All Entries

What's growing in the gardenThe garden is reaping benefits. I've been enjoying lots of green/red lettuce for a while now, and it is only now starting to bolt.  I will miss it!  
I've also been picking small zucchinis, yellow squash and cucumbers. Not sure how long the zucchini will last as it's beset by cucumber beetles that I pick off when I can, and the leaves are riddled with tiny holes, but I don't feel comfortable spraying Neem as I noticed bumblebees nesting...
[ Read More ]

We actually spent most of the day out today which was nice even though we were still doing kitchen-related stuff. We went to 3 tile stores to continue searching for our backsplash. This time we remembered to bring the granite sample which ended up altering what we had been looking at when we saw it together. We came home with samples of one tile which looks very nice against the granite but is a pretty drab color. The whole goal has been to use the backsplash to bring color into...
[ Read More ]

Busy day today as both our contractor and the electricians were on site. We now have the new recessed lighting and the new fixture over the kitchen table installed and operational, new light switches and outlets throughout the room, new under cabinet outlets for the disposal and dishwasher (code now requires that), and the oven is installed and connected! Everything is in place for our guy to hang and connect the microwave which should happen tomorrow.
As a side job, we also got...
[ Read More ]

Some of the frugal sites I follow on Facebook have been touting "No Buy July." 
I'm just wondering if any of you are thinking of participating? It seems like we are keeping our spending down so far since prices continue to rise and to be honest, we are a little worried with the state of economy. We've been doing a lot of using what we have around here and making do. 
 
 
[ Read More ]

My mortgage company refunded me $3,140 in escrow surplus. Right now I've just deposited it into my checking account. I will use it to pay off all my medical bills & vacation expenses.
[ Read More ]

About a year or so ago, I heard about a device for the laundry room that connects to the washing machine and prevents the need for laundry detergent. It adds oxygen (ozonates?) the water and that naturally cleans the clothes. I was skeptical (and am still since I don’t know anyone personally who has one) but I was intrigued too. How awesome if it works!
Given that we’re remodeling the laundry with the kitchen, I thought this would be a good time to try it. If it’s...
[ Read More ]

Well we got our new electric bill in the biggest we ever had and I am not happy, I know our state pay one of the higest rates in our country which sucks and we dont have solar either. Anyways our bill was $2200 😬 yes you read that right...however I almost had a heart attack when I opened up the email and read that...but I am not one to sit back, I mean it isn't even during summer or winter months but autumn months...so barely used it....so I went and took photos they read the...
[ Read More ]

I've been sorting through a few financial chores with DL(19) and have a few more financial chores to get through.  
Done:
**Opened a high yield savings account
**Opened a ROTH IRA
**Opened his own credit card
For the ROTH IRA, we moved $5K over from his gifted college fund, same as his brother did during his first big income year.  
For the credit card, we skipped the intermediate step of getting a student card.  Our CU refused to ever increase MM(21)'s...
[ Read More ]

I had a nice little day trip to New Paltz, NY as planned. It was a guided tour of Historic Huguenot Street, an area occupied by the Lenape Indians up until the 1600s when the Dutch and French settled there, with their slaves.  There were just 3 of us on the tour.  Here are a few pix I took.



 

The Lenapi Indians were widespread in the NY/NJ area, and in fact they occupied the town in New Jersey I grew up in, at Ramapo Mountain. I went to high school with...
[ Read More ]

Happy Independence Day to all my lovely American readers.  We have 50 minutes until we make the long and arduous trek to the end of the driveway to watch the blast over the bay.  Best seats in the house even if we are a mile away, the view is still one of the best in the city due to our position on the hill.
It's been a long month of progress on building our garden, cleaning up the yard of general mess and taking care of a huge area of overgrowth, taking stuff to the...
[ Read More ]

Big changes this week and though there’s a long way to go, it’s nice to see things taking shape.
The work that was done this week:
++ The dumpster was picked up at the very end so half the driveway is back in business
++ The unpleasant surprise (sewage pipe) discovered last week was resolved. The plumbing is rerouted to be in the adjacent wall and that opened up the area since the remnants of the partition wall are gone now.
++ Most but not all of the electrical...
[ Read More ]

Well I see the bif beautiful bill passed through, I am just wondering what it means for Americans? 
I have read what it means on the white house page but it seems like everything else and is a lie to what they actually say and what many more have actually said as well so I am confused, so financially speaking what does it mean? I know the rich will get richer and the poor will get little or be worse off but what about the rest of the people. What does this mean with taxes...
[ Read More ]

Our guy was off today (and will be off tomorrow). Yesterday he painted the ceiling and did a couple of coats of primer over the soffit mural. The kitchen actually looked better before that because the mural was bright yellow with green vines and blue flowers so it was the only thing colorful in the room right now. Now everything is white so it's a little stark but once we do the backsplash and paint we'll remedy that situation. It's a blank slate now.
The last cabinet for over...
[ Read More ]

Investments $1,800,032
> TSP $1,382,848
> IRA $405,449
> Brokerage $11,735
Cash Savings $1,034
Home Equity $140,000
June 2025 Net Worth $1,941,066
May 2025 Net Worth $1,859,826
Monthly Gain/Loss $81,240
[ Read More ]

Our guy finished installing the cabinets today (except for the one over the fridge which we don't have yet). We had to compromise a bit on the spacing around the window but I think where we ended up is okay. Not perfect but we can both live with it. The only other alternative is to buy a new cabinet which would probably run $700 or so.
He plans to sand the ceiling and start priming tomorrow. We have a mural around the soffit that needs to be covered up before he can paint.
He...
[ Read More ]

Unfortunately, I recently found out that a friend of mine lost his job to DOGE.  DOGE substantially slashed his agency's funding, particularly those related to research and study of pollution and its environmental impact.  Unlike other "luckier" employees, this friend wasn't given a "buy out offer" or anything.  His entire department was simply gutted financially, and was left to fend for itself with what remains of their funding.
So, when this friend of mine made...
[ Read More ]

It was kind of a crazy month, because I paid $423 in fees and services! Very unusual for me. It was mainly two big things -- the cost of renewing my passport, and the renewal of my service agreement with Best Buy for my laptop and phone. Which I need because I'm stupid about those two things. As for the passport -- I'm not sure if I need it, to be honest, but as I may have said before, I would hate to be without it if I needed it.
Housing and utilities were my other big expenses,...
[ Read More ]

It definitely feels premature to be celebrating with so much current and potential chaos in our country, but we had a second good month in the markets, almost as much as last month, and hit an exciting milestone: over a million in our nest egg!
We're Coasting along with a $106K surplus to our CoastFIRE number. I tinkered with the calculator and it says we're at Coast even if I retired at 63 instead of 65. Aiming for 62, we'd be supposedly able to reach Coast in 3 years with just...
[ Read More ]

Like most of the Midwest and part of the east coast, we've had extremely hot temperatures. But it was June and the sun was out. We had have a lot to do around the homestead.
Besides working on the garden (weeds grow no matter what the weather it seems), we've been working on fixing stuff or updating it. DH had an old wooden glider in the pole barn that was  in rough shape. The wood was still good, but it needed some TLC. So, he worked on fixing the mechanical parts, and then...
[ Read More ]

I shared photos earlier of our makeshift kitchen in the dining room. It’s working okay because we know it’s temporary. Plates, bowls, cups, and utensils are disposable but we still generate dishes to wash with measuring cups, cooking utensils, mixing bowls, food processor container, crockpot, etc. Since there is no sink available (The laundry AND kitchen are included in the reno.), I set up a dish-washing station outside. I found the used countertop at the BuildIt store...
[ Read More ]