Piggy Bank Challenge Reveal

So, a year ago I linked up with Valerie for her 2nd annual Piggy Bank Challenge and my goals were --

• Save money by using my fabric stash 
• save money for a big trip
• Get a Featherweight 

My outcome was pretty good and I even dipped into the fund a few times for some things I will tell you about below. 

• in coin savings I have $459 -- these are only the coins that made full rolls the rest will stay in the jar as a start for next years totals. 

• in paper savings I have $645 
  
   
• I had some online savings in my paypal as well but those have currently been depleted. I had been using it for when I sold fabric or craft supplies or had client payments and making my online purchases from it. About a month ago, I made an online purchase from a fabric store and somehow my paypal got linked to the family ebay - instead of the family paypal and my reserve is gone. (This would have been an additional $150 - 200). 

My splurges that came out of the money pot 

• at my birthday last year I took out some cash and bought some the Anna Maria Horner line Folk Song and a few other lovelies that I had been wanting 

• I got a featherweight off ebay from a local person (my friend found me a 2nd one) and I paid to have them both serviced 

• I pulled money again a few months ago for a shopping trip Elegant Stitches after my husband bought me a groupon for the store -- and they happened to be having an end of bolt sale that same weekend. 

• I paid for my trip to Stash Bash -- and my traveling / spending money for while I was there. 

Now about savings through fabric use from my stash. While I have bought fabric, and last year I didn't do a great job of keeping up with my intake and use, I can honestly say that my stash is at least 100 yards lighter than this time last year. I have been keeping track this year and since January I have been running in the positive and am over 70 yards lighter as of the end of May. 

I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with the saved money yet but there are quite a few fabric lines that I saw photos of from quilt market that I have my eye on -- Tiger Lilly by Heather Ross, Eden by Tula Pink, Canyon by Kate Spain and Ex Libras from Alison Glass. -- but I usually wait for the line to come out so I can determine what I really want before jumping straight in.

In a years time I managed to save up $1,104 (nearly the cost of my "new" civic) without my husband even knowing I was doing the challenge -- He was quite surprised when I told him about the challenge and the outcome. He was excited about this idea and wants to help me next year to see how well the two of us can do together -- maybe we will make it a contest.