by Hope
Is your city going to allow trick or treaters this year? I’m not sure what our community’s plans are. I’ve been watching the paper and Facebook pages but haven’t seen any announcements. But either way it goes, we are not going to my Grandmother’s house as we have for the past 9 years. With her gone and COVID, I decided to opt out of the family gathering and stay home.
I invited all the kids to the house for food and possibly handing out candy. And I’ve been stock piling candy for the last several weeks. The money for the candy came out of our regular grocery budget. While Gymnast keeps telling me that I am buying too much, I figure if we don’t need it for Halloween, we can use it for events over the next couple of months – movie nights, junk food day, etc.
We’ve definitely enjoyed a few new things around here that I believe will become new traditions. While my parents were here, we had Pizza and Pumpkins night. The twins’ friends came down for this past weekend from Virginia to help celebrate the twins’ birthday. I’m having a great time finding fun Halloween snacks to try out. And I think the kids are excited about having some friends over for the evening.
Before you jump down my throat about having kids over…these are kids they are going to school with every day. I’m not really sure who will come, but I’ve extended the invitation. In addition, Sea Cadet’s girlfriend will be down from Virginia. So it should be a fun, memorable time.
What all this has made me realize is that it’s time to adjust my grocery budget. I haven’t adjusted it since the twins’ moved out. But in looking at my records from the last couple of months, I am not anywhere close to that number anymore. Even Gymnast has noticed the difference as I’m not counting every penny when we go shopping.
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
