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That darn hacker!
I lost several posts in the April through recovery time period. And, they had such interesting titles...Billions! Kids are expensive! Life is Expensive!

Oh well, it's not like I was creating great works of fiction. I am reminded though of a Thomas Edison saying. "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew."

For just a quick recap, life has continued and it has been expensive and busy. My daughter...
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Several interval progress posts were lost, so this will seem like a big jump, but I wanted to post an update. Over those months I’ve thrown overtime and a bonus at my loans in addition to my usual budgeted payments. For some of the paid off federal loans only principle is listed because it's hard to tell the total interest paid from the website.

Loan snapshot:
Private loan: $19,612.46 principal and $454.07 interest – PAID OFF
Grad plus loan: $9,546 principal – PAID...
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Received $73 bank interest for the month of September.

Snowflakes to Investments:
--Redeemed $53 credit card rewards (cash back) from our gas/grocery card.
--Redeemed $56 cash back on Citi card.
--Redeemed $8 cash back on dining/gas card.

Other snowflakes to investments:
$ 3 Savings from Target Red Card (grocery purchases)
$ 20 Citi Price Rewind
$150 Dividend

TOTAL: $290 snowflakes to investments

401k Contributions/Match:
+$700

Savings (From my paycheck):
+$...
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I have just enough time to check in before I go to a double header this morning.

Yesterday at Sam's I did some grocery shopping ($22) and also bought a set of sheets ($33) and a three-pack of frying pans ($30). Then I went to Aldi and spent $22 on groceries. Hah! Same total at both Sam's and Aldi! Variables are now at 22%.

The remote I ordered from Amazon came yesterday, and it is working fine. It is so much better than trying to use the Fire Stick app from the phone,...
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Well it not financial but I just love how this place is coming together...slowly but surely...still have all the outside to do and a bunch of extra stuff the girls are going to sell...but my daughter and I keep saying each week while we live up here in the hills we had better see a koala in the trees...well...

my daughters dog kept barking this arvo...so hubby went to see what the matter was (he barks at most things) and he yells out its a koala...we had one sitting on our fence...
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Trying to jot down the grocery rewards plan because I completely lost that post.

Our American Express card caps grocery rewards at the $6,000 per year spending level. It looks like they are calculating this from January 1 of every new year.

In the end, we hit $5,950 already for this year. We are switching to our credit union card (3% cash back on groceries) for the rest of the calendar year.

I do buy $5 here and there, and actually spent about $30 today at the grocery...
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I currently have $3.450.00 remaining to fully fund my Roth IRA by April. I currently contribute $300 to it every month and I'll have to make some extra contributions because there will be a deficit.

I use DR Every Dollar budget tool (the free one)to keep me in control as I am responsible for keeping track of our finances. My husband is a simple guy and he'd rather that I take care of our financials. I am happy to oblige.
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Cashed out my Ibotta rebates and added to the EF. I’m about $1,300 away from having three months of expenses saved. The goals is six months but I’d love a year.

Today I’ve been binge watching shows by Gail Vaz Oxlade, quite interesting.

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To renew my HR certification with SHRM I think it’s about $400, I started saving for it in June and I’m almost at my savings goal, with just under $75 to go. Hopefully my employer will reimburse me, fingers crossed. If this happens, I’ll continue to save and use the money towards the convention that I’ve always wanted to attend.

I have my sinking funds and was wondering when I should stop contributing to them. But after reviewing I don’t know. The home repair fund,...
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It is exhausting trying to stay busy wish they had more work they keep saying "more is almost here" so i will wait.
I have really done math while at work to see how much extra to pay off house in 36 / 30 / 24 / or 12 months.
I have been averaging somewhere between the 36/30 month category ( if 36 month will have paid the 15 year loan in 11)
It is weird that even with 20% increase in my income i somehow do not feel the progress i think i should.
my check is split 3 ways
25%...
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I went to a flag football game last night at 9 pm. Got home at 10:30, and I was wide awake so I read for a while. I never slept well all night. I'm probably going to crash today.

I didn't spend anything beyond the online shopping I reported on yesterday. (Except for a load of laundry.)

I'm going to the gym today, and then I'll stop at Sam's and Aldi to pick up some stuff (read all about it tomorrow!)

I made an appointment for Iggy on Monday morning.

Along with Lucky...
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Total Spending $1277.18
Total Savings: $2000
Other income: $100 swagbucks

Here is a breakdown of September spending.

Fixed Expenses:
Verizon Bundle: 159.53 (Internet, home phone, cable)
Monthly Condo Fee: 190.00 (includes water)
Cell Phone: 0
HVAC and water heater maintenance contract: 27.95

Variables:
Utilities: 94.73
Gasoline: 32.65
Groceries: 334.57
Health: 39.30
Dining Out: 28.61
Other: 269.84
Cash Withdraw: $100.00

Groceries were high this month...
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Some of you probably gasped when I mentioned that I took a $60K pay cut recently. This move was years in the making. My husband and I worked hard to get rid of any consumer debt, except for the mortgage. We also establish a two-year emergency fund. In addition, we generate $1,500.00 in rental income. We are now living on $53K gross income (not including the rental income or the occasional overtime pay for my husband). We try to keep our bills low, we eat most of our meals at home...
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This week was pay week, got all bills paid, paid my daughter back, and got my ice account back towards it should be...should be back there by end of month...then will chuck extra at the CC to get rid of it.

Had a couple extra payments this week as my hubbys son ended up in hospital with suspected heart attack so we had his daughter for the night...he is home doing better but he also had to put his dog down due to old age and she was going downhill...so we had to pay for that..but...
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I don't think I'm going to try to recover any of my missing posts. I write so many blog entries in a month that finding them all would be a massive undertaking and I honestly just don't have the energy to do that at this time. Even if I did find them, I wouldn't want to just dump them back into the blog. That's okay for maybe 10 entries, but I would likely have 100 or more. So I am just going to accept them as gone and move on. At least for now.

I am going down tomorrow...
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Hi All,

I live in a high cost of living state. I recently took a $60K pay cut; long story, but we are making things happen. Our goal is to continue contributions to retirement accounts, keep ourselves afloat and save a little every pay period. So far, we've met all of it and I am grateful. Eventually, I'll return to full time work, but for now I am enjoying it.

GratefulSaver
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I just finished John Grisham's "The Reckoning" and it is the 111th book I've read so far this year. I enjoy Grisham's court novels and this one did not disappoint. I am not going to spoil the story, but it showed how some people's decisions can effect others even when they don't think it will.

I think that is true in real life as well. How many of us had been involved in an auto accident through no fault of our own?

I joined Goodreads awhile ago and it suggests you set a...
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Well I'm back from vacation and was sad to find that the website was hacked and everything since April was lost. I was able to go back through google and get my monthly check ins which were the most important. I have no idea what else I talked about between then and now... So aggravating. I will be looking into backing up my important posts and possibly switching to a new blogging area. This already happened once at getrichslowly and it is sad to loose all the years of data.

Vacation...
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Debts
Mortgage -$113,351.69 (-$153.71)
0% CC -$4,135 (-$711)

Savings
Roth IRAs +$14,948 (+$258)
401Ks +$23,493 (+$642)
Emergency Fund +$3,860 (-$394)
Animal Fund +$844 (-$390)
Truck Fund +$1,635 (+$115)
HSA +$247 (-$490)

Overall: +$605.71

Retirement gains. Debt pay down. Car insurance was due and pulled from escrow/EF. Also had to pay about $1,000 in medical bills from the HSA. October month is going to hurt because we are taking on a significant amount of...
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Debts
Mortgage -$113,505.40 (-$153.10)
0% CC -$4,846 (-$1,022)

Savings
Roth IRAs +$14,690 (-$495)
401K +$22,851 (-$528)
Emergency Fund +$4,254 (+$378)
Animal Fund +$1,234 (+$651)
Truck Fund +$1,520 (+$120)
HSA +$737 (+$106)

Overall: +$1,407.10

Progress on savings and debt pay down. Retirement loss in in the market.
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