Saturday, August 22, 2020

Big Expenses to Fit into the Budget, Weekend Plans and My Health

Happy Saturday all!  I have some large expenses from the last couple of weeks that I need to figure out how to pay.  I say that because I hate taking money out of savings once I squirrel it away. 

So before we left for vacation we had both our cars serviced.  LoML's car was around $400 but mine was $1,500.  D#2's car doesn't have working a/c or radio so they are taking my car and we will take LoML's car.  All of us drive 13-14 year old cars.  We bought 2 of them new and 2 used but all have been well taken car of.  We never got the a/c fixed in D#2's car because the quote we got to fix it is about the same as the actual value of the car.  LOL!  D#2 doesn't care, though.  She loves her car and neither kid has a car payment to start their independent life.    But now I've got to try and cash flow the costs without impacting my plan for extra payments on the mortgage.

We also need to buy a new queen sized bed.  D#1 and her BF moved into their new house last weekend and in our family when you move out you get to take your bed with you.  She has been moved out since she graduated but while in college she bought a $50 queen bed from the college "free & for sale" facebook page one Spring and has been using that.  Now they have a 3 bedroom house so she put the $50 bed in the guest room and took the nice expensive bed for their master.  We have left over bunk beds from when they were young that we can put in as twins, but I'd rather make it a proper guest room.  We have time, since based on some of our extended family's behavior during this pandemic (as seen on social media) we won't be hosting everyone for our traditional Christmas Eve Seven Fish Dinner. So I  will have at least until the new year to address this.

Earlier this month I did pay LoML's life insurance, which makes me choke every year.  I'm covered thru work and it is also a retiree benefit so we cancelled my purchased one last year.  Our kids are no longer in college, our mortgage is no longer huge and we both make decent money and have plenty saved so we felt safe cancelling it.

All of that combined with the chunk of money we gave D#1 as a gift for her new house has made this August the most expensive month since D#2's graduated.

It's all good though.  We are blessed with good jobs, great kids and savings to support all of it.  I have no complaints but I do like the challenge of trying to cash flow this stuff and maintaining my savings goals and mortgage pay down plan.  Not sure if we can do it but it's worth the effort!

This weekend I have to mow the lawn, continue cleaning up my gardens, plan my fall garden and plant the seed starts that I have for the fall, And I have some decluttering to do.  I also really need to focus on my health going forward.  My work is so busy and stressful.  This week every day I started at 7 or 7:30 a.m. and finished around 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. every day and barely got off my butt to do anything else.  I can't sustain that for another 6 months so this weekend I need to make a plan on how to live this life and focus more on me and my health.  Probably the biggest challenge I have out of all of them.

Cheers!!

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