Saturday
Spaghetti & Meatballs, Salad, Garlic Bread
Sunday
Grilled Brats, Homemade Potato Salad, Baked Beans
Monday
Turkey Sandwiches, Potato Salad
Tuesday
Shepard's Pie, Garden Salad
Wednesday
Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Broccoli Cheese Soup
Thursday
Pork Chops, Mashed Potato Casserole, Mixed Veggies
Friday
Cheeseburger Pizza
For more menu ideas, click here.
This is the Butchering Day segment of the Old Fashioned Life series here at Farm Home Life. If you haven't read the first posts in the Old Fashioned Life series, click here to get started.
*if you are squeamish about how animals are turned into dinner, this is not the post for you. Consider yourself warned.
We raised most of our own meat on the farm. We supplemented the farm raised meat with fresh fish, game and the occasional purchase from the grocery store. Every year I can remember we butchered a hog or two in late fall. While we also butchered chickens and fresh game, the term 'butchering day' was used only for the day we butchered a hog. Butchering a hog is long, hard and grisly work. Despite this, we were always very excited as butchering day neared. We were happy to know a good share of our meat for the winter would be laid by. The whole family was thrilled with the prospect of a meal of barbecued spare ribs. Mom served barbecued ribs once a year and I remember we were all just about busting at the seems to eat this meal.
An aside:
While writing this series, I can't help but notice how many times I've written that we were so happy to know that a supply of food was safely store for our future needs. Goodness, it sounds like we never had a thing to eat! But that wasn't the case.
Growing up on our farm, each of us took a vital role in the production, preservation, storage and cooking of our food. All of us kids understood what food was, where it came from, the true cost of food- the life of an animal, the time, labor, equipment, money, it took to produce the food. We comprehended what a tremendous accomplishment it was to have most of the winter's food supply safely stored for the months when there was little income. We were proud, happy, contented, and thankful, all wrapped up in one.
Back to Hog Butchering,
Early in the morning we started preparations for butchering day. Daddy rigged up some sort of metal/wooden hoist type structure to hang the hog (will explain more later). This structure was a little taller than my dad, very sturdy and close proximity to the barnyard. Near this structure he built a fire and situated a deep metal basin a few inches above the fire. The basin was shaped much like an old kettle you would use for boiling sap out in the woods. We filled this basin/kettle about half way with water.
While the water was heating, my dad went to kill the hog. Killing the hog was a serious, solemn event. In our family we didn't kill animals for sport; we did it to eat. I usually hid upstairs and peeked out the window under the eaves.
Warning, graphic explanation below
So, How Do You Kill a Hog?
For the home producer, there are two common methods for killing a hog. One is called "sticking". Sticking involves getting in right up close to the hog (usually two people) and cutting it's throat in one fell swoop with a very sharp knife. The hog then runs for a moment and all the blood is let out. When killing any animal, it is very important to make sure there is no blood left in the meat, as it taints it. Sticking a hog is considered the best method of ensuring there is no blood in the meat. However, this method is more risky for the farmer because you have to get so close to the hog, plus the animal also doesn't die immediately. We didn't use this method.
We used the shotgun method. This was partly because it was much safer for my dad and partly because you get a more immediate kill. My dad didn't believe in killing for sport, only to eat and support the family. It was very important to Daddy that animals be killed in a manner that caused the least amount of suffering.
What Do You Do With the Hog Once It's Dead?
Hang it
Once the pig met it's fate, we hurried to get the animal strung up on the hoist as quickly as possible so we could let the blood. Basically you were looking at trying to haul 200 pounds of dead weight 6 feet up in the air. Not an easy task. My dad, mom, brothers -- usually the strongest 2 or 3 adults present would put a chain and spreader bar through the hind feet and then attempt to carry/lift/push/drag the hog close enough to the hoist so they could hoist it up to the top of the hanging structure where the animal would hang by it's hind legs.
It was very important this task be accomplished as swiftly as possible so you have enough time to let the blood before it coagulates. There are two schools of thought on the letting of blood. Some farmers preferred to do it the second the hog dropped. However this is very messy. My dad preferred to do it while the animal was hanging so the blood could be contained and disposed of rather than letting it dry on the ground.
Let the Blood and Scrape the Hide
Once the hog was strung up, my dad let the blood by swiftly making a incision in the large artery that runs through the neck. Once all the blood was drained out, we lowered the hog down and over into the boiling water 2 or 3 times to make it easier to scrape the hide. We scraped the stiff bristles off the pig's hide with long thin knives that were extremely sharp. In retrospect, we were shaving the hog -- we never called it shaving, though. The process was always referred to as 'scraping'.
Most animals (think cattle and deer) are butchered without the skin on, but hogs are butchered with the skin on, or at least we butchered them that way, so it was important the skin be clean and clear of any bristles.
Once my parents deemed me ready to work safely with a knife (which was the year I turned 8) I got to help scrape the hide. I really liked this chore; it was precise work and it was a good feeling to be able to do it well. Scraping the hog hide rated much higher on the satisfaction scale than plucking chickens because there wasn't that unusual pungent odor of wet feathers.
Gut and Cut
After all the scraping was done, the hog was cut wide open from 'stem to stern' along the belly. All the guts were cleaned out and the head was cut off and buried. Sorry, but we weren't big on using every single part of the animal. Not much about gutting an animal grosses me out like the thought of actually using some of those parts. Sometimes my dad saved the heart, liver or kidneys to explain to us kids how these organs worked.
Once the hog was gutted we left it to hang a couple of hours so it could cool. While the carcass was cooling, we had lunch. After lunch my mom and dad made sure we had all all the necessary knives and saws ready. My dad would often re-sharpen the tools just to make sure they were as sharp as possible. He was vigilant about only using sharp tools.
After Daddy deemed the hog cool enough, he proceeded to saw and slice the carcass up into portions small enough for my mother to handle. The basic smaller sections of a hog carcass are two front leg quarters, two hind leg quarters and two long sides of ribs. Most of the meat was cut down into roasts. All of the kids that could safely handle a knife were allowed to trim some of the fat. We tossed the fat into a big kettle to render the next day. We all worked right up to suppertime trimming, cutting and packaging the meat for the freezer. After an hour or so of trimming, butchering becomes tedious and you are pretty sick of seeing so much meat at one time.
It was a very long tiring day for all of us. We went to bed thinking of our good spare rib supper the next day.
How We Made Sausage
The next morning we began making sausage and rendering the fat. To make the sausage my mother ran all the meat trimmings from the previous day through our little hand cranked meat grinder into a big bowl. I loved to help feed the little pieces of meat into the grinder. That grinder was an amazing little machine! Once we had enough fat and meat Mom mixed up a portion of seasonings (sorry, can't remember what these were) and we all took turns mixing the meat and seasonings together to make sausage. We children formed the sausage into little patties. My mother wrapped meal sized portions of the sausage patties for the freezer.
How We Rendered Pig Fat into Lard
While we made the sausage the pig fat melted slowly in a kettle on the stove. Rendering pig fat into lard is a slow process. We used a big heavy kettle; usually we had two or three going at the same time. When rendering, you have to keep a close eye on the melting fat so it doesn't burn. As the fat melts down into a liquid we added more fat and kept watching and stirring and watching and stirring. Once the little bits of meat that were attached to the fat turned brown and crispy and sunk to the bottom the rendering process was done. We ladled off the liquid fat into various jars and crocks and stored them in the refrigerator. The next morning we had what's known as lard. It's pure white and doesn't taste or smell like meat at all. It has a fairly neutral odor. And, yes -- all those things you've heard about lard making ideal pie crusts is true. It really does make the flakiest pie crust, and the tenderest biscuits.
We finished up the second day with a good spare rib dinner with homemade barbecue sauce. A good end to a couple of days of hard work.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments. This next week I will be working on the final chores post, but don't have a plan yet for the next segment in this series. Please let me know if there's anything in particular you would like to read about, by leaving a comment or sending me an email.
To read more about my life growing up on an old fashioned farm, click here.
Brianna at Hearth Management has an excellent post up about cleaning the things that really make a difference to us.
Brianna writes
"1. Ask yourself if there is some task, when completed, that gives you satisfaction and motivates you to do just a little bit more in your home.
Personally, I actually have two things that fit in this category. The first is a bed that's made. I believe it's Flylady herself who points out that a bed takes up about 80% of the room. If I take sixty seconds to make my bed, I've just improved the look of my room by at least 80%. It definitely motivates me to pick up the surrounding stuff.The second is clear kitchen counters. A kitchen with cleared off counters is such a launchpad for me! For some reason, my brain interprets a clear kitchen counter as a sign of a well-ordered home, and it is so much easier for me to get on top of other things if I see those wide open spaces.
2. Ask yourself if there is some task, when left undone, that leaves you feeling debilitated.
This might sound like it's the same question, just asked in a different way. But I find that there are a couple of things that don't necessarily propel me to greater motivation when they are completed, but they definitely make me feel frozen when they aren't."
Click here to read the full post.
We all have certain areas in our home that scream "the whole house is a pig sty" if this one area isn't in order. In our house the kitchen in one of those areas. Our table and counter top tends to be clutter central. Every day we try to keep these areas neat and as clear as possible. Most of the photos you see posted here are taken on a certain spot on my counter top. There's a reason for that. Just to the right of the photo lens is where all the clutter is stacked. Pretty clever, huh?
Another area is the bedroom. We make the bed each morning and it makes a huge difference. We also do not leave any clutter on the bedroom floor. Our bedroom isn't very large and our storage options in that room are less than ideal. This means we have to be extra careful to keep our clothing, shoes, books, and whatnot as straighten up as possible. Plus it drives us both nuts to try and sleep in a messy bedroom -- all that clutter is very unsettling.
In general, things being dirty or dusty in a room bother me a whole lot less than something being cluttery or out of place. Of course it's not good to have your house be dirty so it's important to work on both the clutter and the dirt. It's just that when things are really out of place it makes me feel like that is no order to the home at all. I mean that in a very non-OCD way;)
This is a continuation of the My Old Fashioned Life series. You can begin here.
In our home everyone was expected to participate in family and farm life by doing chores. Each child, from the oldest down to the very youngest toddler was expected to be a vital, contributing member of the family by helping in whatever way they could. Looking back, I recognize we probably had a lot of responsibilities, but it never seemed that way at the time.
We children all had our favorite chores and those we didn't like so well but none of it was drudgery. This is probably due to my parents attitude about work. I honestly cannot recall either one of my parents ever whining or complaining about having to do a job. Work was just something that needed to be done whether you felt like it or not.
Many times we worked together as a family. Those were the times I liked best. Working with my parents and siblings and then taking a break to enjoy the fruits of our labor together really made me feel like I was a part of something larger than myself. It also made me feel loved, capable, competent and a valued member of the family.
I remember the summer we built the giant berry patch. First we built a large fenced area in the middle of our side yard. I helped Daddy haul logs from the woods. My sister and I took turns helping him scrape the bark off the logs. When it came time to dig the post holes, we all had more than enough turns with the post hole digger! Once the wood fencing was up, we helped mom plant the raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. We all carried water in the evenings to keep the tender new plants from drying out. Daddy carried the bigger buckets, we kids carried the smaller ones. We had a teeny-tiny pail we called the "milk pail". It didn't hold more than half a gallon. The youngest member got this pail.
Building the berry patch was one of our family's crowning achievements. We still talk of it fondly when reminiscing.
In our home we had many chores. No single chore was firmly assigned and no child ever did the whole list of chores in one day. Chores were doled out mostly when one of my parents told us to do them. Some were time and child specific -- such as each child had to give a good try at making his own bed each morning.
Please note: we were told what chore to do; not asked. And we were most certainly never begged to do a chore. That probably sounds pretty harsh to some, but in our family, that's just the way it was. I do remember one time when I was eight I attempted to whine and bawl my way out of doing the dishes. Despite my best efforts, I still ended up doing them.
Here's a list of some of the chores I grew up doing.
Oil Cast Iron Pans
We did most of our cooking in cast iron frying pans. After each washing cast iron skillets need a dab of oil smeared all over them to keep the finish nice. Remember the grease can? This is what we used. Oiling the pans was one of the chores I really liked. When I oil my cast iron pans now in my own kitchen, I am transported to that old farmhouse kitchen of my childhood.
Wash Dishes
hmmm... not one of my favorite chores, especially when doing them for a whole family. Fortunately I didn't have to do them very often
Sweep/Wash Kitchen Floor
eaaah... another lesser liked chore. Still is.
Fill Wood Box
One of my most liked chores. I felt tremendously productive and helpful when doing this chore. It is such a good feeling to have enough wood for 2 or 3 days piled as high as you can get it. It's difficult to explain, but on some level, I felt like our family was well off for having our needed heat and fuel ready for use. This might be why I'm so big on stocking up on stuff as an adult. My husband gets a kick out of this, because I love to fill the woodbox in our garage.
Gather Eggs/Wash and package
Taking care of the eggs was right the top of my favorites list. There were just a couple of drawbacks -- you could get a mean hen that would just about peck your hand off. Fortunately we didn't have too many mean hens. I strongly recommend the mean ones to become chicken 'n dumplings the next time my dad was looking to butcher a chicken. No remorse for this little murderer. I remember sitting there at the dinner table thinking how pleasant it would be to gather eggs the next morning without being tormented.
Empty the Pot
Remember the outhouse? During the potty training stage (and in a large family, there is always a kid in this stage) they use a potty chair. When you do not have a toilet in the house the pot gets emptied into the outhouse. This means bundling up in the cold and hoping desperately that you don't trip and spill the contents on yourself. This was my least favorite chore, as you might have guessed. Thankfully we all took turns, with mom (bless her heart) taking the most frequent turns.
Feed the Chickens
I liked to feed the chickens, especially the new chicks. It's hilarious to watch them eat. They are so greedy -- and cute!
Help Prepare Meals
This is where I developed a love of cooking. We didn't make many meals that didn't include some sort of fried meat and potatoes but it was fun to help.
Empty Ashes
When you heat and cook with wood you get a lot of ashes. One my chores was to empty the ash pans. Normally this wasn't too bad of a job unless it was windy. It's funny, on a farm you learn what "down wind" is very early in life. Any farm raised five year old can explain to you just how important it is to be upwind of most everything on a farm.
Take Scraps to Pigs
This ranked as one of the fun jobs. Pigs know how to show their appreciation for some scraps.
In part two of this post on chores I'll cover
Pick Up and Shuck Walnuts
Make Bed
Laundry
Help with Butchering
Castration Day (wonder what kind of Google searches I'll get on this one)
Cutting & Stacking Wood
Sewing
Gardening
Canning
Gleaning
Farm Chores
In case you missed the first installments in the My Old Fashioned Life series, click here to get started.
You don't have to be a CVS or Walgreen's addict to score great deals. Many times you can find some pretty darn good deals at your local grocery store. Our local grocery store (Meijer) has fairly good sale prices. When you combine these sales with coupons, it makes for an even better deal. Periodically, you can even get products for free or almost free.
Last week the Meijer store in my area ran Meijer brand 16oz blocks of cheese on sale for 1/2 price. I was able to stock up on several pounds of cheese for $2.35 per pound. I don't know about your area, but here in Michigan, $2.35 a pound for cheese is a rock bottom price. I froze several packages and put several in the refrigerator. The expiration is through July. It's safe to say we will eat five pounds of cheese in 4 months.
Thanks to a rebate from the Lysol company, I'm getting paid 56 cents to take home 6 cleaners. Last week Meijer ran the entire Lysol line at 1/2 off. I combined the sale prices with coupons for each item and a rebate to net 56 cents profit.
While these kinds of deals can't be had every single week, they do pop up every few weeks. The best thing I can say to help you find deals like this is to read your weekly adds carefully, watch for special sales fliers, sign up for your store's email list and sign up for emails from your favorite manufacturers. Doing this will keep you in the know for sales, coupons and rebate offers.
Monday
Pot Roast, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans
Strawberry shortcake for dessert
Tuesday
Roast Beef Sandwiches, 3 Bean Salad, Fresh Veggies with Dip
Wednesday
Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Broccoli Cheese Soup
Thursday
Almond Chicken Casserole, Garden Salad
Friday
Hawaiian Pizza
Saturday
BBQ Chicken, Baked Potatoes, Broccoli, Rolls
Sunday
Repeat of Saturday's supper
For more menu ideas click here.
Five Minutes for Mom is hosting their annual Ultimate Blog Party. What is the Ultimate Blog Party, you ask? The Ultimate Blog Party is a great way to meet new bloggers, find fabulous new blogs, and make new friends. I like to think of it as the adult version of the first day of kindergarten.
Hi, I'm Trixie. Nice to meet you and thank you so much for stopping by!
I started blogging three years ago. I loved the idea of a forum to share photos, personal stories, recipes, menus, coupons and homemaking tips. After all, I could only load my 'in-real-life' friends down with the minute details of my life for so long before they start to run away. It's much better this way with a captive audience.
My husband and I live in the beautiful state of Michigan. We live in an old white farmhouse and enjoy the beauty of nature all around our home. Our little beagle, Barney said to make sure to mention him. He loves it out here too. It's easier to pretend you are a hunting dog in the country.
New visitors will enjoy reading through some of my most popular posts and series.
How I Earned Enough $ to Buy a New Car
My Old Fashioned Life
Money Saving Tips
Works for Me
It's been wonderful to meet you! Remember to bookmark Farm Home Life, if you would like to come back. Please leave a comment or send me an email with your blog address and I'll stop by and pay you a visit.
Take Care,
Trixie
One of our favorite meals is chili. Not only is chili delicous and easy to prepare, it's also a great budget saver meal.
In our house a pot of chili typically lasts for three meals. We eat it back to back two nights in a row. As much as we both like chili, we are tired of it by the second meal. The leftovers go into the freezer for when we need a quick supper and are in the mood for chili again.
Here's the cost breakdown of a pot of chili I made last week.
1 pound ground round 1.99 (bought on sale at Meijer)
2 cans stewed tomatoes 1.10 (15oz can at Aldi's was .55)
2 cans kidney beans 1.18 (15 oz can at Aldi's was .59)
1 small can tomato paste .39
1 green pepper .63 (from a 3 pk at Aldi's for 1.89)
1 onion .25 (med onion from Meijer)
chili powder .25 (I'm totally guessing on this)
water
----------------------------------------------------------
Total cost for 3 meals worth of Chili $5.79 or $1.93 per meal
We like to eat our chili with a few extras. Here's the cost for the extras:
Cornbread (1 egg = .10 + 1/3 c milk = .10 + 1 box cornbread mix = .35)
One pan of cornbread costs $.55 and lasts us for 2 meals.
Chili Toppings
Cheddar Cheese (4 ounces = $1.00)
Sour Cream (1/2 cup = .25)
Our cost for chili toppings for 2 meals is $1.25
When you add in the toppings and cornbread, a chili meal at our house comes in at $1.40 per person.
For more great Frugal Friday tips, visit Life as Mom.
For some reason we women tend to sell themselves short when it comes to developing home improvement and repair skills. If it's dirty, noisy or involves power tools we feel intimidated. Hello!? Any mom that's changed a crying baby's diaper will find installing a toilet much easier (and quite possibly, cleaner).
Due to the line of work my husband is in, I take a lot of calls from panicked women. The furnace isn't working, the basement's flooded with something gross, there's a raccoon in the attic, the garage door won't open, the kitchen sink is leaking, the toilet's plugged... you can hear the panic in their voices. We panic because we don't know what to do. Most things that cause us to panic have a very simple solution. It just doesn't seem that way to us at the moment because we are worried about the sludge in the basement and how we will live without heat. Rest assured these things can all be taken care of quite easily in most cases. Everything ends up working out okay.
I'll admit it, I still panic once in a while myself. Last fall a tree across the road from our house fell during a storm and knocked a utility pole down. As the utility pole fell, the electrical wires and weather head running into our home were pulled right out of the house. All I could think about was how horrible it looked and figured by the size of the mess we would be without electricity the whole weekend; I'd also mentally racked up a bill in the thousands. You know what? Everything worked out okay -- within a few hours we had all the wiring replaced, and the power restored. The cost didn't even get anywhere near the thousand dollar mark.
Experience is the best teacher
My first house was termed a "fixer upper", which is a cute way real estate agents use to describe a house that should be razed and rebuilt. I had experience helping people with remodeling projects but had never done one all on my own. If my friends and family thought I was nuts for buying a fixer upper when I didn't have any real know how or tools, they were kind enough to not tell me so. I was a little nervous, but thankfully it all worked out okay.
Take a look at the floor in the two photos below. I did that. At the time I was 25 year old girl that had never worked with tile before and I installed a new kitchen and bathroom floor. At first it was a little intimidating, but once I got started it was quite easy. Once you do one home improvement or repair project, your skill level and confidence increases and before you know it, you are excited to start on the next one!
In the course of remodeling this home I did lots of things I'd never done before and didn't really have any idea how do. You know what? We can LEARN how to do the things we don't know how to do! Isn't that really exciting when you think about it? It's wonderful to know that we can learn a brand new skill just by opening a book, watching a video, researching the Internet or getting help from a friend! This is how I learned to do most of the projects I've done.
My "new" car. It's a 2005 Camry XLE with just over 18,000 miles! Last month I bought a new car (well, new to me) and paid cash for almost all of it.
I've hesitated to tell you about it because I didn't want to sound like I was bragging. But I'm finally sharing how I did it in an effort to encourage others that think a big car payment is the only way they can afford a newer, low mileage car. Please know that it is possible to buy a new car without being saddled with debt.
As entrepreneurs, my husband and I only have one source of fixed income. That income is from my outside employment in the Accounting field. Due to our variable income and the fact that in this economy, no job should be counted on as a sure thing, we need to keep a healthy savings account balance. There is a certain figure that my husband is just not comfortable having the savings account dip below. Buying a car with our savings, would've caused my husband to have a heart attack and since I would like him to hang on long enough to cut the grass this summer ;) I challenged myself to come up with creative ways to earn the money to pay for my car over the last year.
And, you know what? It's actually been a lot of fun!
I am so excited to share with you all the things I did to earn the money to *almost pay for my new car.
Before we begin, some more photos:
Here's a side view. The colour is tan. I call it "dirt". Those of you that live on a dirt road know the importance of having a dirt coloured car.
Hmmm, now that's a clever way to disguise a cup holder!
Here's how I came up with the money to buy a new-to-me Camry
1. A rather small portion of the money came from our savings.
We base our annual budget on our fixed income for the year. Any revenue above that amount is allocated to long and short term savings, investments and charity. $1500 of the car money came from these overages.
2. I got rid of a bunch of junk.
Okay, it really wasn't junk or else no one else would've wanted to pay us for it. We still have a lot of extra stuff from combining households when we married, we are also taking steps to simplify our lives in general. This means we need to rid ourselves of even more stuff.
Our cold, dark winter nights stop being "cozy" right after the holidays here in Michigan. Once winter has worn out it's welcome, having a project to work on is a helpful way to enjoy the remainder of winter. This winter's project was selling some of our stuff on Amazon, Craig's List and Ebay. I sat a goal to list at least 5 items each week. It was neat to see my PayPal account balance skyrocket, but it felt even better to clean out some clutter.
This activity brought in just over $2200. If you take this up, be prepared to spend a lot of time packaging stuff and taking it to the post office. (For more information on what we sold, please see the comment section)
3. I sold some jewelry to one of those online gold places. It's not as if I'm flush with pounds of unwanted gold (more like unwanted fat). But I did pretty well selling the old broken stuff and pieces I just plain didn't like.
Selling my gold (and some silver) netted just over $400. It was easy and the company was very legitimate (their advertisements make them seem a little shady).
4. I blogged. This was the biggest funding source for my car at $4800. Last summer I wrote that while I wasn't a big time blogger I still made enough for a very nice car payment. For the past year, I paid those nice car payments to myself in anticipation of purchasing a new vehicle. Anybody that's interested in trying this out, drop me a line and I'll share more about the companies I work with and how to get started.
5. I opened a bunch of bank accounts. With the poor economy and bank crisis, banks are jumping all over themselves to pay you to open a savings and checking account. Seriously. I'm not embarrassed to say I opened 23 accounts. (well, okay, maybe a little). When banks are willing to pay me anywhere between $50 to $250 just to open an account you don't think I'm going to say "oh, no, I couldn't possibly open an account; you keep your (the taxpayer's) money" do you?
This activity was the second largest source of funding at $3400. If you are interested in earning money this way, be sure to read your junk mail. Many of these offers come in what appears to be junk mail. Also, check your local newspapers. This week Flagstar Bank ran an ad in our local paper for a $100 to open an account. This will make 24 for me. Here are a few tips I've found helpful:
1. sign up online (I've got it down to 15 minutes)
2. set up an excel spreadsheet detailing all of the information and passwords for each account.
3. read the fine print and then read it again. keep all paperwork.
4. remember it takes anywhere from 3 to 6 months before the money is all yours
5. remember to report this income on your tax return!
*Please note, I did end up getting a 1 year note on the car, which I will attempt to pay off early. The reason for the note is this: I didn't quite save up enough to pay for the car in full -- all the time I was earning and saving this past year, I was keeping an eye out for the one car that met all of my criteria (one owner, very low miles -18,454 to be exact, pristine condition, premium trim pkg). Wouldn't you know, the car finally came along at a price well below fair market value. It was a good deal so I jumped on it. This note will be paid with a portion of blogging profits.
I hope this post has inspired you to think outside the box when it comes to earning some extra money. When you put your mind to it there are so many things a person can do to earn something extra! They don't necessarily have to be online things. I chose online activities because I could do it from home and it usually pays better for the time spent.
Do you have a skill that others are willing to pay you for? Some of the non-online things I've done in the past and still do on occasion are babysitting, selling cheesecakes, selling refurbished furniture I picked up from the curb or for dirt cheap at a yard sale, painting, yard work, house cleaning, hold a plant sale, and dog walking. Lot's of little things, but they all worked for me. If you need to earn some extra money I encourage you to take some time to think of things that you are good at -- everyone is good at something and then get busy.
Please email me (or leave a comment) if you have any questions, I may not be able to respond immediately but I will do my best to answer your questions in a day or two.
Take Care,
Trixie
The past few weeks have been pretty busy with our remodeling and tax season. Who's idea was it to combine the two, anyway? I'm attempting to finish our own return in little snippets of time in between other projects. I don't have a problem squeezing in a client's return, but somehow ours gets pushed to the back burner every year.
Brace yourself ... I would like to thank the IRS for the home office deduction. (Gasp!) It was very kind to us this year. If you have a home based business and you don't take this deduction for fear of triggering an audit; please reconsider. If you document well and don't try any funny business you won't have anything to worry about. George had a very good year business wise-- for which we are so very thankful to God. We believe wholeheartedly our provision comes from God. Sure, we use common sense and work hard, but ultimately it all comes from God.
After several grim days of rain last week, we've got temperatures in the high 50's today with sun. Oh, hello Sun! How, I've missed you. Yesterday I noticed green daffodil tips peeking out of mulch. This morning a Robin was twittering just outside the window. Spring is finally making an appearance!
This weekend my husband took the chains and snow blade off the tractor and attempted to roll the lawn. He's been itching to do that for the past several weeks. Apparently all the men in our area have been itching to work on their lawns. On the way home from the grocery store I saw 4 men out rolling their lawns. (Just wait until July when they are begging a neighbor kid to cut the grass). It's quite likely we will get a couple more good snow events before spring has it's foot all the way in the door, but for now we are having a good time pretending Spring is here.
The weather was so mild this weekend that I cracked several windows for some fresh air and hung out two loads of laundry. Crawling into a bed made up with outdoor dried sheets is an experience I eagerly wait all winter for. They still smell like the outdoors after 3 days!
This is the time of year when I start feeding a little bit of watered down fertilizer to all of our houseplants. After a couple of doses they've really perked up and started putting out new growth. Later this week, I'll take some cuttings from the Hoya, Pothos and Ivy plants. Each year at our garage sale we sell a table full of plant starts. I'm always a little surprised at how well they go over. Makes me want a greenhouse.
Even with all this nice weather, it is still way too early to be working in the garden. It's a mud pit at the moment, plus there's the more snow thing. I'm still pacifying myself by looking over the seed catalogues and making plans on paper.
One project on this week's "hope to do list" is sorting out our warmer weather clothing and making a list of any clothing/foot wear we need to replace this summer. And, maybe painting if the weather holds. Other than that I haven't got much on my to-do list this week.
What Spring projects would you like to accomplish?
Monday
Layered Baked Spaghetti, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast
Tuesday
Leftovers from Monday
Wednesday
Fish Fry Night. My husband brought home several good sized packages of fish from his recent trip to the gulf coast. We both love fresh fish, or in this case, fresh from the freezer. Once every week or two I will mix up a batch of coleslaw, pop some homemade, seasoned fries into the oven and fry up a batch of fish. So good.
Thursday
Reubens, Fresh Veggies with Ranch Dip
Friday
Cheeseburger Pizza
Saturday
On Saturday, I will whip up a big batch of chili to serve for Saturday and Sunday dinners. We like Chili topped with Sour Cream, Cheddar Cheese and crackers. Often, I'll make a pan of cornbread to go with it too.
I don't know much about our family history on my mother's side, or my dad's side for that matter. But I do have a few photos that my sister sent me several years ago from her genealogy researches.
My family on my dad's side came from Germany (formerly Prussia) in 1852. My great-great grandfather, Matthias was born in 1812 in the Kingdom of Prussia. He married in 1845. Matthias brought his family to America in 1852 an settled in Michigan. Below is a photo of the family home site.
The thought of researching all the cell phone plan options out there made my head spin. I wasn’t sure how many minutes or special features I would need. I also wasn’t ready to commit two years to an expensive plan that might not be the best fit for me. So I went with a prepaid phone.
One Saturday, I trekked down to the local Wally World and took a look at all of their prepaid cell phone options. Surprisingly, there were quite a few phones to choose from! All of the major carriers had at least 1 or 2 prepaid phones with a wide variety of modern styled phones with options, like Bluetooth capability, texting, voice mail and a camera. I ended up choosing TracFone.
I got the Motorola W376G; it has all that fancy stuff, but the only thing I’ve figured out how to do yet is make and receive phone calls. Go figure. For some people the W376G might be just a plain old, simple little phone but for somebody like me that just wants to be able to make a few calls and have voice mail access it’s perfect! Tracfone also has several cheaper models; all the way down to $9.99.
The main reason I choose the W376G is because all the talk time minutes you add to the phone are automatically doubled – for the life of the phone. The lower priced phones don’t have the double minutes feature. My phone cost $29.99 and came with 20 minutes of talk time. For $19.99 I picked up a 60 minute phone card, which doubled to 120 minutes. For an initial cost of less than $50 I have a phone with enough talk time to last through the end of July. For those of you that do a lot of talking or texting, this might not seem like a lot of minutes, but it works for me.
Not having the pressure of a 2 year contract with early termination fees and a large monthly bill for services I don’t even use is the best feature of a prepaid cell phone.
This post is a cross between two series I'm currently running, Practical Money Management and My Old Fashioned Life. My view of money and how I use it today are based largely on my childhood experiences.
As I've mentioned previously, I come from a poor farm family. My parents worked tirelessly, yet no matter how hard they worked they always seemed to be a day late and a dollar short. For lack of better words, our family was always in a "have to" position. When we needed to pay taxes, insurance, feed or a doctor bill my parents came up with some pretty creative ways to scrape up the money.
My husband is bringing home a ton of fish for our freezer tomorrow night. (Boy, am I looking forward to some delicious fish fry suppers!)
In an attempt to make sure we have enough room for all this fish, last week I made several meals based mostly on the contents of the freezer. This week will be more of the same.
This morning I put a package of Western-style pork ribs in the crock pot with some seasoning and sliced onion. Before going to bed I'll trim the fat off the ribs and coat them with bbq sauce. Tomorrow evening's dinner prep will be a cinch since it consists of popping the ribs and a dish of augratin potatoes in the oven to bake.
Actually, all of our suppers this week will be quickie meals. The sloppy joes, meatballs and chicken are all pre-cooked which makes for greatly reduced meal prep and cooking time.
Another terrific benefit from eating out of the freezer is a greatly reduced grocery bill. Yesterday I spent just under $20 and picked up the following:
1 gallon of milk
1 pt blueberries
1 pound strawberries
1 pound grapes
4 oranges
1 qt skim milk
1 pkg hot dog buns
1 pkg tortillas
2 heads of cabbage
1 head of lettuce
1 pkg of mixed bell peppers
Just for fun, I added up the cost of the meat products we will be eating this week. These items were all purchased weeks ago at the best sale prices in our area. The bbq ribs were $1.19 per pound -- the package I used today was 3#. The ground round used for the sloppy joes and meatballs was $1.99 per pound. Between the two meals, we will use 2 lbs of the ground round. The chicken breast was $1.99 per pound, we will use 1 lb between the fajitas and the pizza. The bratwursts were on a fabulous sale last week for $1.19 per package. All together our meat for the week cost $10.73. Had we purchased our meats for the week all in one trip, at the normal prices or on an "okay" sale, there's no way we could come even close to $10.73. It would be more like $20.
Monday
BBQ Ribs, Augratin Potatoes, Coleslaw
Tuesday
Sloppy Joes, Coleslaw, Mixed Vegetables
Wednesday
Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast
Thursday
Chicken Fajitas, Mexican Rice
Friday
Chicken Fajita Pizza
Saturday
Grilled Brats, Homemade Mac & Cheese, Broccoli
Michelle, who is bravely going through her own remodeling project asked for an update on ours.
I would love to show you the before photos, but then you would see just how much of a junk room the family room was before we started remodeling. Really, the room is about as junky as before we started -- including that exercise bike out in the middle of the room. Thinking all this disarray is due solely to the remodeling project makes me feel better.
This is the first step; George is tearing out the main wall between the kitchen and family room. After that was completed he took out the little half wall that's directly behind him in this photo. He also took out the goofy little door to nowhere -- look straight between the window and door to see it. 
George is mudding the little wall next to the fridge. We just couldn't have the side of our fridge hanging out in the open.
Once we took up the carpet and got down to the subfloor we found a lot of areas that could benefit from insulation. Looking at this photo closer, I realize now, this photo is from earlier this year; George put in a cold air return here. But we did do a lot of insulating! I just love the spray foam insulation that comes in a can. We are thrilled to know all this insulation will help us spend less on propane next winter.
I threw this photo in because this time of year, it seems inconceviable that we will ever have a green yard again. We can't wait to get back to our summer routine.Did you know there are blogs out there dedicated to surgery?!
I thought all blogs were written by sweet little homemakers and all they talked about was cooking, diapering babies and saving money. Obviously I need to get out more...
Anyway, back to the surgery blogs... I stumbled across one by accident tonight. It was very detailed. I am not including the link because it is way too gross. You can google one for yourself; apparently there are at least 88,000 blogs dedicated to surgery. Who knew?
One of my main life goals is to make it through a long, happy, health life with no surgery of any kind. Another goal is never have a broken bone. I've already told God about this and expressed my sincere desire for His complete cooperation.
To a surgeon, surgery is routine. Cutting into flesh and digging around someone's insides is normal to them. While reorganizing your guts, they probably even mull over what they want to order for lunch or wish the whole deal would go faster so they don't miss their Friday night movie. Routine. How dare they be so insensitive!
However, it's probably much like I feel when I tell somebody without batting an eyelash that they have a $5,000 tax bill. I'm thinking, "write your check and let's finish up". The person writing the check is experiencing an aneurysm from the shock and I'm trying to wrap things up so I can vacuum.
In this edition of the Practical Money Management Series we cover the use of credit. While my husband and I are not totally against the use of credit, we do believe in being extremely cautious when using credit.
The basis for our opinions regarding credit use stem primarily from observing our parents use of credit and our own negative experiences.
George and I grew up in families that had very limited use of credit. This is partly because credit used to be rather difficult to obtain and partly because our parents did not believe in buying things on credit. Mortgages and short-term car loans were the exceptions. Getting a loan for a home or car was a very big deal. You had to have a generous down payment and a spectacular credit history. Once our parents received a loan, paying it off as quickly as possible became a family focus.
Due to our parents' example George and I grew up thinking of cash as the only "normal" way to buy things (with the exception of a house and to some extent a vehicle). To us it seems weird that some bank will allow a person to charge up a month's worth of groceries, a vacation, movie tickets, utility bills and a closet full of clothes all on the promise to pay it back... someday. Today just about anyone and their dog can be given the privilege of charging their whole living to a credit card. Unreal.Once the first mortgage payment came due, I made it a priority to funnel all extra funds to paying of the loan. The idea of still owing on that house when I was 50 made me want to throw up. Not paying it off early was simply not an option --even when you factor in the wonderful tax deduction everyone likes to convince you that you need.
My husband's first home was also a modest home that was easily affordable on his salary. He worked so hard to pay his loan off completely and be done with the interest payments within a very short amount of time. Paying off his house early was one of the key factors that allowed my husband to quit his full-time-and-then-some job to begin his own business. What a blessing his foresight has been!
Okay, that's great for you guys, but what about those of us swimming in debt?
George and I will be the first to admit, our lives are much easier because we haven't been slaves to debt. However, lots of people are going through severe struggles due to an overwhelming debt load. The most obvious solution is to get out of debt and stay out. That's much easier to say than do, huh? Unfortunately, it's the only way. Well, either that or win the lottery.
The secret to regaining control of your financial life is to pay off the debt and most importantly, stop incurring new debt.
To put it quite simply, people have debt problems because their outgo is more than their income. A cold hard fact, that seems especially cruel when you've experienced job loss or a medical emergency.
In spite of whatever unfortunate circumstances that have caused your debt problem that are three things you can do, assuming you aren't banking on winning the lottery or cashing in on an inheritance.
1. Reduce living expenses to less than the debt payments, to allow for repayment
2. Increase your income
3. Any combination of the two.
One of the first things to do is to reduce expenses. What if you've already cut out cable, re quoted your insurance, and stopped eating out but still can't pay your bills? Well, this sounds harsh, but you will have to take a long hard look at everything you think of as a "necessity" and then find ways to reduce or eliminate those expenses.
Once we start looking at selling a car, a home, moving to a cheaper, smaller apartment in a not so nice area or buying every stitch of clothing at yard sales and thrift stores things get downright uncomfortable. Severely reducing our standard of living is an assault on our self esteem. We think we are entitled to certain things. It's hard to accept, but owing or renting a modest home in a so-so area, a car, new clothing, etc. are not something we are entitled to. We can have those things if we can afford them.
Paring down or eliminating the necessities will be the hardest step in your journey to get out of debt. Once you get started, you will begin to develop a tremendous sense of accomplishment. For once you will be in control of your money instead of the other way around.
My childhood and early adult years lacked many things we consider necessary, hot running water, an indoor bathroom, sheets and blankets for the bed (we used coats), new clothing, etc. You know what? I seldom remember those things. Life was so good; foregoing a few things that modern society deems so important wasn't a big deal at all.
When my husband was first starting his business, he didn't have socks that would stay up or a decent pair of pants. He didn't give me an engagement ring until after we married. None of that mattered. I remember feeling so incredibly blessed because my husband didn't want to start our life out together hijacked by debt.
***I'm willing to bet that just about everyone's been through a tough time or two. In an effort to encourage others, will you please take a moment to leave a comment sharing some of the things you've done to make it through a difficult time?***
One of my favorite budget saver dinners is a pot pie. Pot pie is an easy, tasty way to use up any sort of left over meat. Here's my recipe with step by step photos. Want an easier, weeknight version? Just open a jar of gravy and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables and voila! Instant Pot Pie, it works for me.
Ingredients
2 cups leftover beef, diced (using just one cup works well too)
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup peas
½ cup corn
1 rib celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1medium potato, diced
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups water
2 Tbsp Beef Bullion Base
1 2 crust pie crust
Dash of Mrs. Dash
Dash of black pepper
1 Tbsp milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assemble all ingredients. (See step 1). Blend flour into the two cups of water. Pour into a small sauce pan. Add 2 Tbsp of the beef bullion base, a dash of black pepper and a dash of Mrs. Dash and whisk. (see step 2) Bring to a boil and whisk constantly for 2 minutes to make beef gravy. Mixture should look like the step 3 photo. Pour all assembled ingredients except milk including the gravy into a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
(step 4) Line the bottom of a 10 inch round pie plate or an 8 x 8 baking dish with one of the pie crusts.(step 5) Spoon pot pie mixture into the bottom pie shell. (step 6). Top with second pie crust and pinch edges closed. Baste pie crust with the milk, (this makes for the most tender, flaky crust you can imagine). Cut a hole in the center and pop into the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.
Easy version: instead of using individual vegetables and making your own gravy, you can use a 16 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables and a 12 oz jar of beef gravy. It works just as well. This pie is also delicious when made with chicken.
Cutting my husband's hair is one of the frugal things I do to save money in our household.
At first I was a little aprehensive to start clipping away. What if I screwed up and he ended up with a huge bald spot? George didn't seem to be a bit worried.
But George kept encouraging me. I mentioned our plight to a girlfriend of mine and she shared that she'd been cutting her family's hair for years. She said she would be glad to come over and give me a lesson. After just one lesson we were in business! It was much easier than I expected and happily, there were no major goofs on my part. George loves the convenience of having his hair cut without having to make an appointment or drive into town.
In addition to the convenience, we save some dollars -- not a lot, mind you, but every little bit counts.
George usually has me cut his hair on a Saturday. The next morning during church I find myself sneaking a peak at his head now and then to see if anything is amiss and to admire my barbering skills. On those Sundays I always have to remember to remind him that if he catches me staring at him, its because I'm admiring his hair -- not because I'm thinking "you'd better listen up, this part of the sermon really pertains to you!"
