Bob B.'s Financial Soundingboard

DD1 competed in Jr. High public speaking at the FFA state convention yesterday. She competed against eight other students from around the state, and placed fifth. We are very proud, and happy for her. She did the absolute best job that she could have done. Considering all the students who started out at the district level five weeks ago, she ended up doing better than about 95% of them.

I wouldn't be truthful, though, if I didn't say that I was hoping she would have placed higher. I watched the competition, and I honestly had her placed higher. Of course, I'm her very biased father. Of the eight, six did a very good job. The 7th and 8th placed kids did a good job, too, but there was a clear delineation between their performance, and the other six.

Of the top-finishing six, they can be put into two broad categories - those who were highly polished, with exaggerated gestures, etc. I'd call their presentation more of a "sales" type presentation. The others, including DD1 spoke in more of a conversational tone, and I would call their style more "educational". The judges clearly preferred the polished, sales type of presentation. Either way, we are proud of her accomplishment, and from the pic DW sent me after placements were announced, DD1 is very happy.

The Dean of the college of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State addressed the convention. He made a very exciting announcement. What the Dean said was that FFA high school seniors who complete a curriculum in agri-science and win an FFA state degree will receive six general credits from MSU - six free credits before they even start college!

I wasn't able to participate in FFA, so I'm not exacly sure what a state degree is, but according to DW, our kids would be very likely to earn an FFA state degree if they participate fully in FFA. About 150-200 high school seniors earn a state degree each year.

That's great news! Six credits is about 1/3-1/2 of a semester. At the 2015 price of $440 a credit, that's a $2,640 value, not including the savings in time. We'll definitely be adding that to the long list of goals as it relates to our kids.

Now for the not so great news related to the FFA convention. DW and DD2 were headed out to do some pre-convention shopping. Read that as DW had nothing to wear to convention. She was driving through town, on her way to another town that has a mall. A lady driving beside her was switching lanes, and didn't look, and smacked right in to our van. No one was injured, but there is quite a bit of damage to the van, including a bent axle, which of course leaves the van completely unable to be driven.

The insurance adjustor looked at the van yesterday, and we hope to get his report today, or hopefully by Monday.

This could only happen in a town the size of our small town, but the accident happened kitty corner from, and about 200 feet from the police station. They were also 300 feet from, and equidistant in opposite directions from our insurance agency, and the other driver's insurance agency.

I cashed in my coins yesterday. If I'm remembering correctly, I last cashed coins in sometime during the first week of November, so about 17 weeks ago. The total came to $46.98, so about $2.76 per week.

I kept $40 out as cash, and applied the $6.98 toward my pickup loan. The previous loan balance was $901.01, $0.81 went toward interest (last paid March 1), and the remaining $6.17 went toward principal.

I must have cashed coins in a little more frequently 4,5, and 6 years ago, because it seems like I'd get $20-$25 each time I cashed them in. Lately I've been cashing them in, and getting between $30-40 each time, and +$45 this time. I'm a little bit less desperate for cash now, and that's a good thing.

Since the credit union where I cash in the coins is also the same place where we have our vehicle loans, I've always applied the change to a vehicle loan. In the past, I had always applied just the change to the loan - or if I had cashed in $23.68, I applied only the 68 cent to the loan. Now, I'm only taking the multiple of $10, and applying the rest to the loan. Another sign that I'm a little less desperate for cash.

What I really should start doing is to try to accumulate less change. $2.76 per week isn't really that much, but when it accumulates to almost $47, it kind of is a lot.

My (depression-era-raised) grandfather used to carry a change purse in his pocket. I was always horribly embarrassed when he would, at a snail's pace, count out the exact change for a bill at a parts dealer or gas station.

But, as far as that goes, I do a lot more transactions with a debit card or credit card than Grandpa did, so I have fewer opportunities to accumulate change.

Really, a few bucks a week change accumulation is not a big deal. At all. But, it just seems that it would be better if I didn't accumulate much change.

Any of us who have spent very much time in the SA forums have seen the back end results of someone over-extending themselves on a new car purchase and loan. Today I got a glimpse at the front end.

I have a cousin. He is very different from me in many ways. He is married. Some things I can tell you about him and his wife include:

He has declared bankruptcy at least once. I'm pretty sure he has declared bankruptcy at least one other time.

Before they were married, his wife lost a house in foreclosure. His dad pulled a little switcheroo where he bought the house after foreclosure, for a very reduced price, and sold the house back to them on a land contract. I'm pretty sure they're behind in paying dad back.

Between the two of them, they have five kids at home, and one out of the house.

Today, in just the last hour or so, his wife posted the following on FB, that my cousin bought her (her words) a 2015 Mazda 3 s Grand Touring. I looked. The base price for the car is $28,385. I've never owned a brand new car in my life.

Apparently the car she had been driving had no heat. I don't begrudge her having a car with heat. It's just that you can but lots of cars for well less than half that that are very reliable, and have heat.

I also don't want to make it sound as if I'm Mr. Financial Perfect. Obviously I've made financial mistakes in the past. Clearly I continue to stumble. But, I try to learn from my mistakes. I like financial security. I don't even know what I'd do with a 28K car. I doubt I could pay the insurance.

I've been shaking my head at my cousin for years. And, I really shouldn't give two toots how he spends his money. It's just that I know how this story is going to end, and it's not going to be good.

In the past hour, 61 people have "liked" her post, and 26 people have commented on it, all congratulatory in some form.

I won't "like" it, and I'll keep my comments to myself (and the SA community) (and my wife, later).

Good Grief!

March net worth is $231,991.

We received our federal tax refund on Friday. It was funny, because Friday was also pay day. I logged in to our bank account just to make sure that my paycheck had been deposited, and the balance was a lot bigger than ought to have been. Surprises are nice sometimes.

The net worth figure doesn't reflect the refund at this point, except for the extra I paid against my pickup.

Do you remember that freelance project DW has been working on? The one that she wasn't paid for so long? The final report is due this Friday, so she's working this week to complete it. She put it off when she wasn't getting paid, and the winter has been busy enough, especially with snow days thrown in, that she has kind of waited til the last minute. But, I'm sure it will be finished on time, and done well.

This time, we'll know that it will take a long time to receive the final payment, and we'll plan accordingly. We're both reasonably confident that the payment will be made, and if I remember correctly, it will be somewhere between 5.8 and 5.9K.

After my post yesterday about the negative entries on my credit report, doingitallwrong suggested I send a letter to my creditors asking for a goodwill removal of the negatives from my credit history.

I have an ongoing relationship with one of the creditors, our credit union, where we have taken out two car loans over the past three years. I logged on to the CU site, and sent an e-message asking if they would remove the negatives. I based my letter on a template found on a link provided by doingitallwrong. Here's the response I received:

Thank you for contacting Credit Union via eMessage. We appreciate you taking the time to message us with your request. We greatly appreciate your membership with Credit Union and are happy to hear you have had such a positive experience with us. Although I am able to confirm you have had a very positive payment history with us in the recent past we are not able to reverse or remove late payments reported to the credit agencies unless they were reported in error. If the payments were reported late and it was not the result of an error on our part we are obligated to report them and are not able to remove them. Although we are not able to accommodate your request and remove late payments from your payment history, I would like to assure you that your credit history only reflects the last two years of your payment history. As the payments referenced in your previous message were between the years 2008 and 2011 they should no longer be reporting on your credit. If you have any additional questions or if we can assist you with anything else you are always welcome to contact us …

I struck out.

There is one other CC that has reported negatives. I cancelled that card a long time ago. I have no idea what my account number was. I do have a mailing address that appeared on my credit report, but the above mentioned credit union at least has the incentive of keeping my happy because of my continued business. The other company (Bank of America) really has no incentive to make or keep me happy. So, I doubt that I'll send a request to them.

There was really no harm nor foul in sending the request to the credit union.

I pulled my credit report yesterday. I don't pull my report often enough. I know that you can get a free report form each of the three companies once per year. So the best strategy is to pull each of the three every four months. I just don't do it often enough. It's probably been 12-18 months since I last pulled it.

What I've done is recorded the date and reporting company in the same spread sheet where I keep my budget, balance sheet, and amortization schedules. That way I can keep better track of when and where I pulled my last report, and keep on a better schedule.

I have a total of 17 negatives, from two credit companies on my report. The first has a string of 11 negatives ranging from May 2009 - March 2010, where I was 30 - 120 days past due. The other has a string from August 2008 - November 2008 where I was 30 - 90 days past due, plus March 2010, and October 2010 where I was 30 days past due. Note that I started becoming active on the SA forums around October 2010.

If negatives stay on a report for seven years, my first string of four will start dropping August through November this year. May of next year through March 2017 will see the end of the entire string from the other card, and the last negative will drop off October 2017. But, that's a long time from now.

According to my current Discover card statements, my credit score hovers between 720 and 725 any given month. It will be interesting to see how my score comes in as these negatives drop.

I also did something I should have done a long, long time ago. There were three open accounts listed that I don't use. One was a credit card I no longer use, one was a store card I opened when I bought a suit at a department store, and the third was an Amazon card I opened two Christmases ago. I called today, and had each of those accounts closed. We'll see what that does to my score.

This credit report monitoring is something I think I can and will keep up on from now on.

She won it.

She'll move on to the state contest three weeks from yesterday. There are six regions in the state, plus all of the second place regional winners compete against each other the day before the final competition, and the winner of that competes against all of the first place winners. So, there are a total of seven contestants in the finals.

We were very proud of her, of course, but honestly DW and I both expected she could win. However, we hold no illusions about the state level. The competition will be very stiff. Contestants are placed, and receive either a gold or silver award. We would be happy with a gold award.

Her contest is Thursday March 12, beginning at 8 a.m. Regions rotate speaking positions from year to year, and Region III (her region) speaks first this year. So, she'll get a bright and early opportunity to compete. We'll be there, the only question is whether we will drive early in the morning, or stay over the night before. DW has a sister who lives in the area, so we wouldn't have to get a hotel room. DD1 will be there as a participant in the convention, otherwise we would definitely drive the night before. The question in my mind is childcare for the boys, which we'll have to find someone to get them on the bus, because we'll be on the road when they get on the bus at 7:20 either way. I'm sure we'll figure this all out.

But, my daughter has made it to state level competition her first year out. Her mom did the same thing. There was no Jr. High FFA in 1992 (in Michigan, anyway). So DW started in FFA in 9th grade. She participated in what is called Green Hand Public speaking (for 9th and 10th graders in their first year of FFA), and she won it at the state level. So, there is precedent here in the family!

In my last post, I guessed my federal refund at $3,000. It's actually $3,395. I guessed my state refund at $1,000. It's actually $199. Added together, I was fairly close, but I was way off on the state amount.

I was submitting some expenses for my flexible spending account on Monday, and I thought about DD 1's possible braces. It occurred to me that at a minimum we might want to wait another year so I can max out my flexible spending account election, and at least get the full tax benefit if we do decide for the braces.

Speaking of DD1, she has made it to regional competition for Jr. High public speaking in FFA. The district competition was two weeks ago, and she took first place. If she takes first or second place tonight, she would move on to state level competition in three weeks. I'm clearly biased, but I think she stands a decent chance of placing at least second. I say that because I have judged Jr. High public speaking before, and as long as she performs to her ability, she is doing a better job than most in Jr. High.

I know it's mid month. Actually a bit past mid month, but I just figured my February net worth - it's $229,440, a $2,366 increase over last month.

We filed our taxes this weekend, and I can't remember our refund amounts, but it's around $3,000 federal, and $1,000 state. We still have that federal adoption credit working in our favor, but I'll plan on adjusting withholdings.

DW is still working on that freelance project. She hopes to have it finished by the end of the month. Once she's finished, she can bill for another $5,600.

It looks as if DD1 needs braces. That would be a $5,000 bill. If she gets them, we would probably time it so that she got them right after DW has received her freelance income.

Our dentist has fairly strongly recommended that she get braces. It's his opinion that teeth will touch each other, and cause future cavities. We took her to see an orthodontists, and oddly, he wasn't as strong in his recommendation for braces. He seems to think it would be more for cosmetic reasons. So, I'm not sure what we'll do.

We can easily wait for the freelance income, but there are lots of places for that money to go. We can get on a no interest 18 month payment plan. If we pay up front, we'll receive about a $200 discount.

DW had braces as a child, I did not, but my sister did. My teeth are a little crooked, and I could have had some cosmetic benefit from braces (I think). And it's clear to even me that DD2 will need braces after more of her permanent teeth have come in.

So, again, I'm not sure what we'll do, but we probably won't make any decisions until April or May.

Does anyone have kids who were on the borderline of needing braces? What did you decide?

My oldest daughter is now a member of our local FFA chapter. This weekend she will be showing a pig as a member of the FFA at a state-wide hog show.

She's been stopping by the FFA barn at least once a week since about mid November to work with the pig, clean its stall, and to do her part with chores in the barn.

DW and I have seen this as an opportunity to learn about responsibility, learn more about the raising hogs, to interact with some of the older members, and to all-around have a good time with good people.

DW met with the FFA advisor/local agri-science teacher on a completely different topic yesterday. The FFA advisor mentioned to her that, oh yeah, the kids get to keep the hog that they show. The FFA chapter bought the hog, housed the hog, and bought the feed for the hog. Our family gets to keep the hog, and pay only the fee to slaughter and process the hog into the different cuts and sausages. That sounds good to me!

I'm not sure about the cost of processing. We had an extra fair hog processed about a year and a half ago, and I don't remember what we paid. And, it really depends on how much you have processed into, for example, sausage as opposed to fresh cuts, or how much of it you have smoked. We'll have more processed into sausage this time, because we use more sausage than we do fresh pork butt, for example.

But, it seems that we paid right around $200 last time, so maybe $250 this time? So that will be right around 175 pounds of meat for around $250.

And, DD1 still gets an outstanding educational experience!

We bought a new-to-us vehicle last month. A 2012 minivan with a bit more than 3,000 miles. So, it's still under the manufacturer's warranty.

We bought it for a good deal. In fact, our lender has informed us that we paid about $1,000 less than the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) value.

For the past three weeks or so, every third day or so we've been receiving cheesy form letters in the mail telling us that our manufacturer's warranty is about to expire! We had better act fast, and purchase their extended warranty!

It's apparent to me that this dealer has sold our name to these cheesy companies. It makes me wonder just how much our dealer sold our name and address for.

It's a little bit annoying, but also a little bit funny. It's also sad, because there would be no value to selling our name if the tactic didn't work on a certain number of people.

It would be tempting to add that to the negotiation next time we buy a vehicle - "I'll pay $XX,XXX for this car with the understanding that you won't sell my name to any cheesy companies", for example. Not so much because of the burden of getting these mailings, but more of a "I know what you're going to do" type of a thing.

And I guess, if we were able to buy the van for less than NADA because our name was sold, then so be it. It's not a really big deal. I am sad that it apparently works on so many people, though.

Is there a relationship between physical fitness and financial fitness? I suspect there is.

I tried a little experiment this holiday season. I weighed myself a day or two before Thanksgiving. My weight was 203.8 pounds. I weighed myself again yesterday. I didn't weigh myself a single time in between. My weight yesterday was 204.0 pounds. I joked that I probably grew 0.2 pounds of hair during that time. Actually, I fully realize that our bodies can fluctuate in weight just during the day, so the two weights are essentially identical. But, I met my goal of not gaining weight during the holidays.

For reference, I'm 6'1" tall, and my BMI is 26.9, which still puts me solidly in the "overweight" category, but not in the "obese" category.

I've had a goal of 185 pounds for several years. I weigh less in the summer time, when I'm more active, But I don't think I've weighed less than 195 pounds for a long time. I was 165 pounds when I graduated high school in 1991, and 175 pounds when I was married, five years later. I've probably been +190 pounds for 15 years.

So, back to my original question - is there a relationship between physical fitness and financial fitness? It would seem that at a minimum, one would be spending less on high cost junk foods if one were trying to lose weight. And, as long as one weren't buying high dollar equipment and gym memberships that one cannot afford, one would save money while trying to lose weight.

But, really it seems to me that the discipline related to keeping weight off would flow right into your financial decisions as well.

I've never been one to make New Year resolutions. It's always seemed silly to me to decide on lifestyle changes just because the calendar shows a bigger number. But, here I am, at the beginning of the New Year, and I'd like to commit to becoming more physically fit, as well as more financially fit. I've got no specific weight goal, other than that elusive 185 pounds that I've had for five or six years. But, let's put this down as a goal for now - that I weigh something less than 200 pounds at the end of winter.

Happy New Year! It's Jan. 5, so maybe I'm a bit late.

I'm not sure if I've ever set a New Year goal in this blog. After I post, I'll check the archives to see for sure, but I don't think I have.

My financial goal for this 2015 year is to end the year with a $250,000 net worth - a quarter of a million dollars.

My current family net worth is $227,000 - 23K short of 250K. To reach the goal, we'll have to increase net worth by about 2K per month - or $1,916.67 per month to be a bit more precise.

We currently have three debts - house, mini van, and pickup. We'll be making average principal payments of about $1,080 on the house, $300 on the van, and $140 on the truck. That's $1,520 average monthly decrease in debt. The rest will have to come from growth in retirement investments. Between my employer and personal contributions, I invest about $780 per month into retirement.

Between investment and debt reduction - that's about $2,300 per month increase in net worth. As long as the stock market doesn't tank, I should reach my goal. We'll see.

Some of you my disagree with how I calculate net worth. I include home equity as well as vehicle equity, and even include $3,700 for household items. Basically, if we were to sell each and every item my family owns, how much would be left.

I do estimate home and vehicle equity low.

We bought a new-to-us mini van this week - a 2012 Chrysler Town & Country. Before we did that I paid of my CC in full.

To start the story at the beginning, a week ago we had a list of about a dozen and a half local T&C's, and two dealers set themselves apart as having the best deals. The first was in local town A, about 30 miles to the south east of us, and the second was at local town B, about 25 miles to the west of us.

I was in local town A last Friday AM for work, and was able to take the afternoon off. DW joined me in the town for lunch, then we stopped by the dealership. There were three T&C's that drew our attention. One of them was a model year older, and was near the top of the number of miles we were interested in. Of the other two, both 2012's, one had a pinch more miles, but was $600 more expensive. Turns out it had heated seats, and we assume that's the reason it was more expensive. So, we sat down with the sales person to strike a deal. We made an offer, and she presented it to her manager. The woman we were working with was OK as far as used car sales people go, but she told us it was just her third week on the job, so she had to run everything through her manager. Our offer was low-ball, but you have to start somewhere, right?

Her manager was your classic over aggressive, slimy, talking through both sides of his mouth sales person types. He was thoroughly offended by our offer, and proceeded to show us vehicles "more in our budget range". No, we know which van we are interested in, let's strike a deal on that one. We told him (truthfully) that there was another dealer we needed to visit first, and (truthfully) that we couldn't make a deal until at least Monday next week, because it wouldn't be until then that our credit union would have our financing ready. We walked out with a purchase agreement with the dollar value that they had quoted.

We drove to local town B to look at the next van (this was a GM dealer that only had one T&C). The van at this dealership had quite a few more miles, and was priced accordingly. We were able to talk that dealer down a bit, but we found out through Car Fax that this vehicle had started out as a fleet rental, which right or wrong made me uncomfortable. Also, we felt that the price of this van was still more than the van in town A, even after our negotiated price in town B when adjusted for mileage. After looking at all the local vans, we came to the conclusion that slimy dealer in town A had the van priced right.

We weren't able to go back to the dealership in town A until Tuesday. Guess what - the dealer had raised the price of the vehicle by $1,001 over the weekend. We already knew that, because DW had been following the vehicle on the dealer's web site. But, we were ready to settle on the price they had it listed for on Friday, because we had determined it was a fair price. THE DEALER WOULD NOT BUDGE FROM THE NEW LISTED PRICE. We had a purchase order written three days previously. The slimy dude told us that purchase orders expire after 36 hours. We told him that we were not made aware of that verbally, and that fact appeared nowhere on the purchase order. He said that the 36 hour expiration is "all over our web site". We invited him to pull up his web site, and show us. He declined. We have since looked at the web site and that 36 hour policy appears nowhere. So, we walked out.

DW entered all our desired parameters back into autotrader.com, except this time we widened the search to 100 miles. She found one additional dealership that had three T&C's that fit our parameters. That dealership was in Oakland County, near Detroit. We drove there.

One of the three was not available. I think it was because it was being driven by one of the car dealers, or because it was sold. I don't really remember. So, we drove another one of the vans. It was nice, but it had been in a minor accident, and had a minor amount of rear-end damage still visible. I'll call it honeycombing on the rear bumper. The van had not yet been detailed, and it was evident that the previous owner had a dog. Us to the sales person - "Let's see the third van". The sales person to us "let's see if I can find it". That van was at another location, just eight miles from the city limits of Detroit. This van had a pinch fewer miles, but was offered for a few less dollars. It had been on the lot since September, and we assume it was priced such as it was because they wanted it to move before it got stale. We drove the 15 minutes to the other location. The van was black, and we would have preferred the color of the white one we had just driven. But, this black one had after-market heated seats installed. The car fax checked out, and we offered to buy the van. This van had fewer miles than any of the others we looked at, and was offered for fewer dollars than the van in local town A.

The dealer would not budge on the price, and offered us less than half for our trade than the local dealers($300 as opposed to $750 at the other two dealers). Yes, we drove it until the wheels were ready to fall off. But the "administrative fee" was well less than the other two dealers - I think $94 instead of $200 and $180 at the other dealers.

The bottom line is that we knew this deal was better than the other two we had struck, so we took it.

We made a $6,000 down payment, and financed $11,800 over three years through our credit union. We still have enough money to pay off my truck, so we will only be paying on one vehicle.

Now, for the rest of the story...DW created a small stink on FB about how we were treated at the dealership in town A. She tagged the dealership so that they saw the post. The dealership proceeded to argue back and forth on social media - if you read what they posted you would recognize it as a bad decision. They could have taken a high road and handled it differently, but they did not.

Additionally, between my MIL and FIL and two BIL's, they have purchased three new vehicles from that dealership over the past three years. I guess they didn't recognize DW's maiden name on FB. One of my BIL's called his salesperson, who is an old friend of his, and let him know about the situation.

DW ended up getting a call from our original sales person, who asked us to come back, because they had found a way to sweeten the deal on the van. Sadly, it was too late.

We are very happy with our new-to-us van.

1: DW was paid for her freelance work. I can't remember the exact dollar value, but it was substantially more than the $2,000 i mentioned last post.

2: DW received a generous cash gift from her parents for Christmas.

3: The payment for the freelance project plus the cash gift is enough to pay off our credit card, plus quite a bit left over. I made the payment on the CC last night, and it should be posted at 5:00 this afternoon.

4: We are looking for a new to us mini-van. You may have seen my thread in the forums side.

5: We will probably pay off my truck first. I'm not sure how much we'll have left for a down payment for the new to us van.

6: I'm hoping that the new payment on the mini van will be very similar to the current payment on the truck. We have to get bills paid, decide what we want to spend on the new van, etc.

Will update more later once we get a clearer picture of what's going on.

I'm going to kind of start this blog over, right where I started it in April 2011. At or near the beginning of each month, I would list my debts. I set different debt reduction goals for myself along the way, and I tried to use this blog to keep myself accountable. My situation isn't nearly as dire as it was four years ago, but that formula seemed to work well.

Last time I reported in the blog, about a month and a half ago, Oct. 24, my credit card balance was $4,361. The current (not really current, I just now made the payment on-line, and it won't post til 5:00, but I'm going with it as current) balance is $4,149. My total debts are (debt, interest rate, balance)

Mortgage 2.25% $40,037
Truck 3.99% $4,568
Credit Card 19.99% $4,149
Total Debt $48,754

My only goal at this point is that I owe less on each account than I did the previous month.

I'm still toying with the idea of transferring that CC debt to a 0.00% intro rate card, but I'm not really sure I want to play that game again.

Last time I blogged, I mentioned a freelance job my DW had. For the first time in about 12 years of serious freelance work, DW has been stiffed for payment - about $2,000. The worst part of it is that she had recruited her sister, and a friend of ours from college to work with her, and they got stiffed too. Live and learn, but really after 12 years, it seems like a pretty good record.

We've walked over it. Our current credit card debt is $4,361.46, at 19.99% int. It’s been building since the end of July. Right now I’m not motivated to get this turned around. I've blogged several times about the situation with our family, but as a reminder, we adopted two boys from foster care about three years ago. The older boy (A) has classic autism. The younger boy (E) has a milder form of autism, but is also affected by fetal alcohol syndrome and has cerebral palsy. To say that they are a challenge to raise puts it mildly. They are extremely difficult to raise, and we are worn out.

Of course, we've gone into credit card debt before, when the boys weren't a factor. So, maybe I’m making excuses, or passing blame. I don’t know. Our Achilles heel has always been eating out. Before we had kids, and we were both working, we were “too busy” to eat in, so we ate out. When we had only one child, and she was three, and we were getting the hang of parenting her, we still ate out. When we had two neuro-typical kids, and they were both out of the toddler age, and getting reasonably easy to parent, we ate out.
Now with four kids, the trend continues. Let me tell you about last night. I left work, and rushed the 20 miles to our home town, and met DW at the rehabilitation center to take E to physical therapy for his cerebral palsy. DW had just picked both boys up from the autism center which is in a town 20 miles in the opposite direction from where I work. E has twice weekly PT. And, last night’s session went as well as any of his sessions have ever gone. He was relatively cooperative for most of it, and we were both happy when we left.

DW had taken the other three kids to a Halloween party that was put on by the local AAUW chapter. We decided that we would try E at the party. That was a big mistake. I should have just taken him home. His alcohol affected brain does not allow him to enjoy social situations like other four year olds. He acts like an 18 month old in a four year old body. There were tables with treats and toys, and he wanted all of them. When we try to disallow his behavior he throws an absolute screaming fit. So, I carried him out, and back to my pick up, and before I went home, I spent $11 on a pizza, some bread sticks and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew.

That’s just one example of things that happen much too often. DW and I are always exhausted, her physically, and me mentally.

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't acknowledge that A’s has made vast improvements, although there are times when the autism completely overpowers him, and he regresses back to the exact behaviors as when he first came to our house. But, those times are becoming less frequent. And it seems as if E takes every single inch that A gives us.

The other side of this equation is our girls. Our wonderfully behaved, mature beyond their years, put up with much more than should be expected of them girls. We don’t buy them stuff, but we do have them involved in a lot of activities. We try to get them out of the house, so they can enjoy life. And those activities cost money, even if it is just gas for travel.
We do get respite care for our boys through our County behavioral health system. It amounts to about four hours per week. There are four people in a twenty mile radius who have gone through the training to be accepted as respite care providers, three of them are my mother, father, and sister. The other is the mother of another special needs child. Her husband is currently incarcerated for multiple DWI convictions. Respite care income seems to be an important part of her cash flow. We call her on a very last choice basis. She’s watched the boys three times in the past three months.

One of our problems with this respite care is that DW and I are too forward thinking. We are aware of the total number of hours allocated to us, and we meter them out accordingly. If the average comes out to 4.22 hours per week, that’s what we use. It has come to our attention that most other people who receive respite care, or similar services through behavioral health, use hours up with reckless abandon, then cry and scream at their case worker that they need more hours. So, we’re being much less calculating about the respite hours, and when they run out, we’ll see what happens. The bottom line, of course, is that my folks will watch the boys with our without respite payment, unless it’s January or February, when they’re in Florida.

We do have a neighbor girl who is absolutely great with the boys, and she is almost always willing to help us out, but, of course we pay for her directly. She’s not yet 18, so she’s not eligible to provide respite care.

I’ll go back to the bigger picture. We are broke. We have gone back into credit card debt. And, as much as it may sound like I’m trying to place all the blame on our current family situation, I completely recognize that we got ourselves into the same problem before any of our children were born.

19.99% int. is a high rate. At the current balance, it’s costing around $72 per month. So, the first and most obvious choice is to look for a low or no transfer cost card with a 0.0% introductory rate. In my current state of mind, I think that’s a bad idea. It will just give me another card to charge up.
DW is expecting a $2,000 freelance check sometime in the next couple of weeks, and certainly a lot of that payment can go toward debt reduction, and she’ll be getting four more of those checks during the next 12 months, so, I honestly expect that the card will be all paid off within six months. But, that doesn't change the fact that we've slipped back into the same behaviors that put us 24K in the hole five years ago.

My ability to concentrate on this subject any longer has just slipped away, so it’s time to publish. Thanks for reading.

I will add one more thought. Someone my offer the very sound advice that DW and I get some counseling. Been there, done that. And, we both found the counseling sessions to be very helpful. The nearest counselor is 20 miles away, in the same town where we take the boys for their autism center, and a couple other things. We have to line up a baby sitter for at least two hours, and really, when we have to line up a baby sitter, we'd really rather do something more fun.

My home town grocery store closed last week. It's been the only grocery store in town since about 1996 or 1997.

I worked at the store when I was in high school. I started working there (gasp!) 25 years ago, when I was a Junior in High School, and worked through the summer of my Freshman year in college. I didn't work in the grocery part of the store, though. The sore also had a wholesale meat division. I worked in the meat department, and made a whole nickel per hour more than the high school aged baggers and stockers in the grocery. And, I got to walk around with blood on my white apron like a tough guy.

Anyway - The family that owned the store sold out to a grocer in the Detroit area three or four years ago. So the husband and wife who bought he store have been managing it from afar, and it's been running steadily down hill for a couple years. They finally called it quits.

There are a couple other local-ish grocery stores. One is in the town in which I work. And there are Wal-marts in each of those neighboring towns. Honestly, we were probably buying much fewer than half our groceries from the home-town store, because the prices had become so expensive, and the produce wasn't as fresh. Thus the reason they went out of business - lower quality, more expensive, and customer willingness to travel.

But, it was nice to have a store in town, where we could pick up certain items.

There have been rumors that a couple local grocers walked through the store just prior to closing. So, there may be a deal struck to buy the place some time in the future. But, for now the store sits empty, and about four dozen local people have lost their jobs.

As some of you may remember I attended and graduated from Michigan State. I met my DW at Michigan State. We fully intend on sending our girls to Michigan State. It is of course their choice, and we really won't be pushing it, but at this point that is the plan.

Nagging at the back of my mind, from time to time, is the expense of sending two girls to college. They'll overlap one year. DD1 will be a senior when DD2 is a freshman. I think I have that right, anyway.

I wen to the MSU web site, and found their tuition and fees calculator. I entered household income, family size, value of assets, and 2013 income taxes paid. The calculator computed the following for the 2014/2015 year (two semesters):

Tuition/Fees = $14,080
Room/Board = $9,204
Books/Supplies = $1,060
Other Expenses = $1,864
Total = $26,308

Estimated needs based grants = $11,080
Estimated net price = $15,128

Student loans = $6,500 (per year)
Parent loans/other sources = $8,628 per year

DD1 won't be going to college for another six years. So, this is a way out there estimate, but gives me a general idea for the time being.

Heck, I earned about $6,500 per year between working during school and summer in the early and mid '90s. I finished school about 10K in debt in 1995.

Of course we'll be working on scholarships, scholarships, and scholarships as well.

Also, Room/Board, Book/Supplies, and Other Expenses, which account for nearly half the cost can be whittled down to an extent through frugality.

Today is the last working day of the month, so it's my pay day. Always a good day.

Our summer property taxes are due Sept. 15, so I went ahead and put the check in the mail this morning, lest I forget later in the month. That's one of the few bills we do not pay electronically.

We don't have really big plans for the weekend. A friend of our family is getting married sometime later in the month. She and her fiance are in the Navy, and they are stationed in Hawaii. Yes, Hawaii. They will be home this weekend, so they are having a reception here. That's about it.

We went on an entire family vacation last week - DW and I and all four kids.

We visited the extreme NW corner of Michigan's lower peninsula, a part of our state none of us had visited before. We camped at a state park.

We had been planning this trip since June. Originally, we had planned to stay in a cabin on the site. Then, five days before our trip, plans changed.

My DW found a camper available on a local on-line selling/trading site. The seller said she was desperate to sell the camper ASAP, and that she would take any reasonable offer. DW contacted her, and it turns out that she needs to hire an attorney to settle a custody dispute with her ex. The woman also said that someone had offered her $750 for the camper, but she thought that wasn't enough.

So, DW set up an appointment to look at the camper. We discussed it, and figured we'd go as high as $900. DW stopped by the bank, and withdrew the cash. After looking at the camper, she offered $800, and showed the woman the green cash. She accepted the offer, and DW hooked up to the camper, and drove off.

It did have a leaky roof. It cost us about $45 in materials to fix that, but all in all, it worked well on our trip. It's a 1978 - 18' camper. Nothing fancy at all, but I'm sure it's probably well worth the $800, and probably quite a bit more.

We saved $100 by camping in the trailer rather than the cabin, but spent, I don't know maybe $30 or $40 more in gas to haul the trailer.

As far as our trip, we visited a waterfall, a light house, a sea lamprey research center, a calcite lime quarry, hunted for some fossils, and had fun camping. Maybe not really exciting by other's standards, but fun for us.

As far as the future of the trailer - it will be nice to have during fair week as a home base at the fair grounds. We will, of course use it for future vacations. Also it's difficult for our girls to have friends over night because of our boys with special needs. The camper will allow our girls to have friends over, and have fun and some privacy.

We were at the fair last week. It was an expensive week.

DS2 doesn't do well at the fair, and frankly, it's easiest when both of them are away. Add to that that it wasn't a summer school week, and we spent a lot on baby sitting. My mom and dad helped out with them a lot, but they understandably wanted to see their grand daughters show their animals. DS2 did show DD2's goat in the just for fun clover bud show, and he showed a chicken as well.

Our girls did very well. DD2 won her age division of showmanship with her goat (that's the part of the show where the goat is not judged for meat production, but the child is judged for how well they fit and show the animal), and DD1 won her showmanship division with the dairy heifer. DD2 placed fourth in showmanship with her hog, and DD1 took third in showmanship with her goat. That was actually a set-back with the goat. DD1 has won the competition three of the past four years, and has never taken less than second. But, her goat was particularly stubborn this year, and she has made the dairy heifer her priority all summer.

As far as meat production judging went - they both finished in the middle with their hogs, near the bottom with goats and dairy (the heifer was too young do do really well, but we more more concerned with the behavior of the animal for her first year). DD2's chickens finished in the top quarter among 44 pens. You really have to pay top dollar for animals to do well in hogs and goats. DD1's goat was born at home, so we're happy that she raised, showed, and sold a home-grown animal.

Prices were up this year at the sale, and both girls finished the fair with some money to save for college. Prices were up enough that I did not buy a turkey, this year. Last year I paid $125 for a turkey that we ate for Thanksgiving. This year, no turkey sold for less than $200. I did bid about five of them up, though trying to buy one.

Really, the poultry competitions are a pretty fair comparison of a child's ability to raise an animal for the fair. Take our chickens for example. We bought 25 of them six weeks ago. We took 12 of them to the fair. Three each for three of the kids, and one pen of three chickens for our 4-H club. We went in with several other families on the order, so we all started out with random chickens. Then the children have to feed and water them, keep their pens clean, and keep them safe from predators. They can't be any older than six week, you must have the paperwork that shows the date they were hatched, and each of them must weigh at least five pounds. They start off on even ground, and may the best poultry producer win.

Compare that to other species like hogs, beef, goats, sheep that are purchased several months before the fair, after the animal is weaned. The buyer (and seller) already has an idea if the animal will finish as a great, good, or mediocre fair animal, and they are priced accordingly. The grand champions in those species paid top dollar for their animals.

We've never played that game. Of course during the fair, my instinct is to always think that next year, we want to win! We'll pay whatever it takes! But, thankfully I become more sensible, because there is only one winner, and several families that did pay top dollar and did not win. And, by time March rolls around, and it's time to buy pigs for the fair again, we decide to buy the moderately priced animals, and work on showmanship skills.

It was a good week. We had a great time, and we were all exhausted yesterday. We'll recover, and do it all again next year.

I blogged earlier this month about how our fuel oil supplier increased our monthly budget payment amount, even though we finished the year with a credit. A quick call fixed the problem, and our budget payment was reduced.

Today I was looking through our checking account withdrawals, and saw that $220 was debited from our account on July 21. That's our normal fuel oil budget payment date, and our normal payment amount. The problem is that we weren't supposed to have the withdrawal made this month, and the amount withdrawn in August was supposed to be reduced, so that our Sept. 1 credit would be $0. That was according to a conversation I had with a rep from the company in May.

I made another quick call this morning, and the $220 charge will be reversed, and a reduced amount will be withdrawn in August. Problem fixed.

But, I've had two billing issues related to our budget plan this month! I'm left wondering if:

1) they were two honest mistakes
2) the billing person is incompetent
3) there is something more menacing going on, and they are trying to milk as much money out of the customers as they can, and if a customer catches on, and makes a call, they will only then fix the problem

Please convince me that option #1 happened.

I've blogged at least once that my family collects WIC benefits because we adopted our sons from foster care. DS1 turned five last year, so since then we've been collecting benefits for only DS2.

When we were collecting benefits for both boys, we figured the benefits were worth about $80 per month. The benefits for just DS2 are: three gallons plus one quart of milk (2% or less), two 64 oz. bottles of juice, two loaves of bread or two packages of tortillas (whole wheat), two boxes of cereal, one dozen eggs, one pound of cheese, a jar of peanut butter, or a couple cans of beans, and $6 of fresh fruits or vegetables.

Participants are limited to certain brands and types of different products. For example, you can't buy Lucky Charms or Fruity Pebbles for the cereal. You need to buy approved healthful brands, you can't buy fancy cheeses, only basic cheddar, mozzarella, etc., or expensive breads.

DS2, DW or I have to check in at the county health department every quarter. Twice per year, a face-to-face appointment is required so he can have his height and weight measured, and we consult with a nurse. The other two times, one of us has to review some nutritional information, and take a quiz. Usually that can be done on-line.

DS2 had an office visit last week. At that office visit, we learned that the 2% milk would be dropped as a WIC approved choice. Only 1 1/2%, 1%, or skim will be approved after Sept. 15.

For the first 15 of our 18 years of marriage, we were a red cap, whole milk family. DW is from a dairy farm, and growing up, she drank milk that was drawn off the bulk tank, fresh from the cows. Milk straight from a holstein cow (the breed that her family milks) is about 3.4 to 3.6% milk fat, and red cap "whole" milk is 3.25% milk fat. So, for her, buying red cap milk was a drop in milk fat. But, once we were on WIC, we relented, and began buying blue cap 2%, whether or not we were using WIC.

The change wasn't a big deal for me, or for the kids, and I'm not sure it was a big deal for DW, either. Regardless, we made the change, and are probably healthier for it.

I've seen 1% milk in local stores, but I'm not sure I've ever seen 1 1/2%. I think skim tastes like milky water. I'm sure I could get used to it, but I like a little substance to my milk.

If we plan to stay on WIC, we'll have to change our ways. We've discussed dropping WIC, and have decided that if the "cost" of the quarterly check-ins outweighs the benefits, we would drop it. My office is very close to the clinic, so it's been fairly convenient to keep up with the appointments. We'll probably ease into the decrease in milk fat with no problem, and probably switch over to the 1 1/2 or 1% (or it could be 1% or 1/2%, I'm really not sure) completely, and stay there even after benefits expire in another year.

As of right now, our "farm" consists of:

one dairy heifer
three pigs
six goats
twenty six broiler chickens
probably a couple dozen laying hens and associated roosters.
Two cats

They are expensive to feed. I'm embarrassed to admit how expensive.

Our county fair will end two weeks from Sunday. The three pigs, two of the goats, and twelve of the broilers will be sold at the fair. The rest of the broilers will be slaughtered shortly after that.

The dairy heifer, Poppy is on loan from my brother-in-law, so DD1 can show her at the fair. Poppy will be returned to her home farm within a few days or a week after the fair ends. Heck, we might put her in the trailer after the fair is over, and drive her straight to the farm.

And really, the breeding goats and laying hens aren't *that* expensive to feed.

Of course, we do this for our kids. Lots of parents spend lots of money sending their kids to camps, or gymnastics, or for band instruments. Or maybe I'm just trying to justify the expenses.

The major expense is the grain, but hay is not cheap, either. The hay is for the goats, and heifer. The other day I was looking through a magazine, and I saw an ad for a walk-behind hay baler. It makes round bales. I don't know how much it would cost. It looked kind of like a walk-behind lawn mower.

That got me to wondering if we should rent 10 acres from my dad, and plant some hay. But, we'd still need the hay mower, hay rake, a small tractor to pull the equipment. We could probably get a short-term lease on the tractor.

We'd probably custom hire someone to plant the seeds.

The last load of hay cost $4.50 for each bale. We usually buy enough bales each time to last 3-4 months. We're going through 2 - 2 1/2 bales per week, with the heifer and all six goats. Is $11.25 per week - at maximum usage - really worth it? Especially when you figure the expense of all the equipment, and the work to raise and harvest the crop? Probably not.

I never did make a post after our Cedar Point vacation. I'm not sure why its occurring to me now that I should do one, but I'll go with it.

We had fun. DD1 and I had a bit more fun than DW and DD2. They boys stayed home with grandparents. DD1 and I enjoy the very large roller coasters, DD2 and DW don't.

Because we stayed at the CP hotel, we had passes to enter the park an hour earlier than regular opening time. DD1 and I hit three big roller coasters all in a row. We did have to wait maybe 15-20 minutes for the giant Millennium Force.

After that we caught up with DW and DD2, and spent some time together. The day was basically spent alternating between whole family activities, and split family activities.

The park was fairly quiet for most of the day for two reasons: We picked a low traffic day, mid week in June, and there were a couple minor rain showers. After the morning shower, things quieted down a bit, but after the 4 pm rain shower, the park seemed to clear, and stayed clear.

The longest wait DD1 and I had for any coaster was about 45 min. After the 4 pm rain, we went on another three roller coasters without hardly and wait at all. We did wait in line to get in the front car for the Millennium Force the second time around.

A neat thing happened the second time we went on that coaster. When you are on these rides, there are certain spots where your picture is taken. Then, you can go through a booth, and see what you looked like on the ride, and you can even purchase a picture for something like $18.

DD1 remembered exactly where that picture was taken. So, she made sure her hands were straight up in the air, and she had a brave, and satisfied look on her face. We took a look at the picture, and she asked me if she could buy it with her own money. I told her she could, if she would like to, but I thought it was a waste of money. I told her that two weeks, or even two days later, after she had shown it to her friends, that it would seem kind of silly to her. She opted to not buy the pic (YES!). I'm glad I left it up to her, and I'm also happy with her decision.

We ended the day with more family time, and left the park at about 7:00. All in all a great vacation.

DW was fully and gainfully employed until DD1 was born nearly 12 years ago. She was an agricultural communications major at MSU, and she worked in the communications/writing/PR arena. She left the world of W-2 employment when DD1 was born, and took on the full-time task of raising children.

She began her own freelance public relations business probably six or eight months after DD1 was born. She would work on her projects when the baby, then babies were sleeping, or when I was home to care for the children. Most years she earned somewhere between 8-10K in income, after expenses. In fact, it was a freelance check that catapulted us into the world of finally addressing our debt problem. She received a check for about 11K in October 2010. We were woefully past due on a hand full of bills. We also had a mountain of debt. That 11K check allowed us to get current on all of our bills, and also take a big chunk out of our highest interest credit card. In fact, looking back, it was kind of funny how it worked out. We were past due on our highest interest CC. I think it was a day or maybe two after we got the freelance check, we got a letter in the mail from that CC company. They were offering us a deal. The int. rate on the card was, I think, 32.99%. The offer was that if we paid the past due amount, which I think was around $450, the company would cut our rate to 16.99%. We mailed the check that very same day, and our int. rate was cut nearly in half.

Once we were caught up on all of our past due bills, and got that CC back to current, there was a glimmer of hope that we could finally tackle this debt monster. I started posting to the SA forums, and six months after that, I started blogging here. Many of you know a lot of the rest of the story.

However, once we had four children under our care, DW was much too busy with children, and she stopped looking for freelance work, and that 11K check in 2010 was the last of of any freelance work, until a couple months ago.

One of DW's former direct supervisors works for another company now. He has a project that is just about perfectly suited for DW. He searched her out somehow, and and talked to her about this opportunity. The job involves interviewing people in the food industry - people who grow, process, and distribute food, as well as representatives from the state department of agriculture, and university agricultural researchers and educators. Once these individuals are interviewed, she will write reports about what they said.

The job is much too big for her to handle on her own, with her other responsibilities, within the time frame that it needs to be completed. So, she recruited one of her sisters, and a friend from college to help out. But, her part will be worth 7K. All of the pieces are in place, and she began working on the project this weekend. Our boys are in summer school this week, and our girls have bible school this week. So, she'll have about three hours each morning to work on the project. I'll give her the time she needs in the evenings, and weekends. It should work out well.

Although we're not behind on bills like we were in 2010, we still have a list seemingly a mile long for this money. And, I think she has an eye on a new printer for home. It does make sense to me that she use some of the freelance money for equipment used in her freelance business.

It also makes DW happy to get into the old groove of things for a while, too.

I've noticed that a majority of the regular bloggers on this site seem to be Gen Xers, or between mid thirties and late forties in age.

Has anyone else noticed that? Am I mistaken? Or, are the blogs written by Gen Xers tend to be more the ones I follow, because I, as an Gen Xer tend to more identify with their situations in life?

I can think of several examples of regular SA bloggers who are Boomers, and a couple Millennials, but it just seems like a good majority are Xers.

Maybe because we're the ones that are at a point in life where we are in the beginning/middle of saving for retirement, kid's college, have a sizeable mortgage, etc? Or maybe it's something about our generation that draws us to blog on a site like this? Or maybe I'm mistaken.

Thoughts?

My July retirement fund value was just a bit more than $160,000. I looked back, and in February it was almost $143,000. That's a 17K increase in five months - average increase of $3,400 per month!

Good times.

I blogged, I don't know, a while back - maybe a month or six weeks ago, that we were having trouble keeping up with the expense of driving our sons to an autism clinic about 25 miles away.

DW waded through the maze of red tape, paper work, and phone calls, and finally got approved for mileage reimbursement to and from the autism clinic. We were also approved for mileage reimbursement to and from physical therapy twice per week for DS 2- that's 12 miles RT, so not such a big deal, but nice.

This is all covered through Medicaid - your tax dollars at work. Thank you.

There's a ready-made program in place for the tri-county area around metro Detroit. Those three counties comprise approximately half the population of the state. The other half of us not in the area have to work a little harder to get the benefit.