January 15, 2016
2015 highlights
SPENDING
The good: I took an extended (for Americans) maternity leave with only partial salary. I needed every minute of that time to recover from LB’s delivery, so I’m grateful that we fought to make that happen.
We hosted family and friends throughout the year, traffic to our wee abode was easily four-fold higher thanks to the draw of a fresh-made baby. This wasn’t cheap between feeding them and housing them but we managed to stay within budget.
We even traveled and enjoyed some of it despite the massive increase in gear and logistics. Lowering expectations made a big difference. (more…)
January 8, 2016
Change from Jan 2015: 23.5% increase
0.23% decrease from last month
ON MONEY
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Spending
Much as I would like to cut out all Christmas gift spending, that’s not going to happen overnight. I’ll instead be glad we’ve gone to a somewhat more organized, pick a person system now and hope that someday we can maybe only do small gifts for kids or something. Honestly, we don’t need anything and the things we want, we can save up for, for ourselves. It doesn’t make much sense to me to share our wishlists so they can buy things we want and we can buy things they want – it’s just a swapping around of money. Signed, The Grinch
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Because Dad didn’t bother to tell me he’d need some help staying warm this season, and we’re looking at a potential record El Nino year, I had to do some unexpected post-Christmas shopping. I won’t dwell on how much we could have saved had I known before. We bought him a new blanket and coat: $150 after discounts, and using old store credit we’d had on hand.
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December 2, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 18.7% increase
0.23% decrease from last month
ON MONEY
I use Swagbucks. Here’s a handy tutorial if you’d like to join and earn.
Spending
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The huge cash withdrawals are still happening: half of our property tax bill was due, the other half will be due early next year, our mortgage prepayment actually went through (though we had a specific amount we took directly out of savings so that wasn’t a scramble).
The large withdrawals for my retirement savings will drop to a lower monthly amount starting in January thereby improving our cash flow by a couple hundred dollars. That’ll be good. I hate feeling like we have zero cash flow cushion.
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November 2, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 19% increase
3% decrease from last month
ON MONEY
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I kicked some financial-planning tuchus this month!
I rearranged our banking to accommodate new regular expenses, got our estate planning lawyer lined up and retainer fee-d, sorted out the paperwork for Phase 2 in LB’s childcare arrangements, had the life insurance nurse visit for the necessary lab work. HUGE.
Expenses
Three huge checks: One for our estate planning, one for LB’s care. I was expecting those, but they still felt like an elbow to the solar plexus. Then a big whack at our mortgage. That was satisfying.
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October 2, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 15.2% increase
0.5% decrease from last month
ON MONEY
I use Swagbucks. Here’s a handy tutorial if you’d like to join and earn.
Spending
Last we checked, I was dreading phone replacement. Dragged my feet, in fact, even though the phones were being outrageously non functional: turning off randomly, refusing to turn back on, “the camera is not connected” messages. Neither of us wanted phablets, which is where all the newer smartphones today are headed, and we definitely didn’t want the $1000+ bill that comes with two new phones. But it seemed like the best we could do was a certified used phone for about 20% less and any used electronics from an unknown seller always makes me nervous.
During our intense research period, PiC was gifted a new to him used phone, and that was a huge relief. I bought him a new case and charging cords, he did SIM card surgery, and he’s set! I deleted a bunch of apps and data from my phone and that’s helped a little bit so that I don’t have to rush out and replace it with something expensive. We were looking at the Samsung Galaxy 6 but it’s huge and so’s the price tag.
*keeps phone on life support*
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September 2, 2015
Total change from Jan 2015: 15% increase (2% decrease from last month)
On Money
I use Swagbucks to earn money for the household. My referral link if you like!
My brokerage is giving a $100 referral bonus right now, it’s usually $50. Let me know if you’d like a referral!
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As predicted, our summer fun was costly and our credit card bill came home to roost. I’m a little annoyed that we’ll have to pull out of savings but it’s a residual kind of annoyance, the kind that comes with knowing you were going to have to do a distasteful thing, then actually doing it.
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Credit cards: I need about 40k more airline miles and I’ll be able to book domestic flights for the three of us for a nominal fee next spring. I was only going to book two adult tickets and have LB fly as a lap infant but it’s looking a lot like ze won’t be able to sit still for a 5-hour flight.
It’s a balance of taking the time to earn the miles and potentially not booking the ticket in time to get the award seats. Actually, thinking on it, we are both United cardholders so we should be able to book at least Standard awards as long as there are seats on the flights but I want the Super Saver award flights.
We’ve been kicking around several possible destinations for next year, we just have to narrow it down to the most likely.
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August 3, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 17.2% increase
On Money
I spent (an astounding) $200 on myself this month.
First, I lopped off several inches of hair so I’m set for several months. My attention span for sitting in a chair while my hair’s cut is shorter and shorter.
Then, I had a therapeutic massage (aka The Torturous Ordeal) that brought tears to my eyes but worked out the tension that had built up in my muscles. The smart thing to do would be not to wait 3 months between massages.
And, finally bought fresh razor blades. I don’t know why I hate paying real money for razors, but I do.
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