No, just kidding 🙂 It’s been a fairly frugal week except for our 2 year Septic pumping. This house only has a 900-gallon tank(which is now illegal but back then was acceptable.), so we need to have it pumped every 2-3 years. It was $575 so not too bad really, and we have that in our annual bills account.
But food-wise, it’s been a low-spend week. I have plenty of things in both the fridge and freezer to use. This past week I made baked herb chicken with our cherry tomato compote, veggie sausage bake, cheese toasties with avocado and tomato, and pasta with tomatoes, and mozzarella. Tonight is pizza night and I’m not sure that’s what I’m doing. It’s early yet so I have time to think about it. First thing this morning is to blanch and freeze some local corn. I haven’t seen the sales for 10 for $1.00 come up. Maybe I missed it. So this was 2 for $1.00. I got just 10. Then I have more tomatoes to process but I may wait and do that tomorrow.
Barclay was supposed to get his port out this morning ( a milestone after 3 1/2 years) but he got a rash ( we think from his Shingrex shot) and the doctor said he should wait for it to be gone. He’s going to call his team nurse this morning to check on it.
We went out for a coffee at the local cafe and had iced americanos. That was $10 with a scone and came out of his personal money. Since we are doing cash envelopes again, he’s getting $100 a month for fun money. That’s working out very well. Also, he’s in charge of the cash envelopes for chicken food, and home depot. I’m still working out how much those should be REALISTICALLY. A budget only works if it fits what you need to spend and have the $ to fund the line item. So far, I have Tractor Supply at $50, and Home Depot stuff at $200.
We are going to have to take my VW to the shop as the coolant is still leaking. Hopefully, it won’t be too much. I don’t really keep a car repair fund so I guess I better start that.
I just finished the corn and got 3 small baggies of shucked corn. So maybe 20 more ears of corn.
Tahoe Girl 
Have you ever read “Your Money or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin? It was a go-to back in the 90’s. I loaned it to my frugal eldest kid and I am still amused by some of the “notes to self” that he earmarked. I read it too and it’s very good: I just lack the discipline to keep track of spending. I am naturally frugal but DH is definitely not.
I have read it multiple times. Also Dave Ramsey. Some things were relevant and some weren’t. I only keep track of our bank account and do not do spreadsheets etc. I have tried that but I just don’t like them. I use my daily book to track what’s going out and what’s going in and my monthly budget numbers. It’s pretty simple overall.
Those periodic large house bills are only frugal if you consider the cost of fixing the situation if you don’t do the maintenance! Those tomatoes look amazing.
We thought of replacing the septic and lines but that would probably be @ 30K, something we do not have at all. so I guess pumping every few years is resaonable.