December 31, 2018
On Money
Income
Our normal income comes from our full time jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, occasional sales on Poshmark, cash back sites like Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a (very) small commission to keep the blog lights on.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.
***
Dividend income. We received $291.40 in dividends this month. I reinvest all our dividends into new stocks or move the cash out to be invested into index funds.
Costco Cash Card. Costco was prompt in sending us the cash card for our furnace. Thank goodness! This cashback brings our ghastly total down to around $13,000 (not counting the asbestos cost that was nearly $2000 and has been negotiated down to $1200).
Craigslist sale. +$40. I’m grateful PiC is still able to work on these sales a little at a time even though we’re in over our heads with work. My own sales have petered out pretty badly and I think it’s time to donate all that “inventory”, I gave it a good try.
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December 26, 2018
What I read
Daniel José Older
Half-Resurrection Blues
Midnight Taxi Tango
MANY thumbs up. Annoyed with myself for not requesting that the library buy all three in the Bone Street Rumba series because I didn’t realize #3 (Battle Hill Bolero) was out! I have fixed that mistake but still waiting on the library to actually buy it.
Seanan McGuire
Discount Armageddon
Midnight Blue-Light Special
Half–Off Ragnarok
Pocket Apocalypse
MANY thumbs up. I want more. I keep thinking over how to fund cryptozoologists so they can do the crypto part of their job without having to work a day job. Passive income FTW!
Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone
MANY thumbs up. I knew this was going to be good. It was EXCELLENT.
Rin Chupeco, The Bone Witch
MANY thumbs up. Stunningly good. I can’t wait to read the Heart Forger.
Sabaa Tabir, A Torch Against the Night (Ember in the Ashes Series, Book 2)
A Reaper at the Gates (Ember in the Ashes Series, Book 3)
So gripping! I have now learned, after three attempts, I can never start a Sabaa Tahir book and expect to put it down before the end.
Gary Paulsen
The Winter Room
Road Trip
Hatchet
Mary Hoffman, City of Masks, Stravaganza Series, Book 1
City of Stars, Stravaganza Series, Book 2
City of Flowers, Stravaganza Series, Book 3
City of Secrets, Stravaganza Series, Book 4
City of Ships, Stravaganza Series, Book 5
City of Swords, Stravaganza Series, Book 6
Gregory Harris, The Bellingham Bloodbath
Interesting enough I’d like to read more of the series.
Imogen Hermes Gowar, The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
Not my usual genre but very engaging and well written. I was mildly stressed hoping the characters would make good decisions. It was solid but I didn’t really enjoy the experience so wouldn’t read it again.
Danette Haworth, A Whole Lot of Lucky
A totally random middle school pick from the library because none of my books were available. It was about a poor kid whose family wins the lottery and I was reasonably impressed with how the parents dealt with the windfall. Less so with the kid but I’ve always struggled to relate to normal kids so this isn’t a surprise. Overall, pretty well written.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Bites (Kate Daniels Series, Book 1)
Magic Burns (Kate Daniels Series, Book 2)
Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels Series, Book 3)
Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles, Book 1)
Sweep in Peace (Innkeeper Chronicles Series, Book 2)
One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles, Book 3)
Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy Series, Book 1)
Wildfire (Hidden Legacy Series, Book 3)
My first Kate Daniels books! I’ve heard about this series before but never picked one up. I need our library to get ALL of them. I LOVED the Innkeeper Chronicles, I reread them four times. Hidden Legacy is also interesting and fun. I’m ready to say anything Ilona Andrews is a sure bet for me.
Amanda Bouchet, A Promise of Fire (The Kingmaker Chronicles Series, Book 1)
Breath of Fire (The Kingmaker Chronicles Series, Book 2)
Heart on Fire (The Kingmaker Chronicles Series, Book 3)
Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother (Ramona Quimby Series, Book 5)
A little trip down memory lane.
Kelly Barnhill, The Witch’s Boy
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Both of these were really well written and I would definitely recommend them.
Mercedes Lackey, Blood Red (Elemental Masters Series, Book 10)
Bastion (Valdemar: The Collegium Chronicles, Book 5)
Hunter (Hunter Series, Book 1)
I’ve always enjoyed this series and really particularly liked this take on Little Red Riding Hood. I don’t love the Valdemar books anymore after thinking about the Companions and kidnapping to impress citizens into the service of the government buuuut I needed a book to read.
Where we went
We finally made it down to Monterey for a short weekend trip and tried a new place in Pacific Grove, escaping a little bit from the fires and visiting a friend.
The Deer Haven Inn was a very basic but nice enough place to hang out for a night and day while we escaped the massive fires and the toxic air from up North. We loved our little fireplace and had take out on the beds which we never ever do. I had hoped to see some deer hanging out near the inn but instead we were startled by them wandering around the roads in the pitch dark! It was pure luck that we didn’t hit any. Be careful what you wish for and all that. Unfortunately our usual fantastic Mexican food place that we eat at almost every time we’re in Monterey really didn’t come through. Everything we had was dry, or oversauced, and disappointing. Darn.
What I watched
The Good Place. I’d seen advertisements for this show all over the place at SDCC but since there are only about a billion things vying for our attention, I didn’t think twice about it. I do like Kristen Bell a lot so that should have been a warning flag that I’d like it but I randomly found it on Netflix one day and it is fantastic.
Grimm. I’d enjoyed Grimm the first time around but didn’t watch it all way through when it was still live. This has an entire cast of supporting characters I loved. The main character was fine but my favorites were the supporting characters: Munroe, Rosalie, Sergeant Wu, Hank, I loved. Juliette and the Captain, I liked. Adalind I had trouble liking both times around, but for different reasons.
What I did
I picked up needle and thread for fun this fall and while my stitches are laughably uneven, I’ve really enjoyed it as a hobby. Inspired by Kristine at Frugasaurus, I’ve been making drawstring bags. It’s very weird to have a hobby that costs money but it’s also oddly soothing. Is this what they call relaxing?
:: What are you enjoying right now?
December 3, 2018
On Money
Income
Our normal income comes from our full time day jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, occasional sales on Poshmark, cash back sites like Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a (very) small commission to keep the blog lights on.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.
***
Mini-windfall, Tweetchat: The random number generator loved me and gave me a win for the many tweetchats I’ve participated in this year, a big Amazon gift card! Woo! This will be really helpful to defray normal household costs – I’ve got a huge list of things we’ve been holding off on buying until we have the money for it and we’ll get a few of them. I’ve also allocated a small part of it to buy one random person in need of help a small gift from their wishlist because I believe in passing on the luck / love.
Dividend income. This was a huge month for dividends: $504.44 which is our highest month of the year. It’s just the way the quarterly dividends shake out. Most months are typically around $200 but they’ve grown little by little each month. Our year to date net dividends are now $2,855.80. We don’t spend our dividends, these go right back to work for us purchasing more shares of something.
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November 5, 2018
On Money
Income
Our normal income comes from our full time day jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, occasional sales on Poshmark, cash back sites like Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a (very) small commission to keep the blog lights on.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.
***
Micro-income, freelance: I had almost made a resolution to really buckle down on generating new gigs in October but that would have been a broken promise because the rest of life was unbalanced in the direction of too much work. But I did polish up some works in progress and that brought in a wee bit of cash.
Micro-income, Craigslist: PiC unloaded another piece of bike equipment, $30. This is a double win: getting things out of our crowded home and bringing in a bit of money.
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October 8, 2018
On Money
Income
Our normal income comes from our full time day jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, occasional sales on Poshmark, using cash back sites like Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a (very) small commission to keep the blog lights on.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.
***
Micro-income, freelance: I eked out a trickle this month. In any month we travel, even just a long weekend, the routine disruption eats up all freelance work time. That stinks – travel costs money and it also costs the opportunity to earn extra. +$80!
Micro-income, Craigslist: PiC knocked out a sale at the end of the month. +$50!
Micro-income, credit card churn: We finished our minimum spend on the Citi Thank You Premier this month and I am contemplating how to convert those 50,000 points. I think 30,000 will turn into Target money to cover normal needed household spending. I haven’t decided about the other 20,000 points yet but my goal is to use it only to cover necessities and thus preserve $500 in cash flow.
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September 12, 2018
What I read
Our library is pretty great but also drives me bananas with their book-licensing habits. They hold licenses for random books in series (see Sue Grafton below) so that you never know which books you can read in what order.
I did some digging to find out that I can make a directed donation to the library so that they will buy the e-books that I very much want to be in their collection so I and anybody else can read them. YAY! I feel better about donating to have them own the books, for some reason. Probably because I’m still staring at 10 moving boxes blocking my entirely full bookshelves.
Also, they let me know that e-books can either be owned by the library entirely for unlimited check outs OR they might be limited by elapsed time or number of checkouts. This was news to me and it kind of stinks but someone pointed out that it makes sense because the library has to replace physically worn out hardcovers, they don’t have to do that for e-books so publishers have to make up their money somewhere else.
I couldn’t write reviews on every book but they were all, unless otherwise indicated, two thumbs up! (more…)
September 3, 2018
On Money
Income
Our normal income comes from two full time day jobs. We earn money on the side, including tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks.
Our side income comes from Swagbucks, infrequently selling on Poshmark, using cash back sites like Ebates, Mr.Rebates, and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a (very) small commission to keep the blog lights on.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health declines enough to prevent me from working.
***
Micro-income: Achievement. Another 10,000 points combined for diligently answering my chronic pain surveys and being active equals $10 in PayPal. Not bad. I do wish I had a better app to connect than Google Fit though. That earns a paltry 6 points per day of activity instead of points according to the amount of activity.
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