Tag Archives: groceries

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes by

I got gas at Costco, so that’s always a savings. I think it went up slightly to 4.59. My total was just under $50.

I drove to Sacramento in my daughter’s Honda because as I was getting on the freeway, the Santa Fe started to make some sort of noise. I pulled off at the next exit which is still close to home, and tried to figure out what it was. I couldn’t make it out, so I dashed home and switched cars because I did not want to get stuck in Sacramento in a broken-down car. We’ve actually never had one problem with the Santa Fe, so I’m not sure what this is. B took it out after I left and said he didn’t hear anything. Later, he went to Auburn and again said he hadn’t heard anything. Still, it makes me VERY nervous thinking about driving in traffic to get to Palo Alto in 10 days. I doubt it was a one off so I’m not sure what we’ll do. B has that CT this morning in Rocklin, so we will take the Santa Fe. I may go with him in case we break down. of course, that is a PITA waiting for tow trucks, but I guess we’ll see how it goes.

I went to Trader Joe’s after swimming the other day, spent $96. Some of that was the $3.50 TJ’s wine. So, food ended up costing $80. Oh, wait bought 2 candles too, so that was another $8. So food would have ended up about $72.

Our dryer decided to die, so B had to order a part. That was $ 80-something. Fortunately, the weather will be nice enough to dry on the outside line.

I deposited the cash envelopes for Rubi’s DMV and our Recology bill. That will come out later this month.

Frugal Friday or not so much?

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, frugalism by

Well, Buggie is going to cost over $1000 so that’s not frugal. And the mechanic said that it isn’t just the starter but the flywheel behind it and he quoted $1600 for that. We said no for now. I guess we’ll have to really think about keeping bugs. Well, we’ll go get it today. We don’t drive buggie that far but still. If it’s going to start costing $$$ then it’s not worth it to us to keep it. I’ll be sad though because I love Bugs!! No decisions for a while though.

Most of the month’s bills are paid except for water and garbage next week. I’ll start a new budget on the 27th or so.

Costco was $240 and it was all food. Some pantry staples and a few freezer meals like ravioli. I bought some salad packs so were set there too. I shouldn’t need too much next week if anything. I think I will come in at $600 for groceries for the month. So not too bad for the 3 of us plus some of that is long-term things like olive oil. When did olive oil start to cost so much?? Plus I bought a 4 pack of butter and that will last months too.

I will need gas next week in the Santa Fe and that will be the last fill up till the next budget starts.

My daughter and I are going to the nursery this morning for some bags of soil for planting the garlic. I might pick up some pansies or other winter flowers. Then she wants to go look at paint chips at Ace. She wants to paint the studio and it really does need it.

So, the appt ended up not to be with Dr. Lee but his nurse. He must be a very busy man. But not much was different except she will schedule the laparoscopy and then they’ll go from there. I was disappointed there wasn’t anything more definitive. We’ll only need to spend 2 nights in Palo Alto though. One night before the procedure and then one night after. The procedure is only an hour or less but because it involves anesthesia it’s 2 hours before and 2 hours after. So I’m not driving back home after all that. So that’s that.

Yesterday after getting home, I pressure-canned the pinto beans. I got 7 pints done. This is a great staple to have in the pantry.

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.

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.

Menu for the week and other misc.

Posted in Blood test, books, California, cooking, Gardening, home improvement, home stuff, meal planning, reading by

Last night neither of us felt like much dinner so I made a ramen bowl with tofu and a hardboiled egg. We like the spicy chili ramen.

I’m planning a few freezer meals to use things up.

lasagna is going to be first with some salad

scrambled tofu with zucchini I bought at Costco( probably won’t do that again since it is a lot of squash:( )

homemade mac and cheese and use more of the fish sticks up. (Costco has the big bags and they are good for a quick dinner). Salad stuff.

I have some naan bread in the freezer from Costco too, so I’ll make a curry for that. either tofu or chickpea. I like the Trader Joe’s red curry sauce. I have some frozen veggies I can throw in and use them up.

I made a recipe from Steve Sando’s Rancho Gordo cookbook. It was a chili using black beans and zucchini. It was a big hit and we all really loved the depth of flavor.

I have some goat cheese to use up so I might do a frittata.

I have a bag of broccoli( from Costco) and I’ll make a broccoli cheddar soup.

Yesterday, after my labs, I went to the gym and then the library. I didn’t have any holds but I dropped off 3 of the books I finished with and picked up a few books off the new shelf. Currently, I reading the very first Longmire book which is The Cold Dish. He writes so well and I love the history he brings into the books.

I had planned on swimming today and then Costco to pick up a tent that’s on sale but then just didn’t feel like it so it’ll be a home day. My daughter is planning to come up to Tahoe and spend a night( her birthday) and the trailer is too small so we thought we’d get a tent. We happened to see one when we were leaving last week so we thought we should get while it’s on sale. Plus, there were a few more sale things I didn’t get like the Kerry Gold butter. I think we’ll try tomorrow.

Today B is going to go to the plumbing place and order the shower pan and drain. The good news is he reached out on our local chit chat and asked about a plumber and got a few responses. So one guy showed up yesterday and gave us an estimate on the plumbing and even doing the tile. It was a reasonable estimate so we’re going to go with that. B still needs to take down the dry wall and open it up where the pipes will go. With the claw foot tub, the pipes are outside the wall so that needs to get changed. We might go into Home Depot tomorrow to buy the subway tile for the walls. We’re just planning white with a light grey mortar. Simple yet elegant( I hope). I’m hoping to do the floor in black and white tiles like you would see in a Parisian bathroom. Our bathroom is so small but I think the small octagon tiles will look good. I saw where you buy them as a sheet so that’ll make it easier to put down.

California poppies!!

more, flowers.

Wisteria. It’s almost done blooming.

Red clover. That tree in the background is a liquid amber that must have started as a seed from the park. It’s gotten quite big.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, books, budgets, California, cooking, reading, simple foods, swimming, Walking by

We have another rainy day forecast. It’s very weird for us to have rain in Northern CA this time of year. Usually, it’s around Halloween. But we’ll take it and it will help with fire season.

After overdoing the walking yesterday,:( I re-evalutated. I’ll just do 2 rounds tomorrow and see how that is for a day or two. I did swim this morning and it felt really great. It was raining a little but I’m in the water anyway so…

Well, I ended up going to Winco after the pool and it was not frugal. I spent about $125. But I pretty much got what I needed for the week ahead. Some salad stuff, fruit, almond butter, rye bread, cheese and misc. But other than that, I haven’t bought groceries. I think so far for the September budget I’m at about $275, and that was the Costco trip. I could put that back on August’s budget but I think I’ll leave it in September.

We didn’t have any lunch dates or coffee dates this week. Next week we might do a lunch date but I’ll wait and see how the week shapes up. I have my oncology appt Wednesday so that day is out. I’m hoping we can come up with my chemo plan for October. It depends on my next labs and what he thinks. We’ll see.

Last night I made a yummy chicken parmigania and spaghetti with some of my canned tomato sauce. Boy, was that sauce delicious. I did pick another big bowl of tomatoes so I may have enough to do another batch. I did another jar of refrigerator jalapenos. I must have 6 jars now:) I’m not sure what we’re doing for dinner but it won’t be a pizza. Maybe I’ll pull a jar from the pantry.

I just finished a library book “ The House in the Pines‘ by Ana Reyes. Yikes what a nail biter. Very scary and suspenseful. Not sure about the ending it seemed to unfinished to me and I don’t like that. I picked up 6 books to read, 3 of them are part of the Lincoln Lawyer series. Right now we’re watching the TV show on Prime and it’s very good.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, cash envelopes, frugalism, Uncategorized, Walking by

Our weather has turned to the cooler side. Actually, the house is quite chilly but I refuse to light a fire. I have some house plants on the wood-burning stove platform so I don’t want to have to remove them to start a fire.

I didn’t walk this morning as I went to the gym yesterday and had on my new gym shoes. Anytime I get new shoes my feet and back take a hit till they adjust. So my legs were sore and my low back. I’m wearing them around the house today to help break them in and adjust.

On the frugal end of things, B is using our free dump pass to take a whole truck load of crap to the dump. Honestly, I don’t know where it comes from. It seems we just took a load and here we are again. Well, this was free so maybe he just loaded everything he could.

The plumbing is still not fixed but B has all the siding off and has access to the pipe so that’s a start. He and son are planning on fixing it this weekend. Fortunately, it’s not a gusher and just a slow leak. But I suppose it will save money doing it himself.

I did the Walmart order and a Trader Joe’s so I’m set with groceries for a few weeks. I came in at @ $200 altogether. I do need to do a Costco trip for coffee etc. but will wait till next week. The week after we’re in Tahoe so I wouldn’t be able to do it then.

I’m still doing cash envelopes for groceries, dining out, misc, Home Depot, and fun money. It seems to be working well and I like to have the cash available. It helps me with my budget and then I’m not debit carding everything.

Next week is my daughters birthday so she will pick where to get dinner. I figure about $100 for all four of us. So not frugal but it’s part of the birthday gift.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, camping, Lake tahoe, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

It was a frugal week overall. All of June’s bills are in for the month with the exception of the DMV for the truck which is due at the end of June. The DMV seems really high but maybe trucks cost more. We bought the truck a year ago so DMV fees were included and we didn’t probably notice.

This past week was 2 grocery shops. Winco for @ $100 and Costco for @$120. So not too bad. Most of those things will last the month of June and were some pantry refills. I plan on going to the store tomorrow for some camping food things we will need like half and half, some bananas, and at least one salad pack.

We’re leaving Monday and I don’t think were going to hit traffic going up to Tahoe as most of it will be coming down going west. Tahoe itself will probably be busy but we’re not planning on doing anything extra except a lunch out. We also need to go check the dump station in Zephyr Cove as Nevada Beach campground does not have a dump station. We’re only there 4 nights so it shouldn’t be a problem. Still, we will want to use a dump station before coming home.

Other expenses this week were the birthday present for my daughter, stuff from Home Depot, and some things from Amazon. I needed some black-out curtains to hang as the sun is pretty intense in the bedroom and the entryway this time of year. I also bought a Hario pour-over set for Rubi. We usually do the coffee press first thing but then after we walk we’ve felt like a coffee so this will give us 2 cups more. It’s a small pour-over carafe. Hario is supposed to be an excellent product so I’m excited to try it.

Tomorrow is a swim day and I’m hoping the pool is somewhat empty. The other day it was absolutely packed with people even waiting which does not happen very often. I also thought to go check out the gym over by the library for using weights. I’ve seen the building but haven’t gone in and I’m not sure what the set up is but it’s included in my monthly fee so it’s worth checking out.

I don’t have much on the schedule today except work out in the garden shed some. Tonight is pizza night and I think we’ll order one.

Post Script

After 6 months of glorious walking without the AH, he showed up yesterday. I almost fell over:(

So here’s the whole story, I decided a while ago that if he came back, which honestly I didn’t think was going to happen after 6 months, I would make an overture to him. So as he passed by I said ” Hey, Welcome back! Where’ve ya been??” Nicely… So he turns around( he a very dark sunglasses on so I couldn’t see his eyes) and looks at me and says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and then turns and keeps walking. I was floored. I really was totally floored by this. But he was here this morning and we just ignored him and he looked the other way when he saw us. I’m convinced he has some sort of social issue or a mental issue or both.

Monday morning

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Well, I really did get sick and had to go to urgent care and get an antibiotic and cough medicine with codeine. I think the last time I had a Z-pack was probably 5 years ago.  So not fun. I’m doing much better but still coughing some. That’s been the worst. So not a lot has been done.

I did go down to our Holiday Market and manage to spend $71 on groceries. It’s always more expensive there but sometimes distance and energy must take precedent. I’m planning on Costco this week, just not sure when. We need TP, coffee, cheese and more so I’ll get there.

I was so thrilled at the Women’s marches and their incredible success. I mean 3 million people marched around the world.  And what is Trump concerned about but the size of the size of the inaugural crowds.  My daughter is making me a pussyhat and I can wait to wear it.

We’re almost at the end of the Uber Frugal month.  It’s been interesting to watch how we spend money. We didn’t go out to eat or do take out. So that saved some money. I had a $10 Panera card I used when we went and had a coffee. Going to Costco will up the grocery bill but in the end, it saves so much when I can buy a block of cheese for $8.00 as opposed to a tiny block for $4.00. I’ve also really gone thru the freezer and that’s been great. This week I’m going to use some grass fed hot dogs, grass fed sausages and some beef. Not sure what I’ll make but should be relatively simple.

B is away all week in Santa Monica doing a co-op reset.  They do reset at night so very hard on the body especially at his age. He’s probably going to get these co-ops taken away and given to someone down there( like it was), so I’m kinda bugged he has to go do this.

 

Walking update!

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We are now on day 372. Unfortunately, my knee has been giving me some trouble. I’m guessing it’s some kind of osteoarthritis. But not sure. It’s kinda clicking and my knee goes weak. It’s better then comes back. So I guess I’ll be going a little slower so I don’t aggravate it. It’s tough when I really want to forge ahead and do more. Oh well, just remember, to just keep walking! 

Not much on the schedule today except to hit the grocery store for a few things. We are going to Tahoe next week and I’ll do some shopping up there after pay day. We love Nevada beach. I just wish there were showers. We have a solar one that helps but it’s not great.

its heating up here and is suppose to be in the 90’s. I do not like it hot or too cold. Okay, I want perfect weather like Santa Barbara. 

I might do some more decluttering in the barn. We’ve made headway so a little more would be good. I need to go find some paint to touch up some areas, but our stupid goat ate the labels off, so I hope I can tell what’s what.

There’s a great discussion over at Pancakesandfrenchfries blog on “Eating Animals” . Go check it out.