Monthly Financial Independence Report – March 2021

Welcome to the March Monthly Financial Independence Report, or as I like to call it, the MMFIR (pronunced “mmmm-fur”). I work for the military so it’s general practice to acronym-ify LITERALLY EVERYTHING. NJ. (That stands for “No Joke”).

This month was slightly more spendy than last month, but that was to be expected since we missed 2 mortgage payments last month. I do find during pandemic days, we have become less frugal in some areas, like gifting, hobbies, and let’s face it, alcohol. I *think* it’s about “What can we do to make life more fun/interesting when we can’t really go places and do stuff?” And the answer is give gifts to each other, do more hobbies, and drink booze.

Monthly Report for March

Savings of T

$816. Down from last month. Gotta bump it up for April. As mentioned in previous posts, my goal is $1200 monthly.

Extra Income Beyond my Day Job

$180. $160 on an eBay sale, $20 from a Passiv referral! What, you think Passiv sounds awesome and you want to try it out? Please use my referral link by clicking here: T’s Passiv Referral Link

So far, I’ve been enjoying Passiv’s reporting and balancing features very much, however I would like to dive in further and write a post on it at some point. I am having issues with hooking up my Wealthica account, so once I get sorted I should be able to get you an unbiased review. Until then, just sign up. Also if you have a Questrade account, the Passiv Elite plan is freeeee!

T’s Family Expenses

 

Category	Mar-21	Relevant Notes of Notey-ness
Mortgage Interest	300	New mortage, low interest!
Mortgage Principal	1140	All principal, baby!
Property Tax ($3600 Annually – May 2021)	0	May will be spendy.
Home Insurance ($2100 Annually – May 2021)	0	Gotta try to get a better rate this year.
Home Supplies	28	Random stuff I probably didn’t need.
Home Maintenance, Repairs, Renos	48	New Camp chairs & laundry hamper
Heat (Wood & Propane – supplements electric heat)	0
Mobile Phones (2 Phones on Public Mobile)	83	Public Mobile is da bomb! Use my referral code to sign up after your order your SIM. You will get a $10 credit! T’s referral code is NR2OR4.
Electric ($247 Equalized)	247	Remaining things to optimize:	-Reduce dryer use. Why are dryers so damn convenient?? -Research buying water heater, vs renting -Install programmable thermostat in basement -explore idea of installing solar -get meter from library to measure power use of appliances
Internet, Home phone, TV	110	They put my rate up…AGAIN. To be discussed with Bell. Yeah I said it.
Bank Fees	4	CIBC. Phasing this out but we’re not there yet
Water (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct)	0
Fuel for 2 cars	270	This seems very high compared to usual. We did take a road trip to visit our family which we haven’t been doing due to COVID. I probably need to go back and make sure that everything is categorized correctly.
Car Repairs, Maintenance, Registrations, Licenses	0	Hurray!
Parking for Hubs	79
Auto Insurance for 2 cars	100
Groceries	887
Dining Out / Takeout – Family	159	Probably time to try to cut back a bit here.
Health (Prescriptions, Vitamins, Dental, Eye care, other medical costs)	41	OTC meds and vitamins, along with 1/4 the cost of my pedicure. That’s a health cost, right?? The rest came out of my allowance. Still debating where to put my “wellness” costs. Pedicures might cross the line as non-essential…
Fitness, Sports	0
Toiletries	3
Childcare	801	So I didn’t realize when I booked M’s summer camps that I had to pre-pay them all! This includes childcare for the month + 3 weeks of summer camps.
Life Insurance for 2 adults	156
Memberships & Subscriptions	35	Still have Disney +. Gotta get around to cancelling it. This also includes Netflix and Hub’s MLB Audio subscription.
Haircuts	0
Clothing	145	Mostly Hubs, but I also bought pants that need to now be returned.
School supplies, Education	0
Pet Fund	306	This is for food, litter, and a $226 vet bill for getting kitty “fixed” and microchipped. We should be all set for vet stuff for quite a while now.
Tech repair & replacement	112	My desktop computer has been acting up for some time. Got it fixed.
Charitable Giving	20
Gifts, Party Food & Holidays	583	So. Dad’s birthday. + hubs 50th. Let’s just say I went a bit crazy. Honestly, during this pandemic I’ve taken joy in making birthdays a little extra special since we can’t go on a trip or attend a concert or event. I’m at peace with it. Over half of this was a new phone for Hubs since his was quite old. He got a used iPhone in perfect shape. So technically some of this could go to tech replacement!
UNKNOWN	0
Vacation	206	1/2 of an AirBnB we booked for May in our home province.
Allowances	388	What we call our “fun money”. Personal items, hobbies, dining out solo, etc. I went a bit crazy this month compared to usual. I’m going to try to do better in April. So far, so good! Hubs had a big purchase last month also for one of his hobbies.
Entertainment – Family	0
Lotto Pool	0
Alcohol	53
Total Spending	6303

Summary

Overall I’m not too upset about this month’s overspending in the areas of gifts and allowances. It’s been a long winter of COVID crap and I’m sick of it. THAT SAID I could fairly easily find an extra $400 in the budget next month to bump up that savings rate. Gonna go work on that now, since April is 2/3 over. HA! Toodles!