Halloween decor

As you can see, I did indeed get tired of posting about finances.  We are still watching what we spend for the most part, although we've been able to ease off a little bit.  So far everything is being paid out of regular income, and we've not had to dip into savings.  We were able to schedule the next thing on our to-do list, which was something on our heating unit that's been getting worse over the last couple of years.  That was fixed last week.  

Please enjoy my Halloween decorations: 

Yep, that's it.  I found this little ceramic ghost that lights up with different colors a few years ago at a humane society yard sale.  We've never really decorated for Halloween very much. Our house is off the road and our driveway is not the easiest to turn around in, so the first several years we lived here we got at most 3 or 4 trick or treaters.  After my mom moved to town, we started going to her house on the 31st and enjoying the crowds that she gets.  Last year there were over 250.   

Last night my mom, middle sister, and myself went to the historical society and listened to them tell stories of murders that happened in our town long ago. That sounds really weird when I put it like that. It was billed more as a spooky kind of thing, and it was pretty much just a straight forward telling, so not exactly as we had hoped, but we were glad to get out and support the local community.  

Spending the last couple of weeks

The last couple of weeks haven't been too spendy.  I reported last time about how I backed into my husband's car, dented his bumper and broke my tail light. We actually wound up having good news for both cars.  Our deductible for each car is $250 and I wondered if maybe I could fix the tail light myself.  So I found a couple good videos on Youtube and watched them over and over, and convinced myself I could do it.  I ordered a used OEM part from ebay for $104.26 including tax and "free" shipping.  And.....I did it!  I had to have help from my husband to get the old part loose but I'm happy to say it's working and looks good as new.  

We made an appointment for an estimate at a local body shop for his car, and when he got there, the man went under the car with his heat gun and popped the dent out.  When my husband tried to pay, the guy said no, because there are things more important than money.  Such a nice surprise, and of course they have us as future customers in case we ever need them again.  

Non-regular Expenses Sept 22-October 4

Ebay 104.26 (tail light)

local coffee trailer 10.75 (husband)

Groceries 46.11

Political donation 10.00 (husband) 

Groceries 61.10

Lunch out 59.51 (after husband's dr appt in another city)

Groceries 96.60

Chewy 61.36 (dog)

Political donation 10.00 (husband)

Ice for cooler 6.71 (for our Costco purchases 2 1/2 hours from home)

Lunch out 38.90 (after another dr appt for husband in the big city) 

Costco 284.41 

Chewy 125.09 (dog)

Wendy's 10.72 (broke down and got French fries for both of us and a Sprite for me)

The dog continues to give us some extra expenses and that's ok.  Not one bit of regret about that.  I think we are on a good path now with his food and meds so expenses will continue to be there but should become more regular and spaced out a bit.  

We always eat a meal when we go out of town for medical appointments and I don't see that changing. 

Ice for cooler because we forgot to bring the cooler packs we keep in the garage freezer.  

Costco was lots of produce, bag of rice, OTC meds, canned goods, nuts, a pack of Beyond burgers, olive oil, soap, bread, coffee.  

Wendy's was our only unplanned "slip" and I can tell you how that happened.  My husband took his mom to an appointment and then decided to get Starbucks after.  He then called me and said "Hey, you want anything" at which point I said "I haven't had fries in forever."  The end.  

Overall we are doing pretty good about being careful with our money right now.  We have enough to pay off the big credit card bill in full that comes from the vet bill and foundation repair work we had done.  Our goal was to not have to touch savings to pay those off and it looks like we will be able to do that.  

A Bunch of Nothin'

What have I been up to?  Pretty much nothing.  Just normal life, a couple of medical appointments out of town for the husband, taking care of the dog, the cats, and the house.  Listing and selling a few things on eBay.  In other words, just a quiet life.  And I'm ok with that.  I have had periods of life where it's one drama after the other and the ol' nervous system does not do well.

I bought a tie out for Milo, just to give him more mental stimulation.  I ONLY use it when I'm out there with him because his anxiety creeps up when he's alone, not to mention I don't want anyone to think I'm tying my elderly dog out and just leaving him out there.   I've got a hammock and he has a Coolaroo-type bed where we can hang out while he's outside. We don't get a lot of traffic but I thought he might enjoy the different sites from the front yard he doesn't normally get to see. He didn't really "get" it, and kept trying to go back toward the house, but I'm hopeful he will start to enjoy himself.

It's once again persimmon time.  How do you know?  When the persimmons fall to the ground, they are ready or just about ready.  If they are not quite ready they will finish ripening in the house.  

I finally sold this thing!  The cushions are sun-worn but in good shape other than being faded.  The buyer can either recover them or use outdoor fabric spray paint on them.  The glider itself is heavy and I hope the buyer gets many years of good use out of it as we did.  

Expenses This Past Week

Expenses last week-ish

Saturday $100.95 I ordered a different low-fat food for Milo the dog to try. Thankfully he likes it. 

Sunday $45.47 I ordered pill pockets for (you guessed it) Milo the dog plus a pack of wooden dowels for my husband to fix an old table we have.  We went by Lowe's and spent $6 for some brackets so the husband could also fix a rolling roller we have. 

Monday $0

Tuesday $85.32 WM and Kroger plus an unscheduled political donation of $11. Groceries, paper towels, mouthwash, dish soap.

Thursday 32.38 concert ticket for me.  Husband is not interested in going so I'm going to go support our little performing arts center here in town and watch a Beach Boys cover band.  I have good memories of the Beach Boys.  My dad was 24 when I was born and loved listening to and singing along with the Beach Boys.  As the only kid in the family for nearly 11 years, I mostly listened to my parents' music, which meant I knew a lot of 60's and 70's songs.  

Friday $94.25.  Big sigh.  My husband came home from work to go to Milo's follow-up vet appointment and parked outside the garage so it was easier to set Milo's steps up beside my car, which is the designated pet vehicle.  Remember, the Spleenless Wonder is almost 15, which  equates to 96 for a dog his size, and he can no longer hop up into my Rav4.  He also has trouble holding on in the backseat like he used to.  He loves to stick his nose out the window and feel the wind, which is fine except he doesn't need to be thrown around in the car.  So I bought a tether that connects his halter to the seatbelt.  And he went absolutely NUTS because he couldn't move around like usual.  So as I was backing out of the garage, I was focused on him and didn't pay enough attention to how I was backing out, completely forgot my husband was parked back there, and backed into his car.  I felt like a complete idiot of course.  My car "only" got the left brake light messed up.  The housing will have to be replaced, which I'm planning on doing myself.  (Cross your fingers--it looks simple enough.) Meanwhile I bought some red lens repair tape at Autozone for $7.12 which will keep it dry and hopefully keep me from getting pulled over.  The bulb still works.  I got the claim submitted for my husband's vehicle repair and we are getting an estimate later this week.  And then I went to Kroger and bought lots of produce plus ate my feelings a bit and bought chips.  $87.13

Saturday $0 My mom took the entire family out to lunch at a local Italian restaurant.  We had enough leftovers to for dinner too.  

Sunday $49.60 online for groceries and a 6-pack of RFID-blocking cards to go in every family members wallet.  No I'm not an overreacting conspiracy theorist, I promise, but I've just heard from some people lately that have had multiple cards cloned and the cards never left their wallet, so I figure peace of mind is worth a little bit of money. 

What could I have done differently this past week?  Well, certainly I could have NOT backed one car into the other.  But it was a mistake and I wouldn't continue to beat up on my husband if he was the one who did it so I guess I'll try not to beat up on myself about it.  

Anytime you change to a new diet and new meds, you have a lot of expenses up front.  And that's where we are with Milo.  Now that we have found a food he likes and have his meds down to just the two new lifelong ones (one for his liver and one for his gallbladder) we hopefully have settled into a nominal spending routine for him. 

Groceries are somewhere I'm sure I could always do better.  We do eat 100% of our meals and snacks from home generally speaking, and right now we are for sure.  I use coupons, watch sales, and try not to buy lots of junky foods but sometimes it sneaks in.  (See: chips.) 

Onward!

The Last Few Days

 Nothing much exciting has been going on around here.  Just the usual errands, housework, reading, spending time with the pets situation.  Our weekend was spent at home, which is how we like it most of the time.  We did get out to take my mil her groceries, do her meds, and pick up her laundry.  

Some of my seeds have started sprouting, so I guess that's pretty exciting.  Here you see collards.  I just went rogue and dropped several in a large pot instead of spacing out in a row in the planter.  

Norman has been enjoying his time on the deck.  

I'm still doing the "don't spent unless you really need to" challenge so at the end of the week I'll tally that up. 

Thursday and Friday

Yesterday was a day of errands:  I dropped all the food and treats that Milo can no longer eat at the humane society, did a pretty big grocery shop, stopped by the drugstore for a refill, and picked up a case of Milo's food at the vet.  

What I thought about buying

Since I was at the grocery store, I was tempted to buy things I absolutely did not need. I know some people swear by getting a pickup order but we get so much fresh produce that I really want to pick that out myself.  I did pretty good, though I did buy some gingersnaps I hadn't planned on getting.  

What I spent

142.05 at the grocery store.  This was all on food--no items for pets or cleaning supplies.  My husband has a bad habit of getting a drink out of the vending machine at work, and that adds up, so I bought drinks at the grocery store for him instead.  Gardein soup was finally on the clearance shelf so I bought all of those.  These were over 4.50 when they were full price, then went down to clearance on the regular shelf to 2.65, and finally were at 1.29 on the clearance shelf.  So I bought the last of what they had--7 total. Peet's coffee was on sale so I got 3 of those for the husband. I "saved" 27% and would have saved more if I had remembered to bring the $11 off coupon I had been sent.  Oh well, next time.  

61.50 at the vet for a case of prescription dog food.  

Wednesday evening I went through my little garden and picked some peppers.  No they are not pickled.  The little red ones are lunchbox sweet peppers and the husband has requested I grow those again next year.  The red ones will all be eaten fresh, and the others will be frozen and used in dishes later.  

I've felt a little off the last couple of days and had about a degree of fever last night.  Just enough to feel slightly sick, so I haven't accomplished much of anything around the house.  

Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11.  I am far away from NYC but of course everyone who was old enough remembers where they were when they heard what was going on.  My husband had the day off work and we had taken a computer to the computer repair place near us.  I waited in the car and had the radio on.  When I heard what was going on, I went inside to tell my husband, but he already knew because there was a TV at the business.  And then the owner of the business said something like "Oh no.  And I just invested money in the stock market."  He wasn't worried about all the people who had been injured or killed, that was obvious.  Needless to say we never patronized that business again.  

Wednesday: Spending it all on the dog

Yesterday was an easy low-spend day.  I only had two things I needed to buy, and it was for Milo.  Today will be different because I need to make a grocery run and stock up on canned food for Milo from the vet. 

Things I thought about spending money on:

I hate the cords that hang down from the TV that's mounted in the living room.  Ideally, we'd have an electrician come and install a hidden plug. But that is at the very bottom of the list of the things I intend to spend money on right now. 

Frugal things:

I sorted through all the books we've read in the last few months and have 10 all set to go to Thriftbooks tomorrow.  I'll get around $10 added to my account, which will come in handy either at Christmas or if I want to buy myself a book in the future.  

I redeemed my Purina points for a $10 coupon toward cat food. 

The Spleenless Wonder is on a new OTC pill that isn't cheap and since I added it to auto ship at Chewy, I got 35% off the first shipment.  

I sold an item on eBay and I'll make $12.69 after fees.  

Things I actually spent money on

Chewy $89.10, which includes one bottle of the supplement and one bag of low-fat treats.