No frost yet.

We haven't had our first frost yet, it's about a month behind.  A little scary with how warm it still is. The weather is cool in the mornings and mostly warm in afternoons except the few times we have gotten rain (we need lots more).

Furnace is on 70 until bed time, it goes up to 72 *which puts where Hubby sleeps up to 70. I just shut vents mostly (not all the way as HVAC guy said the could damage our furnace but 1/2 half way shut was okay) When he gets up around anywhere from 3 to 5 a.m. he turns it down to 70.  I turn it to 68 when he goes to work and when raising bread I use a heating pad.

 The oil lamp is lit in the mornings instead of turning on the light.

A candle is lit at supper instead of turning on the light. 

Laundry is on drying racks or clothes line. 

I inventoried my baking supplies and then grains. Baking supplies were good, grains we were almost out of barley and farro but the rest is good. I am also low on chia seeds. What is needed is now ordered at lowest price I could find. I was surprised that none of the bulk stores didn't carry any type of barley. 

I went through two cookbooks wrote by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette. It is Monastery recipes. I also went through another one "The American Woman's cookbook (1948) by Ruth Berolzheimer. I pulled recipes that we have most of the ingredients.  Both had turnips and radishes in recipes and I have plenty ready to pick in gardens. Lettuce should be ready this week also.

We talked about ham and Hubby wanted another turkey for bagging as shredded. I told him we would wait until after Tday unless the price drops. I would like one ham for the freezer and another to cook in the next week. We'll see what that price is. Hubby wants 3, one whole for freezer, one in slices and bone for soup and one now.

I wrote the grocery list based on the recipes I got from the cookbooks. Hubby whined a bit about soups until I pointed out that most were potage type soups aka thick or stew type. 

We then had a round about whether or not Boston baked beans (or any baked beans) were a side dish or main dish. Just in case you are interested

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_baked_beans

I did ask how bean soup could be a main dish but a bake bean (aka casserole style) couldn't be. He told me his family never ate bean soup, not even his grandparents. So he texted his mom to make sure he was thinking right and she said his great grandparents on her side ate a thick bean soup but not her parents or them. and his dad's side didn't at all. She really couldn't answer why. Since he is always willing to try any food at least twice. So he didn't say anything when I fixed the meal the first time . All the kids love bean soup, fried potatoes (or fried potatoes and onions) and corn bread. 

Some people are just not soup eaters. He loves red beans and rice, Jambalaya, and Cuban black beans and rice. Refried beans are welcomed once a week LOL. My parents ate soup twice a day for years since that was what they had during and after the Great Depression.

We got the last of the watermelon dealt with . I still have apples, pumpkins and dried beans. Couple jellies, jams and tomato paste also. 

We will be combining doctor appts, banking, groceries and a few pit stops on Tuesday. Will be a LONG DAY. 

 

 

AND HERE WE GO

 I sat down yesterday and paid (or sat aside) Nov's bills. I forgot 4 items... all 4 auto pays. Added them into the SS budget as we now call it and instead of having $1.70 left, we are over by $78. IF we get the raise in SS like they say, we will have a lot more at the end of billing.

I talked it over with Hubby when he got home from putting ramp on front of parents home. 

I showed him what we pulled between both IRAs and SS last year. Also supporting Daughter 4 was 1/4th of that amount. Plus we sold her our car so that was a drop in ins. (I hated the car but was what we could afford cash wise at the time). 

I suggested we use His IRA (which we weren't going to use at all) to cover medical *$6400 out of pocket, propane $3000 IF we can keep the heat like we did last year, $1200 for 2022 Christmas and $240 for the umbrella farm ins. That puts us back down to social security and my inherited IRA. We decided part of it would go in savings for the medical, we can put the rest in 11 month CDs (no penalty if pulled sooner).  I'll do small CD's so anything we don't need can be rolled over for 2023 which is when Hubby goes on Medicare. This year I had 2 surgeries by Feb. that wiped out my share of the out of pocket. Hubby never has wiped out or even used half his out of pocket but about the time I don't put it aside he will need it. That's why I figure we will end up rolling over part of it. 

I sent budget to both our IRA guys. they felt that was really good as when they figured it out we were dropping the budget by almost 60% .We figured the in social security could cover clothing, shoes, groceries and stocking up.