Hey guys! Long time, no updates..

It’s been a busy month since college started in September.. I honestly can’t believe that it is October already guys! I haven’t had any time to put up Halloween decorations yet, so my grandmother wants to bypass Halloween and put up Christmas stuff! Not happening!

So what have I been up to recently that has my time so unbelievably booked that I can’t find time to update everyone on my life (or put up a single ghost or pumpkin)?

Well, my mother and I took another trip to a local farmers market! My grandmother requested I get her a squash, so my mother ended up spending ALL of her money on squash. (The two on the left -below- are my grandmothers, the four on the right -below- are my mothers.)

And of course throughout the famers market we had to wear our masks. It was a ‘bit’ nippy out with the October wind, so I ended up wearing my hat and beard OVER my mask. It was so warm with my hat on, and I personally think that it looked adorable..! That wind was so cold that I was thankful I had brought my hat. It may look silly, but that thing is warm!!!

Another thing that I have been working on has been saving for my future farm. (Of course, those who have been reading my blog for a while already know this.) This has required a lot of planning, some hard work, a few color coded papers, and a LOT of time admitting that I actually learned something in Personal Finance class last year. (Trust me, the worst thing I have had to do this month was admit that I actually learned stuff in my least favorite class.)

For those who don’t know me, I am someone who loves organization and lists. Watching money pile up in a jar just isn’t exciting for me (and very unrealistic in the digital age). So instead, I make lists with checkpoints on them that I can check off to see my progress. For these pictures below I took a l-o-n-g piece of paper, added some cute visual aids for the ‘long road ahead’ for saving, added some goals of mine onto the paper, and used a pink highlighter to highlight the money I already have saved up (which of course I’m not going to share how much pink is really on here ).

I did the list in hundreds instead of thousands because I wanted to highlight the numbers more often, that way I actually felt like I was saving more than I was. The smaller the goals are, the more often I can check them off, and the better I feel when I see a huge chunk of it checked off. (Honestly, if I had the time, room on my wall, and the paper to do so, I probably would have done it by fifties!)

Now of course if I have a goal in mind, and a ‘countdown’ (so to speak) to go with it, I have to have the means to keep myself on track for that goal! So what do I do? I make myself a balance sheet for my weekly spending (and income)! I’ve never been one to spend a bunch of money on pointless things. In fact, I’m more of a ‘wait 24 hours before I buy something to make sure I really want/need it‘ kind of girl. However, I like to be organized with my money and so I made myself a little balance sheet to make sure that I know where my money is going. There are sections for ‘Spending‘, ‘Gas‘, ‘House‘, ‘Emergency fund‘, and ‘Income‘. (Sorry for the blurry picture..)

I’m about half way done with the sheet above, and I’ll sadly have to make another one come December, but so far I really like using this balance sheet! It lets me know where every penny of mine goes, rather than just looking at my bank account at the string of numbers in red and green.

With all of this saving and organization, I still needed something to remind myself of what I was saving for so that I could keep going. Unintentionally throughout the past two years, I have unknowingly made a vision bored for myself with what I want in my life at the moment.

It started when I got my acceptance letter from college; I was so proud of it that I hung it up on my magnet board so that I could see it everyday. After that, I colored pictures of my ‘future house’ and put them up on my board as well. Soon, my college acceptance letter was replaced with my class schedule, and then replaced once again this year by my new classes. Right now, I still have pictures of ‘my future house’, as well as classes I want to take at college, my financial sheet that I take off and balance at the end of every week, and a few inspirational quotes that inspire me. (Again, sorry for the blurry picture..)

Back to the little things in life now.. It’s October and the weather has been getting colder here in Michigan. With colder weather, comes the need for warmer clothes. It is way too early that I am being forced to bring my winter clothes out and put my summer clothes away. My summer clothes won’t be seen again until next Spring, but I’m slightly happy to have my fuzzy PJ’s back in my drawers.

Winter sheets, check
Warm fuzzy PJ’s, check
Winter clothes, check

With the start of Fall, also came the start of school. As of right now, I am a third of the way through my Fall Semester and I am still going strong! I am loving my classes, I am keeping up with school AND work just fine, and despite Covid putting a damper on social interactions, I am still making time to hang out with my friends in between classes.

So that’s pretty much all that’s been happening here! Getting ready for winter inside the house (not outside yet), making sure I’m getting my priorities straight for what the future may bring, and experimenting with farmers markets in between college days.

I hope that everyone else is staying safe and keeping busy! Has anyone else had time to put their Fall decorations up? What have all of my amazing readers been up to? Comment below and catch me up!! I would love to hear about what’s happening in everyone else’s lives!

As always, smile, have an amazing day, and don’t just set goals in your life, but achieve them too!