A couple of days ago, the installation of my ductless heat pump was completed. It's a two-headed Daikin system, and I am delighted with the results. It will be useful both summer and winter, but especially in the winter. It's also more energy efficient and will probably lower my electricity costs. I will also get a $300 tax credit on this year's taxes. The total was $5412 - homeownership is not cheap! Yesterday, I went out to water my frontyard flowers, and saw that someone had dug up a whole ...
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Disclaimer: This has absolutely nothing to do with saving money. It has more to do with my social life, which has gone from zero to 70 in a very short amount of time. Who would have thought that on the cusp of true "seniorhood," Wild Blue Yonder would be dating. Yes, I have dipped my toe in the online dating waters after a very long hiatus. I gave up on dating a long time ago, and then when my mother became sick, I dropped everything to take care of her as best I could. After that, I started lo ...
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So I started tracking some stuff in February with our new budget.  I found that in Feburary we spent $1056.29 on groceries and $45.56 eating out.  The kids were at home and DH was at home. Then in March DH transitioned to going into work and the kids went to school 2 days a week each opposite days of course.  They were all eating lunch at work and school for free.  We spent $820.79 on groceries and $112.72 on eating out.  Then in April the kids were off and eating at hom ...
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I took a planned trip to the grocery store yesterday. The gas station that I always go to is in the same shopping center. I did not need to get gas, but observed fairly long lines. I live in Maryland, and we have been moderately effected by this ransomware attack on Colonial.  My opinion is that people panicking and hoarding gas made this whole thing much worse. Similar to the panic buying of toilet paper and other products we witnessed at the beginning of the pandemic. Hopefully, now that ...
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Ended up spending $140 on food, over 3 days.   OLD!! (sharing meal) ~ MM = 1/2 food spending? Total vacation costs:  $750 (Hotel, Food Fuel) car charging $35 (half the cost of fuel) Should have $2000 vacation budget left after Oralndo airfare.  Hotel is covered.  Rest is for eating in Florida.  Austin trip (Take 2).   Will have a fat vacation budget for getting MM moved into college?  No time to do Grand Canyon trip probably.  Also, no time ...
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OMG I can't stand it. I am trying to refinance with Chase. I have to move money over to get the best rate. I also wanted to consolidate our accounts.  BUT turns out I can't move money around easily.  Why?  Because when I moved money last year to Merrill Lynch they got my name wrong.  I did not input it wrong so they obviously opened accounts not in the right name.  Sigh.  Can't move money electronically.  I am leaving Merrill Lynch because they have no branches ...
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I made a substantial move and sold half of DH's VNQ (vanguard real estate REIT) we were holding in his Roth IRA.  I did this because I have been thinking about it buying WPC another real estate stock. I wanted to move back from $100k to $50k into each stock.   I wanted RE but I wanted a little more balance of commercial loans and overall RE.   I still would like to buy a rental but not right now.  We have too much going on.Well the market is dropping and I'm debatin ...
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I am by no means a market timer. I believe in investing regularly over time and, for the most part, holding things long term. That said, over the past 3-ish years, I have gradually reduced the equity allocation of our portfolio and it now stands at about 66% (it was 80% 3 years ago). It's part of the adjustments I've been making as we prep for retirement. My plan had been to wait for the impending inheritance I'll be getting and use that money to adjust it down further to 60%. However, I don't ...
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I moved into my house in 2005.  The house itself is 106 years old, but the last owner had done a good job of keeping things up to date.  Now that I've been there 15 & a half years, "durable goods" are starting to reach the end of their lifespans. Prior to last year, the only real upgrades I had done were to replace the gutters.  There have also been periodic large plumbing jobs along the way (two so far, and I'm worried that I may have another issue this year.) I've also kep ...
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I returned last night from my week long camping and hiking trip. It was fantastic! I am exhausted physically, but emotionally it has been so relaxing and rejuvenating. I need a vacation every month! I booked this trip last December when I was feeling cooped up. It started out as a mental experiment - if I can't travel anywhere, I can plan and let my mind travel. I decided to plan a week long outdoor adventure. I picked Utah, and started planning. By the time I got to the third day, I couldn't ...
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Does anticipation really make things more special? Based on our experience this past week, I'd say a resounding "Yes!" A year ago we had planned on going to Laurel, Mississippi, to visit the town of Ben and Erin Napier of the HGTV show, "Home Town." We had been saving money to make the trip and then last spring the plague of Covid got in the way. So, watching reruns, talking about what could have been, and hoping that this year might be the year... Well, it was. We drove over 700 miles over 2 ...
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April Spending covered with unemployment funds: --Some charitable contributions came up  --College expenses ($300 for various orientations) --Dining Out $200+ this month ~ this included a marvelous lunch out of town (our first restaurant meal in over a year and it was actually very good, some place a little different).  Also, MH is working on a film project and I ran out to get dinner two weeks in a row, in addition to feeding other people.   Just a lot of extra splurging. ...
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Well we spent quite a bit this week...shouldn't have but oh well...thats life! Hubby wanted a new blender combo so we got one and my mom wanted a new blender so he bought her one for mothers day...she is really happy! We also bought a fire pit for the yard...hubby has wanted one for a bit but the last house there wasn't enough space...now we do...we also left our compost bin at the last house so we needed to get a new one...and now we have one of those as well....so are pretty set for what we ...
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I wrote a really long blog & it all disappeared. So frustrating, but I'll at least re-write about my Facebook Marketplace sales this week. It's been my first week offering shipping & I get inquiries all day long. I've made 5 shipments and made $318.03. People are really into their Yankee Candles! I did have one package arrive damaged with broken candles. I was so upset for the customer. She really wanted those discontinued scents. I packed the box very well with a ton of bubble wrap betw ...
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I woke up this morning feeling 100% better.  Well, make that 98%.  I still had a little headache, but that went away eventually.  I got online and booked a fresh set of tickets for my trip.  Now I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon and staying through the next Saturday.  Naturally, my reimbursement from the cancelled trip did not cover half the cost, but I only had to pay $233 out of pocket, and it could have been worse.  Chalk it up to "these things happen." Now I have ...
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I have a couple questions, now i live in australia so different from you guys and I'm wondering if you can tell me the difference between Roth, IRA an 401k acct (did I miss any?) are they mandatory or are they like savings accounts? I read all about them but don't understand them...Thanks ...
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I hate to keep adding to this saga, but it gets worse.  Yesterday I decided I would go to Oregon unless I heard from my son that he was definitely positive.  At the end of the day, he had not gotten a result yet, so I told him I was coming anyway.  I went to bed early, planning to catch up on a little sleep before the 3 am alarm. I couldn't sleep.  I thought I was anxious about the trip, but now that I look back I realize that I started to feel not quite right yesterday afte ...
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Debts Mortgage −$120,914.85 (-$233.91) Savings Roth IRAs +$20,355 (+$623)401K +$40,293 (+$1,457)Emergency Fund +$8,831 (+$353)Animal Fund +$1,060 (+$0)Truck Fund +$1,1195 (-$10)HSA +$1,550  (+$375) Overall: +$3,031.91   Kitchen remodel is starting tomorrow! I am scared and excited. I have been very sick this week and it seems like a terrible time to get started but we can't delay since the contractor is scheduled and the cabinets are waiting to be picked up. I am worried ab ...
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Just another mishmosh entry... My 401k contribution/loan payments from my last paycheck posted today, and the combined loan balance is under the next thousand, and the account balance is over the next thousand as well.  While I really want to get out of the cycle of using 401k loans as I do feel insecure about retirement and know I'm behind, I will say that it's nice to have debt that when you pay it back, increases your savings equally.  Of course the goal is to not need debt lol.&nb ...
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We spent a lot in April. I don't know what happens but a lot just seems to crop up.  I will say that my suspicion has been since February that my DH eating lunch out and my kids too now 4 days a week eating lunch at school saves a boatload of money. It does.  We seriously don't seem to spend as much on food. Groceries $589Eating out $212Alcohol $103Dog $269Travel $759Gas Car $144Utilities $708Home Maintenance $1400Personal Care $135Auto $12Home Goods $205Office Supplies $27Refi $500Gi ...
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