As you could tell from our previous post we so far we are enjoying our new chickens. I do have lots of questions about what I'm doing. So maybe some of you could help out. This week I actually have two questions for you.

Q 1: Do you have chickens?

Q2: What do you wish you knew about chickens before you got yours?

Please answer the first question in the poll on the sidebar. Question 2 can be answered down below. If you have a post on your blog about raising your chickens that you feel would be helpful feel free to leave a link to the post.

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Happy Friday everyone! I hope that you were able to enjoy your week. We had a great week at our house. It has been a very productive one for us. I'm sure we will be sharing lots of it with you next week once we get the photos off the camera.

Sunday is Mothers day. I hope that all you mom's enjoy you day. Our question this week is:

What special thing are you doing to celebrate the moms in your life?

I was just informed that we are going to spend a relaxing day at the beach. I'm excited about the work free day.

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HELP!

Our Friday would be much better if our two daughters and I didn't have spider bites that itch like crazy. Our youngest daughter's neck is so bad that her neck is swollen and the huge bits look like they are almost raw. The doctor confirmed that they are insect bites and most likely spiders.

Since we live on a wooden ravine we are constantly fighting bugs that come in the house, mainly spiders that do bite us. I refuse to use harsh chemicals to kill spiders so I need your help to come up with a better way.

My question for you:

What do you use for natural indoor pest control?

Thanks for your help!

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Down about the economy? Unsure of where to invest in these troubled times? Should you buy gold? (Let me help you here, the answer is no on that one) When will this end? Who is to blame and when will the government fix this?

In a time a so many questions and so few real answers, Dave Ramsey put together an awesome event called the Town Hall for Hope. We hosted the event (one of 6000 locations) and had a decent turnout. It was energetic, informative and fun.

Did you see it? Let us know in the poll to the right and let us know what you though in the comments below.

If you missed it, fear not! It sounds like Fox Business Network will replay it this weekend, and they may be streaming the even from the website soon.

Choose HOPE!

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The experts say that it costs an average of $9-10k for the first year of a newborns life. This covers everything from your portion of medical bills to diapers, transportation, clothing, daycare and more.

Our question for you is:

How much did your child's first year cost you?

As usual, jump on over to the poll on the sidebar and cast your vote!

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Happy Almost Easter! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend with their family. We just have a quick question for you.

Have you finished your taxes?

Hop on over to the poll on the right side and let us know!

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April has started so that means it's time for the new month's budget to be completed. We finished ours up on Wednesday. It is so important to finish your budget before the money starts rolling in. It just makes life easier.

This weeks question:

Have you completed April's budget?

Join us over on the sidebar poll!

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We love teaching Financial Peace University. It is amazing to see the life changes that are made during the 13 weeks. Just knowing that you are making such a huge impact on a person's life makes the personal sacrifices of teaching the class more then worth it.

Our question for you today is:

Have you taken Financial Peace University?

Head over to the poll on the right side. If you have an FPU story you would like to share please leave us a comment.

Have a great weekend everyone!

**Update**
Sorry, guys, but the poll also died with the template update. Looks like a good opportunity to try something new... Check out the new poll on the right.

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Friday is here all ready! It has been the most beautiful week here in Michigan. Seeing the sun and playing outside with the kids really lifted our spirits. I hope that all of you were able to enjoy a sneak preview of spring as well.

This week our Friday Feedback question is related to a post from earlier this week on living a super sized life. Without any more delay, here is the question.

What area of your life is super sized?

Is it your car, house, food, kids, extra activities, vacation or something else? Enter your answer into the poll on the right side. Feel free to add a little comment explaining your super sized life!

For us, nothing is super sized at the moment. We stopped living super sized about 4 years ago. Back then it was food for us. We loved to cook really nice food and when we ate out it was always expensive restaurants.

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TGIF! What a week. I'm glad it's almost over.

Earlier this week I start to really wonder how many of our readers have their own blogs. Which lead me to today's Friday feedback question:

Are you a blogger?

If so please leaving a comment saying the name of your blog, a short description and a link. We hope that everyone enjoys their weekend.

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I read online about hundreds of things you can do with Dr. Bronner soaps. The only problem is that none of them say how they do it or share their recipe/mix ratios. I bought a bottle but it was no help with that either.

My question to you today is this:

Can you share your favorite Dr. Bronner recipe/ mix ratio with us in the comments?

If you would rather email me instead that is fine also. I'm going to take all of your advise and make one recipe post with all of them in it. Please leave your blog address and/or name so I can give you credit in the post.

Thanks for your help!

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TGIF! The weekend could not come fast enough this week. And now that it's finally Friday I have one last question for you.

Has your pay check been effected by the economy?

Hope on over to the poll on the right side bar and tell us about it in the comments if you would like. Did you post an article on your blog about the paycheck? If so leave a link in the comments. We would love to hear your story. Next week we should have another update on Mr. NtJS's income. We will keep you posted!

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This week I started to plan out this years vegetable garden. It really is a great way to get exercise and provide my family with affordable organic product all year long. I'm working on a post about this topic for next week, but today I want to know:

Do you grow your own veggies?

Please tell us about your garden in the comments section below. I can't wait to hear about YOUR garden.

Have a great weekend!

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If you have taken the time to review the items in the column to the right you have noticed that we have a "Full Disclosure" section.
Here is what it currently looks like:

Debt Snowball $39,247.50 of $39,247.50 (100%) Debt-free since June 2006

Emergency Fund $9000 of $9000 (100%)

HDTV Challenge $1,345 of $1,345 (100%)

15-yr Mortgage(2007) 2 of 15yrs (13.3%)

Our blog is about money and how we handle it. We both feel that if you are going to blog about what to do with your money you need to be open and honest with what you are doing with your own funds. Our question to you is what would you like to see added to our disclosures? Jog on over to the poll on the right and let us know which you would like us to add.

Here are your options:
1) Nothing
2) Car replacement fund
3) Roof replacement fund
4) Kid's college savings
5) Retirement savings
6) All 2009 goals
7) Other (please leave details in the comments section)

May the best disclosure win!

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Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) will present its inaugural TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) Award for the worst toy of the year. From thousands of toys that promote violence and/or precocious sexuality to children and push branded entertainment at the expense of children’s play, CCFC has selected five exceptional finalists. Who will win the dreaded TOADY? It’s up to you.

Follow the link above to view the five finalists and vote. Voting is open until February 8 and the winner will be announced on February 12, 2009. Please come back to our blog and tell us who you voted for in the comment section below. Let's see if we pick the winner of this award!

As an added bonus, everyone who votes on CCFC's website,who include their email address, will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a copy of the new film Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood.

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Tax season is upon us. How quickly it sneaks in when the holidays are over. This year we are going to do our own taxes online using TurboTax. However, we have use about every way to complete your taxes except for doing them by hand.

So our question to you is:
How are going to fill out your tax papers? Online, CPA, H & R Block type firm, or by hand?

You can answer via comments or vote in the poll on the right side bar.

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We want to hear from you! Today we are kicking off a new weekly series that will help us get to know you and your thoughts.

Our first question for you is:

What do you think of our new comment's section?

Was it easier to use? Harder? Does it make you want to leave a comment or avoid it? We would love to here from YOU!

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Do you ever play the what if game? Sometimes there will be an event that triggers those what if thoughts for me. Last week my mom told me that a guy from the small town I grew up in won $250k from a lotto ticket. Right away I had thoughts of what he would do with it. Things that would waste the money and be bad for one's health. All things that made me cringe.

So then I thought what would I do if it was me. Of course I don't play the lotto or gamble in any form so I would never actually have that kind of a windfall. But it is fun to pretend!


$100k to taxes (this is just a rough guess as to what the taxes would actually be)
$25k tithe (10% off the top for our tithe, God ALWAYS comes first)
$20k metal roof (our roof is 30+ years old and is starting to leak)
$5k house repairs (our old house has lots of little repairs that are needed)
$95k pay off house (nothing like the security of a paid off house in a bad economy)
$5k car fund (both are vehicles have over 83k miles and we need to start saving for new ones)

WOW!!!! That money went fast. I can see why so many people who win large sums of lotto money file bankruptcy. When you hear quarter million dollars it sounds like a lot. But as you see, it really doesn't go that far once you take out for taxes. In fact, after taxes and tithing half the money was gone. You actually only have $125k to spend. The one nice thing would be the paid off house which would add an additional $875 a month to our budget.

Do you want to play along? Tell us what you would do with the money!

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