My Uber Thrifty Month In Review - August

August was financially so much nicer for us.  The fact that we didn't have a lot of back-to-school expenses was a big part of why we had much more breathing space.  We enjoyed ourselves by eating out a couple of times and going to the movies on dollar night.

Back-to-school was made easy this year when I found a fantastic online clearance sale at JC Penney back in June and was able to get all of the girls new clothes.  Our school supply box in the linen closet still had most of the items we needed.  I filled in with notebook paper found on sale super cheap at the grocery store and composition notebooks on sale as a loss leader at Fred Meyer.  Everything else we are using is stuff we already had including backpacks and lunchboxes.

I was pleased to be able to pay all of our monthly bills on time or early and to make the mortgage payment early as well which saves me on interest.  Even though we have the added monthly bill for the orthodontist I was able to incorporate it into the budget just fine.

Last month I wasn’t able to meet all of my savings goals.  In fact, I had to take money out of savings to meet certain one-time expenses.  This month I was able to make all of my savings goals as planned which made me very happy.

Along with my savings goals I was able to make some really good progress on my financial goals.  In June I paid off one of my debts, financial goal #1, and now I am diligently working on the next one.  I made a big debt payment on financial goal #2.

I listed and sold some inventory I had in our storage area on eBay.  I used all of that money to pay toward my PayPal account.  I added some extra cash I had after paying bills and made two payments last month.  The sewing table is nearly paid in full and once that is taken care of all I'll owe on is the dresser I bought to store my fabrics.  Not one cent has been paid in interest either.

I used coupons and gift cards to do some shopping for supplies to make Christmas gifts at JoAnn Fabrics.  I also used money I had set aside at the beginning of the year for additional Christmas shopping.  I have a good head start on my gift list already.

Using items I already had on hand I was able to make two birthday gifts, one for each daughter.  I also made items to list and sell in my Etsy store.  I plan to make more items in the coming months to sell and to give as gifts.  My project bin is overflowing.

Our pantry and freezers are full, our chickens have started laying and we have been doing really well not to waste food and use things up.  I bought a 50# bag of chicken food and we have plenty of kitty food stocked up.  In the next couple of months I'll add to our supplies in preparation of winter as much as I am able.

I have seriously counted my blessings and been very thankful this month.  We are so fortunate to have the bounty that we do.  We have everything we need and most of what we want which is pretty phenomenal.

We are very fortunate indeed.