Bloom Where You Are Planted

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is up.

I thought I would share my experience thus far with Bank Purely. I think it is fair to say that thus far it has been a frustrating experience.

When I opened my account online, I received a message that I need a PIN and that I would receive it in the mail. I had to wait more than a week for that.

Meanwhile, I downloaded their app to my phone. The app is called iGo Banking. There is also an internet bank called iGo Banking. You can access Bank Purely with the iGo app, but if you google iGo Banking online login and click on the link, you are taken to the website for iGo Banking, not the website for Bank Purely. I found this a bit confusing.

Once I did receive my PIN and finished my registration, I tried to move money from my Wells Fargo checking to my new Bank Purely savings. However, my account was not linked. The same account I had used to make the opening deposit of $1. I hunted all over the website and read the FAQs, but I could not figure out how to link my Wells Fargo checking. I was beginning to fear that I could not link a checking account which was not on the iGo Banking app. I sent an email to customer service and waited for a reply. I did receive a reply the next day, with instructions. My fears were unfounded, I was able to link my Wells Fargo Checking.

Then we come to the next hurdle. I wanted to transfer $5,059.89. Well, I can't. There is a limit of $2,000.00. I scheduled a transfer of $2,000.00 on Monday of this week. I tried to transfer a second $2,000.00 on Tuesday. Nope. The first transfer was still in process, so any additional transfer exceeded the limit. On Wednesday, the transfer posted to my checking account. On Thursday, the transfer posted to my savings account. On Friday, I scheduled a second transfer of $2,000.00. That is in transit now.

So, I don't know. Their rate (1.3%) on savings is fabulous. But if I had known how long it was going to take to get my money into that fabulous savings account, I think I would have passed on this account. And am I limited to the same 2k at a time if I want to withdraw money? I don't know, but I suspect yes.

I'm going to email Bank Purely and see what they say.

Update: I got a reply back already. This is what it says:

We apologize for the inconvenience, we identified an error with your limits. Our Inbound transfer limits are $100,000.00 per transfer and $500,000 for a rolling 30 day monthly period. Our Outbound standard transfer limits are $15,000.00 per transfer not to exceed $50,000.00 monthly on a rolling 30 day period. Our next business day transfers are $2,000.00 not to exceed $5,000.00 monthly on a rolling 30 day period. If you wish to increase your standard transfer limit for outbound transfers to your external account, an email or message with the amount needed and brief reason for increase is required to process your request for a maximum outbound transfer limit of $100,000.00 on a single transfer. The request will apply to that transaction only and will default back to the standard limit.

Yeah, so I can only deposit 5k per month. Not loving it.

I mentioned in my March budget report that I had spent $50 on a fancypants planner. It is from Plum Paper. I am enjoying this purchase immensely! I think I may buy one every year from now on. This is a look at how I have been using it.

I customized the cover:



I am using the monthly calendar to track the ins, outs, and daily balance of my checking account:



I am listing each credit card charge as I make it. I think I may start a running total on the side:



I do a mini-budget for each paycheck:



I have a dedicated page each month for listing each bill I must pay, and I highlight the amount when it has been paid:



I made a chart to track my progress on my Heloc repayment:

Wages - both of my paychecks were for 10 days (rather than 11) in April.

Other Income - included a work bonus, my side gig, and some credit card rewards.

Cash Allowance - I gave myself an extra $100 to cover expenses for our weekend in Bodega Bay.

Everything else:

dining out 376.63 (!!)
gifts 200.00
clothing(me) 167.97
CVS 84.61
hair cut 20.00
Rx 15.78
Pokemon Go 9.99
movie 9.25
Allergy Dr. 6.05
Etsy 4.50
Kiva 3.75
J 2.99

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $7.58. My new balance is $161,700.00.

Chips to date: $2,174.01

Interest savings this month: $8.30

Interest savings to date: $255.79

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,596.11, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

Heard about this new internet bank on a message board forum. It is currently paying 1.3% on savings. And they plant a tree for every new account!

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is the same.

The afternoon was sunny and warm. The ceremony was simple and tasteful. My son is now a married man.

Better late than never, right?



Utilities are low because...I neglected to pay my electric bill. I just forgot. Never before in my 30+ years of adulthood have I "just forgot" to pay a utility bill. My goodness. I looked at it a dozen times or so, there on my list of bills to pay, not highlighted, and it never clicked that "Oh, I need to PAY this".

Savings did not happen, but I also paid for my root canal and plane ticket (see below) without pulling from savings.

Everything else this month:

Balance of new roof and gutters - 9,550.00
dentist (root canal) - 550.00
airline ticket - 291.20
dining out - 182.83
gift cards - 60.00
clothes - 57.13
Plum Paper Planner - 52.89
oil change - 44.27
OTC allergy - 16.74
purse insert - 6.99
Pokemon Go - 4.99

My new roof and rain gutters are installed and look great. I am very pleased with the quality. Now there is just the small matter of paying for them. I did pull $700 from GS Savings to throw at the Heloc debt. Only 9.4k to go.

The airline ticket is for the trip Mom and I are making next weekend to Spokane to visit my cousin and his wife.

The dining out and gift card expenses are related to birthdays. I have a lot of friend birthdays in March.

I must now confess that I bought myself a fancypants planner! And...I just love it. It is nothing but an indulgence. The paper is creamy smooth, the colors are lovely, it has tabbed sections for each month. I have a place to track my bills, my debt progress, my savings progress, etc., all on beautiful paper which I can touch.

And for the first time I spent real dollars to play a virtual game. I have been playing Pokemon Go enthusiastically since last July. The game has a built in limit of how many pokemon you can have at any one time. With the release of Gen 2 pokemon, I was bumping the limit. I had to pay real money to increase my "storage" limit. Otherwise, I was in grave danger of not being able to catch 'em all.

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $8.70. My new balance is $162,025.00.

Chips to date: $2,166.43

Interest savings this month: $8.24

Interest savings to date: $247.49

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,582.66, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

I had a fun overnight trip yesterday with some long-time girlfriends. One of whom was visiting from Tulsa, OK and flew back home today.

There were 5 of us, and we drove up to Grass Valley to stay at an old hotel. It's sort of infamous, having housed several US Presidents and other notable guests such as Mark Twain. And it is supposedly haunted, which adds to the ambiance. We had a great, giggly time. We made a run to the Sacramento airport late this morning and I returned home about 2 hours ago. Here are a few pics from our hotel room. I wish I had thought to snap a shot of the elevator, which was the old fashioned scrolly ironwork kind.









That last shot was from the balcony, which we enjoyed. We had two rooms, the other was similarly appointed.

Next weekend, SB and I are going to Bodega Bay with another couple. We have rented a house for the weekend.

The following weekend, J and his girlfriend are getting married in her grandparents' back yard.

The weekend after that, I am flying to Spokane, WA with my mother for a 4 day visit with my first cousin and his wife. My mother and father raised him for a good chunk of his childhood.

A road trip has been planned for the last week of June and first week of July. SB, my mother, my nephew, and myself will hit the road in a rented mini-van (which I was able to rent through AutoSlash.com for just under $350 per week including taxes). All of the plans are not finalized, but we will be in Colorado Springs for almost 1 week spending time with MrsM180 and hubby.

And there you have it.

Cash is down.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is up.

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $9.82. My new balance is $162,350.00.

Chips to date: $2,157.73

Interest savings this month: $8.17

Interest savings to date: $239.25

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,567.53, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

Wages - The second pay period of the month had only 9 work days, which made for a little pay check.

Other Income - My state and federal income tax refunds, as well as a bit of CC rewards.

Everything Else -
dining out 212.31
clothes and purse - 194.84
medical co-pay 60.00
annual road service club - 43.50
Rx co-pays 40.72
books 37.74
CVS - allergy pills, hygiene products 32.79
etsy 12.70

Cash is down.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is down.

So a couple of weeks ago I went to the dentist to get my toothache checked out and received the wonderful news that I needed a root canal. It was scheduled for yesterday, Friday 2/10. (And yes, as it turns out, root canals really aren't much fun).

I told SB about this, and did not realize that I had just thrown a big monkey wrench in his plans. He had been planning a surprise birthday party for me on that day. Without much notice, he had to move it to a different day.

So last Friday 2/3, SB texted me in the late morning to say he had picked up a sound gig for the evening and would not be home until late. OK. I decided I would go get my nails done and made an appointment for 5:30. In the afternoon, a friend texted me to ask if I would like to go see a movie with her. Why not, I thought, so we made some vague plans. I left work about 5:20 and headed to my nail appointment (just a few blocks away).

As I am walking into the nail salon, SB texts me again to say he did not have a particular cable he needed, described it and where it was, then asked if I could please go home to get it and bring it to him at the sound gig. Now home is in the opposite direction of the freeway and the movie cinema where I planned to meet my friend. My nail appointment takes 45 min or so. So this is a bit inconvenient and annoying, but OK, I say I will after my appointment. So I get my nails done, I drive all the way home to fetch his cable, and I drive to the sound gig.

Now the sound gig was at a venue which caters a lot of weddings, company parties, quinceaneras, etc. Years ago, I worked at this venue, and it is my current second job. SB works there now. It is a unique, very fun place, and I have made quite a few long-lasting friendships with current and former employees there. When SB texted me about the gig, I assumed a planned event had their sound guy fall through at the last minute, and that was how he ended up getting the gig.

So I enter the building and have my eyes peeled for SB, as he hadn't really said which room(s) the gig was in, and there are generally 3 or 4 events booked for a Friday night. I pass larger rooms and areas without spotting him and end up in a hallway leading to several smaller rooms. I walk through an open door and there are 6 round tables set up with people seated.

I glance at a table and notice all the people seated there are current or former employees of this venue, including the friend who I am supposed to meet for a movie shortly. I think "they are having dinner here together and no one invited me!". I glance at a different table and see my mother, my nephew, J and A, and several of my cousins from the bay area. This is very odd, as they do not belong at this venue at all. Then it hits me. Everyone pulls out a little horn, blows it, and yells "surprise!".

Well, I certainly WAS surprised. SB spent weeks planning the party and I had no idea at all. I think it actually helped that he had to change the date, because my actual birthday is 2/13 and the party was 10 days early. I was not even suspicious!

I went from table to table greeting each guest, and just as I was finishing my rounds, I saw my biggest surprise. My friend M who lives in Seattle strolled into the room. I could not believe it. He came just for my party and stayed the whole weekend. What a treat!

It was a wonderful party and a wonderful weekend. I don't even mind turning 50 so much.

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $10.93. My new balance is $162,675.00.

Chips to date: $2,147.91

Interest savings this month: $8.11

Interest savings to date: $231.08

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,550.18, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

Here is my January budget report. I paid my January mortgage payment in December. In January, I paid the balance on my Citi Double Cash Card from December's statement. It was not due until 1/8, so that worked out OK.

Everything Else this month was:

wall repair 1260
mattress 135
American Heart Assn 100
CVS medical supplies 47.62
library 33
movie tickets 16
pizza 15.56
Rx co-pay 10
Walgreen's 5.35

The repair to my leaking wall was pricey.

SB and I bought a new mattress and split the cost. It's the first piece of furniture we have co-purchased. It is one of those which gets delivered in a box and you unfold it. It is surprisingly comfortable. SB chose it. I think we will be getting a topper of some kind too.

The American Heart Association donation is in memory of my cousin once removed who died last September. Several of his immediate family and good friends have formed a team and are doing a 5k walk.

The library fine is for a book J's dog ate! Bad dog.

The movie tickets were a splurge. SB's favorite movie of all time is The Princess Bride. It's one of my favorites, too. Our local indie movie house is showing it on Valentine's Day.

Cash is down.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is down.

It has been raining a lot here. So the other day, J tells me that his bedroom wall is wet. Like, wet to the touch. Ugh!

It turned out that the flashing around his window had come lose from the siding underneath the window ledge. With the wind and rain, water was finding its way in. The sheet rock all around the window was soaked.

Today I have a repair person here taking care of the problem.

So, there goes the money I had squirreled away the past few months. Now I have to save it again.

Well, MrsM180 and hubby moved back to Colorado a few weeks ago. They are already settled into an apartment and MrsM180 has started a new job. It all happened really fast. They hope to be hunting for a house to purchase within a few months.

I miss them of course, but I am also excited on their behalf for them to be taking these big steps and moving forward with their adult lives.

J and his fiancee are now talking about getting married this April in Reno. There is still a lot up in the air with these two. Even so, I expect J will be launching sooner rather than later.

I'm going to be an empty nester soon. Wow.

In less momentous news, I have recently discovered the hobby called "planning". Do you know that there are people out there buying expensive "planners" from companies such as Erin Condren, Reflections, Happy Planner, etc.? And buying "monthly sticker kits", vast quantities of washi tape, and many types of pens in order to decorate the "weekly spread" in their planner? I found all of this rather surprising. And while I do not intend to start shelling out cash for this hobby, I have gotten a few ideas to modify my Bill Book to better plan for upcoming expenses and such.

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $12.05. My new balance is $163,000.00.

Chips to date: $2,136.98

Interest savings this month: $8.04

Interest savings to date: $222.97

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,530.79, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is up.

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $13.17. My new balance is $163,325.00.

Chips to date: $2,124.93

Interest savings this month: $7.97

Interest savings to date: $214.93

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,509.16, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

Cash is up.
Debt is up.
Investments are up.
Home value estimate is down.



I lent J $320 in cash while we are straightening out his banking situation. J started a new job a few weeks ago. It is a temporary full-time plus overtime job with UPS. He is making a good wage and is working long days in the bay area, so commuting as well. (UPS provides a shuttle bus at no charge to the temporary employees). He had to quit his 20 hour per week part-time job, but has kept his 20 hour per month part-time job. He will make more in 3 months at UPS than he would have made in a year at the part-time job he quit. So even if it takes him a little time to find his next job, he will be ahead.

Last summer, I went with him to my credit union to open a checking account for him. He did not order paper checks but was supposed to receive a debit card. He never has. (I never followed up with him to make sure he had it). All this time, he has been going to the credit union in person to deposit his paychecks and withdraw cash. Well, now that he is leaving the house by 4:30am and returning home about 10:30pm Monday through Friday, he cannot make it to the credit union during banking hours. They do not have any weekend hours.

Last week, he had 3 paychecks, one each from his 3 jobs. He asked me to deposit them for him (the credit union is very close to my office) and to see if they would allow me to cash one for him. I was sure they would not and told him so, but said I would ask. Then I asked why he doesn't just use an ATM to get some cash, and that is when I learned he has never received a card. Well, when I took his paychecks in, I asked how he can get a debit card. As usual, they were very unhelpful and insisted he will have to come in person and order another one. No, he cannot call. No, they cannot give the form to me to give to him. No, they cannot use the form he already signed when he opened his account. This is the thing about this credit union. The customer service is lacking. They do offer free checking accounts but so do a lot of other institutions, they pay no interest, and they never seem to have any convenient solutions when you need something.

So anyhow, I texted this info to J and then I suggested he needs an online bank checking account. There are so many of them out there now. I am helping him get that set up. Once he receives his debit card from his new online bank, he will repay the $320 he borrowed. It will probably be another week or two.

I signed the contracts for my new roof and rain gutters. They will charge my MasterCard for my deposit of $950. It will be several months before the work actually begins.

I took a 10.5k draw on my Heloc, and was able to fix the rate at 4.24% for 3 years. The required minimum payments barely cover the interest. However, I believe I can pay the balance in full before the 3 years is up.

I'm home from Tahoe. We had perfect, beautiful weather. And I have 10 new pokemon! I have 122 now; I am really getting there. Not that you care, but now you know.

I have received a second estimate now. It was $9450 for the roof with no insulation, an additional $1300 including insulation. Also, $900 for new rain gutters.

The first estimate was $9500 including insulation; $1000 for new rain gutters.

Since my house was built, there is a new minimum standard for insulation in the attic. If you replace the roof, you must meet the new standard. The second roofer says there is an exception you can meet by choosing a light color shingle. That is why he quotes both with and without insulation.

A friend told me that since I am going from a wood shake roof to an asphalt shingle roof, I can expect my new roof to absorb more heat. In his opinion, it is a mistake to pass on the additional insulation.

So, I guess the first estimate was fair and this is just what it costs. It has been a lot of work getting these two estimates; I wouldn't mind getting a third but that requires getting a third roofer to return my calls.

SB said I should check with Costco. They do offer a lot of home improvement services. But I checked, they do not offer roofing.

I think I am going to hire the first company. The cost will be 10.5k. I will borrow that from my Heloc. Then I will attempt to cash flow the other work I want to have done this summer. Mainly concrete and tree removal, the rest I am fairly certain I can do myself, with a little help from SB. Once that is done and paid for, I can turn my efforts to paying down the Heloc.

At this point, I have put calls in to several more roofers. One just called back! I spoke with him at length, and he has promised to come by Monday, then email me a bid.

I am leaving Sunday for a week in Tahoe. I plan to read, color in my new adult coloring book with my new colored pencils and fine-tipped markers, cross-stitch, and just generally chilaxe. My kids are staying home; couldn't talk any of them into it.

My mortgage payment has posted. This month I paid an additional $14.28. My new balance is $163,650.00.

Chips to date: $2,111.76

Interest savings this month: $7.90

Interest savings to date: $206.96

Eventually, the interest savings on the chips I have already made will compound to $4,485.24, provided I own this house until July 1, 2042. Which I probably won't.

Cash is down.
Debt is down.
Investments are down.
Home value estimate is unchanged.