Going through our February expenses was a serious trip back in time. I really, really didn't have my heart into while reviewing credit card statements this month, because February feels so long ago. Even earlier in March feels like long ago. One thing I'll say for this global pandemic thing - weeks and months feel…
January was a month we'd expected would be an expensive one, since the majority of our Iceland trip landed then. We also had our "second Christmas" with my in laws in January thanks to the sickness that pushed off celebrating on the actual day. Even so, July was a more expensive month with our dog's…
And with that, it's a wrap on 2019 and the second full year I've tracked our expenses to the last dollar. I feel like maybe I should be more frustrated that we ended our year short of a fifty percent savings rate - even short of last year - but I'm really not. I would…
We had dinner last Wednesday night with our old neighbor's family while we were in Austin, and it turns out that his sister works in finance. We had some great conversations in general and I really liked her (and the kiddo had a great time with her two girls), but one comment really stuck with…
At this point, we are absolutely not going to hit a 50% savings rate again this year, though we should be above the 40% mark. Much more than last year, I'm actually okay with that. I expect that we will hit that savings rate eventually (or, at least, when we stop paying for childcare), but…
September was a month of quite a few travel expenses, from FinCon (both 2019 travel and my 2020 ticket) to the weekend in Gig Harbor for a wedding, and Leavenworth for my grandmother's birthday. Between all of that, I only spent two of the five weekends in September at home, and it showed with our…
Every time I'm behind writing a monthly finance update (like this month), I'm reminded of why I've committed to sharing our spending here on the blog every month. Two thirds of the way into September, it would be easy enough to ignore my August recap and just continue on forward like the month didn't happen.…
Let's just say that this has been an expensive summer. Between vet bills, backyard fence replacement, and spending for future vacations, we have spent significantly more money than is average for us. That said, for July in specific, we knew it was going to be expensive because of our dog's surgery, so we spent accordingly…
The month of May was a busy one for us. We returned from our Arizona trip the last day of April and went back to work May 1st, and then spent the following weekend at Fred Meyer and Home Depot and at home setting up my two newest raised beds for Mother's Day. At the…
April was a good solid month for us, with a nice balance of travel out of town and hanging out around home. The weather has finally warmed up enough that I've gotten to spend a decent amount of time in the garden, more time on the trails behind our house, and it's now light enough…