Tynana's Personal Finance Blog

My dear mom is 77 years old and I have always viewed her is being able to take care of herself. This is mainley because she is a caregiver for my 98 year old grandmother. Just in the last week I have found that mom is not as invincible as I thought. She has been having trouble walking and her eyesite is not all that great. She owns her home and some land next to it. She only lives about a 30 minute drive from me. I have spent the last few days going with her to doctor and hospital visits. I looks like I may be a caregiven sooner that I thought. She can still take care of herself but her home has gotten to be too much for her to manage. We are currently looking into a senior community. We will go in two days to visit the homes and see if she wants to move there. Our main discussion has been what to do with her home. Does she sell it, rent it out, just keep it in case the senior home doesn't work out. Her feeling now is that she just wants to get rid of it completely. I am an only child so I am trying not tell her what to do but only lay out the options for her. I would appreciate any thoughts that anyone would like to share. My mother really does not want to live with me as she is still pretty independent.

Friday night is our normal "date night" I had expressed to my DH that we could just cook at home and save some money. We actually ended up with leftovers and then hit the golf course - we pay a monthly fee for unlimited golf - to hit a few balls. I was glad that we did not spend the normal money on going out to eat but he says he really looks forward to date night since he never eats out during the week. From some other posts I have read I understand that some things are just too important to stop so I guess date night will be back in. Both of our mom's are still living and so since we had bought a digital camera several months ago it seemed like a good time to put it to good use. I had loaded photos my grandbabies to the computer photo program and made photo DVD's for our mom's. Ran into to one problem and had not bought the right kind of disc for their DVD players so back to the store for another pack. Could not return the first ones I had purchased but thankfully they are re-writeable and we can use them on ours. I did not buy my mom a card as I have a box of all occasion cards at home that I chose one from. My husband spent $5.00 on a card for his mom as he did not know I had some at home. Oh well, next time.

On Saturday we did eat breakfast at home but lunch at McDonalds. What was I thinking. Never again. Too much money of semi ok food. Saturday night I did fix dinner at home using a recipie on the back of a bisquick baking box. It was for their impossible cheesburger pie. I had looked at the recipie several times but had never taken the time to try it. Well pantry and fridge were both in need of supplies so using what we had we were able to prepare this. It was delicious and we will make it again. Afterwards went to the grocery store and only spend $63.00 dollars. This is good for us. My DH normally gets a $20.00 allowance for two weeks but agreed to take only $10.00 to see if he could get by on that. If he finds he needs more can always get more from the bank. My theory is you spend what you have. We still have not been able to add to our savings as all the money we have saved in the last few days was money necessary for other items.

Oops! Forgot to tell my husband we were starting a new savings program. I had done really well yesterday by eating all meals at home and was feeling really good about not spending any money. Last night when my husband got home he had stopped by a card shop and bought a Mother's Day card for his mother and one for me and also a small gift for our grandbaby. The total cost was $14.00. I suggested he not sign my card and just return it to the store but he had purchased it from a store that was going out of business and so could not return it. I can't be mad a him as his is such a sweetheart and is very thoughtful. We did not go our for our Friday night date so I guess it all worked out ok. Today was a little different, I had to pick up a prescription for some medication and while we were out we stopped by a McDonalds - overpriced food and certainly not worth the $8.00 spent but working on doing better. I did think about what I had spent and McDonalds and that is something I normally do not do. Oh well, we will eat home tonight. I did call our daughter today and ask that she come and cut our hair. She is a social worker now but has a cosmtology license so if she makes it out to cut our hail that is a savings of almost $30.00. I don't have the money to put in my savings jar now but at least I am not going any further in debt. I will give her some clothing that no longer fits me for her time.

It was wonderful to see the comments posted to my first blog. It will certainly make it easier to get with and stay with a savings program. Today I am having a weight watchers lunch that has been in my work freezer for a couple of weeks. So in addition to not spending money eating out I am also eating healthier. I had breakfast at home which was great. I normally stop at McDonalds for Chick-Fil-A for a breakfast sandwich and a coke. Had cereal at home and brought a diet coke from home. I don't know yet what the exact savings will be. This is going to be a tough two weeks as I have some major bills coming due so really can't add much to my saving but at least won't spend any extra that I really don't have. My husband and I normally have a date night every Friday night when we go out a have a dinner and drinks usually at $30.00 a pop. Tonight we are dining at home and taking a nice walk or hitting some golf balls to relax. As my title says, I feel great. Thanks for the support.

Lola

Hopefully this will help me keep on track with my spending. I took my mother to some doctor visits today and she insisted on giving me ten dollars for gas money. Even though I kept insisting it wasn't necessary she wanted to do it so I finally took it. It will be the first money to go in my money savings.

I am the spender in our household. My husband likes for the to be the one that keeps tracks of our spending. I guess that way I am the one stressed out when money is low. At this time our payroll is direct deposited and my husband only takes an allowance of $20.00 for a two week period. He takes his lunch to work each day so really only spends this money for a daily cup of coffee at 25 cents a cup. I on the other hand do not take my lunch and spend around $5-$7 dollars daily going out to eat. This does not included what I spend of cokes and a afternoon snack from the machine at work. I am going to do better.

I find that the reason I like to go out to lunch is to just get away from the office. My time at lunch would be served If I took a sandwich from and spent more time walking on my lunch. Also I will cut out the soda's I know I would feel better. Way too much caffine. I will actually start my lunch savings tomorrow.

I also find that we spend a lot of money on going out to eat. I can cook, just don't like to. I am looking a simple ingredient cookbooks for some cheaper, healtier meals that can be prepared in advance.