we love our farmer. you should too.

When I went to our veggie pickup today, I passed on basil and peppers, since we've already had so many all summer. So Jill asked me if I wanted broccoli instead. I said yes, she left for a second, walked back to the garden, and cut some for me. It's not even my favorite vegetable, but I'm excited to cook up the freshest broccoli I've ever eaten.

Our CSA is another casualty of summer's end. We only have one more pickup. I'm excited enough for it to start again that we've already ordered our farm share for next year.

If you do the same before October 15th, you can get next year's veggies for 20% off. I highly recommend it: getting all those veggies cut our food budget in half this summer (which is weird, right? I didn't think we ate that many vegetables), we tried things we never would have bought on our own, and when we weren't sure how to prepare something, we just checked the Bells' blog for a recipe using that week's pickings.

Click here for an explanation of the discount. Click here to place an order. And click here to see a picture of one of the Bells' adorable kids who entertained my baby while I waited for my broccoli.

Economics

I've been having this discussion with a friend recently:

Though our conversation wasn't nearly as cool.

Money in the Bank

We just had an Ensign story happen. Kathy won 1st place, and I 3rd, in the David O. McKay essay contest a couple of months ago. We just got our reward, and decided to buy a nice camera and a blendtec blender.

We found out that we wouldn't have enough money to buy both if we wanted to pay our tithing. We decided to pay tithing anyway. A few days later we found a better deal on the blender, so now we can do both.

Warm fuzzies.

Also, our bank, Mountain America Credit Union, is awesome.

I didn't check how much money was in the bank when I paid our insurance. The check bounced, I needed over $100 more than I had. My bank automatically took that extra 100 bucks from my credit card and paid the bill, and didn't charge me any fees.

Also our landlord lost our deposit, so I went in to cancel the check. Guess how much they charged me? Nothing.

And I can pay off our credit card online, on the same page that my checking and savings are on. It's really easy. I sound like an infomercial.

We'll post more videos soon of our new blender. You can blend stuff without water. So you can make snowcones out of ice, and you can knead dough, and you can make soup without using the stove, and you can destroy the evidence. Yep, awesome.

Budgeting Help

I just learned about mint.com in my finance class. It helps you keep track of your spending.

You input your bank account information, which was a little scary for me, but several people in my class assured me that it is legit. And it tells you what you've spent your money on.
I liked how it worked. I had to spend some time editing some of the categories, but I had fun doing it.

Good luck keeping track of your pennies.

Budget Spreadsheet

Some of you found the budget spreadsheet I made useful. For those of you who do not have excel, I have made the budget available as a Google doc.

On the right sidebar, under "stuff we do," click on "budget spreadsheet."

Once you have access, click "file" and "create a copy."
You should be all set with your very own copy of this spreadsheet.

I've never done this before. So let me know if it doesn't work.

Also let me know how the spreadsheet has worked out for you.

For those who want a copy of the excel file, let me know and I'll send you an email.

One benefit of a Google doc is you can invite your spouse to use the same budget. Then when one of you makes a change it will automatically update the other's.

Peaches. Smog. Cats. Cash.

We found this beautiful jar of strawberries at Target'.
But bought the peaches because canned strawberries are gross. We usually buy peaches in gallon drums from Costco, but I wanted to support a company that makes such a beautiful product.

Then we drove up to Salt Lake to a friend's birthday party, and crashed our car into the stinkiest bag of smog I've seen in my lifetime. It clogged the streets, making it impossible to see signs until I was passing them. Like breathing urine and swimming in a bog of car farts.

Taken at 6pm last Friday
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Fortunately Gov. Huntsman has taken a stand with Obama against air pollution.

Video of the air

I also saw some kitties on campus.
And spent many hours making this spreadsheet for our family finances.

I did not really make a million dollars last week.
We could afford a house, if it cost $8000.
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I stayed up at night to finish it. Kathy said I was a budget addict. I worked on it non-stop, when I woke, in class, and until I went to bed.
If anyone wants a copy of this spreadsheet for your own finances, I'll email it to you. It helped us realize we spend more than we make, and have lots and lots of debt.