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Home > Great debt progress, fitness tracking, and my busy week so far!

Great debt progress, fitness tracking, and my busy week so far!

August 16th, 2012 at 03:01 am

Today was our adoption! But I'll talk about that in a bit.

A big extra student loan payment hit, with $1042 going to principal. That makes $1866 down, $134 to go on our August goal. Sounds good, except we only have one more regular debt payment that usually puts about $127 to principal. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to send a small extra payment to make sure we hit our goal! I'll use some of next month's extra debt repayment money.

Now the fitness tracking. I've done really well with food, but utterly neglected working out. I've got to find a new way to trick myself into doing it! I'm not big into working out, so I always peter out if I don't add some new twist to make it seem more like a game and less like work.

Aug. 13
10-min. workout: No. 3/13
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,426. 13/13
No night snacks: Success. 11/13

Aug. 14
10-min. workout: No. 3/14
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,369. 14/14
No night snacks: Success. 12/14

Aug. 15
10-min. workout: No. 3/15
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,371. 15/15
No night snacks: Success. 13/15

It's not been a routine week so far, which is my flimsy excuse for working out -- but really I know I'm just bored and need a new game to focus on.

Anyway, Monday night we had a friend over for dinner, playing with the kids, and a game after kids went to bed. This is a newer friend; we've actually expanded our social circle a bit over the past couple years, and not just parents of other kids either. It's been really nice to feel like it's not just shrinking steadily. This friend is younger than us, around 30, and works with NT (he got her the job after we met her) as well as attending trivia with us on Tuesdays.

Tuesday was primary election night in Minnesota, so I voted after work and then spent the night glued to the computer watching for results. NT and AS went to trivia with friends and I stayed home with the kids.

Today I stayed home from work because ... we had our court date this afternoon! It went really smoothly (once I figured out which car we'd reserved and fought my way through downtown traffic, oh and we forgot a nipple for SL's bottle and didn't realize it until halfway through the hearing ... but other than that, TOtally smooth). Our lawyer had already cleared everything with the judge; once he explained our relationship she was fine with it, so the hearing was just a formality. Our lawyer asked us a bunch of questions, we kept the kids as quiet as possible, and the judge said like two words at the end and it was over really suddenly! It feels amazing to have legal rights in place for me as SL's mother and for AS as AA's mother. Best $4500 we ever spent. Wink

We'll get our certified copies of the official record in the mail, so I won't be able to switch SL to my healthcare until we get that. But it should be pretty soon.

In other financial-variables news, we saw AS's first post-raise paycheck today, and it was $15.00 more than my guesstimate. (I did get the cents part right, which is really odd.) So that's $30 more per month that we can put in the house/moving fund (unless our mortgage goes up in Nov. and it needs to go there).

Let's see, other random updates:

We fixed another issue with our living space, the two mismatched rugs in front of the couch, by purchasing carpet tiles and making a custom-sized rug that stretches all the way to our rocking chair. It looks so much better and more uniform. I should do another photo soon. Not right now because there's laundry and mail scattered around. Smile

AS's mom sent three big boxes of clothes and stuff for the girls. Mostly SL (who totally doesn't need anything because we still have all of AA's, but it's kind of fun to have new stuff) but some for AA as well. Now we have to either get rid of some or find more places to store them. NT and AS are looking through them now.

The pack 'n' play we got on Freecycle is really slanty and leans to one side. It's fine for SL now, but it won't cut it when she starts cruising (walking around holding the sides for support). So at some point we'll need to replace it. I think we'll try Freecycle again; the last time we requested one, we got three offers in two days!

Now that NT is out of school for a few weeks, I think we'll try to list a few odds and ends on eBay and/or Craigslist. NT already listed an old school book on Half. We've got some DVDs and books from our recent declutter that might get something. Oh, and SL has totally given up on pacifiers, and we have two unused ones still in packaging that are a pretty nice brand; might get a couple bucks for those.

The books I'll just take to the used-book store. They don't take much these days, but we might pick up a few bucks that way. The ones we can't sell there I'll donate to either the Women's Prison Book Project or the library.

Anything we make will go toward our new, as yet still tiny house fund!

I'm also taking a couple weeks off in the meal planning/cooking department. It's going to be almost all me again when classes start up, so I'm trying to take a bit of a break. I'll try not to be too meddlesome, though I've been trying to be hypervigilant about keeping the grocery list to a minimum. We've been doing REALLY well, keeping food spending under $100 most weeks (sometimes MUCH less), but the diapers, wipes and formula are killing our budget nonetheless. It's going to get crucial to make cheap meals once the CSA stops delivering produce in Sept./Oct.

That's all the news I can think of for now!

4 Responses to “Great debt progress, fitness tracking, and my busy week so far!”

  1. laura Says:
    1345121687


    I love "Gotcha Day Stories" - now you got yourself two babies (though you really always did, what is a piece of paper anyway?!) Anyhow, happy day!

  2. CB in the City Says:
    1345123034

    Congratulations!

    I'll be with you on the decluttering. I've got some serious work to do before I move!

  3. North Georgia Gal Says:
    1345134785

    So happy for you with the adoption! Laura is right...it's just a piece of paper but it makes it official.

  4. Jerry Says:
    1345300535

    Congratulations on the adoption... that little acknowledgement actually does lead to a great change in your family's lives. To have the insurance of recognized parenthood is a huge deal. Smile Beautiful.
    Jerry

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