Rum Cake

I don't know how it started, but I decided to make a rum cake.  Back in the day, a co-worker would make them from scratch and sell them at work.  They were absolutely delicious.  After a few Google searches, I decided to use a recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  

Ingredients 

 

Transfer Tuesday 9/21/2021 HELOC, Paying Down Debt, Consistently Inconsistent

   

                   

                             

Hello Tuesday!  This is the day that we make an extra effort to pay down our debt and slide into retirement debt-free .  Most every Tuesday we apply extra cash (whether it be BIG or small) to our outstanding debt.  This helps keeps us aware of and accountable for our debt. And it all makes a difference.

Our only debt is a HELOC with an interest rate of 2.24% The minimum monthly payment goes towards the PRINCIPAL and the INTEREST.   I am chipping away at the balance until we sell my deceased mom's house that is currently being used as a rental. At that point, we will pay off the rest of the balance.  Until then, I will be sending in payment to this debt and/or to my taxable investment account every Tuesday. 


Previous balance on last Transfer Tuesday Post  $ 65,661.95

Money Moves This Week: 

Cashed out a low interest earning CD $1000.00

Sending cash from my eBay account      $61.95 

 

                                    New HELOC balance:  $64,600.00

We have chipped away $30,000.00 since September 2019

Short Term Savings: 

 

BOA Keep the Change Savings Account       Previous $1101.00

Monthly Auto Transfer $25

Round Up to the Round Ups  $5                     New Balance $1131.00

Investments: 

M1Finance                                                 Previous Balance: $3459.59

                                                                   Current Balance    $3343.43

There have been no withdrawals, just fluctuations in the market. 

When we started paying down the debt in Sept 2019 we were at $95,853.00

How was your Transfer Tuesday? 

My inspiration for Transfer Tuesday is Pennies Not Perfection

Monday: Furniture Shopping, Another Vaccine, Mammogram

Our favorite couch 

 Sunday Recap.  Yesterday afternoon we went shopping for new living room furniture. 

 
Our first stop was Lazy Boy to check out their recliners and couches.  When we walked in the salesperson that greeted us asked if we had been to this store in the past.  In fact, we were here last year to pick a recliner for me to use after rotator cuff surgery.

We gave the name of the salesperson and he was in the store finishing up a transaction.  Meanwhile, we strolled around the store checking out the couches for me, and recliners for my husband. We were just looking, so there was no hurry to have our salesperson check in on us. 

I think we waited about 30 minutes and during that time we pretty much checked out all the couches and recliners.  The couches were okay but not comfortable.  Most are a standard size and as a shorter person (5'2") they don't fit me appropriately.  When sitting in the majority of these couches, my feet don't touch the ground. 

One of the swatches I liked 

Our salesperson breezed by and checked in with my husband, but I guess he was still busy with his previous client.  We did find a recliner for my husband, but the couch shopping journey will have to continue.  So we decided to go across the street to check out BroyHill. 

We tried out a million couches at Broyhill, and narrowed it down to two.  Then it got complicated. One of the couch were able to be customized with the seating depth, cushion comfort, couch arms, three cushion or two cushions and then the saleslady bought out the color swatches.

It was then I was becoming overwhelmed and broke out in a sweat. It may be hot flash related or stress related. Anyway, I was done and had to leave.  We did not buy a couch and if we did, it would have been extremely expensive.  Glad I walked away. 

Another pattern that we liked. 

I need to regroup and start the shopping process again.  It's not often that I will say I miss my mother, but when I need decorating assistance, I do miss her input for that.  She had style.  

Today is  my annual mammogram day, I already had it done this morning and the results were available online in an a couple of hours.  The results were negative.  Praise the Lord! 

After my mammogram, I passed by CVS to use a 40% off coupon on shampoo body wash for my husband.  While I was there I checked the Minute Clinic for availability for a Shingles vaccine.  Low and behold, they said I could come on back and get the first Shingles vaccine. 

Now I can check that off my list.  I signed up for the second shot in November.  I still need to work on a flu shot and a pneumonia vaccine before the end of the ear.  My primary doc gave me a list, and don't you know I have waited until the last minute.  I have an appt with him next Monday, but I pushed it to next month. Oh well lol. 

I still need to get a couple of eBay listings up.  I keep about 10-15 in drafts and typically send 2-3 live daily.  Not going to lie, I have not really been in the eBay mood lately. I have been in the purging stuff I no longer need mood.  I have cleaned closets and dresser drawers part of the weekend and that always feels good. 

Dinner is crockpot lasagna ravioli I use the frozen ravioli that are currently BOGO at Publix this week.  Super easy and delicious.  I picked up 4 bags this weekend and my have to go back and get a couple more. 

Hope your Monday is fantastic. 

Weekend Grocery Shopping

 I did a little grocery shopping this weekend.  Winn Dixie had a weekend special on Tide Pods 20 ct at
BOGO for $7.99. Let me back up a bit, the ad for Winn Dixie hit our driveway on Wednesday in a newspaper flyer.  

Most of the time the BOGO's are for items I don't really need or use.  But there is that rare occasion that I get excited about BOGO and the Tide BOGO was one of them. 

 I googled  TIDE coupons available from a coupon cutting service and found a set of 10  ($2.00 off 30 ct or lower )for sale for $4.49 free shipping.  Paid for the coupons on Wednesday and they were here on Friday. 

I headed out to Winn Dixie on Saturday and used all 10 of $2.00 coupons and ended up spending $22.75 for 10 bags of twenty pod count bags of Tide. 

After factoring in the cost of the coupons, each bag of the Tide pods cost me $2.72 (tax included). I saved 66% on each bag. 

I am not a diligent couponer, but when I can find items that we will actually use I will make it a point to seek out coupons online or from a coupon service and stock up. I think these Tide pods will last us a couple of years. But for reference, I dated them with the date I bought them and will be able to see how long they will actually last us. 

I also hit up Aldi and Publix today for a few odds and ends.  Nothing earth-shattering with regards to couponing. The usual items, salad fixings, butter, and my husband likes their protein shake powder. 

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

 

 Hello Tuesday!  This is the day that we make an extra effort to pay down our debt and slide into retirement debt-free .  Most every Tuesday we apply extra cash (whether it be BIG or small) to our outstanding debt.  This helps keeps us aware of and accountable for our debt. And it all makes a difference.

Our only debt is a HELOC with an interest rate of 2.24% The minimum monthly payment goes towards the PRINCIPAL and the INTEREST.   I am chipping away at the balance until we sell my deceased mom's house that is currently being used as a rental. At that point, we will pay off the rest of the balance.  Until then, I will be sending in payment to this debt and/or to my taxable investment account every Tuesday. 

My last Transfer Tuesday was July 27,2021

Previous balance on last Transfer Tuesday Post  $ 65,901.95

Money Moves This Week: 

eBay 10% of weekly payout $5 (it was a slooowww week)

Money Move Fail: About a month ago, (in a quest to improve strength and mobility) I signed up for a mandatory 3-month subscription of Pilates for $89 a month. Only AFTER I signed the contract and paid for the first month did I find out my husband's gym membership had Pilates included in the membership plan. Good Grief. 

The mistake was mine. I did not look into ALL the classes that the gym membership offered before I somewhat impulsively signed up for Pilates.  Anyway, moving forward, I will definitely investigate the classes at the gym and compare both.  Who knows, I may discover that in 3 months Pilates is not the thing for me OR the best thing since sliced bread.  For now, I really like it.  

Future Money Moves: There have been some sales on Etsy, Posh and Mercari.  I am going to let that accumulate for a week or two and then disperse it to the HELOC/Investing/Savings.

Payment to the HELOC $5  (10% of weekly eBay earnings)

 

 New HELOC balance is $65,986.95

At the end of every month, I total up my monthly gross eBay earnings and then send 20% to a tax withholding account at CapitalOne. This month I sent $459.77 to that account.  July was a pretty good month with gross earnings of $2298.87 for this  part-time eBay seller. 

The Tax withholding account is currently at $2,913.47

I don't expect we will need all of this at the end of the year, but you never know.  I would rather be safe than sorry. 

Our AGI is affected yearly by a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from an inherited IRA. Due to the coronavirus 2020, I was not required to take a disbursement. The account was allowed to grow without interruption.   That is not the case this year. 

 

Having this account will surely cover any taxes owed to the IRS. 

I recently cashed out a CD that was earning 0.15% ( it was time to renew or cash out) and put that money into my taxable investment account at M1Finance.  

I put half into my Vanguard Total Stock (VTI) and half into my First Pie which is a collection of personal stock picks. This is the balance as of today BEFORE the transfer of $1000.00

Here is where my portfolio sits as of Sunday evening AFTER the deposit went through. 

When we started paying down the debt in Sept 2019 we were at $95,853.00

How was your Transfer Tuesday? 

My inspiration for Transfer Tuesday is Pennies Not Perfection

August Goals 2021 An Attempt to Stay the Course

August just snuck up on us, didn't it?  To better help my scatterbrain ( may be a bit ADHD)  I am going to post a few goals for August.  They are general and not to specific, but detailed enough to keep me on course without jumping ship altogether.

 I straight up " borrowed" this format from The Hawaii Plan.
 

Financial:

• Keep dining out to $100
• Keep grocery shopping under $550
• Pursue profitable printables for an Etsy shop
• Continue to maximize my eBay and other online income revenue sources by listing and sharing 5 days a week. 
• Rebuild short term savings account to $1000 ( we have long term savings in place)

Family:

• Dinner with grandkids, daughter, and son in law 
• Have two date nights with my husband 
• Visit the oldest son and take him a pan of lasagne. 
• Visit middle son and catch up and take him a lemon cake.

Fitness/health:

• Walk at least 3 x 5 times a week. 
• Lose 16 pounds. 
• Strength training at gym 2-3 times a week 
• Pilates once a week

Work:

• Keep looking for part-time employment eBay is my part-time employment.  I will focus on building this income.

Personal/creative:

• Make two new recipes 
• Spend time with friends- meet up for lunch or coffee.  
• Figure out another hobby besides thrifting. 
• Continue to research paternal side of the family
• Get back to reading my bible daily. 

Time to get busy with these goals.  

Checking in on my 2021 Vision Board ( Part One)

 

Back in January, I put together a 2021 vision board.  It is my screensaver on my laptop. I set high goals attempting to balance happiness and success.  By keeping it on my laptop, I am able to look at it every day.  There is a way to make it a screen saver on your phone but I have yet to figure it out. 

I built it using vertical categories in columns, business, personal, financial, travel, and family. The first category is business. On top is eBay with a goal of $31,000 gross sales for the year.  I am on track to meet that goal and surpass it.  Beginning July 1, 2021, I made $17,000 in GROSS sales on eBay alone. 

I also stopped and started and stopped and started a YouTube channel about thrifting.  What I discovered is YouTube is time-consuming and more work than it seems on the surface. Currently, I have 300 subscribers. YouTube success demands consistency. Consistency and time.  YOU must have both to succeed on YouTube.  

I want to open a shop on Etsy filled with downloadable printables. Once you design the printable and upload it to Etsy, the income is basically passive. This has not happened yet. It is a project that I circle back to monthly and am spending time creating cute and interesting printables. 

TikTok. Do you TikTok? While I was recovering from shoulder surgery I had a lot of free time on my hands. TikTok was a welcome diversion from the pain of shoulder surgery.  Before too long the pain was getting better and I decided to start a TikTok for my cat Gary and was able to learn the ins and outs of filming and adding music etc to my videos. As a side note, there is a lot of valuable information on TikTok.  

Then I started a different  Tik Tok channel about thrifting. It is a social media platform that I still enjoy and add to daily. I have made virtual friends and met thrifting friends at estate sales and garage sales.  One TikTok friend and I go to estate sales regularly. I currently have over 5000 followers on TikTok and hope to grow it to at least 10,000 with 30,000 as the BIG goal for now.  ( my TikTok is @happygirlthrift)

In the next vision board post, I will discuss the next column, "Personal".   Have you ever put together a vision board?  This is my first digital vision board.  It took me a bit to figure it out but with the help of YouTube, it was pretty easy.

Here is the LINK to Part Two

TRANSFER TUESDAY JULY 13, 2021

 

                   

                             

Hello Tuesday!  This is the day that we make an extra effort to pay down our debt and slide into retirement debt-free .  Most every Tuesday we apply extra cash (whether it be BIG or small) to our outstanding debt.  This helps keeps us aware of and accountable for our debt. And it all makes a difference.

Our only debt is a HELOC with an interest rate of 2.24% The minimum monthly payment goes towards the PRINCIPAL and the INTEREST.   I am chipping away at the balance until we sell my deceased mom's house that is currently being used as a rental. At that point, we will pay off the rest of the balance.  Until then, I will be sending in payment to this debt and to my taxable investment account every Tuesday. 

My last Transfer Tuesday was  July 6, 2021

Previous balance on last Transfer Tuesday Post   $67,082.46

Money Moves This Week: 

 

eBay 10% of weekly payout $32

Etsy $37.22 

 

Cash Rewards Payouts have all been deposited to our banking account. 

 GetUpSide $72.55

BOA CC Rewards His: $66.78

BOA CC Rewards Hers: $44.20

TOTAL $183.53

Sending $100.00 to my M1 Finance account.  M1 will spread the payment between my first Pie (stocks I selected) and VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF) 

The balance as of this morning is $836.46

I also have a savings account with M1Finance. That side currently has $396.39 in it as of this morning.  This account may be a landing spot for future Required Minimum Distributions (from an inherited IRA) as the interest is currently 1%. The savings account this is currently being used has a rate of 0.01%.

And  I will be sending $152.75 to the HELOC

The NEW balance will be  $66,929.71 I will be sending in at least $0.71 in too.  The cents drive me bananas.  I like it to have no cents showing. 

When we started paying down the debt in Sept 2019 we were at $95,853.00

How was your Transfer Tuesday? 

My inspiration for Transfer Tuesday is Pennies Not Perfection

FICO 805 _BOA

CASHING OUT REWARDS: Credit Cards ~Get Upside~Ibotta

Today I did a few money moves with our rewards cards at BOA. The credit cards we currently have at BOA allow you to select certain categories for Rewards. 

My card I have Online Shopping 3%, Grocery 2% and all other purchases 1%

My husband's card is currently set to Gas 3%, Grocery 2% and all purchases 1%

I redeemed $44.20 from my card and $66.78 from my husband's card. 

We also use GetUpside an app that you can use to get cashback from gas purchases and some food purchases. Today we are redeeming $72.55  We have not used it for food purchases, but we use it for gas purchases.  Typically we will get 4-14 cents back per gallon of gas purchased. 

It's easy to use.  Open the app, find a gas station near you and select it.  You will have to preselect the grade of gas you are going to get. SAVE your receipt and scan it in when done.  Similar to the FETCH app. 

  Each grade will get a different amount in rebates.  The higher the grade, the higher the potential rebate.  If you refer a friend, you will get a penny for each gallon that they use when activating the app.  My son uses the app for his vehicle and his work vehicle.  He earns a substantial amount for one person being able to use two vehicles.  

The last redemption is for Ibotta.  I need to up my Ibotta game!  I was able to cash out $21.20

Total amount redeemed today:  $204.73

Total for the 2021 Redeemed $442.72

TRANSFER TUESDAY JULY 6, 2021

 Hello Tuesday!  This is the day that we make an extra effort to pay down our debt.  Most every Tuesday we apply extra cash (whether it be BIG or small) to our outstanding debt.  This helps keeps us aware of and accountable for our debt. And it all makes a difference.

Our only debt is a HELOC with an interest rate of 2.24% The minimum monthly payment goes towards the PRINCIPAL and the INTEREST.   I am chipping away at the balance until we sell my mom's house that is currently being used as a rental. At that point, we will pay off the rest of the balance.  Until then, I will be sending in payments every Tuesday. 

My last Transfer Tuesday was   June 29, 2021

Previous balance on last Transfer Tuesday Post   $67,951.00

We incurred a monthly service charge of $130.96

The updated balance is $67,145.54

Money Moves This Week: 

Paying 10% of gross sales earned this week from eBay: $31.54

The NEW balance is $67,114.00

A payment of 10% $31.54 was sent to my M1 Finance account.  M1 will spread the payment between my first Pie (stocks I selected) and VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF) 

The balance as of this morning is $800.24

Upcoming MONEY MOVES Payout for ETSY of $38.00

When we started paying down the debt in Sept 2019 we were at $95,853.00

How was your Transfer Tuesday? 

My inspiration for Transfer Tuesday is Pennies Not Perfection

TRANSFER TUESDAY 6/29/2021

                   

                             

Hello Tuesday!  This is the day that we make an extra effort to pay down our debt.  Most every Tuesday we apply extra cash (whether it be BIG or small) to our outstanding debt.  This helps keeps us aware of and accountable for our debt. And it all makes a difference.

Our only debt is a HELOC with an interest rate of 2.24% The minimum monthly payment goes towards the PRINCIPAL and the INTEREST.   I am chipping away at the balance until we sell my mom's house that is currently being used as a rental. At that point we will pay off the rest of the balance.  Until then, I will be sending in payments every Tuesday. 

My last Transfer Tuesday was   June 22, 2021

Previous balance on last Transfer Tuesday Post   $67,951.00

We incurred a monthly service charge of $130.96

The updated balance is $68,061.96

Money Moves This Week: 

Regular Payment of $750.00

Payout for PoshMark of $38.00

Paying 10% of gross June Sales from eBay: $166.42

The NEW balance is $67,107.54

When we started paying down the debt in Sept 2019 we were at $95,853.00

How was your Transfer Tuesday? 

My inspiration for Transfer Tuesday is Pennies Not Perfection

Fraud Friday

 Since our trip out west earlier this month, my BOA credit card has been compromised three times.  Twice in South Dakota and once when we returned home.  I am waiting to receive my THIRD new credit card. 

Not that I mind at all the fraud is detected and quickly handled.  I don't. I greatly appreciate it! It is just so odd that this one credit card is under attack.  

We use credit cards to manage almost all of our daily purchases and bill paying, primarily for points that we can cash out later to either save or pay down more of the HELOC.

I attempted an online purchase last night and that is what triggered the latest fraud event. I am not even sure if the purchase went through or if we will receive the item. I will keep an eye on it. The above image is off the internet.  BOA actually closed my CC and I am not able to use it. 

I check my accounts DAILY using the Personal Capital platform app.  I can see the balances of each account ( savings, investing, and credit cards).  It is the second app I check in the morning after my eBay account.  I love waking up to overnight sales :-)

Have a fabulous Friday and don't forget to check all your accounts for fraud!