#sewerbillgoingup — Public Fediverse posts

Budget woes

You might be tired of hearing about the higher costs everywhere these days. However, I’m not complaining, I’m just explaining. I feel fairly sure many of you are feeling the same budget strains as me these days as our living expenses and grocery costs keep rising. It’s not just here in the US but all over the world that people are struggling. History told us this would happen because history has a way of repeating itself. It may not be called another “depression” but it certainly is lining up to be an economic crash.

I’ve had to rework my budget due to higher costs of living expenses. In July I was surpirsed by a $200 increase on my six months auto insurance payment due by August 3rd. There was no warning at all. I had to shuffle around a few budget items to pay it including not buying any grocery items except for bell peppers. I’m sure glad my pantry is well stocked for such emergencies.

About the bell peppers, regular price was 1.89 each. These were on sale for 99 cents each at Meijer. I have plenty of the color peppers in the freezer due to a previous sale but I needed green ones.

As usual I look for any rarely noticed savings by buying in quantity. I saw the sign saying the three pack was only $2.59 for a cost of only 86 cents each.

I bought two packs which saved me 82 cents over the singles price. That may not sound like much of a savings but when someone is in financial survival mode every penny saved counts.

At home that evening I saw on our local news that our sewer company was given permission to raise their rates starting with the August bill. The sewer company claims it will only raise our bill by $3 but that is never the true cost. That’s the base rate and not the actual cost which depends on how much water is used and also how much rain we get. I won’t know the exact amount until I receive the August bill. Thankfully, for now, I do get a 30% senior’s reduction on the sewer bill. We never know if this reduction will continue or be stopped at some point in time.

While at the store I decided to check on a couple of prices. The Del Monte peaches and pears are $2.89 each That’s the only brand without added sugars. I won’t be buying any and hope that we continue to get some in the USDA senior commodity boxes each month. I’ll be very conservative with fruit from now on.

I needed crackers but the cost of plain saltine crackers is still $4.49 a box. I left them on the shelf.

As I walked past the bakery isle I noticed that bagels are also $4.49 but for a pack of five now instead of six and they’re a smaller size. I sometimes find bagels discounted 75% but not that day. I like to make flavored snacking chips out of them.

I stopped counting on the COLA for Social Security because Medicare costs usually takes it. For this year I read that both Medicare part B and part D will cost more next year due to Trump cancelling the government subsidies. If you want to read it for yourself here is the link. Government center for medicare and medicaid services. Of course we won’t know the actual amount of Medicare premium increases until late September. That’s before we learn in late October what the COLA will be for 2027. No reason to worry about this until it happens. I’ll just prepare myself to live with less as I do every year.

I have a question for blog readers. Do you have and use a manual pasta maker? If you do, what brand? How often do you use it? I would really like to start making my own pasta instead of buying it in the store to save money. Long before I’m able to buy something I do lots of online searches to learn about it. I prefer a manual machine because it wouldn’t raise my electric bill plus I could still use it in a power outage.

I’ve been looking at some brands on Amazon to learn more about the manual machines. The customer reviews are like roller coasters. Plenty of people telling their likes as well as dislikes. I found one I believe I could enjoy and I’d love to know if anyone has one already and would give me advice. Or, if you have a different brand please tell me about it.

It’s the Imperia. There are additional parts available to make various other pasta shapes including this ravioli maker. Please understand, I’m only looking at machines to get an idea of what I like just in case I see one at a thrift store or a yard sale. Better to get knowledge now and not get burned later when it can’t be returned. Right?

NaNa’s thoughts: I’m a believer in the here after. When I walk into another room I can’t remember what I’m here after.

Anita