February Financial Feast or Fast?

This year, February is going to be focused on finances. We tried a financial fast last year during Lent and I was really happy with the opportunity to pull back and think a bit about where our money goes (and how quickly). This month is not Lent, but does offer enticements to do it again -- not the least of which is the alliteration of February Financial Fast.

The feast part involves the many opportunities that present themselves as activities to focus my attention on our finances and financial planning. Today, I'll spend the day at a day-long workshop for employees who are over 50 that goes over various resources for retirement planning. Because it is the month when I have to do taxes in order to complete financial aid forms (for the last time -- hurrah!), I also need to put some time into organizing our financial records. That paves the way for hiring a financial planner to help us more carefully plan for retirement (I've got the name of someone to talk to, but haven't called them yet --I'm not sure I could put my hands on anything I'd need in order to have those conversations at the moment). And, I've been looking at computer software that could help us manage our money better. I found an article about various options for Macs and one of the top choices has a free trial (a couple of the less complex options are completely free and some have other i- apps which is appealing to someone considering the next generation iPad). I'm struggling through the set up at the moment, so don't know if I'll actually go with this software, MoneyWell, but it is good to try. So, there are a lot of activities and resources available to me to make this a February Financial Feast.

Fasting is a challenge no matter when it happens. But, February is the shortest month of the year and a month when work keeps us busy as we're both at the beginning of a new semester. Mainly the challenges involve a dishwasher that is in decline (and February is traditionally a big sale month for appliances) and school vacation at the end of the month (but we're not going anywhere beyond the dentist and maybe a dinner out). While the Financial Fast is focused on our joint/family finances, I do try to honor it personally too. That will be challenged by two anticipated expensive events -- signing up for Quilt Show classes that take place in July (one of my favorite teachers is going to be there this year) and a planned Knitting Boondoggle that will include spending a day and night at Spa, Knit and Spin and a second day taking a class at Purl Diva. But, both are things I've been budgeting and saving for, so I don't feel too badly about using my own, separate account, for those fun things.

With all of that money stuff going on, last night was mainly focused on bill-paying and software-experimenting. But, I managed to do a bit of knitting before bed -- 10 rows on Fiddlehead mittens for my sister (this pair is all blue and gray, though I have a plan for making sure that isn't "boring") and frogging all but the first couple of rows of the lining for the colorful mittens. I was thinking it was knitting up too loosely and was afraid it would bunch up inside the mitten so I put the stitches on a piece of scrap yarn and tried it out. And, it did bunch. I looked more closely and found I was using bigger needles than I should have been, so I ripped it back and will reknit with smaller needles. After just a few rows, I can already see the difference.