End of year.

 I went to the local flower shop and asked the owner to make me an arrangement that was 24 to 30 inches tall. Not some cookie cutter thing. He loved it, most come in and order something they saw on line. He come up with this. When I picked it up, he told me to only toss the greens, keep everything else and dry out the pot. He will reuse it for me so I am not spending so much. I think I will take some of it back for an Easter arrangement. 

I down loaded what was on the credit cards, added it up and put it in the categories I have in our budget to see where we went over, what we might not be acknowledging etc.

The thing about using credit cards for everything. You are paying to last month's bills on this month's income.

I then watched Hubby freak over his CC being over $4000. So I showed him he had his truck brakes ($2000) and one of the two batteries replaced in it ($500) plus fuel ($575) for all the medical appts as the other truck isn't trustworthy to go that far. He also used his card for something he picked up for E that E paid him cash for. Then the meals out as lunch was between appts. The good news is he got 1.5 % back on that so it went to help pay that bill.

Medical was high between the two of us. BUT 2024 we will both be on Medicare, Part B, AARP medigap, Hubby Aetna Part D, Me Wellcare Part D and GoodRX Gold for his nasal spray, nitro and my inhaler. Good Rx Gold will save us 3/4s of what it would be on Part D and within 2 refills of those meds saves to pay the cost of the GOLD.  We will save around $9,000 on medical compared to what it cost us to have insurance this year. 

Since mid Sept we have had 3-4 medical appts a week. That is done. We have 4 I think this month and that is it. I have 3 appts I missed due to be sick. I will reschedule them for Feb. or March as I try to NOT have many appts during the winter. 

Groceries was double. I got turkey for Thanksgiving plus extra turkey for freezer, got corned beef for St Paddy's, two hams , one for Christmas week(not the day) the other for Easter, and ordered the prime rib (deducted the money for it) for Christmas eve and one for freezer. I found a whole chicken at 7 lbs. usually at 5 lbs. on sale with a coupon at Kroger's. I roasted it last night. Today I will be tossing carcass in pot and to finish getting the meat off the bone and making broth. I also got 5 chuck roasts. On sale, had additional coupon and Fresh mode $.  Ended up paying $2.28 a pound. Have 9 qrts. of beef with broth and a Dutch oven to drain today to can the broth I made with the scraps I did not can. I had to pick up celery, carrots and milk for regular groceries. I now have tons of bread for us that was given to us from different people. At least it is not the same old bread LOL. Got half of it in freezer but we need to eat the rest but it is in frig.

Utilities were down, electric is not in until the 11th that will probably be up as the propane furnace was on half the month (if outside temp is over 40 and it does not get below freezing we use propane instead of wood stove). Propane tank is at 45% We refill at 25% so don't need that filled this month. I have credit on my acct at propane co.

I finally replaced my last purse. I got 4 on sale for the same price I would have got 1 mid summer when I first started pricing them. I also got 2 pairs of jeans. I dropped from size 12, to 10 to 4 when I got sick and lost 30 lbs. I now bounce depending on the day between a 4 to 8. Granddaughter age 13 lent me  her size 8 to make sure I could wear them before buying them. I got two pairs on sale so it was the same cost of buying 1 without a sale and then used my points on my credit card to pay for it. SO zero out of pocket for me.

Christmas lights are starting to die on us. Not surprised as they are over 7  yrs. old, some are 12 yrs. old So we are looking at what we might want to change to. 

Over all, we paid additional 2 yrs. on mortgage, saved 3 months of income and are fully stocked. 

Take out Crohns attacks, potassium drops and Hubby's heart attack... it was a good year.