2020

If you told me we would be in a pandemic in 2020, I would have thought you were crazy. If you told me schools and businesses would shut down in 2020, I would have said impossible. If you told me we would be under a mask mandate for almost a year, I would have said no way! It is so crazy how we went from freedom in 2019 to lockdowns in 2020. I had no idea our weekend trip to visit the ark would have been our last hoorah for a little while. 

Our town entered into a stay-at-home order on April 3 or 4 2020. Thank goodness it only lasted a month, but the mask mandate lasted much longer than I expected. Maddy and I were NOT a fan of the masks. Our park playground had caution tape around it with a sign that said it was closed. I never knew a playground could even close. I don't think I will ever forget 2020. I thought I'd share the pictures I have from then. 

2020 looked a lot like this lol

This was the last day of quarantine. We were all so excited to be able to get out.

My niece graduated high school. Graduation was so different. They had a senior parade to celebrate the occasion.

We took lots of little hikes.

Maddy turned 11! 

The pictures do not quite show just how odd of a year 2020 was, but it was extremely odd. We even had an Easter tornado. I was so thankful for 2021 to get here.

Maddy Got Her Ears Pierced

Around Thanksgiving Maddy had mentioned wanting to get her ears pierced. She's mentioned it off and on for years. We decided it was a good time to do it. I talked to her about the pros and cons of the gun verses the needle. I let her make the decision and she chose the gun.

We went to Claire's on December 27. Maddy was super nervous and to be honest so was I. Thankfully the store was empty when we walked in. The girl who did the piercing was nice and tried to put Maddy at ease. Maddy chose birthstone earrings. 

Right before she got her ears pierced a mom and her daughter asked Maddy if they could watch. Maddy wanted to say no but felt obligated to say yes. The mom put her on the spot afterwards by asking if it was bad. Maddy didn't want to scare the girl, but also didn't want her to think it was painless. She told the mom it wasn't bad, but throughout that day she was worried she made the girl think it was painless when in reality for Maddy it was not painless.

She was happy it was over and loves her pierced ears.

Christmas 2022: Part 2

 This year was my aunt and uncle's year to host Christmas. After we opened our presents, it was time to clean up and get ready to go to their house. I didn't take a lot of pictures and what I did take I can't post due to privacy reasons. 

The top picture is my go-to face when someone asks if they can take my picture. Getting your picture made feels awkward, so this is my coping mechanism.

After we opened presents at my aunt and uncle's we went back to my parents' house to open more presents. I took mostly video, but again am not allowed to post some members of my family.

My sister is the best gift giver and also finds the best paper! 

Even though it didn't feel like Christmas, we still had a great day! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!

Christmas 2022: Part 1

 I cannot believe Christmas has come and gone. It does not feel like Christmas happened at all. Christmas was so different this year. Mainly because we no longer have our own house, but even with a house I think it would have felt different. 

I was able to get Friday December 23 off, so we decided to make Santa cookies on that day.

Maddy and my mom decorated all the cookies. We usually never decorate them all because it gets tiring, but we did this year.

By the time the cookies were all decorated, it was time to get ready for church. The Christmas Eve service is my favorite service. It is usually a candlelight service with a lot of music. This year was slightly different, but it was still a candlelight service.

After church we headed downtown to see the windows all decorated. Ironically, we had an extreme cold front move in, and the power company decided to have rolling blackouts lasting up to fifteen minutes. In order to preserve energy, they turned off the lights in the windows. 

Once we got home Maddy opened her traditional Christmas Eve present.

I mostly have video and unfortunately the clips are too long to upload. This is the best picture I have of her shirt. This set came with buffalo plaid fuzzy socks and shorts.

After she opened her present, it was time for everyone to get into their Christmas jammies to watch Home Alone 2. Since Maddy has graduated into a Santa's helper, this has become our new tradition.

These were the cookies she wanted to leave out for Santa and the elves.

I was so excited this year for Christmas because for once I knew exactly what I wanted to get Maddy. Approximately two years ago we had the money saved for a PS5, but life happened, and I ended up having to use that money as our Christmas fund. I promised her we would rebuild the sinking fund and try again. She was such a good sport about it. She had a plan to save her money for a PS5 this year. Once our house sold, she realized the reality of her getting a puppy is sooner than expected, so she decided to use her PS5 savings as her dog savings. I knew I had to find a way to get her a PS5 for Christmas. After a little digging I found I could request an invitation from Amazon. I gave it a try and two days later received an invite. I could not believe it happened so fast. As you can tell in the video, she was quite surprised. 

The PS5 was supposed to be her main present. We've been trying to figure out what homeschool curriculum we would use next year. We finally came to a decision. Unfortunately for me that decision required her to have a laptop because it will solely be online. I debated with the do I or don't I decision of getting her a laptop for Christmas. I figured it made financial sense to go ahead and purchase the laptop and make it part of her Christmas. She has wanted a laptop for a while, so she was really excited to get one.

Since she ended up getting two main presents, the rest of her Christmas were accessories mostly. She got a PS5 controller charging station and an extra controller. Mom wants to play too ya know! She also got three games: Avengers, Uncharted; Legacy of Thieves Collection, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

The last thing she got outside of stocking stuffers is a JBL Flip 6 speaker. This was something else I knew early on I wanted to get for her. When I tell you it is an awesome speaker, I mean it. The sound is incredible!

Marley had a great Christmas as well. He got a few new toys and a big bag of treats.

My parents got him his very own "human grade" blanket. He is very spoiled and loves his blankets. Maddy took this pic of him. 

I think I will stop here and put the rest of our Christmas in part two.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Drummer Boy Christmas

 I never expected to get to go to two for King & Country concerts in a year. We got to attend A Drummer Boy Christmas tour in Nashville, TN. We did not have our new phones for this concert, so the pictures I did get will not be great quality. Like Christmas, I took more video than pictures, so we will see what I can come up with. We plan to make this concert a tradition every year.

The concert was held at the Gaylord Opry House. This was our first time at the venue. We got to drive through the beautiful lights. I could not get good pictures because I was in the back, and you weren't allowed to stop. It was breathtakingly beautiful!

For King & Country never disappoints! They are high energy and know how to work the crowd.

At one point in the concert a few musicians joined them on here as it was lifted towards the ceiling. 

I love that they use live musicians outside of the rhythm section. The man playing the cello is their band leader and he plays several different instruments. My music loving self was blown away!

I had to include a couple of videos. This is the beginning of their song Relate. We didn't get to see these elevators in Knoxville, so it was neat seeing something new.

They ended the show playing Drummer Boy. I think it is neat they also play instruments throughout their show. They truly are talented. After Drummer Boy they walk off stage, and then come back for an encore. Their encore is Joy. I can't recommend their concert enough!

2022 Year in Review: Finances

 I received my 2022 year in review and thought I'd share. As a reminder, I follow The Budget Mom on Instagram. I have implemented her budget by paycheck and have seen great progress. 

My credit score went up by 83 points in 2022. Yes, you read that right; eighty-three points. I'd love to know how they calculate it because from the sounds of it I had a really low credit score to begin with, but in all reality I really didn't. 

I've been able to keep my average credit card usage to under 30%. This is a big deal for me. I used to high credit card usage. 

I was able to pay off $5,733 of credit card debt. My mind is really blown on this one. How?! It just goes to show a little bit really does add up in the long run. That is so hard to see in the beginning, which is one reason I never really tried before. When I first started this process, I did not have extra money to throw at debt. I had to wait until I was able to pay off a debt and snowball that payment into the next debt. 

I paid off $4,135 of my car loan. 

Other finance wins in 2022 include having a fully funded Christmas sinking fund. Whereas I did go over budget for Christmas this year, I did not accrue more debt. I started my house savings fund. We will just pretend it wasn't a forced savings lol. I feel very defeated in saving for a house. I feel like it will never happen. I'm trying to remind myself that much like debt, a little will turn into a lot in the long run. The last win is being able to afford new phones for my daughter and me. I did finance them through Apple; however, they are interest free for two years, and I have a plan to pay them off sooner than two years. Our phones were no longer going to be supported with the next update, so we needed to go ahead and purchase new ones. I now have a phone savings set up and plan to have it funded within the next four years. 

Was 2022 a good year for you financially? I'd love to hear about it!

Ways I Save Money

 I am always looking for ways to save money. Several years ago, I cut the cord to cable. I went from paying $100 for the basic DirecTV package, to paying $54.75 for Sling. That was almost half the price of what I had been paying, and I got more channels. In full transparency, Sling has gone up on their rates. I tried to figure out a way I could go to a cheaper streaming service, but at the end of the day Sling was still the cheapest. I purchased the 4/$10 entertainment package, which included all the hallmark channels. I found it was cheaper to drop the extra package and use frndlytv for hallmark and lifetime movie network. In dropping the extra package, I was able to get my Sling bill back down to $54.75, but I now have a $9.84 frndlytv bill. It saves me $3 doing it this way verses having it all on Sling. If Sling keeps increasing rates, I may just drop it altogether and solely use frndlytv and a few other streaming platforms.

Another way I save money is by using Ibotta. Ibotta gives you money back on certain offers. I was able to earn $79 last year through Ibotta. If you haven't signed up, I highly recommend in doing so. You can click here to sign up. I have a referral code you can enter when signing up: nhpkaw. When you use the referral code, we will both get cash back when you submit your first receipt. Just a tip for Walmart pickup orders. If you use Walmart pickup, you will need to choose online in Ibotta. I learned that the hard way and missed out on some cash back. You will need to make sure you add the offers in Ibotta prior to purchasing them, otherwise you will not get credit for it. I left .30 in my account from last year, so I am excited to see what the new year brings.

The next way I save money is by using Fetch Rewards app. This app just requires you to submit receipts and you will get points for each receipt. It's similar to Ibotta in the fact that there are certain offers that give you a lot of points, but even if you don't redeem an offer, you still get 25 points per receipt. I have not gotten a lot of rewards off this app just yet. I am less than 10,000 points away from getting a $25 Visa card. My issue is I primarily shop at Walmart for groceries and when I switched to curbside pickup I no longer get receipts to scan. 

The last way I save money is by shopping at CVS for household products. I shop their CVS bucks sale as often as possible to earn extra care bucks. I then use the extra care bucks to purchase household items, and sometimes you can get them for free. 

Do you have any tips on saving money? I'd love to hear.