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I was just reading another blog post about homes being money pits. I completely agree.
On Saturday, I was cleaning the drain in our bathroom sink, something I've done dozens of times. This time, when I was done and stepped away, I saw a stream of water coming from the drain pipe. A closer look revealed a small hole in the pipe. I grabbed a bucket and sopped up the water with a towel and put a call into our handyman. He said he could come on Monday.
He did come and fixed it, but...
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Life is busy and a little stressful.  Balancing full time work (from home), two teens in school (from home), and all the appointments that come with high risk foster kids, there isnt a lot of free time to just relax.  We were looking at in-school learning for the remainder of the year, but last night the school closed to in-school learning again because of a COVID outbreak.  I consider this a blessing in disguise, since I do not want COVID.  I am still a week...
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I mentioned in my last post that I had a bunch of expenses piling up this month. In accordance with Murphy's Law, I have another unexpected expense on hand: the check engine light on my car went on on Saturday. I called the two mechanics I typically go to and the one that had an opening earliest was today. I'm taking it in today to have checked out and fixed. I am hoping it's not a large or expensive fix. I'm counting the days to go on my camping vacation to the UT National Parks...
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Yesterday I went to the local senior center to get some help with installing my Uber app.  I wasn't having trouble with the app per se, but couldn't get it to accept the debit card I wanted to use.  The debit card was a benefit from the senior center, so that's why I went there for help.  They couldn't help but did refer me to someone who could.  Turns out I was just entering the wrong zipcode.
A word about the debit card -- it is a benefit for seniors at a...
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No breakdown of groceries but a bigger deeper dive into our spending.  I so far put down at $500 deposit on our refi so that was unexpected. I also traded our American Girl $140 e gift card for $99.96 Home Depot gift card.  Unfortunately we got the american girl gift card last year from girl scouts. Well the store closed down during covid and we never had a chance to go and use it.  So rather than hanging I took the advice of everyone here.
Spending so far this...
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Hi All-
It's been a little over a month since the last update. Since then, I've gone back to work physically. I am thankful to have been fully vaccinated at least a month prior to returning to work. We are currently operating with less than half of the student body as many parents opted to keep their kids remote learning for the rest of the school year.
My brother has also recuperated from COVID and has returned to work. As for our mortgage payoff goal, I'm super excited to tell...
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I made a short trip to Aldi this morning, where I spent $31.  I stuck to 10 items, even though there were many temptations.  Even 10 items are heavy to carry up three flights.  
I found a nickel in the parking lot!  Since I started counting, way back in 2011, I've picked up $105.48!  It's been very slim pickin's the last year, though.
This afternoon I made lemon "brownies" -- no, they are not brown, it's a deceptive name.  It's really a small...
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I woke up earlier then usual this morning and decided to have my coffee out on my balcony. It was just a bit chilly, but a beautiful morning! It was very still and quiet with only the sound of an occasional bird song. I thoroughly enjoyed the calm and peacefulness. What a wonderful way to start the day, a true simple pleasure.
My plan for today was to get started on some spring deep cleaning so I decided to start on my master bedroom. I tackled cleaning the ceiling fan first,...
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I'm going to spend some time this week changing my candles for sale by delivery only to offer shipping. A potential buyer mentioned that you can ship 4 large candles for $22 flat rate shipping. I think it would help me move my inventory a lot quicker. I went to the post office & picked up a large priority shipping box. I packed 4 large candles to make sure that they would fit well with plenty of packing material to minimize breakage. They are insulated pretty well.
I have...
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This is a very woo hoo retirement update.  Since my update on April 7th, our retirement has gone up by $2,548.36.  Only $798.00 of that was contributions from us and work.  That's $1,749.48 in pure interest in ten days.  We blew right past our first milestone goal of $50K this week.  The new balance of our retirement accounts is $52,164.70.  The new total of our net worth is $99,675.89.  Getting real close to the next milestone there.
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Well, DD did not get her lumbar puncture because the person who was going to perform it chickened out and decided she had too many problems for him to feel comfortable doing the lumbar puncture.  Even though we stated every possible medical issue she had at the time of scheduling the appointment and were assured that it would be no problem.  I double checked the day before because we have had issues in the past with this hospital.  Again we were assured everything...
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I rolled my coins and was able to deposit $10.50 into the Emegency Fund.  It's not a lot and it is most likely all we are going to be putting in this month, what with all the outlay for building the new garden.  I should be able to start making more regular deposits into the EF starting in May.
$15,363.73 Previous Balance
+__,_10.50 Rolled Coin
--------------------
$15,374.23 New Balance
As for the Beef Fund, there was $63 left in the grocery envelope when I re-funded...
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In recent months, I've been doing a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of retirement planning. I've been reading and studying and educating myself on every aspect of retirement I can think of including withdrawal rates, taxes, Social Security, ACA coverage, Medicare (well not so much on that yet actually), and more. I've asked a bunch of questions on the SA forums. I joined and became quite active at Early-Retirement.org and have learned a ton of useful information there. I highly recommend...
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Not much big news to report from me.  Everything is humming along as per the plan, and while I wish some of it was moving faster, I really can't complain about the progress I've made on all fronts since embarking on this big ambitious 4 year goal plan.  
Yesterday was payday.  I had a large amount going into one of the bank bonus accounts, so I went over to one of their branches to withdraw that money.  Conveniently, my main bank was right across the street,...
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I had a fun day with BFF yesterday.  We met in the middle for lunch.  Lunch, by the way, was really cheap this time, only $9!  Afterwards, since we are both fully vaccinated, we visited two different Goodwills, and I spent $17 -- mostly kitchen stuff -- ladels, ramekins, drawer organizers, and a pretty red basket.  I spent $21 on gas, and bought a soft drink for the road for $2.  Another unexpected expense -- I bought a phone charger for the car. ...
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So I rate locked a refi today with JPMC.  Did you know that I could qualify for a mortgage up to 43% of our gross income?  Yeah that's right. I think my mortgage is already too much for what we make and here we are totally being told that we could easily borrow way more than our current mortgage.  Um okay sure sounds like a plan.  No it really isn't.  Currently we are at 2.875% for 30 year fixed with 26 years left.  Our payment is $3838/month...
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It's still a coin flip between the two State colleges.  The schools themselves are pretty much the same in most ways (academics and job opportunities).  Both are impossible to beat from a cost/benefit standpoint. The decision at this point is purely how/where MM wants to live.  
MM told us he would decide this week.
He did get his last private school rejection last Wednesday.  (They pushed back decisions about 10 days due to huge increase in applications,...
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Have more houses to look at but know have a politician as a reference and a housing liason officer to help us find a house to rent...they are trying to find out what the issue is in regards to our applications...so hopefully we will have one soon.
We are still waiting for our bond deposit back hopefully will get it soon, it $3,100 so that will be nice to go into savings till we need it for another bond, it is taking forever but they have had so many to do since so many people...
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I know I'm not here as often as I used to be, but it is very nice to have a familiar place to return at those rare moments I have "spare time." Today, I have spare time because it's one of those dreary, rainy, overcast days.
But even today there's a silver lining: the dreariness and lack of sun outside really makes my cherry tree blossoms pop. Their bloom is spent very quickly, but right now, they look lovely. Although the three cherry trees I planted I later cut down years ago...
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I was saving money to invest in our Roth IRA next January but decided I might as well dump it into our taxable account now.
So far this year we've saved $23k of DH's bonus in feb.  We just didn't sell the stock we got.  Technically it was $34k of gross but $23k after taxes.  Now I moved $10k into our taxable account.  Assumign we make around $240k and need to save 20% we need to save $48k.  That puts us I guess at $33k unless you count the Roth and ESA...
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