January 28

It's been a few days between posts, but things are still going well. Today was a no spend day. A breakfast we were helping with had oodles of leftovers that we got to take home. A gallon+ of raw diced potatoes, five onions, several bags of scrambled eggs, grapes, strawberries, 2 bags of sliced & peeled bananas and several bags of sliced ham. The plan is to buy some tortillas tomorrow and make up a bunch of breakfast burritos for dh. There is probably enough for 20-30 burritos. There will be a ton of potatoes left even after the burritos, so a pot of potato soup will use up the rest. With such a big, late breakfast, we didn't even eat lunch and still are not really hungry for dinner.

I found a source of free firewood on craigslist and have been going daily to get a load or two. Nine loads so far. There is still one load left there and then I have to wait till the homeowner cuts up more of the big stuff. We exchanged phone #s and he will call when the bigger stuff is cut up. I've already brought home enough to burn for all of next winter. We need to get the splitter running, now that Ds has moved away I have to figure that out myself.

Yesterday we went out to dinner. With a coupon for a free appetizer, a gift card received for Christmas and splitting a meal, the whole thing cost about $14, tip included, with leftovers that were enjoyed today. A stop for a free coffee refill after dinner, relaxing and sharing time together, then to the grocery for a few items. Dh's deodorant was on sale for .88 combined the sale with a b1g1 coupon as well as $1 off coupon, both were free. They also had soft-soap on sale for .88. with a .40 coupon which doubled. My final cost for all three was .14. Not bad at all! There is still money on the visa gift card we got for Christmas, so there was no actual oop cost.

I found a dollar on the ground at the coffee shop, so I actually came out ahead today....hot dog!

January 23

I took a volunteer to work on the company today, we had burritos. And once again I brought half home for dh. Dd ate the chips and guacamole on the way home from school. We had soup for dinner tonight, the burrito will be dinner tomorrow.

Also stopped by the culled produce bin at the local organic foods store. I got a bin full of mostly lettuce. The chickens will get most of it, but there were some veggies we could use. Free is good!

After there, I stopped at the local grocery to check out their scratch and dent area. I got four bags of cookies & cream chex mix. Originally 2.99, marked down to .99. With coupons two were free and two were 49 cents. They also had a 9.49 Aveeno sun screen marked down to $3 and I had a $2 coupon. Dd wanted apples and they were 1.09/lb for large or 3/$1 fro the smaller ones. Smaller is better and I weighed them to see which was a better deal. Smaller was a better deal with 3 weighing about 1.25 lbs. We picked up six apples. My total for the shop was $4.09. I put it on the gift card, so my OOP was $0.00.

I spoke with a mortgage broker on Friday regarding the possibility of refinancing our loan. I thought I'd go to our current mortgage holder today to see if maybe I could work a better deal. I really prefer staying with them because 1. I would owe a $500 fee for closing out my HELOC account, not cool. It is paid off, but has to be kept open for three years to avoid the fee, its been open 14 months. 2. I get all account fees waived for savings & checking and 100 free trade/yr by keeping the mortgage with them. I have stopped by the mortgage guy's office on occasion to chat, and in doing so have become somewhat friends with him. He said he would beat the other guy's deal if I would stay with his bank. He said he would cover all costs, fees, etc and still give me the same rate. I told him to proceed. So, we locked in the rate today and will be getting paperwork tomorrow. The payment will go up, but we moved it to a 3.5% 15 yr loan rather than a 4.625% 30 yr. I still intend to pay it off in five.

I forgot to mention, I had a dental check-up Friday. I have worked out a barter with the Dentist. He was the one who initially offered. We trade hunting for dental work, its a good trade. He hunts our 40 acres and in trade gives us 4K in dental work annually after insurance. We come nowhere near using that much in dental work, but it is still a great trade.

January 21, A no-spend day

Using some of my new-found bread, raisin cinnamon bread, and my last two eggs, I made french toast for breakfast. Sausage patties and fresh squeezed OJ rounded out the meal. The hens have pretty much quit laying and I have used up my surplus. I pretty much refuse to buy eggs when I have 30 hens running around outside my back door. I added extra milk to stretch it and have enough for Sunday's breakfast as well.

Dd used up the remainder of the quart of homemade applesauce with her breakfast. I added some water and will use that to make some pancakes for breakfast tomorrow, maybe holding the french toast off for another day.

Dh and I worked on the hen boxes this afternoon. The steer somehow managed to get into the coop and messed them up. I had 15 boxes, but only two were left after Mr Steer was done. Some are beyond repair, but I have 8 that are now in good working order. Hay is too expensive right now, I cut grass clumps and used that instead. Hopefully they will start laying again. We will switch to yogurt and milk for breakfast, maybe some oatmeal and cereal for a while.

Lunch was instant potatoes topped with the remaining rib eye roast meat. Oh man, it was so delicious! I roasted some sweet peppers over the fire and we enjoyed them immensely. We ate lunch pretty late so no one was really hungry for dinner.

It was warm enough outside to open the doors today. It was good to get some fresh air in the house since dh has some cold symptoms. It got to about 56 today, not super warm, but in the sun it was nice. It actually felt warmer outside today than inside, another reason to open the doors.

The electric bill came today. I tried to hard to keep all extra lights off, etc. and it was only about $10 less than last month when ds had his friend in town and they pretty much had every light and Tv in the house on, along with the furnace and oven running often. Not sure why it didn't drop much. Also got our bill from the HOA, they increased dues again, they are now double what they were just 5 yrs ago when we moved here. :(

Dh found a Netflix movie about the 1930's. We are sitting watching it now. AMAZING the similarities to today's socio-economic situations. Global upheaval, protests in the streets, joblessness, dustbowls, etc. Ever since I can remember, I have always found that era so fascinating.

Friday, January 20, cooking ahead

Friday was another no-spend day for me, but not for dh. He went to lunch with some work friends and tossed $15 into the lunch pool. It was a cash only spot, so he had to use the ATM and was charged $1 to do so. He then stopped and got gas, $22.34 and picked up some pop and ice cream for "date night" spending $5.46.

We stayed home for date night since dh didn't feel so great. We saved more than 5.46 in gas by not going out, so I guess it worked out okay.

I also talked with a mortgage broker about refinancing our loan...again. We were at 6.25 in 2007, re-fi'd 16 months ago at 4.625 and now can get 3.5, so I told the broker to hold on till I could discuss with dh and make sure he was okay with it. I plan to go to my current mortgage holder on Monday and see if he can beat the deal the broker is offering, maybe he will want to keep my business enough to do so. But in all honesty, he will probably end up with the loan again even if he doesn't want to keep me bad enough to offer me better.

If we re-fi I believe we can pay enough extra to have it paid off in five years. Thats my goal anyhow. It means keeping a tight hold on the purse strings, but it is definitely do-able.

For dinner I made stroganoff with some of the leftover rib eye roast, I made enough for two meals. since I was cooking pasta and had hot water, I also tossed in some cheese tortellini and mixed it with some left over pasta sauce I had in the fridge, voila, dinner for another night this week. The left over pasta water went into the soup pot. So I have an extra stroganoff, a tortillini, and a few days worth of soup.

I dumpster-dived at the local health food store and brought home 15 loaves of hand crafted artisan bread. I'll give some to the cows, chickens, & dog, and some will be for us.

January 19, a no spend day, and a vet bill

Today was a no spend day. But I did receive the vet bill in the mail. And yes, there is a reason he prefers to send via mail rather than in person. The almost 50% discount if I pay within 30 days was still 343!!!! Holy cow!! ...almost literally.

So, I have to adjust numbers for next month to see where I can make some potential cuts. Oy, that was an expensive "yes", I need to learn to say no more often.

I took a friend to lunch on the company, I have budget to do that. We got burritos and I brought half of mine home for dh. So, no cooking for me tonight.

Dh got his two free Starbucks refills and we each got a free red box rental, so we rented two and watched them tonight. I'll return them tomorrow.

January 18

Dropped dd off at her preschool internship and headed back into town to do a little shopping. Stopped and filled up at the grocery gas station. had a 10 cent a gallon discount, but still paid 85.77 to fill up. I ran into the grocery to grab an ad and look around at any discounted/clearance merchandise. They didn't have anything good.

The bread store is next door to the grocery, so I stopped in for a free slice. Yay, breakfast for me! Cranberry Orange, delicious! Headed to Target to get a few coupon items and browse some other items that I had potential coupon savings for. They had some Nestle Chocolate chips on clearance for 1.28. I resisted the urge to buy 50 ;-) and just picked up 2. They had Purina One dog food on sale, reg 7.49, on sale for 5.99 and a $5 coupon, so it ended up costing .99 plus tax. Total for the shop was $4.11. I put it on the gift card, remaining balance is $21.37.

I headed to the farm store to purchase a syringe for the calf. $1.08 spent.

Then hit the other grocery, again for clearance items. They had our yogurt on clearance for $3.79. Once again, I resisted the urge and just purchased two. My total there with tax was $7.83. I used my Visa gift card, remaining balance $25.29.

I then hit the thrift and picked up a few items....nothing too exciting, a small vintage hand-held sieve for .25, several canning jars for .49 each, two vintage butter dishes for .39 each, a really nice bed spread and pillow shams for 8.99 (I don't have one for the upstairs guest bedroom), a couple of free baskets, two large food service storage containers with lids (1.89 each) and a set of heavy duty sewing needles (.89). My total for the thrift was $18.56....more than I intended to spend, but less than I would have months ago as well as for full price. Oh well, I passed up a lot of things that I wanted but didn't really need.

I found .26 today on the sidewalk outside the thrift, yay! Dh got his two refills at Starbucks.

Dinner was leftover soup and free salad greens from the culled produce bin. I threw the bones from the rib eye roast we shared with friends into the crock pot, they smell so good. They will be a nice pot of soup for next week :)

January 17, a trip to the airport

I took a couple from church to the airport this morning. Had to be at their house at 6:45 am, and it was a cold miserable morning. Eight below and 5" of snow, I would rather have stayed home. Since it was work related, I will get reimbursed for the mileage, tolls and parking. The couple gave me a $15 handshake for my help, it was nice of them, but not necessary. And I told them so. I was supposed to drop them at the curb, but they were so unfamiliar with the airport, having only flown once...in 1973, I took them to their gate and stayed till they boarded per their request.

After I left the airport, I hit Costco for a bag of Craisins. They go on sale every January and I usually buy a half dozen bags to keep us all year. They had a limit of one, so I may go back again once or twice to pick up more. Regular pice 7.79, they had a $3 instant coupon so with tax it was 5.08. Not bad for the big bag. I also got gas. $2.83/gal. I spent $33.80.

I then stopped by our friends and shoveled & swept their driveway. The grocery by their house usually has good clearance, so I dropped in to see what they had. Nothing good this time, but I did get a clamshell of strawberries and used some coupons for butter...which was on a half price sale, and a bag of chocolate milk mix.

My trip looked like this:

2 lb strawberries Reg. 4.99, Sale $3.79

2 1lb Butter Reg $9.98, Sale $4.70 $2 coupons, Final cost 2.70

1 pkg Nesquick Reg 1.19, $1 coupon, final cost $.19

Total: 16.16, my cost $6.66 for a 59% saving.

I then stopped at Walmart and used a few more coupons I had for some free items.

My Walmart trip, coupons and sale included:

18.5 oz Honey Bunches of Oats cereal $1.49

2 Family sized pillsbury brownie mixes .49 each

Shick Hydro Razer 0.00

3 Packages cookies $1.00

White out 0.00

2 rolls packing tape 0.00

1 tube toothpaste 0.00

Thermometer (for my calf) 2.96

Total With tax: $7.67

A couple from church called and said they have a gift for me. I stopped by and had a nice visit with them. They gave me a wonderful card and lavender candle. I love lavender!

The Grocery by their house has a bin they put out with culled vegetables. They had a lot of nice lettuce, celery and broccoli. I have lettuce for several days and made 2 quarts of vegetable broth.

For dinner we had more leftovers....soup, the salad greens I picked up today, and sandwiches from the deli Groupon deal.

All in all, a good day.