Lucky Robin's Personal Finance Blog

The freezer repair guy was supposed to come back tomorrow and fix the freezer, but guess what?  The parts never arrived and they aren't going to.  They can't get them.  So after spending a half an hour on the chat feature trying to track things down, Frigidaire gave up and is shipping us a new replacement freezer...if they can find one.

They won't know until 5 to 7 business days have passed.  That's how long they need to look across the United States and Canada.  This process has been long and frustrating and I don't forsee it getting any better, really.  This has taken months and I just really want our money back.

I am assuming if they can't track one down they will finally give us a refund.  At this point I think I'd just prefer that, so we can get a different freezer.  I am actually leaning towards another chest freezer than an upright.  We have room for it if we take the mini-chest freezer out to the garage.  Based on our history, I now feel like upright freezer's are more trouble than they are worth.

I let the hog lady know what was going on.  I've kept her in the loop every step of the way.  But we could be looking at a really long time, even if they locate one here, because ground shipping is difficult right now since 30% of truckers have quit due to the vaccine mandates.  And if they try to get one from overseas, well, that could be forever.  The barges are piled up in the harbors with not enough people to unload them since the teamsters union is fighting the mandates also.  What a mess.

So who knows what will happen?  My life, as ever, is in limbo.  At least I have found a relatively unexpensive source of good bacon.  If I can't get my hog any time soon, then at least I can still find the best part.

LAL wanted the recipes from my last meal plan, so I am going to try to get them up as I can.  I was hoping to sit down and do them all at once, but I just don't know that I have the werewithal to do that right now, so I'll get them up as I can.  This recipe is versatile and amounts depend on how much spaghetti you want to use.  You said in your post that you want meals big enough to be eaten two days in a row and this will do that.

Now I usually do a pound and a half of spaghetti to get us a meal for one night and leftovers for two lunches.  If you want enough for two meals, you'll likely need to do two pounds for a family of 4 or two and a half for a family of 5.  These amounts would differ if you have young kids.

So for every pound of spaghetti you cook you need one pound of ground meat, 1 large diced yellow onion, 2 tbsp minced garlic (from a jar is fine) 1 pint of diced tomatoes, 2 pints of tomato sauce, 1 6 oz can of tomato paste, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.

Start by browning your ground meat on medium heat (350°F).  Sprinkle it with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning or to taste.  You don't need to cook it all the way through, just until it is no longer visibly pink.  It will finish cooking in the sauce.  Right now you are just getting that nice brown flavor.  Remove the ground meat from the pan and drain the fat.  Add some olive oil to a large pot and start cooking your onions.  Meanwhile, drain your diced tomatoes.  The onions will take about 15 minutes to saute to the right consistency.  Some browning is good.  After the 15 minutes is up, get your water for the spaghetti ready.  Add enough salt to the water to make it taste like the sea, and turn it on high.  Cover with a lid.  Add spaghetti when it comes to a full boil and cook according to package directions.

Meanwhile add the garlic to the onions and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly so garlic does not burn, then add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.  Add tomato sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste (no this is not too much seasoning) and once stirred in add tomato paste.  Make sure the tomato paste is absorbed into the sauce and doesn't stay in clumps.  You may have to press it out flat against the bottom of the pan and stir it into the sauce several times.  Once all the clumps are out, add the meat into the sauce.  Turn down to a simmer.  Put a lid on your pot as the sauce will spit like a mud pot at Yellowstone.  Stir every couple of minutes for ten minutes, then taste your sauce and do your final adjustment on seasonings.

Drain your spaghetti and put onto plates, then top with the sauce.  Serve with a salad or other green vegetable.

Stir every couple of minutes.

Last night I went to the grocery store for the first time since right before I had the Delta variant of Covid (yes, I was vaxxed, yes, I got it anyway).  I still don't have a lot of strength in my body, but I used my walker while DH pushed the shopping cart.  We went at 8:30 p.m. which was nice because there were barely any other customers in the store.  DH has been doing all the shopping, but he's not great at picking out produce.

It was great to be able to pick out my own produce again.  I found a beautiful yellow pineapple that smelled delicious and also picked up a bag of the tiny oranges (think cuties or halos or the like) to see if they were good yet (they were).  I had one of my 10% off Covid coupons with me.  I have one left now.  Originally we had eight because they gave you one every time you got the jab which was twice per person for a family of four.  They are good until the end of the year.

I ended up spending $168.45.  32 cents of that was bag fees.  They recently have allowed us to start using reusable bags again, but of course we forgot them, since it has been so long without we just aren't in the habit anymore.  Now they charge for bags again, but they weren't before this went back into effect.  So we have to get the bags back out to the car again.  The coupon savings was $18.68 and the club card savings was $8.65, for a total savings of $27.33 or 14% of the order.  If DS was still working there we would have gotten an additional 10% off the order, but oh, well.  We still did great.

Here's what I bought:

14 pounds of non-GMO fed free range chicken

3 organic broccoli crowns

1 red onion

2 yellow onions

1 small bok choy (not baby, just one with fewer stalks on it)

4 turnips

1 pineapple

2 large garnet sweet potatoes

1 huge head of elephant garlic (for planting in the garden)

1 small purple cabbage

1 2 lb bag of mandarin oranges

1 small box of organic baby romaine

2 very large parsnips (weighed in at just over 2 lbs)

12 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 large bag of Tostitos

1 medium container of Daisy sour cream

1 large Haagan Daz vanilla ice cream

1 medium Haagan Daz chocolate ice cream

They did not have the Siggi Icelandic yogurt in plain, so we will have to make a trip to Whole foods.  The nutritionist wants her eating skyr for digestive health and wants her to add honey and fruit at home so she is in charge of the amounts that go in the skyr.  She loves that brand so not an issue, but I'd just as soon just buy the honey version.  Which they still didn't have at the first store.

I will be making chicken stir-fry again this week.  I haven't made up my meal plan yet, I need to sit down and do that, but I know a couple of things that I will be making.  I would have made it up yesterday, but I had one of my crowns come off and it was very distracting and painful.  I see the dentist today at 3:00.  It was going to be 5:00 but they had a cancellation.  I didn't sleep very well, so hopefully I can be alert enough to drive by then.  I had some caffeine so hopefully it will kick in soon.  Right now my left eye doesn't want to stay open.  If not, I'll have my son drive me.  It shouldn't take long, they just have to make sure the site is clean and glue it back on with dental cement.

I need to put one of the packages of chicken in the Instant Pot and cover it with water and put in seasonings to make some broth.  The Instant Pot has made making broth so much easier.  You can do in a couple of hours what can take up to three days of simmering to make bone broth.  Although I make meat and bone broth, so DD has soft chicken to eat for a few days.

I did manage to fold one load of towels yesterday, but there are two more baskets of laundry I need to get to.  So I should probably stop procrastinating and get on with it.

 

The company seems to be a little more on the ball on getting the retirement contributions sent over in a timely manner this month, so the money actually hit on Friday.  It was really, really nice to see a massive jump this time.  I've kept myself from looking for the past two weeks.  It went up $2466.01.  Our contribution was $785.40, so $1680.61 was pure profit.  Now that's what I'm talking about.  That brings retirement to $67,073.06.

With this and the EF deposit our net worth has gone up by $4604.53, bringing it to $123,926.39.  I wonder if we'll see $125,000 by the end of the year?  Hopefully the retirement accounts won't plunge again.  With just contributions we would make it, but likely not with a plunge.

$16,803.15 Starting Balance

+_2,138.52 Amount Added

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

$18,941.67 New Balance

The money came from the gift that MIL gave us, plus $12.50 from the coin jar.

At the beginning of the year my EF sat at $9,456.32, so we have done a few dollars more than double that in ten months, adding a total of $9477.35 to the balance.

That leaves us $1,581.03 to go to hit our first big goal of $20,522.70, or six month's worth of expenses.  Of course I would like to then hit 6 month's of income also and eventually one year.  Having been through a ten month job loss back in 2015/16 that we have still not recovered from, and with Biden shutting down oil jobs left and right, I would just feel a lot better with a year in the EF.  Plus who knows what will happen as Covid continues to mutate.  We will save hard next year.

I don't see us being able to put much if anything else in for the rest of 2021.  I will be saving $2000 into the Medical Fund by year's end, but then should be able to start hitting the EF again in January.  So I think my goal is to get the EF to 6 month's expenses by the end of March/beginning of April.  I try not to resent our medical expenses as they put us so much further behind in life than we'd be otherwise, but that is life and so we just deal and deal and deal with that.

Once the EF is there, we will raise retirement to 17% from 15%, save for our next beef, and when we have that set aside, work on changing six month's expenses to six month's income.  Then maybe by the time 2024 gets here we can be maxing out the 401K, maxing out the IRA, and saving up for a long vacation on the shore.

Also, there was $158 left in the grocery envelope, so I transferred that to the Hog/Chicken Fund, and it now sits at $1346.00.  The Freezer guy comes back on Thursday to replace the freezer door and put in a new motor.  Hopefully that will solve all the issues, we will have a functioning freezer, and we can give the hog lady the go ahead and finally get one in the freezer.

Today was a three payday month, so it was higher than usual as they don't take medical and life insurance out of that when that happens.  Also I got my Google/AdSense payment of $111.50, so I added that in as well.  The Citi card is paid off in full now.  It's always paid off monthly, but we had a hefty balance the last two months.  When I think of how much money we spent on eating out it makes me a little sick, but then I was a lot sick, so it was kind of a necessary evil.  Thankfully it was just one meal a day, daily, but for 4 adults, 2.5 of which are gluten free, that adds up fast.

$277.22 Tithe

_400.00 Grocery Envelope

__75.00 Household Envelope

__78.82 DH Life Insurance

__60.46 My Life Insurance

__48.71 Long Term Care Insurance

__30.00 Allowance DD

__45.00 Allowance DS

2244.88 Citi

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

$3260.09 Total Money Out

 

 

 

We met with a nutritionist today.  It was an hour long appointment and I was aching by the end of it, but I feel we have a good handle on things moving forward.  DH and I both accompanied DD to the appointment.  Hopefully with the things we will be adding to her diet, DD will have a chance to start absorbing nutrients again.  We are adding digestive enzymes, probiotics, collagen powder from mixed soucres (i.e. chicken, fish, beef, and 2 other things I can't remember), Hibiscus tea, bone broth (we do this, but not every day, so she needs to have it every day), and a different form of vitamin b complex  with enzymes and to raise her fish oil level to around 2000.

Since she can't digest greens or most vegetables grown above the ground right now, she recommended pureeing root vegetables and adding a scoop of the collagen.  So I make a medly of roasted root veggies anyway with potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and turnips, that will be easy enough to do in bulk.  She can also digest pureed pumpkin.  I bought 4 sugar pie pumpkins last week, so will get around to making those up this weekend and freezing in portion sizes.

She's to stick to chicken, fish, shellfish, and turkey and if she is having a less painful day, she can have ground beef, but no more than once a week.  She should eat plain yogurt which she can sweeten at home with honey and pureed berries (the only fruit she can eat without getting sick) once a day.

We'll proceed like that for a month and see how that goes and then maybe we can try reintroducing above the ground veggies, but not greens, in a pureed form.  Green beans did sometimes digest, but we are to quit those for now.

It's a lot to digest, no pun intended.

We had a meeting with the gastro doc at 7:20 a.m., not just the NP, yesterday.  He gave her something called bile salts, so hopefully that will help with all the bile leaking into her stomach since she doesn't have a gall bladder.  We'll see.

I'm pretty wiped out as I am whenver I go somewhere for any length of time and haven't slept too well that last two days.  Having to be up early for appointments is hard as it takes my body a long time to I towarm up and not be stiff from the RA, and losing sleep makes it worse.

Nephew is officially moved out and is living with my eldest sister.  We'll see if she doesn't have buyer's remorse.  If this doesn't work out, he's getting dropped back on the door step of his own parents.  They can deal with him.

My son's breathing problems have continued to worsen and having to wear the mask all the time at work was making it worse and they wouldn't let him carry his inhalers on him, so he's no longer working there.  He's got a test scheduled for his lungs at the end of next month and then depending on what turns up on that he may need an EKG.  There is some worry that he might have got that heart thing that some young men get from Covid from when he had it in March of 2020.  Sometimes medicine moves so slowly.

He's bummed to not have money coming in, but I told him once this was straightened out, he could get another job if he wants to.  He doesn't need to work, he saved over $2000, and all his living expenses are met by us so it doesn't concern me.  As long as masks are a thing, though, I'm not sure getting a job is wise if it hurts his breathing.

I did get my Youtube money this week, so will add that in to the budget tomorrow.  It's a 3 payday month so it'll be a bigger paycheck as well.

LAL, I haven't had a chance to pull together recipes yet, but I did see your comment on the last post and will do it eventually when I have a few more spoons (see Spoon Theory).

Now that I am starting to feel like a semi-normal human being again, (what a difference a mattress pad has made in my sleep!), I am going to attempt cooking for the whole week, which means planning a menu, based on ingredients that are already in the house, because I am not up for shopping.  And I don't need to shop for meat, regardless.

Monday:  Spaghetti, grass fed beef in a homemade sauce (onions, garlic, tomato paste and sauce, herbs, my tomatoes), home grown and canned green beans

Tuesday:  Chicken and beef sausages, bell peppers, and onions, baked potatoes (home grown)

Wednesday:  Maylasian Chicken Curry with root vegetables over organic herbed wild rice (from a box), salad

Thursday:  Beef short ribs, baked potatoes (home grown), frozen organic broccoli

Friday:  Chicken stir-fry with carrots, celery, onions, and cabbage, over white rice

Saturday:  Ribeye steaks, mashed potatoes (home grown) and gravy, green beans (home grown, home canned)

Sunday:  French onion chicken, gluten free brioche buns (homemade), and cole slaw

It's ambitious, but DS will be home at dinner time now to help me.

Finally had some upward mobility in the retirement account.  This is the first time in a long time where we weren't plopping our money in and then it would drop and we'd spend the next two weeks just getting it back to where it was when we plopped our money in.  It feels good to more than just read water.  Let's hope it continues.

It is up by $1,318.52 since the last time I reported in, bringing the new balance to $64,607.53.

This brings net worth up to $119,321.85.

I don't know if I've talked about the freezer debacle or not, but the freezer we bought last December broke down in late July and we have been put through the wringer with Frigidaire ever since, trying to get them to honor their warranty.  For a long while it just felt like they were trying to run out the warranty.  Plus no one in town fixes Frigidaires anymore unless you've bought it from them.  We didn't buy it from any of those places.  We would have, but no one other than Home Depot had freezers when we bought it due to shortages.

Well, I felt from the beginning that the door didn't match up right, but at least the freezer was working, even if the light kept coming on saying it wasn't at temp, but it was still at freezing so we dealt with it.  Then in July thing started thawing out and it started running all the time and then it sounded like an airplane was taking off every couple of hours, which definitely sounded like the motor or a belt to me, so I unplugged it.  So we managed to split what was in it between our small chest freezer, our one fridge freezer, and two shelves and the door of Mom's freezer, and whatever we would eat for the next few days went into the fridge to finish thawing out.

And that started the hours on the phone trying to get it sorted.  First it took a month to find someone who would repair it for us under warranty and they were in Seattle.  So twice Frigidaire sent them a repair order for the model number of our Freezer, but with the word refrigerator on it.  So because those didn't match, they repair company rejected it.  Of course it took a week for them to receive the order, a week for them to reject it, and a week for us to try to resolve the problem with Frigidaire.  So that's six weeks.  Then we finally escalated it to someone higher up and she completely erased everything that was in the computer under our names and restarted from scratch.  She made sure everything lined up, model number matched freezer, sent it off to the repair place and...one week later, they recieved the work order and it said our model number and...refrigerator.

So the repair shop is saying they don't match again and they can't fix it until it does.  So back to Frigidaire and talked to the same woman and she escatled it higher and that someone went and yelled at the repair shop that it was on their end this time and to pull their heads out and fix this.  So we finally got a person scheduled and they came out on Monday.  And I was right.  The door wasn't hung properly and the gasket was irregular and not fitting right.  And the motor had burnt up most of the way and it was a good thing I unplugged it when I did.

So now it is going to take a while for the parts and they will be back on November 4th with a new freezer door and a new motor and hopefully then we will be back up and running with a little over a month of warranty left.  So while they didn't quite run out the warranty, it was close.  I mean, we still would have gotten it fixed as they started the ticket before it expired, but this took forever and I am quite frustrated by the sheer idiocy of the whole mess.  I am also frustrated over how much we had to do, instead of Frigidaire just calling them the first time and getting the mistake corrected, we had to do all the work of calling back and forth between the two places.

But I won't believe it is over until the freezer runs again.

On the bright side, the lady who raises pigs, pushed our butcher date out until November 12th instead of October 12th, which should give us enough time to see whether the repaired freezer is working.  She said if we have to we can push out to the December 12th date.  She sends hogs to butcher every month and what isn't bought by regular people is sold to stores.  And we can keep pushing it if it turns out the repairs don't work and we end up buying a new freezer, even if that means the end of next summer or something after we save up again.  She's very good to work with.

I hope we can get it for the 11/12 butcher date, though.  I will feel a lot better with both a steer and a hog in the freezers and I can work on buying organic chicken for whatever space is left.

I had $175 left in the grocery envelope due to having to not buy any beef anymore, so I added that to the Hog/Chicken Fund.

$1013.00 Starting Balance

+_175.00 Amount Added

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

$1188.00 New Balance

And once we have all of the pork and chicken in the freezer I will start saving up for both a lamb and the next steer with leftover grocery money.  It will be nice not to have to go down the meat section at the grocery store anymore.  Doing it this way really works for us.  We have better quality meat at lower than grocery store prices, especially beef.  $4.50 a pound for grassfed ribeye steak is looking very good right now.

I am also thinking about buying some emu steaks.  We've had ostrich, but never emu.  They are supposed to taste very similar, but emu is half the price of ostritch.  We like ostritch but don't consider it affordable.  We've found a place that ships it, but with shipping delays they say it could be partially thawed by the time it arrives, since they are way across the country and freezer packs or dry ice only last so long.  I'm hoping to find some place closer.  We do have an emu farm in Oregon, but all they seem to sell is the oil, not the meat.  It's hard to internet search it when these two places seem to have all the results lead back to them.

If I do order I want to make a smaller order to make sure we all like it.  Smaller orders are harder because they thaw out faster.  Larger orders have a lot of frozen meat to help keep the bulk of it frozen longer.  We'll see.  I think that's for something down the road, maybe when the shipping gets back to normal.  We will see.

 

As a reminder, I run a zero based budget, which means that every penny of the paycheck has a home.  I don't run a zero-based checking acount, however.  I have an $800 cushion in there, I just pretend it isn't there.  This week neither DD or I have spending money budgeted for because we both made game purchases.  The same will be true for next payday.  We did both have the money saved for it, but couldn't make it to the credit union at the time we charged them, due to illness and DH being too busy with work to run there during open hours.  I decided it would be easier to charge it and then just pay it back over the next two paychecks.  No interest will incur.

As for the Citi card, we are still paying back some of the paycheck and then most of the adjustable bed frame we bought for DD.  So no EF contributions this week.  I also cut the household envelope as I have enough money in there for now and the same with the car maintenance envelope as there is over $1000 in there.  That money went to the Citi card as well.  We are still paying off that month of take out, but due to the closing period we've paid off the card for that time period without interest.  Some of the next paycheck will go towards that, too.  I will be working on the next billing cycle early, but I just want it gone again.  As of this week I am functionally able to cook again with some help with the fetch and carry of ingredients.  It is never good when the main cook goes down as you can see from how much we've been paying Citi because of it.

$277.33 Tithe

_500.00 Utilities

_400.00 Grocery Envelope

_100.00 Gas Money Envelope

__50.00 DH Spending Money

__30.00 DS Allowance

1415.95 Citi Card (Adjustable Bed Frame for DD, plus takeout)

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

2773.28 Total Money Out

I had hoped I wasn't going to have a long, lingering recovery after Covid 2.0, but I am having the same kind of exhaustion and breathing issues I had after Covid 1.0.  Last time it took 10 months to feel like I was normal again.  I really hope that is not what I have to look forward to this time.  I am not eligible for a booster since I took Moderna and it was only in the summer.  I am a little hesitant about the idea, having had it twice and having had such reactions to the vaccine, where I ended up in bed for 10 days after the first one and 11 days after the second one.  I do need to get a flu shot, though, when I feel up to it.

My doctors are also hesitant about the idea of me ever getting boosters at this point, thinking it will do more harm than good.  I don't go anywhere, really, anymore, since it hurts to walk.  Basically just to all the doctors and I send DH to the grocery store.  So it probably doesn't matter if I don't, unless they mandate you can't see medical personel unless you are boostered.

But enough talk about that.  My garden is still producing tomatoes, patty pan squash, zucchini, and cucumbers.  With no sign of frost, I'll just keep going.  I don't think I mentioned, but we got 85 pounds of potatoes using the Ruth Stout method of gardening.  It would have been 90 but there was some rodent damage and slug damage.  Last year I think we got 90, but we planted twice as many potatoes as this year.

I managed to track down some Music, which is a hard-necked garlic that stores exceptionally well.  I've been trying to get it for the last two years and it has always been sold out.  I had to settle for conventionally grown, because organic was sold out, but I will grow it under organic conditions so when I harvest it next year I can save some for planting the following year, and after three years of that it is considered to be fully organic.  I don't buy organic garlic at the store anyway, so that's not a deal breaker.  It isn't generally sprayed since everything stays away from garlic and onions.  With shipping it cost $26 for a pound, which is ouchy, but I'll never have to buy it again, so it is worth the investment for garlic that will store for a year and allow me to grow it in perpetuity.

I also want to plant some elephant garlic this fall, but I will just buy that from the grocery store since I don't want a pound of it.  All I need is four bulbs and that should give me enough cloves to grow so that next year I can eat a couple and still have enough to replant.  They are larger so there is typically around 6 cloves per bulb, so I should get 24 plants.  And so on and so on, until they are fully organic.  I plan on using the elephant garlic to make garlic powder or if I can figure out how, granulated garlic, since the latter tends not to stick.

I have not done much in the past couple of weeks.  Mostly feeling miserable, so it was a good time to plan next year's garden.  I did manage to get off the soda again.  What an addiction that is to me.  I keep going back to it, but sugar makes it take longer for you to get well when you are sick and honestly I just don't feel good when I eat or drink junk.  I am fine with honey, but not even raw cane sugar.  I have already lost weight being 4 days off.

I did make a great stir-fry the other day with soy free, gluten free oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, coconut aminos, honey, water, and corn starch for the sauce.  It was the first time it felt like actual Chinese food again since we quit soy.  The oyster sauce is actually made with real oysters.  That's actually a rarity.  But the saltiness that soy usually provides is replaced by oysters and it is amazing.  And the soy free hoisin sauce was even more savory than regular.  Stir-fries are definitely back on the menu.  As long as I have the energy to cook them.

I had to cancel my physical therapy assessment because I woke up with a fever.  It seems to have passed, but I really don't feel like doing pool therapy in bad weather either.  They say it is an old wive's tail that going out in cold weather with wet hair makes you sick, but it happens every time I do it, so there you go.

Tomorrow is payday, so hopefully I will get a report up.  I have to go to the bank, which I really don't want to do, but I'll have either DH or DS drive me, so I don't have to.  I'm not in any shape to drive with what my back and hips are doing right now.  The chiropractor was back this week after being gone for a week.  The week he was gone was awful, as I subluxed pretty badly.

Even after three adjustments I am not doing so well.  My tailbone turned pretty bad while he was gone and he's having a hard time getting back to where it should be.  It's better, but it will probably take a couple more weeks to undo what one week without adjustments did to me.  I wish he would stop taking these week long vacations.  It's almost to the point of once a month now.  That's when it's not two week long vacations.  No one needs to go away ten times a year.  Oh, well, at least I have a walker, because right now I can't even make it out to the car without it.

$277.23 Tithe

_132.00 Grocery Envelope

_310.00 Monthly Family Chiropractic Plan

_118.18 Internet

__36.00 Garbage Fund

_167.00 Car Insurance Fund

__50.00 DH's Spending Money

__50.00 My Spending Money

__30.00 DS's Spending Money

1601.98 Citi

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

2772.39

We had a lot of money in the grocery envelope still from last payday, mostly because DH keeps forgetting to grab it before he goes to the store and uses the credit card again, so I just made up the difference of what I usually put in there and put the rest of this payday's grocery budget towards the Citi card.  DD doesn't get spending money this payday or next because I didn't make it over to the credit union today so I let her use the credit card to make her planned purchase and to pay me back she just won't get any until the 29th.

Since DD's new adjustable full size bed frame was charged, and she needed it for medical reasons, the $500 I usually put towards medical each payday also went to the Citi card, since we charged that.  Next payday's will, too.  I also put the household money towards it, since I still have money in the household fund to meet needs in that category and we have enough toilet paper, shampoo, soap, dish soap, dishwasher soap, and laundry detergent for about two months.

The monthly family chiropractic plan went up by $30 a month.  It has been five years since he has raised that, so it was not unexpected, especially since he warned me a few months ago it would be, he just wasn't sure at the time by how much.  Internet has gone up by a penny the last few times, so I finally adjusted the budget template to take that into account.

We still have quite a bit left on the credit card, but we have paid more than the amount we needed to not have interest charged and it will be paid off by the end of this month, also before any interest is charged.  It's just been such a rough month with me not being able to cook, but today we ate leftovers and I am trying again to cook tomorrow.  My sacral illiac joint has finally decided to stay in place, so a lot of the excruciating pain has subsided.

I still have no stamina from having Covid again, and I hope the exhaustion I had the first time lifts sooner this time than last time.  Every day is a little better, but no day is really good yet.  I have to wonder how much worse it might have been if I hadn't been vaccinated.  And had antibodies of my own.  Even though I can go out in public now, I don't think I could make it through a grocery trip yet.  So I just keep sending DH for necessities and we keep getting take out.

Tomorrow I will try something easy, though, which is pot roast and baked potatoes in the Instant Pot and green beans in the microwave.  That is very little hands on time, other than seasoning the roast, washing the potatoes, and adding butter and salt to the green beans.

DH did buy me salad ingredients and the missing ingredients I needed to make Italian dressing, too.  So tonight I will try to get the lettuce cut up, the carrots peeled and sliced, the radishes sliced, the red onion sliced, the red bell pepper sliced, and the cucumbers peeled and sliced.  The cheese is already shredded and so is the chicken and I have cherry tomatoes from the garden that are washed.  I did manage to put a chicken in the Instant Pot last night to make broth, but DH had to add the filtered water since carrying that much from the filter in the laundry room was still too much for me.  Anyway, then I can easily throw a salad together.  I'll make the dressing tomorrow.  I think it is just trying to do it all in one go, which will be bad for me.

But I have to stop getting take out, not just for financial reasons.  I've put on fifteen pounds since I got really, really sick in late July.  It makes everything hurt so much more.  And the soda I've been drinking to get some caffeine to counter the exhaustion also has been bad.  So real, homemade food, and healthier food is a must now.  I've just got to pull it together and force myself to do this.

DD had her ultrasound today and the results also came back today through the patient portal.  I am surprised how fast they are sometimes there.  She does not have a hernia or a limpoma or hematoma or a surface tumor, so no one really knows why there is a big round lump pushing her skin out there.  One other possibility is there might be a tumor  too deep for the ultrasound pushing it forward, but that should have showed up on her liver MRI in the beginning of August if that were the case, I would think, unless it was too far away, but considering where her liver tumor was located, I don't think it is.  I'm not sure what the next step will be.  We won't hear from the gastro place until next week some time when they review it.  But the technician confirmed that she could see the bulge and it wasn't just our imagination.  Or it could have just grown since that MRI in the last two months, which it definitely has, but what the heck is it?

I did get some good news, though.  A disabled child can stay on DH's insurance after age 26, so we need to fill out some paperwork and so does her main doctor, but since she has all of the things, she'll qualify.  That is such a major relief.  She doesn't turn 26 until August of next year, but it has been something I have been worrying about for the last couple of years as diagnosis after diagnosis has come in.  We will start the ball rolling to see if she can get on disability, too.  That will help in paying the medical bills that aren't covered by insurance and give her a small income, too, so she doesn't have to rely on us for every little thing she needs.

She has at least 3 things that will qualify her for that, possibly five, but the secondary adreanal insufficiency is the big one that alone should qualify her for it.  It's really just a matter of filling out the paperwork, being automatically denied, appealing once or twice, and then she should be able to get it.  She's way worse off than the BIL who is on disability is, he only has the same disc issue she has, and none of the diseases.

The insurance was the real issue for us.  Disability would just be nice for her.  It would be enough to set aside for the electric wheelchair she will likely need in the next couple of years.  Not sure how we'll transport it, though.  Not sure we could afford a used wheelchair van.  But that's a worry for future me to deal with.

I'm not sure when we will be getting the $10K from MIL, but it will be before the end of the year and this is what I've come up on.

$3000 Medical/Braces

$3000 Emergency Fund

$2000 Adjustable King Size Bed Frame

$_200 DD

$_200 DS

$_600 Vacation Fund

$1000 Household Replacement Items

As for items that need to be replaced in the household, DH and I both need new desk chairs and possibly DS does, too.  DD just had hers replaced not that long ago and it is still in really good condition.  Then the other thing I'd like to replace is our kitchen sink faucet.  I want a taller faucet that rises much further above the sink, maybe even with the pull down sprayer.  If there is any money left after that I'd like to also get a new shower head/sprayer.  I'd like something with more flexible tubing on the sprayer.  But that can come out of regular household money if necessary.

MIL dropped the bomb on us this week that she'd be giving us $10,000 soon and her daughter and her new husband (long, long time boyfriend) the same.  I was surprised, since she already gave us $6000 this year, plus paid for DD's liver tumor removal surgery.  I guess now that her daughter is married, she can give more money because the gift isn't just going to one person, it is split up in a couple.  She didn't do it before since they weren't married and wanted to keep it fair.  The amount you can gift one person is $13K, so she couldn't go over that, but now she can give each couple up to $26K a year, since half would go to one and half would go to the other.

I know there are a few things that need to be done that are small.  My husband, son, and I all need new computer chairs.  My husband might get a better desk since the working from home thing doesn't seem like it will be stopping any time soon.  I'd like to get an adjustable bedframe.  I've been saving up for it and can pay for about half, but it would take me another year to save for the other half, since it is $1500, plus tax, plus delivery.  Because of my disk issues, it would really make my life a lot easier to be able to sit up in bed and elevate my legs and it would help me to get out of bed on the really bad days when the rheumatoid arthritis is acting up.

I'd like to set aside $2000 towards DS's braces, I've got $3000 saved.  I'd like to set aside $2000 for a family vacation, just to rent a place on the waterfront next summer for a week or so.  I'd like to put $3000 aside for next year's medical deductible, and then anything else would go into the emergency fund.  I may not need to set aside as much for orthodontia as I think as DS will qualify for medical insurance in another month and his has orthodontia, but no dental plan I've ever seen pays for more than half of that.  In which case, if I don't need to save that, then that money will move into the EF as well.  So that's the good.

The bad is I hurt my hand.  It is in a spot where I have a habit of pressing my hands together and it is super painful right now.  I don't know what I even did to it, I was just cracking my knuckles and it felt like a blood vessel exploded and now it feels like a massive bruise.  It hurts a little when I type too long, but mostly it's because I keep acidentally touching it.  It looks bruised and swollen, too.  My daughter thinks I might have rolled a tendon or something.

As for the ugly, there has been a lot of drama this week.  My middle sister is being a drama queen (a consistent pattern of hers) over my Mom using tough love on her son and us backing her up.  This is the same sister who quite literally had to sell her house and move across the state into a one bedroom condo with her husband to get him out of the house, because he wouldn't move out, so Mom said he could live here a year if he did certain things he has not done.

Sister tried to manipulate me for information and when she didn't like the answers I gave her, tried to turn it around on me that I was blaming her for everything she has ever done in her entire life somehow.  I've only ever blamed her for two things in her life that she was responsible for and that was when we were kids, and I wasn't really blaming her this time, so much as saying this action of yours is why this is happening.  You did it so either undo it or deal with it.  Only more tactfully, because she's high maintenance.  I don't play the blame game, but I do expect people to take responsibility for their own actions.

She was always a master at turning things around on people to make them believe that they were in the wrong when she was.  Despite the fact that I have seen her do this in every relationship she has ever had, you don't grow up with a narcicisst and not sometimes fall under it.  She almost got me this time, but I realised the steps she was using and realized this was her and not me.  One, try to control, two, manipulate, three, gaslight, four, tantrum, five, play the victim, six, silent treatment, seven, hold a grudge, eight, martyr her way out and repeat.  She's on step six at current.

I hope she gets some therapy and grows up.  For someone who wanted to be nothing like either of our parents, she is the perfect product of the worst sides of both of them.  I'm just weary of giving her space in my head.  I'm tired of her turning on me every time I disagree with her, like I can't have opinions of my own.  So I have decided to go no contact with her.  She adds no joy to my life and I am tired of being the only one who tries to maintain the relationship.  It's no longer worth it.  I'm just done.

It's a big step and I know once she gets through her cycle she'll be back, but I just can't be there when she is.  I'm done.

 

It's been a rough month, but I no longer have Covid, my test results came back on Tuesday, so as soon as I get some of my stamina back I can go back out in public again.  I have also been on antibiotics and prednisone for 8 days today and have another 6 to go on just the antibiotics.  Because I can never get sick like that without developing a sinus infection.  It's doing a lot better, too, though I dread tomorrow when I won't have anymore prednisone.

The Delta variant is no joke.  The difference between how I went through it and how my BIL went through it was night and day.  He was unvaccinated and it took him 5 months to be cleared and he will have life long issues.  I was vaccinated and it took me a while to kick it, maybe 3 to 4 weeks due to my autoimmune issues, instead of 2.  Now, I won't tell anyone what they should or should not put into their bodies, but I do think it is important to share my experience.

I also had original Covid.  Do they call that Alpha?  I don't know.  That one was way harder than Delta with the vaccine, but apparently Delta without the vaccine is way harder than Alpha, according to what I have read.  I also have read several papers on this type of vaccine.  It did take me a long time to make up my mind and for my family, too, but we made an educated decision, not a rush to judgment one after seeking advice from two of my doctors.

So anyway, I have both natural and vaccine antibodies and I still got it.  It was not nice, it was not fun, and my chest and bronchial tubes still feel kind of bruised from all the coughing.  But I am out the other side.  And I am planning to get my overall health into better shape.

I was finally able to go to the chiropractor and he got my illial sacral joint back into place.  It had been causing so much agony, I couldn't stand for more than 20 seconds without it starting to cause debilitating pain.  Now I can.  I get another adjustment today and hopefully that will be the end of that. 

I did buy an elevated wedge pillow to sleep on and it has helped with the sinus issues and all the stuffiness I was having when waking up, but also it helped a lot with the phlegm, which was quite surprising.  It definitely helped with the GERD.  I am sleeping through the night and waking up with less back and hip pain and no heartburn.  In fact this morning when I woke up, there wasn't any pain for a moment and then I sat up and all bets were off, but still, that moment of no pain plus well rested was pretty awesome.

My nephew is finally going to be moving out.  He was only supposed to stay here a year and he hit that in March.  He was supposed to help around the house and he didn't.  He was supposed to get his learner's permit and take the driving class and he didn't.  He was supposed to get a job and he didn't.  And the deal breaker for my mother is his refusal to get vaccinated when there are 3 high risk individuals and 1 who works a high risk job with the public in the household.

So she gave him 30 days, because he was unwilling to do any of the things it was conditional of him livng here in the first place.  He just spent, as a 30-year-old man, over a year living in an attic, pretty much ignoring anyone else who lives in the house 95% of the time, running down to his girlfriend's family who were unvaccinated and worked with the public and not quarantining when he came back after he came home when we were locked down.  He shouldn't have gone anywhere at that point and I do think it was why we got Covid the first time.  We got sick the same month he moved in, when he was running back and forth all the time.

He was also inviting other unvaccinated people to visit from his birth family, but too many at once, not one at a time to minimize risk.  I think he has about $9000 left before he runs out of money and will have to get a job.  He was only paying Mom $100 a month.

He will be moving in with my eldest sister, who is not his mother.  She has a two bedroom apartment, and because she will not get vaccinated either, will be losing her job at a nursing home soon.  However she just turned 62, so she will get social security by the time that happens.  With my nephew paying half the bills for the apartment, she will be able to get by a lot better now.  So it works out for both of them.  If that hadn't been an option, we would have taken him to his parents.  Heaven knows my sister could use the help with her husband's recovery.

 Anyway, that's why I have been so quiet, but will hopefully feel good enough now to start posting again regularly.

$281.04 Tithe

_325.00 Groceries Envelope

_500.00 Medical Fund

__75.00 Household Envelope

1181.34 Citi

_100.00 Gas Money

__78.82 Life Insurance DH

__60.46 Life Insurance Me

__48.71 Long Term Care Insurance

__50.00 DH Spending Money

__50.00 Me Spending Money

__30.00 DD Allowance

__30.00 DS Allowance

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

2810.37 Total Money Out

I run a zero based budget, so that brings the paycheck down to $0.00 left.

Additional Bills that were paid out of short term sinking funds, were the 6 month car insurance bill at $965.00 and the 2 month garbage bill at $86.79.  I set money aside monthly for these things in savings and then pay them when they come due.  It allows me to easily pay for bills that are irregular instead of monthly without having to worry about it at all.

I will be glad when the garden season is over and the last of the yard waste can go to the green dump for composting, as we've had that on top of regular carbage can fees each month as well.  It's $12 for a dump load of green waste, which isn't bad if you fill the whole truck, which we do.  I usually compost most things, but not tree trimmings, rose bush trimmings, or tomato and potato plants, which can carry blight.  So while I haven't budgeted monthly for green waste, I did drop some money into a sinking fund early last spring to deal with it.  We can probably do two more dump loads and then it will be gone.  So I may or may not have to budget more.

I did have to raise the amount I was setting aside for car insurance in the budget template.  I had saved $900 and their was an additional $65.  I had guesstimated how much more it would cost with DS as a licensed driver and was a little short because he is not getting the student discount this time as he is not a student right now.  Once he buys his car, he will pay for his own insurance (or the difference in ours) and we can go back to only paying $600 every six months.  Anyway, I am now saving $167 a month instead of 150 going forward.

Our retirement accounts have been in freefall for the last month, but the IRA started to recover yesterday.  The only thing keeping our retirement account from dipping under the amount I had lost time I reported was the contributions we made.  So this yesterday we finally pulled back ahead by $235.30.  Ugh.  Rate of return for the year, though, has dropped to 9.34%.

Hopefully they'll get all these dumperster fires put out in the government and in the country and things will recover better by the end of the year.  I'd like to have the same rate of return as the last two years, but that is probably a pipe dream.

Anyway, retirement now sits at $63,288.53.

$16,756.69 Starting Balance

+__,_35.88 Allstate Safe Driver Check

+__,_10.00 Coin Jar

+__,___.58 Louisianna Pacific Dividend Check

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

$16,803.15 New Balance

Net Worth rises to 117,768.33

I'm not sure when I'll be able to add more to the EF.  Maybe January.  I'm more worried about adding to the medical fund currently.

I didn't put anything in the EF this payday, but last payday I had $49.93 left to go in, plus I had $3.38 in interest bringing the EF to $16,765.69.

They still haven't put this week's contribution in to the retirement account, which is very annoying.  I know there was a holiday on Monday, but it usually goes in on Friday and now it is Wednesday and nothing.  So I'm just going to list it anyway, since it rose quite a bit from my last retirement update.  It is now $63,053.23, a rise of $1878.19 since 8/7.  And that was with a near $1500 drop in the middle with that Afghanistan news of leaving American behind along with all our equipment.  Fortunatley it recovered all of that and then a bit more.  Around $1580 of that was our contributions.  If they ever drop our contribution in this week, I'll update again.

This brings our net worth to $117,721.87, a rise of $1931.95 since I last updated it, also on 8/7.

I continue to save money to the medical fund at a rapid rate.  I need to save enough for orthodontia, plus enough for next year's medical deductible and out of pocket max.

I owed DS $9.59 because he picked stuff up from the store where he works for me, so I just added that to how much he got for his allowance.  He has $57.04 left to complete his $1000 emergency fund, so that will be met with his next paycheck.  At that point his allowance will drop from $60 every two weeks to $30 every two weeks, which is what we give his sister.  That will occur on our next payday, since he gets paid weekly.

I wanted to allow him to have spending money so he could put all his wages that didn't go to tithe or IRA, but since that is over, and he isn't doing as much around the house with his job, he can get the minimal amount we give DD, who is incapable of doing much due to her disabilities.  When he goes to full time that allowance will be gone completely.  He will be saving up for a car next and after that he will start saving for school.  He want to be an electrician.

Anyway, here's the payday report.  Every dollar is accounted for as we run a zero based budget.

$277.27 Tithe

_500.00 Utilities

_200.00 Groceries Envelope

_500.00 Medical Fund

__75.00 Household Envelope

_118.18 Internet

__36.00 Garbage

_150.00 Car Insurance Fund

_716.73 Citi

__50.00 DH spending money

__50.00 My spending money

__65.59 DS Allowance plus money owed him

__30.00 DD Allowance

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

2772.77 Total Money Out

I had another migraine within a day of recovering from the last one.  This one was brought on by fragrance.  I had ordered some unscented body wash on etsy, because it was the only one I had been able to find that didn't have any coconut oil in it.  Unfortunately she gave a overly scented soap bar as a gift with it and packaged it so poorly that the bottle was broken open and it soaked the entire package, an unpadded envelope with a tiny bit of biodegradable paper strings wrapped around it.  My husband brought it into the house and set it in my bathroom sink.  Big mistake.  It reeked so bad.

I took quick photos and got it out of the house and scrubbed the sink down because I didn't want my daughter getting a migraine, because strong scents can trigger them in both of us.  I did wear my face mask but it wasn't enough, the smell still got to me.  I set up the air cleaner and just as I left the bathroom the migraine hit so badly that I could feel myself starting to go down.  Fortunately I was able to call my husband, but he didn't get there quite in time and I passed out and hit the floor.   It was a slow fall and I grabbed the door knob to try to not go down, but it only made it take longer.  I don't think I lost conciousness until I was about a foot from the floor.

DH and DD said it was only for about 30 seconds and they were able to get me up, but I only took three steps before going down again.  That one took about a minute and they managed to get me to bed.  This one did not cause hallucinations, thank goodness, and it wasn't as painful as the first one.  It lasted only 3 days.

I did send photos to the person on etsy and was immediately refunded.  I just don't get it.  Who sees someone order an unscented product and thinks, hey, I'll include a super strongly scented soap bar as a gift with this?  It was nauseating.

I have scheduled a doctor's appointment to see about getting a referral to a neurologist.  This is getting somewhat worrisome.  I'll probably end up with a CT scan, which is good, just in case these were more than migraines.

After I got over the second migraine I had one good day and woke up with a sore throat the next morning.  That progressed to sore ears, then left the ears and the snot fairy came and waved her magic wand over my nose.  That's finally waning and while I do still have a bit of a sore throat, it doesn't hurt when I swallow so I think it is on the way out.  Still have a dry cough and am very tired, though.

I hope I can manage to cook tomorrow.  I always turn vegetarian when I get sick because meat protein is too much work.  But I can feel the lack of protein and need to get back to my normal diet, especially because of the lack of iron.  Living on cheese, egg flower soup, potatoes, and zucchini is not the best diet, though it is subsistence level.  I'm just glad I had a lot of broth in the freezer, because heating it up and stirring an egg into it until it is cooked through was my highest level of cooking this week.  Everyone else had to fend for themselves.  I'll try to get around to posting last week's payday report this week, if I have the energy.

I haven't tried to log in since the day it kept logging me out whenever I hit post.  Notsomuch because I was fed up as that I wasn't doing particularly well.  The migraine to end all migraines hit me.  It was so bad I was having aural hallucinations.  I mean, I see auras all the time, it's part of my synesthesia, but they are tiny.  Like 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch and usually only on living things.  Not only was I seeing them on everything, they were 8 inches on objects and some of them weren't attached to anything, but were floating in big sweeps of color.

I also lost my ability to make words come out right, which has never happened before, but is a symptom of severe aural migraines.  That came back slowly over the next hour after I took my migraine medicine.  I did call the online emergency doctor's thing set up for our health insurance when I could talk again and talked to them.  I wanted to make sure it was a migraine and not a mini-stroke, though I was pretty sure it was migraine.  I still took an asprin when I took my migraine meds just in case.

My body was pulling to the left when I was walking, which is a sign of stroke, but my migraine was mostly centered on the right side of my head and the right side of the brain does control the left side of the body.  That was gone a few hours later and I didn't have any drooping.  Based on my symtpoms and the aural hallucinations, they reassured me it was likely just a really bad migraine, but if I started drooping to go to the hospital immediately.

I am still extremely sensitive to light so I am wearing my sunglasses in the house during the day and at night when I use my computer.  Still have a headache, but it is down to a normal level headache where I can function.  I didn't sleep for 24 hours, but then was able to sleep 12 hours straight and that helped a lot.  I've been sleeping more than usual as I recover.  I quit seeing things after the first day, so that was good.

I've never had one so severe.  I have had aural hallucinations with a migraine before, but they are much smaller blobs of floating colors with trails, not these huge things.  It was really weird and scary.

Obviously I didn't do anything financial over the last several days, but DH did by a new set of toilet guts for the toilet tank.  A part broke and the others showed a lot of wear and tear.  They haven't been replaced since 1985, so we decided to get a full set instead of just replace the broken pieces and the flapper.  It cost $20.98.  And it is so much nicer.  We don't have to hold down the flusher handle through the whole flush anymore. Something was preventing us from tightening it up before, because if we did it made the toilet run constantly.  Now it is a dream to flush.

Is anyone else having the issue of logging in, writing your blog entry, and it logging you out when you try to post it, thus evaporating your entry?  

I heard from my middle sister last night and BIL should finally be coming home next week.  He'll continue to need in home rehabilitation for his lungs and physical therapy to recover from the positions he was kept in and they are sending someone in to do that.  The doctors say there is no reason that he should have survived.  He had a really bad case of Covid and so many risk factors.  My sister and I both think it is the power of prayer.  There were hundreds of people praying for him.  When even doctors call it a miracle, what else can it be?

In other news, DS is getting paid more than we thought.  Instead of it being $13.79 an hour it is $17.79 an hour.  Apparently there is a $4 an hour pay bump for hazard pay for grocery workers in my state for working with the public during a pandemic.  Even only working 20 hours a week, that is going to allow him to make some pretty quick strides towards his goals.

Goal one for him is to save up enough for a $1000 Emergency Fund.  I know Dave Ramsay says $500 for single people, but since his next goal is to save up for a car, and it'll be a beater, we both feel like $1000 is a better idea.  He's setting aside 15% until he has the amount needed to open an IRA.  He's also setting aside 10% of each paycheck until he has enough to send in a donation to a religious charity of his choosing.

I have agreed to keep giving him an allowance of $30 per week (instead of $45) until he has finished his Emergency Fund, so long as he actually does his chores and garden work and doesn't blow them off.  That way he can pile the 75% that is left of his paycheck into the EF and knock it out over the next four weeks, but still have a little spending money.  We will revisit the allowance situation then.

Then he can start saving towards a car.  We figure if he can find something that runs for $2000 to start off with, that will take him an additional 2 months.  Plus he will need to have some money set aside for insurance and car maintainance, tabs, ownership transfer tax, etc, so maybe 3 months.  By 4 months he can start saving money to partially pay for his braces (I have $3500 that I've saved) if I haven't managed to save it all myself by then.  Our insurance does not cover orthodontia.

Once the braces are paid for he will start saving up to pay for the schooling required to become an electrician, as well as start saving for a better car.  If he moves to full time after the kids go back to school everything can be accellerated.  I do hope he can.  I'd like him to save up enough money that he can do the schooling he needs to do without having to work a job.

With his ADHD, OCD (both diagnosed last year), and bi-polar (recent diagnosis), I'm not sure it is good to overwhelm him by having to do both.  He seems to be under control with his meds, but I well know how that can change in a heartbeat.  I remember how hard it was for me to work full time and go to school full time because I didn't have the choice.  At least DS has support for his mental illnesses.  My parents didn't believe in mental illness.  To this day, despite seeing it up close and personal with 3 different family members, my mother still believes you can shake off being bi-polar by thinking positively.  But that's a rant for another day.

I spent $113.10 today, including tax and shipping.  Lane Bryant online is having a big sale and I was able to pick up two more of the really good bras for $35 each instead of $55 each and some discounted underwear that matches the two I already have that they were sold out of previously.  The money came out of the clothing fund.  I've been waiting to pounce on a sale.  These particular bras have been a game changer when it comes to comfort without sacrificing support.  It's the Cacique Comfort Bliss line, which comes dangerously close to the comfort of the discontinued Cacique Barely There line, that I am still salty about over a decade later.

DH's Mom bought him a new phone because he smashed the one he bought (not the screen part, though) about six months ago when he took the case off to clean it.  He can still call out with it, but it is hit and miss whether he receives phone calls, so after a month of trying to deal with it, he needed a new one because he has to have one for work since he is still working from home.  So he ordered the same one as I have, which has been pretty good so far.  He did pay for a new case and screen protector which cost $27.18 which came out of the household budget, so I don't really need to track it to anything.  And if he wants to clean his phone like that in the future he must do it in the center of the king size bed so if he drops it, it should be fine.

I ended up making pasta for dinner last night, prawns putanesca.  It was a new recipe and it was good.  Tonight we will be having T-bones from our whole beef we bought.  I am so looking forward to it.  I will be making baked potatoes for everyone else, but I have some leftover mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC three days ago that I need to finish off, so I'll do that for me.  Then tomorrow I am back on the gluten free band wagon.  It really does make me feel so much better when I avoid wheat.

It finally rained last night and well into the day.  This is the first real rain we've had all summer.  We had one day where it barely sprinkled, but otherwise it has been very dry and hot.  It was nice to see it.  Maybe it'll green up some of the lawns again.  They look like hay.  While we live in a very nice neighborhood, most people don't waste water on their lawns here.  They save it for their gardens, trees, and flower beds, which is what we are supposed to do.  In fact the only lawn that is green right now is owned by Evil Hummer Dude and his wife, who scoff at water restrictions.

I need to make up a meal plan for next week.  Meal planning keeps me away from the take out counter.  But first I need to stop wasting time on her, and go make dinner.  

$16,623.91 Starting EF Balance

+__,_87.92 Amount Added

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

$16,711.83

With the contributions that went in today, retirement now sits at $61,175.04, bringing net worth to $115,807.92.

I had $200 left in the grocery envelope from last payday, so I transferred that to the Hog Fund, bringing it to a total of $977.  Of course, we are still trying to find someone who does warranty work on the 9 month old Frigidaire freezer that isn't working right.  The Hog Fund may become a new freezer fund or a freezer repair fund, because there at least seem to be people who do non-warranty repair, as opposed to warranty repair, but it might be too expensive to be worth it and cheaper to buy a new one.

If this last guy does not call us back on Monday or doesn't do the work, I'm thinking of going to D&B and pleading our case.  We have bought a dishwasher, a fridge, a chest freezer, a small upright freezer, a mini-chest freezer, a washer, two dryers, a microwave, and at least one bed from them over the past 26 years.  I think a couple of more items, but I don't remember for sure.  We couldn't buy an upright freezer from them this time, because they didn't have any at the time we bought.  We did go there first.  If they had, we would have stuck with them.  But we are long time customers, so can't they please make an exception in this case?  It might work.  They only quit doing outside warranty work a couple of months ago.  I mean, it's worth a shot.  It has always been important to me to support local family businesses and I have as much as I could.

In addition to it being payday we had a tiny dividend check for 51¢ and a check from MIL for $120.00, so I just added that in to the budget.  I used part of it for a new envelope system and part for a small EF deposit.  Hopefully they will actually send me the red envelope system that I ordered this time.  My son will be taking the green one they mistakenly sent if they actually send me the red one, otherwise I am going to have to try to deal with their customer service, which I would rather avoid.  I hate dealing with online customer service.  Anyway, here's what went out today:

$277.23 Tithe

_500.00 Utilities

_200.00 Grocery Envelope

_500.00 Medical Fund

__75.00 Household Envelope

_118.18 Internet

__36.00 Garbage Fund (paid every 2 months)

_150.00 Car Insurance Fund

_100.00 Gas Money

__50.00 DH Blow Money

__50.00 My Blow Money

__90.00 Kids' Allowances

__87.92 Emergency Fund

_625.93 Citi

__32.56 Red Envelope System

I usually do $400 a month for groceries, but since DH could only go to the store with me yesterday I charged the shop to the Citi card and the left the other $200 that would have gone to the grocery fund to go to the Citi payment today.  We should be able to have a little more to add to the emergency fund this month if we keep our take out issue under control.  There is currently $477.22 left on the Citi card and some of the autopays have yet to be charged.  We will bring that down to zero by month's end.  I never carry a balance, but if we don't stop this, it could happen and I never want it to happen again.  It may not be much, but I didn't think I'd be able to add anything to the EF this week so I'm glad I could.

Next month I think I will increase the grocery budget to $500 like I talked about.  It may not be necessary with DD's dietary issues, but I want that cushion if it is.

 

 

 

I finally made it to the grocery store for a decent sized shop.  DS and I went to Whole Foods since today was his day off.  It really isn't as expensive as some people think.  Like all stores it depends on what you buy.  For organic, it can beat some of the other stores and some of their prices were lower than for regular produce or gluten free items in regular stores.  I never find moldy produce there which is beginning to be more and more of a problem at one store I shop at.  And it has more selection than say Trader Joe's, which I haven't been in in at least 9 months, because they were so draconian in their Covid practices.

I mean, the employees at TJ's were always rude, like shoving their way in front of you to stock something instead of waiting until you moved out of the way or rolling their eyes when the store layout had changed and you asked them were something was now, or when they discontinued an item that you bought a month before but they would lie and say that was discontinued months ago or a year ago.  I've had a couple of them knock me off balance because they just run into you.

But their Covid practices were what really pushed it over they line.  They were like 8 steps beyond what every other grocery store was doing.  I swear I expected to end up in the disinfection scene from New Earth on Doctor Who or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkUa_fVwCA  But they were inconsistent on enforcing it between registers.  And I got one too many rude cashiers when I asked why the other cashiers allowed you to stand in front of the plexiglass instead of making you wait 8 feet from the place where you could watch your prices ring up or start bagging your food, I was done.  They were just snarling and one even swore at me and I swear I was polite.  I've worked in the service industry, so I don't ever talk disrespectfully to employees even if they are being donkey hats as it gets you nowhere (and I never talked to customers that way either, no matter how exhausted I was).  If you have rules, everyone should follow them, not just one sole cashier.    There is nothing they have that I cannot get elsewhere anymore.  Plus their parking is, pardon my English, utter crap.  I was willing to put up with it when they were the only game in town, but they haven't been that for a long time.

Anyway, here is what I bought at Whole Foods:

2 uncured sliced meat selections (think chorizo, cappicola, etc.)

1 organic watermelon

2 jars of soy free Hoison sauce (first time I've found this)

2 whole organic rotisserie chickens

5 organic nectarines

1 2 lb bag organic French fries

1 box Lundberg's organic Spanish rice

4 boxes Jovial gluten free brown rice penne pasta

1 box almond flour crackers (gluten free)

1 jar organic dill pickle spears

1 box Vital Farms pasture raised butter (cheaper than Kerrygold)

1 box gluten free pancake mix

1 box gluten free organic cereal Cheetah Chomps (like Fruit Loops in concept, but healthy)

1 box of strawberry applesauce (4 shelf stable pouches)

1 small box organic baby spinach

8 Siggi's skyr yogurt (various flavors)

1 pint organic grape jelly

10 pouches organic baby food

1 box Annie's gluten free white cheddar and shells pasta

1 box Annie's gluten free cheddar and rice pasta

1 half gallon bottle of organic lemonade and iced tea (mixed)

1 pineapple

1 bag with 7 colored bell peppers

1 head of cauliflower 

1 lb sugar snap peas (which they rang up as a serrano, I see, which is a lot cheaper)

1 bunch green onions

1 6 inch piece daikon

2 heads of broccoli

1 large bok choy

3 lbs of dark red cherries

I spent $211.95 and that grocery cart was full.  I didn't buy much meat because we have a ton in the freezer.  I will have to go to one more store to buy milk, bread, gluten and soy free bread, uncured hot dogs, and then Whole Foods was sold out of ginger and black plums so I'd like to get those, too.  I shouldn't have to buy much else during the next two weeks, depending on how the fruit lasts.  It seems to not last as long with days in the 80's and 90's like right now.  The garden is producing lettuce, raspberries, zucchini, patty pan squash, and cucumbers now and it looks like I will have a lot ready by next week.

Oh, and the organic baby food pouches are because my daughter's gastropaeresis is acting up again, which makes it very hard for her to digest fiber.  This allows her to have some fruits and vegetables in a pureed form.  And since it is all organic, it really isn't that much cheaper to do it myself.  The convenience factor is worth it, though I will still puree any food I cook for her that can be pureed.  Right now having a soft food diet gives her digestive system a chance to rest without sacrificing nutrition.  It is very easy for her to become malnourished and I don't always have the stamina or freedom from pain to do it all myself anymore.  That particular yogurt was also for her.

I did order a shade cloth from Amazon last night for the strawberries.  It cost $30.46.  It's 10 x 13 and the two beds together are 12 x 4.  They are hooped so while I probably only needed 8 feet instead of 10 for the sides, this was what was available.  The strawberries are really struggling in this unrelenting heat and they are in the garden bed that gets the most sun during the day.  Watering well just has not been enough and I don't want to lose them.  I will move them next spring to a bed that gets shade during the hottest part of the day, assuming those beds do get built in late August and September as planned.  I know at least one will, but I don't know if all four will.  The potatoes and tomatoes are thriving, but I don't know what is going on with my peppers this year.  They are stunted.  I need to fertilize with fish emulsion.

There is the sweetest  young cat coming by.  I think she is descended from Mrs. Norris, a stray cat that was pregnant a couple of years ago, because it looks just like her.  This is the most beautiful tabby in the traditional grey and black stripes.  I think it is about five or six months old.  It is just shy of the lanky teenage cat stage.  It looks healthy and like it is eating, and I saw it with a mouse once, but there is no collar and when you pet the friendly little thing it has a lot of flea poop that comes off its fur, so it is infested.

It is what I call friendly/wary, which makes me think it has been recently dumped or got loose, but was raised among humans until then.  I am putting out fresh water for it, but mostly the neighbor is looking out for it.  It'll wind around my legs and loves to be pet, but it will not let me pick it up.  I do wash with soap anywhere it touches me, though, as soon as I go in.  I'm not getting flea bites or taking fleas into the house.  Any clothes it touches go straight into the washer.

I wish I wasn't allergic to cats and DS wasn't.  I haven't had one since the cat I got when I was ten died when I was 26 and I do like my ability to breathe.  But this cat just makes me want to adopt it.  It is beautiful and sweet and has such lovely eyes.  I'm afraid I might fall in love with it.  It is hard to be the cat person you are when it makes you miserable to have one in your home.  The neighbor is looking out for it and will probably adopt it or at least bring it in for the worst part of the winter.  She's a soft touch and all of her cats for the last 3 decades have found her, not the other way around.  I might buy a flea comb if it gets really comfy with me and see if I can't help it.  And maybe a flea collar.  Do they make break away flea collars these days?

Retirement went over $60K this week, so I thought I'd do an update, even though the next contributions go in on Friday and it should jump significantly if nothing wrecks the market this week.  I was a touch concerned about the president defying the Supreme Court and if people start worrying about another step towards a loss of the checks and balances of our government, but it didn't seem to.  We have Congress and the Supreme Court for a reason.  I don't like end runs by any president, which is what executive orders are, and a huge step towards authoritarianism.  It riles my nature as an Independent.  Most people won't pay attention to that sort of thing until they wake up in a country that no longer resembles a democratic republic.  But anyway, $60K!  It's another mini-goal on my way to my next big one.

I have to get excited at the one place in life where I feel like I am making progress this year.  So retirement is now at $60,370.41, a rise of $1,172.71 since my last check in.

I added the interest for last month to the EF, a whopping $3.85.  Anyone else remember when savings accounts paid 7% interest.  I wish we had that now.  It'd be nice to actually earn a real amount on my EF and sinking funds.

$16,620.06 Starting Balance

+__,__3.85 Interest Added

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

$16,623.91 New Balance

So net worth goes up by $1176.56, bringing it to $115,003.29.  So I guess that interest was worth something.  It tipped me over $115K.

So I am dragging my sorry self back in to post.  I had a bad weekend with my thigh muscles being absolutely on fire and it made it hard to focus on anything else.  No blogging, no writing at all.  It started to pass on Sunday morning and except for some occasional shooting fingers of fire it is much better, though the side and front muscles all feel like a massive bruise and are tender to the touch.  This is all from a massive psyatic nerve pinch.

I ordered some of the special eye drops my daughter needs for her Sjogren's disease, almost $53 for a 90 pack.  Then my son's specail inhaler, which is not covered by our insurance but is discounted under the Walgreen's prescription helper card, was $168.  They are suspecting reactive airway disease and he'll be seeing an allergist/immunologist in October.  His condition really kicked up after that big sickness we had on March of 2020 (suspected Covid, might have been a bad flu), which none of us bounced back from for about six months.  I will be glad when Friday gets here and I can dump another $500 into the medical fund.  Hopefully some of that can go towards orthodontia savings, because that has been stuck at $3000 due to having to buy a new walker for my daughter and one for myself, which fortunately I have only had to use 3 times so far.  Most days I can get by with my cane and once in a while I have a really good day and don't need anything, although those are becoming rarer.

It looks like my son will be working 20 hours a week with his new job, at least until the high school kids go back to high school, whether in person, or more likely, back to video as it is looking like we might be heading back into lock downs.  Then it is likely he will be moved to full time.  Hopefully he can cope with a mask, because they reinstituted them this week for their vaccinated employees.  He has his inhalers, although he had to keep them in his locker as they could react to some of the chemicals they have for cleaning.

The library has also reinstituted them for everyone coming in.  That's true of all city buildings.  I'm suspecting they know something the general public does not yet, and that they will probably be making everyone wear them inside again soon.  Honestly, I've been debating it myself.  I was planning on it for the cold season anyway, because I still ended up with a lot less colds, despite the fact it is hard on my asthma.  I'm not looking forward to it, but I know what a bad case of Covid did to my BIL more recently and I do not want it to happen in my immediate family.  Although they are saying this delta variant isnt as hard on the vaccinated, they do still get sick.  And since I know how long it took me to feel normal again after what we suspect was Covid last time, I don't want to go through anything like that again.

I finally feel up to cooking tonight and am thinking about thawing out some steaks from the grass fed organic whole beef we purchased, making some fried potatoes to go with, and baking some yellow zucchini from our garden.  I've picked two so far, but haven't eaten any yet.  The cucumber and lettuce was really good, though.

My goal for the rest of the week and next week is no eating out.  We've really got to reign that in again.  It causes too much careless spending and takes a dent out of the money I want to save each month, if not wipes it out completely.  I wish I could get back that focus I had when we were paying off debt.  I know it is not as bad as it could be.  We are contributing 15% to the 401k, after all.  But I do want that EF to grow from 3 months to 6 months and it is not going to happen if we don't put it in check.  It's been over a year that we've been debt free.  And I feel like we've wasted a lot of it due to this kind of nonsense.  I need to get my motivation back.

Although one place I do have my motivation back is my diet.  I am off the soda and caffeine again and back to my diet.  I've lost 5.2 pounds so far.  I really need to do this to get the pressure off my psyatic nerve.  The orthopedist/neurosurgeon said it'll probably take about 50 pounds for a significant difference, but even a few pounds will make a small difference and I'm thinking it has made some in the last couple days, at least with the fire, if not the numbness.  I also feel a little difference in the disc pain, too, so here's hoping I keep my motivation, although pain is a very big motivator.

Tomorrow is DS's day off, but he has a dentist appointment and an appointment with the sleep doctor that I have to take him to and then hopefully we can make it to Whole Foods.  Not much of a day off for him, but stuff has to get done.

I found out Whole Foods carries a grape jelly that is not made with corn syrup.  Grape jelly is my favorite, but I cannot have corn syrup or I get really sick, so I haven't had it in ages.  Since the last time I made some and I can't remember when that was.  I also want to get some of the gluten free Jovial pasta.  The closer store only carries the spaghetti and the penne, but they are always out of penne.  Whole Foods carries a lot more choices.  It's just harder to get over there since it is so out of the way.  I might see if they have any duck breasts while I am there.  It's been a long time since we have had duck.

I need to go through the new sales ads and see if there is anything good at Fred Meyer since it is right across the street from Whole Foods.  We won't be able to do our typical grocery shopping trip on Friday this week as DS is working, but we don't need that much anyway, just fresh fruit, chicken, deli ham, deli turkey, and maybe some fish if any looks good and it isn't too expensive.  I'm not sure when DH and his boss are going to be able to make it out fishing, but I hope it is soon.

All right, that about wraps it up.