We Are Close to Locking Down Spending

Well, our lake house is nearly complete. I hope to get a final inspection in the next few weeks. This is exciting for a number of reasons. 1) We will finally get to use the place. We’ve been working on it for so long, it almost seems weird to actually sleep there. 2) We can finally stop spending so much money on the place. I’m really looking forward to not having $3000 and $4000 Visa bills at the end of the month. Since we refuse to carry a balance on the cards, it’s quite a “sting” to pay the balance every month. Luckily we are fortunate enough to be able to pay it off each month. Once those big bills are a thing of the past, we can finally start aggressively saving like we were before. We pulled back on our saving a bit when we started this project (although we still made sure to fund our 401k and 529 plans).

Another expensive milestone is also behind us. Christmas is always a hit to the wallet around here, although we are mild in comparison to most people. We spent a total of about $600 this year. That’s actually a fair amount for us. (That doesn’t include items for the lake house etc..) It’s just good to have a few months of low key spending ahead of us. I’m a big fan of this time of year. You can start to see Spring around the corner and it’s also the time of year for annual bonuses, raises and tax returns. While we may not get much back in taxes, we definitely should see a bonus and I know I’m getting a raise. All in all, we should see our financial picture change a bit by April.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in. I know the posting has been a little light for awhile. I fully expect to post more often once we get a few more things done on the lake house.