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Day 102 - What was I saying?

I had a whole topic that I wanted to write about today, but now I'm watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and I forgot what that was. For anyone invested in the show, I just finished watching the reunion shows of Season 1, and I paused the first episode of Season 2 so I could write this.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it was something life changing, and that the revelation I had would have illuminated something for you, but it was probably smart.

If I had to guess, I probably wanted to talk about where I'm going next in this world. The real answer is that I don't know.

Where am I going? Well, tomorrow I'm going to the grocery store with a list prepared so I don't overspend. I would already say that I'm a relatively good cook and baker, but I'm about to get better so we can eat in a bit more.

OH! That's what I was going to talk about! Look at this, my brain does still work!

Being frugal in December (ok, almost December) seems like an inconvenient time to do so. And starting in December? That seems like an even worse idea, but here we are.

If I'm really honest with myself, I've been in denial. Saying I'm in denial about this is a weird thing to admit since I've been out of work since August, and fighting some pretty serious depression since then, so it's not as if I haven't realized what being unemployed means. Instead, I think my denial has really been about the need to redo our budget.

I had an interview pretty early on in my search, so I held out some hope for that job. I was invited back for an interview for that fun chocolate position (you'll recall this from October, if you're an avid reader), so I was again holding out hope. And just this month, I made it to the final round for another position. I kept feeling like "oh, ok, you've got something hopefully on the line, we can stretch this out for another week."

And yet.

Here I am, staring December in the face, and I still have no promising leads.

Now, let me allay the fears of our family reading this - our situation is not dire. In fact, we're still ok. But the reality is that we need to rein it in now because this could be a really long search for me, unemployment benefits won't last forever, and health insurance isn't cheap.

There are a bunch of things I can do to save us money - get better at the sewing machine for repairs and alterations to our clothes; cook more and actually eat the leftovers; cook what we have in the freezer; get rid of the streaming services we're not watching; keep the house a little cooler this winter.

But I'm sure I'm missing some. So, feel free to comment on this post (either directly, or whatever social media site you're seeing this on) with your favorite budget recipes! Or, what do you do to save a little money? Do you use coupons, and from where? I want to know your secrets!

That's what I really wanted to ask today! Less of me making a point or talking about some boring anecdote, and more "let's please collectively share our knowledge."

So, excuse me while I end this here. I need to go brainstorm being frugal while watching the RHOSLC living in absolute opulence.

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