My Multiple Streams

Saving Money with Rain Water

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rain collection barrelI have gone all in with growing my own food lately and doing most of it hydroponically. Growing this way it is best to use dechloronated water and the easiest way to do this is to use rain water or if from the tap let it set around for at least 24 hours.

So I started doing researchIn building my own water storage system and this lead me to rain water collection.

Free Water Being Wasted

As I did my morning walk I was looking around at homes and all the rain gutters just flow into the yard or worse into the street. This is a lot of water that can be used for plant watering without driving up your water bill. I’m sure we all have some sort of house plants around or a small garden and keeping them alive is adding to your water bill. Don’t know about you but ours gets in the neighborhood of $200 every other month. Hmmm maybe I should just start wearing my clothes longer.

If your roof is 1,000 sq ft (this is a small home) and a nice little 1″ rain storm comes along guess how much water you can get? The answer is about 625 gallons! Now if you captured that it would take care of the average homes house plants for quite a while.

Build Your Own Collection System

Their are commercial collection systems of different sizes and cost. I saw one at Lowes the other day for $120 and it was about 50 gallons I think. Saw another system for $400 for 205 gallons at a landscape store.

How about making your own for under $20? Worst case maybe $30-40 for a 55 gallon and the ability to expand it. You just need to get a hold of a 55 gallon drum which I found out you can get typically for free from car washes (clean it very well) or soda bottling plants or other locations. They use them and just throw them out so they may be happy to give them to you. The worst case, you can buy them for generally $25 or less.

Get a few PVC parts to connect several drums together, add a valve then connect your rain gutters to them and you are now collecting your rain water! The beauty is that you can add more capacity if you need it for a few bucks!

If you follow my other log http://hydroponicsiscool.com I’ll soon have a video and post about building one as I construct my water storage system. Mine will have some barrels for collecting rain (if it ever does again) and the others for holding tap water to naturally dechloronate before going into my hydroponic systems.

Just wanted to perk your imagination on ways you can save money on water if you like to garden or just have a couple house plants.

Do You Spend More for Convenience?

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Spend for ConvenienceWhile shopping for some wood for a shelf in the greenhouse I got to thinking how much more do I spend for convenience?

Let me fill you in. I needed to put in a shelf in the back of the greenhouse for buckets (which are 12″ wide). I could go one of three routes.

1. The cheapest would be to just get a 4’x8′ sheet of plywood, muscle it into the truck and cut it when I got home. This also would have given me a lot of left overs.

2. Lowes also has pre-cut plywood at 2’x4′. A little but more in price but I could make the shelves 2′ deep and have less cutting, easier to handle and less left over.

3. Buy (2) 1″x6″x10′ pine boards. The most expensive route but no cutting, no left overs and nice and easy to load.

Needless to say I went with option 3. I don’t mind paying a bit more to make my life easier. Yes I have the tools to cut plywood myself but that’s a lot of work to lug the plywood (perhaps with a helper) measure, cut pieces, etc (maybe I’m just lazy). My time and lately my health and well being are more important to me and if I can save a little of both by spending a bit more on something I’m gonna do it!

I also dont wash my own car or do my own auto repairs amongst other things. Guess I’m not that frugal afterall.

What about you? Do you do things yourself to save every dime you can? Or do you spend a little extra for convenience?

50 Things I Don’t Spend Money On (And 27 I Do)

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What I spend Money onLast week J Money over at Budgets are Sexy had a post of a list of things he does and does not pay for, which he got off a couple other blogs doing the same thing. So I decided to play along going of their lists and showing what I do and don’t pay for in my life 🙂

Here were all 27 things I DO pay for from their lists 🙂

  1. ATM Fees — Well I don’t pull cash out but I use my check card everywhere so there are some fees here and there
  2. Clothes at retail prices — I buy clothes oh so rarely, but when I do I don’t go looking for sales.
  3. Paid apps — if I like it yep (angry birds, magic puzzles…)
  4. Pre-chopped fruit — I get the big bags of frozen fruits for my smoothies.
  5. New cars — Not planning on it but when I do yes. Just like the new car smell 🙂
  6. TiVo, RoKu, Apple TV — Yep, have Apple TV. Purchased season pass to Doctor Who and the wife pays for the Netflix.
  7. Photo printing — Well I am a photographer. Mainly a business expense.
  8. Fast food — Even though I work at eating more healthy I do the occasional Rubios or Chick-Fil-A.
  9. Single serving smoothie drinks – Love Jamba Juice, that’s all I’m saying.
  10. CDs or MP3s — iTunes rarely, mostly listen to free Spotify.
  11. Movie tickets — Very rarely, has to be damn good like a Marvel movie or Star Trek. Rest I wait for pay per view or Netflix
  12. Frozen dinners — I do still get a few of the healthy types but its gettin more and more rare.
  13. Boxed rice — I get these great rice packets, 3 minutes in the microwave 🙂 I get jasmine and the brown rices.
  14. Candles or any type of “home scents” – Not allowed to at home, but at the studio I love apple-cinnamon 🙂
  15. Regular hair cuts — Eh not so regular
  16. Salad dressing — Definitely needed
  17. Car washes — Few times a year. Actually really needs one now. I’d rather use my time for other things.
  18. Lottery tickets — Every now and then. I can dream right?
  19. Bottled water — Oh yea. All I drink is water (besides smoothies) and I hate our faucet water (even filtered). I love Perrier cause I miss the little bubbles so I’m always buying it or the sprouts version in 2 liter bottles. Non bubbly I love Dasani
  20. Oil changes — For sure – no time to change myself, nor any desire.
  21. Body wash or hand/body lotion — Yep, gotta smell pretty
  22. Trash bags — YES! How can you not??
  23. Name brand anything I can find a store brand for instead — I don’t go looking for store brands (wife does) especially for things like NyQuil or Advil, I’m afraid the generic just wont do the same.
  24. Disposable cleaning wipes — Yes, we do have a baby!
  25. Prescription antibiotics — Umm… if it makes me feel better, yes!
  26. Brown bags for lunches — I don’t, but my wife does.
  27. Batteries — Yup! Not as much lately for home but studio goes through AA’s like water.

And here were the remaining 50 that I *don’t* pay for:

  1. Veggie platters — nope, like me fresh
  2. Single serving cheese slices, yogurt, and milk – Well I don’t really eat cheese or drink milk anymore anyway.
  3. Fruit platters — Well not platters. I will get pretty made fruit cups once in awhile.
  4. Magazines — Nope. Never really been into them anyway but everything I read now is on the iPad
  5. Hair products — Nope, wash and go.
  6. Frozen pizza — If I do a pizza its Oggis
  7. Cookies — Not on my diet any more
  8. Candy — Nor candy.
  9. Soda — been off it for over 2 years, Perrier gives me my bubble fix.
  10. Gourmet ice cream — No ice cream either 🙁
  11. Baby food products — I like chewing my food.
  12. Valet parking — I don’t mind parking far away and walking.
  13. Disposable napkins — Nope.
  14. Books — Havent bought a book in ages, again get them on the iPad now.
  15. Personal trainers — Nope, exercise on my own (well….)
  16. Seasonal fashion items (like brightly colored skinny jeans that are in vogue) — I just buy what I like whether it’s in fashion or not.
  17. Cable TV — Been cable free for about 6+ months, miss it a little.
  18. Daily coffee — Don’t do coffee or any caffeine
  19. Lunch kits — Prefer to make my own,
  20. DVDs —Used to buy every new movie out. Now its just Netflix and apple tv.
  21. Disposable diapers — I’m not quite that old yet.
  22. Condoms — No comment.
  23. Fancy toilet paper — why? Considering what its for and where it goes
  24. Perfume (Cologne) — Nope, Im ok with the body wash?
  25. Candy at the movies — Nope, dont even eat candy.
  26. Wrapping paper — Put it in the bag it came in (remove receipt)
  27. Gardeners — Just me.
  28. Dry cleaning — I only wear jeans and tees
  29. Professional tax prep — Turbotax!! (damn I gotta get busy on this)
  30. Pre-mixed marinades — Huh?
  31. Hair treatments — Nope, keep it short enough I dont need anything.
  32. Manicures — I’m not *that* metro 😉
  33. Pedicures — Same.
  34. Minor household repairs — I take care of it (eventually)
  35. Eyebrow waxing/threading — Can you a tell a girl wrote these?
  36. Gym membership — Don’t go to a gym, waste of money.
  37. Cigarettes — Never
  38. Powdered drinks — Nope, sugars again.
  39. Car payments — All paid off 🙂
  40. Any makeup beyond foundation and a little mascara — Not anymore 😉
  41. Crack cocaine — ummmm nope!
  42. Disposable dishes, cups, silverware — Rarely.
  43. Checking and savings account fees — Nope.
  44. Credit card annual fees — Nada
  45. Dog grooming — He hates it but I shave him myself
  46. Extended warranties — Just buy a new and better one.
  47. Tanning — And ruin my tattoos?
  48. Return address labels — I print return address on the shipping label 🙂
  49. The local newspaper — I read everything online.
  50. Grocery bags — Nope, my store dosent charge for them.

Looks like I may be more frugal than J Money 🙂

What about you? How do you do on the list?

 

Is an APR Home Loan Right for Me?

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In the continuing effort to improve cashflow as income tightens I’m considering refinancing again. I did look into it late last year trying to use my VA benefits (read, no closing costs) but ran into an issue with wife’s credit report and they said there was nothing they could do. I alos applied with my credit union although I can’t remember if I put the wife on that one or not (think I did) and it was pre-approved but never went through with it because of the closing costs and points involved.

Round 2 Application

So I just applied again with the credit union, just me this time, and it spit out the different program options for me (not approved yet).

If I stayed with a traditional 30 year fixed I would have had 6 points and ended up with closing costs of $17,000, OUCH! I assume I could have rolled that into the loan but payments with taxes and insurance would have been close to where I am now, maybe saving $200 a month.

Next there where the ARM Loans, 7/1, 5/1 and 3/1. These basically start out at a very low rate and then after the first term of 7, 5 or 3 years the rate would be re-evaluated each year. Increases in the rates to never exceed 2% and lifetime to not exceed 6%

Where I’m at and Where to Go

Currently I am in a fixed loan at 6% with P&I payments at $1430. Dont have a traditional impound account and pay the insurance and taxes on my own. These equate to about another $350 a month.

If I go with with the 5/1 the rate starts at 2.5% making the P/I payment of about $980 which by the way I love or I could go for the 7/1 with rate of 2.75% and payment just a bit more at $1020. Either one would be great with a saving of at least $400 a month, just have to decide when I want that first rate jump.

We all know that rates are at an all time low, and realistically the will be going up. But… How high 5-7 years from now? With the cap the max it could go is 8.75% in 10 years (putting me in a worse position than now) but I can always refinance again right?

I know it’s best to lock in a low rate for the long haul, but I have to also look at realities of my current situation. I need to improve cashflow so that I stop using credit (another post for another day) and doing the APR loan will improve the current situation.

Well I’m at the doctors and he just came in so those are my thoughts for now. Guess I just wait for an answer on the application and see where we go from here.

What are your thoughts? I’m curious on what you would do or have done.

Savings on Auto Pilot

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Putting my Savings on Automatic transfers

Old enough to remember Otto?

End of the year reviewing and looking at the ways I cut back and saved money this past year. Sometimes it dosent feel like I have saved or gain ground financially but looking back there have been some concrete savings made.

Automating the Savings

The biggest one has been automating money transfers that when I did manually (keyword here is WHEN) I would often forget to do it on schedule or not do it at all, and that caused bigger headaches.

For instance a biggie is income taxes. Being self employeed I don’t have someone withholding for me. In the past I’d just wait till taxes were due then start to panic, scrambling to find the money. This year I had an auto transfer to an ING account each week so now when April 15th rolls around I will (hopefully) have enough set aside to cover it.

Another would be or home insurance. We dont have an impound account so we are responsible for the payment twice a year. In the past of course out of site out of mind till it came due, then scrambling to try and find the money. This year we set up an automatic transfer at the beginning of the month of $100 from each of our accounts to an ING account. So not only was it being put aside without having to think, but it was earning a wee bit of interest (and I mean a very little wee). So with the due date next week I have already transferred the money from ING to my checking and Im ready to pay it, on time even.

So those accounts was setting money aside each month for future taxes. I also automated the savings a bit. at the beginning of the year I set up an auto deposit to my Vanguard IRA account which was then auto dispersed into 4 mutual funds. This was done on a weekly basis so that by the end of the year I would be close to my $5K max. Also set up a weekly auto deposit of $25 to another ING account for the emergency/savings account. I know its not much but honestly if it wasn’t automatic I wouldn’t do anything so its a good thing.

Finally this year I made sure all bills are on auto pay. I n the past I was terrible at making sure bills were payed on time, I was afraid of auto payments because what if I had a bad month and couldn’t pay? Well what would happen is I would forget until I got reminder in the mail with the obligatory late payment fee. So this year I put aside the fears and every bill is on auto pay, thus insuring I will no longer have late fees!

What’s Ahead and Improvements

Continuing on that last sentence, except now I forget to transfer money from the business ti the personal account to cover the auto transactions. I then get dinged with a $25 penalty from the Credit Union. So Im going to look at setting up a minimal auto transfer between the two accounts, essentially a direct deposit paycheck to myself if you will. Its not as easy with the Credit Union as it is with say ING, I have to go through them to set it up or modify it.

Another area where automation will help is with my dividend investment account. I use BuyandHold.com and get 2 trades each month included with my $6 monthly fee. I get so busy and caught up in everything else I often forget to make a monthly trade. So when I don’t do it I not only waste that free trade but I waste opportunity to dollar cost average on my stocks. I hadn’t done an auto transfer before because I liked being able to choose the best stock that month to add to based on current price and ex-dividend dates. Im thinking it may be better to do some sort of auto transfer each month even if it is a small amount. I know I can set it up for auto investment as well but dont know if I can have it auto rotate between the stocks each month or not. I have 5 stocks at this moment so impractical to do a split between all as I would incur more fees.

Lastly I think I may be increasing the weekly savings transfer a wee bit.

What about you? Do you use automation to help with your savings?

 

 

November Wealth Report – Looking Ahead

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End of the YearHere’s a phrase you will hear often the next couple days “wow its already December?” Yep it is and means time to loosen up the budget and credit cards right? Well I do tend to splurge a bit for the holidays but this year will be a little tighter than past. To me December is a time to start looking at what has happened this year, recap on goals and to see what needs to be done before the end of the year.

Nov 2012 Report

November was actually a very good month! Looking at the bank statements its hard to see but according to my income report on Mint.com it was almost double the previous month, lets hope this is a trend. Had some great portrait sales this month and couple black friday sales helped as well. Also stating up the web design business again contributed a bit.

Adsense has been trickling along, well call it lunch money right now. Thanks to google almost all my nuche sites have disappeared in the rankings and not sure if its worth the effort to try and revive them. Still have a couple ranking and think Ill just concentrate on those.

Spending was up over last month due to sales tax paid, take that out and it was about the same as last month.

Income

Earned Income$14,609
Expesnes$9,767.27
Cashflow$4,841.73

Assets vs Debt

Cash Accounts$37,933.88
Vanguard$24,091.51
BuyandHold$4,444.42
House$325,238.00
Debt$289,381.64
Net Worth$108,726.17

The biggest change has been the house value which has shot up, which is good news as we are trying to refinance the house right now. This has also shot up my Net Worth so I take that value with an asterisk, actually money has not gone up much and my portfolio has taken a beating since August especially because of Intel.

Whats ahead for December

So looking where I am at against my year goals Im in ok shape except a couple of them. The big loser will be the credit card debt thing, actually went backwards a bit there and no way to recover before the end of the year.

The other one one to focus on this month is the investment portfolio as I’m just about there. So I will be looking at dumping some money somehow into my dividend portfolio or the IRA. I’m $1,500 short right now and dont think I can put that much in hard cash so I’m praying to the market gods as well. December is also a big dividend and capital gains month for vanguard so that should help and I am scheduled to have a little over $300 in auto deposits made. So it is with in reach 🙂

I am also getting a new computer (hey its one of those business things) mine has been draggin lately and its a early 2008 macpro. figured better to go with latest tech and get a maxed out iMac. Hope to get it on order with the next few days to save on sales tax (If you’re not from California, somehow a sales tax increase got voted in that starts Jan 1) even though it wont be released or delivered till after the 1st.

Finally as mentioned we are working on getting the house refinanced. Its currently at 6% and I have been putting off doing it for ages mainly because there is always an out of pocket expense. I then realized that I have my VA benefit I can use. So went ahead and started the process and hope we get approved and close before Christmas! We are going to try and take a little cash out, but the main purpose is to improve cashflow. We currently handle taxes and insurance separately which is a little of a pain. So if everything gores right we will go back to an impound account and have a monthly payment, including taxes and insurance, for just a bit less than the current mortgage alone.

How does your year goals look? Any last minute tasks to try and make them?  

 

Small Black Cyber Sale Days

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Black Friday and Beyond

That time of year again, you know when all the PF bloggers post about the evils of Black Friday. They are not totally off. I mean it seams that Black Friday gets longer each year, so much so that some retailers are starting on Thursday. Kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?

Next came along Cyber Monday, for all the online retailers that want their own special sale day, having nothing to do with the meaning behind Black Friday, well the original meaning they both share a common purpose now.

Not to be outdone there is now Small Business Saturday in between them. I’m kinda biased for this one myself being a small business owner but come on it was created by American Express! (Or maybe they bought it)

Well I’m not going to sit here and tell you to run out and join the mob, or protest by watching football all weekend and not spending money. That is something you must decide on your own.

Me? I plan on avoiding it all. I do have a couple sessions Friday and Saturday but besides that I will be just sitting at my computer and working, hopefully a little more busy due to my own little Black Cyber Saturday specials 🙂

What are your plans?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  If you do venture out be safe!!

Tightwad Mode Engaged: Cutting the Cable

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Cutting the cable

I still haven’t seen this movie

I’ve been a badd frog. My favorite saying lately has been “it’s ok, it’s for the business” while I have been spending willy nilly. Not limited to that I have been spending on the pets and on small house improvements and not paying attention to the bank account at all. On top of that photography has been slow.

Well looked at the bank accounts yesterday and cried a little.

After a bit I figured its not that bad, just looks worse because now I have Money spread between the bank and PayPal. It was still an eyeopener to shock me back into a more a frugal mode.

Bye Bye Cable

This is a favorite subject amongst the PF bloggers and I never touched it because I just loved TV. We have been toying with the idea of cutting the cable cord for a while now but couldn’t bring myself to do it. Well about thirty mins after I stopped crying above I was on the phone canceling the TV service from our cable provider.

Lately we just haven’t been watching TV that much. Big Bang Theory was about it for me, Once Upon a Time for the wife and the daughter glued to shows on her iPad (should have been following her example). We found a website that has allowed us to watch these programs for free within mins of them starting on the TV, plus all back episodes. Besides that we have Netflix and Apple TV to cover the other programs.

Cable bill went from $150+ a month to $64 a month (just Internet now). We were paying $85 a month or more basically for programs we don’t watch. Now we will pay a couple bucks here and there for shows we do watch, when we watch them. A much better way to do it. We are thinking though of taking $30 of that savings and taking the Internet to the ‘ultimate’ level, squeeze a bit more spend out of the wire.

Seems this is a popular  trend as well as a report in August showed that cable companies had lost over 400,000 subscribers in the past quarter. Ouch, glad I dont own stock in any!

Other Savings

I also finally went down to the gym to cancel it as well. Been meaning to do that like in forever. Only when I got there I found out they had canceled me since my debit card had expired. This wek I’m going to look at other areas as well, such as canceling the merchant account that has the monthly fee regardless if I use it or not. Also got rid of 3 of the fish tanks (no worries still have 4 more) to cut back on some electricity and water costs.

I’m sure I will find some more areas that I can save in, but I also want to remain practical while doing it. I mean I don’t want to start wearing a parka in the house to save a few dollars on heating bill. I still want to be comfortable just need to be practical in my spending

Oh I did get another fish today 🙁 no its not for the business but it was so cute.

So what ways do you look to cut costs? Do you lapse and often need a reminder to get back on track?

Mint.com Has a New App!!!

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Mint.com Mac AppYes Mint.com has a new app out But its not for your mobile devices. The other day I was updating my MacPro to Mountain Lion and afterwards I started browsing the App Store, you know the one the have now for your desktops and laptops just like your iPhone and iPad. There it was featured at the top a desktop app for mint.com and best of all it is free just like the mobile apps.

When you launch the app you can set it as a menu bar icon or a dock icon. I set mine for the menu bar, when you do you will get a little dollar sign icon up in your menu bar. Little numbers will appear next to it to tell you of any alerts/messages. Info is synced by default every four hours but you can change that for longer periods if you wish. When ever you want to see your financial picture you just click on the icon and a neat little window opens up from it!

From here you will see a wrap up of your total cash, total credit card debt and net cash up top. Next below that you have a view of net income, accounts and spending. These are viewed by sliding the window left or right (just like the mobile apps). Each one also has a drop down menu so you can select other options. Such as under accounts you can select one of your accounts to view it only. These drop downs will effect the transactions you see in the next window below. The last window are your alerts, again slide left or right to view.

Mint.com Mac AppAt the very bottom you have 3 little icons as well. The first one allows you to set a password, the little square will give you links to jump to mint.com at a particular view as well as any of your financial institution’s websites. Of course the little gear is your settings and preferences. Oh almost forgot at the very top is a search field so you can look for specific items.

I must say for a free service this is an awesome app. I no longer have to log into mint.com, I just click the icon and I can see everything! This means Im checking a little more often as well. You can still to go to the web site to do editing of transactions or work on your budget, but you can go straight there through the app as well (opens a mini browser). The one thing I must say I dont like, well its more of a forgotten view is the budget view. You can go there through the app but I think the budget is one of the most important views and should be there with spending, accounts and net worth.

Overall I highly recommend this app for all the Mac Mint users out there! Not a mint user? check out my mint.com review and sign up today!

Car Emergency Savings for Piece of Mind

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One of the most popular posts among PF bloggers I see is preaching about the emergency fund. Everyone should have one in case something tragic happens say like you loose your job. But what about those not so emergency things that come up like car repair? Yes you can take it out of the emergency fund but is it a true emergency? I know it may seem excessive but maybe you should create a couple other savings accounts to put money aside for those other more routine emergencies like your car maintenance and repairs.

Late last week I noticed my ‘check engine’ light popped on and idling a little rough. That of course triggers the o crap moment of how much is this going to cost. So took it in this morning and turned out it was a bad air control valve, a $300 bad air control valve. Now that is not that bad, could have been much worse. Luckily this month has been a good improvement over last month at the studio so I was not worried and it was covered, in fact got the oil changed as well since it was a bit overdue.

Of course while it was in they recommended a fuel injector cleaning, another $120, and they noticed my valve cover gasket was leaking a bit, another $600. These are things I will have to put aside for another month at least. Now if I had another savings account designated for auto repair and maintenance I might of had that covered. With a bank like ING its pretty easy to set up one and have $10 or whatever amount you wish automatically transfered to it monthly or even weekly. That way you dont even have to think about it and its there for the next time your car breaks down or its time for  tune up. With my car being almost 10 years old I’m thinking I may want to get this account to $1000 and that should cover most anything.

Some of you have pretty large savings account and may not worry about things like this, but for others it may be a great peace of mind knowing you have some money socked aside just for your car. Face it most of us couldn’t live with out our cars and putting a little aside for it is better than monthly payments on a brand new one. Worst case in can be  down payment on a new one if your car ends up beyond repair.

How do you handle those unexpected car moments?

Time for Summer of Belt Tightening Again

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layoffWell the time has come that we have been dreading since March 15th. If you recall back then I posted how the school district my wife works at handed out 1,600 pink slips for the next year. They are required by law to notify by that date even though the budget is not final till end of June. So tomorrow is the last day for teachers effected and start the long summer of not knowing if you will be recalled or not. It puts a damper on things cause she really loves where she teaches but the unknown factor makes it hard to put out resumes or not. Last year we didn’t know until the day before school started and she was recalled.

At the moment is another little ray of hope that keeps the resumes at bay. The union has agreed and entered negotiations with the district, possibly foregoing raises this year and continuing the furloughs to bring back most if not all the teachers pink slipped. You see a few years ago they agreed to a contract that put off raises till July of this year and furlough days, this was done at the beginning of the state budget crises. Unfortunately the situation has not only not improved but has got worse. Thus the layoffs to be able to give the remaining teachers the raise, not just one raise but 3 during the next year.  The union even went in last week to audit the districts budget, and while they did find some errors they have come to the conclusion that it is bad, thus the negotiations.

What this means for us

One of the big things this does to us is health insurance. As it stands right now health benefits  will end on June 30th which really sucks as I have therapy sessions scheduled for Aug (which Im not to concerned about) and a GI appointment next week. The GI is important to me as they may be scheduling  an endoscopy to find out what is going on with my reflux/stomach and I would really like to know 🙂 Also effects the meds I take, hope to talk to the doctor and maybe get a 3 month supply prescription to hold out till the new school year. Then we may have to consider COBRA or another alternative health insurance which means another budget line to my already stretched out dollar.

She gets paid once a month so im not quite sure if June 1st would be the last paycheck or July 1st will be, have to ask when she gets home. After that she can file for unemployment but that is not much and as we discovered last year, taxes are not taken out and we need to set some aside for that. So she will have to try and defer her student loans again and we will be looking for more ways to cut back here and there, as well of course ways to gain more side income. Side income myself has dried up a bit this month which really hurts, especially since the main business has slowed a bit as well.

So we wait

She has put together her resume, not sure if she has sent it anywhere yet though. Like I mentioned she really likes it where she is at. We are on pins and needles right now waiting on these negotiations, and there are some in the union trying to derail them. The union leadership has stated they are doing this because a majority of those surveyed are in favor of it (as we are). She is also waiting to see if she can be picked up summer school, although being one of the pink sliped may mean she is no longer considered. We have talked about getting the resumes out anyway because going through this ever year is tough and if she can get in with another district or a private school that doesn’t have this every year it would be great.

I know some of you out there have gone through this in your own carrer, how do you cope and cut?