I've now seen the receipt from the dinner my husband went to on Thursday night for a coworker's retirement dinner. As I said before he paid for the retiree's dinner. The restaurant included a 20% tip, likely because it was a large group of 11.

So the total of the drinks and meals was $37.98, $3.65 taxes, $7.60 tip added by restaurant for a grand total of $49.23.

He added $10 additional tip because he didn't read the bill specifying that the gratuity was already added! So our out of pocket was $59.23. That is a 46% tip!!

In other news, we cancelled our Citi Premier card. We've had it since last May and have stopped using it. It has an annual fee that is waived the first year, but we don't want to pay for one when it is up for renewal. That was easy to do online.

I also closed my Capital One 360 checking and savings accounts. I had $0.06 in there. We weren't using it because the interest rate of 0.75% was lower than our other accounts. That was also super easy to do online. I did the withdrawal and it had a place to confirm I was closing the account. My six cents should arrive to our checking account on Monday.

We applied for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card finally. We received one offer a couple months ago. It expired before I could get that completed. So when it arrived in the mail again, I jumped on it. It appears to offer $50K points for spending $1000 in three months. I think there were some points for an authorized user too. Oh, and we were instantly approved.

We also applied for the Marriott Rewards credit card. There was an offer for 80K points after spending $3000 in three months. We would like to use these points for hotels this summer, when we hope to visit Washington DC. This card, offered by Chase, didn't instantly approve, but indicated we would receive notification by mail. Chase has changed the way they do business and approvals. We have never had this card in the past though, so hoping this is available to us.

My husband did make some purchases yesterday. Fuel for his truck $23.35, alcohol $19.10, and some snacks $21.03, which was more than I expected. We will need to pick up some groceries for the coming week today or tomorrow.

The cash is getting tighter! Trying to hold on until the end.

We haven't eaten any meals out the entire month of February. Until yesterday. My husband had the retirement dinner for a colleague last night. I was mentally prepared for this since he mentioned it early in the month.

I don't know his exact spending yet, as he didn't enter it into YNAB and has the receipt in his wallet. He told me it was around $60. Turns out he ended up paying for the departing soldier's meal, since no one else offered or stepped up. What can I say? He's a generous person! I could have been upset, but there's really no point. I don't want to squash generosity, just for my little no spend game.

We are coming up on the weekend. I expect we will find free things to do. I don't know that anyone needs anything such as clothing or personal care (I might need contact solution before the month runs out, but trying to conserve). So as is usual for most weekends I expect our spending to be on food.

Just 10 more days of February! We have $230 that has not been spent, but is still in our budget. Hopeful we can get by without spending all of that. How much money do you have left in before the end of the month?

Again, a no spend month isn't entirely no spend. It's more of a low spend month. We are trying to get by with just the basics. I think I'm following it the best because I personally have only purchased one item I didn't need. A diet pop. Actually ask my husband to pick it up for me when he was out getting other things.

My husband has insisted on alcohol, which I did have a little of, and extra snacks. My daughter insisted on Clif Bars (which I see as a luxury food item) for her lunch.

As of February 9, we have spent $238.10. And here is how that breaks down:
Groceries: $157.61
Fuel: $29.79
Alcohol: $50.70

Yes, over 21% of our spending was on alcohol. Trust me, I'm not proud to say that. The spending would look even better if that alcohol wasn't there. However, despite that, we are spending far less than we sometimes do.

My daughter came to me last night asking for highlighter markers. The ones she had were wearing out. I directed her to a couple in my desk drawer. Only one was acceptable. She said it should work for awhile. She is aware of our no spend month, so I think she means it will work until March. I'm willing to buy her a new one or two if she does need them, as I want her to have the right tools for school.

I'm going to spend some of my afternoon cleaning our home. These wood floors show every cat hair that has come loose! And it seems to be a free activity and will help keep me warm on this cooler day.

Only 20 days left of the month. I wonder if this low spending plan is going to get easier or harder?

So my husband did go to the commissary yesterday after work to get groceries. I made a VERY SPECIFIC list. He did get everything on the list, but he ADDED to it. Ugh. He bought an extra bag of chips, another box of crackers, a second package of tortillas, and ice cream! I reminded him it was a no spend month, and his was reply was I didn't think groceries counted! Well the goal is to spend the least possible across the board, so YES groceries count. By the way those extra items cost us $10.52, which is nearly 15% of the total bill.

I really do appreciate that he went as it will keep us from making a separate trip over the weekend to shop. It's going to be crazy busy there with the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday!

He spent $72.37 at the commissary. I think except for a couple more items, this can get us through next Sunday, which is the day before payday. I set aside $175 for groceries for this pay period and we still have $39 left. I think we can make it. And the extra snacks might keep us out of the store just a bit longer!

He spent $19.10 on wine. The equivalent of four bottles. And earlier in the day he bought candy for the office because he had been eating quite a bit of it because he forgot his lunch! It would have been healthier to spend the $8.98 on an actual lunch.

He also bought fuel for his truck which amounted to $29.79. Last time he filled up was 10 days ago. This is about average for him. I still have half a tank, although we are going to take a little road trip late this afternoon for a free activity. We may fill up before or after. I budgeted $150 this pay period for fuel, but that is probably too high considering we range between $170-230 each month. Maybe we'll try to stay on that low end! It does help that fuel prices are low right now.

So far I feel really good at how we have done with our low spend month. I will say a lot of the groceries have been fresh vegetables since my husband takes salads for lunch everyday. We also use some of it some nights with our dinner. I'm just trying to use up with what we have on hand. Last night we had pasta with ground beef and sauce that we had on hand. I used up some fresh broccoli and got out a can of beets.

Original plan for dinner tonight was chicken breasts, roasted potatoes and salad, but we may end up postponing that to tomorrow night. We may be out around dinner, so instead we will come home and have our super bowl snacks a day early.

Next week we will be having some of these meals:
soup and cheese bread
eggs or waffles
meatloaf and beets
bean dip (need sour cream and can of refried beans)
homemade pizza and apples
tuna melts and apples
and one night will be make your own (ie leftovers)

I'm planning to eat a combination of leftovers and tuna sandwiches for lunch. I'm also currently using up the Cream of Wheat packets in our cupboard for my breakfast.

Wine is NOT a necessity for me. However, it nearly is for my husband. He mentioned how stressed he was at work this week and wanted to pick some up last night. I didn't encourage or discourage him. In the end he skipped it. He had to be up early this morning for a run anyway. Turns out he didn't set his alarm correct and missed the run! And he didn't take his lunch to work (not sure if he will eat out or not).

I'm pretty sure he will be buying wine tonight though. I did leave money in the budget for it despite our low spend month. I think if I drink a little less we could get by with buying less, so I will let him know to buy accordingly.

And I think he will end up buying a snack or two for the weekend as well. He was looking for a snack last night and ended up making two egg burritos! I gave him several other suggestions, but he wasn't for those.

So all that to say, there will be some spending today. And I blame it all on my husband!! I know I could get through the entire weekend without spending any money on food. There are plenty of things here to be eaten. Although, the cupboard and fridge do look sparse!

Four days in a row without spending. I'm pretty excited about that. Will you need to spend this weekend?

We purchased our groceries needed for the next week at the commissary today. We spent $42.09, purchasing 16 items. Seven items were fresh vegetables and fruits. Otherwise, we picked up things like lunch meat, eggs, milk, two kinds of cheese, a loaf of bread. The two items probably not considered needs were tortilla chips and a box of crackers. I bought these because I know the household needs snacks to have and we already had salsa and block cheese on hand.

Tonight we are having chicken enchilada's. I purchased most of those items last week and already have shredded chicken in the freezer. Tomorrow we will have homemade pizza. On Tuesday, we are having an egg casserole (I had planned to make this when my friend was here, but turned out we didn't need it). I'm trying to make sure we eat up things we have in our cupboards and freezer, which means I expect I will be eating steel cut oatmeal for breakfast, and tuna sandwiches for lunch. I do like both, so I will be happy.

I realize I'm calling it no spend, but there still will be spending on the necessities. The goal is to spend the least amount possible so we can set some money aside for upcoming expenses, such as plane tickets.

I'm thinking next weeks grocery bill will be higher, but we will see won't we?

Our no spend month is around the corner. I did use some funds in January to stock up on toilet paper and a few other toiletries. And there was that ground beef on sale at the commissary. I've also been freezing extra portions of food.

My husband did get paid yesterday. I have paid all the current outstanding credit card balances. Only a few pending charges that cannot be paid until they post. I did budget the paycheck for February, specifically the first half since he will get paid again mid month.

I have to pay rent, water, electric, allowances, flute lessons, and trash at the beginning of the month. I have set aside $495 until the next pay day on February 15 for groceries, fuel, personal care, and a few other expenses. I did put a little money in clothing and some in spending. I really hope to keep them no spend, but I decided to put a little in to cover a need that could come up.

I set aside $1095 in several different savings categories for the month. Over half went to cover two airline tickets for mother in law and niece. They have not been purchased yet. But now the money is available! And in addition to saving for that I added money to our emergency fund, car maintenance, and home furnishings.

The cool thing is as I was writing this post, my daughter said a teacher was requesting donations for a science experiment. One item was Oreo cookies; another was plastic utensils. I picked the utensils since I have a significant amount of those on hand and that donation will cost me $0 out of pocket!

Who else is about to start a No Spend February?

I just purchased my daughter's airline ticket to come home for spring break and her birthday in late March. The charge round trip was $361. This is about 10% less than the last time I looked. Flight times are okay. We've found that we like her flying Southwest and through St. Louis which is a little smaller airport, so gates are super easy to find. The best part is I had $429 in our vacation fund to cover it!

We have offered to fly my mother in law and a niece (who has never flown) to visit us in April or May. I need to start watch fares and see if I can find something really great. We don't have the money set aside for this yet, but that is a goal for February. We also know with my husband's mother in her 80's (although in great health) it is okay to take out of savings if needed.

In other news, my youngest daughter has a very small cavity (her first). We opted to wait a few weeks so she wouldn't miss school. Sounds like it will only take 40 minutes at the most. And our out of pocket cost only $19.

I have a friend arriving today. Dinner is ready and I'm looking forward to lots of fun catching up!!

We received a small unexpected check in the mail for $9.50. It was a class action suit settlement from Wells Fargo. They overcharged us for a flood statement, or something like that. I like unexpected snowflakes!

I did a little stocking up today in preparation of our no/low spend February. A few products for hair and teeth, spent about $8. This will definitely help us get through February. I used this month's budget to accommodate the purchase.

No word from the renters about the water damage. The filter for the fridge water arrived. We won't be returning it though. We expect it either to be repaired or simply will be the final one we replace the one the provide originally.

Only five more days of January left to go. We are down to $200. It would to keep a bit of that. I know we need fuel, and I may buy a pair of sneakers. And there might be a meal at a restaurant since I have a friend in town later this week.

First, we never lost power during the storm. For that, I am extremely grateful. We have been inside our home for two days in order to stay safe. I'm definitely ready to get out today! Roads here are clear. Trees still have a little ice, but the dusting of snow has melted. We managed not to spend any money those two days either!

Today, the plan is to get out to get groceries for the rest of January, so back to spending. I'm adding toilet paper, cat food and litter, and laundry detergent to the list. This is an attempt to be be stocked up during the month of February since we are attempting a low spend (no spend) month.

I did just order a water filter for our fridge on Amazon. I used the balance of my Amazon gift card ($3.98) and Discover cash back ($2.52). I only paid $10.45 out of pocket.

I'm close to redeeming for Bing Rewards and Swagbucks again. I will use those $30 in February to get more filters for our vehicles. We realized we are a bit overdue for cabin and engine filters.

I cashed in 1650 MyPoints this morning for a Subway gift card. I will send it to my oldest daughter when it arrives. Hopefully, a gift in her Valentine's card. This will be the second gift card I have redeemed in the last 2.5 months with MyPoints. I have given both to my daughter. It's an easy way to give her a few extra surprises in the mail.

Oh, I guess I was suppose to write about taxes! Almost forgot. We have my husband's W2 forms, the new 1095 (health care), our mortgage interest statement, and a several other 1099s. I'm still waiting on the form from the university showing money we paid. Once that arrives I think we will be ready to start filing taxes. I will likely use FreeTaxUSA again. It seems to work for me.

Have you started your tax return? Do you have all the documents you need? Are you doing a no spend month this year? Have you redeemed any credit card rewards or points from another program recently?

Around our area it is just raining. But it is freezing to things. The roads appear okay from the window and I see people driving out there. We are staying in regardless.

The longer it rains and the the thicker the ice, the bigger cause of concern. I believe winds are suppose to pick up later, which isn't good.

I'm going to go get my workout on our treadmill done, before any potential outage occurs! It won't work if there is no power.

No store spending today, but there may be a little online spending. We need a new filter for the fridge, and my husband said his headphones stopped working. It's always something it seems.

It seems the state we live in now is going to get hit by Jonas, the winter storm. We are actually on the edge of it, which means ice in the form of sleet and freezing rain are most likely.

I think the entire state is shutting down starting tonight. The post my husband works on is going to be closed tomorrow(I found out first from Facebook). And school has been cancelled too. And for the record it is forty degrees and sunny at the moment. No precipitation is falling in our location. Seems so early to make these decisions. Weather can and does change right?

So we have food here, but my husband is going to grab some nuts, canned tuna, and bottled water just in case there is a power outage. We do have plenty of bread and peanut butter too.

Who else is going to be impacted by Jonas?

Today seems to be the first day in recent memory that we have not spent any money. It seems one of us is always purchasing something. It could be gas, or a few items from the store, or buying something online. But today, nothing!

It's a small miracle.

Tomorrow though I'm going to buy canned refried beans. Mine didn't turn out. But I have been successful with cooking black beans, so I have hope to try again. Just not this week.

I also need to mail some items to my college daughter. A few items we bought while she was home, but need to mail. She ran out of room in her suitcase! I also picked up some of her favorite snacks, including a box of girl scout cookies!!

I also need to wrap the photo book I purchased for my sister's family. I'm going to try to be creative and use what I have at home. It will also need to be mailed. It's a book, so I'm going with media mail to save on postage. We already have a card on hand we can sign to send with it.

I didn't exactly budget for it, but I think I need to buy a new pair of sneakers. My back and feet have been very tight. I have been walking more (getting in my 10K steps). I think it is my shoes. This happened before, and new shoes solved the problem. It's only been six months since I bought my last pair, but I figure it is an investment in my health! I'll be shopping for those tomorrow too.

We don't have kids in diapers, but we bought two packages today at the Commissary. My husband works with a soldier who's wife is having their fourth child in a couple weeks. Everyone in the office is getting diapers...all sizes. Can't go wrong with a diaper shower! We spent about $16.

We bought our daughter Subway after her last parade on Saturday. Otherwise we only bought groceries this weekend. We spent about $150 and yes, there was a little wine involved. My meal planning gets us through the next 9 days.

I feel like we are already beginning our no spend month. We aren't really, but I guess we are in practice mode!

My husband received a credit card offer in the mail from American Express. Apply for their Premier card, spend $1000 and earn 50,000 membership points, which can be redeemed for travel or gift cards. Worth $500.

We have to apply before month end, but we would sure have no trouble spending $1000 within three months. Likely it would only take a month for us.

It does have an annual fee of $195, but it is waived for the first year. The card also provides a $100 credit each year towards travel incidentals (such as baggage fees).

I think this may be the year we jump back into applying for cards. We have received some pretty good offers in the mail. One expired before we responded to it. And with more air travel in our budget it could really help!

Anyone else have the American Express Premier or receive an offer from them?

I had $3 in my PayPal account from a Pinecone survey. I forgot to transfer it out. Turns out it went to pay for a second month of an American Greetings eCard subscription. I just wrote myself a note yesterday to cancel. I was a bit to late. The price was $3.99, so not the worst thing since the $3 in the account covered most of it. I will make sure to send a few more eCards before February 12. Might work well as my mother and sister have birthday's between now and then.

I did get another credit for a Pinecone survey I took. And even though I can now cash out for $3, I'm going to wait. I guess I've become more accustomed to accumulating $15 then cashing out.

My husband bought gas for $1.79 a gallon today. That is amazing. I remember paying over $3 a gallon in the not so distant past.

The electric bill arrived in my inbox today. It was $200. About $17 more than last month. It has been a little colder.

I'm really looking forward to our no spend month. It feels like money is flowing out too much this month!

In other news, I got a Fitbit for Christmas. I've been getting between 8K and 10K steps everyday since then. One day I had 12K steps. I was competing with my sister, so I had extra incentive! Getting the extra exercise is helping me feel better. It is interesting how just having it on your wrist is an incentive to get up and move. I make an extra effort to walk around the house, just to get more steps in.

I'm also cutting out added sugar from my diet for the most part. I have had some sugar, primarily from fruit. If I have any added sugar the goal is to keep it to 25 grams or less. I'm on day 3, which has been a little harder than the first two, but still doing just fine!

If I can see a major difference in the next 10 days to two weeks, I might consider doing a diet bet. Right now though just one or two changes at a time is enough!

I bought four things on Amazon yesterday. All needs. And I spent $0, since I had over $44 in Amazon.com gift cards. The total of the order was just over $40, so I still have a few dollars left for another time.

I bought a pair of earbuds for my daughter, a cabin filter and rear wiper blade for my van, and generic allergy medicine.

The Amazon.com gift cards came from a variety of sources this time. $5 from

My daughter had her first flute lesson with her new teacher on Wednesday. Of course, new books were suggested. We purchased them and got 20% off because we take lessons there at the store. Out of pocket was about $24.

I had to pick up a couple things at Walmart. Tortillas, salt and three boxes of tissues. Spent about $7.

I also bought deodorant and a photo storage box (two different locations) and spent another $7.

My husband is taking his dress uniform into the dry cleaner tonight, so well have some money spent there when they are ready.

We have plans to go out to dinner tonight. Last night college daughter is home until spring break. We will end up spending a little on gas tomorrow to get her to the airport (she's flying out of one about 1.5 hours away).

I did tell my husband about the no spend month planned for February. He said he doesn't spend much money, yet he has spent at least $140 on things specific to him since the beginning of the year. I'm not saying these weren't needs or okay to buy, but that IS spending!! He does seem on board. I think we may have to be specific about what we aren't spending money on (entertainment, alcohol) and what we are. More on that once we discuss it further.

Our auto insurance is billed every six months, automatically to one of our credit cards. It posted yesterday in the amount of $503.18. I have $457.88 save towards that bill. On payday I will add another $152 to that savings pot, thus plenty of cash to pay it off in full.

I've been paying our auto insurance every six months for nearly our entire married life. Almost 20 years! We save monthly for the bill, but it has been less expensive to pay it only twice per year.

Do you pay your auto insurance premium yearly? Or some other frequency? Is it less expensive to pay less often for you?

We had changed the withholding on my husband's pay late in the year to account for overpaying. We have now changed it back to 8 for the coming year. It will go into effect for January 15 pay. The net check will be lower, but it is still higher than it had been before. It may still put us on target to pay around $400 each year, but that I can deal with.

I also remembered that we had put extra funds in my daughter's Educational Savings account (ESA) early last year and dropped our Roth IRA payments initially. By April we increased them to make sure we got the maximum funds in by year end. It worked well, but it means we now have $167 each month in our favor to budget with.

Along with a small pay increase, we actually have another $336 more each month to work with in 2016. I'm thinking I just need to funnel it away and not think to specifically what it needs to go for. By year end that would amount to $4032. I'd really like to make sure we are still adding to our savings, particularly now that we don't have a mortgage. I would pay that down if we did.

In other news, I took my daughter to the dentist today. All good. We have known that she will need her wisdom teeth pulled. We have set into motion a plan to make that happen. We have a consult over spring break with the oral surgeon. We had to pay $95 to even make the appointment, but it will be applied to any costs we incur. We expect the oral surgeon will want to remove all four wisdom teeth, and will have that done in the summer when she is home on break. That will give us time to monitor her for any complications. I think our insurance will cover most of the cost of oral surgery, but I will be attempting to get more information on that soon so I can plan. Checked and our insurance covers 40% up to $1300, so we will definitely have some costs.

Do you need to change your paycheck withholding now that it is a new year? It's a good time to calculate what you might need it to be. The IRS has a withholding calculator on their website. Have you paid for wisdom teeth removal? What did you pay?

I mentioned in December that I would like to do a No Spend Month in February. For me, I see a no spend month as spending only on necessities. And to really consider what the necessities are! Is renting a movie a necessity? Are vitamins a necessity for one month? Are Valentine's a necessity? Can I clean the shower with a homemade concoction with ingredients on hand?

I feel there needs to be a little planning involved in order to make this happen. We will pay our rent, utilities, any tuition and books, flute lessons, fuel for our vehicles to get around to school and work, and buy the minimum groceries. The other part of the plan is to make sure that the family is on board, specifically my husband. I think he may think I'm a bit crazy. I've done No Spend months before, but he was usually living out of the country!

With February comes Valentine's Day. I decided to set aside some chocolate caramels we received as a gift for Christmas and use those as our candy for Valentine's. I have six Valentine cards and the same number of stamps, if I decide to send them. Again, there will need to be an agreement with husband not to buy flowers and cards!

There will be more planning. Specifically meal planning. I'll share more about that as I get that part together!

Some of you are doing a No Spend Month in January. How is that going? Did you plan ahead to make it work? What advice do you have for a No Spend Month?

Happy New Year!

I checked our interest bearing accounts and found we earned $60.58 on our cash in December. Not too exciting but if we earn that every month for a year we would have $726.96 more in our pockets.

We are watching the Rose Bowl parade this morning...well now afternoon here. We are either taking a road trip to visit a nearby art museum (free admission). This was a request by artist daughter! If we don't end up there today, we'll go tomorrow.

And whichever day we don't go to the museum, we plan to take down our holiday decorations. So hopefully not too much spending as we start off the new year.

My husband and I need to sit down and finalize our YNAB budget. I think it is looking pretty good as we start the year.

If it had been up to me, we would have spent $0 today. But I forgot chicken stock for the stuffing we were having. So my husband ran to the store, and he decided we also needed two bags of chips. So another $8.15 out of our account.

Our girls also wanted to spend their Barnes and Noble gift cards. They both went over by a couple dollars...so I spotted them a little cash, but they owe me about $4.

And it seems the buyer of a Wii game I sold early in December feels it doesn't work. I'm a little surprised. I'm accepting the return, since I believe I can ultimately resell it. I will verify again that it works. It originally sold for about $37, so it's not a small request.

However, tomorrow is payday, so were doing just fine. It will be time to do the budget on YNAB and get all credit cards paid!

Our daughter is home from college! The weather cooperated with her flights leaving on time. Classes did end before Christmas but she went with her band to a bowl game over Christmas. Our team won!

We spent money on gas for the van today (around $19), $2 for an hour of parking, another $11 at Starbucks in the airport while we waited for the flight, and $28 for lunch on the road between airport and home. My daughter didn't eat this morning so she was 'starving'. The rest of us probably could have waited, but it's all good. There was money in the budget for eating out.

We will probably stay in the next few days being together and completing our holiday celebration. Although my husband has to work a little. We still have plenty of food to last through the end of the year. I'd really like to think we are done spending for the rest of the year!!

I'm tempted to go shopping today. I have this idea that if I go to Target that I can get some ornaments on clearance. I usually buy one for each of my daughter's, but I didn't buy them this year. They have often come from Target because they seem to have a style my daughter's like.

And I still have the opportunity to gift them as we will not open stockings and the rest of our gifts until next week when my oldest daughter returns home.

Part of me say don't go shopping. Avoid the chaos. Avoid adding 'stuff' to our home. But I also know that for a couple dollars I'm helping build their ornament collections and that they will like them.

I will have to resist any other temptations while in the store, too! That might be the hardest part. The good news is I do not need any wrapping paper for next year. We don't need any candy or holiday themed food. We have more than we need!!

Are you doing any after Christmas shopping?

We made one final purchase this afternoon. A set of ten puzzles of Thomas Kinkade pictures. At 50% off at Micheal's, we spent $9.99 plus tax. So far, the first one is taking quite awhile, so I expect this will be very inexpensive entertainment over the next few days!

Thank you to all of you for reading my financial posts all year long. May you have the happiest of holidays!

Merry Christmas!!

I spent $145 at the music store yesterday, which I still need to record in YNAB. The younger daughter's flute was only $20 to bring back into good playing condition. We also signed her up for flute lessons. She has not been taking lessons since we moved. And originally didn't want to. She has changed her mind. All on her own!

The lessons are $25 each, payable in advance. She starts the first week of January, so that is what we paid for. The other $25 is a one time fee that goes to cover costs of recital venues. So now I need to budget in another $100 expense each month for awhile.

The older daughter doesn't have her flute back yet, so I don't know the cost. I still expect it to be around $100.

We did our grocery shopping yesterday and spent about $185. That did include trash bags and laundry detergent. We are stocked up really well for the next week or more! In fact, I expect there to be leftovers frozen. I wonder if these frozen meals may end up getting us through our No Spend Month in February!

We changed our Netflix plan for the next month. All four of us have things we want to watch and we aren't always watching those things together. We increased our plan from 2 screens to four. The price increased from $8.99 a month to $11.99 a month. I expect to change it back once we are all back to school and work after the holiday.

My daughter's both have their flutes in for repair, or really just basic maintenance. They are in at different places. The local shop here expected the cost to be no more than $65. The shop in my daughter's college town thought her flute may cost around $90 for repair. She is having a little more work done so that makes some sense.

We are making what I would like to be the final grocery run of the year. Although, I'm sure I'm bound to need a few perishables before then. It seems like a lot of food, a lot of extras we like to have this time of year. It's probably too much, but I guess it's what we do!

I'm also tempted to buy a puzzle or two. We put together one the other day as a family that we bought last year as a holiday activity. I'd like to do more, but I think we only have one other one. I'm sure these are available at a thrift store, so that would be the frugal way to shop for such items.

Do you have instruments you have to repair? How many more grocery store trips do you have in 2015? Do you like to put puzzles together?

Although our Christmas shopping is done, we did some shopping today for needs. At Ulta. Where the checkout line was horrendous! Not that I was really surprised. The man buying his daughter's makeup just about had a heart attack when they gave him the total! The stuff is expensive and adds up fast. I don't think they had any coupons. We were buying one liter of conditioner and a tiny bottle of hair serum of some kind. With 20% off and $6 in rewards our total was $26.49. That conditioner bottle should last me six months. It seems the shampoo lasts about twice as long!

I bought a long sleeve shirt on Land's End today. I've been wanting a gray one to replace one I got rid of last winter. Today, I was able to get it for half off, free shipping and will get a $15 credit because I used our Chase Freedom card through the Visa Checkout system. The total before the credit was $17.90. I had to throw in a child's fleece hat $3.97 to get my total high enough for the credit offer. I will donate that since both items together will only cost me $2.90!

We went out to lunch today. We tried a new pizza place here in town, called MOD Pizza. It was really good! With drinks for three of us we spent $31. We ate late, so hoping dinner here at home can be light. Oh, and the meal was in our budget!

We have plans to watch Polar Express tonight also. It's been a few years since we watched it...and I was contemplating decluttering the disc. Guess it stays for now!

We received lots of goodies (food primarily) in the mail from my parents today. Their Christmas gift to us. They know the kinds of things we like. And there should be nearly zero clutter as a result. There were some candles...which could take awhile to burn though.

I hope you are all enjoying the lead up to the holidays! If you are stressing out...please don't it isn't worth it. I have heard of too many people getting upset this time of year for various reasons. That makes me sad when it should be a joyous time. It seems to come from putting too much pressure on ourselves to please others or expecting too much of the season. We have scaled back considerably and I can tell we are all enjoying ourselves so much more!

I sold more shares of my daughter's college fund the day interest rates went up and the market went up. I'm selling to cover the cash we used out of pocket to pay tuition and housing last semester. I still need to withdraw another $2K before the end of the year. Although if the market keeps tanking, I may just forget it!

It's officially holiday break! We have no particular plans. I'm hoping we can find some low/no cost things to do at home or in the area before Christmas. I guess my husband has a few more days of work before then too!

I did buy toilet paper and got $1 back from Ibotta for the purchase. Always nice to find some savings. I have nearly $16 accumulated with