Frugal chicos journal - ERE in The Basque Country

[Frugalchicos]

ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Got a good saving rate and a nice increase over last month.
- I sold 2 laptops for profit making $170. I am getting better and finding cheaper laptops that I can make $80 each. I have two more that are going to be put on sale this week. I am also looking at fixing iphones and sale them on Ebay for profit.
- Got to meet new people this month. It feels good to make new friends

GOALS:
- Now that all our trips for the year are done, we can say our goal for miscellanious is to keep it at $500/month.
- Chica wants to do a super frugal month (what it is left because we just came back from Vegas). Our goal is $0 budget for entertainment for the rest of the month. We will use what we have: house, game nights, pot lucks with friends, etc...
- We have 4 months to save $32,143, $8,036/month.
- Chica is going to finsh all her TEFL certs.
- We are considering in becoming "flexible vegetarians", I will eat meat once in a while, but mostly following a plant based diet.

On another note, we have been talking a lot about selling our condo. However, we crushed the numbers and we pay for "rent" $1,206 after subtracting the principal payment and including all utilities. It might get to be $1,385 for a few months once the escrow gets adjusted (property taxes just went up in wonderful Chicago). We believe it is still a decent deal for a 2 bedroom, with utilities included and a parking spot. Especially when we lived almost for free for 2 years when we had roommates and did Airbnb. We think we will stay where we are while we live in Chicago.

Some pics from our last trip to Las Vegas/Grand Canyon

[Frugalchicos]

Alright, time for a journal entry:

This month was a little bit of an emotional roller coaster. The month started pretty good with our trrip to Las Vegas, declined in the middle with strong feelings of saying "fuck it, I am getting out of here:, and ended just fine. We had some hard conversations about our future and the timeline we’ve set for ourselves. It’s clear to both of us that Spring 2020 feels a little far away. There is no sense in staying here if either one of us is miserable. We are both flexible with the time frame, even if it means leaving with less money than we hoped for. The current plan is move after Chica’s maternity leave – the only trick is that she isn’t pregnant yet. But we are working on it. Hopefully, it happens soon so we can sell the house before winter 2019 comes.

The market this month also sucked and affected our numbers with the lowest increase in NW ever. However, we keep our SR at almost 64%

SEPTEMBER INCOME – $9,760.29
Chico’s Salary – $4,315.14
Chica’s Salary – $5,225.15
eBay Sales – $130
Chica’s Dance Teacher Salary — $90.04

SEPTEMBER EXPENSES – $4,705.71 ($3,544.71 if subtracting principal payment)
Mortgage: $2,152.86 (note: $1,161.83 went to principal, counting that as a savings)
HOA: $247.83
Car Insurance: $62.17
Gas (Car): $121.64
Groceries: $545.51
Cellphones: $21.74 (note: Chica’s work pays her cellphone bill, this is just Chico’s phone plan with Lycamobile)
Internet: $56.94
Gas (House): $47.95
Electricity: $27.45
Chica’s Gym: $39.99
Chico’s Gym: $29.99
Misc./Entertainment: $1,351 (includes $525 for Chico’s trip to the Basque Country in February and our trip to Vegas)

We saved 63.68% of our take home salary. This doesn’t include any 401K contributions or retirement plans.

CURRENT ASSETS: $321,357.57 ($3,501.29 increase over last month — The lowest ever.)
Cash savings: $3,000
Investments: $147,091.37
Chico’s Retirement: $10,464.20
Chica’s 401K: $52,725
Home Equity: $108,077 (not counting appreciation)

[Frugalchicos]

Achievements:
- I didn't get totally crazy
- Our miscellanious was actually pretty good for the most part of the month (If we subtract $400 for our trip to Vegas and the $500 I spent in a ticket to Spain in February).
- Chica finished her TEFL cert
- Chica started teaching dancing classes on Saturday mornings.
- I sold two laptops and some crap on Ebay, made $130

Goals for October:
- Just keep it cool. My mom is coming to visit for Thanksgiving and I am going back to Spain in early February. This gives me some life to keep going strong.
- Keep miscellanious at $700
- Lower our groceries bill back to $300

I have to mention my friend Bryan gave us a beautiful book his sister wrote. She lives in the Basque Country and made this amazing recipe book with gorgeous pictures and very well documented. I am planning in cooking some stuff this weekend and take some pics of the book and food! Thanks buddy!!

[prognastat]

Good luck on the baby makin' business. Given that it hasn't happened yet you'll be staying there for at least 9+ months still which will put you in the middle of Summer 2019, plus the maternity leave I'd assume would last some time past the birth so fall 2019 maybe?

[Frugalchicos]

@Prognastat.

Thanks!

Basically, it would be 12 months since the moment she gets pregnant (9 months + 3 paid months of maternity leave). So yes, fall 2019 sounds about right. Unless it takes longer and then we would have to wait until the original date, spring 2020.

[prognastat]

Sounds like either way you'll be pretty close to your planned date regardless. Definitely want to take advantage of that maternity leave when you can, will you be eligible for any yourself? Well rather paternity leave that is.

[Frugalchicos]

@prognastat

That's what we are hoping for. Based on our calculations and if the market doesn't collapse, we will be close to $425-$450K.

Unfortunately, I don't have any short of paternity leave... But I will take a nice one once I say good bye!!

[Jason]

Good job on staying focused and making progress.

[Frugalchicos]

@Jason

Thanks buddy!

[Frugalchicos]

I did some cooking this weekend. I followed a recipe from the book Bryan gave us. Porrusalda, perfect plate for a rainy weekend!. I wish I could have being able to take better pics, but it was so dark outside!!

I leave the recipe if anybody feels like having something different, but warm and healthy!

On another note, I am trying to make a starter for homemade bread baking. I want to expertise it during this winter.

[Seppia]

Great pic of Grand Canyon, makes me think of the western USA that both DW and I miss so much

Potato and leek soup: it's great, I think I shared a similar recipe in the recipes thread. It's a very underrated combination

[Frugalchicos]

@Seppia

My family always added pumpkin and cod to the potato and leek soup. I totally recommend it!

[Frugalchicos]

Alright, house will be in the market on February. They are taking pictures next week (before Chicago turns into Mordor).

Plan is to move to a studio in our area ($850-$1,000/month) and live there until we move. This will give us a lot of flexibility to move whenever we want to and will avoid the headache of selling the house and every piece of furniture with a baby. Hopefully, we can just break even and recover the money we put into the principal. We will invest the $100K - $115K gradually depending on the market.

Once we sell the house, we will just keep a bed, a dresser, a lamp and the necessary for the kitchen.

Lately, we have been minimizing our belongings a lot. Chica has done a great job selling a ton of clothes, bags, sunglasses, etc on eBay. We sold a wii we never used (sold 4 minutes after posting it), and have other stuff on sale on Craigslist. I only own 70 pieces of clothing, I could probably own less if we wouldn't need puffy coats and big sweaters for Chicago weather.

[Bankai]

Hopefully, we can just break even and recover the money we put into the principal.

You probably also saved quite a chunk by not having to pay rent? Or is it included?

[bryan]

Have you ever made salted cod yourself? Just saw a video for it and doesn't look very hard! I'll have to give it a try. Glad you are enjoying the book

[Frugalchicos]

@Bankai
Not really, owning a home in Chicago comes with big taxes, HOA, etc...However, we did live almost for free (if we count the principal payment as savings) during the 2 years we did airbnb and had roommates. Buying a home was the ignitor of all this crazy ERE thing. Once we saw the first mortgage payments and played house for a while, we realized we were not happier and it wasn’t the life we wanted to have. Overall, owning a house has been an expensive learning experience.

@Bryan
Nop! Never tried it because that is pretty much the only kind of cod you can buy in my hometown. To get rid of the salt you have to soak it in fresh water for 24 hours and change the water 3 times or every 8 hours. Salting the cod or any kind of meat is a great conservation method. And yes, the book is amazing! Thanks!!

[Jason]

I know I have said it before. But not since "In Cold Blood" have I read such an compelling documentation of a partnership's plan actually leading to such deliberate execution.

[Frugalchicos]

@Jason

Thanks Jason, but I hve been reading about the guys from Cold Blood and they were a big mess!!

I think Chica and I are much more meticulous with our plan.

[Jason]

I was focusing more on the execution part than the planning part.

I have to say, you two are pulling no punches. Good for you.

[Frugalchicos]

This month has been the month of decluttering. We’ve cleaned every closet and shelf around the house, keeping only the essentials and selling or donating what we don’t need. And it’s paying off! Drawers are staying organized and we made about $750 on things we haven’t used in years (or never). We are in the process of downsizing because we plan to sell our condo in February and move into a studio before eventually moving to Spain and we don’t want to have to move crap we don’t use. It feels great

Now onto the numbers…

OCTOBER INCOME – $12,757.05
Chico’s Salary – $6,490.71 (I got paid 3 times this month! )
Chica’s Salary – $5,225.16
eBay/Craigslist Sales – $747
Chica’s Dance Teacher Salary — $272.68
SpotHero — $22.21

OCTOBER EXPENSES – $3,762.23 ($2,600.40 if subtracting principal payment)
Mortgage: $2,152.86 (note: $1,161.83 went to principal, counting that as a savings)
HOA: $247.83 - Cannot wait to get rid of these last two expenses when we sell the condo...
Car Insurance: $62.17
Gas (Car): $182.04
Groceries: $315.00
Cellphones: $21.74 (note: Chica’s work pays her cellphone bill, this is just Chico’s phone plan with Lycamobile)
Internet: $56.94
Gas (House): $53.95
Electricity: $37.15
Chica’s Gym: $39.99
Chico’s Gym: $29.99
Misc./Entertainment: $562.57 (WOOO! We finally hit our misc. goal! This includes some new clothes (we both bought two pair of jeans that finally fit us and I bought a classic denim sherpa jacket that I always wanted) , a couple of dinners together and with friends (mostly gatherings at home), and changed the oil and filter for the car.)

We saved 79.62% of our take home salary. This doesn’t include any 401K contributions or retirement plans.

CURRENT ASSETS: $321,371.09 ($733 increase over last month — and we thought last month was bad! Better than negative, I guess.)
Cash savings: $10,116.76 - increasing cash position.
Investments: $141,035.62
Chico’s Retirement: $11,082.91
Chica’s 401K: $49,897.80
Home Equity: $109,238 (not counting appreciation)

So this month wasn’t great from a net worth growth perspective BUT we slayed our expenses and made quite a bit of money – with our highest savings rate ever! Unfortunately the market took a pretty serious downturn so we are not seeing the benefits of our hard work just yet.

This month, we have some family visitors that we are looking forward to and we are getting into the holiday spirit. The plan is to focus of fitness and time with family and finish out the year strong.