Husband is back at work today. I'm relieved he's finally back at work, and he is so very happy to be back there!
Our financial tightwaddery is not quite over yet. Eventually, he will receive back pay for the days missed, but we don't know when we will actually see that money. So, as far as I can tell, we have several more weeks of penny pinching ahead of us.
I consider it to be a challenge.
We will continue to play "What WAS that?". The chest freezer needs to be cleaned out and defrosted, so the game continues. I've been surprised at what I've found. Todays find was 5 pounds of smoked sausage and 5 gallon size bags of frozen strawberries.
I'm searching for something to make with the smoked sausage. We've still got half of the bag of potatoes and onions, so I'm thinking that I'll make a potato, onion, and sausage bake for dinner tonight. That will leave me with 4 pounds of smoked sausage to work my way through... I've got to check and see if we have any more rhubarb in the garden. If we do, I'll be making a strawberry-rhubarb crisp for desert tonight. That should leave me with only 4 1/2 gallon size bags of strawberries.
The interesting thing to note here is that I've always kept a fairly deep pantry. I can veggies and jellies. I freeze things. My freezer is full. I buy items on sale and keep them in the cupboard. I keep a lot of potatoes, celery, and carrots on hand. They become the base of many other dishes. Since I cook from scratch so often, I keep the basic staples on hand. (Sugar, flour, salt, pasta, rice, etc.)
A week before the government shutdown, we went out and bought a 50 pound bag of potatoes, and some other basic, basic supplies that we needed to keep on hand. At that time, I had begun the $30 a week challenge, and starting that challenge in the face of the shutdown seemed like a good idea at the time.
I have been grocery shopping once during the last 16 days - to pick up a very large container of hummus, and more very basic veggies- carrots, onions, and celery. (Daughter likes to take hummus and celery sticks to school for lunch.) Thankfully, our apple trees were ready to be picked, and that was the source of our fruit for the last few weeks. Frankly, I'm a little sick of apples, which is a good thing, since most of the apples have been picked and either eaten or preserved.
We still haven't turned the heat on yet. The shutdown hit at an excellent time as far as the weather is concerned! The days have been warm, but not hot. The nights have been cool, but not cold. We did have to light a fire in the wood stove one day last week when it was downright chilly, and that was enough to take the chill out of the air in the house.
We had been expecting a government showdown and shutdown for a long time. As a result, we had saved money to cover bills should it happen. We had enough (barely) to cover our bills. Believe it or not, the loose coin deposit made the difference. There was one last bill we had to cover, and the loose coin deposit covered that last bill. Thankfully, we don't have many beginning of the month bills, and I did earn enough subbing in the first half of the month to cover the bills that will be coming in. We do need to have more savings, though. Experts say you should have enough to cover at least 3 months of expenses on hand. We didn't, and we need to fix that. Lesson learned.
The most disturbing thing for me came with the mortgage. We are ahead in our mortgage payments, but it is not paid off. I contacted the mortgage company about skipping our November payment. No dice. I was told that 14 days after the mortgage payment was due, they would downgrade our credit, and begin foreclosure proceedings. Really? 14 days? I don't believe state law allows that. I really need to check into that, because it just doesn't seem right. I mentioned that we were ahead in our mortgage, but that didn't phase them at all. Fortunately, the money I have coming in from subbing will cover the payment for November. The lesson learned here is to pay off that mortgage completely and as soon as possible. I really don't want to risk losing the house if another shutdown should happen and last for a longer period of time. For that reason alone, we will continue to live on $30 a week/person for groceries and play "What WAS that?" and cut every other expense we can until we can pay off the mortgage.
I know financial experts differ on whether or not a mortgage should be paid off, or whether you should keep the mortgage so you can take the income tax deduction. Personally, I want to know that no matter what is going on in the world around me, we own our house outright. We need to own our house, and we need to be able to pay the taxes on our house and land. Life can be uncertain, but I want to be certain that our house will remain "our" house. (not the banks)
THAT is my lesson learned from the shutdown.
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