Wrapping Up A Thrifty June

The first month of summer is already over and we've officially completed the first half of 2019.  Eek!  Time is going by way too fast!  Holy cow!

I began the month with a half tank of fuel in the car leftover from our trip, $40 in my wallet and about the same amount in my checking account as well.  Not a bad start to June really.  Payday was on the 5th so I was able to get all of our monthly bills paid, one of the medical bills that have started to trickle in was paid and groceries were bought.  I made my savings goals and added quite a bit to our emergency fund.  I made the next balloon payment to my daughter's orthodontist early.  It was due on July 1st, but I paid it a few weeks ahead as one, we were there and two, I know we have a bigger bill coming due at that time.

I ordered a Home Depot gift card using some of my credit card rewards point I've accrued.  I used a small part of it to purchase wood to make some new rails for our fence.  We used a fence post I'd bought in April using up the tail end of a gift card the girl's had given me for my birthday last fall.  We completed our fence repair project in two days and with no cost out of pocket.

I earned a $30 Visa gift card by participating in a health screening at work.  All my numbers looked great and I was extra happy about that in addition to getting the gift card.  I try to take advantage of as many of those things as I can.  Free health tests plus gift cards are really nice to get.  I still have the $50 gift card I earned last month by participating in a wellness challenge.  So far I've earned $75 in gift cards this year.

The spring rains blessed us and we didn't have to start watering our lawn until mid June, which is pretty amazing.  I appreciate the extra savings that has been made for us on our water bill.  Along with that we've had fairly mild weather and have managed to keep our home quite comfortable by opening windows and using our box fans this month.  So far no need for our A/C units.

I was extremely mindful of my spending this month.  I didn't do any shopping for clothing and I only made two trips to the grocery store.  Most of my groceries I bought were either on sale or marked down for quick sale so I was able to get a lot of groceries for not a lot of money.  I was over budget by $10 on groceries, but under budget by $15 on nonfood items so it was a wash and I'm pretty happy with how that all worked out.

I did use some of my pocket money to purchase chocolate for all of us and a nice bouquet of flowers which we enjoyed immensely.  We used some of our dining and entertainment budget to pick up a few picnic items for a spur of the moment day trip we went on and our $10 state parks pass got us into the park so no extra money was spent there.  Simple thrifty choices added up to a very nice month and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish in July.