Ways To Make Extra Money

January...the month everyone vows to make a change in their life. The month people anxiously await their W2's. The month you sit down and review last year's budget, and come up with a plan to make this year's budget better.

Our budget goal is always the same, payoff credit card debt. It seems every year we make a little headway, then life catches up, medical debt comes into play, an unexpected car repair, a really awesome homeschool class comes along, and before we know it this year's numbers look the same as last year's numbers.

Now that we are in our permanent house, we can focus on not only paying off debt, but in the case of credit cards, closing them off as we do it. We really don't need to rely on a credit score for at least a few years (hopefully the car lasts that long), so this is our time to get serious. House repairs can wait, because we aren't trying to sell the house, and we can make do with what we have for the moment.

That being said, while we wait for our W2's and other tax documents, we are finding other ways to expedite our debt payoff. Here are some of the options we have utilized.

Counting Change

What does everyone do with their change? We have a large glass bottle sitting in our living room. The girls are always finding random change laying around. When we packed up everything in our old house, change ended up wherever, so it is slowly being collected as we unpack.

Luke had his own separate stash in his laptop bag. Taking flights to Atlanta for work, he uses a lot of change for snacks and drinks at the airports. We decided to cash his stash in, and it ended up being over $50!!

Ibotta

Do you use it? Basically you answer a poll or watch a short video, and unlock a few cents on certain items you may buy at the grocery store. Go buy those items, scan a receipt in, and you get the credit. It's nice because there are times when they just have generic items, like milk, eggs, onions. No specific brands needed, and they are basic items you almost always buy. Over the past year of doing it (there was probably 6 months that I paid no attention to it), I ended up cashing out $37.80. Considering our membership to The Wilderness Center is $40 a year, and they have homeschooling classes each month, I basically got that membership for free this year.

Photography

Luke's photography business is at a stand still. His day job has been so busy, he has no time to schedule shoots and edit photos. Instead, he pairs up with two local photographers to be the second photographer at weddings. He gives up a Saturday or Sunday, but for $200-$250 a wedding, and he doesn't have to edit photographs, it certainly helps out. So far we have 12 weddings on the calendar he is second shooting, and one wedding that he has booked. My goal for this income is to pay off 2 credit cards. I know for sure we can pay off one entirely, and probably half of the other, but I'm sure more weddings will pop up as the year progresses.

Selling Junk

After moving, I have realized that we have entirely way too much. We still have many boxes out in the garage that need to be unpacked and sorted, and I have no idea where we would even fit anymore into this house. We are designating boxes to place items we no longer have a use for, and we will first try to sell them on Facebook in the local buy and sell groups. It may only be a few dollars a month, but it will certainly add up.

Homesteading

It's not something that will take off right away, but we have the opportunity to make a few extra dollars with our current set up. Currently the hens are on strike since it's been so cold, and it gets dark so early, but when the weather changes, a dozen eggs can go for $2. If I have a broody hen that sits on some eggs and hatches them, we have the opportunity to sell the chicks for a few bucks a piece. Duck eggs can go for $3/dozen. We have a male and female rabbit living together, and if we end up with kits, we could sell them. We also plan to have a garden, so we may end up with extra produce. I could freeze or can the extras, but I guess that depends on if I unbury my pressure canner and jars out of the garage this year.

Fixing Cars

One of Luke's hobbies is working on his Fieros. One of the main reasons we wanted this property was because of The Shop, a 32x40 pole barn. He has a lot of tools, and knows a decent amount about cars, so friends are always asking for car advice. We have done oil changes, brake jobs, and even changed a motor for friends. I've told Luke that we need to put up a donation jar in the shop since people like to come over and borrow the area to work on their cars. It would help fund the insulating the shop project to keep it warmer next winter.

Any suggestions? What do you do to bring in extra money? Crafts? Babysitting? Yard work? What works for you?

New Year's Resolutions 2016

With the new year inching upon us, we have quite a honey-do list around the homestead. I realize that we won't get everything we have plans for done, that this will be at least a decade long process to get the home completely finished, and have everything set up the way we want, but I'm a list person, so we will do the obligatory New Year's resolution blog post!

Homesteading Goals for 2016

1. Move in :)

2. Plan and plant a small garden

3. Build a chicken coop and get chickens

4. Start 2 bee hives

5. Fence in a pasture area for chickens

6. Start an orchard that we can add to

7. Install a clothes line

8. Mark Maple trees

The contractors should be done in early February, and we home to move in shortly after. We just finished moving everything out of our storage units into the smaller garage yesterday. I'm sure we could have quite the garden, but I have a bit of a brown thumb, so I'd like to start off small. We still have 2 chickens at the in-laws, and I hope to get more in March during chick days. We will need a bigger coop than what we currently have for that, and as much as I would love for them to free range completely, we have a lot of predators around, so building a fenced area will offer more protection. We are near some clover fields, plus we have 2 acres of woods, so beehives are a must for our homestead location. We'll start off with 2 and see how we handle the winter before thinking about adding more hives. We would also love to have a large variety of fruit trees and bushes, along with nut trees, so thinking long term, we need to start planting as soon as we can. Adding a few more trees each year will be the best financially for us. Having first floor laundry right by the backdoor is ideal for having a clothesline. We get plenty of wind coming across the fields, and plenty of sun (when it's not cloudy in Ohio). One thing we must do this year is figuring out the trees that are on the property. We will need to start drying some firewood, but I'd love to try my hand at making maple syrup, if only just a small amount, so identifying all of our trees is a must.

Personal Goals for 2016

1. Lose some weight (once I get this boot off my foot!)

2. Cook more, eat out less (make healthier choices)

3. Pay off Lexi's braces

4. Pay for Lilly's braces in full

5. Pay off our Paypal credit card

6. Pay cash for South Carolina wedding trip

7. Keep a $1,000 emergency fund in our savings account

8. Hang dry clothes at least 50% of the time

Losing weight is always on the list. I know I'm not nearly active enough, but hopefully these moon boots I've been wearing on my feet will help enough that I will actually be able to be more active without being in constant pain. I just spent 5 weeks with the boot on the left side, so I have about 4 weeks left to go on the right side. I've never claimed to be a cook, and we eat out far too often, so I'm hoping to take advantage of the kitchen and start making more meals at home. I think living out in the country will make that easier. I want to limit the amount we go running into town for something. We still have 7 months of paying on Lexi's braces, and Lilly will need them in the next 6 months, so not having those monthly payments would help out tremendously. Luke has a wedding in South Carolina the end of April, and we thought of making it a family trip. We need to run the numbers, but we also don't want to charge the extra it would cost for the whole family. Paying off a credit card is a given. I'd love to have them all paid off. We try to snowball, but right now braces are eating up almost any extra we have, which is why are savings isn't growing much either, so it's on the list too. As for number 8, well I actually would love to use the clothesline, and not just stare at it!!

Of course, everything listed here is coming from my head. If you were to ask Luke, I'm sure organizing the shop and fixing cars would be the primaries on his list, and I'm sure the girls would have a tree house and swingset on the list! In all reality, I'll just be happy to start living out there and making the 5 acres more manageable once the weather gets nice.

Happy New Year!!!

Everything's a Little Bit Crazy...

Not only do I have Easter to post, but also Lexi and Lilly's birthday party, but it seems life has thrown us for some loops this month...

We've been prepping the house for an open house. Most of our work has been brightening up our dungeon basement that leaks when it rains. It'll never be waterproof, but any water resistance we can give it will certainly help. We've also had multiple showings the past two weeks, so we are in a perpetual state of cleaning around here.

In bigger news, I quit my job! It was super part-time, didn't contribute much but stress, and education for the girls comes first, so I'm now a complete stay at home mom again!

Preparing to move and get another home loan is the top thing on our minds, so building up savings, reducing debt, and budgeting have been circulating around here too. Now that I don't have to worry about if or when I work, I want to focus on our food budget. We eat out far too much, and I don't cook a lot of variety.

As for savings and debt, taxes have come around. Not knowing when the house will sell, it eats me up to see money in savings that could payoff a debt that gains interest, so yesterday we paid off a credit card!!! It saves us $160 a month, and we hope to snowball at least $90 of it to our next debt in line while saving some, and redistributing the rest.