I plan to go down to the pool this morning. Hopefully my foot will like the water. My Merrills won’t be here till next week, so I just have to make do with the Hokas. I’ve been keeping them on most of the day, but then by evening, I want them off. I have my Birkies then to put on. I still might buy a boot from Amazon, but I haven’t decided yet. I’ve been spending money on Black Friday deals for things we need, like the Fat Wood for the fire and other not really interesting stuff, but necessary. But all I see right now is money flying out the door. The Merrills were very pricey, but I’m sure they will last a long time, and if it helps keep my foot stable, then that’s a win.
Yesterday, Costco’s food added up to @ $140, with a lot of it being long-term food, such as some tamales and bacon. These alone last a few months at least. Food-wise, I’m over budget, although I don’t have the final number yet. I’ll tally it up this weekend.
Update: I just did a rough tally, and I’m close to $600 for food for the two of us, but that does include Thanksgiving food as well. So not too bad really. I will definitely do a pantry/freezer challenge in January.
All of November’s bills are done. Our water bill and electric bill have gone down, so that’s a positive. Of course, we’re not watering the gardens now, so that’s why.
Well, I’d better go get my suit on and get ready to go.
I got gas at Coscto and it was $3.96 a gallon. That’s a whole dollar less than in my town.
After the pool on Tuesday, I went to Winco, which is across the street. I mostly needed some salad stuff, but threw in some extras like Triscuits and Popcorn Cakes. My total was @$100, so not too bad. That’s all the grocery shopping I’ve done this week.
The monthly bills are starting to come out, and I always feel better when the big bills are done. I haven’t checked Allstate to see if the bill is ready, but I did get the statement. As I’ve said, I’ll just have to pay in installments since I can’t do the full amount. I also need to have my son figure out his car situation as that’s a big part of this bill.
Yesterday, I went to the gym and the library. I was going to go to the pool, but I haven’t been to the gym in 2 weeks, so I felt I’d better tick that off the list. I didn’t have any holds at the library, so I picked up some random books off the ‘new shelf’. I came straight home after that. After I rested some, I went to work pulling out the cabinet by the stove that was beyond help. It only held our coffee things and my sheet pans.
My plan is to buy an Amazon Basics cart to put here. I will wait a bit to see how the space shapes up or what I feel it needs.
Today is a home day except for a pop-out for a coffee with one of the library friends. It’s just at our little coffee shop in town. Then, when I get home, I read and do what house stuff needs attention.
Next week is crazy with appointments, which I hate having more than one. But I’ll get through. It’s also my Velcade week, so Dex will be involved.
Last night, my daughter worked her late shift, so I had breakfast for dinner and watched Casablanca. It was great as always.
We are headed into really lovely fall weather for the next week or so. Temperatures in the 70s.
Basically a good week with finances since all of Septembers bills are still out there and this week is just an inbetween week. I have my budget done for September and everything is set up to come out automatically.
I got my LLS reimbursement so I’m keeping the $300 for UHC in the checking account. I’ll submit September’s about mid month. What a relief to have that for now. The grant should cover most of UHC till next July. At least it’s something for now and I greatly appreciate what they do. ( LLS that is).
I checked my Allstate account and nothing is due yet but I’m guessing that first payment will be October. I talked with my son about this because his Subaru is sitting in the back by the barn because it’s not running right. It’s a 2006 and I think he should just get rid of it. He does pay his insurance so it’s not that, it’s just it would be better just to have the 2 vehicles on the insurance. At this point he’s driving the truck which is fine till he figures out what to do.
I ended up going to Trader Joes after picking up the sleep test. I spent $125, but most of that was wine, and then $25 was gift card and about $25 was gift stuff(plus some of the wine) for my son’s partner’s birthday. Other than that no money spent this week.
It’s nice to have these inbetween weeks and not have to think about things related to bills, groceries, etc.
The sleep test was a disaster. The first night I did ok but really only got about 5 hours sleep with it on but the next night was horrible. I couldnt get to sleep for hours and then I was only like dozing off. I woke up like a zombie. I drove to Roseville dropped it and told the receptionist I wasn’t sure it was on the night before. After that I drove home, took an ativan and went to bed and slept for 3 hours.
I did feel a lot better after that. I walked this morning and felt good. I was planning on driving to the pool but then just didn’t feel like driving. So, I plan on dropping off thrift store stuff because it’s piled in the back of the Santa Fe. Other than that just pottering around here and doing some house tidying.
Here’s a picture of where my desk that I work at is with the 3 steps. Remeber this was a porch with concrete steps when we moved in.
Here’s a closer shot of Barclay and his VW bus. Plus that’s Jason our first boy! This poster is supposed to loook like that as it’s some kind of photography thing my son did.
Another shot of the now Heywood office.
Here’s the Star wars shelf for now.
Well, off to get going in my day.
Do you keep a shelf of memorabilia like star wars? The other thing is a Dalek from Dr. Who.
My new budget starts next week. So far, groceries have come in under $400, so I think I’m getting the hang of buying less.
I went to Costco this week and spent $233 on food. Freezer and pantry stuff brought it down to @150. For the pantry, it was granola, which lasts months, butter for the freezer also will last 3 months, pulled pork will be for at least 4 dinners over a few months, tamales, the same as they will be used over the next 3 months, and coffee, which will be about a month. Non-food came in at $70, about for batteries, hair conditioner, TP, and paper plates were on sale, so I picked them up for easy clean-up dinners. All of that will last for months.
For wine, I bought my favorite Juliet Rose and a fancy bottle of Sonoma-Cutrer wine. That was around $40.
Overall, I was pleased. Then I bought 2 pizzas for the tree crew that were here. I’ll show the pictures below.
We just got our Allstate car renewal, and it went up $1000 ( fuck Allstate) because of the claim that the scammer did, saying my car door scratched his. It’s a long story, but suffice to say, my door did not scratch his, but it did touch his passenger door, so Allstate had to favor his claim. It was a scam to begin with because then he got the money, and of course, didn’t go to the body shop. I tried to explain the setup because he was extremely aggressive verbally, and never even got out of his car, but took a picture ( or someone did) of my license plate. My guess is someone else was waiting with him in the parking lot. Oh well, done is done, but that is going to cause me extreme stress trying to pay that. I guess the best I can do is do the payment plan at this point.
On a positive note, the tree crane was here and took the tree. It was quite the job, as you can see. It took all day and then the next to deal with it all.
I’d had other plans to meet a friend for coffee, but that went out the window dealing with this. I hate dealing with this stuff, but I don’t have a choice. The other tree, I guess we’ll just have to wait on because it wasn’t in their system, but I’m going to try and convince them, but that will also take a crane( I think).
It would have been too much to do both anyway. All the wood is gone now, and it looks good. They did a good job.
Today, I’m going to Auburn and will drop off a load at Goodwill. It’s mostly stuff from Rubi that I know I’m not going to use if we get a tent trailer eventually. I still have the bathroom in Rubi to sort out, though.
It’s been a stressful week with my ortho appt, labs, the tree, etc. BTW, the shot hurt like hell, and my knee was really sore from it, but yesterday it started feeling a lot better. So hopefully in the next two weeks I can increase my walking. It takes about 2 weeks for the steroid to take effect.
Also, on a positive note, my labs came back about the same. Kappa went up to 20.5ml/g, so a slight increase from 19.8. Really, in the big picture, that’s not much. My ratio, though, did go up a bit because the lambda went down. If the Kappa goes up, Lambda down, then the ratio goes up.
The heat is back, and 98 * is hot for us. I think today it’s supposed to go to 99*. I’ll have to turn the coolers on by 10. Our PGE bill did go down some, though, so there’s that, I guess.
On a sad note, it’s our 55th anniversary soon. It makes me sad. We did have a wonderful life, even with the ups and downs of it. I’m planning a day trip to Tahoe soon, just not sure when. Burning Man is happening, so the freeway has lots of crazies, which also means the Tahoe area has some overflow. I’m hoping next week sometime.
Since I’m not driving a lot, gas is being saved. I filled up at Costco, which is a real savings. Also, I’m using the Costco Visa card and have earned $32 so far. That includes gas and in-store shopping. That’s a big savings.
The only shop I did to last week was WinCo. I spent $150 on food. Overall, I’m good with that. This next week, I plan to go to Costco as B needs some socks, and I saw that Costco has Sketchers that you just slip on. His balance is very precarious right now, so I want him to wear some on his feet other than Birki’s.
My daughter and had brunch out, and that was $60 plus a tip. We rarely eat out, so for her birthday, it was a treat. This was from a cash envelope.
Today, I plan on getting gas in the VW and stopping at Safeway for one of their cake slices. We didn’t do any birthday cake or pie, so I thought it would be nice to get a piece. Safeway has the best cake slices.
Other than that, not much else. I have my budget for June done, and money is very tight, but I think we’ll be ok. The biggest new expense will be the increase in our UHC insurance, and the grant B has been used up. We’ll just have to adjust as best we can.
Oh, hurray, my Kappa light chains came back good. Not great as in under the high normal, but came in at 20.8, so above high normal, but Dr. L said labs look great, so I will believe him at his word. I’ll see him next week.
We started the week off with Mother’s Day, and both my kids made breakfast for us. My son brought Noah’s bagels and cream cheese. We had the Kirkland Mimosas, and that was fun.
I had quite a few stay-at-home days, mostly because of the knee. But I did have Ortho on Tuesday by came home right after. I had a very nice afternoon alone as my son took his dad to infusion and my daughter was at work.
On Thursday, I went to the gym, library, and Costco. I bought most of what I wanted from their sale brochure. It really does pay to use the sales for savings, especially if you’re going to buy the stuff anyway.
Today was another home day. We’re still waiting on the VW as the wrong part was sent, so he had to reorder. I do hope we get it by Monday.
I’m working on June’s budget as some things will be different, mostly B’s grant is used up for insurance, and my LLS grant is almost used up, so that is going to throw us off quite a bit ( like $500 + dollars a month). Plus, we have another DMV due, which is for the truck. It’ll be a challenging month.
This has been a good week, money-wise. Nothing out of the ordinary, which is always nice.
I went to Costco after dropping B off at infusion. That ended up less than $100 for food and $40 for non food. After that was Winco and that was $15 for salad stuff and $15 non food.
I think planning my Costco and Winco trips is making a difference in our food budget. I haven’t shopped at Safeway in months. If I can avoid our Holiday Market, that’s good too. We are very fortunate to have a store in our town, but it’s quite pricey, so I only go down to it( we live on a hill) when I really need something.
Yesterday, I went to the gym and did upper-body weights. Then I dropped my books off at the library and picked up a few cookbooks on the new shelf and one book. Then there was a free gardening display outside, so I walked around and picked up some flyers on native plants. From there, I came straight home.
Today is a home day unless I go into town with my daughter. She wants to go to Home Depot for a few things, so I may tag along. Other than that, just the same ole same ole.
What do you budget for food? I guess we come most often around $600 for the 3 of us. I’d still like to get it around $500, though.
These are the Rancho Gordo beans I made. Yum!
This is an old crate I had, and since I haven’t been able to find a place for our towels, this was suggested in this book:
This week I shopped both Winco and Costco, so that added up. WinCo was @ $107, but a good portion of that was ginger ales for B to drink to get some sort of calories in. Costco ended up $200 or so, but that also included a Kirland Pinot Grigio and a lovely rose. I did do some stocking up too, with a case of Rosarita beans and tilapia for the freezer. I also bought an extra bag of coffee. My main reason for going was to get the Kirkland vitamins that were on sale. So I got those, plus B wanted the organic vitamins, and they were on sale too. Our Costco rebate was $127, so I used that plus cash.
My new budget starts Monday, so I may include the Costco bill in it. I’m still averaging around $600 for the three of us, so I guess that’s okay. I’d like to get to $500, but something always comes up.
I also got gas at Costco, and because I’m not doing a lot of driving that will last a while.
There hasn’t been any extra spending at all, so that’s a win.
Next week I have my Velcade shot, so I’ll be going down to Rocklin, and I also have a hold to pick up at the library.
Today I’m going to Auburn. My daughter is dropping off her Honda for an oil change, so we might go get lunch out at the taco place. I also want to stop in at the co-op to see if they have a Niman Ranch small ham. I saw the Kirland ones, but they were way too big, as we don’t normally eat much ham, and of course, B doesn’t eat any:) Other than that, just resting my knee and icing when I can.
We don’t really do the corned beef and cabbage. I like cabbage but mostly as sauerkraut or cole slaw. Tonight I’m planning baked tofu with sauerkraut and something else.
Tuesday- Probably tacos of some sort. I have some taco meat I made last week and froze so I’ll pull that out and open a jar of my home canned pintos.
Wednesday- I want to start using up the fish I have so I’ll either do salmon or cod. I have a box of Near East rice mix so I’ll make that up too.
Thursday- soup of some sort. This is questionable as I’m not sure what I have. I do have lots of ramen packs so that’s probably what I’ll do and add an egg and veggies.
Friday- I still have frozen pizza but I’m feeling like making homemade. I have an unopened bag of 00 flour so I could use that. plus I have mozzarella and some other toppings.
Saturday- I have a Trader Joe’s mac and cheese I want to use up so that may be it.
I’m home today and plan on doing a Monday tidy-up and home blessing day( which is just a few extra chores). Usually I like to go and do a quick clean of each zone and then something extra.
This week is mellow and no appts. Yay!! But I do plan on going to the gym and the pool at least once. I also want to get a few things at TJ’s like chili powder and ancho if they have it.
Our water bill comes out this week and then that’s it for March’s bills. I’m working on April’s budget this week too. I’m also hoping B gets in for that CT. He’ll probably need to go to Sacramento but that’s ok as long as it gets done. The sooner he gets it the sooner we’ll know how serious it is. 😦
The week was overall frugal. I didn’t need gas yet in Santa Fe. I’ll fill up at Costco next week.
I went to the gym and library before my Velcade shot. Gettting books at the library always saves me from buying some random cookbook( a weakness(. I looked at two already, and there’s nothing I’d cook from them. They’re pretty books, but not how I cook. For instance, last night, we shared a steamed artichoke, and I made an us omelet to share with sprouts, cheese, salsa, and sour cream. We eat fairly simply.
I went to Costco after swimming on Wednesday and spent $250 or so. Some of that was snack/foodstuff for my daughter to take to work. She doesn’t get a full lunch break because of her hours, so I bought some beef sticks, egg bites (Kirkland brand), and something else I can’t remember. The two kinds of beef sticks were expensive, grass feed. I’ve actually never had one, so I can’t tell you if they’re any good, but as a high-protein snack, I could see it working. Organic eggs were 7.99 for 2 dozen.
Today is a home day because of Dex, but I feel pretty good this morning. I plan on vacuuming, dusting some, and doing a bit of decluttering odds and ends. I also have a pack of Kirkland I need to use, so I’m thinking of some meatballs I can freeze. We( my daughter and I have decided to mostly cut beef out of our diets. We don’t eat it often, so it shouldn’t be hard at all. But I have this to use and one other in the freezer, and I don’t want to waste it. If we go out together, we definitely would think about an In an-Out burger, but that’s pretty rare for us to do.
The rain is supposed to come by noon today, and it looks nonstop for days. I think I’ll plan on some soup dinners with homemade sourdough.
I've been married for nearly 20 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 17, 16 and 14. Oh, and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!
Tahoe Girl 