December finances…we ended up spending more than we have in quite a while last month. It’s always annoying to see our expenses fly through the roof after doing well for a period, but this is life, I tell myself. I’d like to think our budget-busting was for good reason. Our home refinance went through and relinquished the January mortgage payment, and they ended up loaning too much to pay off the old escrow account. So a check for $2,000 was mailed to us. I had high hopes to use the deleted January mortgage payment and this check to load up on bonus investment purchases, but this didn’t happen–not yet at least. Luckily, and more importantly to me, our regular investment purchases chugged along and we were able to absorb the overspending because of the refi benefits. The refi couldn’t have gone through in a better month than December.

Tires

My wife had been complaining about her tires for some time. I had it in my mind that I’d just purchased new tires for the Civic. And when I went to inspect the tires I was shocked and embarrassed by how bald they were. How did I not notice their condition? I looked back at the receipt and saw that I purchased the tires way back in 2015. The tires failed the penny test and off I went to get new tires. You know you’re hitting middle age when you think last year was actually five years ago.

There are certain things in life I don’t look to go frugal on. Tires are one of those things. Tires might be the most important thing you buy for a car. Safety is number one. Who cares about how much you saved if you’re going to slam into something because you skimped on the tires? You pay more for good tires and you actually save money because they last longer and avoid costly accidents. The Civic is a tiny car and my wife and kids are in there all the time. The last thing I want is for anything to happen because I was looking for a deal. I didn’t buy racing quality tires, but they were in the upper tier.

Main Office

Well, it appears my small job gig has come to a close. This actually happened the first week of January, but December was likely my last full month of tenant improvement, so I’ll include it in this summary. I was filling in for another super while he’d taken the typical holiday two-week vacation. He returned on that Monday of the new year and we turned over. Well, last Monday I try to call my boss about where I’m going tomorrow and he keeps forwarding my call. I text. No response.

Okay, I think, it’s only 2 pm. Maybe he’s not sure yet where I’m going. Soon it’s 5 pm and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do for work tomorrow. I call and text him again. No answer. In my 17 years in construction, I’ve always known where I was going to work tomorrow, even if I had to stay home because something was slow. I’ve been told something. Never just a rude silence. Fine, tomorrow I’ll just go through my routine, get ready for work, and then skip the chain of command and call the division president.

Finally, the general super responds at 7 pm. “Meet me at 7 am at the main office. Thanks.”

What the hell does that mean? Are we then going to drive over to my next job? Why meet there? I get a really bad feeling. They’re probably going to lay me off. I can’t shake this feeling and I can’t relax. So I take the car seats out of my truck and clean the truck out a bit in case they take it back. I get a USB drive and download all my personal things from my computer, then wipe it clean. Fuck it, I thought, it’s not going to kill me to get fired. My stomach was in knots and I tried to meditate it away. Sitting calmly and breathing helped a little. Still, I barely slept that night. I got up at 3:30 am and readied myself for what I felt deep in my bones would be a pivotal day in my life.

At 6:35 am I called him from my truck. I don’t care about being early. I wanted it over with. “Hey, I’m here. Didn’t know if you’re already here, we can meet now if you’re available.”

No, not yet he tells me. Then I’m just blunt about it. “Are you going to lay me off today?”

He laughs.

“No, I’m not laying you off. You’re going to work in the main office doing project scheduling for preconstruction.”

I can’t even describe the instantaneous feeling of relief that washed over me. It was like getting that first breath of fresh air after jumping into a body of water and you’re swimming up wondering where the hell the surface is. The cold heaviness in my stomach and chest was gently replaced by the buoyant lightness of excitement. Scheduling? I mindfully relished that moment by closing my eyes and gleefully felt the last bits of anxiety dissipate.

Scheduling

So now I’ll be scheduling for a while. That’s only if I have what it takes. They threw a set of drawings at me and told me to make a schedule and turn it in by Friday. Job had to be done in 11 months. If I could do it I could stay. I’ve made schedules before, but never start to finish from scratch. I’m up for the challenge. I’ve never even considered the possibility that I may work in the main office one day. They said it’s just a stint and they want to run certain supers through this. Make schedules for job bidding and help fix schedules on current jobs if needed. I’ll take it. I love planning for things, so this might be right up my alley. If things work out it will be nice to be around people for a change and have some stability.

December Finances

We went way over what we’d like to spend…like $2,334 over what we are supposed to spend. Our non-existent January mortgage payment will cover these over expenditures. Crazy that the amount we are over is exactly what our mortgage payment was. I think subconsciously we knew that we had some room to go crazy this month because of our refi situation, and we did.

Hard Bills- $193

Hard bills are right where I want them. We saved some money on the childcare side of it because my wife took a few days off around the holidays. I’m actually thinking of moving this childcare line item down to my fluid “soft bill” section since this number seems to be changing monthly. Childcare is one of the key pillars of our household finances. This is something we are also keeping in mind that will no longer be an expense once we FIRE.

Soft Bills-$2527

Ah. So the gym bill. Last month I disparaged the gym and the amount because I thought they’d unethically raised the cost on us. Turns out that $149 is the normal cost! They’d lowered it since March because of Covid and I’d just become accustomed to it. So this line item is here to stay for the current moment. Though I personally think this is obscenely too high for a gym.

Tires-$906. This took us over as well. Which I talked about above. There’s always a surprise cost in life. It’s best just to plan for it than hope. This gets me thinking that maybe I should throw in a line item called “Life” in my budget and throw $500 bucks at it. I don’t know. Doing so would be admitting defeat in a way. I’ll have to think about doing this.

Christmas gifts-$797. Yikes! How the hell did that happen? I can count roughly 15 people we bought gifts for. Most of them are nieces and nephews. That comes out to about $53 bucks a person. I guess that’s fair? I feel like a miser analyzing this cost but I work hard to keep my finances in order and any disturbance deserves a good hard look.

Amazon Prime/Playstation Network- $262. Here’s another surprise that came my way. Playstation charges $59 bucks annually to access their gaming network. I like to play a game or two online. Then the Prime bill came along.

Summary

All in all, could have been a worse month if we didn’t have that Refi that saved our asses. Next year I will plan in advance for the gift allowances. Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

Happy Savings!