We are to trying to be really mindful of our spending the rest of this year and all of next year while finishing the repairs and improvements for this house and yard - and having fun and good family and friend time.
The last 4 days of this week were quite warm (highs of 87 to 91) and with the new balcony door blind the house handled it pretty well. We are figuring out when to open which windows to cool down the house. I did run the heat to take the chill off the house on Tuesday morning before the heatwave arrived. Reprogramming the thermostat was successful although I may tweak the settings a bit as it gets colder here.
Our property tax bill arrived. We knew it would be huge but seeing the number is another thing. Just a reinforcement to watch our other expenses. The county still has to apply another credit/adjustment related to the sale price of our previous house but that will be relatively small.
Home/yard project expenses were only two inexpensive items for minor home improvements and one bag of topsoil. We both worked on the yard a lot to move things along and save money. Hoping to be ready to buy compost, plants and mulch this week.
The hardscape is all done and paid for! We put two old patio chairs on the new back patio and are enjoying sitting in the shade.
We are trying to get rid of the 2nd large batch of rubbish from the yard project without paying a lot for hauling. So far I posted 5 pallets and crate pieces on Buy Nothing and someone says they want them. Hoping they do take them. I also cleaned up most of a pile of old rock and will use a bit before posting the rest. We are going to try to sell the leftover flagstone pieces once we are sure we don’t need any of them. We have used a couple so far to help with drainage and stop erosion. Our trash can is small so the rest will be disposed of bit by bit over many weeks and by paying someone to do a dump haul.
We received our free COVID tests and they are good until late January. I also got 2 boxes from the library that expire earlier so we are covered for now.
We purchased a little food, a few household supplies, beer, and no toiletries. In September we spent over $948 on those items. Our food, household and toiletries pantries are well stocked so we should be able to spend less each month the rest of the year. Sadly I had to throw out a 4 pack of sea bass because it smelled and had obviously thawed and then refrozen. No other food waste.
Total for October week 1: $104.77 - which is a good start to the month.
Dinners were all at home.
- Pork chops with chutney, sweet potato and zucchini
- Shrimp cocktails with large dinner salads and garlic bread
- Ravioli with broccoli
- Turkey burgers on buns with sliced tomatoes and cooked spinach
- Salmon with broccoli and rice
- Turkey burgers on buns with sliced tomatoes, carrots and corn
- Lentil and carrot soup with garlic bread , sliced pear and green salad
The yard looks great. I wish I lived a wee bit closer and I'd buy your left over flagstone:). I guess property taxes vary and you being in the bay area, it must be high. Ours has gone up but not tremendously. For the year, it's still under $2500 but of course our house is listed with the county as under 800 sq ft. The menu looks yummy too.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you were closer the flagstone would be yours! Our property taxes are mostly so high because they are based on the purchase price. The prior owner who lived here since 1953 had very low taxes. The curse of high property values but we knew that going in.
DeleteThat's right with prop 13? was it that property tax is based on purchase price.Have you thought of doing any pressure canning? I was reading about the new presto electric canner. It only holds 4 qts but does it all automatically. the reason I asked is your lentil and carrot soup. I just pressure canned 4 qts of lentil and carrot soup for the pantry. It's an easy recipe and nice to have shelf stable soup1
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