By: Revanche

Money & Life Report: December 2025

January 7, 2026

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.

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Dividend income. We received $569 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.

Surprise money: PiC’s coworkers awarded him a hefty chunk of Applause points so he redeemed it for a hefty Visa GC. That’s paying our internet and phone bills!

Spending

Costco was doing a special on select clothing items: $15 off 3 items. Since JB continues to destroy their pants just in the normal course of life, I planned to buy at least one more set of their kid pant sets, 2 pairs for $13 in store, $15 online. The local warehouses were sold out when PiC tried to pick them up, so this special was perfect. I bought a set in their size now and 2 sets in the next size up, all for $31. Yay, sales. They’re going to be as tall as me, soon, they’re only 6-7 inches out, so it’s safe to assume they’re going to grow into this next size. The question for me is when they’ll stop growing because I always buy a size up.

I spent hundreds more on gifts thanks to work nonsense. I had to add, at the last minute, a cartload of gifts for my staff from me personally because new management won’t foot the bill on our usual. I resent the hell out of new management for so many things, this is just another one to throw on top of the pile. Most of my holiday gift spending already happened earlier in the year.

Primary had a clearance around Black Friday so I grabbed outfits in next sizes up for the littlest niblings’ Christmas presents next year. Uh, or their birthday presents if we actually see them next year. I forgot that was a possibility. But yay for clearance.

We bought car support things, including a jump starter for my old girl. She’s pushing 22 years old and still going strong. But there are weeks we don’t drive her at all and forget that it’s been that long, and then she needs a jump. Also it’s good to have for emergencies in case we’re on the road and someone else needs a jump. Better than jumping off a hybrid, I think there are some complications with that.

I splurged on a set of 6 tees, for us plus 2 more adults, to wear when we see each other this summer. 40% off at Teepublic.

Vogmask might be going out of business, going by the state of their dwindling inventory that isn’t being refreshed. This is very annoying. They weren’t cheap but for everyday wear, their masks have been the most comfortable fit for the kids to wear consistently for hours. All day, even, JB always wears theirs at school. flo-masks might be better protection overall but no mask is going to protect them if they can’t stand wearing it for long. I stocked up on as many of the small masks as I could get. Hopefully this will hold us until we figure out an alternative supply.

Not spending

This was going to appear under spending but then…

Because of our Lakota families support, I still have Amazon Prime. I’m always going to prioritize getting needed supplies to people even if it means a few more dollars in the Evil Empire’s pockets because this isn’t even a drop in their bucket. Amazon’s biggest moneymaker is AWS services and businesses are not going stop using AWS. But the food we send to people whose pantries are bare, when I can’t get that delivered any other way, IS significant.

As I’ve said elsewhere: I think we can take it as read that everyone is trying their best to boycott Amazon, and sometimes we can’t.

That said, I was having trouble finding a non-evil option for the storage containers I needed before my head exploded with all the mess around the house reproducing like Tribbles. I finally decided that I’d order from Amazon and the money I saved would go to direct support. It’s not like I don’t already donate a lot of money but that’s how I assuaged my conscience for ordering something for my own use. One of the dozen boxes arrived shattered so I went to support to ask for a replacement one, or a refund for the one. Their chat was sixteen kinds of a pain to get through so by the time I got an agent online I was totally exasperated. Not that I took it out on them, because I don’t do that, but I did calmly explain, three times, that yes, one of the products was damaged. They refunded the whole purchase. Fine, I’ll take that. I didn’t end up giving them any money after all and I can redirect that money to more meaningful use. I really need Costco to carry clear storage bins with latching lids year round, not just sometimes. They only regularly stock black bins with yellow lids and those lids are quite impossible for me to open.

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.

We’re closing out the year in a big way. We funded 300 gallons of propane for a family of elders and the teens they’re raising. We supplied the dialysis center with 300 pairs of socks. We stocked up a community minded lady who offered to do community meals during the SNAP crisis and into the winter with $600 worth of groceries – that’s going to fill a lot of tummies.

I am trying not to feel guilty for not being able to fill anything off the Holiday Okini list, I’m barely keeping this nose above water as it is. The bigger ticket items like the above I could squeeze in but the time needed to do holiday gift shopping does not exist.

Saving and investing

We’re diving into “max out that 401K” time. I’m still aggressively investing in our brokerages, trying to make sure that we have more cushion for health issues.

Net worth

I can’t decide if it makes sense to include the kids’ 529 savings in our total invested numbers or not. On the one hand, we won’t be living on that money so it shouldn’t count toward our income available for our use upon retirement. On the other hand, if we didn’t have that account, we would likely pull the money out of our cash flow. (This feels like a heads, I win, tails, you lose scenario) What say you?

On Life

Reading

NK Jemisin’s The City We Became completely bowled me over. It left me breathless. I’ve had books that made me laugh out loud, shed real tears, get way too personally invested in – but this was a new experience. I quite literally had to sit quietly for a few minutes to get my breath back. Truly an exceptional book and my god the description of the boroughs – particularly Staten Island, feels so on point. You could see it in the recent mayoral vote.

I’d been saving T Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Faith for a treat. I finally let myself get reading and, as always with a Paladin book, I laughed until I cried at least once, snickered most of the way through, also have gained a new small nightmare and also we need a hundred more books in this world. With paladins.

Gena Showalter’s Kingdom of Tomorrow (DNF). I made it to Chapter 19 before tapping out. I wanted to know the full story but the writing was in dire need of a good editor. Phrasing missteps pull me out of the story because my brain wants to edit it. Like “Before I could stumble out an apology.” It should be “Before I could bumble through an apology” – you can’t stumble out an apology. That phrase makes no sense.

Or less is more. “I pressed the button and blinked rapidly against the onslaught of light.” “Onslaught is overwrought. Just “against the light” would have been better.

Or the writing feels grade-schoolish: “Nausea churned, growing more insistent. But I didn’t freak out and run. No, I plowed ahead.”

Because of Scalzi’s mention in The Kaiju Preservation Society (which I LOVE), I picked up Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. It was slow going so I paired it with a reread of T. Kingfisher’s Paladin series (all the ones before Faith). It took me two weeks to get through it, wanting to know how it ends. I’m not sure it was worth it. I know it was probably considered cutting edge at the time but it included a really ick scene with an underage girl and an older man, and ended with the destruction of a character by means I find unacceptable. RIP, RT.

Sharon Lynn Fisher’s Tea & Alchemy. A retelling of Jane Eyre but it took me a whole while to spot the parallels.

Jessica Khoury, The Moor Witch. Maybe a touch predictable but I enjoyed the journey anyway.

Devon Monk’s Wayward Souls, Wayward Moon, and Wayward Sky. I’ve read the first two before but not that third, I don’t think. I do like the Ordinary series a little bit better but I’m hoping to see more of these two as well.

:: How was your month?