The first full week of February is in the books, and while it had its ups and downs I managed to (mostly) stay true to my goals for the month.

Pixie was sick with an IBD flare-up most of last week, on top of her chronic pain issues, so that added a lot of stress to the week. As a result I didn’t get my planned meal prep done last weekend. But I was able to still put together some reasonably healthy meals from the fridge, pantry, and freezer and while I leaned pretty heavily on loaded baked potatoes for my work day lunches, it all worked out OK.

We had yet another vet visit this week due to Pixie’s continued pain issues, unfortunately the vet wasn’t at all helpful in providing options or figuring out the underlying cause (which is likely the same thing that caused Trixie’s continued pain issues.) So there will be even more vet bills later this month when Pixie goes to see our previous vet who is more familiar with the girls’ medical history and also much more creative in her solutions. Fortunately Pixie is finally feeling better this weekend as her IBD flare-up resolves, so while she’s still not all the way better, at least we’re “only” dealing with pain right now and I’m able to keep that fairly well managed with pet-safe CBD oil. (Gabapentin would be the preferred treatment, but she refuses to take it in pill, powder, or liquid form and this week’s vet refused to prescribe the transdermal even though it has worked for her before.)

With all that stress going on, that’s often a trigger for me to resort to unplanned spending, usually for junk food, things that I don’t really need, or projects that aren’t really necessary. While I did pick up a couple of not-entirely-healthy foods this week, overall I was able to focus on alternate stress relief options. I checked out some books from the library by a favorite author I hadn’t kept up with, went for a lot of walks and enjoyed the rain and sunsets, and took a trip to one of my favorite local botanical gardens.

In addition to the short-term reset, I also did some long-term planning and attended a “Women Talk Money” seminar from the 401k provider my employer uses. It was a great panel led entirely by women, about how financial planning is different for women. Namely, that women tend to live longer, have higher healthcare costs, and have reduced earnings due to taking on caregiver roles for children or parents. So many finance discussions are created by and for men, or the ones for women are geared toward parenting, so this was a nice change to have it focused more towards higher earnings and retirement.

Here’s the final result for this week:

Food/Groceries/Dining Out:

  • Meal Plan – I didn’t get the planned meal prep done, but was still able to eat from the fridge, pantry and freezer. I keep baking potatoes in stock so that covered a few lunches, along with canned tuna, and hard boiled eggs for egg salad. Overall, despite the lack of plan this went well.
  • Groceries – I skipped the main grocery pickup order this week, and just picked up a few things at the local co-op grocery, along with a case of single-serve gluten-free brownies from Amazon. The co-op grocery is priced a little higher and I picked up a couple new things to try, so the total grocery bill this week was $91. A bit over my goal of $85, but I’m still tracking to be under the total monthly goal
  • Dining out – rumor had it Friday was National Pizza Day, and I really wanted some comfort food, so I picked up a medium pizza on the way home from the co-op. $20 for a pizza that provided four meals isn’t too terrible a slip, though

General Spending:

  • Save instead of Spend – there were some “extra” funds left over from last week’s paycheck which weren’t budgeted to any specific categories, so I transferred that to my HYSA with a deposit match.
  • Reduce Amazon orders – one Amazon order this week, I ordered the replacement filters for my air purifiers, the case of gluten-free brownies, and some pill paste to try to convince Pixie to take Gabapentin (it didn’t work.) My Prime membership expired this week, and I don’t expect to renew it any time soon
  • House projects – still no forward progress on the house projects, I’ve decided to put the bidding on hold indefinitely until Pixie’s health issues (and resulting vet bills!) are stabilized

Cats:

  • Food/litter/supplies – no regular supply orders this week, just a jar of treat paste which Pixie rejected
  • Cat toys – no new cat toys, yay!
  • Vet bills – one appointment this week plus an anti-nausea injection. The pet insurance refund for last week’s bills came through, and combined with the refunds from Trixie’s food that was returned, wholly covered last week’s bills plus this week’s bill