Category Archives: library

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, camping, frugalism, library, swimming, travel by

It was a spendy week at Napa, but I don’t count that as our normal spending but more in travel/camping. Still, groceries were expensive in Napa, more than here and it was noticeable. I can see why Trader Joe’s was so busy. Raley’s was ridiculously costly. For example, we usually buy a piece of cake or something for dessert, and the cake we normally get ( 1 slice of tiramisu) was 11.99 whereas here it is 6.99. I didn’t notice the price till I putting away the groceries and was slightly shocked:(

We ate out twice and got Model’s Bakery twice. Model’s was only $15, so not bad for 2 coffees and 2 pastries.

In planning for our next trip which will be Capitola in April, I’ll have more cash for things than I did for this trip. We don’t go out to eat in Capitola but do go to Gayles for things. Plus we do hit up the grocery store at least once. It’s easier for me to get some groceries when we get to our camping destination than to load everything into the RV.

We’re still trying to get September booked for Tahoe, but B slept in this morning and spaced it out. I’m almost maxed out on reservation dates( you only get 14 days a year), so I didn’t do it even though I was up. Oh well, we’ll get something eventually.

I don’t plan on going to the store until next week unless I need some salad stuff. Next week we do need to go to Costco since the sale stuff comes off the following Sunday. I need toothpaste and some other things on sale, mostly non food items.

Today, I’m planning on swimming and then picking up my holds at the library. After that, just home and doing some house tidying. Everything is pretty well done but I want to tidy a few areas.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, cooking, Gratitude, library, meal planning, swimming, Uncategorized by

I was grateful to the nurses at Oncology for being so nice, friendly, and efficient. My nurse noticed the uptick in my kappa numbers and mentioned it. I said I was quite disappointed but maybe the dosing just needs to be adjusted( which is what I think will happen). I also asked about Darlazex Fastpro and she said that is a once-a-month shot so maybe that’s what I’ll need to go to after trying the other options.

The huge storm is moving in and although we seem to be forecast not to have terrible wind it still will be gusting and lots of rain. I’m grateful that I got whatever I needed to get done yesterday. The Sierras and Tahoe are bracing for blizzard conditions and Cal Trans is warning people to stay home.

We continue to enjoy the free DVDs of Longmire from the library. A great series. I’m very excited about the new Shogun coming out. Shogun, the book, was a huge influence on me and Japanese culture. I loved the first miniseries with Richard Chamberlain. The Japanese did have some pretty horrific tortures and deaths ( heads rolling) but the beauty of the honor is somehow still infused, well, unless you were an enemy and then that wasn’t pleasant.

Today I’m grateful to feel good enough to make sourdough again, and I’m prepping lasagna to go in the freezer and I plan on making a soup for dinner. I took my dex at 5 pm last night and I think I like that better than taking it when I get home from infusion. It gives me time in the afternoon to do some stuff.

I’m grateful I got the March budget done. We have 2 cars to pay registration for and smog. I’ve saved enough in envelopes for one and the other I’ll need to figure out. My goal of course is that for next year these are fully funded.

I’m thankful I went to the pool Tuesday because I won’t be able to get back till next week with the storm and dex days. The Coast Guard kids were using 3 lanes which I was not thrilled about but otherwise, it was mellow.

This is about half in bloom. It’s cloudy so it doesn’t show how pretty it is in the sun.

Some happy daffodils from the yard. The pink tree is almost full out so with our weather turning for the worst, I’m not sure the flowers will make it. Next year I plan to buy 2 more bags of assorted daffodils to start filling in a few more places.

Saturday bits and bobs

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, cash envelopes, frugalism, home stuff, library, meal planning by

I went to the gym yesterday in Roseville and did upper-body weights. At least it’s something to keep me going. I also dropped off my load of books at the library. The library wasn’t open so I’ll need to plan a stop there next week. I just finished the Anne Hillerman book ” The Stargazer”. It was good although her father was a bit more of a concise writer. Still, it’s good.

When I got home I warmed up the sunroom and then later did my PT exercises out there. The Ikea couch out there folds down and is low to the ground so that’s where I’m laying on my back and side to do the exercises. I still don’t think I can manage the floor because I’d need to use my knee to get up. Maybe in a few weeks, I can start practicing doing that.

I was over the moon that tRump had been told by the jury to pay 85 +million. Of course, who knows with appeals if he’ll ever pay but regardless it sends a message. I heard on the news(NPR) something about Christian evangelicals putting tRump out there as a messiah. crazy, ??? really?? He’s about as far away from Christian values as you can get.

B had an unplanned trip to the dentist for a toothache. I pulled some of the money from home EF and will deposit that next week so I can pay the CC. Fortunately, it’s not an infection so the crown can wait a little longer. We just finished paying that off in December so I need some time to build up that fund. I’ve been watching lots of YouTube cash stuffing. I’ve gotten a few good ideas and enjoy seeing how other people do it. Mine is very simple because we only get $ once a month so it’s a bit different than people who are stuffing paychecks. Still, it’s interesting.

I’m using 4 binders to track spending and to use for cash envelopes. Here’s the small Louis Vuitton. This is the one I take with me as it has my grocery money and coffee money.

We’ve had zero luck getting rid of the quilting frame. None of the thrift stores want it so now we’re stuck with what to do with it. Even Goodwill usually takes anything said no. hmm, not sure, but I guess the landfill unless I can think of something. Maybe the wood could be repurposed. ??

Today is a home day. I want to do the menu for the week, then check the freezer and pantry for ideas. I also want to take the 2 bins I took out from4 under the bed out to the garden shed and see if I need them out there or not.

Frugalwise, we did great this week. B went to Costco using the ‘stock up’ cash envelope. Mostly it was in fact stock ups. It was HP printer ink, AA batteries, toilet paper, eggs and a few other things that came in at $137. We bought our usual wine for the week and that’s it. Tomorrow(Sunday) I plan on going to Winco and TJ’s so that I have what I need for the week and not have to go to Safeway or Holiday. It does save money to plan on those 2 stores.

After Christmas…

Posted in books, California, cancer, cash envelopes, cooking, library, meal planning, seasonal things, Walking by

Today is my 3rd Velcade shot. I have another stye happening from the Velcade so my eyes are bothering me some. No walking this week as I must have overdone the leg muscles on the knee where the torn meniscus muscle is. So, I decided to just call this an ‘inactive ‘week, which drives me crazy because I want to walk and swim.

I’m hoping giving it some rest and stretching will help. Today after the shot, I have to drop books off at the library. I’m not going in because they have holiday hours and don’t open till 10am. Then I need to go over to the bank and then home. I’m considering doing upper body weights but I’ll wait till I’m there( by the library) to decide. ( The gym and library are next to each other).

On the menu plan this week:

breakfast for dinner

quiche with salad

steak bits and broccoli(tofu with broccoli for the veggie)

grilled chicken/ veggie pattie and some sort of veg

soup of some sort

New Year’s Eve will be our traditional sub sandwiches. I’ll get some GF rolls for my daughter. I saw some at Trader Joe’s so I’ll check there first. Her labs came back and she’s not celiac but she says she feels better not eating gluten right now so that’s good.

Our weather has been cloudy and cool. No rain but there might be some this weekend. Typical December/January weather, kind of gloomy and depressing.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in books, California, camping, Gratitude, library, Myeloma, travel, Uncategorized by

We had a terrific drive home. Traffic was minimal in our direction, terrible going toward Napa. So I’m thankful for that. We (meaning Barclay) had us hooked up, tanks emptied by 9:45 am. Boy, do I love full hookups!!. But plenty of places we love don’t have them so, it’s do what you can.

I’m thankful I wasn’t in any hurry yesterday as the infusion nurse was working 5 chairs alone and it took an hour to finally get my shot. Then I got stuck in traffic on 65 as there was construction on I-80 where it merges with 65. One hour later, I was headed home. So a normal hour and a half trip ended up almost 3.

I am thankful for the Roseville Library and the books I picked up yesterday too!!

So the most exciting news and what I am most thankful for is Velcade is WORKING!! My kappa light chains went down 100 POINTS !!!! Yay!!!! I see Dr.Laptalo today. B is driving me as it is a dex day and I never drive on dex. I could do it for sure but my judgements are just off on Dex. Hence, the no knives rule too.

Feel free to share what you’re thankful for and if you are traveling in blog land, the Frugal Girl’s blog on Thankful Thursday is always inspiring.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in bread, California, cooking, home improvement, library, simplicity, Uncategorized by

First, the cooler weather is wonderful. Our high today will be 87, which is not bad. Next week by Friday we’re back up to 103. So I’ll take it while we can.

B has almost finished the side of the house where the new drain pipe access is. He needs to go buy another bundle of shake shingles to finish it. Plus then it’ll need paint. In the future, access will be much easier than crawling under the house to this very difficult spot.

The library has approved to buy 4 books I’ve recommended. I’m quite happy with this as one is a beautiful book called ‘Lodge’ and it’s all the famous lodges in national parks.

Very inspiring to think about going to some of these. We’ve been inside the Ahwahnee but never stayed. We were going to right before the pandemic started but then we read about the Norovirus being found there and a number of people got sick. I don’t know how many of you remember Theresa Kasner and her blog. I was really blown away when she died very suddenly. She was just a year older than me. But they had gone down to the Ahwahnee for their anniversary so that’s what started me thinking we could go for one night. Maybe still…

I picked up some cookbooks at the library and I’m glad that I don’t have to buy them to enjoy them. The one I like the most is Melissa Clark’s ‘Dinner in One’.

I already made one recipe which was Chile Crisp Tofu. I didn’t have kale so we had farm salad and some jasmine rice.

When I find a cookbook that I will make more than one recipe, I usually buy it. I’ll keep this for a while and then decide whether to buy it.

I forgot to add this….

She’s saying who wants to go out!!!

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, bread, California, camping, cooking, home stuff, Lake tahoe, library, Myeloma, travel by

We’re back home and we had a great drive back with no construction stops. If you know Tahoe, you know that this is the beginning of LOTS of construction and road repair. Lots of delays. But because it was the weekend we sailed on by.

The yard was bursting with flowers everywhere. I’ll get some pictures to post.

This morning we didn’t walk and just got up at almost our normal time. We have lots of laundry to do and I wanted to get going on canning the cherries I ordered. They are beautiful cherries and I got 6 pints canned.

I plan on using these for cherry pie and putting them over yogurt or ice cream. This is just cherries and simple syrup. I plan on making cherry pie filling using frozen cherries but not till later this month.

Then I whipped a batch of yogurt and that’s in the oven now till tomorrow.

I fed my sourdough starter and plan on using that later as it seems to be very happy.

I bought these Bannetons to make more of an oval batard-type loaf. They seem kind of small. I had 2 Bannetons and got rid of them when I decided to just use a bowl but after watching some more You tubes on bread decided to get a couple. Around $20 so I’m ok with that.

The chores are caught up and tomorrow I will do the kitchen zone as that was last week. Then I’ll do the bathroom this week too.

My son said it hailed up there and was chilly. So we had really most of the best days except he did say it was sunny today. Apparently, the hail caused quite some havoc on I-80 with lots of spin-outs.

The BEST news.…. My Kappa light chains came back with only a 1 POINT increase. That’s such good news and now I can relax for another month. I go down to Sacramento on Thursday for my appt.

This week will be going to the gym, and 1 swim. I’m not sure how swimming is going to go since starting today the smaller pool will only have 2 hours for lap swimming. It may be tough for a while. I have books at the library to pick up too.

I sold some Pyrex bowls this morning minutes after listing them. They are in excellent condition and I wanted them gone. I listed them for 40. The person plans to get them later today. We’ll see how that goes. Basically, Z’s friend was talking about vintage Corelle and Pyrex and the lead in them. So I thought maybe I’ll whittle down my collection and then just have some display ones. These bowls are lovely but..

They would take up too much room if separated. I actually was using these for things so I’m thinking better to pass them on to someone who’s a collector or doesn’t care.

The yard is full of rose champion, roses, wildflowers and lots of others. Shasta daisies, feverfew, carnations and much more.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in cooking, library, Pantry by

First, The Sun is out!!! It was so nice yesterday to have sunshine. Sitting in the sunroom the temperature was 72 degrees!!! Today looks just as nice.

We got thru the storms and wind with no trees coming down. We still have too many very large Ponderosa pines and they are worrisome. My wind phobia is not what it used to be. I literally had to leave and go somewhere. But most of the problem trees are gone but we still have maybe 6 that need to be taken down. Right now we can’t afford to do that at all.

Yesterday, I pressured canned chicken soup. I’m thankful for the person who passed on their canner to me so I could learn this process. Here are the pintos from the other day.

I’m thankful the library in Roseville is such a great place. I have never ( and will never)gone back to Placer Co library after the whole thing with how they treated me but now I have the Roseville one and it’s right next to the gym!! Win-win.

Here’s Mr. Gus

He’s a funny cat.:)

Friday things

Posted in books, budgets, California, library, swimming by

I just got back from swimming and the pool was busy when I got there and then emptied out by 8am. Maybe I’ll consider going at this time. It could be that all the people that work have left. It’s definitely busier at 7am. Traffic was very heavy heading to Tahoe( East bound) but I just went slower than the crazy Bay area people in their Audis ,Teslas, and Lexus’.

I have a few chores to do this morning but nothing too major. I started doing our taxes and got them mostly done. I just need the interest from the mortgage statement so I’ll print that out this weekend. We use the standard deduction so it doesn’t really matter but it asks for it so I’ll do that. Our taxes are pretty simple so it didn’t take long. It looks like we will owe a very small amount!

Tonight we plan on ordering a pizza so that’ll be nice( expensive but nice). It’s nice to take a break from cooking.

Yesterday my son took the day off from work and we went over to Folsom to the outlet stores. Well, it was just the Levi store. I only wear Levi’s and wanted a new high rise pair. I was actually trying to get the original 501s but I would have needed to get a men’s size in order to fit and the clerk said probably they wouldn’t fit right so I got a different pair that still had buttons in the front. We’ll see how I like them. I do have trouble finding jeans that fit right and that’s how I ended up with Levis. I did order a pair of Old Navy jeans that were on sale but I’m not sure I’ll keep them after they get here( next week).

I started reading ‘ Still Life’ and couldn’t get into it. I guess some people really love it but I didn’t like the narrative, plus it was written in a weird way. Oh well, I have a bunch of books on hold at the library but nothing has come in yet.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, books, bread, budgets, California, camping, cooking, library, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

It’s been an okay frugal week. Nothing great but just ok. Most of our big bills for the month are out and just a few more are scattered later in the month.

I had a good swim on Tuesday and the pool was very unbusy which is very unusual. I came straight home afterward. Then Thursday B and I decided to do Winco for a few camping things and at the last minute added in Costco for some camping food as well. I needed Raos to bring and Costco has the best price for the 2 pack. I also got some WW bread for sandwiches. I spent about $175 between the two stores. We also filled up the truck with Costco gas which is the cheapest around. We’re definitely looking at traveling with gas prices. Next week, going to Capitola shouldn’t be more than 2 tanks of gas and the same with Nevada Beach in June. But we’re definitely reconsidering Refugio because that is much farther away. For now, we’ll keep the reservation but still think about it. Then I went to library and got a nice selection of books. Oh, and then we had a lunch date at Celestino’s pizza, which is the best New York pizza around in my opinion.

I went to the nursery with my daughter and bought all our tomato and pepper plants and a few ornamentals for her back garden area. That was her birthday present. We were trying to get a birdbath for her but they didn’t have any affordable ones. The cheapest they had was $110. The last time we were there they had a nice one for $80. I guess we should have bought it then.

I had my labs this morning so I should get results next week. Fingers crossed. I’ve been having some pain in my right leg but I think I over-stretched it doing some yoga. It was better this morning but then the ache comes back ( kind of in the hip and upper thigh area) by afternoon. It’s always something.

After we’re back our next big expense will be having the septic pumped. We’ll call once we’re back. As far as expenses for Capitola, it’ll be a few stops at Gayles bakery and probably one grocery store shop. We generally do not eat out but I thought maybe we’d find some place for a lunch near the Santa Cruz boardwalk. We’ll see. I know we’ll go walk the beach trail so that might be a good day to do that.

Oh, the tree guys came and ground out the stump so now there’s no issue with going out or coming in with Rubi. Yay! He didn’t charge us which was really nice.