Tag Archives: Dex day

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, bread, budgeting, budgets, California, decluttering, freezer cooking, frugalism, simple foods, velcade by

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.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, cooking, frugalism, minimalism, swimming by

I think we’re on track with no spend/low spend even with groceries. With me not going out 3 days a week, it cuts down on driving/gas and I don’t go to the store.

I know we bought some wine for Christmas but I think that was it. B went into Target to buy 4 different sliced cheeses as we were out and Target’s brand is quite good and the price very good. Plus I needed Weimans stainless steel wipes too. I think that added up to $42. Since those are essentials they don’t count as extra buying.

I added a few more dollars to some cash envelopes, like $20 for car maintenance, $50 for DMV registration, and some other misc. ones. So I’m quite pleased with how it’s going. It may take a while to fully load these as our income is limited so no extra is coming in.

I wrote up as I always do our Minimalist Christmas dinner and gifts. I think I did really well not overdoing anything. Each person got 4-5 gifts and nothing too expensive. B got his garden Berkies and my daughter got a nice organic cotton PJ set from Garnet Hill. I got my son a Burberry scarf from eBay. I was concerned it was a knockoff but it’s pretty nice and doesn’t have any of the telltale signs of a fake. ( I guess the red stripe is blurry on the fakes.)

Today is another home day on Dex for me. I’ve done my morning routine, swish and swipe the bathroom, LR zone with windows washed, everything tidy and I’m making an apple pie filling crumble with oats so S can have it instead ofminimal pastry. The apple pie filling is what I made at the beginning of the month with apples a friend of my son gave us from their trees.

Tomorrow I plan to swim although it will be shortened as I don’t want to be set back again with my leg. I need to get gas at Costco and then stop in TJ’s for gluten-free bread for S. I had bought her the gluten-free madeleines and she said they were very good so I’ll get them again too.

Gus sitting in the cat tower on the winter solstice.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, cooking, meal planning by

Well, we made it to December!! Hopefully, the month goes smoothly with no upsets. In the past, December has had both my back fracture T 10 in 2003 and B’s MDS diagnosis in 2019. So I often have anxiety about December probably remembering the emotions at those times.

On the frugal things.

I’m planning to do a No Spend/low spend December. I have bought enough from Amazon over the last month so I want to scale back that spending. Besides Christmas things, I bought Simple Human garbage bags, beeswax candles, and ??? I don’t include food or gas or other necessities but no extra things.

B got the oil changed in the Santa Fe, it needed some new filters so that added to the cost. I’ll up the cash envelope so it can fully cover those things.

We had the propane filled and that was $259 so really not bad at all. This is a quarterly bill and I plan to start and envelope for that. I’ve been watching some Youtubers cash envelopes and most fill the envelopes and then take to the bank. I was curious if that’s what they did because some of their envelopes were quite large. One woman had $600 in one for daycare and then moved that over when it was due. So I like that idea and it will keep me accountable. I like the cash envelope system and it’s working very well really.

I didn’t go to the grocery store this week, except I sent B to go down to the Holiday Market for sour cream and buttermilk I needed for recipe which I haven’t made yet.

Today is still a Dex/ no drive day for me so I’m going to make some cookies and plan next week’s menu. This week we had 3 freezer meals including stuffed peppers last night. So that really helps the budget. I also used the last pressure canned split pea soup and that was delicious.

Tonight we’re ordering pizza. I need to do an order from Central Milling for my 00 pizza flour. I think I missed their Cyber Monday sale but that’s ok.

Tomorrow, I’m planning on going to the pool and then to Trader Joe’s so money will be spent there. I don’t need a whole lot but TJ’s always has something interesting.

Here’s a look at our BIG BUCKIE. He’s circling our hilltop looking for girls. I hope he stays safe and out of the road. Last week on the freeway I counted 4 dead deer. On our main road, I saw 2 deer hit by cars. People drive too fast thru town here where the speed limit is posted at 25mph.

I’m pretty sure he’s limping on that leg in the back. I hope he’s safe. I would love if an antler fell off though since I collect them.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, Myeloma by

I am glad to be alive after driving in the weirdest traffic I have ever driven in. First, the drive to infusion went fine. (almost, and this is #1) I could see an older truck merging from the on-ramp behind me right at the exit to Infusion. He pulled up very close to me as I approached the 4 way stop there. He sped through the stop sign and just shook my head in disbelief.. But the best is still to come. I was in and out of infusion in 30 minutes. And the nurse had said she always takes the back road back to Auburn, and since I wasn’t in any hurry I decided to do it. Big mistake. The #2 incident was right after I took the exit which is called Twelve oaks, another older truck with some Maga looking guy comes up and is tailing me, mind you I’m doing 60. He crosses the double yellow line and speeds ahead. I get to the stop sign and there he is behind 2 people. huh?? Really?? #3 I’m on a very windy road now up to Newcastle and 2 white cars are tailing me, mind you, I’m doing 45 and it’s a windy road. There are 2 construction stops and the white Civic behind almost runs into me as she is looking at her phone. Then after the 2 stops the white Lexus behind the Honda zooms out crosses the yellow lines and goes screeching down the one straight part of the road at least going 65. Then the Civic is still tailing me and #4 is she screeches out and passes on a double yellow line and speeds away thru a school zone doing 60 at least. #5,Finally, I get up to Newcastle and decide to get back on 80. So I’m coming up to the next on-ramp and I see this older red sedan about to merge but they don’t see the truck right there and just about runs into it( mind you this is all in front of me happening), and he tries to overcorrect and almost flips over. Then #6 the work truck that almost took him out merges into the middle lane and is swerving back and forth. Believe by this time, the atheist in me is going ‘prayers’ ???? No, I just kept on with some very fine JFC’s the rest of the way home. I think there was one other but by this point I was frazzled. So weird, I don’t think I’ve ever had such weird driving incidents like that.

I’m thankful this was my last shot in cycle 2. It does seem to catch up to me by this 4th shot. My neuropathy is a little worse, my taste buds are shot, I have styes, and I’m sure there’s more. I have next week off and I’m very glad of that.

I’m grateful November has been a good month and am looking forward to December. We really had beautiful weather in November. Now it seems we’re in for cooler days and cloudy too.

I’m done with most Christmas things. I still have a few GC’s to get, my brother, and Heidi’s husband Richard. I’m not planning anything for Hannukha except lighting the last of the beeswax candles I have.

Today is my home Dex day so I’m just doing a few things and then just reading or something.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, Credit cards, meal planning, swimming by

I have the budget set for December and it all looks good. I do need to order propane next week so that will be an added expense. Plus we will have property taxes to pay.

We had to buy a battery for the VW as it the cold mornings were taking a toll and the battery was 3 years old. So that too was an unexpected cost. I used cash from my home EF for that.

I have one more cc payment for Barclays crown and then that will be done. Crowns are so expensive( it was $1800) and we do not have any dental insurance. We were paying for California Delta Dental but then almost all the dentists here have stopped taking it including ours, so everything is OOP.

We’re set with food for at least a few weeks except for salad stuff and some fruit. I’ll probably stop at Winco for that when I swim next. I plan on using lots of the freezer/pantry meals to use things up.

Today is still a home / dex day so I plan on doing some tidying and putting away fall stuff and maybe get out a Christmas box or two. It seems like the dex is hitting me harder on the day after ( like last night) and my face is pretty red still. But it is what it is so onward I go.

Thanksgiving was lovely and the Diestal turkey breast was perfect. I’d highly recommend ordering from Diestal to get it. It was shipped with ice packets and was still frozen when I got it. They do a very good product and it’s not factory farmed.

Well, off to start my day.