Category: Every Day

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Week

I have not been grocery shopping in quite a while. So I picked up some things we needed.

Aldi’s:

Romaine Lettuce – $ 2.39
2 bags of Brussel Sprouts $ 1.09 each = $ 2.18
Olive Oil Spray – $ 1.79
2 Half and Half – $ 1.55 each = $ 3.10
1/2 gallon of Milk – $ 1.59
Chocolate Syrup – $ 1.59

Total was $ 12.64.

Top’s:

1 lb. of Bacon – $ 2.99 after Q
1 Ajax Dish Liquid – $ 1.99
2 Edy’s Ice Cream – $ 4.99 each = $ 9.98

Total was $ 15.12.

The ice cream and syrup is for ice cream sundaes when West visits. Bacon for Sunday breakfasts. Everything else I was out of.

We really have not been spending much on groceries lately.  I am really trying to make a push to use up what we have so that I can defrost the freezer.

Did you get any good grocery deals this week?

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Every Day

After Almost Two Decades of Retirement

For those of you who don’t know, we have almost two decades of retirement under our belt. Yes, Hubby and I took early retirement many, many years ago. It was the best thing that we could have ever done.

Over the years, we have been asked many questions. The one we have gotten the most is “What do you all day?” Our answer has always been the same, “Whatever we want to do!” 

We don’t have to listen to alarms go off everyday. We rarely set an alarm unless we have an early appointment that we don’t want to be late to. There is no 30-45 minute commute every day. When it snows, we no longer stress about a long, sometimes 2-3 hour drive in bad conditions. We don’t have to drive in bad snow storms unless we choose to.

We travel when we want to but not as much as we used to when we were first retired. Hubby no longer enjoys traveling which is fine. I travel if and when I want to. Many trips to Disney World come to mind. I been invited to go again for a week during Disney World’s 50th anniversary year. I am still deciding whether I want to or not.

Our lives are so much less stressful than when we worked. No dreaded wasteful meetings come to mind. No bosses breathing down our necks. We are our own bosses now.


Yes, we planned early retirement in our twenties.  We got out in our early fifties.  As we worked toward that goal, nothing made us realize that it was the right thing to do more than a parent dying before he reached retirement. Genetics told us all we had to know.

Fortunately, both Hubby and I are in pretty good health physically and mentally. I believe even better health than when we retired. But we have both been really working hard at it. Lots of exercising and healthy eating comes to mind.


I enjoy doing all the little everyday things that make our lives more comfortable. I like to have a clean and organized home that is decorated to our liking. I like to cook and so does Hubby. I really enjoy the meals he makes. It’s a treat for me. We enjoy being outdoors in the nice weather. We both love to read, play games, and watch movies together. We still enjoy going to parties and BBQ’s. We like treating ourselves to our favorite restaurant. We enjoy spending time with friends.


But most importantly, we love being with our sons, DIL’s, and grandchildren. Those are the best times ever for us. We just wish they all lived next door. Family always come first in our lives and always will. 

Someone asked me recently if we regret retiring early and aren’t we bored. The answer is a resounding NO! We have enjoyed each other’s company every day and we are never bored. There is so much to do in life that I don’t understand people who say they are bored. Boredom has never entered our lives. Some days I wonder how we get everything done that we want to do. 


Retirement has also allowed me to blog for the many years that I have been doing it. Hopefully it has helped some of you over the years. When and if I get tired of doing that, I will retire from that too. For now, I am not tired yet and will continue to blog when I have something to say and have the time to say it. I enjoy reading your comments and responding to them when I can also. I feel after all of this time that some of you are my next door neighbors that I have lived next to for many years.

So that all said, I hope we have many more decades of retirement because it is just one of the very best times of our lives! 

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Have Done The Past Couple of Weeks

These are the things that we have done frugally recently:

– Hubby and/or I have made all our meals from scratch. I have been eating a lot of eggs and ground chicken because they are the only things that didn’t make my mouth hurt. No restaurant or take out was consumed.

– I listened to a free podcast while folding laundry and changing sheets.

– I still managed to get my exercising in on the treadmill and bike while listening to upbeat Rock and Roll music from the 1960’s using my earbuds.

– I started exercising my abs using a video I found on You Tube. 

– I found more clothes that no longer fit me. I will be giving them away. I think everything that I have outgrown has been found except for coats that are in my garment bag. I will go through those this week.

– Received a check for $15. and will deposit it at the bank into our savings.

– Did our income taxes and was happy that we are getting a small refund rather than have to pay.


– I was in need of some cold medicines, pain killers, and cough drops so I purchased them at Walmart using some coupons. In my area, they are so much cheaper there than at our drugstores. I scanned my receipt on Fetch.

– I also purchased what I deemed necessary, just in case, the Coronavirus is found in our state. Because if that happens, we will be quarantining ourselves. I realize it’s a long shot but you have to be prepared.

– I spent a lot of time resting last week using my Kindle to read myself to sleep. It has been a rough few weeks between my sore mouth and a horrible cold that is still hanging on. 


– I gave my neighbor, who has two young boys, a box of Lincoln Logs and a large box of matchbox cars that West no longer plays with. The boys loved them and she sent me a picture of them playing with them. It got them out of my house and will give them a lot of enjoyment.

– I mended some pj’s.

– I have done no grocery shopping since my small shop on January 22nd. We have 100% been eating from our stockpile. 


– We had our Buffalo Chicken Wings this past weekend in honor of the Superbowl. But we didn’t order them and have them delivered. I cooked them in our air fryer oven and made up the Buffalo wing sauce to put on them. We had unused sauce leftover so I refrigerated it for the next time we make them.


– After not eating much last week because of a loss of appetite due to my cold, I was craving a good hamburger. So this weekend, I cooked them up for us. I had mine in a lettuce wrap and loaded it up with sauteed mushrooms. It really tasted so good! 


– We are also trying to use up all of our store bought cleaners. Once they are gone, we will make our own.


– I have been working on genealogy for both of our family trees. I found something new after many hours of searching. I was so excited. It is such good entertainment. 

So what have you done recently frugally?

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Every Day

Ignoring It All In February!

February is going to be the month that I shut down all of the “noise” that surrounds me.

Every day we are inundated by commercials on TV, advertisements in magazines and newspapers, ads in the mail, You Tube commercials, deals in our e-mail, etc. Every one of these things contribute to what we purchase in a month’s time.

I have decided that it would be nice to make this all go away. So these are the things we will do to get rid of some of these things and then we will ignore the rest.

We are recording any shows that we want to watch on TV. When we go back to watch them, we will fast forward through the commercials.

We have unsubscribed from most of the company e-mail lists that we are on. Those we deemed it was prudent not to, we will send to junk for now.

We will not look at Hip2Save or any other deal site online for the entire month. But AD, aren’t you afraid you will miss a great deal? Nope! There is ALWAYS another great deal!

We do get a newspaper every day since Hubby enjoys reading it in the morning. The only ads that we will look at is a quick scan of the food ads. That’s it. All other ads will be recycled without reading them. I only receive one magazine monthly and those ads will be ignored as I read the articles.

I will ignore the ads on You Tube while they run the first 5 seconds or so. Then immediately skip to the content. Any content by the vloggers that are selling something will be totally ignored.

By going in and out of the house via our garage in the winter time, we pass right by our recycle bin. I will drop any ad that arrives in our mailbox into that bin unread on the way in from the mailbox.

I want a peaceful month without all of this “noise”. I want a month away from shopping, Amazon.com, etc. If I don’t look at all of the before mentioned things I won’t know about any “great deals” that I just have to have. 

Enough is enough! I am taking my life and my time back and will be saving a lot of money in the process.

If any of you get tired of always chasing the good deals and being inundated with them, come join me in this challenge in February.

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An Analysis of our Electric and Natural Gas Bill

We got our monthly electric and gas bill on Friday. I know what we paid for this past year which as of this month is $1800.15. That is the dollar amount that I am always trying to lower- the annual amount. Same period last year we paid $1971.33. So considering that rates go up, I guess we have done a pretty good job of lowering our consumption. That said it has been warmer this winter than last winter. The average daily temperature this month was 36 degrees. For the same time last year it was 31 degrees. So Mother Nature is helping us out here too.

This month’s bill was $ 202.17 for 31 days. The # of days varies every month depending on when the meter reader comes (6 months of the year) and when I read it (6 months of the year). Our company reads just 6 times and if you don’t read it the other 6 times, they estimate your billing. I don’t like estimates; I want to pay what I owe when I actually owe it so I always read the meters those 6 months and submit my readings to the company.

I dislike estimates as much as I dislike budget billing. With budget billing they take a 12 month average and bill you the same amount once a month. For people who like this that is fine. But I prefer to pay them what I actually owe them each month. I handled many complaints about customers’ budget billing when I worked a few years for the agency that regulated them. Many customers were billed way too much monthly and some of the customers were not billed enough so they had to pay that amount in a lump sum at the end of their budget billing year. 

Back to our bill this month. We used 589 KWH(measure of use) of electricity and 141 CCF’s(measure of volume of natural gas used) or 145.6 therms(We are charged in therms which is the energy heat content of the natural gas.) of natural gas. We are two people in the household. We entertain and have overnight company a few times a year. Our home is a little over 2100 sq. ft. on the main living floor(we have a ranch home) and the same amount of square footage in our basement.

Our builder heated the basement in case we wanted to eventually finish it with rooms down there. We keep the duct work closed all year round although I am sure there is some leakage. The only time we are in the basement is to clean and organize it, work out on the treadmill, to change the furnace filters, and to put in and take out food and other items from our freezer and pantry. Hubby does have a workbench down there but it gets minimal usage. A sweater works for the time spent down there and when we are on the treadmill we work up a sweat and are never cold.

We use natural gas for heat, cooking on our gas range stove top and oven, and for our on demand tankless water heating. Electricity is used for everything else. 

NYS makes the utility companies break out the dollar amounts on your bill so that you know exactly what you are paying for. There are the basic service charges for your meters(you pay this even if you use no electric or natural gas that month), the delivery charges(what it costs the company to bring the energy to our home), the supply charges(what you pay for the energy purchased by your company), the weather adjustment charges(This moderates the natural gas bills during any extreme weather between October 1 and May 31. If temperatures are colder than normal you typically receive a credit; if temperatures are warmer than normal, you receive a charge.) Since temperatures were warmer than normal this month, we were charged $ 6.50 for that. 

Then there are transition charges(These reflect the costs of making the electricity and natural gas industry more competitive; it includes associated credits/and or charges.), payment and billing services charges(the cost to produce and send you an electronic or paper bill and process payments), the merchant function charges(this is for the administrative costs of obtaining electricity and natural gas supply),the system benefits charges(a mandated charge by NYS for all electric and natural gas customers to fund clean energy activities conducted by NYSERDA and energy efficiency programs administered by my company), the revenue decoupling mechanism(a charge or a credit that reflects the difference between forecast and actual delivery service revenues to encourage the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable technologies), and finally the residential consumer discount( a monthly payment received from the New York Power Authority to be used for the benefit of residential customers). This bill it amounted to a credit of $ .51 which was included in the transition charges.

Is your head spinning? I am sure it is but this gives you an idea of what we are actually paying for and what you are most likely paying for even if it is not broken down on your bill like ours is.

The electric portion of our bill totaled $ 71.94 and the natural gas portion of our bill totaled $ 129.36 which comes to $201.30 and then there was a misc. charge of $ .87 which totaled the billed amount of $ 202.17.  

That $ .87 for miscellaneous charges was for a payment and billing services charge of $.81, a payment and billing charge GRT of $ .02, and billing and payment charges sales tax of $.04.

Included in the electricity bill were state and county taxes of $3.65. Included in the natural gas bill were state and county taxes of $ 6.49. Including the miscellaneous tax, the total taxes in this bill were $ 10.18.

I have written some posts on how we save on our electricity and natural gas bill. The posts are:

Phantom Energy 

Winter Savings 

More Energy Saved 

Saving on A/C 

Saving with a Pressure Cooker 

Watching The Large Expenses 

Getting Ready for Winter 

Saving While Doing Laundry

We are doing things a little differently this winter for heating. We have our temperature set during the day(6AM to 10PM) at 68 degrees and during the night at 63 degrees. It is very cold in here at night but we sleep with a dual control electric blanket and we are both very warm. Sometimes it is really cold in here during the daytime at 68 degrees and we will bump it up to 69 or 70 but that is infrequently. We are too old to be uncomfortable. So it is worth paying for a little more heat when we need it.

It takes a lot of natural gas to heat this size house especially when we have 10 foot ceilings and 2 Cathedral ceilings in the house. We also have 16 very large windows( pictured above; that is why we have energy saving shades on them) in the house along with 1 door that is mostly glass and 8 smaller windows. So I don’t think our heating costs are unreasonable. 

If anyone knows what the GRT in the payment and billing charge stands for, would you please tell me in the comments. I don’t know or remember what it is. I will call my utility company on Monday to ask if no one knows.

So have your heating bills gone up or down this winter? What are doing to save on those costs? I am  very curious.    

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Every Day

A Small Grocery Haul and a Head’s Up

On the way home from the dentist today, I stopped at Wegman’s since it was close by and picked up the only grocery haul that I will be doing this week. 

I have been to the dentist this week multiple times. I had two teeth extracted and got my full denture. I have been having an awful time of it. I don’t know why because I have had teeth extracted before but this time it has really been an ordeal. I am in pain and I had to have an adjustment today because of the denture digging into my gums. Needless to say, I have only been eating hard boiled eggs and mashed avocado for my meals. The dentist told me to take Tylenol but it is a drug that my body can’t handle so I am trying to ignore the pain.

This had really thrown me for a loop because I am a very strong individual and usually handle things well. So this is very aggravating to me!

So I have been spending most of my time sleeping or just resting. I may or may not post for the rest of the week. Hopefully this will pass soon. Till then, take care.   
 

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Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

You all know that I like to get my posts on this blog early. But today has been one of those days.

It started with a haircut appointment. Then it was off to our library to donate some books. You see with all of the organizing in the basement, I have cleaned out most of my frugality books among others. Many of the really good ones I am saving for my DIL to look at the next time they visit. I will let her pick any she wants. I also have many recent books that I think my son will love. Then I will donate the rest to the library. Any that are in excellent condition that they don’t have they will put on the shelves. The others will get sold at their book sale. It is the best way I know to help the library besides paying their annual tax that supports it. So a bag full of books that I decided neither my DIL nor son would read, I donated this morning. 

Then it was a stop at Aldi’s to pick up some things that Hubby decided he needed after I had already shopped yesterday. I also forgot to get ice cream for West’s birthday. Even though they are having a sleepover party for his friends and going on an outing to ice skate on his birthday, he loves to come here and get his gifts and perhaps a cake or cupcakes. This year it will be brownies frosted with chocolate frosting. Chocolate is his favorite. When we picked them up at the airport last Sunday, he was adamant that he had to come here one day for his birthday. I guess he likes his Grandma and Grandpa. I can’t believe he will be 10.

Hubby used up all of the
garlic last night and I used up the last Babybel. Hubby also decided he
wanted some Black Forest Ham to put on his salads and he said we needed
more Romaine. When I was by the freezer case to get the ice cream, they had the riced
cauliflower marked down so I got one. My total was $ 17.52.  

My last stop while I was out was for Scotties at Dollar Tree. Hubby informed me that he had opened the last box. So I stopped and got 15 boxes along with 3 small bags of Sugar Free candy for Hubby. They are a treat once in while. My total with tax was $19.44. The Scotties are the cheapest that I can get them anywhere here. Once in a while when there is a coupon and Top’s has a sale, I can get them for about $ .08 cheaper per box. But I only get one paper with the coupons. They will have that sale again this Sunday so I will get 3 because the coupon is $1./3. Does anyone get it cheaper? Would you share?

I have gotten 30 minutes in on the treadmill and the bike today as usual.


I am about to go out and read my electric and gas meter for my company. We are going to get major snow this weekend so I want to do it while I don’t have to mog through that to get to the meter. Then it is back down to the basement to continue organizing and purging. I have already gotten rid of 12 bags of things, some donated and some went into the trash.

The other thing I did this week besides the basement and my daily chores was that I cooked a 12 lb. turkey which we are about to have the third meal from. Tomorrow I will make turkey soup and whatever we don’t use or eat in the soup, will get portioned out and frozen for other meals. 


Other than West’s birthday celebration, it is a football playoff weekend. Yeah!


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

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Every Day

Grocery Shopping This Week

I needed a lot of things this week. This is what I purchased at Top’s:

2 Grated Cheddar Cheese – $ 2.50 ea.= $ 5.00
2 Mexican Blend Cheese – $ 2.50 ea = $ 5.00
5 Pace Salsa – $ 1.49 ea. wyb 5 = $ 7.45
2 Strawberries- B1G1F = $ 5.49
Deli Provolone Cheese – $ 3.70
Deli Turkey Breast – $ 8.18
2 Jello – $ .79 ea. =$ 1.58
4 – V8 juice – $2.49 ea. =$ 9.96
2 bags of Sweet Peppers – B1G1F – $ 3.99
1 lb. Jimmy Dean Bacon – $ 3.99 with Super Cpn.

Total was $ 54.34. I screwed up really bad here. I forgot that in order to get the discounted price on the V8, I had to buy 5. Then they would have been $1.99 each. I will be taking them back and doing it correctly to save myself $ .50 each.

Hubby was craving a sandwich and requested the cold cuts. This will get him through until I cook a turkey which I will do this week. We were totally out of these two cheeses so I stocked while they were on sale. 

This is what I purchased at Aldi. Due to a lot on my schedule today, I am showing the receipt today, since it is short. Total was $ 61.75.

Hubby wanted the pork butt, which was on sale to cook slowly to tenderize it. I have never ever cooked a pork butt before. We will see how it turns out. I am hoping to shred it and mix it with SF BBQ sauce. Then freeze it in portions. He also requested the pork sausage since he loves it with eggs for breakfast.

Hubby loves the chocolate Coconut Cashew Crisps for a snack. They are so popular at my Aldi that they are hard to find. When I find them today, I bought a bunch. I love a Caramel one once in a while, so I bought one for me. 

We were out of wings and shrimp and Aldi has the best prices in my area for them. The ground chicken is for lunches this week. I will be making burgers out of it.

We were all out of cocktail sauce which is how we eat our shrimp. The coffee is to hold Hubby until his Amazon subscribe and save order comes. The creamer and milk were necessities. 

So I spent a total of $ 116.09. But I have not spent  a lot prior this month.

Have you gotten any good deals this month? Please share with us.   
 

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Have Done

These are the things we have done frugally since the last time I posted on this topic:

– Received $ 21.45 in checks. They will be deposited into one of our savings accounts.

– Cashed in for a $25.00 Amazon gift card for rebate points. This will be used to pay for any food ordered at Amazon.com this month.

– Donated 2 bags of clothing to Goodwill. Got a receipt just in case we can itemize for 2020, although that is doubtful.

– Replaced 5 CCF light bulbs in basement with 5 LED bright lights which gives me much more light to organize and clean down there. The bulbs were purchased on sale a couple of months ago.

– All food has been made from scratch at home. No restaurant food was consumed. 

– I picked up a free can of organic black beans from Top’s with their digital coupon. No extra gasoline was used because it was on the way home from picking up prescriptions.

– I donated food that we no longer eat to our local food bank. I got a receipt just in case we itemize this year.

– Exercised every day but one when I was not feeling well. All exercising done at home. We no longer pay for YMCA membership for us.

– Talked with my sister using free long distance. Priceless! 

– I washed 2 loads of clothing per week using cold water. I hung them to dry. 

– We had a lot of salads for dinner and lunch so that our produce got used up.


– I sliced up a # of red, orange and yellow peppers and onions to use in fajita’s. We eat our fajita’s in a bowl – no tortillas. Almost all of the peppers are gone before they spoiled. I used our homemade fajita seasoning.


– I purchased a birthday card at Dollar Tree to go with West’s birthday gift. I can’t believe he will be 10. Time sure flies.

– We took our son and his family to the airport on New Year’s Day so that they could stay in the Florida Keys for a few days on a houseboat. Then they went on a Caribbean cruise. We picked them at the airport last night. We packed a small dinner in case we needed something to eat while waiting for them in the free cell phone lot. We picked them up at dinner time. We ended up bringing it home but we were prepared in case hunger pangs hit. 

– I have already purchased two gifts that are needed in 2020. One was on sale 20% off and the other was on clearance. 

– I purchased 2 large bottles of vitamins for us using coupons along with a sale. January is the cheapest month to buy them.

– While I was digging through boxes in the basement, I found Christmas cards that I had made 9 years ago. After I received them, I looked all over and couldn’t find them. So I figured I had thrown them out. I guess not! I will use them next Christmas.

What have you done frugally in the past 10 days or so? Please share with all of us. Remember we learn from each other. 

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2020 Goals: To Replace The Money We Will Be Using From Our Emergency Fund

We have a very large emergency fund. We have saved money over the years to feed it so that we can pay for any emergencies that come up.

We keep enough in it to pay for a new car when it is needed, new large appliances when they bite the dust, a new roof when it is needed, a large amount for necessary household repairs, money to replace carpeting and furniture, to pay for large medical and dental expenses, and a miscellaneous amount for anything else that might pop up.

Well, I got some bad news at the dentist a few weeks ago again. You all know that I have spent a fortune at the dentist over the past 10 years. We had no dental insurance up until 6 months ago. We now have a plan that my dentist offers that pays for 2 cleanings and dental exams, 2 fluoride treatments a year, X-rays once a year, and one emergency visit with an X-ray once a year. We go to the dentist every 3 months for cleanings and exams. Those 2 extra cleanings have just a $30. co-pay. We also get 20% off the standard fee for other procedures.

Fall of 2018, I had a partial denture made to replace a permanent bridge that was only 4 years old that failed. Just on those two things and some crowns to hold the partial and our cleanings and exams, we spent $XX,XXX. out of our emergency fund. We scrimped and saved to replace that money over the past 6 years. We did it.

But now, the tooth under a crown that is holding one end of my partial denture has fractured. The tooth has actually started to come out of the crown and my gum has started to grow around both of them. This must be taken care of soon because both the fractured tooth and crown could come out at any time. When I was at the dentist 4 months ago, I mentioned some pain that I had in that tooth area.  The dentist took X rays but the fracture did not show on them at that time. He put some kind of medicine in that area and I never had any pain after that. I didn’t expect to hear anything but good news on this visit because I had no pain or tenderness and my gums are in excellent condition. Was I ever wrong!   

To repair this I only had a couple of options: have the crown and tooth removed and an implant put in to replace it so that it can hold the partial, have the fractured tooth and the other tooth holding my partial removed and a new full upper denture made or replace both teeth with implants. I may also have to have bone grafts done if need be to be able to have the implants. That will be much more money.

The tooth that is crowned holding the other side of my partial could fail at any time. So if I don’t have it removed now, it could be even more money down the road when it does fail.

I am so sick of living in my dentist’s chair that I decided to have both crowned teeth removed and a new full denture made. I just want to be done with all of it and not have another problem down the road. It would involve going for an appointment to have an impression mold made to send to the lab to make the denture. Then when the denture is ready, I need to go have the two extractions and on the same appointment the new denture would be put in. I would never be without teeth. After I heal I may have to have the denture realigned which is done in the dentist’s office. The cost is $3286. but after my dental plan discount, it will cost me $2636. out of pocket.

I think it is the right thing to do and the dentist agreed with me especially since he knows what I have been through and the costs I have already paid out of pocket.  Hopefully when this is all done over the next few weeks, I will only have to go for cleanings and exams. My lower teeth are in good shape.

So we will have to work to replace this money that we will be paying out of our emergency fund. This is another goal for 2020.

 I only tell you all of this because when you are planning for your retirement, make sure that you plan for many dental expenses in your retirement years. Even if you have a dental plan, it does not pay a lot on expensive things. So this is one more expense that you have to be prepared for.

Off topic, I am still working in the basement. I am now going through our many bins of Christmas decorations and deciding what we will keep and what we will purge. Once that is done, the large storage wall is done. Then on to the other areas.