Welcome to the VA!

It's been a year since we lost our insurance, and James hasn't had a physical in much longer than that.

The other day, I decided to do him a solid and apply to the Veteran's Administration for healthcare. It wasn't a difficult process, and we received a communication today that assured James that the VA was diligently trying to set up his initial appointment.

There was a phone number for him to call, which was listed as: 1-800-4231-2111.

So.

We were able to Google it and there was just an extra "1" in what should have been the three-digit middle number. James called using my phone because that's where the clickable Google phone number was.

An hour into the call, James came in to me panicked because someone had answered the phone but couldn't hear James. We fixed that, James left again, and then came back a few minutes later.

Apparently the guy had told James that his chart was empty and they needed to fill out some more information so we could make an appointment. Then he put James on a hold that seemed to be the same queue James had been in before.

I was doing something mindless and told James to just leave the phone by me. About 15 minutes later, someone finally answered. I explained what was happening, and they said they needed to transfer me to the person who could set the appointment.

James came back in as the person was answering (that was only a few seconds, so huzzah!) and said he needed to make an appointment. Guess what?

The local clinic had closed at 4:00 PM (it was 4:02 PM at this moment) so we'd need to call back tomorrow. WE HAD CALLED AT 2:41 PM.

I asked for a direct number, and she said that they don't have one; you have to call the main number. She said you can also just walk in and make an appointment on site, which might be easier? That seems bonkers to me.

James tried to explain about the wrongly-rendered phone number but she didn't seem to understand what he was trying to say, as she explained something about how recently the extensions had changed. She was fine. She was trying. But this process was ridiculous.

Wish us luck for tomorrow.

UPDATE: I got them on the phone the next day, and they told us that James has to walk into the clinic to make an appointment because they just don't answer the phone. We're off to a great start!

Did I mention that we went on vacation?

We took a circuitous road trip to New Orleans at the beginning of the month: Caddo Lake, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles, home. 

We saw so much cool architecture, a good number of museums, one of the only public plantations dedicated to the lives of enslaved people, and we ate some really good food!

I was going to insert some cool pictures here, but Blogger is being a jerk this morning so here's the link to the album, if you're interested.

Yes, James is still unemployed.

We're trying to walk the line between being frugal to maintain our savings (a lot of which is supposed to be for retirement, so...) and in living our best life while James has time to do things. I'm not sure we're getting it 100%, but we're trying.

Mal has one week left in his classes before they break for the summer. They're having a few "campy" things and he's doing a couple of those, but otherwise I'll be looking for ways to fill Mal's summer downtime. He's not super busy in general, but when the structure of having at least one thing to do most days falls away, he tends to get restless. 

I have a mystery shop today, so I need to get ready to go.

Not much to report, just wanted to throw something up for April!

Mo' problems... Less money

AS YOU KNOW, with James out of work, we've been taking it easy on the cash outflow side. But the past two weeks has just conspired against us!

First. the week before last I had not one but two fender-benders. Well, the first one was actually just that I pulled up at a stop and a tow hitch went through one of my headlights. I bought a new one and was going to put it in myself, but then I had a side-swipe event and had to get a couple of panels banged out, anyway, so I had that guy put the new fixture in. $$$$

 

Then the other night, our dishwasher stopped draining. I couldn't see anything wrong with it, so we had a plumber come out yesterday. He said that everything was fine, plumbing-wise, so we needed to get an appliance repair person. He also said that we need a new garbage disposal, and estimated that he could replace it for the low low cost of $700. No thanks. We'll get a cheap one and find some dude to install it. Anyhoo. $$

Today, an appliance guy came out and fixed the dishwasher. He told me that I kinked something up when I took it apart to clean it, then showed me the only two pieces I should ever take off... which are the only 2 pieces I ever take off. Granted, I'd taken more of the drain assembly apart yesterday, seeing if I could clear the drain myself. But until that day, when it already WAS NOT DRAINING, I'd never touched anything but the spray arm and the filter. Sigh. WHATEVER. $$

AND TONIGHT AT 6 PM, I just noticed I felt a little warm. I looked at the thermostat... and it was blank. I did a couple of things, like turning the breakers on and off, and adding batteries to the thermostat... which did make it come on, but when I turned the air on, it showed that it was going but it was not. Breakers again. 

I called our a/c people, and they're coming out tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I went to see if the drain line might be clogged. We've had thermostat issues like that in the past when the drain line was clogged. We clean it monthly, and I'd just done it recently. But I did it again, and I put our shop vac on the clean-out and blew in case there was blockage. It didn't seem like there was.

A couple of hours later, the a/c came back on and that probably means that it was frozen up and needed to defrost. We're keeping the service call because they can pull codes and see what happened. It shouldn't be freezing up; it's been in the mid-80s for the past couple of days, but nothing terrible. We'll see how much it is, but let's just say $$.

DID I SAY "SIGH" YET??

Muscle Memory

Oh, yes, the days of having to scrimp and save and build margins where there are no margins... I apparently remember it well.

I might have mentioned how much the Lago Vista Friday food giveaway has helped us this past year. It's truly been invaluable. 

 

Sometimes we go and our number is picked pretty early; that's when we end up with hauls like the ones pictured above. Other times, our number is later and we get a few carrots and some bread... but it's still free food! Also, I anticipate late spring and summer will feature the return of produce in a quantity that isn't there during the winter.

Furthermore, I've gotten back into mystery shopping. I have done a couple of jobs, have a few more scheduled (including one at a portrait studio where Mal has to be the subject... and he's getting the pay for that one! He has his eye on some action figures that he wants), and am picking up random gigs here and there.

Yesterday, for instance, after we dropped Mal off at school, James and I went to have blood drawn for a medical trial. We each got $45 for that!

And tomorrow I'm doing an online marketing focus group for an hour for $150.

It's not James's "career-level" money, but every little bit offsets something on the other end.

Also, we're trying to think of other streams of income we might be able to create.

Whatever, it seems like we might be in this season of unemployment for a hot minute.

Now we just need to see some prices come down. So who wants to work on that?

Austerity Measures

Back in the day, when I lived in Sherman and had much more time than money, I clipped coupons. The local Kroger would double coupons up to $.50 and it would triple coupons up to $.35 (so that was the BEST coupon to have!). I'd shop on Wednesday morning as soon as the store opened, and the specials from the past week's circular AND the new week's circular were still in effect. 

In this manner, I made do with $75 per week for groceries for a family of 3.

Over time, paper coupons weren't worth the newspaper subscription. As we got busier and were able to be a little less fussed with cost, I came to value my time more and started doing eMeals for weekly menu planning, and just bought what was on that list. It helped me save money, having a plan, but it was less of an on-the-fly kind of planning I'd done before, and it was a time-saver.

Once eMeals integrated with shopping apps and I could just pop my list over to Walmart and have it show up on my doorstep within 24 hours (we have In-Home, so we don't have to tip... but it's not as fast as Walmart+ Door Dash delivery). 

Well, it's been MONTHS since James got laid off. Grocery prices do not seem to want to drop at all. Tariffs are about to make things even more expensive! 

So I decided to try a little experiment and -- gasp! -- go to a grocery store. 

This morning, I got up just as the stores were opening, and I arrived at a Randall's by about 6:40. It was good I hadn't knocked down the door, because they were just starting to do daily mark-downs at that time.

I went through the store a couple of times, and ended up with enough stuff both to make all of our meals for the week (with some help from our pantry and some produce James and D got for free last night at the Lago Vista food giveaway), and some "snacky" kinds of things Mal likes (granola bars, yogurt, pudding) for $65ish. 

In Sherman, I'd aim to save 33% on my shopping trips. Today, I saved 48%!

Some of the biggest wins were: berries are all buy one/get one free. Brownie mix is usually $3 and was on sale for $1. I found 1/2 price yogurt cups, plus had digital coupons for them in the app. I got a pound of ground turkey for $2 and 3 pork chops (bone-in) for just under $3. The only thing I bought that wasn't either on sale, expiring and marked down, on clearance, or had a coupon, was 5 pounds of flour, which I needed and which, at $2.79, was one of the most expensive things I purchased.

When I got home, I browned all of the turkey because it was already looking sad. I added some seasoning, then put half of it in the refrigerator. I took the other half, added half a bag of shelled edamame and two diced carrots, and made some "peppery bacon" mac and cheese James had gotten for free at the giveaway months ago.

It was delicious, and enough food for the three grown-ups in the house (Mal is always the wild card; he doesn't like mixed flavors, and so I have to make sure we have fruit, chicken nuggets, and yogurt to keep him happy). 

I also made this lentil "meat" loaf recipe that I'd sent my parents, because another thing James got last night was red bell pepper. We had everything else (except the celery), and I just wanted something around for everyone to eat or make sandwiches out of, so I don't have to cook again until Monday.

Then I prepared one of the two boxes of brownie mixes that I'd bought. I used the "flax seed egg" mixture mentioned in the lentil loaf recipe, because at this point, flax seed is cheaper than eggs. So unless the egg is acting like an egg (scrambled, boiled, crepes, creme anglaise, etc.), it's going to be flax! You do have to make sure that you cook whatever you put it in, as people have gotten botulism from raw flax seed. 

Anyhoo... it's been a throwback, and not a bad way to spend my morning. 

We're not in trouble yet, but there's no harm in reeling things in a little bit. If Mal were as good an eater as D was at his age, this would be a lot easier! I might have to start asking him to take a "yes/no" bite of everything that I make, to see if he can develop a wider taste palate.