Well.
May is kind of a "take a breather" month. We don't have a ton of birthdays to deal with, and property tax isn't due til June. And if we're lucky, we've gotten a tax refund, so we temporarily feel wealthy. (The TABOR refund hasn't shown up yet, though. The stinkers.)
However, I've had more than enough work to do. We missed out on the nastiest storms, because we were elsewhere. (Working, it turns out. Or seeing the kids.) And we've had some rain, so the sage and trees are turning beautiful shades of green.
It's been too cold to take many chances for planting, though. And there's the whole wheel incident, plus ,no brakes, to deal with. But in general, we're doing ok. How 'bout dat.
FRUGAL HITS
(some of these are from late April)
*Updated my voter's registration -- have you done that yet? I also sent a letter volunteering to be an election judge for Costilla County. (Had to turn down an extensive offer from Douglas County to be a signature judge again -- which really hurt. But a 3 1/2 hour commute each way?!?)
*Froze more tangerines for summer smoothies.
*Cancelled the Denver Post online subscription before its cost ballooned. (It had been $3 for a year.)
*Filled out a claim for the business. (One of those class action settlements.)
*Our electric bill was way down this month! Could turning lights off, as well as doing the wash and dishwasher late at night, instead of the daytime, be making the difference?
*Continued to put away bags and boxes from the fifth-wheel cleanout.
*Used up travel food we'd gotten for other trips. I'm beginning to see a little daylight in the freezer, too. Wonderful.
*Found Money: a quarter in the washing machine, another quarter and two pennies on the laundry room floor. Two more pennies in the Coinstar machine at Safeway... and a penny in a fundraising letter, from a charity we support. (Why not a nickel - or a dime?) Also: 92 cents (plus another foreign coin) in another Coinstar, this time at the Alamosa Safeway! That makes $1.47 found just this month -- almost as much as my total 2023 finds.
*Daughter #2 and Son #1 spent a few days with us, on their way to rockhounding in NM. They brought eggs, a gallon of milk and some eggs, marigolds and dianthus, plus some aging bananas with them. The sweethearts.
*Discovered that dirt under the trees was rich and dark; I think it will work for our garden. I also buried some iffy fish and shrimp from the freezer cleanout in the back deck planter.
*Dianthus in a planter by the front door -- and a marigold on the back deck. (I don't think the marigold's going to make it, but the dianthus is hanging in there.)
No chickens -- yet. Maybe next year.
*Got rides from friends (and the kids) when the truck was out of commission.
*Mother's Day Goodies: Bird of paradise plant, a waving Chinese kitty sundancer, a Yeti snowglobe (no, I am not making this up) and a Dutch spice cabinet from the kids for Mother's Day. Plus a great lunch at a hot pot/barbecue restaurant. (Thank you, Dears!) Best of all, time spent together. I love our kids.
*Ruby has decided to get along - specifically with Freya and Billie, the other dogs in our family. Which means that Rubes can stay with them -- and they can stay with her. And that saves a lot on doggie daycare and dogsitting fees.
*More appraisals, plus a teaching trip to Granby, CO for the Peaks 'n Pines Quilt Guild.
*Did some surveys so I could earn more quickly on Swagbucks. I'm almost up to a $25 giftcard. (Here's a link, if you'd like to start earning, too.)
*Another quadruple payment on the house loan. Whoo hoo!
*Beefed up the emergency fund. (Of course it now has to pay for wheel and brakes replacements...)
Thrift shop buys: 2 packs of playing cards for $1.00 each (perfect for playing 'Nickel,' a new game the Brick's big brother taught us), a skein of yarn for a buck, and two nesting boxes for $2.
A friend from church asked me out for a day of thrift shopping. Boy, did we have fun! I not only learned where the Good Stuff around here, including several new shops -- she learned about the Amish grocery store we'd discovered. She drove. (No brakes = no truck.) I paid for lunch, which seemed like a great bargain. Meanwhile, I found: multiple short-sleeved shirts and a few kimono for $4-6 each, fabric (less than $4/yd), 3 videos for $5, several books for $1/$2 each, including two heavy books of Charles Russell and Remington prints, and a few Christmas presents. Plus 4 large tomato plants for $2.50 each! (I got these at a scruffy rock/junk shop. Go figure.)
*Found a uranium glass plate on our thrift shop jaunt, thanks to my handy blacklight. (The clerk said, "You won't find any of that, we always check -- Whoa!")
*Book buys: Eight more buried treasure and frugal books from Ebay's Second Sale (buy 3, get 1 free), Waddle Books and OrionTechLLC (buy 2, get 1 free), plus a Baby Doe Tabor biography way under its usual price-- and a book from Amazon. All free shipping for $36.50. That means .a cost of $4.06 each! (One book was refunded, so actually $3.38 less.)
*Repairs done by the Brick -- fixed the shower drain and installed screens in the windows and doors, split kindling and worked on the truck. He also submitted the wheel claim to Discount Tire. (They were the ones who put the new tires on the truck.) I am very lucky to have this guy in my life.
*Sent $$ to the friend who took care of Ruby while we were in Washington -- it saved us a lot, and we had the comfort of knowing she was being cared for by someone who loved her. (We want to take our friend out to lunch, too.)
*Meals without going to the store -- Sunday dinner for friends (grilled steak) -- and didn't buy anything extra. Game night with friends (homemade chili) and Sunday dinner with other friends (chicken & rice). Plus a church potluck.
*More king-sized candy bars, at $1.14 each -- less than last month's purchase! One of our friends announced she was a "chocolatarian." That's us, too.
I'm not sure if everyone had the same results, with just a bit (30 mg). But within THREE days, the pain was largely gone. And other than periods of extra stress, or accidents, it's stayed that way.
This has been a HUGE blessing.
I'm walking more, exercising more. I can travel more easily, and keep up with the Brick, instead of limping all the time. I'll always be a little stiff...turns out I have arthritis in both knees, not just one. And I still can hurt now and then. But the difference is radical. I'm not normally a pill-taker, but if this little pill keeps the pain at bay, I'll do it.
Makes me think of this Ed Sheeran song: "when your legs don't work like they used to..."
Misc. money windfalls: A $5.50 venmo from an old grocery class-action suit.
*Our Sunshine Salvage grocery closed -- but a new Amish discount, the Maverik Country Store, opened a mile down the road. I didn't grocery shop at all for a few weeks, too.
Grocery buys: two big boxes of marked-down goods, including chicharrones and potato chips for 39 and 59 cents; canned soup, chili and beans for 79 cents - $1.29, lavender baby powder and the real prize: a wheel of Swiss cheese (5.53 pounds) for $11.99. (Maverik Country Store) Corn chips and a few other assorted snacks for $1.25 each. (Dollar Tree) Three pounds of clementines for $2.97 (a steal this late in the season) and 18 eggs for $2.47. (Safeway) Maple syrup for 40 cents an ounce - the next best for 63-70 cents. (Amazon)
*A buffalo nickel for a silly big brother. (More on this soon.)
FRUGAL MISSES
*We missed getting the garbage out in time for pickup -- two weeks. Couldn't be helped.
*Let some veggies and bread spoil in the crisper. Washed it out, and will try again. I also threw out some spices the previous owner had left. (No flavor - they were ollllld. So were the veggies, for that matter.) Some milk soured -- but I used it up in bread and biscuits.
*Had to pay for the wheel repairs ourselves, before getting reimbursed --- thousands of dollars. At least we could put them on the credit card. (Still waiting on the claim.)
*$680 for brake parts -- it's a lot, but it's a few hundred less than the Brick found anywhere else. We won't have to pay for labor, either, thanks to his skill.
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