The Chicks are Here!

The chicks, though 3 days late, finally got to Tractor Supply Company on Wednesday!  Luckily, Todd had the day off, and by the time TSC got their shipment in, they had 30 assorted laying pullets.  I asked Todd to rush down there and get 5 (because I was told that that was how many is required by law in Ohio.) 

When Todd got there, he found out that, by law, you have to get 6, he got an extra one.  Each chick was $2.49.

So far, these are these are the expenses from the chicks:

$8.51   – chick food (25 lb bag)

$1.50   – two sturdy plant trays to make home-made feeder and water dish

$14.94 – price for 6 chicks

$24.95 Total cost of chicks at one week old

The Rubbermaid container is something we had empty around the house.  The heat lamp is something we bought for Squiggy to keep him warm in his house outside. I got the shredded paper from work.  The feeder and water dish are used plastic tubs with holes drilled in them to dispense food and water.  One has a screw through the bottom, the other is glued to the plastic plant tray.

I will keep a running total of how much the chickens cost us.  We will need to change their food to laying food within 10 weeks.  I hope they go through the bag in that time.  I hate wasting food.  I will supplement their food with oatmeal.  Once the 10 weeks is up, we have to provide them with laying feed.  So, there are more costs involved with the chickens.  Not to mention Todd is still contemplating how he’d like to make the hen-house.  We are trying to get what we can from Freecycle so that it costs us little to nothing to make.  We will find out in the next 10-12 weeks!

**NOTE: We lost 2 of them within the first 36 hours. L We are down to 4 chicks.  I am hoping we don’t lose any more. 

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures of the chicks.

Chick Names

Chick Names

I told my niece, Natalie (almost 5,) several months ago that Todd and I would be getting chicks in the Spring.  She is so smart, she remembered and is so excited for us to get them.  I decided that instead of me naming them some silly name that I’d let Natalie pick them out. 

She had these names picked out about 2 weeks before we even got the chicks.  Here goes:

Jaxx (after her favorite person in the world, my nephew, Jacksyn)

Jill

Lilly

Alyssa

Amanda

I have NO IDEA where these names came from.  I know there is an Alyssa in her class, but I’m not sure where the rest came from.

My friend and co-worker, Sharron, wants us to name them:

Hewey (sp?)

Dewey

Lewey (sp?)

Donald

Daffy

I told her those are duck names, and males at that...but she didn’t care.  I like her names too.

Me, I would have named them:

Chick

A

Dee (so I could say, c’mere Chick-a-dee!)

Tweetle Dee (get it? Tweet-le)

Tweetle Dummy

Oh my, it’s already an adventure, and we have a few days to go before we buy them.  Fun times!

Ice Storm

Last Monday, in NorthEast Ohio, we had a horrible ice storm.  It rained and then it froze, leaving roads extremely slick (especially the back roads I take to and from work) but the trees absolutely beautiful.  Because it is dark when I get home from work, I took our new camera (that we got for FREE using SB's and a gift card from my Uncle) to work to take some pictures of how beautiful the ice made things. 

There is a bush outside the front door that was completely covered in ice, and I thought it was absolutely beautiful.  Here it is: 

Here are some of the ice-covered trees in the front of the building:

The Average Car Payment in America is $484

Dave Ramsey quotes that the average car payment in America is $484, and if invested (from the age of 25 to 65 at 12% interest,) over the life of owning cars, you would have $5.6M in retirement. “HOPE YOU LIKE YOUR CAR!” (as Dave always says after he provides this statistic.)

This statistic amazes me.  I think, “Who in the world would assume a $400+ car note?”  I know I never would.  Heck, this is more than our mortgage payment (on a 15 year mortgage!)

I think about the cars I’ve purchased in my lifetime; three of them to be exact.

Car #1 – 1979 Ford LTD

This was my first car from my parents.  The vehicle was older than I was, but it got me from A to B.  I used to call it my pimp-mobile.  This car was LOADED with power everything, leather seats and was a low-rider.  It had less than 50,000 miles on it, but it was a tanker.  It was also a gas guzzler, but I remember the first fill-up.  My mom said she’d pay for the first fill-up, but after that, it was my responsibility.  That was when gas was $0.99/gallon back in 1997. 

Car #2 – 1991 Chevy Cavalier RS

2 door, fuel efficient (ANYTHING is more fuel efficient than the LTD,) candy-apply red and sporty.  I loved this car; however, it was a downgrade.  I had to crank the windows myself, and it didn’t even have rear defrost. I paid $3,500 for this vehicle the first week in college with the help of my mom’s signature.  I paid the car off within a year and a half.  The payments were in the low $100 range.  I drove the car about 2 years after it was paid off, and then I got into a car accident.  I used the money I got from insurance ($1200 which was the value of the car) and saved it to put down on a NEW car when I graduated from college in a few months.

Car #3 – 2002 Mazda Protégé

I purchased this car brand new within months of graduating and just a week after I got my first job out of college.  I was making $27,500 and had a letter from my employer (I am still employed with said employer) and I bought a $16,000 vehicle.  What was I thinking?!?  With $4,000 down from money from graduation and the money from the accident, the loan was $12,000 over 5 years at 0% interest.  This was a nice, sporty, jet black vehicle with all the bells and whistles.  I racked up over 85,000 miles on this vehicle with 3 ½ years.  The vehicle, though had no mechanical problems, had a lot of issues with the brakes and tires.  The tires on this vehicle were high-performance tires which did AWFUL in the snow and were uber expensive!  It felt like I needed new tires every year on this vehicle (at $500/set!) and I was getting new brakes & rotars every year (another several hundred dollars.)  I was just sick of the car within 3 ½ years.  Which leads me to…

Car#4 – Bianca! 2007 Toyota Yaris

I still owed money on my Protégé, but I was not under water.  The dealership agreed to pay off the Protégé, and I bought Bianca brand new in August 2006.  She was one of three Yaris’ on the lot that the dealership got in just weeks before.  Todd and I agreed that I was going to get a car that was fuel efficient, inexpensive, and reliable.  I didn’t need 4 doors (after all, I had a 4-door with my Protégé and no one ever rode in the back!) I really did not like the way Bianca looked.  I test drove Bianca and a 4-door Yaris.  I then told the Salesman that we would have to talk it over. 

Todd and I went to dinner and weighed the pros and cons.  It would have been $1500 more to get the 4-door, and it was plane Jane.  Todd reminded me that we wanted the cheapest, most fuel efficient and reliable, and Bianca was it.  So we went back to the lot after dinner, and I fell in love with Bianca.  I called the dealership the next day to buy the vehicle.  It was less than $12,000.  The payments were $215/month for 48 months.  Of course, it was paid off well before then.

My point is, I cannot imagine spending $400+ for a car loan.  I know my step-father has a $650+/month lease payment on his Toyota Highlander.  My mom had a $500/month lease payment on her 2-seater sports car that she drove 4 months out of the year! On TOP of the $200/month car she drove in the winter!  My father’s Acura TL is $450/month.  Before that, he owed on his Toyota Tundra.  My father does not agree with leasing (as he calls it, “renting” a vehicle, they buy them with payments…which to me, is just as bad.)

My father and his wife ALWAYS owe on a vehicle.  My dad takes immaculate care of his vehicles, and they rarely have mechanical problems.  That is probably also because they get new ones every 5 years.  My dad got his new truck.  After they were done paying off the truck, they got his wife a new Acura.  In a few more years, it will be time for my dad to get a new truck. 

I would much rather have $5.6M in the bank for retirement than owe ANYTHING on a vehicle.  Even if that means we keep our vehicles until the wheels fall off (which is what I’d like to do with Bianca.)  I look FORWARD to seeing her hit 250,000 miles, and even possibly 500,000 miles!

Luckily, I have a husband who enjoys looking and researching vehicles, but does not see it necessary to get a new one every 3-5 years.  He absolutely loves his Kia Rondo (I still think it looks like a mini-van. And I don’t like mini-vans.)  We both are content with what we have and want nothing more.  I think that’s what’s important.  I don’t WANT to keep up with the Joneses.  I don’t even LIKE the Joneses! But then again, I’m WEIRD.

Making Expensive Gifts More Cost-Effective

For Christmas, my mother bought Todd and me a Keurig instant-brew coffee/tea machine. We use it quite often (at LEAST twice a day.)  Upon receiving it, we noticed how expensive the K-cups are to purchase; anywhere from $0.50/cup to $1+.  I wasn’t willing to spend that kind of money on coffee.  Coffee, though I enjoy it, is not that important to me.

For my birthday earlier this month, Todd bought me something that goes into the Keurig machine that enables me to use regular coffee (and keeps the K-cups out of the landfills.) 

If I use the apparatus more than 50 times, it pays for itself in savings versus the K-cups.  Also, for my birthday, my friend from work bought me several different flavors of coffee (free to me.) 

I have been using the new apparatus from Todd consistently, and I’ve found that if I leave the do-hickey out after brewing a couple of cups of coffee in the morning before work, the coffee dries, and I can use the same coffee grounds for the entire week. This saves us quite a bit of money.  After the grounds lose their flavor, they go in a jar that I will sprinkle into our raspberry bushes and garden to help fertilize our plants. 

As a “just because” gift, Todd bought me a box of K-cups while he was out at WalMart last week.  I have found that I can use the same K-cup of coffee at LEAST 4 times before the flavor goes away.  So, a $0.50 K-cup (my husband is a bargain shopper,) really only costs us $0.125/cup of coffee because I can use it over and over again. 

These are just little ways we can enjoy the nice, frivolous gift my mom gave us without spending a whole lot of money!

Pleasant Surprise

Todd found a little Bible carrier that I had from many many years ago.  I’m so glad he found it, because I have been wondering where it had gone.  I lost in when we moved into the house (4 years ago!)  

I opened up the Bible carrier and there were two Bibles in it.  It appears that I bought one of them myself (it was a student Bible,) and one was from a friend I had in England, Adam.  Adam is a man I met online back in the mid 90’s and we became pretty darn good friends.  He became a Christian and was spreading the Word by sending his teenage friend her first Bible.  The reason I know it was from Adam is because he wrote something in the front of the book.  When I read it, I smiled and it brought back all the fun Adam and I had chatting online and he even called once in a while to chat.  I adored his English accent.

I was looking through some of the verses I had highlighted in my student Bible when I came across a note.  It was hand-written and it said, “I {heart} You!  ~ Mom”  I instantly smiled and my evening was brighter. 

My mom wrote this little note and hid it in my Bible when I went on a missions trip to Myrtle Beach in 1997 with friends from my church.  My mom also wrote me a card telling me how proud she was of me and how much she loved me.  This was through a REALLY rough time for us due to the divorce.  I also remember that she secretly packed Twizzlers (my favorite snack) for me to snack on while on the week-long trip in Myrtle Beach.

It’s amazing how many good memories I have forgotten about, and how great they feel when they are revealed again.  It is so much fun recalling all of the great memories, and the unforgettable trip I had in Myrtle Beach.

The Chicks are Coming! The Chicks are Coming!

I have been annoying the cashiers at Tractor Supply for over a month asking about when the chicks will be in.  I am so anal about it because this is the first time we have done this.  I have called at least once a week (sometimes twice) for the past month and a half.

On Thursday morning, I called in the morning as I usually do, and was not satisfied with the answer.  The cashiers don’t even CHECK to see if anyone is aware of when the chicks are coming in.  They try to get me off the phone as soon as possible, and that ticks me off.  If they gave me a definite date (or even range,) I wouldn’t be calling them every several days. 

I decided to call again on Thursday evening, and I am so glad I did!  I talked to a guy named Christian.  I asked him questions about the chicks and he said they received an email the day before that the chicks would be in within 5 days, or on Monday, February 28^th!  I got an answer out of someone!  I was so happy and excited!  He then went on to tell me the breeds they will have, the cost, and he just kept going on and on about it.  He eased my mind knowing that TSC will have them for 2-3 weeks.  Everyone else made it sound as if they get 50 chicks and once they are gone (that day,) they are done.  NOT THE CASE!  Christian also informed me that we cannot buy only 3.  It is state law that we have to get at least 5 because they are flocking animals.  I am perfectly happy with that; Todd…well, he could do without them altogether.

Christian also opened up telling me that they call him the “chicken guy” at TSC because he owns and raises them himself, so he is very educated about them and the breeds.  I told him I was interested in the Rhode Island Reds, and he stated that they are beautiful birds, but they don’t start laying until their 6^th month.  The Golden ??? breed lays within 4 months. 

He was just a wealth of information.

Now…we are just waiting for the chicks to come in! 

BTW: They cost between $2.50 - $3.50/chick.  Assuming they start to lay within 4-6 months, the chicks would pay themselves off within 12 eggs each.  The food is $7.99 for a 25 lb bag.  How much of a 25 lb bag can 5 chickens eat?  Not that much.  So, to everyone who says that it is more expensive to raise chickens, I think they may be wrong.  But…I guess we’ll find out first-hand!  I am going to keep track of everything and will report in to let everyone know about the costs of raising these chickens. 

So far, our expenses have been: $8.51 for chick food.

Garden

I keep seeing posts about gardens, and it makes me long for Spring, when I can start planting this year's abundance.  I realized that I had absolutely NO pictures of our garden on the blog.  So, this is last year's garden.  Todd made the fence in Squiggy's fenced in area.  The fence was FREE to make.  It was oak pieces of wood that was used with skids from work.  It is hard wood, and piggy-proof. We got a truckload of dirt to make the mounds, so that wasnt cheap, but over the years, it will definitely pay itself off.  This year, we need to get more gravel for the paths in between the mounds.  I will also be adding more dirt around the outside part of the garden to plant more items.  There was just too much unused room last year on the edges.

So, here goes.
These pictures were taken the last week of May 2010 and June 1st 2010.

Garden

Inside Garden

Seeds have been planted (greenbeans are what have sprouted!)

June 1st : everything is growing!

Greenbeans (bush beans)

Zukes - flowered alot, but I had to polinate them to get them to grow mid-season

My first cuke plant ever.  We will have many more this year. 

  

Red Raspberries - started out as just a few canes.  Now, they are taking over the world! :-)  Yeah right. I wish.

Potted blueberry.  1st season of having the plant.

The potted strawberries.  I killed them by not fertilizing (this is their second year in these pots) or watering.  Will do better this year, I promise.

Some of the produce

There you have it.

No, onto this season's garden! :-)

We Are "Weird" as Dave Ramsey Puts It

My husband gets made fun of at work for some of the things we do to save money.   They include movies, videos, eating out, heating the home, home-repairs, vehicles, etc.  It’s funny, because people cant imagine living like we live (planning where our money goes,) and I cant imagine living as they live (NOT giving every dollar a name!)

We cannot justify spending $7 a person to watch a movie in the afternoon.  Todd’s co-worker goes out with his wife a couple times a month for dinner, a movie, and popcorn.  This is a $50+ night out for them.  We spend less than $20 for two tickets to the dollar theater and lunch.  We are morning people – we cant stay up past 9 or 10 at night.

We see NO VALUE in buying DVD’s. Nor do we see the value of going and renting a DVD at $3 or $4 at the local movie rental place. Todd has a couple of new DVD’s, but they were bought by my mother for his birthday or Christmas, and he watches them frequently.  They are Avatar & StarTrek.   We get the majority of the new release movies from the library for FREE about 2-4 weeks after they come out on DVD.  I’m glad we do this, because a lot of them are so D-U-M-B; I would be TICKED if I paid $4 from the movie rental place to see it.  However, we DO subscribe to Netflix.  We like having millions of movies at our fingertips whenever we want to watch something different, and the $7.99/month is worth it to us. 

Eating Out:  We mainly eat out with coupons or at lunch-time.  We love a hibatchi-style restaurant in Akron.  We went there just the other night for dinner.  The thing is, we use our Entertainment Card and get BOGO.  We both order waters, and we get the cheapest thing on the menu, and we can eat there for $20 including a nice 25% tip.  This meal includes soup, salad, a few pieces of shrimp, our chicken & rice, and sherbert with fortune cookie for dessert.  Todd’s co-worker keeps telling us we need to go to a place called Wasabi.  The prices are really high, and I don’t see the point in going when we can get the same experience (and we know we love the food!) at our favorite place.

Vehicles:

Todd and I both love our vehicles.  They get the best gas mileage in their class, and they both cost around $12,000.  Todd constantly tells me about a hybrid car that gets LESS gas mileage than my vehicle and costs TWICE (or more) as much as mine did. It boggles my mind.  I am so spoiled with Bianca that I don’t know if I could ever get another vehicle that gets worse gas mileage.  Plus, she is so cute.  I could never imagine paying more than $15,000 for a vehicle. 

I am lucky that Todd agrees with me on all of these areas of our life.  And he even wanted the fixer-upper we now live in.  Not many husbands would get themselves into the mess we got into with home.  We paid $35,000 for our home knowing it was worth a lot more when fixed up.  Now, 4 years later, it has been appraised at $94,000, and the renovation isn’t even complete.  The mortgage on the home is currently at $56,000 (we took money out for the new septic that was needed at $16,000 and a new roof at $5500.)  I couldn’t imagine having a mortgage of $100,000+, even with our income.  I LOVE watching our principal go down every month, and look forward to the day that the mortgage is paid off completely.

We are definitely frugal.  Some people would call us cheap.  But I don’t see our attitudes about money changing even if everything was paid off and we are making what we make at the moment.  

RIP Squiggy Maroo

Today, my beloved pig passed away.  He passed away after being sick for a little over three weeks, and the vets not knowing what was truely wrong with him.  I'm glad he's not suffering any longer, but I already miss him so much.  I love Squiggy so very much.  He had such a personality.

These are a few pictures of him.  I have so many great visions in my head of him in Spring and Summer following me around the yard.  Him lying on his side waiting for belly rubs.  Him soaking up the sun and loving every minute of it.

I hope he knew how much I loved him.
I'm sad that I wont get to see that adorable tail wag any longer.  No more apple cores or watermellon rinds for him.  But I know he is at peace.

Todd was home today and made an apparatis (sp?) to keep Squiggy upright.  Around 2 today, while I was at work, Squiggy took his last breath.  Todd was laying with him when he took his last breath.  Todd didnt want to tell me while I was at work or on my way home from work.  I am thankful for that.

At any rate, this is how I am going to remember the love of my life.
There will never be another Squiggy...

I love you, Squiggy Michael Maroo Crispin.  I will never stop loving you.