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Browsing posts in: Budget

Tough Decisions Looming

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Last week, I was able pay one month’s mortgage payment, leaving me one month behind still and another payment due in just over 10 days. I do not have enough ongoing work to feel “safe.” And frankly, the holidays being here makes finding work that much harder. I’ve been through this before.

I waver between hope and worry. But am working daily to cast all my cares to God and trust his care and protection:

“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” Luke 12:24

I begin to wander do I keep trying to scrape things together and make it work and hope for the best? Or do I get proactive and begin working toward putting the house on the market and figuring out what’s next then?

Of course, the holidays looming does not help with the stress level.

Hope thumbs up

I keep choosing gratitude and joy. I keep clinging to knowing that God has a plan and purpose in all this.

When I was speaking to my dad this week he said, “God sometimes lets things get bad, and then he lets them get worse.” That was not comforting at all. But at the same time, I get several messages weekly from people telling me how much my posts (doing a month of gratitude on Instagram) are inspiring them and helping them walk through a dark time in their own lives.

My plan at this point is to table the concerns through the holidays. Keep doing what I’m doing. Since I should be able to catch up with bills by January, I can revisit the tough calls then and step into 2024 with options.

Is this what you would do? Other advice?

 

Baked Goods – A Perfect Gift

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The twins’ birthday just passed. This next week will be the first Thanksgiving that I haven’t had all my kids with me. (There were a couple of years when one was away, but never like this.) And I couldn’t, COULD NOT do nothing.

But I also knew that I couldn’t do much. I let the twins know that we could do a birthday celebration for all of us fall babies when we are together at Christmas. It broke this mama’s heart to not be able to do anything at all other than send them a text message.

But with the tides turning, I had to do something for the three boys on their first Thanksgiving away from home. So we…

Princess baking holiday goodies

Baked

Princess graciously made a day trip home this past weekend. She and I spent Sunday baking goodies new and old and packaging them up to be shipped out to Virginia, Texas, and Las Vegas this week. We froze things and used $0.50 containers from Dollar General.

We made banana bread with chocolate chips and nuts, corn flake wreaths (pictured), chocolate chip cookies, almond pralines, and a lemon pound cake. My house smelled so good. We played Christmas music, cleaned as we went, and had a wonderful time.

Frugal Shopping

I have to be honest, I have never, ever fretted over grocery costs so much in my life. I made a grocery list from the recipes I wanted to make. Then added them all to my Walmart grocery app (I typically do pick up.) Then I went to the cheapest grocery store in town, Quality Foods. I compared prices between the two for every single item. As I added something to my Quality Foods shopping cart, I would remove it from my Walmart app.

I googled substitutions for things I knew I wouldn’t use again. I bought off, off brand items that I wouldn’t consider if I wasn’t using them for baking. After I finished my in person shopping trip, I placed the online order for pick up of the remaining items.

And in the end, I spent over an hour and a half in the grocery store, stressing over every single penny I spent. And I will be honest, I am not sure the amount of money I saved justified the additional time and stress of it. I don’t think it added up to more than $10 of savings.

But it was an experience. And it set us up for a fantastic baking experience.

Boxes went in the mail a few days ago. None of them knows they are coming. I hope they will bring joy to their faces and yumminess to their tummy’s.

As an aside, postage is absolutely crazy. It cost me $56 to ship the 3 boxes to the boys. Granted I did choice priority since it was baked goods, but man, that was expensive.

Do you bake and gift homemade goods for the holidays? Do you enjoy receiving those types of gifts?