Saturday, August 30, 2008

Garden Purgatory

If I believed in purgatory, my garden would be pretty close to it. It is what has been keeping me away from blogging this past month (as well as work taking me away). Every day we pick at least a pound of green beans, a pound of cherry tomatoes, enough basil for cooking and 15 pounds of regular tomatoes. Every week we've been picking some eggplant, peppers, cucumbers & broccoli. Almost every night we've been making either spaghetti sauce or tomato soup or just freezing them.

Our lettuce I've decided to just let die, with all of the tomatoes it's been hard to keep up on them. Our chives didn't do too well this year, enough for a little bit of flavor but nothing beyond that. Our corn did not do too well either. Cantaloupe produced a little bit, but I've been having problems with neighborhood kids stealing them. Celery and leeks are doing well. We've got some new Kohlrabi growing and will be ready in a few weeks.

I think the hardest of it all has been the cherry tomatoes. We planted way too many of them and they are the most time consuming since you can't just let them sit for a day, otherwise they start bursting on the vine. Next year we will do 2 or 3 plants only of cherry, not the dozen or so I did this year.

My favorites have been the peppers & eggplants & basil. They have just needed a bit of watering, can survive a few days being ignored. Overall, the garden has been a success and we've learned a lot.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

July Net Worth +$1239 & August Budget

July Net Worth +$1,239

It was a slow month on the net-worth front. We took care of 1 small debt outstanding. We built up our cash reserves so that we can tackle 1 last credit card remaining (I can't wait for the day, it seems like it's dragging on forever). We consolidated my student loans down to 4.375% as well, which will help in the coming years. It is now lower than our mortgage, meaning we'll pay down our mortage before it. The unplanned expenses this past month includes some co-pays, oil change, and some maintenance supplies for the house.

August Budget

We're trying to go bare-bone this month so we can take care of 2 items soon (if the court case goes quickly). We're itching for a fireplace insert in the living room and getting rid of the last credit card.

$1130 Mortgage
$250 Car Gas
$250 Groceries
$232 Utilities
$200 Fun Money
$55 Cell-Phone
$40 Health Insurance (Daughter)
$220 Student Loans
$95 Life Insurance
$20 Oil Change
$75 Anniversary