Saving money through Christmas to New Year's

 Daughter 4 got this for me... The other 5 agreed it was the best present for me and all got a laugh. She also got us some off grid stuff, travel mugs that we can take out side and a wood rack to put on our porch so her dad won't have to go to the barn to refill as often and to put what is in the barn in the wood rack at the end of the season so we have this year's wood separate from next year's wood.

We saw most of the kids by making the loop only going 10 miles out of the way of a 2 hr. trip one way on driving to Daughter 2's to see her son in on leave and having Christmas with him. For the 1st time in years we only saw the daughters. Son 1 is coming up on the 30th when the weather is good and we will see Son 2 on the 2nd though we did drop his gifts off as he was out of town. I got kitty time with my 4 legged grandkids though. I took appetizers made from what I had on hand. 

The 2 legged grandkids got a kick out of the dollar store regular envelopes I put their Christmas cash in and the advanced birthday cards of the ones in Jan and Feb. Most the evening was answering questions on how much to save, how to save, and being getting back up for the grid going down. One made the comment he would be packing his cats and coming to live with us if bad crap happened, Daughter 4 told him to wait and she would drive pass so he could follow her as she would be heading this way. Hubby told them to plan on living in the barn since only 1 of them has a home over 1200 sq ft, they could do that as the barn is over 8000 square feet. As we were leaving they yelled see you in March, that's when the next round of birthday cards would be. All of them asked about how much to save for retirement about half of them are self employed and know not to count on Social Security to support them.

We came home a different way (10 miles shorter LOL) and saw more Christmas lights.  

I cut the Christmas eve prime rib so we had some Christmas eve, put the rest in the freezer  so can roast the rest on the 30th for Son 1 instead of buying another roast. Actually it was better as I have only enough leftovers for 2 small Philly steak subs and a pizza for the two of us. 

I checked all automatic payments making sure they had the correct information and would continue as automatic. Son 2 had 2 stop last year because he didn't confirm his info. Was a mess 

I donated to the food pantry in memory of Mother, Salvation Army in memory of Pop as they raised him when he was put on the street at age 12 by his parents and Seed Savers in memory of Daddy as he was always a gardener until his late 80s.

We ate appetizers made from what I had on hand for two meals.

I baked 2 loaves of bread. First loaf was used for bread on Christmas eve along with croutons for the salad. Then into bread pudding. Half of the second one was  French toast (got free eggs from M).

I transferred $2.96 cash back to the card and then took the same amount and put it in savings. 

During the 35 to 50 below wind chill temperatures I closed off the two lofts and the basement. Kept curtains closed, only turned on Christmas lights on Christmas eve and day to help with power grid . We didn't lose power thankfully. Still needed to turn the furnace on to 65 even with wood stove to keep the south end of the house from freezing pipes. Found one window that allowed snow through it and then had ice on the inside. I covered it with an old towel. Will be researching windows for sure. Hubby checked the propane tank level as we turned the furnace back down to 55. We are at 59 % so we only used 2% during the week of sub zero. Not bad at all as the last time we had that type of weather we used 15% . 

I used the wood stove to cook and bake instead of using the propane cook stove. 

We are sitting down today and talking of goals/plans for the next year. We do know we are decluttering/downsizing. 

Blessed be

Prayers for peace

Be safe and healthy (as I cough my lungs up LOL)