Crystal Groves

Each month I want to see how many $0 days I can get. All costs are rounded.

October 01: Bi-Monthly Bill Payment Day
October 02: $0
October 03: $0
October 04: $0
October 05: $0
October 06: $31 in gas, $40 for Grove/ADF renewal, $5 for ADF donation
October 07: $0
October 08: $0
October 09: $69 for camping registration
October 10: $0
October 11: $0
October 12: $30 on gas
October 13: $112 to my church as a donation, $49.50 towards tax course tuition for books
October 14: $0
October 15: Bi-monthly bill payment day
October 16: $30 on gas
October 17: $56 on food
October 18: $0
October 19: $0
October 20: $30 on gas
October 21: $0
October 22: $0
October 23: $460 on new tires and alignment
October 24: $0
October 25: $30 on gas
October 26: $0
October 27: $0
October 28: $0
October 29: $32 on gas
October 30: $10 for a workshop
October 31: $0

Days in October not spending money: 18.
Not a bad month, if I do say so myself.

See also: September, August, July, June, May, April, March

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I haven’t really had time (somewhat literally) to make any heart-felt journal post recently, so I’m going to try to sum up what I’ve been up to in a list for easy perusal.

• Dad’s leg has an infection again. He’s on antibiotics and special wrapping materials right now. I’ve also ordered some items that I’ve done research on that are supposed to help these types of skin ulcers. The next time he has it unwrapped, I’m going to take pictures for my own archiving purposes.
• Class is going well. It has a very laid back atmosphere, and I find myself asking questions which leads me to believe I’m actually learning. It’s a lot of material to go through though, and I’m studying almost daily to keep up. I’m going to try to switch to spending the afternoons on Sundays studying for the entire week so I have time for other things. I told a a friend of mine that they eventually teach us about tax fraud and the different methods people use to try and commit tax fraud. He says I’m going to be a Tax0r.
• The last 2 or 3 weeks I’ve been working 15 hour days between my full-time job and freelancing. One evening I was up until 2am (and still had to get up at 6am for work the next day), and am not sure if I went to bed before midnight for an entire week. It’s quite “taxing” on my brain and I’m glad things are settling down some. I can’t complaint too much because the extra money is more than welcome. (this is part of the reason I haven’t been answering emails, fyi)
• I had the Grove up to my abode last weekend. We were going to have a small bonfire out back and drum, but it rained so we stayed inside and ate food, drank Art’s homemade blueberry wine, and watched old bad movies. I’m grateful for having such wonderful people around me. And I’m also grateful for the two men that helped carry a new storage cabinet upstairs for me. (Thanks Art and Mark )
• Upcoming this month, I have to work for my full-time job on a Saturday all day. Several Grove events, some of which are pretty exciting. I’m going camping out near Berkeley Springs again, and am suspecting I’m going to freeze my ass off. And hopefully enjoying the harvest and season.
• My wisdom teeth healed fine, in fact during my follow-up appointment the doctor said they were healing beautifully. I’ve had absolutely no pain from the surgery, and no pain since the surgery, which leads me to believe the one partially impacted wisdom tooth was indeed causing me the jaw pain. The whole thing only cost like $250, and that came out of my HSA pre-tax money anyway. Very painless.
• Dad and I had either mormons or Jehovahs Witnesses stop by on Saturday, which I guess makes this officially our home now? I didn’t go outside because I was all henna’d up, but they did stop my dad on his lawnmower (rude?). I saw when they got out of the car that Bastian started jumping all over their nice suits and licking them, so I decided not to worry about bringing him inside. One of them was actually really scared of Bastian, and when they got back into the car I saw him using hand sanitizer Oh well, at least I have a pamphlet if I want to learn about God.
• Holiday shopping has started. I’ve got the sweetheart done, and dad started. I have a few more things to pick up for my dad and maybe my sister and I’ll be finished. Of course the money used for this is money I put away throughout the year so it’s not hurting my finances right now. The sweetheart and I are trying to decide whether to get dad a log splitter or a new lounge chair as his big gift. The log splitter would help a lot since wood is our main source of heat and I’m discovering more and more that dad needs things to be as easy as possible right now with his leg. I’m fine with splitting the wood myself, but dad is not going to wait until the weekend when I can do it. He’s that stubborn. The lounge chair is nice because it lets him relax, the one he has now is falling a part, and it’s his main seating place throughout the day. It’s fairly integral for him. I guess I’ll have to think about this more.
• Our well situation is finally fixed. We broke down and bought a new pump, since the one we got from our old house didn’t work quite right either. Now everything works fine, we have a new pump, new parts, new tank. Eventually we’ll need a new water heater, but I’m going to try and use this one up first.
• Speaking of planned expenses, during my trip to Berkeley Springs later this month, I’m going to stop by a wholesale tire place that has been recommended to me for years and pick up 4 brand new tires for the mustang. I’ve already got a quote between $80 and $123 each (includes mounting), depending on which tire I choose. So while I’m out that way I’ll use the money I’ve saved up for this and get some new tires before the winter.
• I got my car inspected for PA (where they told me I’ll need new tires before winter, which I suspected anyway), so I think I’ve completed pretty much everything to get myself officially transferred to PA now.
• I seriously need to downsize my rock collection. I started filling up the cabinet that my friend Caryn gave me, and it’s overflowing due to rocks. We are having a goods auction to support the Grove in a few weeks, maybe I will downsize then.
• Dad and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in our new house on October 1st. Doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but we’ve adjusted to it. I’m still not fully unpacked . Slacker.
• I had to call Comcast the other day because my “promotional” period ended and they raised my rates. I had to threaten to cancel in order to be rebundled to a better rate, but I’m set in stone for another year at least.
• Work had its annual party a few weeks back. I don’t think I played as well this year, but I had fun so that’s all that matters.

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I’m keeping track of my payments towards the remainder of our interest accruing debt (besides the house) to kinda see the progress as we reach my goal of having this gone by or in February 2010. So expect these posts monthly! Each month, seeing the progress should hopefully motivate me to stay on track with this.

• Starting Balance of Debt in September 2009: $3469.49
• Total Payments in September 2009: $1027.17
• Total Payments YTD: $1027.17
• Total Card Charges in September 2009: $1666.77
• Total Finance Charges For September 2009: $35.32
• Total Finance Charges YTD: $35.32
• Starting Balance for October 2009: $4144.29
• $0 Goal: February 2010

Notes for this month:
Obviously this month moved backwards, but I am not too worried. With the freelance money I have coming in, it will certainly help the extra money that was displaced due to the new well pump, new water tank, new well parts, etc. Part of the large balance was also due to the crab feast dad and I hosted, which I had the money saved up for, but for convenience dad used the card I gave him, and I just transferred the money saved over to the card that same day (hence the larger payment this month too).

Edit: See all my entries regarding this debt reduction.
March 2010, February 2010, January 2010, December 2009, November 2009, October 2009, September 2009

See also: My series of paying off dad’s loan in 8 months