Friday Fiscal Wellness Check, January 16, 2026

                    

            It was my daughter's birthday week but we're going out Sunday as she was busy supporting her friend after work most nights. As a reminder in case you feel repetitiveness to my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This will help me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, January 9 to Thursday, January 15. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. 

Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs

• Scrounged out the last of a sugar scrub for my weather rough elbows, wrists, ankles, and knees before starting a new jar (gift from my daughter). I'll watch for sales to have a back up as this stuff is a truly a necessity for my dry flex points. It's also what I use for my frugal home pedicures on my feet.
• Used only food already in the house and put out a nice little football night spread for my sister, son, and me on Saturday. It dawned on me that I have not driven or walked other than the dog, anywhere between Tuesday the 6th and Monday the 12th when I went to a funeral, hence why sharing a car for a few months is not going to be a hardship. 
• My son helped me with heavy things and I treated us to a BOGO Chipotle, and I had an old gift card with $7 on it so total out of pocket was $4. 
• I've wanted a scale for the upstairs bathroom. Imagine my smile when I remembered that a scale I had purchased years ago, right before a "free" scale came through the Prevent program through my work. I had meant to return, but didn't get around to it and stuffed it in a closet. Now I have one upstairs and in the downstairs bathroom closet ( sort of walk in) to be help me stay aware of weight creepage and success.
• I am not a good pie crust maker but a large number of apples needing to be salvaged had me try again a simple oil crust. The results were ok, and avoided waste. The pie filling was delicious as it was just apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar, but my next pie will be crystal sugar as the brown felt too sweet.

  

  As I said to a friend, let's call this "rustic" and
  pretend it intentionally was to look like this.
  The insulated cookie sheets are probably
  30 years old and look it, but still do the job. 

  
  

Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls 

• Uploaded Fetch receipts. I got behind on the MS rewards so want to get caught up a bit. 
• Saw that the additional 2.8% SSI increase was added to my deposit. Despite what one rude person said, yes, I'm claiming my husband's SSI until I decide to take my own as I was eligible when I turned 60. He worked  and paid into the system since he was 15 and never benefitted a cent. 

     Then, there are often other things that impacted my check book that came up without much planning or notice, an extra optional expense, or an all-out splurge. 

• Memorial gift for BIL's family in honor of his mother who passed away last week at 90
• My sister got a new phone and needed a screen and drop saver case. She doesn't do online shopping and couldn't find so I ordered for her and would not accept reimbursement for such a minor cost.
• My doctor wants more regular blood pressure checks, but said home ones, charted, and submitted every few days is fine. They recommended a very easy to use, affordable, but still an extra expense, BP monitor. If it means fewer stops to have it officially done and just as effective, it's worth it. Yes, BP ballooned Wednesday morning before dentist. Later was still higher than she wants but did drop significantly.
• My first fairly major out of pocket expenses was for my dental visit part 1 (two more to go), and a whopping $176. For those without any insurance, I cringe at what these extra costs might mean in their budgets. I'm so sorry.  

     Daily Dinner Diary (Friday 1/9 to Thursday, 1/14). 

Fri - Herbed chicken cutlets, garlic green beans, and couscous salad with tomato, cucumber, and olives

Sat- Game food including Italian meatballs in spicy BBQ, Chicken alfredo pizza, taco rollups 

Sun- Lentil dal with basmati rice 

Mon- Ghoulish and steamed carrots

Tues- Baked chicken, rice and mixed vegetables 

Weds-  My son took care of a few leftovers. I was both feeling woozy from Novocain and as it wore off, quite sore, so ate some soft cooked scrambled eggs mid-afternoon and yogurt and applesauce later after meeting my daughter very briefly to give her gift, some necessary documents, and just give a hug before she went with friends for a couple birthday drinks. 

Thurs- Lentil dal, rice, more steamed carrots (they have been tasting particularly good lately) 

          It's the weekend and I'm almost through the rough week. My older daughter has the cold/flu bug now so her dog is staying here an  extra couple days so he can get his play and walks and she can rest. I've got a few more let's just say medically congested weeks ahead, but I'm hoping these are more proactive and getting on a good path and less reactive. I appreciate the kindness at the beginning of the week. I apologize if my comments seemed intolerant. But I did not appreciate being told that my thoughts and concerns were not based in fact and to not let "friends" who "dig for truth" have a say on my blog is shutting down "communion."  Please!  It wasn't even a political post, just one where I asked for people to not troll my blog after I made a single sentence statement, my view, of how it is for many in my state right now. And on that note, how was your week?