Want a newer used truck?Reality check!

     Since last fall my wife has wanted us to look for a newer truck my truck is a 94 Chevy 1500 . The engine that is in it now is the 3rd one, all have been junk yard engines. It does ok but I don't think it is as strong as it should be and it smokes when cranked from valve wear . Now if it was just a drive vehicle it would be ok but it tows our camper and my vending trailers .This truck has to work every week yes the jeep will tow but it would not last long.

     I would like a 2008 or newer 2500 or f250 well this weekend I started looking . I had no clue that trucks were as high as they are the cheapest one in my requirements was an 02 dodge with 239000 miles for 9880 firm! It didn't take me long to see there is no new truck in our future. I guess with the price of New trucks at 30 to 40 thousand I should have expected prices to be high.

    I think maintenance and repairs will be in my trucks future. May be even a 4th engine down the road . While I was looking for a truck I priced our other cars to see what it would take to replace them. Same thing my wife's car is an 04 with low miles and it is still worth over 8000 my jeep compares at 3700. Even my truck is almost 3000 to replace with one not as good.
    Nothing last forever but with replacement cost this high we all better spend a little more to keep them on the road. I think I will be putting a 200$ a month bill in the budget for repairs and replacement cost .While it may seem like a lot in 5 year it still wont buy me a 10,000 $ used truck after keeping up repairs on what I have! I guess I am getting old my first car cost me 125$ I didn't pay over a 1000$ for a car until 1989  a 86 celebrity with every bell and whistle .Today a junk yard will pay 4 to 6 hundred for most running or not .

I thought i knew my neighborhood .

     I have lived in my house almost 30 years . I have walked the woods and driven all the roads around here . This afternoon the weather got cold and rainy so I quit working on clearing the pond and some how got on google earth. Now I have been on google earth in the past but never played with it . Today I zoomed in on the area around the house out to 2 miles . I thought I knew my neighborhood  boy was I wrong . I knew the roads and the drives but I found 5 houses 3 pond/lakes and 2 streams hidden in the woods that I didn't know were there. Saw dirt bike trails going deeper than I thought they did, saw where the hardwood and pine thickets separated along ridgelines. If you haven't given a close look to your area using google earth I HIGHLY Recommend you make time to study where you live and if you plan on bugging out in case of trouble . Use google earth to get a GOOD idea of what is hidden around your safe location . 

    If you live in a city it will still give you a lot of insight into obstacle's and assets in your area . The ponds and streams that I found could be a good source of fish if needed . The hardwoods should have nut trees mixed in .Some areas had a block pattern that may have been old farm sections that have over grown. Today US steel and ABC coal own most of the vacant land near here. I used a large chunk of my download for the day on google earth but I will be studying it more in the future. Even from the free view I know my daughter was visiting ,I still had my yellow truck, had just built my lean-to and had left my tractor in the middle of the back yard that day .

  

An easy way to build credit and save money .

    If your like a lot of folks you have trouble saving money for emergencies and you may not have a credit score high enough to get a credit card.There are some less known ways to borrow money at most banks . Most banks and credit unions have cash secured loans for 2% above CD rate about 3% right now. Here is how it works say you have saved 1000 $ but have been having trouble saving more every time you put up a 100$ you seem to dip into it. Been there done that, hard hump to get over . OK go down to your bank and buy 2 500$ CDs then ask for a loan officer and borrow 1000$ for 12 months against your CDs. The cost is about 85$ a month . Or make it 500 for 43$ a month whatever you can afford .Then take what you borrowed and put back in your savings account .
       Why would you do this? Because if your like most people you need to be forced to do something's . You have spent 45$ for the bank to force you to save . You spend 150$ a year for a gym to make you exercise .We spend money on a lot of stuff to make us do what we should with will power alone. Why not pay a bank to make us save money?
    Around this area to teach high school kids about credit and savings one bank has been pushing credit builder accounts. Now these are loans for 500$ that the students buy a CD and pay 43$ a month for a year. If they make the payments (or mom and dad does ) they have 500$ at the end of the 12 months. The bank reports the loans to the credit bureau helping establish a credit history for the students.

     Here is what I was forced into this year . My house is payed for but I still have taxes and fire dues every year. This year I didn't save enough to cover them , but I had the money. Rather than taking my emergency on hand funds and hoping to replace it.I went down to the bank and made a cash secured loan for this years taxes and fire dues Plus a little extra. Cost 85$ a month but will have most of next years covered. I have in the past used this to buy used vehicle's as a means to force myself to put the money back into savings.
 You decide what your savings goal is for a year.
500 =43$ a month
1000 = 85$ a month
2000 = 171$ a month
     If you have tried and failed get your banker to help you it cost about 5$ a month.

Resteraunt Depot revisit today. With link

     Today my wife had a checkup at her doctor down town . For the past 3 months I haven't been down town or even in that direction . So I drove her for the checkup and dropped her off because it normally takes 2 to 3 hours to be seen. I went to Restaurant depot for 50 LB of sugar and woshtershire sauce(spell check can"t spell woshtershire lol )  because they are cheaper and I hate doctor offices . OK I went and got the gallon jug "Worcestershire" there that's settled. The sugar was 19.50 for 50# bag the Worcestershire was 2.79 a gallon. Now this is about 8$ less than Sam's but not enough for me to make a special trip but it beat sitting in the waiting room. A lot of prices have dropped since I was here in the summer and I think I will be coming back at least once a month .The food prepp's have some holes that can be filled cheaper here than even shopping sales. Everyone's prepping styles are different but all of us want to save will providing for our families Below is a link to there flyer download page see if there is one near you. Its worth the time to visit them .

http://www.restaurantdepot.com/flyers

High 30s are nice .

     With the cold weather last week I had a cold .My luck holds. this weekend the temps rose to a balmy 42 and I decided to sell BBQ glad I did as it was a decent weekend considering the temps and me not cooking a lot .
    Rainy out today so I went to the hardware store for a file to sharpen my chainsaw. The chain I have is a pruning chain and is so small they didn't have the file .Looks like I will have to try some where else I think it was my first strike out at the Ace I use. Once it is sharpened I will be back on brush clearing. I did pick up some 2 x4s to frame in a roof for the spring box. If the weather liar is wright I will have nice weather the end of the week. Also will be doing a large BBQ cooking this weekend 6o degrees and sunshine Saturday is forecast .Cabin fever is getting to me .

   Wish I was in south Florida for a week but not in the cards this winter. Even the wife is getting antes to go some where .Maybe in a couple of months but not at this time.

Artic blast arrived .

  

   Even the trees are shivering . Alabama and -3 windchill is wrong,
Around here 25 is the limit .The heater is roaring the oven is on and the Wife is  wrapped in a blanket saying its freezing every 5 minutes .Its 68 in the house but she saw the weather so she will shiver till its back in the  60s .
   I dont know about you but  this artic blast needs to go back to Yankee territory. The only shivering that is need in the south is the southern shiver .

                  Shiver me timbers any time :). 

  I prefer warmer weather it makes me smile .
  

A few pics of my spring and the yard project .

      This is my enclosed spring it has never been dry in 30 years. Not even in the drought of 2006 . Once cleared covered and clean I will have the water tested .At one time it had a pump to the house but that was back before 1960,s.

      The ivey around the spring is a good sign that the water is OK .I still will have it tested.

and

   Hard to tell from a picture how grown up and large the area is .Once it is cleared and a drain is put in  I hope to be able to keep it cut from now on with my yard tractor and push mower.

Good working weather .

     Today was clear but cold . The high was 45 but for an old fat man not bad . I decided to do some yard work around my spring and pond . I have lived here for 30 years over the years my yard has been neglected . As the brush of hedge row bushes has expanded the area I cut was less . When I worked 16 hours a day it wasn't a priority and it was mainly in front and behind my little pond ( the pond is 45 wide and 100 ft long ). Today I decided to tackle the upper side an area  40 x120 with 3 springs 2 always flowing and a 3rd that is running 8 months a year. These need to be cleaned and clear because if SHTF these are my water supply !

     I worked maybe 3 hours through the day with Lopping shears and my electric chainsaw . Was able to hack cut and  slash about a 1/3 of this area . The bushes and briers have died back so now is the best time to do this. The wisteria and honeysuckle's are still green inside and as strong as a nylon rope. Now I was able to clear a 40 x50 ft area today so I am pleased and it got me off my butt to do something productive. Now the area I did was the easiest of the front part I had cut some 4 years ago but never finished ,but it is now.

     As far as the electric chainsaw it did great even on a very long cord ( 125 ft ) . If you don't have a set of good Lopping shears I highly recommend you invest in a good set of fiskers geared loppers. Mine aren't fiskers but I will be getting a set this spring .These allow you to cut 2 to 3 inch trees ,bushes and branches quickly and easily . Plus no gas and quiet to use . In a survival situation  small firewood could be a must and loppers are perfect for making it . the geared kind can be used by kids , women and the elderly.

P.S.I will try to post pics of the spring's tomorrow.

 link     http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-32-Inch-PowerGear-Bypass-91546935J/dp/B00004SD74/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1420504647&sr=1-8&keywords=fiskars+shears

A little flag waving for the New Year .