I had enough money
left in my checking account to cover our power bill that is due the first part
of July so I decided to go ahead and pay it in the last week of June. Three weeks ahead of time, yay! I started the month of July with over two thirds of a tank of fuel in the
car (holy cow!), a quarter tank still left in the truck (not too shabby), $40
in my checking account and a paycheck with a boatload of overtime pay on it
only five days away. Not bad at
all! Plus! I was minus a power bill that would've been
due on the 10th.
On payday I paid the
remaining monthly expenses, topped off the truck's fuel tank this time and
slugged the rest toward my savings goals.
Then mid month I paid the mortgage, two weeks ahead, and slugged the
rest once again toward my savings goals.
Yippeeeee!
I put myself on a
much stricter grocery budget last month and challenged myself to keep my food expenses
at just $20 a week or less. I did it
too! I stuck to it and was able to
supplement what we had on hand just fine and even added to the pantry a few
items we were low on. It worked out so
well I decided to give it a try again in August.
We had a ton of home improvement projects going
on in July. I managed to keep our
expenses low by scrounging around in the garage for items we already had on
hand and picking up some trim from the FREE WOOD bin at a business near where I
work. I scored some really good pieces
the last two times I stopped including new brick mold to replace the warped
stuff on our backdoor. Yep, another
project has been added to the list. I used
gift cards I'd earned and been given to pay for all of the supplies we picked
up at Home Depot.
The biggest chunk of
our latest projects was our floor covering the living room and hallway. I decided to go ahead and put it on my PayPal
account which gives me six months to pay it off interest free. I'll be incorporating the pay off amounts
into my monthly budget to make sure it is paid off within that timeframe so I
don't accrue any interest to pay. To
speed up the process I plan to work any overtime that is offered at my
job. Every little bit helps.
It was a very busy
and intense July for me with working full time and taking on a long list of home
improvements, but since I love doing this stuff I was in hog heaven. Being able to do it well on a thrifty budget
makes it all the more enjoyable. I'm
looking forward to seeing what all I can accomplish in August.
Well done! Reading about other people's thrifty plans and goals and successes always inspires me to keep going. I really like your $20/week grocery goal. I don't know if it would be feasible for me to go that low, but now I'm curious...
ReplyDeleteInitially I had my doubts, but then I did it! It was actually pretty fun. :)
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