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OUR NEWEST POP!
Congratulations! Also, for the record: my enjoyment of this site hasn’t decreased with the change in posting frequency. I would much rather you only post new/interesting stuff (as you’ve been doing) than churn out uninteresting content on a more regular/frequent schedule (as so many personal finance blogs seem to do these days). SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Me too! The vast majority of this entire renovation was made with a bosch table saw, a skillsaw, a 5-piece ryobi set that my dad got me 14 years ago, a 10 year old compressor and a nail gun from harborfreight.
I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? Haha, maybe if we’re ever in the neighborhood we’ll drive by, but it seems like asking for more trouble to confront the fraudster. I actually did speak with an officer in the fraudster’s neck of the woods and she said the last time there was a bunch of these the FBIgot involved.
HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE In college, I made up my mind to study what I wanted; in my case – Philosophy. I knew there might be consequences to this decision later on, but its worth noting that all of my role models and heros (family member and famous entreprenuers) who had achieved monetary success had done so without the benefit of a college degree. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV If you’re following us on Twitter (and really, why not go ahead and subscribe to the Planting Our Pennies RSS feed while you’re at it!), you may have noticed when I posted a little tweet about being suckered into attending an improv class about 6 weeks ago.. Improv? Just in case you’ve blocked the 1990’s from your memory like some of my coworkers, improv acting was big with Drew Carey FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? But There’s a Third Option Which you might have guessed by reading the title of this post. Mr PoP has jokingly named it my “opossum response” (alternate spelling “possum”, I think), but all it means is that when that cortisol starts running through your veins instead of fight or flight, you fall over and play dead, passing outlike an opossum.
SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULDSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM PLANTING OUR PENNIES Sidenote – Please don’t take this post as any sort of judgement against formula feeding or any other way of feeding your child that makes you and your kid and your pediatrician happy. We wanted to try breastfeeding mostly out of a “we like to eat very little pre-processed food, so let’s see if we can start Little PoP off the same way”, (plus, extra cuddles, right?) but were always WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Depending where it was when you started tracking, a slow down in the rate of growth makes total sense. It’s pretty easy to get 100% growth in a year if your net worth started at $1.OUR NEWEST POP!
Congratulations! Also, for the record: my enjoyment of this site hasn’t decreased with the change in posting frequency. I would much rather you only post new/interesting stuff (as you’ve been doing) than churn out uninteresting content on a more regular/frequent schedule (as so many personal finance blogs seem to do these days). SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Me too! The vast majority of this entire renovation was made with a bosch table saw, a skillsaw, a 5-piece ryobi set that my dad got me 14 years ago, a 10 year old compressor and a nail gun from harborfreight.
I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? Haha, maybe if we’re ever in the neighborhood we’ll drive by, but it seems like asking for more trouble to confront the fraudster. I actually did speak with an officer in the fraudster’s neck of the woods and she said the last time there was a bunch of these the FBIgot involved.
HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE In college, I made up my mind to study what I wanted; in my case – Philosophy. I knew there might be consequences to this decision later on, but its worth noting that all of my role models and heros (family member and famous entreprenuers) who had achieved monetary success had done so without the benefit of a college degree. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV If you’re following us on Twitter (and really, why not go ahead and subscribe to the Planting Our Pennies RSS feed while you’re at it!), you may have noticed when I posted a little tweet about being suckered into attending an improv class about 6 weeks ago.. Improv? Just in case you’ve blocked the 1990’s from your memory like some of my coworkers, improv acting was big with Drew Carey FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? But There’s a Third Option Which you might have guessed by reading the title of this post. Mr PoP has jokingly named it my “opossum response” (alternate spelling “possum”, I think), but all it means is that when that cortisol starts running through your veins instead of fight or flight, you fall over and play dead, passing outlike an opossum.
SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULDSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COMOUR NEWEST POP!
Congratulations! Also, for the record: my enjoyment of this site hasn’t decreased with the change in posting frequency. I would much rather you only post new/interesting stuff (as you’ve been doing) than churn out uninteresting content on a more regular/frequent schedule (as so many personal finance blogs seem to do these days).10 YEARS...
10 years ago we made the best investment we could have made. Spending approximately $235, we got hitched by a boat captain and literally sailed off into the sunset together. *sigh* RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK We wrote about why Mr. PoP and I combined our finances when we got married, but we actually didn’t end up closing many accounts to do so. Why? Well, basically Mr. PoP’s primary financial institution was a credit union (), and mine was a big nationwide bank, so all we did was make the accounts joint at both institutions and now we have the benefits of a smallish credit union, and a big UPDATE - WE'RE STILL ALIVE! - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Yay update! Glad you’re enjoying this period, it’s kind of amazing. Sleep deprived for some, but also amazing. I feel like the LLL folks can get really intense and restrictive about feeding but I’m glad you didn’t seem to feel too pressured by that to do whatworks best for you.
DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. WHY BEING A SHORT PERSON IS AWESOME But It’s Not All Bad News For The Height-Challenged. Short people experience the world instants faster than tall people since our nerve pathways are shorter so it takes less time for sensory information to get to our brains.; I never have to pay extra for an aisle seat or more leg room on an airplane. TVP CHILI - A CHEAP AND HEALTHY RECIPE This is the time of year that many people are starting to come up with resolutions. And since many of those resolutions are about being more on top your health and wealth, I figured I’d share one of my favorite ridiculously cheap and quite healthy recipes if you’re BAR SOAP OR BODY WASH? we use body wash, but we use the whole foods brand, it’s like $6 for a giant bottle and it lasts us well over a month. i don’t know if thats good or bad. i just find the idea of bar soap ickylike i don’t want to use the bar that my husband used for his private parts, you know? even though granted we share bodily stuff anyway (tmi?) but i don’t knowi want to come out of the shower SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULD Gas is obviously one of the PoP’s big monthly expenses these days. Heck, you can see right on any of our monthly income statements that a decent chunk of change goes to gas every month due to our commutes. So, when our local grocery store, Publix (which is an awesome grocery store, FWIW!) offers coupons for $10 off of a $50 gas gift card, it’s worth knowing if that’s actually a good deal. PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? Fear: Fight, Flight, or Opossum? Fear. It’s our internal response to a stressor – really just an excess of cortisol in our bodies. But it’s uncomfortable enough that we want to eliminate form their lives as soon as possible. Most people rely on the oft-discussed fight or flight response to address stress and fear. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK A direct deposit of $75/month from your Wells Fargo is all that is needed into this account to waive the fees on the account. We have a scheduled automatic deposit from our WF checking to this savings account every month, and I’ve been told by many bankers that if you wanted to schedule a transfer of the same dollar amount back tochecking
SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULDSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? Fear: Fight, Flight, or Opossum? Fear. It’s our internal response to a stressor – really just an excess of cortisol in our bodies. But it’s uncomfortable enough that we want to eliminate form their lives as soon as possible. Most people rely on the oft-discussed fight or flight response to address stress and fear. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK A direct deposit of $75/month from your Wells Fargo is all that is needed into this account to waive the fees on the account. We have a scheduled automatic deposit from our WF checking to this savings account every month, and I’ve been told by many bankers that if you wanted to schedule a transfer of the same dollar amount back tochecking
SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULDSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COMOUR NEWEST POP!
1 – He has re-taught me how amazingly lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband and partner in life. You should see Mr PoP when it comes to baby soothing – he is a natural and way better at it than I am! 2 – He has taught me that I need to work more on being patient. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to wake up and be ready for meal-timeOUR NET WORTH
Welcome to our December 2017 Balance Sheet! Here are the numbers for December: Our total assets went up $18.2K. Our total liabilities went up by $0.1K. Net worth went up by $18.1K. Total net worth as of the end of December is $1,574.5K, which represents a 1.16% increase forthe month.
DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. TVP CHILI - A CHEAP AND HEALTHY RECIPE - PLANTING OUR PENNIES 2. Drain beans, then in a BIG pot (ours is a big stock pot!), cover with water and a big pinch of salt. Boil for one hour until cooked. 3. Rehydrate the TVP while the beans are cooking by heating vegetable broth for a couple minutes in microwave, then add TVP. Stir and let sit for a few minutes for the TVP to rehydrate. USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK We wrote about why Mr. PoP and I combined our finances when we got married, but we actually didn’t end up closing many accounts to do so. Why? Well, basically Mr. PoP’s primary financial institution was a credit union (), and mine was a big nationwide bank, so all we did was make the accounts joint at both institutions and now we have the benefits of a smallish credit union, and a big RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
COMPLIMENTARY OR COMPLEMENTARY So by complementing each others’ skill sets, we actually make a much better team than we do working independently. It’s one of those times that 1+1 > 2. A complementary partner is going to make life easier, its a part of how to make a good couple, and in the end that’s probably going to make life happier than a whole boat load ofcompliments.
BAR SOAP OR BODY WASH? January 28, 2013 at 10:32 am. My wife likes to use body wash, but I usually use bar soap. I had used Ivory for years, but they have been decreasing the bar sizes so much the last few years that all you really get is a wafer. I switched to Irish Spring a few months ago and that’s fancy enough for me. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 2. In case you didn’t catch Mr. PoP’s first post, this is the second post in a series on how he went from a minimum wage job to making $80K in a year through commission sales positions. Here’s how the series is shaping up: Part 2 (this post!): Getting “Rescued” and a Professional Sales Environment. SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULD Gas is obviously one of the PoP’s big monthly expenses these days. Heck, you can see right on any of our monthly income statements that a decent chunk of change goes to gas every month due to our commutes. So, when our local grocery store, Publix (which is an awesome grocery store, FWIW!) offers coupons for $10 off of a $50 gas gift card, it’s worth knowing if that’s actually a good deal. PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? Fear: Fight, Flight, or Opossum? Fear. It’s our internal response to a stressor – really just an excess of cortisol in our bodies. But it’s uncomfortable enough that we want to eliminate form their lives as soon as possible. Most people rely on the oft-discussed fight or flight response to address stress and fear. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULDSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? Fear: Fight, Flight, or Opossum? Fear. It’s our internal response to a stressor – really just an excess of cortisol in our bodies. But it’s uncomfortable enough that we want to eliminate form their lives as soon as possible. Most people rely on the oft-discussed fight or flight response to address stress and fear. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULDSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Put simply, Planting Our Pennies is a place for our musings on money, happiness, and kittens as we seek to live a ridiculously rich life without spending like a ridiculously rich couple. Money – We treat our personal finances like a business, and the backbone of that is the publication of our monthly income statement and balance sheet updates.10 YEARS...
10 years ago we made the best investment we could have made. Spending approximately $235, we got hitched by a boat captain and literally sailed off into the sunset together. Luckily the bitey kitten was on board with helping DIY around the foreclosure. Back then we were 26-year-olds, one of us (NOT quite happily) unemployed, and the otherOUR NEWEST POP!
1 – He has re-taught me how amazingly lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband and partner in life. You should see Mr PoP when it comes to baby soothing – he is a natural and way better at it than I am! 2 – He has taught me that I need to work more on being patient. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to wake up and be ready for meal-time COMPLIMENTARY OR COMPLEMENTARY So by complementing each others’ skill sets, we actually make a much better team than we do working independently. It’s one of those times that 1+1 > 2. A complementary partner is going to make life easier, its a part of how to make a good couple, and in the end that’s probably going to make life happier than a whole boat load ofcompliments.
RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
HOW WE DECIDED TO SELF-INSURE Most of the year, it would be fully covered with a $1,000 deductible, but anytime our house was in the cone of uncertainty* of a tropical system, the deductible would rise to $3,500, and the coverage on the pool and cage would max out at $10K. (This is the kind of stuff where it pays to have an insurance agent you trust and who knows their KABOOM! - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Almost six years ago, we wrote about the questions and concerns we had regarding if/when to have kids.. Looking back on the list, most of these aren’t really a concern anymore. Pain – so far this is going better than I was afraid of. Being in good shape with a fairly strong back pre-pregnancy, FTW! USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK A direct deposit of $75/month from your Wells Fargo is all that is needed into this account to waive the fees on the account. We have a scheduled automatic deposit from our WF checking to this savings account every month, and I’ve been told by many bankers that if you wanted to schedule a transfer of the same dollar amount back tochecking
SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULD Gas is obviously one of the PoP’s big monthly expenses these days. Heck, you can see right on any of our monthly income statements that a decent chunk of change goes to gas every month due to our commutes. So, when our local grocery store, Publix (which is an awesome grocery store, FWIW!) offers coupons for $10 off of a $50 gas gift card, it’s worth knowing if that’s actually a good deal. EQUITY VS. LIQUIDATION VALUE Equity ≠ Liquidation Value. What A was missing is that equity is not the same thing as liquidation value. They are related, because: Equity – Transaction Costs = Liquidation Value. But the higher the transaction costs, and RE in general has some pretty high transaction costs, the less your equity is going to accurately reflect the PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
CALCULATING MARKET VALUE OF OUR RENTAL DUPLEX Part 1. Until recently, we’ve been carrying the duplex on our balance sheet at a market valuation of $70K. But a couple of weeks ago, we updated our October 2012 Balance Sheet and revised the duplex’s value to $97K because we updated the market comparablesales. The
PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
CALCULATING MARKET VALUE OF OUR RENTAL DUPLEX Part 1. Until recently, we’ve been carrying the duplex on our balance sheet at a market valuation of $70K. But a couple of weeks ago, we updated our October 2012 Balance Sheet and revised the duplex’s value to $97K because we updated the market comparablesales. The
ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Put simply, Planting Our Pennies is a place for our musings on money, happiness, and kittens as we seek to live a ridiculously rich life without spending like a ridiculously rich couple. Money – We treat our personal finances like a business, and the backbone of that is the publication of our monthly income statement and balance sheet updates.10 YEARS...
10 years ago we made the best investment we could have made. Spending approximately $235, we got hitched by a boat captain and literally sailed off into the sunset together. Luckily the bitey kitten was on board with helping DIY around the foreclosure. Back then we were 26-year-olds, one of us (NOT quite happily) unemployed, and the otherOUR NET WORTH
Welcome to our December 2017 Balance Sheet! Here are the numbers for December: Our total assets went up $18.2K. Our total liabilities went up by $0.1K. Net worth went up by $18.1K. Total net worth as of the end of December is $1,574.5K, which represents a 1.16% increase forthe month.
OUR NEWEST POP!
1 – He has re-taught me how amazingly lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband and partner in life. You should see Mr PoP when it comes to baby soothing – he is a natural and way better at it than I am! 2 – He has taught me that I need to work more on being patient. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to wake up and be ready for meal-time HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. HOW MUCH REAL ESTATE LEVERAGE SHOULD YOU USE? An Average Case – 20% Down. Here we’ll use all the “average values” for our mortgage and real estate atmosphere. Mortgage Terms: 20% Down Payment, 6.45% APR with 0.97% points (these are the 20-year average of 30 year conventional mortgage rates and the points required to get those rates), 30 year loan. COMPLIMENTARY OR COMPLEMENTARY So by complementing each others’ skill sets, we actually make a much better team than we do working independently. It’s one of those times that 1+1 > 2. A complementary partner is going to make life easier, its a part of how to make a good couple, and in the end that’s probably going to make life happier than a whole boat load ofcompliments.
USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK We wrote about why Mr. PoP and I combined our finances when we got married, but we actually didn’t end up closing many accounts to do so. Why? Well, basically Mr. PoP’s primary financial institution was a credit union (), and mine was a big nationwide bank, so all we did was make the accounts joint at both institutions and now we have the benefits of a smallish credit union, and a big DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. SOMETIMES THOSE 10$ GAS CARDS AREN'T AS GOOD AS YOU WOULD Gas is obviously one of the PoP’s big monthly expenses these days. Heck, you can see right on any of our monthly income statements that a decent chunk of change goes to gas every month due to our commutes. So, when our local grocery store, Publix (which is an awesome grocery store, FWIW!) offers coupons for $10 off of a $50 gas gift card, it’s worth knowing if that’s actually a good deal. PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIESSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! HOW WE DECIDED TO SELF-INSURE Most of the year, it would be fully covered with a $1,000 deductible, but anytime our house was in the cone of uncertainty* of a tropical system, the deductible would rise to $3,500, and the coverage on the pool and cage would max out at $10K. (This is the kind of stuff where it pays to have an insurance agent you trust and who knows their SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS FREE PLANSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS YOUTUBEBUILDING MY OWN KITCHEN CABINETSBUILDING YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETSHOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIESSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! HOW WE DECIDED TO SELF-INSURE Most of the year, it would be fully covered with a $1,000 deductible, but anytime our house was in the cone of uncertainty* of a tropical system, the deductible would rise to $3,500, and the coverage on the pool and cage would max out at $10K. (This is the kind of stuff where it pays to have an insurance agent you trust and who knows their SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS FREE PLANSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS YOUTUBEBUILDING MY OWN KITCHEN CABINETSBUILDING YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETSHOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Put simply, Planting Our Pennies is a place for our musings on money, happiness, and kittens as we seek to live a ridiculously rich life without spending like a ridiculously rich couple. Money – We treat our personal finances like a business, and the backbone of that is the publication of our monthly income statement and balance sheet updates.OUR NEWEST POP!
1 – He has re-taught me how amazingly lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband and partner in life. You should see Mr PoP when it comes to baby soothing – he is a natural and way better at it than I am! 2 – He has taught me that I need to work more on being patient. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to wake up and be ready for meal-time10 YEARS...
10 years ago we made the best investment we could have made. Spending approximately $235, we got hitched by a boat captain and literally sailed off into the sunset together. Luckily the bitey kitten was on board with helping DIY around the foreclosure. Back then we were 26-year-olds, one of us (NOT quite happily) unemployed, and the otherOUR NET WORTH
Welcome to our December 2017 Balance Sheet! Here are the numbers for December: Our total assets went up $18.2K. Our total liabilities went up by $0.1K. Net worth went up by $18.1K. Total net worth as of the end of December is $1,574.5K, which represents a 1.16% increase forthe month.
FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? Fear: Fight, Flight, or Opossum? Fear. It’s our internal response to a stressor – really just an excess of cortisol in our bodies. But it’s uncomfortable enough that we want to eliminate form their lives as soon as possible. Most people rely on the oft-discussed fight or flight response to address stress and fear. RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. COMPLIMENTARY OR COMPLEMENTARY So by complementing each others’ skill sets, we actually make a much better team than we do working independently. It’s one of those times that 1+1 > 2. A complementary partner is going to make life easier, its a part of how to make a good couple, and in the end that’s probably going to make life happier than a whole boat load ofcompliments.
USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK We wrote about why Mr. PoP and I combined our finances when we got married, but we actually didn’t end up closing many accounts to do so. Why? Well, basically Mr. PoP’s primary financial institution was a credit union (), and mine was a big nationwide bank, so all we did was make the accounts joint at both institutions and now we have the benefits of a smallish credit union, and a bigFPL ON CALL
Central AC – $3/month or $9/month, April – October. You have two options with your AC. For the maximum credit ($9/month), you can opt for the “Extended Option” that gives FPL the right to power off your AC for 3 consecutive hours out of every 24. The lower credit option ($3/month) gives FPL the right to cycle your AC on and off at15
PLANTING OUR PENNIES Sidenote – Please don’t take this post as any sort of judgement against formula feeding or any other way of feeding your child that makes you and your kid and your pediatrician happy. We wanted to try breastfeeding mostly out of a “we like to eat very little pre-processed food, so let’s see if we can start Little PoP off the same way”, (plus, extra cuddles, right?) but were always ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIESSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Depending where it was when you started tracking, a slow down in the rate of growth makes total sense. It’s pretty easy to get 100% growth in a year if your net worth started at $1. I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? Haha, maybe if we’re ever in the neighborhood we’ll drive by, but it seems like asking for more trouble to confront the fraudster. I actually did speak with an officer in the fraudster’s neck of the woods and she said the last time there was a bunch of these the FBIgot involved.
HOW WE DECIDED TO SELF-INSURE The Bad News. It all started with an innocuous looking envelope in the mail from our homeowner’s insurance company. They were writing to let us know that when our policy would be renewed (in several months) the coverage would change as they would no longer be covering: WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV If you’re following us on Twitter (and really, why not go ahead and subscribe to the Planting Our Pennies RSS feed while you’re at it!), you may have noticed when I posted a little tweet about being suckered into attending an improv class about 6 weeks ago.. Improv? Just in case you’ve blocked the 1990’s from your memory like some of my coworkers, improv acting was big with Drew Carey SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS FREE PLANSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS YOUTUBEBUILDING MY OWN KITCHEN CABINETSBUILDING YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETSHOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETS Me too! The vast majority of this entire renovation was made with a bosch table saw, a skillsaw, a 5-piece ryobi set that my dad got me 14 years ago, a 10 year old compressor and a nail gun from harborfreight.
HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE In college, I made up my mind to study what I wanted; in my case – Philosophy. I knew there might be consequences to this decision later on, but its worth noting that all of my role models and heros (family member and famous entreprenuers) who had achieved monetary success had done so without the benefit of a college degree. PLANTING OUR PENNIES Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me. Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000. Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIESSEE MORE ON PLANTINGOURPENNIES.COM WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR NET WORTH? Get the painful stuff out of the way first. Since underestimating your liabilities is only going to fool you into over estimating your net worth, so include every last cent you might owe. Secured Debt – mortgages, car loans, boat loans, all of it. Unsecured Debt – student loans, credit cards (even if I'M A VICTIM OF UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD, WHAT NOW? 1. Put Fraud Alerts On Both of Our Credit Reports. You can call Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax to initiate a 90-day fraud alert if you think you’ve been a victim of identity theft. No need to call all three. They share fraud alert information, so your request is immediately passed to the other two credit bureaus. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE FIRST RULE OF IMPROV Apparently improv has rules, and that’s rule #1. Go figure. Anyhow. The idea behind “Yes, And” is that no matter what scene you enter into, you need to accept it (hence the “Yes”), and can really only modify the scene by adding to it (that’s the “And” part). Person #1: OMG – that is a hideous dress you’re wearing! HOW WE DECIDED TO SELF-INSURE Most of the year, it would be fully covered with a $1,000 deductible, but anytime our house was in the cone of uncertainty* of a tropical system, the deductible would rise to $3,500, and the coverage on the pool and cage would max out at $10K. (This is the kind of stuff where it pays to have an insurance agent you trust and who knows their HOW WE FOUGHT OUR REAL ESTATE TAXES AND WON What’s crazy is the number of people that don’t even claim their homestead exemption. Our realtor gave us a heads up that we would have to renew the homestead exemption in our names for the house, but apparently that’s not the norm because some of our neighbors don’t have it, even though they clearly live in their house all year round. SHOULD WE CLOSE THE HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT EARLY Our HELOC (home equity line of credit) is a line of credit that was extended against the value of our investment duplex (which didn’t have any other mortgage liens against it). Having dumped about almost $60K in cash into the duplex over 6 months between buying it and fixing it up, we were looking to have access to some of that capital should the right real estate deal present itself. HOW MUCH DID I REALLY SAVE BUILDING OUR CABINETSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS FREE PLANSHOW TO BUILD KITCHEN CABINETS YOUTUBEBUILDING MY OWN KITCHEN CABINETSBUILDING YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETSHOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETS Total Linear Feet – ~80 (for the upper and lower wall cabinets) Total Cost – ~$41K (for the wall cabinets, the island cabinets were another $6K) Cost Per Linear Foot Installed – $513. The finish and features on these cabinets haven’t yet been decided, but the materials allowance allows for high-ish end materials, but doesn’treally
HOW TO MAKE 80K A YEAR WITH ALMOST NO EXPERIENCE Part 1. We’ve gotten a couple of questions on how I (Mr. PoP!) went from earning next to nothing in 2010 to the $80K or so I’ve earned in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully the next two or three posts will be a how-to guide for somebody to have the sort of success I’ve had over the last few years. The series is going to go something like this:Part
ABOUT - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Thanks so much for stopping by our site. Allow us to introduce ourselves Who Are The PoP’s? This is us. Well, a cartoon-ized version of us. Mrs. PoP is skinnier in real life, and Mr. PoP doesn’t really have that big of an over-bite.OUR NEWEST POP!
Congratulations! Also, for the record: my enjoyment of this site hasn’t decreased with the change in posting frequency. I would much rather you only post new/interesting stuff (as you’ve been doing) than churn out uninteresting content on a more regular/frequent schedule (as so many personal finance blogs seem to do these days).OUR NET WORTH
Here are the numbers for December: Our total assets went up $18.2K; Our total liabilities went up by $0.1K Net worth went up by $18.1K Total net worth as of the end of December is $1,574.5K, which represents a 1.16% increase for the month10 YEARS...
10 years ago we made the best investment we could have made. Spending approximately $235, we got hitched by a boat captain and literally sailed off into the sunset together. *sigh* FEAR: FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR OPOSSUM? But There’s a Third Option Which you might have guessed by reading the title of this post. Mr PoP has jokingly named it my “opossum response” (alternate spelling “possum”, I think), but all it means is that when that cortisol starts running through your veins instead of fight or flight, you fall over and play dead, passing outlike an opossum.
RESTORING AN ANTIQUE MAP On our November income statement, we showed a $520 purchase in our shopping category for heirloom restoration and promised an explanation later.Here’s the story behind that spending and why we feel that $520 is a bit of an investment in preserving both friendship and localhistory.
USING WELLS FARGO AS OUR PERSONAL BANK We wrote about why Mr. PoP and I combined our finances when we got married, but we actually didn’t end up closing many accounts to do so. Why? Well, basically Mr. PoP’s primary financial institution was a credit union (), and mine was a big nationwide bank, so all we did was make the accounts joint at both institutions and now we have the benefits of a smallish credit union, and a big DIY - STRIP WAX OFF LINOLEUM FLOORING - PLANTING OUR PENNIES Time: About 1 day solid of hard work for 2 people stripping, and a few more hours after that spread out for applying sealers and wax. (Preferably the better part of a week when you’ll have the floors all completely cleared.) Stripping Chemicals (~$45 for 2 gallons): We used BetCo Extreme Stripper (what a name!) that we picked up from a janitorial supply company. COMPLIMENTARY OR COMPLEMENTARY The colorblind thing is kindof funny. He’s red/green colorblind so he sees those as variations on beige usually. For stoplights, they’re supposed to be oriented a specific way to help colorblind people, but Mr. PoP says that the green of the stoplight lights looks like a white lightbulb where the red light puts out a more yellowishtinged light.
FPL ON CALL
While that makes it sound like the On Call set-up is really space intensive, it really isn’t. (Our garage setup was just that bad as you can see in the before reno pics).There are actually two small-medium sized boxes that the electrician installs on the wall right at the outlet for your water heater. PLANTING OUR PENNIES* Home
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UPDATE – WE’RE STILL ALIVE! Well hello over there! It’s been a while since we posted anything here, but we have a very cute (and demanding!) excuse. peanut butter toast for breakfast! This little guy seems to occupy every spare moment, as well as moments that we didn’t really consider spare in the first place. In case anyone is still reading this blog from time to time, we hope that you had a wonderful holiday season.LITTLE POP UPDATE:
Continue reading Update – We’re Still Alive! ------------------------- BREASTFEEDING IS SOOOO NOT FREE – STOP SAYING IT IS! _This is awkward because I’m talking about my boobs. If this isn’t the post for you, please feel free to move on. I won’t be offended._
A short nap after dining al fresco one morning… I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months with my hands physically full, but my mind free to wander while feeding Little PoP. Surprise, surprise, when those thoughts, on more than one occasion, turned to breastfeeding. Okay, no surprise, since until about a month ago, this was the activity that occupied at least 50% of the hours ofour day.
In this largely sleep deprived state, emotions were heightened. EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTING Things felt WAY funnier than they might otherwise have been, especially as old memories took on new meanings. Remember the movie scene from There Will Be Blood where Daniel Day Lewis leaned over Paul Dano in the chapel and screamed, “Drainage! Drainage! I…DRINK…YOUR…MILKSHAKE!!!” Little PoP didn’t really get the joke when I leaned over him and hoarsely whisper-screamed, “DRAINAGE!!!!” but I literally LOL’d!via GIPHY
And sing along with the Black Eyed Peas song “My Humps” and tell me it isn’t about breastfeeding. _“Ima get get get get you drunk/ get you love drunk off myhumps” _
_“my love, my love, my love my love/you love my lady lumps” _ _“milky milky right…”_ Utterly (udderly?) hilarious now, but will it be forever?!? Things weren’t all fun and games, though. Frustrations were also heightened. I was probably more indignant than I otherwise would have been when I was searching for an average of how much formula cost on a monthly basis (can you blame me with how long this kid was taking to eat?) and ran across an old Simple Dollar post that touted breastfeeding as FREE. As in, $0. “we find that over the first year of life, average formula to feed an average baby costs $1,733.75, while the cost of breastmilk is $0“
I rarely call out other blogs when I see them putting out information that I disagree with. But as I struggled to feed my little dude and looked for good information on other options out there, I was kindof enraged by this bad information. As such, I vowed to keep track of all the costs associated with breastfeeding our little guy and report them here to provide a counter-example to the unfortunately purported myth that breastfeeding is FREE, even for somewhat naturally frugal folks like me. At that point, I knew breastfeeding wasn’t free – but I didn’t realize just how much it was going to end up costing us. Spoiler Alert, breastfeeding is not always the frugal option. Formula samples with the other beverages in the pantry! _SIDENOTE – Please don’t take this post as any sort of judgement against formula feeding or any other way of feeding your child that makes you and your kid and your pediatrician happy. We wanted to try breastfeeding mostly out of a “we like to eat very little pre-processed food, so let’s see if we can start Little PoP off the same way”, (plus, extra cuddles, right?) but were always open to formula if we got to the point where breastfeeding wasn’t working._ _In fact – I ordered free sample packs from Enfamil and Similac before giving birth to make sure we had some at the ready just in case! So far, we haven’t gotten there. But we still retain that option – they are in the pantry!_ You can find the complete list of everything we have purchased to enable breastfeedinghere,
but…
HOW DID THE NUMBERS SHAKE OUT? The long and short of it, though, is that by the time Little PoP was 3 months old, we had spent over $1,000 facilitating this “free” food for him – and that was while trying to be relatively thoughtful and intentional with our spending. Getting our breastfeeding relationship to the point where Little PoP is now no longer dropping on the weight growth chart with every measurement and I feel like it’s no longer sucking an EXCESSIVE amount of my life energy (it still does suck an APPROPRIATE amount of life energy) wasn’t easy, though. And as we made purchase after purchase to continue facilitating this breastfeeding relationship, each one seemed (and still seems) completely rational and I don’t think we made a bad choice in that moment, even if there are a couple items I don’t really use anymore now. I’m not a breastfeeding expert. I’m not a baby expert. I have 3 months of experience with precisely 1 baby. As such, I don’t know if our experience qualifies as “average”. What I do now know – after reading enough forums and advice about breastfeeding over the past few months – is that there are people that end up spending even more than we have on breastfeeding without the expenditures seeming frivolous. Rentals of hospital grade pumps (at $70-$90/mo) because the consumer grade ones don’t work for you, and the special attachments that you need for them don’t come cheap! DID BREASTFEEDING LITTLE POP MAKE FINANCIAL SENSE? Three months in, we have direct costs of $1,020.78. (Again, here’s the complete list of breastfeeding costs.)
But there are definitely indirect costs as well. As I can figure it, I’m eating an extra 500 or so calories per day to keep up with the breastfeeding energy demands. There’s also coconut oil and lanolin that I already had on hand that I’ve been using for moisturizing as needed. All of that is maybe $75/mo in our average grocery costs. Assuming formula costs ~$150/month, we ignore the value of my time (which I’ll talk about later), and I don’t buy anything additional that’s breastfeeding related other than food from here on out, we’ve now got a breakeven equation of: $1020 + $75*# months = $150 * # months $1020 = $75*# months 13.6 = # MONTHS OF EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING I’ve got to exclusively breastfeed Little PoP for over a year for this to have been cost effective for us. At that point it’s likely that neither breastmilk nor formula will be his primary way of eatinganymore, right?
Could you argue that we would have had to buy a lot of this stuff anyhow if we had opted for formula feeding from the beginning? Um… other than the 3 pack of nursing bras I used for the end of pregnancy, I’m not convinced. I excluded all of our bottle/nipple purchases from this analysis, and the lip/tongue tie revisions likely wouldn’t have been an issue if Little PoP had been strictly bottle fed. The different nipple sizes and flow systems out there now let you drain milk into your kid’s mouth with a bottle even if they’re not very effective at sucking. (We used Dr Brown’s Options bottles and it seemed to work the best for us when Mr PoP fed Little PoP.) Looking back at all of these charges, there’s also not a lot that I would say were just completely unnecessary. The extra power cable for our pump was kindof a luxury item, I suppose, since I didn’t want to have to crawl on hands and knees and reach under a couch for a power outlet every time I wanted to relocate a pumping session. The manual pump also ended up being somewhat of a bust, too. I guess there’s also the possibility that I could resell some of these items after we are done with them, but the market for used breastfeeding supplies is pretty thin. Even if you can sterilize all of the items and use them again, the local used baby stuff stores won’t take them in for resale. Even the Baby K’Tan carrier that I paid over $60 for so I could feed Little PoP hands-free would garner $4 if I sold it to Once Upon A Child today. Eep! So I’m considering most of these expenses as sunk costs. Even excluding my time, it’s hard to argue that breastfeeding has been a cost effective way to feed our little guy. AND THEN THERE’S MY TIME… which we cannot let society (or the Simple Dollar) value at $0. Sorry. Not happening. In my day job, I get paid roughly $50/hour. At that rate, Little PoP was racking up some serious bills. In weeks 1 – 10, I was spending at least 8 hours a day, 7 days a week feeding this guy. And that’s a minimum. It’s not including non-nutritive cuddling or diaper changes or anything like that. Justfeeding.
Weeks 11-14 have been a lot better. I figure I spend about 4 hours/day these days feeding him. At my day job hourly rate, Little PoP owes me… * Weeks 1-10: $50/hr * 8 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 10 weeks = $28,000 * Weeks 11-14: $50/hr * 4 hrs/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = $5,600 Okay, so $33,600 might be tough to collect. But what about lost wages since I can’t really work full time? Right now I’m putting in about 16 hours per week remotely, so losing out on 24 hours/week in compensation. That’s $1,200/week. Little PoP better start making the big bucks early to pay those bills! It adds up! Clearly I’m being facetious here. Breastfeeding was my choice and I don’t expect to be paid for it. But a woman’s time has real value and to perpetuate the myth that “breast milk is free” negates that value, so these opportunity costs should be noted, even if they aren’t directly incurred the way all those Amazon charges were. WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? WAS IT WORTH IT? Well, *I* would. For one, I obviously know a lot more than I did at the start and I think that would be a distinct advantage. If nothing else knowing what it feels like when a baby is finally getting a good suction and correcting lip/tongue ties early would make a huge difference. Also, I suppose if it were *me* doing this with a hypothetical second baby (not that I’m saying we’re doing that!), I’d also have the gear already purchased too. But I’m also keenly aware of the advantages I had through this process. We are basically financially independent. I’m more or less working “for fun” and mental stimulation at this point. Spending over $1000 on making breastfeeding work (even knowing it still might not) wasn’t a financial hazard. And perhaps most of all, Mr PoP wasn’t working at all during this time period, which meant I had almost exclusive access to a 3rd and 4th hand when I needed it – and that happened more than a few times. So whether or not *you*, random person reading this, want to go all in on breastfeeding is up to *you*. What I *do* know, is that breastfeeding isn’t a slam dunk financial win. And it’s not even a slam-dunk health win – the data analysis for which I’m entrusting Emily Oster, an economist and author of Expecting Better and nowCribsheet
,
the latter of which lays out the actual evidence for the case that “breast is best”. I read the chapter in a blur about a month into breastfeeding, but my recollection is that the evidence that breastfeeding is better for the baby is almost entirely explained by other factors (ie parental education/income) or could not be reproduced. As for the benefits to the mother, there is some evidence of a ~20% reduction in breast cancer risk after breastfeeding for more than 6 months, and breastfeeding mothers lose approximately 1.5lbs more of the “baby weight” by 6 months than formula feeding mothers. But that’s about it. Whether or not those benefits make it worth it to *you*, I can’t say. _What were your breast/formula feeding experiences? _ ------------------------- POP COMPLETE LIST OF BREASTFEEDING COSTS Without further ado, I present the complete list of everything we have spent to facilitate breastfeeding in the first 3 months of LittlePoP’s life.
THE BASIC STUFF – PRE BIRTH To give nursing a fair shot, I figured at a minimum I needed nursing bras and an insurance-grade breast pump. The 3 pack of bras I chose were recommended on the MMM forum as great for late in pregnancy and nursing, so I got them a couple months before Little PoP’s arrival. The breast pump came home on a similar timeline and was luckily $0 copay through my insurance. (They let me choose between the basic models of several well-known brands – I didn’t pay extra for any of the fancy insulated carrying cases or anything like that.)* Nursing Bras, 3pk
– $27.99
* Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump–
$0.00
IS THIS GOING TO WORK? – RIGHT AFTER BIRTH Little PoP lost more weight than the pediatrician really liked after birth, so they had us start pumping for supplementation when he was 5 days old. (Good job to my past self for getting that pump so early!) But we quickly found out that, like women, nipples come in different sizes, and I am not sized to fit the “average woman” flanges included in my pump kit. To quell my tears (I did mention emotions were way heightened through all of this, right?), Mr PoP ran out to Target that day and bought “right sized” flanges for me. * Medela Personal Fit Breast Flanges– $16.04
OKAY, I THINK THIS MIGHT WORK – 2 WEEKS AFTER BIRTH A week later, the pediatrician declared that Little PoP was doing ok weight-wise, so we thought this breastfeeding thing might work out. I then invested in some stuff since it was clear we were in this for what we hoped was the long haul. I bought nursing shirts so I wouldn’t have to be mostly topless for large chunks of time and reusable nursing pads so I wasn’t leaking everywhere. * Long Sleeved Nursing T-Shirts, 3pk– $39.99
* Nursing Tank Tops
(Very low cut but comfy, for PJs only), 2pk – $20.99* Nursing Tank Tops
(Not as low cut, could be worn out in a pinch), 3pk – $34.88 * Organic Bamboo Reusable Nursing Pads– $11.99
Oh, and since we started pumping so early, I bought a bra to try and make it easier to pump after he ate. That’s right – I was feeding him for an hour, then trying to pump for another 20 minutes at times. * Hands Free Pumping Bra– $31.55
Would it have been possible to find all this for less money at a thrift store? In the Land of Retirees where we live, that’s pretty unlikely. But, Little PoP and I did walk to the thrift store one morning when he was really young to buy a robe to keep me warm while feeding him since I was freezing. It’s actually a really nice robe! (And he charmed the volunteer at the thrift store.) * Terry Cloth Robe From Thrift Store – $1.06 We also started Little PoP on some Vitamin D drops since breastmilk doesn’t contain enough.* Vitamin D Drop
s
– $14.95
HOW CAN I MAKE THIS WORK BETTER? – WEEKS 3 – 5 The pumping wasn’t going great – and I found I could only get significant volume if I pumped *while* Little PoP was eating from the other boob. So after spending a week where Mr PoP held a pumping flange to one of my breasts for hours while Little PoP ate from the other (and switching on and off), I knew we needed a hands-free option. Enter the NUK Freemie Hands-Free Collection Cup. These worked with the pump I had, but of course needed their own inserts to size them properly for me. * NUK Freemie Hands-Free Collection Cups–
$48.98 (same day pickup at Walmart, because once again… tears) * Maymom Flange Inserts for Freemie Cups– $13.98
And then inevitably we needed canned air when I bent over while pumping and got milk in the air lines. Water cleans them easily, but the canned air dries them out quickly since otherwise they might have taken days to dry…* Canned Air
– $7.47
I was also leaking a ton at night – way more than the reusable breast pads could contain, so instead of shoving prefold cloth diapers down my shirt and waking up when they were soaking wet to swap them out, I bought breast shields that also catch the leaking milk to use it later. Dual purpose! * Lacti-Cups (Milk Catching Breast Shields)– $13.99
As soon as I was medically cleared (4 weeks), I wanted to get back to exercising since it’s something that’s essential to my physical and MENTAL health. (Mental health was the big thing here since all this nursing was taking a toll there. I’ve mentioned the tears, right? There were definitely tears at times.) Enter the nursing sports bra. I tried a few different ones from Amazon, but liked this one from Wacoal the best and returned the rest. (So far I’ve just bought the one – thinking of buying another so I don’t need to be so cognizant of where it is in the laundry cycle!) * Wacoal Nursing Sports Bra– $41.23
OH MY GOD, OW IT HURTS! – WEEK 6 Did you know milk ducts could get clogged if the kid isn’t sucking hard enough? And that it could cause a horribly painful infection in your breast? Yeah… I hadn’t entirely realized that either. Until it very painfully happened to me. * Call to our hospital’s “Milk Hotline” to talk with a Lactation Consultant – $0.00 – included with delivering there Luckily, I had hit my out of pocket max for my health insurance with Little PoP’s delivery, so the other medical visits and prescriptionswere $0 copay.
* Urgent Care – $0 (usually $40 for me) * Rx Antibiotics – $0 (usually ~$5 for me) * Follow-Up at OB Office – $0 (usually $40 for me) But there were other items that weren’t covered to help get the clog out and prevent future ones. Like lecithin supplements to help the fat in the milk emulsify better and not get clogged. * Lecithin Supplements – $13.40 (I’m on my 2nd bottle now, taking 2 per day) And a manual breast pump, which we read for some women generated stronger suction than what they got off of an electric pump. For me, this never really came to fruition, but pretty much everything that touches your boobs is non-returnable, so we are stuck with it. Maybe I’ll use it again sometime? * Medela Harmony Manual Breast Pump – $32.09 (another purchase Mr PoP ran out to Target for that day to try and get rid of tears…) Eventually, the constant bending over and contorting myself to feed Little PoP added up and I had intense back pain. So I went to the chiropractor. Again, I’m lucky because my insurance coverage includes chiro visits and I had already hit my OOP max. * Chiropractic visits – $0 (usually $40, and so far I’ve gone 3times)
THERE’S GOT TO BE AN EASIER WAY – WEEKS 7-8 At this point, breastfeeding was taking over way too much of my life. It couldn’t possibly be normal for a kid to need to eat for *this* long. But I was doing everything I could in the hopes that his next growth checkup (at 9 weeks) would have him in a higher weight percentile while trying to maintain some semblance of sanity on mypart.
In terms of hands-free breastfeeding, I discovered that a Baby K’Tan would probably work with the still rather limited head control Little PoP had at that point. Without blinking twice, I bought one. I could have used a 20% off Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupon if I had been willing to wait a week for delivery, but I opted for full price and next day delivery from Amazon. Mr PoP will probably never forget me walking into the bedroom to wake him up and pointing (with both hands) at the baby K’Tan strapped to my chest and saying “he is eating right now!” Even though Little PoP outgrew (length wise) that position within a couple of weeks, the hands free feeding in those times (and the fact that it’s still his favorite carrier even in other positions) has made it worth every penny! * Baby K’Tan Active– $63.84
We also bought an extra power cord for the pump so that I could more easily take it to a different location to pump since the “normal” location in his room had the cord really hard to reach and I was starting to feel trapped sitting in the same place for so many hours every day. This was surprisingly expensive, but for this kind of stuff Mr PoP hesitates to go generic unless it’s certified and UL rated. We didn’t want to burn out the pump or burn our house down. * Medela Extra Power Cord– $29.82
My pumping sessions weren’t getting a whole lot and weren’t draining my breasts effectively (even when I had to wake up in the middle of the night and pump while Little PoP was sleeping), but I REALLY didn’t want to get mastitis again. At this point, I read that Pumpin’ Pals (specially shaped flexible pump flanges) were more effective at draining breasts for a lot of women. They also have a money back guarantee (unusual for breast pump parts which are often non-returnable), so I gave them a shot. They doubled what I was getting from a pumping session and I finally felt like something was emptying me. Worth every FREAKING penny.* Pumpin’ Pals
– $42.55
Oh, and I was finally pumping out enough that I needed bags to freezesome for later.
* Milk Storage Freezer Bags– $13.99
I also emailed and called the local La Leche League to see if they had any advice. After talking with one of their volunteers, they said it sounded like Little PoP might have a lip or tongue tie and that we could ask our pediatrician about it. ALL THIS AND HE’S 7TH PERCENTILE IN WEIGHT? – WEEKS 9-10 At his 2 month appointment, we found out Little PoP had dropped yet again, to the 7th percentile, on his weight growth charts. (He started at 50%-ile.) So, on the advice of the LLL lady, we asked the pediatrician what he thought about tongue/lip ties and Little PoP. The pediatrician said it looked like he had a lip tie for sure, but that we wouldn’t know if revising it (ie cutting it with a laser) would help at all until after the procedure. The pediatrician was kindof ambivalent about it, stating that insurance probably wouldn’t cover it since Little PoP wasn’t in “failing to thrive” territory (and he didn’t see the time and effort load on me feeding him as a health issue for Little PoP). But we were willing to look into the tongue/lip ties for at least a consult if it would lighten some of my epicfeeding load.
* Consult with Pediatric Dentist – $50 * Laser Revision of Lip Tie – $225 * Laser Revision of Tongue Tie – $225 * Guilt Over Causing Little PoP Pain – Immense… =( We did actually call and compare two pediatric dentists for this procedure. Luckily the one that gave better vibes over the phone and whose receptionist seemed a little less aggressive about wanting to laser our kid also ended up being the cheaper option by about $400. HOLY COW THIS IS WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE?!? – WEEKS 11 –PRESENT
I’m not going to pretend that Little PoP enjoyed the process of having his lip and tongue ties removed with a laser. Or that he enjoyed us having to shove our hands in his mouth 6-8 times a day for the next month for mouth stretches to make sure they didn’t grow back as part of the healing process. But holy cow – what a difference it has made. Little PoP no longer takes an hour to eat. It’s half that time, or less, these days. And though he hasn’t had another doctor’s appointment for an official measurement yet, we’re convinced he’s actually getting more milk in him and gaining on the growth charts. He’s got a second chin now! And thigh rolls! This might finally be feasible long term! I’ll add anything more I spend here later, but three months in weare at:
* $1,020.78 IN DIRECT BREASTFEEDING EXPENSES. AND THEN THERE’S MY TIME… These costs don’t account for my time at all, which I do address inthis post
.
Needless to say, this is the biggest cost of all, and on a relative basis it’s so much greater for women who are lower on the income scale than I am and don’t have cushy work from home when I want gigs like I do. Just one, 30 minute, unpaid, break to pump every day is now costs that woman over $4 in foregone wages. It puts the approximately $5 per day cost of formula in perspective. -------------------------10 YEARS…
The actual sunset we sailed off into after getting hitched! 10 years ago we made the best investment we could have made. Spending approximately $235, we
got hitched by a boat captain and literally sailed off into the sunsettogether.
*sigh* Continue reading 10 Years… -------------------------OUR NEWEST POP!
And just like that, Kitty PoP is no longer the smallest, cutest, or softest resident in the house. Me, a couple of weeks ago… Baby PoP is here! But I don’t really like that moniker. It makes me think of Baby Bop and bring back flashbacks of too many Barney episodes while babysitting my cousins. Instead, let’s call him Little PoP. We should have at least a few years while he’s still the smallest person in the house. Little PoP has been with us for a couple of weeks now, and we’re absolutely smitten. Busy and tired, of course, but still smitten. Oxytocin, man. It’s a thing. Continue reading Our Newest PoP! -------------------------Older Entries »
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