Month: July 2026

Big Summer Trip: Part 1

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

We took a 17 day trip, and it went much better than I thought it would. There wasn’t any reason it would go poorly, but we’re managing 3 kids and a really long time away from home, so I was reasonably worried. We usually go to NY to visit my family each summer. It’s an easy time to get there for a solid week and make the 12-14 hour drive worth it. This year, I decided I was finally up for the adventure of visiting Mr. ODA’s friend in Delaware too, so we locked it in.

TRAVEL TO NEW YORK

My niece was getting baptized and turning 1. My sister had planned a few options for her baptism, but there were some snafus, and it ended up working out that she could plan both events on one day. It just so happened that these events fell the week before a family wedding in NY as well, so it solidified our travel plans without much effort. The only problem was that the two older kids were in camp until 5 every day the week before. So we needed to get from Central KY at 5 pm on Friday to Long Island by 12 pm on Saturday. No traffic, no incidents creating longer stops out of the car, etc. and it’ll take 12 hours to get there. And that it did.

We picked the kids up at about 4:45 pm. We drove a few hours until it was time for dinner. We made a quick stop for food and then drove until 9:30 when we stopped for gas and got the kids situated for sleeping in the car. I was worried it wouldn’t go well because there’s a history of kids crying because they can’t move freely once falling asleep, but they made it the whole night. I was very happy and impressed. Mr. ODA drove from then until just after 2:30 am. I probably got an hour of sleep that whole stretch. Then I took over and we pulled into my dad’s house at 4:45 am. I was worried about getting there before the sun came up so that the kids wouldn’t think it’s day time and would go back to sleep, and we were cutting it close. I put the two big kids in a room with it fully blacked out and then I slept with the youngest in a twin bed to make sure he understood the assignment. He struggled, and we had light peeking in at 6:15, but we got back to sleep until 9:20.

NEW YORK ADVENTURES

Baptism and first birthday party took the whole first day, and the kids actually did pretty well considering the lack of sleep. Then we spent the rest of the week either in my dad’s pool or at a beach, except for the one night we went to a wedding. We traveled to Fire Island for a day to visit family friends. My dad has ferry tickets from his days working on the island, so that didn’t cost us anything, and we just paid for parking. The family that is there vacationing offered us lunch, so there weren’t any costs for being there.

While in NY, our costs are usually minimal because we stay at my dad’s, and the goal is to just be around family, so there aren’t huge expenditures. Our total spent in NY was $400. Just under $100 was gas, and $25 went towards EZ Pass (who knew that starting our EZ Pass journey in NY when we lived in Albany would pay off for so long because now we have a NY-issued pass that gets us discounts for traveling over NYC bridges).

Our biggest expense was the night that Mr. ODA and I went out for dinner in a waterfront town. We had dinner and drinks and spent a whopping $135. It’s super out of character for us, but, on that note, it’s also nice to spend time just the two of us, which is rare. My dad and his girlfriend took the kids for the night. They had the time of their life! I was really nervous, but it was totally worth it for them, even if they didn’t get home until nearly 10 pm! I love that they have those memories.

We didn’t make it to NYC. We had planned to be in NY for a couple more days than we ended up doing. We also didn’t plan to have so many activities while we were there. Being that the first two days were significantly busier than I anticipated after a night of overnight travel, I wanted that Monday to be more relaxing on the kids and not so stimulating. Then we planned to go to Fire Island on Thursday, and I was worried about dragging them through NYC and all that walking instead of resting. As Mr. ODA started mapping out a plan, it seemed the costs were going to be higher than he thought. So between the cost and the anticipated kid behavior, we didn’t end up making it there.

TRAVEL TO NEW JERSEY

For the second phase of the trip, we spent two days in NJ and then moved on to Delaware. We had originally planned to be in NY until we went to Delaware on that Wednesday, but Mr. ODA thought we could use the opportunity to explore some areas we typically wouldn’t. Usually we’re just trying to get home, which takes a whole day, so we don’t make stops near NY. It was definitely worth it, but that’s a story for the next post.

SUMMARY

The whole trip only cost us $1350, which included two hotel stays. We were entertained the whole time and the kids had fun. All the time in the pool ended up giving the kids some new skills. The littlest one started swimming independently. The two bigger ones grew so comfortable that they started working on dives and flips into the pool. They also were diving for things at the bottom of the pool, which was fun to watch, and not something they felt comfortable doing in the past. It may be time for us to invest in our own pool. 😉

July Financial Update

mrsonedollarallowanceLeave a comment

We’ve been on a 2+ week trip, so I didn’t get around to this update. The financials are mostly updated, but I didn’t seek out a lot of details in the investment side to change those. The investments are down from the last update. We had quite a few “big ticket” items purchased for rentals over the last month, and we traveled, which added to our spending.

RENTALS

We’ve having more and more late payments with rent. We had one house have several issues and she texted nearly everyday. We have another house that didn’t pay June rent until July 5th, and when asked if she had a day she’ll pay, she said, “yes.” That’s like someone asking if they know the time and you respond yes. Is that the intent? Can you extrapolate the need for information? When Mr. ODA pushed, she said “well I just paid rent with my pay check, so this pay check had to go to other bills.” Having a roof over your head should be a priority. Another house paid $1150 out of $1400, but then didn’t pay the final bit so I did enforce the late fee on her, but I cut it in half. Another house pays twice per month because of their history of not paying for a long time, and so then they’ve now paid two late fees this month since each payment was late. At least I have them talking and letting me know when to expect rent.

One house wanted the side yard cleaned up. It’s always had trees in it, but the house next door sold and put up a fence. So it was more clear what was their property and they wanted space for the kids. I said I’d contact someone, but it was nearly impossible to get someone out for the job. He finally looked into doing it himself and I agreed they could pay half rent for that effort.

Another house had the stove go out and the toilet needed a new piece. The stove arrived dented, so we had to get it re-delivered. Another house had the HVAC go out, so that was a service call.

Another house had a compressor failure in their HVAC. We plan to sell this house, so we went for half the cost for the fix, but that was still $3,500.

I paid two home insurance bills. These houses aren’t escrowed, so they fall on me to manage, which is actually my preference.

PERSONAL

We registered for fall sports, which isn’t a small penny of a process. Our oldest is going to try out soccer. We’ve had 2 failed attempted when he was really little, but he’s been playing at recess for 2 years and seems to have grown a [slightly] thicker skin. Mr. ODA and I have played against him in the yard a bit, and we’re impressed by his ability to block the opposition, so maybe it’ll actually work out. Side note – he’s a really strong swimmer and treader of water. Someone last week said he could do water polo and a lightbulb went off. He probably would really enjoy that! Well, we live in the middle of the country and that’s not a thing (although I don’t get why because it requires a pool and not an ocean).

Our final payment for the cruise in October was due mid-July. As long as you don’t make final payment, they’ll adjust the price. We had a huge adjustment back in the black Friday sale timeframe, but I was holding out for even a little more. So I made the payment at the last possible moment, but that was a huge chunk added to the credit card.

School is just around the corner. Luckily we have family who buys clothes for our kids year round, so there isn’t a major “back to school” clothing shopping experience in our home. I need to buy a few supplies, but that needs to wait until next week when I can inventory what I purchased last year. I bought in bulk last year for two reasons: 1) if the teachers needed more supplies during the school year, I could just throw them in a backpack; and 2) supplies don’t expire, so I’d be ahead of the game for this year. It just requires me to know what’s there and what is still needed. Open house is the first week of August, so that’s my deadline. We do have everyone’s backpacks and lunch boxes ready at least.

NET WORTH

The market went down this past month, which is where the difference is in our net worth. We also increased our credit card balances a bit with the rental work needed. So the net is slightly lower than last month, but much higher than where we were a year ago. That’s the perspective I keep because the month-to-month fluctuation doesn’t matter that much.

“Rich”

onedollarallowanceLeave a comment

There’s a lot of chatter online these days about a “90s summer.” I’ve also been fed some reels about what “rich” looks like, and it’s not about money or flashing the perception of money. Mr. ODA and I are working very few hours these days. My job is because I’m a “helper” in life, and I know this group needs my help for a bit longer (I also tried to quit and they said no). Mr. ODA’s job is to qualify for health insurance so we save about $1500 per month in direct expenses for health insurance.

When I first started working, my goal was to climb the ladder. I wanted to be the youngest CFO in my Federal agency. Then a 34 year old woman got the job and crushed my dreams a bit, but I was still a good amount younger than her, so I just needed her to move on in the next few years. Then I went to DC. I left the house between 5:30 am and 6 am, and I got home between 4:30 and 5:30. I kept looking around thinking, “when would I see my kids if I had them?” In fact, we were denied adopting a dog because we both had full time jobs. That still fascinates me. During my fight to climb the ladder in DC, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to live a few miles from work where I could have more free time. I wanted to own a little piece of the pie, so to speak (my job in DC was very high level, but I loved working with the State level where I could actually see the road and bridge projects I approved in progress). But even as I made that transition, it didn’t feel right. I wanted to be home with the kid I was about to spend $30k to have. I didn’t want to put all that money into making a baby for him to sit in daycare for a whole work day and commute time (I get it – it works for people, but not for me).

FIRE. Financial independence, retire early.

While our path didn’t go as we expected as we learned more, and we both worked longer than we intended, the goal was always the same – be home with our family while they’re little. And that’s what we have. Even when I took this new job, I said my kids come first. I didn’t sacrifice in all those ways before kids, give myself freedom, and then take on a full time job. Most people struggle to understand that. Even the agents who I’m paying $600k each year can’t understand when they hear I don’t “need” to work.

So that’s my rich. I’m at the kids’ school all the time. I’m at nearly every drop off and pick up. Heck, I discharged from the hospital AMA so that I could get to a baseball game in May. I will be there. I will be cheering them on. I will lay in bed at bed time, read them books, and then ask them about their day while they tell me the most obscure things…but it’s because they just want to fill that time where they get to talk to me without a sibling interrupting.

I’m not driving a fancy car. I’m not living in a 7000 sf house just because I can. We’re not going out for drinks and sitting at restaurants multiple times per week. We’re not going to the movies every month (umm, actually, or ever, unless it’s the $2 summer flicks series). I’m making my money work for me, so that I can focus on pouring into my kids and enjoying the time of their lives that they actually want to be around me all the time.

Disclaimer: I am not personally making my money do anything. That’s all Mr. ODA. I’m just the bookkeeper, collecting rent and tracking what’s happening and trusting he has the answers on how to move the money around.

Fall Creek Falls

onedollarallowanceLeave a comment

We took a trip in June to Fall Creek Falls in TN. We had looked into it a couple of years ago, but it was hard to find things to do and places to stay. This year, less people were planning to go, we have a big trip as a family planned later this year, and so we went for it. It was a nice relaxing trip.

The grandparents graciously pay for the lodging when we do family trips. We had a nice big cabin for 12 of us. We purchased food to eat at the cabin, which was really the only option because there was hardly anything for 25 miles. The first day, we went hiking and swimming in waterfalls around the park. It was supposed to rain all day, but we made it out only getting rained on towards the end of the last hike for a little bit. The next day, we hung out for the morning, went to rent some canoes ($10 for one hour), found a swimming hole, and then some of us went hiking a bit more.

I usually do trip summaries when we get back so we remember what we did and share how much we spent. In this case, we spent about $40 on gas, about $20 on meals during our travel, and about $50 on groceries. With that, it’s hard to accurately portray what we spent because it’s not the full picture since we didn’t pay for lodging. But I’m making it down that we went on a trip for 3 nights that was nice and relaxing!