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8 oz room temperature salted butter (do not microwave)
2 to 3 tsp granulated garlic (not powder), adjust to taste
1 to 2 tbsp dried Italian seasoning (or at least basil, oregano, and parsley) adjust to taste
Put ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix with a whisk.  You can use a stand mixer or hand mixer on 2 or low, or just a regular old hand whisk, but if you do use a regular whisk I advise using a small one with close set tines and shake it out every few strokes. ...
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2 more days on my current contract, by the end of the week we should have the old place emptied and ready for pictures and put on the market within that week. There are very few options at this price point so I expect it will go fast maybe multiple offers. Two weeks ago, an amazing opportunity opened up so I threw my hat in the ring. I interview next week and I'm crossing my fingers. 
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Yesterday was a rainy day so I was able to apply a special nutritional treatment to the drip line uner the canopy of my giant hemlock, which has been ailing for a while with the wooly adelgid.  You're supposed to apply it right before a rain. I hope it helps. I have plenty of the stuff to last all summer in treatments spread 2 weeks apart. I feel guilty that until last summer, I had mostly ignored the plight of this tree, but I definitely would not want it to die. I believe...
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Housing
784


Fees & Services
254


Utilities
213


Groceries
162


Medical/Health
93


Home Repair/Maint.
65


Personal
62


Phone
49


Eating Out/Takeout
39


Household Supplies
39


Fares/Parking
34


Gas
32


Entertainment
31


Gifts/Charity
18


Laundry
18


Vet/Pet Supplies
13


Car
6



Grand Total                 1912
Nothing much to comment on. It...
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Debts
Mortgage -$111,961.39 (-$727.77)Land Loan -$7,800.92 (-$587.41)Hospital Bill -$141.41 (-$225)
Savings
Roth IRAs +$33,464 (+$3,952)401K +$65,345 (+$4,754)Emergency Fund +$5,074 (-$142)Animal Fund +$1,050 (+$11)Car Fund +$260 (+$0)HSA +$555 (-$864)
Overall: +$9,251.18
I apparently forgot to do my monthly check-ins for the last couple of months. So these numbers are going to reflect a 3 month difference instead of my typical one. 
I've been super busy and I've had...
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I'm nerdy and if you are reading this you are nerdy too about money.  You wouldn't be on this site if you didn't care or like to excel and plan your spending.Anyway for years DH and I have a running excel spreadsheet of our car mileage.  We have price, miles driven, etc.  DH said it was so we could observe if a MPG thing happened then we'd know something was wrong with our cars. So I've been doing it since 2010 when we bought our subaru outback.  The car 14...
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I was exhausted yesterday after doing a big Costco Shop, but I think we are set for a while.  Having 30 pounds of butter back in the freezer eases my mind a fair bit.  Only 10 pounds of it was on discount, but I was down to 2 boxes (4 pounds), and I want to get another 30 pounds in there come June, July at the latest.  I am planning on making up some of my herb garlic butter and repackaging it for the freezer, so I have it for making garlic bread, ravioil, salmon,...
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TSP $1,093,655
IRA $321,527
Brokerage $98,438
Investments $1,513,620
Savings $35,938
April 2024 Net Worth $1,549,558
March 2024 Net Worth $1,612,782
Monthly Gain/Loss -$63,224
Checking $10,779
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Well, being a multimillionaire household (assetwise at least) was fun while it lasted; this month we lost about $24K in net worth, even more than that in retirement account worth. It's been a good run and I'm sure it'll turn around again. With me and AS still getting our business up and running we haven't been contributing to retirement; NT puts some away through his work's 401k but that's it.
Still, we're kind of living Coast FIRE right now; none of us works a 9 to 5 anymore!...
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I will turn 45 this coming week. It has been fun to look back at our mistakes and progress over the last 25 years. Here is the last installment of our money journey. 
Age 40 – 45
Our forever home ended up not being our forever home. But only because we are planning to move out of state. (If we were going to stay in California, we wouldn’t ever leave this house.)
Upgrading our house also upgraded our mortgage and our monthly bills. We could mostly afford it....
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So we thought we were done with taxes...but we got a letter in today stating they need us to send forms which we sent at the time....I swear the US govt has to be one of the most incompetent "businesses" we have ever had to deal with and trying to get anything done is damn near impossible...so now we have to call them..they gave us 30 days to respond to them..we got the letter today 6 weeks later...so that time has lapsed...they cashed our owed cheque in feb...so not sure why it...
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I did some bookkeeping today.  I worked out my budget for May, which will be a tight one, but that's okay, because we have everything sorted out and should not have to make any large purchases for a few months now.  But we will be paying off nearly $3K of charges we made this month.  I do have the money in savings, but I prefer to cash flow it.
Then after I sorted May, I went on and revamped my budget template for the rest of the year.  Sort of.  For the...
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So we want to change our bank and we were able to do everything fairly easily..but my hubbys US social security gets put directly into our account (started 13 years ago)...so we call them (1am our time) and they start asking questions...we answer them....we get to our acct details we give them to them..they say its not right they need a routing number...I tell them we use swift codes here and give it to them...doesn't work...so I google our bank and finally find a routing number...nope...
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Life has been lots of changes. I haven't posted because I've been sort of overwhelmed, physically, emotionally, and financially.
After many years of marriage, my spouse and I divorced. Fortunately it was amiable and mutually agreed upon. We divided things as equally as possible, but these were big changes for both of us.
I have discovered a couple of things -- you find out who your real friends are when you do this. I have asked people not to take sides. We do not hate each other....
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Here is part 2 of our money journey.
At this point in our life, things changed a little bit because I went to work full-time in my profession as opposed to working part time in retail. In some ways, things improved, in others they stayed the same, and in yet others, they got worse.
Age 28 – 32
At this point, I went to work full-time as a teacher. We didn’t have to pay for day care as my mom watched our kids. But the kids were also getting older and getting involved...
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Yep, I had a fender bender, and it was my fault, though in a way it wasn't my fault. I actually fainted while driving, so I was very lucky it didn't turn out worse than it did. What did happen -- a slow-speed crash that damaged my vehicle and the other one, a trip to the ER and overnight observation, lots of tests, and more tests to come. And I'm grounded at home for the next two weeks, while my heart is monitored by a sticker device I wear on my chest.
I'm trying to take this...
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Lately, I've been focused on paying down my student loan, putting any extra money towards that debt. 
 
However,  I completely neglected to save for a new car. Recently, I had to fork out $2,000 for car repairs, which was a frustrating realization because I haven’t been saving at all for a car—just saving to cover my insurance.
 
Now, my car is running smoothly again, but it has nearly 300,000 miles on it. I'm faced with a decision: should...
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I realized being so busy I haven't really written about stuff but I might as well put down some thoughts here.  I've posted a lot since December 2006.  18 years older and 2 kids later.  Financially?  Probably better than I ever dreamed.   In some ways I'm still very liberal and others i find myself becoming more conservative.
But there are still things that pop up at us.  So where we live in WA state they started this long term care insurance...
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Today I sat down and wrote out 14 days worth of lunches and dinners that I can rotate around.  The lunches are just for me and my son since we will be eating at home and meal prepping.  The dinners are for everyone.  So I am choosing from the master list for this week based on what I have in the house, although I will have to do a small grocery shop to fill in some gaps tomorrow.
Day One:  Tacos and yellow rice
Day Two:  Baked chicken, baked potatoes,...
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I guess this is largely a MM(20) money update.  
I thought we would go over MM's cash during winter break, but he ended up not having much of a break.  I am surprised he still has any cash available, but he's been in extreme low spend mode and just stretching that $1K annual gift (using for spending money during college years).  We touched base during his spring break.  I think he had maybe ~$1,200 easily accessible cash.  He was very *shrugs* about...
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