Another very hot and muggy day. We are not used to such weather here and few houses have air conditioning. It was warmer inside my house than out. Thank goodness it is winter where I'm going so the temperatures will be moderate.
I have lost my appetite with the heat so I'm saving on food!
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Nothing terribly exciting to report. I basically did laundry all day. Then I made a recipe with chicken breasts and dumped the leftover pumpkin pie batter in a pan. It was all really good. I spent no money!
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I got an offer above list late in the day yesterday. I accepted and we are in escrow! Now I just have to hope it goes smoothly.
I finally got to see Bhohemian Rhapsody last night. It was better than I had hoped!
We leave for the cruise in a week. I bought a fancy beaded dress today at Dillard's. They are having a great sale right now. It was marked down to $83.65. It is a good cut for me, very flattering, and fits perfectly. Captain's dinner, here I come.
I cannot...
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I am just cutting and pasting so that I can update my sidebar for 2019 goals. I expect a $20,000 decrease in salary/wages/OT, and so 2019 numbers will be more muted. Though honestly, by the time you factor taxes/401k (allows me to contribute 9% to retirement while keeping our cash flow the same), and extra/side business income, I expect 2019 to probably be about the same (cash flow) as 2018 (which was a very flush year for us). The one big change is that we will be very retirement...
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Dinner last night cost me $21, just a little bit more than I wanted to spend. That brings my variables to 7%. It was a cajun-style restaurant, and I had gumbo and a small plate of shrimp and grits. Delicious.
I got home at about 11:30, because I stayed a while to talk with one of my friends. (The restaurant was so loud, talking was pretty much shouting and straining to hear.) I came home really tired, acknowledging to myself I can't keep those kinds of hours any more.
Snow...
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Here is my list to sum up the year:
Wins:
-Cash flowed Christmas
-Cash flowed Vegas trip
-Added to the Emergency fund regularly
Fails:
-Did not put enough in my IRA
-Did not pay off personal loan 2
-Did not use coupons as much as I should have
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Good evening.
Today I had to take my dog to get a booster shot. Then off I went "to town".
I stopped at Target and bought $100 for next year's Christmas gifts. Then onto Joann Fabric to buy a tapestry needle and hand threader so that I can finish the Unicorn scarf and hat I made the 3 year-old. Onward to Winco, Costco and Smart Foods.
I spent about $200 and told DH the plan was to keep it until 7-10 days. I think we can, I think we can.....
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If you didn't see my previous post, I've invited all bloggers to write a post titled 2018 Financial Wins and Fails. Join in before the end of the year.
I reread all of my 2018 posts here and I have to say while the year was a whirlwind of change, we actually had a lot of financial wins, many I forgot about!
I'm going to start with the fails.
1) Failed to shop for the best prices. We purchased some big ticket items, computer for our daughter, dorm supplies, tires and...
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Well, when everything was said and sifted, I had a spare $500 left this month, so I made an extra loan payment to Mom today. And that brings me to a milestone goal of getting the loan down to $25K! I didn't think I was going to accomplish that this year, but we are squeaking in just under the wire.
$25,500.00 Balance Forward
-__,500.00 Payment Made
$25,000.00 New Balance
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Since I got home from the hospital we have been doing awesome on eating at home and have saved a ton of money! We charge everything on our Discover Card each month and pay it off in full each month, so it's easy to see how much our are spending on different categories like eating out. Our statement cut yesterday and the difference just in line items is staggering!
Since we have been eating at home I have been cleaning out the pantry and freezers to get stuff used up. We completely...
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Current Balance $12,770.00
+$50.00 My Payday to Our Savings (12/28)
+$75.00 My Payday to Mom Loan Savings (12/28)
Balance $12,895.00
Local Savings $5220.00
GC Savings $1310.00
Capital 360 Savings (US) $2905.00
Capital 360 Savings (Mom Loan Payback Account)$1110.00
Capital 360 Savings (Rental Deposit Account #1)$850.00
Capital 360 Savings (Rental Deposit Account #2)$1500.00
Total Savings = $12,895.00
52 Week Challenge
2019 Total = $0
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Wins
1) I have kept emergency savings well over target figure for nearly a year. Woo-Hoo!
2) I have dutifully contributed to savings every payday.
3) I am close to having enough to buy a good used car.
4) I have saved money with coupons and grocery store sales, enabling me to put more into savings and pay more to credit cards.
5) The mortgage is significantly reduced.
6) I have been able to eat good, organic food for much of the year through growing some and buying...
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Wins:
Cash flowed Christmas!
Have kept track of spending - excel spreadsheet of major bills and six months of grocery store spending. Who knew a family of four could spend $1000 per month on groceries alone.
Took lunch to work over 80% of the time, when working in the office.
Tracked travel expenses and transferred extra expense money to savings.
Saved ~$500 by borrowing digital books from the library. (Love my kindle!)
Reduced family eating out to once per...
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New user error! I had a great entry written and now it is lost.
The blog was about the cost of Christmas. Adding up receipts and guesstimating for expenditures not recorded, we spent about $900 on Christmas. This does not include the big ticket family gift of a cruise in July 2019. I think $900 sounds modest for a family of four. We spent about $600 on our kids gifts, small gifts from kids to my husband and I and food and decorations. We had a simple meal, using freezer...
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As I suspected, BFF begged off yesterday. She was not feeling well. She may come today, but I'm not counting my chickens.
I spent $29 on the prescription yesterday, and $1.50 on laundry. Variables are at 4%.
I went over to DS' house and cleared their fridge of food that would go bad if left until their return on January 7. This was a request from DIL. I spent the whole morning processing the food. Here is what I did:
Added their eggnog to my eggnog.
Made pineapple...
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Financial Wins
Bought a car with cash, first time ever!
Took a road trip to New England and stayed under budget.
Groceries averaged $88 per month, lowest average in six years (and maybe more!)
Property taxes were greatly reduced (52%) by Senior Freeze and Homestead Exemption.
Gifts/Charity was 79% lower than year before.
Spent 70% less on clothing than year before.
Brought in about twice as much extra income as the year before. ($2,250)
Dramatic drop in...
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Just few days left of the year. Good riddance. I would love to burn the calendar on this one. However, it is ending on a sweet note. My granddaughter was born yesterday morning. This is my daughter's first (and she says last) baby. She was in labor for 31 hours all for it to end in a c-section. Mom and baby E are healthy though.
I can't wait to see the baby in person (daughter is in NC). I got plenty of pics, a video and a video chat yesterday though!
c=
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Today was a pretty decent day. Yesterday sucked and I thought I was going to get super sick again, but it passed by this morning and I had a lot more energy than I've had in weeks. DS and I spent some time cleaning up the living room and kitchen. More work needs to be done. It's been almost a month since I've felt up to doing anything, but at least we made some progress.
DS and I went to Lowe's today and bought a new microwave. Our old one has been having issues for a while...
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Yay! my visa has finally arrived. Off to India in the New Year.
My sister visited and regifted some of her unwanted Christmas presents to me: a scented candle and a bucket of salted caramel cookies. I don't want them either, so now I must find someone else to regift them too.
What is everyone else regifting from the holidays?
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