Year in Review

Well, 2011 is coming to a close. It was not nearly as chaotic as last year, thank goodness. The highlights:


Family:

• Aleksandr began walking, saying words and all sorts of other things right on schedule for his age.
• Natalya is learning addition, subtraction and lots of other things, and is developing the skills needed to learn how to swim.
  
• Unfortunately, my dad continued to have health issues and resumed smoking.
• We found out that one of my aunts has stage 4 pancreatic cancer which has metastasized to her spine and lungs.
  

Personal:

• Quitting my job was huge in my life. I'd worked since the age of 16- half my life.
• Changes in companies I freelance for lead me to seek other clients.
• The diagnosis of Hashimoto's disease and finding the correct medication level, which took 9 months, has given me back energy.
• The diagnosis of a severe vitamin D deficiency has reduced some of the pain I had in my leg muscles.
  

Financial:

• We spent $3,200.86 on food this year, including $450 for 200 pounds of organic beef from my uncle. This includes pet food and supplies, diapers and wipes, laundry, cleaning and paper goods, medications, hygiene and toiletry items and food. That averaged to $60 per week.
• I spent more on postage, books/educational items, and gifts than I had planned. Total over budget in these 3 categories combined was about $80.
• We were under budget on eating out, clothing and veterinary expenses.
• We were right on target for photography, yard sale / thrift store, household and miscellaneous expenses.
• We continue to save to pay cash for a "new" car, probably next year.
• We fully funded our Roth IRAs this year.