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Posts tagged with: dents

Hope’s Actual Spending – September, 2024

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Month two of tracking my spending. There is certainly some variance from my forecast due to the last minute trip to Texas and some medical expenses plus an unexpected refrigerator repair. But overall, I was able to stick pretty close to the forecast.

DateCategory/PayeeAnticipated AmountActual Spend
09-01-2024Groceries / Hygiene / Dogs / Gas-500-230
09-02-2024Auto Insurance-1346-1346
09-02-2024Amazon CC-1391-1412
09-03-2024Mortgage-1015-1015
09-03-2024Investments-350-350
09-03-2024EF Savings-790-790
09-03-2024Travel Savings-500-500
09-04-2024City Utilities - varies-150-100
09-05-2024Princess rent for Oct-750-750
09-09-2024Electric - varies-250-359
09-14-2024Verizon-350-312
09-20-2024Kids' Contributions1215512
09-20-2024Frontier CC-130-127
09-26-2024Windstream-71-71
Medical - Dr Visits-394
Refrigerator - repair-120

Next month will pretty much be a wash as far as my debt payoff journey goes. But November will be full speed ahead again.

I am making calls about getting health insurance. Georgia is a terrible state for health insurance. The options are just terrible. And I still have to make a decision about my life insurance.

What the Future Holds

I’ve already forecasted out through the end of 2025. But with my new income and housing plan, I am beginning to revisit it. Plan for how to be completely debt free next year. And have a substantial emergency fund. I am planning to maintain my current savings plan through the end of the year. Then revisit beginning in January.

The House – the Past and the Future

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Note: I am writing this post before the post about my decision to sell my home and move next spring is published. I’m already foreseeing alot of commentary about what a terrible financial decision this is. And I get that. But in the end, this was not a financial decision, it was one made based prioritizing my emotional and mental health. And it was not made quickly or lightly, although I know that post makes it seems like it. But this was YEARS in the making.

That being said, I found it awfully telling that some reader found a very old post about my housing debacle from what 9 years ago here. And of course, their comment was spot on.

Thankfully, I have grown a lot and am in a very different place financially and just life, I guess. The kids are grown and gone. (Well, except Beauty, but I anticipate hearing from her within a month or two that she is making a move.)

Summary the Past

For those that don’t want to dig into that old post. It is a lot. Here’s a very high level summary. My dad purchased a house for me and my then two children, when I was at a crossroads and considering moving away from where we lived at the time.

Williamsburg house

Princess and I drove up to Virginia last fall to visit Sea Cadet and go to the VA State Fair. We drove by our old house and took this picture then.

I paid all the bills, the mortgage, utilities, improvements, etc. It just wasn’t in my name. Fast forward several years, and several adopted children later, and my dad decided that he wanted to sell the house. He gave me 30 days notice to move.

Me and my then 4 children moved to a 900 square foot apartment within the month.

(There is ALOT more to this on both sides. But that is the summary of what happened.)

The Now

You’ve all seen my current home. We’ve lived here since we moved to Georgia. First as a rental. And then I was able to purchase it from our landlord. It has been the most peace time of my life. And over the years, I have been able to remodel it exactly as I wanted.

The Future

Any one who has been around for a few years, knows that I have toyed with the idea of being more nomadic, maybe having a tiny home, or even car camping. Obviously, not something I would consider as an option while the kids were still dependent and home. But now…

Over the last couple of years, I have gotten more and more enamored with the idea of being nomadic for a while. While having a home base is important, now that it’s just me, I am very open to that home base not actually being a home. Maybe a storage unit with the few items I want to keep but not take with me. Perhaps one of my siblings homes where I can receive mail. Maybe even my parents’ house for longer stays.

I have no idea what direction I will go come next summer/fall after Princess graduates. I’ve begun researching – AirBnB stays in different cities, using a site like Overlander. Again, just research, no actual plans.

But again, I am truly just leaving it open ended and see what comes my way. This is what happened with my stay at Princess next summer. As soon as I told her I was planning to sell the house and possibly leave the state, she asked what would she do with Jake (Gymnast’ dog who is living with her) when she had to go out of state for her new job onboarding. And that became my first planned stop should I go completely nomadic. So we will see what’s next?! And I’m pretty excited about it.

 

 

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