Garden Wrap Up

Well, it's time to close things up for the season. Those groundhogs stopped coming around, even though I never did secure the fence. I put a motion detector light out there, and maybe that helped. I haven't seen any groundhogs anywhere though. Maybe they moved on? I don't know.

I'd say it was a fairly successful first season for us. We got tons of basil and tomatoes (our favorites), though our lettuce never did recover from the critter attack. I cleared out most everything, except the tomatoes and basil and a pepper plant, which I'll remove soon. In total, we saved approximately $40 this summer in grocery bills by eating stuff from the garden. It cost about $105 to start (including that fancy bench, lamp, and stone walkway), so every subsequent year we should really see the fruits of our labors.

Driveway Construction

As you can see, the guys are working on the new driveway. Those are the masons working on the curb for the new driveway. I hope it gets poured today, then the asphalt can be put down maybe next week, and this will finally be done.

Save Money Through Debt Consolidation

If you have loan balances from multiple lenders, you might benefit greatly from consolidating them into one loan, frequently called debt consolidation. By grouping them into one new loan, you may be able to

• lower your payments
• be out of debt sooner
• no longer be confused with how much you owe to which lender
• have one easy point of contact
• help stave off bankruptcy or credit counseling

Not only can debt consolidation help you in all of those ways, but a nice side-effect is that it can also help you to save more money. If you're paying less loan payments, you will have more money that can be saved to use on other things, so that the debt cycle can end once and for all. Even if you don't have the greatest credit, debt consolidation can work for you. No matter your reasons, the optimal time to consolidate could be right now. We all know what's going on with the financial markets, and you should consider a consolidation before lending requirements tighten even more.

If you're looking into doing something like this, get educated first. Bills.com has a lot of nice features, such as industry news, glossaries, and advice that will help point you in the right direction.

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This post was sponsored by Bills.com

Driveway Can Begin

I was delayed by permitting issues. Seems I need a five foot setback on the other side of my yard and I didn't know that. It would take too much time (and money) to fight it, so I'm just going to move it a little closer to the house. Now that that's out of the way, the crew can begin preparing the new driveway, then do the masonry work on the curb, then pave the new driveway.

I haven't mentioned it before, but I'm hoping this driveway will raise my house value a little. Will it go up the cost of the job ($3100)? Doubtful, especially in this market. But a decent driveway is a must when I go to sell, so It think it's worth it. It will also be great to use it.