Timeblock
| Time (PDT) | Plan | Reality |
|---|---|---|
| 0000 | SLEEP | |
| 0030 | SLEEP | |
| 0100 | SLEEP | |
| 0130 | SLEEP | |
| 0200 | SLEEP | |
| 0230 | SLEEP | |
| 0300 | SLEEP | |
| 0330 | SLEEP | |
| 0400 | SLEEP | |
| 0430 | SLEEP | |
| 0500 | Morning routine | |
| 0530 | Coffee and rumination | and Reading: Atomic Habits |
| 0600 | Pomodoro: Planning | |
| 0630 | Pomodoro: Spaced Repetition | |
| 0700 | Pomodoro: Organization | |
| 0730 | Wake up wife | Monthly review: Money Talks |
| 0800 | Getting ready | Monthly review: Money Talks |
| 0830 | Travel to coffee | Wake up wife |
| 0900 | Hanging out | Getting ready |
| 0930 | Hanging out | Travel to Ghost Note coffee |
| 1000 | Hanging out | Budget date |
| 1030 | Travel to cat cafe | Budget date |
| 1100 | Cat cafe | |
| 1130 | Cat cafe | |
| 1200 | Travel home | Grocery shopping |
| 1230 | Lunch | Travel home |
| 1300 | NAP | Lunch |
| 1330 | Buffer | TV: 9-1-1 |
| 1400 | Hanging out | NAP |
| 1430 | Hanging out | |
| 1500 | Hanging out | Recording/Editing with wife |
| 1530 | Hanging out | Recording/Editing with wife |
| 1600 | Hanging out | Playing with Mixpanel |
| 1630 | Hanging out | Playing with Mixpanel |
| 1700 | Cooking | Reading: Vegan Meal Prep |
| 1730 | Cooking | Misc chores |
| 1800 | Hanging out | Dinner |
| 1830 | Hanging out | TV: YouTube |
| 1900 | End of day items | TV: Steven Universe |
| 1930 | Hanging out | |
| 2000 | Hanging out | Listening: Harry Potter 5 |
| 2030 | Winding down | |
| 2100 | SLEEP | |
| 2130 | SLEEP | |
| 2200 | SLEEP | |
| 2230 | SLEEP | |
| 2300 | SLEEP | |
| 2330 | SLEEP |
Thinking
I have read every morning for the past few days now. That's pretty nice. Don't have as much energy to read in the evenings, and also it takes away time with the wife. I might work on having my morning coffee and protein shake ready the night before, though. It'll give me significantly more time in the morning for morning things. Evening things already have a bunch of kitchen items in it, I can probably juggle it pretty well.
I'm going to walk to gym tomorrow. If my back is still a little sensitive, I will only stretch and then walk back. If my back feels 100%, I will climb.
It is the first weekend day of the new month, Stephan! Which should probably mean....
Monthly Review
And I think a monthly review starts with....
Money Talks
Let's look at the spending/budgetting done for October. October is a special month, in that I took the excess funds I had from keeping a minimum checking balance in Chase ($15,000) and distributed it all around. I also changed my chase checking account to the most-basic type, and put that $15,000 into a Betterment savings account that has a more-reasonable 1.86% APY interest (it was 2% but that changed recently due to reasons).
We can do more talking about where excess funds go later, though. Let's breakdown income, expenses, and budgeting from last month. First, let's go through what I plan on putting aside every month so I can see how I did based on that.
| Money Flow (October) | Balance |
|---|---|
| Paycheck: ($8009) | $8009 |
| Wellness benefit: ($100) | $8109 |
| Betterment Savings Interest: ($10) | $8119 |
| Rent: $2400 | $5719 |
| Invisalign: $644 | $5075 |
| Groceries: $450 | $4625 |
| Coffee: $210 | $4415 |
| Student Loan Payments: $200 | $4215 |
| One-offs: $300 | $3915 |
| Consumables: $200 | $3715 |
| Electricity: $50 | $3665 |
| Internet: $65 | $3600 |
| Phone: $40 | $3560 |
| Clothing: $100 | $3460 |
| Home maintenance: $0 | $3460 |
| Equipment: $0 | $3460 |
| Dining out: $100 | $3360 |
| My Tools: $20 | $3340 |
| Wife's Tools: $100 | $3240 |
| Medical: $1680 | $1560 |
| Fitness: $100 | $1460 |
| Just for Fun: $200 | $1260 |
| Transportation: $110 | $1150 |
| Tucson property: $600 | $550 |
| Quakecon: $300 | $250 |
| Thanksgiving: $150 | $200 |
| Tucson visit: $40 | $160 |
| Christmas: $150 | $10 |
| Therapy: $100 | -$90 |
| Moving: $100 | -$190 |
| Cat: $100 | -$290 |
| Taxes: $25 | -$315 |
| Amazon Prime: $11 | -$326 |
| Security Deposit: $167 | -$493 |
| Alaska Card Annual Fee: $13 | -$506 |
This is a mix of the overspending I did this month, and the budgetting I did that doesn't get spent until later. These future expenses include:
- Thanksgiving: expenses are going to be this month
- Cat: haven't bought a cat yet, want to save up to $10,000 for future expenses
- Medical: $275 of budgetted amount didn't get spent
| Overspending (October) | Left-over balance if fixed |
|---|---|
| Consumables: $150 | $-356 |
| One-offs: $75 | $-281 |
| Medical: $575 | $294 |
That $575 "overspending" in medical includes the $275 overbudget. I had the money from previous months. I also moved money around. This is kinda like a worst-case setup. Any spending I did below "normal" budget in some areas, I rounded to the amount I have budgeted for this new month. Any amount over what I budget this month, however, I put the amount budgeted last month.
I also "rolled with the punches" and moved budgeted money around. Here's some real budgeted numbers and how that changes the balance (not including overspending fixes above)....
Actually, no. That's pretty hard to do, I realize. Do I look at money I budgeted this month, or money I spent. I had left-over budget from some things from last month. Which I think... maybe I look at money budgeted, not spent? Because that's the point. But I'm going to budget into the future, so looking at money spent seems more prudent....
I might want to think about this more... during next month's "money talks". Especially since there's some fudging I'm doing with some budget numbers because I started saving monthly for some long-term expenses this month, and I "backfilled" the budget so that the monthly expense is what it would've been if I started at the right time.
Overall, though, I think I'm in a good place. I'm "knowing my true expenses" and certain costs are coming down (spent $400 on groceries in October versus $500 in September, and $100 vs $200 for dining out).
I've pretty much decoupled income from expenses, so this exercise is good to have. Don't want to slowly "catch up" with my budget and run out of savings.
Other Weekly Review Stuff
I'm going to need to build out what my weekly review will be. And keep it tight. I'm starting to build a good system at work, I think. Got to think about the when and where for at home. It may also only be a monthly review for at home, depending on time constraints. We'll see though. It's time to hang out with the wife.
I Made a Mistake
The above is wrong because I double-counted invisalign. It's part of the medical category, but I seperate it out here because it's a significant chunk. Let's fix the table.
| Money Flow (October) | Balance |
|---|---|
| Paycheck: ($8009) | $8009 |
| Wellness benefit: ($100) | $8109 |
| Betterment Savings Interest: ($10) | $8119 |
| Rent: $2400 | $5719 |
| Invisalign: $644 | $5075 |
| Groceries: $450 | $4625 |
| Coffee: $210 | $4415 |
| Student Loan Payments: $200 | $4215 |
| One-offs: $300 | $3915 |
| Consumables: $200 | $3715 |
| Electricity: $50 | $3665 |
| Internet: $65 | $3600 |
| Phone: $40 | $3560 |
| Clothing: $100 | $3460 |
| Home maintenance: $0 | $3460 |
| Equipment: $0 | $3460 |
| Dining out: $100 | $3360 |
| My Tools: $20 | $3340 |
| Wife's Tools: $100 | $3240 |
| Medical: $1040 | $2200 |
| Fitness: $100 | $2100 |
| Just for Fun: $200 | $1900 |
| Transportation: $110 | $1790 |
| Tucson property: $600 | $1190 |
| Quakecon: $300 | $890 |
| Thanksgiving: $150 | $740 |
| Tucson visit: $40 | $700 |
| Christmas: $150 | $550 |
| Therapy: $100 | $450 |
| Moving: $100 | $350 |
| Cat: $100 | $250 |
| Taxes: $25 | $225 |
| Amazon Prime: $11 | $214 |
| Security Deposit: $167 | $47 |
| Alaska Card Annual Fee: $13 | $34 |
So, actually, we're slightly ahead this month. And that's with budgeting for future stuff.
But we'll be adding some stuff this month or next month to the monthly pile. I'll discuss that a bit later.