the august 2024 list
stasher bags, a yeast infection, and nearing $150k in net worth
This month’s favorites: close-up asmr videos of dogs munching on fruit, coffee tumblers that don’t actually leak, intense pickleball rallies, “short n’ sweet” by sabrina carpenter, baby carrots dipped in primal kitchen’s vegan queso dip.
The Wheel Of Life is a self-assessment tool that breaks down different areas of your life and meausres the strength of each, on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best).
My average score for this month was a 5.5—let’s get into it.
Physical (1) — I had a nasty fall during pickleball mid-month and had a yeast infection during the last week of August. Suffice to say, my physical domain isn’t doing so well. I set a goal for myself this month to complete my Apple Watch “Move” ring at least 12 times, but I only did it for 10 of the days. Womp womp. However, a silver lining is that I’ve been eating oatmeal for breakfast every morning. This is a weird but big personal win for me because I actually used to religiously eat oatmeal throughout high school (big driver of this was my eating disorder and wanting to eat healthy), but now that I have a much healthier relationship with food, finding love for oats again is oddly surreal.
Emotional (8) — I felt more in control of my life this month. I found a good routine for myself, involving coffee in the morning, the motivation to actually cook something after I come home from work, and lots of indulgent reading.
Relationship (10) — This and “Emotional” affect each other symbiotically. Mr. Beans and I have been doing really well in our relationship, and we went on our first trip of the year for Labor Day weekend. We’ve also been spending a lot of quality time together, either being in each other’s presence and reading (him reading his textbooks, me reading my romance book), catching up on our workdays while pickleball rallying in our living room, or watching The Flash together (the CW show with 9 seasons).
Friendship (2) — Even though I went out of my way to join a Bumble BFF Book Club meeting, I had to let go of another a friendship. In fact, this is the second friendship I’ve departed with this year. I did see Bumble Beans early this month which was nice, but since I haven’t gone home in a while, we haven’t had the chance to do our full day hangs.
Professional (6) — Not that anything particularly bad happened, but work has been work-ing? Two papers are currently under review, and I’m working on writing up two more. It’s been really slow right now.
Finances (6) — I exercised a lot of self control this month since July was a rougher month for finances. I didn’t have to pull too heavily from my cushion, and stayed within many of my budget categories!
A detailed overview of my income sources, mandatory expenses, non-essential expenses, and savings/investments. I use YNAB, a budgeting tool that allows me to budget with the money I already have, instead of what I plan to make. This section does not contain any financial advice; please do research on your own prior to making any investment-related decisions.
Net Worth: $146,172.16 | +$1,260.71 (0.9%)
Income: +$4,012.07
Substack ($23.69). If you are a paid subscriber, you have my entire heart.
Ebay: ($40.88). Sold a Magsafe charger that I actually gifted to Mr. Beans a few years ago. He told me he didn’t want to use it anymore, and I gladly relisted it. Let’s normalize reselling gifts once we aren’t able to use it anymore (and not getting offended by it if you are the gift giver).
FB Marketplace ($45.00). Sold my tree bookshelf and a WiFi extender.
Interest: ($102.91). Wealthfront is the GOAT. Feel free to use my link for an additional 0.5% to the current APY!
9-5 Paycheck ($3,799.59). My gross yearly salary is $76,814, and I work in academia as a staff researcher.
Perishable Expenses: -$1,866.78
“Perishable” expenses significantly impact my ability to comfortably live my life. So yes, I will “perish” (and yes, I get that this is an overstatement but I am a dramatic woman) without budgeting for these expenses. These are ordered from first to last by importance.
Rent ($1,430.91). I split rent with Mr. Beans each month. He pays $2,300, and I pay the remaining balance. He generously covers utilities, including electricity, water, trash, trash valet, parking, and any pesky fees that get added to our bill.
Health: ($15.95). Got bandaids for my pickleball scratches (Band-Aid Skin Flex is a lifesaver) and my anti-depressants refill. I was actually considering getting my meds from the more sustainable healthcare option, Cabinet, but it’s $10 more expensive. Not so bad in the long run, so I might switch over on my upcoming refill.
Groceries ($159.92). Standout purchases were my Monin french vanilla syrup ($23) and mango kombucha ($15). Everything else was standard, from H-Mart or Sprouts.
Gas ($50.00). I hate filling up gas. Period.
Therapy ($210). I recently found out that my insurance is able to reimburse me for a portion of this cost! Ah, perks of hitting my deductible. I will be getting back $86.17 per session.
Privileged Expenses: -$338.06
These are items that, with my privilege, I am gratefully able to afford them. They impact my life positively, but not to the point where I would “perish” if I didn’t have them. These are ordered from first to last by importance.
Spotify ($16.99). I’m the main subscriber on a family plan with a group of friends.
Maintenance ($189.15). I actually purchased a number of items this month: 1) 2 Simple Modern coffee tumblers because every tumbler I owned leaked; 2) W&P freezer cubes and little dressing containers; 3) Wild lip balm that I ended up getting refunded because it dried out my lips, but they let me keep the product; 4) two Stasher bags, and 5) Dirty Labs laundry detergent.
Sunsama ($20.00). Surprised at how great this app is for to-do lists.
Dates ($32.47). Mr. Beans covered a few Doordash deliveries (big fail for the sustainability side of things since DeliverZero isn’t offered in my area… yet!), while I covered Cava for us and coffee for myself (we went to a shop together but Mr. Beans didn’t want anything, so I technically considered this purchase as part of dates).
Social ($79.45). A chunk of this expense went to Din Tai Fung (it was a “double” date where I first met Mr. Beans’ friend and fiancé, and I covered my and Mr. Beans’ meal). I also spent around $23 in total when I hung out with two of my AmeriCorps friends. Coffee during the Bumble BFF Book Club meetup was $7.82, which pains me more than anything else. What’s worse was, they didn’t even accept my reusable cup and the latte itself was not good.
Sinking Funds: -$272.25
Sinking funds are pots of money set aside for certain purposes. I will not be showing the amount of money I allocate to these funds, because it would be a headache to report. Instead, I will only show sinking funds that I’ve spent money in.
Emergency ($272.25). This was part of my ear infection bill. Are you guys sick of me bringing this up? Because I am. I want this done with, but I think I have one last bill to pay for next month. RIP.
Rich Life: -$130.00
Rich life expenses are nice to have, but by no means necessary.
Travel ($130.00). Needed to renew my passport. Delightfully, the online service at normal processing speed took around 2 weeks! I was so close to expediting it, but it would’ve cost me an additional $50-$60.
Retirement: +$1,857.39
Contributions to my Roth IRA and Emergency Fund are taken from my net monthly pay. I only display my net, not gross income, so the amount in Pre-Tax Investments do not make up any part of the Income amount.
403B ($250). I changed my retirement allocations since I wanted to bulk up my travel sinking fund (for obvious reasons… Taiwan here I come!).
401K ($1,136.32). My employer contributed $472.70 (8% match) while I contributed $663.62.
Roth IRA ($471.07). Alas, I have maxed out my Roth IRA for the year. I feel relieved that this happened before the end of this year, because it allows me to either 1) reallocate more money to my work retirement accounts, or 2) allocate more to my sinking funds.
Relevant Links: Low (Intentional) Buy Rules and a Quarter 1 Update.
I forgot to set my intentions for this month, but luckily, I didn’t go overboard with my non-essentials. If anything, I didn’t categorize any of my purchases this month as non-essential.
However, I get it if you think some of the items listed above are pretty non-essential like. Here’s why some of them aren’t deemed as such:
Simple Modern Voyager Tumblers - These were on my wishlist for a hot minute. And not just these tumblers specifically; I’ve had Stojo, Hydroflask, and Miir on my wishlist at least one point in time this year. The reason being, all of the tumblers or takeaway cups I owned at home leaked. I dealt with it for around 2 years because I never took going to the coffee shop with my reusable mug seriously, nor did I ever bring my actual coffee to work. Now that both are integrated into my lifestyle, the want for a leakproof tumbler transitioned into a need. Suffice to say, I’ve done my fair share of research for the past few months; I’ve owned Simple Modern items before and can attest to its quality and leakproof quality. I also own a Hydroflask and have experience using Miir, but both had bad reviews in regards to leakproof. I huge plus with the Simple Modern one is that the lid is see through, so I’m actually able to see how much I have left in the cup. It’s also insulated, so I don’t have to be that annoying person at the coffee shop who asks for 4 ice cubes (I wish I were joking but I actually do this and even I annoy the hell out of myself).
Stasher Bags - I’ve been finding myself struggling to figure out what container to use to get my bulk plantain chip or roasted nuts — the Stasher bags I got are actually the perfect size for both. I hate bringing glass jars when bulk shopping because there’s always risk of breaking it; more obviously, they’re heavy! Stasher is such a solid company and their products are high quality, so I’m happy this purchase was made. I’m even eyeing the snack and pocket bag…
W&P Freezer Cubes and Dressing Containers - I’ve been using my Ziploc freezer bags to store frozen fruit for smoothies; however, I’ve found myself only owning 2-3 bags, and some are showing some wear. I wanted the Stasher mega bag to replace these Ziplocs, but it was smaller than I thought. The large freezer cubes seem to have more capacity, and this will allow me to purchase fresh fruit to freeze, instead of purchasing already frozen fruit packaged in plastic bags. As for the dressing cups, I don’t own any and have found that going to certain restaurants, if I order a dish with a dipping sauce, I have to ask for a plastic dipping cup.
This section contains things I’d like to start incorporating into my routine, things I need to stop doing because they are detrimental to my health or wellness in some sort of way, and things I’d like to keep up with throughout the next month.
START playing pickleball on actual courts, and with people! To clarify, my pickleball accident did happen on a court, but ever since then, I haven’t gone back. Mr. Beans and I have been soft-rallying in our living room (we live in an apartment)—it’s obviously not ideal, but we’re surprisingly able to work up a good sweat after we play. I’ve never played pickleball doubles, and have been watching YouTube videos to learn the rules of the game. It’s similar to tennis, but the scoring is funky for my tennis-raised brain.
STOP buying maintenance category items. I tend to go overboard when it comes to maintenance—this involves anything from home cleaning agents to laundry racks. I love buying these items, but now that my upcoming trip to Taiwan is in the books, I need to diligently save for the hotel and expenses that I’ll incur during the trip.
CONTINUE reading! This is an easy one for me, since my head has been stuck in my Kindle since two months ago. I go through phases, okay? I’m getting so close to reaching my book reading goal of 40 (currently at 32), and now that the stress of reaching this goal is out of the way, I’m really excited about going down my TBR list and checking them off, one by one.
Would love to hear more about how you keep groceries so low! I know that's an area lots of folks struggle with in HCOL areas, self included.
love your monthly updates! You're killing it with the retirement contributions!!!