March Budget Review
Monthly Review: March 2021 - 95% Savings Rate
Lets quickly hit the notable moments from March:
Turned the big 3-1!
Skied 4 days in Vail
Visited Joshua Tree
Visited Las Vegas (Won $90!)
Distillery/Brewery/Vineyard tour day
Free Happy Hour (Oysters & Drinks)
Amex Lounge Visit
Back to Colorado for the second month in a row! We had to make up for the fact that our last trip got altered and that my 30th bday ski plans were canceled (thanks Covid).
But what an awesome way to celebrate my 31st trip around the sun!
There were more similarities between Feb & March than just another trip to Colorado. This month is a repeat offender for free happy hours and Amex lounge visits as well.
But it wasn’t all the same ole same ole. I also got to visit Joshua tree for the first time and went on my first vacation to Las Vegas.
I secretly get quite addicted to roulette but was able to leave the casino up $90 so all is well.
You might ask how in the world I did all this for $964.12? It’s not straightforward and all of it isn’t repeatable, but as always, read on for the details.
After-Tax Income: $20,242
This month’s income was anything but standard. On top of my regular income I had some Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) vest from my company as well as a commission check for Q4 of FY21.
Trust me, I’ve been on the very low income side of things in the past, I fully understand how lucky I am.
On to the expenses
Expenses: $964.12
Keeping the sub $1k streak alive! And it’s absolutely not intentional. I actually shouldn’t call this a budget as I don’t give my self boundaries, I just love the data.
I guess it’s kind of like a diet though right? Everyone has a diet, that doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
One thing that won’t show up in an expense category is our new favorite activity, paddle boarding…or lounging on the paddle boards. Since we own the boards, there’s no ongoing costs.
I received another award at work and I had some credit card hacking that helped get the expenses down. I’ve talked about it before but anytime I get Birthday, Christmas, Award type money, I use that to cancel out expenses.
I don’t think it’s factual to call it income and who writes down an expense if they receive a sweater for Christmas? No, you got a gift. No different than if you got $20 as a gift and bought a $20 sweater.
Let’s breakdown the rest of the expenses
Going Out: $296.79
Full transparency… I thought I had a gimmick that was going to help me avoid around $90 worth of these expenses. Turns out, I’d misunderstood the offer calendar associated with one of my credit cards.
I’m actually glad I messed up though because it allowed me to buy whatever I wanted at the hotel restaurant without thinking about it and I still only spend $90 for myself.
It was my birthday and we were in Vail so there was a lot of dining out. I put a handy slide show for some of the highlights. Surprise…There’s pizza.
A lot isn’t pictured, because there was so much good food.
Free Happy Hour, Yes Please
Another month, another fantastic free happy hour. This was a great find thanks to a local instagram account that keeps everyone up to speed on local deals. And this St. Paddy’s day celebration was a solid find.
They had certain cocktails for free for the first 100 people (me obviously). They had free beers from a local brewery. They had several other free drinks on top of all that. Then the star of the show, free oysters.
And finally, not all outings even have to be about getting anything. We went to check out this awesome spot in east Austin with a decent size group. I wasn’t hungry or interested in a drink, but I had a great time chatting and listening to the band.
Don’t feel pressured into eating/drinking when it’s just wasteful.
The total break-down for eating out this month was:
Desert Door: $21.48
St. Elmo: $17.32
Treaty Oak: $5.41
Winery: $28.15
Peche: $21.26
McDonalds: $3.78
Blue Moose: $27.08
Peche $24.50
Hilton: $90
Taco Joint: $14.34
Grizzeldas: $20.85
Secret Pizza: $22.62
Groceries: $73.53
Pretty typical showing of groceries here especially with so much time on the road.
I also got my fancy new Ooni pizza oven in and took it for a go.
At the time of this picture, I was still dialing in exactly how to stretch the dough and how to handle the oven. These were absolutely delicious and I’m addicted to this new hobby.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
HEB: $19.04
HEB: $10.41
Walmart: $44.09
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: $153.49
If you remember last month, we had to cancel part of our Aspen trip and thus had to cancel our skiing. I also missed out on two epic planned ski trips last year thanks to Covid.
So we’re back at it again and this time a big success.
We also did a ton more (Joshua Tree, Vegas, etc). You’re probably wondering how in the world I didn’t spend more.
For the Vail trip, It’s a mixture of some things already being paid for (ski pass, flights), credit card hacking (-$200), tons of Hilton points (thank you house fire), and putting some of my award money towards the trip (-$257).
For Josua Tree & Vegas. I have to just be thankful for friends I have made. We’ve become very good friends with a couple who wanted to cover the costs if we’d head out on a much needed getaway with them.
I said it once already earlier in this write-up but I’ll never sugar coat things. What I do isn’t always repeatable, but a lot is and I’ll always be transparent.
Now on to the breakdown.
Bday Celebration in the Vail Back Bowls
I’m not sure there is anywhere that I am more happy than when I’m flying down a mountain. The back bowls at Vail provide an insane amount of opportunities to do just that.
As I’ve said, I was there to celebrate my 31st birthday. I don’t fear birthdays, I don’t feel older, and generally I feel like each year I have become a better version of myself than I was the previous year.
Somedays I look at people who got started earlier, have more money, are on a faster path, etc and let myself get down a bit. But I know logically that is ridiculous. I am in a great place and I’m well on my way.
Plus Leslie made me a delicious birthday cake covered in peanut butter related items so what else would I want anyways?
As far as this trip goes financially, the only expenses were rental car ($81), ski rental ($176.04), and food ($145, captured earlier). I could have flown with my skis but I really wanted to try out some new gear. I could have eaten in more but I wanted this trip to be low effort, high enjoyment.
The rental car believe it or not was actually a cost saving tool. I found this rental through Alamo from the Vail airport for $163 total. We flew directly into Vail because the price was barely more expensive and again, I wanted it to be low effort.
The lowest effort most would think would have been to get a shuttle. But I hate scheduling the things, waiting on the things, and in this case, over paying for the things.
They wanted close to $200 per person to get a round trip shuttle. I think I’ll just stick with the $81 per person rental car.
When we get off the plane, it was the best rental car experience ever. There was no line, there was no shuttle, and there was a free upgrade.
Guy asks me if I want new 4x4 Chevy Silverado and of course I said heck yea. I love cars. All types. And I sort of miss having a pickup. I also got to play around a bit in the snow with the 4 wheel drive. Gotta bring the redneck to the mountains.
Next up is my favorite past time. Free food.
Denver’s new Amex Centurion Lounge
I am like a kid at Christmas when I get to spend some time at a Centurion lounge. That is the sentence I wrote in last month’s blog and it is still oh so true.
I believe this is the Vegas lounge. With the reduced Covid hours, I was never able to snag time at the one in Phoenix. We had a solid meal, a couple drinks, and some snacks for the road.
Later that month we got our second visit to the Denver Centurion lounge on our pitstop en route to Vail. We snagged the last bit of breakfast before the lunch turnover. The food at Centurion lounges has never disappointed me.
Ok, ok, I know not everyone is as excited for free food as me so now onto a quick highlight of the other adventures.
Joshua Tree & Vegas Getaway
We had a super gracious couple make us a win win offer. They needed a getaway and wanted some friends to join and offered to cover the plane tickets, hotel/air bnb, and groceries.
They wanted Vegas and we suggested tacking on Joshua tree because we all love hiking and the outdoors.
It was an incredibly gracious offer and I tried to show my appreciation by cooking, driving, and even tried to schedule a private telescope viewing (Joshua tree is known for dark skys) but the weather did not cooperate.
The first leg of the trip was Joshua tree. I was pretty bummed about the weather coming in and not allowing us to see the milky way but was surprised at how cool the national park was.
The rocks were incredibly easy to climb. The stone they’re made out of just has a ton of natural grip to it. I always seem to find at least one photo op to scare people about my impending death.
Next up Vegas
Ok, so this is a cheesy photo where I’m not actually gambling and I’m inside the airport…Forgot to take legit pictures in the casino. We stayed in Caesars palace a couple nights and I got my fix of roulette and blackjack in.
I tried to explain to Leslie my mathematical dominance over roulette and she saw right through my logic and knew that I was only doing my schemes to make myself feel like I was in control.
If I lose the first bet, I copy it, then double till I hit. If I hit the first spin, that’s $5 in the bank.
5, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160…. It can get out of hand if you get on a losing streak. Luckily, I did not.
I used the same practice in video blackjack. That wasn’t as lucrative due to the max bets but still made a little.
Finally, I did several sports bets that ended up going 3-1-1 on. My only problem with all my bets was they were so small. Even with all that winning, I only profited $90
You may be asking yourself, what in the world is this picture. Well it’s Leslie with a suitcase worth of food brought from Joshua Tree as she sits in the Las Vegas rental car terminal.
We don’t waste food, there was a ridiculous wait for Ubers, and we got hungry. We had some random people stop and ask us where they could get a burger like that ha.
Expenses on this trip $23 worth of food and some Ubers.
Now onto more respectable public consumption.
Distillery - Vineyard - Brewery Tour
I’ve only put up pictures from one location but we went on a heck of a tour one weekend from Driftwood,TX back up to Austin.
We hit a couple breweries, a vineyard, and two distilleries. I loved all the spots but the most unique was probably Desert Door.
They specialize in Sotol. Sotol is a distillate made from a type of shrub, Dasylirion wheeleri, more commonly called desert spoon. That's in contrast to Tequila and mezcal, crafted from agave.
It’s a very unique taste and this place has some amazing branding.
Other highlights were Treaty Oak distillery and St. Elmo brewing. If you’re around Austin, definitely give them a try.
Total cost: $72.36 but captured under the dining out category.
The full list of expenses for travel and entertainment were:
Uber: $8.10
Whiskey Meyers: $32
Lyft: $8.44
Ski Rental: $176.04
Lyft: 16.15
SLC Flight: $278.80
Rental Car: $81.75
Parking: $10
Amex Flight Credit: -$200
Award Credit: -$257.80
Miscellaneous: $20.47
Now that the Ooni is up and running. It needs a proper home. After searching for prebuilt options, I’ve decided to build my own.
Wood has gotten pretty expensive but this will allow me to make it the perfect size for me and the oven. I designed it to have a 44” height so that it was easy on my back and extra deep so it fit the legs of the oven.
Expenses here are mostly for wood and propane plus some other random charges.
Here’s the complete list of random purchases this month:
Haircut: $9.00
Records: $2.17
Propane: $39.30
Home Depot: $161.76
Rest of my work award: -$191.76
Gas: $50.11
Nothing too exciting I can say here.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $39,056 to $788,446
I got zero idea what is going on with this market, but as always, I’m going to ride the wave.
This month I saved $19,277.89 while the market gained me $19,778.58 for a total net-worth increase of $39,056.46