Monday, December 25, 2017
Using what we have
I baked the chicken wings that my cousin brought over yesterday for our Christmas Eve celebration at their house. They bought the wings from Publix (expensive store) and I cut them into separate sections (wings and drumsticks). There was the tiny piece at each end and I saved these to make chicken stock.
We are not wasting or throwing out any food. Food is expensive and we are doing our best to use our resources wisely. I took the tiny pieces that were left and put them in a sauce pan. I added some spices and a bit of water. I let this simmer for about two hours in low. We ended up with a cup of beautiful chicken stock which I put into our apple/sausage stuffing this morning.
I had some turkey stock in the fridge that needed to go. I added some of this in the stuffing to keep it moist while baking in the oven. The turkey stock was in the freezer from our Thanksgiving and we are trying to use this up.
The turkey is in the oven. The stuffing is made. We are going to have some mashed potatoes, gravy (I am going to attempt from scratch gravy), I put some carrots in the turkey bag, and we will have some broccoli with our dinner.
We had our doc appointments this week and our copay was 40 dollars per person. I paid 120 dollars and we were able to get prescriptions sent to our mail order pharmacy for our maintenance medications. They should be coming in a week or so and we have to have the money aside for this expense.
Our mortgage payment is due February first. I have the money in my checking account and am waiting for the first statement to arrive. I would like to stay a month ahead on the mortgage or pay every two weeks in order to cut down on the interest.
We do not have the heat on. The weather is about 60 degrees outside and I ended up opening a few windows as it was about 76 degrees in the house. We are not running the air conditioning since we are working to keep the electric bill within a reasonable amount.
I was looking over the HOA regulations that were given to me when I closed on our home. I asked my husband how he would feel about a clothes line. The regulations state that a clothes line is not an option unless you have a 6 foot fenced (either pvc or wooden fence) yard and the clothes line could not be seen. I can not justify going into additional debt to put up a fence for a clothes line. We will have to get some drying racks to put on our covered porch.
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I tried paying a month ahead, and it got me into trouble. You owe every month even if you made two payments this month! You will need to add an amount to the principle to the payment each month. Otherwise, the interest does not go down as you expect.
ReplyDeleteI would go for the fence since it will be useful in other ways. I love a fence, but that is me.
I have never thought about using the wing tips, but I never buy anything but chicken breasts. But, it is a great idea. hopefully, the scratch gravy turns out fine.
Hi Linda,
DeleteI ran into this with my previous mortgage in Virginia through Wells Fargo. I had along conversation then with the bank and requested that the extra payments be made to the next month's statement. I always added an additional 300 dollars to the mortgage towards the principle and this helped a lot in decreasing the interest.
I have been using Dave Ramsey for years and his "snowball method" and in three years I paid off 26,000 in debt. AS of right now the only debt I have is the new mortgage and my student loan. I would like to be able to send in an additional 200 dollars a month on the mortgage and an additional 100 dollars a month on the student loan. The mortgage is 1280 starting in February and my student loan is 290 a month. Both the student loan and the mortgage payment amounts that I listed above are the minimum payments. I am hoping if I can't make addtional payments to both at the same time I would prefer to add the extra to the student loan. I worry so much about the mortgage since it is in my name only, but both my husband and I are on the deed to the house. He is a financial disaster and has been for many years. I managed to get my financial life together years ago and maintain a 730 to 740 credit score.
We had a fence at our old home. It was a 6 foot privacy fence and we loved it. I just don't know if I can justify the expense of additional debt and I want to keep our savings intact. We do have a medium size dog who would love to be outside. We walk him several times a day and we take him daily to the park for exercise. He used to love running around in the yard at our old home.