My Uber Thrifty Month In Review - February

For me, like most of us, February is not only a short month but also a short paycheck month.  I missed two days of pay last month.  With that in mind I was very committed to making February an uber, uber thrifty month.

I was able to pay the mortgage and our monthly expenses as usual.  February is usually our highest heat bill as January is so cold which makes for an even tighter budget.  I stayed on track and on budget with our grocery spending but I did go over a little with our non food budget.

I was extra thrifty with our fuel consumption and as a result I did not need to purchase any gasoline in February.  I had fueled up at the end of January and ended the month with just under a quarter tank.  I felt pretty darn good about that.

Last month I e-filed my tax returns and received my refunds within two weeks.  I put it toward debt repayment and made a pretty significant dent.  I also transferred some credit card debt to a zero interest account.  I plan to have that account paid off in about four months.

I made a nice sized payment to my PayPal account.  I now owe only $200 on that account.  I hope to pay that account off in full next month.

Because of the shorter paychecks last month I did not put any money away into savings.  I did, however, fully fund this year's $200 Christmas budget.  We kept our frivolous spending to a minimum, almost nil to be more specific.

I was able to complete one of my biggest goals slightly ahead of schedule which was to acquire a new set of peeps to start a new backyard flock.  I was able to scrounge up all the supplies I needed and other than the peeps all I had to buy was a new bag of feed and a heat lamp bulb.

All in all I feel like I accomplished quite a bit financially last month.  Much more than I thought I would.  Not too bad for a tight February, I'd say.