money Archives - MarriedtotheFarm

Fake Mums? Realistic Looking Fall Flowers

In keeping with my farm girl lifestyle, I grow food. I’m a decent gardener… but I only grow things I can eat! I’m pretty clueless about flowers. My mama tried, but I just haven’t had much free time in my adult life (can’t imagine why!?) and growing pretty things hasn’t been a priority. I have enough other living things that count on me to keep them alive, lol. However, this year I splurged on hanging baskets for the front porch. I asked for the ones that were hardest to kill and required the least amount of watering. Whatever I ended up with did fairly well – and they REALLY brightened up the look of our front porch. So much so, in fact, that I started to wonder about mums. They look festive, but I really did fail at watering my summer baskets and mums are kind of expensive to buy if I’m just going to kill them right away. That led me to google “fake mums”. *This post may contain affiliate links that help support my content here.* I found some very realistic looking ones, but oh the price! In addition to not being able to kill my fall flowers,

August 10, 2009 baking / bread / canning / farming / garden / green beans / knitting / Menu Plan Monday / money / peaches / pressure canning

Today’s To-Do List

Monday is my day off and I’m staying super busy! This is more for my purposes but in case you’re interested, here’s what is on my agenda: -Can more green beans (they’re on the stove now)-Bake bread-Call the builder-Call the plumber-Call on prices for an automatic cattle waterer-Balance the checkbook/pay bills-Find the title for a trailer we’re selling-Call the orchard to order peaches (Mmmm!)-Scope out vacation destinations online (this is coming up fast!)-Make the weekly menu plan-Make granola bars if time allows-Finish knitted baby shower gift and make progress on wedding gift The bathroom needs to be painted and the landscape worked on but it is incredibly hot and humid/sticky so I won’t be doing either of those things today. I’m hoping to bust through the rest of the list so I can just knit and work on the bread. I’d love to hear what you’re doing today! 🙂

July 22, 2009 canning / knitting / money

Free TV: Getting By Without Cable

We haven’t had cable or satellite TV service since we moved to the farm almost 2 years ago. Brian had satellite at the old house and when we moved we called and “suspended” it. The company offered to install it at the farm for us but we moved in the midst of harvest season and knew we’d be way too busy to watch much TV. As we approach another fall we both agree that life without a TV bill is totally doable. The Digital transition really threw a wrench in things. We used to get 5, 12, 19, 25, 28, 46, and 66. After the digital transition we get only half of those plus their “extra” channels (19 now has 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, often all with separate programming). We can still get most channels but we have to adjust the antenna constantly depending on what we want. We’ve developed a few strategies that help us deal with the “welfare TV only” lifestyle. First, we subscribe to Netflix during the winter months when we aren’t busy and are stuck in the house the most. We do the 2 at a time plan for $14.83 per month. Wayyy cheaper than cable.

May 15, 2009 money

Garage Sale Finds

Last weekend there was a neighborhood garage sale nearby. It was raining that Saturday but I went out anyway. It had been so long since I’ve been to a good sale! I had a few good finds. Several name brand tops for $0.50 – $3 a piece. Aero, Arizona Jean Company, American Eagle, etc. A few cute long sleeved henley style shirts. A turtleneck sweater. One nice hooded sweater and one mini sweater (the kind that just hugs your shoulders). Also, I picked up 2 pair of jeans for a few dollars each. After trying them on at home I can tell they don’t fit well enough to be good going out jeans. However, they’ll be ready for scooping poop and gardening, if nothing else. Another great find was a riding helmet. I really needed one since I’ve been riding on my own more this year and can’t always borrow one from a friend. It is not a good idea to buy a used helmet in case it has been damaged. I feel okay about it in this situation because I’m pretty sure the girl just lost interest in riding. It was only $5. I’ll have to try it for

April 5, 2009 money

Wantin’ & Havin’ It All

So here’s what’s on my mind, or I guess let’s start with why it is there. Today I had a local electrician come out and give us a quote on completely rewiring our house. Remember my post about poor service? Well it is a good thing I had already written about that or I would have yesterday. I have been in touch with 5 electricians and the guy who came out is the only one who even returned my calls!! I have such a hard time believing “there are no jobs” when no one wants to work. Anyway, this electrician is GREAT! It was Dave from Affordable Electric for readers in my area. I spoke with him yesterday and he came right out this morning, showed up early, offered us a reasonable price, and was super friendly. I had no idea what to expect and was guessing it would cost around $3-4 K to rewire our whole house. I was way off – turns out it will cost more like $7,000, and I think that is a pretty competitive rate. I would really like this done because A)I am paranoid about fires now for obvious reasons and B)we would like