We tried years ago to take care of the bug problem ourselves but no matter what we bought it didn't work. The insecticides you can buy over-the-counter are just not as good as what a pest control company has access to, so that's why we pay for it now. We live in the deep woods, so pest control is a must for us.

Thankfully, my husband takes care of our cars when he can and that saves us a lot of money. I'm glad he can talk to the mechanic when we do need work so we don't get ripped off.

We use a lot of firewood in the winter and have a lot of trees, so we don't have to buy firewood. Last year we had 3 huge trees taken down and we got it cut up and stacked so we had at least 3 cords of wood. We still have two cords left for next year.

Back when we were both working we bought cords of wood and I know exactly what you mean about some of it being junk wood that won't burn. Places that sell firewood always mix that in. We always take down a lot of trees lately or they just fall down and we give them away. They're doing us a favor by taking them.

Biden wrecked the economy by shutting down our energy independence. Its been downhill ever since. That affected everything. The value of the dollar has gone down and everything costs more now. I just buy less , but also I scrutinize more why some companies raise their prices. Two large increases in two years is too much. 15% increase in '22 and 10% in 23 for my pest control company.