Bob B.'s Financial Soundingboard

If you've been following my blog for the past year, you may remember that we're on a budget plan with our fuel oil supplier, for our home heating. The cycle runs from the beginning of July, to the end of June. Our monthly budgeted payment was $220 for the past year.

This weekend, we received the year-end statement. Our balance at the end of the cycle was -$399.22, or we had payed about $400 more over the course of the year than we had used in fuel oil. That's more than $30 per month in over payment.

BUT, our new budget amount is $250 per month, a $30 increase. So, I'm sitting here wondering why our new budgeted amount is $30 more per month, when last year we overpaid by an average of more than $30 per month.

My assumption is that the company is forecasting an increase is fuel oil prices over the next year. And, they very well might be right. However, The winter of 2013-14 was the coldest winter in about 36 years! I have a hard time believing that we will spend $720 more to heat our house this next year than we did this past year.

Clearly, I need to call our supplier, and I will. I just wanted to vent my frustration first.

I buy my term life insurance policy through my employer. When i first bought the policy about 10 years ago, I think it was for $300K or maybe even $350K. Back about 5 years ago, when we were struggling with debt, I reduced the coverage to reduce the premium. I'm not sure what I dropped it to, but I think $200K, or a bit less. When we got our debt problem under control, I didn't remember to increase coverage, until last week.

One of DW's FB friends is a recent widow. She's younger than we are, maybe early to mid 30's. Her post last week revolved around how she is in an on-line forum or group with other widows, and how she can't believe the number of widows whose husbands were not covered by life insurance prior to their death, and how their wives need to sell off property to get bills paid. DW's friend has received payment from a life insurance policy.

Even though I do have a life insurance policy, it is grossly inadequate. Even my previous 300 or 350K would be inadequate to cover my current salary, with now four children, two of whom we're planning to send to college.

The number I'm thinking is $750K. I had that number in mind, and took an on-line evaluation. It came up with (something like) $734,123.58. (seriously, $0.58?) But, we were close, so I'm leaning strongly toward $750K.

I'm not sure what it will cost. I tried to navigate my employer's HR website to increase the amount. I couldn't figure it out, so I sent an email message to HR. They are good at getting back within 24 hours. So I don't know for sure what my current coverage is - same website issue, but I'm fairly certain it's somewhere right around or just a bit less than $200k. I know it's costing me $9.95 per month. I can pull up my earnings statements from the web site, no problem.

If this group has any input about adequate coverage, I'd be happy to read any comments. Brief synopsis:

My salary is about $58K/yr.

DW does not draw a salary.

4 kids ranging in age from 4 - 11.

The eldest two kids will attend college.

I have a laughable EF.

DW is smart, and ambitious, and educated, but the preference would be that she not work until after the youngest child is 18.

Thanks for reading!

This morning, I thought this could have been a much bigger deal than it has turned out it be.

If you have been following my last couple of blog posts, you know two things: my DW took our oldest daughter to MSU last week, and the beginning if this week we were on vacation.

Normally our cleaning lady visits on Fridays from noon til 3:00. Last Thursday evening and Friday, since it was just our boys and me at the house, I knew that I wouldn't have the place ready for cleaning, so I left a message for our cleaning lady to visit on Monday or Tuesday. She did visit and cleaned one of those days. But, she left a note explaining that she would be moving out of state, and would no longer be able to clean for us.

DW and I talked about our options. She mentioned that our neighbor across the road has a cleaning service, and she is happy with the results. So, DW contacted the new cleaning lady. She'll start July 7. It was that easy.

Our previous service charged us $15 per hour, and provided all cleaning supplies, except for a vacuum. She originally provided a vacuum, but hers quit working several months ago, and she had been using ours ever since. The new service will charge us $13 per hour, but we provide all supplies.

On a side note, this most recent cleaning marked the one year anniversary of hiring our first cleaning service, and we gave her a fifty cents per hour raise, which we included in this most recent check. I'm glad I had archived hiring her in this blog, so I was able to look back and see when we had hired her. As far as that goes, I am currently archiving hiring the new service.

I know the new cleaning lady, but not extremely well. She grew up in a house about a mile down the road. We rode the bus together to school, and she is a year older than I am. Her parents no longer live there.

What could have been a long process of looking, and contacting, and interviewing, and narrowing down, and contacting references, and choosing, has turned out to not be a problem at all. I think the odds are very good that she will work out just fine.

We're at Cedar Point today. I'm an early riser, rest of the family isn't. We went to a drive thru zoo yesterday on the way here. Daw got the tickets for almost 1/3 the price on groupon ( for the zoo).

Food is very expensive here. Even outside the park. We're staying at the hotel right next to the park, so we can enter an hour early.

Here's a pic from the zoo yesterday.

We got some chicks yesterday. These are meat chickens, not layers. They are for our kid's 4-H project for the fair.

They came in as a bulk order, for several 4-H families. We ordered 25, and received 26. The hatchery sends an extra chick for every 25 ordered, to insure against death loss during shipment. For all the times we've ordered chicks via mail, I don't think we've ever lost one during shipment.

I picked them up last evening after work from the family that placed the order. When I got home, DD2 is still young enough that she was wooed by the cuteness. DD1 was all business, getting them acclimated to their new home.

Brand new chicks require 90 degree F heat. So, even though it was 84 outside when they arrived, we turned on the heat lamp. The temp did drop down to about 68 last night, and sure enough, when I went out to the barn this morning to check on them, they were all huddled under the heat lamp.

It's six weeks before fair, and that's the maximum age for a "pen" of chickens. Each pen consists of three chickens. DD1, DD2, and DS1 will each take a pen to the fair. The goal is to match them as closely as possible in size and weight within the pen.

Also, DW and I started our own 4-H club about a year ago. 4-H clubs and FFA chapters can also take animals to the fair, and show and sell them as a fundraiser. Our 4-H club will also take a pen of chickens to the fair. Three kids plus one club times three chickens per pen equals 12 chickens needed. The 25 ordered plus one extra will help assure that we can get closely sized pens, plus buffer against any death loss/crippled chickens in six weeks.

Plus grandparents, aunts and uncles are usually good to pick up the extras that don't fit in our freezer.

The 25 (26) chicks cost $48.75. We'll probably have $15-$20 into each chicken before it's all said and done. Each pen is likely to sell for $100-$150.

4-H Exploration Days is an opportunity for young 4-H members, at least age 11, to explore the campus at Michigan State University for three days each summer. Participants enroll themselves in either one long educational session, or two shorter educational sessions. Of course, participants also walk around campus, ride the bus around campus, and fool around with their friends.

Explorations Days is really a big recruitment tool. It worked on me, even though I only attended once. I think DW attended three or four times. We were there at the same time in probably 1986 or 1987, but our paths didn't cross.

DD1 is attending Exploration Days for her first time beginning tomorrow. She is super, super excited. She's been saving money for most of the past year, and has $40 saved. It may or may not all get spent there.

DW will be attending as a chaperon. DD2 will spend some time with a favorite aunt, and I will stay home with the boys. I'll only be taking two days off from work, as the boys are in school tomorrow, but not Thursday or Friday.

This will be a good opportunity for DD1 to learn about saving and spending money. I remember the year I went, I bought an MSU hat for $11. My dad was beside himself about that. It was white corduroy, with green lettering, and impossible to keep clean. I learned something about impulse buying. That's why we're letting DD1 manage her own funds. Better to learn now, than later.

I just did some minor updating on my personal balance sheet, and I noticed that my total debt is less than my annual salary.

The exact calculation is - total debt = 91.6% of my annual salary.

Doing some backwards math, it looks as if debt dropped below salary in March.

It seems like that must be a step in the right direction.

With my Discover Card. And I'd say it's almost as annoying being on the "good boy" list as it is being on the "bad boy" list. Almost, but not quite.

It seems as if the mailings are weekly now. "You are a preferred customer. You are eligible for a... home equity line of credit, or a consolidation loan, or an increase in your credit limit... This week's had something to do with student loans (I didn't open it), which I do not have, and do not need.

So, that's what I get for having a single credit card, and paying the balance off every single month. Offers for more credit.

Part of my job is to establish corn and soybean plots across a four county area in Michigan. I have one full-time employee, and hire one part-time assistant for 7-9 weeks in the spring. I also need some sporadic part-time help in the fall during harvest.

My current assistant, we'll call him Chuck, is about the same age as I am. He is finishing his third season with me. When I interviewed him a bit more than two years ago, he seemed like a good fit, and he has turned out to be a great employee. The good part, and bad part, is that he is otherwise unemployed.

He does some work for a neighbor farmer of his, and he picks up other odd jobs during the year. His wife is fully employed, and, as it turns out, they live in a family house, and apparently have no mortgage.

When I interviewed him in 2012, I promised nothing more than two months that spring. When he came back last year, he did, in an off-handed way, mention that it would be great if I had more work for him. I agreed that it would be great to keep him on, but I just didn't have the budget for it.

This year, he has made similar comments twice. And, I've replied with similar comments. Although, I did come up with an extra job that needed to be done, that either I nor my full-time employee could have done, but I guess I was feeling generous.

It looks as if he'll be finished next Tuesday, then I'll have to lay him off. Again, all he is ever promised is a couple of months each spring, but I do feel bad about having to lay him off again.

Four seasons ago, I had another assistant. He worked with us for one season, because he got a full-time job in between seasons. So that meant that I had to post the job, conduct interviews, and train Chuck. And, lay him off every June.

This post is not meant as an opportunity to whine, although it may come appear as such. I just want to document my thoughts at this point in time, and archive them.

Raising kids with special needs is tough. I blogged a little while back about how we had started both boys at an autism clinic. The staff at the clinic use a therapy method called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). ABA is considered the gold standard in autism therapy.

DS1 has been diagnosed with Classic Autism, and DS2 has been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, which is also on the Autism Spectrum, but not as severe as Classic Autism. When you look at DS1, and interact with him just a little bit, anyone would know something is off about him. DS2, on the other hand looks like a typical four year old. It takes a bit more interaction with him to realize he is not a typical four year old. Regardless, they both qualified for treatment at the clinic.

Of course, the primary reason for sending them to the clinic is for them to receive the therapy, so they can develop into the best DS1 and DS2 that they can be. A secondary, and very important reason that they attend the clinic is so that my DW can get some much needed respite. They are transported directly from the clinic to their school, about two miles away. They are gone away from my DW from 8:30 AM until about 4:30 PM four days a week.

One of us (usually DW) drives them to the clinic. The clinic is about 23 miles from our house. They started at the clinic in mid-March. The four day a week, 23 mile trip is driving us broke. There are a thousand reasons to send them to the clinic, and only one reason not to - it is expensive.

We (mostly DW) are currently exploring services that can help us defray the costs. DW did learn of a service that will transport children to clinics such as these. That service is only available in the tri-county metro Detroit area.

I'm sure we will find something that will require another social worker, more paper work, and more record keeping and more vouchers, etc.

Again, I don't want to come across as whiny, although I probably am whining. It's just that this stuff is hard, and it didn't come as part of the Foster Parent Training Manual.

End Whine!

The only non-mortgage debt we have right now is the loan on my pickup. I bought the (used) pickup a year ago December, and borrowed $12,750. I took out a 36 month loan. The current balance on the loan is $5,784.59. Most months I've made extra principal payments, especially after our CC debt was retired last August.

According to KBB.com, the value of the pickup is just slightly more than $10,000 ($10,018 to be exact). The L/V ratio is 0.577. Because I am prone to wondering such things, I calculated what I would owe, and what the L/V ratio would be if I hadn't made the extra principal payments, or if I had taken out a longer (48 month) loan.

If I had just made required minimum payments on the 36 month schedule, the current balance on the loan would be $7,271.03, and the L/V ratio would be 0.726.

As far as the hypothetical 48 month loan goes, I'm not sure what the interest rate would have been if I had asked for one. My 36 month rate was 3.99%. Maybe they would have charged more, maybe not. I'll stick with a 3.99% 48 month loan. In that scenario, making only minimum payments, I'd owe $8,723.56, and the L/V would be 0.871.

I've gone this far, I might as well figure the 60 month loan while I'm at it. I'll use the same interest rate, and assume minimum payments. At 60 months, the current loan would be $9,594.32, with an L/V of 0.958. That's not quite underwater, but close. If I hadn't have made a down payment, it would be underwater!

That's pretty convincing evidence for me to shorten the loan period, to make a down payment, and to pay ahead if and when you can.

DW took DS2 to his physiatrist yesterday. I didn't even know what a physiatrist was until we took him there about two years ago for his first appointment. A physiatrist is a doctor that specialized in physical medicine, rehabilitation, and pain medicine. DS2 has cerebral palsy, and is tight in the legs (and arms) and has been wearing braces on his legs for the past 11 months.

The Dr. doesn't think that the braces are doing their job, and he has recommended that DS2 get botox injections in his knees (3 shots each knee 4 times per year). He has an appointment set for June 7.

A really quick Google search tells me that this course of treatment is not without controversy. We've got about 2 1/2 weeks to do a bit more serious reading up on the subject.

Besides loosening his leg muscles, and helping him walk better, the Dr. said that a benefit will be pain reduction. Probably DS2 has had pain in his legs for so long that he literally doesn't know what it's like to be pain free. That should help with his behavior, too.

From a practical standpoint, one of us will have to drive DS2 about 85 miles to the Dr. office four times a year on a Saturday (the Dr. does this treatment only on Saturdays).

We do get mileage reimbursements from the Children's Special Health Care program through our local Health Department - again because DS2 was adopted through foster care. That helps.

DW and I participated in back-to-back IEP meetings for our two boys on Wednesday. If you have special needs children, or have close friends or relatives with special needs children, you probably know that IEP stands for Individual Education Planning.

We had IEPs in March, and we asked for some special evaluations for each son. For DS2, we asked that he be evaluated for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. He has Cerebral Palsy and hearing loss.

So, this IEP was the school's opportunity to present their findings, and discuss the changes to the IEPs that were set in March. DS2 was granted one-on-one speech therapy and consulting physical therapy, and maintains consulting occupational therapy, as he had before.

For DS1, we requested an educational diagnosis of autism. Three MDs and two psychologists have diagnosed DS1 with autism. I'll point out that a medical autism diagnosis is different than an educational diagnosis. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, children with an educational diagnosis of autism are eligible for specific educational accommodations and supports at school. That can also be read as "children with an educational diagnosis of autism are more expensive for the school."

What I think happened in the early '90s, after the ADA was passed was that (some) doctors would willy nilly hand out diagnoses of autism so that children could receive services from schools. Schools became overwhelmed, and provisions were made so that the diagnosis (for services provided by schools) had to be made by a team of education professionals. For example, the team that evaluated DS1 was made up of: the school psychologist, the school social worker, and the school speech pathologist.

I'll also add that we had DS1 evaluated by the school two years ago, just after he began attending there. At that time, he was evaluated to have "autism like tendencies", but he was one check mark away (on the sheet of autism markers used for evaluation) from having an educational diagnosis.

Interestingly, after this new evaluation was complete, he was again one check mark away from having an educational diagnosis, but the check mark was in a different spot on the sheet. That is, an item that was not checked two years ago was checked this time, and an item that was checked two years ago was not checked this time.

DW received the results of the evaluation the day before the IEP (less than 24 hours). We knew we had a challenge ahead of us, and we began brainstorming ideas. What we came up with was to invite DW’s sister to advocate for us. DW is the youngest of eight children. The sister we invited is her oldest sister, and she is about 19 years older than DW. She is very strong willed, and can be a great advocate, or a terrible adversary. And, her background is in Human Services.

I’ll leave out most of the details of the meeting. What I will say is that IEPs are typically scheduled for 45 minutes to an hour. Our second IEP lasted nearly two hours. Sister-in-law did a great job advocating for us, but DW didn’t do so bad herself. I even made an impassioned point, while slamming my fist down on the table, which is uncharacteristic for me. The education team excused themselves for five minutes, and came back, and granted us the educational diagnosis.

DS1 now has an educational diagnosis of autism. Let me also add that DS1’s classroom teacher (who was strongly advocating against an educational diagnosis) does an absolutely great job with him in the classroom. But, he will now be getting more intensive services from the school.

A secondary, but important reason for the diagnosis is that families who have children with an educational autism diagnosis are eligible for a $200 per month stipend from the state. DS1 (and DS2) both started at an autism therapy clinic in March. The clinic is about 20 miles away, and DW drives them there four times a week. That $200 per month will be helpful to offset the cost of driving them to the clinic.

DS2 also has a medical diagnosis of autism, but his diagnosis is not “classic autism” like DS1’s is. His diagnosis is “Pervasive Developmental Disorder – not otherwise specified”, which would not meet the criteria for an educational autism diagnosis, but it does meet the criteria for treatment at the autism clinic.

To start this post correctly, I need to go back to February, at some point just prior to DD2's birthday. It seems that my sister-in-law (DW's sister) was at a hardware store, kids in tow, and she remembered that she needed to get something for my daughter's birthday (keep in mind that from my and DW's standpoint, she didn't *need* to buy anything for our daughter) she was apparently rushed for time, or something, and chose to buy a bird feeder and premium sunflower seed at the hardware store. It ended up being a nice gift that DD2 appreciated.

Fast forward to a week ago Saturday. DD2 and I filled up her bird feeder, and put it out in the spot of her choosing (with a bit of parental guidance). DW put out a thistle feeder, and some grape jelly for the oriels. I can't name all the birds (DW is more the bird watcher than I am), but we have lots of finches, and oriels, and many others. Just last Thursday they ate down 3/4 of a full feeder in that one day. Our original package of super premium sunflower seed is empty, as of yesterday. One week plus one day from when it was opened.

The birds have been fun to watch, and the kids have really enjoyed it. We've never had so many birds like this before. DW and I have fed birds practically every year since we've been married. But, we've never bought the really expensive bird seed, always the cheap stuff with millet filler, that the birds clearly do not like. This is an obvious case of "you get what you pay for."

Which gets me to the point of my post - we could go broke feeding these birds. The first bag was (I think) 10 pounds. I'm sure we could buy a bigger bag that would last a longer time, like 40 pounds for $20. And maybe, because there isn't much other food out in nature for them right now, they will slow down a little bit, but still, this could get expensive if we want to do it right.

I guess you could say that if bird feeding is my current biggest financial concern, thing are going pretty smoothly for us right now.

We went to my home-town FFA banquet yesterday afternoon - DW, DD1, DS1, and me. My folks had DD2 and DS2.

When I was in high school, there was no FFA. The agriculture teacher retired my freshman year, and the FFA chapter was on its last leg by then, and when the agriculture teacher retired, he was not replaced.

DW, on the other hand was very active in FFA, and she held a state office her freshman year of college.

The local chapter started up again three years ago. Both DW and I have been supportive of their activities. In fact, we were awarded a certificate of appreciation at the banquet yesterday.

DD1 will be in 7th grade next year. That's old enough to be an FFA member. Although our local chapter doesn't yet have 7th graders involved, only grades 9-12. But DW has talked with the chapter adviser, and she (and several of the active members) have begun a recruiting effort, and next year there will be a Jr. High chapter. So, DD1 will be an inaugural member of the local FFA Jr. chapter.

Yesterday's banquet was an opportunity for the chapter to thank (and feed) supporters and parents, award member achievement, announce new chapter officers, and raise funds. The funds are used to send student members to state and national conventions, contests throughout the school year, and other chapter activities, like the annual banquet.

DW and I contributed to the fund raising activities. We bid on three items in the silent auction - and we won two of them. One of the items we won was a chicken waterer, which we needed anyway. The value of the waterer is about $35, and we got it for $30. We also won a grilling utensil kit for $30, but honestly we had hoped that someone would out-bid us on that. That may be my dad's Father's Day gift.

There was also a live auction, including a labor auction. For the labor auction, students - in groups of two or three - offer themselves to bidders for four hours of labor.

We were interested in some laborers to help us build some fencing for DD1's herd of goats.

The three biggest, strongest boys in the chapter put themselves together as one "labor package". We also know one of the boys. He is a senior, he is from a farm, and he knows how to build fence. We bid on, and won their labor for $300.

Now all we need to do is buy the fencing materials, plan out the fencing, probably rent a post hole digger, and arrange a suitable time.

It's nice to be able to support a worthy cause that we believe in. Heck, we were going to have to pay someone to help us put up the fencing. No, we probably wouldn't have spent $25/hr. But, again, it was a worthy cause that we believe in.

I also figure that DD1 will be in the chapter next year, and at least part of those funds will go toward her activities.

I'm not the world's most handy guy. And that's putting it mildly.

Our downstairs bathroom toilet was leaking from the bottom. The wax ring needed to be replaced. I talked to a guy that I work with who I know used to do work for a plumber. He told me that changing the wax ring was really very simple. I asked him if he would be willing to come over to my place, and help me out, and he said sure.

I did some investigating on my own, and found out it really is simple. And, our toilet is only about four years old, so the bolts aren't corroded. So, this morning before work I removed the toilet, and removed the old wax ring, and went into town to buy a new one.

The directions on the wax ring say that it needs to be 70 degrees to flow, and seal properly. I left the wax ring at home, with the thermostat set at 70 degrees, and plan to replace it this afternoon when I get home. The wax ring cost $2.11.

My parents both retired almost two years ago. They have a fairly large house (~1,800 sq. ft.), and a fairly large lawn to maintain (~1 acre). Since retirement, they have spent Jan. and Feb. in Florida, and have had to pay to heat the fairly large house.

They decided to put their house on the market. They listed with a Realtor last December, before they left for Florida.

They agreed to an offer to buy their house last Friday. The couple that will be buying is Amish. Mr. Buyer has a bad back, and can no longer milk cows with his father. He hopes to start a furniture business at their new home. He'd also like to grow some vegetables for sale. He's in negotiations with the neighboring land owner to buy or rent some of the adjoining farm land.

My folks will be putting up a manufactured house just to the west of our maple woods. They have been living about 0.2 miles from us, and will be moving to about 0.1 miles away. I sure am glad DW gets along with my mom.

I think that by the time they get the house moved and assembled, plus new drive way, plus new septic, well, electric hook-up, lawn establishment, etc. they will be about even money, with a smaller house.

They are selling my childhood house. I guess there is some emotional attachment there for me, but I'm not feeling it yet. Maybe, when I drive buy and see other people living there. But I'm sure that will fade quickly. All in all, my folks are happy, so I am happy for them.

My pickup's odometer hit 100K this morning. Of course when I bought it a year ago December, it had 78K miles. DW's van just hit 150K a week or so ago. My hope is still to keep the van at least as long as it takes to pay off the truck. I hope to have the truck paid off September or October, or maybe even November 2015.

Remember when I posted the picture of the goats a few weeks ago? And one of the goats was much smaller than the other? That smaller goat has continued to have health problems, including now a torn ligament in one of her hind legs. She won't make a good fair goat now, or a good breeding goat either. She'll be a pet. I'm guessing that mother goat stepped on her foot. We've separated the young goats from their mother now.

So, DD2 needs a fair goat now. Because of the very harsh winter, a lot of the goats born in Jan. and Feb. were lost, so there is an actual goat shortage now. At least a shortage of meat goats of suitable age for the fair. DW did some calling around, and found a wether (castrated male) goat to buy. The owner is asking $50, which is cheap. The problem is, it's a dairy breed, not the meat breed we've always used.

DD2 is happy, which is all that really matters. She won't be in the run for champion, but she wouldn't have been even if the other goat would have been healthy enough for the fair.

Today is the last day of the month - pay day for me.

I'm not ashamed to admit that DW and I claim WIC benefits. We are eligible for WIC benefits because we adopted two children from foster care. Because WIC expires when a child reaches age five, we currently have benefits for one child.

We generally shop at one of about five grocery stores in three towns. Two of the stores are Wal Mart, and the other three are smaller stores.

At two of the smaller stores, the employees are generally very polite and discreet when it comes to using the WIC card. One of the stores in particular is very discreet and polite to patrons utlizing WIC. (I'll freely admit that DW used the card more frequently than I do, she probably uses it two or three times for every one time I use it, so this information is from her).

But on Saturday, I brought our three youngest kids into town for DD2's soccer game. I needed to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk before heading back home. I stopped at our local, home town grocery store. The one that is not at all polite or discreet when it come to using WIC.

As it is near the end of the month, I was not sure how many items we had remaining on our WIC card. So, before I started shopping, I asked the clerk to check our remaining benefits.

She took the card, and started tapping in some information through the register, and then said very loudly "Oh this is a WIC card, not a Bridge card" in Michigan a bridge card is a regular food stamp card, and the two cards look almost identical. She printed out my information, and handed me the slip, and I thanked her. She then told me, very loudly again, that the store now has an entire aisle dedicated to WIC items. I thanked her, and went about my shopping.

We had two gallons of WIC milk remaining for the month. No bread. So, I picked up the two gallons of milk, and a brand of bread that is not WIC eligible, and headed back to the check out, back to my friend that had helped me out in the beginning.

She rang the items up, I swiped the WIC card, and had the two bucks in my hand to pay for the bread. She said, loudly again, "I didn't think that bread would go through, you can go back and get a different kind". I tried to help her understand that we had already used our bread allocation for the month, and that I would be paying cash for this loaf. I'm still not sure if she quite understood me. I just handed her the two bucks, collected my change, and left the store.

Our boys are also on Medicaid. We witness all sorts of shabby treatment through the Medicaid system as well. Again, DW gets the majority of that shabby treatment.

I'll just say that DW and I have now witnessed first hand a lot of the world surrounding the safety net that is in place for poor Americans. I'm glad it's there for those who need it. And, yes, I know that it is abused by some people.

I'll also say that from a "treating recipients with dignity" stand point, things are probably much better than they were 20, or 30, or 40 years ago. But, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I've blogged a couple of times about our cleaning woman, Robin. She started with us last June, and we've been happy with her. She hasn't yet missed a single session, and we're happy with her results.

I've been thinking that we should probably give her a raise at the point of her one-year anniversary.

My employer granted me a 2% raise last October. So, I figured that Robin could maybe get the same raise as I did. That made sense to me.

We pay Robin $15 per hour for three hour cleaning sessions every other week. I know that some of you have mentioned that that is very cheap. Keep in mind that we found Robin through a posting at our local grocery store, and that she advertised herself for $15/hr. And, we also live in a very rural low COL area.

I digress.

When I did my first calculation of $45 (the amount paid for one session) time 1.02, I came up with $45.90. That seemed insulting - a raise of 90 cents per session. Maybe I should be insulted by my own 2% raise - but I know that a lot of people have had their pay cut or have received no raises at all over the past five or so years.

I digress again.

The figure for Robin that I'm working with now is a fifty cent per hour, or $1.50 per session raise. That's a 3.3% raise, and seems much more reasonable. I've not yet talked with DW about this. I'll see what she thinks, of course, before we make any changes.

I blogged a few months ago about the baby goats we were expecting. A set of twins was born on Feb. 14. DD1, the owner, named the doeling Valentine, and the buckling Hiccups. Fortunately, Feb. 14 was warm, at least as compared to the rest of that month, and they were born without problems.

The problem occurred almost two weeks later. The momma doe rejected the young doeling. She wouldn't let her nurse.

So, we bought a bag of goat colostrum replacer (I don't remember how much it cost, but probably around $7 or $8), which lasted 4 or 5 days, and a bucket of goat milk replacer that cost $23, and lasted about a month, and then we found a recipe for making our own, which included non-fat dry milk, whipping cream and a raw egg.

We bottle fed her as many as four or five times a day in the beginning, three or four times a day for the bulk of the time, and just two times a day before weaning. Valentine is on grain and hay now.

Part of the reason that the doeling was rejected was that she was a runt. So, she did start out smaller than her brother. But, this picture is evidence that real goat's milk, straight from the mother is an important part of growing a strong, healthy goat. This picture is almost two weeks old now.

As some of you may remember, my family produces maple syrup.

Three years ago, the state of Michigan made grants available to producers of specialty crops - maple syrup is a specialty crop. When DW was in the work force, her job was as a public relations professional. When the specialty crop grants were announced, she put together some ideas for promoting our product, creating awareness, educating new producers, etc.

After she had put her ideas together, but before the grant paperwork was due, we took charge of our second foster child (now adopted as DS1, who is older than DS2, but we had DS2 in our home first) and she became very busy, and has been very busy for the past three years. So her grant ideas were not forgotten, but they were put on the farthest back of back burners, filed away in her computer.

Fast forward to yesterday. It turns out that a member of the Michigan Maple Syrup Association has been working on applying for the same grant, and her basic ideas are very similar to DW's. The lady who has been working on this grant was seeking input from a handful of producers from around the state - for whatever reason, she contacted my dad. My dad asked DW if she could help him out. She said, of course I can.

So, DW and my dad met for a couple hours this morning. DW took her outline, added some details, and they hammered something out. She attached it to an email, sent it to the grant writer, and headed out the door to pick our boys up at the Autism Clinic they've been attending for about a month.

As she was driving, she gave me a call to talk to me about how the morning had gone. While we were talking, we both heard that annoying call waiting pause. When she hung up with me, she checked her voice mail, and called me right back.

The person who had called was the grant writer. And in her voice mail, she said how impressed she was with DW’s ideas, and that she was planning on writing into the grant funding for a ¼ time position to manage the grant, and she was wondering if DW would entertain the idea of managing the grant.

Wow. DW asked me what I thought of the idea. DW is a SAHM. We have four kids. She home-schools the girls, and the boys have special needs. She already keeps herself busy. What we both decided is that she has about two hours a day October through February when our girls are at swim practice (and I have the boys). It might work.

I’m not sure what kind of money ¼ time means – but if you figured a base salary of 32 – 40K we might be talking about 8 – 10K. Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. It sounds intriguing and exciting.

Of course, the grant needs to be funded first. And, DW will need to do her own due diligence to find out if the proposed job can be organized in a way that will work for her. We’ll see, but it sounds kind of neat.

Last summer I began a budget plan with out fuel oil provider. We've been paying $220 each month since July, and each month we receive a statement detailing how much we've paid vs. how much we've used.

Each month, our account balance has been negative - that is, we've paid in more money than the value of the fuel oil we've used - until this month (March statement).

Our March delivery brought our balance up to a positive $42.

Of course we'll still be making payments in April and May. June is the settle-up month.

Our usage (home heating) is about to decrease greatly, so we'll end the cycle with a negative balance.

I'm thinking it would be better to apply that balance to next year's monthly payment, rather than receive a lump sum in June.

Our monthly payment has been $220. I'm thinking that a monthly payment of $20 or $25 less each month would be better than a $250 (or whatever is is) payment in June. Unless we really need that money for some reason.

Thoughts?

DD1 wants to be a veterinarian, and has been taking a vet assistant's class once per week for the past 4 or 5 weeks. The class is geared for adults, but we know the instructor, and she said that DD1 would do fine.

Part of the class is to job shadow the instructor at the vet clinic where she works. DD1's job shadow was yesterday. It sounds as if she got quite an experience. I think she said that she viewed a total of three surgeries, including at least on spaying, and - get this - an amputation.

A man had dropped his refrigerator on his dog's leg, and the leg had to be removed. DD1 watched all of it. The staff did provide a chair if DD1 began feeling faint. And, she did use it once. But, the staff said that they were surprised that she didn't run out. She's 11.

She was very satisfied and excited with the experience. She still wants to be a vet.

Our boys attend a special need elementary school. The school held its "Spring Fest" last night. It's basically a variety show where each class puts on a song or skit, depending on age. Both boys are in the same pre-school class. For the most part, they followed along with the moves as directed. Special needs or not, 4 and 5 year old kids follow along with moves to varying degrees.

DS1 will be in kindergarten at that school next year, so I was particularly interested in watching that class's performance. It was interesting to see what type of "level" he may be in a year.

DD1 will be getting her pigs for fair tomorrow. She'll be spending $25 per pig more than last year, or $175 per pig. I know that sounds like a lot, and it is a lot. But, she should do well at the fair with high quality pigs.

We'll buy three pigs. DD1 will show the two that match best (similar weight/body structure). We'll either have the other one slaughtered for our freezer, or sell on the open market. That depends on how much of last year's pork we have left over. We'll probably put it in the freezer, and share some with family.

OR DD2 will be old enough to show a pig at the fair, but she has no interest. She did have interest a couple months ago, but she has lost interest. Neither DW nor I want to pressure her at all.

Tagging day is in May. On tagging day, youth can bring up to three pigs to the fair grounds to get tagged. They can take two of them to the fair. "Tagging" is a way to prevent cheating. If by May, DD2 has changed her mind, DD1 will pick the two pigs that match best for herself, and DD2 can have the third.

I bet that's more than you wanted to know about fair pigs!

Long story short, DW is borrowing her parent's 2013 Chrysler Town & Country minivan for a couple of days. She will be hauling several pre-teens to Lansing tomorrow, and their van is roomier (and nicer) than ours is.

I drove our girls to an event in it last evening, and I'm telling you - this thing is loaded - leather heated seats, digital everything, touch screen radio, DVD - front and back, back-up camera, automatic opening side and rear doors, it rides like a dream, etc. All are luxuries you can get used to. All are temptations.

Before you ask, yes, they paid for it in cash. And they will drive it until it nearly dies.

Sometimes I wish I didn't even know those luxuries existed.

I'm guessing we'll have our van for about another year and a half. Then, we'll be in the market. And, we'll remain true to all of the guidelines I've learned here on SA - finance for no more than three years, with monthly payments not to exceed 10% of take home pay. Actually, I will shoot for monthly payments of more around 6-8% of monthly take home pay. But, yes the purchase will most certainly be financed for three years.

If anything, experiencing these more high-end features will strengthen my resolve to save more for a down payment, so we can actually afford some of them.

Anyone who has been following my blog for most of the past three years knows that I spend a lot of time putting together financial projections of all sorts. That includes my retirement, even though it's 20 plus years away.

I've got a retirement tab on my master spreadsheet. It includes an accumulation phase, where I estimate how savings will grow, and a depletion phase where I estimate how well that fund will stand up under various scenarios.

I've struggled for some time deciding what kind of number to plug in for Social Security payments, and to a lesser extent when to plug in a beginning age for collecting SS.

Until recently, I've used a 15K number (annual), and begin drawing at age 72. I thought of those numbers as low-ball estimates.

I know that there is a prevailing attitude among many in the SA community (particularly people younger than about 45) that they are making retirement plans assuming that there will be no SS 25 or 30 years from now, and that they will consider any SS payments to be gravy in their retirement.

While they may be right - there may be no SS 25 or 30 years from now - I'm betting that there will be SS in some form, reduced from where it is now. I just don't know what I can expect for a reasonable guess as to what that amount will be. I don't think anyone younger than 50 does either. The law is clearly subject to (and expected to) change.

So, I set to come up with a more reasonable, and still conservative number to plug in to my spreadsheet. I did some very quick "research" on the internet, and found a site that quoted that SS trust fund reserves would be exhausted by 2033 (oddly enough, a few years prior to my own retirement), and after that tax income would be sufficient to pay about three-quarters of scheduled benefits through 2087.

I also went to the Social Security web site, and found my current projected monthly payments at ages 62, 67, and 70.

I took the number projected at age 67, multiplied it by 0.75, and plugged it into my spread sheet, starting at age 70.

It turns out that I wasn't that far off with my previous estimate. My new number is $2,000 greater per year, and I'm starting the payment two years earlier in my projection now.

Certainly every single number in that projection is subject to a great deal of change. What I really want is a target retirement fund figure to shoot for. That number will change. However, I think my estimate now is a bit more refined than it was a few days ago.

I'll continue to go in and adjust things from time to time. Hopefully in another 15 years, I can have a very solid plan for retiring 5-10 years after that.

If anyone is interested, this is the page that I quoted above: http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/commentary/item/16497-the-future-of-social-security

I've had a Discover card for about two years. I applied for the card to transfer other CC debt to an introductory 0.0% APR.

It's used for various purchases throughout the month, and I now pay it off twice per month, at the beginning and in the middle of the month.

Apparently a few months ago, Discover began reporting card holder FICO scores on monthly statements. I learned about that from the SA Forums. So, I pulled up my January statement, and could not find my FICO score. I sent a message to Discover to inquire why. Apparently the FICO scores are listed on a higher level card than the card I have, but since I asked, they began listing my FICO score last month.

My score last month was 718. My March statement was posted yesterday, and my new score is 721.

I'm neither proud nor ashamed of those scores. From what I can tell, 40% of people have a higher score, 40% have a lower score, and 20% have a similar score. In October 2010, my score was 580.

What I'll be very interested in seeing is how quickly it moves to the 750+ range (assuming I keep doing everything right). At three points a month maybe 10-12 months from now I'll be in that range.

I've added a FICO sheet to the spreadsheet where I track my net worth, budget, amortization tables, and retirement account.

I'm guessing that most of you have heard about this Warren Buffet/Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.

When the contest was first promoted a month or so ago, I figured I would probably enter. Why not? It's free. The top 20 most accurate brackets win 100K. And there's an extremely small chance that I could win the billion.

I probably follow NCAA basketball at an above average level. I'm a big big Michigan State fan. I follow the Big Ten closely, and I follow the many of the other NCAA teams somewhat regularly.

So I visited the official Billion Dollar Challenge site a few minutes ago. They wanted an awful lot of personal information, which I can kind of understand. But, what it really looked like was an excuse to invite Quicken Loans into my life to try to sell me stuff, I would guess ad nauseam.

So, I opted out of the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge, and filled out my bracket at another site.

For the record, my Final Four consists of Arizona, Florida, Michigan State and Louisville. Arizona and Florida in the title game, and Arizona to win.

We'll see how I do. For fun only!

Assets

Checking - 1,712
EF - 3,500
Pick up - 8,800
Van - 850
Lawn Mower - 1,700
Home (7/12 appraisal) - 77,000
Retirement Fund - 147,733

Total Assets - 241,295

Liabilities

Amazon CC - 0
Pick up - 6,619
Mortgage - 49,621

Total Liabilities - 56,240

Net Worth - 185,055

Change from last month = $6,688

More than 70% of that change is due to the increase in my retirement fund.

The Amazon card is paid off - so I am once again free of CC debt.

I've blogged several times about our house. It's my family's original farmstead. DW and I began renovating the house in 2008, and moved in August 2009. We completely renovated the house interior before moving in. We knew that there were several projects on the outside that needed attention, too.

In 2011, we had a new roof installed. In 2012, we had the front porch renovated. In 2013, the back porch was built.

We've decided that the our 2014 home improvement project will be a new septic system. The septic system that was installed (probably) 80 years ago simply does not support 6 people, and the laundry of six people, and the dish washer in the house of six people, and the showers and baths and toilet flushes of six people.

We've had the tank pumped twice since we began house renovations - once just before we moved in, and again this past September. I've not been around either time it was pumped, but the hauler described it as about the size of a coffin.

I began investigating a new septic system last fall. I'm certain I blogged about it then. What I found out is that the size of the tank is dictated by the number of bedrooms in the house, and the size of the drain field is dictated by the rate that the soil around the drain field percolates water. Our soil is loamy - not sandy and not heavy clay - so I'm expecting a medium sized drain field.

I'm estimating the cost at around $6,000.

Two sets of family members had troubles with their septic systems this very cold winter. Septic systems can freeze up when they're not used every day. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law spent February in Mexico. They came back to a septic system frozen in two places - from the inside going out, and the outside coming in. Their drainage pipe goes under their driveway, which was cleared of insulating snow, and caused major problems, and a big mess.

My parents spent January and February in Florida. They came back to a frozen pipe, inside going out. My dad said that it was "only" frozen about 1-2 feet. So their mess wasn't nearly as big, or difficult to fix - but it was still enough.

So, we may choose some extra insulation when we have the new septic system installed. I'm not sure what that will add to the cost. But, there may be another very cold winter 20-30 years from now when the extra cost will have been worth it.

It's a bit disheartening that we'll be spending 6K, and not add to the beautification or storage capacity or comfort of our house (we'd also like a garage, and/or geothermal heat for example). But, indeed, a new septic system is a project that needs to be done, and it will be better to do it when it's still a choice, and not an emergency.