:::: MENU ::::

What a Wonderful Weekend

by

On Saturday, we packed up our fishing poles and headed to a secluded lake for a few hours of fishing.

The sun was shining, temps were in the low 60s, you could hear herons, ducks and frogs singing, we caught some deer frolicking at the lake edge, the wind was blowing enough to keep the bugs at bay, and the fish were biting.

Sigh. It doesn’t get much better than that. Wait, we have to add in my son’s screams of joy when he caught his first fish of the season. It was a four-inch sunfish, but I think it delighted him as much as if he caught a 25-inch walleye.

I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. Thank you mother nature. We needed that. It did cost some money because we needed two new reels for our fishing poles and we didn’t have any worms ready so we had to buy some. We also had to buy fishing licenses for the year. Of course, there’s the cost for the gas to drive out to the lake…

In all it probably cost about $50 to be set to fish for the year (except for future gas costs). It is our goal to go out fishing more this summer, and eating our catch since we normally catch and release.

Will we catch $50 worth of fish to eat this summer? It’s hard to tell. I sure hope we do because I love perch dinners! Even if we don’t, the family time together is priceless.

Bringing Back Some Details

by

About a month ago, Mark B. asked a question in the comments:

…Also, you used to post your monthly Quicken spending and income reports, did you stop posting those? I found those to be very interesting and revealing for a person trying to escape debt myself.

Ever since my mention in the New York Times, I started shying away from revealing specifics on here and I phased out those monthly spending reports. They took me a while to do and do I want my boss (or future employers) to read how I spend my money? Seems a bit too personal and I was worried it could affect my employment. While I don’t readily attach my name to this blog, people who know me could put two and two together. My brother did, and I pleaded the fifth 🙂

I’ve been thinking about Mark’s comment for over a month now. I need to bring those reports back. They prompted some great discussions in the comments and they kept me very focused. I was able to find all of the receipts for April and May. I’m still looking for some receipts for Jan – Mar and if I can’t find them all I may skip those months or perhaps create a miscellaneous category for them so I can still post them. I already revised my Quicken file so my reports would be easier for me to do.

Expect to see some reports shortly!