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May in Review!

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May was a FABULOUS month for us!

Not because of our numbers, well, those helped too, but because I started teaching my first Financial Peace University class. I was nervous because I had never attended the class let alone led one, and because the response was lower than I expected. Our small group is pretty open with each other, not something that is required to attend the class FYI, but I think has really brought us closer. It’s a judgement-free zone and we make sure each of us leaves confident for the next step / week ahead of us. Nine weeks sounded daunting as I was making the decision to commit but we’re half-way through the course already and trying to figure out how we’re all going to stay connected when it’s over. And if you’re curious, I will most likely be teaching another class this fall! It won’t be free and it won’t be in my home — but I can promise that it’ll be just as good!

Now let’s get to the numbers!

Our income increased this month, which helped us DUMP cash toward debt! If you can’t cut your spending any further than it already is, you’re only other option is to earn more to make a dent in the process. I participated in Market Research one evening, I received a Young Living check, and the beau took on freelance work.

This month we reduced our principle balance by $10,785.23 or 22.53%!!! To date, we’ve paid off $51,992.72 or 58.37%!!! in 9 months! We only have $37,082.73 in debt left to pay off and to meet our goal, we need to keep this momentum up, big time.

To put things into perspective:

  • In September 2017, our monthly minimum payments totaled $718.27
  • As of June 1st, our monthly minimum payments are only $194.20

That means if an emergency were to happen and we needed to stop the snowball, only $194.20 would be needed to cover minimum debt payments. Not too shabby!

A lot of people are curious how we eat and stay on budget. We only plan our dinners, here was our meal plan for the 1st thru the 15th:

  • Mondays: fajitas
  • Tuesdays: veggie stir fry
  • Wednesdays: taco pasta
  • Thursdays: BBQ tempeh with a crockpot green bean casserole and sweet potato fries
  • Fridays: tofu & broccoli + a birthday dinner out
  • Saturdays: dinner out at a Mets game + tofu & broccoli
  • Sundays: king oyster mushroom pulled pork sammies + a Mother’s Day lasagna

My mom had been requesting this lasagna for months, so I offered to make it as an early Sunday dinner. I made the sauce and roasted the veggies ahead of time during the week so that it would be less to do on Mother’s Day (more time spent with my mom).

This was our second time making the pulled “pork” sandwiches via Bosh = so good! And we had enough leftovers for another meal, so we froze the cooked mushrooms…. we shall see how those hold up! I’ve never frozen mushrooms before, I’m hoping they’ll be okay and then we can just cook ’em up in the air fryer.

Oh yeah, we won an air fryer! Whoop whoop! Culinary Square had a giveaway for TNO and I entered after picking up a bridal shower gift. We’ve fried mushrooms, gyoza, sweet potatoes, chicken-less tenders, eggplant, zucchini, tofu and russet potatoes (home fries) – this thing is awesome! The beau tends to use more oil than I do (but he does get things a lot crispier than I do), so I was excited to use this device and cut back on oil. LOVE IT!  

The beau requested I buy canned green beans for the casserole because fresh or frozen were still too crunchy for him. Confession: I had never purchased canned green beans (or any canned vegetable for that matter). I was a skeptic at 40 cents a can but I have to admit, they were delicious! Yes, these canned beans were not organic and yes, they were in a can but I have to remind myself that these are the sacrifices we are making now so that we can invest more later. Don’t judge… at least we’re getting a serving of veggies.

Our meal plan for the 16th thru the 31st:

  • Mondays: tempeh jalapeno wraps with roasted broccoli
  • Tuesdays: veggie stir fry
  • Wednesdays: pasta with TVP sauce and roasted asparagus
  • Thursdays: Chinese takeout + tofu + broccoli
  • Fridays: tofu + broccoli + loaded potatoes
  • Saturdays: eggplant parm + loaded potatoes
  • Sundays: southwest quinoa burgers + tater tots

This month we cash flowed ($585) a CSA with Denison Farm – all USDA certified organic and I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about it. I’ve been rocking the whole meal planning thing and now I’m going to have to shop / cook on the fly with what we receive each Saturday at the Farmer’s Market delivery. I like shopping twice a month. And I also prefer shopping on my lunch break, avoiding the weekend crowds. Once the CSA begins in June, our monthly food allowance will decrease by $27 per week because of the prepayment amount. I’ll surely have an update next month with how I’m juggling this change.

We also cash flowed:

  • a birthday gift and two mother’s day gifts – sinking fund envelope
  • hair gel for the beau and soap for us both
  • a new website layout (business investment)
  • tickets for a show at the Egg (beau)
  • the beau signed up for a watercolor class at the Arts Center of the Capital Region
  • parking at the train station (the day we went to a Met’s game)
  • stuff for our garden (some seedlings, burlap, screws and twine)
  • our 6 month car insurance payment – sinking fund envelope
  • and a small gift certificate for an employee on my work team

This month I also tried to focus on my running more, as last month (April) it took a back seat… and I have a race to run in three months! I ran almost 70 miles in May, which wasn’t what I was aiming for but I’m happy with because I feel like I’m easing back into a routine and not overwhelming myself. I’m remembering what it feels like to be sore and getting use to being out of the house before 5AM.

June will hopefully bring a lot of miles… and a lot of cash because I’ll be working downtown again on Saturdays. I’ve picked up a side hustle at Annick’s during the farmer’s market – hey, I’m going to be down there anyway getting my veggies!

That’s it folks, we made yet another budget, told our money where to go, hustled and made it happen. No magic, just a plan!

[Again, sorry no photographs, I should be purchasing a new phone over the next three months prior to race day.]

Books I’ve Read this Quarter: Q1 2018

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Working for a library system has one major perk: library books are delivered to your desk!

With the start of the new year, I set a reading goal for myself because the most successful people tend to have one thing in common: they read. (click here for more) I had heard this while earning my Master’s but was reminded of it while listening to an episode of the Millionaire Theme Hour on the Dave Ramsey podcast. Are you sick of him yet? One of the questions he asks these successful (and not famous) individuals is how many books they read a year. Four out of five times the answer is more than 10 books a year. Insert my goal: 15

I’ve started the year off strong with the help of a long, cold winter and a honeymoon. Here’s what I’ve read this quarter and a brief review of each:


The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs // I really enjoyed this book. The author has a dark sense of humor that made me laugh out loud multiple times and really makes you think about what makes a meaningful life when you have limited time.


The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein // I read this book on the first full day of our honeymoon, relaxing in the sun; I couldn’t put it down! I cried and cried during the last two chapters – it’s written from the perspective of the dog and is just what I imagine a dog thinks during the course of its life. We don’t deserve dogs FYI.


Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother’s Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South by Beth Macy // I also read this book while on our honeymoon but wasn’t read in a day (5 to be exact). This isn’t my idea of a book to read while on holiday but I did enjoy the story of the two brothers who were kidnapped and forced to travel the world as circus freaks. The author does a great job at exploring the question: where they better off?


Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life by Ruth Soukup // This book was on my must-read list for a number of months and I wish I had read reviews prior to taking it out. There was maybe ONE chapter that was exactly what I wanted/needed to hear – the rest, was mostly about living a good, Christian life = I can normally block this out (I am not a religious person), but it was really heavy and not for me. Her story felt very… weird… like a rich woman trying to act frugal but was still very much concerned with her designer clothes, car and perfectly decorated house. I’m not knocking her lifestyle, I just couldn’t connect with it while on my journey to financial freedom.


The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking // I also really enjoyed this little book! The illustrations were beautiful and the reading was inspiring – almost makes me want to move to Denmark! I can’t wait to take this book into consideration when we start decorating our home – and by decorating, I mean replacing light fixtures and paint colors etc. Also important to note: hygge is not about what you HAVE, it’s what you FEEL.

I’m “ahead” of schedule but must admit I’m falling behind; I don’t know if it’s the longer days or what, but I’ve had zero motivation to read this month.

5/15

Have any good book suggestions? Do you use Good Reads to keep track of everything you’ve read? (the beau got me hooked!)

February in Review

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February was an interesting month for us.

We paid off the beau’s car! 
When we started this journey back in September, we owed $10,106.53 on the beau’s car. He bought it (a 2014 Prius) on February 18, 2017 which means we’ve paid it off four years ahead of schedule AND within a year of the purchase date! Boom pow!

We started tackling student loan 2 of 6!
From here on out, it’s allllllll student loans. We’re now tackling subsidized Stafford Loan 1-01. The beau originally took out this loan back in August 2007 and its original balance at 5.8% was $8,500. When we started this journey back in September, the balance was $10,218.42 and if we stayed on Navient’s track, our anticipated payoff date would be 12/25/2031. My personal payoff goal for this loan is June 2018… that’s a 13.5 year difference in case you didn’t do the math. After all we’ve dumped on it this month, the remaining balance is $8,232.72!

We took a holiday / honeymoon in Mexico!
This trip was booked back in July prior to the start of all of this and frankly I don’t care if it was booked two weeks prior, we were going! It was paid entirely by cash, thanks to the generosity of friends and family who gifted us cash as a wedding gift. Seriously, THANK YOU friends and family! xoxo While planning this trip our intentions weren’t to be frugal, we just don’t prefer extravagant accommodations. No resort for us, or even a hotel; we hit up Airbnb which allowed us to book an entire house in a pretty remote area of Mexico inaccessible by road. It was lovely to say the least.

Returning home from the trip, we had about a thousand leftover and my first initial thought was to dump this toward debt. After all, Dave Ramsey says no holidays during the first four baby steps. In one ear and out the other, we both agreed to continue to keep this cash in a separate savings account and we’ll use it as needed for little mini getaways i.e. long weekends camping in the Adirondacks, a trip to NYC to see the Mets play, a weekend in NH with friends, and possibly an autumn trip to Montreal. I think our friends and family would agree with this decision too.

While in Mexico, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!
Time really has flown by! It’s so cliché to say, but I can’t believe it has already been one year. On our actual anniversary, we traveled from Yelapa back to Puerto Vallarta, ate lunch at a wonderful brewery we stumbled upon, enjoyed a delicious taco dinner, and then walked the boardwalk along the ocean and caught the sunset… and drank more beer at that delicious brewery! It was relaxing, it was fun and it was an anniversary I won’t forget! I love the idea of spending our anniversary each year on holiday buuuuuuuuut with annual reporting in the library community, that won’t be possible. We’ll see what we come up with next year.

And because we were in Mexico for nine days, we saved money on both our groceries and eating out/alcohol envelopes! $229 to be exact! Hopefully we’ll see a savings on our utilities bill too next month! Our meal plan wasn’t very adventurous, a rotation of regular meals we enjoy, switching after two weeks.

I earned residual income while in Mexico.
More on this to come in a future post regarding MLM companies and how it’s working for me and has been over a period of time (I’m not talking legging fads), I earned an income while on vacation doing nothing. Was it as much as it has been in previous months while working toward earning that income? No. But it was income that I appreciate and value and not only did I deposit a portion of it toward debt, but I also invested some back into my friends and family who support me on this journey of abundance. I don’t share Young Living just because there’s the potential to earn cash, I share because I’ve been a fan of their products for a number of years (10+ years) and I know many people can benefit from them as well. Earning a paycheck is a wonderful thank you bonus for making a referral (because let’s be honest, we share our opinions about everything)!

I paid a hefty parking fine.
Long story short I got a ticket back in October for talking on my phone while driving… even though I wasn’t holding my phone. That’s a five point violation on your record FYI. Luckily, it was reduced to just a parking violation with a $225 fine. FINE BY ME! I’d gladly pay that over receiving that many points. Don’t worry, I’m no longer speaking on loudspeaker, I got a Bluetooth device for Christmas from Santa.

We still had fun.
Despite being on a budget, we both had some fun outside of the house this month. Oftentimes I think people assume because you’re on a budget, you don’t get to engage in other activities: not true! You get to decide how much money you spend on fun! The two of us are very content being homebodies, which is great because you save money however I know not everyone is like us. We might spend more cash on groceries because we like cooking at home, while you may add more to your eating out envelope because that’s what you prefer. Budget = options.

This month we participated in Nine Pin’s 26er challenge, sampling ciders #3 and #4. On Valentine’s Day we joined a friend at Rare Form for a chocolate and beer sampling. I had a date night out with an old colleague and friend, enjoying a sushi dinner and cashing in a gift certificate at the Latham Paint and Sip location. The beau had a bro night out with his old biz partner in Albany, checking out an art show and sippin’ on beers. We even had dinner out twice this month, once after our trip because the fridge was empty. We did all of this on a reduced envelope this month, normally $195, set at $100.

Other random facts about February.
We cash flowed an inspection, oil change, tire rotation and registration for the beau’s car. I re-upped my subscription with AAA, as I do not pay for those services via our car insurance. AAA is an expense you use once, see how convenient it is and keep in fear of needing again. Ha! I’m determined to take advantage of their discounts this year! I also renewed hosting for this blog, but for only a month. Dun dun dun. Oh! A little home improvement: we bought a doorknob. And a hot water bottle because hello, it’s cold in Upstate NY and this is my $17 solution for not turning up the heat. And relieving cramps.

Numbers wise, we paid off 4.25% of debt this month, totaling 25.09%! One fourth of the way done! Our balance is now $66,730.17 having paid off $22,345.28 since September. This system works, no need to try and reinvent the wheel or my other favorite motto: keep it simple stupid. According to these stats, we should be debt free by September 2019; two years after starting this debt free journey. It’s hard not to get consumed by that date and what’s “expected” of us each month to reach that goal, but on the other hand, it is motivating. I want to earn more money. I want to spend less. I want to live a life saving and spending my income in a way that makes me happy… not giving it to Sallie Mae. I’m constantly fiddling with spreadsheets to figure out how to move that date forward… and it is creeping up. Slowly but surely.

How was February for you? Did you hit any financial milestones?

December’s Budget Review

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December was a wonderful month for us! Hard, especially saying no to a number of requests to go out for a drink, but we did it. We cash flowed Christmas with no sinking fund in place and even had extra cash at the end of the month to deposit toward debt. Step back and think about it: are you going to be paying off Christmas next month or next summer? Not worth it!

The beau and I had a conversation about Christmas and what it means to us: we both agree that spending money on gifts is unnecessary. We both have families that are fortunate enough to buy as things come up / are needed, and having this added pressure is silly. Looking back at last week, my favorite part of Christmas was being together. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all saved our cash and instead saved it for a trip or vacation together? At least on my side of the family, there are no kids = gifts aren’t needed under the tree for that added Christmas magic moment. Do I sound like Scrooge? I don’t feel like one: I just enjoy being home for the holiday, having a special dinner and playing a couple games.

With the added gift expenses, I wanted to save as much possible in other categories. Here are some things we did this month to reduce our fixed expenses:

  • We combined our cell phone plan: I opened my Cingular Wireless account back in 2003. Eventually AT&T bought Cingular and my plan never changed… until December 3rd! I feel silly for paying as much as I was each month (it was up to $79.29), I was admittedly nervous about getting rid of my grandfathered plan, but it was indeed outdated. The beau joined my plan, as I receive a discount via my employer, so we should save at least $25 per month (we haven’t received an invoice yet reflecting the change). With five days left in this billing cycle, we’ve used .8 of 6GB…. so we will most likely be changing our data plan to save even more.
  • We did our research and changed our insurance company for both auto and home owners insurance. It took us about three weeks to make the decision, but it was worth it: we are saving $24 each month for our auto insurance (or $288 each year). Our home owners insurance actually went up $1 per month, but that’s because we opted in to an additional coverage line that we didn’t have previously (regarding water backup damage). But it wasn’t just about the money: we just weren’t happy with the representative that we were working with and as it turns out, our bartender also slings insurance. Or did, he got us set up before taking time off for the holidays.
  • Ohhhhh Spectrum! I received our INCREASED December internet invoice and called to ask why it had changed (the promotion was over) without notification. They insisted it was on my November invoice, but when we both took a look, it wasn’t. So I negotiated our rate for one more month and saved $10. The cost will jump from $44 to $69.95 for 20Mbps (with Time Warner). But with Spectrum, you can get 100Mbps for $64.95… explain that one. AND they insist on saying I’m a TW customer despite logging on to the Spectrum website… but when I asked to become a Spectrum customer to receive the next promotion ($44 for 100Mbps), I was told I couldn’t because technically overall I’m a Spectrum customer. Talk about confusing. I’m just HOPING and SENDING POSITIVE VIBES that Massive Mesh will expand within the next couple of months so that I can officially DUMP Spectrum. I would cancel it altogether until their expansion buuuuuuuut the beau is taking a class that runs through February and he needs the Internet to do his hw. hw – remember when you’d have to write that little shortcut down in your agenda? Ha! I digress: either Massive Mesh needs to get their act together ASAP or we are going back to track phones to avoid that payment each month.

To save money in general, this month we:

  • Installed a new condensate pump ourselves. And by we I mean the beau and his dad. The furnace service person suggested a replacement costing $346 – we had a gift card to Amazon and bought one for $45 – BOOM! 
  • Registered for a 2018 race at the early bird rate. I learned my lesson with the TTT, the earlier you register for a race, the better. $10 saved 🙂
  • Switched around a dermatologist appointment. I’ll now have a deductible in 2018 for my health insurance ($50), so I changed doctors (I didn’t care for mine anyway) and expressed my intention to the new doctor to save money, and not only did she see me as a new patient, but she also performed a little procedure that same day. Normally that’s a second visit, so I saved $30 for a copay and essentially $20 extra dollars had I gone in January. And I no longer have a skin tag growing on my nose that looks like a booger. Win win.

I continued planning our meals but didn’t use the repeating method this month. I can tell you that it’s far easier shopping for repeat meals! It felt like chaos in the stores running around for a ton of different items, ha! We did use up all of our allocated cash for both food and eating out, with the help of some money won during the holidays on scratch offs for Chinese takeout. Not bad because I also bought some added ingredients for our Christmas dinner…

…which was a portobello wellington via Bosh! So so good! It was a tiny tad bit dry but definitely something I can tweak the next time I make it (just add more stock to the stuffing). A delicious gravy would be a great addition too! But paired with creamy potatoes, I didn’t mind one bit.

I also had two leftover squash in the house and tried three new recipes to use ’em up:

Creamy Pumpkin Marinara however I used an ugly squash via Field Goods and didn’t add the cinnamon or parmesan cheese. It was delicious! The beau isn’t a lover of squash but paired with pasta and made to taste like an alla vodka sauce, we both enjoyed this meal.

I had one other random squash lying around from Halloween and decided to make a spicy curry soup. It was bland despite smelling great and the texture was weird and now I can’t seem to find the recipe used, whoops! I must have deleted it from a Pinterest board it was that bad.

But I did attempt my first loaf of no-knead bread! I used this recipe and it came out okay – not bad but not anything to get excited about. It was what we ate with the soup, and just about devoured the whole loaf. I’m determined to master a good loaf of bread!

Now on to my most favorite part of the post – the total numbers!

In December, we reduced our total debt by $3,556.43 (or 4.65%)! *The smallest payoff month to date. Our remaining debt balance is $72,884.19! That means in just four months, we’ve paid off a total of $16,191.26 or reduced debt by 18.18%! That’s soooooo close to 20% or being 1/5 of the way done and sooooo close to being in the $60ks… which will happen in January! The remaining balance on the Prius (our current debt snowball account) is only $4,257.18.

Other random numbers I calculated this month that keep me motivated:

  • We paid $322 in interest this month, NOT including our mortgage.
  • Multiply that number by 12 and you’d get $3,864; that’s money that we’ll NEVER see again. That is WHY we are speeding up this process to get rid of our debt and pause our retirement contributions.
  • On average we paid $4,047.82 a month! If we stay on that track, we’re projected to pay off $48,573.78 next year! Hint: I hope to BLOW that number out of the water by increasing our monthly income!

I know the month isn’t over yet, but the final payment has been made and we’re both in agreement that our bank account is frozen for the next four days (no pun intended – it was -6 when we got up this morning!). Our NYE tickets were purchased earlier this month and money is set aside for an Uber – we’re ready for 2018!

November’s Budget Review

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Despite booking up most of the month and celebrating Thanksgiving, November draaaaaaaaagged on. And for one reason only: I could not wait to pay my bills! By the end of the first week of the month, all of our bills were paid and I was just sitting around, waiting to get paid so that I could dump money toward debt. I relate this feeling of dedication to when I was training for my first marathon: I had one goal, all in, focused on the finish line. AKA I’m obsessed and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

This month was an outstanding month for us! We paid a total of $4,656.18 toward debt, $755.80 going toward interest! We paid off the last of my personal debt: a credit card that I maxed out a couple of years ago and have been slowly making minimum payments on. Golly, it feels SO DAMN GOOD to no longer have that looming over my head! Especially because it was the debt with the highest interest rate attached to it. We started on this journey back in September with 8 debt balances totaling $89,075.45 and we now have 6 balances totaling $76,440.62! That’s a total of $12,634.83 paid off in three months, down 14.18%. Yes, we are moving at gazelle speed.

We’re now working on debt #3 which is the beau’s Prius. He bought this car in February (of 2017) with a low interest rate of 2.24%. When starting this journey in September, its balance was $10,106.53. November’s ending balance is $7,842.11. My personal goal for this debt is to have it paid in full in February 2018, the one year anniversary of driving it off the lot. I KNOW we can do it!

We also cash flowed a number of items this month (cash flowed = paid cash):

  • 8 snow tires
  • gutters for the back of our house and a cleaning for the ones in the front
  • a baby shower gift
  • a haircut for me
  • three Christmas gifts
  • a birthday gift
  • the Turkey Trot 10k registration
  • a reimbursement to a friend
  • a shirt and dress for myself from the Boden sample sale
  • a winter hiking puffer jacket for myself – thank you Black Friday sales! (the only item I bought Friday)
  • my ADK 46er dues
  • and a domain renewal for the beau

Almost half of those items were gifts, which means in 2018 we need to make sure to start saving for those expenses. To do this, it’s as easy as adding a line to our budget and establishing an envelope to stash cash in each month, similar to our auto insurance savings envelope.

This month we again followed the repeat meals each week:

Monday: Spanish rice
Tuesday: taco pasta
Wednesday: tempeh jalapeno wraps with broccoli
Thursday: veggie pot roast over noodles
Friday: “fish” tacos
Saturday: pizza!

Despite all of my planning, the meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays didn’t work for the beau and his evening class because he didn’t want to bring a meal into the classroom; he’d prefer a sandwich. I’m personally not down with eating a sandwich twice a week for the next three months for dinner, but I let it slide for the first month while he settled into this new schedule. He made a loaf of seitan, our budget friendly alternative to the fake deli slices that are out there. I still made the taco pasta for myself each Tuesday and enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast the following day 🙂 I ditched the veggie pot roast after the first week because although it was super delicious, it was just too much for me to eat day after day. I either made myself a salad on Thursday nights or winged it with other leftovers. We spent every penny of our $400 grocery budget in November. 

We budgeted $195 for any eating out and alcohol purchases for the month and surprise surprise we used it all up. November 4th was our 6-year anniversary of our first date. We returned to Bacchus and enjoyed a drink and an appetizer and looked back on that fun first date. Instead of ordering their wood-fired pizza, we went home and made our own while enjoying some crowlers from Rare Form. The beau has mad pizza skills! We also ordered a box of wine via the Wine Insiders for $65.99. We’re suckers for a good deal and an opportunity to fill up the wine rack in the basement, even if it’s temporarily. Ha! Other than that night out at the beginning of the month, we didn’t eat out again, take out included. This is becoming easier for me because I have a plan and everything needed to cook such planned meals, but I admittedly did want to order takeout at least once. 

For my monthly wellness box via Young Living I stocked up on items that would continue to support our immune systems this yucky time of the year. I spent $301.44 (including shipping) of our $300 budget on 2 bottles of SuperB, 8 bottles of Ningxia Red, 1 bottle of Lime Vitality and a 3-pack of Thieves dental floss. I earned $41.31 back for my next order and received a free bottle of Christmas Spirit essential oil blend… ’tis the season! I also received two free bottles of Red Shot – which I’ve never tried and am looking forward to! The Ningxia Red was 15% off on Cyber Monday, and I snagged 6 of those bottles up then; that just means I won’t have to order Ningxia for the next three months = saving money in this category!

December is going to be another big-spend month for us. I have to wrap up my holiday shopping and the beau still needs to do all of his. This year my gifting will be less, not that I was ever really into gifting, but because I’d rather focus on time spent with family rather than finding something I hope they’ll get use out of. Important to note: we are NOT taking money out of our emergency fund to cover holiday gifts. Nor did we take any out in November to cover the expenses mentioned above. Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, dues etc. are NOT emergencies. They didn’t show up out of nowhere. A friend via FB shared a simple spreadsheet she uses for gifts to track what she buys, how much it costs, who it’s being gifted to etc.. I think that’s a wonderful idea! Do you budget for how much you’re going to spend on gifts? How do you keep track if using a debit card?