It seems that half the country will experience snowstorm Benjamin. Here on the East Coast, he isn't expected to arrive until late Saturday night, dumping a foot or more before he leaves. Our meteorologist is very excited. We are lucky in that here in the northern part of the county, we have a weather guy who covers just our small area, so his forecasts are hyper-local.

There isn't a whole lot I can do to prepare, but there certain small steps I will take:

1. Rather than park in the garage or even at the top of the driveway, I will intentionally park a bit further down the driveway, closer to the road. (The driveway is about 100 feet long.) In this way, I can save a good 20 feet of driveway I'd othrwise have to shovel if I parked in front of the garage. It will be easier to just shovel a narrow walking path from my garage to the car. I'd park even further down except that the driveway narrows a bit in the middle and there's shrubbery on one side in that area, making getting around it to clear snow difficult.  Honestly, the worst part about shoveling the driveway is how the snow plows pack in the snow nice and tight at the bottom of the drive. It's the most exhausting part of shoveling, hands down, but it's never a good idea to leave it til the following day, because then it gets rock hard.

2. I use those little plastic baggies with the elastic on the edges, used by women to keep their hair from getting wet. (Does anyone still use these anymore?) I put them on my side view mirrors to keep the snow and ice off them, saving me a bit of extra work. With my new SUV, the 1 mirror is heated, but I don't think the other one is. Either way, it still seems better to just cover them anyway. I also have a windshield cover which I guess is good if you're expecting freezing rain or ice, then yes, for sure, it keeps all that ice off your wipers, but with mere snow, you just end up dumping lots of snow on yourself as you work to pull the cover off the windshield. 

3. I finally got my EcoFlow power station shipped back to me after they issued a recall last November. I have been testing it to make sure it works properly, and so far it seems like it is. I'll finish with the testing by end of day tomorrow and charge it back up again JUST IN CASE of a power outage. We "should" be fine as it's going to be a light, powdery snow with no wind, but you never know. It would be truly awful to lose power with this storm becus temps will go below zero and with this much accumulation, it could be days before power is restored.

4. Again, just in case, I will make a point to charge up my cell phone Saturday night instead of waiting til Sunday morning to do it, as is my custom. I have several small power banks for phone charging as well but I rarely have needed to use them.

5. Due to the expected accumulation, my front stairs could be quite treacherous, so I think that instead of positioning my snow shovel at the front door, I will exit the house down through the basement and then out into the garage. I'll keep the snow shovel, the shovel for the car and my roof snow shovel ready to go in the garage. I often forget to take the car snow shovel OUT of the car and then I regret it because I have to open the car door and get all kinds of snow inside when I do.

I used to use the roof snow shovel after very heavy snowfalls to avoid ice dams at the gutters, which can lead to water infiltrating your walls, but last time I had my roof done, I had the roofer put the impermeable rubber membrane under the shingles on the ENTIRE roof; building code only requires it from 2 feet above the gutters down. So I "shouldn't" have to worry about ice dams, but I've still hung onto the roof shovel.

6. I'm pretty much set with food in the house except maybe i'll pick up some bananas today when I'm out.  I'll also make sure to get my last workout of the week in today so I'm good until Monday.

What, if anything, are you doing to prepare for the storm? Or maybe, depending on where you live, the storm has arrived!

I've been tracking heating oil prices for a while now and I think I made the right decision buying on Dec. 22 at $2.85 a gallon. After that, prices rose to a high of $3.12 a gallon on Jan. 2, but have since been dropping with the warm weather we're enjoying this week.  Today's price is $3.01.

I used to call around to different suppliers, but have found a site that lists daily prices of many different heating oil suppliers, so it's much easier to use that site, and they consistently provide the lowest prices. 

Just another thought on my 2025 expenses...I note with satisfaction that after the town implemented a new system for how household trash is disposed, I spent just $21 instead of $105 for the annual permit. That's becus the town did away with the annual permit system and now just charges you for specially designated blue bags that must be used to drop off trash at the transfer station, AND there is renewed emphasis on recycling, especially food waste, which is composted.

Basically now, the more you recycle, the less you'll need to toss in the trash and the less you'll pay for the bags. There are different sized bags you can buy, but 1 roll of 10 small trash bags costs $10. I started out only needing to bring trash to the transfer station every other week, and sometimes, I can go 3 weeks before needing to, becus after recycling and composting stuff, what I usually have left is small pieces of paper or wrappings that cannot be recycled due to their size, and stuff like that. 

I think the new system is great because now there is actually an incentive to not be wasteful. Yet there's a certain contingent in town that just complains, complains, complains without giving it a chance.  Recently, the town installed 4 new compost dropoff containers around town to make it easier for busy people to drop off their compost. It's a big, spread-out town. All you do is download an app on your phone, and you need to use that app to unlock the bin so you can drop it of. It's an added convenience,  yet people complained about that, too. This drives me nuts.

A few more thoughts on last year's expenses..... I divided those expenses into 3 broad categories to help remind me of the relative importance of each. In the first tier are the 14 highest expenses that range from $1,000 to $19,662. (Car purchase and payments accounted for 30% of my total expenses. After that, my next highest expense, property taxes, made up a far lower share at 11.6%.) This is also where all 4 of my home improvement projects fell. Also showing up here were food, health insurance and car insurance as well as two utility costs: electricity and heating oil.

In the 2nd tier are expenses ranging from $500 to $916 that aren't super high, but aren't small potatoes, either. This is where you'll find my homeowners insurance, out of pocket medical costs, gasoline expenses, entertainment, clothing and gift expenses.

Finally, in the 3rd tier are a bunch of much smaller expenses, all under $500, some of which I'm tempted to consolidate into other categories.  Like my trash disposal fees and haircuts, for example, plus "subscriptions."

I already know what home improvements I want to focus on for this year:

1. Replace back door and storm door in the kitchen. I like the front entry storm door so much I would get that same door. I'm not positive I can even FIND a door that will fit becus it's smaller than standard size, like the front door, but also because there are kitchen cabinets to either side of the door so it is a very tight fit. 

2 & 3. I'd love to replace 2 major appliances in the kitchen: the fridge and stove. The fridge, only becus the current one is now 15 years old and i worry about it breaking down. It has an exterior ice maker which I regret getting becus I've heard they are prone to leaking. The stove works fine, but I would really like to get an induction stove, which heats things up faster and is more energy-efficient. 

4. I really, really need to replace the cheap bathroom cabinet upstairs. It's shot. But I've procrastinated about doing this because the stairs going to the 2nd floor narrow at the top and getting something new up there without dinging up my walls or something else would be a challenge, not to mention the very narrow bathroom door, and if it's not the right size or they rip the wallpaper, then all the wallpaper would need to be redone. So this one I don't like to think about.

I do admit to a new, somewhat hefty purchase this week. Similar to the reverse osmosis water filtration system I got, because I worry about bad stuff in my water, I decided to buy a top-rated air purifier for my downstairs. I have one I often use in my bedroom while I'm sleeping. It doubles as a sound machine. 

The new one has an app you can control it with, and the brand and model were recommended in a webinar I watched by Electrify Now, a consumer group out of Portland or Seattle that supports electricity as clean energy in place of fossil fuels or natural gas. I love watching this group's webinars, and in fact they are responsible for my decisions to purchase a variety of green appliances for my home, including my  heat pump clothes dryer, my heat pump electric hot water heater, hopefully an induction stove and now, this air purifier.

You can find their videos on You Tube; just search Electrify Now.

Anyway, the air purifier indicated that the air inside my home was "excellent" even before I turned it on. Anytime you cook, even with an electric stove and especially with natural gas, you are affecting your indoor air quality. Even burning a candle emits soot into the air. Running an exhaust fan helps when cooking, but not 100%. If you have pets, of course, there are issues with dander. And then there are the many rugs and furniture that emit formeldyde and other chemicals.

As I spend more time at home, and especially in winter months, I think more about things like making sure the water i drink and the air I breathe is healthy. I know not everyone can afford to do this, so I am grateful I can make these choices. This comes years after I ditched all my plastic food storage containers for glass and put carbon monoxide detectors in the bedroom and basement.  All this technology I welcome; AI, not so much. I recently googled, "Tell me about [my name] recently, and it came up with an interesting bio of myself collected from online. Some of it was totally inaccurate, though, like saying i served on the architectural advisory committee. No idea where that came from.

Yay, with aggressive extra payments, the balance on my car loan is now down to about $6,000. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and plan to have it all paid off this year. I financed about $20K exactly one year ago.  

Yay, FedEx finally picked up my recalled EcoFlow for a software update.

Yay, did some pruning today with the winter thaw, cutting down a Japanese maple and some big branches of a large viburnum, but only half done with the Japanese maple; need to pull heavy branches out of neighbor's side, cutting up the branches so I can drag them across the lawn into my brush pile.

Yay, got my car serviced with an oil change and tire rotation. Just one more year of free service with Toyota Cares program. 

I got a larger platform (window) bird feeder which is working out well. However, I  noticed with some alarm that the red-bellied woodpecker and later, a nuthatch, seemed to get their feet caught in the screen when trying to take off. I found a piece of clear plastic that perfectly fit the opening inside the frame, and problem is solved. I would rather the seed get wet since I refill daily, and I can also just avoid replenishing it before expected rain.

The platform makes it much easier for larger birds to land on it without the roof that was on the smaller one I had.  It's safer for the birds, though a little difficult for me to refill as I have to open window and then crane my arm around the fill it. It would be easier to do if the top of the feeder was lower, but the vertical posts with the suction cups are fairly long and it's mounted as low as possible now on the window.  But I can say it is 100% squirrel-proof.  I did have one squirrel trying to literally climb the siding of my house to get to it, but that failed. 

Everytime I post here, I have to do it twice because it disapears the first time. I got tired of contacting admin here about it. I know from long practice to always copy what I write so it doesn't get lost, but this site will never grow because people will get frustrated and not bother trying a second time.

In 2022 (or so), I purchased an Eco-Flow power station, which is strong enough that it can keep my fridge/freezer going for 4 days in the event of an extended power outage. It gives me added peace of mind. I did use it once during a longer power outage and a few times for shorter (less than a day) outages. 

In November, Eco-Flow informed me of a recall and the risk of battery expolosion. Fixing it was a simple software update the customer could do themselves, but I could not.  My Eco-Flow refused to sync with my iphone, which was necessary to do the update.

Eco-Flow said I could return it to them and they would do it but at some point in the past 3 years I disposed of the original box and foam packaging. This thing weighs about 50 lbs so it definitely requires special care to ensure it's not damaged en route. They said they would ship a box, and after several email exchanges and the first box shipment "lost," I finally got it this past week, but without the foam inserts, which they now say they don't have but don't worry about it, just put it in the box and FedEx will pack it. EcoFlow scheduled a FedEx pickup this Tuesday for me.

In the meantime, and out of an abundance of caution, I found someone on Buy Nothing who gave me a bunch of super spongy corrugated cardboard padding, so it's now packed up and good to go. 

There were 4 bluebirds here this morning! I have mixed rehydrated freeze-dried meal worms in with the black oil sunflower seed. 

Saw dad in rehab today. Each time I go he seems a little better, although he won't always admit it. He even said his meal was good. I felt in a way I was also keeping his roommate company today, too, and we had a very pleasant conversation. He was born in Denmark and lived there during WWII. I was hoping that by having a pleasant chat it might encourage dad to talk more to him himself, to pass the time. 

One thing I've noticed about dad is that when he's not feeling well physically, it really affects him mentally. So initially my dad had the room to himself for several days, and when his roommate arrived, dad still wasn't feeling great, and he started talking negatively about his roommate (something about him snoring) while he was just separated from him by a curtain, so I cut my dad off and shhh'ed him.

But I noticed his roommate has a European accent, and that's why I started talking to him because I was curious. He's "just" 85. He lived many years in NYC and worked at a "salon," that was a combination book store and art gallery and "everyone" went there. Dad mostly listened but started joining in the conversation near the end. So maybe they'll be friends, even though they are two opposites. 

My 2025 expenses are pretty scary to look at, given how many line items increased significantly from 2024.

Here are my top 10 expenses.

1. No surprise, but what I paid on my new Toyota Corolla Crossover, between the down payment, regular payments and extra principal-only payments was $19,662. I still have a balance of $9,650 and plan to pay it all off in 2026. Seems like it's taking FOREVER, and I resent the 6.9% when nearly every other car brand out there finances at less than half that. I suppose I could have joined a credit union and gotten a better rate, but oh well.

2. Again no surprise, but property taxes of $7,569, an increase of 5.2% compared to last year. It is what it is. And to think that if I chose to move one town over, because that town is in a different county, I'd save quite a bit in property taxes, among other things. But I like my town.

3. Back stone stair redo, a one-time home improvement so I have nothing to compare it to from last year. $4,600.

4. Food: $4,502, which surprisingly was 4.5% less than last year. 

5. Health insurance: OK, here's where it gets really scary. My cost for Medicare and a Medigap plan was $4,473, which is 100% more than what I spent last year!! Last year, for the 1st 7 mths of the year, I was still on Obamacare. While I thank my lucky stars I don't have to deal with the massive rate increase Obamacare folks face now thanks to Rump, my health insurance costs in 2024 were just $2,231. I hadn't realized how much more I was paying this year.

6. Front door replacement (including the storm door) was another one-time home improvement that cost $3,698. I don't regret it but I still need to find a trim carpenter who can fix and replace the trim the door installers used, which doesn't match the trim I have in my LR/DR. It doesn't look good, plus there's a gap they created by removing the old trim. 

7. "Household." $3,182. This is probably the only catch-all category I have where things that don't fit in other categories tend to get buried. It's usually stuff for the house. This represented a 41% increase from the year before and included a new Shark vacuum, paying my handyman to build me a platform for my front-loading washer/dryer and my reverse-osmosis water filtration system. I don't regret any of these purchases.

8. Lawn & garden: $1,865, an 85% increase from the year before. This includes bi-weekly lawn mows, which increased in price when I changed mowers.  It also included some new plants I bought, a new battery lawn mower and an expensive tuteur for some native honeysuckle a friend gave me.

9. 2 basement walls recoated: $1,850. I had the other 2 walls done in prior years so now finally all 4 walls have been recoated. It needed to be done as the old concrete was crumbling, and if I ever want to sell this place, that could have been a concern for potential buyers.

10. Car insurance for new car: $1,286, the first time it's been a four-figure number. A 59% increase from last year, when I was insuring a 2013 sedan. Geez. Not to mention an increase in my car tax, $405, double what I paid on my old Honda.

I also had an unexpected big expense, replacement of the firebox in my oil furnace which cost me $1,090. The HVAC guy said that if it had been any other brand, he would have just recommended I replace my 30-yr furnace, but with mine,  I can get another 20 years out of it, he said. 

The majority of my other more routine expenses all saw increases from last year. The exceptions included a 42% drop in what I paid this year in out of pocket medical/dental costs and a 27% drop in entertainment expenses. My internet bill increased by 24%, just because they like to gouge their customers.  Even though I have 2 full years of free ToyotaCares maintenance, I still wound up paying $450 out of my own pocket because of that fiasco where I was handed the 2nd, spare key by the dealer salesman and then immediately lost it. Like, I don't know if it ever left the parking lot. I searched high and low for it and in the end, decided I wanted that 2nd key should anything ever happen to the first, so yup, I forked over $400.

A few bright spots in my secondary expenses: my gas costs dropped by 46%. My dining out expenses dropped by 40%, but then I only spend a few hundred on this anyway. My water bill dropped 11%, I think becus in 2024 the end cap on a pipe burst and flooded my basement with more water than I realized at the time.

All in all, total expenses came to about $65,000.  But part of that was roughly $11,000 spent on 4 separate home improvements, so my actual living expenses were about $54,000.

Looking at my grocery breakdown, or where I spent my grocery dollars, I spent the most, $1,298, at BJs, which I'm okay with since their prices tie with Aldi's in many cases. In the #2 spot was Whole Foods, at $921, which I think I'm ok with too because I stick to the 365 brand but do probably pay a premium for fresh organic produce there, but I think they have the best and I'm willing to spend on it.

I'm unhappy that I spent $815 at Stop & Shop, which is high priced, but there are certain items I can't find elsewhere cheaper, like the low-fat Cabot cheddar I buy, frozen lima beans and the shredded wheat cereal. I did discover their bok choy is way overpriced at $6.99 for a wrapped package of baby bok choy compared to Whole Foods, so I corrected that oversight sometime ago.

In the #4 spot is Aldi's, where I spent $445. I buy what I can there, but admit to being very particular when it comes to food; I avoid high sodium, high fat and high sugar products, as well as processed foods with lots of additives/preservatives and ingredients I can't pronounce. The remaining places I spent grocery dollars on, in lesser amounts, included Trader Joe's, Vitacost, Big Y, Target, Harney & Sons, Shop Rite, Walmart and 2 local and expensive stores. One is a new, small farm market with produce even more dazzling than Whole Foods, but I don't think their prices are a bargain and I don't like their receipts, which DO NOT itemize what you bought, making it impossible to compare prices later, so I'm sticking with Whole Foods.