Here we are, end of the month, and while I did not under-spend as much as I did the previous month, I still only spent maybe 60% of my monthly budget?  Staying below budget is important to me until I can get to age 60 at least, which is another 8 years away.  That's still quite a way, and what I do now matters significantly on what happens to me down the road.  The butterfly effect I guess.

Once again, my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for not only being able to stay on my own FIRE course, but I'm also glad my life is not filled with so much crazy drama.  But before I even try to explain what has happened this month, let me first attach some names to avoid any confusion.  I hope.

Tom - My friend that's going through divorce.
Sabrina - My friend that is or was dating Robert, I have no idea what their status is right now.
Robert - The boyfriend or ex-bf that is dating Sabrina.
Kevin - A mutual friend of Robert and Sabrina.

Got it?  Clear as mud?  Great.  Oh, and let me just also say that none of these are their real names.  Anyway, let's start from the top:

So, Tom is finally divorced and met a new lady already.  I finally met her earlier this month, and by all accounts, she seems very sweet and intelligent, and I am happy for the both of them.  While Tom is finally divorced, his ex-wife is still dragging him through the mud with child custody details.  Latest chapter on this is that their lawyers asked them to use a certain messenger app to communicate, that basically allows all parties involved to keep an eye the words being exchanged, to basically avoid any further he said/she said.   Well, she refuses, stating repeatedly that, "I don't have access."  Instead, she insists on a different app that even her lawyer did not approve.  When pressed for further details, she just keeps repeating, "I don't have access." and that's it.  So that's fun.

Tom is still mired in quite a bit of legal debt because of all this, though I fear that his two beautiful children are the biggest victims in all this.  He still works like a dog, but understandably, money is still tight, and cherry on top, he's trying to date this nice new woman.  I usually treat him to lunch whenever we meet up, and perhaps due to desperation or something, he's also starting to invite me to all kinds of family events, more than what what we normally do.  Like inviting me to his children's play time at the small amusement park, passively hoping I'll take pity and help cover his charges there as well?  It's a very awkward situation, so I've been saying no to those now.  Tom is a good guy though, he's just going through a rough patch.

Next, Sabrina is a single mom of two who works full time while also taking care of his ailing mother and brother.  She also has a son who is born mentally handicapped somehow?  She also has a deadbeat ex-husband who not only refuses to pay child support, but somehow make it sound like all this is her fault or something.  Completely ridiculous, but they're divorced now so that's nice.

Because Sabrina has so much on her plate, but is actually a decent human being, I took pity on her once and footed the bill to buy her son a stroller.  To clarify, it's not just any stroller.  While they call it a stroller, it's more like a heavy duty wheelchair designed for handicapped children.  While it's the ideal choice, those things are not cheap at all!  Because Sabrina isn't rich, she was mulling over getting some cheap wagon that is not designed for children to sit in.  What if her son falls out or hits his head on the wagon frame?  Also, he will eventually out-grow the wagon some day, requiring her to buy an even bigger one down the road.  The stroller wheelchair, on the other hand, is specifically designed with growing children in mind, handles like up to 200lbs (90kg), and still provides robust neck and head support, regardless of the child's height.

So yeah, I bought it for her.  Why not?  Nobody asks to be born handicapped, and she's a struggling mom that's trying to take care of everybody else.  And the stroller wheelchair makes way more sense than the cheaper alternatives.  Unfortunately though, I think she's started to take a liking to me, but I'm like what about Robert?  You know, the guy you've been dating this entire time?  Don't you think you should work things out with him instead?  So awkward....  Since then, I have been avoiding Sabrina as much as possible, even though we still talk from time to time, just to say hi, how are you and all that.

Speaking of Robert, we're more like a friends of a friend, through Sabrina.  He's nice and polite enough to me and vice versa.  However, I have also always sensed that he was a bit insecure about Sabrina and I being friends.  I'm like dude you have nothing to worry about.  I told him before that my ex-wife cheated on me, so I know what that feels like.  It all seemed fine until one day, out of nowhere, he starts hitting me up for money.  Is it because he knows I bought Sabrina that expensive wheelchair, and he thinks I have money too?  Later on, I found out that he was either let go of a job, or quit or something, and money became really tight for him.  He has his own set of struggles at his house, though I am not aware of the specifics.  While I sympathize, I do, I can't just be handing out money left and right.

Also, this would make it kind of an awkward situation because I think part of the reason why Sabrina is still with him is because he has always been giving her some money every month, to try to show what a helpful and valuable man he is to her.  But if I give Robert money, and then he gives it to Sabrina, will he tell her that the money actually came from me?  Or will he just keep his mouth shut and maintain his perceived value in Sabrina's eyes, right?  Really awkward situation there.  They need to sort out whatever is going on amongst themselves, without me involved.  My name is Paul and this is between y'all!

All this leads to the friend of a friend named Kevin, who turns out to be a bit of a liar or even con artist.  Now, in my defense, he's also been very nice to me this entire time, so at first, I had no reason to doubt him.  However, while trying to impress Sabrina, he told her he was the son of this Asian aristocratic family.   The kind that sends their kids to study abroad at some private school in Switzerland, and family used to have a private jet that they would use whenever they wanted lunch in France and dinner in Italy.

Thinking that was such an interesting background, I asked him privately about it one night.  To let him know I'm not after him or his family's money, I told him I was not poor so there is nothing to worry about.  However, he actually confided in me that while it was true for a few years, his family hit some kind of financial crash or something, and he was pulled back home as they couldn't afford any of that anymore.  So, it was partially true at best, but still, a lie by omission of important details.  Since then, we didn't talk much anymore, since I don't like liars, and it wasn't like he was interested in me anyways.  That was almost a year ago.

So, imagine my surprise, when just recently, out of the blue, Kevin asked Sabrina how to get in contact with me again.  Why though, right?  Though we've always been friendly, we were never really friends or anything.  About the only thing I can think of is maybe he finally got fired or quit from his job at the airport, and now, maybe he wants to hit me up for money too?  I am not sure, but it's the only explanation we can think of.

Sabrina also told me Kevin's best friend is some kind of big time con artist, so yeah a big, fat NOPE to all that!  Sabrina promised me that she would not share my contact details to Kevin, which I appreciate, though she doesn't have much on me begin with, as I've been trying to minimize my contact with her as well so.... 

At the same time, for some inscrutable reason, Robert is trying to get in contact with Tom.  Also why?  That's so weird because while Robert and Tom have met in passing before, it's not like they've ever really sat down and talked to each other or anything.  Is it because Robert is trying to find out more about me through Tom?  Sabrina says she is also trying to find out what's going on there, but somehow, I doubt that Robert will actually tell her.  It's been a weird month.

So to recap, Tom tried to get me to help him pay for his children's entertainment, Sabrina is professing interest in me even though she's still with Robert.  Robert has always been insecure about other guys, including me, but asked me for money anyway even though he might just give it to Sabrina without telling her the money came from me, Kevin is suddenly trying to get in touch with me for some reason, even though we haven't talked for nearly a year, and finally, Robert is also trying to get in touch with Tom for some reason and we have no idea why.

HMMM YES THAT IS ONE FINE DRAMA LLAMA YOU GOT THERE, I AM SURE.  A SHAME I WILL NEVER KNOW THOUGH, BECAUSE I AM NOT GETTING ON IT!

My local grocery store is already putting out Halloween candy.  It's still August though!

A buddy of mine asked me if I would be interested in adopting a 4 month old Labrador.  You know, I've been mulling over the topic of pets for a while now.  However, this has always been a topic that I just kept putting off for another day.  Now, I was finally pushed against the proverbial wall to make a definitive decision on.  It was then that I realized that I am either no longer interested or have the kind of energy to handle a dog that big and that young.  My back yard isn't big enough for him either.  I don't want to take on a pet when I am not certain that I can provide a happy home for him.  So, with some sadness, I declined to adopt him, but I certainly hope he will find a good home somewhere.  Also, I am starting to realize I might prefer cats over dogs at this point....

Remember how I said I cancelled the Apple One bundle deal?  Well, my subscription finally expired, and now, I am taking stock on how much I miss the service:

Apple Arcade - I don't miss it.
Private relay - I don't miss it.
Apple News - I do read this from time to time, but I've basically replaced it with Reddit.
Apple Fitness - I don't miss it.
Apple Music (iTunes) - I also used this, but I can replace it easily with Amazon or even YouTube.
Apple TV - You know, I don't really watch their shows all that much.  There were some good ones, like Severance and Silo, etc, but I don't miss most shows.  Also, I still have Netflix.
iCloud - So this is the big button issue for me.  I have so many pictures and videos and documents and whatever else saved on iCloud that I knew this is how Apple is getting me.  However, for the past two months, I've been diligently transferring my data to my local drives.

I can attest that it was a good service, but it was also costing me $40 a month.  I think I can do just fine without it, and I'm about to find out soon enough if that's true or not haha.

Finally, I am also on track to have another very under-budget month.  Yay!

First of all, I just want to say how grateful I am to this site for providing a free blogging section.  Considering that I've gotten all kinds of benefit and joy out of it, and for the low, low price of free, I really can't complain at all.  Though if I am allowed to a bit, the blog section does freeze at times, sometimes for up to a week, where we can not read any individual entries.  Not sure what's going on, but for now, the blogs appear to be back.  Yay!

Net worth is down this month, but not a whole lot I can do about the stock market.   What matters most to me is that my spending this month is waaay under-budget.  Yay!

I can feel the summer heat finally easing up a bit, going from peaking at 100F (37.8C) to about 90F (32C).  Still too hot for me though.  I've been staying mostly indoors, but also yay.

If anybody knows me long enough, sooner rather than later, they may notice that I am hypervigilant.  My mind is constantly at odds with itself between the desire to feel safe and the desire to stay frugal.  Usually, the frugal side prevails, but once in a while, my hypervigilant side makes a strong enough case that I will actually side with it.

Basically, my house has been burglarized before.  I have also blogged earlier about another potential attempt.  My neighborhood isn't unsafe or anything.  Quite the opposite, but that doesn't mean crime does not happen here.  In fact, I think many people understimate just how easily their house can be broken into, but that's just me.

With the successful break-in, the burglar just popped open one of my back windows off the latch.  Whoever it was, it was brilliant actually.  It was clean and professional, haha.  Anyway, my desire to fortify my back porch area is long overdue.   And while I'm at it, why not also try to beautify it into a nice outdoor living space?  Here's a quick picture of the back porch area:

The previous owner decided to screen in the back porch, and I think it's quite lovely, especially to keep most of the insects away.  The space itself isn't very big, at about 11.75' x 6.2' (or about 3.6m x 1.9m).  Still, I think it's screaming cozy porch appeal potential, right?

And this is where I am kind of stuck on I guess, and am open to suggestions.  I do think I want potted plants, stringed fairy lights, and I probably want some kind of wooden (lattice?) walling for security, and for the plants to climb on.  I also want to build it such a way that it fortifies the area against future burglary attempts.  That and some privacy from the neighbors.

Finally, this isn't a priority project or anything, and it's still too hot out, so I intend to take my time working on this slowly.  I also don't want to spend too much money on it.  For now, it's mostly just brainstorming.