Category Archives: frugalism

Frugal Friday and Happy 4th of July

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, cancer, cooking, frugalism by

I have nowhere to be and nothing big on my calendar, so I’ll be home doing what I always do.

We used to take the kids to the parade and watch fireworks every year. At some point, I guess maybe they were a bit older, we stopped because the traffic was insane afterwards, and there were too many people. Now, and over the last 20 years, it just doesn’t interest me. And now that I’m old, I just don’t do something if I don’t want to. Not worth it.

Frugal-wise, Costco was $200, with some of that being my favorite wine for this weekend and then lots of proteins for the freezer. I’m calling that part of the LTF storage as it was a bag of shrimp, another bag of salad shrimp, ground beef(3 packs), and some other sale stuff.

I went to Holiday here in town after getting back up from Sacramento. It’s easy and not crazy busy. I needed the cheese sticks that I forgot at Costco, and some salad things(broccoli, mushrooms, ?. I also got a jar of Hoisin sauce to make some stir-fries with. That’s it for me till next week, which is nice.

My appointment went well, and he did say that with these low numbers, kappa light chains can vary a lot. He said if it was a huge increase( like before ), we’d change up treatment. So onward! I do feel very lucky that my numbers and Velcade have kept me in near remission for the last 3 years. It’s a small price to pay. 🙂

Last night I made up a taco bowl, and it was tasty. I still have some ground beef left, so I may look up some other recipes to use it with. I’ll ask AI, which is fun to do.

I was finally able to upload my Sleep HQ data from my ResMed machine. It took trying like a dozen times till It finally went through. I think the problem was on their end, not the SD card. Anyway, it looked good. Some leakage (pressure), but not anything alarming like my mask coming off. Overall, I was pleased. My events have been around .5 which is statistically non-significant. Events need to be under 5. (AHI) . This is all CPAP lingo, but you get the idea.

Hope you all have a nice 4th, and share what you’re doing if anything. It’s always interesting to see how other people celebrate or not. Well, I guess different times of our lives are, well, different. With young kids, the parade and fireworks are cool; older now, not so much.

Miso soup for breakfast. an interesting recipe from that Japanese cook book I got. It uses tahini which I’ve never done.

Friday things

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, frugalism, garden shed, Gardening, home improvement by

So it’s a dex day so no going out for me!!

But it is my dear daughter’s birthday. 41 years ago, B and I welcomed our baby to the world. It was one of our happiest days ever. I think I’ve mentioned before that Barclay and I had been married for 15 years before we had her, so it was a big event.

Frugal-wise, I did buy the 02 ring, and I’m so glad I did. It is very accurate and vibrates if the 02 goes below a threshold that you can set. I’m very pleased with it.

I got gas yesterday before the infusion. Costco gas was $5.49.

The only store shopping I’ve done this week was down at the Holiday market. One trip was for a case of water that was on a coupon. The other trip was for some wine, cottage cheese, parsley, fresh dill, and I can’t remember the other stuff, but it was $45.

Today, we’re going to get a pizza out instead of me trying to cook something.

We’re going to move all the gardening stuff down by the garden shed area. We’ll reuse the redwood boards too, but the posts were what rotted. But I just looked at them, and we can cut off the rotted part and reuse them too. So instead of this costing probably over $1000 to replace the posts and redwood, the fencing was $109. On the other side of where the cars are parked is another fence for privacy to the neighbor. That isn’t redwood but cedar. We should have done Redwood, but B thought it was too expensive, which it was. We’re not sure whether he intends to sell; if so, we will add more panels.

Friday things

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, frugalism, swimming by

It’s been a nice week without any appointments, which is always nice. Next week is busy with the sleep doctor and Velcade, then Dex. So most of the week is gone, plus Monday is Memorial Day. In the past, B and I never planned to do anything on major holidays. Too busy, too many people.

I was able to download an app called Sleep HQ, which is for sleep apnea. I took the SD card out of the Airsense and used an adapter to plug it into my Mac. My overall scores were excellent. 100%. It doesn’t track SP02, though, which is my main concern, but you can see where, during my REM sleep, there is a drop, and that’s probably where the 02 is dropping. I can buy an 02 ring and that will track the oxygen, but it’s not cheap, so I think I’ll wait to see what he says. The graphs were interesting and showed me in .01 %, so that was good. I’m really dreading going to this appt, but will do it. I don’t really have a choice. I do have a choice in what test I’m to do and the in lab is still off the table.

Today is open, and I might go down to the pool. I have to weigh how busy I-80 will be with traffic, as it is Friday, and that I want to swim. If I go, it’s not till 7:45, so I have time to decide.

I washed the new sheets yesterday, so I’ll put them on today. The old bottom sheet, which now has too many holes, I can use for rags, but the top sheet I may be able to use for something else, maybe a curtain?

Frugal-wise, not much is going on. My new budget starts next week. I’ve done up my preliminary one, and it looks ok. Not much wriggle room, but ok. It looks like groceries for May are going to come in around $500. I think that’s too high, so next month, I’ll scale back, especially buying stuff for the freezer. I’ve done a good job of emptying the refrigerator freezer, and it’s not packed. Sticking with meal planning is helping. Tonight we might have a pizza. It depends on what we feel like. If not, I could do some BLT’s again or even grilled cheese.

Well, I’d better get a move on if I’m going to the pool.

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Friday Things

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, cancer, cooking, Death, frugalism, husband by

I had a good day yesterday. After infusion, I went over to the fancy Nugget. It is beautiful, but I could definitely not AFFORD to shop there. I was going specifically to check what RG beans they had. They didn’t have a big selection, but I did pick up one bag. Interestingly, the price was the SAME as on the RG website.

I haven’t tried these, so I’ll check them out. Then I also bought a fancy sandwich to share with my daughter, Texas hold ’em. I had my half after I came home. Also bought some milk and half and half that I needed. Overall, it is a beautiful store, but way out of my price range. I picked up some radishes that at Winco would probably be 79 cents, and they were 1.99, so yeah:( I’ll stick to Winco, TJ’s occasionally, and Costco, and now using the month free trial ( actually $1) at Walmart.

I do like the Walmart delivery, and my daughter did a pickup after work( it’s right there on her way home). She wanted some Bubbly water and apples, plus she threw in a few other things. She said it was super easy, so we may do that going forward. My daughter hates shopping, so this works well for her.

After I came home, I started on some freezer meatloaf and some spaghetti sauce. Not too sure about the meatloaf. I followed a NYT recipe, but it kinda looked weird, so I won’t know till I bake it.

Since today is a DEX day, I don’t drive or get on step ladders, so I’ll just potter around and see what I get done. I have a load of laundry to fold and a loaf of sourdough to bake. I’m using a loaf pan to see how I like that rather than the dutch oven.

Some more California poppies and the loaf pan.

Wow, it’s May 1st. A little over 10 months since Barclay died. I miss him every day. I miss our life together. 🙁

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, frugalism, Uncategorized by

My new budget starts next week, so I did a preliminary write-up of bills and extras. May will bring DMV for Rubi and insurance. I was hoping for at least one month of no extras, but it won’t be May.

Groceries have come in high at almost $500. I’m not too thrilled with that, but again, the Costco trips include LT food, so I guess it evens out. I need to do better in May. I’ll probably aim for $400 for the 2 of us.

Speaking of groceries, I need to go to the store today. We need milk, salad stuff, and a few other things. I was going to do a Walmart order, but some of the things that I wanted were not available, so I canceled that. I guess I’ll either do Safeway or Bel Air. It depends on which way I go in town. I’d like to stop at the used bookstore, and I need to get gas in the VW. Have any of you done the Walmart delivery? It’s $98 for the year, and they now deliver in our area. I’m considering it, but Walmart isn’t my go-to for things as much as Winco is. But the convenience could be very nice.

I didn’t have any misc. spending so that’s positive, and no coffee or food out. I did buy a very large tarp from Amazon to cover Rubi, but that’s more of a necessity, as we need to keep the roof covered so it doesn’t get sun damage.

My daughter’s birthday is in May, and so I’ll need to budget for that. I’ll probably take her out to lunch.

Today I’m meeting the estate planner again to sign the revised trust papers and affidavit of death that the county needs. Then they will record them with the county. I feel good about getting it done.

Other than that, nothing else is going on, which is my favorite.

Frugal Friday

Posted in bread, budgets, California, cooking, frugalism, Uncategorized by

A mostly frugal week.

Both my daughter and I went to Costco. Hers was pretty much all non-food, and mine was mostly all food. It will probably put me over my $400 budget, but once again, a lot of what I buy is for LTFood.

It’s ok, as I’m sure we’ll use it up.

I did stop and get gas at Costco yesterday, and it was $4.95 a gallon, so it went down a bit.

I was going to drive down today, but figured I would wait and conserve my gas a bit. There’s always next week to go down to the pool and the gym. I had a book on hold come in so I want to get that.

No other bills are due right now. In May, I have Rubi’s insurance and DMV. I suppose I should have been a little more on top of it, as I wasn’t sure when the insurance was due, and then I checked.

Today, I have just been pottering around. I cleaned under the sink and organized it. I am also working to get my sourdough starter stronger, so I fed it this morning to use tomorrow or later if it doubles in size.

Other than that a nice, slow day.

Sort of Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, frugalism, home stuff, swimming by

That’s mostly due to the cost of having the trust redone in my name. It’s actually reasonable at $300 plus county recorder fees. It should be done late next week. I’m not sure it was all that necessary but I feel better knowing it’s done.

We had incredible thunder and lightning last night and a huge amount of rain. It’s over for now, and only a sprinkle is happening.

Update: it’s pouring down rain.!!!

I decided to go to the pool and not the gym. I really would like to up my swimming. I popped over to Winco and spent $60, but $10 was on wine. I’m not sure where my grocery total is, but I think it’s low. I just did a rough tally, and I’m at $300 with another week or so to go. Some of that was Costco and long-term food items, so that evens out the costs.

I was able to throw a few extra dollars on the cc, so that felt good. Probably by the time I catch up, the next round of annual bills will show up. sigh:( Oh well, such is life at this point.

I’ve been using the new Rubbermaid containers, and I really like them. I can see what is inside each one. I did a bunch of food prep yesterday and used them. What I haven’t been using is the Chef Preserve that I bought. It’s like a hand-held vacuum sealer. I’ll probably see if I can sell it on Marketplace. The idea is great, but the usage is not so much. That’s ok, I’m all about trying new things when it seems like it will help. It wasn’t expensive, costing about $60. still …

That’s about it on the frugal side of things. How is your frugal life going? Where do you save money?

Five on Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, frugalism, Gratitude, Uncategorized, velcade by

I slept ok last night, but at least it wasn’t the Dex sleep, which is where I sweat. Also, I don’t have the super red Dex face. Plus, I feel fairly normal. So the big question will be how my numbers will respond. 🙁

I have to drop off a return to the post office. It was a pair of sandals I thought my feet would like. No, they didn’t. I have terrible feet in that I have a high arch and need extra support. I guess I’ll just keep to Birkenstocks.

Sunday time changes, and the evenings will be nice, but mornings will be darker at 6:30am. That’s ok for now. I do just wish they would pass legislation to end daylight savings.

I plan on meeting up with my library friends for a quick coffee. I don’t want to be there too long, as there are some things I want to get done around the house. My one friend is going in for breast cancer surgery next week, so I want to say hi. Fortunately, it’s a lumpectomy and not radical. I think it’s been a bit of a shock as she is over 80, and honestly, you’d think by then nothing like this would happen.

Our warmer weather is back starting today. All next week it looks to be in the 70’s, so very nice. I may get out webi the BBQ and do something.

I’ve been having fun getting my orchids to rebloom. I usually toss them after they dry up or look awful, but this time I watched some YouTube channels on getting them to rebloom. I ordered some orchid mix to try and repot them, too. I have a few buds on some, so I’ll be excited if it actually works.

I guess that’s six!

Frugal Friday

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, frugalism by

This month has been good for the budget. My grocery bill came in at a little over $300, so using stuff from the freezer/pantry did pay off.

My daughter and I got sandwiches at Sourdough and Co. They were ok but pricey. I think 12.99 for a sandwich is a lot. But I had been wanting to try them for a while, so I’m glad we did, and I doubt I’d do it again. I’m trying to do/go to some places that I said I wanted to when B was alive and never did. Next, we’re planning on going to a fancier Asian place called Fats. It’s quite a beautiful restaurant, and the food is outstanding and not inexpensive. We’ll have lunch sometime soon. It’s down in Roseville, so I’ll need to plan that.

The only shopping I did was at Winco for a few things, and that came in at $80. I also bought a photo album from Amazon, but I am returning it as it smells terrible. I’m not sure if it was the leather or what, but it gave both of us headaches. I plan to do that today and then check the Goodwill for a photo album.

I might pop into Bath and Body Works, which is a recent store in Auburn, for a candle. Most of their stuff is too perfumy for me, but I did get one I like that was a ginger/orange.

Other than that, another beautiful day here. I have a few house chores to do and then just hang out on the patio. I plan to start a sourdough loaf, and this time I’ll try kalamata olives. The last one, which was rosemary Meyer lemon, was delicious.

Friday Things

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, frugalism, Uncategorized by

My budget month is coming to a close, and overall, I did well. Groceries came in at a little under $400, so that’s really good. Other bills were just normal things, I think. Most of my bills are on autopay and are generally fixed or close to it. The water bill varies by season, and so does PGE.

Today is a home day, and I’m doing another loaf of sourdough. It’s so weird that after not baking bread for a good while, it’s like starting over. But I did get my starter nice and active. The other trick I started using was to turn on the oven light and put the starter in there at first to double in size, and then later for bulk fermentation. It worked brilliantly. I guess there’s always something new to learn.

I had my first real-life experience with AI. I had a message about reordering some of my CPAP stuff. So I called the number, and it was an AI named Brenda. It asked all the pertinent questions. It was both weird and ok. I didn’t have to talk to anyone, so that was positive. On the other hand, this was not a real person, and there was no option to do so. I guess the future is here.

I do hope there’s a special place in HELL for the ICE agents that murder innocent people and use children to trap others. I’m not religious and am an atheist, but there has to be a HELL for them in some shape or form.

I do need to work on next month’s budget and see how far I can get with that. I started our taxes, but not everything comes in till the end of the month. I felt good about starting it. February has another Allstate payment and the Fair plan installment too, so that will be a challenge. I think that’s all the unusual stuff. Also, keep trying to get the last CC finished. We shall see, or maybe I should start singing” We shall Overcome”. ???

What things are any of you up to? What about that huge storm heading East? Are any of you in the storm’s path? It sounds awful.