Wrapping Up A Thrifty January

I ended the month with a car on fumes and amazingly $90 left in my checking account.  I was able to fill up the gas tank on my truck, and do my first round of grocery shopping for 2020.  I moved funds from savings to my checking account and wrote a check to my youngest daughter's orthodontist to make our final balloon payment on time.  Her braces are officially paid for and one less thing to worry about.

Once payday arrived on the 6th I paid all of my monthly expenses, made a good sized payment on my debt, met all of my savings goals and then filled the gas tank on my car.  I had just enough left for a couple small grocery shopping trips.  When my next payday arrived on the 21st I made my savings goal, paid my mortgage two weeks ahead of schedule and made another payment on my debt.  I was left with about $80 for the remainder of the month.

Medical bills have continued to trickle in, but I'm hoping to see the end of that by mid February.  Hopefully.  Fingers crossed for a healthy and medically uneventful 2020.  We have all three pledged to do our best not to get sick or injured this year.  Once my income tax refund arrives I plan to use that to tackle a big chunk of those expenses.  I prepared my taxes and filed my return this month so that should arrive soon.

I kept to my low spend goals without going out and spending money on anything we didn't need.  Our grocery total this month came in well under budget as we didn't really need much and are still working off of our winter stock up from last fall.  I purchased two resource books from Amazon using a gift card and a small amount of cash ($15).  I'll talk more about those later, but know that I'm very excited about them.  I also sold some old inventory on eBay to add money to our PayPal account and plan to continue doing that until it is gone.  We will use that money for miscellaneous household expenses as they crop up.

I used craft items I already had on hand to create my 2020 Christmas cards, three Valentines I plan to send out next month and fourteen birthday cards to replenish my stash.  I had a lot of fun working on these cards and hope to create more things as time allows.

It is hard to believe that the first month of 2020 is already over, but I'm very happy with the progress made so far.  Yes, I would've have liked to have made a bigger dent in our debt pile, but I did make some progress.  Even a little progress is still progress.  The goal this month really was to get everything paid without going in any deeper and that was accomplished, thankfully.  I have high hopes that February will bless us with greater progress.

My Super Thrifty Grocery Budget 2020 - January

This is the first time in a long time I've done a really super thrifty grocery budget and I have to tell you it feels really, really good.  I was challenged to make my grocery dollars stretch and to really think about the items I was purchasing.  One of the things I realized is that I tend to buy things because they are on sale or marked down rather than because it is something I want or need.  It surprised me at how often I was actually doing this.  This month I only bought items I know we needed and will use.

My first shop of the year - Trader Joes & Winco

I was very happy that my grocery dollars were able to allow me to replace some items we'd used up last Christmas.  I was able to resupply our assortment of cookie sprinkles as well as add two packages of dipping chocolate.  We like to dip pretzels and this year we plan to give them as one of our food gifts to our friends.  Homemade cookies is also on the list and we now have sprinkles to decorate them with as well as a bonus of two packages of cookie icing.  I've never used it before, but the price made it very affordable and it came with one of the bottles of sprinkles we got.

Fred Meyer - Lots of marked down items!

I was able to replenish our baking supplies

I used my $25 nonfood budget to purchase some canned cat food, my magnesium supplements I take every day, two bottles of shampoo for my oldest daughter and a three pack of Chapstick that was on clearance.  The shampoo was on sale and I had a coupon so she got two bottles for $1.98 and that should last her most of the year.  I had a coupon for a FREE bag of Purina One dry cat food so I decided to use that while I was there.  At Family Dollar I picked up a huge bag of cat food on sale one week and I had a $2.00 digital coupon too so I was able to add that to our pet supplies in the garage.  At the end of the month there was a sale on toilet paper and I had extra grocery dollars so I went ahead and picked up two packages of 12 jumbo rolls for only $3.99 each.  My final total on non food items came in at $32.65.  I have a negative balance of $7.65 to carryover to next month which should be okay as I usually don't spend the whole amount each month.

Throughout the month I was able to purchase things we used up or ran low on as well as to buy items that would be easy for my oldest to prepare in her dorm room.  She has a small fridge, a microwave and a small Crockpot so we are tailoring her meals around items she can make using those appliances.  So far it is working out really well.  She feels she is eating better, healthier food as well as saving a small fortune over the college meal plan.  Even if that does include the occasional Pop Tart, which we had a store coupon for to get a FREE box.

A few small shops during the month, this one for dairy

and this one for loss leader items

Here is the list of food I bought this month:

$77.34 ÷ 31 days ÷3 people = $.83 per person per day!!!  Holy cow!

My final shopping trip, all items on sale!

I am really really happy with how my grocery shopping worked out this month and I feel encouraged as I head into February with the same small grocery budget.  No doubt I can make this work for us next month too.

Food Management

Food management is quite easily a task I spend a great deal of time on.  How to feed my family and how to acquire food to feed my family is pretty important around here.  Fortunately for me it is also a something I truly enjoy doing.  I'm sure you have heard me say it before, I pretty much love everything about food.  Even the clean up!

Have a plan, carry a list

I am a meal planner, list maker, deal shopper and sometimes a meal prepper.  We are a very busy family and I work full time so good planning and efficient use of my time is a big part of what I do and I'm always striving to improve and do better in all aspects.

Not overbuying perishable items helps with food waste

I used to meal plan a month at a time, shopping twice a month.  A big shop at the beginning of the month and then a small mid month shop for fresh produce and milk.  In the past few years that has slowly evolved into weekly meal planning with weekly shopping to take advantage of certain sales items.  This year I've decided to try meal planning two weeks at a time and shop accordingly - ish.

Markdowns, sales, coupons, digital coupons, rewards cards & loss leaders

I still want (need) to check the ads each week and purchase items we regularly use when they are on sale.  The goal this year is to use up what we have, replace what we use and pay rock bottom prices in the process.  Checking the sales ads and shopping around will be my best tool to do that.

Shopping around for best prices

I know certain stores carry certain items priced at their lowest.  For instance Wal-Mart has the best price on cream, sour cream, yogurt, two packs of cream cheese and bulk eggs (5 dozen).  Albertsons has the best price on milk and their butter frequently goes on sale.  Albertsons and Fred Meyer run really good sales on meat and often have markdown meats at even better prices.  Trader Joes has the best price and quality for produce while Winco usually has the best prices on pantry items and frozen vegetables.  Winco also has the best bulk bin items, especially spices.

Meal prepping saves me time & money

I try to make enough food to provide us with leftovers for our lunches as well as an additional supper.  When I meal prep I will make a large meal that we will eat that day as well as components to other meals such as taco meat, meatballs, spaghetti and pizza sauce, lasagna or enchiladas, etc.  Having parts of a meal already done and in the freezer is a great time saver as well as a good way to save money.  Check out my latest meal prep if you are interested.

Fresh and frozen produce for healthy side dishes

As always I want to make sure I prepare healthy delicious and satisfying meals that don't take a lot of time to prepare or clean up afterwards.  I'm a big fan of one pot cooking and using my slow cooker too.  Let me know if you have any interest in a series of budget minded healthy meals.  I'm toying with the idea of doing that which would include a breakdown of what I spent to make each meal.

I Want To Help Someone

It has long been my heart's desire to reach out and help someone who is in need.  This year I would really like to make that happen.  I know how to do a lot of things and I'm sure there is a single mother out there who works really hard that could probably use a little help.  Whether it is help with a repair around the house, a project she wants to do or simply some organization or meal planning help.  Maybe she wants to learn how to do something or make something.  I'd sure like to help.

So if any of you know someone who lives in the Boise or Treasure Valley area that deserves a helping hand or could use some assistance let me know.  Or, if any of my readers are in that position themselves reach out to me by email and tell me what is going on.

A lot of people have suggested I teach classes and one thought I've had is to do a meetup with a group and we can tackle certain topics or work together to fix something.  There are so many possibilities really.  Let me know what you think.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

I started to get a scratchy throat and pretty good head cold Saturday.  The day before I actually came home from work early with a stomach ache.  I spent Sunday and Monday resting and recuperating.  By Monday evening the sinus pressure in my face finally waned and I started to feel better.  I haven't been this sick for quite a while and I always feel bad missing work, but this time it couldn't be helped.

I headed back to work on Tuesday and that was about all I could manage.  Thankfully one of my daughter's friends was able to help me with getting her to the charity concert she performed in that night.  I didn't dare go to the concert and cough my way through the performances.  Not at all what the audience came to hear.

Wednesday I brought home from work a zippered vinyl bag that a wheelchair cushion came in.  I saved it from the trash and plan to reuse it for organized storage at home.  Particularly for some upcoming projects I hope to dive into soon.

I made my daughter's doctor a batch of Death By Chocolate cookies and took them to him at her appointment this week.  I included a thank you card with a sticky bow on the envelope, both from my stash too.  He is such a wonderful man and he was pretty excited about those cookies.

  

Beautiful!  And she has a very proud mama too!

My youngest had an out of town dance competition Saturday.  My goal was to be extra careful with our fuel in the car and only use a half tank so I would have enough to go to the competition.  I budgeted for a tank and a half of gas this month for our car and as it turned out I had just a hair above the halfway mark.  I topped up the tank and off we went.

My very small grocery haul Friday night

To save even more I packed our small cooler with food from the pantry and fridge to take with us for our meals so we didn't need to eat out or buy concessions.  I also packed some water bottles we filled at home.  The night before I made ham salad and we packed that along with crackers, yogurt, veggies & salad dressing, sliced cheese, almonds and apples.  It worked out really well.  When we got home that evening it was fairly late.  We were able to reheat leftovers for a super quick supper.

It was the perfect week to pull things from our freezer since I didn't feel much like cooking.  I took out leftover lasagna which fed my youngest two suppers and one lunch, chicken broth which I made into egg drop soup, burrito filling which I sent my oldest back to college with and enchilada sauce to make a small pan of beef enchiladas with.  I baked the enchiladas Friday evening and we had leftovers for the weekend ahead which came in very handy.  I put Keto "Crack" Chicken in the slow cooker one day and a batch of chili on another day.  We also made sure to eat up our leftovers.  It seemed like a lot of cooking last week, but it was super easy and didn't require much in the way of effort or cleanup.

Even though I was sick all last week I was still able to keep up on my housekeeping.  Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order:

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - tidied laundry room, vacuumed floors, scrubbed sink, washed rug.  Daily swish & swipe.

Dining Room - vacuumed floor.

Kitchen -  vacuumed & spot mopped the floor, cleaned microwave, cleaned & bleached sink.

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - Cleaned mirror, washed rug, scrubbed tub & toilet.  Daily swish & swipe.

Other - two loads of laundry, vacuumed living room, hallway & entry, cleaned fireplace.  Swept front porch.

How was your thrifty week?

Simple Christmas Plans 2020

This year I will be working on Christmas all year long as I've done in the past.  I have a lot of good ideas bouncing around for gifts I want to make, things I want to do and delicious food I want to prepare.  It will be a very simple and low cost Christmas this year and I'm really happy with what I have planned.

To keep my Christmas low cost and low stress I have set up a Christmas savings fund.  I have done this in years past and it has worked really well.  Each month I tuck a set amount away into an envelope to save until October so I have all the needed cash ready for any purchases I need to make.  This year I am setting aside $10 each month so by October I will have saved $100 to spend on Christmas.  While $100 may not seem like a lot of money to some, it is to me.

This year I will be making most of my gifts.  I didn't make gifts last year and I really did miss that part of preparing for Christmas.  I have loads of supplies and materials in both my home and garage that I will be putting to good use.  I can hardly wait to get started.

I have already gone through my Christmas card list and updated it for the new year.  I will take another look at it next fall, but for the most part it is pretty much good to go.  I spent a day crafting and was able to make my Christmas cards.  I used supplies and envelopes I already had on hand.  Next fall I will print my mailing labels, I have blank labels in my stock too, and buy a book of Christmas stamps using some of the money in my fund.

As I work on gifts throughout the coming year I will try to use up what I have first and if I need to purchase anything I will have the funds I've saved up so far to use.  I will keep track of my Christmas spending too so I don't go over budget this year.

For friends, co-workers, teachers, coaches and family outside of our immediate family we will only be doing food gifts again this year.  Food gifts are always appreciated and I am able to incorporate the supplies I need to make then into our regular grocery budget.  That frees up a lot of our Christmas funds.

We enjoy a simple Christmas with baking sessions, music, playing games, laughing and good conversation, decorating, light displays and small useful gifts under our tree.  That is all we need and that is what makes our Christmases truly special.

Yarn!

I find a lot of the yarn I use at thrift stores, brand new for so much less than it is, even on sale in the store.  The prices average about 99¢ a skein which is a pretty significant savings.  Whenever I find it I'll get it and then once I've collected enough skeins for a project I make something, usually an afghan.

Our power had gone out for a few hours that day so this was
the perfect project to tackle while waiting for it to come back on.

After my latest organizing projects, the craft center and then my gift wrap organizer, the next one on my list was to collect all my yarn and get it organized in one spot.  I had it in three different spots so I gathered it all up and went through everything.  I took all my loose partial skeins and spent some time rolling them into balls so they wouldn't be a tangle mess.  Then I went out to the garage on got a comforter bag I had in my area where I keep empties storage containers.

Stella was extremely helpful.  Not!

I patched a couple areas that had torn with some clear packing tape and it was good as new.  It holds all of my skeins and larger balls of yarn perfectly with some growing room as well.  The much smaller balls of yarn that will be better for crafts went into the gallon mason jar and back in my sewing room.  I like to see them on display and find it kind of charming.

This bag keeps it all in one place and dust free

There is even room for more! 😃

The bag of yarn is now sitting in the closet of the guest/craft room and next time I get ready to work on a project I'll only need to go to one spot to find what I need.  Much better organization and I no longer have to go to three different spots to find what I'm looking for.

Quick & Easy Sausage & Cabbage

Here is a super easy dish you can prepare in about fifteen minutes.  It uses a few simple ingredients so it is pretty thrifty to prepare too.  You will need a bag of coleslaw mix and three or four smoked or polish sausages or some kielbasa.  Hotdogs would work too I think.

I spent less than $4 to make a double batch!

I had part of a leftover onion so I added that too

Slice up the sausages and then heat a little oil in a pan,  Cook the sausages until they begin to brown, toss in the coleslaw mix and stir that around and then pour about a quarter cup of Italian salad dressing or your favorite vinaigrette on top and cook it all together until the cabbage is tender.

Use whatever oil based dressing you have on hand

Surprisingly delicious!!

The first time I heard about this dish I thought it sounded really weird.  Then I made it and was pleasantly surprised.  My kids love it so whenever I make it I double it so we have leftovers.  To make it even thriftier you could shred your own cabbage and grate a carrot.  You could even add cooked diced potatoes.  I like to slice up some onion to go in ours.  Tons of variations to consider.

Create Your Own Reality

It may sound kind of crazy, but the truth is we can create our own reality and have the kind of life we want.  I decided I wanted to live simply and comfortably.  To have what I need and most of what I want.  I want to be happy and enjoy the simple pleasures life has to offer.  I am rich beyond measure and blessed beyond belief.

Don't like what your doing?  Do something else

It is a mindset I've adopted.  Each morning I get up and make my bed.  I enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee and spend some time by myself (sort of, usually with a cat curled up in my lap) quietly reflecting, writing, journaling, planning, thinking, dreaming, hoping and praying.  I carry a grateful and appreciative attitude and thank my God for all that I have received.  It sustains me.  And then I am ready to begin my day.

I have always wanted to live in a really nice home that is snug and warm, pretty and comfortable, clean, tidy and functional, affordable and maintainable.  So I created that.  Regardless of where I live, or what I live in, I know I will always have a home like that because I can make that my reality.

If I am ever uncomfortable, don't like something, or find something isn't working for me I change it or do something else.  I'm never stuck with something.  I don't have to just put up with anything.  I don't have to accept things I don't want to accept.  There is always a way to do things better, make things nicer, more enjoyable.  I don't have to settle.

Once I determined what was most important to me, I sought it out and I got it.  Then I moved onto the next important thing and then the next one.  Until one day I was able to look around and really see that I had created an amazing life.  And I know I will continue to do so.  Each and every day offers something new and another chance to create my reality.  What a tremendous opportunity to have.  Each and every day!

The key to creating your own reality is to have a strong belief system, in yourself and your abilities.  I pay a lot less attention to what other people say or do.  I've found the best way to do that is to smile and move on my merry little way.  Often with some head shaking and thinking to myself "what an idiot".  Ha, ha.  But seriously, some people are just cynical, negative or want to tear others down to make themselves feel better.  Others want to wallow in self pity.  I feel really sorry for those types of people because I think they are wasting their lives.  I don't have time or room in my life for that type of nonsense.  I've got stuff to do!

Always

I hope this makes some sense to you.  I just felt the need to share.  If you find yourself stuck in a rut or not happy with your current situation know you don't have to just tough it out indefinitely.  No matter what, we can change it.  We can do better, have better, be better.  That is all I wanted to say.  Have a great day!