Net Worth & Money News: January 2015
January 30, 2015
Change from end of 2014: 1.75% increase
On Money
I’m working away at Swagbucks to earn a bit of extra money for household, Little Bean, and dog things we need. Feel free to join using my referral link if you like!
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I didn’t anticipate having any reason to be pleased pulling together this first of the month net worth summary, but I forgot that my CDs with Ally pay out once a year, so hey! Nice little addition to the bank accounts.
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Had reason to be extra grateful for our health insurance coverage. Not only does it cover all of my prenatal related visits, not only are all the OB nurses much nicer than I expect them to be (I don’t know why I always expect them to be a little mean), the prescription side for the unfortunate plague of spots added up really fast. One prescription would have cost $128! Instead I paid $10.
That’s not to say ALL of them are competent, as I discovered to my chagrin one weekend, but by and large we do ok with the HMO.
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Even with one unplanned burst of generosity, we managed to keep Christmas gift costs down to around $300. This is, I’m pretty sure, a little better than we’ve done in previous years that included last minute panic shopping.
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We haven’t been exchanging gifts between ourselves but in the tradition I started last year, I did treat us to another batch of stocks. Of course, I spent a great deal more on that than, say, $300 for a physical gift but it’s one part of one aspect of our nest egg.
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LB’s nest egg/spending cushion is perking right up: 6,538.34 to date!
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Miscalculations: I made a large payment against the mortgage principal at the end of 2014. We do this every year but cash flow was lower than usual so the lump sum was correspondingly lower. I forgot that the second property tax payment was still coming due this January, though, whoops … What that means is I scraped together a large sum and threw it at the mortgage and left exactly enough for the next month’s regular bills but not enough for the large property tax. I hate digging into savings but it had to be done.
This does come at a bad time of course, I’ll soon be on half salary over the span of several pay periods so unfortunately things will be squeezed for a while yet. For the first time, I find myself thinking PiC’s bonus, expected sometime in the spring, will be awfully handy to bring us back up to a respectable balance.
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Our December Side Money
[table caption=”Craigslist, December 2014: $425″ width=”500″ colwidth=”20|150|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|center|right”]
no,Item Description,Sale Price, Total
1, TV cabinet,$30,$30
2, Bike parts,$10,$40
3, OLD speakers,$15,$55
4, watch,$20,$75
5, old GPS,$40,$115
6, jacket,$20,$135
7, jacket,$20,$155
8, furniture,$40,$195
9, office supplies,$30,$225
10, furniture,$200,$425
[/table]
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On Life
As we are more homebound, life revolves around just a few things and everything takes on a surreal sort of haze. Being days away from any life change, whether it’s a job loss, moving, starting a new job, I often wonder aloud what the big deal is REALLY. It’s a poor coping technique, trying to convince myself that change isn’t something to be stressed over.
I like pillows. I like lots of pillows. I like pillow fortresses, pillow moats, pillow rafts, cushions that shore up pillow structures, stuffed plushies that substitute for pillows in a pinch. This isn’t a revelation or anything… I just really like them.
My family continues to frustrate me from afar. I know I can’t change him but I will admit that there was a small part of me that hoped my dad would care enough, if not about me, then about the future grandchild (of which there may only ever be one) to suggest he’d be open to making any changes in how he lives his life. Perhaps smoking a little less, perhaps even just thinking about positive changes that would make it safe for LB to visit. As things stand, he wouldn’t even for a split second consider cutting back on smoking or doing anything about his utterly crap living conditions that include my unpredictable Trainwreck of a sibling I’d never trust around a helpless creature. So I shrug and move on with my day knowing that I can’t do anything about it.
It’s hard for people to change, even if they have a million good reasons to do so. There comes a point where you have to accept things as is or try to move on. Tough I know. 🙁
Tonya@Budget and the Beach recently posted…January Recap/February Goals
’tis true. It’s hard enough when they want to, forget if they don’t feel any reason to.
My friend who has her own…uhm, interesting relatives has a byword that she likes to invoke: N.M.P! That means Not My Problem! Useful in many circumstances.
You’re about to have MUCH more interesting things to occupy your attention.
Funny about Money recently posted…Sun Dogs…and Move Over, Dolly!
I prefer “Not my monkeys, not my circus” these days.
Right before clicking on this, I just accidentally read an old post on leightpf about emergency funds (though not called that) and you’d said you probably had too much in yours. So I think you’re going to be ok! (You know, with more normal savings account levels after paying the property taxes.)
nicoleandmaggie recently posted…Great googly moogly
Yeah I shouldn’t be perturbed based solely on the action of raiding the Sacrosanct Savings when it’s not really a big deal.
I’m so impressed that PiC has such good luck with Craigslist. It gives me hope that I may be able to do the same with stuff I still need to remove from my life.
I can understand about family. I do much better maintaining relationships with my family from a distance. It was one of the benefits of moving.
Linda recently posted…Moving: the incidentals
I wish you the best of luck with it! He does a great job when he has time, though he still has some trouble with the time-wasting flakes, so just know that there are still plenty of those! 🙂
Moving was one of the most sane & sanity-preserving things I’ve ever done.
You’re killing it on Craigslist! I’m generally too lazy to deal with the hassle of selling things.
I’ve done the thing where I don’t accurately anticipate an upcoming big bill and the cash flow is mighty limited momentarily. You scraped through though and it’ll all come back together 🙂
Anne @ Money Propeller recently posted…Friday Jet Fuel #30
If we weren’t tracking the results, I honestly think we might have lost some motivation in the selling but it’s been great. It’s been a long while since I made such a silly mistake but it’s ok 🙂
That is quite a healthy nest egg! Is it to cover medical costs, or baby costs in general?
Marie recently posted…I want ALL THE THINGS – Aka Lifestyle Inflation 101
Everything: medical, supplies, the cost of childcare, etc! It won’t go far in this high COLA 🙂
Tim and I have decided that, should we be able to have any child (biological or foster) Nadine will not be allowed around the kid until she has stopped smoking again. Not even “Just one a day” which is always BS with her. No smoke –even third-hand — for as much as we have control over. Plus it’ll give her incentive to quit for good.
Abigail recently posted…Freebie Friday
My fingers are crossed for you on this point – my experience has (obviously) been dismal and so it’s likely to be a case of not seeing the kid at all.
Whoa, $400+ on Craig’s List! Nicely done. 🙂 Also, I will join you on the love of pillows everything. D makes fun of me frequently because I am generally buried in a pile of pillows. The more the merrier!!!
Alicia recently posted…Financial Update: January 2015
Piles of pillows are the best! I declare them unmockable!