Financial Update: January 2019

This month has been full of ups and downs when it comes to my finances- mostly ups though! I'm going to show you the graph early in today's blog post so that you can see what I mean. I'll be moving the graph over to 2019 only next month so that it is easier to see but for now you can see all of 2018 plus January 2019. ​

The reason some of the decrease in November and December is also the reason for a portion of the sizable bump up this month- the market. The amount that my house is estimated to be worth went up this month and even though I don't have a lot invested right now- less than $10,000 divided between a 403b from my time as a teacher and a 401k from my current job- those accounts also increased this month, by more than just contributions. My job also started matching 4% in my 401k this month which did add slightly to the increase as well. The rest was good old fashioned payoff of debt. I'm positive I can hit my goal of being net worth positive this year so I'm feeling pretty happy right now. 

I didn't bring in a lot of extra money from side hustles this last month ($56.18) but I was able to pay for several items with gift cards received over the holidays and from various apps that I have been trialing for the blog. Gift cards used this month included one gift of $50 and another $75 earned through travel programs and apps. It sounds fairly small but for me that's a week of groceries- or more if I'm eating mostly from the deep freezer's stash of meal prepped food with fresh veggies added in! I was also able to use a travel voucher I received due to a delayed flight last year to lower the cost of  of my flight to DC later this year which was already budgeted for. This means that voucher allowed me to move $100 back into the general budget for allocating towards debt payments. These small savings really do add up.

The final piece of the puzzle, as it were, was medical benefits restarting for the year. My company puts $700 into my HSA for me at the beginning of each year (and then I contribute another $2,800 to reach the max for a single person on a 1/25th per paycheck schedule for the rest of the year) plus they fund my Limited FSA of $500 upfront so I tend to get a bump in January each year on the graph due to this inflow. A lot of this money, if not all of it, will disappear over the next few months as my medical bills start rolling in. I anticipate hitting my out of pocket max of $5,400 for medical this year on top of the expenses that I know are not going to be covered- some of my chiropractor bills, my mast cell stabilizer medication, my inhaler, all of the over the counter medications that my allergist has in my therapy plan, and etc. and then the Limited FSA will cover most of the cost of my glasses and contacts which need to be purchased early this year. My medical costs are likely higher than many people's due to my medical issues (and my plan is fairly good, thankfully) so later in the year I'll likely create a blog about how I budget for and save money on my health care costs in a separate post. For now I just wanted to touch on these accounts as they do affect my net worth as the money in these accounts, especially the HSA, could potentially be money that is growing if I was able to not utilize it.

What do I think February will look like... budget wise we were looking pretty good until a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it looks like the people who flipped my house cut corners (surprise surprise) so I will need to complete a repairs and projects on my home in February that may end up putting me in a little more debt. Not the direction I wanted to be going but you'll see why its important they not wait when you see the list:

• Clean and reseal the grout in both bathrooms and foyer (less than $100)
• Seal the granite in the kitchen (less than $50)
• Have A/C re-balanced ($69 with home warranty company)
• Get dishwasher fixed (pre-paid but need time off work)
• Fix kitchen chair leg (hopefully less than $20)
• Buy nightstands for guest bedroom (may need to wait now)
• Buy TV kit for living room + remotes for other TVs & hang TV's  (less than $50)
• Repaint (Eventually, but not this month. The paint is beginning to peel already on shelves and door jams and I've only been here for four months)
• Pull up the carpet, bleach the concrete and lay new flooring (unknown cost)

Depending on pricing that last one may be a multi-stage process as I want to keep the amount of debt I take on as small as possible. The first two are mostly work that I can get my dad to show me how to do and then complete myself for minimal cost but the last one is a doozy. As I have bad allergies and have had more migraines than usual since moving into the new house I decided I should clean the carpets. A natural decision for anyone I would imagine... the only problem is that this made the fact that the previous owners did not replace the padding very apparent very fast and now my home smells like urine. I've had a professional come out and use enzyme cleaning products and done so myself multiple times since this happened but nothing has helped. As I have dogs myself this means that there are bound to be more accidents in the house as everywhere smells like a bathroom to them and this is a new place so habits are still being formed. Its been driving me absolutely crazy and I simply cannot continue to live in a home that smells like a bathroom. It's not good for the items I have in the home- like clothing, furniture and linens which will absorb the smell- and its not good for my health either as the additional chemicals and strong odors are both triggers. Further it means that I am ashamed to have people over to my home and am cleaning all the time to try to rid the carpets of odor. Both of which affect my life drastically as my schedule has to change and I can't have friends over. Long story short- I'm looking at flooring tomorrow to hopefully start getting quotes for someone to come out and help me with the problem and its likely going to cost a pretty penny as most of my house is carpeted currently. The good of the story is that having hard flooring in the home was a big 'want' on my wants/needs list for a home so I'll be getting something that I wanted, just much sooner than planned. The bad is that sooner than planned means out of budget. More on this project next month.

Until next time,