Coffee heat rising

Budgeting

Adapting to Healthy Living on a Budget

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Everyone is always talking about how easy it is to start eating healthy foods, but not very many of them are talking about how hard it may be to afford them. No matter where you look, organic and plant-based foods are not cheap. In many cases, they cost more than the unhealthy foods that are always being promoted. As tempting as it may be for you to protect your wallet, avoiding foods that are much healthier for you to eat is not the thing to do. Instead, use the following suggestions so you can adapt to healthy living on a budget that works for you.

Know What You Have

You shouldn’t be walking around thinking you can’t afford to eat and live healthier without trying to do for yourself. You don’t need to take everyone’s word for it either. Take a deep look at your situation, including your finances. Think about how much money you normally spend on food. Determine if that amount is higher or lower than what you can reasonably afford. Don’t forget to take into consideration the activities, foods, and other habits you have that impact your monthly budget.

Get an Outside Opinion

Sometimes it can be hard for you to critically assess the habits that you that are contributing to you leading an unhealthy lifestyle. That’s why it’s a good idea for you to consider getting a third-party opinion. If you have a close friend, family member, or loved one that you can count on to give you the truth with no-holds barred, then you don’t need to hire a professional. However, if whoever you get to help you to assess your lifestyle is simply sugarcoating things, you may benefit from hiring a health and nutrition consultant.

Give Your All or Nothing

It is important for you to embark on this journey with the intent of giving it your all. Attempting to make any kind of changes to your daily routine and eating habits is not something that can be done successfully achieved if your whole heart is not into it. There may be times where you wake up and feel as if you are not ready to attempt these adjustments another day longer and at other times you may be eager to get started. No matter what, don’t forget to remind yourself as often as necessary of what you are trying to accomplish and why.

Stop Shopping

If you are the type of person who goes to the grocery store often, then you need to stop it. Chances are, you’re going to the store way more than you need to. Many of those trips may be because you feel hungry or are simply looking for something to do. You must work hard so you don’t give in to those urges. You also need to make sure you are properly responding to your body’s signals. You may not be feeling hungry as often as you think you are.

Watch Your Shopping Cart

Pay careful attention to what you put inside your shopping cart every time you go shopping. Avoid tossing things in it with the assumption that you’ll remove what you don’t want later. This only leads to you purchasing items that you don’t really want or need. Instead, make sure that every food item that you do put into your shopping cart is one that offers you a great assortment of nutrients. Foods made by HamptonCreek are one of many that can help you to maintain a healthy diet tastefully.

Embrace the New You

Some of the changes you’ll experience won’t happen all at once. Many of those changes will happen gradually while you are still in the midst of making more changes to your diet and health. As you become more acquainted with the new you, learn to embrace yourself. Look in the mirror and praise yourself each day about your good looks, sanity, and any progress you have made. If it is time for you to purchase new clothes because you’ve lost some weight and can no longer fit into your old ones, buy clothes that enhance your new figure.

Deposit the money you save from changing your daily habits into your savings account or retirement fund. As you start reaping the benefits from your new diet, your accounts will be reaping the benefits of your newfound spending habits so you can experience even greater rewards in the future.

Good health and good eating! Lose weight without hardly trying: 30 Pounds/4 Months.

cookbook

Budget and a Book

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Yay! It’s August 1!

Another day closer to fall, lhudly sing huzzah. But more to the point, I’ve survived the first month on the (re)budget! And I came out only $274 in the hole.

Not too bad, considering how feral my financial garden has gotten. Without the bill from WonderAccountant, I’d have seen only $72 worth of red ink, and that’s despite the $175 I diddled away on the art class.

Art class starts tomorrow…this should be interesting! It’s an indulgence, no doubt of it. But one could also regard it as an investment in sanity. I really, really need to spend more time around some human beings.

This August looks pretty positive, providing no really big unexpected bills occur. Though my estimate of $400 for summertime utilities was just about right on, gasoline cost nothing like the expected $50±. The initial $22 I spent on the first of the month lasted three weeks! I filled the tank last week, and it’s still almost full.

So if that fill-up lasts another ten days to two weeks, the gas card I have to buy this month from Costco may amount to just $25 or $30!

What that suggests, I’m thinking, is that I may only have to buy a Costco cash card to use at the pumps about once very six weeks, which would mean some months would have (wowzers!) $0.00 upfront cash outlay on gasoline.

The grocery bills were much attenuated by the charity handout at the start of July. Those people will be back at the church next Saturday, and you may be sure I’ll be first in line when they open at 7 a.m.

The grocery store bills came in $50 over budget, despite my hardly having to go into a store. But that’s still $100 less than the average $400(!!!) I found I’d been spending over the prior six months. If I can push it down to under $300, I’ll be happy…but think that’s unlikely because this month I haven’t had to buy any meat of any kind, thanks to the gigantic Costco stashes in the freezer. Well, except for meat for the dogs.

In that department, the dog food situation also devolved into a pleasant surprise. The amount I paid out for a giant package of cheapo pork and a package of chicken thighs on the fifteenth bought enough to last the dogs much, much longer than expected.

I cut the pork into easily cooked chunks and stored it in three huge Ziplock bags. We’ve used one of those and half the giant package of chicken. Still have about a day and a half of dog food from that. This afternoon, though, I’ll cook up another packet of the pork for them (mixed with other nutritional goodies). That means we’ve used less than half of the dog meat in two weeks! Significantly less. There’s a good possibility that what I have on hand will last longer than a month.

A miracle!

My plan is to make a Costco run a little later this week, maybe, and while there buy one package of chicken, which is cheap. That will insure that we won’t run out in the next month…and mean that instead of $55, in August I’ll spend about $13 on dog food. With half a bag of frozen dog veggies left, I shouldn’t need any more of those. Everything else that goes into dog food is either on hand or extremely cheap.

The power and water bills this month are going to be astronomical. I expect they’ll far exceed the allotted $400, so the limited spending on gas and dog food is a blessing. That should take up the slack, I hope.

Progress is being made on the writing & publishing book. Despite adding a couple of chapters, I’ve managed to cut the page count to under 400. Alas, though, I still have two more chapters to write. However, there’s still some unduly bloggish material that can go, so I think the final page count will be about a wash.

That’s in the current template I’m using. Its trim size is 5.5 x 8.5 inches, a standard trade paperback size. However, The Essential Feature was 7 x 10 inches.

If I set the copy in that trim size, that alone would cut the page count. So I’m thinking I may buy a another Friedlander template in the 7 x 10 trim size — he has one with the same font and overall design. That would be a lot easier than me trying to figure out the page setup, and the cost isn’t THAT much.

Only problem is, reflowing the copy into a new template will take time. And, of course, it’ll create the usual hair-tearing hassles.

However, it will take time to get speaking engagements, so there probably is time to address a new template. I need to start working on that right now, come to think of it.

Yesterday I learned that WonderAccountant’s sister works at the Small Business Administration’s downtown education center! So: a contact! Hallelujah brothers and sisters. I’m going to call down there and see if they’ll let me do a presentation — if I’m not mistaken, they have a regular roster of speakers who come in on a rotating basis. If by some miracle I could wriggle my way in there, that would soon start to create some new editorial clients.

Also need to rejoin the Chamber (argh! the time suck! money suck!!) and schmooze enough to justify asking if they’ll let me speak. Someone else suggested calling all the BNI groups in town.

Before I do that, though, I’ll need to have the dog and pony show prepared and rehearsed. And…to get the damn book in print.

Since I think it’ll only take another week or two to finish the book & its print layout, I’m prioritizing that chore. Then will get down to work on a professional presentation, which will be a project. I’m pretty comfortable speaking in front of groups, because of all the classroom experience…but because of all the classroom experience, I tend to speak off the cuff a lot. That won’t do for what I have in mind.

So, onward!

Of Weather, Dogs, Budgets, Stir-Craziness, and Taxes

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At 5:15 a.m., it’s 93 degrees on the back porch, and overcast. Was going to jump in the pool but then heard thunder and thought better of it. Turned around, came inside, fed the dogs, thought better of the better thought, ran outside, and plunged in the pool, thunder rumbling through the skies.

Leapt out, grabbed the hose, watered the withering plants, and flew back inside.

Now at least my hair is wet and braided, which will provide some convenient personal air conditioning for the next several hours.

Damn near 95 degrees at 5 in the morning means no exercise for the dogs. Cassie, with her thick coat and lion-like mane, has never been able to withstand that kind of heat for more than half a mile. Ruby probably could, but it might not be great for her. The prospect doesn’t thrill the human, either.

It means I don’t get any exercise, either. Could do some physical therapy exercises and yoga, but that ain’t the same as two brisk miles. Oh well.

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Y’know, in all the years I’ve fed my dogs Real Food, I’ve never kept track of how long a batch of cooked meat, veggies, and starch lasts. Probably scared: I don’t wanna know how much this is costing me!!

However, we now have a hint. On July 15, I made a Costco run that included a giant package of frozen dog veggies ($6.49), a lifetime supply of chicken thighs ($12.64), and a massive amount of pork ($35.55), for a total of $54.68

Divided the pork into three packages. ONE of those lasted 10 days, when cooked with a sweet potato (on hand) and a few handsful of frozen veggies. So that means the $36 worth of pork alone, in theory, should last the dogs for a month.

It’s almost the end of the month. I’ve cooked 1/3 of the pork, half of the chicken, about half the frozen veggies, and embellished the results with about one cup of rice and two sweet potatoes. We have 1½ Tupperware-type containers of chicken-based dog food left — more than enough to last past the 31st. The first chicken cooking will cover 10 days. AND we have the other half of the packaged chicken thighs, still in the freezer: another 10 days! The remaining pork will make another 20 days’ worth of dog food.

30 days: pork
20 days: chicken
50 days: total days covered by Costco run

That means $55 and change is feeding two dogs for almost two months.

Holy sh!t.  I had no idea  feeding them actual, real food was that economical.

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I’ve been adding a few bites of kibble (Whole Foods’ house brand) to both dogs’ meals, because I’ve not been confident that my dog food recipe sufficed for a puppy. (And of course Cassie will not put up with Ruby getting anything that she doesn’t get.) But now that Ruby is over two years old, she can go wholly on real food without risk. I think we’ll switch her over to 100% real food, which will cut the length of time the supply lasts by about 50%. But that should be tolerable. Especially since we won’t be buying expensive kibble.

Cassie is now 10 years old, and she’s incredibly healthy. You would never know she’s advanced in age. Her teeth are good. The terrible dog breath she had when she came to the Funny Farm is gone. No aches and pains seem to bother her. She races around the backyard with Ruby — and believe me, despite the short legs (or maybe because of them) a corgi goes like a rocket. Her coat is gorgeous. She eats well. And when the weather is tolerable, she can walk a mile at a fast clip with no problem.

My son’s dog, who gets nothing but the very best high-end kibble, has red swollen gums and bad breath. He obviously needs an expensive dental job. My son can’t afford that and so continues in denial. And (btw) that dog gets the doggywobbles every time he turns around. A vet claims this is because of a congenital intestinal problem, but that speculation has never been proven; one wonders if the issue would resolve in the absence of commercial dog food.

Cassie and Ruby eat everything in sight, and they never, ever get sick. Doggy diarrhea is rarely seen in these parts, unless one of them finds something weird to eat outdoors.

I first discovered this dawg wellness phenomenon when I started cooking Real Food for the German shepherd and the greyhound, during the late Chinese melamine fiasco. The difference in Anna, the decrepit German shepherd, was startling. She had been so crippled with age that she could barely haul herself off the floor. Shortly, she was chasing her ball around the backyard again, something she hadn’t been able to do in many months.

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The budget is looking pretty good despite some small overruns.

Last month, on the first, I bought a $50 Costco cash card, solely to buy gas. The first tank of gas lasted until just a few days ago. I now have a full tank, which will probably last until the middle of next month — especially if I opt next month’s junket to Avondale. So apparently in my dotage, it’s costing nothing like $50 a month to buy gas.

As we’ve seen, I indulged myself with a gardening purchase (the composter), which would have led to a budget overrun without the other small surprises. But that may pay for itself this winter when I use it on the proposed vegetable pots.

One reason the budget is so tight at this time of year is that the utility bills are astronomical in this heat. In the winter, though, they’ll drop to almost nothing: both electric and water will fall into pocket change category.

The reason I don’t allow the power company to prorate the electric bill is that I like having a lot of extra budgetary play in the winter, when I want to buy Christmas presents and have to pony up money for church donations. I wouldn’t feel I could afford those things if I had to pay for part of the summer bills all year round. Plus it’s a good idea to be eminently aware of how much air conditioning actually costs you at any given time…

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We’re basically heat-bound here. I feel like I’ve been in jail all summer. Choir is out during the summertime. I suppose I could go to Church on Sundays and socialize a bit…but organized religion per se is not really my thing. I commune best with the Ineffable in nature, not under a roof.  😉

With recreational shopping out (permanently, it seems), hiking out because of the heat, and the cultural scene in estivation, there’s really nothing to do here but read the news on the computer and work. Hence: a 400-page book in draft, in a matter of days. Amazingly enough.

Thank God for the swimming pool. This summer was the first in two years that I’ve been allowed to get in the water. It’s a life-saver.

Wish it had some kind of shade screen over the top, so I could swim in the heat of the day. When I was young, dumb, and didn’t give a damn, I used to drop into the pool several times a day, just to keep cool. Now…not so much. Too scared about melanoma.

Adventures in Medical Science do that to you: create fear.

The weather this summer has been a real bear, and it looks like this is going to be a permanent thing. My son figures the Valley will remain livable until the mid-2020s, which is about when we’ll run out of the water the Central Arizona Project has been quietly pumping back into the aquifer. But water or no, if this kind of heat continues, the low desert really will become uninhabitable.

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He’s talking about moving to Oregon, if his employer will allow him to work from home — as apparently is in the cards. I don’t know if I could afford to live there…the taxes, I fear, are too high.

SmartAsset.com calls Oregon “moderately friendly” for retirees. It’s a little hard to tell, though, because they don’t seem to take sales taxes into consideration. In Arizona, sales taxes are around 10% — depends on the municipality, because some cities tax food and some don’t. Property taxes are apparently higher because the cost of real estate is higher, and Oregon has no sales tax. It does have an estate tax, starting at $1 million — that presumably would not apply when I croak over. Or I could just start maxing out transfers of assets to my son before I die.

If you believe SmartAsset, it looks like Oregon is comparable to Arizona. In Oregon, you supposedly will pay $1,598 on a $40,000 income. In Arizona, the figure is $480. Huh…how do you suppose they have the chutzpah to put those two in the same category? They can’t possibly be figuring the sales taxes in there. Sales tax amounts to hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year here!

Must say that the prospect of moving across the country doesn’t appeal. I’d have to sell all my furniture, since the cost of a moving van is pretty prohibitive. Once there, I’d have to refurnish with Ikea junk or spend months searching for replacements in estate sales. Ugh! Not much fun, either way.

Heh… In the “very tax friendly” category, SmartAsset lists Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming. :-0 Talk about “out of the frying pan, into the fire!” None of those are places I would jump to live in.

Hm. Ordinary unexceptional “tax friendly”:

Colorado is considered tax-friendly: that’s interesting. I could stand to live in Colorado. None of the others appeal, though, with the possible exception of Idaho and maybe New Hampshire.

Colorado: $1,852 taxes on 40 grand. Idaho: $837. New Hampshire: $0.

Zero? What are they smoking over there at SmartAssets??

Ah: here’s the explanation: SmartAssets’ figures don’t include property taxes. Well, hell. Then their calculations mean exactly nothing. It’s the property taxes that do you in when you’re retired!

Hilarious.

All these gingery calculations you see in the media about where to retire on a shoestring are pretty silly. None of them compare apples with oranges or take all the factors into consideration. For example: how much is it going to cost you to fly back and forth to visit grandchildren? If a state doesn’t have property taxes, how is it paying for its infrastructure? You can be sure the Tooth Fairy isn’t covering the cost of roads and schools…

So, let’s move to Mexico or Colombia, hm?

Those schemes fail to mention that Medicare doesn’t cover you when you’re out of the country. And as sad as America’s healthcare system is looking, our doctors and hospitals are still a lot better than what you’ll find in most of those “affordable” countries. Assuming you survive, say, a stroke or a heart attack, how much will it cost to fly you to the US for quality care? And how much more will your care cost you after medical attention has been delayed for the period it takes you to get transportation back to Medicare Heaven?

Welp. I don’t know if Arizona will remain livable for the remainder of my assigned years. If it doesn’t, I suppose Oregon or Colorado would suffice.

Wherever my son goes…I probably would follow him. Oregon, though: that would be good.

 

Budget Grump

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So the Budget:

Not as bad as I feared, but not good. It’s the 27th, I probably won’t spend any more cash between now and the 31st, and I’m “only” $234.81 in the red.

Heh.

That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t signed up for that drawing class, to the tune of $175, and then spent another $15 for a few art supplies to refresh the collection.

Also got a whopping bill from the accountant — but it covers several months of bookkeeping. And of course the utility bills are out of sight this month: over $400.

Essentially what it all means is that the budget is so tight, there is exactly zero (0.00) room for entertainment that costs anything at all. Ditto clothing, eating out, or any other indulgences.

There’s a slightly different way of looking at it, though, that leaves me in the black: I prorated the annual amounts due for insurance and taxes, subtracting the monthly figure from the monthly budget. Of course, nothing left the checking account for these amounts: they’re paid once a year. Monthly, those figures come to $543.

So…if you don’t add those in to the amount I actually live on, I’m in the black.

But if you regard it as money that’s out the door…then I’m in the red.

I figure the taxes and insurance have to be paid in any event. I get a set amount per year, not per month, to live on. So it’s a wash: if I subtract $543 x 12 ($6516!!!) from the annual amount available, then I would just end up with a monthly budget that’s $543 less than what I’ve figured.

So it’s the same: I’m $235 in the hole: in the red in six out of 20 categories.

Only $40 over budget for groceries; that’s not bad, since I cut $100 off the average amount I found I’d been spending over the past six months.

Managed to stay out of Costco all month.

Spent $160 at Amazon — that would include the composter, which undoubtedly comes under the heading of “unnecessary.”

But think of that: one small indulgence, to say nothing of two, and I’m underwater.

Oh, well. Life is short. Eternity is long.

Don’t wanna work Tuesday meets the Green Thumb Lady

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Asparagus_officinalis0bHm. The attitude seems not to have improved much since yesterday. Tsk tsk!

However, the house is ridiculously clean. The trash is hauled out. The pool has been backwashed. The new composter has been fed. And this morning I speedwalked something in excess of two miles.

LOL! If exercise were good for you, wouldn’t you think I’d feel less crabby?

Quick run to the grocer to pick up ONLY what was on the accrued list: $22 worth. Not bad. If I could stay out of Costco, I think, except for maybe one or at most two runs per month, a great deal of cash would be saved.

Here’s th’thing: Remember that food windfall, the one that struck at the beginning of the month? Well, it took the better part of a day and a half to cook all that stuff up and stash it in the freezers.

But I’m STILL EATING IT!

And it’s still awesome. Had some of the eggplant lasagne this morning. Right now I’m waiting for some spaghetti to get limp, so I can dump the rest of the home-made delicious tomato sauce over it, with a few olives.

Yesterday I reheated some grilled summer squash on the grill next to a slab of defrosted Costco salmon — great! Several of the pretty little stuffed acorn squash are still in the freezer — one piece of those is enough for a full meal, especially when served with a salad.

The vegetable soup is BEYOND awesome when you heat a few frozen scallops with it. That’s as in “deliciousness that defies belief.” I’ve tried it with some shrimp, too: also good, but not as amazing as scallops.

There’s still a little of the gazpacho, whose flavor seems to improve with aging in the fridge.

Truth to tell, I’ve had to buy relatively little food for myself this month. Of course, as we know we still have the stock of frozen meat and fish unearthed when I cleaned the freezer. That won’t last forever. But for the nonce, it’s supplementing all those veggies very handsomely.

It looks a great deal to me like I probably will have to buy no more or almost no more food for the rest of the month. So even though I’m about to exceed this month’s grocery-store budget, it may not be by much.

Stumbling around the Safeway’s produce department this ayem, I come upon an unprepossessing lady. We inspect the asparagus. I turn up my nose: it’s too mature, too fat. She says it’s perfect. Each to her own, think I.

But then…oh, yes…THEN she remarks that the asparagus in her garden looks like these spears.

What?

Say what?

I think she’s talking about a winter garden and start to talk about my plans for this fall. No. It quickly becomes clear that she is talking about asparagus that is growing in her garden right this effing minute

Yeah? Holy sh!t, I think. She forgot to take her meds this morning! My mother grew up on a dirt farm in upstate New York, a place where snow fell extravagantly when she was a child. She used to talk about going into the forest in the springtime to harvest wild asparagi. I figure that means asparagus grows in cool to temperate climates.

My new acquaintance continues. She explains that she gardens in moveable containers, allowing her to shift various vegetables venues as the weather changes. She moves the “roots,” as she calls the underground part of these creatures, into the shade as summer is y-cumin’ in.

We continue to chat. We discover that neither of us can get a decent tomato to grow in North Central, even though we both were able to elicit magnificent tomatoes in other parts of town. We concur in thinking this to be suspicious.

I learn that she grows a LOT of amazing stuff in containers that she can move with the seasons. And I think…yeah.

At home, I discover that by God, you can grow asparagus in Arizona. WHO KNEW?

How can I count the ways that I can’t wait until the new compost is composted and the weather cools off enough to start digging up the ground and dumping dirt in pots?

Meanwhile, though, werk awaits, oh god how i hate werking.

This book marketing stuff is every bit as boring, as pointless, and as frustrating as teaching freshman comp. But adjunct teaching at least pays almost minimum wage.

I spent about half the day posting ads for the upcoming book sales, which start July 21. To wit:

Cookbook

Naughty June 2016

I’ve stuck these up on every electronic pillar and post I can think of: that would be eight or nine (I’ve lost count) Facebook groups, Twaddle, and my own fine blogsites.

Interestingly a surprising number of friends and total strangers have “liked” and (better yet) “retweeted” or “shared” the things. So I hope against hope that maybe someone will buy the stuff. We’ll find out. And we’ll believe it when we see it. 😀

Getting these things online is frustrating, annoying, and (as usual) effing time-consuming, because no two FB sites are the same. On one, you can post the URL and the desired image will pop right up. On another, no image will come up, so you have to go click-search-click-search-click-click-click-ad-nauseam-search-click-click to get jpeg up. On yet another, an image will come up but will be decidely NOT the goddamn image you want, so you’ll have to delete that image (without deleting the damn post) and go click-search-click-search-click-click-click-ad-nauseam-search-click-click to get correct jpeg up.

All of this is, shall we say, infinitely annoying, boring, and stupid. It feels especially stupid because you suspect that sinking four or five of your $60 hours into this endeavor will reward you with cash receipts of approximately $1.09.

Just share the damn things, will you puhleeeze?

Reading the national and international gnus is one long aggravation. I hope you’ve been duly entertained by the Trump doxie’s plagiarism of Mrs. Obama’s 2008 speech. Please, God: pour me another bourbon and water…

Incompetence, crookedness, and a total vacancy of ethics notwithstanding, the currently incompetent, crooked, and vacant Republican Party has made Bozo the Clown its nominee for President of the United States of America.

One more b&w, please, Mr. God?

Oh sh!t. Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

 

Budget Mini-Update

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grocery-bag-261x300-mdSo how’s the new budget working? Not all that bad, I suppose. But not great. On Friday we’ll be two weeks into the thing. I’ve managed to stay out of Costco for that entire time, but will make a small Costco run the day after tomorrow to pick up dog meat, dog veggies, and a couple of small things for myself.

The big problem: groceries. I budgeted $300 for the month, but as of today am already up to $267. But that includes a bottle of Maker’s Mark: stupidly, I bought a small bottle for $30 rather than spending $40 at Total Wine or Costco for one that holds three times as much sauce. For $10 more, I could have bought enough whiskey to last three or four months instead of one or two.

Penny-wise and pound foolish… 🙄

And it also includes two big rolls — $26 worth — of expensive dog food. The last of these will run out on the 15th, which is the occasion for the planned Costco run.

But…$26 + $30 is only $56. If I hadn’t bought those, I still would have spent $211 of the budgeted $300, with two full weeks left to go. It’s unlikely I could stay under $300 this month, at that rate.

That is after having bought 60 pounds of produce for $10.

HowEVER…I have spent exactly NONE of the $150 budgeted for Costco this month. I’ll need a package of chicken thighs, a package of bulk pork, a package of “Tuscan” style frozen vegetables (no corn, no onions: big!), and I’d like to get a container of those wonderful Campari tomatoes and a container of six glorious golden Mexican mangoes.

Offhand I don’t recall how much the frozen veggies are — about $15, I’d guess. The giant packages of chicken and of pork? About $30 apiece…so we’re at $75…then the tomatoes and the mangoes, let’s say about ten bucks apiece for those, though I think they’re cheaper: $95 for the projected Costco run.

If I don’t set foot in a Costco between Friday and August 1, that leaves $55 to spend on food for the rest of the month. In theory.

And, in theory, the only food I should have to buy for the rest of the month is the occasional fresh produce.

When the weather cools down, I’ve GOTTA build a raised garden out in back and plant some food in it. Just some lettuce and some spinach would go a long way toward keeping me out of grocery stores.

At any rate, there are several other categories where I’ve spent nothing: incidental medical bills, Amazon,  clothing. That creates $75 of slack that could (theoretically) be spent on groceries. EXCEPT…that “incidental medical bills” is an average that includes the semiannual dentist visit, among other things. Next week I have to go in to get my teeth cleaned: that’ll be a hundred bucks. So…in reality there’s $200 p.a./12 – $17 less available (since $16.666 a month is a permanent drain on the annual amount available for living expenses): $75 – $17 + ($300-$267) = $91 left to buy groceries this month.

BUT utility bills came to $418, exceeding the budgeted $400 for summer bills by $18. So in reality I have $73 to cover food for the rest of the month.

This, apparently, is not gonna work.