Well this was a very late post, given that it is already end of March. I thought about stopping my monthly update since our last year’s expenses are surprisingly low. That said, I still find this update useful for me. I like looking back and comparing my finances and the updates of our early retirement life.

Life Update

In January, I turned 35. Woo hoo! I am officially on my mid thirties. It was a low key celebration with my family with some KFC and Boston Cake from Safeway. MBP love love birthday celebrations because he can blow the candles which he did on my cakes.

We also officially sold our rental property. The property is a 1.5 bedroom condo in Seattle. All the proceeds excluding taxes were invested on VTI. I also gifted my Volkswagon Jetta to my sister. I bought that car in 2010 and put in about 50K miles. I haven’t driven that car for the entire 2020 and barely driven it in 2019 after retirement. We have to buy a new battery because the it was dead. We also changed all 4 tires before giving it to my sister. She reimbursed for all maintenance cost and administrative cost. We are now a one car family, until we buy a van in the near future.

Spending

We spent $2,045.47 this month! This is actually lower than I thought!

Health insurance premiums are going to be a big expenses this year. There was some back and forth for the kids insurance until I finally got clarity. We opt out for dental care insurance and plan to pay for it out of pocket.

Food is next category that we spent on. I started accounting for all the junk foods that we’re buying, because I really want to stop eating them!

We paid MBP’s tuition fee for the rest of the year and continued to add on to his 529 plan. We will start contributing to AHP’s plan around May.

Utilities this month were for sewer, internet, electric and gas, and our mobile phone. Our electric and gas are low because I accidentally prepay it the previous month.

Our housing expenses consist of HOA dues, furnishings and household supplies. We went to Ikea in January and I’m pretty sure we bought items for the kids but I can’t recall.

The rest are pretty straight forward below and all under $100.

We celebrated the end of 2020 by spending on gifts, just because we can. I’ve been tracking our spending every month and was pleasantly surprised of the number. We have some surplus from our budget so we decided to spend some more in December.

We spent $7,315.39 this December. Whoa!

Here are some unusual / top line items.

Gifts – $5,353.57

We celebrated Christmas with my family, my 3 siblings and my Grandma. Celebration starts on Christmas eve at my parents house and continued on at our house for Christmas Day. This year, my older sister suggested that we do Secret Santa which I happily oblige. Apparently, my family thought that Secret Santa was addition to other presents. We still receive presents from each member of the family and the kids received A LOT – toys, clothes and envelope (with money). We on the other hand only bought presents for our Secret Santa and a check for my parents for $5k. It was unusually large this year. My father was furloughed because of COVID and I can tell that this pandemic affected them. We were fortunate enough that our finances were not affected at all, so why not. I’m really happy that I can do this for them.

Aside from my immediate family, we also bought gifts for my godkids. I procrastinated on this and Mr. MMD have to drive an hour to their house to drop the presents. Both kids got some Legos from us.

Groceries – $619.78

This is probably on a high end of our grocery spending, but we have to eat, right? Groceries are purchased in Costco and Winco.

Electric and Gas – $245.18

This was for 2 months worth of electric and gas. The company finally started accepting credit card on auto pay instead of one time payment. They made a mistake of charging me twice. I did get the credit for the next month, so it is not a big deal.

Clothing – $252.07

This is for my winter boots, winter jacket and MBP’s winter jacket. I got the jackets on ebay and the winter boots at Nordstrom. I specifically want a down jacket that will keep me warm and water resistant so I can use it while working at MBP’s cooperative preschool. I also needed some boots since the school is outdoors. I bought a Soia and Kyo jacket that is 70 percent down-filled from e-bay. I have a wool jacket from the same brand that I got as a gift and I love it. It really keeps me warm. I already tested the jacket and it worked really well. I also bought a $100 gift card from REI. I got 10% discount on the gift card and I used it to purchased MBP’s jacket.

Auto and Transport – $126.45

I renewed the registration of my 2011 Volkswagon Jetta S. We haven’t used this Jetta for over a year. I am giving the car to my older sister as a gift and she is reimbursing the cost of the registration. We also put gas on our Prius this month.

In November, we voted, celebrated the result of the election, celebrated Thanksgiving and hunkered down. I’m glad the election is over. I’m happy with the result but I did spent a lot of time refreshing my browser asking google for election result. We also had a small Thanksgiving celebration. Our initial plan is to have my family over, but with the COVID cases going up, we canceled it. Instead, we celebrated it as a family of four, watched Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on TV and had a whole chicken (because the Turkey we got is HUGE), mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Max had fun watching the parade, especially when Elmo showed up. Football was also on the background while cooking and feasting.

We spent $1,858.33 this November. Below are some notable items.

Food – $725.17

This is the most we spent on food for this year. We are still shopping in WINCO and Costco. I think we spent quite a bit on snack this month. I added a line item to separate the junk food we’re buying. I need to stop going through a whole bag of Ruffles or Donuts or Toblerone. Yikes!

Furnishings $302.69

We definitely cranked up the heat this month I ordered 2 heaters for the boys’ rooms so we can lower the heat for the whole house at night. Right now it is set to 68 degrees from 8AM – 7:30PM and 50 degrees for the rest of the night. The small electric heater seems to work out so far.

Christmas Lights

I bought 2 strands of LED Christmas lights to wrap around my tree. Last year, we didn’t put up any lights on the tree, so I made sure to order one before Thanksgiving. Luckily it arrived just in time so we put up the tree after Thanksgiving. I like the lights except for the fact that it didn’t come with a standard male/female connector so I can’t connect my tree topper and have to connect it with an extension cord. It’s ok for now, but it was annoying to see it. I might return it and buy a different led lights after Christmas when it is on sale. We decorated the tree with new to us ornaments from my Mom. Some of the ornaments are from the Philippines and I love seeing them on my tree.

Baby Supplies – $71.89

I can’t remember the last time we bought some diapers. MBP is still in Pull Ups at night and AHP is using disposables at night and cloth diaper during the day. A pack from Costco typically last us 6 months. I am really glad that we are using cloth diapers. Some folks were hoarding diapers and I know that there were instances that Costco was out of stock of diapers and diaper wipes. Cloth diaper for another win!

Christmas Cards – $44.79

I also successfully printed and mailed our Holiday Cards before the Holidays. Last year, I sent it after Christmas, so I made sure that I have enough time to get some photos taken, create the card and get it printed. My little sister came here last October just before it got too cold and we managed to get some decent family photos with both the boys and the dog actually smiling. We walked to the park on the end of our cul-de-sac and was able to snap some really good ones. I used Canva to create the card and printed 50 cards. I ordered these envelope separately through Amazon because it is cheaper and it looks a lot better. The card looked nice but not necessarily thick enough, even though I ordered the deluxe version.

Alright, so here are the line by line items.

One more month for 2020. This year is definitely proving to be our floor in terms of spending. It’s a weird year, overall, but we are safe, healthy and have a privilege to spend all our time with our kids and not worry about work.

How was your November?

October is a month of getting into a routine and anticipation of the election results. We are starting to get comfortable with our new normal. Our routine includes going to outdoor preschool 2x a week, seeing my family every 2 weeks and getting groceries once a week. This month, MBP’s class visited the Thomassen Family Farm for their annual pumpkin patch. We made it a family trip and AHP tag along. We ended the trip with a drive thru order from McDonalds for lunch. The farm was outdoors and all adults are wearing masks. We had fun and glad that this field trip happened despite some restrictions.

I also had my annual exam and established care with a new physician closer to our area. Luckily, my new physician was able to get a women’s physical therapist. I started seeing her this month and so far it really helped my back and get back some of my core strength. All of these expenses are covered by our insurance.

Alright, for our expenses, we spent $5,033.77 this month

Property Taxes – $3,043.39

We paid our second half of property taxes this month. It is expensive and will likely jut increase next year. Our property taxes is base on the value of our house. There are a lot of demand for single family housing. Two of our neighbors in the cul-de-sacs sold their houses for $650K+. I appeal our taxes in our old house in Seattle twice and won. I know that the assessment was reasonable so I’m not going to appeal this one, but I do keep an eye on this because sometimes, the county assessment is higher than the market.

We don’t include the value of our house in our net worth, so I probably shouldn’t care too much. I am happy to pay that tax if it means better public school for our community.

Food – $537.61

We spent over $500 for food. This is probably our normal spending now. This includes $507.42 on groceries and $30.19 on fast food. My husband is our primary chef but I’m starting to run some errands now. I can see this go up once the pandemic is over when we venture out more and start eating out.

Transportation – $218.09

We paid $198 for a 6 month auto insurance for our 2014 Toyota Prius. I still have my 2011 Volkswagen Jetta that is park in the driveway. We need to get rid of it at some point. Maybe once the vaccine is out and I can actually go to the dealership and get the recall and the tire fix.

Education / Hobbies – $198

This month, I also sign up for a one year membership at CPE Depot. I need to complete some continuing professional education to maintain my CPA license. This can fulfill the CPE needed for 2 years, as well as the ethics program. I also attended a virtual summit Mama Talks Money. I paid $69 to access the content after the summit. It was great to hear from more women talking about money. I still need to act on some of our to do’s particularly our will.

2 more months until the end of 2020. Our spending is considerably low this year because we basically stay in. I expect this to be drastically different next year as we start traveling, eating out more, preschool expenses and healthcare (on another post)

Here’s our every line item we spent this October:

How’s you October?

Pacific Northwest experienced some fire this September which was very unusual. We were 5 miles from the evacuated area, which is too close in my opinion. We left our house and stayed with my parents for 3 nights because I was being overly cautious. The kids had fun with the sleep over with the grandparents, but we were glad to be back home with our house intact. It was a terrifying week.

Back to School

MBP also started 3s class. We were lucky enough to be part of the coop that held an outdoor preschool with limited students. There were so much thoughts and efforts that were put in planning the outdoor preschool and we are very appreciative of the school, the teachers and parents involve. This is our second year in the coop and my first year holding a board position.

In September our early retirement spending was $2,319.77

Tuition – $573.42

Our biggest spending this month is MBP’s preschool tuition. I prepay the tuition through December. We get 10 percent discount by prepaying, but I donated the 10 percent back to school. Our coop is very affordable as is and we want it to continue as long as it can, not just for MPB but for other kids in the area. I love being part of the coop because we get to work with the teacher, get to know the parents, and watch our kids learn. MBP has been going to a coop since he was 1, back in Seattle and I’m so glad that we found this school here in the burbs. It is a little bit of a drive for us, but totally worth it. MBP love love love his school. He seems to be more happy now that he have something to look forward to.

Food – $476.13

I was surprised to see our food spending under $500. We continue on our plant based meals except when we were at my parents house due to fire. There were also some McDonalds drive thru breakfast when we left the house. Maybe we stocked up enough last month? I really don’t know, but I’m glad to see this go down.

Kids – $396.71

This consist of $200 college fund, outdoor clothings for MBP and crib mattress for AHP. I bought MBP an Oaki Rainsuit, an REI down jacket and Bogs boots. He needs proper rain gear because his class is 100% outdoors. I did a lot of research and asked around for proper rain gear, especially boots that are not heavy. MBP has a rainboot but he had a hard time walking and complains that it is too heavy for him. His teacher mentioned Bogs boots and he really like it so far. We haven’t tested it on downpour rain, so we will see if it holds up. I also bought a crib mattress for AHP because he is using MBP’s old mattress that sags down in the middle. AHP is rolling over a lot now. He is seating by himself, love solid food, napping by himself and even slept through the night for 3 nights in a row!

Pet – $250.78

This consist of our furbaby’s annual exam, annual supply of heartworm and flea medication, annual shots and some treats. We go to a mobile vet clinic for her preventative care. Apparently our furbaby is very overweight. It looks like all adults in our household, including the dog are trying to lose weight. We do need to take her weight seriously because she is getting older. Being overweight is not good for her little legs.

Shopping – $232.42

My husband found a way to wired his internet connection on our modem. He constantly complain about our internet access especially when he is in the middle of a game. I don’t have any problem with our internet, but I’m also not a gamer. I’m just glad that it is working for him.

Others – $390.31

My little sister graduated from college this spring and celebrated a virtual graduation ceremony. Go Zags! We gave her $100 as a gift and celebrated with her at my parent’s house. We also renew our Costco membership this month for $60. The rest are normal utilities, supplies and blog hosting fee for $.57. This is the last month that I will pay for blog hosting fee since I moved this blog from AWS to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and I’m only using the free tier. It doesn’t make sense to pay for hosting until I get more readers.

The detail spending are below.

How about you? How’s your September spending?