July Frugalistas 2021

[Brittany1116]

My kids haven't played a sport since early 2019 for a variety of reasons- cov, crappy rec depts, fees, etc. We let them each pick one and it looks like baseball and soccer. Baseball is going to cost substantially more because all his gear is outgrown. 

[mommyoffive]

6 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:

My kids haven't played a sport since early 2019 for a variety of reasons- cov, crappy rec depts, fees, etc. We let them each pick one and it looks like baseball and soccer. Baseball is going to cost substantially more because all his gear is outgrown. 

Is baseball for next year or do you have it all year round? 

[mommyoffive]

Took 2 kids for well child visits.  Should be zero bucks.  

Looking at buying lunch boxes and things.  I don't know that we are going back to things come fall for sure, but they are right now and lost half of the accessories that go with their lunch box containers. 

 

[Brittany1116]

28 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Is baseball for next year or do you have it all year round? 

Fall ball and then we reassess. He is good but typically yo-yos between soccer and baseball so he's never done travel teams or anything. 

[historically accurate]

Picked up the school meals today. The chocolate milk is already almost gone - kids've been missing the choc milk apparently!

Took kids and brother to the library today. 

DD baked and decorated (with her new baking tips kit) "monster" cupcakes today. Super cute, and a great cake batter recipe. 

Not really doing much frugalista wise, but no $ spent today, so I'll call it a win. 

 

 

[mommyoffive]

20 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

Picked up the school meals today. The chocolate milk is already almost gone - kids've been missing the choc milk apparently!

Took kids and brother to the library today. 

DD baked and decorated (with her new baking tips kit) "monster" cupcakes today. Super cute, and a great cake batter recipe. 

Not really doing much frugalista wise, but no $ spent today, so I'll call it a win. 

 

 

I miss school meals!  I wish they were still going on for pick up here.  You can eat the meals in the lunch room like a normal summer.  

I wish one of my kids loved to bake!

 

 

Hjffkj~  Do you know if this Lego set is retired?  I can't figure that out.

 

Amazon.com: LEGO Creator Expert Volkswagen T1 Camper Van 10220 Construction Set (1334 Pieces): Toys & Games

 

It is one that one of my kiddos has asked for again this year for Christmas.  I guess if it is retired I won't find a good deal on it.

 

[hjffkj]

12 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

I miss school meals!  I wish they were still going on for pick up here.  You can eat the meals in the lunch room like a normal summer.  

I wish one of my kids loved to bake!

 

 

Hjffkj~  Do you know if this Lego set is retired?  I can't figure that out.

 

Amazon.com: LEGO Creator Expert Volkswagen T1 Camper Van 10220 Construction Set (1334 Pieces): Toys & Games

 

It is one that one of my kiddos has asked for again this year for Christmas.  I guess if it is retired I won't find a good deal on it.

 

yes it is retired.

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, hjffkj said:

yes it is retired.

Ugh.  I should have bought it a few years ago I guess.  It was probably around $100 then.  

[Soror]

The good:

Dh's check this week (paid twice monthly) is very nice with all that he's been working. It is needed as August will have more medical expenses (ya!), at least $500 in college expenses for dh and back to school shopping for the oldest 2. I think we'll be able to cover all of that with that check but none to replenish our medical and vehicle expense funds.

I'm more booked than usual for the summer since I added in a new certification (they just added a new class this summer). I should easily be able to hit the end of my vaca goal next month.

re: getting ahead- yes, it is very tiresome. Dh has made more this year than ever but we are treading water and what is killing us is medical expenses, vehicle expenses (new car for ds being the big one), and college. I'd be nice to be able to update some things for the house. But at least we have the money for it. Our savings would be very sad with no vaca in sight if not for his increased pay.

[Condessa]

I am finally getting past my morning sickness enough to cook a little again, so I am starting to feed us more cheaply again.  Currently on the lookout for frugal recipes that are low-smell and don’t heat up the house.  This heat is insane.  Our electric bill isn’t going to be pretty, with the air conditioning costs.

I bought some violins and a cello off of goodwill to resell.  Hopefully that goes well.

We learned that the heart condition we discovered in my youngest while doing routine monitoring tests for his chemo is genetic, so the rest of us need to get tested for it.  The kids’ echocardiograms will probably not cost anything because their secondary state insurance will pick it up.  I am considering waiting until later in the year when our family deductible is met before getting it done for dh and I.  It is not urgent, but we do need to make sure it isn’t forgotten.

[mommyoffive]

17 minutes ago, Condessa said:

I am finally getting past my morning sickness enough to cook a little again, so I am starting to feed us more cheaply again.  Currently on the lookout for frugal recipes that are low-smell and don’t heat up the house.  This heat is insane.  Our electric bill isn’t going to be pretty, with the air conditioning costs.

I bought some violins and a cello off of goodwill to resell.  Hopefully that goes well.

We learned that the heart condition we discovered in my youngest while doing routine monitoring tests for his chemo is genetic, so the rest of us need to get tested for it.  The kids’ echocardiograms will probably not cost anything because their secondary state insurance will pick it up.  I am considering waiting until later in the year when our family deductible is met before getting it done for dh and I.  It is not urgent, but we do need to make sure it isn’t forgotten.

Yay, I am glad you are feeling better.  That was my first question when I saw you posted in here.  Hmm low smell?  I am not sure on anything like that.  Baked chicken?

Yeah our bill was high last month.  It was a really hot June.  One of our bedrooms doesn't get cool very well so I have to drop the temp of the overall house more to keep that one comfy.  I am meaning to order a fan for the vent to try and bring in more ac or heat.    I try to not use the oven during that time.   I use the crockpot or we do meals that don't need to be cooked.  Finger foods, sandwich, and other things like that.   A few times I have made a huge pot of pasta and that has lasted us for 5 meals.  So one time of using the stove for 5 meals.  Then we eat cold pasta.  You could do the same thing with the crockpot. 

Can your oldest make some simple meals so you don't have to be around the smells? 

I hope your reselling goes well.  So many things you can resell once you start getting into it. 

Sending some good thoughts your way for the testing.   

[Condessa]

Our niece is getting married and we weren’t originally invited because of COVID restrictions on numbers, but then restrictions lightened up in that state.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t budgeted for the trip because of earlier restrictions.  I decided to stay home with the kids, and dh is going to drive to his parents’ house and then stay/drive up and back with them.  I’m proud of him for making that decision.  He is not naturally frugal, and really would have preferred to fly rather than to spend hours with his legs scrunched up in their backseat, but he is really trying to work on his spending habits and our saving goals.

[mommyoffive]

Up to 70% Off Toys on Walmart.com | Save on L.O.L. Surprise, Barbie, Frozen 2 & More - Hip2Save

another toy sale incase anyone is stocking up for the holidays.

[mommyoffive]

*HOT* FREE School Supplies Bundle after Cash Back from Ibotta! | Money Saving Mom®

[mommyoffive]

I have heard CTC are in bank accounts today.

[hjffkj]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

I have heard CTC are in bank accounts today.

not ours yet.

[cjzimmer1]

2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

I have heard CTC are in bank accounts today.

 

1 hour ago, hjffkj said:

not ours yet.

 

Mine shows in my pending/holds transactions with a deposit date of tomorrow.

[hjffkj]

1 minute ago, cjzimmer1 said:

 

 

Mine shows in my pending/holds transactions with a deposit date of tomorrow.

My bank doesn't show holds or pending  so that makes sense

[cjzimmer1]

1 hour ago, hjffkj said:

My bank doesn't show holds or pending  so that makes sense

I had no idea that my bank did until the last one.  Everyone kept saying they could see theirs pending and I'm like I got nothing so I poked around while I was logged in on my bank's webpage and found it on a completely different page from everything else.  It wasn't at all obvious and I had to drill in several layers before I could see it but it turns out it was there.

[mommyoffive]

IRS sending out 4 million ‘surprise’ tax refunds this week | WPRI.com

 

Unemployment refund update: What is IRS TREAS 310 TAX REF? (fastcompany.com)

Edited July 15, 2021 by mommyoffive

[mommyoffive]

Picked up a grocery order yesterday.

Got a discounted fee for the gymnastics camp one kid is doing.

Trying to get a refund for a class card that isn't offering the classes that we want to take anymore.  

[Carrie12345]

Halfway through July and no frugalness to report.  
So far,  

3 birthdays. (Child and nieces)
a dental bill. 
vet bill. 
groomer bill (totally worth it!)
increased cell phone plan to accommodate young adult who is now considering leaving our plan.  
first construction loan payment.  (Expected)
finally replaced a few make up items. Not often used, but I don’t need any sort of eye infection right now!
still need to put money into some necessary home improvements.  
another dental appointment tomorrow 
my 14yo has just about outgrown shoes for the 3rd or 4th time in under a year, so I need to deal with that 

Also purchased a bunch of school stuff, though I did buy many used books. 

We did get dh’s local tax credit for being a volunteer, and that’s nice. I suppose it covers the dog’s expenses!

[hjffkj]

CTC was in our account. Time to spend some time moving money around since it is also payday. 

[historically accurate]

9 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

CTC was in our account. Time to spend some time moving money around since it is also payday. 

Same here. It's Super Payday - payday and CTC. 

Balance Transferred a credit card - 2% transfer fee, 0% for a year. It'll be paid off within the year, so much better than 11.99% it was at. 

Taking oldest clothes shopping this weekend. Hopefully, we'll find something - she's very picky.

DH purchased spark plugs to put into his car this weekend - my uncle is coming over to help as DH has only done it once. 

Discussed with DH a little of what to do with his bonus coming up at the end of month/beg of next month. Youngest wants to go back to TKD as she's vaccinated now. But we were super-less-than-happy with their Covid precautions before, and we don't want to necessarily sign a year's contract if we won't feel comfortable sending her. We've already paid for 5 months with no lessons last year and really don't want to be in that situation over the winter again. Ugh. So, no decision made there.  

[mommyoffive]

14 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

Same here. It's Super Payday - payday and CTC. 

Balance Transferred a credit card - 2% transfer fee, 0% for a year. It'll be paid off within the year, so much better than 11.99% it was at. 

Taking oldest clothes shopping this weekend. Hopefully, we'll find something - she's very picky.

DH purchased spark plugs to put into his car this weekend - my uncle is coming over to help as DH has only done it once. 

Discussed with DH a little of what to do with his bonus coming up at the end of month/beg of next month. Youngest wants to go back to TKD as she's vaccinated now. But we were super-less-than-happy with their Covid precautions before, and we don't want to necessarily sign a year's contract if we won't feel comfortable sending her. We've already paid for 5 months with no lessons last year and really don't want to be in that situation over the winter again. Ugh. So, no decision made there.  

Yay for super payday!  Love it.

Great savings on the cc!

[mommyoffive]

4 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Halfway through July and no frugalness to report.  
So far,  

3 birthdays. (Child and nieces)
a dental bill. 
vet bill. 
groomer bill (totally worth it!)
increased cell phone plan to accommodate young adult who is now considering leaving our plan.  
first construction loan payment.  (Expected)
finally replaced a few make up items. Not often used, but I don’t need any sort of eye infection right now!
still need to put money into some necessary home improvements.  
another dental appointment tomorrow 
my 14yo has just about outgrown shoes for the 3rd or 4th time in under a year, so I need to deal with that 

Also purchased a bunch of school stuff, though I did buy many used books. 

We did get dh’s local tax credit for being a volunteer, and that’s nice. I suppose it covers the dog’s expenses!

I feel you.  I feel a lot of my months are like that.  Maybe we should start a new thread! 

I feel you on the shoe sizes changing.  My odd did that but with pointe shoes which is even more painful.  Those shoes are over a hundred bucks a pair, plus you have to go get professionally fitted which is at least a 2 hour round trip from home.   She would outgrow them before they even died.  🙂

Edited July 15, 2021 by mommyoffive

[hjffkj]

22 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

Same here. It's Super Payday - payday and CTC. 

Balance Transferred a credit card - 2% transfer fee, 0% for a year. It'll be paid off within the year, so much better than 11.99% it was at. 

Taking oldest clothes shopping this weekend. Hopefully, we'll find something - she's very picky.

DH purchased spark plugs to put into his car this weekend - my uncle is coming over to help as DH has only done it once. 

Discussed with DH a little of what to do with his bonus coming up at the end of month/beg of next month. Youngest wants to go back to TKD as she's vaccinated now. But we were super-less-than-happy with their Covid precautions before, and we don't want to necessarily sign a year's contract if we won't feel comfortable sending her. We've already paid for 5 months with no lessons last year and really don't want to be in that situation over the winter again. Ugh. So, no decision made there.  

smart move on the cc transfer!

 

Is there no way to do TKD without a contract?  So, many place around here have done away with contracts.  

[mommyoffive]

IS the housing market slowing down where you guys are yet?  I have noticed that it is here.  Houses are sitting now, before they were going live on Friday and an offer on Monday.  

[historically accurate]

27 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

smart move on the cc transfer!

 

Is there no way to do TKD without a contract?  So, many place around here have done away with contracts.  

I'll have to call around, but every place before Covid had contracts, and I know the dojang we were going before still has them. 

[hjffkj]

7 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

I'll have to call around, but every place before Covid had contracts, and I know the dojang we were going before still has them. 

that is disappointing.  

[Brittany1116]

Our CTC showed up yesterday. 

Has anyone had Chewy give them an account credit? They read a review of mine and offered me a refund. However, my debit card changed between the purchase date and the refund. They have approved a refund twice now, to the original card, and it never went through. Thinking I should call and ask for account credit before my autoship bills next week.

[Brittany1116]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Halfway through July and no frugalness 

my 14yo has just about outgrown shoes for the 3rd or 4th time in under a year, so I need to deal with that 

 

Feel ya. My oldest went through 5 sizes in 2019.

[cjzimmer1]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

my 14yo has just about outgrown shoes for the 3rd or 4th time in under a year, so I need to deal with that 

 

Oh I feel you on that.  I remember when my oldest went through his growth spurt around that age.  He went up 4 full shoe sizes and grew 10 inches in 9 months.  Truly impossible to keep him in well fitted clothes.  I was so glad he couldn't care in the slightest when his pants didn't fit quite right.  Thankfully son #2 never grew at that extreme rate so keeping him clothed was so much easier.

[cjzimmer1]

Been a crazy few months around here so while I've been ready I haven't been able to post much.  I work in my family's greenhouse and so April/May are crazy normally.  My sister got a severe dog bite and was unable to use her dominate hand and I ended up picking up a lot of her hours.  So I ended up working about 30% more hours than a normal year.  Plus the business did so much better than last year that they were able to give me a bonus to help overset some of last year's hours that didn't get paid.  So that all worked out really well because we signed a contract to replace our deck with a four season sunroom.  I'm so excited because I'll finally have a place where I can grow plants indoors! So I'm saving every bit I can since we have to take a loan and I want to keep it as small as possible.  We will have to do more of the work than I wanted to get it down to a price we were comfortable with but at least this will get us an insulated space before winter and I will just do the finishing work as I'm able.

I have new carpet going into the master bedroom next month.  It's the last room in the house to repaint/refloor. Everything else has been done in the last 2 years because we had so many water issues that we were constantly ripping up areas to fix things and then just kept going since the house needed it anyways.  

DH fell and broke his elbow and had surgery 2 weeks ago.  We've seen a couple of EOB's and so far don't owe anything.  We hit our deductible when DS had his wisdom teeth removed earlier this year along with a couple of other urgent care visits.  Haven't paid for any of those yet either because they are still working through the system but we did put our full deductible amount in our HSA so at least the money's there when the bills finally arrived.

I just put in an application to my local rescue group for a second dog.  Our puppy definitely needs a friend.  We'd love another puppy but there are so many costs with those that we are opting for a young adult just because I am trying to send as much as possible to the house remodeling funds.  Not a frugal move but we made the decision to put the application in this month way back in January (even before the building project came up) so we decided to stick with it. 

We are still getting the school lunches.  Kids are quite tired of them because they don't have much variety anymore.  They give one vegetable in bulk each week.  When we first started, they rotated and we got things like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce.  Now for the last 3 months all they get is baby carrots.  We are not huge fans of carrots so trying to use 4 lbs each week is a challenge.  I actually tried to decline them because I had about 13 pounds in my fridge already but they said they are required to hand them out with each box so I should just give them to neighbors.  My sister has been feeding them to her her vegan dog just to give me some space back in my fridge because I really hate to waste them.  

My garden is producing really well and DH has also decided it was time to work on his diet which works great because then it's easier to make veggie centric meals and use up more of the garden produce.  So I'm estimating this month my grocery bill will be about half of normal because we have so much veggies on hand to work with and I'm trying to whittle down the freezers a bit so I have space to freeze the surplus when things start coming in really heavy.

I'm planning to purchase an electric pressure canner this afternoon.  Another not so frugal purchase in the short term but overtime I hope it will pay for itself.  It's been on my radar for years and the local farm store has it on sale for a price lower than I've ever seen on Amazon so I think it's time.  I did also get an air fryer last month (that was my "gift" to myself for getting through the greenhouse season) and it has been so handy.  We are using the oven so much less so hopefully that help on the the electric bills but we will see.  

So right now, I feel like I'm being anything but frugal but so much of this has been in the works for a while and it all just came up at the same time.  So right now I'm just doing my best to keep my discretionary spending to a minimum.

[mommyoffive]

10 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Been a crazy few months around here so while I've been ready I haven't been able to post much.  I work in my family's greenhouse and so April/May are crazy normally.  My sister got a severe dog bite and was unable to use her dominate hand and I ended up picking up a lot of her hours.  So I ended up working about 30% more hours than a normal year.  Plus the business did so much better than last year that they were able to give me a bonus to help overset some of last year's hours that didn't get paid.  So that all worked out really well because we signed a contract to replace our deck with a four season sunroom.  I'm so excited because I'll finally have a place where I can grow plants indoors! So I'm saving every bit I can since we have to take a loan and I want to keep it as small as possible.  We will have to do more of the work than I wanted to get it down to a price we were comfortable with but at least this will get us an insulated space before winter and I will just do the finishing work as I'm able.

I have new carpet going into the master bedroom next month.  It's the last room in the house to repaint/refloor. Everything else has been done in the last 2 years because we had so many water issues that we were constantly ripping up areas to fix things and then just kept going since the house needed it anyways.  

DH fell and broke his elbow and had surgery 2 weeks ago.  We've seen a couple of EOB's and so far don't owe anything.  We hit our deductible when DS had his wisdom teeth removed earlier this year along with a couple of other urgent care visits.  Haven't paid for any of those yet either because they are still working through the system but we did put our full deductible amount in our HSA so at least the money's there when the bills finally arrived.

I just put in an application to my local rescue group for a second dog.  Our puppy definitely needs a friend.  We'd love another puppy but there are so many costs with those that we are opting for a young adult just because I am trying to send as much as possible to the house remodeling funds.  Not a frugal move but we made the decision to put the application in this month way back in January (even before the building project came up) so we decided to stick with it. 

We are still getting the school lunches.  Kids are quite tired of them because they don't have much variety anymore.  They give one vegetable in bulk each week.  When we first started, they rotated and we got things like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce.  Now for the last 3 months all they get is baby carrots.  We are not huge fans of carrots so trying to use 4 lbs each week is a challenge.  I actually tried to decline them because I had about 13 pounds in my fridge already but they said they are required to hand them out with each box so I should just give them to neighbors.  My sister has been feeding them to her her vegan dog just to give me some space back in my fridge because I really hate to waste them.  

My garden is producing really well and DH has also decided it was time to work on his diet which works great because then it's easier to make veggie centric meals and use up more of the garden produce.  So I'm estimating this month my grocery bill will be about half of normal because we have so much veggies on hand to work with and I'm trying to whittle down the freezers a bit so I have space to freeze the surplus when things start coming in really heavy.

I'm planning to purchase an electric pressure canner this afternoon.  Another not so frugal purchase in the short term but overtime I hope it will pay for itself.  It's been on my radar for years and the local farm store has it on sale for a price lower than I've ever seen on Amazon so I think it's time.  I did also get an air fryer last month (that was my "gift" to myself for getting through the greenhouse season) and it has been so handy.  We are using the oven so much less so hopefully that help on the the electric bills but we will see.  

So right now, I feel like I'm being anything but frugal but so much of this has been in the works for a while and it all just came up at the same time.  So right now I'm just doing my best to keep my discretionary spending to a minimum.

Yay glad to see you here again!  I missed your posts.

I am so sorry about your sister.  Was it her dog?  I hope she recovers 100%.

Yay for your sunroom.  When do they start?  Yay for all the extra pay. 

New carpet!  I bet it looks so nice.  We totally need to do that in the whole house.

I am sorry to hear about your dh too.  I hope he recovers easily.

Exciting to get another dog.  Do you know when you will get one? 

So awesome that you still get free lunches.  We totally had to feed our dogs some of the carrots too.  They love them though so it was a treat for them.  Awesome savings on your grocery budget.  I love months like that.

[mommyoffive]

I donated a bunch of things today.

Picked up the gifts from the summer reading program for the kids.   They brought back all their cool certificates to places around the state.  

I need to return some things.  Clothes for ds that didn't work out and school supplies from the school.

Still need to get that refund for the class card.  

Need to move money around and invest things this weekend.

[hjffkj]

we are still working at my parents' house.  I'm really hoping to be done by Monday. We are currently working hard to get the kitchen floor prepped for the lvp to be installed.  Tonight I'm starting to lay the floor in the dining room while dh does random jobs that need to get done and ds will work on getting the thin set up in the kitchen. I have been doing really well with still making meals at home even though we're so busy at their house.  This is important for our budget but also because I've been trying to eat healthier and loss weight. 

I took the ctc money that came today and invested it in the stock market.  I'm pretty sure that is just going to be what we do with all of the payments.  

My birthday is next week so I do imagine dh will spend a ridiculous amount of money

[mommyoffive]

45 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

we are still working at my parents' house.  I'm really hoping to be done by Monday. We are currently working hard to get the kitchen floor prepped for the lvp to be installed.  Tonight I'm starting to lay the floor in the dining room while dh does random jobs that need to get done and ds will work on getting the thin set up in the kitchen. I have been doing really well with still making meals at home even though we're so busy at their house.  This is important for our budget but also because I've been trying to eat healthier and loss weight. 

I took the ctc money that came today and invested it in the stock market.  I'm pretty sure that is just going to be what we do with all of the payments.  

My birthday is next week so I do imagine dh will spend a ridiculous amount of money

What vehicle are you using to invest the ctc?

Happy Early birthday!  Are you guys going out for it?  Is that when you do your Treat Your Self Day?

[mommyoffive]

Lumber prices have turned negative for the year after a red-hot rally as the home improvement boom cools (businessinsider.com)

[hjffkj]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

What vehicle are you using to invest the ctc?

Happy Early birthday!  Are you guys going out for it?  Is that when you do your Treat Your Self Day?

The ctc is going into a non-tax advantaged account and then I'm purchasing individual stocks with it.  I considered just adjusting dh's 401k contributions to have it withdraw the amount of the ctc but we haven't quite decided if we want that money for retirement or just other future plans. we may change our mind on that, especially if it gets extended passed just this year.

Thank you for the birthday wishes.  No, we're probably not going out for it but we will be getting crabs for my bday dinner.  It is not our treat yourself day.  that hasn't been planned yet

[cjzimmer1]

4 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Yay glad to see you here again!  I missed your posts.

I am so sorry about your sister.  Was it her dog?  I hope she recovers 100%.

Yay for your sunroom.  When do they start?  Yay for all the extra pay. 

New carpet!  I bet it looks so nice.  We totally need to do that in the whole house.

I am sorry to hear about your dh too.  I hope he recovers easily.

Exciting to get another dog.  Do you know when you will get one? 

So awesome that you still get free lunches.  We totally had to feed our dogs some of the carrots too.  They love them though so it was a treat for them.  Awesome savings on your grocery budget.  I love months like that.

My sister got bit by my other's sister's dog.  She's doing much better now.  Between the injury, the infection, and then a reaction to the antibiotics for the infection she was in rough shape right during our peak greenhouse season but they do expect for it to completely heal.

Our house was definitely looking worn down after 6 kids and 20 years but it hadn't been a high priority till the water problems and the necessity of fixing over half the house.  Of course once you start, the new stuff just makes the old stuff look that much worse so we just kept going.  I had thought about putting off the master bedroom since we have this other project but DH was like, just finish it and be done with it.  Carpet goes in in 3 weeks.  I've got to pick the paint, strip the room, do the painting and then pull up the carpet before then.  Just have to work up the enthusiasm to get it done.

I just put in the application for the dog last night.  I did a general preapproval since I do have some specifics I want.  Last time it took 3 weeks to get the approval and it turned out that the puppy was already in transit by the time we got approved so we only had to wait 16 hours.  I expect the process will be longer partially because they have more checking to do (they check vet records and some other things when you already have a pet) and also since I'm not applying for a specific dog.  That said, I'm driving the transport on 8/7 and it would be super cool if "my" new dog could be one of them coming on the van.  But we'll just have to wait and see what they have available. I know they already have the dogs selected that are coming up 7/24 but I don't know how many loads after that are already filled.

Just got back from buying the electric pressure canner.  Hoping to test it out in the next few days.  My sister's elderly dog (not the one involved in the biting), is coming to stay here for the next 2 weeks and he's incontinent so he will have to stay in my kitchen.  So if I don't test out my gadget before then, I may end up waiting as I don't want to be dodging him while canning. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by cjzimmer1

[Brittany1116]

3 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Lumber prices have turned negative for the year after a red-hot rally as the home improvement boom cools (businessinsider.com)

This is what we have been waiting for because we need to do a major fence repair.

[hjffkj]

You guys, the house next to my parents' house is under contract for $90,000 more than we were planning on listing theirs for. And our price was the current comps as of 2 weeks ago. This is getting ridiculous.

Edited July 15, 2021 by hjffkj

[saraha]

2 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Just got back from buying the electric pressure canner

I got one in the winter and the first thing I canned with it was free carrots! There is a Facebook group called SOS’s Carey/Nesco electric pressure canners and they have a bunch of videos and advice and if you post a question you can usually get some kind of advice/response pretty quickly. The were super helpful when I started with the canner

[saraha]

1 hour ago, hjffkj said:

You guys, the house next to my parents' house is under contract for $90,000 more than we were planning on listing theirs for. And our price was the current comps as of 2 weeks ago. This is getting ridiculous.

That’s crazy!

[cjzimmer1]

1 hour ago, saraha said:

I got one in the winter and the first thing I canned with it was free carrots! There is a Facebook group called SOS’s Carey/Nesco electric pressure canners and they have a bunch of videos and advice and if you post a question you can usually get some kind of advice/response pretty quickly. The were super helpful when I started with the canner

Good to know.  I'm already on a facebook group called SOS and they have some topics on electric pressure canning but also everything else relating to storing and stocking food, I'm wondering if your group is a spinoff from that one.  I bought the Presto one because that was the one I had heard about and researched before going to the store when I got there I saw the Nesco one and debated since it was cheaper but since I didn't know much about it, I finally decided to stick with my original choice since I knew I was comfortable with the safety performance of it.  Someone had linked me to a you tube page called Rose Red Homestead.  Really enjoying her site but she's got a data logger that goes inside a jar of food and literally tracks the temps of the food through the entire canning process so she can test that her food is reaching proper temps.  Too pricey for a casual user but super interesting nonetheless.

[saraha]

20 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Good to know.  I'm already on a facebook group called SOS and they have some topics on electric pressure canning but also everything else relating to storing and stocking food, I'm wondering if your group is a spinoff from that one.  I bought the Presto one because that was the one I had heard about and researched before going to the store when I got there I saw the Nesco one and debated since it was cheaper but since I didn't know much about it, I finally decided to stick with my original choice since I knew I was comfortable with the safety performance of it.  Someone had linked me to a you tube page called Rose Red Homestead.  Really enjoying her site but she's got a data logger that goes inside a jar of food and literally tracks the temps of the food through the entire canning process so she can test that her food is reaching proper temps.  Too pricey for a casual user but super interesting nonetheless.

Maybe it is a spin-off. I’ll have to look for that other group

That is a cool gadget 

[cjzimmer1]

15 minutes ago, saraha said:

Maybe it is a spin-off. I’ll have to look for that other group

That is a cool gadget 

the sos stands for Stocking Our shelves since I realized it could be an abbreviation for a lot of things.

[saraha]

30 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

the sos stands for Stocking Our shelves since I realized it could be an abbreviation for a lot of things.

Oh! I thought since the group I’m in is called sos electric canners, I was thinking sos, like I need help, with my canner 😆

[cjzimmer1]

54 minutes ago, saraha said:

Oh! I thought since the group I’m in is called sos electric canners, I was thinking sos, like I need help, with my canner 😆

Too funny, I was thinking the group you mentioned was like Stocking our Shelves using electric canners.  The "I need help" aspect completely escaped me. Just shows how biased we are to the familiar on even the most simplest things.