January-the Expensive Month

This is the temperature outside from my car dashboard on Sunday morning when I went to Rite-Aid.
It was 3 degrees HIGHER than when Hubs went out at 8 am that same day.....WTF?!?!
Meanwhile in Alaska it was in the 40's?

January is kicking my ass in the expense department this year.
Between what everyone calls Murphy and a new medical insurance coverage year(yes, I'm looking at you high medical deductibles!)January can be expensive at Chez Sluggy.

* We had 14 days of being below freezing here, many of the nights were in the negative single digits(and that's BEFORE wind chill).  This means my electric/heating bill is going to be ridiculously high for January.  Not sure yet what it will turn out to be but it's trending toward $500+.  ick

* Last August, College Boy, had taken my car to work and returned it with a crack in the windshield.  It was small and down at the base of the windshield so didn't hinder my vision while driving said car so I just left it to repair later.
Over the next few months the crack grew and then "spider-ed" and by December the area involved was quite large, but still contained to the lower left side of  the windshield and still didn't impinge on my field of vision for driving.
But it needed to be fixed, so Hubs took it to the local glass place and our deductible for the complete new windshield was $100.
* $100

* Then Hubs car tire kept losing air.  This long subfreezing cold snap in NEPA has just exacerbated the problem.  He took the car up to the local tire/car repair shop and it was deemed that both front tires needed to be replaced.  So he came home with new rubber x two and a nice, new shiny bill for said tires.
* $208

* The day after New Year's we saw a big puddle on the kitchen floor in front of the dishwasher.  Sometimes this happens if someone opens said dishwasher after starting it(a bunch of water falls out when you open the door).  It was discovered that no one had opened said door while the dishwasher was cycling so it was thought something was leaking.  After another running of the dishwasher, just to make sure it wasn't just someone opening the door mid-cycle, it make another nice puddle.  Conclusion-the dishwasher needs a new gasket, is rusted out somewhere or ?  Whether it's a repair issue or a replacement issue is still to be determined.  Either way it's going to cost $$.
Personally, I am in no hurry to repair/replace the appliance and since Hubs is the kitchen cleaner-upper/dishwasher as long as he will hand wash the dishes I am good with being in status quo mode on this one.  I won't be calling a repairman and I'll wait for Hubs to get fed up doing dishes by hand.  This should buy us some time before we had to dump money into a repair or replacement.
* No $ spent(for now)

* With a new year for the medical insurance and a $3K deductible to pay before seeing any benefits on visits, tests or meds I had to refill a pricey Rx.  I try to time refills/visits/tests so we do all we can by December 31st but this maintenance drug comes up early each month unfortunately.
It's funny that the druggist calls the house in January to break the news that I owe hundreds of $s for the script every year and the cashier at the pharmacy counter also prepares me that I'll owe big bucks for it.  I've been on this drug for years now so I know what's coming but they don't remember and handle me with kid gloves. lolz  I'll be so glad when our deductible is met for the year......
* $306 for 1 month's worth of 1 drug

I am behind for the year already.  I still need to close out the December, Christmas and 2017 spending books.  It just seems like I have so much to deal with in January from the previous month/year.
I'll get there if I put up multiple postings per day for awhile.....if I can find the time to write them all. lolz


Sluggy