April 2012, Debt Update

We made some progress this March, but not as much as I would have liked.

First 10K Chunk, started 10/1/11

Fundraising Thermometer

With a little bit of hard work, we will pay off the rest of this thermometer this month, and it will have taken us seven months to complete. Not too shabby. Faster than originally was scheduled.

March was a bust overall. We violated the cardinal sin of budgeting: we didn't make one. (We were March fools, if you will.)

Yeah, don't do that. It's important to decide on a budget, on paper (or spreadsheet as the case may be), before the month begins.

Otherwise you'll remember what life before budgeting was like: you have no idea where your money went at the end of the month. I mean, all the bill got paid, yes. But then we debit carded ourselves to death on groceries and toiletries and stuff. I missed having the cash and knowing what exactly was available.

We made some big purchase with cash this month. We got a real lawnmower to replace the reel lawnmower, using tax refund monies. Home-ownership comes with expenses that you wouldn't even consider, by the way, and it's this simple reason that Dave Ramsey suggests getting out of debt before buying a house. We must have forgotten about that little bit when we got bit by the house bug in March 2010.

We also had been saving up to participate in our local community supported agriculture (CSA) program, particularly the summer vegetable share, and that sinking fund was fully funded, so it was time to bite the bullet and participate. It will go from April to August (5 months, approximately, depending on the growing season) and we will receive a share of produce once a week. There actually was an early pick-up this last week which included a dozen farm fresh eggs and a gallon of strawberries. Yum. Future shares will include a variety of fruits and vegetables, and sometimes will include flowers! The farm that grows all these items is the big pick-your-own blueberry place during the summer, and each week during blueberry season we'll get to pick a gallon of blueberries (so, about 10 gallons over the summer).

And now we are looking to purchase a freezer, chest or upright, wherever we can get the best deal. We've been saving up for this for a long time, too, and it's just the right time to get one since our side-by-side freezer is stuffed to the gills with deer meat from hunting season and strawberries from a fundraiser at the Methodist church (before we started the CSA program). There's no room to store frozen vegetables just in case we are over-loaded with veggies this summer, and no place to put our 10 gallons of blueberries once we get them!

We already have a budget for April, so no April fools here.

Cheers.