Money & Life Report: October 2021
November 2, 2021
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. There are ways to support the blog and our charitable giving in the sidebar.
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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Bing rewards. I’ve earned another $25 Target gift card. It’ll go to good use whether for our Lakota families or more diapers.
It’s almost laughable that I squeak together extra cash, maybe ten cents at a time sometimes, so I can justify giving with a freer hand and completely ignore the fact that I give in much larger increments than I earn on the side. I’m ok with that, it’s just funny.
Spending
Target had a 10% off gift cards sale for Red Card holders this month. I wish I’d seen that BEFORE I went and bought an expensive massager for my chronic everything pain. Oh well, we get enough basics from them throughout the year that it’s worth having these cards on hand for those times we can’t wait for a sale. Also I had a birthday 5% off combined with the Red Card 5% off so we still came away with a 10% discount. This stash will keep us in diapers and wipes for a while.
Holiday gifts: I’ve got to square the rest of those away ASAP. I cannot let supply chain problems that I already know about become another source of stress in my life! Yet I’m struggling because I still can’t think of proper gifts for JB’s tío and tía. I also need to decide how much to gift their teacher for the holidays. I think I’ve decided on $50.
I’m simplifying gifts for most niblings (I think we have about 25) this year with just one category for each group of kids: cash, books, or clothes. There are simply too many of them plus the handful of adults in our families we’d like to gift something to. I’d also really like to get the sewing machine up and running to make reusable gift bags. I do have a huge lot of saved paper bags from previous years though and those will need to be used up as well eventually.
Hobby spending: I’m learning how to sew, verrrrryyyy slowly, and picked up a bunch of supplies for experimenting with ($110). I hope that something actually arrives in time for me to actually make things before the holidays hit with a vengeance. We also needed more soil for our potato containers ($18).
Not spending
Our takeout spending was lower this month because I’ve been experimenting with cooking a couple new recipes repeatedly until I’m happy with it. But our grocery spending has probably gone up proportionally…
I set lower price points on gifts this year and am keep things simpler with the mass of niblings as well. Lowering my stress and packing needs was the goal but I think it might also mean a lower gift-giving budget than previous years.
Giving
On giving: we have worked really hard and we have 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. As our good fortune grew, though we have not reached our FI number where I can feel like our income is gravy, we’ve always felt it was important to lend a helping hand to others. 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 a number of organizations that do meaningful work to help others in need and do direct aid.
I am doing my last Lakota families shopping for the year now! Summary to come in the next month’s round up.
Saving and investing
Same old same old! Which is probably a good thing. Because remember, I have a terrible habit of trying to time the market. Stop. That.
Net worth
Our totals steadily creep upward. I keep aggressively saving and hoping that overall this effort pays off in a few years so that we can choose to work less and be here for our family more.
On Life
Reading. It’s a funny thing to be able to have access to some of the authors I read on Twitter and talk to them like they’re everyday people. I used to idolize authors, their skills were unfathomable to me. I was a voracious reader and terrible awful stilted writer, published authors felt like Sorcerers of the Words. They still do, a bit, but I can see them as human and be bemused by a bit of conversation where I don’t totally embarrass myself.
K.B. Spangler, The Blackwing War: Amazon, Bookshop (referral links). When I got halfway through this engrossing read, I hollered at myself because it’s the first book of a series and just came out this year. I’m going to have to wait SO LONG to get the next one! Witches, deep space, an alien life form called the Deep used as a tool by humans because of course humans would immediately put an alien life form to work for them. Of course this gives rise to an organization that manages the witches, Lancaster wields serious political power but officially remains neutral in the middle of a devastating war. Well, that can’t last, can it?
E.J. Mellow, Song of the Forever Rains: Amazon, Bookshop (referral links). Three adventurous little girls, one who doesn’t speak when we first meet her, grow up and become the Mousai. I am unreasonably invested in the fate of the Mousai. I’m not happy that this is planned to be just two books, there’s so much room for more!
Eden Appiah-Kubi, The Bennet Women: Amazon, Bookshop (referral links). I wasn’t sure what to expect with this modern take on Jane Austen but I’m always game for a new take on JA. This was light and fun but also grounded in certain social realities that I think are important to see and recognize both in literature and life. There were bits that I wished were more fleshed out, like what’s going on with Dia??? I like Dia more than the Lydia that she was based on so I actually wanted to know how she was in the end. I was happy to see how she dealt with the modern Bingley, though.
Aliette de Bodard, Fireheart Tiger: Amazon, Bookshop (referral links). This was too short! Not because it was poorly plotted, it just felt like it ended too abruptly because I was ready to follow the characters into their next scrape, and their next adventure, and unravel some of the mysteries that were facing us.
Kate Elliot, Unconquerable Sun: Amazon, Bookshop (referral links). I actually bought this ages ago but hadn’t had the focus / attention span to get into it, so I saved it. It was just the ticket this month. A space opera, the daughter and heir of a brilliant military strategist, trustworthy companions, political intrigue, some of which gets resolved in a rather satisfying battle but some of which remains unresolved. In some ways, Sun was a breath of fresh air. I needed a shot of that complex strength and relationships to shore up my own self of grounding in the face of more loss after a year of losses. I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment but also wary of what Kate might be doing to characters I came to like.
