Money & Life Report: October 2023
November 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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Dividend income. We received $223.60 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
I wrangled for a solid salary bump for the whole crew this year and it’s finally in place! 🎉 I’ve been feeling that pinch, The bills keep going up, chatting with friends about the costs of college (!!!) gives me heartburn, and thinking about the future healthcare costs that we have to save for gives me MORE heartburn. But the most immediately frustrating part of having less disposable income is being unable to do more for folks in a tough spot. This year has felt really tough economically for people far more on the edge than us. This will give us more breathing space to meet our obligations and help folks. It’s hard to balance our needs which are more about the future and the much more immediate needs of folks all around us who are going through rough patches.
Spending
When I finally got my salary bump, my first act was intentionally spending. I have hoarding tendencies and worry a lot about money, maybe more than I should. It’s hard to tell how much is “too much” since even the most optimistic among us know that healthcare costs are a giant wild card. Still, I combat my anxiety by practicing intentional gratitude in the form of helping others. If you’re feeling the same, I have a few suggestions!
- A friend is in a tough spot this year. Quiara lives on a very limited budget so any little cost can become a big problem. Correspondingly, a big cost is a huge problem, like SSA suddenly deciding they won’t pay for her insurance premiums and charging her for back premiums. Who does that?? Our system is inhumane and cruel. I can’t fix it but I can help a bit.
- Aji Wings / NDN Silver sell the most beautiful Native jewelry. I support their Ko-Fi since I’m not at a point in my life where I can be trusted with valuable jewelry.
- From the comic arts community, Tess Fowler and Chris Gutierrez have been dealing with a terrible housing situation after battling a tough cancer diagnosis. Keep Tess and Chris from Becoming Homeless!
- Of course we always welcome support with our Lakota families.
I also splurged on four new pillows for the household (25% off, $38). Some of these pillows are twice as old as JB and flat as pancakes. I originally intended to rip them open and reuse the batting to avoid landfill but tried stuffing three of them into Sera’s 🐶 dog bed (formerly Seamus’s) that’s been flattened by time and large dog(s). It upgraded her bed to a deluxe! She’s very pleased by her well stuffed throne.
Past spending. We bought a fairly pricey bike light for PiC and Smol Acrobat’s commute. It’s been requiring a charge after every use. I contacted the seller and can you believe this product description: “Because the battery indicator is green doesn’t mean it’s full. The battery is green when it is between 30% ~ 100% charged.”
Not spending (yet)
PiC’s phone is acting up enough that he’s making disgruntled noises about it. We haven’t replaced it yet. I think it’s 3 years old? The battery is, somewhat predictably, being a snot. I just saw that Apple is phasing out the lightning cable due to pressure from the EU next year. Here’s hoping PiC can hold out until that’s available in the SE size.
Also the loaner electric bike he’s been using on trial is suddenly due back unless we want to buy it for $1600 and change. We don’t. This model won’t grow with the kids but we sure hate to lose the bike commute. He’s looking into a few cargo bikes that could work, though that means we’ll also need a bike hitch to transport the thing in case of flat tires.
Giving
We have worked really hard and been very fortunate that our hard work paid off in significant ways that I only 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.
We donate to organizations that help people and animals in need and do direct aid.
The Lakota Giving Project is year-round now and we always welcome donations to support Lakota families. See how you can help at the link.
Shipping for the September families 4 and 5 was stalled because they had a death in the family and couldn’t provide necessary information. I rolled them over into October families 1 and 2.
Saving and investing
Still sloooowly making up our spent savings for the car and for TGT stocks. I’ve been hoarding Chase Ultimate Rewards points for a while. We have no plans for travel so I cashed out a stash of points. They can become cash and go earn interest instead of sitting in the points vault doing nothing.
Net worth
On Life
Entertainment. The Dungeons and Dragons movie is delightful. Light, fun, clever. I don’t even play D&D but all the tropes are so recognizable it didn’t matter. I wish they’d make more.
Cagney and Lacey is available on Amazon Prime! I’d never seen it before, and filling in that blank spot in my pop culture archives was interesting. Lots of issues they dealt with are still present day issues though: racism, sexism in the workplace, date rape, burnout, a cop domestic abuser. That’s a little depressing but it also means the show is still relevant. Also that intro music is weirdly catchy. Also I really like Mary Beth and Harvey’s relationship – they face challenges and get mad or sad or disappointed but they work through them like reasonable rational adults and it’s really nice to see a supportive spouse. He even insists that they talk about feelings in a healthy way. I liked him a lot less on the issue of abusive partners, though.
Lacey: “Take bad cop, would you?”
Cagney: “Why do I always have to take bad cop?”
Lacey: “Sorry, Christine, you’re very good at hostile.”
Socializing. We’ve started alternating hosting with our former neighbor friends for dinners on the weekend. During the pandemic, we used to meet up weekly for park outings. Since things opened up, we find ourselves going 6-8 months between meetings. We agreed to make this a monthly thing as much as possible, which is neat. We really enjoy their company and they’ve gotten a dog as well, so Sera gets to come hang out too.
My gardening hobby is growing a bit. Ha, no pun intended but I’m not removing it now that it’s there. The onion “crop”, which is a fancy way to describe the 7 sprouts we parceled out from two sprouting onions, seem to be taking. We’ll only know for sure in another month or so. Indulging that bee in my bonnet in the form of a burning need for blueberries and blackberries will also take a long while to (hah) bear fruit. For now I bide my time doing research on crop rotation (in miniature), companion crops, and figuring out how to position potatoes, onions, maybe garlic?, sweet potatoes since I have one sprouting slips, bell peppers for which I’ve saved seeds. It’s gotten a bit serious! I still want this to be a low maintenance garden, so I have to force myself to slow down and plan before I start sprouting those sweet potato slips or germinating the bell pepper seeds. It’d be nice to have cucumbers in there too, that’s something we’d eat regularly. The scallions should probably be limited to a smaller container or get their own little corner.
Update, my one scallion has been potted into a yogurt cup with holes for drainage now. It’ll sit on the windowsill for the best exposure to sun until we get more scallions. Then we’ll figure out how best to fit a row of scallions on the windowsill.
Update 2: I’m overthinking things. We’ve a grand total of four grow bags, this isn’t a big enough garden to warrant crop rotation! Silly. We’ll compost the soil a couple times a year, that should be plenty. The blueberry bush and sweet potatoes will go into one bag, the neighbor bag will host the blackberry bush and onions and chives. The bell peppers can go into one of the two existing bags once I harvest all the potatoes. We’re unlikely to grow enough to cut our grocery bill but it’ll be nice to have a bit of fresh stuff now and again without having to run to the store.
Now the mystery is why this little cup of chives plant smells and tastes like absolutely nothing. What’s wrong with it?
