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How to: Publish your Finances (December 2022 edition)
A little welcome, a little fall. Wowow I’m back again 🙂 Posting yet another late blog post. And having a realization that…other people probably review/edit their blogs before they post them. I was doing that before but on these last two I really just went for it because I needed to get something out. But I don’t appreciate sloppiness like that so I’m going to now review this one before I post. (now edited ;))
I’d also like to give you a little something, for the courtesy of even looking at my blog. I’ll tell you a little more about me and something I’ve been thinking about these “finances” posts.
- I can’t believe I spend this much money: Like I really can’t. I grew up lower-middle class as a child (in the SE too, where I still live, and where it is notoriously cheap to live) to solidly middle class by the time I was done with high school and not ONCE do I think my mom spent the amount of money I spend in a month. Like period. We didn’t own our house, our cars were probably cheaper than that (yes, inflation, but still I am anchored to these prices so they impact my mental fiscal wellbeing – would love to talk more about that later), and there was never enough money to put together to buy anything more extravagant than like a few hundred bucks outside of those
- The spending really crept up on me: So let this be a lesson to you all. I’ve been reading personal finance blogs since I was 24, so I’ve been doing A LOT of stuff right in the last ~8 years (like not really going out to eat, being frugal on vacations, going down to one car, and doing home improvement work myself), but still there is this sieve that is “have a need, buy a thing” that I only just recently feel like I really conquered. I even finally cancelled my amazon account (in March 2023) because it was just too easy to buy things when I thought I “needed” something
- Both of those things said, I think there’s a chance I am over-estimating my expenses: By including every dollar that comes out of my account (like YMYL cautions us to do), I’m counting as an expense some investments (like the rental property, principal paydown on my house) and some debt payback (which I feel like maybe shouldn’t be an expense because by that logic, increasing my debt payback negatively impacts my spend each month, but positively increases my net worth…so something is off there), and all in all that’s like ~$4k a month, so not nothing.
Some of the holiday food I prepared 🙂 Proud of my pie, my crackers, my roasted pumpkin seeds, and that I’m not afraid to cut up a string cheese and serve it because we had it on hand! As a reminder, my hope is that this blog will accomplish 1 of the following 3 options:
- Be a success and create a community of like-minded people who will engage with me on one of the most taboo of topics: MONEY
- Make me accountable to reducing my spending so that I can retire early regardless of this blog’s success and function as a journal to being really frugal
- Be a creative outlet through which I explore some of the things I would like to do in my retirement, including sharing my ideas and lives in this format
So here goes my monthly spending!
Notes about spending:
- This is my entire household spending (e.g. me and my husband, who is along for the FI train and just starting to really work frugality like me)
- I buy everything on a credit card (which is how I track my spending) and pay off in full every month
Spending Category Amount ($) Notes Rental Property Mortgage & HOA $1375 Townhome purchased as a personal property but now functioning as a rental to a family member (paying under-market rent at $1200 to avoid dealing with tenants and for help managing previous renovations): WOW the mortgage company REALLY underestimated my tax payback last year so my mortgage payment shot up ~$300!!! So annoying how that happens Personal Property Mortgage $2237 PI – ~$1700
TI – ~$540
Reduced by $120 this month due to getting my home re-appraised and mortgage insurance removed!Phone $40 US Mobile
OKAY! I checked our app to see if there had been any plan updates and was able to get the same service for nearly half the price!! So worth it to look into these things 🙂Medical + Health Insurance $129 More vitamins plus insurance Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash, Internet) $511 Will write about this in a future post but in Jan ’23 we had an energy audit and learned A LOT about why this bill is always so high – switch gas companies to try and get a lower rate for winter…should have done that when my scheduled time was up because all of the hassle (even though the other company paid me to switch) has just really done a number on my understanding of my finances, including I think that I got hit with the fee in this month so it is too high Car Insurance $135 Evenly spread across 12 months but we pay in twice yearly lump sums – increased by ~$55/month because we just added our ’86 4Runner to it – worth it’s own post on whether this is the stupidest/coolest thing we own
+Very good chance we will sell this thing in the Spring – it’s just a much more fun summer car so better prices by waiting we think 🙂Other bills (mostly insurance through work) $823 Netflix, WSJ, some other stuff I should probably look into and get rid of…PLUS I’ve now added my ~$180 of insurance here (accidental, additional life, etc.)
+Included annual Chase Card fee (which ~$300 in travel credits will get paid back…and I am now convincing myself this card isn’t worth it, time to throw in the towel here!!)Student Loans $1205 Paying off student loans, but not too quickly because it’s also been a 0% interest loan like since COVID started. Hoping for that forgiveness to get decided on soon so we can either get it or pay off. I’m trying very hard not to get below that $10k amount before they decide but pay right up to it for my husband’s loans 0% interest loans $625 For our AC replacement and a rug for baby’s room – really this is an experiment because logically my mind knows that a 0% interest loan for something which I could buy in cash is a good idea due to the inflation we are dealing with /// at the same time I hate having out an unnecessary loan and it is living rent free in my mind which makes me want to kill it
+Finally paid off that freaking rug lolGas $42 We have a Prius! And both WFH so are able to keep this pretty low, even lower without my incessant shopping Events (out to eat, alcohol, stuff to do) $990 Wooo guess we really celebrated for the holidays 🙂 don’t know why I’m making a smiley face – it is so stupid! Car repairs $0 Miscellaneous $156 So good, so low – obvi my new mindset is affecting some areas 🙂 Travel $0 I’m only going to have money in this category when we actually go so I can categorize spend here for each vacation Baby $690 I went back to work so now there is a $150/week payment to my MIL to watch the baby for a few days, but we had Christmas week off so now I’m unsure why this is so high – but both Nov and Dec are long months so probably an extra week in there Home Repairs $527 Freaking pipe burst on the water heater in the townhouse on Christmas day! We had FREAK cold weather Groceries $556 Hosting holiday events Dog Expenses $30 In-laws dog went home to be with his family 🙂 Amazon / Household $233 Getting lower 🙂 Hobby $2117 …and out of control again – for the last time I think!!! Luckily this hobby is also not totally accounted for correctly. The items purchased are easy to sell and retain their value, but since he doesn’t invest in them like an investment it’s more like a losing savings account haha, but not just a straight up expense Total $12,421 Once again, holy shit!!!!! I feel very un-relatable publishing spending like this. Like never in my life did I think that I would be spending this much money in a month. To be fair ~50% of it is going toward debt payoff (mortgage, student loans, 0% loans), and this savings-ish hobby, but still!! Minus rental $11,046 Since the rental is income-producing, it’s a little bit unfair to count this as an expense, at the same time, it’s money going out and YMYL says to count it all! To be fair – it could be less for many reasons (e.g. refinancing, having put down more in the first place, etc.) Minus everything that is not an expense (rental, principal paydown on house, hobby, debt payback, just for my own edification) $6,412 If I’m honest, do I feel like this is an appropriate amount of money to spend? No. Is it close to my goal – yes. Which I think helps to clarify for me why my net worth tends to increase more than I’m expecting based on what I call my “expenses” So clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do. I would say the top categories I can save money in:
- Husband’s hobby (this month ~$2100); though again this technically isn’t a full money sieve
- Still a lot of juice in events, groceries, dog expenses, utilities and all the other little shit categories (Amazon, Misc., Events) that can be gotten rid of (currently $1400)
- Get rid of that GD credit card!!! We do not need an annual fee card
Some things I’ve already done to reduce spending:
- MVNO for the cell phones
- Remove PMI for both properties (reduced home mortgage by ~$120!)
- Replace AC, started to do a bunch of work around the house based on an energy audit we got in February 2023
- Do repairs at home ourselves when possible
- Called about insurance, but was unable to find a better deal (didn’t dig too deep here because of a recent claim…probably stupid); going to sell the 4Runner though so will reduce this spend
- Aligned with husband (after years of talking about this) on frugality in order to achieve a happier, more skill-free, less distracted, and financially independent lifestyle
- Begun BULK BUYING
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How to: Publish your Finances (November 2022 edition)
A little welcome, a little fall. I’m back baby!!! So I decided because people kept reading my blog and because I love to read other people’s blogs that MAYBE, just MAYBE it is not worth giving up on my blog. MAYBE people would be interested in my particular story. MAYBE I don’t have to worry so much about the far between and just need to get back to writing. I am trying to be introspective about WHY I stopped writing so I can know when it will happen again, and realizing that it was mainly because I went back to work and I was no longer feeling inspired to write/just busy enough to validate putting it off. Which is okay, it’s not me to stick to a schedule that doesn’t serve me in the moment which I would actually consider a skill not an issue. So, like I said, I’m back baby!! And starting with some easy posts to make my life easier 🙂
The beautiful fall lake view I get to wake up to! (reminding myself how green my grass really is) As a reminder, my hope is that this blog will accomplish 1 of the following 3 options:
- Be a success and create a community of like-minded people who will engage with me on one of the most taboo of topics: MONEY
- Make me accountable to reducing my spending so that I can retire early regardless of this blogs success and function as a journal to being really frugal
- Be a creative outlet through which I explore some of the things I would like to do in my retirement, including sharing in this format
So here goes my monthly spending!
Notes about spending:
- This is my entire household spending (e.g. me and my husband, who is along for the FI train and just starting to really work frugality like me)
- I buy everything on a credit card (which is how I track my spending) and pay off in full every month
Spending Category Amount ($) Notes Rental Property Mortgage & HOA $1040 Townhome purchased as a personal property but now functioning as a rental to a family member (paying under-market rent at $1200 to avoid dealing with tenants and for help managing previous renovations) Personal Property Mortgage $2237 PI – ~$1700
TI – ~$540
Reduced by $120 this month due to getting my home re-appraised and mortgage insurance removed!Phone $40 US Mobile
OKAY! I checked our app to see if there had been any plan updates and was able to get the same service for nearly half the price!! So worth it to look into these things 🙂Medical + Health Insurance $59 More vitamins plus insurance Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash) $237 Will write about this in a future post but in Jan ’23 we had an energy audit and learned A LOT about why this bill is always so high – November must have been pretty mild for this to be so relatively low Car Insurance $135 Evenly spread across 12 months but we pay in twice yearly lump sums – increased by ~$55/month because we just added our ’86 4Runner to it – worth it’s own post on whether this is the stupidest/coolest thing we own
+Very good chance we will sell this thing in the Spring – it’s just a much more fun summer car so better prices by waiting we think 🙂Other bills (mostly insurance through work) $201 Netflix, WSJ, some other stuff I should probably look into and get rid of…PLUS I’ve now added my ~$180 of insurance here (accidental, additional life, etc.) Student Loans $1205 Paying off student loans, but not too quickly because it’s also been a 0% interest loan like since COVID started. Hoping for that forgiveness to get decided on soon so we can either get it or pay off. I’m trying very hard not to get below that $10k amount before they decide but pay right up to it for my husband’s loans 0% interest loans $699 For our AC replacement and a rug for baby’s room – really this is an experiment because logically my mind knows that a 0% interest loan for something which I could buy in cash is a good idea due to the inflation we are dealing with /// at the same time I hate having out an unnecessary loan and it is living rent free in my mind which makes me want to kill it Gas $44 We have a Prius! And both WFH so are able to keep this pretty low, even lower without my incessant shopping Events (out to eat, alcohol, stuff to do) $617 Continuing to chip away here! Really hard not to give up the ghost on all these things I have already made updates on…but I will wait 🙂 Car repairs $0 Miscellaneous $1076 Holy snikeys! Honestly I don’t even remember what this way, must have been Christmas shopping Travel $0 I’m only going to have money in this category when we actually go so I can categorize spend here for each vacation Baby $450 I went back to work so now there is a $150/week payment to my MIL to watch the baby for a few days, but we had Thanksgiving week off so didn’t have to pay her then Home Repairs $503 Can’t remember… Groceries $318 Bulk buying has already taken a chunk out here and next month should be even cheaper Dog Expenses $157 In-laws dog went home to be with his family 🙂 Amazon / Household $331 Higher than last month but somehow still below last year’s average Hobby $187 Husband’s hobby – starting to get it under control! Total $9,587 Jesus it is crazy how quickly this shit adds up! I am not in anyway sneering at a $1500 reduction, but like WHAT???? I feel very un-relatable publishing spending like this. Like never in my life did I think that I would be spending this much money in a month. To be fair ~50% of it is going toward debt payoff (mortgage, student loans, 0% loans), but still!! Minus rental $10,177 Since the rental is income-producing, it’s a little bit unfair to count this as an expense, at the same time, it’s money going out and YMYL says to count it all! To be fair – it could be less for many reasons (e.g. refinancing, having put down more in the first place, etc.) So clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do. I would say the top categories I can save money in:
- Husband’s hobby (this month ~$2600)
- Still a lot of juice in events, groceries, dog expenses, utilities and all the other little shit categories (Amazon, Misc., Memberships) that can be gotten rid of (currently $2400)
Some things I’ve already done to reduce spending:
- MVNO for the cell phones
- Remove PMI for both properties (will reduce home mortgage by ~$120 next month!)
- Replace AC
- Do repairs at home ourselves when possible (fixed fridge leak and did roach eradication most recently)
- Called about insurance, but was unable to find a better deal (didn’t dig too deep here because of a recent claim…probably stupid)
- Aligned with husband (after years of talking about this) on frugality in order to achieve a happier, more skill-free, less distracted, and financially independent lifestyle
- Begun BULK BUYING
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How to: Have an Epiphany
Some slightly dreamy songs to go with my epiphanic (?? not the only perhaps incorrect gerund of this word in the article) state Hello dear readers,
And welcome back to Home Ec! It’s 8:05am on Friday morning and class in session, but the weekend is also around the corner so, hey, let’s keep the learning light and fun today.
As part of my new “Bulk Buying” experiment, I’ve assigned one day a month to hit up my most common stores. Rules are that I have to go to that store that day AND that I cannot go any other day of the month. This past weekend Goodwill and Amazon fell on the same weekend, so Saturday morning I wrangled my husband and baby and headed out to our local Goodwill with a long list of items I would ideally like to purchase from a thrift shop (think Member’s only jacket, some extra utensils for our emergency kit, winter gear for the baby).
As soon as we get into the store, I can tell my husband’s not really feeling it. I’ve been yakking his ear off for the past few months about reducing purchases and here we are doing shopping for me, while he cannot do any shopping of his own. But I’m too excited so I kind of pawn off the baby on him while he looks at books and I’m off and running. Racing down aisles, picking up things on my list and other things that seem useful, I will purge later before we actually buy so that I don’t exceed my goal spending of $100 (which can buy A LOT at Goodwill).
The cart is full when I find my piece de resistance: two framed prints from the 80s, 3′ x 4′ with gold mirror inlay of a floral scene. They are HUGE, STACKED in a pile with a bunch of other large framed pictures, and far from perfect condition. But I am mesmerized, so I go grab my husband to convince him that we need these pictures and elicit his help to move them.
When he sees them he does a really good job of playing along and being supportive, cause they are cool. I’m busy rattling off all of the reasons why we need them (“they’re matching prints!”, “these are like straight out of the 80s!”, “how cool would this be for the baby’s room!”), meanwhile my husband is countering with practicalities (“well, if you got new frames they would look much nicer”, “they’re huge and will be really hard to hand”).
Finally, he looks at the frames and the full cart and he has had enough:
Jesus Christ! Don’t you have enough crap to bring home?!
Correct husbandAnd he starts spouting back at me all of the things I thought had just been going in one ear out the other from me. I am floored because he rarely says anything about my money behavior. It’s embarassing (not like in the store because he’s speaking politely, but in my heart cause I know I’m being a total hypocrite in that moment).
Anyway, I buy the frames because I want them, but the shock of my husband touting frugality pushes me to put back a few things.
A few hours later at home though, it hits me like a brick, like no amount of reading about frugality and minimalism has, that my trigger for spending is on things that are cheap and useful – that’s my category for hoarding and purchase justification. And the thing that really hit me was that my justification was so deeply engrained that I didn’t even realize it was my own thought! I think I thought it was just common sense. But my husband calling out the hoarding for what it was was a real eye opener.
No matter how CHEAP or how USEFUL something is, it does not mean that I NEED it.
Epiphanized professorAnd so I’ve been mulling on that for a little less than a week and it’s really done a number on the amount of time I spend thinking about ANYthing to buy. Here’s hoping the feeling lasts!
A couple of new rules that have come out of this experience:
- No more assigned days for anything but Total Wine, Costco, and Amazon (and maybe Amazon needs to go). It was like budgeting, once the money is allotted it’s doomed to be spent
- Way less TV – kind of tangential, but after my epiphany me and my husband got to talking and remembered that TV is just junk for the mind so we should cut down on that too
Alright, I know you are ready for the weekend, and the professor’s not as funny as she thinks, so class is dismissed!
P.S. Really loving that this blog is along the way because it IS fun to capture little realizations like this!
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How to: Remove PMI from your Mortgage
Hello dear reader!
And welcome back to another How to with your host, Professor Home Ec. Today I want to talk with you about some real home economics (wink, wink, nudge, nudge): how to remove PMI from your mortgage, because if you bought at least 2 years ago and you have PMI, there is a good chance you should not be paying it.
Removing PMI is actually super simple. PMI, or Private Mortgage Insurance, is placed on your home loan when you put down less than 20%. What it does is insures the bank against your home not being able to sell for the value of the loan. They do this on down payment’s less than 20% just because it’s much more likely that the housing market dip by say 7%, below your 5% down payment and now you’re under water, than by 22% below your hefty 20% down payment. Plus I’m sure they’ve done some risk analysis and people who put down larger down payments are less likely to need to sell in a down market and therefore less likely to foreclose and lose the bank money with an underwater loan.
So, all you need to do to get rid of PMI is prove that your loan is now less than 80% the value of your home. The mortgage company actually makes this very easy for you. All you have to do is:
- Assess if you are a good candidate for PMI removal
- Did you put down less than 20% when you bought your home and still owe more than that today? (if you’ve paid down to 80% of the original value of the home, good news! Just call up your lender today and tell them to REMOVE THAT PMI! They won’t automatically do it until 78%)
- How long ago did you buy? (If >2 years, you are eligible to apply just based on market growth, if <2 years you need to have done significant work to the home to increase it’s value to prove PMI removal)
- Have you done significant renovations/repairs to the home? (Your value can increase due to the market, or to renovations/repairs done to the home)
- Have you seen what comparable houses are selling for in your neighborhood? (Check out Zillow! Use recent sales when at all possible, because a list price is just a wish list until someone actually buys)
- If you are a good candidate, go ahead and call your lender up (some you can even do it online!), and tell them you want an appraisal or BPO (Broker’s price opinion – the much cheaper option (like $150 v $500), take this if you don’t need a full appraisal and the lender doesn’t require it)
- Pay for the appraisal or BPO upfront
- Help the appraiser or broker get into your home at an agreed upon date and time to perform a very quick inspection
- Wait for the appraiser or broker to send the resulting report to the lender
- Once the lender receives the appraised price, they will check to confirm that your loan is less than 80% of the new price
- If it is, they will remove PMI from your payment, and in my case they also just reviewed my escrow payment as well and adjusted that down based on actual bills from this year
All in all this took about two weeks from initial phone call to letter confirming that my PMI had been removed (and ~$120 off my monthly mortgage!) Given that the market has been HOT HOT HOT, in many places I would expect just owning a home for more than 2 years, with no significant renovations, may be enough to get your PMI removed. It was for me! And the $150 I paid for the broker has an breakeven of 1.25 months — beat that!
If you’re not looking into removing your PMI – you might need your head and eyes examined for a low low price of $99 at your local Costco - Assess if you are a good candidate for PMI removal
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How to: Publish your Finances (October 2022 edition)
Little bit of my frustration around making the same mistake AGAIN, in a playlist. Ugh…I’m feeling frustrated. October was my first month of “I’m really doing this, I’m going to save all the money!!” and somehow saved a whopping ~$800 over last month. Whomp whomp. The reality is that we actually did do better than previous months BUT a couple of things happened:
- My husband paid off his 0% interest loan and his credit card for some extra hobby purchasing that he did in the last couple of months. I’ve read a bunch of blog posts about how to get your partner on board, but honestly I’m still having a really hard time selling him on the whole “future without work OR stuff” thing. He is naturally frugal EXCEPT when it comes to his hobby and boy is it an expensive one. Since we’ve talked about this SO MUCH (note all the CAPS lock), and we now have a baby, and he says he’s really into it, I AM REALLY HOPING that this is the turning point here. The best sign is that there was no new spending this month, so here’s hoping he can keep it up!
- I did a fair amount of bulk spending this month that I shouldn’t have to recreate next month SO this should be one of the more expensive months, with the following being less. This is the scary thing about bulk spending: super easy to just start storing things away that you bought “because they were on sale.”
Truly amazing moon we saw at the beach this summer. As a reminder, my hope is that this blog will accomplish 1 of the following 2 options:
- Be a success and create a community of like-minded people who will engage with me on one of the most taboo of topics: MONEY
- Make me accountable to reducing my spending so that I can retire early regardless of this blogs success and function as a journal to being really frugal
So here goes my monthly spending!
Notes about spending:
- This is my entire household spending (e.g. me and my husband, who is along for the FI train and just starting to really work frugality like me)
- I buy everything on a credit card (which is how I track my spending) and pay off in full every month
Spending Category Amount ($) Notes Rental Property Mortgage & HOA $1040 Townhome purchased as a personal property but now functioning as a rental to a family member (paying under-market rent at $1200 to avoid dealing with tenants and for help managing previous renovations) Personal Property Mortgage $2365 PI – ~$1700
TI – ~$650
Reducing by $120 next month! But going to experiment with paying over by ~$50 a month for a while since I’d already gotten used to this payment (according to a calc this will save me 1 year and 2 months off my mortgage! may even up to $100!)Phone $37 US Mobile
OKAY! I checked our app to see if there had been any plan updates and was able to get the same service for nearly half the price!! So worth it to look into these things 🙂Medical + Health Insurance $132 More vitamins plus insurance Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash) $473 Last month of crazy AC bill!! (hoping this significantly reduces our electricity bill in the future cause it’s driving our spend here at ~$330) Car Insurance $153 Evenly spread across 12 months but we pay in twice yearly lump sums – about to increase by ~$15/month because we just added our ’86 4Runner to it – worth it’s own post on whether this is the stupidest/coolest thing we own
+This month I added the cost to get the 4Runner road legal (tag and title)Other bills (mostly insurance through work) $306 Netflix, WSJ, joining wordpress (annual), joining a local park (annual) some other stuff I should probably look into and get rid of…PLUS I’ve now added my ~$180 of insurance here (accidental, additional life, etc.) Student Loans $691 0% interest loans $699 For our AC replacement and a rug for baby’s room – really this is an experiment because logically my mind knows that a 0% interest loan for something which I could buy in cash is a good idea due to the inflation we are dealing with /// at the same time I hate having out an unnecessary loan and it is living rent free in my mind which makes me want to kill it Gas $72 We have a Prius! And both WFH so are able to keep this pretty low, even lower without my incessant shopping Events (out to eat, alcohol, stuff to do) $679 Okay we started chipping away here! Only went out to eat like 1.5x last month, bulk buying alcohol through total wine, one weekend event…still some room but we’re getting closer to where I’m comfortable! Car repairs $69 Parts for our ’86 4Runner which is not running AGAIN. Only pro to this is that my husband is getting to know more about cars and getting to know a neighbor through this venture Miscellaneous $124 Continues to be small! I think that reducing amount of times shopping is REALLY having a great impact here Travel $0 I’m only going to have money in this category when we actually go so I can categorize spend here for each vacation Baby $622 I went back to work so now there is a $150/week payment to my MIL to watch the baby for a few days, plus some random stuff we got on amazon for her Home Repairs $7 Painted a ceiling Groceries $567 Bulk buying has already taken a chunk out here and next month should be even cheaper Dog Expenses $349 Two dogs – very big! But one is about to go home to our in-laws this month after living with us for 2 years so looking forward to this expense decreasing Amazon / Household $208 Cut this in half!! Woohoo! Hobby $2,623 Husband’s hobby – it is not fully an expense because it’s a hobby where the objects retain value, but it’s also not an investment so I think it’s best left here. This month it is paying off a zero interest loan – no new purchases. So should be really low next month! Total $11,217 Jesus it is crazy how quickly this shit adds up! Without my husbands debt payoff, this month actually is more like $8600 which is like SO MUCH BETTER. Still so much room, but moving in the right direction. Minus rental $10,177 Since the rental is income-producing, it’s a little bit unfair to count this as an expense, at the same time, it’s money going out and YMYL says to count it all! To be fair – it could be less for many reasons (e.g. refinancing, having put down more in the first place, etc.) So clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do. I would say the top categories I can save money in:
- Husband’s hobby (this month ~$2600)
- Still a lot of juice in events, groceries, dog expenses, utilities and all the other little shit categories (Amazon, Misc., Memberships) that can be gotten rid of (currently $2400)
Some things I’ve already done to reduce spending:
- MVNO for the cell phones
- Remove PMI for both properties (will reduce home mortgage by ~$120 next month!)
- Replace AC
- Do repairs at home ourselves when possible (fixed fridge leak and did roach eradication most recently)
- Called about insurance, but was unable to find a better deal (didn’t dig too deep here because of a recent claim…probably stupid)
- Aligned with husband (after years of talking about this) on frugality in order to achieve a happier, more skill-free, less distracted, and financially independent lifestyle
- Begun BULK BUYING
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How to: Take Out a 0% Interest Loan
The titles of these songs really say it all. Hello dear reader,
Fall is officially here in the southeast and with that comes my return to work, as well as my first sap at energy to keep up with the blog. There’s always something! But I promised you a blog every week and damn it if I’m not going to try. Returning to work after maternity leave has been hard, though luckily I get to do it remotely, with my baby at home being watched by family, which has definitely taken some of the pressure off. I spent the last few weeks of my maternity leave furiously modeling out all of the different scenarios to get us to early retirement faster and faster (which I’ll blog more about in the future) because I couldn’t bear the idea of trading my time to a company in lieu of spending time with my baby. But hey, hopefully I learned the lesson about sticking to my guns around saving because there’s chance that had I been more diligent in the last few years I would be even closer (like maybe even a year to a year and half, sigh). But baby is keeping me honest and keeping my head on straight. So with her help, I’ll be there sooner than if I had waited to have kids.
Today I come to write to you about voluntarily getting into debt. Not because I think you should join me, but because I feel like I would be remiss to exclude this recent financial escapade in my finance blog.
There is a good chance that you have seen that in the last couple years the options to purchase things with 0% interest loans has become SO much more accessible. Like definitely to a dangerous point because almost anything you buy online now can be bought for “X easy payments with 0% down!” In fact it’s become so ubiquitous that even my Chase credit card allows me to go back to large purchases (greater than $100) and sign up for deferred payments on things after you’ve already purchased them. I think there can be a fee involved, but if your credit rating is high enough, they let you do it for free.
While I think generally that this practice is predatory-ish (like promoting credit cards in the first place) I also know that with every monetary option, if you’re disciplined enough, you can actually benefit from these offers: like people who do credit card hacking to get all the points. I’ve decided to engage in this experiment because:
- Inflation is ridiculous right now and my money today may actually be worth a lot less than my money in the future
- I could purchase these things outright if I needed to pay them off immediately
So far the experience has been pretty lackluster to be honest. I really don’t like having to relive large purchases over and over again by paying off debt. I also don’t like needing to factor spending that would normally come from my savings into my checking account to make sure that I don’t have some sort of unaccounted overdraft. And lastly I don’t like seeing debt on my net worth that isn’t mortgage or student loans, but consumer. I’m currently ~3 months into the experience and it’s taking a lot of willpower not to just pay these off and not look at them anymore.
That being said, I’m aware that end of year means an inflation raise for me and my husband and therefore we will literally have more money every month to purchase things with, including paying down these debts. I’m also aware that at 0% I’m technically making money by preserving my current investing rather than paying them off. And who couldn’t use a little free money?
If you want to use this as a how to, I’d recommend the following for taking out 0% loans:
- Don’t take out more money than you can afford already today. You’re already saddling yourself with future payments and management, don’t borrow against your future self‘s working time as well
- Make sure that you know the terms of the loan! Ensure the auto-payments you set up can be paid by your account each month and that you are paying at least the required minimum to pay off before interest kicks in based on the term length
- Do not use these loans to buy something that doesn’t last beyond the terms of the loan. Imagine how terrible you’d feel paying on something in the future that is already non-existent.
- Avoid consumerism where at all possible, but especially in these loans. Believe me, you will spend your future money, so don’t find an excuse to spend it now (and if you don’t, hey you just saved)
I’ll continue to update here as the experiment continues. Just know, I don’t think I would recommend it, in spite of the (hopefully) 3-7% I can make.
Current Debt New Air Conditioning Unit $4239 Play Rug for Baby $73 2023 Beach House $1725 I think I can honestly say just writing this article has made a convert of me to NOT take out 0% loans again 😂
View from the beach trip this year; can’t wait to get back! -
How to: Bulk Buy (almost) Everything
I have been listening to a lot of country lately, so please bear with me as I discover the joys of classic country. Hello dear readers!
In my ongoing effort to reduce my spending, I have invented yet another way to trick myself into spending less so that I can change my mindset around spending. At some point I should chronicle all of these efforts (from completely cutting out clothes buying, to weekly cash, to the sin tax) and share to what degree they were successful for me. But maybe the bigger lesson there is to learn how to develop your own tricks to impact your buying where it hurts the most…more on that later. In some ways I’m embarrassed that I haven’t done better (again noting that I’ve been aware of the idea of frugality since 24, meaning I could basically be at FI right now had I been a little more diligent). On the other hand, I think I’ll start publishing how close I am to FI as a % to start because even though I’ve spent a lot more than I should, I’m also like 15% of the way to FI which is okay! Not great but not terrible!
Once again, my most recent effort to reduce has been turning most of my shopping into bulk buying trips in order to reduce the number of times I go to the store. During my maternity leave, I got into the bad habit of going “shopping” for “necessities” as a “way to get out of the house.” This meant that during the week I was going out to a store 3-4x. And for every trip to the store, I had to buy something that was not on my list because it was “on sale” or I realized that we “really needed a whatchamabobber.” As YMYL correctly points out, all those things are a real waste of money. So I started to force myself to limit specific trips to once a month so that I:
- See what my spending in a category looks like at once (like when I do my monthly budget — hurts more to see $200 go out the window once than $25 x 8 trips)
- Don’t have as many opportunities to buy things out of convenience (e.g. I’m here so I should buy that sale item)
- Make and re-make my shopping list before going somewhere and REALLY cut it down to the essentials
- Force myself to deal with the amount of crap I’m actually towing into the house on a monthly basis (as of late this has been a real driver for keeping spending down, because for every shopping trip there is a car unload and a stuff putting up at home that are a lot less fun than the shopping cart load up in the store)
- Free up time to develop hobbies other than shopping! Like recently I’ve been taking my baby for a walk in the beautiful fall weather…what a drag
Said “drag” outside our house. Where will I be doing this bulk purchasing? At bulk stores of course. And below are the ones that I think are going to have the most impact on our spending:
- Costco: Obvi. Here I will be attempting to make bulk purchasing around some of the meal planning I’ve been doing (grains, eggs, chicken, milk) as well as soda water. I’ve been a little disappointed in their bulk pricing to be honest. A lot of time it could be beat by my local Kroger (and using their apps it was easy to compare this ahead of time). But the great news is that planning really reduced my spend here (like at Costco specifically, cause without a plan I can go BANANAS in a Costco). And I’m thinking about just making this trip quarterly because I don’t have much to replace on a monthly basis here.
- Total Wine: This one is a bit of a game changer. My husband LOVES beer. And his favorite beer here is a full $5 cheaper for a 24-pack. Plus this forces us to really think about how much alcohol we’re wanting to drink in a month, rather than just going out and buying some when the mood strikes.
- Amazon: I’m reducing purchasing here to once a month. Yes, you heard it here first, Amazon spending can be reduced! Jeez they really got us with that free shipping didn’t they? I also have a few things that are already on monthly or semi-monthly shipping (e.g. dog food, vitamins) but this will be a once a month order for anything else I think I can only get on Amazon. It already saved me money because I realized that we don’t need to order the bulk size of diaper trash bags when we use mostly reusable diapers anyway.
- Goodwill: This is something I’m adding in because I want myself to think more about purchasing things that end up on my Amazon list from Goodwill – but inevitably every time I go there I find other “needs” so once a month is plenty. Plus that gives me time to build up stuff from the house to donate each month!
- Farmer Fresh Meat & Produce: Not a bulk place, but a local meat market that I will go to once a month both because it’s far away and because I also want to manage my spending on meat.
And outside of these 5 bulk buying trips, I will go to the grocery store once a week only to mostly get produce and the stuff that is cheaper than at Costco. This officially started in October (but buying started in September) so we’ll track spending in those categories in the table below going forward and see how it all pans out! We’ll go ahead and start with July spending so we can see the actual trend.
Month Events Misc. Groceries Dog Expenses Amazon / Household Total July ’22 (traveled for the entire month) $1363 $583 $357 $258 $112 $2,673 August ’22 $624 $159 $696 $101 $830 $2,410 September ’22 – start month $1043 $166 $797 $339 $422 $2,767 October ‘ 22 $679 $123 $567 $349 $208 $1,926 November ’22 – eep! All Xmas spending ended up in Misc. and really messed this month up, but doing well in the rest of the categories! $617 $1076 $318 $157 $332 $2,500 December ’22 $991 $156 $556 $30 $233 $1,966 January ’23 – Going out to eat too much and bought new winter coats $1017 $820 $385 $33 $241 $2,496 February ’23 $951 $0 $409 $96 $149 $1,605 So far, trending in the wrong direction, but TO BE FAIR – we regular bought all through September until I decided to do this bulk thing then stocked UP for October at the end of the month so clearly it’s going to look out of whack.
As a note, it’s always a good idea to track new initiatives like this because there can be downstream impacts that you don’t realize (e.g. now I’m spending more money because I’m doing a big trip and 4 little trips a month and validating all their spend being higher because they should be larger…but then I just spend more overall and this was a waste.)
UPDATE: Feb ’23 is the lowest month yet!! And like a full $1000 less of just bullshit spending on stuff I can’t even remember. I feel in my bones that I have lost the urge to buy things I can’t use immediately – even if presented with it – so I’m excited to see this continue to trend down. Plus I’m taking an alcohol hiatus and we’ve jointly agreed that the expensive dinner we did in Feb was not worth it so monthly date night OUT has been cut.
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How to: Publish your Finances (September 2022 edition)
Musical Inspiration (inspired by my baby’s favorite songs, for whom I am inspired to do all of this!) As we swing into fall, I thought what better way to welcome a new season than to get the old blog going and do something vulnerable like publish my spending before I had the chance to clean it up and make it worthy of a finance blogger. BUT I would say that that is also part of the reason I’m starting now: I want to track myself from embarassing trash (because let’s be honest, I’ve been reading frugality and personal finance blogs since I was 24 and I’m now 31 and still my spending is not where it needs to be) to great to show that it can be done and to make sure I capture all the ways in which I do it.
One of my favorite spots in my house and inspiration for the color theme of this blog. My hope is that this blog will accomplish 1 of the following 2 options:
- Be a success and create a community of like-minded people who will engage with me on one of the most taboo of topics: MONEY
- Make me accountable to reducing my spending so that I can retire early regardless of this blogs success and function as a journal to being really frugal
So here goes my monthly spending!
Notes about spending:
- This is my entire household spending (e.g. me and my husband, who is along for the FI train and just starting to really work frugality like me)
- I buy everything on a credit card (which is how I track my spending) and pay off in full every month
Spending Category Amount ($) Notes Rental Property Mortgage & HOA $1040 Townhome purchased as a personal property but now functioning as a rental to a family member (paying under-market rent at $1200 to avoid dealing with tenants and for help managing previous renovations) Personal Property Mortgage $2365 PI – ~$1700
TI – ~$650Phone $66 US Mobile Medical + Health Insurance $356 Our health insurance is mostly covered by work so this is typically way lower but had to re-up on vitamins this month Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash) $430 We live in a split level in the SE and had an old AC we just replaced (hoping this significantly reduces our electricity bill in the future cause it’s driving our spend here at ~$330) Car Insurance $78 Evenly spread across 12 months but we pay in twice yearly lump sums – about to increase by ~$15/month because we just added our ’86 4Runner to it – worth it’s own post on whether this is the stupidest/coolest thing we own Other bills (mostly internet subscriptions) $49 Netflix, WSJ, some other stuff I should probably look into and get rid of… Student Loans $691 0% interest loans $699 For our AC replacement and a rug for baby’s room – really this is an experiment because logically my mind knows that a 0% interest loan for something which I could buy in cash is a good idea due to the inflation we are dealing with /// at the same time I hate having out an unnecessary loan and it is living rent free in my mind which makes me want to kill it Gas $62 We have a Prius! And both WFH so are able to keep this pretty low, even lower without my incessant shopping Events (out to eat, alcohol, stuff to do) $1043 Ughhhh this is a bane…I think a real frugal person has many more free things to do. This is a bit higher than normal right now because we started trying bulk buying and therefore this is really more like Sept and Oct spending on alcohol + going out to things (more on that in a future article too), plus I’ve been on maternity leave for the last 6 months so have maybe been enjoying my free time a little too much, that’s a general theme because when I work crazy hours it’s hard to spend in the same way cause I have no time to go out and get stuff! Car repairs $1267 Soft top for our ’86 4Runner ($1255) and a car wash for the Prius ($10) Miscellaneous $166 Actually really proud that at the very least I have been able to categorize well enough to get this spending down significantly (used to be like $500/month) Travel $0 I’m only going to have money in this category when we actually go so I can categorize spend here for each vacation Baby $0 Currently this gets mostly spread into the Amazon and Misc. category but as her expenses become clearer I will pull out here Home Repairs $268 Attacked the roaches at our house and our rental — they are terrible in the SE! And this was long overdue – and done ourselves to very good results Groceries $797 Similar to the events category, I’ve started bulk buying so really this is a combo of Sept/Oct spending, should average out next month Dog Expenses $339 Two dogs – very big! But one is about to go home to our in-laws after living with us for 2 years so looking forward to this expense decreasing Amazon / Household $422 Ripe for decrease! Also a category going to bulk buying Hobby $1,775 Husband’s hobby – it is not fully an expense because it’s a hobby where the objects retain value, but it’s also not an investment so I think it’s best left here. Plus my husband has a goal to reduce spend here so let’s track it! Total $11,978 Jesus it is crazy how quickly this shit adds up! MMM has a great article that illustrates the difference between a frugal spender and a regular spender and it’s crazy how minimal changes here and there reduce spending by thousands a month! Like to the point where you wouldn’t believe it, it shocked me. Obviously I am in the spendypants category right now, but I’m ready to change that and start seeing the benefits come in! Minus rental $10,938 Since the rental is income-producing, it’s a little bit unfair to count this as an expense, at the same time, it’s money going out and YMYL says to count it all! To be fair – it could be less for many reasons (e.g. refinancing, having put down more in the first place, etc.) So clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do. I would say the top categories I can save money in:
- Random buying of “stuff we need for the house” (aka Amazon)
- Reduce events spend or frequency of events
Some things I’ve already done to reduce spending:
- MVNO for the cell phones
- Remove PMI for both properties
- Replace AC
- Do repairs at home ourselves when possible (fixed fridge leak and did roach eradication most recently)
- Called about insurance, but was unable to find a better deal (didn’t dig too deep here because of a recent claim…probably stupid)
- Aligned with husband (after years of talking about this) on frugality in order to achieve a happier, more skill-free, less distracted, and financially independent lifestyle
- Begun BULK BUYING, which I am very excited to share about in an upcoming post
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How to: Start a Consistent Blog
One of the below promised “amazing playlists.” Themes will eventually pop up here, but I needed to get this out before I got too caught up in something else so it’s just kick-ass music that makes me feel good. Hello dear reader!! And welcome to Home Ec.
Lol when I think of the number of blogs I’ve started…well it reminds me of the numerous diaries I have from my childhood. It always seems like such a good idea at the time: really appeals to my desire to chronicle what happens in my life, allows me the outlet to create something, and serves as therapy to work through life at the time. The problem is that I can never seem to stick with it. So this time I’m just going to try and roll with the fact that I jump around from thing to thing to keep myself interested, and will just do so in this blog, even just in the hopes that that will help me to keep it going more than a post or two. Yes, I will let myself write a random article about the fact that I used to save cash in a piggy bank using a self-imposed “sin tax,” or one on the different types of fermented vegetables I think taste best, or an article chronicling our journey to make our ’86 4Runner actually run. I used to have a blog in which I described myself as a “jack of all trades” which I think is meant to be an insult, but I have been trying to re-brand, because, fuck it, it’s who I am!
At the same time, I crave consistency for this blog because I want it to be thoughtful and honestly, one-day, a beautiful compiled resource. So when I was thinking about starting this blog I thought: god how am I going to make a good blog with all of my various interests. You really need to have a theme to make good content in my opinion. But then I realized “OH BUT WAIT THEY DO RELATE!” My group of interests are called “homemaking” and essentially it is the art of running a household and all that that entails: managing the finances, hosting parties, raising children, renovating the kitchen, preserving your garden vegetables. As it turns out, what I thought was just some random set of things I’m interested in, is actually so much a thing that it was taught in every high school in America for a very long time, though when I was in high school I thought I was too good (read: modern woman) for it: Home Economics, or “How to Manage a Household with Finite Resources.” And so that is what I propose to make this blog about.
The painting hanging up in my bedroom which was a strong influence for how I want to live my life and how I want my blog to look (Andrew Wyeth, but unfortunately that’s all I know) Main topics for the blog will include (in order of amount I know about them):
- Personal Finances
- Historical Cooking
- Homesteading in the Suburbs
Some consistent things you can expect from the blog:
- Awesome playlists to pair with your reading
- Links to other amazing bloggers
- An article once a week
The twist, I would say, or what makes this blog even remotely necessary in a sea of personal finance blogs is that I am going to do my darndest to tie everything back to history. Why? Because I love history and because while I think I know it all, I think history will prove to be a more reliable and trustworthy source on homemaking than a 31 year-old who has only ever lived since the invention of a dishwasher, worked a series of client/customer-facing non-production jobs, and only recently had her first baby or gotten married.
I haven’t yet decided how much of me I want to publish in this blog so let me start by defining myself with these few things:
- I grew up relatively lower-middle class so have a stick up my butt about how to manage money correctly
- I love history and spend lots of time watching movies, reading books, and owning and doing things that make me feel closer to the past
- Cooking is currently my only creative outlet, but I used to be a hipster and therefore did photography and painting and drawing and even tagging through a short stint with a graffiti-artist boyfriend
- I am married / I work full-time in a demanding career / I am a mother to one girl / I am mixed / I am Ivy League educated / I am American by Birth and Southern by the Grace of God
- I fall short of my high expectations all the time, and need to learn to better manage said high expectations
It is my sincere hope that I can make this blog great, keep up with it, share some knowledge, learn some tidbits, and make a great community of like-minded
folkspeople (I HATE the world folks now because it has just been absolutely co-opted by the worst politicians and advertisers trying to sound “real,” “Good god man, get a job!”) . And worst case scenario, I hope this helps me spend better and have a chronicle of some things I was interested in in my life. One thing that I hope will help me to write more consistently is to have a more honest voice when writing so I don’t have to keep up with some character. So far, so good.P.S. Phew! Honestly have to say it’s a relief to have the intro done and off my back. For whatever reason it has really been holding me back from starting. Actually I know exactly that it is the same issue I wrote about: how do I encapsulate everything I want to do in one theme, one post, one introduction? Have a feeling this will not be the last!
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Home Ec 