Spending My Hanukkah Money

I got $100 for Hanukkah this year; $50 in cash and a $50 Chapters card.  After Shabbos was over I went out to Chapters and spent it all!  Well, technically, I have about $9 left because I bought Thank You cards for my Hubby and I don't think that should come out of my present money!

What did I get for all that money?  Mostly I spent $42 on a book that I've been wanting to buy for about 30 years!  It's a book by John Seymour titled The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It and it has pretty much everything you might ever want to know how to do in it.  Want to plan a 1 acre or 5 acre farm?  Want to keep bees?  Make mead?  Set up a cowshed or dairy?  Make wine?  Spin wool?  Thatch a roof?  It's all in this heavily illustrated book.

I read it years and years ago and it's been in the back of my mind ever since we started talking about our retirement plans.  It was the single best purchase I could have made with my gift card!  I also bought a paperback and the latest copy of The English Garden magazine, which I buy every time I see a new issue.  Because I spent $50 I was able to buy a lovely soft off-white blanket for myself for $25.  My Eldest Daughter got this same blanket in dark grey earlier and I fell in love with it immediately.  It just feels so warm and soft, perfect for sitting on the sofa and reading a book.

I got my Starbucks card from Bankrupt Betty at Bouncing Back from Bankruptcy in the mail Thursday or Friday so I stopped for a decaf white mocha once I paid for my books.  (The Chapters I went to has a Starbucks at one end.)  Mmm, mmm good!  Thanks!

So ends Hanukkah this year....