Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

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SandiSAHM
Posts: 2260
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

The last paycheck of February is in, bills have been paid, and we are at 33.274% of goal for the year. Yay.

That's how squeaky this is going to be, evidently, where a change of 4.8% in a month isn't "bad."

It's not "good," either, because if the next 10 months each have a meager 4.8% increase, we'll be right around 81% of goal at the end of the year and THAT is bad.

March will not be helpful, that's a given, and on top of everything else I have to send in my quarterly $$$ to the IRS since as a contractor I don't have $ withheld. Every time I turn around I remember something else that has to be added to March :? I probably should have planned the whole year instead of doing month to month. Not too late to plot the rest of the year, I guess. I hesitate because there will be (there always are) surprises, and while I like SOME of those, I don't like all (the bad ones can just shoo).

Have to keep the spending down without being a stick in the mud on vacation next month.

I predict May will be the month we end up in a more 'normal' approach to our routine and that will bring with it more spending on gasoline. Got used to that # being super low - the only car we've been using routinely is the Prius, the gasoline line on the spreadsheet is amazing. :lol:
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2260
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

Well. Tax info is done. We owe the fed and the state, and my qtrly payments to the IRS for 2021 are going to be 97% HIGHER than they were last year (wanted to say "why not just double them?"), because I made more $ than we thought I'd make going into 2020. And the current trend is that more will be made this year than last year.

Set up the painful payment (really not that bad for 6mos of coverage) to the car insurance folk for AFTER the next credit card cycle - due 4/1, cc closes the 23rd, payment should process 3/30, and will be part of the April payment rather than March's. Which is good, as I have a chunk of change to send the government in late March and on 4/15.

The youngsters who have been invited to leave school for the time being are back in the state. I have read indicators that they'll be here for around a YEAR :shock: and that the job hunt starts now. So... I'm guessing they're okay to be employed. If NOT, some potential employer will inform them, I'm sure. And the person with whom they are staying is now looking for a place big enough for 3.

Friend with the alternative treatments issue is going afar again for alternative treatments. Which is only truly strange because we have a Cancer Treatment Center of America here - not sure if they've even talked to them. Also not sure how unconventional CTCA is willing to get when it comes to treatments or if they're more mainstream.

I get my 1st "jab" late this week. It'll be an 84 mile round-trip, but I took the appointment because the alternative was to continue having to check for open spots, and the website is just not user friendly. I used to live there; it'll be interesting to see what's changed. DD wants to go with me (she fears I'll have some weird reaction - I have some crazy allergies), but I just know she'll want to drive by the old house and I just can't. It kills me to see a place I used to own, someone's always let a tree die or moved something around or painted a horrific color (my first OK house, in Broken Arrow, is now TEAL - and while I like teal, it does not suit that house at all. Had it built, it was a lovely light blue/grey with white trim when done, that combo suited it well - why mess with a pretty thing? They didn't even use good quality paint, the sun has faded it in blotches :roll: ).

If the savings plan recovers, it won't be before May. No plan to tap into savings to pay Uncle Sam or the insurance folk, but not a lot left over to squirrel away.
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2260
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

Nine days 'til "vacation." I say that in " (air quotes) " because it's actually a thinly veiled attempt by my kids to see if I'll die if they put me on a mountain bike :lol:

I won't die. They fuss 'cause I haven't bought one (no intention, I'm renting) but just because I'm less enthusiastic about biking than they are does not mean I don't like biking - I like lightweight road bikes. They like these huge 30-35 lb thick framed full suspension mountain bikes. It's more like driving a really bouncy moped (Greece, it went... okay, I guess, though I prefer driving a car in traffic) that you have to pedal - UPHILL. Just give me a flat road and a lightweight bike and get out of the way.

Young people on hiatus from school are now with another person as the first person who was GOING to house them got evicted again and is now living in a hotel. Charming soul, but I just don't think this is the state she needs to be in, things have not gone at all well for her here, it's one eviction or car wreck or both (and then once she broke her arm in a fall that... it was weird. Who falls in an empty pool at a hotel? Someone looking to SUE the hotel, right? But apparently that didn't work out for her either). She's from pretty far away while still being in the U.S. and I've been thinking lately that somewhere closer to home might be better for her. If OK had sucked for me, I wouldn't still be here.

But you can't tell other people what to do.

I've been wondering what will happen to my mother if she ever moves here (this is 95% UNlikely) so we can make her life a bit easier - she keeps mailing me things she doesn't understand. Papers from her cell service provider, from Medicare... she has no internet access nor any ability to use a laptop, tablet, smart phone, any of that (smart enough, just doesn't BELIEVE she is, so...hindrance). So I read all of it, call her, translate it, and then mail it back with an explanation. I fear she's slipping a bit memory-wise. All she'd have to do is move (we'd do most of it), sell there, buy here, my kids run a lawn service, DH can fix ANYTHING, our vet and groomer are awesome... but her doctors aren't here, or her group of friends, so she's not coming here.

You can't tell other people what to do. Même quand ils sont vieille. :|
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2260
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

Wonders never cease. After years of challenging vision, I stumbled into a genius eye doc. Near my rinky dink little town. I went because my retinal specialist was forced to close his practice due to covid, and my 'new' specialist works with retinas only - he doesn't do 'vision correction' stuff. I wear trifocals and they're old, and a related problem needs a little special attention and I thought I could talk an eye doc into more than one pair of glasses for different uses.... No. This genius is a specialist in "specialty contact lenses' (the TECHNOLOGY now... :shock:) and low vision. She spent 55 minutes listening to the whole backstory; the problem / surgery / side effects, and (never spent that much time with an eye doc before) running me through tests I've never heard of and sure never had before. Puttered around for a while and put me in contact lenses and - - I CAN SEE *EVERYTHING* - I haven't seen with this kind of acuity for 15 years. I cried all the way home (happy tears!!). I don't know why she came here (she's new to the area; I believe the Lord put her here knowing some folks in the area could use a break with their vision) but I hope she gets so much business she never leaves. I'm seriously thinking of sending flowers. Because hugging a doctor is untoward. Was it cheap? No, but it was nowhere near it's value in terms of quality of life.

This gets me: when I was around 15-16 I was in "polycon" contact lenses. Once the prescription was determined, it took 2 weeks for them to come in. And they were not cheap. This was 1981-82ish.

Last week the doc was working our way through whether we wanted my left eye to exactly match the right or be slightly different to make switching from distance to 'computer' vision - if they match exactly I'd have to use reading glasses to work with a device that has a screen - and once we'd decided between the two, after having had both in my left eye for a while - she took the one we'd decided against and threw it away.

Not only are these things in stock in a huge range of prescription sizes and strengths and uses, but they're so cheap that they're DISPOSABLE. Forty years changes a lot.
Gale53150
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:45 pm

Re: Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

Post by Gale53150 »

Wow Sandi. Such great news. Happy dance.
chocolite
Posts: 1438
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:11 pm

Re: Sandi's 2021 Planned $avings Challenge

Post by chocolite »

How wonderful, Sandi! Good vision - like good health - is priceless. I'm really happy for you.
Patty
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