Well, we made it. It is now the year 2021 and 2020 is forever behind us. I wish that meant there was a magic switch to improve the current situation, but that isn't so. I did finish out my blogging year with a gratitude post looking back at 2020, and that exercise really helped my…
Looking back to where our finances were in 2017 when we had to use our emergency fund, we've come a long way in getting a closer hold on our monthly expenses and are so much better prepared to adjust as needed. We've been lucky this year to both have our jobs, though our roommate has…
Considering it is now almost October, I suppose it is time for me to finish up my August spending update. Just like the previous month, I really didn’t feel like taking the time to go through everything in this detail, but it’s important. Our finances look so different since I started tracking in 2017. We…
Goals...apparently they still exist this far into the year, but I have to admit, they aren't top of my mind most of the time these days. To be perfectly honest, simply surviving the year with our mental health mostly in tact seems like the biggest goal of all. Anyone who says their life hasn't been…
Yesterday, I wrote an outline and the beginnings to a new post to be published today, and I have perhaps another hour left until it would be ready to share. Instead of finishing it up though, I spent my afternoon and evening out in my garden harvesting tomatoes, blueberries, and greens, and tidying up the…
July feels like forever ago at this point. June and July seemed to march along at a decent clip, but August has slowed down to the molasses speed of March. The weather has been good though, so we've been spending a lot of it outside. This month was a wildly expensive one for us, but…
Considering the month of July is almost over, it's probably time to update my June expense report here. While I would have liked to just skip going through the details at this point since the month is weeks past, the accountability of this blog makes sure that I still do it, even when I'm really…
Well, I think I had some unfounded hope at the last quarterly update back in April that things would be more back to normal by now, but they clearly aren't. COVID cases here in the United States are higher than ever, and I'm concerned what 4th of July gatherings are going to do to them…
April's spending looked pretty similar to March, and both looked very different from months prior. COVID-19 spending looks like food, drink, and housing expenses, with very little else. While this might change a little bit through the summer months, I expect things to look pretty similar for much of the year. When travel isn't really…
Well, life is certainly different than when I wrote up these goals back in January. Our world has gone topsy turvy, and I'm so glad that I've spent the last couple of years working on my SlowFI journey with a focus on living in the present. With so many long term goals behind me (degree,…