March Wins and Losses

[sadlebred]

L: Bonus was tiny and yearly raise was horrible (like probably the smallest of anyone on ML unless you didn't get one. Not even COL. Not even keeping up with my property taxes that keep going up). Most of the bonus is earmarked for savings.
W: I'll put a tiny bit of the tiny bonus in my ROTH.
W: Insurance paid for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills I've had since Jan. 1. My OOP is quite low, and that went into my FSA. So, small tax advantage.

[mainelyfoolish]

W: Re the recent thread about what people want to learn: I finally set up appointments to get our shit in order! DH and I see an estate planning attorney this morning and we see a financial planner this afternoon (a fee only planner whom we’re going to pay for a few hours of time for a “financial checkup” to see if we’re on the right track and what needs to be tweaked).

L: Yesterday the 2010 Corolla that we hoped to hand down as a beater for the teenager to drive (oldest kid turns 16/is eligible to get licensed in less than 2 months) informed us via failing transmission noises that our plan is not going to work out. The benefit vs. cost of replacing the transmission doesn’t make sense given the age & mileage of the car.

We don’t yet have three cars because DH has been holding out for the 2025 Camry hybrid that will be released later this year. We may still get that car sometime in the future, but last night we were frantically booking a rental car and scouring online ads for vehicles that are in stock somewhat nearby. (With our job schedules we cannot share a vehicle.) DH is going to look at a low mileage 2020 Ford Fusion today, which, if it works out, will probably cost about $21k including taxes and registration. And yesterday was my birthday.

[noodleoo]

L: The afterschool program just announced a huge change that will increase the cost of care next year by $1000-1500, and the year after it will go up again another 30%. FUCKING FUCK. Of course this happens the year DD2 starts Kindergarten so now we have 2 kids in the program. I have been looking forward to being done paying for daycare for SO LONG, but a lot of the savings is going to be eaten up by this plus summer camps. The alternative is having the kids come home after school, but that sucks since H and I both WFH (although I guess we're lucky it is an option at all). DD1 would be ok (age 9) but DD2 (age 6) is annoying while trying to work.

[mlkgls]

Mar 11, 2024 6:43:09 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

W: Last summer, the rec camp my younger kid went to cost $2005. This year the camp is four days shorter, so the price is set at $1885.

L: I put $2000 into my DCFSA this year.

I feel your pain and wish DCFSA wasn’t use it or lose it. I still have $460 in my account that I would have to use by tomorrow. 😭 Mainly because our center didn’t cash our last two checks last year when we ended up with COVID at the end of summer. Technically, I shouldn’t have the money anyway, but I wish our family-owned center had ended up with the money rather than my employer. 

[EvieEthelGarland]

L: We received yesterday a notice of a possible leak and my H has determined that it's between the curb and house.

W: I added an endorsement to my homeowners policy for leaks outside the home/sewer backup/sump pump failure, based on a TikTok I saw. It was $35/year.

However, the letter was dated Friday 3/1 and we added the endorsement 10am Monday 3/4. I'm really hoping if this leak is a big issue the timing is not an issue.

[chpmnk1015]

W: small bonus for me today.. will go ds scouts trips this summer, some Vaca fund, and dd doing a sweet 16.. and poof...it's gone. Lol

[flymetothemoon]

The house is finally paid off! 12 years exactly. Now the save for the next horse fund begins.

[heygrey]

I think March is going to be one big financial loss, but wins in life enjoyment. It's a testament to why we save money in the first place.

Our nephew is in the military and had ~10 days between training courses so he came to stay with us. It was very last minute, but it has been great having him here and well worth the extra food and fun activities.

We are adopting a nine month old golden retriever! I'm comfortable adding a dog to our regular budget, but there will obviously be some start up costs that we didn't plan ahead for because this opportunity literally fell into our laps this week. I've been resistant to a dog for several years, but I am SO excited for this girl to join our family.

[fryjack2]

Not really a loss, but not something expected: Our expenses increase a ton this month because we are supporting 2 extra people, one is a an infant and needed everything. We will continue to support them for the next few months.

W: We decided not to remodel our kitchen and will spend the money on trips instead. I'm sure I will change my mind in a few months, but for now, seems more exciting to know that that account is earmarked for trips instead of a kitchen. The amount saved will go far for trips but not so far for a kitchen gut reno.

[shortstax]

While gathering the required docs for my Dad's medicaid application (he was admitted to memory care last month), our lawyer asked for the "cash value" of my mom's life insurance policy because it counts as a household asset. I had them send me a statement, and then reported the cash value to the lawyer.

Well, I didn't know how the policy worked, and it turns out the "surrender value" (which is 3x more than the cash value) is what should have been used. In a bad twist, apparently it takes 30+ days to cancel/cash out, and her savings assets are so low that we'll need that before we can spend down half the value of it.

So--I fucked up and now my mom has to spend about 15k for March and April on Memory Care. This is for someone who only has $5k in savings. I feel so bad, but I just didn't know how it worked.

[gt7301b]

Mar 5, 2024 10:45:54 GMT -5 buckeyegirl said:

My Win is also a loss. I lost my wedding/engagement ring in December. The insurance payout just arrived. I'm putting it in savings for a little bit before I get something new. I don't know what happened to the ring and hoping it might still magically show up.

I had something similar happen,  I lost my engagement ring as well.  I replaced it with a lab diamond and negotiated $1,500 of savings on the diamond after falling down the reddit lab diamond rabbit hole.  

This is also a 3 pay period month for me and I am going to be filling in for my boss for the next three month so I also get a 5% pay bump while on detail.

[mlkgls]

Mar 6, 2024 20:43:02 GMT -5 mlkgls said:

W-lite: DS’s dental extraction procedure was moved to this week and ended up being $400 less than anticipated after I offered him an incentive to wiggle several of them out beforehand. It worked! If insurance pays their expected amount it will be a full 1k less than originally thought! 

W: I’ll receive a small bonus at work worth about $350 after the usual deductions and this month is a three paycheck month. 

L: DS has a birthday, along with half my family. March is always a gift heavy month. 

L: I paid off the majority of this summer’s Alaskan cruise.

L: Our double oven appears to have died over the weekend and at 10+ years old I’m not sure it makes sense to try and repair it. I have a sinking fund for appliances now that most of them are nearing 10yo or more, but i assumed one of the others would go first. Ugh, I feel like I’ve been bleeding money the last two months. 

[brooke77]

W: We haven’t really turned on heating or cooling this month.

L: DH has some last minute family travel which is $$$. I also expect this will add more in some childcare/convenience food while he’s gone (2 weeks)

Neutral: We haven’t done our taxes yet, but from what I’ve entered so far, it looks like we adjusted our withholdings enough so we don’t have a huge bill again. Last year we owed ~$25K on top of what we had already paid throughout the year.

[chpmnk1015]

W: got federal return back..all into savings earmarked for different things... every little bit helps

[noodleoo]

L: Got an email that the afterschool program is changing how they bill and it will result in care costing us $1000-1500 more next year. They also plan to increase even more the year after. MFer!!! It will still be less than we are paying now since DD2 is going to K and afterschool is cheaper than daycare, but that's making a big dent in the savings I was anticipating. Friends have told me not to count on the daycare savings too much because it gets eaten up fast and I think they are right.

W (maybe): Still waiting for H to finish our taxes but his estimate so far appears to have us close to breaking even which is a win since we've owed in the past.

[jewel]

We are bleeding money. Every “win” is just not as big of a loss as I was anticipating. Lol. It’s all spent by choice, though.

I just put $1800 down on a hotel reservation for DIsneyworld for Jan 2025. The win is that I booked through DVC rental and am paying about 60% of direct prices.

Kitchen mini reno - we’re getting new countertops of backsplash. It’s a lot. We’ve had so much drama getting the correct granite ordered, but the win is that our contractor allows us to order the product directly from his vendor (so I can use CC for points) and passes along his discount with them, so we’re saving around 30% off retail.

We’ve been toying with the idea of putting a basketball court in the back yard. It was a long term plan, but an amazing deal on a hoop and flooring fell into our laps yesterday, and I spent an unexpected $1000 on it. Retail on the set is over $3500 and it’s only been used indoors. So it was a great deal, but unexpected right now.

[heygrey]

jewel, I'll sit on the same bench as you this month.

In addition to the other things I've posted, we are now replacing a section of our fence. We helped a neighbour do his last weekend - his dad is a retired fence guy so we were just the labour. He mentioned to his dad that our fence also needs replaced so they've already made plans to do it. Obviously I'm not turning down expert advice and free labour, but that means I'll be spending ~$1000 on panels, posts, and concrete very soon. Quotes were $4,000+ so it's a big savings.

[niq]

W: I thought I had lost my expensive noise cancelling headphones on our Disneyland trip, but I just found them!

[Susie]

W:  MH bought a bike on a great price at the shop closing sale of one of our local LBSs.

L:  MH bought another bike.

n+1 is real!

I am sad to see them close.  We have other LBSs, but I've bought two bikes at this one, and they've been here in this city for >50 years.  The owner is retiring, and he thought about selling the business, but sadly the property was worth more for sale without an operating shop in it than the business was, so that was the way he went.  It's going to become apartments.

[sadlebred]

Susie Always N+1, but now you get a bike!
N+1 is the correct number of bicycles to have where N is the number you have now.

[flygirl]

L: so much for the extra payment, I found out today I owe $5500 between federal and state taxes. Boooo

[chpmnk1015]

W: got state return back so that went into savings for different things

L: Think we need a new roof in the next year.. knew it has been coming but really need to save now
L: think this summer DS will Finally get braces; could use our HSA for it but hoping to not but a lot of expenses happening right now
W: got a $20 coupon off at the grocery store for tomorrow when i buy prime rib.. woot.

[aspentosh]

W: We somehow got back a few thousand $$ from taxes. I was totally expecting to owe a little this year, so that was amazing.
W: H's PTO payout was great and is allowing him to take a two week break between jobs and we're still able to do things and have fun this week (spring break)
L: Between DD's therapy sessions (don't take insurance) and H's MRI and endoscopy, we spent a bunch of money on healthcare this month and in Feb. We had to take out of our HSA (is that a W since we have it?).

[bee20]

L: I owe a LOT for taxes
W: Because I started investing more in my brokerage account and didn't realize I'd get so much in dividends.
W: Unless something crazy happens this weekend it's my lowest spending month since October. Glad the car repairs and holiday travel spends are over with.