All Entries

Well I have completed paying all but 3 of my bills for the month, tomorrow is payday so I will pay 2 of them and them the last one at the end of month on our next payday. 
I know many pay their bills differently and although the hecs debt get indexed in june of each year where the CC charges monthly (when you owe) I have chosen to pay off the smallest first as it will only take a couple months then the CC which should be done by april...so not a lot of difference. 
Also...
[ Read More ]

I like Kohls.  I really do.  I feel like I can always find what I need, and usually at a good price.  However, their Kohls Cash program is infuriating!  The bonus is only good for a short time, and so many brands are excluded.  I always end up either forgetting to use it before it expires, or I try to use it on ineligible products.
This year, I did a bunch of Christmas shopping at Kohls and ended up with $80 in Kohls Cash, to be used from 12/26-12/31. ...
[ Read More ]

As I transition into retirement, my income sources are shifting away from reliance on work. While my p/t job still accounts for 31% of total income, so, too, do dividends (from just 3 funds) and a small, one-time IRA distribution. My annuity contributes another 23%; it will be a bit more next year as I did not start getting annuity payments until February 2023.
Credit card rewards are still nice to pursue as they earned me $532.
That's it in a nutshell; 2024 will bring even bigger...
[ Read More ]

My total expenses for the year were $42,851, about $800 less than last year, so I count that as a win.
A closer look at my top expenses reveals, however, that in only one category, my cat, my expenses stayed roughly the same as last year;  7 other top expenses rose by as much as 94% (maintenance). Surprisingly, there was also one category, electricity, that dropped by 1% compared to last year. That must be attributable to my turning the lights off all the time since I'm still...
[ Read More ]

I’m sure I won’t do a post every day, but will add updates as life allows!
 
Today I ate pasta with an egg, Greek dressing, and some bamboo shoots from a can in the pantry before running out the door. Had some unexpected issues pop up so I didn’t have time to pack a lunch for my shift and ended up getting a foot long Subway sandwich, which lasted for both dinner/second dinner, along with a banana I had on my desk. I also finished the last bite of hummus...
[ Read More ]

I hope your holidays have been wonderful. It was good to have family home for Christmas. We had a couple of outings to museums for the kids, but mainly stayed close to home. We played a lot of games as a family which is always fun.
My mom had a low glucose episode & my dad called an ambulance on Christmas Eve. That was the one low light of our holidays, but thankfully she was fine. After checking her out they were only there about 15 minutes & now my dad knows what to...
[ Read More ]

2023 Totals$13,325.29 gross$9,455.82 net$1,608.44 Cost of goods sold for the yearMy average monthly profit was $787.99 with my lowest month being $610 and my best month being $1,033.For 2024, my goal is a monthly profit of at least $600 and to get my average daily sales up to 2 items. My 90-day running total right now is 142 so about 1.58 items/day.
[ Read More ]

Final numbers:
$129,758.76 401K
+$13,909.91 IRA
-----------------
$143,668.67 Total Retirement Accounts
These last two weeks increased net worth by $3,464.93, a litte over half of that was contributions.  The IRA needs to gain about a few more dollars to reach where it was before Biden year 2 started.  Biden year 3 has had two really solid quarters, one free fall quarter (second quarter), and one amazing quarter (last quarter).  It puts the 3 year rate of return...
[ Read More ]

What. A. Year. It was rough net-worth-wise until nearly the end, but the last two months of market gains and some debt paydown helped us end on a good note. Better place than we were at the end of 2022 but not as good as where our net worth was at the end of 2021 (our assets are higher but so is our debt compared with 2 years ago).
Snapshot of the past two years:
Dec 2021 assets: $1,579,801 ; Dec 2022 assets: $1,801,176 ; Dec 2023 assets: $1,939,211Dec 2021 debt: $370,966; Dec...
[ Read More ]

December is always a difficult month, financially. But this year it was not too bad. I exceeded my variables by 9%, but I had a few surprises, like needing a new phone and then needing a new Amazon firestick and remote. And the average of my variables spending was only 93%, so overall I did well.
I stayed within my Christmas budget of $1000, spending $989. That is not just gifts, but hosting a Christmas dinner, postage, gift wrap, cards etc. My total spending in the gift category...
[ Read More ]

I usually never travel this much to hawaii.  So I was curious how the year stacked up.  I know from chatting with friends who always ask me LAL what's a good price and when should we go? I tell them end of April and late October is typically cheap and easy. Also January after MLK weekend is another cheap time to come to Hawaii.  January might even be better with hotel pricing and winter for many folks.
But what have you spent LAL and did you get a good deal? ...
[ Read More ]

Well the bad news first...my friend who has health issues and lives with her sister and BIL was found at the end of her bed unconscious...she was taken to the ER and is in icu but they haven't figured out what has happened to her yet..she is moving around but not conscious or following commands...so hopefully fingers crossed she will pull through not the way anyone wants to end the year. This has brought my anxiety on big time so not having a great day.
The 2024 budget is up and...
[ Read More ]

2023 was a quiet year.  The most notable happening in my life was losing my beloved Buffy cat.  Other than that, I took two long-weekend B&B trips and had my usual once-a-year visitor.  No other traveling, even though with Buffy gone, I have more freedom to travel. 
2023 Goals & Results
1.GOAL:  Health: Maintain/improve on health gains from 2021-2022. 150-300 "zone minutes" per week.  Maybe run a 5k?
Results:  I DID run that 5k! ...
[ Read More ]

Since the business year ended on 12/29 I was able to review my year-end numbers a couple of days early.For the year, our portfolio was up $323,751.18.That's a whole lot better than a year ago when we finished 2022 down $252,713.52.It took 2 years to recover but we're now just above where we were on 12/31/21.We're up 10.6% for the year.2023 was the first full year I was per diem at work and was also the first year when we drew from our portfolio to support spending. We took out...
[ Read More ]

Yesterday breakfast was cereal with milk. Lunch was green peas (freezer) and an egg with some curry spices and cayenne for heat. I brought some pasta with broccoli, green peas, and an egg mixed in from items I had with me for dinner. It was a late shift, so around 1 am I was hungry again and ate some ramen and a mini bag of ritz crackers with peanut butter from my work stash. Brought my own tea and coffee as usual.
 
 
Today I started with a small bowl of cereal and...
[ Read More ]

2023 Q4 is done for the year:
TSP $1,040,872
IRA $306,280
Brokerage $91,409
Total Investments $1,438,561
For comparison, 2022 Q4:
TSP $810,864
IRA $243,949
Brokerage $79,994
Total Investments $1,134,888
ANNUAL Gain/Loss $303,673
[ Read More ]

I haven't been paying alot of attention to our finances over the past few years.  We're pretty comfortable (which I think has made it easy to ignore).  Over the past few months, I've seen the impact of our disorganization (buying things that we already have) and waste (particularly with food that goes bad before we can use it up).  Importantly, hubby has seen the same, and is committed to doing something about it with me.
My goals for 2024:
1) declutter my house...
[ Read More ]

Yesterday I started by finding two forgotten boxes of cereal on the top of the refrigerator, so I had some wheat flakes with dehydrated berry pieces from 2021 with milk for breakfast. Not bad. Clearly the top of the refrigerator should store kitchen equipment in the future.
 
 
Lunch was leftovers from family Christmas feasting.
 
Dinner was pasta (pantry) with green peas (from the freezer), Greek dressing (from fridge), and an egg for protein.
 
Drinks...
[ Read More ]

I'm glad Christmas is finished for one more year.  The tree will be down today and we will take the outdoor Christmas lights and standees down this weekend and get everything tucked away into the garage or our storage unit.  I will be glad to have it put away so life can return to normal.
We got a recumbant exercise bike for the family for Christmas to replace the treadmill that three out of four of us can't use because of our knees and also the weight capacity being...
[ Read More ]

I tend to keep a lot of food on hand from picking things up on sale and so that it’s never urgent to go to the grocery store on a particular day if life happens. Even fairly shelf stable food doesn’t last forever, so I think it’s time to use up some of the older stash to make sure nothing gets wasted. I am planning to make this a January challenge (though may start now), if anyone wants to join me. The rules will be:
 
I can buy coffee creamer, eggs, and...
[ Read More ]