Monday, November 4, 2013

Monday, Mom's new toy!

     As posted before, Hubby played with his group at a chili feed last Friday.  I took mom and we had so much fun.  They had a huge beautiful doll house that a family had worked on as a hobby about 20 years ago.  This thing was unbelievably beautiful.  It was like a doll house you see in a museum.  Mom gasped when she saw it.  The family that created it had kept every receipt and bill in a folder and they had spent over $2500.00 assembling that house. Can you imagine?  It was put on Ebay and that was displayed on a screen in front of the foyer.  You could bid on small items all night like a jar of home made caramels.  Things of that nature.  The opening bid on Ebay for the doll house was $56.00. 

     Mom bid $60.00.  The problem being, who has room for such at item?  It really is not a child's toy it is a collector's addition doll house.  So through  out the evening the price rose but not one bid on ebay.  I was shocked.  Mom ended up getting the House for $300.00.  It is now taking up about 1/4 of my shop and it takes a truck to move it.  We have laughed at her all weekend.  She is like a little kid.  I keep making little things to put in it and then she has to find what I made.  I am a wiz with a crochet needle and whip out a teeny-tiny doily in about 10 minutes.  We have had nothing but fun all weekend. Right now I am almost done with a yellow kitchen rug crocheted out of fine tatting thread.  I have to stop playing and get to work.

     I have continued my 30 days of Thanksgiving.  It has been a real eye opener.  I am really struggling right  now with bills an no money.  I thought, oh a new month, November I will be able to catch up.  I found a bill for the sprinkler company.  Hub's said car needs oil change and and a new oil filter, the water bill came for the quarter $500.00.  It is never ending. Every extra cent I make this month will be gone and then some.  But guess what?  I am okay and Mom has a doll house!  What can go wrong!

     Saga cont:

     We continued to work with B over the high school years.  She was a trial.  We had to realize she had her own trials.  Patience is not my virtue, if you haven't noticed and she helped me to learn patience.

     My main problem with the studio is that I tried to run it as a non profit like the University.  They were able to give away much to the parents through government grants.  I could not do this.  But I tried the first two years.  I just ran into significant debt.  I mean to the tune of an additional $30,000.  I have now trained my parents to pay for things.  It is a slow process.  Every year I make a small changes that would help. Forcing parents to face reality.  If you want your child to dance you must pay the piper.  It is working but it is so slow.

     My girls noticed a significant difference in my ability to pay bills once the studio opened.  I was also working the shop better.  I really believe part of the difference is that life gets cheaper and easier the less kids you have living with you.  Less waste, less gas, less electricity, less food.  I miss them dreadfully but not the cost. Tax wise the shop brings in significant savings.  I do all my books from home so the studio is a great write off in so may ways.  They are legal write offs. Remember I do believe in paying my fair share of taxes.

     I don't think that I am working harder, I just think that I am working smarter.  Working smarter came from working in a cleaner environment.  Getting rid of clutter that I did not need.  Freeing myself of the wasteful time it took to try to organize clutter.  I still struggle but I am so much better.  I truly believe that there is a connection between messy homes and messy finances.  I just had to learn how to keep things organized and they are to a degree.  Writing down a budget, checking off the bills as they are paid.  Having a place to put the bills once they arrive, then having a place to put them once they are paid.  My desk is still a terrible mess most of the time.  But it is a mess in one corner not all over the house, with bills behind the toaster, in the car, between the sofa cushions.

     I also came to realize that in some ways the more I worked the less money I made.  We ate out more, I got behind on things and spent money I did not need to because I did not have the time to do something myself.  We have all been there, it is just a matter of figuring out what can give and adjusting. We had cleaned a building 5-6 days a week every night for at least 19 years.  When I decided to go to a 1/2 contract that was big.  It took some adjusting, but it was the smartest thing I ever did.  I actually have to sew more, but that is okay, I enjoy sewing and it keeps me at home to answer the phone and the door.  Again discipline, discipline to clean, to pay bills on time, to not spend money you don't have, to return messages.  These are all things I struggle with on a daily basis.  I watch my children struggle with them too.  Well except for the oldest, but I don't think she is real.  She has a battery pack in her back like a step-ford child.  Where did she come from anyway?  I did not raise her, she raised me.

     I owe so much of my success in my personal life to my Sissie.  She always came up with the good ideas.  The flylady website, the get out of debt strategy, the open your shop and just make $100.00 a week, open your own studio.  I can honestly say that things are much better. My health is always precarious.  I do need to work on facing a disability. Even that is a process.  The studio, must pay its own bills, but I have a teacher in every class besides myself.  I over see and suggest, but with a paid teacher it shows that I am not making money at the studio.  With in a few years I plan to turn it over to a board of directors.  I will stay on as an executive director with a salary.  Then I can truly be honest about collecting a disability if needed.  It is all part of the plan, eventually.....

    I have so many more personal stories, some are to personal to let out over a blog, but this gives you some incite into my persona.  I think I will start a story about my mom's life soon.  Her's is much more interesting than mine.

                                           The end or maybe the beginning!

     I love daylight savings time.  I feel like I slept forever.  I think it will help me get up earlier, so I can write more.  I have all these stories in my head just aching to get out.  Remember true life is always much more scathing that fiction.  I plan to continue some kind of a sag.  What do you think?

     Both beds are made, laundry is started, I am up and dressed, makeup on.  I need to clean and remake the spare bed down stairs and vacuum.  Every day I need to keep up on things, other wise they take over and the whole thing spirals out of control.

     Out My Window:  The spruce trees have changed to yellow, and the leaves are falling like snow.  It is just so pretty.  But it is cold, and snowing now in the upper regions.  I think winter is finally here.  

Have a great and productive day.

Kim

8 comments:

  1. I have enjoyed reading the saga! It sounds eerily similar to my own path, though the details are different. I know how it is to secretly be disgusted with oneself and inability to make smarter decisions. Please write more and non-fiction, for the moment! Oh, and please be kind to yourself and Hubby! It is a fine line between acknowledging one's flaws and expecting perfection, which no one can achieve!

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  2. Ahhhh the end of the saga. Mums next?

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  3. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your life saga. You have much wisdom to impart.

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  4. Kim I have enjoyed your saga! Thank you for sharing your highs and lows. We can learn so much from others!!

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  5. I have really enjoyed reading about your life!

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    1. After I posted that, it sounds kind of creepy. Long-time reader here, so I feel like I know you a little bit. :)

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  6. If you draw a salary on a board of directors, you can be disabled, but you may not get a disability check. SS does care if you are capable of working, but from what I understand, how large a check you draw depends on what assets you or your spouse has. I could be wrong. I have a friend who can no longer work, stand, do anything because of a knee replacement gone wrong. She has end-stage renal failure yet does not have a disabled label. She said they have too much, so it would not help to get the disability designation. I have another friend who had terminal cancer that he beat. His wife is a nursing home director. He tried repeatedly to draw a check while he fought cancer. He told me their assets counted. I can only repeat what these two friends said.

    I took all the legal deductions when working in my home. That backfired because I get less in ss. I just wish someone had told me. Now, with 100% disability, the taxes I legally avoided and money I kept are little consolation now!

    You have a very interesting blog!

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  7. I can heartily agree that expenses go way down when the kids move out. Everything from our food bill to water bill to electric bill dropped as well as car insurance and even all of the small purchases we made for them (a shirt, a CD, movie tickets, etc) suddenly stopped the financial hemorrhaging when they moved out.

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