Rae Uses the E-Fund Cause Tires

Quick post to try and get me back into the swing of things... gotta go to work, though.

You already know from my previous posts that our income has risen somewhat. Not significantly, just a few hundred dollars a month. So I've been putting the excess into our emergency fund. It grew from $1200 up to $1700! I was so proud.

Aaaaand it is back down to $1200 again. Because Corey got a nail in his tire at a point where it was not patch-able, and one of my tires basically wore out completely, so I needed two new ones. But hey... that's what an emergency fund is for, right?

/sigh

On the plus side, we have:

• Received $180 cash back from getting the bonus on Chase Freedom Unlimited.
• Qualified for Chase Sapphire, paid off the old card, and started working on the bonus there. It's a higher minimum spend - $4000 over 3 months - but I can actually pay my rent with a credit card. Not something I would normally do since it tacks on a surcharge, but worth it in context. Hitting that minimum will net us approx. $600 in travel play money, and I want to fly my bff in to visit early next year.
• Claimed some unclaimed property in Florida - I had an electric bill deposit that was never sent to me, so I got $89 by filling out some forms and being patient.
• We renewed WoW for the new expansion. The initial renewal and pair of expansion packs cost a bit, but as to the monthly fee - you can pay your monthly bill with in-game gold. Already saved $30 so far by playing enough, which is a terrible hourly rate if you think about it, but considering that I don't feel like it's "work" I am fine with it.

So things are going okay. We are working this month to severely deflate our eating out, and get it back down to the budgeted amount. I also finally bought new bras and jeans since the old ones were 100% worn out beyond my skill to fix. I got the cheap stuff, too, cause I'd rather spend my money on other things. Like food.

Oh yeah, and I'm 33 now. Yay for birthdays or whatever. /grumbles at the unassailable passage of time

Also, I'm late for work, haha. Bye!

Rae Has an Upswing

So I'm sure that reading this blog has been a little depressing of late. Posts admitting that I'm not doing well, etc. But this month has been going... weirdly well. I'm kind of baffled. And the fact that it seems to be a good result of my efforts, rather than raw luck, makes it even more baffling.

Something I did.... paid off?

Okay, so I had 2 medical bills left over from my ER visit when I had the miscarriage. It was just the last bits that finally finished the billing process - you know how long those things can take. They totaled to about $200 that I hadn't budgeted for. I did have enough in my checking account to pay them off of course, and initially I kind of borrowed it from my unallocated funds that should have gone toward next month's budget. To be honest, I was very fortunate that my work insurance covered the more than $4k it would have been otherwise. But wait, there's more!

I saved $138 on my phone bill budget by switching from Sprint to Google Fi as I mentioned a few posts ago. No joke - by using wifi and being data-conscious while away from wifi, we ended up spending just about $25/phone after taxes and fees. So our phone bill was $50 for the month instead of $188 or even the $80 or so we expected.

I also got my deposit back on my natural gas by being in my apartment for a year - an unexpected windfall which negates my $25 monthly bill for almost 3 months.

Just those two things almost cover the medical bills.

Then I got my first bi-monthly paycheck on the 15th. My raise went through, and it looks like my take-home pay is going to be $160/month more than previously. So the unexpected expenses are now completely covered and then some.

And then, something I did not mention on my previous post - Corey got the job! It's full time but it is a small business, so he does not get benefits - but he is still overwhelmingly happy there. He also put in some training hours at the new job while offboarding at the old job, so his paychecks are going to be increasing either way.

Phew. Looks like we finally get to start saving something again. Now I just need to lose some weight and work on getting my credit card bonus money without overspending on the credit card. I may also look into selling platelets since it's for a good cause and doesn't take a lot of effort, and I'm also trying to get our annual gift-giving, like Christmas and birthday presents, organized so that we can buy things on sale and set up crafted items to give instead of spending a lot of money or making last-minute purchases.

It's a lot, but... hey. If it works, it works.

Rae Gets a CC

So in general, I have not been a big fan of credit cards. I ended up doing your typical college sign-up and over-charge and pay a lot of interest. We no longer carry a balance on the one card I've had for 12 years, so I've been happy with just using it for things that you can only use credit cards for.

Recently, I wanted to verify that my single credit card's balance is 0 recently (I've had times where I thought it was 0 but I really owed a couple of cents that kept gaining 29% interest and accruing late fees) and out of curiosity clicked on the free credit report. My credit was lower than I expected. And one of the main reasons was that I don't have enough credit, even if the revolving credit I do have is unused and I have a history of years of on-time payments.


With that thought in mind, and wanting to build my credit a bit if I can, I went looking for answers. According to Reddit, if you have a higher credit limit, even if it's unused, that can contribute toward a higher score. So having another credit card might be good. Okay, cool. I also poked around Mr. Money Mustache... and found the concept of credit card churning.

Now, I was skeptical about whether this would be good for my life. Still am. We also don't travel a lot, though that's more because of the financial blocks than anything else. But I found a credit card that gives a $150 cashback bonus if you spend $500 in the first 3 months, along with general cashback that would be more than the $0.10 per purchase that my debit card gives. My other credit card gives nada for rewards.

I applied and I was approved immediately. I also checked, and Corey could apply as well. So... really, why not?

I still don't like the concept of churning, though. I feel like it might be safer to take it one card and one step at a time, mostly because of our spending habits and a fear of reprisal for "manufactured spending." But if we pick the best reward, get the card, earn the reward, and do it again in 3-5 months or so to keep it from hurting our credit too badly... well, it could be kinda neat. And if a cashback card saves us more money on the purchases we would have made anyway, that's an extra hundred or so per year in our pockets. Maybe we'll even get one of those airline cards and go on more trips or something. It could be good for us.

Oh, I also bought a drying rack, also per MMM's suggestion. More on that later.

Rae Finds the Weight vs Money Link

One of the things I've been wondering about for a while is whether losing weight will actually, realistically save money. I know that in an overall sense, being overweight causes healthcare issues that not being overweight would prevent. My back pain is a big part of that, and I'm a little nervous about the looming concept of diabetes, though I've never been tested. It's always been kind of abstract, though.

But here it is. I finally found something concrete. The whole article is worth a look, but here's what it boils down to:

The overall, tangible, annual costs of being obese are $4,879 for an obese woman and $2,646 for an obese man. The overall annual costs of being overweight are $524 and $432 for women and men, respectively. For both genders, the incremental costs of obesity are much higher than the incremental costs of being overweight. 

Adding the value of lost life to these annual costs produces even more dramatic results. Average annualized costs, including value of lost life, are $8,365 for obese women and $6,518 for obese men. 

That is a lot of money. A lot of money. Basically, by going from obese down to normal weight over the next year, I'll get a $4879/year raise. That's 50 bucks paid annually per pound I lose. A dollar per 70 calories burned.

Investing $4879/year with compound interest at a 7% rate would be 500k by the time I hit age 65 (thanks, online calculators). That's a retirement level amount. Seriously. Holy crap.

Kind of a nice way to look at things, and it might be the motivation I need to get back to my goal.

Rae Takes a Breath

I feel kinda bad that I've been neglecting this blog for over a week. This time, though, the main issue is that there hasn't been that much to write, really. Work is work (aka stressful and tiring but doable), and I'm finally moving officially into my new position pay-wise starting this coming week. There's still room to grow there, but I know I'm well-suited to the work. I'll be making less than the average local Account Manager salary, but the fact of the matter is that if I become a really kick-ass Account Manager, I'll be able to get enough experience under my belt to become competitive in the field. And in the meantime, I have really decent benefits and vacation days. Plus this is a 3-day weekend, which is nice.

And hey, check out that crazy new background. I finished one of my $4 coloring book pages. It's not super professional, but I think it looks kinda cool.

There is some other good news on the horizon, in that husband has a decent job prospect. Nothing crazy, but it's full-time at a local independent toy store, which means he can get more pay + potential benefits + he might actually enjoy his job/life a bit more. He also doesn't have to wear a uniform, which he enjoys. And we are pretty confident about his chances, because he found out they were hiring on Thursday afternoon, immediately went to fill out an application, was told to call back Monday when the hiring manager was there, but then got a call Thursday night to interview on Friday afternoon (gotta love next-day interview offers). And though their hiring manager is still out, he interviewed with the owners, and loved them as well as the interview process - he told me about it and them, at length, with a grin on his face. Apparently, the interviewers are like an older, business-owner version of us. They invited him to call or come in on Monday to check back with them.

So, fingers crossed, he'll get a job upgrade in June, and I should be getting my first higher paycheck either June 15th or 30th - I should be getting $100 extra per paycheck before tax, so it'll definitely be something. And then we can finally beef up our savings account!

I did ask Reddit one thing recently, specifically about my car loan. Look for the post with AntiPixie, asking if I should work on my emergency savings or pay off my loan faster. The one reply I got advised me to put money into emergency savings first, since my interest rate is so low. While I want to be out of debt faster, I do agree with them. And once I can get to the point that we're able to save over $100/month, I'd like to transfer anything over $1000 into an online high-yield savings account. Specifically, I'd like to look into a dream account for the interest bonuses - it's got good reviews, so I'm really hoping it's something we can do soon.

Then once we are done with the emergency fund, transfer that to a regular high-yield savings account or a small CD ladder (whichever gives more interest), finish paying off our one debt, and then finally open a new dream account to start saving for a house downpayment. I still love the idea of paying "extra rent" every month towards a pretend mortgage so that we can be budgeted for a real one when the time comes.

I was also thinking about doing that transcription side gig, but Corey doesn't think it's such a good idea, with my day job being the way it is lately. I was so exhausted from the stress of this past week that I ended up sleeping most of Saturday. I need to focus more on where I'm putting my time, so that I can have more of it and waste less. For the past week or more, I've been basically working and then getting home and watching Korean dramas. While they're great, it's kind of a waste, and I do not have time to waste right now. I haven't been dieting at all (bread!!), so I need to press the re-set button on my dragon, and focus my time on getting healthy. If I do that, and make it into a habit, I'll actually be fit and energetic enough to do a side gig.

Oh, btw, sorry about never updating re:the sourdough starter. I kinda... gave up on it. Making from-scratch sourdough takes more patience and time than I have. On the other hand, working with commercial yeast has been a dream. I've made two batches so far, and I love love eating fresh-baked from scratch bread - and I actually just really like kneading dough! I gave a loaf to a coworker for her birthday. Here's a comparison of the sourdough attempt to the commercial yeast loaf:

You can see that the sourdough yeast did work - there's 2 whole bubbles! But it didn't work well. On the other hand, the commercial yeast packet bread was amazing, and my second attempt (not pictured) was even better and made more bread with an equal amount of yeast. And let me tell you, making french toast out of homemade bread = heaven. Another reason I haven't been feeding the dragon... gotta fix that. But kneading bread IS a workout, I can tell you that much!

Anyway, long story short, I'm doing better mentally, and now I have to do better physically. With my raise that's finally about here, plus Corey's potential new job, we can worry less about money and we might even start making a bit of progress soon. I'm looking forward to a nice healthy coloring page update to share with you wonderful people.

Rae Admits She's Not Doing Well

So the purpose of social media, it seems, is braggadocio - boasting about one thing or another. This is why I've taken myself away from Facebook apart from a small update post once per month. People brag about different things, of course. Most brag about success or relationships or how clever they are. I've been guilty of this myself, back before my Facebook diet, because it's just such an easy advertising platform. If you have friends, you have people who are at least mildly interested in you, which means that your words will be heard. Another form of bragging is, of course, the opposite - bragging about the cruelties of life and how awful things are. This is often displayed as very public mourning, another reason I've withdrawn from that shallow digital world. Advertising your pain just so that people will hit a Sad button on Facebook seems to me to be very unhealthy. Telling people that someone passed away, to inform them of a major event in your life? I understand that. Posting once a week about how much that event still effects you? Wouldn't it be more effective to actually talk to a person?

At the same time, it's so easy to do. You feel sad, hop on Facebook, and write a 2-sentence post about how much you miss your mother or how sucky life is when a coworker stabs you in the back, because you might get the instant gratification of knowing that someone saw what you said via a comment or a like. Having someone know and understand your pain can be soothing, but when it comes to social media, it is a temporary balm because you know in the back of your mind that by the time you see their response, they've already moved on and are probably watching a video of someone's kid petting a cat.

Now, I realize the blatant hypocrisy of this post. Yes, even this blog falls under that umbrella, both for boasting about successes and mourning my own losses. But here's the difference - I could post a sentence on Facebook, and it would be viewed for 1 second by the 200-some-odd people who would then keep scrolling for something more interesting, while I sit back and hope for someone to pay more than 1 second of attention to my joy or pain. Or I could post a full discussion of my pain and how I'm trying to overcome it by journaling, which is well known for its therapeutic properties. And instead of worrying about those 200-some-odd people seeing this and paying me a few seconds of attention, I'm posting this on a platform where I've had maybe one view per post. This is for me. If someone else reads it and can identify and feels less alone, then it's for them.

So... therapy-wise, it might be working. I'm just not doing as well as I'd hoped by now. Sometimes I'll be at work and read a message about something and just... deflate. I recently used some background check software that I have to get to know for work, to look myself up. Mom's name came up, and I clicked on it, and it noted that she would have been 65 today. Stupid idea on my part, to put myself in that position, but it happened. And later that day, a friend talked about hanging out with her friend's child, and it just deflated me even more.

It just feels like... not only am I not over this recent pain, but I'm not doing well enough to move forward. My diet's at a dead end, even moreso because I'm on my period. I've managed to save only $100 since I started this blog, and I've been lax enough with my spending that we're a little over budget for the month. Eating out too often, indulging in comfort food when I'm feeling sad, and then the fact that I'm not making progress keeps me feeling down. Vicious cycle. I know there'll be an upswing again at some point if I keep at it, though.

So here we go. I forgive myself. I forgive myself for spending too much of my minimal income. I forgive myself for overeating and losing track of my calorie counting. I forgive myself for being human, and for using any means necessary to stop being sad when sad things happen. And because I forgive myself, I can remake myself. I'm going to get up, take a shower, and spend time with a friend. I'm going to focus on healthy, positive things, and I'm going to be gentle with myself. I'm not going to be harsh or cast blame or say I'm a bad person.

Because I'm the only mother I have, and the only child I have. If I can love myself the way I would have loved my baby, if I can trust myself the way I trusted my late mother, then I'll be okay. And I'll do better. And I'll move on.

Rae's Sourdough Starter Update

So this has nothing to do with money (unless you count breadmaking as a healthy/frugal activity). Mostly, I just thought this was neat... my sourdough starter is apparently badass. Maybe because I'm using flour that was sitting alone in a baggie for a while, I don't know. But I've already got some growth and some bubbles this morning after its feeding last night:

I mean seriously, it looks like the pictures from way later on in this post about how to make the starter. I'll have to move it to a bigger container tonight. I might be able to even make bread with it before the coming weekend. Kinda awesome. :)