all right with trades last year. We traded our extras for things that we would have had to spend money on. I like bartering and trading a lot. I just wish I could think of a way to expand the network of people I have to trade with.

Here is a pic of our garden in full swing last July. Pardon the weeds!

I posted about how awesome my 40th birthday weekend was. It just seems to be getting better. My bff from New Orleans flew up this weekend to surprise me. We had ladies nights out with my friends for three nights in a row and we all had a blast together.

It's like it refueled my happiness bank for the rest of my real life. I've felt bogged down by the never-ending work and caregiving with all work and no play, so it was nice to have two weekends in a row where I could do what I wanted with my friends and not have to be mom all the time.

On the work front, I am so happy I put in notice at my job. It's just getting worse, harder and more frustrating for no more pay, due to internal changes at the organization. I got into an argument with my editor yesterday. She made me bump a story last week because of a scheduling issue, and said this week would work just fine. So I start working on it for this week (I had to really scramble to find a replacement last week), and then she tells me there's still a conflict and we can't run it until next week, so I need to find yet another replacement for this week.

Its a nightmare. It is very difficult to find last minute replacements, and all the other stories I have lined up, the people just aren't ready yet. I almost quit yesterday, but I want to leave on good terms. I just can't wait for it to be over. I have five more weeks.

Sorry for the rant.

I have been thinking about things I can do to save the family more money once I'm on the other side of this job and no longer getting the checks. I think we overall already do a good job economizing, but I suppose we could do better. It's just the low-hanging and obvious fruits have already been picked.

My first thought is to scale back on the kids birthdays. We have parties for them, and the price adds up, even if it's jut putting out a lot of food for a bunch of friends and letting them run around the backyard. OUr 6 (soon 7) year old begged us to have a laser tag party for him and we gave in. I'm regretting it. It was $200 for the laser tag place, plus he wanted a 'real' birthday cake instead of homemade, and that was $50. I'm embarrassed to say how much it's costing! I don't think we had any idea when we said yes. This is the last one. From now on, they can invite friends over for pizza and playtime.

Otherwise, I'm looking for more ways to save and be happier and have a more streamlined daily life.

I'm open to ideas, if you have any!

Yes. I turned 40 March 13. And it was awesome.

My best friend in California who I haven't seen in 5 years flew out to surprise me, my friends had a big party for me, and my mom and sister paid someone to put giant fake buzzards and tombstones in my yard. There was also a grim reaper on my birthday cake. I always secretly wanted the cheesy cakes and tombstone stuff when I made the big 4-0 and I got it!

And, then there is real life. I put my notice in at my freelance gig last week, and thought I'd be nervous, but it turns out making the decision was the hardest part. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me, and it's also made me feel like my 40s will be what I actually imagined my 30s would be like-- the decade of finally accomplishing many of the things I set out to do with my life. If this feeling is what a mid-life crisis is, I'll take it!

Okay okay, I admit I have spent the last year or so giving a lot of thought to what I wanted the next part of my life to be. I did this in part to so that turning 40 would be positive, rather than a "holy crap" I need to do something different, now, before it's too late.

So, what am I going to do with myself? Well, take care of the kids like I always do. But, I've been working on my first novel for five years and it's finally finally finally in it's final revision. I hope to send it out this summer, so the rejection letters can start rolling in.

While my novel is out there getting rejected, I have plans for three more, plus some short stories. I'm amped. I always set out to be a writer, so I ended up in journalism. I've worked at newspapers and magazines. It was great experience, yes, and I'm happy I did it, but I never intended to take that route. I had always planned to write books, and now, I'm going to do it.

I'm blessed that we're savers and we aren't going to miss any meals while I finally pursue the dream. I don't know. Something about turning 40 made me look at my life, my job, my habits and think "Do I want to spend the next 10 years doing what I did the last 10 years?"

The answer was no, so now I've entered a new phase. Let's hope it works out!

Oh, and in financial news, I put a freelance check for $500 into my IRA for 2015. Ever since we've decided to stick to a weekly budget, we have more money in the bank. It's been worth it.

Well, as planned, I gave my official notice that I was quitting my weekly deadline freelance commitment.

My editors were of course, bummed out and sad, but understood that the money is not great and that it might not make sense for me. The main editor was gracious enough to ask how much of a raise I'd need to stay, but then immediately in the next sentence said it didn't matter because he could try but he probably couldn't get it for me anyway because the newspaper is broke.

So yeah. It kind of made me feel worse. You spend 6 years busting your hump to turn these articles in every week, at much stress in your own life and when you say you quit, it's like "oh well, we'd like to help you but sorry."

Grrrr. Not that I expected any different. I still have six more weeks before my time is officially up, which is $900. I also have a $300 project due this week and a $300 project due next month.

Besides that, it was the first beautiful spring day. It was nice to be able to go outside in the sunshine.

I also got a surprise visit from a good friend who was in the neighborhood interviewing for a new job, and just popped in. That made my day much nicer. It's easy to forget how much just having someone to talk to and joke around with can make like better.

Some of you were gracious enough to comment on my recent post about my job dilemma. Basically, I freelance and after taxes make nothing. I work in journalism, but it's becoming harder and harder every year to make a living doing that.

I've taken your advice, and done a lot of soul searching, and I'm quitting my freelance gig for the newspaper. The pay is terrible and hasn't gone up in six years, and I spend a fortune on childcare to free up the time to do the work. It's also become clear I will not be returning to full-time work in the field, due to lay offs and industry problems.

It's time for me to take some time and think of ways that I can more substantially and meaningfully support my family in both financial and emotional terms. Let the soul searching begin.

And thanks to all of you for your candid advice. I think the extra voices gave me the courage to look to something new.

We're snowed in again today, under six new inches of snow. Gah. I'm so over winter! It's impossible to make plans. We've had a half dozen snow days, the kids were supposed to spend the night at grandma's last night so Dh and I could have a date, but that didn't happen because the storm was coming.

I have spring fever. I can't wait to throw open the doors, steam clean the carpet, be able to start walking the kids to school again, and generally begin living outdoors again.

In the meantime, I'm trying to keep the house as clean as I can (a challenge, since I'm busy and hate cleaning) to reduce the stress of all of us being cooped up.

Today, I cleaned, organized and scrubbed the refrigerator. I also prepped my salad for the week. I also cleaned out the deep freeze. I found more expired freezer burned stuff than I care to admit. Not as bad as it could have been, but still. I put a dry erase magnet board on the outside ot he deep freeze and wrote down everything I put back in there. At least then I'll know just by looking what's there and where it is (Now I have like with like in little baskets. )

I planned this week's meals based on what we had in there.
-baked steak
-seafood pasta alfredo
-the kids want a grilled cheese night, which is fine with me because it's so cheap!
-baked turkey with cranberries
-baked chicken breasts

I also put in our meat order with the local farmer, now that I knew exactly what I already had in the deep freeze. We order from them about five times a year. The meat is so high quality--far and above fro the grocery store-- and it is amazingly affordable. It costs the same or less than traditional meat at the store, on average, and I know these animals live a very nice life until their last day.

DH took our youngest sledding at the park. The oldest is hanging out with me playing legos while I fold laundry and bake cookies. It's a generally low key day!

Update: After all that and baking cookies for the kids, I decided to clean out the utility part of the basement. It's swept and organized, with a box of things for the thrift store. I also organized all the wrapping paper, bags, and bows so it's much more manageable and takes up less room.
Now, to rest!

I've spared you guys the (most) of the misery of my complaining about our austerity budget of $400 a week for everything. It's actually for the most part gone well. And, it's not been as hard as I thought it would be overall. I've even managed to cut the weekly grocery budget from more than $200 to about $150 to $175, and I have no idea how! I feel like I'm shopping the same, but maybe I'm just getting better at cooking and budget meal planning.

Anyway, the point is. I knew if we stuck to it, one day there would be a big pay off. Today, that day has come! It was payday today, and because we stuck to the budget, the credit card bill is paid in full. The mortgage is paid and we managed to pay nearly $2260 in principal. (about $1000 extra). AND we have money left over in the bank for the next two weeks.

DH also got a small bonus from work, which was enough to fully fund my IRA shortfall for 2014 ($1993) and put some money in savings. If we hadn't been on the budget, I'm not sure we would have been able to do as much with the extra.

So yes, it might be snowy outside but it's sunny days moneywise. And hopefully, we're on the path to smoother sailing.

It's tax time and this is the time of year I always get super depressed about work. I freelance, so I'm all 1099 income. That means self-employment tax (I pay all the SS and Med taxes because I don't have an 'employer' to pay half for me like w-2 workers).

I don't make that much. The last few years I've made about $20k working part-time. I cut back last year after I looked at my taxes (more on that later). In 2014, I made a little over $10k.

I work from home part-time because my kids are young and I've been struggling to balance work deadlines and the kids since they were newborns.It's been seven years. Of non-stop deadlines. I work in media, so there is always a deadline and the cycle of deadlines never ends. And when I say deadlines I mean more than one each week, whether or not it's summer vacation, a snow day, or the kids have pink eye.

It has not been easy. I frequently get stood up by people I'm interviewing who assume I work in an office all day and have plenty of time. This throws a complete wrench into my life, as does every snow day. My life is a house of cards and one little thing sends it all tumbling down. If I go out of town or know the kids have spring break, sometimes I have to do four or five extra articles and interviews in advance just to meet my deadlines for that week off. (Stress!).

But, my thought in doing it was that I wanted to have options. I didn't want to have a 10 year gap in my resume once the youngest got to first grade, if I needed to go back to work full-time in an office.

So here I am, seven years on. Even thought I've cut back on assignments, it's still a grind. Now I'm doing the taxes, and alas, I have to look at the cold hard numbers and what I actually "profited" from all that work.

And the reality is, it's almost all for nothing.

-I made $10,500
-I paid $4,555 in childcare to work (I have since cut back, from $555 to $225/month since I also cut back at work)
-I put $5500 in my IRA

On paper, it looks like I "made" $500. Before taxes.
Now let's look at that.
Before I factored in my income, we were due for a tax refund of $7,155
After? $3575, including a measly $943 tax credit for the nearly $5k I paid for childcare. Plus, I need to pay $400 in city taxes on the money I made.

So, the math after taxes?
10,500-4,555-3980(tax refund/city)= 1965 profit, not including the IRA.
If I hadn't worked at all, I would have put $3980 profit into the family account, in the form of tax refunds and tax savings.

So the question is, should i keep doing this?

I have felt as if any money was worthwhile in this economy, even if it wasn't much, but looking at the cold hard numbers just makes it all so frustrating. Is that small amount of money worth all the work I have done. All the stress juggling the kids and work?

I'm not sure.

Let me also throw in some background .

I work in journalism and we all know that's a dying industry. Very few people actually buy a newspaper anymore. My company has been laying off people since 2005. Going back to a full-time job in this industry probably isn't in the cards.

Even so, I've been passed over four times by my boss for full-time jobs. I was only once considered, and then immediately not when I said the salary would have to cover childcare for two young kids plus profit. Instead, they have hired all men, who either have grown or no children or a spouse who is like me and manages to make it all work with no hiccups for the husband.

After the company Xmas party it also occurred to me that I no longer want to work full-time in this industry. Talk about depressing. everyone is stressed out, overworked, understaffed and unhappy. I also don't have the fire for the industry that I did when I was younger. I felt deep down it was time to move on.

But that would be admitting my first major career is over and then figuring out what next?

So, what would you do? Do you have any sage advice? Am I looking at this all the wrong way?

I have a 5 and 6 year old boys and I struggle trying to figure out what to feed them. Well, really just the oldest one. He is soooooo picky. The younger one will try anything. So, I have trouble meal planning because I can hear the complaining from kid 1 in my head.

I actually let him help me plan the week's menus this week and frankly, my grocery bill was a lot less because of it. I guess he has cheap tastes.
He picked, pork chops, grilled cheese, burgers, and breakfast for dinner as his choices.

We can't just keep eating these over and over. So, any tips for picky eaters, and for meals that are kid friendly but healthy, and don't require me making a special meal for kids and adults each night at dinner time.

I try to do protein, veggie, fruit, and starch for dinner.
HELP!

Well, we're a month in to the new budget of $400/ week for groceries and all other expenses except monthly bills. I have to say I haven't exactly hit the target, but we've been managing to stick with it more or less. We're ending each week within $5 to $25 of the $400 mark.

At first, I was frustrated, but then I thought hey, this is still a huge improvement over our willy-nilly no budget no limit at all spending of the past year. I can already see how if we stick with it, we will be in great shape and will experience a financial turnaround within the next month or so.

So yeah. Sticking with it!

Also, I must be a weirdo because I get excited when it's the payday when we pay the mortgage. I log in a million times after I pay if waiting to see how much the balance has gone down. Do you guys do that or have I lost my mind???

Soon, we will have the house paid off!

Well, it's the end of week two and by the hair on my chin we made it. We spent $399.66. Seriously. I posted on Tuesday and thought we were flush, but this was the week of everything breaking.

Why do I feel like now that I'm pinching pennies everything is breaking?? -This week, the headlight bulb on the car went out. Thankfully, I had a spare because I bought a two pack last time, so no $ out of pocket.
-Then, the wireless router broke. Granted we had it ten years. But still. Now? So that was $50.
-Hubby is killing the budget! Last week, he spent $20 on earbuds. Then he lost them. So this week, he spent $20 more on earbuds. If this keeps up, we'll have an $80 monthly bill for earbuds!


This was also an epically low budget week for groceries, mostly because we're eating up what we have, at about $136. I'm getting ready right now to do this week's menu.


Here is what we spent.

$4, reading ipad app for DS2
$15, Redbox gift card for friend
$35, Park seed order for garden
$22, kids and friend out to breakfast/playplace
$10.28, amazon (really $50, but used $40 gift card), to replace broken glass measuring cups and moisturizer
$5.50, butterfly habitat seed order.
$88, Microcenter: new router, new earbuds (hub)
$60 movie tavern
$8 work breakfast

Aldi
$86.96

Kroger
$48.54
$16.38 (gas fill up)

$399.66

Yesterday was a no spend day. Finally! I can't remember the last time I had one of those. I practically tap-danced at bedtime.

The new $400/week budget, groceries and eating at home are going well. We have $155 left until Friday. But, I fear trouble ahead. Hubby is going out to the movie tavern with a friend tonight (it's a theater with beer and dinner service), and that is no cheap date once the beer, food, and movie tickets are calculated, and I know hubs is going to want to pay the full tab for the two of them.

And, I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow for a community service project, so that will set me back. Plus, we will need to buy milk and fill-in groceries later this week.

I also realized I'm not imagining the never-ending to do list. Last week, the toilet broke, so I had to go buy a part and fix it. (luckily an easy fix).

This week a man flagged me down to tell me one of my car headlights was out. Gah! Luckily, the last time I changed one, I bought a two pack of bulbs, so I just happened to have one in the garage. No money spent. Phew.

But still! That is the thing about owning homes and cars. It's always something. Work work work to be done!

I had a scare this morning. I went to log into one of the online savings accounts and it didn't have a record of us having an account. This is the account that holds our largest balance, north of $20k. So I freaked out.

Then I realized this WASNT the main online savings account, and we didn't have any money in this bank at all anymore. So yeah. That was my wake up call that maybe I have too many accounts, and I need to simplify. I had kept multiple credit cards, and online savings accounts so that I could shift money around for the highest interest rate or the best rewards. It's a great idea in theory. In practice, our lives are just too hectic and disorganized and simple is better.

So I consolidated our online savings accounts from three to two, and cancelled a credit card that started off with a great reward but no longer has one. The third online savings account had a balance of $722 that I had forgotten about. I closed it, and transferred that money to help me catch up on my 2014 IRA contribution shortfall.

Boy, was my heart racing when I thought I couldn't get to my cash!

Today marks the end of the first week of our new weekly budget (400/ wk for everything except bills), and the beginning of week two.

We spent $409.19. Over, but not as bad as I thought. We had a lot of unexpected little things pop up, like a last-minute birthday party, the toilet breaking, and hubby losing his earbuds, but that's life, right?

I'm feeling pretty good about the coming week. In part, because the menu is planned and the groceries purchased through Tuesday. Groceries are our biggest expense, as expected.

Here is what we'll be eating: baked chicken legs, potato soup with ham, daddy burgers, fish w/ cauliflower, meatloaf)

I'm devising my plan to make my 2014 IRA contributions out of cash flow and not savings. Hopefully something will come to me soon.

Here is what we spent this past week.
$104 Aldi, groceries
$111.27 Kroger, groceries
Grocery total: $215.27

Misc
$22.81 Lowe's-- toilet repair kit and pantry moth traps
$47.88 fancy ground coffee at Starbucks
$14, lunch at Skyline (hubby)
$8, itunes, education apps for DS ipad
$58.38, Target, for cleaners, $20 birthday present for boy in DS's class, and $8 for two lego sets on clearance for next December's toy drive, New earbuds for hubby

$5.06 lunch Wendy's (hubby)
$5.36 boxing gym, (hubby forgot his hand wraps)
$6, money for son to buy tokens for friend's Chuck E Cheese dinner
$26.43, pizza for g-ma, with the tip

Total for all: $409.19

As in, math is hard on you because when it comes to money it shows you the cold hard truth!

I got my statement and my IRA contribution totals for tax year 2014. I've put in $2685. On the surface, that doesn't seem bad, but then I realize I need to find a way to put away another $2815 before April 15.

My Jan and Feb freelance checks will total $1390, which means I still need to generate $1425. Sure, I could technically take it out of savings, but we've been dipping into reserves a lot. I'd like to minimize what I have to take out, if anything at all.

I'm hoping if we're really really good with the budget, I can fund it out of the bank account. I can also take on an extra $150 assignment in February and March, for another $300.

Why is it so hard to save once you have a mortgage and kids???? We were rolling in money before the kids came along!

Well, I don't think I'm going to make it under my new weekly $400 budget. Boo!

We're at $382. 76 and we need to make it until Friday morning. I know I'm going over because Grandma is coming to babysit the kids tomorrow and we promised to treat her to her favorite pizza for dinner. That will cost us about $30 for all of us, which would put us at $412.76.

So close!

Some of this week's budget busters:
-DS1 school pal was allowed to invite one kid to family dinner at Chuck E Cheese for his b-day, and the pal picked him. The family is low income and we love them, so I wanted to get DS1's friend a nice gift. We spent $22 on a Minecraft Lego set and two of his favorite candy bars. I am also sending DS1 with $6 for tokens for Chuck E Cheese, to share with his pal.

-Hubby decided to take himself out to lunch and spent nearly $20 on that this week. He forgot about the budget. He also forgot his hand wraps at the boxing gym and had to pay $5.36 for another set before workout time.

-$15 at Lowe's for a new toilet tank flapper because ours decided to give out this weekend and the toilet was running. Oh, the joy of home ownership.

Without those and grandma's pizza we would have made it!
The silver linings:
-We do have two Lego toys (clearance for about $8 total) for the toy drive box, a jug of laundry detergent (sale, $2.50) and a container of dish soap for our box of donations for the homeless families foundation. I may be on a budget, but I don't believe in being stingy with charity.

-My friends gave me lottery tickets for Xmas and I won $36! I'm planning to put that in my piggy bank this week, since there is no extra in the budget.

-Next week might not be so bad, as we just refilled the groceries and that should last us through the weekend.

I'm sticking to the budget because I know it will be good in the long run, but it's frustrating not to make it the first week.

Here is what we've spent money on so far this week:

$68.13 Aldi, groceries
$63.88 Kroger, groceries
$22.81 Lowe's-- toilet repair kit and pantry moth traps
$47.88 fancy ground coffee at Starbucks
$20 Target, new earbuds (hubby)
$14, lunch at Skyline (hubby)

$47.39 Kroger, groceries (plus $3.50 donations for homeless family f.)
$35.87, Aldi groceries
$8, itunes, education apps for DS ipad
$38.38, Target, for cleaners, $20 birthday present for boy in DS's class, and $8 for two lego sets on clearance for next December's toy drive

$5.06 lunch Wendy's (hubby)
$5.36 boxing gym, (hubby forgot his hand wraps)
$6, money for son to buy tokens for friend's Chuck E Cheese dinner

A lot of you are in on a weight loss challenge. I'm not sure about the details, but I've done a lot of fitness challenges and lost 18 pounds in the last two years. I wanted to share some of my weight loss motivators.

For me, it was a question of really really wanting it. As in, wanting it more than I wanted to eat that piece of cake or that second portion of dinner. But more than that, I finally found a system that worked for me.

It can be overwhelming to say, oh, I need to lose 10 pounds, or 15 pounds. It seems like so much, and you can give up because it seems impossible.

Now, I break it down into 2 pound goals. Then every day I ask myself, when it comes time to eat or to make decisions about time and exercise: Will this help me lose 2 pounds?

i.e. will eating this snack late at night help me lose that 2 pounds? No? Then no, I don't do it. Will another 5 minutes on the exercise bike, or walking to pick DS1 up from school instead of driving help me lose that 2 pounds? Yes. Decision made.

It's a simple yes or no question, but it really does makes sticking to a plan much easier. I found that diet plans and rigid exercise schedules were too overwhelming with two kids under 5 and work. This made it much easier and simpler for me.

What are your tricks?

***

Onto the money goals. I'm trying to devise a new system to motivate me to stay on track financially.

This year, I've set an ideal budget for groceries and all expenses other than bills of $400 a week. If we stick to that spending amount, extra money will build up in the bank that could then be used for savings or other things. If we stick to that, we should easily be able to stash more money in savings and fully fund my IRA, and maybe have money to spare. Plain and simple, we'd be in very good shape financially.

Last year, I got into trouble by not tracking the daily drips of money leaving the account, and we repeatedly ended up with too-large credit card bills, not enough in the bank, covering expenses with freelance checks instead of funding my IRA, etc.

With two little kids and work, life overwhelmed me. I was just getting by. But now that we're at year end, having not much to show for a whole year makes me pretty sad. I know we can do better.

Anyway, I'm tinkering with a system to keep me accountable. It does involve a piggy bank!

I plan to use cash for most of the $400/ week expenses. My plan is to put whatever cash is leftover out of that $400 at the end of each week into my piggy bank.

At the end of the year, if I'm extra thrifty, I should have a pretty decent chunk of change. This is where the motivation comes in. First, I really want to have a big chunk of 'bonus' money in the piggy bank at the end of the year, and to get it, I'm going to have to challenge myself to be thrifty every single week and to stick to my budget even when I'm tempted to let it slide.

Second, I want to stay on track with the other goals, such as the mortgage pay off and funding my IRA out of cash flow and not savings.

So, at the end of the year, I'll crack open the piggy bank. If I haven't been good at budgeting and staying on top of things, I'll have to use that chunk of money to shore up my IRA.

If I have been good, I will either
A. Use it for Xmas
B. Put it toward the mortgage- as in an extra lump sum to pay down the balance.

And if I'm feeling really smug and have had a banner year, I'll splurge on one of the three things that are on the wish list for our house.

-A set of two leather Barcelona chairs.(we need living room chairs)
-An oval, marble-topped Saarinen tulip table (we have a round one, but it isn't big enough for holiday dinners or dinner guests)
-A gallia pom pom rug for the living room. We splurged a while back on the orange and red version of this same rug for our dining room, and it is far and away the most awesome rug we own.

Here are some pics!

A lot of random things have happened.

-The first mortgage payment of 2015 posted today, and we knocked $975 off the balance. We now owe $40,206.30. Inching toward mortgage free!

-Hubby is crabby because I have the thermostat turned down to 65 (from 69) and it's either put on a sweater or fire up the wood stove. While he was gone the other day, I turned it down to 60. I told him to ask "What would Jimmy Carter do?" and that shut him up!

The kids haven't noticed, maybe because they are running around. We used to have it low like that all the time, then we had the kids, and opted to keep the house a little warmer because there were babies in the house. I guess we got used to being all soft and warm and cozy. They aren't babies anymore, so down goes the thermostat!

-My youngest decided to Hulk Smash through all of his clothes during winter break. I cleared out all the clothes that didn't fit and he only had two pairs of pants left! I ordered him three more pairs of pants on clearance through OldNavy.com, but for some reason never received a confirmation email.

Well, I go back to the Web site and for whatever reason everything was still in the cart. Something went wrong and I never checked out. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Between then and now, they added another promo, so I got ANOTHER 20 percent off of the order, in addition to the clearance prices. Maybe it was my guardian 'cheap' angel doing me a solid on that one.

-Every year for Xmas I ask my family to forgo presents and buy me seeds and fruit trees instead. They drive me bonkers because they usually ignore me because seeds and trees aren't 'fun' and buying me random things I don't really need is more 'fun.'. Ugh. I digress.

This year, my mom gave me $100 cash to buy seeds and plants, namely because the company I buy through (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) only does e-gift certificates, not cards and she didn't realize she could email it to herself them print it to give me as a gift.

Well, the cash turned out to be a big bonus, as my garden club just said if we order through them (for the same seed company!) , we get free shipping AND a 20 percent discount. Because I have cash, I can order through the club and save. So, mom just did me a favor and saved me 20 percent on the cost of seeds I was planning to order anyway. That is a bonus.

-I'm in full-blown cheap mode because money was tight last year and I didn't full fund my IRA out of my freelance checks. It just went to expenses. So, I'm trying to catch up on last year and this year with cash flow.

That means, time to eat down the pantry.

I cleaned and organized the pantry today, and I'm trying to design meals based on what we have. Using it up, so to speak. I'm going to try to keep grocery spending to a minimum this month. Home cooked, no full meals out (we will take the kids out for dessert and play date combos because I've declared I'm tired to cleaning up more just so kids can come over!)

So, this week's and early next's budget pantry meal plan:
-bean soup with ham, using leftover Xmas ham frozen in soup-size portions
-whole baked chicken and beets and home-canned applesauce
-chicken enchiladas from leftover chicken
-beef stew over mashed potatoes
-cheese-stuffed baked pasta shells
-lentil soup with jalapeno corn bread
-breakfast for dinner: frittata, bacon, pancakes or waffles with homemade blueberry syrup.

The first 529 plan contribution posted today too, so dear son one has $200 more socked away for college.

It's the start of another year, so here we go again! Our goals this year are pretty much the same as last year. Fully fund my IRA and Hubby's 401k, put aside at least $2400 a year for college for each of our two sons, pay as much off the mortgage as possible.

On the mortgage front, we'd like to at least pay off $13,681 from the balance by year's end. I just paid our first payment for 2015 this morning, so we'll see how close we are already when it posts tomorrow.

The first few months of the year, we are in recovery mode from large holiday and travel expenses. I'm planning to hunker down, pay off the credit cards before they accrue interest, and try to fully fund the IRA for 2014. I think I still have $2,000 left to put in for 2014.

Our major projects and expenses for the year (that we know of) include:
-painting the kids's room, and getting new curtains and rods
-redoing the flooring in the den. It's icky carpet now, but the original cork flooring might be under there. We won't know what condition it's in until we pull it all up

-Hopefully we'll be buying and installing a greenhouse for the garden so we can grow more fresh food year round.

We also have a lot of trips to take this year. I'm taking my mom to San Francisco because it's on her bucket list, and we have to go to Lake Tahoe for a wedding sometime during the summer.

Other than that, we're just hoping for a safe, healthy, productive year. and we wish the same for all of you!

I got the gas bill and now I have proof the new woodstove fireplace insert is saving us a little bit of money on heating.

We used it frequently in November, and our total gas usage was 40 ccf, or 1.4 per day. Last November, with similar temperatures, we used 4.2 per day. Our bill was only $51, compared to about $106 last year.

This is great, although I admit we are heating with free wood this year, from a tree we had cut down and from stumps we've gathered in the neighborhood. If we can keep up with the free wood, it seems we made a good investment. Although, really I just like sitting by a warm fire.

I finally just got around to totaling up everything we grew in the backyard veggie garden this year. The tally: 232 pounds of food!

We spent about $500 on inputs and some of those were one-time costs, such as wood for garden beds. etc., so the cost per pound grown averages $2.20. It's hard to estimate what each item would have costed, but I'll definitely keep in mind the premium for organic food, as we are all organic!

In 2014, we grew:
-68 pounds of roma tomatoes, which we turned into 42 pints of sauce

-50 pounds of apples, which is about two full 5-gallon buckets

-18 pounds of onions, which are perennial walking onions, and produced enough top sets to plant net year's crop for free

-17 pounds of lettuce. You know how light lettuce is, so wow. We donated 8 pounds of fresh greens to the food pantry as well.

-14 pounds of beets. I grew some winter keepers, but let's be honest. We eat them the minute we pick them.

-12 pounds of broccoli

-8 pounds of strawberries. We expect tons more net year, as we planted 100 more plants this season.

-8.5 pounds of adirondack blue potatoes.

-8 pounds of mulberries. I didn't grow these. They came free from my sister's tree.

-5 pounds (about 20 ears) of popcorn

-4 watermelons, New Queen and Moon and Stars, estimating 20 pounds.

-2 pounds of cucumbers, 1 pound of zucchini. We had hoped for more, but the squash bugs
ate them.

-1 pound of cayenne and jalapeno peppers.

-1/2 pound of total herbs : rosemary, mint, tarragon, and dill.

Total= 232 pounds. Nothing to sneeze at, but far short of our goal. There's always next year!

We canned:
42 pints of tomatoes
6 pints of pickles
6 half pints of mulberry jam
60 quarts plus 10 pints of applesauce (we got apples from our CSA farmer)

Given the absolute chaos that is our lives, and that for most of 2014 I felt like I was totally spiraling out of control in the finances, the kids, and my job, I'm happy to report we beat the mortgage pay down goal for the year.

Our goal was to pay the balance down to $41,500. The last payment of the year hit, and we now owe $41,181.74. We beat the goal by $319. We paid $14,846.30 off the balance, which is about $3,000 more than we would have if we'd only made minimum payments.

When figuring out what might be realistic goals for next year, I realized if we paid off as much as we paid this year, the balance would be in the $20ks by this time next year. Now that is REALLY close to pay-off!

Hazzah! I'm ecstatic. I can't wait to have this mortgage paid off!

I found this article in the Wall Street Journal and I don't now why, but it struck a chord with me. Maybe because it outlines in clear numbers what I and many other Americans have felt: we're losing ground. We don't have as much money, everything is more expensive, we haven't gotten a raise in years, and yet we're told we're out of the Great Recession. We're told inflation is low and we are all okay. Well, not so. And here are the numbers to back it up.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/americans-reallocate-their-do...

(If the link hits a paywall, just paste the title of the article into google and click on the link. You can read it then.)

*

In other news, on Friday we will be making our (most likely) last mortgage payment of the year. So I'll know by Saturday morning if we met our mortgage pay down goal for the year. I'm pretty sure we will, t;s just hard to guess by how much until the payment posts and the math is done!

I was looking back at our past yearly goals. In summer 2011, we owed about $86,000 on the house. It is amazing to me that we have managed to knock more than $40,000 off that amount. Fingers crossed we keep on cruising for three more years and get this house paid off!

*

I haven't been posting much. Life has gotten in the way. Yes, work and two little kids. But in other ways. I just completed an urban farmer mentorship program (mentoring me to be the urban farmer) so I have been very very busy with that.

It took a weird turn in November because I had to give two urban farming presentations in public. I've never been fond of public speaking, but apparently when you get me talking about plants, I turned out to be very good at it. The garden clubs both sent me nice notes. So that was unexpected!

I've also been busy editing and significantly revising my first novel. It's so close to being finished. My friend is a NYT best-selling children's author and said she will help with my book proposal when the time comes to send it out into the world to be rejected. I am so happy when I'm writing fiction, I'm hoping I can turn it into some sort of second act or career. Since my first career: journalism. Well, you've heard the news about how well THAT industry is going!

Yeah. I feel bad. It's been months since I've posted. I've just been lurking, and not posting. Sorry about that. The kids just about killed me this summer. Summer break is sooooo long, and I gave myself a cheapache by not wanting to pay the exorbitant price for summer camps.

I paid for it in sanity. The kids seem unable to entertain themselves and seem to have infinite energy to ask you constantly to do the one thing you told them they couldn't. Oh well.

DH also managed to break his ankle, so I've been essentially a single mom with three kids to take care of for the past two weeks. He can't walk, can't drive, can't unload the dishwasher. UGH!

I've also been busy with my newest garden 'club', which is really a mentor program for backyard 'farmers.' And, you know, busy with weeds. They never end.

So, the update. The garden is going mostly great. We've pulled tons of veggies out of it (will update on my sidebar garden page soon), including onions to store for winter, tons of beets, watermelons, tomatoes out the wazoo, and two full 5-gal buckets of apples. This is exciting because it was the first year our new trees produced. We also pulled 5 pounds of popcorn out of the backyard today. My proudest achievement: We grew so much lettuce/ salad greens we donated 8 pounds to the food pantry. 8 pounds of greens is A LOT!

Now, I'm on the summer canning treadmill. I've done two days of tomatoes and a day of apples so far, but I'm just getting started.

As far as goals and money, we're getting our woodstove installed next week, so we can knock that off the list. And we finally started shopping for life insurance, although have yet to pick a policy.

On top of all the kid stress this summer, I felt a lot of money stress. We just finally managed to pay the CC bill in full on one paycheck this week. We got behind because DH decided to buy me a present for one of the first times in our marriage, and it just happened to be a ridiculously expensive $2000 laptop I wasn't planning for. Then, the in-laws bullied us into taking a family vacation, so another $2,000 there.

And it felt like it just kept going. We had to two get new tires for the car. I didn't take on as much freelance because the kids were home so we didn't have the liquid cash on hand, plus my boss forgot to pay me a couple of times, so it took a while to track down my checks. STRESS STRESS!


I keep wondering when this will get easier! Despite the broken ankle, things have been calmer since DS1 started first grade. Free all-day school is the best invention ever. He loves it, I get a break and only have to take care of one kid, and I get a lot done. It's magic.

We also appear so far to be on track to meet the mortgage goal for the year. Fingers crossed!

That's about all the news. On that note, I will leave you with some garden pics!

Well, the good news is that my efforts to start clearing out clutter seem to be working. Our bedroom is pristine, and it's now nice to go in there and see nothing-- no clutter, no clothes piled up. it's relaxing!

Since it's summer, most of my life is consumed by the garden. I have a few things brewing on that front.

First, I am up to my eyeballs in salad greens. I think I must have more than 10 pounds of it in the garden waiting to be eaten. It takes a lot of greens to add up to 10 pounds! And here I planted extra thinking I wouldn't get much. Shows you what I know.

I'm happy with the way the garden is going so far, although some of my transplants are a little bit yellow and I can't figure out why.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with all of the greens. I don't think I can eat them all before they bolt and go bitter. Today, I set up a trade of 1 pound of greens for strawberry jam and dandelion jam.

The more I think about it, I love the idea of trading. I might have been bitten by the bug. A few months back, I traded several pepper seedlings for a little bit of firewood. It's like the light switch turned on and the possibilities, should I be able to develop the network of people to trade.

Anyway, we're going on vacation next week and I'm not sure the greens will last for a week until we get back. I might call a food pantry tomorrow and see if they can take some.

The other big garden news, is I've been asked by a local retailer to sell some of the luffa sponges I grow in my backyard anymore. They were looking for local scrubbers and someone I had given one to as a gift mentioned that I grew and processed them. I've spent today cleaning and cutting the last few luffas, making tags, and tagging them. I drop them off at the store tomorrow.

The proprietor has asked me how much I want for them. I don't know. Cash is nice, but I was thinking of maybe asking for trade for bags of compost. I need some of that for the garden and I'd have to buy some if I didn't trade for it. I like the idea of trading, but I'm not sure if that would come across as weird.

Any thoughts?

That's just about all that's happening here. Work work work, kids on summer vacation, and prepping to go out of town for a week.