Happy New Year

 

A Thrifty December & 2021 Recap

TO BEGIN WITH:  I began the month of December with $73 in my checking account, $20 and some coins in my wallet, a full tank of gas in the car and a full tank of fuel in the truck.  With my first paycheck on the 6th I was able to pay all of our monthly bills and made my savings goals.  I also added my annual Christmas bonus to savings which made for a nice extra boost.  With my next check I paid the mortgage payment for January and completed my savings goals for the month.

 

NEXT STEPS:  My goal moving forward into 2022 is to first and foremost do everything within my power to stay whole and healthy.  And in the coming months I want to do all that I can to make up for some lost time.  This past year I was not able to save the amounts I had planned to and we had a lot of unexpected expenses for my medical care.  I'm planning to do as much as I can to boost my savings and my health savings account so I can consider early retirement.  Since my heart attacks, early retirement has become even more important to me now.

 

WAYS I SAVED $$:  Once again we were super careful with our power use, we made sure to have virtually no food waste, and I kept my spending pretty minimal.  Having been blessed with abundance I was able to scale and prepare meals, including our holiday and celebration meals, using items we already had on hand.  We were able to do some holiday baking and make fudge, which we shared with others.  I have zero complaints about that.

 

LOOKING BACK:  I was thrilled to be able to take care of all of our expenses and put money back into savings along with a little extra.  It has been an incredible year for me, filled with many challenges and obstacles to navigate and in looking back I am comforted to see that it went well, exceedingly well.  I have been so very fortunate and I don't take any of it for granted.  I have much to be grateful for and I truly am.

 

LOOKING AHEAD:  As we sit at the moment I am still debt free, my savings accounts are looking great, we have everything we need and, although our Christmas was very simple, it was absolutely amazing!  What incredible blessings we have enjoyed!  The New Year is upon us and full of possibilities.  I'm excited and filled with hope for what 2022 has in store.

 

Happy New Year to all of you.  May you be abundantly blessed.

 

December $100 Grocery Budget 2021 & YE Totals

I didn't need much in the way of groceries this month.  Some fresh produce, but primarily what I spent my budget on was for items we wanted as opposed to things we needed.  I still made sure the things I bought were on sale, markdown or if not, best price.  We didn't need anything nonfood related so my $25 monthly budget remained untouched.

 

This year I challenged myself to work with an extremely thrifty $100 grocery budget.  I am super happy with how well I did with such a minimal budget.  It helped a lot that the majority of the year I was only feeding two of us, but I did load up some shopping bags a few times this year to help out my daughter who lives away at college.  She was able to supplement her own minimal budget with those extra groceries I funneled her way.

 

Check out that grand total!! 😁

Not only did I stay within the $100 a month budget but once everything was totaled up I actually had money left.  I was tempted to use it up on some frivolous grocery shopping but couldn't come up with anything I wanted enough to go to the grocery store again.  I think I was shopped out.  Instead I took the remaining $54.73 along with the $25 I did not need for non food items and put those amounts into savings.

 

We got FREE stuff too!

We managed a lot of delicious, healthy meals and we are ending the year with a fully stocked pantry and freezer.  It is an amazing feeling to be able to see what all we have and know we are about to begin a new year with no immediate needs or wants.  Because I was able to do so well this past year I am planning to carry this minimal grocery budget into 2022 and I am really excited about it.  I love a good challenge and with rising prices at the grocery store I'm sure this will be a huge challenge, but I'm pretty sure I can do it.

 

Markdown bread & produce plus a few sales items

I'm extra motivated to stick to it too, because I have a BIG goal planned next year.  Stick around for more details to come.  It is going to be AWESOME!

Afghans For Christmas

 

I had one of those zippered vinyl bags that comforter sets come in stuffed full with skeins of yarn I had accumulated from thrift stores for 99¢ a skein.  Over the years I'd used that yarn to make a variety of projects which left me with a lot of odds and ends.  In the spirit of a very thrifty Christmas I decided to pull out all of my yarn and see what I could do with it.  I began by making winter scarves for each one of my daughters and one for my oldest's boyfriend.  I had hardly made a dent in my stash.

 

They loved the color combinations

It quickly became apparent I had enough yarn to make another, much bigger project so I got busy and made a pile of granny squares.  Granny squares are my favorite way to use up odds and ends of yarn leftover from other projects.  By the time I had finished I was thrilled and surprised to find I had made enough squares to put together two afghans for my girls as Christmas gifts.  I laid out the squares and then handstiched them all together.  Then I added a binding to each afghan.  And thanks to some Amazon boxes I was able to get them all wrapped up last month to tuck under the tree.

 

For a thrifty Christmas we sure had a lot of gifts under this tree

Using up all of this yarn made for some extreme decluttering too. Now all of my yarn fits into a small plastic bin and the comforter bag has been retired.  I think the afghans turned out very pretty and they are super soft and cozy.  The girls seemed quite pleased with them and the large size is perfect for some serious snuggling to stay warm or to lay over their beds at night.  They will enjoy these for many years to come.

 

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

Last Sunday was one of those days spent doing little odds and ends around the house.  In fact, my whole week was pretty much like that, but by the time all was said and done I'd tidied up, decluttered, shredded, planned, prepared, cooked and even fit in working on a craft project.  Not sad about my productivity this past week at all.

 

I only had a four day work week, which was very nice, and I only have a four day work week this week too.  My oldest came home on Thursday for Christmas and stayed for three days before leaving early yesterday morning to drive down to Salt Lake City where her boyfriend lives and attends college.  We haven't seen much of her this semester so it was very nice to have her home, even if it was only for a few days.

 

Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent visiting, doing our nails, watching loads of Christmas movies and listened to a lot of Christmas music.  Not to mention all the wonderful meals we shared.  The gifts we exchanged were simple and well thought out.  I was so touched by the sweet things my daughters got for me - candles, tea, lotions & potions, a bottle of wine.  And they loved their gifts as well, which included homemade winter scarves, a new handmade crocheted afghan, art supplies and stockings filled with all kinds of useful goodies.  It was all absolutely perfect right down to the falling snow that gave us a white Christmas.

 

THINGS WE ATE LAST WEEK:  Some leftovers from the week before, pasta alfredo & shrimp, grilled cheese sandwich & tomato soup (twice), clam chowder, glazed ham.

 

THINGS I CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS: 

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - Cleaned mirrors, vacuumed & mopped floors, washed rug.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Kitchen & Dining Room - Bleached sink, vacuumed & mopped floors.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - Cleaned mirror, vacuumed & dusted, mopped bathroom floor, washed rug.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - One large load of laundry.  Vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & mopped both entryways.

 

THINGS I DID TO SAVE A SMALL BUNDLE OF $$:  I didn't do any shopping last week.  I cut open a tube of face cream so I could use up every last bit.  My oldest gave me a great haircut.  We did our own holiday manicures at home.  Such fun!

 

THINGS I DID TO EARN EXTRA $$:  Worked a little bit of overtime.

 

How was your thrifty week?

 

 

Christmas

 

Wishing you all my best this Christmas.  

May you be blessed with all that you deserve.

Warning! Blog Changes Are Coming!

 

Not to worry, I am not going away.  It is just time for me to make some changes.  And change is good!  I want to give you a heads up that after the new year this blog is going to be a little different.  And!  I have a surprise for you as well.  But!  I'm going to make you wait until the new year to find out what this is all about.

 

I know some of you love cliffhangers and some of you really don't.  And some of you don't mind change and others really hate it.  But, it will be good, that much I can tell you.  In order to grow we all have to change at some point.

 

This has been an incredible year for me, as so many of you are aware, and it is time for me to switch gears a bit and prepare for my future.  A different future, which is pretty exiting really.  And!  I can't imagine doing it without all of you either.  Stay tuned, updates are on their way!