Frugal Friday, Onward and Forward, and All That Good Stuff

Note: I've added quite a few blogs, hopefully I did not mess with the ones already on my page!  Many are retirement related, some are not. I do this as much for myself (as I dont want alot of subscriptions in my email so I primarily use my own sidebar exceptfor crafting blogs). Enjoy!!


A little bit of a moving update, as well as some frugal stuff. Since I kept readers apprised of everything involved in moving previously, step by step, I'll probably do that again in some form like today.

As I was getting ready for the day this mornig,  a large blast alert appeared on my phone.  As of today Colorado is on a mandatory mask status. Long overdue. Our governor has been saying "Wear a damned mask!" at every single press conference for weeks, but he's a Democrat with a few libertarian leanings. So it took him awhile to do the full enforcement.  In this case, the cities and counties convinced him it was necessary. Would that all the Republican governors especially in Georgia and Florida, could get on the same damned page.  Yesterday I received some masks from my sister in law in Texas who is sewing at home while working at home! My daughter is also sending me one of the two masks shown below.

As you can see, my new clippers took me a tad short!!!! I know the mask needs to be adjusted just a on my face some in this pic, but it really fits very well..

Daughter gave me the choice, I choose the white one. Seems one of her client's relatives is making them.

I've been "approved" for my apartment in Texas and have shared my income with the compliance department (these apartments have a max income of $37,000 annually. I'm not sure how they do the math with invesments and such).  However, apartments have opened and when I got my confirmation email with the attachment of payment info and setting up of my account it said beginning 31 July!! Which just does not work for me. I emailed the rental agent (who has been wonderful working from afar, I know that most of their resident are local), and told her that when we talked and I said that I wanted to move October one, she said to apply at the beginning of July. Which I did but it seems apartments are opening and she needs to assign them. I told her to please keep at one October and if something dire happpens and it's one November, I can live with it. 

Seems they also have a two and two that I was not aware of. But since my daughter lives so closely and has extra space for guests, I really see this only being used as a studio office unless sometime in the far future i would be need a place for a caregiver to sleep and by then I would expect to be with my DD and SIL. So I think im.stsying with the below.

I need to give more than fair notice to the other folks in the house and the landlord and cannot just take off. Addiitonally, my son has decided to stay in the house and take over my rent (he was giving me money). It solves things for him, it makes my sister not have to have a stranger as a roommate, and it solves the dog issues, especially as my son moves up to be a trainer and has to travel all over the state and maybe not be home at a reasonable hour. My sister thinks she wants to move south next summer, and at that point everyone will need to rethink.

In other news, I started the moving process by looking at pods instead of companies. Mainly because I'm not moving a whole house. Son cannot take off to drive the truck this time and I am surely not doing it. Did that for a couple days and daughter texted me and said "I don't care if we have to pay for it, Marc (shoulder surgery guy) cannot load there, and Eddie and I are not unloading here. Get a full service company". Sometimes frugal is as frugal does, or doesn't. So I'm in that process now, and as a result the phone calls, texts, and emails are flying my way, dontcha know. Prices seem to be less than I thought.

Now, what if anything has happened that is frugal and/or money saving this week?

1. I put the word out that although I was not fully into packing anytime soon I would like a few packing boxes to use as I slowly start to go through things and got instant responses via Next Door.
2. I've brought the grocery spending back to both once a week and a reasonable amount. We are still getting occasional substitutions and limits on meat, but nothing like before.  This week so far we have had tri tip steak (last night, with leftovers for tonight),  butter/herb fish with rice, slow cooked country ribs with cornbread, and maple/mustard chicken thighs. And a leftover night. This weekend we will have hamburgers and whatever.
3. While I will never be Laura (much as admire her closet), I've been pretty much ruthlessly going through my clothing and have decided that other than a really good pair of sandals at some point, clothing is mainly off the table. I'm happy where I am, with the exception of a couple soft long sleeved shirts like the one below, which I won't need until October or so. I'm embracing less is more from both a frugal and organizational perspective. I dont want to be spending money on clothing, ya know? Especially until I re-evaluate lifestyle ad weather in the new place. I'm in the process f sharing my current clothing list on a tab above.
4. I'm doing much better than I thought with our air conditioning costs, probably because we are keeping it at 79 or eighty and have ceiling fans in every room. Also, Colorado does cool down in the evening, so we can air the house out at night and first thing in the morning. Would that I could say the same about the water use during these drought conditions. We are also saving on lawn mow and yard work costs because of the drought. 

   

   There was a time when we were getting it mowed once a week and that was pushing it, because it was so lush. Now I think we've declared defeat for the summer,

5. I have not purchased food take out this week (not opposed in principle, but since I am saving to move, I keep it for the craving times), I've been trying to do pickup instead of delivery and save the delivery fees, I've been amusing myself completely with things on hand (although I have no idea how I can lose and need to re-order a set of kitting needles when I haven't left the house),  I cut my own hair again (see photo), I made a serious list of everything in the freezer so we can use that up first in food planning, I've made a list of things I need to take from the household stuff to keep me going in the new place (difficult in  shared household) and since my birthday is in September and no one ever knows what to get me I made a wish list of small appliances and such that I'll need once I move. I can't exactly take the toaster and blender from here, ya know?