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.

As many of you may remember, we sold a house as a short sale in April 2013.

The house we sold was not our principal residence, we did not declare bankruptcy in 2013, and we were not insolvent at the time of the sale...therefore, we should be required to pay tax on the amount of debt cancelled.

We did not receive a 1099-C from our mortgage holder. As I understand it, they were required to mail the 1099 on or before Jan. 31. We waited 7 "mail days" (days we received mail) for the 1099 before we bought Turbo Tax. The reason that's important is that if we had received the 1099-C, we probably would have hired a CPA to complete our return, and not bought TT.

I bought TT yesterday. We don't plan to inform the IRS about our forgiven debt.

I have no clue why our mortgage holder wouldn't report our forgiven debt to the IRS. It seems to me that if they wanted to declare the loss for their own taxes, they would have had to issue is a 1099, right? But, we didn't get a 1099, and I think we waited long enough, didn't we? We waited until February 9.

I seriously do not want to volunteer to the IRS that we owe them about 20K in taxes. But, if the 1099 had shown up, we would have figured it out (as I've mentioned before regarding this issue, most of it would have been covered by the adoption credit from our 2012 adoption of a special needs child).

So, we're going to complete our taxes as is, without declaring the cancelled debt.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks.

One for me, one for DW, and one for DD1 to share with DD2. We'll see how the "sharing" goes.

DW and I each bought an iPhone 5S for $149 each, and DD1(2)got an iPhone 4, free with the two year contract.

DD1(2) have had a flip phone for a year or so, mainly so we can keep in touch. It cost $10 per month to put her on the plan. We weren't sure we wanted her (them) to have an iPhone, but we decided that in this day and age, being tech savvy is part of her (their) learning. So, we'll monitor the use.

DW and I had previously had Android phones. The one I got two years ago was free with my contract. It was was getting to the point that if I wanted to download an app, I had to choose one to delete. Not enough storage space. The phone part of DW's Droid was becoming unreliable.

So, we bit the bullet, and switched to Apple.

Our 5yo has a tendency to throw electronic gadgets in pools, toilets, and bath tubs. So, we bought the insurance for each of the phones ($99 ea.), and we'll order the water-resistant covers for each (about $60).

I fully realize that these were luxury purchases, and not necessarily a great financial move. But, I was tired of limping along with an outdated phone, and I wanted to purchase something that will last well beyond the two-year contract.

So far I love it. We received an iPad as a Christmas gift last year, so I'm already familiar with the platform.

Watch, Apple will announce the iPhone 6 in three weeks.

DW and I will be judging FFA leadership contests tonight. If you don't know what FFA is - it used to be called Future Farmers of America - now just FFA. It's an opportunity for kids grades 7-12 to learn agri-science, and leadership skills like public speaking, job interview skills, etc.

Tonight we're judging at the district level. The hierarchy of levels is District -> Regional -> State -> National. We'll also be judging different contests at he state level in March. Two representatives from each level go on to the next level, so we have to declare two winners, and award each contestant "Gold" "Silver" or "Bronze" almost everyone gets at least a gold or silver.

DD1 will be in 7th grade next year, and eligible for FFA. How does that fit in with home-school? We'll (mostly DW with my help) need to develop a curriculum for her, and drive her to chapter meetings. DW and I have three Ag. degrees between us, so I think we can handle curriculum development.

What does this have to do with finances, you ask? DW was very active in FFA through high school and even college. Her involvement in FFA leadership activities was a big part of how she was awarded a full-ride scholarship to MSU from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Alumni Association. She was required to maintain a 3.5 GPA at MSU to keep the scholarship, which she did.

I'm not saying that my children's involvement in FFA will result in a full-ride scholarship, but it sure won't hurt.

When I was in school, the FFA chapter had disbanded, so I didn't have the opportunity to be involved. The local chapter started up again a couple years ago, and hopefully it remains strong, and our children can take full advantage of the opportunities in FFA. And, if a scholarship or two comes their way as a result, that would be just fine.

DW and I will be judging FFA leadership contests tonight. If you don't know what FFA is - it used to be called Future Farmers of America - now just FFA. It's an opportunity for kids grades 7-12 to learn agri-science, and leadership skills like public speaking, job interview skills, etc.

Tonight we're judging at the district level. The hierarchy of levels is District -> Regional -> State -> National. We'll also be judging different contests at he state level in March. Two representatives from each level go on to the next level, so we have to declare two winners, and award each contestant "Gold" "Silver" or "Bronze" almost everyone gets at least a gold or silver.

DD1 will be in 7th grade next year, and eligible for FFA. How does that fit in with home-school? We'll (mostly DW with my help) need to develop a curriculum for her, and drive her to chapter meetings. DW and I have three Ag. degrees between us, so I think we can handle curriculum development.

What does this have to do with finances, you ask? DW was very active in FFA through high school and even college. Her involvement in FFA leadership activities was a big part of how she was awarded a full-ride scholarship to MSU from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Alumni Association. She was required to maintain a 3.5 GPA at MSU to keep the scholarship, which she did.

I'm not saying that my children's involvement in FFA will result in a full-ride scholarship, but it sure won't hurt.

When I was in school, the FFA chapter had disbanded, so I didn't have the opportunity to be involved. The local chapter started up again a couple years ago, and hopefully it remains strong, and our children can take full advantage of the opportunities in FFA. And, if a scholarship or two comes their way as a result, that would be just fine.

I wish I had remembered to do this last month, so I could have beginning of the year numbers. Oh well.

Assets

Checking - 1,366
EF - 3,500
Pick up - 8,800
Van - 850
Lawn Mower - 1,700
Home (7/12 appraisal) - 77,000
Retirement Fund - 142,977

Total Assets - 236,193

Liabilities

Amazon CC - 175
Pick up - 6,975
Mortgage - 50,676

Total Liabilities - 57,826

Net Worth - 178,367

We took money out of our EF to cover repairs on family van. Once we get the insurance money back, we can replenish the EF back to 6K.

Retirement fund took an approximate 2.5K hit from the beginning of last month.

The Amazon will not begin to accrue interest until June.

I would guess that the house would appraise for more than that now, but a number any different than that would be a pure guess.

We'll get a 1.9K check from the state of Michigan this week - adoption subsidy. I also need to turn in reimbursement at work - not sure how much. Probably between $500 and $600. Other than that, we have no more cash coming in this month.

We also need to pay property taxes - about $400.

All in all, happy with current net worth.

For those of you who may live very far away from Sandusky, OH, and don't know what Cedar Point is - it's a very large, very popular amusement park.

We're planning a trip there this summer. DW, the two DDs, and me. DD2 is now tall enough to go on nearly all the rides. DD1 is super geeked. I've not been there for 25+ years.

It's about a four hour drive from our house. DW has put together a budget, and it looks as if we can do a day for about $325.

We're planning on going June 24 - that's a Tuesday outside of the July peak, and the weekend peak.

I think we'll all have fun. $325 is a lot for one day, but I think it's well worth the cost.

As you may remember, we hired a cleaning service last summer. I think she started in June or July, so she's been cleaning for a bit more than six months. We pay her $45 per visit, and she typically comes by twice in a month. Her name is Robin.

On the whole, we've been very satisfied with Robin. She is polite, does a good job, and is flexible with us if we need to reschedule. Maybe a little too flexible...

I say that, because I don't think she has very many, if any other home cleaning jobs. She moved to our area a few weeks or just a couple months before we hired her. I'm pretty sure we were her first job. She has picked up daily work at a local restaurant, so she is unavailable from about 9:00 in the morning, until about 11:00. Other than that, if we've needed to reschedule, Robin has had absolutely no problem fitting us in.

That works to our advantage, of course, but I feel for anyone who isn't working to their desired potential. I've told her in the past that she should feel free to use us as a reference, and I haven't gotten any calls.

Of course a great part of having a cleaning service is that it motivates us to pick up the house, do some de-cluttering, and light sweeping prior to her coming over to clean.

One thing I've noticed is that after her first couple of visits, everything (sinks, tub, shower) was *so* much cleaner than before. Now that we're on more of a maintenance schedule, things don't look *that* much cleaner than before she cleaned. Because, they're not, because we're starting at a cleaner level now. So I need to resist the urge to ask - Just what did she do besides mop and vacuum?

There is one very minor issue. One of the reasons we picked Robin over another choice is that she said she'd use her own cleaning supplies, including her Kirby vacuum. Her Kirby broke on her fourth or fifth visit, and she hasn't had the money to fix or replace it, so she uses our vacuum now. Which is fine, especially if we, and the restaurant are her only gigs. Robin does continue to use all of her other supplies.

So, all in all I think it's $90 per month well spent!

I opened a new credit card in November. It's through Amazon.com. I charged DW's birthday gift, and all the Christmas gifts I bought. The total I charged was about $275.

It was a - no interest for six months - deal. My minimum payment is $25. I've paid $50 each of the past two months. My plan is to have it paid in full before the six months is up.

Our girls have a swim meet tomorrow. We'll have to drive a couple hours north to get to it. The roads might be nasty, and it will definitely be cold, so we may have to make a decision in the morning.

A gentleman from my church died yesterday. I didn't know him very well, but he was a retired State Trooper, a big, healthy looking man. I'm not sure how old he was, but he wasn't *that* old. Maybe 60? Why it's hitting me oddly is that he and his wife were in church last Sunday, and he appeared happy and healthy. Apparently he had a known heart issue.

That's it for now. Hope you all have a great weekend!

No, not that kind of kid. One of my daughter's goats is due to kid any day now. Her other, younger doe goat also appears to be pregnant, but probably a month away from kidding. This would be her first kidding.

It's been quite an adventure, especially given these very cold temps. We're still inexperienced with delivering goats. We've only had one other successful kidding at our place, and that was in the summertime. We've been watching the older goat since Jan. 1. Fortunately, we had a visit from an experienced goat person this past weekend, and she told us what to look for.

Goats typically birth 1-3 kids, with 2 at one time being the most common. So, between the two goats, we can probably expect 4 kids. If two of them are bucklings (male), then they should be perfect for the fair late next July. Doelings (female) will be added to the breeding herd. If we don't have two bucklings, one of the does will be taken to the fair.

Our girls have spent about $120-$140 for fair goats. So, there is a bit of a savings. But not really, since we're feeding both does and the buck all year. Plus we'll feed the kids after they're weaned as well.

We're really more looking at this as a learning experience for the girls, and the pride associated with raising and showing their own home-grown animals.

Maybe, in the future, when the herd size is big enough, we'll have extra goats to sell to other 4-Hers for them to take to the fair. Then, this may be a break-even affair.

I was poked to give a signal that I'm still alive and kicking! I assure you that I am.

I've not dropped off a financial cliff, and I've not racked up thousands of dollars of CC debt that I'm too embarrassed to blog about.

Basically, I've been busy. November and December (along with April and May) are my busiest months at work, and that busyness has seemed to leak into January.

In addition to the busyness, I've not been all that motivated to blog here during the spare moments that I do have. And, I think the reason is that I don't have that CC debt wolf breathing down my back anymore. The accountability that I found here when I was digging myself out of that hole was a real motivator. And, I find myself not needing that financial motivation.

There have been some financial doozies the past couple of months.

For starters - DW had a minor accident with the family van. Everybody was very much alright. But, the van is old. It blue books at about 3.5K. There was 4.0K of body damage, along with a punctured oil pan. It was fully insured, and our insurance company totaled it out. So, we bought back the van, and paid for 1.85K of necessary work to get it safe, driveable, and legal. Basically, we came out ahead about $900 after deductible. The van looks fine, but it has a salvage title, and we can't carry collision anymore.

We'll set the $900 aside as part of our down payment when we are ready for a new family van.

That all happened just before Christmas. Another thing happened the night before Christmas. A wheel bearing went out in my pick up. That was a $480 repair. Luckily, we have some family members who allowed us to borrow a couple vehicles for a while. My pickup was fixed about three days later, and we just got the van back yesterday.

We got our first 1099 in the mail yesterday. $13 and I think six cents for interest we earned from the IRS on our adoption credit from last year. I'll make sure we claim that!

We're still waiting for the biggie - the 1099 for the forgiven debt on our short-sale house.

It's been cold, cold, cold here in the upper mid-west. We've been on a budget plan with our heating fuel supplier, and that has helped even out the cash flow paying for heating our house. I also got on a "keep full" program for the first time. Instead of monitoring the level of our heating fuel myself, and calling for a fill-up, we're on a regular route now. We were filled up sometime in the third week of December, and again yesterday. Our fill-up was 98 gallons! About $360 to heat our house this past month. And, that with the additional insulation we had put on our basement walls last fall. And, it doesn't sound as if things are going to get much warmer anytime soon. I sure am glad we're on that budget plan now, but I cringe to think what our monthly payment will be starting next July.

That's enough for now. I'll try to provide updates a little more regularly.

(Do you still have to copy a long post before you publish it? Or has that bug been fixed?)

I see you still have to copy it!

We received out winter property tax bill in the mail yesterday - $390.

The beginning of December was always a bit heart stopping financially. We get our winter tax bill the first week of December, and out home heating tank is always starting to run low. Plus extra Christmas type expenses.

This last summer, we enrolled in a budget plan with our fuel provider. We've been paying $220 per month since July. So, the tank, which is running low again right on time, will not set us back when it's time to fill. Whew!

And, we have the money in the bank to pay the tax bill. Whew!

I'll probably wait to pay until after the first of the year to pay it to give us some cushion. It's not due until Feb. 28.

Since this is Thanksgiving week, I thought I'd share something for which I'm Thankful, especially as it pertains to personal finance.

I am thankful for the example set for me by my paternal grandparents.

My grandparents died about six years ago, about 16 months apart. Grandpa was about 5 weeks short of his 90th birthday, and Grandma was less than a week short of hers.

They were both children of the Great Depression. They were also both raised on a farm. Many of the stories I heard from them were related to the depression. And, being farm kids, what they always said was that they may not have had any money, but they never went to bed hungry. They ate a lot of pork and corn bread, but were never hungry.

I grew up about a quarter mile from their home (I now live in their home). And, I heard a lot of stories. OK, most of the stories were from Grandpa, Grandma was much quieter. But, their words and actions did a lot to shape me and my thinking.

I wish I would have done more reflection on their teachings when I was in my 20s and 30s. But, alas, with age (and mistakes) comes wisdom. And, I'm not there even yet.

They lived like absolute paupers. But, when they died, their net worth was somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-900K. Not millionaires, but close. They owned the 200 acre family farm, two houses (the farm house and my grandmother's family house in town), and (as I found out after their deaths) about 200K in the bank.

I'll also add that neither one of them spent an extended period in a nursing home. Grandpa was in a home for about 3-4 months prior to his death, and my aunt stayed with my grandma during her short final illness. Extended stays in nursing homes can eat up savings very quickly.

My maternal grandparents were also a good example for me. They didn't live quite as close to me as a child, so their influence on me wasn't quite as profound.

I am thankful for the foundation that all of my grandparents built for me, and I can only hope that I am doing them proud as I try to figure out what being an adult is all about.

It's been a while since I've posted. October and November are busy months for me at work.

Those of you who don't live in the Mid West undoubtedly heard about the wind storms (and tornadoes for some) this past Sunday. We had no damage around our house. We did, however lose power at around 1:00 AM Monday morning. It was restored about 10:30 last night.

We're very thankful that we bought that generator late last summer. I'm especially thankful that we spent the extra for the direct hookup into our electric box. It made powering our home with the generator a simple task.

That generator sure did burn through the gasoline! It used a bit more than a gallon per hour. That's an expensive way to power a house.

But, as I said, the other effects of the wind storm were extremely minimal, and that wasn't true for so many others.

Fortunately, we had already planned to "winterize" our animals Sunday afternoon. We moved all of the chickens inside the barn, and we moved the two duck coops to their permanent winter locations, next to the barn and out of the wind. We couldn't have timed that move better.

I blogged last week about needing new brakes. The battery in DW's car died, and needed to be replaced. DW also mentioned that her brakes are starting to make funny noises. And, driving home from work last evening, I noticed that the check engine light cam on in my truck. I'll get that checked out today, of course, hoping that it's nothing major.

These little things sure can add up.

Today was pay day. Also, I got a small raise at work, and that raise is included in today's check. Most of the raise will go toward my increase in retirement savings, so not much in the way of increased monthly cash flow.

I touched on Halloween spending in a comment in CCF's post on Friday. I thought I'd expand a bit here.

We'll spend very little on Halloween. The kids each got a pumpkin to carve. They were given to us by our in-law's neighbor. I blogged about that a couple weeks ago.

We carved the pumpkins last week. DW and the girls made three flavors of roasted pumpkin seeds - garlic, one flavored with chili powder, and a sweet one flavored with maple syrup, and some other spices that I'm not sure of. Roasted pumpkin seeds don't last very long around our place.

We don't buy candy to hand out, because trick-or-treaters don't visit our house. When I was a kid, my mom drove us to all of our rural neighbors, then we would go to town. The funny thing is, that the rural folks all gave out the big candy bars, and home made popcorn balls - the really good stuff. I guess kids (and parents) don't want to waste their time actually driving from house to house anymore.

And, we won't be spending anything on costumes for the kids this year. We typically don't spend much on costumes, because DW is a seamstress, and usually sews something for the kids. This year, one of my SILs bought outfits for my kids.

Remember about a month ago, when we had that family picture taken? After the formal pictures were taken, the photographer took some fun pictures of the kids. My SIL bought capes and masks for the kids (her three and our four). The outfits were purchased from the MSU Alumni Association. They made really cute pictures, that were a real hit. But ... she spent $15 per outfit. Fun pictures or not, I wasn't keen on the $60 spent for my kid's outfits.

SIL said that they are an early Christmas gift, which is fine. But, I'm sure she'll still buy Christmas gifts for my kids.

Our kids will wear those outfits for Halloween.

My kids are: DD1, the biggest kid in the middle; DD2, the red head second from the left; DS 1, third from the right; and DS2 on the end.

And, yes this picture has been featured on the MSU Alumni Association's Facebook page.

We got a past due sewer/water bill today. It's from our former residence. It seems that our renter left without paying her water bill. The amount past due is $145.12. Apparently she went a while without paying.

Included in the mailing is the form I signed on July 16, 2011 acknowledging that we were responsible for any unpaid balance. There's also a cover letter citing the city ordinance (1044.12) that allows for placing a lien on the property for any unpaid sewer/water service.

Darn it.

I know I'm morally obligated to pay the bill. But I don't want to. I want to be done with that money pit of a house.

The brakes on my pickup started to make not so good noises. DW wanted to use my pickup today, to deliver a dresser that we don't need any more to a new foster mom. That dresser is short and long and takes up a lot of floor space. We have an armoire (how do you spell armoire? I'm getting red squigglies under the word.)to replace it, that is taller and takes up less floor space.

The armoire used to house our TV, but we got a new flat screen TV as a gift from my parents last Christmas. The flat screen is mounted to the wall. The armoire has been sitting in a not so got spot for far too long.

I had already set an appointment with our mechanic to fix the brakes, so the new foster mom will have to wait a couple more days.

The brakes are getting fixed right now. I need new calipers and new brake pads. The estimate is $275.

DW and I attended a conference near Detroit on Saturday. It was a conference for parents of children with special needs. Tickets would have cost us $65 each, but we had our tickets given to us. Our niece's MIL works for an adoption agency near Detroit, and her agency had purchased a booth, and received complimentary tickets, and she gave two of them to us.

The conference was good. I'm certainly glad we went. We were able to find two break out sessions that had very good information for us.

There were six break outs in two time slots (three sessions per time slot). The way the conference was structured was that each of the break out speakers spoke to the entire group in the morning for 15 minutes each, to give an idea of their break out. And, in the break out, they went into greater depth. So, we had a chance to listen to the all of the speakers.

The conference was put together largely by a husband and wife who have a special needs son. Apparently they have visited 14 states, trying to find Drs., therapists, etc. for their son. They invited six of the people that they have found who have helped them to speak at this conference.

Half of the speakers represented alternative type medicine, which doesn't appeal to us.

I actually won two door prizes! The first was a small picture frame with a Best Buy gift card taped to it. I'm still not sure of the value of the gist card, but would guess it's $20 or $25.

The second door prize was the "Grand Prize" and it was a 7" Kindle Fire HD. Retail value of about $180. I've never won a grand prize before.

We're thinking of returning the Kindle, and using that toward the purchase of a refurbished iPad mini (full Apple warranty). We got an iPad as a gift last Christmas, so we already have several apps that we've purchased for it. It would cost an additional $80 for the iPad mini.

The conference lunch was gluten free/casein free. I'll just say that the lunch did not agree with my digestive system, and leave it at that.

I have a weak spot in my personal finances - I have more than one weak spot to be sure, but I'll speak of only this one for now.

That is, getting reimbursed for expenses at work.

I just submitted a reimbursement form that stretches back all the way to the middle of July, and the total for the reimbursement is $827.80.

When we were butt-broke, I had incentive up the wazoo to submit expenses. And, when I make a major purchase, I get it submitted right away. But, we're not butt-broke right now, and none of these expenses were major - they were small to medium sized.

I know I need to get on a schedule where I submit expenses at the end of each month, no matter what. I know that in theory. Putting it into practice is an entirely different matter.

I've blogged about the adoption credits we've received for adopting our boys, but I've never blogged about the monthly adoption subsidy payments. Maybe that's because any recurring government payment is "sensitive" or "private" or maybe has a bit of a shameful connotation.

Our total monthly adoption subsidy for the the two boys is $1,936. We'll receive a subsidy payment each month until their 18th birthday. The payment will increase a bit when each child turns 13, because teenagers are more expensive. The payment could also increase if the Michigan Legislature votes to increase it, but they just did that a year ago, and the payment hadn't been increased since 1992, so I'm not holding my breath on that.

The way I look at it is that we have an agreement with the state of Michigan to parent a couple of boys whose natural parents couldn't do the job. Of the two boys' four natural parents, three have served significant time in prison (one is there right now). If we raise the boys in such a way that they don't end up in prison, I'd say that the state of Michigan has made a good investment. And, I think we're doing a bit better than just keeping them out of prison. Hopefully they will contribute to society in a positive way.

The boys also have special needs, and lots of doctor appointments(DS2's neurologist is in the Detroit area, about two hours away), and are still in diapers (yes, at ages 5 and 3, still in diapers). They are more expensive to raise than our two girls, both from an economic and emotional standpoint.

So, the adoption subsidy is nice. We happened to adopt the boys when the state of Michigan was broke, and state budgets were being cut all over the place, and DW fought tooth and nail to get the subsidies, because our state Department of Human Services originally denied the payments. We also had a good Probate Judge working with us. He threatened to drag the DHS person 2 1/2 hours from Lansing to justify her decision to deny our payment in his court room.

That's all. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

It was a fairly low spend weekend. No major cash expenditures.

We visited my in-laws Saturday. Our niece and her husband will be returning to South Africa, for probably another two years as he finishes his doctorate, so we stopped to say good bye.

While we were there our kids were invited to a neighbor's house to pick pumpkins. I struck up a conversation with the neighbors. They are real estate agents that specialize in selling hunting land in a five county area in Michigan, including the county we live in. They said that my general area is one of the hottest for hunting land sales.

I asked about sales prices. They said that most sales were in the range of $2,200 to $2,700 per acre,and that "square 40s" (a forty acre parcel 1/4 mile X 1/4 mile) are the hottest sellers. I asked if those sales were typically made to groups of hunters buying together. They replied that sometimes 40 acre sales were made to a group of two hunters, but usually one. For a group of multiple hunters to buy land together, the size usually has to be 120 acres or more.

I guess I'm just naive, but it seems insane to me to spend 100K on hunting land! But, then, I'm surrounded by 200 acres of family-owned hunting land, and I don't hunt.

And, I would guess by all the bill boards and radio ads that I see and hear around here from banks looking to lend for hunting land that the majority of sales are financed. I wonder if they put 20% down?

I suppose the buyers also look at the purchase as an investment, figuring that the price will appreciate when they are ready to sell.

I've heard that landowners can command a $20-$25 per acre fee to rent their land out to hunters. Many farmers don't want hunters on their ground at all. My brother-in-law allowed hunters on his land at one time, but he was called to settle one too many hunter-hunter arguments, so he doesn't put up with it anymore.

My dad allows his cousin's sons to hunt his ground, and he doesn't charge them anything. They are very gracious, and they give my dad gifts, and a share of the meat.

The way I look at it is that I'm glad to have the deer around my house harvested. It's less likely that I'll run into a deer with a vehicle!

I blogged a few months ago about enrolling in budget plans for our heating fuel and electricity.

So far, things have been going well. Our heating fuel supplier simply charges us a flat rate (last years usage divided by 11), and June is the settle up month for any over or under payments. We've paid a flat rate each month Jul.-Sept. October's payment will be automatically withdrawn from checking on the 20th.

Our electricity plan is a bit different. They charge us a rolling average of the previous 12 months bills, so payments aren't equal, but they are normalized. Our electric bills tended to be erratic in the past, not only for variations in monthly usage, but also because we report our meter readings to the electric company each month. We have a choice, but we save $5 each month by self-reporting our meter readings (the electric company audits our reporting by checking themselves a couple times a year).

I try to report usage on or about the 15th of the month, but sometimes I'm earlier and sometimes I'm later, and I have, at times, forgotten to do it at all, but I'm getting better with that.

I looked at the electric company's web site yesterday. I checked out our bill payment history. (OVER THE TOP FINANCIAL ANALYSIS WARNING) I calculated the average of the 12 prior to enrolling in the budget plan, and the 9 months after enrolling. What I found is:

For the 12 months prior, 3 months were within 10% of the average billing, 5 were within 20%, 2 within 30% and 2 were outside 30%.

For the 9 months since enrolling, 2 were within 1% of average, 1 was within 3%, 3 were within 5%, 2 were within 7%, and only one was outside 10% of the average.

In statistics, they would call that "a lot less noise in the data".

While I'm on the subject of utilities - we've gotten three bids back from geothermal installers. Bids range from about 15K to about 17K. Even if we saved until the end of next summer, we wouldn't have enough without borrowing. We're probably going to wait on that.

I also entered my employer HR web site this morning. I enrolled in the FSA program again for 2014. This year I contribute $1200 into the FSA. Next year I'll contribute $1,500, or $25 more per month. We over spent this year, and a big reason for that was DD2's root canal. If we end up over contributing for 2014, we still have Jan., Feb., and Mar. 2015 to use it up.

Finally, I increased my contribution to my retirement plan by one percentage point.

That's it for now, have a great weekend.

I saw my friend M yesterday. M is a federal employee. M is usually a very jovial, happy person. Yesterday, he was not. M has no idea when he will get paid next.

He went into his office on Tuesday morning for a partial day to change voice mail greetings, and set up e-mail bounce backs. He also had a conference call where he was instructed to secure the office, and watch the news for information for when to report back to work - yes, watch the news.

M is about my age. He has three kids, they are about the same age as my three oldest. His wife is a SAHM, and they are a single income family.

M said he is looking for day work. He has a CDL, and can haul stuff. Or cut wood. Or do whatever to make a buck.

I get the sense from M and his family that they don't over spend, or under save. But, I have no idea. Probably three years ago, very few people though that we over spend and under save.

What I seem to be hearing is that the shut down will probably end on the 16th of October when congress will be figuring out what to do with the debt ceiling. A 16 day shutdown doesn't seem to be that long, unless you are a federal employee with three kids, and a single income.

As most all of you know, we renovated and moved into my family's farm house four years ago. We completely renovated the main living area, and cleaned up a lot of brush and overgrowth outside before we moved in. And, we have been working at renovating the outside of the house since.

We've done nearly nothing in the basement. When my grandparents lived there, they called it the cellar. It's dark and damp and musty and dusty. Really, the only thing we've added new down there is a water pump and water softener. We've removed some of the major clutter, but have really done nothing of great significance to clean it up.

We had the insulation guy come last week to apply spray foam to the basement walls. The cost was $800 for an inch and a half of foam. The presumed insulation factor is R11, and we hope to save about 20% on heating costs, or about $44 per month, based on last year's heating costs.

When the spray foam guy was done, he suggested that we paint the walls, to help preserve the newly applied foam. We did that this weekend. We also cleaned trash and clutter.

Some of the trash was scrap metal. So, I took yet another trip to the scrap yard. I estimate I had 80-100 pounds of scrap in the load. I say "estimate" because the scale at the scrap yard was not working.

I drove my pickup up to the gate, as usual. I drove my pickup on to the scale, as usual. After the guy at the scale gave me the thumbs up, I drove to the scrap pile, threw off my scrap, and drove back around to the scale, as usual.

After he had weighed me empty, the guy at the scale gave me my slip, so I could take it up to the office to get paid. I always look at the weigh slip before I drive off, because I'm always curious about how much the scrap weighed. The "full" weight was exactly the same as the "empty" weight. I studied the numbers again to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me, and sure enough - they were exactly the same.

I got out of my pickup, and showed the guy the slip, and told him the weights were the same. He studied it, asked me to drive off so he could re-tare the scale, and asked me to drive back on. Something was clearly wrong with the scale.

The guy said he would mark me down for 300 pounds of scrap. I said - It wasn't that much. He said - How about 200 pounds? I said - Sounds good.

The 200 pounds was worth $16. I could have gotten $24, if I had agreed to the 300 pounds, but in reality I had $6 or $8 worth of scrap. But, it was their scale that was broken.

We have an apple tree in the back yard. It's been there as long as I can remember, and I have no idea how old it is.

Last year it yielded four apples, yes four apples - one for each kid. We had really, really warm (record high) temps in March 2012. Temps were in the 80s for a couple days in the middle of March. Then, there were three or four frosts in April. The tree (and all fruit trees in Michigan, and other states too?) blossomed, and then the frost killed the blossoms. So, the trees spent no energy making fruit, and that energy was on reserve for this year, and boy are the apple trees yielding.

DW has canned quart after quart of apple sauce the past couple of weeks. We have plenty of sauce now, so we decided to have some cider pressed. We got out the ladders, because all of the apples that are left are beyond our reach from the ground. We picked somewhere between 4 and 4 1/2 bushels of apples, and there are still some left beyond our (safe) reach from the ladders. My parent's also have a tree, and we found three roadside trees, and picked a few apples from them. By time we were done, we nearly doubled our number of apples, and had five varieties in the mix.

My dad had picked some pears at a neighbor's house, so we added half a five-gallon bucket of pears in with the apples.

We dropped the apples off to be pressed on Thursday, and I picked the cider up on Saturday. The yield of cider was 15 gallons! We paid $20 for the pressing.

DW was out of town on Saturday, so the job of canning the cider was mine. I've helped her can fruits and vegetables before, but I've never been in charge of canning before. I had a steep learning curve.

I canned everything into 1/2-gallon jars. There were three jars that I never did get to seal, so we put them in the refrigerator to use first.

The cider tastes absolutely delicious.

We had eaves troughs put on the house yesterday. The house had no eaves troughs before. The total was $416. About $60 of that was for troughs put on the end of one side of our barn, over the exercise lot for DD1's fair hogs. That will keep the lot dryer, and the hogs and pen cleaner.

So, that's about the end of our home improvement/savings/debt repayment extravaganza. Except for the plumbing work I mentioned a couple of days ago, and the attorney bill. We had our attorney re-work our trust/will documents. It's been about six weeks, and I haven't heard anything back from him. I called his office today, and he's out until Monday. I think it's about a 50 minute job, one that is easily left on the bottom of the to do list unless we bug him a bit.