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$10,285.51 Balance Forward
+__,_82.11 Amount Added
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$10,367.62 New Balance
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We live north and I'm sure you all have heard about the weather. We were on our way back home when things hit, we're waiting it out in a hotel until the worst of it has passed. While we were gone, it was easy not to think about anything but on our way back everything is coming to the forefront with work. I don't know why I'm stressing, I just need to let it be what it is. We will be traveling on the big holiday and might have to adjust our driving because of the weather. Thankfully...
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I don't know if I'll post again before z Christmas, so I'm wishing you all a Merry Christmas today. My sisters both flew in Wednesday. One to New Orleans and my other sister & her family to Baton Roufe. Currently in the car writing this as my sister drives us to BR for the day.
I think I'm all done with shoppibn. I may pick up a restaurant gift gift card for my parents. I always try to give those to save them some cooking. I used to get a great Black Friday deal at an upscale...
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I am absolutely exhausted.  This week was a work hell week.  I was too nice and I agreed to do the in-law Christmas thing tonight (2 hours away) though I have to work today.  I regret this now.  We usually do the prior weekend.  Now that I type this out, I don't know if they were trying to plan around MM(19)'s schedule.  At the time, sounded like SIL needed to reschedule.  MM(19) got home late last night.  MH was supposed to work today too...
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I transferred over a whole whopping $136 to MM(19).  $78 for 30 days of groceries (???) and $58 for his one way train ticket home.  His girlfriend gave him a ride back to school after Thanksgiving break.
To be fair, he charged up ~$25 on my Target card that I just paid for.  (Might have included non-grocery expenses that I'd expect him to pay for.)  & he told me MIL bought him some groceries but he made it sound like it was only $10 or $20.  (That...
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I've done everything I can, and now I'm just waiting for the storm to hit. This morning I drove my car to the hospital and parked in their garage. I can leave it there till the morning of the 26th. I walked home, picking up three books from Little Libraries on the way. It is still mild. 
Unfortunately, I fell this morning -- tripped over a box -- and I landed hard. I can tell I didn't break or sprain anything, but I'm going to have some bruises and a lot of discomfort, I...
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I just peeked and saw the last time I posted was beginning of November.  A lot has happened since then and I haven't been online much.  I've been exhausted with everything.
I went to see my parents over Veteran's day weekend.  My mom asked and I obliged.  Thankfully I went home because my dad ended up in the ER that Sunday before I left from being impacted and in terrible pain. I managed to carry him into a wheelchair and into the car and to the ER.  My...
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A blizzard is on the way!
Good news from my kids. They have been able to change their flight to tomorrow morning, thus getting out of the area before the storm hits. The grandkids will miss some school, but I'm sure a lot of that is happening. And it is really better that everyone is safe. Also, they will be parking one car at the airport and the second car at the football stadium, so there won't be any concern about moving their cars for snowplowing.
Mine, of course, will still...
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I had my Christmas with my kids yesterday. It was so very nice -- many traditions were followed -- the Christmas movie on "Christmas Eve" -- "Spirited," this year -- with popcorn and M&Ms. Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast on "Christmas morning." Stockings, and so many beautiful gifts. A board game afterwards.
I only wish I had been feeling better. I was sleep-deprived, and it showed.
Now, as the kids get ready for their trip to Florida, we are looking at bad weather...
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Do you have a favorite Christmas movie? There are loads of them out there, that's for sure!
My favorite is "It's A Wonderful Life." It just has such a sweetness to it, that one person can make such a difference. I only hope that I make a difference in people's lives. But it also had the financial aspect to it...money played a part, but George Bailey realized life and living was more important than money, even if it makes things more comfortable.
We usually watch the same Christmas...
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Miracle of miracles, I got my car back!  The repairs only took 30 days.  I feel so blessed that they were able to get parts without delay.  Phew!
Work is crazy, but I took Thursday afternoon off to play musical cars. 
DL(17) ended up with a dead car battery and got a jump that fried his stereo.  *sigh*  I suppose the timing was good as can be.  The stereo had been a little finicky (we bought it for MM in 2018) and we do have a big check coming...
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Well I have tweaked our 2023 budget and it is looking good, it looks like we will be getting a couple increases in our US payments that might be around $300pm (not sure it takes awhile for us to get paperwork) so we will put that into savings...I have increased some payments but not food for next year...or gas...I can change them will have the money to but I want to get back to menu planning have been very slack the last couple months so need to do that again makes it so much easier...
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Merry Christmas everyone! I’m getting in early because I know that realistically this is the only post I’m going to do before Christmas. Especially as I only post rarely anyway - CB’s post about the blogs being quiet motivated me to write a blog post. 
 
I’ve been reading quite regularly but life has felt really busy lately so I never quite get to writing anything.  Financially life has been really hard.  Keeping our old house...
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My birthday was on the 5th and I had a very low-key day. I accompanied my mom to a doctor's appointment, we had a nice brunch, went grocery shopping, then my dad & I decorated their Christmas tree. 🎄
That weekend I also had attended a sweets Christmas event at church as well as saw the musical Six, which I loved. It's an interesting musical as it is only 80 minutes with no intermission. But it was entertaining & fun, with great songs & costumes. 👑 
I ended...
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Our Christmas brunch went well, though, even with careful planning I managed to exhaust myself.
There was lots of leftover food and I'm still dealing with how to preserve it. Some things had to be thrown away, but not much.
I have finished Christmas shopping. Two small things -- for stockings -- have yet to arrive from Amazon. I hope they make it before gift-opening on the 18th!
I'll be meeting BFF and her family on the 22nd in downtown Chicago. We will stay a couple of nights...
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Wow christmas is just over a week away..is it me or did this year just fly by??
I have all christmas shopping done other than $ but can do that anytime..so will do next week when I take money out to finish up the christmas food...we do it different over here because it is summer we mainly do salads, with ham/chicken etc...so not a hot lunch...it is usually to hot here for that....I am hoping to go to the markets next week to get all our fruit/vegies and fish/prawns (yes they have...
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Then I'm done with my job, it's so interesting because some folks thought I'd be there through spring but that's when I'm going to be retraining.  When I first started there nearly 15 years ago, there was about 5.4 people working in that department. At the end of the year, there will be a single person there. I'm glad I'm not them.  I don't really know what they are going to do, it's crazy. 
I'll be retraining and we'll see where that will take me. I'm also going...
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I always try to grocery shop on Tuesday because it is senior discount day at my store, and I get 10% off all store brand products. I didn't need much but every little bit of savings helps. 
The biggest savings was that I used 400 store club card points to get a free ham! I picked up an 11.97 lb. Smithfield ham priced at $39.36, for free. I will be using this on Christmas Eve for our family get together. That is some great savings.
Last week I went back to Aldi for more butter...
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Received $73 bank interest for the month of November.
Received $180 I Bond interest for the month of November.
 
Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $2 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 
   Less: $95 Annual Fee 
--Redeemed $92 cash back on Citi card
--Redeemed $33 on dining out/gas card (+ groceries during Q4)
 
Other Snowflakes to Investments:
+ $8 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)
 
TOTAL:...
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I'm wondering if people are able to post. It seems like we are stuck, but maybe everyone is just busy.
I have finished buying food for my holiday get-together on Sunday. It is somewhere in the neighborhood of $177. I can't be exact, because I did buy a few other things that are not for the the brunch. That does include two bottles of wine, but otherwise, it's just food. I was especially struck by how expensive the fruit was -- berries, grapes, pineapple -- all higher than I expected....
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