Watchlist & Expenses

UN & CHD
I've been watching these two.  They are both priced in the $50s, similar P/Es and betas, both are near the top of their 52 week highs (not a good thing for me), but they are both consumer staples.  Neither is a dividend aristocrat.  UN is more appealing due to the yield - and foreign presence - but a bit more speculative due to Kraft-Heinz attempting to buy them.  Apparently they were turned down, and there's some talk about a hostile bid takeover.  I have Kraft-Heinz in my watchlist, so I find this situation intriguing.  Right now, UN, then CHD are the two next in line for purchases to add to my collection, in that order.  While I was paid today, i suspect the transfer won't happen until Wednesday next week - historically the worst day to buy stocks.  If this is the case, I will adjust the withdrawal timing to happen on Monday, usually the best day to buy stocks as the markets reel from weekend news.  

When assessing one's bills, it helps to get them down.  While having a family tends to cause some volatility (for example, the past two weeks I've been buying school books), I usually have enough bonuses and SPP proceeds to account for it.  Some bills are annual, or semi-annual, but I'm going to break them down into monthly increments and see what I can do to reduce them.  I'll try to target one bill a blog.

Water: $15-94(?)
Typically $15-18 a month covers the water usage in my household.  May jumped up to $45 as I started increasing watering the backyard to save the grass in this hot summer - it has an aesthetic look being green instead of dirt in the yard - but probably not worth the cost.  I also have two small fruit trees I want survive (in the interest of self-sustenance).   June ended up $94!  This is with daily double watering in the PM and early AM.  I turned off the AM watering yesterday, I'll see what impact it has.  As the weather cools, I'll be able to dial it back - but it was quite a shock to see that - I once received a $12 water bill and bragged about it to my friends.  Perhaps if I invested in more fruits/vegetables, and learn how much to water during different parts of the year, it might be a good return, especially with shade...  I'll work on cutting this one by half next month.   New Goal: $46