Oh my goodness, what a month!
Where to even begin? When August
began I wasn't too sure how things would go, but I have to say I'm pretty
impressed with how things ended up. I'm
always amazed at what can be done when you set your mind to it. We have, or had, loads of projects needing to
be completed around this house and not a lot of time or money to get any of
them done.
I didn't need to drive much, other than my short commute to work
each day. I began the month with a half
tank of gas in my car and didn't need to fuel up for three weeks. I had $35 in my checking account, some cash
in my wallet and plenty of food in the fridge, pantry and freezer. A very good way to get things started
off. On the payday I paid all of our
monthly expenses and added to my savings and retirement accounts. Then with my next paycheck I paid our
mortgage two weeks early and added some more to my savings and retirement
accounts.
I knew it might be a tight month as school would be starting up
again and high school registration was looming.
Yearbooks and activity cards are true budget busters, but I had been
working some overtime so I had the money to cover it this year without it
coming from our regular budget. We had
gone through both of my daughter's clothes and shoes finding they both had more
than enough. Our school supply bin was
stuffed and both girls have backpacks and lunch bags that are still in very
good shape so we were well covered there too.
I had two big home improvement projects to do this summer which I
managed to do with virtually no budget at all.
The first one was to renovate the master bedroom and the second one was our main bathroom. Amazingly, we managed
both of those in record time and by using gift cards I'd saved up to pay for
all the supplies we needed. I bought new
carpet for the bedroom and decided to put it on my PayPal account as I get six
months with no interest. I've already
made the first payment early so I'll be a payment ahead each month. Paying it off in six months should be totally
doable.
We were able to do a much needed bonus project as well, which was
a complete surprise and a lot of hard work, but so worth it. In one weekend we managed to procure most of
the wood we needed to renovate our garage and add some much needed storage. A post on that will be coming, but we got 90%
of the wood from the FREE WOOD bin near my work and then I used the tail end of
a gift card plus $10 cash to buy six 2" X 4"s to complete the job. My neighbor lent me his ladder too so no need to purchase or rent one. I'm excited to share this project with you next month.
I have one more project ahead which is to renovate the upstairs
hallway and replace all of our doors with new ones. We are hoping to knock that one out over
Labor Day weekend and I'm super excited about that. We've been without doors upstairs for a few
weeks now. Good thing for us we are all girls and we haven't had any company come to stay.
A super thrifty, super productive month, to be sure. Yes, I'm a little bit tired from it all, but
so very happy with all that we were able to accomplish and for as little money
spent. August far exceeded my
expectations. It was an amazing month
for us.
I've enjoyed all the home improvement projects you've accomplished - beautiful! You do nice work. It's fun to spruce up your house. We've done a lot to our home in the past few years too but not nearly on the tight budget that you've accomplished!
ReplyDeleteIt has been amazing what all we've managed to get done in the last 5 weeks. I'm so happy to hear you enjoy these posts. I love sharing them with you.
DeleteSounds like a great productive month for you and the family. I love you super cute furry supervisor!!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy, Janie
She keeps me on track! Ha, ha!
DeleteAren't you enjoying sleeping in your new beautiful bedroom? Great job!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, I love it so much! Thank you.
DeleteYou always get so much done!
ReplyDeleteIt has been a whirlwind around here, for sure!
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