Austerity...

I crashed again today.  Three hours of lights-out in the late afternoon.  The discouraging part is that I was not up for that long before I started battling to remain awake.  It is hard to describe other than it feels as if I have been drugged, as if I have no other option than to give in to the need for sleep.  That ... or as if I have been up for more than a day, rather than about three hours.

Getting Amos to tend to his business late last night was difficult for the BEAST that was perched on the back fence.  Amos was barking and charging it, but the opossum was not impressed.  I think I could have walked up and taken a better photo, but this was as close as I was willing to go.

I remain convinced that the reason he/she lives in our alley is because several houses have piles of debris with greenery growing over by their garages.  That is against City code, but I have not had any luck getting the City to address the problem.  Last night, I was stricken with fear that the opossum would bite Amos, given that the Fluffernutter was being rude.  Bite Amos and give him rabies.

It took me quite a while to get Amos to come back inside.
And quite a while to calm down from my sudden fear of Amos being felled by rabies.

The other day, it hit me rather strongly that Amos is going to be turning 5 years old in December.  He is growing entirely TOO FAST!  I cannot fathom life without him and have planned to be the one to go first.  While I am much worse than I was when he was born, I am not as ill as I thought I would be at this point.  The power of Erythromycin therapy, I think.  Anyway, I have been a bit stricken by the fear of life without my canine nurse.

Silly Myrtle.

Today, the socks from COSTCO arrived.  Becky was able to order them online using my credit card, so I could delay the decision of getting a membership.  I am a bit torn over the matter.  But I was happy to have the socks, for I should have bought them (bought more) when I saw them.  Having dutifully thrown out all the socks with holes in the bottom of them, there is plenty of room for the 16 pairs of COSTCO wool socks.  And, as I noted before, they are quite comfortable.

Other than the socks, I made two other purchases this budget cycle (barely begun).  The first was to break down and buy some twine.  I have been searching for my twine ball that I used last fall to tie up the Rose of Sharons for months.  It is not in any of the places it could be, or the place it should be.  I finally gave up and ordered a new one because the middle Rose of Sharon is very droopy.  I need to thin them out a bit in the fall again.

This is my Pampered Chef medium bar pan from the stoneware line.  I broke my small bar pan.  This one split for no reason.  Not having the receipt, Pampered Chef would not replace it.  So, I have been using it this way for months.   It still works ... as long as I am very careful about not touching the broken end.  I have been careful.  Mostly.

While I would like the expense to be on next month's budget, I bought the replacement pans today, including a large bar pan.  I had intended to buy another baking stone, but the bar pans were all on sale (hence the purchase) and I figured that a large bar pan would work just as well as a second baking stone when making cookies and such.  Having a second pan/stone will make baking easier and result in less standing for me.  I cannot be sure, but it seems to me that the shipping has become more reasonable, since shopping on PamperedChef.com last time.  Anyway, the sale prices mean than total discount was more than the shipping cost, so I was actually surprised and pleased by the total purchase price.

Yes, I will be even more pleased when I can discard the broken pan, though I am not exactly looking forward to the seasoning process on the new pans.

With the drop in total medication price between the cessation of the Erythromycin and the switch to generic Celebrex, I clearly have had a significant shift in money availability in my budget.  However, I have tried, very hard, to put $300 away each month—not all but a huge chuck of that a difference—in preparation for a time when my medication expense increases.  With the two supplements, I did not yet dip into that money and hope to be able to manage that increase within my one flexible budget line (grocery and household).  In any case, the disability fund is projected to be insolvent from just one year from now.  Currently, the only "fix" on the table is an across-the-board 20% cut to payment. Over the past two years, during my strident budget work, my goal has been to find a way to live on just 80% of the disability.

Anyway, August was an extremely expensive month for me.  My spending was far and above what it should have been, but was not on anything that was extravagant ... unless you consider my frog ring completely unnecessary.  Some of those funds were associated with Becky's trip, which, in my opinion was a need, not a want!  Having made the three purchases that I wanted already this month and purchased my medications (save for one), I have calculated that if I spend no more than $150-ish for the rest of the month (groceries, household, or gas), the average spending between August and September will be just under budget.  To be specific, under no circumstances, do I wish to spend more than $164.62 before the 27th.  In short, a rather Herculean effort on my part will right the budgetary ship and wipe any budgetary guilt off my financial slate.  That would be good, eh?  So, I am girding my loins and embracing austerity once more.

Oh, yes, in case I ask, the twine is now living in the lowest drawer in the kitchen.