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Oh happy, joy, joy.
My handyman came over last week to set up the plywood platform he had built for my front-loading washer and dryer. It's very sturdy. His buddy (with a very strong grip/handshake) came over, too, as they had to lift both up onto the platform, which is roughly 15" high. I LOVE the new height. Only problem: the washing machine vibrates QUITE a bit. Having it sit on a concrete floor vs plywood I guess makes the difference? I texted a video to my handyman, and he...
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Today was the last of the demolition. He removed the old floor from the powder room along with the vanity and toilet. He did find a leak around the toilet and some condensation around the air vent so he's got a fan going to dry those out over the weekend and he'll need to repair some of the subfloor on Monday.
 
We bought our floor tile today! That was exciting. We went back to the original place we had shopped, found one we liked, and it turned out they didn't have enough...
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For whatever reason, Saving Advice wouldn't allow me to include this with the last post. Perhaps there's a limit on the number of photos - I don't know.
 
Following are before & after photos of the 2024 kitchen corner #2 project. It was removing a goofy half-wall and replacing it with a full wall to support a new pantry cabinet. Because removing the half-wall left an exposed strip with no flooring, I elected to go ahead and replace the flooring in the family room and...
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The main focus today was on the electrical work. Our contractor and the electrician were here working on that all day. We now have the cutouts and wiring for the new recessed lighting. 2 lights on each side over the counters, 1 in the middle, and one over the sink. That should give us much better coverage than the old single fixture that was in the center of the room (and there was a light over the sink). Before no matter where you were standing the light was always behind you...
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Like DisneySteve and LuckyRobin, I also have an upcoming renovation. It’s our kitchen & laundry areas which are adjacent. We’ve been in this house for over 20 years and I’ve waited so long for this day!
Our current start date for the physical work is June 20th. On that day there will be a dumpster in the driveway and the demolition of the current kitchen will be underway. But I wouldn’t call that our ‘start’ date. I have spent the past several...
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I thought about posting my monthly net worth, but at the end of the day, my needle hasn't moved much this month.  Instead, I'm going to talk about DOGE, so you are warned up-front.  (It may be political, but it's also financial imo, so I'm rolling with it.)
I think part of the problem in life is that, sometimes, people can identify a problem but still not be able to implement an effective solution.  However, when they market and sell on the idea of the problem hard...
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I am going to try to get back into the habit of posting – I have so many money-related things going on. This post is about a frustrating one.
You know how when you send a package via USPS Priority Mail it’s insured for $100 by default? It turns out that that’s not really the case.
My package was lost and USPS’s own tracking records indicated that they delivered it to some other address. When they couldn’t find it, I was instructed to file a claim....
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It has been a ridiculously long haul of saving money, 2 years and 3 months, but we finally saved $23,000 to renovate the bathroom after the black mold and gut to the studs and mold remediation issue, which itself cost a lot of money.  Our quote was less than $18,500 for the whole job, which was a far cry less than the one guy who said $30,000 just for materials and then labor was on top of that.  We had various quotes, but this guy we just trusted.
He works by himself,...
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Wow June already this year has just flown by...a couple of small updates it's payday today so was able to pay another $404 of the CC (we have to pay a fee to put money on the card, one reason we are leaving them), if you allow them to take directly from you account then you don't but I don't give anyone access to our cards so I will pay it until the card is paid off and closed, they started charging $8 month just to have a card...plus we also have to pay the interest on it, which...
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I realized I haven't updated this week. Things are rolling along. We did order the cabinets and appliances. Our guy ran into an issue with the old flooring which took him an extra couple of days to deal with but it's all done and he's actually putting down the fresh plywood as I type this. We will probably order the flooring in the next couple of days. Until he was sure how things would end up, we couldn't commit to porcelain tile vs luxury vinyl but all is good and porcelain tile...
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TSP $1,315,805
IRA $387,414
Brokerage $11,077
Investments Subtotal $1,714,296
Home Equity $140,000
Savings $5,530
May 2025 Net Worth $1,859,826
April 2025 Net Worth $1,761,972
Monthly Loss/Gain $97,854
I am depleting my savings to pay off debt this month. It makes me nervous to see the balance go so low, but debt makes me nervous as well.
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Finally a decent month for retirement growth. We're at Coast FIRE with a surplus of $72K; the calculator says I could plan to retire at 64 instead of 65 and still be Coast!
It really really burns me that while I'm riding the waves of market volatility, all sorts of speculators with inside info are getting even richer by figuring out when some stupid Trump move is gonna make the market crash and rise again. But whatever. Just gonna keep on keeping on.



Assets
 
 
 


NT's...
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As I did my monthly review, it reminded me that I am living a simple life. And for the most part, I love it.
Per usual, my biggest expense was housing, but it's cheap considering what housing costs go for in this area. With my mortgage and assessment fees, I am just under $800. I'm so glad I bought this condo when the housing market was low.
My medical expenses were the next most expensive, mostly due to a $250 copay for an ultrasound that I had to have.  My most recent...
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I got brave enough to take a peek at my brokerage balances and was relieved to see my overall balance was only down $5,000 compared to the pre-tariff idyll in early March. I had to log in as I needed to restart automatic withdrawals from my settlement fund for monthly income. I had paused auto withdrawals in favor of taking some income from a taxable fund I have, mainly because the amount of taxable dividends and cap gains on the taxable mutual fund was getting to be a bigger number...
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Well we got paid early thought it would be next week but it came early so was able to pay another debt off, even though it was smaller, it is still gone...next one it the CC which we will be closing the fees and card charges as well as charging you to pay your bill is just not on so we will be getting rid of that asap, we have already paid $750 off of it and lowered the amount so we cant use it and get charges less....we do have a couple of yearly bills that are due in june so...
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Zion might have overtaken the Grand Tetons for our favorite national park.  DH and I as most who read know 10 years ago to the day (fourth of july 2015) moved cross country on our wild adventure without jobs and no income.  Without a career and hope, dream, and a prayer that we would be successfully reinvent ourselves.  I'm happy to say we did with smashing success.  Anyway I'll repost the pictures because seriously they are incredible and part of what I call...
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I'm keeping my handyman busy. He's the only reliable one who actually shows up.
He easily dispatched with 4 different tree stumps that were kind of an eyesore to look at it and made it harder for my mower. (I have a "mini" chainsaw...6"...but it's not quite enough to get these larger diameter stumps.) I care about making things easier for the mower since the more back and forth maneuvers or circles he needs to make, the more likely he will gouge out the lawn, which in turn allows...
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A little early but we dont have another payday till june, we had a couple unexpected financial things come up so wasn't able to pay as much off debt this month next month we have a few big bill we need to cover so not sure what  we will have to pay..but in may our debt went down by $1,616.43
not a lot but it came down and I'm happy with that...every bit helps.
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Reading that post about frugality being sexy made me laughed a lot.  DH constantly tells the kids and other people I won his heart on the first date when I pulled out the entertainment book, does anyone know this?  It was $20 for BOGO eating out coupons, coupons to events, activities, etc.  It was mostly sold as a fundraiser and this thick book.  It might even still be around.
And I said "can I used a coupon?"  Apparently I stole his heart with my frugality...
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Our kitchen remodel started today. The fridge got moved into the living room where our temporary kitchen is. So far, he has removed almost all of the cabinetry as well as the wall oven/microwave and the stovetop.
The first unexpected problem has arisen too. Woo hoo. When he removed the dishwasher, which we were planning on keeping because it's not that old, he discovered that there has been a slow leak somewhere. The flooring beneath it is wet and there is mold or something growing...
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