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We are within striking distance of our financial independence goal.  Probably technically there, with our assets right now.  But expecting to spend down some of these asstes on the next ~2.5 years of college expenses.
Our FI numbers is also completely meaningless while we still have kids to support and a mortgage.  But it's exciting to be so close to the finish line.
Most of our motivation is a scarcity mindset, which I think is a good thing when I look at how...
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We had an unexpected $500 expense come up in November.  That's when I knew that I give up on 2025 goals.
I had already re-evaluated goal progress when paying for our big anniversary trip.  While I felt it was silly to be stingey for our 25th, re: the big picture, I also didn't have any real plan to pay for this.  I didn't want to touch longer term funds.  I decided at the time (when paying for the trip) that we were still on track for:
**9% to retirement (minimum...
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While I may not always check my net worth monthly, I still at least do it annually.
Part of the reason I didn't look too often this year is because things were not exactly all that rosy for me.  For example, my investment portfolio's Year to Date performance fell by roughly $40k compared to January's high.
To be fair, January's stock market was unusually high, so when we fell off of that (*cough* Tariffs *cough*) I'm just kind of glad that it recovered enough that it's "only"...
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I was out doing some shopping earlier this week and heard several conversations over the day about how many of them are in debt for christmas AGAIN!!
They were talking about what the lastest things that they bought their kids & grandkids, how much money they spent on them and got the kids whatever they wanted...a few of them...and I mean several of them said that they spend all year paying off their credit card just so they can pay it use it again for christmas....so wow all...
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I was reading back through my post this year and one of the major things that happened was as of august we are debt free which has helped us out tremendously. Our focus next year will be saving for a home so going to make that our goal for the year. 
I have been really slack on menu planning, and having a budget so have gone back to doing that next year, I have our budget up and will work on our menu after christmas, its summer here so will be lots of salads and BBq's.
Daughter...
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Just sitting here pondering life during the middle of a growing windstorm. Hoping I don't lose power but it doesn't take much here to do that; trees and power lines don't mix. Gusts of 55 to 60.
Hey, does anyone want to make an easy $100? If you apply for a Discover card using the link I send you and you make a purchase in the 1st 3 months after receiving the card, we both get $100! Here are the details:https://card.discover.com/web/cardacq/referral/?page=referfriend&trafficCode=75
Dad...
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There's something I've been ruminating recently, and while it is financially-related, I think it's also something even more fundamental than that.
Do you know why men are generally not savers?  Asking a genuine question here, because I've known and spoken with a lot of smart men before, and yet, most of them struggle financially.
Sure, you could say it's simply not in their interest to do so, because it runs contrary to whatever it is they want out of life.  Whether...
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Just found out my FICO score went down 10 points because they decided that I don't have enough... what did they call it, Paid Accounts?
Basically, I have no debts of any kind, and currently have only one credit card active.  Why?  Because I'm a lazy simpleton *COUGH* er I mean Thoreauvian who enjoys the peace and tranquility of the simple life.  Uh yes.
In any case, I say this is a good problem to have because I'd rather be this than have massive debts that are...
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I'm throwing everything I can at my student loan. Yesterday I rolled my change (coins), something I do every year  and I had $53, so I threw it all at my student loan. Next week is pay day at my second job. I have decided that after paying my tithes rather than saving half and using the other half to pay down my loan, I'm throwing it all at the student loan. That's about $1000 every pay day, $2k a month. That means in 5 months I'll be done. 
Though my savings isn't...
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Well I can't believe we are almost at the end of 2025...this year has just flown by...so that means working on next years budget, we had a few changes this year so budget took a bit more work. So we became debt free, we still use CC but it is paid off each month. Hubby sold his car and got a scooter, so we have no more car expenses but we will pay half of our daughters since she does our appointments/errands etc more now, but that still cuts it way down. I paid all our bills for...
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Subtitle: You paid how much for this? (Part Deux)
I don't know... am I overly sensitive to this much spending?  Or is it the new normal?  After writing about my cousin I thought that would be the end of crazy expensive decisions I would be passing by.  I mean I am back home, basically only seeing people at the gym, how could that happen again?  But it (sorta) did.
So wassup?  Well this week I visited an old co-worker friend from my newly departed job. ...
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Got together with one of the groups I volunteer with for a Christmas lunch at one of my favorite places in town. All I had was the tomato basil soup with the jumbo garlic bread croutons, and that was plenty filling, so I'm glad I didn't get the salad, too. . And the price was right: $8.95.

I haven't used my weighted belt on the treadmill since Tabs made his suggestions, and I've been able to increase my speed from 3.3/3.4 (with the belt) to 3.6 without it, and a heart rate high...
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That arctic cold front has finally arrived and coming down like a hammer!  The rush hour traffic is made even worse from all the icing on the road, resulting in quite a few car accidents.
Also, the wind chill makes it feel even worse.  Interestingly enough, the wind was strong enough to rip my back door open, setting off my motion sensors, and sending me a stream of false alarms to my phone.  I can't have that.  Luckily, the fix won't be expensive at all, I...
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Dad's still in the hospital. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best place for him right now.
Unfortunately, he tested positive for the flu and he has a UTI. He has such limited exposure to people I'm really surprised, unless he immediately picked it up as soon as he entered the hospital. So many people coming and going to do this or do that, plus he was already moved once from an ER bed to a regular bed in a different "tower," so there was a whole new set of care providers tending...
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Well, I didn't do very well in the photo sharing challenge, but it was fun doing the few posts that I managed! It's been a crazy year; gonna try to remedy that in the new year, but who knows?
I'm very sad to report that one of our two cats, Whiskers (aka Whiskey), passed away last Tuesday. He had cancer that was diagnosed nearly a year before, plus a host of other medical conditions, so we're grateful to have gotten that amount of time with him. He was slowing down and we knew...
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It's been quite a while since I've last written and I apologize, but life has been hectic. A week ago yesterday we had our church bazaar. I was in charge of the vendors and the publicity not to mention baking dozens of cookies. I told my husband when I arrived home last Saturday night that I felt like I had my life back. Our ladies guild realized $2800 after all was said and done, so that's not too bad. The money will be dispersed first to pay for things like funeral dinners and...
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RESTAURANTS:
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$ 50 Cracker Barrel (small balance left)
$ 20 x 1 Jamba Juice (Just found this one, from 2018!!  Before I was tracking?)
$ 15 x 1 Jamba Juice
$ 10 x 1 Jamba Juice
 
REGIFT:
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$ 25 DoorDash
$ 50 Car Wash 
$100 Trader Joes
 
Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think we've got most of the birthday/Christmas haul. 
In the past this...
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Earlier this year I posted about using Attapoll as a way to make extra money on the side when I have downtime.  Now that the year is wrapping up, it's time to take a look back at my earnings:

One thing that really helped me with earnings this year was when Attapoll added games in addition to surveys.  If I got burnt out on taking surveys, or there were none available that worked for me, I could always download a game and get paid by reaching the acheivements. ...
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So this January it will be exactly 1 year since I purchased my SUV.  It feels like it's taking forever to pay the thing off, so much so that I wondered, momentarily, if Toyota Financial had calculated everything correctly. But on the face of it, I think they have.  I financed a little over $20,000 and have been throwing prepayments at it each month, having started out with an extra $200 each month but lately it's been an extra $250.
I guess it's about right since I see...
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I saw a post by Tabs dealing with this subject, and I just needed to do this one...
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A few weeks ago I visited my cousin for the first time in a year.  I try to get up to the place he lives with his mother.  He's a year older than me, and never married, never had kids, I don't think he ever had a girlfriend.  Basically the basement of the place is packed floor to ceiling with brand new toy trains. ...
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