When it rains it pours... still some more BUT

Good news is we have a good solid truck...bad news is we got a truck payment.
Good news is the payment is under what we had worked out because the finance guy took it for LONGER time (and then worked out what we needed to pay extra to hack off that last year he added to get the interest rate that was 3 % lower than what we had found and it still was under the $900 payment even with the extra payment saving us even more on the interest. Our insurance agent looked at a couple different underwriters to get us the best deal on insurance and still was an ouch due to the size of the truck.

Bad news is my favorite car is now at the junk yard

Good news is they came and got it for free, plus paid me for it and it's off the insurance. I will miss it as it was FAITHFUL to a fault of even driving when the axle broke...yeah really went 5 miles while Daughter 4 drove it slowly home in a rain storm. She knew the tire was coming off but it stayed on until she put it in park.Next day we realized the axle had broke.

Good news is we took food to Daughter 4, whose own daughter had invited a friend to spend the night (kids take turns on that) and at the last moment found out the friend can't eat gluten. If we hadn't take food to her she wouldn't have had something for the young lady to eat. Bad news is Daughter 4 dislocated her shoulder at work and is off work. Medical payment is 60% of her normal paycheck. Good news is , that's what she bases her budget on and with us giving her food she is going to be fine going through the next two months especially since she was back to work today with restrictions.

Bad news we are not having Thanksgiving dinner for the family any more, not just this year. After not having it this year we had several comments of kids and grandkids wanting it to stop but did not want to offend anyone with their reasons why. One grandson was very open about being torn between families and having pressure put on him by his parent to attend ours instead of the other side and he has a girlfriend that is likely to get a promise ring at Christmas so there will be her side also.Good news is no one is under pressure  to attend, no one is AKA us and Son 2 is spending money, time and effort to be at a dinner that there is a lot of complaining going on. Do not need the DRAMA which is on the good news side.

Bad news I won't be getting deep fried turkey for dinner or sweet potatoes with marshmallows(son 2) or baked beans (by girlfriend who makes extra so I can freeze them), good news is I am roasting those 3 turkeys and putting them in OUR freezer and making broth.Deep Fried turkey doesn't make good broth.

Good news is since we didn't have Tday dinner we just sent all the kids money ( a lot more than normal)for them to buy Christmas as we had trouble connecting to them all at the same time last couple years and can't afford 6 different trips (bad news). SO we all told them it was time for them to come our way and it did not have to be on holidays. The kids are fine if we don't do cookies and candy BUT if we do and want to limit it..Buckeyes, sugar cookies for Granddaughter who eats NO chocolate , snickerdoodles for most of the rest and oatmeal cookie and peanut butter for Son 2 and no candy for him. We will see how that goes.

We thought about a Christmas open house and decided to pass on that as we are still changing things around.

Bad news is my sewing scissors , all 4 pairs is missing, Daughter 4 said something to Daughter 2 and she said she had borrowed them while she lived with us for work to cut cardboard and forgot to bring them back....then Daughter 4 who does sew reminded Daughter 4 who does not sew  that sewing scissors are for fabric only not paper, cardboard etc. Daughter 2 did say she did not know where they went after she left them at work. SO I now have to replace my scissors and since they were missing I couldn't sew the winter curtains...

BUT I did use pinking shears and cut this no pill fleece for the wheelchair bathroom that at this point I call Hubby's bathroom .

I used a hole punch to put the holes in for the shower curtain hooks. Hubby decided he liked it better than me sewing a rod pocket. Said it's easier to open and close. SO that is good news... I just don't have the rest of the house done which is bad news but good news is the house really isn't getting cold because of the lack of winter curtains.

Bad news is the lights in the north loft don't work, good news we put the winter squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes in that loft since it's on the cold side and we would have to use electric heater to have it warm enough for any one. Hubby already called the electrician that installed it and they are on stand by until Hubby checks a couple things with his tester as they think it's the actual light not the wiring since the outlets and other light works.

Bad news is we need to get our propane tank filled... Good news is I prepaid it when they delivered the tank.Doubled what we used at the other place.

GOOD news, even though Hubby doesn't care if we decorate for Christmas, I would like to some...the weather is suppose to be decent Wednesday,Thursday and Friday so I can get what I want done and Hubby won't have to deal with icy cold crap doing the outside lights.

Bad news ,between the house, car, truck and medical our one retirement acct will not last to Hubby can collect SS...GOOD NEWS is , we have not touched the other retirement acct and could actually pay everything off and still have money to live on allowing him to not pull SS when he planned to. Our finance guy is bouncing some figures around and looking at the big picture to show us our options in Dec.

It all balances out in the long run is what Mother used to say. GOD will provide the work to earn what we need.

IN the pantry

Not sure where I got this from, I used to have it hanging from my frig in the fall. This year nothing got hung but I have been stocking the pantry.

I made pear butter out of the pear's the neighbor's 4 yr old helped Hubby pick up off the ground while 4 yrs old dad put roof on the neighbor's garage. She had told the child he could have all the pears on the ground or that his dad or Hubby could help him reach on the tree. We got 2-5 gal buckets. Hubby helped him take 4-5 gal buckets home while his dad finished the roof. Good thing as the freeze came in a couple days later.

I am pretty much stocked with meat for a year. I would like to have a couple pork butt roasts or loins maybe one of each instead of two of each but if I don't get them on sale for the right price I will pass. We now have 18 months of main dishes in the pantry... 2 main dished per day. Though I image with a little bit of this and that I could turn it into a 3rd dish if needed to stretch the main meal part of the pantry for 2 yrs.Which would be great as the next 2 years are going to be very thin on the income with the outflow of the house and truck etc.

Last Wednesday Hubby picked up 2 turkeys for 48 cents/ lb if you spent $25 for Daughter 4. He got her  beef roast (buy one get one) and potatoes. I picked up 2 turkeys for us (same price) and beef roast (same deal) for us and onions for Daughter 4. 

Thursday, I run to store for dairy items, and grab 2 more turkeys and found hamburger marked down, hot dogs and smoked sausage also marked down.Got home and found out that Hubby had went to the store when he went to town to run an errand for the neighbor and got 2 more turkeys and 2 more roasts(buy one get one) and coffee as he had checked his coffee before he went to town.He had 2 coupons for the coffee and it was on sale.

Spent the weekend dealing with the food etc.

Sunday we meet son 2 and our friends over at Hong Kong to celebrate Vet's day Son and friend are vets) and since friend wants us to deep fry turkey for Ham radio Christmas dinner we went to Kroger's there so he could pay for them and we just bring them home. They had turkeys for 38 cents/lb limit 2 so we picked up 2 more (total is 8 just FYI)for us AND they had brisket for $1.99/ lb while it's running $5.99 at our Kroger's. I picked up 2 briskets.

The next day we had eye appointment back over to the other Kroger's (my steroids has cause my astigmatism to change) so we stopped at Kroger's.  I got 4 more briskets, brats that was marked down, hamburger that was marked down, 2 large containers of oats and a bag of potatoes.

I cut the 6 briskets in four pieces  to make 24 roasts (that's one every other week) or one once a month for 2 yrs.Vacuumed they will hold good.

Turkey 1 was roasted, deboned, ate and the remaining part vacuum packed (6 meals)and in freezer and carcass is been turned into broth which is now in frig to let the fat come to top and be able to remove fat and can tomorrow.

Turkey 2  was roasted today, is now deboned , I ate it tonight for dinner (Hubby working parade)and carcass is in pot simmering as I type this for broth to be defatted and then canned.

Turkey 3 is thawing. Actually I had no choice as I now need that space for the briskets LOL. But that's okay. We figured we would cook 3 turkeys this month to get the broth back up as I was low and I vacuum the meat in 3 cups packages as that's what I use in most of my casseroles, noodles etc.

We decided on our basic once a month perishable list. I will go to Save A Lot here (don't have an Aldi's) to get what I can BEFORE going to Kroger's. Walmart here does not have the choices or smaller sizes that I use. It's $125 IF I go to Kroger's a month .... but with the understanding I might have to buy something that isn't on the list but needed for a meal if it's something we agree on. I set that amount as $25. When we don't use that money or there is some left, it goes back into the stock the pantry envelope. Any of the $125 not used also goes into stock the pantry envelope.

There are a couple stores in the next town where our parents live that I would like to do a price check when we are over there. They have an Aldi's.

I pulled some different breads out of the freezer trying to use that up before I baked another loaf when the neighbors down the road brought a loaf of bread they bought from the Amish bakery around the corner so we are eating that as well.

We talked about things we were no longer eating...cold cereal for Hubby as he used to eat it in the mornings when he got home from work before going to bed.
Apples, he used to eat one either at work or before work with peanut butter...not happening. I used to eat cottage cheese, pickled beets and applesauce for lunch  and a yogurt for 2 pm snack with fig newtons or cookie, not doing that either.

I already need 25 lbs all purpose flour, 25 lbs sugar, and peanut butter and choc chips... not out but lower than I usually am at this time even without baking cookies or making candy for the kids for Christmas. IF they come on sale cheap enough I will pick them up.