Money & Life Report: October 2024
November 6, 2024
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.
***
Dividend income. We received $ in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
Found money. We routinely pick up paper trash off sidewalks to pop into the nearest bins wherever we can and PiC picked up a receipt that was worth $4 in Ibotta cash. Woo!
Mystery money: I found a deposit in a checking account with no explanation where it came from or why it was there. It took me a week to unearth a letter from the bank saying this was restitution for having restricted outgoing transactions on our account and for the inconvenience and fees caused by their doing so. Huh? When did they restrict my account? When did they cost me fees? I’m mostly confused, but if I can’t find any record of any harm done, then this will just go towards defraying the car repairs.
Spending
Mega annoying: PiC listed our second car, the one the van replaced, for sale for months last summer and fall. No bites. And then it started leaking. Why?? It’s been sitting in our garage taking up space (registered non operational because it’s cheaper at least) for more than a year now because we just haven’t had time to deal with it but now PiC has to get it towed to a shop to get whatever the problem is fixed before he can try to sell it again. $900. š
I love toasted rice tea, the kind you typically get served at sushi places. It may be the only tea I like aside from the jasmine type tea you get for dim sum (and that’s more of a learned tolerance). Shopping at Friday afternoon Tea for a friend, I ran across a genmaicha that seemed promising. It was good! The first steep was a little bitter but the second steep was better, so I probably steeped it too long the first time. Little treat for me, $10; big box of treats for our friend: $65.
Property tax: right, I almost forgot about this bill. š¤¦š»āāļø As the money is always set aside, this was a simple dimple payment to execute once I remembered what I was doing. Why, though, are the two payments due three months apart? That’s weird. Same for friends in other states: the two payments are 2 months apart. Why? What purpose does that serve? Why not six months apart?
Supply closet shortage: I usually have shoes in the next few sizes up for the kids but somehow failed on Smol Acrobat’s shoe closet. They destroyed the shoes they’ve been wearing since Christmas, there were warning signs but I forgot so I had to do a last minute full price purchase. Don’t love it but it’s only a few dollars more than a sale, so again, it’s not worth making myself stressed with shame over ~$5.
My own closet: my body shape continues to confound me. While working with the trainer is helping me try to get away from the dysphoria (this body has felt like a stranger’s, I haven’t felt any connection to it as my own since the second pregnancy), it hasn’t helped with the reality of shirts and pants just not fitting. Even the new cute Fat Rabbit Farm shirts I bought last summer now aren’t fitting, they’re too tight. I splurged on a few Primary tees for adults, on sale, because they are soft and loose and that helps with fit.
Not spending
Our friend bought a Sonicare toothbrush, waited too long to open it, and then decided they didn’t want it anyway so they gave it to us. The dentist just started talking about graduating the kids to electric toothbrushes, so JB gets to benefit from this unexpected hand me down! (Then I’ll have to buy one for Smol Acrobat – that looks to be $14 – the dentist would like them to practice brushing with an electric toothbrush now. Put that in the spend column.)
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 squeezed in two families in the last weekend of the month, I’m still waiting for everything to be delivered before I can share the update of what we sent and spent.
Saving and investing
I’ve finally added specific buckets to our savings account for big expenditures. It used to be for taxes, but I’ve added buckets for: pets (someday); house maintenance (the roof is coming up faster than I would like); travel (which has never been broken out before but why not). I don’t know if this will be more or less stressful than trying to cash flow the big things, but since we paid for the car out of the emergency cash and (I) didn’t love it. Let’s try this and see. Likely it won’t matter because either way, I won’t like spending any large amount of money. š
Net worth
There’s really no change from last month. I need that yellow line to cross the five year goal line eventually. It’s been steadily creeping up, to be sure, but very slowly and steadily so it’s not going to happen in the next year. It’s ok, I keep telling myself, we’re not ready to live on a constrained retirement budget yet anyway. We have the kids’ post high school educations to think about.
On Life
October š„µ is PTA meetings, Harvest Fair, parent-teacher conferences, prep for Halloween, Open Enrollment, actual Halloween, organizing donations and decluttering, and two in-service days. No wonder we never have time to go to a pumpkin patch anymore. Update: Except this year we DID! It was just a small trip but it was fun.
My memory has been getting worse, I can physically feel my brain doing the equivalent of bio-overheating. I hate this. Case in point, there was something relatively big I was going to share in this section and I can’t remember even a hint of it.
