By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: January 2023

February 7, 2023

On Money

Income

Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from investing in index funds and dividend stocks (all reinvested). We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. We get a bit of income from Swagbucks, cash back sites (Rakuten, Mr.Rebates) and affiliate links to Bookshop and Amazon sometimes pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running. The sidebar has ways to support the blog and our charitable giving.

Our long term goal is to replace our day job income with passive income before my health prevents me from working. I know from my Mom’s experience that qualifying for or relying on disability is incredibly tough or near impossible here in CA. Aside from that, I aim to do my best to make the most of what we can do while we can.

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We received our middle class tax refund. January’s typically a lean month, as are February and March, so this was appreciated. It padded out our cash flow and let me make more charitable contributions this month than we would normally feel comfortable making early in the year. It was a bit annoying that they didn’t just direct deposit the refund. I had to hunt down a fee free ATM and withdrew that money immediately to make sure that we didn’t forget and lose that money either by carelessness or to fraudsters.

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Whew, I had a minor panic when I realized that I hadn’t claimed all our Dependent Daycare FSA money from 2022. We certainly incurred more than the $5000 we allocated but I forgot to put in one final claim to take the balance. Normally I submit a single claim for multiple months and claim the full $5000 all at once but 2022 was weird, of course. Thankfully the rules give us a 3 month grace period to incur expenses and a 5 month grace period to claim all expenses. I put that claim in as soon as I realized my mistake. Whew.

Spending

Forever stamp prices went up again this month and thankfully a friend reminded me in time so I ordered a big stock of the ones I’d been wanting. I’m still salty that I missed out buying the Raven stamps. But the cute elephants and the kitten and the Lunar New Year stamps will soothe that irritation.

Not spending

A few months ago, I came into a big pile of hand me down jeans. I donated most of them, keeping 4 pairs that fit me, which was 2 pairs more than I think I REALLY need. But it was just caution. If these fit me long term, then it’d be nice to have the backup replacements on hand when they wear out. At the time, I was fitting size 4 pretty comfortably. The past two weeks, I’ve been tugging at the waistband that keeps sliding down. Happily, the same person was continuing to clean out her closet and handed down several more pairs of jeans. I found one pair one size down and that fits perfectly so yay! Yay for free jeans that fit! I think that means I’ll donate the extra 2 pairs of size 4, and just keep two pairs total.

Giving

On giving: we have worked really hard and been very fortunate that our hard work paid off in significant ways that I couldn’t have dreamt of when I first started this blog. Though we have not reached our FI number where I can feel like all income is gravy, we’ve always felt it was important to lend a helping hand. Many people say they’ll give back later, when they’re financially set. I say that if we don’t practice and prioritize giving now, we won’t give later either.

All year round I run the Lakota Giving Project, donate to organizations that help people and animals in need and do direct aid.

Too tired to update this month’s work, it’ll go into next month’s update.

Saving and investing

I might have to reduce our savings rate for a couple months. Increasing daycare means spending several hundred dollars more per month and that’s gotta come from somewhere.

Net worth

The 12 month tracking was kind of boring so I thought I’d expand out two years to see the trend. Still boring, but a longer line of boring. The market seems to be perking up because not much has changed in terms of our income.

On Life

I have been sick for what feels like forever. And then some. It’s degrading my brain at an alarming rate. Wish for the miracle of recovery for me?

Reading!

Lots of old comfort reading, a mini tour of Discworld and Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society which I adore.

New reads:

When We Were Magic, Sarah Gailey (Amazon, Bookshop). I’d forgotten why this was on my to read list and finally gave it a shot. I’m glad I did, though I did have some minor moments of body horror. I tend not to be bothered by gore but it was a little weird (for me) here.

Marikit and the Ocean of Stars, by Caris Avendaño Cruz (Amazon, Bookshop). Really liked this one.

Arsenic and Adobo, Mia P. Manansala (Amazon, Bookshop). Made me hungry and I actually figured out the killer before the end which I never do usually in mysteries! So that’s fun. Also this book made me very hungry. Did I mention that? I had to go make chicken adobo . Plotting to try my hand at pork adobo.

Mango, Mambo & Murder, Raquel V. Reyes (Amazon, Bookshop). Hated the MIL plotline, it was very irritating that it reminded me of a lot of pushy people I don’t like.

Song for a Whale, Lynne Kelly (Amazon, Bookshop).

Other Words for Home, Jasmine Warga (Amazon, Bookshop). At first, I didn’t like the format of the writing style but it grew on me after several pages.

The Sweetest Sound, Sherri Winston (Amazon, Bookshop). The child abandonment theme was hard for me, it hits on some sadnesses I hold, but rest of the story was quite good.

:: How was your month?

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