By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: July 2025

August 6, 2025

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 $881.65 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

JB and I have been practicing our eagle eyes and collected 30 receipts dropped on the ground in various places and popping them into Fetch. Free money and cleaning up litter: win win!

Spending

We spent $$$$ this month on summer activities. It may be comparable to June summer spending, come to think of it. June was some expensive travel and a lot of camp weeks. July was a lot of family time and shopping weeks.

I also spent a fair chunk on random household supplies: meds, cleaning stuff, garden stuff. I really should have ordered JB’s backpack months ago, I simply forgot about it getting into the summer and somehow summer is nearly about over.

Not spending

The lost and found: On my way to taking JB to New Sport, I realized I was missing one of my mini earrings from Wyrding Studios. 😩 I was sad but thought, well, no sense in fussing. I’ll have to email the maker to ask if she can make a new single or if I have to buy a pair. Several hours later, SmolAc asks me: “what’s dis?” It was my earring!

More like already spent. It’s really silly that this was not one of the first things I made when I ventured back into sewing but I’ve made my first pillow! I have a small fabric stash, mostly fuzzy fabrics, with only a few yards of cotton, an old pillow from pregnancy that was taking up space but was loathe to discard, and sudden inspiration that I needed a specific size pillow to support my knees and hips at night. A couple hours with the sewing machine (mostly measuring because I was nervous of making a wrong cut, and then cussing the machine when I struggled to thread it), and I’d turned an unwanted pillow into a brand new wanted pillow using materials I already had on hand and keeps old pillow from landfill. Now I have a project for next month, fingers crossed that I can make time again: pillowcases! Also from the fabric stash.

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 notw 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.

Saving and investing

This is ticking along reasonably well with the revisions from a month or three ago. I’m itching to crank up the savings a little bit more to replenish our spending coffers that were utterly depleted for the house maintenance. That’s what the cash was for, and yet I’m still nervy that they were emptied. Any adjustments have to wait for the long-awaited negotiated raise to go through. Four months and counting ….

Net worth

Still slowly creeping up, more to do with the markets doing their unfathomable thing and our steadily contributing than anything. I still hold a portfolio of stocks which pays dividends and doesn’t do much else because I refused to buy stocks in companies I had a moral objection to – tech stocks and Tesla. Those were the real moneymakers but I can’t say I really truly regret not buying them. I would probably be rich already if I had but it’d feel imminently more gross.

On Life

Reading.

Luanne G. Smith, The Golden Age of Magic. I was on the edge of my seat a few times with this one.

Sarah Beth Durst (of the Spellshop) just broke my heart with The Queen of Blood. Such a compelling story but the saddest ending. It doesn’t ruin it but I’m not a fan of sad endings. We already have too many of them in real life. I’m grateful to Ilona Andrews for being committed to not sad / bad endings.

KJ Charles, The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting; The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1); A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. Charles has an excellent grasp of prose and/or a great editor. I more frequently notice when the experience of reading is rocky and these books were so smooth and enjoyable.

John Scalzi, When the Moon Hits Your Eye. Not up to the Kaiju Preservation Society’s mark of fun reading but fun enough.

Katherine Rundell, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms. This was mostly sadness.

K.A. Applegate’s Animorphs, The Invasion; The Capture. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series (not that it’s cheerful but that it’s very well written) and found it in graphic novel format instead of novel format but it works.

Adventuring. We’ve traveled a lot more this summer than usual. Although now that I say that, it was just one more trip than usual, it just felt like a lot with everything else going on.

:: How was your month?