Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Thai Basil Chicken

https://damndelicious.net/2019/01/22/thai-basil-chicken-bowl...

I have never attempted to make any Thai food before.
O.M.G. So Good!

Traditionally this is a very spicy dish. MH literally only picked up one pepper. ??? I don't know. As I have learned from Indian cooking, just throw in a little extra cayenne, seems the easiest way to spice up these type dishes. We had discussed ahead of time we would obviously need more than one pepper, but he forgot. So I would like to try again with more peppers, and will work on dialing up the spice. But this recipe was flavorful and mild.

P.S. We only used one pound of ground chicken. I am going to have to double this recipe for my household.

Chicken Fajita Subs

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chicken-fajita-submarine...

MH worked full-time during May (for the first time in 18 years...). He did all the grocery shopping for us (doing one trip mid-month) but I brainstormed a lot of the meals because I (and the kids) were going to be doing all the cooking.

Mostly, I would pat myself on the back. It seemed *very* overwhelming, but we kept everyone fed and it was easier than I imagined it would be. Especially because this is probably the hardest time of all to keep my boys fed. So... They were happy and fed, and by some miracle I kept them satiated. (I can't take much credit at all. MH has a good system and so we might actually survive if anything ever happens to him).

Then... MH stepped back in and as he keeps making some of our meals I am just, "Duh, why didn't I think of that!?" & he has a weird recipe system anyway, so I am making an effort to print out my favorite recipes for my recipe book. So that I can remember and find said recipes. I feel a million times more prepared if I ever have to take over meal planning again.

This recipe is *so good*. By itself I don't know if it's that exciting, but the mix of the cheese and the mayo and the chicken just makes it amazing.

I realized that I don't think I shared this recipe:

Butter Chicken

https://damndelicious.net/2020/02/18/butter-chicken-meatball...

I tried this recipe, and DL (my budding chef) recommended adding 1 tsp of cayenne pepper and 1 tsp of cumin. It was so close to our favorite Indian cafe's recipe I can't believe it.

I was intrigued by the meatball take on butter chicken, but in the end we abandoned the meatballs and it tasted better with just crumbled meat.

Finding this recipe around the time the quarantine started, is maybe a reason I currently feel somewhat "meh" if we ever eat out again during 2020.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expenses:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other Expenses ~ Breakeven

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My last post re: retirement savings for MM(16):

When he does his taxes, we will discuss funding a ROTH this year (2019). I don't really see the point and don't think that we will. But we left it to discuss at tax time, and that he has until April 15th to decide. He has a lot of very big expenses to in the near term horizon. If nothing else, he is saving up for a car. (The current car is only for his use until he turns 18, then it goes to his brother). After that, he will be saving up for a home. If not also saving to help pay for college. I couldn't have even fathomed saving for retirement before I graduated college (no parental support past age 17; no help with college). & I don't feel too much different at the moment (about him putting off retirement savings until after college), while his #1 college choice is a very expensive private college. If he ends up going to our alma mater (it costs pennies) then we can re-evaluate. I think this year is most likely, "Keep it in cash, see how things shake out next fall". We will discuss all the pros/cons, and he will be the one to make the decision. So while I am strongly leaning towards not starting to save for retirement yet, will see what he thinks.

It is personally not a priority of ours to help our kids fund their retirement. I have no plans to contribute whatsoever to that, so it's going to have to be his dollars if he does contribute.

In the end, MM(16) decided to go with the ROTH option. He is depositing 100% of his 2019 earnings into a ROTH. He made this decision back in January. I made a convincing argument for the, "have your cake and eat it too" plan. (ROTH money can always be used more short-term, no penalty for taking back the original contributions). I told him he could always abandon the ROTH contribution if he didn't have a summer job by April 15th. He was okay tying up all that cash if he would make more money this summer.

Then... Tax deadlines were extended. I think he was still going to go through with the plan.

Now that the cash is piling up from his summer job (at my office), we sat down last week and picked an investment. He was really limited at Vanguard with the $1k minimum funds. He decided on some balanced fund, maybe 60/40. (This money is mostly earmarked for a house down payment at this point. I'd maybe more heartily recommend 90/10 if this was actually for retirement).

In the end, I couldn't figure out how to open a minor ROTH account at Vanguard and added it to my chore list. Having to actually do this over the phone... UGH!

I had some time the other morning and revisited. Was googling a bit. Surely someone figured out the magic formula to just do online. While googling, Fidelity popped up with their online process to open an account for a minor. (Which is super easy apparently). They have so many $0-minimum mutual funds now, I didn't know. I had told MM (before) pretty much he couldn't park it in cash unless he just wanted to open a ROTH with one of our banks or credit unions and then just roll it over later when he has more than $3k. But... Now he could just park it in cash (at Fidelity) if that is what he wants to do. Which is may be what I do today just to get the ball rolling (he will be at work all day). I was just waiting for him to go over the Fidelity options and make a decision.

I share because it feels like we did about 90% of the work in our teens and 20s. Choosing to work and pay cash for everything. Investing in real estate very young. Etc. But opening a retirement/investment account when you are 16? That is next level. At 16/17, I was worried about paying for my wheels, paying for college, paying for the roof over my head in a very expensive city. It will be interesting to see what our kids can do without all of those financial burdens. Though we are kind of just, "Dude, you are going to need that money for housing." But they have so much support that they can afford to take a little more risk with that money and can view it as more long-term.

MM(16) is still saving up for a car, but that is also very nebulous and he has enough cash for that. Not sure if he will even want or need a car while in college? Saving it up just in case. That should be more clear when he decides how much of his 2020 income to park in his ROTH.

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

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

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

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

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

Meatloaf recipe:

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mini-meat-loaves-with-ch...

It was easy to find online. Phew!

My initial feelings on lockdown, posted over a month ago:
I am just so buried at work, life continues on as it has. We are homebodies and try to generally limit unnecessary errands, always eat our meals at home, etc. so it's been a small change for us at this point.

I only leave the house to go to the office. MH only leaves the house to go to the grocery store.

At 8 weeks of lockdown, I'd say not much has changed for us. One-income living has prepared us for "quarantine life". I am still buried at work. MH and the kids have their slow "summer schedule" (no school/work). It's all in some realm of normalcy for us.

{This was true through the end of April. Now MM and MH are both working, more info below}.

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

I am waiting for several windfalls, none have materialized yet: refi, stimulus, unemployment. Crickets, crickets, crickets.

Except for one surprise "windfall". My boss called me up a few weeks ago and offered MM(16) a job. He received a 50% raise (over last summer) and it sounded like he was about to offer him use of a car, we are so desperate for help at the office. That was a sudden turn of events. The night before we had literally discussed how MM probably wouldn't be working at all this year. (The seasonal summer job he had gotten would have started yesterday, but is on hold indefinitely. We had discussed that even if they do open it wouldn't be worth being exposed to hundreds of people every day. Going to the same office I go to, with a whole whopping 5 other people... Talk about night and day).

I am still digging out of my hole. It's a million times better than it ever was in 2018 or 2019, I am very well aware. But last last weekend I was catching up on taxes (for relatives) and this past weekend I finished up my professional education for the (entire) year. Phew!

By itself, I may literally have crossed everything (non-work) off of my to-do list and can maybe realistically experience a May with "nothing on my plate." {I know a lot of people are home and bored. It's just not anything I can even begin to fathom right now; have not been able to fathom "boredom" for a few years}.

But... MH has been called back to work. From part-time to full-time. He hasn't worked full-time since 2002 (before kids). Ugh! It's very in line with my current years-long jinx. Every time I think I turn a corner, something else crazy is thrown at my feet. So technically last Sunday was my first peaceful/quiet day in as long as I can even remember. But then... I was thrown head first into the domestic side of things. But I think it will be a good thing. It's always good to walk in someone's shoes for a while. It should just be for a month. Whenever I try to help at all, MH refuses. & he's already a control freak in the kitchen so just isn't good with delegating anything "kitchen" to anyone. He admits it will be good to get out of his comfort zone and this will force us to have more teamwork in the kitchen, regarding both dishes and meals. We are mostly delegating to DL(14) who literally has nothing on his plate. The schedule and responsibility would obviously be good for him; he's already told us he feels better than he has in weeks. (We've given the kids full kitchen duty in the past, but it's just never stuck).

Thursday night I did make our favorite spinach manicotti recipe. We couldn't find any manicotti, so turned it into a lasagna instead. MH was nervous about it and hovering over me in the kitchen. I agreed to cook because DL(14) does not like this dinner. We asked him to make rice for leftovers, as his chore for the day. Anyway, I could tell the lasagna had cooked through and was fine, but MH was driving me crazy. Honestly, it was a much simpler way to make it. MH might prefer the manicotti, but I think I am sold on the lasagna. It will be interesting what meal modifications endure this time. I think we are long practiced in "creativity" and "making do", but are just flexing those muscles more than usual.

Week 1 went really well. It was definitely a team effort.

Last Sunday MH did a big grocery run for 2-3 weeks. He is being protective and refuses to let anyone else in the house go to any store whatsoever. So his plan was just to do a big grocery stock-up before he was back at work and super busy. We probably hadn't gone to the grocery store on a weekend in a couple of months. Things have settled down considerably. We were able (for the first time) to find more than a roll of toilet paper.

{I think we honestly have food for a solid 3 weeks, not counting "emergency reserves" like extra meat and rice. It feels we barely put a dent in the groceries this week}.

In the end, we realized that all the green onions we had, had gone bad. So we already need green onions though clearly we could survive without. But MH didn't really have room on his grocery cart to stock up on more cat food, and he got me some stuff for a recipe (that I found recently) but didn't know I needed tomato paste. & I later remembered a couple of other recipe ingredients I had forgotten. So... On a whim Friday I looked if I could do a grocery pick up. MH was talking about doing a run to get these things. Which is confusing to me because he's been so much otherwise, "Once every two weeks at the most, JUST ME." So it's confusing to me when he's kind of, "Oh well, will go to the store just to pick up green onions". So I ran it past him Friday and asked if he needed anything else. I just did a quick pickup; they delivered to my car. (I have more work flexibility, so it fell on me). The personal shoppers are free at our store (and they don't accept tips). For smaller orders it isn't free, but I guess the first 3 times are free. I think this is more of a "MH is working and it's chaos" thing that anything else. MH was a little skeptical about using for such a small pickup, but I pointed out it's always free on a $100+ pick up. Not hard to do $100 for a family of 4. In fact, on the way out the door MH told me "granola bars are on sale, get some of those." & then he ran in a minute later and told me to check the sales ads, there was some good deals. So I ended up spending $60. That was the quick/small grocery run. My conclusion is that this worked out really well. I got lucky, they didn't have to omit or substitute anything in my order. I didn't bother with things that I *knew* were not as well stocked. But still, I figured I'd end up with a different brand or something or other. (I indicated most things I would not accept substitutes ~ all the sales items. But if I had to get a different brand of tomato paste instead of just the generic, or of had to pay a little more for organic onions, whatever).

I think mostly our personalities are, "Meh, it's easier/better to just do things ourselves". We've been doing some Target grocery deliveries to our house (regular shipping), but is nothing I foresee doing once things normalize.

Our menu this week:

Monday: mini meatloaves and roasted potatoes (we have the most amazing recipe, horseradish and chili sauce are the secret ingredients). MH has discovered red potatoes during quarantine so asked us to roast some red potatoes, versus our usual mashed potatoes with this dinner. Just remembering a change that will endure. MM(16) and I cooked dinner.

Tuesday: Burritos (simple/old family recipe) - prepared by DL(14)

Wednesday: South of the Border Wraps (black bean and salsa burritos with green onions and cilantro; simple but divine) - prepared by DL(14)

Thursday: Spinach lasagna - prepared by Moi, with a hovering MH

Friday: Thai chicken (noodles) - prepared by DL(14)

DL(14) has also made a couple of batches of hummus this week.

I share because my kids can cook. 😉

MH is cooking this weekend. Phew! On the menu still (ingredients on hand): Sesame chicken (a new recipe to try), pasta with chickpeas and garlic sauce, Fiesta chicken (crockpot recipe, spicy shredded chicken that we eat with tortillas), salisbury steak, sloppy joes, zuppa toscano, pasta meatball soup, Kashari, Indian butter chicken with jasmine rice, Spicy Stir-Fried tofu & Coconut Rice. This menu is heavy on some of our easier meals. I think MH has another couple of recipes to make next weekend and so we probably won't need another grocery store run for another two weeks. Which feels like a miracle with two teen boys to feed. (MM is still running 8 miles per day; DL has reverted to the home workouts he had been doing for many years before we recently joined the gym. So I am not getting a break with "school sports" retired. Caloric needs continue to be completely absurd. But MM is getting fed some at my job, which helps *a lot*). Will see how I feel about it next weekend...

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

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

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

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

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

The IRS updated their website:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Economic impact payments: What you need to know

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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life is slowing down enough to blog.

Reminder to give blood if you are able. I am having mixed feelings about it. I hadn't given blood in a while, for health reasons. I decided to re-evaluate next week and that I may be able to give blood in this case. Not sure, but just sharing as a reminder to those who are able to give blood.

MH is currently overwhelmed with empathy for our neighbor. We don't really know them from Adam, but the wife was very pregnant. Anyway, he texted them yesterday if they needed anything from the store. They replied they were fine but the baby had just been born. !! So MH is freaking out, just trying to imagine what that must be like. Being new parents is stressful and scary enough without a pandemic. On the flip side, better to have that baby now than any later.

I mentioned in my last post that things are pretty calm here, but that we are avoiding the crowds. We live in a tight knit community and I see a lot of people reaching out to help those housebound, etc. Will see how that continues as panic levels increase.

We personally don't stockpile anything. But when I say this, I think people take it the wrong way. Just as an example, we bought an larger family size of laundry detergent for the first time last week, just because it was on sale. It might have been a week or two ago. Strangely, we have never done this before, but probably just is a factor of sales and pricing. (We did far more laundry with babies, compared to now). Anyway, I think it just happens to be timing but we seem to be well stocked, with MH buying a lot of stuff just by chance in recent weeks. Was just thinking about it more because I did laundry yesterday so was calculating how long our laundry detergent would probably last. 1 year. So we don't "stockpile" because we only bought one box. But I will admit that using things carefully and sparingly (always) most definitely factors into these things. & we've probably never before bought so many things in more family sized packaging. The kids have been eating *so much* that we have been doing that more and more the last couple of years.

I did notice we are almost out of cat litter though. If I was kind of doing this exercise throughout the day of, "How long will this last?" I had an "oh crap" moment as I realized we were about out of cat litter. Just something I hadn't thought about at all. I'll probably run to Target and pick up some when they first open today. I had been avoiding Target/crowds but don't expect it to be an issue early in the morning.

I think things are sinking in, in their own time. I had personally been planning to go to the gym this morning. Sounded like a fine idea last night. I was surprised MH balked at that a little since he just took DL(14) yesterday. But this morning I am realizing it's probably dumb and unnecessary. If MH and I are only leaving the house to go to work at this point... I would have pegged the gym as the first place to be a virus factory. But it just stands out more when you aren't really otherwise going anywhere or doing anything. So why would the *only* place that I go be the virus factory? It may be moot very soon as I imagine they will shut down soon. We've only been back in the gym a month or two, so it's not even a big change for us. I do like the more expensive ellipticals, but I have an elliptical at home. DL(14) has weights and will be fine without the gym for a while. Which is all the more reason it seemed silly to go to the gym today.

The in-laws are coming to our house for St. Patty's Day dinner today. I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's dumb that they are coming, they live 100 miles away. But MIL is gonna do what she's gonna do. If we told her she is not invited, she'd just show up anyway. Mixed feelings? I am *so* confused because MIL is the most hysterical person I have ever known. I am just glad she isn't trying to force us down into a bomb shelter, I guess. I'll take what I can get.

I feel pretty *shrugs* about work. Probably because I work in a very small office. At most, am only exposed to 7 other people on a daily basis. I personally hate working from home. Obviously will do it from the greater good. But MH I think was excited to make me stay home more and I am just, "Nope, NOT volunteering for that." But I do work from home one day per week and it won't be any big change if it comes to that. Nothing I have to make any big adjustments for.

No one else's schools had been closed as of Friday. MH was in disbelief when I told him, so I started looking up counties. Yes, there's probably 4 different counties represented by our 6 employees. Clearly there should be some bigger region-wide decision. This is just kind of silly at this point, why one school is open and the one down the street is not. I imagine that will start to sort out next week.

{I probably wasn't clear. Our kids are home indefinitely. But they are old enough, the only thing I am doing is trying to make sure they have enough food. That's the extent of the brain power I have given to that. MM is practically an adult at this point and they will both do what they need to do if school moves online or whatever happens. They usually eat so much that they pack lunch AND buy. I saw someone defensive saying online people are buying more food to feed their kids at home, and that certainly is adding to the food buying. We bought a *lot* of food this week, for that reason}.

So, will see how work shakes out next week and if we all get sent home. I'd embrace a break after the last few years I've had (my work stars have been aligned to "crazy" for a very long time) but I don't see it in the short-run. Even if we halted all construction, my workload is just infinite at this point. It may slow down or get a little quiet, but at this point I don't foresee any time off whatsoever, for myself. Most everyone else in my office will be impacted by school closures, they all have much younger kids. They are all dual-income or single moms. My kids will be available to help with babysitting if need be. Is an idea that has been thrown around. I just don't know if their schools will end up online, we are supposed to get an update today. DD(14) goes to a very small school that wants to keep things going online. MM(16) attends a very large school and I don't think they will even bother trying online. Their schools are both polar opposite extremes when it comes to size. Will see.

Back to St. Patty's day Dinner... We are soaking the corned beef in beer in the crockpot all day. Yum!

Edited to add: I was right by the gym so I drove by out of curiosity, expecting it to be empty. It was crowded this morning. Target and grocery store were both fairly empty (of people). No one wants to wake up early on a weekend, even during a panic. Except to work out?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Same old, same old here.

My Dad was diagnosed with cancer. The survival rate of this cancer is 97%. Along those lines, they are doing nothing to treat this cancer (for the moment). It's just such an ugly and scary word. Honestly, 90% of why I am writing this down is so that I remember. I will never otherwise remember in this sea of terrible/worse news.

Other things going on...

I booked a very cute hotel in "Little Denmark" in Southern California. We are going to mostly redo the trip I missed in the fall. The purpose of this trip, during spring break, is to visit the small private college than MM(16) is very interested in. This college tour is more for the adults, since he has already been. I wasn't exactly planning to redo the trip I missed (I ended up being too sick to go). But as we get into the details we are using the in-law timeshare first two nights (2-night minimum) and we have to keep it to 3 nights if we don't want to board our cat. So we are just booking the same trip. Otherwise I might have added a night and stayed in Pismo Beach the last night. But we both have work and need to get back anyway.

We always stay at the same property in LA. It's a few blocks from Disney. MH mentioned the place cost "pennies" as far as timeshare points. Didn't think much about that until I typed it out just now. It certainly adds a convenience factor if we have a free home base that we can use frequently near this college.

Back to heavier things, we are also planning to relive our honeymoon for our 20th Anniversary in the fall. Going to Florida and spend some time with MH's Grandfather. He is slowing down considerably and so that is why we decided to kill two birds with one stone. & so it will be some parts fun and some parts heavy.

Florida, will figure out later. MH also wants to go to a film festival in Austin in the fall. I am writing this down for the, "I will never remember this" category.

{Edited to add: I started this post a few days ago. We may start locking in super cheap airfare during this panic}.

We are so spoiled by the weather right now. It's probably a very early spring. But usually spring is a season I don't really get to experience. After working in tax for 20-ish years. Last year I was working two jobs through May, so I most definitely did not experience Spring 2019. This may be the only thing lifting my mood right now. It was 80F degrees the last few days.

Of course, the down side to the weather is we haven't had any winter slowdown whatsoever and work is crazed. Because, of course... *sigh*

I still have a ways to go, but I suppose I feel more "caught up" and in some realm of normal. I've got quite a few little things that if I could just knock out this weekend I would feel pretty good. I need to wrap up some side work (major procrastinating), mail our state tax return (saves me $20 versus e-file), freecycle a couple of more items, etc. I am going to try very hard to get through most of this list Friday so that I can enjoy my weekend.

{I failed because Friday was totally and completely insane.}

There was a coronavirus death a couple of blocks from my office. There was no one on the roads the next day. ??? I called MH and said, "Is it Saturday?" He said no. I said, "Must be Coronavirus, I don't know." Yup, Bingo. I am glad the people in my office seem to be sane. Yes, of course you should stay home if you are ill or immunocompromised, but the freeways that day were a sign of extreme panic.

& Be Greedy when others are fearful.

That pretty much sums it up right now.

**15-year mortgage at 2.25%

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

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

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

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

See blog link for how it works:

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

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

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

GIFTS:
------
$50 Barnes & Noble
$20 x 6 Target


MOVIES:
--------
$100 Regal


RESTAURANTS:
------------
$50 Cracker Barrel
$50 Olive Garden
$25 Chili's
$ 25 x 2 Jamba Juice (Birthday Gift)


RETAIL:
---------
$50 Kohls (Christmas Gift)
$ 50 x 3 Target

Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards.

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

This is the "Digging Out" edition of "Gift Card Balance" Updates.

Because... I was cleaning up and found a gift card I apparently completely forgot about. It was received the end of 2017 (just before life became endlessly insane). So yeah, that makes sense.

Edited to add: Ended up finding a second gift card today. MH had been asking me about the B&N gift card and I told him, "That's old, there's nothing on it."

I am too careful to just toss them, so I did double check. But I was really shocked that either card had a balance on them still. That was a nice $75 find today.

I am documenting now so that I don't forget again.

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

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

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

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

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

I did freecycle 6 empty cat litter buckets last week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Walgreens just totally blew my mind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Received $70 bank interest for the month of January.

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

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

TOTAL: $137 snowflakes to investments

401k Contributions/Match:
+$415

Snowball to Savings:
+$415 Side Income

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

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

TOTAL: $2,070 Deposited to Cash and Investments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just tracking gift cards.


GIFTS:
------
$ 20 x 6 Target


MOVIES:
--------
$100 Regal


RESTAURANTS:
------------
$50 Cracker Barrel
$50 Olive Garden
$ 25 x 2 Jamba Juice (Birthday Gift)


RETAIL:
---------
$50 Kohls (Christmas Gift)
$ 50 x 4 Target

Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards.

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

We've actually been using up some gift cards. Re-gifted a movie gift card and got through some restaurant gift cards.

What a week!

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Ting Referral Code:

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

I think we've always been fairly balanced and there's been an element of "cashing in past frugality" throughout my entire blog. Heck, my husband staying home with kids is probably the epitome of that. But I also think that set us backwards (you know, cutting our income in half) and so maybe it *feels* like it more these days that we are cashing in. There is definitely more to cash in, these days.

I think I am done working OT (for the rest of my life), so that is pretty sweet.

I am still loving my car, which has been a significant step up from any prior car we have owned.

Just some examples.

& now one more...

I personally *love* the gym and actually go to the gym. But... Our old gym went out of business and transferred me to a really horrible gym. I ended up dropping my membership last year. But... even the prior gym I had made some concessions for a gym that actually would fit my budget.

Because I had taken such a large pay cut, I did not feel that I could seriously join another gym last year. I have been going to my aerobics classes ($2.50 per class) and I never feel stronger than when I go to those classes regularly. (It's more of an aerobics/yoga/calisthenics class; the stretching is really key for me). I also purchased a heavy duty (used) elliptical machine. It's a long story, but haven't really used much. It may be too harsh on my knees. I have been really really careful because once I hurt my knee then I am down and have to start all over. I am already in "start over" mode with being so sick the end of last year. I was out at least 4 weeks that I could not work out at all. So, no idea if I will ever use or keep elliptical. It sounds more ideal but the really good ones are very large and expensive. I don't know if I will ever be happy with a home version. This was my giving it a try.

In the end, DL(14) is really into weights and working out. He has a pull up bar and some weights and he seems very happy with that. In fact, I think I mentioned the gym to him a few weeks ago (I don't remember why). & he was kind of just, "I am not a gym person." Maybe being a little too cheap and stingy. But apparently he started thinking about it and had a change of heart. I told MH that I was fine with it. That MM(16) started doing gymnastics around the same age, which is roughly $100 per month. So I threw out $100/month budget. Thinking that the adults might have to join also and just being open minded to giving him a comparable "gift". Not that I expected it to end up being that much.

MH and DL have been shopping around the gyms. But some of them don't even allow kids at all. Planet Fitness is silly for someone who wants to do big heavy weights (we just got one in the past few months, too bad because that one is probably more my style). We are getting a 24 Hour Fitness soon and so the gym we joined may be a placeholder until 24 Hour opens up. But the only thing that worked at all was a smaller regional gym that is fairly high end. They have *all* the amenities. Talk about a complete 180. Definitely the fanciest gym I have ever belonged to. I guess DL(14) had good timing, with all the January deals.

Oh yeah, but I have to back up. I really thought he would just join a more discount gym, at first. Some of the kids' friends were really pushing that they join the gym we ended up with. My initial reaction? UGH! For one, the sticker price is totally insane. (But no one actually pays that). These are people who are all in major financial messes. So this is why my initial reaction was to roll my eyes. I really did not think we would end up there.

But we did, because that's what works for us now. DL(14) is in heaven. I told MH I loved the gym and I am not picky. As long as they have ellipticals that work, is all I really care about. So he was a little nervous to sign up without me seeing it, but he did it. We all went over there last Sunday, to check it out. It was definitely a good choice. It's *January* and I didn't have any trouble finding a machine. So I think I am good. My needs are very basic.

MM(16) did not want to join. Fair enough, he runs 50+ miles per week with track.

We ended up paying about $85/month for the three of us. We chose this gym specifically because they allow minors to attend (and join?) without adults. It was also the only one that a minor could join that he liked at all.

When the friends were pushing and that was where we ended up, all I could think was I glad we saved our dollars in the past. This might be just a few years (max) that we enjoy the amenities of the larger gym. But we are more able to do that because it's not something we "expected" that we must have for the past 20 years.

In the end I think this is probably a zero net change to our budget because MM(16) has no time for gymnastics whatsoever with his current school/sports schedule. So it may just be that I move the gymnastic dollars over to the gym dollars. Just shifting things around a bit.

Edited to add: I almost forgot to mention, this is how DL(14) is dealing with his mental health ups and downs. Working out has helped him tremendously. It's really the only thing that seems to be helping him.

Also, I am glad my son knows that this is most definitely a "want"; he was doing very fine without.

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

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

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

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

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

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