It has been a snowy week. I hope all of you who experienced this storm are safe and warm. Snow is relatively easy to deal with but my heart goes out to the people that got freezing rain and have lost their power. I hope it gets restored quickly.
We had another leak under our sink in the kitchen. Hubby found and repaired it quickly. I am so glad that we didn’t have to wait for a plumber to come out. Hubby can repair just about everything. It cost us under $ 14.25 to fix it. A plumber would have cost over $100.
We had quick meals the last few days. I made homemade cheese and pepperoni pizza. We froze the leftovers for another day. Last night, I grabbed two partial packages of food from the freezer that I wanted to use up. They were chicken and vegetable potstickers and chicken nuggets. I boiled the potstickers on my gas stove. The nuggets got air fried in the little countertop oven. They were all done in about 8 minutes. There are some chicken nuggets leftover that I will reheat to go with eggs for brunch later today. We have been eating a lot of eggs for brunches. We love starting the day with protein. I think I will hard boil some eggs in my pressure cooker later today. They make a quick breakfast and an easy snack. Over the weekend, I made an apple crisp using canned apple pie filling and I made the topping from scratch: four, oats, sugar, and cinnamon.
I had purchased Hubby 2 long sleeved T-shirts last month from Walmart last month. He loves them for sleeping. So he asked me yesterday to buy him two more. The total for both was $19.65. I used a $10.39 debit card from the Walmart class action suit and a $10.00 Walmart giftcard earned from Micosoft to pay for it.
I will not be going anywhere today and tomorrow. It is just too cold. Hubby does have an appointment today. He offered to take me to lunch afterward. I told him I am not up to going out in this cold. I will get some things done here while he is out. Then I will make us turkey sandwiches when he gets home.
This month quickly became a very spendy month. Besides our property taxes that we paid which I talked about in another post, Hubby needed a new hearing aid which cost us $3150. that we had to pay upfront. Our health plan will reimburse us for about 1/2 of that cost.
Besides our monthly bills, we also paid for our lawn fertilization for this upcoming season. That was almost $500. and that was after a 3% discount for paying early.
The only groceries we purchased this month was the ground beef which was on sale for $3.99 a lb. and 3 dozen eggs that were $.99 each for a total of $ 29.10. So I think we did well!
I am tracking every penny of our income and expenses monthly to see where we can plug some holes. That is why I am excited about even saving that $19.65 on those shirts. Every penny counts!
We now have a very unexpected bill that came up for almost $ 3,000. We will have to take that money from our emergency fund next week to pay for something that is very necessary. Thank God we have a very well funded emergency fund. However, I will be cutting every penny to replace that money back into our emergency fund. I am very uncomfortable when I have to take money out of there.
So you will see many posts about how I will cut to get that money quickly saved up. This year has not started out well except for the pantry challenge.
Are you trying to cut costs? Tell us about it.
8 replies on “A Little Of This And A Little Of That”
Hi Precious, really sorry about your unexpected $3k expense. Thank goodness for emergency funds. We will be taking from ours next month also, but I am not sure of the amount yet. And our property taxes will be due from the sinking fund.
We had chicken nuggets one day for supper this week also. Daughter came out from work to go home and had a flat tire. We had the girls so I told her we would feed them. I had gotten the chicken nuggets at Costco awhile back to try. They were good. I also made chili this week and roast with carrots and potatoes. So we have lots of leftovers.
A Costco trip was on our agenda after we dug out from the snow. Spent a lot, but we are stocked up on the stuff we get there. And won’t have to go again for awhile. We mostly stayed home this week with the weather. It is really cold here. Got dug out from the snow, and the girls are back to school after 3 days off. We got 11.9 inches here, which wasn’t an all time record, but in the top several. Lots of big snow piles around town. I went to Kroger yesterday and they are still playing catch up with the stocking after people cleared them out with the snow storm. Not as bad as Covid, but close.
Hi Chris,
We have had so many things happen this month that I ma happy to say goodby to January and hope that February is better.
Your meals sound delicious. So sorry about your daughter’s flat and especially in this cold weather.
Doesn’t it feel good to be stocked up in this weather? You would not recogonize my pantry if you saw it today. We have eaten so much of it up over the past 4 months.
It is amazing to me how fast the food goes in the stores when someone yells “storm”.
You have a great week!
It seems like saving money is a common thread amongst a lot of people this time of year. We too, are trying our best by eating down our pantry and freezers and using up what we have with regards to doing minor repairs around our house. I constantly tell my husband that he is worth more than gold with all his repair skills. He has saved us a lot of money over the years.
We are also staying home a bit more right now as I recover from surgery and just enjoying being together doing simple things such as working puzzles, enjoying movies, and reading books we already have or can get downloaded from the library. By doing these simple things, we have been able to pay quite a bit down on the medical bills without touching our emergency funds.
February will be the same as it is important to us to save as much as we can. One of our cars is over eleven years old and in need of some repairs as well. This will be our first priority as maintaining a car is paramount to our safety. Every penny does count!
Hi smhuh,
You are so right. Things have gone up so high that people are strapped especially anyone living on just Social Security.
I am so glad that your surgery went well and wish you a speddy recovery. Enjoy the time you are taking it easy. I love puzzles! Good job on paying those medical bills. So glad that you van do it without the emergency fund.
I wish you the best of luck in February.
You are spot on about every penny counts! Since Cinder had to get a booster shot I had the vet clip her nails, but I need to do Gunners this weekend.
I did have a success though. I clicked on through items for my grocery pick up today (I actually tend to spend more if I am not in the store and just clicking away). When I got home I cut it down by almost 100.00.
I closed 6 bank accounts to keep all our money in 1 bank instead of spread out earning 4% on savings and .50% on checking . I also made another deposit to our Roth and re-balanced our other 401K’s.
Just a good money week!
Hi Patti,
I hear you on the clipping of nails. We do Eloise’s every week or she scratches things tht aren’ the scratching post.
Wow! One hundred dollars is fantastic. Nice money moves at the bank. I hope to have good money weeks like you for the rest of the year.
I’m in the country in Kentucky. My electricity was out from Sunday morning until Tuesday evening @ 7:00. Lots of snow, ice, freezing rain, snow and very cold. I have been lived here over 20 years and power outages are common, so I was prepared. 2 propane fireplaces with ample propane. cooked on the small blackstone (ate pretty well with high protein). 110 gal insulated water heater. Had hot water the whole time – 3 minute showers. Several power banks. Didn’t lose any food.
I don’t understand those people who say they lost food in the fridge – don’t they know that it is below 0 outside and they can set the fridge food outside???? After 2 days, I put my fridge food in 2 rolling coolers and set outside. Most kept cold without freezing.
Hi wwgoff,
I am sorry that you were out of power so long. 🙁 You sure were prepared. We are considerating either a power bank or a full house generator. That is wonderful that you didn’t lose any food.
Yup in this weather mother nature helps a lot with both fridge and freezer food. We live near Buffalo so we are used to lots of snow and ice.