Where I am at on goals and staying frugal

Friday ....First the chuckle that started our day... Hubby left for work for the state, called me not 10 min later and I was like, You aren't even at work, what is wrong?

Nothing... E had "sos" (flicked flash light on and off repeatedly very fast) to flag Hubby down as he headed to work down the road... E was RUNNING down his lane trying to catch Hubby .... They need diapers for the baby for Sunday visiting. LOL.... Hubby needed me to text him LUVS size 1 one package so he would remember to get them before coming home. Baby is allergic to Walmart brand which is what they used on the last babe.

I have come to understand it's not just spending time tracking finances, appts etc.. I have to budget TIME, what is the most important to be done and saves me the most money using MY TIME instead of buying or paying for something. I'm not falling asleep at 6:30 in the evening so that's a help of getting things done in the evening. But trying to track everything is starting to be huge job and does get weary at times.

I called to pay off the hospital bill and finance services is no longer allowed to do echecks...HUM, would have loved to hear the conversations that is going on about that. ANYWAYS the lady is meeting us at the cashiers office next Thursday when I am there anyways for my CT scan to make sure we get the 5% discount even though it's pass the 10 day time frame.

Hubby turned off the heater in the pump house saving us propane.

Three times this week we turned OFF the furnace for 3-4 hrs and opened doors to air out the house and saved propane. We are trying to stretch the propane to be filled in mid April instead of early April.

I reworked the budget due to needing to replace the amount of deductible by Dec 31st , our ins has us pay all of it first(we used to pay last and had catastrophic after the maximum payout) and it restarts Jan 1st. So not to get nailed with it next year like we did this year. We decided to have the full deductible in a savings acct. before the end of the year.I will have to rework it again after I find out what my biologic will cost me. PLUS extra gas for appointments as my Primary warned me it might be weekly for the first 3 months. That alone will triple the budgeted amount for fuel and a change in the grocery budget as I have to eat certain foods... along with ginger, turmerics and cinnamon for health benefits.We have pulled some recipes that I should be able to eat and is simple enough if I am not up to cooking Hubby can put it together.

 We will drive the car not the truck... That's not standard for us when Hubby is driving. My car is small and he can't wear a coat while driving it but it's the cheaper to drive (I did mention motorcycle if he was taking me to check ups when it's warm and I have recovered).Example would be Hubby driving the truck yesterday that gets 10 mpg over to neighbor instead of WALKING across pasture.  No he wasn't transporting anything that needed a vehicle , just taking some mail that got put in our mail box instead. DUH moment. OR not driving over to N to deliver mail in the truck when I am driving right pass N's the next day in the car on the way to doc appt. I can see it's going to be a NO, don't take the truck for a couple months until he adjusts since he is used to crawling in it to go to work or haul.

It's carrying 2 water bottles while gone so I am not spending money to buy another bottle of water while out. That happened twice this past week, the second time I was able to stop at Son 2 and fill my bottle back up.

Son 2 is on active duty, so while at the doctor appt that is in his area I stopped and check on his cats and pick up the cardboard he has been saving us for the garden paths. Saves him $ of paying his neighbor to check on the cats .I fixed his litter box TWICE. Glad I decided to stop again on the way back home.

Hubby's old company HR is handling finding out our costs for biologics since I wasn't being given any information at all from the ins.  Ins wants 3 different biologics and their dosages so they can give us a price and we can figure out which one WORKS for me along with what can we afford. They already figured out we will have to pay 20% of surgery OF the contract price they have set with the hospital (which is lower than the original bill).Hospital has already agreed to payments and will work with us. SIGH of relief we won't be put in a crisis but have to focus on picking up odd jobs and saving were we can to pay the meds and the hospital bill off.

I asked grandson's mother in law about the surgery I might have (she has had several bowel surgeries and knows several others as she works at the hospital) She told me 6 bags of diapers and TP and butt cream. So I need to pick up  3 bags of diapers and TP, I have coupons and CVS extra bucks to use this week. We will be right around the corner from CVS Monday when at doctors appointments. I have  butt cream (HAHA) and Vaseline, which works just as good as butt cream.

We have 3 months of household bills in the savings WITHOUT touching any IRAs.  We have total amount of $$ for winter propane and total amount of $$ for Hubby's fishing trip with his BFF that retired this year(deep sea fishing once a year so they can see each other as the other one lives in AL). We have total amount $$ that we are willing to spend on livestock trailer (Auction April 6th).

We both took a breath, and relaxed as we aren't in a crisis but the budget is going to be STRICT and we know it.  We have money in IRA and we can pull SS at 62 (18 mos from now)... WE DON'T WANT TO but can. SO it's not worse case at this point , just not a comfortable fit of where we want to be with what we want to do. The price of the biologics is going to be what points us to what we do.

E and his brother N talked to the person that does the stone for the lanes of Amish and that person is willing to do our lane. Hubby just needs to get a hold of him to come price it. The price is HALF of what was going to costs us plus actually a bigger load than the price of  us spreading it out (dump and go price). This guy will spread it out and E said he would do the grading as he has the equipment to do that so we won't even have to rent or pay for that part either. E wants fish if Hubby brings home fish from the trip ;) He also wants to fish our pond which his brother stocked with the fish LOL.

I called our vet, Rascal is due for shots in April, we also need heart worm and flea meds for the 3 of them plus Wilbur needs a check up for his weight(was severely over weight we got him_ and so does Charlotte (who was dying of worms when we got her). They cut us a deal if we brought all 3, let them cut nails, they wouldn't charge for the office visit for ANY OF THEM. Just shots and nails (office visit is $25 nails is $10) AND if we buy our normal amt of 6 months of meds they will give us a 20% discount. They are already about $5 cheaper on the meds than anywhere I have priced on line and local.The savings alone on getting nails done over office visit cost will cover Rascal's shots.

Baby freezer in barn is defrosted. Hubby is going to give it another go over with cleaning tonight after work . I have 3 turkeys and 3 hams yet so I put on the kitchen calendar to cook ham in April, June and Aug. and to cook turkey in May, July and Sept. I have brisket... 24 of 4 lb brisket so I can cook one  a month of it.I moved them into the other 3 deep freezers in the basement. I still have white space, about 4 cubic feet of white space (that's about 2 refrigerator freezers amt of space). I transferred 9 gallon bags of ice to Baby. I will continue to pull ice from the refrigerator ice maker and put it in Baby so save on the cost of ice this summer. I average $150 for ice when blanching during the season. I would LOVE for this to be $000000.

I moved a good part of odds and ends to the kitchen frig to where I was storing stuff for Hubby's lunches. Since Hubby is eating in the truck he prefers to eat a wrap not something from the thermos. We can start eating this for our lunches or suppers. His last day is 3/29.

 I decided that Baby freezer in barn will hold ice until I start doing rhubarb, asparagus and broccoli etc.It has a small area that is separate that I can put those in to and still keep ice.

I now have 2 loaves of bread dough, 8 rolls (dough), 8 slices of pain de mie bread and 12 tortilla wraps in the freezers. I also have pound cake slices and 6 small loaves of pound cake in freezers.

Hubby has asked if I can make egg rolls and pot stickers (or buy them made)for the freezer.He would like a supple of my "not feeling well" foods in the house, tomato soup, beef and turkey broth, fine noodles or star or alphabet pasta, pot stickers, egg rolls and sausage patties from Walter's meats in Wapa with thin bagel, thin Swiss cheese,and horseradish cream sauce.  I'm canning beef and turkey broth this weekend. I have star, alphabet and acini di pepe pasta. I will make noodle most likely this weekend also since I am doing broth.

I have ground pork and bean sprouts , I have the stuff for the pot stickers, I can make the dough... time doing it vs cost buying it when it comes to making the dough including the bagels and English muffins I want in the freezer...

... on the side note I have a child that wants to barter, $10 for gas, one turkey and one ham in exchange of a full day of spring cleaning and cooking... HUM... so for $34 (as I know what I paid for the meat) I can have 8 hours of work from the child that is a "lets get this cleaning done so I can play in Mom's kitchen or better yet, Mom play in the kitchen while I clean so I can just pack up food and go home"... might just take that offer up especially if I do have surgery.

I know we have ate 18 cubic feet of food from freezers in 6 months. Why do I need that info? Because we have 60 cubic feet of freezer space and if I am not going to need that to feed us one to two years I can SELL one of the freezers (putting money in savings and lower electric bill) BUT I can also tell you that I have next to NO veggies in the freezer  which is something that usually fills up 7 cubic ft and maybe, just maybe 3 cubic ft of fruit that is about 1/3rd of what I usually put up. I also know this year I will be putting up freezer jam that I don't normally do.

Just one more thing to track to make good judgement calls.

I paid the State taxes.

My computer refuses to work with the state school tax forms but the lady that has done our taxes (hired by Hubby's old company) offered to do them for us for free .Said more than one person has had issues. She will have them done by the end of the week and those will be out of here.

Hubby picked up another hauling job that might turn in to a weekly haul.Hubby ordered "business" cards, even though he is NOT running a business just doing odd jobs (falls under Hobby) he is still keeping track of things as if it was a business. Better to do it at the beginning and go nope, that's hobby at the end of the year than oh well crap it's a business now and I have to go back and figure out everything. PLUS the Amish can't google him to find out his cell phone number. Next spring he has a job lined up working at collection maple sap aka maple water for 2 different Amish.

We went to store to get dairy and produce. I transferred my "coupon/digital savings" to the savings acct.I talked Hubby out of picking up cookies when both us can bake cookies... I don't care they were marked down and the flavors we like. Baking cookies this week is on the to do list.

Apples trees have been sprayed with dorminate oil

Grape harbor has been sprayed with neem oil and slightly pruned.

Limbs have been burnt in garden so ashes can be tilled under.

Looking to move compost to east end of north garden.

I have not done much spring cleaning between doctors appointments and potty visits 😞 , I am lucky to get meals on the table and finances kept current.

I need to change OUR routine to get our meals times the same as the Amish we are hauling for. I also need to  change errand/appts from 1 day to 2 days a week. I just can't handle doing all of it on 1 day and I definitely did not acknowledge that when I have appointments I am gone most of the day, not home working to do list and not fit to do much of anything when I do get back home.

I canned 9 pints of beef broth. Have turkey broth in frig (thawed) to can today and 4 packages of turkey vacuumed bag in the deep freezer.

Hubby drove the car to work this morning. He put all his work stuff in it yesterday. He is only working 1/2 day since we both have doctor appointments today. We will be meeting our friends and Son 2 at Hong Kong for dinner... we usually do this every 6 weeks...it's been before Christmas since the 5 of us has gotten together. Since we are already in that area, it worked for all of us. No special trips for us.

We decided on a menu plan... menus don't work well for us, depending on how my Crohn's is acting, last minute jobs and preferring a variety of foods and how they are prepared.

We thought about month plan...didn't work at all...can't make it through a week....

We thought about plan by protein....didn't work at all either.

We hit on it this week as I've been tracking what is actually being fixed...

We will base our menu of Countries.

Mediterranean :Italy, Greece, Spain, Algeria,Libya, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Sicily, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt.

Cuban,Haiti and Jamiacia

India

Ireland

Mexico

Asian

German

French

American

And Home Chef that Son 2 gave us recipes of while he was using that service.

We decided Monday to be leftover day as that is the day before trash pick up.

We decided Sunday has to be meals that can be prepped Saturday night to and just simple meals that is mostly hands off.

This week we are having Asian, Italy, American, Greek, German and Home Chef... we will see if this works .

Blessed be

How are you doing?