Let's start

 

She is pretty small since she is a hummingbird... but she sat on the fence for at least 5 minutes. I don't remember ever seeing one sit that long. I caught it because I wondered what the white spot on my fender was... her neck LOL

Hubby asked for what was coming in and going out on the budget in writing. Spread sheet was confusing him since he is always feeling exhausted... he is on blood thinners but the doctor is having him wean off so by Labor day he should be off that and start feeling less exhausted. Son2 asked for it also since he takes over if I go down. Both complained I stressed them out LOL.

I broke it down to this is for the house, this is for the maintenace of house building and barn and pump house is separate, this is for maintenace of trucks, this is gardens including things to make it easier to take care of it,this is yard (freaking moles), this is medical, this is groceries including canning supplies and eating out, this is birthday $, this is Christmas $, this is automatic savings $, this is money Hubby spent at TSC that wasn't on the buy list.... yes I wrote it exactly like that.Hubby laughed. I not only wrote this is what is coming in, and going out but what I was doing to make sure it was covered.

 BUT what caught them both was I had what we needed to have invested when we hit age of 75 to cover expenses that our social securty will not cover if we get the 30% cut they talk about. I had it broke down by amount for each month to set aside. Son2 is 42, he is retired Army with 20 yrs, has Social Security also and is working towards his next pension as he puts it.BUT even with having VA health ins. Made him think about his own.

They asked me why... I pointed out that if we don't deal with it now, we will be in crisis in 10 yrs. I really don't want that at that age.

Son 2 called Daughter 2 and 4.... they calmly said "she is her father's child, Grandpa got hit with is at 75." laughed and hung up and texted me about it.  YEP... the girls got it. Daddy nearly went broke in 2008. Lost over half his investments when he dragged his feet about moving money when his finance guy called repeatedly and asked him to come in so they could protect his money by moving it. Had to go to living on social security only. He did recover financially but worried about out living his money for the rest of his life. Thankful his house and car was paid for but he ended up only having $40 a week for groceries and I gave him plants and seeds for his garden and brought him meals for his freezer to help him. Brother took him out twice a week or brought take out. 

Brother is now 75, we talked about what he hadn't planned for... a disabled wife that is 50 (they have known for 25 yrs she was going to be disabled so I just wanted to sigh over that denial), dental work when his bridge broke,eyeglasses and medical out of pocket for his wife. Cost of groceries and rising utilities. Replacing the cars.

I have that covered except for the car.

We have the wood stove dropped propane cost of $3500.00. Hubby said he still has the timbers from E to cut and a few of the blocks of the load we got from ER sawmill. I told him we was going to be using the coal also so he thinks we have enough to go 2 years. Day wood and blocks are in barn, night wood is in the wood shed. Said he might pick up another load of blocks. That's $60.

We use oil lamps about half the time and have LED lights through entire house,pump house and barn. AC costs us $5/day running about 12 hrs as I will turn it up to 85 or off when its actually on during the day when we are outside. It's set on 80 at night and only on when the heat index is over 85. Last month it ran 5 days. So far this month it's ran 2. Hubby gets issues with heat since his heart attack due to meds.Our security light is $12/month. Our deep freezers and refrigerators costs us about $50 a month with 5 freezers and 3 refrigerators. The one refrigerator is dairy only, butter in the freezer (enough for the year) cheese, extra milk, half and half, and heavy cream and enough room for the large pot. The other is produce and then the one that is in the kitchen.

My trash pick up is the lowest for this area even though I am limited on the amount of bags and size of bag it works. English neighbor pays more for her one bag pick up from another provider.

Hubby gets a little bit of money from the plant he retired from for medical bills. I don't count on it so I have been putting the money in savings when we get reembursed.Figure we will need it for dentures or bridges. We always had to pay for our eyeglasses so that has always been in budget. He goes one year and I go the next, we both try to reuse our frames to keep it within budget.We changed dentist (I hate doing that) but actually ended up with better care and about half to cost. 

SO... Hubby asked for cost of switching to root cellars and going majority of seeds being open pollinated or heirloom. First buy will be about the same of what I spend anyways, then the price will go away as I will collect the seeds from what I am growing. We used to do that with tomatoes and squashes.  I have baskets, crates and cardboard boxes we can use to store the produce in. We have several sawmills willing to sell or give us sawdust we will need for the carrots, parsnips etc.I already use my grow cart yearly so that is the same also. Getting seed potatoes, sweet potato starts and onion sets if I don't do that myself will raise the garden cost but will even out and save us money next fall.

 I would save more than half of the grocery budget.Means more work in the kitchen making from scratch but that's fine. I also brought up I wanted to only buy dairy and a few fresh produce from Oct to March. He brought up starting that now as he saw that the green beans are almost ready, N  and the Mennonite produce stand have what ever fresh veggies we could need if ours isn't in, keep the money local with local produce.

He reminded me he was pricing soil for the new garden beds.E noticed the metal bed boxes sitting on the front porch and he smiled. Asked what I was going to be adding to the gardens... potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions. Maybe more herbs. He laughed. 

I already have got the grocery budget below what the USDA thrifty food plan says we should be spending ($493.10/month for the two of us at our age). Average  cost of our groceries is $300/month including meat. I can cut the budget to $90 a month using the local Amish and Mennonite produce stands and only buying dairy at the store. M is making vanilla ice cream weekly and we get a bit of it since we make the ice for her to do that. So that drops my dairy costs since I am not making ice cream as often.

I did specify I wanted to be full stock before starting the cut... he took a pic of the to be stocked list and went to a meeting he had for HAM radio in town. Two hours later he came home with the stuff that was on the list. Did a pit stop at Walmart for E and checked prices of what was on the list. Got flour and sugar and then went to bulk store and got oats for less than $1/ lb where it runs twice if not three times of that in the store. He also found 93/7 ground sirlon on sale in 3lbs tubes. He knew I wanted to can some ground beef as I already got the sausage I want to can. 

We are stocked except for potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions... that will be in the fall. Apples... maybe pears... I have cherries on order from Mennonite store that should be in within a week.

We decided to put the saved grocery money in savings until we have 3 months of expenses which is our goal. Right now we have 1 1/2 months there.

We will continue to pay extra on mortgage with focus of getting it paid off within next 10 yrs.Preferrable sooner. 

Have a great day. 

Prayers

Blessed be