Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

My daughter and I went to the doctor's today and the cold I've been fighting since before Christmas turned into bronchitis so he prescribed some antibiotics, a steroid burst, and refilled my ashtma inhalers.  My asthma has been really good for a long while, so I haven't had to use them on the daily up until I caught this cold and I was almost out of doses.  My other boxes were expired.  Insurance only covers one of my inhalers and the other one is $50, but it will cover everything else with a $15 co-pay.  Ah, the beginning of the year when we have to pay for everything again.  It was nice having the deductible and out of pocket max met while it lasted.

I went to the pain clinic yesterday as a follow up to my second nerve test to see if radioablation was something indicated for me to try.  And it is based on my second set of results, but...  I'm still kind of wary of the possible risks.  So we decided to try a steroid injection into the hip joint instead and hold off on the radioablation for now.  The one they put into the L4 space really helped a good deal and it has been long enough that I can get another injection at a different site.  So maybe this will be enough to give me relief.

I have also lost 8 pounds since the beginning of the year and weight loss is helpful to lowering my back and hip pain.  I haven't been trying.  I've been too sick to try.  But we haven't eaten out at all or had processed food more than once and that was some unbaked cheese pizzas from the store deli that we then doctored up with our own toppings at home so they weren't full of sodium.  I make my own sausage and it doesn't have salt in it and then we use one slice of prosciutto for an entire 15 inch pizza and some uncured pepperoni which I used sparingly.  Then I put on sweet yellow onions and purple onions, all the colors of bell peppers, zucchini, and then five minutes before it is done baking we throw on some basil leaves.  I can load it up with veggies and strictly control the amount of salt in the toppings and then the sodium on the pizza is on the label and it is much lower altogether than just getting one of their loaded pizzas.

Yesterday I managed to make a huge pot of loaded baked potato soup.  I tried a new recipe that uses cream cheese instead of sour cream, but in the end it still needed sour cream, but not as much.  So I think I will go with how I made it last night in the future, but with a different cheese than I had on hand.  I used Beecher's Flagship because I didn't have any shredded Romano or shredded sharp cheddar and I didn't feel like getting out the food processor because it is such a mess to clean and I haven't taken the new salad shooter out of the package to wash yet.  But the Beecher's is just not strong enough.  It was still really good, though, but I just like that kick.  Or it might have been my taste buds were off.

There were plenty of leftovers so my daughter had some of that tonight and my husband made tacos for dinner.  My daughter is having trouble with spicy foods right now so we take advantage of days we have leftovers for her to eat to make spicy foods.  I might do sausage and peppers tomorrow, just because I can throw them in the oven on a sheet pan instead of stir-frying them.  Just make it easy on myself while I am this sick.  And probably some Instant Pot baked potatoes.  Dinner doesn't have to be super complicated when I am sick.

I bought some Souper Cubes with some of my Christmas money and they finally came today.  I am happy to have them, because now I can freeze soup and broth in them and pop them out and vacuum seal them and have nice stackable blocks in the freezer.  I do try to can my broth, but if I am too sick to do that, this is a nice option.  As for soup, you can't can soup with noodles in it and you have to have 3/4 of broth to 1/4 amount of stuff in the soup in order to safely can it, and I like my soup to be about half and half, which means freezing it.

I don't like all my containers in the freezer, though.  So this will be nice.  Plus, vacuum seal bags are also safe for boil in a bag use, so I can toss one in a pot of boiling water to cook and then put in a bowl instead of thawing and pouring out into a pan and then cooking and then transferring to a bowl.  I just have a pot full of water to dump and a bag to throw away, instead of a pot to wash, which when you are sick is extra helpful.

We have had to buy a few things at the grocery store, but haven't spent more than $50 this week.  Our grocery budget is $200 a week so we are doing really well.  My husband did get lunch one day off the food truck that will be coming to his work every two weeks, but he used his own spending money for that and it was from a local pizza restaurant that went out of business 15 years ago that we used to go to.  They had the absolute best pizza and now they've started up a food truck.  He said it is just as good as it ever was.

They also sell take and bake pies, so after the challenge is over I will have him pick up one to bring home.  He doesn't work far from home, it is 3 minutes on the freeway and 2 minutes off of it in one directions, so he could run it home on his lunch break.  They will let him take a long lunch as long as he has his hours in at the end of the week.  Most people work either four days or four and a half days anyway.  DH tends to do four and a half, so adding a half hour on Fridays is no big deal for him.

I don't have to go anywhere until Thursday when I have a chiropractor appointment.  I'd stay home, but I really need to go to it.  I'll wear my mask.  If she was going to catch it, she would have caught it from the last two weeks of me going, but I'll still wear it.  I have a lot of credit on my account there from before the out of pocket max caught up with the payments I was making, so I will have a while before I have to make any payments to her.

I think for Thursday I will plan crockpot beef stew, so it will be another easy meal.  I can used my canned meat, potatoes, and carrots and just mix up some packet gravy to dump on top and let it heat for a few hours and not have to worry about anything.  Or maybe I will do that tomorrow and save the sausage and peppers for after I've been on antibiotics for 24 hours.  Yeah, that might be best.  I'll figure out the rest of the week Thursday night.  Probably spaghetti for Friday night since I have a bag of meatballs in the freezer.  Oh, I could do crockpot spaghetti and meatballs.  Now that sounds good.  I'd have to carmelize onions, but other than that, no real work involved.

Okay, well, I better get to bed.  It is almost midnight.

Nearly every January for the past 8 years or so, I have participated in a January Eat from the Pantry Challenge to save money to save up for a bulk purchase of a steer or a hog and a couple of lambs on alternating years.  We would either raise our own meat birds or buy off farms when we could, grocery store when we couldn't, but in bulk if possible, as well.  Of course, we would be saving up through the rest of the year, too, as a line item in the budget and any leftover grocery money we had each payday, but the biggest chunk came from the challenge and we bought almost nothing.

This year is different in both the challenge and the goal.  The goal is to save any money from the grocery budget we can to put in the Emergency Fund because it is non-existent right now and that really scares me.

The challenge is not to eat everything just from the pantry and freezers this year.  It's not to spend almost nothing.  It is just to be quite frugal.  We will plan our meals as much around what we already have with hopefully only the need to buy one, maybe two items for a meal.  None if we can do without is preferable.  For the last two night's dinners I only needed to buy leeks, celery, and carrots for the first meal, but there were enough carrots and celery for more than one meal. 

I made a soup after making broth with the ham bone leftover from Christmas that I'd thrown in the freezer, then I threw in all the veggie scraps I'd saved in the freezer, the last of my old carrots and old celery that had been hanging out in the veggie drawer, and onion that was starting to get soft, and some parsley from the garden as well as other herbs and seasonings.  We cooked that, then strained it, cooled it overnight, skimmed off the fat, and made the soup by putting in some broth, leeks and onions, cooked until soft and pureed, then cooked some carrots, more onions, potatoes, and some new celery in the soup with more broth and once that was done, we added the last of the ham diced up and just let it simmer until the ham was warm.  It was very good.

We had some leftover rolls from Christmas to go with it and bananas that were getting speckled.  So pretty economical, we spent under $10 for the vegetables and we ended up with 3 servings of soup to go in the freezer leftover as well as 6 servings to eat as the men had two servings each.  All servings are 3 cup servings because this was a full on meal, except mine, which was a 2 cup serving because that is all I can eat.

Last night I did not need to buy anything.  I had one last jar of Classico pasta sauce and one last jar of Prego pasta sauce.  I don't really like the type of Prego that we had, which was why it was the last jar on the shelf, but decided to make the best of it.  I mixed the two jars together after sauteeing an onion and 2 small zucchinis in a pan, then quickly adding garlic for thirty seconds, then adding the sauce in.  I added in fresh parsley, and oregano, basil, and thyme I'd dried from my garden, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper.  It altered the taste enough that I didn't taste the Prego at all, just the fire roasted tomatoes of the Classico sauce and what I had added.

I cooked gluten free penné pasta that I have a ton of on the shelf in homemade chicken broth and a couple of pounds of meat seasoned with onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, a little salt, dried parsley, thyme, basil, and oregano (all from my garden).  This was all mixed together and then I added some Romano cheese and mixed it in as well.  We had a Caesar salad kit in the fridge so we opened that and at least my husband and I had some.  So no money spent on that meal.  We ended up with 1 serving leftover to put in the freezer.  However, I did have to throw out 2 zucchini that had gone bad.  I still have to clean out the kitchen fridge to see if anything else has.

My breakfasts have been 2 2 oz sausage patties.  I do intend to buy some cucumbers so I can have some slices to go with them.  I don't eat lunch and some days I don't eat breakfast, usually the day after I take my shot and the day after.  My son and husband are eating breakfast burritos from a big batch of freezer burritos we made.  My daughter doesn't eat breakfast and had smoothies for lunch.  We have lots of frozen fruit in the fridge right now and still have greens growing in the garden.  We have not had a freeze yet.  The closest it has gotten is 35 and kale and Swiss chard can handle that fine.  My son has some rice and chicken dishes we made up in a big batch and froze the day we made the breakfast burritos.  My husband has been eating chicken salad sandwiches using my home canned chicken, some red onion we had on hand, avocado mayonnaise, celery (see, that came into play again) and some potato bread.

Tonight DH did stop for hamburger buns and pickles.  And I went to a warehouse store and picked up 20 pounds of navel oranges.  The oranges should last us all month.  The hamburger buns are for dinner tonight.  We are using burger patties from our steer, cheese from a 2 pound multi-pack we got from Costco in December, an onion that we have on hand, air fried tater tots, salad, and oranges.  The guys usually only have one bun each, but double up on patties.

There will be almost a full jar of pickles left to carry on for months.  We will have four hamburger buns left, which may carry forward into a dinner meal, or my husband may just have over the weekend as sandwiches or more burgers.  I'll figure it out.  I need to make up a meal plan for the next nine days so I can buy what I need to fill in the gaps around what I have and stay out of the stores until the end of that time.  I don't want to be spending a little every day and being tempted by stuff we don't need, which usually happens if my husband picks up stuff after work.  It's really hard to save money that way.

I plan to shop at Winco, because it is the cheapest store in town.  It doesn't have as many options, but that is okay.  Other options are more expensive.

Goal #1:  To save $10,000 for the bathroom fund.  We had to completely gut the bathroom to the studs due to black mold in February.  At the time we had no idea how much it would cost to fix it.  Spoiler alert: $45,000 including materials.

Did we meet this goal?  Yes, and we exceeded it.  We saved $15,200 in ten months.

Goal #2:  Save enough money for a snowblower and purchase it.

Did we meet this goal?  Sort of.  We saved enough money for it, but we haven't had the chance to go and buy it yet.  The winter has been very mild so far, but we really need to go and do it soon, because February is always brutal.

Goal #3:  Save up for and purchase a large propane grill.

Did we meet this goal?  Nope.  DH worked overtime all summer and it was too hot for most of it to go outside at lunch or dinner time.  Wasn't even tempted.  Even gardening had to be done before 10 a.m. or after 8 p.m. because of the heat.  We weren't grilling that early or late, even with our small charcoal grill.

Goal #4:  Refund the Emergency Fund

Did we meet this goal?  Sort of, but then stuff kept going wrong.  The last of which was our furnace irrevocably dying and having to be replaced and leaving us with just under $100 in our EF.  So I guess for the year, no.

Goal #5  Purchase more garden bed kits and soil to put in them from my own personal money that I'd been saving (spending money, birthday money, Christmas money) as well as some infrastructure items and tools.  Put up the kits, fill them with dirt and start growing.

Did we meet this goal?  Partially.  We put up six 2 x 4 x 1 foot raised bed kits with t-posts and trellises for our blackberries to grow up and then planted various types of summer squash in the front of the beds as well.  Several more garden bed kits were not assembled.  I bought two new shovels, garden gloves, and a rototiller with a Briggs & Stratton motor so it should last forever.

Goal #6  Buy a new bed and frame for me that raises and lowers.  I want a full size to replace the King.  It is too big and I want space in my room for an armchair that will help you sit up.  I don't need it quite yet, but it would still be helpful.  But the armchair is more of a goal for 2026.  We have an old regular armchair that can come in and be a placeholder for it, too.  That will keep people from sitting on my new bed when they come in and talk to me and ruining it like they did with the current one.

Did we meet this goal?  Nope.  Hopefully, we will this year, sooner rather than later.

Goal #7 Start saving for 2 generators.

Did we meet this goal?  No.  We did have 2 power failures this year where it would have been nice to have them, also.  One was overnight, which meant we couldn't use our C-pap and Bi-pap machines all night, just only as long as our little power stations would last, which was 6 hours each.  The nighttime power failure lasted 10 hours.  The other power failure only lasted 90 minutes.

Usually we don't have power failures like this.  The long one was a planned outage to replace traffic light poles in the neighborhood, but they didn't tell us until the day before when they were supposed to give us a week's notice.  They did two different intersections and then they took out lights altogether in one intersection where they had put in a teardrop roundabout.

Goal #8 Lose 50 Pounds

Did I meet this goal?  Yes, I did.  I lost 63 pounds this year.

So we/I met 3.5 out of 7 goals in 2024, but considering it was a rough year and that we did a huge thing in saving $15,200, $5,200 over one goal, and losing 63 pounds, 13 pounds over another goal, I will still call it a massive win.  Now I just need to think about what my goals for 2025 will be.  Some will roll over, but not all.  Some will be new.  I will do a separate entry for that.

The last time I updated my sidebar my retirement sat at $174,400.86 for the combined 401K and IRA.  The total is now at $199,429.57.  It was almost at $200K, but there was a downturn in the IRA last two weeks.  I am seriously thinking about moving it over to the same company that manages the 401K and putting it in the same fund that doesn't seem so sensitive.  Anyway that is an increase of:

$199,429.57 New total

-174,400.86 Old total

---------------

$25,028.71 Rise since June 30th

That brings total retirement funds to $266,268.31.  So we have passed the 1/4 of a millioniare mark.  Wasn't sure we'd ever see it.  Next big goal is half a million.

Unfortunately our emergency fund is non-existant, as we had to put in a new furnace.  It went in yesterday.  We were without one for 3 weeks and just using space heaters, which was not fun.  Fortunately, the temperature at night never got below 40 outside.  Today it has dropped into the 30's so just in time, I'd say.  And we had to get tires, so the EF is down to $84.37.  Not the best number and I am far from happy about it.  But at least we could pay cash, which is far better than incurring debt.  And to be frank, I would have taken it out of the money we have been saving to fix the gutted bathroom before we would have taken on debt.  But this is what an emergency fund is for.  Now to rebuild it.

New net worth amount is now $299,243.58.  So not the $300,000 I could have ended on with just $1000 more, but oh, well.  I mean, I do have $15K in the bathroom fund and $1K in the anniversary fund, but those are sinking funds, so don't really count.  Net worth at the end of 2023 was $238,973.61.

$299,243.58

-238,973.61

-------------------

$_60,269.97 Increase in Net Worth

The total in my 401K and IRA at the end of 2023 was $143,668.67.

$199,429.57 New Total

-143,668.67 Old Total

-----------------------

$_55,760.67 Amount of Increase

We contribute 16% and work contributes 5% match up to a $6000 max contribution for the 401K.  So that's pretty much it.

While we were at Costco doing our household supply run, we also did a grocery run as a separate purchase.  I like to keep my grocery budget separate from my household budget.  It helps when using the envelope system if I don't mingle the cash from different envelopes just to make things easier on the cashier or people behind me to do one purchase.  I'd rather make it easier on me so I don't have to try to figure it out later.  I'll have two separate receipts and it will be nice and tidy.  Here is what I bought:

6.5 pound bag of Kirkland frozen boneless/skinless chicken thighs $17.49 or $2.69/lb (I won't buy Tyson)

4 pound bag of frozen organic strawberries $10.49

Bag of 48 10 inch flour tortillas $7.39

1 case of Saltine crackers $6.99 or 58¢ per sleeve

1 case of organic tomato sauce $11.99

2 pack of avocado spray oil $12.99

2 bags of beef mandu $13.89 each

1 pound 4 oz bag of (clean) bacon crumbles $8.99

4 pound bag of roasted vegetable melange $15.99

2 pound package of 4 types of sliced cheeses $9.99

8 pack fresh corn on the cob $6.99 (I know, I know, it is out of season, and I usually don't do that, but it looked so good)

1 package prosciutto $11.99

1 mega pack Kraft singles $12.59

1 double pack Ball Park beef franks $10.79

1 5 pound bag organic cane sugar $9.49

1 5 pound bag organic brown sugar $8.99

1 large jar organic strawberry preserves $8.49

1 bottle avocado oil $21.39

1 jug organic maple syrup $12.99

1 container organic ghee $18.99

1 avocado oil mayonnaise $9.39

1 larg jar marionberry/blackberry preserves $8.79

1 jar minced garlic (or as my friend says, jarlic) $6.99

1 box red kiwis $7.99

1 bag gluten free flour $10.99

1 large wedge Romano cheese $19.96

1 bunch organic bananas $2.49

1 large organic Caesar salad kit $8.99

2 cheese trays @$12.99 each

3 lb box of black grapes $7.99

2 boxes of 24 organic eggs @$8.99 each

The grand total was $380.33.

I was able to pay exact change since I do keep my grocery change in my wallet until the following payday.  I have $340 left in my grocery envelope, mostly because I haven't been spending much of our grocery budget for the last couple of paydays.  I do intend to pick up a few things tomorrow.  Payday is Friday so I will have a new budget of $400, but am hoping to keep shopping to a minimum for the month of January.

I've been saving up my household budget money for several paydays.  I budget $75 every two weeks and other than a few minor items, I havn't had to buy anything for a bit.  I had $351 in my envelope.  I did my big Costco trip for these supplies yesterday and spent exactly $310.73, which was spot on.  The remaining 27¢ went into my coin jar.

I got everything I needed except for tissues, which will come out of Friday's paycheck.  Costco only carries Kleenex brand tissues, which 3 out of 5 of us have an allergic reaction to, so we have to use Puffs.  Here is what we purchased:

4 cases of Charmin toilet paper, 2 cases were on sale, 2 at full price.  Again, this is the one brand we are not allergic to, so we have to spend a little more for it.

1 case of Kirkland paper towels which we seem to be fine with, just not their TP

4 cases of Kirkland PH water, which my gastroenterologist wants me drinking one bottle of each day.  At least it is half the price of other PH waters.

1 case of Ziploc gallon-sized freezer bags

1 case of Ziploc sandwich bags

1 case of Kirkland brand hypoallergenic fragrance free baby wipes

1 mega package of Duracell AA batteries

1 case of Q-tips

2 Clorox wands with refill packs, the wands make sure no cleaners touch my skin since I am allergic to any cleaner with coloring

1 giant container of Cascade gel dishwasher soap

1 giant refill bottle of Dawn Platinum dish soap for my mom, who doesn't like our fragrance free, dye free stuff, and since she hand washes the pots and pans most of the time since I or my husband cook, she gets her way

These will last us several months which means staying out of Costco for non-food items a lot longer.  I do like being a member, but I know my limits.  I try to buy the Kirkland store brand when I can, but we've had trouble using brands, mostly Eco-friendly ones, other than Cascade or Electrosol in dishwashers in the past.  When we bought our current dishwasher a couple of years ago, we didn't even want to mess with it, though I am tempted to try the Kirkland brand.

Kirkland has always proven to be just as good as or superior to brand names, but we never have tried it.  We did use their laundry soap back before we switched to fragrance free, dye free, Eco-friendly laundry soap because of allergies and it worked well.  But the plumber who dealt with our previous dishwasher problems was quite clear, so really just don't want to mess with it.

Just wanted to update retirement, the emergency fund, and net worth.

First up is retirement.  We still aren't really making any gains.  The only thing that moves us forward is our contributions and of the amount we put in, we lose part of it.  It is frustrating.  I know we are buying stock and we keep that stock, but I'd like to make real progress, not fake progress.  Hopefully, it will turn around after the election when all the uncertainty is over.  I really think that is what it is, the not knowing.

$158,908.52 New 401K total

+_15,492.34 New IRA amount

------------------

$174,400.86 New Retirement Amount

-168,177.57 Previous Retirement Amount

-----------------

$__6,223.24 Amount of Positive Change in Accounts

Now on to the Emergency Fund, which of course we had to draw some money out of this month.

$11,099.24 Beginning Total

-_4,000.00 Vehicle Expenses

---------------------

$_7,099.24 Subtotal 1

+__,__2.16 May Interest

---------------------

$_7101.40 Subtotal 2

+_3000.00 Money from MIL

---------------------

$10,101.40 Subtotal 3

+___,___.83 Dividend Check from Lousianna Pacific

$10,102.23 New Total of Emergency Fund

So I just need $997.01 to get back to where it was.  DH hasn't been offered any overtime.  It's like you don't get it when you want it and you do get it when you don't want it for it interfering with your lives.

DH got a partial share of company stock for retirement.  I'll add that into the net worth update, along with the difference in the EF and the change in retirement.

$284,232.73 New Net Worth Amount

-264,632.32 Old Net Worth Amount

-----------------

+$19,600.41 Total Increase in Net Worth

So between company stock and retirement accounts, we are slighty shy of $9000 to hit the $250,000 mark.  I know all of our assets have hit that.  But I want retirement to hit that.  Company stock is part of retirement, as you get half of what you have accrued when you retire and the second half the next year.  Or if DH dies while still working, I will get half the first year, and the second half after one year.  But hopefully it won't go that way.  I'd like to spend retirement with him, not without him.  Anyway, I think we will hit that by the end of the year, barring anything crazy or bad happening that effects the markets.  Like stupidness around the election.  Or war.  Or another pandemic.  Just nice normalness between now and then and nothing more.

I tell you, Winco is a Godsend right now.  I don't know anywhere else where I can walk out with nearly two carts full of real food groceries for $303.11 that anywhere else would cost well over $600.  No junkfood or processed food in the lot except the chimichangas which were shockingly clean and I am totally going to reverse engineer because they taste amazing.  Chicken legs were $1.18/lb so I stocked up and pulled out the trusty Food Saver when I got home and vacuum sealed them up into dinner sized servings.  I'm out of bags now and will have to pick some up the next time I go to Costco or order some off of Amazon.

Anyway, based on what I bought and what I had already at home, I whipped up my meal plan for the week.  No takeout for us this week.  And I checked the weather forcast.  We are mild all week with the hottest day being 73 degrees F.  So I am cooking according to the temperature and Monday is cold.  At least I don't have to worry about heating the house up this week.

Monday: Stewed Southern Chicken, mashed potatoes, zucchini

Tuesday: Hamburger Steaks and Gravy, leftover mashed potatoes, broccoli

Wednesday:  Smothered pork chops, fried potatoes, Normandy vegetables

Thursday: Tacos, yellow rice, corn on the cob

Friday:  Chicken shawarma, purple cabbage, naan bread, tzatziki sauce

Saturday:  Homemade pizza with pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, soppresetta, onions, and bell peppers, salad

Sunday:  Steaks, baked sweet potatoes, green beans

I am still debating what I will prep for lunches and breakfasts.  Obviously, breakfast burritos for the guys, but I am thinking about making something lower in carbs for me and for my daughter if she wants it.  Maybe omlets or egg bites or just eggs with a sausage patty that I just need to warm up.  I tend to skip eating in the morning and sometimes lunch, too, so if I cook in the afternoon or evening and then heat up in the morning it works so much better for me.  I just don't start well, you know?

Lunches will likely be chicken or turkey, maybe some soup.  It's a cool week, so soup would be good.  Maybe a nice green soup in the Instant Pot made from zucchini, celery, green onion, leek, and spinach.  Whatever herbs or spices you like.  And chicken broth.  All blended and then either cooked chicken or turkey meat added with fresh celery, zucchini, pressure cooked 2 minutes and then green onion added raw.  I do love a green soup.

I got June's budget set up.  Way to wait until the last minute, I know.  I don't like this month very much and I will be glad to put it behind us.  We had to withdraw $4000 for repairs on the truck, plus use the $1000 in the car maintenance fund.  Then we had to charge close to $3000 on the van that we will be able to pay off in June with no interest, but it will be squeaky tight.  That is okay, though.  The budget can handle it.  Things should finally ease up in July.

We had already paid ahead for DS to join a gym for 2 months and get four personal training sessions starting in June.  He gets a big discount through DH's job, so the monthly fee is $40 a month.  After June is over we can also pay for a nutrition program for him if he needs it.  We are reading diet cookbooks and meal prepping books together right now, because he really wants to get his weight under control and going back down.  He doesn't want to end up like his dad and he's really afraid I'm going to lose so much weight I'm going to pass him before he gets his butt in gear, which I am getting pretty close to doing in another 25 pounds.  I told him I am supposed to weight less than him, but that doesn't matter to him.

Anyway, I've required a two month commitment from him that he has to cook his own lunches and breakfasts and help with dinners, he has to make out grocery lists for what he needs, and he has to clean up his cooking mess and dishes afterwards.  I am willing to help chop and prep, but I am not doing it all for him.  I also expect more help around the garden and house since he is slacking on that.  If I am paying $80 a week for a trainer, I want that much work out of him.

DH's retirement account has been all over the place this month, but it has ended the month only $242.30 down.  Only because we have put so much money in the account this month.  Still the net worth is down a lot from the hit to the EF.  I'm not going to adjust my sidebar just yet.  Interest comes in tomorrow and I did make a couple small deposits into the EF that I didn't record so I need to track those down tomorrow and do some math first.

We found out what share prices are worth now for company stock.  They have risen a ridiculous amount.  Distributions will be made sometime this summer.  It usually happens in July.  DH is guaranteed a certain portion of a share and then after that it is distributed by seniority with the ones who have been there the longest getting the most.  There are only five or six people above him now because so many people have retired, but the uppers still get a lot, so the extra may be very small.  However, he has gotten a few commendations this year, so I can hope.  I am also hoping the do a cost of living raise like last year, but who knows?

Not too much more going on here.  We are putting together raised beds for the garden and hope to keep doing that even if we don't get some of them filled for use this summer.  It is slow going, but that is okay.  We've got time.

Both the 401K and the IRA were up substantially from the last time I checked.  New amounts are below:

$153,554.59 401K

+_15,225.66 IRA

-------------------

$168,780.25 New Retirement Total

-160,553.96 Old Retirement Total

-------------------

$__8,226.29 Total Gain to Retirement

The Emergency Fund got to small deposits.  One was $2.32 at the beginning of the month in interest.  The other was what was left at the end of payday one for May after paying all the bills, which was $87.69, giving a grand total of $90.01.

$11,009.23 Previous EF Amount

+__,+90.01 Total Added

---------------------

$11,099.24 New EF Amount

If I'd realized ahead of time that the interest would have brought it so close to ten dollars I would have brought along 76 cents to make it an even $10 in the total.  I have the coins in my coin jar.  Oh, well.

So next I add the EF gain and the retirement gain to figure out the net worth gain.

$8,226.29 Retirement Gain

+_,_90.01 EF Gain

----------------------

$8,316.30 Total Gain to Net Worth

So then we calculate:

$256,316.02 Previous Net Worth

+__8,316.30 Gain to Net Worth

---------------------

$264,632.32 New Net Worth

So things are going pretty well, as you can see.  I do have $100 from last payday that I do plan to add to the Emergency Fund, I just haven't gotten around to it yet, because I accidentally took it out in cash and I haven't had a chance to get back to the credit union yet.  But I have time on Monday after I drop my son off for his therapy appointment, since his dad picks him up after work.  The credit union is 3 blocks from the therapy office, at least for the next 2 visits.

It'll be a while before I can really start socking things to the EF and I might actually have to take some money out.  The van has started to make some funny noises.  Now I have $1000 saved in the car maintenance fund and I add $100 to it every month, but I don't know if that is going to be enough if this turns out to be serious.  We just hit 67,000 miles, but the van is 13 years old.  In fact we bought it new on June 4th, so really 13 years old.  Hopefully, it turns out to be something that can be handled with the money we already have save in the car fund, though.

And hopefully whe we get the estimate for the bathroom it'll be for less than what we have saved so that if there are any overruns we have enough without dipping into the EF or having to compromise on what we want.  Once all that is done, though, we can sock it to the EF and get things where I want them and possibly fund a spousal IRA for me this year.  While I'd like to raise the 401K to 20%, I have no retirement savings in my own name and I don't like that.  I have complete trust in my marriage, but I still want some in my own name. 

I won't even get SSI in my own name, because I only worked for nine years.  Which isn't true, but the farmers apparently paid us under the table when I was a kid so nothing I earned then was reported to the government.  Not that I made enough to pay taxes, my best summer I only made $1500 and that was at 3 different farms following strawberries, then raspberries, then blueberries.  I mean, I will get it in his name, and his would be higher than mine anyway, but that's not the point.  And that's assuming there is SSI when I get there.  So, yes, I want a Roth IRA in my name.  Then if we fully fund it, we can raise his 401K after that.

I am hoping in July he will get a cost of living raise.  They have been doing this as inflation has gone crazy for the last 3 years and this 4th year should be no different.  I hope.  I don't know that he would get a regular raise, because the raise he got the last time he got one was so big a leap.  That was two years ago.  As much as I'd like one, I just don't think they have it right now.  They hired a lot of people in the last year.

But a COL would be appreciated.  2% is still $3180 before taxes, probably $2500 net a year after.  $104.16 a payday.  $2500 is almost our full medical deductible of $3000.  So that is nothing to sneeze at.  And sometimes it is 3% which is $4770, or around $4200 a year or $161.53 a payday.  Nothing to sneeze at.  But if there is nothing there is nothing.  We will know sometime in July which is always when raises come out.  The company has had high profits this year and last, but that didn't come out to much when it came to the Christmas bonus, so not really counting on it here, either.  Just wanting it to have some more breathing room after saving so hard for that stupid bathroom since February of last year.

I feel like I haven't had a moment to breathe this week.  There has been an appointment every day and there is one tomorrow.  So far they have been one's where we have been kept waiting twenty to forty-five minutes past the scheduled appointment time and then the appointment seemed to run long.  Except my therapy appointment, which was on time.  And boy did I need that.  It's been cancelled 3 times and it has been six weeks when I usually go every two weeks.  Her brother died, then she was sick, then I got stung by a bee on my lip and swelled up really bad.  My allergy has gotten progressively worse and I have to have an epi pen available, but at least insurance covers it.

I did get my tomatoes planted on the weekend, though.  I got two different varieties of Roma tomatoes, 4 of each, then 3 Lemon Boys (yellow rounds ones), 3 Champions (round ones), 1 Million Pears (yellow pear shaped cherry/grape cross), and 1 green zebra.  I wasn't going to get a tomato variety just for fun this year, but the green zebra is prolific and supposed to be very good, so I decided to anyway.  I figured it would be good for my ugly sauce anyway.  Plus they didn't have any orange ones this year so I couldn't make an orange-colored sauce for canning, just regular tomato sauce and ugly sauce.

I still have to plant my brassicas, lettuces, peppers, and petunias.  I am going to put a lot of them in my Greenstalk and then drape it with deer netting.  Not the peppers, though.  I also have various squashes to plant, patty pans, zucchinis, and acorn.  Plus green beans and peas.  It is a slow process, but the most important part was to get the tomatoes in.  They take the longest to mature.

So I will spend a day planting on Saturday and then we really need to spend a day just cleaning up the kitchen as a family.  It is such a mess and I am tired of it.  Nothing is organized, it needs a deep clean from the ceiling on down.  I am tired of cobwebs, I am tired of a dirty floor that needs scrubbing, I want a pristine refrigerator, including the bottom and walls and ceiling, not just the drawers and shelves that I do every week.  I want the window above the sink scrubbed that I can't reach, but my husband and son both can.  Then I need them to put the A/C in the window.

I need the curtains taken down and washed.  I need everything taken out of the cupboards and drawers and each drawer wiped out and put back in.  And I want the pile of groceries that need to go on the top shelf for long-term storage put away by the tall people.  I am so tired of it taking up space on the counter and I can't reach even on a step-stool.  I'd have to climb on the counter, which is a bad, bad idea for me.  Also, an impossibility with my deviated discs.  It is Spring Cleaning time.  Once that is done, and everything on the counters is put away, I want to set up the air fryer I got last year.  No more oil-fried food for this family.

At least tomorrow isn't payday.  I was so tired last Friday, I forget it was payday and didn't get it done until Monday.  I have a feeling tomorrow will be more of the same. 

8 oz room temperature salted butter (do not microwave)

2 to 3 tsp granulated garlic (not powder), adjust to taste

1 to 2 tbsp dried Italian seasoning (or at least basil, oregano, and parsley) adjust to taste

Put ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix with a whisk.  You can use a stand mixer or hand mixer on 2 or low, or just a regular old hand whisk, but if you do use a regular whisk I advise using a small one with close set tines and shake it out every few strokes.  I do not recommend blenders as they can melt the butter.  Mix until smooth and all ingredients are incorporated.  It doesn't take long.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.  We like it at 3 tsp garlic and 2 tbsp Italian seasoning, but not everyone does.

Transfer to a bowl, using a spatula to scrape out the whisk and mixing bowl.  You can leave the butter out, covered, for a week if you will use it in that time, otherwise keep it in the fridge and it will last a long time.  Just take it out an hour before you need to use it for spreading.

It's good spread on naan bread and if you have a kid who doesn't like pizza sauce, it makes a good replacement for that when you make pizza, too, not just on pasta.

I was exhausted yesterday after doing a big Costco Shop, but I think we are set for a while.  Having 30 pounds of butter back in the freezer eases my mind a fair bit.  Only 10 pounds of it was on discount, but I was down to 2 boxes (4 pounds), and I want to get another 30 pounds in there come June, July at the latest.  I am planning on making up some of my herb garlic butter and repackaging it for the freezer, so I have it for making garlic bread, ravioil, salmon, shrimp, and vegetables like zucchini and broccoli.

I'd like to have at least ten pounds of it made up in 4 oz portions to keep in the fridge one at a time.  I should start keeping the whipped cream cheese containers.  They would be the perfect size.  Plus save me money on containers, since we don't buy individual yogurt anymore, just the big plain one we put our own fruit in.  Now that I have a label maker it would be easy to know what is what at a glance.

We bought 6 of those bags of broccoli that have 4 4 pound steamer bags in them, so we are set on broccoli for a while.  That will make meal prepping easy for a while.  And the ingredients for breakfast burritos, which I am making before I go to bed tonight.

Last night for dinner I made chicken and mozzarella ravioli with my garlic herb butter and a Caesar salad and strawberries.  It was a nice simple dinner and did not take long and cost the same amount for the whole family as one entree at Olive Garden would have cost.  And we had leftover fruit, salad fixings, and garlic herb butter.

Tonight for dinner I made creamy chicken taquitos using my home canned chicken, some salsa verde, 4 oz cream cheese, cumin, chili powder, a bit of lime juice, cilantro is optional, and tortillas, preferabbly corn, but we only had wheat in the house.  To that we had garden salads and a fruit salad of honeydew, cantaloupe, pineapple, and grapes.  And we had a dozen leftover taquitos to go in the freezer.

In the morning, I plan to do some breakfast sandwiches.  Since we bought bagels at Costco and only planned to buy six, but they had a buy one get one free going on, we have six extra, so I thought I'd make those into bacon, egg, and cheese everything bagel sandwiches and put those in the freezer for DD.  We have an egg sandwich machine that does two at a time, so it won't take but fifteen minutes to do six.  Plus, I will do up and peel some eggs for the fridge and make some breakfast tv dinners of 2 scrambled eggs/2 sausage patties/hashbrowns for DH and 4 2 oz sausage links and 4 egg bites for me or a low carb omelet.  Depends on how hungry I am.  Given my energy level after that I may make up some pancakes as an alternate to hashbrowns for DH.

I'd like to do some lunches for the fridge for the next few days, but we will see, since I want to go pick up my tomato and pepper plants.  If possible, we want to get them planted, too.  

The plan for Saturday or maybe Sunday freezer cooking is:

3 meatloaves (1 for dinner)

2 pans mashed potatoes*

4 pans Italian meatballs

2 pans Swedish meatballs

3 pounds taco meat

2 pans hamburger steaks with gravy

2 pans spaghetti and homemade sauce*

2 pans lasagna*

*It is more important to me to get all the meat based items taken care of, but I am sure there will be downtime to peel potatoes and to boil pasta while waiting for the meatballs to cook.  The pasta sauce will only start in a skillet until the onions and then garlic are ready and then transferred to the crockpot to finish off, so I will still have burners available to make gravy and boil pasta and the potatoes will be in the Instant Pot.  If not, than the pasta, sauce, and potatoes can wait a day or two or even until the next week.

The next weekend I want to do:

3 pans jerk chicken (1 for dinner)

2 pans chicken enchiladas

2 pans chicken fajitas

2 chicken pot pies with buttermilk biscuit top crust only

2 pans Meditteranean chicken bake with vegetables

2 pans Southern stewed chicken

Some of these may not be in pans.  They may be in bags, but I mostly like the pans with the lids because I know exactly how much food I have without weird guestimating and stuff stacks properly while freezing and after freezing.

I may just have to raise the grocery budget up higher than expected at first, maybe by $200, but eliminating the takeout budget entirely, except on trips, it should way more than compensate.  Of course, we have been working towards this, but I'd say each month has had at least a week's worth of spectacular failure when you add all the days up.  Just have to find the will power, the energy, and the strength.

DH keeps forgetting his food at home and so he is still buying takeout at work.  So that's what I mean by adding up to takeout failures of a week's worth.  And he's buying soda to keep himself awake because he doesn't like coffee or tea.  So I can't do much about those expense, though I will keep encouraging.  He's got a lot going on at work with deadlines and he's under a lot of stress physically from this systemic illness.  I don't want to nag too much.

At least I've got him going to the doctor and to physical therapy now.  And he's finally got an appointment with wound care Monday, about a year into this leg thing, which is a staph infection, by the way.  I don't know if I ever said.  They finally did a skin scraping early last month or late March and we finally found out.  So I called it.  It didn't have to become systemic if they would have done things right from the start.  Well, at least we won't be paying for it.  We've met our out of pocket max now.

Okay, it's late or actually very early, and the yesterday I started talking about when I began writing this post is now two days ago.  I'm rambling and will probably stop making sense soon, so I will wrap this up now.  I'm going to calculate my net worth tomorrow.  I hope I break even.

I did some bookkeeping today.  I worked out my budget for May, which will be a tight one, but that's okay, because we have everything sorted out and should not have to make any large purchases for a few months now.  But we will be paying off nearly $3K of charges we made this month.  I do have the money in savings, but I prefer to cash flow it.

Then after I sorted May, I went on and revamped my budget template for the rest of the year.  Sort of.  For the next few months anyway.  We made a decision on the bathroom fund and a couple of other funds.  Since our goal for the bathroom was to save $15,000 before we started looking around for someone to fix it, we made a decisions last night.

We have already saved $12,000.  We also had $1775 saved up in my new bed and frame fund and $260 in our beach vacation fund, which would have gone for a little getaway for DH and me for a couple of days since I was too sick on our anniversary to do anything.  And we have $1000 in the snowblower fund, because we never bought one last year.  So that is $15,010.  Which is enough money for our goal.  And then if it were to become necessary we have $4000 I would be willing to borrow from the Emergency Fund.  So we have decided to shuffle all our envelopes around and do that.

In doing that, we can then start saving back for the bed and frame and the snowblower relatively quickly as well as putting money into the Emergency Fund.  The snowblower will take two months of saving $500 each, so that will be fast and done well before winter.  And we will continue to put $500 into the medical fund to start building up for next year's deductible and out of pocket max.  I still hope to be able to get Invisalign braces next year, but that would be an additional $6000, if it hasn't gone up in the last 2 years, I would have to come up with, so unless MIL starts handing out money again, that may be a couple more years yet.

We now have to find someone to build the bathroom and get quotes for what we want to do.  I wish we could do it ourselves.  It would be so much cheaper.  It's mostly just not feasible to do much these days, being old and broken.  Could have done most of it when we were younger, though.

What I am concerned about is finding someone just as we are going into the height of construction season.  And someone who speaks English.  We are not getting into a situation again like with the roof, where only one guy speaks English, he starts the crew in the morning, leaves for the entire day, and then comes back at the end of the work day to check over the work and you can't communicate about anything all day long with the workers.  My Spanish is not good enough for that, though I am working on refreshing it again.  No problem with the work, but it is beyond frustrating when all of a sudden the crew is just gone mid-day and doesn't come back until morning and you don't know why.

I suppose we could check with our local big hardware store and maybe Lowe's and Home Depot, too.  They might have small scale construction people or handymen who do this sort of thing that they know of.  I know the local one has a bulletin board you can put your advertisements up on where you tear the little phone number strips off to call.

Today I sat down and wrote out 14 days worth of lunches and dinners that I can rotate around.  The lunches are just for me and my son since we will be eating at home and meal prepping.  The dinners are for everyone.  So I am choosing from the master list for this week based on what I have in the house, although I will have to do a small grocery shop to fill in some gaps tomorrow.

Day One:  Tacos and yellow rice

Day Two:  Baked chicken, baked potatoes, and broccoli

Day Three:  Spaghetti, meatballs, and a chunky vegetable tomato sauce with onions, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, and eggplant (if they have it, will be trying for first time)

Day Four:  Chicken fajitas and yellow rice

Day Five:  Pot roast, mashed potatoes and gluten free gravy, and green beans

Day Six:  Jerk chicken, Normandy vegetables, and white rice

Day Seven:  Chicken stir-fry with bell peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, garlic, ginger, and water chestnuts, and stir-fried rice

So, I have all of the proteins on hand, I just need to pick up a few of the vegetables.

I also plan to make up some beef soup bones to make some broth and then make some beef and veggie soup for my daughter.  Something hearty, but simple for her, and no tomatoes, like most beef soup has.  She doesn't eat well when she has bronchitis, so I think this would be good for her.  I have a ton of beef bones to get through still.

As for lunches, this week we'll go with taco salads, chicken salad (not the sandwich filling, like Caesar), and salmon and zucchini.  We have a lot of fish we need to get through so we have room for this year's fishing.  Halibut season is upon us already.  DS's breakfasts are breakfast burritos and I don't eat breakfast except on rare occasions and then it is either 2 eggs, or a couple 2 oz sausages.

I see the doctor on Wednesday.  Hopefully, I can get antibiotics for this nasty sinus infection.  The pain in my face is driving me up the wall.  I could go into urgent care tomorrow, but I hate urgent care.  It is the worst.  I had to reschedule my dental appointment.  I know sinus infections aren't contagious, but it was the only time the doctor could see me this week.  And the on call docs were all full up, too.  I hope I don't catch something else at the doctor's office.  I am wearing a mask and gloves when I go in.  I swear I catch more things at medical offices than anywhere else.

Hello.  I've been gone for two months.  Dipped out the day after my birthday and haven't really been around since. There have been some big milestones that passed while I was away.  Retirement was a nice one.  It tripped over the $150K mark and then the $160K mark.  Seems like it wasn't very long ago it went over $100K.  I know it was, though.

Net worth did a real big one.  I reached the quarter of a million dollar mark!  $256,316.02 to be exact.

I've started contributing to the Emergency Fund again.  Not a lot at a time, but I've added $457.12 so far and that has brought me over $11K to $11,009.23.  My goal for the time being is to contribute $100 a month as I am still contributing to the bathroom construction fund.

Speaking of the bathroom construction fund, it now rests at $12K.  I think $3000 more is where I will stop and start looking for bids.  I have been managing to put $1000 away each month so far this year, so I hope that will continue.  That will put me at July, which is peak construction season.  We may have to hold off until the rainy season to get it done since most contractors will be busy.  I could borrow from the EF, I suppose, but I don't really like the idea of that.  I haven't even hit 2 months' wages yet in rebuilding that fund.  Which is $14,440.

DH and I passed our 28th wedding anniversay March 18th.  We didn't do anything for it.  DH's leg was hurting too much and I was going through an exhaution phase that I really haven't come out of.  I'm just sleeping a lot.  No other real symptoms.  Sleeping all night and taking naps around noon and then again around seven and then going to bed at eleven.  Probably something to do with my autoimmune stuff.  We figure maybe we will do something this summer or towards the end of spring, just go away for a weekend, just the two of us.  I'd rather save up for something for our 30th, though.  I'd like to go on a cruise.  Not a giant cruise, I don't like a crush of people all around me, but one of the smaller ones.

The 9th of April was also a milestone for me, because it was the 18th anniversary of starting this blog.  Now that's something.  I can't believe I've beeing writing it for that long, that I've had that much to say, or that it has had over 86,000,000 visits, and you've all want to read it that long.  I sure do appreciate it.  It's a nice thing to know.  And you know what is interesting?  When I started this blog I had $200,000 of debt to pay off and by the time my debt was paid off, I had paid off $250,000 because of the interest and an imprudent purchase.  A quarter of a million.  And now my net worth is a quarter of a million.  I've moved my net worth half a million in the opposite direction.  If I had started at $0, and threw money in retirement right from that moment, I could be at $500K right now.  My son has taken that away as a good lesson against debt.  So at least there is that.

At least, once the construction is over on the bathroom, we can work on getting our EF back up to snuff.  I would like to have 3 months' worth of wages by the end of 2026.  It would be great to do it sooner, but I just don't know.  We have a Hawaii trip to save for, a cruise, and a new vehicle with an expected purchase date of 2035 to 2040.  I want to purchase that in cash.  And I want 6 months' wages by 2030, so there's that.

We are working on buckling down, but it isn't always easy.  Take out is still our biggest temptation.  But we are trying to overcome it.  Especially since I am losing weight since we started cooking at home more often.  I've lost ten more pounds since February.  Things are going really well, there.  5 pounds a month might not seem like a lot to some people, but it is really a lot for me, considering how hard it has been for me to lose weight in the past.  And so far there has been no loose skin, so I think it is just the right pace for me.  Well, speaking of dinner, I better go make it.  Hope all is well with everyone.  I seldom have the brain stamina to read the blogs right now.

I am really, really tired of not being ready for dinner and being too tired to make lunch all the time, so it is time to get serious.  Three things I know for sure I want to make for dinner this week are meatloaf, chicken fajitas, and polish sausage, onions, and peppers.  We have all of the ingredients for those except a lime and cilantro for the fajitas and cauliflower to make riced cauliflower to use in place of bread crumbs in the meatloaf as I can no longer find rice crumbs or gluten free bread crumbs.  They are always sold out.  Although if I can find them I will use them instead of caulifower.

If I am making meatloaf, it is also easy enough to make meatballs at the same time.  So I can put two extra meatloaves in the freezer for dinners in the future and then I can do a quadruple batch of meatballs.  I can simmer some of them in sauce and pack them into lunch containers for lunch prep for the fridge and then one can be divided up into lunch freezer containers, and 2 batches can be divided up for spaghetti dinners in the future.

I can make a couple double batches of fajitas on sheet pans in the oven for a total of four, one for dinner, one to divide up for lunches in the fridge or freezer, and two to freeze for future dinners.  And then do the same thing with the polish sausage meals.  Any lunch meals we have too much of will be frozen, but we are feeding 4 people.  I will have carbs available for those who wants them, like spaghetti for the meatballs and tortillas for the fajitas or sausage and peppers and of course fruit.  I just won't be eating that.  I will add zucchini on the side of my meatballs and sauce, though.

Then my son wants one other chicken dish for meal prep, so know I am going through some recipes to try to figure out something that will be good for dinner and yet also meal prep for lunches well.  Maybe something in the Chinese stir-fry range.  It's been a while since I've done black pepper chicken and I've got a bag of stir-fry veggies that really need to be used up.  I'll have to buy some more chicken.

I can't believe I am this close to being out of chicken.  I have one package of boneless, skinless thighs, six whole chicken breasts.  That should be enough for all the fajitas, so I need enough for the stir-fry.  Otherwise I only have one package of thighs and one package of legs in the house.  That is so low on chicken for me.  I'll have to find a good sale soon.

As for tonight's dinner, that will likely be stir-fry, because all the other meat will have to thaw out and will take forever before I can start assembling anything.

I do need to buy fruit and some veg, though.  We are down to 2 oranges, 4 regular kiwi, 5 yellow kiwi, and 2 apples.  So we need bananas, more oranges, a couple apples of a different variety, a pineapple if they are ripe, a mango, some tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, green onions, a leek, cabbage, a lime, 4 lemons, and maybe berries.  Maybe even a guava.  I've never had a guava, but I like all the other tropical fruit, except starfruit, so why not?

Berries are out of season so an extreme luxury.  It won't be blueberries sadly, if I buy some, because the last several containers I have bought have been so sour despite being fully blue they taste like they should be pink.  Like they've been died or something.  I don't mine tart sweet,  But tart isn't the same thing as sour.  The strawberries haven't been ripe, just the blackberries and raspberries and I don't like raspberries.  So berries are conditional, but at least the blackberries taste good, they are just the most expensive.

I am going after the more tropical fruits, because they are in season, and they are packed with vitamin C.  My daughter is sick again and I am trying to keep from getting sick.  There is only so much taking a vitamin can do for you and I always feel like you get your best vitamins from food.  I just wish I'd been well enough to harvest our rose hips at the right time this year so I could make tea with them now.  I might still find a few that are good if I look, but most will be no good.

Anyway, that's me again, sharing my thought process as I figure out my grocery list to meal prep, to save money in the long run, cook at home, and get the family to stay out of the take out line.

We didn't do much for my birthday, but that's the way I like it.  I've never felt the desire to celebrate since becoming an adult, other than 21.  I just like to have a laid back night with my immediate family and that's what I got.  We had a pan of enchiladas and they had rice and instead of cake, some brownies.  Brownies don't have baking soda or baking powder, so I can control the sodium content, unlike cake.  The recipe made nine.  I had my one and everyone else had two, so there are no leftovers to worry about.  Extra brownies are bad for the diet.

I'm 54 now.  Doesn't feel any different than 53.  I was teasing my husband a bit that now I was as old as he was.  We are just six months apart, so when he turns the year older I always tease him about how old he is.  He is a good sport about it and pretends to be an old man and then teases me back and says now I am as decrepit as he is.  LOL  I think I am probably more so.

The kids remembered on their own this year without me having to remind them at least, so there's that, too.

I hope to make it to the store tomorrow.  We are getting very low on produce and I need some chicken and herbs for meal prepping.

Tomorrow is my birthday, which means an influx of money to add to my Me Savings.  I have spent the last several months, (however long it takes to get to $700 at $50 every 2 weeks), saving all of my spending money, plus $200 from Christmas, to have a grand total of $900 saved there.  I will get $200 from DH and somewhere between $100 and $200 from MIL for my birthday.  I think it is $150, but I am not sure.  So together, at least $300.  That puts me at $1200.  I still have $360 in the garden envelope, which was all money I saved from my spending money last year as well.  So that gives me $1560 total.

So I am looking at three different sets of Birdies garden beds to go with the ones I bought last year, but never had a chance to put up because DH hurt his leg.  Option one is I am debating buying 3 long beds, which would finish out a row and give me another row, creating a total of 3 rows with the beds that have not been assembled.  That would cost me $979.17 including tax, unless our sales tax went up this year.  No shipping.

The second option would to be to buy one long bed to finish the second row when assembled with the other three long beds.  And then to buy 5 round beds in which to make another row and add some gemetrical interest to the garden.  Because there hasn't been any yet.  It would take away garden space, but it would also give me a place to plant invasive plants, like mints and bee balm, which go on runners and take over everything.  Also, mix in some flowers that otherwise take over four feet of the herb bed, like calendula.  That option would cost $1251.14 with tax.

Option three would be to buy 1 long bin, 2 shorter fatter bins, and 3 round bins.  That way I could finish row 2 of the Birdies bins and then row 3 could go round bin, short bin, round bin, short bin, round bin.  It would give some geometrical interest, and still let me confine some annoying plants I like, but maybe not as many as I like.  That option would cost $1425.22 with tax.

Hmmm...or maybe...let me run the numbers...If I did three long beds and five round bins it would give me 4 rows counting the 3 bins from last year and come to $1903.92 with tax.  I have at least $1560 now, so subtract that.  I would need another $343.62 to order that.  And I'd still have to come up with money to fill the bins.

The big problem here is that they don't have the dark green beds I bought last year.  They have an ugly tan, an ugly light green, and a pretty black and I have no idea what they will have next year.  They didn't have this shade of black last year, they had slate grey.  So if I am going to get more of the long bins, I really need to get 3 this year, at least.  And my bed rows won't match up, because it would have to be one row that half green and half black.

Unless I decided to mix all the parts, since they are identical.  I could have beds that went black, green, black, green, every other panel.  That would be pretty and definitely bring interest to the eye.

I guess I don't have to buy all the bins at once, either.  I can buy the 3 long bins now and whatever I can afford of the round bins and then add round bins later.  I can put the bee balm and calendula in two round bins and then when I can afford the other bins transfer mint and some other flowers from pots I've been transplanting up.  That would give me $1349.07.  I could definitely do that.  I might even have enough for one more round bed by the time I am ready to order.  But I think I'll probably just stick to what I have here.  This seems like the best choice for right now.  It gives me money for soil and hay to put in the beds and of course we have branches.

Shoot, I forgot, I still have to buy Ag fabric to put down.  Well, I guess I'll go with the cheapest option right now, the 3 long beds.  Welcome to my though process.  Thanks for playing.

My heart is better!  I got the results of my 6 month echocardiogram earlier this month and not only is the enlargement of the right chamber caused by Covid gone, the flow rate in the left chamber has gone from 45% to 55%, which is where it should be in a normal human heart.  So I have healed my heart.

I mean, I will have to keep up with the dietary changes, the weight loss, keeping my sodium low, and stay on the diuretics, but that has more to do with my hereditary condition of microvascular dysfunction (tiny veins and arteries).  I may come off all but one of the diuretics if I hit a normal weight one day.  Possibly even the high cholesterol drug, even though my cholesterol is fine and has been for several years.  Probably not the high blood pressure because that is still linked pretty hard to the little veins and arteries.  Even the skinny people in my Mom's family have had it.  But so much better over all.

I've officially hit the 20 pound weight loss mark. Technically, I've seen 21, but it is bouncing between 20 and 21, so I am calling it 20 until it stops doing that.  My clothes are fitting a lot better.  Well, my pants always fit fine, but my shirts are fitting a lot better.  The funny thing about my pants is they seem to be getting longer even though they otherwise still fit right.  Maybe because my stomach is getting smaller.  Anyway, the weight loss goes well.  I've been kind of in a holding pattern this week to give my skin a chance to catch up and then tomorrow I will start back into the next phase of lowering the carbs again back down to 90 grams per day.  When I want a rest I do 120 grams.

I've been too exhausted to do much lately.  It's the new medication for rheumatoid arthritis.  One of the side effects is excessive tiredness and all I want to do is sleep and I have been.  Like 18 hours a day.  I'm up for appointments and to make sure people get fed and otherwise I am out cold.  It started when I started the drug.  Like the day after I took it first.  It is the worst every Tuesday since I take them Monday nights.  I can barely get out of bed the next day.  I am making sure to keep my Tuesdays clear as I am in no condition to drive that day even with caffeine.

I have an appointment with the doctor soon to see if I'll need to stop this one or adjust some of the other ones I am on that also cause drowsiness.  I may try on my own since two of them are just for pain with drowsiness as a side effect.  I'll try dropping one out first and if I don't hurt too much, then the other and see if I can stay awake again.  I've only been on it for 5 weeks so I don't even know if it is working yet.  Shots like these usually take 2 or 3 months to build up in your system.

Maybe doing the infusion might be a better way to go, even if my veins are tiny.  That's only once a month.  We'll see.  I'll call the doctor tomorrow and leave a message.  I don't want to not take the shots, though.  They are so expensive.  Fortunately, the company has a co-pay card so they are covering the part the insurance doesn't, except $5, but I still feel bad about it if I end up having to throw it away.  Even if it did come from big pharma and they make money hand over fist, I don't like wasting things that could have helped someone else.

If I can get the sleep thing sorted out, I really need to start seeing a chiropractor again.  My hip is killing me.  The thing that has been holding me back is cost.  My insurance only covers 80% of chiropractic after the deductible is met.  I can have as many appointments as I want, but 20% of what they charge nowadays is a lot.  And if I go, everyone is going to want to come.  Four people is a lot to be paying for, especially before the deductible kicks in.  Or maybe I just need a massage, which is the same, 20% after the deductible kicks in, but massage prices are more reasonable than chiropractor prices.  I guess we'll see with that, too.

I wish taking care of my medical needs was not so expensive.  I wish I hadn't had so many medical needs when I was young and fit that ended up getting me to this point where I was far from it.  But if this past six months has shown me nothing else, it is that taking my life back was necessary, no matter how expensive.

Well, it has finally happened.  The IRA is back to where it was before the great Biden free fall of the stock market.  And it is actually above it by $263.49.  Only took what? Two years to recover?  Looks like Biden stock market year 4 is starting off well, just like year 3 ended well.  Just wish everything else was improving, like food prices and electricity and gas (for the house, not the car).  And who knows what will happen if a real world war breaks out, or a civil one down in Texas for that matter.  But anyway. My combined retirement accounts are so close to $150K, I can taste it.  And yes, I label stock years by president.  I've done it since Bush 2 Electric Boogaloo, when DH got his first 401K.  Just makes it easier to remember.

$133,856.64 401K New Total

$_14,253.86 IRA New Total

--------------------

$148,110.50 Total Retirement Accounts New Total

-143,668.67 Previous Amount

---------------

$__4,441.83 Gains since December 31st

Now about $2700 of those gains were due to contributions from DH and his job, so the rest was interest and that was $1741.83 for the month of January.  Not at all a bad way to start off the year.

I have $1,889.50 left to go to hit $150K in the retirement accounts. I went ahead and bumped it up to 17% for next payday, since 16%, which we have done for the first three paychecks of the year, didn't really make that much of a change to our bottom line, even with the FSA money being taken out pretax.  We will live with 17% for a few paydays and if it doesn't seem to be a burden, I'll bump up to 18%.  The ultimate goal is to hit 20%, which will get us to our ultimate catch up max if we did it all year.  I don't think that will happen this year, unless DH gets a cost of living raise in July, then we could adjust and he's bound to get some OT to carry us over the line.  Maybe.  I know the more we contribute pretax, the lower our taxes will be come income tax time.

So maybe in 2025 we can completely max out, but that all depends on what taxes will be like then and how it will effect our paychecks and that depends on who runs Congress and who the president will be and I really don't want to think about that until November.

Speaking of taxes, it looks like we will be getting back around $365.  It's not final numbers yet, because we haven't gathered our interest yet on the savings accounts, but I can't imagine that will make much of a change since we only have about $11K in savings.  This is the closest we've got to $0, which is what our goal is.  We don't want the government having an interest free loan on our money and we don't want to have to pay either.  This amount is reasonable.

Well, that's it for this post.  I need to do a health update for you all.  It's good news.  Maybe tomorrow.  It's 11:00 p.m. and I no longer seem to be a night owl.  Good 2024 habits.

I really want to stay on top of things this week, as there are a lot of appointments, so I am meal planning to make sure nothing gets away from me.  I have two things in the freezer that I want to use up, which are a ravioli lasagna and a meatloaf that I made up when I was batch cooking in the past.  I do have to check that they are good first, but if they aren't, I will just make fresh ones for dinners this week.

I will figure out breakfasts and lunches, but they tend to be repeats and we all kind of grab what is in the freezer, because I batch cook breakfast burritos and egg sandwiches, or eat cereal.  I will probably also pick at the chicken that doesn't go in Tuesday's soup for my lunches.  Most of the days will be gluten free, but not all of them.  While I can make gluten free pizza, it takes a couple more hours to make the dough than regular and I don't want to take that much time.  I'm pretty sure I have all the ingredients in the house and shouldn't have to set foot in the grocery store this week.  It would be nice to buy some fresh thyme for the chicken soup, though.  Nice, but unnecessary when I have dried.  As usual, order is subject to scrambling due to the whims of the cook (me).

Monday:  Instant Pot Chicken cooked underwater to make broth, roasted fresh root vegetables and zucchini (frozen), apples

Tuesday: Chicken noodle (gluten free) soup with celery, and leftover roasted root vegetables, toasted bagles with goat cheese, and salad

Wednesday: Meatloaf, fried home canned potatoes with frozen onions and bell peppers, home grown home canned green beans (2019), canned pineapple

Thursday:  Ravioli lasagna or regular salad, pull apart garlic bread, home canned pears

Friday:  Homemade Pizza with sausage, ham, pepperoni, ground beef red and yellow onion, zucchini, frozen bell peppers, mozzarella, homemade low sodium pizza sauce.  I will make my own individual little pizza that is mostly veggies, has less cheese, and has a small amount of meat on it and just seasoned ground beef so it doesn't have salt in it.  I might even do a cauliflower crust pizza.  Salad and home canned nectarines to go with.

Saturday:  Leftovers

Sunday:  Beef chuck roast, baked potatoes, green beans, oranges

I thought I'd update my pantry challenge, too.  I am cleaning out the freezer of convenience foods that I do still buy from time to time, but haven't made in a long while and they are getting to the end of the time where freezer burn will set in if they are not used soon.

To that end, tonight we had garlic butter shrimp (that box from Costco), frozen broccoli (that bag from Costco), and frozen corn on the cob that we froze last summer.  We dipped everything in the garlic butter sauce since there was so much of it left after cooking the shrimp.  And we had golden kiwis, which thankfully have lasted this long, but definitely needed to be eaten pronto.  Breakfast was breakfast burritos, lunch was a no go for me and everyone else had chicken salad sandwiches.

The night before that we did spring rolls, beef mandu, yakisoba, and frozen berries, also all from Costco.  Breakfast was homemade biscuits (with alternative baking soda and alternative baking powder that are not sodium based), folded eggs, and cheese.  They also had bacon.  Lunch for the others was chicken quesadillas.

And then the night before that we did bagel, ham, and cheese sandwiches, potato chips, oranges, and salad.  I did send my husband out to get salad fixings because I was tired of the frozen veggies and it is not like we can't buy anything.  It was the first day the roads were clear enough to drive and the stores had reopened after a snow drop of a foot.  And chips.  We had regular chips, but I needed my low sodium Tim's Thins chips.  The bagels, ham, and cheese are all from Costco.  I keep the ham and bagels on hand in the freezer and we had thawed them out the day before.  Well, not the cheese, it was in the fridge.  Breakfast was cereal, but I didn't eat it.  I did have lunch, which was homemade chicken soup, which the kids had.  DH had leftovers.

I don't remember the other days and I didn't write them down, but it was pretty similar.  I watched my sodium counts, though, because with a lot of these convenience foods the sodium is high.  Except for the day I rubbed everything in the shrimp butter and I felt that.  Gotta be more careful.

You ever have just one of those weird days that is just kind of spooky?  I had my follow-up Echocardigram this morning and then went over to pick up my c-pap supplies.  When I got out of my car I heard my name shouted.  It was close, like in the parking lot, which is small.  Only it wasn't my name, it was my nickname, and it is pretty rare.  No one calls me that name but my mom, my dad, and my sisters.  My dad is dead, one sister doesn't speak to the family including her own kids, the other is working, and my mom was at home.

I looked all around me and even called out, "Yes?", but there was no answer.  I changed what I was called to my real name when I started sixth grade, so it was highly unlikely anyone from elementary school would have recongized me and if they had they would have come over.  But there was no one.  So I went in and got my stuff.

When I came out the door, I heard the word, "Go!" right in my ear and I swear it sounded just like my dad.  It stopped me in my tracks.  Again, there was nobody around, just me.  So I shake it off and get in my car, planning to go to the library next, because it will still be light out for an hour before the homeless people move in and park themselves on the steps and it will be too dangerous to go, so I can get in and out and find something to read and then go to the grocery store.

Plan in mind, I back out of my parking spot and happen to glance up at the marquee of the strip mall next door.  There's a new shop there and it's called, get this, Home Instead.  Now I am having a little freak out at this point, but I decide to go ahead and trust my instincts and go directly home.  I start on my usual route, which takes me past Another Way Outreach Center, which I drive by all the time, I mean come on, and I come up to the stoplight to make my usual turn, and it is red, and my gut is just saying, no take the other way, take the other way, take the other way, so I go straight and take the longer way.

I have no idea why, I got home safe and sound, nothing weird was going on at home.  Maybe I avoided a car accident or something.  Maybe it was all a coincidence.  But I've learned to trust these things, because the one time I didn't, it ended badly.  I'll probably never know.

As for the c-pap supplies, those are going to be $702 when they finish processing through the insurance.  Gotta love the deductible.  

I have officially lost 6.2 pounds since coming back from Seattle.  Thinks are doing well on the pantry challenge.  I had a migraine yesterday, so DH made me scrambled egg sandwiches, which is just the eggs on bread wiht butter and you fold the bread in half.  For lunch, I had the last of the beef stew.  I didn't eat breakfast.  Everyone else ate leftovers for lunch.

Tonight I will be making a kielbasa, shrimp, peppers, onions, and cabbage stir-fry.  Semi-spicy.  Not a jambalaya.  Rice on the side.  Chicken salad was for lunch, on tortilla or spinach wraps for everyone but me.  I had mine in steamed Napa cabbage that I used in place of a wrap.  Skipped breakfast.  Most of the time we are just not breakfast people.

Tomorrow?  Maybe baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner.  Lunch will likely be leftovers of dinner tonight or more chicken salad wraps.  Oh, wait, tomorrow is Saturday.  Maybe we'll do meatloaf or meatballs with spaghetti.

Although we did do the pantry challenge for the first few days of January, I wasn't posting and then of course, I didn't do it while we were in Seattle, because how can you when you are away from your pantry?  And I didn't do it the last two days as we settled back in.  So I am integrating some leftovers in as well as cooking from the pantry now.  My MIL bought us Sushi last night, so...

Breakfast/Lunch was leftover sushi.  I don't get the raw kind, because I can't handle raw fish.  Lox is the closest I can get to raw salmon and I don't really even like that, although I can eat it.  I had six pieces left off 16 from last night's dinner, so that was my lunch.  I don't eat a lot because of being on the Ozempic.

Dinner was Beef Stew with potatoes and carrots.  I made a gluten free gravy for it with no salt.  I had a 3 cup bowl.  Then I had an orange and 12 chocolate chips.  That's all I will eat today.  I had as much water as my cardiologist allows.  I lost another pound this morning.

I have some breakfast sausage in the freezer tomorrow so I will fry that up and have it for the next few days with some cucumbers, but will be making breakfast burritos for the others tomorrow because we have a lot of eggs and sausage from our hog in the fridge.  Then for dinner I plan on making a stir-fry that includes kielbasa, frozen shrimp, red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, onion and green cabbage or possibly Napa cabbage depending on which needs to be eaten first.  And then basil herb brown and wild rice from a Lundgren's box mix.  Or maybe Lundberg.  It's organic.  My box mixes are getting close to their expiration dates.  I think I will either have half a mango, which is finally ripe, or a kiwi, also.

I need to sit down tomorrow and plan out the rest of the week.  The bell peppers need to get used up as they are starting to wrinkle, so probably something with those.

It's been a long few days, but my daughter made it through her surgery and hospital stay with flying colors and her recovery is going very well.  Her hormone levels have already stablized and I haven't seen her this emotionally stable since she hit puberty.  She will never have to worry about bleeding out again and she did get to keep her ovaries, but everything else is gone.  Since she can't take replacement hormones due to one of her other medical conditions, this is a good thing.

I got more exercise than I ever care to have again traipsing all over that hospital, because nothing is easy to get to from anywhere else.  I am just glad I had my walker.  I had so many steps it was ridiculous.  I lost 2 pounds from that and another pound when I got home because I fell on my face and slept for about 20 hours without eating.  Then slept another 12 hours the next night after eating.

The hotel we stayed at was amazing.  It was a luxury suite, too.  I've never stayed in anything this nice before.  The amount of room in it, well, the bedroom itself was bigger than most hotel rooms I've stayed in.  It had a king size bed, a table and two stuffed arm chairs, a dresser, a 60 inch television and a dresser then about six feet of space until you got to a space you could sit down to put on your shoes. The side wall was nearly floor to ceiling windows with a nice view, but it had amazing blackout curtains on top of sheers.  Then you could step into the next area that on either side had two walk in closets and next to them, two built in dressers.  An ironing board, iron, bathrobes and slippers were provided.

From there you stepped into the main bathroom, which had a walk in shower that was halfway between a half-sized shower and a full-sized shower and had a waterfall showerhead, and on the other side of it was a soaking tub.  It was deep and long.  Long enough for me to fully stretch out and deep enough to have both my knees and just below my shoulders submerged at the same time.  I haven't ever been in a bathtub like that before and it was amazing.  It was the nicest thing for sore muscles after trekking around that hospital.  It was hard to get into and out of without grab bars, though, and also for a short person.  It had a double sink with double lighted mirrors and then behind a closed door was the toilet.  There was a sliding door that separated the bedroom from the other room.

The other room was a living room with a pull out couch bed that was actually comfortable with a large coffee table and two arm chairs.  It had an 80 inch TV on another dresser and there was another closet.  It was a corner suite so there were windows on the side wall and on the main wall.  As you continued away from the living room there was an office space with a full desk and a leather executive office chair.  There was stationary, postcards, pens, and stamps.  Across from this was a full bar with a sink, microwave, small refrigerator, and we were given four complimentary Aquafina waters a day.  On the backwall of the bar was a half bathroom.  On the back of that was a door that when unlocked would lead to an adjoining room if you rented both.

Further down was a settee, another place to sit and put your shoes on, with a lovely piece of art opposite it.  Then on the third wall was a cabinet for tucking away empty luggage if you needed more places to put it.  And there was yet more space until the door.  They could have fit maybe four hotel rooms in this place.  My MIL paid for it and it still cost less than the VRBO we stayed at last time, with way more comfortable beds.

I've never stayed somewhere with concierge service, an adults only quiet floor, no pets floor, valet parking, discounted meals with the room, 24 hour maid service if we wanted it, etc, as part of the package.  Oh, and we had to use our key to get onto our floor.  Anyone from the floor below us to the floor above us did.  The floors above us had been sold out or we could have gotten a two bedroom suite with all the same things for $50 more a night.

I felt so spoiled.  My husband and I are unassuming people, practically country bumpkins, but in a medium city.  I would have brought somewhat nicer clothes if I had known it was as nice as it was.  I'm just glad I didn't come in sweats and had styled my hair.  I also would have made sure the front of the car was cleaned out.

While it wasn't anything like a vacation, it still had lovely, refreshing, restful moments because of that hotel and I am so grateful to MIL for giving that to us.  It made all the difference in the world to be able to get good sleep and be super close to the hospital and have a place the day my daughter got out of the hospital to relax in before heading home.  It's nice to see how the other half lives.

Final numbers:

$129,758.76 401K

+$13,909.91 IRA

-----------------

$143,668.67 Total Retirement Accounts

These last two weeks increased net worth by $3,464.93, a litte over half of that was contributions.  The IRA needs to gain about a few more dollars to reach where it was before Biden year 2 started.  Biden year 3 has had two really solid quarters, one free fall quarter (second quarter), and one amazing quarter (last quarter).  It puts the 3 year rate of return at 6.5% which is not so good, but for this year the IRA is at 21.62% and the 401K is at 17.21%.  Of course there was $37,484.08 of contributions between DH and his work put in that counts into that, so I'm not sure how accurate that makes the percentage on that one, but the IRA had no contributions.

New net worth is $238,973.61.

$11,026.39 to go and we are quarter millionaires.

I'm glad Christmas is finished for one more year.  The tree will be down today and we will take the outdoor Christmas lights and standees down this weekend and get everything tucked away into the garage or our storage unit.  I will be glad to have it put away so life can return to normal.

We got a recumbant exercise bike for the family for Christmas to replace the treadmill that three out of four of us can't use because of our knees and also the weight capacity being quite low.  The bike is high enough even my husband will be able to use it.  I hope it works for my back.  I'd really like to be able to start exericising again.

I'll be starting on a new arthritis drug when we get back from DD's surgery in Seattle.  The old one stopped working.  This one is a pen, so I can do it myself, but it is back to weekly injections intead of monthly ones, so now I'll be taking two different meds through pen injectors once a week.  I'm going to be a pincushion.

I have a lot to do to get ready for January's Eat from the Pantry Challenge I do every year with my Facebook/Youtube group that I am in.  I need to take inventory of what I have, top up any glaring empty spots, and on the 31st shop for fresh produce.  I know I will have to take two days off from it while DD is in surgery but I will just add two extra days at the end to make up for it.  When you in a hotel in a strange city with no microwave and no fridge, there is just no way to manage.  If we had a VRBO, I could take food with us and cook, but we needed to be closer to the hosptial this time than any availabe rentals wHere.

My goal for this year's January Challenge is to save enough money to hit my goal of $10K for the bathroom fund.  I am now at $9500, so if I can peel $500 out of an $800 a month grocery budget, I will be well pleased.  I still intend to buy some fresh produce and milk, but not much else.  And other than Seattle, no eating out, which we won't be paying for.  MIL pays for our food and lodging when we go down to the hospital so that won't come out of any budget, let alone food.  I might end up hitting the goal otherwise, but I don't know how much I will need to ultimately have, if $10K will even be enough.  Stuff has gotten so expensive, but it is such a tiny room.

I would really like to get this started before the handymen or contractors get busy with big outdoor summer projects and have no time for tiny interior jobs that get them through the winter.  I just have to have the money for it.  No going into debt for it.

We still need to purchase our snow blower.  There might be money leftover there that I can put into the bathroom fund, too.  Every bit counts, you know?  It just depends on what we end up getting.  I want something I can drive, too, and not be overpowered by, even if that means having to take a couple extra passes on the driveway.

Even if it is enough and they get started on the bathroom, I think I'll keep saving anyway because things like this always seem to overrun the original budget.

I've already gotten two seed catalogs in the mail and they are full of such beautiful photos of seductive flowers and fruits and vegetables.  I will buy very little this year.  I have many things I didn't plant last year that I will need to plant this year that will be lovely and yummy.  But there will be one or two things I'm sure I will find to plant.  Some of the brand new introductions put onto the market that are developed in my area.  Those do great here.  I was hoping to put in a couple of trees, too, but things didn't get done this year because of DH's leg and it still hasn't healed up right and now he might have torn the miniscus on his knee on the other leg, which he sees the doctor for the day before we leave for Seattle.  He'll probably get an x-ray, too.

I think I may have to hire someone to come in and rototill the garden this year and do the clean up.  I have been saving all of my spending money, my Christmas money, and my future birthday money towards garden expenditures in the coming year, so if that is what is needed, I will hire a strong teenager from the farming community to come and do it for me.  While there is still more infrastructure I want to purchase, like more raised beds and more cattle panels, getting the one plot tilled that hasn't been and getting the weeds cleared out of the other bed, is necessary.

We are buying heavy duty agricultural fabric this year from a farmer's supplier instead of a seed catalog and then once it is secured we will put the aluminum raised beds on top.  No more dealing with ground weeds.  I'm just so done with it.  That's why the ground needs to be rototilled and raked flat, so the beds can go on top and set relatively flat.

We'll see what happens when we find out about DH's leg.  If physical therapy and weight loss will fix it than maybe he can go forward from there.  If he has torn something, then he may need surgery and won't be able to work in the garden in 2024 at all.  Oh, well.  If worse comes to worst, I will mostly skip a year except the raised beds and the blackberries and the plums.  And that will be that.

So, in 2023 I set some goals for myself and thought it would be interesting to come back and see if I hit any of them.  I know things went all catywampus because no one expected the bathroom to suddenly develop black mold and have to be torn out to the studs and be treated and us to have to save up all year and part of into next year to pay for a contractor to come and build a new one.  The bathroom fund took up most of our money, but did we meet any of our goals?  Let's see.

1. Refund the Emergency Fund--Add $250 every 4 weeks to the EF.

1.  No, see above, the bathroom fund.

2. Purchase a Propane Grill with Smoker--Save $250 for 12 weeks and I will have $1500.  I may not spend that much, I probably won't, but I don't want a garbage one.  This will put me at March 17th and I may find some good grills on clearance as they prepare for the new season of grills coming in.  I am not averse to buying a separate smoker as they are not all that expensive.

2.  No, we decided to make do with charcoal for another year, as the money we saved for this went into the bathroom.  Black mold was discovered in February.

3. Save for Beef Fund--Save $500 a month for 5 months, ending in May, for a total of $2500 to buy a whole steer.  I may not need this much but with costs going up everywhere, I tacked on an extra $500.  I'll contact my guy beforehand and see where prices are going.  I may need to extend into June for $3000.  I will also be saving excess grocery money, so it may not take the whole time.

3.  Yes.  We were able to save enough to purchase a whole steer in July.  It has made a huge difference.  Between that and our hog and our fishing, we have only had to buy chicken and turkey for protein.

4. Save for Snow Blower--Starting in May or June, depending on when Beef Fund is completed, save $500 a month for three months to purchase a snow blower for next winter and a chain for locking it to the back porch.  The garage is too far away if we get dumped on like we did last week.  1.5 feet in two days that has lasted for several days.  This has happened several years running now.  And several times a winter.  Never used to, but it does now.

4.  Yes.  I completed saving for the snow blower in October.  We haven't bought it yet, but we should.  It has been unseasonably warm, but we tend to get blasted in February, and sometimes we get hit on Christmas Eve.  I'd rather have it and not need it, than not have it and need it.

5. Starting March 24th save $250 a month for two generators, one for the garage freezer and a more powerful one for the house.  I still have to price these.  I am not sure how much they will cost yet, but I hope to have enough saved by October to have both.

5.  No, these were back-burnered because of the bathroom, but we did buy an additional power station so we can now run both the c-pap and the bi-pap machine all night long during a power failure.

6. Get some kind of covered seating area and some more chairs so we can eat outside more in the spring and summer.  Not sure where I will fit that in.  Maybe start the generator savings later.

6. Both no and yes.  We did not get a covered seating area, but we did purchase two more chairs.  We need one more for our daughter who seldom goes outside.  Our Swedish ancestry is strong in that one and she burns very easily.  Hence the need for a covered area.

So, 2.5 goals were achieved and 3.5 goals were not achieved.  I think I did fairly well with a ginormous curve ball thrown at us.  We will have $10K saved soon and hopefully that will be enough to create a new bathroom.  If not, then I guess the $10K in the EF will get dipped into.  We really can't handle not having that bathroom in service.  If that happens, we will have to slam the EF to get it back up.  But it is a tiny bathroom.  It is the smallest legal size a bathroom can be, so hopefully it won't go over that.  I've priced everything, so I know what materials cost.  It's just the labor that will be the thing.

My goals list for 2024 that I made at the end of 2022 has shifted substantially because of this whole bathroom thing.  One, because I missed some of this year's goals and two, because other things have moved to take priority.  But that's another post for another day.

DH got his Christmas bonus this on Friday and it was $911.64.  Before taxes it was $1200.  Not as good as last year, so the company must not have done as well.  Either that or they will be distributing a larger portion in stock shares this year.  I hope so.  DH worked his tail off in overtime this year so his percentage of hours worked is high and the portion of shares you get is based on the percentage of hours you work.  We've got a fairly large chunk of change in company stock on top of the 401K and the IRA.  Of course we can't sell it back until years one and two after retirement, but it should be significant by then.  Just won't like the tax bill.

We've decided to tithe $91.16 and put the rest into the medical account.  They've changed things up a bit this year with how they do the deductible and the out of pocket max.  So starting in January, the deductible is now $1250 per person or $2500 per family.  The out of pocket max is $3000 per person or $5000 per family.  Which would, supposedly, help out the average family.  But I'd really like to have been done with the deductible, because we have the $3000 to pay that off immediately.  And once that is paid off the out of pocket max is worked on at a 20% co-insurance.

DD will wipe out her deductible and out of pocket max with her surgery in January, but the rest of us will be working on wiping out the $1250 that is left on the deductible and the $2000 left on the out of pocket max.  At least the deductible is lower.  It has been $3000 for the past couple of years, so a drop of $500 is welcome.

DS's therapy, a couple of my scheduled appointments, and DH's appointments to have his knees checked out and likely x-rayed, will probably have the deductible met sometime in February.  So the big flush of medical spending will be done and we will only have to worry about co-insurance until the out of pocket max is met, which will be a relief.

They finally, finally, finally dumped in the money for the 401K they'd withheld, but hand't put into the account, so 3 paydays' worth was dumped in on the 15th, plus the match, which was a substantial dump with all the overtime.  Even so, there was a good leap in profits in the last two weeks in the 401K.  A bit over half of the gains were profit, a bit under half was what was deposited.  Even the IRA went up a bit.  It has $269 to where it was before the free fall started 2.5 years ago, but it may yet get there.  Too bad the recession/depression destroyed it for so long, but the last couple of months have been a lot better.

The new amount in the retirement accounts, minus company stock, is $140,203.74, a rise of $8835.15 in two weeks.  The 401K is at $140,203.74 and the IRA is at $13,368.59.  You can see why I was so upset about the money not being deposited into the 401K account, because the last six weeks have been phenomonal and we could have made more money.  I mean, I know it would have probably only been a couple of hundred dollars, but that is money that would have grown into something and I feel cheated out of it.

Seven weeks and five weeks is too long to hold onto someone's witholdings, in my opinion.  They are a company with over 100 employees though so the Safe Harbor Act does us no good.  Oh, well, what are you going to do?  At least it is there now.  And this last one only took them a week to get in, so there is that.  But next payday is the Friday before Christmas and they tend to take their sweet time when a holiday is right after a payday, so this may start up all over again.  But I can't stress on it.  What will be, will be.  I have been working on letting things go in therapy, but I have issues with doing that on the financial front, because letting things go is what got me into so much trouble in the past.  So maybe everything but finances.

Anyway, this bumps the old net worth up to $235,508.68.  Seems like just yesterday I was coming up on $100K and now I'm about to hit $250K in networth.  Crazy what being out of debt can do for you.  We have decided to go ahead and bump up our retirement savings from 16% to 17%.  I am not quite brave enough to do 18% yet, at least not until we are done saving for the bathroom repair.  Heck, after that I might be brave enough to go up to 20%.  We'll see.