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Thanks. I did not take advantage of any free meals this year as my grandkids are still here, and I don't have the money to buy 4 meals while mine is free. However, I did take advantage of Red Carpet's free "good" car wash since the inside was dirty from all the muddy shoes due to the recent rains. There are quite a few places that offer something free for veterans on Veteran's Day. I usually just type in "free meals for veterans" and it brings up a list of over 100 places. Sure, not all of them are in Fresno, but it doesn't really matter. There are more than three and that is all I would need. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Last year I went to Denny's for breakfast, Texas Roadhouse for lunch and Black Bear dinner for dinner. I usually go to Applebee's for dinner, but I had not tried Black Bears and they were right across from each other. I will not do that again though. I did not like the limited choices they gave, and the food was only so-so. I'll go to Applebee's next year.
I am in a good mood today as I have enrolled in a program that will allow me to keep the car. I will lose all my credit cards except one, but I get to keep the car. I will pay them $372 a month, and they will negotiate with the credit card companies for a lower total payout. Once they start negotiating, the credit card companies usually close the account. the only one I will keep is the PayPal credit card which I have not used because I had too many cards with high balances. It only has $300 on it, so it will not help much in an emergency like a car repair or something, but it is better than no card at all. One thing I am worried about is that it is from Synchrony bank. The same bank that has my Amazon store card, and my PayPal credit card. The PayPal account has no physical card, just lets me buy stuff online.
Not having to pay my credit cards or that consolidation loan will allow me to pay the bank straight from my checking account. I will miss not having the credit cards available, but currently only one is available anyway as I have run the balances up to the limits on most of them.
That's good news, Jim. You get to keep the car, and you will still be able to eat. You may have to eat whatever is on sale. But there's a lot of good stuff on sale if you watch all the ads. Look for the Asian markets which are less expensive for produce. I have been eating avocado all week.
I'm still hoping for an avocado tree to bear fruit. That's like winning a lottery prize. Whatever grows in the yard has been a real blessing. I looked out there today, and saw potatoes growing. Growing wild. That's my goal. Fruit and veggies regrowing every season, without me having to plant them. Some produce is really good at regrowing by itself. Cabbage has come back again. Pumpkin is back as well. And I usually get tomatoes and mustard. Every bean, red, pinto, chickpea.......regrows. The weirdest thing growing is pineapple. The plants are growing. Just don't know if they will fruit this far from Hawaii. But the really reliable, for me, are trees. They don't have to die and grow back. They just fruit.
Picked up some avocados myself the other day. They were 3/$5. Not the best price, but at least they were ripe. Last week, they had them 10/$10. Really good price, but they were green as could be. The last time I got them that hard, they didn't ripen even a little bit after a week.
I'm guessing that there is no Smart & Final close enough to your place to make it worth the drive.
What happened to eggs? Why are eggs suddenly so expensive? I went to Costco today. Eggs cost more than eating steak. The 15 dozen egg case was almost $70. That's double the price from the last time.
There is suppose to be a turkey shortage. I don't see it. Every grocery store is fully stocked. The prices are higher. Actually, the prices are very high. But they have turkey.
I got the $7, 12 lb turkey from Safeway. I'm going to spatchcock the turkey. I'm guessing that after removing the rib cage, back bone, and thigh bones, it will be around 10 lb. Without the bones, I'm thinking that I can cook it for 10 minutes per lb. If I cook it for an hour and a half, turn the oven off, then leave it in the oven for another hour, the residual heat should finish cooking it. I'll roast it with stuffing on the bottom of the pan. The plan is that the herbs and moisture in the stuffing will rise and steam the turkey to keep it moist. Bacon on top will sizzle and the bacon fat will drip down to baste the bird. The stuffing will absorb the drippings.
I still get food stamps, so I can use that to eat with. With this plan I will have a total of $39 a month to live on for items not able to be purchased with food stamps. This plan also is based on me spending $200 a month for gas which I am doing now with the grandkids here. And it does not count the increase in SSDI or VA payments in January. So, really the tight month will be the rest of this month, and December. However, I am still waiting for the reimbursement from the insurance company and the sale of one of my firearms. Hopefully, they both will happen before the end of the year. I'll put the money in my safe and use if for emergencies since I won't have a credit card with a decent amount on it anymore.
This is the plan for the bird this year. Bearded Butcher style spatchcock. It takes the whole rib cage out. Not just the back bone. I go 1 step beyond. I also remove the thigh bones.
Every year, the challenge is to make a turducken. It sounds pretty easy. Debone all the birds. Stuff the chicken in the duck, then in the turkey. Whole stick of butter and herbs inside each cavity as you're stuffing them together. Plenty of moisture at the bottom of the pan so that it doesn't dry. cover with foil. Roast all day. I've yet to try. Kind of scared that I will mess it all up. I know how to do the butchering. The turkey should be tunnel boned.
The time of year where a few extra dollars count. School teachers are just trying to survive. Now 2 have lost their primary incomes..... As I am also considering performing on Only Fans . There must be a few people in this world who will pay to watch a fat guy eat fried chicken.
Just thinking that if a fat guy could eat chicken on YouTube, and get paid for the views....... I could make the same video on an alternative platform, and get paid more.
I'm going to step up my fruit game this winter. I went by the local nursery and got a list of all the trees they're getting in stock at the end of Dec. Probably 100 different varieties and grafts. I'm going to get 5 or 6 trees to add to my lonely pear. I think I need another pear for mine to bear fruit. I'll also get some peaches and nectarines as well as some thornless berries.
There is no way I would want to eat enough KFC to weigh 400 pounds. I like KFC's original recipe chicken, but not enough to do that.
I wish I lived on my own piece of property and could put in some fruit trees. That would be nice.
