Art goes on, house hunting is still a dream.

 Art goes on and trying to find a way to sell it either as digital files or actual prints. One of my latest ones I am particularly proud of:

"Frosty Meadow"

 I know I risk someone stealing any of my art but it's worth a shot if I can bring in some 'passive income' as they say. I looked into the NFT market and it is way more complicated than just uploading a picture and people paying for it. Like anything else you have to spend money to make money and that is way riskier than I want to go into at this point. Will see what happens.

I floated half joking to Jon that if he sold some of his watches we could start a down payment on a house. I don't think he considered that a serious thought but I was actually half serious. Some of his watches are worth several hundred dollars. I understand having a collection of things and being attached to them. He is currently trying to recover his Elvis collection that got ruined three moves previous. 

I have been looking at houses, mostly mobile homes because they're less expensive but most definitely not in San Diego, or SoCal for that matter. The price differences are double what they are elsewhere, so am looking further north of course and coming up with everything from an absolutely derelict mobile home on a tiny lot with an equally wrecked motor home next to it being listed for $115k to fairly decent and newer models for slightly more expensive only by a few thousand. 

Then looking at loan options, getting my credit score stable and higher which is working as it is over 600 now after paying down a new credit card. Keep that up for the rest of the year and see what happens in the next nine months. Hoping by the end of the next year to be ready financially, barring incident, injury or death of either of us.

I also have money going into my Credit Karma savings account every week now. I held off making regular payments before when I was barely making money. Now, oddly enough, on unemployment I can put away $40 a week and maybe some extra once in a while to restart our nest egg. Hopefully also by the end of next year the economy may be recovering a bit more and house prices stable.

Oh but the one house I saw up in Oregon, seemingly small 3 br/2ba with a full finished basement... built in 1922 and could be zoned as commercial. It was wonderful looking and then saw that it had been on the market for 315 days. Something seriously wrong with that situation but had to show jon the finished basement WITH a full bath on that level. Wow. It was $195k and then looked on one of the other realty sites and discovered it had sold in July. Zillow is quickly losing my credibility trust at this point. It's nice to go window shopping though.

We are doing okay for money actually, trying to save as much as possible from EDD payments and food money, which I found out is rather suprising. Normally I would only be getting $20 a month for food. Can you imagine? They think two people on unemployment needs no more than that for food help with other bills to pay. Since Jon's unemployment and my extra dropped off I sent them an update on income to hopefully get more of that. The extra I've been getting is that much a day for the Pandemic food help. Not sure how long that's going to keep up but need to save on that as well for the future.

As couples go, we don't have a lot of bills and extras. Due to the size of our kitchen we tend to have lunch out most days and that's anywhere from $8 at Costco to $30 at our sandwich shop or wherever. I don't drive as much and the car is more fuel efficient so I'm using about 3/4 of a tank every week and a half sometimes two weeks, big money saving there as gas is topping out at $4 a gallon now at Costco. So for expenses we're doing good and as soon as Jon's SS money starts he'll be able to pitch in some money again to rent or food.

So, having fun creating art, playing in my garden and still half heartedly looking for a job. Have been turned down by Lowes and Armstrong twice each and just got a form letter from Lowes for Sales Associate. I had to email back asking what department and which store as it was a form letter that was sent based on my resume. If I get a reply back and if they don't mention it I will as what shift hours they are looking for. I have the time and money to ask these questions.

The weather is cooperating as well, finally cooled down, breezy, clear and dry which means it's Santa Ana season. My allergies kicked in a week ago and usually don't hit until evening. I've got a new doctor appointment on the 26th so will see how that goes. Trying to set up dental coverage as well since my teeth are soooo bad right now I might be looking at full dentures.

Ah well, sucks to get old. But it's a beautiful day and I'm going to enjoy that.

"Blue"