Money & Life Report: July 2018
August 6, 2018
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from two full time day jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, infrequently selling on Poshmark, using cash back sites like Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a (miniscule) commission to keep the blog lights on.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.
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Micro-income: Achievement. I’m participating in a chronic pain study and getting rewarded with points. Combined with my regular earnings, I cashed out a $10 Paypal reward this month.
Micro-income: Craiglist. PiC sold a 5 year old piece of furniture, an old french press, and printer for a total of $140. Woots!
No luck on the Poshmark front this month, alas. I’ve listed a few more items and removed a few listings to donate instead because they just aren’t moving.
Spending
Pockets for everything! I’ve been on the hunt for a few pieces of clothing for the past four years: dresses with sleeves and pockets for regular days when I need to look presentable.
For days when I can’t lift my arms, use my fingers to pull on or button pants but still need to look presentable: a true wrap style maxi dress with sleeves and pockets, a long skirt with pockets and an elastic waistband, and a true wrap top with long sleeves.
I hit the jackpot on the first item category this month! Svaha was having a sale. Buy 4 or more items and get an additional 55% off. Dresses that were originally $59 dollars (and too steep a price for me for basic cotton dresses) worked out to $22 each after all the discounts and after I added 3 filler items to get free shipping (value: $8): 2 baby gifts and a pair of pajama pants with pockets which I needed as well. $80 in total for everything – less than the normal cost of 2 dresses!
The best part was that all three dresses fit perfectly – that’s never ever happened before! If you want to give them a try: Get 20% off your $50+ order, get free shipping with a $75 order.
Clothing budget and spending. This purchase made me wonder about how much I really spend on clothes a year and if I can reasonably set a budget of $300 a year for clothes (just for me). Shoes are not included, I agree with Angela that shoes should be a health and fitness item. If I wait until 2019 to buy the maxi dress that I found (made by Elhoffer Design), then I could set it at $250 a year. Hmmm!
Accessories, 2017: None
Clothes, 2017: Jeans, $50
Shoes, 2017: Nikes, $71
Accessories, 2018: Sunglasses, $30
Clothes, 2018: Dresses, $62
Shoes, 2018: None yet
Wish list:
- Strong lightweight hedge shears. I’m waging war against the invaders in our yard. I am currently equipped with rusty shears, oversized ill-fitting leather work gloves, and a lot of determination. It works for the moment but not well, and it’s not awesome for my hands.
Not spending
Silver pens, scissors, and the Patience Principle. My friend has been teasing me about leaving a silver Sharpie on my (private) Amazon wish list for 3 years. Apparently my refusing to spend $2.50 on a set of two pens that I want is laughable behavior. And maybe it is, but on my cleaning spree, when I went through all of PiC’s office supplies that haven’t seen the light of day for ten years, I found a silver Sharpie that works! HA! I was right not to buy them! Bonus: I found a toddler safe pair of scissors in my own supplies. I’d been wanting to give JB a pair to use for at home crafting and almost put a pair from the back to school sales in our Target cart. $2, saved. 😉 I’m pleased about not wasting money and not buying unnecessary things. Yes, I realize that’s a little silly but I take my wins, big or tiny.
Toddler bike and scooter. JB went visiting with neighbors and came home with hand me down toys. I love hand me downs. They’re already dented and banged up after kids had played with them so PiC won’t be trying to keep them in pristine shape. Ze has been happily scooting around our yard like a champ which is so surprising because when it comes to new things that make you fall, ze has been a lot more cautious than I expect.
Saving and investing
Back and forth. I’ve recategorized my CDs for the third time. They’re cash! That is all.
Miles & points
Alaska miles: 215,045 and $120 in travel credits
Chase Ultimate rewards: 314,072
Starpoints: 174,710
Net worth
I’ve decided to just tot up my month end net worth in the last week of the month because I want to. The timing of the paychecks and investments that are scheduled for the end of the month can sort itself out over the long haul.
It’s probably a good thing that most areas stayed about the same. There’s minor progress, creeping upward a little bit each month, and over the past 18 months we’ve done reasonably well considering the changes we’ve made in that same time period. I’m not going to waste time speculating on how much better we’d be doing financially if we hadn’t made those life changes because frankly our quality of life feels a whole lot better.
On Life
Out and about. We sent PiC to have a solid workout three Sundays in a row. That’s a record for us since JB turned 2. He walked and fed the dogs, then I took over minding them and JB for the next four hours. Not that minding them actually involves much work at all – they’re low key. And at this age, it’s not actually a lot better than it used to be. It may be that I’m less worn down because of the diet. Either way it feels like ze and I can hang out without a ton of physical exertion. We eat, do crafts, watch a “little bit of mooooo-vie”, garden, eat, play with sidewalk chalk, and eat some more. By the time he gets home, we’re ready for a final run of playing and a nap. Well, I’m ready for a nap anyway. Sometimes ze is too.
Massage therapy. I’m supposed to have a massage monthly but have really had one in about 18 months so there’s a whole lot of room for improvement there. My favorite therapist who actually manages to work out the problems in my muscles has gone globetrotting and my favorite spa that usually has a decent back-up shut down several months ago, so I had to try a new person. This is usually a fruitless and frustrating search but I lucked out with a lovely lady who had been doing massage as a side hustle for eight years and had just given her notice to start doing this full time. As a money blogger, I was thrilled for her, and as a person in pain, I was thrilled for me. I’ve committed to three appointments this summer in an effort to actually do something good for my health.
Gluten free life. I still miss my croissants and all the other delights of a gluteny life but the longer I’m avoiding it, the more impact it seems to have. I don’t have gastric attacks if I slip and get a touch of gluten here or there or anything super adverse issues so I’m lucky in that regard. Sure never thought anything having to do with my medical condition could be called “lucky”, but here we are! 🙂
I skim through the income part that’s the same every month but read all the rest word for word all the way to the end. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Thanks for the feedback!
Agreed, I read these to the end! I hope your stash of miles and points doesn’t expire – I had a friend who had made some big plans around hers but she didn’t pay attention to all the details and lost her miles due to inactivity.
Thanks for letting me know!
I have regular activity with our most important miles and points so they aren’t in danger of expiring.
Looking good. It sounds like you had a nice low key month. We all need these occasionally. Really cool that the kid got some hand me down toys. There aren’t many kids in our neighborhood hence no hand me downs. 🙁
Thanks! Except for Comic Con, it really was a fairly easy going month. We thought our neighborhood was sparse of children too but thankfully one of the few families with kids are pretty cool.
I’ve done very well with eShakti.com for dresses; I just ordered my fourth. Mine have zippers, though, so that might not work for you on more challenging days. Mr. Sandwich had to help me with some of the measurements, but the instructions were very clear.
I love the idea of eShakti, I was just worried that I’d get the measurements completely wrong again. I’d ordered a sample from them when I was starting out and gave them what I thought were good measurements and got back a doll sized dress.
Maybe they’ve gotten better at this.. ?
Funny how just shifting running shoes from “clothes” to “fitness/health” means I’m much more likely to buy myself a new pair when I need them. Ridiculous that I would put them off when I KNOW how important good shoes are.
SAME. Amazing how our framing matters so much.