Life has been a whirlwind the past couple of weeks.  We don't have anything planned for the rest of summer.  The stars just aligned to craziness last week.  It was all the things.

Celebrated my parents' 50th Anniversary.  Did our annual family camp trip.  Those were the biggies.

Camp.  It's a miracle it stands and we felt very blessed.  Even if there was a lot of challenges (from the fire).  One smart thing they did was request that campers volunteer, to make up for staffing shortages.  DL(16) volunteered and had a blast.  & made $165 tax-free for 8 hours of work (in the form of a discount; we transferred the money to his bank account).  It takes a certain personality and he would never want to live there all summer.  But...  He got some taste of the behind the scenes.  For him, camp is the highlight of the year, and getting to "work" was just icing on the cake.

We saw a bear at Lake Tahoe.  That was exciting.  

Oh yeah.  The cabins smelled smokey and all of our belongings smelled like ash trays when we got home.  We felt so blessed to be able to go to camp this year, but it definitely had its challenges.  They are still working to replace burned sewer lines, etc.  We saw melted light bulbs off the patio.  I really can't wrap my brain around it.  Light bulbs melt (at 3000 degrees) but all the structures (and most of the trees) still stand. The fire fighters are miracle workers.

MM(18) starts his summer job tomorrow.  This is the job that is randomly in the same parking lot as my work.  So he will get to save a bajillion dollars in gas.  Both him and his girlfriend have major adjacent jobs this summer, both Tues - Thurs.  Is just how it worked out.  Anyway, we are carpooling tomorrow.   

I have no idea how, but MM(18) had about $420 college dining dollars left over.  I just bought the smallest plan (he will have an apartment/kichen next year).  So that he can roll over the dollars.  Paid $250 for $275 campus dining dollars.  That gives him $695 when he goes back to school.   Or about $75/month.

I think we will be able to carve out the rest of his food spending from our grocery budget.  Ideally, we can squeak by with $225/month for groceries ($225 + $75 = $300/month).  Who knows.  Is just what we will try to start with.  I don't know if he will have access to a car.  If he does, that will help with grocery costs. 

Insurance is due on the kids' car.  I just charged it to MM(18)'s credit card.   Between the "away from home" student discount and his good driving record, it dropped about $150 (6 months) from last year.  I figure (that MM) paying $230 is reasonable for basically one year.  & he should have some paychecks before the balance is due.   (I paid the prior renewal because he wasn't home or using the car).  

I noticed that his "good student" discount was missing, so inquired about that today.  I might not have noticed otherwise (with the rate being so low this time), but they asked me for his grades several times after I sent it in.  So I wanted to make sure it was applied, and it was not.  I've since heard back to send in his grades for further discount.  

With the unexepected found time this last weekend (MH found a ride home from college), I redirected that time to long put off chores.  The biggie was getting through some purging.  Made some progress, but have a ways to go.  Was extra motivated with a new furniture purchase, which I will try to share (a picture) below. 

Edit:  Made further progress today.  Just one big/bulky item left, that I probably most wanted to get rid of.  But I haven't listed it for free yet.  So there is still hope.  I just hope it goes quickly when I list it for free. 

I did pull $100 from cash to reimburse MM's friend for gas.  (I had no idea how much big vehicle plus trailer gas is).  But I started with that and MM told us later that's about what they spent on gas on the way home.  Probably would have been more but I saw the vehicle was a hybrid when they dropped him off.   That helped...  

I then bugged DL(16), for like the 10th time, to give me some of his cash.  To the point I counted his piggy bank cash one day and he had $200!  (Just using him as my ATM machine, transferring the sum to his savings account).  I probably got a little more pushy after MM(18) took so much cash.  DL(16) tossed a lot of $1 bills at me and I said, "DL!  You have $200 in there!"  I guess he took out "half" the (physical space of) money but didn't realize.  So he tried again and gave me $170.  That was better.  Saved me a trip to the ATM.

I told DL(16) that his bank balance was $2,700, after transfering all that birthday/Christmas/whatever money he had piling up in his room.

Later DL asked me if it was too soon to go back to the thrift shop.  I said it is never too soon. 😉  (That's the whole point, can go every weekend if he wants).  To which he replied very reponsibly, "I need to get a job first."  Which is fine, but looking at his $2,700 bank balance, I might encourage him to go if he wants.  Or at the least, I will step back and let him pay (if he goes back before he gets a job).   

We seem to be going through a round of murphy.  

MH just replaced the bulb in his projector (home movie theater).  He asked me when we bought the projector.  2014.  So it has been 8 years.  Doing the math, it sounds about right as to bulb life.  For a very heavily used projector.

Fingers crossed.  Not 100% sure that was the problem (the free fix), but he's watching a movie and testing it out right now.  (The projector came with a replacement bulb).  

Then I noticed that our dryer was not turning off on its own.  It's liveable in the short run, but not ideal.  MH called our appliance repair guy last night and he warned us it might be $350.  Ugh!  MM's gut feeling was that it was important to fix *and* not worth being so wasteful as to buy a new dryer.  It's only 3 years old.  We were both very much on the same page. 

Happy to report that's all it was (could have been worse, which we were also warned).  I couldn't even remember the last time we reparied an appliance.  So between that and the newness of the machine...  Grand total ended up being $340.  The part was expensive and he found another small problem.

I did look it up and it had been a very long time.  We had paid him $60 to fix a dishwasher leak in early 2015.  So it has been over 7 years.   $185 to repair our washer in 2013.  I believe this guy had also come out in the past and charged us -$0-.  So though the $340 is very ouch...   Big picture, I am okay with it.   

In other randomness, I finally replaced a super cheapie ($15?) table that I recall my mom buying me when I moved out at 18.  (It was very cheap/wobbly and I have been wanting to replace forever).  I had picked out a replacement in 2015? but never pulled the trigger.  I think it was 2015 or 2016,  I just saw it come up in my photo memories.  Apparently spring is when I think about replacing the table.  Anyway, I finally did it!  The new table arrived, MH put it together right away, and this is what spurred some of my purging.  I like it better in person and the space is huge.  Is where I always hid all my donations, and it still works for that.

There's still a lot of hand-me-down furniture in our house and things we have never bought new.  But...  I think that was the only thing left over that just wasn't nice or functional.

& MH is wise.  As I consulted with him and was ready to pull the trigger, he said, "Do we even need a table?"  He's right.  But I just had it so in my craw at that point.  I wanted to scratch the itch!  I decided maybe he was right but that MM(18) would need some furniture soon.  Maybe for his apartment junior year.  (Maybe I could scratch the itch and then ponder letting it go).  But...  Now that it's here.  Screw that.  MH and I both really like it. 

Received $26 bank interest for the month of May.

Received -$0- I Bond interest for the month of May (will kick in next month).

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $40 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

--Redeemed $76 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $6 on dining out/gas card

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

+ $2 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $124 Snowflakes to Investments

401k Contributions/Match:

+$900

Snowball to Savings:

+$1,400 MH Income

-$ 300 Donation to DL(16)'s school

-$ 100 Graduation Gift (niece)

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$950 to cash (mid-term savings)

Pulled from mid-term savings:

-$950 Movie Expenses (Premier Party, Film Festival Submissions, etc.)

-$585 Drivers Ed

-$180 Show Tickets

-$120 Crowd Funding (paying it forward)

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

+$1,500 to cash

-$  150 School Band concerts & field trips

-$  144 DMV Renewal (Kids' car)

-$  100 State Tax E-file (x5)

-$   80 Oil Change (hybrid) 

-$   78 Pest Control

TOTAL: $2,112 Deposited to Cash and Investments

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Hybrid Miles Driven May:  645

Fuel Costs: $16 Electricity 

(assumed 50 miles & 14 KwH per full charge)

Electric (EV) Miles Driven May: 1,146

Fuel Costs: $16 (home) + $25 (out)

(assumed 300 miles & 60 KwH per full charge)

Most charging (both cars) was done at home.

We did -0-? miles of free charging this month.  I don't recall any free charging.

We did plan about 300-ish miles of free charging for our bigger road trip last last weekend but as I mentioned in my last post we turned around because DL(16) was ill.  It wasn't well planned and we just stopped wherever.  

I am racking my brain because I thought we were out of town every week in May but I just figured it out.  

Week 1 San Jose ~ that was April 30th

Week 2 San Francisco ~ we took the train

Week 3 Bay Area ~ DL(16) had a band event but it wasn't far enough to warrant a stop/charge

Week 4 So Cal ~ spent $25 at chargers

June will be more of the same. 

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Note:  I am always lagging a month behind because any bills charged in April will be paid off May 1 and reflected in my May numbers.  I charge in one month and the next month I figure out how to pay for everything (if I need to pull anything from savings).  So this update reflects April spending & May savings.

I expect that this is the last DMV renewal I should be paying for the kids' car.  MM(18) will be back this month covering all expenses for summer (he has a job/summer commute).  Probably a small gap after that but DL(16) should be licensed and taking over the car expenses this fall.  MH and I covered some of the car expenses while MM(18) wasn't using the car and DL(16) didn't even have a permit.  I am happy to cross that extra expense off my list soon.

The donation to DL(16)'s school is somewhat required (in the form of either money or time).  I would have done some of this in December but the website was not working and I could not make donations.  Because of the large chunk, I just took it out of MH's income.  We probably skipped the past couple of years (in the craziness), and just have one more year left.  Something else that I can cross of my list soon-ish. 

The hybrid does need an oil change once every 2 years.  It was time.  Given that this is really our only vehicle maintenance expense and a more specialized car, we just went to the dealership ($$$$$).  

& then driver's ed...  The place we used for MM(18) raised their prices significantly.  It was only $300 before?  This is not a universal price increase.  It was just this one place that raised rates, but they still had amazing reviews (throug the pandemic) and we were really happy with them.  So I bit the bullet.  After the first drive, I am happy with this decision.  Would pay any amount of money to get DL(16) more comfortable with driving.  (Happy to say that it is paying off).

This should be the last big month for MH's movie expenses.  Future expenses will mostly be travel, if he gets into more festivals.

I e-filed taxes for everyone (better and more secure).  Did you hear that the IRS tossed 300 million "information returns" (e.g. W2s & 1099s) without processing them? 😱  I am skeptical that's all they threw away, given the bajillion IRS notices at work re: multiple paper filed entities (corporate and partnership tax returns).  This is on top of my snail mail ID theft I experienced 10+ years ago.  I chose to just e-file this year even if it was more expensive (than just paper filing with a postage stamp).  Our parents are very generous and GMIL is broke, and so I never in a million years would ask them to pay for any of this.  I filed tax returns for them and the kids.  (I've always just e-filed our own tax return, but have snail mailed a kids' 2-page tax return in the past).

MH bought tickets to a show.  We have since discussed two other concerts but they were just too hard to justify financially.   I moved those to the "nevermind" column category.   Both were kind of "would be fun," but not $200 fun.  Nothing we were very passionate about.

DL(16) has had more interest in clothes/style in recent years.  He's been completely fine with Ross/Marshalls.  But when he bought a sweater online for $50, I told him he really needed to go thrift shopping.  Shortly after that, the topic just randomly came up at work and my co-worker told me the name of some shops that are good for teens/boys. 

We ended up going last weekend.  Half the places were closed on Sunday.  But he really liked the first place.  Afterwards, my co-worker told me there was also a really good Goodwill in the area.  I looked it up later and it was about a block from this other thrift shop.  She was holding out on me!  The pictures of this Goodwill were amazing.  (Mixed feelings about that, because I really don't need any more crap.  But I wanted to write down because can be useful for gifts and/or apartment shopping for MM).

DL(16) also wanted a haircut.  I just paid for everything because he has not secured a job yet.   

DL(16) humored me and went through his clothing when we got home.  He had a small purge pile.  We had a charity come by today and take 3 bags.  Phew!  Got past the pandemic backlog.  I'd have maybe kept more of the clothes for MM(18) to go through, but I just wanted to be done with it.  I did hold back a few items that I think were MM(18)'s at one point or that I thought he could use (and I checked with him if he wanted them).

{I thought I had one missed bag from the pandemic, but it was two.  & I added a third bag with some purging last month.}

Both kids are done with school today.  Wrapping up their last finals.

I ended up canceling the $400 hotel.  MH made a comment that we seem to very often cancel hotels in this region.  I don't even know if he remembered the vacation plans we had canceled twice (2019 & 2020).  I think I've canceled more hotels than I've kept reservations for, at this point.

But it's all good.  Boring.  But good.  MM(18) was able to arrange transportation home (for him and all his stuff).  It helps to be a minimalist.  

I am bummed to cancel our very brief beach vacation, but happy to have 12-ish (driving) hours of my life back this weekend.  

How in the heck is MM(18) done with his first year of college!?  It was over in a blink.  

MH made it into a San Francisco film festival!  & he was the headliner!  It was such a hodge podge of genres, that it's not fair to say that it was the "best" movie, but was definitely the most entertaining.  The downside of being last is that most the crowd had left (the event was long).  But it was received very well and it will be neat to see it in a fuller theater some day.  Fingers crossed.  The acceptances and rejections are rolling in slowly. 

MH also randomly received a 10% raise Friday.   Retroactive, so his check will be bigger than expected.  Of course, he usually gets a raise in the fall.  I presume it's just a little early this year.  (He will get one or two paychecks at the new rate, but then will be off work for the summer).

MM(18) accepted a summer job offer in his field of study.  It sounds like this company is doing some work at his school and can translate into some work during the school year.  But the summer job is part time and then he has secured the TA job for the fall.  It was dependent on his class schedule but it sounds like he got it worked out.  He made out pretty well with the part time high paying summer job (will have both $$$ and time).  It's at home, so he won't have any expenses.  Heck, this company is randomly in the same parking lot as my job, so we will be able to mostly carpool.  

DL(16) is starting to apply for jobs.  He just thinks he is going to be bored out of his mind this summer.  He's ready for his own money and some more independence.  (He still has a couple weeks left of school).

In other randomness, unfortunately the last set of dishes we bought have not held up well at all.  They crack/chip and then get too hot in the microwave.  The set before that were just too plain and I didn't care for them.  I have those set aside for the kids and MM(18) will be using them next school year.  (It's also nice to have extra dishes for entertaining).  

It took a while for us to agree on anything, but I ended up liking the new set of dishes even better in person.   Phew!  We spent less money this time around.  Will see if these hold up for more than 10 years.  

I did also order a couple of school branded gifts for my niece (she's going to the same college as MM).  I just ordered online for MM(18) to pick up.  Will have to remember to get from him when he gets home.  Wanted to pick up a couple of small things but didn't want to pay for shipping.  I will also send her $100 this week.  Is what I recalled, but I looked it up and confirmed that is how much money SIL gave MM(18) for his graduation.  

There's been several virsuses going around and has hit our house hard.  It figures.  I was just getting medical issues resolved and then ended up sick.  This one knocked me down hard.  Was sicker than I've been in a few years.  & even that was not too terrible, but I have been tired for weeks afterward.  Even yesterday, I laid down and crashed for 3 hours. 

We haven't personally been dealing with price increases.  But...  The hotels by MM(18)'s college?  Holy cow!  People have money to burn.  It's just absurd all of a sudden.  The hotel we have often gotten the nicest room for $200-$250 per night?  It's now $700 (for the most basic rooms) some nights!   I had a staycation a couple of weeks ago but the one fun/splurgey thing we had planned was to visit MM(18).  Maybe would have also stayed by the beach if it wasn't a bajillion dollars.  We probably booked the most expensive hotel we had ever booked, to stay nowhere near the beach.  Everything was just ridiculous.

I ended up changing the reservation a couple of times and wasn't interested in pre-paying a $350 hotel room.   (Crap happens). We lucked out because the last one I booked we could cancel up until check-in the day of.  We made it about 80% down to the college and DL(16) even came with us.  But DL had a bit of a mental breakdown and we turned around.  He had a fever by the time we got home.  Some parts mental and some parts physical.  I at least had the presence of mine to cancel the hotel, with a few minutes to spare.  

We had already decided to not book a hotel at all when we pick up MM(18) after finals.   Even mid week prices (if we could swing mid week) were already crazy.  It's kind of moot because he has a late Friday final and so we can't pick him up until Saturday.  Move out and graduation.  Ugh.  Of course it's the one quarter he can't get out by Wednesday or Thursday.

In the end, I did see someone praising hotel prices about 30 miles south (along the coast).  I am okay with one crazy expensive hotel.  (It's probably going to be $350, but at least it won't be more than that).  I just didn't want to do more than once this school year.  So I am starting to think we may just book a hotel that Friday, because we canceled the last one.  I thought at least we could get out super early Saturday, but I guess the first graduation is 8:30 am.  So much for "beating the crowd".  But I suppose we might beat some of the move out crowd.  Well, after spending many hours scouring hotels, I have to start all over again.  Hoping that MH and I at least get a more leisurely drive out of it and maybe a nice dinner out and some nice views.  I may give up.  At least we can stay with our parents to break up the drive a little bit. 

Edited to add:  I guess it was a good money week.  Spoke to MM(18) and he told us that we have a $175 refund in the mail from his college.  Woohoo!  The one State middle class grant we received, they gave us an extra $175 (when it all sorted out).  MM(18)'s freshman year is already paid for, so sounds like I will get a check any day.  

I did also book a hotel (before we found the extra $175).  I did find a beachfront hotel with a car charger and was about the best/cheapest thing I could find.  They only had one room left and I snagged it.  But I didn't have to scour the internet for hours because mostly everything is ridiculously expensive and sold out.  (I looked a little longer after I snagged this first room but quickly gave up).  Ended up being about $400 but even the Motel 6 at college town was $350-$400.  I am so glad I got a tip to check this one town because it wasn't coming up when I was looking +/- 30 miles before.  It's 35 miles out of the way but it's beachfront (highly rated) and we can afford it.  We will have a nice coastal drive down Highway 1 Saturday morning when we pick up MM(18).  

Other going ons...

Strangely, we had a no spend week.  I was just surprised there was nothing on any of the credit cards.  The exception was groceries.  3 stops at the grocery store, which isn't too unusual.  But now that I think about it, MH asked me to pick up orange juice when he was sick and then MH ran to the store in the middle of cooking dinner because we were missing something.

Today I balanced out June.  I've paid all the small credit cards ($40 Target, $100 dining out card, and $18 I put on MM's credit card for my niece's gifts) and will pay off the bigger balances after pay day.  I suppose we've got 3 more days this month but nothing is pending, I allocated $100 for groceries (any overage can be paid next month) and the credit card cycles have closed anyway.  Will probably bump anything else to figure out in July.  I was pleased everything balanced because we spent a lot of money this month.  Still not used to the extra breathing room.  But also still in general err on the side of over-saving, which is why I have nothing left for the next 3 days.  

I do have a return to take care of today, so I guess that buys me a little wiggle room if something pops up.  We have no plans, MH is recovering from this virus, and I just have chores to do this weekend.  I don't foresee any spending.  We've been on the road the last four weekends and so it's nice to have a peaceful weekend at home.

Received $25 bank interest for the month of April.

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $33 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

--Redeemed $96 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $3 on dining out/gas card

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

+ $10 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $142 Snowflakes to Investments

401k Contributions/Match:

+$890

Snowball to Savings:

+$1,300 MH Income

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$950 to cash (mid-term savings)

Pulled from mid-term savings:

-$365 Movie Expenses (Film Festival Submissions, copyright new script, etc.)

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

+$1,500 to cash

-$  941 Auto Insurance

-$  500 Life Insurance

-$  253 Annual DMV Registration (EV)

-$  300 Dentist

-$  386 Medical 

-$  200 Misc Expenses for MM(18)

-$    25 Driving Course for DL (16)

TOTAL: $1,837 Deposited to Cash and Investments

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Hybrid Miles Driven April:  715

Fuel Costs: $19 Electricity 

Electric (EV) Miles Driven April: 1,185

Fuel Costs: $22 (home) + $6 (out)

Most charging (both cars) was done at home or at free chargers.

We got about 70 miles of free charging this month.  We just got lucky.  We went out to a park and a restaurant one weekend, and they both just happened to have free charging. 

We did also do a Bay Area trip (Easter) with -0- fuel stops.

For the Easter trip, we got home with about -0- miles to spare.  It was a little stressful and I had heard that like a gas car there is still 20 miles left at that point.  But afterwards I read that isn't necessarily the case.  Who knows.   Logically we still had plenty of buffer to get home, even if the car computer decided to freak us out during the last couple of miles.  The miles guesstimate was being a little glitchy.

Accordingly, we decided to err on the safe side and just stop to charge when we went to visit our parents last weekend.  It was probably completely unnecessary.  But I also wanted to scope out more chargers.  In this case, the most convenient stop was at another Outlet (where we usually stop; lots of chargers, food and bathrooms.  So makes a good pit stop).  I am glad we did because by then it was after hours (around 9pm) and I can see I would never feel comfortable going there alone.  In an abandoned/dark parking lot at night.  There is a charger right by my parent's house and I can see it's just wise to stop there for a quick top off.  It's at a grocery store and is probably always bustling.  Those chargers are out front and not hidden in the back like a lot of these chargers are.

We stopped for 5 minutes, spent $1.55, and added about 20 miles to our range.  

In the end, we drove 260 miles and had 30 miles left when we got home.  The buffer was probably not necessary, but it's around the 10-mile mark that the car freaks out and tells you that you need to charge ASAP.  We saved ourselves some stress.

We did also pay $4 for a monthly Electrifty America (EA) pass (which I included in fuel costs above).  With the extra $4 you do get a discount on charging that has always been worth it.  But as EA informed me we saved $0.60 on this one charge (the only one we paid for this month), I told MH I didn't think we need to pay the $4 any more.  We are going to keep it for May because we are going on a long trip.  One big charge/refuel will pay for the $4 (in savings).  But it's clear that we will no longer get any benefit out of this for anything but longer road trips.  So we will cancel that after our May road trip.  Er, after June.  I guess we will be picking up MM(18) from college in June.  After that, we can just activate/pay the monthly pass on months that we know we will be traveling 300+ miles (one trip).  Maybe the breakeven point is 400 or 500 miles but we just don't do anything in between.  (The college is a 600 mile round trip; Bay Area trips are generally 250-300 miles).

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

Note:  I am always lagging a month behind because any bills charged in March will be paid off April 1 and reflected in my April numbers.  I charge in one month and the next month I figure out how to pay for everything (if I need to pull anything from savings).  So this update reflects March spending & April savings.

I ended up being way too nice to MM(18) when he was here for spring break.  His very liquid cash reserves are getting "low".  Relatively, getting on the lower side.  He needed some nicer headphones but picked out a higher end pair.  I just bought them.  To be fair, I tried to put new running shoes on his credit card (told him we'd sort it out later, based on how jobs shake out for him) but I was unable to put it on his credit card and use MH's REI member discount.  So I gave up and just paid for those too.  In addition to paying for gas for the car, MM(18) was spoiled rotten.

But things are going well on this front.  MM(18) told us at Easter that he has a job for the fall quarter.  It's a TA type position that pays $1,200.  Will be a few hours per week.  That should cover his spending next year, so that was a nice surprise.  (He's only spent $500-ish the last 8 months on campus.  With all food/transportation/extra-curricular mostly provided.  $750 if I throw in the spending I did for him this month.). 

& then it sounded like he got the summer engineering job.  Just talked to him and it sounds like no formal offer yet?   But it's close.  & he already has a lead on another internship *and* an undergrad research project (2 years).  The research project would be $1,700 his junior year (another year of spending money).  Summer jobs will get him a car paid for in cash.  (He already has about $6,000 to that end, it's just tied up in mega high yield savings accounts). 

I expect the extra spending on MM(18) to be very one-off.  

I've already locked in May Spending.  The breathing room is working.  MH has had some weeks of a full working schedule and we haven't tapped any of his income to cover any expenses (for months).  So that is working out nicely.   I'd say that it should be an easy transition to summer (no second income) but maybe not if I am feeding MM(18) during summer months.  I suppose we've had extra extra breathing room with the lower grocery expenses during the school year (one less mouth to feed).   <----I haven't done anything with grocery savings.  2021 was total chaos and we are doing terrible on the food waste front.  But it's hard with how much MM(18) is home and trying to go back and forth between extremes.  Hoping we have the time/energy to be more food efficient in the fall.  

The bigger picture...  We've never had more than $50-$100/month in our budget for misc, spending (things like clothes, haircuts, eating out, allowance spending, whatever random spending might come up in a month that isn't very fixed and predictable).  I put myself through college, we saved up for a down payment in San Francisco (saved 70% of our income for a time), then we dropped our income in half to have kids.  This level of spending is all I know as an adult.  But this year I bumped the misc. spending up to $275/month, and yes we do have some extra extra wiggle room with the grocery savings.

Some bigger picture comments on this:  I was reluctant to increase spending because an extra $100/month spending means an extra $30K to save for retirement (presuming a 4% withdrawal rate).  Financial independence is what is important to us, and I am not too keen to move the needle.  But I also had some unexpected raises and a lot of conversations last year about being too retirement heavy.  So I do think it was prudent to relax our budget a little bit.  (Certainly nothing I ever expected *while* putting our kids through college. I was envisioning 5-ish years of keeping it tight and then, "I'd rather work less than spend more.").

We've enjoyed the extra breathing room, but we quickly abandoned our plans to fit more eating out into our budget.  I've always said that I notice eating out on the scale before I notice it in the checkbook.  I don't care if I order a salad with no dressing.  It's an extra 1,000 calories in a restaurant.  (I am exaggerating, but is how it feels).  This is extremely noticeable when you have spent decades eating mostly home cooked meals.  We've scaled back to 0-1 extra meals out per month.  

In the end, MH and I went to a local college arboretum a couple of weekends ago (completely free) and it was *amazing*.  I'd rather just go back there and have a picnic.  I feel like we have gone full circle.

That is how I am feeling for the moment.  Will just be my income for summer months (plus MM(18) home emptying the fridge and cupboards of all of our food), so it's a good minset for summer.  

This is probably 90% of why financial independence is getting so close for us.  I'd rather just read library books and go have a picnic in the park.  MH is good with the unlimited movie pass.  (He will literally go to the movies every single day).  The electric car is probably one of our biggest frugal wins.  Getting to anywhere just doesn't cost anything at this point.  We have Bay Area trips every weekend this month and that's just going to be *shrugs* financially. 

Yes! 

I believe we had our first charity pickup since the pandemic started.  I might have put out one bag last year at some point?  I don't remember for sure but I think I did have a charity write off.  Since then, there was one scheduled pick up but they never showed.

They just randomly scheduled for my work-from-home day.  So I optimistically set my *4* bags out.  When I looked outside around noon the bags were gone.  I am so happy!  At least two of those bags were filled when cleaning out MM(18)'s room last summer.  There's still a few things to figure out but the bulk of the stuff has been cleared from his room.

Well, now I don't have to figure out where on earth to take any of this stuff.  I would have no idea, we've always had so many charity pick ups in our neighborhood.

{Edited to add:  I found another donation bag while cleaning up the house this week.  I think it was the one missed bag, I had left it downstairs and then it got buried under junk.  I will pull it out so that I don't forget about it.}

I went by the grocery store to pick up some flowers yesterday but they were cleared out.  I don't know if it was the post Easter clear out or if they are short a florist or what.  ???  Anything that remained (not much) was pretty sad.  But I finally spotted these flowers, which were gorgeous.  $5.  I am easy to please.

I feel like I am coming out of the fog.  It's hard to separate out the mental/physical stuff because it seems to be all intertwined.  But I am feeling really good physically and will have some lab work done next week.  It will be interesting to see the results.   Without the lab work, I can say I feel more "normal" than I have in years.

This was started as a small post I never had time to finish.  So I am going to just end up with two mismash posts (if I ever get to the other bigger post I am in the middle of).

A couple of other things that are very fresh in my mind...

DL(16) had his jazz band concert last night and it was *amazing*.  This is the art school, so their performances are always incredible.  Lots of talent.  They usually do one mega long concert for everyone but separated out the jazz and percussion for last night.  This would have been like a 5 hour concert otherwise, I am gathering.  I guess it's nice they let the jazz bands shine versus doing just a couple of songs each.  Next week they have all the orchestras and everything and will be more a slog listening to all the beginners.  

That was kind of, "What just happened?" They were just next level last night.  

My in-laws came to see the concert and brought the news that my niece chose MM(18)'s college.  !!!!!  Yes!

It's just so random.  I don't think this school was initially a top choice for either of them, but they were both swayed.  So it feels so random in the end.  But I think MM(18) was probably a factor in helping to sway my niece.  Well, I am excited!  The possibility of shared car rides and housing (in the future) is nice, but probably more likely we will be more helping out my niece than the other way around.  Just by virtue of being one year ahead.  

Man, these college trip visits are going to get expensive.  !!  More mouths to feed.  Will obviously have to save her from the terrible dorm food, when we visit.  It's all good.

Received $23 bank interest for the month of March.

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $46 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

--Redeemed $83 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $6 on dining out/gas card (bought some gas for MM)

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

+ $7 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $142 Snowflakes to Investments

401k Contributions/Match:

+$940

Snowball to Savings:

+$1,550 MH Income

+$300 (for doing GMIL taxes)

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$1,050 to cash (mid-term savings)

Pulled from mid-term savings:

-$1,700 New Mattress 

-$  350 Movie Editor (payment for finished movie!)

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

+$1,500 to cash

TOTAL: $3,455 Deposited to Cash and Investments

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

Hybrid Miles Driven March:  903

Fuel Costs: $24 Electricity 

Electric (EV) Miles Driven March: 775

Fuel Costs: $16

Note:  I don't recall any free charging this month. 

All charging (both cars) was done at home or at free chargers.

We did a Bay Area trip and didn't have to stop to charge.  !!  Without the crazy (below average) temps, we got a better range estimate.  We got a 277-mile range.  Drove 253 miles and still had an estimate of 24 miles left when we got home.  MH cut it closer on his last winter Bay Area drive (he did not stop to fuel that time either).  But this was the closest I had cut it (I was driving).  Since getting the hybrid and tracking more, I'd say our average Bay Area trip is 250 miles.  This means a 2x gas stop trip is now a 0x fuel stop trip.  (We received a bigger battery due to a recall, so this means more range on the car than what we originally purchased).  We always filled up on the way out and then stopped on the way home (gas cars) so we had gas for the work week.  It's divine not having to stop for fuel at all.

With MH back at work, we've figured out a charging groove.  As expected, I charge every night (for my commute) & MH is just charging his car up on the weekends.  This is for overnight (lower rate) charging.  We can both always charge whenever if we need more miles.  & clearly every weekend is way more than MH needs to charge. (He's getting about 350 miles per charge, with more daily driving and more stop-and-go).  But it's nice to have a habit set, and to not expend any mental energy re: car fuel.  I don't miss the days of schlepping to the gas station. 

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

Note:  I am always lagging a month behind because any bills charged in February will be paid off March 1 and reflected in my March numbers.  I charge in one month and the next month I figure out how to pay for everything (if I need to pull anything from savings).  So this update reflects February spending & March savings.

This is what I wrote last month, which sums it up pretty well:

February ended up being a really good month and will be reflected by mega savings numbers in March.  Even with the purchase of a new mattress, March should go way the other way with more savings than spending.  

I was able to bump up my paycheck savings to $950/month with raise.  Added an extra $100 with retroactive pay adjustment (to catch up February).

GMIL always insists on slipping me $300 for doing her taxes.  She won't take no for an answer.  I probably usually somewhat count on this money.  Whereas this year the thought hadn't even crossed my mind and it was a surprise.  Probably just because I am not even used to MH being back at work and having all this extra money.  It's just extra extra money, at this point.  

I received this money the same day that we got the final edit for MH's movie project.  So that works our pretty nicely.  The final payment to the editor was $350.  Almost a wash.  

I Bonds were purchased this month.  It ended up being pretty fast/easy to set up. But I won't be reflecting interest numbers for three months.  We won't get any interest for first 3 months, because there is a '3 month interest penalty' if you redeem before first 5 years.  I will just wait until the interest $$ reflects on the I Bond value (starting July 1).  It will be 7%+ on $20,000 so will be a big boost to my interest numbers, the second half of the year.  & I am moving money over from investments, so this will be in addition to the cash interest we already have.  (I had some "cash" in my investment account basically earning nothing.  Want it very liquid because this is either going to be college money or 'next home down payment' money, presumably all spent in the next few years.) 

I cashed out this college money in late 2020 ($20,000).  Should have bought these I Bonds in November 2021 when interest rates hit 7%+.  & would have been wise to have taken advantage of 3%+ interest rates last May.  But I think 7%+ is what is pushing this to the no-brainer category.  It's getting my attention.  Making its way through the murky "I don't have the mental energy to deal with ANYTHING".  I might have been more on top of in better times.  But *this* is getting my attention now.

I can see that if rates stay high for a while that I may just consider this money to be emergency funds instead.  If we'd rather spend down 0.50%-interest cash in the short term.  & leave higher interest I Bond money untouched. 

March spending is done and paid for, so I have a good idea of how April numbers will shake out.   We somehow ended up net positive after a lot of expenses (a lot of insurance came due, some medical expenses, etc.).   The overall goal is to get some of these festival submission fees paid and movie stuff paid for while MH is working (out of his income).  He has the summers off.  

I still don't have much clarity on the college front for next school year.  They doled out scholarships to incoming freshman in March, but now I am hearing that we might not hear about scholarships until July, after grades post (for non-freshman).  So my mode right now is to just hoard money for college and movie stuff, and see how much we can hoard before summer when our income is reduced.   I do think we are about done getting MM(18)'s college paid for (even if he never gets another scholarship or gift).  Would just be nice to have more clarity on that front, so we can work on bigger picture planning and know if we have more freedom to move on to other financial goals.  If we know that we aren't going to touch his gifted college money ($30K), that is also just more financial pressure off of us for more long-term planning.   Just as an example, he's starting to talk about getting a car next summer.  If he has mega paying summer jobs and scholarships, we aren't going to sweat helping him with that.  If he doesn't get a big job this summer and he doesn't get a single scholarship, then we might want to come up with a few thousand dollars to help him.  Just stuff like that.  Is why it matters, even if we have full sticker price money set aside already.   & any money he doesn't need for college, is money that is already saved for DL(16) college, which is our next big financial goal.  So yeah, I am looking forward to more clarity.

Hell froze over and MH finished his movie!  We had a small premier party this week (for cast and crew).  After brainstorming and shooting down a lot of ideas, it ended up all coming together.   & I mean, I was willing to spend $1,000 on this party (particularly since we never did a wrap party).  Needing the space, a movie screen, catering, etc.  Most of the movie theaters were much cheaper, but just not a great venue to watch a short film.  Not a great place to cater or mingle.  In the end, the editor really wanted to show off on a bigger screen and so offered her place of work.  It was *perfect*.  We were quoted $235 for the space + projector.   We were only charged $200.  & we spent about $100 on food (including a custom cake).  So the grand total ended up being $300.  & I am sure I will absorb other party food costs in our monthly budget, but we spent $300 that was clearly just party spending.   

Next is submitting to film festivals and seeing if anything comes of that.  Now for the fun part!

If MH does get into any festivals, I plan to apply for travel reward credit card(s).

MM(18) came home for spring break.  I mentioned earlier, it was a chore week.  Dentist, ortho, taxes, etc.  He had a job interview that went really well (summer engineering job) but I don't think he has heard back from them yet.  It sounded like they would likely hire him but they are doing local State college recruiting this week.  Juniors/seniors will get higher priority (fair enough).   Now that his resume is done, he will probably attend his school's job fair this month and see if he can find anything else local.  If he doesn't get a formal offer by then. 

Before this job opportunity just fell in his lap, didn't really expect that he would be able to find anything local.  But now he's kind of intrigued and will see what else there is.  His girlfriend has a couple of job prospects here and one of them is remote.  So I guess that's also another interesting twist we hadn't thought about (remote opportunities).  The plan is absolutely to find a summer SF or LA job in future summers, but just wasn't the plan for this summer and didn't expect to find much close to home.  

MM(18)'s overall plans are to find a summer internship and to knock out one class at the community college this summer.   

I briefly mentioned that MM(18) had a girlfriend.  The girl he really liked went off to college in another state.  So when he came home winter break, dating his high school friend, MH and I were both kind of, "Love the one you are with."  Didn't think too much about it at the time.  But they are absolutely adorable.  Saw a lot of them together during spring break, now realizing this is actually serious.   & MH's family is starting to meet her and gush over her.  🙄  Was there last weekend and just heard how cute she is and that she can cook!  Like it's 1950.  Um, she is one smart cookie too.  But yeah, everyone loves her.  

I doubt MM(18) would have come up for Easter, but now everyone wants his girlfriend to come to Easter!  It's only half way (between here and college) and so it's not a bad drive for them.  So that is an unexpected turn of events.  Heck, I am surprised she can make the time.  (She is working, in addition to an intense field of study, many clubs, etc.). 

{While it's mostly impossible to have a car as a freshman, girlfriend's sister has had some unfortunate medical stuff randomly come up and got a medical exemption.  So they have a car and MM(18) now has easy transportation for breaks and Easter weekend.}

If MM(18) didn't go to school in paradise, we'd probably leave it that we wouldn't drive down again until we pick him (and all his stuff) up in June.  But I would like to go down in May some time for a mini spring break.  So we might get to see MM(18) a couple of more times before school is out.

Reminds me, my niece is there with MM(18) today.  She applied to a bajillion colleges and today I heard that she has narrowed it down to two!  MM's college is still in the running but apparently her second choice?  Will see how she feels after this weekend.  They are having a big open house for the accepted students.  It would be so nice if they both ended up at the same college, but doesn't sound the most promising at this point.  I am looking at the calendar, I guess she has three more weeks to decide.   

Well, my big plans for the weekend are to do everyone's taxes.  DL(16) still needs to get his taxes done.  (He's my difficult child, so will just have to make him get this done at some point). Then GMIL and my parents.  I dodged a bullet.  Sounds like my in-laws were going to need help with their taxes but figured it out.  Completely foreseeable but just nothing I had really thought about.  I should mentally add them to my future list.  FIL usually does their taxes but he is slowing down.  

I guess MH is feeling pretty free with his movie being done.  I had told him I would go to the movies with him and to a concert tonight.  He started talking about the movie this morning and I am just, "Not today."  But now I feel obligated to do that tomorrow.  

This is just adding to the "busy" feelings.

I should be over the hump at work.  Knock on wood!   Getting past all the year-end stuff (lots of tax returns, etc.).  I'd probably take the first week off in May, but my boss had already claimed that week off.  So I went for mid-May.  Just to have a break and try to get caught up on stuff around the house.  Counting down the days...

Oh yeah, and fingers crossed...  DL(16) is working on his driver's permit.  Hoping that he can get it this month.  Just one more thing, but MH is handling all of that.  Still, it adds a bit of extra excitement to the mix.  

Work is very busy right now.  

We are hosting St Patty's day dinner so things are busy at home.  MH handles all things food but I am trying to get the house in order.  I got out of my funk last weekend and got our taxes done and also started on getting the house cleaned up.  Phew!  Will spend this weekend doing the rest of the house prep.  I've probably said before but my "clean when guests come over" cleaning style hasn't worked particularly well in recent years.  Not enough guests coming over.   

MH received a $100 bonus from work, for being vaccinated.  They announced this a long time ago but I just confirmed it was in his check this past week.  The red tape took some time. 

MH also just figured out he can borrow video games from the library.  Nice!   He picked one up yesterday and it's due in 3 weeks.  

I was nice and filled up MM(18)'s car with gas.  I figured might as well before gas prices got worse.  Just had a mostly empty gas tank sitting there.  MM(18) is covering his ride home for spring break and it will be expensive reimbursing his friends for gas.  I could see him not bothering to come home but he has a job interview and several appointments (dentist/ortho, etc.).  & he will need to get his taxes done.  It's going to be quite the chore week.  

DL(16) joined/formed a band.  He only picked up guitar a few months ago but it comes very easy to him.  He's been wanting to join a band for a while so this is exciting for him.  These are kids from his art school, so they are mostly interested in writing their own music.  It sounds like more of a punk band but DL is trying to move them to more his style, whatever that is.  Loud and electric, either way.  

This is another post for another day, but DL(16) is starting to express interest in an accounting degree.   🙄  I mean, that's easy because is something that I know.  Before I would have told you *no idea*.  Maybe economics or political science.  No idea where those good schools are because everyone in my family studied math, accounting or engineering.  Or teaching.  That's about it.  We have some strong genetic tendencies. 

I roll my eyes because MH and DL are the two most creative people I have ever met (but also probably admittedly two of the most practical/responsible people I have ever met).  DL is just his mini me.   I have always been horrified how MH's family treated MH (did not value at all the arts or his creativity).  *sigh*  I had so many hopes for DL(16) with our full support.  Spending *7* years in an art school that values creativity and has college and career counseling to that end.  All that, and DL is just going to get a business degree like his father!?

I was legit horrified the first time he said this to me.  (I can't imagine him actually being happy with that career route, and I am horrified how we have failed to find any middle ground for him!)  But fair enough, there's a lot of accountants in my family and maybe he has some of those genes.  I am warming up to it.

& obviously he has a lot of time to change his mind.  Will see...  But mostly it sounds like they both took entirely different routes to the same end.  

On the college front, it's probably going to be community college.  He's always liked the idea of free college.  But as he gets closer, the more I tell him all the red tape he can skip/delay just going to community college...  He's all in.  & even this, will see...

I had this light bulb moment this past week that we are ready to buy I Bonds.  It's always been a "later" thing when we have more money.  Most likely after college and mortgage pay off.  Though as I type this out, it probably would be pretty smart to put most of our "emergency funds" in I Bonds.  (This is money we are personally never going to touch unless of a more catastrophic type emergency like job loss).  I guess something else to keep in mind.  

I am feeling a little "duh" about it because the annual max is $10K per person and we have $20K earmarked for MM's college expenses.  It was invested and is now languishing in our investment account earning probably 0.01% interest.  We just happen to have the max amount?  & why didn't I figure this out before?

At this point anything's better than sitting in investment cash account earning nothing.  I think this is perfect money to use to dip our toes into I Bonds.  It was also something we were discussing re: windfall money last year.  I understand there are educational benefits (tax free interest) but this is for MM(18) who likely won't have any tuition payments to get the tax benefit for.  

It sounds like a lot of red tape to get set up, so it's going to be a while.  Maybe in May I will have the mental energy for that, and some of why I wanted to write it down.  I also have $20K loosely set aside for DL's college, so might do another $20K next year.  (It's invested but admittedly should be moved to something more conservative soon). After that, might circle back to our emergency funds.

One last thing while I am thinking about it.  I was surprised when my friend told me her sister bought some land and a mobile home.  About $400K?  I was surprised because most her family had moved to Texas and was enjoying the lower cost of living.  Her sister works remotely (did so long before the pandemic).  Sister is early 20s.  It was shocking that she decided to stay here.

So I ask her the other day, "Did your sister move in?"  She told me no, they wouldn't let her.  What does that mean!?  Turns out the mortgage payment was 100% of her net monthly income.  She was approved for up to $625K loan on $80K income?  ???  The mortgage was $3,500 per month (for the $400K loan).  Her siblings were able to talk some sense into her and she backed out of the purchase.  It helped that there were other issues with permits and foundation.  I said, "Wow, that sounds like bubble territory."  I haven't been paying too much attention because interest rates are low and the vibe is so different than the last housing bubble here.  It may just be earlier in the cycle, before everyone completely loses their heads.  But this is all sorts of red flags crazy.  Which I guess is exactly what happens when prices are absurd and everyone get desperate.  

Received $25 bank interest for the month of February.

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $37 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

--Redeemed $85 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $6 on dining out card

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

+ $4 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $132 Snowflakes to Investments

401k Contributions/Match:

+$800

Snowball to Savings:

+$600 MH Income

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$850 to cash (mid-term savings)

Pulled from mid-term savings:

-$5,719 College Expenses

- $500 More College Expenses

- $600 Mattress  (used MH's income towards a new mattress)

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

+$1,500 to cash

+$  175 Insurance Rebate**

-$1,380 Various Insurance

-$  260 Dentist

-$  266 Annual DMV Registration (Hybrid)

-$   80 Miscellaneous

TOTAL: -$4,723 Net Withdrawn from Cash and Investments

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

Hybrid Miles Driven February:  704

Fuel Costs: $20 Electricity 

Note:  I'd estimate my commute at 800 miles per month.  Short month and a couple of days off.

Electric (EV) Miles Driven February: 486

Fuel Costs: $14

Note:  I don't recall any free charging this month. 

We also didn't have an opportunity yet to test out the bigger battery on a longer drive.

All charging (both cars) was done at home or at free chargers.  

Note:  I haven't noticed any gas price changes in months.  Whenever it comes up online, I look at Gas Buddy.  I think as with many things, prices are already high here and so are slow to change.  I share because in the last day our gas prices went up 50-cents per gallon!  At the super cheapie gas stations we frequent(ed).  Last night I thought it was a typo or maybe premium gas, but the other gas station shot up 40-cents today.  So it's official, our gas prices are getting crazy now. 

Of course, I don't want to pay even $4/gallon (much less $5/gallon) for my commute, which is why we bought the hybrid in the first place.  

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

**Insurance rebate was for disability & life insurance through professional association.  The annual rebate was much lower than usual.  I presumed that is due to the pandemic.  I later got an email confirming this.  More life insurance claims last year.

Note:  I am always lagging a month behind because any bills charged in January will be paid off February 1 and reflected in my February numbers.  I charge in one month and the next month I figure out how to pay for everything (if I need to pull anything from savings). So this update reflects January spending & February savings. 

This is mostly how it goes but I have two exceptions for this month:

1 - DMV.  Ugh!  After many many years of accepting credit card payments with no charge, they switched to charging a fee for payments.  This was before the pandemic?  Keep hoping they switch back and surprised they have not yet.  This bill is not due for a couple of months but I don't want to keep track of it, I just want to get it paid.  So I had to move money for this cash expense.  Paid in February.  Couldn't just charge it and pay it off next month.

2 - College Expenses.  Have to pay cash.  Again, could have paid later but I prefer to pay a couple of weeks early and to just pay the quarter in full (versus dealing with more frequent payments).

College Expenses: Paid for final quarter of freshman year.  This is roughly $730 tuition (will be completely offset by college tax credit) + $3K rent + $2K food. 

After that was done, MM(18) pinned me down to pay a $500 deposit for housing sophomore year.  I knew that was due soon, but thought I might have a couple of weeks of breather.  This is the only deposit I have to pay for next year?  Nothing else should be due until September. 

College Big Picture: 

A - I have money set aside to cover rent next year. 

B - Gifted funds are set aside for tuition, if needed.  Worst case sticker price is $20K for remainder of 4-year degree (tuition/fees).  MM(18) has $27K gifted funds.

C - We do also have $20K set aside to cover rent for last two years.  & we are still working towards saving college money for the next 16 months (basically spending sophomore year saving up for MM's junior year).   This is just in a "prepare for the worst" vein and our final contribution before we shift focus to DL(16)'s college expenses.

D - Waiting for scholarships & MM's summer job to sort out for more financial clarity.   

Another Note:  MH had a lot of time off work this month (just slow at work, plus some seasonal time off).    

I did throw MH's one paycheck towards the mattress; his March paychecks will pay for (most of) the rest of the mattress.  That and my raise should do it.  (I've already paid off the credit card, so technically just paying ourselves back in March).

February ended up being a really good month and will be reflected by mega savings numbers in March.  Even with the purchase of a new mattress, March should go way the other way with more savings than spending.  It was nice to enjoy some rare breathing room we put in our budget this year, so it felt a little splurge-y while also being able to keep aggressive savings goals.  I am sure the short month helped, and also just nothing really came up (by some miracle!?).  

I received a 5% raise this year, in addition to an extra week of vacation (putting my vacation time back to what I was used to at my last job).  I was more than happy with all of the above.  Certainly better than the usual 3% COLA raise.

After 20 years of January 1 raises (across multiple jobs), I certainly didn't expect a pay bump again until January.

But my boss was being silly and for whatever reason was looking at things and felt like he should have bumped me up to the next big round number.  (He felt bad about this).  ❓  So I got a $2K raise!  Woohoo!  Retroactive to January 1.

How's that for random!?

This is turning in to a "have my cake and eat it too" year.   I made the very unusual decision to lower our savings amounts and to increase our spending this year.  Increasing spending is not something we do, nor is decreasing savings.  I guess both were weird, but we lost a big tax credit this year, so I wasn't able to even add $100/month to our spending budget without decreasing savings goals.  

I'll be able to bump up savings by $100/month (with raise) and will start reflecting that in my March numbers.

The theme has changed:  Life is chaotic and difficult, but finances are... okay?

I hadn't commented lately and probably just wan't very conscious of how terrible things have been.  Because relatively, things have gone done a few notches and were a little easier.  Phew!  But I took a 4-day weekend last weekend and had some time to slow down and reflect.  2021 was terrible and 2022 isn't off to a great start. 

So I figured I'd copy and paste one of the other bajillion times I wrote how terrible things were going.  But all those other times it was, "Everything sucks but finances are great!!"  This time around, finances are fine/good.  Maybe both sides of the coin have been taken down a notch or two.  

Taking time to slow down and reflect was good.  I actually just retreated into my cocoon last Saturday.  Wouldn't be surprised if I ended up in bed for 3 days, but I felt so much better the next day.  Phew!  My takeaway is to completely give up on this "Reset" I have been trying for since 2018.  I am in survival mode.  It's just one foot in front of the other.  

So that's a bigger picture update.

It's not all bad.  Like I said, things have gone down a notch or two.  February ended up being productive on many fronts. 

We finally did it!  We replaced our 22yo mattress.  We went shopping a few years ago and just couldn't decide on anything.  Felt like such a big/scary purchase.  This time around we were able to be more decisive.  Anything is better than what we have, at this point.  (Maybe just weren't quite there yet, last time.  The old mattress felt like a cloud for the first 15+ years so I have dreaded trying to find something that could compare).  We doubled our budget this time because we just wanted to get it done.  & I mean, we just pulled a number out of the air that morning.  It was a starting point, we have the cash for whatever. 

We ended up buying a higher end mattress that had been returned.  60% off and was so obviously "the one".   

I personally just wanted to figure it out, make the purchase.  Didn't have any high expectations on delivery timelines with the state of the world these days.  But I guess that was also a nice perk of buying a returned mattress.  We had it delivered and set up a few hours after the purchase.  So life can move on...

February was also successful re: adding breathing room to our monthly budget.  It does work better when you have a full month of new raise (versus just 1/2 month). 

We have $125 monthly breathing room that we are just leaving more for eating out and going out.  A line item that we've never allocated this much money to, before. 

February ended up being $108; the breathing room was divine.   

**We tried a sushi place by our home that was *so good*.  (Went there for lunch when MH was not working).  It's right next to our favorite restaurant.  Which I expect is one reason we had never eaten there.  It's apparently been there forever.  *This* is what I want to get out of the breathing room, finding these places that are right under our nose.

**Mid-February we went to the art museum (free with membership) and had lunch at a bar in the old downtown by the river.  The food was "meh".  This is a reminder of why I dislike spending money on eating out.  But having the breathing room, being more relaxed about it, and this not being our 'only splurge for the month' helped.  It's going to be hit and miss; this breathing room is about the journey.

**Went to a foreign film (free with gift card)

**Went to a play

In the end, got completely unexpected good money news this week already.  So maybe I was too quick to label finances as just "okay".  Next post...

Getting through "started but not published" posts.  This is the last one.  I did a DL(16) money update about a month ago, but here is the MM(18) update.

MM(18) had a one-month job lined up that would net about $3,500.  This was last August.  It fell through but was probably for the best.  He likely would have quit with the fires and terrible outside working conditions.  He was able to make $1,500 doing temp work in my office.  An employee went on a long international vacation and he had been helping us out the prior two years.  He was the obvious go-to for a summer temp.

No one in our families had "gone away" to college, particularly for freshman year.  So we agreed that MM(18) should not work while he gets his bearings.  It was just a lot, even if he is very adaptable and I am sure he probably would have been fine. 

In the end, we have decided that working is penny wise and pound foolish.  Probably not in the ways that would be presumed.  MM(18) would have no problem working and getting all As.  But I heard it was feasible for freshman to get very high paying summer internships.  I wasn't going to hold my breath on that one.  But it's quickly becoming obvious this is true and the *why* of this is true.  MM(18) is spending his ample free time joining clubs.  He is building an electric car from scratch and also working on the engineering side of an art installation.  Those are his two major projects.   Not only is he getting very practical experience, but he's networking.  The first few weeks of college he had already met several juniors/seniors who are moving on from their internships, and attended networking events with big name companies.  So it seems pretty pointless to work during the school year for very few dollars, when he can make $15,000 over the summer (without balancing work/school).  

Current Job Situation:  ??????  Weird re: Pandemic

I copy and pasted what I wrote about DL(16).  Just because he *can* get an internship this summer, doesn't mean much.  MM(18) told us a while ago that he didn't expect he would want to get an internship this summer.  & I mean, he was presuming they would mostly be in LA or SF.  In addition to being more difficult to get as a freshman.  We are fine with that.  I honestly don't think he will ever move home again, and so it will be nice to have him home this last summer.  

This is just a completely random/new development, but MM got a lead on an internship here and has a job interview during spring break.  It's extra random because this company is right next door to mine (shares the same parking lot).  Talk about a small world. 

Anyway, with the job falling through last summer and the pandemic and everything, I expected things to be pretty tight for MM(18).  It's been made extra complicated because he's aged out of his 7%-interest account.  That was another $500 I thought he'd have access to this school year.  But though he's clearly aged out (it says so on his statements, that the interest rate is only something like 0.02%) they are still giving him 7%!  So of course he doesn't want to touch that $500 as long as he is getting mega interest.

In the end he only spent $200 his first school quarter, and the vast majority of that was finals week when he finished like on Monday and waited all week for a ride.  He gained a girlfriend and she had her car.  So they went out shopping and went out on a date (he paid for an expensive meal).  If not for that, he probably would have spent a whole whopping $100 for the quarter.

He is enjoying the all-inclusive lifestyle (and lives in paradise).  There is no lack of things to do.  He's been back for 6 weeks and the only thing he bought was books for the second quarter.  I am just checking his bank balances.  He has about $800 left.  So he roughly started the school year with $1,000 and is left with $800 to get through the next 4 months.  I think he will survive.  During school, he's just too busy to spend money.  & I am glad he splurged and enjoyed a bit when he did have some down time.  During winter break he was recovering from wisdom tooth surgery, and his high school friends seemed mostly interested in hanging at each other's houses (I expect due to several reasons.  If nothing else, never got in any habit of "going out" during the pandemic, in addition to maybe being enticed by parents who wanted more time with their kids.  MM was offered a lot of free meals).  Whatever the reasons, he didn't spend any money when he was home.  

MM(18) also has $5,500 in super high yield savings accounts.  I just know he doesn't want to touch any of that if he doesn't have to.

So the summer job thing is a big question mark at this point but he has some possibilities.

MIL usually gives the kids $1,000 per year for their college savings.  Because we are paying for tuition/room/board, I think I am probably going to give MM(18) this $1,000 to cover spending money his sophomore year.  Just some, "if you don't get a job this summer" insurance.  It seems the best use of this money at this point.   We already have funds set aside to cover his last 3 years of college (presuming worst case of no scholarships).  I'd rather utilize this $1K as "not having to work" money. 

This electric vehicle recall was a roller coaster I just didn't have the time or energy to blog about.  Plus, easier to post the whole story when we have some resolution.

I also don't remember a lot of the little details and roller coaster, so maybe it's for the best.  

We bought our 2017 Bolt in summer 2020.  At some point after that, Bolts were starting to catch fire.  Probably some fires before then, but hindsight 20/20 it makes sense why those started to be a problem (more numerous) in late 2020.  Will get to that.

I distinctly remember thinking, "This can be really good or really bad."  Really bad = burning down our house (and/or starting the next CA mega fire).  Really good = getting a new battery!

Happy to come out the other end with the "really good" outcome.  

As to the roller coaster...  

They first tried to fix with a software patch but that didn't work. 

I remember it was July 2021 because MH was in Florida, when they announced that they would start just replacing batteries.  At the time, this was just 2017-2019 models.  A few days later a 2020 model caught fire.  !!!  So it quickly felt very back to square one.

I have to back up and say that if this was any other car we would have sold and moved on.  But there are no other (useful) electric models on the market in our price range.  Going back to a gas car is out of the question.  We would be miserable.  About the best compromise we came up with is maybe getting a second Volt (hybrid) for a while, until they sort this out. 

We did get into the queue a long long time ago, for GM to buy back our car.  They were crazy slow, which we were fine with.  We just wanted to be in the queue and don't know if that helped us move up the line for battery replacement.  The "buyback" was probably pretty useless.  We bought used and could do much better on the resale market right now.  We paid $17K for a car that's worth like $23K today.  The buyback would have been $17K minus some useage.  But we just wanted to be in the queue, express our concern, and didn't know if used values might falter through this mess, etc. (if GM would be the best offer to sell the car). 

Of course, we were very seriously considering investing a lot of money and trading up to a 2020.  Just to be out of this mess.  I am so relieved we didn't go that route.  (That was before we knew 2020 just had the same problems).  

I think once that 2020 blew up, GM just put all hands on deck.  It seems pretty quickly after that they really narrowed down the problem.   We were never overly concerned because the fire risk was pretty average for the 2017s.  The problem ended up being a 2-month manufacturing period of the 2019 model.  Those are something like 30 times more likely than the average gas car to catch fire.  😱  Obviously they fixed all of those first, and then are moving backwards to the oldest cars/batteries.  

The end result is a 5-year-old car with a brand new battery and a new 8-year warranty.  The new batteries are bigger and have a longer range, so we also have added more range to our car.  The EPA rating on the old battery was 240 miles of range, but we were consistently getting 260.  & I mean, mostly freeway driving (which is the least fuel efficient on electricity).  If MH just drives to work (city streets) the car might go 400 miles on one charge.  (Braking regenerates electricity, so the fuel efficiency is backwards of what you think re: gas cars.  Traffic and lights = more range).  

Old Battery = 60 kWh

New Battery = 66 kWh

That's a 10% increase in range!

Our 260-mile real (freeway) range is probably now 286 miles. 

We have not been able to really test this out because it has been unusually cold.  We were able to get 250 miles on Christmas Day (unusually cold) and it was freakishly cold the day MH drove the kids back to college (January 2) .  

December/January is our winter.  This should be more interesting the rest of the year.  & MH was able to do a Bay Area roundtrip without stopping for fuel.  He did this on January 31.  I imagine this will be much easier most of the year (with warmer temps). 

Edited to clarify:  During the recall we couldn't charge below 30% or above 90%.  So we weren't able to (easily) drive the electric vehicle to the college.  (Deep discharging and/or full charging was a risk factor with the fires).  Thus, some gas spending in 2021 that I am not expecting in 2022.  

In 2020 we spent $115 on car gas, for the hybrid car.   It looks like we did 4 Bay Area trips before we bought the all-electric vehicle in late Summer 2020.

After buying the electric car, I spent a whole whopping $6 on gas.  This was for a couple of gallons just to keep the hybrid in good condition.  I consider that more of a maintenance expense than a fuel expense.

I expect that 2021 would have been a $6 gas year.  We are to the point we are driving 100% electric.  But we had to put the electric car on hold for longer trips.  Which probably would have been completely N/A for us, but then we were driving MM(18) to/from college 300 miles away. 

Total household gas spending 2021:  $348 

 $29 of this was putting gas in the kids' car.  MM(18) was dragging his feet spending his own money and then MH needed the car a couple of days while his car was getting the battery swapped out.  Knowing he'd be driving the gas car to the dealership and back, etc., he just filled up the tank.  

That leaves $319 gas for the hybrid.    We spent -$0- on gas from January through August (hybrid) and then spent that $319 the last 4 months.

That's for 5 college visits (600 miles x5) & two Holiday trips to the Bay Area.  We've done plenty of Bay Area driving trips in the all-electric vehicle, but MH was getting more wary towards the end.  Technically we weren't supposed to drop below 30% battery capacity but was getting pretty close with the Bay Area trips.  It just depends how much we were driving around and visiting relatives when we were there.  

Oh yeah, and I put a couple of gallons in during the middle of summer.  The gas level in the Volt dropped below 40 miles? and the car just kept beeping at me.  But what pushed me over the edge was I had never done the remote start before and started doing that during the summer.  Don't ask me why it took 3 years to figure that out (makes 110F summer days much more bearable when you can just cool off your car first!).  So the remote start stops working one day and I quickly realize it's disabled once the fuel level is "low".  🙄  Which makes sense obviously for a gas car, but makes no sense for a car in electric mode that uses basically no energy to run the A/C.  So that is why I added some gas in the middle of summer.  

I am hoping that 2022 is a $6 gas year for our household.  

Of course, the next question is how much are we paying for electricity?  I have no idea!  I am behind on my estimates, and some of that is because we stopped charging the EV overnight (due to fire risk/recall).  & I am just behind, because of life.  I can probably extrapolate all overnight charging to my car and just try to come up with an equivalent to cover MH's miles.  But then I'd have to convert to higher daytime charging rates.  Still, it should be quick to work through the last few months, I just have too many higher priorities at the moment.  

I will share when I have those estimates.  But mostly, I had been running all my projections based on $4/gallon gas.  Which I felt was quite conservative at the time (when we bought the hybrid in 2018).  Figured gas had nowhere to go but up.  The pandemic has stalled gas going up, but clearly it is happening now.  Anyway, at $4/gallon we pay roughly 1/3 that cost (for electricity) when we charge our cars overnight.  When we pay full price while traveling, that was usually about 1/2 the cost of gas.

The college trip is quickly becoming a free drive for us, with the electric car.  So that might go from a $55 (hybrid) gas trip to a $0 electricity trip.   (Maybe $10 is you count charging up at home before and after).

We came home on the I-5 after taking MM(18) back after Thanksgiving break.  We hadn't gone that route in many months and we were surprised how many new chargers there were.  

Free chargers are popping up at all of the rest stops in our state.  There was one by the college we kept stopped at and using, but now there's several on the I-5.  

Electrify America gives away free electricity during Holiday weekends.  !!  The charging was free from something like December 22 - January 2nd.   

Before this recall detour, it was on my list to some day try a free drive down to the college.  I've seen many people posting they've done free fuel drives from Northern CA to Southern CA.  But usually the free places are kind of in weird places.  Not as convenient as just stopping and charging while you eat.  But we were up to the challenge and is something we wanted to do. Anyway, it seems kind of moot now with free chargers all over the place.  I mean, will still take advantage of the free charge, but it just won't be much of a challenge.

Edited to add:  I started this post a long time ago and just hit publish.  I will start sharing monthly car fuel spending, so it will become pretty clear how much less we are paying for electric fuel.  I did share January #s in my January post.

We had a San Francisco weekend planned with 5 shows, this weekend.  This was canceled a while ago.  Seemed overkill at the time, but now I am not sure I would have gone.  COVID has been rampant in our zip code and circles.  

Instead I am working and tending to long put off chores.  What a slog.  This is the complete polar opposite of what I thought I would be doing this weekend!

We had made the decision to put more breathing room into our budget and to do some more going out.  Between "crazy busy" at work and COVID and everything, all of that is on hold.   Will see how things feel in another week or two.  

MH is off work for a couple of weeks.  It's his usual winter break, but seems later this time.  I asked him if he thought he'd even be going back in two weeks.  He actually thinks so, said nothing had been canceled.  Will see...

DL(16) is starting to get college mailings.  How is that even possible!?

I've heard that it's virtually impossible to get life insurance after a brain tumor.  It's not cancer and it's not life threatening (while being watched/treated).  But the underwriters just lump all brain tumors basically under the worst category.  

Anyway, the standard question is if you have had treatment for a tumor the past 5 years.  Since MH's tumor is *finally* shrinking and it's been 5+ years since he has any treatment.  We tried...

Just got the denial back.  Not particularly surprised.

So thankful we had our ducks in a row so young and we have had more than ample insurance.  Like many things, we will survive and work through it.  The insurance we do have expires in 3 more years.  & we've got probably 5 more years to get kids through college.  I was just concerned about that 2-year gap, but wanted to get insurance while things were actually going well. 

Considering we lived without MH having an income at all for 13 years, I think we will survive.  😉

The reason we had life insurance in our early 20s?  Well I think a lot of it was because we had kids in our early 20s.  (Wouldn't have seen the point of life insurance when we both worked full-time and lived on only one of our incomes).   But I think probably more to the point my mom was always taking care of her sick friends.  So my childhood was skewed where I feel like everyone's parents were always dying.  & some of them did not prepare at all and really financially struggled.  Between that and crazy cheap term life insurance in our young 20s... 

I cringe how much the average person puts this off.  But I have the double whammy of the skewed childhood and a spouse who has been uninsureable since early 30s.  I just wanted to share the news/update, but now that I type it out, this is also my PSA to go buy some freaking life insurance.  (Specifically, if you have kids or people who rely on you financially). 

For us personally, we can re-evaluate in another 3 years.  When we hit that gap, we can try one more time.  I know some with this condition have gotten insurance.  I just don't know if it matters enough.  We went the easy route and it didn't work.  Will have to evaluate if we want to put more time/effort/energy into this.  Weighing the cost/benefit, etc.

I am memorializing goals in my sidebar.  Unfortunately, this site is not allowing me to just cut and paste my sidebar goals.  So whatever, will just put some in another format and type it out.  

Pay cash for college ✔

In the end, MM(18) followed in his parents' footsteps and chose a public college that is impossible to beat from a cost/benefit standpoint.  I always say that about my alma mater but MM(18) has chosen a similar degree/route (at a different CA State college).

I suppose we didn't have any idea where he would end up last January, but we never considered any colleges that we'd have to go into debt over.  

$12K to Savings ✔

Final tally was $16,000.  The plan was to use this money to pay cash for college.  At the end of 2021 we had -$0- cash plus emergency funds.  So that's about how it sorted out.  That we had just enough to cash flow college (without tapping any prior years' savings/investments). 

We probably would have fared better on this goal (with unexpected unemployment funds and stimulus, etc.) but it was a really expensive medical year.  We basically saved $25,000 but spent $9,000 on medical, which nets out to $16K saved.

I hope this makes this our worst college year.  For future years we have all of MM(18)'s college costs saved (already) and this was a really one-off medical year.  

$2K to Investments ✔

Funded with snowflakes.

I had been feeling very "meh" about this goal.  Probably stopped throwing our snowflakes into investments once college started.  But I do count dividends and it was a really big dividend year.  That was enough to encourage me and I threw something like $250 of our windfall to top off this goal.

$1,200 to Mortgage ✔

I hit this goal with a lump sum at the beginning of the year.  

We then threw an extra $12,615 with the cash gift we received end of December.  

Why $12,615?  It was an even $20K mortgage paydown for the year and left just enough windfall to cover college expenses for the next 18 months.  

The $12,615 extra payment shaved off 2 years of payments and $9,500 interest.

9% Income to Work Retirement Plans ✔

MH and I both contribute the minimum for 401k match.  The 9% includes employer contributions.

$12,000 to IRAs 2021 ❌❓

Not sure on this one.  We sent $12K to mortgage instead.

I was very happy to get a redo.  We ended up doing 33% of my income to retirement in 2020 due to a nasty tax cliff.  Then unemployment was made tax-free retroactively and we didn't need this tax break at all.  No way I ever would have tied up so much money in 401K if I had known!  So I appreciate the redo.  Will average 21% to retirement both years, which is what is important.  Anything more than that...  Meh.  We are way too retirement heavy.

We also don't need the tax break for 2021.  Taxes ended up going way the other way in 2021.

To be re-evaluated in April.  I left it as a question mark because I just don't know.  Will see how things shake out the next 3 months.  We have until April 15th to lock in this decision.   (We are saving a lot, but MH's job is also very iffy re: pandemic surge).

Edited to add:

Also hit two longer term goals this year.  What a year!

**$500K+ in retirement funds (by age 45) ✔

**$1 Mil+ Net Worth ✔

Note:  I didn't have a timeline for the net worth goal, it's just a nice milestone.  Retirement goal was extremely aggressive when made.  I swear that "thinking it" is 99% of the battle when it comes to goals.  Not to underscore the planning and hard work, but the aggressive goals seem to work in the subconscious background and find a way to work.

I am going through updating the kids' Quicken accounts and so can do a snapshot of where they are at.

Firstly, DL(16) is done with his allowance.  I turned it off January 1, same as I did for his brother (when he turned 16.5).  & the only reason it took that long was some miscommunication between MH and I.  Probably should have just turned it off at 15 when they had their first jobs.  

Our attitude about "allowance" is it was a tool for the kids to learn about money when they had no source of income, but we don't see the point at all in our high minimum wage state, once the kids are of working age.  We'd maybe reevaluate with this whole pandemic situation (not sure if either of my kids will be working this summer).  But...  The other part of the allowance equation is that my kids don't spend money so we basically never increased their allowance from when we started (age 5).  At the end of the day, is this $150 per year ($3 per week) going to make any difference in the grand scheme of things?  Nope!  Makes it easy to just move on.

Income/Spending:

DL(16) earned $34 interest (7% interest rate savings account)

+$156 Allowance $$

+$216 Gift Money (Birthday/Christmas)

+$1,024 Salary (very small summer job, something like 10 hours x 6 weeks) 

- $90 Payroll Taxes

-$10 Gifts

-$78 Clothing Purchases

Net Saved: $1,252

Current Job Situation:  ??????  Weird re: Pandemic

Driving Situation:  ??????  Weird re: Pandemic

DL(16) has always been the tortoise to MM(18)'s hare personality.  So I am not surprised at all he didn't get his driver's license the second he turned 16.  Mostly though he has a mental block about online school (is emotionally scarred from 2020) and he just can't deal with the online driving courses.  & absolutely no one is teaching in person (which I think may become a permanent change).  Will see...  Last we discussed, he would do the online course next summer if it's still his only option.   & we will have to lean on him pretty hard since his college plan is to go to community college in the Bay Area.  He will need a car and we will never be comfortable with that unless he has more driving experience under his belt.  That might be what motivates him, if we insist he stays at home the first year if he doesn't get some months of licensed driving experience first.

If he's not driving, he doesn't have any financial motivation to work.  Once he does get his license, he will need to pay for the insurance on the kids' car.  Insurance and tags and everything.  Fuel and oil changes.  But with the "free car" (not having to buy a car on top of that) he's well set up to cover those expenses for a while.  He needs something like $1,000/year to drive and he does have $2,500+ saved up.  I know this is a lot of our *shrugs* about just rolling with things (if we don't feel safe with him working this summer).  Both my kids are learning great/early lessons about the flexibility and benefit of all those savings.  

Assets:

$2,106 Cash

$  500  Super High Yield Savings

+$26,000 Gifted College Money

Other Notes:

I did end up just adding DL to my Target credit card because doing so had bumped up MM(18) to something like a 780 credit score.  Which I didn't know until he turned 18 and we could pull his credit report.  (The card I actually gave MM full control over and he used for all of his automobile expenses, did nothing for his credit score.  That figures!)

In this case, the Target card is actully in my wallet.  Will work on DL(16) getting some credit and learning how to manage a credit card when he has any expenses.  Which probably won't happen until he gets his driver's license. 

I am just going to mix in current commentary with prior year commentary.

2020:  +$104,000

2021:  +$215,000  🤯

2020:  We paid down the mortgage by $10,000, purchased a newer vehicle, and the rest was stock market contributions and gains.

2021:  We paid down the mortgage by $20,000, cash/investments up $75,000, and the rest is real estate gains.  I mentioned in a recent post that real estate values have been pretty stagnant since the recession but skyrocketed this year.  My housing estimate is conservative and will probably bump up more next year. 

We were helped along with a $20,000 cash gift this year.  Thus the large mortgage payment.

2019: Today we could pay off our mortgage and still have $340,000 cash/investments. For the first time, we could do this with only cashing out about 1/2 our ROTH IRA and all of our taxable investments. It's the first time we could leave everything else intact (emergency fund, kids' college, rest of retirement, etc.). I am not tempted yet, but honestly, if I had an additional $50k in investments, we could pay off our mortgage AND leave six figures in our ROTH IRA. At that point, I would probably be tempted. Especially with just cashing out at a peak. Taking the money and running. I've always said there is a tipping point. I just have never been so close to the tipping point. If my stocks go up $100k next year, I wouldn't rule it out.

2020: Today we could pay off our mortgage and still have $430,000 cash/investments. 

My stocks did not go up $100K, and we have college to figure out.  If not for college literally starting this year, and being so close to our $500K retirement goal...  I don't think the tipping point will be until the mortgage is under $100K; we just aren't quite there yet.  

2021: Today we could pay off our mortgage and still have $530,000 cash/investments.   (Roughly $515K retirement funds + $15K cash would remain).

We discussed at length due to potential windfall (and the stock market being so high).  But college is the bigger priority at the moment.   We have lots of dollars earmarked for college "just in case".  Will hang on to that money for a few more years. (MM's college situation is pretty clear, but we still need to sort out DL's college situation.  No idea...)

Again, the tipping point won't be until somewhere below $100K.  

2020: We need our net worth to continue to increase (on average) $50k per year to reach our Financial Independence goal at age 50.

Estimate Net Worth Change for 2021:

Mortgage: Paydown $8,500

Retirement: Contribute $8,500

Home Appreciation: $45,000

TOTAL INCREASE: $62,000

Our net worth changes never look anything like our estimate (it's rare any asset class actually has an average year). But, I go through this exercise just to make sure my goal is realistic and doable.

Estimate Net Worth Change for 2022:

Mortgage: Paydown $15,000

Retirement: Contribute $20,000

Investment Gains: $20,000

TOTAL INCREASE: $55,000

More 2020 Commentary: We have 6 years left on our "financial independence" goal.  We've started out so strong, that we have 6 years left to come up with $270,000.  That is $45,000 per year net worth growth that we are aiming for.  I think it's nice how it has worked out.  We expect to be saving less and possibly drawing down assets as we pay for college over the next 6 years.  $45,000 is a lower bar than we had been aiming for initially.  I expect a major push of working hard and getting college done without any debt.  But...  I am also feeling a lot of, "exceeded goals in recent years, so can chill as we get through the next few years."  The plan is to rely on our assets to do most of the work re: retirement and longer-term future.  That will be the "chill" part.

2021:  We did it!!  We hit $1 Mil net worth.    🥳🙌🎉  

According to the bottom of my sidebar, we've hit $545K of our $600K financial independence goal.  This was a 10-year goal that we have almost hit in 5 years.  (The goal was to add $600K to our net worth, doubling from $600K to $1.2 Mil).  

It will be realistic to get there in 2022.  Will see if the stock market and real estate market cooperates.

I am personally kind of happy that we didn't fully make that goal because I can just leave my sidebar as is.  Basically, I am not going to mess with it.  The new goal I am formulating in my mind (to memorialize next year) is probably going to be $800K total cash/investments, to hit financial independence goal.  This presumes that we pull $200K equity from our home when we downsize.  The old goal was $1 Mil + paid-for home.  Which will basically remain our goal.  But presuming that we pull $200K home equity to get there, will make this easier to measure while the real estate market is crazy.  

Of course, if we did hit that "+$600K financial independence" goal this year or if we hit it next year, it is meaningless at this point.  Our spending isn't going to be realistically $40K per year until our kids are self sufficient and our mortgage is paid off.  Those are the two other hurdles we have to get past for financial independence.  So I am personally not in any huge rush.  Also, to be clear, it's just about not *having to* work and that independence.  I have my absolute dream job at this point and MH misses more meaningful work and the identity that comes with that (but is still very held back by our needier child who has yet to get his driver's license yet).  I am always kind of bemused how often people finish paying for college, get their house paid off, hit these big goals and then have big career gains.  But I can see how that is probably how it is going to play out for MH and I.  That seems to be the track we are ending up on.   

Feeling productive today.  Got our taxes mostly done.  Is generally how I handle it.  Just get everything entered and then double check that tax forms match my records, as those forms come in.  Try to file before February.

I really miss the professional work software and how much time it saved me.  I've just been throwing tax projections into last year's software and then mentally tweaking what I know is different for the next year. It's not great but it's the most cost effective (and fast) way I can figure out how to do tax projections.

I had to share because when throwing all my numbers into tax software I was coming up with some large tax due at first.  Was kind of ignoring and figuring it would sort out as I entered more data.  Oh yeah, that extra $6K in medical expenses this year, ended up putting us massively over the standard deduction.  That did help.

Towards the end though I still had $2,000 shown due.  At the very end it was $2,001.  Did I mess thing up that bad?  Nope, I figured it out pretty quickly.  That last $2,000 was college tax credits.  Did I literally get our taxes down to the penny?  Er, down to $1?!  Holy cow!

I told MH to give me a gold star.  😁

In the end, I refined a couple of more deductions and so the taxes went down a bit.  The only estimate that remains is I threw in some investment dividends as 'taxable' and I know a lot of that will sort out to non-taxable (qualified dividends at 0% tax rate).    So that's the one thing I have to wait for to finalize.  Should get investment tax forms in 1-2 weeks.  

I am happy how 2021 shook our financially and have done some tax projections and updated my sidebar for 2022 goals (basically same as always).

I will delve deeper when I have some time. 

Just popped on the computer this morning to execute some rebalancing trades.  The *one* thing I had to get done before today was I usually just do a Morningstar X ray to get a snapshot of our investments and returns for the year.  I mean, it take a couple of minutes for tons of data.  But it's the only thing I really had the time and energy for, and that had to be done this weekend. 

I guess fair enough, it was also driving me crazy and I sat down to figure out my 2022 taxes so I could update my 2022 budget.  That is also what I got done.  

Now that we have the electric car back at 100%, I think it would be interesting to do a daily spending snapshot.  As we no longer have mega grocery expenses (MM) and no longer have auto gas expenses.  But I know I won't have the time for it.  February might be a better month for that.

That reminds me of our one frugal "fail".  Electrify America (EA) was entirely free during the long Holiday week.  We took advantage and got 60 free miles on Christmas Day.  & then MH drove MM(18) and his friends back to school yesterday.  I am guessing we got 400 free miles.  It would cost approximately $10 total to fill up the car at home, both before and after.  $5 per charge at home.  I don't know how often we will be driving MM(18) to/from school (not as much in the future) but it's nice to have the electric option.  Even better when it's free!

Oh yeah, the fail part...  

MH chose to stop at a place at a restaurant and he had three teenagers to feed.  When talking to him later he mentioned I might have seen the $90 restaurant bill.  😲 (Nope, I had not seen that!)  But oh well.  I am trying to go through the math in my head and that would have been a $75 drive in the gas car anyway.  Nice to be able to give everyone a ride with that kind of money, treat all the kids, and then throw a tip on top of that.  (In return, MM had also gotten a free ride home at the beginning of break).

We usually never travel at all on busy/holiday weekends.  Obviously that is changing with the "kid away at college" thing.  The chargers were really crowded this weekend, versus usually no one really there.  ???  I don't know how much is people making the extra effort for free.  MH was willing to wait 10 minutes for a charger, if it was free.  I would say we only stuck to the EA chargers because they were free.  It was crowded but there was always at least one open charger when MH reached each EA station.  

2021 TALLY:

$800 Cash (Chase Sapphire Quadruple Dip, MH) 

$30 Venmo ($10 x 3 Sign Up Bonuses)

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$830 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Ongoing rewards:

+$313 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/streaming services)

+$80 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$108 Visa Rewards (3% cash back restaurants/fuel).  Ended up also using for groceries in Q4 (3% cash back)

+$1,046 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere - health insurance/medical is the *big* expense that we charge, is more than our mortgage payments)

Grand Total = $2,377

I just want to add that historical figures below do also include bank bonuses. They just don't generally work very well for us so I do not utilize as much.  (We did -0- bank bonuses in 2021).

Year 2011 = $4,164

Year 2012 = $2,782

Year 2013 = $2,623

Year 2014 = $3,128

Year 2015 = $2,585

Year 2016 = $1,906

Year 2017 = $3,578

Year 2018 = $2,096

Year 2019 = $2,266

Year 2020 = $2,107

Year 2021 = $2,377

Total 11 Years = $29,612 ***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

Note: I have been tracking since 2011 because that's when the rewards got CRAZY. We have always utilized cash back on credit cards. It's just been extra rewarding during the past decade.

***CAVEAT - I absolutely do not recommend utilizing credit card rewards in this manner, unless you are in full control of your credit card spending. We treat our credit cards like debit cards; only charging if we have the cash on hand already. We've never paid a cent of fees or interest.***

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Final tally is complete!

Got a boost from charging MM's surgery this month.  So it was a bigger December boost than usual.

So close to $30K!  

2021 TALLY (Preliminary):

$800 Cash (Chase Sapphire Quadruple Dip, MH) 

$30 Venmo ($10 x 3 Sign Up Bonuses)

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$830 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Ongoing rewards:

+$313 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/streaming services)

+$80 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$76 Visa Rewards (3% cash back restaurants/fuel).  Ended up also using for groceries in Q4 (3% cash back)

+$875 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere - health insurance/medical is the *big* expense that we charge, is more than our mortgage payments)

Grand Total = $2,174

I just want to add that historical figures below do also include bank bonuses. They just don't generally work very well for us so I do not utilize as much.  (We did -0- bank bonuses in 2021).

Year 2011 = $4,164

Year 2012 = $2,782

Year 2013 = $2,623

Year 2014 = $3,128

Year 2015 = $2,585

Year 2016 = $1,906

Year 2017 = $3,578

Year 2018 = $2,096

Year 2019 = $2,266

Year 2020 = $2,107

Year 2021 = $2,174

Total 11 Years = $29,409 ***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

Note: I have been tracking since 2011 because that's when the rewards got CRAZY. We have always utilized cash back on credit cards. It's just been extra rewarding during the past decade.

***CAVEAT - I absolutely do not recommend utilizing credit card rewards in this manner, unless you are in full control of your credit card spending. We treat our credit cards like debit cards; only charging if we have the cash on hand already. We've never paid a cent of fees or interest.***

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I am just leaving this as a placeholder.  All I need to do is add in the December rewards when I have them, for the final 2021 tally.

Note:  I really lost interest in credit card rewards this year.  The exception was an easy offer to help offset college set up costs.  I used that $800 towards a college laptop for MM(18).  

I've commented in my last couple of posts that I hope to add a little breathing room to our very tight monthly spending budget, given windfalls and raises this year.  We haven't "lived without" the prior 20 years, but it's always the credit card rewards and extras that give us that extra breathing room.  If we can squeeze that out of *my* paycheck, I might not be as inclined to seek our bigger credit card rewards.  Will see...

I suppose that I plan to do a small reward when DL(16) gets his driver's license.  Something he can offset his first 6 months of insurance with.  Because I did that for MM(18).

Of course, the monthly credit card rewards are a no-brainer.  Will probably end up being $1,500-ish this year.  We will continue to redeem these rewards and add them to our investments. 

HOTEL:

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$50 Hotel Coupon

MOVIES:

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$100 Regal

$ 50 Regal

$ 10 Regal (concessions)

$50   Art House Theater

RESTAURANTS:

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$50 Cracker Barrel (small balance left)

$50 Olive Garden

$25 Chili's

$5   Jamba Juice (Gift)

$ 25 x 2 Jamba Juice (Gifts)

RETAIL:

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$100 x 2 Target (Emailed/paper gift cards)

$25  Kohls Gift Card (DL Christmas Gift)

REGIFT:

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$25  Starbucks

Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just doing an update because we got some holiday gifts.  

We've had that Regal gift card forever but I guess haven't used much during the pandemic.  MH has a Regal specific movie pass and goes to the movies several times a week.  He told me a few days ago he still had $6 left but he is taking MM(18) to the movies a lot during his break.  I should probably just cross that out, they may have already spent that last $6.  I don't think I have been to the movies since the pandemic started?  Not Regal.  We've been to the art house theater a couple of times, now that I think about it.  That gift card is more used when MH brings MM or I along.  & even with his movie pass he just gets so many points and free tickets.  I should probably buy a Regal gift card for 2022 (so I don't have to figure movie expenses from our monthly budget) or ask for that for MH's birthday.  Buying it ourselves would be a nice use of gift cash.  

I insisted that MH use that Cracker Barrel gift card in Florida but they didn't use the entire balance.  Those restaurant ones are all pre-pandemic gift cards too.  Except for jamba juice, got some new gift cards this year.  That's a "would never spend $6 of my own money on a smoothie" thing, but it's a nice gift.   There's a jamba juice right by my work and I enjoy the treat sometimes.

DL receive a Kohls gift card.  I wanted to make sure that we don't lose track of that.  Might just trade him $25 for the gift card.

We bought $300 Target cards on discount this year and I donated one already ($100).  In past years I stocked up more for dorm purchases and school supplies, but don't expect to spend much at Target this year.  They remodeled our Target and it's terrible now.  They no longer stock the groceries we were buying (mostly cat food/litter and granola bars, plus just random things that were very cheap at Target).  

Starbucks is in the regift pile (no coffee drinkers here).  

Edited to add:  MH read my mind.  He bought a Regal gift card for Christmas!  I have no idea why, because we haven't exchanged gifts in like 20 years.  It was just so weird because I was going to do that.  He got $50 (came with $10 free concessions).  I told him to just pick up another one.  Not sure that will use the concessions gift card, but whatever.  We can always regift those.   He told me he *still* has that $6 left on the $100 gift card.  That he has too many free tickets piled up so he has been using free passes for all the movies he is taking MM(18) too over the winter break.

MH & I have been talking about doing some kind of weekly date night.  Eating out more sounds nice in theory, but am resistant because about 99% of our "diet" is just never eating out.  & my employer is feeding us once every week, which is already a lot (as to calories).  When you are used to eating all of your meals at home, that once per week is very noticeable. Anyway, I don't want to see movies every week, and neither of us wants to eat out every single week.  So we finally decided we should probably alternate.  & obviously could do other date things too, but those would just be our obvious preferences.  I expect a lot of the movies will mostly be watched at home (we have a large screen/home theater).  

We've been discussing because our dollars are stretching further (monthly spending budget) with just the three of us.  & it's easier to get out for a night when we don't have to cook for bottomless pit older child.  But I did also receive 5% raise for 2022 and would like to redirect some of those dollars to a more relaxed budget.  

We did receive a movie gift card and a restaurant gift card for Christmas, so that was a nice start.  

We already had plans to eat out Monday night.  Wasn't really thinking, it was at the mall.  (I'd generally not go anywhere near a store/mall the month of December).  But we decided to make a reservation and give it a try.  It worked out okay.  Used our gift card and spent $50 of our own money.  (The timing just worked out, did not know that was the gift card we were getting for Christmas and already had made plans).

On a whim, I checked the chargers at the mall, expecting that it would be difficult to park but the chargers might be open.  They had some new free chargers.  Woohoo!  There were only two and they were taken, but just want to remember for next time, when maybe the mall isn't at 100% capacity.  Chargers are just popping up everywhere.

MH's electric car got a new battery!  It's a 2017, so basically it's getting a new engine/battery and a new 8-year warranty.  We kept our last couple of cars for 14 years, so that works out pretty well (if this gives us basically a 13-year warranty).  I think the #1 question I have gotten about our electric cars is, "What if you have to spend $10,000 to replace the battery??"  I've always felt very *shrugs* about that, but some of our friends/relatives were early adopters of the Prius and other hybrids (still have those cars 25 years later) and the warranties are very good in our state.  I've said in past blog posts, YMMV in other regions.  Here, I am not concerned about it.  Of course, we chose the Volt/Bolt for our cars because they don't have the battery degradation problems that other electric cars have.  & the warranty is there for the bad luck factor (if something random goes terribly wrong). 

{The battery replacement was a recall due to fire risk.  Probably nothing wrong with it, but an abundance of caution thing.  I intend to blog more about this, one of these days}.

With the car fixed, we should be back to 100% electric driving.  I was on track to only buy 2 gallons of gas this year.  But then we had to park the EV for all the longer trips we were doing.  So maybe we can try for 2022.  Make it a 2 gallon year.

I looked at where our net worth is for the year and we are up $250K!  Will see how things shake out 12/31.  

My last post got buried, but I mentioned a life changing windfall.  & how I was having trouble really believing it or wrapping my brain around it.  For the best, because I have no idea what is going on with that.  We did receive some nice checks for Christmas, but nothing we discussed and the kids got nothing.  ???  I asked MH about it at dinner Monday night and he was on the same page.  I didn't know what was lost in translation, playing telephone, and thought he might have more clarity.  Instead, he said at some point, "We are putting $50K to the mortgage?"  ???  He corrected himself, he forgot in the moment the money was nothing we had discussed.

I asked MH if he thought they would do more in January or next year and he said, "Heck if I know."  Overall, it's for the best.  I've felt deeply uncomfortable with MIL basically taking FIL's money and passing it along.  It was clear she didn't intend to discuss with FIL.  & even if it was her money, I'd still be uncomfortable.  They need to take some time to grieve and clear their heads.  So as nice as bunch of money would have been I am very okay with things.  & probably relieved with my "too good to be true, can't count my chickens" personality.  My in-laws have never been weird like this when it comes to money (as weird as they are with everything else), but this is admittedly different and weird.  Some part of me probably expected some "weird".  

Off the top of my head, I think we will probably set aside college money for next year (is what the in-laws presume we need the money for) and will probably put $10K to the mortgage.   But MH and I will have to discuss this weekend and make our final decisions.  I want to make the large mortgage payment before the year-end.  Still, clearly a nice windfall.  With college paid for sophomore year, I expect that MH and I can cash flow everything else we were discussing.  I ended up covering wisdom tooth surgery from my bonus.  We can fund MH's movie with our money, if we aren't paying for college with our income.  We've discussed we really need to get our old mattress replaced.  (Hasn't been about money to this point, but might have been after this last year and given our dwindling cash balance, plus college bills).  If we had a mega windfall we were probably going to set aside $5K for "dream spending."  Everything else we discussed, we should be able to just cash flow.  The "dream spending" is off the table, but it's fine.  We didn't have anything short-term or immediate in mind.  & if something else comes up, we might be able to cash flow.  (We were mostly going to throw the windfall at the mortgage).

& that reminds me, we tapped into our own money for the first time, re: MH's film.  Spent about $700 paying actors and crew.  It's an insulting pittance (per person), but it's something.  We owe $350 to the editor, when the edit is done (probably in a couple of months).  Everything else is really fluff.  MH told me he maybe wanted to spend $300-ish submitting to festivals (is only $30-ish per festival).  Other things we have discussed in the past is a wrap party and/or a screening party.  & then travel dollars if it does get into any film festivals.  So really only the $350 that we have committed to and is *needed* to finish the film.  I don't know if I am paying this $700 from MH's income or the windfall, this month.  Doesn't really matter.  Like I said, the windfall is freeing up our dollars that we had been saving for college.  So I guess at the end of the day that is really windfall money.  

I think that MH's work has come back as a skeleton crew, which is why he has been so busy.  I guess they shut down the last week of the year.  Sometimes.  I know he's worked through the holidays in the past because it was so busy.  Versus the first few years were kids were younger and he took this job so that he was home with kids during school breaks.  Anyway, I don't remember him getting paid an entire week off before, but because he is working before and after, he gets a paid-for week.   Plus today and January 3rd, so that's 7 paid days?  Woohoo!  On the flip side, they are being very wishy washy if they will need him in January.  After the first week or two. 

Work is crazed for me end of year.  So I wanted to do like a short daily post and it ended up this hodge podge all over the place, like 5 days later.  But I do have the long weekend and want to get caught up on blog/financial stuff.

November is probably going down as one of our most expensive months ever.  I don't think that December is off to a great start, either.

I paid about $6K for second quarter college expenses.  Paid the same amount for property taxes.  We drove to the college a couple of times, MH went to Florida and bought a laptop.  Medical expenses, etc., etc.  I was just balancing everything out Dec. 1 and so it looked a little *Yikes!*  But the money Gods have been very nice to us, and so I can probably save MH's next two paychecks (December).   We always pay off the prior month charges and pay all bills the first of the month.  But I am not used to MH working and the extra income (after 18 months off work).  So the money is rolling in pretty nicely.

I got my bonus, but it's mostly going to medical expenses.  My raise (larger than usual) is going to taxes and health insurance increases.  It is what it is.  I pay all the household taxes out of my paycheck (for simplicity).  & I am coming to the realization that it's just always is how it's going to be (my raises will just go to taxes), unless I pull some taxes out of MH's paycheck.  So I am pondering that.  I can keep the simplicity if we deduct a flat dollar amount from MH checks.  That's fine, but we are also coming off of a 18-month layoff and it was nice to just pump up my paychecks with tax savings, same as we did when MH was laid off 20 years ago. Pulling taxes from MH's paycheck will remove some of that "emergency cushion".  But...  I feel like we are ready to graduate into a more relaxed budget. 

Before I realized that my raise would mostly go to taxes**, I was pondering increasing our misc./total spending for the first time ever.  I will have to ponder some more.  If it doesn't pan out, fair enough.  This year has been our most expensive medical year, in addition to paying cash for college.  It might just not be the right time.  I feel so close...  But not quite there yet.  

**Not sure on this yet.  Depends on what they do with the child tax credit next year and why I didn't realize at first that my raise would likely just end up going to taxes.  It seems kind of moot because DL(16) will 100% age out the following year, if not next year.  So I need to start financially and mentally preparing for that big tax increase.  

MM(18) had wisdom tooth surgery this week.  Was not on my radar whatsoever because I have zero wisdom teeth (and MH never needed any removed).  That will eat up most of my bonus.  What was left, will cover our SF weekend in January.  We have a free hotel and my bonus will cover all the shows (SF Sketchfest).  Will have some Christmas/Birthday money to cover parking/meals that weekend. 

Other travels:  Dropped MM(18) off at his college last last last weekend.  (Okay, this post is taking me forever to publish).  We never travel during busy/Holiday times and just weren't thinking.  Had planned more of a leisurely weekend but eventually realized we just had to get out of there and home ASAP.  So we left pretty early Sunday morning.  I think it still worked out pretty well.  We tried a more reasonably priced hotel and went out for a really nice dinner Saturday night.  We were able to beat most of the traffic.  & we did get gas first thing when we got to MM's college town, so that we wouldn't forget.  😉

{That is probably the last gas trip we will take to the college.  Phew!  Our recall number came up and so we get a new EV battery next week.  In the meantime, we've had to limit charging due to risk of fire.  After the fix, should be a useable long road trip car again; can charge and discharge all we want.  Extra bonus: the newer batteries are bigger so we will also get a longer range with this fix.  Merry Christmas to us!}

MH ended up going to Florida to help settle his Grandfather's estate.  He's not the executor, so don't ask me...  ???  Just a weird toxic MIL thing.  By itself, no big deal.  But just the usual over-reliance on MH and no concept that he has a job/family.  & I mean, he's trying to get back to work after 18 months off but it's just been one thing after another.  In the end, MH was able to change to an earlier flight home.  Phew!   

I personally didn't expect to be so knee deep in (estate) details so soon.  Silly me!  I forget why I am always knee deep in everyone's estates.  If nothing else, I will get the tax questions.  But even with friends, they usually deep dive with me because they know I will understand, in addition to wanting financial guidance.  So between that and MH helping with the details, we were both thrown head first into everything.  

I gather that FIL didn't expect to inherit anything (due to a second marriage) and that he is surprised by the size of the estate.  My MIL is being very weird about the whole thing, doesn't want any of the money, wants to pass it all on ASAP to kids and Grandkids.  I'd prefer that they slow down and give it some time.  

I don't really know what any of this means, but it's been thrown out that they want to do the max gift to everyone in my family.  $30K per person, though I wouldn't expect that until 2022.  & I know the gift limits are going up next year, but that buys the in-laws some wiggle room to also do the usual gifts (e.g. the $1K per year/each they have been giving the kids for college). 

Getting into the nitty gritty is another post for another day.  The obvious is the mortgage.  It was our gut feeling as to what to do with our money and it was still the obvious when circling back to long-term goals/plans.  For me personally, I just find it impossible to believe.  & MH is grieving, so there will be more in depth conversations about it all when the money is in hand.  For now...  Yeah, my mind just can not compute.  It's just that past large financial wins have always fallen through at the last minute.** MH's family has always been very generous as opposed to my money hoarding family (we both will meet somewhere in the middle when it comes to our own kids.  Seriously, can our parents be any more opposite??).  Though MH's parents are generous, this is the first time they've had a large windfall.  So this does not compute at all for me and I will believe it when I see it.  But at some point I will do a more in depth post of our current financial position and our thought process on the windfall.

In the short run, all I have left in cash is our emergency funds.  (I just peeked to see exactly where we were at.  6-month emergency fund + $33?  That's where we are at).  + probably $1,000 MH's paychecks this month (no further expenses to pay until January).  Plus some Christmas money.  Will see...  MH's work is busy (way busier than I realistically expected) so that is another windfall of sorts.  I don't feel financially stressed whatsoever, because we are saving so much.  Cash is dwindling because it was such an expensive medical year.  

So there's that.  But then I received a $100 check for my birthday (from my parents) and I couldn't even fathom what on earth to do with that.  I ended up donating to a homeless family. 

Obviously, the financial wins currently far outweight the financial challenges.  I guess that sums it up pretty well.

**Surprise surprise, this windfall fell through and did not come to be.  No explanation.  I knew it sounded too good to be true.

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I don't have much to say about Christmas.  Our focus this time of year is charity (versus consumerism).  Time flies.  I was looking up in my blog and this is the 5th year that the in-laws gave us $1,000 to donate.  I would have guessed maybe the third year.   But it's the 5th year!

I hadn't looked at things yet, where we donated everything to last year.  But looking through prior Christmas posts, I forgot we also came up with about $500 last year.  *sigh*  Wasn't on my radar at all with mega medical expenses and paying cash for college, etc.  But I can see that I will probably use $500 of the windfall to do that.  I will want to donate to a lot of the usual places:  DL's school, food banks, animal shelters, etc.  

(Usually I earmark some of my bonus for charity, but just didn't have any bonus money left after paying for the surgery).  

We actually were able to donate a $500-ish piece of furniture (misdelivered, we paid -$0-) to that homeless family and I had a new pillow & blanket that I gave them.  (They just got into an apartment).  Based on dollars/value alone I would feel good about things, but I don't want to skip some of the charities that we always donate to.  The list seems to just be getting longer every year.

MH found out that someone who helped with his movie passed away.  😞  He's taking his $250 (1/4 of $1,000) to give to this person's chosen charity and a scholarship fund in their name.  The kids haven't decided yet, where to donate.  

Stuff with MH's movie continues to be interesting.  That just reminded me.   I guess he had committed to paying everyone?  I had no idea! (I knew he wanted to, but didn't know he told everyone up front).  For reference, MH has never recieved a cent helping out with small/independent movies.  The interesting part is that he started to dole out money this week and probably roughly 1/3 the people are refusing to take payment.  ???  Told him to keep that money for applying to festivals, etc.  But I guess that's the bigger value for the actors, if the movie gets some exposure.  & like the donors for this film, there seems to be a mix of "starving artist" and "lots of money to throw around" types.  I am just used to the starving artists (and the general broke-ness of our peer group).  Though even some of the starving artists have been generous with donations.  I continue to be surprised. 

First, I just want to say that the theme here is OMG, life is crazy but money things are very very good.  This is just getting magnified (the money part).  This week was so busy I feel like I am 10 posts behind on getting caught up.  (& I am determined to get caught up, on some level.  Especially because of all the money stuff.  If I blog about nothing else, will get to the money stuff). 

Money stuff to follow in future posts...

We got MM(18) back from college.  Woohoo!  

My last post:

MM(18) is not spending any money on campus.  He is enjoying the all-inclusive lifestyle.  He's traveling to LA some weekends to work on a joint project with another college.  So he does spend some money on food on the road.  I expect he also has to contribute some to gas.  I've seen a couple of ATM and venmo withdrawals but haven't asked him about those in any detail.  I know he had some club dues to pay, and I just presume he is contributing gas when he gets rides to LA.

We get him home for Thanksgiving break, so we are excited about that. 

In the end MM(18) told me he had more cash now than when he started.  ???  I guess Grandma slipped him $40 when she visited and maybe gave him $30 for Halloween.   He had $80 of club dues to pay, but hasn't really spent any money otherwise.  (Because he withdrew the club money from the ATM, he now has all this extra/new cash).

& that reminds me, his books cost 97% less than when we were in college.  😱  For his degree, they mostly don't use books.  To be honest, the '97% less' was "this is chaos, just order new books at the book store your first quarter and we will pay for them."  That was 97% cheaper.  (MH and I didn't move out of town for college and we found it very overwhelming, getting him moved into dorms, moving 5 hours away, etc.). MH initially didn't agree that he should buy his own books, but he quickly came around, when he realized it will cost pennies.  MM(18)'s problem to figure out in the future.  He is frugal and will figure it out.  He only had to buy books for an english class.  He probably won't need to buy any for his all-science load this next quarter.  The science/math profs just give them pdfs of what they need.

I have the week off.  I was more than happy to drive to paradise to pick MM(18) up and to do the same next weekend to drop him off.  😁  

As to forgetting to refuel...  LOL.  

MH's car is still on recall (it will be a while) and isn't a useful roadtrip car in the short run.  So we are driving the hybrid on longer trips (this is pretty much our only "long trip").  We had the nicest day yesterday.  We stopped by the beach and ate lunch at our favorite little cheapie place by the beach.  The weather was perfect.  We had planned to get gas while eating but didn't pass the gas station on the way in to town.  All *3* of us promptly forgot.  MH and I 99% of the time just plug in our cars overnight to fuel (we've gone 100% electric, except for "long trips during recall").  It's no wonder we forgot.

Fast forward a few hours later and thankfully my car beeped at me and flashed the low fuel warning. !! Thank you newer/fancy car!  My first thought was literally, "But we just got fuel!"  Then quickly, "Oh....  Crap, we were going to but we didn't!"  We were about 30 miles from the next gas.  Which took a while to figure out because we had no cell service.  What I don't like about the newer cars is they just switch to "low fuel" and no longer give you an estimate.  But at that point I had about 30 miles left on gas (& surely an extra gallon of reserve above that).  & I had about 20 miles on electric left.  I had wanted to conserve it for some of the bigger hills but we let it go.  Figured it was better not to run out of gas.  😉  (The car is desgined to be driven with no electric fuel, but I think it needs *some* gas to function.  We erred on draining the electricity first).

That just added a little fun and excitement to our day.  It's been so long since I've had a gas car (er, regularly used gas), that it didn't even cross my mind that we obviously have some gas reserve.  Until I just typed this out right now!  

{Actually, now I am second guessing that last thought.  If it says "low fuel", is that the extra gallon of reserve?  I think it is, with newer cars.  I just looked it up and it's a 8.9 gallon tank.  We used 8.4 gallons.  So we were running as low on gas as we thought we were.  In the old cars, they'd go down to "empty" and you'd still have a gallon.}

In the end, we found cheaper gas anyway.  In the middle of nowhere.  It all worked out. 

When I thought that MM(18) would blow through his college dining dollars too quickly, I decided to cash out the kids' high school lunch money.  I had about $250 prepaid.  MM(18) never went back to school (in person) and so I transferred his money over to DL(16).  But he's getting free lunch indefinitely.  Initially I liked the idea to have senior year just paid for (while also having big expenses like college).  But I don't even know if DL will have to pay for lunch next year.  It took me a few tries to reach someone but just got confirmation that they are mailing me a check.  Yay!

In the meantime, MM(18) has things figured out pretty well.  The max college dining plan came with coffee and soda bonuses that seemed pretty useless (MM is not a coffee or a soda drinker).  But he figured out that he could buy food at the coffee shops and it counted as "coffee".  So he has an extra $300 to spend down.  It sounds like he will probably squeak by this first quarter.  

My very rough estimate from grocery spending at home was that MM(18) was about half of our grocery spending.  How did this shake out in October?  We spent $550 of our $850 grocery/household budget, allowing me to save $300 towards college food expenses.  I am very pleased with this first month.  That $550 included some food bought for MM(18), feeding a film crew, and also a *lot* of food waste.  We are figuring it out but it will take some time to adjust to our eating habits.  Plus, we've just been in survival mode and will continue to be for a while.

I think that $500/month will be a good estimate going forward (saving $350/month to offset college food costs).  But it will take many months to average out.

MM(18) is not spending any money on campus.  He is enjoying the all-inclusive lifestyle.  He's traveling to LA some weekends to work on a joint project with another college.  So he does spend some money on food on the road.  I expect he also has to contribute some to gas.  I've seen a couple of ATM and venmo withdrawals (from his money/accounts) but haven't asked him about those in any detail.  I know he had some club dues to pay, and I just presume he is contributing gas when he gets rides to LA.  

We get him home for Thanksgiving break, so we are excited about that.