Thrifty Thursday: Another Week to Save

 

Thursday: I made bread and hamburger buns.  I made 13 buns, three smallish ones for the littlest children and the rest for the rest of us.  Not sure if that is enough or not, but it will get us started.  

John a little bit surprised when I told him to keep his hands off the buns, lol.  I'll have to make him some rolls next week and put them in the freezer so I can bring them out to go with meals.

I doctored up a boxed pasta salad mix for our lunch today.  It was really good and something I'd like to do again in the future, though I'll probably make my own, instead of using a boxed mix.  I added shredded Sundried Tomato/Basil Bellavonte cheese.  Yes it was fancy cheese.  That's one of my indulgences.  I find the smallest piece of a fancy schmancy cheese and that's my treat for the month.  This month it was the Sundried Tomato cheese.  That along with some chopped spinach, diced orange bell pepper, a bit of onion and some pepperoni made a very delicious salad for our lunch that drew raves from John.  

I took a ham bone from the freezer to thaw and put half a bag of 15 Bean Soup beans to soak overnight.  

Least expensive makeover is always cleaning and reorganizing a space.  That's what I did today in both my closest and with my dresser drawers.  

I am notoriously bad about getting rid of things that I know full well are too worn, or ill-fitting to keep but I keep and use them anyway.  Today I tossed four pairs of capris that I've meant to throw away for the past 3 years.  Now was the time.  John asked why?  Because this year when it starts to get hot, I'll be forced to buy new ones.  High time, too!

We had a discussion earlier today about finances.  John is unhappy with the bank balance.  No need to try and talk it over with him.  He was adamant that all spending be cut and immediately.  I pointed out that I needed to pay a few bills in the next few days.  He suggested we wait.  I won't.  I do try hard to do as John asks but I know full well that if I end up with a late charge then he'll be just as upset if not more.  He doesn't understand that sometimes bills come due prior to the checks coming in, especially when we have pay periods like this one with five weeks between checks.  If a bill is due the 17th and you get paid on the 14th, you'd better get that bill sent out at the very latest by the 10th, even better if you send it out by the 7th.

Friday:  I made Bbq chicken and rice for supper tonight.  The breasts I'd put in the freezer were packed three to a package.  That was bought and put up when Katie and Caleb lived here.  Too much for two.  I cooked all the chicken, but when it was done, I put one aside, with the intention of shredding it for sandwich meat over the weekend.  Must have been a good idea, because as we were eating our supper, John said, "You know would be good?  Some of this shredded for sandwiches..." and then he set a portion of his breast aside.  I set a little of mine aside too and we added that to the saved breast.

Had Millie over this morning and spent my time with her.  She didn't want the Oriental Dumplings and Eggrolls we were having for lunch today.  I asked what she'd like instead, and she said "Pizza!"  As it happened, I had a few slices from her birthday dinner, so I reheated those for her.  She ate every bite.

We were able to check our account today and the charges from the doctor's office all worked out just fine.  

Tonight, we're going out to a couples' retreat sort of thing. They are serving a light supper, so we won't eat anything before we go.  I'm always a bit confused by what 'light' means, so I'll try and have something ready here that will help us feel less hungry if it is lighter than I think a light meal might be.

Saturday:  Arrived at church last night to find that through some glitch in the system, the credit card payment on the retreat had not gone through.  John was not well pleased.  It amped up his anxiety over finances.  Fortunately, I was able to pull up the credit card statement and show him that it had not been charged, we paid with another card, and we were good to go.  It helped tremendously to be stuck at that desk because at least six more people came along who had the same thing happened.  Each incident considerably decreased John's anxieties and frustration.

I am not maligning him in sharing the above nor the earlier discussion this week. Let me remind you all that we had a week of odd and unusual financial problems.  First, I lost money that was meant to pay a bill.  Second, we were wrongly charged for a service and had to wait to see if it was truly resolved correctly.  Third, we had a hold-up in the money we were withdrawing from retirement accounts.  Not the counselor's fault nor hours.  It was an inner accounting mistake.  Fourth John was already worrying over the newly low balance (hello quarterly house insurance and auto policy renewal).  Fifth we had not yet received my new debit card in the mail, but we did receive one for HIM and could call no one before Monday morning...and we'd no clue why that was issued! And sixth we had this issue with the in-house payment for the retreat not going through and had to pay again.  I was beginning to feel more than a bit anxious over our finances myself.  I just had to hold myself together or John would really be upset at the circumstances we were facing.

We decided between us that we'd not worry about things anymore.  What could we do anyway?  Everything was out of our hands and why spoil the whole weekend.  God could handle what we couldn't at the moment.  That helped a lot.

We had breakfast at church.

John relaxed so much that he took me out to lunch after we finished the retreat this noon.  I assured him we had those funds tucked into the account, but hastily added that it was included in the balance that made him nervous.  He just said "Okay." and that was that.

It was nice to come home and relax this afternoon.  I know we had Thursday and most of Friday at home but it was a busier than usual week, we rose earlier than usual several mornings and we were well and truly tired.   We had lunch leftovers for our supper tonight.

Sunday:  Breakfast at home this morning before we headed out to church.  Earlier in the week I'd made up several sausage biscuits and put some of them in the freezer.  Easy to thaw in the microwave and much heartier than just plain toast.

As we were living home, I slipped my hand in my jeans pocket...and found the money I'd lost!  Whew!  I made John come with me when I went to put the funds away, so there was a witness to where I'd put it.

We had lunch with Katie and family at their house.

I cooked the 15-bean soup Friday morning, then when it was sufficiently cool, I'd divided into portions and set it aside in fridge and freezer.  I reheated a portion in the crockpot this afternoon.  It was so good, perfect on a rainy February evening.

Last night, being bored with tv and computer, I went off to my room and played in my closet.  I decided to pull six blouses that I seldom wear and made-up outfits with those.  I like all of the tops, but I just don't gravitate towards them when I am getting dressed.  Now they are already set up as outfits, I'll wear them.

I have a pair of black pants that are too short.  I debated on whether I should toss or remove the hem and see if I could lengthen them.  It took about an hour to remove the stitching to let the hems down.  I tried them on and they were, unhemmed, the perfect length.  I debated whether or not they would work for me if I rehemmed with a smaller hem.  Unless I can turn under just 1/4 inch I don't think they are going to work.  I put them aside in the donation pile.  I reminded myself I have a gift card and can easily get new pants.

Monday:  At some point I made up my mind that I would NOT go into the grocery at all until after we receive our usual monthly checks.  But I'd promised to make Isaac a Strawberry cake and all of my recipes required a boxed mix.  I finally decided that was silliness.  I could easily make one on my own without a recipe, if necessary, since my favorite one is apparently missing.  And I did!  I made up the recipe based partially on common sense measurements and partly based on what I remembered about the ingredients.  The cupcakes turned out just lovely.  I had 21, so felt free to have John and I sample the smallest.

Then I did the same with the frosting.  Well, I messed up at first, but I stopped myself making an expensive mistake and started over managing to pull the frosting off very nicely.

We went out to the bank and to mail bills.  Not John's fault that I waited so long to get them in the mail.  Truth, this weekend slid right by and I didn't pay attention to the date on the calendar.  Once I realized this morning, I knew that if we had to swim to town, (it's poured rain since yesterday), I was getting those bills mailed TODAY!

I counted cheese slices tonight and set aside the number I needed for burgers tomorrow night.  Sure, as anything, this will be the night that John feels hungry, and he'll reach for cheese to satisfy that hunger.  Out of sight might not mean out of mind, but he doesn't plunder looking for food.  If it's not where he expects it, he'll go to plan B.

I made out a small list of things I need for the family party.  It's not much.

Meals today:  Grits with sausage (Italian leftover from pizza last week) and cheese, toast.

Shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches, dill pickles, French fries.

John out.  I'll scrabble through the fridge and freezer and find something.

Tuesday:  We had big plans today.  I reminded John that no matter how big his plans, he was only good for about two or three stops at most (he'd planned six and that didn't include my need to run into the grocery).   Well as it happened, we were thwarted in our plans.  I barely got him to stop at the grocery he was so disgusted with his plans crumbling.

At the grocery...well he stopped at the local store, which honestly is the equivalent of stopping at Publix where prices are concerned.  Not my choice, so I made the best of it and curbed his tendency to add into the buggy.  I bought pickles, soda and chips for the party.  I was happy to say I had nearly every other item he suggested on hand at home.  I compromised and bought a frozen entree on sale instead of stopping for lunch out as he suggested.  I ended up spending about $40.  Lunch in town will run around $25 without drinks...so yes, I saved on lunch. But I can't say I 'saved' anything more except another bit of flared tempers.  That we had enough of all day today without acquiring any more.

I went into the local dollar store and spent a whole $4 on two different things for Valentine's gifts/cards for the kiddos.  I only used about half of each so $2 for five children.  I can live with that.  I opened three different flavors of the same type of candy and mixed them up and then divided them among the five bags.  This worked out to a generous serving for each child without it being too much.  I had the candy on hand, purchased on sale during the late fall.

Meals:  Eggs and Toast

Wings, Celery, Carrots, Blue Cheese dressing.  Had the vegetables at home and made my own blue cheese dressing.  This is when I discovered that the gorgonzola cheese had gone off.  I didn't know it was even open.  A reminder to me to check out the cheese basket each week when I'm sorting out the fridge.  Thankfully I also had blue cheese on hand.

Cheeseburgers, buns, chips, pickles, soda, and cupcakes.  Isaac's birthday dinner.  Mostly a waste.  Only two out of the five children ate their burger and only two out of five ate a cupcake...sigh.  The dog and cat ate well because the kids all had to manhandle the burgers.  We had two burgers leftover. I put those into leftover buns and into the fridge for a lunch later this week.

Wednesday:  It had to happen.  We've had a bit of a struggle here in our home the past few days over various things financial and while some have worked out just fine, some were a source of contention.  John made a statement yesterday that threw me into a complete tailspin.  I admit it.  I was the one thrown into a tailspin because I am the one who 'handles' our finances.  John is the head of this household and I do as he deems it's necessary for us to do but there are things I can't make happen.  

When financial changes are afoot, I start on paper first.  I need to visually see what we're discussing doing and if it's possible.  Well, it wasn't.  I tweaked figures and tweaked figures and ultimately, I could not make what he wanted to happen work.  So, I wrote out a budget, not as he wished it to be, but as it is.   I did tweak a few figures.  No harm in that.  Then I went to John, asked for his full attention and handed him the sheet.  

Last year, when we had a hefty boost to our savings accounts, we put some extra money into our checking account, and we bought things we'd needed (good shoes and coats) and we replaced well-worn items and bought some new things to help improve our lives (freezer and Weathertech mats for the cars to help preserve the carpet).  I'd been very careful to repeatedly say, "No" to anything that was transitory.  We didn't eat out or buy silly impulsive items or get jewelry or guitars. We didn't go on shopping sprees. We made those funds work, ensuring that we'd get years of usage from what we spent.  But I had been warning him that once the kitchen and bath work was done, we'd be reverting back to the 2022 budget (with 2024 prices, yet).

John has a very good idea of what we have coming in.  He's less clear on what we have going out and has not looked at the checkbook in a good while to see how I allocated our funds.  I could do what he wanted financially, but it meant that I was swapping one type of savings for another.  I couldn't save as much as he wanted me to save in addition to what we already have as savings each month.  I felt he needed to see the visual representation of what we (I, but with his agreement) and explain why we have a bit less than last year (Hello, Part B Medicare...I see you, too, increased monthly fees...). Once he had the visual before him he was a bit shocked.  

John is not a big spender.  That is not the issue at all. He's a pretty low needs/want sort of guy when it comes to spending, but he does love to treat the children and Katie to little things all along and to give extra here or there to help a child get to camp, etc. and his ONE request when he retired was to see if I can swing enough for us to eat out once a week.  Just once a week.  The new changes in our income at present didn't allow for the savings he wanted me to generate, even if we gave up that entertainment as we dub it, but I offered to do that much if he wanted.  He simply said, "No wonder you've been working so hard to save!"  "And I'll be looking for ways to do a bit more," I told him, "just to give us some ease in this tight budget we're keeping."

I reminded him that a budget is a road map.  It's the ideal route you'll take but you never know all the detours and potholes you might encounter.  This month, for example, as we transition some things from one thing to another, will not look like next month.  We're going to have to adjust.  Other months some of the categories I tweaked may end up being higher than what I'd planned for.  I reminded him that we adjust what we can, and we absorb what we can't (meaning we'll use savings).  

"So, what you're saying is that we're living on trust..."  "For the most part, yes.  We trust things will work out as we've planned, and we trust that when they don't, we'll find a way to recover.  It's not any different than we've been living these past five years, really."  

Later Mr. Funnyman asked, "Are we having leftover burgers for lunch today?  Because darned if we can afford to waste food!"  "That's what I've been telling you all along," I told him.

Meals:  Pancakes and fried turkey Spam.

Leftover burgers, chips

Chicken with Onions, Broccoli, Leftover Rice.  I'm undecided if I mean to make a sauce to go over the chicken or not.  It's smelling mighty good as it is.  John will want bread. I have a leftover hamburger bun that will do for the two of us. later:  I put some peppery mayo on top of the thighs.  Not much, just about a teaspoon, but it helped the skin to crisp up and added a load of flavor.

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