OKAY... goals for October

I NEED to ask myself daily... how can I save money today?  What can I change to stretch those dollars. 

 Hubby started Medicare this month. He chose to stay with what he picked for these last 3 months for next year. 

We will be updating the will after closing business. Lawyer said to wait 30 days after business is closed. About half the kids are ticked, the other half agree with our choice, he gets it or I get it ( they all agree with that)and if both are gone, it goes to auction. I calmed a few down with tell me what you are wanting and I will work it out you get it BEFORE I die. Especially when I am decluttering anyways. I got one moving in a year, she plans to get a place that she can have the old cabinet that was my great great uncles. I will keep that aside for her, Might even see if the one Amish grandpa could repair it during this winter. He likes to have something to do and has fixed a couple other things for me. Another wants a trunk and stand, I use the stand, but it will be listed as hers.  It's kind of WORK with not AGAINST me. 

I still need to pick Part D. I am still deciding between 3 of them. One has no premium, no charge for my regular meds but a $545 deductible... HUM ... seems funny to me. The other one is what Hubby has $5.30 premium, $4 for one med the rest are 0 and $280 deductible. The other one is $78.90, meds are 0 and no deductible. 

CLOSE business checking. Hubby went to close it, his insurance let him know he had 2 checks coming in the mail for the business... so he waited. THEN he was going to go the other day before he had the heart attack and got another check from the bank that had the truck loan as they had a secondary insurance on that loan so he got money back from that. MAYBE he will be able to close it at the end of this week as Doc said that with negative test (we finally tested negative) and no fever, we could go out after the 11th BUT we must wear a mask. So no eating out. Okay, we did take out last night, first time in 3 wks. We loaded up with Chinese and actually ate a decent amount for the first time. Still visiting the bathroom more than normal.  Hubby has lost 10 lbs. and I have lost 17lbs.  

Hubby listed 8 things he would like to have done by end of October. Couple repair jobs, over half are jobs that would take him about an hour. Keeps him moving and yet not over doing anything. He has a couple Amish that have him move trailers around for them maybe a couple times a month if that often to give him some spending money.309 sawmill will have him use their loader to move some wood around for them. 

 Wood cut was not on the list. He figures he will be cutting wood until end of Nov. E told him that there is a couple trees he cut down that Hubby can get to with the tractor to pull up over here that can be be burned this year. 309 Sawmill told him they would have a wagon load of cut pieces for him late Oct or early Nov, those we usually don't have to cut down to size. He plans to move wagon out of barn, set up buzz saw and cut what we have down to correct size. If nothing else, he has learned to mark the freaking saw like E has of the length and quit guessing as he cut 2 cords of wood 2 inches too long and they won't go in the stove. Good thing I don't mind tossing small blocks of wood in during the day. I did suggest he just cut them in half, still on small size but not as big as pain to store as small blocks go in large pots... the size 5 yr. old trees come in and we can actually rack them if they are cut in half. 

We get through this cold spell and he can do some cutting but I think he is going to finish the wood shed first. E will have to help him do the roof but he can always go over and help E work on the wash house to help that way.  I definitely am making sure he does take rest breaks and drinks water... okay, man drinks water without being told but he won't drink the water if he doesn't take the break. 

Household, put things away that came in while sick. I haven't touched anything and am walking around stacks and need to split some packages with Daughter 4. Hubby asked if we needed to stock anything else... I said Lysol spray. He thought I was joking. I used 24 cans in 1 year. No I am not joking, between the house and both trucks, carried it with us to the kids houses to spray before we walked in. MIL used 12 herself and didn't think to spray her car... she is now as their grandsons whole church came down with covid over the weekend.

 I need to straighten the pantry, move shelving in the freezer room (no more window leaking) and deal with organization and a very good cleaning.  I have taken to opening windows for 30 minutes daily and spraying with Lysol like I did when Covid hit the first time. Bathrooms cleaned daily. My kitchen sink is cleaned nightly when I run the dishwasher. Laundry done every morning (except Sunday) 

I will continue to declutter the house and the barn. I started a donation box and a kids box. Kid's box is stored in barn so when we go down or one comes up we can take it then but it's not in the way. 

I have listed seeds I need to order for next year. I plan to start growing my own plants. 

We are saving $133. 34 a month with Hubby going on Medicare. I want to split that money between the mortgage and the savings.  We will save more when I go on it in Jan.

Hubby got the internet/phone lowered by $10. That will be split also. 

Our insurance guy did some looking and found another discount for us on car insurance dropping the bill $125.19 a month and changed billing cycle . That will be split in two.

All refunds or savings like Fresh mode, etc. will be split the same way. I've done this before but have let it slide.

Doc wants us to eat a fresh salad twice a week, 3 times is better. It doesn't have to be a lettuce salad, just fresh veggies. I asked if just serving carrots, celery sticks, fresh apples, cabbage as I have that in frig also etc. would be okay... he said yes but wanted some colorful greens in there once a week.  I have some carrots in frig. I need to cut the celery today anyways in the gardens. I am NOT going to the store until after the 11th. I am not sure what lettuces the local Save A Lot carries but I will check it out after the 11th. WITH MASK LOL.

I want to go to store once a month (Amish elder suggested it) with a dairy run two weeks later. Said she saved over $100 by that simple changed, used up what she had and made different foods than her normal routine meals. One suggested pantry soup for supper every single night with a meat, potato and veggie lunch, one suggested lunch leftovers become soup or casserole. (M laughed when I told her and asked what was leftovers because she definitely doesn't have those any meal unless someone is sick)  Helps keep the weight down. I am glad they feel comfortable to offer advice. I will take all the advice I can get on saving money and being healthy. 

 We are are 2 yrs into our mortgage (refinanced to get PI off and lower interest) We are on payment 72. I know that's 36 payments in 12 months. I would like to do BETTER but reality is I will be lucky to do that much with a drop of 50 % income. 

By using the grill for the tomatoes I keep that off the propane tank for the furnace. Hubby debated last night between the wood stove or furnace. He decided neither at 10 pm when the house was still 75. I got it closed up and curtains shut before it cooled down. It's still 73 so we won't be starting the wood stove or furnace. 

 Probably going to go take a nap. Been up since 12:30 when my sugar work me up being low.

Happy October. Hubby turns 65 on the 9th

I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday... he looked and me and said

LIVE. 

This is my favorite photo of him. He was on the tractor and had just turned it off to see what I wanted. He wasn't thrilled to have his picture taken. Never is. 

Oh yeah I can understand that comment. 

 Our oldest (late hubby's daughter) turned 51 yesterday. She's put on more than one application that Hubby is her step dad. Makes him feel good that she knows he is there for her. 

Brother is 74 today, though he refuses to celebrate that age he tolerates his sister reminding him.

We have 2 grandkids birthdays and Daughter 4's birthday. October is a busy month. 

I got this last night with the comment I am still having chest pains

Yes he knows I am sharing. I was like... where are you, who is with you, wait, that's normal BP , that's anxiety, wait until I get ahold of you. I ratted him out to his sister who ratted him out to his ex about scaring me like that... His doctor that was in the room told him to quit messing with his mom. He was having testing done to make sure he did not have brain damage from explosions while in Iraq 2 years...Doc said NONE, it's in his medical file but I am telling you I think he had it BEFORE then LOL.I can say we shared the GOOD news. It will calm some of his worries about whether he will be not able to work another 20 yrs. He already has 20 in the Army, wants 20 in Airforce civilian, maybe 25 and then plans to travel if he is physically able. BUT he also knows his house is not handicap accessible. He thought about changing it (close to what he paid for the house to do it) His sister told him to wait, everyone was going to move here and he could have a room since he would be retired he wouldn't have to worry about finding a job in this area.  GEEZE

I sent Daughter 2 the annual photo of her Halloween pumpkin... he is getting saggy faced from being so old. She tossed it in 2008 as the lights had died. I changed the lights and bug her each year over it. 

   He's peaking around at E's kids when they come up on the porch. They got a kick out of seeing it.

We got the tarp up that we had made for the end of the porch. Several Amish have this on their porches to keep fire wood dry or the wives to be able to dry laundry on the porch in the winter. 

I love the fact it has a built in screen that can be opened or closed so we don't have to take it down in the summer, we can just open the screen. It's not hard to take down either as it had special hooks that Hubby said he just slid the hole over and turned it and it was fastened. E checked it out when he was checking out what Hubby was doing with fire wood(used tractor bucket to carry it and then we slowly filled the racks) Took 2 days to get them filled and the two in the house filled but it will take 3 days to use what wood is there up or more depending on how long it stays cold. He thinks M would like to have one when they build the new porch next year. He is going to have her check it out some time. 

Rest of wood

 All summer curtains, clothes, bedding and throws are washed, dried and put in barn storage.

All winter curtains are up on clean windows,(the only thing I have cleaned beside johns) winter bedding and throws are washed and on beds and furniture and winter clothes are in the drawers. 

I still need to pick tomatoes today before the nasty 40 degree crap hits with possible frost. I already set up the area at the barn at the grill so it's pick the tomatoes, take to grill at barn. Hubby will put large canner (19 quart... reg quart not wide mouth) on the stove and I can haul through the tomatoes. Core them, grill them, skin them, can them. I can do what ever with them later. I plan on more soups and casseroles this winter anyways. 

I won't take down the garden. We can do that next week when it gets back up to the 60s. We got some rain, no where near enough but at least some.