Savings and Goals Journal #36

I missed doing last week’s post as I was staying with my mom. She’s recovering well after fracturing her kneecap (Ouch!) Even though I’ve been away from home for several days at a time over the last two weeks, I managed to find a few ways to save a little money here and there. I loved being able to help my mom, but I’m very glad to be home.

One of Grampy’s hobbies is feeding the birds. I think they were grateful for a full feeder during the snow this week!

In the Kitchen

The first time I went to help my mom, I didn’t have any advance notice. She called and I left that morning. Because of how tired everyone was, how much pain she was in and how much help she needed, we did have a couple of takeout meals just to make things easier.

The second time I went to stay, I had time to plan. I made meals in advance for my family and took along easy things to make for myself as well as some simple things to prepare for my mom and stepdad. This really cut down on spending.

I’ll be home for quite a while before I’ll need to go back to my mom’s. I’m getting caught up on things and getting back into my routine, starting with meal planning!

This week’s meal plan:

Sunday: St. Patrick’s Day meal: Corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. Grampy’s Favorite Chocolate Cake
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Tacos, Fiesta Lime Rice
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Chicken casserole, salad
Saturday: Leftovers

In the Garden

No big news from the garden. Soon I will be starting to prepare the soil for planting. Because we have so many home projects to finish, we are making the garden even a little more basic. We have decided not to grow potatoes this year, as we don’t really eat that many.

The weather is being pretty wishy-washy: Sunny and nice one day and cold and snowy the next. But, some of my flower bulbs are starting to pop up. I love spring! I’ll be tidying up the yard and relocating some perennial plants soon. I’m not planning to purchase any decorative plants or shrubs this year. I’m just going to work with what I have. I’d like to work on more of a design or theme for our flowerbeds.

Home and Family

To save gas money on my trip home from my mom’s, I was able to ride with my daughter when she went for her doctor’s appointment. Her doctor is halfway between my mom’s house and ours, so my husband met us there. That was a huge help because it is a two-hour trip.

I haven’t worked on my kitchen makeover for quite a few days. I’m hoping to get back to work on it over the weekend. It’s looking so pretty!

My kitchen has been an apple theme for many years. I’m changing it to a more farmhouse look with blue as an accent color.

My mom gave me this cute little bird. He’s just perfect to decorate the kitchen for springtime!

I completed our income taxes. I knew we would owe since our little tax deductions are all grown up now. 🙂 But it wasn’t as much as I had thought, and I’d put the money aside during the year. For several years, we paid to have our taxes done, because I was afraid I’d mess them up. Finally a few years ago I did them myself using one of the free programs available. Our taxes are quite simple, and we save money each year doing them ourselves.

Also, Grampy received a surprise bonus check from work. He’s planning to use part of it to purchase a laptop for himself to use for doing fire department reports and to organize his photos. We are planning to spend some time shopping around so we can get the best price possible while still finding a good computer for him.

Several years ago, we would not have worried about the cost of paying someone to complete our income taxes, or shopping around to find a good deal on something. We often paid for things on credit, telling ourselves we would “pay it off later.” But we never did. I am so thankful that we are now being more conscientious about our spending and gaining control of our finances. We are making slow but steady progress. 🙂