Well, I'm still fighting the fight. Things have been even more difficult as my husband lost his job about two weeks ago. He's sick on a near-daily basis (not celiac disease, gluten intolerance, food allergies, Chrone's disease or any of the million other "regular" things.. the doctors have ruled so much out that they're starting to get stumped) so I don't even know if it's going to be possible for him to get a job. Maybe something part time, if he can manage it. His health comes first. As long as I can manage to pay the bills and we can get by, I'm not going to beat him up about finding another job, although we need the money and it would be great to have...... hard times, I tell 'ya.
Hard, but not impossible. i've been watching literally every single penny and where it goes. I've stopped buying anything that's not a necessity, pretty much. We've actually SAVED money with him being unemployed, because I'm so nervous about not having money down the road for things, as winter is coming and gas bills will be high.
Oh yeah, we need a new furnace. Actually two, since it's a duplex and both the furnaces are older than me. I don't have the $$$ for it as it was an unexpected thing, but the blower motor broke. We had three different companies come out and say we need a new furnace, that even with fixing the blower motor that it won't last throug the winter, which is NOT good in this part of NY. They are running a 6 months no payments, no interest. I really don't want to do it (if I'd even get approved) beacuse I know if it's NOT paid off in time they will retroactivly add the interest, and who knows what's going to happen in th next six months. Then again, with a new furnace we might save so much on heating bills that it would be worth it. I could always put my christmas bonus towards the furnace cost and that might almost pay for it. I don't know...
Also, I've been thinking of getting a tax guy. I think we really need help and could probably save a lot of money with a professional helping us and having things work out to our benefit, as we own a duplex and I don't know if things we do to the house for our tenant are tax write offs... plus with the rent money, I know we'll have to pay tax on that, so I'm a little worried. I guess it would be a matter of finding a good tax guy who doesn't mind answering a hundred dumb questions from someone that knows nothing about taxes. I just think if we do it now when we're younger, I'd be glad in the long run that I did it...
Well, gotta go figure some stuff out, pay some bills, keep looking to a better tomorrow... I know deep down inside it's coming.
Still plugging away...
October 27th, 2007 at 03:27 pm
October 27th, 2007 at 05:00 pm 1193504432
October 27th, 2007 at 10:59 pm 1193525956
Made three food budgets- for $33, $65, and $125/week. Have set menus for each day of week ( Monday-fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch, salmon for supper) with the flexibility to use different recipes. My budgets are prioritized to food items and family needs. For the $65/week $3-pets, $3.50-home, $1-sweetener, $1.25-apples, $1.50-asparagus, $1.25 avocadoes, $.82 broccoli, $.64 carrots, $1 celery, $.50 garlic, $3 kale, $.80 mushrooms, $1.50 onions, $2 red peppers, $1 potatoes, $1.50 romaine, $3 spinach, $1 tomatoes, $3 eggs/goat cheese, $2.5 kippers/sardines, $4 salmon, $1.50 albacore, $4 chicken, $1 bacon, $6 beef, $2 turkey, $3.75 omega 3 mayonnaise/butter, $3 olive oil, $5 nuts/grains. For our gluten free/dairy free diet we do alot of cooking from scratch, sometimes using a grain mill to make flours from grains/seeds. Before I spend money on grain I make sure I have all the veggies fit in the budget first. We can get along eating rice or corn or potatoes without bread, but we can't get along without the veggies. We research allergy cookbooks and regular cookbooks to build a gfcf recipe file from which we can eat food we really enjoy.
Have some ideas about your husband's health if you are interested...
October 28th, 2007 at 04:10 am 1193544613
January 5th, 2008 at 03:00 am 1199502019
DH and I use a zero based budget as our income fluctuates wildly. There are a lot of sites that cover this, including Dave Ramsey's but here's a good site that discusses it:
http://www.gettingfinancesdone.com/blog/archives/2006/08/how-to-create-a-zero-based-budget/
and here's a zero based budget tool in Excel:
http://www.ratestate.com/news/index.php/free-budgeting-tool/
DH owns a business and although there seems to be a minimum he makes every week, some weeks are well over that. Also, I work in retail but my hours and check amounts change from period to period. For us, zero based budgeting really helps.