All Entries

The majority of my shopping is finished. I have a few items to get that need to be fresh like oranges. We make stockings for the 4 neighbor kids and I like to put an orange in the toe. Each year we start a Christmas Club so we spend what we have saved and once it's gone, it's gone.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the news said that a lot of folks spent more for their Thanksgiving meals at the grocery, not cutting back even with the rising costs of inflation. They said they...
[ Read More ]

I got home from my Thanksgiving trip yesterday. It was an exhausting trip, mainly because I didn't sleep well for three days, but there was also some drama with family health issues. I don't believe my sister will ever try to make the trip again due to her issues and some cognitive decline. My brother wasn't well either, and the friend I always visit seemed very much diminished by Parkinson's. It was kind of a sad time.
And it was pretty expensive. In addition to the hotel cost,...
[ Read More ]

I totally blew my $100 grocery budget this month! I haven’t tallied it all up yet, I will post the actual numbers in my month end spending post. But at least the overage was due to stocking up on some things that were on sale. I was almost out of the coffee pods that I use so I bought several bags. I won’t need these again for many months. Aldi had an excellent sale on butter. It was advertised at $2.49 a box with a limit of 6 per person. When I got home, I noticed...
[ Read More ]

So I mentioned that I was planning to move to a health insurance that I could invest in an HSA. Well as I started to research my options they indicated that if you use your plan on average that you should stick with my current standard plan, while low use was recommended for the HSA plan. So now I'm torn. I probably should have chosen the HSA plan when I was younger, healthier, and rarely went to the doctor. Now I'm almost 45 and diabetic. Granted my diabetes is well-controlled...
[ Read More ]

MM(19) took the train home on Monday.  Got home very late that night. 
I think he's got a week and a day left of school.  All his finals are on a Monday.  But he will stick around and then will be in LA for a couple of weeks (joint school project).   I thought he would just be couch surfing, but it turns out that the school/club will be paying for a hotel.  
I looked up Southwest and the airfare was something like $90 from LA to our backyard. ...
[ Read More ]

Pre-Thanksgiving was Drama Drama Drama.   But the day ended up very nice and peaceful.
Long story short, hell froze over and MH agreed not to do Thanksgiving with his family.  Of course his mom can't let it go, so it was a lot of drama the days prior.  (I don't think he's ever missed a Thanksgiving.  They have no concept that I have a family too, that MH has his own family, etc.)  I think the worst of it was Wednesday, when I was blissfully out of...
[ Read More ]

Last week I ended up moving my emergency funds for 2 reasons:
 
1) My credit union no longer allowed Mint to sync with their instiution.
2) I found a better rate through information shared on the forums.
I suppose I could have put the funds in a CD, but I feel like I wanted them to be a little more liquid. Of course, I often change my mind so that's subject to change.
[ Read More ]

I realized the other day that I haven't posted for quite a while. Apparently it's been 4 months. Oops. Life has been rather crazy, both good and bad.
At the beginning of August, I switched to per diem status at work. That means I no longer have scheduled shifts (or guaranteed hours). I am able to look at the schedule, see open shifts, and pick them up when and where I want to. I've basically been working two 4-hour shifts a week since then. It's very nice. Four hours is easy even...
[ Read More ]

Yesterday I was glad I had an emergency fund. My bathroom sink was clogged and I called a plumber. I had him look at the bathtub drain, too, which was slowing down. The fix was not cheap. $509 later, my drains are running freely. This is exactly what emergency funds are for.
However, my EF had not yet been built up to the level I would like it to be. This will make achieving that goal harder. The actual hit to the EF will not come, though, until I have to pay the credit card next...
[ Read More ]

I have about had it with my mom and the thermostat.  She keeps jacking the heat up to 75°F.  Last night it was like being in a sauna.  You know when you are in that stage when you are too tired to get up and go halfway through the house to go turn it down, but you can't really sleep because you are boiling so you lie there and lie there and lie there until you finally force yourself to get up and then turn it down to 70°F because it is 38°F outside, and...
[ Read More ]

Not sure if anyone knows but we have had some pretty bad hacks(by russians) into a couple of systems over here that they have released many peoples private information...we were in 1 group but not another...not sure how much of our info has been hacked or sold...no-one does but we were able to put a hold on our credit information...so if anyone tries to open things or buy things under our names and whoever they are trying to go through tries to access our credit info it will block...
[ Read More ]

We don't have any kids in our family right now...just adults..we do with extended family but we don't spend the holidays with that side of the family as we don't really get along with a few of them...and it becomes really hard to buy things for adults who basically work and buy what they want anyways...so this year they are getting a gift each (their choosing) and then I got a bunch of silly gifts for us to play lucky dip with...its just a fun way to spend the day with family and...
[ Read More ]

As usual, I had a fun visit with BFF, and, as usual, spent some money. $71 on eating out (some of that was treating BFF for her birthday), $8 on a movie (first time since before the pandemic!), and $40 on Christmas gifts found while shopping small boutiques. Add to that, I ordered a birthday gift for DS ($62), bought a vitamin supplement ($53), bought a couple of home decor items at Goodwill ($10), and bought a set of hair rollers at Walgreens ($19). A new attempt not to fry my...
[ Read More ]

So we are coming up to summer here and yet we have only had like 3 days of spring weather..I think the highest warm day we have had is aroumd 66 degrees...but it has been way colder than that...so cold and wet and our vegies are not growing very well at all as they don't get enough sun and the winds and rain have been horrendous and we live near the beach which doesn't help....so in 9 days it will be summer and I'm just wondering if we will get our spring weather or whether it...
[ Read More ]

This year I am again thinking of making the switch to a health insurance plan that is eligible for an HSA. I may also opt back into a vision plan as I am contemplating getting LASIK again. I really don't care for wearing glasses. The contribution limit for a single person is $3,850. It's another great vehicle to save for retirement as well as medical expenses.
[ Read More ]

Sunrise Credit emailed me that they had no debts on their books with me. Experian and Transunion removed the negative account on their credit reports almost immediately. For some reason Equifax is dragging their heels. But while I was home recovering Monday I got a new call from another collection agency, Franklin Services! I'm so aggravated. Now I'm walking through the process with them of disputing this debt. It has not yet been reported to the credit reporting agencies so that's...
[ Read More ]

That is how long it has been since we sent in our taxes....304 days 😧 we haven't been able to get through to them as they are so busy, so we don't even know if they have received them or if that info is just fallen into the wrong hands in the US...thats what I hate...the not knowing...they could be using our info to get loans etc and we would never know as we don't live there...just wish they had a better system in place for people living overseas...maybe we just won't do them...
[ Read More ]

Once again I needed to shop on Wednesday, so I guess I'm going to make it my permanent grocery day. I think it's a better day than Thursday anyway -- more bargains, I understand.
I overspent this time and I only have $16 left for next week's shopping. However, I will be going to Michigan for Thanksgiving so I won't really need much in the way of groceries. I will be buying snacks to take to my brother's, but that will come out of my vacation budget.
The reason I overspent is...
[ Read More ]

Yesterday I went to the Verizon store to switch my mobile service back to them from Mint Mobile, and to buy a new phone. I was all ready for an aggravating experience, but it was just the opposite! The customer service guy was awesome. I explained to him that I was a previous customer and wanted to switch back to Verizon and I needed a new phone. He asked what kind of phone I was interested in, and I told him a Samsung Galaxy, newish model and he said, I can offer you free...
[ Read More ]

Mouse in House
I  noticed my last entry here was about a mouse, and, well, I seem to be repeating the mouse tales since the weather has suddenly turned cold after a very warm autumn.  I had 2 traps set behind a little secret door to nowhere at the top of my basement stairs; I can always reliably catch mice there cus it's right next to the furnace flue, and its warmth attracts the mice.
I noticed the other day that one of the traps was missing, and I peered around a...
[ Read More ]