June. Budget Review
Monthly Review: June 2020 - 85.4% Savings Rate
Lets quickly hit the big events from June:
Multi-Week Van Trip
Renovated free outdoor furniture
Trading blood for a drone
Exploring Colorado
Niece’s first flight
The van is now complete and she has a name. The world was ready to meet Vanna White. The beauty of a road trip in a camper van is that it’s actually pretty quarantine friendly.
You travel in the van, sleep in the van, and since we packed food, we even ate in the van. We traveled this way instead of flying due to the pandemic. This would also let us turn the trip into a longer one that would spill over into July.
While on the trip I got to see co-workers for the first time in forever, experience my nieces first big trip, see my mom, and make some life changing decisions that I’ll have to save for the July budget recap.
Enough build up… Let’s jump in to the details
After-Tax Income: $8,538
No variable comp or odd pay here, just standard base pay after taxes.
Expenses: $1,244.27
Months like this are why I have little concern about retiring early. I know my allowed budget for retirement may not be as high as some will want, but months like this show just how much experience and happiness you can squeeze out of a month for almost nothing.
I’ll break all that down in the Travel section.
Trading Blood for a $500 Drone
One interesting omission from expenses is a $500 drone I bought for our trip. You can argue if I should put it in the expenses or not but let me explain why I didn’t. I decided to do a more time consuming blood notation in order to get the money to buy it.
This type of donation is called a mobilized white blood cell donation. I thought it was only going to pay $500 but ended up paying $900! I decided to buy a drone to use on our trip. I even drove just over the boarder into New Hampshire to save on the taxes ($40 save). The tiny guy was worth every second of the donation.
Going Out: $34.67
McDonalds: $3.46
McDonalds: $14.39
Boulder Liquor: $15.23
McDonalds: $1.59
I know I know. This sounds like the most unhealthy list on earth and I can’t argue with you. But if you keep in mind that it’s three trips to fast food and one pack of beers for an entire month… I think it’s ok.
We packed all our food for the road trip but got the craving for McDonalds breakfast a few times on the road. Don’t forget to download their app for insane deals and mobile ordering. But our burrito game was strong! I highly recommend breakfast burritos for your next road trip.
Groceries: $54.55
We spent half the month on the road in the Van. Part of the trip we were in Colorado with my Mom and she bought the groceries for us. I think it’s a fair trade for the wear and tear we put on the van. I think you’ll agree with me when you catch up on what happened next month and the big mechanic bills I ran into.
I also racked up some interesting freebies via the local “Everything is Free” Facebook group. Picking them up on my electric bike made it fun and easy.
We did have four different grocery stops which are listed below.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
Star Market $2.14
WalMart & Aldi $24.15
Star Market $8.36
Bills: $923.82
Standard Bills
Rent - $837.50
Internet - $27
Spotify - $10
Car Insurance - $49.32
Travel: $51.40
When you see $51.40 for the travel category, which also includes entertainment, you might be thinking my life has to be terribly boring. In reality we had sights in Chicago, South Bend, Illinois, and Colorado.
The travel sections costs (excluding gas) include:
Camping Site: $15.50
Camping Site: $9.00
Rocky Mountain National Park reservation fee: $2.00
Tolls: $20.00
Parking Meter: $4.90
Test Run in Vanna White
The first big journey was up into New Hampshire. In last month’s article I mentioned this membership called BoonDockers Welcome. This program allows you to stay at over 3000 locations, as much as you want and all for only $50 per month.
Before we were going to set out on this huge cross country trip, we wanted to try out our full van set-up. This included the solar panels, batteries, ventilation fan, and the new refrigerator. Some BoonDockers sites are just someone’s driveway. This one was different. It was a plot of land completely separated from any residence.
Many Stops In Route to Colorado
Pre-Covid we had a planned a trip that was sort of a dual purpose. Both parts would take place in Colorado. The first half would be a trip with my mom and niece to explore the Rockies. The second part was being there for Leslie’s best friend’s wedding.
Unfortunately those plans wouldn’t work out and we decided not to fly. Luckily we had the van which gave us an amazing opportunity to still travel out to Colorado but do so in our little 15ft metal bubble.
Since we were doing the slow travel we decided to strategically make some stops to break up the drive with things to see. We saw the Notre Dame campus, Wrigley Field, and the Chicago Skyline. We even got to say hello to one of my favorite co-workers who sent us on our way with a bottle of wine.
The last stop wasn’t a tourist attraction but might have been our favorite. It was this massive corn farm out in Iowa. The owners taught us all about the operation, had wi-fi and power out at the van, and some of the best sunsets.
Free Amazing Stay in Colorado
We finally made it to Colorado after the long journey from Boston. We picked up my mom and niece on the way through and headed to our next Boondockers location. This location was a beautiful cabin overlooking the mountains. It even had these hand made swings and see-saws for the owner’s grandchildren.
Exploring The Rockies
Listen, I haven’t been all around the world but I think Colorado is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I lived in Colorado for three years and it was so nice to be back. I think me and Leslie are still counting down the days until we live back there full-time.
It was also important part of the trip because it was my niece’s (Madison) first flight and big trip ever. We had a couple nights where my mom and niece got the van and me and Leslie took the tent. One of the nights we did grab a hotel. It was also the first time Madison got to go on a hike. There’s not too much elevation in Mississippi.
A Touch of The City
While the mountains are definitely the most important to me in Colorado, there’s a lot to be had in the city too. Colorado is the place to go for craft beers and two of my favorite places are at a location called The Source in Denver. They have Crooked Stave and a small batch New Belgium brewery.
Miscellaneous: $68.01
The expenses showing up here are just round two of my presents for our anniversary.
Leslie Anniversary: $58.98
Leslie Anniversary: $9.03
There was an interesting project I had though that feels like it fits in this category.
Free Outdoor Furniture Renovation
If you haven’t noticed yet in this article or every article, I love Facebook groups that give away free things. It’s a win-win. They don’t have to pay someone to remove it or throw it in the trash, and I get good stuff for free.
We had been looking for some patio furniture and a set finally popped up. It’s hard to tell in the picture below but the wood parts were in pretty rough shape. All the clear coating was peeling off and the stain was really faded.
The remodel wasn’t all that complicated and it gave me a reason to be outside on a nice day. I pulled all the wood pieces off, sanded them, and sprayed them with a combo stain/sealer. I was pretty happy with the end result!
Gas: $111.82
Luckily the Van gets really good gas mileage because we put an insane amount of miles on the van this month. Unlike last month, I had a co-pilot so the gas costs were split.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $20,339 to $470,832
I can’t control how my shares perform, all I can do is keep buying more of them.
This month I saved $7,293 while the market brought in $13,105 for a total net-worth increase of $20,339.