Cheap Pagan Bitching

Blessings Darlings!

So far with this unemployment I've been doing the usual stuff.  Looking at the finances to see how long before we have to start taking money from the emergency fund, moving money from the places I've already been taking surveys for cash, finally being able to weed the garden and get a big planting of green beans in.  

Today I move into 'Cheap Pagan Bitch' phase, and see how to live on less cash.  Obviously this is going to require plenty of garden work to get us fed.  And I suppose we might qualify for about $20 a month of food stamps until my social security retirement actually starts arriving.  (I didn't realize that their info 'you can apply up to 3 months before you want to start it' meant 'it takes at least 3 months to get you into the system.  Apply REALLY EARLY".)  

 So no one's getting more clothes for a while.  No paid entertainment - free concerts at the Amp, bringing picnic dinner is still a go. No buying more music, it's free radio apps.  And I quit smoking, which will save us about $30 a month.

Used books are allowed.  New books . . . so tempting!  So many of my friends are authors and I'm already behind on buying ALL THE BOOKS.  But I'll live without them.  OTOH, I'm NOT stopping the money for Patreon's I'm in.  

And, clearly, I won't be harassing Byron Ballard and Amy Blackthorn and all the others at Free Spirit Gathering. 

I can't change what we pay for rent (which is pretty low for the space we have) or health insurance.  We need the medications we're on (well, I might be able to reduce blood pressure meds soon, but we'll see.) 

 We have to eat, and we will reduce our spending on that with the help of the garden and cooking from scratch - but we were already spending relatively little on that.  I certainly will be making more food from scratch - all the loaf bread, egg roll and dumpling wrappers, all egg rolls and dumplings, maybe even all corn and wheat tortillas.  But not the English Muffins and biscuits - only the Chubby Hubby eats those and there aren't small recipes for biscuits.  I'm going to continue to buy those because I don't want to stand over a hot pan cooking English Muffins at this time of year (and I don't think we have the round things to pour the batter in.  I've done this enough to know that the thinner poured batter ones are better than the bread/muffin like cut-and-cook ones.)  Bread will be baked outside in bread maker.  Much baking will be done outside in toaster oven.  Air frying will be done outside in . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . air fryer. 

My husband will pitch a fit if I switch from good Chinese thin and thick soy sauces and go to big bottles of Kikkoman JAPANESE soy sauce.  He might just have to live with that.  You know how some folks have lots of different types of vinegars?  He's like that with soy sauce.  And a little bit with vinegar, too, really.  But I digress . . .

Cars - I could take my car off the road, rather than get new tags and pay personal property tax on it.  I probably won't, and just get 1 year tags instead of two year.  

Electric bill - Might go up a bit, with more home cooking.  AC is set at 80 days, 77 nights.  If the heat dome hits here the bill will go up.

Hell if I know what I'm going to do about propane for winter heating.  The tank is at 20% now, fine for the water heater.  The 'poor tax' for partial fills (the delivery charges, same if you get 100 gallons or 500 gallons or 50 gallons) is at least $35 per delivery.  I don't know if the cost per gallon is going to go up or down from where it is now.  And the company hides the cost it is per gallon now until you put in an order.  Snort.

We'll get by well enough.  I have assets I could sell.  I have a little money left in my IRA.  I'd rather not tap them at age 66, of course.   And I'll probably start very actively (vs the low-key stuff I've got going on now) look for a job in a few weeks, after I decompress.  Anywhere in Maryland (and I'm 2 miles from the border) pays more an hour than I've been making, which should offset increased gas cost in driving there.

Frondly, Fern

Pantry Stuff

Blessings, Darlings!

My son just finished making a sheet cake, and I've just started a sponge for a loaf of bread.  All this yummy use of on-hand ingredients leads to a question - do you know how much of what you use in a typical month?  At least of staples like flour, sugar, coffee?

I've been thinking about that, and compiling next-month's shopping list.  So I'm going to bore treat you to some of my figures.  Most are a bit more than I use in a typical month, but buying this month allows a LITTLE natural accumulation of supplies.

Minimum purchases from Aldi's (staples, no name brands, store profit goes to Germany, but GREAT prices):

Flour -           5 5-pound bags
Sugar -          2 5-pound bags
lunchmeat       3 pounds
croutons         1 bag ( really should make them myself)
soup - cream of  mushroom      5 cans
peas             2 cans
canned mushrooms 9 cans
canned tuna    5 cans
canned ham     1 can
onions              6 pounds
potatoes          10 pounds
canned tomatoes     6 cans (pints)
cooking spray        1 can
oil                  2 bottles 48 oz
napkins            2 packages
hash browns        1 package, frzn
frozen veggies       9 bags
Milk                10 gallons
eggs                 9 dozen
half & half          4 quarts
OJ                   4 half gallons
cereal                4 boxes
mac & cheese mix       3
scalloped 'tater mix      1
canned nuts        2 cans
bar cheese          1 1/2 pounds
sliced cheese        2 pounds
butter                  4 pounds
Coffee                4 pounds
salt                    1 round
Brown sugar        2 lb
saltine crackers     1 lb
apples                   15 lb
oranges                 8 lb
bananas                 11 lb
hamburger buns       2 packages
hoagie rolls              1 or 2 packages
yogurt                1 qt
lettuce                 5 heads
carrots                 8 lb
cabbage                2 of 'em
celery                   1
green peppers       1 package
garlic                    lots
paper towels         2 rolls

And those are just the 'normal' purchases I make each month.  The meat, meds, cat stuff, etc are all at other stores (and on sales if possible). I didn't even include chocolate of ANY type!

What are you 'every month' purchases?  How much money do you need to allot to those, before you can even think of buying other stuff? 

Frondly, Fern

Schedule

Blessings, Darlings!

A friend of mine has an interesting approach to menu planning - she has decided on what species for every day of the week, and then decides on how to cook it from there.  So, Friday night is always chicken, Wednesday  night is always veggie pizza delivery since she and her husband work late that night, etc.

OTOH, I build my menu around what's for sale that week, and can serve lots of something if it's cheap.  Like chicken 4 times in a week!

Since we have a big old freezer (literally old - we bought it in 1979), I am considering combining the two ideas - menu by species but purchasing LOTS on sale.  It might not work perfectly, but then again it might.

Have any of you tried this yourself?  Do you have other ideas for the menu planning part of life?

Help!

Frondly, Fern

Packing

Blessings, Darlings!

Even before we agreed to a date we'd be out of the house by, I had started packing.  As I previously noted, we have 24 bookshelves alone, and then there's the in-house 3 month supply of food, clothes, the BUSINESS, the KITCHEN (my condiments alone are daunting to pack and move), etc.

The food, of course, is a bit of a dilemma.  It's a lot of stuff to move.  We can't eat ALL of it in the next 4 or so weeks, but we CAN reduce it.  And I could 'rotate' commercially canned food by donating it to the food bank. 

But if we greatly reduce our stored food, that greatly reduces how prepared we are after our move.  And the town we're moving to doesn't have the vast array of supermarkets that I use here, or a BJ's/Sam's Club/Costco, or an Aldi's, and CERTAINLY no H-Mart!  So stocking up again, at the low prices that I could get by hitting the vast array of store loss-leaders I'm used to is going to be right out.

So, a compromise.  We're eating our way through about 4 cans a week, sometimes up to 8, and I'm not replacing most of them.  I'm doing just-in-time purchasing of things we use up, like cream of mushroom soup, only buying what I need for planned meals. 

Some food will certainly be donated rather than moved.  Commercially canned tomatoes, mostly, along with scattered other items. 

It's been great to have the food when our income was so low, but, boy, I dread moving it all.

Frondly, Fern

Harvest Time

Blessings, Darlings!

As all y'all who have been reading this for a while know, it's been a long, hard slog the past few years.   Money has been pretty non-existent. Well, non-existent in a first world way, at least.  All clothes except undies and socks come from Goodwill.   The only thing I go to Starbucks for is coffee grounds for the garden.  Haven't bought books at all, one meal out a month at most, if things around the house get repaired it's by us or not at all unless it's the car, etc.  Bills have been paid a bit late on occassion, but always paid in a reasonable amount of time.  Spas? Facials? Nope. Movies? Nope. Vacations? Nope.

Not exactly living the American Dream of the American Lifestyle, but there is NO question that we are living richer than most of the world, right?

It's paying off.  Not that the business is pulling in mega bucks, tho' consulting is doing well.  But, you know we have to move, and move fast.  Landlords/management companies pull credit reports on prospective tenents.  We applied to rent a WONDERFUL house, and the agent renting it immediately told us we were the #1 prospect (and 2 other families applied the same day we did) because of OUR STELLAR CREDIT RATING.  The weeping, the stressing, the juggling needs/wants/desires, everything has worked to make us, if not financially secure, at least look great to potential landlords.

I hope we get our #1 choice in houses.  Once we are settled after we move (in any place we move to!) we get to work to amass savings for later house/land purchase.  And of course, we will keep knocking off the debts the business has.  But at least the hard work has shown SOME results.

Most amazing has been the magical working aspect.  I have NEVER before held back from micromanaging magic.  I have declared what I wanted and worked for it.  This time, since the awful day in December that the landlord's bank slapped foreclosure papers on the front door, I stepped back and did magic aimed "at the highest good of all involved".  One of the results: living 10 months rent free.  Holy cow - I'd NEVER have worked for that.  That monetary aid alone allowed us the opportunity to work on bringing out a new product rather than just doing consulting. 

I did it this way because I knew I was too emotional to see all options, and too pissed at some of the people and institutions involved to focus well.  But it paid off incredibly.  I'm still in awe.

Frondly, Fern