I now have a clearer picture of my future income and I realize I need to make a few changes.
I will continue to post every penny I spend, and indicate what is for food and what is for non-food items. I have been very careless of late in not planning ahead. I have gone to a convenience store and grabbed something that I had run out of, and paid too much. A case in point was just this past week when I popped in to buy a litre of milk for $2.99, when I should have paid only $4.27 for four litres.
I am starting to collect coupons again. I haven't been using them in over a year. I also stopped using CheckOut 51. I missed out on a free bottle of shampoo at Shopper's Drug Mart this weekend because I neglected to print out a coupon for Dove shampoo when it was available, and now it is gone. Time to get serious about using these advantages again.
I will continue to purge items from the house. My SIL from Smith Falls has been coming to spend a couple of days with me every other week to help me organize and clean different areas in the house. I am enjoying these purging sessions very much. It helps to have someone else look objectively at your belongings and ask why you are hanging on to something. She has been helping me so much. Right now we are still at the point of tossing items in the garbage or bagging things up for the Thrift Store. Later, I will look for items to sell. Right now I am just happy to organize my belongings. I feel so indebted to her.
I need to make and keep a price book. I will be better able to tell if buying something at the Bulk Store is a better price than a sale price at the grocers.
I am working my way through my freezers and my pantry. Yesterday I cooked up a turkey I had in the bottom of one of my freezers. My son and his GF were over for dinner. I sent them home with some turkey slices, and I was able to freeze three good sized containers of turkey meat for future casseroles and pot pies. I have enough turkey breast meat and dressing for the rest of the week. I put half of the carcass in the freezer and I put the other half in the crock pot overnight to make lots of soup broth. I will freeze this soup broth because I am still eating homemade soup I made last week from some chicken. There will be more vegetarian based meals since I am now cooking for one.
I am learning about some basic maintenance that was never in my purview before now. I changed the filter in the furnace and I drove to Oil Changers to have the oil and filter changed in my van. I used some carpenter's glue to repair a piece of trim that kept coming off one of my kitchen cupboard doors.
I will continue to craft to make my greeting cards and homemade things for gifting. As well as relaxing me, it will save me money. I would like to learn more skills to broaden my abilities. I may also consider making cards for sale.
I will try to do more DIY with materials I already have on hand. I will borrow or trade items, rather than buy.
I will conserve more resources. Soon the weather will be nice enough to start hanging my laundry outside to dry. I have a healthy surplus in my Gas heating account, and it will be nice to have that going into the next winter. I will have more control over my Hydro usage during the summer months, and the extra savings will help when usage goes up again in the Fall. I will continue to "make my own" cleaners, mixes, etc. and look for more recipes for "make your own". Since I rarely watch TV, I called my Cable company to drop my TV package to $25 a month as well as dropping the Computer package I was paying for to a lower usage one. I did increase my telephone package to unlimited because I was often paying overages on the old plan. Overall, I will be paying about $30 less per month.
My first shop for April was at the Bulk Barn on Seniors Day, so I was entitled to 10% off. The bill came to $34.22
Looking forward to growing some more food in a couple of months. I still have burgundy beans and lots of tomatoes from last summer.
Welcome back! I really like the new format of your posts, I think that it will help you focus on your frugal efforts and your budget quite a bit. I wish our coupons were good in Canada, I could send you a whole bunch!
ReplyDeleteWe will be getting a bulk store in July, I can't wait to see what their prices are like and what items I might be able to get there. I'm afraid to go a little crazy and buy things that I won't use so I'll have to have a stern talk with myself before entering the store because they're good as sending coupons and have other programs to entice you to buy more and I'm a sucker for loyalty programs, coupons, etc.
It's a great idea to have someone help you with the decluttering. As you said, without the emotional connections to the stuff, they're able to make you question whether you really want/need to hang on to things or not.
$30 a month in savings is great, you did a good job analyzing what you needed and how much you were using each service.
Are you planning on gardening again this season? I decided against it out of laziness and now we're in the middle of a drought so I think that was the right choice. I still have herbs (rosemary, thyme and some basil that's still growing) and I'd like to buy an oregano plant, and then I have a pot of green onions, but otherwise, as soon as my last tomato plants are done producing (I had grown them from seed back in January 2016!), I'll be able to collapse those self-watering bins that are all crumbling and then figure out what I'm doing moving forward.
I wish you the best with all your efforts and your health, Susan. I'm glad you're posting again :)
Thank you Nathalie. Yes, I am looking forward to doing more gardening this summer. I managed to pick up 3 packets of carrot seeds for $1 at the Dollar Store, and I still have some seeds left over from last summer. But mainly, I like to buy starting plants for pepper, cucumbers and tomatoes. I think I would also like to grow some squash and more potatoes than I planted last summer. I seemed to have good success with those.
Delete(((HUGS))) Susan. Welcome back! I am so happy to see you posting again. I'm glad that you recognized the signs in time and will be seeing the doctor. Take care of yourself. I just found out that some of the medications I am on for the cancer treatment can cause depression and mood swings as side effects. I am now thinking that some of my recent emotional experiences might be due, in part, to these medications. Or, maybe I am just getting older and crabbier! LOL!
ReplyDeleteGlad your SIL is helping you with the purging of items. I think it is a good thing to have someone else to help you decide what can, or needs to, be tossed. Just take it in easy steps and don't overwhelm yourself.
Continue to take good care of yourself during this stressful time. Know that we are there for you in spirit, if not in person. Continuing to keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Welcome back to posting on the blog!
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, those mood swings can certainly explain a lot of the irritation/sadness that you have been feeling as the result of your medications. Emotions seem impossible to control, even when you acknowledge the source of your feelings.
DeleteMy SIL has lots of experience helping clients rid their homes of clutter (think hoarding). I am not a hoarder, but I do have a lot of STUFF in my house. She is very patient and knows that I have the last word on whether or not an item stays. But she is very good at asking all the right questions about an item's value. Some things I have taken pictures of before I could let it go. Some things went to a new owner. And finally, some things have stayed with a promise to revisit in a year's time. She comes every other week to give me a break between visits. Like I said, I am most grateful for her help.