Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

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
---------------------------
net worth + $42,000
---------------------------

& 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
---------------------------
net worth + $44,000
---------------------------

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
---------------------------
net worth + $53,000
---------------------------

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)
-----------
$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

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

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

------------------------
Total snowflakes: $1,138
------------------------

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

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

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.

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

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)
-----------
$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.

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

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:

http://www.ayearofslowcooking.com/2007/12/alphabetical-listi...

My dh got on some recipe list otherwise - I will ask him about that. Most of these are fairly new recipes we have tried but really liked:

This first one had way too much cheese. I believe we completely cut out the cheddar cheese the second time we made it:

Artichoke Pasta
http://funnyisfamily.com/2013/12/crock-pot-thursday-chicken-...

This one is a little more work (post crockpot prep) but is worth it!

Chile Colorado Burritos
This link is not working? Copy and paste I guess.
http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/08/smothered-chile-colorado-burritos-crock-pot/

& then some others...

Cashew Chicken
http://12tomatoes.com/slow-cooker-cashew-chicken/

Balsamic Chicken
http://damndelicious.net/2015/08/14/slow-cooker-balsamic-chi...

Hobo Dinner
http://www.themagicalslowcooker.com/2015/08/27/hobo-dinner-i...

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)
-----------
$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.

FIRE UPDATE: After two entire weeks, relative has been allowed to return to his home. !! What an ordeal! I am sure there are some trying times ahead for him. His town is a complete disaster.

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**I've never been able to take advantage of most bank account bonuses because they require "direct deposits." We did get around that for one bank account bonus that we did last year, but I was never really sure it was going to work and it depends on the bank (you can just make a transfer from some banks) and what works or doesn't is always changing. Just way too much of a PITA.

It just hit me that I no longer have to rule all those bonuses out since dh will be getting direct deposit checks. Woohoo! I'll look around what bank bonuses are out there right now and will have to remember to keep a better eye on that. I'm so used to just ignoring all those type offers.

We did get dh's direct deposit set up. I am happy that it's all online and I can just adjust his W-4 and change bank accounts (if we do some sign up bonuses) easily online. So that's another plus.

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HOUSE UPDATES

I've been meaning to do a house update. I went through the problem areas of our house and cleaned up and did some purging. Since the end of April we have been cognizant of clearing clutter every single week (no matter how little).

I can't believe it, but I am *finally* seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We've been purging for over a decade, but I guess I needed to focus more than a few weekends per year to really get the job done. I am glad all the work is paying off. !! (It's only paying off so quickly though because all of the work we have done the decade prior. Just to be clear).

So now we are entering Phase 2 of our de-cluttering. I have sold and cleaned up everything big and obvious and bulky. Phase 2 is to go through every drawer and closet and nook and cranny through our house and do one final sweep. I expect that I will still find a lot of things to purge, but since we've been through everything before I don't expect this to be an overly big job. It's just the little stuff (the easy stuff) that should be left.

My goal is to be *DONE* this year. No more of this endless de-cluttering. & I am confident about this because most of the work we did this year was the really old stuff. Going through a lot of high school stuff, for example. We've always been on top of the kids' stuff and dh and I don't buy that much stuff any more, and if we do are more likely to sell the old to afford the new, etc. So I have high hopes that “de-cluttering” won't be much of a time or energy suck in the future. We do have good habits in that regard.

Here's a list of what we have accomplished:

**Re-thought and re-organized kitchen office space and adjacent storage. (A project for next year will be to work on some kitchen organization; my problem areas are the pasta/lentils and the spices).

**Bought nicer furniture for living room and created storage space for sheet music and kids' piano lesson books. This room looks immaculate now, with no effort. I have a love-hate relationship with this solution though because I did just throw a big mess in a chest of drawers. (It looks nicer but is not any more organized). That is another future project. I'd like to eventually digitize most the sheet music but it will be a BIG project.

I suppose I've learned I'd rather "be" organized than "look" more organized. Not a solution I will apply to my whole house, but it is nice to have a tidy room with some nice and functional furniture.

**Cleaned up BM's room (which was a hoarding mess). He seems to have matured beyond his hoarding and agreed to empty most his room out, and I don't see him bringing much back in. In this case, procrastination paid. We just had no idea what to do with it. Dh wouldn't let me clear out the trash without BM's approval but he had no better ideas so we just let it sit for a few years. But I couldn't believe BM let me throw most of it out once I tackled it head on, and helped me so that it was a quick cleanup. I saved myself a lot of headache just waiting it out. Phew!

**Went through LM's room and sold the large items he had outgrown. (Sold a toy box and an easel).

**Went through my closet and got rid of bulky items. Off the top of my head we had a hamper we never use and some bulletin boards and white boards. I also got rid of a lot of frames.

I realized with this part of the purge that we no longer will be holding onto things "just in case". We have the money to buy what we need and I think this is the cause of a lot of our clutter. Which is fine since we had the room for it and made sense in lower income years, to hold onto things and accept any random hand-me-down, but no need to really hang onto some of this stuff at this point in our lives.

**I recycled lots of trophies and eyeglasses

**I had never gone through our taxes but it was getting to the point where it needed to be dealt with. So I scanned all the old years (just because I am a numbers nerd; no real need to keep them) and out of laziness will keep 10 years of paper files on hand. I had already scanned the last couple of years and will probably have less paper over time. Going forward it will be so easy to toss the oldest paper file every year, and I am already storing new years digitally. The paper file is mostly a backup, but then I also don't have to scan every single paper as I am sure there are some I didn't scan and don't need to keep forever.

{When shredding I found all sorts of other people's tax returns, that I prepared in the distant past. Those were so old I was just able to shred them all. All of the above fit in *one* box - I had no idea there was so much stuff in there and that I had so many other tax returns!}.

**I went through a big box of photos and also eliminated that box. I ended up tossing the bulk of them. I kept a handful of odd shaped keepers in a small box and put the rest in photo albums. I was planning to put them all in a flat photo album (space efficient) that I found, but didn't realize most the photos were too large. So I put them away in other photo albums, but this is another “future project” to keep in mind to consolidate more and make more space.

Like most everything, this was a "clean up the old stuff" chore as we keep all our photos digitally any more and rarely print out pictures. A future project would be to maybe purge some of the old digital pictures and create some sort of index of photos. We went digital around 2002 and it's easy to manage but I think for the long run we probably want some sort of index to find things as we won't always remember when everything happened or where so and so picture is. 10 years of pictures is one thing, but 50 years will be another story.

Well, today I have to control myself. The stray cat I found is going up for adoption. I am feeling surprisingly level headed today. If he went up yesterday I might have brought him home! Will see...

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Today we ran the errands that piled up from a busy week.

In the morning I went to Kohls to make a return and no one was there. So it was very quick. I think even if dh does get more bogged down it doesn't really matter since I am an early bird. We can still live a very "off peak" existence. (I noticed the grocery store is open at 6am, for example. Sounds perfect to me; can do that chore on a weekday with no discernible difference to my schedule).

I did end up spending $20 (net) at Kohls while there. There was a vest jacket type thing I have been coveting for well over a year and I was able to get it for $10. I just bought the bullet and bought a few cheapie shirts to wear with it (they were so soft and pretty but general not the kind of thing I'd wear by itself because just kind of cheap and not flattering). & I remembered another shirt I have that will go great with the vest - I am sure I have others. It will significantly spice up my cold weather wardrobe. If it ever cools off...

As to the $500 in gift cards that we were planning to blow... Our external hard drive is giving us issues and dh wanted to replace his 20-year-old (or older) razor. I had thought we could get Amazon gift cards but I guess we could not. But these items were in stock at Best Buy and they also price match. So I had gotten $275 in gift cards specifically for those items and picked them up today. I paid $10 out of pocket and I put both this and my Kohls charge on my credit card that already closed for the month. We spent enough this month already, so just kicking the can down the road a month.

I had also redeemed $100 in Target gift cards which would cover a month of our grocery spending there. We discussed if we should or should not get some snack food ahead of time since it is so expensive in Hawaii, and I realize I should have just gotten $225 in Target gift cards and could have covered most of that spending (grocery spending and whatever else we nee while in Hawaii). I didn't think that far ahead, but we can use what we have left of the $100 and I am more willing to just buy snacks there if it will just be "free" anyway. (Dh for whatever reason didn't seem keen on packing food but once I get packed up I may run to Target and pick up a few items. Will at least need some food for the plane. But I will wait and see how much room we have).

We popped by Target today to buy laundry detergent and toothpaste. It was free with gift cards and we earned a $5 gift card.

{That leaves us with $125 gift cards to redeem and I am just meditating on those. I have a large purchase in mind but I want to research it more first. Target gift cards are fine if we don't think of anything else}.

I took some returns to a shoe store (all my returns were online orders that didn't fit well) and dh ended up finding some sandals for Hawaii. I need to remember to donate his old sandals (barely worn; he wasn't happy with them). His shoe purchase was a wash with my returns, so no money spent there.

The only errand we didn't end up getting to was the CU to deposit his focus group cash. I have a couple of days off next week, so we decided to just take care of it during the week. If it doesn't get done, I don't need the money right away. It's just if I forget about it, but I should have plenty of time.

Oh, and I do have one return by mail. I suppose that will actually offset all of the spending I did today. That works out pretty well thought I didn't plan that part. (It's too late to get the return for this month, but the return can then offset those purchase I made on the "next month already" credit card).

We do have to set up dh's direct deposit this weekend. That will be nice.

**We have a cat that is trying to adopt us. The timing couldn't be more terrible. *sigh* I did take the stray cat to the shelter and so I hope that resolves itself. If he is still up for adoption when we get back from vacation then we will probably becomes a 2-cat household. (Though dh is not a cat person, but he is also a softie). The cat is very sweet and friendly, which is good, but on the flip side he is around 5 years old and I know they can't give away adult cats. We paid $5 to adopt our beautiful Siamese because he was estimated to be about 12 months old (they lower the adoption fees on the older cats). Everyone asks if we bought him from a breeder; they clearly haven't been to the shelters recently.

So, I don't know... It's not the kind of decision I am capable of making. I just have to let it sort itself out. I think it's best if he finds another home and I hope that works out. Our impending vacation is giving me some space and logic in regards to the situation. I am sure dh appreciates it.

**Dh started his job Monday and things are going well with that. It's been a crazed week and he definitely regrets signing up for that focus group. The job is somewhat physical. It will take him some time to adjust. But I think October will be pretty low key and I expect the first week to be the hardest adjustment.

His family is completely psycho about it though. I wouldn't know where to begin with that... (I won't get into all the psycho stuff).

I am relieved that overall his parents are supportive though. It took his mom a solid decade to get over him being home with the kids (even though clearly our kids and marriage have only thrived with this arrangement, which is probably why she did eventually get over it), so I was worried she'd maybe freak out about him returning to work. I had no idea how she would react.

One of the first things they did tell dh was basically he should blow his entire income. Don't ask me! Might make for some interesting blog posts later. For reference, I'd classify his parents as frugal savers. Like I said, don't ask me!

**I commented on my last post (I think) that I wanted to fund lunch the rest of the year but could not. BM refuses to buy the school lunch food at current location but LM has been content with it. So I tried to pay the whole year and the max I could fund was only about half the year.

So like literally the day after pay school lunch for 6-ish months, LM tells me he is just buying lunch for the chocolate milk. Well, he can buy 240 chocolate milks now. HA!

It was the funniest conversation though. LM told me that the "main currency" (his words) in the lunch room is chocolate milk. I think he perceived it to be so valuable that I blew his mind when I told him he could just buy it for 50 cents. But anyway, not that I would do this, but I am tempted to just let him buy milk every day and barter his lunch. He is so fascinated by economics on some level, and so he has been really taking note of the lunch room bartering. & I am sure he could do quite well now that he knows he can just buy the milk for 50 cents.

Well I had waited 6 weeks to make sure he wasn't as disgusted by the lunch as his brother. I should have waited 6 weeks plus one day. The plan is he will no longer be buying whole lunches just to get the milk. I don't know if that means he will ever buy again. Sounds like maybe not.

**I mentioned in FT's blog that we had a relative who lost home in fire. He was at work when the fire started, and it happened so fast. He was not able to retrieve one single item from his home. Anyway, by some miracle the whole town was not destroyed as initially reported, and he has received photo confirmation that his house is still standing. !! He's still evacuated, one week later, so his ordeal is far from over. It's just sounding a lot more hopeful than it was a few days ago.

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There's no way to transition from that, so I guess I will just jump into our own minutiae.

**Payday was this week. I transferred the entire check into savings.

I already paid all the bills around September 1, so dh's check will go into savings too. That I Was not expecting. More below...

**LM ran through his lunch money (from last year) and so I funded that today. I usually fund both kids for 6 months at a time but since BM is on lunch food boycott I thought I'd just fund LM for the rest of the year. But I guess there is a max I can contribute (per kid). It's annoying because I will probably have to fund him 3 times per year (since I am letting him buy lunch more with BM not partaking) and they do charge a fee each time. On the flip side, maybe good not to over-fund too much in case he changes his mind.

In this case, I think if I can do the max one more time that should take him through the school year.

**We have our 15th wedding anniversary this week. I don't know that we will make any plans. We had discussed not doing anything *big* because we just did our So Cal trip and we leave for Hawaii soon. I think Hawaii is it and I don't know if we will do anything otherwise. We'd usually at least meet up for lunch but dh is working all week and eating out doesn't appeal to me much with vacation right around the corner. (I just get sick of eating out so much when we are away from home).

Who knew we could sink to new levels of boring... Dh has a busy schedule this week and I don't know that we will do absolutely anything. (He's volunteering all weekend, has the focus group, and seems we had some other stuff going on).

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Dh did get an official official job offer and is starting work next week. Will see how it goes.

Of course, money is raining down from the sky and he also got a big focus group next week ($125). It's been a long time, so the timing is interesting.

As to the job, the only immediate change to the schedule is that I will pick up the kids on short days. We had ditched the carpools this year because other parents are too flakey. Anyway, dh thinks I should rely on neighbor to pick up kids on short days. No thanks!! I'd rather take care of my own kids (leisurely, on my lunch hour) and not get phone calls interrupting my work day. It would happen a lot. (Don't ask me! It's epidemic).

Anyway, I look forward to the change up in schedule. I used to go home for lunch every day but then gas prices got so high and the kids were in school anyway. I should have probably done this all along, but we have just been in such "gas conserving" mode in more recent years. With gas prices a little lower I look forward to the change up in schedule. It's once a week that they have short days.

I just happened to notice that a gas station close to our house has cheaper gas than Costco. Is about what we pay with our grocery coupons (even closer to our house), but we usually only get those deals for the minivan (bigger gas tank). As long as these gas prices are relatively unknown (it's a small station but I haven't seen a crowd there) we will get gas at the other station. I think it makes sense to fill up there whenever driving out of town and it's also a convenient stop on my way home from work. With dh potentially working I may take more responsibility for filling up the van on the way home sometimes, and he can use the grocery coupons on the gas sipper when he is at the grocery store. The cheap gas station is probably a little more out of his way, for the most part. Plus he is at the grocery store a lot anyway and can pay the same price there.

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So... My in-laws usually slip us $1,000 when we go on bigger vacations. I kind of was expecting that for our Hawaii trip but didn't particularly want to rely on that. I didn't expect to know for sure until they took us to the airport.

BUT... Our anniversary will be before we leave and they slipped us $1,500 yesterday for our 15th wedding anniversary, since they didn't expect to see us again for a few weeks. Woohoo! I feel so much more relieved about the Hawaii trip. I'd estimate off the top of my head that we will spend $2,000 on excursions, food, and car rental and other rentals, and I think that's being generous. But I like the idea of pulling $500 out of savings (if we go hog wild) much more than potentially pulling out $2,000. So I am very happy with this turn of events.

I expect this trip to end our year of splurge. We were doing very well financially and decided to take advantage of a trip abroad that came up, but we had already planned this Hawaii trip, and dh spent a few thousand dollars upgrading his home theater. We figured this is the kind of spending we do once every 10 years or so. It was 10 years ago that we spent down some of our maternity leave savings because I had two healthy pregnancies & babies and we never needed any of the money we had saved for the worst. So I don't know if there's anything magical about every 10 years, but just seems to be how it has panned out so far. We just kind of wanted to stretch and let loose a bit before we get back to hoarding cash for my eventual job change (just lots of unknowns there) and figure we will be saving for college and paying down our mortgage and topping off our retirement in the next decade or so. We feel very "noses back to the grindstone" - or is the plan anyway after Hawaii. (& Dh and I can go to Hawaii whenever, but it's just adding the kids increases the cost significantly. It's not like we won't do anything fun. Maybe one ridiculous luxury a year is more feasible or more our style).

In the meantime, we've had an exceptional year financially. I don't know that the splurging will set us back at all. We planned all this before we knew that both our parents would give us large checks in a 12-month period (unusual and completely unexpected on both counts) and that dh would find a job.

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As to the job, dh has a formal offer, but still waiting for red tape to clear. If if works out and they will work around our planned vacation, I expect he will start later this week.

I can't tell you how *perfect* this job is for our lifestyle. Or how good it sounds on paper anyway, though I am wary to get too enthused until he officially starts and we find out if it really works out for the long run.

The job is very part-time, during school hours, summers and winters off, walkable commute, no professional clothing, very low pay. The last part might not sound so nice, but it means a low-tax situation. So... Basically a job where he can actually keep most of what he makes. !! & it's so non-intrusive to the rest of our lives that I don't really expect anything to change. Will see, but it sounds workable for keeping our low key/low stress lifestyle.

Of course we will save 100% of whatever dh brings home, as we always have done.

I don't expect him to be happy with minimum wage work for the long run, but this is what he needs to move forward again. It's a step in the right direction.

My plan right now is just to put it all into savings for this year. I Expected we would spent it on Hawaii and a couple of planned appliances purchases. But now that Hawaii seems sorted out, I will just hold onto it can re-allocate whatever we need at the end of the year. This will make it easier to reach my goals of adding another $1,000-ish to the mortgage and adding $1,700 to our investments.

I don't expect that any income taxes will be withheld from his check the rest of the year; not enough income to matter.

I'd say that dh is the bigger saver of the two of us, and so I don't think he cares at all about working with no immediate personal financial benefits. BUT... I do have $500 in credit card rewards (gift cards) to redeem next week. There was nothing we particularly needed and so I had already earmarked this $500 for "fun money". I think we will both enjoy the extra psychological boost of a little extra splurging, and I think it means we will probably more likely keep every penny he makes this year. (I don't know that we will splurge it all ($500), but I just know I won't care either way).

Next year we will re-evaluate. Next year will be a bigger tax hit, and we will have to figure out how to most efficiently allocate the extra income. I don't see putting any mental effort into that until I see how the job shakes out and how we end the year financially. Will cross that bridge when we get to it. I suppose I will also know my salary for 2016 before dh returns to work after winter break. He will get a 10% raise next year due to minimum wage increasing. It's kind of good timing in that regard too. There's talk of raising minimum wage quite substantially in both our city and state. Either way will bode well for dh in the short run or for my kids when they turn 16.

https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

I am sharing my Ting referral code because I saw a good deal for the rest of this month. $50 in credit if you sign up with a referral link.

They are also selling GSM SIM cards for $5 + free shipping, to activate a phone you already have or buy elsewhere.

Recent Ting story:

**Dh's relative recently switched to T-Mobile, though dh tried his best to sell him on Ting. Anyway, this relative is always very proud about having the fastest and latest and greatest. So, poor dh... This relative went to the family cabin with my in-laws and my "Ting" in-laws (with one Sprint and one GSM [T Mobile coverage] phone) had like 4 bars at the cabin and this relative had NO bars. !! So he called dh and discussed this with him for like an hour. ?? He wanted answers. Then MIL called him later asking all the same questions. So there went a couple of hours of his life. Of course he didn't have a clue as to why that would be. We've experienced phone antenna differences when we've had the same service, but never to quite that extent.

Of course, I am sure there are many places where the opposite might be true. But this may actually get relative to switch to Ting. I presume in-laws will take that referral though. & though it's one isolated incident, it is probably somewhere they spend a fair amount of time.

**I suppose dh and I should have compared phone service when we drove down to So Cal last week but I don't think we ever did. He's on GSM (T-Mobile network) and I am on the original Ting (Sprint network) service. We figured it's probably nice while traveling to have different services. IF we can spread out our coverage a bit that way. I don't know that we will ever travel enough to test it much. "In the middle of nowhere" is probably mostly the same either way. We didn't look when we were in the middle of nowhere.

Ugh, I hate it when I don't blog much and I have a million things in my head and don't know where to begin. I have some catching up to do!

We did our So Cal trip and it was fine and lovely and lots to blog about that. It would be better if I could share pictures! But the trip went well. The short version is we got to swim with otters and pet and feed exotic animals. It was awesome! Dh had an LA meeting about his script, and it went as well as realistically expected. Nothing immediate is coming of that, but he got lots of encouragement to pursue his dream. As a realist, it's the most he hoped for. So yeah, that was one crazy trip! GOOD crazy!

I will share more later.

As to my dh's job situation, I am used to people presuming a lot and not having a clue. I married someone with a huge work ethic, who had never had any problem on the work front, who mostly saved every penny he ever made. I am always amused by the perception that I am supporting him. We wouldn't have half of what we have without his financial contributions to this marriage, and lord knows his parents are very generous and pick up a lot of the slack. & of course, I don't know if I could have married anyone else so financially supportive. Even if it's not in a traditional way at this very moment in time. But that's the thing. His current unemployment status means nothing to us as to the long run. It's just where we are at in this moment in time.

Anyway, my dh has had a rough time of it since we moved to our low-cost haven. Maybe that's the trade-off, but he's never managed one single job offer here. Since 2005-ish he's only looked for minimum wage crap work. Still. Nothing... The economy is the most of it. Overt discrimination was a lot of it early on. Over time it's gotten more complicated. With a disability that limits his working options, and not needing the money anyway, it's clearly evolved into more choice than circumstance. Even so, he'd like to work while the kids are in school, but even just a couple of years ago he couldn't get a job if his bff was hiring because 1,000 more qualified people would have applied for the same job. He's been referred to jobs or found jobs where he knew people or volunteered, but the feedback is always, "You have a hole in your resume and 1,000 other people already applied." Literally. The unemployment here is intense. & I can never get across what a star employee or volunteer he has always been.

All we can do is be blessed that we've absolutely never relied on his income and we don't need the money. My mom never worked past 25 (like dh) and we've since watched my parents retire VERY comfortably, on the early side. So over time we just let it go and move on with Plan B. Which is the irony of it all since I don't know that we ever would have been this efficient or on such an early retirement track without dh's lack of employment. We could be better off in the long run, strangely enough. OF course, Plan B is that *I* have been extremely lucky on the employment front.

With all that, I never expected 13 years of unemployment to end with a job offer basically falling out of the sky. ?!?! It's not official, but it seems pretty certain dh has a job. It's very part-time and with the school year but is absolutely *perfect* for the here and now.

Will see...

Oh I have lots more to blog about that, but I think that's all I can say until we know for sure. The past 13 years have trained us not to hold our breath. I didn't even want to blog about it, but then I couldn't not blog about it. It will probably just drive me crazy until it's official! It's just so unbelievable.

With that, I hope to have more details later about both the job and the wildlife trip.

As to the job, the pay is absolute crap and it's hardly life changing, BUT, it's the stepping stone he's needed to get back into the work force. Crossing my fingers!!