tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44361550357407780982024-03-27T23:30:19.386-07:00Cash Only LivingLiving cash only and debt free!Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.comBlogger1805125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-91479397534176875372024-03-24T17:05:00.000-07:002024-03-24T17:05:13.205-07:00Happy Holy Week!<p>Although we don't do much for Holy Week (hubby hasn't been in a Catholic church for more than 40 years), it is a big deal to some of our friends. Today is Palm Sunday and next Sunday will be Easter (again, we don't really do anything for this holiday as the kids and grandkids are all far away). </p><p>Here is the mommy cat...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjKukQw6_t3yAbA9-OE8kOdYtkVEvEjJJ8A01UIsrafqf7zVIjhoD_iYkIZROCR4EO7RCp_dJHwVBQ4MGZMoEiwKaUy65todyJni-dHHmQmHfAWIDc9GmrCYh4n57KjdqRhvsWZt4SPtz8T0YTXTeCPzmBFbUl5becjARyzc46w_Tcz2Kc7h6MzACQNfc/s4000/20240322_085800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1848" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjKukQw6_t3yAbA9-OE8kOdYtkVEvEjJJ8A01UIsrafqf7zVIjhoD_iYkIZROCR4EO7RCp_dJHwVBQ4MGZMoEiwKaUy65todyJni-dHHmQmHfAWIDc9GmrCYh4n57KjdqRhvsWZt4SPtz8T0YTXTeCPzmBFbUl5becjARyzc46w_Tcz2Kc7h6MzACQNfc/w296-h640/20240322_085800.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><p>I probably jinxed myself when I raved about the warm weather because the cold and clouds rolled in today...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo1H4jki7r3BLwZk7zhVvvwSB9u0SDTNePaGbBTVe0a0-7bgiLA86mtbGlsk77GwCFPYUNknd2cxXwP85TdRbZrZcWGWKyIo-bQgako-cbfkKXlm_uZeVBX9vkXDWUt2XZ8pshAq0yJZf-yq42JKq5U0wr86-rFlZuv6EKtCHkn7XIPQNXqecGUtnl3uE/s4000/20240324_120353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo1H4jki7r3BLwZk7zhVvvwSB9u0SDTNePaGbBTVe0a0-7bgiLA86mtbGlsk77GwCFPYUNknd2cxXwP85TdRbZrZcWGWKyIo-bQgako-cbfkKXlm_uZeVBX9vkXDWUt2XZ8pshAq0yJZf-yq42JKq5U0wr86-rFlZuv6EKtCHkn7XIPQNXqecGUtnl3uE/w640-h296/20240324_120353.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>And I have no idea what to make about the Princess Kate situation. Some people are saying her cancer video was made by AI. I looked at other examples of AI-generated videos and I am shocked at how real they are! Examples <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/tom-cruise-deepfake-sings-hold-me-closer-paris-hilton-1235159454/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/06/07/simon-cowell-performs-onstage-americas-got-talent-deepfake-orig-aw.cnn" target="_blank">here</a>. If these are glimpses of the future, I don't like it :/</p><p><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/see-upcoming-worm-moon-lunar-160029333.html" target="_blank">Tonight is the full moon (worm moon) and there will also be a lunar eclipse</a>. I'm definitely going to check it out this evening/early morning!</p><p>Finally, <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/daily-frugal-habits-biggest-impact/" target="_blank">here are 30 frugal tips.</a></p><p><br /></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-25189481649178112212024-03-22T17:28:00.000-07:002024-03-22T17:28:44.917-07:0010 Things From This Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuXw-nJei_bfQJBsA2KMHjjNtwA6sMxcBtyezXFkfJ7LHUSN9f4ZEui68G6T2c9903QFxEHEpoqpIUBRwqcwtdYOAebFvcievIkIyqY65HP-8AMOYuGZkpQFeSVRkoasH9HjuGZpukGYvjaNU6kUSmZ5BoZnzyLIbkirKUAlrxAGZpVd49lB08pQNvQ0/s2000/Resized_20240318_134350_1710972117500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="934" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuXw-nJei_bfQJBsA2KMHjjNtwA6sMxcBtyezXFkfJ7LHUSN9f4ZEui68G6T2c9903QFxEHEpoqpIUBRwqcwtdYOAebFvcievIkIyqY65HP-8AMOYuGZkpQFeSVRkoasH9HjuGZpukGYvjaNU6kUSmZ5BoZnzyLIbkirKUAlrxAGZpVd49lB08pQNvQ0/w298-h640/Resized_20240318_134350_1710972117500.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><p>It's been a busy week...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Hubby took the last lemon off the tree and boy was it a big one! It's about four times bigger than the other lemons we got from the tree.</li><li>The cat had kittens. We don't know where she hid them or how many there are but she was huge and antsy one day and the next morning she came by the eat and was much, much thinner than the day before. Hopefully she will bring them by when they are bigger.</li><li><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/catherine-princess-of-wales-announces-she-has-cancer/ar-BB1kn1os?" target="_blank">The Princess Kate mystery is solved</a>. What a PR nightmare this whole situation was (better to say nothing then tell a lie then try to cover that lie up with additional lies!). At least now people will give her as much time as she needs to take care of herself without wild theories being bandied about. Such a sad thing for her and her family to face :(</li><li>I got my first performance review at work and apparently all of the Board members had nice things to say. Since I have always worked for myself, I had never had a performance review before so it was very nice reading about what people think about me (whether I am dealing with state officials, or the very youngest and newest people in our organization, my goal is to make their workloads easier and apparently it is paying off!). I can't believe I have been working this job for nearly a year--time flies!</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54_sqlcOOCw" target="_blank">Here are some good tips for computer users</a> (I do nearly all of these things and so far, so good!).</li><li>The weather in Las Vegas is perfect now. While last week was cold and raining, this week it is mid 70s with a slight breeze...wonderful!</li><li>On the flip side my allergies are kicking up something awful. Spring is definitely here and I go through a box of Kleenex every few days :(</li><li><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/cosmic-explosion-visible-naked-eye-111125546.html" target="_blank">For skywatchers, this looks like a not-to-be-missed event!</a></li><li><a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/" target="_blank">This may be the most depressing subreddit page I've seen</a> (well, aside from <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Teachers/" target="_blank">r/teachers</a> and <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/nursing/" target="_blank">r/nursing</a>). Eekkk</li><li>Coming up next week...<a href="https://hallow.com/blog/holy-week-schedule/" target="_blank">Holy Week!</a></li></ol><p></p><p><br /></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-18434487514290247142024-03-14T08:43:00.000-07:002024-03-14T08:43:56.773-07:00Deals!<p>Here are a few timely deals...</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://thekrazycouponlady.com/tips/money/pi-day-deals" target="_blank">Today is Pi Day so what better way to celebrate than with deals (mostly related to pie!).</a></li><li>And this deal may go quickly...<a href="https://www.flyfrontier.com/deals/gowild-pass/" target="_blank">Frontier's All You Can Fly Pass for only $399.</a></li><li>Finally, <a href="https://directfile.irs.gov/" target="_blank">here is a pilot program in several states where you can file your taxes for free, directly with the IRS.</a></li></ul><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-66496776574749585522024-03-13T13:03:00.000-07:002024-03-13T13:03:30.930-07:0010 Things for Seniors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qwGlbq8wpDn0aFOcYy7SJEEl4AfewXn0kTBG3N9mdrT4YuB3OMxJkBCZyE3SXJUwcOzjkS9LvEu5PbUF4An9UmcuhgG30qH7qGFKl-AcBPyPnbYWk1qgGDpaBJgNCMJRaLVl8majdf490-ahpIRZHmKzMyOsSgYiRX0up-F4oqxuJEuvemKrMdWQf7I/s4000/20240313_111014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qwGlbq8wpDn0aFOcYy7SJEEl4AfewXn0kTBG3N9mdrT4YuB3OMxJkBCZyE3SXJUwcOzjkS9LvEu5PbUF4An9UmcuhgG30qH7qGFKl-AcBPyPnbYWk1qgGDpaBJgNCMJRaLVl8majdf490-ahpIRZHmKzMyOsSgYiRX0up-F4oqxuJEuvemKrMdWQf7I/w640-h296/20240313_111014.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>As we age, physical tasks can become more difficult. These are some of the products hubby and I use to "combat" aging...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The pill boxes above. Hubby takes a boatload of pills each day and there is no way we would be able to remember if he took his pills each day without these containers. In fact, it is kind of a common thing that elderly people will overdose themselves if they just take their pills right out of their prescription bottles because they can't remember if/when they last took their pills. Better to be safe than sorry.</li><li>A bidet. We love our bidets. Although it took hubby more than a year to come around to even trying it, now he is a die-hard fan. For elderly people who have a hard time twisting around to wipe, a bidet cleans the entire undercarriage, no twisting required.</li><li>A step stool. Although these days I don't even want hubby on a low step stool, it is better than the alternative of climbing on the counter to reach a high shelf.</li><li>A very long shoehorn. Hubby has a hard time bending over these days so a short shoehorn isn't much help. He found a super long shoehorn at Ikea and now doesn't even have to bend over to put on his shoes.</li><li>A "grabber". We use a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/HPr-HPi-Reacher-Foldable-Extended-Grabber%EF%BC%88Purple/dp/B0B2FBCM5L/ref=asc_df_B0B2FBCM5L?" target="_blank">grabber like this</a> that the SIL left at our house and it really is a better alternative to reach lightweight items on high shelves or pick up things off the floor for hubby who has a hard time bending over or reaching higher shelves.</li><li>The SIL also left an <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/325896574466?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1eOj_Bz-zT12b0v8WR06RxQ69&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=325896574466&targetid=4580909052765417&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=603247545&mkgroupid=1236951576251627&rlsatarget=pla-4580909052765417&abcId=9316119&merchantid=51291&msclkid=923ed6bddf92150c3016b34fded77fca" target="_blank">extendable hook like this</a> that she bought when she couldn't reach into our top-loading washing machine to take out the clothes. I've used it a few times when something drops behind the washer or stove and we didn't have the strength to pull the appliance out to reach the item.</li><li>A back-up camera. Most new cars come with back-up cameras these days and it is a God-send to older, crunchier people who cannot twist to look behind them when they back out of parking spaces. Fortunately, even if you have an old car, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/License-GreenYi-Wireless-Reverse-Android/dp/B06Y3TSWLK/ref=asc_df_B06Y3TSWLK?" target="_blank">you can buy these cameras to put on old cars and they are pretty inexpensive.</a></li><li>A step-in shower. This is the next home improvement project we will do at our house. Our bathrooms only have tub-shower combinations and every time hubby goes to take a shower I worry that he will trip getting into or out of the shower which would be a disaster. </li><li>Which leads us to grab bars. We haven't installed these yet, but they are definitely a good idea to help people get on/off the toilet and in/out of the bathtub. A bonus--many fire departments provide these for free!</li><li>Hearing aids. Hubby is pretty much deaf without his hearing aids but a nice thing about today's hearing aids compared to the hearing aids from years ago is that they have bluetooth connectivity which means his hearing aids connect directly to the TV (nice because now we don't have to crank up the TV to deafening--to me-levels when we both watch TV) as well as to his cell phone so he can hear calls coming in/listen to music.etc.</li></ol><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-1881130256601774992024-03-10T16:57:00.000-07:002024-03-10T16:57:03.606-07:00Feeding a CrowdI was talking to my neighbor today and she said "you sure had a lot of people at your house a couple weeks ago--how did you feed them all?" She probably thought we spent a fortune feeding so many people based on grocery store prices these days but we used a lot of tricks we learned in the past when we hosted large parties or fed large groups of people on the cheap (years ago at my non profit we fed lots of families with a super bare-bones budget but everyone always went away full!). Here's how we did it...<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I made ALOT of snacks. Brownies, cookies, cakes, caramel popcorn...these are easy ways to create a lot of food for cheap. If you buy a dozen brownies at the store it costs a shocking amount of money but a box mix makes a couple dozen brownies for a couple dollars.</li><li>We bought $5 chickens from Sam's Club and this was the main course for one of the days. </li><li>Speaking of Sam's Club, we also bought 5 dozen eggs, six heads of romaine lettuce, two pounds of sliced cheese, and two pounds of sliced turkey for sandwiches. Also we bought several cases of bottled water which everyone drank or took with them when they went to the tourist areas (this is cheaper than buying water in the high-priced stores near the tourist areas).</li><li>I made a big salad each day to go with the main meal, basically romaine lettuce with some tomatoes and cucumbers from the 99 Cent Store.</li><li>I made a huge batch of pancakes one day (a giant bag of pancake mix at Sam's Club costs less than $10 and literally makes hundreds of pancakes). Leftovers were wrapped up and put in the fridge and then disappeared overnight.</li><li>We bought lots of loss leader snacks at our local grocery store over the past few months and saved them for the kids to eat when they were hungry. At the store we bought boxes of granola bars for 99 cents on sale, boxes of cereal for the same price, bananas (always cheap), and bags of potato/corn chips for $1.50 each (we usually have to buy three bags at a time to get the sale price but rarely eat these so they go in the snack box for parties).</li><li>We made lots of Filipino dishes which uses a base of rice or noodles then hubby makes a simple stew of chicken/pork/beef (bought at 99 cents a pound then kept in the freezer until we have a large meal to make). We also made fried rice, stir-fried noodles, etc which uses a cheap base and lots of finely sliced vegetables and meat (way cheaper than giving each person a slab of steak!).</li><li>We had bought racks of pork ribs for $97 cents a pound and again, put them in the freezer until hubby made three racks of baked ribs for the main course one night.</li><li>We encouraged the kids to make sandwiches to take with them instead of paying Strip prices when they got hungry while out and about (bread was bought at the 99 Cent Store for $1.50 a loaf, cheese and sliced turkey was bought at Sam's Club).</li><li>A few jars of spaghetti sauce, a couple of cans of canned tomatoes and some spices made a lot of pasta sauce. Add in some frozen meatballs we made a while back and a few $1 packages of spaghetti noodles, plus a salad, and a loaf of bread heated up in the oven and we had a complete meal for everyone for less than $20.</li><li>I cooked so many eggs! Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs...everyone ate eggs for breakfast.</li><li>Sides included frozen vegetables like bags of corn (99 cents a pound), mashed potatoes ($1.50 for a 5 pound bag of potatoes on sale), fresh green beans that were on sale, etc.</li><li>We stocked up on soda when it was on sale over the past several months so there was plenty of that for everyone who didn't want water.</li><li>A few other tried-and-true ways to feed a crowd that we didn't get to this time: chili is super easy to make, as is cornbread, and feeds a lot of people for cheap as does a big chicken Caesar salad and bread for a light lunch. A taco/burrito bar is also a good way to stretch a lot of food for a little money. Baked potatoes with chili is another good meal for a crowd.</li></ul><div>Overall, besides the one day we took everyone to the Chinese buffet for lunch, we cooked A LOT of food. However this was much cheaper than taking more than a dozen people out to eat for every meal and really didn't take a lot of time make (washing the dishes was another story though...).</div></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-45810696145318770942024-03-08T16:44:00.000-08:002024-03-08T16:44:18.037-08:005 More Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_m9Kfdxn7KHGDKSmu7r1wRzTxwplIP2jk9nT5nyGWwpKRabntnn1FRloMhmMIBzv2q_OZGD91B9uuRN0gYhEJVjzyeJ0HwSxq8vAmhIvAS1qoHdoVXRoaQsygR_dqtNAsK6VLUBBKWqeA6VBuvOtQewD-HVlGnwNsLbMonpB115QD53eu8Fyp94DVtvY/s4000/20240308_154801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_m9Kfdxn7KHGDKSmu7r1wRzTxwplIP2jk9nT5nyGWwpKRabntnn1FRloMhmMIBzv2q_OZGD91B9uuRN0gYhEJVjzyeJ0HwSxq8vAmhIvAS1qoHdoVXRoaQsygR_dqtNAsK6VLUBBKWqeA6VBuvOtQewD-HVlGnwNsLbMonpB115QD53eu8Fyp94DVtvY/w640-h296/20240308_154801.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>In no particular order...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>This is the possibly pregnant cat in question. I don't know much about cats but she is huge compared to a few months ago!</li><li><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/we-lose-an-hour-of-sleep-to-daylight-saving-heres-how-to-prepare/ar-BB1jywAE" target="_blank">Be sure to set your clocks forward tomorrow night before you go to bed.</a></li><li>I think we have gone full Orwell now...<a href="https://www.lawofficer.com/female-bartender-cassie-mcintyre-found-guilty-hate-crime-confronting-trans-identified-biological-male-using-womens-bathroom/" target="_blank">this girl was charged and found guilty for calling a biological male a male.</a> "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." eeekkk</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfG5rAvsNCE" target="_blank">Apparently, the middle class is heading towards extinction</a>. After looking at grocery prices this week, and checking hotel prices for a small-sized city where my walking group is holding an event this weekend ($170 for a Holiday Inn???????), I'm thinking there will be the few rich people and the many, many poor people in the not too distant future :(</li><li><a href="https://www.heyitsfree.net/file-taxes-free/" target="_blank">Here are a bunch of places you can file your taxes for free.</a></li></ol><div>Have a wonderful weekend!</div><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-40746884059889834342024-03-05T15:35:00.000-08:002024-03-05T15:35:16.496-08:0010 Random Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggh1fWHThNPOpRP7wXMvah5uO2enYTezWueFuNoUs_Hg0X56l2RlEgylA0kzQWgDJK7XM4iR6eQeAg8G0k9ghrW7PsV_rYE-QLjFvZZOJnQLNvYJLJMS6PW72axHF-_iSodxnm9upwd5ylgjy20rDgc-lxHmYRFzx7DU6afNqqDF_sN0tZnDQtFV5dVsQ/s4000/20240305_150422.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggh1fWHThNPOpRP7wXMvah5uO2enYTezWueFuNoUs_Hg0X56l2RlEgylA0kzQWgDJK7XM4iR6eQeAg8G0k9ghrW7PsV_rYE-QLjFvZZOJnQLNvYJLJMS6PW72axHF-_iSodxnm9upwd5ylgjy20rDgc-lxHmYRFzx7DU6afNqqDF_sN0tZnDQtFV5dVsQ/w640-h296/20240305_150422.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>It's been a while since I posted! Nothing particularly exciting has been happening but here are several interesting things...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The trees in the picture are blessedly still. We had <a href="https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/strong-winds-wreaks-havoc-in-las-vegas-valley/" target="_blank">quite the windstorm this past weekend</a> which left dirt and dust everywhere (thankfully we didn't lose power!).</li><li>One of the cats is definitely pregnant. She used to be sleek and svelte, now she has the dimensions of a mailbox. Kitten pictures to follow sometime soon...</li><li>I saw <a href="https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2024/02/28/i-team-middleburg-man-shocked-as-scammer-sells-his-waterfront-property-to-developer/" target="_blank">this story on the national news</a> so I hurried over to the recorder's website for our county and <a href="https://www.clarkcountynv.gov/government/elected_officials/county_recorder/recording_notification_service.php" target="_blank">signed up for recording notification alerts</a> so this won't happen to us.</li><li>To celebrate Leap Day on February 29th, hubby and I got a buy one, get one free sandwich at Firehouse Subs (we qualified because I had a first name that started with a LEA or P). If one of us would have been born on leap day, <a href="https://thestrat.com/events/special-event/leap-day-at-skyjump/detail" target="_blank">we would have been able to jump of the Stratosphere for free </a>(not!).</li><li>Speaking of free, <a href="https://www.kidsbowlfree.com/" target="_blank">here is where kids can sign up to bowl for free this summer at participating bowling centers.</a></li><li>I saw <a href="https://lifehacker.com/money/how-to-make-a-minimally-viable-budget" target="_blank">this post about making a 'minimally viable budget'</a> which sounds like a good idea. When I get a bit of free time I will definitely do this.</li><li><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/elizabeth_cotton/street-smart-tips-to-stay-safe" target="_blank">Here are some 'street smart safety tips'.</a></li><li><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/kate-middleton-health-latest/story?id=107675286" target="_blank">Apparently Princess Kate is missing.</a> At least according to the conspiracy theorists. Has anyone else noticed that their news feeds/YouTube feeds/Facebook feeds, instead of showing a wide range of topics, now only shows drama/depressing/conspiracy/triggering posts? It seems weirdly manipulative, IMHO. In other cases, <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/illegally-imported-goose-intestines-hidden-181732542.html" target="_blank">the news is just weird.</a></li><li>Work is getting busy as we head towards the end of the fiscal year. When I asked my boss how I was doing work-wise, he said "great, I hope you will work for us forever!". Nice vote of confidence there (although "forever" might only be as long as his chairmanship term lasts...so there's that).</li><li>Finally, I was watching "driving through" videos on YouTube which are basically dashcam footage of people driving through various cities and town. When I watched videos of the towns I grew up in, they were completely unrecognizable. I guess you never can go home again...</li></ol><p></p><p><br /></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-76671004098137248012024-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:002024-02-21T18:19:14.177-08:00We Survived!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpdt4IFy7YclilUVbrCzXrlMhhq5B7tJ9vMEeUbMR6EGLKiWPf6DwWLav4hx63-7-HKknmulAGr3Os0VwfZX8lx5gAfPxUcguqKEb_OiR8K69WySPkj6T9hIKBIw4mu0T8woR1mWM6PZQ_WhsZK2blmhWsLEQPB_sHvWzqCw3GnI-pekvSz5SWVAy01c/s4000/20240221_173928.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpdt4IFy7YclilUVbrCzXrlMhhq5B7tJ9vMEeUbMR6EGLKiWPf6DwWLav4hx63-7-HKknmulAGr3Os0VwfZX8lx5gAfPxUcguqKEb_OiR8K69WySPkj6T9hIKBIw4mu0T8woR1mWM6PZQ_WhsZK2blmhWsLEQPB_sHvWzqCw3GnI-pekvSz5SWVAy01c/w640-h296/20240221_173928.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Hubby and I survived the birthday "surprise" in which more than a dozen kids and grandkids descended on Vegas for hubby's belated birthday celebration. Among the highlights...</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Five people missed their flights to get here, three due to weather and two because they showed up at the airport ten minutes before their flight was scheduled to leave(!). Three were able to reschedule and two missed the entire weekend due to weather delays.</li><li>Hubby and I cooked a ton of food for everyone which saved a lot of money over paying for everyone to eat out three meals a day. We did take the whole group out once for a very reasonably priced buffet which everyone enjoyed. I washed a metric crap-ton of dishes!</li><li>It was wonderful getting four of the five kids and several grandkids together so they could all bond. They haven't all been together as a group for years!</li><li>It was a bonus that we live in a tourist destination so everyone was entertained by just heading out to see what was happening in the tourist areas (Las Vegas Strip, Fremont Experience, Hoover Dam, etc). The younger people were out every night, the older people were happy to get to bed at a reasonable hour after a full day of being out and about.</li><li>Hubby and I ARE NOT used to being on our feet for 12-15 hours a day! We were beat at the end of each day (hubby is 75 so he was probably way more tired than I was!).</li><li>It was interesting to hear a range of social and political opinions--from way left liberal to way right conservative and everything in between. Fortunately political discussions were few and far between. Among the popular topics of discussion were gardening, menopause (me and his daughters who are all close in age), financial planning for all of our later years, kids these days (speaking of the grandkids), previous reunions, etc.</li><li>I was really impressed with one grandson who is 19, very intelligent and really well spoken at such a young age. His girlfriend was equally interesting to talk to and had perfect manners. My faith in today's youth has been restored!</li><li>It was interesting to see all of the kids who hadn't been together in years pick up like they had all been together last week, not more than a decade ago.</li><li>We saved a lot of money by not only cooking meals but by baking a copious amount of desserts and by buying a huge box of different kinds of snacks that the kids could have which kept them from spending money at the store or fast food places.</li><li>Overall everyone had a great time and we are looking forward to doing our next reunion on a cruise ship!</li></ul><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-11375653108345113922024-02-10T16:21:00.000-08:002024-02-10T16:21:19.887-08:0010 Things from This Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSDaejNhzcmzL9S474bECHyJVs05wpTCOyYdZn6GgX94H8DAp-CWaxva0pml4Wij2XPxFeKM3hzG6dMx2uKTBkdGJSkdnaAqfBMCmFI5XOnDP3FA6GIUG96wGKjviw1yojgY5CVwDEdGuadHH4D_3KC1LEQcvleGJS_8WKEtvpHU0YXxjDEc69F8yx9qk/s1848/cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="1694" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSDaejNhzcmzL9S474bECHyJVs05wpTCOyYdZn6GgX94H8DAp-CWaxva0pml4Wij2XPxFeKM3hzG6dMx2uKTBkdGJSkdnaAqfBMCmFI5XOnDP3FA6GIUG96wGKjviw1yojgY5CVwDEdGuadHH4D_3KC1LEQcvleGJS_8WKEtvpHU0YXxjDEc69F8yx9qk/s320/cat.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>It's been pretty quiet around here this week...<div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>We had several days of rain (thankfully a lot less than southern California) and the cats were wet (they don't like being wet) but they still showed up every day (sometimes multiple times a day) to be fed.</li><li>The kids and grandkids are excited to come to the reunion/hubby's birthday party in Las Vegas. We are getting ready for everyone, stocking up on food/soda/etc so we can feed everyone, and generally looking forward to the festivities. We've had a big family reunion about once a decade for the last 40 years (once in the Philippines, once in Connecticut, once on a cruise ship, and this one coming up in Vegas) but the more people who are added to the family over the years, the harder it is to get everyone's schedules to work out to allow everyone to plan for the same days off. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to attend but it should be a big group anyway.</li><li>Hubby's cousin took us to a nice <a href="https://www.imperialbuffet.vegas/" target="_blank">lobster/seafood/sushi buffet</a> for his birthday. It was good, and by Vegas standards, fairly inexpensive at about $45 per person (the buffets with lobster on The Strip are closer to $100 per person!). <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPHpwNZXzMBM_MqcWJofGIXT6HpIXUyX6bBWWI1l2LpX92ho200rYjbOrTLN_cX2i53ndgT-s8yfxOQhtjtZG1pczwGPy5kYratvU9lhFwejn3z6YMlBHvTveFNFtohfZ9SAqYHNYdzdekQRKJpR2cxQuA3Pc5OkW7RtWRsO2N4X6184RBF60zI14mfA/s4000/20240204_110050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPHpwNZXzMBM_MqcWJofGIXT6HpIXUyX6bBWWI1l2LpX92ho200rYjbOrTLN_cX2i53ndgT-s8yfxOQhtjtZG1pczwGPy5kYratvU9lhFwejn3z6YMlBHvTveFNFtohfZ9SAqYHNYdzdekQRKJpR2cxQuA3Pc5OkW7RtWRsO2N4X6184RBF60zI14mfA/w640-h296/20240204_110050.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></li><li>The Super Bowl is coming up tomorrow so we will, of course, be parked in front of our TV to watch it. Although the game is in my city, paying $6000 to $10,000 per ticket is absurd!</li><li>I saw <a href="https://www.ktnv.com/13-investigates/whats-the-deal/people-just-cant-afford-it-customers-fuming-over-southwest-gas-rate-hikes-demand-answers" target="_blank">a lot of people complaining on social media</a> about their natural gas bill going up this past month around Las Vegas. I got our gas bill yesterday and I feel like complaining too--it has more than doubled since the same time period last year (and basically the same amount of gas used!).</li><li>Seriously, <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-blistered-by-mainstream-media-after-disaster-press-conference-elderly-irritable-man/ar-BB1i266t" target="_blank">who thought it would be a good idea to put President Biden on TV for a live press conference???</a> Our presidential choices this year are awful!</li><li>Hubby seems eeked out about how much money I make now from my job (he keeps asking how much I am spending to bring everyone here for his birthday, saying he should be the provider, etc). Since we have always had separate accounts he didn't realize that I made the same amount of money several years ago when I was working. I asked his if he thought the big house payments, new cars, and travel several times a year in the past was just funded out of thin air. He had to think about that for a minute. He said he is worried about what will happen to me financially if he dies before me (he is 20 years older than me). I guess for both of our sakes, I need to take things like my investments/retirement fund/sources of income/etc more seriously and plan better for my/our future. </li><li>I'm a bit concerned about the Europe cruise we have scheduled in the fall. And <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/man-dies-mid-flight-breaking-191920802.html" target="_blank">stories like this</a>, plus <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/er-overcrowding-worsens-program-helping-ease-crisis-may-lose-funding-rcna135966" target="_blank">other things like this</a> related to my work are not helping!</li><li>On another travel note, something I have never heard of before even though I used to regularly attend Quaker meeting is <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/1an319j/a_frugal_travel_tip_that_ive_genuinely_never_seen/" target="_blank">this option instead of hotels.</a></li><li>Finally, here is <a href="https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm" target="_blank">a cool infographic on National Park passes.</a></li></ol></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-11021750812429117612024-02-03T17:04:00.000-08:002024-02-03T17:04:51.441-08:0010 Things from This Week<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirJ0CsT3zCcxYbXkfigtCS5QKwlAUTF1OVbh4mDyKt9Riv4tLScNVpX4MSiE03k2lRNt1RyO8SChLnHFEE4eGrgEIGpX4ZqkqffRzPPT8iWLpm7TryhyfBjnC-V3pyPvA3BrP7uDD4uunJs-My_iDzXwag8Go92og6YlMl5aIEQxbjCRLT-8Ahb06SAm4/s4000/20240128_171536.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirJ0CsT3zCcxYbXkfigtCS5QKwlAUTF1OVbh4mDyKt9Riv4tLScNVpX4MSiE03k2lRNt1RyO8SChLnHFEE4eGrgEIGpX4ZqkqffRzPPT8iWLpm7TryhyfBjnC-V3pyPvA3BrP7uDD4uunJs-My_iDzXwag8Go92og6YlMl5aIEQxbjCRLT-8Ahb06SAm4/w640-h296/20240128_171536.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />It's been an interesting week...<div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>I love my job but sometimes I feel like it gives me a front row seat to watch the world burn. I would like to elaborate in detail but then again, I don't want to get fired. tldr; don't find yourself in an emergency department if at all possible, pay attention to people who may be suicidal, and don't take street drugs (it seems like everything on the streets these days comes with a generous helping of fentanyl...eeekkk).</li><li>I finally told hubby about his "surprise" visit by the kids and grandkids. He hates surprises and if everyone showed up and he hadn't prepared food for everyone or had things planned he would not be a happy camper. Plus he would have noticed me getting set up for their visit and buying a lot more food than we could eat in months so I told him to just act surprised when they get here. On a side note, airline tickets are ridiculously expensive these days! </li><li><a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/cheap-everyday-products-people-love/" target="_blank">I saw this post on saving money and thought 'we have been doing many of these things for years!'.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/young-people-doom-spending/" target="_blank">And a reminder to not doom spend</a>. Although I have been treating myself a bit lately--I got a $150 pair of Altra shoes at Ross for $50 and a $250 Patagonia down jacket for $110 recently. I like nice stuff but I can't see paying full price for anything!</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@sixtyandme/videos" target="_blank">I recently found this lady on YouTube. </a> Although I am not yet 60, I feel like she is speaking my language.</li><li>The cats are doing fine but we expect several days of rain starting soon...they hate rain. I may become a cat lady after all. <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-cat-memes-cattosbeingcattos/" target="_blank">I especially like pictures of interesting cats.</a></li><li>I need to lose weight. I am fat and menopausal and so blech :( But it is so hard to eat healthy when every week we are eating out with friends, regularly walking by my favorite ice cream place, and just eating crappy food in general. ayayay</li><li>We did our taxes using H & R Block online as we have done for years. Thank goodness I made a large estimated tax payment several months ago or we would owe a lot of money; this way we will get a few hundred dollars back which is perfect.</li><li>Our city is getting ready to host the Super Bowl next weekend. Needless to say, we will stay far away from the stadium and the tourist areas until after all of the excitement is over.</li><li>I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing weekend!</li></ol></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-29623971055959499832024-01-26T17:18:00.000-08:002024-01-26T17:18:14.184-08:0010 Things From This Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCpTyzhC-N-iaEZSGh1E3GApmCKhQ8JXsdD2Qea0mLVaZ3vSucoWnHh1po60Irkx-Nu4ZHBGmuiekhUktkYnGOHd3NxC704gZKtN-BbZQfgqg-2TjTFyXe4zLL-2xtmf-1x9-3EKcczANUuKZkH-ARa2-9Hrk8r23ll5i-74xyaUEdVx4gqQI6bPSyCs/s4000/20240125_145847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1848" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCpTyzhC-N-iaEZSGh1E3GApmCKhQ8JXsdD2Qea0mLVaZ3vSucoWnHh1po60Irkx-Nu4ZHBGmuiekhUktkYnGOHd3NxC704gZKtN-BbZQfgqg-2TjTFyXe4zLL-2xtmf-1x9-3EKcczANUuKZkH-ARa2-9Hrk8r23ll5i-74xyaUEdVx4gqQI6bPSyCs/w296-h640/20240125_145847.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><p>In this week's news...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Obligatory cute cats photo above ^^</li><li><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/ravenishak/pandemic-changes" target="_blank">I wholeheartedly agree with this list of things that have changed since the pandemic (and not in a good way).</a></li><li><a href="https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/free-mystery-e-books-kindle" target="_blank">I just found this notice of a free e-book event and although the date has passed, it says authors often leave their books for free past the ending date.</a> YMMV</li><li><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/17/24041897/facebook-meta-targeted-advertising-data-mining-study-privacy" target="_blank">Reason #342 to delete Facebook.</a> If I wasn't following so many walking and hiking groups I would have left FB completely by now. I'm still considering it.</li><li>I like to sing in different languages. It is sort of a hobby and I can sing in around a dozen languages (even once on the radio and once on stage with some famous singers in the Philippines!). <a href="https://lyricstranslate.com/en/%D2%AF-%D0%B3%D2%AF%D0%B9-u-gui-%C3%BC-g%C3%BCi.html-0" target="_blank">I thought I would try singing in Mongolian.</a> Mongolian is a very very difficult language!</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApYNlZ4gc2s" target="_blank">I saw this video on YouTube</a> and that is exactly how my grandparents lived on little money--not spending unless they absolutely needed something and keeping quality items forever,</li><li>Tax season is coming up. I'm afraid to see how much I am going to owe :(</li><li><a href="https://www.heyitsfree.net/active-freebies-still-available/" target="_blank">Here is a massive list of freebies</a>. <a href="https://hip2save.com/freebies/" target="_blank">And here is another list of freebies.</a> Since my weekend should be pretty quiet, I may even apply for some of these. </li><li>For the first time ever we exceeded our internet data limit of 1.25TB. That's A LOT of streaming. I am guessing we watch too much Roku and Samsung hub TV. Yikes.</li><li>Finally, we have a full week of rain predicted to start next week. On the one hand, I am spoiled with sunny weather nearly year round so that much rain is icky IMHO, on the other hand, it is way better than the snow that many people around the country are getting!</li></ol><div>Have a wonderful weekend!</div><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-72335358540335132532024-01-23T16:09:00.000-08:002024-01-23T16:09:54.595-08:00A Quick UpdateIt's been very quiet around here lately...<div><br /></div><div>...the skies have looked like this, with copious amounts of rain, for the last few days. The cats don't like rain.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuuAcC0q8Evi2YPUmipSpED8UP-aPPfkoR8V-ORkh8CpKlZOpe8IIo9V41R7zk8icpbkLOKqBVi9IDy6t-2W5immgqcS_DcVclmkenPLmABrUoAIaBks27EidZxAauDvhmGrlOo-wrcHi8IQ6LspEQ5XSKG5HSYTX1WvG9yBLGfKi0hMc3VjIOF8Cb0Tg/s4000/20240123_120156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuuAcC0q8Evi2YPUmipSpED8UP-aPPfkoR8V-ORkh8CpKlZOpe8IIo9V41R7zk8icpbkLOKqBVi9IDy6t-2W5immgqcS_DcVclmkenPLmABrUoAIaBks27EidZxAauDvhmGrlOo-wrcHi8IQ6LspEQ5XSKG5HSYTX1WvG9yBLGfKi0hMc3VjIOF8Cb0Tg/w640-h296/20240123_120156.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>...the cats are still cute as ever (however a couple of them are so fat and fluffy they are starting to look like racoons!). This is one of the more skittish cats. He looks like he wants to come inside but the minute I open the door he jumps away like his tail is on fire! I don't understand cats.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHmhhXv-98jNSEpIVku6lAHyBy287JhYgNiwntpxSKcStM2W4UXu8X6a-cGKdbG72oqiL3BR9oTeT1rNBzMjD9xd1_ZpMDMDCHCqVJXK_lSCwcQW-C7__tfnkAWo6zPV5Ay59iY9EeZ0GTuhM0lb3BNJcw-p-nvHSZeqagy-bnZCoDLiBrIOghPbiYK0Q/s4000/20240123_154447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1848" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHmhhXv-98jNSEpIVku6lAHyBy287JhYgNiwntpxSKcStM2W4UXu8X6a-cGKdbG72oqiL3BR9oTeT1rNBzMjD9xd1_ZpMDMDCHCqVJXK_lSCwcQW-C7__tfnkAWo6zPV5Ay59iY9EeZ0GTuhM0lb3BNJcw-p-nvHSZeqagy-bnZCoDLiBrIOghPbiYK0Q/w296-h640/20240123_154447.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>...I got a fantastic deal on a Tumi bag at Ross of all places. Usually these bags cost around $75 but I got it for under $15!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsVtOEyee6efltba0T9TLmc1CC2q6AvRD1ND2Vz0O3Lav2z8eeiWUdMfurz-gowEg4WWzBoT486hO5R71xa_T13fb91yd1UjR2ao9HDrlY_Ok26eNm28b8mHAdKS3s-ak203ZKfaXHVzRNPKnaQ4v7kUMHE95bqWR9dwAI8yHUAITgN22OiXPjNDpER4g/s4000/20240123_120108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1848" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsVtOEyee6efltba0T9TLmc1CC2q6AvRD1ND2Vz0O3Lav2z8eeiWUdMfurz-gowEg4WWzBoT486hO5R71xa_T13fb91yd1UjR2ao9HDrlY_Ok26eNm28b8mHAdKS3s-ak203ZKfaXHVzRNPKnaQ4v7kUMHE95bqWR9dwAI8yHUAITgN22OiXPjNDpER4g/w296-h640/20240123_120108.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>...Fortunately hubby and I are both recovered from whatever respiratory illness we had over the past couple weeks.</div><div><br /></div><div>...Hubby's kids and grandkids are planning to descend on Las Vegas and surprise him for his 75th birthday next month. I volunteered to pay for all of their airline tickets and hotels so this will be a major expenditure. Did I mention hubby had 5 kids (with spouses), 13 grandkids (half with spouses), and three great grand kids? Yikes. They all won't be able to make it, but we should have a pretty big group of people. This should be fun (and a major surprise for hubby!).</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope you are all surviving the wild weather our entire country has been experiencing over the past couple of weeks!</div><div><br /></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-7885089525914519952024-01-15T16:42:00.000-08:002024-01-15T16:49:06.826-08:0020 Ways We Save on Our BillsWhenever I am scrolling through reddit, there are invariably posts about how people can no longer afford even their most basic bills (housing, utilities, food, etc). Not that these tips will work for everyone but this is how we can easily afford our basic household bills:<div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>For our mortgage, we moved from a HCOL city and bought a nearly new house in a (at the time) LCOL city. Our mortgage payment is super low and so is the interest we pay on the loan. Not everyone can do these things (especially finding low-priced homes and low interest rates these days) but not buying a house in a super expensive city will obviously save lots of money (my nephew bought a starter house in LA for $800k+ which is a stupid expensive price).</li><li>I shop around once a year for a bundle price for our house and car insurance. Prices vary widely so every few years we switch to any company that gives us a better price on insurance. We also go with a higher deductible since we have the amount of the deductible in savings to use if needed (we also try not to file claims on anything we can reasonably repair because that also causes insurance costs to skyrocket).</li><li>Property tax. We do several things to lower the property tax on our house including getting a veteran's discount (many places offer senior and/or veterans discounts on property tax), living in an area with low property tax rates (New England property tax rates are ridiculously expensive, our area is super cheap), ensuring we get the lower property tax cap rate (the tax cap is 3% for owner-occupied houses and 8% for houses that are used as rentals), and challenging any property tax rate that is higher than it should be (we can submit comps to the assessor to challenge property values that are not in line with actual sales in the neighborhood).</li><li>Electricity. At first we would record our electricity usage everyday so we could see what made it increase, now we do all we can to conserve electricity, right down to unplugging everything in the guest rooms unless we have guests to avoid 'phantom electricity usage'.</li><li>Natual gas. Ditto. The next time our gas water heater dies we will switch to an on-demand hot water system to save even more money.</li><li>Water. Ditto. We conserve water as much as possible so our water bill is always very reasonable.</li><li>Garbage. While we would like to process our own garbage, in the city, having garbage service is required so we just pay this every quarter (the price is actually very reasonable).</li><li>Sewer service. Again, this is a flat-rate fee but we pay the fee once a year in order to get a discount over paying a higher rate if we were to pay monthly instead of annually.</li><li>Internet. We go with the lowest/slowest internet plan (the internet is not actually slow since we don't do gaming, video editing/uploading, or use many devices at the same time). I call anytime they raise the price and they always give me a lower price (and often faster service), and I also buy a router/modem every few years instead of renting one from the internet company.</li><li>Cable TV. We don't have cable TV and instead use an over-the-air antenna as well as a Roku device (one time cost of $20) and we end up with more channels than we will ever be able to watch.</li><li>Car. We have one car that we share, bought it brand new, paid it off quickly, maintain it as needed, and will probably drive it until the wheels fall off. The brand of car also matters. We have a Honda which is a middle-of-the-road car; it's not fancy but will run for a good long time. I've heard that people with Hyundais can barely get (super expensive) insurance because that brand is stolen so much here and friends with Mercedes' or BMWs pay an arm and a leg for all repairs/tires/insurances simply because of the brand of the car.</li><li>Repairs to home or car. Our first step when something needs fixed is Amazon for parts and YouTube for how-to-fix-it videos which has saved us A LOT of money. We also have several handy friends who will help us if needed and our final option is to call a pro (I generally search the reddit for our city to find recommendations for the services we need).</li><li>Consumables. We have bidets on all toilets (this saves A LOT of toilet paper), use towels and rags over paper towels, wash dishes over using paper plates (we know several people who only use disposable plates/bowls/etc just so they don't have to do dishes), and don't use a lot of things other people do (disinfecting wipes, Swiffer wipes, fancy air fresheners, etc).</li><li>Eating out. Our eating out is usually limited to free meals in casinos (thanks to hubby's poker comps), and the rare good deal on fast food. If we do go to a restaurant we will split a meal, order water instead of soda, and usually end up with leftovers to take home (portion sizes are crazy big here so we split a meal and still have enough food leftover to take home for a third meal!).</li><li>Food. Mostly we cook at home. We usually cook everything from scratch, shop loss leaders and sales, shop at a half dozen stores in our area to get the lowest prices, and use store apps for even better discounts. We also take food and drinks from home if we will be out for the day so we don't end up eating fast food all the time. </li><li>Clothing. ALL of our clothes are bought at the Goodwill. I can't remember the last time we bought clothes at a regular store but we do buy shoes, socks, and underwear new (again, it needs to be on sale or heavily discounted when I buy it).</li><li>Cell phones/service. We use the $15 per month Mint Mobile plan for cell service (we pay annually so with the discount, we each pay $185 per year plus tax for cell service). I also buy a new unlocked cell phone (usually from Best Buy, Amazon, or from Samsung) every couple years then pass my phone down to hubby.</li><li>Health insurance. This is a huge thing for many people but is kind of a non-issue for us as we have free-ish health insurance from the military. Our total cost for insurance is $30 a month and there are no co pays for appointments/prescriptions/etc.</li><li>Hobby stuff. Hubby likes bowling so he pays a reasonable $10 per league to bowl once a week. I like walking so I buy steeply discounted shoes/socks/backpacks/etc online. Ditto for tech stuff.</li><li>Everything else. We occasionally go to $4 movies on senior day, rodeo events are free to watch, being in a major entertainment city, there are dozens of free things to do everyday here, and our library is amazing and best of all, free. Friends host house parties all the time, our city is criss-crossed with trails for walking, hiking is a short drive away at state and national parks (hubby has a $10 lifetime national parks pass and we get an annual senior state park pass each year), and there are many one-off events like getting freebies for our birthday, being in the audience of events filmed in Vegas, etc.</li></ol><div>And to save even more, we don't carry debt (or pay interest), have a time share (a permanent money sink), have subscriptions (to gyms, Spotify, etc), have expensive hobbies (boats, RVs, horses, golf, etc) or spend money randomly (purchases are well thought out and then we wait for the item to go on sale).</div></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-36860240474463467912024-01-13T16:28:00.000-08:002024-01-13T16:28:17.961-08:005 Things...A Quick Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8_JgP2Ftj8bqjmWPths61urqs_zF1ayu49g8L3jyx_jmZNTqaWr5uieCbkN4QrBHdJLVAeJWJP1U14-NEEOB032IIvf3YFLKj8wziUeT0LR4J6k4Z1ePeyX6Uyd1oIZI1PNsjPTmDi_l2yi3GeZPAvNQArjhRiOTBsbBmStIVZEiWDxX3O91e5JeVYpE/s4000/20240112_165329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8_JgP2Ftj8bqjmWPths61urqs_zF1ayu49g8L3jyx_jmZNTqaWr5uieCbkN4QrBHdJLVAeJWJP1U14-NEEOB032IIvf3YFLKj8wziUeT0LR4J6k4Z1ePeyX6Uyd1oIZI1PNsjPTmDi_l2yi3GeZPAvNQArjhRiOTBsbBmStIVZEiWDxX3O91e5JeVYpE/w640-h296/20240112_165329.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>In no particular order...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Our sunsets are <i>amazing</i>!</li><li>Fortunately hubby is feeling better but still coughs like he is hacking up a lung. Unfortunately a few more friends are pretty sick including one that is now on a ventilator (he had some sort of respiratory crud that turned into bronchitis that turned into pneumonia...eeekkk).</li><li>We figured out which feral cats are boys and which is the girl. I didn't even think about any of the cats going into heat but one is and she keeps slapping the male cats in the head. We definitely need to trap these cats and get them fixed or we will end up with a huge colony of feral cats! Double eeekkk</li><li>It is cold here but at least it is sunny and there is no snow. Friends and family all over the country are being hammered with snow, ice, and flooding which sounds just awful. One friend posted that it is -25 where she lives...I can't even imagine!</li><li>I watched a couple YouTube videos on how to invest my Roth IRA and it is slowly making money. I really need to learn more about investing in general.</li></ol><div>I hope you are having a safe--and warm--weekend!</div><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-58304222258780266302024-01-11T17:25:00.000-08:002024-01-13T16:14:42.188-08:00It's Been a Busy Start to the New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsx-Ryn5N70XbOACHrBx8iELBocWpAHkmXsVYwoSZBZMOVpjAIMqkfO9qokQLUvoc15Ti31uze7WgBNKh_CSZGuc2MD2BFiDuaRaTrSbEak47P0Qap1uwJFpvr6DeBx_CGqP63SvWvoLfGMQloj5HoUszypf6QBIWqllbrLtPv8tvqWETp6BsdGQtl6g8/s4000/20240108_140634.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsx-Ryn5N70XbOACHrBx8iELBocWpAHkmXsVYwoSZBZMOVpjAIMqkfO9qokQLUvoc15Ti31uze7WgBNKh_CSZGuc2MD2BFiDuaRaTrSbEak47P0Qap1uwJFpvr6DeBx_CGqP63SvWvoLfGMQloj5HoUszypf6QBIWqllbrLtPv8tvqWETp6BsdGQtl6g8/w640-h296/20240108_140634.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>We aren't even two weeks into the new year and it has already been an eventful several days!</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I baked chocolate chip cookies. Yum!</li><li>So many people we know are sick. Hubby and I both had some sort of respiratory crud a week ago, mine passed in a couple days and hubby is still sick six days later (which is really weird as his immune system is way better than mine. I blame it on him being triple covid vaxxed and me saying noooo to the vaccine...but I digress...).</li><li>And then I saw this comment over on <a href="https://clamco.blogspot.com/2024/01/starting-2024-off-with-big-vet-bill.html" target="_blank">Lorraine's blog</a> "I just hope our country will still be intact and that we are all still here this time next year." Followed by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP4lkYS3yTM" target="_blank">Dr Campbell's post on YouTube</a> and I have to say, I too hope we are all here this time next year! *Unfortunately, Dr Campbell's post was removed by YouTube which is odd but not surprising. He cites primary source information, not his opinions, but still this happens. Go figure...</li><li>I ended up not going up to Seattle this week for a meeting because they were getting snow and the last thing I wanted to do was get stranded in Seattle in the snow so we did a quick virtual meeting to say goodbye to two of our doctors who are retiring (which was a real bummer as both were great to work with and one would always edit my documents and always provide brilliant insight in every meeting we had...people need to quit leaving because I hate change!).</li><li>Speaking of snow, it snowed in Las Vegas last night! We got very little snow at our house but friends who live in higher elevations got like an inch or so (which quickly melted). I like snow that arrives quickly and leaves quickly and doesn't require a snowblower and de-icing the walkways.</li><li>On a positive note, since we have been basically homebound for a week, we won't need to get gas in the car and haven't spent any money on eating out, shopping, or groceries!</li></ul><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-77589858383031986142024-01-06T16:02:00.000-08:002024-01-06T16:07:11.861-08:00The First Week of the New Year...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdAGXHY5f8wvkDNg_2EI5TvDZkHnJrO5WcNO-ZkbzqLVH9OMCp4T1V71rqhgPpIwJUF2IIMVzr9mct-AwnUQN-nXiaGj0b91rNoEx5kLwGUmGrbKE-gy2hZ8PPr2aUL1GP9uCONPSbbxy0yEtgmxBUCy0dOxKG9nOhEIbrhUWwB4aoOEVzS8JbcjnKJ0/s4000/20240103_152953.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdAGXHY5f8wvkDNg_2EI5TvDZkHnJrO5WcNO-ZkbzqLVH9OMCp4T1V71rqhgPpIwJUF2IIMVzr9mct-AwnUQN-nXiaGj0b91rNoEx5kLwGUmGrbKE-gy2hZ8PPr2aUL1GP9uCONPSbbxy0yEtgmxBUCy0dOxKG9nOhEIbrhUWwB4aoOEVzS8JbcjnKJ0/w640-h296/20240103_152953.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>...was a bit stormy! In other news...</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We are now up to four cats. A big, new, black cat showed up a few days ago and while he is quite skittish, he is more than happy to stop by and eat breakfast with the other cats.</li><li>All of our guests have left so I spent yesterday cleaning and doing laundry and reorganizing the pantry and making a shopping list of the stuff we need to restock. It was fun seeing family members we haven't seen in years!</li><li>I was flipping through the TV channels and landed on the reality show Extreme Cheapskates. I watched an episode thinking I might learn something new but when I saw <a href="https://youtu.be/gvJvhDhj4S0" target="_blank">this part</a> (a lady didn't want to pay for a dentist so had her husband yank out her aching tooth with pliers?!?) I figured that was enough reality TV for one day!</li><li>I found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@KariAnneWright/videos" target="_blank">this lady on YouTube</a> and she has a channel that is both hilarious and informative on the topic of menopause.</li><li><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/legal/2024/01/04/verizon-class-action-lawsuit-settlement/72105127007/" target="_blank">Here is some information a class-action lawsuit for Verizon customers</a>. Every once in a while I look through the current class action refunds list and sign up for anything I qualify for; it's nice getting an unexpected check in the mailbox every now and then. There are a lot of class action rebate websites, <a href="https://topclassactions.com/category/lawsuit-settlements/open-lawsuit-settlements/" target="_blank">here is one example</a>.</li><li>Crime in my city continues to be as insane as usual (<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/las-vegas-judge-orders-attacker-214134046.html" target="_blank">this week's example</a>). No wonder they set the TV show CSI in Las Vegas!</li></ul><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-19346816100308104862023-12-31T18:07:00.000-08:002023-12-31T18:07:37.904-08:00New Year's Eve!<p>Happy New Year's Eve! I've given up on new year's resolutions because they usually fail within the first week or so. For this new year, I will just hope to do better in all areas over last year--more exercise, better diet, more activities, less spending..the usual.</p><p>We were in downtown Las Vegas this afternoon and it was already getting crowded. The SIL graciously got us a hotel room so we could "enjoy the festive atmosphere" with them but I had her cancel it because once we've done New Year's Eve Las Vegas-style (which we did the first year we lived here) we pretty much never want to be around that many loud, drunk people ever again!</p><p>So now we are home and will enjoy the Las Vegas festivities via TV from the comfort of our sofa! I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve!</p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-68999818735374289882023-12-26T18:58:00.000-08:002023-12-26T18:58:46.379-08:0010 Things Before the End of the Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBe7v6twHAS_hmk78Az1ad3u_XPbyBQs2Z9b5laaNSr8GlpOALtdEz5yP1iXQR-IToZK_zHynyzBoapUPz2wa_EFnbKDq7eLak91n0IHa2F47wWSog-Z02sy1MZZFM8GWxVY1i7X8a-pwQiBD8Wn6swFPKZQoHAw8MTa-5cHixc83ZSayT-3h9b99Ohw/s4000/20231226_164802.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBe7v6twHAS_hmk78Az1ad3u_XPbyBQs2Z9b5laaNSr8GlpOALtdEz5yP1iXQR-IToZK_zHynyzBoapUPz2wa_EFnbKDq7eLak91n0IHa2F47wWSog-Z02sy1MZZFM8GWxVY1i7X8a-pwQiBD8Wn6swFPKZQoHAw8MTa-5cHixc83ZSayT-3h9b99Ohw/w640-h296/20231226_164802.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>I can't believe this year is almost over! Only five more days and we will be ringing in 2024! There are several things I want to finish up by the end of the year...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.space.com/full-cold-moon-tonight-dec-26-2023" target="_blank">Celebrate the Cold Moon</a>. My phone doesn't take great distance shots but I was happy to catch the last full moon of the year rising in the east.</li><li>One thing I just completed was to try on every single item of clothes in my closet and get rid of anything that didn't fit (so many pants!), I didn't like wearing, or didn't look good on me. It is nice seeing a smaller pile of clothes and knowing that all of them fit and are comfortable!</li><li>Get the house ready for guests. We will have a half dozen people here for the weekend so I am cleaning, organizing, and shopping to get ready for their arrival.</li><li>Wrap up several work projects. I got so much work done today since it seems like most people are gone until after the new year. I want to start the year with a clean slate so I updated files, finished up reporting, and did a bunch of "housekeeping" tasks so I can finish the week with nothing to do, work-wise, until after the first of the year.</li><li>Some deep cleaning. I shampooed the carpet last week and want to deep clean the kitchen sometime this week.</li><li>Get rid of a bunch of stuff. Our "to give away" pile which we keep in the garage is getting pretty high so we need to sort and pack the things to either be shipped to the Philippines, given to the neighbors, or dropped off at the Goodwill.</li><li>Make a goal list for 2024. There are 366 days in 2024 (it's a Leap Year!) so I am putting together a long list of things to do, see, and be during the upcoming year.</li><li>Reviewing and updating my "kits". I am in the midst of sorting my EDC (everyday carry) kit, my travel kit, my walk pack, my work pack, and our car emergency kit.</li><li>Firm up travel plans. We haven't traveled since before covid. Between hubby's serious health issues a few years ago then covid, we have not strayed far from home in ages. I recently booked a Mediterranean cruise for next fall, I am debating heading up to Seattle for an important meeting next month (I can do the meeting online as I always do but a couple of our Board members are retiring and I would like to host the meeting/retirement party instead of having someone else do it), and finally, hubby's sisters want us to go to Asia with them this year but that sounds like an awful lot of travel/hassle so we may skip that trip.</li><li>Maybe get a few hours of quiet before the end of the year!</li></ol><p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-33850808796759594952023-12-25T12:09:00.000-08:002023-12-25T12:09:32.365-08:00Merry Christmas!<p>I just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Although I don't comment much on blogs (I'm usually scrolling through with breakfast in the other hand!), if you are on my sidebar, I read all of your posts and it feels like I know you so I want to wish you, my "blogging family", a wonderful Christmas!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU05QFSTkfFNJexlpPqdpidTKKx1GSOcLARozp8hHNnWLzyoU8ZEzmTDKD-h_YfvQ5qxPGYR3fsevxNun-JFUbpiM7EiS8N8cNdNVPubz_joPFEPiUeu70fNahOGNfGLu8Kfg-LfvGXojL5AIp5cxIMVmxC1YiPXECzkhsNILoZaJ0yErZFx6JixPSPqg/s4032/20211208_105239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="1908" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU05QFSTkfFNJexlpPqdpidTKKx1GSOcLARozp8hHNnWLzyoU8ZEzmTDKD-h_YfvQ5qxPGYR3fsevxNun-JFUbpiM7EiS8N8cNdNVPubz_joPFEPiUeu70fNahOGNfGLu8Kfg-LfvGXojL5AIp5cxIMVmxC1YiPXECzkhsNILoZaJ0yErZFx6JixPSPqg/w302-h640/20211208_105239.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwCyp-i4AYzmoRFkPoB4cNt62FxiU4PqrmgUHQWXG1f3WoSeGVDx782pSKn4kpbOo_ugwEsvEP0FvfivI1CZY5-7Q7blfIcCatR9MiPKKkfn_YdzLMqpRTj5oL-6zxRIrj6H_huosqx-MxtwDOsmpYfQ_VA5vNlYeXuWj9SfLy1GaETjo0l5x6VyNn6g/s4608/20221212_125640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="2184" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwCyp-i4AYzmoRFkPoB4cNt62FxiU4PqrmgUHQWXG1f3WoSeGVDx782pSKn4kpbOo_ugwEsvEP0FvfivI1CZY5-7Q7blfIcCatR9MiPKKkfn_YdzLMqpRTj5oL-6zxRIrj6H_huosqx-MxtwDOsmpYfQ_VA5vNlYeXuWj9SfLy1GaETjo0l5x6VyNn6g/w304-h640/20221212_125640.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-3902469337398563962023-12-24T11:15:00.000-08:002023-12-24T11:15:43.618-08:00Merry Christmas Eve!<p>I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Eve (or Christmas depending on where in the world you are).</p><p>Today we are baking for our last party of the year. The brownies are done...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXf9v8fyl65NsMLcvG49RzF-IeZf-u4IKAmLjDnvc8f7x-2WY9-uSThHWz2Wl_p9wtoXNMsUMWZymMwBn16w6NhNZT3SVr9nN1CpdJJNoZdhyphenhyphenFyqgF2gwmrvcYA1Y03g_rthzaEHHEQJxW_Lgvr1cPDbmN76DwLBspgR8adrKcEV1yRzkyI62KqpAB7rU/s3816/20231224_103020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="3816" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXf9v8fyl65NsMLcvG49RzF-IeZf-u4IKAmLjDnvc8f7x-2WY9-uSThHWz2Wl_p9wtoXNMsUMWZymMwBn16w6NhNZT3SVr9nN1CpdJJNoZdhyphenhyphenFyqgF2gwmrvcYA1Y03g_rthzaEHHEQJxW_Lgvr1cPDbmN76DwLBspgR8adrKcEV1yRzkyI62KqpAB7rU/w640-h310/20231224_103020.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>The Brussell's sprouts came on a branch (I've never seen them growing so I didn't know they grew on a branch!)...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGK31j-f6H442ZYC5x_chnCv5uZrguQBDn2YEW9jOwBPOY66IXm6KgmOJOlBZDf5-hMCe8Ky3dW2cKvCgB4YOtZZgX7SCjP3UfgpDsyX6FK_9UvbD8pMUxawmWeMpVJ8THql4xFAVkx6LFVzOris0Xk7SRCtC277OLTVdOcR2R6J7DEoUOZOK37A3zro/s4000/20231224_100313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGK31j-f6H442ZYC5x_chnCv5uZrguQBDn2YEW9jOwBPOY66IXm6KgmOJOlBZDf5-hMCe8Ky3dW2cKvCgB4YOtZZgX7SCjP3UfgpDsyX6FK_9UvbD8pMUxawmWeMpVJ8THql4xFAVkx6LFVzOris0Xk7SRCtC277OLTVdOcR2R6J7DEoUOZOK37A3zro/w640-h296/20231224_100313.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>And I opened a gift from a friend in Japan and have no idea what most of these things are. There are two scarves, a couple packs of orange candy, but the other packets I have no idea what they are. Maybe tea? I need to break out my Japanese dictionary to figure this out (or maybe try one of those apps that translates written Japanese into English).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_spnFAC5gSm0hiKyBbfie8wCAKDOz0hbOhIBZdxiQXwdRi4L71VKbamTzxfYKKqY68V8TH8FjxGuq-CFVzSCxP7nRnuAcL6KbpIt5i05R7CXEa0SazEaGWwld2dIQyukV3wMBUGeRea1BgSuRj5p0_jqegXLwZlZAe43AHpzxDfSa0Z2AxW9b5oFQno/s4000/20231224_100156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_spnFAC5gSm0hiKyBbfie8wCAKDOz0hbOhIBZdxiQXwdRi4L71VKbamTzxfYKKqY68V8TH8FjxGuq-CFVzSCxP7nRnuAcL6KbpIt5i05R7CXEa0SazEaGWwld2dIQyukV3wMBUGeRea1BgSuRj5p0_jqegXLwZlZAe43AHpzxDfSa0Z2AxW9b5oFQno/w640-h296/20231224_100156.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Merry Christmas Eve!</p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-50104475131847822522023-12-19T14:18:00.000-08:002023-12-19T14:18:36.136-08:0015 Things From This Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCkmiGi02RDfOhzK-l0Ju0e82I01h54JmTZtS9Kz2ZCGBPfmRUXatM_k1E9kjuuhvncdMQv2rO1GsPRoeVtyKyk7akeZEQMMpDdLSgE_sXXqmvWMsukIvQQdNOg1PuZWrYLz7WvVmV2-tTbcleoS5OuatqNQaYhBoWq-C0EA5B2Ah8gEmSAjPQsURJ4A/s4000/20231219_132634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCkmiGi02RDfOhzK-l0Ju0e82I01h54JmTZtS9Kz2ZCGBPfmRUXatM_k1E9kjuuhvncdMQv2rO1GsPRoeVtyKyk7akeZEQMMpDdLSgE_sXXqmvWMsukIvQQdNOg1PuZWrYLz7WvVmV2-tTbcleoS5OuatqNQaYhBoWq-C0EA5B2Ah8gEmSAjPQsURJ4A/w640-h296/20231219_132634.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>In no particular order...<div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>I went to get my usual Baskin Robbins Blast drink today and was surprised when the girl who always waits on me gave me a Christmas gift (see photo above). So nice and so unexpected!</li><li>Party #1 went well. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant with my walking group and it was great to see so many walking club members, some I haven't seen in nearly a year!</li><li>Party #2 was also wonderful. My nephew and his wife hosted a Christmas party/baby shower for their soon to be baby at a swanky restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip. The food was great, the service was excellent, and the baby shower games were fun too!</li><li>Party #3 was nice; our friend hosted a big house party with lots of food (Chilean sea bass is a yummy fish!), lots of friends, and lots of chit chat and camaraderie by all.</li><li>Two more parties and we will be done for the season!</li><li>A half dozen of hubby's siblings/spouses will fly in after Christmas to spend the new year with us so I am busy planning food and activities for everyone.</li><li>At one of the parties, I was talking to a vet about our feral cats. He said don't feed them, don't pet them, and don't play with them. I can't not feed them--they always look so hungry. But his warning about the rare possibility of rabies from unvaccinated feral cats and cat scratch fever kind of eekked me out. Yikes!</li><li>Work is still wonderful but getting very quiet as most people who would be emailing or calling me for things head out for the holidays.</li><li><a href="https://kotaku.com/buying-stuff-online-store-sucks-2023-christmas-shopping-1851103408" target="_blank">This guy kind of summed up my opinion of shopping these past several months...</a></li><li>Although I have to say I absolutely love shopping at the Goodwill. On sale day this week I got three nice pairs of jeans for $1 each!</li><li>On the other hand, I was shopping at Ross today and the cashier asked if I was in the 55+ Club. Apparently if you are over 55 you get a 10% discount on Tuesdays. OTOH, apparently, I look over 55 :( :( :( :(</li><li>Obviously I need to get myself together in the upcoming year (ie: more exercise, better eating habits, better make up? a facelift??? :/ ).</li><li>There are still so many things I want to do by the end of the year: go through my closet and get rid of all clothes I don't absolutely love, thoroughly clean the kitchen, etc.</li><li><a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/useless-interesting-real-world-calculations/" target="_blank">And while I am terrible at math, I found</a><a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/useless-interesting-real-world-calculations/" target="_blank"> these advanced calculations quite fascinating</a>.</li><li>Finally, <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/frugal-money-saving-hacks/" target="_blank">I found this list of frugal hacks quite useful.</a></li></ol></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-72950609109751392712023-12-16T12:43:00.000-08:002023-12-16T12:43:12.402-08:00Inching Towards Christmas<p>I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Four deaths, one new career-track job (that I was in no way planning on), a bunch of feral cats, making new friends...it's been an eventful year to say the least. Christmas is just around the corner then the new year is just around the corner from that. Wow! Here are some random things from the past week or so...</p><p>...we have five Christmas parties to attend this week. Being mostly an introvert, that is 4.5 parties too many.</p><p>...the cats are still around and still watching our every move.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNMP57idkCq3qXMrknduXmo_a0iW3GZ9W5tTBYIb73YK2owr1RQpj2ZpMtNf0FYH-XTGa2XxEiv8zozfkOB4kKhkMBhcKXEirdDxl-UKrGeUKWJoggGLPvO_-A6ovmplsUuvSwcEec0fDtP4sMqNXgJUB7b-lZNXaTRQyIBwYDFJYV5lGTjuMQiqrRa-s/s4000/20231211_151619.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNMP57idkCq3qXMrknduXmo_a0iW3GZ9W5tTBYIb73YK2owr1RQpj2ZpMtNf0FYH-XTGa2XxEiv8zozfkOB4kKhkMBhcKXEirdDxl-UKrGeUKWJoggGLPvO_-A6ovmplsUuvSwcEec0fDtP4sMqNXgJUB7b-lZNXaTRQyIBwYDFJYV5lGTjuMQiqrRa-s/w640-h296/20231211_151619.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>...but when we step into "their space", they flee to the safety of the other side of the fence...and continue watching us.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-J5_KhniLx_ywW3IiyxfIeWPEP9c8owcBPC-2hQFdtPRi1YvTy_xbXLOqd6hsQkupPs8qzlqHPODthk7v8Ieni-iGfWhSEz93NWn4na6E0HMdRMCaN-dYIoNQl_Wjwr9J4qDMI0CG_3Mbf8R_WXLB-1qdJKosqC-_zPaYxIizTRJ8c6roQ9DxAe7jkw/s4000/20231211_140002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="1848" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-J5_KhniLx_ywW3IiyxfIeWPEP9c8owcBPC-2hQFdtPRi1YvTy_xbXLOqd6hsQkupPs8qzlqHPODthk7v8Ieni-iGfWhSEz93NWn4na6E0HMdRMCaN-dYIoNQl_Wjwr9J4qDMI0CG_3Mbf8R_WXLB-1qdJKosqC-_zPaYxIizTRJ8c6roQ9DxAe7jkw/w296-h640/20231211_140002.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><p>...then hubby saw that the house he made them barely fit two cats so one cat was always left out in the cold so he built them a new cat condo this morning.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl942eYOUwn9YFDpz81vuOpxyTKgtEtAC2IlcenPYca_wg7nm8dFcwozPzdSUAUkTi9Zg2T0ZG0kL8Bd03jgzl-6KXLg7xzoNiI6n3esLzKgyTW7624laxeZXF_qMFk15aO0-ewHmhoY8Y3oyX8288YZc4sZVUl4tPxbZiYTHiO-zUlV8Svb4jxsX0WoM/s4000/20231216_121650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl942eYOUwn9YFDpz81vuOpxyTKgtEtAC2IlcenPYca_wg7nm8dFcwozPzdSUAUkTi9Zg2T0ZG0kL8Bd03jgzl-6KXLg7xzoNiI6n3esLzKgyTW7624laxeZXF_qMFk15aO0-ewHmhoY8Y3oyX8288YZc4sZVUl4tPxbZiYTHiO-zUlV8Svb4jxsX0WoM/w640-h296/20231216_121650.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>...finally, our lemons are almost ripe!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9LQcaXHUWkWXoT-NPEjD84Eak3JwTHPnflu4uzM7SVgj-a4aqDN8oTDJMigM7Qfq0ZodeC-0S5eAZYTu1DGTAf8leBQzkI52s5Es4F2rtw9qLoDdMRl3b8hc9bbkIrwcUHQGXtqLdv6UXkQ3Qof_zhXFp3dzBD28RfHKwizXFUhVjbDSGAzRpN4pPss/s4000/20231211_135946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF9LQcaXHUWkWXoT-NPEjD84Eak3JwTHPnflu4uzM7SVgj-a4aqDN8oTDJMigM7Qfq0ZodeC-0S5eAZYTu1DGTAf8leBQzkI52s5Es4F2rtw9qLoDdMRl3b8hc9bbkIrwcUHQGXtqLdv6UXkQ3Qof_zhXFp3dzBD28RfHKwizXFUhVjbDSGAzRpN4pPss/w640-h296/20231211_135946.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-2009118633333185712023-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:002023-12-07T07:53:15.690-08:00CatsAfter yesterday's crazy day, I find it relaxing to look at cats--and I'm not even a cat person!<div><br /></div><div>Here are our three feral cats...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwICkpW6JpYNu3TfLX9DjCkeDbQ4zKiwwGcH6Q3XrlLTV8sheEXby5VJx22VF3GHAy1-1zd9FEL3gdFv2BVibv9P06A2ulOk7SVMFK11tFpIX3lsdoEniXi7maXDUsZ79HDsyTIzYEvV2EDQ1VIdHCh7h5xkcjF626FVRCCT2MG3NH1pS1DqCjcaweQEg/s4000/20231207_070705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwICkpW6JpYNu3TfLX9DjCkeDbQ4zKiwwGcH6Q3XrlLTV8sheEXby5VJx22VF3GHAy1-1zd9FEL3gdFv2BVibv9P06A2ulOk7SVMFK11tFpIX3lsdoEniXi7maXDUsZ79HDsyTIzYEvV2EDQ1VIdHCh7h5xkcjF626FVRCCT2MG3NH1pS1DqCjcaweQEg/w640-h296/20231207_070705.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6guMpj3fgQ4die8v5vjUDudg0mvpIV34THw_sbcPiBGpvN5f5rlMr6jq2H4ku8UmPV6BQx3mx_KzhKFAQ_h5DmWltVlrTnpW6KJ9rUgmDsuXNRt3mQWiQ4owXKR8exyc-lJRKpYvPPTfKE7LzCy05eLNYVzkzwQXmpsxucyGsllABThf7DoSe4-aIt0E/s4000/20231207_070708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6guMpj3fgQ4die8v5vjUDudg0mvpIV34THw_sbcPiBGpvN5f5rlMr6jq2H4ku8UmPV6BQx3mx_KzhKFAQ_h5DmWltVlrTnpW6KJ9rUgmDsuXNRt3mQWiQ4owXKR8exyc-lJRKpYvPPTfKE7LzCy05eLNYVzkzwQXmpsxucyGsllABThf7DoSe4-aIt0E/w640-h296/20231207_070708.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>And some cat links...</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/holdmycatnip/" target="_blank">Hold My Catnip</a></li><li><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/" target="_blank">Reddit Cats</a></li><li><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatsWrongWithYourCat/" target="_blank">What's Wrong With Your Cat</a></li><li><a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/the-odd-cat-sanctuary-memes/" target="_blank">Cat Memes</a></li><li><a href="https://cat-bounce.com/" target="_blank">Cat Bounce</a> (apparently this is a game of some sort)</li></ul></div><div><br /></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-89341274737523545282023-12-06T13:46:00.000-08:002023-12-06T13:46:24.574-08:00Have People Lost Their Everloving Minds?I don't know if it is just me or the whole world has turned upside down. People seem to be acting weird in general and I don't understand why. The final straw on the camel's proverbial back is the currently happening mass shooting incident at our local university. There is little information about the incident as it is unfolding now but seriously, people seem to have lost all semblance of manners, morals, and values and I don't like it!<div><br /></div><div>Yesterday we were at Sam's Club and when I walked down an aisle, a teenage girl started yelling, I guess at me as there was no one else around. She yelled "excuse you bitch" then walked off. I didn't bump into her, there was plenty of room in the aisle for me to walk by her, and her mom who was nearby didn't even look up from her cell phone. I didn't call her out since I didn't want to end up on the "brawling at Walmart" TicToks but WTF is wrong with people? A few minutes earlier, same store, I asked a guy who had one of those long carts if he could move it a bit so I could look at the books since his cart was blocking half of the book table. I asked nicely, and he just glared at me and pulled his cart back. Then leaving the store, hubby and I were nearly run over by a van. He had a stop sign, he saw us, and still turned so tightly that he nearly hit us. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe it is just living in a big city, maybe it is living in "Sin City" (like what would you expect in a place with the name Sin City?), maybe it is living in an area with literally the dumbest students in the nation (19% of 8th graders are proficient in math and 27% are proficient in reading and the parents are more likely to come to the school and fight the teacher than help their kids learn to read or do math...ugh), maybe it is opening the fire hydrant of bad news every time I open my web browser/turn on the TV...I don't know what it is but I want to move...to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uacxPmj2PlA" target="_blank">Jarbidge</a>!</div><div><br /></div>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4436155035740778098.post-69983594089923626772023-12-04T08:23:00.000-08:002023-12-04T08:23:26.613-08:00My Updated Desk Set Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4wTIoIpPCl8Cgb5V4pH6MtgmOJbnMTu4gezukzDxptH0gU2IRwGoK6TXmfDoQhl5g-eod86430PSo_1vx6WsJ-9OJ1rVDZFORa8h5ISeh8Pa1yIJsvreXgcJo7F0nqIDBV5Xcjd0mIwZARoLrUbBk-ZoJDPY49IffmdwWcM9SaQYRUtC6R1k0_jjtEk/s4000/20231203_121521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="4000" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4wTIoIpPCl8Cgb5V4pH6MtgmOJbnMTu4gezukzDxptH0gU2IRwGoK6TXmfDoQhl5g-eod86430PSo_1vx6WsJ-9OJ1rVDZFORa8h5ISeh8Pa1yIJsvreXgcJo7F0nqIDBV5Xcjd0mIwZARoLrUbBk-ZoJDPY49IffmdwWcM9SaQYRUtC6R1k0_jjtEk/w640-h296/20231203_121521.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>In the picture you can see my updated desk set up. I started out with a folding table and I am glad I went that way first because it gave me time to figure out what I really needed in a home office. We have two guest rooms, and since people usually come visit us in groups, we really didn't want to get rid of a guest room for my office because I tend to work wherever I am (casino, bowling center, etc) so I am not at my desk eight hours a day.</p><p>In order to keep our guest room intact, but not create a big hassle with taking down my desk set up any time we have guests, I settled on a desk with wheels which makes it super easy to just roll my desk into our bedroom each time people come to visit us. So now my desk set up includes: the rolling desk (around $100 and comes with hooks on one side to hold my headphones and a file holder on the other side where I can put my notebooks/pens/calendar book/etc). Also I have improved my monitor (went from a 1080p 22" monitor to a 4k 28" monitor; it's incredibly clear!), some Bose speakers (the sound is great!), and my same old laptop, mouse, mousepad, webcam and hub to tie the whole system together.</p><p>I can easily turn the desk around if I want to watch TV (which is behind me in this picture), or turn it to face the window (much better on a sunny day if I am doing an online meeting and need the light pointing at me and not from behind me) and it has space for everything I do (I did like the extra space of the 60" desk but this is the longest desk that will wheel out the bedroom door and around the corner to our bedroom because of where the stairs are located). Overall this set up is working great!</p>Cash Only Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13658816214856647685noreply@blogger.com4