Friday Fiscal Wellness Check: November 28, 2024

     

     We had a really lovely, but cold, Thanksgiving. My daughter's ran the community run for our local family service organization. I got up to drive them and picked them up so they didn't have to worry about keys, but was a wimp to stand in the cold. I used the time between to get my sweet potatoes and glazed carrots prepped. We had lunch at my sister's but ended up with three cars. I went early to help, my son and older daughter came 45 minutes later after they had gotten pets settled. My youngest had a time schedule of her own and was slow to get showered. It all worked fine. I laugh at the small gathering number of "just" 39 people, four who came to visit before leaving to their in-laws, so didn't eat, and two who came later for just dessert. 

     The last few Fridays I've been doing a fiscal wellness check for my own accountability. While I did the SNAP challenge for Monday -Wednesday meals, I still spent on the household and myself.  This recap helps me find where my spending leaks occurred but also to see where my priorities are for spending. 

Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs

• Maximized the $15.48 SNAP budget by finding mostly loss leaders. Walking to and from the store saved a bit of gas. 
• PT dropped to just 1X per week, $35 co-payment savings. 
• Did a big search of all cleaning, household items and found a couple I forgot I already had, avoiding buying for now. 
• Saved an extra run to the store Wednesday night for my daughter by giving her floss and mouthwash from a past dentist visit. 
• My daughter brought laundry home and will save her $4 a load today, and will do one more Sunday if clothes she dirty's this weekend before she leaves.
• Used Aldi that was near where I met someone to get my ingredients for Thanksgiving. 

Spent Intentionally

• I reimbursed my sister the $80 for the Dinner Theater trip in a couple weeks. 
• Met a former classmate last Saturday for lunch. She's approaching the one year anniversary of losing her partner. She shared that her previous spouse had been quite controlling and had lost contact with her former friends and family and with caring for her sick partner, lost other connections. ( We reconnected at the class reunion.) I hope she found being able to talk with someone that understood and could just be a listener was helpful. We plan to meet again.
• Paid the $41 to renew my driver's license, on time. I have this stupid habit of forgetting to renew before my birthday the year it expires. 

Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls 

• My paycheck was both a 3rd paycheck of the month and another $200 higher as the semi monthly costs were taken previous two November Checks. 
• Surprise!I got the property tax estimate and mine will go down by $20. Not huge, but with the water bill anticipated riding by 37%, nearly $120 annually in my case, I'll take it. I think quite frankly I've been overtaxed based on property evaluation the last few years. Recent neighborhood home sales maybe corrected this. 

     Then, there were other things that impacted my check book that came up, either known or unknown going into the week, but were not originally planned.

• The same Saturday night, my three youngest sisters wanted to help pre-celebrate my birthday. I would not let them cover my food and drinks. The time out with my sister's was worth every nickel. 
• Contributed for a funeral plant from the family for my nieces father-in-law. 
• I could have waited to get hass after zPY but figured it would be the same in both towns. Wrong- and overspent by 15¢ a gallon of I had bought before leaving town or when I got back. I now I could have looked at gas buddy app. 
• Overspent on beer and hard seltzers but didn't want to go farther than the store near us.

     All in all, not a bad fiscal week. The gas was the only dumb purchase and perhaps the alcohol. It was a good week for the most part. Now this weekend there's the monthly bills to pay. I also hope to start and complete my Christmas shopping other than fresh food for that week.