My Uber Thrifty Month In Review - October

This month I felt I was much more in control of expenses and spending.  I was able to pay all of my monthly bills and work on my financial goals for the year.  I added quite a bit to my savings account and made the final deposit into my Christmas fund on time.  With the sale of the RV I was able to make a major impact on my Medical/Business debt reduction goal.

I used overtime earnings to make extra payments on my 6 months same as cash PayPal account which is what I used to purchase the living room furniture and my queen sized box spring and mattress.  I am very close to having all the living room furniture paid for.  The dining room furniture was paid off last month.

Gas prices have gone down a whopping 55¢ a gallon!  In spite of that I still kept driving to a minimum and ended the month with a quarter tank still left.  I only purchased gas once and used my Fred Meyer rewards points to save an additional 30¢ a gallon.  It has been a looooong time since I've spent so little on fuel.

The weather has been really cooperative with warmer than usual temperatures.  We haven't had to turn on the main heat yet and used our fireplace a few times to take the chill off a couple of mornings and on rainy days.  It was more than enough for us to be comfortable.

The only big expense I made this month was for an area rug for our living room which I got on sale for $40 off.  I used a lot of sales and coupons for other purchases, in particular groceries, and filled in with dollar store buys to help stretch my dollars further.

Gift cards allowed me to go to the movies and buy some really cute cupcake papers for future baking projects.  I did a little bit of Christmas shopping, made Christmas cards using supplies we already had on hand, made music DVDs using blank disks and cases I already had on hand and started some craft projects to make gifts also using items I already had in my store of craft and sewing supplies.

Needless to say I am very happy with how my October went.