Happy Halloween

 

Taking A Little Break

I am taking a wee little break for a while.  No worries, I won't be gone long.  There are a few things I need to take care of and then I will be back. In the meantime stay safe, stay healthy and take care.  I'll be back soon. 😃

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

Sunday was a great day for us.  I set the timer and did some paper crafting in my pajamas that morning, then it was time to do a few chores around the house, get showered and dressed before we jumped in the car for a mini-mini road trip.  We headed off to see my oldest where she lives and goes to college at this time and to take her out for a late lunch/early dinner.  We went to our favorite restaurant and the three of us shared an order of fajitas, which was more than enough food for us.  On the way back to her house we stopped off at three different thrift stores just to see what we could find.  It was a fun time to spend together as a family and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I am grateful she lives close enough for us to do this with her from time to time.

 

Yes, I bought this shirt for my daughter
Those who live here will attest that geese poop all over the place

At one thrift store we found a lightweight workout jacket and a shirt for my youngest.  I also found a few crafting items as well as a vintage Hallmark baby book unused and in its original box.  I plan to put the baby book up for sale on eBay or Etsy.

 

Monday I went to the feed store and picked up two 50# bags of chicken food for our prepper pantry.

 

It was another very full work week for me with overtime and enough stress that by Friday I had a massive nosebleed that once I was able to get it under control sent me home from work a few hours early.  After nearly an hour and a half it stopped and I was fine.  The nurse at my doctor's office said it was likely brought on by stress which had also elevated my blood pressure quite a bit.  Once the nosebleed had stopped and I was home for awhile my blood pressure began to go back down and was normal by late Saturday.  Apparently burning the candle at both ends isn't working out too well for me.

 

These are some of the Thanksgiving cards I made a couple weeks ago

So Saturday I spent the entire day in my pajamas making Christmas cards.  Unbeknownst to me it was apparently World Card Making Day.  I had no idea there was such a thing, but I nailed completing 26 very pretty cards that day.  I think I'm really getting the hand of this!  Ha, ha.

 

Which brings me back to self care and the way we need to take good care of ourselves.  I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but I realized last week I need to do better.  I'll be talking about that more a little bit later.

 

We stuck to our two week meal plan and it looks like it will easily morph into a three week plan like the last one did so that is a very good thing.  We ate up the leftovers and kept any food waste to a minimum.  In fact, I don't think there has been any to speak of lately.

I did not do any grocery shopping last week.  Other than taking the girls out for lunch on Sunday and a few things we found at the thrift stores (less than $10) and picking up the chicken feed I didn't do any other shopping the rest of the week.

 

Prepper Pantry - 100 pounds of chicken feed.

 

Some of the 15 Minute Chores I accomplished to keep my home in order: 

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - vacuumed floors..  Daily swish & swipe. 

Dining Room - vacuumed floor. 

Kitchen -  removed & degreased rangehood filter, cleaned rangehood & microwave. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - vacuumed & dusted.  Cleaned mirror, scrubbed tub.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - one large load of laundry, vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry, cleaned mirror.  Swept driveway, front porch & garage, raked leaves.

 

How was your thrifty week?

 

 

There Is Still Time - GYST

 

If you are thinking that the year is already three quarters of the way done and you don't have time to meet your goals this year, your are mistaken.  Three months is still plenty of time to complete a goal or make a big dent in one.  Don't put off getting started and don't give up.

 

I cannot stress to you enough how good it feels or how empowering it is when you make progress.  Progress is what fuels us to keep going and if we keep going eventually we get it done.  Goal accomplished.

 

If you have debt, get rid of it.  No matter how large or small, it is important to eliminate debt from your life.  And keep it away.  There is nothing more liberating than to be debt free.  And there is nothing that soothes the psyche quite like the knowledge that no matter what happens you'll be okay.

 

So there is still plenty of time.  What will you be working on?

 

Wrapping Up A Thrifty September

 

September began on a great footing.  Amazingly I only used a quarter tank of fuel in my car in August so no need to purchase any gasoline in September.  No bills were due other than our power bill at the first of the month so I took care of that on payday and piled the rest into savings except for my overtime pay which I allotted for prepping and craft supplies.  I still had money left in my checking account from August which covered groceries.  On my second payday I took care of the last of utility bills (water, sewer, trash), paid October's mortgage payment early and then set aside the rest of what I needed for groceries and miscellaneous expenses.  I also added more to my savings and retirement accounts.  Again I kept out my overtime pay which is now allocated for prepping and crafting supplies.

 

I kept our grocery spending pretty minimal buying only what I needed plus a handful of items on sale to stock up on.  Our prepper pantry is quite full so I won't be working on that as much as I have been and I am very happy with the progress we made to get that done in a rather short span of time.  By the end of this month the pet food part should be completed and I will call this project finished.  As far as groceries and household supplies go we are well stocked and winter ready.

 

In the last four weeks I have splurged on a lot of new papercraft supplies.  I kept those costs minimal by shopping around online and finding the best quality papers for the lowest prices on Amazon and eBay.  I was able to pick up a lot of fun craft items at Dollar Tree too as well as new ink pads at Michaels and a few items at Hobby Lobby which were on sale or I had a coupon.  Moving into a new month I am well supplied and ready to crank out some more greeting cards and anything else I might want to create.

 

It felt really good to be able to easily take care of my financial responsibilities, buy some groceries and splurge on some fun items for myself.  I am more than ready for October and excited to see what is in store for us this month.