Professionally September has been a great month for me. It was my first full month in my new job and we accomplished a lot as a team. I’m loving being remote again, learning our product and very grateful to be a part of a healthy organization.
Outside of work, September has been something of a disaster, at least for my wallet.
It started when our clothes washer/dryer (we have a single, ventless, machine) died. We were able to order a replacement but it was an unexpected $1,500 bill and still hasn’t been installed (it should be coming next month). While we have a building laundry facility downstairs we’ve been so busy that we haven’t been able to use it. For better or worse we’ve been done every single weekend this month.
Next was our car. We had a 2014 Fiat that had, honestly, been the most reliable car we’ve ever owned and had been paid off since we bought it new. It developed a creaking sound and I figured it needed new shocks and probably tie rod work as the steering had started feeling a bit loose.
What I didn’t bank on was the cost. We took it in and, yes, it needed all that and some more. The bill was $2,500. We agreed to it before I looked up the car’s value and I panicked a bit when we did. According to all the used car sites it was only worth about $1,000. I figured this would just be an excuse for us to keep it another year.
After almost a week in the repair shop they called us to tell us they could no longer easily get some of the parts and it would be about $5,000 for all the work. Of course we said “no.” The catch was they had already done about $800 and the important work, the tie rods, couldn’t be done. It was time to trade it in.
We dropped off the car on the 13th and picked it up, and paid the $800 bill, this past Saturday, the 27th. We immediately cleaned it out and went to a Kia dealer. It was time to trade it in. We walked out of the Kia dealer minus the Fiat and a down payment and with a 2025 Kia Niro.
Honestly, I like the car but I’m not crazy about the bill. Joy is not happy with the car as it isn’t a stick shift, a first for us. We leased it for 3 years in hopes that our building moves on the electric chargers they’ve been talking about. It isn’t my first lease and, considering how little we drive (about 4,000 miles per year) the math works out for us on it to do so. For me it means a working stereo, modern navigation (CarPlay), much better gas mileage (it gets over 50 mpg) and an easier ride in traffic. For Joy it means change but I think she’ll like it in the end.
During that time was our anniversary on the 15th. We planned to spend it going out but that was foiled. Joy’s sister needed us to watch their dog Wally so they could go to Disney. As she’s been pretty-much unemployed for over a year she couldn’t afford a border so we agreed to watch him. We took all 200lbs of him (he’s a St Bernard) home after dropping the car off on the 13th and all seemed OK for a minute.
Our cat wasn’t happy with him here, but our cat is not a fan of any animal. The real problem came, though, when we tried to walk him outside. He went crazy when he saw any other dog. Joy insisted it was a friendly play bark, but it wasn’t and it legitimately terrified anyone who saw him.
Obviously we couldn’t keep him for the week so Joy took him home on Sunday, 14 September, and we essentially had to skip our anniversary. We were both pretty frustrated.
Beyond all the spending so far we also had a few other things to buy. First was new phones and watches, something we had planned, though it was still expensive. I also needed some new clothes now that I work from home again. Most of my t-shirts from before are almost rags at this point so it was time for some new ones as well as a few other essentials.
Finally was our cell plan. Our previous provider had hit about $225/month on their “lifetime” plan that started at $120 for us 4 years ago. We had added watches and an iPad, but it didn’t justify that. Now that we’re working from home again we just didn’t see a reason for all of that so I jumped to US Mobile yesterday. That was $658 for a year with 2 phones and 2 watches (though they don’t support our new 5G Apple Watches yet). In the end it was save us about $2,000/year which is great but I’m not used to paying this all upfront and our wallet took yet another hit.
In the end, during my first month after taking [a very worth it] pay cut we spent almost $17,000 for the month, over 4x our normal monthly expenses. I’m grateful it won’t break us but it sure hurt and, honestly, I’m sick of all the events that caused it.
This weekend we’re still going to be busy as we can’t leave our car here where they finish taking the scaffolding above our parking space down. Then, I hope, we can relax for a while and be done with all the craziness.