What a wild trip around the pond from the last post. I was so happy to read all of the forum chat going on. I never thought that last post would bring up so many topics. I just noticed my hand painted garden shoes under my desk in the photo. :) The loose leaf tea tins in my desk are to keep my grocery and household receipts, first one holds the receipts that need to be posted in the ledger and the back one are to hold the posted ones for the month.
The meal shown above is a dish that we eat often. It is something Charles started making long ago but I recently noticed a recipe that looked similar to what we make and is called Mississippi Mud Potatoes. It certainly does not taste like mud, it is delicious. The ingredients are simple, we make ours using cooked bacon that we crumble into the drained boiled potatoes, we add butter, cheese and green onions, salt and pepper and that is it. It is a good basic meal.
We make it by peeling and cutting up potatoes, boiling them until done by tasting to see if they are ready. Brussels sprouts go very well as a side or green beans, any vegetable side you like.
This is our small railroad dishes and probably the size of the luncheon plate mentioned in the forum but it is oval shaped.
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My mind has been all over the place since last post. This 1930 budget had me thinking about all kinds of things not even to do with the budget. Organization!
Our budget will not fit into that 1930s budget book. We have too many extra expenses that were not in that time.
I am itemizing everything and breaking down the categories' but just seeing the different budgets from the past motivate me and help me to understand the differences of then and now. I realize that we must have a very detailed budget, but is easy to understand and to read or otherwise we will not be able to navigate this complicated time.
For some reason it also made me want to embrace our home more. Use our china more often just because. Make our home comfortable, cozy, interesting, and most of all affordable to stay in our home. This blend requires special planning and most important dedication to keeping that plan.
I have been from one end of the house to the other tweaking things that help make our home more functional. Functional to us means comfortable, and having the ability to do things needed to run a household on little money.
We are cutting cost on everything that we can think of, and looking at ways to not have to purchase anything that is not completely necessary.
When we reached summer I changed our portiere's on our doorways to something more summer looking. We control the air flow in our home so we can heat and cool the rooms in our home that we are using. Pull them closed when we want cooling in just one area. Open the whole house when the temperatures are nice moderate temperatures. Embrace those wonderful days.
We could close the doors but then the pets cannot go from room to room and this makes them happy and me happy too. :) When we walk through to another room there is absolutely a difference in temperature. This hot weather is terribly uncomfortable and air conditioning is needed but the electric bill would be completely over what we can spend if we cooled the whole house.
Charles will be retiring the end of September, he finally made the decision and started all of the signing up and doing all the things we had to do to get him started on Social Security. The unknown has been nerve wracking trying to figure out the budget without knowing how much our social security income would be.
As Charles has been getting older his body is having some issues with the lifting of heavy items and kneeling on hard store floors. He must drive in traffic all day long every day he is working. His body is telling him that it is time to leave this job that he has been working for 36 years. He worked different jobs through school and college, served some time in the military, another job then this one.
Many of you reading my blog live in places all over the world so some of you may be surprised at what our medical cost here in the United States.
Living on Social Security is difficult enough, but living on social security and paying $1037.00 per month before you pay any other bills is quite an amount.
The "monthly" medical part of our budget.
Medicare A & B for Charles $185.00, Medicare A & B for Donna $185.00
Medicare D for Medications plan, $28.00 for Charles, $95.00 for Donna
Supplemental Insurance for Charles, $98.00, Supplemental for Donna $212.00
Fund for Medicare first of the year Deductibles $22.00 for Charles $22.00 for Donna
Fund for co-pays to see the doctor, $20.00 per month to have the money to pay the deductible each time to see the doctor.
Fund for the cost of our medications after insurance pays their part, $130.00 per month. We need to put more money in this fund in case of sickness.
Dental fund $40.00 per month, needs to be more but the best we can do for now.
First aid and medical supplies, $10.00 This is to have the money for any injuries, gauze, tape ointments etc. Have you purchased rolled gauze, gauze pads or medical tape recently? We did and you would understand the need for a fund for this. I need to start knitting more of those world war 1 and world war 2 bandages I have shown on my blog.
Stray medical bills, you owe this amount type of bills that we do not understand why. $10.00 per month fund. This is another that needs more but it is what it is. $10.00 per month is $100.00 per year, if we did not do this we would have to take the money away from savings. We can move anything leftover to the medication fund which needs to be higher in case we were to get sick and need further medications.
We pay all of these fees and insurances and still have to pay out of pocket expenses when we go to the doctor. Hospital is another fund that will be added when I fully understand what I need to add. There is a higher co-pay depending on which insurance for the Emergency room. It also depends if the patient is admitted.
$1,037.00 per month is our monthly payment to our medical budget. If we do not have these funds outside of our insurance and Medicare costs we would not have the money to pay our medical expenses.
I watched a video of a older man that was talking with a reporter and he was crying as he talked that he would never be able to quit work due to costs of his wife's care needs. He seemed hopeless and it really made me understand the need to prepare for medical expenses or at least keep up with the monthly expenses.
We have set up our budget.
First we separated everything into categories. Fixed, Annual, Variable, Sinking, Future, Medical, Pet and Veterinary, and a possibly dropping category. This is if we need to drop something we can drop these first.
Everything is micro managed breaking down every little detail of what we spend with this once a month pay.
Examples are, Grocery, Electric Bill, water bill, solid waste, car insurance, Household and toiletries, office supplies and mailing stamps, car insurance, cell phone bill, property tax, solid waste, termite bill (comes once per year), medications Charles, medications Donna, Dog food, wet cat food, dry cat food, litter, and so on. The reason we did not just put pet fund is that we purchase these items at different stores and at different times. In that section we also have Veterinary care, Elizabeth's Seizure medication (she is doing better now on this). We know the costs of the canned cat food and we know how many we need to purchase for the full month. We know the cost of the dry cat food and how long that will last us. When we open a new bag we write on the bag with a marker when we started feeding them out of this bag. Before we open another we know how long that lasted.
My suggestion is do what makes you comfortable and makes sense to you. This is how we are trying to avoid surprise expenses.
Pergie has been keeping an eye on all of the every changing paperwork.
Carley moved to the back bedroom, I think she is upset with Ellie...
She chose to sit by the mirror. I think when I am not looking she likes to admire herself.
She is upset with Ellie because Ellie will not leave the cabbage with the new budget going on.
Rain and Bump are scared of the glass elephant. They do not know what to do. I guess I will save them. Having them around the house brings me joy. My daughter says I have affected her life because her whole life I have given things names and I make them talk. She has problems parting with things due to this and she cannot kill a bug. Is it really my fault?
Charles and I have been concerned about this retirement for Charles but we are feeling better since we know what our combined fixed pay will be. We have worked hard to save money to get our month ahead plus the month that social security starts but we do not get a check that month because the money does not come until the second month, the middle of that month actually. So Charles will leave work the end of September, the first month of starting social security there is no pay and the first actual pay is the middle of November.
I am letting you know this so you can plan for this and not be surprised your first month starting social security. Charles asked the lady why this was and she said it has always been like this and this is what we do.
I hope to see you in the forum, did the 1930s budget change your perspective on things. Have you adjusted your grocery spending? We have...
I know that there has always been storms and weather changes, but it seems that lightening is more intense now with these summer storms. How do you beat the heat without breaking the budget? Those of you that are in winter, have you had any oddities with your winter weather? How do you heat your house without breaking the budget? We all learn from each other.
Budget wisely, Grandma Donna
