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This week's frugal thing1) I am almost done reading two books so far this year - both free through the library. One through Hoopla and the other through Libby. One of them was "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, which I highly recommend. I am pleased with the pace I am keeping of reading so far. A half an hour here or there makes short work of a book, and I am spending much less time watching TV. I don't have a reading goal for the year. However, last year I read 22 books, and hope...
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I am paid semi-monthly, on the 15th and last day.  I was very happy to see the calendar hit the 15th today....both because I want to continue having actionable items on my goals for the year, and also because I needed an infusion of money lol.
I was pretty impressed to see that the HSBC direct deposit is already in effect.  That means that I will have met the requirements to earn the bonus with my March 31 paycheck, and can expect to receive the bonus itself by May 31.  
I...
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January 13
NSD
Dinner:  Chicken Fajita Subs
 
This is one of my favorite dinners.  It is not a new recipe.
Work was kind of absurd today.  Just a "full moon" kind of day.  Lots of drama.  
Better silver lining this day:  They bumped age 65+ to the front of the vaccine line in our state.  Right or wrong, I am selfishly very happy.  Our parents should be able to get vaccinated soon!  They have to sort out logistics of course,...
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Just lost an entry because I wasn't logged in!  I'm not sure how I could get to the "add entry" page without being logged in, but here goes, I'll try to re-create it.
I went to Kohl's this morning because the shoes I ordered from Amazon were too big.  After I went through the return process, I went to housewares, looking for a cutting board.  I didn't find one, but I found a nice gift for DIL on clearance -- after all the discounts and promotions, I paid $13 for...
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This week and next week are all meetings all the time.  Those of you who are able to sit still and not fidget in long zoom meetings, please divulge your secrets.  I find myself moving around, nodding like a bobble head, or messing with pens and paper.
DD has started back (virtually) at Edinburgh, but my university doesn't begin classes until 25 January.  I have lots of prep for my classes and a lot of training for new instructors. 
Our only real significant...
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Part of my personality is that I get frustrated with inaction - if I have a goal, I want to always be doing something towards it.  Since this doesn't necessarily work for debt payoff (since I only get paid twice a month, and there's just not a realistic expectation that I can do something tangible towards this goal every day), I am constantly tinkering with the tools I use for financial management, because it makes me feel like I'm doing something lol.  This does often...
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I spent a lot of money this week but surprisingly my finances are in as good of shape as ever. It makes a huge difference not having to use all extra income to pay debt. Besides the fact that husband has been working 6 or 7 days a week and some long hours. 
We got our on demand water heater installed and it's glorious to have all the hot water we want. Hopefully it will lower our electric bill slightly but I'm sure our water bill will go up with all the baths and long showers...
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January 12
NSD
Dinner:  Red Thai Curry (Instant Pot)
 
DL(15) also made some hummus.  He tried a new recipe, it turned out really well.
I don't know what on earth is going on but, we got taken off lockdown with 9% or 10% ICU capacity.   ????  Was supposed to stay on lockdown until back above 15%.  I can't help but wonder if it's politically motivated (caving to pressure) and seems incredibly premature.  On the flip side, mostly no one...
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The Eat from the Pantry Challenge has been going well.  We haven't bought anything at the grocery store since December.  I had a massive I don't know what to cook/I don't want to cook moment tonight because I am just exhausted, but my son stepped up and listed ideas and then helped me do everything but chop the onion to get dinner on the table.  He's been so good about that.  He really wants us to get that grass fed side of beef.  He's also been really...
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Well, it seems to be an unusually nice day for this time of year, so I decided I would get out and do some shopping before the weather gets more seasonable.  I went to Panera for bagels ($7), Jewel for groceries, cat food and a birthday card ($41),  and Sam's for groceries, tp and gas ($51).   These purchases bumped my variables up to 21%.  I haven't done my "real" grocery shopping yet, which I will do at Aldi.  The groceries I bought at Jewel and...
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These are a little late in coming. First of all, I couldn't finalize what I wanted my goals to be. Secondly, our world went a little crazy. Lastly, I was procrastinating.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post with some potential goals and those are mostly what I am going to go with for the year.
1. Decrease credit card debt by $8000. I would love to completely pay off my credit card debt but I'm not sure that's going to happen this year. I think an $8000 decrease is doable but will...
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I don't think I went into too much detail on this in previous posts, but for the next few months, I've put myself into a discretionary spending timeout.  The only thing I can spend money on out of "real money" are groceries, and replacement of household essentials (mostly cleaning supplies, etc).  
I mention "real money" because I left myself a small loophole so I don't feel like I am completely depriving myself of the shopping dopamine hit haha.  Any store...
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I heard back from my mortgage lender. They won't automatically drop the PMI within 2 years of executing a refinance on my mortgage even if I have paid down to 78% of the home value (even if I don't account for appreciation). I can request and pay for an assessment to demonstrate that I have made substantial improvements (they apparently won't consider appreciation of home prices in the area), and even then it's not a guarantee that the assesor's report will make it happen. I am...
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Have a few medical appointments this week and next...going to be expensive for us but we will cover it...also getting new tyres and wheel alignment so that will be another $780 on top of it...so going to be a busy expensive week...hopefully the rest of the month will be less expensive
Still looking for a rental..they are hard to get hre right now
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January 11
$ 260  Dentist
$ 331 Groceries
Dinner: Spaghetti
 
Both MH and DL had dentist appointments Monday. 
MH had mostly settled on 'every 10 days' grocery runs but with the Holidays and surge is now on a "once every two weeks" buying cycle.  It was a big grocery run, but the way the timing of the runs work out this month I think it will be a low grocery month.  $330 x 2 would be $660, or well below our $850 grocery budget.  Which pretty...
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So we obviously flew to hawaii for Christmas.  We spent 3 weeks and when we went we tested 72 hours before for a negative test.  It was good we got our results back 24 hours after our test.  Anyway we flew out and the airport was empty.  It took us about 15 minutes from car to gate.  We arrived at the airport 1:45 minutes before our flight.  We arrived at the gate 1:30 minutes before the flight.  We then took 20 minutes standing in line at the...
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Well, we all thought the new year would be better....but it's not. So hard that I feel like I keep wishing away my days.  Not too long and it will be March which is when the pandemic started and we all that that was bad. 
I looked at Mint and now definitely over the 1 million mark with all assets counted. That feels weird to me and to think I've got 10 years left. I went to go look and see what I've put in my 401k per year to see a ball park of what I can expect to have...
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I got my second COVID-19 dose on Saturday. I felt fine all day, but still spent most of the day at home. Sunday I woke up in that "sick fog". I was scheduled to work 6-6 so I went in knowing that I wasn't truly coming down with anything, but that the vaccine was just doing its job. It was a struggle for the first half of the shift, but I made it through. I was in bed by 7 & woke up feeling fine today. So besides that & pain at the injection site, that was the worst of my...
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This morning I ordered a new pair of house shoes (Skechers sneaker clogs) and a dough hook for my KitchenAid stand mixer.  The total was $40 because I had a $35 credit from a returned Christmas gift.  I almost ordered a hook from a source that would have charged $15 for shipping, so I'm glad I caught that!
I am starting to see gaps in my food supply, so I may do some grocery shopping soon.  But not today, I don't think.  I still have plenty of food in my pantry...
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January 8NSD
January 9NSD
January 10$2 Birthday Gift for MHDinner: Chicago Pizza & Blackberry Cobbler
The kids' got a gift for MH (on Amazon).  I just ordered it and after they gave me $20 to cover the purchase, I realized there was $2 tax tacked on.  I just covered the tax, so $2 of the gift will be from me.  
MH and I don't buy each other gifts.  Haven't since we did the one-income/kids thing. 
I had some frozen blackberries left over from...
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