Mr SSC, Author at Slowly Sipping Coffee

Goodbye Quinn

Well, 2017 started off rough as we had to put our oldest dog Quinn down yesterday. She’d lived a long life of over 16 years and fortunately didn’t go through the cancer issues that her sister did 2 years ago, but it still sucks. It sucks saying goodbye to a good friend and it sucks seeing someone you know age. It’s hard making that choice too. Is it too soon, is her quality of life diminished enough to justify this decision, are we being selfish keeping her around a little longer? Lots of questions; questions you don’t really get to make with people. If she was a person, she’d be in a home, just waiting to die, getting visits from us on the weekends, if we weren’t too busy, but maybe I’m more of a pessimist in that regard.

I remember when I first met Quinn and Harley, 2 sisters that Mrs. SSC rescued from the streets of Chicago 15 yrs ago. It was my first visit to Mrs. SSC in Chicago after our internship and we’d gotten back to her apartment, a nice 3rd floor walkup, and as she opened the door there was a ton of barking and 2 dogs jumping up on me wanting to know who the new person was in their place. They were a great pair of dogs but they couldn’t be more dissimilar. Harley had the nickname dingo because she looked and acted like one of the crazy hyenas from Lion King, and Quinn was a cuddler and a “soft whore” always looking for the next best soft spot in the house to lay on.

I remember when we tried to save money and shave them ourselves in Mrs. SSC’s apartment one summer. Harley worked out fine, except she got these “racing stripes” down her back that never seemed to grow right again, adding more weight to her hyena personality, and Quinn… Oh Quinn… The 5″ of fur that we tried to take of of her started to pile up, float around the apartment, and bog down the clippers and we weren’t even halfway through shaving her. Once we finally finished, we vowed to never try that again and stayed successful, until that point where she didn’t handle the groomers well anymore. Then I gave her a couple of hand trim shaves at home, but it’s way easier when you have a yard and aren’t trimming her inside a small apartment.

She never did seem to recover well after the loss of her sister 2 years ago. They’d been together since birth and after Harley was gone, she just seemed to be more distant. Not wanting pets as much, not wanting to snuggle as much, and kind of distancing herself from the family. Lola helped some, but it probably wasn’t the same. They played well and got along well the first year, but after that, even Lola was too much for Quinn. Getting old sucks.

Of the two, Harley was definitely my favorite, but Quinn, was definitely the cuddler. I’ll miss having her come up to me looking to get petted and snuggling in to hang out. I’ll miss her bouncing around on those rarer days that the temperature gets cold and she gets to enjoy being outside with that massive fur coat of hers.

I’ll just miss her period. She added a lot to the household and was great with the kids, and pretty much, I’ll just miss her.

The New Plan is “Relax and Be Present”

Welcome back everybody and I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year’s holiday! I took some time off and am back and ready to go, woohoo! There have been so many bloggers posting 2016 wrap-ups and 2017 goals I’ve just been enjoying reading them while I took a break from our blog over the holidays. In this post, we’ll discuss the state of the SSC household, what we plan to do the same and what our new plan is in 2017. Next week, we’ll be back to discussing numbers with our 2016 wrap-up and financial changes for 2017. With so much stuff to cover, we just couldn’t fit it all into one post! Well, not one post that wasn’t 4000 words long, lol.

Wedding/Christmas Gumbo: How I Met Mrs. SSC’s Parents

Good morning folks! This will be our last post for the year, but fear not, we’ll be back in January with a 2016 wrap-up, some 2017 goals, and more! We’ll be taking some time off to hang out with family and enjoy the holiday season.

In the meantime, check out our guest post over at Picky Pinchers. If you haven’t checked out their site yet, you should head over there for a lot of great articles on frugal living without sacrificing what’s important to you, as well as delicious recipes and more!

**Seafood Gumbo** Image from http://www.louisianacookin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SeafoodGumbo.jpg

In our guest post, I talk about how I didn’t meet Mrs. SSC’s parents until about 3 days before our wedding – EEEP!! – and what role my homemade gumbo played in that initial meeting. Was it good, was it a disaster; you’ll have to head over there to find out. Plus, you can even get the recipe there, if you’re looking for a good hearty gumbo recipe to make your own.

Have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays, whichever ones you celebrate!

See you guys next year!

When Should You Treat Yo’ Self? Guest Post by Mrs. Picky Pincher

Today I have a guest post from Mrs. Picky Pincher who runs a blog about frugality without sacrificing the good life. Something I’m a huge fan of. 🙂 If you haven’t checked it out yet head on over there for some great articles, frugal tips, and recipes. Yes, recipes! Her post today is about “when should you Treat Yo’ Self”. Spawned by Parks and Rec the “Treat Yo’ Self” Day came about when Tom and Donna celebrate one day a year to “Treat Their Selves” and essentially splurge on all the stuff they don’t buy the rest of the year. While picking one day a year to splurge on yourself may be the best idea ever, Mrs. Picky Pincher has some great ideas on how to be able to “Treat Yo’ Self” and not just limit yourself to only one day a year. Take it away Mrs. Picky Pincher!

You’ll Never Know if You Don’t Try…

Over the weekend, I was catching up on some recordings of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and I was struck by a conversation that went on during the show. The really short setup is they’re looking for something based on a map they’ve found, and they have been digging holes, fairly randomly at one of the “X” locations. When Todd wants to quit digging and look somewhere else, Dirk points out that they’re in as good a place as any to look for their treasure, so why quit. As he puts it, “What if you’re only one shovelful away from finding it but you stop. You’ll never know, will you, because you gave up. What you’re looking for could be right there, and you walk away right at the worst moment. I’m trying to say, You’ll never know if you don’t try.” That last part really stuck with me in relation to our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC) journey, recent career changes, and even a new venture concept I came up with a few months ago. Let’s start with the FFLC aspect.

November 2016: Our Money Went Where?

November, the month of high spending, at least around this household. I realized mid-month that last year we also had a big overage in November due to an errant $1200 grocery bill that month $350 of it was a wine/liquor restock that got moved to “shopping/misc” lol). This month looks like a similar high spending month, though not due to groceries. My thoughts for this recurring phenomenon are two-fold. First, I think we do a pretty good job of staying on track most of the year, so we’re bound to have some “off” months. Secondly, I think November is the month that we let down our guard because we’ve been doing so well relatively speaking from the rest of the year.

Like me and Calculus – as long as I diligently did the 2-3 hrs of home work every week, I could get A’s on the tests. As soon as I stopped doing homework because I thought, “I’ve got this, I don’t need to do the homework”, I get D’s on the tests. I only got A’s because I was mindful and worked hard at it, and staying on track with our spending requires a similar effort. I think this is why so many people find tracking spending or trying to stick to budgets so discouraging. You can’t be perfect all the time. Except, I’m okay with that, just not every month, lol. Without further ado, here’s how our November spending broke down.

By Mr SSC
Posted on December 1, 2016
40 Comments on November 2016: Our Money Went Where?

Lessons Learned from “The Little Blue Truck”

It can be easy as the holiday season comes along to feel “too busy”. Just yesterday, I had the misfortune of going to a couple of stores that were already mired with holiday shoppers. I was amazed by the lack of civility people exuded, both in the parking lot and in the store. People didn’t want to let others into traffic, or they were jockeying for position to get that all important parking space. Even in the store, people were being unusually aggressive with their carts. Just stopping and letting someone else go in front of me, got smiles, thank-you’s and unusual looks, as if to say, “why is he being nice, what’s his angle?” Then they would rush onward looking for whatever was on their list. It reminded me of the story, The Little Blue Truck.

A few nights ago I was reading The Little Blue Truck to my youngest and thought it was a great message as we go into the holiday season. For those not familiar, here’s a short version. The Little Blue Truck is a story about a friendly little blue truck that says hi to everyone he passes as he drives around.

A Dump Truck comes barging through complaining about being too busy to say hello to everyone, because he’s “got big important things to do.”

Too busy to be nice. So sad... — Too busy to be nice. So sad…

When he gets stuck in the mud and needs help, noone comes except for the Little Blue Truck. He of course gets stuck too, but when he “Beeps” for help, the whole barnyard shows up to get them both out of the mud. The Dump Truck then realizes that he should be nicer and that “a lot depends on a helping hand from a few good friends.”

I like to think that the Dump Truck learns that being nice and not being self-centered, is good for everyone, not just him. It’s easy to get wrapped up in our to-do lists and forget about other people. We don’t know what’s going on in their lives, and they could be dealing with all sorts of stressful things in their life. We don’t know. So just try and take a few seconds when you are put into a situation where you can choose to be nice like the little Blue Truck or be like the Dump Truck and imagine you were the person, you’re about to mean or nice to. How would you like to be treated?

It’s know hard to always be nice and friendly like the Little Blue Truck, and I know Mrs. SSC would say I’m definitely more akin to drive like the Dump Truck, but I’m working on it. That’s all we can do. This week, if you’re out on the road, or God forbid, you venture into the shopping madness of the Black Friday weekend, try to be like the Little Blue Truck and be nice to people. I know they’ll appreciate it.

Little Blue Truck says Beep! Beep! Beep!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Flexible Spending Account Rules Suck: Do Yours?

We typically don’t shy away from free money, especially when it’s offered through work. The Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is something we take advantage of every year. This year is the first year we participated in it at my current company and OMG, I’m not participating next year. Yep, I’m paying taxes on that money and using it how I please, because they have made it so cumbersome, that even tax free, it’s not worth the hassle. That’s it, rant over, thanks for stopping by. Kidding, but if you want to find out how bad it really is, read on.

October 2016: Our Money Went Where?

October, us such a great month. You have Halloween, the leaves change, and you start to get cooler temperatures outside as well. Now that the month is over, a lookback on our spending. Overall, it was up about $1200 compared to September due to some big ticket one off purchases, and our 6 month car insurance renewal coming due. What else happened in the SSC household this month? Let’s take a look!

Time Changes Everything: 2 years blogging!

I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since we started the blog! Okay, it’s actually 2 months late, but, close enough for me. Going back thru all of our earlier posts and reading them (yeah I read almost all of them – again) I realized, “Holy Cow some things have changed a LOT since we started writing. Here’s what I found has changed in our Financially Independent Retire Early (FIRE) mindset, our myriad of plans, my comfort level with leaving the workforce at my peak earning years (who does that?!) and even how our timing has changed over the years. Before we get to the changes, I just want to say THANK-YOU to everyone that’s followed the blog, makes comments on the posts, and retweets the scant few things I put out there! You guys are an awesome community and I’m glad to be a part of it!