Visiting my sick friend

[susandennis]

Yesterday I walked over the pool. Erica (who runs the place) and another lady were there. I told them I was visiting my sick friend for comfort and an update. Erica laughed loudly but the other lady, who was Asian, and in charge of fixing the pool just nodded and smiled and said that there was forward progress. There's a chance it might be open on Saturday.

Biggie woke me up at 5:45. I put the blanket over my head so no paws could get at me and slept til 7. Someone left a hairball. I'm thinking Julio.

I bought shoes on Amazon that I really love but they are just a little too short. They don't have half sizes. Sigh. They will have to go back. I'm going to hold off on shoes for a bit, maybe.

I got both the Xfinity and light bills in. Xfinity tricked my spreadsheet by coming in as Comcast. But all's fine now. Setting up the spreadsheet for the year means January takes extra work.

I spent a lot of years living close to the bone. So when I finally got extra money and was living below my means, I spent like a fool. If I saw something I wanted, I bought. When I moved into here, I spent WAY more money than I needed to. I don't even want to think about how much I wasted. Of course some wasn't waste, it was just luxury and maybe all of it. It was luxurious not to have to noodle over every spending decision.

But now I'm swinging the pendulum the other way. I'm holding TV style debates over every penny I spend. I set aside $750 for non necessary items this month (food, shoes, internet, yarn, etc.) and I've tracked it voraciously. I have $230 and 7 days left in the month. I'm hoping that $750 is way more than I need and that I will be able to do $500 once I get in the true swing.

If/when my cousin's estate settles finally and the condo sells finally, I will have a more clear picture of the rest of my life in coin. But, until then, my idea is to keep lean.

Today I'm going to return the shoes and go buy some lactose free milk. I used to love cereal. For breakfast, for dinner, for a snack. Hot cereal, cold cereal, all cereal. And then one day about six years or so ago, the milk started screwing with my innards. Just milk. Not yogurt, not ice cream, not cheese, not milk that you cook with. Just milk you drink/pour over cereal. So I quit eating it.

Then this week I started again. And, yep, there's a problem. Turns out my problem is shared with others on Reddit and lactaid or Fairlife milk fixes it. So I'm going to waste some of the $230 finding out.

Myrna and I are going to lunch today. They have Trout Almandine on the menu this week and I had it yesterday and it was AMAZING. She loves trout so we're going to do lunch today but late - ish. So I have time to go out and come back.

We made great strides on the puzzle yesterday.

Now I'm going to get showered and dressed.

Comments

[jo]

Fairlife milk fixes it

I use Fairlife milk all the time -- but I don't drink milk or ever eat cereal. I only use it for my tea. I go through about 2L a week just on my own (Jon doesn't do dairy at all). I drink lots of tea. I don't use Fairlife because of lactose-related issues -- it's because it has less sugar and hence fewer carbs. :)

[vysila]

The financial pendulum swings back and forth doesn't it? From frugality to spending freely and now back to frugality. I sure hope things swing back around again for you. Tracking spending is fun in a nerdy way, but too much restriction and it ends up annoying,

[bill_schubert]

I share that cereal gene with you. Oatmeal in winter and box cereal year round. I find when Dana goes out of town I have a lot more cereal dinners. Milk doesn't yet bother me. It does Dana, she really can't process it. But I keep waiting. Fortunately there are so many good alternatives due to the vegan crowd.

[susandennis]

One of my favorite desserts is a small bowl of frosted flakes.

Appropriate milk acquired. Test later today or tomorrow morning.

[spiffikins]

I was talking to my friend yesterday - and she brought up that she buys Fairlife milk - she finds it tastes better - but also it seems to last longer? She bought 5 bottles like a month ago - and they hadn't expired before she used them all!

[fauxklore]

As someone who discovered that I'm lactose intolerant years ago, there are more options. The easiest one is to buy lactaid tablets. They're a bit pricy but useful if you ever eat in environments where you don't control the cooking, e.g. potlucks.

I find almond milk the best tasting of the plant-based milk options. But some people prefer soy or oat or coconut.

You can't use plant-based milk to make instant pudding, by the way.

[susandennis]

i only use milk for cereal. i use cream for cooking and things like instant pudding.

and, as i said, cream and all other dairy doesn't bother me. just milk so if this milk works, i'm good.

[adafrog]

I hope the new milk helps.

[hopefulspirit]

You must be missing your pool time. I hope it's fixed soon.

It will be nice when the estate situation and your condo are sorted out and you know exactly where you stand. I've lived paycheck to paycheck most of my life, but there are times I spend a lot of money on silly things. For example, last week I decided to spend a ridiculous amount of money on two bottles of lotion as a late birthday present to myself. I love the lotion but felt guilty for spending so much on it, so this week I haven't spent much money at all. It's all about balance! lol

I've never been able to tolerate milk so I don't eat a lot of cereal, and when I do I just eat it dry. I did use vanilla almond milk for awhile and it was pretty good. I hope your experiment with Fairlife works out well.