Financial Plan

C.O. and I have some very defined financial goals for this coming year. I guess you could call it our new year's resolution, to get ahead on our finances. As part of the plan we listed out some ways to save and make money. Thought it would be fun to share them here. Some are fairly conventional, other's have a definite Alaskan flair.

First, how we are saving money.

1) We hang nearly all our laundry to air dry.
Saving on electrical costs and wear and tear on clothing.
We pay $.36 per kilowatt hour for electricity.

2) Burning wood as supplemental heat for the house.
With fuel oil at $7.00 per gallon, this is a no brainer.

3) Baking our own bread. I enjoy making bread anyway,
so I plan to avoid buying bread at the store. It's
also healthier and tastes so much better.

Second, how we are making a little extra money. We have a pretty good inventory of things that are money making opportunities. Here's a few:

1) The first are my crafts. I actually do pretty well selling my
handwork at teacher in-services, to my co-workers and by word of mouth.
I plan to be more proactive about finding buyers. I
recently signed up for Nome Announce as another avenue for
making a little extra. Folks use Nome Announce to sell, buy and make
community announcements. I just listed my first items for sale .

2) Qiviut We had a couple musk ox hides tanned last fall.
After they are tanned I comb out the under hair, the qiviut
and sell it to a spinner for $20 per ounce. That's $320
per pound! It's great money though it does takes a long time to
comb out an entire pound.

Beautiful isn't it? It's softer than cashmere and very warm.

3) The hide is also for sale.
$1200 if anyone is interested. =)
We sold one in December and hope to sell this one soon.

-AnnMarie