A large family. A mobile home. A house under construction. No loans. Meet the do-it-yourself family, The Building Brows. Parenting six kids in 832 square feet?
It's nuts, it's cramped. It's taking forever to build our DIY home. But it's DEBT-FREE.
I've taken a tip from the airlines in an effort to save gas: Drive slower.
When oil prices skyrocketed in 1973, the US government cut maximum speed to 55 in an effort to conserve energy, part of the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act. It was signed on January 2, 1974, and stayed for a good fifteen years before the imposition was lifted, allowing for speed limits to jump back up to 60-80 depending upon state preference.
From the bit of reading I've done, though, vehicle engines are still made to perform at optimum proficiency at 55 miles per hour, so if you drive the current highway speed limit, or on town roads at slower speeds, you burn more fuel than if you were to drive 55.
Now don't go speeding on town roads to save gas, but when it comes to highway travel, try running at 60 miles per hour instead of 65, or drive 55 if you can stand it. Here's an interesting article titled "The Unmentioned Energy Fix: A 55 mph speed limit."
Since I've begun to drive slower, I've noticed two things:
Others are beginning to do the same; even when I drive 55, cars have stayed behind me instead of pass. I think it's catching on. People are getting it: you burn (rubber), you lose (money).
Our gas consumption has reduced. I track our miles per gallons and when I began to drive 55-60, our miles per gallon increased.
It really works! It must; the airlines are using this method to save money. Added bonus? Zero speeding tickets.
Calling back to order prepay for the season and being told they sold it all so you can't buy prepay.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like a bad joke, but it's no joke. Only bad. It's the second time in a month I've felt sick to my stomach at news--the first time over the initial prepay fuel price I so wanted to refuse to pay but couldn't out of no alternative.
The company said they sold in three days what they normally sell in five weeks for kerosene. Good for them? Not really. They say they're making the same profit they did last year when prices were $2+ per gallon less. You know where the money is really going.
I even asked about their requirements for enclosing a tank to buy oil at $4.67, which is sounding pretty good right now, but they require the tank be in a heated enclosure, not just an insulated box. Now I'm not sure what we'll do.
The good news right now is that it looks like the weatherization we did last year reduced the amount of kerosene we used so we need less. (And that reminds me, I never posted the weatherization pictures. That, I'll have to do.)
So for now, we're on the waiting list. If the fuel company buys more kerosene, they may let us buy prepay. If not, it's right back to where we always were: trusting God.
With this economic crunch and things only predicted to get worse, I look at my surroundings and heave a sigh of relief that we aren't yet in the house. I cannot imagine the fuel costs (or tax rates we're not yet ready for).
Worse, costs of construction materials has skyrocketed, and is predicted to continue. Now is definitely not the time to buy building supplies.
Within two month's time, the cost of shingles alone is expected to rise significantly, stressing businesses in construction trades, those trying to build, and homeowners needing home repairs. It hasn't been overnight, though. Prices began to sharply increase after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in the USA about two years ago, August, 29, 2005, driving up demand.
I look back at these past two years knowing the frustrations we've endured living small, and must acknowledge that God knew all of this would happen and kept us here for a reason. We are not living beyond our means and are not threatened by bankruptcy, and that piece of mind is huge.
We retain hope that building supplies will drop in price. (And Lord help us, gasoline/oil/kerosene/propane too.) Then, perhaps, we will be ready to build. In the mean time, I trust God has been, and continues to, position us properly for whatever comes.
We just received our prepay price for the winter. It's the first time I've felt sick over charges. Well, I take that back. The first time was when we received a phone bill from Frontier Communications several years ago for $1,900,221.51: $221.51 for overdue charges and $100,000 per monthly commitment times 19 months of contractual period we had not fulfilled.
All I can say is, thank God we had never signed that contract and were only liable for the $221.51, so the nearly 2 million dollar bill was an error. But this prepay price is not.
$5.079 per gallon!!!
This is for kerosene since our tank is outside. Crap. And the fully prepaid price. The budget program runs $5.129. And I thought $4.67 for regular oil my dad quoted us was bad. Now I'm just wishing we could get an indoor tank. Maybe it's cheaper if we box in our tank with an insulated shed! If we can build it for $184 or less, then yeah. It's cheaper. That's how much we'd save.
My first instinct is to say, "Heck no--I refuse to pay!" I can't in good conscience pay this wretched price and let these price gougers get away with this. On the other hand, I'm looking at our situation saying, "Crap! What else can we do?"
My friend is looking at buying a pellet stove, and even the person I just spoke with at the fuel company about prepay bought one, but in our tiny mobile home, I can't see how we could even think of doing this. There is simply no space.
We considered using an outdoor stove to heat our house when done--it sits outdoors and hooks up to the internal system and runs off wood, stocked once a day. No need to worry about losing power and therefore heat. Maybe we need to look into that for this year since we'll already have to pay at least half the startup price for that just for fuel that will burn up and be gone.
Have you gotten your prepay price this year? How does it compare with ours? I'm curious what they're running across the country, and what kind of alternative fuel sources you're looking at, if you are. Please take two minutes and comment!
Secure your sensitive information against identity theft
You seen that commercial where the guy drives around in a cargo truck with his social security number printed on the side? It caught my attention, particularly because several years ago we found someone else's credit information on my husband's credit report. And he wasn't even born yet at the time those events happened. I've been on the alert ever since--way before identity theft became a public awareness.
I haven't been able to get that truck out of my mind, so I took a click over to Lifelock to find out more. Here's what I discovered:
For $10 per month, they offer protection of your personal information with a 1 million dollar guarantee per person if registered personal information is breeched due to Lifelock's failure, reduced junk mail and credit card offers, and engagement in regular proactive credit protection like placing fraud alerts on your accounts so you'll be notified in the event of a questionable incident. They also offer protection for your kids under the age of 16 for an additional $25 per year.
I'm intrigued, though I'm unsure about giving a company my private information to protect. Yeah, I know, I give it to the bank and such, but I can at least meet these people in person, and it's required. I refuse to give my social security number just about everywhere else, and you should, too.
But there's no doubt Lifelock helps avert disaster so I'm mulling over this service for our family. I doubt it could have prevented the botch on Jim's credit since that seemed to be a misreport of information, but after that, and the rise of identity theft often discussed, how could I not consider Lifelock further? All I have to do is remember that CSI episode where identity theft is a key factor in a case to realize how much damage identity theft can do.
For now, here are free ways we protect our sensitive information:
I don't post my kid's names on my blog and rarely post pictures of them.
We cross-cut shred anything with personally identifying information on it including envelopes labeled with our names and addresses.
We don't put social security numbers on forms at doctor offices and other places that do not need it. IT IS NOT REQUIRED.
NEVER put your full account numbers on your checks when paying bills even though the stubs tell you to. Accounts receivable will match your information just fine. If you're super concerned about payments getting mis-attributed, write the last few numbers of the account (acct# ending in xxx) on the check and on the pay stub you can write "paid w/check #xxx ").
Print only your first initial on your checks. Only your financial institution needs to know who is authorized to write checks on your account so this makes it harder for thieves.
I'm sure there are more things we can do that I missed, so drop me a comment with more anti-identity-theft tips. While I wait I'm going to try driving that social security number truck out of my head. Brilliant marketing tactic, that truck.
Update: I thought of another important security measure this morning, and that is to use a credit card, not debit card, for any transaction where your card leaves your hand or where you're making a reservation. Credit cards have anti-fraud protection where debit cards do not, as well as the obvious plus that a credit card is not directly connected to your bank account.
If someone fraudulently swipes your card while paying your dinner meal at a register away from you, you can contest it on a credit card and keep your bank account from being infiltrated. And when making reservations, you won't run the risk of overdrafting your bank account when a hotel places a hold on your account for the full amount of your room to keep it until you come and pay. Holds aren't charged, but will make your bank account bounce if using a debit card because the money in a hold becomes earmarked and therefore unusable, and if you don't have that full amount in your account, or you're close but then make regular payments, your account will bounce and you'll incur nasty overdraft fees. Since credit cards are purely credit, the hold only applies to your credit limit.
Just make sure when using a credit card that you treat it like a debit card and only charge what you have money to repay immediately. :-)
After some incredible high April temps and dry weather that made a dust bowl around here, we're finally getting much needed rain. Vegetation is the greenest I've seen it in months and I noticed yesterday grass is starting to grow. When we first moved in here, I wondered if we'd ever see grass, but I think God orchestrated his creation so there are seeds in just about any soil. (Well, maybe not the clay stuff...)
Speaking of seeds and soil, we haven't tried a garden here for two reasons:
I think I'm garden handicapped.
I doubt anything will grow in sandy soil.
The first I can take care of by educating myself. There are some great gardening websites and books. The second, I can now solve much easier than buying top soil thanks to my friend. Yesterday she asked me if I was interested in sharing a garden with her.
A garden co-op? Whodathunkit? We must be in tune with each other, perhaps by God's spirit since she loves Jesus too, because if you read yesterday's post, you know I mentioned growing food. I just didn't know how I was going to succeed at it with our sandy soil.
So now the two of us are going to grow a garden at her house where she already has a designated garden plot, and we'll get to share quality time, soak up lovely sunshine and it's precious vitamin D through our much-needed sunblock, give our kids regular play time together, and save money on vegetables! This is a perfect setup for someone like me who is garden green, as in don't-know-nothing-'bout-planting.
If you are planning a garden, why not ask a friend or two if they want to go in with you? Or if you want to save money but don't have the space, ask some of your land-wealthy friends if they might be interested in a garden co-op. Or maybe you have land, but don't know how to garden. Get some friends and learn gardening together. You don't even need that much space. The return might be worth turning a postage stamp parcel's tiny lawn into a garden for a season.
Garden co-ops--what a great way to grow friendships, food, and that green wallet stuff.
I've been reading a lot lately about how people nationwide are struggling financially as gas and food prices rise. The stimulus payments that will start to flow to Americans tomorrow will, by necessity, go to help fill the gap these higher prices are causing. I realize steep inflation is forewarned in the Bible, but living through it doesn't make it easier.
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Two pounds of wheat for a day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"Revelation 6:5-6 TNIV
Complaining (again) yesterday about our tiny home and how hard it is to keep clean when it seems gremlins follow me to mess up what I fix, my understanding opened. Many people right now carry vehicle loans and mortgages, and as prices skyrocket, it becomes harder to pay for them.
I may never like this sardine can of a house, but it's time for me to once again count my blessings that we fully own our vehicles, land, mobile home, and house under construction. And because we followed what God showed us and did not get a loan or charge credit for building supplies to get in our house sooner, we don't have debt making it even tougher to pay the essentials.
Living in 800 square feet with eight people and a Great Dane may challenge us and make me want to scream at times, but at least the added stress of losing the little we have does not exist like it has for us before and does now for others.
Thank You, God, for this. It is a blessing indeed.
But what if you have that mortgage, loans, or car payments choking you? Is there blessing you can find when you're feeling strangled by gas and food prices?
I believe there is, but like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so are blessings. These you must search out and find yourself. (Try asking God, first.) In the mean time, take heart. Spring is upon us and there's no finer time to learn to plant a garden or manage indoor vegetable-bearing plants to help ease the cost of food. And to look into hydrogen powered cars fueled by water... (Jim's new hobby)
Tax man arrives with hope for resuming house construction
The tax man has cometh. Most people want to hide from him, but Jim and I have been waiting expectantly for his arrival. I've alluded before to a plan we were following to resume house construction. For the past several years we'd been looking at something significant with the power to impact our financial health, but did not count on anything until it happened. Now with the tax man's arrival, it has, and I can share.
Roofing is a tough industry in New England because it's a three-season job. It's difficult for a family to live on a roofer's income when he's just the worker and has no income in the winter, 4-5 months of the year, so these past fifteen years have been very tight financially. It's why we're living in a tiny mobile home and could not afford a normal mortgage or rent or car payments. (Not that we want them anyway...) But we knew there was hope on the horizon because my dad talked of giving Jim the business.
This past year was the first year Jim and Dad were business partners. We had no idea what our finances would look like until the tax man arrived, and we kept things strung tight the entire year not knowing how the winter would be without unemployment or income and still having to pay quarterly taxes. It looks like we've done OK and will continue to as long as we mind our budget.
We are now be able to pay ourselves a small mortgage to put into building supplies, so work should resume this year. I can't tell you how happy and relieved this makes me. When you sit in tiny hole year round looking at your unfinished house untouched for the second year in a row, it gets depressing, especially when you can't see a way to change things.
I'm grateful to God for supplying our needs through good old fashioned hard work, and for helping us hang on and be faithful to roofing when God asked us to even before talk of ownership began. That's the toughest part of faith--following what God asks when you can't see any logical reason for it. It borders on lunacy, and would be if not orchestrated by God. (All the more reason to know God to discern His direction.)
So we'll keep budgeting and start building up house funds, and hopefully we'll be back in that house pounding nails soon. Yippee!
Bought a new car with payments lately? Then maybe you're familiar with one of those little boxes affixed under your dash that ensure your lender payment as spoken of at USA Today. You know, the one that beeps incessantly if you default on a payment and then shuts off your car entirely if you don't punch in a code given only by your lender once you make that payment.
Lenders are getting tough about getting their money, and customers are getting cranky about it. Next thing we could see is these little black boxes on our homes locking us out, or worse. But let's face it. Lenders have a right to their money, and on time.
If we don't like it, we shouldn't borrow. Or we should be patient and long suffering to save our money enough to buy outright; a difficult feat, for sure, but if we don't want little black boxes controlling our lives, worth the second look.
Realistically, this is a warning of tougher standards ahead, and rightly so. Spending is way out of control and debt loads soar. Now is the time to make changes before consequences for payment defaults become so severe people land in prison.
Don't laugh. It could happen. Thankfully today, we still have time to change. And that's the biggest blessing.
Posts have been sparse the past few weeks due to a hectic schedule including preparations to attend a writing conference next week in California and my Grandmother who almost lost her life from serious infection and congestive heart failure. She has recovered miraculously and I feel better now about leaving for the conference.
During my absence here we've had snow and ice upon snow and ice and a nearby tree fall on our trailer roof over the living room. Fortunately, it was a small tree and rested more on its branches than on our roof so there was no damage. Jim was able to cut it down fairly quickly, but the kids and I packed up and slept at Grampa's for the night since just after the tree fell, we lost power. It turned out to be completely unrelated to the tree and was back on a short time later, but with high winds on the heavy-snow-laden trees threatening to take down others, we felt safer at Grampa's house for the night.
We haven't seen this kind of accumulation for twenty years in this area. For the first time since I can remember, the ground has been covered with snow all winter. I actually am not sick of snow, but I'm ready for spring. (NOT mud season, though--ack.) So is Jim's tractor. Plowing in the last snow storm broke both the plow mount and cracked a plastic fuel filter on the tractor so the tractor won't stay running. Jim spent yesterday fabricating a new plow mount out of steel.
Next year one thing is certain: we have to budget more for fuel. We just got our gas/diesel bill. We had no idea plowing so much snow would quadruple our bill!
As frugal home builders, we always seek ways to purchase what we need through least expensive options, if possible, though we're not fanatics about it. We frequent several online shopping sites, but our favorite is eBay.
Jim loves eBay Motors. He just loves to look at trucks, and it gives him a good idea of what vehicles are going for these days. And outrageous bids amuse him.
I love eBay, too. We bought our daughter's flute through eBay so she could participate in band, and I've found several good deals for items we needed. Here are some tips for navigating a successful eBay transaction and what to watch out for:
Read listings carefully. I recently purchased a wall adapter based on the image and description. The image looked like the model I wanted, but the description didn't specify it was a brand name, which was fine as long as it looked the way it was supposed to, which is eBay's policy. When I received the item, it was a cheap generic version that looked completely different than what was advertised and plugged in all wrong in the outlet. Plus it was damaged. The seller misrepresented the product. Reluctant to use the product because I didn't want to damage anything I plugged into it, I asked for a full refund and offered to return the item if they would pay return shipping. (A buyer should not pay for seller misrepresentation and defects.) All they would offer was a partial refund and then they stopped answering messages. The matter is still unresolved.
Look to see where the items ships from. The item I mentioned above came from Hong Kong, but I noticed only after I committed to Buy It Now. It took longer to get the product and turned out to be an inferior product they so far have not stood behind.
Check shipping prices. Even though eBay prohibits astronomical prices in shipping, eBay sellers still do it to compensate for or avoid eBay fees. Many times the total price is more than a local store once you factor in shipping. Consider about how much it should cost to ship, allow for a little extra for packaging and handling, and judge the shipping fees from there.
Read a seller's feedback ratings. Have buyers found the seller reliable? easy to work with? good at communication?
Read positive reviews, too. Don't just look for negative reviews to read assuming positive reviews mean all positive transactions. Many buyers leave a less-than-positive review to an ill transaction to avoid seller retaliation with a negative review back. This policy is changing so eBay sellers will no longer be able to retaliate.
Pay attention to mutually withdrawn feedback. If you see several mutually withdrawn ratings, treat them as negative reviews. In most cases, a buyer left a negative review and the seller retaliated with a negative review, and neither wanted a lower feedback score so they agreed to mutually withdraw the rating to avoid a lower eBay scores. eBay policies will make it so sellers can only leave negative feedback for no-pay buyers, but it will take months for this to reflect in ratings.
Never respond to eBay transactions outside the eBay system including offers via e-mail to close an auction early, requests to pay though instant transfers with a service like Western Union, or from someone claiming to be the seller with a name different than the eBay user name. In one instance we knew they were scams because in one instance we were the winner and had already paid through eBay's system when the supposed seller was offering to end the auction early. Plus the message came to an e-mail address the seller or anyone else could not have had through eBay transaction. The people had taken our eBay name and plugged it into a popular mail service and reached us that way, the reason eBay no longer allows members to use an e-mail address which uses the user name.
Investigate second chance offers carefully. After the item closed, we have received several second chance offers from people claiming to be the seller for items we bid including the eBay item number to make it look legitimate. It came outside the eBay system to an e-mail address we don't use for eBay. But if we had not known to scrutinize the message, we may have fallen for the scam and lost money.
Ask questions before bidding.
Wait a reasonable time frame before inquiring about delivery. 5-7 business days is reasonable for first class, 10-14 for media mail.
Contact the seller if there are problems. Give him a chance to correct things if something is wrong. And remember, computer glitches do happen, and you can't tell a person's tone by words in e-mail. Someone may appear to be curt when in reality they just aren't terrific writers. Always give the benefit of the doubt where you can.
Leave appropriate feedback. If things weren't terrific but your product still worked, leave a positive feedback. If there were problems, but the seller tried to correct them, you could leave positive or neutral feedback. Only leave negative feedback when the seller failed to send the right product, you waited an astronomical length of time for your product with no communication, or some other serious transaction infraction.
Finding bargains through eBay can be a lot of fun. Follow these tips and it will help you have a good eBay experience. Just don't go overboard buying lots of stuff you don't need. ;o)
I've taken a tip from the airlines in an effort to save gas: Drive slower.
Stumble It!
