Well, we closed on our Florida home and although a bit sad, I am relieved and grateful to find a well-qualified, conventional loan buyer. Due to COVID-19 lockdown state order we closed through a conference call Notary service. Different experience but efficient and painless. Our furniture is in storage but we hope to be able to retrieve it during the summer (hoping and praying). My brother has been a huge help with moving things out of the house. As I mentioned before, we lost a considerable amount of money due to realtor fees. Lesson learned.

On another note, 3 out 4 tenants are not working. This will most likely mean that we will have to withdraw from savings to pay these mortgages and we are prepare to do so. We will not pressure our tenants nor stress them out. They are good to us in terms of paying the rent and keeping up with the apartments. Besides, we have a heart. It will be an I owe you.

I'm out of work but still getting paid and I am so very thankful. Many of my family members are not working and struggling. My husband will file for social security benefits in July (75%/age 62). He won't collect until October. We are on our second week of not stepping foot in the supermarket. I hope to stretch thing until the first week of April. TP stash is very low but I found a solution to our problem. It helps that I am the only female in our home. Besides, I have a ton of paper towels and there is nothing water and soap can't clean.

Well, that's it for today. Please be safe and well.

It's official, I'm done funding all $7K on my 2019 Roth IRA. I just set up a $120 contribution (one month ahead of schedule). I won't be able to begin 2020 Roth until next month. We have some unforeseen expenses that we want to cash flow this month.

School is not in session for at least a month here and there is talk that it will be for a much longer time. The governor of New Jersey instituted an 8:00-5:00 curfew today and Teaneck, NJ is completely quarantined. That's not too far from us but in a different county. We have 4 confirmed cases in my county.

We have also spend a bit more on groceries this month but we've not gone crazy buying stuff. We have plenty of food for at least three weeks or so. Nothing is wasted and we will eat normally but smaller portions. Let's hope and pray (if you believe) that this passes soon. Please stay safe and take care of yourself.

Closing on our FL house is supposed to be on the 24th of this month. I was supposed to travel to pack our things but decided against it. My brother will be packing for me and putting everything in storage for at least a month or until he feels okay to travel from NJ to FL. He volunteered to U-haul our stuff for us and then fly back home. He's diabetic and neither one of us feels comfortable with him traveling right now.

We are under contract for about $5K above what we paid for the house, but by the time we pay realtor fees and moving expenses we will lose about $10K or more. Luckily, we will get a good portion of our down payment back, but still a loss. On the bright side, we will be able to free up $1500 a month in mortgage payments. Lesson learned.

The school district I work for will close for nearly a month, which includes a week for spring break and four days of unused winter days. All staff will be paid. It seems like the stomach virus is also in full motion this time of the year. Kids are coming down with it and so did I. I missed two days of work. The stomach ailment subsided quickly but I had a headache all day yesterday and felt very much run down. I am much better now.

Payday today for me. $500 went to savings and $475 to credit card payments. We also had to replace another water heater tank in one of the apartments yesterday, $500. This is the third one we replace among our properties in less than a year. We put it on the credit card due in April.

Well that's it for today. Please be safe and stay healthy.

highs:

So, I kept $50 of the $250 from the unexpected payment I received from a relative. I just set up an electronic contribution for the remaining $200 to my Roth IRA. Another $270 will be transferred on Friday. That leaves me with $120 to pay before April 15 for my 2019 Roth IRA. I can definitely handle that! I can't wait to start 2020. I am proud of myself for making this a priority even when my income is meager compared to prior years. I also discovered that I can continue to make contributions to my 403B since I am working for a board of education part-time. I can't do much. but I am going to commit to at least $100 a month to that.

I have $241 saved from the 52 Weeks Savings challenge. I am trying to reach the $1,378 in six months and repeat the challenge. That will give me a total of $2756 saved by December 31st. This money is going towards fulfilling things on my Bucket List.

We are getting a little over $1200 from income tax returns this year between the Feds and the state. That money has been designated for home improvements.

Lows:
We have to replace the entire front porch decking of our house. It's a lemonade porch so it will definitely not be cheap to fix.

A family member, whom I lent money to a while back, Venmo me $250. Repayment is sporadic, but anything I get back is a plus. I am going to keep $50 of it to spend on a meal out or a treat for me. I am trying to enjoy a little bit of our money lately. My husband’s cousin is terminally ill and his stepchildren are fighting for some antique cars he has. Good grief, the guy is not even dead yet. I told my husband that there has to be a balance in life and he should enjoy some of his money. My husband tends to be very conservative (extreme) with money. I told him that he is leaving it for someone else to enjoy and that you only live once.

I really enjoy my job and I'm grateful that I was able to get rehired after my short hiatus in Florida. Well, as of yesterday, there is a sale pending on our Florida house. The prospective buyer had the inspection today. Not sure how that went, but our realtor is very good at keeping us informed. Next up, appraisal. I hope everything continues to go well as I really want to get this monkey off our backs. It's not over,'till is over.

Friday is pay day for both hubby and me. I've already set up a $270 Roth IRA contribution. That leaves me with a $590 shortfall to be paid by April 15th. I'll contribute another $270 mid March, $320 at the end of March. It's much easier to do this now that I'm working.

About West Side Story on Broadway. It is a good modern twist to the classic. The projection screens in the back of the stage are very distracting, however. The cast is incredibly talented but I would've rather seen a revival to the classic. I am also glad that I did not paid the $250-$300 for good tickets. Average seats are just fine. Of all the Broadway shows I've seen, this one was my least favorite. The Lion King and In the Heights are my absolute favorites.

I start my part-time job tomorrow. I am looking forward to earning an income. My earnings are enough to pay utilities, food, insurance and my Roth IRA. We cut the cord with the cable company and my hubby seems to doing okay with just having Netflix. I watch TLC online through the kindness of my sister. I'd be crushed if I could not watch Dr. Pimple Popper (my friends think that I need therapy for wanting to watch that). I also like to watch 90 Day Fiance. What a circus!

Now for the exciting freebie! Guess who's going to see West Side Story on Broadway this coming Sunday? Me!!!! I posted on FB to see if any of my friends wanted to see it in the Spring. A good friend of mine called me to tell me that they have an extra ticket and invited me to go with them. She won't take any money from me but I'll pay the tolls to cross from New Jersey to New York and help with the parking. I am so excited to see it.

If I can swing two $270 payments by April, I'll have a shortfall of $520 for a full contribution to my Roth IRA (2019). I feel certain that I can contribute $100 from the checking account making it a $420 shortfall. I got this; I'm going to make it happen without withdrawing from the savings account. Once done, I'll battled it with 2020 contributions. It's a must for me to continue fully funding as I am playing catch up.

January ended with $700 added to savings and $540 contributed to my Roth IRA. I still need to contribute $1,060 to the Roth to fully fund 2019 by April. I can do this!!!

February also marks the first month in which we will not have income coming from actual employment. It will be just my husband's pension and income from the rental properties. February will be the real test. We will be coming home next week; we miss our sons and our life in NJ.

The house, an emotional purchase, is on the market. We hope to unloaded before November when we will have to start paying the mortgage again. I (we) prepaid several mortgage payments in advance. We can afford to pay for it but rather sell it and count our losses.

I have an interview lined up to cover a maternity leave in a neighboring school. It's just for a couple of months, but I hope to be able to sub to earn an income. I will proactively look for a permanent job during the spring and summer for the next school year. If you can say a prayer (if you believe) or send positive thoughts, it is greatly appreciated.

I received my last paycheck today and my husband his last overtime check from work. We paid half of the credit card bill, $270 went to my Roth IRA ($1,330.00 remaining to fund 2019), moved $300 to savings and left $200 in the checking account. We should get husband's January and February pension checks on the first of the month. Snow birding is going well but we have spent a significant amount of money on groceries and some other necessities. I do miss my kiddos dearly but not the frigid cold weather.

Goals during these winter months in FL are to stay away from withdrawing money from our savings, pay bills with pension check and finish funding my Roth IRA by April 15th.

Today I decided to participate in the 52 weeks savings challenge. I turned 50 years old in August and I would really like to start fulfilling some things in my bucket list. My goal is to begin working on bucket list wish #1 by the end of 2020. I hope to double the weeks and complete the challenge in 26 weeks and start all over again to double the amount saved.

I also joined the Uber Frugal Month Challenge because Lord knows we will incur some expenses to start our seasonal residence in Florida. I've been doing well with minimal spending so far. I also return to work tomorrow and it will be my last week at my part-time job. I had to take 2 sick days because my surgical foot procedure left me with lots of pain. I am still recuperating but I think I'll make it through the week. Stitches come out on Friday just in time for travel.

I've already located a church closest to our house as well as a Publix, Aldi and Walmart. I downloaded the digital coupons app for Publix and I've clipped some coupons already.

I contributed $270.00 this week to my Roth IRA. This brings the amount I still need to contribute to $1,600.00. I have a couple of months to make a dent, if not it will come out of savings.

Here is the recap for 2019:

The first six months of 2019 were devoted to beefing up our emergency fund, prepaying monthly mortgage obligations and furnishing our FL house. All in anticipation of my decision to finally resign from a $80K teaching position. With my resignation, came a much better state of mind for me. Losing the income was quite the adjustment at first. In September, I ended up taking a part-time teacher's aide position. I loved this job very much. As expected, my salary is 1/4 of what I was making but the income helped us cover some last minute expenses.

Financially speaking, I'd say it has been a good year. Our emergency fund is now over six figures; we have no other debt other than the mortgages. The rental property income generated allows these homes to pay themselves and our FL home. My husband's retirement pension is meager, but will provide health insurance for the both of us. This year will conclude with a very minor foot procedure for me. I could've waited for 2020 to do this but our current health insurance has better coverage than our future health insurance.

In 2020, my husband will apply to get 75% of his social security benefits and depending on how things panned out, I will seek part-time employment as a substitute teacher (if we decide to continue winter birding). Our goals for 2020 is to continue adding to our savings even if it's small amounts. I also want to continue fully funding my Roth IRA; $7K from this year on.

We are off to Florida in less than two weeks as my husband is a retired man as of today. I'm a little nervous because we are traveling with our dog. I hope he does well with traveling. Hubby and I are spending time getting rid of things that have not been used in years and our basement looks a lot better now. I've not shop for groceries in a while (just a perishables). I want to unplug our chest freezer before we leave. We are basically eating from the freezers and pantry.

DS#2 will be taking over the bills/property taxes on our NJ house. The mortgage is paid until July. At that time, we will reevaluate our living arrangements and a possible sale of the house to our DS#2 may take place. We will move into a small cottage in one of our rental property if that's what we decide.

I got a three-wheel bike for Christmas; it was shipped to Florida so I am hoping to get as much exercise as possible. I also intend to use the small gym in our community center.

This is it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful, healthy, happy New Year.

If you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas to you. Happy Holidays for all others. In just another hour, we will be hosting a get together with family and friends. We had our Christmas breakfast with our sons and DS#1's girlfriend (I think soon to be fiance). Very simple: biscuit casserole, bacon and orange juice. The casserole contained eggs, cheese and sausage. We exchanged gifts, laughed and get together preparations began.

We definitely cash flowed Christmas, about $500 and I'm happy about that. I also saved $60 by downloading a coupon for the first visit at a new vet. We have to have certain things in place in order for our dog to travel in cabin with us next month. In all, we only had to pay $38 for the distemper vaccine. I took him to get his rabies shot at a free clinic sponsored by our county. We calculated over $100 in savings on all of that.

I only have two financial goals for 2020. I want to fully fund my Roth IRA and keep ourselves from withdrawing any money from our saving just because we've been careless and spend more than we earn.

How was your holidays? Any financial goals in mind for 2020?

Pay day today. Both my husband and I will get paid again on the 20th.

Most of the money went to pay a large credit card bill. Our new washer, Christmas and other things were charged to this card. I did transferred $300 to savings and made a $270 contribution to my Roth IRA.

Our emergency fund has reached the amount we feel comfortable with. From this point forward anything we add to it is a bonus in my eyes.

My job ends mid January. I resigned as we are leaving next month to warmer pastures for the winter. Hubby is retiring in just a couple of weeks. Our sons are doing great; good jobs, happy and healthy. We did all we could to ensure a good start for them in life. Now, it is time for us.

We've been looking for a used washer, but have not been able to find one. It's either too much money for a used one or too old. We gave up on the idea of a used washer and bought a new one. I am grateful that our son allowed us to use his washer at home; it is definitely not the ideal situation. We ended up paying $757 with tax and a five year warranty. I opted for a front loader because the top loaders are a constant reminder of how short I am. I am super careful and I wipe the inside rubber/detergent reservoir where water tends to accumulate. Delivery is tomorrow.

Pay day is a bit early this week, since we are off on Friday. We will make a partial credit card payment, $270 will go to my Roth IRA ($150 usual deposit and an extra $120 to cover the April 15 shortfall), some will go to savings and we'll pay a few smaller bills. My husband's extra overtime check will go to savings to minimize the blow of having to buy a new appliance, but thank God that we have an emergency fund.

I also three orders for my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I will probably net about $55. I also bought four Christmas gifts today ($112). I predict that I'll have to spend an additional $150. I also have to spend a little bit up money to purchase the ingredients for my share of the Thanksgiving feast. Ours is an infusion of typical American Thanksgiving food and our culture's traditional food.

Well, that's it! I hope that you all have a Happy Thanksgiving.

I've been sending and extra $25 here and there to the escrow of one of our rental properties. Every year, there seems to be a shortfall due to the property taxes going up. Yesterday, I received a check from the mortgage company for $206 for a surplus on our escrow and our mortgage payment went down $26. I am going to continue paying the same amount and send the extra $26 to minimize any escrow shortage next year.

Two weeks ago, I finally bought curtains for our vacation home. Long time in the making, but nice curtains and rods are so darn expensive! Anyway, the total spent at Bed Bath and Beyond came to $767.74 including an item that I needed them to ship directly from the store. I gasped, swallowed hard and whipped out my credit card.

I realized then that BBB sometimes puts out 20% on entire purchase. I looked through my stash of coupons and I have none. It occurred to me to put a "ISO" (in search of) post on Facebook that I was looking for this specific coupon. About an hour later, someone responded and said that she has one and that I can have it. I took it back to the store and without question they credit me $151.36. Do you know that BBB takes expired coupons. Mine was from 2017 and no problem! I felt so victorious when I left the store.

I made $85 this weekend selling my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I'll use the money to pay for utilities in our second home. I'm hoping to receive more orders in the coming weekends.

Autumn is in full motion in my neck of the woods, although it is rainy and dark. Nonetheless, beautiful. I'm taking a short trip the first week of November and I'm really looking forward to it.

What's your favorite season of the year? What's the least favorite season. For me, Autumn is my favorite and least favorite is winter (hands down; hate it!)

My front yard

A few weeks ago, I was offered a job out of nowhere. It was a per diem job making excellent money. I considered it and at one point I almost accepted the position, but suddenly, just thinking about the high stress levels I knew I would encounter, I decided to turn it down. No amount of money is worth endangering my health. We are paying our bills and I am in a very happy place in my life. I love my part-time job and I feel that I am making a difference.

I will have to readjust how our paychecks are disbursed in the upcoming week. I totally forgot that property taxes are due soon. I also paid the remaining portion of my smartphone in full ($321). We have to replace the decking on our front porch soon but we will use our savings to pay for that. We're in the process of getting estimates.

Remaining grateful and learning how to live a happy and peaceful life.

Both of us got paid today. I had everything written down as to how the money was going to be disbursed. Fortunately, my husband earned a nice paycheck with all the extra hours he worked. I immediately set up an electronic contribution to my Roth IRA. We were also able to add a decent amount to our savings account. I feel so grateful and blessed that we are able to save money even when we are living with a limited income. Prior to this season of our lives, saving money was automatic and effortless. Our new reality has taught me to be less judgmental and thankful. Next pay period I am hoping to be able to contribute an extra $100 to the anticipated shortage on my Roth IRA.

By the way, we might have to replace our washer sooner than later. It's making an awful sound and it's leaking water from the bottom. We are not fixing it as it is old. We are, however, trying to buy a second hand washer or we'll wait until Black Friday to buy a new one.

Hi All,

I live in a high cost of living state. I recently took a $60K pay cut; long story, but we are making things happen. Our goal is to continue contributions to retirement accounts, keep ourselves afloat and save a little every pay period. So far, we've met all of it and I am grateful. Eventually, I'll return to full time work, but for now I am enjoying it.

GratefulSaver