Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Friend resent her post. I have edited for privacy only.


We produce essentially all of our fruits, vegetables and eggs ourselves, 
buy grains and honey in bulk from Meadowbrook during their October stock-up 
discount sale, flax oil and butter substitute in quantity from Jean’s 
Healthway at a discount, pet food, coffee beans, various other food items, 
paper products and cleaning supplies in quantity and the occasional bottle 
of St. James Winery’s “Schoolhouse Red” ($5) at Fort Wood 5 or 6 times a 
year, and fresh chickens and a turkey from Peace Valley Pastured Poultry. 
We don’t buy any other meat, organic coffee, fresh Alaska salmon, or Little 
Yeoman Brewery beer.

I sit down with the accounts from the year just finishing up and budget for 
the coming year, comparing how much we spent vs. how much we budgeted in 
each of the categories below. Then I make adjustments among them to decide 
how much to budget for the coming year. Our budget is divided between the 
“A Budget”--monthly expenses and the “B Budget”--known expenses that get 
paid annually or ad hoc. We also each get a monthly “allowance” of $25 
which we can spend on any damn thing we want. (I buy books and haircuts, 
XXX hardly spends his at all.) And then there’s everything else that it’s 
impossible to budget for because we don’t know we need to spend the money 
until S--- Happens or we decide we want and can afford something we didn’t 
plan for (like a satellite radio receiver or a metal carport). For that we 
just save whatever income is left after funding the A and B budgets.
Here’s what 2004’s budgets looked like:
“A” BUDGET (monthly household expenses)
Food.................................................................................... 
$235
Pet food, supplies (other than veterinary care)......................... 40
Subscriptions, 
books...................................................................................... 
15
Utilities (electricity, propane, internet, satellite radio, local and long
distance 
phone)......................................................................110 

Vehicle operation/maintenance (gasoline, lube/oil change,
occasional 
repairs).................................................................. 50
Misc. expendables, household (cleaning supplies, paper products,
soap, laundry products, 
etc.)................................................... 40
Misc. expendables, other (postage, shipping costs, gratuities,
stationery, pens, printer supplies, 
etc.).................................... 20
Apparel, 
shoes........................................................................ 
20
Minor investment (nonexpendable items under $100)............. 25
Livestock & birds (poultry feed, birdseed, chicks).................. 20
Lawn & garden supplies (equipment fuel, seeds, fertilizers, tools,
equipment repair and 
parts).................................................... 55
Sales 
tax................................................................................. 
20
TOTAL MONTHLY 
BUDGET............................................................................. 
$650
“B” BUDGET (known annual/ad hoc expenses)
Auto insurance, inspection and registration, driver’s license renewals
House insurance, property taxes, fire department dues
Healthcare (Medical/dental/optical/supplements, etc.) expenses
Pet healthcare (checkups, shots, flea/tick prevention)
Gifts (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) and charitable contributions
WHAT WE BUDGETED/EXPECT TO SPEND IN 2004: $3600/$3800
OFF-BUDGET/EMERGENCY FUND -- Expenses associated with:
•house maintenance/repair (e.g., a new roof, replacement windows or doors, 
replacement floor coverings, painting supplies)
•land and outbuilding repair/maintenance/replacement (new metal carport 
purchased in 2004), water system repairs (water pump replaced in 2002), 
septic system maintenance (septic tank pumped and leachlines jetted out in 
2003), fencing materials
•capital assets (furniture, computers and peripherals, appliances, new 
cars, new riding mowers [this cost us $1200 this year, and these need to be 
replaced about every 8 years], chainsaws, generators, power tools, etc.)
•miscellaneous unprogrammed major outlays (e.g., vacations, permaculture 
workshops).
XXX and I manage quite comfortably on about $1200 a month and don’t feel 
economically deprived. (I do think I’ll probably put more money into the 
“A” budget for 2005 to compensate for anticipated increases in electricity, 
propane, gasoline, and some food prices.) The majority of Americans would 
not be willing to work at thrift as consistently as we do, and certainly 
damned few would be willing to live in this house, or out here in the woods 
with very little cultural or social stimulation. In our case it would 
certainly be nice to have a better house and more of a social life, but the 
fact that we don’t is not a matter of finances so much as inertia (and 
unwillingness to travel these roads at night!)