Do you ever feel like you’re not making progress with your debt? This month, I’ve felt like I was treading water with our finances. But after digging deeper into the numbers, I can see that we are still improving. It’s small, but it’s in the right direction. We increased our debt payoff from 1.47% to 1.58% in a month when we took a one week family vacation (paid cash!). See the details in the chart below. So, what did we do this month to attack our debt? One. I opened a…
Month: August 2016
How to Overcome the Excuse: It Costs Too Much to Homestead.
This is part three of a four part series on why you don’t homestead (and how to bust through those excuses). If you’re OCD or just insist on reading everything in order, you can start here. Otherwise, please carry on. Today’s excuse is “It costs too much to homestead.” IT COSTS TOO MUCH. Because Ma & Pa Joad were rolling in the dough, right? No. I guess it can be expensive to homestead, but if you start with one small change at a time, do your research, and do your best to “make…
Overcoming the Excuse: I Don’t Have Time to Homestead.
This is part two of a four part series on common excuses for not homesteading. If you feel the need to read them in order, you can read PART ONE: I DON’T KNOW HOW here. Today’s excuse is I DON’T HAVE TIME to homestead. I Don’t Have Time to Homestead. Dude. I hear you. You’re busy. It’s a wonder you get all the stuff done that you do every day. And now I’m suggesting MORE?!? Yes. Yes, I am. Is homesteading important to you? If you’re homestead dreaming, stop dreaming and start doing. You’re…
Know What it Costs to Get Rid of Disgusting Head Lice?
So last week, my daycare called to inform me that I needed to come get my 19 month old kid immediately because he has head lice and he can’t come back until 24 hours after we get rid of it. Imagine your toddler, who rarely travels outside of his daycare-to-home loop, whose only visitor to our house in a month has been Grandma, has freaking head lice! I’m screaming inside my head. EWW! Get rid of it! I didn’t notice my son scratching this morning, so I thought, this must be a mistake. We just…
How to Bust Through Excuses for Not Homesteading
This is part one of a four-part series on busting through the excuses for not homesteading so you can live more sustainably. Let’s dig in. “Oh, I’d love to homestead, but I DON’T KNOW HOW.” Oh, honey. This is a terrible excuse for missing out on some real personal satisfaction. Remember when you learned to tie your shoes? At one point in your life, you did not even know how to tie your shoes. So you watched someone else do it every morning. Then you decided you WANTED TO LEARN HOW to tie…
Do Just One Easy Thing To Save $60 This Year
Do you want to save $60.00 this year? Make your own liquid laundry detergent. It’s easy, cheap and fast! You don’t need any special equipment. I’ll tell you how I wash clothes for 2.3 cents per load. There are 3 Ingredients: Borax, Washing Soda (Not Baking Soda!), and Dawn or Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid (the handwashing kind, not for dishwashers, & get the good stuff.) You can buy these on Amazon, but it’s going to be way cheaper at the Wal-Mart. Here’s the Nuts ‘N’ Bolts of how we calculated the savings. Check…
Baby Chicks on Burton Farm – August 2016
It’s Your Birthday, Little Chickens! Twelve babies were born this week (so far!) We did lose one early on, but the other baby chicks appear to be doing great. Some are pure Dominickers, but others are a mix of Dominicker and Copper Maran (Amigo). What color eggs will those chickens lay? There was a cricket in the coop, so Rocky threw it toward the mama, but it wasn’t long before one of the babies was running off with a cricket leg in its mouth. They’re a fast learning bunch, this…
Net Worth & Debt Payoff Progress through July 31, 2016
So, I’m thrilled to tell you this: We have paid off 1.47% of our debt! We have reached a full percentage point GONE. When we do this ten times, it’s 14.7% gone. I’m celebrating this small win for the following reasons: We finally STARTED tracking our money. We committed to getting out of debt completely. For each of three months, I have seen our debt decrease. I want to encourage you in your debt recovery journey. No debt load is too big to overcome. And every reduction in debt counts. You bring about what…