1. Get Organized.
Our dishwasher sucks. So twice a day there is a pile of dishes drying on my kitchen counter. Oddly enough though it doesn’t make me crazy. I think the dishes make the space feel homier. I refuse to buy a new dishwasher because really, it’s not going to increase the value of our home when all is said and done. And, as a bonus, my hands have never felt softer.
2. Run, walk or crawl a Marathon, half marathon, 10k, and 5k race this year. Well, so I guess I’m doing this! I walked/ran a 5k last weekend with an old neighbor and had a blast. Even though my time wasn’t super great, I think I did okay considering the whole Living of a 30 day Emergency Food Supply Challenge I’m doing. I signed up for a local half marathon and I’m excited! 🙂
3. Remodel our Master Bathroom, Master Closet and Monkey Boy’s Bathroom. Done!
4. Finish Every Room in Our House.
When we bought the house last fall my original plan was to turn the guest room into an office/craft room for myself. But in an effort to declutter and simplify, I turned it into a proper guest room this past week. I didn’t have to spend a dime either.
Gladys Kravitz is under the impression it’s HER room and now spends her morning hours upstairs peering out the window at all the people walking by.
She’s living the suburbia dream, what more can I say?
5. Turn Spare Bedroom into a Cozy Home Office Space for myself. I stole my husbands office and decorated it all girly and stuff instead! 🙂
6. Create a Vegetable Garden. Done!
7. Build a Path into the Hillside for Easy Access to the Upper Garden. We built a fence instead.
8. Limit my personal spending to $100 a month.
So far this month I’ve only spent $1.00 out of my personal spending money. How crazy is that? It’s mostly because I’ve become a shut in. 😉
In May I spent $26.50.
In April I Spent $18.46.
In March I Spent $42.44.
In February I Spent $32.52
In January I Spent $84.33
9. Purge… Weekly. Find 10 things each week to donate to the thrift store.
More crap for the garage sale.
10. Read 1 book a week.
I never knew how cool Candice Bergen was until I read her book A Fine Romance. I seriously LOVED reading page after page and could not put her book down {just ask my husband!}. What a life she’s had so far.
11. Slow Down.
I’m still puttering along on my rug.
12. Canning
So far this year I have canned blueberry, strawberry and raspberry jam. Yee-Haw! The pantry is filling up.
Did you set any goals for this year? If so, how are they coming along?
~Mavis
Laurie says
Mavis, you inspire me! This morning I purged 2 boxes and 3 bags of clothes to go to charity. I’m scheduling a pick up for next week so I can be done with the stuff (plus all the crappity crap in my garage). Makes me feel much lighter 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Just say no to crappity crap!
connie says
I love your blog, I just recently quit my job of 16 years and my career of 30 years as a nurse, yes its a 60,000 a year cut in pay, but my husband took a different job last year making 40,000 more a year, I am 53 years old, we put a lot away on my frugalness and now that im home, I want to really save on money and you have given me so many ideas to save money but just to stay busy, I have to learn how to create a new life for myself at home, I have no children living at home and my granddaughter is 4 hours away…so I love your posts, thank you
Mavis Butterfield says
Thank you for your kind words Connie!!! 🙂 Enjoy your new job staying at home.
Amber Knight says
My dishwasher broke 2 years ago. I use it as a drying rack. Thanks for the inspiration. I am moving next month and need to get busy with sorting for Goodwill.
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh that is clever Amber. I might steal that idea!!!
Kathy Drache says
I tend to use our dishwasher to store potatoes and onions.
Kirsten G. says
I wish I had time to read more. My kids are still little so by the time they’re in bed, I’m done for the night and fall asleep by 10.
A good way to get a new to you dishwasher is look on kijiji or Craigslist. Looks for ads in neighbourhoods where the homes are for sale because people will be renovating and taking out the appliances. My friend found a pretty new dishwasher for about $40 that way because the people were getting rid of the existing one and putting in stainless steel.
Blanche says
I’m curious what you consider personal spending. I’m pretty new to your site, and I don’t really understand a few things. I must have missed seeing where you purchase things like flour, sugar, oils/shortening that go into many of the meal ideas you post. I haven’t seen those things added into your food budget. I do love all the gardening tips and all your adventures.
Mavis says
Personal spending is anything just for me. I don’t include food or toiletries, and I don’t calculate money spent when I travel, as that comes out of a separate travel budget. As far as the flour, sugar, etc. I typically buy that in bulk. I had some carry over from last year still in my pantry, but when I run out, it does come out of my food budget {which I try to keep as close to $100/month as possible}. Hope that helps clear things up. Thanks for reading!
Susan says
About your dishwasher, mine wasn’t working either so I went on YouTube and found a video specific to my brand on how to fix them. One hour later and it’s like I had a new dishwasher! The part that took the longest was finding the right screwdriver to take it apart. I was amazed at how easy it was. There is a little filter-ish place in the bottom and I found twist ties, broken glass, chicken bones, price labels and who knows what else in there. (I swear it was all from the people that lived here before us) It’s a wonder it worked at all! I’m not even very handy and you are so you might want to give it a try.
Katie says
Have you considered looking on Craigslist for a dishwasher? Ours died and we tried living without it for 6 or so months. Couldn’t do it. Went on Craigslist and found one for $50 that worked better than our old dishwasher (even when it was brand new) AND this is one was older than that!