We have had a exhausting week. Our Katherine started showing signs that something was off.
I had posted about her a few years ago after she had spinal surgery for a herniated disk in her back. It took a bit of work for her to get back to walking because before the surgery she had sudden paralysis.
Well after a few days of her not being her self but not sure what was wrong she suddenly started rhythmically jerking her head.
After xrays and many tests it was determined that Katherine had another ruptured disc but this time it was a cervical disc.
She had a very painful surgery with a complication of a bleed but we have our Katherine back home now doing pain management on her. We are told it will be about a month recovery. We are not sure yet if she has any neurological damage, she is staggering like a drunken sailor but she is also on pain medication.
This brings me back to the subject of having the skills to live a frugal life when we need too.
We are not wealthy people we are a middle income family which means here in the USA it is getting difficult to afford anything more than food, clothing, shelter and transportation.
This surgery so far has cost $3,551.00 which for us is an extremely large amount. I remember the day that taking a pet to see the veterinarian was within a reasonable amount. Now we must choose spending this extreme amount or euthanasia for our pets. Many people cannot afford this amount of money. Sadly some people do not understand why one would spend this amount on a pet. We love Katherine and she is not an old dog so we chose to help her.
Photo taken before surgery.
Had we not changed our ways from spending without consideration to a more simple and frugal life we would not have had this money to help our little Katherine. Even with being more frugal this puts a strain on our budget.
Here are potato pancakes I make from leftover potatoes. We eat these as a side dish with a lunch or dinner meal.
Having the skills to cook from scratch can help us to start saving money instead of spending.
Finances can be very troubling for many people. We have had many ups and downs through our life and the best time to get serious about not spending is when things are going good.
I want this story about our little Katherine to be a reminder that we need to put money away because we never know when we will have a family emergency.
Our goal now is to put every bit of that money spent on this surgery back in our funds because we know we are never out of the woods with what can come next. It could be needing a new roof or our heater breaks or tires on the car.
Do you have skills to be able to live frugal or even more frugal when needed?
Do you know what it takes to slow the flow going out? My article "The Flow" explains that we have to stop the flow coming in to stop the flow going out.
Right now we feel a bit off, our life is off a step, not just because of this surgery for Katherine but the state of our nation and knowing that many of us are just one illness, one job loss away from possibly financial ruin. We know several people that are struggling right now here in the US to pay for increasing health insurance.
It just feels like such a strange time. So again I say we will focus on what we can do about things.
We will tighten up a bit more, make sure we are not wasting anything, watch for the things we do need to go on sale, every little bit adds up and if we watch our pennies then we are not spending our dollars.
We will go into super frugal mode and slow the flow down to a trickle.
We are a bit of a sanctuary here, we have rescue animals. This is our little Bootsy, she is severely handicapped. She has two clubbed feet and walks on her elbows. She cannot perch. She just turned seven years old this month. Our intentions are to give her a good comfortable life as long as she is not in a lot of pain. She plays, talks, eats and drinks so all is good with our little Bootsy. She is a lovebird.
We are suppose to be good stewards and so we do what we can as it comes our way. I truly wish that people would stop selling birds for pets. They do not belong in cages, they should be free and able to soar in the sky. With Bootsy, she would not have made it in the outside world, a man that takes in injured wildlife to rehab them and get them back out to the wild, asked us if we could take her. She was dropped off at his place and since she is not wildlife for our area and could not be rehabilitated we said yes we would take her and do the best we could for her.
I will close now hoping that I have brought a reminder that things can happen that put a strain on our budget but there are things we can do to put that money back.
Know where your money is going and by doing many small things such as turning off those lights and switching off those power strips does make a difference. Reducing the water we use, putting on a sweater when we are cold instead of automatically turning up the heat, cooking meals at home can help us to put money back for those unexpected things.
We hope that our Katherine will be feeling better soon. At this time she is not walking properly, we hope that she does not have any neurological damage and we will have to wait a few more days to know something more about that.
Hopefully when her pain is under control she will get her steady legs back. I will keep you all updated in the weeks ahead. Please keep her in your prayers.
Here is a link to the article called "The Flow"
http://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/the-flow/
Take Care, Grandma Donna
