August MM Randoms

[midwestmama]

A new one: Win: While I sadly didn't win the Mega Millions, my boss did tell me today that I am getting an off-cycle increase of about 5%. So that will be a nice bump of a couple hundred dollars a month after taxes. I think we will just put it in our savings account for now while we decide what we want to do with it in the budget.

[jewel]

My HOA check has been “lost” for the 3rd time in several years.

It’s such a racket, because they don’t receive it from the bank, charge me a late fee, I send a new check with the late fee, then they find the old check and cash that one too. But if I cancel the old check and they try to cash it, then they charge me a returned check fee. The HOA uses a payment processing service, so all communication about it is 3rd hand, either through the HOA or the bank.

I could sign up for the HOA auto pay, but they charge a convenience fee for that.

Why can I not have a way to reliable pay this bill without any fees?! FFS.

[sadlebred]

jewel You write them a check monthly/quarterly, whatever the interval is. Put it in the mail yourself. It's reliable!

[ny96]

I’m trying to figure out whether to pay off most of our credit card with savings. We’ve had an expensive summer, although not much was spent on fun stuff, and we can’t quite seem to dig ourselves out of the hole we’re in. The reason I’ve been hesitating is that I handle all the bills and when I talk with H about our money situation he tends to spiral and I feel super guilty. Yes, I know there is a larger problem here.

[quesyrah]

Aug 12, 2023 12:31:29 GMT -5 ny96 said:

I’m trying to figure out whether to pay off most of our credit card with savings. We’ve had an expensive summer, although not much was spent on fun stuff, and we can’t quite seem to dig ourselves out of the hole we’re in. The reason I’ve been hesitating is that I handle all the bills and when I talk with H about our money situation he tends to spiral and I feel super guilty. Yes, I know there is a larger problem here.

Would it drain your savings? How long would it take you to replace your savings? Are you paying a lot in interest?

We followed Dave Ramsey and used all but $1,000 of our savings towards CCs, then snowballed and then replaced savings.

I think it made a lot of sense for us to do that and we paid less in interest.

[ny96]

Aug 12, 2023 23:49:21 GMT -5 quesyrah said:

Aug 12, 2023 12:31:29 GMT -5 ny96 said:

I’m trying to figure out whether to pay off most of our credit card with savings. We’ve had an expensive summer, although not much was spent on fun stuff, and we can’t quite seem to dig ourselves out of the hole we’re in. The reason I’ve been hesitating is that I handle all the bills and when I talk with H about our money situation he tends to spiral and I feel super guilty. Yes, I know there is a larger problem here.

Would it drain your savings? How long would it take you to replace your savings? Are you paying a lot in interest?

We followed Dave Ramsey and used all but $1,000 of our savings towards CCs, then snowballed and then replaced savings.

I think it made a lot of sense for us to do that and we paid less in interest.

We have plenty of savings. For H it’s more about how much we’re spending spending. I’m trying this month to only spend money on consumables aside from some back to school items. I cancelled most of our subscriptions including stopping our subscribe and save deliveries this month. I’m really trying to reign in spending.

[quesyrah]

Aug 13, 2023 11:14:27 GMT -5 ny96 said:

Aug 12, 2023 23:49:21 GMT -5 quesyrah said:

Would it drain your savings? How long would it take you to replace your savings? Are you paying a lot in interest?

We followed Dave Ramsey and used all but $1,000 of our savings towards CCs, then snowballed and then replaced savings.

I think it made a lot of sense for us to do that and we paid less in interest.

We have plenty of savings. For H it’s more about how much we’re spending spending. I’m trying this month to only spend money on consumables aside from some back to school items. I cancelled most of our subscriptions including stopping our subscribe and save deliveries this month. I’m really trying to reign in spending.

Oh, gotcha. That makes sense.


I feel like this is a conversation my H and I have constantly. Every once in awhile we have an “omg we have to cut back” conversation.

For us, I am sure it’s because we had a lot of debt and so many lean years, then a scary time during the pandemic when DH was furloughed over a year.

Now we have a fully funded efund, well established sinking funds, no debt and plenty of disposable income. But we have a really hard time believing we are financially stable and are constantly waiting for it to all fall apart.

[aspentosh]

I'm all over the place this month.

We had our summer vacation, which was way under budget and just what we all needed.
Went to NJ for a BLACKPINK concert (DD's favorite band, so we surprised her with tickets). We didn't eat or drink at the stadium but did end up parking there. It was $40 but worth every penny to get out of there quickly and not wait for rideshare.

We sold my car back in March and have been waiting for the warranty refund (!!!). We have called the company so many times but it's finally made movement and we should have it within 8 weeks. Sigh.

H was told he's getting not one but TWO bonuses, but they've been stuck in limbo since May (again, !!!) so who knows when we'll get them.


Question for savvy investors:
We transferred all our retirement money out of a managed fund to save that cost each month. PDQ numbers. We have over $$ invested and want to concentrate on target date funds, but do we put all our Roth IRAs and Rollover IRAs into the same one? That seems risky. Do we ladder a couple of them? We're at Vanguard if that matters.

[shaynaatl]

We are investing the vast majority of our cash savings into a new business my brother and his partners are building. He's normally conservative, but he is very bullish about this one.

On one hand, it's exciting because the return potential is very nice. On the other hand, a failure would be a sizable hit to our finances. It's going to take 2 yrs to build, so not getting any returns on our cash for that time is going to be disappointing (just as savings interest rates are increasing).

[sadlebred]

MM Win...finally! The plumbing work I had done cost much less than expected. I went with an independent Master Plumber. It took a few weeks to get on his schedule, but I saved about 40% off other estimates. I also got a really nice toilet (no, not the $4000 bidet one where you can change the color of the lights in the toilet), too. It is worth the cost because it has yet to clog.

Next up towards late Sept.....saying goodbye to $$ to get trees taken down.

[ny96]

Win: I got my student loans forgiven

Another Win: I talked to H about pulling from our savings to pay off our credit card and he agreed without any drama.

[sadlebred]

ny96 That is awesome about your SL! Congratulations!

[niq]

Small win: We're cancelling Amazon Music Unlimited and switching to Spotify Family. I'm already a Spotify premium subscriber, so we save $10/month but also get separate Spotify accounts for everyone in the house!

[Stan]

L - We're spending 20k on our crawl space. That was my new kitchen money.

W - I hit 10 years in the military this month and since I opted into the blended retirement system, I can sign for my continuation pay once that date hits. Then next August, if the trend stays the same, I'll get about 30k for staying in, which I was going to do anyway.

[ohgillian]

Thank you for all of the comments on the pension. We do have a financial planner and they say we are fine; I just feel....bad, I guess?...when every article in the world is like MAX OUT YOUR 401K. One thing that someone told me was that I can take the estimated annual pension and divide by 4% to see what it might equate to if it were actual savings and not a pension. I know that the "rule of 4%" is outdated, but just to get an approximation.

My pension should pay out 55% of my AFC, but I took 55% of my current salary and divided by 3% and it seemed pretty good! I hope I'm doing that math right.

Aug 17, 2023 12:25:27 GMT -5 niq said:

Small win: We're cancelling Amazon Music Unlimited and switching to Spotify Family. I'm already a Spotify premium subscriber, so we save $10/month but also get separate Spotify accounts for everyone in the house!

Okay now this is interesting because my children have totally wrecked my Amazon Music algorithm. It will be like "I'll play your favorite songs" and then plays Kidz Bop. omg. 

[ohgillian]

Aug 4, 2023 10:15:17 GMT -5 sahara78 said:

Aug 1, 2023 8:46:09 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

- I just took over being Treasurer for my Girl Scout troop from someone who hates banking and isn't money minded. Given that, she really did a fine job and I'm grateful she did it for 3 years, but OMG the state of the books and the randomness of her spreadsheets.

- I have an HSA at Health Equity, where investment options are limited to a set list of funds. I'm wondering about moving my $ out to something like HSABank where I can invest in whatever, but it's an active HSA so I would have to move the contributions out on a regular basis or at least a few times a year and I don't know if it's worth the hassle. Right now I have everything thrown into a Vanguard 2055 Target Retirement Fund.

- Anyone else here in a defined benefit pension plan? I know they're rare and I'm lucky to have one, but sometimes I get stressed out by all the "you have to max out your 401k" talk. Our pensions will pay out about 55% of our final income, and we've saved a ton for retirement on top of that, but we aren't maxing and sometimes I feel bad.

I also have a Health Equity HSA. Late last year I opened an HSA with Fidelity to have more investment options. I’ve been doing quarterly “partial transfer out” transactions using the HE online portal. Now that I have all the info (Fidelity address required me calling them), it takes less than 5 minutes each time. Hope that helps!

Thank you! I will look into this b/c you made it sound really do-able. 

[sadlebred]

Maxing out your 401K? What is that? I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage. Just remember those of you that are lucky you CAN.

[jewel]

Aug 10, 2023 20:10:42 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

jewel You write them a check monthly/quarterly, whatever the interval is. Put it in the mail yourself. It's reliable!

I wish it were! The issue is the HOA, not the check. I’ve used billpay through my bank for many thousands of checks over at least 15 years, and literally this HOA is the only late or temporarily lost check situation that has ever happened. As anticipated, they did indeed just find the missing check 6 weeks later and cashed it, along with cashing the replacement check and late fee.

[midwestmama]

DD cleaned out her closet and dresser a couple of weeks ago and I had a pile of old winter coats and a bag of the kids' outgrown shoes ready to go to the consignment store.  I actually had time on Saturday to go, and when I went to pick up the check for what they wanted and the "no thank yous," there were only a few things they didn't want.  I happily deposited the check for about $280.

[mlkgls]

I’m feeling very penny wise, pound foolish today. We have the ability to choose electricity providers and plans where I live and I’ve been meaning to check our plan for a while. Oof. We’ve been on a $$$ month-to-month plan for who knows how long and the price per kWh is the highest I’ve seen. I don’t even want to think about how much money I’ve wasted since I have no clue when I last looked at it. 

I plan to switch tomorrow after I download all the bills and usage data, but ugh. I’m usually on top of things like this.

[sadlebred]

My HVAC air handler ied Wed. night. It was 95 yesterday and about 97 degrees today with a heat index of 107F+. Turns out it was blower, one of the single most expensive parts of the unit. $1300+ I am basking in the glory of 73 degrees instead of 80 in the house---but that money was earmarked for something else. But I am not hot.

I thankfully have 2 window units for emergencies like this. I saved about $2 yesterday on my daily power bill according to my (daily) email from the power company on consumption and price the previous day.

I can't win for losing this year.

[liveintheville]

Our second tv in the bedroom broke and it can’t be fixed. We settle on a tv but I want the 48” and H wants the 55”. We’re replacing a 46”. My parents can get us the best price at Costco and they live in NH with no sales tax. So fine we have them order it. I gave into H because he was adamant about the size. We tell my parents we want last year’s model. Well they order us this year’s. It’s fine. They’re doing us a favor. But man now I have one expensive bedroom tv.

[pierogigirl]

Our dryer from 2021 spins but won't dry. Fortunately, there's a 5 year warranty, so they are coming next week to fix it.

[ny96]

H brought up the idea of converting our “3rd bedroom” which is our lower floor into an actual bedroom by closing it off and relocating the door to the garage. The problem is that I don’t think, beyond giving our kids their own rooms, that it would improve our space issues because that is currently our tv and hangout space and we don’t have another spot for that. Typing this out though I’m wondering if it makes sense to go ahead and then make the kids bedroom into our tv room. The advantage to that is that the kids room now is very small and only fits a bunk bed. The disadvantage is that the kids would be on a different level then and on the ground floor. Sorry, this turned into more of a Home and Garden thing than MM.

[liveintheville]

Aug 29, 2023 13:34:21 GMT -5 ny96 said:

H brought up the idea of converting our “3rd bedroom” which is our lower floor into an actual bedroom by closing it off and relocating the door to the garage. The problem is that I don’t think, beyond giving our kids their own rooms, that it would improve our space issues because that is currently our tv and hangout space and we don’t have another spot for that. Typing this out though I’m wondering if it makes sense to go ahead and then make the kids bedroom into our tv room. The advantage to that is that the kids room now is very small and only fits a bunk bed. The disadvantage is that the kids would be on a different level then and on the ground floor. Sorry, this turned into more of a Home and Garden thing than MM.

My kids are in bunk beds too. And they’re 15 and 13. But the oldest has moved his desk into our spare room and basically made a homework gaming room for himself. So more space for your is probably good in the long term.

[chpmnk1015]

Soccer team apparel for both kids added up. I did buy them pj pants and will save those for cmas.. but jeez. Feel like no savings and spending too much this month.

[jewel]

My kid has played rec basketball for many years. I pay the season fee, and up until this year he wore the same uniform I bought 3 years ago. I’ve also bought a couple of pairs of basketball shoes. Easy.

He asked to play baseball this season too. The season fee was reasonable AND it includes a hat and jersey. But I did not prepare myself for how much more stuff I’d be buying…helmet, gloves, mit, bat, cleats, practice and game pants, sliding pants and a cup, a huge bag to carry all this, etc. I hope he gets a few seasons out of all this gear.

[noodleoo]

I'm starting to get the itch for a new car. My current car is a 14 year old Rav4 that's still in great condition, but the kids are getting the age where I'm starting to want to carpool and it is really limiting. Especially since the seatbelt layout makes it hard to fit 3 in the back with DD2s carseat. But every time I look at new car prices I think I should wait since there is nothing actually wrong with my car.

[midwestmama]

Aug 30, 2023 13:15:16 GMT -5 jewel said:

My kid has played rec basketball for many years. I pay the season fee, and up until this year he wore the same uniform I bought 3 years ago. I’ve also bought a couple of pairs of basketball shoes. Easy.

He asked to play baseball this season too. The season fee was reasonable AND it includes a hat and jersey. But I did not prepare myself for how much more stuff I’d be buying…helmet, gloves, mit, bat, cleats, practice and game pants, sliding pants and a cup, a huge bag to carry all this, etc. I hope he gets a few seasons out of all this gear.

Seasoned baseball mom here... you should get more than one season out of the helmet, mitt, and bag, and maybe a bat, but everything else will likely only last one season or year (depending on how much he grows between fall and spring, if he wants to play again the spring).  We have been able to get a few seasons out DS's sliding shorts (surprisingly), but not batting gloves, cleats, or pants. (Batting gloves wear out (although my son plays travel baseball, so his batting gloves get a lot of use between practices and games), and he outgrows cleats and pants by the time the next season comes around.)

[jewel]

Aug 30, 2023 16:24:53 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

Aug 30, 2023 13:15:16 GMT -5 jewel said:

My kid has played rec basketball for many years. I pay the season fee, and up until this year he wore the same uniform I bought 3 years ago. I’ve also bought a couple of pairs of basketball shoes. Easy.

He asked to play baseball this season too. The season fee was reasonable AND it includes a hat and jersey. But I did not prepare myself for how much more stuff I’d be buying…helmet, gloves, mit, bat, cleats, practice and game pants, sliding pants and a cup, a huge bag to carry all this, etc. I hope he gets a few seasons out of all this gear.

Seasoned baseball mom here... you should get more than one season out of the helmet, mitt, and bag, and maybe a bat, but everything else will likely only last one season or year (depending on how much he grows between fall and spring, if he wants to play again the spring).  We have been able to get a few seasons out DS's sliding shorts (surprisingly), but not batting gloves, cleats, or pants. (Batting gloves wear out (although my son plays travel baseball, so his batting gloves get a lot of use between practices and games), and he outgrows cleats and pants by the time the next season comes around.)

Luckily, my kid is usually pretty gentle with his stuff - I’m mostly hoping that he likes baseball enough to play another couple seasons and get use out of all of it 🤣

Also, the culture in kids baseball here is so much different than basketball. It’s a strange new world.