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 »

HappyDaze wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:21 pm I took Hope for her allergy shot yesterday - A HUNDRED AND FOUR DOLLARS!!! I am rather disgruntled at being charged for an office visit and exam ($64) when there was NO exam involved - and we were in and out in 5 minutes. I am thinking it would do no good to protest. Next time I need to remember to request a "lobby shot" - they will come to the waiting room and give the shot and not charge for the office visit/exam if you request it. I wasn't thinking and I paid for my error.

Just back from the grocery store. Total was $69.84 before coupons, $24.70 after (this includes $4.10 in bottle returns - more on that later). I got some marked down items including 6 packs of yogurt for $2.09 (expires next Thursday - I will freeze what I don't eat for smoothies), half a dozen donuts for $1.49, bags of shredded cabbage for .75 cents. I had a $2 off coupon for a "meat substitute" product that is usually $5.49 but was marked down to $3.99 so that was a good deal.

The bottle returns. DD and her SO both buy a good bit of canned and bottled drinks - water, sparkling water, beer, soda, seltzer, tea, etc. and they just put the empties in the recycling - THEY NEVER RETURN THEM. When the recycling goes out to the garage, I separate them into their own box and take a couple bags full back to the store every time I go. Money off my grocery bill. I do not understand this behavior - my ex was the same way - threw all his soda cans in the trash. I never buy these items but it's my pleasure to get the money for the empties that others can't be bothered to redeem. $4.10 in my pocket (well, off my grocery bill) today.

I took some more clothing to the consignment shop this morning and some less-nice clothing to the donation bin at the Catholic Church. Did some housecleaning - both here and at my boss's house. I like to vacuum up the dog hair and make things really nice before she comes home.


That is sad and disgusting that they charged you so much. Teddi and I went in to an exam room and the vet gave him his shot after a tech weighed him to make sure of the dosage it was $66.00. It was not considered a sick call because he is an established patient with a history of allergies.

Sounds like you did a great job at the grocery store. Sad that what you saved went towards the Vet bill but still great that you did as well as you did.

We do not have glass bottle returns here. I do buy the occasional sparkling water in cans and will take them when and if I get enough. Not buying anything extra right now. Glad you are able to get a little bit of money from selling things too. We no longer have resale shops in our area. There are charity shops to buy from but no place to sell things. Wish we did I would love to sell some things.

Very thoughtful of you to vacuum the dog fur up before your boss/client comes home.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

The new TV I was looking to buy for $100.00 is no longer available. The friend who was going to sell it to me said her DGD wanted it. So her DGD is offering me a bigger screen TV ( used) but for only $25.00 if I am interested? YES! It will be much better for the great room and I have been wanting to buy one but just have had other priorities. The money that I requested from my survey sites will be tucked away for either my plane ticket to Mexico or a new washing machine whichever need comes first.

I am doing a lot of research online trying to find recipes to match up with the foods I have in the house. Will give details once things start to happen. I have 18 days before I can spend money on groceries.

I made a pan of cornbread last night to go with my dinner. It tasted good a nice change over sliced bread and crackers which I am out of right now. I used King Arthur gluten free measure for measure flour for the first time. It worked out well as a sub mixed with the cornmeal. I am going to try to make some blueberry muffins to see how well it works out using it straight.

Breakfast was cornbread with butter. Was not really hungry. Lunch was canned chili with cornbread and butter. Trying to use up the canned chili. I need to phase it out of my diet for the leaky gut diet that some year I might eventually get around to starting.. lol. Dinner tonight is going to be the last of the cabbage and a (free yellow onion) sliced and sautéed with a small amount of ground chuck mixed in. Also have a (free potato) to nuke. Getting ready to make a snack. I am going to nuke some cornbread, add butter, and honey. I have a small single serve container of honey that my niece brought home from our trip to TN. I am in use it up mode.

I made a pitcher of spearmint tea yesterday it is a nice change from regular iced tea. Also I do have a lot more spearmint tea bags than regular black tea bags so need to use them more.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

My aide is so amazing. She had another client that she took to a food giveaway and the lady was picky about what she wanted and did not want. So she asked her if it would be ok to give it to someone else. She said it would be ok. Today she brought me the following:
1 sirloin pork roast 3.75 lbs. it was frozen
1 lb roll of ground beef frozen
1 package of hot dogs frozen
1 package of green beans frozen,
1 red apple, 1 green apple
1 large lemon
1 head of iceberg lettuce
1 large sweet potato
1 zucchini
1 cucumber
3 ears of corn on the cob

She said there was also a lovely loaf of 7 grain bread too but I asked her to check if it had wheat in it and it did.. bummer. Still what a wonderful windfall to receive. I do not understand people that go to these giveaways and then do not want the food they are given. I see a lot of yummy meals ahead and it is all free. Grateful that my aide realizes others can use the food this woman was going to throw away. This will really make it so much easier to stretch my food and keep my grocery budget low for a lot longer than I anticipated.
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 just plugging along with the usual household things.

Today I had cottage cheese with lots of black pepper for breakfast. I like it because it is quick and packed with protein. My diabetic nurse had told me to eat cottage cheese with fruit if I had not eaten breakfast by 10:30 AM. Right now I am not in the mood to eat breakfast so I had cottage cheese. I was too tired to even go look for canned fruit in my pantry. I noticed that our local grocery store had cottage cheese on sale so had my aide pick up two cartons at $ 2.14 a carton. This is their store brand and to me tastes just as good as the name brands that cost between $3.50 to $4.00 +. This will get me through until Aug 3rd. I also have to eat a snack at 9:00 PM and the nurse had also recommended cottage cheese and fruit for a snack. Thank goodness I have a lot of canned fruit.

Lunch was egg salad topped with medium hot pickled yellow banana peppers on two small buns from the fridge. Late afternoon was one of the free apples that I received yesterday. It tasted so good since I have been restricting fresh fruit a lot due to my gastritis.

Dinner was a lovely salad made with free lettuce, free carrots from another giveaway, and free cucumber. I added some fresh onion from the fridge. It too was free. I sliced some green olives and tossed in some pepitas from the fridge. Then opened a can of chickpeas BOGO. Shredded the last little bit of an open package of cheddar cheese. Used the honey mustard salad dressing that I had bought for my niece. It seems to be growing on me. I did like the taste better this time..I have been longing for a salad so this hit the spot. Dessert was sugar free chocolate pudding. I bought quite a few packages when there was a closeout so will start to use them more.

Speaking of cheese. There is a brand of cheese that is one of my favorites. It cost $2.45 at Walmart. The same brand and size cost $4.50 at our local chain store. The same brand of Mayo cost $6.00 at the local chain and $3.80 something at Walmart. I used to not shop at Walmart due to the size of the store and the fact that when they come in to a community they tend to put smaller locals shops out of business. However due to their curbside pickup, during the height of the pandemic, I started to shop there. I cannot believe the difference in prices. The local chain store offers loyalty points. However to me I am paying for them with the increased prices. I will only shop there if I am able to buy things at a lower or comparable price to Walmart. ie the cottage cheese today from the local store was a good purchase and I earned a few cents on loyalty points.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Nothing new going on here. I have reworked my budget for August and things are going to be tighter than I expected due to Teddi having to have an allergy shot this month. I put it on one of my credit cards at the time however eventually it does need to be paid. I have been paying my credit cards in full each month and like getting the little bit of cash back eventually.

Right now my food needs are going well due to my stockpile and the extra's my aide has brought to me. August might get interesting but I think if I work hard enough some of my needs will be covered by gift cards. I am working on saving money for my trip to Mexico next year. Plus need to scrape together the second installment for my property taxes that are due in Sept.

Breakfast today was cottage cheese with lots of black pepper. Made a small pot of coffee (5 cups). I like to have coffee when I am working on my budget. I saved some for later. I have sugar free English toffee syrup that I will use to make iced coffee later this afternoon or evening. I bought a really nice big bottle at Big Lots ($2.50) months ago in anticipation of enjoying it when the weather got hotter and I am enjoying it now. I also have a nice pitcher of iced spearmint tea in the fridge to cool off with.

Lunch will be leftover sauerkraut and polish sausage. I am going to sauté half of the green apple that was free from my aide with some free onion to make a nice side dish to go with it. I am trying to add sauerkraut to my diet since it is supposed to be really good for a leaky gut. Hopefully when we have cooler weather I am going to try to make sauerkraut from scratch. The probiotics in homemade is much better for your health.

Dinner is going to be a spinach, cheese, and onion quiche. I am using frozen spinach from the freezer and the onion is free. Also a pan of cornbread. I need to use the cornmeal and the gluten free flour up since they will go rancid if I do not use them soon. For dessert I have a small bowl of sugar free chocolate pudding leftover.

I am low on fresh milk so I will be reconstituting powdered milk to use in my cooking and baking. I still have about 11 days until I get paid.
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! I bought a used TV from my aides DGD. It is a 32" Smart TV. She could not find the remote so I had to buy a universal remote from Amazon. It arrived yesterday. So today I spent the day trying to set up the TV in my Great Room. It took a while to figure out how to switch from antennae TV to satellite. Had to learn how the buttons worked on the new remote. After 30 min of frustration I found the right combination. Love it! It is so much easier to see in the Great Room and easy to see when I am in the kitchen. Also it has closed capitation. I am in need of hearing aides and sometimes I do not always catch the correct word at first. The TV cost $25.00 and the remote was $12.00 but I had a gift card for $5.00 so it came to a total of $32.00! I moved my Great Room TV to my bedroom. It is much bigger than the one I was using in there. It will make it easier to view TV when I am resting in bed. The smaller TV from the bedroom is going in to my craft room. It will have to have an airwave antennae but I think there is one in the basement.

I used my battery operated weed eater to trim around the fruit trees and two shade trees in the front yard as well as around my mail box. The county sent out a roadside mower and it took down the bigger weeds at the edge of my front yard. It looks so nice out there except for the jungle in the rock garden area in the front of my house. I am going to mix up a weed killer that is all natural and spray it tomorrow morning. Early evening tonight I plan on tackling the patio things downstairs. It just got too hot before I could get out there. Our heat index is (101 F) right now and supposed to go to (105 F). However it will cool down later on. Still hot but not the kind that makes you feel yucky. I feel sorry for the people that have to work outside. As well as the critters. At least with the woods behind my house the critters can get some shade and there is a pond really close. As well as a lot the people out here have had ponds and small lakes built. So they will not want for water.
Janet Alliesmama
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