So Many of You Have Asked . . .

So many of you have emailed me asking about our budget, so here goes

I will leave the income part blank because I gave you a hint of what it is a few posts back and to be honest our budget hasn't changed much since the days of making $25,000 with 4 children.

First off there is no mortgage on the house, its been paid for for many years. We purchased it in 1991 for $17,000. It was a fixer upper, 3 bedroom 1 bath home with less than 1,000 sq feet, but we liked the price and the land. 3/4 of an acre. We wanted to not be a slave to a house. We fixed the whole place up to where it is now, to more than 1300 sq (2nd bath too ) ft for maybe another $10,000 (this would include barns and fencing, along with making it pretty.) No loans for the improvements. We did as we could afford, and the men at the church came to help Emery with the work. We had work days.

We have no car payments either. We just opt to not have them. We buy used cars and drive them till they die. Usually they have well over 200,000 miles on them. Emery is amazing with cars, and maintains them beautifully. At his age now and as busy as he is, we take it to be fixed at local mechanic that we have known for years. He is a fine man and we knew him from our homeschooling days.

Here is the nitty gritty on our monthly expenses

electric bill is about $70 if you rounded it out. Lower in winter, higher in summer with our two window unit air conditioners.

Natural Gas under $20 a month, in winter it might go up to $50 if we get lazy and warm the house up in the morning using the gas heaters.

Phone... $117 we bundle, so its the computer, the phone, my cell phone

T.V..... $50 a month, Direct T.V. this is a new bill for us and not one we are sure is worth it ! Thought we would have more choices for quality shows but there ain't much on there. The commercials are horrid, lot of those home improvement, decorating shows than not try to make you discontent with what you have

Gas for the Cars ... right now its about $200 a month. Emery fills his car once a month and we fill the other car about once a week. We never let the tanks get empty, so a fill up is not for an empty tank

Food.... our food budget has remained the same for a very long time. When children left home, the budget remained the same, guess its the cost of things. Just recently we went up to $500 a month from our long standing $400 a month. We are eating more organic and it costs more. But many months, when the garden is producing I stay closer or under the old budget.

Out to Eat.... this is a rather new aspect of our budget we spend about $20 a week so $80 a month on going out to eat. Writing that makes me rethink spending that much !

Water.... our water bill, which includes sewer and trash pick up twice a week is just about $80 a month

Wood for the wood stove, which is our heat ! We spend between $150 and $220 a winter for wood to heat the entire house.

There is car insurance and home owners insurance too. Nothing outrageous there

Clothing .... this is about $15 a month if you averaged it. When the children were all home it was more, but never very high. Maybe $40 at the most

Medical .... we pretty much use natural medicine, and we are healthy. No prescriptions. If you figured all savings etc for medical it would be around $200 a month

Taxes .... those are covered by our gas lease money

My pocket money I get $20 a week as pocket money, $80 a month. This is kind of a joke among the children because, Emery is very generous with me and if I see something I need, he buys it for me. I never have to use my allowance for a need ! Fortunately, I don't take advantage of his kind heart. But my $20 is for Goodwill and yard sale shopping mostly.

No credit card bills

No gardeners or maids : )

No gym membership needed

Subscriptions.... these can eat away at any budget without you even realizing it. We get one magazine, a homestead livestock journal.

Feed for the Animals... for all of the critters its about $120 a month. We get back about $40 a month on eggs, and if we sell our goat milk for "pet food" we will recover about everything we spend. By making and selling my goat milk soap, that probably makes it so we make money off the critters. They are our entertainment too.

This is just what we have for a budget. Just answering some questions that were sent to me. It's not meant to make you feel you need to live like we do....yes, this is a disclaimer of sorts that hopefully will keep the nit pickers at bay.

One more thing, I am whispering this so Emery doesn't hear me.....fabric oh maybe $20 a month for that but that comes out of my allowance most of the time ! He thinks I have plenty and don't need more.....silly man !

The photo is of the men from church all working on building our first addition