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Monthly Progress Report #30

Monthly Progress Report #30


Another month down - another progress report!

This is progress report #30 which means we’re up to 2.5 years of progress reports! Yay!!

First we need to talk about little man, Otto Stanley.

Otto has grown nearly 20 pounds in the six weeks we’ve had him, has had successful hernia surgery and learned to swim! He’s finally mostly pottying outside (score!) and he’s a champ when it comes to sit and shake. He’s also dang adorable!

Was I right or was I right? Isn’t he the cutest?! Not that I’m biased or anything.. but check out that Mets bandanna Mike’s mom made for him!

I could talk (read: brag) about him all day like the crazy dog mom I am but I’ll spare you for now because I have other things on my mind..

Mainly, I’m going back to the office tomorrow and experiencing so many emotions about it. I’m happy to go back but I’m also a little sad. 

Working from home is this introvert’s dream but having some human interaction will probably do me some good. Let’s be real, I spent the last year avoiding everyone and now have to learn to socialize again. I’m just kidding, it’ll be nice to see everyone in person again!

But worse than having to go back to the office is having to leave my boy at home alone! We’ve only had to leave him for short bursts so hopefully he does ok by himself. I’m sure he’ll be a trooper but I’m going to miss him so much!

Ugh I don’t even want to think about it! 

How about we talk about the reason we’re here instead? In case you missed it, here’s my last monthly progress report.

Alright, here we go!

As always we start with my debt:

Mortgage: $168,100
Car Loan: $26,500
Student Loans: $6,400
Credit Cards: $1,900
Grand Total of Debt: $202,900
My student loan balances

That’s $1,100 paid down during the month of June and we’re getting so close to getting below that nasty $200,000 figure. Yay!

Not much has been going on with my savings:

Savings account: $2,900
P2P Lending account: $100
Investment account: $1,800
Grand Total of Savings: $4,800

And by not much I mean absolutely nothing. That’s ok though. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to focus on my savings more.

Wish me luck for tomorrow! I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️
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Broke Dolly
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Monthly Progress Report #29

Monthly Progress Report #29


It’s almost June but judging by the 40 degree rainy weather Mother Nature didn’t get the memo.

May brought a lot of change to our household. My best friend returned from Florida which makes me so happy to have her back and so much closer than she was before the big move even.

May was full of pool time (back when we were up in the 80s and nothing but sunshine!), driving around listening to our early 2000 playlists and so, so much laughter. Nothing is better than having your bestie back! It was a great start to summer.

Besides the return of an old friend, we welcomed our new best buddy into our life too. After losing our two old girls I was filled with anxiety about getting a puppy. How do you go from two well trained dogs to a puppy again? They’re cute but so much work!

And my anxiety was 100% justified, I have done nothing but pick up poop, get my ankles bitten and worry about our boy in some way hurting himself since we brought him home. I forgot how clumsy and curious puppies are! 

But even though I’m constantly saying “No!,” the smart cookie has learned to sit, shake, high five, lay down and speak (totally bragging because I’m pretty sure he’s rocket scientist material). Honestly even though he’s changed every thing about our life, I can’t imagine being without the little guy.

Here’s our new little man, Otto Stanley.

Our new addition - Otto Stanley

He’s a 12 week old Newfoundland and lover of pillows. He’s already over twenty pounds! Fun fact: he weighed the same that Sadie did at her first vet appointment.

Continuing the tradition started with Sadie, he was named after a family member and my mom was given the honor of choosing his middle name. Sadie was named after my dad’s grandmother, Otto was named after my grandfather’s uncle. There were seven boys in the family so we had some fun options to choose from! 

With all these happy changes going on it’s been a nice distraction from the world outside my little bubble. That bubble by the way will officially be popping come July 1st! 

That’s right, this girl is returning to the real world and going back to the office! I’m excited and nervous and feel like it’s the first day of the school year.. yeah, I’ll get to see all my friends again but I’ll also have to update my wardrobe and get up earlier. Can I handle it? Let’s hope so.

Leaving Otto won’t be easy but luckily I have my dad who happens to be the world’s best doggy grandpa. Otto got to stay with my dad and his Newfoundland Shel for a few hours the other day and everyone came out of it mostly unscathed. And Otto even got to eat a piece of hotdog so he’s already finding that grandpa is way more fun. 

Alright, enough of my ranting. Let’s get down to business! Before we get started maybe you’d like to check out my last monthly progress report?

All caught up now? 

Let’s do this!

As always we start with my debt:

Mortgage: $168,400
Car Loan: $26,900
Student Loans: $6,800
Credit Cards: $1,900
Grand Total of Debt: $204,000

My student loan balances

We’re trending in the right direction again! That’s $900 less than last month.

My credit card balances are a little higher this month but everything else is going down. But I’m happy with the progress I’m making on my student loans. I can even see the end nearing on one of them! Earlier than I expected too!

And here’s how my savings is looking:

Savings account: $2,900
P2P Lending account: $100
Investment account: $1,800
Grand Total of Savings: $4,800

That’s a $200 increase since April. I added $100 to my savings and $100 to my investment account. 

How have you guys been handling the transition back to the office with your pets? Anyone have any tips or tricks to get Otto to stop biting my pant legs? Or potty training tips? 

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️
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Broke Dolly
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Monthly Progress Report #28

Monthly Progress Report #28


Ugh what a month April has been.

We lost our dog Sadie this past month. 6 months to the day that her best buddy crossed the rainbow bridge. 

Sadie was my baby, it’s been a hard, hard month. But she’s no longer in pain and I’m happy the two of them are together again.

Alright, moving on to happier things - it’s finally officially spring time! The weather is beautiful when it’s not raining! Ha!

That’s ok though, April showers bring May flowers. And hopefully a renovated garden for me. I need to get to work remulching the flower beds. And pulling weeds. 

All summer long you’ll find me plucking weeds.

I also may finally be going back to work! How strange it’ll be going back to the office! But I’m ready, it’s lonely at home. Especially without the girls to keep me company!

Ok, let’s get down to business shall we? Check out my last monthly progress report.

Here we go!

As always we start with my debt:

Mortgage: $168,700
Car Loan: $27,200
Student Loans: $7,300
Credit Cards: $1,700
Grand Total of Debt: $204,900

My student loan balance



So that’s a $23,500 increase.

Yeah, you read that right.

The increase was because it was time to get a new car. Which is exciting! The debt that comes with it is not.

But I’m very happy with the car and everything. So I’ll take it as a win and just keep chugging away and paying down debt when I can.

But God, being over $200,000 SUCKS. I’m going to do all that I can to make sure we get below that number and soon!

On the other side of things, here’s a look at my savings:

Savings account: $2,800
P2P Lending account: $100
Investment account: $1,700
Grand Total of Savings: $4,600

Finally some positive news! My savings increased $200 this month due to market increases in my investment account.

April certainly hasn’t been the best month for me but I’m hoping that you had better luck than I did.

Have you returned to the office already? How was the transition? Or did you work throughout?

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️
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Broke Dolly
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Monthly Progress Report #27

Monthly Progress Report #27


Both March and all the snow on the ground are history!

We made it to April. I feel like I’ve been waiting for spring since the leaves changed last year. And it’s been taking for-freaking-ever.

But I can see my lawn again, I ordered my first batch of materials for the remaining renovation projects (we’re almost there! The finish line is in sight!) and life is good!

I received my first vaccine shot a few weeks ago and will be going back for the second soon. Mike is getting his one shot today (he’s very happy he only has to get one!). 

I’m just so glad we’re seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s hoping it really is light from the end of the tunnel! 

Of course, we didn’t get this far without our first COVID scare! Mike had to quarantine but luckily he made it through without any symptoms. I also made it through mostly unscathed - I’m kidding, of course, but it was a stressful week!

I really feel for anyone going through the quarantine process right now. It’s a scary time. And I won’t lie, it’s also a frustrating time. 

Ok, enough about that. I’m sure you’re as sick of hearing about COVID as we all are.

If you’d like to get all caught up, check out last month’s progress report

Ok, here goes nothing!

As always we start with my debt:

Mortgage: $169,000
Car Loan: $3,100 
Student Loans: $7,600
Credit Cards: $1,700
Grand Total of Debt: $181,400

My student loan balance


Ok, so that’s an $800 reduction over the month. Not bad.

As you can see my student loans look a little different this month. That’s because they were sold. I was expecting that to be a hassle but it was a relatively pain free experience! 

I’m more upset about losing a nice summary page. So since they lump them all in together I figured it’s time to give up on the $50 increments and start rounding them up to the next hundred like the rest of my debt.

Besides that I was given some unfortunate news about my car this past month so in all likelihood it’s time to find a replacement. Which of course means more debt. Just when I thought I was making some progress!

It’s a bummer but there’s been some signs so it wasn’t totally unexpected. Still, adding more debt... ughhhh!!!

The good news there is I still have some money from the latest stimulus check and my tax return. But this time I did spend some - I bought a new treadmill and a mattress! 

My old treadmill somehow didn’t want to move without beeping and since she was a hand me down from my mom it was definitely time to replace her. As for the mattress, it lasted ten years and had seen better days so Mike and I went 50/50 on a new one. 

Can you tell I usually feel guilty about big purchases? I’m always justifying them! But I do have some money to put towards a new car or towards some debt once I have this all figured out.

Ok, moving on to savings:

Savings account: $2,800
P2P Lending account: $100
Investment account: $1,500
Grand Total of Savings: $4,400

That’s only $50 this month and that was due to market fluctuations. But as I said above, treadmill, mattress, car.. at least it didn’t shrink!

I hope everyone is doing well! I know we’re all itching to get back to normal. It doesn’t seem possible we’ve officially hit the one year anniversary since COVID turned the world upside down.

I hope that we can go into summer with a little sense of normalcy but I don’t want to get my hopes up too high. Stay safe out there!

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️
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Broke Dolly
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Monthly Progress Report #26

Monthly Progress Report #26


Well, February has been a pretty crazy month for me.

First, my best friend moved to Florida. I’m so happy for her and excited to go visit her! But also low key jealous of the fact she’s talking about bathing suit shopping and we have three - yes, three! - feet of snow on the ground.

This has been the craziest winter in recent memory. I don’t remember getting this much snow in my adult life. You know, since I became entirely responsible for removing said snow. Truth be told, Mike takes care of all of it but I like to chip in by shoveling off the back decks. Hey, it makes me feel like I’m doing my part.

And what happens when we got the monster storm? Our dang snowblower gave up. Luckily it was an easy fix but in the time it took to get the part we ended up getting at least another foot! She’s all patched up and ready to go now - now that it’s finally warming up and we probably won’t see snow for another nine months. So it goes.

Of course, now that I said that we’ll probably get another 3 feet. Ugh. Upstate New York does have some positive though, right? I mean, we have the best summers ever but dang does winter make it so miserable it’s hard to remember what July is like.

Alright, back to my crazy month. The other day I was surprised with a promotion. I’m sure I’ve said this before but - I absolutely love my job. I kind of stumbled into it and it’s been one of the best things to happen to me.

That’s the good news. The bad news is my class is seriously kicking my butt. It seems like nonstop case studies and long boring legislation. Believe me when I tell you I’m counting the days until May when it’s all said and done. Luckily I’ll get a little break over the summer before the final stretch.

In case you missed it, here’s my last monthly progress report. It seems like I wrote that ages ago!

Ok, on to the main attraction!

First, a look at my debt:

Mortgage: $169,300 
Car Loan: $3,300 
Student Loans: $7,850 
Credit Cards: $1,750 
Grand Total of Debt: $182,200 

My student loan balances


I paid off $1,100 in February. That’s a good month. And my student loan balances are below the $8,000 mark again! I think that’s reason enough to celebrate.

I’m making good progress paying off my most recent loan. I love to see progress!

On to my savings:

Savings account: $2,800
P2P Lending account: $100
Investment account: $1,450
Grand Total of Savings: $4,350

My savings grew $100 this month due to market fluctuations. Since my peer lending account is phasing out, I shifted a little bit of money I had accumulated from payments to my investment account. 

It wasn’t a great month savings wise but at least I’m in the black.

That’s another month in the books! This month I saw some positive progress but maybe not as much as I would like on the savings side of things. All in all, I would say it’s been a successful month. 

How was your February? Do you have as much snow as we do? Am I crazy to think this is the worst winter I can remember? 

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️
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Broke Dolly
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Monthly Progress Report #25

Monthly Progress Report #25


Yay! After two years I think I finally have the numbering of my monthly progress reports right!

I can’t believe we’re already a month into 2021. And what a crazy month it’s been.

So far, 2021 doesn’t seem much different from 2020. I mean, we went from the Tiger King to the Jason Collier drama (seriously, don’t start reading unless you have time to go down that rabbit hole). 

But we do have a female Vice President. And I think that’s amazing. It’s not a Democrat vs. Republican thing, it’s the fact that little girls everywhere see a woman as the Vice President. That’s freakin’ awesome.

Beyond some history being made, I have high hopes for 2021. Maybe even a trip somewhere? Only if it’s safe to do so, of course. But for now, I just want to make it through the winter. 

With the windchill bringing the temperature negative, I’m just daydreaming of summer weather. I honestly just miss enjoying being outside. It doesn’t matter how bundled I may be, the cold isn’t for me.

And the snow! Also not a huge fan. But the good news is we’re only getting a foot or so tonight (ha!). 

At least it’s pretty when it first falls. Not so pretty after the plow guy gets here.

I just started my most recent class (only three more to go!) so hopefully that’ll keep me plenty busy until the weather warms up and the snow melts.

Alright, enough of my whining. Check out 2020 - The Year End Recap if you’re curious how things were shaping up at the end of December.

As always, we’ll start with my debt:

Mortgage: $169,700
Car Loan: $3,600
Student Loans: $8,150
Credit Cards: $1,850
Grand Total of Debt: $183,300

My student loan balances

That’s $1,300 less than December. Let’s be real, that’s a very, very good month for me. Between a bonus I wasn’t certain I would get at work and my stimulus check, I was able to put extra money towards my school loans.

I wish I could write such upbeat updates every month!

Alright, my savings is next:

Savings account: $2,800
P2P Lending account: $150
Investment account: $1,300
Grand Total of Savings: $4,250

My savings increased $750 this month. I actually put $300 into savings and $500 into my investment account but then my investment account dipped a little bit. 

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Overall, January was a kick butt month for me. I was able to pay down debt and put some money away. Which is great because I needed some good news after writing my blah year end recap last month.

Are you getting a monster snow storm tonight too? If you are I hope you enjoy it more than I will. That’s not saying much -  so have fun, build a snowman, go tubing, drink some hot cocoa, do whatever makes you happy.

As always -

Remember, we will get through this ❤️
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Broke Dolly
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Vintage Love: Newburgh Vintage Emporium (in the Times of COVID)

Vintage Love: Newburgh Vintage Emporium (in the Times of COVID)


 



It’s been a while since I wrote one of these posts. Truth be told that’s because I haven’t been anywhere or done anything in about a year. 

Yeah, lookin’ at you COVID.

But my mom’s birthday was last week and we seem to have made it a tradition to visit Newburgh Vintage Emporium around this time of year. 

So yesterday, off we went!

It's no secret - I’m a big fan of the place (actually, places - they’ve opened a second location!) and I’ve posted multiple times about our visits. You can check out those posts here and here.

Ready to check out what’s happening at the Vintage Emporium in the times of COVID?

Here we go!


Check out this fabulous corner booth complete with bamboo furniture and a tiger. Mostly what drew me in were the beautiful light fixtures.

After a years long search I just pulled the trigger and bought myself a new kitchen light. I absolutely love my new light but I’ve been looking for so long it just feels necessary to check out the could have beens.


This print (or painting?) was tucked in the back of one of the booths and I loved it instantly. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to represent someone or not but I immediately thought of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. But he doesn’t quite look like Joe.


Also in the same booth was this NYC taxi fare painting signed by Mitchell Korman.

Fun fact: I looked up the current rates and that fare will now cost you a $2.50 initial charge and 50 cents per 1/5 mile. Inflation, huh?


Nobody quite loves a faux animal head like this girl. Definitely faux, no real animal heads in my house, but I tend to stick to the traditional deer heads. Although my mom did gift me a little elephant head a few years back. 

But a gorilla head? That’s a statement! One I can get fully behind. This guy was huge too! Not sure how large a real gorilla’s head may be but this seemed about right.


There’s a lot going on in this photo. Like the Bugs Bunny sketch and silver mannequin head but I snapped this photo because of the mod red clock. I think it would look great on a much more modern, admittedly cooler, mantle than I have.


Another stringing piece of artwork! These ladies caught my eye from across the room. Not only do I have an irrational love for the color yellow but their outfits are amazing! Best of all - it couldn’t have been smaller than five feet tall. I’m on the hunt for a big piece for a large blank wall in my living room but I’m just not quite sure what I’m looking for yet. These ladies are absolutely fabulous but not quite it for me.


This not so little guy was displayed in the front of the store and I couldn’t not take his picture. Before I got my Newfoundland (Sadie Donatella), I always imagined I would get a bulldog, they hold a special place in my heart and they’re dang adorable. And look at this guy’s underbite! The black and white make him a pretty sleek looking piece.


My next find was a vintage coffee table with a tile top made by a local artist, Luis Mendez. I love how natural and earthy the table is. And live edges seem to be all the rage these days.


And to round up the photos, I’ll leave you with this drool worthy booth. There’s a lot that I like in here from the midcentury items to the pale pink fabric headboard but I loved the artwork.



I think it would be neat to have this guy pointing the way to my stairs or maybe put him directly above the stairs pointing down. I wouldn’t have thought to have him point down but it’s a neat idea.

We went on to check out their second location but I stopped taking photos and started really browsing. Their second location is as good, dare I say maybe even better, than their first. There’s so much to see and, as always, the customer service is top notch. 

Seriously, if you’re in the area, make sure you go check them out. I have no doubt there’s something for everyone at Newburgh Vintage.

See anything you just have to have in the photos above? How have you been keeping yourself preoccupied through COVID?

Stay safe and healthy.





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Broke Dolly
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