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I'm feeling pretty productive in 2024 since I've managed to do all the major home improvements I planned for the year in the first 2 months of the year. Usually I wait til fair weather, but replacement of my electric hot water heater with an energy-efficient heat pump water heater could have been done anytime. It seems to be working fine, and all the things another plumber had told me about, as he tried to talk me out of it, failed to materialize. Like a much colder basement (it's...
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I have spent very little since my last entry. I went to Walmart yesterday just to buy a loaf of bread. $4. I won't buy any more groceries unless I really need something. Needs instead of wants.
I also donated $5 to a charitable fund. That's it. Variables are at 88%.
One break I've had with my budget this month is that my assessment fees will not hit this month -- not until March 1. I paid my last one early, so I have essentially skipped the whole month of February. That has given...
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I am writing this as I came home for the weekend to see my parents.  I have a feeling this could be it for my dad.  I've certainly felt this way since we left on NYD.  I picked this weekend because it was the first we had free and I usually have been timing my visits about 8 weeks apart.  
I flew in today and the current plan is to fly out Tuesday on the red eye home.  But my gut is telling me my dad was waiting for me to come say good and tell him...
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So I posted in the forums about our current problem with our car situation.  That our car was considered a total loss but it's driveable.  We punted the decision in December about buying a new car and then a week ago we got the news we now had to make another decision.
If we salvage the car we get $15,400.  We buy the car from the insurance company it is $11,300 back so around $4k to purchase our car.  The issue is the inspection and problems we could face...
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Movie production expenses = $130.  Most of that was buying sympathy flowers for someone on the cast or crew.   Purchases had died off for a while but a $20 purchase showed up yesterday and MH confirmed it was for props.  
Eating out = $274
That's for 18 out of 22 days.  Well on track with the $500 gift money we allocated for food.  MH has skipped a couple of meals (due to time) and has been treated out to a few meals.
Everyone is getting tired...
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I made it through my lung procedure. It was much easier this time so feeling pretty good and a lot less sore.
TMI warning: It was good news and bad news. My lung disease was still soft after two months and hadn't solidified. So they were able to use suction instead of cutting it out with a laser for hours like last time. So that's good that after two months it hadn't hardened back yet. The bad news is that the damaged parts they were hoping would recover did not at all. Parts...
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The pantry clean-out challenge I started in January has slowed down recently due to having guests and other life events. While there has definitely been noticeable improvement in my freezer and cabinets being less packed, it was definitely not done, so I am recommitting now. I stopped at the grocery store yesterday and did a $35 stock up that was mostly vegetables, which I was out of, and I plan to make these into meals by using up the other things in my pantry
Shopping haul:
2...
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Just a quick check in – the month is flying by! I bought a car 12 years ago with 100,000 miles on it and drove it for another 100,000 miles, so really can’t complain! Because that car lasted so much longer than I expected,  I have had many years to save up for a new car to buy it in cash, so technically it’s not monthly spending since it came from the expected earmarked car savings. The old car has been needing increasingly expensive and more frequent repairs,...
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Lately I’ve been counting my chickens before they’re hatched… which is never a good thing. I’m so sick of this monkey called debt on my back and I’m working out all the scenarios I can to pay it off! We have some money coming in from various places over the next few months and if it all comes in as expected and when expected, we could possibly be credit card debt free by the end of May. But that is only if all the stars align.
Teachers in my district...
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Well, after 5.5 months of being a woman of leisure, today I accepted a job offer.  I start the day after tomorrow.  This position is a full-charge bookkeeper at a food processing company in a nearby town.  I think it is going to be a good fit and I am very excited to roll up my sleeves and get started. 😀
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DL(18) baked potatoes Thursday night and I made black bean wraps on Friday night.  I made 5 wraps.  DL ate 4.  I might make again on another night.  Saturday I baked some parmesan red potatoes and ate the 1/8 cup or whatever of rice left.  That's when I realized the black bean wraps were gone.  It worked out because I wasn't that hungry and DL had Chipotle (his friend took him out).  DL ate all his curry and the fridge is getting empty. ...
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I was hoping February would be a low-spend month, but it's not turning out that way. Partly my fault, partly not. My fault -- I ordered a Levi hybrid trucker jacket from Macy's -- a good deal, but still $57. Because of the size I needed I had to order online; I hope it fits. Not my fault -- the college where I used to work, and from which I was an official retiree, retracted the perk I got upon retirement of free Microsoft 365. The IT person I talked to -- when I started having...
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2024 TALLY:
$782 Capital One Venture (Moi)
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$782 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*
**In addition, various monthly rewards that I will tally at 12/31
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We hit the $4K spend on this credit card and so the bonus appeared shortly after.  It took just under 2 months.  I charged two months of health insurance, one airplane ticket, and one hotel week.  I wasn't thinking about it and didn't realize the hotel...
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This debt update is based on our most recent credit card statement which posted on 2/16/24. I do this mid-month because our credit card closes on the 15th. I can't wait until we are credit card debt free!
As always, we are not paying off our debt as fast as I would like, but I am happy to say that our debt decreased! It actually went down by more than I was expecting this month because we have had some unexpected expenses pop up!
Here is our current credit card debt total:
 ...
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I had some time to breathe Wednesday.  🙄  Work, chores, drama.  Work, chores, drama.  That's how the weekend went, and so I completely gave up on any grocery shopping.
I got past a big work deadline Tuesday.  & I was determined to come up with a shopping list that night.  
Menu plan:  Not much planned.  I thought I'd be eating burritos for days (should get through that).  As I wrapped up for bed Tuesday night, I saw...
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The usual login page I use, https://www.savingadvice.com/login/, is giving me a 404 error.
I was able to login by using the link on the Forums page, but both the direct login link and the link that comes up when I am not logged in and try to reply to another blogger are not working today.
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One step forward, two steps back! That’s how I feel right now. We are making good progress on out debt. We are budgeting and saving money in our sinking funds. But life keeps throwing us curve balls!
Last night my husband’s car was stolen. My son had to drive over an hour to work so they traded cars that day. It was stolen off the street in broad daylight. There is video surveillance of it being stolen, but all we could do was file a police report. (It could have been...
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Just going through the credit cards and seeing where we are at.
I am throwing the little convenience store type purchases into 'groceries'.  A - I don't have to feed MH from grocery budget this month.  B - I have no idea if these charges or for him or for production.  Though it sounds like all of these purchases have been for the movie so far.  Total movie expenses absorbed in grocery budget = $12.
Movie production expenses = $108.  Most of that was buying...
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I am really, really tired of not being ready for dinner and being too tired to make lunch all the time, so it is time to get serious.  Three things I know for sure I want to make for dinner this week are meatloaf, chicken fajitas, and polish sausage, onions, and peppers.  We have all of the ingredients for those except a lime and cilantro for the fajitas and cauliflower to make riced cauliflower to use in place of bread crumbs in the meatloaf as I can no longer find rice...
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