By The Numbers: November

November was the month of pets, and also I only had a few fun rides, but nothing big. I did start to run a little bit, and have been doing a ton of walking, and am still trying to get my steps each day! All of the below numbers are as of November 30, 2024. 

My accountability buddy

Mileage To Date:

Total Days on the Road: 252

Total Days Ridden: 154

Days Ridden in October: 1

Total Miles Ridden: 8,600

Miles Run: 43 (the most miles I have run in a month since March!)

Average Steps per Day: 10,200 (phew!) 

Accommodation To Date: 

Airbnb: 12

Established Camp: 35

Friend: 36

Housesitting: 47

Motel: 70

Warm Showers: 9

Wild Camp: 40

Train: 3

Total Days: 252

Total average cost per day: $32

Verdict: November was only one night in a hotel and the rest of the time I was housesitting. Obviously this brought the average cost down. 

As seen on my Thanksgiving day run

Total Cost: November

*Please note that I eradicated my travel category since basically all my costs are what I would have categorized in travel before. 

Accommodation: $75 (↓ from October) Includes any place where I rested my head for the night. In November this included housesitting (29) and a motel (1).

Dining Out: $174 (no change from October) Includes coffee, ice cream shops, snacks and meals at a restaurant, including bakeries and the train canteen. This was still down about 30% from the average for this trip. Once again, being in one place helped, but basically the majority of this amount was in one day spent at the Seahawks game. Those beers are pricey! 

Groceries: $234 (↓ from October) Includes food and snacks from a grocery or convenience store. This is down 23% from the average for this trip. This is likely due to the fact that by housesitting especially for longer periods, I tend to be able to shop less often and cook more real food rather than eating grab and go type things. 

Health: $234 (same - insurance premium) Includes my health insurance and any costs for health care (which I have luckily not had!!!). I am hoping that next year I will be able to lower the amount of the premium, but I do expect to pay out of pocket for some things (for example, I need to get my teeth cleaned and I am going to need new contacts) while I am abroad. 

Misc.: $195 (↑ from October) Includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts, personal care. This month was higher due to gifts. 

Shopping: $2,058 (↑↑↑↑ from October) Includes costs associated with cycling maintenance, cycling gear, running and camping gear and other clothing or toiletries. And electronics!! Sigh. I had been holding off on buying a new laptop because I cannot carry two on the bike and did not want to do any organizing while on the road, but now that I am more settled, I bit the bullet. And it hurt. Hopefully this laptop lasts me as long as my last one, which lasted about ten years. I calculate this as a cost per day of about $0.27, which is pretty darn good! To get that cost per day with the new one, it will need to last 15 years. Wish me luck. This is not all electronics though; I did finally buy some new undies (yay!), some TP (double yay!) and a couple of merino tops that I found on sale and could not pass up. 

Transportation: $27 (↓ from October) Included an Amtrak ride and a few local bus rides. 

Utilities: $273 (↑ from October) Includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN & McAfee). 

Total Spent: $3,286 (↑ 20% from $2,750 average and ↑ 37% from October*)

Verdict: *If I had not bought the computer, this would be my lowest cost month for travel. However, these things happen, so I am keeping it in. Also, full disclosure here, I also still had some home related costs over the last months, so my total spend this year will be more than I have ever spent in one year. 

I am looking forward to next year when it will be more of a "clean slate" and am still considering trying to have a budget of around $2,500, although I know that since my first destinations are in Europe this will not be as easy. However, 2026 will probably be in a lower cost area and so I feel that even if I am over in one year, I will be under in others. Also, I love me some croissants and am not going to skimp on things like that. Croissants are the new ice cream!

To end this number heavy post, here are a few recent stats! 

Favorite Ice Cream: My little cousin (she is 13) made homemade ice cream for Thanksgiving. Yummy. 

Favorite New Town: I really enjoyed Bellingham, but also Northeast Seattle is very pretty too. Towns near water really are the best. Seattle itself is not "new" but I really do like it too. 

Favorite New Water Related Venue: See above, but I will say Lake Washington, even though there have been some good Puget Sound views too. 

Lake Washington

Lake Union

Favorite Food Item: I had an excellent carnitas taco at Tacos Tecalitlan in Burlington, WA. 

Favorite Book: The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

Okay it's your turn!! Have you read The Mountains Sing? Are the Christmas decorations out in your neighborhood yet? 

Money Monday: How to Save on Taxes

Disclaimer: Tax evasion is illegal; tax avoidance is not. I am not a CPA, financial advisor or tax attorney. Please consult a professional for personal advice. 

Who doesn't want to save money on taxes? Here are a few ways we can do this! 

Health Savings Account (HSA). If you have an option to do this, it is a good idea. Why? Because you can put money in pre-tax, and invest it until you need it for medical costs. If you spend it on medical, it is tax-free on the way out too. It also rolls over, so you never lose it, and you can transfer it if you leave a job. Some jobs offer this, but even if others do not, you can still get one on your own and get a tax write off at the end of the year. For 2024, you can put up to $4,150 for singles or $8,300 for families. If you do not use it on medical by the time you are 65, you can withdraw it with no penalty for any reason, but you do have to pay tax. You can also pass it on when you die; for a spouse it will be tax free, but if it is to another, they will have to pay income tax on the proceeds. 

Who can invest in an HSA? If you have a high deductible health plan (HDHP), you can invest, even if your employer does not offer this. You can open an account at Fidelity or various other brokerages fairly easily. Once opened, you can transfer money in, and they will keep track of how far you are from the cap. 

Donations. If you donate regularly, it may be worth doing it all in one year rather than year after year, especially if that amount is higher than the standard deduction. For example, if you donate $3,000 a year, consider donating $30,000 this year and nothing for the next ten years. I know this is a lot, but it could save you money on taxes if you can afford to make a bigger contribution in one year. You can also open an investment account (called a DAF) where you can put all of the money this year and then donate a little bit each year to the charity or charities of your choice. 

The other thing you can do is donate stock. Let's say for instance you bought $1,000 worth of Nvidia ten years ago, and now it is worth over $300,000 (don't you wish?) If you sold $30,000 worth, you would have to pay capital gains taxes on somewhere around $29,900 in profits. But if you donated $30,000, you would get to write off a $30,000 donation, and you would still have $270,000 worth of NVDA. So you would kind of "save twice" on being taxed. 

Speaking of capital gains. For those of you who don't invest, there are many good reasons to do so. One of them is that you can play the system in several ways. 

Way #1: Harvest losses. You can sell any stock that has a loss and claim up to $3,000 in losses each year against your ordinary income. What does this mean? This means that if your taxable income is $50,000, by having a loss of $3,000, it brings this down to $47,000, thus lowering your taxes by roughly $1,000 if you are getting taxed 30%. You can buy the stock back after 30 days and still keep it, but you can "harvest" the loss first. Many people do this every year! 

Way #2: Step up in basis. If you have stock, like NVDA, that has gone up in price a lot, you can save this for your heirs, and when you pass it on to them, it is as if they bought it on the day of your death. This means that if your heir gets your NVDA and they sell it a day after you die, they do not have to pay any taxes on the gains. 

This is also a rule for property, so if you pass on your property to your heirs, they will also get a step up in basis, and the "price they paid" or their "cost basis" will be as of the day of your death. 

On the flip side, if you have something that has a big loss, this may be used to offset a gain you have somewhere else, so may be worth selling before you pass away rather than giving this to your heirs. Capital gains on sales net off, so if you needed some income for example, you could sell one thing with a loss and one with a gain so that you have proceeds but don't have any tax implications. Also, losses carry over, so if you sell something and get a $10,000 loss but only take $3,000 against your income, you will have $7,000 in losses left for next year (and beyond). 

Way #3: Harvest gains. If you have a stock like NVDA, and you cannot afford to pass it on to your heirs, it may make sense to wait until you are not working any more to sell it. By doing this, you don't have any (or have very little) income coming in and you can sell it little by little so that you don't get into a higher tax bracket. Also, if you make less than a certain amount (for 2024 this is $47,025 for singles and $94,050 for married people), your capital gains are taxed at 0%. So basically, if your social security is $2,000 a month ($24,000/year), as a single, you could sell enough (to have less than $23,025 in gains) to stay below the cap and you would not pay taxes on any of those gains (you will still pay tax on your SS income, but this is beyond the scope of this post). 

Last but not least, in investing, it is good to have a little of each account type (IRA/401k, Roth IRA, regular taxable brokerage account, regular savings account) so that you can make the most of them depending on your situation. Especially if you are going to stop working before 59.5 which is the age you can usually take from your retirement accounts without penalty. However, there are ways to make it all work, and to save money on taxes too by having one of each account and taking from each depending on your particular timing. 

The other thing you may not realize is that at a certain point you are required to withdraw from your retirement account (currently it is 73 but it keeps changing and is supposed to change to 75 in 2033). This is called an RMD (requirement minimum distribution); depending on how much you have in your retirement account, it may make sense to withdraw a little each year after you are 59.5 so that you are not hit by a larger amount later on. This may not be an issue, but it is worth keeping an eye on. 

Do you do any of the above things? Do you have any investment accounts? At what age do you plan on retiring? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my next ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Money Monday: By The Numbers: October

Finally, things have simmered down enough and it is time for my monthly spending recap, along with a few other random stats! For the month of October, my bike trip was slightly winding down, and I spent a lot more time visiting and housesitting than I did riding. All of the below numbers are as of October 31, 2024. 

Montreal bike (they were everywhere!)

Mileage To Date:

Total Days on the Road: 222

Total Days Ridden: 153

Days Ridden in October: 10

Total Miles Ridden: 8,540

Average Miles Per Day Ridden: 55.8 (vs 56.57 as of Sept 30)

Max miles per day: 101

Accommodation To Date: 

Airbnb: 12

Established Camp: 35

Friend: 36

Housesitting: 18

Motel: 69

Warm Showers: 9

Wild Camp: 40

Train: 3

Total Days: 222

Total average cost per day: $39

Verdict: Although October involved a lot of housesitting and stays with friends, the motels were more expensive than normal and there was no wild camping. This only brought the average per day down from $40 to $39. 

Total Cost: October

*Please note that I eradicated my travel category since basically all my costs are what I would have categorized in travel before. 

Accommodation: $1,106 (↓ from September by $15!) Includes any place where I rested my head for the night. In October this included housesitting (13), Motel (9), Friend (5), Airbnb (2), Established Camping (1) and Train (1). 

Dining Out: $174 (↓ from September) Includes coffee, ice cream shops, snacks and meals at a restaurant, including bakeries and the train canteen. This was down about 30% from the average for this trip. This is likely due to the fact that I was not on the move as much so could plan my groceries and meals out better. However, I did go out and get food in Montreal and Quebec a few times, and went out with Elisabeth! I feel like this was more quality than quantity though. 

Groceries: $254 (↓ from September) Includes food and snacks from a grocery or convenience store. This is down about 20% from the average for this trip. This is likely due to the fact that by housesitting or staying with friends, I tend to be able to shop less often so can stock up on more things. 

Health: $234 (same - insurance premium) Includes my health insurance and any costs for health care (which I have luckily not had!!!). I expect to go for my colonoscopy procedure in the next six months and it will be interesting to see what the out of pocket is for that with my new insurance plan. (by interesting, I mean please don't hold your breath!) 

Misc.: $33 (↑ from September) Includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts, personal care (as you can see, there is not much of that happening)

Shopping: $4 (↓ from September) Includes costs associated with cycling maintenance, cycling gear, running and camping gear and other clothing or toiletries. The $255 average for this trip is mainly because I've spent about $1,100 on bike maintenance, which equates for about 62% of this category. Luckily in October, I barely spent anything! Bob sure is high maintenance! (*Dad joke)

Transportation: $169 (↓ from September) Included one flight for me and Bob and a couple of local bus and train rides in Montreal and Quebec. Why is it so low, you ask!? I used points for a lot of this, which I talked about in my last Money Monday post! 

Utilities: $232 (↓ from September) Includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, Garmin charges, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN). 

Total Spent: $2,205 (↓ 20% from average and ↓ 27% from September)

Verdict: Pretty much all categories went down from September and most were lower than the average for the trip. I am still trying to figure out what I should target for my budget for next year, but I am thinking that $2,500 a month may be a good number to start with. I do think that there will be a couple of things that I will need to upgrade next year (for example, my normal travel backpack is from the 90s!) but hopefully they will not cost more than the cost of bike maintenance, so it will even out. 

This brings to total spent for seven months to $18,407 or approximately $2,600 per month. The highest month is still the Tour Divide (July) and the lowest is April with October coming in second lowest.

Verdict: Being on the move more or trying to go faster equals more expensive for the most part. Being able to slow down and buy things in larger quantities and stay in one place for a week really does make a difference. 

To end this number heavy post, here are a few non-cycling related stats! 

Favorite Ice Cream: The Real Scoop in Wolfville. 

Favorite New Town: Wolfville, although Mahone Bay was pretty dang cute

Favorite New Water Related Venue: Hubbards Bay or Blomidon

Favorite Food Item: I really loved the family dinners at Elisabeth's house! However, I had a blast getting a loaded poutine at La Banquise in Montreal. Was it touristy? 100% yes. However, it was still a lot of fun and it was very filling! 

Favorite Book: God of the Woods. I will be doing a post about what I read later, or you can find my list on my Goodreads page here! 

Okay it's your turn!! Have you read God of the Woods? What was the best (or worst) thing you spent money on in October? What month is normally your highest spending month? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Money Monday: Credit Card Hacking

Let's talk about getting to travel for free! 

But first, I realized in last week's post that I kind of jumped into the middle of the saving topic without covering the basics! However, for those of you who have not seen some of my prior posts, I do think that if you are just going to do one thing, it should be to pay into your 401k (403b/RRSP etc.) at least up to whatever your employer will match. If you don't have an employer who offers this, there are other ways to save, but I will cover them in a future post! You can find posts about a lot of these subjects on my Tips and Hacks page, but also here are a few of my favorites.

Every Quarter Counts: Three Tips for Growing Your Wealth Early 
Saving My Latte For a Rainy Day: Saving for Retirement
Make a Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents: What I Splurge and Save On 
My Last To Do List: Trusts and Other Documents 

The second thing that I think is important is to pay off all of your credit card debt. I did a review of a friend's finances once and the two things that really stood out to me were that (a) he had multiple charges for some subscriptions that he hadn't even realized because he was not looking at his statements and (b) he was not paying off his credit card in full every month! This can really add up! 

For example, if you have a balance of $5,000 with 25% interest rate and you pay it down $100 a month ($1,200 total), by the end of the year, your balance will be unchanged, at about $5,056, and you would have paid about $1,256 in interest that year. If you pay it down $200 a month ($2,400 total), your balance would be about $3,700 and you would have paid about $1,100 in interest. You would have to pay $475 per month to get it down to $0 by the end of a year, and you would still pay about $700 in interest. That is a lot of money to pay to the credit card companies! Obviously there are emergencies, but I think putting money aside for them in advance is much more prudent. 

So before I begin this post, I have to throw out the disclaimer that you should not do this if you can't pay off your card in full every month. Now let's talk about credit card hacking! If you are unfamiliar with this, it involves opening a credit card to get the welcome bonus, using the points for free stuff and possibly closing or downgrading the card later. Personally I like travel related cards, and Chase has one of the best values for that, so let's talk about that first. Side note: to my foreign friends, I am sorry, but these are US centric cards. However, please feel free to go to the bottom and let us know what card you use or any tricks you have to get the best value for your money!! 

Travel card ($600 - $1,500 bonus value) / $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is currently offering $300 Chase Travel Credit + 60,000 bonus points (please verify by going to their site). What does this mean? Basically this can be worth anywhere from $600 - $1,500, depending on how you use it. Once you spend $4,000 in the first three months, you will get 60,000 points, and when you purchase any travel related items through their portal you will get up to a $300 credit. This includes the obvious things like flights, hotels and car rentals, but also has activities and cruises. 

For the points, at the very least, they can either be used to get cash back or buy gift cards at around 0.01 per point (value of $600) or you can use them to purchase travel through the portal, which is usually about $0.015 (value of $900) or you can transfer them to airline or hotel partners, which is where you can get the best bang for your buck. For example, if you transfer these points to Hyatt and use them to book a hotel room with points, the value will be about 0.02 per point ($1,200). This card does have a $95 annual fee, but it also gives you a $50 annual statement credit for hotels booked through their travel portal, so if you use this, it is only $45/year. This card also gives higher points per dollar in categories like travel and dining out and has no foreign transaction fees. 

In conclusion, if you travel at least once a year, this card may be a great fit for you! And if you don't love it after a year, you can cancel or downgrade to a no fee card. Basically with the current welcome bonus, you could stop using it after you get the bonus and still get value out of it for approximately six years (or more). If you travel a lot, you may want to go with the Chase Sapphire Reserve which gives you extra perks like lounge access and TSA Pre/Global Entry, but comes with a higher annual fee. 

Cash back card ($200 bonus value) / $0 annual fee. If you don't really travel a lot or you don't spend a lot on travel related items, you can get the Freedom Flex card, which currently has a welcome bonus of $200 after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months. It gives you 5% cash back for a quarterly rotating bonus category, which includes groceries, gas, Amazon and pet services, which if you max this out, could equate to $300 per year. It has no annual fee and a 0% introductory APR. There are tons of different cash back cards with different % for different categories, so a combo of best bonus + best % for what you spend on is the way to go! 

Hotel card ($500 - $1,000 bonus value) / $99 annual fee. If you travel at least once a year and stay in at least one hotel/motel per year, I highly suggest getting a hotel credit card. I think the current best bang for your buck is either the IHG Premier or the Hyatt card. Let's talk about the IHG card. This is good for hotels like the Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Staybridge Suites (list here). The good thing about IHG is that they are literally everywhere, versus places like Hyatt and Marriott which are sometimes pretty few and far between (or very expensive). 

It currently has a 140,000 point bonus (please verify by going to their site), which they state is up to 4 nights free, but I just booked a Holiday Inn Express in Strasbourg for ~24,000 points per night, plus with this card you get the fourth night free, so my four nights cost me 71,000 points, so this could possibly be more like eight hotel nights (or more in places like SE Asia or South America). If I would have paid for this room, it would have cost me about $500, which means that if I can book another at the same price, the welcome bonus would be worth about $1,000. In addition, you get an annual free night's certificate, which is good for up to 40,000 point hotel, which could equate to a value of about $200. This card does cost $99 per year, but if you use your certificate for a $200 hotel, it still "saves" you money! Last but not least, you get automatic Premier Elite status, which can give you perks like upgrades, early check in, late check out, and possibly a snack or a drink. Once again, if you decide this is not for you after a year or two, you can downgrade to a no fee card with no ding on your credit, or you can cancel if you choose. 

One last thing I want to talk about is a card that does not currently offer a bonus so is not really one for "hacking," but could be a great option for people who pay rent and that is the Bilt Rewards card. Please note that I have not used this myself, so you will have to do your own research. However, my understanding is that you can use it to pay your rent with no credit card transaction fees, even if you normally pay by check (they will issue the check for you) and you will get one point per dollar spent on rent plus extra points for other categories on rent day (the first of the month). You also get points for travel and other categories and it has no annual fee. You can then use the points for free travel, to pay part of your rent or for gym memberships etc. FYI currently a RT flight to Europe in Feb would cost about 40,000 points. 

Have you fallen asleep yet? No? Great, because one other thing I want to add is that if you do travel, many of these credit cards also come with added perks like rental car collision (LDW) insurance (normally $10 - $30 per day), travel trip delay or lost luggage protection, purchase protection, roadside assistance (~ $99/year value), TSA-Pre (~$100 value every four years), cell phone protection (~$75/year value) and more. These extras may cover the cost of your fee in some cases! 

Have you ever done any credit card hacking? Do you already have any of these cards? What is your favorite credit card and why? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Money Monday: Easy Ways to Save or Make Money

You know I like a good bargain just like the rest of you, and I am frugal to a fault in some people's eyes. However, I don't think that I give up quality in many cases, and I do prioritize quality in others. For example, I don't need to pay an extra $50 for a hotel with free breakfast when I would rather hit the streets and buy breakfast along the way or have a snack of peanut butter and a bagel in my room. Or, I don't need to eat three meals out when traveling, when I can just as easily eat a bagel and peanut butter in my room and then splurge on lunch. I guess the key is that you have to be willing to eat a bagel and peanut butter! Here are a few other ways to save without sacrificing happiness. 

Be aware. This is the number one thing in my opinion. This kind of goes along with culling your subscriptions, which I talk about below, but I think that you should take a look at what you are spending each month or quarter or year and then change what needs to be changed. Even if you think that nothing needs to be changed, I think it is important to know what you are spending your money on instead of just letting it all go out the door without thinking. This is easy enough as a lot of our banks will let us add external accounts so we can track our spending, but I use Fidelity's Full View. This is free for customers, and if you are not already a customer, you can open a cash management account, which is what I did. 

Open a high interest savings account. The reason I opened a cash management account at Fidelity is twofold. First, they reimburse all ATM fees, so when you are traveling abroad or are going to be in small towns where you may not find your regular bank, you can withdraw money with ease. I rarely withdraw cash, but when I do, it is nice to just be able to get out a little bit and not worry about the $9+ fees that my brick and mortar bank sometimes charges me each time. I was often getting out more (too much) cash because I did not want to go back again for another withdrawal.  

The second reason I did this is also due to their high interest rate. You can either leave your funds in cash, which will get you about 2.44% as of the time of this writing, or you can buy a money market fund, which is currently yielding about 4.50%. If you have money sitting in a checking or regular savings account, I highly suggest you move some of it to a higher yielding account. If you don't like Fidelity, there are also high yield savings accounts online like Marcus or Citizens which also will give you a better rate (FYI: currently my main brick and mortar bank checking account has 0% and my savings has about 0.03%, vs. the high yield accounts, which are around 4.0% - 4.5%.) It literally takes two minutes to open and maybe one or two days to transfer the funds over to a new account. 

Change your phone plan. People, we are past the era where we need to be paying $75 or $80 per month for a cell phone plan. There are so many plans out there now that are cheaper, and they are not worse quality! I personally have Google Fi (this is not a sponsored post, but if you click this link, you can get $60 off) and I have had it for years now and I do not miss my expensive AT&T plan! I was paying $80 per month, and now I pay about $80 for myself and two other people. Before I added the family members, my bill was about $30/month. Google Fi also triangulates between T-Mobile and US Cellular, so it will pick up the one that has the best service and use that. Also, it works internationally with little to no extra charge. When we traveled to Mexico, a friend of mine who had Verizon paid $10 a day to have international roaming, therefore adding about $100 to his bill that month. I paid NOTHING. 

I don't know all about the other plans, but I think Mint Mobile has a deal for $15 a month with unlimited data. Also, the All The Hacks podcast did a more thorough review of all of them if you want to learn more. However, the bottom line is that you pay per GB if you don't use a lot of data, or you can get unlimited data if you need it. Most of us are at home or work most of the day, where we have WiFi, and when that is the case, you do not use any data. I use less than 1GB of data every month. 

After reading this post by CCR, I am adding an addition to this in that if you are traveling internationally, even if you have the expensive Verizon plan, you do not need to pay the $10 per day international fee. Most newer phones now support e-SIM cards, which means that all you need to do is download an app (I use Airalo and if you use my referral code KYRIA0085, you will get $3 off your first purchase). From home you can load up some GB of data and then as soon as you step off the plane, your data will work. Easy-peasy. If you have an older phone, you can also get a real SIM card at most airports or city centers. You can then download things like maps, podcasts and audiobooks so that they can be used offline, use any streaming while in WiFi land and you will barely use any data on the road.

Speaking of referral codes. Before buying most things or signing up for anything, I check Reddit to see if there is anyone offering a voucher or a referral code for it. (I also use cash back apps, which I will discuss in a future MM post). A lot of the time, you will get a discount and probably the person referring you will get something too. Sometimes it can be as high as $60 off, like my Google Fi code, or sometimes it is a % off, or a discount on your first purchase, like Airalo. And I am sure you yourself have referral codes for things you use; you can post them on this site and if someone clicks on it, you may get a bonus too. I have received statement credits on my Google Fi account of $600 (the max allowed) by doing this! You can find my referral codes on my travel tips and hacks page if you are interested in getting a discount or giving me some extra points for something you were going to get anyway. :)

Cull your subscriptions, or alternate them. I know that it is easy to just set it and forget it, but do we really need to have four or five different streaming subscriptions at the same time? What if you make a list of which shows you like on each platform and then alternate one every two or three months? This does require a little organization, but it is worth it. Also, see above; maybe your library app has the show you like! Also, often the channel itself will show the show for free; for example, ABC has the option to watch past seasons of Grey's Anatomy right on the ABC website for free. And who doesn't love Grey's Anatomy? 

Additionally, things like Amazon subscriptions can pile up (hello TP and cat food, I am looking at you!) and so it is worth reviewing them every quarter to see if you really need more of the items on your list. I make a point to review my credit card purchases every month to see if there is anything out of whack, but if you don't have time for that, I think at least once a quarter is a good idea. Even if it is something like a credit card fee on a card that you meant to cancel, you can call them and often get it removed retroactively. And...if even once a quarter is too much, there are apps like Rocket Money or Pocket Guard that will do the work for you, and will even suggest or negotiate better deals for things like your cable or phone bill. (disclaimer: I have not tried either of these apps myself) 

During NoBloPoMo, this will be a once a week feature, so stay tuned for next time, when I talk about credit card hacking! Also, if there is something you want to learn about, or any questions you have, let me know! 

Do you keep track of your spending? If so, what tips do you have? What phone plan do you have, how much data (non WiFi) do you use each month, and how much do you pay per month? Do you have a high yield savings account? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

By The Numbers: June - September

The last time I wrote one of these posts was in June for updates through May! My, how time flies. Part of the reason I did not keep up with this was that I was on the Tour Divide. This is twofold; firstly, I was trying to go fast(er), and so did not want the extra weight, so I sent my laptop home. Have you ever tried doing a budget review on your phone? I have, and it is no fun, so I decided to wait. Secondly, even if I had had my computer, I would not have posted due to not really having the time or the energy at the end of the day or week. You will see though as we go through a few things, that these period (June 14 - July 21) caused a lot of the numbers to change! All of the below numbers are as of Sept 30, 2024. 

El Malpais National Monument, NM

Mileage To Date:

Total Days on the Road: 191

Total Days Ridden: 143

Total Miles Ridden: 8,089

Average Miles Per Day Ridden: 56.57 (vs 48.91 as of June 1)

Average Miles Per Day ridden during the Tour Divide: 72.7

Max miles per day: 101

Accommodation To Date: 

AirBnB: 10

Established Camp: 34

Friend: 31

Housesitting: 5

Motel: 62

Warm Showers: 9

Wild Camp: 40

Total Days: 191

Total average cost per day: $40

Verdict: June and July were rough months for accommodation budget-wise, because they included a stay in Canmore with friends and then the Tour Divide, where you kind of have to take what you can get. However, I also did wild camp a lot, as you can see from the fact that it is the 2nd most used option. Luckily in September, much of my accomodation has been with friends or housesitting, as there were not as many affordable options in the Midwest and Ontario. 

Budget Average June - Sept: 

You ask, I provide! In May, you all thought it was silly that I put cycling costs under Entertainment. So, I have edited my categories, so that cycling and running costs are under Shopping. I have also added a Utilities category, which includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, Garmin charges, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN). 

Accommodation: $1,041 (↓ from May, highest month August --> $1,412)

Dining Out: $348  (↑ from May, highest month July --> $518)

Groceries: $329  (↑ from May, highest month July --> $400)

Health: $234 (same - insurance premium)

Misc.: $122  (↑ from May - includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts)

Shopping: $287 (↑ from May, highest month July --> $669)

Transportation: $267 (↑ from May, highest month Sept --> $652)

Utilities: $226 (new category)

Average Total Spent: $2,854 ( (↑ 21% from May numbers)

Verdict: Many of these costs, as you can see from the highest month (July) were incurred during the Tour Divide, where I ate more, ate out more, shopped at higher cost food stores, fixed the bike a lot (hence the $669 shopping amount in July), and stayed in whatever room was near the course. This was not really a budget portion of my trip (total spending in July was $3,637). However, if you take out July, my average spending goes down by about 36%. Although I may not have months like this very often, I like to keep it in, as it gives me a good idea of the ebbs and flows of spending that will happen when traveling. For example, although my lodging in September was half the amount of August, in September I paid for a flight that I will not take until December, so my monthly total was not a lot lower. I look forward to doing a recap at the end of the year where the spending flattens out a bit, as month by month is a little harder to see the actual costs. 

Fun side note, in finance we call this smoothing, and it is often a lot easier to look back on several months or years worth of data rather than look at it day by day or week by week. For example if you look at your investment account every day, you could easily get anxious for four days out of every five, but if you look at the last ten years, you will probably note a general upward trajectory. 

Overall Spending To Date: 

Currently, for the six months of full time bike travel, my average spending per month is $2,564. The breakdown per month is: 

April: $1,881 (75% California/Oregon/Washington USA, 25% BC, Canada)

May: $1,845 (100% BC, Canada)
June: $2,410 (50% MT/ID/WY, USA, 50% BC/Alberta, Canada)

July: $3,637 (100% CO/NM/IL/WI, USA) <-- Highest

August: $2,862 (67% MN/WI/MI, USA, 33% ON, Canada)

September: $2,749 (35% OR/NY, USA, 65% ON/QC, Canada)

Verdict: The west has cheaper accomodation and more available wild camping (ie free) options due to there being a lot more national forest, BLM and Crown land. Also, most likely even the motels in the west were a lot cheaper in April than they were in July. I am also getting more tired or more lazy as time goes by, and am not as diligent about always camping or getting food from the grocery store as I was in the beginning.  

To end this number heavy post, here are a few non-cycling related stats! 

Favorite Ice Cream: The mint chip at The Clark Store outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. It was cash only, but a double scoop only cost me $5 and the kids serving it were top notch! 

Double scoop of mint!

Favorite New Town: Marquette, MI. The entire UP was nice, but the town of Marquette checks a lot of boxes. It is right on Lake Superior, it has a sweet bakery (Huron Mountain), is laid back, has good coffee, is walkable, has old buildings, has a Saturday farmers market, and has excellent bike paths! Win, win! 

Marquette Bay

Favorite New Water Related Venue: Although all of the Great Lakes were beautiful, I have a special spot in my heart for Lake Huron. I put my feet into all five of them, but was able to swim a few times in Lake Huron, and it was fabulous. Actually my first week or so in Ontario was all along Lake Huron and other waterways and every morning I got to see the sun rise over the water and it was very special. 

Lake Huron at Blind River

Favorite Food Item: I am back in the land of pate, of which I am a big fan. When I was in France, it was not uncommon for me to sometimes eat bread and pate a few times a day. Currently, I am not doing that, but it is nice to have the option! Bring me the liver! 

Foie!

Favorite Book: I know I have mentioned this before, but I really enjoyed The Indifferent Stars Above. Another one that was thought provoking was The Anxious Generation, which I've also already mentioned. My largest category for star ratings is four stars, so there are a ton more I could add, but you can look at them on my Goodreads page here instead! 

Okay it's your turn!! Do you like pate? What is your favorite water related venue that you have been to? What was your favorite book last month and why? 

The Not So Successful Side Hustle: An Update

You may recall that I recently started an unsuccessful side hustle. I never claimed to be an entrepreneur and I definitely am not much of a salesperson, but last year I thought I would try my hand in selling some stuff online. The last time I posted, I was just trying eBay, but I asked for your opinions on FB Marketplace and you all said to do it, so I did. 

I won't say that it started off easy. First of all, I was afraid. I don't really love people knowing my details and FB shows your name and could possibly involve your address. I am not a huge fan of people coming over to my house, unless it is specifically scheduled, and I do not really want people inside my house. However, I decided to do a Shonda Rhimes and call this "the year of yes" and just get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

The first thing I listed was a stationary bike. I immediately got three replies, all offering me the exact amount I had listed it for. Hurray!! Or should I say, hurray? My Spidey senses went up, I looked at the profiles of the buyers and all of them were created in 2023 and had no personal info. I blocked and reported all three. My first adversary, slayed! After that, weeks went by with no further inquiries. 

I decided to try something a little more simple, cheaper and that did not need two people to lift it. I listed an end table, had an inquiry the next day, and had a pleasant conversation with the buyer over messenger. However, our times were not jiving, so face to face pick up was going to be difficult. I decided at that moment to offer to leave it on the porch and she could get it when she could and just leave me money. I figured if she wanted it that bad, she could just take it. However, she was super sweet, came and got it and left me money and then communicated (gasp!) that she had done so. I was converted! 

After that I listed a bunch of other things and after about six months, I have mixed feelings. Firstly, there are a ton of flakey people. So many people ask if the item is available and even if I reply right away, they ghost me after that. I have had people ask questions about details that are in the description (and I always include dimensions, info about stains, chips, tears etc.). I want to tell them to read the bloody description and stop wasting my time, but I usually don't. I have had people fully commit, ask me to hold the item, set up a time and then ghost me. I have had people set up a time and then come an hour early! People are strange. 

However, I have had some good ones and I thought I would give a seller's perspective on the perfect buyer. 

(1) The perfect buyer does not use the auto inquiry "Hi, is this available?" (often used even when the items are plural, by the way). 

(2) The perfect buyer has personality and says something like, "Hello [insert seller's name here], I was wondering if this was still available. If so, I would be able to come and get it today." ***side note, are there a lot of sellers who don't take down their listing even if they have sold the item? There must be, because I get A LOT of  "is this still available" inquiries. It's still listed! Yes it is still available!***

(3) The perfect buyer sets up a time to get the item as soon as possible. An actual time, not "tomorrow" or "later today" or my favorite, "after 9 pm." (they clearly don't know me). The perfect buyer then messages their ETA when they leave, when they are 5 mins away and when they are outside. I love these people! LOVE THEM. 

(4) The perfect buyer does not set up a time, come to my house and THEN ask if they can get the item for half off. The perfect buyer haggles in advance, settles on a price and then sets up a meeting time. 

(5) The perfect buyer pays cash, in exact amounts, but I will not be mad if they want to use Venmo. 

(6) The perfect buyer sends a photo of the item later, happy in its new home. 🧡 

So clearly everyone is different, and I am sure the buyers out there have some horror stories about the sellers (and I want to hear them!) but it seems like sometimes common courtesy is just lacking. I actually went down a wormhole of this reddit thread and wow, there really are some way worse horror stories than I have had! 

But wait, let me tell you about the saga of the suitcases. I have a set of suitcases; there are three of them, they are hard sided, they have four spinning wheels. They are nice suitcases. I only used the smallest of the three a couple of times, but I decided I was a backpack person and they sat in the garage for years. I listed them for about half of what I got them for, even though they are essentially unused. Since I listed these cases, I probably have had almost a thousand clicks on them. And for some reason, everyone who is interested in the suitcases has some issue or other. 

The accursed luggage. 

The first guy seemed like a creeper as he did not ask any questions about the cases, but just asked for my address right away, so I ignored him after that.

This lady told me she wasn't a flake, which made me suspicious.  Also that looks like a copy-paste. Hm. 

Several other people set up times and then ghosted me. Here is an example. (before this first clip, I told her I would be available from 12 pm to 1 pm). 

At 12:57, no word. So I messaged her. 

After this, she gave me another thumbs up and then the next day, did not show, did not message, nothing. 

Here is another good one. This lady messages me on Tuesday afternoon and says: Hi do all the wheels work smoothly? I just had to return a luggage set to a lady on market place. The wheels ended up being all wonky and not wheeling properly. I’m leave for a long trip Thursday and need something durable. 

So I am thinking that she sounds like one of the ladies I used to serve at Nordstrom; they would buy shoes but as they were buying them would complain about shoes and you knew, you JUST knew that they were going to wear them once and then return them (which goes against your commission if they do) after wearing them. Also, their party or whatever would be the next day and they would complain about how they just can't find anything perfect (and you would be thinking that it doesn't seem strange to you!) yet! 

BUT I message her and tell her that the wheels work great but I am only available Tuesday evening, not Wednesday. She goes on to then ask me my address (why!) and I give her the general area, thinking that we have a sale. Then she asks for $25 less than the listed price, which by the way is about 25% less, and when I counter, she doesn't agree, but just asks if we can set up pickup for tomorrow, and I reiterate that I am not available Wednesday and then... she ghosts me. Mind you, this exchange took place over six hours. So she texted me at the last minute (for her vacation) and then draws out the conversation and then doesn't want to come and get it as soon as possible!? I don't get it. 

On the other hand, if you ever DO want to get into a side hustle, for some reason around here, plants are the way to go. Remember I talked about emptying out my plant room? Well, I was going to just put them all out on the curb with a "free" sign, but I thought what the heck, I will give FB a shot. I listed about 15 indoor plants and over the next day, I sold about 9 of them and made almost $200! Listen, I listed them cheap, including the pots, but I was going to give them away for free, so I was super happy. Drinks are on me! Plus, if you recall, many of these were propagated by me, so aside from the pot and the time, they didn't really cost me much to begin with! 

Plants for sale!! 

Do I know how to make a short story long, or what!?!? Thank you for listening, and thanks to those of you who commented on my original post and prodded me to just give it a shot. 

Do you have buyer or seller horror stories? Are people in your area as flakey as the ones here? But most importantly, why are the suitcase people so weird!?!?!? I need hypotheses! 

Looking Back: 2023 Money Pie

Who is ready for a slice of money pie? As you may know, I always do a debrief with myself at the end of each year to see where all my money has gone! I also do a quarterly net worth statement just to get a read on where things are, but I will not be posting that here! :) 

In 2023, I am happy to say that I decreased my overall spending from 2022 by about 12% and came in below my yearly (8 year) average by about 9%. The main drivers of this decrease were the travel and home categories, which I will talk more about below. 

Here are the categories in the order of largest percentage to smallest. 

Home: 63.2%. Interestingly, last year my home category was 63.7% of my overall spending and in 2021 it was 64.1%, so I guess no matter how you slice it, the home category continues to be almost two thirds of my spending! This category includes mortgage, utilities, taxes and insurance, as well as other misc. items, such as home improvement, maintenance and furnishings. 80% of this number is mortgage and property tax.  You may remember that I mentioned last year about how I was paying a little extra into my mortgage? This year, given the good rates on cash, I stopped doing that and put the money into high yield savings instead. Due to this, I decreased the actual dollar spending amount in this category by about 13% from last year. 

Transportation: 12.2%. This normally includes Lyft/Uber, public transportation, car insurance, maintenance, registration, gas, tolls & parking, but this year I added bike maintenance and parking fees to the category as well. Despite commuting by bike from July to December, I still had public transportation costs, but the main culprit in this category was body work after my car got broken into. I also got four new tires for the Red Rocket and did a full body tune up on Bertha. 

Travel: 6.6%. This category includes airfare, car rental, lodging and any groceries, dining out or transportation incurred while traveling. Although I did not travel internationally and much of my travel consisted of tent camping and eating my own meals, some of the other costs incurred during travel were quite expensive this year. I went to Alaska, and the rental car alone was about $1,500!! It was an SUV though and we actually slept in it several times, so saved on hotels, thank goodness. However, even with this, I spent about 50% less on this category than in 2022. 

Misc.: 4.4%. This category includes gifts, haircuts, legal fees, fees for credit cards, tax prep software and education expenses. I had to pay for my yearly CFA dues, legal fees to set up a trust and annual credit card fees, but other than that, the bulk of this category was for gifts! (PS no haircuts in 2023 😊)

Groceries: 3.7%. This category went down by 38% from last year, mostly due to the fact that part of my purging process was to stop buying new stuff until I had used up older stuff! I would say that I did a pretty good job and have had fun being creative with cupboard items, but I still bought the regulars like butter, eggs, fresh veggies and cheese. My other saving grace for this category was less trips to Costco and/or only allowing myself to buy what I went in there for! I do have a tendency to grab yummy looking things oh a whim, but this year I put a stop to that! Funny though, out of my six visits to Costco, I bought tortilla chips on five of them. Some habits you just can't break. 

Dining Out: 3.5%. This category includes eating out, coffee and booze. This one is a little misleading this year, as I decided that in an effort to spend time with people and have experiences rather than buying more things, I would enjoy meals with them! Given this, I bought meals for friends several times. I could technically call this "gifts," but for now I am going to leave it as dining out. However, it does inflate this category a bit, and I had a 200% increase over last year. 

Entertainment: 3.1%. This category includes music, theater, sporting events, cycling and running & camping expenses. In 2023, I went to two shows (Les Mis and Book of Mormon), a couple of sporting events, but my biggest categories for this are still running (32%), hiking (20%) and cycling (19%). My biggest purchases were race fees (three races), a new GPS watch and a new rain jacket. 

Health: 2.6%. This category includes health insurance, out of pocket costs, massages, medicines and vitamins etc. This year most of my visits were covered as preventative, so the bulk of this cost is the insurance itself. 

Shopping: 0.8%. This category includes toiletries, clothing, misc. home items & appliances, electronics and books. Basically this year I bought three things in this category: a new camera, a 3-pack of underwear that I hated and feminine products. Trying to purge more has really made me think about things more before buying. Also some of the camping etc. items I did buy are included under the entertainment category. 

I do also put some money aside for investments and saving each year, but since this money is not yet "spent" I do not count it in this analysis. I also do not include income taxes, but if I did, they would probably be my highest category! However, since I don't have much control over them, I am going to leave them out for now. 

Do you do a yearly review of your finances? Do you have a budget? What is your biggest spending category? 

The Not So Successful Side Hustle

Most years, I do a purge of all of my things, but this year I decided to ramp it up and try to get down to the bare bones. I am doing a pretty good job for the most part. I have whittled my work clothes down to about three pairs of slacks and seven sweaters (one for each day of the week plus a couple of backups since a couple of them are well loved). I only have two pairs of running shoes (if you are a runner, you know how these can collect, and it is very common to buy several pairs of the same style if it fits you well). I am getting there slowly. 

The thing that I decided to do this time which I have not done before is to sell some of the things online. Much of my work clothes and shoes were purchased when I worked at Nordstrom (in the late 90s / early 2000s and yes some of them even still fit!) and I spent a lot of money building up my work wardrobe. After that, I bought some extras from thrift stores, but I always pick through and find the good brands (BCBG, Ann Taylor, Tahari, Diane Von Furstenburg etc.) So I thought that maybe I could get some of my money back by selling these items. 

It took me a long time to get started. You know how you have good intentions but that box of "sell online" items sits in your closet for months because you are not sure how the shipping works and you are too lazy/scared/unmotivated to find out what to do? That is what I did. I purged, I segregated, the box sat in the closet. Finally, I looked up shipping procedures, got flat rate boxes from the PO and started taking photos of things. But then, I was not sure how much to charge and I waited again, pondering. Finally I put my first item on eBay. 

And then...nothing happened. Nothing happened for a long, long time. This was my first time and I had no idea what to expect or what to do if nothing happened, so I let it refresh (it does this every 30 days) for a long time before I finally took the listing down. Then, about six months later, I decided to try again. This time I put several listings up and I decreased the price if they did not sell after a certain time period. For a long time, nothing happened. 

And then...someone bought something! Hurray! Then I muddled through printing a label and putting it in the right box and getting it to the post office, but I did it. In the end, it was not that hard. I don't know why I waited so long to start. After that, I enthusiastically posted a half dozen other items, and...nothing happened. 

You can see where this is going! However, after about a year and a half of listing items, I have sold probably five items. So clearly I am not going to quit my day job! However, it is very satisfying to get even $20.00 for an item that I paid a lot for, as the alternative is to get nothing! HOWEVER, I do not think that the buck is worth the bang unless you are at home full time and you have free time. Let's say I probably spent five hours collecting, photographing and posting listings (and revising) and I have made....drumroll please...about $70.00. This puts me at $14.00 per hour, which is less than the $18.07 minimum wage in San Francisco. Bottom line: I should probably go get a job at a coffeeshop and give all the items to Goodwill! 

When the items do not sell on eBay, I send them to thredUp, which is an online consignment store. I have sent about 12 items to them and made $64.00, so my per hour on this is probably about $18.00-$20.00 per hour, but my per item is only $5.00 vs about $14.00 per item on eBay. I did look into taking my things to a local consignment shop but they are VERY picky, i.e. it has to be current season, certain brands etc. and most of my things are not current season (they are classics!) 

Next up is a big Goodwill/Salvation Army run, or maybe I can try one more platform, but first... 

I need advice! Have you ever sold things online? If so, what platform do you use and how successful have you been? If you have been successful, what tips can you give me? Has anyone tried or had luck with Facebook Marketplace? If so, do you let people come to your house or do you meet them somewhere? How exactly does that work!? 

The Money Pie Deconstructed: Groceries

Every year I do a recap of my spending, and I have broken the items into nine categories: Dining Out, Entertainment, Groceries, Health, Home, Misc., Shopping, Transportation and Travel. Last year I broke down my transportation category and went into more detail about where I spend my money in this category, how I get to work, how hard it is to park sometimes and what's in my trunk. 

Now its time to talk about groceries. Before I start, I have a confession to make. I like reading posts and watching YouTube videos about how people spend their money, and specifically how they spend their grocery money and/or how they save money on groceries. Some of my favorites are Frugal Fit Mom, Mary's Nest and FlavCity. 

I am not a doomsday prepper, but I definitely could last for a few months on the stores that I have in my house. Much of this is due to the fact that I have a good supply of camping food, which lasts for a long time, is lightweight and can be eaten by just adding water. I also have amassed a good supply of staples over the years, such as rice, dried beans and canned tomatoes. 

I am not an extreme couponer; however, I do like to sit down with the ads each week and compare prices at my local stores. I prefer to do this on paper as it is nice to be able to compare the different places side by side, but a lot of stores have apps and I will sometimes browse them instead, which is nice because you can make a list of things to buy right on the app. However, using the apps does sometimes mean toggling back and forth or making notes about which store has better deals. I usually base my weekly shopping trip on whichever store has the better deals. If one store has one of my staples at a great price, I may just shop at that one store for the week, or if the deals are split, I may go to two. 

I make a list in Google Keep and to be honest, a lot of weeks I just duplicate the list from last week and change a few things. There are a few staples I often buy so my list looks very similar each week. This app is also good if you are sharing shopping duties as you can add a collaborator and they can also add or cross off things from the list.

I generally shop at Safeway for most basics, and a local store called Farmer Joes for produce. Farmer Joes is a combination of expensive specialty items, bulk items and produce; if you want a head of lettuce, their prices and quality can't be beat, but if you are looking for a gallon of milk, you will pay out the nose for it. This makes it worth my while to go to both stores, plus they are only a block apart so it does not take too much extra time. 

I have a two tiered method of shopping: (1) fresh items that I use each week, such as milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit and (2) longer term items, such as dry goods like beans, rice or oatmeal, canned goods and meat, which I will buy in bulk and freeze. For the fresh items, sometimes you just have to pay a little more, but I try to buy what is in season and work around that rather than having a specific dish in mind and buying specific items for that dish. I am happy to eat oranges instead of apples, or use oat milk over almond milk if one is cheaper or fresher than the other. For longer term items, I try to get them when they are on sale and I store them until I need them. For example, last week Lucky's had pork chops for $0.99 per pound, so I bought ten pounds and froze them in two packs for later. Again, I don't really need specific items so will buy whatever is cheap at the moment. 

The "pantry"

I do not plan meals per se, but will see what is on sale and will then loosely plan around that. If pork chops are what I bought, that week's lunches will be pork chops and I will add whatever veggie I bought along with rice or quinoa from the long term section. I usually cook enough for one week's worth of lunches and prep them all at once. For dinners, I will normally go to the freezer where I have stored my prior deals in convenient serving sized packs, and I will take something out in the morning and then cook it at night with some other veggies etc. 

I guess I will be having pork butt soon!

I do not mind eating the same meal several times a week, and a lot of my meals consist of meat/tofu and a veggie with sometimes rice or potato. Other standbys are beans, lentils or some sort of Indian or Thai inspired "stew" (usually beans or tofu) over rice. If I am feeling lazy, an old standby is miso soup and if I am feeling frisky, I may add chicken or pork or rice noodles to it and call it ramen. 

Weekly meal prep

Lunches for the week

Let's talk about the costs, my favorite part! I love hearing what others spend on their grocery bills and why its higher or lower. I know a few of you chimed in on my purging post and I am amazed at what a range there is of how much people spend! Over the last six years, my average grocery bill per month has been about $320. This is inflated by the amount I spent in 2020; without this outlier, the average would be about $290. For the first quarter of 2023, the average is about $200, but my goal for this year is to shop more from my pantry and use up some of the items I already have rather than buying more, so I expect my grocery costs to be lower this year. 

Fun facts: in 2022, I went to Costco 17 times; my average spend per trip was $115. My three top purchased items by count at Costco were blueberries, strawberries and cucumbers and by dollar amount were coffee, strawberries and blueberries (yay fruit!). The price of two pounds of strawberries ranged from $6.99 to $10.79 throughout the year. The average cost was $7.97. 

What is your grocery shopping schedule/method like? Do you often buy the same things over and over or are you more exciting than me? What is your favorite "go to" meal? If you have not already answered this, how much do you spend on groceries? 

My Last To Do List: Trusts & Other Documents

As I have mentioned before, I have a folder of all of my important docs and a list of all of my accounts and important details. I often call this list "the death list" because it is the list of things to do after I die, but this sounds kinds of morbid, so I will retitle it the last to do list. I hope that this list will not be needed for a long time, but I am happy to keep changing it if that means I live a lot longer. However, I also do feel that it is important to have your affairs in order, just in case. This post is about item one on the last to do list, setting up a trust. 

Before I get started, if you do nothing else or do not feel like reading this long post, at least do these two things: (1) Set up beneficiaries on any retirement accounts or Transfer on Death (TOD) designation on your other accounts. This allows worry free and probate free transfers of your money to someone else and even if you do not have a will or any other paperwork, the money will get into the right hands. (2) Complete an Advance Directive (see below for more info) form which will detail what you want done in case you are incapacitated (i.e. DNR).

But now, let's talk about why any of us would need a trust. A trust will help you to avoid probate. Probate is what happens when you pass away and the court has to approve your will and name or approve your executor. The costs of probate differ by state but in California, costs are based on the gross value of the estate and are 4% on the first $100,000 and then there is a sliding scale after that. Let's just say your assets are worth $100,000. That would be a $4,000 cost!! Also, this process can take six or nine or even twelve months, which can be a pain for your loved ones. 

The alternative is to set up a trust. I always thought that a trust was something rich people had for their spoiled kids. This is not the case! A trust is something that protects you, outlines your wishes and minimizes taxes (and avoids probate!). When you die, your successor trustee (the person you want to carry out your wishes) can start doing what you outline right away without getting the court involved. Depending on your situation, setting up a trust should not be too difficult or costly. I spoke to two different trust attorneys and the going rate is around $1,500 - $2,000 depending on your situation and the number of properties you have (in CA it costs $200 per property to change the name on the title). Of course, you could probably also just Google it and fill out something online that would work, but I wanted the peace of mind that comes with having a professional help me. Plus, my job offers legal benefits, which are similar to health benefits where you pay a little bit month. This costs me about $360 per year, so the attorney fees for setting up a trust only cost me $360. 

Additionally, not only will the attorney help with the trust, but they will also complete an Advance Directive, a will and a Power of Attorney form for you. If you have not already set these up, even if you do not have a trust, you should at least have these three things. 

Why do you need these? Let's talk about each one separately. The Advance Directive conveys your wishes regarding your health in case you become incapacitated and outlines who has the right to make health decisions on your behalf. You can easily get these documents from the internet. Nobody wants a case of Terri Schiavo on their hands. Here is an Advance Directive form that I used in the past. These do vary from state to state so you should use one for your particular state. The other things you should write down and keep with your AD are things like: do you want to be cremated or if you want to be buried, where do you want to be buried, do you have a plot already, etc.?  

We all know what a will is, so I won't go into too much detail; however, you may think that it doesn't matter because everything will just go to your next of kin, which is true. But having a will makes things easier for the people you leave behind, specifically appoints an executor (otherwise the state may do this for you) and can detail who will take care of your children, what your wishes are for your funeral etc. Again, you may think that you won't care because you will be gone, but it will make things easier for whoever is left to take care of your affairs. You can also note anyone you do not want to have anything, like creepy uncle Phil for example. This article is very helpful, and also has a free online version of a will that you can use to get started. 

The Power of Attorney tells people who can make financial decisions on your behalf if something happens to you. We all think we are invincible but what happens if you are in a car accident and can no longer make your own decisions? The other option is to add someone as a joint account holder on your accounts, which will give them the freedom to use the money to pay for your care, pay your bills etc. However, if you don't feel comfortable with that, you should appoint a POA. 

Okay! Let's go back to the trust again. Setting it up does take a little work, i.e. you do have to know who you want to get your stuff, who you want to handle your affairs etc. But once you have decided that, the actual process of doing the paperwork is very easy. For example, I had to give the attorney all of the information about my bank accounts (not numbers, just where the accounts are held), any investment accounts, any properties with addresses and any specific bequests. For who I was going to bequest anything to, all they need is the person's name. No social, no address, no phone. For anyone I wanted to give POA designation to, it was the same. So it was really not as complicated as you may think. 

Also, just like most legalese, there is always a phrase to cover you. For example, very common language goes like this: I gift my 13 inch TV to my brother and if deceased, this gift shall lapse. What does this mean? It means if he is no longer around, the gift goes back into my estate. You can set this up however you want and the "if deceased" can literally be a list of 40 people who you want to have in order of importance, or you can give everything to a charity like Warren Buffet. 

Do you have any of the abovementioned items? What steps have you taken to arrange your affairs? Do you have any tips to add or questions about the above? 

Disclaimer: The information above is solely an opinion based my own personal experience. You do you. I am not a tax and/or financial advisor; nothing in this post should be taken as investment advice. I have no fiduciary responsibility to anyone reading this post. Please consult a financial advisor for investment advice.  For my other posts regarding money, go here.