Let’s wrap up a blessedly short month!

Money

Although I bought more stuff than last month, my low-buy year is going well.

I got a large unexpected client payment this month, so I already have the funds to purchase the course I plan to take. I thought saving this amount would take several months, so I’m pretty pleased.

I spent $14.06 on (secondhand) clothing and $6.00 on a sewing subscription this month. I also spent a respectable (but not outrageous) $47.96 on books. I bought a few other weird things (a vintage board game and a tarot deck from eBay, and some stickers and an art print from Etsy), but these weren’t against my spending rules.

We paid an enormous special assessment for common area hurricane repairs for our condo this month. At least our insurance paid for a small part of it! We spent $200 less than budgeted for groceries. (Wow!) We’ve been making an effort to waste less food and “eat down” our pantry and freezer, and that seems to be really paying off. (It’s a short month, so that’s admittedly part of the story.) We got a small tax refund, which will go into our savings. I guess we managed to get it before they fired everyone? JFC. We live in hell.

Writing

I submitted my second piece for the 12 Short Stories in 12 Months program, which may become a longer story. I also took a couple of free writing webinars this month.

Goals

I listed eight goals for February. Some of these will change from month to month, and some will remain the same.

Writing
+ Finish reading Seven Drafts by Allison K Williams
+ Write short story
+ Send newsletter

I did indeed finish reading that book and posted my short story. Still no newsletter, though. Maybe in March!

Household
+ Schedule eye exams
+ Try one new recipe

We not only scheduled our eye exams, we’ve already had ’em! I’d been procrastinating for many months, so it felt great to finally get that done. (We haven’t gotten our new glasses yet.) I tried two more recipes in February. I made a pasta dish with a hummus-based sauce (delicious) and roasted soybeans (even more delicious). Those crispy soybeans, yes! They were the closest thing to nuts I’ve had in years.

Money
+ Transfer savings to a high-yield savings account

This was a holdover from last month, but we did transfer the money this time around.

Personal
+ Attend two concerts
+ Sew one project

We attended a Zoe Keating concert (amazing) and went to see the Houston Symphony play “The Empire Strikes Back” live (great fun). I still haven’t managed to finish a sewing project, though. Whoops!

Goals for March

Writing
+ Attend two webinars
+ Write short story
+ Send newsletter

Household
+ Deep clean balcony area
+ Try one new recipe

Money
+ Finish and bill two annual clients

Personal
+ Go to the gym (or walk) four times
+ Sew one project

Everything Else

• I’ve been rewatching “Star Trek Voyager” for the first time since it originally aired, and that has been fun. However, that led to an inevitable re-watch of “Farscape.” Will I go on to re-watch “Stargate SG-1” after all this? LOL, probably.
• I only read 16 books this month. Blame all the 1990s sci-fi television.
• My giant alligator plant bloomed! It has never done that before. All it usually does is create hundreds of babies that I have to weed out.

And that was February.