NewYNABer BostonGirl I have one I bought years ago and I keep lots of meat in it.  It also makes it easy to still be able to put something together for food even if I am way behind on grocery shopping.

PhysicsGal I love my freezer! it's vertical and I've reorganized it using plastic bins so that food can be lined up like books to save space. Freeze things flat, then move things around. I stock up on sale. :)

Purple Foal My freezer is not vertical and I'm now thinking I missed out on a real opportunity here (I'm much better at organizing my books than food 😅).

Faness You can still do so with plastic bins from the dollarstore. Colour code them even. Freeze items flat, then stack them vertically in the bins, then you know where things are. I remember my parents' large chest freezer and where things would go to die and I was terrified of falling in! :)

Purple Foal said:
where things would go to die and I was terrified of falling in

 This is about how I feel with my current freezer 😆

I do freezer meals in big plastic containers (I tried freezer bags but they kept ripping). They're all identical and I didn't bother with labels, so the freezer meals are our game of roulette. I really need to organize it and colors are a great idea! Even if it's just a red dot for chicken vs. a blue dot for beef, or anything that gives me an inkling of what I'm grabbing.

Purple Foal I'm highly intrigued by your freezer organisation! 🙂 Would you mind sharing some photos? I can never find anything in my freezer 🙁 and could really do with some organisational inspo! 🙏

Winterlover It's so great! Wouldn't you know that, as I'm trying to get a grip on things, I get a couple of wrenches thrown in the works. I found out we owe $700 to the feds...not expected....and a medical bill for something I thought was covered, to the tune of another nearly $700. I'm realizing I don't need to panic because now I know what we truly have and I can budget for it, at least somewhat. We may have to put a little on a CC, but then we can budget for that, if it becomes necessary. We're trying hard not to have to do that, though!

Navy Blue Unicorn  Be sure to tell us if you find a good pantry app! I hadn't even thought of something like that helping with the food waste! Great idea!

Navy Blue Unicorn Yes! I currently use Paprika as a recipe/shopping organizer. Would love to hear about other options people like. I'm trying to start a new diet which would involve a lot of cooking. Would be better for my budget and for my health. The 'organization' part of it (and general laziness) is what's holding me back. 

We use Pepper Plate - when we remember.  We also use MyFitnessPal for meal planning to capture the calories, carbs, fats & proteins in our meals.  I think we need to find an app that we will actually use each day.  lol

Navy Blue Unicorn Plan to Eat is really good. It does recipe management (including two-click recipe importing with a browser bookmarklet that works really well on almost every recipe site), meal planning, food inventory, and now also has mobile apps for iPhone and Android. I'm a pretty big fan.

crassusmoray  I just downloaded the Plan to Eat app and it looks like something I would use - but it's $38,99/year after a 30-day trial. Not sure I want to commit to that. I can try it though!

Lilibeth Rivera That's fair! Definitely worth it for me, but that's because I spent a year forcing myself to put a bunch of recipes into it, so it's our main repository of meals now. I guess that's sunk cost fallacy, haha, but it means that I'm not too unhappy to pay the yearly fee.

Lilibeth Rivera crassusmoray  I started using Copy Me That recently and really like it.  Super easy to copy recipes from the web, and you can create a meal plan and shopping list for specific recipes.  The free version has enough for me (and it's always free, not just a trial)

Inger Orr I'm using Pantry Check and it's awesome. Fabulous scanner with most items on it.

Lilibeth Rivera We've had luck with AnyList app for planning, recipe import, etc.

We meal plan and shop with TheScramble.com .

Super easy and inexpensive.  It saves me a lot of time and is adaptable to family's needs.  (Two non-dairy, one omnivore, one vegetarian.)   They send you  recipes for eight meals per week, you choose which you want to prepare.  The shopping list is then customized for your menu for the week.  The recipes are flavorful, fast, diverse and healthy.  

Lilibeth Rivera Plan to Eat goes half off for black Friday!  

Navy Blue Unicorn A pantry app that lets you also know the prices of the items at different stores would be great. Then you know the stock up price. Keep us informed! :)

Navy Blue Unicorn I like Mealime.

PhysicsGal I just checked this out. What I’d really find useful is an app that I can keep track of my pantry freezer etc and then have meals suggested based on what I already have. 

Resistant Punch Roller keep your head up and eyes on the prize!  I've been following your posts elsewhere, I know how hard you've been working!  You can do it!

Resistant Punch Roller It's scary when faced with the facts that are the 'cold numbers', but for me personally, the panic/uneasy-ness is not being in control. The very fact that you can are taking time to put the figures in, figuring that this goal is not within reach is fine-at least you know now, it's still a decent amount of foresight to work things out in your budget and in your mind. You're doing a good job-keep going!

doctor_who that is such a good idea... I need to declutter some stuff, and would love it if some cash was my reward!

doctor_who I did that for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I had already done the massive Japanese house purge & donated car loads. But I had new & expensive items. Was super easy & actually made $400 so far. :)

Winterlover   Thank you so much for your support.  I put it in writing here so I would not forget that I really, really want to accomplish this goal and not to back out.  Cheers!

Coral Projector  UPDATE

Success ... we paid our federal taxes in full, and then used the $1300 "survival" money, we accomplished our 2nd goal and paid the $5K credit card in those  next 5 months.  When 2nd goal paid off,  we put $800 into a newer car category (our car is dying) and the other $500 went toward paying off our last credit card balance to zero last month.  Woohoo!  Love being able to move around money within the YNAB categories.    I give credit to YNAB for keeping our goals visible every day. 

Coral Projector Awesome!!

Kate There is $ in selling Pokemon cards?  There might be a goldmine in my son's closet!  He collected from 2010-2013.

Hi  Frugalflamesfan ! Most of my collection is from the Pokemon sets that were released in 2017 and are still allowed in the "Standard" format of play. Pokemon is a rotational card game so every year a few more sets are not allowed to play in the "Standard" tournaments but are still allowed to be played in the "Expanded" format.

I would look through your son's collection and see if he has any cards that can still be played in Expanded and sell those as quickly as possible. All other cards will have to be sold as "Collection" pieces that will hopefully catch the eye of some collectors.

Message me if you want some help! I've decided that selling Pokemon cards is going to be my part time job right now until I sell everything I have. 😅

Winterlover Oh, there's no such thing as a daily thread! Sorry for the confusion. I was just wishing out loud that we could have a new thread like this every day so we can see over time how many small changes someone can make to improve their finances. 

Kate Thanks for the info.  I'll let him know.  He's 17 and has more time that I do!  

Frugalflamesfan It really can become a part time job if he commits himself!

Kate Thanks Kate!  I'll pass this info onto him and get him to dig into his collection.  He's a collector-kind of guy and would probably enjoy finding out what his cards are worth.

Kate I use the app Libby to DL from my library audio & eBooks. Use the app on my iPad for selection, but DL on my iPhone for the car, and eReader. I don't want to spend $ on books or have the clutter after doing a massive house purge. :)

Target Date This is HUGE, congrats on tucking the raise away before you even noticed it!! :)

Slate Gray Storm +1000 on your second point! My first several weeks I had several "oh! Why am I still paying for that?" moments when these unexpected transactions kept popping up in my register.

Stephen Covarrubias That's huge!  Congrats!

NewYNABer BostonGirl and he learned a little bit about delayed gratification!  I've done the Ikea-we'll-just-get-it-now with the kids before too.  No one died because they didn't have a shelf.  

tinkerbell88 That's a tough one but your body will thank you for it. :)

Resistant Punch Roller I recently sold stuff on FB Marketplace after a massive house purge & car loads of donations. It was surprisingly easy & people were cool. :)