TheCG

That gets my attention more than his!

So, this'll make y'all laugh. I dropped him off at work this morning and told him I hoped he has a good day. His answer? "We live in America, there is no hope." My response: "And yet you think we shouldn't have food in the house." He shrugged and looked embarrassed, then gave me a kiss and went into work.

We had a little chat last night. I have the budget set through the end of the year, so we're going to change it then. We're also going to start running the numbers and see if it's actually useful to have me working or if it would be better to have it where I can actually get dinner cooked and the house cleaned and maybe pick up something part-time closer to home. 25 miles round trip for me to go to work. Dinner hasn't been cooked for the last week or 2, which means we either didn't eat or ate junk. This is probably part of why I'm not feeling well lately - I ran what I ate through a food tracker and apparently I ate under 1200 calories yesterday, and that was including drinking a Dr. Pepper and eating cookies, which also adds to our costs (drinking Red Bull and eating honey-roasted peanuts today - if I do keep working, I need to find something to bring with me) Crazy stress from work, moving, etc., to the point where I probably miss a day of work every 2-3 weeks due to panic attacks or being sick

Took out some frozen salmon to thaw on Sunday, didn't cook it yet, so cooking it with dill and butter tonight.

Offer on our house fell through. We're still hoping that this will be the week we get to move into our new home.

*waves*

Right now, I'm about ready to sock him. The only solution he's come up with is that we should spend less on food...to the point of having hardly anything in the pantry and buy groceries on the day we want to use them to eliminate waste. Apparently food storage is wasted money and room. He says we need to go to doing a zero-based monthly budget instead of the running total I use (I've never been able to make a zero-based budget work), but hasn't done anything towards it.

Cat, we've gone through FPU, but still have problems making it stick.

I think we need to figure out how to get DH more involved in the budgeting process. He has offered before. The problem is, the way that I can keep track of the money is not the way he can keep track of the money, so we might have to figure out a whole new system.

Hubby brought up something yesterday. He used to support a family of 4 on $10/hour. Now he's making over twice that plus I'm working and we're still having problems making ends meet. He cited the fact that I don't actually know how to live cheaply. I have lots of knowledge on the topic, but I've honestly been spoiled - I've never had to make hard decisions about money because when I was younger, I got what I wanted (within reason - spoiled, not spoiled rotten) from my parents if I couldn't manage it and was given my first car, money for the down payment on our house, etc. He, on the other hand, was decidedly not spoiled. How does one actually learn not to be spoiled and not to expect to get what they want?

I generally keep a flat of water bottles in the car and the cooler I used when running around on my scooter when we lived in town. It's very well insulated sturdy. They're not *quite* done yet, but it sounds like the inside sho I'll d be finished and cleaned in the next day or so. In other news, we have an offer for full asking price on our house 2 days after it went on the market (we're in a crazy area for real estate). We're praying that everything goes through quickly on that.

So...apparently we were a bit optimistic in assuming they'd actually be done today. Unless a miracle happens, I think we're looking at November based on the rate at which they're working...

So...they're still working in the house, but the lady who does the final cleaning is supposed to come tomorrow. Everything is out of our house but the cleaning supplies, because I need to go clean tonight so it can be listed. Can I crash yet?

We're still going in every day for work. I generally do any running before I head back out. We're honestly only about 10 minutes from the nearest Walmart, but we are trying to reduce trips.

They remind me of the old-fashioned marbled paper.

Do link us, please. I've seen some of hers, but did I miss something??? LOL! I like her no nonsense attitude/approach. I'm watching it now.

Hubby has commenting that it seems we had a lot more money available back when we lived in an apartment with outrageous rent and were making much less.

The house is practically brand new. Someone bought it, lived in it for 6 months, and sold it back to the mobile home dealer. They're repainting, laying down laminate so there won't be any more carpet, and basically making it new again. We're hoping to be able to move in this weekend. It faces east, as the evening light pours in through the dining room windows on the back of the house. However, note that we live in an area where if we get 3 inches of snow, everything shuts down and people think the world is going to end again before it melts in 2 days. Winter winds normally go from north to south. I plan to at least get several 5-gallon jugs as soon as we move in. The wells out here are apparently too deep to run manually, so we'd have to get a generator (read: go into town and kidnap Dad's, as storms normally don't knock out power in town) if the power is going to be out for a while. I'm talking to hubby about installing some kind of tank where the pump can fill it up at night and we get better water pressure. Our water is...not appropriate for drinking. As in, every dog who has drank that water has gone blind and died of cancer. The water line is being run underground from the well, and there is an outlet next to where it goes into the mobile home for heat tape to be added. This is already on the list of things to do. The skirting is going to be rock in front and hardi-board the rest of the way around. Hubby has agreed that when he builds the back porch, it will be designed where I can put a wood-burning cookstove out there and seal it where it's another room to be used during the winter, whether it's by removable panels or doors that slide down. We won't have propane attached to the house...but I do have 1 or 2 of the heaters that you connect to a propane bottle for camping, and if all else fails, there is an RV that's designed to run off the grid that will probably be stored on our property during the winter. As for storing staples...I'm still trying to figure out how to do food storage that meets my dietary requirements. I flat out can't do grains except for white rice, and no tomatoes. Most processed foods cause issues. I plan to get a pressure canner and start canning meat, plus buy a few gallons of coconut oil. I can live with canned veggies, but would like to start canning my own. I normally have enough food in the pantry and freezer to last at least a week of normal meals, but it's a bit low now as the RV does not have much storage.

We're moving outside of the city to a mobile home on my in-laws' land. I'll go from having city water & sewer to a well and a septic tank, from a house to a mobile home. Our initial move-in date was exactly a month ago from today, but kept getting bumped back. They say it'll be this weekend. So, what do I need to know about living outside of town? FYI, we also don't have internet out there yet, so I can only really get on at work or in my inlaws' house right now.

I ignored the part that said to ignore it. Does that count?

Tactical & Hunting Supplies. Well, it is Texas after all.

And recipes for all these goodies that are apparently being planned.... Please?

We're moving into a mobile home outside of town, next to my in-laws. We'll be on a well and using a septic system. Anything I should know about or plan on doing? I'm planning to get a Berkey and keep several 5-gallon containers of water in the house (I'll eventually add more, but we'll be a bit short on storage space). I've been told that garbage disposals are a no-no, and to avoid putting much grease down the drain (I plan to ask the plumber how much it would cost to add in a grease trap when he hooks us in). I want to eventually get a garden in place, but I'm not sure how well it'll do in the middle of a drought in the desert....

Interesting. Mine is set up with my debit card (with a MasterCard logo). I think they're talking about the cards that are straight debit, not debit/credit. It put a $1 hold on my card for a few days, then it went away. I'll update if I have any more issues.

I'm using it on a Galaxy Note 8 and a regular Kindle, so it isn't just for the Fire. I'm finding out more details as I go... You can only "check out" 10 books at a time, but can read those on multiple devices. No, you don't get to keep the books once you're done, but the notes and highlights should stick with your Amazon account where you can access them at any time from a computer.