HOW WE’RE SPENDING OUR STIMULUS MONEY
A t the beginning of April I offered four smart ways to use your stimulus payment that could improve your financial situation. I thought it’d be a good idea to follow up that post, Getting a Coronavirus Stimulus Payment? with one breaking down how we’ve spent our stimulus money, so far that is.
THE FIRST THINGS WE SPENT OUR STIMULUS MONEY ON
If you follow the blog or social media, you may know our son was in speech therapy until the pandemic hit our area. We still had a bit of a balance from his 2019 therapy bill. Not anymore! The same day our stimulus money hit our bank I made the online payment.
As I mentioned in the previous stimulus article, I think using the stimulus to pay down debt if you have it is a great option! We already have a basic emergency fund, so we decided to put the money to work in other areas.
We also purchased a used laptop from my husband’s employer for our first grader to use for school as my laptop is giving us fits recently. I don’t remember exactly how old it is, but it’s older than she is and simply refuses to update at the moment.
Between my son’s speech therapy ($395) and the laptop ($150), we spent $545 almost immediately.
PUTTING OUR CARES MONEY (AND MY HUSBAND) TO WORK
We’ve spent our stimulus money mostly on the outside of our house. In addition to the concrete walkway, the handy hubby closed off the yard from the driveway gate to the side fence. If you follow a Life on a Dime on Instagram you’ve seen the progress in my stories.
Total cost on the fence project to date: just under $180. We will eventually paint/stain the boards to match the fence on the opposite side of the gate.
THE FENCE
After that section of the fence was up it was time to get to work on the concrete walkway. We’ve used three pallets to stay off the grass since we moved in. They’ve worked well and were home to one rather brave frog until yesterday. I’m sure he’s still around here somewhere.
As I type this my husband is putting the finishing touches (I think? Not my area of expertise…) on the concrete walkway from our house to the driveway. The builders offered to build one but due to a miscommunication on my part and the need to save a few dollars I declined. Luckily I have a handy hubby!
$130 worth of concrete and about $30 in boards for forms, several hours of hard work later, and we have a walkway! The boards will also be reused on the next project.
THE WALKWAY
Next up, he will set his sights on building a lean-to on the side of our storage barn. This will hopefully get the lawnmower off the front porch. You may not have noticed, but there are no pictures of the front of our house taken after we moved in on the blog.
There aren’t, and the reason for that is that it’s kind of full. Currently, it houses a lawnmower, ramps to get said lawnmower onto the porch, a wagon of firewood, a bicycle, a trash bin, and other various things our kids leave out there. But some of that could be changing soon.
PROJECTS WILL ADAPT AS PLANS CHANGE…
Plans were pretty well in place (maybe not detailed ones) and then we got a little more serious about chickens. Ok, I got a lot more serious about chickens and managed to convince him he wants to do all the prep work.
It’ll still be a while, but a plan is coming! I’m not sure if this will affect the original dog run plans or not; since setting my heart on chickens the handy hubby determined the area designated as the dog run would be one of the best spots for a coop and chicken run.
If we were to go this route he would “simply” enclose the rest of the backyard from the dog/chicken run area as well as the garden and just let the dog have the back yard.
THAT’S WHAT WE’VE SPENT OF OUR STIMULUS MONEY SO FAR
We still have money left, and as you can see, a variety of projects to choose from. We’ve decided to tackle the most needed and most likely not to easily fit into the monthly budget first.
As for the other projects, they will be spaced out as time and weather allow. Additionally, purchases are placed on our Lowe’s card with a 5% discount but will be paid in full when the statement arrives. With everything we’ve done so far, we’ve only spent $886 of the $3400. Unless you include the $25 takeout last night from a local Mexican restaurant! This should leave room for a couple more outdoor projects and still have a bit left.
I call this a stimulus well spent; if we add in a few local takeout meals it’ll taste good too! And I am so glad we are in the financial position to use the money to make improvements to our property.
What about you? If you received or will receive a stimulus what are your plans? Emergency fund? Pay down debt? Groceries? Something exciting? Using it for living expenses to make life a little easier? They’re all good uses of the money. Let me know. I love hearing from you!
I put $400 to a local shelter for domestic violence victims, $400 to feeding America, and $100 to Petsmart charities, then got a $100 GC to a local restaurant and a $200 at the place I get my massages for when I eventually go back. I’m lucky enough to have a good emergency fund/savings account balance and no non-mortgage debt so it made sense for me to spread the wealth.
Bonus: Turns out I’ll get a credit on my state tax for the shelter donation. I didn’t realize it until I was making the donation, so that was a nice surprise.
Those are excellent ways to use the stimulus! I have really enjoyed eating our way through part of ours!
That’s a great way to spend it
Thank you Kelly!
It seems you’ve been lucky with the stimulus money, I’ve only read the horror stories of landlord spying on tenants to find out when they get it, so they can demand the whole amount to cover rent. Or how it’s basically not enough to cover any of the bills and stuff they need. So it’s nice to read a story that’s a little positive on the topic
Thank you for reading it! We got a little more than some since we are married with two kids. And it does help A LOT that we’re consumer debt free and homeowners.This pandemic is both bringing out the best and worst in people, is it not?
Great use of your funds! I think knocking out some home projects is so rewarding. And your hubby has the time so take advantage of it. We might end up replacing our fence with our check. We’ll see.
Thanks Ana! It is very nice being able to check these off our list sooner rather than later. We could save up for them, but it would take a lot longer to complete. Ooh! A new fence sounds nice!
That’s great that you’ve been able to do so many useful things with it, and still have some left over. Hopefully you guys are all safe and sound, and this all blows over soon!
Thank you Jen! Yes, we’re all healthy and hubby is off the rest of the week so we should stay that way!