Starting Tuesday I will officially be back in the swing of things. For those who have been wondering what happened, and why I haven’t brewed in awhile heres an explanation. I work a full time job, but my employer (the state of Oregon ironically) doesn’t take taxes out of my check. So four times a year I’m supposed to send out a tax payment to both the federal government and the state government so I don’t pay through the nose in penalties. Normally though I get by with making two payments to each and then just owing around $800 total on my taxes. That may seem like a bit ta owe, but when you’re expecting it you can just have money set aside.
So anyway this last year things were crazy. I was in England when the first payment came due, and broke (partly from going to England) when the second one was due. This left me two payments to make, which I thought was no big deal. Problem was I forgot one, and wrote out the checks to state and federal for the other. Somewhere in the year though I had lost my forms for paying the federal and didn’t get a new set done up till it was too late for the final payment to federal (got the state one in though). This meant I owed nearly twice what I usually owe in taxes.
What does this all have to do with me brewing? Well I’d only set aside the usual $800 for taxes and had to come up with almost $700 more over the last few months. This is why I haven’t gotten around to brewing the Reese’s (I need a better name for it) yet. Sometime in February I hit panic mode and thought all was lost. I promised myself I would cut back on brewing, beer, and a bunch of other stuff until my taxes were paid. Turns out I didn’t need to freak out like I did. I’m all paid up and with some change to spare. This means tomorrow I get to go shopping for my ingredients for the stout, and get that video I promised.
Some good has come of this though. I managed to cut more stuff out of my budget then I imagined was possible. I’ve learned to better differentiate between what I need, and what I want. And lastly I’ve learned I actually enjoy (to an extent) those cheap commercial lagers I make fun of. This is where homebrewing came in handy also. The Rose Red made 5 gallons of beer, which even with giving almost half away managed to keep me stocked in beer for a bit. By the way Carlos, thanks for those belgians. After drinking Michelob lager near the end they were a bright spot in a dreary landscape of beer heck. So this month I’m going to keep track of exactly how much money I spend on beer for myself, and try to review ways to drink beer that are good for people on a tight budget. After all, with the economy potentially going into the crapper people should start cutting back where they can.
Fare thee well Stella Artois.
Well, I have a great name for your beer. You could call it Peanutbutter BomBay or BomBay Peanutbutter…………..what do you think??
Jared, your welcome and thanks for my beer. It washed down quite nicely:) I like the BomBay Peanutbutter.
I think you’re just agreeing with her since she was the conduit through wich your beer used to be delivered
To bad that pipe has dried up. We may have to start exchanging beer in person *gasp*. I like the Bombay idea too, but will probably change peanutbutter to CPB in order to shorten it. You’re welcome for the beer. It was the least I could do after that kind gift of belgians 