Monthly Review: February 2019

This month almost felt calm compared to the way some have been going but did include a free week in Colorado, skiing in Vail and pre-paying another ski weekend at Stowe in Vermont.

I still think you’ll find a pretty interesting moth especially when you consider my expense total was $1,500.

You certainly won’t want to miss the travel section to hear about our 90 minute turn from our Hawaii trip to our Colorado trip after returning home to Boston. .

Lets unwrap it!

Income: $5,939

Income appears a little lower hear because of some changes I made to TSP withholding but it will all even out.

Expenses: $1,523

Been a dang roller coaster. Last month my expenses hit almost $4k and now I’m this low?

I think this month is a great example of what’s possible when you’re big expenses aren’t that big. Even with larger than normal numbers in groceries, gas, and eating out, I kept things low.

That’s because I didn’t buy a ton of random stuff, my housing is low (for the area), my car is paid off and when I say those other categories are higher than normal, they’re still pretty low.

Travel was only $166 this month but stick around to hear out why.

Going Out: $121

There are some carry over expenses here from the Hawaii trip. It straddled into February. We also got to go back and enjoy some great food at our old stomping grounds in Colorado Springs and do a little self-guided brewery tour here in Boston.

That doesn’t mean we didn’t have plenty of meals prepared for us. When In Colorado for a work conference, we had events every single night with huge spreads of food.

And don’t forget my old friend the priority pass which continues to bless my life with so much free food.

Finally there was a Groupon I had been saving to delicious place down the street where I had to try the famed lamb shank. It didn’t disappoint.

Groceries: $78

Over the past four years I’ve always averaged a grocery bill of $60/mo or less. This month I busted that a bit even with being out of town, but that’s because as part of my Valentine’s day present, I cooked us a Valentine’s Day feast.

If you’ve never heard of a Sous Vide you’ve got to check it out. You can’t beat the way it cooks steaks, I promise you.

Bills: $981

Bills were pretty standard this month with nothing special

• Rent

• Car Insurance

• Internet

• Cell Phone

Travel: $167

I was super lucky and sent to a work conference in Colorado Springs but not without a little scare.

See we were on our way back from Hawaii and set to land in Boston at 5 pm then take off from Boston at 7pm to head to Colorado.

If you’re a geography expert you may realize that’s a really inefficient route. The problem was we already had the flights booked for Hawaii and I wanted to be able to come grab my ski gear for Colorado which wouldn’t have been real handy in Hawaii.

This all got further complicated when all of our flights from Hawaii were canceled but it would take me all day to tell you how that was resolved but in the end we were set to now land at 530 pm giving us a 90 minute window.

So how did we pull it off? We packed all of our Colorado bags before we ever left for Hawaii and dropped them off at a friends house. When we landed that friend came curb side to the airport, we swapped bags at the curb and then went back into security.

It actually went perfectly and before you knew it we were in the lounge having food and watching the start of the Super Bowl.

In Colorado there was no shortage of free food at the event. It was incredible. Then I took some vacation to go ski at Vail.

Normally a day pass to Vail is ~$150 but the good folks over at the Epic Pass have started offering the season ski pass for $100 for military. It’s an incredible value with mountains in Colorado, Vermont, Canada, Japan, Australia…it’s crazy.

The only thing really showing up in the travel expense column is paying for what would be an awesome Vermont ski trip including the Air BnB and food.

Miscellaneous: $114

Scooped a $175 sleeping pad from REI garage sale for $35, haircut in Hawaii $19 , shirt $23, some ski maintenance $24, and some random dollar tree items $10

Gas:  $62

Fairly average month of driving the big F-150 while mixing in some bus riding.

Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $13,379 to $305,950

Another great jump and finally eclipsing the $300k barrier. I swear it kept running away from me. I did my part by saving $4,415 and the markets did the rest