Money Matters
formerlyjessica490
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Monday Accountability
1. How MM was your weekend?
2. Any progress towards goals?
3. What do you like/dislike about winter?
Re: Monday Accountability
1. $40 gas between H and I, $62 Groceries, $25 Home Depot, $15 Ocean State
2. Nothing, we get paid this week
3. Likes- Christmas helps me get through at least 1 month of winter which helps, I like my house being nice and warm inside (we have no budget for heat usage) I love looking at the snow, it's so pretty and I like sledding whenever I get the chance
Dislikes- It's cold and miserable, I don't like driving in the snow, I don't like how it gets dark early
1. How MM was your weekend?
It was decent. We did a free seat filler play on Friday and used one of our gift cards with a coupon for dinner so that was $0 out of pocket. Saturday at our hockey game I wanted to splurge on a chocolate popcorn but it turns out they aren't selling it this year so that turned into a calorie and $ save.
We did a little splurging at the grocery store with eggnog and some stocking up for about $60. The best was we got a free roll of gift wrap with our shopper card and they had an adorable design with our dog on it! It is the best wrapping paper ever. We would have even paid for it but it was free!
2. Any progress towards goals?
We are trying to have a low spend month. I have a lot of meals planned and we will use gift cards we already bought when dining out so I think we will definitely make progress in our month end totals.
3. What do you like/dislike about winter?
1. How MM was your weekend? $80 towards groceries and that was it. We were homebodies all weekend.
2. Any progress towards goals? Nope. 25 more days to go in December. I can't wait!
3. What do you like/dislike about winter? I like the lack of bugs, getting to snuggle under the covers, enjoy a fire in my fireplace, wearing boots and jeans and cozy socks. I dislike the short days and getting home when it's already fully dark outside.
1. How MM was your weekend? Not too shabby. Spent about $35 on brunch at our house on Sunday and that was pretty much it.
2. Any progress towards goals? Just the usual weekly savings transfer, but nothing extra.
3. What do you like/dislike about winter? I like snuggling up in cozy sweaters and blankets with a hot drink and my husband and doggy. I dislike having to ever go outside. As a life long New Englander I know HOW to deal with winter, but I don't think I will ever love it - I really just stick around for autumn lol. In February we always do a Friend Family Weekend with 5 other families and that is my FAVORITE thing all year. Four days holed up in a cabin in Vermont with my favorite people and no outside distractions is my idea of pure heaven.
1. How MM was your weekend? It wasn't the best. We had an infestation of pantry moths, so we trashed most of the food from the pantry, except for a few items that were completely sealed. We threw out some things that were probably fine, but it's a mental thing. Pretty gross. So, we had no food in the house for lunch on Saturday ($12 on subs). And went grocery shopping for dinner as well as restocking the flour, sugars, etc ($56; luckily the flour/sugars were on sale). More $ to come with restocking more staples. Also spent $50-some on airtight containers on Amazon, and will definitely be buying more. This isn't the first pantry-bug issue we've had, so we're paranoid.
2. Any progress towards goals? The goal right now is to determine how much extra to pay toward the car loan, which we haven't sat down to do yet. Seems like we've been fielding a lot of unexpected expenses lately, so we're just trying to keep expenses within the cash flow instead of dipping into savings.
3. What do you like/dislike about winter? I dislike the cold & wind, and it doesn't take me long to start disliking snow (although I love how beautiful the first snow is). I like blankets, hot drinks, and cuddles!!
1. How MM was your weekend? Not bad- groceries ($111), HD ($40), oak shelf for front vestibule ($20), electrical ($85). Took the girls to see Santa and walked around a small town near my parents.
2. Any progress towards goals? $1,250 back to the vacation fund from property tax rebate and healthy rewards at work. Bathroom lights are installed- curtain rod, caulk, pictures next weekend. We're also supposed to sign a contract for the exterior work on Saturday.. exciting and scary at the same time.
3. What do you like/dislike about winter? I love snow, but DD#1 and I have to walk to the bus stop every morning.. if neighbors don't shovel, we're walking in the street.. so that's something I definitely don't like. Other than that, bring on winter!
1. How MM was your weekend?
Very! $30 on a tank of gas on Friday night, $62 at the grocery store on Sunday. We went to a birthday party Friday night, so food was there, and I brought a bottle of wine that I already had. On Saturday, H went up to a football game in Laramie, and I went with my BFF to visit her mom who is in assisted living, and notarized some documents for them. She bought me lunch and a cupcake as a thank you. Stayed home with the pups Saturday night.
2. Any progress towards goals?
Moved $200 to savings
3. What do you like/dislike about winter?
I like it for the most part. I don't mind the cold or the snow, but that's probably because it'll snow here, then get sunny. It was way more miserable in the midwest when it would just stay gloomy. Plowing our massive driveway is fun because we have a snowplow attachment for our RZR ATV. The only thing I dislike is having to drive to/from work in it, especially at night. Thankfully there's a toll road I can use for most of the drive, they de-ice it and it's generally in better shape than the regular roads. It costs about $5 to get me between home and work each way, but that's worth it to avoid the regular roads.
1. Not great. Sam's Club: $29 gas, $52 prescriptions, $300 groceries. I need to go back and look at my receipt. Not sure why it was that high.
2. Paid down my cc debt by $2100. Paid $600 to our plumber, still owe $300. Racked up $3K with our electrician. Did NOT realize that much electrical work was needed at the new duplex. Oh well.
This was so crazy. He found bare, live electrical wires inside one of the walls in the attic. According to my H, if it hadn't been discovered, it was only a matter of time before the house would have caught fire! Not could have caught fire, WOULD have caught fire. Phew.
Also, I was supposed to have had an interview on Friday with a local real estate agency, except nobody was there!! I was super irate and called and left a message. The owner called me back on Sat. and left me a message. He apologized, and said something about they had never been notified about my appointment from their scheduling system. Whatever. I'm going to call him back at lunch and reschedule. But, needless to say, I'm already not very impressed.
3. I dislike the cold and shorter days. I realize my version of cold is much warmer than what a lot of you all face, but it's a "wet" cold. Because it is still a humid climate. So there is still a lot of water in the air, except now it "chills" instead of "steams" you. To be fair, with the exception of a day here or there, it still hasn't gotten cold here yet. But the temp is dropping by 20 degrees after Wed. of this week.
I love eating/drinking warm food and beverages. Like soup and apple ciders. I like being able to wear my zipped hoodie sweatshirts around the house. I like that my cat becomes more social because she "seeks out" warm laps. Sometimes even lying next to the dog, despite her disdain for the other fuzzy creature in the house. My H and I jokingly call her the "heatie whore".
With that said, so so so grateful for all the rain we got last week and we're continuing to get this week!
2. Not really. Not a pay week. We'll just work on staying on budget.
3. I love winter! First and foremost, I love not feeling hot. I love that it forces everybody to slow down and have relaxing weekends, I don't mind the snow, and I love that I can go hike and stuff and it won't be very crowded. Of course I also love Christmas. New Englanders who hate the winter hurt my brain. It happens every year at the same time! Just make the best out of it.
2 - well I have an appt with a fidelity advisor tomorrow to talk about what funds may be good for me to purchase since I have some cash I need to invest.
3 - LOVE winter for a couple reasons - I'm in the midwest so I love all four seasons. Winter is my slow time for business which means I can relax more AND I love snow storms because it forces everyone to stay home
2) After seeing the damage this past weekend, we will probably go over budget this month. The good news is I haven't accounted for our bonuses yet, so it won't be a huge deal. In years past I have usually gone over in December trying to tie off year-end things. That's obviously not ideal, but it does end up working fine for our cash flow.
We also decided to switch banks, so I am in the process of doing that. It's a pain in the butt.
3) I really don't like much about winter, especially once the holidays are over. Thank goodness I live in a climate where it's only cold for about 3 months out of the year.
2. $900 between savings and our house account. $200 in the cash stash.
3. I LOVE winter. I think it's beautiful. I don't like driving in snow, and I don't like that it's dark when I leave home AND dark when I get home, but that's about it. I love everything about Christmas, and how H and I have developed our own traditions, just the two of us, in the last 10 years. Our anniversary is in January, so there's something to look forward to right after Christmas.
1. How MM was your weekend? Fine, about $50 on groceries (DH is traveling most of the week, so it's just me for dinners 4 nights), $100 on charity gifts, and $30 at the hardware store for a few winterizing things like salt, shovel.
2. Any progress towards goals? Nope, just keep spending in check.
3. What do you like/dislike about winter? I like just about everything about winter. I love to ski and snowshoe, so I look forward to lots of snow. I love being cozy warm in bed in the mornings with cool air outside the covers, having fires at night and waking up in the morning to freshly fallen snow. I guess my only complaint is the days I leave for work before it gets light and get home after it's dark.
1. How MM was your weekend? Not great, I honestly can't remember everything I spent. $30 Friday for drinks, $20 for gas to drive to NJ for H's grandfather's birthday, Sunday $200 on dinner for my family (8 of us) as part of their Christmas gift, and $112 on tickets to a local play of the Nutcracker. It was family heavy weekend.
2. Any progress towards goals? Not a pay week so no, and actually the opposite of progress by spending so much.
3. What do you like/dislike about winter? I honestly dislike everything about winter other than football and my dog gets extra cuddly. I don't like Christmas, cold weather, snow, heating bills, any of it LOL... I'm kind of a Grinch.