A House Fire, A Wedding & An Anniversary

This whole race to Financial Independence and Retiring Early (FI/RE) just got a lot hotter. If you haven’t already heard, I had a little house fire situation. Make sure you check out The House Fire Chronicles: Part I which details how that has been playing out. I can almost guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t know about Renter’s insurance.

Along with the house fire I also celebrated an anniversary in The Hamptons. You might be thinking “oooh boy, you think you fancy huh?” I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to read how it was both lavish and frugal. We’ll cover my first full month with MoviePass. And oh, I almost forgot… I played the role of preacher man and married two of my best friends! This roundup is packed with much more life events than I’m used to so stay tuned.

Income: $7,452.17

This is where my income should sit for quite some time. I’ve been battling between Roth and Traditional accounts have had decided to go back to Roth for now which has lowered my net dollars coming in.

Total Expenses: $1,273.55

WOW! That’s a low one for me. This is only the 3rd time in 3.5 years that I’ve kept my expenses under $1300. Keep reading to see how it unfolded.

Travel: $137.62

I had already bought plane tickets for Denver to marry my friends. While there me and Leslie stayed with friends and hiked about 13 miles inside of Rocky Mountain National park for free thanks to the Annual Pass they give all active duty military. I also went up to New Hampshire with a group of friends to work alongside Habitat For Humanity and spent the night exploring one of their port towns with a free stay thanks to friends letting us crash over.

Then that brings us to the big anniversary weekend in the Hamptons. Leslie’s present to me was a weekend stay at this awesome property right in the thick of the upper class elite. This place had the most insane yard, giant heated pool, awesome deck and about 13 of us coming in that weekend. Everyone else was paying $400+ for the opportunity to sleep inside, spread across beds, couches and air mattresses. I was very proud when Leslie explained to me that she had also got us a spot but for half the price.

How’d she get such a sweet deal? Easy, we didn’t sleep in the house. We took glamping to a whole new level. Sleeping in the front yard for the first night in a tent until we realized we’d be woken up by sprinklers every morning. The final two nights we set our mattress up in the tree house. I slept like a baby and didn’t have a single bug bite. Weather was perfect, fresh air, and way more comfortable than a couch. It almost seemed like people felt badly for us but honestly, I felt bad that they didn't get to experience the treehouse life. Check out the nostalgic looking photo below of our treehouse palace where for some reason we appear to be naked.

I also had two different weekends where some of my best friends were able to come in. We hung out, watched movies on my portable move theatre, went whale watching (Groupon gift card), hit up the Sam Adams tour (free) and even caught a Red Sox game ($10). The other expenses for this month came from tolls, future camping, and some Lyft rides.  

Going Out: $44.10

All of the eating out this month was either in the Hamptons or after my house fire. If you read my house fire post, you’ll understand that I don’t have to count those because my renter’s insurance is covering everything above and beyond my normal groceries. 

Groceries: $39.22

Again, a lot of my groceries were covered by renter’s insurance and I was getting a lot of my meals directly from the hotel itself. I did some cooking though, even in the Hamptons. Cue the delicious breakfast bacon burger photo with a unicorn floatie in the back...

Bills: $919.32

Bills for this month include Rent ($775), Unlimited Data Cell Phone ($85), Spotify ($5), Car Insurance ($49.32), and Utilities ($75). I’ve also still got the Aero Club membership fee ($30) and the $10 MoviePass membership.

I gotta take a second to talk about my deep love for Movie Pass. Sure it has some technical quirks, but in my first month I saw 12 movies in theatres for $10. That’s insane. I’ve seen several more since then and you can see all that in the image below.

Great Movies: A Quite Place, American Animals, Black Panther, Avengers Infinity Wars

Good Movies: Leave No Trace, Deadpool 2, Upgrade, Solo, Blockers, Incredibles 2, Tag, Jurassic Park, Ant-Man & The Wasp, Uncle Drew, The First Purge

Meh Movies: Super Troopers 2, Hereditary

Miscellaneous: $60.34

I bought some reusable zip tie things ($8). They’re literally one of my favorite purchases this year. They’re beyond handy and make me feel stupid for not knowing about them sooner. I bought some polyurethane ($20) to finish my cornhole boards but unfortunately now that I live in a hotel I don’t have the space to work on them. Also finally got a bicycle helmet ($30) to make me legal when riding on base and have been putting about 70 miles a week on my bike.

Gas:  $72.95

Been driving the big F-150 instead of my ford fusion but thanks to a lot of bike riding and some reward churning I actually didn’t see much of an increase in gas cost.

Net Worth Increase $8,757.93 to $259,352

Saved: $6,178.62   Investments Earned: $2,579.31

After taking the big steps back around Feb that kept the $250k milestone out of reach, I’m chugging right along. So far the house fire situation hasn’t been too much of an issue thanks to renter’s insurance but I am nervous that I won’t be able to find another place with really cheap rent like I have now. It's also really cool to see any month where your money earned more than you spent. 

 As always, I hope some of you will share your progress and continue to inspire each other. It all feels like play money but I continue to believe it’s going to make a real difference.

I’d love to hear what your upcoming goals are so we can celly together! Keep saving and trust the process. Thanks for reading. Sign up below and share the content if you enjoyed it!

Follow me on Twitter: @Saving_Sherpa