If you missed it, we bought an electric car last weekend.

I had to think about it a little bit, but looking at last year numbers should be a good gauge of our gas spending. I was thinking that MM was not 16 yet (for half the year), but we did do most his driving in either his car or with electric fuel (hybrid). & I remembered I track fuel costs per car so it is easy to separate out.

Gas car fuel 2019: $879
Hybrid car gas fuel 2019: $270**
Total gas fuel = $1,149
{All of this will go away}.

Oil changes/smog checks = $125 annual

Total savings = $1,274

That's about what we paid for sales tax on the early car upgrade. I thought we might break even the first couple of years, but it sounds like it may be a lot sooner.

Of course, the electricity cost something.
Drove the gas car 8,000 miles last year. The electric fuel cost for 8,000 miles will be about $200.

We will be replacing some of our fuel spending with free electricity on the road, so I think this is a good rough estimate. Presume all the hybrid gas dollars gets reduced to -$0-. Most of that is longer trips that will be replaced with free on-the-road charging.

Net cost savings = $1,074 annually

We already found that we can get free charging throughout Northern California. It should be fine for our most frequent trips to the Bay Area. But the chargers are even more readily available between here and Tahoe/Nevada.

So we already have two test drives planned out. MH wants to do a Bay Area test run this weekend. This is just a logistics run. It sounds mostly too good to be true. I am sure it is fine, but nothing like a test run. There's a few free chargers on our route. I honestly don't even know if we need a charge on this trip, but don't want to cut it too close on a car we aren't familiar with yet. It's getting familiar with the car range on this particular drive, and using a fast charger for the first time, and figuring out the free stuff.

{In the end, MH already tested out a free charger this week. It was roughly 100 free miles. He coupled it with an errand he was going to do anyway}.

DL(15) is going a little stir crazy and said he wanted to go on a road trip. MH has been wanting to go to Reno to see a movie. It's been a, "It's dumb and I probably won't do it" thing to this point. But if it would lift DL's spirits at all, that's an entirely different animal. So if all goes well on first test run, they may go to Reno the following weekend.

Edited to add: The most significant free fast charging we found expired today. Bummer! It's not all bad. Most of the chargers on the Reno route are still free or deeply discounted. This is less so for more heavily used chargers (less free or super cheap options in the Bay Area). Reno trip is still a go (free fuel) and Bay Area trip is just getting tweaked. There's so many options, it's just going to take some time to find what works best for us. & will have to just keep an eye out as things change. A lot of more free/fast options are coming down the pipe.

Three whole days of owning 4 cars, and it was driving us crazy. I am sure the pandemic just makes it worse. We could live very happily with one car right now.

I figured I would adjust and was giving it some time. But MH brought it up last night because it's really driving him crazy. I am glad because we had our light bulb moment. I do think it was prudent to just buy the newer car first and figure it out later. It's all just a lot. But now that newer car decision was made and lived with it for a few days, now we can move on to the next decision. Lightbulb moment: We decided that any college where MM(17) could use a car, they all cost pennies and we can help him buy a much newer car in that scenario. Price probably won't be much of an object and we can skip the more iffy older used cars where we don't really know the history. I am sure some relative or friend or someone will be selling a car, but just feel better about the whole thing if that doesn't happen. & all the more expensive farther away colleges, he obviously won't need a car the first year or two. & even if he could use one, I think it's fair enough that it won't be practical with a very expensive college. As we are desperate to reason our way out of keeping the car, it seems kind of obvious now. We just needed a little time. A whole whopping 3 days of time, but it is what we needed for some clarity on the decision.

We are going to offer the car to my 16yo niece first, and then go from there.

I've mentioned before but our forever car budget is $100/month (per car). What I mean is that I saved up one year to buy my first car for $1,200. Later on we were able to save up for 11 years for a couple of barely used $13,000 cars. Those cars were so new that we could drive those cars even longer and buy up from there. Which means we never really spent more dollars on our cars. Or we both have an infinite $100/month "car payment" in our budget, but will probably never increase that. Doing some quick math, the trade-in on this car will squarely keep us in the $100/month car purchase budget. I find that fascinating. I wasn't necessarily expecting that part. I didn't run the math before because I didn't think we were going to trade-in the gas car. It's a 7-year-old car that we have owned for 5 years.

I started a "Don't be surprised if we buy an EV" post a few days ago but was too slow on the draw.

It is done.

Our last car (dipping our toes in electric and saving a bajillion dollars in fuel) was our toe dip into the electric world. A hybrid of sorts (I still don't know what to call it because it's technically not a hybrid either. It's an electric car with a gas generator, the best of all worlds). This time around we spent a lot less money and it's more of a, "Holy cow this is too good to be true" purchase. Prices will probably continue to fall, but one bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

The car was within our "infinitely saving $100/month/each to replace our cars" price range. We haven't saved up that much (meaning that it's premature) because we've only had our gas car for 5 years. But we are also adding 50k miles back to the odometer and will add more time to the back end (reset the clock for another 12+ years). The only added expense I can come up with the early trade is the sales tax, or about $1,500. I presume we will break even and save $1,500 on fuel over the next couple of years. We also won't need oil changes, etc. For these reasons and also because sitting on a large pile of cash, it's a relatively boring/prudent purchase. It is the first time we have ever prematurely upgraded our cars (we usually keep our cars until they are 15-20 years old). I did do a premature downgrade once. This is the first premature upgrade we have ever done.

In this case... We decided after about a week of owning our electric hybrid that we wanted to go all-electric. Once you go electric, it's hard to drive a gas car. Even though we invested in some soundproofing in MH's gas car and I would consider it a very quiet car, it sounded like a wind tunnel the last time we took it on a road trip. It was driving me crazy! You get used to silent. Some of our decision to pull the trigger is that it is somewhat of a medical/disability purchase with MH's hearing loss. With all this cash, why didn't we just do it sooner? If we didn't have teen drivers, it would have been done a year ago probably. Our only hesitation has been trying to figure out the car situation with 4 drivers. We should have a lot of clarity in the next 6 months or so as college decisions start to shake out. Next summer we will have a fourth licensed driver in our household.

So... We have been trying to hold off as long as possible. But... pandemic pricing is hard to ignore. I haven't been shopping gas cars, so no idea where those are at. But I expect that electric cars are being affected by lower gas prices. They dropped well into our price range and we have been thinking about it, but then several popped up this weekend with an additional 20% price drop.

We hadn’t even test driven this car yet, but it’s pretty much the all-electric version of our hybrid and is similar in most regards (it has everything we really like about our “hybrid”). We were pretty certain it was the car we wanted. When a bajillion cars popped up on deep discount this weekend, we decided to at least go for a test drive. I didn’t really want to continue the conversation for a car we might not even like once we see it in person. It was time to test drive.

I should back up though. We haven’t decided yet what to do with our gas car and have left that as something to figure out later. As talks were getting more frequent about electric car purchase, I decided to consult with our insurance agent last week. I was relieved somewhat that the cost to fully insure a car for MM(17) had gone down about 40% since I last asked. It dropped into the realm of reason. (Still expensive, but not completely absurd). There is nothing magical about turning 18 (next summer) but his insurance rates should continue to drop as that car gets older and he ideally continues to add to his good driving record. Which means it would be reasonable at all to sell him our gas car.

Back to the test drive… The prices are not crazy low in our city so we had to drive about 30 miles out to test drive one of the deals. The salesmen were all very hands-off, I don’t know how much of that is pandemic related. They honestly seemed bored by our presence. We test drove two at that location, one was *the* car. MH was more than happy with the car, and the price was good. The only thing was that there was a used car lot with about 50 Bolts (better pricing), 40 miles up the road. We tried to haggle but they just weren’t budging. Honestly, this is usually how we buy cars. It’s an incredible deal, we go pay cash, life goes on. We tend to discuss things for weeks and months but the final decision on anything big is going to be a split second decision for the most part. My gut serves me very well. MH and I were probably leaning towards just buying the car and enjoying the rest of our day. I finally said, “Let’s walk and see what happens.” *shrugs* There is really no reason to be in this big of a rush. I really expected them to change their tune (and have experienced this many times before, when it comes to various purchases). We told them there was a better deal down the road but that we preferred to not make the drive. If they could even meet us in the middle? They just didn’t give a flip. We walked. I was honestly surprised how little they cared, it was a car that had been sitting for a while.

As we got on the road and I perused cars (on my phone) that cost $1,500 less, we decided a little extra driving was well worth it. But… I knew the whole “50 Bolts” thing was going to be overwhelming. Hindsight 20/20, should have taken some notes and been more organized. In the end, I have a real mental block about black cars though that is MH’s preference. The black ones are beautiful and it’s absolutely my favorite color. But, the one and only time I drove a dark car (it wasn’t even black) it was infinitely getting hit by other cars. That car once got hit while I was paying in a parking garage, and that was before the distraction of cell phones. ??? Don’t ask me. That was after I had replaced the bumper like 5 times. It was absurd. So… All I ever tell MH is that I don’t want a black car. But, I also told him I wasn’t going to buy any of these cars if they weren’t immaculate. It was clear a lot of these cars were a little more rough (the one we otherwise liked the best was really scratched up and clearly not meticulously kept). So… I caved. I do like it and I hope this round of dark car ownership goes a little better. The car was immaculate. Posted price was same as the car we walked from, but had 10k less miles. We haggled in the “never hurts to ask” vein and they shrugged and took a few hundred dollars off the top. I think they were just as overwhelmed as we were. I admit those prices will likely drop even further given some time, due to sheer volume, but there was something to be said for sniffing out the nicest one in our price/mile range. If all that was left was the beat up ones, we wouldn’t have been happy to have made the extra drive.

We bought our prior 4 cars at dealerships. We generally end up there for the ‘1 at this price’ “too good to otherwise be true” type deals. This was more of a specialized used car lot and it took 15 minutes to sign the paperwork, paying cash. For reals. I would 1,000 percent go back to that car lot again. Probably too specialized (was a luxury car lot). But… I can’t believe all that and they even threw us a bone on the price.

We bought the higher-end/fully loaded version of the car. The pricing was all the same regardless. So might as well get all the bells and whistles at no additional cost. There is all sorts of crazy stuff: parking assist, lane departure, pedestrian braking, adaptive cruise control, etc., etc. No one tried to sell us on that stuff (very hands off) and is not why we bought the car, so have to figure out exactly what we have and how it works. I don’t know if I want to get used to all that, but will google a bit and try to find some quick videos about how all of this stuff works.

We bought used, paid cash. It's a 2017, same as the hybrid.

We have a learning curve on the all-electric driving. We didn’t do much research. We know the electric range is more than enough for our needs (will 99% of the time charge at home). But if we can get free charging or figure it out for road trips, we will. We just don’t have that all figured out yet. It will be a lot easier for us since we already dipped one foot into electric driving. We had so many surprises (all good) after we bought our electric hybrid. So there’s some baseline understanding and experience there. But we’ve never really had to think about refueling outside with only electric options. That’s the learning curve we have. & if it sucks and it’s not practical, then it just will be our around town or “within 100 miles” car, which is more than fine. Is more than we need. This car is primarily going to be driven on MH’s infinite 6-mile roundtrips to/from school and work. There’s just nothing practical whatsoever about making all those trips with a gas car, if you have a reasonable electric option.

That is what will be interesting and is some of the learning curve that we have. The hybrid electric car we bought was due to the doubling of commute (that also came with a significant pay cut). All of my electric driving is open freeway. I don’t even know if I have been in a traffic jam in that car because I have carpool stickers and have always been able to go around any backups. This means that I just get the expected miles range. If you do more city driving and stop and go, the car generates its own electricity and you can drive farther on the electric. MH mostly drives city, so it will be interesting to see how long we can go between charges. Of course, MH isn’t really driving anywhere right now, so these are things we might not be figuring out for a while still.

We will be able to function very well with our one “fast” charger. We call it a fast charger because it’s a lot faster than just plugging into the wall. But now that we have a longer-range vehicle with actual fast charging, I need to change my terminology. We have a Level 2 charger in our garage, that is in the middle (speed of charging). I will continue to charge every night for my commute. The all-electric vehicle can be charged on the weekends or as needed. (Probably 1-2 charges per month, on average, during non-pandemic times).

I will do a post later going into some more details about the car. Answering some of the basic EV questions. Ideally, I would like to share information and hopefully correct a lot of misinformation in the process. But… I know I haven’t done a good job since we bought the hybrid, because life has been so crazed. It’s also probably going to be “meh”, because the car is probably going to mostly sit in the garage for the rest of 2020. If I never blog about it again, it may just be that no one’s driving anywhere anyway. I expect it will all be a little more interesting and informative when life resumes some normalcy.

It's like the apocalypse here. Heat wave was a nightmare. Because... We had freak weather and lightning. I don't recall *ever* having thunder storms during hot weather. But, that's what happened and is why the state is burning down.

We had a small storm in our city but somehow were spared. It's the Bay Area where it seems to mostly be uncontained fires (east, north, west), due to 10,000+ lightning strikes. The fire closest to our family is up to 340k acres. The evacuation border is at the end of my in-laws' street. I am convinced they will have to evacuate (or should), but I guess it just depends on which way the wind blows.

The smoke is unbearable in our city. It's been raining ash.

So... Pretty much just a typical week. 🙄

Stay safe everyone. Hurricanes and fires, and whatever else...

The last month or so has been complete insanity. But... What else is new? *shrugs* Honestly, it's been more calm overall and I have any time and space whatsoever to deal. I can recognize the improvement, though it's still insane and I am exhausted.

We are in the middle of some house murphy. So far the count is a broken toilet flapper ($4 to replace), a sink hose that is covered under warranty (if we could ever get through), and two bug infestations we handled. At least it's inexpensive Murphy?

The medical/disaster/accident front has been absolutely absurd, and so has my work jinx. I give up on getting into any of that because it would take all day. So I will just share the two most terrible things.

95yo GMIL had a fall (her first) and ended up in a rehab facility. That has been roller coaster. They were literally releasing her from the emergency room and everything was "as good as could be" given that she broke a couple of bones. But... At the last minute they decided to hospitalize her. She lives completely independently/alone. It's scary as heck to have her in a medical facility during a pandemic. & clearly this marks a turning point in her health and independence, so it's just a lot.

Update: She was starting to walk, but now she can't walk, so that continues to be very up/down.

What has been keeping my up at night is DL(15)'s mental and emotional health. I think I have been somewhat holding my breath the last few weeks, not sure how he will deal with school this year. He's had a mental block re: distance learning (especially emergency distance learning).

I am so relieved to report that he has gotten over it and is handling things as well as can be. He's only been back at school for 3 days. I expect it to be a very long road, with many ups and downs. But, the first day does set the tone and I feel much relief. He does well with a schedule, and so far I will say that school has been nothing but good for him. They are doing distance learning until numbers are better in our state. His school is very small and well set up, and I am sure it will be safe (and best for him) when he can go back.

Those are the most terrible things, I guess. More of the same with some other younger relatives (with random terrible health issues) but those are all roller coasters and "good as can be" for the moment. One minute they have months to live, the next minute it's "nothing".

As to the more mundane...

MM(17)'s school (and entire district) has been delayed a few weeks while they figure things out. His work permit expired and he achieved his goal of making $$$$$ during summer months. He has chosen to just take some time off and to enjoy the unexpected break. College apps start soon!

As I circle back to getting the house in order, we are tending to things around the house. Last week we hired someone to repair our shower. Grout was falling out and we've never been great about keeping it clean. We live in such a throwaway society that it never had occurred to me it would be so inexpensive just to get it repaired. Probably should have done it 10 years ago, but it is done now. The shower is all sealed up and looks brand new again.

{As a side note, I was going to make note of the homemade shower cleaner mentioned in the blogs recently. But... got an email from shower repairer that specifically mentioned not to use low PH cleaners on grout (e.g. vinegar). This probably explains why the kids' barely used showers still looks good as new. Our shower has been more used and exposed to more harsh cleaners over the years}.

I did a minor wall repair yesterday (filled some screw holes) that took about 2 minutes. Should have done it 3 years ago, but it is done.

With the heat wave we are having, I have nothing else on my list for the weekend. Mostly just reading.

We made it down to our last 2 movies! I am still behind a few podcasts, so don't expect to be all caught up (with Top 100 movies + each podcast per movie) until probably next weekend. But... I should have so. much. time. when it is done!

I don't want to jinx it, but...

We are headed into a big heat wave this next week. I saw last night that our state was having rolling blackouts to handle the electricity needs that are exceeding capacity. (Which is kind of insane, because the heat wave barely just started).

This is not affecting us. We have a non-profit utility company that is inexpensive and great. I didn't mention anything when long-term blackouts were widespread in our state (last summer/fall?) because did not affect us.

I share to say that is why I have not mentioned whatsoever. But... I also saw this meme last summer/fall and it just cracks me up. I had to share. I think it sums it up pretty well.



We are thinking to our next move, and I probably need to start writing a list. Not dealing with PG&E should top the list.

The last 30 days or so have been absolutely absurd. But I survived, and I am working on a more general update.

The Universe laughed so hard at me last last week. So so hard. 😞

{Yes, it's taken me a week to even finish this post. So I was talking about last week, but now that is last last week}.

I initially titled this blog post "fail". Because not really sure where to begin but it just felt like a big fail.

But... Our assets did top $1 Mil. I had kind of given up for this year. In fact, was surprised how much the stock market went up after we hit this goal several days ago. So I get to even enjoy this for more than just one day. 😁

But... It took us 10 years to get back to a $500k+ net worth after hitting it the first time. So while it's nice, I don't really have any huge expectations at this point. $1 Mil is a cool milestone, but I don't expect to stay there given the current economic outlook.

& so it continues... My work life is generally impossible, and everyone around me is dealing with a lot. But... Everything money is going well. That pretty much sums up the last few years, and so it continues.

*sigh*

I completely gave up last last weekend (no idea where to begin). Finally decided, Meh, will just dive into the minutiae on Monday.

Then... last week was just completely overwhelming. & so it continues. (Accidents, tragic deaths, medical scares, etc.)

We had the first COVID-19 positive at my job. Not really relevant because it wasn't in my 5-employee office. But... My boss was completely MIA (being super cautious) and it was just a super weird week.

{Employee was very mildly ill and has recovered}.

Last week was pretty slow at work (compared to average), and Monday was the most peaceful I ever remember (with people actually in the office). ??? Super weird. Large problems had suddenly resolved. I was really liking yesterday. I thought, "If only we could get MH's unemployment squared away." He's owed about $5,000 that seems to be lost in space.

Edited to add: I know we will sort out eventually. I just don't have any high hopes that it will be any time soon.

When I got home, MH told me he had called the unemployment office. I told him, "That sounds useless." Since all I have heard is you could call literally 1,000 times and never get through. But... He reached a semi-helpful human that said she was aware of the glitch he got caught in, and the only way to get out was to call. So... I guess it wasn't completely pointless? Not holding my breath, but they have been notified. (The person on the line couldn't personally help him, but knew exactly what was wrong: a computer glitch).

MH also took the cat to the vet for annual shots on Monday.

And... MH also got some quotes for some shower repairs. The more I get caught up around the house, the more I Feel like I am adding two more to-do list items for every one item I cross off. I think it's just this in-between stage. As the house gets in order, I am adding projects to my list. I also had an incredible ability to not "see" things while bogged down by infinite bigger problems. But... As long as MH is unemployed, it's easier to get through some of these items.

We did make it to the last 8 movies (of Top 100 list). In no particular order, still have to watch:

Nashville
Spartacus
Raging Bull
Star Wars (only one I've seen)
Blade Runner
Shane
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Casablanca

We were able to pick up Shane & Nashville from the library (curbside pickup) and a few others we already watched. I don't entirely understand why but it sounds like we had for several weeks. (Maybe a new shutdown?). I don't know, I just borrow digital content anymore. MH is the one who takes the time to actually go to the library. So we may knock those out this weekend and get those returned to the library. We don't need to be hogging up all these movies we have.

My attempt to get caught up and finish my not-finished posts. This is #2 for today:

MM's college class is going well. He chose a challenging class to test the waters at his #1 college choice. He is over the moon with that. He likes his first taste of college, which is a class that is actually challenging.

MH was finally able to find a decent and reasonably priced webcam (in stock). Apparently we had only one in the house. So if anyone else needed it, we've just been moving it from computer to computer. Which is fine and has worked in the interim. But the new one arrived in the mail last week and he handed down the older webcam to MM(16). Now MM doesn't have to go fetch a webcam for every class and skype call.

School is shaping up for DL's very small (and more flexible) school. They are being realistic that they will probably be shut down Oct/Nov/Dec. This is a public charter school. In addition to their small size, I think they just have a lot more autonomy and are used to thinking outside the box. But the small size is most definitely making it easier. They will have no problems social distancing in the classroom.

MM's school, in contrast... UGH! This is the only non-charter school my children have ever attended. I had concerns about the change and red tape when he started high school. But... To-date it's been fine. I really thought the change would be a lot more jarring. So... It's not the school. For the public public school, it's the district. They are behaving like a 2yo right now. I am not sure what all is going on, but it is politics. Once they sort that out, then the high school itself (the very large high school) might have a couple of weeks to figure it out? I don't know, it's obviously a mess. I have a pretty good idea what DL's school year will look like and I have *no idea* what the public public school will do. The large high school also just doesn't have the space to socially distance.

DL(14) is my emotional child who probably needs the structure of school. I am so glad his school is being so productive/useful and getting it done. MM(16) will roll with whatever. So for us personally, I guess is working out as best it can.

I hesitate to even say it, but I seem to be getting some peace on the *work* front. Everything else, not so much. Last week was not peaceful whatsoever. It's still infinite bad medical stuff, still too much to even remember. Mental health, biopsies, etc.

A quote from my blog May 10, 2020:
I commented in another blog that we aren't experiencing any +/- in our spending. A lot of it is having a bare bones budget to begin with. We are clearly using a lot less cell data (on wifi 100% now) but that might save us $4 this month ($1 per line). My commute has decreased a little bit, so my electric fuel spending might be $20 instead of $25. It's just stuff like that.

Other comments I apparently made elsewhere:
--Our grocery spending has only gone up with kids home 24/7 and inability to shop more carefully (just making do with whatever we can find). {We can no longer find family sized peanut butter, just as a random example. I have no idea when we will ever get our generic TP back}.

--Although I hadn't noticed any difference in our monthly spending, I expected more of our annual expenses to decrease (things like auto insurance or vacation spending).

As the year is half way over, I decided to sit down and see how things were shaking out compared to last year.

Income: Same as last year
Kind of hard to believe, because I was working two jobs the first half of 2019. But the lack of side income in 2020 has been offset by a raise, stimulus, and large unemployment checks.

So... pretty much all the extra income without the extra work.

Expenses:

Auto Fuel (Electric) -$14 (as expected; driving about 20% less)

Auto Fuel (Gas) -$300
What surprises me about this is that MH hasn't gotten gas since April 1. ??? Though he drove to work every day in May!? I expect he probably only drove to work 3 days per week (used electric car the days I worked from home) and his commute is only 3 miles each way. It makes sense. Usually he does a lot more trips back and forth dropping off and picking up kids. It may be a very short commute, but it is a lot of back and forth. This is not just a short term gain. This will be our reality very soon, once both kids are self sufficient drivers. I honestly don't know how much we will be even driving DL(14) to school this next school year. No doubt this will save a lot of wear and tear on our gas car (more of the bigger "annual savings" that I was envisioning). Current school plan for DL is to only have to be on campus 2 days per week, and they are expecting to (realistically) be closed one quarter during peak flu season. He turns 15 next week, so we get off easy during our last year of "driving kids around".

Groceries +$600
Up $200/month since pandemic, which makes sense.
Offset by spending $250 less on school lunches

Honestly, I am surprised that's it. It feels like our grocery spending is completely absurd. I think this is offset by a lot of "doing without and making do".

**Fuel/Food spending ends up being a wash**

Vacation Spending -$2,700
$2,700 was our entire 2019 spending (spent during the first half of 2019). I expect to spend -$0- this year.

Edited to add: Our annual family camp trip was canceled. 😞 We have decided to go to the family cabin for a weekend, near Tahoe. It's awful that we don't remember the last time we took the kids there. They are excited about it. No firm plans yet, but probably some time this month. It won't take much planning. It's in the same vicinity as camp, so we figured it was the next best thing. Cost to us will be: -$0-. Maybe $5 for fuel to get there and back. I am not going to bother recording that $5 under the "vacation" category. 😉

Medical Expenses -$6,600
Last year we had spent $4k on braces and we usually max out our medical deductible on MH's MRIs. I think in this case he is just not due for an MRI yet, but I also expect they may be pushing off less "medically necessary" appointments.

Other Expenses ~ Breakeven

Net worth and assets are stagnant. Which is better than I hoped for a few months ago.

Things are fairly normal here. MH is done with work, so it's back to our normal summer schedule. I resumed my old work schedule this week. There won't be any changes at my job. We already were set up to work remotely (for flexibility and emergency) but the job is too collaborative and everyone rather be in the office. It's a very small office. I had been working home two days per week for the past three months, which is "doable" but not ideal. MM(16)'s schedule changed last week with his summer class, so I told my boss I'd revisit our carpool schedule and just come back into the office 4 days. With everyone home, is probably better anyway. Oh yeah, and the hot weather. I much rather have free work A/C, that is for sure.

We survived MH's month of full-time work. It was probably easier than I was envisioning, without the kids having their full schedules. In fact, the one day that I Was going to drive DL(14) to school to drop off books, MH got home early and covered for me. Phew! I definitely am happy to have my evenings back and to not be worried about dinner/dishes every night. MH is being MH and just went back to doing all things kitchen. I am trying to be assertive about cooking one day per week (I think we all should be) but I can see that getting lost in the mix. If I have a million other things to do, the stuff that "just gets done" (without me) is going to fall off my radar. It already mostly has. Maybe seeing this blog post will remind me. For now, I am pivoting to other long forgotten chores and maybe at some point if I ever feel "caught up" I will contribute more in the kitchen.

MH was laid off indefinitely the end of May. Though he usually has summers off, we don't expect this job to ever come back. We don't rely on his income whatsoever, so for now we just roll with it. I think at this point we don't expect much on the job front and will wait out MM(16)'s last year of high school. 2020 is *shrugs* because unemployment + stimulus already received will offset lost wages the rest of the year.

I suppose I should circle back to my job. We most definitely expected some slow down, but it's just been crazed. April/May were record breaking sales/profit months for us. We don't want to rush into any new hires given the economic uncertainty. So that is how that is going. On the flip side of the coin, I have personally lost a lot of work chaos. It's the big and the small things, the random things and the not random things. Mostly cleaning up difficult employees and difficult subcontractors (we let go of a lot of people the end of February). But in addition to that, I feel a lot less, "absolutely everything I touch is a disaster." The difference is night and day compared to the prior 2 years. I am just starting to notice this part as the workload has slowed down enough the last few weeks that I can breathe at all.

On the chaos/medical/disaster front, not much has changed. May was challenging. Some brief highlights: Our family friend lost his battle with cancer. 😭 My employee has been going to the hospital twice daily for treatments. 😞 Too much to even remember, much less share. As it has been and continues to be.

Through it all, finances are just very background. We have a good system in place, it doesn't take much energy or thought. If it was less chaotic I might have been seeking out some opportunities to buy when the stock market dropped, but it's been too busy and we have just been on auto pilot.

We made it through 80 of the top 100 movies! I am starting to think we might make it. I think we might be able to knock out the last 20 movies this summer. But if we finish in 2020, I'd be happy with that. (We seem to get on spurts where we watch 2-3 movies per week, trying to get caught up. Then something happens and we watch 0 movies in a month). Finishing this summer would probably require too much peace, but I am an optimist.

It's been quiet enough this year that I've gotten caught up on most everything. After drowning in everything in 2018/2019. The one glaring exception is housework (my least favorite thing). & so now I am circling back to that... It might take me the rest of the year, but at least I am starting to get somewhere.

Things are mostly opened up back here but we are hanging back and staying cautious. Most of the uptick in cases in recent weeks, in our region, is due to family gatherings. I would say our #1 thing at this point steering clear of our parents and grandparents. This is mostly *shrug* at this point. We moved to another city 20 years ago and mostly communicate by skype anyway.

MM's #1 college choice (a very small private college) is offering significantly reduced price summer classes (online). MM(16) applied for a class I don't think he technically has all the prerequisites for, but I am sure he would be fine. Anyway, he was approved Friday and he is so excited. What an amazing opportunity to test drive the school. I sent a check out in the mail on Friday.

That has been our one splurge. April "extra unemployment money" (above and beyond normal wages) will cover it. I mentioned in my last post we've yet to receive any of several expected windfalls. So between that and just being insanely busy, haven't put much thought into it. This was just an opportunity we felt we could jump on with some extra money coming in. For the most part we are just in "wait and see" and "hoard cash" mode, as to how our jobs shake out.

The dentist/ortho offices opened back up in our area and so the kids went in last week. They both have different schools and so never went together before. In this case, no parents allowed and so MM(16) just took his brother. DL(14) ended up scheduling their next appointment; I guess the ball is in their court.

The only other financial update I have is that I think our refinance is dead. Long story, but there is some required impound based on our zoning (a newer law) and they didn't even tell us until Day 70. In fact, everyone I have talked to is "Duh, I don't know why the system is making me require this impound." I think I remembered subconsciously, is a newer law. I looked it up and *I* know why. But our credit union is small enough there is a very slim chance they will let it go. (They do not have to require because of the size of their assets. Is more of a bigger bank requirement). They have been working 24/7 and are totally slammed and so I honestly think they just forgot about us. I don't get the sense they are fighting hard to get this appealed for us. 😉 If we had a bigger loan or planned to be here longer we'd probably have to let it go. But in this case, it's just not worth the hassle. We are waiting for the Hard No and then we'd like to sleep on it. But I think we are about 99% "Forget it," at this point. Will just add it to the reasons we want to be done with mortgages forever AND one more reason we want to move out of this neighborhood.

It has been interesting. The pendulum has swung way far back towards the days of the No-Doc loans. It's basically been a No-Doc loan. I've heard in the news that banks are way tightening their lending standards, but is anything I have yet to see personally or professionally. It's definitely coming, but it just hasn't hit yet.

The IRS updated their website. You can now check on your stimulus "economic impact payment" status. & you can also provide your direct deposit information if you didn't have a "direct deposit refund" on your filed 2018 or 2019 tax returns.

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment

The website just went live today and so it may be better to check back later.

You will get a confirmation once you go through the process. Or you will get a message stating "Payment Status Not Available" with a link to information on eligibility rules. (To clarify: You will get the "Status Not Available" message if your income is too high to collect the stimulus payment, or if you are otherwise ineligible). If you don't receive any sort of confirmation, you will need to try again. (I was apparently too slow my first time through, but that will probably be a common problem today. The second time I tried I got a confirmation message).

Edited to add: After one day of the new site "Get My Payment" website being up, there is now a FAQ page that answers a lot of questions:
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payment-info...

The IRS updated their website:

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments

The IRS has created a new website that allows non-filers to request the stimulus (economic impact) payments. Just go to the link above and you will see more info.

Individuals receiving social security benefits are not required to use this new tool to receive their payments. That said, you'd want to check it out if you have dependents and receive social security benefits (and haven't filed tax returns for 2018 or 2019). This is the only way you can let the IRS know that you have eligible dependents, in this situation.

The IRS also announced that a website for taxpayers to enter direct deposit information, and a website to check the status of your stimulus payment, will be available next week.

They also have a reminder (on the link above) to update your address (the usual channels) if the IRS doesn't have your most current address.

I am absolutely exhausted (work week from hell). So if this is gibberish, I will fix it later.

The U.S. tax stimulus will be $1,200 per adult and $500 per dependent child (under age 17). There is also an income cutoff for receiving these payments. (Just google it, it's all over the news).

Edited to add: The definition of "adult" is mostly someone who is not a dependent. So your college kids are not going to receive the $1,200 and you will not receive $500 for them.

As pointed out to me in my last blog post, you get to keep this stimulus. It sorts out when you file your 2020 tax return if you are owed a bigger stimulus amount (if your income changed, you had a new baby, etc.). But if you were overpaid based on income/dependent changes, you won't have to pay anything back.

Tax Planning Point: They will base these stimulus payments based on your 2019 tax return if it was filed. Based on 2018 if you did not file your 2019 tax return yet. If you had a big jump in income in 2019 and haven't filed yet, you might want to take your time. Not sure how much that helps if it takes 20 weeks to mail out checks. But, I have seen this advice thrown around. I suppose it could be wise to file an extension and not file your tax return until you get your stimulus if that's the case.

The wish of the legislature was to get these checks out in 2 weeks. 🙄 This sounds pretty pie-in-the-sky to me. But I know firsthand the IRS is severely understaffed, and also that many of their workers were sent home. But anyway, I just saw a headline on CNN that the IRS said they need 20 weeks to get checks out. Yes, 20 weeks!

IRS put up a site with some FAQs that I will put at the end of this post. Last I looked (a few days ago) it was mostly, "Check back later for details". In that FAQ they said that if for any reason you didn't file a tax return in '18 or '19, for example if you only had social security income and had no requirement to file, they will set up a simple online process to file a "basic" tax return just to provide the information to get your stimulus check.

Oh yeah, and if you had a direct deposit refund in 2018 or 2019, they will use that information to direct the deposit into your bank account. Direct deposit stimulus payments are expected to be done around April 15th. So if you had a tax refund and chose direct deposit, you might get your stimulus payment in about two weeks. (It's the remaining checks that will take several weeks to process. It will take them 5 weeks to be able to print out the first stimulus checks). On the IRS FAQ they also mentioned setting up some kind of an online form for taxpayers to provide their direct deposit information for a quicker stimulus payment. Details to follow later...

I ended up taking a tax/COVID class yesterday. The tax professionals were pushing back hard. The IRS expecting every fixed-income retired adult to figure out how to request their stimulus?... Tax professionals were insisting there must be a way to cross reference social security records, at the least.

In the end, the IRS has already caved. The IRS will also issue stimulus payments based on social security records. There will still be people who don't file tax returns for various reasons and will have the chance to request their stimulus with some sort of online process, but at least this captures a chunk of the lower income/older population who isn't going to have a lot of help with this stuff in isolation. (& now that I am reading the updated website, they don't have any mention of how you request stimulus in other situations, so it seems to be just changing every day at this point. Who knows).


Economic impact payments: What you need to know

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/economic-impact-payments-what-y...


Social Security Recipient Update:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm967


Some Americans could wait 20 weeks to receive stimulus checks, IRS tells House Democrats
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/stimulus-20-weeks-ir...

One final tax thing: IRS has extended tax deadlines from April 15th to July 15th. You will have to check to see if your state has followed suit. There was a lot of back and forth, "What about this and that and this?" Estimate payments, IRA contributions, etc. At this point, it's all extended to July 15th.

Edited to Add: As of April 9th, I see they extended pretty much EVERYTHING, including (June 15th) second quarter estimate deadline. Also finally caved on 3/15 business tax deadlines.

My instinct when seeing the loan deferrals was kind of *meh*. You know you are just prolonging the inevitable, adding interest to the loans, etc. I totally understand from a desperate standpoint. But I guess I am kind of skeptical if it really helps or just kicks the can down the road. Maybe that was my initial *meh* feeling. Does it help people (who need help) or does it just dig their holes deeper?

Well here's some salt to add to the wound. Sharing as an FYI to just be careful.


People deferring their mortgage payments are making an unpleasant discovery: it can wreck your credit rating

https://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2020/03/30...


Bank of America fields 150,000 payment deferral requests, but some customers call mortgage relief ‘misleading’
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/bank-of-americas-mortgage-de...

We've been on lockdown for just over a week I guess.

MM(16) was offered the summer job last week. They asked him to go in Wednesday? ??? Then quickly thought better of it. I doubt he will have a job at all. Will see...

MH's employer has been in extreme denial. It seems pretty obvious to us they are closed until fall (MH usually has the summers off). He works with the schools. They gave him about 70% pay and sent him home, last two weeks. It started "one day at a time" and ended up "one week at a time". Finally they shut down (yesterday) and told him nevermind, to file for unemployment. They will finish paying him this week and will pay out his sick pay.

We are completely fine for now, but I worry about a longer term recession. & honestly, MH is still recovering from 9/11 economically. He doesn't want to claim unemployment and get ahead of people who need it with more urgency. I told him I'd look it up and we could delay. But while thinking about it now I looked it up and I guess he only has two weeks to file? That's my one minute of googling. We can wait a couple of weeks and get further back in the line. It won't be much, given his job is low-wage and part-time. I don't know if he will be eligible for the new Federal benefits but will take what we can get. 9/11 was very harsh on us financially, so I just don't want to be stupid about it. It's hard for me to take my employment for granted, if nothing else. We are fine if I am employed, yes, but nothing is certain about that, now or ever.

School is going to be closed and online through the end of the school year. Not official yet I don't think, but even the Governor has said schools will likely not open again this spring.

I still feel comfortable going to small office. Even one of my innunocompromised employees has her Doctors' blessing (based on her specific medical situation and the small size of our office). My work is being rendered all sorts of essential at the moment. Construction is essential. Payroll and basic operations are essential. CPAs are essential, etc. For now. I can do most of my work from home, but am still going in two days per week. I think two days is kind of minimum to function "well". But also going in while I can because I know we may all be just working from home at some point.

Though construction is "essential", all the public offices are being shut down and "home sales" is not essential at the moment. So it's been insane busy with new daily challenges. Recorder's office shut down in one of our counties but is doing special recordings? We can't get permits, I guess? Not sure if that will change. Last I heard inspections might go digital/remote. Stuff like that.

I need to back up a bit on this though. I left a recession proof niche in 2018 (no choice, employer retired). I accepted a job in construction. I probably would have not accepted 99% of the jobs in construction but this one is unique. They have several businesses, I do some wealth management (very random), etc. I wasn't really expecting "home building" to stay essential but it is for now due to housing shortages in our state. But regardless of that, my business runs things largely like I run my household. Bills are paid far ahead and they leverage very little. I have not been concerned about the short run (weeks/months). Will see how things continue.

I did accept this job thinking it would be a natural pivot to part-time or semi-retirement during the next recession. Wasn't thinking about it happening so soon and may have some regrets on this front.

So that's kind of the big picture on that. I only leave the house to go to the office. MH only leaves the house to go to the grocery store.

I am just so buried at work, life continues on as it has. We are homebodies and try to generally limit unnecessary errands, always eat our meals at home, etc. so it's been a small change for us at this point. Having the electric car is the icing on the cake. I just recharge overnight, I never have to go to a gas station. MH has been getting groceries while I am home. We will have to take our gas cars out for a spin at some point.

As frustrated as I am that my work stars continue to align at *crazy* (pretty much with infinite random things that are completely outside of my control, spanning many years). As frustrating as that is, I do appreciate what a small disruption this has been to us, that we don't have smaller kids or kids in college. We seems to be in some sweet spot, my kids are very independent and don't need our help navigating school. In contrast, my SIL was in the middle of a remodel, has missing windows in her house and no working shower (due to bathroom remodel). 😂😂😂 My niece was going to Paris next month for an amazing exchange program, etc. Glass half full "monkey mama" is thinking, "Well we had absolutely nothing planned or going on, so this is very little disruption to our lives." It seems a miracle honestly after the last few years we have had. Will take it.

I mean, we did cancel LA Trip #2, which seems entirely jinxed at this point. But will just redo in the fall, if we can. LA Trip #1 was canceled when I was hit by some horrible flu or virus. The purpose of the trip was for us adults to see MM's #1 college choice, so we would like to redo the trip before 2021.

Edited to add: We will get $3,400 stimulus and will have to pay back $500 because MM(16) will be 17 by the end of the year. I expect the IRS does not know his age and that they will advance us $500 for him, if nothing else because this stimulus will be so rushed. Will see. But anyway, just hoarding the cash for potential unemployment. I've seen a lot of tax misinformation out there. The money is yours to keep unless your tax situation changed between 2018/2019 and 2020. They are basing the stimulus payments based on 2018 or 2019 taxes filed, because that's the most recent income/dependent information they have on file. But whether you were truly eligible and get to keep it will sort out when you file your 2020 taxes. **CORRECTION: That last sentence is not true. (Not sure 'strikeout' works on this mess of a website, sorry. I know it works on my sidebar but never works here so I didn't even bother trying). If you are overpaid, you get to keep it!**

MH has been searching for online card games to play with his Grandma (who is in total isolation at this point, because she's 95).

Does anyone have any ideas? Most definitely willing to pay for apps or games if necessary.

Card games preferred, but anything simple and multi player. I joked that DL(14) should get her set up with Minecraft. Is how DL(14) is connecting with his friends. (Or whatever random online stuff kids do these days).

P.S. I should say that anything that can be played on a desktop computer would be preferred. But will make do with whatever, so app suggestions are nice too.

Meh. This past week or so just feels like an extension of the past 2 years or so. I might have mentioned that my life is just chaos any more. The curve might veer off into some extra insanity or apocalypse, but to this point it's just kind of life as I know it (lots of chaos). I'm just along for the ride.

Pretty much everything has been canceled or closed here, as of mid-week.

We did lock in a 2.5% mortgage (refi).

MH will most likely be laid off through summer or significantly reduced work hours, because his work is with the schools. This is a *shrugs* to us financially because we don't rely on his income at all. (Nothing has been said, but seems pretty obvious).

This reminds me, MM(16) had applied for a summer job at the water park. They are moving forward as planned, but I can see that could fall through for him.

For about a week there has been panic shopping in our region. Living my whole life in regions without "weather", I don't know that it's anything I've ever seen before. Maybe 9/11? But we didn't cook back then and weren't trying to keep teen boys fed. So I don't remember at all. I suppose that was also before social media. I've not been going into any stores, but everyone keeps sharing pictures.

{Edited to add: "Panic Shopping" is the term I used to describe hoarding. & empty shelves. Things have been calm and civilized. But we also wouldn't go into stores like Target or Costco, which are totally insane right now. We generally stay away from the herd and have been able to continue to do so.}

There's been many other things going on, but too exhausted and probably forgot most of it anyway. I still can't keep track still of who is sick or on the hospital. It continues to be a lot.

I told MH I was *not* watching any movies today, with all of our plans canceled. If we end up hunkering down at home more, will be plenty of time to get caught up on movies. Still working through the Top 100.

& Be Greedy when others are fearful.

That pretty much sums it up right now.

**15-year mortgage at 2.25%

**London non-stop flights $350 (round trip) from San Francisco

I'll run the mortgage #s this weekend, but seems a no-brainer at this point. Even with our only 5-ish years timeline in our current home. Heck, if we were further along on the college process I'd maybe even cash out some. (I am not participating in scammy student loans. Borrowing close to 2% for college without all the "student loan" red tape is another story). But it's too early, it's still very likely MM(16) will pick a college that costs pennies.

We are probably going to lock in some airfare this weekend (planned trips to Austin and Orlando). We may also consider some unplanned trips.

It's official. Ting is on the Verizon network now.

See blog link for how it works:

https://ting.com/blog/ting-mobile-service-on-every-network-b...

Here is my referral link if you end up signing up:
https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

FWIW, I've never seen cheaper cell service than Ting. The customer service is far superior to any large cell carrier we have ever had. YMMV, depending on your cell phone usage.

Yesterday was a day of finding things to make my life easier.

I just happened to see in the morning that DL's school was doing e-waste collections. If nothing else, we still had MM's old car stereo (the one that came with the car he inherited) and it's pretty big and bulky. So I figured I would drop that off. I also had a shoebox full of stuff (the older stuff, Best Buy probably wouldn't take). Hell froze over and MH let me recycle my first two smart phones. (He likes to hoard things, I've already asked a few times before. So I Was absolutely shocked when he said he had wiped the data and he was ready to let them go). MH also came up with another box. Some old mice, an old car stereo, some watches, a remote control car, and lots of computer cables. Stuff like that.

They took everything. That was so easy! We already started a box for next time. If we have something big and bulky we will take it over to Best Buy, but for all the little things that add up this is a much easier alternative.

We still have the old HDTV. I am waiting for my (newly divorced) friend to pick it up. She is starting over from scratch so is appreciative of the hand-me-down.

I did sell an item last week for $15. I had been trying to sell for maybe 6 months, but finally got it sold.

I did freecycle 6 empty cat litter buckets last week.

I had also just happened to take in all of our old batteries (several years worth) to the community center last week. It's where my aerobics class is but I stopped going for a few years and then I kept forgetting to take the batteries. It wasn't a separate trip so I guess it's just good I got it done, but we could have dropped those off at the school yesterday if we still had them.

A charity is coming by next week. I always have a perpetual bag of outgrown clothes and other items we no longer want or need.

That I remembered the batteries or dealt with the cat litter buckets, I think is a good sign. That I have the mental capacity to deal with any of that whatsoever... I've mostly dug from under 2018/2019. Phew!

The overall bigger picture is that I took an 8-hour professional class last weekend. (After it got delayed twice. Because of course...). The exciting thing about this is that it was my last big class for all of the rest of 2020. Woohoo! Maybe it sounds like extra punishment to push ahead so far after digging out, but I Was using the momentum, my "unlimited class pass" expires in May, and... If life continues anything like it has been the past two years, I don't take the calm and quiet weekends for granted. I scramble to get things done, because otherwise they never get done.

That feels so good. & probably explains how I have any mental energy whatsoever to deal with anything else.

I ended up being a couple of weekends later than planned, but my plan was for a do-nothing February. Not that I will literally do nothing, but just wanted to get all the nasty chores behind me and then slow down and take a breather.

I am kicking off the do-nothing "1/2 February" with a long 4-day weekend. A very well needed break. I don't mind doing some chores this weekend and focusing energy on the house. IT's just going to be more of a "doing what I feel like doing" kind of weekend, with no big commitments. I am also happy to just be doing current chores and not worrying about playing catch up.

Walgreens just totally blew my mind.

I think because we have a Walgreens very close to our home (really the only store within reasonable walking distance), I've just always gone there for convenience. It's not like it's a big deal to stop by on the way home and pick up a couple of things. (Though I otherwise tend to spend about -0- hours of my time "running errands").

I had an email today about a Walgreens coupon. I know I needed to pick up some feminine products and I had so many coupons at this point I just started throwing them in an online cart to see how the coupons sorted out.

Well, it sorted out to saving about $15. With FREE shipping. What!?

Once I applied all the coupons, it wasn't free (shipping) any longer, but I knew I needed some deoderant and could restock the toothpaste, so I picked up a few more "needs". The total savings ended up being $18 between sales and coupons. With free shipping.

MH already nagged me about carbon footprint, yadda yadda. I honestly don't give a flip. But it's probably rare that I will ever stock up on so much stuff anyway. For this order, I most definitely don't give a flip.

We don't buy anything in "bulk", but I will generally purchase two of every toiletry item just to lessen my trips to the store. (Buying two of everything and using sparingly, this might only mean one store visit every 6 months, if that even).

This probably explains why I have never been more strategic in this area. The other reason is my feminine product spending has always been very low. The exception has been since around 2017 when my hormones went whacked. Now I buy a *lot* of feminine products. Or at least a lot compared to any frame of reference that I have. It's probably wise to shop more carefully with coupons and so on. This just happened during a (rare) more high income time in my life so I haven't really bothered. But today Walgreens blew my mind and I feel silly for not doing this all along. (I look up coupons sometimes and stock up when there's deals, but clearly I could be doing better with this and all of our toiletry purchases).

Walgreens also makes it *so easy* to use manufacturer coupons online.

Received $70 bank interest for the month of January.

Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $0 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card (back to 6% with the new year, but it pays out a month behind, thus $0 for now)
--Redeemed $99 cash back on Citi card
--Redeemed $21 cash back on dining/gas card

Other snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $12 cash back on Amazon Prime card
+ $ 5 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $137 snowflakes to investments

401k Contributions/Match:
+$415

Snowball to Savings:
+$415 Side Income

Savings (From my paycheck):
+$ 550 to cash (mid-term savings)
+ $100 extra to mortgage

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):
+$1,500 to cash (Bumped up for 2020)
-$ 837 Home Insurance
-$ 160 Dentist
-$ 120 Prepay school lunch

TOTAL: $2,070 Deposited to Cash and Investments

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only one paycheck this month. Literally, because my prior check had been advanced 12/31. MH is also off work. Thus, lower 401k #s this month.

Cash/Interest will be on the higher side until we fund our IRAs. It never makes any sense to decide until the year is over. Will start transferring the $12k to our IRAs (for 2019) once we finalize our 2019 tax return. (Until then, I don't have final #s of what we can contribute to tax-deductible Traditional IRAs; the difference will go to ROTH IRAs.)

Of course, I am always a month behind because these numbers reflect January Income minus December spending (December spending charged and paid off January 1). So when I sit down and enter all my income/expenses for the next month, I already know how the next month will shake out. Because spending is already fairly locked in.

Ugh, February is ugly! Spent way too much money in January. I have side income coming in (if I get it billed), MH should have one small paycheck (for at least 2 days) and I have cash out my ears. I know MH picked up a few Christmas things his mom reimbursed him for. & we treated the whole fam out to dinner again (another student concert for DL) and someone slipped us cash. Got some cash gifts for Christmas ($20 here and there). Plus, I sold a treadmill for $250 cash. This was before I got sick, so might have been November. We were going to turn around and buy a newer (used) instrument for DL. But then I got sick and it fell off my radar. I may keep the $250 on hand for that, but I have so much cash piling up otherwise it's past time to make a deposit. I will cobble together the extra money and make February work (and will zero out deposits versus expenses).

I am just going to roll with it this month and hope for a better February (spending). I know the problem is probably that our budget is way too tight. But we rolled with it so much last year I just left it that way. I just added some significant breathing room with my raise, so figured if we were muddling along without the raise, will do fine without. This just works for our personalities, we rather err on the side of over-saving. Better to save $500 and then have to pull out $100 if we were too aggressive. I will give it a couple of more months to see how things shake out. It may be too too tight, and we will adjust if necessary.

Edited to add: MH has one more paycheck than I realized, in February. He is paid bi-weekly and I got confused on the weeks. He just received a paycheck for $12. 😂 But will be a bigger one in two weeks. I am going to go ahead and change my numbers, and do our deposit to investments for January. If nothing else, I have *cash* to cover that.

What a week!

I will start with last weekend. We had our weekend away in Napa and it was lovely. We ended up using our Ruth Chris gift card the Friday before we went out of town. We did one fancy dinner out (Napa), as planned.

The highlight of our weekend was a 3-hour hike we did last Sunday. It was *amazing* and we didn't see a single other soul on the trail. A hidden gem, for sure. These are just a couple of pictures, or a small fraction of the views we saw.





Recent Post:
I can't tell you what I am doing with this latest reset. Crossing my fingers that the tornado around me loses some steam? I'm trying to be more assertive with work hours? But... this only works when everyone isn't out with some emergency or other.

This last week:
My employee was at the hospital all day Monday and thought she would likely undergo emergency surgery. So the work/life balance went down the tubes last week, between that and deadlines.

It only went downhill from there.
--Work Drama (including my other employee being MIA)
--Friend's divorce drama (horrible and exhausting)
--More work emergencies** (a spouse in hospital)
--Sudden death of a childhood/family friend who was 40 (flu/asthma?)

**Have I ever mentioned I work for a very small employer? Yeesh!

Honestly, it was kind of low on the "crazy scale" of late. Because in the past I really didn't mean to be cryptic but it was all happening faster than I could ever remember or process. I ended up having a mostly quiet weekend (this time) and so I can share at all some of the insanity. Which makes it one of the calmer crazy weeks of last two years.

My employee is doing fine. For now. So that is the best news I have right now.

If you hadn't heard, Ting is adding the Verizon network. They initially had the Sprint network, and then added T-Mobile at some point. Later this year it will be all three networks.

They don't have a date yet, but I will pass along if I hear. I just read that they want to roll out the Verizon option early this year.

It's nice to have the multiple options. At current I am on the Sprint network and MH is on the T-Mobile network. I will probably want to switch over to Verizon. This way, when we travel, we have better coverage. It's a neat perk that we aren't locked into all having to be on the same cell network.

I haven't otherwise done a cell/Ting update in a while. Not much to report. My mom dropped off of our plan. We had been going in 50/50 with my parents, for a while. But when we added our kids, I was just having my parents reimburse me $144 per year for their two lines ($6/month/each). We were using most the data/minutes and it wasn't worth tracking once we got so lopsided. Then my mom dropped out mid-2019 so I didn't ask them for any reimbursements last year. Will just cover my dad's cell phone ($6/month, plus some occasional extra travel expenses).

I just looked through the past several months and we've been paying $80 most months. That works out to $16 per month per line.

If you haven't heard of Ting, it's a no-contract, no-commitment cell service. You only pay for what you use. We just pay the $6/line and then we pool all of our data/texts/minutes, which are charged in addition.

We have been using Ting since 2013. They have been exceptional.

My Ting Referral Code:

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

I received dividend 1099s yesterday so was able to complete our taxes. I just am waiting for tax software updates now. (I probably won't finalize until I take my tax update class, probably in another week. Make sure I am not missing anything).

Now I am focusing on the kids. DL(14) didn't have any stock sales last year so I should just be able to report his interest/dividends on my tax return. The taxes on that should be $0.

I tried to pull their 12/31 statements to confirm YTD interest income last night but it was +$9 which didn't seem right. I thought the statement was off and decided to deal with it later. Well, this morning I am going through all of DL's statements making sure they match my financial records. I had no idea that their "7% interest" credit union had also done a special dividend this year. +$9, which made the actual interest rate on that account 9% for the year. Wow! (They got a bonus $8/$9 from both of their credit unions).

DL(14) had $53 interest income this year. His allowance was $150 for the year and he deposited another $325 cash during the year. It's hard to say because we switched him from cash to electronic system mid-year when we opened his checking account. Some of that cash may have been accumulated allowance money or gifts from prior years. & clearly he had some cash spending because I know he made some purchases but nothing that came through electronically. But as it stands, he received $528 (gifts) and spent -$0-. 2020 will probably be more thorough in the electronic records since he will have his checking account for the entire year. & I believe he owes me $20 for birthday/Christmas gifts. Will see if he just hands me cash for that or if he needs to make an electronic transfer.

MM(16) will be much more complicated, with the jobs and everything. In fact, he told me he worked for my old/forever employer in 2019 and I didn't believe him (I didn't remember that at all). But in the end, I do have some deposits recorded. I just looked and I did not do a great job of keeping track of that. Unless maybe I threw his pay stub in my tax file. (Is very possible). I generally don't wait for W-2s, or want to make sure the W-2s are correct. I have all that info in Quicken somewhere, so I can probably use that if nothing else. Or maybe he has the pay stub and can produce it. I should probably just ask him.

I will start checking that his bank/interest statements match Quicken. He did his own taxes last year (with my help) and I think he can just do it on his own this year. Even if I sit down and go through it with him every single year, by the time he graduates college he should be more than competent to do on his own. In my house if you have a job, you can do your own taxes. So that is why he did his own taxes last year.

I know I have shared in the past that I don't use the shopping carts at Target. Nor the baskets, most the time. If I can't hold it in my hands I don't need it. (Unless it's a very specific trip for more items or something larger). I have sometimes looked ridiculous and been asked if I need a basket, but it was worth not being tempted to spend more money.

So I felt, "Exactly!" when I saw this article yesterday:

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/shopping-cart-size/


There's a reason you can't leave Target without spending more than you planned—blame the shopping cart.

One of the very first shopping carts, invented in 1937, was simply a metal frame that held two wire shopping baskets. Eventually the design evolved to one basket, and the nesting capability was added for easy storage. The first shopping cart baby seats were added in the 1950s. For the next several decades, the shopping cart design remained the same—except when it came to size. The average shopping cart has almost tripled in size since 1975. From a stack of two hand baskets to the gigantic carts we see today, why the change?

Bigger Carts Lead to More Spending
There are a couple of theories out there as to why shopping carts have gotten bigger and bigger: wider shopping aisles and larger shopping budgets are leading people to buy more goods and groceries. But there could be a more subliminal reason: to trick the consumer into spending more. Marketing consultant Martin Lindstrom told Today that when the shopping cart was doubled in size in an experiment, shoppers would buy 40% more merchandise.

I had figured out that a shopping cart makes it way too easy to buy crap that you don't need. I had never really thought about how they make the carts bigger so that you can add more. It's kind of fascinating how much that works psychologically.

Skip the shopping cart next time. It really works.

It's time... It's past time. Turning off the allowance for MM(16).

First I wanted to back up a bit. We started giving our kids a $2/week allowance at age 5, with the intention of them starting to learn about money. From that point on, if the kids wanted to buy something, most of the time it was, "You have the money, you figure it out." It's valuable to start learning these lessons long before you start having a bigger income to manage. Waiting until they got a job and started making $15/hour (a lot of money for a teenager) would be too late, in my opinion. Could be worse, but you miss a lot of learning opportunity if you wait that long.

I've posted before, but I really expected the $2/week allowance to increase over time. But my kids have been so frugal and careful with their money it never came up until DL was maybe 13 or 14 and recently asked for an allowance raise. (He hasn't spent any of it honestly, but he asked and I thought it was reasonable).

Both MH and I worked pretty steadily since age 15 and so I just always presumed we'd turn off these allowances once the kids turned 15 or 16 and got a job. The allowances have served their purpose. They are making 10 or 20 or 30 times as much with summer jobs.

In the end I had a miscommunication with MH. I could swear he was not down with turning off the allowance when MM got a job and when he turned 16? It's too small for me to care either way at this point. But... I don't even remember what conversation we had after that. But I put it on my calendar January 1 to turn off his allowance. (Lord knows I can't remember a single thing in the chaos of the last few years. No room whatsoever in my brain). I don't remember anything or why or when I even put this on my calendar. But I do remember clearing it up with MH that was not at all what he said or meant. He is now very much, "Why does he still have an allowance!?" I don't know, because I thought you wanted him to? So I am going to turn off that auto transfer today, saving us $3 per week.

I expect we discussed with MM(16) at some point but gave him a little notice. I put it in my calendar because I knew I would forget.

I suppose this makes the official cutoff age 16.5. It's worth noting if we want to be consistent with DL. (And... I put that on the calendar).

I skipped the last couple of years, but will revisit our Top 5 and Lowest 5 expenses for 2019.

{I keep track of all our spending/accounts using software, so I still have meticulous records even if I have mostly put it on ignore the past couple of years}.



2016 Commentary:
I highlighted the vacation spending because we aren't big vacation spenders and these are very one-off type expenses. Our annual budget is only $2,000 for vacation, and is more in the realm of what I foresee spending the next several years.

On the mortgage, we made an extra payment (or two?) versus last year. We should be under the $7,000 mark on mortgage interest in the future. This is one of those expenses that is snowballing downward very rapidly.

Auto expenses include repairs/maintenance, insurance, registration, fuel. (We pay cash for cars; no car payments).

{I do have details on the autos, and I also track expenses per vehicle. For 2016: $1944 fuel, $1800 insurance, $278 registration, $803 repairs/maintenance}.

Medical expenses are insane, but our insurance has covered almost seven figures in medical procedures for my husband (before age 40). So, at least I know we get our money's worth, and it's very important for us to have high quality insurance. I am sure given different circumstances we would have just gone "cheap". It's been our biggest expense for several years, so is nothing new. It's been our biggest challenge with *one income* living, but we live so far below our means that we have been able to deal with it. But I know it's so glaring that I should address.

**I have not included income taxes because is not a large expense for us.**

The interesting thing about our lowest expenses is that it tends to be our more luxury spending. I am sure I have said it a million times before, but will say it again. We don't do without. We just are careful and rein in costs, and shop around. & prioritize what is the most important. So most of our "luxury" type spending ends up towards the bottom.

I expect our total expenses to be about the same for the next couple of years. We have some home maintenance ($$$$) to tend to. Starting to talk braces for both kids. So stuff like that will probably replace our recent vacation spending. These are things we also want to take care of while our income is high and before our kids start college.

2019 Commentary:
Not much has changed but we did bump "Vacation" off of our list, as expected. Travel is not something we highly value and I don't expect it to be a priority in the near future (if ever). I can't even imagine why we'd spend $9k on vacation. 2016 was a ridiculous year of over-paying for just a couple of domestic trips to D.C. Very one-off.

Medical tops the list as always, but was bumped up with the Orthodontia expenses. (It's a medical tax deduction, so I lumped ortho with our other medical expenses).

Groceries bumped up significantly with MM(16) doing track this school year. So that bump up is mostly adding track for 6 months, though may include a couple of years of increasing appetites (in between). 2020 will be interesting with the full year of track. I had bumped up my grocery budget to $850 monthly ($10k annually) in 2020 but I wouldn't be surprised if I have to bump it up more mid-year.

I think where we are at with this is we give up and only have to feed that kid for another 18 months at home. There was some talk of revisiting Costco at some point, but we keep coming back to that it's just not convenient whatsoever. (It doesn't help that everyone we know personally who raves about Costco spends a bajillion dollars on food). We would probably be smart to ask our parents to pick up a few things here and there. We had some $9 pizza on Christmas and I wouldn't mind having a few of those around, but then again we don't have any freezer space and we just don't feel like re-inventing the wheel for 18 months. Meh.

P.S. We did offer MM(16) to reimburse him 50% (in cash) of any "employee discount" grocery savings he can earn us if he can get a job at the grocery store we frequent. It's actually walking distance from our house and a very strong job contender. Depends how many hours he can get there. If he wasn't doing track, it would probably be a done deal.

Mortgage interest is snowballing downwards, as expected.

Without any big vacation expenses, Auto takes it place back at #5. It was our first year with three cars.

Haircuts bumped up because my kids are interested in hair cuts now. MM(16) actually took himself for a haircut the other day. & I don't have to drag DL(14) kicking and screaming any more. Phew!

We mostly make it a rule not to buy any subscriptions and are pretty conscience about refusing to be nickel and dimed for anything. (Man those little things add up!) But... MH needed to sign up for a newspaper subscription (online for $20?) in order to continue to participate in the newspaper rewards program. He always gets free movie tickets and show tickets. This was $20 well spent. He won several movie and concert tickets in 2019 and he won another Kindle Fire? He easily won $500 worth of prizes last year. Sadly, they ended their rewards program (last month?) so there is no more of that. He did not renew this subscription, accordingly.

This last item didn't make the Bottom 5 list but is worth mentioning. MH signed up for a movie pass type deal with a regional theater (the one closest to our home) and pays $20/month for unlimited movies. Truly unlimited. Talk about luxury spending (what is a very high priority for him) taking up very little of our budget. That's been awesome. Just like movie pass, he is still running up reward points with every movies he sees, so this deal also comes with a lot of free movie passes so I can tag along (about as often as I would want to, which is not a lot).

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Some 2018 versus 2019 notes:

Car expenses went down by $1,200, though we added a third car. Some of it was MM(16) taking over the "third car" expenses when he turned 16 (mid-year). Most of it is switching to electric vehicle/fuel for my new/longer commute. & of course, we no longer have to pay for all that fuel to shuttle MM(16) around, so we had some cost savings there.

Grocery spending +$1,300 over last year.

Medical +$7,500 (+orthodontia) - clearly a one-off expense.

Professional Dues -$2,000. My employer (very unexpectedly) offered to pay and also reimbursed me for some 2018 expenses.

Misc. -$3,000
Not entirely sure what that is about, but we did consciously scale back on the show tickets and so on with my job change and salary reduction. Then again, I was making so much side income we had some "what the heck?" moments.

In 2018 we did replace our cell phones (ahead of expected job change and salary reduction) and bought a new washer and dryer. We did also buy a charger for the new car (an auto expense, I suppose). We did spend $2,300 on concerts and events: A few symphony shows, Iron Maiden, Weird Al, Sketchfest, Robot Wars, a musical, a book signing, and various smaller concerts and events.

In 2019 we did buy a (used) elliptical for almost $1,000 and a new TV and sound bar. But... LOL, we spent $70 on concerts and events. I suppose we took that very seriously that was the thing to go with my pay cut. I am actually surprised because I feel like we were pretty lax with all the side income I Was earning. This is also not completely fair because we spent $200 but it's offset by a $120 reimbursement from MH's friend for some concert tickets we bought (the year before).😁 We clearly had less bigger purchases and significantly cut down on the concert/event spending. It's just nothing I would have remembered, without seeing it in such glaring black and white.

I don't know that anything will change in 2020. My budget is pretty tight by the time I factored our actual grocery spending, tax increases, health insurance increases, etc. If we had some extra money I would like to go to the Symphony more, but the Symphony is expensive. It might be mostly on hold until our kids are done with college. Our art museum does some pretty amazing concerts for $10 or $20, so we will be creative and figure it out. We also do go to a lot of concerts and musicals (professional level) at the art school which is maybe why I don't *feel* much difference between the two years. & duh, we probably bought a lot of tickets in 2018 that we used in 2019.