mooretrees journal

Where are you and where are you going?
7Wannabe5
Posts: 9369
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: First Journal Post

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@bigato:

Excellent! Now it is time to move on to:

1) Grinding your own wheat.
2) Growing and harvesting your own wheat.
3) Breeding your own variety of alternate high protein edible grass crop optimized for your region.

:lol: ;)

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

I grew up with a mother who actually baked bread every Monday, she even had a little side business selling loaves. So, baking bread isn't an area I need too much practice with-I get that it was just an example. What I need are more reminders of next steps, like the list 7w5 added. Not for anything specifically, just as a thought experiment to move myself out of my current Wheaton level.

For the garden this year, I bought (didn't DIY it) a heating pad for starting seeds. But I haven't started anything yet; I guess I'm not sure which ones to start and where to put them all so that a two year old doesn't have access. I'll try and start some seeds this evening, maybe only squash and sunflowers. That will be a first for me.

I am working my way through the ERE book again, and trying to go more slowly this time. I've put together my first 'web of goals' and it looks like a kindergartner did it. I also made a list, as the web drawing part looks wonky. Anyway, one of my early goals had been to learn five new birds this year. I think I've got the songs down for two, the house finch and the song sparrow. I can identify the male house finch by sight, but not the song sparrow. I've definitely been more attentive to birds and am calibrating my ear for them. We've got a sorta thicket at the front of the yard, mostly quince, lilac and mock orange. The song sparrows and perhaps chickadee's sing and hop along in that area all day. I'd like to make a water bath for them, once I get out cats outfitted with bells.

I don't know how to add photos of my web of goals, maybe it's better as it really looks like a child did it. So, here is the list:

1. Exercise -time in nature (trail running, hiking), health, fun
2. Financial independence: learning (investing, systems theory), frugality, saving, reducing possessions
3. Gardening: health, time in nature, learning, saving
4. Birdwatching: time in nature, fun, learning

I feel a little critical of my list because I'm still figuring out the systems theory and also, I don't have anything about relationships in there, is that ok? I'm trying it out with the hope that I can increase my understanding of it and also, of course, make some progress on all of the goals.

I think one of next natural steps is to start thinking about wants and needs. Not sure how to get started on that, but I'll keep reading here and the book.

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: First Journal Post

Post by classical_Liberal »

@mooretrees
wrt to web of goals. I actually did the same thing as you last time I read the book, with highlighters 8-) . I was very general and used generalized "needs" as points in the web and then colored lines to connect them. The lines represented the different activities that provided for those needs. I can't say that it was an immediate life-changing activity, except that I visually recognized I could provide for my needs in several different ways each. Also that I did not need a line that represented FT job income and/or Walmart to do it.

@Jacob
I still use the assumption that I'll make weekly grocery store runs anyway, so grabbing cheap bread while there doesn't really take much extra time at all. This is, of course, because I'm set up for consumption (ie grocery store runs). So I see your point and it's actually got me thinking :idea: . Thanks. Yes, you are correct, I do make higher quality stuff at home, just got done with some corn bread :D

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

We might have a buyer for our Honda Fit. We'll see if it happens Tuesday as planned. If it does work out, that will knock at least 8k off the debt and I'll be able to reduce the car insurance as well. Fingers crossed!

This month should be a good month for debt reduction besides selling the car. It's a three paycheck month and I'm hoping we can sell one more iPhone. At the very least, I should be able to throw $1500 at debt.

We also have our farmers market starting the 18th. This will be our third year selling our coffee there. I love it. We started three years ago roasting 8 oz at a time in a homemade coffee roaster-a former popcorn popper. It took a long time to get to 4 pounds! We've got a commercial grade roaster and I have been slowly working on the business side of things. I'm not so good at it, but we want to grow the wholesale side of the business and see if we can't bring in more money. DH built the tricycle we serve coffee off of out an old mtn bike, a bed frame and various bits of wood. He did a fantastic job, it's fun to ride and very eye catching. It will be an interesting market season with a two year old to wrangle, but we have built up a lot of friends with other vendors so I think we'll have help.

Selling the Honda will be interesting. I've been thinking a lot about what our life will be like in the next 5-10 years. It's hard to predict, but I feel like I'm returning to myself as I get more wrapped up in ERE. I used to make hardly any money but had a very cheap life. Living with roommates, biking everywhere, making most of my food from scratch. If only I had saved money during that time! I remember something from MMM (I think), where he wrote about being grateful to his younger self for making good decisions. I hope to feel this way about myself in a few years.

Buying the Honda was a classic middle class decision, we had talked ourselves into it because I was pregnant, we thought we could pay it off fast, and we sorta wanted to 'treat' ourselves. We both had only ever owned cars from the 80's and 90's, so this car was FANCY! And there were a lot of subtle 'welcome to middle class' approval from people around us. Like, welcome to the real world of fancy cars and debt. I've been dealing with not necessarily regret, but sadness with that decision. I mostly provide the financial direction in our relationship, and I steered us wrong with the car. I try and remember the "no shame, no blame' mantra of ymoyl, but I will feel a lot of relief to see it gone.

We drove the car quite a bit, mostly the miles came from fairly frequent trips to see friends and family in Portland. We could go car free in our valley, but it would be hard and I don't think I want to try it. Not a lot of public transit and lots of great hiking areas that we would miss out on. We will see if we're able to reduce the big car trips and keep biking around town for small errands. I hope we can transition away from jumping in the car to get something, to jumping on the bike, to not going to the store at all!

prognastat
Posts: 991
Joined: Fri May 04, 2018 8:30 pm
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: First Journal Post

Post by prognastat »

Good job on continuing to vigorously tackle the debt. It's the best way to take care of it because debt is generally an anchor dragging you back where investments are like a sail pulling you forward. It's best to get out of the former and into the latter asap.

Good luck on expanding the business. Sounds like you've been hard at work on it by increasing your efficiency and volume. Have you expanded beyond the farmer's market yet?

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

Thanks prognastat! I just made an extra $400 payment and hope to make the big payment tomorrow. Looks like we have a time to meet our potential buyer tomorrow to sell the car, aka one of the anchors trying to sink us. I'm ready to be out of debt! Soon.

We do sell whole sale at two places in town, very low key. But, we've been working to get insurance, certified by the Dept of Ag so we can legally sell at different places. The farmers market has an exemption for selling that has allowed us to legally fly under the radar. We've moved the roaster to a commercial place, are working on correct labelling and will get certified in July. We don't want to pay for the inspection twice, so we'll wait until then.

RealPerson
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by RealPerson »

bigato wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:39 am
I’m actually thinking of grinding the grain, because it’s the best way I know to have fresh and better tasting flour. Also, the whole grain can easily be stored for longer and bought in bulk.
I do that and it is very easy. The wheat berries are put in a blender and are ground in a minute or so. Involves virtually no work. I have a fancy Vitamix blender and they sell a special container for dry goods. I don't have that but the regular container works just fine. The wheat berries stay fresh much longer than flour, similar to coffee beans vs ground coffee. Vitamix is a high end blender and I don't know if that makes a difference. You might try your preferred tool with a small quantity before buying a 50 lb bag of wheat berries.

Frita
Posts: 942
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:43 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by Frita »

@RealPerson

Do you know the lifespan of a Vitamix? I have a decent blender that works well for most applications; however, the grinding/blending capacity of a Vitamix isn’t there. I am thinking about purchasing a used one. Any suggestions on appropriate test to determine condition?

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

No go on the sale of the car, pretty annoying potential buyer who tried to dicker us down on price based on some issues he had with the car that were sorta manufactured to lower the price. Anyway, we didn't sell to him. It was a big let down as I had really gotten worked up about getting rid of that debt. DH listed the car in another big city, which will be interesting as it would be a long drive for us to show the car. We'll see how it goes.

We're all sick, bad head colds. Our little man had a low grade fever for four days, reduced appetite and generally felt pretty bad. We took him to the doc finally, just to check that it wasn't an ear infection. All clear, but $192 out of pocket. The nice lady setting up the appointment reassured me that at least it went all to the deductible. I didn't feel better because of that. I hate to look at my paystub and see how much is taken out each month for health insurance, and then, when we go to use it, have to pay more on top of that. It's maddening.

Anyway, I resisted the urge to buy any vegetables for the garden and instead started seeds that I had on hand. Hopefully some of them sprout. If 50% sprout I'll be really happy.

I don't really want to share much about our spending here because I feel too nervous about it. Maybe I'll buck up and do a brief run down and use it to inspire more reductions in spending. Sorta why I'm here, right? I want to keep food spending under $400 and am actually shooting for $350. I have a newish iPhone to list for sale and some odds and ends to take to the kids second hard store. The iPhone sale money will go to debt of course.

I think I'm starting to enter the phase of 'reducing possessions' that I keep reading about in other journals. It'll be a long journey to get rid of a bunch of this junk responsibly. But worth the effort.

Looking forward to more bread responses :lol:

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: First Journal Post

Post by classical_Liberal »

My next task is cinnamon swirl :D

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

niiice. I made a delicious recipe in a our cast iron skillet for DH's birthday. Complete with cream cheese icing.

Quantummy
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2018 10:39 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by Quantummy »

After years of trying various recipes I found what seems to be best pizza dough yet from "Mastering Pizza" by Marc Vetri. He recommends trying in cast iron skillet as well, which turned out great.

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

I am horrified. I finally tallied our April spending. All I can say, we have a lot of room for improvement. I don't think I can post it here, yet. I need to recover from my shock.

Frita
Posts: 942
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:43 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by Frita »

mooretrees wrote:
Sat May 11, 2019 7:01 pm
I am horrified. I finally tallied our April spending. All I can say, we have a lot of room for improvement. I don't think I can post it here, yet. I need to recover from my shock.
Been there before! It’s easy to spend and just not notice. That can be where recording and monitoring more frequently can help. (I am an ENTP so I need that accountability. DS Is an ESTJ and needs to keep his spreadsheets.) Have you identified an area to improve? How’s it going so far this month?

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

Thanks Frita. I think I need to look over the numbers weekly as we're looking to reduce expense. DH doesn't really want to talk money as much as I do, so I'll have to figure out a way to navigate his limited interest and make sure we are on the same page with spending.

I am over the shock and am going to post the numbers and rip the bandage off. I will set goals next to the items I think we can reduce.

Food Home: 410 (350-400)
Food Out: 119 (<50)
Loans: 870 (I actually want this number to increase until they are all gone)
Cars:
Fuel: 70 (<50)
Insurance: 81 (might get much lower if we sell the car and only carry liability on an older vehicle)
Maint: 122 (included annual registration fee for one car and motorcycle so good for two years)
House/Garden: 99.25 (includes 4 yards of bark chips for weed prevention, and some basement renovation supplies) Should be $0 in May
Tools: 60.45
Bicycles: 19.98 (shifters for mtn bike, should be $0 next month)
Books: 11.96 ($0 next month)
Pets: 32.25 (already higher for May, maybe we should look into making the dog food?)
Bills: 223.14 (wiggle room with electricity, phones, and gas; fixed bills are trash/recycling (could reduce to one pick up a month? water is too high but city charges a base fee which we never go over, and internet)
Morgtage: 912.18
Misc: 197 This included two one time purchases that were about $100, but can work on making this lower.

OK. The areas I want to work on are:
1. Food home and out, would be nice to be under $350 for both and it seems like a worthy goal.

2. Cars: F*^@!!! We have another potential buyer for the Honda, I'm not getting my hopes up, which is a lie. I'm totally getting my hopes up, I'm not good at moderating my excitement, but I do recover quickly from disappointments. But, in the meantime we can drive less and we don't have any maintenance coming up. If we sell the Honda, then we drop $196 in a loan, we'll be able to lower the car insurance and we'll see how well we do with NOT driving a really fuel inefficient vehicle. We have four bikes between us (a mtn bike and our coffee cart tricycle as well as two regular bikes), and we're getting back into the grove of riding again.

3. Electricity: we're holding steady at around $65-75/month. We have two old appliances (fridge and washer machine) that I don't want to replace yet. But, DH hung up the clothes line in a more convenient location and we should only use it now that the weather is better. Not sure if that will make a big dent or not, but I'll try it.

4. Mortgage: I'm talking with a coworker about living in our basement for a few months as she only has two weeks to find a place and might not find something. Would be only short term, but would add $450/month. Also, not going to happen this year, but we are getting obsessed with converting a school bus into a tiny home. Might happen next year if we can get this debt off our backs and reduce expenses so we can cash flow a build.

Anyway, I feel like making caveats to explain everything, but, it is a ridiculous amount of money and we can do much better. I appreciate any feedback.

classical_Liberal
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:05 am

Re: First Journal Post

Post by classical_Liberal »

I would also suggest you annualized known, recurrent expenses, then divide it into monthly. Otherwise looking a a single month of spending is like running a single blood glucose at a random time of day to diagnosis diabetes.

Use whatever sub-categories that best reflect your lifestyle. For instance, I consider all fixed car expenses "transportation" (ins, licencing), but all non-fixed like gas and maintenance "entertainment". Basically because I can control the later with usage, and realistically I have designed my life where I could be car free. Hence having the ability eliminate the fixed, but would likely have different fixed costs for transportation (bus pass and occasional Ubers). However, I would try to lump these subcategories into the biggies. Housing, food, transport, healthcare, then everything else, cause anything else is mostly optional. Also please no misc categories :roll: that won't help you at all.

With the major categories separated you can compare yourself to mean US (tons of data on the interwebs), or to others here (your goal). For example, It's been suggested that an ERE'er should not be spending more than about 10% of income and/or net worth for housing. A quick google search of BLS spending patterns showed me that mean housing expense for family of three in US is about 30% of post tax income. Where are you on this spectrum?

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

Thanks for the feedback, I'm slowly looking into each of your suggestions. I had to look up annualized, that's how much of a noob I am.

We sold our Honda Fit. It was pretty easy, but it got sorta uncertain if it was going to work (not the best communication with the buyer), but she pulled it together and now we are down to one, supremely inefficient car. But, a paid off car. I'll adjust the car insurance today and send the extra money (our loan was smaller than the asking price) to the last of DH's student loans. We have agreed to never buy a car with a loan.

I keep feeling such relief. One giant step to being out of debt (except the mortgage). Also, it feels like we are both embracing the less consumer lifestyle. Usually when we go to Portland, we squeeze in a visit to a store we don't have locally. This time we went with our friend to a local park and walked around with our dogs and let our son ride his balance bike for a sweet, chill time. It was relaxing.

Our non-mortgage loans should be under $10k. Three loans left;
1. $177 and has minimal interest so I'm not paying it off early
2. $4700 to my dad with no interest, so also not paying it off too aggressively (though I will increase the payment once the next loan is gone)
3. DH last loan (from a high of 21 loans, around $66,000) currently at around $6700, will make a big payment on this one later this week.

So, big progress. It's so important to make progress! I'm happy that we are spending less money on food, but damnit, cutting out $8500 of debt in one fell swoop is fantastic! And gives me hope that we'll get to saving money really soon. And it feels like we are entering the realm where we are making different (better) decisions about money than most other folks. So, we're getting weird! And that is awesome.

sea
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2015 10:28 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by sea »

That's awesome about paying off the car! Sounds like you on the home stretch for paying off non-mortgage debt. I also have one inefficient but paid off car that is good for winter driving.

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

Two days after we sold the car, the buyer contacted us with complaints and accusations of dishonesty. She had some cosmetic concerns regarding scratches, the mileage was higher than the two week old ad, and the lack of a second key had become a sore spot. We were floored. And really upset. We had taken the car to a local mechanic to get checked out and everything was good. She had had a chance to look at it, drive it and knew about the lack of the second key. DH responded to her email pretty quickly and not so gently called bullshit on it. He was upset about the accusations of dishonesty and I was worried about getting back the money I'd already sent to a loan.

Two more days past and we get an apology/explanation email from the buyer. Long story short, she didn't ask questions when she had them (like what is the actual mileage right now, how much does a second key cost?), she ignored her own concerns about the car (again all cosmetic and mileage related, not mechanical) and then freaked out and blamed it on us. She apologized for accusing us of dishonesty, and wrote several paragraphs about how she didn't check something out when she had a question/concern. I feel for her. When I'm not angry at her. My take away is that she wasn't sure about how to go about buying a car from a private dealer, and when the situation required her to ask questions or perhaps be slightly annoying as a buyer, she didn't feel comfortable doing it. Not my problem, but damn it I didn't appreciate the rollercoaster! We haven't written back to her yet, not sure exactly what to say.

It was good of her to apologize, but I feel sorta like telling her, you need to learn from this. She had no obligation to buy from us. The key to a good feeling walking away from that situation was to be annoying, ask a dozen questions, and perhaps be honest that you are over your head and need someone's help. I hope she can enjoy the car and get over this bad start.

Anyway, on to other money stuff.

Debts:
1. $177.59 (should be paid off in three months)
2. $4525.00 (no interest loan)
3. $3756.93

Total: $8459.52!!!!!!

We are under $10k!!! We started out a little over four years ago pretty close to $100k in debt. We weren't as focused as we could have been, made some bad decisions (car loan), and good ones (had our son), but we are almost out of the woods.

I've had some boring days at work, I hate that. I've struggled to not leave early and to find projects. I have two days off and the farmers market this Sat. I love having the coffee cart. People come and visit, they give us feed back on the coffee, we drink coffee and eat fresh strawberries, we wander around and listen to music, and we make some money.

I'm thinking of hiring a local teenager to watch our son two afternoons a week. Partly to give DH time to work on projects, partly to give myself time to do the same. My paperwork is spilling over and I need concentrated time to organize/purge papers. I want to go trail running alone, and read a novel without interruption. I need some alone time.

mooretrees
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:21 pm

Re: First Journal Post

Post by mooretrees »

bigato wrote:
Sun May 12, 2019 6:50 pm
I suggest you organize the expenses from higher to lower. It helps to see the biggest offenders. I also like to put a percentage of total by the side of each category. And you should not count the part of the mortgage that goes towards the principal as expense, because it is actually savings. You only count the interest as expense. From your report it was not clear how you are doing.
The top three categories for us are housing, transportation, and debt. I'll focus on those right now.
We are doing just okay with the housing, compared to folks here.
Not including principal, mortgage and utilities = $980/month, 25.8%.

So slightly lower than the US average for housing for three, but an area to make progress in to reach an ere goal of around 10%. No big changes will happen with this category quickly, but within the year we should have a rentable basement and we are thinking of a school bus conversion for a big change.

Transportation: May had high car expenses that should drop significantly in June, due to the pay off of the car loan (196/month), some pre-selling expenses (getting the spare tire fixed) and dropping insurance on the second car. However, we have an older, fuel inefficient vehicle that needs maintenance. So, maintenance will go up, and likely fuel as well, though only for bigger trips and business related driving.
Transportation: $530.48/14.0%.

We've been pretty good in the two weeks since we sold the car with walking and biking in town. Our roaster is in a commercial space the next town over and we haul our farmers market gear in the truck. So, with the business, we have some built in 'need' for a vehicle. I think if we really tried, we could figure out alternatives. But, we're making progress and I don't want to ask DH to build a big bike trailer for hauling supplies yet, he's got other projects to work on.....

Debt: $3778.98/55.4.% this number is crazy.

We sold the car and had extra after paying off the loan, we also got our state tax refund back which I sent to loans as well. Our 'normal' monthly payment for the remaining loans is $373.52.

The percentages for the housing and transportation are based on an average month income, while the debt is actual money in for May because the extra money coming in were one-time in flows and I didn't think it useful to have artificially low percentages for one month.

I got a pay raise that should start with my paycheck tomorrow. I'm thinking of going to HR and increasing my 401k contribution at least 1% percent. I figure I'm still in the accumulation phase and locked into working and it helps with saving something and slightly reducing my taxes? It is a cost of living raise, 2.5%. Last year I did this and I was surprised how much it increased my contributions, without feeling any loss from it in my paycheck.
I'm off to clean the kitchen and drink coffee before work.

Post Reply