All Entries

Car
2496


Insurance
1335


Housing
784


Vacation/Travel
680


Gifts/Charity
251


Utilities
229


Fees & Services
40


Phone
39


Entertainment
38


Groceries
35


Gas
30


Medical/Health
29


Personal
28


Laundry
19


Clothing
13



Grand Total                  6046
It's a short list this month, but a big total.  With car repair, insurance and vacation...
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Okay so sorry but this will be long just to give you a brief rundown of our history so you might understand what I am saying and thinking.
So I had 2 really bad pregnancies and deliveries for both I had really really really bad morning sickness to the point if I moved I threw up I was in hospital every other week to be rehydrated...this was for both pregnancies...had to have epidurals (2 for the 1st one) both labors were 14hrs and 5 mins...the 1st one I had a 3rd degree tear and...
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My freezer and my pantry are finally starting to look a little spare. I mean, there's plenty of food in there, just not so packed.
Today I had chicken strips and broccoli cheese soup for lunch. The soup came from the freezer, as well as the chicken. Breakfast was toast and prunes.
Yesterday I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and eggs and toast for breakfast. Dinners have been trail mix.
I've spent about $12 more for groceries -- creamer, butter, raspberries. And $31 for...
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Fell off the wagon with the pantry challenge a little bit this last week due to an busy work stretch. I picked up some groceries (will try to find the receipts to add up for the challenge). This includes some extra jars of Indian simmer sauce that were on a great sale. I debated on that because I still have a ways to go in the pantry, but I haven’t seen a good sale like this in a couple years.
 
Today I did a partial freezer inventory (the stuff in the door and top...
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Well… Murphy came to visit this weekend. Luckily, we were mostly prepared for him.
We are hosting a foreign exchange student from Belgium for the semester and on Saturday we planned to be tourists for the day in San Francisco. Before we left, my husband went out to the fridge in the garage to grab something and found water all over the ground. Apparently, our hot water heater was leaking. We actually think we caught it pretty early, which is a blessing!
My husband attached...
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We arrived at our new home on Tuesday; today is Friday.  Since arriving, we have been in a whirlwind of activity.  We've had roofers come, make repairs, and go. These repairs were quoted months ago. Today we have some plumbers installing a new hot water heater.  They will be back on Monday to install a new bathtub and fix a leak.
Before arriving, I had ordered a new queen mattress which was delivered. We have been sleeping on that. We had no other furniture whatsoever...
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Just a quick thank you post to all the kind people who have commented on my posts. I read and appreciate all the comments and suggestions you guys are giving me and am even trying to put some of them into practice.
I have so enjoyed being a (mostly quiet) part of this community. I blog for my own accountability and rarely comment on other blogs, (but I'm working on it). But I love to read the comments on everyone's blogs. This is such a smart, creative group of people and I appreciate...
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Engaging in property investment in London unveils promising prospects alongside inherent risks. Recognized as one of the premier real estate markets worldwide, London promises substantial returns for property investors. Nevertheless, given its intricate nature and swift dynamics, effectively maneuvering through the market in 2024 demands thoughtful deliberation. Below are the foremost 10 guidelines to assist you in achieving a prosperous investment journey in London's real estate...
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Well my shoulder and knee pain has finally gotten to the point where it is affecting my life to much so I asked the doc for xrays or scans...she did both for shoulder and xrays for my knee...I do have oesteoarthritis in both knees and have tendonitis with floating calcium in the shoulder...it has been hard to do things but hubby and daughter have been helping a lot and my physio has been helping with massage...but god I am so bored not being able to do much and also my eyes have...
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Another day on the pantry challenge. Breakfast was toast and peanut butter. Lunch was sauteed chicken breast (one-half), green beans, sweet potatoes, buttered poppyseed noodles.
Yesterday's lunch was much the same -- chicken and noodles, green beans, sweet potatoes, a biscuit. Breakfast was two fried eggs, applesauce and toast. Yesterday's dinner was trail mix -- peanuts, raisins and a combination of white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. It looks like I have enough of...
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My 2024 pay has posted & we received a 4.7% raise. This translates into $5,456 for the year, $2.61 per hour, and $208.80 biweekly. I will receive a step increase in June. That increase will be another $1.77 raise per hour. I'm always grateful for whatever increases I receive. I have already increased savings & contributions for the year so there are no plans to make any further increases.
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At the pantry challenge, that is.
I made chicken and noodles the other day, and today for lunch I had a serving of that, some green beans and a scoop of mashed sweet potatoes. I will have the same lunch tomorrow! For breakfast I had oatmeal and raisins. My supper today -- which is always just a snack -- was popcorn.
I have only been to the grocery store once, and I only spent $22. I would say I might make it to the end of the month with no more grocery spending, but I will probably...
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Yesterday we had an icy day here in Central Illinois and even if I had wanted to get out, I wouldn't have.  So, my reward was to go onto Pinterest (what a dangerous site for me) and look for bread recipes. I had certain ingredients like milk that was ready to expire that I wanted to use. I found this recipe for honey buttermilk bread. I did tweak it a bit, but it made two lovely loaves. I thought I'd use some for our supper to accompany spaghetti, again another pantry offering. 
Anyway,...
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Well, it's official. I'm without a job, it seems. I suspected my job could be in jeopardy when the person I report to asked me to stop writing, "for the time being." 
That was back in mid-December, and I figured I'd give it til after the holidays to resolve, but when I still hadn't heard back from her, I sent her a note. I had already informed the agency that pays me but they seemed pretty lax in getting back to me and I'd been in limbo long enough. So yes, she was very nice...
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It has literally taken me 25 years to dig out of the hole I started digging when I was 18, and I'm not done yet. At its peak, our credit card debt was $24,904.68. We are down to $10,760.96, progress, sure, but not credit card debt free. 
We have had periods in our life over the last 25 years where we were credit card debt free, but inevitably, we would rack the credit card debt back up. 20 months ago, we hit our all-time high in credit card debt and are finally seeing the...
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I really want to stay on top of things this week, as there are a lot of appointments, so I am meal planning to make sure nothing gets away from me.  I have two things in the freezer that I want to use up, which are a ravioli lasagna and a meatloaf that I made up when I was batch cooking in the past.  I do have to check that they are good first, but if they aren't, I will just make fresh ones for dinners this week.
I will figure out breakfasts and lunches, but they tend...
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I thought I'd update my pantry challenge, too.  I am cleaning out the freezer of convenience foods that I do still buy from time to time, but haven't made in a long while and they are getting to the end of the time where freezer burn will set in if they are not used soon.
To that end, tonight we had garlic butter shrimp (that box from Costco), frozen broccoli (that bag from Costco), and frozen corn on the cob that we froze last summer.  We dipped everything in the garlic...
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I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.
For those of you who have read my blogs, you know I'm quite active in my church. For the past year, I've been working on ways to fundraise to try and pay more on the mortgage principal for our church. Our treasurer who shared this idea a year ago talked about how it would be a good idea without coming out and saying the way our church is aging and losing members, we might not have the money to make the mortgage payment when giving declines. 
He...
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My latest meals from the pantry/freezer were pancakes (two days) and peanut soup (also two days). I had popcorn for a snack, as well as prunes. Still working on those cookies. Will need to cook again tomorrow.
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General pantry challenge wins, since I’m not posting in detail every day:
-Made mushroom stroganoff from a cup of leftover sour cream from the fridge
-Ate most of a noodle meal packet I was gifted months ago, although the seasoning was quite odd
-Took some vegetable stir fry that past me froze in Tupperware at some undetermined date to work for lunch
- Finished 5 plant-based chicken nuggets and a small microwave bag of pre-sauced vegetables from the depths of the freezer
-Working...
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