I can't believe that there are only 4 days left in our little experiment! I feel like this month has just flown by (I think I say that more and more as I get older!). I'm so glad that we chose to do this spending freeze this month. It may not have gone exactly as we had anticipated, and we may have had a few hiccups in the road, but I think we have made great strides in the last 28 days. If nothing else, this has made us really pay attention to every penny that we spend. No, it's not always fun (although with just a few exceptions, I haven't even really missed spending money thoughtlessly), but it's not completely terrible either. In fact, sometimes it was kind of fun trying to creatively get something done without spending money. I had fun trying to come up with a pie for Pie Day with just the ingredients I had on hand (with the exception of burning my hand. Ouch!) and it was a nice brain exercise to figure out how to get E's invitations out without buying anything. Now I'm not saying that I want to continue this spending freeze, I do want to buy some things for my little girl's party, but the hubs and I have already talked about it and we have decided to do another month-long spending freeze sometime this year. I think it did a great job of motivating us and reminding us what our real goals are. Plus, we have seen some real effects from it. I was able to pay off one of our credit cards about a week ago! Now it wasn't a large amount, but it is one less credit card to worry about. And this morning I was able to pay a very large chunk (about half!) of the account we used to buy our sofa and loveseat last summer. We have to pay it off by May 1st, in order to avoid interest. And I am super stoked to say that it looks like we will be able to meet that goal with no problem now! Yay us! And it's these little victories that will motivate us to do it again, and again, and again! Until it is all paid off. And won't that be nice? I'm also hoping that our children will see the hard work that we have put into paying off our debt and will learn from our mistakes. I want them to learn to live within their means and manage their money well.
It's been a little crazy around my house the last several days. I'm hoping that things will settle down a bit here soon, I don't know how much more I can take. I had to work this weekend, but I needed a bit of a break from everything; so after work on Saturday, I went to my aunt's house for a little girl talk. She is such a great listener and really helps to put things in perspective for me. Plus she can always make me laugh! After a few hours with her (and a couple delicious chocolate cookies), I left her house feeling much lighter and more hopeful than I went in. Thank you, Aunt Tammie! You're the best! The kids had a birthday party to go to on Sunday afternoon, so the house was empty when I got home. I put the quiet to good use and got busy in the kitchen getting ready for another week of Kevin working late every. single. night. :( So I made breakfast casserole, homemade granola bars, homemade pizza, potato soup, and browned a couple of pound sof hamburger meat for meals later this week. And that was all in just about two hours! It's amazing what I can get done in a short amount of time without the littles underfoot. I'm hoping that when Kevin starts his permanent schedule, that I can build some time into the schedule each week to do some kitchen prep work. I'm sure doing so will really alleviate some stress on the nights that he won't be home. I was off work yesterday, so I just stayed home, out of the cold, and relaxed with the munchkins. Oh, and I did about 6 loads of laundry. :( Not my favorite thing to do, but I watched The Princess Bride while I did it, so it wasn't too horrid.
Jan 24
gas for Prius - $21.67
Jan 25
stamps - $34.31 (I had to get these before the price went up on Sunday. I have made myself a goal of sending someone in my extended family a letter once a week, so I have been going through a lot of stamps.)
Jan 26-27
$0!!!!!!!
So there you have it, our spending from the last few days. I hope you all have a wonderful day and I will see you back here very soon.
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