What would you give up?

[keljonma]

We wouldn't go anywhere. So I would cancel insurance on vehicles. This pay I am paying up our insurance for 6 months, and we only have liability.

Hey, QA... not sure if this is statewide in Ohio or just our county (Ashtabula). But we were told that if you have a vehicle on your property - EVEN if it isn't running and up on blocks - you must carry at least liability insurance. This whole thing came up because I can be somewhat of a smartie pants and I started checking out what someone else told me.

If a law enforcement officer sees a vehicle on your property up on blocks, (we were told) he is to run the plates and check for insurance. If no proof of insurance, you are ticketed and fined until you have proof of insurance.

So I said, if I were junking out a vehicle, why would I have plates on it, if it were up on blocks..... Well, if I don't that's a ticket and fines until the vehicle has plates and insurance.

Although I wanted to, I did not ask, what the heck the law enforcement officer is doing just checking plates when I know there are real criminals in this county.

So if you are planning on doing this in the future, make sure the vehicles are in a barn or garage.......

 

[keljonma]

My chickens would free range 100% and that would care for animal feed.

Our flock forages the acreage here too year round. But they won't go far from the barn/hen house when there isn't any greenery out. So we do supplement with feed and hay. Of course, 50 pounds of flock raiser lasts me about 2 1/2 months during the summer for my flock of 20. But I'm wondering how do you do 100% forage in Ohio when there is 4 or 5 feet of snow covering all the greenery. (We are in the snow belt.) What are your plans for this? I'd love to get more ideas......



edited for a typo.....

 

[poppycat]

Sadly, we'd give up our house. Our house is worth considerably less than we paid for it two years ago and DH has been without income since last February. Was in the building industry. Ugh. Fortunately we had considerable savings, but it only lasted so long.

Anyway we own a smaller rental on just a tiny patch of land and we're considering moving into it. Breaks my heart as we'd have to give up nearly all of the animals.

But we took a risk when we bought the house we live in. At the time it seemed like a small one.

STILL I am thankful for my family and friends and know all will be well in the end.

 

[krjwaj]

We, too, don't have much to give up. I guess like other pps, Netflix , internet...we're at the library every week anyway, could use it there. I think I would keep the cell phone but maybe loose the house phone. We really only have that for internet anyway.

Hope we don't have to give up anything, though, right???

 

[keljonma]

Sadly, we'd give up our house. Our house is worth considerably less than we paid for it two years ago and DH has been without income since last February. Was in the building industry. Ugh. Fortunately we had considerable savings, but it only lasted so long.

Anyway we own a smaller rental on just a tiny patch of land and we're considering moving into it. Breaks my heart as we'd have to give up nearly all of the animals.

But we took a risk when we bought the house we live in. At the time it seemed like a small one.

STILL I am thankful for my family and friends and know all will be well in the end.

My dh (specialty construction) and I were just discussing yesterday which of our 20 chickens we would pick if we were to downsize and sell this place. You have a good attitude poppycat. A home is the people you share your dwelling with, not the building. I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

My chickens would free range 100% and that would care for animal feed.

Our flock forages the acreage here too year round. But they won't go far from the barn/hen house when there isn't any greenery out. So we do supplement with feed and hay. Of course, 50 pounds of flock raiser lasts me about 2 1/2 months during the summer for my flock of 20. But I'm wondering how do you do 100% forage in Ohio when there is 4 or 5 feet of snow covering all the greenery. (We are in the snow belt.) What are your plans for this? I'd love to get more ideas......



edited for a typo.....

Well, thinning down my flock would be one. Not that I would want to. We are trying to put back as much feed as we can, soon as I can figure out how to safely store a bunch of chicken feed without it spoiling and w/o rats/mice getting to it.

Thanks for the info on the plate thing. I am going to find out if the is county or not. I was told (haven't checked to see if it is true) that you only have to have insurance on it if you have valide plates on it.

 

[keljonma]

Well, thinning down my flock would be one. Not that I would want to. We are trying to put back as much feed as we can, soon as I can figure out how to safely store a bunch of chicken feed without it spoiling and w/o rats/mice getting to it.

Thanks for the info on the plate thing. I am going to find out if the is county or not. I was told (haven't checked to see if it is true) that you only have to have insurance on it if you have valide plates on it.

Well, I can do some more checking here too. I thought you only had to have valid plates if the vehicle was operable, so I was surprised when I was told even inoperable vehicles had to have them. We had an old old old van that finally died. So dh was waiting to decide what to do with it when the plates expired. And that started the whole conversation.....

As for the chicken feed... I have a friend that got an old chest freezer from freecycle. I think it needed minor repairs or new plug (something simple) before it would work. But she didn't care, because she wasn't planning on using it as a cold freezer. She has it out in her barn and stores the chicken feed in it. She said in the past 3 years she has never had a rodent get into the chest.

 

[Homesteadmom]

Poppycat so sorry to hear about your plight. Unfortunatly you are not alone in this country. Have you heard about the Hope for Homeowners plan? It started yesterday(Oct 1st). Contact your lender & they are supposed to help renegotiate a lower interest rate which equals a lower payment for you. As long as it is a FHA loan. If your lender won't help you then contact HUD. I am glad you have a back up home to go to, but if you don't have to move then that would be great. Has dh tried advertising his skills to work as a handyman? May not work fulltime but at least it could be something, which is always better than nothing.
Good luck.

 

[ebonykawai]

We're pretty bare bones, too, and have a large emergency fund, so I don't think I'd panic. But I would drop down to basic cable (the minimum package where you get about 30 channels). Already chucked our landline last year so I can't do that. Hmmm. Not sure what's left to cut. My internet is pretty cheap already. We're doing great on groceries. Not sure what else there is.

 

[poppycat]

Poppycat so sorry to hear about your plight. Unfortunatly you are not alone in this country. Have you heard about the Hope for Homeowners plan? It started yesterday(Oct 1st). Contact your lender & they are supposed to help renegotiate a lower interest rate which equals a lower payment for you. As long as it is a FHA loan. If your lender won't help you then contact HUD. I am glad you have a back up home to go to, but if you don't have to move then that would be great. Has dh tried advertising his skills to work as a handyman? May not work fulltime but at least it could be something, which is always better than nothing.
Good luck.

Yea we've actually already renegotiated our mortgage, but still not sure we can afford it over the long run. DH has done some construction projects and I start a new job tomorrow. DH had a really positive interview yesterday too.

We are mostly trying to figure out what makes the best, long-term financial sense. The house really is a huge asset and selling it now would be a big loss, but I'm just trying to weigh it against other factors like our kids' college education etc. We aren't completely out of cash either, but will be soon if we don't stop the bleeding