Save. Spend. Splurge.

Save. Spend. Splurge.

In Budget Roundups

February 2016 Budget Roundup = $487,975.61 or a decrease of -$51,256.97 or -10.5%

Posted on March 3, 2016

WHAT I FEEL LIKE SOME DAYS WITH BABY BUN

Damn straight.

MEDIUM ARTICLE:

“HOW I GOT OUT OF $60,000 OF DEBT“

I wrote about how I got out of $60,000 of debt over on Medium.

URGE TO RANDOMLY COMPLIMENT STRANGERS

I randomly get the urge to compliment strangers and say things like:

“I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re really beautiful.”

But how awkward would that be coming from a woman who is heterosexual and a stranger, no less and wants nothing more than just to say that?

These are just so-called “ordinary” women but they’re just.. gorgeous and maybe they don’t know it.

Or they do. I don’t know.

So.. if you catch a strange woman staring at you, think that maybe they think you’re really beautiful and not that I’m trying to be hostile or judging you.


It would be easier if I had Baby Bun under the crook of my arm, because I find that mothers tend to be given a little more leniency.

STYLE BLOGGERS WHO EXEMPLIFY MY STYLE

THIS IS SO SWEET

“I’ve organized a lot of programs in prison. One of the classes I started is called Creative Parenting. It’s the most popular class here. The waiting list is really long. I don’t have any kids myself, but I noticed that most guys are really soft for their kids. So that gave me an idea. Mainly we just make stuff and send it to the kids. We’ll do coloring projects where the father will color half the picture, and the kid will color the second half. We write bedtime stories. Most of the guys write about sports, but we make sure that every story has a moral. Sometimes we’ll take funny photos and send them to the kids. One guy’s daughter was really into My Little Pony. He was a tough guy. He was in a gang and everything, but he put his hair into pigtails and pretended to be a horse. We did another class where we made cards for kids with cancer. I had my family set it up with a hospital. We made about 200 cards. They didn’t want us to write ‘I hope you feel better,’ because that reminds the kids of what they’re going through. So we tried to keep it focused on Christmas. There were 150 guys in my unit, and 60 signed up for that program. A lot of the guys had to wait outside because the room was too small.” (Federal Correctional Complex: Hazelton, West Virginia)

A photo posted by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on

INCOME = $0

None to speak of.

EXPENSES = $6536.73 (not including taxes)

save-spend-splurge-february-2016-budget-roundup-expenses

NET WORTH & SPENDING = $487,975.61 or a decrease of $51,256.97 or 10.5%

4 words to explain what happened:

Stock Market.

Taxes.

Spending.

save-spend-splurge-february-2016-budget-roundup-net-worth-spending

I dipped below $500,000 but I am not too mad about this. I was way below that a year ago. I’m still good.

save-spend-splurge-february-2016-budget-roundup-expenses-net-worth-year

BABY BUN’S NET WORTH = $11,694.73 or an increase of +$637.69 or +5.77%

At least ONE of us is doing well.

GO BABY BUN!

save-spend-splurge-february-2016-budget-roundup-net-worth-baby-bun

LOOKING FORWARD

I need this weather to warm up so that I can do more things that do not involve hiding in malls or going shopping for more things to organize the home or educate Baby Bun.


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Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.

I got out of $60,000 of debt in 18 months using TheBudgetingTool.com. Since then, I have worked 50% of my career (taking 1-2 year breaks), and quadrupled my income within 2 years of graduating, going from $65K to $260K (savings rate = 85%). I could retire today if I wanted, but love my work-life balance as a freelancing consultant in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). I also post daily on Instagram @saverspender.

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16 Comments

  1. A
    Aisha

    If you owned a home would you include that in your assets as well? And just curiou on your thoughts about home ownership. Why have you chose not to purchase one. Thanks!

    Reply
    1. sherry@savespendsplurge.com

      1. Yes. If I had a debt (mortgage) on it, I’d count the assets. Even if it is fully paid, I’d put the house in there but at the price I bought it. I wouldn’t bother with market valuation every year because even though a house is worth X amount on paper, if you needed to sell it NOW, it may go for Y which could be lower. Who knows?

      2. I would own an apartment but only if I could pay it off 100% in one shot without a mortgage. Otherwise, a mortgage for 25+ years is paying the house again in interest alone. E.g. house is $300K, 25 year mortgage, you pay another $300K in interest alone to the bank give or take. Then there are taxes, etc.

      3. I will buy a home but we are waiting for the right home / moment. It is not the time right now, we haven’t found good deals yet.

      Reply
  2. J
    Julie

    can you tell us a bit more about the kind of educational things you got for babybun? $400+?!

    Reply
    1. save. spend. splurge.

      I went nuts. I bought a wall map, crayons, made flash cards, bought art supplies to play with him (this kind of kinetic sand that doesn’t make a mess but I needed enough for a sandbox.. so.. yeah that was costly), books, LOTS OF BOOKS, stickers, a little cardboard playhouse for when he’s bigger…

      Reply
  3. Chau

    Hi there! Exactly how are your 401k and investment up so much? Mine have slumped since Nov of 2015 and only investment holding me is Starbucks stock! Do tell inquiring minds want to know 🙂

    Reply
    1. save. spend. splurge.

      My investment portfolio at the end of 2015 has been outlined here.

      Reply
      1. Chau

        Aha! Gas, good call! So what is US index? Is there a sym for that? As you can tell I am still trying to figure out a good portfolio. Lol. Like your style for saving! I cleared $30k debt in a year because I started my own consulting business too but that was completely by luck and by getting laid off. Lol. Love your blog!

        Reply
        1. save. spend. splurge.

          I’m so happy you’re interested in investing. 🙂

          U.S. index funds track the S&P 500, Canadian ones track the TSX.

          You can read more about investing here, I’d recommend index funds. A balanced portfolio of U.S., Canada and foreign index mutual funds.

          Are you in Canada?

          I’d go with the TD E-Series or the index fund ETFs through a brokerage like Questrade and use referral code [ o0soehds ] for free trades.

          I have tons of posts on index fund investing, index mutual funds versus index ETFs.. 🙂 Just go through my investing posts.

          Reply
  4. A
    ArianaAburn

    Sorry for my bad spelling:(

    Reply
    1. save. spend. splurge.

      Looked fine to me 🙂

      Reply
  5. A
    ArianaAburn

    Hvae you tried taking Baby Bun to the library (low cost)? They have rooms for young ones to play while you read.

    Reply
    1. save. spend. splurge.

      I took him to the library but there was just a sad little area with nothing to play in.

      I do know they have daily programs once March Break is over, so I’ll be back to try them out!

      Reply
  6. M

    Can you explain baby bun’s net worth? How does he have money when he’s just a baby? :O

    Reply
    1. save. spend. splurge.

      He’s a very precocious little Warren Buffett in the making. I gave him a penny and this is what he has now.

      Just kidding 🙂

      It’s government federal and provincial money that they give us each month as “milk money” or “baby Bonus” that we have to claim as our income and pay taxes on. We saved aside that money for BB.

      Reply
      1. J
        Jessie's Money

        Jordan and I are doing the same thing with Little Man!

        Reply
        1. save. spend. splurge.

          NICE! 🙂 *high five*

          Reply

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