Savings and Goals Journal #46

I’m happily back to saving money this month. The last few months weren’t great as far as keeping money in our bank account. Part of it couldn’t be helped (everything broke at once!) and part of it was me not being my usual careful self. (Holidays have a way of tripping me up in the budgeting department if I’m not careful.) I was grateful for our savings when things broke and needed replaced. But now our savings is quite depleted and I really need to focus on rebuilding it. Nothing like the beginning of a new year to give me a kick in the pants and get me back on track! 🙂

In the Kitchen

Most of our bills are relatively low, so the grocery and household spending is where I can make the biggest difference by being a careful steward of our food budget. Meal planning is back! Here are some meals we’ve enjoyed lately:

• Split pea soup with ham, cornbread
• Roasted chicken thighs, green beans, stuffing
• Pasta dish with sale spaghetti sauce and veggies from the freezer that we sautéed
• Waffles, scrambled eggs
• Taco Soup
• Corn chowder
• Green chile
• Frito pies
• Birthday meal for our daughter: BBQ ribs, chicken, brussels sprouts, roasted potatoes

We’ve had lots of soups the last couple of weeks. One batch of soup lasts two to three days and we also had some left to freeze for later meals. I am focusing on using what is in the pantry and freezers but I am buying what I can find on a very good sale to keep us well-stocked.

So, that’s the good news. The bad news is that our refrigerator broke around Thanksgiving and the repair would have been expensive. We chose to buy a new one. We went to our local appliance company and shopped the scratch and dent area for a new refrigerator. There is a small dent at the top of the door which I covered with a magnet. 🙂 It was an almost $300 savings because of the minor imperfection.

Then! About a month later I smelled a burning electrical smell, and discovered smoke coming from our ancient upright freezer’s motor. Off we went again to the appliance store. I found a wonderful freezer that is slightly smaller than our old one and fits better in our tiny kitchen. The small scratch on the side is against the wall, so it isn’t noticeable. Again, the price difference was nearly $300. I was grateful that none of our food thawed. The upright freezer is where we keep meat and all of our frozen garden produce.

And then life decided to be a little more kind to me, and I had to only replace my slow cooker last week because the stoneware crock was cracked. 🙂 I use my slow cooker at least once a week.

Our daughter came to spend the weekend with us for her birthday (and she brought that cute baby!) We took her out to lunch at her favorite Mexican restaurant. We also had her birthday meal at home. I made her cake using a mix and frosting I had in the pantry. Before she arrived, I used items I had in the pantry to make two of her favorite things (pumpkin bread and Chex mix) for her to take home.

I am planning our Valentine’s dinner using primarily items we have on hand. I’m trying to make holidays and celebrations a little more special than I have been doing in the past few years, while still keeping the budget in mind.

In the Garden

We’ve had some beautiful days, even though it’s still winter. Grampy and I tackled the yard and took a huge load of junk to the waste station up the road. It’s $9.00 for a full pickup load, and we used every square inch!

I haven’t removed the old plants from the garden areas yet, but that is on my list. We will put the old plants in a pile and burn them, so we won’t have to haul them away and pay to dispose of them.

I’ll be making some repairs to my little greenhouse. We had a horrible windstorm come through and two of the panels of the greenhouse blew out. It’s a small greenhouse from Harbor Freight and the fiberglass panels are held in by little metal clips. I guess that wind was just too much for them. I thought one of the panels was lost forever, but I finally found it across the road by our neighbor’s fence. I don’t think they are too damaged to put back.

I’m wanting to do a makeover of the greenhouse and kitchen garden area this spring. The greenhouse has become a catchall during the off-season. It’s on the list of big projects.

Soon it will be time to start pepper seeds! We’ve been discussing which things and how much we want to plant this spring. We’re doing a pantry and freezer inventory to see what we are low on. With the price of groceries rising, I’m going to be planting a few more things this year to provide us with fresh produce.

Home and Family

I’ve been working on getting our sheds in order. (It seems like I’ve been working on that for a very long time.) But I am making progress. I’ve paused painting the interior of my she-shed while the weather is cold. I’m just working on getting everything arranged and sorted.

In my travels into the depths of the shed, I discovered a DVD player my daughter had given me. She’d also given me a TV for my she-shed. I use the TV but not the DVD player. My stepmom’s DVD player had broken, so I gave mine to her. I was shocked that I hadn’t even remembered that I had that spare one. This is why I’m trying to get organized!! I don’t like that I have so much stuff I don’t remember what I have.

Broken things in our home were not limited to only kitchen items. My laptop also had some major problems. Thankfully I was able to have it repaired and it is working again. I was dreading needing to purchase a new one. Now that I have it back I can continue working on the bookkeeping for my stepmom’s business (tax time is rapidly approaching!) and I can get back to blogging!

I’ve had two large veterinary bills which led to a sad discovery. One of my kitties had been losing weight and not feeling well. The vet found that he had cancer. I was able to have several weeks with him before he became too ill. He enjoyed being hand-fed his favorite treats and I enjoyed all the extra snuggles. Pets are an added expense but I so enjoy their quiet companionship.

Grampy and I spent time this morning making a list of home projects we want to do, room by room. Most of them are small and inexpensive. We just need to take the time to do them.

In my spare time, I am teaching myself how to edit videos. I’ve always wanted to have a YouTube channel to share our home projects and such. I’m working on a few “practice videos.” I’m facing quite a bit of a learning curve, but I am getting things figured out and it’s really rather fun.

The last few months have made me very aware of the fact that we most definitely need to work to have money set aside for those “just-in-case” things. You never know when several large and not really expected expenses can come in the span of a few short months. It was easy for me to feel discouraged about our savings going down, down, down with each new expense. But I am very grateful that we did have the savings, and with some careful watching of our spending, our savings can be replenished over time. And hopefully nothing else will break for a while! 🙂

Have a beautiful day!