Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

February 2:
-0- Spending
Dinner: leftovers*

*Leftovers included sloppy joes, meatballs, gyozas. There was more but these were the only leftovers that I Was entertaining.

Today I Realized that I should probably get a haircut this week. It's a once or twice a year thing for me, but today we posed for pictures at work and it is client meeting season. In all that I realized it's time for a hair cut.

Of course thinking of this I remembered February is not a super low spend month for us because I like to sneak in stuff like this when we have a couple of less days in the month for gas and grocery spending. So more random spending might pop up. It's nice to have a little extra breathing room.

Accordingly, I did reach out to a friend to try to set up a lunch date this month. I've got more budget room for that and might not have the time next month.

Last night we did go to the movies. I had forgotten about that but it was $5 night and dh had a gift card (credit card reward) so it cost us $0 out of pocket.

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February 3:
$6 Groceries
Dinner: Spicy tofu w/coconut rice

I ran to the grocery store on the way home to grab some fruit and dh asked me to pick up some bread. I had also been wanting to make pumpkin bread and so picked up a can of pumpkin.

We tried a new tofu recipe and it was really good! It was a hit with the kids too. Now that I think about it I think I might steal that for lunch tomorrow.

Dh got his MRI results today, 6 months post radiation. I wasn't really expecting much because they expected swelling at this point, and is a reason they don't check sooner. Useful results should be in more like another year.

In the end the Doctor was excited and positive. His tumor is swelling but you can see that literally it is just swelling. The tumor is the exact same shape as it was in his last MRI. Usually it grows more willy nilly. Also, the middle is starting to turn dark which is a sign that it is dying and will eventually collapse.

I really wasn't expecting that much news, and so that was awesome!

They will take a peek again in 6 months.

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I am not expecting to spend much this month and so am doing daily spending tracking. Just my version of playing along. I have not told my dh I am tracking (or that I expect this month to be low-spend) and am not altering our usual spending. It should be a pretty average month for us, but I realize it's a bit of a short month and we will both be pretty busy with work, which just generally means less free time and less spending.

So here goes. Today's spending.

February 1:
$18 Lunch Out, Mongolian BBQ
$65 co pay
$82 Target stock up (groceries, cat litter, cat food)
Dinner: leftovers

I mentioned already we were definitely going out for lunch since it would be our last lunch date for months. Dh took the day off because work was slow and so we decided to go out after his appointment to discuss things.

Paid $65 for medical expenses today. Expecting about $2,000 in bills for MRI and Doctor Visit. Probably won't be due this month though. Just $65 for now.

I had mentioned to dh to pick up some cat litter and cat food next time he went to Target. He just went today since he had the day off.

I expect tomorrow will be a no spend day. Will see!

Oh, and I did get paid today and paid all the bills for the month. Which just means paying off the January credit card charges and paying the 4 bills that I can't charge (mortgage, HOA, gardener, gas/heat bill).

Received $35 bank interest for the month of January.

Snowflakes to Investments:

Redeemed $50 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card.

Redeemed $45 cash back on Citi card.

Redeemed $10 cash back on Visa/dining card. {Lots of eating out in January, with a couple of weekends out of town}

I have officially phased out 5th credit card (ROTH rewards) and so all my ongoing rewards are now just cash back. 4th credit card is Target card. I suppose I should add those savings to snowflakes too. For January it's a whole whopping $1.50 saved (I have no idea how or why we only spent $30 at Target this month. Is probably a record low. Dh manages the grocery shopping there). I'll add that to "other snowflakes".

Other snowflakes to investments:
--$25 Ting Credit
--$1.50 Savings from Target Red Card

Snowballs to investments:
--Invested $2,500 tax savings (for funding Traditional IRAs)
(Funded $1,500 with tax refund + moved $1,000 over from savings)

Savings (From my paycheck):

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

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

+$1,300 to cash
-$750 Various Insurance

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Dh did not work this month. I received a small raise that just covers increasing expenses. So I just kept our savings goals the same as prior year.

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First 4 months of year is low-spend/high-save, generally. Will hoard up cash for medical expenses (dh had an MRI this month) and some home repairs. We also want to save $10k in addition for car replacement.

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 said, February is a naturally very frugal month for us. It's a short month and pretty much all I will be doing is working. Throw in that dh is working now too and seems to spend less money than ever while working. (Which is hard to do because he doesn't spend much in the first place).

In addition to all that, we actually have a pretty busy month already planned with free activities.

So I guess it's a good month to track our spending and see how it goes. That said, if something comes up, we will splurge and enjoy because it is expected to be a pretty low-spend month overall. We have already discussed going out to lunch Monday and I have no motivation to change that. It may be the last lunch date we can swing until summer, so we are taking advantage. (Since dh now works through the lunch hour, but he will have the summer off).

When I have tracked our daily spending (in blog) in the past I have shared what our dinners were on a daily basis. I will probably just go back to that format and will do that for the month of February.

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Doings:

There has been a gas station in our neighborhood with really cheap gas. Been paying $1.99 all month. So we had a really low spend gas month even though we drove out of town twice.

I didn't know ahead of time but we have a plastic bag ban starting January 1. Strangely we had been making some small changes to that end so didn't catch us too offguard. Overall we use the plastic grocery bags for everything. Dh does use re-useable bags at the grocery store but that was about it. We used the plastic bags for cat litter and household trash and so liked to keep getting the plastic bags. We switched at the grocery store several years ago though because they had financial incentives to do so. Anyway, I just happened to buy some re-usable laundry bags for travel. & when we were in Hawaii they had no plastic bags and so we bought some Target canvas bags that we had just decided to use at Target once we got home. In the end, after January 1, I put one of those bags each in our cars so that we always have a bag. I had used plastic bags for my lunch but dh had gotten a canvas bag for his job that I thought was perfect for work/lunch so had switched to that. Just random how we got the Target bags, the lunch bag, and the laundry bags within a couple of months of this big change.

For cat litter I have been just using whatever I could find. I told dh and the kids to keep cereal bags and produce bags for cat litter. I think I can make do with whatever we have laying around. But I expect that we will have to start buying plastic bags for the kitchen trash.

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The kids have a birthday party to attend at the park down the street today. I have been holed up at work for 7 days (took last Saturday off for our last comedy show in San Francisco, but then worked on Sunday instead). So I look forward to breathing some fresh air and getting some sun.

I had found an itunes gift card recently that I thought I had already re-gifted. I was surprised we still had it. In the end the gift card came from this family and we are going to re-gift it back. We don't have any apple products, do not use itunes, and they invited BM to this party rather last minute. He's not even really invited but more to entertain his best friend during the younger brother's party. So for all that, I am happy just to re-gift this back to them. (Plus the dad brought us this gift and the mom is throwing this party. Divorced couple). I Can't say I have ever re-gifted someone the same gift back before, but given the circumstances... I am just happy to be rid of it, and it's just a bonus that we don't have to scramble for a gift.

I did complete our taxes. I don't really need any tax forms except some investment information. But I wasn't thinking that I didn't have dh's W2 from which I needed his employer Tax ID for e-file. So I thought that would hold us up for a while.

In the end I poked around online and found his W2.

Yes, our taxes are very simple. (I don't need W2s because neither of has any benefits, and even if we did I could figure it out from our pay stubs. I don't need any tax forms except for "qualified dividends"; is the only info I don't seem to have on my own).

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We did save $2,500 doing Traditional IRAs instead of ROTHs. I will get a $1,500 tax refund that (I will invest) and already moved $1,000 over from savings to investments. The deal is if we do the Traditional IRAs then we invest the tax savings.

Edited to add: And I just noticed we already got tax refund. So will move the other $1,500 over to investments today.

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For 2016 goals I just copy and pasted 2015 as a starting point. I didn't have enough information otherwise to form goals yet.

In the end I got a small cost of living raise, which just covers cost of living increases for this year (our utilities all seemed to go up suddenly and our HOA fees went up for the first time ever). So I will keep my salary goals the same. Which are the goals in my sidebar.

As to dh, he went back to work this week, post long winter break. The last thing we really want or need is more long-term retirement funds. But it is the most efficient thing to do. I Was surprised when I ran a tax projection and his income is being taxed at 30%. Yeesh! Thankfully he does have a 401k that he is already eligible for. We discussed it a while ago before I knew the taxes would be so bad and dh was leaning more towards the 401k. I was more trying to talk him out of it. After running the tax projection dh didn't want to talk about it because he is getting some MRI results next week. He just can't think "future" until he knows where his health stands. So we will enjoy his first full paycheck for the year and figure it out after that. Historically we always delay taxes and I expect that is what we will do, even if we haven't had the formal "let's do the 401k" discussion yet. I don't see either of us throwing 30% of his income down the drain. We had abandoned ROTH contributions around the 20% marginal tax mark.

We are also still very much in the 15% tax bracket; nowhere near the 25% tax bracket. But taxes aren't exactly simple. They can be pretty whacked.

What we miss more than anything is the liquidity of dh working and this doesn't do much to resolve that. But... Our parents are in a generous stage and so this is helping us to just suck it up and fund the 401k. We might get some cash gifts this year to fund more "Early retirement" funds. If we do the 401k and we hang onto some taxable investments (gifts) then that takes away from the potential mortgage avalanche. The big picture is more important to us.

I am so glad to be done with the "Year of Splurge".

Last year was a lot of pinching pennies while planning all these BIG and short-lived things. Though I see the value of doing something "bigger" once in a blue moon, it is not how I enjoy living my life overall.

Now it's back to "Vacation Lifestyle" where we can do several smaller things throughout the year. Last weekend was a perfect example of that. We spent a whole whopping $260 and it was just incredible. Of course maybe this isn't fair since we paid for several shows ahead of time. But I didn't really count those since we do those every year and this was just the first time we stayed in the city and were able to do several more. (But since we ditched the kids we didn't spend any more than usual).

The "weekend away" part was $260, and was worth every penny. We could easily afford to do something like this every single month, and is what I would rather do versus saving up for one big trip only once per year.

So I suppose I will put this under the "vacation lifestyle" category.

In the end we had wanted to hit 5 shows but one was sold out before we could get tickets. It was the Friday night show, which was probably for the best since we didn't have to rush to get there.

The first night we had a late dinner and were mostly getting ready for bed. (I think dh was already in bed). When I told dh that I had just wanted to go for a walk or go do something for a bit. I usually go to bed super early but was a little nervous about having to stay up so late the next night. Going to bed early wasn't going to help with that, even if I had stayed up a little later than usual. One of the venues that we frequent for the Sketchfest was on the same block as our hotel and I had been reading off comedians performing there this weekend (reading these off on the car ride). We had joked about stalking them and also wondered if any would stay at our hotel. So we initially just discussed sitting in either lobby and people watching.

That said, when we looked up the next show down the street it was to start in an hour and was one of dh's favorite comedians. It had been long sold out, but dh suggested trying to get tickets. I figured that would keep me awake. He told me, "The good tickets usually open up last minute anyway. They hold extra seats for the talent." So we walked over not really expecting much. Well, maybe dh was expecting more but I certainly wasn't expecting much! But... they had front row seats available. !! File that away under, "It never hurts to ask." Of course, all these shows are pretty small and the front row seats don't cost any more than the back.

It was the best show we saw all weekend. I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard at a live show.

That pretty much summed up our weekend. Dh (the birthday boy) is charmed and everything went our way. All the food was great. We got free parking everywhere we went. & so how it seemed to go.

We did get stuck in the back row at a podcast recording that dh has been to a few times and always gets crappy seats for. But I was fine with it because at least we had seats! We had to rush from another show and there were a lot of people stuck standing. We got some of the last seats though we had been able to get there an hour before the show started. In contrast, on our Sunday afternoon show we didn't get there more than an hour early and we were like third in line. This was our view:



I mean, we didn't even bother to get there until the doors were supposed to open. & it was a packed and sold out show.

All the other shows were assigned seats and we had front row seats.

So we went to *five* shows, ate at several restaurants, and met up with some friends. Birthday Success!

Spending:

$130 Restaurants
$60 Hotel parking (free timeshare stay, otherwise)
$70 for spontaneous show

TOTAL $260

(See my prior post for some pictures of our weekend).

Dh signed up for some website that gets you free movie passes for advanced movie screenings.

He saw a free movie last night. That went well. He could take a guest but he knew I would not be interested. But it's a good find since the kids are old enough we can easily take advantage without having to find a babysitter. In fact, I read a tip that we both should sign up in case any family movies show up (since we could all 4 technically go in that case, if we can each bring a guest). Kung Fu Panda is being screened this week as well but we found out about it too late. & the catch is that they just want to fill the theater so they over-book and you have to show up early. I imagine that one might get crowded. The one dh went to last night was not crowded at all.

He heard about this website when waiting in line for the Star Wars movie.

I feel like dh did one of these not that long ago but he said he doesn't remember going to an advanced screening since college. I could see why they canvas the colleges for this type thing. He tells me he has definitely never seen a website for free movie tickets/advanced screenings.

I saw this quote today. I've never seen it or noticed it before.

LOVE IT!

I am putting that quote up in my blog because I think that sums me up pretty well.

If nothing else, we were over prepared financially so dh's long-term unemployment has never been any big deal financially. So I think that sums up the last 13 years pretty darn well. But also I am surprised when people perceive me to be more Type A because I feel way more "go with the flow". I think the truth is that, with everything, I tend to just kind of land in the middle. I'll choose either extreme as necessary. The finances are where we always over plan and I really do think most everything else is very "go with the flow". I don't know that I have ever overly planned any big life decision. I take opportunities as they come and don't over-think the big things. We've actually made a lot of seemingly very rash life decisions because of our willingness to go with the flow. You will never be happy in this life if you can't go with the flow. Life always has other plans.

2015 was a big year for us. We had a peak net worth of $498k in 2005, and then our net worth went down years 2006-2011. Our house lost $400,000 in value during that time, while we were saving and doing well with the rest. Housing started to turn around here in 2012. Our house is still $250,000 below the peak, but we've been increasing cash and investments over the years.

& so it seems like it took forever, but we finally did it! We surpassed $500k net worth in 2015. Moving on up!

We also made our net worth goal, which was to increase net worth by $42k (70% of expenses).

This is what I had estimated for 2015:

Cash + $5,000
Investments + $5,000
Retirement + $11,000 (Max IRAs)
Investment Returns + $14,000 (assumes 6% returns)
Mortgage Paydown + $7,000
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net worth + $42,000
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& here is how 2015 shook out.

2015 Actual:

Cash + $0
Car Purchase + $13,000 (Added asset to net worth)
Investments + $6,000
Retirement + $11,000 (Max IRAs)
+ $5,500 (2014 IRA)
Investment Returns + $0
Mortgage Paydown + $8,500
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net worth + $44,000
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I am fine with leaving this goal the same for next year. I think it will be doable. But overall, we want to start increasing our net worth by a full $60,000 per year. Even though that is 100% of our current spending, it is actually far more than I Expect that we will spend in retirement. I'd like to get to this somewhere in our early 40s. With dh working, maybe we can get there at 40. I really do expect to hit a seven figure net worth by age 50, which we will call "financial independence." I expect our 40s to be our last final push on the earned income/growing net worth stage of our lives. I expect to earn far more from our investments by the time we are 50, and in turn I expect "work" to fall down the importance scale significantly.

I am sure if we start hitting $60k annual increases early on that those amounts will increase over time with investment compounding. On the flip side, gives us some room to still make our goal with normal market fluctuations.

2016 Estimate:

Cash + $10,000 (saving to replace vehicle soon)
Investments + $10,000
Retirement + $11,000 (Max IRAs)
Investment Returns + $15,000 (assumes 6% returns)
Mortgage Paydown + $7,000
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net worth + $53,000
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Wow! More than I would have expected. Maybe at 40 I will just revise my goal to $50k annual net worth increases.

2015 TALLY:

$525 Gift Cards (Citi, dh)
$300 Cash (Chase checking reward, dh)
$200 Cash (AmEx Card Everyday, Moi)
$200 Cash (Barclay card, dh)
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$1,225 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Other Rewards:

**Free Prime For One Year

**$40 cash back (Amex Reward for spending $40 at Amazon)

**$85 Citi Price Rewind

Ongoing rewards (projected through 12/31):

+$200 deposit to ROTH (Fidelity Am Ex - 2% cash back; health insurance charged to this card)

+$340 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/3% fuel)

+$100 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$40 Visa Rewards (3% back at restaurants)

+$555 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere)

Grand Total = $2,585

Year 2011 = $4,164
Year 2012 = $2,782
Year 2013 = $2,623
Year 2014 = $3,128
Year 2015 = $2,585

Total 5 Years = $15,282
***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

***CAVEAT - I absolutely do not recommend utilizing credit card rewards in this manner, unless you are in full control of your credit card spending.***

I am copying and pasting sidebar, to memorialize in my blog. Brief Commentary below.

2015 Goals

**Financial**

[X]$11,000 to IRAs 2015 (MAX)
...($11,000 @12/31/15)
...$10,850 savings;$150 credit card rewards
...We save $900/month, plus ROTH credit card rewards

[X]$5,000 to savings
...($5,000 @ 6/30/15)
...We save $300/month, plus interest
...Received an unexpected gift and so will stop tracking savings this year. Just want to have $5k cash more than last year.

[ ]$5,000 to investments
...($4,596 @ 12/31/15)
...We save $200/month, plus snowflakes

[X]$4,100 to mortgage
...($4,100 @ 12/31/15)
...$3k per year to pay off in 15 years; $3,100 *this year* will be more principal than interest!
...Funded with overtime
...Added $825 (gift) to get balance below $175,000

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I am putting this under the "one income" category because these goals were based on my income alone. & dh brought in a whopping $2,000 in 2015, which was more of a snowball. I did not use any of his wages for the above goals.

We fell a little short of our investment goal. I am fine with that since I will have a tax refund to deposit in a month or so (getting us to $10k+ in taxable investments, which was more my "bigger picture" goal). Since the "big picture" is currently much better than I expected for 2016, I just can't bring myself to care that I Fell short of my 2015 goal by $400.

Received $35 bank interest for the month of December.

Snowflakes to investments:

Redeemed $50 credit card reward to ROTH IRA.

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

Redeemed $67 cash back on Citi card.

Redeemed $1 cash back on Visa/dining card.

I was also able to add an additional $670 from Christmas cash received.

Reinvested $325 Dividends

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Total snowflakes: $1,138
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Savings (From my paycheck):

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

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

+$1,300 to cash
-$1,500 to home/disability insurance

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In addition to the above, added $825 to the mortgage (using Christmas money received). This put us below a $175k balance.

{This was all I did with Christmas money before check bounced. Also threw $1k to the credit card to cover recent splurges. This is why I didn't go more in the hole with that. When I get the check replaced and cleared we will fund our IRAs. Which we'd do anyway, but this just saves us from moving money around and keeps our savings account fatter}.

I believe dh made $189 this month and I didn't do anything with it. I suppose I will consider moving that over to investments. I just haven't got that far yet. (Everything is a bit of a mess because of our bounced deposit!)

Edited to add: Cleaned up Quicken a bit today and don't seem to have any money leftover, so will just use dh's checks in December to cover concerts/events we paid for. I had not used gift check for this and I did not pull from savings to cover this. He actually received $635 and we paid $625 for shows. (I forgot he had one bigger paycheck the first of December, for November work).

**I paid down the mortgage below $175k, as planned. Woohoo! I threw an extra $800 to the last payment of the year, to get there.

**I am happy with financial goals and have updated sidebar. I think financially I am mostly done with this year.

The one goal that I will fall short of is our investment goal. I am waiting for end of year credit card rewards to sort out, but I expect to get to $4,300-ish of of our $5,000 goal. I am actually feeling very okay with this. We will get our total taxable investments up to $10k with our tax refund in a couple of months. & if dh works all year we will be able to throw a lot into investments. So I was okay with the short term sacrifice (being $800-ish short) since the longer-term is looking better than I expected.

Overall, these goals were pretty aggressive and I never really expected to meet them all. I will say that often writing down the goals seems like 99% of the battle. Sometimes it just seems to happen magically. Certainly not always, but this year was more of a magical kind of year.

**I expect next year to be more of a savings year and less of a splurge year. Will see what we can do. I am thinking we can maybe save 40% of our income next year. Need to sit down and work the numbers though, probably mid January when I find out my salary for next year. A lot of our bills/utilities are creeping up, and I know we have some home improvements to tackle, plus expect a lot of medical bills. It could be a spendy year on the not-so-fun stuff. But on the flip side, we can probably boost our savings rate by about 10%, if we save everything dh makes.

This month is pretty quiet for us. We sit out most the Christmas Crazy.

We do have other things going on. Dh and BM saw the Mythbusters live last week. The tickets went on sale many months ago and the price was totally insane. We compromised that just dh and BM would go.

& of course they are going to one of the first showings of Star Wars. My dh really lucked out. I recall him joining a group to hold a place in line to buy tickets, back when we were in college. (The members of the group took turns waiting in line for days or weeks. Probably for Episode I). This time, he was impatient and just noticed the website was selling tickets early. (Since he kept checking before they were to be on sale. I mean like this might have been an hour early). Shortly after they were to go on sale the website crashed. So he did end up getting one of the first tickets. No huge lines necessary. & I am glad I didn't have to hear about all the frustration if he waited longer and couldn't get tickets.

He is planning to wait in line at the theater a few hours to ensure decent seats. IT helps to live in less of a nerd city. He isn't expecting the same kind of lines that there usually are in the Bay Area.

**Christmas shopping is done.

For work exchange, I drew the "new girl" for the second year in a row. So EASY though because she just got married. I ordered a personalized ornament and I also stocked up on Starbucks gift cards (one for her, and then will have some laying around for whatever).

Dh told me he didn't expect any Holiday doings with his job.

**I am noting the kids' gifts here for future reference. This is where we ended up.

--Show tickets (panel for one of their favorite TV shows)

--Shared extension pack for a favorite board game

--One practical gift/each (mostly because they both needed something)

--Stocking stuffers: junk food and mad libs, presented in re-usable laundry bags that I got for $3/each on Etsy. Which I suppose is another practical gift.

**I ended up ordering a "Grandma necklace" for my mom. I've been coveting a mom necklace for myself when I stumbled upon this one. Decided to get one for my mom instead.

There was also a gift I wanted to get my mom that Amazon wouldn't let me ship to the my address. I tried a couple of different times and wasn't sure why I couldn't order it. Anyway, in the end I received this gift for my birthday! So I am re-gifting to my mom for her birthday.

Oh, and I am going to pick up some flowers for my mom. They've been having great small-ish bouquets at our grocery store for $4. If I remember to pick up a few days before Christmas I will do well. These flowers are so fresh and they last several weeks. For the long run, may make a bit of a tradition of this so it's less focus on the material. (I just think the Grandma necklace is so special! But don't need to buy something like that every single year).

I had already bought my dad some candy and have a non-material birthday gift planned.

**Dh is figuring out whatever for his family. They are WAY into the material Christmas thing, but they also do a lot for us and so we just give them nicer gifts. Maybe $50 per person for his parents and grandma. They will give us more than $150 cash for Christmas, and so I always figure they buy their own Christmas gifts anyway.

So I thought we had already concluded our year of splurge. I'd say it was like 12 months of splurge, starting at the end of 2014.

But at the last minute we decided to top off 2015 with one more splurge. I don't think by itself it's a huge splurge, but it caps off a spendy year.

But let me back up first. My dh may be a videophile, but he's never been an audiophile. Just as an example, the sound system in our home theater is something dh bought in college, and the stereo speakers we have I bought when I was like 12 or 13. Don't get me wrong, these are GOOD speakers, but we are good with good. If it ain't broke why fix it.

Along the same lines, though we've never kept a car stock stereo, we have also never replaced the speakers. I'd say we've always had fairly good car speakers.

So we've absolutely never gone car speaker shopping before. BUT... This Hyundai's speakers SUCK. If we notice or care then it is probably pretty darn bad. I'd say this is my only single complaint about our recent car purchase.

Since dh has some time next week he decided to get that taken care of. (It was probably a bit much to stomach immediately after our largest car purchase ever. Needed to give it some time). Since we always upgrade car stereos I didn't think too much about it. The stock stereo in this case is more than fine and so we just do speakers instead with this car. It's all kind of the same in the end. We buy a car and we do something with the stereo. It's not a surprise financially.

We weren't really expecting to spend much because we are at the "anything is better than what we have" stage. Which overall was a pretty solid conclusion. We bought some low end speakers that sounded absolutely incredible.

But... We are also taking a gamble on some of the sound dampening they offer these days (soundproofing for the car, basically). I don't think it's anything we would invest in otherwise, but takes on a whole new meaning when you only have hearing in one ear. We are a little skeptical if it makes that much of a difference or is worth it, but is worth a try. If it's absolutely amazing then it is something we will invest in our future cars. If not, we won't bother with our next car. (I expect it will mostly greatly enhance dh's enjoyment of music in the car. BUT... If we could actually have a conversation when he is driving with is deaf ear on my side, that would be nice too).

I am probably a little extra excited because this is something *I* am excited about too. Which is not the case for most of dh's big purchases.

& thus concludes our year of splurge! This is really it!

*Got some de-cluttering done these past couple of weeks. Dh sold a large box of books. They seemed to take 99% of them. I put the last couple of books in the donate pile.

Dh also cleared out his office (for Thanksgiving, since guests may watch movies in our home theater/office). He handed me a bag of used gift cards. (Mostly because when you redeem $500 with Citi or Chase they often send 20 x $25 gift cards, and my spouse doesn't throw things out when he's done!) I thought I Recalled Best Buy taking gift cards for recycle. I looked it up and they do. So I put the pile in the Best Buy box (with old electronics to recycle, etc. - sometimes they take it all but sometimes they will only take a few at a time, so we just keep a box for when we are in that area).

I've got a bag going of old clothing. Mostly the kids' outgrown clothes. Two charities are coming by this week.

In the grand scheme of things, haven't put a lot of effort into it, but definitely more going out than coming in.

**I paid some of the big bills due by the end of the year and did some fiscal chores. I had to pay one bill by mail and I believe this is the *only* bill that I can't just pay online. Wouldn't you know it? They did not provide a return envelope! So here I am endlessly throwing envelopes in the recycle bin, and the one time I actually need one there is no envelope with the bill. HA!

I just used an envelope from another bill.

**Dh went out on Black Friday. He got $20 gift cards (free) from his favorite resale shop. He did the same deal last year.

I did also pick up some nice fleece pullovers from Kohls, for dh, BM and I. About $12/each. They were men's sizes and I initially just ordered a couple of different sizes to try for myself. But dh tried on the too-large one and it fit him perfect. He wore it to work, and really liked it. They were still on sale so I bought a few more. I was going to order one specifically for BM (blue for school uniform) but dh said, "Didn't you already buy a Blue medium?" We tried it on BM and it fit him perfectly. This is actually kind of genius because he will outgrow it in a minute, and the kids will very rarely ever wear a sweater. So I figure I will just share this one with the kids as they need it. In a year or two they can share sweaters with dh.

Received $36 bank interest for the month of November.

Snowflakes to investments:

Redeemed $50 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card.

Redeemed $48 cash back on Citi card.

Redeemed $2 cash back on Visa/dining card.

Savings (From my paycheck):

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

Snowballs to savings:

+ $ 85 Citi Price Rewind
+ $207 credit card reward
+ $220 freelance video work (net of expenses)
+ $300 Chase checking reward
+ $900 Dh's paychecks

I am just hoarding up cash for now. Waiting to see how things shake out 12/31.

{P.S. What a month!!}

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

+$1,300 to cash
- 340 Auto registration and insurance
- 550 Dentist(3)
- 5,000 Property taxes

I went ahead and just prepaid property taxes again, for the whole year. It is so much simpler.

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Goals for 12/31:

--6 months' cash efund (bare minimum cash for long run)

--Have $11,000 cash to fund 2015 IRAs, in addition to the above

--Put an additional $1,400 to investments

--Put an additional $825 to the mortgage

I am hoarding cash and seeing where we end up. I know at the least I can probably attain all of the above if I fund IRAs in January or February. Not so confident doing it all by 12/31, but will see.

**Dh is fine with the kids' Christmas plan. The only thing was that he had a couple of practical gifts in mind, so we will get those for the kids to open up on Christmas Day. I will fill their stockings with junk food and candy (which seems to be most of what they really want). & then their big gift will be the show tickets, which we were going to buy regardless. We will figure out a clever way to make the reveal. (It's likely we will be able to get front row seats for the show. Fingers crossed!)

I don't recall ever giving the kids "practical" gifts before. Will see how that goes. Honestly, I think they will be too excited about the candy to care. We don't make a big deal about Christmas and so they don't expect much.

**I was able to put together a nice 40th birthday present for dh, today. He won't be surprised but I think it will be pretty nice.

We were able to get a free timeshare stay in San Francisco for one weekend in January. This will allow us to more easily get to 5 Sketchfest shows. (We usually get more bogged down by logistics, which is fine because we usually need to narrow down more, financially).

I really thought I'd be splurging for a hotel and some meals out. Particularly since you have to book SF so far in advance (to get the free timeshare). In recent years we have just been going to Napa more because they always have more last minute rooms, and we tend to plan these things more last minute. So I don't remember the last time we asked for a SF room and actually got one! (& this is only 7 weeks out? It's a higher-end hotel and exactly where we can walk to most everything. We really lucked out). Oh, and MIL told me she would give dh some cash for dinners out, on his birthday. So I guess I don't have to come up with much. Maybe just some parking and public transportation expenses.

I don't know that we will buy all of these tickets, but we can feasibly do 5 shows for $285. That's not bad, and is because we won't have the kids with us. In the end I think we will be able to hit several more shows than usual, while spending in the range of what we usually do anyway. I think the 5 shows are pretty reasonable logistically. They are fairly spread out.

This is pretty much dh's *perfect* weekend.

**P.S. I came up with a creative birthday gift for my dad. It costs a whopping $7. (Tour of a private antique museum, though it might cost more if he wants to spend more time taking photos. Dh was there for an event, and so is how we heard about it).

**We officially got our $85 Citi Price Rewind (price match). Yay! This is a good strategy to keep in mind with bigger purchases. We can always go with the *free* delivery or installation if the item costs more, and then request a refund on the price if it is cheaper anywhere else.

**This month is quite a snowball month. I am up to $1,700 already in side income. I think pretty much ALL of that is dh - he redeemed $500 in rewards, made $200 from a gig, and the rest is his paycheck. ($300 of the rewards was a checking reward for having direct deposit, so was somewhat paycheck related). If it was earlier in the year I'd probably throw all of that to investments. !! But, as is, I am waiting to see how the year sorts out before I dole anything out. We seem to be short a couple of thousand of where we really want to be on our cash savings and so I am hoarding that up and figuring it all out next month. I guess I expect more clarity next month.

I also just wrote a $5,000 check for property taxes, and we are picking up a bunch of show tickets this month. I am expecting all those tickets to basically be covered by Christmas cash (or maybe by the windfalls this month). We just got tickets for Book of Mormon and this weekend the San Francisco Sketchfest tickets go on sale. (It's always hard to narrow down - there could be several great shows we want to see, but the prices tend to be reasonable).

**We thought dh wouldn't have to work in the winter, which is great since it's a cold warehouse. We are still a little confused about that since he was initially told no work in Dec/Jan and it appears things are winding down and getting slow. But they insist there will be work next month. So, will see. Anyway, dh wanted to buy a jacket and was astounded by *new* prices. (I have no idea why he didn't just go to a thrift store, like he usually would, but maybe feeling more lack of time). I told him to check out Ross and he found a warm $20 jacket there. (I had just been there - for Christmas candy - and was taking note of the jacket/clothes section for my elder son who is wearing more adult sizes. Targets been really nice with $5-ish per clothing item, for several years, but I think Ross/Marshalls is going to be more my friend with teenagers).

We went for a walk last night and when I grabbed my coat out of the closet I remembered I had seen a coat in there I thought was dh's. So I pulled it out. It was a REI fleece that he does not remember ever owning. But he found some hand written notes in the pockets and clearly it was his. I suppose I didn't think about it before because it looked more like a light jacket at first glance, but it's probably fine for his purposes. He said he will try it out. It looks like we have 60 days to return the other jacket, so might as well see if this serves his purposes through winter, before we decide for sure.

**I am pretty much done with Christmas preparations here. Mostly because we keep things so simple. I usually post a couple of links about "Christmas Simplicity", but those links seem to be broken. I will have to find new ones.

That said, I haven't really gotten anyone birthday presents (parents/dh). For my parents I will probably just do donations in their name. I just haven't had many gift ideas this year. It ebbs and flows, and their birthdays are within a few days of Christmas. I figured the kids and I will figure something out for dh's birthday next month (we have a lot of time). Dh handles his family's December/January birthdays. (We have quite a winter birthday cluster).

& then there's the kids... With dh working I think he just hasn't been as on top of it. I was surprised he's not spotted any used deals or picked anything up for them. We have no idea what to get them. I did see the Sketchfest show lineup (released today) and we may just go with surprising them with one of those shows. A couple of their favorite TV shows are doing panels. My eldest doesn't even want anything, so that is some of it. We usually just give them one thing to open on Christmas Day. But usually the material stuff is more dh's territory.

Though I usually say, "They don't need anything!" I suppose at this age and given past tradition I don't exactly believe in not getting them one single thing to open. I do have stockings covered though (candy!). I bought some re-usable cinchable bags that I can fill with candy, and I figure they could use for dirty laundry when traveling. (Dh found one randomly at camp, that's been really nice, and I thought that might be nice with the shift away from plastic bags. Pretty much we don't own bags. We just use plastic bags. But I am working on slowly accumulating more re-usable bags). I'll talk with dh tonight about maybe just wrapping the bags full of candy and surprising the kids with a show in San Francisco. If there is any year that dh would go for something like that, it would be this year. (He's been kind of scrooge-y with working. I think some of it is already having anything he could possibly want, but the rest of it is definitely not having his usual free time. So a lot of the video games don't appeal since he no longer has time. I think his blu ray collection is also pretty complete at this point. He seems entirely uninterested in restaurant gift cards, etc. I told him, "Welcome to my World." I didn't realize working/having less time was so much of it).

**Since my birthday is like a week away, I suppose I should not be buying anything, but I saw these basic long-sleeve shirts at Kohls that I had bought a couple and liked. They were $8.99 and so I stocked up on a few more. I have in mind to replace some of the more worn shirts I keep to just wear under clothes - I have some from my high school/college years that I still use. I am thinking with any gift cards received this season that I might keep an eye out for some short-sleeve replacements. I went a long time without buying these type shirts (the ones just sitting out on shelves in the store - always very cheap), because they never seemed to hold up very long. & I suppose they aren't very flattering either, once you've aged or born a child. So maybe these are purchases that I will regret. But in the interim I am really getting rid of old stuff, and they fit surprisingly well. Which is what I do with clothes. If I find something that works well, I buy up every color that I like. Which is pretty much what I did. Maybe these won't last for decades, but hopefully they won't fall apart too quickly.

2015 TALLY:

$525 Gift Cards (Citi, dh)
$300 Cash (Chase checking reward, dh)
$200 Cash (AmEx Card Everyday, Moi)
$200 Cash (Barclay card, dh)
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$1,225 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Other Rewards:

**Free Prime For One Year

**$40 cash back (Amex Reward for spending $40 at Amazon)

**$85 Citi Price Rewind

Ongoing rewards (projected through 12/31):

+$200 deposit to ROTH (Fidelity Am Ex - 2% cash back; health insurance charged to this card)

+$300 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/3% fuel)

+$100 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$40 Visa Rewards (3% back at restaurants)

+$525 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere)

Grand Total = $2,515

Year 2011 = $4,164
Year 2012 = $2,782
Year 2013 = $2,623
Year 2014 = $3,128
Year 2015 = $2,515

Total 5 Years = $15,212
***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

***CAVEAT - I absolutely do not recommend utilizing credit card rewards in this manner, unless you are in full control of your credit card spending.***

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We have utilized credit card rewards for decades. It's only in the past 5 years I have been tracking them so closely in my blog because they started to get so substantial.

This year started out kind of slow and I Wasn't expecting much for this year. But as the rewards started to pile in for the last quarter of the year, I decided to do a tally.

& I realized, WE BOUGHT A CAR WITH CREDIT CARD REWARDS. Seriously! The $15,197 we amassed the passed 5 years was more than enough to pay for our most recent car purchase.

WOW!!

That said, I can not stress the CAVEAT part of this post enough. We personally have extreme fear of debt and have never paid a cent to a credit card company (no interest or late payments or carrying balances or whatever). I know not one penny of that $15,197 went back to the credit card companies in the form of any kind of interest or fees. The bulk of what I charge up for rewards is our health insurance (a bill we obviously are going to be paying regardless). Also, groceries and utilities. We charge up the fun stuff too, because we charge up everything, but I've never justified a splurge for a credit card reward. That would defeat the whole purpose.

If you are going to end up paying one single cent to the credit card companies, or can't treat your credit card like simply like it's an ATM card, then I would never recommend going for these kinds of rewards.

On the flip side, if you avoid debt like the plague and you have the personality for it, it's really not that big of a deal. You know, in response the DR mentality that it's impossible to win with credit cards. To that, I say: I got a FREE CAR!

P.S. On average I'd say the earning power on these rewards is about $1,000 per hour of time and energy. This is the most efficient income stream that we have, by a mile. Least effort/most reward.

**The kids had dentist appointments this week and it was good news. Phew!

BM got his appliance out and so we can move him to our cheap/awesome dentist. For now, the preventative work has paid off and braces are not on his horizon. (No idea how one of MY kids got away with that! Woohoo!) They wanted to re-evaluate when his next teeth come in, but our dentist is pretty conservative and either we will wait for him to refer him to ortho, or we could always just get other opinions next year (at 13). It's been nice having the pediatric dentist/ortho team approach with the mess my kids inherited, but they are far away and is not where we would get frequent ortho work. Would want other opinions too. Moving BM to our dentist will save about $500 per year. I figured this move would help offset eventual orthodontist cost.

LM also had good news. The word "surgery" has been thrown out as a possibility because he has an extra tooth that is impacted. We've been watching and waiting on that. As of this week they want to wait another 6-12 months, but they seemed more optimistic that it is working itself out. He will eventually have the extra tooth pulled, but it will be a much simpler procedure if they can just pull it versus digging it out surgically.

**We took the kids out to dinner after the dentist to celebrate since the appointment ran way long and we were all tired.

I am happy to say that after 2 months of dh working that is the first time we lazied out of dinner. & I just had a DAY also - dh was the one that took the kids to the dentist. When he asked me if I wanted to cook dinner or eat out, I said, "EAT OUT!" I think any other day I would have been find with cooking dinner. But I think it was fitting to celebrate moving BM to our cheap dentist and him getting a hunk of metal out of his mouth.

If anything, we seem to be spending less money with dh working. I'd say we are regularly having 6 No Spend Days per week. We just tend to run errands on one day on the weekend and do all the shopping for the week. Probably forcing us to be even more efficient than we have been. Dh and I seem to be inclined to spend less money the more we work. (Too busy to shop?) That said, he's only working very part-time. So there isn't any big time crunch or need to resort to more convenience. I think full-time work would be a whole other story.

I guess I wasn't really expecting "less spending" in this case.

**Yesterday I went through the kids' clothes and did a shuffle. I have a small pile for donation.

Overall, my kids are really cheap and easy. But one reason I Went through their clothes is that BM was actually wanting to wear pants and long sleeves (which is a first!) He's outgrown all his pants, which isn't surprising since he never wears them and I may have not bought any in a year or two. BUT, I think it's the hormones. BM suddenly seems to be aware of the cold, for the first time in his life. (Usually no one turns on the heat while I am at work and they are all in their underwear. I crank up the heat and pile on the layers, in comparison).

BM told me the sweatshirts that he absolutely never wears don't fit, and same for the pants he never wears.

I took inventory and he's really outgrown everything. For whatever reason the school uniform shirts seem to fit him. But all his t-shirts are getting pretty tight. I found a school sweatshirt he can wear and probably won't buy any others unless I see him actually wearing it more.

I'll take him out shopping for pants and t-shirts this weekend. I've been mostly buying on clearance, off-season, but I figure with dh working I can probably afford to splurge a bit. & I mean like I can pay more than $5 per clothing item. I suppose it's "Back to School" shopping in a sense, though there was no point back in summer when school started and all their (summer) clothes fit.

LM doesn't need anything because he is rich in hand-me-downs.

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One other thing I did this week was sort out our life insurance and came up with a loose financial plan in case anything ever happens to me. I will have to go over it with dh and see if he has any input or tweaks.

Historically, we have enough insurance to bridge any gaps. But with age and assets, I guess I wanted to look at it because I figured at this point dh would be more "set for life." I also wanted to run the numbers and discuss with him a loose plan should anything happen to me. Two heads are better than one, and better to discuss together with clear heads.

I was very pleased running the numbers. Working is purely optional for dh at this point. That said, I am not going to lower my insurances at all since one policy drops out in 10 years. & I don't want to be stuck unable to buy more insurance (later) if need be. But we can re-evaluate again in a few years.

Also, social benefits are just gravy. I don't want to count on those, but social benefits always seem to be pretty substantial when your ducks are in a row already. My kids would received $4,000 per month social security until age 18, which is more than enough to support the entire household today (with me still here).

As to the flip side? I'd be open to insuring dh so that I Was in the same position. Another $200-ish per year in life insurance expense? For that kind of financial security? Sure, why not!? But, he is uninsure-able with his health problems, and so we don't have much in the way of options.

That said, it's not all bad. I do have a life insurance policy on him, which added to our existing assets would give me immediate financial independence. (This is insurance we bought 10 years ago, before any health issues).

I did also look up dh's social security benefits and was surprised to see the kids would get $2k per month survivor's benefits from him. Wow! He has not worked in 13 years, but he did work 10+ year prior.

I need to spend some time this weekend discussing these things with dh.

**Dh got a small video gig. He seems to be a money magnet lately. (Just more stuff falling out of the sky).

**Of course dh's phone shipped the day before the credit card cycle closed. Just because it's the most annoying timing. (It was not supposed to ship for another week).

I ended up diverting his first full paycheck (received this week) to cover that.

**My kids have been wishy washy about Halloween. They were initially "too old." But with the Saturday Halloween I guess they got more invites to Trick or Treat. Since we had some Amazon gift cards (+ a free Prime year) we appeased them with some last minute costumes. In the end they had a blast with their friends and so I am glad it worked out.

**Reminds me, dh told me that we now get 2 hour prime shipping in our city (on some items). I never foresee using that. !! Like seriously, it can wait. I still haven't gotten used to 2-day shipping. We ordered a couple of non-prime items that showed up yesterday. !! One of them was a monkey dress costume I saw (a more feminine compliment to our monkey costumes we bought last year). I couldn't wear it because it was a heavy fleece and it was so HOT yesterday. We ended up turning on our AC for a bit. This weather is insane. Thankfully we are due for some much needed rain today.

**We did also redeem the last of our gift cards for our last credit card reward. I redeemed $50 for a school fundraiser and we got some movie theater gift cards, Best Buy (since they price match Amazon) and a Panera gift card. I think we got $50 for the movies, so that should last us a while. Dh seems to be in a bit of a movie lull.

**I am phasing out my American Express 2% cash back card (since so many places don't take American Express). Will replace this with my 2% Citi card. I haven't done this sooner because the limit was so low on the new card. (Initially was like a $3k limit?? Most our limits are $15k-ish?) But I had asked them to up the limit at some point and they did. I apparently should have asked them for a bigger limit. Anyway, I took the time this week to move any lingering bills over to the new credit card. The only thing I have on the AmEx is our health insurance (which is more than out mortgage - it's a big bill). I am going to ask for another limit increase before I move that last bill over. I hear they are phasing out this AmEx reward card anyway. It always eventually happens, so I am glad I have found an even better replacement card in this case.

I've not been a fan of managing 5 credit cards, so I look very much forward to simplifying. That said, it hasn't been a big deal with using Quicken. I've taken to paying all the credit cards off the first of the month because it's just simpler. (Then definitely nothing is ever forgotten. I've moved very far away from "waiting for bills".) I might stick with that habit even when I consolidate a bit. I had wanted to add an extra $3k or so to our emergency fund to cover "last month's credit card charges", but I think paying off the end of every month is a simpler solution to that.

I will still have 4 credit cards. It is the way with rewards these days. Each card has a great reward for just one or two categories that we utilize. Then the 4th card will be for 2% back on everything else.

Received $40 bank interest for the month of October.

Snowflakes to investments:

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

Redeemed $80 cash back on Citi card.

Redeemed $10 cash back on Visa/dining card.

{These last two were much higher than usual due to vacation expenses}.

Other snowflakes to investments:

--$12 rounding (gets us to $3k)

--$ 25 Ting credits (no cell bill this month)
**This is the final free month since we've run through our credits**

Savings (From paychecks):

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

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

+$1,300 to cash
- $150 Auto registration renewal

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A little commentary on our savings goals:

With dh working, I expect to increase our savings rate roughly from 30% to 40%. But I suppose we will work through that next year.

IRAs: I just happen to expect another $50 credit card reward to my ROTH and so we will get exactly to $11k max this year. It usually doesn't work out quite that perfect. I usually try to get close and just top it off end of year.

I did see that IRA limits are unchanged for 2016 so this goal will remain the same for 2016.

Investments: I am thinking of abandoning this goal. Not in a bad way though. I had intended to invest $7,500 this year.

I've yet to fund $1,400-ish from my OT. Sure we've had a splurge-y year and maybe that is a lot of it, but we have also had a very charitable year (by our own standards). I am thinking of letting this go since we have given about this much to charity. & I definitely foresee charity being a higher focus next year with dh working. For this year, we just knew a lot of people suffering a lot of hardships. A lot of stuff came up that we felt compelled to give cash to. I know next year we will probably have more means AND also switching to more cash giving as we have less time to donate. (We've been infinitely more focused on donating *time* since having kids - with lots of time and less money, but that is starting to shift the other way - probably more 50/50 in the interim).

I was also going to invest our tax refund, estimated at $2,500. I was going to invest around 12/31, since we have the cash, and reimburse our cash when we get our tax refund in early February. I am still going to invest the refund, but I am not going to count it towards this year. I will just invest it when I get the money. I was thinking the money was really saved this year, and it's true, but I'd also rather keep it simple.

I've revised my sidebar for the $2,500 (tax refund) and we can wait and see on the other $1,400. I've still got time to scrounge it up.

I was trying to link a few recipes for Jazzy but I Was having technical difficulties. Will try again in my own blog.

Historically I really like the crockpot365 website, but it looks it has been archived and is a little less user friendly. Still, you can use the index and scan through for interesting recipes. Each recipe had been reviewed:

I am piling up some nice bank & credit card rewards to finish out the year:

**No sooner than I mentioned that I need to pay more attention to checking rewards (now that we have direct deposit), we got a $300 cash bonus offer. Woohoo! We will set that up next weekend.

**Dh is getting a $200 bonus for spending $500. It was a direct mail offer for a brand new credit card offering.

**We bought an appliance from Best Buy a couple of months ago and Citi sent me an e-mail about Price Rewind. I guess they monitor the sales prices of the same item online for 60 days and refund you the difference if they find a cheaper price. For most of the 60 days there was a $5 refund showing, but I just checked on Friday and now it's $85. !!

The thing that is extra sweet on this is that we went with Best Buy because it came with free installation. In the end, I don't know that we paid more than $5 than anywhere else (as evidenced by the first month or so of the Price Rewind - we bought on a sale weekend). But in the future, we could make the decision to pay more for free installation and still get a Price Rewind if the product is sold cheaper elsewhere without installation. A strategy to keep in mind...

This $85 is not in the bag. I have to upload my receipt and they have to check that the $85 refund they found is legit/comparable. But I am excited about the potential snowflake.

**Yesterday I received $70 auto insurance refund, for dropping the full coverage on our older vehicle.

**Oh, and the biggest snowball of all...

Dh was hired for 7 months out of the year, per his offer letter. He had to ask a few times to get a Holiday schedule. Once he got that he started asking more questions about the seasonal schedule. I was guessing he probably would not work Thanksgiving week. He had been told there would be no work in December or January. But this was apparently not true. !! So I am glad he asked. It's a bit of a bummer since we thought he would really ease into things more slowly. But since he asked far enough ahead of time I think he is mostly okay with it. It's the summers off that are important to us, and for now they won't give him any specifics but said that they do get the summer off. Oh, and as to winter they are VERY family friendly and flexible. So he gets the holidays off with the kids regardless, and it shouldn't be any problem to get their other winter break off. They were just kind of like they work those months, but he can take whatever time off he needs.

It would be nice if they had been more clear. Dh already moved his dentist appointment and jury duty to December, thinking he'd be free, so he will ask for time off for those things as needed.

It seems he will probably be working 9-10 months out of the year, which is more money than expected. For now it's actually complicating our taxes quite dramatically and is giving me a headache. I will figure it out in January. Will see where dh's head is at and what our incomes will be at that point. & I will have to run the numbers. The reality is far more complex than any cookie cutter advice on the internet. I don't think it would be so complicated if I had a crystal ball. But we have to balance what we want/need now and what we guess the future will look like. I can't even muster up the mental energy to figure it out until I know for sure dh is working next year. & so we figure it all out in January.

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Spending:

**Dh ordered a new cell phone. Is kind of his working splurge I guess, though honestly he'd buy it anyway. I had just told him earlier in the year that it would be easier to wait until December. (Basically, let his parents pay for it, with the Christmas cash they will give us).

Of course he couldn't wait, but since it wasn't to ship until next month I was fine with it. Won't have to pay for it until December.

Anyway, people are saying online that they shipped early. Dh doesn't think it will ship until after Tuesday when our credit card cycle closes, but I am betting money it will ship Tuesday. It's not that it really matters - we have the money - it just messes up my flow!

If he likes the phone then he may give his old phone to my dad. Thank Goodness! He keeps hoarding phones and driving me crazy. I think this is the only way I can get an old phone out of the house. (He's otherwise hoarding them "for the kids some day").

**Speaking of hoarding electronics...

I got a new kindle yesterday. I guess Kindle is one of those things you already have or you don't want. So this is an easy raffle or auction item to win.

We put a $150 bid on a whim, for an ads-free paper white Kindle + $75 Amazon gift cards. The total value of which was basically $200.

We didn't really expect to win, but figured what the heck.

{Dh already won a FREE Kindle Fire this year in a raffle. We noticed no one was putting their tickets to that so we just went "all in" for the Fire, and won. We have never paid any cash for any of our Kindles before; one raffle and credit card rewards otherwise}.

In the end, we did win.

I suppose the plan is to phase out my Nook. My Nook does not have the backlight so this is an upgrade I did want eventually. Dh has been wanting me to switch to Kindle forever. The new Kindle has fixed everything I didn't like about the original, BUT it's still less compatible with our library system. So I like the idea of having the Nook around to easily borrow library books (without dh having to do all this stuff to get it to work) and we will probably keep it a while in case BM ever wants an e-reader. (BM isn't interested so far, and dh already gave LM his old Kindle).

I also have to check the balance on my B&N gift card and should probably use that up. It was a credit card reward I just had on hand for e-books that I couldn't find at the library. I don't remember the last time I used it or what the balance is, so should probably just use it up and be done with it. When I initially got my Nook the library selection wasn't even a small fraction of what it is today; I haven't been buying any e-books in recent years.

Update: I have $25 to spend at B&N. I will try to find something useful to spend it on.

Since the monies received from in-laws covered our entire trip, I just forwarded those monies to the credit card this week. Paid and Done!

A Rough Breakout of costs:

Airfare $2,000 (paid for a while ago)
Eating Out $450** (9 days)
Zip Line (2) $380
Car Rental $ 230
Kitty Hotel $ 180
Private Surfing Lessons (1) $150
Snorkel Gear/Boogie Boards RENTAL (4) $150
Hotel $82 (charged taxes/fees, which was unusual - we used "free" timeshare)
Souvenirs $40 (Hawaiian shirts for kids, candy)
Parking $25 (2 state park type places)

Total = $3,700-ish; $1,700 balance paid this week

**Generally tried to eat out lunch every day and eat dinner in (we had a condo/kitchen). Lunch was never under $40, even at the Taco stand or deli. Spent $200 total on two meals - neither was worth it.

Groceries ($200) and gas ($30-ish) will be absorbed in our regular budget.

Tried to be frugal by not checking bags, getting a ride to airport, not paying for hotel, etc. Good airfare deals never materialized, and I didn't end up jumping through the credit card hoops to do better. Splurged on most the rest. It was easy to splurge on excursions since BM was really the only taker. I think we easily could have kept the trip to $3,000-ish and would have been just as happy (left to hike, snorkel, beach). But we have one daredevil in the bunch and were able to appease him.

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Payday was this week and I had $2,500 for savings.

Dh has received 2 small paychecks, which we have done nothing with, since we seemed to have over-spent last month. He should also receive $500-ish in a couple of weeks and I will add that to savings this month.

I expect to just tread water the rest of the year. $5k due for property taxes, and lots of insurance due the end of the year. Plus we seem to have a lot of big expenses popping up.

I am hoping that by Jan. or Feb. that we have cash savings where we want it and IRAs fully funded. I am hoping to really avalanche our investments next year. (Hoping to stop throwing so much to build our cash savings up or to cash flow splurges, which leaves more for investments. Plus dh might be working, which will just add to the avalanche).

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It's crazy hot here. We've yet to turn off the AC this year, which is insane. It's a little cooler today and so I hope we can turn it off now.

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This week I canceled the collision/comprehensive insurance on the van. I probably should have a long time ago, but have been dragging my feet. I Feel confident about this today though because the value of the vehicle is in the range of our deductible anyway, and we are starting to think seriously about replacing it. This will help offset some of the higher collision/comp. costs on our newer vehicle. (We had dropped these coverages many years ago on our older vehicle that we replaced).

Historically we mostly drove low-value cars and had a general rule not to even bother insuring cars under the $5k range (which would cover our first couple of car purchases). I guess dh's 2001 Ford was probably the first car we ever had full coverage on, since we bought it in 2002. & then we got full coverage on the van when we bought a 2005 model in 2006.

Anyway, my dad can be crazy cheap but he was in an accident a couple of years ago and they gave him enough cash to replace his 2002-ish vehicle with like a 2010. It was just a weird situation and he made out really well. (This was post retirement, and he got a free significant car upgrade out of the whole thing). I asked him why on earth he even had full coverage on his old car and he told me he had been using a lot of rental cars (traveling a lot) and found it easier to keep coverage on their newer car. Fair enough. I guess we have been thinking along those same lines.

It was probably overkill for us both to keep full insurance on both our cars for our vacation, but I knew we'd both be driving the rental and I figured I'd just drop the insurance when we got back. I remember feeling nervous when we dropped the coverage on dh's car (not that it mattered financially but just didn't want to jinx it), but we waited so long this time I feel very "meh" about it this time around. It helps to be in a space where we are already ready to move on from the minivan anyway. If it runs good for 5 years, that's great, and we haven't identified a replacement yet. But if we saw a good car we may be ready to ditch it.

Our vacation has gone pretty well. Downsides... I know I promised dh we could go to DC next year (last year that kids have a fall break together), but I am so DONE with flying. That's it! Just one more trip. I just find the security to be ridiculous and useless and I just can't stand it, but on he way here we encountered a nasty TSA agent who tried to break our laptop. I am not much for traveling anyway and I think TSA just seals the deal for me. Just icing on the cake on an experience that I do not enjoy anyway. D.C. 2016, and then I don't care if I ever fly again. The other thing is that, "Maui not that crowded" is relative and means "crazy crowded" by our own standards. For reference, when we went to Kauai the same time of year we hardly saw another sole on our entire vacation. So I suppose I was not prepared for how crowded it was. I understand it's 10 times worse in summer, but I don't enjoy fighting for space everywhere I go, even if this is relatively "not so crowded".

Those were the downsides, though everything else went pretty well.

By some miracle, we squeaked by and in the end don't have to pull any money from savings to pay for the trip (was planned to). Unless I am forgetting something! Will see... For now, we are coming in at about $3,600 for the entire trip. The airfare was $2,000, and so I did already pull $500 from savings to pay for that. ($1,500 is our annual vacation budget and I had to pull another $500 out to cover airfare). That would leave me about $1,600 to cover, that we spent in the past week. BUT the in-laws had given us $1,500 for our anniversary and also slipped us $200 cash for the trip. So even if I forgot something, I think we are pretty well covered. Didn't really plan it that way, but it's just how it worked out!

The food has been absolutely divine. Definitely the highlight of the trip**, and we ate out more because of that. (In the end, not even one fast food run to stretch our dollars. The food was just too good).

**I guess the scenery wasn't so bad either.

The one thing we did that saved us the most money and that I am happiest with is that we skipped the luau. Technically the kids have been to one when they were babies. I kind of felt, "They need to experience a luau," but I let it go. I know the food would be crappy and expensive and for whatever reason felt an obligation though the kids would probably just be bored. So we let it go and saved $200+. Looking back, I am so happy with that decision. More money for what the kids really wanted to do.

**I did a small de-clutter this week. Found a $5 Starbucks gift card (I don't drink coffee) and so gave it to a co-worker who has been going through a really rough time.

I have no idea where it came from but I am sure I was just saving it for Christmas. (It might have been a Ting reward?)

As to the co-worker, it just seems to be crazy insanity this year. I wouldn't know where to begin with that, but it's the story of my circle this year. Death, near-death, natural disasters, etc. I am exhausted just thinking about it.

She was SO appreciative.

**We ran through all of our Ting credits so I guess we will have to pay the rest of the year. I would guess that we will probably pay about $180 for cell service this entire *year*.

**So, I wasn't really sure of the odds that we'd adopt this second cat (a stray we found). But it's been a couple of weeks? I think they odds are looking pretty good. The shelter is full and they are offering all pets for $0 for a while. We will have to go see how he was medically evaluated, etc., but if it looks good the final hurdle is getting two cats to get along. They are both pretty mellow and friendly and so I think it should be okay. But any tips are greatly appreciated. Growing up we always had 2 cats and none of them EVER got along. But in this case it's 2 indoor cats (less cat turnover since they don't run away or get hit by cars) and they are both of similar age (best that the shelter can guess anyway) and have similar personalities. They did meet when we found the stray and were surprisingly mellow with each other. I don't know how much I should read into that though. For my cat it was curiosity that took over. The other cat was just starving.

2015 TALLY:

$525 Gift Cards (Citi, dh)
$200 Cash (AmEx Card Everyday, Moi)
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$725 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Other Rewards:

**Free Prime For One Year

**$40 cash back (Amex Reward for spending $40 at Amazon)

**Various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31.

Received $40 bank interest for the month of August.

Snowflakes to investments:

Redeemed $50 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card.

Redeemed $33 cash back on Citi card.

Redeemed $3 cash back on Visa/dining card.

Redeemed $50 AmEx rewards as a ROTH contribution.

Other snowflakes to investments:
--$ 30 Ting credits (no cell bill this month)

Savings (From paycheck):

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

+$1,500 cash gift (to savings)
-$1,500 to pay off medical bills

I suppose that last part was a wash.

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

+$1,300 to cash
-$ 385 auto insurance (other vehicle)
-$ 325 Life Insurance
-$ 120 School Lunch for 6-12 months

{I'll be draining the "short-term" part of our savings in the next month or two to pay property taxes}.

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LM has hit $500 in his savings account! I can't tell you how motivating the 7% accounts have been for the kids. Now that they both have $500 that is the max that can earn the 7% interest on.

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Dh did receive a $125 focus group payment this month but I didn't snowflake it. We seem to be in the hole this month. Spent more than we should have.