A Year of Savings: 2013

Dec 7:  We stayed home today.  Cold, rainy, unpleasant weather for traveling long distance...So happy I had a meal prepared. I had only to warm and we ate.

Dec 8:  Still cold.  I got up in the very early morning hours and turned on the propane heater to offset the use of the defrost mode on our central heat pump.

John had plans today.  I didn't have food prepared ahead.  I used my allowance to buy dinner on our way back home.



I spent the afternoon baking Challah, savings $3.59 and an angel food cake from a mix bought at Aldi.  I paid $1.19 for this mix and the only 'ingredient' required was water!  Savings over bakery cake $2.50.

Dec 9:  My schedule is all up in the air!  Again, we have plans for a portion of the day which changed. I got my routine housekeeping work done this morning.  I spent the afternoon waiting on John to do an inservice at work.  We went down to pick up his check, did our banking.  We skipped allowances for this pay period as we both had plenty of cash on hand.  savings $100.

John bought supper for us at Subway from his pocket money.  I had no time to make the egg salad before I left.

Dec 10:  Made egg salad for sandwich filling.  savings $3.00.

We shopped for groceries today...I told you my schedule was all messed up!  Two stores today: Aldi and Kroger.  I came in under budget.  Savings $70.  I put that money aside for stocking up on turkey and baking supplies later in this month.

Dec 11:  Ordered a few items online and had shipped directly to the recipients.   Shipping was FREE. Savings $22.

Dec 12:  Fashioned a new dining table centerpiece from  what I had on hand.  Savings: at least $10.

Dec 13:  John sang for our dinner today.  Plans were to come home and heat dinner, but we had that entree for supper instead.  Savings $6.

I meant to purchase new ornaments this year but I decided to really look through my things.  I came up with  a lovely look for my tree, not typical, but pretty.  I have brown, cream and gold birds, gold ornaments, and brown glass pinecones with snow on them.  I bought the birds after Christmas, perhaps the first part of this year (which is almost gone!).  They were $7.99 each originally.  I bought 1 dozen for about $22 per the receipt I found in the bottom of the bag. 


 I'm not really happy with this arrangement. I'll work on it a bit more.  The holly is definitely going away.

 My backdoor swag, fashioned from one I've used about 5 years now.  I simply added what I had on hand, some red poinsettia blooms, velvet with sequins, red ribbon and underneath the poinsettias for a fun touch, jingle bells so the door 'rings' every time it opens or shuts.  Jingle bells make me happy!

All my decorations thus far were free, what I had on hand, just fashioned in a new way.

Total:  $209.09

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am thankful the people we give gifts to love any gifts including used ones. I have found many books that these individual people would love + many other like new things. Could be people are buying things at your booth for gifts too. I know we look in antique stores every time we are there for special gifts. Sometimes we do not or cannot buy some of the things there we want but it does give us ideas on how to make things to give to others with things we already have. Also I love to look at how these pretties are displayed or arranged and get lots of ideas there. There are many talented people selling things!! Their talent for changing up their displays and keeping it eye appealing and yet easy for customers to see and get to their things is unlimited it seems! We appreciate you who work so hard to keep pretty booths! :-) Your merchandizing skills are noticed!!!!
The holidays always seem to lend themselves to many unscheduled days don't they! :) We have a countdown to work towards and only so many days to accomplish what seems like so very many things...!! But wether we finish it all or not the 25th will be here...for sure!! We need to keep it in mind again and again why we are celebrating. It makes you smile every time. A real stress reliever too. Keep smiling and carry on... Sarah

Living on Less Money Blog said...

I enjoyed your post on how you saved money. I see you look to be in the kitchen. So do I. We've had to change our diet this past year for health reasons so it feels like I'm learning to cook all over again. I have found some good recipes using alternative flours that I enjoy. Hope you have a Merry Christmas! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.