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Nothing too much to report this time. The next update will have our 3 biggest payments, so that one will be great!

Celebrations for this update:
-$329.76 paid off in the last 2 weeks!!

Student Loan $0
Payback Savings $0
David's Bridal $0
Scheel's Card $0
Total Rewards $0
LOC - US Bank $0
Ring Iddeal $0
Best Buy $0
HELOC $0
Store Loan $617.12
Mom Loan #2/#3 $29,462.26
MO Mortgage $77,356.28
My Mortgage $140,600.00
Our Mortgage $236,391.27
Total = $484,426.93

Down...
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I was quiet this month because the baby is here!

It was a bit of a whirlwind, and although we are settling in nicely now we had a rocky start. They thought she swallowed meconium which she actually didn't. This resulted in a frustrating 5 day NICU stay with a perfectly healthy baby. Lot of tears and upset. What a long story and a disaster. Bottom line is that there was/is nothing wrong with her, and we will making a complaint about the hospital.

We are happy to home now!

The...
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Debts
Mortgage -$112,730.74 (-$156.16)
0% CC -$2,700 (-$400)
Helitech Loan -$3,550 (-$400)
Medical Loan -$1,800 (-$100)

Savings
Roth IRAs +$16,032 (-$185)
401K +$26,143 (-$65)
Emergency Fund +$3,104 (+$875)
Animal Fund +$505 (+$400)
Truck Fund +$1,725 (+$60)
HSA +$724 (+$218)

Overall: +$2,359.16

Retirement markets where down, but I was able to pay down debt and replace my emergency fund this month.
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They came out today and replaced our electric meter. My wife said the tech told her that the meter did appear to be worn out internally so he thinks I may be right that it wasn't recording properly. He said it takes about 2 weeks for them to do the analysis and he gave us a number to call to get a report.

So now we just have to wait a couple of weeks and then see what they say. Hopefully, they'll confirm a discrepancy and we'll get some money back. I'll update when I know.

The...
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Just got back from the lab. I rode the train, which is completely free and also forces me to take a short walk. Seeing all those people going to work made me appreciate my freedom.

Later today I will go to the theater and buy my Oscar movie pass. BFF promised to come up this weekend and catch four of the movies with me, so that decided me. This will be fun. I will see the first movie this evening, "1917."

My only spending yesterday was $5 for a car wash. I dearly wanted...
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Just tracking gift cards.


GIFTS:
------
$ 20 x 6 Target


MOVIES:
--------
$100 Regal


RESTAURANTS:
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$50 Cracker Barrel
$50 Olive Garden
$ 25 x 2 Jamba Juice (Birthday Gift)


RETAIL:
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$50 Kohls (Christmas Gift)
$ 50 x 4 Target

Note: Edited over time to remove used gift cards.

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

We've actually been using up some gift cards. Re-gifted a movie...
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CB's recent blog entry (January Recap) made me think about restaurant expenses.

Sometimes we eat out because it's convenient or because I didn't plan well. For those occasions of course I'd like to minimize our restaurant spending. But as CB points out in her blog entry, sometimes restaurant meals are important times spent with those close to us. We wouldn’t want to stop or reduce the frequency of those occasions. Or replace them with the dollar menu at a fast food place....
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January was a tough month and I am happy to see the back of it. I still don't have my Embrel shots coming because of the doctor's office dropping the ball, so I've had a lot of pain for the month of Jan. I lost 12 pounds, I had a nasty stomach virus and a nasty sinus infection, not at the same time, went off gluten, and I tried to do an eat from the pantry challenge and mostly succeeded. I did buy a few things, but most of the money I saved went into buying bulk meat for the...
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$4301.11 Balance Forward
+___3.66 Interest Added
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$4304.77 New Balance
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I do all of my moms online banking and her budget each year...it works well for her as it takes the stress out of her going out to pay bills etc and it is easy for me. She is currently living with 2 of her grandaughters and their kids (they have 1 each) one moved in with her a year ago and her finances were horrible I got her on track and set it up with her paying all her bills and getting rid of debt...she stuck with it until a few months ago when she stopped doing her budget...
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We are paying ourselves back for money we put down on our daughter's car in May 2019. I am putting all sources of extra funds towards that goal. Here's what I found in January:

US Bank $13.00
Chase Rewards $3.82
Amex Rewards $67.30
Utility Rebates (2) $59.91
USAA Rewards $3.12
Pinecone Surveys $3
Ibotta Rewards $22.09
Swagbucks (Paypal) $25
Ebay Sale $5.37
Extra Funds $175

Total $377.61

Prior Payback Balance: $875.75
New Payback Balance: $498.14

I have extra...
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1. Health updates: Both kitty Buffy and I had re-checks for our chronic conditions in the past week. After giving me a BIG scare mid-month, requiring a veterinary ER visit, Buffy thank goodness seems stable, and the vet put the next ultrasound off for 3 months--unless, of course, she is symptomatic. Next appointment is May 1. I've spent at least $500 per month on her vet bills every month since June, so the possibility of 3 months without a vet visit is lovely. Right now I'm...
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As mentioned earlier this month I have increased the amount we save automatically each pay period going forward to create at least an additional $2,020 in 2020! In the future this will be $260 per pay period.

January Big Goal Additions
Paycheck 1/1 $175
Paycheck 1/15 $200
Extra contribution $125
Total Interest $183.99
Total Contribution $683.99

YTD Total $683.99
New Big Goal Total $72,767.92

Oh, how I would love to to get to $100k! We will just keep plugging along.
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Here's the interest we earned on our cash savings last month:

FNBO $58.54
NFCU $125.42
USAA $0.03
Total $183.99

All interest was saved towards our Big Goal.

Interest adds up. I was a bit shocked at the total on one of the 1099 INT statements that came in the mail. Over $1400 on one account alone. Best year yet for interest!
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We usually break even with taxes in most years I was curious as how this year would turn out.
Since I temped with 2 different placement groups I could no longer log in to get a look early for one group so had to wait for mail.
It is super bizarre I always fill out withholding the same but I made more money at that placement overall and they took out way less tax, then they should have.
So a quick calculation shows us owing big.

I can cut total owed down by adding...
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What a week!

I will start with last weekend. We had our weekend away in Napa and it was lovely. We ended up using our Ruth Chris gift card the Friday before we went out of town. We did one fancy dinner out (Napa), as planned.

The highlight of our weekend was a 3-hour hike we did last Sunday. It was *amazing* and we didn't see a single other soul on the trail. A hidden gem, for sure. These are just a couple of pictures, or a small fraction of the views we saw.





Recent...
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Today I found two of my great nephews birthday gifts at Walmart for $5. I’d budgeted about $25 each, I’m feeling so excited. Though one’s birthday is the end of February and the other is in May, I just feel really great that I was able to score such a great gift at a low rate. It’s a Discovery STEM kit.

I also polished my nails, something I missed doing. They came out great and I saved about $15 doing it myself. 💅🏾
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Every month, I put money in our Ally account and money in our taxable Vanguard account. Last month I bumped up the amounts from $1,500 each to $1,600 each. I made the February deposits yesterday.

That's rarely all we put in but we always put in at least those amounts. Last month I actually put $5,000 into Ally.
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Financially, we almost tanked in January.

There was an issue at my daughter's college last semester with the Financial Aid Office receiving the IRS transcript of our returns for FAFSA. They did receive it, but because it was late my daughter's MAP grant wasn't disbursed leaving an unexpected $1,600 balance due from Fall and she couldn't register for additional classes in January for Spring. My EF had $2,000. (This isn't an earth-shattering amount and what I paid took care...
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The movie Ground Hog Day was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois, and the city now has a Ground Hog Day festival with a reenactment of the ground hog ceremony in the park. As well as events all day. I hear Bill Murray was there this year. I would have liked to go up there, since I love the movie, and Woodstock is not far away at all. But I forgot, so here I am hearing about it on the news. Maybe next year!

Yesterday I realized that the book I was reading was due the day before...
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