Working the Budget & September Grocery Challenge

I haven't really spoken much about our day jobs...which I plan to stick to.  We both have day jobs in agriculture---big surprise---but let's just keep this about our crazy farm.  But all-in-all...Mondays are not our favorite.
Anyway, along with Monday came the big scary End of the Month Budget!  We use the My Total Money Makeover website to keep our dollars in check and we usually do a great job of it....usually.  This month was fantastic for our incoming end.  We were able to bring in an extra $948 this month!  And...August had an extra pay check for us this month so we were sittin' pretty for the most part.  I judged a horse show this month, got a gift certificate at work for doing a good job, Jordan got paid for feeding the calves one weekend, we got a check for the hoggies, and somehow we got a late check from a tax refund.  Good Stuff!
We did, however, go over on our gas budget.  Which didn't surprise me because of our hogs.  But now we have something to work on next month.
Which leads me to my next topic...COUPONS!  I love clipping coupons and huntin' for deals.  This month, I was going to try and make it a goal to cut our grocery budget.  One of the big categories we can directly control.  We typically spend about $300 on food.  I would like to cut that down to no more than $200 for this month.  That gives us $50 per week.  Hopefully we can make these dollars dance this month!  Wish us luck!

Family Time & Fall Preparations

Fall is by far my favorite time of year.  The weather, the scenery, campfires and county fairs!


We are 4-H advisers for our county sheep club so we are busy this week (amongst other things) getting ready to decorate the barn and welcome our 4-H'ers!  I had to paint their stall cards to put over their pens and I'm getting ready to put their names on them later this week.  Wednesday is when the barn has to be ready and Thursday is haul-in.  I hope I can get some things around to make the place look great!


Today, we went to church and out to eat with my in-laws.  We had to hurry though because today was Jordan's grandfather's 84th birthday.  We tried to eat a light lunch---splitting an entree yet somehow still ate way too much.  The birthday included cake, ice cream, and mingling with lots of family members we haven't seen in awhile.  Everyone had fun and then Grandpa had to retire to his room because he was getting a little tired.

In preparation for fall, I decided to dig out a few of our wedding decorations from last year.  I thought I could maybe see if some people would like to purchase these centerpieces I made for $5-$10 in order to make a few extra dollars.  So far I have 2 people interested but we will see if I get anymore bites.


What do you think?


Speaking of "extra dollars", we got our first check from the hogs this week too!  Deposited and allocated to a specific category.  We wanted to put half on debt and keep the other half in a farm account to pay for any other needs the hogs might have while they are with us.  Payin' down that debt!  That extra chunk took another month off of our Pay Off Date!

A Weekend of Simplicity---of sorts

                                           
 Yesterday, like today, was a beautiful morning.  We got an early start on the coop and made some definite progress.  Didn't end up getting it completed to go pick up our chickies but they will come soon enough.  We checked hogs and got ready to meet a group of friends from church for brunch.  Wow!  It was really good and their house was amazing.  Just made us think about how great it will be to someday be out of debt and overhaul our house to look that great. 

After brunch we went to the hardware store and worked on the coop some more.  My father-in-law came over to help a little bit which we were definitely thankful for.  I think right now we are slightly over our $150 budget...but I will rework the numbers later.  There might be a few boards that we can return to get the supplies to come back down.  Every penny counts!




Here is where we are right now on the coop

We had to take a break on the coop to go check ewes and move some pens around.  Didn't take a long time but we were so tired (and a little sunburnt) so we decided to call it a day on the hen house.

We are a little sad we aren't able to spend more time with the sheep lately because of this darn coop...but once it is done, it will definitely be worth it.  We already have 7 people wanting to buy eggs on a regular basis!  Those hens need to get here soon so we can try and "re-coop" the money we spent on this coop...I know lame joke....

Budget Healthy Breakfast

So what's for breakfast?  We are out of cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, and bread....But I can make pancakes!

50 Calorie Banana Cinnamon Pancakes
1.25 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 to 2 Mashed Bananas
1.25 Cups of Milk
1 tbsp Honey

Serving Size: 3-4 Pancakes
Nutrition Info- Calories: 150, Fat: 0.7 g, Carbohydrates: 30 g, Fiber: 4 g, Protein: 5.5 g

These silver dollar pancakes cost about $1.00 to make the whole batch!  We will freeze the leftovers for a quick fix later in the week but between me and Jordan 1 batch will make 5-6 servings!  I paired these pancakes up with Herbed Eggs Over Easy and Fresh Fruit.  Have a glass of milk and you're all set!

AND...this will be my last store bought egg!

Working on the Chicken house later!  Posting pictures soon...hopefully with a better camera!

Building a Chicken House for less than $150

So today starts our first day of Chicken House construction.  Jordan found some blueprints (which he conveniently made modifications to) for free.  Last night we went to Menards to find lumber.  It was going to be preeeetty pricey!  I ended up looking on Craigslist and found a guy who was selling a pile of plywood for $60.  After some negotiating, we settled on the whole thing for $45.  We did end up getting a thicker floor board and our 2X4's at Menards...along with some screws, nails, and hinges.  Spent $55 at Menards.  We are going to scavenge around for some linoleum and shingles.  So far we are at $100.  We still have $50 to spend---planning to buy some mis-tint paints at the hardware store and paint the deal too.  Here is a picture of our supplies...and our little helper!

The sheep are still breeding...but they need to get a move on so we can have lambs born by January!  Hopefully we will have some more girls marked by the end of next week. 

The pigs are still doing well.  We had one pen to fix this morning so we could move a few of them over.  That will give each pen a little more room.  A couple of the feeders are getting stuck, but Jordan reassures me that a pigs snout is stronger than I think and they will be able to figure it out.  But...we will keep an eye on things in the meantime.



Suuuuuuueeeeey! & Saving Money on Gas

Good morning!  Already back from feeding our new piggies and everyone is doing well.  Had a bad storm last night so I hoped they were able to settle into their new home despite the thunder.  There are a few cute spotted hogs that were my immediate favorite from the group but I can't tell them that :)

Later tonight we are going to work on the chicken coop.  Only 3 more days until the hens arrive!  Heading out to see the sheep later this afternoon as breeding season continues.  Can't wait until lambing!

In the meantime, my husband and I were talking about our fuel budget.  Our major cost on this hog adventure is the gas for our truck.  I proposed that if we are more aware of our travelling from day to day...and make trips to town more deliberate, we can stay in our fuel budget throughout the month.  Drive the car more than the truck, get the $0.10/gallon card from Walmart, scout out the low prices and anything else we can do to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!  Pay off that debt darn it!

Let the chaos begin!

Not sure if anyone will read this but here goes...

This our first week of farm craziness!  300 hogs are on their way today that we will be feeding out for the next 4-5 months.  The chickens will be here at the end of the week and we already work our family owned club lamb breeding business.  Not very often, but sometimes we will be helping out with our family member's feeder calves too.  Add one pony and one little Australian Shepherd named Bocephus and you get one big happy family!

My husband and I are getting ready to celebrate our ONE year anniversary and why not make married life more entertaining by adding livestock to the mix.  In the last year we have moved from opposite corners of the state, got married, bought a house, had some emergency repairs on that house, and started our amazing journey of getting out of debt!

Speaking of debt, we were fortunate enough to participate in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University this last winter and have started on the path to financial freedom!  We've never had credit card debt or anything like that but our student loans are debt enough for us!  We plan to be out of debt by our 5 Year Anniversary in 2015!  Hoping to celebrate with a 2nd honeymoon back to Yellowstone National Park.

Sooo...if you see this little chickie pulling her feathers out throughout this blog...have a laugh and keep reading because the fun is just startin'!