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In today's mail I got the rest of the travelers checks I cashed in that little town in Pennsylvania. The guy certainly was prompt about it. As is my habit with that sort of money, I put a bit with it and got another war bond for the lockbox. That makes an even $800. I have a wonderful gas saving device. I get the car out and head it toward town and then turn the motor off and coast all the way in till I have to turn the switch back on for a minute to park it. When I have had it out and know I will be using it again I back it up the drive, and then I don't have to turn it on at all. I really think it saves a lot of gas; also if I don't have to use the starter, but can turn it over on the motor. I asked at the bank and your fifty dollar allotment has not come through yet. Perhaps I already told you this. Also, we each received a check for fifty-two cents from the book we wrote a chapter in. I bought war stamps with them. It seems to me we are waning in popularity a bit. I have just paid all our bills. We had a whopper of a phone bill piled up and Ursula's tonsils. But we don't owe anything but that one hundred dollar loan, which I'm not worrying about. It is a good feeling not to have to worry. I am not running bills in town and I'm glad of it. The carpenter asks to be paid when his job is done because he doesn't carry compensation on his helper, but pays him off immediately. So we don't owe him and we pay it as we go along. It's a more satisfactory way to do and makes me feel better too. Then in addition to the four letters from you, there was one from Jenny with a certified check for a thousand dollars [for the sale of the Maine farm!] That is really our best news, isn't it. I took it right over to the bank, of course, and paid off our seven hundred dollar loan and deposited the rest.... I felt so good that I came back home and started in to paint woodwork in the dining room and got it all finished one coat. It looks wonderful. But please, don't take me too seriously when I write you not only the things that I am doing, would like to do, remotely consider doing, someone else might do, etc. Before I do anything that costs money I consider it very thoroughly from all angles. Not only what I think you would do, but how it will be over a long-time proposition, the money angle, how practical it is from the standpoint of available materials, etc. I also consult several people like carpenters, and other people who have done similar things and are in a position to know better than I. I also consult our budget and how it will look several or ten or twenty years from now. I know you know I think about these things, but when you start to get panicky, please remember it again and then you won't worry. It just makes me want to yip for joy that I beat you to the draw on something that is so close to us and also that you won't have to wait a couple of weeks for the answer. Point one: Consolidate our bill-debts and large expenses to be met in the next year. That I have done in applying for the mortgage to cover the improvements and enough extra to pay our payments on the house too in the next year, if necessary. Point two: Save the absolute maximum so we'll have a little backdrop; that I'd like to do too, and will try. Point three: Have a talk with Dean Whitford --- hot stuff. I even did that. I'm sure the college will take care of you part time because he said they would... Anyway, I'm sure the college will have work for you without making you feel they are trying to create it for you. Point four: Write US Employment Service about unemployment. I don't think that is necessary in light of the above. Make something out of our farm. That is a good idea, but could not begin to pay off till next summer. So I don't know about it. But anyway, the important things have been done, and now we don't have to worry too much about money. Hot stuff Honey, you can come home any time and not be a financial burden to me! Boy, do I love you, and I'm glad we are still and always so much in tune that we think of the same things at the same time. I will have about twenty-five dollars left over this month and I'll probably get it in cash and hide it in a sock so I won't touch it. I'd like to see if I can't tuck away a little cash somewhere. But we have a thousand dollars in war bonds, and those two Loan Office shares, besides which we will have put close to two thousand dollars into our house, and it will be possible to get some of it out again if we ever have to sell it. I am steamed up as much as you are about the necklace. I am very anxious to see it, and hope it gets here soon... I think the idea of making necklaces is excellent and no doubt Miss Hewitt would sell them right here. Also I think you should consider making bracelets and earrings to go with them. Now, I would suggest that you make a couple of contacts to get shells sent to you later if you want them. You can make the contact now and won't be able to when you get home. You could have an endless supply of shells for the rest of your life if you wanted. I think for a little pocket money making buttons, necklaces, bracelets and earrings would be a good business. First of all, I signed the mortgage papers a couple of days ago. Our payment for this month was still $23 but next month it will go up again. The money is still not available, and there is a lot of red tape to the thing. As there should be when it involves getting $1300. The arrangement is that it stays on deposit at the Loan Office and whenever I need some they draw me a check. We pay interest only on what we have drawn.... The whole transaction is quite satisfactory, as they seem to be with the Loan Company. I sure like to do business with them! Before I forget it again. Please straighten yourself out there so you don't owe anyone anything, and let me know the amount of the check you cash. I'm very sorry I didn't know you were in such straits, though you probably explained that you would be when the thing happened. I think you were a martyr, and it was not necessary. Get as much money as you need and want, and let me know. About money, I am sure we don't have to worry a minute. The only trouble with us is that we will try to put every available penny into this house and grounds. But there is no question but what we will be able to live. In fact, I am forgetting as fast as possible a little bit I put into the safe deposit box...So we should have several hundred dollars over, and still not skimp. This morning I went down to do a little business. I paid our "rent" which now amounts to about $3,200 we owe. But we have a lot of assets which cover a good part of it, so I think we are pretty well set. Then I went to see David Burdick about insurance and had it increased to five thousand on the house. Got five hundred on the garage and three hundred on one chicken house and one hundred on the other. We had $3,500 on the house before, and since I have put close to fifteen hundred into it, it made good sense to me to increase it. Then I went to the bank too and put in that cash I mentioned in last night's letter. But while I did it, I found another ten spot about me and put that in too. Continue with How Do I Love Thee? |