Starting the New Year off on an Economical Foot

We skipped the New Year's parties and exciting events that were scheduled at many places around Seattle in favor of a quiet (and free) evening at home. Between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, here's how we kicked off a wonderful, cash-free New Year:

• On New Year's Eve we stayed home and watched a free On-Demand movie through our cable provider. The movie, Caroline, which I had never heard of, turned out to be quirky, cute, and entertaining. We finished up the evening at midnight watching the fireworks in Seattle on TV then promptly went to sleep.
• Also yesterday evening, while watching the movie, one of the characters was reading Lady Chatterley's Lover, a book I hadn't read in decades. So I went online and found it for free and read a few chapters. I love free books!
• It was kind of surreal to wake up and realize I had exactly nothing to do. I am no longer working (I have worked since I was 14 so this is truly a weird feeling), I am no longer part of any community organizations. I no longer have any responsibilities. Surreal.
• This morning I started my new year off with basically the only thing I want to accomplish this year and that is to exercise daily. I have no excuse not to exercise now considering I don't have a job any more so I hopped on the treadmill for an hour (free), then followed along with an On-Demand yoga class on cable (also free). Unfortunately, I now feel like I have been run over by truck (I am soooo out of shape!).
• My "adventure" for the day, which is the second goal I have for each day this year, was to have hubby give me an awesome massage. He used to massage boxers at his dad's gym and he provides, by far, the best massages I have ever received. Best of all, the price was free!
• I did my B&O tax worksheet for the past year and found that I earned $50,000 last year which was a surprise considering I worked practically part time the whole year. Unfortunately, I can't account for hardly any of it which just goes to show that while spending cash only keeps you out of debt, there still should be some kind of accounting or else the money will vanish and you will wonder where it went. For this year I will try to tally ALL of the money I spend each day in order to better control it. Unfortunately I won't be working so I won't have much to account for :( On a happy note, they must have changed the tax laws because when I did the B&O tax worksheet I found that my small business credit was the same amount as what I owed so I ended up owing zero which was a huge surprise!
• Hubby, besides providing an awesome massage also cooked an awesome dinner which consisted of noodle soup (you need to eat noodles on New Years Day for a long life) with vegetables and shrimp. We figured the entire dinner cost about $2.50 for both of us!

Well that's how I started my new year. I am thinking this will be normal for us now that more than half of our income is gone and we will both be living on hubby's retirement and Social Security. This looks to be a challenging, yet interesting new year!