(NEW) SMART SPENDING CHAT THREAD

[shanendoah]

Hope your foot is okay (and feeling better soon), Peace77

[Peace77]

Thanks. It's not broken so I've got it propped up.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Ate my standard lunch veggies today. And my standard breakfast.

Ate more of my homemade soup tonight (cabbage, onions, celery, garlic, baby potatoes)

[TheOtherMe]

Fell on ice in Florida?  Hope you are okay, Peace.

Just took my trash out and it had snowed.  Not much, but I had no idea.

I'm going to keep Pedialyte on hand.

[Sharon]

Peace77 and TheOtherMe glad you are both on the mend.

I finally got my car back yesterday.  It drives really well so hopefully that is the end of this breaking down nonsense.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

It looks grey and cloudy here, but I'm not sure if it will rain or not. The weather reports are vague.... probably because they don't really no. "Chance of possible rain in some areas." I should probably get the trash cans up from the curb BEFORE that possible rain starts. I also need to scoot out to Trader Joe's to replenish my hummus, greens, and egg salad supply. I might pick up some frozen shrimp, too.

Instead of a salad with lunch today, I had yet another serving of my veggie soup. I am now officially done with that soup, lol. There is definitely a downside to making soup in the crockpot. I know I could freeze some (if I bought some storage containers), but the odds of me actually getting it OUT of the freezer and reheating it later just doesn't look good, lol.

I hope EVERYONE is feeling better (including your cars!)

[Peace77]

You can also freeze soup in zip lock freezer bags.

[Peace77]

Jan 9, 2017 21:42:00 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

Fell on ice in Florida?  Hope you are okay, Peace.

Yeah, I was rather shocked.  I didn't expect and I didn't see it until I was on the ground.
We are in northwest Florida and the water left by the automatic sprinklers froze when the temperature was around 29 degrees.

my foot is still sore.

[TheOtherMe]

No broken bones though?

I went to bring in the trash cans not realizing that my drive was a sheet of black ice.  It was raining, so above 32 and snow had melted.  Apparently the cement is colder than 32 because all kinds of schools were closed or released early due to icy roads.

You guessed it.  Before I knew what had happened, I was sitting on my rear on the drive.  Apparently, I landed on a knee and  caught myself with my other hand.  Knee is going to get a big bruise. 

Couldn't get enough traction to get up so I had to slide myself to edge of drive to get up on the grass where the snow has melted.  I will salt that tomorrow.

I really don't like winter.

[Sharon]

Everyone be careful out there.  We have snow again today.  I will be heading into work extra early today.  One to have less traffic and two because I have a pile of work to get done.

[shanendoah]

Monday and Tuesday, we had serious black ice problems here. One of my best friends fell yesterday and broke her wrist - may need surgery for it.
It cleared up last night and was colder this morning that it has been the last two mornings, but the rain had stopped sometime yesterday, so no ice this morning.


❤ mollymouser ❤ - I have the same problem. C makes wonderful soups. I love them. But we make them in BIG batches. And I can only eat them so many times before I am done. And we don't freeze the soup. When he makes giant batches of chicken stock, he will often freeze the stock to pull out the next time he makes a soup, but we never remember to freeze the soup.

[TheOtherMe]

My body is more sore today from the fall.  Ice melted, but now it's sleeting. 

Will have to decide in the morning if it is a good idea to take dad on his errands and how early we can go.  I am not taking him on ice.  He's going to be 93 next week.  If he had taken the same fall I did, he would most likely have broken his hip. 

Friday is supposed to be a better day weather wise, so can push back to Friday if it's icy in the morning.  Could also take him tomorrow afternoon.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Hope you're feeling better, Theo.

Yep, still eating my veggies. Tonight's included chard, kale and asparagus.

Still rainy here ... but after this we should have 5-6 nice days. Sunshine, even.

Adoptions at Petco tomorrow (Friday)

[TheOtherMe]

Taking dad on his errands tomorrow.  Also told sister I am taking him to lunch on Sunday.

Dad was right about when DNephew2 starts his new job and DNephew3 was wrong.  He starts Tuesday.  Company pays temporary lodging up to two months.  Management company in Minneapolis told him all he has to do is give 30 days notice and he's out of lease. 

[Sharon]

We are supposed to be back to our normal rainy weather around Monday.  I am so ready.  We didn't get slammed with snow like some parts of the state but it isn't supposed to really get above freezing until either Sunday evening or Monday.  My hands are so dry and cracking.

[TheOtherMe]

We are predicted to get an ice storm late Sunday in to Monday.  Dad said Meals on Wheels has left extra meals so he should be good.

Found out last week when it was so cold, he let sister do his shopping and he stayed home.

He told me it's cold in his apartment, that for some reason the thermostat is 72, not 78 like he wants it.  Asked him if he had called.  He said no, it was okay.  No, it's not okay.  I called them when I got home since the line was busy while I waited for him to open his door to get in building.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Ice storm? Brrrrr.

We had two kittens adopted today.

Went out to dinner tonight, which was nice... tomorrow night, going out with some friends for dinner.

[Sharon]

I strained my back Thursday and the chiro treated it yesterday.  It is better on one side but the other is still seizing up on me.   DD may come up for lunch today.  She was pretty cranky, grumpy last night so not sure.  I did get a late evening message from her, after she had talked with SIL, and she seemed to be in a better mood. 

[Sharon]

After a long hot shower this morning and a couple of aspirin my back did loosen up quite a bit.  DD and I had a fun day today.  We ate out a couple of meals, went shopping at Babies R us.  I bought a couple of sleepers for them. 

We also hit up the local home show.  There weren't too many vendors there but we enjoyed looking around.

[TheOtherMe]

Ice storm on it's way.  Dad's meal is already cancelled.  Sister and I have both told him we will not come out on ice.  I've decided the trash is going as far as the garage tomorrow.  I'm not falling again like I did last week. 

Last week I didn't know there was ice.  This week I know there will be ice.

I think I am happy I don't have a tax season job!

Dnephew2's car is not completely repaired from hitting the coyote/wolf.  He has no heat.  Getting that fixed tomorrow (if he can get car there) and reports for work at his new job on Wednesday.  Sounds like he is going to buy at his new location.  I knew he never saw Minneapolis as home because he didn't stay there on weekends and never got to know anybody as friends.

He has a lot of friends from high school and college at the new location.  Since it's the company headquarters, I'm guessing he thinks he will be there for a while.  He already found out what it's like to not be able to sell a house when he left here for his first job.

[Sharon]

Hopefully tomorrow we will finally be above freezing again.  The rain is supposed to come in tomorrow night.  Now they are saying possible flooding from the rain and snow melt but at least it will be warmer.  The cats are really mad at me because I keep shocking them when I go to pet them.

[TheOtherMe]

Ice, ice, ice.  Fatal accident in town today.  Have not been outside.  Going to get trash ready and take it as far as trash can in garage.  I am not falling again this week.  I could tell my drive was covered with ice when I brought the paper in this morning.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

The thought of driving on ice scares me. The videos on the news would be enough to keep me indoors and out of my car, for sure!

We actually had 2 hours of sunshine this afternoon. Maybe some more tomorrow ... before rain for the next 5 days. Or at least clouds. January weather seems to be fairly dismal everywhere.

Jack brought a live rat onto the Catio tonight, meowed at both sliding glass doors, and seemed genuinely disappointed when I didn't let him bring it in. So he spent the next 1.5 hours chasing it around the Catio before some brave human rescued it with those long tong picker-uppers and safely relocated it to a tree, to Jack's disappointment and the rat's rescue. Jack is now sleeping on the back of the couch. This was waaaay too much nature for me.

Wrote checks for bills today ... they will go out in tomorrow's mail.

[Blonde Granny]

My not so smart truths: I had a pork roast in the slow cooker Saturday, and yesterday I decided to actually fix myself a proper dinner. First, the Rhodes dinner rolls had been in the freezer for so long they didn't rise, and after banking came out like little hockey puck type ping pong balls. The peas/corn that was frozen was dried up and tasteless after a minute or two in the microwave. The container of potato casserole was also tasteless as it too had been in the freezer too long.

Veggies, dinner rolls, potato casserole went down into the trash. I also have another 5 single serve containers in the freezer of the potato dish that I need to throw out. The freezer in the fridge yielded frozen dried up grapes along with other miscellaneous things that didn't look edible. I won't even mention what got tossed from the fridge yesterday while I was on my rampage.

I now admit: I never liked cooking, and now that I'm alone that situation hasn't improved. I get excited with anticipation when wandering through the grocery store, buying things to fix for dinner, but the truth of the matter is that I still don't like cooking and likely half of what I buy gets thrown out.

I now pledge, that I'm done with trying to fake this, so what if I have sugar frosted flakes for dinner with a piece of toast? So what if I live on Healthy Choice or Stouffers frozen dinnesr? Jif peanut butter is an all time favorite along with a little jam or sliced banana. I'm done buying food I will never cook, I admit it, I'm a failure of giant proportions.

[TheOtherMe]

Aw, you are not a failure.  I hate to cook and don't really know how.

Ice again today so no school again.  Sister said feed truck was on it's way to their farm to deliver feed and went in to ditch.  Got towed out and feed delivered.  Sister said the guy didn't take the road that didn't require a turn.  Had he done that, he might have made it as he took the corner too fast.

Dnephew2 made is safely to his new city last night.  Drove very, very slowly from farm to highway and kept one tire on edge where grass could be seen. 

I take dad to the hearing aid place tomorrow.  He doesn't want to go.  Wish me luck.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I don't really cook very much, either. And with my wonderful DH deployed ... I cook even less. 

All I can say is thank goodness for stores that will cook FOR me, lol. Went to Sprouts today and bought three servings of mixed cooked veggies, and two containers of shredded turkey with carnitas seasoning.  I added some cooked lentils from Trader Joes (this was my 3rd day in the row of those lentils). Then I added 8 Triscuits and some low fat cheese and melted it on the triscuits. So, basically ... I had turkey, lentils and veggies and cheese+crackers.  Tomorrow night will also be turkey and veggies ... and probably a salad instead of lentils (those are gone). Then some sort of a carb ... maybe an apple or something else.

My breakfasts are original Fiber One, Almond milk, and a protein shake with 1/2 banana blended in.
My stay-at-home lunches are an egg salad, a carb, some cooked veggies (greens+carrots) and a salad.
These aren't super exciting ... but they work for me and I don't have to start figuring out insulin and carbs doing complex math, LOL!

I vary my dinner proteins ... chicken in several forms, turkey in several forms, seafood, pork, and beef. I'm trying to eat less red meat, and seeking out leaner options. Most of these proteins I purchase already cooked, many are frozen ~ but some are from the grocery store. I am not really a fan of frozen dinners (I have nothing against them) .... but when I eat one I still want more food, lol. So I am trying to fill up with a nice variety of veggies, ya know?

I'm also trying to limit my eating out for the next few months to just 1-2x per week. We'll see how that goes.

*    *     *

We have rain forecast for 6 of the next 7 days, with at least one day of possible thunderstorms. We need the rain, so I'm not complaining ... but the lack of sunshine gets a bit much after a while. Hopefully I will see a reasonable mix of sun and clouds and rain with not much local flooding.

This upcoming Friday and Saturday are adoption center days ... so I guess I will need to get laundry done on Thursday.

Got another bill in the mail today ... will deal with that tomorrow.

[TheOtherMe]

Dad's hearing was tested today, for the first time in 6 years.  He has had a lot of loss since his last test.  Audiologist changed the wires on the hearing aids to some that give him louder sound.  Also adjusted background noise.  He says they are too loud.  She explained very carefully to him that they are set at the volume where regular people hear and that he has not been hearing at that level.  It will take some adjusting on his part.  He did say he turned the tv volume down.

Tomorrow is dad's 93rd birthday so we took him out to eat tonight.  He kept asking if Dnephew2 was going to be there.  No, he is 3 hours away (staying in a Motel 6 according to dad). 

I don't quite understand but his employer won't pay for a hotel for the weekends, so he must be supposed to go home or to his parent's house.  Sister said he was going to look at new condo for the second time tonight.  If he likes it as much this time, she thought he was going to make an offer. 

[Sharon]

I took the next two days off from work.  Even though we had some long weekends around the holidays they weren't very relaxing.  Hopefully I can de-stress this weekend.  It is really rainy and windy here tonight.  The wind is howling around the house.

[shanendoah]

Sharon - I have tomorrow scheduled off and am planning it as a "do nothing" day. 

[TheOtherMe]

Believe it or not, in mid January, it's rainy and foggy in Iowa.  This does not go well with my SAD.