By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: February 2023

March 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 $927.06 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

Spending

I spotted kid clothing clearance sales and picked up a handful of clothes for the niblings’ Christmas presents.

A battery carrying case that had caught my interest in the past was on sale for $10. It seems to go for $20-25 normally. A friend recommended that same one so I grabbed one. We don’t have nearly enough batteries to fill it but it’s nice to have one cohesive home for all the batteries that we do have.

Right in the kisser: Our PG&E bill was over $300. It was a damn cold January, and we ran the heater a lot more. It’s probably also the many loads of laundry we had to run. We went from being a one load per week family with 3 humans and 2 dogs to four loads a week with 4 humans and 1 dog. I’m confused.

We also donated a lot more than we usually do this early in the year, but it was needed (see Giving). This winter is hard across the globe.

Not spending

Our friends sent us a free box of diapers from their friends. We were told that this was an old box leftover from when their kid was in diapers years ago, so we happily accepted. It was odd that we found a receipt in the box from a couple weeks ago though. Mysterious! Anyway, free diapers, much appreciated.

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.

We did a lot of great work for the Lakota folks last and this month, y’all. We looked out for the Red Shirt School kids. 45 students are enrolled there, many of whom come from huge families and struggle to provide adequately for all of them. We sent a lot of clothes, both winter and summer as things went on clearance: shirts, pants, boots, coats.

We also sent a large shipment of shoes, and new or like new clothing, to the Allen Youth Center for the Allen community.

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We donated to support these campaigns to help the people in Afghanistan:

• Shep’s ongoing Aseel campaign “to support families with children who are significantly impacted by the ongoing crisis and famine in Afghanistan“.
• Also his new campaign to sponsor the educational expenses of 7 high school students in Paktia and ten orphans
• JB’s pick: this campaign to help “11 women and their children in the Jabalsaraj district of Parwan province, Afghanistan. The women are all widows and have no income at all.”

We also donated to World Central Kitchen in support of efforts to feed people after the earthquake and rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria.

More campaigns we donated to:

• Stage 3 Breast Cancer Grandma Needs Immediate Help
• Help Ms. Smart move to Wisconsin for healthcare
• Help fund the 3rd Annual Odenong Powwow
• Help Preserve Historic Black Women’s Aid Group. NYTimes article on the group.

Saving and investing

PiC got a 3% raise so I immediately ticked up our savings rate a little bit to get closer to my ideal rate. We’ll need more of it to spend than I’m happy with, soon.

Net worth

This graph is a bit boring but I’m starting to see a tiny hint of a trend toward growth. Not much, and not consistently, but we’re creeping a little closer to that top goal line. I do wish that it didn’t feel like it’d take another ten years to hit it.

On Life

Once in a while I’m struck by the memory that my friend and her husband, with kids a little older than ours, are dead thanks to a drunk driver. We’ll never speak again, their kids will never take silly pictures or go on outdoor adventures or play dress up with them again. It hurts my heart.

~~~~~
Elementary school: there have been daily reports of COVID on campus starting the end of the month which just adds to my annoyance with the PTA meetings going in person now.

They’re always at 6 pm and run up to two hours, prime dinner, bath and bed time. I hate that we’re cut off from that source of information about what’s going on in the school. I continue to strongly dislike our principal who was likely a strong advocate for dropping the online option.

We tried this Creamy Tomato Rigatoni (doubled the recipe but halved the red pepper flakes to keep it kid friendly) to use up some heavy cream. It was a nice change of pace from our usual tomato sauces.

All-American: Homecoming. This was a recommendation from @feministajones and I thought it was well done. Lots of real topics: tough family dynamics, race, adoption, teen parenthood, college, juggling athletics and new adult responsibilities, date rape culture. I couldn’t help but get a pit in my stomach when the last one turned up. Our safety shouldn’t be contingent on the proximity of a good person to fight off the bad when we’re vulnerable but that’s how it’s been for as long as I remember. I remember going out dancing with friends and never ever taking a drink from any cup that wasn’t protected, never accepting a drink from a stranger, never separating from the friends. We always traveled as a pack. You come home with the people you left home with. The two guys in our group were ferocious protectors. I remember one NYE. They spotted the eddies of a mob crush traveling our way and each of them grabbed the shortest of us in the group and literally carried us free, hustling the rest of us in a group, before we were ever in danger. I know there are good guys out there. I married one, I’m friends with many. But I hate that our safety, and that of our friends and children, is dependent on our proximity to the good ones when it’s so hard to spot them at the outset.

A big thing that makes it watchable for me is that these are young adults trying to figure out life, and they’re doing it with care for accountability and apologizing for their mistakes. Even though it’s fictional, it doesn’t feel like all manufactured drama.

And since that was a spin-off, I backtracked to watch the original series, All-American as well. High school and football, neither of which are really my thing, but interesting enough to carry on with. I never understand the premise of rich teens living high on the hog and living without parents or adults around, though. Is that something that actually happens?

The irony, though, I couldn’t care about any real football games if I tried. Fake football games in a TV series where I like the characters, though? I care!

:: How was your month?

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