About Me

Life is learning. Life is change. Life is good. Life doesn't have to cost a lot. I want to make my life greener, healthier, and thriftier. And I want to enjoy doing it!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Bleeding Money


Ever feel like you're just bleeding money?  I'm having that kind of week ... and even though I've accomplished a lot in the last two days, I still feel like I spent too much and did too little.

Yesterday we went to the credit union and renewed / renegotiated / revamped our mortgage.  After a lengthy session with our CU rep, going over all our options in detail, we settled on a plan that will take eight years off the remaining time and wiped out what we owed on the line of credit, which we then cancelled.  From now on, if we can't pay cash, we'll wait until we can.  Since all the major repairs and upgrades to the house are finished except for one window, I don't think this will be difficult.

When we got home, I got on-line and paid this year's property taxes.  They weren't due until July, but now we don't have to worry about missing the deadline.

This morning, we planned and did our big bi-monthly Costco/stock-up shopping trip.  $140 later, we now have:

a year's worth of dish soap and laundry soap
4 months' worth of toilet paper (we normally wouldn't have got that much all at once, but it was on sale and I had a coupon)
4 months' (roughly) worth of oregano, black pepper, and thyme
4 months' worth of slab bacon that he'll run through the slicer later (1/3 the price of pre-sliced packaged bacon)
a week's worth of milk, bread, bananas, tomatoes, green beans, and a pomelo (will give me four servings of fruit, they're huge)
2 dozen cinnamon-raisin english muffins (fabulous with peanut butter!)
2 dozen apple-oatmeal jumbo muffins (perfect for a quick breakfast on the run, and cheaper than buying enough ingredients to make them myself)
a year's worth (at least) of filters for my Brita water bottle
4 kilos of sugar for this summer's canning
a nice big sturdy metal watering can so we don't have to try & fight the hose getting water from the rain barrels to the planters

And  -  at last!  -  I got a couple of spearmint plants, which I will go out and bung into a planter as soon as it stops raining.

Altogether, not bad ... not many actual food items, but a great re-stock on stuff we use that won't go bad.


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Alas, the money outflow won't stop for a few more days.  My car insurance is due on the 20th, and P's birthday is the 22nd.  Now, with a bit of luck, my income tax refund will show up just in time  -  but I'm not holding my breath.


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On the up side, I think I've finally found a new home for about six dozen quart canning jars.  I'm keeping all the pints and half-pints, but there doesn't seem to be much sense in hanging on to the quarts any longer.  Now that it's just the two of us, half of anything I put up in a quart jar would end up going bad before we could eat it all.  I still need new lids for this year's canning, but nobody seems to have them in stock yet, and I'm not going to buy whole cases of jars just to get the lids!  Even after I give the quarts away, I will still have all the jars I'll ever need.


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Zero food waste again this week!  Either he's getting better at cooking smaller quantities, or I'm getting better at eating leftovers before they die ... a win either way.


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So tomorrow looks to be a busy day as well; if all goes well I will:

get at least two loads of laundry on the line
find at least two jobs to apply for (my goal used to be five per day, but as things stand in the job market these days, I'll settle for two)
finish darning in the ends on the pink hoodie sweater
steam-mop the living room floor

Plus the daily dishes and tidying; and as usual, it'll be movie night at Mom's.

Right now  -  I think I need a nap!

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