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. 

How much can I save?

Since we've had some unexpected costs, plus some expected but still expensive ones, I thought I'd give myself a little challenge.  We knew about the foundation work but didn't know when we scheduled it that we would need 4 new tires on my car, some work done to our heating unit, and our fence was going to need some work.  We have savings and an income that we can use for these items but I'd like to not have to dip into longterm savings if possible.  

My challenge to myself is to report everything I spend, starting Tuesday, September 8th.   How long will this go on?  I don't know.  Until I get tired of it I guess. Some of the bills are due this month, and some in October. This does not include regular bills such as insurance, utilities, or regular donations, but will include any discretionary spending. 

I thought something else that would be interesting would be to include the things I *thought* about spending money on, but didn't.  It's kind of amazing how many things popped into my head on just the first day. 

Tuesday September 9th:  

Thought about

 Because I looked at a bra ad, I am now being served up ads from endless companies who promise me the exact bra I need for my "type" of body.  

Leaving home this morning I thought "I really should get a car wash."  

Ordering a new low-fat dry food for Milo that he might like better than the current one.  This is on hold for right now. When it comes to family members (including pets) we don't skimp, so if it's necessary it will happen.

I'm currently really enjoying a new mystery series, and I briefly thought about buying the next 2 in the series since they aren't available on Libby or at my local library.  I do have credit at Thriftbooks so it's a possibility in the future, but not now.  I've got PLENTY of books here at home I can read first.  

I would love to get some more mulch to fix where the pollinator bed was messed up due to the foundation work, and for the bed on the other side of the deck too.  I'd probably need about 5 bags.

Spent

 I did spend $10.25 on 2 cans of the new prescription low-fat dog food for Milo.  He just won't eat the dry food by itself.  He's elderly and healing from major surgery right now, so it's not the time to play hardball on his eating.  He liked it so I'll be buying a case of it in a couple days.  

 

Tuesday

Tuesday was a regular ol' "work around the house" day.  I needed to do a bunch of little things:  

-small load of laundry (how did something that was sticky and looked like lollipop drippings get on my house shoe?)

-got together all the dog food and treats that Milo can no longer have so I can donate to the local humane society

-washed the dog food container and let it dry all day in the sun

-planted some fall seeds--broccoli, turnip greens, collards, lettuce, kale.  Will they grow?  I'm hoping at least the kale and turnip greens will, because my husband really likes those.  

-pulled a few weeds.  One type of weed has been trying to take over my pollinator bed so every time I'm near the bed I pull a few to try to keep on top of it. 

-I made a quick trip to the vet to get Mr. Picky Pants (aka Milo) some canned food that works with his new "protect the gallbladder"diet.  He hasn't always been so picky.  In the last few months he's decided he doesn't really love dry dog food.  I'm mixing the dry and wet together to make the wet last longer.  He will begrudgingly eat some of the dry food if he can't avoid it.  Ha. 

-cooked a dinner of tempeh, brown rice, and broccoli.  The tempeh was in a marinade for several hours, and it was poached before that, so the taste is more mellow.  

-sat outside on the deck to read and got bit by a red ant for the first time ever.  It climbed inside the leg of my shorts and got me. I don't know the difference between a fire ant and what I would use call a red ant, but I know the dang thing hurt like I was stung by a wasp, although it went away a lot faster than when I was stung by 2 wasps last year.  

Didn't See That Coming

We had an interesting end to this past week. First off, the foundation work is done for now.  We have one more area that needs some steel under it, but that will wait until we get the encapsulation done in our crawlspace sometime next year hopefully.  Quite a bit of my flower bed was destroyed but I knew that was going to happen.  This year was a transition year in that bed anyway, as I am converting it to a pollinator garden.  Hopefully some of the perennials I planted in that now-blank area will come back next year.  

On Friday, we went to a vet appointment for Milo.  He has been showing some cognitive changes for a while now but lately there has been more pacing and panting, so I wanted to make sure he wasn't in pain for another reason.  Our vet started checking Milo out and immediately said he needed an ultrasound.  It turns out he had a tumor in his spleen the size of a softball!  It was pushing against his intestines and I can only imagine how much pain it was causing.  Splenic tumors are very vascular and his was a ticking time bomb, so he was in surgery about an hour later. We got to see him for a minute before surgery, and tell him we loved him and what a good boy he was.  He's an anxious dog anyway, and now at nearly 15 his hearing is gone and his eyes aren't great.   

The day after surgery 

The biggest worry was that they would open him up and find a cancer that had spread.  In that situation, we would have made the decision to let him go.  You can imagine how it felt sitting by the phone and waiting for a call.  Thankfully they didn't find any other tumors, he did well, and only needed to stay one night.  

He does have an enlarged gallbladder and removal in a dog is a risky surgery with high mortality, so we are doing all we can to avoid that possibility.  Milo is now on a low-fat prescription food and 2 meds for life.  He's also got 4 other new meds right now (2 antibiotics and 2 for pain) so we are still getting used to all of that.  The splenic tumor has been sent off for pathology so we can see exactly what it is.  If it's benign then we don't have to worry that it could be what is going on with his gallbladder as well.  He goes back in a little under 2 weeks to have his sutures (there must be 20) removed and we should find out the pathology then.  

3 days after surgery

My husband had to work Labor Day weekend but was off Labor Day, and I spent the weekend at home making sure Milo was OK.  Hopefully this week will be a quiet and boring one!

 

This Week

 This week we have been having foundation work done on our home.  We knew for a while this was coming, and decided it was finally time.  Apparently the people who built the house made the spans too wide, so it allowed the house to sag.  Ah, the joys of home ownership.  

The men have been working hard for 3 days out in 100+ degree days with jackhammers and shovels, and installing steel beams in the crawlspace, so I am definitely not going to complain about noise and/or expense.  Milo the dog will complain about strangers walking in HIS yard and coming into HIS house though.  He can't hear anymore but he can feel the vibrations.  Apparently they dig underneath the foundation, and then they insert steel until the house is back to where it should be.  

The cats are also freaked out.  They walk around quickly and low to the ground.  Norman spent the first day hiding under the bed covers, as he usually does if there's any kind of stranger in the house or working outside.  

Here I am checking on Norman, after he's been hiding for 5 hours. Please note the panting of the anxious dog in the background.  

After they left yesterday, it still felt like 105, but I was determined to get some time out on the deck.  I had my patio umbrella open and brought the fan outside to give a little air circulation.  

 Reading is a big love of mine, and I especially enjoy reading outside while watching the hummingbirds zoom around the feeder that's a couple feet away from my chair.  One often will fly right by our heads when they are chasing another hummer off.  We call that "buzzing the tower."  

Currently I'm reading "The Good Life" by Scott and Helen Nearing.  I've had this book since we went to our very first Vegetarian Summerfest in PA.  It's pretty good.  I'm about halfway through.  I'm also reading the most recent Thursday Murder Club on Kindle from Libby.  I try to have one fiction and one non-fiction book going at the same time.  

Also this week, Cosette, 13 years old and mom to the 3 "kittens" who are now 12 years old, and also big fan of the RBF, had a dental.  In the end she needed 7 teeth removed, including all 4 canines.  Three had cavities and one had an abscess.  With an abscessed tooth most of us would be begging the dentist for antibiotics and pain meds but Cosette never drooled, stopped eating, or acting like anything hurt.   Cats:  hiding pain and/or sickness since they evolved probably.  She is currently zooming around the house due to the transdermal opioid pain med she has.  Yesterday she loved up against me over and over in an aggressive way.  Ha!  

A few days in Louisville

 Last week I went away on a girls' trip with my mom and one of my sisters to Louisville, KY. 

Electric charging station at a popular chain gas station.  Nice to see more availability. 

We stayed in an Airbnb in Indiana, across the river from Louisville, and it was a good location. The house had 2 rooms with queen beds and one room with 2 twin beds.  I chose this room and I was surprised at how easy it was to sleep in a twin bed, not having done that in 30+ years.  We had a nice covered patio area too, and we enjoyed sitting out there in the beautiful weather.  

The first night we went to a Chinese restaurant that appealed to all 3 of us:  Mom could have chicken, I could have sesame tofu, and my sister could have either. (She chose General's tofu.) I love anytime I can get a vegan sesame dish, and this was a good one.  We also had an appetizer of dumplings and they were delicious.  

The next day we went to a casino, which is something my mom enjoys and my sister and I are happy to go along with her and play a bit.  

For dinner we had pizza.  Again, it's so nice to be in a bigger city where there are restaurants that serve both vegan and non-vegan food, so my whole family can enjoy.  Mine had pepperoni and cheese, both vegan of course, and roasted garlic.  Yum!  I ate on this thing for 2 days.  My sister and I drove to Cinnaholic and picked up some yummy dessert.  I had the maple pecan pie cinnamon roll.  

The next morning we had two events scheduled.  In the morning we took a trolley tour of downtown Louisville.  There were only 5 of us total so it was almost like having a private tour.  The tour guide/driver was great.  She enjoys history and she knew a lot about the area, even though she's not originally from there.  I love learning about the history of an area so this was the perfect tour for me.  We went through a large area of Victorian homes and stopped at Churchill Downs.  

After the trolley tour we went back to the house and rested, because that evening we were signed up for a sunset riverboat cruise.  I enjoy being out on the water, but only if I'm out in the fresh air.  We needed to sit inside because my mom was unable to walk up the 17 stairs to get to the outside area.  I was glad to do it so we could all be together because that was the whole purpose of this trip.  There was a band playing oldies and new songs.  It was basically like being in a loud nightclub on the water. Outside the music was fine but inside it was a bit much for those of us who weren't going to be dancing and would have liked to have seen the sights.  Oh well, now I'll know if we ever do it again.  Daytime narrated cruise ONLY if you have to be inside.  We still laughed a lot and enjoyed being together.  

The next day we had scheduled a day of rest, because we knew Mom would be tired from the late evening.  We slept in, then went to a breakfast/brunch restaurant.  This vegan was able to have a bowl of oatmeal with pecans, strawberries, and brown sugar, and I liked it.  My mom is a big breakfast person so mainly we wanted to make sure she got to enjoy herself.  

We just hung out most of the rest of the day.  In the evening I drove to a nearby town and picked up Indian food for my sister and me. I ordered naan, vegetable pakoras, samosas, and gobi Manchurian.  Yes I made a meal out of bread and appetizers.  My mom is not what you'd call an adventurous eater so she stuck with a frozen meal she had picked up.  We all got in our pjs and while we ate we watched a movie.  

The next morning it was time to pack up and drive home.  Once again we went by Cinnaholic and got some cinnamon rolls for ourselves and for the family members who had to stay home.  

My husband got the blueberry pie version.  

It was a wonderful few days but I was glad to get home to my husband after being away.  I'm so glad for the memories I got to make with my mom and middle sister.  

  

My little garden

I have a small container garden on my deck.  When it was cooler I had two lettuce plants that grew very well and gave me lots of crisp lettuce for veggie burgers.  They of course are bolting now that it's 100+ degrees outside and I'm just leaving them to see what it looks like when they flower.  I also managed to grow some turnip greens for my husband.  Again, not a hot weather crop so they are gone now.  

I had decent luck with bell peppers and cucumbers this year.  I really only grew the cucumbers for my dog.  He likes to pick them himself. Yes, I'm serious.  I'll include some photos of him and his beloved cucumbers next time.  

A few peppers and green beans

On this day, everything was chopped and frozen for future use.  I have a few recipes I use the bell peppers in and it's nice not to have to worry about whether or not I have a fresh one.  The hot peppers I didn't grow on purpose.  Apparently one of my supposed bell pepper plants was actually a Hungarian wax pepper.  When I saw it growing I thought it was a banana pepper so my husband crunched into it.  Needless to say, he only ate one bite.  Those are also chopped separately and I'll use them sparingly for recipes that call for a jalapeño. 

There's a couple extra yellow bell peppers in this photo chopped up that I got from the grocery store on clearance.  

Zinnia in my pollinator garden

Last fall I dug up a large flower bed near the deck and transplanted most of the flowers to a shady spot in the back of our yard.  It's actually a small fenced area where we have our pet cemetery where they are buried and more recently, their ashes sprinkled.  I decided to turn the deck flower bed into a wildflower garden for pollinators.  It's doing pretty good for the first year growing from seed.  Since the majority of the plants are perennial I'm hopeful they will be back for many years to come.  

8 years

I haven't posted here in EIGHT years.  I just kind of lost interest in blogging.  Probably because I was posting more on Facebook.  And now I've lost interest in that, and have for the last couple of years.  I miss posting photos so thought I might give blogging a try again, and here I am.  

Update on who I am:  I live in the Southern U.S, am in my 50's, married for over 30 years, no kids, house full of pets.  I have a mom, a mil, two sisters, and a nephew who all live nearby.  I fostered cats and kittens and did TNR for many years but am taking a break right now.  I do hope to get back to it in the near future.  

 I sell a bit on Ebay, although frankly I've lost most of my interest in that too.  I'm just working through what I already have in inventory.  I try to live life frugally where I can.  Helping others and donating to causes we believe in are very important to us.  My husband and I are vegan and have been for over 20 years. I don't believe in being a pushy vegan.  Nobody else we are close to is vegan and we happily eat alongside them.  

Please enjoy a photo of our (almost) 15 year old dog, Milo, recently enjoying his first ever pup cup.  He can't hear anymore and doesn't see all that well but he can certainly taste that whipped cream. 

I suppose that's enough of an update for now.