Monthly Archives: January 2022

5 Things Friday

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  1.  I am focusing on reducing our spending during the first few (6) months of 2022 for several reasons. First, I want to keep everything pretty safe until Matt has a permeant new job and we can develop a new budget based on it. Second- we have three trips plan and Haley’s wedding, so I want to be able to enjoy each of these events without count pennies!  Third- We have grand plans for some house repairs to be completed so I also want to keep this as the end goal.
  2. We were able to achieve 2 No Spend days this week!  This is two more than the entire month of December.  Goal to achieve the same or better next week!
  3. We spent a total of $11.16 for groceries this week. I decided to go ahead and stock up on 2L drinks while they are on sale. We are still way under our $50 a week budget.
  4. I have made a couple of sales on Ebay this week and Matt was able to sell floormats and brake pads from our Toyoto van. These are small items but they are adding extra income/ spending money so everything is helpful.
  5. It is cold… the temperatures hit 80 last week and have been staying in the high 50’s for weeks. Today the high is 40…YUCKY.   I really dislike the cold!

Monday Menu Planning

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First official snow day of the school year. Technically it is a bad weather no power day but I am seeing snow flurries so decided to stay home and call it a snow day!

I started our limited grocery budget ($50 a week) last week and we nailed it!  We spent $4.00 from the change jar in total. We spent alot of time last week, eating left-overs so we are all caught up for the time being. We are starting to slow pull items out of the freezers and pantry so we are definitely back to meal planning this week!

Breakfast– Saturday-sausage links and eggs   Sunday-left over muffins from Costco  Monday-Gravy and biscuit (made because of my school delay/closure) Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, pop-tarts, sausage, oatmeal, cereal or grits, breakfast burritos, or omelets.
Lunch- – Saturday-sliders with turkey and ham   Sunday- Panda Panda   Monday- left-overs  Tuesday- Friday Leftovers, pizza and soup should work for most of the week.
Dinner- – Saturday-Homemade pizza    Sunday- Dad’s Chicken stew (with a whole meal frozen for the future).  Monday- Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. (Matt spent fifty cent to purchase bread for this.)      Tuesday-Hamburger Helper   Wednesday- Mackerl and corn and fruit.  Thursday-Spaghetti and meatballs    Friday-Leftovers or Breakfast casserole depending on how the week goes.

Enjoying a slow start to a fairly busy normal week!

Plans for 2022

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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11″

This was actually the verse we picked out for our wedding!   I think this is a fitting verse for the year as I have learned and am still learning that His plans and timing is always  much better than anything I can think of.

I am going to try and be diligent in keeping up with these but also want to share that everything is not always easy or happens the way we think it should.

Financial-
This is a very difficult area for me to even begin to plan and set goals end. Currently Matt is unemployed but actively seeking a job.  We had discussed the possibility of this “season” lasting even a year. In my brain, I can say that and yet I am also hoping that it does not last that long.  I am going to work on short term- goals that we can focus on during his unemployment and long term- goals that we will focus on once he returns to full time employment.
Short-term– The main idea/plan for this is to stay out of debit. We already have several things planned and I want to be as resourceful as possible and use these to keep us on the right track.
1. Cash Envelope system
2. Groceries- $50 a week or $200 a month through May (April excluded). Returning to $650 a month in June
3. Gas – $500 a month (this may need to be increased depending on where Matt ends up working).
4. No spend days- I am trying something new. Instead of only writing down the days that we end up with no spending. I am going to write each day what we ended   up paying for each day. If the items is from a budget category like groceries or gas then that will be written.
5. Monitor and maintain Energy usage- This is something that I have just started in the last month.  I have realized that our Heating/ Air system is the biggest expense. We also need to be diligent about turning off items we don’t need.  The camper also uses alot of energy just being plugged up so we need to watch this as well.
Long Term- I would like to establish a long term savings account with $10,000 I would like to add another $100 to my ROTH as well.

Garden-
We have been able to finish the greenhouse as well as fill all the beds with new soil.  I want to be able to raise enough veggies this summer to feed not only us on a weekly basis but also refill the freezers. I did purchase a food saver that I plan to put to good use next summer.  I have already purchased most of the seeds I am planning to use I will be purchasing both tomato and pepper plants to plant. 

House-
We are on track to receive one more check from Matt’s dad estate. The current plan is to have both the kitchen and our shower room floors replaced.  We will be building ourselves a new “plastic” deck and are considering adding a covering for the camping trailer.

Travel-
We love to travel and enjoy doing so as a family! Current plans included:
1.Shopping trip (4 days) in January- this is a second practice run with the new camper.
2. Disney Trip in April
3. Haley’s wedding
4. Beach Trip in July
Depending on how these go we might consider adding in a trip to Washington DC or Williamsburg in the fall.

Lots of things to look forward to!