My grocery spending was right on budget this past week. I was able to get out and walk through the grocery store Friday night and today without too much pain. I then went to Kohls today, but the pain in my back and right leg became too much. After sitting down on one of the little benches in the shoe department to alleviate the pains, I just decided to leave without making a purchase.

At the urging of some of the contributors here, I have started some stretching exercises yesterday and this morning. I am going real slow with them, and starting out very conservatively. I also was able to do a couple of very short 15 min. rides on my new bicycle yesterday and today without hardly any pain. Because the pains have not completely gone away, I'm afraid of aggravating that dang sciatic nerve. I imagine the road to recovery is going to take some time.

My weekly spending was way under budget this past week mainly because I was blind sided with a bout of sciatica. It caused a halt to most shopping, because of the pain shooting down from my back into my right leg.

The pain became so unbearable, it caused a trip to the Emergency Room, then to two other doctors. Hopefully, the new meds I am taking now will help it subside. I am just now getting able to go back to work after missing a week. Fortunately I have already met my medical deductible and annual out of pocket caps, so the 3 doctors, six x-rays, and the ER visit won't cost me anything.

But this has also interfered with my diet and exercise regimen, and temporarily put a halt to riding my new bicycle. Hopefully, I'll be back in the saddle soon.

I went over budget on groceries this past week for a couple reasons. I usually have a hard time staying on budget during the Kroger Mega Sales. I need to slow down on contributing to the stockpile, and really need to continue depleting it.

The 4th of July Holiday has an impact on the grocery budget also. I had relatives over for a great cookout. As a consolation I now have enough grilled meats and various salads for lunches for at least a week.

I also had to do some extra spending for some bike accessories. I spent about a $100 at a sporting goods store on a new helmet, a pump, and a lock, etc. I did manage to use a $20 off $100 store coupon.

And speaking of my new bike, I am really loving getting back into riding again, even though it's just in the big neighborhood next to mine. I'm getting plenty of exercise and slowing increasing my endurance.

For June I sold one health care stock into strength for a nice little 18% gain over a short 7 month holding period. I will probably soon redeploy the proceeds into more Real Assets, either another energy, commodity or precious metals holding.

This will continue my monthly addition into this asset class, which has been on the rise lately as inflation and the war cycles ramp up. My allocation into these holdings has risen mainly on price appreciation over the past few months. We may be in the beginning stage of another long term rally for some of these beaten down sectors especially the miners.

There were no other major changes in my core allocations.

My Plan and allocations can be found in the Investment Plan page in the sidebar.

I just got an email from Discover about a new 5% Cashback Bonus that is good until July 31. This would be in addition to their current quarterly 5% at Gas Stations.

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Amazon.com.....Best Buy.....Kohls