Happy Birthday to ME!!!

 

Well I made it another revolution around the sun.  And I have now outlived both my oldest brother and my mother(she died 4 days before her 66th birthday)so unless a bus mows me down today I'll be around for awhile longer to annoy idiots and morons. ;-)

That's all I have to say.

Go forth and party!

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table Jan. 20th to 26th

The "Soup Smelling Candles?" Edition........

I saw these candles advertised the end of 2024.

Campbells Soup smells of Side Season?

I don't know if this is a gag or real but who wants a Cream of Mushroom or Cheddar Cheese Soup scented candle??

No thanks.

Onward to the meal planning!

Here is what was planned for the last week.....

1. Sunday--Cheeseburgers(bun optional), sautè yellow Squash

2. Monday--Stir-Fry Veggies w/Pork, Rice(optional)

3. Tuesday--Leftover Ravioli, Salad

4. Wednesday--TV dinners

5. Thursday--Salmon, Baked Sweet Potato Fries

6. Friday--Pasta w/Meatballs, Salad

7. Saturday--Chicken & Dumplings(if I can find a marked down rotisserie chicken at Walmart)

And here's what actually happened....

1. Sunday--Cheeseburgers(bun optional), sautè yellow Squash

2. Monday--Stir-Fry Veggies w/Pork

3. Tuesday--Leftover Ravioli, Salad

4. Wednesday--Leftover Meatloaf & Green Beans

5. Thursday--Leftover Pork Loin, Spinach Soufflè

6. Friday--Salad, Pizza

7. Saturday--Leftover Pork Stir-Fry

We had so many leftovers that half the meals didn't get made last week.

Got a bogo deal on pizza at Kroger on Friday so that got added to the meal plan too.

What got taken out of the freezer.......

* Ground Beef

* Pork Loin

* Spinach Soufflè

* Pizza

Last week we spent $132.37 on groceries(proving that eating healthier is more expensive)and the savings rate came in at 37.43%. Spending for the month is $291.37 and the savings rate so far is 34.31%.

Leftovers going into next week...1 slice of Meatloaf and 2 helpings of Green Beans.

Here is what was planned for this week.....

1. Sunday--Chicken and Dumplings

2. Monday--Beef Pie

3. Tuesday--Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zuke

4. Wednesday--Soup and Cornbread

5. Thursday--Leftovers

6. Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Salmon, Sweet Potato Fries

Just trying to eat down what is here when I'm not getting great deals.  Got some reduced chicken thighs(hard to find them with skin on here but my recipe above requires that)as well as a marked down 3 lbs. of Ground Beef.  I made 3 hamburger patties and browned the rest.  Ate one pattie for lunch and the other two will become lunch this coming week for Hubs, while the browned beef will go into the Beef Pie and the other half will go into the freezer for a later meal.

I found a marked down Rotisserie Chicken on Friday and that became Sunday's Chicken and Dumplings.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week? 

Sluggy 

Stuff Going On in LIfe Lately

 We have a well loved Christmas cactus that dances and sings, "Feliz Navidad".  Well it use to dance.  I pulled it out this season and it's got a hitch in it's giddy-up.  Meaning it no longer dances, it just twitches slightly.  So bizarre but then again, everything around here is bizarre.

While we were away we had the PO hold our mail.  That worked fine until it didn't.

We came home to see a very soggy box sitting on our front steps. ???  The carrier couldn't be bothered to come 2 more steps up and put this package on the covered porch?  Or better yet, leave the box under our very ample car port where they ALWAYS leave boxes??  So 2 of the 3 items got ruined as this box, from our guestimate, sat out in the elements from Dec. 23rd until Dec. 30th and got heavily rained on for at least two of those days.  So now we are fighting with the USPS to reimburse us for this loss, especially since supposedly we had a HOLD on our MAIL during this time!  We were informed at the main branch that two different carriers handle the route we are on and there is no telling which one it will be.  I guess one of them didn't get the HOLD MAIL MEMO?  The Cajun Pony Express strikes again!

We went to World Market to check out their Christmas clearance.  I splurged on this tiny wool flamingo wrapped in Christmas lights with a gold star on it's head.  It was 75% off.

It's kind of homely but I like it.  We have taken down all the Christmas decorations so this is a fun thing to have on my desk seeing as my birthday is Tuesday.

I received a birthday card this past week from cousin Sonya.  It will probably be the only card I get besides from Hubby.  Thank you for being my friend. 8-)

 My son is obsessed with sloths.  I found this calendar in World Market too but he already has a sloth calendar for 2025 so left it behind.

Anybody here old enough to remember who Larry Flint was?  They still have a Larry Flint Hustler Club downtown here. Well at least they still have a prominent sign for it still up.

I have two different credit cards hacked in December.  The only common denominator is I had one attached to an auction site I used and after that one got hacked and I got send a new card, I attached the other c/c to my account there and the same think happened. ugh.  One card had two online charges I didn't make but the other card was to a physical/brick and mortar business in Owings Mills MD(some place I have never been)and evidently I bought 3 sessions of puppy socialization classes and paid for a cat cafe experience there!  Um, NO!! lol

I contacted the people running that selling platform and they don't seem to give a flip so I'll not be buying anything there anymore.  That makes me sad as now I can't support a business that sells there.  I guess the number of complaints like this has to reach a critical mass before this selling platform takes any action.

I got another $5 "come buy something" credit at Kohl's.  The Kohl's here is crap(doesn't have anything good and is a very small store)so I guess I'll go in and "buy" another Godiva dark chocolate bar.

My hair. oh, my hair.  It is finally growing back in and I look less like a cancer patient.  I did look for a time like a character from "Orange is the New Black".  Remember the mental patient named Lolly, who stomped a guard to death and buried him in the greenhouse?

Before I dyed my hair before our trip my hair looked something like hers.

Now it's grown bit more and I have the "French Collaborator" look going on.

French women who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII were publicly shorn of their hair to make an example of them and to identify them.  Many had people holding them down and just had others hacking off their hair in chunks with scissors, which is not a good look.

Either that or I have the "Alfalfa" of Little Rascals fame "gone wrong" going on.  I have clumps of hair and cowlicks popping up all over my head.

Picture Alfalfa with 10 cowlicks.  Neither is a good look, especially on a woman.  I am hopeful that my hair gets to a "normal length" at some point.  The dermatologist told me to get some Rogaine and put it on my scalp but the hair is too long now and there is no earthly way to part it to get to my scalp.  I may have to resort to those vitamins with minoxidil in them.

Here's the last photo I took of me with "real hair" before they shaved my head for surgery in July....

My hair wasn't in great shape at that point after my 2 older children decided to stab us in the back and it was falling out in clumps from the stress they caused me.  At least it is growing back in evenly if not quick enough.

My neurologist is still playing with my tremor medications-trying to find the right balance.
The first two tries haven't worked and now she had me change my blood pressure meds to something different that has the added possibility of helping with tremors too.  I now have to take my bp 2 x a day as this new Rx is stronger and it could cause my bp to go too low and there is the real possibility of me passing out. Oh goody!  Needless to say I haven't been driving until we know how my body will react to this new med.

I did get an offer to take out a student loan from a local bank.  I think they are 44 years too late though. 8-)

We saw an Ugly  Christmas Sweater with a sloth on it but alas it was about a 10 year old Girl's size so wouldn't work for my almost 29 year old son. Did I mention that he is crazy for sloths? lol

I saw these in Kroger.  It's a brand of wontons with "Squid Game" images on the bags.  Why would that creepy show entice someone to buy their product?  Marketing......It's beyond me.

And of course the obligatory discarded dental picks we saw on our trip....

That one was in South Carolina and I'll spare you from all the others we encountered in GA, AL. MS, NC and VA(and of course LA).  I now have so many photos of these nasty things I could fill a book with them.  For the love of god, please stop throwing these things on the ground and find a trash can people!  It's really not that difficult a task.

Last Friday on our outing to Kroger, we stopped at Aldi while in that city.  While I waited in the car while Hubby ran in to pick something up, I noticed snow falling sporadically.  It didn't amount to anything and by the time we drove out of their parking lot, it had changed over to rain.  And this new front moving in has shifted well South of us so no more snow here, just bitter cold.  Well bitter for people who have never lived in the North. ;-)

Sluggy

Frugal Friday....the Jan. 17th Edition

Here are our frugal wins for this past week....

*  I love finding marked down foods at Kroger(this really doesn't happen at Walmart). I found some salads this past week as well as a 2lb. bag of fresh green beans. And I did a little Ibotta shopping for the food bank too. 8-)

*  We also had no food waste last week.   We ate lots of leftovers this past week.

*  There was no eating out this past week.

*  I cashed out a total of $100.00 from Ibotta.

*  I received a $15 prepaid Visa card this week from P&G.

*  We bought groceries at Kroger on Friday after they reinstituted the 4 x points for Friday purchases here(it had gone down to 2 x points during the Summer).

These packages of salmon were marked down plus were part of the Mega Sale so an additional $1 came off each package.

*  Kroger also had select canned veggies for .44¢ per can.  We picked up 16 cans of veggies I use in various dishes.  I only use canned veggies in some recipes as we prefer fresh veggies.

*  I picked up 3 prescriptions at Walmart.  No charge as I hit the Catastophic Phase after filling my first Rx.

*  We turned down the thermostat 2 degrees as night.  Being under blankets we don't need it as warm when we are in bed. ;-)

*  Entertainment last week was free tv, doing genealogy or reading.

*  I picked up two freebies at Walmart on Thursday.......

Truvani had bags of protein and Bellway had super fiber full price rebates I sent for and receive.

*  I found money! 

I thought I was going to get skunked this week but I found a penny on Thursday in Walmart.

Found Money This Week.... .01¢

Grand Total Found this Year....... .21¢

That's all I got.

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy  

Income & Spending....the December 2024 Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity, 401K$ withdrawals, personal savings and social security payments, I am still going to keep track of our monthly spending and income, and hopefully we'll still be able to live BELOW our means and I'll have some leftover monies each month to tuck aside.

We went into retirement in June of 2017 with no debt, no mortgage nor a car payment.

I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out. 8-)

On to the December report--

I have 2 goals for December.....

The 1st is to actually finish the month in the black and not the red.

The 2nd is to try to have a little cash leftover at the end of the previous month to tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fund may be applied toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2024.

*  I do not include/report on our retirement accounts here, just the non-retirement ones.

I'm happy to report that we finished up December in the red.

The amount extra we ended the month of December with?....-$11,710.75

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in December---

*  Monthly annuity payment of $2,530.11

*  SS income of $3,828.70

*  Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $1,469.90

* Medical refund check  $20.00

* Stock Dividend  $29.79  

*Rebating Cash   $548.50

Total "Income" for December....$8,427.00

Expenses in December---

*  Irregular bills in December were $643.81

*  Variable expenses in December came to $10,354.51

*  Medical Premiums in December were $707.43

Total Expenses....$11,705.75

$8,427.00-11,705.75=-$3,278.75.

Slush Fund coming into December of $85,919.50 and the subtraction of $11,705.75 in December, our end of December 2024 Slush Fund comes to $74,213.75. 

The Slush Fund, on it's own page(tab at the top of the blog), shows a subtraction of $11,705.75.

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this December, here are the good and bad side of things.....

Here are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill is the same as the previous month.
*  The WAM was the same as in December.
*  Mastercard bill was $210.86 lower
*  My Amazon bill was $37.81 less than in December.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The electric bill was $98.48 higher than the previous month.
*  Hubs aviator c/c was $14,698.32 higher in December.
*  My aviator c/c was $605.46 than the previous month,

And we had some one off bills in December--

Insurance Co-Pay x 3 $60.00
Kohl's  $14.84
Lowes  $21.83
Dr. OV  $20.00
Ortho Dr.  $40.00
Attorney Fees  $250.00
Wound Care Co-Pays  $37.14
Xmas Gift  $200.00

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post HERE. Food costs are included in my credit card payments(mainly because I buy the food but sometimes these costs come out of our WAM cash too).

FINAL THOUGHTS for December 2024---We paid for the new to us car(it's a 2023), but the Long Term care insurance Premiums didn't arrive so those get moved to January.  We traveled to see family but we saved where we could(used gift cards for most meals out, used gas points at Kroger, used c/c points toward hotel rooms, etc.)

GOING FORWARD INTO January 2025--I don't know what the new year will bring.  No big new car purchases I know that! lol  We will have a 401K withdrawal in January which will give us a cushion.

Here's hoping 2025 treats us all even better financially! 8-))

So how was your December financially?

Did you spend less than the income you had in December?

Did you stay within your budget or not?

What did you do with any money leftover at the end of the month?

Did you pay down/off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or retirement account?

Or did you blow all your excess monies after bills were paid on a "want"?

If you post your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can  go check out your progress too and celebrate or commiserate with you!

Sluggy