Freezer Chest Cleanout

Yesterday I did something I've been putting off for years. I cleaned out my freezer chest. 

What a job that was!

Of course it took a lot longer (several hours) than I had anticipated. 

What pushed me to clean out my freezer chest was the ice buildup was too much. I had to get rid of that ice buildup or eventually I wouldn't be able to close the lid.

I'm ashamed to admit it but I found frozen food Erin 2018! I tossed it all out on my compost pile at the edge of my property. Beef stew, raw chicken breasts, chili, frozen veggies, banana bread. You get the idea.

Last week I cleaned out my refrigerator during that drama. Now I have a cleaned out freezer chest. I feel like a tremendous load has been taken off of me. And of course I have vowed never to let that happen again and I'm serious about that. 

I don't freeze meals anymore. Whatever I make, I try to eat it within the week I make it. The main things I freeze now are meats that I get on sale. Have you been to your local supermarket lately? Of course you have. Unbelievable the prices. Sure, there's inflation but you can't tell me that the food producers aren't taking advantage of this situation now and raising prices even more than their costs. I haven't eaten steak in over forty years but I was shocked when I saw two New York strip steaks for sale last $19.98! Last night I had a breaded chicken cutlet that I brought on sale for $5.82. It was marked down from $9.51 because it was near its expiration date. There were four of those breaded chicken breasts. Yes, I'll get four meals for $5.82. I wonder how families with modest incomes manage. 

One thing about my major clean out yesterday, that is one less chore the administrators of my estate will have to do. Next up, cleaning out my garage. Bill had so many poisonous sprays out there. I don't believe in spraying poison in my yard or air. The only exception is hornet nest spray. When Pat comes down hopefully next month, we'll tackle that challenge. 

Monetizing My Blog

An update on monetizing my blog.

It ain't going to happen. Even though I dislike ads on blogs I had considered monetizing my blog to earn a little extra money. 

Like many people today, in The Convicted Felon's economy, I'm finding my fixed income isn't keeping pace with the ever rising costs of every day living. It's especially noticeable with grocery shopping, although I don't need that much food to keep me going. I have ruled out ever going to restaurants again, probably forever. Besides, what I cook for myself is way better than most if not all restaurant fare I have encountered. I would only eat out again for social purposes. I used to like cooking for people in my home but not anymore. Too much trouble. And it's the other costs of every day living like heating, Internet, electric, lawn maintenance. I can keep up for now but I don't know how much longer. I do have a nest egg which I may have to dig into eventually. That's why I have a nest egg but I would prefer to keep that nest egg there....just in case.

When Bill was alive his modest Social Security income contributed to the household expenses here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. Also, my part-time job at the hotel helped with expenses, especially my quarterly trips with Pat. Those two sources of income are gone as are my quarterly trips with Pat. Which is just as well because of my mobility problems now. 

I broke down my wall of resistance to monetizing my blog when I realized there was a possibility of adding to my household income by doing something which I like to do, write. And after twenty years of blogging, surely I developed a following which I hadn't kept track of. 

So a couple of months ago I submitted my request to AdSense, Google's ad platform. I was expecting immediate reaction and approval but I was wrong. When they finally did get around to getting back to me I was told I have "little content." Well, that flabbergasted me. I naively thought my blogs had "content". Here we are back to my high school English class days when my essays were criticized mercilessly and little if any encouragement was offered. Actually no encouragement was offered which is why I came to dislike English class and it's heavy emphasis on reading Shakespeare. Is there anything more BORING than reading Shakespeare? Maybe "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot, which was my big project. I never did finish reading that boring book. I think I still have that book!

So folks this is good news and bad news. Probably more good news because for those of you who have been following my blog all these years (I started in 2005), it looks like my blog will continue to be ad-free. In the meantime I'll look for another source of income but my options are limited. I can sell just so many vintage jeans on eBay. My other option is to cut back and hopefully The Convicted Felon with his tariffs won't affect my expenditures that much. I don't buy toys from China.