September is one of my very favorite months. The autumn breezes are kinder for breathing and sleeping, and this is the month that Colorado has the most fall color. It's also my birthday on Sept. 22. I am one of those oddballs whose natal day (Virgo) falls right before the next change (Libra). It's also close to summer's last official day -- and Fall's autumnal equinox.
So...am I temperamentally Virgo...or Libra? Or both? A Fall person (yes!)...or one of the Last Roses of Summer??Add in the lefthandedness and the odd hobbies, and who knows. I guess I am just myself.
This month was mostly the same things: working on the roof for the Brick (12 rows done, 4 to go!) and appraisal reports for yours truly. We made a trip to Castle Rock for more appointments, plus a birthday supper with dear friends. We also stopped at the thrift shop there, as well as the diesel truck repair. Another visit's needed to both -- yay for one, boo for the other. But truck repairs seem to be part of our life.
No freeze yet, though we may have one next week.
FRUGAL HITS
(some of these are from late August)
*A new offer, to teach and appraise in Durango next year. Hooray!
*Picked up more appraisals, on everything from quilts and poker tables to Navaho rugs. These will generally be due in late October. Which is good.
*Got a job working elections for Costilla County. It's long hours -- but the work's not difficult, and I can do other things in between voter visits. And I'm getting paid.
*Fifty exra SB -- for my birthday. I'm close to a $25 giftcard -- but at a 12% discount. Have you ever thought about doing this? Just doing your normal search-and-buy schedule will get you giftcards. It's free, too. I've been doing it for years, and it works. (If you join up using this link, I'll get a little extra, as well.)
*A $25 giftcard from Safeway for a transferred prescription. It's an old program, apparently, though my coupon had no expiration date. I had to really work for it at Customer Service, though.
*A Starbucks giftcard from our Medicare rep! What a nice guy.
*Started Book #2 of our monthly income/expenses. (Book #1 was begun in Dec. 2022, and filled with this year's August entries.) This also includes tax and sales tax info, as well as who we donate to, etc etc. Income goes on one side of the page; expenses, listed by category, on the other. Then I add each side up, and compare them to each other.
Yes, I could do this online. Yes, I could use a spreadsheet. (The Brick does, for our finances.) But there is something 'personal' by filling in the numbers on the page, and seeing our savings, especially the house loan payments, add up. And it only takes me about an hour each month to do. You should try it!
*House repairs: The Brick fixed the sinks (we had leaks in a few places), and replaced the screws holding down the roof metal panels. The screws were stripping, and lifting up the steel sheets as they degraded. Now we have watertight sinks and roof, but it has been A LOT of work. (Thank you, Sweetheart.)
*Watched friends' house while they were on vacation -- picked two tote bags of tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and yellow squash from their garden, as instructed -- and took it to share at church. (We kept some, .and loaded a crisperful for them to enjoy when they got back.)
*Got a Brick brother a buffalo nickel! The Brick appropriated coins out of his brothers' collection, as a kid. Then he went and bought candy with the proceeds. We sent a nickel to another Brick brother in May. I'm considering these as compensation for wayward deeds. (Ahem)
*Made a big pot of chili -- sent some to friends, ate some and used the rest for our monthly potluck at church. Not bad. The Brick delivered the chili when he went to their house for an evening of music -- and to get a ladder they generously offered. They fed him, too. (Thanks, Dears!)
*$12.65 from Quora, for answering questions. (And having people read my answers, I guess.) Every bit helps.
*We both got haircuts at Great Clips -- $10 off each!
*The first snow for Daughter #2 and Son #1 - Sept. 4. (And a lot of ski resorts.) Other than the Blancas, our closest mountain range, we haven't had any -- but friends in Forbes Park, five miles away, got their first snow on the 21st.
*Worked on reports - a lot. I have more to do. I also bid on several items on Ebay, using 'Best Offer.' Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't -- but I got several Bicentennial era items, including ribbons and Clinton/Dole boxing puppets.
*Lots of rain, to the point that some of our dirt roads have washed out and gotten very bumpy. (The paved roads are fine.) Temperatures have been ranging widely from heat to cold; the Blanca mountains got their first snow on the 21st. (We had rain. Bigtime.)
*Replanted four dianthus that were in our flowerpots -- it's a biennial, so should reappear in the garden bed. (One kicked the bucket-- but three seem to be ok..) I also moved herbs to an inside pot, planted a vine I'd had since last November (a gift from an election judge), picked a few handfuls of beans and a bowlful of tomatoes, and did a little weeding. Next year should be even better.
*Found a lime plant and a lemon plant for half-price at Lowe's: $12.50 each! Plus a yellow mum plant for $4.
*A 19th century 'how to load a gun' French military handkerchief -- very rare. I was the only bidder!
*A gold picture frame (one dollar!) for the Augustus Egg note.
*Started a Free Little Library charter. I have been hoping to do this for years. It became especially important when I visited Fort Garland's 'library:' really a junkroom full of older books and VHS tapes. The Library will be in front of Calvary Blanca church; we've got the box for it, but need to add a roof and a few other details. A 5%-off coupon saved us $2.50 on the charter.. Hooray!
*Found a railroad coverlet. I have been looking for one of these for soooo long. And got the already-reasonable price down a bit with the 'Best Offer' option. (It turned out to be a vintage reproduction...still a good price, but not the incredible bargain I'd hoped for. Darn it.)
*Flow blue cup and saucer -- c.1840-50 -- for nearly half off their asking price. (Helloooo, 'Best Offer!')
*Our granddog Freya spent a lot of time here, while her parents did several rock shows. They'll be at the Albuquerque balloon festival -- look for Phenomenal Gems there!
*Continued to dry clothes outside. (They keep their color better, and smell so much nicer.) This keeps our electric bill lower, too. ($41 and change this month - up slightly.)
*A free aloe vera plant - plus lunch with friends (who gave me the aloe vera).
*The wheel claim is finalized! It's about time. They docked us 20% for depreciation on some things, but oh well. We were also able to pay our friend for renting his truck. One check was delayed because the paperwork was returned -- we (me, sadly) put on the wrong address. I still do not know for sure how that happened -- but it did. (Has this been driving me crazy? Ummm... yes.)
*A hostess gift of veggies, plus more from church, including three Rocky Ford melons (the BEST). A baseball-bat-sized zucchini from friends in Castle Rock. And a zuke, offered by a stranger while we were at the Amish grocery. Weird.
*A quadruple payment on the house loan. We could only do a single one last month.
*AMoney Diary accepted! Do you read these fascinating 'what I spent in a week' reports from Refinery 29? They come from different people all over the country...including Fort Garland and yours truly. I'll let you know when mine is published.
*Twenty antique Horatio Alger novels: less than two bucks each, including shipping. (Yes, Ebay's Best Offer.) I asked about more that the Ebay seller mentioned in the listing-- and he threw in two more books for free! (Thank you, Castlebooksandtea!) Horatio and I are old buddies, and I will enjoy having him around again.
I also bought three Peter Spier Christmas! books for nearly $11.50, including shipping, on Ebay. A fourth Christmas, plus a Noah's Ark, came for even less. One of these will go in the Free Little Library box. A wonderful book.
*Ate or froze the rest of the peaches, as well as greens and a few green peppers. Made a peach pie, and froze a peach dumpling.
*Piano lessons for my girlie -- she is just beginning to learn how to play with both hands at once. (She'll get a Christmas! book for... well, you know.) Her mom gave me an excellent loaf of seeded bread.
*Thrift shop deals: An armload of books, videos, cards, piano student music books and CDs -- 50% off. (The most expensive was $4...and most were a dollar or less.) Eight smaller and four larger French crystal stemware -- $1 and $3 each! Two large towels ($5 ea) -- 10% senior discount off the total, and a few holiday giftbags thrown in, for good measure.
*Worked on setting up a greenhouse for a friend -- watching for snakes all the time. (She was bitten by one a few weeks ago, after she shot it -- then leaned over with an axe to finish it off. The 'dead' snake leaped up and got her on the finger. An airlift and several days in the hospital ensued.)
*Planted more bunching green onions...for springtime use. Our pole beans, sadly, were decimated by the hail we got in late August. (I did get a few more.) I pulled out one bin of tomatoes, and planted Amish Deer Tongue and Kale greens.... which are FINALLY starting to come up. (I'll cover them for the next few months, hoping to get a spring crop, too.)
*A free birthday burger from Red Robin, plus a $10 reward on a second visit. They'd better! I bought a lot of stock after their price dropped.
*Grocery deals: $2 coupon for bakery items, $7 coupon off meat (these were both rewards), milk, $2.27/gallon, Ribeye steak $5.37/lb, sirloin steak $4/lb (BOGO), $2.97/lb hamburger (in a 10-pound chub, carrots/cucumbers/green peppers for an astounding 47 cents each (Safeway). Packages of coffee for less than $7/pound, plus discounted Dutch Stroopwafels, a sort-of waffle cookie sandwich (Amazon Warehouse Deals). Italian lemon soda (8-count 'em, 8 --the Brick and I both dote on this stuff) for $1.99/bottle, 35-cent pkgs of wet dogfood (to supplement Ruby's dry kibble), 10 pounds of flour ($2.65), chopped pecans ($3.29 for a 10 oz. bag), 29-cent cheese slabs (2 ounces each) and a variety of marked-down canned goods, including a 79-cent can of roast beef hash -- whoo hoo! (SLV Amish Grocery). Fifty pounds of potatoes for $15 (Worth the Drive bakery).
Did you ever think that you'd be grateful for $3 or less/lb hamburger?? It's currently up to $5.47/lb at Safeway. Egg prices are back up in our neck of the woods, too -- nearly $5.00/dozen.
FRUGAL MISSES
*Missed out on using a '$10 off $10' birthday coupon from IKEA. That's life...
*Resin -- and molds. Discounted prices, yes, but I really wanted to play around with them and the mica powders I got last month at the thrift shop.
*Who knows what our electric costs will be? The little dears at Excel have informed us they're putting in a 'smart' meter...which means they can automatically cut power whenever they so wish. We do have the option of keeping the regular meter...for $24 more a month. We can also opt out of varying costs-per-hour. ('Peak' is 4-7 p.m.; the lowest is from 7 p.m. - 1 p.m. The Brick thinks this has a lot to do with air conditioning use.) If we do, though, there will be an additional charge.
We'll let them make these changes -- it wouldn't make sense to pay extra, just out of stubbornness. And they're not charging us for the new-and-improved meter. But we don't have to like it.
This is making our plans to eventually go solar just that much more important.
*Bought Restore-A-Finish to refinish the cabinets in the fifth-wheel. One step further to putting it up for sale eventually.
* A couple of Ebay purchases lost via the USPS. They should be refunded.
*No found money this month. Darn it.
*The 32 little succulents I bought for use in terrariums are now down to 5 or so. I don't think they like me much.
*One of the garden bins was pretty much toast after the hailstorm. The other is barely hanging in there. Except for the dianthus (a gift from Daughter #2), I didn't buy any flowering plants. Which was hard. (The tomato plants were huge, and a terrific buy at 4/$10.)
*STILL had to throw some food out when it spoiled. Shame on me.
*Late on some appraisal reports. But getting better, at least...gave some books away, to thank the clients for their patience. I am catching up now.
*Had to delay delivering a restoration job that's seemingly been going on forever. I felt bad... but had a great sense of relief after my decision. (The client will get it in October, instead.)
Here's last month's report -- and 2023's September report. Plus the 2022 version.
Here's hoping your October will be wonderful.
No comments:
Post a Comment