Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

January 7
$110 Weekly Grocery Run
Dinner: Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu & Coconut Rice

MH was going to go to the grocery store during the week, but noticed we were out of shower cleaner. So he ran to the store Sunday. We don't always hit $100, but when we do we get a 25-cent gas coupon. I will probably have MH use that coupon because we are driving out of town the next two weekends.

Sunday was just a big chore day. We took down the Christmas Tree. I cleaned up the house. It all seemed easier than I was envisioning, but then I remembered I wanted to clean up the upstairs (since in-laws will be staying here next weekend). Then I remember why it's so overwhelming. I otherwise never have the whole house tidy at once. It's been way too busy and MH reminded me I already have 2 commitments this week (& I was sitting out a third, before I even remembered the second commitment).

I did not clean the whole house, but I got through the bare minimum. Tried to leave a reasonable amount of housework for the two weeknights I have free this week.

Sunday we also did several loads of laundry. The kids did their own, but I did two loads of kitchen towels and cleaning rags.

The good thing is I got through my baking queue. Phew! I had picked up some ingredients on Christmas Eve, to bake. I probably would have had time to bake on Christmas, but there was the complicated factor of guests with strict diets and in the end I didn't get to it. Sunday I baked up a second batch of chocolate chip cookies and a new pumpkin bread recipe I wanted to try. I have enough pumpkin left for my other pumpkin bread recipe, so I guess I have added one more bake to my queue. (This is a super easy/fast recipe; can whip up any weeknight).

DL(12) has finals and short days all week; thankfully MH is home to handle that.

January 6:
$100 Smart Thermostat
$44 Groceries
$35 Fuel
$30 MH allowance (movies)
Dinner: Sloppy Joes, Asian Salad

In addition, $10 was spent at Target (cat food) but MH did a return for me ($17.50?).

MM(14) volunteered at the animal shelter. I have been 100% taking him (since summer) but knew I would pass the baton to MH during tax season. I know MH ran to Target (while waiting) and the used book/music store (where he has credit to spend if he bought anything).

That reminds me, MH picked up some board game at the library. He is a bit of a game hoarder so I am ecstatic about that!

I decided to fill up the van (used coupon, saving $8). I *may* squeak by with this gas tank for the rest of the month. (Or at least for this credit card cycle. Probably not for the calendar month). Since the kids had devoured the sourdough bread in mere minutes, I decided to go pick up some more bread and get some gas. In the end I decided to make lunch and picked up a few other things (needed more butter and some bleached flour for baking). I did pick up pistachios because they were on sale. They only seem to sell ground hamburger in 2-3 pound packages these days, so I bought more than I needed.

Comment I made on January 1:
I don't see why we would spend much this month.

Reality:
I forgot that this is a chore month for MH. So I guess there will be lots of spending on that front.
Dental appointments, Doctor appointments, oil changes, etc.

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Did you notice the $100 thermostat purchase?

What a day!!

Upstairs thermostat has been on the fritz for a while. It DIED when I touched it the other night. Because we have two zones for out HVAC system, it's not particularly critical. (Which is probably why we haven't fixed it before). Honestly, the downstairs zone heats most the house and all the heat wafts up to our bedroom. & the kids don't particularly even like it when I turn on the heat upstairs (they prefer the cold). So, it's not critical, but we had a very short window that my dad could maybe help us (before he went out of town for a while). So we decided to attempt to fix it and arranged for him to come up today if we needed help. (It is probably the coldest month of the year and could get uncomfortable if we couldn't turn on the upstairs heat. Not critical, but not ideal either).

In the end it was a very frustrating all-day endeavor, but we figured it out.

MH took the opportunity to price out a Smart Thermostat. It had to be something he could just pick up in person. We settled on a $100 model at Target that is not sold in stores. MH went over to a regional electronic store that price matches. That way he could just pick it up that day at the best price he found.

{While there, he bought some movies on deep discount; the first allowance spending of the year}.

In the end, the new thermostat was just as dead. We were really darn close (more than once) to just calling our HVAC repair guy and not even bothering my dad with this. It seemed we had a much bigger problem.

I said to MH at some point, "It seems to me the problem must be on the other end of the wires." He is the smart engineering one and I am the polar opposite, but I guess I have lived with engineer types my whole life and they are rubbing off on me. He didn't seem to comprehend, but "the other end" meant climbing up into the attic (which is little more than a crawl space) and messing with the heater. I think he was just in denial.

Eventually he got out of denial (the more obvious it became that this is the only other obvious solution and might save us $100 if he just checked). There was some 5th wire needed for this thermostat that we checked and knew we had coming out of the wall, but I guess in the end it had never been connected on the other side. Yeah, it seemed kind of obvious to me that was the problem. Something wasn't connected right. I expected maybe some other wire was loose (why we had problems at all) but in the end, all the rest of the wiring was completely fine; the old thermostat is just dead. So we feel better about just replacing it. We just happened to make life more complicated by transitioning to a thermostat that needs more wires. Up to that point, all we knew was we had two thermostats that wouldn't work at all.

Much to my chagrin, at that time MH connected the 5th wire to the heater, it still wouldn't work. Which is about the time we 99.99% gave up.

MH fiddled with it one more time, and it worked!! PHEW!!

In the end, we weren't interested in the super smart thermostats, which are more expensive anyway. Our house is very well insulated and we live in a mild climate. Is significantly more comfortable and frugal for us just to use the heat/air as needed. For example, the thermostat may say 62 in the fall but may feel really comfortable (because is not that cold outside). But on a winter day the thermostat may say 70 and I might be *freezing* because I am sitting near a window. As such, I don't know that we have any predictable patterns. & turning on the heat/air while we are on the way home (geofencing?) would just be excessive and would be a huge energy waste.

That said, we do have excessive heat in the summers and we do have a pet. I feel the $100 is a bargain as to the luxury of being able to see remotely how hot the house is and being able to turn on and off the A/C to keep the house reasonable and comfortable. Would probably only use if we were out of town any length of time, but you don't know how much energy I've spent in the past worried about pets when we've vacationed during summer months.

It will also be nice to be able to control the thermostat from bed.

Will give it some time to see how much we use and like. If we love it, I am sure we will upgrade the downstairs one (this year?) but want to give it some time. While the remote app stuff is really nice, and I know I could cool some of the house off in a pinch, it would be far more useful to have this feature for the downstairs zone that provides 90% of our heating/cooling.

We did really well on net worth for 2017. Up $95,000 for the year. Our goal was to increase net worth by $50,000.

Mortgage: -$ 8,000
Home Value: +$25,000
Investments: +$62,000
TOTAL: $95,000 Increase Net Worth

Our savings rate was 30% in 2017. 25% of our income went to long-term investments and retirement.

If we paid off our mortgage, we'd be debt free and we would have $225,000 in investments. We'd have to cash out our cash and taxable investments to do this, as well as 2/3 of our ROTHs. We could leave college money and Traditional IRAs intact. I suppose it's feasible, but not wise. I don't think we would seriously consider this unless our mortgage was in the $50k range. & we wouldn't cash out (most of) our ROTHs to pay off our mortgage. So we have a ways to go. I just know that we will ponder more as this number gets bigger.

2017 was a very good income year for us. I mentioned last year that MH's income was offset by loss of other side income and that economically we were about the same as we were before, which is what I expected. (His income is more about getting a foot back in the workforce, more than any meaningful contribution to the household). But anyway, this year we had a banner year with the credit card rewards and I made tons of OT so our income (W2) increased by 6% this year.

Last year our W2 income matched our highest (two-income) year (2001). This year was a significant improvement and some forward movement. I know we have significantly more expenses in some regards (health insurance, kids) but we are also no longer saving up frantically for a house (with real estate appreciating faster than we could ever possibly save), so I'd say this "feels" the most financially comfortable we have ever been. I suppose we also have a wee bit more assets now than we did in 2001. (Net worth isn't drastically different because of the housing bubble and crazy home equity in 2001, but our investments are 15x what they were in 2001).

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My long-term goal has been to get to a point where our net worth increases by our expenses every year. I figured if we could do this in our 40s that we would consider "financial independence" at 50.

Of course, this would be an average of a $60k increase per year, since our annual spending is at the $60k level. But I am fine with aiming for $50k since this will probably be a more reasonable expense level when our mortgage is paid off (and kids are grown). Also, if we can achieve these net worth gains, I know they will just grow with time, as investments compound. All this to say, my goal for the next 5 years or so will be to grow our net worth by $50k per year. In 5 years I will probably re-evaluate and hope to push that goal up to $60k or $70k per year. Maybe averaging $60k per year, for this next decade.

It was nice to have a strong start for Year 1!

Estimate Net Worth Change for 2018 (Year 2):

Mortgage: Paydown $8,000
Investments: Contribute $8,000
Retirement: Contribute $11,000
Investment Returns: $14,000 (would need 4% gain)
Real Estate Increase in Value: $9,000 (would need 2% appreciation)
TOTAL INCREASE: $50,000

I don't get too hung up in the "year over year" changes, as I am more concerned about the next decade as a whole. Just to say that I more than well aware that the market can go the other way (been there done that).

I've updated sidebar to reflect this 10-year plan.

January 5:
$100 Doctor Visit
$195 Glasses
$30 Fuel
$14 ice cream scoop
Dinner: Spinach manicotti (er, lasagna) & mediterranean salad

MH improvised dinner with lasagna noodles, but it was not as good as the manicotti version. It worked in a pinch.

The ice cream scoop: We have some old/sad ice cream scooper that has apparently gone missing. (???) I personally would just use a spoon and don't see the point. But MH likes his ice cream scoop and so he ordered a very durable one that should last forever.

MM(14) had an optical appointment. (This was on the top of MH's chore list. Was waiting to get off work, and only had this week to co-ordinate with MM's school break). Yes, of course he needs glasses too. & so just like that, we went from just me to a house full of glasses wearers. (MH got glasses just a couple of months ago; DL has not had glasses very long either).

I do buy my own glasses online (for about 1/10 as much) but the kids' glasses are not as expensive and I think you have to try on and figure out what works and doesn't when it's new. For the kids, I can see always just buying in person, though I'd order online if they lost a pair or they broke.

MH bought gas with a coupon ~ 25 cents off per gallon. I have a 50-cent coupon and a minivan with an almost-empty gas tank. Would probably make my life easier to make sure that gets filled up this weekend. (We always save the bigger coupons for the bigger gas tank).

Weekend plans: work, clean house, bake. Not time for all of it, but is all the stuff I need to get done.

January 4:
$1.50 fresh baked bread
$46 can of paint
Dinner: Chicken enchilada skillet

I guess it worked out that they were out of bread the day before; sourdough was on sale for $1.50 yesterday.

We are having some of our fence replaced (more details below) and the quote did not include paint on the street side. That said, the contractor asked MH if we had any paint ~ said he'd just take care of it (in about an hour). So MH ran to Sherwin-Williams to get some HOA approved paint. MH called me after he left the house to see if I could find a color match or something. I perused Nextdoor (neighborhood social media) and told him someone had taken a piece of fence down to Home Depot to color match. Others have just asked around for extra paint, which I could do. He told me was already out of the house so whatever, but that yes these were all much smarter ways to go about it. But we were both in the "get it done" headspace, and happy to have one less chore to do.

As to the fence, I would have replaced eons ago but neighbors have been too broke and/or cheap. *sigh* In the end, we have a new neighbor on one side and we had discussed in the summer when their neighbor on the other side replaced their shared fence. They were open to it, but they have a big dog and were really put out by the whole thing, so we figured we'd revisit this month when MH has time off work. In the end, the fence blew down a couple of weeks ago. (I presume that is the opposite of Murphy? When you've already penciled in the repair?). Neighbors were happy with their contractor and took the lead. Probably more expensive than we'd go because we are in the head space of, "We've lived with a falling down fence forever at this point, and we won't even be here another 10 years." But felt it best to just "go with the flow". Just happy they agreed at all. But I am pleased with the cost/quality. It's the longest side of our fence and so was $1,100 for our half, plus $400 to replace the gate.

We have a reasonable quote to replace the back fence (by far the worst section; is currently propped up by a pole ~ I think that section blew over about a year ago). Is a smaller length of fence, so cheaper. I'd love to have a uniform fence. But no idea how that will go with neighbors. It will depend how they react. I'd probably just pay for it, but MH doesn't want to. So he has to negotiate with them, and if that doesn't work, he will have to negotiate with me. No idea how that will resolve (but probably most likely with a cheaper contractor, if at all).

We decided to leave side #3 for now. It's mostly obscured by house and bushes. Just, too many neighbors to deal with it, and more expensive than I was guessing. Will get to it eventually. I'm more open to using cheaper wood on that side since we don't "see" that side so much. & it may be that we revisit this year, but just don't have to be this month.

January 3:
$30 Gymnastics ($10 class + $20 annual registration)
Dinner: Shepherd's Pie

We don't have as many no-spend days with MM's gymnastics class. They only accept cash payments the day of class. This is definitely new since the last time I have tracked spending. It's probably our biggest no-spend killer, but it is what it is. MM(14) LOVES tumbling.

MH told me he went to Target (grocery run). I suspect he spent less than $50 because I don't see any charges on our Target card and he finally took the $50 gift card I laid out for him several weeks ago. We just pick up specific items that are significantly cheaper than our grocery store (mostly breakfast type foods and snacks).

I ran to the grocery store after work to pick up a fresh loaf of sourdough. This is definitely one treat we have been enjoying with MH working. (Is $2 for a baguette, but those run out crazy fast and I sometimes buy other shapes/sizes). I called MH on the way home to ask if he needed anything. He asked me to check for manicotti. We had gone to *three* different grocery stores on New Year's eve looking for manicotti and could not find any. He checked Target today but didn't think they even sell it (didn't see an empty place on the shelf like everywhere else). Anyway, our usual grocery store was entirely cleared out of fresh baked sourdough and any of the other bread we usually buy (strange) and so I gave up and went to the pasta aisle. I found the manicotti signage on the bottom shelf and so had to practically crawl on the floor to make sure there really was no manicotti. No idea what that is about. MH is planning to improvise with lasagna instead. (Who knows, maybe it will be better/easier with lasagna. Stuffing those manicotti shells is a pain). I left the store without buying anything. I'd maybe pick up a bakery item, but we already have fresh baked cookies at home and I have a queue of baked goods I never had the time/energy to get to.

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Got an e-mail from MIL that she finally got the Napa timeshare reserved. Woohoo! This will save us $200, and gives us a nice resort in Napa. MH is charmed, so this doesn't surprise me at all. He REALLY wanted to stay at this place. (I canceled the other reservation with the click of the button).

My dad also got a river raft trip booked, and told me he will cover 100%. So, instead of spending $500-ish this month (1/4 of our annual vacation budget) I am down to -$0- vacation spending for the month. Woohoho! We don't have any vacation plans this year, but will leave the vacation budget for now because something always seems to come up.

January 2
$52 Lunch
$240 Dentist
Dinner: Zuppa Toscana soup (copy cat recipe)

Note: Just tracking spending. Not attempting to cut expenses or to be uber frugal.

No sooner than I typed up my last entry, MH asked me how much he could spend on dining out. It was an unusual question (because he pretty much never eats out, and when he does he usually doesn't ask my permission). But I think this means he was listening to me grumble about paying too many bills last month. He told me he wanted to treat the kids to the expensive sushi place; it's their only weekday off together (for entire winter break). I said I thought that sounded fine. He brought home an extra $500 working these extra weeks, so whatever. (It's more like the "reasonably priced all-you-can-eat sushi place," but I suppose it's relative. When I asked him how lunch was, he told me, "Expensive!")

DL had a dentist appointment. MH asked me why we hadn't moved him over to our cheapie dentist yet. I told him because I was waiting for him to outgrow the pediatric dentist. But that it is probably fine to transition him over. It will save me in the realm of $600/year to get both kids moved over. I would be more excited about this if I wasn't staring down the barrel of braces (times 2!). (He wouldn't be able to get into our dentist for months, so we kept this last pediatric dental appointment. MH has a dental appointment later this month and will take care of getting DL moved over for next time).

I was expecting to cough up airfare this month for MM's summer trip with my dad. My dad generously was going to pay thousands of dollars for a guided river trip (Grand Canyon) but wanted us to cover airfare. In the past, my parents have many times said things like this and forgotten or changed their minds. So lord knows what our financial contribution might end up being. BUT, I think they are acclimating to their (very) comfortable financial position. As such, he told me about a year ago he wanted me to cover airfare (which I think is more than fair). Yesterday I was told he is paying 100% everything. I think he means it. If he is reserving everything now, I guess that doesn't give him much space to change his mind. Unfortunately, he is looking at wait lists and didn't reserve as early as he should have. (I don't know what happened, we've been discussing this like 1.5 years already). I hope that he is able to work it out for this year.

I am personally not into the "no spend" month thing. I think balance is delicate and I don't see messing with the delicate balance we have achieved with our finances. Just to say why I usually sit these things out. (I could just see having a no spend month and then going hog wild the next month, and generally feeling out of whack).

That's copy and pasted from the last no spend challenge. Not sure what it is, but I way prefer the uber frugal challenge. I really like Frugalwoods, and her challenge make more sense to me. I was never a fan of the no spend challenges, in contrast. Whereas I enjoyed the blog entries during the last UFM.

That said, I still personally feel the same way about my own participation. It's been a while since I have done any spending tracking in my blog, and I will participate in that way. But I don't have any motivation to cut back our spending at all. I will just be listing daily spending.

I feel that we are infinitely more lax in our finances these days (our household W2 income was up 6% last year, or about 6% higher than it's ever been!), but we are also still very frugal and mindful of our spending. Considering the mountain of gift cards we have and MH's free movie schemes, I don't see why we would spend much this month.

January 1:
-0- Spending
Dinner: Chicken Satay, brussel sprouts
+ fresh baked chocolate chip cookies

I did book a hotel stay today. MH wanted to get away for his birthday. He didn't say this specifically, but was longing for some time away, though we had probably otherwise discussed that we had put his parents out enough with our Europe trip last summer. Anyway, it was too last minute to get a free timeshare stay anywhere we'd want to go. I found a hotel near Napa $100/night with a kitchen/suite. It's so reasonable because it's outside of Napa. It's possible that we will be able to cancel this reservation; MIL is trying to get the place we usually stay in Napa. That place was $700 for the weekend if we booked on our own. HA! The place we ended up with is a Hilton property with similar accommodations. It won't be so picturesque or "new and shiny", but that's okay. We just wanted something with a kitchen where we can mostly hole up inside and relax. Is only 10 miles from where we usually stay in Napa. Anyway, it was $0 to reserve, and I will cross my fingers that I can exchange this reservation for a free room.

Now that MH is off work, we are going to plan a Friday lunch at Ruth Christ Steakhouse. I have a gift card, but they are only open for lunch on Fridays. That will be our other planned big "splurge" for the month.

Work has been crazed. The last week of the year is always the busiest/most stressful work-week of the year for me, but was compounded this year by many different factors. I am taking this long 3-day weekend off to recover and reset. Then it's diving head first into the busy season (for the next 4 months).

MH was asked to work the prior two weeks, and there was talk of maybe this week too? He usually has 6 weeks off during winter. In the end, Friday was his last day of the season and they said they will probably need him again in three weeks (normal start time). He missed having winter break home with the kids, but they are old enough I don't know that it mattered. If they were younger, he would not have worked so long. We are so present with our kids though, I will admit it felt weird for us to be so tied up with work. During tax season (and December usually), his work is REALLY slow, and so most of the time it works out to be more yin and yang.

In addition to all that, I've been running kids all over the place. They had infinite short days at school (prior 2 weeks ~ I think because two different schools so every day one of them had a short day for this or that reason, just happened to not be the SAME days), and DL's vocal performance ended up being a 4-night commitment. Their vocal concert was absolutely amazing though, and I didn't mind some forced breaks. On Friday I picked up DL from a sleepover at 11am. Just a lot of domestic stuff that MH generally would have been handling.

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FISCAL DOINGS:

Ended the year with net worth up $95,000. !! I think that is the first time we've done that without the bulk of the gains being real estate gains. (We've done this many times before ~ six figure increases ~ with California real estate).

More details later...

SOME FINANCIAL NOTES RE: IN-LAWS:

**Was discussing timeshare with MIL. She is VERY tone deaf (her way or the highway) and her plan has always been to pass on her timeshare(s) to us though we are not interested in the slightest. Sure, free places to stay wherever is all good. But paying the annual fees and dealing with all the red tape, plus feeling obligated to use every year? No thanks!? Especially for two people who would be perfectly content to never get on an airplane.

Anyway, she is getting really disgruntled with her timeshare situation. & has made very clear she is not sticking us with that crap. I guess if you wait long enough (20 years!?) sometimes these things sort themselves out.

**MIL and FIL have decided to gift their car to MM(14) next Christmas as they are both VERY excited about this!

Again, this is one of those things that just needed time. There was talk of buying MM a car at some point, which just made me uncomfortable. They are totally the types to do that without consulting with us. I thought that might be a FUN bridge to cross eventually (NOT!). But they also have 4 grandkids very close in age and I am guessing they were getting ahead of themselves. Anyway, the latest is that they want to gift their vehicle to MM when he turns 15.5 (which is actually very helpful as it gives him a car to learn to drive on). They made clear to MH that this car is for BOTH kids. Again, is kind of what I was thinking anyway. So maybe this will resolve in a very helpful way.

{I don't remember the details, but it may be a 2005 with something like 150k miles? I think it sounds like a perfect first car for a teenager. I would happily pay for it, knowing it was well cared for. But I am not surprised they just want to give it to him}.

In my case, my parents weren't in any kind of financial situation to help me and neither were my grandparents. & I could just walk to school. I bought a car because I *wanted one* but that fell entirely on my shoulders. This situation is just very different. MM would prefer to ride his bike to school, but it's just way too dangerous. We don't have any public transport, and he knows he's not going to get any freedom on that front unless he has a car to drive. (Meanwhile, he would have preferred to just bike or take the bus for the past several years). BUT, he also has a brother that is only two years younger. MH would like to go back to work full-time, and we would put that responsibility on MM (taking his brother to school). I would rather provide a car in a situation where the car is more needed AND will make our lives easier. I was thinking that gives him two years to save up for a car and to come up with a more long-term plan. It only seems fair to offer the same to his brother. When he turns 18 and goes off to college, then his brother could use the "temp/learning" car.

I don't know how long it will last, but I will enjoy being on the same page with the in-laws. Will see how it shakes out in another year or so. I wouldn't hold my breath. But it's nice to have a plan and to be offered such a generous gift.

**On the flip side of the coin, MIL did not fund kids' college this year. No idea what that is about. MH won't ask her about it and I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.

Is out of character for her, so I thought she might realize eventually (nieces' birthdays or Christmas). Christmas came and went with no mention, so I guess it's official the kids' college money will not be added to (2017).

I honestly think she forgot.

This doesn't change anything for us. I just share because their "college" accounts will be stagnate unless MIL starts contributing again (was $1k per year, per child). Anything we save up, we would not put in our kids' names or tie up in education funds. & I don't see making the effort to save any more than we already are.

Edited to add: The college money was just forgotten. Received in early 2018.

Received $50 bank interest for the month of December.

Credit card rewards:
--Redeemed $25 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card.
--Redeemed $70 cash back on Citi card.
--Redeemed $10 cash back on dining/gas card.

Savings (From my paycheck):
+$ 200 to investments

Snowball to investments (MH Paycheck):
+$ 600

Mid-Term Savings (cash saved for non-annual expenses/emergency):
-$ 500 Computer (for DL)

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):
-$ 720 Home Insurance
-$ 535 Disability Insurance
-$ 450 Flood Insurance
-$ 240 School Lunches (5 months x2)
-$ 215 Umbrella Insurance
-$ 115 Auto repairs
-$ 90 Dental
-$ 76 Medical

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December was a bit of a mess. Not sure what to do with that, but trying to summarize the way I usually do.

I abandoned saving anything. Not for any of the usual reasons (we didn't spend anything substantial on the holidays). But I was doing a credit card reward and paid ahead several large bills. It made my life complicated in December but I knew we'd have some extra cash inflows to offset. Usually it's just so much at the end of the year that I try to spread it out or pay bills closer to due date (though most the rest of the year I generally try to stay more ahead of the curve). So the outcome is we had a huge cash outflow in December, but I have got all the bills paid ahead and won't be cash flowing $2,000 in January and February. (I just looked at last year and saw I put off most these bills to January and even February last year).

It hurts for now, but we will quickly build up cash in the next few months.

I've been slowly getting further ahead on bills. The mortgage is paid one full month ahead. Credit cards are paid in full the end of every month. Getting these end-of-year bills tamed I think is the last stop for me. I am fully transitioned to just paying bills when I receive them (or even earlier in many cases). This is what I did in early adulthood, but with online bill pay and cutting our income in half, I would more and more just set the bills to pay on their due dates. (I liked that I could get the bill paid when I received it but could set the due date to later and utilize the float). With more means, I've been going back in the other direction. Rather than save more cash and into an emergency fund, I am giving us some space and buffer.

When sitting down and trying to get to December balanced out, I abandoned all savings for this month and used credit card rewards to cover bills. In the end I had $200 left in the checkbook, so I went back and put that $200 into investments. That was all we saved this month. We did receive enough cash for Christmas to cover the rest.

I did also throw an extra $225 at the mortgage. That was what I had decided at some point (to get below $159k), and I had enough cash to cover that.

I did also donate my work Christmas bonus ($200), per our annual tradition. I earmarked this sum entirely for the local animal shelters.

One other note: I believe that our flood insurance (FEMA) is the only bill I *have to* pay by snail mail. I initially held onto the bill because I wanted to throw it on a specific one-time credit card (for rewards) and then got lazy and ended up mailing it closer to its due date (maybe a couple of days before, but I remember it sitting here for maybe two weeks in the meantime). Wouldn't you know it? It got lost in the mail! (Which is precisely why I avoid snail mail for anything important; this is the second hugely important item to be lost in the past 2 months). Anyway, I think I got it squared away about 3 weeks later, but in the meantime my mortgage holder was freaking out I didn't have proof of insurance. & lord knows I did not enjoy going without flood insurance for 2 weeks.

So anyway, all this to say, I am paying that bill the minute I get it next year, or about 30 days earlier. Yeesh!

Big picture: I am about $1,750 short of sidebar goals for the year. (I've updated sidebar). This is equivalent to the amount we redirected to spontaneous Europe trip. I am fine and happy with how the year shook out. Our savings goals are always very aggressive, and I am okay with directing that sum to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

EDITED TO ADD: I forgot that 50% MH's check went into his 401k, or $600. I guess in the end we invested more than I was thinking when I typed this up.

2017 TALLY:

$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, Moi)
$525 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, MH)
$545 Gift Cards (Citi Thank You, MH)
$499 Travel Rewards (Capital One Venture,MH)
$200 Cash (WF Wise, MH)
-----------
$2,269 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Other Rewards:
$21 Citi Price Rewinds
$30 AmEx insurance payment rebate
$ 5 AmEx for mobile app login

Ongoing rewards:

+$355 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/3% fuel)

+$114 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$86 Visa Rewards (3% cash back fuel/restaurants)

+$698 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere - health insurance/medical is the big expenses that we charge, is more than our mortgage payments)

Grand Total = $3,578

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 2017).

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

Total 6 Years = $20,766
***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

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

***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 late fees or interest.***

At this point in my life I just pay the balances off the end of every month so that we go into each new month with -$0- credit card debt. This is really simple because there is no remembering bills or due dates or any of that. I just go in and pay them all the last day of every month. I have set all my credit cards to close for the month around the 28th of the month, so that the statement is closed by the last day of every month and every charge for the month has been posted. (I can just voluntarily pre-pay any charges that didn't make it on the statement for the last week of the month). From an accounting standpoint, anything else would drive me crazy, maybe especially since we do have so many credit cards that we use every month for rewards. This way, I just don't have to really keep track of anything and I know they will always be paid several weeks before due date. This also keeps all of our charges on a monthly cycle, which lines up with our monthly paychecks and my monthly accounting.

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

I expect 2018 to be more like 2016, but you never know. I don't feel like we need to put as much emphasis on the credit card rewards with MH working and with interest rates (on our savings) increasing. We really relied on these to boost our income and to stretch our dollars further when MH was home with the kids. I also have something like $1,000 unused gift cards laying around, which is about $1,000 more than usual. (In the past we mostly redeemed cash back, but those are harder to come by and it seems it was mostly gift cards and travel rewards for this year). If all I can do is gift cards next year, I imagine I would probably scale back but might consider focusing on those more for charity. If I had gotten this last $500 in time for Christmas, I would have donated those gift cards.

Spending:

**Spent $85 on tickets for DL's vocal performance next week. I guess this is the flip side of all this free instruction. The tickets are $10 per ticket, just to see a standard school recital. But that said, it will be no ordinary school recital.

I bought some tickets for grandparents, which probably worked out because I got some group discount with offset some ridiculous ticket fees.

In the spring we might have to do the same + there will be a band performance. But again, I don't have to pay for all his drama, band, and vocal instruction. Being from that world, I know I come out FAR ahead.

**MH spent $20 on an electronic newspaper subscription. He gets lots of free movie tickets through the newspaper website rewards, but they changed it that you had to pay for a subscription. His initial reaction was, "Nevermind," but then they had some Black Friday type deal.

{He doesn't need this for most of the free movies he sees, to clarify. But for some of the movies, it's another avenue to get tickets}.

We will come out far ahead. MH already won tickets for us to see George Takei. It was part of a Speaker Series, so the only way to get tickets otherwise was to pay $600 per person for the whole series. So, $20 for THAT and a whole bunch of free movies? That is a no brainer. MH is going to try to get tickets for the next speaker in the series. I don't know the odds, but I saw a lot of people upset because they *just* wanted to see George Takei. I can't imagine very many people would be interested in the other ones. But I guess the flip side of that is they may not even have those tickets to offer. Will see...

**For Target gift cards, I bought $20 x 5 gift cards for gifts, while 10% off. We did that last year and it worked out nicely.

**Took the van in to the shop on Friday. It's been somewhat wonky the past couple of years, probably largely because we are/were between shops. Anyway, imagine my surprise that it was just a $10 repair (new radiator cap).

Clearly I have failed at shifting from "newer car" mode to "old car" mode. "Old car" mode was my first 10 years of driving; I am well trained in checking fluids and so on, but I just *never* think of it since buying new-ish cars (didn't need to look under the hood for 10+ years). I am embarrassed about how long it took me to check under the hood this time. I thought to check the oil but then I noticed the coolant was low. I feel extra aware how much money that saved me because the last two times we had coolant leaks they were far bigger repairs. Since clearly I can't remember this on my own, I will put it on my calendar to check at least once per month. As I get into that habit again, it will be more front of mind as problems arise.

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

I completed giving tree shopping.

**Bought one requested item for retail price online

**Went in person to Target to buy $100 gift card at 10% off. {I went when Target opened; no crowd or lines}.

**MH picked up about $75 worth of books for $2.50.

Dropped all of this off while MM was volunteering at the shelter. Phew!

Glad to cross that off my list with little effort, because I will be working a billion hours this month. Is why I don't generally participate in these things. This was early enough that I could pull it off.

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

Money Mustache had a timely post on charitable gift giving. He mentioned

Just tracking my gift cards. Not *all* credit card rewards, but most of them are.


GIFTS:
------
$100 Benihana ($50x2) **SPRING 2018?**
$ 20 x5 Target


MOVIES:
--------

RESTAURANTS:
------------
$50 California Pizza Kitchen **Ecard**
$75 Chili's
$50 Olive Garden
$50 Seasons 52
$100 P.F. Chang's


RETAIL:
---------
$100 Staples ($50x2)**School supplies next summer?**
$100 REI **For MM's rafting trip supplies**
$200 Home Depot ($50x4)
$75 Kohls ($50 + $25) **to replace kids' shoes?**


Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards

That's a $4 flower bouquet that I bought the day before Thanksgiving. I just took the picture, it still looks gorgeous. I love treats like this. Just a reminder of "thinking outside the box" versus "doing without".

Which I guess is the theme of my post today.

{In this case, our high end grocery store sells very fresh flowers at a great price. In warmer months, the farmers market works too}.

MIL asked MH to pick up some discounted books for her. There was a specific box set one of my nieces wanted. MH gets 1/2 off? & these books are already 1/2 off? Anyway, he didn't even know, but I guess there was a set on the "damaged" shelf because it lacked shrink wrap. It was otherwise pristine. When he tried to buy one from the "new" shelf, his co-worker pointed that out. I believe the entire book set cost 50-cents in the end.

Since I was requested to buy books for a baby (giving tree), I asked MH to check the "damaged" shelf. & to pick up some other books too since I have to buy new in this case. In the end, he had been given a $25 "gift certificate" and didn't know when he would use it. (I can't transfer the gift certificate; I'd just donate it if I could).

I was otherwise waiting to see if Target did 10% off of their gift cards. (They are ~ woohoo!)

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Black Friday Shopping:

I ended up ordering season passes for the local water park (was 45% off retail). This was for the premium season passes, which gives us access to the Bay Area location (we like that water park a lot more). I hadn't realized when I bought them, but the premium pass also includes free State Fair admission. I guess that's an additional perk. Going to the fair in the middle of summer is not on my list of fun things to do (and why we mostly never go). But, I am documenting in my blog so that I don't forget. Not having to pay admission x4 might tilt the scales a bit.

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

In the end, we did get free passes to see Disaster Artist. I really liked that one. The book was better, as always.

MH *finally* got his movie pass. {$10/month for basically unlimited movies in the theater}. We know it was lost in the mail about 7 weeks ago. He ended up getting (a replacement) movie pass last Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). We went to see three movies already. (I had the week off). He still earns loyalty rewards from the theater as if he paid, and so already earned a free ticket. I guess we might go back tomorrow. I will be done humoring him at that point. Just happens to be a lot of good movies out right now. I have some gift cards to cover my tickets. In the long run, will probably stick to the $6 showings. I am only entertaining going this weekend ($$$$) because I have a free ticket. Beyond that, usually he sees just about everything and tells me not to bother. I usually go to movies in the theater just a few times per year. I don't see that changing too much. Was just an unusual set of circumstances.

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

That reminds me, Thanksgiving went about as well as it could have. 90+yo Grandma used to insist on driving up at dawn to stuff the turkey. She wasn't doing so well a couple of years ago and was one reason I really wanted to drop hosting. In the end I think she switched Doctors and/or meds and is doing much better since. They did rush up last Thursday but ended up doing the stuffing separately?? I told MH to tell them NOT to come so early next year. Yeesh. (When I brought it up, he was kind of like, "Yeah, I didn't think about that.").

We went to see the art school production of Christmas Carol last night. Was a cross between that and the Nutcracker I guess, since it was a musical and they incorporated the dance company. Makes me want to see the Nutcracker. Anyway, it seemed very fitting to watch A Christmas Carol while the Senate rammed through their ridiculous tax bill. *sigh* (Republican Senate = Scrooge right now).

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

In my last post I mentioned Best Buy recycling of e-waste. I know it got buried so felt it was worth mentioning again.

When we prepped the house for Thanksgiving, I noticed the "e-waste recycle" pile was getting a little out of hand. I recall taking big things in the past, but usually MH handles most of it.

Clearly he hasn't been handling it, but we drive by Best Buy once or twice a week when MM has gymnastics. So I just took care of it.

Of note, I had an external drive, some computer speakers (2 sets) and a broken car stereo face plate.

I wanted to put it out as a reminder, in case anyone has anything they can recycle. I know I have mentioned before, but it's probably been a LONG time. (Check the website, they take a lot of different kinds of things).

2017 TALLY:

$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, Moi)
$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, MH)
$525 Gift Cards (Citi Thank You, MH)
$499 Travel Rewards (Capital One Venture,MH)
$200 Cash (WF Wise, MH)
-----------
$2,224 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Other Rewards:
$21 Citi Price Rewinds
$30 AmEx insurance payment rebate
$ 5 AmEx for mobile app login

Ongoing rewards (through 11/30):

+$330 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/3% fuel)

+$114 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$76 Visa Rewards (3% cash back fuel/restaurants)

+$628 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere - health insurance/medical is the big expenses that we charge, is more than our mortgage payments)

Grand Total = $3,428

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 2017).

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 = $3,428

Total 6 Years = $20,616
***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

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

***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.***

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

This is where I am at as of November 30, 2017. I will revise at the end of December 2017. (It will be simple to just throw in December numbers. I wanted to do this now because cards like Target have a YTD total for rewards, but it will probably reset before I look at it again. So I am just tallying up now to make my life easier).

Received $49 bank interest for the month of November.

Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $50 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card. But... Paid annual $95 fee. I will subtract $95 from snowflakes/investments.
--Redeemed $83 cash back on Citi card.
--Redeemed $10 cash back on dining/gas card.

Other snowflakes to investments:
--$12 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

Snowball to investments (MH Paycheck):
+$950

Savings (From my paycheck):
+$ 200 to investments
+$ 300 to cash (mid-term savings)
+$ 900 to IRAs

Mid-Term Savings (cash saved for non-annual expenses/emergency):
-$1,850 Medical Expenses
-$1,400 Home Maintenance

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):
+$1,300 to cash
-$5,300 Property Taxes
-$ 430 Life Insurance
-$ 349 Auto registration
-$ 30 Dentist

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

I mentioned in my last (monthly) post that these past two months would be a bit of a wash. Lots and lots of bills paid this month.

For the most part, all bills are paid for 2017. Any charges past this point won't be cash flowed until 2018. The only exception is if something comes up that has to be paid for in cash.

MH just bought some concert tickets (including one for my dad). I told him that we should just cover it. Make it a Christmas present. Is the same gift he got last year (but a different band).

This is about how much thought/energy I am giving to the season. We don't celebrate in any big or materialistic way. I'll be figuring out some other gifts, but nothing I have to "plan" for or will spend much energy on. We don't save any money for Christmas, accordingly.

For us, the focus continues to be more and more on charity every year. I am still not in a place where I have any time for the Holidays. So though we generally give more time than money, there's not a lot we sign up for this time of year. It's easier for us to just write checks in the month of December. But I am taking the week off after Thanksgiving and I saw that someone needed help with a giving tree, and so I volunteered to help. Will see how it goes and if I want to do the same next year. (I've volunteered for the sorting in the past, which is probably more my thing, but this year I signed up to shop).

Other than that, we usually donate my Christmas bonus ($200). To the local food bank and the animal shelters, though it varies.

In addition, we are getting a $1,000 check (from in-laws) to donate to charities of our choice. This is a new tradition. They started last year with $500. For this year, $1,000 has been thrown out. Wow! I am SO EXCITED about this! I don't know why I find that number so mind blowing. Because it is 4 figures? I don't know. It sounds/feels like so much more than we have been able to give in the past.

I paid the property taxes. One month early, but I don't have to think about it again for another year. & also gives plenty of time to correct if there are any problems. This is why I never pay things like the day they are due. That sounds way too stressful. Crap happens, and I still want my payment to be on time when the crap happens.

Our county stopped charging a convenience fee for paying online. AWESOME! Smart on their part. There is no way I would pay by check and send in the mail. I have been paying with e-checks. Clearly they must have less mail loss and so on, with this change. Our mail here is TERRIBLE. I forgot this was one reason I had started paying just once per year. I don't care if the fee was $5. It was worth it to get my payment where it needed to be in a timely fashion. It had been a $1.50 fee, and now I never have to pay it again.

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

I mentioned recently that our specific home model seems to rarely go up for sale, but one was for sale (and remodeled so beautifully in a black/white theme, which I guess is "in" these days. Seeing that more and more).

A second one just sold for the same price (around $490k). & I just saw a "coming soon" sign on our neighbor's house. NO WAY! So pretty much those models rarely go up for sale, but now three in a row...

I think all are immaculately kept and remodeled to the hilt. The third one, you can just tell from the care they've done to their tiny front yard and all the enhancements they have added, which most don't bother with. That said, historically people have not paid premiums for those things in the areas we have lived. & real estate generally moves upwards. So if they fetch a similar price, is just what I will use for net worth. I think things will stagnate around $499k for a while and I think is somewhat reasonable (though definitely getting into bubble territory). The local economy is better (A LOT) than the entire 17 years we have lived here, but it's not like people make that much money. The single story home are at peak level and are selling for $400k - $450k. If the median wage in our city is something like $50k, clearly this is ridiculous. Maybe some part of me just hopes things settle down a bit (and this isn't really Bubble 2.0). But bubble aside, it also takes time for people to wrap their brains around buying a house for 5xx,xxx. It will take a while, but $500k to $599k won't take as long. The demand for local housing currently far outstrips supply, but people also seem to be favoring smaller homes and more reasonable budgets. My co-worker even told me that new home models were more small and efficient, versus the grandiose/wasted space/GIANT kitchens and master suites of the 2001 era when we bought our house. I like to hear that, that there is some sanity on this front. Everything was so grandiose during the bubble.

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

We went to another free movie screening. It was a screening of The Room, which if you have not heard of it is the "worst movie ever made."

The reason for the screening was because of a release of a movie about the making of The Room. The new movie is called the Disaster Artist. MH got a free shirt and won a book for the new movie. (They often have merch at these things, which drives me crazy because he hoards weird crap). But he will wear a shirt and read/sell a book, so I guess it was good merch. (I donated a couple of free movie shirts recently without telling him. He insisted I take them, the kids didn't want them. I finally donated them. I don't need a closet full of free shirts. It just gets to the point of ridiculous).

Anyway...

O.M.G. If you ever hear of a showing of The Room, I recommend. I *almost* didn't go because it was two movies in one week and I have been pretty slammed at work. I wasn't expecting much because it was one of those things where I thought I saw the highlights so many times already. I am well aware of the movie, the bad script, the bad acting, and some of the ridiculous scenes.

I was wrong.

First, every second of the movie is so BAD it is hilarious. I thought I Was going to die laughing the first 5 minutes. At some point I guess you adjust (so that you don't die laughing). Okay, every detail is BAD. Every line, every actor, every screen frame, EVERYTHING. I had no idea it was non-stop funny.

In addition to that, it has a cult following like Rocky Horror. So this is a very interactive movie. It was hilarious on its own, and hilarious to laugh with a crowd, but this just brings it to a whole other level.

I started reading the book MH won (Disaster Artist) and it is fascinating. I can see everything behind the scenes was just as bad as on screen. I have absolutely no time to read a book right now, but I can see the value in reading it with the movie still fresh in my mind. Anyway, I think the Disaster Artist movie releases the week after next. I entered to win tickets. I don't know if the tickets will be available through the usual channels. If they are, MH will find a way to get tickets.

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

This reminds me, one of MH's co-workers is a film student. Is the only other person MH knows who is cheap enough and interested enough to see ALL the free movies. Anyway, film student was doing some project in one of his classes and needed a script. Asked if he could use one of MH's scripts he had read. For the class, they are going through the pre-production process. (Most the other groups already had scripts, but for whatever reason no one in his group had a script for this project). The feedback has been, "Forget making this movie. Why doesn't he SELL it?" Aw, youthful idealism.

But I think this is some of why MH is, "Of course you can use my script!" You never know who is going to be the right person (or meet the right person) somewhere down the road. Beyond that, they sound very cute and idealistic. But I think the ego stroking is good in the here and now, amidst all the rejection. You need some motivation to keep trying. He's still writing scripts and trying.

I know I have said in the past that living in a high cost region has several advantages. Most of it was more region specific advantages, but some of it is directly related to the higher cost of living.

On the higher cost side, if the second income is pure gravy, the gravy is bigger. (Because wages are higher).

We seem to be experiencing this right now. MH received a 3% raise this year. (His raise last year already corrected for minimum wage increase January 2018). His pay was going to be something like $xx.5875. Seriously!? This was driving me crazy because I always just calculate his check (he gets paid before we get his pay stub).

Then, while he was in Florida his last paycheck hit and it was all wrong. For the first time in two years, it was not right. But it was to his favor. He always gets his pay before his pay stub so I had to wait to figure it out. On his pay stub, which I could see a few days later, they had given him an 8% raise instead. But he had already received the weird pay rate for one pay period. I figured it was a mistake.

Anyway, MH had a chance to bring it up this week and he was told by his supervisor that he thinks the manager gave him the raise. He confirmed that today. They gave him a nice raise, and no one bothered to tell him. {I told MH that from my experience pretty much no one looks at their pay stub. So, most people wouldn't even notice. I can't believe they didn't tell him}.

This is a nice surprise! The gravy is getting bigger. Oh, and it is a nice round amount that is easy to remember. I like that part too.

When I initially said the gravy is bigger in our high cost region, I was thinking that he could easily find a job making $50k or $60k per year. Is more what I was getting at, when I said this several years ago. But this works too. (Working very seasonal/part-time/minimum-wage for now, for reference. But is also definitely more than it would be in most areas of the country).

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

We went to a free movie (advanced screening) on Tuesday night. MH really wanted to take me because it had really good reviews. In the end, it was a small turnout. We were running a little late and got stuck in a lot of traffic, but it worked out because there wasn't a long line. The movie was Ladybird. It was really good. This was definitely a fun one to see at a screening because the movie was set in Sacramento and was filmed here.

Usually MH feels a compulsiveness to see everything, and he sees a lot of crap. But I will say that there were some really good movies this year. It seems more than usual.

Received $52 bank interest for the month of October.

Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $25 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card.
--Redeemed $61 cash back on Citi card.
--Redeemed $7 cash back on dining/gas card.

Other snowflakes to investments:
--$5 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)
--rounded up $2 for an even $100 snowflake deposit

Snowball to investments (MH Paycheck):
+$1,200

Savings (From my paycheck):
+$ 200 to investments
+$ 300 to cash (mid-term savings)
+$ 900 to IRAs

Mid-Term Savings (cash saved for non-annual expenses/emergency):
-$300 Trombone purchase

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):
+$1,300 to cash
-$ 85 museum membership (renewal)
-$ 275 auto insurance

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

I think this month will end up being the polar opposite of next month. I literally deposited $4,300 into savings/investments this month. We save about $4,000 in a month that MH works and that we don't have any one-off expenses. (Rare, because there's usually some non-monthly expenses). But I am also replenishing savings for pre-paying some big expenses for credit card rewards.

Next month: We've already racked up $4,000 in medical bills and home repairs (and includes some smaller expenses). Will pay property taxes for the year, so that's $9,000 outflow right there.

This is the 4th year that I am just pre-paying property taxes, by paying it all up front (the second installment is not due until April). This is just done from a simplicity standpoint. If interest rates ever rise I guess I can re-evaluate, but I think we are building enough wealth at this point in our lives that I'd prefer simplicity over a little extra bank interest. But I probably only feel that way because interest rates are only 1%.

Mortgage Update: Officially into the 150s. Woohoo!

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

This weekend will be SPENDY! We have an unofficial reunion with the group MH and I worked with when we met. The last time I recall seeing any of them was when MM(14) was an infant. It has been a while.

Anyway, they chose an expensive Bay Area buffet, but my kids are looking forward to all the food. At least I get my money's worth with them.

We also have an expensive outing planned with my SIL and her kids. I haven't heard any details and need to e-mail her. I *think* we have plans. (I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't make reservations, but honestly the kids just want to hang together. As long as they have a little time for us is all I care about. SIL wanted to plan a big to-do).

Busy weekend! Should be fun, but tiring.

I don't know how much of it is regional, but with housing so expensive people seem to be waiting until 40 to have kids. Just to say that MH and I have by far the oldest kids in that work group (we may be the youngest people with the oldest kids). They are going to freak when they see our 14-year-old (who is such a mini-me of his father).

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

On the first night that MH was out of town (last week) I saw that PF Chang's had a free sushi night. I also had a free gift card, so I took the kids out. We had never been before.

O.M.G.

There was no minimum purchase and I really just thought they would bring us each like one free piece of sushi. When we ordered, the look on our waiter's face said otherwise. I tried to clarify with him but we just weren't communicating well. BUT... My kids could eat a horse, so I just let it go. The kids and I looked at each other like, "We are getting SO MUCH sushi," after he took our order. "Are we getting SO MUCH sushi!? I think we are!" & we did. We ordered an appetizer, two entrees, 2 plates of sushi, and 3 FREE pieces of sushi! So they brought us out 5 plates of sushi. It was totally hilarious. In another situation I would have corrected our order, but I wanted to use my gift card and I knew the kids would eat it. So we just let them bring us tons of food. (We spent $15 cash for all that).

In the end, we brought home a lot of MM's rice dinner because it was enough to feed an army. I brought home my dinner. It was a small serving, but it was way too much for me and everyone was full by then. The rest was devoured.

I already put the free sushi day on my calendar for next year. The food was surprisingly good.

It was enjoyable because no one seemed to know about it and the place was not packed at all.

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

In other news, I saw that our school district is desperate for teachers (though they already pay VERY well). As a result, they are offering to pay for credential, plus monthly stipend while earning credential, plus a $5k or $10k bonus (depending if you hit certain marks).

Seriously!

This is something we have discussed endlessly over the years, for MH. The last he seriously considered was 17 years ago when the city we were living is was issuing emergency teaching credentials.

In contrast, this is a WAY better deal! Wow! A full teaching credential, plus all that cash to boot?

It's complicated. Though in most regards I think this would be his dream job, he has very low tolerance for bureaucracy, and I think that's what we have decided over the years. All his family are teachers and his mom has like always forbid him to ever become a teacher (because she knew he wanted to at some point). So it's a whole thing. Either of those things by itself, maybe he could work through it, but together is a lot.

With a deal like this, I don't think there's anything to lose. I doubt he will go down this route, but I share in the offchance he does. & also to say that there are always opportunities if you keep your eyes and ear open.

For now, he's been out of town and we hadn't really discussed. I Was kind of surprised he didn't say, "NO thanks." It's maybe piqued his interest.

Edited to add: I since saw that another school district is paying subs $500/day (during possible teacher strike). & several teaching job posting on a job board I joined on Facebook. I've not seen any "teacher" postings whatsoever in the past, but I guess there is a lot going on. I had a chance to talk to MH about it. I think his gut feeling is it's not really for him, but he told me it was hard for him to pass up opportunities. I think we both tend to be that way anyway, but maybe extra so for someone who struggled so hard in the job market for so long.

MH is back from Florida. He was gone for 5 days, to celebrate his Grandfather's birthday. He really wishes we had gone with him, but I am really happy I didn't have to deal with all that travel. Phew!

The entire cost of the trip? $25!

I initially thought we were going to cover airfare, but his parents had miles and wanted to cover it.

I figured he'd treat for something while there. On Sunday I checked the credit cards and it was clear he hadn't spent anything and probably wouldn't. I figured he was the baby of the family and no one would let him pay for anything. That is what he confirmed. (Said everyone was fighting over the dining out bills and he wasn't interested in joining the fray). So I thought he might spend $100 or $200, but in the end it was $25 for two airport meals. That is all.

That said... His relatives were there from Australia and we are seriously considering going to Australia next summer. Will see. (I think they are near Brisbane/Gold Coast). I told him everyone is going to think I am totally full of crap. I do NOT want to travel. Really and truly. It's just complicated because we have family all over the world, and our parents love to travel. Even if it is generally not how we want to spend our own time and money, we are probably a little too "go with the flow."

& so that is how a $25 trip to Orlando might cost me several thousand dollars.

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

Halloween was a real bore at our house. MH was majorly jet lagged and I had to work. I've got two seminars this week and weekend plans, and just really no other time I could get some of this work done.

Anyway, my kids the last few years have had absolutely no interest in Halloween, but then often get swayed at the last minute. I've just kept some old costumes (Whatever still fits, like masks) and they like to dig through and mix and match to come up with weird costumes. In the end, the kids were invited to a fun friend's house where they dressed up as zombies and scared the neighborhood kids. That was really perfect because I had forgot it was Halloween when I made plans to bring work home. But by then the kids were already gone and the house was quiet. They had a blast, MH got a long nap, and I got some work done. Phew!

2017 TALLY:

$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, Moi)
$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, MH)
$525 Gift Cards (Citi Thank You, MH)
$499 Travel Rewards (Capital One Venture,MH)
$200 Cash (WF Wise, MH)
-----------
$2,224 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

**In addition, various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31.

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

MH got a $250 reward offer from AmEx. I tracked down the $500 offer link and applied for that one instead.

This is a LOT for us. I am not a big churner and have probably never opened 4 cards in one year for just one of us. Yeesh. I will probably lay off and not do any rewards for him next year.

{This level of credit card churning has absolutely no effect on our credit scores. Hell would freeze over before we ever carried a balance on a credit card}.

As to credit score, which is a question that I get a lot, we have 100% on-time payments and 10 years of good credit on our reports (even if the accounts have been closed). That's clearly about 90% of OUR credit score. No one knows exactly how it all works. About the only think I have ever noticed that impacts our score is utilization ratio. Like when I made a big purchase on our Target card and totally forgot it only had a $500 limit. (So we ended up with a very high utilization on one card). I mean, it probably never would have occurred to me in the first place. It dinged our score for a bit, but maybe just for a month or two. Nothing we couldn't overcome and I am talking maybe it went from 840 to 820. I'd consider this "no effect" since anything above 750 is an excellent credit score. This is something that didn't amount to a hill of beans in the long run. But as someone who needs a good credit score for her job, I will be cautious about utilization ratios in the future. As to most the rest, the only thing I really care about is paying my bills on time.

Since we have mostly never borrowed for anything and this credit card reward extravaganza is a more recent phenomenon, we have way below average # of cards/credit lines on our credit reports. (I think that's CRAZY!! Lord knows we have opened tons of credit cards in the last 8 years or so. How are we below average?!). So it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. But that's something that doesn't affect our score because we are at or below average. (P.S. I guess our willingness to close our credit cards is also a lot of this. Stuff older than 10 years completely drops off, so maybe we've already reached a bit of a peak.
If I apply for 4 new cards next year but 4 old cards completely drop off my credit report, it's hard to increase this number much at this point).

Closing credit cards and having only a year or two of open credit doesn't amount to a hill of beans, for us. My theory was since good credit stays on your report for 10 years that clearly that counts for something. I've since seen this theory confirmed, in the years since I figured this out on my own. This is why I have never given a flip about keeping old cards open. That is WAY too complicated for me, to keep track of open cards. (I felt this way when I opened one credit card every few years or so. So it never occurred to me to keep open all of these cards. No Way!). We close all accounts we are not using.

Anyway, so those are some notes on that front. With this $500 reward, we are on track for our second best year ever. About $3,500 in rewards. Year #1 was 2011, which was more than $4,000. (That was the year that Chase had a $1,000 cash bonus. Crazy!)

**The tax season from hell is officially over. (10/15 is the last of the income tax deadlines.) I am EXHAUSTED. I think I may have enough down time to take a week off in December (the week I couldn't take off last year, so I have an extra week this year). Will see. Still in the middle of another monster project, though the end is in sight.

(I am usually not so busy in September/October, and probably would generally consider May through November to be pretty relaxed at work, but it's just been one of those years!)

**On the home front, hell froze over and MH finally discarded his professional wardrobe. It was mostly bought used and hasn't been worn in 15 years. We had last left it that he could keep it but I was NOT moving with that stuff that he was obviously never going to wear. This was our compromise.

In the end, he asked me to take him shopping for more casual clothes (he wanted help) and he was open to purging his closet after we went shopping. I thought he mean some of his more casual clothing, but he went through it *all* and admitted most of it was not in great condition after sitting in a closet for 15 years.

In the process, I took some time to purge my side of the closet too. My problem was not with his quantity of clothing, but with the fact he was NEVER going to wear it. So when he purged like 90% of his barely existent wardrobe, I felt like I should make an effort on my side of the closet. I was surprised how much stuff I had to purge and the shirts I forgotten I had, etc. Ugh. I can use improvement on my 1-in/1-out rule.

**I also *finally* got through our photos. The problem is my (4-year-old) phone has a burst mode for taking photos. I LOVE this feature, but the downside is I end up with massive amounts of photos.

It was my goal to download and backup photos before our London trip. There were two big vacations in particular that I never backed up. (They were automatically backed up in google, but we have a more extensive backup system in place, and I had never added those photos to MH's more secure backup). I was trying to use London as a motivational deadline, but I had too much to do and was having technological difficulties. Anyway, on one day a couple of weekends ago I made some strides on this. I seemed to stumble upon a more efficient way to get everything downloaded. So I spent all day and just got it done. Finally! Backed up London, and probably all the big vacations we took in the past 4 years. I think the hard part was deleting the endless duplicates.

**Other than being busy on the chore side of things, it's been a very spendy month.

We finally replaced our hot water heater. It was making some strange noises, and was definitely time. We were planning to be more proactive in 2015 but the labor costs to install were more than we expected. I got a lower quote this time around, and am happy to cross this off my list.

For a while now, I've also had it in my craw to pick up some glasses in person. The last pair of glasses I purchased were $10 on Zenni. They are absolutely *awesome*. Is my second pair I've ordered online? But I never got proper measurements for my pupils and I thought I saved enough on glasses the last several years that I could probably splurge on a new pair and try on in person. Sounded like a nice luxury.

Was it worth it? Not sure. I wasn't enthralled with the selection and ended up getting glasses more very functional but nothing as cute as I have been getting on Zenni. I could let it go as there is nothing wrong with practical glasses. The only complaint about the $10 pair was that they were a little heavy. Which I guess I will make note of for the future (Zenni certainly sells very light glasses. I had just never bought such heavy glasses before, so hadn't thought to check the weight).

Whereas Zenni charged me a whole whopping $5 for their anti-glare coating, my HMO charged me $90. So that's going to be the deciding factor. I have had problems with night driving. If the $90 clears that up for me, then it's a no-brainer and definitely worth it. But if I don't notice any difference on the glare, then I am probably just going to stick to Zenni in the future. (I am guessing I won't notice any difference).

Today I ordered some prescription sunglasses online, $30.

My timing is probably pretty terrible on this front. I have been thinking about doing this for a while, but what motivated me to make an eye appointment last week is that MH (who has been talking about this quite a while) decided to go ahead and make an eye appointment for himself. Never wore glasses, but can feel his eye sight worsening. He wanted me to go with him to help him pick out glasses, and I told him was fine since I need to have a check up myself.

In the end he feels his near-sight is worsening but they told him he needs everyday/distance eyewear. Strange as it sounds, it seems to be helping.

They actually upsold him to a $350 pair of glasses, but they were a pair like I had before which I really liked and were very high quality. (I wore for maybe 6+ years). So I told him to just go for it.

I went for titanium (wanting to go much lighter) and paid $250 for mine.

So yeah, though I planned for a while to do a splurge for myself, wasn't planning to make it a double splurge. Makes it a little harder to digest.

So that sums up some big spending.

**In other news, the kids have been really clicking with their cousins and I have been making an effort to get them together. My impression is that SIL is far too busy for us, so I was really surprised when I requested a more last minute get together and she obliged. (I figured I'd try, but wasn't expecting much). So I have to give her credit. She wanted to go do something ridiculously expensive, next time, and told me they had no free weekends for the rest of the year. So that is the flip side of it. They do over-book and tend to flake on our standing annual traditions. But I mentioned we'd be in town one weekend and she is making that work too. Which is nice because though I am doing *all* the driving (I guess it comes with the territory of being the ones who moved), I appreciate not having to take any extra trips. We had a 3-day weekend last weekend, and then if we can kill two birds with one stone next time... That works.

For last weekend, MH had some movie plans and some volunteer commitments, so I just took the kids on my own. It was a nice little day trip.

**UGH! I accidentally cut and paste over my last post. It was about the wild fires in our state. They suck and it's horrible. We are far away and unaffected. I think that sums it up. I mentioned the wind was crazy yesterday and not helping, but it seems to have died down, so maybe they can get these fires under control.

Received $53 bank interest for the month of September.

Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $25 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card.
--Redeemed $30 cash back on Citi card.
--Redeemed $7 cash back on Visa/dining card.

Other snowflakes to investments:
--$5 Savings from Target Red Card
--$115 dividends reinvested

Snowballs (not invested):
--$200 cash from credit card reward
--$1,025 gift cards received (cc rewards)

Snowball to investments (MH Paycheck):
+$250

Savings (From my paycheck):
+$ 200 to investments
+$ 300 to cash (mid-term savings)
+$ 900 to IRAs

Mid-Term Savings (cash saved for non-annual expenses/emergency):
-1,000 Europe trip
-3,000 to fund mortgage goal ($$ came from OT)

MH paycheck:
-$340 to Europe trip

Short-Term Savings (for non-monthly expenses within the year):
+$1,300 to cash
-$ 325 van repair/maintenance
-$ 240 school lunches (partial year)
-$ 183 Medical expenses
-$ 150 Vet

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

MH is back at work after summer off. I just set his 401k back to 50%. Could use more in accessible investments, but I think our taxes are going to be pretty ugly this year. I couldn't change it before first (very small) paycheck, which is fine since I wanted to use towards trip expenses anyway. But will just go aggressive at 50% for the rest of the year.

We did buy a musical instrument that I wanted to fund with MH's check, but nothing else is on the horizon. (We charged this in September, so will pay for it in October). I think we are kind of on pull back mode (on spending) after extravagant trip to Europe.

September was a work month for us. MH is getting back into the swing, and I was SLAMMED at work. So it was more reminiscent of tax season when we don't really have time to spend money. Making lots of money, but no time to spend. I guess this was compounded by the credit card reward windfalls. It was a big income month.

I mentioned in a prior post that I felt confident enough with our cash/expected expenses to fund mortgage goal. This is OT money I deposited in April and that I transferred to our mortgage this month. (If nothing else, wanted to see how Europe trip shook out before tying up all that cash).

I am still trying to get over the hump at work. UGH.

Last weekend we were out of town for some family stuff. So it's been a little extra busy. Other than that, MH is back at work and we are just getting back into the swing of things.

I sat down and looked at all the bills today. September has been very low spend. I guess what I mean is I entered all the October bills (including September charges). I try to eyeball it all mid-month and make sure our cash flow for the following month is in the green. I also set up all the cash bills to pay on the first. I have enough float to cover so just set those up today.

I think it's some combo of not feeling much need to splurge after such a BIG vacay. Also, being thrown back into work. MH started back at work when we got back. This is reminiscent of our *busy* months (Jan - April) when we make extra money but are also too busy to do much else. It's not THAT busy, but feels busy after summer break.

That said, we did have some splurges. We spent $60 the Friday before last at the art school's talent show (fundraiser). AMAZING! A lot of these kids are professional level already. So I've never seen a talent show like it. I'd say at least 1/3 of the songs were original composition. It was just awesome on every level.

The other thing is that today is our 17th wedding anniversary. We have been together for 22 years. We aren't big on splurging or making a big deal about most things, but I guess our anniversary is one exception. We know we are blessed to have something VERY special. GMIL gave us $40 cash, and we are going to have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants today. & then just walk around downtown afterwards, which is kind of our standing Sunday date. (It's been a while because it's been too hot or too busy, but when we have quiet weekends we just sneak away and enjoy some quiet time). We are still in a bit of a "honeymoon" stage since it's not been very long we can just leave without getting a babysitter. Plus the more we do it, the less I worry about the kids. It's AWESOME!

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

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that we did have one big splurge this month. We bought a used trombone for DL. I am very pleased with that purchase. The music store that we like and trust only had a $600 model. We just started there figuring this might be more than we wanted to pay. We were planning to shop around a bit. When it was clear we weren't going to rent or buy, they dropped the price by 50%! That was the price range we were looking for ($300) so we just took it because we very much trusted the quality. Saved us a lot of time and shopping around. I mean, I expected to pay that much on Craigslist and to have no idea what we were getting. So I am very pleased with this purchase.

The idea would be to sell it for the same price when we are done. (I don't foresee him sticking with trombone very long. He more wants to learn all the instruments, and has the support system to do so at this school. But if I am wrong, we would want to upgrade. I guess either way, is a bit of a temporary/starter instrument).

Moral of the story: Sticker price means nothing.

It's too early in the year to call it (for 12/31), but we have surpassed our 2017 net worth goal. Woohoo!

As of today, Net worth is up $60,000:
--Investments up $43,000
--Home Value up $10,000
--Mortgage Down $7,000

Will see how the rest of the year shakes out.

MORTGAGE:

I went ahead and transferred my overtime monies ($3,000) to the mortgage. So I put the big "X" on my sidebar goal. I've had the cash since April, but I wanted to see how some of our home improvements shook out and how trip shook out, etc. In the end, trip was not of any significant consequence. We haven't gotten to home improvements yet, but the "biggie" will have to wait until December. That is a large cash infusion month for us, so I just let it go. (Will probably have a lot more cash before we get to it). I still don't have MH's MRI bills (all of them) but I received one and I don't have to pay it until November. So I decided I could live without this $3,000 cash through the end of the year. (I am being way super uber cautious, but that is just how I roll).

HOME VALUE:

The market has been so WEIRD. Our home value has been pretty stagnant for the past four years.

Anyway, our specific home model is more rare and rarely goes up on the market. There is one pending sale behind us that has been remodeled to the hilt. It's GORGEOUS! If we were going to live here for decades I might be tempted. I mean it's my style and I love the colors, etc. (As is, we only plan to stay another 6-10 years? Don't plan to stay in this neighborhood at all, so I guess that part makes it easy to resist).

So it will be interesting to see what that ends up selling for. They were asking about $500k. For reference, we paid $290k. $650k was the peak. Things are starting to barrel towards $500k, but that is starting to feel like bubble territory again. Higher prices are probably a direct result of a mass exodus from CRAZY expensive Bay Area (now twice expensive as when we bailed). I've been surprised how slow that is to hit, given mostly stagnant home values for so long, but as California real estate tends to go: When it hits, it hits!

Anyway, I increased our home value by $10k (up to a $450k sales price), for net worth purposes. It seems likely that I will bump this up more as the year progresses. (Will see what this particular home sells for when the sale finalizes, and then what follows after that. No one seemed particularly scared off by the high asking price; it sold in a flash).

EDITED TO ADD: FINAL SALES PRICE $10K BELOW ASKING. This is about +$35k to my current valuation of our house (450k), but I will hold off and see how this affects future sales.

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In the interest of privacy, this isn't the house. But our neighbor remodeled very high end with a black/white/grey theme. O.M.G. My favorite color is black. I guess I like black and white when it comes to home decor.

It's kind of crazy seeing my house (which is pretty much my dream house already) in this style. It looks AMAZING. But I just don't care enough to invest in this. Plus, my husband HATES dark colors and would never go for any of this. So I am sure that is also a big factor. I am saving some of the MLS pictures for future inspiration. This is the general idea:





Honestly, I couldn't even find a kitchen that compared, on the internet. They did a really nice job. Makes me wonder how much they spent (or if someone in that house is an architect or designer).

I mentioned in my last post that I don't have a system in place to manage all these gift cards. But I think keeping track of my blog is just the easiest.

I know it's going to take a while to get through all these. (Including gift cards that we don't expect to use for 10+ months).

GIFTS:
------

$100 Benihana ($50x2) **DECEMBER**
$ 50 x2 Barnes & Noble **DECEMBER/JANUARY**


MOVIES:
--------
$50 Regal gift cards ($25 x 2)


RESTAURANTS:
------------

$50 Ruth Chris Steakhouse
$50 California Pizza Kitchen **Ecard**
$50 seasons 52


RETAIL:
-------

$50 Staples **School supplies next summer?**
$50 Home Depot
$25 Kohls

Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards

2017 TALLY:

$500 Gift Cards (AmEx Gold, Moi)
$525 Gift Cards (Citi Thank You, MH)
$499 Travel Rewards (Capital One Venture,MH)
$200 Cash (WF Wise, MH)
-----------
$1,724 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

**In addition, various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31.

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

I guess this is the flip side of managing several credit card rewards at once. It's raining rewards!

I received $500 gift cards and $200 cash in the last week or so.

Yesterday my American Express reward points showed up online. My initial feeling was getting the $250 reward last year was not very useful as it was only dining out cards. But we ended up enjoying more than I thought we would. It took us like 6 months to get through $250, but we enjoyed.

That said, if I found $250 in dining cards difficult to figure out how to use wisely, then $500 is definitely harder. I figured we'd gift most the excess but I realized yesterday the Cheesecake Factory cost way too many points, so scratched that as a gift card idea for my dad. At the end MH looked at the options and said he could use Home Depot for small things around the house (goes there to get light bulbs if nothing else) and Staples for school supplies next year.

So, we chose:

$100 Benihana (Birthday gift for my dad, we will take him and my mom out).

$100 California Pizza Kitchen (can treat the kids once or twice)

$50 Barnes & Noble (gift for FIL)
$50 Ruth Chris Steakhouse (lunch date for us)

Starting to grasp at straws:
$50 Staples
$50 Home Depot
$50 P.F. Chang's (??? never been here)
$50 seasons 52 (restaurant)

The thing that sucks is managing all these gift cards, but we will figure it out. (I usually do just SIMPLE rewards that don't require much energy.
We aren't stockpilers in general. Just is more work. I guess also we don't have any systems in place to manage this level of gift cards).

I wish we could have found a nice gift for MH's parents. But we struck out (none of the free gift cards or anything they would really love) and MH is not being helpful. In the end, I decided to just send them $100 as a thank you for watching our kids for 10 days. Want them to treat themselves to something nice.

In other gifty-ness, MH received a $5 Starbucks gift card at work. I gave it to to a co-worker who is always very appreciative. (We don't drink coffee and so we always re-gift Starbucks gift cards).

On the credit card reward front, I was briefly dreaming of a trip to Hawaii. I have gotten more comfortable with the (super easy) travel rewards and was thinking we could do a mostly free trip to Kauai. Maybe next year? I have a weakness for Hawaii. For all the air travel that I don't care for, Hawaii is the one exception. Plus, if it's FREE, why not? I don't want to spend a lot on travel these next years as we save up for college, but this would be far below our minimal travel/vacation budget.

It was only a brief thought because the childcare would be tricky. I wouldn't mind taking the kids, except our only option would be the peak of summer. Which wouldn't be enjoyable at all. So I think we have to put it on the back burner. I tentatively brought it up to MH but talked myself out of it in the end. He was open to it but just surprised I would want to go at all. I told him we have been normalizing all this big travel, and he reminded me how happy I seemed to not want to go ANYWHERE next year. I think I need a year off just to have a quiet year at home. It's moot because it would be a lot to ask right now and not sure my kids would go for it. If we wait until Fall 2019 at least our older child should be driving. Will give everyone some time and space before we plan another adults-only trip. So yeah, thinking one quiet year off and then maybe considering a big trip to Hawaii. I am thinking I could probably cover airfare and car rental with credit card rewards. We can get a free hotel through in-laws. You see why it would be such an inexpensive trip.