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March is flying by, as usual

March 15th, 2016 at 04:17 pm

Oh, hello! I'm taking advantage of some downtime at work to update on everything I can think of that's happened this month, financial and otherwise.

This is my household's "birthday month"; all five humans (and at least one of the cats) have March birthdays. So it's a whirlwind!

We set aside $100 each for parties/celebrating, $200 for gifts for each of the adults, and $100 for each of the kids. In addition, parents/grandparents send gifts and gift cards too.

My bday came first; my 42nd, and it happened midweek, so I didn't want anything big. I used my $100 to get delivery for us and four friends and we had a mellow evening sitting around chatting. AS and NT got me some gifts (a necklace, underwear), but they also did some homemade stuff; I'd asked for an adult coloring book so they printed out pages online; and I'd asked for "everything bagel" seasoning and they bought the ingredients in bulk and mixed it up themselves! They had $160 left in my bday fund so I just added it to my spending money, which was great, because my other blog's domain renewal in January had put me in a whole that I couldn't seem to dig out of. I also bought myself a couple extra things with the surplus: a harmonica instruction book and a couple CDs of my favorite current band (The Cactus Blossoms).

Then AS's 37th bday was two days later. We got her a home beer brewing starter kit, a giant bottle of her favorite lotion, and new bluetooth headphones. She used her celebration money to order sushi delivery, and then went out to a show with NT where she could get free admission and a bottle of champagne because it was her birthday!

AA's bday was the next day. We got her some of the new diverse Barbies, a magic kit, a practical joke kit and some jewelry. The grandparents got her a bunch of stuff. I'd asked my mom and dad if they just wanted to splurge on one gift, the Barbie Dream House, and they agreed (they just sent me the money to buy it). But then they sent about three other gifts too! We gave SL an early gift (a new backpack) and held back one of AA's gifts (a Barbie car) because last year there was some jealousy. SL was really good this year on AA's bday; let's hope AA can do better than last year when it's SL's.

The day after that was AA's party. We used her celebration money to rent a rec center at a nearby park, and we brought breakfast pastries and fruit for her morning party. She invited all her daycare buddies, some of our friends' friends, AND her whole kindergarten class. Only about a third of the invitees showed up but it was still crazy! It was a nice day, so near the end of the party everyone went out to the playground, which was great because then we (mostly NT) had extra time to get the center cleaned before our reservation was up. On the invite we said "gifts not expected" but many of the kids got her presents anyway. One little girl was sobbing at the end because she *hadn't* brought a present, so we told AA that she had to say something the next day at school to make her feel better. She said she told her "coming to my party was a gift." Plus the little girl made her a book. So all was well. I would rather say "NO gifts" but I know some of the daycare moms who aren't comfortable not giving gifts, so I tried to make it looser than that.

Next (just being silly) we celebrated both cats' birthday by giving them catnip and extra treats. Reminded me why we don't! They fought over the catnip, and for days after they whined for more treats like they thought that was the new routine now. It was fun though.

Then last Saturday, our downstairs neighbors took the kids for a sleepover as their birthday gift to all of us, so we went out to a "speakeasy" (it's legal and they require IDs, take reservations, etc., so the only thing speakeasy about it is that they don't advertise online and don't have a sign outside the door; you have to go through an alley to get there). It's a few blocks from our house and it's aDORable. I don't think I'd go much during the summer since it's in a basement, but I could see it being a hangout in cold-weather months. We met up with a friend there and had lots of drinks and snacks.

Now we're in a break between birthdays; the last two are on the 21st and 29th. This week the only thing we're doing for St. Patrick's Day is I came up with a goofy all-green dinner; I'm not really sure how it will go over with people (it's pasta with a kale-carrot sauce) but it should be funny.

Moneywise, we've stayed on budget for the birthdays, so that's good. AS is about on track to make the same as last year in her freelance business, so we've used that money for fun or to save up for things. We've fully funded (we think) the England/Spain trip. We've been doing the credit card churn again; we've already gotten two $100 CapOne bonuses, we have a Chase Sapphire that closes this week so hopefully we'll get the $625 in travel rewards soon; we have an Amex that just closed but I can't remember what the bonus was ($250?). I'm working on a Citi ThankYou and am about 25% of the way to the spending needed, and NT is on an HRC Visa that's spend $500, get $100.

We plan to use the Chase Sapphire rewards to help fund airfare to my 20-year college reunion in NY this June. I'm hoping it pays for 2 tickets and we'll just have to pay for 1 more out of pocket, but we'll see. We're trying to decide between staying on campus and staying at a hotel while we're there. The campus is handy but the rooms and beds are so uncomfortable! I have about $450 set aside and I think either way could be covered by that. But the hotel would mean cabfare to and from a lot. (We may get a rental car, but this reunion serves alcohol at almost every event, so we'd probably want to take a cab even if we had a car.)

We have about 950 pounds saved up in the UK bank account for trip spending, with more coming from rental income. I'm hoping we don't have to spend any US money out of pocket, though we may have to pay for a rental car. That's the only thing I'm not sure we have covered right now.

AS and I started working on our capsule wardrobes for spring and bought just about everything we needed in one day (plus finding a few pieces from our stored-away clothes); spring is coming earlier than usual here so we'll probably start wearing them later this month. We're just waiting for some stuff to arrive in the mail. We both departed pretty drastically from our color palette for winter; I went from black/gray/magenta/silver/blue to brown/beige/drab green/pastel pink/pastel turquoise/pastel blue. I'm excited to start wearing it! Another reason to love capsules is that you can make a big dramatic change from season to season.

We spent about $225 at a thrift store (getting over 30 pieces total), then about $75 at Payless, then about $100 on Amazon (using bday gift cards). Then I got a surprise offer on Ibotta for $5 back for spending $35 at Payless, so we dug the receipt out of the recycle bin and redeemed that! And it pushed me over the edge to where I could get a Paypal transfer of Ibotta bucks.

I got all of our stuff over to our tax guy, so now I play the waiting game. I set aside $15,200 of the WV money, and I sent 20% of AS's income in prepayments (13% to IRS, 7% to MN). These are both wild cards and I have no idea whether we'll owe big time. I'm kind of just trying not to think about it; we'll handle it whatever comes up.

We're pretty sure that we're not going to have the money to get air conditioning installed this year. We might invest in some newer, more efficient window units (all our current ones were free, either left by other renters or found on Freecycle) and get through this summer, hoping to take care of it by next. What with NT's surgery; trips to England, Spain and NYC; getting the basement bathroom up to code; AS needing glasses, contacts and (the big one) a dental implant to replace a dying tooth -- not to mention the fact that we want to get out and enjoy ourselves once in a while and don't feel like scrimping and saving constantly anymore -- I just don't see the money accumulating fast enough to have the full amount by summer. And I think that's fine. As you can see from the above, we got a lot done with our money, all of it either necessary or desirable, so I don't feel too bad.

Performance reviews are in progress at my job, but I haven't heard any word about whether there are raises available this year. In other work news, I managed to offload my direct report onto someone else, so I can concentrate fully on my writing. I'm so happy! My new boss is still awesome; I enjoy working with him so much. So work is going really well.

As I think I've mentioned, I've tried to make fun/creative/motivational goals each month. This month my goals are to start learning harmonica and play at least a little bit every day, and to do at least a little bit of extra activity every day. So far I haven't missed a day on either, though I have gained some weight because of birthday month eating and drinking! I'm thinking a dietary change is in order for April, but I haven't decided on the details yet.

I think that's it! Well, I'm probably missing something, but I've got to get back to work now, and you've probably stopped reading a long ways back. Wink

7 Responses to “March is flying by, as usual”

  1. snafu Says:
    1458067723

    Birthday greetings to all. Time for fun!
    Suggest you begin tracking Pound and $ USD exchange and who is offered the lowest fees.
    Curious about how many people participated in your caucus, voted on resolutions etc.

  2. ThriftoRama Says:
    1458069653

    Your house sounds like ours: birthday avalanche starting March 11 and going through April 8.

  3. NJDebbie Says:
    1458088504

    Birthday greetings to all of you! I am a big fan of adult coloring books. It's so relaxing! Send me your address via the other site, I would love to share a nice coloring book with you. (That's if it's okay with you; I promise I'm not creepy)😜

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1458091864

    Happy birthday Ceejay household!

  5. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1458110935

    Wow what a month! All sounds great, happy birthday to you all Smile

  6. ceejay74 Says:
    1458143114

    snafu, I believe there were 600 or 700 at my caucus, but only about 100 stayed for the "party business"; the others just dropped their ballots in the box and left. There were about 25 resolutions, four of which were mine. We passed all but a weird 9/11 conspiracy one, and a really vague but well-meaning one (which a couple of attendees rewrote to be more specific and then it passed). We elected quite a few delegates but not enough people volunteered to fill all the spots. I was on the fence and ended up not volunteering; now I kind of regret it, and I might volunteer next time.

  7. ceejay74 Says:
    1458143145

    NJDebbie, sounds great if you've got an extra one! I'll message you. Wink

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