Expected Expenses for the Rest of the Year and Other Matters

 Yesterday I got the email from Dept of Ed that our student loans will be extended one last time until Jan 2022. That means no more payments for the rest of the year.

Without that payment pending, I realized I pretty much know my expected expenses for the rest of the year. And shockingly, it's very low! I've been thinking if I should just go ahead and prepay everything until Dec 30, 2021.  That way I can just siphon all extra money to investment accounts. 

This is the final push for Phase 1.

I realized there's not any particular benefit to prepay and it in fact might just disrupt all my autopay schedules.

Alternatively, since I use just one account for Bill Pay, I think I might just put that money in that account with a little cushion and I can stop that transfer for the next 4 months.  I don't know. 

What am I trying to achieve. I think I just want to sweep every loose dollar into investments to finish my financial year strong. 

So, yeah maybe...just figure out how much I need for rest of year. Add a little cushion. And then I also have a little bit in savings in that Bill Pay account.

Or I could just keep the top-up monthly transfers as is. I pretty much have that slimmed down, anyway. TBD.

But here's where we are. It's Aug 24, so I believe all my bills are paid for this month.

Here are the known expected expenses. That's redundant but that's just to say anything can happen, especially with this darn house!

Aug 2021: paid up

Sep 2021: $200 (utilities)

Oct 2021: $200 (utilities) + $500 (mortgage)

Nov 2021: $700 (utilities + mortgage)

Dec 2021: $700 (utilities + mortgage)

Subtotal: $2300 in expenses for the rest of the year. 

I'd probably add a $200 cushion if I wanted to leave a lump sum in that account. 

What do I do for food you say... 

Well I have a $400/mon allowance on a debit card that I use for groceries and everyday expenses. During COVID those everyday expenses are varied. But in the past they've covered things like gas, renting movies, incidentals from Walmart, minor auto service.

Other Money Matters

My HSA safely made it to Broker 1 so that old HSA account is closed. One less account to manage and a $3 monthly fee saved. I don't know if I did the transfer the most financially savvy way as I know there's something about transferring a cost basis and I don't think I did that. I just reinvested the money in a new fund. 

I'm still trying to get my IRA CD over to Broker 1 but nothing is happening yet. I think it would've been faster to move it from Bank 1 but their online paperwork is wrong, so I initiated the transfer from the Broker and that is not moving quickly at all. 

I think that's all the money stuff percolating.

I was inching to do a new bank bonus over the weekend but I was taking a bit of a break from the laptop this weekend. And now I don't feel like it. If I saw it to completion, it would be almost $400.

It's weird to think I could essentially pre-pay all my known bills for the rest of the year and just shuttle any new income straight into savings. 

Honestly, at this point, I think my net pay is only about $1100/mon anyway because everything else is being auto-invested, but I think I'll still set reminders maybe monthly to sweep any lingering extras. 

As I may have mentioned, this is the first stage of what is sort of the final push to FIRE. Next year, I'd like to make some big purchases to finish furnishing this place.

This house pretty much is my Death House. Earlier this year a few neighbors put their house on the market which made me think about selling. One went off the market and the other still has the For Sale sign so those angsty feelings have subsided. 

I had a leak which I still don't know whether it's repaired or not as it's been intermittent. And yesterday the stinks of all stinks happened. The foulest odor was coming out of the drain in the laundry room since I have yet to get appliances. Apparently drains hold water to block sewer smells, and I guess mine dried out.

Thanks to the internet, I was able to just pour water into the drain and the smell went away. It's still stuck in my nose and I swear I can smell it everytime the a/c clicks on but I am hoping that is just lingering smell and not new smell. 

So yeah, in case you didn't know - homeownership was never part of my plan I just couldn't find a cheaper place to live.

I decided to send Old Boss cookies next year on our birthday. I'll call a truce in the standoff I have in my head and it'll give me time to get over her without feeling like I can never talk to her again. 

Other Matters

After bingeing She Picks Up Pennies blog, I joined Bumble for the Bumble BFF feature. Only 1 girl has messaged me back so far. I miss the days of AOL chat. I'm mostly just looking for a distraction because of the strong negative feelings I had after The Thing.

We're not dwelling on that.

Now, it's kind of a game. I of course had to check out the dating portion of the app. I watch the Married at First Sight shows and I want to be loved and cared for. At first I was sure the rejection would be too much to bear but so far, it's okay. 

Bumble has this feature where you can see a blurred pixelated image of the people who already said Yes to you, so now when I get shown a profile I like to double check and see if it looks like the blurred image. 

For awhile it looked like every time I got a notification that I had a Yes, the Yes was in the next 5 profiles. But that doesn't always seem to be the case - or they're on to me. 

I haven't been eating well so I have this full feeling all the time because my tummy is full of gas and other rumbles but I'm not really satiated or satisfied with what I've eaten. 

Work is making us get the vaccine or get weekly testing by Thursday (it's Tuesday). I don't want to do either of those things. I don't have any moral opposition, I just haven't gotten around to it.  But I don't think my job should have a say in it. It's weird, when I was a teacher it made sense, but somehow it doesn't right now. 

I just feel like this loyalty to work has already caused me time with my Darling Aunty. It dictated my time, now it's dictating what I can do with my body. I'm not for it. 

I think I'm just annoyed because I'm remote so I'm not coming into contact with anyone I work with, so I shouldn't have to do it but since it's a standard form, there's no space for that.  

I feel like the option should be - get tested or stay home. Not get tested OR ELSE. And honestly, we don't work in a factory. We have office jobs. All of this work has been done at home for the last 2 years, and the world still carried on. I think we'll be fine.