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Archive for December, 2018

2018 Wins and Losses

December 30th, 2018 at 08:58 pm

Overall, I cannot complain too loudly on my losses, although I'm not sure I have too much to credit myself.

Wins:

Saved money by canning/freezing. We eat many meals at home.

Christmas was paid for with cash -- no outstanding debt. I made quite a few gifts.

We had a couple of home improvement projects which we had saved for and paid for in cash.

We still live below our means.

House and second vehicle are paid for.

Fortunately we did not have to touch any retirement savings or emergency funds.




Losses:

The only thing we owe for is DH's vehicle. We chose to get a low interest loan because our FICO scores were starting to drop. We have about a year left of the 3 year loan to pay.

I did not put away as much in savings because I changed cholesterol medicines and insurance will not pay for it. I am paying for it out of pocket because the previous medicine raised my blood sugar to almost diabetes range. My insurance wants me to try three other kinds before they will consider helping pay part. However, after 9 months of this medicine, my blood sugar has dropped some and we feel that it is better to pay the extra instead of going into diabetes.

My goal of reading 100 books was not met. I am in the middle 80s. Most of the books were borrowed from the library, but when the library had some issues and we couldn't park close, I bought books at thrift shops. I donated them back. When this was going on, I was having some major foot problems and couldn't walk very far.

Merry Christmas!

December 25th, 2018 at 08:28 pm

It's hard to believe Christmas is here. So much went into planning and getting things done. I most certainly hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas and the craziness didn't dampen your holiday.

It's been a melancholy month in between planning for Christmas and doing many other things. We lost four friends. Two shouldn't have a surprise, one was 95 and the other 88, but loss is loss. Then two friends' husbands were taken and our hearts go out to them. It makes me stop and realize how very blessed I am to have DH.

I worked with my class at school and we sewed buttons on felt ornaments as well as made reindeer out of candy canes. They have so little craft experience that I had to find things that were easy for them to do. I think they enjoyed all the art. They aren't going to be as thrilled when I go in and work with them on writing. But it is far better for me to work with them in small groups on writing than it is to try and have the teacher work with a group.

DH and I attended our church's candlelight service last night and it was lovely as always. We came home and unwrapped our gifts to each other. Very few surprises for DH since he chose what he wanted, but he seems happy. We had a lovely dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, biscuits, applesauce, and sliced cherry tomatoes.

DH is napping and I just finished writing birthdays and appointments on our kitchen calendar. DH gives me one each year for Christmas and I like ones with big boxes so I can write stuff down.

Hope you and yours have a lovely Christmas!

This and That

December 9th, 2018 at 09:50 pm

I blogged earlier about crocheting some clothes for a friend's granddaughter's Barbie. Well, they were a big hit, and it seems the dress that has some glitter to it was a favorite. Seems the Elf on the Shelf even wore it one morning to greet the little girl.

Friday I found two skeins of yarn that had a silver cord running through each of them. One was Christmas red and the other was white. I found them at one of the thrift stores we frequent and the cashier asked me what I was going to use it for and I told her for a Barbie, she took off a dollar so I got both for $3. I made 6 dresses for Barbie and apparently that Elf is going to go "shopping" and surprise our little friend. What a hoot. I guess the lavender dress was not the right color for the elf according to our little friend so hopefully the Christmas colors fill fit the bill. Of course I have taken some verbal abuse from the grandmother asking me if I wanted to keep these clothes and play Barbie. All in good fun.

A few weeks ago I found some baby bibs that can be embroidered so I have been working on them. One of the young ladies at church is expecting her second child and I thought I would finish these and give them to her. My only complaint is who in their right mind would decide to have 5 different shades of pink on a pattern? Egad.

Tomorrow night a friend is coming over for his birthday dinner. He was given the choice of our meeting him some place of his choosing or eating here and he said he really wanted a home cooked meal. So, I need to bake a cake for his birthday and he requested meatloaf. It should be a fun time.

We did spent quite a bit at the thrift stores this week. Well for us we did. I think we spent close to $15. Some of that was for yarn for the hats. Plus the yarn for Barbie clothes. DH found a couple of kids' books he wanted for his personal library. He reads to 5 classes and he likes to keep an assortment besides the ones he get from the library. I'm sure if we had purchased these items at retail, it would have been far more.

I did order a music CD for DH for Christmas. We tried to order it from a local CD place here in town, but he said he couldn't get it. I prefer shopping from brick and mortar, especially if they are small business, to support them. I kept checking Amazon and they finally got the CD in. I had some cash back money on my Discover card so I wound up paying $3.50 for part of the postage. My shopping is completed. Yay!

Like CreditCardFree, I finally got to $20 on Ibotta. It seems to take forever since I don't buy a lot of the stuff they give rebates on.

I found 14 cents in a parking lot yesterday. It goes in the wooden box DH has for change. We usually take the majority of the change in in the summer and apply part of it to Christmas and part of it the home improvement fund.

Little Things

December 5th, 2018 at 04:19 pm

It's funny how the little things tend to mean a lot.

Yesterday, my coffee maker died. I make coffee every morning. I wasn't happy. DH said he would buy me a new one for Christmas and my immediate thought was what I would do between now and then? I guess I'm addicted to my cup of coffee in the morning.

I then remembered that there was a box in the garage with an old coffee maker. My mom who has been gone 12 years, bought this one and used it a few times and then decided she didn't like it. So, she gave it to me and I have had it in the box in the garage ever since thinking I would use it if mine died. So, I got it out, cleaned it up, and made some coffee. Fortunately it works. I'm not one of those with the fancy coffee makers.

It's funny how something as simple as a cup of coffee means so much to me.

Yesterday I took some cranberry walnut bread over to a shut in. She had mentioned last summer it was her favorite bread. I had made some loves for our Christmas bazaar and had mentioned to one of her sons our bazaar had it, but he couldn't be bothered. She had wanted to support our bazaar and I thought he could then give her the bread, but guess not. So, night before last I made her two small loaves and took that over with some fudge. We had a nice visit.

Such little things, but they do mean something.