February Budget Review
Monthly Review: February 2021 - 91% Savings Rate
Lets quickly hit the notable moments from February:
Valentines Day in Aspen
Trapped in Denver - Texas Snowpocalypse
Homemade Pizza Begins
Car Show
New Amex Lounge
Slinging Playstations
Covid Finally Caught me
Another month another mountain. But the real headline is the fact that our new hometown of Austin got more fresh snow than we did in Aspen?!
This month also took me to one of my favorite destinations: A New Amex Lounge, introduced me to the art of homemade pizza, and reconnected with old friends thanks to Austin being completely frozen and the subsequent canceled flights.
Oh yea…also caught covid right at the end of Jan and had to quarantine through Feb 10. The best way I can describe my symptoms: Being covered in a weighted blanket and pumped full of melatonin.
The fatigue was real and then the no taste/smell thing sucked too. You already can’t go anywhere and then you take away the joy of food…that’s a no fun zone.
But was super blessed to have no complications and we were able to push back our Colorado trip and salvage most of it. The skiing in Vail was nixed but the Aspen house was well worth the trip.
Now time for the deets
After-Tax Income: $10,695
This month was mostly standard income with a little extra for 401k match and then ~$180 profit on flipping a PS5.
On to the expenses
Expenses: $937.21
We did it again Kept expenses under $1k without having to sacrifice. I did have one part of accounting that you may or may not agree with.
I received an award at work that I sold and used the money to cancel out $425 worth of one of my big purchases. I think this is fair. If you got money for Christmas and bought a video game, how is that any different than simply receiving the video game?
You wouldn’t say you spent $50 because you asked for a video game instead of asking for cash.
Let’s breakdown the rest of the expenses
Going Out: $109.15
So I obviously spent some money this month on going out but the things I’m highlight were actually both free.
First up is National Pizza Day. I have no idea why there’s a day for absolutely everything but if anyone deserves a day, it’s pizza.
National anything days generally come with promotions, and promotions often mean free food. So naturally we hit up two local pizza places from some free slices.
How about some free cocktails and music?
The second fun free outing was for some cocktail kits and music by Still. Still is a cool distillery in Austin that specializes in bourbon and gin.
With Covid, they’ve been sponsoring live music events at their property that can only be watched via live stream but they also give away some cocktail kits you can pick up and take home to make a drink for the show.
Sprinkle in some happy hours (I may be addicted to the Sriracha ranch tots at Hotel Vegas) and breweries in Denver and that’ll round out the month.
The total break-down for eating out this month was:
Denver Drinks: $20.51
McDonalds: $7.56
Long Table: $10.20
Sexy Pizza: $8.00
Hotel Vegas: $8.50
Gabriellas: $17.50
Gaslamp: $3.63
Groupon $18.75
Gelato & Co: $6.83
Long Table: $7.67
Groceries: $56.74
Pretty typical showing of groceries here especially with so much time on the road.
The star of the show was this breakfast pizza which had a white sauce base, cheddar, bacon, tots, arugula, fried egg and ranch.
Spoiler alert, my pizzas are gonna get way better looking when I nail down my dough (Shoutout to Farm Fired Pizza’s Brent) but this thing was still delicious.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
HEB: $21.06
Safeway: 10.68
King Soopers: $25
Bills: $369.74
Cheap rent and a few monthly memberships. This is the category that makes those sub $1k total expenses possible. Keep your housing low and your cars paid off and you’ll give yourself a fighting chance.
The full set of bills were:
Rent - $275.00
Internet - $10
Spotify - $10
Car Insurance - $54
Cidercade: $16.24
Netflix: $4.50
Travel & Entertainment: $286.97
This month had travel get cut and travel get forced upon us. In the end, no complains.
The big trip was supposed to be a Breckenridge/Vail/Aspen trio. Thanks to Covid, we had to cut off the front of this trip to fulfill our quarantine. Bye bye Breck/Vail.
Thankfully we salvaged the Aspen piece and got to relax in an incredible Air BnB with a group of friends and enjoy views like this from the hot tub all day.
Looking Good Apsen.. Looking Good
While I certainly was missing the ski portion of the trip, the view here were incredible and the relaxation levels were through the roof.
But hey, there’s only so much lounging in the hot-tub you can do right? When life gives you fresh snow, you make a snowman.
The trip was supposed to end on a Monday but thanks to Texas being brought to it’s knees by a major winter storm, we had cancelled flights and an unexpected additional five days in Denver.
It all worked out as we were able to work during the day and catch up with old friends at night. It’s a blessing that our flights were cancelled because our home was without water, electricity, heat or internet for three days.
Now time for the adventure within the adventure
Denver’s new Amex Centurion Lounge
I am like a kid at Christmas when I get to spend some time at a Centurion lounge.
If you don’t know, these lounges are run by American Express. You can gain free entry for yourself and two guests if you carry the American Express Platinum. It’s a hefty annual fee but if you maximize it’s rewards and travel often, it’s worth it.
The thing that sets these lounges apart is the quality. You can get just about any liquor you can think of with great signature drinks. This one actually had two bar areas with one being a craft beer lounge.
Then there is the food. The taste and quality is light years ahead of a typical airport lounge. With Covid, it’s more of a lunch line setup vs a self serve buffet but they are pretty efficient.
Everything we had was great. The bruschetta was straight up addictive. Not pictured was the Nutella crepes…don’t skip those either.
These lounges also often come with other types of amenities. Some even offer free massages (obviously not during the pandemic but soon). This one had several different games to keep you occupied.
So no this isn’t the whiskey and diet lounge with cold sandwiches that are 95% bread, this is a whole different experience.
As far as costs go, we also bought some flights to Vail for March to make up for lost skiing and also purchased a two day pass for a music festival in Idaho.
The full list of expenses for travel and entertainment were:
Lyft: $13.05
Vail Flight: $44
Denver Flight: $65.20
Music Festival: $164.72
Miscellaneous: $97.17
When you live in 375 sq ft apartment, you have to maximize space both inside and out.
So I got us a rack for the balcony to vertically mount the bikes. We’re working our way through a plan to redo the layout of the balcony and this frees up a lot of space.
The most exciting line item is my purchase of an Ooni Koda 16. Unfortunately, these bad boys are backordered for a while so it doesn’t arrive until late March.
This thing gets up to 930 degrees and is extremely portable. I was able to get the cost down to $485 after tax. I took an award I got from work, sold it, and put that $425 towards the purchase making my out of pocket expense only $60.
Here’s the complete list of random purchases this month:
Haircut: $28.68
Home Depot: $26.17
Ooni Koda 16 Pizza Oven: $485
Work Award: -$425
Gas: $17.44
We spent so much time in Colorado that driving was way down this month.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $34,633 to $749,389
We’re still moving at the speed of light thanks to the market. Who knows how long this can last but stay tuned to see were we land.
Remember, all you can control is your spending and earning, your net-worth is what it is.
This month I saved $9,757.80 while the market gained me $24,875 for a total net-worth increase of $34,633