Making a conscious effort to get out of debt

Tax time is always an exciting time (for those getting a refund). The thing about is, that large sums of money . . . actually, any money really, makes it really hard to think clearly, LOL!!! Each year I try to work up a plan to try to prepare for the post-money trauma, that way I don't get confused and bogged down by it. Last year, we paid off, that delightful weight round our neck, mobile home. This year, we will attempt to payoff the credit cards and cancel them. New rule : "Cash on the barrel" - (Pa Ingalls was big on this). That is difficult but it means that you cannot spend more than you have and therefore are beholding to no one. It is amazing how much less you can live on as you start to pay off all these weights around your neck . . . debts. We will tackle the car and mortgage next, we'll talk more about that over next year. :)

Isn't fun how the beginning of the year is filled with so much . . . possibility :) We will still be buying and selling livestock as we have, we will have 2 Jersey milkers so 1 will be for sale and we should have piglets this spring. We will also look to increase our beef cow holdings :) So much to do, so little time. The farm did almost 4x the business than we did the first year. I am hoping to keep growing it till we don't really have to do anything else. My mom always said, go big or stay home, so I like to dream big :)

Boston Market $1 meal Deal

Not to be outdone by the Colonel, click here for this coupon and other great deals from Boston Market. :)

Kentucky Grilled Chicken Two-Piece Meal Coupon (KFC)

This coupon was talked about on Oprah. It is available for download here

Here are the Terms:
Get two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual sides and a biscuit!
Limited Time Download
Coupon download available from 9 a.m. CDT on May 5, 2009, to 9:59 p.m. CDT on May 6, 2009. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the United States from May 5, 2009 to May 19, 2009—excluding Mother's Day, May 10, 2009.

* Terms: Free offer good for two pieces of Kentucky Grilled Chicken™ (manager's choice) and two individual sides and a biscuit at participating KFC restaurants located in the Unites States, while supplies last. Limit one offer per coupon, one coupon per person during offer period. Must be redeemed in person. Not good with any other offers. No photocopied, mechanically reproduced or altered coupon accepted. Coupon cannot be sold or traded. Valid only if downloaded from UnthinKFC.com. Applicable tax extra. Void where prohibited. By downloading coupon, you agree that KFC is not responsible for any technical problems or malfunctions of computer systems, servers or printers or lost or unavailable network connections. You are limited to 4 downloads of coupon. Coupon fraud is punishable by law.

Post # 200 :)

In light of this historic event I am going to attempt to regale you with stories of my youth :) Just kidding. Things have been moving along slowly but steadily and except for the excitement of hearing coyotes last night, there is little to report. The pregnancy exhaustion should hopefully be coming to an end in the next few weeks and that should help us get life back to normal. Lord knows my house needs it. The plumber should be coming out on Saturday to assemble and install the water softener (yes I know I bought that thing months and months ago). I am really excited to see what he can do, and get a feel for what other project we might get him to tackle.

For anyone in the Wichita and surrounding areas looking for a handy man his name is Joel and he is divorced dad looking to get on his feet by starting this handy man service business. I referred him to one of the supervisors at work after hearing his story on the radio and he got rave reviews after the job he did for him.

I am hoping to do an inexpensive bathroom addition in the baby room, which will double as a birthing area, can we say whirlpool, lol ;) But seriously, it would be an excellent addition as the master bedroom does not have a bathroom at this time and the baby room is behind my closet.

The project will not be a quick one however as today is the historic day we cut up all the plastic and move to a cash basis. I am hoping to barter my way to some of the things I need and save where I can for others. We are starting the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover approach and we will be working to be debt free. If you want to join this challenge leave a comment to give yourself that accountability. I will be adding a tab (hopefully this weekend) for the debt-free goals. We can do this :)

Stewardship

The point of this blog is to be as open and real as possible about the journey from moving from city life to country life. That would not be complete if I didn't also talk about the need to be proper stewards of our resources. This lesson came with a gentle nudge this weekend when we realised that we had not adequately planned how we were going to spend the money we had. Imagine the surprise to realise we had spent every penny.

There were lots of things that were unpredictable, the more than $400 in vehicle registrations, the $200 in pig panels for the pen and the list goes on. The point is there were other areas, like trips to McDonald's or Wendy's because we didn't plan adequately for long trips, that could have been eliminated.

Thankfully we stocked up on food a little last week and on Friday we had full tanks of gas. This week will be interesting to see how we manage the resources we have. I am thankful that God gives us these gentle nudges to help rein us in and bring us back into focus of the big picture.

To say the least the tractor is out but I figure God has a plan and maybe even a better one for us. We are learning to better stewards of our resources and that is a good lesson.

Reality bites, UGH!!

I decided to start crunching number today, never a good idea when you're living out your dream btw. anyway, we decided to leave our savings intact and only spend the monies currently available - that trip to KFC is starting to haunt me :( So now I have to cut back on my plans and live in the reality. Which means I've got to save for the things I want, didn't I warn you it sucks.

So we'll be starting slower than I wanted, boooooooooooo. Looks like we'l get Lot, the bull, the pregnant heifer and a dozen chicks. We'll save and add to our FARMily (lol), after we sell the mobile home and can afford more.

The silver lining in all of this is that we are on track to close on Monday but you better keep those fingers and toes crossed and prayers flowing, just in case. :)

Oh yeah, and the lesson from all of this boys and girls is: crunch, crunch, crunch. Never let those number get away from you.

Grocery shopping for a family of 7

I should mention here that we bought a 1/4 side of beef and a 1/2 of hog with our state tax refund. This has been a tremendous blessing and savings as we paid 2.25/lb for the beef wichi included lots of premium cuts that we would othrwise have never bought. Turns out steak is a great thing if cooked right and in this house that means well done or dead as I like to call it. But I digress, this is not about juicy steaks but about the rest of the shopping.

Here is the Original order to get most of the basics and a few stock-up items (item/qty/subtotal):

1. HUGGIES wipes 1 $14.86
2. POM toilet paper 1 $17.88
3. VERYFINE fruitpunch 1 $2.42
4. SWEET ONIONS 5lbs 1 $4.88
5. CANTALOUPE 1 $1.88
6. SLICED MUSHROOMS 2 $4.94
7. POLARWARE (cooking spoons) 1 $4.76
8. PURINA puppychow 1 $18.28
9. SUNNY HILL OJ 3 $10.86
10. STRINGLESS SNAP PEAS 1 $5.48
11. STOUFFERS Lasagna 2 $19.64
12. BAKERS CHEFS Straws 1 $10.46
13. STATE FAIR Corn dogs 1 $8.83
14. BANANAS @ 3lbs each 2 $2.64
15. SEEDLESS RED GRAPES 1 $5.87
16. COLD CUPS - plastic 1 $9.28
17. HOT POCKETS 1 $12.83
18. ROMA TOMATOES 1 $5.10
19. MEMBERS MARK Pull ups 1 $21.88
20. WELCHS Grape jelly 1 $3.12
21. CLIP TOP CARROTS 1 $2.46
22. NAVEL ORANGE 1 $7.84
23. MEMBERS MARK Apple juice 1 $4.52
24. KELLOGGS Waffles 1 $8.02
25. CELERY HEARTS 1 $2.27
26. MRS BUTTERWORTH Syrup 1 $6.34

This brings us to a whopping total of $217.34 for 2 weeks. This was our first trial run at this type of ordering, the follow up orders have been modified. Here is a look at this weeks order whih includes items that we run out of this week, like ketchup.

1. VERYFINE
2. SWEET ONIONS
3. MEMBERS MARK Trash bags
4. SLICED MUSHROOMS
5. STOUFFERS
6. STATE FAIR
7. SEEDLESS RED GRAPES
8. HEINZ Ketchup
9. HOT POCKETS
10. ROMA TOMATOES
11. WELCHS Grape Jelly
12. NAVEL ORANGE
13. MEMBERSMARK Apple juice
14. KELLOGGS Waffles
15. RAINBOW Hamburger buns

The total for the above item was $177.91. Orange Juice was purchased a Dillons this week as it was on special @ $2.99 a gallon and potatoes were also on sale. This weeks was tweeked from last weeks which was tweeked from the week before or the first week shown above.