In case you're wondering, my baby and my blog share a Birthday. March 23rd (although due to a technical glitch it looks like this blog started on March 24th). I would tell you all kinds of interesting statistical information about my blog, but this is not a blog about blogging, so instead you get personal finance with a side of baby pictures (and a self congratulatory Happy Belated Bloggiversary!)
Before I indulge the money voyeurs, I present to you my baby girl Shirley Ellen. We call her Shelley. She looks just like Rob which goes to show that my genes are exceptionally weak. So far her favorite habit is pooping.
Despite his evident jealousy, Kenny is shaping up to be an excellent big brother. He refers to his sister as, "My own Shirley Ellen" and "Poo Poo pants baby girl." He likes to share toys with her, and drive cars (gently) over her face.
March 2016 Spending
This month's spending is brought to you by... The importance of a cash buffer. We keep one month's worth of income in our checking account just in case we mess up on our finances, and this month, we were happy to have the buffer!
This March, we spent $3601.15*, and nearly $750 worth of this spending was an accident.
We spent $1073.68 in rental property expenses. This consisted of 4 months worth of HOA payments. Apparently, as of January 1st, the property management company changed their address (and also, apparently, we weren't on a mailing list or an email list). Anyhow, our February payment was returned as was our March payment. So we sent in both payments via Bill Pay, but I thought my husband got the address wrong, so I also paid the bill electronically. It turns out, Rob got the address right. Now we have our HOA payments complete through May of 2016.
Other than the abnormally high rental property spending, everything else appeared to be in line with our historical averages, except for our car spending. We've now gone 5 months in a row without a car repair. It's a new record (we do need new struts and new tires though).
Going forward, we expect to see high medical spending in either April or May, and low childcare spending for the forseeable future. Our Grocery spending is expected to increase mainly because diaper consumption is way up! Additionally, starting in June, you should expect to see a line item for health insurance. Currently, the kids and I are on my health insurance, but we will have to figure out something for the latter half of the year. Our top options are a plan through Healthcare.Gov if we don't fall off the income subsidy cliff, a healthcare sharing ministry, or Rob's insurance. Our pediatrician requires real health insurance (not a healthcare sharing ministry), so we aren't excited about the healthcare sharing option (even though its fantastically low cost).
March 2016 Net Worth $506K
And just for the sake of making ourselves look awesome, I compared our net worth to one year ago when our net worth was $458K (this month's increase was $30K). As you can see, we've increased across the board except in the Rollover Roth account which is heavily tilted towards international stocks (meaning it took a crap last year), and our checking account due to the fact that we've spent down the majority of our home remodel fund (nearly $21K spent so far).
In terms of the Balls to Walls Saving Experiment, we are nearly complete. Rob will max his Roth this month, I'm on track to max my 401K by June, and we will start Shelley's ESA this month or next.
What to expect?
Please note, I've been reading many of your blog posts, but not commenting due to the fact that I have a disease that I made up called Amillenial thumb. It means that I can't type comments using an iPhone due to fat fingers.
Nonetheless, keep up the great writing everyone... you're keeping me informed and entertained into the wee hours of the morning.