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2020 TALLY:
$740 Cash (Chase Sapphire Quadruple Dip, Moi) 
$ 24 Cash  (Citi Black Friday Bonus; 5% online shopping)
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$764 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*
**In addition, various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31
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Noticed some random $24 bonus today on our Citi card.  I vaguely remember singing up for 5% cash back on online shopping?  & then I completely forgot about it.
Googled it and...
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There is something so rewarding about creating delicious comfort food for a fraction of what you would spend otherwise. I made a fresh warm loaf of bread this morning, and pulled a bag of leftover split pea soup out of the freezer. I heated up a bowl of the soup, added a few spices, cut off a nice crunchy end piece of the bread, added some butter, and WOW, lunch was served for under $.50. Food on the cheap!
The hub is on a road trip today with DD3 and the grandbaby to see his...
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Hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving. It was a quiet one here, just the two of us. Our Pastor asked if we had a quiet one and I said, especially since my husband doesn't talk very much when he's eating. Pastor laughed out loud and said he was a kindred spirit.
I can't say we've honestly saved a lot of money the past few months. It seems although we aren't going anywhere on short trips or anything, other things have come up. Unexpected dentist bills and I needed new glasses...
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I've been very off my blogging game. I didn't even do my debt payment and net worth update posts at the beginning of November as I'd normally do! At some point I came on to try and write but that was when the big outage was happening, and I never came back afterward. I've been popping in to at least skim everyone else's entries every week or two, but that's about it.
So what's happened? My brain is all over the place this year, as are most people's I think, and time passes really...
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I did a little Black Friday shopping. On Wednesday I took advantage of Old Navy's 50% off the entire store to buy a pair of leggings. Last week (or maybe it was the week prior?) I bought some Moose Munch popcorn through Macy's. Thursday I ordered a couple of shirts to layer underneath my scrubs from Kohl's. Friday I bought a couple of soaps from World Market. I also bought a $100 gift card to a nice local Italian restaurant. I will get a bonus $50 gift card in addition to the $100...
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I hesitate to even think it but...  I've had a few weeks of calm and peace.  On the work front and the home front.  At work especially, all the problems seem to be peeling away.  It's shaping up to be the dream job that it was on paper.  It just took a rough couple of years to get to this point.
I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Even all the employees who are infinitely in the hospital, are leaving.  Lost a good employee (good for her, took...
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Net worth hit $900K last week!  
The value of our home had stagnated for quite a while.  People are strongly favoring smaller homes.  But...  a house on the street behind ours just sold for $570K, or about +$70K more than I have our home valued at.  That seems to have knocked things loose from a very long stagnation.
For now, just going to hope to end the year with $900K+ net worth, and will leave our home valuation as is.  If some more homes...
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2021 will be Living Lean year as I can and being on age pension.  My goal and challenge are Living Lean on a Pension.
I have no other extra income other than my pension, so I have to be as crafty as possible to make it my dollars s-t-r-e-t-c-h further than before. 
I do have a little amount put aside for rainy day. Which I use when I need to and pay this rainy day account back out of my saving I can find in my frugal living challenge and any saving I can make on getting...
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I had to buy a new stand alone Stove this week, not because it was not working, just because the clock was not working and could not be fix for less than half the price of new stove and installed. I already had an electrician to check it out at $160 fee just to come out. It was 14 years old.  I will never buy a digital clock one again. Manual from now on.
I used it last night and cooked a roast chicken and roast vegetables.  Now for some baking soon!
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Is it sad that I am looking forward to next year so much...I have about given up on this year...although it has been a tough year in some areas...I know it has been a lot tougher for others...but I am ready for a new year.
I am going to sit sown this week and tweak my budget, I have a few more medical expenses coming up that I hadn't put in the budget (didn't have them at the time) and I have a savings goal that i want to reach next year in order to buy our house so I need to...
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A Thanksgiving like no other, wasn't it?  My family opted for traditional food; my husband is such a staunch traditionalist in so many things.  So we've got turkey--and more turkey.  We finished up the roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and gravy--and perhaps because we all had pie for breakfast, the pie is gone.  Did a late afternoon Zoom with my Minnesota family, including a nephew in California.  It was lovely to see them, but I will admit that the USPS...
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Mentioned in my last post that we finally pulled the trigger on the Instant Pot.  It just arrived and we did the test run (with some water).  I already found a handful of recipes that we have ingredients on hand for.  Will probably make corn chowder this weekend.
For today, going to do a quick mac & cheese test run.
Wanted to ask if anyone had favorite recipes that they wanted to share?  TIA!
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$318.59 Tithe
_400.00 Grocery Envelope
_300.00 Medical Fund
__75.00 Household Envelope
__71.99 Life Insurance DH
__60.46 Life Insurance Me
_100.00 Car Maintenance Envelope
_120.00 Allowances
_100.00 Emergency Fund
1600.00 Mattress Fund
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$3146.04 Total Money Out
 
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$8639.84 Balance Forward
+_100.00 Amount Added
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$8739.84 New Balance
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I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of the week's frugal wins1) Frugal Thanksgiving - this is an involuntary one. Saved on travel and food costs. Did a zoom dinner with family instead. (2) Harvested my first winter veggies - leeks and carrots. It's my first time growing both. The leeks are a success. The carrots are a bit smaller than I thought they would be. But, they function double duty since you can eat the leaves like you would eat spinach. I'll let them grow a bit...
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Christmas/Birthday stuff is very anti-climactic this year.  
I bought all my presents earlier this week.  I had already decided to get a new cell phone.  (Replacing cheapie phone bought when I considered cell phone use mostly for emergency...  Now that I am using phone more for work, podcasts, music... am buying a newer phone with 5x more storage space).  Made the decision a couple of months ago but was waiting out Black Friday deals.  MM(17)...
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Thanksgiving was nice.  Our restaurant-purchased meal was good, games were fun, and Zoom brought us closer to loved ones far away.  Masks were worn, windows were open, so I'm hoping the six of us came out of the experience safe.
I'm wondering if, after all this time, I should restart a new blog, since I can't change anything on my sidebar.  It will just get more and more out of date, and frankly, I'm really annoyed that others can change their sidebar and I cannot. ...
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Hi all,
 
Hope all is well, and everyone had a great holiday. It's been awhile and so much has happened, positive things for sure. 
I created a new Slack channel and wanted to invite anyone who would like to join me. The link is below. 
https://join.slack.com/t/savingadvice/shared_invite/zt-jk3mscxf-xeM0Rk9Za_8o~dFT_Jw7bQ
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We have just noticed that we have an extra$100 coming out of our income...I know you ask how did we not realise this...well honestly it is easy we are paid in US dollars..once converted to Aust $'s it is different and the exchange rates change all the time so we just set a certain amount and stick to that....its not something we keep a close eye on...our bank acct yes but not the work paperwork...maybe because of all the new tax stuff that was happening in march...I'm not sure....so...
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It was a long day, but I am glad it is done.  Thanksgiving went pretty well despite Mom's early day sniping.  She actually behaved quite well during dinner and was verbally thankful for all my efforts.  The gluten free stuffing was so good.  I was worried, I'm always worried when I try something new, but it worked and everyone loved it, including my Mom and sister.  And the from scratch gluten free gravy came out really, really well.
I've taken all the...
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