I Have So Much Debt...

May Results and Net Worth

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Holy crap, it happened! I've actually made my food budget for once! Of course, it was only because I'm now able to use credit card points to offset restaurant expenses, but a win is a win! I also received a raise this month, resulting in me taking home $136 more than expected. It's not a ton extra, but I'll take it! Naturally, I spent some of it (on leggings), which put me over on the Slush budget, but it's covered so we're all good. I also had moved the $500 from investment over to the Gift budget since I purchased Hubs his bday gift early (there was a sale and I can't resist saving money), so that's why $500 is budgeted into the investment budget but the end result is missing $500. I've officially gotten my refund acknowledgement from my Ikea purchase (though it'll be a while before it hits my card) so that's been removed from the house stuff budget below.

Sinking Funds	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Gifts	$66.86	$50.00	$372.69	$244.17
Car/Condo		$0.00		$0.00
Holiday Spending	$400.59	$100.00	-$0.46	$501.05
Bestie's Wedding	$350.20	$225.00	-$0.36	$575.56
Vacation	$1,945.82	$100.00	-$2.23	$2,048.05
Medical	$100.14	$25.00	-$0.12	$125.26
Licenses/Insurance	$269.82	$50.00		$319.82
Total		$550.00	$369.52	$3,813.91

Bills and Utilities	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Mortgage	$1,195.42	$1,160.00	$2,309.34	$46.08
Investment	$849.16	$500.00		$849.16
IRA	$652.52	$750.00	-$0.56	$1,403.08
Streaming	$0.38	$14.50	$14.31	$0.57
YNAB	$70.00	$7.00		$77.00
Gym	$100.00	$250.00	$233.42	$116.58
Utilities	$126.59	$40.00	$37.79	$128.80
Total		$2,721.50	$2,594.30	$2,575.19

Living Expenses	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Books/Entertainment	$17.69	$25.00	$31.41	$0.00
Cat Stuff	$0.00	$125.00	$129.99	$0.00
Personal Care	-$235.76	$250.00	$6.61	$7.63
Slush	$0.00	$100.00	$139.41	-$44.40
House Stuff	$0.00	$275.00	$286.40	$0.00
Gas/Car	$0.00	$50.00	$28.96	$20.92
Food/Restaurants	-$40.25	$575.00	$534.87	$3.07
Total		$1,400.00	$1,157.65	-$12.78

June has a very similar outlook, but I'll put putting money into the condo/car sinking fund and I'm increasing my slush fund to $125 since I might need to pay for return shipping on a legging purchase (I think I got the wrong size) and have another sports bra to buy (goal is 4 sets of sports bras/leggings). The cat budget also goes up to $150, but it's because I'm due to buy her some more treats. The food budget will stay at $575 and hopefully I can have another month where I actually make that budget.

Asset/Liability	Last Month	This Month	Difference	Notes
Taxable Acct	$18,952.57	$19,855.34	$902.77	Market Volatility
My Retirement	$81,500.08	$86,349.64	$4,849.56	$1625 Contribution + Volatility
His Retirement	$37,775.81	$41,554.34	$3,778.53	18% Contribution + Volatility
457B Plan	$5,119.74	$8,188.95	$3,069.21	$1625 Contribution + Volatility
Roth IRA	$6,206.44	$6,539.62	$333.18	Market Volatility
His Roth IRA	$500.00	$500.00	$0.00	Not updated monthly (I don't have access)
E Fund	$10,000.00	$10,000.00	$0.00	No emergencies this month!
Total	$160,054.64	$172,987.89	$12,933.25	8.08% increase vs last month
Mortgage	$286,071.11	$285,025.74	-$1,045.37	1 monthly payment
Condo	$509,349.00	$513,699.00	$4,350.00	It went up again!
Total w/ Condo	$383,332.53	$401,661.15	$18,328.62	Hmm, good month!

On the net worth front, I have no idea how but the stock market continues to increase. I was under the impression that with the world going to Hell in a hand basket, the market would likely tank...but maybe it's still yet to come. Either way, I'm sticking to the plan of saving in my retirement plan at work and my 457b. I'm hoarding cash for now instead of putting into the taxable fund though...maybe when the market dips I'll be tempted to buy more index funds. Market timing? Yeah...but I think having the cash will be nice in case of an actual emergency since I'll be heading towards 32hrs/week soon.

Anyhoo, have a wonderful June, everyone!

May Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 31 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $18.86 H Mart Groceries (Eggs, cherry tomatoes, miso, and fish cake)

Monday, Happy Memorial Day!
No Spend Day! (I got sushi, but apparently I can use my credit card points for restaurants now, so YAY FREE SUSHI! Redemption of previous purchase to cover this cost resulted in $3.19 overage, so it's almost like I "made" money?)

Tuesday
- $17.95 Ikea purchase (for in-store pick up since my delivery wasn't until end of June - will be covered by the previous order cancellation...that they have yet to acknowledge..............)
- $30.82 Amazon spice bottles purchase (covered by raiding Entertainment and the Gas/Auto budgets)

Wednesday
No Spend Day!

Thursday
No Spend Day!

Friday
No Spend Day!

Saturday
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $3.19
- $67.63 Living Expenses (Holy low spend week, Batman!)

Last weekend, I started looking into how to resurface my concrete countertops. Ultimately I decided that I'm not a very handy person (understatement much?) and I don't really want to have concrete dust all over my tiny condo, so I shifted to looking into who I could call to do it for me. I probably won't be calling for quotes anytime soon, but that coupled with researching new kitchen appliances has me at least not brainlessly watching shows on Netflix.

I've tried to go to Goodwill multiple times now to donate items, but each time I've done the lines have been ridiculous - like, around the block, 70ish cars ridiculous. I guess I'm going to just have to keep those items in my trunk until I get a chance to actually donate them. To be fair, it seems all the Goodwill locations in the Seattle area are closed except for this one location. We may just wait until other donation locations open up and the rush to donate has abated a little. It's a little ridiculous to think I need to line up at like 7am to donate stuff...

Friday resulted in me going home early due to a migraine at work. I feel very lucky to work in a job where I can go home halfway through the day when I'm not feeling well. With my previous jobs, I definitely would've needed to power through and just tough it out. Instead, I was able to call in a per diem, go home and sleep it off. As frustrating as this job can be at times, I do have to appreciate what I've got when it's good. I will likely have to stay at this job forever, since the going rate for pharmies in the US is now tanking due to there being a glut of new grads each year. Thankfully my job isn't too stressful, is definitely a 40hr/week job, and compensates me well. I'll be here for the foreseeable future for sure.

I hope everyone's staying safe this weekend. There's a lot of protests and riots happening.

May Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 24 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $12 In App Purchase (I'm addicted...)
- $45.80 Groceries
- $44.04 Foundation (the right color this time. Sephora received my return and they process it at the end of the week)
- $351.44 Hubby's Bday Present (2 months early. These funds were supposed to be spent in July, but I'm commandeering the taxable investment funds for this purchase. Budget was $500, so technically still under budget...? Yeah I couldn't even convince myself. At least it's covered.)

Monday
No Spend Day!

Tuesday
+ $21 Ibotta Payment (this takes me MONTHS to earn since I don't usually buy whatever's on their app, but free money is free money!)
No Spend Day!

Wednesday
- $18.87 Cat Treats (covered by Slush)
- $70 Leggings (out of Slush, covered by extra funds from Pay Day!)
- $12.10 in app purchase (GAH!)
- $43.82 More groceries and lunch (Chicken breast, sukiyaki beef, grape tomatoes, eggs, chicken chips, and summer rolls)
- $10.79 Groceries I couldn't find at the first store (shredded cooked chicken, oat milk creamer)
- $28.96 Gas

Thursday
No Spend Day!

Friday
+ $2792.03 Pay Day! (This is over $100 more than expected, but of course I spent it on Wednesday when I found out how much I'd be paid.)
+ $37.43 Sephora Return (got the email, but it hasn't hit my credit card just yet)
- $1866.17 to various sinking funds
No Spend Day!

Saturday
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $2850.46
- $637.82 Living Expenses ($286.38 without the gift)

I tried to run a bunch of errands on Wednesday since I had the day off. In the morning, I got all my crap together to go to Goodwill to make a donation only to find the donation line to go down and around the block. I guess since there's nothing to do, everyone's got the same idea as me and is cleaning out their house. I ended up deciding to try again later in the day (and still failing, because they closed donation drop off early?!) since I had some groceries to grab and a workout on Zoom to do at home. By the way, if anyone is tracking, I've only got about $30 left for food this month with another week to go. Assuming I behave myself and only get stuff I absolutely need next week, I might actually make the budget. Are the chances that high? Nah, probably not.

I have officially been at my job for 2 years and so with that milestone, I got a raise! It's an extra ~$350 a month or so. What did I do with the funds this month? Why, I bought myself leggings for my new workout hobby, of course...! Should I have added that money into the food budget? Probably. Going forward I'll be putting those extra funds into sinking funds like my bestie's wedding and my vacation fund, though. I should be on track to save $2.5k for the wedding (goal is to have ~$4k by wedding time for flights, hotels, dress, gift, etc) and maybe $3kish for the vacation fund by the end of the year. We're planning on a short long weekend trip towards the end of the year (dependent on COVID), so I should have a decent amount of vacation funds rolling into 2021. Hopefully 2021 will be a better year for travel than 2020 since this year seems to be a hot mess.

In other news, the reduced staffing hours have been approved (as of Friday) and will be starting June 8th. So far, we have that schedule made through July 5th, but we'll see what happens. Luckily, one of my coworkers is on vacation (they hit their max accrual so they have to take it) for 2 weeks during that time period, so I'll get 40 hours for 1 week in each of the June work periods. Hopefully we can go back to normal staffing in July, but it's all dependent on whether or not our clinic is able to resume the transplant services that've been on pause with COVID. I can hope and hope and hope, though...!

May Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 17 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $63.39 Random stuff at QFC

Monday
+ $2677.84 Pay Day!
- $597 Various Sinking Funds
- $2309 Mortgage Payment
Otherwise No Spend Day!

Tuesday
- $15.72 Lunch at work (delivery)

Wednesday
- $5.12 In-App Purchase
- $57.10 Coffee, bacon, eggs, snacks, and lunch

Thursday
+ $11.42 Ratuken deposit
No Spend Day!

Friday
- $31.48 McDonalds cuz the Hubs requested (and they overcharged me by $10 and I didn't notice till later 😞)

Saturday
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $2689.26
- $2481.81 Living Expenses ($172.81 sans mortgage)

I can't seem to get out of a grocery store for under $50 lately. I'm trying to hold up my end of the grocery buying before my hours get cut (if they, in fact, do get cut). The word still hasn't come from the Powers That Be about a cut in hours yet, and the new speculation is that June 1st will be the new date. I've also been told that we may not actually cut our staffing hours (but will reduce our opening hours), depending on how the volume trends. If we're back up to a regular script volume, it's unlikely they'll cut our hours but if we continue on the anemic script volume crap we'll have to cut. I'm excited to have a full paycheck in June regardless, and I will be ok if we do end up reducing hours. I just want to know already so that I can plan...and I guess so that I can stop making multiple schedules for each month.

There seems to be a lot of people out and about in Seattle these days. I know that some businesses have reopened, but I was under the impression that the Stay At Home order was still in effect (through May 31). Instead, I've seen many people out in public even without masks. It's starting to really get to me. I feel like I'm doing my part, but I definitely can't control others. I can want them to wear masks and wash their hands all I want, but that doesn't make it happen. Seeing only about 20% of people in public wear masks this early into the reopening is really disheartening. I want to go outside and hike. I want my gym to reopen. I want to be able to go back to life as we knew it...but I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. And it's weighing on me. Ugh, maybe I can go and sit in the sun on the patio next week (if it's sunny again) or something and break out of this funk. Something's gotta give...

May Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 10 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $37.36 Ikea Storage Stuff Purchase (expected delivery is late JUNE?!)
- $105.58 Container Store Purchase (picking up on Thursday!)
- $37.92 Forgotten Item Container Store Purchase (required shipping, boo)
- $53.94 Amazon Purchase (Tupperware from House Stuff and a lanyard for work from Slush)

Monday
- $76.17 Costco Run ($47.30 random stock-up stuff for the condo, $28.87 of spices, bread, and pistachios)

Tuesday
No Spend Day!

Wednesday
- $37.79 Utilities Bill on Auto Pay
- $32.96 Pet Insurance on Auto Pay
Otherwise No Spend Day!

Thursday
- $150.84 Gym Fee (I told them I'd keep paying since they're doing Zoom classes)
- $78.16 Cat Food on Auto Order (the price increased by over $20! Holy crap!!!)
- $2.19 In-App Purchase
- $63.02 Random stuff at the grocery store

Friday
No Spend Day!

Saturday
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $0.00
- $675.93 Living Expenses

On Sunday, I went through a good amount of my kitchen to reorganize and throw out expired items from the "pantry." Sadly my "pantry" is really the largest drawer in my tiny, tiny kitchen. So I decided to create come more space by ordering a skinny rolling cart and to help make my pots and pans more accessible by buying rolling drawer racks. I also purchased some new spice bottles from Ikea, but apparently they won't be here for quite a while. Luckily I won't really need them anytime soon, they'll just be nice to have once they get to me.

My cat food cost increased by a ton this week (~40%!). I checked another site just to make sure I wasn't being gouged and up, the cost has just increased. It's fine - I have the funds for it and it's not like I didn't get a deal on it when I stocked up, but wow that's quite a price hike. I suppose I'll be increasing the cat budget for next month. I need to get her some more treats and it might have to be covered by the slush fund now. Yikes!

I realized this week that with the current climate in the world, I should probably wait to purchase my new range and other home appliances and should instead hoard the money. Since my hours are being cut, there's no guarantee that I'll be able to save for it in the near future anyway. I suppose if I can save up for it, I'll just aim for $100 or so each month. At least it'll get me a head start on saving for it when the world goes back to normal, right...?

April Results and Net Worth

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Mon, 04 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Well, so I still went over the food budget this month. Even with extra padding, I still went over! Man, I suck at this. I moved money over from other funds but was still over by almost $50! As usual...it will be taken out of the next month's budget. I also went over on the personal care budget this month, but I had planned to purchase those items next month. It will also come from next month's budget. *shrug* It is what it is, I suppose.

I was able to put $850 into the EFund this month, though it's really funds for my taxable account. I had planned to put enough into the EFund to bring it back up to $10k (which I'll leave in place for my budgeting spreadsheet because I'm lazy), but anything over the $10k that I have in there when the market drops enough will be going into the taxable fund. Hopefully it'll be after my hours go back up to normal, not that they've been cut quite yet.

Sinking Funds	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Gifts	$63.85	$100.00	$96.99	$66.86
Car/Condo	$188.35	$50.00	$513.07	-$274.72
Holiday Spending	$300.23	$100.00	-$0.36	$400.59
BESTIE'S WEDDING	$150.00	$200.00	-$0.20	$350.20
Vacation	$1,694.17	$250.00	-$1.65	$1,945.82
Medical	$50.05	$50.00	-$0.09	$100.14
Licenses/Insurance	$219.82	$50.00		$269.82
Total		$800.00	$607.76	$2,858.71

Bills and Utilities	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Mortgage	$35.42	$1,160.00		$1,195.42
Investment		$1,000.00		$849.16
IRA	$0.29	$650.00	-$2.23	$652.52
Streaming	$0.19	$14.50	$14.31	$0.38
YNAB	$63.00	$7.00		$70.00
Gym		$100.00	$150.84	$100.00
Utilities	$158.06	$20.00	$51.47	$126.59
Total		$2,951.50	$214.39	$1,798.65

Living Expenses	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Books/Entertainment	$0.76	$50.00	$14.67	$17.69
Cat Stuff	$0.67	$200.00	$215.55	$0.00
Personal Care	$3.65	$100.00	$259.23	-$235.76
Slush	$0.09	$75.00	$125.30	$0.00
House Stuff	$0.16	$50.00	$116.48	$0.00
Gas/Car	-$32.57	$50.00	$29.60	$0.00
Food/Restaurants	-$110.79	$750.00	$634.46	-$40.25
Total		$1,275.00	$1,395.29	-$258.32

Next month might be the last month that I have "regular" paychecks, so my budget still looks about the same, but with some more money in the House Stuff fund as I'm planning to reorganize the kitchen. One change that'll come after my paychecks go back to normal, too - I'll be hoarding money in the Car/Condo fund because I plan to upgrade our range at home. And probably the microwave also, though this is a lofty goal (it'll likely be next year, unless I raid from the Taxable fund). We don't think it'll be likely that we make it to see our parents this year, so I'm raiding the Vacation fund for my range. After that it'll be a new dishwasher (2021-2022) and then a new fridge (2022-2023). I doubt we'll actually remodel our kitchen any time soon, but I'd like some new appliances since ours are from 2003. The rest of the budget should look pretty similar to this month though. Maybe I'll be able to stay in the food budget in May...? Yeah.........I doubt it too...

On the Net Worth front, the market continues to recover. We're up 19.25% over last month, which I think is insane. Currently, this is actually our highest combined net worth...and it's in the middle of a pandemic. I'm only counting the Efund at $10k since that's all I plan to leave in there, even though there's currently more than that in the fund.

Asset/Liability	Last Month	This Month	Difference
Taxable Acct	$16,799.15	$18,952.57	$2,153.42
My Retirement	$70,213.00	$81,500.08	$11,287.08
His Retirement	$27,205.60	$37,775.81	$10,570.21
457B Plan	$4,099.64	$5,119.74	$1,020.10
E Fund	$10,000.00	$10,000.00	$0.00
Total	$128,317.39	$153,348.20	$25,030.81
Mortgage	$287,113.22	$286,071.11	-$1,042.11
Condo	$503,147.00	$509,349.00	$6,202.00
Total w/ Condo	$344,351.17	$376,626.09	$32,274.92

April Week 5

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 03 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $259.23 Sephora purchase (I ran out of my spendy serum. This won't actually hit my account till the order is shipped, supposedly in May)
- $74.75 Groceries (there goes my under budget theory...Overage taken from next month's food budget)

Monday
- $8.04 QFC for items I forgot on Sunday

Tuesday
No Spend Day!

Wednesday
No Spend Day!

Thursday
No Spend Day!

Friday, May 1st
- $21.25 Mother's Day Gift
- $22.84 Lunch at work for me and boss
- $57.30 Another Sports Bra (YAY, NEW MONTH!)
- $82.58 Climbing Gym Auto Debit (to support the workers during COVID)

Saturday
- $120.84 Groceries

Total
+ $0.00
- $646.57 Living Expenses

Happy May, everyone! Washington State's stay at home order was extended (for the most part) through May 31st, with a phased reopening. We're currently in Phase 1, which allows for fishing, some hiking, etc etc to happen now, but Phase 2 isn't supposed to happen for at least another 3 weeks or so, and could take even longed depending on how the data for COVID responds to people going out and about more. Personally, I think the hiking allowance is going to make for an influx of people going hiking and spreading the virus, so we will be abstaining from all of that for a while yet. Gyms aren't supposed to reopen (and only then at 50% capacity) until Phase 3, supposedly mid-June if everything goes well. We will probably abstain from the gym for another month or so beyond the reopenings, just to be safe.

Friday was May 1st which, despite social distancing measures, still saw some May Day protests in Seattle. The usual ones happened (around Amazon for the most part), but no parades that I was aware of. I was at work, so it didn't really affect me much. Instead, I spent the 1st of May buying a ton of stuff because it meant my budgets rolled over, hehe! I know this isn't the best thing to do with regard to my penchant for going over budget at the end of the month...Maybe I'll behave better in June?

April Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $50.23 Crab nachos! (They're not this expensive - I just tipped a lot)

Monday
No Spend Day!

Tuesday
- $5.52 In-Game purchase
- $15 lunch at work

Wednesday
- $9.15 Cross stitch kit from Amazon (bc bored)

Thursday
- $9.08 lunch at work
- $20 gift for someone's going away

Friday
+ $2681.34 Pay Day!
- $1541.17 into various sinking funds (including my taxable money into my EFund)
- $8.18 Donut before blood donation so I don't pass out

Saturday
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $2681.34
- $117.16 Living Expenses

As I said last week, it was announced to the pharmacy that we will need to cut our labor hours. I was able to mock up a schedule that would cut our pharmacist hours down, but it would require our opening hours to change. Since we don't know when this will start or end yet, I'm just going to be a little more conservative with my spending in the meantime. I was told that my project days would just be cut down to 1 project day from two, so with the schedule I've mocked up I would still get at least 4 days a week at work (including my project day) on most weeks. I talked out my options with the Hubs and we've figured that with 4 days a week, I'll lose probably about $600 per paycheck. I will opt to not be paid the last workday and conserve my vacation hours instead (except on weeks where I work fewer than 4 days a week). With my budget the way it is, I just won't contribute to my taxable fund, but should still be able to cover almost everything else, including the money put aside for the Roth IRA contributions for this year. Sinking funds (like vacation savings) will be decreased if I have to decrease further.

Anyhoo, not much else to talk about this week. See you next week!

April Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $65.30 Sports Bra (overspent on Slush, covered by Personal Care funds - I LOVE it and am planning on getting more!)
- $97.24 Groceries at HMart

Monday
No Spend Day!

Tuesday
No Spend Day!

Wednesday
- $114.97 Groceries and 1 house item at Met Market ($45 mortar and pestle, covered by the Grocery budget)
- $29.60 Gas (covered by raiding the Entertainment Budget)

Thursday
- $10 Lunch at work (Venmo'd to a coworker who picked it up for me)

Friday
- $26.99 Donuts for Work
- $9.08 Salad lunch at work

Saturday
- $69.54 Date Night Dinner in!

Total
+ $0.00
- $325.48 Living Expenses

This week was pretty boring. With the Stay At Home order extended until May 4th, I'm pretty sure that my life will be...more than a little boring.

I've noticed that I've officially hit the "let me buy things to ease my boredom" stage of quarantine. I'm trying to stay busy with work and working out and reading books (because there's not much left to watch), but every now and then my mind drifts off towards "I wonder what sales are happening right now?" and "If I buy things I'm really just supporting the economy, right?" Granted, I've purchased enough things this month already (leggings, sports bra), but there's always more things that I want. Nothing that I really need. I suppose I'll go sit in a corner and stare at my budget. Maybe the feeling will go away. ;)

We got word on Friday that the Powers That Be at work have been asked to cut staffing clinic-wide. Our census is down and the pharmacy has been pretty slow, so I completely understand where they're coming from...I just wish I had some more information to go on. I'd like to know if we're able to use vacation time to bridge the hours we're losing, when this is supposed to start, when it'll end, etc etc etc... but so far there don't seem to be any answers. I have savings though (yay, EFund!) so I should be ok regardless. If I have to cut from the budget, the first thing to go will be taxable contributions. I let the Hubs know that if it does come to pass, he may have to buy all the groceries if I'm unable to use my vacation time to make up the difference though. Juuuuust in case...

April Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $43.22 Groceries
- $11 Paper Towels (gotta buy 'em when you find 'em!)
- $57.20 More Cat Food (but at 35% off from Petco with Autoship for this delivery!))

Monday
No Spend Day!

Tuesday
- $9.08 Lunch at work

Wednesday
- $51.47 Utility Bill on Auto Pay
Otherwise No Spend Day!

Thursday
- $38.28 Toilet Paper, paper towels, and laundry detergent (covered by Slush/Entertainment)
- $150.84 to my 6 week gym for the month's zoom classes (covered by raiding the taxable contributions - I'm leaving the other $100 in there for the climbing gym membership which should be deducted on May 1st)
- $60 GymShark Leggings (out of Slush)

Friday
+$2821.74 Pay Day (with 2.25hrs of OT)!
- $2248.38 into various sinking funds
- $60.17 Piroshki
- $50 Donation to food bank (out of Gift)
- $42.15 Sushi

Saturday
- $49.56 GrubHub food to work for me and my employees (I forgot my lunch at home 😣)

Total
+ $2821.74
- $622.97 Living Expenses

I bought more cat food on Sunday from a different company, so hopefully I'll have a little bit of a buffer before needing to buy more. This definitely put me over my budget (and Sunday was only the 5th!) but I'm over by less than $20 so I can cover this by shifting around some funds. I was supposed to have a haircut this month, but that's definitely not going to happen with the Stay At Home order still in place, so I'll use those funds for other stuff in the meantime. That being said, I do need to repurchase some stuff like moisturizer and foundation soon.

I've definitely fallen off the workout and diet wagon lately. I'm trying to get back on, but dang...motivation is lacking. I'm trying to eat better, but buying food out at least once a week is messing with me a bit. I did an online workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week to try and get back into it. At least it fits into my schedule with the times they're doing! I should be able to continue my 3x weekly attendance and hopefully get in a little better shape than I've been in. My bestie has joined me for the month as well - the gym charged me on my card and she Venmo'd me the cost. I decided to also Venmo the owner of the gym the cost for my attendance as well, since I'm taking their zoom classes. Sure I paid the amount for the 6 week course, but I'm sure they could use the funds at this point also. He's also asked me to spread the word about their gym and hopefully get more people to sign up.

Some of the hospitals here in Seattle are furloughing their workers since there's no elective surgery money coming in at the moment. I've heard some rumblings at work about it (especially since we're not a hospital treating COVID patients), but so far nothing has happened yet. I wonder if they'll look towards cutting the pharmacy's hours in the future as well, since our prescription volume has been down quite a bit lately. We'll see what happens though I guess.

April Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
No Spend Day!

Monday
- $32.94 Gas (Maybe I'll cover this with credit card points...)

Tuesday
- $110.79 Total Wine (I'm taking this out of the April budget)
+ $328.57 from my pet insurance? I'm not questioning it.

Wednesday, April 1st!
- $83.59 Cat Food (I got an email advising me to order NOW due to shortages)

Thursday
No Spend Day!

Friday
- $9.08 Salad at lunch
- $41.80 Cat litter (stocking up so I won't run out if it's sold out later)
- $513.07 for the HVAC fix ($274.72 covered by EFund, the rest covered by Car and Condo fund)

Saturday
- $22.20 Amazon'd a roasting rack

Total
+ $328.57
- $813.47 Living Expenses

This week was rather uneventful. The Governor extended Washington's stay at home order towards the end of the week through May 4th, so it'll be another month of going to work and heading straight home. Since that's basically all we're doing, there's not much happening in my neck of the woods.

My HVAC bill came up this week, which is mostly covered by the Car and Condo fund, but I had to dip into the EFund for the rest. No worries, I'm sure I'll be able to get the EFund back up to an even $10k in no time. Maybe I'll take it out from the vacation fund? We're definitely not going anywhere anytime soon...

I think I'm going to put in another order of cat food to have extra on hand. I placed an order this week, but will likely place another in the coming week. I don't want to run into an issue where the delivery comes late and I run out or almost run out of cat food, like last time. This will put me over the budget for the cat food this month, but maybe I can take that money from another fund to cover it.

Short post, not much happening right now. Stay safe everyone!

March Results and Net Worth Update

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Well, so COVID has Seattle on a stay-at-home order. Spending this month definitely went over on the food spending, but it's definitely for a good cause. I also went over on the Fitness budget, but that's due to signing up for the 6 week gym program (which was then cancelled). I believe I'll receive gym credit for it, so it'll cover a 3 time a week 3(ish) month gym membership and I can either continue or not after that. Hopefully I'll actually use the membership since I'm out the money already, but I am quite a lazy bum so...who knows. My regular gym credit will be deducted on April 1st and will continue to be deducted the 1st of every month until they're able to reopen, so I'm glad I kept the money budgeted for the fee. Anyhoo...the food spending is mostly covered by my per diem money (which ended this month) and by raiding my other budgets, and I'll cover the fitness budget with whatever funds are left over in the upcoming months. Like I said last post, I shouldn't have to dip into the EFund to cover any of it, so I won't continue the negative amount into the April budget.

Non Negotiables	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
HOA Debit	$2.04	$441.17	$440.38	$2.83
E-Fund	$10,353.38	$0.00	-$13.88	$10,000.00
Total		$441.17	$426.50	$10,002.83

Sinking Funds	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Gifts	$172.83	$100.00	$208.98	$63.85
Car/Condo	$138.16	$50.00	-$0.19	$188.35
Holiday Spending	$200.21	$100.00	-$0.02	$300.23
ANNIE'S WEDDING AHHHH		$150.00		$150.00
Vacation	$781.71	$500.00	-$412.46	$1,694.17
Medical	$0.00	$50.00	-$0.05	$50.05
Licenses/Insurance	$318.82	$50.00	$149.00	$219.82
Total		$1,000.00	-$54.74	$2,666.47

Bills and Utilities	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Mortgage	$1,184.76	$1,160.00	$2,309.34	$35.42
Investment		$0.00		$0.00
IRA	$3,000.67	$1,500.00	$4,867.64	$0.29
Streaming		$14.50	$14.31	$0.19
YNAB	$56.00	$7.00		$63.00
Gym	$45.25	$100.00	$569.16	-$350.00
Utilities	$145.56	$65.00	$52.50	$158.06
Total		$2,846.50	$5,503.61	-$128.46

Living Expenses	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Books/Entertainment	$0.76	$25.00		$0.76
Cat Stuff	$0.00	$150.00	$134.33	$0.67
Personal Care	$2.70	$50.00	$9.05	$3.65
Slush	$3.19	$75.00		$0.09
House Stuff	$0.00	$50.00	$43.84	$0.16
Gas/Car	$2.37	$50.00	$80.94	-$32.57
Food/Restaurants	$0.00	$600.00	$1,167.14	-$349.04
Total		$1,000.00	$1,435.30	-$376.28

In terms of net worth, March was a bit of a rollercoaster. We lost a good chunk of change (-7.14% change) but I learned that my tolerance for market volatility is pretty high - even though we lost about $40k at the lowest point, I didn't waver from my investment plan and I didn't panic or think of stopping contributions or ever once think about pulling out of the market. Let's hope April stabilizes little......but I won't hold my breath.

Asset/Liability	Last Month	This Month	Difference
Taxable Acct	$20,888.82	$19,168.05	-$1,720.77
My Retirement	$87,718.25	$82,018.62	-$5,699.63
His Retirement	$30,206.54	$29,579.85	-$626.69
457B Plan	$1,594.33	$2,971.04	$1,376.71
E Fund	$10,353.38	$10,353.38	$0.00
Total	$150,761.32	$144,090.94	-$6,670.38
Mortgage	$289,187.71	$288,152.08	-$1,035.63
Condo	$500,426.00	$501,994.00	$1,568.00
Total w/ Condo	$361,999.61	$357,932.86	-$4,066.75

March Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $71.72 Chinese Food order (to support our local restaurant...and so I don't have to cook for a few days)

Monday
- $50 Venmo to my hairstylist since she's out of work and has to pay rent still (out of Gift)

Tuesday
- $52.25 Bfast bagels for me and a friend and a tshirt to support the restaurant ($25 covered by Entertainment funds, the rest out of Food)

Wednesday
+ $2681.34 Pay Day!
+ $11.20 Airfare to NYC Refund
+ $400 Hotel Refund from NYC Trip
- $1900 into Sinking Funds ($1500 into EFund and $400 into vacation fund)
- $46.66 Chinese food for me and a friend from work

Thursday
- $17.78 Extra Cat Food (cuz my delivery was late)

Friday
No Spend Day!

Saturday
- $27.30 Fruits and veggies at Pike Market
- $84.91 H Mart Groceries
- $30.08 Piroshky

Total
+ $3092.54
- $380.70 Living Expenses

I'm raiding budgets left and right to fund the Food budget and am still over, but at least I've got the funds to cover it! The hubs got his refund from the hotel for our NYC trip (end of April, previously cancelled - I got $400 back) and my airline refund came back (a measly $11.20 since I paid in miles). Those funds will be redeposited back into the vacation fund. It doesn't look like my gym is going to charge me this month (though they might charge twice next month? Not sure), but I'm going to keep the extra funds in the budget since I'm not 100% what's going to happen in April. Of course, I'm technically still down from the 6 week program I gambled on (which will now likely be gym credit, so I'm just out the money), but I'll pay that off on the credit card with any extra funds I have in the next few months. I don't think I'll have to dip into the EFund for it at all.

The hubs increased his 401k contributions to 18% this month, so he should be maxing out this year. He was previously at 15%, but not until we were well into 2020 so it was up in the air on whether or not he'd max. The extra 3% should get us to the max for this year. We're pretty lucky. Since we're both in healthcare, our jobs are almost recession proof. They're definitely safe in the current COVID situation since pharmacies are one of the essential businesses staying open. I'm doing what I can to help support local businesses by getting takeout at least once a week, but I know it probably isn't enough to keep all my favorite restaurants in business.

I'm officially allowed to drive to work for the time being. Everyone who was bussing to work has a temporary parking pass (if they wanted one) since half of our campus is now working from home (HR, Recruiting, etc). It's nice that I've been able to sleep in some lately, and on days that I'm working from home, I'm able to both drop the Hubs off and pick him up from work so he doesn't have to commute at all. That being said, work has been pretty hectic lately. I hear that the situation in Seattle is getting better with the stay-at-home order though, so hopefully the hectic work-life won't continue for that much longer. We can do this, Seattle!

March Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $149 Professional Liability Insurance (out of Licenses)

Monday
No Spend Day!

Tuesday
- $95 Pizza for a patio party with a friend who's moving to Cali (out of Gift...$40 of this was tip for the workers who are working with very few hours due to restaurants being takeout only these days)

Wednesday
- $83.59 Cat Food on Autoship
- $16 Parking at work
- $11.10 McDonalds because omgbadday (...so the diet's not goin' so good...covered by Slush)

Thursday
+ $185.83 Per Diem Paycheck
No Spend Day!

Friday
- $15.56 McDonalds (Hubs wanted something. Covered by extra proceeds from paychecks)

Saturday
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $185.83
- $370.25 Living Expenses ($221.25 without the Liability Insurance)

On Monday, the Governor shut down all gyms, bars, and restaurants in the state. He later went ahead and shuttered all nail salons and hair salons as well. My 6 week gym training was supposed to start on Monday...I think what's happening is that I'll get credit to use at the gym. In the meantime, I've been trying to follow the eating plan and trying to work out on my own, though Wednesday ended up being a pretty bad day at work, so I cheated with McDonalds. This week's "working out on my own" hasn't been going so well either, since many people are out sick from work and I've been working odd-ish hours to help the pharmacy get by (as well as getting some OT from staying late).

It seems like the city of Seattle is shutting down. There's basically nowhere to go if you want to go out, but I guess that's the plan. We're all supposed to be sheltering in place. Work is allowing me to work from home on my project days and soon I'll be getting a temporary parking pass since the office workers are now all working from home. Since I do work with a lot of immunosuppressed people, I quit my per diem job this week. Last week I ended up going in to complete some trainings though, so hopefully that money will be covering my overspend this month on Fitness and whatever I overspend on Food. I decided to continue paying for my climbing gym (even though they're closed) since it'll help them pay their employees during the closure. Every little bit helps, right? I will be over the gym budget this month (but it'll be covered), but at least it's for a good cause.

Looks like my paycheck has evened out with my regular pay (from the increases in contributions at the end of last year) and this is officially my first month of regular paychecks! Luckily I had a pretty close guesstimate, but it's actually a little more than I thought, so that'll be nice! All together, this month will total about $275 more than expected (due to the per diem money, which sadly ends this month). Hopefully the "stay put" order doesn't last too long and I go stir crazy and start ordering ALL THE THINGS on the interwebs, but we'll see what happens...

March Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $23.85 Shaving Cream, new face wash, blah blah from the drug store
- $9.05 Corner Store purchase (random crap I forgot from the drug store)

Monday
- $3.30 BFast at work
- $10.51 Lunch at work

Tuesday
+ $2675.44 Pay Day!
- $807 to various Sinking Funds
- $2309.34 Mortgage Payment
- $52.50 Utilities Bill
- $8.70 McDonalds BFast
- $6.33 Lunch at work
- $375.22 Spendy Dinner Date (moved $50 over from Slush to Food Budget)

Wednesday
- $4870 to IRA account
Otherwise No Spend Day!

Thursday
- $79.64 Costco Purchase ($9.99 from House Stuff, the rest from Food cuz non-perishable stock-up)
- $66.66 More Groceries! (Why yes, I do only have $6 left for the month...)
- $439.30 Six week gym program (but if I stick to it, I get this money back!)

Friday
- $10 Quip shipment
- $73.42 ...even more groceries (for my 6 week program - covered with money from Slush and some IRA contribution funds...)
- $69.27 running shoes (out of Fitness...because my climbing gym closed due to coronavirus)

Saturday
No Spend Day (because I spent to much this week ALREADY!)

Total
+ $2675.44
- $3,529.90 Living Expenses ($1,219.75 without mortgage, $780.45 without mortgage and gym program)

The beginning of this week was pretty normal except I put off grocery shopping because I had signed up for a 6 week exercise program and the program was to provide me with a meal plan. Unfortunately, my Monday appointment got pushed to Wednesday, and then the guy didn't show since he thought we'd pushed to Thursday...so on Thursday, I paid a hefty $439.30 for the 6 week program. And attended my first workout class...ever? Probably. Anyway! The 6 week program is that if I stick with the meal plan and go to at least 3 workouts a week, I should be able to lose 6% body fat within the 6 weeks. And if I'm able to do that, I get my money back. For the time being, I've taken it out of savings ($500, with $50 going to buffer the food budget). It was technically supposed to come out of the IRA contributions, but I raided the Efund so that I could make my IRA contributions earlier in the week, so now the Efund will be $500 less at the end of the month. Hopefully I'm able to replenish the money in 6 weeks...but 6% body fat is quite a bit. At least I have some money coming from the per diem job next week (I had trainings to complete)...

Also on Thursday (and before my appointment and class), I went to Costco to get some food for the week and stock up on some staples, since it looks like the CDC recommendation is to be out in public as little as possible in the next few weeks while this Coronavirus stuff dies down. I got a number of staples, but after the gym program meet up, I realized that many of the things I purchased aren't really allowed on the diet. So on Friday, I went back out and got some more food that's allowed...but at least it wasn't super duper expensive...? Hopefully I'm able to stick with the meal plan. It seems like it'll cut my grocery budget down a little bit each week.

So my climbing gym closed on Friday due to coronavirus running rampant throughout Seattle. I start the 6 week gym program on this coming Monday and I'm supposed to work out 5 days a week (3 days/week with the program) so I'll have to figure something else out. Jumping jacks at home? Chasing the cat around the condo? I guess anything is better than nothing! Anyhoo, there's no gym charge this week for my April gym payment (since...ain't no gym...) so I bought some sneakers for the program I'm doing. The only sneakers I currently own are the ones I wear to work...

I'm sure everyone's been talking about the market being down with so many things happening in the world. I know that my investments have definitely taken a hit, but I'm playing a long game here, so I'll still be putting money in regardless. In fact, I was finally able to put the funds into my tIRA this week with Fidelity! It has to sit there for a few days before I convert it to into the Roth IRA, but I plan to do that next week. As long as I don't actually sell anything, my money in the account isn't "lost" so YAY for my first backdoor Roth conversion and market SALE!

March Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $46.54 Brunch out with the Hubs
- $15.74 Random Groceries

Monday
- $16.98 snacks at the corner store (namely beer)

Tuesday
- $9.08 Salad Lunch at work
- $20 Gift for friend

Wednesday
No Spend Day!

Thursday
+ $22.92 Per Diem Money (from trainings I was delinquent on)
No Spend Day!

Friday
- $16 parking at work

Saturday
+ $110.05 Camera Bag Return
- $170.64 Climbing Shoe purchase (covered with REI Dividends, my return money, and Gym Fund)

Total
+ $132.97
- $294.98 Living Expenses

This week, I moved $1867.26 from my EFund into my IRA savings and will be depositing it into my Trad IRA account as soon as my bank account links. I will also be converting it into my Roth IRA account the next day. No worries, I'll the $1.5k in my Efund by the end of the month. Yay for backdoor Roths! This means is that I should be filing taxes soon once this is done - I'm anxious to get it over with! Next year though, I should have the $6k ready to go, so I won't have to wait so late to file taxes. I'm so used to filing in February that every day that creeps by without having filed, I get a liiiiiittle more anxious. Hopefully I can complete this task soon...c'monnnnn, Fidelity!

We found a leak in our condo this week. The HVAC guy came out on Friday (and was an HOUR late, grrr) to fix the issue. I was late to work because of his lateness and had to call a friend to come over to babysit him in my condo......but as soon as she got in, he finished the job. Well...at least it's finished? (THANK YOU FOR COMING OVER, FRIEND!!) He says his company will charge my building management company, who already told me that if it's a problem for just my unit, we will be charged the cost (which I expected). Hopefully it's not crazy expensive. I do have SOME funds set aside for condo issues, but not a ton (less than $200, but that's what an EFund is for, right?). At any rate, I'll be splitting it with the Hubs so it should be ok. (Watch, my next post will be like "$5k for a heat pump?!")

The coronavirus seems to be keeping a lot of people at home here in Seattle. Many of the big tech companies have mandated everyone to work from home. Even my healthcare company has mandated that everyone who CAN, works from home. I'm not really affected by this, as we're patient facing and can't exactly dispense meds remotely, but we're definitely fielding calls like "Is the clinic closed" and "But SHOULDN'T the clinic be closed?!" Anyhoo...I'm definitely getting emails from everyone and their mom about the virus (including a NAIL SALON?!) so...I'm just gonna say...WASH YOUR HANDS, PEOPLE!!!

In other BIG BIG VERY BIG news, MY BESTIE GOT ENGAGED ON SATURDAY!!!!!! I will be adding a Bestie Wedding fund to my March (and future) budgets. I may need to move my planned EFund savings into this wedding fund. She isn't going to start planning/picking a date for a few months, so I've got a while to save up. Oooooh a dress, plane tickets, a present, many many penis-shaped items...there's a lot of things to save up for here...!

February Results and Net Worth

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 20:00:00 +0000

I think I'm going to change things up a little. Since most of my budgets tend to stay the same, I'm going to stop posting the budget at the beginning of the month and only show the results at the end of the month compared to the regular, "usual" budget.

Without further ado, here's what happened in February.

Non Negotiables	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
HOA Debit	$1.09	$441.17	$440.22	$2.04
E-Fund	$10,353.38	$0.00		$10,353.38
Total		$441.17	$440.22	$10,355.42

Sinking Funds	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Gifts	$173.13	$100.00	$109.97	172.83
Car/Condo	$138.20			138.16
Holiday Spending	$100.21	$100.00		$200.21
Vacation	$1,612.39	$625.00	$1,447.01	781.71
Medical	$38.62		$38.87	$0.00
Licenses/Insurance	$268.80	$50.00	-$0.02	$318.82
Total		$875.00	$1,595.83	$1,611.73

Bills and Utilities	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Mortgage	$24.74	$1,160.00	-$0.02	$1,184.76
Investment		$0.00		$0.00
IRA	$1,500.67	$1,500.00		$3,000.67
Streaming		$14.50	$14.31	$0.19
YNAB	$49.00	$7.00		$56.00
Gym	$60.56	$50.00	$65.31	$45.25
Utilities	$139.96	$75.00	$69.40	$145.56
Total		$2,806.50	$149.02	$3,247.67

Living Expenses	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Books/Entertainment	$10.67	$50.00	$24.91	$0.76
Cat Stuff	$43.28	$575.00	$643.19	$0.00
Personal Care	$33.54	$100.00	$102.78	$2.70
Slush	$0.01	$25.00	$21.57	$3.19
House Stuff	$62.86	$25.00		$0.00
Gas/Car	$0.00	$25.00	$22.63	$2.37
Food/Restaurants	$0.00	$325.00	$475.92	$0.00
Total		$1,125.00	$1,291.00	$9.02

Most of the spending happened in the Vacation category since well, I was on vacation for half the month. Also, while some of the budgets are red because I technically went over budget (but covered it with funds from other budgets), some of the budgets are red (with black text) or green with black text because my spreadsheet was off compared to my YNAB app (which is way more accurate since there's autoimport). Anyway, I don't think the month turned out too bad.

As far as net worth goes, the coronavirus sell-off has definitely impacted us but we're still sticking with the plan - save save save! That being said, I might put my money into the IRA a little earlier than planned (by raiding the EFund for $1500, then replenishing it in March with the IRA funds) since EVERYTHING IS ON SALE in the stock market. I'll also be raiding that $300+ from the Efund (whatever is over $10k) to contribute to my IRA also, since the "sale" is happening. I've been holding off on my taxes to be able to contribute a decent amount towards the IRA, and I think it can happen in early March!

Asset/Liability	Last Month	This Month	Difference
Taxable Acct	$20,888.82	$19,168.05	-$1,720.77
My Retirement	$87,718.25	$82,018.62	-$5,699.63
His Retirement	$30,206.54	$29,579.85	-$626.69
457B Plan	$1,594.33	$2,971.04	$1,376.71
E Fund	$10,353.38	$10,353.38	$0.00
Total	$150,761.32	$144,090.94	-$6,670.38
Mortgage	$289,187.71	$288,152.08	-$1,035.63
Condo	$500,426.00	$501,994.00	$1,568.00
Total w/ Condo	$361,999.61	$357,932.86	-$4,066.75

Sure, this month our net worth went down by 4.42%, but it's the first time it's ever gone down. Since we're holding for the long run, I'm not concerned about it very much. I'll be staying the course for a while yet. :)

February Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Back from vacation on Saturday the 22nd. A friend picked us up from the airport and we spent $41.19 on dinner that night since there was nothing in the fridge and we were too lazy to grocery shop/cook (also, we were suuuuper tired).

Sunday
- $59.80 Gym membership unfreeze!
- $88.04 Groceries
- $24.14 McDonalds cuz I napped too long and ran out of time to cook (aka *insert excuse here*)
- $50 Venmo to friend for other friend's going away party

Monday
- $10.23 Lunch at work cuz I was lazy on Sunday
- $26.95 Cat Treats (covered with funds from the Entertainment budget)
- $38.87 Medical Bill (from labs I got at my annual check up, covered by funds from Slush)

Tuesday
+ $2506.55 Pay Day!
- $1991.17 into various sinking funds (including $1500 to my IRA contribution for 2019, which should be happening in mid-March)
- $4.40 Bfast at work
- $9.08 Lunch at work (I swear I'm going to cook and start bringing food again!)
- $22.63 Gas

Wednesday
No Spend Day!

Thursday
- $2.03 coffee at work
- $6.58 Benadryl cuz we're out at home (out of Slush)
- $109.64 Dinner with friends (funded with Entertainment and House Stuff money)

Friday
No Spend Day!

Saturday
- $57.60 Food with friends (covered by raiding the rest of the House Stuff fund and some Personal Care funds)

Total
+ $2506.55
- $433.94 Total Living Expenses

All in all, this week wasn't too bad for the first week back from vacation. Sure, I went over on food this month, but I had the funds to cover it with by raiding other unused budgets this month. I feel like February flew by but that's likely also due to my very long, very amazing 2 week vacation in Thailand. I do feel recharged though, which is the whole point of a vacation. That and eating everything in sight, which I also did a good amount of. ☺

I found out this week that my raise was approved and I'm no longer an interim lead, but a real one! I should be seeing a raise come through on my next paycheck and I'm excited!

On Thursday, I went to a going away party for an ex-coworker of mine - specifically, the one who lives upstairs! He got a job down in LA and will be moving at the end of March. I'm sad to see my friendly neighbor (and free cat sitter) go, but he seems to be very happy with his new opportunity so I won't begrudge him too much. It was also good to see all the people I used to work with and catch up with them. The party also helped me swap my sleep schedule a little bit, since my jet lag has been a tiny bit hard to get rid of from the vacation.

On Saturday, we went climbing! This is only our second time back to the gym since the vacation and while I didn't climb great, I still did ok. I'm back to needing to talk myself into going for farther holds, but it's ok, I'll eventually get used to it again. It turned out that neither of our climbing buddies had cars this weekend, so we ended up spending the morning driving them around. One buddy had a car broken into, so we sat with him for an hour waiting for Triple A to get there, only to find out he really only needed a jump...and we had cables in our car. ...Much mockery was had at his expense. Since we waited for an hour though, my other friend and I went and got breakfast for everyone, resulting in the over budget spend of the month.

It's good to be back home though...ON TO MARCH!!!

Vacation Recap (Feb weeks 2 and 3!)

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:30:00 +0000

Long time no see, everyone! Here's a short recap of our vacation travel and spending:

After a horrendously long amount of travel time, we finally arrived in Bangkok at 11.30pm Sunday evening (local time) after leaving for the airport at 7.30am in Seattle on Saturday. Our first flight was delayed by an hour due to the catering staff catering the wrong plane...and our second flight was delayed by 30 minutes due to the plane being late coming in. I was so happy to finally get to our AirBnB for the evening (at 1.30am Monday morning) so we could shower and go to bed. Sure, it was technically 10am Seattle time by the time we went to bed, but sometimes you just need to sleep. In the morning, I found out that I apparently left my ereader on the plane, so towards the end of the trip I purchased another Kindle for delivery once we returned to the States.

We spent 3.5 days in Bangkok, moved onto Chiang Mai for 6 days, then returned to Bangkok for another 3 days and left Thailand in the morning on Saturday. Sadly, the location of our first AirBnB wasn't the most ideal. It was very close to public transport (~5min walk), but was on the north end of the city. Basically, anywhere we wanted to go would take at least a 45min transit ride. We did our best to explore the area that we were in (a few small street markets, but mostly governmental properties closeby) while hitting a few smaller wats/less touristy areas. Since the coronavirus has been raging in China, there have been much fewer (to almost no) Chinese tourists in Thailand. Crowds were much lower than usual (yay for us!) but the tourism industry in Thailand is definitely suffering.

In Chiang Mai, our AirBnB was in a very nice spot close to the newer Nimman Rd area. Sure, we were a good 30min to Old City, but the area we were in definitely fit us well in that we would wake up, have breakfast, chill at a cafe, see some sites, and take a nap before heading back out for shenanigans almost on the daily. We saw our first Muay Thai fight while in Chiang Mai (which differed drastically from the fights we saw later back in Bangkok) and found Old City to be a little less interesting than the Nimman Rd area. All in all, Chiang Mai was cute, but we ultimately ran out of things to do rather quickly. I can only spend so much time in cafes each day...

Back in Bangkok, our second AirBnB was in a much more central area, which we enjoyed much more than the first location. There were many more street markets, including one across the street and down an alley with locals who looked at Hubs like he was a white devil, hehe! On these last few days, we watched another Muay Thai fight night, went shopping for Muay Thai boxing stuff, and ate. A LOT. With all the things that we did and ate and saw, I still had some 1600+ baht (a little over $50) remaining at the end of the trip. I'll be handing that over to my dad, who enjoys collecting money from different countries.

Anyway, here's the breakdown from our trip:

Vacation Spending	Baht	USD
Food	12669	$422.30
Activities	7540	$251.33
Transportation**	5978	$199.27
Souvenirs	3860	$138.65
Other	972	$32.40
*Total:**	31019	$1,043.95

*please note that the replacement kindle is not included in this cost, which will show in the monthly breakdown under Vacation (since I lost it on vacation...)

**I may have missed logging a Grab ride or two, but it added up to ~$96

Could we have done it cheaper? Oh, for sure. Would I do it again? Oh, for sure!!! Souvenirs we purchased include multiple pairs of elephant pants (ultimate tourist giveaway, but omg so comfy!), tank tops (I call 'em elephant tank tops since they're tourist tanks), Muay Thai boxing gloves, magnets for friends (and a ~$10 purchase at the airport, not included in baht), and sarongs. Other includes toiletries since we essentially took ~3-5 showers a day and random stuff. I think the rest is pretty self explanatory. :) The most expensive thing was the Bangkok Muay Thai fights, which cost us 3600 baht (~$120), but it was definitely worth it.

Anyhoo...back to normal living...! A friend picked us up from the airport on the 22nd and we spent $41.19 on dinner that night since there was nothing in the fridge and we were too lazy to grocery shop/cook (also, we were suuuuper tired).

Normal postings resuming as of this week!

February Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $13 Pizza lunch!
- $60.78 Bra and shapewear from the Macy's closing downtown cuz SUPERSALE (from personal care)

Monday
- $11.66 McDonalds on the way to climbing

Tuesday
- $8.58 BFast and coffee at work
- $10.24 Jimmy Johns for lunch (obviously I haven't been cooking at home...)

Wednesday
No Spend Day! (Yayyy, I kinda doubted I was gonna have one this week...)

Thursday
- $14.40 Lunch at work
- $39.61 ($14.99 slush camera cleaning cloths, $24.62 cat litter bags)
- $32.96 Pet Insurance (on Autopay)
- $69.41 Utilities Bill (on Autopay)

Friday
- $9.08 lunch at work
- $32.13 random crap at the grocery store

Saturday
No Spend Day! (Cuz travel)

Total
+ $0.00
- $301.85 Total Expenses

This week I learned that my compensation will be increased when my official position is created. They will request that the pay be retro'd but there's always a chance that it'll be denied. Either way, I can definitely make it on the lower amount until it's increased again, though it'll be cutting into my vacation savings for future trips.

Speaking of vacations... since I'll be on vacation the next two weeks, it's unlikely that I'll post. I'll probably aim for a vacation summary upon my return (Feb 23rd) instead. So...See you all in 2 weeks! 😃

January Week 5

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $135.68 Amazon purchase (Tripod...out of Vacation. Last Vacation purchase until Thailand!)
- $42.68 Groceries for meal prep
- $16.46 Shampoo
- $400 Venmo to Hubs for NYC hotel (halfsies!)

Monday
No Spend Day!

Tuesday
- $74.52 Cat Food on Auto Delivery (so we have enough through our vacation)
- $6.60 Hulu on Auto Debit (somehow 2 cent more than normal? Covered by Entertainment)
- $5.16 McDonalds on the way to Climbing

Wednesday
- $26.01 Lunch with a friend for her bday (from Gift)

Thursday
- $16 Parking at work for an extended shift (OT in my future! Overage covered by funds raided from Entertainment)

Friday
+ $18.85 Interest from Sinking Funds
- $2.75 Snacks at work
- $68.95 Happy Hour with friend after work (paid for both of us...covered from Entertainment)

Saturday (Happy February!)
- $3.73 Bfast at Chikfila
- $42 haircut
- $24 Pig's Ear appetizer for friend's house party (many servings of which I ate a LOT)

Total
+ $18.85
- $857.94 Total Expenses ($457.94 without the hotel)

Apparently I haven't purchased shampoo since August...wow. Who knew it could last so long?? Washing my hair every 2-3 days is really working for me to cut down on the usage, I guess...even though when I do end up washing, it seems I really do need to repeat to get fully clean scalp/hair. I might try a shampoo bar next, though I think my current stuff works pretty well. Anyhoo, this purchase was mostly to ensure I have enough to take to Thailand with me.

Speaking of Thailand, I'm officially done purchasing stuff for our trip! Of course I could always find more things to buy, but I'm going to be good and just get whatever else I need while I'm there. Hopefully everything I've purchased is well used while we're over there - we're only about a week away from our vacation now and I couldn't be more excited!!!

After my tripod purchase last weekend, I told the Hubs that I'm not allowed to buy anymore camera stuff for at least 2-3 months. I need to use what I already have (though I already have my eye on another filter and another lens) and until I'm sure I'm going to use the things that I have, I refuse to buy more! And by refuse, I really mean shouldn't...because we all know that I'm going to want to buy a whole LOT more...

January Results and Net Worth/February Budget

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Well, somehow it seems that my spreadsheet has once again gotten off-course from what's in my bank accounts. Usually it's only a few bucks - maybe from interest? Anyway, the red (decrease) and green (increase) highlighting in the sinking funds is the adjustment from what I had in the spreadsheet.

In terms of budgeting this month, I think I did pretty well! Everything I went over on was covered (by raiding the Entertainment fund, but it was covered)! Of course, I bought a whole slew of items this month with my Poshmark proceeds...including funding the start of a new hobby (photography) and already pouring a lot of money into it by saying it's for the Thailand vacation...but I digress. Even with the money spent from my hobby, I still picked up a shift with the per diem job, bringing my take-home pay this month (less camera-related stuff) to a tad under $6k! And that's with the new 457b contributions, too. Damn good in my book! Anyhoo, here's how it all went down this month. Notice that I moved the Taxable funds into the IRA fund since I have until I do my taxes to contribute for 2019. :)

Non Negotiables	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
HOA Debit		$442.26	$441.17	$1.09
E-Fund	$10,025.17	$150.00	-$178.21	$10,353.38
Total		$592.26	$262.96	$10,354.47

Sinking Funds	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Gifts	$114.06	$300.00	$240.93	$173.13
Car/Condo	$87.80	$50.00	-$0.36	$138.20
Holiday Spending		$100.00	-$0.21	$100.21
Vacation	$2,063.63	$475.00	$923.11	1986.09
Medical	$84.77	$50.00	$96.15	$38.62
Licenses/Insurance	$218.77	$50.02		$268.80
Total		$1,025.02	$1,259.62	$2,705.05

Bills and Utilities	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Mortgage	$1,174.00	$1,160.08	$2,309.34	$24.74
Investment		$0.00		$0.00
IRA		$500.00	-$1,000.67	$1,500.67
Streaming		$14.29	$14.31	$0.00
YNAB	$42.00	$7.00		$49.00
Gym	$60.56	$5.51	$5.51	$60.56
Utilities	$134.34	$75.01	$69.40	139.96
Total		$1,761.89	-$911.45	$1,750.19

Living Expenses	Rollover	Projected	Actual	Remaining
Books/Entertainment	$27.83	$20.00	$37.16	$10.67
Cat Stuff		$225.00	$181.72	$43.28
Personal Care		$50.00	$16.46	$33.54
Slush	$18.00	$50.00	$67.99	$0.01
House Stuff	$5.85	$75.00	$17.99	$62.86
Gas/Car		$50.00	$53.82	$0.00
Food/Restaurants		$650.00	$683.32	$0.00
Total		$1,120.00	$1,058.46	$150.36

In Net Worth news, we're still up this month! Even though the market went down today, we're still up 3.37% for the month and we officially hit $150k! Yayyyyy! I can't wait for that $200k mark...I'm sure it'll come before I know it!

Asset/Liability	Last Month	This Month	Difference
Taxable Acct	$20,953.30	$20,888.82	-$64.48
My Retirement	$87,490.14	$87,718.25	$228.11
His Retirement	$27,866.42	$30,206.54	$2,340.12
457B Plan	$0.00	$1,594.33	$1,594.33
E Fund	$10,025.17	$10,353.38	$328.21
Total	$146,335.03	$150,761.32	$4,426.29
Mortgage	$290,220.11	$289,187.71	-$1,032.40
Condo	$501,042.00	$500,426.00	-$616.00
Total w/ Condo	$357,156.92	$361,999.61	$4,842.69

I know that next month I have a few hours of OT coming in and even though my paycheck will likely be lower than normal since my pay hasn't been reinstated, it's still going to be a good chunk of change coming my way. I've got a haircut happening Feb 1st and lower budgets all around since we'll be out of the country on vacation for 2 weeks of the month. The Cat budget is high due to the cat sitter cost, but that'll be paid on Feb 1st to get it out of the way before we leave on vacation. The Hubs is paying the mortgage in Feb also, so I've just gotta save for my payment in March :) Total anticipated spend (not including vacation spending) comes to just under $5250 next month, with about $2850 going directly towards living expenses.

Non Negotiables	Rollover	Projected
HOA Debit	$1.09	$441.17
E-Fund	$10,353.38
Total		$441.17

Sinking Funds	Rollover	Projected
Gifts	$173.13	$100.00
Car/Condo	$138.20
Holiday Spending	$100.21	$100.00
Vacation	$1,986.09	$625.00
Medical	$38.62
Licenses/Insurance	$268.80	$50.00
Total		$875.00

Bills and Utilities	Rollover	Projected
Mortgage	$24.74	$1,160.00
Investment
IRA	$1,500.67	$1,500.00
Streaming		$14.50
YNAB	$49.00	$7.00
Gym	$60.56	$50.00
Utilities	$139.96	$75.00
Total		$2,806.50

Living Expenses	Rollover	Projected
Books/Entertainment	$10.67	$50.00
Cat Stuff	$43.28	$575.00
Personal Care	$33.54	$100.00
Slush	$0.01	$25.00
House Stuff	$62.86	$25.00
Gas/Car	$0.00	$25.00
Food/Restaurants	$0.00	$325.00
Total		$1,125.00

I can't wait for vacation...!!!!!!!

January Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $89.84 Most of the week's groceries (and dinner for the night)

Monday (Happy MLK Day!)
- $7.96 Coffee and danish at Starbucks
- $25.67 Dumplings with friend for lunch
- $13.40 Random Asian Grocery items
- $18.28 Amazon purchase (out of Medical)

Tuesday
No Spend Day!

Wednesday
No Spend Day!

Thursday
- $11 lunch at work (ran out of food at home and was too lazy to make more)
- $150 Chinese New Year money for my nieces

Friday
+ $2718.05 Pay Day!
- $1791.17 Various Sinking Funds
- $12.77 Lunch at work cuz we had date night Thursday (so no food to take)
- $27.29 Shorts on Poshmark for Thailand (from Vacation)

Saturday (Happy Chinese New Year!)
No Spend Day!

Total
+ $2718.05
- $356.21 Living Expenses ($206.21 without the CNY gift)

I thought I was going to be paid out for working New Year's but it seems my holiday was banked instead. I have asked for it to be paid out on the next paycheck (during which I'll be in Thailand on vacation). My OT also got paid out as straight pay because OT is calculated on a different time schedule (?!) than the regular hours, so since I was sick during that time frame, it only got paid out as regular pay (so sad). Regardless though, I still got extra pay. All told, I still got a little under $50 more than expected this month and since I had budgeted without the per diem paycheck, I'm still ahead for the month.

I had a camera class on Saturday and was able to take my camera out for a spin, which results in an okay amount of decent pictures for my noobish self. I hope to take more classes though, so that I can get out there some more. They hold the same class once a month, in a different location each month, so I might go back out with the same teacher, but it'll be a different group probably. The only bad thing about this is now I want so many more camera things...but that'll be a Slush problem for the future I guess. I do have 1 more thing to buy for the upcoming vacation (a tripod) and that's the last thing I'm willing to attribute to the Vacation fund for anything camera related.

The next paycheck's extra funds should just be going straight into the IRA savings. Before we file our taxes, I'll be putting everything over $10k in my EFund towards the IRA contribution so that it can grow tax free until we retire. Sure, I won't get up to the $6k max, but I'll be way better than $0! I feel like I'm changing the plan on what to do with my "extra" funds from week to week...but I'm trying to figure out what works best for me. Who cares if I'm changing my mind every other day, so long as I have the savings for any emergencies that come up, right??

January Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $18.23 Lunch at a coffee shop while I finished my library book

Monday
- $9.65 Coffee and bagel before work offsite (cuz I was super early)
- $10.45 Lunch at work

Tuesday
- $13.20 Lunch at work (I left my lunch at home 😞)
- $23.98 Costco Trip ($18.99 cake for a coworker who's getting married out of Gift and $4.99 Groceries)
- $10 (cash) contribution for coworker's baby shower gift (out of Gift)

Wednesday
- $16 Parking at work (cuz cake)
- $1.25 Street Parking (cuz I had my car so I went out for lunch...)
- $32.77 Lunch for me and Hubs (which I dropped off for him since he's not been feeling well)
- $5.51 Gym Fee on autopay

Thursday
- $4.57 Parking for Dr Appt
- $40.71 Groceries for sickly hubbies (soup, soup, and more soup)
- $110.05 Camera Bag for Thailand/travel (out of Vacation)
- $221.63 New Camera Lens and filters (out of Vacation...probably should be out of Slush but...I'm cheating)

Friday
- $30.34 Bartells (SickHubby requested some sickly things. Out of Medical)
- $7.71 Disney+ on auto pay

Saturday
No Spend Day! (Wow...FINALLY...)

Total
+ $0.00
- $556.05 Living Expenses

I realized this week that my last paycheck is reflective of my new contributions. It's a little more than I anticipated, which I'm definitely not mad about. That being said, my director says that my pay should continue as per normal, but I haven't seen the differential reflected in my account yet. If it's lower than expected, I'm sure it'll be retro'd back to the beginning of the year... at least I have OT and holiday pay coming in, right?

I discussed with a friend that I should probably put some money towards my IRA and backdoor it into a Roth IRA. I was going to put the money into a taxable, but I can probably generate some $3k to put into a Roth by the time we file our taxes. Why not let the money I was going to invest grow tax free...? You should see this reflected in the next monthly budget update. :)

I'm going to be loosening my hold on my Slush spending. I know I've spent quite a lot this month already (ahem, camera purchase), but with $10k in the bank and 1 year ahead on the mortgage, I'm comfortable with allowing myself a little more in Slush. Sure, I probably still won't get clothes, but maybe I can get some more accessories for my new camera. Photography is not a cheap hobby, that's for sure. I've already purchased a few camera things and I also have my eye on some things to purchase before we head out on our Thailand vacation (clothes for the heat, mostly). Let's hope this doesn't open the floodgates to me buying whatever I want, whenever I want all the time. No worries - the money I spent out of Vacation will be replenished next month, before we head to Thailand (and...will probably be spend in Thailand).

I had the opportunity to pick up a shift on Thursday this week. I turned it down though, since the Hubs has been feeling so shitty I wanted to stay home with him and make sure he rested. Should I have picked it up? Mmhm...debatable. Since he's sick, I need to make sure I'm resting and don't get sick myself...though the extra cash would've been nice with all the money I've spent this month. It's been a while since I've had a low spend week...maybe I need to do that next week. Groceries only, maybe? Hmm...

January Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (NinaBeans) — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sunday
- $74.52 Cat Food
- $153.05 Hubby's climbing shoes (as discussed last week and taken out of my income, not attributed to a budget)
- $35.93 cost to mail a package to my niece and 1 card purchase (out of Gift)
- $24.11 Lunch out with the Hubs

Monday
+ $20 (cash) late holiday gift
+ $480 Poshmark Sale Proceeds!
- $11.20 Flight to NYC (purchased with miles)
- $577.98 Costco ($17.99 toilet paper, $7.68 Cheetos and a slice of pizza, and $552.31 for a camera set up...out of the Poshmark proceeds and not attributed to any budgets but technically Slush)
- $49.00 Groupon for Photography Course (from Slush)
- $30.92 Pet Insurance (on auto pay)

Tuesday
- $8.80 Lunch at work (I brought food...but other food looked yummier...)

Wednesday
- $8.53 (cash) Breakfast at work
- $47.91 Cold medicine at the drug store (I went home sick)
- $69.40 Seattle Utilities (on auto pay)
- $441.17 HOA (on auto pay)

Thursday
+ $432.80 Per Diem Pay Day!
+ $380 Poshmark Sale Proceeds!
Otherwise No Spend (and sick) Day!

Friday
+ $2642.28 Pay Day! (I guess I'll get my OT on the next paycheck...)
- $2309.34 Mortgage Payment
- $1290.89 into various sinking funds
Otherwise No Spend Day (back to work)!

Saturday
- $37.66 Lunch out with the Hubs
- $16.00 Car Wash
- $41.81 Amazon purchase (travel power adapter and a lens hood kit for my new camera, from Slush)

Total
+ $3955.08
- $3937.33 Total expenses less sinking funds ($3206.30 without the unbudgeted items, or $455.79 without unbudgeted items and mortgage/HOA)

Ummm...yeah so I bought a DSLR camera (plus 2 lenses) from Costco this week. This was not a planned purchase! I feel kinda bad about it but my Poshmark sales will cover this purchase. The remainder from my Poshmark sales (~$150 or so) will go into the EFund and any extra money I get this month (from the OT I pulled in December or the holiday shift I worked) will also go into the EFund to make up for this impulse purchase transgression. That being said, I can't wait to learn how to use this thing and harass my cat with it!!! I'm already looking at buying accessories for it and hopefully will get out soon to take some photos!

I was sick this week, even going home to recoop a little. It seems like everyone around me is getting sick these days. Multiple people have been struck down by the flu at work. I'm glad I never got the full blown version, but this week I did feel pretty run down and on the verge of getting sick. Hopefully with my down time this week and this weekend, I can fully recoop and go back to work without feeling crummy. I missed going back to climbing this weekend because of not feeling 100%, but I guess I wouldn't want to go if I don't feel great anyway. I suppose there's always next week.

Seattle's incoming weather is going to be pretty cold and icy. Hopefully everyone stays warm and safe out there next week!