Window Shopper

We have contemplated moving several times since we came to live in the house we currently live. Every time we do that, it occurs to me why I hate moving. For one thing, we are not the spring chickens we used to be. Years ago, it was a whole lot easier to move from one place to another. For another, we have no help whatsoever. We must do this ourselves. ACK!

For what it’s worth, I will move when we find just the right place, right price and the right location. I will hate the process but I will do the deed. At some point, I would like to have the money so that we could hire someone to do the moving for us. Now that is a wonderful idea well worth exploring. See, I hate to pack and move because packing requires all those shipping boxes be packed and labeled. And what happens? For some odd reason, I tend to forget what’s in them. It then becomes a trial and error system to find the one thing I knew was packed but not where it was packed.

If we had someone else packing and shipping everything, it would be even worse, don’t you think? I mean, at least if I had to pack it, there is a slight shot I would remember WHERE. If someone else does it, there is no possibility of me knowing and then it’s a mystery to be solved. Hey, I can live with that! Mystery. I like it. Let’s move. When can we get started?

With all the prices rising faster than you can catch a paycheck, shopping is becoming a nightmare. I am willing to bet that you have the same problem. You walk into the same store you visited a few days ago. The prices on several of those “have to have” items are now higher, blowing any shot of you keeping to your budget this month. I had that same problem just a few days ago. The worst part is that those were the items that had not changed prices in many months.

The truth is that most of the rules about shopping are going out the window. Price hikes are frequent and sometimes debilitating to the budget. Regardless of what you previously knew about shopping, it is now time to click into survival mode. Most of the time your budget will be trashed until you can get a handle on all this. It worked that way with us and we were practically doing all that anyway. Those little extras have to wait or have to go bye bye.

The reality is that you have to save where you can, pinch the pennies just as hard as they can be pinched, get the best deals in the closest places to save gas. For years, we have gone 50 miles north to a store that had much better prices for the things we bought. In fact, they have a number of items we cannot get anywhere else. If we can still afford it, we will still go there. It will be a stretch. I do not intend to give that up easily. If you have such a store, calculate the cost of the gas into your budget and decide if it costs too much to do that. If so, then you will have to find a good store closer to your home. We do not have that option at this time. We are hopeful that the company will build one of their stores near us.

We have found that it is very important to limit trips anywhere. We now do all of our shopping along with doctor trips, visits to family and so on. I know that some people didn’t see the need for that before. Since we live in a rural area, everything is a long way away, several miles in fact. We stay at home a whole lot now, only venturing out when necessary. Yes, shopping is turning into a nightmare but you and I can survive if we simply do those things that will compact everything into a few trips instead of a trip at a time. That saves gas too.

Every year, we see the ads in the paper for the county fair that starts sometime very soon. The kids love to go to it. I used to but these days I don’t really want to walk through all that noise and people. The rides used to be so much fun but that was years ago. The real reason I would go in the last few years is because of the exhibits and the great stuff you can get or sign up for. Every year they have these booths that promote products for you to try out. I love it when they have all those promotional products because you can at least see how they operate and how it might fit into your life.

I’ve gone to more county fairs and state fairs than I really want to admit to through the years. It used to be so exciting when I was still a teen. These days, it just seems to be too hot to go. But maybe this year we will venture out and check out all those products and services again. I do miss doing that. It was so much fun.

A few months ago, we had a full refrigerator and full cupboards. Then a sort of money drought happened around the same time we were able to help someone have a place to stay. Do you know what happens when more food goes out of the fridge than goes in it? Big, raging holes of nothing are in the fridge. That’s what happens. No one is at fault, mind you. It’s just that way.

At the moment, I feel like the Old Mother Hubbard though I hope I ain’t that old. But the cupboards are certainly looking a tad more bare than usual. And now, the big question is….what happens when people know that the cupboards are getting bare and some of the things they usually have available no longer are available? I can tell you! Voracious appetite hits. When that happens, you get bad attitudes. ACK! You know what I think? People ought to get on Phentermine 37.5 mg because that would take care of voracious appetite syndrome. I do believe that’s what it is.

These more than sane people usually could care less about those things sitting in the fridge and the cupboards. Those items could sit there until they were out of date on the label. I am not kidding here. But let there be a few holes in the items in there and you get insanity!!! Okay, I am done hollering about it now. Oh, hey what about that cupcake that was in there? I want it!!! Wait! No!! NO!! Don’t take that! It’s MINE! Rats. It’s gone. Somebody got it first. Sigh.

The year I graduated, lots of things happened. The Prom. Dates to the park and the movies. Yeah, I know. Not all that exciting. Those were not the most exciting times…unless, of course, you are a girl who is finally dating the guy she wanted to date for years. That makes it pretty exciting, wouldn’t you say? We did get to the prom. I had an awesome dress! Beautiful night. We danced for what seemed like hours, then went out to eat with another couple to a great place. I say that with all the straight face I can.

The place where we went to eat requires a reservation so you might figure it’s classy, right? Thought so too since my parents and I had been there several times prior to my date there. It was always nice….until. After the waiter took our orders, we talked about the prom, well, we girls did. Frankly, I have no idea what the guys talked about. But we were interrupted several times by the guy vacuuming the floor next to our table. Are you serious? We could not believe how rude the guy was. But I guess he wanted to go home and we were stopping him. Not just us, of course. There were other diners. We laugh about that night now. Well, my husband and I laugh about it. Not the guy I went with. I have no idea where he is now.

Ya know, if I had known then what I know now, I would have taken that brand new luggage I got for a graduation present, gotten into a car and taken off to see the world or at least the portion of it that I could get to then. Surely there were some places out there that served good food AND had their vacuuming already done. Don’t you think so? The memories get a bit hazy over the years but I really do not think I will ever forget about that date and the night of the great vacuum caper. LOL!

I had to check this out for myself but it looks to be a good plan. So many families are going under because they are paying things that will not matter and do not pay things that really do matter. People need a place to live. They need food. They need to have lights and water. They need to have heat in the winter and, frankly, these days with the weather outside looking the way it does, they need the air conditioning as well. It is no longer an option. Now it’s a necessity.

But you can do some things to help your family. These are just suggestions. They are not a rule of thumb or any type of real advice since everyone’s situation is different. These things may not have anything to do with your situation at all. But if this is good for you, then it helps.

1) Deal with credit card debt. Pay the bills on that because the interest rate is going to kill you financially if you don’t. When the things are paid off, CUT THEM UP!!! Get rid of them. They are a huge part of the problem.

2) Pay what you need to have….utility bills are top of the list there. Also, your rent or mortgage is very important. If you don’t pay that, you won’t have to worry about utility bills. As homeless people you won’t have any. If your bills or mortgage are out of control, contact those whom you owe. They will work with you. DON’T IGNORE THIS! The bills do not go away magically. Things get shut off or you become homeless. That should not be an option.

3) For those who use heating oil or propane, contact your company and see if they have an incentive plan to pay for the oil or propane in the summer time when the prices are lower. Most places have such plans. Then, in the winter when the prices are way higher, you will get the fill up for the summer rates. The risk is that the price will go down but since that is highly unlikely, it’s worth the risk.

4) You can do things around the house to lower your heating and cooling bills by simply..in winter, lowering your thermostat a couple of degrees. Believe me, you get used to it. We did. In the summer, raise the thermostat a couple of degrees. This will save you some money. That bill is going to be high enough.

5) Insulate if at all possible. That will cut down on your loss to the outside.

6) Prioritize what is needed and what is not. Be brutal if you have to. No one needs that many snacks or cokes. Do you really need that extra cell phone? Does your cable or satellite have to have all those extra channels? Stepping down one level on either of those will save you quite a bit of money. Must the family eat out all those times? Go back to home cooking. There’s a benefit. You have family meals again.

It’s getting so that people are desperate now. I understand that. But it’s time to get in there and find ways to survive all this. With families helping each other, this can work. People don’t always have to lose out.

I think I mentioned a while back that we had a new puppy. She was new at 5 weeks old. Now she’s over three months old and no longer new in the house. In fact, I’m pretty sure she decided to take the place over. We do have a problem or two since she seems to want to be in charge. Yes, I know. We are the humans and the adults here so we are naturally the ones in charge of the house. Got it. Well, we do have it until the puppy decides to whine. Believe me here. This pup whines with the best of them. And she does not simply whine for one thing. Oh no. She whines to go out, to get food in her bowl, to get noticed by any of us who are willing to play with her and whines to simply get attention.

Want to know what her last adventure was? Yeah, I didn’t either but that’s life. Now we have three computers in our house. All of the plugged into a wall socket. All of them have wires running everywhere. And she is a puppy. Starting to get the picture? Uh huh. When we caught her, she had been chewing on the latest edition of the CAT5e cable coming off the back of the computer. I’m not even sure how she got back there in the first place. She is getting really BIG! At three months old, I believe that she probably weighs in around 25-30 lbs. How can a puppy that weight get into the place she was in to do all that? I guess that’s another mystery of life.

The fact is, I start out a whole lot of my posts here with “when I was a kid”, so much so that I do not want to do that here, this time. So, when my niece was younger….HA!…she wanted to win. It did not matter what, she just wanted to win. The problem was that her sisters were all older than she and they DIDN’T want her to win…anything. Quite often, there’d be crying because she didn’t get to win a game. It got to the point that her sisters didn’t want to play games with her anymore.

That was a tough time for her. Well, she was desperate to win something. After all, all of her sisters could do it with various competitions and games. Striving to get the best score on all sorts of things, she could win and some things. Over the years, of course, she got a lot better at these things and she does win now, sometimes. It’s as it should be. But back when she was about 8, I think, she got a Rubis, excuse me, Rubics Cube for Christmas. We told her how to work the cube and what it took to get the colors all in the right places. One day, she brought out her Cube and gave it to me. She told me proudly that she got it all right. I took one look and knew just what she had done. She had peeled off all the colors and replaced them so that she got all the colors matching where they should be. Trouble was that those stickers no longer were sticking. *grin*

Ever heard that phrase before? I have…all my life. Sometimes it was me that had someone saying that. The truth is that I am a klutz. That would be why when I go shopping, I do not pick up many items, especially the really breakable items. Yes, on occasion, I am having to pay for something that I would need to fix if I wanted to keep it myself. Not so much of that anymore but before, when I was a teenager….ACK!

Most teenage girls are so graceful you would think they were taught by the models of the world to stand, sit and walk into a room. Me? When I was a teen, I galloped into the room. If I could have neighed, most people wouldn’t have been able to tell. You know, that it wasn’t a horse. You had to make me say it, right?

These days, the klutz part is a bit dampened down, I think. I only drop the keys when we’re headed out the door, in the car and when I want to put them away. Not nearly as bad as it used to be. Still, the klutz part of me wants to be just like everyone else. Now wait a minute. I have to think about that one. I can tell you for a fact that I happen to be a super klutz. Oh yeah? Don’t believe me? Have you ever seen a Cobra golf? Uh huh. That bad. In one day, I probably wiped out several items treasured by people. I simply will not go into an antique store anymore…that is, if I don’t get banned.

Am I really that bad? I would like to think that this post is really just a spoof but I can’t tell you that. Oops, there goes my keys again. They sure are slippery today. Sigh.

My husband has a blog that deals with cooking, recipes and lots of things to do with the kitchen. And he has a list of the other cooking blogs that he likes. Through all of it, one of the things I like so much are the chocolate recipes. And that is a problem in itself. I love chocolate! Love the recipes for brownies and other recipes that use chocolate. I also love raspberry recipes. They’re so great.

I do think there is a problem though. With our family seeing these recipes and trying them out, we could have real sugar issues some time. But also, we do see that there are other things that we cannot ignore. I mean, you know what it was like to be a teenager, right? I remember. Most of us had to battle the big zit problem one way or another. And with all those chocolate recipes, our niece will be looking for acne solutions sooner rather than later if this keeps up. So, we have decided that he can write the recipes but we can’t always try the recipes like we would love to do. And that can be the best solution for us right now. But I do miss my chocolate. Sigh.