So we're in western washington and unfortunately day 4 of no power.  We lost power Tuesday afternoon and it hasn't come back on yet.  Typically we are pretty good.  Usually we're close enough to the city that we never have a problem with storms or snow.  But this time we got hit badly with a lot of trees in the area down.  A midwest friend said it's like a tornado.  We happened to be in the very narrow path and got super unlucky. 

I'm pretty sure the tree across the middle of the main road in our neighborhood is the culprit. The electric company and city couldn't even get to it till today.  So we are obviously out of luck.  I'm writing this from the library for an hour. I had been hoping to get power on before.

These previous days we went for lunch at DH's cousin's house.  We ate lunch and dinner with them then headed home.  We figured out we have hot water with our gas water heater, but no heat or lights.  We can light our gas stovetop but not the oven.  Thankfully the weather is only November and not that cold because our house is cold enough.  Also fortunately that when we moved in 2017 we took the downstairs down to the studs and insulated and earthquake proof the house.  Most 1960s homes were not insulated.  We had them maximize the insulation and did new windows.  I can only imagine what it would be like if we hadn't.

Our furnance while gas had an electric pilot and thermostat. So we haven't had heat.  I'm not familiar enough to know how it all works to explain but know we don't have heat.  We also have an empty garage since the door won't open and we could muscle it up I think but I don't want too.

DH left work minutes before his office lost power and his car would have been trapped there Tuesday.  I called him and said to come home we lost power at at 4 pm on Tuesday in the middle of my cooking meatloaf in the oven.  He managed to finish it on the grill but the winds somehow kept blowing out the grill and it was okay but the potatoes were unevenly cooked.  Basically the small potaoes cooked but not the larger ones.

Also fortunately we were to the cousin's house and used up all the ground beef i had bought and made burgers for dinner and bolognese.  She said it was interesting having a family of four and a dog in their immaculate home.  For which we are eternally grateful.  But they were going out of town for the weekend so today we we've been scrounging for power.  I managed to leave the leftovers in another friend's fridge who got power and we're headed to another friend's house for dinner, they generously invited us over. 

But for now, we haven't open our two fridges.  I'm going to guess we'll have to throw everything away but if we get away with only wasting that much food I'll be thrilled!  The kids also haven't had school since tuesday.  Signing off for now.

We might get a generator but we usually never lose power and to store it.  ugh.

So I was just looking at our bills and I decided I might as well put more I can't believe I spend money like this out there.  Anyone on savingsadvice typically is not a spender.  You probably have a frugal gene. I thought I had the frugal gene, but recently I'm starting to think not.  But LAL why?  Well I'm going to be posting a series of stuff that I am looking at my spending and going oh man.

Now I want to say my theory is as you get to be in your 40s (I am 45), I remember when we had our kids and we were 30 and 32.  We made good money for that time but things were really tight.  I don't know why.  But that's another post!

So anyway we had the kids and decided we'd do russian math.  We didn't like the american public school system for math because it didn't seem in depth enough.  Now 10 years later I will say I am right.  Both kids are better at it and enjoy it more because of the ease as they get into high levels because of the firm foundation.  Most of their friends, especially girls are bailing.  They aren't pushing onto higher level math which is needed to go into STEM fields.

But what did we really spend?  A lot.  Until now for both kids we've spent $45,472.  This year it'll be $7508 for their tuition.  I did a double take when I realized it today.

But is it anymore than what people spend on other extracurriculars for their kids?  No.  But it take more time and effort.  You have to sit with your kids and do the homework every week.  You have to devote countless hours to struggling with them to do work when others do not.  More than money it honestly was some of the hardest parenting.  

With a caveat that if we didn't have RSM during covid my kids were very young, we used the extra homework as time to do something other than watch screens.  Yes my kids were in public school and the teaching was hard virtually.  They basically easily lost 18 months of in person teaching and many, many kids fell way behind.  They were at an age where classmates of my kids forgot how to read!  Or were reading in 4th grade at a 1st grade level when they came back.

So we didn't just pay for math, we paid for structure without private school.  We had "homework" and extra work when the schools provided nothing.  We sat and did exercises with them daily.  

Now?  DK1 is in a stem high school and I will brag here is straight A and averaging 98%.  This is not an easy high school and most kids struggle.  She's breezing it and I don't do anything.  The early years of investing in studying, discipline (no screens till homework is done, with LOTS of tears), and just helping is paying off now.  She's doing Algebra 2 honors, physics honors, engineering  honors, english honors, graphic production, spanish ii honors, AP comp sci.  Math is 100% by the way without our help. 

DK2 is cruising along as well.  She's not as studious but is finally seeing the benefit of learning do your work first then you can play on screens and watch tv and do what  you want.  Phones are out of rooms every night along with computers.  Want your kid to sleep?  Make them charge it outside.  

But it sort of explains how and why my sink funds budget keeps expanding more and more.  Ugh.  

So we have three cars.  In less than one month I've replaced tires on all three cars.  OMG.  The Tesla DH had an accident and we had to replace two rims and 4 tires.  Cost?  $4k.  Insurance will cover it since it wasn't his fault but we had to pay out of pocket because it was easier to do it at tesla than anywhere else.  And then the other guy's insurance is going to pay.  This happened in mid october.  UGH.

Then our cute subaru?  Well the tires we wearing wrong according to the alignment guy so there was no point in aligning the tires when they were 10 years old and not street legal.  And being old while not used they needed to be reaplaced.   Another $700 for all four new tires a week ago.  I am getting it aligned on Friday.  

Then a week ago on Wednesday, while driving I heard a pop and I struck a nail.  Sigh.  I popped a tire on my Sienna minivan.  Here's an interesting thing, I have AAA, but I'm not sure why. They only tow for free 6 miles.  But instead I used roadside assistance for my insurance and had it towed to my house.  Then towed to a costco, where because it was AWD i had to replace all four tires.  $1000 - $116 for replacement of the one popped tires for 5 years or 40k miles. I had just about 5 years in another month and I had tons of tread.  Why are these tires so expensive?  They are run flats because AWD minivans don't have space for  a spare.

So three sets of tires in a month!  I am so done with cars.  I also am having all three cars realigned because you have to do it after you get new tires.  Plus the costco guy told me my back right minivan tire was worn funny so my alignment was off anyway. It was my front right tire that popped on the minivan.

Seriously the type of murphy's law!