My 2021 Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Golly this month is flying by. It is the 12th of Sept already. Although we are still having hot temperatures Fall is around the corner. I hate hot weather!! I love Fall but it seems to take forever to get to Fall.

My aide is off until September 21st. She was exposed to covid and was officially diagnosed yesterday. She has to quarantine at home until the 18th and her usual work week with me starts on the following Tuesday. Although she has been vaccinated she still caught covid. She wore a mask and gloves the first day she came to work after she had been notified a few days earlier that one of her adult DGD had covid. She and I both have been vaccinated however we did did the right thing wearing masks in my house. She wore gloves, washed her hands, and used sanitizer when needed. However I plan on quarantining here at home for just incase. Fortunately I have all of the food I need as well as medications. If need be I can do a drive-thru for food at Walmart or pick up medications through my pharmacy. However right now things look ok. It pays to think and plan ahead. I do that naturally since I grew up in the country and there were no quick trips to pick up something at the grocery store. Plus I have my emergency stockpile to fall back on.

Speaking of grocery stores. The other day Ruler had eggs on sale for .79 cents a dozen. I bought 4 dozen. They also had 32 oz bags of mozzarella cheese on sale for $4.99. It usually cost $6.99 a bag. Previously they had the mozzarella on sale for the same price and I had picked up two bags then. There is a thing called Fathead dough for keto baking. Keto uses a lot of cheese and eggs. I am going to try to tackle it. Previously the cost of the eggs and cheese put a damper on my experimenting. However with the items currently much cheaper I want to try to make some things. Things are really tight moneywise however at the same time all bills are covered and I have enough of everything that I need and want. Ruler also has a sale on canned veggies. I bought 4 cans of veggies at .53 cents a can.

I had planned on buying some Subscribe and Save items from Amazon using gift cards. However things did not work out during the time limit I had. So I went back through the items that were due to be sent this month and decided to postpone all but one item. Some were more wants than needs and with what I had on hand not a problem to skip until next month when things should be covered by gift cards. I do that a lot. Make a list of what I think I need and then go back to the list a few days later and decide if it is a need or a want. Usually it is a want not a need. Save myself a lot of money that way. A friend told me she does the same thing. She "shops" putting things in her cart on line and then later on goes back through and re-thinks things. It helps to get that, " I need to shop, " feeling without the commitment of actually buying.

I have been working on my budget and did a projection into October. October is somewhat better but still going to have to watch things carefully. I love my Mircosoft Money program. It makes it easy to see what my bills are going to be and how much I will have at the end of the month. That allows me to go in and shuffle things around to try to save more. Most of my bills are set in stone but some things are more flexible.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Things are really tight and they are beginning to squeak..lol. Poor Teddi needs to go for an allergy shot tomorrow ($67.00).I had hoped after he had his medicated bath that it would help him. It seemed to help for about a week but the other day he seemed to be scratching more so I decide he was too miserable and I called to make an appointment. Last week I had to buy his monthly heartworm medicine and it has gone up by .75 cents a pill. The Vet's office has a container with free ink pens with their logo on it. It said,"please take one." So I did. Tomorrow I will take another..lol. The free pen from my bank died a few weeks ago. I do have other pens but why not take free when available?

I had to go over my budget and squeeze the extra money out to pay for Teddi's allergy shot. I had not planned on him needing one this month since he basically stays in the house in hot weather. Just in and out to potty and that is it. I try not to put anything on my credit cards because eventually the money to pay for them has to come from somewhere. I do charge things but pay them off in full monthly when the bill comes. I have been working on developing a better FICO score and I am seeing progress. I had stopped using credit cards some time in 2015 but found out that it affects your FICO score if you do not use them. I cannot remember all of the details but I have been on several sites that tell you how much you need to charge on your credit cards to achieve a better score. It is a careful balance of using the cards but not overusing them. At first I was charging everything and paying it off when the credit card bills came in. I thought it would look good that I was able to pay them in full. However found out you should only spend a certain percentage on the credit cards to show you are responsible handling your money. Live and learn.

The one thing that can be postponed in order to cover Teddi's allergy shot is to skip getting my passport picture and renewing my passport. My brother has invited me to his timeshare in Mexico. My passport expires in January and the trip is planned for Feb/March of 2022. My aide said it took her months to get her passport so I thought I better get busy now and not wait until November like I had planned. Teddi needs a shot more than I need a passport application this month. In fact I am considering not going to Mexico if the covid uptick continues. My NP told me she did not think it was a good idea for me to go due to the current covid uptick. Then again things might be better by 2022 so I want to be prepared for just incase. Although things are tight all bills are covered. There is enough food in the house for me. Teddi will need another pork roast at the end of the week but the money is available so no problem.

My aide has been off due to having covid. Despite being vaccinated she got it from an adult granddaughter that was not vaccinated. She in turn gave covid to her brother. They went on vacation. At the time she did not know she was infected. The symptoms did not show up until the night before they were coming back from their vacation. They had been riding in his car for hours and did not wear masks because they both had been vaccinated. He had the Pfizer and she had the J&J. She said they did wear masks when they were out in the public. However neither one of them realized she had covid. So you cannot be too careful even if vaccinated.

I am using my alone time working on my craft room. I have slowly moved everything out of the room and today started deep cleaning. I can only due about 10 min of work at a time then rest for a long time on the couch watching TV. However I am really excited about finally getting things done in that room and looking forward to doing a lot of craft projects. Some things are going to have to go downstairs to the basement there is just too much to fit on the shelves. I also store my holiday decorations on the shelves so that I do not have to carry things up and down the stairs.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am thrilled. Last week I was ordering groceries at Walmart online. For some reason all of the gift cards I have earned for Walmart popped up in my Wallet at Walmart. Some of them go back to 2019. I placed my order and assumed they would be charging my debit card as usual however somehow all of the gift cards were applied to my groceries. I had asked them previously on how to use the gift cards at their grocery store instead of having to use them for shipments of shelf stable foods. Their customer service reps at the store were a couple of young ladies and they did not know what I was talking about. This is a huge game changer. If I can buy fresh foods at Walmart online using gift cards that will help my budget a lot. I am about ready to cash in almost $100.00 of gift cards at various sites I go to. I have the choice of Walmart or Amazon and I will be choosing mostly Walmart if I can shop at my local store and get fresh foods. I will check the prices of my Subscribe and Save from Amazon compared to Walmart and if the prices are comparable goodbye Amazon.

Yesterday I made taco meat using a pound of ground turkey from the freezer. I had 3 tacos for dinner. I froze a small amount to use to make taco salad sometime down the road when I have lettuce. I found some soft corn tortillas in the freezer that need to be used up so today I am going to use the remainder of the meat to make enchiladas. I used the fine holes on a box grater to shred cheese for my tacos. Although the ounces are the same the volume is much bigger and stretches the cheese further.

This past week I opened a can of pork sausage from my emergency stockpile. It looked and smelled like Alpo..lol. There was a lot of broth that came out of the can when I opened it as well as fat. However I decided to give it a try. It was really good. Not like fresh pork sausage but tasty in its own right. I cannot tell you where I bought this or how long I have had it. So decided to buy more. Walmart and Amazon both have this brand of sausage but the cost is prohibitive. I did some research online and found the company that makes and sells this sausage under their one label. It is still a bit pricey but much cheaper than going through Walmart or Amazon. Also they have free shipping. Since I am saving money at Walmart using gift cards I plan on placing an order for this canned sausage. As a diabetic I need to have protein and shelf stable is important.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Forgot to mention Teddi's allergy shots went up by $1.00. Now $68.00 per shot. At least there is no additional vet fee for giving him the shot even though the Vet does administer the shot. Also no free ink pens. When I went in they were sanitizing the counter and the plexiglass and no free pens sitting out. Bummer. I need to start to set aside more money each month for his unexpected medical things like the allergy shot.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I have been having computer problems again. I crashed but I have managed to download Google and reset some things but also lost a lot..gggrr Money is tight so I was very happy I was able to get back on line on my own.

I have picked 3 plastic shopping bags of pears from my tree. There are more higher up but I will need a ladder to get to them. I have kieffer pears. They are more for canning instead of eating them fresh. They need to be refrigerated for 2 to 5 weeks.The information depends on the site I go to. The nice thing is in the past I have kept them refrigerated for months and months and eventually they do soften to a state where you can eat them fresh or cooked. So I plan on keeping some for enjoying during the winter months. I only got about 6 apples from my tree this year. The deer and/or the squirrels must have eaten them? I did not have the money to buy stove pipes to put around the trunk of the tree but will start to put a few dollars away each month so that next year I can buy some. Also since the tree was in full blossom when we had snow I did not anticipate as many apples that did develop. So I did not plan to spend money for pipes that would not be necessary. Live and learn. Also I have seen several different deer this year in my back yard. One of them has two fawns. I have seen the Mama deer's stand on their hind legs and pick apples off of the tree. So next year I will have to put out some kind of deer deterrent. I have heard that only a 10 ft fence will keep them away from my apple tree. I have all winter to think about a plan. I still have a ton of fresh peaches from my trees. I eat one every now and then with plain yogurt. I I bought Sure-jel and plan on making some half pints of peach jam. Gave up on the idea of chutney. The cost of the spices needed put me off. Not worth the time, effort and money right now to make peach chutney.

I have been using up what I have in the house but do have to make the minimum curbside Walmart purchases to fill in. The main reason is I need pork roasts for Teddi. The last two times I made an order they amount of pork roasts was a little bit scary. Like yesterday they only had 3 roasts left so I bought two. The week before they only had 5 roasts left and I bought two. The roasts are small and I need about every 3 to 4 days. The cost is comparable to what I was spending at Petco for his fresh dog food.

I am enjoying the Fall like weather and trying to get some much needed outside weed work done.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am finally back. I was locked out of the forum when I had a computer crash and lost my password and could not remember what it was. Finally was able to get one from the forum that worked.


I have been doing some frugal things. Recently I realized I only had 4 pickle chips left in my jar.. Oh the horror of it all...lol. In an effort to not make a Walmart order or go to the Dollar stores. I had to think about what could I do. My DS used to make fresh pickles for the fridge. So I wondered if I could put fresh cucumber in the dill pickle juice and they would turn in to pickles. I went on line and found a ton of recipes. I had about 1/4 of a really large cucumber left so I cut it in half and then cut them in to half moon slices and put then in the pickle juice. I waited for a couple of days before I taste tested them. They were really nice and crunchy compared to dill pickles you get from a jar from the grocery store. Perhaps not as strong in taste as the processed pickle. Still good and filled my need for dill pickles as well as stretched my budget. Keeping that thought I decided I needed to use up the pickled jalapeno juice up that was in my fridge. I found a lot of receipts for that as well. I had to bring the juice to a boil and then pour it over the fresh veggies in the jar. I used cauliflower, carrots and celery. I did not like the celery it was too tough to chew. However the carrots and cauliflower were great.

Teddi had another bacterial infection on his skin. A Vet visit was needed to the tune of $133.00. He was on antibiotics and I had to buy a special shampoo. All seems to have helped. I do hope I can keep it from returning. His Vet bills have been the biggest unplanned bite out of my budget. The Vet said Shih Tzu are prone to skin problems. He has been going to the groomers every 4 weeks so it not due to lack of care. I have been doing more frugal things to try to keep the budget in check due to his Vet bills.
Janet Alliesmama
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