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I'm sure the one question many people have about our remodel is what it cost.
Our contractor came back yesterday to finish the job. The replacement cabinet doors were in as was the scribe molding he needed. He installed all of that. He did a second coat of paint in the bathroom and the window sill and cleaned up all of the paint in general around the woodwork and such, and he did any other final touches that were needed.
He sent his invoice today. The grand total for his services...
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Do you discuss your finances with anyone other than your partner? We do discuss with our girls a little, especially oldest since she lives with us and pays towards some of them....but we dont discuss with others in the family at all...I do pay my mothers bills for herbecause I do it all online and with her being 86 she just doesnt get how to do it...also family use to borrow money from her all the time where she would be left with very little...and she also had debts to pay, never...
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I wish I could say that my financial situation has improved since the last entry but at best it has held steady.
The house is still on the market. We lowered it an insane amount on Thursday with the hopes that we would have a couple offers and be done with it. We lowered it to less than we paid. We have had one offer so far and it was a term offer from a company whose website doesn't exist. No thank you.
We have had, and continue to have, a ton more showings so still hoping an...
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I’ve restarted this journey more times than I can count (even blogged here before), and yep, here I am again. But this time, I’m not coming from a place of frustration. I’m coming from clarity. Life is okay, truly. But I know if we keep cruising like we are, it won’t stay that way.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, everything shifted into autopilot. We lived in the moment, because honestly, the future felt uncertain. I’m grateful we...
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A lot has been going on so I didn't know what else to title this than Potpourri.
My last post was I would start keeping track of how much I saved using coupons, digital or paper. This week Kroger has a special on Quilted Northern Toilet paper, the digital coupon was $5.99 for a 9 roll package. It's normally over $8.49 at Kroger and at other stores, it is $9.99. I bought some a few months ago when they had it down to $5.99, but we just opened our last package the other day, so...
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I passed $2 million net worth for the first time in July, but ended a little under that here because I don't count cash in checking or car value.
TSP $1,409,145
IRA $412,305
Brokerage $12,102
Sub-total Investments $1,833,552
Home Equity $140,000
Savings $1,538
July 2025 Net Worth $1,975,090
June 2025 Net Worth $1,941,066
Monthly Gain/Loss $34,024
 
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Well my daughter came over in a lot of pain last weekend (sunday) and she thought she had put her neck/shoulder out as she had a headache as well....she went home that night (they live an hr away) and she tells me that she wants to come back in the morning because she feels bad and doesnt want to be alone while her partner is at work..all good...she comes over sleeps a majority of the day and feels a little better after having some food and pain meds...she stays home the next day..then...
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Tomorrow I'm going to another rally with a new friend, this time in a different town, a country town. Then we'll hit the small deli down the road for an ice cream that happens to come from a farm here in my town, which I don't get to enjoy that often becus there is always a long line unless you go during a thunderstorm. 
It is with great sadness that I report the demise of my cucumber plants, due to cucumber beetle. The cucumbers were coming fast and furious. I got about...
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It was higher-spending month than usual, but that was because my semi-annual auto insurance payment was made. It was $1977. I also had some fees to pay -- $116 to renew AAA and $40 to replenish my tollways pass. Medical was a bit high, with a copay to a kidney specialist and the purchase of a blood pressure monitor. Other costs were quite reasonable, and I only paid $60 for groceries! About midway through the month I decided to challenge myself to eat exclusively from my pantry...
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We had a very modest increase (about $10K) in net worth; $2K was mortgage reduction and the rest our retirement funds. We're still solidly in CoastFIRE status with a $100K+ surplus, which is good because our spending is outpacing our earnings so far this year. (Some of the extra spending is discretionary; we're taking a trip to Europe and a few others as well, and some of the home improvements we've made weren't strictly necessity. Other things like healthcare, escrow increase,...
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So I got 1 of my payouts and I have paid all of our debt except my student loans....do I have the money for it...yes....why aren't I paying it now...well our govt is going to take 20% off of our student loans so I will save over 5k when they do.. so I am going to wait till they do that so I can save the extra money but other than that we are debt free and finally have some money in the bank, we are doing a couple of things bt most will be saved for a house deposit. so we are excited...
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It's been an awful couple of weeks with continued high heat and humidity. But it's all getting washed out of here by strong rain tomorrow, just in time for what we're told will be a wonderful weekend followed by more temperate and pleasant summertime temps in the 80s all next week.
So I can catch up on some much-needed yardwork. I see weeds everywhere, for one thing.
Brought my father to the periodontist last week and the dentist broke his crown. This was the 2nd time it broke....
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This week the triple oven stack was installed. Technically they work but we will not be using them until the kitchen is done. The contractor modified the cabinet as discussed in earlier posts. Before he orders shorter doors, which would cost me extra, he’s going to try to modify the 24” tall ones. He’s not done that before but we have nothing to lose. It’d be nice not to have to purchase new cabinet doors. We’ll see.

 
He made the bottom of...
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I had a week-long unplanned trip out of town so I’ll be doing two updates nearly back-to-back. The fourth week progress occurred while I was gone so it’s possible that there are small things that I didn’t notice.
The most important item: The inspection was completed with no issues. The contractor said that the inspector took only a few minutes to walk through. I think we have one more final inspection when the project is completed.
Several areas that were open...
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July always seems a little extra crazy with kids' birthdays.  & it's MH's full summer month off work, so he's catching up on appointments.  Things like car maintenance and taking the cat to the vet.  Which is a little rough during this one-paycheck month.  But it's how the timing works out.
MM(22) is staying at the college this summer, I think I mentioned.  My Dad took him to a music camp the week of his birthday (a couple of weeks ago).  MM absolutely...
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I just wrote the blog about me approaching $2 million net worth. Yesterday I logged into my Monarch account and I had already achieved $2 million net worth. That was fast! I achieved $1 million net worth in 2020. Only 5 years later & that has doubled.  I'm really blown away, honestly. I remember being in my 20's & knowing that it was possible, but it seemed so far away. I rember thinking that I could never max out my retirement accounts. I've been doing that since...
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Do y'all remember the Extreme Couponing shows from the past where folks would have their notebooks of coupons and plan a big trip and get cartloads of groceries for very little? I enjoyed watching them and I looked on YouTube and there are a few there. I was always amazed at how their built their stockpiles on so very little. But then, I always wondered, how they really did it. 
Our local paper had pathetic coupons. I learned that there were different coupons packages the...
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I thought I'd make one last kitchen update for now.
We've now been living with the new kitchen since Tuesday afternoon, cooking and eating there. Everything is great. The new stovetop and oven are much better than our old ones. There's a bit of a learning curve with the controls but nothing major. Just knobs for the stovetop and a touch pad for the oven. Microwave controls are a bit different too. We've run the dishwasher twice now and that's fine. Pretty simple controls that...
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It was not that long ago that I reached $1 million net worth. That was only during the Codid pandemic which was 5 years ago. Wow, seems like yesterday. It's wild that I'm now looking at $2 million. I may reach it before the end of the year if the market doesn't have a downturn. I really can't believe how quickly my net worth has grown. I just want to make sure that I don't accumulate debt again, which is why I'm being very prudent right now to pay off my medical debt  &...
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Our contractor left today. He has some finishing stuff to do but is waiting for items to come in so he is done for now, 57 days since beginning. He only worked Monday to Friday, of course, except he did come a couple of times on Saturday to finish some things but didn't do full days. He also took a couple of days off along the way, so he probably worked a total of 38 days I think. Pretty damn impressive when you look at what he did and consider the fact that he worked alone with...
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