By: Revanche

Net Worth & Life Report: August 2017

September 4, 2017

Money and Life Report: August 2017

On Money

Income

Our normal income comes from two full time day jobs.

We experiment with earning money on the side, including minimal cash flow that we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.

Some side income comes from Swagbucks, selling clothes on Poshmark which is hit or miss, and tracking activity through Achievement (my introduction to it).

The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.

***   ***   ***

Chase bonus! That last $150 bonus for opening a savings account in PiC’s name and keeping $10,000 in there for 6 months has finally hit our account. I’m leaving the cash in there for now because we’re going to need alla that and then some for taxes. That’s just a guess. An educated guess.

It’s actually quite awesome having the money set aside for taxes long before they’re due, and even making some money doing so, so a new tradition may have been born. In a few months, our coffers will be rebuilt and then it’ll be my turn to open a savings account to generate some income. Their scheduled transfers function is a nightmare to work with so I may have to skip the delicious checking accounts bonuses, though.

Comcast: I make it a goal to wrench back every penny they try to steal. This month was no different. Our equipment was sent back months ago, but they were still charging me a $2.50 fee monthly for … no darn good reason. If you too hate talking on the phone and have been avoiding dealing with them, use their chat function to demand your money back.

Spending

Our normal spending includes the living expenses for two households so this update ignores those ordinary living expenses. When buying anything online, I always check Mr. Rebates and Ebates for cashback.

Tiny surprises. I redeemed a Swagbucks deal for 100 free photo prints through York Photo. Then divvied them all up and sent surprise packets of photos to aunties and grandparents who were long overdue for an update. It doesn’t make sense to make them wait to get a photo once a year with the Christmas card, does it?

Eating out. We’ve had a house guest and, separately from the guest, under a great deal of pressure to get several extra things done per day over our usual workload so my concession has been to spend on food made by Not Me. Here’s an indicator of how exhausted I’ve been – I haven’t even bothered to keep track of every meal’s cost obsessively. It’s a temporary fix, and we’ve combined the need to eat with treating our guest to local delicacies. Win win?

Saving and investing

We max out a 401(k) and IRA every year. We normally save 20% of cash of our net salaries but that’s on hold while we get ourselves sorted out.

My secret stash is almost $6,000 right now which is a hoot considering how broke all the work is making us. But you know I can’t just spend without doing something to offset it. Plus, I have small amounts of our paychecks going directly to savings to make sure we never actually stop saving something. Some portion of that is going to pay for work that we had initially planned to delay but it’ll make life a LOT easier if we pay it now.

JuggerBaby’s 529 plan has gotten a couple of big infusions in the past 2 years and has since been sitting. I felt a bit guilty especially when I remembered that we have $1000 we consider untouchable for JB that hasn’t been invested yet. Duh! Vanguard’s automatic contributions plan has a minimum of $50 per month, so I’ve set up monthly contributions of $100 out of that account. By the time that money runs out, we should be in a position to increase the contributions comfortably.

Our net worth update: steadily dropping while reno is underway.

Links from this month

On Health

My steps average has risen by 500-1500 steps a day but my body is not thrilled with this increase. I’d hoped that gradually building on my average number week by week would build my stamina accordingly but gauging progress is complicated by the other aspects of my health. How do you tell the difference between “feels like crap because lots of steps happened yesterday” and “feels like crap because even though I was up to lots of steps yesterday, today is a fibro flare day”?

So far, I can’t tell. There’s no longer that distinction between good pain and bad pain. 

On Life

Breaking point. We’ve been doing a good job of keeping ourselves on an even keel despite all the disruptions but I can feel my body steadily losing its grip. My required recovery after each heavy work+reno day is getting longer and longer, and my body is not bouncing back at all, just trudging into the next day with a groan. It’s feeling a whole lot like those first really tough months after JuggerBaby was born – depressingly painful fatigue on top of the usual pain. I am not a fan. As little as I want to leave the place that’s been our home since I moved to the north of the state, my sense of self preservation does desperately want us moved and done before this wispy shell of my self shatters into a million pieces.

Sidebar: PiC joked we should flip this house, it’ll look so good when we’re done! I laughed. Then our (we haven’t even move in yet!!!) neighbor trespassed on our property to snoop around and check out our work. Now I’m considering it.

Extra sidebar: we discovered a second set of neighbors had decided to walk right in and tour the house uninvited. I’m on the verge of tackling the next intruders and calling the police. Just because you see an open door doesn’t mean you should walk in and track dirt all over my clean floors!

Jerks.

Moana! JuggerBaby is obsessed and it’s pretty awesome for us adults too. We’ve become a Lin-Manuel Miranda and co. household between Hamilton and Moana. The music is too clever to be annoyed by hearing it all day. (“You’re welcome!”)

:: How did you wind up your summer? Are you excited for fall or sad to leave summer behind? 

Read past monthly updates here!

8 Responses to “Net Worth & Life Report: August 2017”

  1. Taylor Lee says:

    Our neighbors “inspected” our house during renovations too. I chalk it up to people being a wee bit too nosy and trying to get ideas for their own renovations and checking in on the property values in their neighborhood. Not to excuse the invasion of privacy, but I’m sure a lot of them would blush at you knowing they took a peek.

    Good luck with all the renovations. Remember: this is the hardest part, everything will go back to normal again once they are done. Promise.

    • Revanche says:

      I think people must have a very different sense of privacy because I can’t believe the number of stories I’m hearing where neighbors are freely exploring homes that are not theirs, without invitation or permission. That had better be the last of our invasions, because I’m really not ok with it.

  2. Linda says:

    You must be joking about the house flipping, right? I mean, isn’t the stress of the reno on top of everything else is taking a physical toll on you?

    As summer wanes I get more anxious about the fact that I have done very little to address the drainage issues I had last winter. Once I spent all the money I had set aside for it on my eye surgery, it became much harder to think about. Some of my activities this weekend involved closer examination of what remains of my savings and thinking through how I can afford to get that dealt with before the rains start again.

    On the plus side, though, I did make it to the beach!
    Linda recently posted…Dreams of my youthMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      Totally joking. Unless people keep trespassing despite security and warnings, and so on. I don’t think I could live with neighbors who treat my home as their own before we’ve even introduced themselves.

      Do you know how much work is involved in fixing the drainage issues? And cost?

      YAY, at least one of us made it to the beach 😀

  3. People just walking right in? That is APPALLING. Also dangerous, if renovations are going on. I can see it now: Someone walks in just as a carpenter is lifting a beam and flinging it over his shoulder. Nosy neighbor gets whacked upside the head by the beam. Nosy neighbor sues you for hurting him.

    Gaaahhhhh……
    Donna Freedman recently posted…In your 40s? Do these things or risk dying broke.My Profile

  4. I’m so sorry to hear about the neighbor incident. It is indeed intrusive. I’d be upset too!

    I hope you’ll be done with the reno and be able to take a break soon. Reno can be exhausting. When Mr. FAF and I moved into our first house, we didn’t even have to do much work, but we argued on a regular basis about what furniture to get and where to put them. One time we even argued about how to hang a painting on the wall! @_@

    Needless to say, I’m so glad it’s all over!

    • Revanche says:

      Thank you – we remain on guard against all neighbors right now because of those incidents.

      Moving is a surprisingly fraught situation! I think we’re lucky that we didn’t do this move together until after being married and parents together for years, we’ve learned to communicate better than we could have years ago! I hope you’re all settled for a good long time 🙂

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