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Home > Archive: May, 2021

Archive for May, 2021

May Check In

May 29th, 2021 at 02:34 pm

Debts

Mortgage −$120,680.38 (-$234.47)

Savings

Roth IRAs +$20,740 (+$385)
401K +$41,269 (+$976)
Emergency Fund +$8,554 (-$277)
Animal Fund +$1,060 (+$0)
Truck Fund +$445 (-$750)
HSA +$1,925  (+$375)

Overall: +$943.47

 

Had to steal from the car fund and the emergency fund to pay for kitchen remodel overages. I expect to pay ourselves back asap. Vacation is coming up quickly!

Life and Death

May 28th, 2021 at 07:00 pm

The reason we needed to save for our Medical OOP again this year is that I am pregnant again! Baby #2 will be arriving this fall. So far things are going well. My kitchen remodel was definitely a project based on nesting. lol. Construction work is done and now husband and I are finishing up the trim and small details. 

In sadder news my grandma passed away recently very unexpectedly. This is quite a shock since she was healthy and we had dinner plans only a couple hours later. Her and my grandpa have been extremely frugal and hard workers their whole lives. They left a sizable inheritance to their children which they are in the process of sorting out. But my family has graciously gifted me her car. It's only a couple years old and much nicer than any car I have owned or could probably ever afford to own. 

My husband is still driving his first car and it's basically one mile away from dying at any moment so we have been saving off and on for several years for a replacement. He will start driving the new car which gets about 3x better gas mileage and we will use our car savings budget for other things. 

Although we are all sad about grandma it is such a nice parting gift to leave your family an inheritance instead of debt. I hope someday I will be able to leave something for my own children. 

Worth the Time

May 21st, 2021 at 06:34 pm

I've been dishwasher shopping for several months now but the one I picked has been completely out of stock this entire time. Last night after randomly checking I saw Lowes had just a few available for purchase on backorder (not to arrive until July.) Best Buy had also gotten a few in stock for the same timeframe and $70 cheaper but you had to pay $80 delivery or pick up yourself. My credit card is currently running 5% back at Lowes. So what to do?

 

I went ahead and purchased from Lowes before they were gone. This morning during business hours I called their customer support line and talked to a very nice lady. After explaining to her the same dishwasher was $70 cheaper at BestBuy she confirmed and refunded $70 back to my credit card. Super easy and quick way to save $70 AND I also get my 5% cash back and free delivery. It never hurts to look at competitor prices and ask for a price match. 

 

Kitchen remodel is going pretty well. This is week two of no sink or stove but my countertops are being delivered today! My husband has the next four days off and my construction worker is coming to hopefully install the counters on Monday. So if we can get everything painted and trim up over the weekend hopefully we can move back in early next week. I am SUPER excited and ready to not be eating microwave food off paper plates every day anymore. 

I am still waiting on my last $1,000 web design check to pay for the kitchen remodel. And I don't have the money saved for the dishwasher purchase but since it's been out of stock so long I had no idea when I would get another chance. Thankfully they won't bill until it ships which is weeks from now so we should be able to come up with the money by then or at worst we can borrow from ourselves for a short time. 

April Check In

May 6th, 2021 at 07:29 pm

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 about not having a kitchen for a couple weeks and that seems really hard with a toddler but I'm sure we'll make do. Hopefully it goes quicker than expected and it turns out well. 

Vacation is only a month away which is also exciting and scary. Thankful everything is already reserved and paid for.