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Budgeting time.

The Inspector — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:19:57 +0000

We live a pretty simple life and have worked very hard over the last year to cut back on our expenses as much as possible. Paying off debt has been a big focus of our lives for a very long time. Now that we have for the most part achieved that goal we are moving on and looking towards our retirement. The truth is that we are a good deal behind in terms of putting money away because of our previous debts. Now we feel that we need to put everything we can into our retirements to make up for this. Fairly frequently we sit down and analyze our budget and determine if there are areas where we can cut back. One thing I noticed this time was that our home owners insurance had risen in price. I am considering spending some time on http://www.wholesaleinsurance.net to research other insurance options available to us. I have to think that there is an insurer out there that can offer us similar coverage at a better price. I might be wrong but from the looks of things this is the only remaining area in our budget where we can make further cuts.

There are days…

The Inspector — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:10:59 +0000

We don’t have cable television and rely on Netflix for our entertainment or online programming. I do try to keep up with current events via online newspapers and such. There are days when I wonder why I even bother. It really seems like it would be better for my outlook on people and life to not be aware of some events in this world. Yesterday I looked through the CNN website and couldn’t find a single positive news headline. Is it because we only care about travesty and disasters? I have to think that there are people out there that are also looking for something to inspire them. My thoughts stray to wondering if there aren’t more positive news reports because the news simply reflects the state of our world? I have to believe that not everything occurring in this world is centered around hurting, stealing from, killing, and disfiguring people. This isn’t to suggest that I want to live in a bubble and pretend this stuff isn’t happening but I would like to believe there is some natural balance taking place in the world. What I mean is that there is indeed good occurring that is keeping all this evil in check.

First long car trip.

The Inspector — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:53:16 +0000

This week we will take our first very long car trip as a family. Our youngest son is not a good traveler by any stretch of the imagination. He is just the type of kid who likes to be moving and doing things. Sitting in the car is his idea of slow torture. He isn’t quite to the age where you can hand him one of those fancy ipods and trust that he will be entertained for hours. My hope is that we can break the trip up into shorter trips and stop frequently. We have put off taking any long trips until now because we just knew that it would be more stress on us all than it would be worth. This particular trip is not optional so we are just going to do the best we can and hope it is somewhat enjoyable. Our older son started taking long car trips from birth and there was never an issue. We didn’t have to travel anywhere after our younger son was born and I think this might be contributing to his problems with traveling. Hindsight is always 20/20 isn’t it?

Short weeks.

The Inspector — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:47:16 +0000

This is an unusual month for me because I will not be working a full week at any point this month. We have something booked each week that required me to take a day off each week. I haven’t really used any vacation time this year so I certainly have the time to take off. I like the idea of long weekends and would love to work a 4 day work week all the time. It is nice to have a schedule full of fun things to look forward to for once. We have been so busy doing projects for so long that we have had few truly relaxing times. I imagine it will be hard to go back to a regular work week once my “vacation” month is over. At least that will be about the time when the weather starts to turn cold and we are stuck indoors anyway.

Big plans.

The Inspector — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:10:41 +0000

My father-in-law is a dreamer. He is a man who comes up with these plans or schemes to turn a little investment into wads of money. The problem is that many of his plans never make sense. For example he is constantly buying stuff at garage sales that he is convinces he can resell for more than he paid for it. His newest plan involves buying new stuff at stores like Wal-mart and then trying to resell it for more money at our local auction site. I try to tell him that it might work to sell used books and stuff like that but people wanting new stuff will just go to the store themselves. He won’t listen and is convinced that he is onto something big. Tonight he is heading to the auction to pick up the proceeds from his last sales attempt. I can only hope he at least breaks even on the items that he tried to sell. I am interested to hear how it all turns out for him.

A solution.

The Inspector — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:58:13 +0000

I just found a solution to my Facebook problem. I do not have to unfriend the person who has been pestering me to no end. What I did do was go in and create a limited profile and viewing experience for this person. By editing my settings I am hoping that this person will not see each and everything that I post. I feel this is a more tactful way to handle the situation. By not allowing this person access to my general posts this person will not be able to make annoying comments and generally pester me on Facebook. I am hoping that because I have been posting on Facebook that much that this person will not realize any difference in their viewing experience when it comes to my Facebook page. I will keep you posted on how it all pans out. I am just tired of worrying about what I can or can’t say because I know this person is going to lecture me on the subject.

Building a brooder.

The Inspector — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:40:23 +0000

This weekend I have to embark on a new project. This project is going to consist of building a brooder for the chicks that we will be picking up from the hatchery next weekend. I still have to do a bit of research but I don’t think it will require to much work. I know I am going to need some clamps for the heat light that we will need as well as a feeder and waterer. The chicks won’t require too much space to begin with but we will need to adjust things as they grow. Living in the city I never thought I would be building either a chicken coop or a chicken brooder but here I am doing both. I only hope the time and expense are worth it when the chickens are grown and have started laying eggs. It will be interesting to see how it all works out over the coming months. If the chicks survive the long trip home that will be a great start as far as I am concerned because we are traveling about 3 hours to pick them up.

Unfriend?

The Inspector — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:30:47 +0000

I am not really active on Facebook anymore for several reasons. The fact is that I don’t like the way this website keeps changing the rules. If you don’t read tech news frequently it is very likely that Facebook will have made changes to the system without alerting users. The other reason I don’t use it that much is because I have people on my friend page that I really don’t want knowing my day to day business. When I allowed them in as my friends I didn’t realize that this would be giving people a means to know my day to day business. There is one person in particular that I totally regret allowing access to this information. I am now torn as to whether I should continue to let this person pry into my life or whether to unfriend them on Facebook. I am considering letting them only have a limited view of my information. Have you ever unfriended someone?

Almost over.

The Inspector — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:24:21 +0000

At the end of the week our children both officially start the new school year. This really drives home the point that summer is about over. We spent a couple of weekends camping but for the most part we stayed home. I really would have like to get away and take one of those Branson vacations but it didn’t happen. We are scheduled for a couple of weekend trips in the next month but that is about it. This summer we decided to spend less on than we normally do on travel and focus on living within our means. This isn’t to say that we didn’t have a fun summer by any stretch. We took a number of day trips and spent time as a family working on projects. I do hope that next summer we will be able to take a nice vacation if everything works out as we have planned. I don’t mind forgoing a trip every other year if it means we can take a great trip occasionally. Convincing the children about this plan hasn’t been too hard since we have been too busy to get bored. My older son actually commented that next summer we should take thing a bit slower and relax a little more.

I really get it now.

The Inspector — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:16:16 +0000

Okay, I am going to admit here and now that I don’t always understand some of the things my wife wants. It took me a while to understand how rain barrels would lower our water bill. I had to actually see her canning food before I could believe she would fill our pantry and all of the jars she kept buying. For months she has been hinting that she wanted a couple of chickens which I thought was crazy since we live within city limits. Once she found out is was legal to have chickens her hints became all out requests. We now have 3 chicks ordered and I will at last admit that I understand her reasoning. After watching a video about factory farming and the news reports about the latest egg recall I am fully supportive of her getting a couple of chicks. She really wants to do the things that she believes will be the best choices for our family in terms of health and happiness. I am starting to question less and just trust that she isn’t throwing out ideas on a whim.