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I have been upping my game and doing more mystery shopping. I had really slowed down since late summer. I earned $413.50 in fees and $47 in reimbursements for January. This was for 41 shops. This is low because 70% of the shops were phone calls that were $7 each. They took 12 minutes on average, including the call and report. This money was earned in January, but much of it will be paid out in late February. I only worked for 7 companies. There are about 200 companies (not all...
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Another warm day. I lazed around inside and wasted a lot of time websurfing. And ate a lot of apricots.

Thanks to being away most of the month a surplud built up in my checking account. I transferred nzd500.00 to my EF.
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January review
* Saved a total of $582.69
* Paid an extra $1079.93 on CC9
* Had 15 no spend days
* Lost one pound - I have to do better
* Almost finish book 1 for the year, I have to do better
• Paid an extra $100 on the house

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SB and I are at my house, clearing out and packing up the last few things. I am scheduled to sign docs on Monday, close on Thursday. The proceeds will be wired to my checking account.

I am going to miss this house, but I am looking forward to traveling light.

I bought another fancypants planner for 2019:



and so at the end of January I calculated my net worth, which I had not done in awhile. I did not include my vehicle as an asset, though I do have the loan added...
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What an interesting week!

Monday I went to Kroger to pick up my prescription. It is the one medicine my insurance doesn't cover and they have the cheapest price. I have a coupon from the manufacturer for money off, but still have to pay over $250 for it. I had to wait a bit so I decided to pick up a couple of things while I waited and holy cow, did things get crazy. I bought my items and took them to the car and came back and in that short bit of time, the parking lot went...
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Last night BFF texted me that dense, freezing fog and slippery roads were predicted for her area. I double-checked this morning and decided that I would rather forgo the trip than take the chance of an accident, or a stressful trip. I woke up not feeling very well, anyway. So I'll have to make that trip another time.

I put in some laundry this morning. The ceiling light was out, so I was making do with the dim light from the windows, pretty much feeling my way around. I'm...
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I'm going to try to post about the amount we added to our Big Goal each month, with a year to date total as well. This will help me a year end know the final tally. I do a pretty good job in YNAB marking what we add, but this will help reinforce and be a backup to that information.

$108.00 1/1 paycheck
$175.00 1/15 paycheck
_$10.00 2 Hulu $5 credit offers Amex
__$1.89 Starbucks Amex offer
__$2.91 Cell phone bill Amex offer
_$50.90 Amex Rewards
_$81.13 NFCU Interest
_$66.07...
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Hey, there...saw this story and instantly thought of you!

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/this-millennials-company-makes-millions-buying-from-walmart-and-reselling-on-amazon-151213013.html

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Next week is pay week and I am so glad that I will finally get some money back into savings...I have re looked at the budget and we are hitting our financial goals so far this year...can't believe it is already february...this year is going fast...

Have been eating lots of salad mostly from our garden so have been saving money there.

I have also started tins for both our girls for when they move out..just so they have money to do a big first grocery shop and all the bits...
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I am becoming a little bit shaky on my nzd20.00 a week for groceries. I spent $13.00 from my Play jar on fruit for tomorrow's bbq. I wiil try to stop myself borrowing from envelopes and jars in other categories.

I got 2 more free books today: the original Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson, and A Visitation of the Plague by Defoe. I don't generally read fiction but I make an exception for the classics.
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Goodbye, January. The ghost of you will reappear in our heating bills, but it's nice to close the door on that cold, hard month. And it's nice to get paid. I also hope we can move on from all of our car bills, dental bills, etc.

In fun news, my DD opened a bank account today. She started her after school jojb orientation. Between that, the theatre, and all her schoolwork, she is going to be very busy.

I haven't spent a dime in days, but did contribute today to a friend's...
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Despite the fact that it has been since July, it still feels strange to not get paid weekly. I mean, we budget for two weeks and it isn't like anything needs to be done during that time period after the bills are paid, but maybe that is the problem. I am so used to being hands-on on a weekly basis and now it is like it is set for cruise control and I'm there, but there is nothing for me to do unless I see an accident coming up ahead.

DH and I have started watching the Financial...
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Well, now that I'm basing our retirement goal on AS's 2018 income, it just got $50K more ambitious!

Goal: $563,540 by March 2019

Current balance: $434,490 ($129,050 to go)

September 2018 balance: $436,289

Progress: -$1,799

Ordinarily, I only post retirement goal updates when we make positive progress, but since AS's salary calculation underwent a reset, I figured I should post.

As a reminder, this is just an incremental goal along the way to 8x income by retirement....
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I was running really low on Softsoap Body Wash and several of my regular customers wanted to purchase some, so I made sure to stop into CVS while running errands in town. I don't make a lot on these, but I had 5 sold before I even bought them, so they are good to always have on hand.



Softsoap Body Wash (Bought 16)
Regular Price $4.59 each
-2/$7 Sale Price
-$2.00 off $8.00 CVS Body Wash Coupon
-$2.00 off $6.00 CVS Body Wash COupon
*Received $3.00 EB for every two...
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I had apts and errands all day yesterday, so I was able to use up some of our large gift card inventory. I used a total of $335.00 yesterday. MO and I each took a $25 Visa Gift Card for our wallets as well so that they get used up, as those ones are expiring in June, so I don't want to forget about them.

$10.00 Starbucks for breakfast (Christmas Present)
$15.00 Anheuser Busch Rebate Card - Used at CVS for resell items
$60.00 Massage (Christmas Present)
$250.00 Visa Gift...
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Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)
SW: 28,134 pounds ($35,168)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $69,771
NT's Roth IRA: $31,272
AS's trad. IRA: $18,946
AS's Roth IRA: $50,746
AS's SEP IRA: $30,489
CJ's 401(k): $131,822
CJ's Roth IRA: $35,739
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
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TOTAL ASSETS: $1,074,271

Debts:
US Mortgage $382,438
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage...
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$708.25 paid off in the last 2 weeks!!!

We were just short of getting under the next $1000 mark on this update, so I paid an extra $50 on Rental #2 Mortgage to get us under that mark again!

Celebrations for this update:
-$708.25 paid off in the last 2 weeks!!
-Mom Loan went under the next $1000 mark!
-Total Debt went under the next $1000 mark for the 6th update in a row!!


Student Loan $0
Payback Savings $0
David's Bridal $0
Scheel's Card $0
Total Rewards...
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In January we earned a nice amount of interest on our savings. We always save all interest, even when we were paying on debt. Although back then our interest earned was piddly!

$66.07 FNBO Direct
$81.13 Navy Federal CU
$147.20 Total interest earned

In December our total was $118.73. We have increased our monthly interest by $28.47 because we moved a large amount of cash from one bank earning 2.15% to a CD at the other bank earning 3.2%. At about $150/month, we are on schedule...
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Money comes and goes. Lately it seems that more goes than comes. I have tried various ways to budget and track spending. I just can't seem to make anything really work for me. (Yes, I have tried YNAB and EveryDollar.)

Right now, I have an excel spreadsheet that I track income and deduct monthly bills. If we don't overspend, we have a small surplus. But something always seems to come up. I budget on 2 paychecks per month and don't include unplanned extra income. Unplanned...
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Well, today is the day I have to come back to life, and shake off my snow day laziness. I should go to the gym, and I have two mystery shops to do, one out of town. I should catch up on laundry. But I am waking up hard and I don't know when I'm going to get going.

It snowed last night, so I'll have to clean off the car in order to go anywhere.

I made bread yesterday. Put one loaf in the freezer and the other I'll take to the kids.

Plans are on to go to Indiana tomorrow...
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