Watching the Groceries: Wrapping Up the Third Quarter of 2026!

 

With the start of the fourth and final quarter of 2026 just begun (how did that happen?), I have looked at our grocery spending to see where we stand for the year.

And the short version is? Better than I had hoped, given the prices of food and some of the splurges I made. I keep a running spreadsheet on my computer and will sometimes make editorial comments as I go, some of which make me laugh and some of which make me wince when hit the end of a quarter.

So numbers first. In the third quarter, we spent $628.19 on groceries, which for purposes of tracking means food items and common household items such as detergent and toilet paper. Of that, only $23.33 was spent on household items, just under 4% The monthly average for third quarter? $209.40. 

Okay.

Year to date, we have spent $1854.61, which comes to an average of $206.07. 

I can live with that!

Looking back at my second quarter post, I see that I called attention to the price of milk, which was on an upward trend. Three months later, the price of milk has come down substantially. (Good, because I love milk.) Probably the biggest "splurge" was when we were recently at Mayo Clinic I picked out some items at Trader Joe's (and note that the one in Rochester, MN is the only TJ we shop at, period) to help shove more complex carbohydrates into my diet as my doctor and I work with my diabetes. So yes to the wild rice and the penne pasta made from brown rice. 

We will have a large stock-up at Aldi in the coming days as we have been eating out of our pantry and garden much of the summer. I know what we don't need: we have A LOT of frozen chicken in our freezer from some walloping sales at Kroger. But I will grab my Aldi list and check on our supplies of staples so I can fill in the gaps.

There has been a lot (A. Lot.) going on in this household, much of it good, much of it complex (even the good stuff), and a chunk of it in the "just get through it" category. My health is stable, but there are some issues that my personal physician and I are watching. Will that impact our grocery spending? Maybe. Who knows?

It is what it is.

There is one very recent development that takes the first place blue ribbon (our county fair just ended) and has nothing to do with grocery spending, but is too good not to share. Last Friday, Warren's daughter Elizabeth gave birth to Gideon, the first child for Elizabeth and her husband Justin, and the first grandchild for both immediate sides. 

Yes, Warren is over the moon. (As we all are.) 

Let's see how we finish 2026 on the grocery front! 

Watching the Groceries: Halfway Through 2026!

Really? We are already halfway through the year? Yeah, right. That's like telling me my youngest son, Sam, is 36 years old.

Oh, wait. Sam did just turn 36! And yes, 2026 is halfway over!

So where is our household on grocery spending for not only the second quarter but also the first half of the year?

Better than I dared hope. 

As I have often written, "groceries" means food and common household items such as toilet paper, tissues, and cleaning supplies. "Groceries" does not mean eating out, which for us, unless we are on the road, tends to be very minimal. (How minimal? Maybe three to four times in any given quarter.) 

Like so many of us, I continue to watch many prices rise. In April, when I was totaling up our first quarter spending, I noted that milk was $3.19, a new high. Not anymore. A gallon of milk yesterday at Kroger? $3.29.  Now, I like milk. A. Lot. I watch for sales, of course, but the reality is I will continue to buy milk. It is a small luxury I am grateful I can afford. 

Another kink in the shopping, and it will take another quarter to figure our what, if any, impact there may be, is the re-emergence of diabetes. Things have changed since I wrote about this at the end of March. I have a new family physician who I just had my first appointment with yesterday and she and Warren and I had a long discussion about where my A1C is (too high and barely down from March), what changes I am willing to make to my diet and lifestyle on my own (the diet is the bigger issue), and how she would like to see if and how much I can bring that troublesome A1C down before I see her again in late September. My doctor wants me to focus on eating more complex carbohydrates, starting with something as simple as brown rice. (But we are finishing the white rice first. Just saying.) So there's that.

Okay. What did the second quarter hold?

From April to June, we spent $561.63 on groceries. $32.03, or just about 6%, of that was on household items, ranging from toilet paper to (my favorite) 5¢ on Dawn dish soap at CVS. The rest was on food. May was our most expensive month, as we had a big stock-up at Aldi that came in at about $98.00 and then a later trip that I thought would be small, but still topped out at over $65.00. In June, we had one Aldi stock-up that came in around $105.00, but that was the only one. Our second quarter spending averaged out to $177.21 a month. 

Combined grocery spending for the first half of 2026? $1226.42, or a monthly average of $204.40. 

Not bad. not bad at all.

We have been making a concerted effort to eat out of our pantry and freezer. The good news of that? We don't have to buy much. The downside? At some point, we will be restocking both the freezer and the pantry. I am watching the grocery ads for sales on chicken (our primary meat in this household); I'm hoping for a "Buy One Get Two" sale, but have not seen any of those recently. And both of us continue to be very, very vigilant about food waste. So much so that when the occasion presented itself recently, I trash picked a gorgeous apple (with one medium bruise) out of our shared compost, brought it in, washed it off, cut off the bruise, and enjoyed every single bite with Warren. Just saying.

So that's where we are at the half. The 4th of July is upon us; of course, there's a concert that night. We have just come under a heat dome (and I really, really hate heat) but it is supposed to break before the 4th. I certainly hope so.

On to the third quarter!

A long-ago Sam celebrating the 4th! 

Watching the Groceries: First Quarter is a Wrap!

 

For the past several years, I have tracked and posted our household spending on groceries. "Groceries" in this blog means food and common household items such as toilet paper, tissues, and cleaning supplies. ("Groceries" does not mean eating out, which for us, unless we are on the road, tends to be very minimal. How minimal? Maybe three to four times in any given quarter.) I will be continuing that habit in 2026, separate and apart from the weekly Inch. 

Like all of us, I am watching prices rise, sometimes suddenly and steeply. I had to get some things for my father yesterday, and I grabbed a gallon of milk while at the grocery. The price for that gallon? $3.19.

$3.19. Just eight days ago (and maybe even more recently than that), it was $2.89, and a few weeks before that, $2.69. I have a milk tale to tell in a bit, but I was caught off guard with the new price. I am sure everyone who sets foot in a grocery store these days has similar tales to tell.

So what does our First Quarter grocery spending look like? $694.69 total, or an average of $231.60 a month for the two of us. Of that amount, $65142 was food: 94% of our total expenditures. And only because January was staggeringly low ($77.49 total) were we able to come in at an average of $232.00 per month. 

I track our spending in a simple spreadsheet, and make general notes as to what our purchases consist of. I also note victories and what I will call lost skirmishes. The last three months have held some of each.

During this quarter, there were two restocks at Aldi, one at the start of February and one at the beginning of March. The former totaled $240.48, with $213.70 being food; the latter was $110.82, with $99.61 being food. The March restock included about $30.00 of "special" soft foods—applesauce, large yogurts, cottage cheese, instant pudding, apple juice—because Warren was facing oral surgery in March and would be on a restricted diet of soft foods for two to three weeks. Even so, despite those two start-of-the-month restocks, our spending for both months were eye watering.

Sigh...and ouch. Or, as I noted on the spreadsheet after February came in at $329.61, Whoa!

I would note that we try to be good stewards and watch closely to make sure we don't waste food. I confess that the quart of cottage cheese (not a staple in this household) was a rare exception. It was shoved in the back, our of sight and mind, and the last quarter of it hit the garbage disposal when I "discovered" it and found it had turned. 

But there were some wins and some reasons to smile. With Easter coming, some of the stores dropped their prices on hams. No, we did not buy six. We bought only one. Our local Meijer (a midwest chain) had its spiral sliced ham selling for 89 cents/pound, 79 cents if you were part of the rewards program (we are), limit one. I had another $1.00 off, also as part of the rewards program, so the final cost per pound came to 69.5 cents. Okay, I'll take that.

But why only one ham this year? (Kroger also had a special on ham.) Because we reorganized BOTH of our freezers (the small upright in the basement and the fridge freezer in our kitchen) at the same time as the ham sales. I had already pulled the remaining ham from last year out to thaw. No surprise when we tackled the freezers: we had a LOT MORE of everything, from ham to chicken to corn to you-name-it, that we realized. We didn't need more ham. We needed to cut and wrap and freeze what we had, which we did over the course of two days, throwing the bones into a stock pot with pounds of beans (which, when done, also went into the freezer).

There were some other grocery wins that also made me smile. In February, I bought a large laundry detergent bottle at CVS for 30 cents, thanks to CVS bonus dollars and coupons. The topper was the gallon of milk story. At the end of March (yes, just a few days ago), milk was selling for $2.89/gallon. I noticed there was one gallon marked down to $1.30. It was nowhere near its pull date, the usual reason for a markdown. But it was the victim of a backroom hit and run with chocolate milk that had poured down over it and had apparently been discovered too late to clean up. 

It was a no brainer. The gallon container was intact; the lid had not been tampered with. $1.30? Yes! But wait, I also had a 65 cents off coupon, so the final cost was 65 cents. 

65 cents. You can't beat that with a stick.

The bargain milk. (Yes, I cleaned it up when I got home.)

I am hoping that with us once again being on top of the contents of our freezers, and turning to them and our pantry before running to the store, we can at least hold at $232.00/month, if not go lower (my hope) as we move on through 2026. 

Let's see what Second Quarter brings! 

Inch One: Sam

I have written about my son Sam off and on over the almost 17 years I have been blogging. (Yes, 17 years as of March 17! Frigging unbelievable for lots of reasons, starting with my health.) The younger of my two sons, Sam has provided me with a plethora of challenges and laughter and stress and joyous moments over the years. I know, I know. All children provide parents with those same things; Sam maybe just doubled down on challenges at times. 

And, in all fairness, if you were asking Sam, he no doubt would say the same thing of me as his mother: "Yeah, yeah, Mom has provided me with a plethora of challenges and laughter and stress and joyous moments over the years." And then laugh and go on his merry way.

So why Sam now? Because a week ago he and I had one of the best conversations we have had in years. 

Years.

The phone call was set in motion when I texted him the above photo, asking him if he remembered that mug. Sam bought that for me decades ago, when he was a kindergartner or first grader and attending the Santa Store for students at his elementary school. I still have the mug and have been using it regularly as of late. In my text, I touched base with him; I last talked with him on Christmas and knew he had changed jobs since seeing him last July. I was curious how he was doing and how his partner Georgia was doing. 

Sam replied later that night: "Great mug," adding he would call the next day. And he did.

Sam started immediately on the biggest change in his life: he had just the week before quit his most recent job (as a mail handler with the USPS). Why? Sam didn't mince words: "It was the worst job I have ever held. Just horrid." He was working long, middle-of-the-night hours (biking to work at 3:00 a.m. when he started); his body clock was a mess; he rarely (very rarely) had days off or evenings free; he could not see his friends or spend time with Georgia or go biking or cook for the sheer enjoyment of cooking. He hadn't been able to see his brother in a long time. In short, Sam was disconnected from everything and everyone that gave his life meaning. So, with Georgia's enthusiastic blessings, he quit. (Note: Sam and Georgia live frugal lives, intentionally, so his quitting would not sink their lives. He can take some time, catch his breath, then move on into another job.)

And even though he had just quit, I could hear the change in his voice and his laugh. His body clock had already reset. He was already seeing friends. Life was immediately better.

Sam, Sam, Sam.

From the beginning, my sons (and their families) have been threaded throughout this blog. Even with the 2450 miles between us, I hold them in my hearts and am often reminded of them: a comment, a shrug, a book, a mug. In an early post about Sam's upcoming birthday, I noted how he had once had a perfect day, ending with his scooping up a penny on the ground and exclaiming "Is this my lucky day or what?" 

When we talked last week, I heard that same joyful, lighthearted exhilaration in Sam's voice as that long ago little boy spying a penny. We finished the call and I sat there with tears in my eyes: happy for my boy and his decision to quit an unhealthy situation. 

In that long ago post, I wished Sam a life full of lucky days, and, more importantly, that he never lose the ability to recognize them when they came along. I'd say that wish came true. 

After Four: Wrapping Up Grocery Spending in 2025

Back at the end of September, I updated our grocery spending for 2025 year-to-date and expressed the hope that we come in at year's end spending an average of $200/month. We were right at an average of $195.00/month after three quarters and we at least had a shot at hitting that mark.

The numbers are in and while we did not hit the $200/month average, we came in pretty darn close at a monthly average of $208.31. If we had spent about $100 less last year (the entire year, not just per month), we would have hit the $200.00 mark just about dead on.

So what did the fourth and final quarter of 2025 hold both in savings and in spending? 

On the non-food front—things like dish soap, toilet paper, tissue—we spent a staggering $49.72, or about 7% of our overall spending in this final quarter. To put that percentage into perspective, realize that in all of 2025, non-food items amounted to 4.5% of the total amount. So what happened in the fourth quarter to shoot that percentage up? Three major purchases is what happened: toilet paper, bleach, and trash bags for the kitchen waste container. Given that we had not purchased trash bags for over 15 months (because after buying them for my dad's apartment at Assisted Living, it turns out that he did not need them, so they came home with me), I can't be too disappointed to see that expense. Toilet paper: it is what it is. The price of bleach, though, had risen enough since last purchased (two years ago, maybe?) that I made mention of it in my spending notes.

Our food items were pretty much the usual, with the total spent in this final quarter coming out to $739.45. That was the highest quarter grocery costs in all of 2025, but not staggeringly surprising given the higher food prices we are seeing here. A few specific items caught my eye and I noted them in the running accounts I keep. We purchased Sucralose this quarter, the first time in months, and I winced at the price jump. One very recent jump that also caught my attention was the cost of a gallon of milk: it took a 20¢ hike in one week a few weeks ago. Ouch! And it has not come down! Ouch again! 

And one other category added to the overall costs this quarter: we annually make several major holiday treats, and those added to the overall costs. Those treats? Biscotti, Hyer peanut brittle, and, for a second year in a row, Kringle. Kringle made its first appearance in our holiday lineup last year and we brought it back for a second year. We made four total this year: two for our closest neighbors, one for our household, and one to take with us when visiting family last weekend. We make it with frozen puff pastry, and even on sale, those boxes (one per Kringle) ran almost $5.00 per box. Add in the frozen berries at $11.99 (enough to make 5 or even 6 Kringle with) and you are looking at $32.00. We also did some holiday "snacky" purchases, anticipating time spent with family and friends, and those items—cheeses, salami, crackers, (more) cookies, chocolates—came to $35.00, or about two-thirds of the $100 that would have brought our monthly average in at $200.00. 

A 2024 Kringle but trust me, the 2025 ones looked the same! 

But you know what? Neither Warren nor I regret a single bit (or bite, for that matter) of those "extra" expenses. We take great joy in making them (I do the biscotti, Warren and his son David do the brittle, and Warren and I do the Kringle) and even greater joy in sharing them. 

So I close the books on 2025 feeling pretty satisfied overall. Looking ahead to our 2026 spending, I cannot help but wonder what food costs will look like. I doubt that any of us see any sweeping drops at the checkout. But, as Warren and I remind ourselves, we are fine. Our freezer is well-stocked, we are not extravagant eaters (no lobster here), and we take pleasure in cooking simple, filling meals.

Life is good. I hope 2026 will be so too.  

Taking Stock

The zinnias are still in bloom; this was earlier this summer

Last October 1st, I wrote about inventorying the food in our freezer, thinking, smugly, "well, of course I know what we have in our freezer. Sheesh." And, as I confessed in that post, I clearly had no idea of what was in our freezer.

As September wore down and I started looking ahead to the coming winter, I thought maybe I should take a look in our downstairs freezer and see where we stood. It was only by pure serendipity that I came so close in time to the 2024 inventory (which was, admittedly, spurred in no small part as a result of emptying out my father's house when he moved in Assisted Living  and I came to see just how much STUFF he had in the house). So I blithely went down to the basement freezer and started moving, reorganizing, and counting up what it held. And, no surprise, I was just as stunned this year as I was last year. 

I dictated into my Notes on my phone and even a few weeks later, my discoveries crack me up:

Freezer notes

Other than 6 quart bags of historic apples, no apples.

7 quart bags of sliced onions.

Two bags of frozen turkey for justice bus.

Eight bags of hamburger buns for justice bus.

10 quarts of corn kernels; two additional bags of what looks to be corn kernels, frozen and smaller quantity probably for corn bacon quiche.

22 quart bags of zucchini and squash. Wow!! Far more than I hoped for!

6 quart bags of chopped sweet peppers, plus a gallon bag holding five individual small baggies of chopped sweet peppers.

11 Packages of chicken thighs, two each. Three packages of sliced turkey for sandwiches.

3 quart containers of already made navy bean soup. 

In frozen quartz containers: black bean soup, turkey/vegetable stock with note great for dumplings, lentil/onion soup, chicken stew (that would be from Boysel’s) chicken stew (small container, same source) 2 quart containers of meat stock/broth: maybe chicken?. Plus another quart of turkey broth in a quart container.

One pack of boneless chops.

Stopped inventorying all the ham slices packages, because arm started bleeding and I need to stop! [Note: I have fragile skin. A prior skin tear opened up while I was moving packages and containers around. All is well.]

But certainly far more than I did hope and feeling much more optimistic about getting through the winter for, truly, pretty cheaply while eating well. And we are still looking at local harvest: I have a lot of peppers in the garden, apples are coming into season. With luck, I can buy a lot of markdowns those at Kroger so the pies I make for Jaime and everyone else won't break us. [End of notes]

And since that inventory, we indeed have added apples (marked down, of course), 10 pounds of butter (a stunning sale that came out to $2.85/pound after applying a coupon to the sale price), homemade chicken broth, and more chicken thighs. We have FAR more zucchini stashed away than I had dreamed, which pleases me to no end. So I am not worried about what the fall and winter hold for us. Taking (some) stock of our food was productive and gives us both an idea of where we are. (And following up on the freezer, I did a partial inventorying of our pantry of foods: dried beans, rices, cereal, and so on. All is pretty solid there too.)

Taking stock of our freezer made me think about myself and about taking stock of where I am. As I have noted, the last several months have been overloaded, not always in bad ways, mind you, but overly full. At times, I feel as if Warren (who is also very busy given his business, his playing, and his new teaching duties) and I see each other in quick passings, and both of us are making an effort to find time each day to shut out everything else and just connect. 

As to the issues and demands personal to my time, I am still sifting through them. I even made a very, very rough "diagram" with categories such as "HAVE TO," "Do B/C Important," "SHOULD/NEED," and "Important/WANT TO." There are some items I cannot change, primarily that I am the sole adult child responsible for my father (HAVE TO). He is thriving in Assisted Living, which is great and a huge relief for all of us. But I am the one running the errands, handling his needs, and while I do not resent any of it, it can be exhausting. I am still recovering from the unexpected June hospitalization, doing well, but watching my health issues (SHOULD/NEED) and having to accept that the likelihood of my ever regaining my pre-hospitalization strength and energy is slim to none. (Probably none.) I am walking regularly, albeit not at my pre-hospitalization speeds (again, gone) and that is a plus. You get the idea.

I even noted I wanted to write more, bake more, do more photography, spend more time with Warren (Important/WANT TO). I even wrote "Travel??????????" 

In my last post, written as Yom Kippur came to an end, I wrote about how to move into the New Year with my putting more focus on repairing the broken threads of the world: "world" being this community and pieces of my life that I could do better at threading together. And maybe that's where I am in taking stock. 

We had our first light frost of the season last night. Warren and I covered the tomatoes, the peppers, and the deck planters with sheets. I am glad we did; there are still vegetables to ripen. There are still flowers to sit outside and marvel at. There is still time to watch the bees mine the flowers, the butterflies dance, and the small birds fly in and our of the garden. 

Small moments, little bits. All precious. 

At the End of Two

Having just finished the first half of 2025 (!), I am updating our grocery/household spending for the year. While our results were not as spectacular as first quarter, the second quarter came in far better than I had dared hope. 

Second quarter spending for food and common household items: $728.94. $29.23 was spent on household items: a whopping 4% of the overall outlay. Okay, that was a little bit more spent on household items than first quarter, but not by much. 

The food expenditures were higher than first quarter for a number of reasons. We were so frugal in the first quarter that the month of April saw some major restocking. We also had guest artists over in April, and that involves some extra food purchases. Eggs were still staggering high that month; I only bought 1 dozen (@ $4.99), but did buy Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, a worthy substitute in baking (2 bags at $4.99 each; 1 bag equals 34 eggs). And yes, April spending included two hams when they went on sale around Easter. 

To my surprise, as I look at May in preparing this, it too included another major restocking. We also had guests coming through and staying with us, always requiring extra purchases. Still, I was a little taken aback at the dollars spent. 

It was the June figures I was braced for: June included my hospitalization and a lot of typical and untypical purchases following, including preparing for guests and, gulp, BUYING DESSERT (for the same guests) instead of making it myself. (Two reasons for that: (1) During our recent heat dome, we avoided cooking or baking anything that required turning on the oven and (2) I did not have (and still lack) the energy to bake. Period.) We also "splurged" on a rotisserie chicken from Kroger for the same two reasons: heat and my continuing lack of capacity. That all being said, June came in at $172.56 for food and household items. 

And let's not forget the continuing rising prices on food. Yes, eggs have come way down and milk has stayed fairly stable, but other items have gone up.

It is what it is. 

The second quarter average monthly expenditure came out to $242.98, almost $100.00 higher than first quarter. For the year, we have spent $1165.04 on groceries, which averages out to $194.17 a month. I have been hoping to hold to $200/month, but realize, the first quarter aside, that may be a tad unrealistic in this uncertain economy. We are only sitting just below that figure because of the first quarter spending of this year. Can we maybe maybe just maybe hit $225.00 a month?

Time will tell! 

And at the End of One

As I have done for several years, and as many other blogger friends do, I track our grocery spending annually. "Grocery" means food bought for home preparation and consumption, and common household items such as toilet paper and laundry detergent. I do not track our eating out expenses. With very rare exception, we don't eat out, and "eating out" includes getting takeout meals or an ice cream cone. Those costs almost never exceed $50.00 a month, even when we head to Mayo, and in any year, we might eat out (except for the occasional ice cream cone) maybe, oh, four of the twelve months. 

So, looking at First Quarter 2025 grocery spending, the results are...

Eye opening. 

At the end of three months, our grocery expenditures were (drum roll, please) $436.10, or an average of $145.37 per  month. Of that amount, a whopping $13.65 was household: parchment paper and toilet paper. That is 3% of the overall spending.

3%. 

The rest was for food: perishables, some stock-up shopping. Okay, there was what I will call a "splurge" from our trip to Mayo in late February. Between the Kwik Trip cinnamon rolls, which have gone up in cost (what hasn't?) and hitting the Rochester Trader Joe's (the only Trader Joe's we shop at, period), we bought and brought home $31.94 of groceries on that trip. 

Okay, okay, we can live with that kind of splurge. As I go through the notes I make (yes, I keep a spreadsheet and make notes as to what the purchases are), I see I wrote "This is NOT about deprivation." We eat well. Probably the biggest change in our diets over recent months, as a result of aging (both of us) and as a result of my major hospitalization and the physical/medical fallout from it in 2023-2024, is that we simply do not eat as much as we used to. So food just lasts longer. 

How much less do we eat? Here is a recent rare meal out (it was a special Warren/April anniversary): we bought two lunch plates (and a tamale) at a local Mexican restaurant. We brought home what we did not eat and ate the leftovers later. From the whole event, in addition to the lunch at the restaurant, we got two more lunches and two more suppers at home. So that was five meals for two adults or ten meals total. To stretch it, we also had a small salad each on one supper, tortilla chips with the lunch, and a side of rice with the last supper (and there is still rice left to make another meal from). Small additions to the overall initial lunches, trust me. 

We are concentrating on "eating down" the food in our upright freezer (100 cubic feet) and that too keeps costs down. There are still frozen vegetables from 2024 (zucchini, sweet corn, pesto) that we hope to finish before the 2025 season starts. We have one turkey (Justice Bus!) and one ham still frozen. With Easter coming up, we hope ham prices drop enough that we can buy a few for the freezer. And I am wishful (but prepared to not have this one granted) that egg prices will drop even a little bit for Easter as well. 

Who knows? Who knows anything about grocery prices in these turbulent times?

First quarter is in the books; let's see what the next three months bring! 

A Wednesday Win

This post is for Amanda, who will totally get it and burst out laughing.

We are slated to have some snow/ice roll in later today. The city trucks have been out brining the streets and I wanted to make sure I got a long walk in just in case everything iced up. So I bundled up and took off for the CVS on the south side of town; I had some perks expiring soon (some today) and wanted to use them.

This is what I bought at CVS:

Total cost? $0.00.

But wait, there's more!

Amanda and I both follow Katy Wolk-Stanley, The Non-Consumer Advocate, on Instagram. (I also read Katy's blog, which is often downright hilarious.) Each year, Katy saves all of her "found money" and then lets us know how much she netted for the year. "Found money" is exactly that: a coin dropped that you find and pick up on a parking lot, for example. (I include non-profit mailings where the organization attaches a dime or a nickel to convince you to donate.) With fewer and fewer people using cash, found money is scarcer with each passing month. But I told Amanda I was game if she was game. 

So imagine my delight when, on leaving CVS and preparing to walk back home (1.3 miles each way, in case anyone is wondering), I look down and see this:

Found money! 

Free dish soap, free note cards (yes, I write a lot of letters every month), and a penny for my 2025 found money bowl. 

That's a win no matter how you count it. 

Moving Into 2025

The calendar behind me as I sit at my desk

January 2025 is half over already. I have spent the first few weeks remembering to write "2025" when a date is required on anything, clearing out (more) clutter, preparing for another year of volunteering, and, of course, reading. (It has been pretty cold lately, so my indoor reading time has grown.) Add to that activity a deeper dive (my toes are in the water at least) into our household finances, and that captures a lot of January at the halfway mark. 

On the clutter front, some progress has been made. Last week we took a carload of donations (household, shop, other) to Goodwill. Just this week, I (finally) emptied, recycled, and either disposed or saved three boxes (from holiday gift shipments), clearing them off the coffee table in our downstairs study (which is presently also serving as a holding station for Hyer Percussion). Gone, gone, gone.

Along with good friends and colleagues, I am gearing up for the 2025 Justice Bus season, which will begin the first Thursday in February. I am the attorney wrangler. I also advise. New to my mix this year is cooking. After hearing and seeing clients struggling with being able to afford food, we are adding food to the program. Just something hot and transportable (think crockpot shredded turkey, for example). We have always had "snacks" (granola bars, for example), courtesy of our wonderful community partner Andrews House, but after several of us talked about the situation in November and agreed our clients (and volunteers) could use something heartier, I said I would bring a crockpot with the shredded whatever in it and the buns. We'll see how it goes.

On the grocery front, because I put this in my end-of-2024 post, I will note that our "only buy perishables (or something on a really, really whopping great sale)" January is going great. As of today, we have spent a total of $23.33. I push myself to get creative with our meals: a shredded apple/carrot salad when we did not have any salad green in the house, for example. It was delicious. 

The apple/carrot salad

I mention the groceries because that topic ties into a deeper dive into our household finances. The combination of my updated prognosis, Warren's business ramping up, and some short-term and long-term expenses—a transmission replacement (immediate), traveling to the Pacific Northwest this summer (not that far away), a new-to-us car sometime in the next 3-4 years paying in cash to the greatest extent possible (long-term)—is leading us to talk about ways to start saving for those big ticket items and to run our household frugally so we don't get off track. Even the small wins make me smile. For example, it turns out that because we are both over the age of 65, we are entitled to a 25% reduction on our monthly City refuse collection fee, which just went up to $27/month. That reduction comes to a savings of $81.00/year. Combine that with our City now charging a service fee on all utility payments made by credit card, debit card, or autopay (cash or check is still accepted without a fee), but waiving the fee if you submit an ACH form to have the City pull the monthly bill directly. You bet I got that form turned in ASAP. That's $1.95/month savings: $23+ a year. Combine those two savers and we're saving over $100.00 a year on our City utilities. Easy peasy.

And that brings me to reading. As of Monday, my savings to date from using the library in 2025 are $308.78. I kid you not. Great savings, great reading, great life. 

At the End of Four: Wrapping Up Groceries in 2024

Homemade Kringle

Wrapping up and looking ahead to 2025, that is. 

Well, that was a wild prediction on my part. Back in November, summing up our grocery purchases for the third quarter of the year and using a goal of spending an average of $200.00/month, I optimistically (and myopically) wrote we could still hit that average for the year by holding our spending to $164.00 a month for the final quarter.

Non-spoiler alert: it didn't happen. 

Didn't begin to happen. Our combined grocery (food and basic household items such as detergent and toilet paper) was—wait for it—$802.55, or $267.52 average a month. Of that amount, a mere $46.83 was for household items; $755.72 was for food.

For the year, our total outlay for groceries (again, mostly food) came to $2709.96, making the monthly average $225.83. The only reason we came in that low was because the 2nd quarter expenditures were lower because of my father's changing circumstances and some of the items we reaped from his house. 

But, more to the point in my mind, why was 4th quarter, and especially December so high? (December spending was $371.66—ouch.)

There are several reasons. One, I bake a lot (a whole lot) in December for friends, family, volunteers and so on. As a result, we spent a lot of money on supplies. In the spirit of full disclosure, I did deduct $60.00 from the December total representing supplies for baked goods (including Kringle) that left this house directly to the recipients. But we also bought items (some of which were very pricy) that I did not end up using for holiday gifting so those costs are in our totals.

One Kringle left home; this one stayed. (Yes, I counted it in the total.)

Another reason is that December especially contained some "splurges." Let me put "splurges" into context. A friend recently told me that she and her husband always had lobster rolls (one each) on New Year's Day; that was a long-standing tradition. So they had just purchased two pounds of lobster at an eye-watering $40.00/pound. She said they would get several such meals out of that amount and it was cheaper than going to a restaurant and ordering lobster (true that), but I winced inwardly at the $80.00.

Our splurges were a tad more modest. 3.73 pounds of fresh salmon "loins" (when did salmons acquire loins?) marked down 50% to $7.49/pound at Kroger (that will make four meals for us), and a whopper of a fresh salmon slab marked 50% off at Aldi to come in at $4.60/pound (another meal or two). Yeah, the Kroger markdown was still a big splurge. It came first and, because I watch salmon prices (I love salmon) and knew that Aldi had not been below $9.00+ pound for weeks, I felt we did well. (We did great with the Aldi one.) I will enjoy every bite. 

Another splurge (in November) was for a quart of vanilla ice cream at Whit's: $9.00. We had dear friends coming to dinner and I wanted the ice cream to accompany the apple dessert I had made. Totally worth it for the pleasure of the vanilla and apples. 

So splurging is an issue, but we watch ourselves even in that area. The other main issue, frankly, is the cost of food. We are pretty darn conscientious about our shopping and I watch and compare prices. But food is higher. A pound of butter on sale, and there were several between mid-November and Christmas, was $2.99. Everywhere. Last year: $1.99. In mid-December, I ran out of eggs (having stocked up on them in November through sales). No one had a special and I paid, gasping, $3.99 for a dozen so I could finish my baking. And these are what is now known as "traditional" eggs: not organic, not cage-free, not brown. Just eggs. 

That all being said, there were some hilarious (to us) saving moments in December. We finished off a bag of tortilla chips (which we had just opened, not an old stale one we had opened and forgot about), a small cube (frozen) of veggie dip, and two York Peppermint Patties (also frozen) that were left behind after we hosted a small potluck-style gathering in July. And walking home together December 31, Warren and I spied a runaway onion on a tree lawn a few blocks from home. 

The runaway onion

Of course we picked it up. (Turns out there were three others in the curb gutter that neither of us noticed. Walking home yesterday, I saw them, but they had frozen into the matted leaves and were not salvageable. Just had to let those go.)

And while this falls in 2025 and not 2024, I picked two mini candy bars from the bowl at our auto repair shop yesterday that we will take to the movies tonight. 

Two mini bars

While writing this, having just now run the numbers for the year, I am vastly relieved that, even with a very expensive December, our average monthly outlay for the year was $226.00 and not closer to the $267.00 for this quarter. Thinking about the higher amount, Warren and I had discussed cutting our grocery purchases 10%, or $26.00 a month, to get started on reining in the costs. Using that $26.00 amount, which we thought we could meet, maybe $200.00/month for groceries is within reach. Or something close to that.

A lot of folks out there are having a "No Spend" January. We tend to lean towards a "no spend" lifestyle as it is, so we're already aligned with that mindset. But we both agreed that an "Only Buy Perishables" January (short of some stunning sale somewhere: salmon for $1.00/pound, say) might be a good way to start 2025.

Here's to a year of grocery adventures. 

At the End of Three: Looking at Groceries 2024

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

As we wrap up the 3rd quarter of 2024, I have again tallied up our grocery spending to see where we are for the quarter, where we are for the year, and what I think the last quarter of 2024 will hold.

Spoiler alert: the last topic takes up the most space. Not to mention the most thought on my part. 

In the 3rd quarter, we spent on groceries (food and and household staples) the sum of $731.78, an average of $243.93 a month. Of that amount, $699.76 was spent on food, 96% of the overall amount.

There were some stock up moments: chicken leg quarters at 59¢ a pound, sold in 10-pound bags: we bought two for a total of $11.90. There were a few splurges: frozen mini spanakopita from Aldi ($4.99), a gallon of apple cider ($5.99) now that fall is settling in. And there were some victories. I brought home unused items from the clearing out of my dad's house: open and partially full bottles of laundry detergent, dish soap (the same), an unopened box of Raisin Bran, and 2 unopened sleeves of saltines. Thanks to CVS Bonus dollars (both dad and I fill our prescriptions there), I picked up three laundry detergents (100 fluid ounces each) and one massive bleach (121 fluid ounces, just shy of a gallon) for a combined total of $3.77. 

What else do I do? I shop with a list. I scan the weekly flyers. Aldi is our primary store; Kroger our secondary. I use Kroger coupons if they are for something on my list. I have no problem buying marked-down food (the bratwurst at Aldi was marked down $1.00 per pound package because the sell-by date was the next day). Still, the dollar amounts were higher for the quarter than I had hoped.  

So where do we stand for the year? YTD, we have spent $1907.41 on groceries. That comes out to a monthly average of $211.93. That is $15.99 higher than where we were at the end of June, when we were at $195.94 per month. To get our annual average monthly spending to come in at $200.00 per month, we would have to finish 4th quarter at $493.00 total, which would come to $164.00 a month. 

But, and here is the prelude to my lengthy observations, I think we can do it. After you pick yourself up off the floor from laughing, keep reading. 

I have been following Hope and Larry Ware, the Under the Median couple, on YouTube for a few years. One of their hard and fast rules is that to keep food costs under control is to REGULARLY inventory your pantry and cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer (not just the one with your fridge; inventory the deep freeze if you own one, which we do). Know what you have in those places, know (in the case of the refrigerator) what is perishable so it doesn't go to waste, and use that knowledge to keep your grocery purchases in line.

Okay, okay. I tell myself I know what is in our pantry/cabinets. I know what is in the fridge (food spoilage is about zip in this household). When I prepare a shopping list for a Big Shopping, I check those places against the list. 

But the downstairs freezer? I was confident I knew what that freezer held. Sure, Warren and I hadn't reorganized it for quite some time, but I knew.

Ha.

As it turns out, I was clueless (CLUELESS) about what both our deep freezer AND our small top-of-the-fridge one held. And two comparisons—one from recent real life, the other from a beloved book—came to mind.

As I have recently written, we have been emptying out my father's house and outbuildings to get his property ready to go on the real estate market. (Update: we finished, it went on the market last Thursday at about 5:00 p.m., there were numerous showings, and it went into contract Monday afternoon.) As part of the ordeal of getting it market ready, we collected all the hazardous waste products for proper disposal. These ranged from latex paints to different cleaners to compounds used in the garage to insecticides to...you get the idea. So how many total pounds of hazardous wastes did we collect and turn in on the last two hazardous waste drop days of 2024? 246 pounds. Yes, you read that right. 246 pounds. Every single time one of us thought we had collected it all (from the garages, from the basement, from the house, from the wood shop), another bottle or can or tube or tub would appear.

Comparison? We had the very same experience as we emptied out the freezer, both the one in the basement (a joint project) and the one on the fridge (I tackled that one). Every time I thought we had uncovered all of the this or that, another that or this would turn up underneath the first one. 

As for the literary reference, all that kept coming to mind was the scene from An Old-Fashioned Girl (which I now think of as Louisa May Alcott's greatest juvenile work) when Polly does a thrifty makeover of Fan's wardrobe: Fanny brought out her "rags" and was astonished to see how many she had, for chair, sofa, bed, and bureau were covered, and still Maude, who was burrowing in the closets, kept crying, "Here's another!" 

Yes, that was definitely my freezer experience. I was both Fanny (astonished) and Maude ("Here's another!") as we worked and emptied. 

I kept some notes as we went along. In the upstairs above-the-fridge freezer, the one I was "sure" I knew what it contained, I noted the following: 2 bags of Aldi potstickers (I thought we had 1), the 3-pound bag of Kroger tortellini, still half full, 3 small containers of pasta sauces (we freeze them so they don't spoil in the fridge) that I had forgotten about, 3 brats and 4 large buns, several desserts, including 2—2! Count 'em! 2!—containers holding brownies I froze after July 4th, 6 hot dogs frozen in twos (buns in the downstairs freezer, don't ask me why I separated them). I kinda sorta knew we had some (most?) of that stuff, but I wasn't spot on. 

Downstairs? LOTS of frozen stock (ham, turkey, chicken) as well as ham bones and one lamb leg bone to make more stock with, so much stock that I decided not to make any more until we use these up, including those bones. Bean soups: several quart containers. 2 smoked hams (those I knew we had). 10 packs of chicken leg quarters (2 per pack; these are the ones I mentioned above), chicken thighs bought earlier at 89¢ a pound, also frozen in sets of two, ham slices, oh, still some lamb, oh, and diced pork from...way back. (It cooked up great.) Quart bags of frozen, sliced zucchini from both 2023 AND 2024, the same with corn cut off the cob (both years), hot dog and hamburger buns (all frozen in packs of 2), and more pesto from 2023 than I thought we still had. There were some other items as well, but just pulling out another and then another bag of corn made me realize just how much food we really did have. And how much food we just let accumulate, in part because we were not paying attention to what we already had. 

As long as I am in a confessional mode, let me add that I also thought I had a pretty good idea of the food in the cupboards, as well as our pantry, until I looked at the shelves on which I keep cooking spices and realize that there are containers last opened in...2020? Earlier? (I plan to open those in the next coming days, smell/taste to see if there is any life left in them, and act accordingly.) Ask me about tossing the ancient can of pickling spices, also way beyond redemption, and then deciding to make candied dills, which I last made in maybe 2017 (or earlier) and shelling out $4.49 for a fresh can. (Trust me, that beat trying to assemble the spices that make up pickling spices; that outlay would have been hefty. And yes, I will use them up!) 

So now back to grocery spending for the 4th quarter and how to keep it in check. Hmmn. For starters, we now have an amount ($164.00 a month) that we know we have to stick very close to if we want to try to hit that $200/month average. (I track our grocery spending on a spreadsheet, so that part—tracking—will be easy.) Looking at the bigger issue, Warren and I have shared some thoughts. Prepare and eat more of what we already have in stock, frozen or on the shelf, instead of buying this or that item because neither of us stopped to assess what we already have. Continue to experiment with ways to make dishes more filling, as well as come up with different ways and workarounds to make the same or similar dishes we often eat using less expensive but still flavorful ingredients. (Side note: I do much of the meal prep and cooking, by choice. So I will be taking the lead here.) 

Not that there aren't challenges. The Symphony season launches October 12 and we have two guest artists staying with us. We may have two more artists staying with us in November for that concert. None of them (I know 3 of the 4 possible) are fussy or demanding, but we need to make sure our guests are fed! And there is biscotti AND peanut brittle in December. Even so, I think we can hit our mark.

Stay tuned! 

And at the Half: Looking at Groceries 2024

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Well, that was different! 

We just finished the first half of 2024. (Really? Really? 2024 is really moving that fast?) As I noted back in April, I am again tracking our expenditures for groceries and household staples. At the end of the first quarter, we had spent $682.87, which put our monthly average at $227.62.

So what did the second quarter come in at and where are we at the half? Way better than I had dared hope!

Our total second quarter expenditures were $492.76. Of that, $42.28 represented household staples. The rest was food: $450.48. For second quarter, we averaged $164.25 a month. And for the year to date? $1175.63 total, or a monthly average of $195.94. Sweet. 

Now there were some atypical events that played into second quarter. One was that when my son Ben and grandson Orlando came to visit, the limited foods that Orlando eats willingly and joyously were on sale JUST before they arrived. Those foods? Sausage patties ("sausage burgers," eaten on a slider bun) and strawberries. So I stocked up on sausage patties (five 12 oz packages; Orlando downed three of the five) and three pounds of strawberries (which Meijer had as a loss leader that week at $1/pound). As for the rest of us, Ben expressed a deep desire for items he could not get in Washington: White Castle from a drive-thru (not frozen, which he can get out there) and Delco Pizza, a local pizza vendor. So while we spent money on takeout that week ($30.87 on a White Castle 20 slider sack, which lasted more than two days; $24.80 on Delco, which was $12 less because I had a birthday gift card from my local bank that one of the 12" pizzas free; the Delco made it through several meals), our groceries did not spike. (Yes, there was also ice cream and corn dogs at Dairy Depot, the local soft serve a block away.)

A second factor was that we had a road trip at the start of June to my Emerald City (i.e., Rochester, Minnesota, NOT Seattle as my dear friend Pat thought when she saw a post of mine on Facebook) and our eating expenditures were pretty low for that trip (about $100) as well, as friends and family treated us to meals and because we are just not big eaters. Our biggest splurge was Lou Malnoti's pizza (where has that been all my life?), where we spent $21.94 for the best deep dish pizza in Chicagoland that I have ever had, and even then we made two meals of it: late night dinner and then breakfast the next morning. 

The third factor, totally unexpected, was that in early June, my dad had a medical setback and ended up in skilled nursing rehab. I went out to his house and cleared the refrigerator of perishables. A few had to hit the garbage (he had not been eating regularly and not sharing that information with us), but the rest came home with me. (Including a container of cherry tomatoes—I won't buy them, but I will eat them!) That is why in the month of June, we spent only $64.24 in groceries and $14.28 in household items, for a grand total of $78.52.

A few other items of note. One is that I often buy laundry detergent for $0.00. How do I pull that feat off? My pharmacy is CVS, I get CVS bucks (their word, not mine) for my prescriptions, and with those and other coupons CVS sends me, it is almost always free. Almost always, because in June, with expiring coupons and points, I spent a whopping $2.51 on a full-size detergent. Whew!

There was also one splurge of note, so much so that I took a photo of it. Yes, lamb loin roast, $13.41 for 1.88 pounds at Aldi. 

The splurge

Yes, it was a major splurge. Warren enjoys lamb. I love lamb. We almost never buy it, for lots of reasons including price and that most of it in the stores is flown in from New Zealand (carbon footprint, anyone?). (American-raised lamb, which you can buy online, is truly eye-watering in price. I understand why and have no problem with the producers asking those prices, but lamb is way, way, way outside our budget.) 

But here's the thing. That lamb loin roast? We cut it into four (4—count 'em!—4) portions, had one that weekend, and the other three are in our freezer. So even our splurges get maximum mileage! 

So there's where we are at the half. We just did a major restocking at Aldi yesterday: $136.36. But with the exception of a few fill-ins from Kroger of items Aldi does not carry, and replenishing perishables during the month, that should be the biggest shopping trip of the month. 

On to third quarter! 

An Addendum to my Money Thoughts

 

Clarifying those pennies

After posting yesterday, I had an exchange of comments with Sam, who blogs at Sam Squared (yes, go read her; her reentering the blogging world has given me inspiration as I try to regain my footing). Sam marveled that I met my bills on my small pension and I elaborated a bit more on where my dollars went. A huge part of my being able to do so is the privilege of being in a stable relationship with someone who shares my money outlooks (no debt, not a spender) and who owns his own home mortgage-free (so no debt there either; also a huge privilege). Sam, unexpectedly widowed a little over a year ago, does not have the luxury of a working spouse; plans that she and her husband were putting into place for retirement were abruptly upended. Because of my cancer, Warren and I entered this relationship knowing that, even without this being a later-in-life union, we had to discuss and review regularly the hard reality that I will drop out of the financial picture earlier than "typical."

I also shared that had Warren and I not come together, which gave me the gift of stable, free  housing, I would likely (a) have continued to work, despite my diminishing health and (b), even with drawing my Social Security, but certainly if I were only drawing the small pension, I would probably be living with my dad on the outskirts of town. I am very close to my dad, but trust me, we would drive one another crazy. 

I recognize those are privileges, even a fallback plan of living with a parent, that I have that many do not.

I also realized, later in the evening as I reflected on money, that I had financial assistance from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for some of that time, which reimbursed me my health insurance costs (Medicare and the Supplemental Plan). Face palm. OF COURSE I could get by on the small pension because my insurance costs were covered. In fact, I have assistance for insurance reimbursement from another source for July 2023-July 2024; my medical messes and dealing with that stress have kept me from tracking down and submitting my vouchers, but I will get them in within the next few weeks. That reimbursement made a huge difference in my finances and my ability to meet my bills on a small income.

Money.

Money Thoughts

Per the lyric from "Cabaret," money makes the world go around.

Maybe yes. Maybe no. 

For several months, and not as a result of my lengthy medical matter (thank you, Medicare and my AARP/UHC Supplemental Plan G for paying every penny of the costs, including the Supplemental paying the $1600 hospitalization deductible that Medicare does not pay; that alone more than reimbursed me for the annual costs of the Supplemental Plan), I have been having what I can only call financial PTSD moments. [Please note: as someone with diagnosed PTSD, I am not using that phrase lightly. I have written openly about my financial/money trauma before—not a pretty story. But I don't live in that world anymore, thankfully.]

I made the decision last fall (perhaps as a result of the medical experience) to start drawing Social Security in 2024. Just before I disappeared down the medical maw, we had made an appointment to meet with a local financial planner and look at where we were financially now and in the future.  Warren and I, as a later-in-life relationship, keep separate and separated accounts. We share household expenses but we have no joint assets other than our love for one another. The financial planner had that information, as well as a thumbnail sketch of my medical history and its impact on my life expectancy. She had numbers for our expenses, our account balances, everything. I had a small bequest from a former client that was marking time in a low-interest account; could I put that to better use? My monthly income of $736 (last year; it is now up to $753) was a small pension. Because I had no debt and am not a spender, I never finished any month in the red even at that income level. I was past Full Retirement Age for Social Security purposes. So when we finally sat down with the planner (there was a long delay due to my being in the hospital and my subsequent recovery), she showed us projections based upon our both reaching our late 80s (highly unlikely for me, entirely possible for Warren) and upon my dying somewhere in the next decade (highly likely) and Warren continuing to live into his 90s. And that is without my going back to work, among other things. She gave us both praise: neither of us carry any debt. Nothing. Rien. Nada. 

And, no surprise in large part because of having no debt and neither of being Big Spenders, there was plenty of money to carry us into those faraway years. 

Before meeting with her, I ran the numbers between drawing Social Security starting this year or waiting until I was 70 in 2026. While waiting until I was 70 would give me—well, Warren, because 70 is a stretch for me—a larger monthly amount, the difference did not offset the benefit of having more money coming in monthly starting now and being able to direct it into savings and small investments. I applied for Social Security to start January of this year; easy peasy. Approval followed quickly. And that's when the PTSD kicked in.

What the heck? 

I was struggling. Not with the decision to start taking Social Security. Not with the concern that having more money would change my lifestyle. No, I was having flashbacks to the profligate spending spouse of yore who used to excoriate me for not making enough money to support him in a style in which he felt entitled, to the months of not being able to work at all after my initial diagnosis, to the financial constraints my health imposed that I could do nothing about, to all of that.

In past years, I have written about keeping stringent money controls over my finances. In 2017, I had to replace a car and I refused to go into debt to do so. I was treating my NW contingent to tickets home in the summer, another expenditure I refused to charge. And back in those days, I started every calendar year with an insurance deductible of $1500 (Medicare/Supplemental Plan annual deductible? $240 for 2024) that I needed to pay.  That was when I started printing out my pay stub every two weeks and assigning every dollar a job. (If any of you are Dave Ramsey fans, you will recognize that language; for the record, I did not get it from Dave Ramsey.) That system lasted until my very last pay stub in 2021. But even after that, I have continued to track my income, my outgo, and, yes, balance my checking account monthly, an activity that earned an incredulous gasp from a colleague who said he hadn't balanced his in years because he knew he always had plenty of money in it. Well, I didn't have that privilege for a long, long time. (I still balance it. And I still keep my "accounts on [my] thumb nail," as Thoreau admonished us.)

So back to the PTSD issue. What got me through it? 

Deep breaths. Seriously. Long walks (impacted and impeded by broken wrist, more surgery, and other issues, but, hey, I am building back up). Seriously. Watching financial videos (George Kamel, who is part of the Ramsey team, is a favorite) and hearing repeatedly both in videos and in articles: get-out-of-debt-now (a goal I met years ago). 

And, touching on these different sources, hearing some stats and numbers that calmed me down tremendously and finally allowed me to move forward without being triggered.

One came from Geoff Schmidt, a CPA who has a YouTube channel (Holy Schmidt!) that focuses mostly on retirees and retirement, either putting yourself in the best shape for retirement or, once in retirement, managing your finances so that you do not run out of money. His factoid? Per a 2022 Census Bureau analysis, 71% of all retirees in the United States carry an average of $19,888 in non-mortgage debt. Car loans, credit cards, who the heck know what, but 71%. (Yes, my jaw dropped.) He then said: Get. Out. Of. Debt. Now.

Not a problem here.

The other snippet came from George Kamel, who has a YouTube channel by the same name and whose sense of humor and blunt approach I enjoy. A Millennium, George is part of the Dave Ramsey empire and pushes the Ramsey Baby Steps formula to put yourself on the right path financially as early as possible. And yes, getting out of debt is a critical Ramsey Baby Step. (Again, not an issue here.) But the snippet he recently shared was that Americans annually spent $1800 per person on clothing. 

Annually. Per person.

Yes, I know. Averages are averages: many spend way more, many spend way less. But $1800? 

When I shared that with Warren over supper, I added, "I haven't spent $1800 on clothing, including shoes, over the last 30 years combined." (Katrina, if you are reading this, I know you are shaking your head.) We have had a lot of fun with that stat, including my sharing it with our neighbors, who tend to view clothing purchases the way we do. Mark was headed to pick up his elderly mother (she's 95) to take her to a funeral and pointed out that his suit jacket was easily 30 years old. "I had it relined once. And yeah, it's starting to fray. But you know what? It does fine for how rarely I wear it." I shared that I regularly wear a sweater that my son Ben wore in 6th grade—in 1997. That was when Mary spoke up and said in her early days (engineering/sciences), she bought a lot of professional clothes so the men would understand she was a professional. She then admitted that at some point, preparing to move, she had 28 or more wardrobe boxes in the attic, filled to the gills with suits, blouses, shoes, purses, and so on. All of us started laughing. I said when I graduated from law school in 1981, I bought one suit. One. And owned one pair of dress shoes. One. Lots of laughter. Mark looked at her and said, "I don't know if I would have married you if I had known you had all those clothes!" More laughter. 

It is mid-April and the PTSD episodes have faded. I still have a lot going on in my life, we still have a lot going on in our life together, and Warren has a WHOLE lot going on in his life. Those things carry their own weight and baggage and some of them I will be sharing in posts to come. But PTSD isn't one of them.

And neither is going out to buy $1800 worth of clothes!