Sam Squared

         I'm tracking my variable, discretionary spending through October, giving me a quarterly glance at where my variable expenses are costing me. However, I think this will be the last I post as its a fair sample to give anyone assessing insight. Perhaps I'll summarize at the end of October any spending tweaks I plan long term based on what I see in trends and patterns. The intent would be to make positive changes that will support my financial health and goals to live healthy and with intention, while not missing out on good experiences. Here's WIS, in the last week, rounded up to nearest dollar. Sunday: $0  My son was going to be back very late, so my daughter and I went for a play and cuddle with his cats and to refill water and food bowls. She had joined me for lunch and to see her grandma.  Monday: $0 Mom's bookclub was tonight. I made an apple cinnamon bread using a cake mix and a lone apple to bring with ingredients already at home.  Tu...

                                                                                        For my Friday posts, I copy a previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, September 18 to Thursday, September 24. I just sort of list things as they come up. I know my WIS is somewhat redundant but my Fridays are a more overall check into how I'm doing in terms of financial wellness instead of daily tracking each expense. This was a big use it up week, honing in on priorities,  and preparing for some big expenses the rest of the year. Use it Up/Avoid Waste Used the rest of the thawed tomatoes my daughter gave me ( goulash last week) to make pasta sauce, which I then froze as wasn't pl...

    Photo just for cuteness from her last visit when I was mindlessly scrolling on my phone.       After the weird debacle on Blogger requiring us to hunt for our regular blog reads, its nice to have that feature back. I spent a little time updating my "manage" tab and deleted blogs that have been abandoned. I keep old ones though that still are technically open as just maybe an old favorite will start blogging again. I'd miss seeing them pop up.      Another action I've been doing is exploring blogs of readers of my favorites to see if there's more like minded or "hey, thats interesting" subject writers. I've really been hopping around reading new to me financial, food, and style, both home and fashion blogs. Travel blogs are interesting to me too, but not the ones where travelling then writing about, is their job. They seem out of my reality grasp. They might be good for part of trip preplanning but I can Google at the time and likely find multi...

       I'm tracking my variable, discretionary spending through October, giving me a quarterly glance at where my variable expenses are costing me.It's meant as a view of where my money is going,  not necessarily a challenge, but I hope to find trends and habits that emerge that might not be beneficial to my overall fiscal goals. I dont put my regularly scheduled charitable donations here either as for now, I treat them as part of regular bills just like insurance or utilities. While discretionary, unless it's for an event, a purchase, or one off you wont see in my tracking. Here's WIS, in the last week, rounded up to nearest dollar. Sunday: $57  I met a friend for a visit and walk not too far from my sons and stopped at Trader Joe's for us both. $39 I dropped off a few things at his place and visited the cats ( He was working and knew I was coming.) I also met my daughter and dropped off two big bags of the cat litter she orders through Chewey, sent to my ...

                                                                                      For my Friday posts, I copy a previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, September 11 to Thursday, September 17. I just sort of list things as they come up. I know my WIS is somewhat redundant but my Fridays are a more overall check into how I'm doing in terms of financial wellness instead of daily tracking each expense.  Use it Up/Avoid Waste Used a sizeable bag of unopened carrot strips, as used in restaurant salads my son had brought from work ( the day after a wedding) in chicken noodle soup. I had tossed them in the freezer. Avoiding Spending/Saving on needs   No AC and no heat! U...

           We've got some coolish weather and you'll not hear me complain. It's still warm and sunny at the peak of the day (other than yesterday's needed rain off and on all day), perfect for getting a natural vitamin D dose and a play with the dogs. I find when true fall weather starts, I get in a certain set of actions, or habits, most of which are good...but a few might need some tweaking.  I'm back to the early afternoon walks again. The pavement is safe for the dog and I don't get drained from the fall sun like I do in hot weather. This will help me get a bonus 2,000 steps into my days. I'll make at least one pot of soup each week. Sunday was a soup using up odd vegetables, chicken, broth from the freezer, chicken and egg noodles. I guess it was a cross between chicken noodle and chicken vegetable. It was very good. I'm thinking chicken wild rice soon and I have the ham bone from Easter taking up room so maybe bean soup, though I need to get navy...