Friday Fiscal Wellness Check January 23, 2026

                     


            As a reminder in case you feel repetitiveness to my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This will help me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, January 16 to Thursday, January 22. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. 

Avoiding Spending/Saving on needs
  • I was almost lured into a false sense of "saving" after receiving a 30% off Kohl's offer, + $10 Kohl's cash for every $50 spent. I even filled a cart, but ended up deleting it all. I got my shopping fix, but realized $50 on items not needed was not saving a penny.
  • I didn't buy anymore alcohol for book club/card night, and used up more leftovers from other holidays. Everyone usually brings a few bottles/ cans of their preference as it's not expected that the host provides a fully stocked bar. I always have plenty of wine and hard liquor/ mixers though should anyone want that, along with soft options.
  • Sent sister on the road in the morning with a travel mug of brewed coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. She was going to stop on route so, saved her probably $5 or more
  • This might be thrifty or a splurge as I still can't figure out if my book download was free for the mom's bookclub. I requested a hold on the book for family book club, but if not in (58 in the cue for hard copy, and 9 for audio) I'll borrow my sister's 2nd Kindle. I read fast and several of us have done that in prior months. 
  • I had a pepper mishap ( shake became a dump) making a tomato sauce and salvaged it by adding milk and cream cheese. It was still quite peppery, but fortunately we like black pepper. 

Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls 

  • Uploaded Fetch receipts and added to my MS Rewards points. 

     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. 

  • I invited daughters roommate to join us for lunch Sunday, so of course it was 25% more than for four people. She's such a good friend for my daughter and I am happy it worked out for her to join. ( Her parents equally include my daughter too when in town.) We also splurged on appetizers. 

     Daily Dinner Diary (Friday 1/16 to Thursday, 1/22). 

Fri - Baked beef ravioli

Sat-  Hot Beef sandwiches, tuna salad, veggies and hummus or dip, various appetizers and snacks as I hosted family book club and cards.

Sun-  We had a large late lunch for my daughter's birthday, so I was not hungry. My son found leftovers from Saturday for the football games.

Mon- Hot ham and cheese sandwiches and homemade cream of mushroom/ vegetable soup ( this was seriously good and will make again, but it was a made up recipe so hopefully can recreate) 

Tues- salvaged pasta sauce over penne, turkey meatloaf 

Weds-  Dinner out with a friend for her birthday, son ate whatever he found leftover wise through the day/ evening as his work day was odd

Thurs- Sort of a mash up as I made both chili and chicken/ small shell pasta soup. I made a ham and pea salad earlier in the day so tastes of these various things made up dinner. They'll be Saturday and Sunday food too. I'm hoping to be ambitious and don't want any momentum stopped by cooking.

     Not an inexpensive week, but mostly as planned. I had one sister with a birthday this past week and one next week so we're meeting up for either lunch or happy hour Saturday. I'm going to do a very thorough look at the grocery and household needs and only get what's needed. My low spend January has not been that effective, but I can end on the good this last week ahead, birthdays aside. How was your week?

           

     

  

Comments

  1. JuhliJanuary 23, 2026 at 8:00 AM

    Sounds like a good week on many levels. We have a small family so few birthday celebrations but a 3 year old's coming up in February. We have been puttering around after spending a lot to get electrical work up to code and having a new dishwasher installed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GinaJanuary 23, 2026 at 8:07 AM

    I chuckled at your Kohl's shopping trip. I do the same thing on Amazon. Load the cart, then save it for later. If later comes and I still need the item, then OK. But Kohl's made me so made over a return recently that I vowed never to shop there again. I think the Kohl's cash thing is fishy anyway. This week I have eaten out twice....also, I am buying the book club books as I go, since my library never seems to have the book or a few dozen people on on the list for it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AprilJanuary 23, 2026 at 9:19 AM

    I think your week sounded solid!

    ReplyDelete

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