Well, January! What the heck were you? January passed in a haze of going to the rink, studying for the Series 65 exam, and teaching workshops for Oh My Dollar! Plus, the whole “everyone you know suddenly has covid” thing, driven by the omicron variant. The last week of the month, I also dealt with a cold-that-might-have-been-covid.

Part of this was simply adjusting to not having a full-time day job after 2 years of working a full-time salaried job (and for some of that time, a second part-time day job) on top of Oh My Dollar.

Because I have a more flexible schedule right now, I’ve been trying to capitalize by going to the (cheaper and closer by) skating rink in the middle of the day more often. I’ve been focusing on learning my ice dances and improving my moves in the field, with an eye towards testing Novice Moves in the Field soon (at the standard track level). I haven’t found a long-term coach yet, but I have a trial lesson set up with one for February. Total, I skated 18 hours, 23 minutes in January and went to the rink 12 times. 

 

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The other big news of January was that I hit 1,000 subscribers on my youtube channel, after 16 years on youtube! My big goal for 2022 is to make 22 videos on my youtube channel! That being said, right now I have multiple videos in “process” but not yet posted. However, I’ve kept up the livestreams every Sunday night, and in February I’ll celebrate the 100th Talking Dough and Eating Donuts livestream

Anyway, January was a weird month. Can’t wait for better months ahead?

January 2022 Income: $508.16

This month is going to be my lowest income month probably all year (I hope!) because I’m focused on studying for the Series 65 exam and not working full-time until I start my new job in March. I did a lot of speaking for Oh My Dollar! that will be paid in the coming months, but the 2-year sweet ride of having 2+ different paychecks each month is done for now.

• Day Job: $0
• Bank account interest: $.66
• Oh My Dollar (net after expenses): $507.50

Full January 2022 Spending Report

Total Spent: $1,282

On track! 5.58% of my total annual budget at 8.33% of the way through the year.

Household & Insurance – $693.20

• Rent: $615
• Water, Commons, Garbage, Sewer: $32.50
• Trash: $7.50
• Electricity: $29.71
• Household Items (detergent, TP, toothpaste, razors, etc): $8.49
• Internet at Home: $0 This is now paid for by SSO’s employer due to being remote employee, was $20 per month.

Basic Food – $252.04

This was my highest grocery month in…YEARS. I usually average about $155 per month. This is mainly because we started to get concerned about supply chain disruptions and did a huge order of food to stock our disaster pantry. Since we don’t have an actual pantry, this means underneath our couch is filled with extra cans and pastas.

• Basic Groceries: $218.10
• Treats (non-essential snacks): $24.94
• Coffee/Tea For Home: $9.00

Travel – $148.57

I was supposed to be on a plane to Kenya *right now* but unfortunately, that was canceled due to Omicron. However, I do have an award flight booked for a conference in Vienna in late March 2022 – we’ll see if it gets canceled. I should probably stop booking flights that then have to be canceled. Fool me once, shame on you Covid. Fool me quadruple, shame on me…

• Taxes/Fees for Flight to Austria: $148.57 

Health – $81.30

My health insurance premium is now covered under my SO’s employer plan and comes out of their paycheck. It comes to $110 per month pre-tax, but we’ll likely settle up at tax time rather than me paying my SO each month because of the complexities of our taxes and my health care costs.

• Skin Care: $67.31 –  this was a big order, and should last me about ~5 months
• Fitness: $13.99 – trying out a new stretching app

Figure Skating $34.99

• Equipment: $24.99 (finally replaced my extremely worn out ankle gel pads)
• Skate Sharpening: $10

Looking Good – $69.21

I did a big order and restock of skincare (under health) and makeup – mostly for doing video, but I’m also finding makeup more fun these days.

• Makeup: $69.21

Flotsam: $2.99

• Spending Money: $2.99 (candy I think)

Savings: $400

I do not have an employer 401K any longer, so for now I am saving in a SEP-IRA. I am not currently prioritizing cash savings while getting my income back up.

Retirement savings: $400

Cash savings: $0

Savings rate: 78.72% of Gross Income

YTD Total Savings: $400/$10,000

(2% Total of goal at 8.64% of the way through the year)

January 2022 Clocked Hours –  160h27m

Since I track all my hours anyway, I thought I would try to represent those hours as a chart. So here it is!

Misc	breakfast on the bridges	0:33:18
	Health Care Fuckery	3:21:18
	Skating	18:23:00
Series 65	Admin	3:23:54
	Studying	28:22:28
German	German Duolingo	5:11:21
	German Class	7:32:15
	German Homework	3:58:27
Oh My Dollar!	Accounting	3:59:36
	Administration	2:42:09
	Amazon	0:09:52
	Blogging	12:12:09
	Publishing	0:02:36
	Community Management	4:19:41
	Forum Admin	3:46:03
	livesteam	17:36:37
	Marketing	0:12:38
	Patreon	3:11:25
	Pay it Furward	1:53:32
	Planning	0:03:05
	Scripting/Research	2:03:18
	Shipping Books	1:13:38
	Shop Admin	0:17:21
	Speaking	18:48:09
	Wholesale	0:16:44
	Instagram	1:26:56
	Planning/Tracking/Meta	1:47:41
Youtube	Admin/Marketing/Uploading	6:27:47
	Editing	0:56:09
	Filming	3:06:54
	Scripting	1:24:15