Friday Fiscal Wellness Check August 22, 2025

                     

       For Friday Fiscal Wellness Check,  I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset, I'm accountable to myself. Here's my recap of Friday, August 15 to Thursday, August 21. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. 

Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs

• Still on target to reduce my monthly HHG budget by $75. I'm trying to do this for a couple months before a big stock up again in late October before I leave 
• Here's a biggy and a WHY DO THEY MAKE IT SO HARD savings. I really pushed for an evaluation of my car and homeowners insurance. Voila, a cummulative $1800+ annual savings because I  got a competitive quote. My husband always did this stuff and I feel like I've been taken advantage of for two+ years. The savings is enough to offset my spur of the moment international flight to Greece and 12 nights accomodations with breakfast, plus a bit of spending money! Bonus, everything will come due on same dates, so easier for my brain to grasp.
• Tiny savings as I met my friend while Happy Hour prices were still in effect so drinks were $2 off. 
• Picked up a short sleeve shirt I ordered with Kohl's cash, free to store delivery, and looked, but bought nothing else. 

Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls 

• Entered Fetch receipts and MS Reward. I got a big return on some General Mills buys and pushed me well into enough for a couple AMC movie tickets. That'll be a nice frugal treat some rainy or snowy day. 
• Updated hours as actually missed 3 hours last week to 20.5. Logged 21.5 for this week and submitted my first invoice. I need to make sure I capture groupings of tasks in the day so I do not underestimate or over count. Between meeting volume/ prep and followup and progress on deliverables, I'll probably average 20 hours per week. 

Then, there are often other things that impacted my check book that came up without much planning or notice, an extra optional expense, or an all-out splurge.

• Not a big one but my upstairs office is considerably hotter than when office was downstairs, which had a ceiling fan. I needed a small fan and found one for $6. I reached out first for unused ones but as the heat of summer keeps on, everyone is using fans.
• Slightly bigger purchase but I think it was a good move was buying a portable monitor. I was struggling using just a single laptop screen. This portable number is small enough and light enough that it fits in a laptop case with a computer and just big enough to be useful. I think it's a justified use of some of the contract funds but still an extra for the week. On the good side, it came with the right cables so I was able to return the two I ordered the same day and get that $17 back. 

     Daily Dinner Diary (Friday 8/15 to Thursday, 8/21). 

• Fri -  ham and cheese sliders at sister's 
• Sat-  wedding buffet
  
• Sun- Chickpea and veg curry and rice 
• Mon-  Mushroom and Swiss burgers on pretzel buns, homemade French fries, salad 
• Tues- Leftovers
• Weds- Italian breaded chicken, use it up orso side dish 
•  Thurs- Dinner out at Emmetts Public House so of course a Reuben and malted fries was in order 

     With two weeks under my belt on the contract job, I'm putting a firm hold to my schedule heading into the new week. I've been too accessible leading to not protecting my time, but only tracking specific tasks and actions. It's a new way to work for me as I've been either salary or a hard start-stop hourly employee. I'm enjoying it though and feel I've already added value. How was your week?