Blow that Dough 2024

I miss Robbie as well.

People leave this forum for all kinds of reasons. While Robbie seemed to be relatively young, it is possible that he is no longer with us in the flesh.

I hope I'm wrong, but if sadly so, I'd like to think that perhaps Robbie provided us with a more important legacy than just the pleasures of BTD on Wagu beef. That is that life is often short and unpredictable and we should enjoy every moment.

In a way, our "dough" is stored energy from our life's efforts. We should all strive to expend that energy with things that balance out our time left.

We always hear stories of the janitor who died leaving $4MM ... I can't think of anything sadder.
 
Last edited:
Well then he would be with us in spirit. Maybe we can think of it like that.

I hope to BTD on some extensive travel this year. Organizing it is a lot of w*rk though.
 
We are flying to Seattle and then going by Amtrack BUS (!!??) to Vancouver on Thursday, simply to have new and interesting restaurants for four dinners for our 40th anniversary. Then, we come back home.

(Hoping that we have one or two days without rain to explore the city during the short daylight hours.)

This may be our purest BTD expenditure to date! (But, we did cook our own steak and foie gras, and drink our own 20 year Sauternes and Cab Sav on NYE to make up for it in advance! :LOL:)
 
I think 2023 was the first year in a long time that our spending exceeded our hand wavy annual budget.

What do we do when that happens? We increase the budget! BTD!
 
Last edited:
Wasn't planning to post this early in the thread and certainly not for a household 'repair'. The convection microwave's hinge on my 8 year old combo oven/microwave broke. There was also something else wrong with it and the oven itself whines very annoyingly so DH and I decided to replace rather than repair. Decided to upgrade to a Thermador speed oven/microwave/oven combo which is setting us back $8,700. OUCH.
 
DW helped me BTD, she says what are we saving it for? Decided to treat myself -Bought a new bicycle, DW did too. We ride 7-10K miles per year so our 6-7 year old bikes have over 40,000 miles on them. We usually get new bikes at about 50K but things are looking good and we aren't getting any younger.
 
I'm having to move some major funds because today we just committed to a crewed 7 day sailboat cruise through the Virgin Islands in May. All meals, drinks, fuel, etc., included! Booked the airfare for that trip and also an earlier trip to Florida also. We already have a beach house reserved in Belize for two weeks in February and the final payment on that is going to be due soon too.
Blow that vacation dough!!
 
We just had to spend about $1,200 repairing one of our cars, a 2007 Lexus. It has almost 190K miles on it now, so we are probably going to buy a new car before something really major has to be repaired. Between buying a car, vacations yet to be planned, and paying off several 0% credit cards we took advantage of to buy things for our new home in FL, our cash outflow for 2024 will be pretty big.

Every time I start stressing about it, I remind myself that we sold two properties in CA and have a lower COL now in FL, so being in BTD mode now is OK. Plus, we retired over 7 years ago and have substantially more financial assets than we did then, and presumably we are 7 years closer to not needing money any longer.
 
Audreyh1 and Scuba, I like your attitudes!
Vacations for 2024 are mostly paid for already so not sure if that falls into 2023 or 2024 BTD.
Have planned early 2025 travel -
- NCL cruise on their newest ship, Viva in The Haven class, 9 days out of San Juan in January
- Family trip (10 with all kids and grandkids) to a Mexico all-inclusive over President’s week ‘25

BTD with experiences vs. buying things is what it’s about for us now!
 
DW and Went to Costco yesterday. We wanted bagged salad.


20 minutes later, we walked out with $500 of groceries.

Jerky was on sale - excellent snack for a high protein/low carb diet.

DW's protein drinks were on sale (even then, they're over $1 each! - I thought my Diet Pepsi habit was expensive!)

We supply Ensure to a disabled lady from our church and picked up 5 cases because (wait for it) it was on sale.

Pre-cooked bacon was on sale - we can't make it from scratch for the sale price - and the Kirkland brand tastes better than I can fry from scratch. I bought 5 packs. One for the fridge and 4 for the freezer.

Chunky Skimpy (sic) Peanut Butter 2-packs were on sale. (By the way, I call Jif, "GYP" but I digress - even more.)

Speaking of digression: I consider PB to be the perfect hurricane/tsunami/dock-strike food. Lots of nutrition, lots of calories, flavorful. Mix it with cereal, or put on stale crackers or eat it with a spoon. If you're not allergic to it and if you like the flavor, one 2-pack of 48 oz PB can keep a human alive (with sufficient subsistence calories) for 2 weeks. The price for a 2-pack was $10. Heh, heh, I can see it now. Ko'olau brags about a yearly grocery bill of (wait for it) $10 X 52 weeks/2 = $260. OH, that's time 2 for 2 people.:blush: Make it $600. And, think what I would save on Ozempic! (Not actually using the stuff, but...)


But HEY! I really do miss Robbie! Please come back and remind us how to BTD.
 
I spent $214 on my annual Conroe, Texas Recreation Center membership fee today. And the West Side rec center location (fairly new) has new rowing machines (Concept 2) and a dry heat SAUNA in the men's locker room! (there may be a SAUNA in the ladies locker room, but I did not check...LOL)

Three days a week again trying to get my muscle loss (due to age) kept at a minimum! And I can soak out my anxieties in the SAUNA!
 
Last edited:
Does peanut butter last if you open it?

Don't you have to refrigerate it after opening?

Hmm, I have the Trader Joe's Organic PB.

Maybe it's different with the mass market brands, maybe preservatives?
 
One lesson learned from Katrina was that it can take a week or more for help to get to you even in a big city. So I keep several jars of peanut butter on hand as well as jugs of H2O. Peanut butter has protein, fat and calories, just what we need when food is in short supply. You don’t have to cook it first, and it stores very well even when open. And it does not take up a lot of space.

Besides peanut butter is great with apples, and a tablespoon when hungry will help me avoid snacking on junk food. I only buy the natural kind - peanuts and salt.
 
Wow. You guys really had me confused for a second. I thought that I opened the 2024 BTD thread and all of a sudden I'm reading about the attributes of peanut butter. Thread drift on steroids!
 
I just sent an email to my HVAC company. I've decided to replace my gas furnace and the air conditioning system. Both are still working acceptably. But, I had the annual furnace checkup last week and they told me I should replace the inducer motor as it sounds like it's in the process of failing. They also reminded me that my system is now 28 years old and I should begin thinking about a planned replacement of at least the furnace. We don't need AC much here, so it's less critical to life. I decided now was as good of a time as ever. I'm upgrading to a 2-stage furnace.

Project cost - $9633

My house also has some uneven heating on one side. We are hoping that this might help with that situation as well.

So, sometime in the next few weeks (either before or after my Caribbean cruise), I'll be having this all installed. I guess I'll be wearing a coat in the house that day!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
2024 Investment Performance Thread
3 4 5
Replies
124
Views
5K
Born2Fish
B
D
Planning my last 20 years, how much to spend. (Part 2)
2
Replies
35
Views
3K
llolly
L
E
Need help finding 2022 and 2021 final expenses.
Replies
2
Views
346
Evee
E
Gumby
  • Sticky
Best CD, MM Rates & Bank Special Deals Thread 2024 - Please post updates here
7 8 9
Replies
212
Views
28K
Car-Guy
Car-Guy
wmc1000
2024 Umbrella Policy costs
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
RetiredHappy
R

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom