Monkey Mama*s Monkey Money Blog

Received an inflation raise of 6%.  Woohoo! 

This is extra nice because we have not personally experienced an increase in our expenses.   

Extra extra nice because taxes were strangely *shrugs* on new income.  I lost a $2K tax credit in 2022 but will gain it back in 2023.  I will just leave Federal tax withholding as is.  It's a little high, but I don't want to get too used to paying less taxes.  We have nowhere to go but up.  I did bump up state tax withholding a little bit.  

After that, we are left with $400/month, which will exactly get us to the goals I was envisioning.  Weird how that works out.  I mean, it's like down to the penny.  So I don't have to touch the new (2022) "breathing room" in our budget, to meet these goals.    

I am bumping up monthly cash savings by $50/month.  Making it an even $1K contribution.  I don't foresee increasing this.  With the exception of making this a full  $1,083/month in the future.  To cover IRA contributions (from my income).   The old $12K IRA contribution limit (x2) is probably why I have that $1K/month figure in my head. 

This leaves $250/month to throw at investments.  Happens to be where we left off, and was the figure I wanted to hit this year.  If I didn't have enough raise, I would have commited a flat amount from MH's income.  

Oh yeah, and the other $100 will go to health insurance increases.  For the past ~15 years, it generally goes up $100/month, every year.  That is nothing new.  

Still taking a breather, re: longer term goals.  That said, I can tell you three things:

1 - Efficiency is too important to us.  We won't be decreasing retirement contributions, accordingly.

2 - We don't want to increase retirement contributions.  

I mean, I am okay with bumping up to the new IRA contribution limit (with MH's raise).  & will have to re-evaluate (in the future) re: #1.  Rather park our income in retirement funds than hand over to the IRS.  But other than fiscal efficiency, it's not a goal of ours to put any more away into retirement.  

It's clear after this period of "auto pilot" that we don't want to make any big changes. 

3 - This will probably put our new goal at $800K retirement funds by age 50.  Just doing the math. 

This is what I had calculated before my raise.   Extra investments (raise) doesn't move the needle much on a 5-year goal.  Fair enough.

When will I circle back and start thinking more long term?  Commit to these new retirement goals and memorialize in my sidebar?  I think I am going to wait until college shakes out this calendar year.  Let a little more limbo sort out.  I just need to give it more time.

Overall, I am very happy with things.  Being able to have more breathing room in the budget and to also be throwing a chunk into taxable investments again...  

DL(17) was officially accepted into the local State college.  They give very high priority to local high school students.  I think it only took this long because their business college is impacted.  He was getting a little stressed that his less studious friends were getting immediately accepted.  So I know he is relieved that it is official.

I think there's probably a 90% chance he will stay home and go to this college.  Has been leaning that way as more of his friends are choosing to go to this college.  

This is the only college he applied to.  His first choice (was) a Bay Area community college. 

With Federal tax credits and state middle class grants, we are talking $6,000 for his 4-year tuition.  (Full sticker price is $32,000).  

This is why we did not spend decades saving up for college.  The kids also both received ~$30K from in-laws for college.  I knew this would cover a 4-year degree.  I've been basing this off of full sticker price (in-state).  Projecting future college costs (in the past) and concluding that $30K would cover tuition.  I have never counted on tax credits that come and go.  I had no idea we'd get so much middle class state aid.  So pretty much we had set aside the full sticker price but are not paying anything close to that.

I don't have my raise yet, and so this is what I have for now.

Same goals as last year.   Bumped up IRA goal to new contribution limits (thanks to MH's raises). & added a dollar figure to keep mortgage moving down by $10K per year.  

1 - Pay cash for college

2 - $10,000 to savings

$1,000/month, plus interest.  Topping off with snowballs.

Although we are saving more than $10,000 ($1,000 x 12 months = $12,000), I am leaving some buffer for bigger expenses.  I will count additions and subtractions to mid-term cash savings.  But I will ignore college draw downs.  The main purpose of this goal is to fund college expenses.  

3 - $7,000 to investments

$250 per month, plus snowflakes (credit cards rewards & dividends)

Will also sweep MH's income (over $1,000 monthly) into investments.  

4 - $2,430 to mortgage

Topping off with snowballs and/or excess cash saved

Keeps us on track with $10K principal paydown per year

5 - 9% of household income to work retirement plans

This is the minimum for the match; I'd otherwise rather fund IRAs. 

9% figure does include match.  

6 - $13,000 to IRAs 2023 (MAX)

Will fund with MH's income

Re: Investments (#3).  We abandoned taxable investing in 2018, when my last job went to heck.  We then shifted gears to my (new) work retirement plan (putting in the minimum for match).  

We had built up investments very quickly, but I've since cashed all that out and parked in I Bonds (loosely earmarked for college expenses).  So we'd like to start over this year.  We had left off at $250/month salary contributions and so that is what I really want to do.  I don't know if I will have enough raise to cover that, but should be able to at least do half of that.

I am also thinking about sweeping MH's income into taxable investments.  Maybe anything above $1,000 in a month.  

We usually can come up with $2K per year snowflakes.  Mostly credit card rewards. 

All of the above might reasonably be +$7K to investments in 2023?  I will update when I have my raise and taxes figured out.

I need to re-evaluate short-term savings but I think I will kick the can down the road another year.  I feel like so many of these expenses should go away.  A few items re: 2022 short term savings that I don't expect in the future:  Kids' car insurance, smog check, & DMV renewal, new driver driving course, MM(19) expenses, Concert tickets (x4) for every DL band class, clothing for the kids, track shoes for the kids, etc.  Yeah, just a lot of kid expenses that I don't expect to be paying for any longer.   2022 was a weird in-between year with MM(19) mostly away at college and DL not having his driver license yet, but now DL(17) has assumed most car expenses.

This reminds me, our vacation budget will also need an overhaul.  I have our $2K vacation budget in the short term savings bucket.  We save for it monthly.  I might just leave it be.  Anything more can come from longer term savings.  At least until we figure it out and have another raise or two to refigure.  I am very happy with above goals, and would be okay with putting entire future raise (usually $50 or $100/month, if I am lucky) to an increased vacation budget.

MIL told MH that they are selling their timeshare.  ???  I have no idea what that means.  I don't think it will be that easy to unload.  But I do very much appreciate that they are wrapping it up.  Lord knows we don't want it.  But it's sad.  An end for an era.  FIL has been officially diagnosed with dementia (it was obvious) and MIL is nearing 80.  & I doubt they have used the past few years, with the pandemic and everything.

In the more distant past they considered this a gift they wanted to pass on.  I was going to not accept the timeshare if that happened.  But in recent years they seem to have waken up that it's a bit of a scam.  Or at the least, that we don't utilize enough for it to make any financial sense.

During this discussion, MIL was being super weird about money.  I share because my instinct is to just carve out some of their annual gift and add to our vacation budget.  (Letting them continue to pay for a lot of our hotel stays). But I don't know if we will even get a gift next year.  As weird as my in-laws are, they've never been too weird about money.  But right now they are all over the place.  All I can figure is that MIL is rethinking future income streams (might lose FIL's pension and social security?  Worried about future nursing home care?).  Could also be the stock market.  Probably all of the above.

I am hoping to get final raise numbers today and then I can finalize goals.

Phew!  Is the first day (in 4 days) that I haven't woken up to some catastrophe.  It's just been chaos, plus very busy at work.  I've got some 2022 wrap up posts to get to, one of these days...  But time marches on.

Edited to add:  Updated investment goal for final raise numbers.  Was just enough to cover the goals I wanted.  Phew!  Will do another post later.  

Storm #5? rolled through.  I've lost count.  I think we are on storm #5.

Storm #5 would probably have been mostly uneventful.  But...  This storm was the snow geese massacre.  😞  The geese should have been ending their long migration, but crossed paths with a thunderstorm and started falling out of the sky.  

It just gets more bonkers.  

On the plus side, the flood waters are receding at MM's college and classes will resume tomorrow.  There is no rain in their forecast for a few days.  Phew!

It's only the 9th.  2023 has been exhausting so far.

I just saw a news headline that called our weather a "parade of cyclones".  I guess that sums it up pretty well.

New Year's Eve was the biggest storm we have ever had.  Power went out for 5 hours.  I don't even remember the last time we had a power outage.  A power pole line had blown over in the storm.

Another storm blew through right after that.  Not as bad, but still a lot of wind.  I think everyone was on hyper alert after first storm, but second storm did not amount to much.  Probably still a lot of downed trees and so on (as the ground became very saturated).

Between the two storms, it sounded like most in my office had downed trees and fences.

{We did lose a fence.  It was hanging by a thread, so no biggie and definitely not surprised.  Procrastination for the win.  Beats losing a newer fence.}

We had decided to take MM(19) back to school on Sunday.  I don't have any reason to pay attention to the weather.  I mean, this is extreme weather.  So I would have never looked that closely.  But my boss was paying attention to rainfall amounts re: construction.  He made a comment and we changed our plans.  Ended up dropping off MM(19) on Saturday.  It wouldn't have been my preference to make the drive on a busy Saturday.  But no one was on the road and it didn't rain.  The drive was lovely.  The weather was much nicer down south.  Phew!

Woke up Sunday and looked at my phone.  What the heck happened!?  One of the first things I saw was half of our region was without power and there was a roof in the middle of the road.  Did a tornado blow through?  It was another *crazy* wind storm.  Everyone has told me that it was completely bonkers.

We drove home 5 hours on the freeway Sunday.  It wasn't until we got to our city line that we started to see the excessive wind damage.  A billboard had been blown to shreds.  Several road signs has been knocked over.  When we got to our neighborhood, it was littered with tree branches.

This morning I saw that the pool we used to go to, the 300 pound lifeguard stand flipped over.   That's how windy it was.  

DL(17) was home during the storm.  Power was out again for 7 hours. 

Another storm blew through last night.  Now it's crazy rain.  The crazy rain we changed our travel plans for.  Like last time, I think the weather forecasters were over compensating and preparing for the worst (second storm in a row).  After seeing how localized that wind damage was (to the extreme) I felt more confident that maybe it wouldn't be so bad last night. (What are the odds that the worst of a storm hits the same place twice?)  It ended up being "nothing".  Slept through it.  No crazy wind or rain. 

We are supposed to get substantial rainfall over the next couple of days.  That is concerning, with all the water ways being so full from the first two storms.  

Today I woke up to news of all the flooding in MM(19)'s college town.   Ugh.   They are supposed to get many inches of rain with this next storm.  Classes ended up being entirely canceled, mid morning.  I am sure this was after MM(19) went to his first class.  I think they were trying to move things online, but clearly that wasn't helpful for those stranded, dealing with flood waters and power outages.  Eventually just gave up and canceled classes.  It sounds unlikely that tomorrow will be any better.  

There is nothing but rain in our forecast.   What a mess.

We are moving onto big storm #5.  I don't know if this is the last crazy storm or if there is more to come.  Or if it matters, as there is nowhere for all this rain to go.  (Doesn't have to be crazy/stormy to be too much rain, at this point.)

We were going to a film festival in Oregon this weekend.  I expect that we will cancel this trip.  We never even bothered booking the hotel, because of the weather. 

I personally wanted to cancel our beach hotel this past weekend.  Wanted to just send MM(19) back to school on the train.  But both MH and MM seemed pretty set on making the drive.  This is why we ended up just moving up our plans by one day.  I am glad we made it work, as I think to all the hotels and plans we have had to cancel already this past year.  I appreciate that we got a bit of a reprieve during all this craziness.  

Edited to add:  Flooding is getting very serious around the college.  😞  MM is fine.  It just has gotten so much more serious since I first posted this.  

Update:  MM's college got 8 inches of rain in 48 hours.  (Most of that was Monday morning).  More storms and rain to come.  I think the flash flood warning was reduced to a flood warning.  

2023 TALLY:

Citi Premier 80,000 Bonus points (Moi) - DENIED  

Citi Premier 80,000 Bonus points (MH) - DENIED  

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We haven't done these Citi rewards in a long time.  Because the rewards are mostly gift cards, and so not as enticing.  But I was enticed today.  

Was thinking recently that we should be fair and do a credit card reward to pay for DL(17)'s college laptop (same as we did for MM).  & then I saw a good credit card reward bonus and was denied.  I tried again for MH but was also denied.  He had opened more cards more recently, so I thought it would make more sense for me to do this deal. 

I think it's fair enough.  We both maybe already did this bonus 4 times.  I am just confused because I am hearing about this deal from people who have already done this 10 times.  For that, I am confused.  But I can't be too mad about it.

I did check our credit scores, after that.  & double checked I hadn't closed a Citi card in the past 24 months, as per rules.  Yeah, I haven't opened a new card in years and certainly no Citi cards for the past 3+ years.

I wanted to document here.  Because I won't have any record of this otherwise.  I want to remind myself not to bother applying for this card again (in the near future).

Edited:  Official reasons for denial.  1 - Utilizing too little of our credit.  (That's a new one).   & 2 - Too many open credit lines.  I thought #2 might be a possibility.  We have 4 credit cards we use regularly for rewards, and then we each have a credit card we share with the kids.  So I was wondering if that 5th credit card might be pushing us over.  I never got around to decreasing the credit limit on DL's credit card.  I will make sure that is still on my to do list.  & it's also on my list to close the credit card I shared with MM(19).  He has his own credit cards now.

I don't know if #2 is a real/legit thing, or is just code for "You already did this bonus 4 times already, so we don't want you."  We don't have high credit limits on most of our cards.  Just $1K on the retail credit card and just $5K on the card I share with MM(19).

I think my last post on this got buried.  Some in-progress (float) photos if you go back a few posts.

I figured I was a little biased, but just saw that the float won for most extraordinary!  

These pictures popped up re: judging yesterday afternoon.  The second picture was from MM(19).  When I saw the crowds of people at the judging, I really doubted that MM would get seats for the parade.  I mean, a bajillion people have helped to pull this off. 

What do I know?  He just sent me a text that he's on the bleachers, directly across from the TV cameras.  He didn't have to camp out all night for a spot.  I am excited that next year he is going to take me.  I just wanted to see the behind-the-scenes.  I didn't realize he'd also get front row seats to the parade.  😁

T

I am memorializing goals in my sidebar.  I kind of like the format I used last year, so will stick with that.

Pay cash for college ✔

$10K to Savings ✔

Final tally was $11,412.  The plan was to use this money to pay cash for college.  At the end of 2022 we had roughly -$0- cash plus emergency funds.  So that's about how it sorted out.  That we had just enough to cash flow college.

$2K to Investments ✔

Funded with snowflakes.

I topped off with $100 from MH's income, to make the full $2K.

9% Income to Work Retirement Plans ✔

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

$12,000 to IRAs 2022 ✔

Done.  We won't fund until we do our taxes and the year is over.  But we did end the year with an extra $12K set aside for IRAs.  This is mostly thanks to annual cash gift from in-laws.

Bonus Goal that wasn't in my sidebar:

Extra to Mortgage ✔

We threw my bonus and gift money ($8,000) to the mortgage to pay down the balance to $99,999.  Woohoo!

The $8,000 extra payment shaved off 1 year of payments and $4,600 interest.

Why $8,000?  I did want to hit the psychological milestone of being done with six figure debt.  But this also puts us down to a total of 32 years of mortgage on our current home.   While my bare minimum goal is to knock that down to 30 years, the recent big chunks will allow me to put the mortgage on the back burner during these college years.  I can whittle down the last two years with much smaller snowballs.  I guess my bigger goal is to not (feel the need to) throw bigger chunks to the mortgage for a while.  This goal was satisfying on many fronts.

This was just more of a hope or a wish, versus anything that we would have been able to achieve with our income.  It wasn't on my sidebar, accordingly.  

Edited to add:  We ended up funding only one IRA in 2022 ($6,000).  I used the other $6,000 for Invisalign for myself.  It was a rather last minute decision in early 2023.  I would have done this instead of the mortgage, if I had known sooner.  I wanted to reflect in goals, but as I type it out, the money was saved.  It was just redirected at the last minute. 

I asked MM to get me an accounting of what I owe him for groceries.  & for Christmas, we wanted to pay for his round trip train ticket for New Year's.  He sent it to me late last night.  $42 for 30 days of groceries.  🙄  This is my kid who is $350/month to feed at home.  ??? (If anything, he's living in a more expensive region now.) Roundtrip train ticket was $88.  Was about what he paid one-way last time.  Different prices on different days, but he also found the student discount (15% off).  

To be fair, I think he charged $20 to the Target card (grocery run), he was home for Thanksgiving week, and he has spent most weekends in So Cal.

I also offered to send him ~$100 for food from mid-December through mid-January.  I didn't realize they would have so many meals covered in So Cal.  He told me he ended up only eating out 4 times?  But I just sent him the $100 anyway.  I had budgeted substantially more for his groceries.  (I had thought $100 would just be a small dent in 2 weeks of eating out.)

While I do like the idea of just sending him a flat monthly grocery dollar amount (for him to figure out and budget), I was concerned that he would spend as little as possible so that he could hoard money.  He seems to be doing this regardless, even with the flat reimbursements.  

I am looking at MM(19)'s financial records.  He made $1,100 with his campus job and saved $1,200.  This school year, to-date.  How is that possible?  He made $73 interest (includes 1 month of mega I Bond interest) and earned a $200 credit card reward.  His spending was less than the credit card reward.  While there is no lack of free things to do at his college campus, I believe his lack of spending was mostly driven by being busy and having no time.  I am just surprised that he didn't spend more.  His expenses should include a lot of meals in LA, and a lot of gas for the weekly trips.  Don't ask me.  As he gets more independent, I see less of the details.  

I did not end up getting any of MM's behind-the-scene photos, but this was the night the parade float was transported to Pasadena.  In Pasadena they spent 2 days mostly painting, I believe.  The 20th and 21st. The kids all go home for Christmas but then there's a deco week (26th - 31st) where anyone can volunteer.  This is when they add all the plants and flowers.  This is for the New Year's rose parade.   

M(19) told us that they have to be able to lower the back mushroom/snail in 60 seconds, without power.  This is for the bridges (one or two) along the parade route.  But that when the mushroom is raised up the float is 25 feet tall.  

He skipped deco week but we both want to go next year.  I thought I heard that the kids were couch surfing (last year) but that probably was for the deco week in Pasadena.  For design 'week' (the 2 weeks before Christmas) they were fed and stayed at a (free) hotel on a college campus.  Free because the hotel is owned by the So Cal college.  In Pasadena, he may need to couch surf for the deco week next year.  I'd just go for the weekend.

This year, he's going back for the parade.  I dropped him off at the train station early this a.m.  He's taking the red eye train home on Monday night.  The parade is not done on Sundays, so it will be Monday.  But he's meeting up with the girfriend (who is working on campus) and then they have a 3-hour drive from there to Pasadena.  I expect he will have some interesting photos to share.   MM thought that today was when they started adding all the flowers.  They try to do all the more dry material (e.g. seeds) first.  But they have 2-3 dumpsters full of tiny vials that they fill with water and fresh flowers.  It's hard to imagine the scale of it all. 

Edited to add:  Some pictures ended up popping up online today. 

2022 should be well sorted.  I have updated my sidebar.

Who knows...  We had the double whammy of a sudden car repair *and* they could only take cash.  Ugh!  That is really throwing off my accounting! 

I have mixed feelings about it.  MM(19) told us the 'check engine' light was on in the kids' car.  His cheapie attitude was to ignore it.  Maybe we are lucky he said anything.  I said, "MM, do you know why we have a car with 200K miles on it?  & why we've had others that have lasted that long?  Because we always take our cars to the mechanic the second something is wrong with the car."  I hope I got the point across.  Everyone else is home for the week.  MH called around 9am, took in the car, and it was done around noon.  I suppose it was very slow this holiday week.  So I am very irritated with how much this messed up our system.  (Their credit card machine was broken.)  But also, holy cow, that was fast and easy.  Hard to imagine a better week to have a broken car.  It was the oxygen sensor.

I am just going to account for the repair in January.   I got paid early (12/30, instead of early January) and so have some float to cover it.  & I mean, MH also got paid.  There are many streams of float.  It's just messing up my system.

Edit:  If DL(17) was age 18+ and/or he had a job, we'd probably just have him pay for it.  It's the first big car expense that has come up on this car.  There was the brakes and work we done just before he had his driving test, but he wasn't licensed yet and MM didn't use the car for 9 months, and so we just covered that.  This is the first 'big' repair expense (more than an oil change) while anyone is licensed *and* using the car.  I expect that next time the kids will pay for any repairs.

I also can float whatever I owe MM for groceries (more 'cash' expenses driving me crazy)...  But he has yet to give me figures.  I need to nag him about that today.  He is going on his LA trip tomorrow.  I would prefer to get that done in 2022.  We are way under our grocery budget, and so would rather make that a 2022 expense.

I am very much looking forward to a quiet 3 day weekend.  Work is crazed this time of year.  So I am ready for a break.  

I completely give up on any catch up whatsoever, and so am just posting something current and quick.

Edited:  I tried to comment on other blogs (earlier) but it's not working.  I think I was just saying Merry Christmas to a few.  I could comment on one blog but none of the others.  Belated Merry Christmas! 

For the first time ever, looks like we will just be taking the standard deduction for our taxes.  It's about $26,000.

Last year we itemized $34,000.  The obvious difference is that we had $9K in medical bills last year and has ~$0 this year (miracle of miracles.)  $9K was extreme, but $0 is a miracle.  Both were very extreme years compared to our average.   Usually we hit our $3K deductible. 

{Knock on wood.  The year isn't over so won't celebrate coming in under medical deductible until January 1.  But any medical bills that pop up this week will be 2023 expenses to figure out.}

In the future, will have less than $4K mortgage interest (woohoo!).  That's an itemized deduction that is dropping rapidly.  Property taxes and charity.  That's about it.

State/local taxes are the opposite of what most presume.  Our State income tax system is progressive, we've paid ~$0 during the years we have had kids under 18.  (Lord knows I've done tax returns for regressively taxed states, where every dollar earned is taxed, in contrast.)  Property taxes can not rise more than 2% every year (Prop 13).  

Medical is most of what we deduct.  Health insurance premiums ($$$$$$) + medical/dental/ortho expenses.  We had the usual expenses, but just no deductible and nothing extra this year.  No orthodontist, no wisdom teeth, no other medical procedures.

I was making a note to get charity/donations in before 12/31.  Particularly re: the $1,000 in law gift.  They gift us $1,000 every year to forward on to charities.  I decided that it's probably better to push that off to 2023 and to bunch deductions. 

The bigger thing I will have to consider bunching is property taxes.  I have just been paying once a year for simplicity.  Which I really really like.  Less to keep track and use brain power for.  But, interest rates were also nothing the years I have done this.  With interest rates bumping up and being able to financially benefit from bunching deductions, I will have to ponder.  Taxes aren't due again until December, and so I can make a well informed decision at that time.  If I want to delay the second installment until 2024.

The whole point of bunching deduction is that if you would consistently come in under the standard deduction, you could at least bunch some deductions every other year and itemize (more than the standard deduction).  Being so on the cusp, we might just be more likely to itemize in 2023.  If we have an average medical year.  So it's beneficial to push off deductions to next year.

I expect I will have a few years where I ponder the hassle of bunching tax deductions and give some extra brain power to that.  But I expect inflation to outpace our deductions.  I think that will happen quickly, in the next few years.

Edited to add:  Will still itemize for California, but that doesn't really mean anything. 

I am absolutely exhausted.  This week was a work hell week.  I was too nice and I agreed to do the in-law Christmas thing tonight (2 hours away) though I have to work today.  I regret this now.  We usually do the prior weekend.  Now that I type this out, I don't know if they were trying to plan around MM(19)'s schedule.  At the time, sounded like SIL needed to reschedule.  MM(19) got home late last night.  MH was supposed to work today too (I was feeling less alone) but he got a text last night that he gets the day off.    

It was shaping up that we were going to do in-law Christmas today, MM's girlfriend's family Christmas Eve, and then Christmas with my family on Sunday.  But I guess the girlfriend's family has COVID and so that has been canceled.  I am so relieved.  I need a very long nap.  I do feel bad though because their Thanksgiving was impacted by health problems.  They aren't having much luck this holiday season.

I also appreciate not going to two big parties right before I visit my parents.  We will bring less germs with us.

Financially...

MH keeps getting raises.  He just got a third raise for the year.  He usually just gets one raise every fall (for the season).  I think they've bumped up his pay about 30% since the pandemic.

I am feeling less stressed about the new IRA max, accordingly.  Wasn't sure if we would bother with that.  But MH has enough raise to cover it.  His net pay will be roughly $13K for the year (IRA max x2).  With the latest raise, it might be more than that.  So I have already added that to my goal list.

Other than that, just waiting for my raise.  My boss was sick and is behind.  I saw preliminary numbers and he's pondering a big inflation bump.  I should have some clarity next week.  Unless something drastically changes from the preliminary numbers, I think I will be very happy with things.  

I transferred over a whole whopping $136 to MM(19).  $78 for 30 days of groceries (???) and $58 for his one way train ticket home.  His girlfriend gave him a ride back to school after Thanksgiving break.

To be fair, he charged up ~$25 on my Target card that I just paid for.  (Might have included non-grocery expenses that I'd expect him to pay for.)  & he told me MIL bought him some groceries but he made it sound like it was only $10 or $20.  (That he didn't really need anything, the weekend she visited.)

The girlfriend is feeding him a lot.  I was planning to get her a grocery gift card for Christmas.  Because she never accepts money (for gas or anything.)  I asked MM if her parents were paying for her groceries, wondering if that wasn't very exciting gift for her.  (Though maybe I owe her parents, in that case.)  But MM(19) told me that she was getting financial aid for her groceries.  I share because I think MM(19) is greatly benefitting from her free food.

MM(19) is applying for a RA position.  Fingers crossed!  I never in a million years would have guessed one of my kids would want to be a RA.  & honestly, not even really sure what his motivation is.  He gets "free" room and board regardless (we are paying).  His ultra frugal genes are his motivation, I guess.   & I think he just wants to be more independent. Unfortunately, is going to make housing really difficult (scrambling last minute re: very impacted housing) if he doesn't get the position.  But I am feeling pretty zen about it.  I can be zen for the chance to save a bajillion dollars.  Will see...  

We did just get DL(17)'s State college application submitted.  We had the nice surprise that his high school will pay for one CSU application.  (They are trying to figure out what to do with extra pandemic funds.)  I put $70 on the credit card but should eventually get a reimbursement for that.  He is just applying to the local State college.  It would have just been a check box to apply to our alma mater too (another State college) but we missed the deadline and that ship had sailed.  I didn't realize that A - the local state college extended the deadline & B - few other CSUs seemed to do the same extension.  DL(17) has been resisting (even visiting the college), so it's not a big loss. 

Edited to add:  Already received $70 reimbursement.  That was fast.

Financial aid is sorted for MM(19).  Phew!  

I am ready to sit down and sort all things college finances for MM(19).  It's plausible he could get more scholarships this year, but if he does I'd probably just give the money back to him.  I am preceding with the info that I have to-date, which is probably accurate.

Net tuition for the year is $4,100.  I will pull that money out of MM's gifted college funds when I pay spring quarter fees.  That is about a wash with the rent that will be due.  

We hadn't touched MM's money yet.  But he had free tuition last year.  I just hadn't touched it this year yet because financial aid was so up in the air.  Now that it's sorted, I like how this year is pretty much done and paid for already.  But I expect in the future I will just reimburse ourselves as we go.

I started this post a bajillion years ago but just have been slammed with work.  I figured I'd circle back and at least get this posted.

MM(19) did make it home last night.  Phew!  He had a blast, working on the parade float.  I don't know when, but when we can all sit down and look at some of his pictures...  I will share a behind the scenes photo.  

Miracle of miracles, I got my car back!  The repairs only took 30 days.  I feel so blessed that they were able to get parts without delay.  Phew!

Work is crazy, but I took Thursday afternoon off to play musical cars. 

DL(17) ended up with a dead car battery and got a jump that fried his stereo.  *sigh*  I suppose the timing was good as can be.  The stereo had been a little finicky (we bought it for MM in 2018) and we do have a big check coming from the state any day.  We really don't mind buying something a little more reliable.  So that's his big Christmas present.  He doesn't seem to be particularly interested in the upgrades, but is happy to have his stereo back.  We got the android auto and installed a backup camera, etc.  We are just too spoiled by our newer cars at this point.  MM(19) I am sure will appreciate the upgrade, and MH and I will appreciate it when we have to drive the car.  I literally never pull into a spot I have to back out of.  I am trying to think why I would even drive the car, but I guess I was stuck with it a lot more when DL(17) was learning (when I'd drop him off at school).  On my work-from-home days I'd often take it on errands (made the most sense to run errands on the way back home).  Maybe it's moot at this point.    Overall, is probably more of a family holiday present.  

Reminds me, the odomoter rolled past 200K on the kids' car.  I personally feel pretty *shrugs* about it.  It's not the first car I've had with 200K+ miles.  Mechanically, the car should have many years of life left.   Fingers crossed.  We intended this to be more of an age 16-18yo car for both kids while they saved up money for their own cars.  With car prices being so crazy right now, I am now viewing it as an "at least through college" car for the kids.  After our mechanic has raved about the car a few times, I suppose it's a car that can last us those few extra years.

Musical cars...  Dropped off DL's car, picked up my car.  Went home got the rental and dropped that off.  On the way there, MH got a call that the stereo was ready.  We had planned to eat a leisurely dinner while we waited.  So we picked up the car and drove two cars to dinner.  Had a celebratory dinner to celebrate getting my car back, and also to celebrate some good money news that day.  

I got official word re: year end bonus.  I received a very unexpected 8% bonus this year.  Woohoo!   It's been 5% during my first few years at this company.

Net bonus should be around $4,000.  I suppose it's extra appreciated this year because I had  a big tax hit (loss of DL's child tax credit).  If not for that, I probably could have kept $6,000! It's just a one time hit.  Will have his college tax credit next year. My #1 wish list item is to pay down the mortgage.  But will have to wait and see how cash gifts sort out this month.  Reminds me, am also received $200 yesterday.  Last year my work did $200 in lieu of Christmas party.  My boss totally forgot (why they did that) and so did the $200 again this year, in addition to "employees only" Christmas party.  

I may need the bonus money to get 2022 IRAs funded.

MH and I were both in a car at some point Thursday and I told him, we are in the "It's always something" stage.  Which I think is just how it will always be with only 1.1 incomes *and* a mortgage *and* kids.  Other than hitting a big psychological milestone (with the mortgage) *and* locking it in that we only have a mortgage on this house for 30 years max...  After that, mortgage paydowns will 100% take a back seat to college expenses and home maintenance.  I'd probably want to set aside ~$20K (for HVAC replacement at some point, and other home maintenance items) before throwing bigger chunks at the mortgage again.  Then there's maybe wisdom teeth re: DL and MM 100% is going to do braces again and surgery.  $10,000 here, $10,000 there.   There's always something.

After the big news day on Thursday, MH won $250!  It was a script contest.  Nothing he was excited about or passionate about, but probably the first time he's ever received any money re: film passions.  So that is exciting.  He told me today he has no idea how/when he will get this money. 

& after all that, MM(19)'s college financial aid office got caught up.  Phew!  I really thought they went home for the holidays.  I was thinking, "Must be nice!"  But I saw rumblings online that financial aid (refunds) were showing up in kids' bank accounts.  I literally logged in to MM(19)'s bank account this morning to see if I could set up to notify me when he received deposits.  The money was already there!  Which puts them back on track.  Except that they forced us to pay tuition early (not showing a financial aid deferral for MM).  But I did just check the tuition calendar and financial aid disburses January 3rd.  Which is when they intend to refund us for over payment of winter quarter.  Fair enough.  Won't be any later than usual.  It's just that I wouldn't have paid in the money (in 2022) if they had allowed us to defer tuition payments for financial aid. 

I am really glad they sorted this out.  I was running through tax projections last weekend and was starting to get really irritated.  I didn't realize how much this would potentially impact our college tax credit next year.  If we were refunded same or more than what we paid (in 2023), that could have cost us thousands of dollars in Federal tax credits.  Which is something I hadn't thought of before.  I am really happy that they made it right, during this calendar year.  Second quarter is still messed up, but one quarter's timing right at the turn of the new of the new year...  It's a little more forgiveable.   

I am sure they had parents and students absolutely freaking out.  I expect that most at our income level would have been struggling to cover tuition they never expected to have to pay.  I presume they got a lot of pressure and is why the money is now in my bank account.

Received $73 bank interest for the month of November.

Received $180 I Bond interest for the month of November.

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $2 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

   Less: $95 Annual Fee 

--Redeemed $92 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $33 on dining out/gas card (+ groceries during Q4)

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

+ $8 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $40 Snowflakes to Investments

Snowball to Savings:

+$1,200 MH Income

401k Contributions/Match:

+$890

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$950 to cash (mid-term savings)

-$1,200 Life Insurance**

-$  580 Travel Expenses/Film Festivals

-$  400 MH new cell phone

-$  100 Web light and microphone (for film festival interviews)

-$   78 Pest Control

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

+$1,500 to cash

- $5,800 Property Taxes (cash)

TOTAL: -$3,325 Net Pulled from Cash 

Pulled from 'College Savings'

-$7,830 Tuition + Rent

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

For Comparison:

Gas Rental Miles Driven November: 224

Fuel Costs: $55

The rental came with 1/2 tank of gas.  Will probably spend $100+ in December. 

I am getting ~30mpg on my (freeway) work commute. 

Hybrid Miles Driven November:  276

Fuel Costs: $7 Electricity 

(assumed 50 miles & 14 KwH per full charge)

This car is stuck in body shop re: early November accident

Electric (EV) Miles Driven November: 706

Fuel Costs: $13 (home) 

(assumed 300 miles & 60 KwH per full charge)

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

We did 25 miles of free charging this month (at the mall).

Note:  I am putting some of my commute miles on the EV.

I don't think we did any out of town driving this month?  DL(17) and I drove to the Bay Area once (for a college tour) but we took his car.

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

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

November is particularly ugly because I had some large *cash* expenses that I couldn't push off to December.

**Life insurance.  This is my insurance that went up 4x? for turning 45.  I need to address it.  Will either be eligible for ~1/2 rates (based on health) or will have to shop around.  Before age 45, this insurance was very inexpensive.  This is on my to do list.

Note:  Just got my LT disability renewal which didn't change much.  But reminded me I do get cash rebates on these premiums and I just looked it up.  I may get $300 back re: bigger life insurance premiums.  Obviously still need to shop around, but it's not quite as nasty as it sounds.  While going through the application and medical stuff, I am going to apply for a bigger disability benefit.  I didn't make enough income before.  & if I am going to have them pull my medical records anyway, might as well kill two birds with one stone.

Short term savings is *done* and zeroed out for the year.   I'd generally charge life insurance to short term, but I didn't plan for such a large insurance expense. 

Because there were no more short-term funds, everything else was deducted against mid-term savings.  Travel expenses above our budget, new cell phone, etc. 

MH finally invested in a ring light and a nice microphone, because he had some online interviews set up (re: film festivals).  We've been very frugal on this front (er, we've been cheap).  I think MH and DL might still be sharing a webcam.  I don't need one.  MM(19) has a webcam integrated into his college laptop.  Oh wait, we only had one webcam pre-pandemic but MH eventually bought a second once, after things settled down. DL(17) does have his own webcam now, which he does not use much.  Anyway, my point is that this purchase was very long overdue.  I am sure MH's friends and relatives appreciate that he got a light and doesn't just sit in the dark now.  😁  He's always used skype a lot, with friends and family (for past ~20 years).   He probably should have bought a light 10+ years ago.  & the microphone is just crappy on his current webcam.  MM(19) might appreciate our investment, we do skype with him a lot to keep in touch, while he is away at college.

MH did also invest in a new cell phone.  His cell phone was 4 years old.  I think this is one of the longer stretches that he has had a phone.  His last phone, I considered to be very expensive.  I personally try to stick to ~$100/year Max (willing to buy a $400 phone every 4 years).  So overall, I was happy with what MH spent, and was less than I expected.  (It's a $650 phone, but he received $250 for trading in his old phone.)

Re: tuition & rent ~ The school owes us $2,300 (CA middle class financial aid x 2 quarters) and we intend to reimburse ourselves (from college funds) $2,500 for our net tuition costs (x 2 quarters).  This leaves about $3,000 (net to cover) which was pulled from rent money that we set aside in 2021.

Financial aid office is still crazy behind and has kicked the can down the road to 2023.  Was supposed to sort out refunds in early December but gave up and is saying "January" now.  Which means of course, "We are closed for the rest of the year and will get back to it in January."  Lord knows when they will actually figure it out.  In the meantime, I still have no idea the odds that MM(19) will get any other scholarships this school year, etc.  On the plus side, will owe very little (if anything) for spring quarter.   

Looking ahead to December, I just feel very saved by the bell.  We have multiple large inflows of cash coming in.  So otherwise it was a spendy month (though we would not have gone negative, like we did in November.  No *big* expenses like property taxes and college bills).  But it will be a very flush month, with all the extra cash flow.  I will probably net $4K with my bonus, and we should get $1K from the state any day now (inflation relief).  

2022 TALLY (Preliminary):

$200 Capital One (DL credit card - used for auto insurance)

$ 30 Citi Reward (for charging hotel)

$ 15 AmEx Reward (for charging insurance)

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

$245 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*

Ongoing rewards:

+$296 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/streaming services)

+$71 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)

+$128 Visa Rewards (3% cash back restaurants/fuel).  Ended up also using for groceries in Q4 (3% cash back)

+$919 Citi 2% card (2% back everywhere - health insurance/medical is the *big* expense that we charge, is more than our mortgage payments)

Grand Total = $1,659

I just want to add that historical figures below do also include bank bonuses. They just don't generally work very well for us so I do not utilize as much.  (We did -0- bank bonuses in 2022).

Year 2011 = $4,164

Year 2012 = $2,782

Year 2013 = $2,623

Year 2014 = $3,128

Year 2015 = $2,585

Year 2016 = $1,906

Year 2017 = $3,578

Year 2018 = $2,096

Year 2019 = $2,266

Year 2020 = $2,107

Year 2021 = $2,377

Year 2022 = $1,659

Total 12 Years = $31,271 ***Mostly Tax-Free Income***

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

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

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

I am just leaving this as a placeholder.  All I need to do is add in the December rewards when I have them, for the final 2022 tally.

Honorable Mention to I Bond interest. ~$1,200 interest this year and will be more next year.  I won't include it because it's not a "bonus".  It's basically the equivalent to bank interest.  But it was such a boost this year, and might be some of the reason I did not pursue more rewards.  

In addition to the I bond boost, I just am not as motivated with MH working, and with the kids making their own money and paying for more of their own expenses.  The credit card rewards made all the difference during our lower one-income years.  I feel like I say "meh" every year, that I am losing interest in these.  But...  I keep getting enticed by the easy $800 here and there.  This might be the first year I let it go.  (The year is not over it.  Will see.)  I did do a big reward (in 2021) to pay for MM(19)'s college laptop and I might to the same for DL next year.  So I can see some potential bigger rewards on the horizon.

MM(19) did do a $200 credit card bonus this year.  But he didn't need me to co-sign his credit card.  I was not involved in that, so won't add that to the tally.  I did get DL(17) a credit card and a bonus (and helped him with the spending to get the bonus.)  Same as we did for MM, it was nice to have a $200 chunk to apply to his first big car insurance bill. 

There was also a couple of obvious small rewards that I just had to click a button and/or switch credit cards to redeem.  (I didn't seek them out, but I got an email or saw mentioned online.)

Given the low energy I put towards looking for credit card bonuses recently, it's no surprise that this will be our lowest year (since tracking). 

HOTEL:

--------

$50 Hotel Coupon

MOVIES:

--------

$50  Regal

$50  Art House Theater

RESTAURANTS:

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

$50 Seasons 52

$50 Cracker Barrel (small balance left)

$ 25 x 1 Jamba Juice (Gift)

RETAIL:

---------

$50 Amazon (Gift)

$50 Kohls (Gift)

REGIFT:

---------

$25  Starbucks

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

As Birthday/Christmas season hits our household, I have a few gift cards to add to the list.

MH was ordering movie tickets last week.  MM(19) and I were going to go to a movie with him.  (MH has an unlimited pass for himself).  I was shocked he still had credit on the movie theater gift cards.  I guess MH has earned a lot of free passes (that mostly MM(19) utilizes).  

I am going to regift the starbucks gift card to my coworker (holiday gift).  No one in my household likes coffee or starbucks.  I am sure I will get new Starbucks cards this season, for the regift pile.

We haven't stayed in our 'forever' hotel since we got MM(19) moved in his first year of college.  They tripled the prices after that (it's absurd).  It was always definitely a huge discount for what it was, but now it's gone extreme in the other direction.  I share just to say that I don't know if we will ever use this hotel discount.  If prices settle down, maybe. 

I received some new retail gift cards (gifts).  There's nothing I need/want at this point, so will just hang on to them for when something comes up.  I just did some recent Kohls shopping and I don't buy much on Amazon.  I mean, I am sure something will come up.  

MM(19) took the train home on Monday.  Got home very late that night. 

I think he's got a week and a day left of school.  All his finals are on a Monday.  But he will stick around and then will be in LA for a couple of weeks (joint school project).   I thought he would just be couch surfing, but it turns out that the school/club will be paying for a hotel.  

I looked up Southwest and the airfare was something like $90 from LA to our backyard.  It's a no brainer.  We booked the ticket a few days ago.  I presumed the train might be the same or even a few bucks cheaper.  But time is worth something too.  I just looked it up out of curiosity and it's $102 for the super cheapie seats (no refunds).  The train ride is 14 hours.  Versus a 1 hour plane ride.

(We live right by the train and the airport, so this is all very convenient on our end.)

The project that MM(19) is working on is the tournament of roses parade.  Building a rose float.  As an engineering major he is working on some of the welding/building, electronics, etc.  

I really wanted to go this year to see the behind the scenes.  They have a big deco week where the community helps with all the final touches.  But I don't think the timing works out this year.  They aren't starting the decorating until after Christmas, which is my work hell week.  MM(19) is skipping the parade hell week for whatever reason.  But wants to go back for the day of the parade.  As he started pressing us to make plans, I was just too exhausted and still unsure of the schedule.  He pointed out that I could go New Years weekend and he has a point.  But it also sounds like the most chaotic time to go.  I wanted to see the behind the scenes.  I wasn't interested in the big crowd on New Years day.

So I told him he should take someone young and up to all this.  DL(17) or his girlfriend.  He was able to get a free timeshare stay (through MIL).  

MM(19) was just going to drive down to school to meet up with his girlfriend (who is working on campus, during the break).  They will drive together those last few hours, to LA. But his school is being an extraordinary PITA with parking and all that.  Probably for the best.  We realized that the roundtrip train would be cheaper than gas, anyway.  So might as well just do the train thing. 

MM's TA job is going well.  I think he is making $1,200 (net) for the quarter.  He did not commit to next quarter because they wanted a commitment during the first week of the job?  But he somehow got classes (without the priority registration).  He is enjoying it so much, he said he will sign up again for the spring.  He can TA 2x for this class.

Financial aid is supposed to sort out "by the end of the quarter."  Which is... Next week?  The college owes me $2,300.  I am hoping that sorts out in the next week or two.  I paid full price tuition *again* because I don't want to risk MM(19) having any problems with his classes.   By the time I post my November update, maybe I will be able to lessen the college hit by this $2,300?  Fingers crossed.  I do also plan to reimburse ourselves from MM(18)'s college funds, but just depends where the stock market is.  I don't want to do any of that until financial aid sorts out and I know what our actual cost is for this school year.

I had that New Years conversation with MM(19) before my car accident.  I really am just not in a good mental space for driving to LA right now.   I don't even know if we will have a practical vehicle for that.  So I was already kind of, "You make plans, and I need more time to figure this out."  Then things just got worse from there.

I mentioned briefly on my monthly update but didn't say much about it.  Someone hit my car on the freeway.  (They swerved to avoid hitting another car; didn't see me.)  I haven't been in an accident where the other person pulled over, since the 1990s.  Times have changed.  Within a few hours, the other insurer had already claimed responsibility (I guess it was very "open and shut") and had booked the repairs and a car rental for me.  

The damage looks relatively superficial but he did hit my back wheel and most of the side of the car is damaged.  *sigh*   This is not a simple back bumper hit (like any prior accident I have had).  I had heard enough horror stories in recent times.  From the pictures it looks so minor that I think most thought I was crazy to even stress about it.   The cost to repair ended up being... $14,000!  By any normal depreciation, my car would be toast.  But the car is worth far more than I paid for it (today) and it sounds like the insurance will repair it.  I am not holding my breath...  Just crossing my fingers that they don't find anything else.

The broke person in my office thinks that I should just take the money and buy a newer vehicle.  Most other people I know seem to be more of my thinking.  We keep our cars for 15-20 years.  The car is only 5 years old (and I *love* the car).  We just invested a fair amount in much newer/nicer cars than we have ever had before.  But the last thing I want to do is spend any more money on cars.  It was my preference not to spend a cent on a car until the kids were done with college (another ~5 years.)  I have had some extra anxiety about this in recent years with these absurd car repair costs and used car prices.  Anxiety about the "completely outside my control" factor.  & so, here we are. 

No one was hurt.  The other person's insurance is covering everything.  I guess this is as good as it gets, with these things.

The first ETA we have received is that the car will be fixed around Christmas.  I am mentally prepared that I won't get it back until the end of January.  Delays are expected. Will see...

We had just rented a Nissan Sentra in Arizona that we had liked and got 50mpg.  So I wasn't too put out by the gas rental situation.  But apparently there are no small cars to rent in our city.  Ugh.  So we ended up with a boat, but we are lucky not to have a SUV or truck honestly.  My first instinct was to be cheap and MH was just driving for his 3-mile commute.  Is really the only reason we need to drive that thing.  But I reconsidered (particularly when we received a more solid ETA).  I realize that it's probably more financially sensible to pile miles on the rental car.  I should have some extra Christmas/birthday money next month that we will just invest in car gas.  Ask me again when I have to start buying gas for a boat. 

For reference, my commute would have been about $6 per day (gas) in the Nissan Sentra.  Maybe closer to $10 per day in the large sedan?  Will see...  I haven't committed to driving it all the time.  & I have some days off work this month.  & MH might have some days off next month.  Will see how long I can stomach paying literally 10 times as much for fuel.

Pre-Thanksgiving was Drama Drama Drama.   But the day ended up very nice and peaceful.

Long story short, hell froze over and MH agreed not to do Thanksgiving with his family.  Of course his mom can't let it go, so it was a lot of drama the days prior.  (I don't think he's ever missed a Thanksgiving.  They have no concept that I have a family too, that MH has his own family, etc.)  I think the worst of it was Wednesday, when I was blissfully out of town.  If I was home, MH would have been venting to me all day.

**Edited to remove my own venting.**

I wish we could have given the Holiday to my parents, but they just aren't up to it at this point.  So we decided to have a peaceful day at home.  Is what all of us wanted more than anything at that point.  But we had sent off MM(19) to his girlfriend's Holiday and they ended up inviting us.  We felt obligated to go.  Most particularly because they had for months planned a summer BBQ that we had to cancel last minute when MH had COVID.  & it turns out that they usually have a bigger Thanksgiving with family but had stayed home due to medical reasons.  So they really appreciated having more mouths to feed.

The girlfriend and the Dad are both really good cooks.  We ate very well.  They seem to be a very relaxed bunch and we really enjoyed meeting them.

I tried a new/simple cookie recipe that was amazing:

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/cookies/butternuts.html

I am looking forward to the peaceful long weekend.  Nothing planned today, though we have some appetizers to eat through (that we had bought for the in law Thanksgiving.)  

This weekend will be college stuff.  Have some financial stuff to go through with MM(19).  & DL(17) is going to be applying to one college.

We toured the local State college a few weeks ago and were all very pleasantly surprised.  It's a really nice campus.  I think we've always been kind of "meh" on the local colleges, being from the Bay Area.  & I mean, they didn't have any accounting programs when we moved here.  I abandoned my Graduate degree with the move.  Lord knows we didn't see the point of studying engineering here (with all the Bay Area schools to compare).  So I booked the tour and MH and DL(17) were kind of, "Why are we here?"  Because I like back up plans for my back up plans, and wanted DL(17) to know what his options are.  We all ended up really liking the campus.  So he may just stay at home his first year of college.

I keep trying to get him to tour my alma mater (which has an amazing accounting program) but DL(17) is really resisting.  He is prickly and I honestly think he would just hate it (it's in the middle of downtown).  But he wants to study accounting and I think he needs to at least set foot there and guage how he feels about it.  If he viscerally hates it, I am totally fine with that.  But it would be nice to know for sure.  (He absolutely could not stand MM's college campus.  If he didn't have such a negative visceral reaction, I'd suggest he just goes to community college down there and room with his brother.  I suppose it is another community college he could look into, but I think the distance is a bit much for him.)

We were out of town Wednesday because we went on a tour of the community college he is interested in.  In the Bay Area.  It was also a beautiful campus.  Both these campuses are woodsy, and he likes that.  

DL(17) has been overly fixated on college costs.  I told him to let it go.  The $8K state college is only $1,500 (annual tuition) after Federal tax credits and State middle class grants.  I told him the difference was negligible (versus community college) and that is why I personally didn't bother with community college.  I can't speak for MH but I expect it was the same for him.  I told him this at the beginning of the State college tour and I think he went into it with a more open mind.  It might cost $1,500 more per year but we can afford it and that $1,500 buys a lot of amenities.  Also, I've said before, if he starts out at State he is more likely to stay there.  So bigger picture I really think it's the most bargain option for his degree.  He's more likely to just start out at home (no extra room/board) *and* he is more likely to just finish his 4-year degree at the very affordable college.  Once he has that momentum going.  

We ended up canceling our Oregon trip last minute.  Too much ice/snow for our comfort level.  Of course, we were already on the fence about this trip so that was a lot of it.  The pros/cons shifted quickly to...  "Meh"

In the "it never hurts to ask" vein, they fully refunded our very last minute cancelation for the first hotel night.  (I am not entirely sure if MH asked, or if they were just nice and offered.  I told him to at least ask for a credit for a future stay.  Re: the fine print, we were out ~$100 because did not give enough notice.)  The second hotel we canceled within an hour of the cutoff time for full refund.  So I'd say that we were out $0.

But...  MH insisted on getting gas ahead of time (which made me uncomfortable) and so now I am stuck with a full tank of gas.  $37 for the small gas tank.  I will leave it be because we are still waiting to hear back from some Oregon and LA festivals.  Or it's just enough to drive to the Bay Area (and to leave the 2 gallons I need to last me 12 months).  So will burn through it one way or another.  It literally feels like burning money; gas is so expensive here.

Edit:  MH just got into another Oregon festival but not sure if we will be able to make it during winter.  The date is TBD.

DL(17) passed his driver test!  Woohoo!  I can't believe he actually did it in 6 months (I expected he would take his sweet time).   Poor kid, though.  I think he drove in the rain *once* during his 6 month permit, and even that was probably a miracle.  So there was rain in the forecast, it is what it is.  But I kept checking the forecast and eventually the window closed to rain just at the time of his test.  It ended up raining more on the drive to the DMV, which is good and at least gave him some time to get more comfortable with how to use the wipers, etc.   It pretty much stopped raining when his test was done.  

Yeah, MM(19) had his permit from January through July, so he had a lot more weather practice.  & night practice too. The fog will probably roll in any day now and that will be a fun experience.  Things that DL(17) just gets to figure out on his own. 

Last Saturday DL(17) drove to the Bay Area, through San Francisco.  He wanted to a while ago and I was fine with it, but was just the first weekend we didn't have something going on.  We took my bff out to lunch.  She had been helping DL(17) out with a school project.  I asked if we could meet near a charger.  Apparently she also has a Bolt (I didn't know) and we met by an EVgo charger.  It ended up being $0.30 for ~100 mile charge.  ???  I still had an old credit I lost track of.   I was annoyed because the charger had a 1 hour limit.  I needed an extra 2-3 minutes to be confident I could make it home.  In the end we stopped for about 3 minutes at a charger, on the way home, so spent ~$2 on outside chargers.  I expect this stop was completely unnecessary. 

Last weekend I added DL(17) to our AAA account and also paid for the annual renewal.  I was at least smart enough to add that to his credit card.  It looks like he is ~$70 short of $200 reward on $500 spend.  I will have to keep thinking about it, if I have any smaller purchases (online).   

Edit:  I ended up charging MM's auto insurance bill.  It was ~$200.  DL(17) has already received the $200 reward to offset.  I expect we will get another ~$200 bill any day now.  Now that we have added DL(17) as a new driver.   I expect to be paying closer to $400 every 6 months (or what MM had been paying as a new driver).  MM(17) had whittled it down to $200 with his good driving and some years of experience.  He does have a 'college student away from home' discount but that has been very negligible on top of all the other discounts.  A lot of why the insurance is so low is because we only put ~1,000 miles per year on that car.  

It is on my list to fill up his gas tank one more time.  We did a week or two ago, but wanted to basically start him off with a full tank.  The old gas car is his now.  & along with that, all of the expenses.  I already told MM(19) that he is officially carless now.  (He will borrow whatever car is available, when he is home.)   

We took the car to the mechanic the day before DL's test.  I expected it needed brake work, and wanted to make sure the brakes were okay for the test, and for DL(17) afterwards.  Ended up spending ~$900.  New brakes, new battery, and new headlights.  I think the headlight went out while they had it, because we were on the way to pick it up when they noticed and changed them out.  MH was relieved because he recalled his dad telling him they were a real PITA to change out in that car.  (& also could have had to postpone his test, if he had a non-functioning headlight during rain.  Phew!)

& the weekend before, they had picked up new wiper blades for the car. 

Anyway, I've kept the $1,500/year car repair placeholder in our budget (from when we had two much older cars), while still having one very old car.  But the old car is driven so little, it's never needed any work before.  So we had four ~$0 repair years (on all of our cars).  It's no surprise that eventually the old gas car would need some work.  Big picture, we've made out pretty well.  (The car was a free hand-me-down.)

MH and I went out to celebrate DL passing his test!  (DL was exhausted and not hungry).  I am excited about not having to drive DL to school on Wednesdays any more.  I can't even fathom the time and freedom this opens up for MH, if I am so excited about getting 40 minutes of my week back.  We definitely wanted to celebrate.  The next film festival will be so much easier, not trying to coordinate who will pick up DL(17) from school, etc.  The ability to make any travel plans, ever.  Or the ability of MH to work full-time, etc.  It is a big change for us.

This morning I tried to take care of some bills and noticed that both our property taxes and flood insurance went down a little bit.  How random is that!?  I had to share the success of something getting less expensive.  I googled a bit and didn't see any explanation for reduced flood premiums.  With the property taxes, we have a lot of bonds and some of those we are graduating out of (after 20 years) and some have been refinanced, etc.  

We spoke to MM(19) once in the past 2? weeks.  He is focusing on one club/project this year, which is a joint project with a school in LA.  So he is driving down to LA most weekends.  He went a handful of times last year, but now it's every weekend.  Because he has more time to commit and he has made it his priority.  That will be a lot of spending on his part, with the fuel (shared) and buying food on the road. 

MM told me he was only $2 away from his $500 spend.  To get that $200 credit card reward.  He had also purchased concert tickets (for when he's in Santa Barbara staying with his girlfriend's family) and a one-way train ticket.  I appreciate how he just took the lead and got that taken care of.  I mean, he could have asked his cousin if he could get a ride, but he is going to LA for the weekend before Thanksgiving and just presumed everyone else would be gone when he got back.   So he bought himself a train ticket.  In addition, mostly just groceries, and he also used that credit card at the dentist, both of which I reimbursed him for already.  I will reimburse him for the train ticket.  Plan A was that his girlfriend was going to Santa Barabra for the (Thanksgiving) break.  But I guess that changed and she is able to give him a ride back to school.  To clarify the one-way ticket.  I had to ask him why he only bought a one-way ticket.  I guess plans keep changing.  For winter break, he will be in LA for a couple of weeks. It might make more sense to figure out how to get him home from LA.  It might be most cost effective to fly.

I am feeling a little overwhelmed.  I suppose it was a crazy week and I have also put a lot of my time to all these film festivals.  & then was out all day with DL(17) last weekend.  Now I have a quiet weekend at home and just feel overwhelmed by my to do list.  I expect some of it is also the time I am committing to my communications class.  It's not a big time commitment, but time is time.  I've mostly been doing the class on work time, but then I just feel behind at work too.  But the class is *amazing*.  I am so glad because I was reluctant to give up precious time.  I made the right choice.  I will be done in 4 weeks.

Our weather pretty much went straight from summer to winter.  Brrrrrr... 

Received $75 bank interest for the month of October.

Received $180 I Bond interest for the month of October.

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $4 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

--Redeemed $98 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $26 on dining out/gas card (+ groceries during Q4)

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

+ $5 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)

TOTAL: $133 Snowflakes to Investments

Snowball to Savings:

+$1,250 MH Income

-$  150 College Expenses (dorm insurance, kitchen supplies)

401k Contributions/Match:

+$970

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$950 to cash (mid-term savings)

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

+$1,500 to cash

-$  900 New Tires (EV)

-$  450 Car Insurance (hybrid)

-$  645 Travel - College Move-In

-$  535 Travel - Arizona

-$ 150 Dentist (MM)

-$   50 Password Software

TOTAL: $2,178 Deposited to Cash and Investments

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

Hybrid Miles Driven October:  785

Fuel Costs: $21 Electricity + $37 Gas

(assumed 50 miles & 14 KwH per full charge)

Electric (EV) Miles Driven October: 1,370

Fuel Costs: $24 (home) + $8 (out)

(assumed 300 miles & 60 KwH per full charge)

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

Note:  Summer rates ended and we will pay lower electricit rates for next 8 months.  

We did 100 miles of free charging this month.  Free Miles Downtown (film festival)

Spent $6 charging on ~270 mile Bay Area trip.  

Spent $2 charging on 300 mile Bay Area trip.  (Used EvGo while meeting a friend for lunch. I still apparently had some old credit.)

We also drove to the Bay Area (a 3rd time) and Napa. 

Note:  Purchased gas for Oregon trip and then ended up not going.  Will have to burn through this gas at some point.  Waiting to see how other film festivals shake out.  Otherwise, will do a gas run to Bay Area at some point.  That will burn through most of the excess gas.

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

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

What to say about October?  It's what I expected.  Off the top of my head, still have ~$650 left in the vacation fund; will finish zeroing out next month.  October was *the* big travel month, but most of that was charged in October and will be paid for in November.

I did see that our credit cards rewards are being upgraded on my credit union card.  At first glance the only difference I saw was that gas is going up from 3% to 4% cash back.  I don't think that will help us much.  With DL(17) taking over the gas car, I expect to only spend ~$15 on gas per year.  

I Bond rates should bump up next month.  We are still getting first 6 months of 7.12% rate.  Then will get 6 months @ 9.62%.   

Interest rates on our savings accounts continue to go up.  

Our car maintenance has been ~$0 for the past 4 years.  I had a $1,500 annual car repair placeholder that I have just kept in place because we received the kids' (20yo) gas car 4 years ago.  I figured I'd keep the same car repair maintenance placeholder.  (We used to have two older cars, but now have two newer cars under warranty, ourselves.  The two older cars would always throw off more car repair bills).  But in the end, the kids' old gas car has been extremely low maintenance.  It's a great car, but also barely driven.  I think "barely driven" is more to the point as to the very low maintenance.  & the EVs are extremely low maintenance.  

It was nice while it lasted, but this year we will have some catch up on repair bills.  We had some repairs on the old gas car (will show up next month).  & it was time to replace OEM tires on the EV, which we got 50K miles out of.  Not bad, for factory tires.  I am so confused though because my car has more miles and way more life left on the (same OEM) tires.  All I can figure is that the ~90% freeway driving is much lighter on the tires.  While MH was getting his tires changed out, I was going through tire discussions in my hybrid group and saw some opinion that should replace tires after 5 years due to the weight of the car and the thinness of the energy efficient tires.  But when I got home that day and looked carefully at the tread, I decided that is ridiculous.  I mean, I was almost ready to just switch my tires out too.  I will give it a year and spread out costs a little bit.  I can still be cautious and switch out next fall.  Both our cars are 2017 model years.  I will probably switch mine out at 75K miles.  (An extra 25K miles with all that freeway driving.  MH did buy his car more used, so maybe the prior owner was also harsh on the tires).  With MH's car, we replaced the tires about a year before we needed to.  But we didn't have any expenses for 4 years and we had a used tire on the car (to replace a flat) that was nearing the end of its life.  We just found it easier to replace all the tires and move on.

Looking ahead to November.  Ugly...  Just paid Property taxes and MH's rent for the second quarter.  Big transfers out of savings this month.  In addition to paying off some big credit card charges from prior month.  & I would pay tuition if MH Had been able to register or if financial aid office was caught up.  Will see...

I did just update sidebar.  Tentatively checked off $10K savings goal.  I do expect to fall backward this month and so won't give it a full check off.  But I think December looks promising to solidify this goal.  On the plus side, I am not pulling college money or property taxes from this bucket.  So all of this big money drain in November should mostly not affect our $10K (mid-term) savings goal. 

Edited to add:  I usually draft this post around the beginning of the month I am updating, because I have most numbers and most spending done.  So...  That was 6 weeks ago?  I did end up in a car accident this week.  Ugh!  Someone hit my car on the freeway.  Everyone is okay and that is what is important.  (& for the first time since college, the other person actually pulled over and took responsibility.)  My November numbers will be weird because I expect my car mostly to be in the shop and will have to rent a gas car.  MH will take the rental (for his 3-mile commute), to minimize gas costs.  We are going to drive this gas rental as little as possible. & the timing is good in that we don't have to spend our own gas driving DL(17) to school.  He got his license just days before my accident.  

Oh, and one of my tires was hit in the accident.  I presume the shop will replace it and then I will be left with uneven tires.  I may just bite the bullet and replace all the rest of the tires at ~67K miles.  If I wait until December, I can at least make it a 2023 expense (charge in December, paying with January 2023 budget).  I guess that whole thing I am rethinking again.  I suppose it may be optimistic to assume I can even get my car back this year.  

HOTEL:

--------

$50 Hotel Coupon

MOVIES:

--------

$50  Regal

$50  Art House Theater

RESTAURANTS:

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

$50 Cracker Barrel (small balance left)

$25 Chili's

$ 25 x 1 Jamba Juice (Gifts)

RETAIL:

---------

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

$25  Kohls Gift Card (DL Christmas Gift)

REGIFT:

---------

$25  Starbucks

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

We just got through a restaurant gift card from 2017!  

We've been discussing for several months at this point, but finally used that Chili's gift card.  

Yeah, the *one* thing I wanted to buy more breathing room in our budget for was more "dates" and eating out with the hubby.  Which...  Has gone nowhere.  We did a couple of nice meals early in the year and then decided it just wasn't our thing.  The grass looked greener, I guess?  But once I made it a priority and put it in the budget, neither of us were interested.

So this is why we have talked about using up this gift card finally, since summer.  & sounded more promising when MH told me there is a Chili's in our neighborhood. Must be new?  After all that, we went to the Bay Area yesterday and just didn't want to spend money (not full meals out x2 money).  I grabbed the gift card just in case.  It worked out perfectly because we got a late start home and decided to just stop and eat, to break up the drive.  There was a Chili's at the half way point.

We made out pretty well.  The grand total was $6 (including tax) for a steak dinner, 1/3 of a beer, and an appetizer/main course/margarita special that MH ordred.  I got the last of the beer (they ran out) so they just gave it to me for free.  A 1/2 glass probably would have been ideal for me, so I just went with it.  Lord knows I wouldn't have wanted another full glass of (another) beer, in addition to the 1/3 glass.  Because we spent so little on the meal, I tipped generously.  We also had enough leftovers to feed DL when we got home.

I am not sure where we are at with movie gift cards.  We might have used up the art house gift card.  & I think MH ended up buying a second $50 Regal gift card, but I don't remember for sure.   MH has an unlimited Regal movie pass, and earns more points than I would ever use for free tickets, so he gets through the movie gift cards very slowly. 

As the year wraps up, trying to get through the retail cards.  I just have been using the Target gift cards when I do online orders.  Which is usually toiletries and really boring stuff, but I did treat myself to a monkey sweatshirt the other day. 

& I lucked out with Kohls.  I noticed the jeans I had were getting kind of sad (a pair that I didn't expect to be coming apart already).  So I popped online and my jeans were on sale for $20.  I gave DL(17) $25 cash for the Kohls gift card last Christmas, but had yet to use the gift card.

Jamba Juice, I was going every week during early summer but I guess I got bored with it.  I don't know.  I got through one $25 gift card and have another one for next summer.

We did a $80 grocery run when we dropped off MM(19) at college.  After the first 30 days, his credit card cycle closed with $70 in grocery costs.  Will see how it shakes out during the next few months.  But I would be happy to keep it at $200/month or lower.  This sounds like it might work out.   

CA state funding came through and I have a better idea of real tuition costs this year.  First, the state is raising middle class funding over the next few years.  I've heard our $2K grant would probably go up to $3K this year.  It ended up being $3,400.  Woohoo!  & might be more next year?

Even better, the CA money is now showing up for all 4 years.  Initially he had so many credits they labeled him as a sophomore last year and only was showing 3 years of grants.  I am sure that was probably right.  Some majors can get out in 2-3 years if you start with a lot of credits.  But that's just not going to be the case for his engineering degree.  So I don't know what to think, but now it's showing up for all 4 years.  So that's +$3K I really was not expecting.

We've whittled the cost of MM(19)'s degree (tuition) down to $14,500. 

Edit:  MM and his girlfriend are each cooking a meal once a week, and then leftovers are carrying them through.  It sounds like girlfriend may be doing even more cooking/baking (she loves to cook) and I think I will try to buy her a grocery gift card for Christmas.  She just refuses money (any time we have offered her reimbursements for gas, food, anything).  So I am trying to figure out how to put some money back in her pocket. 

& I mean, that's just the big food effort.  MM(19) loves baked potatoes (cheap/easy) and told us he was buying some frozen meals.  If he went straight from home to college/apartment, I would not expect that at all.  But I guess he can tolerate some of the frozen meals when the alternative is (terrible/expensive) campus food.  It's all relative.

Received $70 bank interest for the month of September.

Received $180 I Bond interest for the month of September.

Snowflakes to Investments:

--Redeemed $49 credit card rewards (cash back) from our grocery card 

--Redeemed $84 cash back on Citi card

--Redeemed $12 on dining out/gas card 

Other Snowflakes to Investments:

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

+ $65 Dividends

TOTAL: $217 Snowflakes to Investments

Snowball to Savings:

+$930 MH Income

-$150 Grocery Budget Overage

-$230 Misc Over-Spending 

-$  50 Gas (Kids' car, DL practice driving)

-$100 To Friend in Need (came up last minute)

-$100 AP Test Fee

401k Contributions/Match:

+$850

Savings (from my paycheck):

+$950 to cash (mid-term savings)

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

+$1,500 to cash

-$  486 Airfare

-$  286 Annual Vet Visit

-$  220 Running Shoes for DL

-$    78 Pest Control

TOTAL: $2,997 Deposited to Cash and Investments

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

Hybrid Miles Driven September:  760

Fuel Costs: $25 Electricity 

(assumed 50 miles & 14 KwH per full charge)

Electric (EV) Miles Driven September: 1,300

Fuel Costs: $19 (home) + $17 (out)

(assumed 300 miles & 60 KwH per full charge)

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

Note:  Home charging rates are higher during summer months.

We did 500 miles of free charging this month.  Electrify America is going through some upgrade and has been free for weeks now.  It was just a nice surprise (to us) when we drove MM(19) back to college.

Driving will probably be more next month.  Planning a drive up to Washington.

Side note:  Gas is $6/gallon here.  We are saving hundreds of dollars on fuel every month.

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

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

August spending was...  Blech!  

We are personally very insulated from inflation.  My best guess is that with our higher prices (HCOLA), we just aren't experiencing inflation the way most in the US are.  This is coupled with generally not being spenders (& not buying gas, etc.).  So...  Inflation is not a factor in our grocery blown budget this month.  MM(19) was home more, MH was sick and didn't grocery shop for about 2 weeks.  I did the best I could but I know I am not as efficient as the master.  In addition, I stocked up on things.  Off the top of my head, I bought hairspray, toothpaste, and laundry detergent.  Enough to last another year or so.  (Not much of a stocker upper, but generally buy 2x anything I purchase for myself.  Just to go to the store less.  A large laundry detergent box will last us a year.  I bought 4 cans of hairspray because it was on sale.  DL goes through hairspray quickly.)  I just lump all household spending like this in our 'grocery' budget.  

Edit to add:  A lot of our food is produced in our state, so I expect this is also a lot of it. 

{This is just to-date.  Obviously, rising fuel prices affects prices on everything and ask me again in another few months.  To-date, I have nothing to contribute to the inflation conversation.}

That does remind me, some of our spending this month was buying gas, with our -$0- gas budget.  Should just be one-off for a couple of months.  DL(17) will take over gas car expenses when he gets his license (very soon).

We've completely exhausted our Misc. short-term savings.  Will have to just pull from MH's income the rest of the year.  Like the gas, it's one-off and so I am just rolling with it.  I won't be adjusting our budget.  MM(19) is taking over most of his expenses (that would have gone under misc. short-term) and this is the last year we will have high school expenses for DL(17).  Ugh.  He's doing *3* band classes and a vocal class so we will be spending a ton on concert tickets this school year.  So that might get a little crazy, but also should be very one-off.  (We always buy tickets for the grandparents, etc.)

Edited to add: Apparently we will pay for a couple of AP classes for DL(17), but again, very one-off.  I dodged a bullet.  MM(19) took a bajillion tests.  Several AP classes every year, ACT, SAT, PSAT, IB, etc.  His school paid for everything.  I think it's $100 for the one AP test.  DL(17) isn't going to bother with the SAT or ACT.   So it sounds like it will just be the two AP tests.  & even that's kind of random.  No idea why on earth he wanted to take calculus this year.  He takes more after his dad/brother I guess.  But he's never going to use that in the future.  & is generally opposed to unnecessary work.  So this is why I am just finding out (senior year) that his school does not cover AP tests.  

Heck, we've completely exhausted short-term funds, except for property taxes and insurance.  Will pay taxes in November.  & I guess we still also have funds left in our vacation (short term) bucket.  

Misc. spending was doing some crowd funding (more paying it forward) and buying some games and accessories for the new VR.

I was hoping to kick off the airfare another month, but it squeaked by on the last day of the credit card cutoff.  It doesn't matter.  But psychologically, expected a bigger cash boost this month.

I just noticed that we have exhausted the 6% cash back on our grocery card.  Hit the cap for the year.  Will switch over to our dining/gas card which pays 3% back on groceries.  I usually just pull those cards out of our wallet for the last quarter of the year.  (Would never remember, otherwise).

I already balanced out October.  Was a -$0- month on the savings side (cash savings/my salary).  But I will have MH's income, 401K contributions, credit card rewards, bank & I Bond interest, etc.  Off the top of my head, might be a +$2K month.   It was just mid term/short term was a wash with what I put in and took out.  

And then...  November.  Ugh!  MH just replaced his phone.  We will have a lot of travel expenses (Arizona + Oregon).  Oh, and I just charged my life insurance that went up x4 because I turned 45.  All of that...  Plus paying *cash* for college and property taxes.  November will be very ugly.  

That said, we are making good progress.  Big picture, things are chugging along just fine.  Just dealing with a lot of one-off expenses right now.  

Note:  The rumor is that our CA college grant should have posted this week.  I will talk to MM(19) about it this weekend.  November is going to be ugly no matter what, but this will make it slightly less ugly.  The planner in me will be happy to know what our *real* tuition costs are for this school year.  Finally...

MH took DL(17) to a concert last night. 

MH and I are going back and forth on Napa plans.  Was planning to do a big dinner there.  But when talking about it Friday, MH told me he was making gnocchi for dinner and butternut squash soup for dinner this weekend.  & he already made some salsa.  I told him at some point that nevermind, didn't see the point of eating out.  Next month is going to be crazy expensive (including this month's charges) and we are eating *very well* at home.  Napa is generally over-rated and over-priced.

That's pretty much where we were at, but then yesterday we discussed we should just eat there, otherwise we need to eat dinner at 4:00.  I suppose we can flip a coin later.  I am starting to think we should just pack a picnic.  This might be the middle ground that we need.

We are being just as wishy washy about the Oregon trip.  But MH was just told by someone else that the Oregon film festival was one of the best they have been to.  Ugh!  (I find this doubtful, given the logistics.)  We are talking maybe $300 for gas and hotels.  I think we will probably just go/drive.  

Oh yeah, but my coworker will be there at the same time for a wedding and told me it was the time for peak foliage/fall colors.  So I guess there's that.  Lord knows we won't have time to stop anywhere.  But we can enjoy the view along the way.

Not even going to bother to try with the electric car.  Maybe we should.  Apparently the EA chargers are all still free.  That would be quite a score, getting a free 1,100 miles.  We don't want our first big electric road trip to be on such a time crunch.  I am sure it's doable, we just don't want to bother with it. 

Edit to add:  We went to Napa and ended up eating out ($$$$).  The food was very good.  We went to a film festival; watched a documentary.  Oh yeah, MH had bought tickets but then they ended up being free.  So that was a nice surprise.  (The film maker gave us 2 tickets and MH was able to request a refund).

I had noticed that MH did a mid-week $100 grocery run.  I asked if he was going shopping today.  He said he had bought through the next week.  I suppose that we will talk to MM(19) today and get an idea about how much he is spending.  He should have 3 weeks of grocery spending behind him.  Will need to figure out how to reimburse him.  & will get an idea how much he is spending.  

I am taking a communications class at work.  I am sure it's the kind of thing that sounds terrible re: the corporate world.  But it's a very chill thing in my 5-person office.  100% optional, and can do on company time.  My boss is an excellent teacher/trainer and so that is also a lot of it.   I expect this is the only class that will interest me; he wants to start doing one or two a year.  But I don't know, will see how it goes.  I could totally see him doing a personal finance class for employees.  I don't know what else he has in mind.  

After a couple of very long weeks, I should have a breather today.  Phew!  

Butternut squash is in the crockpot and it smells divine.  

It's a miracle, but I didn't have to back out of or cancel the trip!  So many last minute canceled trips in recent years.  So I am mostly in disbelief that we pulled it off.

The trip was very pleasant.  We loved Tucson.  Apparently, sunny (no clouds) and 90F degrees (forecasted) every day means some random rain and thunder just about every day.  That was a pleasant surprise.  Here in California, sunny and no clouds means sunny and no clouds.  😁  

This was the film festival to go to.  It took place in a large movie theater, which was very promising and seemed less hokey than most of the other (very small) Festivals that we have attended.  In the end, MH's 11am time slot (Sunday) was not well attended.  Nothing really was well attended (more than 10-15 people).  But the venue was so nice and the movies were higher quality than most of the festivals we have gone to so far.  The people running it are very ambitious (want to get very big) and were *so* nice.  So though the turnout was not large, the size was kind of workable as far as getting to know everyone.  MH made a lot of connections and got more out of this than any of the other festivals.  For example, the Oregon festival coming up, they network *before* they show the movies (not as useful).  It goes very late and it's in a drive-in.  Doesn't sound like much opportunity to chat afterwards.  At first MH admitted that clearly that one is not worth it.  But...  Then he made so many connections here, including several people telling him that this other festival has a really good reputation.  One of them who won a bunch of awards in Tucson couldn't get into that festival, etc.  So MH changed his tune in the end.  I think he's still undecided and we will probably just drive (to save ~$800).  Airline tickets keep getting more and more expensive.

& later, MH told me he wanted to go back to this festival next year.  So do I!  I had so much fun.

So that was a very unexpected outcome.  It could have just been really hokey, no one showing up, etc.  If that was the case, we would have just enjoyed the area.

The in-laws' timeshare properties can be hit and miss sometimes, but this one was really nice.  We had a little casita, right next to the National Park.  When we first walked in I told MH it was a mansion.  The place was just huge.  It was a one bedroom apartment.  Just, very big.  We didn't spend much time there, but would have been nice to just sit on the shaded patio and enjoy the view.

The other striking thing was the low cost of everything.  I guess we generally don't travel to lower cost places.  In recent years, it's been London, LA, Hawaii, DC.  So it was refreshing going somewhere so inexpensive.  Gas was probably about 1/3 of what we estimated.  The gas car we got came up with a surprising 40mpg average for our 530 miles of driving.  (We flew into Phoenix and drove the 2 hours to Tucson).  With gas costing half as much, we spent about $50 of the $150 I had imagined we'd spend.  & I knew gas would probably be cheaper there, but didn't realize how much cheaper.  In contrast, gas hit $7/gallon here at home.  We paid half that much in Arizona.

Side note:  If I lived in Arizona, we'd probably eat out all the time and we'd drive a gas car.  Location matters.  

Oh yeah, and one last thing.  I was really irritated re: super cheapie airfare, at first.  When I tried to get our seats at check-in (24 hours before flight).  I've just heard so many horror stories in recent years.  & the last few times we flew there was no room for our baggage, etc.  So I was really pleasantly surprised.  We flew American Airlines on one of their newer planes.  I refused to pay extra money to pick some random middle seat, when we couldn't sit next to each other anyway.  In the end, they did do a good job putting us close together (which cost no extra).  & the newer plane had ample overhead storage space for basically everyone to carry on a bag.  The seats and leg room was more than I remember (I haven't flown domestic in 6+ years).  So I quickly changed my tune.  Oh yeah, and after all that, the person next to me never showed up (full flight) so we got to sit together on the way in.  & I got an aisle seat on the way back.  Didn't get to sit next to MH on the way back, but he was just one row ahead and it was a short flight.  Probably best flight experience I've had, in a long time.  That was unexpected.

Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick estimate of the cost of the trip and see where we are at.  I can already see we went over our 2022 vacation budget, and have some expenses pending.  But it came out to about what I expected.  We had $1,130 left of our vacation budget.

Spending in Tucson...

$486 Flights

$429 Car Rental

$50 Airport Parking

$78 Film Festival

$275 Food

$50 Gas

$60 Museums

$70 National Parks (was only $25 but MH bought a very expensive hat, and I forgot lip balm)

We decided to retire the Florida ball caps we picked up at WalMart or Walgreens?  10+ years ago and figured we'd just buy hats there.  I found one for $5 at Wal Mart but MH ended up picking up a $40 hat at the National Park.  He wanted something nicer and wanted to support the National Park.  (He also burns very easily and wanted to cover his ears/neck and get a more wide brimmed hat.  I don't burn, in contrast.)

In addition to the above, we spent $50 on groceries (including sunblock, which was probably smart because was cheaper there anyway.)  & we spent $25 clothing.  The hat was cheap but I picked up some other clothing while I was there.  Will absorb these purchases in our regular monthly budget.

Total 'vacation' spending  = $1,500

So our overage is $370 and we are now considering an Oregon trip.  But this is very 'you only live once' and I thought we might spend many thousands this year (if MH had gotten into more festivals).  I am very fine with it.  We have ~$1,000 coming to us from the State.  Can pull from MH's income in the meantime, and his parents always gives us large amounts of money at the end of the year.  It's well covered.  I'd prefer to use the State inflation relief money, to cover extra travel this year, but not sure we will get it before 2023.

I wanted to see roughly where we are at. 

I leave you with some pictures.

Near Saguaro East National Park ~ we did a cave tour here, but the view was amazing

Saguaro West National Park

Saguaro East National Park (cactus + moon)

Saguaro East National Park

DL(17) made a solo music album and sold his first copy.  He made $10.

I got my life insurance renewal.  I thought it looked more than usual.  It was 3.5 times higher!  The joys of turning 45.   There's a preferred rate that is about half as much.  I just don't know the odds I will get that, with all my recent health issues.  Will see... 

Ugh, I just got my medical insurance renewal too.  Is a bigger increase (8%) than it has been in recent years, but should just be grateful it's not more.  I remember seeing some crazy estimates early pandemic (like 50% increases in cost, something along those lines).  Note:  Medical has been our biggest financial challenge and biggest expense for many years.

MH got rejected re: a SF film festival.  That was surprising because it was the first more local film festival he did not get into.  But I am somewhat relieved because the calendar was getting a little crazy.

Next up is a local film festival that is doing a hybrid thing.  MH made the in-person cut and is once again the headliner for the entire event.  !! 

Then Arizona.  I don't know if he knows the order yet.  It's a bigger theater so should be the most interesting one.  Presuming his time slot is well attended.  

After that, we are going to a film festival in Napa.  MH is not in it, but he met someone who is.  We are planning a very belated anniversary dinner.  Will make a date of it. 

MH just asked me if we *should* go out to lunch today, for our anniversary.  After 5 days? of eating out in a row (between work and college trip) and with a 5-Day trip coming up?  No thanks?!  I told him we will do a nice meal in Arizona and also in Napa.

Edited to add:  MH got into an Oregon festival.  October is apparently his month.  They first took a script submission (his most recent movie script) and then later told him they will also screen his film.  As of right now, we are going to wait until Arizona to decide.  The Oregon one is probably not worth it.  But it's also cheap and easy to get to, so is why we are still considering.  

MM(19) went dark.  He's got his new credit card (in his name only) so I don't know what kind of spending he has been doing.  Probably just groceries.  He sounds pretty slammed.  I sent an, "Is you alive?" text a few days ago that he did reply to.  But that's about it.  I suppose I will see dollar amounts when he pays off his card.  He clearly sounds too busy to be spending money.  He has an on campus job this quarter.  Maybe 8 hours per week.  Plus some extra set up re: job while trying to move in and coordinate with 4 new roommates.  & his girlfriend moved in a few weeks early for her job, so they had a big date planned.  Hadn't seen each other much since MH ended up with COVID.  (Her sister is immunocompromised, so she kept her distance).

MIL is coming to take DL(17) out to dinner while we are in Arizona.  Just check in on him and see if he needs anything.  Give him an extra treat.   While she is here, will pick up an extra load for MM(19).  Now that she has two grandkids at the one college, they are planning a visit (sooner than we can get there).  In the end, it's not going to be much and we probably could have fit it all last weekend.  The only bulky thing is a set of dishes that I doubt he will need?  MH had paper plates left over from filming his movie, so we sent those down until we could get dishes settled.  Will talk to him about it today. 

Edit to add:  Ended up speaking to MM(19).  He also wants his guitar but didn't end up needing a full dishes set.  So yeah, probably could have fit everything but the guitar, on the first trip.  I forgot about the guitar, which is clearly big and bulky.  He told me he spent $12 eating campus food that first week (he expects that to be average) and he only spent a few dollars at the grocery store.  ???  Will see...  Clearly girlfriend is feeding him a lot.  She likes to cook.  & bake; she made some pies.  So he is eating very well.  He is enjoying much better food (even if he just sticks to his kitchen/cooking, has nowhere to go but up) and having a private bedroom.  He is clearly very happy with things.  

MH wouldn't let me give any food away at work.  I think we have one serving left of burritos/rice (might be too old at this point).  He did not cook at all last week.  The fridge was pretty cleared out by Sunday.  Sunday I cooked up some salmon (on sale) and MH made potato soup so that we'd have some leftovers.  But he skipped cooking yesterday.  I don't know how much he is being more mindful (and less in denial) with MM gone.  But I expect there's some extra pressure with all the out-of-town plans.  He's thinking more carefully about it and more willing to just skip cooking.  I am sure I nagged him many times last school year to just skip a night.  So skipping 6 nights is pretty amazing, but we had a fridge full of way too much food and he was hell bent on eating it (versus giving it away).  

My boss is applying for a new business credit card and is having issues.

Is through our bank, that we have a long relationship with.  They finally told him, "Yeah, we noticed a while ago you had a zero credit score but clearly you had good credit and it didn't affect things on our end."  Re: bank line of credit and personal guaranty (he also has a bajillion dollars).  "But it's going to be a little more work to get around the 'credit approval' robot."  

I was fascinated by this.  He told me they don't use credit cards (he's in his early 30s) and they paid off their house in 2019. (I knew this because I sent the payoff wire).  I thought good credit stayed on your report for 10 years (it does) *and* that it would take a lot longer for a paid off loan to impact your credit score.

Most especially because this is probably the #1 comment I get re: credit card rewards.  I don't keep old cards open.  Everyone freaks out about that but it's never been an issue.  I had a 780+ credit score at some point when we had only 1 year of open credit (around the time we did our last refi).  I just happened to jump to a new primary credit card around the time we refinanced.  & we never keep old cards open.  The results = *shrugs*  

So...  I was fascinated when my boss told me it was about 18 months? from a 800+ credit score to *zero*

I guess that's how it works when you have absolutely no open credit.

I don't know if this means anything to me personally.  In a perfect world I would love to stop using credit cards (on principle).  But they are just so convenient...  I don't know that we will ever drop credit cards.  So will probably always have some form of credit.  

Did you see that Frugalwoods moved up from a $10K vehicle to a ~$35K+ vehicle?  😱

I am sure they could easily afford it, and didn't have much choice.  But I just couldn't even imagine wrapping my brain around that.  Yikes!

I am starting to feel like a genius for pulling the EV car trigger.  If it allows us to wait out this used car insanity.  We were so spoiled by the decades that most people turned up their nose at the idea of buying used. 

Oh yeah, so I looked it up out of curiosity a couple of weekends ago.  Our car (that we paid $17K for) is now going for $30K.  With the +20K miles we've added to it since we bought it.  That's crazy!  I probably had looked that up a few days before Frugalwoods posted about their new car purchase.

I am not sure what MM(19) will do.  Maybe both kids.  But the car they have has many years left in it.  & I am not as concerned about DL(17), who has a car that he can probably drive through college years.  

We actually had a discussion about it a few weeks ago because MM started expressing more interest in getting a car his last two years of college.  But he later clarified he was just thinking ahead to next summer and knows he won't just have a car to take to work, if DL(17) is using their shared car.  I had told him that honestly MIL would probably just let him borrow her car for the summer (if she doesn't just give it to him).  & then he said something like, "Why do they need two cars anyway?"  Good point.  & FIL might not be driving much longer anyway.

MIL had already voiced wanting to give her car to MM(19).  It's just when she said that before, it was completely ridiculous.  The car is now a few years older (I have no idea how old, I don't remember at all, but it's just a little less ridiculous at this point).  They came into some money last year and are thinking about going electric.  

If he needs/wants a car at college, just depends where he ends up living. **

I should probably get quotes for full coverage on the gas car and run through the math.  The whole point of the old beater is not having to get full coverage on a new driver ($$$$$).  But...  With this absurd used car market.  It might be extra peace of mind for the first 6-12 months that DL(17) is driving on his own.   I will ask for quotes when we get him coverage.  & I'll have to look up what that car is going for these days, to help guage if the extra insurance would be worth it.   Will see.  I'd still have DL(17) pay for the basic insurance, but we'd pay for the extra coverage if it made any financial sense.  Note:  The car was worth ~$4,000 pre-pandemic; we've put very little miles on the car.  $5K was always our cutoff for full coverage.  It's probably pretty borderline at this point. 

**Reminds me:  MM(19) has a lead on dirt cheap housing.  1/3 of what we are paying now.  !!  His girlfriend has some job on campus that comes with housing deal.  I told him to let her be the guniea pig this year, but I was intrigued.  So far...  I don't know.  I guess there's been a lot of problems but some of that is one person didn't work out and they have an opening.  I think this year is set and fine and paid for already.  But just thinking to future years.  I am intrugued but this is a situation where there are obviously trade offs.  It's not like my housing hack in college where I paid about as much for a *better* living situation.  She's putting up with a lot for the cheap housing.  We may be able to figure that out too (pay less for better housing options), but it's just harder being 300 miles away.  Unless he's just able to figure it out on his own.  Which is what I did. I am sure he can figure it out but he also doesn't have the financial motivation.  If his parents weren't paying, he'd already have the job with the cheap rent.   I am mostly intrigued because he will be stuck with off campus housing in the future and it sounds like a nightmare to figure out.  So if he can lock in some alternative/cheap housing, sounds good to me.

We got MM(19) moved into his college apartment.

He is back to paradise...

A pretty scene on the drive home:

I have to back up and say that I went to get my last free ~100 mile charge by the shelter, the weekend prior.  Was maybe going to justify one more to help offset this drive, but otherwise DL(17) needs to practice this drive in the gas car and will be driving himself soon.  So...  I pulled up to the charger (happy as a lark) and...  it asked me for my credit card?  Alas, it is no longer free.  Couldn't even get that one last free charge.  (It looks like they just move the free chargers around.  Another charger in the same network is free now.  Nothing very practical but I just need to keep it in mind if something comes up in that neighborhood, and keep checking).

It's moot because...  We pulled up to the first charger on the college trip and...  It was free!  

Total miles driven: 820

Total free miles: ~500

The plan was to go very practical this trip and just to charge while we were stopped anyway.  But the free charging quickly changed that scenario.  Stayed a little longer for free charging.  Also, we got new tires.  Between that and the car being so loaded down, the range was absolutely terrible on the drive down.  So between that and the free charging...  Was still just one stop each way, but longer than we initially planned.  & we made a lot more charge stops than planned.  For example, we went to Target and the chargers were free, so of course we took advantage.  

Electrify America ended up being free all 3 days.  Apparently because they are updating their network.  I don't know.  At first we weren't sure if it was just our first stop.  Or just the weekend.  But it ended up being free for the whole trip.  Woohoo!

Our first charge stop was interesting.  South of the Bay Area we stopped at the outlet mall on a Saturday.  Probably busier than we have seen it.  Had been more stopping there on off days.  We saw *3* electric Mustangs.  Never seen them before.  They are cute.  & we saw an Amazon prime truck charging. The Outlets have 8? EA chargers, have the Tesla chargers, the EV Go chargers, and some of the gas stations have chargers.  There is no lack of chargers here.  I was fascinated though because several people came and went quickly.  I texted my Dad at some point and he asked if we had to wait (clearly it sounded very busy).  I told him no, it was all the rich people with their super fast charging cars.  We saw another Mustang charging at the hotel later, which makes me think that is the most popular electric car right now (aside from Tesla).  But then I didn't see any after that.  Saw some giant pickup trucks charging too, the first day.  Rivian (which is a more local company, So Cal?)   We stopped the same place on Monday and it was much quieter.  But I saw a Porsche and two Ioniqs.  Other cars probably came and went, while we went for a walk.  (The first day I stayed in the car because we had it loaded with college stuff.  So I watched everyone come and go).  Ioniq ~ I think that's the Hyundai, they charge crazy fast.  MH talked to the Ioniq guy next to us.  He had just driven from So Cal to British Columbia and was heading back home.  (Their 2023? model will have a 380 mile range.)

It's fascinating to me how quickly it all changes.  Past road trips were all just older/retired people.  Usually men.  Everyone wants to talk about their cars.  How fast does your car charge?  What's the range?  (Our car might charge slow, but have talked to a lot of people with crazy low ranges, trying to do longer road trips.)   Generally no two cars were the same. This time was markedly differently.  Lots of family cars and kids.  No one's standing around and talking because their cars charge fast.  They are running to the bathroom and/or the store and grabbing a quick charge.

I suppose I have to back up more.  We had never loaded the EV up with stuff before.  I think the difference in the size of our cars is negligible but MH was worried it would be too small.  So we made sure to charge up both cars and were ready to take what was more practical.  In the end, I think the EV had more cargo space.  MH brought more stuff and there was more room.  Phew! 

(If we had taken my car, we never would have known we would have missed all that free charging.  My car is not compatible with the fast chargers.)

Spending:

$394 Hotel (saved a bajillion dollars, found a hotel 30 miles from the college.)

$242 Dining Out

That's probably all I am going to put to the 'vacation' category.  This puts us to $870 of our $2000 vacation budget.    I think the $1,130 remaining is reasonable for Arizona trip.  (We have a free hotel for 4 nights).

We are getting a ~$1,000 inflation payment from our state.  Probably next month?  I am just going to throw at vacation dollars.  It will give us a little breathing room for Arizona.  (Food or gas will likely put us over).  & then leaves any money left over if we want to visit MM(19) this calendar year.  Or if any other festivals come up.

Food spending on this trip was mixed.  Treated niece/MM/MM's girlfriend to a big dinner on Saturday night.  But we only spent $10 on the drive home (fast food).  First day we fed MM(19) for lunch but then MH and I went to our cheapie/good place by the beach for dinner.  We've always gone there because it's *amazing*.  Only found out recently they have $4 pizza slices.  We spent ~$20 on that, beer and gelato.  Saturday we actually ended up having a big mexican lunch (YUM) and so MH and I just split an entree when we took out the kids. 

We went to Home Depot, Target, and did a grocery run (will absorb in grocery budget).  I don't think we will do a grocery run at home, this week.  MH made chili for DL(17) as requested.  So that he wouldn't have to cook while we were gone.  Then he forgot and didn't eat it.  It's to the point I will be giving food away at work this week.   We have so much food!  With the *big eater* gone...

Fuel: $22

Fuel detail: $5 to charge at home, $4 for EA monthly pass (for discounts we apparently didn't need/use). Hotel had a slow charger that was on the expensive side.  Not the most practical but is most of what we spent.  That was $13 for 114 miles.  

If we spent any more on fuel, I'd add it to the vacation budget.  But it ended up being so inexpensive, I will just absorb the cost in our monthly budget.

The next few weeks are busy busy busy with film festivals.