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Some Updates

November 20th, 2015 at 02:45 pm

**We officially got our $85 Citi Price Rewind (price match). Yay! This is a good strategy to keep in mind with bigger purchases. We can always go with the *free* delivery or installation if the item costs more, and then request a refund on the price if it is cheaper anywhere else.

**This month is quite a snowball month. I am up to $1,700 already in side income. I think pretty much ALL of that is dh - he redeemed $500 in rewards, made $200 from a gig, and the rest is his paycheck. ($300 of the rewards was a checking reward for having direct deposit, so was somewhat paycheck related). If it was earlier in the year I'd probably throw all of that to investments. !! But, as is, I am waiting to see how the year sorts out before I dole anything out. We seem to be short a couple of thousand of where we really want to be on our cash savings and so I am hoarding that up and figuring it all out next month. I guess I expect more clarity next month.

I also just wrote a $5,000 check for property taxes, and we are picking up a bunch of show tickets this month. I am expecting all those tickets to basically be covered by Christmas cash (or maybe by the windfalls this month). We just got tickets for Book of Mormon and this weekend the San Francisco Sketchfest tickets go on sale. (It's always hard to narrow down - there could be several great shows we want to see, but the prices tend to be reasonable).

**We thought dh wouldn't have to work in the winter, which is great since it's a cold warehouse. We are still a little confused about that since he was initially told no work in Dec/Jan and it appears things are winding down and getting slow. But they insist there will be work next month. So, will see. Anyway, dh wanted to buy a jacket and was astounded by *new* prices. (I have no idea why he didn't just go to a thrift store, like he usually would, but maybe feeling more lack of time). I told him to check out Ross and he found a warm $20 jacket there. (I had just been there - for Christmas candy - and was taking note of the jacket/clothes section for my elder son who is wearing more adult sizes. Targets been really nice with $5-ish per clothing item, for several years, but I think Ross/Marshalls is going to be more my friend with teenagers).

We went for a walk last night and when I grabbed my coat out of the closet I remembered I had seen a coat in there I thought was dh's. So I pulled it out. It was a REI fleece that he does not remember ever owning. But he found some hand written notes in the pockets and clearly it was his. I suppose I didn't think about it before because it looked more like a light jacket at first glance, but it's probably fine for his purposes. He said he will try it out. It looks like we have 60 days to return the other jacket, so might as well see if this serves his purposes through winter, before we decide for sure.

**I am pretty much done with Christmas preparations here. Mostly because we keep things so simple. I usually post a couple of links about "Christmas Simplicity", but those links seem to be broken. I will have to find new ones.

That said, I haven't really gotten anyone birthday presents (parents/dh). For my parents I will probably just do donations in their name. I just haven't had many gift ideas this year. It ebbs and flows, and their birthdays are within a few days of Christmas. I figured the kids and I will figure something out for dh's birthday next month (we have a lot of time). Dh handles his family's December/January birthdays. (We have quite a winter birthday cluster).

& then there's the kids... With dh working I think he just hasn't been as on top of it. I was surprised he's not spotted any used deals or picked anything up for them. We have no idea what to get them. I did see the Sketchfest show lineup (released today) and we may just go with surprising them with one of those shows. A couple of their favorite TV shows are doing panels. My eldest doesn't even want anything, so that is some of it. We usually just give them one thing to open on Christmas Day. But usually the material stuff is more dh's territory.

Though I usually say, "They don't need anything!" I suppose at this age and given past tradition I don't exactly believe in not getting them one single thing to open. I do have stockings covered though (candy!). I bought some re-usable cinchable bags that I can fill with candy, and I figure they could use for dirty laundry when traveling. (Dh found one randomly at camp, that's been really nice, and I thought that might be nice with the shift away from plastic bags. Pretty much we don't own bags. We just use plastic bags. But I am working on slowly accumulating more re-usable bags). I'll talk with dh tonight about maybe just wrapping the bags full of candy and surprising the kids with a show in San Francisco. If there is any year that dh would go for something like that, it would be this year. (He's been kind of scrooge-y with working. I think some of it is already having anything he could possibly want, but the rest of it is definitely not having his usual free time. So a lot of the video games don't appeal since he no longer has time. I think his blu ray collection is also pretty complete at this point. He seems entirely uninterested in restaurant gift cards, etc. I told him, "Welcome to my World." I didn't realize working/having less time was so much of it).

**Since my birthday is like a week away, I suppose I should not be buying anything, but I saw these basic long-sleeve shirts at Kohls that I had bought a couple and liked. They were $8.99 and so I stocked up on a few more. I have in mind to replace some of the more worn shirts I keep to just wear under clothes - I have some from my high school/college years that I still use. I am thinking with any gift cards received this season that I might keep an eye out for some short-sleeve replacements. I went a long time without buying these type shirts (the ones just sitting out on shelves in the store - always very cheap), because they never seemed to hold up very long. & I suppose they aren't very flattering either, once you've aged or born a child. So maybe these are purchases that I will regret. But in the interim I am really getting rid of old stuff, and they fit surprisingly well. Which is what I do with clothes. If I find something that works well, I buy up every color that I like. Which is pretty much what I did. Maybe these won't last for decades, but hopefully they won't fall apart too quickly.

4 Responses to “Some Updates”

  1. livingalmostlarge Says:
    1448058868

    Happy Early Birthday! Hope it's a good one.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1448075651

    Great going on the side income!

    Happy early birthday!!

  3. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1448079438

    Smile I'm that way with shoes, too. (Please, LL Bean, never stop selling Comfort Mocs!)

  4. MonkeyMama Says:
    1448117687

    @Joan - ESPECIALLY shoes. I have crazy weird sized feet. So with shoes I will buy 3 or 4 of the same color.

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