December was a hard and busy month. I got to make two trips to Florida and visited with Haley both times!  We have had quite a bit of sickness this month. Matt missed 3 days of work. I have missed several days of my Christmas Break due to being sick.  Now is the time to start looking ahead and planning for the future after reviewing goals of course!

Groceries- Budget $975   $1564.96 Goal NOT met!  I am heading into the pantry challenge where I hope to save enough to purchase at least half a cow this summer.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal NOT Met!  We have spent $561.57 this month.  The most expensive part of our trip to Florida was gas. We get 8.9 miles to the gallon when pulling the camper.

Blogging- 15 post per month.  9  post this month.  I am continuing to struggle with this again.

Exercise- I am struggling both with my health and how to improve it!  I am losing a small bit of weight. I have been sick at least the last week and half so no progress.

Earn extra money: a $50 gift card from Fetch.  I am at 45552. That means I need 7448 more points. Or 30 more receipts to scan at the minimum.  I seriously doubt I hit this goal before March at this point but I will keep working.

November has flown by!  We have stayed much busier than expected.  I am hoping to get a handle on my life and schedule but seriously December is going to be just as busy!

Groceries- Budget $975   $726.18 Goal met!  Going to try something new in December. First I am using Walmart Delivery for this month. My goal is to get and keep stocked while controlling the budget. I do like the fact I can see what I am spending as I go.  Second I will be moving any amount left in the budget to a separate account marked for meat purchases.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $384.64 this month.  Gas prices are coming down. Lots of driving planned for December!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  10 post this month. Small increase are always good!

Exercise- I am struggling both with my health and how to improve it!  I am losing a small bit of weight. The goal for December is to maintain with more weight loss focus in January.

Earn extra money: a $50 gift card from Fetch.  I am at 40000 need to get to 53000. This has been such a slow process.  Doubt I will get this card this month!

October has come and gone.  And nope I did not find the balance for life.  November and December are my favorite months!    I am going to try and get better with doing things and keeping up!

Groceries- Budget = $975.$475   $1455   Goal NOT met! The problem is that we had 5 weekends this month so it resulted in two shopping trips to Costco. Yikes!

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $468.55 this month.  I am not sure why but Matt’s job change has not resulted in a decrease in the gas budget.

Blogging- 15 post per month.  7 post this month. I am actually really surprised that this was as high as it was!  I am hoping for more balance.

Exercise- I am struggling both with my health and how to improve it!

Earn extra money: a $50 gift card from Fetch.  I am at 37000 need to get to 53000. This has been such a slow process.  Not even sure if I will get the $50 by Christmas

September has ended. I am struggling to get back into a routine and to balance work and home.  The goal for October is balance…

Groceries- Budget = $975.$475   $396   Goal met! I have been working to use what we have and to eliminate waste!  Menu planning is in full force but we are also giving ourselves grace to eat out if needed!

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $436.50 this month. This is still significantly higher than I was hoping for but I plan to get an average for next year based on September to December.

Blogging- 15 post per month.  7 post this month. Did I mention needing to improve on my balance.

Exercise- 1 enough said!

Earn extra money: a $50 gift card from Fetch.  I am at 35000 need to get to 53000

June the month of freedom!  Summer break has officially started, and we are enjoying.  This month is a pretty typical month if there is one. The focus has been on the garden and starting to get things in the freezer.

Groceries- Budget = $975.   $1222.18   Goal not met!  I knew this was coming.  We did stock up on some things, I ordered my first Azure Standard order and we needed chicken and pork.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $491 this month.  I did have 2 weeks of no driving to work. It will be interesting to see what July’s spend is!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  13 post this month. I do know that my end of year work was much more than I anticipated. Hopefully back on track for July.

Exercise-  5 days of water exercise makes this the best month this year!

Expenses:  Usually month.

July is our summer vacation and Kendall’s birthday so I expect some extra expenses!

May is always one of the busiest month of the year. This year was no different!  The only weird thing has been the weather with only two days above 80 all month.  I did end up turning on my air conditioner much earlier than normal due to the high pollen counts. I can’t sleep if I can’t breathe and sleep is very important to me!  May was also as expensive as I thought!

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Met! $815.14.  I am going to plan on the grocery budget being all spent the next couple of months as we stock up for the fall and winter!  My goal is to stay at budget while stocking up which is not always an easy thing to do!

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $445 this month. YAY!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  This is post number 17 WOOHOO I think this is the most post every!

Exercise- one official day and I am dealing with knee pain again. I have a shot the first of June so hopefully this will help!

Expenses:  YIKES!  Camp for Kendall and Zach as well as swim team . I had to dip into savings.

June is a month of catch up and reset for me as my summer break begins!

The first week of April was awesome and flew by! The rest of the month has been either the slowest month ever or post Disney blues.  We have only 6 weeks of school left and things are going to be in high gear for at least the first three weeks of May.  I knew we would be over this month with both Groceries and Gas but at least I can say that we are honestly on top of it. 

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Not Met! $1029.60 We had a $225 Amazon subscribe and save order along with a 2 Liter Diet Coke stock up!  I am perfectly content with this! 

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Not Met!  We have spent $625.46 this month. This does include our trip pulling the camper to and from Disney. 

Blogging- 15 post per month.  This is post number 7 . I am on the struggle bus!  I need to get back more consistent and on top of this! But I will say that after checking the last several years, this month is typically a low post month. 

Exercise- I was very pleasantly surprised to walk miles and miles at Disney without increased leg/ knee pain. I did take medicine one night but only one! 

Expenses:  This month I paid for Lily’s graduation party. Pool dues were also paid but we are keeping our heads above water so that is all that matters! 

May will be a survival month. I am anticipating extra expenses and lots of busyness. I do want to sit down in June and write some measurable goals for the summer.  Changes may be on the way, hoping they are good changes!

March has typically been a month of sickness and this year it continued. However, the last day of March has been much anticipated and make the month worth it!

Groceries- Budget = $975.  Goal Met!  We spent $329.49 on groceries including our subscribe and save from Amazon and a trip to Costco.  I was able to use reward points this month. I am sure that my grocery spending will return to normal but the goal for the rest of the year is to keep it the same.

Auto/ Gas. Goal -= $600.  Goal Met!  We have spent $491.70 this month!

Blogging- 15 post per month.  This is post number 10 . It is hard to write when you are sick

Exercise- Does tripping and falling count for the month.. Nope then the answer is NONE.

Expenses:  We are working on covering medical expenses and dealing with huge price increases!