Tuesday Update

One of my goals for this week was to finally pay the balance on our ER visit earlier this year.  In addition to the $600 copay (and the $150 copay at the Urgent Care),we owed an additional $465 for our portion of the MRI.  The total bill was about $11k less the thousand we paid and the thousand the insurance company paid.  They wrote off $9k in contractural discounts.  Ridiculous!  I logged on to their website and paid it off tonight.  That’s one more debt paid off.  I have a small dental balance that was supposed to get paid on our last visit but they didn’t collect it so it just rolled over.  That will be next week’s payment.  Friday is payday so that means another hunk of change to our primary consumer debt.  

I cooked a pot of chicken noodle soup Sunday night using just one chicken breast, some oldish celery sticks and some baby carrots that were much bigger than baby size.  We enjoyed the leftovers tonight with a grilled cheese sandwich.  I love frugal meals like that. It was just enough to satisfy and very inexpensive.  

Sunday we also made great progress in getting some landscape shrubs cut down to size.  We purchased a nice battery operated hedge trimmer from Home Depot using a gift certificate DH won several months ago.  $0 out of pocket for us!  I was able to trim and shape up some boxwoods and azaleas.  DH used his electric chainsaw to severely cut back a camellia bush that had grown over 12 feet tall.  It was growing into the dogwood beside it.  It’s rough looking right now.  It will either die or start putting out new limbs in the spring.  Either way, it’s better than it was before.   We still have a lot of cuttings and limbs in the backyard that we need to find a way to get rid of.  DH is going to see if a tree trimming company will come and trim our dead limbs AND get rid of the waste back there.  Hope it’s cost effective.

Saturday we exchanged two shirts at Kohls we bought the weekend before.  While we were there, we bought six pairs of socks using a $20 Kohl’s Cash coupon and less than $3 in cash.  What a bargain!  

My, how time flies!

I never expected that taking on a new job would be this hard.  Not the job itself but its impact of daily living and my energy level.  Yes, I know we’re all getting older and I do appreciate that but some days, it is difficult to comprehend.

I’m not going to update on every thing today but I will cover things a few at the time:

First, the job is going well.  It’s not super exciting or challenging at all but, it is a full time job with benefits and the pay is substantially more than the part time position I held before.  If I had my wish, I would want more authority and pay but for now, I’m satisfied with what I have.  There is a cast of characters at work (isn’t there always?) who are both interesting and annoying.  There’s always a treat or birthday or celebration which accounts for a slight weigh gain. For now, I’m trying to limit my portions and pass on excessive “celebrating” at work.  Friday, we ate three different times at work for some reason or another.  I was good and only had a taste here and there.

I have been able to make a Couple of large payments to one credit card as I mentioned in an earlier post.  That has been slowed down with some other expenses such as new tires for my car and two new pairs of glasses. I intend to keep up with this plan as much as possible.  

Plans -  we’ve booked a vacation for later this year, a cruise.  It’s a celebration vacation for our anniversary.  Our plan is to unplug, relax and enjoy with no thoughts about home, work, etc.  I put the deposit down two weeks ago and we’ve done a little shopping for some clothing that we will need.

I’m going to add a new goal for 2018.  I know it’s late in the year but I want to.  I’m going to can at least four things before the end of the year.  I put tomato jam up tonight (5 half pints plus a half pint in the fridge just for us).  It will be great on burgers and sandwiches especially when tomatoes take on that bland winter taste.  I know I will also put up some applesauce because I really enjoy that on potato pancakes.  Now, I just need to find two more things.