This is our wood pile. Well, one of them, green wood, four rows deep ready to dry for the summer.
Have you notice what is old is new again? People are searching for green answers to energy consumption. Folks are rediscovering solar, passive solar, and wood and wind energy. I find it utterly unbelievable that people who rolled their eyes at the way Grandma did things find themselves on a road of rediscovery.
Take wood for example. Ben and I grew up burning wood. One because it’s a great heat and two it saves money. It’s doubtful our old farmhouse would have ever been remotely warm if we would have heated with propane. Some scoffed and looked down their noses, but at sports practice it was the farm kids hard from throwing grain sacks, hay and wood around that didn’t take much conditioning.
There are draw backs to burning wood. My dad, the cowboy, thought he would kill two birds with one stone to hook up his new, very green team of work horses to the wagon and cut some wood. The horses would get their training and we would get our wood. It was an enjoyable idea at first, with the crisp air and the snow on the ground and all. Like a Norman Rockwell painting I suppose. We arrived at the dead tree place and after a few snow balls and our pecking order established again, my brothers decided they would stand on the ground and throw wood to me and I would place it in the high-walled wagon. Perfect. Perfect until Dad cussed, spit, and cranked up the old McCullough chainsaw… the “broke to death” horses spooked, took off running–lines dragging (in other words no brakes) leaving me to get a plan and fast. My plan came a little too late when the horses chose to cut through a couple of trees (not big enough for the wagon to pass through). After going over some roots sticking up and hitting the trees, our wood cutting adventure was cut short. The flip in the air was fun, but the fun ended with my head slamming into the wagon and sliding down the wood walls in a dull heap at the bottom like some kind of silly cold cartoon. The last thing I heard was “Whoa, you sons-a-somethings!”, the crack of the tongue breaking and horses heading to the house at a high rate of speed. Nothing like a long walk back to the barn (picking up pieces of harness) to think about what we might do different next time.
Hey, I have an idea, maybe we shouldn’t cut wood anymore…
I vowed then I wouldn’t burn wood ever again. That idea lasted all the way to Washington DC (where I met Ben) and back to the Midwest where we would set up our first home. Come to find out, winters are long and cold in Kansas, and if you live in an aging sometimes drafty house on a single income propane can be pricey. “Maybe burning wood wouldn’t be so bad,” I thought while I turned the thermostat down to 55 for the night. Now, a few years later and some killer biceps I say… wood is good. I can split and stack with the best of them, so can the kids.
Is the turn in the economy causing you to look for alternative energy?
Simply,
Sis
Tags: alternative energy, burning wood, humor, save money on heating bills, wood heat, wood stoves
I look around and see a lot of people hurting financially. I hate that. Some have lost their jobs, others have made a financial mess for themselves and both are in fear of what the future holds. (The future may be really scary if we don’t get the capitalist killers out of OUR White House and other government positions.) At any rate, here we are. We need to skinny-up and get our own house in order before sending money to another person’s house.
The first step in getting your financial life in line is taking care of what Dave Ramsey calls the four walls: housing (including utilities), food, transportation and clothing.
Housing. Whether you own or rent your housing shouldn’t be more than 25% of your take home pay. If it’s more than that you should consider selling or looking for a cheaper place to rent.
Food. We have to eat don’t we? But if you’re in a financial mess beans and rice is what’s for dinner until your finances turn around. While getting out of debt our family of four spent $400/month on food and household needs (toiletries, light bulbs etc…). We budget for $500/month, now, but eat out a couple times a month for a special treat. To save money we shop at Aldis, grow a garden, buy meat and eggs from local producers, cook from scratch and always, always, always make a menu and shop from a list. (Just ask my kids what happens if your requests don’t make the list…probably go without until the next big shopping trip.)
Transportation. Dave Ramsey says all of your cars, trucks, boats, four wheeler’s value shouldn’t add up to more than 50% of your yearly gross income. So if you make 50K/year your total value (what they are worth today– not what you paid for them) shouldn’t be more than $25K. If you have more than 50% you have too much invested in items whose value drops like a rock. If you’re make a couple of huge car payments, getting into cheaper cars would free up a lot of cash and get you back on track quicker. (We sold our brand new truck when getting out of debt. The best thing we ever did.)
Clothing. I’ve seen very few people running around naked. The ones I have seen were being chased by cops. So it’s not just a hunch, you probably have enough clothes to get by on until you are out of your financial mess. If not, or if you have kids that tend to grow regardless of what your bank statement says…shop garage sales and used clothing stores to save big. (I just found two pairs of GAP jeans, a pair of Cruel Girl jeans and three new shirts for me at Salvation Army and paid less than $20 for all of them.) Good deals are around every corner if you look.
With the money left over you should pay off your debts smallest to largest until the money is gone. If you’re getting a tax return or some windfall don’t forget to get $1000 in the bank for an emergency fund. And cut up your credit cards for goodness sake, they are nothing but trouble.
You can do this. The hardest part is making up your mind to change.
Simply,
Sis
So. I was looking through old photos to update our photo wall and came across this one…
Pitiful, ain’t it? It made me laugh outloud. It’s of W and Barney after an afternoon in our mud hole out back. (Swimming pool is what they called it.) When Ben saw it he said started filling in the thought bubbles. I tag-teamed…and it went something like this…
Skeeter (in the welding hat aka Barney): “Yeah, I can fix yer truck fer ya. Pull it round back there, I’ll have a look-see! That’s my brother, Ed. Good ole boy–strong as an ox. He can jest pick yer ole truck up and set it down on them blocks over there ch-yonder… You want a grape Nehi? I have one them yernins fer one…I’ll go fetch us a couple…”
*sphnicker sphnicker*
Here in Mayberry we don’t have much to do, but make fun of our offspring. Once it thaws we can head back down to the creek and git back to frog giggin’. Till then we”ll just pick banjos, pick our teeth and pick on the kids.
I really need to get out more. What are you doing till the ground thaws out enough to garden?
Simply,
Sis
Tags: funny, humor, skeeter and ed
(Thanks to BlogHer Pic App for this photo that makes me want to throw-up.)
It’s tax time, ie: pay more time if you’re a overachieving small business owner or it’s get back more than you paid in for others. How fair is that?
Our tax system is broken. It unfairly taxes the high income earners (a lot of which employ most everyone else) and lets those that make $250K or less basically skate. Give me a break. Marlin the millionaire thinks we should have a flat tax, say 10%. He says if it’s good enough for God, it’s good enough for government. I love it. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t get a tax return and hasn’t for years.
I find it interesting what people choose to spend their money on. According to cch.com 41% people will pay bills, 41% will save it, 15% will spend it and 3% don’t know. How can you not know? Anyway.
Since tax returns are mostly other people’s money (most returns boast more money than paid in) maybe they should be spent responsibly. Isn’t that what we want our politicians to do with our money? What if everyone who got a tax return used $1000 to start a baby emergency fund, (remember emergency funds should be 3-6 months of expenses used for true emergencies) then with the balance they started paying off their debts smallest to largest until the money is gone?
What if everyone woke up fiscally responsible? We wouldn’t be in massive debt to China, there would be happier marriages, politicians would be laying down with the people (lion with the lambs), pigs would be flying and hell would be freezing over. I’m afraid even that wouldn’t wake us up as a nation. Maybe when the people of China call in our debt and folks in India take all our jobs and we are eating rice for every meal– we’ll have a light bulb moment (not the Al Gore kind) and want to do something about it. But by then it will be too late.
Got returns?
Got ideas on how to spend them?
Simply,
Sis
Tags: don't bite the hand that feeds you, emergency funds, saving money, tax return ideas, tax returns, taxes, unfair taxation
