Just curious who else is living super frugal - Page 150

Yea hubby has to do the bagging the deer part. I get woozy just from seeing a needle. A tiny pin prick of blood about puts me on the floor. I cannot imagine what shooting something would do. I only only killed one animal. It was a dying roo and by the time my husband got home the deed was done and I was a puddle of a mess at the base of a pine tree. I really deal badly with blood.

As is when I go pick up the meet and I see a guy in back with blood on his apron I have to do lots of deep breathing.
 

LoL not too sure about that one. 4 c sections, lots of needles and I still get woozy. I can handle just about anything else. A kid can vomit all over me. Animals or kids with the runs, no biggie. Heck even infections aren't too bad as long as there is no blood.  My husband thinks its funny. I am not too amused by it. Its embarassing. I can be so matter of fact about the rest and you face me with a pin prick and I go down.  sigh

I am working on writing up my grocery lists and recipes I have used to cut our food budget. I get asked about these a lot so I have been doing a good bit of writing as of late.  I am trying to work out a curriculum for my kids to teach them basics of finances and household planned. Boy or girl its a good skill to learn.
 

Oh man guys I forever feel discouraged about our finances. I try and try but it feels  like I can never have us really prepared. We are still facing job issues. they seem to resolve and then its back again. Now there is talk of a maybe move to columbus ohio which is not going to happen with this company. I don't move for flaky companies and i don't care how big they are. They are flaky flaky flaky.  So looks like this will happen at Christmas. i am so so tired of always being broke and I strive toward debt free and the 6 months expenses. I am tired and out of ideas. I just don't know where I can cut anymore. We are running lean. We cut much more we are running skeleton. I'll be the pile of bones running down the road in my goodwill or bagsale outfit.

It just feels like if I can't accomplish more I have failed the family. I have stretched, saved, scrimped, done without  and its not good enough. I am frugal discouraged. When it gets like this I so badly want to just say the heck with it and go nuts on a shopping spree. I know not the answer but it is still my first instinct. Now that was a dirty little secret. ( sigh)

Animals we should cut, probably can't. We end up with pets more from people dumping them here than anything else. The other animals are all family farm livestock which belong to us and my parents. Animal feed each month that I pay for is about 50. Granted right now I have 30 extra chickens that need to go and 6 extra ducks. it will go down a tad when they are sold.

I am trying to remember how much beef we got for that 70 and I think it was 33lbs. Almost positive. We tend to stock up when prices are good.  There are 8 of us here and another sibling who eats almost all her meals here also. So when meat prices are low, I buy. Like today I bought really nice ground beef for 1.89 a pound. Its a great price and its lean beef.  Our groceries for the 8 of us is under 400 each month.  The times I buy meat like I mentioned we use up a bit of our stock on other foods to compensate. I think thats pretty fair. We do produce some fruit and veggies for our own use. Its a slow process working toward providing more for ourselves so we are still stuck giving the grocery a fair amount of money.  You cannot imagine our budget just for milk uggg. My jersey cannot grow up soon enough.

I am just having a hard time looking at our finances and saying we will be ok if this job ends before he finds something decent. Right now the only jobs he is coming across pay less, are contract only, and no insurance. So we stick with the company he is at now till we find something actually comparable or until he gets laid off. Just, short of winning the lottery, I can't say positively that we have done enough to prepare. Can you do enough to prepare for stuff like this?  I hate the thought of depending on unemployment for any amount of time. Just discouraging,.

I guess it is a matter of perspective. I work really hard juggling and stretching so no one else in the family has to feel the pinch. Usually I do enjoy it and almost find it a game. The job thing has me freaking out i guess. I have this fear that I might fail the family. Momentary freak out I guess. I just have to keep pushing.

Please don't get me wrong. I don't think we are poor. By government standards we are but I have never ever felt that way. We have managed to be pretty self sufficient so far. I know others struggle more than I do and I do hang out with some that are struggling.  That might be part of the freak out because if we struggle then I can't help them out either. so it feels like maybe I will fail them too. ya know.  My nerves just got to me a bit. I am reading some Rob Roy again tonight. Mortgage free always makes me feel better.