12-7 Friday Follow Up

As there were no comments or opinions on my question "to Pepto or not" I in return have no follow up.

This is a good thing actually as I am sore from push starting the car and physical therapy and swamped with projects that need to be completed. We are going to have a brief discussion about budgets, the car and Christmas instead.

I know that having something put away for emergencies should include money. That way budgets don't get interrupted, things get fixed, and you have it if you need it. Honestly speaking though there usually just isn't anything left to put away in our budget. For those who insist we just need to cut out extras we have narrowed expenses to the point that there isn't much to cut out. Mortgage, utilities, land-line phone/Internet (leaves no business if we cut it), Netflix (instead of satellite TV), Gas to town=one full tank, medication and doctor co-pays, pet supplies and groceries. That's it. We don't eat out. We don't go to the movies or even rent them. We only go to the big town once a month and the town with the medical clinic twice a month; we walk everywhere else. Nearly everything we buy is second hand. Anything that isn't is usually bought on lay-away. This helps us a bit given the current situation. I do generally plan a couple months ahead in my budget.

I am grateful that as a kid we didn't always have the best of things. Through this I actually know quite a bit about fixing the car. However when we made the decision to move to a rural location we luckily enough were also in the market for a car. That afforded us the ability to choose based on our new location. We looked specifically for a manual transmission and 4 wheel drive. In some ways this creates more areas that could need repair but in some situations it’s of great benefit. When you are having battery problems is one of those areas. We were able to push start the car by popping the clutch if we had an automatic transmission we would have simply been stuck. Thankfully there is a parts store in the small town 25 miles away and that's where were going anyway so we were able to replace the battery. For anyone who hasn't done this in a while...you'll be interested to know one dead car battery now equals approximately 100-120 USD out of the budget.

Replacing the battery left the remaining problem: How to shop for a dozen people (all family, all getting us something) with about $30 and 19 days until Christmas. Our budget is a bit smaller than anticipated.

Therefore I am opening this up to your suggestions. In keeping with our 50/50 rule we will be hitting the 3 thrift stores (2 in big town and one in our small town), the dollar stores, and a craft bazaar tomorrow. My requirements-Quick, easy, simple and of course low supply costs are essential. Please note that in the next 19 days we must still uphold the blog, Facebook and website support, cook and clean, tend to minion, see the doctor and finish off all our started projects.

I myself must finish one crocheted afghan (assembling it now), start and finish a second afghan, refinish some reclaimed wood (the Mr. is helping with this) and cut/assemble some stained glass, finish my pay it forward gifts, and help minion with her hand crafted gifts for four people. I would also perhaps like to sleep at some point.

So if you have a favorite standby for gifting or something awesome you've received in the past that meets those criteria PLEASE SHARE IT. It is my goal to get it all accomplished, make most everyone happy, and most of all finish on time.

Much appreciation and gratitude,

WifeofaPrepper

As always you can join the Facebook group, like the Facebook community page, and visit the website. All of these are conveniently called “Kaya Self Sufficiency”. I hope you have enjoyed this post and I hope you are getting better at providing as much as you can for yourself and for your family, group, or community.