Received $35 bank interest for the month of May.

Redeemed $25 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Redeemed $37 cash back on Citi card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Redeemed $4 cash back on Visa/dining card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Redeemed $50 AmEx rewards as a ROTH contribution.

Savings (From paycheck):

+$200 to investments
+$300 to cash
+$900 to IRAs

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):

+$1,300 to cash
-$1,132 for concerts/events, vet visits, medical, dental, summer class registration, printer ink, organization purchases, pirate gear for camp (pirate theme this year!) and other misc.

CRAZY month!! In May and June of last year we had -0- in non-monthly expenses. For this May I had ten different entries on my spreadsheet (as to 10 different kinds of expenses). Which is probably like more than we have ever had.

I am happy to put May behind me. It wasn't anything big but just a lot of little expenses. It was just a weird month. We are overall in a "no spend" kind of mode with our big vacations this year. (Not planning anything else all year and being more homebodies than usual). On the flip side, there is also a feeling of "doing very well financially" since we keep surpassing financial goals at a more and more rapid pace. This could be some of the spendy-ness. (It seems silly to deny some random things that came up this month).

I've noticed that "May spendy crazy" seems to have been a common theme for SA bloggers.

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For June dh has a pretty busy schedule and so I will probably have lots of time to work on some more house organization and de-cluttering. It's the kind of thing that sounds so awful and boring to me, but since diving in I have gotten a bit in the *zone*. & it's probably a good redirect of energy since we won't really have any "fun" funds for the rest of the year. (Spending it all on big trips!) So my attitude has adjusted a bit and if I am stuck at home I better make the best of it. OF course, joining a group is also really motivating.

{& I wouldn't feel sorry for me. The worst case is we just lounge by the pool all summer, which is what we have been doing. Boohoo? }.

I have more to blog about organizing and de-cluttering but honestly I've been spending less time blahblahblah and more time keeping my house in order. Maybe not a bad thing? Though I do expect to eventually get over the other side of the mountain. I don't want to spend all my time cleaning for eternity. I am enthused to make 2015 the year to get well on the other side of the mountain! & I know blogging about it will keep me motivated too. So more on all that later.

Just wondering if anyone has bought any dumb phones lately. Where have you been buying your dumb phones? (Specifically, flip phones).

Dh's family is switching over to Ting with the latest promo. (They had just talked about how his mom wanted to splurge on some fancy phone and switch over to Ting. So getting $100 credit to sign up was pretty enticing and they were already getting ready to switch).

Dh really doesn't like the idea of buying phones on Craigslist, generally. But to be fair our phones are on the more expensive end. Not necessarily worth the risk. But anyway, to speed along the transition, he did pick up a couple of used dumb phones yesterday for $25/each. He told me he could not find them anywhere otherwise. I think at the least his Grandma might want something a little more new and nice, but will see. This does get them set up. (His mom will get the new smart phone and his sister has some old hand-me-down that she can set up on Ting's GSM. His dad just wants a dumb phone for whatever reason).

I think the GSM makes the switch much easier. When we switched it was from Sprint and we could just all keep our phones. Dh's family is on Verizon and so they will need all different phones for the switch. That's been the big obstacle though dh talked them into Ting a long time ago. I think they will be saving about $150/month with Ting. (They had just told dh they didn't care about the phone outlay and were sick of their giant Verizon bill and had some extra money. Good timing! All that and his mom is the only one spending more than $25 on a phone anyway. But I guess it's because of the GSM that his sister can use the hand-me-down).

Ting is offering a $100 credit for signing up by June 8th. $100 off of a phone or $100 to try Ting, if you use a referral code. Here is my referral link:

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

They went live with GSM and so most phones can now just be moved over to Ting. (I think Verizon phones are the ones mostly that you can't just bring over?) But of course, you can check the Ting website to check if your existing phone can be moved to Ting.

Dh actually just switched to GSM since he has that capability on his phone. Ting took GSM off Beta testing and sent an e-mail about that a couple of weeks ago (offering a $30 credit to switch, which I think expired yesterday?). This means that while I am still using the Sprint Network, his phone is now on the T-mobile network. This also means that we have a lot more phone choices for the future.

I do have one caveat. My dh was surprised they took GSM out of beta because it was quite tedious to set up. No big deal to him, but you know, he doesn't think most his family or friends would have the patience or confidence to figure it all out. On the flip side, Ting's customer service is A+ so it's probably no big deal. (If you get stuck, surely they can get you through it). But you know, just fair warning. IF it sounds intimidating, don't do the GSM thing. Dh is the only one that switched to GSM in our 4-person Ting service. I also presume if you buy a GSM phone directly from Ting that it's already set up.

Payday this week. With the cash inflow I have ample cash savings + $11,000 set aside for 2015 IRAs.

I am thinking through our rough annual plan. $1,200/month to cash x 7 more months = $8,400 more to savings.

Planned Allotment:

-$1,000 Hawaii
-$2,000 Medical
-$1,000 Home Repair
-$3,100 to mortgage
-$1,200 to investments
----------------------
=$8,300

So I guess that is roughly where we are at.

We went forward with Hawaii plan this year even though we ended up doing some bigger splurges in recent months. I figured I could probably fund with credit card rewards. As is, we haven't spent our vacation budget and that will cover airfare. Our room is free. We are setting aside a generous (& also unnecessary) $1,000 for activities. This is like the *one* super splurge-y vacation I want to take my kids on.

Anyway, I am SO glad that I went forward with this trip. It seemed a little ridiculous, earlier in the year. But I kept thinking, "How much do we really need to spend? Worst case we lounge on the beach all week??"

I have seen a couple of angles to get airline miles but I am also fine with just cash flowing, which seems to be the much easier and more likely route. Relieved to feel that we will have ample cash for a splurge-y trip.

----------------------------------------------------

Car replacement talks are very up in the air. May be just put off until next year. Not feeling any rush to make any decisions.

I am always amused by perceptions that aversion to car payments is just about interest. It is so much more than interest! (Maybe interest is the least of it??) Right now it seems that we just don't have a lot of motivation to jump on a car purchase. The longer we wait the more cash we will have to buy a nicer car. Paying cash seems a very strong incentive to keep cars longer. I have always felt that, but just even moreso as we are considering next car purchases.

We endlessly save up $100/month/each to replace our cars so have a rough $15,600 set aside to replace this car. $100 x 156 months. Our budget will be $10k-$15k. I don't even know that I see the point in spending more than $10k. Last time we stumbled upon a car deal for about 33% less than we planned to spend, so I am hoping for something like that to happen again!

{I guess in the past the most we have had to save up for a car was just a few years??? So it's nice to have all that time for those little amounts to add up! But also not feeling like we need to spend all of it...}.

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In other random news, dh and I basically have identical credit histories except he still has his very first credit card. I don't know if I have a credit card that is any older than 2 or 3 years. If I don't use them I cancel them. Our FICO scores are identical. (Since having a mortgage, that seems to be the meat of our FICOs. 100% on-time payments and is the only other kind of credit we have had aside from "paid off monthly credit cards").

Over time I guess I thought he was hanging onto that for FICO reasons or something. I guess the truth is that he just wanted a backup card in case we were out and about and joint card did not work. Which was maybe a valid concern a while ago but today we have like 3 joint credit cards that we use often. (Chasing all those rewards!) We keep different cards in our wallets.

So anyway, he finally finally agreed to cut up that credit card and cancel it. WOOHOO! I am so happy because my fear was it getting fraudulent charges and not noticing. Or terms changing and getting hit with some fee. Just one more thing to loosely keep track of though it's probably had no activity for like a decade.

The deed is done! I shot them a quick e-mail the other day and they closed the card. The end. Goodbye 20-year-old credit card!

House:

I have been really focused on house organization this month. Lots more to blog about that later.

Spending:

What a crazy spendy month! Mostly a lot of little things.

I took Monday off and had a nice mix of lazing around, organizing/purging, shopping, etc. Dh and I had a nice lunch out. (I'd like to say we did a spectacular hike or something like that, but I didn't plan ahead. I think it worked out).

We bought tickets to a couple of events that came up this month. I guess it doesn't matter that we missed the Robo Games because now ABC is filming "Robot Wars" in our area. At $10 a ticket (half what we usually pay) we get a redo! I am SO EXCITED!! (Otherwise dh and BM were in Japan for the Robo Games, LM didn't want to go, and unforeseen events and exhaustion kept me from dropping by for a bit). It will be different because it will be a network taping.

Other spending:

Vet visit this week.

Dh's $2,000-ish MRI (will get the bill soon, I am sure). I had really hoped that expense would go away or diminish but they want to keep checking him annually, indefinitely. It's a small price to pay to keep him alive and all. I just haven't given a lot of thought how to budget that for the long run and I guess maybe I should. (I've known for a year that this is "permanent", but just haven't dealt with that yet).

Dh bought a $90 pair of shoes after belaboring the decision for months. He was driving me nuts! Hopefully he likes them.

We needed to order new printer ink: $50.

I am sure I am forgetting many purchases - it's just been one of those months.

Received $50 bank interest for the month of April.^^

Redeemed $50 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Redeemed $27 cash back on Citi card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Savings (From paycheck):

+$200 to investments
+$300 to cash**
+$900 to IRAs

**I did pull out $1,800-ish for Japan expenses. (All this Japan stuff had been saved up last year, so am not considering it a step backwards for this year's savings).

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):

+$1,300 to cash
-$535 for Dentist/Ortho (for 3)
-$400 Summer class for LM
-$150 new glasses for LM

^^Monthly interest peaked this month. I have a 6% CD that matures this month. I can probably renew at 3% but you can only put $500/month into the CD and I have to pay a $35 annual fee to be eligible for this CU. That last part makes it not very worthwhile and it was kind of a pain anyway. (Membership was free for the first year). So I look forward to closing this account and simplifying. Between this and huge Chase checking incentives, I haven't really been paying attention to interest rates. I will probably close this account (and already closed the Chase accounts in December) and will shop around banks/CUs a bit. Probably look at what other CDs are out there right now. I don't expect much but may consider the Ally "raise your rate" CDs since we are so flush with cash. We could maybe just throw our emergency fund into that. I will check terms and pros and cons and other CDs before deciding for sure.

We have about "3 months" of emergency fund that I don't see ever using outside of an extreme emergency, so I think that money is appropriate for a CD. We haven't been this cash flush in recent years so haven't wanted to tie up much in CDs to earn a whole whopping extra 0.25%. But with our current situation it makes more sense to do that. (We also have lots of additional cash that we will not tie up in a CD).

**Reading Laura's posts keep reminding me I have to update on my flakey sister. She was supposed to be visiting here about NOW. Maybe in May. About 4 weeks ago I asked my mom what was up with that and she said she didn't think they were coming. But you know, they never really bothered to mention that they were not coming. It's only because I asked that my mom pushed her some more and she said they couldn't get the time off or whatever.

There could be more to that story, but lord knows.

I am bummed about them deciding not to visit and not bothering to fill us in. On the flip side, I am also emotionally relieved. Maybe for the best.

**Yesterday I received food karma. Literal food karma. We had lunch brought in to work and when I expressed interest in some of the leftovers everyone decided I should take it ALL home. This seems the reverse of the beginning of the month when I kept giving away food. (It's a crazy amount of food!!)

**I think we are all going to visit the Doctor this month, or next. I tweaked my knee and I have been totally ignoring it. I think it could just be an extension of problems I already have and maybe not much I can do, but I should get it checked out. Probably next month when things settle down a bit more at work.

Dh is probably fine. He's just a little hypochondriac-y after our recent tumor experiences. He is considering further testing because of that experience. I was feeling kind of "meh" on that, but it was because it did not sound pleasant. When he told me why he was considering it though, I totally understand. He is thinking about it. For now, he has a clean bill of health.

Dh e-mailed BM's doctor about some skin stuff that wasn't clearing up. Was just recommended OTC medicine for that (one we already have).

Out of nowhere, we realized that LM is having some vision problems. He just said something like, "You guys can read that?" & when we probed him further he mentioned he was having trouble seeing the blackboard in class, etc.

He is such a weird kid. He is 10 and he is SO EXCITED to get glasses. He is currently in a very bummed state because he has to wait 10 days to get them. (Don't ask me! Hopefully it's not a huge letdown).

All that, and the cat is due for a vet visit!

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Well, I am glad LF asked about my dress purchases because I didn't think anyone would care at all. Ha!

It's funny, because I see so little retail or advertising in my little bubble that sometimes SA gives me more ideas to SPEND money than anywhere else. Isn't that funny? I apologize if I encouraged anyone to spend money.

I got dress #2 and it is even better and nicer in person. LOVE!!

I received two new swimsuits and one is a very different style and print from what I already have but was a wee bit tight. I will try the next size up but worry it will be too loose in some places. Will see! It would be nice to mix things up a bit. The other one was a lot like my one owned swimsuit and I decided to just return it since I am returning the other. (Do I really need two nearly identical swimsuits?)

Anyway, if I am re-ordering the one suit then I will peruse the dresses some more. I never thought to buy dresses from that site but the advertising on the site did catch my eye. I suppose I will peruse their other clothes too.

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This weekend I have to work a bit and otherwise should be a chore weekend. It will be another couple of weeks before I can REALLY relax. I am taking a 3-day weekend for Mothers Day.

I have some financial updates to do later...

**I received my annual OT check yesterday. My plan was to put 20% of it to investments and $3,100 to the mortgage.

I have about just enough to do that. BUT... Hoarding cash and allocating later seems to work best for us. We also received word that we might know in October if LM needs surgery for impacted tooth. October is also our Hawaii trip. So I think we will at least hold on to the cash until that point. I've also got a lot of expenses coming up in May.

I've already paid for the Japan trip, with my regular check, so will just deposit all this to savings.

I mostly expect to follow through with original plan by 12/31. Just maybe not if LM needs an expensive procedure!

--------------------------------------------------

**We bought dh's mom some thank you flowers. Mostly she just gets annoyed at those kind of gestures but I think we nailed it this time. Dh had no clue what kind of flowers she would like but we apparently picked her favorite! So glad that worked out. She sent me a picture and they were gorgeous. Money well spent. (Was a, "thanks for watching my kid for 10 days," and otherwise helping with that trip).

**Dh bought a new kindle. With $200 credit card reward.

**I bought two $20 Amazon gift cards and already received $40 back from our AmEx card. (Per my last post).

I ended up just going ahead and ordering placemats. (I had bought a set of 4 and liked them, and had been wanting to order 4-8 more. To go with our new table cloth). In the end, it cost me $8 cash to buy 8 more place mats.

Dh wants to use his $20 to get the ads off the kindle but feels like it's kind of a waste. The timing couldn't be more perfect for that since he had his Kindle for a day or two, felt annoyed with the ads, and then a free $20 fell out of the sky to cover that.

**I ordered a couple of dresses and swim suits for Hawaii. I figured I might return a couple. But dress #1 came yesterday and was *perfect*. Will see how much I keep and return but is my little splurge. Gearing up for *my* big trip this year...

**We will eat well this weekend. Today dh is taking me out to lunch. It's the first lunch date we could arrange post Japan trip, but will also celebrate the end of tax season. Going to my favorite Thai restaurant.

Since my phone stopped ringing off the hook, and apparently everyone thinks I am on vacation, I am thinking of taking this weekend entirely off. I can cram next weekend if need be. It's probably how it always goes. I am stressed and worried how it will all get done... Then I have a quiet day or two at work and it all seems easy peasy. It's amazing what you can get done without a million interruptions!

**This weekend is the kids' school International Festival. It is DIVINE. Homemade meals from around the world. So yeah, we will eat well today and tomorrow.

Tax season has been weird. Kind of slower and more relaxing than usual BUT kind of backed up towards the end. I just finished my dad's and Gma-in-law's tax returns this weekend. Which is crazy late. I am usually mostly done with tax stuff by now. It's the other April and May deadlines that are weighing on me now, since I am now officially *way* behind on those.
I won't get any time off until mid-May. Then the rest of the year just feels like a vacation.

Thankfully, dh and the kids were gone for 10 days. I needed the time to just work work work without distraction. They have no idea how crazy it got! But was easier to deal with without having a family to worry about. I am also usually way more burned out by this point of the year but just am not at all yet. I can deal with a few weeks of "extra crazy" if it doesn't drag on for a long time. So that is the plus.

The fam's trip went VERY well. Last time BM left the country, we had a crazy Murphy week. (I have NO IDEA how I could have ever dealt with anything like that alone, during such a busy time at work, and was a fear I had). I also dreaded dealing with my MIL, who watched LM while the rest of the fam went off to Japan. Except for some drama up front, she was on good behavior. Phew! Of course, I thought LM would be more homesick too, or that MIL would drive him crazy (as she does to people) but he was fine. I didn't know if LM would have the patience for her. & I thought he might be more homesick regardless. But for whatever reason he was in an exceptionally mature mood that week.

I am so relieved that everything went SO smooth.

-------------------------------------------------

The total expense for the Japan trip came out to about $2,900 for dh. We were expecting $3,000. So I am happy with that.

My dad did pay for my son's airfare, but he ended up going 50/50 on the food and hotel and having me pay for all of BM's transportation and so on. I don't know if he just expected me to pay $3k towards the trip or what but I am NOT going to argue about it. Just relieved to only pay $2,900 for a trip that I Was budgeting $6,000 for!! (Have been expecting to just pay $3,000 since my parents offered to pay for my son. All around, is less than I had planned to spend. Woohoo!).

& thanks to technology, we had no costs for communication. When my dad took me to Japan it was mostly paid for BUT I remember spending like $100+ just to call dh and the kids. That was a while ago!

Of course, my dad got some exceptional pictures and BM had a blast. They were able to be there at the peak time for cherry blossoms, which was the primary purpose of the trip for my dad.

It's nice when things go so smooth!

----------------------------------------------------

At home I did not spend much money *at all* so I am hoping to offset some trip costs with some low spending this month.

Mostly gas because dropped off the family in the Bay Area and then went down over the weekend to rescue LM. (They got a ride back home from family).

Of course, the sad part of this story is we had contributed $100 to a Robo Games kickstarter, in exchange for 4 tickets. The annual robot wars are usually later in April and so of course for this year they made it BEFORE April 15th and in the middle of this Japan trip.

I had planned to stop by the games on my way home Sunday night, which is the best time to be there anyway. Is when they do the epic big battles with the heavy weight robots. But anyway, I was going to meet my friend there and hang out at least a couple of hours. But by the time I got out of MIL's house, only then my friend tells me they have to leave at 5:00 or whatever because it's a school night. Don't get me wrong, I Would have gone anyway, but I was SO exhausted I decided to just go straight home. Maybe for the best. But so SAD that we all missed it. I did give our tickets to my friend, so glad someone could use them.

Next Year...

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Oh yes, but as to our spending for the month, it's kind of absurdly low:

I've got a $25 credit on my Target card because I had some returns.

--$73 spent on gas (LOTS of driving, but only drove the gas sipper. Also have enough gas for this week).

--$40 eating out - MOST of this was when I was in San Jose last weekend. MIL and my mom had no food so we just ate out. But MIL had a party Sunday and I ate too well that day.

I had otherwise planned to eat out a couple of times with the family gone but didn't end up doing so. You can say what you want when I have my personal chef/domestic helper doing all that stuff but when entirely alone, during a very busy time at work, my default was to eat in. IT's what I am used to and has become my habit. It just seemed easier to stop by the grocery store on the way home than to go out to eat or to even go through a drive-thru. I share because I know we are creatures of habit. But since I am not in the habit of grocery shopping or cooking, I Was surprised how much that was my default. I am in the habit of eating very well at home. I am not in the habit of eating out. So I guess that is what it came down to.

Groceries: $60 (I definitely splurged because it was just me)

& that takes us through the first 10 days or so of the month. 1/3 of the month...

I don't know that I see much spending the rest of the month, though obviously the food will go up a few notches with the family back.

----------------------------------------------------

Oh yeah, and I fed everyone and their brother while dh and the kids were gone. Dh had picked up a few groceries for me. (Not much, because I mostly planned to buy fresh ingredients). But, anyway, he told me he left a "few leftovers" and we discussed several meals I could probably do in my sleep and would just keep it simple while they were gone.

SO... I already had some food at work the first day and made the mistake of stocking up at the grocery store that night, on the way home. IT wasn't until the next morning that I took stock of leftovers, when grabbing some for lunch.

**O.M.G.**

So yeah, the next day I started "Operation Feed Everyone."

Dh doesn't get it. I swear I had manicotti every single day for lunch for like 6 days. Took one serving to my mom. I still had some left for dh when he came back.

My co-worker took a whole pot of stew and 2 servings of pizza.

I froze a serving of stew for my mom and a whole chicken meal (for 10?) for LM and MIL. Took those down over the weekend. Also had one serving of chili which I gave to my mom.

Before I realized all this I had cooked a pot of spaghetti and bought high quality deli meat and bread for the week. Gave some of that to my mom, who does not cook and was home alone too.

I did cook a couple of meals during the week (had more leftovers for lunches) and made a batch of burrito and spaghetti the couple of nights before the boys came home so they'd have some food while they recovered from jet lag.

I am just relieved that none of it seemed to go to waste. It is amazing how fast that food goes with dh and the kids here! I just laugh that dh thought I would eat ALL That AND cook 3 or 4 meals. HA!

Received $45 bank interest for the month of March.

Redeemed $50 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Redeemed $42 cash back on Citi card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Savings (From paycheck):

+$200 to investments
+$300 to cash**
+$900 to IRAs

**I did pull out $1,100 cash for Japan airfare.

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):

+$1,300 to cash
-$500 for life insurance

Short-term savings is robust right now (you might have noticed way more + than - in recent months) but that is mostly because we prepaid property taxes in December. Which leaves an extra $2,500 cash buffer or so since we've already saved up the next property tax installment (which isn't due until December).

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Doings:

**Life has been busy. Mostly work.

**I did finally sign up for that credit card reward. $200 cash back + free prime for one year. Should get the rewards soon.

**Mid-month I get my OT check for the year. I will also have to sort out overseas trip expenses with my dad. OT should be way more than expenses. So I am mostly just looking forward to sorting all that out. Then we can see where we are at financially and look ahead.

**The funny thing about "more money" is more choices and stress. That's the mode I am in right now. A lot of stuff is popping up on the horizon now that we have some extra money. I think it's just a matter of time -we need to think through and prioritize. But for the moment I am feeling very overwhelmed. Some of it I haven't talked over with dh yet and I know it will be better once we sit down and talk it all out. (Who knows - he may outright veto me. That would make it easy).

Our "year of splurge" is definitely over when it comes to the frivolous, but there is still a lot of less frivolous stuff to sort out. Home improvements and medical stuff.

With the extreme drought situation here we may have the opportunity to redo our front yard landscaping. (Both city and HOA approval, perhaps. Both have been very picky with the unnatural lush green lawns). We can do the back whenever but it's been more of a dream more than a priority. Talking about being able to do the front yard too and having some extra money is suddenly bumping that up to the top of our priorities. Maybe the theme for us this year is "conservation". I really want to dump the gas guzzler too.

(We've wanted a more appropriate yard, for our climate, for ages. It's just not something we really thought through before we bought our house. We didn't really know the local climate either. Since living here for a time, it's always bothered me what a water wasting city this is compared to our last city. & we met a few people who had more appropriate landscaping so kind of put it in the back of our heads that is what we really wanted. It was just I had never heard of the idea before, I guess. When we did start seeing other kinds of yards we had no money).

Anyway, I went for a walk in parents' way more water conservative (though less dry) city over the weekend and saw a lot of ripped out lawns. I am going to broach the subject with dh. At the least let's kill the backyard lawn. Why have we not done that yet??? That part is a frugal (free) step. The problem is that I perused the websites/portfolios of a few recommended landscapers. So now I am dreaming of a fancy hardscape kind of backyard. I am sure everything I was drooling over was expensive.

Of course, maybe I should dream away. We are probably at a point where we could be rid of our gardeners. I'd love to keep them on but the most of what they do is mowing lawns. I don't know that they'd still help us with our meager yard work if we have no lawns. It is something to consider though. If we go REALLY low maintenance we would save $1,000 per year on help. Maybe this is sounding more sensible. Well, if I have to talk to dh about it and get some quotes. Our neighbors are kind of ritzy so I don't think I was looking at reasonable landscapers. (Neighborhood recommendations). It will be a little more work to seek out a deal. But, we won't know until we start getting quotes and doing more homework.

I think that is a lot of my being overwhelmed. I personally tend to estimate things high and plan for the worst. Which is good financially but maybe unnecessary stress at times. Right now I just have a lot of question marks.

**We have a corned beef and cabbage tradition this time of year but Saturday dh made it in the crockpot. O.M.G. (I couldn't tell you why we hadn't tried that before since we us our crockpot so much). 5 stars!

We will probably have again this week.

Saturday we invited up the in-laws and they brought up a pie for Pi day. We ate too well! We also had Irish soda bread.

**I didn't end up going out last week for lunch and I hadn't thought about the kids having short days all this week. So we will have to make sure to get a lunch date in the week after.

Maybe for the best. I wasn't overly stressed this past week and we will be taking the kids out to celebrate their A+ report cards. Initially their wants were very modest, as they tend to be. But I think now they both want to go out to two different restaurants. I am fine with it. They always do well, but lots of A+s this past trimester. Extra impressive since 6th grade has been pretty intense for older child.

Oh, and another reason to celebrate! Dh and I met 20 years ago! Crazy! We will quietly celebrate that alongside the kids' successes. (I don't know the exact day, but was March 1995. We met one the first day of our seasonal job when we both transferred to the same department - was the tail end of our freshman year in college. We probably would have crossed paths eventually, regardless, as we were both studying for the same degree at the same college and worked several years for the same Company).

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**So our library started a program where they will lend out more things. "Library of Things". I had heard about it but just saw that starts this weekend and they will have an online catalog on Monday. Off the top of my head, I saw sewing machines, Go Pro, board games, etc.

My spouse and kids collect board games and it would be so nice to be able to try more of them before buying them. My dh also noticed they have video games. Which historically we are more apt to rent or to buy used and sell afterwards. But I guess there is no one really renting out video games at the moment. (Er, there is nowhere dirt cheap to rent video games, like we have done for the past 20 years or whatever. At this point it makes more sense just to buy used and sell for the same price when done. We are used to renting games for essentially nothing). The library option might be a nice alternative.

Of course, this library is right by my office, so very convenient. I have the feeling I will be picking up things for the family once in a while.

**We car shop so much less than average that it's always an entirely different economy and environment when we do. As such, our biggest car shopping tip is to be flexible and to keep your eyes open. Which means I have *no idea* how this will end up. I don't know what deal we will eventually stumble across.

The *perfect* car came up for sale a few blocks from my office. So we were able to test drive it without taking too much time from our day.

The car was a little more beat up than advertised and gave us an appreciation for the high quality of our cars. (Not bad, but our cars, even our much older one of a similar make, has absolutely nothing in disrepair on the inside). I had been thinking we didn't want to deal with selling private party but that experience made me change my mind. It also made me think about how we never bought a car before in our current city (more extreme temps) and how a garaged car will likely be a deal breaker for us. I was just feeling extremely picky about it.

A wagon sounds ugly as heck but I was pleasantly surprised by the look when I started perusing them online. But this is the thing. I don't see a lot of cars and don't know what the general look is, but I felt like late 2000s wagons are look kind of 1970-ish on the inside. I don't know. I really didn't like it, though I could probably get over it if the car had been immaculate. The irony is that I saw a subaru of the same year that looked the same inside, so maybe it's a wagon thing. I have a 2005 vehicle and I think it looks much more sleek or modern on the inside. Are other cars of that year so ugly? Or is it a wagon thing? Like people want to remember their 1970s station wagons?

So anyway, it was good to make sure we weren't totally wasting our time and I now think we will make the effort to sell our van ourselves. Being garaged makes a world of difference.

We are also keeping an eye out in the Bay Area too and might rather buy a car from a more temperate climate. It's fairly temperate here but the summers can be pretty extreme and I realized that looking at such a low miles car that looked a little more beat up than I expected it would be.

Anyway, I am sure we can work it out if we find the *right* car and am not too worried about it. But as is, I Wasn't planning to buy a car this week and didn't have $5,000 cash on me. So, anyway, the car had been listed for 24 hours when I noticed it and I got to see it right away. When we get there, the guy starts going on and on about how his phone is blowing up and everyone wants the car. Which really turned me off. I just didn't want to deal with that. I figured he was lying, but it wasn't immaculate and I wasn't going to take the rest of the day off work to arrange the cash. We were actually test driving it, he kept going on and on and on, so I turned around and said nevermind. I figured he was exaggerating a little too much. If we really wanted to buy it that day I would have just rolled my eyes and moved on, but as is, he pushed me off the fence.

For reference, the last car I bought private party was a Mustang convertible, similarly aged, half as many miles (about 30k). No one wanted it but me. So yeah, it's hard to imagine people are lining up for a Ford wagon.

Well, what do you know, the next morning the listing was gone. He might have not been totally lying. & holy crap! That really frustrates me as to the used car market. I've never shopped in a used car market where other people actually wanted used cars. Or where anyone else actually wanted an extremely frugal and practical car.

To be continued...

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So, my dh is a bit of a hoarder. He knows that about himself and keeps it under control. I am sure he owns less crap than the average American. (He is used to living in a small space, for one, and plans for that in the long run). But he is also married to Ms. Spartan and I think it's just way too much.

Well, my dh may have found a treasure in his hoard!

I believe he wanted to sell an old guitar, you know, sitting around for like 20 years without being used at all like most his stuff. I think he wanted to sell it for a couple of hundred bucks to buy some video games or whatever.

So he starts looking it up online and sees this guitar valued for about $1,200. ??? HE bought it in college and can't imagine that he paid more than like $400 for it. OF course, he dug further and it's a rare guitar that is now worth closer to $1,500. ($1,200 was more like a 2010 valuation).

Holy Cow! We've got an appreciating asset!

The timing is so odd. I can really really do boring. Trust me! But the idea of selling a treasure to pay down our mortgage by 0.05% or investing it or whatever sounds SO boring. I don't know that I Want to do "boring" with this treasure. Boring is what we always do and this is exciting! OF course, on top of that, we are in a big year of splurge and so my dh could not imagine spending one penny of it. (Except maybe like $50 of it that he wanted to cash out in the first place).

The timing is odd because most of the last 13 years or whatever we probably could have used the money. I would have done boring.

So we are both feeling "meh" on the whole thing. Which is maybe for the best. Sounds like we should just keep it as long as it is appreciating.

To be continued...

HE did take it out for a valuation, just to be sure. Sounded too good to be true! So anyway, while he was out, he took an old band instrument I have been meaning to sell. It maybe came to mind in the last year that I should sell it. He found a music store who offered consignment with a 75% pay out. They estimated we could get $300 net if we sold it without any repairs. They didn't discuss repairing it first. I don't know if this was the best offer or just most people wouldn't put in the money. I would repair it if it would pay off. So we will have to go back later to discuss the terms of consignment and if that is really the best option. It sounds like it might be.

It's a depreciating asset that I can do "boring" with.

Both of the above instruments were purchased used. As most our musical instruments were.

I met with widowed client last week and it was just awful. Will have to nag everyone about their wills and life insurance later. Though I know that no one will listen. The problem is most people don't see all the consequences of not having all that stuff in order. I see it way too much. I could never do that to my family!

Widow will be fine because she has been supporting her family all these years anyway, has a great job, and is a very strong woman. But, it's just I can't believe her husband didn't put her names on his accounts and stuff like that. *sigh*

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I was out of sorts after that meeting. Friday I called dh to rescue me. Just had to get the heck out of there and couldn't focus, so he took me to lunch. (I had met with client the day before? But I just felt so emotionally bogged down on Friday). We haven't been religiously doing our lunch dates and so I am thinking we should plan to meet up the next 3 weeks. The lunches might pay for themselves. I think I was much more refreshed and productive on Saturday after our nice lunch date, and I do get paid OT. 3 more weeks of crazy busy with dh here and then he will be gone for a couple of weeks. So that's potentially 4 lunches out in exchange for some extra sanity. Plus last Friday was very unplanned and we paid too much for a so-so meal. We can plan ahead and eat better food for less money like we usually do. (We just kind of drew a blank last week because we hadn't eaten out in a while, I didn't want to drive to meet him anywhere, and more eateries by my office have shut down. On the way to somewhere else we remembered there is a great little Greek restaurant we had found, so maybe we will eat there this week).

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Dh took some cash out of the ATM yesterday. I had received a note that our ATM card would expire and not be renewed if we did not make a transaction. We initially decided not to bother with it since we absolutely never use the ATM.

But as the expiration of the card approached I decided that it wouldn't hurt to just keep it. If we really never use it before now and next expiry we can re-evaluate at that point.

Anyway, I was frustrated with dh because he didn't know the PIN #. Though he is the only one who has used it for like the last decade?? So I called and was relieved I was able to quickly change the PIN# over the telephone through some automated system. I probably should have done that a decade ago.

---------------------------------------------------

Other than that, I am just waiting for deals to grace my e-mail.

I saw some crazy cheap sales for Hawaii airfare for even up to a year from now but flying out from cities in other states. But I know it's just a matter of time. I am waiting to jump on the first deal I see out of Northern California. Could be any day.

A couple of low-miles cars also crossed my e-mail but they just weren't "the one", for various reasons.

Well I've never had travel abroad plans, that we actually paid for, get quite this far. So hopefully that's a good sign! We got our airfare booked a couple of days ago. I will send my dad a check for dh's airfare tomorrow when I get paid. $1100 for that, which is about the amount I was sending to saving anyway tomorrow. So that works out fine. I think we will settle up the rest when they return in April. Which means I probably won't dip into savings at all. I am expecting a big OT check in April.

I am relieved my parents really and truly are covering my son. (They can be kind of wishy washy with gifts, so I feel better now that the airfare is paid for).

Which reminds me, it is amazing what people assume! Obviously we could never afford to plan and save up for a trip like this and obviously my dad is paying for everything! What I don't get, beyond all else, is why everyone assumes my dad would pay for my husband to go on this trip? The grandson assumptions are at least a little more understandable. (Could be very wrong too, but are more understandable).

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I received an e-mail that Hawaii fares were going on sale through September travel. (We are going in October). Apparently this sale was 3 months ahead of the usual. I am glad I signed up for a website that keeps on top of that and we are ready to jump on the first October flight sale. No rush, but with low gas prices and everything I feel it's good just to jump on anything that pops up below $400 per person. I want to just lock it in and be done. I thought we would do that in June, but I guess it might be sooner!

Maybe some unexpected cash outflow, earlier than planned, but I don't mind when it is for something fun like this!

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In other news, we have had a bit of car serendipity.

I am kind of having this "DOH" moment because though we have been wanting to sell our minivan forever and always figured a time of low gas prices would be more ideal to do so... The reality is all my brain was thinking, "I can actually drive the van! It doesn't cost an arm and a leg to drive it!" Now that gas prices are low.

DOH!

To be fair, I have been way more focused on replacing dh's 15-year-old car, at this point. We are in the very early talking stages on that. But I think this is also some of why the van fell off our radar.

Anyway, I don't remember how we got on cars last weekend but I was looking at some and feeling very frustrated with internet information overload. We bought our last cars fairly new and figured we had so long to save up to replace them that we would just do the same this round. But after seeing small car after small car each having some major deal breaker, I was getting frustrated. We have a very basic car and the bar should be set pretty low. But it's really set pretty high as to fuel efficiency, reliability, safety, etc. We aren't really finding anything newer that compares.

Feeling frustrated, I checked out Mr. Money mustache's car recommendation page and mostly struck out. In my opinion, too much emphasis on more costly name brands. I think our strategy is to more go for not what everyone else is buying. Much better deals that way. That said, he also had a lot of more used car recommendations and maybe that is where we will eventually end up when we replace dh's car. We just aren't to that point yet.

But something struck me from his car page. He recommended my dh's car, years 2005 - 2009 I think, in the wagon version. If you want something a little more roomy and fuel efficient.

Ding ding ding!! I told my dh I had a plan to replace our 2005 minivan and he is totally in. I set up a google alert and have been receiving on average one new car listing daily. (Who knew there were so many wagons of this specific model?? I have absolutely never seen one). It helps to have access to a few super major metropolitan areas. I had written off a couple with 90k or 130k miles (my van has 120k miles) and everything since has been like 200k+ or 300k+ miles. Yeesh! But that is making me more confident in this decision. I don't really want to buy something until May anyway and so for now I am just kind of gauging the market. That said, if anything pops up that is "perfect" we would buy it today.

I am expecting to pay $5k-ish for the fuel efficiency upgrade and to sell our minivan for $2k-ish. Though I'd happily pay a little more for something with lower miles that will last longer. That's probably more what we want anyway. I know if we are patient something with really low miles will pop up.

Well that's our crazy plan for now. Will see...

I have never shopped for a specific vehicle before, but I guess the internet helps with that and this is very in line with our usual strategy to stick with something that no one else wants. This whole experience is probably going to make me very love/hate as to car shopping in the internet age. It's got its pluses and its minuses.

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Well, my client lost his lengthy (and terrible) battle with brain cancer last month. I just found out Friday and have been very sad about that. He leaves behind a wife my age and two young children. He was obviously too young.

Received $42 bank interest for the month of February.

Redeemed $25 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card. Deposited this snowflake into investments.

Redeemed $50 credit card rewards to our ROTH

Savings (From paycheck):

+$200 to investments
+$300 to cash
+$900 to IRAs**

**2014 Maxed out in Feb. On to 2015!

I updated sidebar for all of the above.

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):

+$1,300 to cash
-$515 for insurance, smog check, registration (autos)

The combination of low gas prices and putting some more wiggle room in our budget has been great! Our fuel expense was $75 lower than average last month though we made several trips to the Bay Area. Our usual strategy is to way over-save up front. Which is fine - it works very well for us. But this year our savings pace seems more realistic with our budget. OF course, I am fine with relaxing the budget because I am happy with our savings pace. (I'd say we are still pretty aggressive on the "pay ourselves first" but just not as much as the last couple of years. I still don't foresee ever having a penny left over at the end of the month to add to savings. It's relative).

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An update to our free month of Amazon prime (trial): Dh got bored with the TV shows because we can pretty much get 90%+ of what we want elsewhere. (Which is what he has always said and why we have not gotten Prime before. Just that Hulu and Netlfix makes more sense for our personal tastes). Anyway, so our free trial expired yesterday I believe and now dh doesn't want to pay for it. So, phew! I may still do the free year but haven't gotten around to opening that credit card yet.

I don't know what I Was thinking on funding 2014 IRAs but I guess I was leaving a wide margin of error for MURPHY. I thought I may finish funding in March or even April, but I was able to top off dh's IRA today with my paycheck. Woohoo!

Still feeling behind, but so much better than last year (post 2013 crazy Murphy year).

Anyway, I decided to fund it because I could keep cash at the minimum I am aiming for, plus a whole $50 to spare.

In other news, it looks like the upcoming Japan trip (for dh and BM) is a little up in the air.

I've said it before. It's not like we never try do any big splurges like this. Yeesh! But the universe just never seems to be in agreement whenever we try to plan any travel abroad. (Free trips initiated by other people are always fine. Spending our own money to travel abroad has *never* panned out. I may be 0 for 4 with this trip).

Anyway, it might work out or we might postpone for one year. Will see.

Since dh and I have no particular love of travel, it's just kind of funny. Like, "Okay, we get the hint!" I do admit though if it was really important to us we would try much harder. Fair enough. I do think it somewhat speaks to our priorities. In this case, my older child LOVES to travel and thus it is a little more important to us. So we might see this through more than other failed travel plans of years past. Will try again!

When we bought our home we made a lateral financial move from a high cost region. Traded a small condo for a big house.

I can't say we have had much use for the formal dining and living areas, but they have been filled with hand-me-downs and re-purposed furniture throughout the years. I did invest in some drapes a few years back but that is the extent of my financial commitment to those rooms. I think early on the extra space was overwhelming and later on we just didn't want to get used to it because we just plan to downsize eventually anyway.

Anyway, that said, we parked BM in the formal dining room when we got a new laptop about a year ago. Figured the room might as well get some use. Well, I decided to kick him out last weekend. I moved him to an unused corner of the living room. We had an extra desk he could use and it gave me my pretty formal dining room back.

When we moved him it brought my attention to some hand-me-down (I guess?) lamp that I really don't like. He would need some better lighting for homework. It turns out my parents just bought a lamp and though I wouldn't have been surprised if it was more expensive they had only paid $60 for it. I wish I had looked at it closer, but I had liked it at a quick glance. Of course, after shopping around online for about an hour that was the best option I could come up with. Free shipping and it arrived in 2 days. It really classes up the room.

The old lamp was something like this:



The new lamp:



I guess that is the first lamp we have ever bought for this house. The house came with overhead lighting in the rest of the rooms.

All that and dh ended up moving BM back to the dining room. (In the corner - not using the nice table any more. I agree with his reasons). HA! But, I appreciate the opportunity to make a small investment/enhancement to the living room.

It's little stuff like that bubbling up to the surface for us these days. What has been completely overlooked while we had higher priorities. (Though for the most part we are more than happy with all the free furniture we have gotten over the years! I don't foresee many changes like this).

While claiming my elegant dining room back I remembered that the table cloth in there was starting to fall apart. I had noticed at Thanksgiving. (It was vinyl and though it was very pretty and looked more like lace, time was wearing it down).

I ended up finding a table cloth very much like my mom had and I had admired. Plus it was washable and should last much longer.



Thankfully it was as nice in person. Spent about $50 on that, but is a really nice improvement. It didn't match as nice as I thought it would with our current place mats, but that might be a good wish list item (birthday or christmas) or something just to keep an eye out for. I don't feel the need to rush out and replace today.

We got our room booked in Maui. Cost will be $0, thanks to in-laws' timeshares.

Airfare is going for $300 right now from the west coast. I don't know that I've ever paid more than $400. But $300? WOW! It's the first time I am flying all four of us to Hawaii and so these prices sound good but the low prices have not hit for fall yet. We will keep an eye on things. I signed up at a website that had a lot of great airfare tips and sales alerts. I feel relieved because when I perused airfare last month I thought it might be a lot more expensive than I had envisioned. It's since gone in the opposite direction. $300 per person x 4, would be phenomenal.

Our annual vacation budget is $1,500 and so I think I will just try to fit airfare in that range. (We usually don't plan trips to Hawaii and I Would not expect our usual vacation budget to cover that!). I plan to use credit card rewards to pay for the car rental. I may hold back $1,000 from my overtime this year to fund the trip. We wanted to take surfing lessons, maybe two of us do a zip line, etc. But most the lazing around and swimming, snorkeling, hiking and boogie boarding type stuff should be fairly inexpensive. I am feeling optimistic that this trip will be easily funded without pushing into our savings goals.

Of course, our usual vacation budget funds our overall more "vacation lifestyle" and frequent weekend trips and so on. This year is going to be "two BIG trips and not a lot of money to do much else" kind of year. We still live in a resort community, have some amazing hikes in our backyard, and maybe we should make more of a go of some camping excursions this year. I think we can easily keep our "vacation lifestyle" but it will just be more frugal than recent years. Will just have to plan accordingly.

I saw a great article about teaching children about finances:

The Smart Way to Teach Children About Money

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-smart-way-to-teach-children-...

"We focus on teaching finance in school when regular math is much more effective at helping children manage money."

"“A lot of decisions in finance are just easier if you’re more comfortable with numbers and making numeric comparisons,” says Mr. Cole.

Without strong math skills, he says, people tend to use more emotional ways to invest, spend or save their money. What’s more, people with less math experience make worse financial mistakes with issues like compounding or underestimating how quickly interest accumulates."

I can see that it would be hard to make better financial decisions without math skills.

Both my kids are (very) strong at math and I try to apply that to the real world however I can. Which has led me to comment over the years that like my 8yo had more money sense than most adults. Anyway, when I discuss credit cards with them they look incredulous. You know, like why would anyone pay 30% interest on a purchase?? I always thought it was somewhat genetic or learned, but it is interesting to think that maybe their math skills are also a LOT of it. That an 8-year-old might be horrified by the idea of high-interest credit card debt simply because they understand the math.

The above article basically said that the personal finance education just isn't working. Really interesting.

Received $42 bank interest for the month of January. I am still just adding this to cash, for simplicity. We never seem to have enough cash, anyway. When I have "too much cash" we can re-evaluate.

Dh received $70 birthday money. He generally prefers to save this money but we had such a good year I encouraged him to splurge. I think he only spent $40 of it. He had wanted to get Prime but I told him that I would just get it for free. He signed up for a free trial in the meantime and we have what feels like is a million TV shows and movies (on top of the million we already had). I can't say that we miss cable *at all*. (We already had netflix and hulu and get all sorts of free content over the internet).

Redeemed $25 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card.

Redeemed $43 credit card rewards (cash back) from our 2% card.

snowflakes into investment account:

$68 cc rewards (per above)

Savings (From paycheck):

+$200 to investments
+$900 to IRAs
+$300 to cash

I updated sidebar for all of the above.

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):

+$1,300 to cash
-$530 for insurance (home/auto)
-$195 school lunches (6 months)
-$100 passport expenses

**I did file our taxes on Tuesday.

And... I already got a refund from the state. WHOA!

The irony is that I mostly never get state refunds because there have been so many years our state has been insolvent. I've already adjusted our taxes this year so that we should not get a penny back from the state for 2015.

IRS refund should arrive early next week. The entire $3,300 in tax refunds is earmarked for travel this year.

I have not filed the kids' taxes yet but they are mostly done. I might file them today. I just wanted to double check everything and I still have to pay the taxes they owe. They owed $6 in state taxes on about $2,500 of investment income. I try to keep their income tax-free but don't expend much energy towards that end. BM owed 5 of those dollars - I didn't notice his dividends were starting to get up there. More money, more dividends! I will revise my tax strategy to "$1,500 annual income" for him. If he owes the state $5 for that, I can live with that. (Federal is tax free $2k per year with the kiddie tax rules, but the state is only $1k tax-free).

**We got our first Ting bill since I have had work wifi. We barely used any minutes, texts or data this month. Our bill was $26.60. This is definitely what it will be at through tax season. When winter is over and my dad starts traveling again and I am not holed up at work 6 days a week, will see.

That's for the two of us. So, $13.30 per phone.

**Dh did a grocery run yesterday and did really good. He had earned $25-off and stocked up on a bunch of sales. Receipt said he paid $120 and saved $60. The pantry runneth over...

**Oh, and yesterday was kind of a lucky day all around. Surprise money in the checkbook. (Not expecting refund quite so fast). In addition, dh got his passport (we did not pay to get it faster, but they just sent it in a couple of weeks??). & dh also got the extra bulb for his projector (that was a rebate deal). Woohoo!

We are on a roll this week!

I forgot that I have *three* dates with hubby this week. Today we are going to see a show in San Francisco.

Thursday was his volunteer appreciation dinner. He won a nice award, which was a surprise! It's the local public TV station - they always throw a GREAT party. We also managed to score two camping chairs and a New Kindle Fire from the raffle.

I don't know that a new tablet was particularly on dh's wish list, but he is LOVING it. (It's not gentle on the eyes like the e-readers and so it won't scratch his itch to upgrade his old reading Kindle. We did have a fairly old first generation Fire, free with credit card rewards, and so this was a nice upgrade for that. The old one is getting kind of obsolete. I don't know if I can talk him into selling it or purging it or if he can wipe it clean and give it to the kids. It's too bogged down with apps right now. I don't know if a purge of apps would help).

Yesterday I walked into the lunch room around noon and my employer offered me a Panera sandwich and some chips. Guess they didn't need the extra. I was just feeling on a lucky streak - I *love* Panera but rarely spend my own money there.

That is not the end of all the free goodness. My dh was all excited about the Amazon Prime deal today. I was feeling kind of "meh" about it because I see free Prime deals all the time. But I figure I don't really want to get sucked into that. But if we must do it, why not get it for free the first year?

Well, in the mail yesterday I got a credit card offer. $200 cash back PLUS free amazon prime for the first year. Dh agreed that was a much better deal! (I've seen the credit card deals before but didn't want to encourage him. Though actually I think the deals I have seen were usually "just" Amazon prime. I don't know if I would bother with a credit card reward for less than $200. So this was much more up my alley. Talk about timing!).

I looked it up and the snail offer was much better than the general bonus right now. But, you can get $50 and free prime. The offer I got was for the everyday card. The preferred card (also in the link) has a $75 annual fee. Of course, there may be other free amazon prime deals out there - I have seen them around.

https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/compare/blue-...

I already reviewed 2014 but did not keep the entry because it had more net worth details then I'd prefer to leave up in this blog for eternity. So, I will summarize again for future reference. Nothing new here...

CASH:

Cash is up $7,000. This was an easy year - was a fairly low key year compared to more recent years on the "emergency" side of things.

$5k is our annual goal. The bulk of this is to cover home repairs and car replacements.

RETIREMENT:

Maxed out our IRAs. 13.25% of income.

With returns, our retirement funds were up $22,000.

Doing Traditional IRAs in 2014 netted us an extra $3k in tax savings. That extra $3k went to overseas travel plans. But in the future should be more like $2,400 refunds just due to the IRA and will boost our entire "retirement savings" to 16.25%. (We will plow the tax savings into long-term retirement savings - will just have to keep it in taxable investments).

INVESTMENTS:

Opened up a long-term investment account to supplement our cash and retirement savings. Contributed $3k in 2014, for an additional 3% of income. (Contributions were $150 per month, plus snowflakes, starting in May).

Kid's college money was also up $3,700.

HOME:

The value of our home remained the same.

MORTGAGE:

Paid down mortgage by $6,300. About $4,000 was regular payments and $2,300 was snowflakes. We had a great year for snowflakes as we weren't focusing on the mortgage in 2014. But one of the snowflakes was a $500-ish mortgage interest rebate and another was a credit card reward for a $200 check to the mortgage so it seemed appropriate to put those to the mortgage. We put all snowflakes the first 4 months of the year to the mortgage too, before we opened our investment account.

In 2015 we plan to start throwing an extra $3k per year into the mortgage. For now, all snowflakes are going into investments.

TOTAL NET WORTH:

Our net worth increased by $42,000.

This was our goal, exactly. But what are the odds of that??? We are always so much at the whim of the markets.

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2015:

Net worth increase $42k:

Cash + $5,000
Investments + $5,000 ($3k + $2k tax refund)
Retirement + $11,000 (Max IRAs)
Investment Returns + $14,000 (assumes 6% returns)
Mortgage Paydown + $7,000
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NET WORTH + $42,000
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**My "annual net worth increase" goal has been $30k for several years and this was the first year that I had bumped it up to $42k. I wonder if we can bump this up to a full 60k by the time we are age 40? The plan would be that our net worth would eventually increase by our annual spending every single year ($60k). I don't know what age that will be realistic for, but somewhere in our early 40s is what we are aiming for.

**BM is doing a science experiment with celery plants.

So I come home the other day and our cat is completely and totally BONKERS. He can be a hyper and troublesome cat anyway but he has substantially mellowed after a couple of years with us.

All I could think was... EARTHQUAKE. My dh thinks I am totally insane but there is science to back that up. I will never forget in the Loma Prieta quake when all the birds outside started squawking right before the big quake. (We don't particularly live in earthquake territory though so this pre-earthquake like behavior was a little perplexing. Like holy crap WHAT is coming?? We can feel quakes far away if they are large enough).

Dh is always the smart one that figures these things out. He had noticed that the cat had been particularly enamored with the celery plants. I jumped on the computer hoping we didn't carelessly leave out poisonous plants! Thankfully, that was not it. But what I saw immediately was that some cats react to celery leaves like they are catnip. HA! Dh called it.

The cat has kept out of the plants since and has mellowed out again. I keep expecting to come home to find plants everywhere and the science experiment ruined. Will see... He seems to be staying away from them - maybe that celery high was a bit too much for him.

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One of my recent posts I mentioned a lack of things to buy or a lack of a material wish list at this point.

Of course, I Am well aware we have stuff to maintain and to eventually replace and yadda yadda. It just seems to me that maintaining seems to be a generally much cheaper phase of life than the "accumulation" phase.

So I am sitting back and seeing what has been very low on our priority list and what is floating up to the top now that we really have no purchase priorities?

I have a GAP sweatshirt that I bought in like high school (20 years ago?) that I wear at night. It doesn't need replacing in the slightest but I thought "more than one night sweatshirt" might be nice. It's been kind of "meh" since we have done so much laundry with the kids. Especially when they were in diapers. But you know, I can probably afford a second warm night shirt now and we aren't doing as much laundry as we had been. Going longer between washes... So, I bought a couple from Gap online. Didn't see the exact same thing but thought I'd gamble that they are still making half the quality they did in the 1990s. Who knows. Their stuff was on sale. I actually gambled on a large boys' sweatshirt (it actually fit and I really like it) and then just got a large mens' sweatshirt. I figured if the boys' one was too small I could just give it to the kids. It's what looked closest to what I Wanted and both were on clearance. Of course they had nothing like my incredible sweatshirt!

That's my January improvement, I suppose.

February? I am thinking toilet seat. Our toilet seat has gotten scratched up for whatever reason. I think we should buy one and see how we like it. If we find a nice seat then probably should just replace the other two. I don't know that the other two are messed up but they do have some stains. At the least, would be nice to have a new toilet seat in the guest bath. This will be a very nice but inexpensive improvement. I see all the toilet seats these days are "slow closing". That will be nice actually. Our weather is too mild to care about warm seats and stuff like that (though I saw a lot of those too).

Dh turned 39!

I had been thinking of getting him a kindle (Voyage?) but then we got a laptop instead and he didn't seem overly enthused.

He is big on the kids getting us gifts for holidays and birthdays because it teaches them to manage money. Which I admit is probably extra important since they seem to have very little opportunity to save up and buy for things - too spoiled by grandparents and circumstance.

That said, LM has -0- in his piggy bank and I welcomed the opportunity to do a less materialistic birthday. (I am fine with his -0- balance. Best to learn these lessons when you are 10 versus 20. & maybe is a nice lesson about money not being everything when it comes to showing love and appreciation).

BUT. Then I thought of the perfect gift and picked it up. I didn't realize dh had put it on his wish list and his MOM bought it for him. UGH! (Mental note - always check the wish list to be sure? I was at first very annoyed at myself for why didn't I coordinate with her, but then I remembered that I thought I Was being much more impromptu. At least she gave it to him a week or two early and so we realized a while ago).

Anyway, I was going to cover the kids on that one. Which worked out I guess that I didn't have them pay for it, because now it's in the gift pile for someone else. It leaves me scrambling because that was all I had as far as gifts.

My family always celebrated with FOOD but dh is just not that into it. I did whip up some fudge for him and he did appreciate it. He refused to let me make him dinner or to do anything special meal-wise. But we will go out on a lunch date this week and we also have a dinner event this week. So two dates in one week is not bad.

I asked him again how he felt about the Kindle and the look on his face was he would LOVE it though his words said otherwise. (You know, if money was no object, he'd buy it. & I mean like only if he had a zillion dollars would he buy it). I told him I wasn't planning to buy it this week or anything, BUT we should reconsider in April. I think we had probably decided "no" before his parents gave us a big Christmas check. But, we had also felt like we had been spending a lot of money and we could cool it for a while. (He feels he should wait until the next generation probably - would make more sense. But I don't think it's the worst thing to have an extra hand-me-down for the kids, if he wants to upgrade again in the near future).

Which reminds me why we weren't really going to buy him anything for his birthday in the first place. He got his $3,000 toy a couple of months ago and he is LOVING it.

& so I am thinking ahead to 40. We aren't really big on birthdays and don't make big deals of them. But I was recalling that I surprised dh with a trip to Vegas for his 30th! In the grand scheme of things, don't know if that was the most exciting gift to him. But at the time he was staying home with a newborn and a 2yo. I came home from work and told him to pack his bags because we were leaving for the weekend. Getting away was the best gift I could have dreamed up for him. (I had seen an incredible deal on airfare, which has spurred most my vacations in my younger and lower income years).

So, how do I top that? I don't know. It might be fun to do a party, but the logistics of planning one this time of year is probably pretty horrible. Maybe we should split the difference and do a joint 40th birthday party in the summer. (I turn 40 in December of the same year, so that would be meeting in the middle). I would so much more enjoy a party in the summer. Not in the middle on Holiday and work crazy! I have a whole year or more to ponder that.

Reminds me, dh's Grandma turns 90 next month!

I'll start with the minutiae because I have lots of catching up to do. This is what happens when I don't post for a week!

**I officially opened a Traditional IRA for dh yesterday. I will fund 2014 as I can. By April, of course. (We contributed to his Traditional IRA in 2-income years but converted it all to ROTHs in low-income years. Time to start his Traditional IRA from scratch, since our taxes are creeping up).

**Still waiting for investment forms to complete our taxes but hope to file this week. Refund should be about $3,200. I am going to throw that at dh's IRA and mostly be done with that. (The refund is due to funding Traditional IRAs versus ROTHs. We aim very breakeven on our taxes otherwise but this will be "flip a coin" territory for a while; to be decided for sure when we do our taxes every year).

{This $3,200 refund is his Japan trip money, as you may recall. It still is, but throwing it at the IRA will just mean less money to move around. I will keep $3,200 in savings that was earmarked for IRA. I don't know how much or when I will really need the Japan money}.

**Mr. Money Mustache blogged about his 2014 spending details and all I can say is: I BOW DOWN BEFORE HIM!

Mostly, his efficiency increase in 2014 was astounding. Whereas once I would compare our budget to his and be like, "Sure, that's where we are and will be when we cut out the mortgage and the expenses of working and yadda yadda". This year was, "Never mind. What the..."

I don't bow down to people lightly, that is for sure. But it's the only response I have to that...

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The theme for 2015 seems to be "ONWARD and UPWARDS," for us. We might progress our net worth upwards from it's peak in 2005? (Depends on the markets, so lord knows). Cash is back to it's peak level. Our income is higher than it's ever been. It feels AWESOME!

I did get a raise. Woohoo! It was not a full $200 per month raise but that is what I will net after tweaking my taxes a bit.

Thank goodness for the raise because we had a lot of expenses creeping up.

--Health insurance creeped up, as it always does.

--Property taxes went up about $1k per year and so I added $100/month to our savings to cover that. (During most years our property taxes have gone down and offset other expenses, so I don't know that I have increased this monthly savings amount in like a decade??)

--I increased our grocery budget by $100/month. Which is also the first time I have ever increased that category (in like 15 years of marriage??).

So that's a lot of budget increases, for us.

I suppose that is more budget increases than raise. I lowered our cash savings by $100/month since our cash savings is robust. I split the difference and added $50/month to our long-term investments. I will move things around if we have to but I think it makes sense to shift some of the cash savings to longer term investments.

I guess overall that leaves us saving $50 less per month but I am fine with that - our savings rate is very high.

I also have a lot of buffer in the budget still. The $150/month I Was putting to long-term investments was a placeholder for my raise last year. If I can keep this at $200/month (new amount) then that is a nice buffer for future expense increases.

We also have an extra $200/month tax savings for any year we do a Traditional IRA instead of a ROTH.

That gives us a total $400/month buffer - I am holding onto this for future health insurance increases.

In addition to all the above, we have significant sources of other income. Most of which will likely go to savings. (I've been averaging $8,000 per year NET income with overtime and credit card rewards, in recent years).

& this is why our income will be so high this year. I am making a solid $15,000 LESS household income than last dh worked (my salary alone). BUT, we are also paying about $20k+ less in income taxes, so we are netting MORE with my paycheck. All the extra income just boosts our "net income" substantially. I am sure we are nowhere near our peak "gross income" level on two incomes. But on a net basis we should blow our highest income year out of the water.

**On a side note, I took a 10% cut in compensation in 2009 and so it is only this year that I am making as much money as I Was back then. With this raise, it puts me back where I left off. That is another reason for my feeling of moving onward and upwards.**

The crazy thing about the abundance this year is that there is absolutely nothing we want to buy. If I ever receive a large raise, or any raise above expenses, we wouldn't make any plans to spend it. We are very content.

After carefully planning and saving up the cash for every purchase it feels quite odd to have nothing left on our wish list. It certainly took a long time but we have made it through our entire list! (We topped it off by upgrading our phones and car stereos last year, and dh's home movie theater. The year or two before we had finished furnishing our home and replacing the old furniture that we did not like).

I mean like since the time of our very first jobs in our teens this is probably the only time we aren't saving up for something substantial and material over the long run. (Or a long list of smaller things that would take time to accumulate). It feels WEIRD!

I've personally never been a big fan of spending money on experiences. Both my hubby and I much rather buy something we can use and enjoy every day. But I will admit that maybe a lot of that has to do with being in the accumulation phase of life. I'd rather buy something I can use and enjoy and save the rest for a rainy day?

I do see our spending shifting with age and assets. If our house is furnished and our cars are new and we have everything we possibly want... That frees up a *lot* of money for other things. We are definitely throwing more dollars at vacations and shows and experiences. & it's certainly nice to be able to afford more than a budget vacation once in a while.

Passport fees have gone up a wee bit the last several years. Yeesh!

Anyway, all our passports (kids and I) are current so I didn't think much about it. Dh thankfully realized that we've never really traveled abroad together and were probably on different schedules. His passport expired 5 years ago! He should have enough time to renew before his big trip.

He last renewed his passport in 2000 because he worked abroad at that time. He has been to Asia several times (family and work), but he has never been to Japan. He figured he couldn't pass up this opportunity.

As to the passport fees, just taking it out of the vacation fund for now.

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There is a lab in our city that teaches technology classes to kids and so on. There is a class this weekend on making games for PC or mobile. The software is free to use. So BM is going to that. He can teach LM and dh from there. (LM would probably be more into that but would probably rather just learn from his brother).

They wanted cash and I am pleased I have $20 cash for that. My mom gave me $40 for Thanksgiving groceries? For whatever reason I just put it with our cash on hand for "in lieu of ATM". If we go to the ATM once or twice a year then maybe this would make it zero times per year.

{I usually put any and all change and cash straight into the bank, but I thought it might be more useful to keep a little extra cash on hand this time}.

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I've said it before and I will keep saying it I guess... It is so odd that one of the biggest benefits of our low-cost move is not having any grandiose illusions of income. As we approach 40 it just seems to get more and more ridiculous.

I wouldn't even know where to begin. Seven figure mediocre homes and $33,000 private schools, etc.

I was thinking about it more locally actually because co-worker brought a brand new SUV. He is older and higher up and makes more money. BUT... His car was broken some time last year and he groused that he was carless (for like a whole week?) because he could not afford to fix it. I personally had absolutely no frame of reference for that. When I was a completely broke and almost penniless college student I could afford to fix my car. I thought, "Is he so tapped out he can't even throw it on a credit card??" I don't get it. I really don't. I understand living far beyond one's means but I don't understand having no means to secure a loan.

So anyway, to be fair, he is the only one in my office who has not replaced HIS car during the entire past 13 years that I have been there. & as much as I feel on a different planet as my co-workers, they are certainly more frugal than average and it's common for us to all keep our cars for 15+ years.

So I believe he has always had this car since I have been there and he is probably due an upgrade. But, he did just also buy a new car for his wife. & there was this whole thing with this ridiculously expensive truck he bought his daughter than just sat in his driveway. (He complained it was too gas guzzling to drive and use; daughter went off to college on the other side of the country).

All that, and he could buy nothing less than a brand new SUV for himself. Of course!

All of the above makes me feel grateful that I am under absolutely no illusion that I can afford any of the above. A $30,000+ vehicle, a seven figure home, or a private school education (or two or three) in the most expensive city in the U.S. Nope, nope and nope.

OF course, my gross pay may be a lot lower than everyone above but I don't know that our means are particularly lower. We don't pay much in income taxes. So I have just been pondering a lot how bigger salaries motivate people to spend more. Even when they really don't have any more at the end of the day.

As to our relatives back home, I really hope they have stock options or something lucrative on their side. It seems less likely the more they grouse about how broke they are. I am extra fascinated by this when it comes to our relatives because I'd say they more started out like us. Very frugal and financially sensible out the gate. But the insane high cost of living has eroded their common sense, for sure. (Except for the one who moved to our city and then spent lavishly beyond his means with his home equity windfall. He's chronically unemployed and $300k-ish upside down on his house. So - I don't know WHAT it is! Any illusion of wealth of any kind makes us really stupid??)

A lot of it also seems to be who you marry. Dh and I are the only ones who married another saver. Watching our relatives makes me extra appreciative about this point. It's not anything I ever thought about consciously when I picked a mate - I met my spouse when I Was only 18 - but I don't remember ever seriously dating any spenders. Would be like oil and water.

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How about that Elio??

http://jalopnik.com/elio-releases-definitive-2016-model-at-c...

"Elio has released their "definitive" 2016 model at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, even though the electric-looking three-wheeler is gasoline powered."

"...standing firm at 84MPG and the $6800 price tag"

Who knows if they will be able to pull this off but I just LOVE that they are trying and that so many consumers are excited about this.

This could easily be our next car. (Or a third car to limp our sedan along until the kids have their own cars).

I mean, this is like my husband's dream car. There have been a lot of small cars that are ridiculously expensive (and thus impractical). But YES - this is what we need - small cars that are low gas mileage AND inexpensive. YES YES YES!!!

We have a 2001 Ford that we paid under $8,000 for, barely used. (We bought it in 2002). It gets 40mpg on the freeway. Of course, it cost so little because we bought it at the height of SUV crazy and in the midst of the massive debt bubble. No one wanted a practical and small and inexpensive car.

But anyway, I have just been so disillusioned watching cars get more expensive and less practical. & bigger. Like there was a time I had no idea what we would do if anything happened to our cars. Particularly as the debt bubble peaked.

The timing of this is interesting because dh and I have discussed that if we saw a deal like when we bought his last car I'd be ready to pull the trigger on replacing his car. Figure it likely will not happen, but we agreed to keep our eye open for maybe something in the $10k range. Otherwise plan is probably to spend more like $15k-ish in another few years.

Of course, I completely ruled out buying a one-year-old low mileage car for under $8,000 again. But hey, what do I know? This gives me hope! & maybe also gives us some extra motivation to wait a few more years.

I redeemed $50 (credit card reward) to my ROTH today and added that deposit to my sidebar.

Nothing much else going on.

**Paid $1.89 for gas! (Dh got a 50-cent off per gallon gas coupon). I will savor moments like this while I can.

**I funded the kids' school lunches for the rest of the year. (Once a year would be even cheaper - they charge a fee per deposit. But twice per year is my middle ground. Accounts for "things change sometimes." I don't want to pay for the whole year and then the kids start hating the lunch or something like that).

**Our taxes are pretty much done. I will have to wait for some broker statements to finalize.

I just printed out a bunch of Quicken reports around 12/31 - that was the most of the *work*. It then takes me a few minutes to enter it into my professional work software.

**The kids and I visited my parents this weekend. We took the van (which we very rarely drive out of town) and I guess the only thing I spent was about $30 for gas. We had a very nice time!

**Today I took the kids to their indoor favorite play spot which only tends to have weekend hours on holidays. In fact they were only open 2 hours today! (Otherwise they shut down for birthday parties). But I had noticed that and it was still worth the $7 per child admission. I brought a few $1 bills for snacks. I took a book and enjoyed the peace. The kids were in heaven.

**Dh and BM bought up quite a few $1.99 shows on Amazon this week - they got into some series. Considering that is about it for our spending during their break I think that was a good value.

**LM is doing that overnight sailboat field trip this week. (The one his brother did a couple of years back). I keep forgetting about it! Guess I better make sure we have what we need for that.

**On the Hawaii front I think we have settled on Maui as our destination. No decisions for sure until we book our free room.

Today I looked up the credit card deal I saw and it looks like we will be able to get two free flights out of four. My plan is to get the credit card for dh and to play around with the booking a bit (nothing final). If it works as they say then I might get the same card for a second free flight. The only downside is the $89 annual fee - which makes me nervous if we can't get the free flights for any reason?? But, then again, with the $12,000 or so of free money we got the past 4 years I think we can take the risk.

**You may recall the BIG trip that the in-laws took BM on for his 10th birthday. The same offer extends to all their grandkids. & LM turns 10 this year!

How does LM feel about this? He refuses to go anywhere with them. LOL.

So that is where we are with that. I don't think he is going anywhere this calendar year but he has another 18 months to come around. In addition, MIL told me last we discussed it that he can have a raincheck. I do hope he comes around in the next few years but I don't necessarily expect much.

**Work is cray cray! I just keep telling myself I survive every year-end and somehow I will survive this one.

**Dh finished up a script this week and it is really good. That just makes my heart happy! I think him and his writing partner have incredible talent, BUT this was definitely their best script. The more they try, the better they get. The plan is to produce this one.

**As of today, financial goals are going really strong. Will see where the market lands 12/31. I am expecting some pretty large dividends and capital gains this week and next.

**Dh grew up in a household where Christmas was a BIG deal. I didn't. We had just gotten the kids one modest gift each and something shared. We also got them some candy, which I think will be a BIG hit. {Their junk food secret santa exchange has been like the "best thing ever". That's in a household that really doesn't keep a lot of junk around but probably also never says no to junk. As with anything, I think we are pretty moderate. You would think they never got any candy or soda with how excited they have been this week!} Anyway, so yay to the candy. BUT... Dh was feeling like the gifts we got were a little inequitable, and we discussed how BM is so much more about the experiences than the stuff. I told dh, "I really don't think the kids will care". But, you know they are at an age where we could ask them. So I asked the kids about it all and what surprised me was that BM said, "As long as I get the big present I want I don't care if I get anything else". Well, I knew Grandma was getting him the "big" present, and so case closed. I was proud though of his maturity on that matter. I didn't necessarily expect him to be quite that mature about it. I was thinking more, "We are saving up $3,000 for a trip abroad for you, so maybe you can be mature about your brother getting a gift he is a little more excited about". Didn't even have to go there.

Anyway, so dh can stop overly worrying about it. Yeesh!

**I took my car into the shop this week. I took it in a while ago and it remained undiagnosed. I wasn't about to take it on any long trips or anything and still felt something was off. Then the heat was not working. I waited a couple of weeks so I could push off the payment of that expense well into next year. (Weather wise it's been very mild and I didn't miss the heat). But I took it in Monday and got the heat fixed and now it is all nice and quiet again.

PHEW!!

It sounded just like dh's car (which has 165k miles versus my 115k miles) and I was starting to think maybe I should just get used to old cars being LOUD.

Not overly thrilled with our "forever" mechanic - I think their business is going downhill. I won't be surprised if it is just shut down at some point. I was fine to let them do the work but wasn't thrilled that they couldn't diagnose it before it got cold and I tried to use the heat. It seems that they didn't check the fluids at all when I took it in for "strange noises". Not that I expect them to just know, but I just didn't get the sense they looked over the car thoroughly. (I took it elsewhere for an oil change and basically all my fluids were low).

Anyway, so we are in early talks about shopping around mechanics. Dragging our feet because it sucks and is no fun, but will happen eventually.

I would say that having a trusted mechanic is very key as to keeping low car expenses. I have confidence that we will find a place that works for us. Maybe something more convenient - it's not all bad. This is just a shop my dad's cousin used to work for and they have always treated us very well. Clearly struggling in this economy.

I still have "old car" problems though. My van also has an oil leak. Oil leaks are something I have always inherited in 150k+ mile cars, and have only driven that or fairly new. SO... I don't know when that usually starts up. All I know is dh's older car has not developed any leaks yet.

That means we really need to slip back into "old car" mode. It's always wise to keep an eye on fluids, but after 10+ years of never having *any* problems I can't say we particularly bother any more. But I checked things enough when younger that it's no big deal. Just a shift from not worrying about it for 10 years. Lord knows it's probably a good idea to keep a closer eye on the older vehicle too. (We bought both our current vehicles at 1-year-old, 10+ years ago).

I am just so relieved that my car is QUIET again.

**One last thing...

Our favorite restaurant shut down. WAH!!! I think last we were there was about a year ago and it was the first time ever we had bad food and crappy service there. UGH! I predicted they would be shutting down. Just seemed like those kind of red flags.

It's not ALL bad. They do have another location. A little different, but mostly alike. Phew!! I haven't been to the other location in forever, but I guess we will start frequenting it more. We were probably going to go this weekend but the open location is in a busy shopping area with limited parking. It will have to wait. The open one seems to be in a much better (busier) location - hopefully they are doing better??

That is not all though. Our grocery store told us our favorite take and bake pizzas (very yummy and very CHEAP) were going to be discontinued. Took them about a year but it is true now. They are gone!! So bummed about that because it is our Christmas tradition. So we are scrambling a bit trying to decide what to serve for Christmas. (We can get other pizza, but none of us like other pizza!)

I suppose it's not all bad as it will probably force us to do some DIY pizza at home. But I will still miss the cheap convenience.