It was a frugal week overall. The grocery shop at Trader Joe’s will go on November’s grocery bill. So far October has been around $800 all inclusive. That’s food, non food and alcohol. So actually I’m ok with that total. For 4 people eating 3 meals a day, I’d say it’s quite good.
Gas has been quite reduced since we don’t really drive anywhere. I fill my VW up about every 6 weeks and that runs around $30. The Santa Fe fills up about once a month at $50. So really that is a big savings.
All our annual bills are done for the year so that’s also a savings as we wont have property tax or Allstate till next spring. I paid the property tax way early( for once) and that’s kinda nice. Usually I’d wait till the first week of December to do it.
We don’t have family to buy gifts for so that reduces Christmas spending. I usually get my brother a GC to either Tractor Supply or Starbucks. Then I send my sister a consumable gift usually wine or something a little fancy.
For us, I keep it simple. For each of us, one book(almost always an Easton Press), one piece of clothing, something fun, and something they need. My son will get a GC to Home Depot since he’s working on the barn and rebuilding/strengthening part of it. I still end up spending more than I’d like but it’s not bad. I try and buy all year long when I see something then I don’t have to think about it. Pre pandemic, I would often find things at the thrift store all year to put away for Christmas but not this year. I’ve gone into Goodwill 2x since the pandemic started and it wasn’t all that interesting.
Tonight is pizza night and I think we’re going to order something. I need to check but I think we’ve done 2 takeouts this month. Well, I know one was the free pizza from the store and my daughter bought Tacos one day so I’m not sure what else we did this month. Anyway, I don’t have the pizza dough made so that kinda settles it anyway.
I finished the Return of the King yesterday. The trilogy takes me about a month to get thru and is thoroughly enjoyable everytime I read it. This is my 3rd or 4th time. Next up I’m going to re read, To Kill a Mockingbird as part of that takes place at halloween( BOO Radley!!). Anyway, I was going to start Dracula which I also read once a year but maybe later.
Tahoe Girl 
Have you read Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram? The book was made into the movie Gods and Monsters. Both are excellent!
I hear you about the gas. I took the car out yesterday for the first time in about a week to go meet some people. Last time I bought gas was … well, I can tell you. It was Oct. 9. And I still have 3/4 of a tank. So I was wondering yesterday when I was caught in traffic on Rt. 263: Who are all these people driving a round and where are they going?
Well, I guess we can thank the pandemic for one thing. I say the same thing on I -80…where are you all going???
Loved Dracula, and met Bram Stoker’s great nephew while touring Dracula’s Castle in Romania in 2014. We had just read the book in anticipation of our trip, and I was thrilled to meet him unexpectedly. The great-nephew was there to promote the story of Bram Stoker, as interestingly, the family has no financial right’s to any Dracula merchandise, including the book, as the copyright expired long ago.
Dracula is an excellent read as it builds suspense; no movie version can capture it.