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 »

I feel like I am treading water and not getting anywhere. I have so much to do and have little ambition or energy. I have been trying to recreate my budget and banking on my Microsoft money program. Since I had a new hard drive put in I should not have any more computer crashes for quite a while hopefully years. I do not like the way Amazon breaks things up. When I make an order they give a balance due but then later on it might be broken up in to $3.50 here $2.30 somewhere else on different days in my banking statements. I am having to recreate all of 2020 and I used Amazon a lot during the pandemic. I am having to go back in their records to check their invoices so that I can enter it correctly in my money program.

I am working more on trying to earn cash for my trip to Mexico next year. I recently requested a $30.00 check from In Box Dollars. They are going to stop issuing checks in August so the push is on to try to earn as much as possible there. The other sites offer gift cards and My Points offers e-cards as well as payment through Pay Pal although I am not going to use Pay Pal again. They wanted information for the IRS. I do not do taxes and it was a pain trying to get the money from them that had been sent by one of my survey sites. Right now my income is too low to file taxes. Yes the IRS is aware of this..lol. They even sent me a letter a while back in reference to the stimulus checks. Part of the letter indicated that " as a non filer " they wanted to make sure I was aware that I was entitled to receive the check and what to do if I had not received it, as well as I still did not have to file taxes due to it. I know on the survey sites I do not make a lot of money but every penny helps.

I am really ticked at myself and Jack-in-the Box. As I have mentioned previously I have been eating poorly for several days so the other day went in to town to buy some potato chips. Yeah I know healthy..Not!. Anyway I was out of gluten free bread and gf crackers and I was in need/want of something to go with my tuna fish salad. I have mentioned before I have a serious carb addiction. Anyway potato chips can be used in place of crackers. The idea was actually given to me by a diabetic nurse. Of course you have to watch how many you eat. The chips were cheaper than gf bread or gf crackers. Teddi wanted to ride along so I knew I would have to go through a Drive-thru store pick up called Hit n Run since Teddi could not be left in a hot car. Originally I had planned on stopping at a grocery store to pick up some lettuce as well as the chips. I saw Jack-in-the Box was down the road so decided to buy one of their Southwestern salads. I can usually get two meals from it. Fast forward they were out of the SW salad dressing and subbed in Ranch. I was disappointed since the whole thing to me is the salad dressing but I thought things are hard to come by with some suppliers being short these days so accepted it. I paid cash since I still had some money left from my wedding trip. On the way home Teddi threw up twice in the car.. Thankfully I always put a towel or a throw on the seat where he is sitting. He had been sick earlier in the day but had not had any more problems after that. Then when I arrived home was so disappointed in the grilled chicken that is suppose to go with the salad. There was none to speak of. Usually you get several nice pieces of seasoned grilled chicken and I usually use one half one day and the other half the next day. There was hardly any chicken. What was there was dry and small bits. While sifting through the salad, while eating it, looking for more chicken, I found a yucky rotting piece of lettuce. The area that would have been attached to the core when it was removed. That was enough to make me stop eating. Even before then the lettuce was not tasting good. It was sort of like one of those bagged salads that you can buy at the grocery store. I do not like them they do not taste fresh to me. So I was really ticked off and decided to contact the restaurant. Guess what? No receipt! I paid cash for it and no receipt so had no proof of the purchase to give them over the phone. I could have driven back in to town but decided it was not worth it due to the cost of gas and Teddi was not well. I should have just thrown my money out of the window..

Speaking of throwing money out the window. I did! I have no idea how I could have lost it but the charger for my cellphone disappeared. I only use it in my bedroom to charge it up at night and usually put it in a certain drawer in the dresser in my bedroom. No where to be found even after days of looking in all of the obvious places and then the odd places. Finally had to buy a new one. My aide went to the Cricket store and told them I needed the cheapest one they had that would work with my phone. They lady was nice enough to give me a 10% discount. However that blew the last of my leftover wedding money except for (5) $1.00 bills and a coin purse with some coins. I do have money to pay expenses but the cash was leftover from the wedding so was planning on using it for non-essential fun things.

Doing ok making food at home with what I have on hand. However I am baking the last pork roast for Teddi right now and will need to buy more for him before July 1st when I receive my pension from work. Mr Picky Pants is under my bed pouting. I did not get his roast thawed out in time to cook it sooner so made him salmon patties which he has eaten in the past and seemed to enjoy. He will not eat them today. He begged for food but when given the choice of the salmon he went under my bed. I bet he will come out when the roast is cooked and cooled off enough to slice. Buying his pork roasts cost just about the same as buying his fresh pet food from Petco so not a problem other than I worry about him getting all of the proper nutrition.

We had some significant storms in our area last night. We were lucky here just thunder, lightening, and high winds but not much rain. Elsewhere they had severe winds up to 77 mph in one area and heavy rain in some places. One area had 8 inches in 90 min and 5 inches elsewhere. Also some areas had significant hail. Unfortunately we are expecting the same again tonight. Last night there were about 30,000 people without power and this morning there were still around 9,000 without power. I hope we are ok during the night. The few hours we went without power the other day was not something I want to do again. I plan on leaving my garage door up incase we do have a power outage because the other day I was unable to get the pulley to work that is suppose to lift the door when the power is out. I want to be able to get in my car to go somewhere else if anything happens. I will lock my car for just incase but it should be ok. One of my long term goals is to buy a solar generator to run my fridge. You can also do powering on and off to use other things ie to cook or to use a heater. The way my house sits I have a perfect setup to receive the maximum amount of sun during winter and summer and with a solar generator my master bedroom would work out well in the winter since the master bathroom is connected. During winter that corner of the house warms up nicely due to the sun coming in from the east and south.

Still waiting on that roast to finish baking and still waiting for Teddi to come out from under the bed. I hope my theory is correct.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Teddi emerged from under the bed. Nothing like the smell of a freshly baked pork roast and the sound of Mom in the kitchen cutting it up with her electric knife to inspire him to come out.lol. He scarfed it right down. All is right in our world right now. Of course we do have the incoming storm to deal with later tonight. I hate to say this but I have never gotten around to planting my tomato plants. They are outside in their little pots in a bigger terracotta pot. I water them every day but need to change out the dirt in the pots and earth boxes. The big terracotta pot is on a rolling plant stand so they are tucked under the patio table with a patio chair over them as well in case we get hail tonight. I hope to get them planted in the next few days.

I am off to finish slicing up the rest of the pork roast.
Janet Alliesmama
floridacatlover
Posts: 8056
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by floridacatlover »

Janet, I think you should contact Jack-in-the Box corporate and explain the situation that you paid cash, no receipt. (I often don’t get a receipt at Wendy’s drive through and I wish they would just put it in the bag.) Give the date and what you bought and the problems with it. It’s worth a try. Any corporation that has any respect for customers should send you a gift card or something.

https://www.heyjackbox.com

I totally understand Teddi being picky. It’s great that he does so well, usually, with the pork roast. You are such a good mama.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

floridacatlover wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:22 am Janet, I think you should contact Jack-in-the Box corporate and explain the situation that you paid cash, no receipt. (I often don’t get a receipt at Wendy’s drive through and I wish they would just put it in the bag.) Give the date and what you bought and the problems with it. It’s worth a try. Any corporation that has any respect for customers should send you a gift card or something.

https://www.heyjackbox.com

I totally understand Teddi being picky. It’s great that he does so well, usually, with the pork roast. You are such a good mama.
Florida Cat thank you for the advise and e-mail information. It is worth trying to get something back..
Janet Alliesmama
HappyDaze
Posts: 4186
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:11 am

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by HappyDaze »

Janet, I know what it feels like when you seem to be just treading water. I am in a similar situation that has knocked the wind out of my sails - have been making so much progress and doing so well - was even planning to start saving to replace my old car - and now I need extensive dental work that could potentially be -- well, I don't even have an idea -- but I know it is going to be expen$ive!

So - steps forward, steps back. Hang in there my friend. I hope you know what a wonderful frugal inspiration you are - you were really instrumental in helping me cut way back on wasting food!

Sending love to you and Teddi.
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

Charles M. Schultz
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

HappyDaze wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:19 pm Janet, I know what it feels like when you seem to be just treading water. I am in a similar situation that has knocked the wind out of my sails - have been making so much progress and doing so well - was even planning to start saving to replace my old car - and now I need extensive dental work that could potentially be -- well, I don't even have an idea -- but I know it is going to be expen$ive!

So - steps forward, steps back. Hang in there my friend. I hope you know what a wonderful frugal inspiration you are - you were really instrumental in helping me cut way back on wasting food!

Sending love to you and Teddi.


Sheila Thanks for the love and Teddi says arf, arf. Sending love back to you and your girls, and your DD too..lol.

I feel for what you are dealing with the dental work. I know we try hard to stay frugal and to get ahead and out of debt and then the unexpected pops up. Good to hear you are being proactive about getting the dental work done before it becomes a worse situation. Hang in there you can do this.

Thanks for the compliment on being a frugal inspiration. The fact is the necessity is the mother of invention.. lol
Janet Alliesmama
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