Today I won't be spending anything, so I did my monthly accounting. I was surprised to find that I spent less than $1900, even though I had to pay for a refrigerator repair and even though I broke my phone. The refrigerator repair was $340. It could have been worse, and I am glad to say that the problem of encroaching ice in the freezer hasn't come back. As far as the phone goes, I only had to pay $49 out of pocket, because I have a service agreement with Best Buy.

I was able to keep my grocery spending just under $100 -- and I hope to continue doing that no matter how food prices rise. Buying ingredients, not prepared food, is the key, I think, and I keep the ingredients simple. It does mean I have to cook all the time, but that's okay. I also refuse to waste any food. This morning I made a breakfast scramble with just one egg -- my last one -- some leftover French fries, chopped peppers and onions, cheese and a little milk. It was pretty good. The leftover French fries were courtesy of my grandson, by the way, so accepting freebies is a factor, too.

I spent $96 on gifts and charity. About half of that was for Easter candy, cards, and cash for the grandchildren. Most of the rest was a political donation. I've never made political donations before, but these are strange and awful times. And I bought a few stocking stuffers at Goodwill.

Also at Goodwill, I bought a frying pan and some casserole dishes, too good to pass up. And I bought some collectibles, which I may sell, I may gift, or I may keep. I haven't decided. A little under $40 altogether there.

It was time for a haircut - $36 - and my dermatologist treated a keloid scar that developed after my skin cancer scare last year. That was only $25. I also paid a $40 copay at Urgent Care to have a questionable lesion looked at. It was nothing, but I needed that peace of mind.

Now that I'm driving again (hurray!), I did have to pay $27 for gas.

All other spending was for routine expenses.

I was able to put $2000 into savings, which I am trying to build up in case things get worse.

This isn't the first time I've dropped it, but it's the first time it did any damage. This time it fell on concrete and the screen shattered. I wasn't able to unlock it; basically nothing on the screen was accessible.

I bought it at BestBuy, and I have a service plan with them, so I high-tailed it over there. They are going to replace my phone for $49, but the new phone is on order and will be mailed to me, and I am currently using a temporary phone, which I purchased and will return. I bought the new phone, too, but all but $49 will be reimbursed to me once I mail back the old, broken phone. I won't do that until the new phone comes and I receive instructions on how to mail the old phone back. It seems pretty convoluted to me, but that's how they do it.

The biggest problem I've had is that my data couldn't be transferred by the staff because my phone couldn't be unlocked. I restored my data myself through my Google account, but I have lost some things. I have no pictures, for instance, and no photo gallery at all, so my PDF's are gone, too.  When the new phone is delivered, I'm going to go back to BestBuy to get more help.

This is another thing I didn't need! I want so badly to push money into savings, but these things keep happening.

Today I went to Target and spent a whopping $3 on groceries (veggies), which took my total up to $99. I would still like to stick to my $100 limit, but obviously that's going to be harder than ever. I am good at stretching food, but I don't know if I will be able to do it for 17 more days. But I think I can make it through another week, anyway.

In other news, my condo has been assessed by the county with a market value $30K higher than it was last time. Last time there was a spike like this, our condo board hired a lawyer and negotiated a lower valuation. So far I've heard nothing about that, but it may happen again. As a senior, I have several exemptions in addition to the homestead exemption, all of which have helped keep my property taxes affordable. I hope they will help me out again.

I have noticed in the past month that my refrigerator, the freezer part specifically, kept building up hard ice. Not the frosty kind, but hard ice. And sometimes water pooled in the fridge. It looked like it had to be draining tube problem, according to Google, but there was no way I could fix it myself. So I called an appliance repairman, and to my shock, it was $340 to make the repair! This was not what I needed.

But, good news, I did pass my road test and I'm driving again! At first it felt weird, but now it feels like I'm back in the groove.

Groceries have already cost me $80 in these few days. I tried very hard to stick to ingredients, not prepared foods, and to focus on sale items, but still -- way more than I wanted to pay.

This is going to be tough. I haven't looked at my 403b yet. I'm sure it isn't pretty.