Lunch today

My son opted to have two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

My middle daughter opted to have chicken noodle soup. 

My oldest daughter opted to have the last package of ramen noddle soup. 

My husband and I finished off some bagged salad, added a small cucumber, a few cherry tomatoes, and a bit of cheese. 

We emptied the last two bags of tortilla chips (into one medium size bowl) and offered the last remaining salsa with gaucamoli along with some strawberries and watermelon for all of us. I put this on the dining room table for all of us to share as part of our lunch. We used up a lot of lurking stuff that may have other wise gone to the wayside. 

That's it. A basic lunch. More later. I have a nap in the future since I spent the morning cleaning house and doing some house chores. 

Life

Monday: My husband and I went to see the mortgage lender to submit paperwork. I am approved for the mortgage for the house. We are putting 10 percent down (20, 900) and the mortgage will be for a total of 184,410 dollars. The paperwork has been accepted and the loan has went to the processing department for a 30 year loan with 4.2 percent interest fixed. The hold up with the loan process will be the submission of two paychecks from my new job which I start on the 18th.

Tuesday: I went to my new job for HR forms, a physical, and a drug test. The forms are submitted. I had a physical. I completed the drug test. I submitted all my vaccinations, ppd testings, titers, and had all my correct dates on each form. I needed a second ppd test which I received and have to go back today at 2 to get it read.

Wednesday: We ventured into Orlando and took the kids to Epcot. My husband bought season passes. This does not come out of my budget. This is strictly his spending money that he has after he pays his bills every month.

Thursday: We are staying home most of the day. I did some house work. Our pest control folks came back because we found some ants in the living room. The pest control folks have been here twice now since we began treatment for the rental. The pest control folks found another colony outside near the living room sliding doors and put some bait down. They will be back in a week to evaluate for progress. We have only seen a small amount of very tiny ants in the living room. It is best to take care of this problem before it becomes a huge problem. I have to go back to my new job and get my ppd test read at 2 this afternoon.

Meals this week: My kids had cereal with milk or the choice of eggs for breakfast. Lunch was either sandwiches (pb&j, turkey breast lunch meat from Aldi with cheese, hot dogs, or soup). Dinner on Monday was sloppy joes. Wednesday dinner was ohama steakhouse single meatloaves (from the care package from mother in law) and we baked two of the single meatloaves. We divided the meatloaves into slices for the five of us. The kids were able to choose salad (lettuce, cheery tomato, cucumber), or left over potato salad, and watermelon to have with their dinner. Tuesday's meal was a combination of left over lasagna from the family meal with our cousins, potato salad, and water melon.

I am aware that some of the meals are very carb heavy. We are not snacking between meals. Everyone is eating what they put on their plates and are working hard on not wasting food.

I called HR at my old job this morning and waiting for a call back. I did not receive my PTO cash out as today would have been my regular payday. I did refill everyone's prescriptions last night and paid 96 dollars for 6 medications for both my daughters and husband. I got mine refilled the week before for a tune of 65 dollars. We are all set on meds and continue to have some refills still.

I found a good source for medication discounts. Has anyone ever used "good rx" to get discounted medications? When I was completing my clinical requirements for my master's degree at the free clinic we were able to use this "good rx" to see how much ordered medications would cost patients to pick up at the pharmacy and if they were too expensive there was always alternative meds that could be ordered.

We will not have alternative meds ordered for the five of us until I receive health benefits in November. I start my new job on the 18th and will receive my benefit package then to review and sign up for. I am still waiting to hear from my previous job about receiving a certificate about having health insurance and have to speak to Lincoln Financial about transferring my 403 B to an IRA.

Home buying process

Our old home closed the other day. We owed 67 to 68 T on it and sold it for 120 T. After everything was finished we were wired 45 T into our joint account and everything is said and done.

I took about 85 percent of that money and put it in a savings account in my name only. I took about 10 percent and put in my checking account to cover the household bills since I will not have a paycheck until October 5th. My husband has some in his account.

I paid September and October's rent. 1500 a month. Done. I paid every bill that I had sitting in my shoe box (sound weird I put the bills in an old shoe box and keep it on the shelf in the dining room). Every Bill Is Paid. I have more than enough money in my checking account to cover the bills for September and part of October as long as I am careful.

I went to the grocery store this morning and spent 145 dollars. I live Aldi.

I paid 2,000 dollars on my sister's mortgage. She is in the process of a loan modification. I don't know any more details than that. I told her that I would help her once the house closed and I did my part. She was very thankful. I did tell her that I wouldn't be able to do much more.

I went to speak to the building company about the homes we toured on Thursday night. The model home that we toured was sold and set to close this weekend. It was a very beautiful single level family home. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1800 sq feet, comes with stove, fridge, and dishwasher. Everything is electric (which is what we are used too). The ceilings are just regular, where as the rental home we have vaulted ceilings.

We are paying 1500 in rent for this home. We thought that we would be long term renters for a while after our house closed. We found that while renting in the short term is OK, we would really like to have a home of our own instead of paying someone elses's mortgage.

I gave the building company a good faith payment Friday afternoon. I have a realtor that is helping us through this process. The mortgage loan will be in my name only as my credit score is 720 and much better than my husband's. Our rent is 1500 and the mortgage would be about 1200-1250 a month which is a bit more easier to the budget.

We are putting 10 percent down on the purchase price of 205,900. I have been approved and qualified for the mortgage loan at 4 percent interest. I have a credit score of 739, 711, and 731 at the three credit bureaus. I am going to meet with the lender tomorrow at noon to go over the required documents that I have to give them. I have all these documents in a folder next to the lap top for tomorrow.

The rest of the money from the house is going to stay in my savings account for an emergency fund. There will be 13,000 in it after paying the 10 percent and closing costs. The insurance and taxes (oh goodness the taxes on the newly built home) will be put in an escrow account.

The home will be completed in November or December of this year. I will have to increase my savings. I am still waiting for my old job to pay my PTO cash out. I am hoping it will be here on Thursday in my bank account. It will be put right into my savings account (which I have access to online).

What's been happening??

Well, our house finally closed this past Wednesday! The funds were distributed and as of Wednesday I was debt free. 

Thursday: I did not get to HR at my new job this week because I lost my CPR card during the move from Virginia to Florida. The HR office told me that I could call the Lake County CPR office and see if they had a course that had an opening. 

We looked at a couple of new homes being built on Thursday night. There is a new development opening that is building two up to five bedrooms homes in the area. We were looking at 4 bedroom single level homes. We talked a lot about the renting verses buying. We did put a LOT of money into our old home. It was a town house built in 1990 and we bought it in 2002 and it needed many repairs through the years. It was a 3 bedroom 2 bath home which we bought when the kids were very young. 1300 sq feet total. 

I went out with my cousin to her house and we had dinner there. My husband took my oldest daughter to her job in Orlando and stayed in Orlando walking, window shopping, and spending time with our middle daughter and son. They came home when our oldest daughter got out of work. 

Friday: We decided to buy a home. We are currently renting and have been here since July 12th. I have been here since August 5th. The house is a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. Two car garage. Very small yard (I have to cut grass, so I prefer a small yard). It is in a development called Chelsea Oaks South. More on this later. 

Saturday: We spent the day at home and enjoyed a day just hanging out together. We cleaned house, took naps, fed animals, watched home movies. We had sloppy joes for dinner. 

Sunday: We are having dinner with our cousins tonight. They are bringing lasagna and cheesecake. We are providing the salad and some watermelon. I went to Aldi this morning and spent 145 dollars. We had a trunk full of groceries and honestly everything is filled in the pantry and freezer. It is a great feeling. 

 

Frugal Activities

We are using what we have to care for the family (there's five of us). My daughter needed her hair cut for her new job. She started yesterday. We did not have the funds from the sale of the house yet and I ended up cutting her hair in the bathroom. I cut an inch off the back and trimmed the rest of it. It looks pretty good.

It rained yesterday so the yard got watered.

I emailed the title company this morning to see how long it takes to disperse the funds from the sale of the house. I am waiting for a response back from them.

Breakfast this morning will be either scrambled eggs with frozen hash browns that I will put in the oven or egg sandwiches (we still have some left over hamburger rolls). I am pretty sure that the egg sandwiches will be requested.

I am waiting to hear form my old job when I will receive my paid time off cash out (277 hours) and my 133 hours of sick time at my base rate of pay (32.78) since I need this money to add to the funds from the house to pay bills and have the rest in savings for the down payment on a new to us home.

I have to contact the folks representing my 403B to see if I can get this rolled over into an IRA.

Dinner tonight is about 7 potatoes cut into chunks, the last four carrots, half an onion, some garlic powder, basil, and pepper were out into the crock pot with a one pound package of beef tips. The beef tips were in the grocery package from my mother in law. I added the last can of mushroom soup to the crock pot.

We are running out of things and the freezer remains full. The fridge is half full. The cabinets are getting empty. The bills are caught up until the end of August. I should get my PTO cash out on August 31st since my last two day paycheck was on August 17th.

you tube

The landlord got a new dryer delivered to us nine days ago. We have been having issues with it not drying clothes well and I finally was able to figure out why. The air flow to the vent was blocked by "wadded plastic and paper" leading to the outside exhaust.

Holy crap. I was able to watch a you tube video to see how to take off the clamps and silver tubing to get the blocked stuff out of the exhaust.

It worked. I am so proud and horrified that there was a bunch of stuff wadded up into the tubing and exhaust. We are very lucky. The dryer did dry a full load of clothes in about 30 minutes.

Tuesday triumphs

The house is finally closed and sold. I was told that funds will be allowed to be dispersed as soon as possible. We have some bills to get caught up on, rent to pay for September (I all ready paid 875 and owe 650 for September first for a total of 1500) and would like to pay October's rent since I will not have a pay check until the first week of October.

I would like to put 90 percent of the money in the bank for a down payment for a new to us home. I am going to have to work on saving as much as I can to have a reasonable down payment and to ensure that this buying process goes a bit more smoothly then the selling/moving process.

My oldest daughter starts her new job this afternoon. Everyone was on their own for breakfast. I told everyone that there was a bi of cereal amd milk or eggs for breakfast. They all chose eggs.

Lunch is a hot meal today since my daughter has to work. I am cooking a box of elbow pasta and using a jar of spaghetti sauce for lunch. I have a package of 15 meatballs from the grocery package that my mother in law sent us and will be using them in the sauce. We have some left over corn and green beans in the fridge that need to be eaten, along with a small amount of tomato and cucumber slices.

Monday

I washed the comforter from my oldest daughter's bed and hung it over the dining room table to dry. Breakfast/lunch was a choice of cereal (we have about a half a box of pumpkin spice cheerios left), ramen noodles, the last couple hot dogs on rolls, some left overs from last night, and the last bit of cake for dessert.

Tonight's dinner was burgers. I put them in the oven because I was not comfortable using the hot plate to cook them as I don't feel the hot plate gets "hot enough".

The ground beef was mixed with one egg, a couple handfuls of breadcrumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasonings and put shaped into patties for the oven. I made the only package of alfredo noodles that my girls requested. I cut up the last bit of cucumber that we had in the fridge, sliced the last tomato we had, and cut some onion slices for the burgers. I topped the finished burgers with sliced cheese. We only had four slices of cheese so I did not have cheese on mine.

I offered everyone plain hamburger buns or onion rolls for their burgers. I offered cucumber on the side was a veggie.

Monday is our trash pick up day. The city we live in offers curb side trash pick up. Our trash has been reduced since we also have curbside recycling on Thursday mornings. I am loving this service since when we lived in Virginia we had to take our own trash to the county landfill. We pay 8 dollars a month for this service.

Monday madness

The currier was here this morning to help us with signing paperwork. He left and faxed everything from his office. The buyers had their closing at 2 pm today.

So, DONE!!!

WRONG! I got a text message at 445 telling me to check my email because there was a revision of the first page of the document on the buyers end. I am supposed to sign it, scan, and email back to them. The email was times 4:48 today.

So my husband and I were able to down load the document and take it to his cousin's house. There son printed it out for us and we signed it. My husband's cousin was not home and, we unable to scan it to the title company. I emailed the realtor and told her and she stated that the title company needed it by morning.

SERIOUSLY!!!!

Anyway, the first page of the document is sitting on their desk at my husband's cousin's house with my email, the title company email, and a flash drive of mine. Closing is delayed until tomorrow.

My husband got upset with me. He asked me to call the realtor at 3 because he said he would feel better if everything was completed. I sent her numerous text messages (5 total with 5 of her responses) and spoke to her twice over the phone. He is pissed off at me about the title company and the number revision on the buyers end. I tried to tell him that I spoke to her twice and showed him the test messages. He ended up yelling me me for the ten minute ride back to our house. He accused me of renting the house (which he knew about and was OK with since we needed a place to live) with out his knowledge, he loves the rental home, and wants to make an offer on the rental home in the spring. He yelled at me about a couple of other things, like the budget, meals, our lifestyle, how I pay the bills, and when my starting day at work is. Some of these things, like closing on the house, and my start day at my new job are out of my control.

I tried to tell him that I am doing the best I can with what I have. We both agreed to move 1000 miles across the country. The kids agreed that as a family we could move. Everyone (all five of us) felt that it was in our best interest to take the job offer, relocate, start new lines, get away from the cold weather, and begin our future.

Sunday plans

We all slept in this morning in hopes of recovering from the past few days and to improve our moods. It worked. The house chores are done. We all had various things for lunch as I told everyone to have what they could find.

My son finished off the last of the honey nut cheerios. My daughter finished off the last of the pasta that was left over from last night. I had a tomato sandwich on an onion roll. My husband opted to have ramen noodles. My daughter opted to have a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

My kids helped and did all their chores. I do not give my kids allowances because I feel that they are to do chores because we have to work together as a family. My middle daughter and my son cleaned the cat box. All three kids sorted through the recycling and put everything in the garage. My son took out the trash and put it in the trash container in the garage.

My middle daughter washed the kitchen floor with a bit of water and a very small amount of spic and span, I told her to use less than a cap full of spic and span as funds are tight and we are trying to make things last. I washed two of the kids blankets from their beds and hung them over the dining room chairs to dry.

My husband cleaned our bathroom. The kids are in charge of cleaning their own bathroom.

We are going to our cousin's house for dinner tonight. We are bringing the protein and using some of the grocery package from my mother in law. We are bringing the four small steaks and two containers of frozen "red smashed potatoes" that came in the grocery package. Our cousin and her family are supplying burgers and hot dogs for the kids. There are five kids and four adults. They are supplying canned corn and beans. It should be a great evening.

I took our a package of ground beef to make hamburgers tomorrow for the five of us. I have one fresh tomato left, a couple of hamburger buns from the bread store, and a package of onion rolls for the burgers. I am also going to make some potato salad tomorrow morning to have with our burgers. I don't have a grill or anything like that so we use the oven a lot.

I am hoping that everyone has a good day.

What's been happening?

Wednesday, my mother in law had two boxes of groceries delivered to us from Ohama Steaks. I was so surprised. Immediately we put the food in the freezer. There was two packages of pork ribs, one package of four filet, two packages of frozen smashed potatoes, two packages of frozen seasoned green beans, four packages of mini meat loaves, and some various other gifts. It was amazing and everything looks great in the freezer. Wednesday we just stayed at home and ended up having a bit of a disagreement about the budget.

Thursday, my husband and his cousins took us all out to historic mount dora. There are a lot of shops, paved areas for walking, and a lot of time to sit and enjoy each other's company. His cousins took us out for lunch. I attempted to pay with the cash we had in our budget and I was told to keep the money. I ended up having a chicken salad on wheat bread and it was pretty good. My kids had hot dogs. My husband had some potato salad and a grilled cheese with tomato sandwich. Overall it was a pleasant day and we ended up enjoying everyone's company.

Thursday night was a bit difficult. I ended up watching a movie with my husband in our room and I didn't get to bed until almost 1 AM which is very late for me. I am usually in bed before 8:30 which really hasn't happened since I got to our new home in Florida two weeks ago.

Friday morning, I got up and was ready to take my daughter to her job interview. She wanted to wait until 11:30 to leave and I tried to explain to her that we may get lost, traffic, etc etc, but in her world these things are not an issue. Go Figure.

The realtor called me on Friday morning to tell me that I had to finish paying the water/sewer and electric bill on our house before closing on August 21st. She said that it should have already should have bene paid. Well I tried to explain that I used all my savings to move and had not recieved my PTO yet from work. Needless to say, I was able to get the two bills paid. I have 68 dollars in my checking account left and have to pay my mother in law back for the electric bill expense. I called the realtor and gave her the confirmation numbers and sent an online statement to her email address also.

The title company and the realtor called me again before we left the house to take my daughter to her interview. They stated that I had to sign one last document before closing on Monday, August 21st. I explained to them that I was not in Virginia anymore and that the document would have to be signed digitally or electronically. Apparently that is a problem because both of these ladies stated that I would have to come to Virginia to sign the paperwork. I explained to them that I did not have the money to come to Virginia and that this would have to be worked out because I am not in a better financial spot than I was prior to finishing up paying the sewer/water/electric bill on the house. They gave me a difficult time about not being able to fly to Virginia. I told them that this was their concern because I had been in contact with them since June (while I was still living in Virginia) and told them repeatedly that I was leaving to go to Florida to be with my family on August 5th (after my last day of work). My realtor knew this and I called her twice the last week I was in Virginia to make sure that she was aware that I would be leaving the state since she told me that if there was anything left to sign it could be done electronically.

I was not in the best mood since I spent the night before watching a movie with my husband on Netflix (he pays for that), didn't sleep well, spent all day Thursday walking around a historic village, had gotten up early to get my kid to her interview, and had the previous phone call about the utilities.

I told the realtor and the title company that this was their concern and that they would have to figure out how to get the document to me since apparently it would not be emailed or faxed. I spoke to them at 11 olcock and they did not get back to me until Friday afternoon at 4:45 when they told me that they were going to send a currier to my home that was a notary to assist with signing of the document. FINE.

My daughter had a job interview in Orlando yesterday at Universal studios. This is a 51 minute drive with numerous tolls one way. We left the house at 1130 yesterday and her interview was at 12:45. We did not leave Universal Studios until 5 pm and did not get home last night until after 6 oclock due to the traffic.

She earned herself a seasonal part time job from now until the first week of November. Universal is hosting a Halloween Adventure House or something like that. Even though there is a commute and tolls involved I was proud of her for presenting herself and standing out from the hundreds of job hunters at the job fair.

Friday night my husband and my middle DD baked the pork spare ribs and heated up some frozen veggies. They also had made a cake for dessert (boxed mix with frosting). I ate dinner, cleaned up part of the house, and ended up having a disagreement with my husband about our house, the closing date, and why I didn't finish paying the utility and focused on the rent for September instead. I explained to him that I was afraid closing would have been pushed back and I wanted to make sure that the rent for September was paid in full to prevent any issues. Needless to say, he said that I was very anxious and should have known that closing would go as scheduled.

I ended up going to my room, taking a shower, and watching another movie before I fell asleep.
Yesterday was a very long day.

Saturday!! Finally a day that I could stay home. I ended up taking the meat off the whole bird I cooked earlier this week and made chicken salad with it using half an older onion, three stalks of celery, spices, mayo, and a small amount of mustard. I had two chicken breast in the fridge thawed. I put them in a baking pan with the rest of the onion, two cloves of garlic, and the last bit of spaghetti sauce in the jar I found in the fridge. I baked this for a little over an hour in a covered casserole dish and shredded the chicken when it was finished. I will add some more sauce and top it with some cheese in a little bit. I am going to boil some pasta and make a small salad to go with it for dinner.
The bones form the whole bird, the veggie scraps, and everything else was put into the crock pot and simmered all day. In about another hour I will take it all out and strain it. I will have a nice bowl of chicken stock for the freezer.

I stayed home all day. I pulled bedsheets off everyone's beds and put them in the wash. They will be dried eventually and put back on beds. I turned the air from 78 degrees to 77 because it is so humid in the house. I asked my husband to find a dehumidifier that we may need to purchase.

I am meeting with a realtor on Wednesday to see what kind of information I can get about buying our "retirement forever home". This will be the home that we will grow old in and will maintain us in our senior years. I am not buying a home on Wednesday but just getting some much needed beginning information.

Air conditioning

The house we are renting is 1800 sq feet with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, dining room, kitchen, living room, and utility room. It is an open floor plan. It also has a garage. The garage is kept closed and locked. It is very warm in there and does not have air conditioning. We keep the door locked in the utility room to prevent air conditioning from going through to the garage. The stove is electric and we use the dish washer once a day.

We have kept the air at 78 degrees. We have five ceiling fans running to help circulate air movement.

Our first electric bill came and it is 188 dollars. We moved from a town house of 1333 sq feet, three bedrooms, two baths, no garage, and open floor plan for the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

This bill does not include the dryer that the property manager bought and had installed on Sunday.

Our town house had electric costs of about 150 a month because my husband would keep the air conditioning at about 70 to 75 and we used to use the dryer frequently.

The lease states that clothes lines are not allowed. I used to have a drying rack but it did not come with the move because of the shape that it is was in. It was breaking and falling apart.

Does anyone have experience with a home that is 1800 square feet and know if this is an accurate electric bill for a family of five? Our water is heated by electricity. My son takes a shower every night. I take a shower or bath every OTHER night, my oldest daughter takes a shower every morning, and my middle daughter takes a shower every OTHER night. My husband will take a shower every day or every other day depending on how he feels when he wakes up.

I am considering turning the air conditioning up to 79 degrees and continue to use ceiling fans. I am looking for input from folks to see if this is a reasonable bill or not. We lived in our town house for 15 years in Virginia and are used to the utility payments. This is our first electric bill for the rental home.

Wednesday happenings

Well, I heard back from our realtor and she stated that our old house is still scheduled for closing on August 21st. This is a very hard time and is stressful because I didn't really understand everything that went into selling a house and moving across country from Virginia to Florida. I haven't heard back from my new job yet to see if I can start early. I am assuming that it is not going to happen since I have contacted them twice last week. I am scheduled for a employee health physical on August 24th and start hospital orientation September 18th.

We received a refund check from our old cable company in the amount of 148 dollars. I asked my husband to put it in his account and I would be able to transfer 100 of the money to my account to put towards September's rent. I have paid 875 so far towards September's rent and will get my last two day pay check tomorrow by direct deposit into my account. That money will go straight towards September's rent and hopefully will have closing next week to help offset the budget.

I still have some Virginia bills to finish paying. I have all ready budgeted and paid for the first month's round of utility bills since my family has been here since July 12th and moved in on the 15th of July.

The dishwasher has been started. The counters wiped off. I found a "running toilet" in my kids bathroom and have emailed the property management company and send in a maintenance request to get this fixed. The last thing I want is a high water bill for something that is easily fixed. I looked in the tank I am not sure if it is the gasket or seal that is making the water run. It is stated in my lease that they respond to maintenance and tenant requests pretty quickly.

The kids are own their own for breakfast. Lunch is going to be sandwiches (lunch meat with cheese/PBJ/ or hotdogs).

Dinner tonight is french toast using bread ends, milk, and the last few eggs we have in the fridge. We are also going to have pork sausage patties. (I may attempt to make sausage gravy if I am able to. I have never made it before, but it would help keep the pantry filled).

Other than that we are staying home today. I would like to finish the cup of decaf tea I made. My son called me a "big fat meanie" because I reminded him that he needs to put his shorts (his only beloved pair) in the laundry to be washed tonight.  If my only concern was being a "big fat meanie" because I wanted to wash my autistic son's (he's 19) clothes I would be OK!

Tuesday dinner

We bought a whole chicken from Publix for a total of 6 dollars. I am going to have to look at the price per pound when I open it. I am going to put this in the crock pot with carrots, celery, and some spices. I don't want to put potato in it since we have eaten so many potatoes this weekend.

I am going to offer a small salad to go with dinner tonight. We have some green leaf lettuce, tomato, and cucumber that I bought on Sunday that we can use. The dressing is either generic buttermilk ranch or generic thousand island for those who would want some.

Monday & Tuesday happenings

I was determined not to go anywhere yesterday. I eventually did go to the park with my husband and my one daughter. My other daughter and son did not want to go so they stayed home. Our property manager delivered the dryer on Sunday and we did use it for three loads of laundry yesterday. I didn't do much yesterday as I wanted to get some rest.

I folded two loads of laundry from the other day (my husband had taken it to the laundry mat before the dryer arrived) and folded the three from yesterday.

Breakfast yesterday: cereal (cheerios and milk)
Lunch yesterday: Left overs (choices of grilled chicken, pork with mushroom sauce, salad, potato salad, corn casserole, and/or baked potatoes)
Dinner yesterday: Left overs continued as lunch offerings.

As you know food is expensive and we are not thrilled to throw food away. This is what we have left from our weekend meals:

three baked potatoes
some mushroom sauce
two grilled chicken tenderloin
a small amount of pork

We will finish this off today for lunches.

Sunday Happenings

The property manager of the rental house had a new electric dryer delivered for us. It came this morning from Lowe's. It did not have the clamps and we bought them ourselves. The cost was 1.98 for a pack of two. My husband was able to get them on the dryer connector to the ventilation hose.

Well, managing two household budgets is difficult. I had about 580 dollars in my checking until Thursday when I get my last two day pay from my old job. I am still waiting on my PTO to be paid out. I emailed the realtor to make sure we are still scheduled for closing on August 21st. She stated that it was still scheduled and planned for that day. I paid the old water bill from Virginia (we still have a balance and this will be paid off when we get the house closed), I paid the new water bill from Florida, and I paid the new electric bill from Florida. I paid an old doctor bill from Virginia.

My husband's cousins are coming over for dinner and bringing their two adult boys. They told me that they are bringing grilled chicken tenders, baked potatoes, and corn casserole. I told then that I will have buttered green beans (frozen), potato salad that I made today, and vanilla cupcakes for those who want some kind of dessert. I will also make a plain simple salad (green leaf lettuce, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and celery.
I stopped at the grocery store Publix. I still have to find out what stores are in the area. I have been here a week yesterday and my husband stated that there is a Winn Dixie in town, an Aldi in another town about 15 minutes away, a dollar store (I love dollar stores), plus I believe that there is a Save a Lot.

Here's what I bought this morning:
Gallon of generic milk 3.79
2 liter soda 0.99 (BOGO)
lb carrots 0.99
one whole chicken publix generic brand 6.00 a bird
cupcake holders 0.99
one cucumber 0.75
turkey breast/ham slices lunch meat 5.99
two packages of ground beef 4.95, 4.95 (each pound was 3.99 YIKES!!!!!)
one bag of frozen califlower/brocolli mix 1.95
one frozen soup mix (frozen veggies )1.95
3 lb hot dogs 4.39 (YIKES!)
2 liter soda (BOGO)
fresh tomatoes 1.29 lb bought almost two pounds worth 2.30
generic fabric softner sheets 1.59 (we will use each one twice)
Cheerios (BOGO) 3.83
Cheerios (BOGO)
Green leaf lettuce (1.69)
10 lg leg quarters 7.90
two gallons of spring water .86  .86
2 liter soda (BOGO)   0.99
two liter soda (BOBO)
5 chocolate bars

We spent a total of 69.15 with taxes included. We have spices, many baking items, fresh potatoes, three packages of frozen veggies, three small packages of chicken breast, numerous loaves of bread, half a box of generic rice krispies, some box mixes of rice, granola bars, four eggs, condiments, two boxes of pasta, and three jars of spaghetti sauce. My husband bought this prior to my arrival and I have been using what he has in the cabinets and adding to it to make meals. I am hoping that we can get through the next two or three weeks with what we have. I would like to get our finances in order and finish paying off Virginia household budget stuff, while beginning the budget for our new home in Florida. I paid a portion of our rent at the beginning of the month for September. My pay this week will go straight to the September rent.

Some times I wonder if we made the right decision to move but we are here now and that is where we are going to stay. Things will improve when the house closes and I can get the bills paid off. I requested to start early at my job on Thursday and hoping to hear back from HR this week. That would make life much easier instead of waiting until September 18th.

Dinner tonight

Well, it's official. I have been in Florida a week now and my family has been in Florida a month. I have to say that it is very difficult to be apart from each other. I had to stay behind to finish school and put in my clinical hours for the last course I was taking. I also had to finish the last three weeks at my old job. I ended up staying at my friend's house for three weeks while my family was in Florida since our house was on the market and it sold in 48 hours.

Dinner tonight will be easy. I already have the crock pot on and put in the only package of pork chops I found in the freezer. There's 6 in the package which will be just the right amount for the five of us and leaves one left over for who ever wants it. I sliced up one whole onion, put the pork in the crock pot with some garlic powder, and one can of mushroom soup that I added some water to.

This is going to cook all day. I have some unopened long grain rice that we can put in the steamer later and will simmer some green beans from the freezer. We still have some mixed fruit left that needs to be finished today.

Today's frugal activities

Breakfast: scrambled eggs (we each had two)

Dinner: one thin sliced chicken breast marinated and breaded (dollar store bread crumbs), left over steamed broccoli from the other night, a "flavored chicken" rice kit, fresh fruit from the fridge that needs to go, and left over carrot cake (a very small portion) for those who want it.

I cut the grass in the front and back yard, and sides of the house. It was a big job and took about 45 minutes. The house was vacuumed. Cat box cleaned, four loads of laundry washed, and recycling sorted. I broke down some of the boxes that we unpacked and they are stacked in the garage for next Thursday (which is our recycling day). The kitchen floor was mopped. All I have left to do is vacuum the dining room after dinner. The kids loaded and unloaded the dishwasher this morning.

The property manager is going to have a dryer delivered over the weekend. I have four loads of laundry drying over chairs and I may have my husband go to the laundry mat to use two of their dryers. Our old drying rack was broken so we didn't take it for the move to Florida. I was looking over our lease this morning and clothes lines are not permitted in the backyard. I wish they were.

Simple things

OK, so my family has been here (husband and kids since July 12th) and I have been here since Saturday, August 5th.

We had the following meals this week so far:
Sunday Lunch: Tacos with trimmings (cheese, tomato, salsa)
Sunday Dinner: Oven baked chicken wings, mashed potatoes, fruit bowl, and birthday cake.
Monday Lunch: Hot dogs, fruit bowl
Monday Dinner: More oven baked chicken wings, left over taco stuff, left over mashed potatoes
Tuesday Breakfast: Generic Rice Krispies with fat free milk
Tuesday Dinner: Broccoli, thin sliced potatoes, and two chicken breast sliced thin, marinated and breaded.
Wednesday Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, canned hash
Wednesday Dinner: Lunch meat sandwiches, fruit
Thursday Breakfast: Generic Rice Krispies, fat free milk
Thursday Lunch: Grilled cheese and the last two sliced tomato sandwiches (no tomato for the kids)
Thursday Dinner: We went out for Chick Fil A since we were going to walk around the park.

We have been to the park several times to walk around. It is a very nice place to enjoy outside. We have been riding around the area looking at options for housing in the community (we will buy I believe once the old house closes).

I emailed my new employer to see if I could move up my start date from September 18th. I am waiting to hear back from them to see if this is possible.

We do not have a clothes dryer. The property company is supposed to have one delivered on Sunday. I emailed the company today for the second time to see when it would be delivered. In the meantime, we are washing clothes in cold water and hanging clothes over the dining room chairs until they are dry.

Trash pick up is twice a week (Monday and Thursday mornings). We have always taken our household trash to the community landfill when we were living in Virginia. Town trash pick up is new for us and I can not say enough about it. We also have recycling pick up on Monday mornings. They weigh your recycling and you earn points to use on city goods when you accumulate enough. I would like to see free admission to events in the area as a perk. I understand that recycling is mandated, and not opposed to it. We recycled in Virginia and did all of the hauling ourselves. I am really liking the recycling and trash pick up. We put two huge cardboard boxes out with all the boxes we used for unpacking inside and those were picked up also.

The house is 1800 square feet, one level, 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and has a two car garage. My husband has his car in the garage. I am nervous about putting mine in the garage because I may have trouble backing it out. I am not the most skilled driver.

We have central air. The blinds are closed in the house from about 10 am until about 6 pm. WE also have five ceiling fans that we use to help circulate air. The central air is on 78. The house is all electric too.

It's been a long time.

Well, it's been a long time. I finally finished the MSN degree this week. All of my kids are graduated high school and we have moved from Virginia to Florida. We are waiting for August 21 to arrive because we sold our house in Virginia!! August 21st is the closing date. I have a new job waiting at the hospital in this area and I am patiently for the board of nursing to accept my background screening and fingerprinting that I completed.

My last day at my old job was August 5th. I am going to receive all of my vacation time back (about 270 hours) at my base rate of pay (32.78) minus taxes, retirement, and health insurance. I have another two day pay coming next week to be direct deposited.

The fees with moving were astronomical. We paid a moving company, paid for new paint and carpeting in our old house, paid the rent and security deposit for the new rental home, background checks (for five), pet deposit, and a four night stay in a hotel while we were getting the painting and carpet down in the old house.

There's been so much money from my savings account that we used to finance the move. We did not put anything on a credit card (I don't have any, but my husband has one).

Once the house closes we will be considering whether to buy again or to continue renting long term. We are waiting for the first round of bills to come for the new house (utilities). We have to change the two vehicle registrations, we got updated insurance information from our old company, they are just going to transfer it to Florida, and we have to finish paying a few bills from Virginia.

The goal is to close on the old house, put some money back in savings (we have none at the moment due to the move), establish residency, and get our finances in order. I have health insurance until the end of August. I will get employer sponsored health insurance 60 days after my start date of September 18th, 2017. We have all of our prescriptions filled, been to the dentist, got all of our needed appointments done before leaving Virginia.