October 2

NSD

**103F Degrees**

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MM(21) was really dragging his feet transferring money from his savings to his checking account.  But I saw today that he transferred $1,800 over.  Probably leaves him with $1,000-ish that he will insist can last him through the school year (after he pays for that engagement ring).  I need to check in with him about getting his rental deposit back.  I haven't seen that show up in his account yet.

I looked up MM's college town weather out of curiosity and it is just as hot.  Ugh!  His region largely doesn't have A/C.  He's always lived on upper levels without A/C, but school starts in late September and the region is not that hot (close to the coast).  He's having a rough week, I am sure.

MH went to a free advance movie screening.  I attempted to attend one with him some months ago.  Maybe the first time since 2020?  It's gone very far downhill.  They were just sticking to the smaller theaters which only leaves the first couple of rows.  Maybe 20? seats and you have to get there many hours early to snag that.  The rest is reserved for press.  But MH got his first press pass today!  Re: his producer "job" that does not pay.  He would be happily paid in press tickets.  So this was a nice treat.  I don't think it was anything particularly exciting, but he will always say yes if it means more press tickets in the future.

October 1

$   7  Patreon (MH)

$105 Groceries

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Ugh!  The other shoe dropped.  Had major work drama in May.  I think that some of my coworkers thought I was being overly dramatic but I knew my assistant would likely quit after that.  She gave her very short notice today.  (What is up with these very short notices??)  At least when awesome admin left (her spouse gave no notice; they moved out of state for his new job) at least she stayed on and worked as much as possible.  She's a people pleaser and probably helped smooth the transition more than she should have.  In this case, I was too shocked to really process that I will have to train someone from zero.  What a mess.  The way she told me, it just really threw me for a loop.  Though otherwise not completely surprised.

A very rare work break (in addition to plans to pass off a lot of my work to this employee) just became a big mountain to climb.  Which would be less of a big deal if it wasn't constant mountains. 

Blogging relaxes me, and is appreciated today.  But I am also now more skeptical about my badwith this month.  I realized today when I looked for an old "expenses tracking" post (to copy and paste) that I gave up the last October tracking I tried because MH's grandfather passed away.  I just gave up mid-month.  That doesn't make me feel too warm and fuzzy.

In other news, we put away the grocery credit card for the year.  We maxed out our rewards on that card.  

The weather is absurd.  102F degrees forecasted for tomorrow.  The plus side is that we are done with summer rates.  Instead of paying $0.35 per kWh during peak peak times (which we mostly try to avoid) we get to pay just $0.16 for non-summer peak hours.  Which will probably still equate to an absurd electric bill because we aren't usually running the A/C in October.  But it will be a little more reasonable and less sweltering in the house.  

I did buy some ice cream (Saturday?) when I saw the weather forecast.  I am going to go turn off my brain and eat some ice cream.

I was thinking about detailing daily expenses in October.  It's always a good way to dive back into blogging.  I looked back and I guess it's a common month for my to share more expense details.  

Last week I would have said that where my head is at is that we are relaxing more financially and trying to find a new balance.  

Then I paid all the October bills.  *Sigh*  & was informed of another massive health insurance increase for 2025.  No idea how we survived 1000% health insurance increase early on during one-income years.  (Roundabout financing with our mortgage; is the obvious reason we still have a mortgage.)  But the plan this time around is to just hold on for another few years.  At least we will be dropping from 4-person coverage to 2-person coverage.  Just need to hang on in the meantime.

On the flip side of that coin, our net worth is up $100K for the year.  I find it hard to sweat the small stuff during recent stock market years.  It's 5 years in a row of $100K gains.  (Health insurance is not "small stuff" but pretty much everything else is small.)

I am also concerned about the long term future and the inevitable "what goes up must come down."  But like the health insurance, if we can just hang on for a couple of more years, our expenses should overall reduce drastically after that.  Re: kids grown, mortgage paid off, etc.  I think it's just so close that we can taste it.  & is a lot of our relaxing.  

Anyway, I can delve into my feelings and how all over the place they are, as I share daily tracking.  I do think it would be wise to rein things in a bit for October. 

I pay all the bills the first of every month.  I've got everything paid except the *big* credit card bill.  Waiting for my paycheck to hit today.  Then I will get that paid off.  (The rest of our paychecks during the month generally go to savings/investments.  My second paycheck and all of MH's paychecks.)  It's a rare 3-paycheck month for MH.  Rare, because of all the months he usually has off of work (re: seasonal job).  But we have some home maintenance planned this month, paid for in cash.  His extra paycheck will cover that.  (That bill is not paid yet because the work has not happened yet.)

I don't have any plans to spend money today.  I think MH is going grocery shopping.  

I don't know if I have the bandwith to track all month in my blog.  Will see how it goes.