My Frugal Miser - April 2021 Income

April was most likely the best month I will have in 2021.

The Airbnb was booked every day except four that I blocked.  Three of those days we were out of town; the fourth I needed to take offline for maintenance.

I received a PPP loan which I am including as income since I hope to have it forgiven.  I also received a decent sized settlement check from the Rent a Center Securities Class Action.

I received rent for two of the Birmingham rental properties.  The tenant of the other property paid rent late and my management company didn't send it to me before the end of the month.

Lyft offered me a $300 bonus to give 20 rides.  It had been over a year since I did rideshare.  I ended up doing 33 rides.  There was a significant amount of surge during the weekend I did this.  On a different day Uber offered a $100 bonus to make 3 food deliveries.  I averaged more than $50/hour with the bonuses, but that probably won't happen again.

April Income: $17,393

$0 Mystery Shopping/ Merchandising
$0 Meeting Jobs
$1,011 Gig Apps (Rideshare, Food Deliveries, etc.)
$1,118 Amazon Deliveries
$2,080 Rental Income (Rental Expenses:  $639)
$3,339 Airbnb Income (Airbnb Expenses:  $1,071)
$25 Interest Income

$9,821 Other Sources

Investment Accounts Change in Value:  $54,101

My investment accounts were up.  Way up.  My largest position, Vereit, announced it was being acquired by Realty Income.  Major gain in a single day.  I will probably sell my shares since they will otherwise convert to shares of Realty Income.  The only downside to this amazing gain is figuring out where to re-allocate my cash.

My Frugal Miser - April Expenses

In April I kept expenses below income once again, but spending was higher than I hoped.  Because we just moved to our new place, expenses of settling in were high.

• The household expense includes a new fence we built ourselves.  We added a fence on the east side of our house for privacy and plan to create a paved patio area soon.  I also spent a small fortune on bamboo and other privacy hedges.  
• Spending on food has been higher since we began our diet.  After moving to our new home we needed to re-stock our groceries.  Also, we visited Austin and Asheville, so restaurant spending was higher.  The brisket in Austin was well worth the expense!
• HealthyWage paid me for the two weight loss bets I won.  My bicycle was damaged and had to be replaced, which affected the Health and Dental category.  I placed a $60 bet on a new 6% weight loss challenge.

Fun

We love adventures.  Spending on experiences makes us better humans.  

• We visited Austin/ San Antonio as well as Asheville, NC.  I booked these trips in advance before travel costs started rising.  There was no reason to redeem hotel points in Austin:  we found a Hampton Inn for $55/night.  I did use points for our Asheville trip.  Flights for both trips were ridiculously inexpensive:  $40 each (roundtrip!) to Austin and $71 to Asheville.

April Expenses:  $4,728

$263 Auto (service, gas, insurance, AAA, etc.)

$0 Bank Fees (annual fee on Chase Hyatt card, trustee fee for Self-Directed IRA)
$62 Clothing/ Personal Care
$1,301 Fun (vacations, movies, gambling, alcohol, concert tickets)

$834 Food

$245 Health and Dental

$1,412 Household/Home Repairs

$0 Unreimbursed Job Expense

$0 Interest Expense

$56 Miscellaneous

$163 Taxes

$391 Utilities