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I had accumulated time off that I needed to take, and it worked out to be able to take it at year end, so I am officially OFF until January 3rd!
It's kind of scary, actually.  When I work, I don't really have to think about what to do with my time.  The to-do list is longer than can be accomplished but the priorities are clear.  There are invariably lower-priority things that *Don't* get done, so now I have to figure out which of *those* I want to accomplish.
The...
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The year is quickly speeding to a close.  While 2021 was a wonderful year for me goals-wise, I am not sorry to see it go.  Ready for the fresh start a new year brings!
I'll obviously do a detailed full year wrap up post after the end of the year but I'm so blown away by where things stand vs where I started in January.  I met up with an old friend the other night whom I hadn't seen in about 2 years and we were catching up.  I was explaining my year to him and...
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Again, I find it difficult to believe Christmas is already here! 
Every year we open up a Christmas Club and we use that to fund our Christmas shopping. I saw on the news last night someone said spending was up because people want to make this a special Christmas and give a little more. I thought, I bet inflation plays a part in that as well. I wonder how many people will be owing big time once the holidays are over. I noticed on many of the blogs many of you made your own...
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Our Christmas gathering on Saturday was very successful. It was a little stressful getting the meal together, but I did have help from one of my grandsons, who wants to be a chef. After the meal, we opened gifts, and then played games. They all stayed all day, which kind of surprised me, but it's an indication that everyone was having a good time.
I spent yesterday cleaning up and putting everything away, and I went to the gym as well. Today I'm taking it easy except for doing...
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It's hard to fathom that Christmas is less than a week away! This year has flown by!
Our British dinner a week ago was a success. We all made new recipes and realized there was a certain thrill to trying the unknown. We liked everything and I ordered those Christmas crackers and those were an absolute hoot. The other two couples are good sports about being willing to try new things. Although the dinner wasn't cheap, I'm sure it was still far cheaper than going out to a fancy restaurant....
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November is probably going down as one of our most expensive months ever.  I don't think that December is off to a great start, either.
I paid about $6K for second quarter college expenses.  Paid the same amount for property taxes.  We drove to the college a couple of times, MH went to Florida and bought a laptop.  Medical expenses, etc., etc.  I was just balancing everything out Dec. 1 and so it looked a little *Yikes!*  But the money Gods have been...
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I haven't posted much as not a lot happening, I have decided not to worry about the budget to much..what happens...happens..will get back into it next year but it is not high priority right now even if it should be..my health is my priority now and that is what I am going to be working on and doing it myself...doctors have not been much help so will just see my regular doctor and I do need to see a physio (it is free) and an endocrine doctor but that won't happen to march...and...
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We purchased our new freezer today.  We decided on a 21.3 cubic foot capacity GE upright freezer.  I really didn't want to deal with Frigidaire again anytime soon and maybe for the rest of my life.  That was a nightmare experience we don't want to go through again.  I was just relieved that after a five month song and dance we finally got out money back from their lemon of a freezer.
We decided to get a five year parts and labor service contract.  If something...
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I keep meaning to come back here, but obviously haven't - and now here it is nearly Christmas!
My CA trip went well overall, but when I got back, DH tested positive for COVID! I somehow managed to not get it from him. He was fully vaccinated, so thankfully, while miserable for 5 or 6 days, did not get very sick. By day 10 he was pretty anxious to get back to work. I got pretty sick a few weeks later (not COVID!) So between the time I missed work waiting for COVID test results,...
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Things are going along swimmingly.
I have not yet done my year-end reports on spending/income, but will do soon.
Today I noticed while paying a credit card bill online that they had already preapproved me for one of their new cards, which came with a $100 bonus.  I was going to go for it, but then figured I may as well check creditcards.com to see if I could find a card with a higher bonus. I did, a Wells Fargo card that gives you $200 bonus after a $1K spend in first 3...
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I ordered a book on Amazon today, intending to use my credits, but somehow I ended up paying with my Amazon Visa card.  Oh well, the credits will be good for something else.  The book is authored by an acquaintance of mine from the past -- I recently read a review which said it was the best book the reviewer had read this year.  So it will be interesting to read.  The book was $18.
I also went to Aldi and bought some staples as well as all the stuff I need...
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Wow, I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I am very far behind! I have been so much busier than I thought I would be! I thought the Christmas season would be slower, but I guess people are getting back to life in spite of the pandemic.
Both The Kids participate in extra-curriculars and those are just about back to normal. They may need to show proof of a negative test or wear a mask, but they have been able to practice and compete without many restrictions. That has definitely...
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Physical therapy beat me up today and I really didn't feel like cooking when I got home, so it was kind of a leftover and canned food sort of meal tonight.  DS had leftover pizza, DD had leftover chicken and potatoes, DH has leftover ravioli and a couple tuna fish sandwiches and I had a can of chili with a toasted cheese sandwich.  DH made my food for me, since my left shoulder is not working today, which means pain medicine, which means no stove for me.  It was...
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Made a trip to Goodwill and spent $15.  Most of it was for baking pans to fill with water and set underneath my radiators.  I'm done messing with humidifiers; hoping a little old school humidifying will work.  I also bought a new-to-me purse -- needed something that would do a better job of holding my phone in a convenient, but safe spot.
I was done with Christmas shopping, but I got a gift from a friend who likes to keep up the exchange (I'd rather not). ...
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The last of our Christmas presents have arrived from Amazon, so no more Christmas shopping to worry about.  Now I just have to get our wrapping paper from the storage unit and get everything wrapped and that portion of the holiday is taken care of.  I have been working down our Christmas paper supply for the last few years.  We used to have two big containers of paper and now we are down to one that is about 3/4 full.  I haven't bought paper in about five years...
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$18,982.22 Starting Balance
+__,230.30 Amount Added
--------------
$19,212.52 New Total
$1310.18 to go to hit my main goal of six month's of expenses, which is $20,522.70.  After that we will start working on doubling that.  I had really hoped to hit six month's of expenses this year, and we still might if the Christmas bonus is big enough.  I know we built it a lot this year, because we ended 2020 at $9,465.32.  We've more than doubled it this year at $9,747.20...
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As per usual reminder, I run a zero based budget, which means I assign every single penny of each paycheck a function.  While I do keep a cushion in my account I act like it doesn't exist.  For this payday, neither kid gets an allowance as they borrowed against it to add to all of their combined Christmas money from various sources so they could buy one expensive item each while it was on sale on Cyber Monday.
Additionally, I added an extra $50 in gas money this week,...
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I finished up my Christmas shopping today.  All I have to do is buy a nice Christmas card for a friend who is in assisted living.  I spent $25 at Walgreens (which includes the aforementioned $10 gift, and several bags of candy).  Then I went to Aldi and got some necessities and also bought some ingredients for my Christmas lunch -- not all of them, just enough to get started on cooking ahead.  There I spent $50.
My tollway pass re-upped again!  Another...
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DH was finally told what his raise was going to be.  He's getting a 9% raise!  Combined with the 2% across the board cost of living raise they did in July when they did performance reviews, that means in 2021 he will be making 11% more than we started 2020 out with.  Which is great after no raises for 3 years.  DH says this puts him at $127,000 salary, although he is hourly so it can be over that with overtime.  I believe he started this year at $114,400,...
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Many years ago, The Husband and I took Dave Ramsey's FPU through our (old) church.  We worked the steps, got out of debt, and started aggressively contributing to our retirement. Then we decided to remodel the kitchen at our old house. We fell deeply into debt, all on our credit card and haven't been able to get out of debt since then. Not only that, but our debt has increased. 
Like most people, I am so ashamed of our debt! And although I have had nothing but support...
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