Cottage Countdown

LeighofMar

Money has been flying out the window as we decided to paint the picket fence. And we didn't want white as everyone does white. So we decided it should match our shed, which is a nice light sage green with a beige trim. It is coming along nicely and the pale green looks so nice against the white house with black shutters. Eventually, we will take those cheap shutters down and probably match the fence with some louvered shutters. I'm waiting on a bathtub planter to be delivered to go in my garden and I will fill it with some Russian sage surrounded by blue sentimental balloon flowers. 

As of last week, we thought our main client would be experiencing a drought of work, but we've had a couple of calls to bid on some jobs, so if he's working, we're working. We'll take it. Plus DH has all of a sudden a plethora of private jobs to do. That would be wonderful to get the business coffers topped up in case of another slowdown. The best news is that the investment property is supposedly going to be bought by our contracting partner's sister in law. She decided she wanted it and the other sister wants to live in the basement part. The one that was just supposed to be for storage because it would be nightmare to finish with all the concrete. But hey, if she wants to pay to have it made habitable, we won't say no. Looks like financing is going through so hopefully just a matter of a little more time and we can get our profit out of that project. If so, I definitely want to do the driveway and maybe a cedar carport for DH to store the work van under so he can organize his tools and material better. 

I Tilly Tidied $6.36 to the mortgage so I could have an even balance of $36,640.00. I will OP $40.00 this week from the savings. If all goes well, I hope to be at $35,995 by the end of August. 

I am spent though. Today, I made a no-bake cheesecake. It's setting now in my freezer while I make the strawberry topping. Then I made orange beef today, so delicious. Just threw together some beef, roasted vegetables, Shirataki noodles, and a wonderful Paleo/AIP orange sauce using honey as the sweetener as I can't have cane sugar. It was just as good as Chinese takeout, if not better since I can control the salt intake. I'm tired now though. My library is offering books on curbside service so I can just go, they hand me a book I had in my queue and off I go. Love it. Now I'm off to try my cheesecake and probably not save any for DH 

savingholmes

Lots of good news. Hope it goes well

LeighofMar

Thanks, SH. OH is on project 1 today. Customer needs power to a pump for something. It involves a lot of digging and trenching, which OH is not happy about as he's 58, but he says it keeps him in shape and active. 

$40.00 from my savings as promised to the mortgage today brings us to $36,600.00. My new e-fund threshold is $2500.00, so I will try not to let it get below that. The threshold usually climbs with every $250 to $500.00, but for now, I feel this is adequate. 

Today is a walk day so I look forward to that and should get going before it gets too hot. 

LeighofMar

I really need to buy tires.  I believe Honda requires 16" tires, and I'm riding around on 4 mismatched 15" tires. Not good. And I was supposed to do this last year around this time, but something else kept coming up. Ironic considering I drive even less to places with lockdown, and I was already working from home and a homebody before. But it's time to look seriously into it. An online place has very good name brand tires for $120.00 a tire. Supposedly, that's about as good as I'm going to do for my SUV. But the problem is even if I order them and with free shipping, I'll still have to pay the tire guy up the street to put them on, and I think he'll charge me $20.00 a tire plus disposing of my old ones. So I don't know if I save any money by ordering them online or not. I guess I'll get a quote from him to start to see what he has if I just do the whole process with him. 

Expecting $13.45 any minute to arrive from Rakuten cash-back and will apply this to my mortgage OPs. This week is payday, and I hope to OP $400.00 straight to principal this week. 

Transcription money earned is at $200.00 and I won't be cashing out until the end of the month, so hopefully, I can earn around $300.00, but always happy for whatever I can contribute to the business coffers. And with DH booked solid this week, when he works hard all day, he doesn't like to eat a meal late, so no cooking this week for me! If we want something, we'll have simple omelets or grilled cheese. 

Today is my cardio day. Yesterday was an abs session, and my whole body feels it including my hip flexors and legs from all the lower ab work. Ugh! I will definitely be doing low-impact cardio today as the last thing I want to do is jump around. I'm able to maintain my healthy body weight, but I like increasing my stamina and my strength. Plus it helps destress since Mondays are always crazy anyway. 

LeighofMar

I stopped off at the shop and got a quote for the tires. Mid-grade, 60,000 miles will be $522.00 including mountings and balance, tax and all. So I will go ahead and do that probably this week. The nice thing is I can leave my car there and walk back to my house. It's only about a 10 to 15-minute walk, although not sure I want to do that in this heat. 

I managed to control myself at the garden center, even though there was some beautiful silver artemisia that I wanted to surround my new bathtub planter. But I have $135.00 left until payday, which is this week and I want to pay off the remaining $200.00 of the roof price and be done with that, plus put some money into the OP savings. So I guess I'll be good.......for now 

savingholmes

Glad the tyres are getting sorted. Well done on restraint at the garden centre

LeighofMar

Another payday, another OP. Today's OP was $400.00. Balance is now $36,200.00. Can't believe we are staring at the last four months of the year in a minute. Main client is all caught up, which has topped up the business accounts nicely. And supposedly the investment property is closing today, so we could see a check within the next few days for that. Emergency savings received $266.00 today, house fund $80.00, general savings $80.00. My E-fund already has the $2500.00 minimum threshold, so anything above and beyond that is a bonus. House fund right now is $245.00/2000.00 and general savings is $11,225.00/$15,000.00. Those are my targets anyway. I know you can never have enough in a house fund or a general savings fund for whatever life throws at you.

While DH has been working, I've been priming and painting the fence. I am loving the lovely sage green color on it and was able to paint a whole side run yesterday before the rains came. Today will be rainy off and on all day so no painting for me. I will order the groceries and see about getting my tires either today or tomorrow. Yesterday, I did a good back and core workout, which helped with the fence painting. Today is a walk day, so if I go to have my tires done, I will actually walk a nice distance that can count towards my exercise today. I don't mind walking in the rain, just have to find where I put my umbrella. 

LeighofMar

Whew! $645.00 for everything. I needed an alignment it turns out as well, so it was $560.00 plus $85.00. Well, at least I'll get $9.67 cash-back on my CC. Have to be positive. But the car feels great. I just joke that I spent all this money to be able to go....nowhere. Thanks, COVID. Today has been productive though. Got that done. Added a few more pennies into my transcription work, currently at $250.00 and hope to be at $300 to $350.00 by next Thursday when I cash out. Groceries ordered and total is $160.00, but I know they won't have certain items, so I'm sure the bill will be lower once I pick them up tomorrow. Then hopefully, we can coast into the weekend, although we have Zoom events Friday and Saturday, so maybe not too restful, but good nonetheless. And if the sun is out, maybe I can persuade DH to BBQ the ribs, one because they will be delicious, and two, it will save us money from not needing to order takeout this weekend.  We'll see what he says. 

savingholmes

So glad that your client has paid up and that the investment property is about to close. That's a serious turnaround from where you were. You also sound like you have very healthy savings. Go you!

BravingSaving

Just wanted to pop in and say well done you're getting so much done! I've just eaten my lunch but reading about all the food you've made has made me want to eat more