Homebody Getting Back to My Roots

Day 4 of tacos for dinner, for me anyway. Our neighbor brought down some homemade soup, which she does occasionally. DH has eaten that the past two nights. We have enough tacos for one more night.

DH said if we keep stretching our food like this our freezer food will last for 3 years!

My daughter picked me up in my car (that she borrowed because hers is in the shop) and took me to quilting group that meets twice a month at a local church classroom where we all sit around and yak while sewing or in my case, embroidering. I didn't feel like dragging the sewing machine out today. Usually I pack the car early and then drive in at the right time, but with daughter picking me up, and coming before I was ready, I was scrambling to get my current embroidery project together.

DH picked me up with the good news that our older truck will be ready to be picked up tomorrow so I am driving into town and he will either get a ride to the mechanic or will walk. DD will pick me up in the afternoon and drive back to her car dealership where her car also will be ready to pickup.

Hurray! I can work on decluttering and take a load to the local animal rescue shop on Friday.

DH ran to Ace Hardware and picked up 2 bags of bird seed, which is in the budget. Our chickens like it to and expect a few handfuls when I let them out in the morning.

Now if I can just get a good night's sleep.......

We had leftovers for dinner. DH made tacos last night, one of our favorite meals when we can't think of what to make. We always keep tortillas in the frig and the rest of the fixins can be easily had in our home.

I took my mom to the doctor today and she talked her into a flu shot! Her fasting blood sugar was back to prediabetic levels so that was good news.

Even better news was my husband's follow-up PSA after his prostate cancer diagnosis and being on Proscar for several months. Well it was way down to 2.9 and his risk factors were less than 1% for death within 10 years or even full blown cancer. His doctor was very please and so am I! The best news is that he won't be needing treatment and since our medi-share people denied coverage as pre-existing, this is really good news.

I joined a 2019 Passionate Penny Pinching Home Challenge. This is the year! By the end of 2019 I will have decluttered and cleaned my house along with being careful with DH's earnings.

Oh and the other good news is my 10 year old granddaughter, Ally, got the lead in Alice in Wonderland musical. It's the first time she has tried out for a lead. We are very excited for her. She has so much self confidence for a 10 year old it's amazing. I remember when she was about 2, she was talking very well. I had her at a park in a swing in South Carolina or North I can't remember which. Another woman and a child arrived and Ally said, My name is Ally and this is my grandma.......pause while she thought.....Cheryl! I'll never forget that, it was the cutest thing! I didn't even know she knew my first name. She's a great kid.

Okay sleep, then tomorrow is clean out the refrigerator and mopping all "hard floors". I also need to work on the week's job of the pantry!

I have to transition to writing during the day. I get so sleepy at night I have a hard time catching up and then blogging.

DH purchased a 3 pan set of JA Henkel's nonstick pans at Costco today when he picked up our prescriptions. We had looked at them before Christmas, but decided not to buy because we knew they would go on sale at some point, doesn't everything?

He spent about $100 between the pans and our prescriptions. Also DH's truck sputtered out and quit. He took it to our usual oil change place and he changed the oil and switched out the fuel line. Hoping that is all that is wrong.

But tomorrow I am driving him to his friend's house to pick up the truck that dear friend wanted him to have. It is a Toyota Tacoma, which is a bit smaller than his Dodge Diesel huge double cab thing I HATE driving. We think the Tacoma is about 10 years old, but has very few miles on it like a ridiculously small amount.

So both my husband and I had vehicles totaled in 2018 (truck parked legally next to the sidewalk in front of our house, and I was in a 4 car pile-up on 9/30/18) and I was given the 2004 Mercedes S55 AMG with about 75,000 miles on it, and DH is being given the truck. I feel very blessed and lucky to have these replacement vehicles. We used both insurance checks to start a vehicle fund, but now we don't need any vehicles. Right now there is $21,000 in that account, easily would cover 6 months of expenses. We need to make IRA contributions for both of us for 2019 and 2018 for me. I plan to have a meeting with DH on Sunday to go over what our plans are for the year.

DH is good about participating and giving ideas, but he NEVER initiates a discussion about money. In fact when I told him I wanted to have a meeting, he said "oh goody my favorite topic". I laughed. We have been married long enough that I don't expect him to suddenly change. All I can do is the best I can.

I told him he got a pass for the pans since we had already talked about getting them since we are doing this no spend year and his response was "I thought that was just for food". I started telling him everything we have plenty of and that I would not be buying anything we didn't NEED!

I have to transition to writing during the day. I get so sleepy at night I have a hard time catching up and then blogging.

DH purchased a 3 pan set of JA Henkel's nonstick pans at Costco today when he picked up our prescriptions. We had looked at them before Christmas, but decided not to buy because we knew they would go on sale at some point, doesn't everything?

He spent about $100 between the pans and our prescriptions. Also DH's truck sputtered out and quit. He took it to our usual oil change place and he changed the oil and switched out the fuel line. Hoping that is all that is wrong.

But tomorrow I am driving him to his friend's house to pick up the truck that dear friend wanted him to have. It is a Toyota Tacoma, which is a bit smaller than his Dodge Diesel huge double cab thing I HATE driving. We think the Tacoma is about 10 years old, but has very few miles on it like a ridiculously small amount.

So both my husband and I had vehicles totaled in 2018 (truck parked legally next to the sidewalk in front of our house, and I was in a 4 car pile-up on 9/30/18) and I was given the 2004 Mercedes S55 AMG with about 75,000 miles on it, and DH is being given the truck. I feel very blessed and lucky to have these replacement vehicles. We used both insurance checks to start a vehicle fund, but now we don't need any vehicles. Right now there is $21,000 in that account, easily would cover 6 months of expenses. We need to make IRA contributions for both of us for 2019 and 2018 for me. I plan to have a meeting with DH on Sunday to go over what our plans are for the year.

DH is good about participating and giving ideas, but he NEVER initiates a discussion about money. In fact when I told him I wanted to have a meeting, he said "oh goody my favorite topic". I laughed. We have been married long enough that I don't expect him to suddenly change. All I can do is the best I can.

I told him he got a pass for the pans since we had already talked about getting them since we are doing this no spend year and his response was "I thought that was just for food". I started telling him everything we have plenty of and that I would not be buying anything we didn't NEED!

My husband walked down to the liquor store and bought a beer. He made dinner for his BFF who lives around the corner. He had knee surgery and his wife went out of town to watch their granddaughter the rest of the week.

We took the dog for a good walk today. We worked a bit on end of the year stuff for the business.

DH made himself a grilled sandwich for dinner and I ate another leftover serving of lemon chicken.

Edit to add 1/2/19: Well apparently I was so sleepy last night I didn't actually publish my post.

That's okay. I ran to town to take my 10 year old granddaughter, Ally, to her doctor appointment for her allergy shots. My daughter's Ford Flex is in the shop again.

My two older sisters and I are having a grocery challenge, trying to keep our groceries to $200. Then older sister took a picture of dinner, so then I did too. It will make me be more creative and use what we have.

I was frustrated with the mail today. There is a collection letter from mom's cable company requesting $325 or $355 or something like that for her components. I mailed them all back via the UPS store several months ago, like June 1st! I'm not paying it. What are they going to do? Send my mom to collections? Who cares?? She is 89 and lives in assisted living AND I did return the stuff. I will call and be nice tomorrow.

Then Costco Citi card charged me interest and I paid in full minus a credit that came through. I always pay the full amount and I did!! So I have to call them tomorrow too!

Oh well, at least dinner was good. I picked some brussel sprouts out of our garden and sautéed with leeks, cauliflower, bell pepper and spinach. I mixed it with lemon walnut chicken I made a few nights ago. I ate every bit. DH put chopped honey baked ham on his. Then I made a free form apple tart that was delicious!

Again I am very sleepy! Oh and I stopped and bought beer and put gas in my car.

2018 Wins:
1. Mortgage under $100,000 (by $1), paid an extra $22,000 on principal.
2. Contributed maximum IRA funds for DH for both 2017 and 2018 in April 2018.
3. Able to cover all medical bills in full.
4. Celebrated our middle daughters wedding in May, gaining not just a new son, but a new granddaughter too. (Last of 3 daughters to get married).
5. Celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a paid for cruise to Alaska.

Losses:
1. Both my husband and myself had vehicles totaled. The truck was parked in front of our home legally. A well known tweaker was driving a barely legal truck that had a knocked out back window and no muffler, making for carbon monoxide poisoning. The guy was practically asleep after he hit out truck (all witnessed by our neighborhood watch captain who saw tweaker almost hit his truck), came outside and watched him careen down the street towards Dh's truck (which was given to him by his dear friend who just passed away). Then I was in a 4 car accident in which I was behind a vehicle stopped to make a left hand turn, two cars back hit the car behind me at full speed.
2. Did not make my 2018 IRA contribution.
3. Liberty Health denied DH's prostate cancer as "pre-existing". Now stuck because it would actually be pre-existing if we change. Not happy because they say he had cancer "symptoms". Ugh. Next year and the following in 2020 they will pay $50,000 then in 2021 it will be treated as though it was not "pre-existing".
4. Visited a bunch of quilt fabric shops and bought stuff on our trip up to Seattle along the Oregon coast. Came home from cruise and told DH to quit enabling me. He's the worst or best at that! I have vowed no new fabric purchases in 2019. In fact, no buying anything we don't need. Juneau and Ketchikan both had nice quilt fabric shops. We also got to see our former neighbors, a youngish couple, at our Ketchikan stop.

I figure if we can pay an extra $22,000 on our mortgage without even trying, I am shooting for an extra $30,000 this year.

Wow one day left in this year. It's my oldest sister's birthday also. We drove to town to drop off my daughter's family's laundry, then over to visit the widow for a while. We stayed too long and were really hungry once we headed home.

We decided to stop and get some lunch meat to make sandwiches after deciding against stopping at a local sandwich shop. We stopped at Costco and got roast beef and sliced cheese, and some hummus that was super cheap and a discontinued Fitbit that was also super cheap! We had those cheap Costco rolls at home in the freezer. My husband made yummy grilled meat and cheese sandwiches, then added tomato and avocado to them.

My fitbit died and I was going to try to go without one, but it was also my watch so I went ahead and got one. It was a discontinued Alta and was only $57.97 or something like that.

We ate leftovers of the yummy chicken I made last night for dinner. Before dinner, we went down and had drinks and snacks with our very good friends who live around the corner.

My husband works tomorrow so I am going to do as much as I can on the house. DH will be bringing home a lot of dear friend's stuff and we need to make room. I am a bit freaked as we already have a ton of stuff and I have been planning to work on decluttering like a real job. It's imperative I get to it immediately!

By the way does anyone know why even when I am logged in, if I want to comment, my information does not automatically fill? It keeps telling me if I log in it will do it for me, but I AM logged in!

Nothing terribly exciting to report. I basically did laundry all day. Then I made a recipe with chicken breasts and dumped the leftover pumpkin pie batter in a pan. It was all really good. I spent no money!

Good evening.

Today I had to take my dog to get a booster shot. Then off I went "to town".

I stopped at Target and bought $100 for next year's Christmas gifts. Then onto Joann Fabric to buy a tapestry needle and hand threader so that I can finish the Unicorn scarf and hat I made the 3 year-old. Onward to Winco, Costco and Smart Foods.

I spent about $200 and told DH the plan was to keep it until 7-10 days. I think we can, I think we can.....

The third day in a row we have had prime rib, mashed potatoes (tonight DH added egg and made a pancake), green bean casserole and the last of the homemade pumpkin pie and apple tart. Well we are done with that!

Will need to spend a bit of money on Lila, the adopted chihuahua, who is getting an update of some immunizations tomorrow. I think I need the flea/tick/heartworm medicine too. That's going to cost some bucks!

I had physical therapy today and visited my mom afterwards. Otherwise I did some light housework and some bookkeeping for our business.

I've been doing some more analysis of our 2018 spending and figuring out the 2019 budget.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas with those you love.

My daughter, son-in-law, Ally 10, and Pyper 4 all arrived about 10:30. They were so sweet and waited so patiently while I ran to grab my mom from the assisted living facility. It is only about 1.5 miles away. I literally made it in 3 minutes when I was working there.

My husband went to spend some time with widow of his mentor and he stopped and bought her a real at a local restaurant. I told him it was one Christmas out of how many, just go and spend time with her. She is really sad, of course she is, the death of her husband was a bit sudden even though we knew he had metastatic lung cancer.

So my son-in-law, who is a good cook, and I were finishing dinner. Then I saw my very good friend and her husband is DH's BFF (they text like teenage girls), walking their dog, walking by our house so I ran out and we chatted a bit. Her mother died on Christmas Day (the same year my dad died on Thanksgiving Day AND it was his 78th birthday!). So by the time I went back in the house, dinner was done. I just had to set the table and get everyone what they wanted to drink.

My husband got home while I was returning my mom to her AL apartment. She was very tired and kept thanking me for going to so much work. I kept telling her it wasn't that bad, I didn't do much, but her memory/mind is really diminishing. She asked my daughter who she was. Sometimes I'm not sure if she knows who I am until I say mom. She didn't know what town we are in even though she has lived in the same town as me for the past 30 years. It's really sad and I know I am going to end up the same. In fact every single thing I do that's a bit silly or I didn't remember something, my daughter freaks out. Something happened today and my daughter said, I have to text my sisters this. Oh good grief. My every behavior is scrutinized to see if my mind is slipping yet!

My 23 and me indicates I only have one health issue: Late stage onset Alzheimer's. So there you go!

I don't think I have ever been so ready to start the new year. My husband's on board for the no spend year and getting rid of whatever we don't need or use or LOVE!

I am making it my JOB to live as frugally as possible and take care of my home, yard, the chickens and the dog!