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.