In January, Christy broke down some of the costs involved in remodeling our kitchen. There was a lot of work that went into this 4 month project, so I wanted to get a better view of our total cost. I went back through our credit card statements because I wanted to capture every thing from…
Author: John
Saving for the future – June
I missed last month, but we are finally back up above $20,000 in our savings. With our federal tax return and the $1,000 of our normal savings we are up to $21,255. We earned $9.82 in interest. Only $18,745 left to get to our $40,000 goal to cover non-emergency emergencies (new car, etc.) In vacation…
Sleep’n Machine
I recently discovered our store, Designs On A Dime, was not active. I believe it was caused by the rebranding of Tee Spring to just Spring. Anyway, it is back up with a new addition (no pun intended). From now until August 31st, use the code SLEEP at check out to get 10% off the…
Working Toward Retirement – May
It’s been a turbulent month since my last retirement post. Last month we were $4,020 ahead and this month we are $1,908 behind. All in all though, we are gaining. We did hit a point where my work 401k dipped down to $98,000, but I’m glad to see that it is back up above $100k….
Kale, Butternut Squash, Garlic, & Bean Soup
This is the soup I mentioned in my garlic bread post. I got it from The “I Love My Instant Pot” Vegan Recipe Book, but I think I altered it enough that it’s safe to post my version without violating any copyrights. The real recipe is called White Bean with Garlic and Kale Soup on…
Homemade garlic bread
In this house, we love garlic bread. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that didn’t love garlic bread. In fact, if I did I would never talk to them again. The one thing I don’t like about garlic bread (or most things in the freezer at the store) is the long list of ingredients…
Kitchen Remodel: Behind the scenes – Electrical
Originally, our kitchen had one electrical circuit feeding all of the outlets. Not only does that not meet code, it resulted in breakers tripping every so often if the microwave was running and the refrigerator kicked on or if we had the Instant Pot running and started the microwave. Very annoying. As part of the…
Working Toward Retirement – April
We finally did it! We surpassed $100,000 in my work 401k. We are close to the edge still and that could dip down under if the market takes a turn for the worse, but for right now I’m celebrating. Currently, my work 401k is showing a 25% return since October, which is up 4% from…
Saving for the future – Lottery Edition
We had an incredible week last week. I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but after 20+ years of playing the lottery, we finally won!!! After taxes, we ended up with a little over $120 MILLION! I haven’t even told Christy yet. It just hit our account last night, so now it actually feels real….
Kitchen Remodel: Behind the scenes – Blank board
Alright, this post is admittedly boring. You can tell by the title, right? Actually, I believe they are called a “false front”, but this is the tale of the board between the sink cabinets and the counter top. With all new squared edges of the shaker style doors, we couldn’t leave the fill board above…