Remember that old saying that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans? It's true!! I'm living it. For some reason the nice lady at the state retirement office and I were on different pages when it came to the date of my first check. I thought that she said June 1st. It turns out that it will be July 1st which makes more sense, but I had laid out my plans thinking June 1st.
Now you know that Miss MoneyPenny is all about planning for the worst and hoping for the best, so I had been setting aside a "Retirement Bridge Fund" and this baby is coming in real handy. My last paycheck from the library was about $300 more than I expected, so that helps. I refigured everything and decided I would be just fine...until I received the $293 bill from PSE.
My usual monthly bill is $114 on the budget plan. In June I usually have a smaller bill as they re-calculate my new bill based on usage. I called them up and told them that they had made a big mistake on my bill. They said, and very politely, that I have been using a whole lot of electricity and this is what I owed and that my new monthly bill was gonna go up. I said that was nice as I slunk over to the thermostat and adjusted it to the "new" position, which is "off" - at least for the summer. I will revisit it in the fall when I can see my breath in the house. Sheesh!!
Anyway, about Costco - I shot them an email asking to be put on their mailing list for their Connection Magazine and their coupon booklet, explaining that just because I'm "family" doesn't mean I should have to keep begging my friends for these items. I have yet to hear back, but Miss MaggieMay came through with the coupons and I have carefully looked them over and there are some of interest. I'm looking at the coupons for the Sonicare Replacement Brush Heads, Dove Shampoo, Palmolive, Resolve Spray 'n Wash and Kirkland Diapers.
Diapers, you ask? I don't know anything about diapers that you throw away because I used the cloth kind that you actually put in the diaper pail, then washed with bleach and dried and folded. That was a long time ago - the 70's, I think, but the deal is I'm going to be a great grandma in September and these might come in handy for the new parents. I'm so excited!!
Garden Update:
The first planting of green beans is in. I don't know why I bother to stagger the planting as they are always ready to pick at the same time anyway, but that is how I do it. It looks like the second planting of dahlias is going to work out as they are sticking their little heads out of the ground. The garden is starting to look so pretty. Since the zinnias aren't working out, I'm going to put a Cosmo start where ever I can find an open spot and go for the Monet look. Beauty is a really important part of the garden for me.
I'm still waiting on putting in the peppers and summer squash - maybe another week - then they are going in - even if there is snow on the ground.
Nice that you didn't destroy the little "eyes" on the second batch of dahlias... We just keep learning along....
ReplyDeleteDid you look at the usage graph for PSE? Can't hardly believe you would use that much extra power. Did the rates raise last year and just caught up with you? It took the grandkids about 6 months to get used to a coolish house in the winter. They were used to houses that you could walk around in tank tops and shorts and needed fans in the winter . If everyone moves around instead of parking themselves on the couch, they aren't so cold. I also keep 3 blankets on the back of the couch. Now, that the weather is heating up outside and keeping the house at 67 degrees with no heat on, they don't like it... Too hot they say.... They use to think that was ice berg temps!