Merry Merry Month of May

The numbers for April are in and they're pretty good:

• the budget line for gasoline was $60 but I only spent $45 😁 yippee yahoo! Still have about a half tank of gas left. 
• the budget line for food was set at the usual $280 but I only spent $212 😁
• Utilities came in under budget by $35 😁
• Savings per month has risen to $1200 from $1000 which will shorten the amount of time needed to replenish money spent on new car😁 This means a smaller amount of misc spending money but so far so good. 
• Misc $$ was spent on: two movies- "Game Night" (fairly funny) and "A Quiet Place" (EXCELLENT!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!); two albums purchased from iTunes; a Scotland guidebook downloaded to my Kindle App; $55 spent on fundraising dinner; a pair of gloves used in grooming Luna and Lily ($15 on Amazon - they work really well!); a six-pack of craft beer; a couple of pints after volleyball; $65 spent on a spring tuneup and new rear brakes for my bike; $25 spent at Dollarama (but I don't remember what I bought!); $26 for dinner with family at Morrissey House (it was 15% off for women to make up for gender equity issues!); $15 at Walmart for cat food; $25 to The Red Cross
• Internet bill has risen from $79 to $88  😡
• Paid income tax 😡

Looking ahead at expenses for May:

• As it's my birthday month I get to pay the gov't $120 for a new license sticker for my car 😡
• I will want to purchase flowers for my patio and for the front garden - I'm hoping I can keep my purchases to a reasonable amount - HAH!! That almost NEVER happens - I usually overspend on flowers! 💚

• I will need to keep misc spending to roughly $90 per week so that I can move $1200 to savings. Done  By the end of 2018 my savings accounts will be back to their pre-car purchase amounts!! 😁 I see several trips in 2019!!!

I have budgeted $45 for gas but I hope to spend ZERO now that I have my bike ready as my main source of transportation in the coming months 😁 Also hoping I can keep grocery spending to a minimum.  In aid of that I received and used a $25.00 gift card from Loblaw's to make up for their bread price fixing scandal. That should get me through to the weekend!! I also have $40 in points that I can use for groceries if need be.

Was April kind or nasty to your monthly budget??

November Numbers: New Budget

Good-bye October and HELLO November!

I experienced some belt-tightening in October due to the new car purchase which left me with a much smaller amount of Misc money for weekly spending. Knowing I couldn't play "fast and loose" with my funds I was way more careful with misc spending than I normally am! So...even on a reduced budget I managed to squirrel away more money than usual in my snowflake box! Yippee!!!

A number of factors helped me stash away extra snowflakes:

• I had set a gasoline budget of $80 for October. I didn't use any of that! When I bought the car the tank was full and I didn't buy any gas during the rest of September or October. When gas went down in price Nov. 1st I filled the tank for a cost of only $40! Looks like I won't be overspending on gas though I anticipate using more now that it is getting colder. If I can make it til the end of November without buying more gas I'll have another $40 to add to the snowflake box :)
• Both electricity and natural gas bills came in under the budgeted amount. It's been a mild fall so far and I haven't had to use the furnace much yet or the electric heater downstairs in the TV room. 
• I was very frugal with my grocery shopping this month. I'm still eating from the package of 5 chicken breasts that I bought: first I made fajitas (lasted 2 nights), then I used some in a pasta dish (1 dinner and Kazi took the rest the next day for her lunch); and then I made chicken vegetable soup with the remainder which I am still eating. (yes, chicken was frozen after being cooked!) I had $50 left in the grocery budget which went into the snowflake tin. 
• November will brings its own savings opportunities. I have switched to a cheaper internet package (more gigs at a lower cost!) I have been paying $93/month for 200g. I was browsing my internet company's website (Rogers.com) and saw a different, cheaper package so I switched. I don't know how much exactly my new bill will be what with taxes and so on but should be in the area of $60 for 250g.
• My share of car insurance is going down by $11/month - that's not a lot but it's money in my pocket instead of the insurance company's!
• I've also paid off $2,000 on my credit card: this was the maximum the car dealership would accept from using a credit card to pay for a car. As interest could accrue it was the first part of the car's cost that I paid off.
• I have made another purchase (a Yamaha keyboard-Merry Christmas to me!!) and paid most of it off (a different credit card). When I receive a GIC interest payment later this month it will go to pay off the rest owing on the credit card. By the end of November I will be 100% debt-free once again. 
• Now that one c/c is paid in full I have also repaid my savings in the amount of $500. Having no debt means that starting in December over $1,000 per month will re-build my savings to my pre-car purchase balance. If I didn't travel my savings accounts would be totally repaid in 10 months but as I have plans for a couple trips next year it will taken longer to rebuild my savings but that's ok. Can't be frugal all of the time! 
• Come January my pension will receive an extra bump up due to increased cost of living raise. When I first started receiving my pension not ALL of my pension received cost of living increases. That was due to the pension plan not doing as well back in the financial crisis of 2007-8. But now that the stock market has recovered my entire pension will receive the cost of living increase. I'm very happy about that! I know how much the gross amount will be but not what my net increase will be. 
• By the end of November my snowflake box should hold about $500.  Along with my PC points from using my President's Choice Mastercard for all purchases (currently around $100) I will have $600 saved for Christmas. I will also have an extra $300 from not having to pay property taxes in December or January (I pay my taxes on a 10 month plan)! That should cover any additional expenses during the very expensive month of December:) 

And there you have it - my spending adventure (car and keyboard) is over for now. Snowflakes are growing and by the time the real snow is on the ground I'll have Christmas expenses covered. Having a plan and sticking to it really helps. I must remember that as I plan my travelling for next year: Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and SCOTLAND! 

Soup Anti-Nazi

$276.14 - that's how much I spent on groceries for the month of January. I budgeted $280.00 so came in under budget by a tiny bit. I told someone today that I came in $25 under budget but since then found another charge of $20.88 that I missed on my Mastercard bill. Poo. But under is under in my books so bwhahaha! Oh, and speaking of poo this covers cat litter and dry food for Luna and Lily. If I buy it at the grocery store - even if it is stuff we don't eat - it comes our of the grocery budget. Laundry detergent, ibuprofen, toothpaste, shampoo...blah blah blah.

Part of how I keep my food budget low is to make everything from scratch and make BIG batches of things like soup & veggie chilli. (and that way I don't have to cook something new every single night...bwhahahaha!) Whatever we don't eat goes in the freezer. Being a "soup anti-nazi" I PUSH soup on people, especially my daughter. The soups I make are meals in a dish and she much prefers something homemade for lunch instead of eating fast food. (Not to mention she saves money eating her ma's cooking!) She wan't always like that but now, thankfully, she really appreciates the healthy food that we eat. She's not big on meat (pork & beef), me either, so we eat poultry, fish, shellfish and veggie-type meals.

Yesterday I was hankering after some Greek Lentil Soup.  Yeah, weird right? Usually I hanker after chocolate! Fortunately the ingredients I needed to make this soup were all in my pantry and/or fridge. There are a number of things I never let myself run out of- namely: diced tomatoes, veggie or chicken stock, lentils, many kinds of beans, split peas, soup mix, quinoa, fresh garlic, carrots, onions, potatoes and celery in addition to a wide wide variety of spices and hot sauces. So I had everything I needed on hand. Saves me a trip to the store where I would inevitably buy a few things (chocolate) NOT on my list :)

This soup is absolutely delicious!  It's one of my favourite recipes not only due to its deliciousness but also because it is so quick to prepare - you can make and simmer this soup in 30-40 minutes max. and you don't need 20 different ingredients!

Unexpected guests? This is your go-to recipe! (I sound like an infomercial!)

Saute' your veggies and garlic...

 Now that I have a handy dandy chopper I can dice my veggies in seconds :)

Always in my pantry! (If I have my own chicken broth I'll use that but most of the time I'll use a carton from the store.)

Throw in remaining ingredients including a bay leaf, a bit of basil and thyme.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. That's it!

I also always have a dollop of sour cream and/or plain yogurt on hand which really mixes well with the overall flavour.

The cost?
a generous 1/2 cup lentils      maybe 5 cents?
diced tomatoes  1/2 can = 50 cents
1 large carrot (or use baby carrots if you have some you need to get rid of)   =  20 cents
1 or 2 stalks of celery (can be limp like mine was :)  =  20 cents
1 yellow onion    = 30 cents
2 cloves of garlic = 10 cents
spices = 30 cents
1 container of broth = 1.00
1 teaspoon of sour cream = 10 cents
Total = $2.75!!! /6 servings = $0.46 per serving!

Good night nurse!! (as my grandma used to say) I'm going to have seconds!