My Thrifty February In 2022

 

I was quite pleased to begin the month of February with $23 and a few coins in my wallet, $71 in my checking account, two thirds of a tank of fuel in my car and a nearly full tank in my truck.  My pantry was full, my chest freezer was full, our prepper pantry was well stocked, we had some leftovers in the refrigerator and lots of things in the freezer to use up as well.  It was a great way to begin a new month.  We were very blessed and we still are.  I am so, so grateful.

 

Once again I was able to cover all of our monthly expenses with my first paycheck and send my second one directly to savings hitting all of my savings goals for the month.  I plan to do the same thing again next month too.  My state and federal tax refunds arrived and were deposited into savings, all but $62 of which I earmarked for prepping.

 

Regular grocery spending was kept to a minimum so I was able to come in well under budget again last month.  I'm trying to only buy what we need, replacing items as we use them from the freezer and pantry along with fresh produce and dairy items.  Along with that we are concentrating on making what we do have stretch as far as possible and making sure we keep any food waste to an absolute minimum.  So far this year it seems to be working out rather well.

 

Our garbage disposal was in need of replacement.  I researched and shopped around quite a bit before settling on a Moen disposal.  Amazon had the best price so I placed an order and my youngest and I installed it on a Sunday afternoon.  Doing the install ourselves saved me the cost of a plumber and we derive a lot of personal satisfaction by doing it as well.  While plumbing is not one of my favorite do-it-yourself projects, it always feels good once all is said and done.

 

I spent some of that $62 and used a $30 store gift card to purchase a good supply of fresh beef and chicken, which I pressure canned in pint jars and added to our long term storage.  Adding those jars of meat allowed me to cross off another prepping goal from the list and being able to do it on a very slim budget made it even more satisfying.

 

With January and February now in the books I feel like I'm doing really well so far and on the right track to meeting a lot of the goals I've set for myself in 2022.  Now we'll see how March goes! 😃