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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July 1, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 0.55% decrease
On Money
I’m working away at Swagbucks to earn Amazon money for household, Little Bean, and dog things we need. Feel free to join using my referral link if you like!
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Are you a Comcast customer? Were you hit by the West Coast outage on June 1st/2nd? Comcast is offering a $5 credit. They say you have to call but I’m not able to make phone calls during the day so I asked for help online via chat and that worked. My outage disrupted work for 2 days so I received a $10 credit.
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I won Donna’s Swagbucks giveaway! It was an amazing lift during a very difficult week.
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Dammit auto repairs! My car cost nearly $600 in maintenance. A couple thousand a year in maintenance is still loads better than a car payment. For the record, we bought our cars used, with cash, from private owners. We haven’t had any significant problems with them in the last three and five years (respectively) of owning them.
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June 1, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 16.8% increase
On Money
I’m working away at Swagbucks to earn Amazon money for household, Little Bean, and dog things we need. Feel free to join using my referral link if you like!
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PiC recently joked he’d settle for a luxury sports car and a very family car. Spending between $90-120K on cars? That’s a riot. So I proposed a swap. If he supports me writing a few bestsellers (ha), we’ll talk cars.
Note: 3 years ago, we paid $20K in cash for 2 used practical family-friendly cars with decent mileage and in great condition. We’ve had to spend on maintenance since, but very little, comparatively speaking.
Of course, his window shopping was stopped sort when I asked which would you want first, fancy car or a house?
Which would you want first? (or at all)
(and then I caught him browsing Trulia. I’d better get cracking and writing!)
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May 19, 2015
A friend recently eclipsed my career by a rather heady margin. Robin and I have had a friendly almost-competition where we push each other to achieve our goals and making our way up the ladder like a pair of dueling rock climbers has been a fun pastime. None of our other peers were interested in our frank discussions about earning money, negotiating salary, trading tactics and giving one another a good shove in the back to do the uncomfortable thing.
This week, Robin was promoted to the C-suite.
I cheered, of course! It was a move we’d been discussing for a while, as he contemplated whether it made sense to move up there or elsewhere.
Then I realized: oh crap, I can’t match that anytime soon! One of the things I’ve always prided myself on was keeping step with him. It’s one of the things that makes me feel less resentful of the bias against women in the workplace – at least I’m keeping pace with my fantastic male friend, I’m not doing too badly.
Every so often, I get this uneasy feeling that I’m failing myself, failing to live up to my own expectations. It’s not because of comparing myself to others, though I won’t lie and say that I’m impervious to the outside world as competition, it’s because I have an internal set of benchmarks that I don’t always acknowledge.
I keep hearing this echo: you’re getting older, what have you done this year? (more…)
April 30, 2015
Change from Jan 2015: 8% increase
On Money
I’m working away at Swagbucks to earn Amazon money for household, Little Bean, and dog things we need. Feel free to join using my referral link if you like!
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Retirement: I’ve been doing lump sum contributions to my IRA at the end of each tax year, but I should really do it monthly instead. Mostly for superficial reasons: seeing $5500 come out of the savings at once is more painful than ~ $500/month. Plus I can probably cash flow that $500/month if I’m creative, rather than taking it out of savings at all! Or am I getting greedy?
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Update: screw it, I’m cashflowing that sucker. 2014 contribution, done.
2015 contributions, set up as recurring withdrawals.
2016 contributions, will automatically go forth and withdraw.
It’s like a monthly gift to myself!
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April 1, 2015
Change from January: 3.3% increase
On Money
I’m working away at Swagbucks to earn Amazon money for household, Little Bean, and dog things we need. Feel free to join using my referral link if you like!
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Seamus racked up another $450 550 in vet bills.
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I’m only getting half my normal income in maternity leave benefits and surprisingly this hasn’t wrecked our cash flow. I’m not saving anything, and neither am I setting aside the previously budgeted Little Bean money for the moment but we’re doing OK.
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Little Bean money: PiC is still contributing to hir fund and ze has received generous Happy Being Born gifts (called lucky money in our cultures). Kid’s making a killing off being born!
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