2009 Recap

Dear Shell,

2009 was a fairly good year. I got a lot of writing done, but I know I could have done more. I learned new crochet patterns and actually branched out into playing with crochet cotton and making doilies. I participated in NaNoWriMo again and won for a second year in a row. And I'm really liking the novel I wrote for NaNo this time. Not that I hate the first one I wrote, but I didn't make as many mistakes this time around.

The end of 2009 saw us buying a new home and starting to move stuff in. Stress, panic, joy, fear, happiness... we saw all the emotions flying in the last month of 2009. I have a lot of the smaller stuff moved in, but wow do we still have a lot of stuff to move! I think we have the guys lined up for the 9th to get the furniture moved in, so i have a few more days left to get the rest of the small stuff moved before hand (need to reuse some boxes so i need to move what i can now so we can use the same boxes for more stuff).

In 2009 I also started using coupons more for grocery shopping, and tracking how much I saved, which helped keep me going with it. From March to December, I saved us $528.96, which was 23% savings. So we went from an average of $232 per month grocery bill to $178.50 average bill. This is not counting the occasional trips up to the local meat market to pick up meat, which this year I plan on tracking better (no savings there, but need to track how much is spent). Since we're moving though and wont be practically next door to the meat market, I don't think we'll be having as much spent there now. I'll have to either get a meat bundle from them, or buy more meat from the grocery store. We're thinking of eventually getting a deep freezer for the basement or garage and then we can buy a half a cow or pig or something and stock up that way.

Well I should get back to packing,
Shell