June Budget Review
Monthly Review: June 2021 - 95% Savings Rate
Let’s quickly hit the notable moments from June:
Week in SLC/Jackson Hole/Grand Tetons/Yellowstone
HWY 30 Music Fest
American Aquarium Concert
Dallas Weekend Trip
Brother Gets Married
Small Pizza Event
Hot Springs National Park
Mississippi State’s First Natty!
****As always, every category depicts what I spent, what I made, and how my net worth changed. Just me, not our household****
Oh lawd… another crazy month in the books. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very interested in early retirement, but it’s hard to imagine doing much more retired than I am working. Maybe it’d just give me more time to rest in between.
So many awesome moments this month. My Brother got married, I visited Yellowstone and Grand Tetons for the first time, We hit up an amazing music festival with my best friend, I saw so much good live music.
Last but not least Mississippi State won the College World Series!
The Dawgs are the Best in the World!
A month that good makes me care less about how much I spent but if you’re here, then you probably do care (or at least are curious?).
Keep in mind, these are expenses paid this month. Much of the travel had been paid previously and you’ll also see expenses for future events.
I cover the expenses and the life moments as they happen, and they’re often not at the same time.
As always, read on for the details.
After-Tax Income: $21,839
This month’s income, again, is not standard. On top of my regular income, I had some stock vesting, some 401k match, and a chunk of my variable compensation.
Always crazy to see a full year of expenses wiped away in one paycheck.
On to the expenses
Expenses: $1,084
This is about where I expect to settle in most months. I’m able to do a lot with just over a grand with my personal, admittedly unique, life situation.
I’d say I hit pretty close to averages across all categories.
One big-ticket item that was prepaid for September is Tyler Childers at Red Rocks that cost $122.50. That’s a bit steep but we were forced to buy via resale and I’ll always pay a premium for Red Rocks.
Let’s break down the expenses in detail.
Going Out: $163.56
Part of the month we’ll get into later is my trip to Mississippi. To get there, we often stop in Dallas for a night to see our friends. This time we decided to get out and grab some solid dinner and drinks. This is is a bone marrow rice dish that was delish.
Full transparency, it’s not in my cost column because I used a $20 restaurant credit I had on my Amex Hilton Aspire.
Another stop we made on the way to Mississippi was a really neat brewery among the Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. They’re apparently the only brewery that uses natural hot spring water to create beer.
I have no idea if it actually matters but the beer was solid and the pretzel was top-notch.
We also hit up some solid spots while going through Jackson Whole. I especially recommend Gather if you ever find yourself out that way.
The total break-down for eating out this month was:
Roadhouse Brewery: $24.35
Tucanos: $14.75
Gather: $28
Pilot Pizza: $2.63
Pool Drink: $12
Elks Lodge: $13
Dairy Queen: $7.16
Dallas Speakeasy: $21.50
Miller’s Gate Brewing: $15
7 Eleven: $4.18
ACL Drinks: $21
Groceries: $49.80
We spent a lot of time on the road again so I’m not shocked at another month around this number. It actually would have been lower but the groceries we had to buy in Yellowstone were much more expensive than normal grocery stores.
Pizza
Yep, another month, another pizza feature. I ended up doing a bit of a pop-up pizza sale again. This time though I only did 10. I just wanted to sell a few to get more practice but still get to enjoy my night out at the Elks Lodge.
These are actually two extra pizzas that I made specifically for the family.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
Colter Bay Village Grocery:: $11.34
Cashews: $11.21
HEB: $13.33
Albertsons: $31.82
Samsung Pay Credit: -$20
This grocery store accepted NFC payments and I had been waiting to use this credit before it expired, so I used it at Albertsons.
Bills: $349
Yep, our rent is still crazy cheap. I’ve covered why this is in previous posts but basically we put in a bunch of sweat equity to renovate the place that is family owned and in return, we cover all costs (insurance, HOA, utilities).
This is month nine in the little apartment and we’ll probably be here until the end of 2022.
The full set of bills were:
Rent - $275.00
Internet - $10
Spotify - $10
Car Insurance - $49
Netflix: $4.87
Travel & Entertainment: $442.34
It’s important to keep in mind that I list the expenses that I incur in a given month. Even if I’m prepaying for something in the future. But I only really highlight the trips I’ve gone on this month.
Can you really highlight a trip if you haven’t gotten to take pictures yet?
Out West Part 1 - Nature Overload
Last month, I was blown away by how beautiful Big Bend National Park was. This month, we headed west for Salt Lake City, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone.
When planning the trip, we quickly felt the pain of the rental car shortage in SLC. Luckily we’re incredibly flexible so when I saw that cargo vans where half the price of a tiny sedan I had an idea.
This van could be our golden ticket to flexibility. Campervans are often glamourized with millennials popping around national parks sleeping in the back. I’m obviously no stranger to this since I’ve personally built my own campervan in the past.
What I learned from that experience was that 90% of the benefit is just having something that’s enclosed with a place to comfortably sleep.
A couple of sleeping bags and camping pads meant that we got that 90% of benefit via this Hertz rental van and no conversion was needed.
We did three nights in the van overall. Downtown Jackson, WY on two separate parts of the trip and then one night in SLC with two backcountry camping sites in between.
After our fun night out in Jackson Hole, we headed first to the Grand Tetons. This national park may not seem as big or have as many variations as some national parks, but it is one of the most concentrated areas of beauty I’ve ever seen.
After driving and hiking through Grand Tetons, we headed north to Yellowstone.
We still had plenty of time for some quick scenic stops and some great photos of the bison.
Don’t worry, we didn’t get too close. I had my zoom lens for my DSLR to snag this shot.
After a few stops, we settled in for our first camping night on a beautiful lake that was just under a mile hike in from the van.
The next day we really got our hikes in for Yellowstone. Our favorite area was definitely the canyon views. Between huge waterfalls, sheer drops, and unique rock colors… It was the star of the show.
Then it was time to get back and settle in for our second night of camping. Things aren’t always sunshine and rainbows even though we were blessed with amazing weather the entire time.
On the way to this site, we were attacked by clouds of mosquitos. Being raised in Mississippi, I’m no stranger to these bloodsuckers but this was on a different level. Thankfully, they calmed down a little at the site with the fire.
We had so much fun the first night in Jackson, WY that we decided to head back there the next night instead of camping in the park for the third night. The piece that sealed the deal on that decision was when I discovered that Jackson had a recreation center with showers, pools, hot tubs, etc all for $7.50.
Then we headed back down to Salt Lake City. It wasn’t time to head back to Austin just yet though. Up next was a jaunt over to Idaho.
Out West Part II - Music Overload
My best friend and I actually planned the Idaho piece well before I planned any of the national park visits. We found the HWY 30 Music Fest in Twin Falls, Idaho which was stacked with Texas Country artists.
He snagged the rental car for the group and I got the hotel with some points I had. So we returned the van, hopped in with them, and hit up some breweries and sites onto the mysterious Twin Falls, Idaho.
I say mysterious because we did zero research on the town and I fully expected it to be a random farm town with biker bars. It actually turned out to be gorgeous as well.
After a much-needed night in the hotel, it was time for the first night of the music festival. Again, we had no idea what we were really getting into. Turned out it was just one stage with a pit that actually wasn’t too big.
What was large though was the super nice cop who was posted up next to us for most of the show. I swear this man was the Mountain in Game of Thrones.
It was an incredible weekend of live music. I’ll give a little sampling of the groups at the festival.
First up we have the always entertaining Mr. Koe Wetzel who puts on the closest thing to a rock show you’ll see at a Texas Country show.
I can’t wait for the day that Koe Wetzel realizes he’s been featured like five times in a personal finance blog.
Next up we have the Mississippi native and Mississippi State fan Hardy.
During the shows, we were keeping up with Mississippi State’s baseball team who were fighting for a place in the College World Series. It was a magical moment when sealed our ticket.
Last but certainly not least is Sam Riggs.
I’ll go to my grave screaming that he is one of the most underrated artists in the genre.
First ACL Live Experience
After returning to Austin from the wild week plus out week, the live music wasn’t stopping.
It would be time for me and Leslie to both experience our first ACL Live experience. This was also the night of the College World Series final game.
During the intermission between the two acts, Mississippi State sealed the deal and I was in heaven.
It all ended just in time for us to settle in for the main act, American Aquarium
They put on an incredible show and the lead singer even chatted with me after the show about our championship run. He was an NC State fan who was infamously sent home just one game away from the Championship due to Covid.
Give these guys a listen though if you’re a fan of good lyrics.
Marriage in Mississippi
Last but certainly not least was another trip back to good ole Mississippi.
The primary reason for coming back was my Brother’s wedding. It’s certainly nice being in driving distance to home and also to have a job that allows me to work from anywhere.
Having that flexibility allows me to rarely miss a big moment which wasn’t always true when I was getting moved around in the Air Force.
The wedding was the main event of the trip but there’s always more memories made when I get back home.
One highlight was a chance to get a Big Abe, fries, and sweat tea at my all-time favorite diner, Abe’s Grill.
This little hole in the wall is worth it if you ever find yourself cruising Hwy 72.
Another milestone was Leslie getting to meet the cutest tiny goat we’ve ever seen.
It was a new addition to my brother’s pet roster. World, meet Billy.
The full list of expenses for travel and entertainment were:
Tyler Childers: $41.97
Camping: $15.83
Movies: $39.42
Rec Center: $63.95
Utah Fuel: $98.37
Lyft: $23
Lyft: $6.85
Big Bend Fuel: $45.93
Uber: $4.84
Miscellaneous: $140.85
No big fun projects this month. Mostly some gifts and one solid bourbon score.
I was able to purchase a bottle of Blanton’s at pretty much MSRP thanks to a family friend liquor store connection.
Here’s the complete list of random purchases this month:
Gift for Dad: $24
Blanton’s: $75
Ipad Case: $5.85
Co-worker Gift: $28.50
Gas: $48.12
This is the gas we used for normal day-to-day driving. I separated out our gas for out west and put it into the travel category.
I always do this because it was part of that vacation and not a good representation of how much I spend on gas thanks to my personal car and normal driving.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $35,751 to $896,657
Another solid jump this month. This time the market gave another solid push of $14,996.
On top of that, I saved $20,754 for a total net-worth increase of $35,751.
