We decided to go to Indian Beach for a little visit this morning. It’s a beautiful, but cold day. I think it was sitting around -9c during the time we were there with the windchill, but it’s always much colder by the water. It was definitely chilly! We live a short 5 minute drive away, if we drive slowly and enjoy the scenery. *wink* So it’s nice & close anyway!
It’s an awesome beach for ‘treasure hunting’, you will find beautiful, sea glass & sea shells, there’s a nice big playground for kids, and I always see travellers/van lifers hanging out there. Well, probably moreso during the summer months. But i’ve seen plates from all over the place, lots from B.C (British Columbia) so they’re driving from one end of Canada to the other! Kinda neat to see!
On our way to ‘Indian Beach’, we pass the ‘Marine Atlantic’ Ferries ⛴️ all docked at the port.Blue Skies and Sunshine 🌞 And a dirty windshield.. lol!“Sailors Memorial”Heading down towards the beach… A pretty pink rock…Beautiful today… strong, high tide, windy & cold. See that big aqua high rise building in the background? That’s Northside General Hospital. 🏥 A pretty seashell… 🐚 A bone from something or other… any ideas?My daughter found this beautiful mineral! The “flip” side… soo beautiful! I thought this rock with the stripes was pretty neat… Me. Freezing. 🥶 Actually, I was mostly not really too cold, but my hands were absolutely numb… Cool fossil… Seaweed & feathers… Ferry heading to Nfld/Labrador. Indian Beach during WW1 1914-1918. A few pretty little finds from today… anyone not live near the ocean and would like a little envelope sea glass and seashells? I’ll send to first to comment & ask for them. I’ll send anywhere, just ask if you’d like them.
And that’s all for today… I’d better get some house stuff done now!
I have challenged myself to buy only what we actually “need” this month, in order to save some money and tuck it into our savings. Since we’re saving for a large ‘overpayment’ on our mortgage every year, it’s a little tough to save over & above those savings as well. In two weeks we’ll be making our first ‘overpayment’ and while it’s going to feel amazing to make that payment, it’s gonna be sad saying goodbye to that cash… lol!
We budget from week to week, so with week one being over I tally things up and whatever is leftover gets moved to savings. We’ll start fresh again tomorrow!
So, here’s where our spending went from January 1st-7th:
Groceries $238.94 – This is a lower cost shop for us sadly, as most of you are probably dealing with sky high food costs as well. This includes the first purchase for our food bank donation at the end of the month as well. (Donation Goal!)
Clothing $9.75 – (thrifted buys!) I’d say probably not “absolute” needs, but newborn will need clothing and my daughter grows like a weed, so I wasn’t going to pass up a perfect fitting pair of jeans.
OTC meds $9.17 – My husband needed an otc drug from the pharmacy.
Gas Station $5.95 – Definitely NOT a need. My daughter wanted a couple of energy drinks from the gas station and “forgot” her wallet. I should do that next time… lol!
Local Bakery $4.00 – A loaf of fresh bakery bread for the ducks. Yes, I know it’s not the best thing for the ducks and it wasn’t necessarily a “need”, but you saw how they surrounded us! We couldn’t very well break their little ducky hearts begging for a little snack in the winter!
And that’s it… so, i’d say $257.86 was on needs & $9.95 was ‘frivolous’ spending. Overall i’m really happy with this, and I was able to tuck $$$ into our savings account over & above our savings for our mortgage savings goal!
What i’m not happy about is we spent $$ every single day of the week except for today. So, one “no spend” day out of seven days. I’m hoping to do better next week! Also, that means we were out running errands almost daily, *roll eyes here* It’s a waste of gas & time, even though everything’s is extremely close, it’s still gas & time that we could have saved by being better organized.
My goal will remain the same this week, no ‘unnecessary’ spending, but hopefully more ‘no spends’ and money left at the end of the week to tuck into savings!
Ok, now onto my “100 Things Challenge”…
51 “things”
As you can see, I did not manage to declutter 100 items, although it wasn’t for lack of trying! When I told my friend of my challenge, she said “How in the h*ll are you going to get rid of 100 things!?” lol!
Sooo… yeah, she was right, I was wrong. I do not have 100 things to get rid of, I asked my daughters and my husband. My husband had nothing & my daughters had some clothing items. The rest was stuff I scrounged together…
⁃ 2 coffee mugs
⁃ 1 porcelain plant pot – RIP 🥀
⁃ 7 books
⁃ 6 pairs of gently used socks
⁃ 1 pair of socks (used very well, filled with holes & tossed)
⁃ Pajama pants
⁃ Pr of pajamas
⁃ Home decor statue thingy
⁃ Wood base thingy
⁃ 2 leather belts
⁃ Can opener
⁃ 2 reusable silicone cat food lids
⁃ Pkg of new razors
⁃ 3 pkg’es of GUM comfort grip soft picks *donating to food bank
⁃ 2 pairs of track pants
⁃ 2 long sleeved shirts
⁃ 2 pairs of track pants
⁃ 2 tank tops
⁃ 15 DVD’s/BluRays
And there you have it! I “failed”, however, it’s still 51 items that i’m able to donate, so that’s gotta count for something right? I shot too high, it’s not the first time that i’ve done that, and probably won’t be the last time.
And that’s all I have for today! Have a fabulous weekend!
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Do you track your budget? Do you have savings goals for the year?
1. Food Waste: Ugh. Over the holidays was not good… I cleaned out my fridge and the following had to be tossed – homemade soup (it didn’t turn out as well as it usually does so we didn’t get through it) old pasta that the kids weren’t sure when they cooked, some cake that Mya didn’t eat, the bottom tub of a yogurt (again Mya) and an old lemon that got lost in the back of the fridge. I pledge to do far better over the next week! I feel so guilty tossing food in the compost, food is so expensive right now, it makes my stomach turn when we have any type of waste.
2. Amendment on my New Years Goals: Goal #3, instead of donating to the local food bank during the first week of the month, i’m going to move that to the end of the month. It gives me more time to collect a few things throughout the month, therefore i’ll be able to donate more in the long run.
3. Need a solution/suggestion for clothes hampers please: The photo below is how our clothes hampers are stored beside my stackable washer & dryer. It drives me nuts… clothes can’t really be sorted as they’re tossed in so i’m sorting everything once their full. I’d like one for clothes, one for “others stuff” (kitchen rags, cloths, towels, etc). I realize I could buy one of those metal sorted cloth hampers, but I’d much rather use the hampers that I already own. Does anyone know of a way to stack them so they’re not “stacked on top of each other” so to speak? The only things i’ve seen to separate these baskets are wooden shelves & cost $300 & the like! *faint* Too rich for my blood, does anyone have any ideas/suggestions to share by chance?
Ugh.
4. Christmas ‘comes down’ at my house this weekend! It is time, and my husband is off all weekend, so it’s a great time to take down the tree and pack away my nutcrackers and other decorations… I do absolutely love my Christmas tree and the gazillion lights I have on it, but it’ll be nice to not have to ‘shoo’ the cats from it a million times a day and climb under the tree to fix the tree skirt a million and one times a day.
This was our very first Christmas in Cape Breton, and although it was quiet, it was really lovely. A little tough not seeing my family & friends, especially my two oldest kids and their wonderful spouses, but that’s life. Perhaps next year…
5. My one week blogaversary!! Ok, i’m just kidding, but seriously it’s been one full week since I started to blog again and i’ve received such awesome feedback!! Thank-you so much for reading and your kind & thoughtful comments! I’m really enjoying blogging again, and am glad that I took the plunge and went for an ad-free blog! I’m lovin’ it!
I’m still working on the layout of my blog and trying to sort things out and make it look good, without accidentally deleting the entire thing… lol! I’ll keep trying to work things out until I get it exactly how I like it! WordPress sure has changed a lot in the last however many years since I used to blog on it! For the better though – I absolutely LOVE the WordPress APP!! It’s amazing!
Anyway, a BIG thank-you to those reading and an extra thank-you to those to take a few moments to comment and like my posts! xox I’ll be back tomorrow with an update to my “Declutter 100 Things Challenge!”
Thriving Simply…