My Uber Thrifty Month In Review - January

I saved all of my receipts from all of my purchases throughout the month and tracked my spending on an excel spreadsheet as I usually do.  Keeping all of the receipts clipped together in a neat little pile really served as a good visual reminder that although I try to spend as little as possible I'm still spending.  To look at this pile of receipts gave me pause to question if I am really being as thrifty as I think I am at times.

I was able to go back through and see that most of these items were for necessities like clothing, gas, groceries, cleaning supplies and toiletries.  There were a few extras too and I can see ways to improve my spending habits so I will continue to strive for improvement.

At the first of the month I paid all of my monthly bills, most of them online.  The city sewer and trash bill is the only one I had to write a check for and mail.  I was very pleased that I was able to do this several days ahead of their due dates.  Blessing counted.

Fruit salad using both fresh and canned fruit

I was able to purchase our monthly groceries and several stock up items and stay within our January budget.  In fact I still had $2.46 left which I rolled over into February's budgeted amount.  This month I had A LOT of coupons to use on groceries allowing me to stretch those budgeted dollars much further.  I had extra money that I used to invest in some additional stocking up for February and March as well.  You will see those items accounted for in those monthly budgets.

Mid month I was able to pay our mortgage fourteen days ahead of the due date.  I added money to our savings account and started saving to my Christmas Fund.

I'm using coupons combined with sales to save as much as
I can on supplies for my store inventory and making gifts

I started working on items to restock my empty Etsy store.  I am hoping to re-open it in the spring with fresh items to sell and earn some extra money.  My goal is to keep adding fresh items and keep it going year round.

I used two $1 OFF coupons making these $2.19 each

I also began preparing for Christmas by making two gifts, stocking up on some clearance gift wrap and purchasing a few really nice Christmas candles on clearance.  I am going to start a new gift bin since my last one was completely depleted.  Working on Christmas all year helps me tremendously to be better prepared and saves me a ton of money I'd spend if I was rushing at the end to get gifts.  My gifts are much better thought out this way too.

That pretty much sums up my thrifty month of January.  Now I am going to work on February and see if I can save a little more and spend a lot less.