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I enjoy following your budgets so much that I thought I'd give it a go at sharing mine. I know that I put more on credit cards than this budget accounts for, so I really need to get better at actually accounting for my expenses. Now that I write that, I realize that I had nothing in my budget for travel or shopping, which is definitely not correct. In fact I just spend $800 on booking ballet & plane tickets for NYC in July. 🩰 ✈️ 🚖 
rent $1712
utilities $100
auto...
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Since I don't know if I'll be able to recover my lost entries, let's try this for a third time. Third time's the charm, right?
Retirement investments $1,156,452
Brokerage investments $81,542 
Savings $26,551
Total $1,264,545
My brokerage account is set aside for a future home purchase and my cash savings is earmarked for future car purchases. I put $500 into each every month.
I hope to not have to buy another car until 2032, which is when all cars are projected to be...
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I got an email that my new checking account is now paying 5.25% interest which may finally motivate me to start using my debit card. I haven't used a debit card for a very long time. I have to make 15 credit card transactions in order to qualify, which seems like a lot!
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Just testing because I'd hate to type out another lengthy blog only to lose it again.
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I had a pretty severe medical emergency a few weeks ago that required surgery and a hospital stay. I'm finally back home and slowly healing. My sister is here from Texas to help me for a while. My brother, other family and friends have been so amazing through this whole ordeal. I am so thankful for them!
I am also thankful for the excellent health insurance I have. I pay a pretty penny for it every month, but most everything is covered except for some co-pays. Some of the statements...
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I was out for a work conference all all the ladies carried, Gucci, YSL, Fendi or Louis Vuitton handbags. I'll admit I felt ashamed, out of place. I hate feeling like this. 
I said a little prayer and asked God to take the need/want of having what others have away from me. It's hard. 
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I've been feeling pretty productive the last few days.
Today, I had an electrician come by to do 3 small jobs (switch out 2 upstairs hall ceiling light fixtures and fix an exterior light and put on a new fixture for it) and he'll be returning to do 2 more things: install a new digital thermostat for the family room (to replace the old rotary dial thingie) and install a whole house surge protector, which is really not that expensive. He was very affordable, and even informed me...
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I can't believe April is over already! Here is how my spending went:
Housing - $769
Utilities - $220
Fees & Services - $201 (license plates, Sam's Club)
Gifts/Charity - $108 (Easter dinner, postage for donations, Wikipedia)
Household Supplies - $96 (water filters, laundry detergent)
Car - $89 (oil change, two car washes)
Clothing/Accessories - $70 (walking shoes)
Groceries - $45 (this was low because Easter dinner provided many leftovers)
Vacation/Travel - $44 (day...
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Debts
Mortgage −$114,862.67 (-$243.36)Land Loan -$10,111.59 (-$188.36)Hospital Bill - $1,041.41 (-$94.44)
Savings
Roth IRAs +$26,232 (+$577)401K +$49,947 (+$1,533)Emergency Fund +$8,188 (+$1,292)Animal Fund +$1,206 (-$495)Car Fund +$20 (-$0)HSA +$885 (+$143)
Overall: +$3,576.16
The month looks better on paper than it actually was. The market is up, but our general budget money is down. Unfortunately my dog was acting a bit off so I took him to the vet and shockingly...
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Pretty good gain in retirement, about $10K this month. Coast FIRE now showing as 10 years away vs. 11 last month!
It's a very interesting and weird time for us financially. I wish I had time to blog here more frequently about it, but I've got so many things going on that I never get around to it! Let's see if I can sum up...
- Both units of our separate rental property are going vacant May 1. We think we have a renter lined up for June or July for one side; the other side's had...
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Even though they cut me an off-cycle check all of my retroactive earnings were shown on this paycheck along with my current earnings. Thankfully, my match was accounted for from both pay periods. My premium for both health & dental were doubled up, but the FSA pro-rated for the missed paycheck. It will be just a few dollars extra every check for the rest of the year. All fine by me.
Investments are up for April, just waiting for monthly interest payments to post before my final tally.
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begin - beginning checking account balance
pr - my net payroll check
SB - my contribution towards our joint living expenses
cash - My budgeted amount is $260, but I only needed $220.  I forgot to adjust before I made my House DP transfer, so I ended up with an extra $40 in checking.  I just left it there, because I will have a big expense to pay beginning with the next paycheck.  More on that below.
sf - automatic sinking funds transfer which will happen...
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Yesterday I met BFF in the middle city for our monthly lunch/gabfest. I spent $44 for gas and food. Then I spent another $70 for new walking shoes. That was unexpected, and it put me over on variables (105%), but I really did need walking shoes, as my current pair is literally falling apart. The bad news is, I began to question the fit last night and took them back to my DSW this morning, only to learn that I couldn't exchange them because I had walked outside. Well, that makes...
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My daughter has been having chronic headache issues for about 16 months. We have seen doctors and specialists, had MRI's, tried prescription medications and vitamin regiments... nothing has worked. As a last resort, her neurologist suggested therapy. She said sometimes our bodies will do anything to not deal with painful things.
Finally in January, we were able to find a therapist that would see a minor. Very few we talked to would see minor's and even fewer still woudl accept...
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MM(19) sorted out his housing, as I expected he probably would.  He was just being a little too *chill* for my liking.  While I worked on the backup plans for the backup plans.  But he had a few irons in the fire and I was giving it some time before I dove in too deep.  So it ended up taking very little time or mental energy on my part.
He found this rental the day after the RA position news.  But then he hit a red tape brick wall with the management company. ...
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I just checked Capital One's 360 performance savings went up 0.10%. I think it was 3.20% when I first opened my account then it went to 3.30%. So far it's just been very small incremental rates increases. I also noticed that their CD rates have not gone back up to 5.00%. I was worried when I opened my two accounts, after listening to Suze Orman speak, that they would have big rates increases right after I opened my accounts. The term was only 11 months, so it's not like I'm locked...
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It's been some time since I've blogged. I guess it is because I haven't had anything to really say. Just working around here trying to keep things going as well as working on the church mortgage reduction opportunity. Since we started in January, we have paid down $44K already saving us $18K in interest. So, that's good news. It isn't sustainable because this came from some larger gifts, but figure whatever we do pay down is that much more than what we had.  I continue to...
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Look at this little house, isn't it cute? 
Carbondale, IL Real Estate - Carbondale Homes for Sale | realtor.com®
And what do you know?  It just happens to be located in the same town where my very favorite 2 people in the whole world live.  What a coincidence.
Almost a year ago now, I re-named my "hobbies" sinking fund "house down payment".  I have been adding small bits of money here and there.  Well, I am ready to get serious about this sinking...
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I had a week off work with absolutely nothing planned.  My expectations were pretty low (that it would be peaceful).  It ended up being a mix of some peaceful days and some challenging days.  & a bomb was dropped on me re: work.  Ugh.  Another post for another day.
I did make it to my other happy place (above).  This was a neighborhood in San Francisco, where my friend lived during our college years.  Another little slice of paradise. 
I...
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Can anyone tell me if there is somewhere that I can find how much we need to put away for taxes...we never owe and the last 2 years (which has just been completed) we have owed on both of them and it looks like from last year to this year our taxes that we owed doubled...but I would like to make sure we don't owe again but not sure what to put away...is it going to go up another $1000 plus again this year...have tried irs but couldn't find it...anyone have any ideas...our income...
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