The year that shall not be named, oh F#ck it, 2020, was certainly difficult.
All the Covid deaths, the necessary lockdowns, enormous food bills, canceling all our trips including Yosemite, Yellowstone, etc, and all the rest. Certainly, the election was totally anxiety-filled and still is until Biden is sworn in. The stuff trump is still pulling is appalling. ANd all the GOP spineless idiots. Some of the stuff that comes out of their mouths is truly mind-boggling. I read in the WP that the idiot( he’s a newly elected representative) that is possibly going to challenge the votes recently said,” he found out that there were three branches of government”. WTF? are you mentally challenged?
At least we’ve been healthy so there’s that. Both of my kids have their jobs, so that’s excellent.
Climate change is worrying with California fires and really no rain. We’ve had a few days but nothing like normal.
Barb, over at “Living Richly in Retirement”, is a great blogger. She recently moved to Texas( very brave in my opinion) and was just writing about going over her budget categories for the new year.
So I got to thinking that I’d like to do that too. I’m going to look back at food( of course the pandemic meant Instacart a number of times), what I spent on Amazon stuff( scary amount), and Home Depot( home improvement). Then I can realistically set some numbers for 2021. Like do we want to set a certain limit? I’m not sure. Basically, I usually look at , Can we afford it? So set amounts might be a good new way forward.
Catagories could be:
home improvements/ this might be just stuff around the house or bigger like the window replacements/
outside/yard stuff( especially in spring and summer we do spend a lot on seeds, plants, dirt/soil.
dining/take out. This isn’t too hard. I usually give us $50. which is pizza night and a taco night.
travel/camping, In a normal year when we go camping, it is paid for in advance, and usually, I bring or give us @ $200 for food or fun. I’d have to add up a normal year but based on 2019 I’d say $1,000.
Annual bills are fixed amounts so I know those numbers.
I’ll keep thinking of other areas too. Clothing etc is generally not a category as we really only buy something if we need it. I need some new Birkies this year and a new pair of jeans. Birthdays, anniversary, we don’t do much but it might be good to designate something.
Medical/ we have Medicare and supplemental plans so those amounts are in the monthly budget. We did get a SURPRISE ( not good) letter from UCD med center saying we still owed $2500 from Barclays transplant. I freaked out. So we’re waiting till she sends what it is in a letter. But I will call and challenge whatever it is as we were told over and over after we reached the deductible it was 100% covered so I have no idea where they are coming up with this. When we did the GoFundMe, $6000 of the 10,000 we got went to that deductible. So???? I’m not as freaked now since it usually takes me a few days to calm down but still it will need to be dealt with and how much going back to that paper work am I going to have to do??? Not happy about this. Plus, WTF, it’s now 18 months later.
Well, I’ll start my list with those things and see what else should be added.
Tahoe Girl 
I wish I could send you some of our rain. It has been raining/drizzling/foggy and snowing (you probably don’t want that but it melts very fast) for so long I can’t remember the last time I saw sun. Actually I did see a few minutes of sun one day and it startled me – for a few seconds I wondered, “What is THAT?” before I realized it was sunshine. Lasted about 30 minutes. It’s supposed to rain on Christmas Day and Boxing Day too.
I think setting a budget for 2021 is a great idea. I know I was shocked at what I was spending on instacart for groceries, but then I realized that we weren’t eating in restaurants so it was actually less than our normal expenditures. But we had some curve balls too when I broke my arm and ended up with ambulance, trauma center, surgery, hospital and PT bills.
I received a surprise bill about 24 months after a previous surgery from a different hospital. After tracking it down, xrays and tests were referred to that facility by our local hospital but they never forwarded ANY insurance information. There was no answer as to why it took 24 months for the bill. They did submit it to my insurance who paid it in full.
that is a nice summary; thank you for sharing
your blog is amazing!
Thank you!! It’s fun to write and get stuff out there!!
One silver lining to the Covid cloud for us has been … no worries about the budget. No restaurants, no travel, no haircuts or hair salons, etc. all mean no problems on the monetary front. I do feel for our local businesspeople, though, and so we’ve at least done some take-out and tried to shop local even when going online (for example, ordering thru the local bookstore instead of amazon). Anyway, here’s to a better 2021, for all of us!
Very true. We hardly ever eat out but with covid even less. I’m trying to wean from Amazon because it’s so easy just to press send. 😦