LivingAlmostLarge's Personal Finance Blog

Okay so here's the question are you going out again one the bans lift where you are? Will you go back to eating out, shopping, living the way you lived? Are you still going to live austerely? Will you travel?

Right now all I want to do is get on a plane and see my family in hawaii. But that is on the backburner and i have no idea when that will happen.

But otherwise? I don't see us changing much from now. I asked my DH we don't see ourselves going traveling. We don't see ourselves eating out. So we are going to sit at home and not spend more money than we do. I mean we spend quite a bit, but on other stuff no. It's just not going to happen. How can it?

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we go back to the way things were. But even then I know we'll likely buffer ourselves with airline tickets, hotel rooms, etc. Even eating out I don't know. How to go away for the weekend and not eat out? Or only camping?

Do you see yourself doing the normal life? Will you change at all or same as before?

I was interested to see if our spending habits changed. It has slightly.

Gas
Jan $260.42
Feb $192.75
March $200.66 - stay at home started but we took two weekend aways before it did
April $38.71 - filled each car once

Guess we are saving on gas.

Groceries - this is interesting
January - $1237.4
Feb - $413.15
March - $966.25
April - $1322.01
= $984.7 Average

Eating out
Jan - $628.49
Feb - $559.78
March - $614.83
April $404.28
=551.84 Average

Not really a huge savings. I know we are supposed to be saving more but it feels like we aren't. But then again I just shopped today 4/30 and spent $414 at costco included in that $1322 total.

We haven't been buying stuff online so I guess that's savings. But in general we don't. I guess it'll be interesting because our April shopping for groceries is really for May. How much will I really spend in May?

I also know I stocked up on essentials and bought a lot of stuff at costco that wasn't "groceries". Today I bought two bike helmets and 2 LOL toys for $100. I also bought all my alcohol for the past two months and juices and toilet paper, paper towels and a lot of stockpiled laundry detergent, etc.

I will admit that my overall CC is much lower than normal. Also the eating out is like 1x/week but we spend more I think because we want to have more than 1 meal from takeout.

Anyway today I bought beef brisket, bulgogi, pork short ribs, carne asada meat, carnitas. That should last us at least 3 weeks of meat without going to costco. I also bought veggies and fruits.

I sold two fridays ago and locked in some gains. I bought like $2k of shorts on dow jones and SP. Today i bought however VOO and QQQ, not sure which way it's going. I cashed out the kids and locked in gains for a bit. I want to see where the market is headed.

That being said we're having lasagna tonight with homemade bolognase sauce I made in slow cooker overnight. Last week I made curry. My kids are done with curry, stew, and chili. I think this week I'm making loco moco, dumplings, pierogies. I'm also thinking of going grocery shopping FINALLY first time in a month. It's been 4 weeks since a major costco run and I am due. I also am thinking about trader joes. I haven't been since February.

So if my state re-opens? What will I do? Well we won't be going out to dinner. We will do takeout still probably once a week maybe more. It took us about 3 weeks to do takeout and now we do it about once a week. I think we might do it more frequently if everything lifts.

We will though still likely cook and I'll minimize going to grocery store. I mean we don't use instacart or grocery delivery because it means waiting and I don't bother. But I think we'll start weekly shopping again after we re-open. Right now once a month is hard. But I'll also go to more stores instead of costco and safeway.

I will miss being able to just go to the store when we want. I will also go solo still and leave DH and kids at home. It's been a long time since the kids have been or DH out somewhere. I think they'd like to go, but my kids seem nervous. I also think that we'll probably have friends come over for a meal. Can't wait. That's the biggest thing is this social distancing. We want to see our friends and families. DH's cousin came over yesterday, first time in 8 weeks or something? And we had drinks in our driveway 6 ft plus apart. It wasn't the same. Usually we see them 2x/month or every other week for dinner or dessert. Usually we'd be planning on flying to see my parents or in-laws or BIL. Now we have no plans.

I feel like the days are lovely and calm but dragging on. Anyway I'm hopeful that we can at least socialize a little with people. But I do believe people will socialize differently and not the same way. I really don't think people will go back to eating out asap. Or going to salon. I'll be practicing cutting DH's hair for awhile.

I read all these articles talking about how generation Xers have been made for this moment. Staying at home, doing nothing. That we were born and raised to it. Truth. It was funny they called us the least parented generation. We were the kids raised latch key because women were either going to the workforce or they were getting divorced and going back to work.

We were the generation of kids who rode the bus, made a snack, did our homework, often did laundry, helped with dinner, etc. We just knew how to do everything. Funny I'd forgotten what it was like but really that was us. As a generation we were independent and content to be at home alone. To be home and solo. We knew how to entertain ourselves without internet. We watched a lot of tv sure but we did a lot of other stuff too. Even now I see fellow generation Xers relaxing and talking about how this reminds them of then.

And further? We now have to yell at our boomer parents. I write this because I have been arguing with my boomer mother about how she had to go out today to drop off her taxes to get done. Why? I said stay home. She said I have to go out everyday to get the paper. I said order it. I said I'll order it. NO she says. I need to go out grocery shopping. Unable to stay at home, feeling confident and honestly not "old" these boomers are more vibrant than past generations. They don't feel "old". They don't feel like they should be part of the "danger" group.

If I could slap my head I would. But for everyone out there arguing with their parents I feel your pain! Ugh this is the only place I can vent I feel. That and my DH who is also venting a bit at his parents. But they don't feel old or in need of sheltering. They feel great and healthier than ever.

Called ameriprise and we are getting some sort of premium relief. What it is and how much we are getting back. They have no idea. But it's something and I'll take it!

LuckyRobin asked will people change their habits after this financial hit? The irresponsible people? I think there are more than few factors at play. I think that yes there are many irresponsible people.

I also think that a lot of people have change their way they view employment and a lot of people are doing things like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc 1099-M "self-employed contractors" making "good" money but not realizing they weren't paying unemloyment insurance, taxes, SS, etc. They thought what they were making was great money but not realizing they weren't really calculating how much they were really making if they responsible paid for everything. Instead they were caught at tax time and moments like this where they were not employees and couldn't get unemployment $.

I think that people are suddenly going to get a wake up call that those jobs are not paying the $25-30/hr. No they are way less but that they are making a living off the backs of "stupid" people who don't really know what they are making.

Yes things will cost more. Things will have increase in price to get delivered in 2 days. That an uber ride is not a cheap fare. Perhaps we'll finally stop susidizing these companies which aren't making money.

I think that people white collar workers might get hit in this recession. That they will get the hit of "omg" that free flowing money into companies making nothing it'll be a redo of 2000/2001 dot.com burst as well as the 2008 great recession.

I would argue that we are heading into a deep depression and vicious cycle of losing jobs, income, housing and we are not able to "spend" our way out of it.

I'm part of generation X. I feel like those of us in this generation has lived through 3 major recessions. 2000/2001, 2008, and 2020. We have weathered it all. We graduated and were young workers when the bubbled popped and 9/11. We were in the midst of buying our "homes" and having families in 2008 when we lost our "Jobs". And now we are in the precarious position of being vulnerable workers subject to being laid off because now we "cost" too much. Most of our neighbors and friends are going through this now and we agree that our age around 40-55 we as a group have always felt unstable with jobs. Perhaps millenials feel they can't find jobs, but generation X have navigated the rough road not having jobs to having precarious jobs.

I think that generation X in general is expecting to not have a pension and we'd be the first generation to attempt to retire without one. We are the first generation to absorb job/income insecurity.

I can understand how it makes some of my generation more irresponsible with money because to them it's easy come and easy go. And you never know what the future holds so just do it.

But I'm hoping we all make it out to the other side in one piece. And our economy somewhat intact. If not then I believe generation X will be out of work shortly.

I didn't have margin accounts set up to do options. I applied so I'll have to wait. Either way I placed orders to open tomorrow.

I'm buying
50 shares of DXD $1600
50 shares of SDS $1500

I want to buy a put option (shorting) expedia. I think it'll drop by May 15th to $40. If I get approved I'll buy it.

I believe that will be a $1200 bet. That should be it for me for awhile. That will be $10k in stock bets I have no idea if I'll win. It will also be stocks I don't want to hold.

I am thinking of buying some currency trades as well.

So I invested more than I expected today. I sunk in $23k in cash into the market. I said I was sticking to $5-10k, but I ended up more. Why? Here's what I bought and I'll explain below why and what happened.

Stock Cost Daily Value Gain/Loss
UCO $809.95 $1,490.00 $680.05
CCL $806.00 $851.00 $45.00
Costco $5,790.20 $5,772.80 -$17.40
JETS $1,209.00 $1,230.00 $21.00
TSLA $4,786.10 $4,789.60 $3.50
TUP $130.50 $140.00 $9.50
WMT $2,368.00 $2,387.80 $19.80
WTIU $210.00 $220.00 $10.00
KO $4,365.50 $4,387.00 $21.50
KO $5,883.00 $4,387.00 -$1,496.00
KO SUM $10,249.50 $8,774.00 -$1,475.50
XOM $3,924.00 $3,940.00 $16.00
XOM $6,260.95 $3,940.00 -$2,320.95
XOM SUM $10,184.95 $7,880.00 -$2,304.95

First I dollar cost averaged another 100 shares of Coke (KO) and Exxon Mobil (XOM). I like the dividend of both stocks so I figured why not. The long term play is to hold both stocks. This was an extra $8k invested. I DCA KO at $51.74. and XOM at $50.9248. It's possible it'll drop more and I'll want to buy more. But the reasons why I wanted them are still there so I'm buying.

Second I bought 10 shares of Tesla (TSLA) for $4789. I had been regretted not buying TSLA when it hit $900/share and have been wanting to hold it long term. I think it'll be the best EV maker. So I pulled the trigger and I'll be holding it awhile.

Third my interesting possible long term play is Costco (COST) and Walmart (WMT). I put my money where my mouth is. I shop a lot at costco. I think they are going to have a blockbuster quarter and are recession proof. I think the same of walmart. Everyone else I know lives in an urban/suburband bubble. But I think WMT is best positioned for this recession and online grocery order. I think amazon has problems with delivery and stocking groceries. But walmart? They are literally in every small town and across america. They have everything and during this time and moving forward I believe that people will turn to something that is easy to shop. And walmart is getting their online shopping and delivery up to speed. Amazon is struggling with delivery and warehouses. WMT has warehouses already built. These are two stocks I think are long term holds possibly. I also think they are going to go gangbusters during this "recession".

Finally I put in about $3100 in stocks I think can go bust. Literally go to $0.

UCO $809.945 - Crude Oil 2x
CCL $806 - Carnival Cruise Lines need i say more
JETS -$1290 - Airline ETF
TUP - $130 - Tupperware
WTIU - $210 - Oil ETF 3x


So here it is day 2.

So I figure everyone can have a good laugh and watch my adventure into day trading. I'm going to start buying some stocks or etfs and just day trade. I'm going to do it here and there

500 UCO for $809.95 purchase
today $1125

Now I'm contemplating TSLA but this is a long term position hold. As well as JETS ETF. The problem is that I think the market might crater again and I'm hesitating.

I'm also contemplating uber. I missed when it hit $14. I'm also wanting to buy Carnival Cruise line. The question is when?

DH has been at home working for a month. I'm about to start and it's going to be hard. I am struggling because right now DH can't do work and be head teacher. I'm doing it and it's hard, harder than I ever imagined. I used to think homeschooling would be cool and I always admired parents who did it. Now I think I'm not sure I can do it but people who do are amazing. However I can't imagine trying to homeschool while working full time. I can easily see how everything goes off the rails fast. When I was trying to work in office (I ended last thursday) the house was off the rails. Everything a mess, barely hanging on. It was a nightmare.

What do I find hard? Maybe it's because I worry we aren't keeping up. I worry that I'm not doing it right. I worry that am I really engaging the kids as much as they should.

I will admit I am lucky. Lucky how? We are not financial unstable so whatever happens DH and I are fine. I don't need to work so I can focus on the kids. Lucky that our kid's are special needs so the IEP for speech and hearing isn't like many others who normally have a full time aid. Parents who need extra support and are floundering. Finally we are also lucky that we live somewhere awesome. How so?

While we are social distancing we are also able to go outside and ride bikes 2x a day rain or shine with neighbors. There are 2 other families with kids exactly in 2nd and 4th grade. And another family with slightly younger kids who is grateful to get them outside. This somewhat social interaction for 30-60 minutes a time gives us time to talk at a distance. Sometimes we even sit in chairs and chat. Also kids get much needed exercise and working out.

On a funny note I keep seeing memes about Generation Xers being ready for this. We were made for this. YES! The once unparented generation of latchkey kids are ready to stay at home. We totally get how to chill at home and relax and be amused. We aren't needing to go out. We are happiest at home. I guess our childhoods of working and/or divorced parents did prepare this for us.

How are you dealing with the lockdown if you are under one?

2 weeks ago I posted I needed to shop, well I didn't. Decided we would make do with what we had and try to last. So we went another two weeks scrounging frozen veggies and luckily the oranges and apples lasted.

Well this month I went to costco first time since Feb 28th for a HUGE shopping trip. I spent $500 on food. It should last about another month. During my Feb trip I spent around $500 and we made it. This time I think we are also okay. I got a package of toilet paper, extra lysol toilet bowl cleaner, windex, large ziploc bags, etc.

I also got unfortunately only 1 package of lactose free milk, I am worrying if I have to go back. I'll wait and limit the kids more. In feb I had 3 packages = 9 * 1/2 gallons of milk. Now I have 3. I also bought 5 dozen eggs non-organic since I was limited to 1 as well. In Feb I had 2 x 24 organic eggs and we have less than 6 left.

I managed to find flour at safeway so I bought 2 - 5 lb bags. I also grabbed 2 - 4 lb sugars. I also snagged 2 - 2 packs of rubber gloves just in case. I was down to my last gloves for cleaning and washing dishes. I also grabbed a spare laundry detergent.
All in all a successful trip and one I probably won't have to replicated for a bit.

I grabbed a ribeye steak roast for tonight DH sliced and we're smoking for dinner. We'll be sharing 2 pieces with neighbors. Twice cooked potatoes, corn, and broccoli for dinner. Then bulgogi tomorrow night with bok choy (i bought 2 cases which will last i hope 2 weeks, we eat a lot of veggies). Then Wednesday our neighbor is offering to cook, so a meal break. Then I'm thinking a loco moco or taco thursday, burger friday, indian chicken curry saturday, teriyaki skewers sunday.

There is fluidity in our meals. I also got bagels for breakfast and will make a couple of bagel egg and bacon sandwiches I also got the girls strawberries 2 packages and we're almost done with 1 today. I did also buy mangoes, asian pears, bananas, and golden nugget mandarins. Again trying to stretch out the fruit.

The cashier said are you an instacard shopper? I said no this is me shopping for a month. I said I haven't been in since Feb 28th. Both the cashier and packer looked at me and said thank you. Thank you for not coming in. Good luck and see you next month. I also bought stuff for a neighbor so I had two overflowing shopping carts.

I ended up spending $500. $500 seemed like a lot (actually it was $850 because I bought Toto Bidet) not sure if we are going to keep and use it. I nearly died when I found out. But the truth is we usually spend about 4x as much eating out and groceries. Usually I spend about $1k a month on groceries and $1k/month eating out. How do I spend so much more on groceries when we eat out?

Because I don't normally shop sales, I got to the store and buy whatever we feel like and prepare it. I host at least 1x/week friends or family dinner and we make something. $100 for cheese, wine, beer, food is par for the course once a week if not more. I also buy lots of fresh fruit in smaller sizes and more expensive prices going to the store more often because it's fresher and less waste. But now we eat everything in bulk since we are at home 3 meals a day. Before I would buy something small and make it fresh. Now it's like well how can I make it stretch for 2 dinners or dinner and lunch?

Anyway I like reading what people are cooking it gives me inspiration. Keep it coming.

This weekend we made spareribs and teriyaki chicken. we also had pulled pork DH made couple of different ways. See dinner below....smoked steak

The shoe hasn't dropped yet. I need to shop tomorrow and stock up a bit more. I shopped and bought a lot about 2 weeks ago. DH was concerned and said we should. So I did. But we've spent two weeks eating what I bought and carefully using what we had. And now 2 weeks later it's worse and I need to shop for food.

We've been very boring. We've been mostly avoiding people. We've been eating in. We haven't been doing much except work and school. But now school is off till end of April. DH is working from home indefinitely. I am pulling back on working. So we are going to self quarantine basically.

I'll post if things change or maybe tomorrow after I see how the stores are. I'm terrified to see. My friend works at costco and she said it's crazy. It's been insane and they are working like mad.

My DK1 turned 10 this weekend. I posted a photo on FB and called it my lost decade. I can't remember what happened. LOL. But truthfully I don't know what happened. I swear I was just carrying the baby carrier and walking the dog and suddenly my 10 year old was running away to her party and I was standing on the sidelines hoping to be invited to play. It's breathlessly stunning. I'm sure some of the other bloggers reading are blinking back tears like I am going what happened? I see more grey in my DH's hair last night as well. I'm very grey but I don't feel a decade older. I desperately want life to slow down but I feel like it's only moving faster. The first year I felt like every day was in slow motion and I was moving through a sleep deprived trance. I don't know what happened except I have photos to prove it. But now I blink and the school year is half gone and I have a kid in double digits.

Anyway I just wanted to share something important to me and my feelings. I wonder how much longer will she humor me and have a party? How much longer till she says give me cash to buy what I want. I swear I could feel her thinking about it. How much longer do I have until she's done? Some of throwing the party was to chat with other parents and just enjoy her having fun. Part of it is me not ready to let go. To do the "sleepover", fancy dinner for 3-4 others, movie out, a grown up party if you can call it that. She's been invited out for stuff like that and I guess I'm not ready.

I watch also as she peruses the adult menu as we go out to eat. Her shoe size is almost an adult and she's so tall. Soon she won't be a "child" but teen and then adult.

I know it's coming because I watch the money I've been saving for her grow but it's seemed surreal. It was meant to grow but I hadn't thought about it growing as she was growing.

There was this movie called "10 things I hate about you," and the dad tells the main character a senior in high school "you don't need me. I've been benched for years. Your sister still lets me play a few innings. But when you go away I won't even be able to watch the game."

I sort of felt like that watching the birthday party. Next post about how much I've been spending this month....oh the shame.

I forgot to post this about a month ago. We ended up at small claims court with the private school my DK2 went to. She had been bullied at school and we had been constantly talked with the principal/owner and teachers. They had refused to return our money and finally in June with 2 months, the other child bite my DK2 and scratched her on the face. I pulled her out and kept her home with me asap. I couldn't let her go back. We had prepaid the tuition for a year so we "lost" out on $2500 for 2 months July and August. I had asked the boy and her be separated classrooms and they refused. I had multiple emails since december asking for solutions.

Turns out I did everything right and they breached the contract by not coming up with a reasonable solution. So they are being forced to refund us our money. We had offered many options but school refused to do any of the suggestions. I think a lot had to do with the boy being the son of one of school's teachers. Whatever.

I have to admit it was a good day. I sat there and didn't explode when the principal/owner called my child a bully, on the spectrum, problem child, unaware of social etiquette. It was horrible. I did not use the word bully at all in the court and I said there were these situation x, y, z. And I had photos and proof by both email and letter from other child apologizing for incidents. I honestly didn't hold the child/parents responsible I never talked with them. I held the school for not doing anything.

It's been almost a month and they haven't paid me. I'm not surprised. The principal/owner was so pissed she was spitting nails. I can also now after getting my money post about her losing in court on social media my review of the school. I'm just waiting.

It just came up because her month grace period to pay me is almost up. I have to admit I savor the win because it means I didn't overreact, nor did I do something completely irrational. Nor did I do anything that was helicopter parenting.

What to do with money? I think DK 1 and 2 deserve extra money saved for them.

Right now

DK1 $36k College
$20k taxable
$1k cash in bank savings accounts

Dk2 $27k college
$19k taxable
$1k cash in bank savings accounts

Gosh if I had that much saved for me when I was growing up I can't imagine how much further ahead I'd be right now. LOL.

Anyway though it isn't the $2600 but rather how much the school/owner pissed me off. She told me kids will be kids. That there is nothing that could be done. That it's expecting too much. That I'm being completely unreasonable. That I signed a contract and she never gave back money to anyone. I'd have to just suck it up. And then to later sit there and call my child names in court and talk about her being the problem. To claim she's special needs and that she had been a problem from day 1. Not true and we had progress reports scanned in showing she was a model child and good socially. To suddenly misbehaving and instigating all the incidents.

Really? My kid asked to for her jacket hood to be pulled so she fell at recess backwards? She asked to be teased? She asked to be scratched on the face? She asked for glitter to be poured on her lunch? She asked for her hand to be bitten? She asked to be pushed down on the playground? I get the little boy was 4 turning 5 and younger than her by a few months. But then he shouldn't have been in kindergarten he should still have been in Pre-K where he belonged based on the state age requirements for school.

I'm hoping this principal just pays me in the next week and I don't have to figure out how to collect my money. I'd rather not waste my time. But out of principal I will...

So I was trying to calculate all our CC rewards.

Discover $61.34 cash
Costco LAL $326.46
Costco DH $74.49
Chase Sapphire $300 Travel Cash Back
Chase Rewards $2115
Alaska $2550 (35000 * 5 + 30000 miles redeemed at a valuation of 1 cent per mile which is low. These were all redeemed at a higher cost. Plus the $500 on companion fare for card for hawaii ticket).

$5427 in rewards. It's actually higher because discover I use to get gift cards for restaurants and I regift them to people like teachers for starbucks. Hey $45 for $50 is a 5% extra cash back. I also get 2% on costco for executive membership that pays for $120 membership and then a bit more.

I normally do not redeem so much in flight miles and currently have used pretty much all our miles. We also have a bunch of bonvoy points from opening card which I need to use.

I think a more typical year is $3k in rewards. Not bad just for using a CC. Free money.

Okay so it's been bad year for spending.

I was perusing our spending. Big budget categories

$25k traveling - big was the WDW trip that was about $10k. Seriously awesome though and I got a christmas card photo out of it. This year I'm not sure we are going to spend less I'm feeling around $20k I usually predict.

$15k dog. Seriously unexpected. He had surgery for $6k, then all his visits to vet with every other week blood measurements. Then his $500/month medications. He turned 2 in May and yes he's a rescue. I'd have probably been better off with a purebred bought from a breeder. But he's our third rescue and honestly he's a GREAT dog. Last night our husband teased the kids and said our best kid is the DOG. Hahaha. But I must admit that when my kids are pissing me off the dog is sometimes the only person listening to me. He goes on walks while I just think and talk. He lies on the couch and bed with me and kids. He guards the house when my DH travels. I'll admit to being very attached again. Sigh. I did tell my DH because of his disease I bet he won't live as long as we thought. And we'll likely get one more dog.

Home - $27k mortgage interest, $11k property Taxes, $10.5k new driveway, Yard $2k, closets $500. Homes are a money pit. Next year I am thinking we are maybe doing a new shed and I'm going to work on the addition I wanted.

Groceries and Eating out $24k about $1k/month for both. I am trying to rein in eating out but the groceries well what can I say? Our eating out is about about $50-100/meal 2x/week. The real budget buster for eating out is when family/friends visit and we pick up that check. Thanksgiving and Christmas looking at it we spent over $1k during those weeks both times. Then we're spending $100-200/meal plus a week in the summer with my inlaws and two weeks in Hawaii. It runs up our eating out amounts fast.

It was a crazy year.

So I feel like I have grown a lot with many of the people on the board. My life has gotten significantly different and changed and I'm thrilled to have read about your lives as well. It's amazing to see people's lives and know that though we haven't meet I feel like I've been given a front row seats to important events in your lives. Anyone who reads this certainly has been given a front row seat to my life. Anyway thanks CCF. I have read about your girls since 2006ish and I cannot believe you have one ready to graduate college. It brings a tear to my eyes. Disneysteve I recall reading about the planning in his daughters baht mitzvah and now she's a young adult working. It's been quite a ride. Monkeymama had two small monkeys who are rather large now! I've read many of you getting married, moving, divorced, and joys and sadness. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Things have changed a lot for me. 10 years ago I was 8 months pregnant and eagerly awaiting the birth of my first child a girl. DK1 was born end of January but was due end of February. I was about to defend my thesis but had been mommy brained and lazy. I finished my thesis and defended in June of 2010 (yeah me!). Notice my biggest thrill this decade was becoming a mom? Anyway having a child changed my DH and I a lot. We lost 1 income and still haven't gone back to 2 full time incomes 10 years later. We added a second child in 2012, moved cross country, changed careers (both of us to entirely different fields), and didn't work or have income for an entire year! 8/2015-8/2016. OMG!!! If we had we'd likely be further ahead but we wouldn't be as happy as we are now. Something I tell people, we took a sabbatical in the the middle of our life rather than retiring a year early.

Finances 2010
LAL Roth IRA - $21,820
DH Roth IRA - $74,170
DH 401 - $100,378
Total - $196,398

Taxable Assets excluding home - $5k

DH has just finished his MBA which we cash flowed and he had NO LOANS. We spent $85k on this MBA. Our Net Worth was $201k. We took out a loan in 6/2010 to buy a subaru outback. And I think at that time we probably had $200k in home equity. We had maxed out the IRA and 401k since 2006 for $98,500 contributions and had $100k in gains.

Finances 2020
LAL IRA - $146,988 ($78k contributed)
DH IRA - $346,776 ($78k contibuted but some rolled over and paid taxes from old 401k)
DH 401k - $542,361 ($258,500 contributions from 2006)
Total - $1,036,129

Taxable accounts - ~$422k. So about $1.4m not counting home equity. So increase of $1.2M in net worth not counting home equity. Not bad for 9 years of savings and spending $100k that year for living. $60k living, $20k DH's course, and $20k for moving and expenses. It was crazy that we managed to break even 2015 and 2016 with investment income and savings from DH starting a new job.

2020 goal hit $600k in taxable accounts. I think in about 5 years we will hit $1m. I'm still on the fence with buying an investment property. Still looking.

Happy to read about everyone else! Have a wonderful 2020. I am soon celebrating DK1 10th birthday and I don't know where the time went. How can I be 40?

I certainly didn't expect my life to take these turns!

DK got lots of small toys from my parents. They also got gifts from a few other relatives So they were good. From us? 3 stocking stuff toys each between $8-12. Pikmi pop, curlylocks, and LOL ball. Then they had the build a bear I get them every year $75/each, Lego Advent $30, and a big toy from Santa $20 (shopkins) and $20 gift from us (shopkins and calico critter) and weirdly socks and blanket. That does not include the cirque du soliel show tonight or any other activities we've done. I guess with everything I've spent $300 or so on each kid. Which is a lot considering it didn't seem like a lot of gifts. Of course it wasn't things but show and building a stupid bear was ridiculous. I did get the $75 bear for 40% off buying the gift cards from costco at $60 for $100. I forgot the mani-pedi for each $15.

Anyway I'm hoping to teach the kids appreciation. It's so hard when you have so much. When I have more time I'll write my thoughts on the kids paying their way and rant on retirement.

What did you spend on the holiday? I did spend more than that with my parents, eating out, the show, etc.

So I run a Girl Scout troop and we are hosting friends and neighbors this weekend Saturday friends and Sunday Neighbors. I told my troop NO GIFTS. No Secret Santa. I didn't want to.

Then our friends and neighbors asked me the same thing and I shrieked again NO gifts. Not for me or the kids.

I recall in college my roommate and friends I looked them in the eye and said I don't want to do gifts. I have no money and I don't like it. So we ate dinner together and ENJOYED each other's company.

5 years ago we moved and the kids got a tree and we stopped going to hawaii. As of next year I think we are going back to flying to hawaii. UGH. That means gifts for the family. Right now I don't do it. I send gift cards and a card.

5 years ago I got the kids 5 gifts including a lego advent which I did again and Christmas pajamas. This year I did lego advent but no pajamas. I'm debating doing it. I got them 1 santa gift, 2 gifts from DH and stocking stuffers.

This year I picked up a blanket for DK 2 and DK1 got a book. I don't know I'm buying more.

I know I feel like a scrooge but seriously! I think my kids get a lot from my parents. I give them a couple of gifts and my siblings and BIL give them gifts UGGGHH (did I mention I send gift cards to my neices and nephews). Enough. I peaked at one of the gifts was a decorate your water bottle. Another was make your own jewelery. I don't want crap.

A friend said do me do I really have no presents under the tree? I said yes. And if anyone coming over has a gift for us I'm didn't buy them one. I am done. I don't' want to.

I started at 18 years old and I haven't changed. When I first had my kids with other friends I did the same thing. NO GIFTS.

Am I really that weird? Now it's not about the money But I honestly hate even shopping for teachers. I just shove a gift card and I make cookies or a pie.

Have you changed? This is in response to laura and her new traditions. I feel more like a scrooge but I haven't changed in 20+ years. I kind of like no gifts.

FWIW DH is going heli skiing and we are taking a ski trip over new years. We are also seeing cirque du soliel with my parents and we are doing an overnight at a fancy hotel I paid for. Plus we are going out to eat and hosting 3 christmas get together.

I don't feel like I'm cheaping out. I feel like I'm doing stuff that I enjoy rather than buy gifts. I admit that I buy what I want when I want it always. But that's not why I don't shop for Christmas. I just don't need more clothes and I already stress about the toys the kids have.

So 10 years ago DH and I bought our first life insurance when we had our first child. I bought a 25 year term for both of us. $500k for me and $2m for DH. Our premiums? $243/year for $500k for me. I was 30 and DH was 32. His was $1098/year. After 10 years of payments I have paid $2430 and $10,980 for peace of mind. It sort of bites to think I have spent that much but what if something happened? Or worse? What if something happens in the next 15 years?

As it stands I don't have more on myself but I have another super cheap $2m on DH through work. It's so cheap that we buy it. Might as well. Extra insurance. I have a large mortgage now and I still am not working full time.

But seeing these numbers makes me wonder if I should consider cancelling it? For sure I'll be happy when it's done. It sort of coincides with my DK2 finishing theoretically college if she finishes in 4 years. We'll be retiring so it should be great timing. But at that time we'll have paid around $25k for DH and $5k for me.

Should we cancel it?

So I had a meeting with the council. I am still going through the motions of asking the girl to leave the troop. The answer was we have to meet next week with the parents to determine what can be done. They said there are different options.

My response? I said no. I cannot take her back. Why? Because when I had started to talking to the other parents in the troop, they said "I wouldn't bring it up but since you asked..." Their kids were having trouble with the girl. I had 5 parents tell me that. Now what? My kid probably has one of the least problems.

But for the greater good of the troop I told the council I'm still going to ask her to leave. I feel that for the girl as well I think that she needs a fresh start. I think that she needs to go somewhere that people don't have preconceived notions. That she can go in fresh and perhaps change her behavior instead of trying to correct how people perceive the girl's prior behavior.

I'm not sure and I wasn't angry and I wasn't upset. I was actually overly calm. I think the council member thought I was not firm in my stance to remove the girl from the troop. But again I am going through the procedure.

We'll what happens.

$996,205 is our combined retirement balance. So close yet so far. UGH. Ha I guess we'll hit the magic $1 million in January. I'll do a max out Roth IRA and then we'll be over. It's been a good year. Our retirement started out at $789,426 and it's grown $200k. Yes a big chunk was savings but also a big chunk was growth.

The plan seems to be firming up that we are going to stay put until DK2 is launched and finished with college in 2034. That means 14 more years? Considering how fast these years have gone I imagine these next 14 years will pass by in a blink of an eye. After all I think I found this site 14 years ago and a lot has changed.

Does it scare me? Yes absolutely. It seems surreal. They numbers on the page are real but it doesn't seem like it should be. I always wondered how did people amass so much money. It always seemed unreal The answer? One day at a time. Honestly. Keep on trucking and suddenly at 40 life is a lot easier.

At least for us we had a lot of big bills and lower salaries earlier in our 20s and 30s that made it really hard to save and see a difference. We lived frugally like college students because of our extended college educations and minimal salary. But things began to change in 2010 and then by 2015 we had really started to ramp up earning power. And suddenly here we are almost 5 years later even more so.

I will say however right now i'm crunching our numbers and I'm still tempted to buy a bigger home. I don't know though.

I've been feeling super guilty but I am right now trying to remove a girl from my GS troop. She's been in the troop for 2 years and this is the start of the 3rd year. The girls are in 4th grade. A lot has happened and I was asked to recreated a timeline for the district manager so that I can properly document and remove the girl. I am desperately trying to get her removed before our next event 12/6/19 but the DM is moving very slow. Here is a timeline summary I sent them.

November 2017 to June 2018
-the Girl E was difficult at most meetings
-mostly the ADHD and very hyper and difficult and often did not listen
-lied when asked questions

June 2018 - party at my house
-girl was disrespectful and refused to clean up or listen when asked to behave
-lied about taking a toy (not proven) because she said she brought toy over, not that it was one of my personal toys from my house. We had no idea what people brought over or not but my children said she took it and I think it unusual that people bring toys over so we'll let it slide.

November 2018
-incident with 2 other girls at meeting
-girls were not listening, running out of the room
-girls got into an altercation in my car which included unbuckling seatbelts and trying to hit each other in car while I was driving
-this lead me to have talk with entire troop and put all 3 girls on probation. Everyone in troop had to sign behavior agreement. All 3 girls were required to have parents at meetings and overnight
-the mother was going through a separation at home and often couldn't stay and said she had to pick up son and counseling.
- I gave her more flexibility than the other 2 moms because of the separation. THIS was a MISTAKE

May 2019 - Camp
-E went but had a hard time following directions.
-she did not want to do kapers (chores)
-she really didn't want to listen and sulked if the other girls did not want to do what she wanted
-she talked about being a bully and was glad of it. She said it's better to be picking on someone instead of being picked on.
-we discussed how this was inappropriate but she didn't seem to care

August 30th, 2019
-renewal for joining troop and mom decided last minute to join on last possible day. I was hoping to avoid them renewing

October 2019
-at an overnight of 4 girls she struggled to get along with the girls
-didn't listen again and got upset
-did better and didn't physically lash out but was angry
-still having some trouble at meetings but was getting better

November 15/16 2019
-lied about incidents at overnight
-Before the overnight her mom very honestly told me that they were only interested in carpooling if she could screen the kids in the car with E. Because E didn't like some of the girls in the troop. Yes I did accommodate this, however I don't think this was appropriate.
-Esaid she wasn't involved in anything.
-E and another girl pushed and trapped 3rd girl in the shower and turned it on. The 3rd girl told and other girl confirmed it.
-4th girl's notebook was stolen. Again I could not prove it but two girls said they saw E with the stolen notebook which was ripped up. So I did not make any accusations because I didn't see or catch her with it.

I feel a lot of guilt because I know she and her mom are having a rough go. But at the same time I feel like she's ruining the dynamic of the troop and causing friction with multiple other girls. I feel like I keep giving her chances to the detriment to the other kids. This makes the troop rules seem lax. I can't help but feel if I remove this girl then a lot of problems might ease.

Maybe I'm overreacting, maybe I'm being too strict, or too tired. When I talked to two other troop leaders they both said if I feel that it's too much to deal with I'm a volunteer. I need to ask her to leave. I'm not paid to deal with her and the situation.

I'm not sure how this will wind up but I'll update it. If anyone wants to share how they've dealt with it.

If this were one of my kid's friends we just wouldn't see them again. Obviously it's not that simple. But I can't help but wonder in some ways isn't it the same thing? If you can't behave then people won't make playdates or want to play with you?

I had another hearing test and it was determined it was borderline. So they suggested hearing aids. Because of my insurance covering it 100% I am rushing forward with it before it probably changes January 1st. Typical because who knows what is going to be covered. I am hoping to finish this by the end of the year.

I will admit it's a bit annoying that medical plans always change every year. That you only know what will be that year but next year who knows?

So today I booked girl scout camp for 1 week for DK in August 2020. $25 deposit each but the camp will be $500/each including transportation and 1 overnight. They are going with a couple of friends and their first overnight away from us. So we decided to go for it. If they hate it we won't send them away. Interestingly a lot of kids in our neighborhood went last year to sleep away camp for a week and a bunch are going this year. My DK1 is not willing to try it. I figure by the time she's going into 6th maybe?

I booked a cruise in Japan in June 2020 through costco on Princess. For the four of us it's $5356 including free gratuities, shipboard credit, and free upgrade. I think we are planning on using our miles for the flights. I did find a flight to return through Hawaii on Air Asia for $168 per person and return home for $260. So that is on the table. I'm also getting the marriott bonvoy credit card for $95 and 3 nights free I want book and hope to use for our trip. I'm going to budget $10k for the trip not including the miles for airfare.

We also have a couple weeks away for 3 nights each and ~$200 so we are spending $600 for hotels 2x and I'm going to guess $200 on food each day plus gas and parking. That takes care of our trips thus far and spending for 2020.

I also booked hawaii in Feb but I had miles for that so I guess it was $40 total in fees. I also stay with family and don't rent a car so for the 6 days I'm guessing we'll spend $200/day eating out (gotta treat the parents and family so maybe more).

I have one more October/Thanksgiving trip in 2020 to plan. I am hoping to go to southeast asia. I will be out of miles but I may have points from Chase sapphire reserve that I might use for some of it. I'm hoping to come in around $10k for that trip depending on how long we go for and where. Tickets will be the cost eater. I'm hoping to stay under $4k for the four of us which will likely decide where we go.

I'm curious if these miles and free nights work out.

DK2 will finish high school in 2030. Woah typing that makes it real. I believe she'll be done (fingers crossed) in 2034. DH will be 56 turning 57 and I'll be around 55 depending on graduation date.

We have 14.5 years until we are done. I am freaked out a bit reading that. Based on the rule of 7 we should be able to double our investments 2x over. Since in theory your investments double every 7 years. By that rule we'd have a ridiculous amount of money.

I guess I feel it going by in a blink because I believe I started blogging here and on my own website in 2005. So it's been 14 years or so and my how times have changed.

If I can figure it out I should put one of those countdown days. It might freak me out though to watch it. For many of you I'm sure you are also feeling the passage of time as I read your blogs and smile. I find incredibly interesting to see how people's live have changed sometimes very rapidly. To see how much has improved often times because of this site.

Anyway I was just musing about time.

For some reasons we get very unlucky with what we spend on our pets. Perhaps the real reason is we don't pay on the front end, we adopt dogs, so instead we pay on the back end.

Anyway last year I think I mentioned our dog we adopted in October 2018, a gorgeous standard poodle, was diagnosed with immume mediated thrombocytopenia. It's an autoimmune disease where his body attacks his platelets. We've spent a fortune this year, I'm not adding it up, on medications, and going to the vet every 1-2 weeks for blood draws to measure and see if it's being controlled.

Well it's been a year on steroids and lots of medications and it's not. The long term steroids usage is causing cyst formation and we are at a crossroads. We've been trying to lower his dosage and medications but it's not working. His platelets if they go lower he'll likely bleed out and die.

We were kicked off our pet health insurance I bought because we just bought it and had no idea about background. Anyway we'd have gone over the lifetime $10k limit probably anyway with nationwide and I'm not sure they would have covered all of this treatment. It's more for in case of injury kind of deal.

But he's a fabulous dog. He's 2.5 years old, great shape otherwise and seriously the best dog either of us have ever had. He's super well behaved, really smart. I mean ridiculously smart. DK1 teaches him trick in an hour. He can open doors with his paws. He totally gets our routines, can hear our cars up the street, and just is really a great dog. I don't know if all standard poodles are this smart, but even the dog trainer we worked with said he's EXTREMELY well adjusted, smart, and perfect.

The dog trainer we hired was used by the rescue group we got him from and he'd kept him. He'd used our dog as a training dog for other dogs who were aggressive or shy. He was so even keeled, well mannered, good size that he was perfect. We used the dog trainer so we could control him off leash with voice commands and walk perfectly. He can place easily for 60 minutes outdoors. He can walk without leash and sits in the car perfectly and can be walked by our kids.

So anyway we are at the point of having tried all medications. So the vet suggested that we remove his spleen and his cysts. The surgery will cost $5-7k. I'm a little nervous however because of his low platelet level that surgery is dangerous. This is the same scenario of what happened with our last dog that we had to put him under to remove his cracked tooth or put him down. The cysts also had a rare strain of bacterial infection because of compromised immune system.

I guess I'm just freaked out. I hope this works out. What we're hoping is to reduce his immune response and while he will be compromised without his spleen(he already is majorly immune compromised) he can reduce his medications and we can keep him at a relatively normal level and ease off of weekly blood checks. Something like 2-4 times a year.

Maybe it would have been better to buy a dog next time. But I feel guilty even from a breeder. Who knows. I'll update again in a couple weeks after we do an ultrasound to confirm we can and should do the surgery. Fingers crossed. If this works he'll have another 8-10 good years with us. He's truly been a great addition to the family. He sleeps with us and the kids and is so big and funny he climbs right in bed when we read books and love to just sleep all day.

So then on Monday 10/14 night we checked into WDW Marriott Swan hotel. Unfortunately for us the power went out that day in half the hotel. So checking in took over 1 hour and it was a ZOO. Had we known we'd have gone to eat out before arriving at the hotel and assuming we could eat there. The restaurants were closed and we had to go to the Dolphin and it was busy.

So besides the parking how much spending did we do? We spent $64 on magic bands to make using our fastpasses easier. It really helped with the kids. I sort of wish there was a way to buy express passes for disney like Universal or buy more fast passes. I hated waiting in lines and while we mostly skipped anything with lines, because of our compressed time frame it would have been nicer to have all rides planned.

I want to add we stopped at publix and bought 8 pack of coke and 8 pack of powerade to drink in the park daily. The kids each had a bottle of powerade and water daily and we refilled. DH had cokes and I had water. This saved us on paying park prices but was only possible because we had a car to shop. If we were really frugal we'd have packed lunches daily and lots of snacks. But I felt like part of the fun was eating disney themed food.

But 10/15 we went to HS by boat and we spent $103.70 on food for the day. We mobile ordered at Docking bay 7 while doing the millenium falcon ride during EMH and it was good. The ride was awesome and we waited around 40 minutes. Other than that counter service we ate at the Epcot food stands for dinner. We made it to Epcot riding the gondolas which took around 30 minutes. Then we drove that night to AK for the River of lights show. We did Frozen, star tours, and Buzz on fast pass 2x and I snagged the River of lights on my phone. Other than that we didn't really wait in line for anything else.

On 10/16 we went to AK and took and uber round trip $22 including tips. We spent $177.54 on Food at Harambe Cafe for lunch (mobile ordered), snacks at cart, and dinner again at Epcot. We loved animal kingdom just walking around and doing a few rides. I wish we had more time to spend there. We did the Navi River, Kali Rive, and Safari bus on FP and did shows rather than wait in lines. We did dinner at epcot because I snagged FP at 6 pm for soarin. Then off to bed because we were up early for AK

The next day we went to EMH @ AK and waited 45 minutes for the flight of passage ride. We had fast passes for 10/19 but weren't sure we would do it. It was great. We ended up ubering there and back again for $25. We also took an uber from the Swan to the front of Epcot since it was our epcot day for another $10 instead of the free boat because we were running so late and about to miss our test track FP. We also did nemo and space on FP. Then we waited in our longest line probably 60 minutes for Frozen ride. I couldn't get fast passes no matter what.

Then we headed back to the hotel early around 3 pm and swam. Our meals for that day at epcot was $129.33 mostly because DH and I had I believe 3 drinks each. We also went to dinner at Todd English Blue Zoo for ~$125. It was nice. So we spent around $255 for food.

On Friday again we used uber to get to magic kingdom when they opened for EMH at 7 am. I took the uber to the contemporary hotel. It was 10.91 and worth every penny. We did the 7 dwarf train in 25 minutes, winnie the pooh, haunted mansion, it's a small world all before 8:25 FP to buzz lightyear. then while in line waiting for the train I got a reservation for breakfast at Be Our Guest at 10 am so it was our "brunch" for the day. The meal cost $109.70. It was nice but not really worth it. The kids I guess aren't huge Beauty and the Beast fans so they didn't care much about the castle or seeing everything. It was a nice break.

Then we did our splash mountain and peter pan FP and pirates and called it a day after seeing a few shows. We left the park by 2 pm because I had reservations at mama melrose's for Fantasmic dinner packages at 5 pm at HS. It took us an hour to get to our hotel after waiting for the bus. Then we took the boat to HS from the swan. If my DK could have walked to Contemporary I would have uber it back. The meal including tip was $152. Well worth it. Mostly because I couldn't get FP for the show and I liked not waiting in line for it. Plus we had a nice sit down meal and rest. The show was amazing and we loved it. It started to rain so we bought 4 WDW ponchos for $48. Turns out we needed it the next day. So our daily food total was $261.

We went back to HS to ride slinky dog at 730 am in a torrential downpour 10/19. There was NO LINE because it was POURING. I mean hurricane Norman was heading to florida. Then we rode the millenium falcon 3x in 1 hour before 9 am and the park opened and the line jumped to 90 minutes even in the rain. We checked out of the hotel and grabbed sandwiches to share for $20 in the lobby. We went to AK and rode Pandora 2x for DK1 and myself. DK2 and DH went to walmart and bought extra socks and long pants for the kids. We didn't know where the pants they wore coming was. It was in the mess of dirty laundry and our socks were soaked. So they shopped at walmart for 2 hours and we enjoyed the AK. We left by 1 pm AK and headed to tampa. We had a fabulous lunch at Ulele for $110 including tip then off to the airport for our 6 pm flight home.

All in all a fast and fun trip. All in our trip cost us $8500. Better than the $10k I was predicting. My surprise was how little we spent on food. $1400 for a week is probably less than what we spend here on food if we ate out 2x/day on average. But where we are eating out is expensive. Plus I think we tend to undereat when we travel so we don't have leftovers. We tend to at most order 3 meals because we know the kids can share and DH and I for the most part shared every meal.

Would the disney dining plan been worth it? Probably. We could have saved since it would have cost $175/day. But I'm not sure because a lot of our costs came from alcohol at Epcot. That would not have been covered I think in the entirety. But we would have had a lot of food.

But it really was a nice trip. The photos are great. I have to say I like how many group shots there are of us when usually it's just one of us taking a photo.

This a multi day post. My prior posts to may were deleted. Anyway how did our trip to Orlando WDW and Universal go? Great. Very nice we had a lot of fun but didn't obviously do everything. We plan on going back but who knows when?

So our tickets were $654 to Tampa for four people and leaving Tampa $853 for a total of $1507 for tickets. Our car rental (hyundai sonata) was $200 for the week all taxes and fees. Our parking was $28 for 1 day at universal and $25 a day at disney * 6 = $160. I filled up just before returning for $30. So $390 for the week. Did it beat the price of flying into Orlando? Yes. The orlando ticket price for red eye flights which we didn't want was around $1000 each way for 4 of us which was $500+ - $800 savings for tickets alone. The same daytime flight for us into Orlando was closer to $1200 for 4 of us negating any savings of flying into orlando and my DH wasn't about to do the red eye.

Plus the Uber between universal and WDW would have been $25 minimum, Uber to Universal $35 minimum, and Disney Swan to Orlando airport $75 minimum (not including tip, traffic, or surge pricing). So we were looking at another $150. If the prices for flying into orlando had been better I would have done that and used uber/lyft the entire time.

That being said we then paid $1551.85 for 1 night and two days park hopper at Universal staying at the Loews Royal Pacific. Worth it for many reasons. We did it to get express unlimited passes. Even though it was "low" season I don't know I could have survived without the minimal line standing.

We bought one adult and one child prepaid meal with refillable drinks for $55. We bought two Harry Potter wants (cho chung and hermonine granger) @ $55 each and a $35 wand stand. We only had 2 butter beers each day (total 4) 2 were covered as park snacks as well at 3 chocolate frogs for $33. We had dinner at Margaritaville $110. The night we arrived we spent $95 at Yard house and $8 in drinks at the airport. The second day we ate lunch at universal ~$35.

So the trip so far we were at $3582 with tickets, universal, souvenoirs, and food.

But my DK1 loved it. She spent hours playing with her wand doing magic in the Harry Potter world. The hogwarts express was amazing. It was definitely worth the park hopper passes. The train ride had different experiences going from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade and the reverse. She already asked to go back again. She said please don't make me wait 2-3 years until DK2 reads all the books. So she really had a great time. I admit it was really amazing the harry potter worlds. We'll see when we go back.

So it's been almost 2 months since we ended amazon prime. It finished end of January 2019. Have I missed it? Not one bit. I've ordered 1x from there Natori Bra $70 (that's another topic OMG) and hands free blue tooth. Free shipping over $35.

But otherwise have I or my DH bought anything? Nope. Makes for saving money. Yes we buy stuff. We got to the store.

Like today I need toilet paper and paper towels and groceries. We bought stuff for science project for kids.

But I suspected we didn't shop much and we don't watch TV, so I guessed we didn't need prime. I was right. We haven't missed it a bit.

Shocking. But it confirms what I suspected too. That a lot of "frugal" finance people probably don't shop a ton online or in the stores. You buy things with regularity and purpose. Very little is wanted and you buy a lot of needs.

At least that's my take. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm losing money but I'm pretty sure I'm not spending by not buying and I'm coming out ahead of those who shop a lot online. Of course I'm not sure if that's because I don't shop versus shop poorly.

It's been a long time since we got a tax refund. It's a bit surreal. Anyway we got back $4500. I know it was an interest free loan to uncle sam but I thought we were going to be owing so it was surprised.

Now what to do with the money? I don't have a clue. Guess just pay our bills.

I know doing taxes a lot of people were surprised both ways. Some were shocked by how much they owed. Mostly because the IRS changed the withholding tables. So people who didn't change anything owe a lot unexpectedly. Then there were those expecting to owe and getting larger than expected refunds. People who normally owe so they kept on paying.

I think all these new tax laws changes shocked people.