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Progress on July debt goal & 2012 EF goal; mortgage thoughts, condo org

July 2nd, 2012 at 04:32 pm

The UK mortgages hit:
#1: $268 to principal
#2: $56
#3: $58

All told, $382 down, $643 to go on the July debt repayment goal.

Also, we had US$600 in the UK checking account left over after the mortgage payments hit, which I was able to transfer into UK savings for the EF. That puts our EF savings at $14,724.41 -- FINALLY above our $14,472.57 starting point again! Let's see if it'll last -- seems like every time we make some progress, an unexpected expense hits. We have basically no hope of reaching the $20K goal this year -- we'll make it our 2013 goal and hope for the best!

***

I've been thinking about AS's raise of $84+ per month, which we're not allocating until we find out what our mortage will adjust to come Nov. 1. I looked around online to try and see if anyone had predictions on the future of ARM rates, and I did find one site that predicted rates would stay low through the end of the year (http://www.hsh.com/2month4cast.html). I would be ecstatic if our mortgage payment stayed about the same and we were able to allocate that raise money to something else!

***

We made some decent progress on trying to simplify our cluttered main living area. We tried putting some test sheets of fabric over all the open shelving. We didn't mind the one we put over the fabric cabinet, but the cumulative effect of cloth on all the shelves was a bit overwhelming. AS said it looked like portions of our place had been "redacted." LOL.

So, we're going forward with putting fabric over the sewing supplies, but our goal for the other shelves will just be to simplify so there's less to look at.

NT doesn't want to get rid of the jackets for his DVDs or CDs, but AS and I don't mind about ours. So I took all the DVDs that classified as ours -- all our belongings are more or less shared, but there were about 80 DVDs that NT doesn't care about that are only here because AS or I love them. I took those down and stored them away and ordered a 100-DVD storage book on Amazon. I also pulled out my CDs (about 40) and ordered a 48-CD holder. The three of us also went through our collections and eliminated about 40 DVDs and 15 CDs, which we'll Freecycle, eBay or give to friends. (I've already got a friend who wants our 7 Seinfeld box sets!)

NT is going to go through his CDs tomorrow and see if he can give up a few more.

With this slimming down, we're hoping to get all our CDs, DVDs and videogames to fit on the one larger shelving unit so we can get rid of the smaller unit. That will simplify that corner of the room.

We read a great article about how American kids are less self-sufficient and more pampered than ever before (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/07/02/120702crbo_books_kolbert) and one thing NT was struck by was talking about how much STUFF an American kid has. He'd suggested paring down the toys and books before but I'd kind of put him off. But in the new spirit of decluttering, and in light of this article, we've decided to have another go. That will help cut down on the toy shelf in the living room too; I've decided to keep just one row of books and have the other shelves only contain a few aesthetically pleasing toys. The rest will go in her room (and STAY there dammit! Big Grin).

Once I get rid of my DVD and CD cases, which are currently taking up a drawer in the TV table, we'll put some of our board games there. That will simplify the appearance of that shelf.

Once again I can't do pictures yet, since the Seinfeld and other DVDs to be gotten rid of are now out on countertops. We did get rid of the other stuff that was sitting out, but it's still a work in progress!

2 Responses to “Progress on July debt goal & 2012 EF goal; mortgage thoughts, condo org”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1341291963

    Sounds like you're making great progress!

  2. Looking Forward Says:
    1341528479

    Sounds like great progress.
    How about some cute/simple baskets to tuck into the open shelves?

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