Money & Life Report: April 2025
May 7, 2025
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 $246.60 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
Spending
After negotiating our new monthly price with Comcast, I’ve charged the remaining amount to my AmEx that nets the maximum $20 cash back back: a total of $400. Part of that credit has been used, the rest of it will cover the next 3-4 months.
I ordered a pair of glasses from Zenni ($34) so I can send my main frames to the optometrist to get the lenses replaced. I also ordered distance glasses that I have to wear all the time now, huff. We also replaced JB’s glasses with their new prescription and got Smol Acrobat’s eyes checked. JB’s also now on new prescription meds that will cost $91 every 3 weeks. All told: $431. PiC still needs to get a checkup, fingers crossed that he doesn’t need anything! Writing this out makes me realize we should probably upgrade our vision plan to the premium plan at open enrollment this year.
I filled a tank of gas in the smaller car: $72. O_O
Our April PGE bill usually includes the climate credit but this year it didn’t. They claim that, this year, it won’t show up until the next month’s bill. Harumph.
I’d been happily weeding out business clothes from my closet for a decade. Annnd now I have to own some again. The clothes I got rid of only fit my pre-kids body, my size and shape have changed dramatically so I couldn’t have saved myself any money by keeping them, so that’s one tiny consolation. This isn’t a fun process and I harbor a touch of resentment for having to do this and spend when the economy and all are so precarious. I don’t want to waste money on clothes I might only wear once or twice! But the nature of my job is changing. It’s getting bigger and more visible and I can’t wear sweats to meet execs. 😒
Not spending
Having had to buy new jeans, I happened to notice a better sale a week after they arrived. That’s within the 14 day price adjustment policy so they refunded the $5 difference. Surprisingly, it was a very easy phone call.
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.
I started tracking our giving, not the tax deductible kind but the direct aid kind, so that I can total this up at the end of the year. We’ve been giving a lot of cash to a wide group of folks. All are living on the edge and need some help to get through. This isn’t the first time I’ve borked our cashflow giving in the past several months. I need to know how that figures into our increased spending this year because a whole lot of other prices are going up too. One of y’all suggested setting aside a set amount each month, I can’t find the comment now, but it’s stuck with and thank you for the idea because I’ve started transitioning to doing that.
Saving and investing
Nothing special to note here this month. Mostly business as usual.
Net worth
The market’s perking up again for completely irrational reasons. Obviously it’s rational if you look at it as a corrupt president gaming the markets for personal gain. Sigh. Even knowing that at least some of these ups and downs were to be expected with a completely venal and corrupt hand at the wheel of the country doesn’t shake my feeling of impending doom stress anxiety.
On Life
Stress. I have this overwhelming urge to yell Chinese Exclusion Act! Japanese internment camps! Korematsu v US! I have instead been going around telling anyone I talk to that if some of us don’t have rights, none of us have rights. Everyone gets due process.
Entertainment.
North by North. I’m so sick of smarmy self important husbands in real life and on the screen. I didn’t see/hear more than 30 seconds of the husband character and I wanted someone to punch him in the mouth. Every next encounter with him just made me wish that even harder. I think it’s being in close emotional proximity with women living with men like that lately, my armored shell has rubbed thin.
Burn Rate, KB Spangler. Wow this one was a rough read. Well written but I liked the characters and I hate when characters are killed. I like all of Spangler’s books, and have started reading the original comic that the books branch out from.
A Caribbean Heiress in Paris, Adriana Herrera. I waited so many months for this one, I forgot why I put it on hold. It was an easy (smooth) read, which I need more of right now.
Shadow of a Dead God, Patrick Samphire. I liked it well enough the first time through but at the end it felt like I’d missed something important so I went back to reread. Too soon, my brain didn’t want to go through it again.
Lenny Among Ghosts, Frank Maria Reifenberg. Not sure if this lost something in translation or if it was really just a light simple kid’s story, but it came across as a very simple kid story. I’ve gotten too used to Ursula Vernon’s kids stories that still pack oomph for adults reading them, maybe.
