First Quarter 2023 Summary

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Hello! How are you doing? I can’t believe that 25% of 2023 is already passed. Three months have passed in a blink of an eye. Here’s what I did past three months.

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Trip to Japan

We went to Japan, and it was an incredible experience! We enjoyed fresh seafood, lovely foods, new cultural experience, and shopping. We spent about $5,000 for two adults during our week’s stay. Here is the breakdown.

Total spent in a week by two adults in Japan:

Airline tickets: $3,000
Hotel: $750
Transportation: $550 (Shinkansen was quite expensive)
Food: $600
Shopping: $150

Spirit helped us to save money on airline tickets since Delta is super expensive now. Delta was offering airline tickets to Japan for $3,000 per person. For two adults, $6,000!? That’s insane. We love Delta, and we are hoping they will reduce the cost of airline tickets sometime soon.

We booked the hotel using Hilton Honors Point. It saved tons of money on hotel costs. Hilton offers complimentary breakfast for Gold and Diamond members. We saved some money with this complimentary breakfast buffet too!

We used Shinkansen to go to Hokkaido from Tokyo because our plane was delayed. It was pretty expensive but better than wasting a day waiting for the next flight. We thought it was very convenient we could buy tickets without any reservations.

During my stay in Japan, I ate crab sashimi for the first time. It was amazingly delicious. I’ve never thought of eating raw crab in the past.

Panera Unlimited Sip Club

Working from home sometimes limited my creativity, so I started going to Panera Bread to refresh my mind. I always order iced tea at Panera. The iced tea costs $3 + tax per cup. After 4th visit to Panera Bread, I realized that $3 + tax iced tea is quite expensive.

So, I signed up for Panera Unlimited Sip Club! For about $12 per month, you can get any size of coffee, tea, or fountain drink for free. No purchase is required. All I need to do is type in my phone number in the kiosk, redeem complimentary iced tea, grab cups, and directly go to the drink bar. There are not many places in my neighborhood selling good unsweetened iced tea.

Hand sanitizer spray. 70% Ethyl Alcohol. Moisturizes without giving it a greasy feel. The best hand sanitizer spray Touchland is here!

I also use this and it’s really compact and cute. Great for traveling.

I Wrote 3 Posts

In case you missed it, past 3 months I published the below posts:

I’ve been away from the blogging community lately. But I would like to continue blogging! If you are a personal finance blogger, travel blogger, or frugal living blogger, let’s be a friend on social media. (Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest) I’d love to read your blog.

Money

I constantly make around $2,000 a month from my side hustles these days. Virtual Assistant boosted my side hustle income. My reselling business scaled down, and I’m not actively listing new items. Higher shipping costs hit the prices of imported goods. It is challenging to secure profits with reselling business to me. I invested most of my side hustle income in a money market fund for high-yield return. Dividends continue to increase as the principal amount increases. I’m making $300 a month from the dividends as of now.

Here is the overall breakdown.

The total of 3 months of side hustle income:

VA $4,950
Dividends $900
Reselling $150

Lowered the Internet and Cell Phone Bills

We used to pay for the internet and cell phone $177 a month, and we weren’t happy about it. We were trying to figure out how to make it cheaper. Last month, we switched to Spectrum One. And it lowered our internet and cell phone bills to $100 a month. (Savings $77 a month!) The internet is faster, bills are cheaper, and we are happier (:

Hair Dye

How do you deal with your gray hair? I used to dye my hair with Madison Reed at home. Madison Reed Radiant Hair Color Kit delivers gorgeous, salon-quality hair color with 100% gray coverage. I liked Madison Reed. But I tried highlighting and seamlessly blending my grays last month! It was a bit expensive, but so far so good. I like my new hairstyle. If I get more gray hair, I’ll dye all of my hair, but for now, maybe highlighting is a better solution.

Wrapping Up

It’s your turn. How was your Q1 of 2023? Is anything fun or new?