May Thrifty Wrap Up

Today is my girl's last day of school if you can believe that!  And the first day of June!  Holy cow!  I took the day off work so I could be here when my girls arrive home on the bus.  They only have a half day today.  Just seemed like something I should do.  😊  So, let's wrap up May, shall we?

Amazingly I began the month with a third of a tank of fuel still left in the car and a nearly full tank in the truck.  Nice!  When pay day rolled around on the 5th I paid all of our monthly expenses including the last of the cold weather electric bills we'll be seeing for awhile.  We used the fireplace twice when it got chilly from all of the rain we've been having so not too bad there.  And because of all that nice rain I've only had to water the lawn and flowerbeds once.  That will make for a nicer water bill so I'm not complaining one bit about the rain.

As you already know I did a few home improvement projects around here and managed to keep those costs low by using as much stuff as I could that I already had.  When I had to purchase the things I needed I used some gift cards I had to cover most of that cost.  This included paint and supplies to refinish our kitchen cabinets.  Since then I redeemed some rewards points I'd saved up for another $50 Home Depot gift card and I also participated in an event at work that netted me another $25 gift card.  I've completed a wellness program through our insurance company to earn another $50 in gift cards which I hope to redeem this month.  All of those gift cards are earmarked for more home projects this summer.

And of course there was prom!

I did really well with grocery shopping and adding to our freezer and pantry.  We stayed well supplied with fresh produce and dairy items as well.  I used a lot of coupons, digital coupons and shopped sales and markdown bins quite a bit.  I also redeemed quite a few free offers at both Fred Meyer and Albertson's.  We played the Monopoly game at Albertson's and were instant winners several times for free items at that store and I downloaded the Friday Freebie offers from Fred Meyer which netted me quite a few items as well.

I did some early Christmas shopping at the mall with a couple of $10 OFF coupons JC Penney sent me in the mail.  I also did some thrifty shopping at Goodwill which allowed me to pick up some extra Christmas items as well as quite a bit of clothing for my girls.  I even managed to get my youngest a winter coat.  All at 50% OFF too.  My girls are already pretty well set to begin the school year next fall, as far as clothes go.

In looking back at the month of May I feel really truly blessed with all that I've done and all that I've accomplished.  It was definitely my most productive month of 2018 so far.  The peace of mind in knowing that we are well sheltered, fed, clothed and cared for is a true blessing that can be hard to put into words.  I'm so grateful for the ability to be able to provide for my family.  We really have so much to be thankful for.