What a strange, odd month. We were here -- but our landlord friends were gone most of the time, along with two other sets of friends we usually spend a lot of time with. The girlies and Son #1 were REALLY busy...and we rarely had a truck to go be with them, anyways.
So we stayed home. A lot. Even when we felt like wandering.
The restlessness was compounded by The Mama's sickness -- a week in the hospital, and a few more in a rehab center, to learn to walk stronger and get in and out of bed by herself. (We're still not sure what caused her sudden weakness.) We've been trying to do everything we can long-distance...and trying to figure out whether we can make it to Michigan to go see her. It depends a lot on the truck. (See below.)
P.S. We made a quick swing around our old house, to see how things looked. We should not have done it. A big dumpster was in the sideyard. (What for, I have no idea). My carefully-nurtured perennials were gone, including the Yellow Rose of Texas I'd babied for so long. Just a scrappy, dry covering of grass was there, instead. And the yard was packed with cars of every size and description. Our poor neighbors. At least the house itself still looked good.
Update: I had to stop and pick up a package at the old house, and took a closer look. The yellow rose plants are still there! They're much shorter, but they're there. I asked, and the new owner was kind enough to offer me as many as I wanted. I'll wait to dig them up until September, when things cool down around here.
FRUGAL HITS
(some of these were in late June)
*Combined errands on our rare trips to town. I particularly try to make it on a Tuesday -- free bread and a 20% senior discount at the thrift store, and often marked-down items at the grocery stores.
*Was thinking to myself, while crossing a parking lot, "Gee, I haven't found any money this month." Then lo and behold, shining in the middle of the driveway: a penny! It's not as much as some people's hauls, but I thought it a good sign. (Also found a penny in our friends' borrowed van -- but that's going back to them.)
*Had friends over for Sunday dinner -- and used what I had in the freezer. (Which I had to empty, anyways, to defrost it.) I even made cookies on the stove. (Too hot to use the oven.)
*Our local Safeway is doing a "Grand Re-Opening." This seems weird to me, since they were in town when we moved here in 1988 -- but whatever. Not only did the Brick and yours truly score a free hotdog out of it, but I also found Doritos, store brand and Tillamook black cherry ice cream for a buck each, plus chicken breast for 79 cents a pound. Eggs: 25 cents a dozen, and 2 pounds of strawberries for $1.77. The bad part: nearly all the specials were only one per household. At least I got to use my regular coupons, bought some replenishing supplies for our landlord friends...and got reward points out of it, as well. It's pretty nice when you spend $36 -- and save $41.80.
*Had Safeway refund money for a bag of cookies that was supposed to be $1.29 less than it rang up for. (I didn't make a special trip into town to do this, but took care of it on my next shopping excursion.) It may not seem like much, but it adds up. (I don't know why, but in spite of its great sales, Safeway is notorious for nickel-and-diming some of its coupons and specials. I don't always catch these while at the store -- I should.)
Safeway has been offering all sorts of great coupons, probably because we didn't shop there for more than four months: free eggs, ice cream, reusable bag, a free 10-pound bag of potatoes, and a $5 off coupon if we spent a fiver! (Got a second $5 off coupon a few weeks later, $3 off produce, plus $2 off any bakery purchase. Okay by me!) Even luxuries can cost less, if you're careful. Case in point: a pound of Black Forest ham, normally $6.99, but on sale for $3.99 -- except it also has a 30% off coupon pasted on. Hooray, less than $3/lb!
*Amazon (mostly Warehouse Deals) buys: baked chips (better for us), our favorite British teabags (a few pennies each), our favorite corned beef hash, Kind dark chocolate bars, nasi goreng instant noodles (these were 11 cents each -- a steal!), Kona coffee beans...and a Christmas present. Also a season of Last Ship for $3.99, and a Belgian wafflemaker for less than $9. The Brick was especially thrilled about that -- he loves waffles.
*Cherries for $1.67/pound....even less than last year's price! (Not as good as 2018's, though.) Made my own cherry pie, plus a cherry tart. (Swapped the latter for a huge slice of watermelon. The Brick ate far too much watermelon as a kid in NC, and is not a fan. I, on the other hand, dote on it.)
*Were given barbecued chicken by friends who were cleaning out their freezer -- and going vegetarian. (Alas, we are still big meat-eaters.) They also slipped a big wedge of watermelon in when I wasn't looking. While we were there, we used their grill to grill a big package of steaks from the freezer -- we ate these gradually over the next week, along with the chicken. (Gave the dogs some meat that would spoil soon -- and threw away a nasty mostly-used bottle of cocktail sauce we've hated, and been eating, anyways.)
Other friends left for a trip -- and handed over cream, fruit, veggies, cheese and sliced turkey that would have gone bad. (They've been eating some of our 99-cent ice cream, in return. I was glad to share, plus a meal's worth of white bean chili.)
*Kept the air conditioning going as needed, as well as electric fans. (We borrowed the fan. See below.) I did as little cooking as possible, quickly warming things up, instead. (Which saved on gas.) The microwave came in handy. This all used electricity -- but we're paying for it. When it gets cooler, our utilities will go down again. (Update: oh oh, something happened. See below.)
*Dug up and repositioned more than a dozen perennials for our landlord friends. Thanks to the extra rain we received early in the month, most seem to be surviving. Also, bought more plants, on sale at Home Depot. If I really baby these, they might do okay. Watered their porch flowerpots nearly every day. Also defrosted their freezer -- and not only found things of ours I did not realize we had, but were offered some of their food, as well.
*Took a friend out to lunch -- using a BOGO 50% off burger special from Red Robin.
*Stocked up on cleaning supplies from the Dollar Store. Got a few groceries and Christmas presents, as well.
*Realized our truck license had expired -- and needed an emissions test, before we could renew. BUT it will be in the shop past the month's grace period. Made a special trip to Boulder to 'persuade' the county supervisor to renew it, anyways. At least temporarily.
*A bunch of appraisals & meetings with clients. (They were very patient with me; I was late finishing them, thanks to The Mama's hospitalization.)
*Did a Zoom lecture.
*Bought another quilt -- some books -- and some Centennial fabric. (Okay, some embellishments, too.) All were at good prices; three were the result of offering an alternate price. (I saved quite a bit by doing that.)
*More stuff, salvaged from storage at The Mama's back in June, and put to use -- including tape, shampoo, cold medicine -- and paper towels. We have been using up my hoarded 'stash' of meds and personal care items now for more than TWO YEARS...and there's still plenty. Especially hair conditioner -- but not shampoo. Pathetic.
*A rewards card from my health insurance program hadn't been activated. (The Brick found it in a batch of paperwork .) Lo and behold, there's $200 worth of credit on it -- whoo hoo!
*Ordered a King Kong/Godzilla movie collection for our little friend Remi, who loves these big lugs as much as I do. Price: $5. (Okay, maybe I ordered one for myself, too.) I also picked up a multi-Godzilla set on sale, as well as a 3D King Kong nightlight for Remi's birthday -- $10. (He never reads this blog, so I feel safe mentioning it.)
*Thrift shop buys -- approx. two dozen videos, including several series ($2 each, plus a dollar video) and a handful of cards (50 cents each) -- plus 20% off that, for being a senior! (I knew there was some kind of benefit.) One video was empty -- but I got a $2 Amazon replacement. (plus $3.99 shipping) Had to walk away from a professional-style bread machine, in spite of its $5 price -- no space for storing OR using it in the trailer. Boo hoo.
*Free book, book bag and pizza coupon-- from the library's summer reading contest. Also, two dozen DVDs for presents and our collection, partly paid for with a $30 card I earned from doing a survey. Several of these went for birthday presents.
*Free bread, from the Castle Rock thrift shop, including bagels, sourdough and specialty English muffins. Marked-down bread (the Really Good Stuff) and bagels from Safeway: 99 cents each.
*Cleared out some cupboards -- and put away other things. Now I have a better idea of what's available, both food- and office-supplies-wise.
*Took friends to the airport, and picked them up. Twice. (Now they 'owe' us.)
*Threw away a pair of workshoes that were dirty, dusty...and paint-streaked. What a nice feeling. Fixed the strap on a pair of sandals.
*Kitchen sink fixed. A multi-day job. So nice to be able to get water and wash dishes again.
*The Brick got a refund on our busted tire -- and an air compressor that wasn't doing its job. Nearly $200 back into the coffers.
FRUGAL MISSES
*Caught myself from being scammed -- just in time. I answered an application to do some 'mystery shopping' work for Whole Foods. (We just had one open up this year in Castle Rock, and I figured they were analyzing it. Besides, I've done mystery shopping before.) Got the paperwork in the mail...and was it hinky. Two cheaply-copied pages, urging me to go buy $2000 in Nike gift cards at any store. (Whole Foods was ok, too.) The paperwork was accompanied by a $2400 'cashier's check' that felt too lightweight, and wasn't embossed. The signature looked fake, too. (Really?? Sending a stranger that much for a first assignment, sight unseen?) The instructions were badly written, capitalized words oddly and included phrases that no American would use. I was texted with a Houston area code, but the cashier's check was for a credit union in Ohio. (The credit union does exist -- but doesn't have a location like that listed on the check.)
I was supposed to 'prove' my purchases by sending photos of the cards and their info...then I would earn a big fat bonus, after the cards were cashed. Sure. Then the 'check' would bounce. Uh-huh.
I threw the paperwork away, blocked the texted phone number...and now have an interesting bookmark to remind me of my near-brush with disaster.
*New printer. We're still working out the quirks, but at least it's more economical than some. It uses extra-large ink cartridges, so we'll get more pages for the buck.
*A cavity needs fixing. (Found during the teeth cleaning last month.) Of course, it had to be me. The Brick's is covered by Medicare. Mine is not.
*Broke three coffee cups. All at the same time, while washing dishes. Figures.
*The air conditioning just broke down in the trailer. Now we make do with fans and open windows until the Brick can order a new motor. (Was it talking to the truck? Curious minds want to know.) P.S. The Brick rigged it to work again, thanks to WD40.
*Problems with the truck. Big-time. Kind friends loaned us their truck while they were out of town, so we could get some errands done. Other kind friends loaned us their van, while they were out of town. (We have a lot of friends headed out of town this summer. Who can blame them -- Colorado is inundated with tourists right now.)
We brought the truck to the dealer first, then a shop (the best for diesel) -- same diagnosis. The turbo needs fixing, along with a host of lesser stuff. The diesel shop is moving location the end of July, so needed us to move the truck -- which then wouldn't start, even enough for us to move it. Hired a tow truck, who pulled it to friends' house. Soon we'll be able to drag it back to the diesel shop. God willing, it will finally be repaired.
The estimate is currently at nearly $9500 -- and climbing. Sigh.
*Problems with the internet. The Brick had to work quite a while to get it passable.
*Had to give some food to the dogs before it spoiled -- we just didn't get it eaten up in time. Other food did spoil.
*Bad potatoes. Also let a small pkg of that grilled steak spoil, too much even for the dogs. Shame on me.
*Our fan, a thrift shop purchase that's worked reliably for years, went bust. Requiescat in pace. Thought I'd found a replacement at he thrift shop, but turns out it was a portable fan heater. (It's ok -- we'll use it in the winter.) I found a stand for the new printer, and an 'Arctic chill' portable swamp cooler. All at $4 each. But we still needed a small fan. (Finally got it via Walmart.com -- $15. Quiet, and it's working nicely.)
*Donated several review copies of Colorado Curiosities.
*Wasted time checking on grocery store coupons -- the night before they expired. Ridiculous.
*Didn't go to Alaska with friends. (They asked -- I wanted to.) What with trailer and truck repair costs, just didn't feel we could afford it.
Here's last month's report. And for comparison, last year's, as well. August tends to be a bit scary for us. Both Daughters have August birthdays, and so does The Mama, which means extra expenditures. Add the whole uncertainty about the truck repairs, and I feel a little nervous. Time to watch what we spend on -- carefully.
Maybe soon it won't be so hot, after all.
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