One Hundred Dollars a Month

My goals for 2017

Get 7- 8 Hours of Sleep Each Night

I did a marvelous job this week getting a ridiculous amount of sleep and I feel like my batteries have been totally recharged. Who knew that lot’s of sleep, good food and taking it easy was the key? 😉

Make Saving a Priority, Not an Idea

Some of the things I did to save money this week:

• Dried clothing outside instead of turning on the dryer
• Only watered the lawn twice {most of my neighbors run their sprinklers every single morning}
• Tagged along on one of the HH’s business trips {and enjoyed free hotel, airfare, and all our meals for free}
• Continued to rake moss out of lawn {instead of paying for chemicals}
• Attended a “bag sale” and paid $8 for 24 gently used pieces of clothing

Live a little

Our 23rd anniversary is coming up so I cashed in our Alaska Companion fare ticket {buy 1 get 1 for $99 + taxes} for tickets to the east coast. Yee-Haw!

Visit 52 REAL Bakeries

I’ll be taking a break from visiting new bakeries for a few weeks but there are still a few that we’ve visited that I haven’t shared with you yet. I’ll work on putting those posts together this week.

Have 1 “no spend” week each month

I’ll probably do this towards the end of the month so I’ll be able to stock up on Fourth of July sale items at the grocery store.

Start a Line of Rug Hooking Patterns

So far I have 8 rug hooking patterns listed in my Etsy shop with 3 more drawn out but not completed. I’m having a hard time finding time to squeeze some rug hooking in lately but as long as I get 12 patterns done by the end of the year… I’ll be happy.

Turn My Wool Stash into $2,500. – Mission Accomplished

This past week I sold another $54.99 worth of goodness in my Etsy shop {2 patterns, 1 mini rug} which brings my total to $4355.31 for the year. I haven’t listed anything new in a while {and don’t plan to until mid August} so I’m pleased that I made a little something.

I am have been working on smaller fall pieces while I sit as a passenger in a car or a plane or am watching a movie. I totally feel like I get more rug hooking done during the winter months, that’s for sure. 😉

Purge 250 Items Including Selling Larger Items We No Longer Feel We Need

With the neighborhood garage sale just 3 weeks away I need to get crackin’. I think I have FINALLY convinced the HH to get rid of his giant man speakers {he thinks someone at his work might want them} so if that happens that will add another 5 items to my list. I still need to make one more pass through the garage and ask Monkey Boy to go through his closet. Fingers crossed I can get to 250 items. 😉 Right now I’m at 212.

Learn to Crochet Mission Accomplished

I tried it and decided it’s not for me. My friend Zoë was going to make me a scrap quilt top, but decided it was going to take much longer than she anticipated for the amount we agreed on so now she’s not. That’s okay. I totally understand. Someday when my life slows down I’ll make a quilt. It’s just won’t be this year.

Dote on My Husband Even More Than I Do Now.

Even though it was Reno, I had a really good time hanging out with my husband for 3 days. We had lot’s of alone time, wonderful food and 2 days of sleeping in until 6 am {a luxury for us}. It was also really weird not having Lucy by our sides the whole time.

Lose the Muffin Top. {again}

Well. If I was defining success meant I was able to fit into the dresses I had planned to wear on my husbands business trip… MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

If being able to fit into all the remaining pants in my closet {because my favorite jeans have been downgraded to “painting pants”} then I still have some work to do because I did nothing but stuff my face for three days on delicious food. Take the plate above as an example. Fried corn fritters, warm artichoke dip with pita, and bacon fried Brussels sprouts {x3 servings}. Those were just the appetizers at one of the dinners I attended. The steak, beans, salad and fingerling potatoes and the dessert that followed only added to the expansion of my food belly. Ha!

But the food…. it was so delicious!! And anyway… I don’t need to fit into those pants until fall. I mean this is the season to wear shorts and skirts, right? 😉 Ahhh… Everything in moderation I guess.

Wear out {most of} the clothing I already own.

The Girl and I happened upon the greatest deal of the century yesterday. A {clothing} bag sale. We paid $8 to be able to stuff an ordinary paper bag with as many clothes as we could fit in it. I’ll share some pictures of what we bought tomorrow… but you guys, we went home with some seriously good stuff.

So, how does this apply to my goal of wearing out most of the clothing I own? Well, I’ve actually been able to put several of my clothing items into my fabric scrap pile this year and I’m really happy about that. I haven’t bought many new {or new to me} clothes over the past three years and I don’t feel the least bit guilty about picking up a few when I find a truly good deal.

Try 52 New Recipes

I got together with Mrs. HB on Friday and we put together a few meals. One of them was this chicken picatta and let me tell you Bob, it was delicious! I’ll share the recipe later this week.

Read 52 Books

This week I’ll be listening to Tomatoland on audiobook. It’s funny, up until about 1 year or two ago I would have much rather read a book than listened to one. But a switch has been flipped and although I do love to shut out the rest of the world and read a book cover to cover occasionally during the winter months, these days I find that listening to one while I work on sewing {or painting} projects works better with my schedule. Life, it’s interesting how it evolves.

Give Back to 12 Different Organizations in My Community

• January – Donated to Quilts from the Heart in Memory of my brother.
• February – Donated to Empty Bowls Fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club.
• March – Donated to my daughter’s mentor who was in a horrible car accident.
• April – Donated again to my daughter’s mentor who was in a horrible car accident.
• May – $100 Tip to a waitress on Mother’s day.
• June – Waiting for the right opportunity to pop up.

Back in March I donated to a fund established to my daughter’s mentor who was in a horrible car accident. In a nutshell, he was left paralyzed from the waist down which really, really sucks. He has been doing PT and rocking it, and we recently heard he and his wife are expecting baby #2 {they had found out right before the accident but hadn’t told anyone yet} and we couldn’t be happier for them. They’ve got a long road, with lots of challenges, but they’ve also got a great community around them with lot’s of support. Yada yada yada, I wanted to make a second donation {and will likely make a third by the end of the year} to let them know we are in their corner.

People. Be thankful for what you have. Because you just never know what challenges are around the corner.

And then, there’s those top secret goals we’re not talking about yet.

• Secret Goal #1 Sell East Coast House Mission Accomplished
• Secret Goal #2 Chickens! Mission Accomplished
• Secret Goal #3
• Secret Goal #4

How about YOU? Did you set any goals for 2017? How are they coming along?

~Mavis

Read About My 2017 Goals HERE.