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?
Dear one, many of us find our hearts and thoughts with our friends in Minnesota. I have family and very close friends in the Minneapolis area (family) and Minneapolis itself (close friends). May you all stay safe during these times.
ReplyDeleteI so feel you. Respect what someone asks on their blog. If they want to talk about politics, great, participate. If they don't, respect that. The assumption that if we don't post something that we are ignoring it, or that we are required to facilitate a debate on something is crazy. I'm hanging on by a thread here emotionally with the state of the world. I don't have the energy to host political debates on my blog. I'm totally fine if other people choose to - awesome. Good for them. If you don't like how someone facilitates their blog, move on. These people with all of the time & energy to be keyboard warriors...man, get outside & get some fresh air & find some perspective. Put all of that energy into positive steps in your community instead of harassing others. Oh, and they are always anonymous. So, we are supposed to go all in and host political conversations tied to our personal profile, but they are anonymous. Pass. Ha, anyway, apparently I had quite a take on this ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou had lots of great wins, but that Chipotle price was fantastic! Well done. I bought Sam Subway yesterday with a gift card, and he was so tickled. - Hawaii Planner.
The Minnesota news coverage is MADDENING! For the life of me, I cannot understand federally sanctioned murder. And now a family's children in the ER for exposure to smoke from a flashbang thrown their way...and they were simply trying to get home???????
ReplyDeleteHugs to you.
Hey Sam, hahahah…I used my phone to send you an email, only my fingers moved faster than my brain and it sent to someone with the same first name as you. So if you see a forwarded email from me, that’s why!
ReplyDeleteToday is eldest’s bday. There is an all you can eat crab special at a local pub we may attend. If it’s too crowded we will trek down about 25 miles to a Denny’s. He wanted lime poke cupcakes for dessert, with cream cheese frosting. That’s about as easy as it gets as the cupcakes will be made from a mix and the frosting is just cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and lime extract. I am holding off though, because last night he was talking about a lemon poppyseed pound cake. His January birthday always had us making something spring like after the holiday foods.
FWIW, I think your pie crust looks fine! It looks scratch made and flaky, and I want a slice with my coffee! The only time I get pretty crusts is when I use a frozen crust, which all taste like cardboard to us! One time years ago I managed to crimp the crust beautifully on a blackberry pie. A kid took one look at it when it came out of the oven, raised an eyebrow skeptically and said “Did you use store bought crust?”
Enjoy your weekend.
-Meg B.
I love the skepticism that if it looked good, you must have bought it! ;-) - Hawaii Planner
DeleteFYI: My pie crust recipe given to me by a dear friend which was handed down to her by her grandmother. It’s the crust I have had the best success with.
ReplyDelete1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl.
Mix oil and water together until an even suspension forms. Work into flour with fork.
-I roll the crust around my rolling pin and then place it on the pie plate.
-Extra light olive oil or a mixture of sunflower and coconut oil give me the best results.
-This worlds for sweet or savory pies. When I bake a sweet pie, I immediately spread a bud of butter on the top crust when the pies comes out of the oven, then sprinkle on sparkling sugar.(I only do this because years ago a kid with a new driver’s license offered to go to the supermarket for us AND take his siblings. While they were there, they found the container of crystal sugar in the clearance section and it’s still more than 1/2 full. They also brought home some orange crystal sugar too. Ah, memories!)
-Meg B.