It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
How do you plan enough food for 1 person for each year? I’m trying to calculate how to grow enough food and was wondering maybe you have some good resources on how to decide how many of each vegetable to grow and how to get good at succession plantings?
~Edward
I get this question often and it is such a hard one to answer because it’s so personal. We eat a TON of veggies in our family but some people are picky about certain veggies. You have to take a look at how you eat, what you eat and how frequently you eat what you eat. As far as succession planting, it’s totally the way to go. I cannot recommend it more. You can get more info on succession planting HERE. If you use the succession method, you can get away with using as little as 200 sq ft per person. The following amounts are a good rule of thumb planting guide for 1 person, although you’ll have to tweak it for you:
Asparagus: 5-10 plants, Beans: 10-15 plants, Beets: 10-25 plants, Bell Peppers: 3-5 plants, Broccoli: 3-5 plants, Brussels Sprouts: 2-5 plants, Cabbage: 3-5, plants, Carrots: 10-25 plants, Cauliflower: 2-5 plants, Celery: 2-8 plants, Corn: 10-15 plants, Cucumber: 1-2 plants, Eggplant: 1-3 plants, Kale: 2-7 plants, Leafy Greens: 2-7 plants, Lettuce Leaf: 5-8 feet, Melons: 1-3 plants, Onions: 10-25 plants, Peas: 15 plants, Potatoes: 5-8 plants, Radishes: 10 plants, Summer Squash: 1-3 plants, Tomatoes: 1-2 plants, Zucchini: 1-2 plants
Hi Mavis, I just recently started ordering meat from Zaycon Foods. Am I supposed to tip the guy who unloads the truck?
~Thanks, Kathy
I think this is totally up to you. I’ve asked and they absolutely do not expect it. But if it’s important to you, I’d offer a small tip every time and see if they’ll accept it. I don’t think it’s necessary, but it certainly is kind!
Have you been a “helper” at the Zaycon Fresh events? How was it and what do you do?
~Jamie
I haven’t but I have had a friend who has and loved it. They said it was a great company to work for and what you do depends on the size of the event. You could be helping with traffic or checking receipts or unloading trucks. If you have specific questions, I’d reach out to them. Seems like a great way to get an awesome deal on meat!
Dear Mavis – I am a newer reader and am very interested in the process you use to pay off additional principal payments for your house. I am guessing that you are not paying 5 full mortgage payments every month, but was wondering if you have an older article I could review that could help me understand the process so I can implement it myself. Thanks in advance for any info!!
~Anna
Hi Mavis, I enjoy your down to earth posts. You mentioned making 4 additional mortgage payments this month. Can you tell me how you were able to do this, lol. I would LOVE to be out of debt. If you are using a formula could you share it or a goal. I am very encouraged by people like you. You make me think I can do it to.
Step one was setting a goal. Which really motivated me to save. We set a strict budget, I have cut back on almost ALL unnecessary spending and put into place some seriously crazy cost cutting measures in all areas of our budget to accomplish this. I mean I’ve given up trash service and cable for goodness sake.
You have to make sacrifices if you want to see the benefits. So we stick to a strict budget and then any extra funds go towards principle. It’s okay if you don’t want to be as crazy about saving as me. Just start small. I did a series on 52 Ways to Save $100 a Month. Take a look at that and then implement the ones you can, using the saved money to go right towards principal payments. It might not seem like much at first, but when you start doing it, it becomes addicting and almost like a game you really want to win!
My cabbages never get as big as yours. Additionally how do you like your all American canner, I have my grandmothers Mirro which works fine but I do have some problems with water going in my jars. I think this is because maybe the heat is too high? I have a weighted gauge. I don’t want to spend the money on the canner but do lust after the idea of doing two racks of jars at once. Thank you for your time.
~Alison
I LOVE my All American-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner! It’s like the Rolls-Royce of pressure cookers! It’s awesome. It is an investment, but if you can frequently, I highly recommend it. It’s so worth it! As far as those cabbages are concerned, we have really great soil for cabbage growing. If you want some tips, check out this post on How to Grow Cabbage From Start to Finish. Hope that helps!
Have a questions for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
~Mavis
Wendy L. says
To Alison, try a steam canner. They are life changing in water bath canning. You use less water and are easier to handle. I received mine as a requested gift. Best one ever.
Sue says
Mavis, I’ve seen so many people ask about paying down the mortgage, and I think people are asking for more specifics than you’re giving. Would it be possible for you to give an example calculation (not using your actual numbers of course)? Starting with a fictional round number payment like $1000/month or $2000/month mortgage payment, you could explain how you determine how much of that is principal vs interest for each payment, and how you make sure the bank processes it properly (ie when I did it I had to specify the extra was to be used “toward principal only” on the extra or else the bank would not do that). I think this is what people are wanting to understand so they know how to do it on their own mortgage.
Nancy D says
@ Sue: If you search for “amortization schedule” online, you will find several options to choose from. Some are easier to use than others. You enter your total loan amount, interest charged and number of years or months for repayment and it will show you all your payments until paid off. Each monthly payment will be broken down into two columns of principle and interest. It is a great visual for comprehending Mavis’ method. (Also fun to use, as well as eye-opening to see how much goes JUST to interest!) Hope this helps! 🙂
Sherry says
I pay my mortgage online. The bank I use has an amortization estimator that let’s you input how much extra you’d like to pay (either a one time additional principal amount or monthly fixed additional principal payment amount) and it will show you how much faster you can pay off your mortgage with those payments. When you do make extra payments, there is a place to apply those payments directly to the principal. If you look around within your account this should be easy to find. If not, as someone else said, you can find amortization calculators online and mess with the numbers to find what a good extra monthly principal is for you.
E in Upstate NY says
Don’t forget that many loan payments also include payment to the escrow account which pays the property taxes and for some the required property insurance.
Erin says
When you get your annual mortgage statement, there will be a breakdown of what part of your payment is principal, what is interest and what is taxes. You can then figure out how many months you are paying off. To make it easier for us, we have the bank take the amount we specify and apply it each month automatically. Our bank treats every payment beyond the regular one as a principal payment. At the end of the year when they recalculate our regular payment in light of how much we have overpaid the principal, we take the difference and add that to the extra payments, paying down the principal even faster.
Athena says
RE: paying additional principal payments on a mortgage. When we bought our current home we decided right away that we wanted to pay more than just the mortgage amount. We pay about 1 mortgage payment and a half (ends up being an extra $500 a month) and it equals out to 3-4 extra principal payments. We set it up this way and just plan around it. That extra money IS our mortgage payment each month and we always pay and think about it as being that amount. This way we’ve built in an additional payment each month and we don’t have to think about it. We did the same with my student loans and now they are PAID OFF! I wanted to put the student loan amount toward the mortgage but my husband preferred to put it in savings so we’re doing that right now. Our mortgage has decreased significantly doing this. I’d suggest looking at what your mortgage payment is and seeing if there’s room to pay extra each month. If so then just add it in and pay that. We’ve made some other small changes to pay a bit less on other things but nowhere near as much as Mavis! If we went all in we’d probably be able to pay this house off in a few years! For now we’re building up our savings to hopefully adopt a child so this works.
Jennifer Meyer says
Here’s the calculator I use. Super easy to understand, there are other calculators on this page depending if you want to see what your early payoff would be vs extra payments. We have a mortgage on a mobile home that we will be paying off in 10 years instead of the contracted 20. Mavis was our inspiration and this calculator showing use how much we could save in interest (15 grand!!) was the push we needed to finally do it. Thanks Mavis! /home/monthly_extra_payment_to_principal
Jennifer Meyer says
Oops I think I cut off part of the website the first time! https://www.vmf.com/home/monthly_extra_payment_to_principal