Net worth hit $900K last week!   The value of our home had stagnated for quite a while.  People are strongly favoring smaller homes.  But...  a house on the street behind ours just sold for $570K, or about +$70K more than I have our home valued at.  That seems to have knocked things loose from a very long stagnation. For now, just going to hope to end the year with $900K+ net worth, and will leave our home valuation as is.  If some more homes sell in that ran ...
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2021 will be Living Lean year as I can and being on age pension.  My goal and challenge are Living Lean on a Pension. I have no other extra income other than my pension, so I have to be as crafty as possible to make it my dollars s-t-r-e-t-c-h further than before.  I do have a little amount put aside for rainy day. Which I use when I need to and pay this rainy day account back out of my saving I can find in my frugal living challenge and any saving I can make on getting low bills w ...
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I had to buy a new stand alone Stove this week, not because it was not working, just because the clock was not working and could not be fix for less than half the price of new stove and installed. I already had an electrician to check it out at $160 fee just to come out. It was 14 years old.  I will never buy a digital clock one again. Manual from now on. I used it last night and cooked a roast chicken and roast vegetables.  Now for some baking soon! ...
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Is it sad that I am looking forward to next year so much...I have about given up on this year...although it has been a tough year in some areas...I know it has been a lot tougher for others...but I am ready for a new year. I am going to sit sown this week and tweak my budget, I have a few more medical expenses coming up that I hadn't put in the budget (didn't have them at the time) and I have a savings goal that i want to reach next year in order to buy our house so I need to know how much we n ...
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A Thanksgiving like no other, wasn't it?  My family opted for traditional food; my husband is such a staunch traditionalist in so many things.  So we've got turkey--and more turkey.  We finished up the roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and gravy--and perhaps because we all had pie for breakfast, the pie is gone.  Did a late afternoon Zoom with my Minnesota family, including a nephew in California.  It was lovely to see them, but I will admit that the USPS commerical with ...
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Mentioned in my last post that we finally pulled the trigger on the Instant Pot.  It just arrived and we did the test run (with some water).  I already found a handful of recipes that we have ingredients on hand for.  Will probably make corn chowder this weekend. For today, going to do a quick mac & cheese test run. Wanted to ask if anyone had favorite recipes that they wanted to share?  TIA! ...
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$318.59 Tithe _400.00 Grocery Envelope _300.00 Medical Fund __75.00 Household Envelope __71.99 Life Insurance DH __60.46 Life Insurance Me _100.00 Car Maintenance Envelope _120.00 Allowances _100.00 Emergency Fund 1600.00 Mattress Fund ----------------- $3146.04 Total Money Out   ...
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$8639.84 Balance Forward +_100.00 Amount Added -------------- $8739.84 New Balance ...
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I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of the week's frugal wins:(1) Frugal Thanksgiving - this is an involuntary one. Saved on travel and food costs. Did a zoom dinner with family instead. (2) Harvested my first winter veggies - leeks and carrots. It's my first time growing both. The leeks are a success. The carrots are a bit smaller than I thought they would be. But, they function double duty since you can eat the leaves like you would eat spinach. I'll let them grow a bit more and harves ...
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Christmas/Birthday stuff is very anti-climactic this year.   I bought all my presents earlier this week.  I had already decided to get a new cell phone.  (Replacing cheapie phone bought when I considered cell phone use mostly for emergency...  Now that I am using phone more for work, podcasts, music... am buying a newer phone with 5x more storage space).  Made the decision a couple of months ago but was waiting out Black Friday deals.  MM(17) was the guniea pi ...
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Thanksgiving was nice.  Our restaurant-purchased meal was good, games were fun, and Zoom brought us closer to loved ones far away.  Masks were worn, windows were open, so I'm hoping the six of us came out of the experience safe. I'm wondering if, after all this time, I should restart a new blog, since I can't change anything on my sidebar.  It will just get more and more out of date, and frankly, I'm really annoyed that others can change their sidebar and I cannot.  What on ...
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Hi all,   Hope all is well, and everyone had a great holiday. It's been awhile and so much has happened, positive things for sure.  I created a new Slack channel and wanted to invite anyone who would like to join me. The link is below.  https://join.slack.com/t/savingadvice/shared_invite/zt-jk3mscxf-xeM0Rk9Za_8o~dFT_Jw7bQ ...
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We have just noticed that we have an extra$100 coming out of our income...I know you ask how did we not realise this...well honestly it is easy we are paid in US dollars..once converted to Aust $'s it is different and the exchange rates change all the time so we just set a certain amount and stick to that....its not something we keep a close eye on...our bank acct yes but not the work paperwork...maybe because of all the new tax stuff that was happening in march...I'm not sure....so hopefully it ...
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It was a long day, but I am glad it is done.  Thanksgiving went pretty well despite Mom's early day sniping.  She actually behaved quite well during dinner and was verbally thankful for all my efforts.  The gluten free stuffing was so good.  I was worried, I'm always worried when I try something new, but it worked and everyone loved it, including my Mom and sister.  And the from scratch gluten free gravy came out really, really well. I've taken all the turkey off the ...
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I finally had a moment to sit down and breathe.  It's been a crazy couple of days with doctor appointments and trying to get the house in order.  Well, half order, half chaos.  Yesterday I made desert and the really cool thing was I made my own pumpkin puree from a sugar pie pumpkin.  I just put the whole pumpkin in the Instant Pot, set it for 12 minutes, did a natural release for 5, and then a manual release. The pumpkin was so tender I was able to cut it with a butter knif ...
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I hesitate to even think it but...  I've had a few weeks of calm and peace.  On the work front and the home front.  At work especially, all the problems seem to be peeling away.  It's shaping up to be the dream job that it was on paper.  It just took a rough couple of years to get to this point. I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Even all the employees who are infinitely in the hospital are leaving.  Lost a good employee and maybe that will make my life har ...
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I have some quiet time to myself and thought I'd check in. I'm chugging along, keeping hope for the future and trying to do my part.  I'm not working with my part-time, after-school-hours-job right now because it has to work around my full-time position, which is "fluid" right now due to the rise in case numbers. As long as I stay current with my certification, though, I can pick up more hours when life settles again.  SO and I looked over my budget now that households are merged. I ...
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Well only 29 days till christmas...can you believe it...this year has gone by so fast but also at a snails pace...for some...I can say I am ready for a new year, new budget and a new start to everything...a restart...but I am ready for chistmas other than food and ready fro a new year. Summer is starting here..its 104 here tomorrow...not looking forward to summer but also sick of the cold weather....should be spring all year LOL! I am hoping to get into an integrated medical clinic here and ta ...
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I went by my parents' hone to do some food prep. We made carrot soufflé, cranberrry sauce, and prepped vegetables for tomorrow. I put the wine & egg nog in the fridge to chill. Pies were purchased, but my dad baked some cakes for Christmas. They went into the freezer. It will be just the three of us tomorrow. Our menu: Cornish hen  ham cornbread dressing (my favorite) cranberry sauce green beans with potatoes & bacon sweet potato pie pecan pie rose wine moscato win ...
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Net worth hit $900K last week!   The value of our home had stagnated for quite a while.  People are strongly favoring smaller homes.  But...  a house on the street behind ours just sold for $570K, or about +$70K more than I have our home valued at.  That seems to have knocked things loose from a very long stagnation. For now, just going to hope to end the year with $900K+ net worth, and will leave our home valuation as is.  If some more homes sell in that ran ...
[ Read More ]