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I was chatting briefly with a colleague yesterday about married life.  (He was going to be best man in a friend’s wedding in a couple of weeks.)  In the course of the conversation, I admitted that saving money was a heck of a lot easier before I was married, but that I wouldn’t go back to being single by choice for anything.  Everything has pros and cons.

He saw the picture of my daughter that I have in my cube, and pointed to that as one of the pros.  I certainly agreed.

Our daughter is our one and only.  Being an only child has pros and cons, too, of course.  One of the pros is that whatever part of our income that would go to her enrichment is hers alone.  No one else is competing for that slice of our income in that way.

Most bigger families have more restrictions on what they can do for their kids

A washer and dryer are mainstays in many households.  They are in our household, for sure.

We bought a used washer and dryer set four and a half years ago.  Over the past couple of weeks, the washer was whining loudly.  First we heard it within the drain cycle, then in the spin cycle.  When it started squealing during the wash cycle, I sensed that its time was almost over, because that sounded like a transmission problem.

Our family had done some repairs on it already to fix a bent support frame, but a new transmission runs upwards of $100.00.  Considering we paid $200 for the whole machine, this expense was questionable.

There are lots of advantages that come out of being in a healthy marriage.  A healthy marriage takes work, and lots of communication, especially about financial matters.

Over time, I’ve come to view differences of opinion on money matters with my wife less as argument, but more as different perspective.  Partners have different ways of looking at money, and taking both into consideration is better than either perspective alone.

“Oh we’ve got eggs now …”

We’ve talked for around a year about getting some chickens.  We eat a fair number of eggs — as do our dogs, from the dog food we make.  Raising chickens is one way to work towards our own egg source.  It’s also an exercise in hedging against dependence on external grocery supply chains.  (Prepping on a small scale, if you will.)

It’s not a secret that people give away or throw away lots and lots of stuff.  Stuff that’s outlasted its usefulness.  Stuff that’s broken.  Stuff that reminded them every day of their lousy purchase.

We’ve gotten useful castaway items right from within our subdivision.  We scored a nearly-complete set of patio furniture that just needed a little bit of cleaning. Recently we happened upon a stash of building materials: pressure-treated wood and other odd pieces.

A few days ago, my father-in-law picked up a Radio Flyer wagon that was thrown to the curb. The front axle was bent. He fixed that very easily, and now it works great for carting small garden equipment back and forth from the house to the garden.

Easy fixes … if you know how!