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We've got MM(18) all moved in at his college.  Phew!  The first week was pretty much a vacation for him.  Orientation week, with some practical orientation stuff but also a bajillion activities.  Some highlights were crawdad fishing and beach bonfires.  Classes started last week.  All my fingers and toes are crossed that the kids can stay on campus this year.  
MM(18) had never gone back to school after the pandemic started, so I can't even...
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One of the things I've been doing is trying some new recipes. I like to challenge myself and see if I can make new stuff. I did two things this week and both I felt were a success.
 
One was making zucchini marmalade. A friend had dropped off some zucchini so I felt like I could experiment. The link to the recipe is found here:
 
https://practicalselfreliance.com/zucchini-marmalade/
 
The other  was a buttermilk corn bread, but instead of putting it a...
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Although, our income will not be reduced until mid November, we will be living on my husband's retirement income alone starting October 1st. It will give me (I'm the CFO in our household) an opportunity to twick or make changes to our budget. As it stands, we'll have a surplus of $750 in our budget. If it proves to be correct, I will put half of it in our savings and the other half to make contributions to my Roth IRA. Any money I can make will be going to fun things like traveling,...
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Things at work have been super out of control due to COVID. Patient volumes have been hitting records almost daily and the stress level has been through the roof. We're all exhausted and burned out. And all of this is in the setting of us being short staffed for both providers and techs.
Along with in-person care, we also offer telehealth and that system has gotten even more out of control. The expectations placed upon us to cover that (at the same time we're working in physical...
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Debts
Mortgage −$119,744.93 (-$232.69)
Savings
Roth IRAs +$21,328 (-$2)401K +$43,340 (-$146)Emergency Fund +$9,247 (+$250)Maternity Fund +$2,000 (+$575)Animal Fund +$1,212 (-$250)Car Fund +$20 (-$0)HSA +$2,997  (+$335)
Overall: +$994.69
 
Our smallest gain in a while but still a gain. Markets were all down, I had to buy hay, and I've been puchasing a lot a little items that I needed since this was my offical last week of work! I also have some smaller saving...
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Last week I needed to go into the dentist and discovered that I had a cracked tooth. After 2 visits and some significant pain I am happy to say that I am finally feeling much better, with just some minor soreness. This not only physically hurt, but it hurt my wallet too. Even with decent dental insurance I’m still estimated to owe around $1200. A large portion of this is the cost of the crown I will need. It also includes another small procedure on another...
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Significant loss of income is expected by mid November in our home. I am grateful that we have no mortgage, no small children to support and no consumer debt  The loss of income is voluntary. This was a second try at a profession that I feel may have reached the end of the road. We will be living on my husband's income which derives from a dimunitive state pension, early social security benefits and $500 surplus on a rental property. Our health insurance is covered by the...
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So I've always struggled budgeting.  Even before with less money I've alway reversed budgeted.  Figured out what was important and what needed to be saved and then spent the rest.This time I'm sort of doing it but also sort of tracking my spending.  I've been reasonable successful at tracking eating out and groceries which are the budget busters.  It's easy to track airline tickets, hotel stays, or big ticket one off spending.  It's even easy to track monthly...
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It's been forever since I received a property tax refund. We're supposed to get one this year. A few months back we received a letter than we had to fill out so I'm guessing it delayed it some. Normally the refunds are sent in August. I've got to go find the paperwork that will tell us what we should expect to receive back so I check the "where's my refund" page. It's supposed to be like $400 or so. 
My spouse injured their ankle about 7 weeks ago, this has put more on my...
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Well, Tracfone has proven to be a miserable experience with getting the new smartphone set up.  They sent a phone without a SIM card installed and I could not understand the instructions for inserting it....they had a web page with pictures but my brain does not process that kind of information well and there was no way to actually speak to a person to ask a couple of questions.....so I gave up and called Consumer Cellular and ordered an iPhone from them instead.  They...
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I was feeling better this morning, so I went to the gym and then to Aldi afterwards.  I spent $24 there.  I also filled up the gas tank at Sam's -- that was $34.  Whew!  I remember when I was shocked when I had to pay more than $20 to fill up.
I'm going to meet BFF tomorrow in our halfway city.  After a couple of rather chilly days, it's supposed to be warm and sunny tomorrow.  We may get lunch at a drive-thru and eat outside.  Indiana is not...
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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...
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$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...
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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...
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So in June we refinanced from a 2.875% 30 year fixed rate mortgage to a 2% 7/1 adjustable rate mortgage.  Previously in September we had a 3% 7/1 adjustable rate mortgage that we were given a free fix rate when we were about to refinance.
So how's it been going?  Well we were paying in May $2035 in interest and $1808 Principal.  Now we are paying $1405 in interest and $1717 in principal.  We are saving $720/month in payments most of it interest.  I have...
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Well at least for us.  I booked a ton of reservations.  It's interesting that I decided that 2022 is it.   Started with Christmas 2021.  We are going back to Hawaii. I booked using a combination of miles and points.  Then I booked our tickets in February 2022 to Mexico.  Using the travel companion fare on Alaska it was $1500 for the 4 of us on the only direct flight.  We also paid for today our friend's timeshare for $1800 for the week. ...
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The UTI came back, so it was off to Immediate Care this morning.  This time the prescribed antibiotic was very cheap, only $2.  I hope this one kills the bacteria for good.
The workers are applying grout today on my new floor.  I expect that they will let it dry overnight and come back tomorrow to clean up, return the appliances to their proper places, etc.
Even in its unfinished state, the floor looks amazing.
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The past couple of weeks I've stayed busy, but nothing really earth shattering. I thought I was finished canning, but did wind up with some more tomatoes. Then a friend gave us some zucchini which I'm working on using. I made some zucchini relish, and am itching to try zucchini marmalade. We purchased a half share of CSA this summer and there were cucumbers in it, so I made some sweet relish too. 
It's hard to believe September is nearly over. DH's 75th birthday is Monday....
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I am no longer a homeowner! Closing went off without a hitch. Just a small glitch when they got my new street address wrong, but that didn't delay anything. 
When I was searching to see what my credit union's hours were I found that they had opened a new branch even closer to the title company's location with later hours. It's an interaction center which was a new thing for me. My mom said her credit union is the same now. You walk up to a screen that is something like an...
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The healing of my arm is going slower than I would like.  Well I guess that is part of getting older.  
My days consist of working, having PT appointments twice a week and doing home PT exercises.  I live such the exciting life.   Oh well it could be worse.  I think I making slow progress.
 
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