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It's been a long time...

3K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  peanut 
#1 ·
Well I guess I should update a bit. We finished the kitchen renovation the end of November 2014. It came to $35,000. We were not impressed. Over $10,000 was electrical work. We needed to reroute around some knob and tube wiring and add a new electrical panel. While the ceiling was down we had them run wire upstairs to the bathroom and the sewing room. They ran some extra circuits up there to rewire the entire upstairs as we update one room at a time. Not likely to happen. We'll be downsizing before we get the money to do that!

Unfortunately the added expense of the kitchen renovation ate into the money for a new-to-us car. So we are now driving a 20 year old Toyota Corolla, and madly saving up for a new-to-us Prius. Hubby says it will cost $20,000. I don't know if it's worth it, but he's fixed on that being the car he wants. We almost had the money saved up when we received the news our water and sewer line needed to be replaced...to the tune of $5000 CAD. Nothing is cheap in these old houses. We were disgusted. It's three times what other people pay, all because the City planted a tree over the line and the lamppost is right beside it. Meaning the contractors had to come from the alley, across the lawn (which is now wrecked), and use small equipment to dig it up and replace it. The small equipment, of course, took longer, and, to give the contractor credit, it did take 3 times as long to do. Still, I'm miffed. The City should be paying for anything over and above what is the normal price. NOT happy!

Because of the financial crunch to save for a new-to-us car, we've embarked on a frugal Christmas this year. So far, so good. The gifts for this entire Christmas will have cost $310 for both of us combined, and all from our personal allowances. We were able to gift 18 people for that sum, and they weren't bad gifts. A lot of it was my home canning.

We also decided to change up Christmas and cook what's in the freezer, rather than have a turkey dinner when DH doesn't like turkey. I don't like ham because it's so salty. So this Christmas Eve is Curried Geese Breasts, and Christmas Day is actually a choice between Pot Roast and Lasagna. We like the variety there. :)

Our grocery bill for the next two weeks was $125 CAD. Not bad for this time of year. I'm busy baking now. The Gingersnaps (Molasses Cookies here) are baked - all 9 dozen of them - and some were used to make the crust to a Pumpkin Cheesecake now cooling in the oven. Next up is Chocolate Cookies, and then Quiche and Rhubarb Custard Pie. They will all be frozen, and eaten over the holidays.

All this is in hopes of being able to put $2000 into the car account the end of the month - my personal goal. :)

So that's my so-called frugal update for now! Here's hoping 2016 will be a better year for frugality around here.
 
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