Communication

What did we ever do before cell phones? I take mine with me all the time and feel nervous if I forget it. I always think, "What if I have car trouble?"

My Sis, on the other hand, rarely takes hers with her. While she's at home, she has it turned off. While she's shopping, it stays at her house. In fact, even when I know for sure she should have it with her and turned on. often as not, she doesn't.

I, though, always have mine. I don't even have a traditional land line in my home. No, I take that back. There is a line, I just don't have a regular phone to  plug into the service. I only use the internet portion of it.

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Odd coins

Working in a restaurant as a manager means I count money several times a day. When I start my shift. When I get smaller change for the order taker. When I'm taking orders and giving change. When I make out a deposit. I see all kinds of money, all US, of course.

Lately, we've been getting a lot of gold dollars. At first, I thought I might collect them. However, they are so common now that I just add them to the deposits since I don't like them in the drawers.

From time to time we get Canadian currency or what seems to be military coins. We even occasionally receive coins from South of the Border and tokens from toll booths. I am not really sure why anyone would accept these since they are worthless to us. I suppose the person taking the money just wasn't paying attention.

Once, a couple of years ago, we got what appeared to be $10 gold coins. It turns out they were worthless. Just something made for "fun" or something. I'm just glad I wasn't the one who accepted them. There were about $50 worth of them that had to be paid back by the person who did accept them!

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It's been a day

As usual on days when I open, I got up at 3 AM. What was unusual was the fact that since Son now has a job, but no transportation, he had to get up as well and ride with me.

Around 8, he left my workplace in my vehicle to go to his job, then returned around noon to pick me up. His day, unfortunately, wasn't over yet. I took him back to work, came home to take care of Dog, then went back to town to run a couple of errands and wait for him to get off. I had thought he'd be off around 5, but he informed me it would be 6 instead.

He was worn out when we finally got home. I'm so glad we had leftovers from last night's supper to eat tonight. I don't think either of us was up to cooking anything. But, at least he is back at a job now.

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Retirement

It seems that the Social Security administration will allow seniors a cost of living allowance raise. The COLA won't be much and I've read that their Medicare insurance will go up, consuming any raise they get.

This might be a prime time for seniors to consult a professional about their Medicare part D plans to see if there is anything that can be done. My dear Mother is on Social Security, and truthfully, if it weren't for my sister living next door, Mom would be in dire straits by now.

I don't believe Social Security was really designed to be the total income for retirees, but rather a supplement so that families could help the elders in their families without having to sell the whole farm and go bankrupt. Maybe I'm wrong, but with fewer paying into the system, and more retirees drawing from it, it could be time for families to ante up and help their elder family members.

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Feeling the pinch

Gas prices keep going up. That's not really big news, is it? Along with gas prices, grocery prices and other goods are also going up. Everything has a direct correlation with gas prices since transportation of goods depends on fuel.

Whether goods are shipped by truck, train, river barge, or plane, fuel is involved.  How has this impacted you?

I can tell you now, it's impacted a lot of my purchases. Because I have to spend more for gas, I spend less on groceries, paper goods, and other things. In that sense, the high gas prices have actually slowed economic recovery since gas isn't figured into the equation -- only consumer goods are.

If millions of people across the country are doing what I am doing, then spending at retailers has dropped and will continue to drop as gas prices go up.

For nutrition, this means more people will be eating some less nutritious food simply because they can't afford to buy anything else. They will be purchasing cheaper, less quality paper goods, too. Families will reassess their budgets to see what they can cut. Entertainment and new clothes or shoes will probably be the first to go in order to simply keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

This could also lead to folks dropping their internet, phone, cable, or satellite services just so they can afford to pay the electric and water bills.

Gas prices affect everything.

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Let the growing begin!

This has been a busy day outdoors. Son and I raked leave into piles, away from the clothesline. We also trimmed tiny limbs from trees as high as he could reach to allow more sunlight into the backyard area. I'm sure there is more trimming to be done, though, and maybe even a couple of small trees taken out.

We filled several containers with layers of topsoil, manure, compost, and potting soil for planting. We also topped off one of the raised beds and half the other one. Only half because half of it already has lettuce growing.

We planted seedling cabbage and broccoli, covering them with plastic and anchoring it down to help them grow for the next couple of weeks. I got my seed potatoes cut up and they should be ready to plant in the morning.

I went back outside after a hearty mid-afternoon meal and planted carrot, beet, and radish seeds, as well as some more onion sets and some garlic. The onions I planted a couple of weeks ago are about 3 inches tall. Spacing out the planting will help ensure a continuing harvest of fresh green onions. I'll leave some of them in the beds to grow into large onions.

I am companion planting a lot of things to make the best use of the limited soil and containers I have. I ran out of topsoil and potting soil today, so I'll get more over the weekend to finish filling containers. What I had on hand was enough to do what I wanted today. I still have lots of manure left to add, too.

I love gardening!

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Frugal gardening

OK, so I'm a cheapskate and I know it, but Son doesn't have to remind me! I'm just joking, and so is he, of course, but being a cheapskate is akin to an art form with me.

To give you an example, I recently used a plastic 32 ounce cup from a fast food place to make plant identifier spikes for my seedlings. I cut off the rim and the bottom, then cut strips from the cup. I cut those in half and made points on one end of the smaller strips. Now, I have a way to write the name of the seedlings and poke them into the seedling trays so that later I'll know what's growing.

Most mail and unneeded papers and receipts are dutifully shredded and added to the compost heap, along with egg shells and veggie/fruit waste, coffee grounds (with the filters), and tea bags. I also add leaves and grass clippings, and even fallen, rotten tree limbs to the heap. After all year of doing that, the heap is still only about a foot deep, which means the goodies at the bottom are decomposing just the way I want them to.

I'll be turning the pile and mixing the bottom layer with manure, topsoil, and potting soil for my garden beds and containers.

I've saved foam egg cartons so that my seedlings can be put in those after they've sprouted and are touching the top of the mini-greenhouses. Then, it's an easy move for them to be put into peat pots, then later into the ground, without much stress on them. By the way, planting from seed is the very cheapest way to have veggies in the garden. Plants can be a couple of dollars a 4-pack. I've spent under $20 and so far have about $44 worth of plants, not counting the ones I just planted today!

I'm not a cheapskate. I'm thrifty. I'm frugal. I'm discerning.

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Like fine wine...

My Sis and I recently celebrated our birthdays. She is 10 years older than I, and her birthday is 10 days before mine. Weird coincidence, huh?

We don't go all out for gifts. Her gift to me was a new hairstyle, which I got at the hairdresser she uses. I like it, and will continue to have my hair cut this way. In fact, I have an appointment this Friday, which will be when I'm in her town for a visit.

We are both long past figuring out creative 50th birthday gifts. My next birthday I'll be 60. That seems pretty old when I see it in writing like this! Still, I'm a fairly healthy person, I'm still working, and I'm still making plans for gardens and my future.

I would love to retire at 60 and draw widow's benefits, but I'll have to see how my finances and the economy go when that time comes. Maybe I can work part time and still draw the benefits. I just don't know yet. Or, maybe I can do more at-home work (online stuff, eBay, etc.) and still make a decent living without having to go to a regular job every day.

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Collectibles anyone?

I read MoneyNing's blog faithfully via email updates. It covers a broad spectrum of financial advice and there is always something every week that I can apply to my own finances. This morning, I read the Personal Finance blog on collectibles, and even left a comment (which I do from time to time).

Part of what I commented was this:

If there is something you really love and enjoy owning, then that should be your collection. It may be that eventually, your collections will be valuable, but to go out looking for a lot of junk you really don’t like that well means you will eventually just discard it for nothing. People become experts on what they love the most, and that’s where collections spring from.

Right now, I have some McDonald's toys that really caught my eye. They are from the series a couple of years ago of Wizard of Oz characters and were manufactured by the Madam Alexander toy company. Did I get them because I thought of their increased value later? No. I got them because they are unusually lovely, well made, and reminded me of viewing the movie from days when I was a child.

More  recently, McDonald's had little stuffed animals that have velcro on their paws so they can "hug" a pencil or something else. I got the full set and put them on my Christmas tree. Not because they might increase in value, but because they are so darned cute! They have such sweet faces and really added to the tiny tree I put up each year.

Are you collecting anything? Collections ought to spring from things you really love to look at, not from what certain experts say is a good investment. If you don't love it, leave it. Collectibles are a very "iffy" way to invest money, so just enjoy the things you are collecting. Maybe someday they'll be valuable to someone else, but for now, they are valuable to you!!

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