2020 TALLY:
 
$700 Cash (Chase Sapphire Quadruple Dip, Moi) ~ MAYBE?
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$700 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*
 
**In addition, various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31
 
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POST FROM 2018: I think I probably would have mostly passed (on one-time bonuses) this year given all my employment upheaval. Life has been CRAZY this year and I am being ultra protective of my credit score since I work in the financial industry. It's always been like 800+, but I just don't feel like it's the year to open 5 new credit cards in my name. Might raise some eyebrows during any employment consideration. (& I am probably just being overly cautious, but that is how I roll).
 
2019: More of the same. Too busy to bother with, and too much extra income.
 
2020: Less crazy busy, but too much extra income to bother with. That said... I got a $800 Chase Sapphire offer. It's been over 4 years since we did this deal, which is the requirement. I can see from my blog that we both did the Chase Sapphire bonus 3 times already. So... It's a quadruple dip.
 
It's worth mentioning that I have been bombarded by credit card offers. But... I have always considered myself a light credit card churner. Most places where I get the credit card tips, there are crowds of people who do a *lot* more churning, manufacture spending, etc. I share because the flip side of the coin is the opinion that it's morally questionable, especially when doing the same deal over and over and over. To which I can only roll my eyes. It's not like they aren't cramming these offers down my throat, begging me to fall into their credit card traps. They are the ones that are BEGGING me to apply for the same card I already applied for 3 times in the past.
 
$800 is speaking to me though. Net of annual fee, will be $700 cash. If it works out well, it looks like it's also a common public offer. I will have MH also do a quadruple dip, if I can find the offer again next year. (It's a credit card company. I am skeptical if they will really give me a bonus for a fourth time. I don't trust them at all. Will see).
 
In other news, I met my sidebar snowflake investing goal. It's worth mentioning because was entirely funded by credit card rewards (cash back received from monthly spending). $1,500+ so far for 2020. Total credit card rewards will probably end up in the $2,000 range for this year.

Hell froze over and I got a week of peace and calm. There's probably a million things I could/should have done. But... Treated the week as a long overdue staycation and didn't do much of anything productive. I felt like I was figuratively gulping in the fresh air but I guess it was also quite literal. I had to pinch myself that our staycation destinations all had clean air on the days we planned. Was trying to keep it flexible, but locked in reservations one day and it still worked out. (The air quality has been very patchy). We had a difficult time spending any of our vacation funds. I did some rough math and an old average of $100/month for car gas will now give us 8,000 miles of driving. We enjoyed this incredible freedom. If I want to drive to the beach every single weekend, cost of fuel is no longer a limiting factor. On Tuesday we took advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and had Muir Woods (redwood forest) mostly to ourselves. It was *amazing*. We didn't see another soul once we left the main trail, and had a picnic spot all to ourselves for lunch. I had been starving for some beach time and so we hit the beach afterwards. We did end up stopping for a refuel on the way home. We drove 254 miles, stopped and added about 55 miles of charge, and still had 65 miles left when we got home. Third completely different drive, still getting that 260-mile range on one charge. We learned two things worth sharing: We played it a lot more loose this trip, just stopping for some fuel on the way home. It's a charger we would use a lot on drives from the Bay Area, so it was nice to check out this one (different location, different route home). All we did was run an errand and grab a couple of grocery items while we were there. I'd say we spent about 15 minutes in the store and then spent a minute or two discussing if we had enough to get home, deciding yes and unplugging. We ended up charging for 17 miles and gaining about 55 miles. & honestly, we didn't even have to charge 1/2 that long to get home. Felt more like a gas car trip. In the short run, we have infinite free charges and will probably be stopping more, but long term when it's not free, it's just going to be much shorter stops. We had spent so much time in the car, it was nice to stop and take a break. {As a side note, MH wanted me to mention our car had one of the slowest charge times. I had no idea, but that's good to know. Like I said before, every single car model is different. If faster charging is really important, almost any other electric car will be faster}. We did some windy steep hill driving and that is also worth mentioning. When I mentioned the manufacturer recommended maintenance, there was no mention of brakes. This is not an oversight. The car does have traditional brakes, but those are mostly there for sudden stopping and more emergency type braking. Most of the time, you don't use the brakes on the car. The regenerative braking system slows the car down through the engine (more like a low gear on a gas car). This braking regenerates energy and adds more range back to the battery. So... Not only did we get to zip up the hill with ease. But... We did not have to use the brakes at all to come back down. It was *amazing*. {Again, I don't get the sense this is universal for all electric cars. So just another reminder that every car is different}. The next day we went to the family cabin, midway between our home and Tahoe. It's a trip that MH had already done with DL(15). We just enjoyed the peace and quiet. We went on a hike where we didn't see a single other person. I personally would have stopped for a free charge but MH was feeling "meh" about that. I have no idea why. He usually leans toward the cheap side of things, so it was very unlike him. He was kind of saying, "We don't need a charge, and these chargers won't always be free." So wanted to live life without worrying about fuel, for this trip. The chargers are so under-utilized east of our city that they have left all of those free. It's the more utilized ones that they started charging more for around the time we bought the car. So there is a completely free charger at the freeway exit we use to get to the cabin. View from hike near cabin, no other people that day: Total driving 2 days: 400 miles. Total fuel costs 2 days: $5 Thursday was our anniversary and we had a low-key day at home. We ordered in a nice dinner. Because the kids had school, we left Saturday for one more trip/hike, this time with kids. The road to Tahoe was closed. If not, I think we would have gone all the way and tested it out. But our plan was to go visit Camp, which was mostly closed for this season. It's probably about 10 miles away from Tahoe. We got our camp fix, and there is a nice isolated hike. Our timing could not have been more perfect. We saw a couple of people hiking back down as we hiked up, but that was about it. We had the top of the mountain completely to ourselves. I would have stayed longer, but MH seemed to be more in a rush. For the best, because we saw at least 20 people coming back up as we hiked down. It was clearly a popular lunch spot. We had debated packing lunch for the third time that week, but decided "meh" with the longer drive and earlier start. But we didn't start too early and had missed the early morning crowd too. {We hadn't expected it to be crowded because we've never seen too many cars there when we camp during summer. Even though the parking is very limited. Was one reason we left that hike for the weekend. We saw more people than cars, not sure where all these people were coming from}. Of course, the "up the mountain" 100 mile drive wasn't doing much for our electric range. I believe it was estimating we only had 90 miles left on the car once we got to our destination. We weren't worried about it at all knowing that it would use very little of that energy to go back down. The stories are true: We had more range when we got home than we did at the top of the mountain. So... 90 miles downhill generated more energy that it used. It's hard to believe it until you see it for yourself. We did stop for lunch and a free charge. The lunch took longer than the charge. We had two convenient options: a charger right by camp or the charger by the cabin. We drove 190 miles. Stopped for a free charge that added 100 miles to the battery. Still had 200 miles left when we got home. Although we had consistently been getting a 260-mile range in different weather and terrain, this works out to a 290-range on one charge (if you ignore the extra charge and 100 miles). Which means... even though the uphill used a lot of energy, the downhill still put us +30 miles ahead with the roundtrip. Obviously, stopping to charge was completely unnecessary. MH ended up getting an extra free charge. It was the first time he got a survey/free charge offer. I have already redeemed two and got an accidental extra credit, so make that *3* free charges. When showing him how to access the free charge, I noticed my last free charge expires next week (on October 6th?). I asked MH not to plug in the car when we got home. There's enough range for me to drive to work all week and then we can refuel at a free public fast charger next weekend. MH does have some planned day trips with DL(15) during his time off (fall break in another week), but if they go into the mountains where the chargers are always free, I expect that we won't get through all of these extra *free charge* offers. Oh yeah, our fuel costs for our 190 mile drive yesterday: $2.06 Our higher summer electric rates end October 1. For spring and fall, just means even cheaper driving.

Insanity continues here, too much bad stuff to keep track of.

Good News: GMIL was released from the hospital and has been home for a couple of weeks. Phew! We visited her once in the hospital (through a glass window) and visited her at home through her screen door when we did our test EV run two weekends ago.

I never had time to get to it, we went to the Bay Area four weekends ago to pick up a new (used) professional grade trombone for DL(15). I had put some email alerts up about a year ago and had set aside the cash when we sold our treadmill (and eventually forgot I had that cash still). But as school/band started back up, I increased my efforts and found some good options. It was a nice surprise how little cash I had to come up with (just had to get $500 from the ATM to top off the purchase and to replenish cash emergency fund).

We could probably sell the old cheapie trombone for $300 (what we paid) but we have decided to donate it to DL's art school. That got lost in the mix; MH can drop it off sometime this next week.

Bad news last last week (just some highlights): A fire broke out in our zip code and the fire department was setting up a perimeter the street behind us. It was a really windy day. In the end they put out the fire crazy fast. It was a large fire, for such a short period of time. I expect that is why our cars were completely covered in ash (dark/black ash). There has been a general raining of grey ash for several weeks now, but that day was much worse. The same day, our neighbor's tree fell and missed MM(17)'s car by just inches. My nerves were just completely shot by the end of that day. (Which seems to be mostly my state of being any more. It's either that or completely numb by the bad news overwhelm. I wish I could say it was just a 2020 thing, but I am three years in at this point). If that's not enough excitement for one week, young relative's "it's nothing" diagnosis was changed back to, "It's really bad" and is being sent back for another biopsy. *sigh* That one I had been really struggling with. I am running out of people. So... The relief on that front only lasted a week or two. Now it's back to square one.

{I wouldn't be surprised if this was a COVID thing. It follows the trend of "completely stumping the Doctors". In fact, my employee who has been infinitely ill all year, her nurse brother is now fairly certain she is a COVID long hauler. He is just putting two and two together}.

We did get our gas car sold. Phew!

Usually MM(17) is the super charmed one, but DL(15) got all the luck last weekend. The last couple of years we have had a new season between summer and fall: fire season. When it is smokey and it is difficult to go outside. But I don't remember it ever being so bad as it has been this year. The air is too hazardous to go outside. Anyway, I know DL(15) was really looking forward to his day trip with MH Saturday. He just really wanted to get the heck out of dodge. I was concerned if they should even be in the car or go anywhere so was looking up the air quality Saturday morning. They had decided on the family cabin near Tahoe. Was really they only place within day trip vicinity Saturday that had clear air. ??? Don't ask me! No idea how on earth they pulled that off. Most of the west coast was under a red or purple "hazardous" level.

They went and hung out at the cabin for a few hours, went for a hike (I am so jealous!), and rescued a few priceless items from the cabin. No fires in that vicinity right now but as someone else said, all that it takes is a spark. It's definitely the most at-risk property in the family; it is in a woodsy area.

They drove 150 miles and spent $3.60 on fuel. They skipped the free charge because they hadn't used much fuel by the time they got there. The cabin is about 60 miles away. After that, the extra driving was going to see a movie at the drive-in.

In other randomness, MH seems to be making progress with the state and Unemployment claim. It's like... If you stand on one foot, jump in a circle and howl at the moon... Maybe he can get his unemployment check. 🙄 Is kind of how that is going. It was 1000% approved and he had been getting payments through mid-June? Then it stopped. Though we had followed directions and did everything right, they told us, "Well you never did this." (*This* is the exact opposite of what their website or formal instructions say to do). Which was super weird and wonky and we were skeptical. In the end we literally got a check the next day... For last year. ??? Don't ask me! MH immediately called again because his online account was all messed up and he was freaking out. Not cashing this check because it isn't right. In the end, whoever he talked to assured him it was all fixed and online it shows they have issued us $6,500 in payments (for last 3 months). It's showing on one side but not on the "checks issues" side, it will take a few days to process. I now know that check could be in our pocket like tomorrow (because we got that weird check in one day!), but they seem to be a little more slow and cautious with the whole "releasing 3 months of payments" thing.

I didn't really know what to do with my sidebar since we spent more money than saved this year, with car purchase. (Re: first sidebar "savings" goal). For now, I will just cross my fingers and hold my breath for a few more days. The unemployment catch-up will put us back in the black for the year (added more to savings than we pulled back out, cash car purchase included).

We are both so "not counting our eggs until they hatch" types, not really sure what to do with this. If unemployment starts rolling in again (another $600-$1800 per month, depending on Federal unemployment boost). It just fell off my radar and feels like a big windfall as it enters back into my radar. Mostly, MH's income was funding our IRAs so our #1 financial goal is probably to set aside $12k for 2021 IRAs. There's also college next year, shortly followed by college x2. Hoarding cash continues to be the most prudent, until college decisions become more clear. I think our financial priorities are pretty clear: Retirement, college, mortgage. College might bump up or take the center stage for a while.

Edited to add: Today is apparently a good money day! I get an email scan of all our mail from USPS. I just got a ding on my phone and I was happy to see car insurance refund (gas car that we sold) AND a client check (I only have the one client; just sent out the first 2020 invoice last weekend). And... 7 Unemployment checks (7 envelopes) for 14 weeks probably. Woohoo! Now we just cross our fingers that it actually shows up in our mailbox. This might be a lot to hope for, these days. But this email means it is all supposed to arrive in our mailbox today.

I got sidetracked by the good money news. It all reminds me though that MH would have been back to work the first of this month. (The summer unemployment is just gravy gravy because he usually has summers off). We hadn't thought too much about it. It seems fairly moot because DL(15) has been so moody and needy. As long as schools aren't in session, MH isn't going to have a job. As long as schools aren't in session, he's going to need to be home anyway. (I appreciate this is one thing working out well for us; it seems to be a disaster for most people with kids). I think initially Labor Day passed and neither of us gave it much thought. It was always pretty obvious he wouldn't be back at work this calendar year.

I am just happy to get in a general update. I was going to do a separate financial update, and I guess now I can do that with some more clarity.

I don't remember why or the context, but the topic came up at work: Cleaning off your windshield at a gas station.

I made a mental note. If we no longer go to gas stations... I suppose I should buy a squeegee.

One reason we wanted to replace our gas car was that we were just piling on *all* our miles on the hybrid car. Wanted to spread out our driving a bit and want to be able to keep both cars for decades if that is what we choose to do. Wasn't going to happen at the rate we were driving the hybrid. We put on 32k miles in 2 years, which is a *lot* for us. My plan is to pile up some miles on the newer car. When the pandemic is over, we can spread it out a little more. Even if I still mostly use the hybrid for my commute, I can still take the all-electric to work in the summer/winter months when MH is off of work.

I drove both cars this week so I have some real numbers.

The bigger battery (all-electric) is more efficient and using less energy for my drive.



HYBRID Commute
Cost with summer electricity rate: $1.36
Cost with rest-of-the year electricity rate: $1.10



ALL-ELECTRIC Commute
Cost with summer electricity rate: $1.13
Cost with rest-of-the year electricity rate: $0.92

I suppose it works out nicely that I can probably just drive the all-electric on my commute during summer months (months that MH has off of work).

I will probably do another post, but I don't wanna. Life continues to be absurd.

Rather just talk about the car, it's nice to have a distraction.

I do think it's worth sharing perception versus reality. I should probably continue to share these things as they happen.

The other day I was wondering if car expenses would fall off our "Top 5" annual expenses. I looked back at 2017/2018 as better comparison years because we only had 2 cars and they were both gas cars.

Holy Cow... This is how the numbers are shaking out:
2017 - $6,299 (fuel/insurance/maintenance/tags)
2018 - $7,025
2020 - $3,000 (estimate for all of 2020)

We are saving roughly **$3,000 per year** switching to all-electric driving.

But... "It's 2020. You haven't driven much?" You say? Well, I *doubled* my commute end of 2018 and I still have my commute (which is the most of our household driving). & it will cost a whole whopping $200 per year to fuel the new car (if even that, am erring on the aggressive side). I expect same/better for 2021 ($3,000 total car expenses for the year).

That's cutting our expenses in half while driving significantly more. 🤯

I honestly have no idea what our #5 household expense will become. I glanced at it and wasn't coming up with anything else big. Utilities and Misc., which are broken out into a lot of smaller sub-categories. Will figure it out at the end of the year.

MH's friend just thinks we are giant idiots. I know is what most are thinking. I suppose I don't care, I am used to it. We are used to making unpopular decisions that just make our life better/easier.

This guy has the same gas car as MH (40mpg freeway). He is just, "NO WAY were you spending $1,000 per year on car gas!" 🤣 Seriously, how hard is it to spend $83/month on gas? With our gas prices? This guy is single and childless. He clearly has no concept of how much MH drives kids around. (Also, all those short trips were knocking the mpg down closer to 25 mpg). FWIW, we drove the gas car 8,000 miles last year. That was probably a less than average year, as we both preferred to drive the hybrid if at all possible. But it was the only car available for MH/kids' commute, and is also the car that MH took to LA. I am sure there were many other times we needed two cars or both had to be somewhere.

In other news, MH/DL did their father/son trip last weekend. After being told several times by friends/relatives with electric cars, that the car basically uses no fuel to drive back down to the valley from Tahoe... I was wondering how much fuel it would take to get up the hill though. In the end, they only went about half way, stopping at the family cabin. MH could have gotten a free charge but he hadn't used up enough electric fuel to bother. Mental note: Don't fully charge the car before that trip. He also wanted to leave room on the battery in case it did generate more charge than it used. In the end, did get some crazy #s coming down the hill but was probably only a 25% - 50% improvement (round trip) over a more average drive. The downhill did use very little fuel. The uphill used a lot of fuel. But the downhill more than made up for the uphill. Once you netted it out though, it wasn't anything terribly exciting. Especially once you factor the cost of electricity and figure you might have saved a quarter. 😁

What is interesting is that the weather was mild and the terrain was entirely different than any other driving we have done. MH drove 150 miles and had 110 miles left when he got home. So... It sounds like 260 miles is the true range. If we have gotten that twice on two entirely different trips. Entirely different terrain, weather, etc. Electric cars are weird like that. The quoted range (manufacturer) is 238 miles. Our long trip average is 260 miles. Our shorter trip average will be far above that (more range). Though the range is more relevant/important on longer trips so I understand erring on the side of driving faster/longer to come up with the range. I am sure we could come up with 238 (the "official" range) if we sped and blasted the heat.

That reminds me, MH had to make a couple of trips to take kids to school. Both times was coming up with -0- miles used. Clearly there is *some* fuel being used on these shorter trips, but too small to register on just a couple of trips. Miles driven: 10 miles total, divided by two trips. (Reminder: braking regenerates energy. It is possible that trip generates as much energy as it is using). It seems moot. At this rate, MH's employer will close up shop and kids won't be back at school until they are both licensed drivers. The electric car is made for those infinite 6-mile roundtrips that MH was making. I just don't know if those trips will still be made. We are obviously happy with freeway and long range performance: silent drives that cost pennies. It just would have been interesting to see what kind of a range we could have gotten with MH's average driving, pre-pandemic.

In other news, we sold the gas car. Another post for another day. The day before we sold it, a neighbor's tree fell and missed MM(17)'s car by inches. Also, we had a fire too close to home and black ash was raining from the sky covering the outside cars (was more significant than the general infinite rain of grey ash we have been experiencing). I feel great relief to have less "stuff" to manage. Would have felt great relief regardless, but it wasn't a good week for the outside cars.

We did our first longer distance test run.

Success!!

I suppose one big electric car adjustment is not knowing how much range you are actually going to get. It depends on a few different factors.

Things that helped us along: Some minor stop-and-go traffic along the way, and also some city driving when we drove between relatives' homes.

The thing going most against us: One of the hottest days of the year. A - this directs more energy to cooling off the battery. B - A/C is an energy suck. Best we could tell, blasting the AC was taking 7 miles off of the range. Not a lot, but adds up more on a bigger battery with longer range.

{Holy cow that AC is amazing though. A+}.

The end result:
We could have probably made the entire trip, even with hot conditions and a few stops, without a stop to re-charge.

Literally, we stopped for a free 100-mile charge and the car estimated we had 100 miles left when we got home. How is that for cutting it close? IT sounds extremely feasible to make the roundtrip without any stops. The battery might go 20 miles further in fall and spring (more mild weather). It will be interesting to see on future test runs.

Of course, in a gas car I know you can run it to empty and still drive another 20-30 miles. I don't know what the deal is on an electric car. Probably same, but it's not ideal to run the battery to empty. I don't expect we will ever cut it close.

Considering that we literally always get gas on the way to/from the Bay Area, I can tell this will not be any different (logistics) from driving a gas car. We either fill up gas when we plan for a longer trip, or we fill up on cheaper gas on the way home (most likely). The electric car is going to be the same. We might need to stop for 10 minutes to top off a few extra miles to make sure we can get home. *shrugs*

Considering we often make this kind of trip multiple times a month... We are very pleased with the outcome.

When we bought our hybrid car we were considering that the "around town" car and had no intention whatsoever to make it the "road trip" car. Then we drove it to the Bay Area the first time and the gas mpg was 50. We had no idea that the car could do that! So then that became our "drive everywhere" car. Because of that, I am not surprised at all that the all-electric is easily going to become our "drive everywhere" car. Like the hybrid, the official quoted range is less than it really is.

MH did fill up 100 free miles (free charger test run) middle of the week. The only other driving he had done was to drive 5 miles home from that charger. I plugged the newer car in when I left for work on Friday.

Saturday morning we left with a full charge. This is how the numbers worked out, and I will compare to our other vehicles.

Miles Driven: 261.2
{After paying close attention to our hybrid driving and costs, I would have guessed that 250 miles is pretty average for us when visiting our Bay Are relatives. This was a very average drive}.

Electricity Used: 58.5 kWh
Free Charge: Less: 23.25 kWh
Net Electricity paid for: 35.25 kWh
x.1059 (summer electricity rates @ home)
=$3.73

That is $3.73 in fuel costs to drive 260 miles.

Unreal!

{I guess technically it was cheaper than that because we got two free charges! But that will probably not be typical}.

It's official. The only time I ever get gas in my hybrid car is when we drive out of town. After this trip? I am removing gas fuel from our budget. It will be -$0-. Car gas will no longer have any place in our monthly budget.

Anyway, here are the comparisons:
260 mile trip Fuel Costs
All-Electric: $3.73
Hybrid: $13.90
Gas Car: $19.50

That said... We failed on our trip and spent more money.

We chose the most ideal place to stop. It was 50% or 75% off. (Free charging *all the time* ended last week, but it's still discounted and sometimes free).

We had decided to stop and eat dinner. Not that we would always do that, but it's a test run and it was just MH and I. Plus, we usually eat with our parents. We just aren't going to do that during a pandemic. So you can somewhat put this in the pandemic category.

We were still in the Bay Area and all the restaurants over there ended up being $$$$.

Downside: Spent a lot on food. $25. If there had been a Taco Bell or something, we would have been perfectly happy with that.

Because the charge was deeply discounted, we decided to stop 45-minutes for the max amount of free charge. It was a billion degrees and not much shade.

Upside: Sat and ate in completely comfortable car with A/C. It doesn't idle like a traditional car. I am well aware after 2 years with the hybrid. It is a great pandemic car, if you are sitting around in your car waiting a lot. You can turn on the car and be comfortable, without bothering anyone else or spewing exhaust.

Overall, we were happy with the stop. It was a very large shopping center and I expect in the future we would just get out and go for a walk. Maybe pick up a snack or something. Don't need to eat an entire meal every time we need fuel. & like I mentioned before, a 10-minute re-fuel would have got us home comfortably.

I believe that this charger was going to be 50%-off during the time frame that we arrived. Just as we were about to charge, a survey popped up on my phone. In exchange for answering a few questions I got a free charge. That was unexpected! MH was jealous that he did not get a survey when he charged.

Then there was a glitch and they credited me twice, so it looks like I have another free charge? I don't know. Not holding my breath on that one. But if it's still there next time I drive out of town...

I did a quicker fuel savings post (my last post). Just a more general summary if you are curious about fuel savings and a more general update. This one will be a little more in-depth.

Every electric car out there right now is very different. I think driving an electric car is a big jump (no matter how open you are to the idea) and we most definitely got there a lot faster with the hybrid car as the gateway to electric. It was literally just a day or a week before it was, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” I will say that all of my hesitancy was dumb. Really and truly. Change is difficult.

But anyway, I share because there is really nothing similar about our two cars right now, or any of the other electric cars on the market. They all have their pros and cons.

Infrastructure is also going to vary widely where you live. In California we have great battery warranty protection and chargers everywhere. Is worth mentioning because there’s a lot of areas of the country where I probably would not buy an electric car.

Of course, mostly to the point, you have to have somewhere to charge. If your employer or apartment complex provides chargers, that’s great. I wouldn’t recommend an electric car at all to my kids, because who knows what kind of charging options they will have over the next several years. If you own a house and can charge at home, that’s the most ideal. You aren’t going to refuel in the old sense of gas stations. You are going to recharge your car overnight while you sleep. Or maybe while you shop, go to the movies, eat out, or while you are at work.

Probably the best I can do is share what I know (in more depth) about our hybrid and compare with what will change with our electric car.

Range:
Volt (“hybrid”) - 50-ish mile electric range. Just about enough for my commute. That car also has a 350-ish mile gas range. 400 miles total on one charge and one full tank of gas.

Bolt (electric) - 240-ish mile electric range

{Edit to add: We are coming up with 260-mile range on longer trips and I expect 300+ with city stop/go driving. Don't have a good handle on how far it will go city driving because have not tested more than 10 miles. I will update again when we are doing more normal driving again, it may be another year}.

Note: We mostly drive the Volt/hybrid for my commute, which is all open freeway. Stop and go traffic generates more electricity/fuel and is more ideal for electric car driving. It’s going to be interesting to see how many miles we get out of the all-electric car with MH’s more city driving. (It could go up to a 400 mile range with the right conditions). I read today someone drove from Tahoe to Sacramento (about 100 miles? downhill) and actually generated more miles than they used. Crazy! The range will depend on how you drive. I feel like I really have no idea with the Bolt yet, we have to get used to it.

My commute is roughly $1 per day, hybrid electric driving. The quick napkin math is that during summer we probably pay $6 to drive the 200 miles on the all-electric car. $5 during the rest of the year (cheaper electric rates).

Charging:
In either case, charging with a regular outlet isn’t really practical. It is for some (if you can charge at work or only drive a few miles per day), but hasn’t been practical for us. This is the slowest way to charge.

Volt (“hybrid”) - My 50 mile range will fully charge after 4 hours on our Level 2 charger (we installed in our garage). It takes about an hour to add 12 miles. It gets charged overnight, at home.

Bolt (electric) - The 240 mile range will fully charge after 10 hours on our Level 2 charger. (It can also just be charged overnight). It takes about an hour to add 25 miles. I don’t know any of the logistics/details (don't ask me why), but if we use the same chargers, we will be getting twice as much range as we had been with the Volt. More value, when it comes to free charging. A night out downtown might get us 100 free miles on a public Level 2 charger.

{Because I charge the hybrid every night for my commute, we expect we will charge the all-electric car on the weekends}.

The Bolt also has a fast charging option. It takes about an hour to get 200 miles of range with the fast chargers. Fast charging is only available on public chargers.

Apparently not every electric vehicle has fast charging capability. It was a deal breaker for us, so we were careful to get the fast charging capability.

NOTE: I didn't know this, but MH pointed out to me that the charging on our car is slower than most. Just a reminder not to judge all electric vehicles based on one vehicle. They are all so different!

Maintenance:
Volt (“hybrid”) - Virtually nothing
My car has a gas generator and an electric engine. It is absolutely nothing like a traditional gas car (under the hood). The maintenance is virtually nothing. It does need oil changes once every two years.

Bolt (electric) - Nothing
I am exaggerating a wee little bit, but really not much.
Literally the maintenance schedule on a Bolt: replace the air filters, replace/check the tires. First maintenance at 150k miles. For reals.
No oil changes. No state smog inspections.

This is kind of a general sum up of what I know going into this electrical vehicle purchase. It is by far not an all-inclusive list of all things electric car, but just some key points.

Electric fuel (our utility company) is roughly 1/3 of the cost of gas fuel (our region). YMMV. (That was pre-pandemic. MH paid $2.50 for gas the other day, so maybe we are currently at 1/2 price. Either way, I will take it. 😁 )

There's two major mind shifts with an electric car:

1 - Rethinking how you fuel (as mentioned above).

2 - Switching around what affects the "mpg" the most. Stop-and-go city driving is good and will add more miles to the car's range. (Braking generates electricity). Long freeway trips will be less efficient and you will be more subject to higher fuel prices out on the road. So pretty much the opposite of a gas car.

Edited to add:
I was just reminded of one more thing. In the Volt/hybrid, the A/C seems to cost pennies to run but the heat sucks a lot of energy. This is another mindshift. If you just use the heated seats and steering wheel, it's a much more efficient way to stay comfortable in the cold weather months. I honestly thought the heated steering wheel was ridiculous (for our climate) when we bough the hybrid. MH finally set me straight. He told me, "Don't you keep saying that women lose more heat in their hands?" {My life was changed when I learned that all I needed to do was to put on some gloves to feel significantly more comfortable. & I mean like inside}. That is my DOH moment. He's right. Most of the time I don't even bother with the heat on the hybrid. I do primarily use the heated steering wheel to keep warm in the winter months. I expect that the electric car will be similar. I don't mean in a "sacrifice" kind of way. I mean in a "I have never in my life been more comfortable during winter" kind of way. It's different but also more effective. Heated steering wheel and seats should be a deal breaker when buying an electric car. One reason we went with the premium trim is because *all* the seats are heated.

Another Edit:

One thing I didn't mention initially in this post is performance. The electric cars are both very zippy and handle hills like they are nothing. It's worth mentioning because is another reason it feels so "blech" to go back to driving the gas car. I looked it up out of curiosity.

Electric 0-30 mph: 2.5
Electric 0-40 mph: 3.7
Electric 0-60 mph: 6.3

Gas 0-40 mph: 5.4
Gas 0-60 mph: 9.5

Personally, we are both very boring/careful drivers, but it makes it *so much easier* to merge onto busy roads and freeways. For that reason, it feels safer and just makes driving easier.

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.