November MM Randoms

[midwestmama]

What are your wins/losses/randoms for November?

[chpmnk1015]

Was able to pay next part of payment for Vaca w o taking out of savings

On a trip to Seattle for work so miles...hoping I have enough to at least get 1 ticket for our trip

Really watching everything we spend this month.

Will have to cover trip expenses until get paid back end of Dec

Going on an overnight trip w dd and niece this week which will be more than I want to spend but excited

[bee20]

chpmnk1015, we finally lifted our covid-era executive board travel approvals and have trips popping up on my calendar. We're too small for corporate cards so while I'll have to wait to be reimbursed I'll make $25ish a trip in points. Not a ton but will add up over the year.

[minzy]

I just paid for phase 2 orthodontics for my older kid. After insurance and a big discount since we’re friends of the orthodontist, that was still $1960. The younger one starts out-of-network therapy this week so bye-bye more money.

[buckeyegirl]

I need to stop all miscellaneous spending this month. We have gotten too relaxed with spending what we want but costs are out of control and we need to reel it in. November goal: Buy only necessities!

[quesyrah]

This isn’t a real loss but it hurt all the same lol. We recently went to a chain restaurant for dinner. 3 burger meals, a kids chicken strips, 4 drinks(not alcohol, it was 3 iced teas and a lemonade) and our total was $100 after tip. Ouch. I was expecting maybe $65. Reminded us why we don’t eat out much.

[chpmnk1015]

Nov 7, 2023 0:09:29 GMT -5 bee20 said:

chpmnk1015, we finally lifted our covid-era executive board travel approvals and have trips popping up on my calendar. We're too small for corporate cards so while I'll have to wait to be reimbursed I'll make $25ish a trip in points. Not a ton but will add up over the year.

Nice. Our flights are booked on a corporate website so I don't get those points... but everything else is on my own card so yay lol

[Roc A Bee]

DH that he was overpaid over 2 months to the tune of $3200. So now he gets to pay that back. The next couple of checks are going to suck.

[ellipses84]

Mostly wins but the major loss is that we keep going over budget on basic expenses the past few months. I think I need to face reality and revamp our budget.

I just got a big consulting payment from 2 months ago and I’m waiting on another 2 months worth (nice to know that money is coming eventually).

I bought our Christmas-New years plane tix with a companion fare and miles, so I only had to pay for 1 full ticket plus fees, which was affordable because I bought it early enough. I really wanted to go surprise my mom for Thanksgiving since we haven’t spent it with her in a few years but I did the MM responsible thing and decided to save the money and not go since we’ll be there a few weeks later for the other holidays and her bday. There’s a lot of fun holiday things I want to do with the kids but I’m going to stick to free/ cheap ones.

I’m still in job limbo, but I’ve been working a crazy amount of hours between both jobs and getting paid for it.

We went through a period of having 4 cars totaled within a few years through no fault of our own (natural disasters mostly) right before they would be paid off. Finally, both cars are paid off and I have the titles! Now I’m going to shop around for cheaper insurance (it’s been on my to-do list for so long).

[ellipses84]

Nov 7, 2023 10:43:30 GMT -5 quesyrah said:

This isn’t a real loss but it hurt all the same lol. We recently went to a chain restaurant for dinner. 3 burger meals, a kids chicken strips, 4 drinks(not alcohol, it was 3 iced teas and a lemonade) and our total was $100 after tip. Ouch. I was expecting maybe $65. Reminded us why we don’t eat out much.

It’s crazy lately even with fast food. I’ve definitely been better about saying no to eating out. Sometimes I’ll stop at the grocery store on the way and let the kids pick out something convenient I wouldn’t normally buy because that’s still way cheaper, quick and fun for them. Even if I spend the same $$ we’ll have some leftover groceries to show for it.

[quesyrah]

Nov 8, 2023 18:52:16 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Nov 7, 2023 10:43:30 GMT -5 quesyrah said:

This isn’t a real loss but it hurt all the same lol. We recently went to a chain restaurant for dinner. 3 burger meals, a kids chicken strips, 4 drinks(not alcohol, it was 3 iced teas and a lemonade) and our total was $100 after tip. Ouch. I was expecting maybe $65. Reminded us why we don’t eat out much.

It’s crazy lately even with fast food. I’ve definitely been better about saying no to eating out. Sometimes I’ll stop at the grocery store on the way and let the kids pick out something convenient I wouldn’t normally buy because that’s still way cheaper, quick and fun for them. Even if I spend the same $$ we’ll have some leftover groceries to show for it.

Seriously. I love a good meal out but paying $$ for mediocre food is just annoying.

We were on the road recently and ran through McDonald’s and it was $61 to feed my family of 4.

[pumpkin]

Nov 8, 2023 21:41:55 GMT -5 quesyrah said:

Nov 8, 2023 18:52:16 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

It’s crazy lately even with fast food. I’ve definitely been better about saying no to eating out. Sometimes I’ll stop at the grocery store on the way and let the kids pick out something convenient I wouldn’t normally buy because that’s still way cheaper, quick and fun for them. Even if I spend the same $$ we’ll have some leftover groceries to show for it.

Seriously. I love a good meal out but paying $$ for mediocre food is just annoying.

We were on the road recently and ran through McDonald’s and it was $61 to feed my family of 4.

I too am trying to be better. Even fast food is beyond ridiculous - just today I picked up Taco Bell for my neighbor who has been sick and stuck home for a week and it was over $18 for basic nachos, a quesadilla, and a drink!!

[jwright]

Late to the high yield savings account game because I was too lazy to move money from my easy-access Wells Fargo accounts. My FA offered a Goldmans Sachs Fund paying about 5.5% so I moved a very large percentage of our liquid savings there and I love watching the interest income roll in!

[ny96]

I thought I was doing great last week when I paid our credit card bill and then I realized I was using a paycheck period that was supposed to be for fixed bills so I’ve got to go to the bank and deposit a check for $1500 from our other account so I can pay our mortgage and insurance in full. Right now my checking is at $41 ☹️

[babsbunny]

Our heat pump died during mild weather, so we don't need to rush to replace it (makes sales visits less pressured).

We got our first quote, and while it is not cheap, it is less than half of what we spent on plumbing this summer, so win?

My favorite win so far is I may have stumbled on the exact perfect date for the lowest priced Christmas flights. I keep checking but the ticket prices continue to be higher than what I bought.

[ohgillian]

I got the Capital One Venture with an 80k signup bonus after (I think) $4,000 spend. It's going to replace my Southwest Chase card, but I realized that the my southwest membership year is maybe April to April, so I guess I'm going to keep that card until then. If I cancelled it now, would I get a pro-rated refund of the $69 membership fee?

[mlkgls]

I don’t have any major losses, but my budget just FEELS tight, even though we’re completely comfortable. 

I’ve been working long hours and we’ve been spending way too much on takeout. It’s irritating to be spending $$$ for fair to middling food, but we can’t seem to scale it back. 

SO is 100% commission sales and has had a few lean months. We’d be fine even on one salary, but we were planning on him paying for the majority of our bucket list type vacation next summer and it’s not quite working out like that. We have the money to go, but I have a weird and intense aversion to spending money once it’s moved over into savings. 

I need to call a roofer for a quote on a minor repair and I’m nervous about how much it’s going to cost me. Little problems with houses always seem to turn into much larger, expensive issues! At least in my experience. I’m sure there’s a direct correlation to the above. Lol. 

On the flip side it’s our annual benefits enrollment period and my costs didn’t rise nearly as much as I anticipated. 

[midwestmama]

I was able to get DD's "big" Christmas gift with a Costco rebate card (from the 15% rebate when we purchased new flooring through Costco last summer). I also just got the Starbucks tumbler cup she wanted for 40% off. We got DS's "big" Christmas gift on a good pre-Black Friday sale.

DH is getting about $300 more each paycheck through the end of the year due to hitting the SS tax income limit. Always a good time of year for that to kick in.

We think our dog is having a reaction to Apoquel (which is expensive), so the vet is having us try Prednisone. Prednisone is definitely much cheaper than Apoquel.

We decided to pay (from our savings account) the escrow shortage for our mortgage instead of having the monthly payment go up, and that was about $800.

Groceries and food continue to be outrageously expensive. Trying to be better about sticking to what's on sale. We just bought a bigger deep freezer (also bought with the Costco rebate card, and are selling our old one to friends), so now we have more room to freeze food. We also bought a used fridge for the garage for additional fridge and freezer space. We broke even on the purchase of the used fridge and sale of our old deep freezer.

[dr.girlfriend]

I didn't think there would be any bonuses this year because of my work's overall financial picture, but we are getting them and they are actually as big as they have ever been. I've worked here for 20 years and we have only started getting bonuses for the past 5 years or so, so I will NEVER take them for granted and they are so exciting every time!

[melmel4854]

This coming Friday will be my first paycheck at my new job... I haven't had a full paycheck since July! That is a long story. I am finally back to making a full time salary!

I also found a savings bond from 1994 for $50 when I was cleaning the other day!

[midwestmama]

I got a personal note in the mail today from a Customer Service Rep (from the credit union we use for our main accounts and our mortgage) who helped me recently with some mortgage-related questions. The note said that we were given a $50 "kindness award" which was automatically deposited into our checking account. (It was deposited a few days ago, but I hadn't looked at our account in detail to notice.) I felt like in Monopoly where you get a surprise amount of money from the bank! Apparently they appreciated how I treated them in our interactions.

[melmel4854]

I have another one!

$188 at the vet today because my cat has acne/needed routine vaxines. After the vet visit, I went to get my oil changed. I wasn't charged! My neighbor works there and I asked him why I wasn't charged. He looked up my account and he doesn't know why. I told him " It must be because of my good looks!"

Free oil change that usually costs around $100. Nice!

[wildrice]

Loss: My H accepted a new job for 2024. I think it will be a better fit, but it's a 7k per year paycut, plus he won't get his 2023 bonus or any bonus going forward. He will also have to drive to the office 2x a week which will mean more parking and gas expenses. We are fortunate that this amount of loss isn't going to make or break our budget, and he's only gotten a bonus once ever in his life anyway so we haven't really gotten to a point of counting on it. We are both hoping he'll be happier at this job and have better balance, which is worth much more than what we're losing, but it's a MM loss nonetheless. It's weird finally being at a point in my life where I don't have to panic over a paycut, but there is still some emotional dissonance about it.

Win: I mentioned this on ML, but I booked my plane ticket to my Italy study abroad trip for under $500 round trip, which I still can't believe. It's hard to find a domestic flight for that price these days! I already have some guilt about the money being spent on this trip (essentially 2k more than a regular class, plus airfare and discretionary expenses) so getting a good bargain on the ticket helps.

[sadlebred]

Loss: Always money out, never money in. My main savings account balance was $0.67 earlier this month. Not a typo. Those stupid trees in Sept. and the stump grinding in late Oct. were a couple thousand more than I budgeted for....but they had to go.

As a follow up to a post a few weeks ago, I think for now I am going to try to put an extra 1% into my ROTH IRA. (Backstory: My company is cutting 401K matching by 2% for 2024, and I want to keep the same rate of savings for retirement). I'll wait to see how much my "raise"--if you can call it that--will be for 2024.

[Gato]

I’m learning that when you live on one income for 15 years, then jump to two incomes, you don’t suddenly feel rich. There are one million things we deferred buying that now need to be dealt with. I don’t mean luxury items—neither of the adults have bought a raincoat all these years, for example. There’s the broken storm door to replace, the barely-functioning bathroom dehumidifier to replace, one wall in our kitchen where the electric outlets have never worked, two cars that are 17 and 19 years old, etc.

So even though more money is coming in, which is great, the exact same amount of money is going out. We will definitely start beefing up the kids’ college funds and my retirement fund in January. But I’m realizing it’s going to take two years or more to “catch up” before we’ll actually start doing fun stuff like finishing the basement or some adventures abroad.

[SusanBAnthony]

Nov 19, 2023 11:55:01 GMT -5 Gato said:

I’m learning that when you live on one income for 15 years, then jump to two incomes, you don’t suddenly feel rich. There are one million things we deferred buying that now need to be dealt with. I don’t mean luxury items—neither of the adults have bought a raincoat all these years, for example. There’s the broken storm door to replace, the barely-functioning bathroom dehumidifier to replace, one wall in our kitchen where the electric outlets have never worked, two cars that are 17 and 19 years old, etc.

So even though more money is coming in, which is great, the exact same amount of money is going out. We will definitely start beefing up the kids’ college funds and my retirement fund in January. But I’m realizing it’s going to take two years or more to “catch up” before we’ll actually start doing fun stuff like finishing the basement or some adventures abroad.

I identify with this very much. It probably took us 2 years of paying for all the delayed things before we were suddenly like "woo we're rich now!".

[sadlebred]

Gato Yep...being a single income sucks. There is always something pressing that doesn't get done.

[heygrey]

Nov 16, 2023 16:24:32 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Loss: My H accepted a new job for 2024. I think it will be a better fit, but it's a 7k per year paycut, plus he won't get his 2023 bonus or any bonus going forward. He will also have to drive to the office 2x a week which will mean more parking and gas expenses. We are fortunate that this amount of loss isn't going to make or break our budget, and he's only gotten a bonus once ever in his life anyway so we haven't really gotten to a point of counting on it. We are both hoping he'll be happier at this job and have better balance, which is worth much more than what we're losing, but it's a MM loss nonetheless. It's weird finally being at a point in my life where I don't have to panic over a paycut, but there is still some emotional dissonance about it.

Win: I mentioned this on ML, but I booked my plane ticket to my Italy study abroad trip for under $500 round trip, which I still can't believe. It's hard to find a domestic flight for that price these days! I already have some guilt about the money being spent on this trip (essentially 2k more than a regular class, plus airfare and discretionary expenses) so getting a good bargain on the ticket helps.

The other day I was randomly thinking of you and wondering what decision you made. I hope you have the absolute best time. When you first posted about it, it sounded like such a fun opportunity!

[noodleoo]

Nov 19, 2023 13:57:42 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Nov 19, 2023 11:55:01 GMT -5 Gato said:

I’m learning that when you live on one income for 15 years, then jump to two incomes, you don’t suddenly feel rich. There are one million things we deferred buying that now need to be dealt with. I don’t mean luxury items—neither of the adults have bought a raincoat all these years, for example. There’s the broken storm door to replace, the barely-functioning bathroom dehumidifier to replace, one wall in our kitchen where the electric outlets have never worked, two cars that are 17 and 19 years old, etc.

So even though more money is coming in, which is great, the exact same amount of money is going out. We will definitely start beefing up the kids’ college funds and my retirement fund in January. But I’m realizing it’s going to take two years or more to “catch up” before we’ll actually start doing fun stuff like finishing the basement or some adventures abroad.

I identify with this very much. It probably took us 2 years of paying for all the delayed things before we were suddenly like "woo we're rich now!".

We are 1.25 incomes, but I have a feeling we will feel this way when DD2 goes to Kindergarten next fall. I keep thinking we will have so much extra money but between the cost of aftercare and extracurriculars plus catching up on stuff we’ve been putting off for years, I’m worried we won’t even feel it. Which is a huge bummer.