Pre-pandemic, I had booked a trip to Europe with travel to Iceland and England. It was supposed to be a celebratory trip to mark my starting to be fully self-employed. To celebrate that I can set my own hours and take vacation whenever I wanted for however long I wanted. No more applications for leave to be approved! I had really been looking forward to it. It was supposed to happen in August. My sister and her family were to have joined me for a portion of it. 
Needless...
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This is actually a test post to see if it takes.
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???
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I continue to use up food I have here at home.  I wanted something other than soup/stew for dinner tonight, so I pulled a 1/2 chicken breast out of my 10-1b Costco frozen chicken breast pack and defrosted it today.   I spiced it up with seasonings and added some rosemary, thyme ( these were leftovers spices that I froze from the prime rib a few weeks ago- just learned I could freeze them!!), butter and lemon juice.  Its baking now.  (smells yummy) I am...
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Last Sunday, I ran to Walmart to pick up just a few supplies to get me through the week and on my way home, my car died.  It would start, but then immediately shut down.  Of course, the hub is on rotation in Alaska...so I rummaged through my car paperwork and found the roadside assistance information, that I honestly had forgotten I even had.  (It was a free perk when I bought the car and never gave it a second thought, actually.)  I called the number, and YES,...
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I MISS my community...what the heck!  (testing)
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Testing
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Thank you all so much for the warm welcome! I read all your comments, thoughts, and suggestions! They were very appreciated!
I actually wrote this last week and tried posting it several times, but with all the issues the site was having, it got lost somewhere in the interwebs.
After reading some of the comments I was a little concerned that I painted too dire a picture of our financial situation.
 
Although I HATE our debt, I want to be clear that we are not struggling...
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$324.12 Tithe
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
__75.00 Household Envelope
_280.00 Monthly chiropractor family plan
_600.00 Autopays
__71.99 Life Insurance DH
__60.46 Life Insurance Me
_100.00 Adult Spending Money
_120.00 Kid Allowances
1000.00 Mattress Fund
_100.00 Car Maintenance Fund
------------------------------------------
$3149.57 Total Money Out
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I had $92.00 left in the grocery envelope from last payday, so that I moved that over into the freezer fund envelope.  Consistently squeezing money out of my grocery budget is working really well to save for this.  I am really starting to see some progress and am 2/3 of the way to my goal amount of $1100.  Then all I have to do is hope that by the time I get there, they actually have freezers available in the stores again.
 
$700.00 Balance Forward
+_92.00...
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Hopefully this site is working now. I hate to complain, but I lost entire blog (years worth of entries) a while back and was never able to get it back. Then, I get flagged as a spammer and I was unable to write entries a little while ago. Somehow I managed to get it resolved.  
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Hi everyone,
I’ve decided to leave Saving Advice, I’ve been blogging since 2006. It sadden me that this has come to this but the site is not what it use to be. 
 
There’s too many problems, the inability to post constantly drive me nuts. 
 
Periodically I’ll stop by to check in; however, I’m giving up the blog on a regular basis. 
 
I’m sharing my email address, below if anyone wants to stay in contact. 
 
AmberSavingAdvice@outlook.com
 
 
Lastly,...
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Did we find a new site to use yet?
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Is this working now?
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I had a package of red beans in the cupboard and a ham hock in the freezer, so the first bean soup will be red beans and ham. I plan to toss in a yellow onion, celery and carrots in the morning. I will also post the seasoning I add in my post tomorrow. The bean soup should last me all weekend, and maybe into next week.

I picked up a brick of yeast at Costco today. I read that you can freeze this after opening to stretch the usage life. So I will be making some crusty bread...
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That’s the number I got today for my latest Experian report. Only 2 points from perfect!
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My dad is doing better. He got a shot in his shoulder & prescription Naproxen (Aleve, but stronger). I picked up his medication & a few grocery items for my mom after his appt. He said he was feeling a little better by the time I left that evening. The next morning when I called he was out in the yard using his blower. He seemed to be doing fine when I dropped off some food for them today.


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