Category Archives: budgets

Midweek musings

Posted in budgets, California, cats, pets, Uncategorized by

Gus was a very bad boy yesterday. I was just finishing up Anne of Avonlea on Netflix, and my daughter says “Have you seen Gus?” So no Gus in the house. Somehow he got out, and now it was 9:30pm and I was freaked. Gus is a real scaredy-cat, so I was freaked out. We got flashlights and called and walked all around (well, my daughter walked all around; I walked near the front yard). I went to bed finally at 10:15 and was crying. Finally Gus came up to the gate and my daughter got him. I was near hysterical. I’m not sure what triggered me getting so upset but it did. Well, so I couldn’t sleep and finally took an ativan which I haven’t since I threw up the last one. But I was fine and fell asleep. I feel a bit groggy this morning, so I’m skipping the pool and will just go to Costco since I need coffee. Not quite what I planned ,but that’s life. Weirdly, all my CPAP stats were good. 02 was good and mask seal good. My Apple sleep score was lower because I didn’t fall asleep till way later than normal.

So Costco’s list is coffee, dishwasher pods, fruit, TP and I’ll see what else I need.

Last night we had the TJ’s precooked steak slices. It was better than I expected. Convenient for sure. I cooked up some potatoes to go with it. I had planned to use this for sandwiches because I had read about someone doing that on the TJ’s facebook page. There’s some leftover so maybe we can use that for lunch.

This week we also had some veggies spring rolls and potstickers.They were delicious and will do that again. Tonight I have some defrosted Rao’s sauce and some leftover ground beef, so I’ll make a spaghetti sauce. I also have some romaine lettuce to use. In the past month, I’ve gotten much better at cooking portions for just the two of us. We don’t eat a lot of leftovers so I’ve been cooking smaller amounts at dinner. I feel as if I’m making progress.

My son made it over after work the other day. So he got his birthday gifts. I had stopped at Paris Bakery after the gym and got 2 slices of cake. So it was a festive moment. Paris Bakery goods are not overly sweet which is why I like them. Barclay and I liked to go sit in the cafe and have our treats there. I miss that.

I stayed home yesterday and really got a lot done and was proud of myself. I walked out to water the bamboo by our south fence. It’s quite uneven ground so I don’t usually like to do it but they needed water. I need to go back out and cut out the dead bamboo and bring a new pot out for one. I’ll do that today and maybe see about getting a bag of soil too. Then I took all the recycle out to the recycle area. Also took the trash out. I need to gather up some more yard trash to fill the bin as tomorrow is garbage day. Then I hosed off the trailer. I couldn’t get the top so I’ll need done of the kids to do that.

These days my energy comes and goes in cycles. I try to do extra stuff when I feel a bit energized. Also, it was cooler yesterday and that makes a huge difference. Today is the beginning of our cool down so after I get back from Costco, I’ll try and do one extra thing.

Thankful Thursday and a day trip to Napa Valley

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, Gratitude, Sashiko, travel, Uncategorized by

I am very thankful we had a wonderful day trip to Napa. I’ve wanted to go back since B died and show my daughter some of our favorite places. We didn’t spend the night, as that would have added to the expense, but we did some fun things. First and foremost, we did the Napa Valley Wine Train for their 3-course lunch.

It was such a great experience and something Barclay and I always wanted to do. the food was exceptional.

First, I showed them the RV park where we stayed in Napa. Such a great place. This time it was packed due to the fair but they got an idea of what it was. Then it was off to Oxbow and Modele’s bakery. We loaded up on goodies to bring home including their famous English Muffins.

Again I’m grateful to still be able to do these things.

It was a long day, but I felt pretty good overall.

I’m thankful we have window coolers as this heat and now the smoke from the fires is terrible. Today and tomorrow look like the hottest days.

I’m thankful that I have this time.

Today, is a home day except having to go down to the post office as a piece of important mail was put in our box by mistake and I want the person to get it ASAP.

I don’t have anything else much to do but need to tidy up some. Yesterday, at the library I got some non fiction books so I’ll look through those. One is on Sashiko, which I did enjoy doing. Maybe I’ll order some new thread. I think I got that from Etsy.

Anyway, the road goes on and on…


  (?)

J.R.R. Tolkien

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

tags: road

Simple Sunday and Lammas

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, Uncategorized, Walking by

Yesterday was Lammas, or the cross-quarter on the Celtic calendar. I didn’t bake bread although I probably could have cooked it outside on the patio. Lammas celebrates the harvest, thus the wheat has come in and there is bread making. It was strange how, I was sitting on the couch looking out the window, as I do a lot, and I instantly knew the light had changed. It was about 4:30, and I said to my daughter, look how the sun angle is different on the driveway. Then I realized it was August 1.

Anyway, it’s hot and going to be hot all week. I guess, I’m resigned at this point. We do have the little pool my daughter set up and it’s nice to float in it. It’s only 3 foot deep but on a little floatie, you don’t know the difference.

I’ve also had terrible allergies these last 3 days.The only thing I can think of is grasses outside. I rarely have allergy reactions so this was a bit annoying especially since I have sneezing and blowing my nose all day. I did take an allergy pill and that helped.

I finally got out and did a walk this morning. I haven’t been very motivated this last week. Maybe when the temperatures drop I’ll feel more motivated. It was a nice walk though. Even a little cool.

I do plan on going to the gym this morning.At least I can get doing my weights in. I think this coming week, I’ll get over to Mahaney gym and do weights there and treadmill. Plus, I’ll get to pool. At least, I hope to do that. With this heat, I am definitely not too motivated to go out.

I need to plan some meals for the week. We never had the tamales, so I could do that, some chicken, and I did make some coleslaw so I can add that in to whatever else I’m making. We’ll see, meal planning is low on my priority list right now. My son’s birthday is this week too, so I’ll check in with him what he might want to have to celebrate.

Friday Things

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California by

Boy, it’s hot. I hate the heat. At least, knock on wood, no fires nearby.

I was planning on meeting my library friends this morning but the cafe was closed due to a water leak. So I went down to the pool and then came straight home. I was home.maybe 10 minutes and my one friend called and said she was at the cafe and where was everybody? Apparently she didn’t get the memo, but at that point the cafe had reopened so I popped down and had an iced tea and we caught up. They just moved house into Auburn so that they’re closer for her husband’s medical needs. Ahhhh, getting old is something else.

I’ve worked on August’s budget and nothing unexpected so far. I hope to make a bit of progress on my CC. We’ll see.

I keep checking LLS but no luck yet. I’m guessing it’s going to be a while. But there is a change that will affect quite a few people coming. They are now only going to give awards to people on Medicare,Medicaid and Tri ? something. So that is going to cut out a lot of people. I wonder what their reasoning is?

My labs came back and they are the same as last month,kappa at 34.7, so I’ll take it. My ratio went up due to Lambda going up but that’s ok for now. My ratio definitely goes up and down. So another month of not stressing,for now.

Last night I just made us a couple of cheese quesadillas and had some potato salad from Ikeda’s. Tonight we might have the cheese tamales but I’ll see what my daughter wants.

Monday we are going on a bit of an adventure so that will take the whole day. I’ll take some pictures. Also, Friday is my son’s birthday. He’ll be 32. Where does the time go?? I know he and his partner have plans for Saturday but I’ll see if he’s coming up on Friday. With it being so hot, it may be better to wait.

Is it hot where you live? And what do you do to keep busy or is it watch TV/youtube??

Thankful Thursday

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California, Gratitude, home stuff, swimming, Uncategorized by

I’m thankful it’s been a good week without any appts apart from my lab appt. I did that early yesterday (7:30), and then went to the pool.

I’m thankful the guy who does my draws is quite good and this time he left NO mark, so that’s a win.

The pool was wonderful and I had a lane to myself the whole time. I’m a little stiff this morning from swimming but that happens if I haven’t been for 6 days. I am very thankful for this pool and how well it is maintained. It’s been 5 years since I started back swimming. I plan to go one more time this week. That may then exclude going to the gym as I do need to be conscious of time and gas $.

The weather is hot, that’s all I can say and it looks like this is hot and next week is hotter. Not my favorite at all. I did a little outside watering yesterday and will do some this morning. We’re not trying to keep any grass green, just watering lavender bushes etc.

I’m thankful my daughter did the Costco trip for water. We do use plastic bottles, mostly I do at night when I wake up and need a drink and also I use bottles to track how much H2O I drink. Not ideal with the plastic, but it is what it is and I have to choose my battles.

After the pool , I went across the street to Winco and got a few things. Mostly, I wanted some veggies and although not organic, they do have wonderful produce. They do have organic veggies though. I bought a cabbage for coleslaw, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, and romaine lettuce. I picked up some corn tortillas to make enchiladas. I also picked up a pre seasoned tri tip so I might make that tonight. I don’t usually buy meat at Winco, just Costco so I’ll see how the quality is.

Today, I plan on decluttering some in the bedroom and clean out the fridge some. I think I’ll put a pot of beans on too. Later, I’m going to pop out to Ikeda’s for more tomatoes. I kinda feel like going to the bookstore but that’s on the other side of town. We’ll see, maybe my daughter will want to go.

I am thankful to have started recycling again. It’s kind of a pain to do but I’m keeping it manageable. It’s in a convenient location so I like that. I only had 3 bags, so I got back $8. Not bad. I think next time I’ll wait to have a bit more.

Simple Sunday

Posted in budgets, California, cooking, home stuff, Walking by

Well, it’s officially hot and getting hotter. I saw close to 100 next week. Yikes. Coolers will be going.

I woke up early around 5 and decided to get up instead of lying there for half an hour. I checked my ResMed, and it looked good. Good mask fit and .2 events, which is almost perfect.

I did find a cancellation for my labs on Wednesday morning at 7:30, which is better for me than 11:40. I’ll keep checking, and maybe one will open up on Monday or Tuesday. Because of forgetting to do it, I went ahead and scheduled my next labs for after my August Velcade, so that’s done.

We’ll see how the labs are. It takes 3 months of a trend to be sure of something, so I hope it goes down slightly or at least stays the same.

The gym was a bit busy, but I did my usual weights and a little treadmill. Since I walked already this morning, I only did about 12 minutes.

After the gym, I went over to Goodwill and found a few things. A new Gap T-shirt in navy, which is always a hard color to find for some reason. Then a cool Starbucks cup that is a mini coffee press. It looked brand new. That’ll be fun to try.

I have chicken for dinner, as we had the cheese chile relleno last night. My daughter did it in the air fryer, and I’d definitely recommend that way to cook it.

The rest of the day is probably spent hanging out inside, as it’s too hot already to go sit outside. I’ll send iRobot around to vacuum and maybe mop. I’ve been doing some embroidering on napkins, so I might keep doing that.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, decluttering, Gratitude, swimming by

I am very glad the cooler temperatures are going to return. not cool, cool, but better. Today is 93, and tomorrow back in the 80’s. I really dislike the heat, so it’ll be better.

The tree trimmers from PGE were here yesterday to take 2 small oaks. I went out there with them and wasn’t too pleased at them having to take them, but they were under the power line. I didn’t go back out to see how it looked, but I will this morning as I need to water the bamboo out there.

The pool was busy, but I’m grateful to have gotten a lane mostly by myself, and then later someone came in with me. Someone was talking about the day before at the pool and said it was so busy she finally gave up waiting for a lane. I’ve only had that happen I think twice in all the time I’ve been swimming, so I’m grateful that usually it works out.

I’m grateful for the AC units in our windows. We have 5, but only use the 4, in the LR, entry way, bedroom 1, and bedroom 2. It makes a big difference. Of course, that means our electric bill will go up:(

Today, I plan on staying home ( at least as of now). I need to do some tidying and put things away. I also need to take out the recycling. I did think about going down to the gym and doing my weights, but I think I’ll wait. It’s early yet, so I may change my mind.

I’m thankful my CPAP is mostly working well. It is controlling the sleep apnea, and my 02 is better at night. Going by the RingConn, I drop to 90 a few times, but then the line goes up to 95 or even 97, which means the pressure ramps up. I tried using some mouth tape that was recommended on the Facebook group, but that night my 02 was at 89 for more than I want ( like 30 minutes). So I went back to the chin strap. It’s ok, it bothers my face a bit, but I need it to keep my mouth from opening. It still does open some, but this controls most of it. I ordered a different one from Amazon, so maybe that one will work better. This was not a problem until the doctor increased the pressure settings on the ResMed. Before that, I didn’t have a problem because the pressure was much lower. Oh well, it’s working.

I’m working my way through the chest freezer, and it’s going great. Yesterday, I took out 2 bags of apples( from a friend’s tree) that I had cut up last fall. I put them in the crockpot, and it cooked down to a lovely applesauce. We had it with dinner. I’m not planning on canning any, just plan to eat it. I also pulled out a turkey and cooked that. Mostly, after it was cooked, I took all the meat off and froze it. In the future, I only plan on doing the Diestel turkey breast. Much easier and better quality. So that really freed up some space. I think I’ll keep the chest freezer as the refrigerator one is too small to hold much, but I want it to be less packed. I’ll go out there today and see what else I can use up. BTW, the chest freezer is out in the laundry room, which is at the back of the house. Barclay built it there, as there was no room in the house for a washer and dryer.

A menu for the week, sort of…

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, home stuff, Uncategorized by

Last night we did do the Kirkland meatballs with Rao’s sauce. I threw a few egg noodles in, too. It was good. NO salad because I didn’t feel like making it. The humidity is awful, and we are not used to humidity here in Northern CA. I think today is about the same. There are some clouds that are keeping the heat in and the humidity high. Ugh…

So, I have some chicken defrosting so one night will be something with that.

I have 1 pack of tofu, so I’ll do something with that, maybe a tofu scramble, so that the veggies get cooked( don’t want the horrible parasite!).

I have some shrimp in the freezer, so maybe a shrimp scampi-type thing.

I might open some home-canned pintos and do a nacho-type thing. I’ll have to check what I have. I know I don’t have any corn chips because we were doing low carb. Maybe I’ll just do bean bowls. I do have some taco meat in the freezer I could pull out.

Past that, I have no idea. I probably should pull out some cookbooks and get some ideas.

I’m mostly home today and need to do a sweep through the house. Plus, I need to mop. Then the plan is to go over to the pet bookstore and maybe the nursery. After that, find some lunch.

I read two of Marcia Muller’s books, which take place in SF. I like her writing. These were not new at all. I think one was from 2006. A quick read and entertaining. Next up are two Stabenow books. All these I picked up at the pet bookstore. They are $2 a piece. Cheap entertainment.

I haven’t had any off days, which I’m pleased with. I’m still only getting 2 bottles down in a day, but that’s way better than before. Also, tracking my 02 has been good. Overall, it’s all in a good range.

This week, I plan to go to the pool and the gym in Roseville. I’ll probably tack on a Trader Joe’s stop as well. I don’t need anything from Costco, so I’ll skip that. Ok then, I’m going to go pick up cat puke!!

Simple Sunday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, Uncategorized, Walking by

I woke up to a crimson sunrise. It didn’t last long but was quite spectacular. It’s also cloudy out, which is going to make it more humid. I did go for a walk around 6:30. A little later than my normal, but still nice. There were maybe 4 other people. The park these days seems to always be busy or have more people than it used to. I guess that’s true of everything; freeways, gyms, and stores seem to have more people than ever.

I’m managing more water and plan to do so today. I’m getting 2 1/2 bottles( 16 ounces), so ok, but needs improvement.

Last night we had chicken tenders and a tomato mozzarella salad. The chicken is low-net-carb from Costco (Real Food, I think it’s called). It was very tasty. Tonight, I think we’ll do something with meatballs. I bought some Rao’s from Costco, so we’ll use that. Maybe top with more fresh mozzarella.

I started watching The Bear, which I had no idea what it was about. It’s good, maybe intense, but good. I’d like it if it had more food stuff, but it’s a drama, so it’s more about the people. Other than that, no new shows. Grantchester comes out on Sundays, but I’m not sure if I can see it tonight or have to wait until tomorrow.

I’m probably going to the gym this morning, although I seem to be moving slowly.

Another open week, which I love. My daughter and I are going to go out for lunch tomorrow and maybe to the bookstore.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, cash envelopes, frugalism, home stuff by

The last 2 days have been way better for me. After consulting my new friend, AI, it seemed that not drinking enough water or having enough electrolytes may have been a cause of being so fatigued. So I really doubled down and drank 2 16-ounce bottles of water with a packet of IV hydration. I felt better and will continue to do this since it seemed to make a difference.

So I felt good enough to swim yesterday, and I was so happy to be in the water.

After the pool, I went to WinCo and picked up a few things. The total was @ $ 70. I added some wine, a sauvignon blanc, which we like a lot in summer. So far for this budget month, groceries are about $400, so slightly over what I want, and I still have next week in the budget month. I did buy some bubbly water and Coke Zero, so that will last at least 2-3 weeks.

Since I’m trying to avoid carbs, I didn’t stop on the way home for my favorite bean burrito (I miss them), but made something when I got home.

Some of the monthly bills are already out, but about half are still in the queue. Our garbage bill came in, which is quarterly. It’s on autopay, but somehow I always forget to fill that cash envelope. Actually, since it’s really only me, I’m not doing a lot of cash stuffing. I think if I had more cash to use, I would, but really, the money in the checking account is to cover the bills. There’s not much left to stuff envelopes with.

My son is coming over tonight to spend the night and get up to do some stuff here before it gets too hot. I need to think about dinner since he should be here right about then.

I did get gas at Costco, and gas was back up to $4.99. I think last time it was like $4.79?

Well, it’s another hot one today, so I need to close all the windows.