First month of the 2024 felt very long and short at the same time. We had a low key New Years Eve Celebration. Our local library had a Happy Noon Year celebration. The kids did a countdown and had some bubbly drink. It was surprisingly nice that day so we also visited our local playground. For the actual New Year’s countdown, we watched the London countdown on You Tube so AHP can see it before his bed time. We also watched the New Years countdown for MBP. For dinner, we had burgers and tots. The grown ups were also in bed before midnight. It was glorious. It is actually hard to think that I used to go out on parties for New Years pre kids.
The kids went back to school and I welcomed our daily walk routine. MBP now built a stamina to walk back from school. The hill was hard to begin with, but we took it slow and I’m glad that I don’t have to push the stroller from school.
I also turned 38 this month. I celebrated it with my family with a cake and a special dish request from my parents. Mr. MMD, MBP, AHP and I also went to Red Robbins for dinner. I got my free dinner. I also purchased a discounted GC from Raise right before we went. The total of our dinner out was about $10.
Tax season also started and I’m officially employed. I managed a tax site, preparing taxes for low income people. January was still slow, so I never worked more than 10 hours a week. The site is open 2 days a week for 4 hours. I’d say that it really is a great part time work for me.
So for January 2024, we spent $3,652. It’s been a while since we spent less than $4,000 and I was actually surprise. Let’s take a look at our spending.
| DESCRIPTION | AMOUNT |
|---|---|
| Travel | 901.32 |
| Groceries | 684.59 |
| Utilities | 417.14 |
| Education | 323 |
| Healthcare/Medical | 202.39 |
| Home Improvement | 202.21 |
| Gasoline/Fuel | 121.68 |
| General Merchandise | 138.22 |
| Dues & Subscriptions | 102.65 |
| GIFT | 100 |
| Personal Care | 91.19 |
| HOA | 84 |
| Pets/Pet Care | 77.32 |
| Mobile Phone | 53.2 |
| Restaurants | 49.52 |
| Clothing/Shoes | 46.64 |
| Internet | 22.87 |
| Gym | 22 |
| Kids Activities | 12.97 |
| TOTAL | 3652.91 |
Travel – $901
I bought four, 3 days All Inclusive Go City Pass for our Spring break trip in Oahu. The 2 adults and 2 kids price is $814.14. I bought the tickets at Undercovertourist.com and got some cash back from Rakuten. I priced out the single tickets for the attractions that we visited and we will save more than $1k by paying for the Go City Pass. Mr. MMD also got a TSA Pre check for $78. I finally had my Global Entry Interview. I paid $8 for the airport parking. Lastly, I booked our car for our Oahu trip. I used point but paid $$1.18 using my Chase Sapphire, to ensure that I get the insurance. Our trip to Oahu is set. Our airfare and hotels were all booked using points and cost us $0. I’m looking forward to this trip.
Groceries – $684
Our groceries were typical. We buy our food at WINCO and Costco. Lately, we’ve been buying some items at Walmart. I also bought a dozen spaghetti, a dozen spaghetti sauce, a couple of our wedding wine and some flowers at Trader Joes. My tax training was in Seattle, close to Trader Joes and I took the opportunity to stock up.
Utilities – $417
We had some really cold days and our electric and gas bill showed this with a spending of $214.89. Our trash bill was $81.24. Sewer was $66.46 and our water bill was $54.55.
Education – $323
This is MBP’s monthly preschool tuition expense.
Healthcare – $202
I visited an optometrist twice last January and paid $80. This is an in-network optometrist. I’m still trying to find the root cause of my sudden dry eye and unfortunately it is still on-going. I paid $38.76 for our dental insurance, $51.25 for various co-pay for lab exams. My prescription eye drop was $10. I also paid $17.38 for OTC eye drops for my dry eye. Lastly, I paid $5 for my eye insurance.
Home Improvement – $202
We installed bidets for our 2 other bathrooms. We only had it in our master bedroom, but decided that we really liked it and want to have all the toilets to have a bidet. The bidets were ordered from Tushy. I just have to write the name of the company because I think it’s genius.
Mr. MMD also have to go to Lowes to insulate our gas pipe outside. Houses in Pacific Northwest were not build for real winter condition. The weather has been changing and we are now experiencing REAL winter. The pipe froze and our furnace stopped working. Mr. MMD was able to diagnosed and fixed it. I hope that this doesn’t happen again for the rest of the winter.
General Merchandise – $138
Various items that I don’t even bother to categorize. This is the catch all.
Gas – $121
I’ve been driving more becasue of work and training so this is for the gas of 2 cars.
Dues and Subscription – $102
My Chase Sapphire Credit Card Annual Fee was $95. This card is a keeper. We also paid $7.65 for Amazon Prime.
Gifts – $100
This was a Christmas gift for my sister. She didn’t cash the check since January.
Personal Care – $91
Mr. MMD bought a bar for our garage gym and it cost $65.69. I’ve been using it as well for strength training. I also got a haircut and paid $25.5.
HOA – $84
This keeps on going up, but hey, we have a really nice trail and playgrounds.
Pets/ Petcare – $77.32
Our fur baby’s food from Chewy.
Mobile Phone – $53
We used more than 1gb of data in December.
Restaurants $49.52
Mr. MMD met up with his buddy in Seattle for dinner and Kracken Game. I purchase $50 Red Robbins GC at Raise for $15.14. I still have $9 left on the GC.
Clothing – $46
Some clothing for me, Mr. MMD and MBP.
Internet – $22
This should actually be lower since I found out that Xfinity was erroneously charging me for an equipment fee.
Gym – $22
Mr. MMD went to a pick up hockey game.
Kids Activities – $12.97
MBP’s school had a bingo party and asked for canned pet food as a donation. These are the pet foods. The event was actually pretty cool. We had chips, pizza and water. MBP won a book and was so excited when he got a Bingo!