I started November feeling relief that elections are over. I was not surprised with the result as I am more realistic this time. We also moved to a somewhat red/purple part of Washington State and I actually met people supporting the other party. We are still neighbors and our lives move on. I’m still hopeful, but of course realistic.

On another note, we celebrated Veteran’s Day with our Campfire Troupe and watched Salmon go back upstream to lay their eggs. It was really fascinating. It was my first time seeing salmon in the river and whoa, we did see a bunch of them.

November also brought us to Central Illinois for our annual visit to my in-laws. Our trip is always pretty relaxing. Life in the farm has some advantages. There was no traffic at all. It was quiet and cozy. But it was cold! I can’t imagine living there during the winter. The wind was brutal. We stick to indoor activities like the Children’s Museum, swimming at the local YMCA and staying inside. MBP, his Grandma and myself also watched the Charlie Brown Christmas. It was a good show and MBP really enjoyed it.

For our spending, in November, we spent $3,816. This was on the low end of our spending. Let’s take a look.

Description	Amount
Travel	849.57
Healthcare/Medical	613.84
Groceries	445.05
Education	356
Gym	313.91
General Merchandise	256.88
Utilities	236.27
Restaurants	217.73
Kids Activities	145.57
Automotive	102.25
HOA	84
Gasoline/Fuel	75.75
Home Improvement	43.96
Mobile Phone	25.32
Home Maintenance	15.9
Clothing/Shoes	14.2
Christmas card	11
Dues & Subscriptions	7.65
Online Services	1.99
Total	3816.84

Travel – $849.57

We rented a van from O’Hare to Central Illinois. Mr. MMD was in charge of renting the car and he paid Enterprise $12/day for the toll fees. It was a mistake because he thought it was for the entire trip. We also paid for gas on our way back.

Healthcare/Medical – $613.84

Our health insurance was high this month. I updated our income based on the previous stock sale so we paid $468.84. I also paid for 4 PT sessions and and a Dr. visit copay. Apparently, I’m still paying for my eye insurance. I didn’t realize that it automatically renew and they make it hard to cancel it. That will be on my to do list.

Education – $356

This is for AHP’s preschool tuition.

Groceries – $445.05

This is really low because we were out for 10 days of the month. We also tried to eat as much of our food in the fridge before we leave for our trip.

Gym – $313.91

This is our monthly membership for the YMCA and Mr. MMD’s Hockey games.

Utilities – $236.27

This is for our electric and gas, water and sewer.

General Merchandise – $256.88

This is catch all for everything else that buy. I should probably try to track this closer.

Restaurants – $217.73

We ate out for during our trip and before our trip. On our way to Central Illinois, we stopped by the Old Route 66 Family Restaurant.

Kids Activities – $145.57

We signed up the kids for the basketball league at the YMCA.

Automotive – $102.25

This is for our annual registration of our Volkswagen Jetta.

HOA – $84

Monthly HOA for our trail maintenance

Gasoline / Fuel – $75.75

Three trips to Costco Gas Station for our Prius.

Home Improvement – $43.96

A trip to Lowes and Ikea. I’m returning some stuff from Ikea.

Mobile Phone – $25.32

This is for our 2 lines of phone using 1GB of data from Xfinity Mobile.

Home Maintenance – $15.9

Mr. MMD ordered a camera that can go on our walls.

Clothing / Shoes – $14.2

We got AHP a Seahawks Beanie from Costco. We will probably get him the youth version.

Christmas Card – $11

We also had our annual picture taken. This is for “shipment fees” of one hardcopy that was included in our package.

Dues and Subscription – $7.65

Our monthly Prime Subscription

Online Services – $1.99

Payment for online hosting for this blog from Google Cloud Platform

On to my update. We settled into routine during October. The boys were back in school and sports activities during the weekend. They did soccer, swimming and Campfire. This actually ended up being too much for me. Soccer have weekday practice and Saturday Games. Swimming is also every weekday after school. There were a lot of driving involve. They missed some of it because of the inevitable illness that comes when school starts.

I also managed to get in a hike this month and visited Mt. Rainier. The fall colors were lovely. This was my only hike during the season because of some back and neck issues I’ve been dealing with. I was surprised that I was not winded on this hike. I managed to keep up with my father who is also surprisingly fit.

This month, we also had our annual tradition of visiting a pumpkin patch. We’ve been going to the same patch every year since MBP started the coop when he was 2 years old. We did it as an annual field trip. Now that none of the boys were no longer in the coop, we visited it with our Campfire Families. Four families were there with 8 kids and fun were had! The boys were big enough to enjoy the big slide, apple sling and we even did the corn maze. The corn maze was hard, but we had a lot of fun doing it. We paid $30 for our family visit. This is cheap because we went with a group. Otherwise, the cost of entry is $20 per person.

Halloween was long this year. We started celebrating a week before the actual day and went to the YMCA and the kids schools for the fall festival. Then there was the actual Halloween day. I coordinated MBP’s class halloween party and the kids went trick or treating at night. We went to our neighbors 55+ lodge and another retirement home’s lobby. They had enough candy during the visit. AHP didn’t want to go house to house so MBP and I went. We managed to go to 2 houses until he got scared and wanted to go home. MBP watched football and AHP gave candies to trick or treaters. I bought over $100 worth of candy. About half of it went to MBP’s school. We went through 1.5 bags of Costco candies. I ended up returning 1 bag because we didn’t open it.

On to our expenses our total expenses for October was $10,488. Wow that is a lot of $$$ in one month. Let’s take a look.

Description	Amount
property tax	3,149.80
Other Expenses	2,000.00
Groceries	953.49
Automotive	907.69
Education	876.00
Healthcare/Medical	635.74
Kids Activities	357.11
Utilities	322.98
Gym	313.91
Restaurants	232.73
General Merchandise	225.63
Gasoline/Fuel	149.71
Pets/Pet Care	86.49
HOA	84.00
Clothing/Shoes	73.43
Home Maintenance	39.62
Mobile Phone	25.26
Christmas card	22.49
Internet	19.90
Dues & Subscriptions	7.65
Total	10,483.63

Property Tax – $3,149.8

This is the second half of our property taxes. We live in a suburb of Seattle and the cost of living here is higher than average.

Other Expenses – $2,000

We finally met up with an estate lawyer to get our Wills and other estate documents taken care of. We should get the documents around December.

Groceries – $953.49

Our family of four continue to shop at WINCO and Costco with some shopping here and there at Walmart.

Automotive – $907.69

I paid for our 6 months auto insurance for our 2 cars for $623. Our 2011 Toyota Prius also needed some new batteries, which cost us $284.69.

Education – $876

AHP’s monthly tuition was $356. MBP also had his annual PTA fundraising and we contributed $520 for it. We decided to match any donations that he gets. We pick which fundraising we support for the kids school. We really like this annual “fun run” event that the PTA put together. The kids don’t need to sell anything, but it is really just fun for the kids. We are lucky that the kids schools have a good PTA and parents are involve for the most part.

Healthcare / Medical – $635

I paid $250 for my Physical Therapy sessions. I have been going to a physical therapist twice a week since September and my copay is $25 per session. I really like my PT but found out that he was leaving this December. I only have it until November. Mr. MMD paid for some contact lenses. We paid $99.48 for our health insurance, $77.52 for dental and $5 for my vision. I also paid $20 for a blood test copay.

Kids Activities – $357.11

MBP is playing basketball for the rest of fall quarter. We also got him some inline skates because he has been asking to play hockey. He can’t really play hockey if he doesn’t know how to skate. Mr. MMD got him some inline skates so he can easily practice at home and we don’t have to take him ice skating. The rest are some photos for soccer and items for activities for CampFire.

Utilities – $322

This is for Electric and Gas, Water, Sewer and Garbage.

Gym – $313

Our YMCA monthly membership were $166 and Mr. MMD plays hockey for $147.91 per month

Restaurants – $232

We’ve been eating out almost every week after the boys soccer games. We tried out 2 local restaurants in the neighborhood and we were pretty happy with it. We also got some take outs and ate out when we were at the Pumpkin Patch. I’m enjoying it and will probably continue for some good local eats going forward.

General Merchandise – $225

Some stuff that I don’t want to itemize.

Gas – $149

We’ve been driving more for the kids activities, PT sessions, gym and hockey. As much as I hate driving, there are really no other choice. We live in a very non-walkable area with almost zero utilities. In fact there are only two stores here, Wendys and 7-eleven.

Pets – $86

Our furbaby’s food

HOA – $84

Monthly HOA for being here in our neighborhood. This will probably go up next year.

Clothing – $73

I got some winter gear for the kids at Costco and MBP got some Dallas Cowboys socks when we went to the mall.

Home Maintenance – $39.62

Bulbs and some Halloween Decorations

Mobile Phone – $25.26

This is for our 2 lines of data from Xfinity Mobile. We used 1GB of data this month.

Christmas Card – $22.49

I got a Groupon Deal for our holiday photos from JC Penney.

Internet – $19

This was posted for 2 months, one in October and one for November.

Dues and Subscription – $7.65

Our subscription for Amazon Prime

That’s our October. It’s expensive but it evens out through out the year.