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Today I shopped at Aldi for the second time this month. I spent $26 and bought butter, apples, frozen pie crusts, tuna, green peppers, flour tortillas, lastose-free milk, crackers, salt, half & half, baby carrots, and biscuits. For another $5 I bought a boot tray -- much needed today as it is wet and sloppy.
I made a side trip to Sam's for gas, which was $24 for a half-tank.
Variables for the month are at 50% and I have bought no big-ticket items.
Edit: I almost forgot!...
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BFF came and stayed with me over the weekend. We were pretty low-key and didn't spend much. I spent $18 on eating out and $15 on gifts. We ate at home most of the time and watched movies on Netflix. So far my variables spending is only 26% for this month.
I've received two tax documents. I'm going to take my time before I file. I always seem to jump the gun and then I have to make changes because I was lacking a document. This time I'm going to make sure I have everything. Not...
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When I went down to the central valley for my mom's surprise 90th birthday party,  that same old nasty hacking cough came back.  By the 3rd day there, I was coughing non-stop.  It continued on for 5 weeks, then mercifully tapered off and is now back to normal.  (I feel the urge to cough most of the time, but can mostly resist.  I use cough drops to help control the urge.) I missed a bunch of work because I just can't function like that.  
All...
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When I was a kid, we struggled financially. It wasn't because my parents were lazy, it just that money was tight. I saw resourcefulness as well and hard work and believe I was raised with a Depression Era attitude.
Once I finished college and landed my full time teaching job, I listened to some of the older teachers talking about pensions, retirement accounts, and things like that. My dad and mom had to rely mostly on Social Security come retirement, and I can attest it was nothing...
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I have recently stumbled across this YouTube channel.  The host goes through people's account statements prior, then interviews people and discusses their financial information.  These are generally people who aren't managing their money well and need some help.
It's an interesting show and I thought that people here might enjoy it.
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MH's parents told him last month that they are going to buy an EV in 2023.  They are eyeing the Bolt, same car we have.
They've probably never spent more than $15K on a car.  They prefer to buy new and will probably end up in the $25K range.
I am 1000% in the "they should splurge and get what they want" head space and am happy to see them buying something a little nicer than they usually would.  But...  I don't see the point in going new for a Bolt. ...
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I hadn't thought much about it because "saving money" really wasn't a reason that we bought our EV.  I mean sure, it made it easier to justify financially because of all the fuel savings, but it wasn't the reason we made the switch.  Fast forward to high gas prices in 2022 and this seemed to piss off people and they misdirect their anger at EV drivers.  So have been fielding a lot of really stupid comments.  The comments peaked when gas prices peaked. ...
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I plugged in my numbers into the H&R Block calculator because I was anxious about having to pay a lot this year due to increases in income. It looks like I will owe less than $100 to federal, maybe a couple of hundred to state. It doesn't seem to calculate state taxes so I'm only going off my own rough calculations.
I didn't realize that the state income tax rates went down last year. That's a huge thing as they've remained unchanged for as long as I can remember. I don't...
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Our net worth decreased by $65K in 2022.  This works out to $15K cash spent (college, new mattress, MH's movie and film festivals, etc.) & a $50K decrease in stocks.  I am depreciating our autos aggressively but that is offset by mortgage paydown.  Home values remain steady.
Re: my sidebar big picture goal, this leaves $120K to come up with in the next 4 years.  Considering that our goal was to increase net worth by $60K every year...  We are still...
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Finally have this years taxes done and ready to post out...will add in last years since we don't even have confirmation that they have received them and will make it when they arrive that they require a signature so we know they got them...hopefully they will both be done and dusted in the next few months!!
Other than that things are just chugging along...Have found a new program that should hopefully help with health...Im skeptical but will try about anything right now...I can't...
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The new bank has free coin-counting for members so I took my banking bag full of change and deposited it into the new checking account: $53.07. I didn’t think so much of it was quarters! Then I used the new debit card at the grocery store to make sure it worked with no problem.
 
Finally, I submitted my updated direct deposit splits to the company’s payroll department that will hopefully be effective by February.
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I'm and doing okay on the eat from the pantry challenge.  In 19 days we have only spent $27.32 on fresh produce and a half gallon of milk, which are within the parameters of my challenge.  Also within the parameters of my challenge are that if I find a really good sale on something, I can buy it, but I can't use it during the challenge.  That's okay, because I don't want to.  Most of it is for canning, the rest to be eaten during the next 3 months or so.
Some...
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I haven't filed yet because I am waiting on one more thing, but we finally got my husband's W2 and I can make a pretty good estimate on what we are getting back. It looks like right around $9,000, which is great! I was honestly only expecting at least $4k with hoping for up to $8k, so even better than I planned.
This is the first year completely without my W2 income and my old job was a major tax leech.  I was expecting our refund to go up, but then a lot of things that we...
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My iPhone X finally started dying on me. It's the same each time. Right around year 5 it will start running hot & running through the battery. I visited both Verizon & AT&T (my current carrier), before returning to Verizon and buying the phone as well as switching carriers & trying out their home internet service. I got the iPhone 14 Pro. 
I got $10 off by signing up for auto-pay. My plan also includes Apple Music which I was paying $11 monthly for, as well...
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I think that the storms are over. The reward was this sunset.

I was sad to see that this plant had toppled over.   
(Picture is from summer 2021) 

Between all the storms, and also having a class (online) Weds/Thurs, I didn't venture out until my dentist appointment on Friday.   I left our newer neighborhood 'small tree' bubble.  I was driving on a road that had a large park on one side and an older neighborhood on the right side. ...
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My freezer is finally starting to empty out of food left over from my Christmas brunch. And I was starting to run low on some key items. So I made a trip to Aldi today. I decided to hold my spending to $25, since that's what I'm used to. And I did indeed spend $25. I bought vinegar, stoplight peppers, granola, Swiss cheese, Ranch dressing, spinach, Graham crackers, bread, coffee and flour. They fit nicely into the two bags that I am able to carry upstairs. I'll go back next week,...
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I’ve had a plan for some time now to replace my big bank with a local community bank. Last week I finally did the first step: opening the account at the new bank. Now I’m setting up links to other accounts and bill pay for some things. I thought it would be efficient to just do it all at once and that has resulted in required scrutiny of all those micro-deposits institutions make to verify identity. In hindsight, it may have been better to do them one at a time.
 
I...
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2022 TALLY:
$200 Capital One (DL credit card - used for auto insurance)
$ 30 Citi Reward (for charging hotel)
$ 15 AmEx Reward (for charging insurance)
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$245 TOTAL *ONE-TIME REWARDS*
Ongoing rewards:
+$298 AmExRewards (6% cash back groceries/streaming services)
+$75 Target rewards (5% discount Target purchases; mostly groceries)
+$153 Visa Rewards (3% cash back restaurants/fuel).  Ended up also using for groceries in Q4 (3% cash back)
+$1,032 Citi 2%...
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My husband has well and truly destroyed my 12 inch skillet.  For the third time he has left it on the burner without turning it off after taking the food out and the surface is now completely destroyed.  It won't clean and it is completely roughed up.  I don't feel safe cooking on it as it feels and looks like it has ruptured the non-stick ceramic coating.  It was such a good pan before this, too.
The 12 inch skillet is my most used pan, because I can cook...
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I'm going to own up to it...
I did it.
I ate part of a dog biscuit.
Shocked? Well, here's, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story...
I have a friend who has two wonderful dogs. I also have a love of baking. I ran across a recipe for making simple dog biscuits and I had all the ingredients. In fact, I had just opened a jar of chicken broth I had canned last summer and there was a little left. I was planning on baking some other stuff so the oven would be on, and well,...
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