We’ve been busy loading and unloading hay.  It’s not a fun job but it sure beats paying feed store prices.  We’ve been lucky enough to get some good quality grass hay for $8 a bale, the same stuff goes for $14-$15 a bale at the feed store.  We also found some cattle hay for $5 a bale and our steer loves it!

I hope everyone has a safe 4th of July weekend!

In two years from now, we should be doing much better financially.  I’ll be done with my huge car payment, done with my small car payment, done with my travel trailer payment, and (I know this sounds mean but I can’t help it) we’ll be done paying child support/boarding school for my husbands daughter from his 1st marriage.  Yeah, my step-daughter goes to boarding school, her mother claims she’s “too fat” to go to regular high school, the poor girl isn’t even fat just big boned.  Besides, just how can a kid be “too fat” to go to public school?  We are stuck paying more than half the tuition for boarding school but we only have two more years to go!

In two years my credit card debt will be much lower, I’m guessing it’ll be around $25,000.  Once I get done paying all my vehicle payments and the child support I should be able to pay off the balance in less than a year.  Then I’m going to save money for an all CASH vacation!  After struggling for years with all this debt I think it’s about time we have a little fun.

In three years when we’re debt free I plan on saving money for a kitchen remodel and new flooring.   I can’t wait to get rid of that 70’s Formica counter top of mine and my carpet has been shot for years.  I plan on ripping out all carpet, except for what’s in the bedrooms and laying down either laminate or tile.  With living out in the country with lots of farm animals, lots of animal poop, dirty feet, and muddy boots, carpet does not really work for us, I need something that’s easy to clean.

I can’t imagine what it’s going to feel like to actually have some money instead of seeing it all go out every month.

Oh and I almost forgot - I’ll finally be able to get a few miniature horses!  I think they’ll come before the kitchen remodel. 

My daughter brought these home for me.  Nice ripe bananas!  I’ve been busy baking up a storm.  So far I’ve made four loaves of Hawaiian Banana Bread and two banana coconut cream pies.  Later today I plan on baking at least four batches of Banana Crumb Muffins and four loaves of regular banana bread for the freezer.  The kids are after me to make them Strawberry Banana Smoothies, so I’ll probably make them too.  Any leftover banana’s I plan on feeding to the chickens and the pigs.

I got all my credit card payments scheduled for payment online yesterday!  I just LOVE not having to stress over what the date is and what payment is due when.  I’ve eliminated about at least half of my bill paying stress by paying my credit cards online.

I thought she’d settled down and was going to attend the JC, live at home so she could go to school full time and work part time.   I was wrong or she changed her mind yet again…

Yesterday she told me she thought she’d found a room to rent in a condo.  The condo was close enough to her school that she could ride her bike.  She said it was a great bargain, only $450 a month with utilities included.  She asked me if I thought she should call the woman and ask some questions.  I told her to go for it, at the time I was thinking I had just called her bluff.

So she called “Gerry” about the condo.  This is funny.  The woman told my daughter about the room and then told her that she wouldn’t be allowed any overnight guests ever and that if she wanted to have someone over for dinner she would have to give Gerry a two week notice.  The woman told my daughter that she’d be needing three references and here’s the funny part she said she didn’t want to have to talk to my daughter if she did take the room.  There would be NO chit chat!  LOL  Then she wrapped up the conversation with, “If you are a social person then this probably isn’t the room for you.”

How crazy is that?  Gerry’s rules are far more stict than mine.  My daughter is passing on that room but is still looking for another.  Less than 30 minutes later she found another “bargain” a 2 bedroom appartment that was renting for ONLY $1,095 a month!  That doesn’t sound very affordable for someone that’s already given their two week notice at work.

On Saturday night one of my 17 year old daughter’s friends was killed in a solo crash. He crashed head on into an oak tree and died instantly. I can’t imagine the heartbreak that his poor parents must be feeling. My heart goes out to them.

Its so sad how life can change in an instant and the things that seemed so important right now really aren’t anything in the big scheme of life. The only things that really matter are the relationships we have with family and friends.

Last week I was reading Blogging Away Debt, the topic was kitchen gadgets.  She got me thinking about all the kitchen gadgets I have that I don’t use and there’s a lot.  Honestly I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought half of them.

The other day while doing some grocery shopping I came across this banana slicer and it cracked me up for some reason.  Prior to my blogging and trying to payoff this mountain of  debt, I bet I would have been a sucker and bought this little gadget.  It’s priced at an unbelievably expensive $3.99!  I can just hear the “old me” thinking what a great idea this would be for the kids to use…. Like the kids ever slice bananas and even if they did what’s wrong with using a butter knife?

I hope I’m evolving into someone that knows to avoid a dumb purchase when I see it.

Okay, I may be a little late to discover this sweet little tool you can use from your cell phone.  It’s called Google SMS and it’s free, provided you have a text messaging plan.  You can text Google at 466453 (it’s Google spelled out) and get weather reports, sports scores, movie information in your city, stock prices, postal codes, driving directions, flight information, area codes, translations, etc.

Example #1:  I want to know what the weather is like in Houston, TX so I texted “weather Houston, TX” to Google.  I got back the temp for the next 3 days and found out there is a chance of a storm all three days.  It also told me the humidity and wind.

Example #2:  I want to know where I can get pizza in Atwater, CA, so I texted “pizza Atwater CA” and got 2 text messages from Google and found out three different places I can buy pizza in Atwater.

Example #3:  I want to find out what times the movie Get Smart is playing in movie theaters in Santa Rosa, CA, so I texted “get smart santa rosa ca”.  There are a bunch of theaters there so Google sent me four text messages with the movie times for five different theaters.

How cool is that???  If you decide to use Google SMS check with your cell phone provider and make sure you have a text messaging plan, I’d hate to see anyone get an unexpectedly high bill at the end of the month.

I’m sure it’s all over the news everywhere, California has 800+ fires that were started by lighting.  I live in Northern California and the is air thick with smoke, we haven’t been able to see the sun since Saturday.  Last night when it cooled off we opened our front door to let the cool night air in and the air that blew in the house set off the smoke detector!  We ended up having to shut the door.

All this smoky air is doing a number on my already dried out nose.  My nose got so dried out, cracked and bleeding that on Tuesday out of desperation, I went to the feed store and bought bag balm - the stuff they put on the teets of dairy cows and shoved some of that up my nose.  It worked like a charm!  (I’m not a doctor so if you use bag balm use it at your own risk.)

I’ve been super busy on Monday we went and dropped off two of my girls at 4-H camp.  I’ve been down to just two kids this week, my house is extremely quiet and I’m not liking it one bit.  I really miss the girls.  Tomorrow my husband and I are picking them up and I can’t wait to hear all about camp.

My husband has been working from home all this week.  His cell phone is basically his job.  While I LOVE having him home 24/7 I’m also missing the time I used to have alone.  I guess I want it all - him home and my time alone.  Maybe this is what happens after 13 years of marriage?

I got another website/store up and running.  I’m hoping to build another in the next week or so and then submit them both to directories and search engines at the same time.  Including this blog I have 4 sites up and running and about 20 more I’d like to get going, it’s just a matter of finding the time.  So far my online earnings total about $70 and all if it was from completing surveys.

As many of you know, she graduated high school last week.  Now she thinks that since she has a high school diploma she deserves more than minimum wage.  I’ve tried to talk her out of quitting, she has seniority and her employers are willing to schedule her to work around HER schedule.  She doesn’t understand how valuable her employer being flexible with her hours will be to her when she starts college in the fall.

She’s been working as a “courtesy clerk” at our local grocery store for over a year and a half and her employers have only had good things to say about her yet they play the broke card and tell her they can’t afford to give her a 10 cent an hour raise.  With her working 30 hours a week the raise would cost them $3.00 a week.  With their inflated prices, they can more than afford to give her a raise but since we live in such a tiny town (less than 1,500) people, they know if she quits there will be at least 20 other kids lined up to take her job.

Now I’ll tell you another reason why I think she wants to quit.  I got her a job waitressing at a local breakfast - lunch type of restaurant on weekends, the place only has 10 indoor tables and about 6 outdoor tables, it’s tiny but really popular.  She started on Father’s Day.  The waitresses pool their tips and split them evenly since they all help each other out.  The owner ended up paying my daughter in CASH $51 for 3 hours of work… that’s $17 an hour!  Now I’m afraid she’s thinking she’s always going to make tips like that and get paid that much money.

I laid down rules when she printed out her two week notice, for the grocery store, last night.  If she doesn’t have the money for car insurance & gas, she won’t be driving, PERIOD!  She doesn’t turn 18 until the fall and I don’t plan on financing her driving, hell I can’t afford to finance her driving even if I wanted to.

I’m not getting paid for this, I’m just spreading a little Firefox 3 love.

This is for all the Firefox users out there.  Mozilla released Firefox 3 yesterday, so far I’m loving it.  I love how it transferred all my “favorites” over into the new version.  They are claiming there are over 15,000 improvements, it’s faster, safer and smarter than ever before.  I can’t believe they found a way to improve something I already thought was perfect.

For all those out that that don’t know what Firefox is - it’s (in my opinion) the best internet browser ever!  There are NO annoying pop ups.  Best of all it’s FREE!  You know how I love free stuff!  There are also a bunch of FREE add-ons and Firefox offers the ultimate in customization.  If you’ve never heard of Firefox, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.  Be sure to check out the over 5,000 add-ons too, you won’t believe what this internet browser is capable of doing.