Due to developments in the last week or so (I'm working more than full time now) regular updates will be on hiatus until October of 2015. Updates will be sporadic and probably very far apart. Which me luck. Hopefully upon return I can start talking about houses :D

Game Changers and Decisions

So I have been presented with an opportunity to manage a seasonal hotel in our area. It would mean completely putting the rest of my life on hold for six months and focus solely on the hotel.

Now it should be said that I've done this job once before for the same boss at a different hotel and I still work front desk for him. The last time I did this job it was horrible and I don't really expect it to be any better this time.

I'm going to do it anyway and here is why:

• It moves our house plan up to Spring 2016.
• It will eliminate all of our debt except for the house and Hubby's truck.
• It would set us up to focus on getting the farm up and running and getting our businesses up and running (I haven't talked about those yet) and get us out punching a clock a few years sooner. 

This job is, in fact, a game changer. It is going to suck so bad.

I'm going to blog through it, mostly because if I don't I won't remember it.

So for the next year or so, probably starting pretty soon, hotel management posts are going to pop up from time to time. I'm also probably going to spend this winter writing some filler so if the timing seems off on some posts, that's why.

Hubby and Dad (my dad) actually want to build the house next year. We would build the house with Dad's money and then pay off what we're going to pay off and mortgage the house to finish the house and pay back Dad. I'm not really in favor of this plan for a couple of reasons:

• I want to BE there and if we build next summer I won't be. 
• I don't think its going to be easy to pay off my student loans, I think its going to take two months of wrangling to get everyone to agree that they are paid off. So it could take months after the initial loan to pay off my Dad.
• The money from my Dad won't finish the house. It be a couple of months before we can get the mortgage to finish the house, in the meantime we're 'homeless' (all of the work that would be left is inside work and could be done in the middle of the winter).

If we do it the way we are planning this thing right now we will build in the Spring of 2016. This would mean:

• No money borrowed from my parents. 
• A whole winter to get everything in order both financially and logistically. 
• We would just stay in our current apartment until we moved into our house in the Fall or early Winter of 2016. This means one move and we don't have to worry about storing all of our stuff. We would also not have to some time, possibility a whole winter, living with my parents. 

So there are a lot of decisions to make and a lot to prepare for in the next couple of months when I started this blog I expected it to grow and change as life changed but I didn't expect it to be quite this dramatic. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2015 Part 1

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow I will be spending my day among my family (old and new). We will laugh and talk and eat way too much food.

I am thankful for another year and hopeful that next year will be just as good (though maybe not so exciting) as last year.

Stay tuned Friday for some tasteful pictures of food and fun.

Now on Pintrest!/ The last day of fall

So I went to set up a Pintrest account and found out I had one already. I may have caught the bug. 

Look at all the stuff I found 

It was a super busy weekend on my parents farm. It snowed here very early this year and we got a break in the weather over the weekend so we had to take advantage of this. 

My camera was in my pocket the whole time. I didn't take any pictures. I'll work on that. 

I'm going to go crawl into bed now.

Timeline

The need for a list is rising in me (I like lists) and I want a place where I can see a timeline for my goals so here we go:

2015: Build garage with apartment upstairs

2016: Start Garden

2017: Plant Fruit trees and Get chickens

2018: Bring on the goats!

2020: Build House

2021: Trip to Ireland

2024: Adopt if number of children is < 1

2037ish: Hubby Retires

2049ish: I retire

That seems doable. Five years to a house, no more than 10 years to kids, 23 years to hubby retirement and 35 years to my retirement. That means that the house morgage should be paid off by the time I retire (or at least that year) and kids should be between the ages of 20 and 35 at hubby's retirement (if we adopt we're going to adopt older kids). 

Now to see how plans change. 

Money Management vs. Time Management

The old adage "Time is money" is very, very true.

We trade time for money every time we go to work and every time we purchase a service, for example: 

I don't want to clean my house. That's fine, but my house still needs to be cleaned (it really does) and if I'm not going to do it then who will? Well I can trade someone money for house cleaning (their time) which the market has placed a value of $50*. I make $10 per hour so it costs me 5 hours of time to have someone else clean my house. Assuming I don't need the money for something else (hey, look, a flying pig) is it worth 5 hours of my time to have someone else clean my house?

Can I clean my own house in less than 5 hours? Yes. If I clean my own house I will be effectively making more money than I do at work? Yes. It is more efficient for me to clean my own house, so I probably shouldn't pay someone to clean it. 

But the math doesn't always come out, like here:

Bread, the kind that we prefer costs $2 per loaf. The cost of the ingredients for the bread is about 70 cents per loaf, certainly a savings but I have not paid for my time yet. It takes about two hours of work (not counting rising time) to make a batch of bread. If I make $10 per hour and make two loaves of bread in a batch I am running a loss of $17.40. This doesn't mean I never make bread (I love to make bread) but I don't do it and tell myself its cheaper than buying it at the store. 

This is what I'm thinking of when I'm trying to budget my time/money. I believe that it is possible to live a very happy lifestyle with very little money and efficient time management. 

*All amounts are approximate I have no idea what the market value on house cleaning is. 

Favorite (CHEAP) Holiday Recipes

The holiday season is once again nearly upon us, and once again we are basically broke. Truth be told I'm starting to get used to not having any money in the winter, its probably a good thing. Here are a few inexpensive recipes that are crowd pleasers that don't break the bank: 

Corn Casserole: 

Before this recipe came along I would have told you that I don't like corn casserole but my cousin's girlfriend changed all that for me. I have never had any trouble with this casserole, it always sets and is never soggy.

2 T. butter

8 oz. cream cheese, softened and cubed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 can cream corn

1 cup corn muffin mix or one box Jiffy boxed corn bread mix

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave butter on high for 30 seconds or until melted.  Add cream cheese and continue to heat for 15 seconds at a time, until cream cheese is softened.  Stir well until blended.  Add in eggs, both cans of corn, and muffin mix; mix well.  Spread in 9 in. x 13 in. greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly.  Makes 16 serving.

*We eat a lot of corn bread so I make my own mix that I just have to add stuff to, here is the recipe I use:

5 parts all-purpose flour

3 parts corn meal

2 parts sugar

2 tsp baking powder per 2 3/4 cups of above ingredients

1/2 tsp salt per 2 3/4 cups above ingredients

Mix VERY well and store in airtight container for up to 1 year (at room temperature) or in the freezer basically forever, make sure you shake the container before you open it to use some of the mix. 

Cost of this recipe is about 34 cents per serving.

Green Bean Casserole:

4 cans green beans

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 can french fried onions

2 handfuls of shredded cheese

salt and pepper to taste

I like to start this in a pot and then move it to the baking dish, I think it lends to better distribution of the soup and cheese but you could just mix this up in your baking dish if you don't want the extra dirty dishes. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dump the cream of mushroom soup in the pot and turn the stove on its lowest setting. Fold in the green beans. Fold in the cheese. If the soup is too thick add just a splash of milk. Salt and pepper to taste (please, please put some salt in, it doesn't take much but you'll miss it if you omit it). Transfer to 9x11 baking dish (don't use metal) and top with french fried onions. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of the casserole, return to oven for additional 5ish minutes. Serves about 10. 

Total cost for this dish is about 50 cents per serving.