This Wednesday I gave birth to the most beautiful little girl. We’re doing great and are thankful for this miracle. Yep, all cliches are so true.
And she turns out to be a breast feeding champion! Yay!
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
Wish me luck!
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
Finally, our Hungarian real estate agent made it to my Hungarian farmhouse and that of my brother’s. He took pictures and now they’re up for sale. We are never going to get the money our parents put into these houses back for them. I wish they had never bought these houses for us… I don’t want to sound ungrateful. Putting these two houses up for sale already cost me and my brother €508 in total. There goes our spending to income ratio of this month. Each house that is eventually sold will cost us another €1500 each in legal fees etcetera. IF these houses ever get sold… (Oh, and don’t think we’re going to fetch tens of thousands on these deals. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be in this situation. We really want these stupid houses off our names a.s.a.p.)
Another lesson learnt. Never, ever, ever buy a second home (especially abroad). It’ll only cost you time and money. This also proves (again) that the hubby and I don’t want to be landlords. We’ll stick with cash, stocks, bonds and REITs.
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
In my hometown a Facebook page has been set up in order to encourage people to swap items that they don’t use anymore and want to get rid of. It’s all about swapping these things locally and meeting new people whether it be on or offline. I’ve signed up for this, but haven’t swapped anything yet. I figured this not the handiest time ever since I could go into labour any moment now.
However, one of my neighbours has turned into an avid swapper. She came across this woman with three daughters who was interested in one of her items and only had baby’s clothes on offer. She phoned me whether I would object to her getting gifts for our baby this way. Hell no! I LOVE this idea! So she swapped the items and she just couldn’t wait for the baby to come in order to give me the baby’s clothes she got through swapping. Haha! I think there were about second-hand 25 (!!!) items and they’re really cool! I am over the moon with this gift. I just love how it didn’t cost her anything but her time and an item she didn’t use anymore anyway. Her baby shower gift to me was also really cool: she’s going to bake a pie for her first birthday. She’s really good at baking cakes. I mean, how cool is this?! I think I have met a like-minded person in my neighbourhood, yay!!!
Would you have objected to this idea?
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
P.s. I am so going to join this swap thing after the baby is born. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!
It’s March so it’s my turn to invest a larger amount with Vanguard’s FTSE All-World UCITS ETF via BinckBank. I invested in January and the hubby did it in February. Now it’s my turn again. However, we haven’t really set a specific date each month. That means that we’re looking at stock prices…I know I know…we can’t time the market. But…but…but…we’d like to buy at the best moment of the month. I am soooooooooooo going against my own advice and ideas here!
What would you suggest?
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
As of this week the hubby is taking our car to work. This instead of taking his foldable bicycle on the train. Why? The two bike rides (from our house to the station and from the other station to his work) plus train ride take about an hour and a half. It takes him half an hour to get there by car.
Obviously, the reason for this is that he can come home quickly as soon as the labour begins or whatever. This way he hopefully won’t risk being too late to miss any of the action! 😉
Yup, he’s being a temporary car clown here. He’ll go back to his other routine after the kid is born.
Oh well…
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
Oh, the weather is gorgeous here in The Netherlands. The sun is shining and it really is spring. Me and my pregger belly are biking (I’m a badass Mustachian after all!) everywhere and we’re loving it!
Speaking of bikes. The husband had his bike “fixed” a couple of months ago but he was very unsatisfied with the job they did on the acceleration cable. He bought a new one and spent an hour and a half teaching himself while doing how to repair this thing. With thanks to the manual found on the internet. Turns out the bicycle repair shop had forgotten to put on the two caps on both ends… Next time, he’ll do the job himself and it’ll take him half an hour at best. Yeah, he’s also a badass Mustachian!
In the meantime I’m filling my time with chores and tasks I set for myself…oh and relax a bit here and there. And do things at a slow pace. I’m feeling rather mindful an Zen. I vested our headboard and box springs so that it looks like a posh bed instead of an Ikea bed. (There’s nothing wrong with Ikea beds…however, our headboard came without sheeting.) I also made garden cushions for our garden set myself. Yep, back in love with my sewing machine.
However, now there are just not that many chores and tasks left. I make sure the laundry is done and the house is clean and presentable. I mean, you can’t have a dirty and untidy house when having a baby…right?! Oh dear…
So, there’s not that much for me to do.
I guess I”ll just go outside now, sit in the sun and read a book.
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
February 2014
Mortgage: 31.36% (0.14% increase, interest on the savings part of the mortgage was paid out, we can’t make extra mortgage payments due to stupid tax rules)
Emergency fund: 306.1% (about 2% increase…we have started throwing more into index funds…but the emergency fund is still growing!)
Stash: 9.35% (0.2% closer to early retirment)
Income to spending ratio this month: 74% (as expected, not very impressive. the husband repaid his wintersport buddy the remainder for his holiday, we had professional pregger pictures taken, the hubby bought tickets for a music festival…besides the fact that we’re going to have a baby, nothing expensive will be happening to us in March 😉 )
Income to spending ratio this year: 76% (not a realistic number yet…, we’ll get to 60-65% by the end of this year!)
Ok, let’s put on our Money Mustache and make things happen in March!
Love,
Mrs EconoWiser
EconoWiser 