January Wins and losses

[chpmnk1015]

Starting a January post as I'm trying to stay motivated lol

W: only spent 80 on groceries today at store, trying to eat from freezer
W: only ordered one thing on Amazon this week
L: spent money on clothes for ds.. but he's growing out of everything
W: cash flowed this month's payment for Vaca in summer. Hoping to do the same next month

[trissie18]

W: So far we have kept our spending to a bare minimum this month. We are eating from the freezer and pantry. Friday will be my first grocery pickup in the New Year as we are out of some staples in the fridge. It's been great trying new recipes using what we have on hand.

[ssmjlm]

I thought I might need to do a mid week grocery pick up because I skipped last weekend, but so far so good. I will do Costco and Aldi tonight during her gymnastics class, but that was already on the schedule.

I pulled out a freezer meal I made in December for dinner so we're not tempted by take out despite how late gymnastics gets out.

Based on the kids savings thread, I opened a CD at a much better rate and moved about 2/3 of her savings over to that.

[twinmomma]

W: We were able to make the large lump sum payment to our mortgage this month thanks to my bonus. We even added some more thanks to a Christmas gift from MIL. According to the calculator on the mortgage website, that shaved 10 years off our loan! I am irrationally excited about it.

W: We have been working really hard to eat everything in the pantry and the freezer and tone down our grocery and eating out spending. We've done a great job with this and it's already showing in our bank account.

[midwestmama]

twinmomma, 10 years!! That's so awesome!!

[heygrey]

Jan 11, 2024 13:44:40 GMT -5 twinmomma said:

W: We were able to make the large lump sum payment to our mortgage this month thanks to my bonus. We even added some more thanks to a Christmas gift from MIL. According to the calculator on the mortgage website, that shaved 10 years off our loan! I am irrationally excited about it.

That is insane! What a wonderful feeling! 

[heygrey]

I have a small goal of renovating our laundry closet because it's missing half the drywall and is generally ugly. I priced out all the supplies we need and it came in at ~$300. I'm budgeting $400 so I can make it a little bit pretty.

1) I found flooring at ReStore for $12, which was a decent savings.

2) I budget groceries/gas/incidentals by the week. I've already saved $290 by staying home and eating food we already have and it's only Jan 11.

Can't wait to make my laundry space not suck!

[bee20]

I'm a broken record on how all this business travel is impacting my spending, but I now have a trip in April near family I had been wanting to visit, and can extend my return flight for the same cost to the company, so free for me. It's so nice not having to spend $400 just to see family I haven't been able to visit since before covid.

On the downside, I feel like I need to get business casual clothing for other climates, I usually have moderate temperatures at home but got frostbite on a job site this week because my shoes just weren't enough for the weather (wet then cold). I feel like men have this one easier, I struggle to find a boot that fits my feet, is easy off/on for TSA, but doesn't look out of place when we're in the offices.

ETA: I woke up this morning and my house was 53 degrees, and my furnace was blowing cold air.  I was able to diagnose and fix the problem and get the furnace running again by lunchtime with $0 outlay.  I then knocked on my neighbors' doors (same builder and similar layout) and found one with the same issue, and fixed theirs too. 

[heygrey]

L: My car battery completely died because of the cold weather Friday/Saturday. Good-bye $200.

W/L: H bought a socket set so he could change the battery himself. Now that we have a garage, we've been slowly buying tools so we don't have to ask friends or pay someone else. It saves us a bunch of money in the long run.

W: We have a points app for the automotive store, we earned $120 on a $400 purchase!

[Pom]

W: this will not sound like a win, but I think it is. Mr P got laid off. He hates the culture at the place and the owner is truly a menace. H even considered taking a travel rotation job overseas to get out of there. He is tired, so we decided against that option a month back.
I signed us up for ACA today, we get a subsidy more than we expected and I have passive income of my own, so he can try early retirement. I’m really excited. Our house and my car are paid off, his vehicle will be paid off in December. We just finished some hefty renovations and postponed a cosmetic kitchen facelift. So at 53/54 we are going to try. He may end up getting a much less stress job at some point but regardless, this will give us an up close view of early retirement with a trial run.
L: The company laid him off 1.4.24 but asked him to stay until 2.1.24. It’s really miserable for him. He refuses to quit, and I suspect that’s what they want or for him to ask to stay at a reduced salary. It’s weird.

[midwestmama]

W: DH is getting a 5% base salary increase effective Jan. 1, so this Friday will be his first paycheck at the higher salary (but this is the trade-off for having his annual bonus target reduced by 5 percentage points (company decision)). I guess it's nice to get the additional guaranteed $, but will be a bummer when the bonus pays above target. For now, we're going to put the additional money from each check into our money market savings account.
Update:  Apparently, DH is not getting a base pay increase to off-set the bonus, or at least not now.  After DH's last paycheck, which should have had the increase and did not, DH asked his boss about it.  Boss did some checking, and come to find out, there was no final communication, DH's boss shared with DH was was in a draft communication.  Boss said the increase might be made in January 2025 instead, which means that DH would be basically screwed out of a year of the 5%.  (He'll get paid in March 2024 for 2023 bonus, then in March 2025 for 2024 at the lower bonus %, and apparently in Jan 2025 he might(?) get a pay increase.)  So good thing we weren't planning on that money for any specific.

L-ish: DH is a life-long Detroit Lions fan. He really, really, really wanted to go to watch them in a playoff game, and even better to watch a playoff game at the home field. Between a game last weekend and now this coming weekend (he was able to find a ticket at a price I was ok with), he will have spent around $1500 for game tickets, hotel room, food, and gas for attending 2 games. (Only 1 hotel stay (the game this coming weekend is in the afternoon), and that was actually divided 4 ways as he and his cousins and a friend all shared a room, and gas is/will be split 4 ways as well.) I told him it is an advance from his bonus in March. (Hopefully his bonus pays out something, otherwise, it will be an advance from my bonus.)

[jwright]

Not sure if its a win or loss but I am considering a large investment into what is basically a spec house with a general contractor that I have worked with before. This would be the largest partnership I've made as an individual and the models show a very good return, but with real estate you never know so I'm going back and forth. I've wanted to get my foot in the door on something like this for years and have had a stash saved for new investments but pulling the trigger is still hard.

[brooke77]

W: I put my bonus towards an extra principal payment on my house. I also got a small salary increase.

W&L: We bought an expensive coffee machine and I have been making coffee at home everyday.

L: I booked a couple vacations (Disney for Spring Break and Colombia this summer). I paid them off already, but they were pretty costly.

[plutosmoon]

W: Got my full rental deposit back, almost $1500. I fully expected the landlord to come up with something to withhold. I put the money on my car principal, and realized between that and the regular monthly payment I was down to the last $3000. After a lot of back and forth I decided to just pay it off from savings. I was going to wait for my tax refund and cash flow over the next few months, but I got antsy with the low balance. I now have no debt except my mortgage!

[konapoppy]

Pom, what an amazing opportunity! Layoffs suck, but getting to test out early retirement is great. I hope it works out!

W: haven’t been to Starbucks in 2024! Overall we have cut waaaay back on eating out. I don’t think we have DoorDashed either. I pulled out my old one pot/ simple/ make ahead cookbooks and have been finding new recipes we like.

L: we had to replace the water heater and booked some travel for later this year. So we won’t even notice the major decrease in food expenses this month. Oh well!

[quesyrah]

Win: We came in wildly under budget on our Disney world trip.

Loss: most of that is being eaten up by the money we spent buying new flights on Southwest when American Airlines left us stranded

[chpmnk1015]

L: went to bjs and spent 450. Then grocery store and another 83. Really stocked up on some stuff wr hadn't got I na while but jeez

[trissie18]

W: Grocery spending so far this month is less than $300. This is a huge savings compared to our normal $800-$1000.

[heygrey]

Win? Loss??

H has been eyeing a Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, but they are $630 in Canada. It has some nice features and give us more cooking options when we host large groups. I found one second hand, but like new for $70. Definitely not a need, but H is already in love with it.

[noodleoo]

Jan 20, 2024 16:57:38 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Win? Loss??

H has been eyeing a Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, but they are $630 in Canada. It has some nice features and give us more cooking options when we host large groups. I found one second hand, but like new for $70. Definitely not a need, but H is already in love with it.

That’s definitely a win!!!

[Stan]

midwestmama glad y’all can offset it with his bonus. So glad y’all made it work for him to go and so glad for all Lions fans that they’re having a successful season. They’re who I’m rooting for in the NFC, good luck!

[babsbunny]

midwestmama, I call the tix a win. I saw Tom Brady once in the 20+ years I was a fan and I am so glad I did.

W: By shopping at the grocery store on Fridays and clipping a digital coupon for increased fuel points, I now can easily earn 60 cents to a dollar off a gallon at their gas stations. I hope they keep up this promotion!

My bigger loss will come in Feb when we look to replace an appliance.

[heygrey]

Jan 16, 2024 20:28:21 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

L-ish: DH is a life-long Detroit Lions fan. He really, really, really wanted to go to watch them in a playoff game, and even better to watch a playoff game at the home field. Between a game last weekend and now this coming weekend (he was able to find a ticket at a price I was ok with), he will have spent around $1500 for game tickets, hotel room, food, and gas for attending 2 games. (Only 1 hotel stay (the game this coming weekend is in the afternoon), and that was actually divided 4 ways as he and his cousins and a friend all shared a room, and gas is/will be split 4 ways as well.) I told him it is an advance from his bonus in March. (Hopefully his bonus pays out something, otherwise, it will be an advance from my bonus.)

This is such an amazing opportunity! I'm so happy for him that he got to go to two games especially playoffs at home. 

I'm sure he's loving the start of the game today! I am a Packers fan, but am 100% on the Lions train right now. I hope they ride it right through to a Superbowl win.

[lust2hart]

W: At the end of last year, we decided to prioritize paying off our mortgage. We have an aggressive plan for this that requires nothing going wrong for the next year and a half (Ha!) so that we can put $3200/month toward our mortgage. Well, this month we'll be able to do about $3900!

[sadlebred]

Win: Most of my leave from work (See H&F surgery posts) will be paid. A small bit (not sure how much) won't be. Insurance max OOP has already been met, so anything else from here is "free." The deductible and OOP will come from my FSA once I reconcile the invoices, EOBS, and such. My taxes are ready to hand to the CPA this week. To my credit, I did most of the work 2 weeks ago except printing a few documents that came in this week.

Loses: I feel like a train ran over me. Does at least one doctor's appt each day this week count? Probably not, but I'll take it as a (needed and necessary post surgery) time suck.

[Stan]

Win to finish out the month: The HVAC replacement we thought we were going to pay full price for ended up being labor only as it was still under warranty from previous owners. It took like a month to get it done but only having to write a 3k check instead of a 10k check was such a relief.

[chpmnk1015]

cash flowed next payment for ALaska.. Big Sum due next month ack! so we will see

[wildrice]

W: We got a dog, and managed to find one in the shelter who cost $161 instead of the $400-600 we were expecting by going through a rescue.

W: despite buying a ton of dog stuff, we came in a few hundred dollars under budget this month, which almost never happens. I guess January being the most boring month pays off financially.

L: nothing technically, but we may be looking at making some changes to our HVAC soon to the tune of $2600. We got the quote this month so I guess I'm counting it now.

[EvieEthelGarland]

W: Bought a car with a check, filed taxes yesterday, went all month not buying any clothes
L: miscalculated the cost of tax and license (bought out of state) by about $700, spent $150 on sale clothes today