January 31

Tonight I am grateful it is the end of the month.

Turns out, I don't love thinking about money.  I'm not particularly frugal, and I find it depressing to budget.

Was it an excellent exercise for me to try to be more mindful about my spending?  Certainly.

But I hate to do things I am not good at.  So enough of this.

I am happy to report that according to my daily savings estimates, I saved a total of around $380 this month.

If that is true, I am wondering why I don't feel a bit more flush right now.

I suppose I need to think about just how much LESS flush I'd feel, had I not saved $380 this month...

I am not sure that this 30 day challenge has been a real game changer for me.  I am not sure that I did anything all that different from normal, actually.  I did not develop any amazing new bargaining skills, nor happen upon a way to drastically change my lifestyle.  I think I may have slightly reduced my "go ahead and just buy coffee this morning" habit, so that's good....And there were a number of days where I did survive without buying anything at all.

I think those are the days to take forward.  To carry the realization that I can in fact just NOT buy stuff.  I can, in fact, just NOT go into that store.  I do not, in fact, really need anything I do not already have, the vast majority of the time.

That said, I am off to price and purchase a Dyson.

I'll let you know how much I save.

January 30

I am grateful for my laughing babies, their splashy little selves in the bathtub, this fleeting moment in time when I rinse their hair with a cup as they giggle and slip in the water together.
I am grateful for my snuggle-girl, grateful that she still nurses, that I get to share a few precious quiet moments with my little dynamo.
I am grateful for pre-made pizza dough and pepperoni and a dinner my kids both made and ate.
I am grateful for a quicker-than-normal meeting day at work and for my rock-star colleagues who make everything better.  I am grateful for donuts to snack on.


Savings report:


Used gift card for coffee at Dunkin' Donuts-- Savings: $1.89

Did not go into any other store nor buy anything on line. Savings:  at least $15 in random, careless spending.

Also, we have sorted out our phone/internet dilemma. Bare bones land-line plus cable internet = a net savings of just over $30 a month.

That's like, half a Dyson per year, baby.

Small steps, right?

January 29

I am grateful for dinner swap, for evenings of overlapping conversations, commiseration and companionship, snuggled in with tea in our various living rooms... and a week's worth of dinners, to boot.
I am grateful for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
I am grateful for heated seats
I am grateful for playdates and hand-me-downs and the glorious variety of architecture in this town of mine.  I never tire of studying the houses that fill these tree-lined streets, an over-abundance of visual interest and intrigue.  I am grateful for the beauty and quality and richness and creativity of architecture from the early twentieth century, and especially for half-baths carved out under the back stairs, and butler's pantries, and attics, and rooflines, and ....
I am grateful for my funny and wonderful and well-behaved children, for Ivy's giggle and Jack's laser-like focus and their intense beauty and the line of their jaws and their sweet, small-nosed profiles. 
I am grateful for a quiet dusting of snow and a soft city-night light on a momentarily empty street.


Savings today:

We bought an electric griddle.  We had breakfast for dinner and my god, I don't know why we didn't buy an electric griddle years ago.  It may be life changing.

And, it was on super-sale.  In fact, we went to Macy's just to buy it.  $19.99 down from $50. 

Even if that's all creative mark-up-then-down-ing, nothing more than a manipulative tactic on the part of a large chain-- I'm counting it.

Savings: $30

January 28

Tonight I am grateful for good TV shows on DVD, and for the time and leisure and laundry to fold, to warrant watching episode after episode...

I am grateful for time and leisure to shop for shoes, to eat and relax for an hour at Chick-Fil-A with my kids, to play poker with my son and walk to Starbucks to share a cookie, in the gusty winter wind.

Yeah, so Nat taught Jack to play poker.

I am grateful for the father of my children, and everything about the way he parents them.

Savings report:

According to my receipt at DSW Shoes, by buying my high heels for an upcoming wedding from the clearance section (plus the 50% off ballet flats I also happened to pick up) I saved a total of $84.50.  That's good cause I totally spent at least $25 on the above-mentioned leisure activities with my kids.

Sigh.

I am not good at this frugal lifestyle thing...

January 27

I am grateful for field trip days that involve a sit down restaurant.  Today, I got to teach children how to play mad libs over mozzerella stick appetizers.
I am grateful to be caught up on paperwork, even if only for this moment.  
I am grateful for our Friday nights with friends, for four little children gathered around the table, running around the house, dancing in the living room.  I am grateful for hugs and high fives the whole bundle of them, for never knowing which little body I might find clinging to my legs next, for the fact that Melinda's girls accept my kisses when they tumble and wander in our home with absolute comfort and certainty.  I can't tell you how happy it makes me, that these children will grow up together, that a relationship so important in my life is made all the richer by this next generation.

Sometimes I am in awe of all the blessings I have.

Savings report:

Friday night with friends at our house instead of out at Legacy Village:  Savings--$30.00 at least.
Entertainment provided by half-naked giggling children in the comfort of our own home-- priceless.

January 26

Tonight, I am thinking about additions...

I am grateful for the chance to attend a new, second book club, happened upon through our neighborhood facebook page; this collection of fascinating and intelligent women who are all here, right in my own backyard.  I am grateful to add this to my life, this conversation and laughter, these connections, this extra push to read and write and think.

I am grateful for the safe and healthy arrival of 4 new souls to this world, this week (and it wasn't even a full moon!), new babies who will enrich and complicate the lives of co-workers and friends.  Miraculous, beautiful, squishy-faced beings one and all.  I love other people's newborns, very much.

I am grateful for time to talk with teachers I admire, for glimpses into their lives, for the chance to listen and learn and connect in a new way.  Relationship-building.  A very valid reason to be a half hour late coming home from work, no?

I am grateful for my husband who does not bat an eye when I am a half hour late from work and then leave two hours later for a book club.

Really.

How lucky am I?

And even more so because I get to be grateful for those two hours in between, for the two funniest little children in the world who dashed in "nakey" circles through the halls, and splashed and poured and giggled and kicked for nearly 30 minutes in the tub.  I am grateful for their exuberance and noise and for the mess of capes and stickers and slides and playing cards littered around my house.  It is a visible incarnation of their life and joy and, I like to think, a sign that we are doing something right.

I am grateful that no one has asked me to host the new book club because it means I don't have to worry about cleaning up all that joy, just yet.


Savings report:

When, after driving by the book-club house and seeing no cars there just yet, I drove in a loop through Coventry so that I wouldn't be the first to arrive, I did NOT go into Marc's "just to look around".
Savings:   At least $15, I'm sure.

I did buy my coffee at Starbucks today (a traditional Thursday treat, of course)-- but I used a gifted Starbucks card (*note, I mean a card I got as a gift.  The card has, at least as far as I can see, no special talents).
Savings: $1.95

January 24 and 25

I am grateful for challenges, for crossing voice-parts and interesting harmonies and increasing tempos.  I am grateful to be able to use my mind to tackle so many different things, from music to report cards.  I am grateful for my leopard print coat.  I am grateful for my gym membership.  I am grateful that my children ate dinner at the table tonight.  I am very grateful for the public library. I am grateful for my brilliant husband who does it all, including thinking up wonderful ways to engage and teach our children.  I am grateful for learning, my children's and my own.

Savings report:

We discussed the fact that we are probably going to send Jack to Kindergarten next year instead of another year of Pre-K.  Of course, we are still on the fence... but you can tell my January challenge is impacting my thinking when one reason we came up with in favor of Kindergarten-- was saving about $1500.  And I wondered aloud-- If we make the decision this week, can I count that in my total for my Thirty Days???

Never fear, dear readers, we shall not let that be our deciding factor.

Though that would help my monthly savings total, tremendously...

Actual savings to report:  Found book on tape for school via library download rather than using Audible.  A little extra downloading and registering, but a savings of $12.00