To Sell or Not to Sell: Still waiting and Option 4

The realtor came LAST Tuesday. He has not gotten back with us yet regarding what we're looking at, number-wise, to sell this house. Once we have those figures, then we'll know what direction to take.

• If he thinks the amount we could sell the house for (minus the realtor fee, minus the amount of money that it would take to get it ready for sale) is considerable, then we'll begin the process of getting things ready for sale.
• If it's not a decent amount of money, then we won't.

If it's the second option then I'm ready to formulate a plan to reduce our debt as fast as possible.

If it's the first option, then we've got some major work to do!

Either way, I'd just like to know.

I mentioned in my last post about "Option Four." Here it is in a nutshell:

Our IDEAL situation would be to find a piece of land to purchase where we could park the camper for the spring/summer/fall. During that time we would sell the house and use the profit to build a 2-car garage with an apartment at the top. We would live in that apartment and build our house as funds become available, thereby building debt-free. It would not be a large house, but we would use plans that would allow additions. That would enable the next owner to easily increase the house size if desired.

IF our ideal were to actually work, we would own property and a house, live within our means, and no longer be in debt. At all.

A girl can dream.

To Sell or Not to Sell: If we sell, then what?

If we do indeed decide to sell our current home, where will we go? We plan to get rid of a huge amount of our belongings either through selling or by giving them away. There will still be a for some sort of storage for my husband's contractor equipment and any belongings that we decide to keep. That will certainly be an expense to consider in our search for housing.

We want to be out of debt. We ALSO want to own a house debt-free. The profit that we would make from selling the house would be put aside as a down payment for our next home. We would live on our present income, living in such a way as to add to our funds for the next home.

With that in mind, here are the potential housing choices:

Option One: Rent.

If we were to rent, it would have to be a place that would be BELOW what we're currently paying for our mortgage by about $200. That would allow room for renting a storage unit.

PROS: Lower than renting a house; reasonably comfortable.
CONS: Apartment living, in general; an apartment with the low price we want would not necessarily be in the safest areas.

Option Two: Spend the warmer part of spring, summer, and fall in our camper.


Here's a picture. It's approximately 16 x 8 not counting the tents.

PROS: CHEAP!! Long-term campground rental is very low, much lower than renting an apartment. It has all the amenities, just on a small scale.

CONS: Ummm, it's kinda small. Can we stand that much closeness for so long?

Option Three: Live with my sister. (JUST KIDDING, Sis!)

Option Four: Purchase some land.

I'll talk about Option Four in my next post...

(Thank you to those who have commented. I appreciate the ideas you've already given and ask that you continue to make those suggestions. I'm finding it VERY helpful!)

To Sell or Not to Sell: Other options...

In my last post, I talked about our debt load and how we were considering selling our house in order to free of the "slavery" that being in debt feel like. I know we're not alone in this. So many circumstances can contribute to excess debt that can take YEARS of our lives to get rid of. We've lived with this debt for several years already and we're ready to make a violent, drastic move to get out of it!

So, what are our options? In order to get out of (and stay out of) debt, we need a plan. We were NEVER in debt until our mid-30s. We always paid our credit cards off each month. We bought used everything and paid cash. I was the coupon queen when it came to groceries.

We KNOW how to live within our means.

The problem is that our means aren’t enough to cover what we've accrued and the cloud hanging over us is quite stressful. I know many of you know exactly what I mean about that cloud. So, what to do? Here are the thoughts we’ve come up with:

• Be more frugal and buy nothing that isn’t needed. (We haven’t gotten down to the bare minimum yet, but we’re moving in that direction.)
• Pay cash for everything so as not to add to the credit card load. (We’ve been doing that since May. I LOVE paying cash!)
• Husband could take on a third job. (Here is where it starts to get sticky. He already works 55 hours a week on his paint contracting business. As a part-time pastor, he spends 20+ hours a week in church related time, 6 hours go to the commute, and then there’s always that pesky need for sleep…)
• I could get a paying job. (I homeschool full-time and do the books for my husband’s business. Neither brings in income, of course. If I were to work, then my husband would need to be home to take care of Son. I would have to find something that I could do FROM home in order for this option to be remotely feasible.)
• We can sell everything (except Son) to gather up the greatest amount of funds as possible. (That would possibly result in about 25% of the amount we owe. Definitely what I'm getting ready to do. And I thought my yard sale last spring was my last . . .)

OR

• We can sell our house which will pay all debt and leave approximately a $30,000 profit.

In my next post I will attempt to compare and make SURE that selling the house would make sense.

Guess what I did?

I'm working on my next post regarding debt and options, but it's not ready yet. I DID want to share what I managed to accomplish today, though.

I cooked/heated our entire supper on the wood stove today! Our stove doesn't look like the cool one at right, though. There wasn't much surface area and the entire top was the same temperature, but I still did it!

We had 32 Bean soup to which I added a can of diced tomatoes. I had some ham slices in the freezer that I sauteed on the wood stove and then added to the soup. It simmered for several hours, wafting that lovely comfort food smell all over the house.

I warmed some rolls on the top as well, and supper was served.

How's that for a little taste of self-sufficiency? Nary a kilowatt was used in the production of this meal!

To Sell or Not to Sell?

That's the question we've been batting about lately.

We bought our house 10 years ago. House prices were just beginning to rise and we were able to get this at a VERY decent price. That means that it's value has risen about 70% (woo hoo!).

When we moved into this house, we were in our mid-30s and had never been in debt (except for a small student loan that we paid off as fast as possible, making minimum wage!). We'd ALWAYS paid all of our bills on time, drove used (sometimes dilapidated) vehicles, pinched pennies, worked multiple jobs, etc., etc. Then we bought our house. We had a down payment and everything. It was our only debt.

In the last 8 years, though, we've had interesting things come up. We had between 2 and 12 employees for a couple of years. That experience was so expensive that there were many, many weeks where we paid them, bought the supplies for the customer, and had zero take-home pay.

We had a baby, but he didn't cost too much. I guess we'll keep him.

Then, there were two trips south to visit previously mentioned MIL that racked up several thousand in expenses. There were other little things, but the latest financial setback was last winter when my husband had almost NO income for 4 months. Yet, we still had to pay the bills.

That 8 years of "interesting" events resulted in credit card debt that is so high I'm too embarrassed to type the number!

We are SO VERY TIRED of being in debt. Really, it's being in slavery. Frugal is one thing. I'm happy to be frugal and make our dollars stretch. What I'm tired of is paying the card companies for YEARS making my dollar stretching only a futile effort in scratching the surface.

That's the background. Tomorrow I'll post what our "Plan A" possibility is. I'll also post the pros and cons, because it's not as clear-cut a decision as one might think it should be.

I'd be interested in hearing anyone's experience of getting out of debt if you're willing to share. Hearing others' plans might result in a "Plan B" for us!

Back Online

I didn't post yesterday. I'm supposed to write something each day (according to NaBloPoMo) during the month of January, but I was sabotaged!

All I did was innocently load an old game cd. MahJong, to be exact. It loaded up without a hitch, then it decided that my cursor was unnecessary. It would allow about 1 minute of use but then it would freeze up. FINALLY, I was able to have cursor use long enough to delete that puppy! Things seem to be okay now.

I would have had it fixed earlier, but I spent yesterday getting ready for a realtor to come and evaluate our house for sale and today running errands.

Since it took over an hour to be able to delete the evil program from my computer, I will have to elaborate on our motivation for considering selling in tomorrow's post.

So, if you're in the market for a house in New England, let me know. . .

The Draw of Cable TV

We have not had cable or its kin for our TV for about 4 years. Before that we had it for around 2 years--for the first time in our lives. Before that, we either watched the 3 1/2 channels that came in with the antenna, or we made good use of free sources for videos and DVDs.

When my MIL came to "visit" (her term, not ours!), she gave an ultimatum: "If you expect me to stay, you're going to have to get cable." Of course we were trying our best to make her comfortable, so we ordered the basic package. Then, two weeks later she left.

We now have custody of the cable. We were able to get a month-to-month contract (we suspected she was going to bail on us!). After she left, I was all for cancelling right away. Husband, however, mumbled something about football and the Super Bowl. We still have the cable.

I'm not innocent in this. I love me some DIY shows, for example. I also enjoy seeing the old shows that were mostly "snow" on the 3 1/2 channels I had when they originally aired. Though enjoyable, we're still going to cancel it . . . soon, I hope!

That got me thinking about TV when I was growing up. (Cue the fuzzy going-back-in-time filter.)

Back in the dark ages when I was little, ALL the shows were in black in white. Sometimes we had a little B/W set, most times we had nothing. Then, when I was around 9 years old, my dad brought home a BIG, white, "space-age" looking . . . COLOR TV!

We still had only 3 1/2 channels, but now you could make out more images in the snow than before! The shows that were in color looked so great. We had arrived.

So, just for nostalgia purposes, I'm going to do a quick list of the shows I remember watching during the 70s, snow and all:

• Family Affair (I was not a fan of Mrs. Beasley. She kind of scared me.)
• Mr. Rogers (I would run and hop on the couch like I was riding on "Trolley.")
• Bugs Bunny
• My Three Sons
• I Love Lucy
• Laurel and Hardy
• Lassie (Hated, and still hate, the theme song.)
• Wonderful World of Disney (Sunday nights with bowls of spaghetti for supper!)
• Petticoat Junction
• Green Acres
• The Love Boat
• Dallas (I was in high school by this time.)
• Fantasy Island
• The News (Wait, that was my mom.)

Now, with the cable, we can see nearly all of those, practically any time. Clearly. Sometimes even in a marathon!

(Excuse me. I have to go find that remote. . .)

Poll Results: "Bigger" won

A few days ago I decided to find out if I was the only one who wanted to downsize or if there were others with me. Of course that meant a poll.

I asked for votes regarding this statement:

"My DREAM house would be (Bigger or Smaller) than my current house."

The choices were:

1. Bigger. I enjoy having plenty of space.
2. Downsizing would be ideal for me.

SEVENTY-SEVEN percent of the votes went to choice #1. I was definitely outnumbered.

One voter DID share my penchant for reducing that square footage. Yay! I was not alone! I did notice that those who voted for "bigger" weren't exactly wanting to double their spaces or anything. Generally the comments were about things being just a little bit bigger. These were from people whose houses were under (some, well under) 1500sf.

Yesterday my husband noticed an article in a magazine about an empty-nest couple wanting to downsize. I was all excited about reading it until he let me know that their NEW, "tiny" house was 2600sf.

Oh.

The Men Know What They Like

I'm talking about MY men.

Today is National Pie Day. Yesterday I made them their pie of choice: Prize Prune Pie. Despite your skepticism (and mine), they really did WANT this pie. Both of them.

My husband got a sneak sample last night, fresh out of the oven. My son was already asleep.

This morning, Son said the following:

"Mornin' Mama. Did you remember that it's National Pie Day?"

He was ready.

After lunch, I served up the slices. Two slices. I declined my slice. Here are the reviews:

Husband: "It tasted like I expected it to. It had a rich prune juice flavor and the prunes plumped up into plums. I just wanted to try it since I wasn't interested in a cream pie and the berries would be frozen instead of fresh for a berry pie. It was pretty good."

Son: "Mama! That was the best pie I've EVER tasted! It's my FAVORITE pie now. My favorite pie used to be pumpkin, but now that's second! Can I have some more?"

Me: "No, Son. A little of this type of pie is plenty. You can have some more tomorrow."

(We all know why I said that.)

Just in case you should be convinced by the above quotes to try this recipe, let me give you a tip:

The recipe (from 1955) called for cooked prunes, pitted. The container I bought was already pitted, but I wasn't sure what to do about the cooking. I checked the cookbook and it said 2 hours of soaking and then a long period of stewing! I hadn't noticed that and I needed to make the pie right then! I worried for a moment and then looked at the container. Apparently that problem has been taken care of these 55 years later. The container said, "No soaking required. Just cover generously with cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer 3 minutes."

Whew!

I quickly simmered them and assembled the pie. The only thing I changed was to reduce the sugar a little. Husband is not a fan of sugar.

Do you think that's why he can still wear clothes he bought 25 years ago? Nah.

National PIE day!

I am on a roll with this "National ___ Day" stuff. I've been waiting for this one. So has my husband.

This time, it's National Pie Day. (Click below for info.)


Since my husband is a pie man (which we discussed HERE), I decided to let him decide his pie choice. I got out my 1955 Gem of a Cookbook and he looked through ALL 17 of the pie pages.

Here's what he chose (I kid you not):

Prize Prune Pie

Unbaked 9" pie shell
2 3/4 cups cooked dried prunes, pitted
1 egg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup prune juice
Crumbly Crust (recipe below)

Start heating oven to 425 degrees. Arrange prunes in pie shell. Beat egg with sugar, salt, lemon juice, prune juice; pour over prunes. Sprinkle with Crumbly Crust. Bake 40 minutes.

Crumbly Crust (My husband wanted a regular pie crust for the top.)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

With fork, blend together all ingredients.

Will you be celebrating National Pie Day? If so, what pie will you be making.

I bet it won't be this one!

Tie One On

Having enjoyed my reading through the Apron Memories blog, I have decided to join her "National Tie One On" day, which will take place on November 24, 2010.

Here's what it's about:

Four years ago, I noticed that Thanksgiving was talked about in terms more commonly associated with stress, than joy. I remembered my mother’s absolute love of Thanksgiving, as a day more than anything else of sharing and gratefulness. So I created National Tie One On Day™ as an annual opportunity to return the “give” to Thanksgiving by sharing our good fortune with someone in need of a kind gesture.

Participation is simple. On the day before Thanksgiving, November 24th this year, pause in the preparation of your own meal, wrap a loaf of bread or other baked good in an apron, tuck a prayer or note of encouragement in the pocket, and tie one on…an apron, of course! and deliver the wrapped bundle to someone without your bounty… a neighbor, friend or family member in need of physical or spiritual sustenance, a bit of recognition or just a kind word.

I know it to be true that whether you live in a high rise apartment building or on a quiet block, no matter which direction you walk out of your own front door, someone deserving of a gesture of kindness is close by.

National Tie One On Day™ is a win-win, for the participant and the receiver. By embracing National Tie One On Day™, you will make someone else’s day brighter.

I have placed the "Tie One On Day" button on my sidebar. When we get to November, I'll post a reminder.

That means I have ONLY ten months to get my apron done!

A Must-See blog

My sister has discovered a new blog that you MUST go and check out. It is totally up my alley! I've been having fun wandering around and enjoying everything.

I'm almost inspired to get to my sewing machine and sew myself a nice apron already.

Almost.

If you'd like to see it for yourself, click on the clothesline picture above.

Thanks, Sis!

Gingerbread: The Final Result

Not everyone can manage to get three posts out of the topic of gingerbread. I knew that I needed to meet this challenge. It was critical.

The picture at right is not mine. It looks like mine, so I used it. (Husband left the camera at work.)

In the original recipe (HERE), they had the square of gingerbread topped with some cream cheese and then ladled the lemon sauce on top of that. I skipped the middle man and melted two tablespoons of cream cheese IN the lemon sauce. I compensated for the addition by using a tablespoon rather than a teaspoon of lemon juice.

Oh my. It definitely was tasty.

Lemon anything is divine. Add the pungency of gingerbread and you have a bit of a masterpiece!

Gingerbread Update

A couple of weeks ago I found a page in my vintage magazine about the many ways to top gingerbread. (Click HERE.) It has taken me that long to gather the ingredients, but tonight's the night!

The original page didn't give a recipe for the lemon sauce, so I decided to look through my vintage cookbooks. The one I settled on came from the 1958 edition of Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two Cookbook.

Lemon Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1 cup boiling water

1 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind

Stir in water with sugar and cornstarch and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients. Keep hot until time to serve.

OR

Quick Lemon Sauce

Prepare 1 pkg. lemon pudding and pie filling mix according to pkg. directions--except use 1 1/2 times the amount of liquid.

I'm going for the original one, although I like how they gave a foolproof option for the newlywed chef!

The gingerbread is baking as I type. I'm going to break out the vintage plates to serve this baby!

Whatever you do...

I started reading my January, 1952 Woman's Day magazine tonight. In the very front is a section for letters from readers. The very first one was entitled, "My Forte is Keeping House" by Mrs. Ina Erickson of Bronx, NY who is a professional housekeeper.

Some excerpts from Ina:

During the last seven years, I have earned my living by doing housekeeping and cooking. I tried working in a factory, but could not stand the monotony.

(Monotony? Isn't that the term most give to housework today? Interesting.)

If I could express myself better, I really would like to write an article about this line of work...What gets me is the fact that many of my friends think this work degrading.

(Her friends think that her line of work is degrading...because...)

If a person is a good homemaker in her own home, people admire and praise her. But when she does the same work for someone else, she loses face...

(Did you see that? She's not saying that housework is degrading. She's not saying that keeping a home well is degrading. In fact, a good homemaker receives admiration and praise! Ina struggles with feeling that her job deserves the SAME accolades that the homemakers received.)

Poor Ina. I feel her pain.

But that wasn't what I wanted to emphasize. It's this part:

"If a person is a good homemaker in her own home, people admire and praise her."

What can we take from this sentiment, 58 years later? Here's my take: Other people's choice of what to admire and praise can change. We've come through a time when choosing to be a homemaker has been considered degrading. It's time for the pendulum to quit swinging from one extreme to another. It's time.

WHATEVER you do, do it to your best ability. Take pride in your work. Stand and admire your accomplishments yourself. Do what you do to be a blessing to others and recognize your own success. Make the lives of those around you better: your family, your friends, your boss, your colleagues, the sales clerk, the waiter, everyone.

Thank you, Ina, for your words. You expressed yourself perfectly. We will learn what we can.

New Poll: Bigger or Smaller?

I've been on a mission to declutter and use less space home-wise. I mean I really, really like the idea of less space! I know I'm not the only one, but I'm also aware that not everyone is interested in downsizing.

So, I thought I'd do a poll.

If money were no object and you had full choice of square footage for your dream house, would you move to a BIGGER place than you currently have or a SMALLER one?

I'd love it if you would elaborate about your choice in the comments. It's good to hear both sides of the thought process!

Small House Inspiration

I am completely enamored of the idea of living in a smaller space. If you skim through my blog, you'll see my personal attempts at downsizing within my current home.

I came across an awesome set of pics that you MUST see. This family of three renovated a 382sf space. Here is her description:

Yes, we're on the move again! And this time, it's even smaller than our last little apt...a whopping 382 square feet. Woo woo! As you can see, it needs a lot of LOVE and ATTENTION...but we're up for it. It's an adorable little space, but has a few little problems we'll need to take care of :) The landlords are willing to pay for most/all of the work that we do...including remodeling the bathroom.

It's in the perfect location...even better than our last spot (that we've only been at a month...). It has a cute little yard and is right on the bike trail. Surrounded by unique and fun houses...it's in one of Bozeman's most sought after areas near downtown. Just 2 blocks to a great thrift store and all the yummy local coffee shops. A short bike ride away from the library.

The reason for the move was financial...this place is 50% less than where we are at now...only $450 a month and that includes high speed internet and cable. You can't find that anywhere in town, and believe me, we've looked! No laundry on site, but I'm one of those weird people who loves doing my laundry at the laundromat!

The link below shows the "before" and "after" shots. Click on "slideshow" in the upper right corner.

Click HERE.

The following link shows even more details added after they moved in. Here's her explanation:

We are finally all settled in our new apartment and we couldn't be happier! We are just made for small spaces...382 square feet to be exact.This is TRULY HOME to us. We renovated it for almost a month before moving in and Matt spent over 60 hours painting and painting and painting, tearing out flooring, installing new switch plates, light fixtures, and more.

Click HERE to see the extra pics.

I am TOTALLY inspired by this!!!

"Chicken Tampa" recipe

Back many, many years ago when I was a newlywed, I had to teach myself to cook.

My mom is a great cook. She enjoyed that position, of course. It was made more enjoyable by the fact that my sister and I were her "kitchen porters." Chopping and cleaning up were our duties. Learning to cook was not on the "menu." (Ha! I crack myself up.)

We got married during college--we ate in the dining hall. We lived with my MIL for a year after college--my FIL did all the cooking.

Finally, in our second year of marriage I had my first home when we moved to Panama City, FL. With that came my first responsibility as head chef. I burned everything.

One day while leafing (desperately) through a magazine, I came across a recipe called "Chicken Cutlets Tampa." I was immediately interested as I had grown up in Tampa. I skimmed the recipe and it looked do-able. I prepared it for the first time in 1987. It's been on my husband's "favorites" list ever since. Let me know if you give it a try!

(The picture above is the original photo from the article. It wasn't much to go on, but I was still inspired by it.)

Chicken Cutlets Tampa

1 1/2 cups couscous (or rice)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. oil
4 boneless, skinless breasts, flattened
1 bunch green onions
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp. salt
1 orange, thinly sliced

Cook couscous in broth and 1 tbsp. butter. Melt 1 tbsp. butter and oil in skillet. Saute chicken, turning once, 5-6 minutes. Remove. cover and keep warm.

Add white part of green onions, OJ, cream and salt to skillet. Boil and deglaze for 2 minutes to reduce sauce. Add orange slices and remove from heat. Stir in green part of onions into couscous. Plate the couscous, top with chicken, orange slices, and sauce.

NOTE: I always triple the sauce--it's that good!

This Week's Menu

I remember Woolworth's. There was one in downtown Panama City, Florida where we lived for 10 years. I was so excited! We used to go to them when we traveled on vacations. I remember the wooden cabinets with the short glass sides holding in all sorts of things like monogrammed handkerchiefs, toys, gadgets--you name it.

The lunch counter was especially fun. It was just basic, good food. (I wasn't a fan of the refrigerated iceberg and tomato salad, though. Yuck.) I also loved the booths and the barstools decked out in their shiny, sparkly red plastic upholstery.

Since I needed to grocery shop today and was traveling back to thoughts of basic menus, I thought I'd post my menu plan since I haven't done that in a while (ever?). This time I asked my husband to throw out names of food he'd like to see appear on the table this week. (I coached him a bit by telling him what meats I had in the freezer.) Here's what he came up with:

Thursday:
Taco Dinner
Salad

Friday:
38,000 (OK, only 15) Bean Soup with ham
Salad
Rolls

Saturday:
Leftovers

Sunday:
Eat out for lunch after church
Leftovers from lunch for supper

Monday:
Chicken Tampa
Yellow Rice
Peas

Tuesday:
Pork chops
Noodles
Carrots (cooked)

Wednesday:
Beef Roast
Potatoes
Carrots
Cabbage

This is just the skeleton menu. The actual recipes will be determined later. Except the Chicken Tampa. He asked for that one by name, he likes it that much. I'll post the recipe tomorrow!

Sunday Dinner: The How-Tos

Yesterday I posted some of the memories left by commenters about Sunday Dinner. Today I want to highlight some ladies who gave specific directions on how to make Sunday Dinner happen! (Thank you, ladies!)

Glamorous Housewife actually had a series planned and in the works when she noticed that I, too, was posting about the subject. Click HERE for the beginning of her week-long series.

Packrat gave some very detailed directions that she posted about HERE for preparing ahead of time and the day of the dinner. I've added her "memory snippet" to yesterday's post, as well.

Civilla wrote out her memories on the "how-tos" in the comments of my previous post. Click HERE (scroll down) to read how things were done when her family was based in Germany.

If you post about your "Sunday Dinner" memories on your blog, please leave a comment and let me know. I'll add your link to this list.