We enjoyed the sunny month of August. There were very warm days and we had to turn on our portable air conditioner. We don’t have central AC. In fact majority of the houses in the Pacific Northwest do not have AC. We rarely experience 90 degree weather and it always cool down at night. An open windows and a fan makes it comfortable at night. It cost over 5K to install central air and it doesn’t satisfy the cost considering it will only be use 10 times a year, at most.

In August our early retirement spending are $2,408.77

Food and Dining – $711.34

We continue on our Plant Based / Whole food diet. One of the barrier on promoting a plant based diet is cost. Our snacks are fruits and veggies. It is ridiculous that fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than junk foods. For example, a Costco size Ruffles cost $5.99 while a pack of mangoes cost $7.99. Both are also not taxable. The only fruits that are not expensive are bananas. Eating healthy is still cheaper than taking medications later on. I am also enjoying the sweet peaches, mangoes, cantaloupe, and apples. Our household love fruits! We also ordered a Burger King take out. It wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. I think my taste pallet is changing.

Auto and Transportation – $475.84

We paid $356.64 for annual tab for our Prius. It is high because of a new tax subsidy for light rail. We also spent $98.36 to get a change oil, $18.84 bucks for gas and $2 bucks for parking.

Utilities – $447.46

This looks high because I forgot to pay for electric and gas last month. We also paid for water and garbage bill this month. Our sewer, internet and and very cheap cell phone plan are consistent month over month.

Kids – $378.57

We bought this expensive high chair for MBP. I’ve been looking for a second hand for a while but this is hard to come by. I think people keep this chair until their kids go to college. AHP is starting to seat by himself and we started on some solids. I want to move MBP out of his high chair where he would feel comfortable and seat on the table. He loves his “big boy” chair! He can seat and get off his chair by himself. He also wants to seat there to color. I’ve been thinking of getting him a table, but I probably won’t do it since he can just use the dining table now with his chair. We also bought a coloring book and pull ups diaper for MBP.

Pets – $115.55

This is our furbaby’s kibble, treats and some toys ordered online from Petco and Amazon.

Health and Fitness – $96.98

I bought contact lenses from Costco. This should last me a year until my prescription expires.

Others – $183.03

Some household stuff, a printer cartridge and our HOA fees.

Below is the details of our spending. This line item is very detail. I added more categories on mint. I like to see trends for each item so I can see if there are opportunity to optimize some expenses.

July 1st marked our first year anniversary of early retirement. It was fastest year, yet many slow days with a toddler and an infant. Our spending is not normal. This is the year of paying Cobra, giving birth and the pandemic. The first two contributed to an increase in expenses while the pandemic probably decrease our expenses. It is hard to say if our spending will stay consistent. I don’t know what a “normal” year will look like.

In July, we spent, $2,341.59

Groceries – $739.16

Groceries continue to be on top of our spending. This month, we decided to eat more plant based recipe. We watched Forks Over Knives and changed our diet to eliminate most meat. We are eating more plat based / whole foods and limit our meat to once or twice a week. This change is probably the reason of the increase because we don’t have a go-to recipes. We have been have been experimenting with ingredients. Maybe we will be better on this once we accumulate some bulk ingredients.

Electronics – $491.32

Mr. MMD got a new iPhone. I got a new one last December and he’s been using my sister’s old iPhone 6. It is no longer charging. He finally got a new iPhone SE. He returned his old iPhone back for a rebate, but we won’t know the rebate amount until Apple gets the phone.

Home Improvement – $404.16

I am making some roman shades for the kids bedroom and their playroom. There are 4 windows in total. I bought a black out insulated windows and drapery fabrics and some materials needed for the shades. We finally installed one for MBP’s bedroom. It’s not professional looking, but it does the job. I also didn’t add the pull mechanism yet because I don’t want the kids to be playing with the strings. This is good for now and it is a lot better than the former curtains.

Two of our carbon monoxide and fire alarm detector also expired, so we bought a new one. That beeping was really annoying, especially when it happened at nap times. Oh well, we know now that these alarms expires every 7 years.

Others – $706.95

The rest are pretty normal expenses. There are monthly expenses like 529 college plan and HOA dues. I also split our utility bills as a category for each bill. I separated electric and gas as 1 bill, sewer, internet and mobile phone as another. We also have some discretionary expenses and bought some toys and kids supplies and we had some fast food take out because I’m craving for it.

Celebrating July

This is the second year that we celebrated 4th of July in an unincorporated county. It is legal to have some fireworks here at certain times, unlike in the city. HOA frowned upon it, but the neighborhood doesn’t seem to care. Last year, we were invited to a party in our block. I basically just walked around and our neighbor invited us. This year, there were no parties but all our neighbors were out in their front porch. We set up some chairs and watched our neighbors fired up some fireworks. MBP enjoyed it. It was hard to tell a 3 year old to keep 6ft apart from the other kids though, but we tried to make sure that we keep the social distance. AHP slept through all the fireworks while our furbaby thought that it was the end of the world.

Overall July was great considering that we are still in a lockdown. Maybe we were just getting used to this new normal and our expectations were low. It was a bit more expensive, but not alarming.

Here’s a recap to our spending in 2020:

• January – $2,471.5
• February – $2,192.44
• March – $1,685.85
• April – $8,666.55
• May – $2,059.62
• June – $1812.03
• July – $2,341.59

And here is the breakdown of our expenses in July

How’s your July?

It is still hard to believe that the first half of 2020 is over. It was the quickest and yet the slowest year at the same time. AHP is officially out of the newborn phase and we celebrated MBP’s 3rd birthday in the middle of the pandemic.

Spending wise, in June we spent 1,812.03

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Groceries – $623.89

Groceries still top our spending. There are really no other way to spend money in quarantine aside from food. In June, we (I mean my husband, mostly) cooked everything we ate. We haven’t had a chance to discover any new restaurants in the area to get some take outs. For those times that we did, pre COVID-19, we were disappointed, so it is fairly easy to just cook everything at home. We did spend quite a bit on groceries, majority of it spent at Costco and WINCO.

Household Supplies – $200.49

This category seems to be catch all for everything we needed to maintain the house. We bought a new lawnmower because the battery of our old lawnmower was no longer charging. We found some hacks to revive it but my husband doesn’t think it will last. My husband bought one that plug in to the electric outlet. He seems to like it better even with the cord. We thought about buying a gas powered mower, but getting gas is just a hassle and the thought of keeping it in our garage scares me.

Utilities – $316.05

Utilities includes water, sewer, electric and gas. My husband says that our water bill is $40 higher this month since we turned on the sprinkler on our front yard. We are trying to revive the lawn and I guess $20/month is not so bad. I didn’t recognize the trend since our water bill is lump to utilities. Electric and gas is $40 cheaper though since we are no longer using the heater.

Gifts – $125

The fundraising event for MBP’s coop was canceled for the year because of COVID-19. Majority of the funds for his coop comes from this event. We decided to donate the cost of 2 tickets to the coop.

Birthday, Anniversary and Father’s Day

We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary this month and MBP’s 3rd birthday. He was born a day after our anniversary. Mr. MMD got some flowers and we had a pretty low key celebration.

We invited my immediate family for MBP’s birthday. This includes my parents, my grandmother and my 3 siblings. I made a rainbow cupcake, some rolls and bake chicken while my parents brought some Filipino food. It was a lovely day and our bellies were full. We had so much fun seeing MBP get so excited for his birthday. A week before his birthday, he was asking what day it was and keep on telling us that “today he is 2, but on Saturday he will be 3”. It was hilarious and he was so happy blowing his birthday cake. I was a bit bummed since I thought that this is the first time that we can celebrate his birthday with his classmates, but he still had a lot of fun! He was really excited with all his gifts. Just shortly after, we visited the kids pediatrician for AHP’s 4 month check up and MBP’s 3 year check up. It’s the only adventure out for the kids. We stayed home for the rest of the month, but enjoyed the sunny weather and the trails in our neighborhood.

We also celebrated Father’s day and just like other celebrations, it was very low key. MBP “made” a card and my husband cooked some pancake ~ the usual breakfast every Sunday.

Here’s a recap to our spending in 2020:

• January – $2,471.5
• February – $2,192.44
• March – $1,685.85
• April – $8,666.55
• May – $2,059.62
• June – $1812.03

We’re tracking under 40k if we assume that our expenses will just double through out the year. Holidays are always expensive though, and we still don’t know if MBP’s school will open for the year.

And here’s the breakdown of our May expenses