Whew. This week was expensive on the health front.
Turns out gestational diabetes isn't just a pain in my butt, it's expensive. It's going to cost me a minimum of $100 a month PLUS the special food for my diet for the next 3 months. I don't know what we would do it we were more cash-strapped. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, how could you afford all the test strips and stuff?

Hubby also got glasses and contacts this week. Since he only goes to the eye doctor every few years, he got one pair of glasses and two pairs of contacts. Total: $600, after insurance. Insurance only paid for part of one pair of glasses.

After looking at how much we pay in vision insurance premiums and how much we actually saved, we've decided to cancel the insurance. Eye exams aren't that expensive, I don't wear glasses, and we'd actually come out ahead not paying the premiums. Sad, huh?

On a non-medical front, we canned 7 quarts of homemade pasta sauce yesterday. It feels nice to have something put up for the winter. When the next round of tomatoes kick in, we are going to try our hand at salsa.

I canned today for the first time ever-- 2 quarts of pasta sauce made with stuff straight from garden.

Usually, we make stuff and freeze it, but last year, we lost power for 5 days and lost everything, so I was determined to learn to can. I don't want to have AEP determine the fate of my produce. It really wasn't that hard.

I just found out I have gestational diabetes. I am totally blindsided, as I didn't have it when I was preggo a year and a half ago with the bean, have no family history and none of the risk factors. I don't know why this time would be different.

I'm really upset about it. I don't know how I am going to completely revamp my diet and do good knows what else while taking care of the bean and being exhausted from being pregnant.

I just feel like after the last couple years, with both my grandparents dying and my dad dying that I can't take any more emotionally, but that the crap just keeps on coming. It's like I just can't bear anymore, but tough luck, I have to,.

I put $550 to savings today. It felt great, like I am finally back on track after so many paychecks of saving nothing. I also paid all the bills.

Today was also the first month in 10 years where I didn't have a student loan payment deducted from checking. That feels nice. The decision to pay it off I think was a good one.

of course, that also is the reason we were able to put so much in savings!

I just added up how much our new rewards credit card has added to Bean's college fund: $195, in "free" money.

(We pay off the card in full every two weeks, and use it for convenience.) It pays cash into a brokerage account we set up as a secondary college fund for the Bean.

If I had stuck with my former card, an Amazon rewards card, I would have netted less than $100, all in Amazon gift certificates. I really do think we made the right decision when we switched.

I picked 2 pounds of beets today, so my 100 pound produce challenge is up to just under 21 pounds. Not too shabby.

I went to the St. Vincent thrift store yesterday and did I make out like a bandit!

I got a really nice graco pack n play for $6.99. I couldn't believe the price. The one my mom bought used was $40, and that was a good price!

I also bought an extra little tykes chair for Ben's table set for $2.50, a complete Dr. Seuss ABC board game for $1, and a pack of 11 baby puzzles for free! (Buy one get one for games.)

It was a great stop.

I also picked all the beets from the garden today. I will wash them and weigh them and then update the garden challenge.