Category Archives: cash envelopes

Thankful Thursday And Happy Halloween!!!

Posted in Blood test, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, Gratitude, Halloween, swimming by

The good news is that his hemoglobin went up to 10.4 so he had his chemo yesterday. I really do hope the 25% reduction helps keep his numbers at least above the cut-off for transfusions. I am very thankful he could do the chemo. So now we have to wait and see what will happen this round.

I’m certainly thankful that I could drop him off at Rocklin Infusion and then go down to the pool. It’s maybe 10 minutes away even with traffic.

Speaking of traffic, yesterday must have been crazy driver day. It started as I was getting on the freeway here in MV and a white BMW was right on my ass and then cut out in front of me and then swerved back right in front of me. I couldn’t believe it. How much of a hurry are you in? Anyway, I’m grateful there wasn’t an accident.

I’m thankful we have rain this morning. It’s only a drizzle but it is getting things wet. I decided not to walk. It’s going to take some time to adjust to fall behind on Sunday. Ugh….why can’t they pass the law and leave DLS in place?

The only thing I need to do is go in to get B’s anti-nausea medication. He thought he had gotten it but he didn’t. The pharmacy opens at 10 so I’ll go then.

I’ve been trying to teach myself how to use Canva. I wanted to make some vellum placeholders for my cash envelopes. I’m somewhat challenged in that department as I can never remember quite what to do. But I did get a template done so I was pleased. When I look on Etsy some of these placeholders or dashboards are $5-8 dollars a piece. I have bought some downloads in the past for my envelopes but generally those run about $4. Today I’m going to try a few more.

I thought about canceling my Washington Post subscription over Bezos not endourseing Harris but decided not to. Did anyone out there cancel their Post sub?

I might check out the NYT. Does anyone have both? Is it worth it?

Frugal Friday and other things.

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, frugalism, Uncategorized, velcade by

So I spoke to soon. The shots are starting today at the infusion center. My daughter is taking him today and tomorrow as I have my Flu/COVID shot today and almost always have muscle aches and feel lousy for 24+ hours. Then Sunday the center is closed so then I will take him on Monday. The only time they had Tuesday was 4:30 and I said no way am I driving Ca 65 at that time. So I do hope they can change it otherwise he’ll have to skip that day. He absolutely cannot drive himself as he’s really not computing.

It is very stressful to have so many appointments. I really dislike having so much scheduled. It makes me kind of crazy. But hopefully, after these shots at the infusion center, they will be at home for the next cycle. Plus, this week I have Velcade so then the next 2 days are Dex days and I don’t drive or go out.

Back to what’s frugal. Well, after Stanford, which cost quite a bit for food, gas, and hotel, hopefully, this week has been better. I filled the Santa Fe up at Costco, but since we’re driving so much that will add to gas expenses. Then I shopped at our Holiday Market and that’s always more expensive than Winco. But I needed stuff so that’s that. I particularly wanted miso to make B miso soup. I spent $55 on food. Then earlier in the week I spent $47 at Bel Air. Again these are stores I try and avoid but if I’m not in Rocklin then I have to make do. I will go to Costco next week to get milk etc. B is drinking a lot of milk and using it in protein shakes.

A number of annual bills are coming due and the the biggest will be house insurance. We still haven’t gotten the Fair Plan cost which I hope comes soon. Our annual PO Box is due and that’s a whopping $182 just for a box at the PO. I did have the money in a cash envelope at least. Plus Barclay’s motorcycle insurance is due. He is going to have to sell his bike at some point but not right now so the insurance needs to be paid.

How frugal was your week?? Some weeks are definitely better than others.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, books, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, cooking, decluttering, Flylady, minimalism, reading, Uncategorized, Walking by

We had a wonderful walk this morning with very cool temperatures and it was quite breezy. We were the only ones there except for the one runner who we like a lot. Very nice woman and a beautiful runner. She has a great pace.

I could feel the Dex drop of energy though so I was tired and knew I wasn’t going to go to the gym. Taking the 4 mg of dex on Friday and Saturday is good and keeps my energy pretty good but it’s still a tax on my system. So today, being Sunday, I’ll do my morning routine and then chill.

I decided to finish the kitchen zone so that’s done. And I did a quick swish and swipe in the bathroom.

I’ve been re-reading ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear because a YouTube I watched did a review of his book and I didn’t really get what his premise was initially but she explained really well so I got it from the library. Basically, so far I get, that he’s saying it’s the system of how to get to where or what you want not so much the goal. So on reflection, I thought about how the Flylady system and regular decluttering( like one in and out) is really the system I use to maintain a clean and tidy, and uncluttered home. I only started the book so I feel there might be more thoughts about all this to come.

B’s had a few good days and a few bad days with energy. He did go on the Mayo clinic site to read about the drug he’ll be taking and a lot of people had input and comments. That is the best way to really find out about some of these things are from real people taking that chemo. He was encouraged.

We had a fun night last night with my son, his girlfriend, his other friend who’s transmale( a wonderful person BTW), and my daughter. My son got out the OONI and I had made pizza dough so he manned the OONI handmade 4 pizzas which all came out great. Then he set up an outside movie screen and we all watched Alien!!! It was fun!! They left about 10. All in all a fun night.

Tomorrow I get my labs and then I plan to swim if my energy is good. I’ll just have to see how I wake up. I also need to get into Costco for eggs and coffee. I might add a few other things on, but not too much as the food budget is almost gone.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, frugalism, Gardening, Lake tahoe, Pantry by

It’s been an okay week budget-wise.

I got gas at Costco since I knew we’d be driving to Sacramento and then the next day to Rocklin. Gas here in town is almost a $1 more so it does save $$.

We did go back into Costco after Sacramento and picked up avocados, butter lettuce, milk( B is drinking a lot of milk in his protein shakes), cheese, and I can’t remember what else. That came to a little over $100 which I used cash for. I also, on a separate checkout, bought 3 Christmas gifts one of which was Chocolates in a 3 pack that I can separate for gifts.

That was it in spending so I think it was a good week.

Today is one of my Dex days so I’ll do stuff around the house although I feel kind of off. I bought a wood step stool from Amazon so I can sit on it and go through my pantry boxes. I just can’t sit on the floor for any length of time. I’ll check it out today and see if it works otherwise I’ll send it back.

I started my annual rereading of LOTR. I finished The Hobbit, and am 1/3 of the way through Fellowship of the Ring. I also picked up my holds from the library so I have a nice stack of books on my bedside table.

My daughter harvested the delicata squash and oh my, there must be 20. That will make some tasty fall/winter dishes. Everything in the garden is done. The tomatoes are done. There are still some jalapeno peppers out there but not a lot. I’d say the only thing I missed were cucumbers for pickling. But that’s not something I do a lot of anyway. She’s going to put in a fall garden with radishes, lettuce, and maybe chard. Our cilantro seeds itself so that should be coming up soon too.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, cooking, frugalism, home stuff by

This week I did another Costco trip. This one had TP, bread for the freezer, half and half, and other staples. It came to a little over $200. I had $130 cash and then put the rest on the debit card. When I do that then I take that amount off my food $. I still need to do another cash run so I’ll figure out what I have left in the budget. I did buy B his Sierra Nevada beer even though he’s not really drinking much. But he gives me the money back for that.

I also went into Winco for salad stuff and that ended up under $30.

All the bills for September are in and accounted for. Our Allstate insurance notice came and again prices are crazy. My son’s Subaru is on our policy( he pays for this though), and it’s a 2008 and almost $700. Why?? I will pay when the actual bill comes in but I think I’m going to pay in installments. I really don’t want to add to the CC.

It’s been hot as I mentioned but it cools off at night with all the windows open.

Today is a no walk day so I’m doing some extra chores. The biggest is the outside windows. I also processed more tomatoes for the freezer and will do all of them(3 bags) later this fall.

I stuck to my menu plan this week except tonight is pizza night and I don’t think that’s what I’m doing. First, I don’t have any dough made, and second, no one feels like a pizza in this heat. I’ll figure something out.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, California, camping, cancer, cash envelopes, frugalism, Lake tahoe by

First off, I want to thank a reader, NW, for a very generous donation that took me by complete surprise. I do have my Paypal linked to my blog but haven’t thought about it in years. It was such a kind thing to do and will help most certainly with the trip to Stanford, gas, lodging, and food. So thank you again for such kindness. Honestly, I was blown away by your thoughtfulness.

My dentist appt was a cleaning and then x-rays. It was pricey and I had to put that on a CC as my cash envelope had been emptied when B went to the dentist. I hope by the next appt, I’ll have my envelope fully funded. Oh, I have a tiny cavity she(The dentist) wants to fill so I’ll do that in October. We need to get through these appts of B’s and see how that goes.

I went to Costco after I had my doctor appt in Sacramento. Yikes, the traffic going into Sacramento was awful and took over an hour. Usually it’s 45-50 minutes. So coming back out it went smoothly swung into Costco. I spent $188 total. $15 was nonfood, $20 was wine, and the rest was food. I used my cash envelope.

We filled up the VW this week and that was $45.

We went to the nursery and bought 2 bags of potting soil and 3 pots and that ended up $60.

After that was a stop at Panera, and that was $28. I had cash in my coffee date envelope but forgot to use it so I’ll need to move that to back to the bank. Although I haven’t put any money into dining out for this month so I could wait and deduct that. I usually only do $50 as we don’t really eat out that often.

Overall, a frugal week. I didn’t need gas in the Santa Fe so that was nice.

Today I do plan on swimming as I haven’t been all week and I can feel it. I don’t need to get gas or get anything from Winco( across the street from the pool).

Next week is open with no appts so we’re thinking of driving up to Tahoe which we had planned on doing for our anniversary. After Labor Day is the start of the off-season although September is still busy up there. We still have our Nevada Beach reservations for the end of September but the Stanford trip is right in the middle of that week, so I’m guessing we’re going to have to cancel. We could trailer up and stay 2nights, but then we’d have to come back down for Stanford 2 days, and I just don’t see us able to go back up for 2nights. We just don’t have that kind of energy. I don’t want to cancel yet in hopes we’ll get a cancellation at Stanford. I love it up there at the end of September. The air is so crisp and the lake so blue. Plus, we get the annual parks pass discount so where can you go on vacation in Tahoe for $150 for 6 nights. But if we don’t get into Stanford sooner then I’m not sure it’ll work.

Being in limbo with all this is pretty tough and I have to say my anxiety is fairly high. I guess since we can’t really control these things, I need to let it go some. Easier said than done.

Enough of that, I made a frittata last night to use up that spinach I had. Tonight is pizza night. I think I have one last dough ball in the freezer I can use.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, cooking, Gardening by

Costco $153. food 140, wine 13. I just love this new Costco.

It is so easy to get into and the registers are always open. I haven’t had to wait once. I think what I like the most is doing smaller shops. Usually, before shops were $300 or $400 and loaded up the cart. Now I am just picking up maybe 15 things. So yesterday, was tofu, block of Tillamook, cottage cheese, sour cream, eggs, black bean burgers( a new product I thought we’d try for an easy meal), Bonne Mamam jam in the EXTRA jar jar that I’ve been looking for forever, oh, another new item, potato and cheese pierogis, oh, and the gallon zip lock freezer bags on sale. I always try and buy the things on sale as that is where Costco excels.Plus the Kirkland Pinot Grigio and Kirkland Sauvignon. I think there was something else but I can’t remember now. Oh I remember, it was another new product of pretzel bites!! We love pretzel bites so it was a no brainer!

Dinners have all been homemade and easy this week. The start was the honey garlic tofu. I still have half the block frozen so I may make that again tomorrow. Tonight I think I will make a homemade pizza. I have dough in the freezer so that’ll be easy to do.

Since I’m on Dex for the next 3 days I’ll add some extra things to do. I’d like to spruce up our one entryway by the sun porch. Maybe switch out the faux flowers on the wreath to fall stuff. I had a nice red geranium out there on the table but the deer ate the flowers:(

Here are a few pictures of the front yard. Lots of morning glories which just seed themselves every year and this this delicata squash was a self seeder from the compost that we added to that bed. My daughter came up with the idea to grow it on this old trellis that was going to get thrown out. Works great and we’ve never had that many delicatas ever.

My next batch of tomatoes I plan on freezing and can later this fall. Tomatoes came in so early this year I guess with all the heat we had. Our peppers didn’t that great though for some reason. Which is odd since they love heat too.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, Gratitude, velcade by

Even though I slept terribly, I still got up at 5:15 to walk. I’m thankful I have the energy to do that. We got to the park at 5:40 and the two ladies were there. They are nice and don’t bother me. By the time we were almost done 6 more people had showed. I’m not sure what the story is about more people early as the weather is not hot and the sunrise is almost 6:30. I guess this will change soon as it gets darker. However, the one older lady that I’m not super fond of is the one last year that came at 6. It was dark and she never used a flashlight even when I asked her to because you can’t see people. oh well, people:(

I’m thankful my drive to infusion was uneventful. The other day on Hwy 65( the one I take) there was a horrible accident with a pedestrian. I’m glad I didn’t see it.

I’m thankful that I have some extra money in my cash envelopes because we need it till the end of the month.

I’m thankful I’m not losing hair like I was. I probably lost half my hair. So now when I comb it there’s a normal amount of hair. I think it was Dex, but it may have been Velcade too or both.

There’s a lot going on with B’s cancer and I’ll do an update soon. I’m still a little shell shocked so I need a day or two to get a grip. But I am thankful the doctor pursued a long shot and she was right. I’ll explain later in a separate post.

I’m thankful our kitties are safe and bring us joy. It is sad when cats go missing and I’m sure the neighbor is upset.

I’m very grateful Mr Owl left me this. B found it!!

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, Credit cards, frugalism, husband, reading by

It’s been a frugal week for the most part. All the birthday gifts, cake, and food were budgeted in my envelopes, so that was good. I did go to Costco for the burgers, rolls, etc but that too I had in my Costco envelope as well.

We are stretched really thin with money this month due to a few extra things. I’ve done really well with my envelope cash system but bigger bills are still catching up with us and we still have a cc balance from two car registrations, and some other bills from June. I hate having to carry a balance so I’m putting anything extra towards that and thus a very stretched thin budget. We’ll get there but not as soon as I’d like.

We had a nice date lunch of pizza(cash from my dining-out envelope) and it’s always nice to get out of one’s box. This month is our 54th wedding anniversary and although we usually don’t do gifts or anything extravagant we will do a lunch out. At this point we’re planning a drive up to Tahoe to see the lake and get coffee at our favorite Tahoe House. With everything still up in the air with B it’s hard to feel very cheerful. He is and always will be the great love of my life.

I didn’t feel great this morning so decided not to go to either the pool or the gym. I’m not sure if it’s stress or just feeling low energy. So I made a loaf of bread and did a few random chores.

B did get an appointment( we just found out) for next Friday for a second biopsy. It’ll be done at UCD hospital again so I can wait in the cafeteria. That will be a Dex day but I can wait and take Dex when I get home so it should be fine. He also sent a very detailed message to the doctor about some of the PET scan results and about the CUP diagnosis( that we are theorizing will be the case.) That’s called cancer undiagnosed primary. We’ll see what her response is.

My daughter and I went to the Pet bookstore yesterday and I hit the jackpot with Craig Johnson books. There were 5 on the shelf. For some reason, even on eBay these go for a minimum of $5 a piece. And most are more. I also picked up 2 more in the Baldacci series I’m reading. It’s the Atlee Pine series. She’s a great character. I also picked up Cooking for Two from the Cooks Test Kitchen. I saw a recipe for manicotti which used lasagna noodles rolled up so I may make that tonight instead of pizza.

The weather is cooling off and that’s a relief but there are lots of fires going on. One over where blogger I read lives. Hope you’re safe Donna and Dale!

Well, that’s it from this blogger. Anyone on a limited budget and how do you plan things, like big expenses. Do you ever carry a CC balance even if you don’t want to because you have to.? I’m hoping by this time next year we will have our envelopes fully funded for the big expenses but it does take time. I’m also concerned about our house insurance going up because of the California Fair Plan. A lot of people have been posting on Next door neighbor about some serious increases.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, budgeting, California, cash envelopes, home improvement, home stuff by

A lovely walk this morning. Quiet and no one there to begin with. One person showed up later but we were leaving by then.

I got another loaf( baguette style) of sourdough ready to go. I put it in the oven and set the timer so B could take it out. I was heading into the Auburn gym. I did my usual 30 minutes and then went over to Target. I rarely shop at Target anymore but I need stainless wipes( I use Weiman’s and think this is the best product I’ve tried) and their sliced cheeses are also very good and affordable. I think ice cream snuck into my cart because it was on sale. Usually, I just call all this a Target trip but this time I’m going to separate the categories and subtract them from my cash envelopes. I think that’ll keep the categories more accurate.

After I got home, I checked the bread and it came out great.

I do have a baguette pan so that does help.

The only thing I did differently is I didn’t add that much more flour after the first rise. I added maybe a cup.

I think I’ll try this one next.

I found this really fun cookbook at the FreeLittle Library and it’s a gem. Lots of stories and the book is divided by cities and regions with lots of history.

Last night I made Tucson Crispy Tacos. They were yummy. This recipe calls for frying the corn tortillas till crisp and then fold over. It actually worked great.

Tonight I’m going to make Chile relleno casserole. I have made recipes like this before. That seems like a lot of cheese so I’ll probably do 1/2 that.

B got the trim off the bathroom window. It did, as with everything, take longer.

Those boards are the original when the house was built and are all rough-cut fir. They are not standard sizes and very thick. It looks like there had been some water damage previously but I don’t think B is going to try and pull all that out. that would be too involved and mostly it looks like surface damage. He may try using some Tyvec.

Anyway, it’s a start!

We have another warm sunny day here in Northern California and it’s quite lovely.