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Archive for August, 2023

August Check In

August 28th, 2023 at 02:06 pm

Debts

Mortgage -$113,890.54 (-$238.56)
Land Loan -$9,353.60 (-$189.99)
Hospital Bill -$741.41 (-$75)

Savings

Roth IRAs +$26,908 (-$984)
401K +$53,076 (-$1,235)
Emergency Fund +$6,498 (+$413)
Animal Fund +$772 (+$503)
Car Fund +$20 (-$0)
HSA +$303 (-$181)

Overall: -$980.45

Overall down from the market. But this was actually a great month for us. Besides adding to the above funds I paid for a $600 medical bill, $800 lodging for a future vacation, have the loan payment for next month saved, and have cash for a couple upcoming expenses. This is due to husband's bonus and I also finally got some back pay I was owed. 

I should have more side income coming and with September being a 5 paycheck month I hope we can continue to replenish savings. 

I still haven't gotten news about my heart yet. There was some poor communication between medical providers and it's all "not my fault" blame game right now between them and in the mean time I know nothing yet.

July Check In & Possible Heart Surgery?

August 5th, 2023 at 01:23 pm

Debts

Mortgage −$114,129.10 (-$245.11)
Land Loan -$9,543.59 (-$228.86)
Hospital Bill - $816.41 (-$75)

Savings

Roth IRAs +$27,892 (+$858)
401K +$54,311 (+$2,074)
Emergency Fund +$6,085 (-$906)
Animal Fund +$269 (-$1,095)
Car Fund +$20 (-$0)
HSA +$484 (+$385)

Overall: +$1,864.97

Up from the market. All cash accounts are down. On average we are spending over $300 a month more than we make this year. Which is NOT good. Unfortunately there just aren’t a lot of places to cut and husband is pretty much maxed out on overtime. 

My alternator did need to be replaced and it was $600. Had to buy hay which was $1,300. 

Groceries are our biggest climbing expense. We pay pretty much double what we paid before covid which is crazy to me. I do meal plan and don’t buy a lot of extras. I can’t help the price increases. We don’t have any streaming services, or cable, or memberships etc. 

I am still owed money and husband should be getting a bonus and a raise this month. I’m kind of bummed about the raise. He is going to get around $75 a month which we were going to increase retirement .5% and then put the rest towards groceries but just found out our home insurance/escrow is increasing by $45 a month starting this month. So there goes most of the extra. 

The bonus is hopefully going to be used to replenish some of our savings we keep borrowing from. 

I was casually running our taxes and forecasting it looks like we are going to make $3k or less too much to qualify for the earned income credit again this year. So frustrating to me to be so close to poverty line and not get any of the breaks or assistance. Especially since it’s not based on AGI but earned income so I can’t do anything to help. We don’t qualify for anything because we make too much but we also spend more than anyone I know on medical bills every single year (averaging over $12k a year) so we are really making less than it looks like. Sigh. 

On a related note I am having lung and heart issues again and we are discussing me possibly needing heart surgery again… Hoping for something minor like a pacemaker and not open heart surgery again for the third time. Hopefully I will know something soon. I’ve been wearing a heart monitor for a month and will do some more testing next week. Recovery for something like that sounds terrible with two toddlers, but I also feel terrible every day so I just want to be better.