February was the month that couldn’t make up it’s mind. One minute it was freezing cold, the next, it was warm and pleasant; then just before you could get coordinated to go for a walk, it was pouring down rain. The weather wasn’t the only thing being wishy-washy though. All month long, I couldn’t seem to make up my mind on just what I wanted to do with my free time – declutter, organize the kitchen, sew curtains, plan the garden, play outside, read a book, write, try a new recipe, or just take a nap? They all sounded equally appealing and I wanted to do every one of them, so February became the month of scattered ideas.

On the upside…

• We removed an additional 67 items from our home, bringing our grand total to 217 for the year. Most of these items were donated to charity. One item sold on Ebay for $5.60.
• Angie read 3 books and I read 2. Check out my page or Angie’s page on Goodreads for more details.
• I posted 6 articles to the blog and did a fair job of keeping up with our Instagram and Facebook pages.
• We walked 35 miles and hiked 4.2 miles.
• We enjoyed 11 completely vegetarian days. In March, I think I may count meatless meals instead of whole days because some days were counted out due to a slice of ham on a sandwich or a piece of turkey bacon for breakfast. If we were counting that way this month, we had 52 meatless meals (breakfast, lunches, and dinners).
• On our quest to try new fruits and veggies, Angie ate blackberries for the first time (and has since eaten them several more times!) and I had a blood orange (well, more like a bag of them).
• We watched 6 documentaries on Netflix, including two that we highly recommend, Sugar Coated and Salam Neighbor.
• We made $298.98 in side hustles (which included rolling the change from our vacation jar).

We also participated in the Super Lean Spending Month Challenge. Here’s how we did:

We managed 13 No Spend Days and stayed within budget for our groceries and household goods. Toward the end of the month, we decided to stock up on pantry items and purchase a vacuum sealer (for better food storage) and a new hair clipper set (after 3 years of monthly home haircuts, ours finally gave out). Even with the extra spending, I’d call this a successful super lean month. Our groceries and household spending was 3.8% of our income and discretionary spending was 6.9%. We also saved $2012 toward paying off our car early.

On the downside…

• We still didn’t get outside as much as we wanted to. The crazy, uncooperative weather remains to blame.
• I spent most of yesterday drafting a post that I ended up deleting. It was about an unfortunate bit of drama with our neighbor that happened last Thursday and my feelings on how chaos affects happiness. The post would probably have been okay to publish but after thinking about it, I decided doing so was not in keeping with my own happiness goals. One day when I read back over these posts, I want to remember the fun and the trials and errors of minimalist living, not those inconvenient things that make no real difference in the long run.

Here are some of the highlights of the month:

How was your February?