Monthly Review: Dec 2019 - 86% Savings Rate

Lets quickly hit the big events from December:

1. Skiing Weekend in New Hampshire

2. Christmas in Mississippi

3. Night out in Nashville

4. College Football Game

5. Trip to Dallas / Ft Worth

6. SantaCon

Now it’s time to get into the details:

Income: $13,581

This month we had some monthly and quarterly bonuses come in.

Expenses: $1,886

Hecks yea. Another month under the $2k threshold. It can be tricky around Christmas but I purchased most presents before the start of the month.

Travel was a big category with a two week trip to Portugal / Amsterdam booked, a cabin rental, and a concert. That and Christmas were the only non-typical expenses.

Going Out: $89.67

• Uno $9.89

• Donut Villa $6.33

• Stephanies $10.06

• China Sky: $9.98

• Food for All: $0.67

• Glen Junction: $7.25

• White Elephant: $7

• Groupon: $30

• Billy Bobs: $4.50

• Remys: $4

Priority Pass - Free Food

Another month another slew of free meals at lounges and participating Priority Pass restaurants. I actually had three other meals but decided to go with just the one pic

Nift - More Free Food

This month I wanted to highlight this phenomenon known as Nift. I originally got a Nift credit of $60 after running the Run to Home Base 5k in Boston.

These allow you to type in two zip codes, then pick two categories, and ultimately pick one reward. If that reward was $20, I’d still have $40 worth of Nifts. Some options aren’t great but food options are a home run.

These are not $15 off a $30 purchase type discounts. These are straight up like giftcards just with short expirations. The crazy thing is, after you redeem them they seem to just keep sending you more to redeem somewhere else.

Our latest Nift run got us a ton of local bread from a bakery, a couple scoops of local ice cream, and a hot chocolate across two different stores.

Groceries: $3.73

With this new job… I basically don’t cook anymore

• Target $3.73

I bought some ground turkey on sale… the end.

Bills: $914.82

Bills were lighter this month because my fitness reimbursement covered the gym.

• Rent

• Car Insurance

• Internet

• Cell Phone

Travel: $606.76

Love when I see a big travel month because that means fun times are around the corner.

The “big” expense here was a $372 roundtrip flight to Amsterdam that includes a five day layover in Porto, Portugal. Total trip length is over two weeks.

We also booked a fun ski cabin up in New Hampshire and hit up two different mountains for $55.20.

Things that were paid for previously were flights to Dallas for a quick trip and the week down in Mississippi/Nashville.

The rest of the travel purchases this month include:

• Movies - $9.50

• Flight Change - $39.50

• Parking - $32.71

• 3 x Sam Riggs tix - $97.65

South for Winter: Part I

With the new job, I can work remote a decent amount of the time. It’s also one of my priorities to see my friends more often that are spread over the country.

So I headed down to Dallas for five days. The first couple days included working from home with my trusty sidekick and now adopted foster dog named Peanut

After all the work was finished. We hit up a Sam Riggs concert and the Stockyards in Ft. Worth. Hotel points meant no charge and breakfast on the house.

Isn’t Ft Worth without a cattle drive

South for Winter: Part II

Dallas wasn’t country enough to tame my homesickness around the holidays. So I made the annual trip to the mothership of North Mississippi for an eight day get-a-way.

It was awesome getting a break from the cold and it even hit 70 on Christmas day.

But it would get chilly one night so a 30ft flame bonfire was required. I love the south.

Another thing I love about going home is my Mom’s chocolate gravy that she cooks every Christmas morning.

You may be thinking, “Chocolate Gravy?!?!?”, but I promise you it is pure heaven. Leslie probably had the best description as someone being introduced to the phenomenon a couple years ago.

It’s kind of like the taste you’d get from a chocolate chip pancake. But you just split a biscuit open, add a little butter, and dump this stuff on thick.

Chocolate gravy recipe:

• 2 cups of water

• 2/3 cup of flour

• 2/3 cup Hershey’s cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar

• 1/2 to 1 stick of butter

Instructions: Mix dry ingredients (sugar, flour, and coca) until blended. Then add water, cooking on medium heat until thick. Then add 1/2 to 1 stick of butter.

Pour over biscuits and enjoy!

Exiting the South Via Nashville

Then the trip concluded with a killer night out in Nashville. Luckily there were drinks to drown away the sorrow of watching my alma mater, Mississippi State University, lose their bowl game.

Miscellaneous: $222.96

Christmas was still going strong this month. Finishing out Leslie’s as well as some secret gift exchanges for work.

But here’s the full list of purchases

• Les Chrimi $60

• Secret Snowflake $21.80

• Supplements $18.88

• SantaCon costume materials $3.80

• Les Chrimi $92

• Billy Bob’s $6.48

• Haircut $15

• Game $5

• Craigslist Auto Post $5

Gas:  $48.34

Trip up into New Hampshire plus some normal driving.

Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $25,632 to $425,040

Gotcha 400k!

Crossing these milestones are always fun to my geeky financial loving self. I know we can’t and shouldn’t expect returns like this but the market killed it yet again.

I pitched in $11,694 while the market pitched in $13,937.

I started this blog with $38k in April of 2015 and honestly never expected to be here. It’s been a wild ride.