By: Revanche

Net Worth & Life Report: July 2016

August 1, 2016

ON MONEY

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Spending

In the wake of June’s credit card bills, I cautioned PiC we had to pull back on spending for a few months to let our accounts breathe. We largely did ok with this even with this month’s travel.

Our normal monthly credit card spending on food, household supplies, any utility bills I can charge without fees, medical and vet bills, tends to average around the $1000 mark.

Planning ahead to FinCon in September, unfortunately my post didn’t win any prizes, so I’ll be on the hook for all the travel costs. This makes me triply glad that we had great friends willing to host us and Seamus for the week of SDCC.

We put in some cash for our part of the food costs. They always serve dinner to our little crowd which is both utterly delicious and frugal and saves us from the horrors of trying to dine out in the GasLamp District. It might be a nice tourist spot to visit generally but not during SDCC! That favor saved us something like $1800 in hotel and boarding costs.

Most importantly, it was an opportunity for family time that we rarely get. I’ll always cherish those.

Seamus has been having a rough summer. He’s used to the cooler temperatures here but they only sometimes help with his flare-ups. These past six weeks have been a constant daily battle of keeping his paws clean and bandaged with ointment, and now we’re treating his eye for discomfort from a possible ulcer or scratch or infection.

Poor guy. $300 this month just for almost-routine pet care.

JuggerBaby’s daycare costs are going up. I’ve been budgeting at least $100 over what we anticipated as the worst case scenario but these two increases are leapfrogging us closer to that cap.

August will hit hard with an $500, for going from part time to full time, then September follows up with another $200 for inflation. Painful.

The one good thing about JuggerBaby’s second birthday is that triggers a change in pricing downward. Not much but as always, every bit matters.

Saving

Vanguard liberation! For some unfathomable reason, though I had rolled over my 401(k) from a job ten years in the past, I found that it was still being treated as ExEmployer’s Plan in my portfolio. It took a stack of paperwork and $10 at the notary because apparently taking full ownership of my own money when I have a spouse requires spousal consent (???) but that $18K or so has finally been lumped in with my IRA! Simplification has been my THING lately.

Five years ago, I gambled that I wouldn’t be in dire straits if I corralled $20K into CDs for the high interest rate at the time (2.3%!). It’s not that I had no use for the money, it’s just part of my forced savings strategy. They all made it through! They expired this summer, and the interest offered at Ally is paltry, so I cashed all three CDs out. Earned interest: $1908. That’s not breaking any money barriers but not chump change either! Being patient, literally, pays off.

Speaking of forced savings, I’ve increased our automatic transfers to savings by $200/month. It’s an experiment to see if we can push back our spending a little more. I suspect that we won’t feel too much pain from this because I’m also steadily working on side income and though it’s not much, several small streams do add up so that it doesn’t feel like we’re actually doing with less.

Net Worth

Our net worth: increased 2.2% from last month, and 55% from January.

ON LIFE

This month’s big event was SDCC! A real recap will come but quick recollections: I walked about 4-6 times my normal distances, that convention center is huge, and even with PiC serving heroically as my pack-person, I am still paying the price. Getting to see family I adore and immerse myself in the madness that is SDCC even for a little bit each day was glorious.

All the fun and all the stress: preparing for travel, and hosting people for more days than I can usually stand to have visitors, and then traveling into hundred degree heat took its toll this month. It culminated in sitting on the cold tile one night, dizzy and unsteady, unable to get up or lay down, feeling like if I did lay down my heart might stop. I’m told that was probably a panic attack. It was most unpleasant and downright unsettling. The morning after, I was still shaking and it took several hours for that to pass. Highly do not recommend.

:: How was your July?
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