Blogging Away Debt

5th Graders and Credit Cards, Type of Billionaire, MPG Math and Getting Better MPG

I absolutely love the weekend. Yesterday we went out on an adventure to find a u-pick strawberry farm and ended up checking out a local museum that we’ve heard about, but never checked out. It gave a nice look into how early settlers to the area lived. I especially paid attention to the house we were able to tour. I’m into tiny houses so I paid a lot of attention to the layout and got a few ideas.

We didn’t end up picking strawberries. Instead, we found a few boys on the side of the road selling some and picked up two quarts. My son and I dug in as soon as we got home. With a few of them I made a strawberry cake today complete with strawberry frosting (yum!). As of right now, there are only a couple strawberries left.

Besides being able to go out and check out new things, I love the weekend because I can cook to my heart’s delight! During the week, I don’t have the time because I get off at 5pm and by the time I’m done cooking it would be late in the evening. I am also usually very tired after work. But the weekends – oh boy. Then it’s my turn to cook 😉

For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, strawberries and a bagel. In the afternoon, I cooked up some chicken breast. I put some aside for ceasar salads next week and with the rest I made chicken tacos for lunch accompanied by apple slices. For dinner, I made homemade pizza from scratch. Then we had my strawberry cake for dessert.

In a way, it’s probably best that I have to work during the week. I’ve never run the cost for my weekend meals, but it probably runs on the high side. At least it is still cheaper than eating out and I enjoy flexing my cooking chops. One of these days I plan on running the numbers and sharing a few of my recipes.

Okay, now onto some articles that caught my eye this week:

My son is still a few years away from being a fifth grader, but I still got a kick out of this article by Kristy, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader (Re: Credit Cards). I wonder how my son will answer those questions when he is in 5th grade.

Livingalmostlarge had a link to a quiz to see what type of billionaire you are. I usually don’t do these, but I couldn’t resist. It said that I would be an investor. I can see that.

SiliconValleyBlogger has an article about fuel efficient cars mpg illusion. Pretty interesting article that goes through the math behind mpg. If you are looking to buy a different car to save on gas, this article is worth a read.

Here’s another gas related article: Cleverdude was forced to get better gas mileage. His findings? He got better gas mileage when he slowed down. I can attest to that as well with our car. We can get 40mpg with going 55-60mph. Once we go 70mph, our mpg goes down to around 32mpg.

I Went to the Doctor’s Yesterday

by Tricia

My knees have been bugging me for some time. I have been dismissing it – I guess I really wanted to make sure that there was a problem before we spent the money to try to find out what is wrong. We do have health insurance, but it covers 70% of our health expenses (for the most part).

The fact that I couldn’t do something that I loved to do (drive) really bothered me. So I made the appointment for yesterday.

It turns out that my knees are not tracking properly. The movement should be smooth but it is clunky. The doctor said I could attempt to correct the problem myself by working on my inner thigh muscles. I guess they are really weak compared to my outer thigh muscles so it causes my knee to be out of whack. She also said that I can go to physical therapy where they will help me correct it.

For some time now, we have been doing so many things ourselves to try to save some money. Part of me wanted to decline the physical therapy to avoid the cost. I could read up on how to strengthen my muscles and handle it myself. If it didn’t work, I could then seek out a physical therapist. The other part of me said that maybe it is time to get that outside help. We are talking about my knees here. Without them, I can’t walk.

I told the doctor I would go to physical therapy and I start next week. They will evaluate my condition and develop a treatment program. Then I will have a better idea of how much this is going to cost. Right now I’m trying not to think about it too much.

She also prescribed medication for another condition that I have. I haven’t taken medication for it in years since I didn’t want to spend the money on it and it wasn’t bugging me too much. Not the smartest thing I have done. I did fill the prescriptions she gave me and they will cost about $100/month. That’s with my health insurance co-pay.

Just like the physical therapy, I’m trying not to think about the medication cost too much. It will be another expense that will need to be worked in the budget. BUT – that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to search on ways I can lower that cost. Of course, if I find anything I will let you know 😉