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Home > Reno, kindergarten, freelance, CC charges, etc.

Reno, kindergarten, freelance, CC charges, etc.

August 21st, 2015 at 04:43 am

The living room reno is done! I'm holding off on photos until we have our new furniture in, but the reno part looks really nice. The contractor said he thinks it went over budget but not by much, so we just paid the 2nd half of $4000 and he'll let us know if we owe more.

He's eager to start planning the next reno, which is nice, but I don't know if we'll be able to do another whole room this year. We've got the UK trip to save up for. It has crossed my mind that NT usually gets a bonus in December...but I don't want to pre-spend that money in my mind, so not factoring that in.

But, depending on how much the living room went over and how much the basement bathroom ends up costing, we may have money to do some small improvements around the house. NT wants more electrical outlets; some walls have random holes and damage and could use patching up; NT's record room needs a ceiling light; the stairs to the third floor have some tacky horrible old carpet that should be replaced; we'd like the popcorn ceiling taken off the bedroom. Other than that, we'd like most of the rooms painted, but that's something we can handle ourselves.

But, I think I'll ask the contractor for a ballpark on renovating the main floor bathroom. I'd like a rough figure to focus on so we can start saving for it.

Anyway, enough rambling about renovations. We hit a snag with our kindergarten plans: The school says it won't bus AA to her daycare, 1.4 miles away. It's outside the zone. Apparently the school is near the edge of the zone; in the other direction they do bus nearly 2 miles.

We've gone through many scenarios, none of them ideal. Our main priority is to keep AA at our daycare for after-school care, which is going to take more effort than just having her do after-school care somewhere in the bus zone. I contacted the head of the PTO and asked her if she could help me find carpool options. If we find someone we'll offer some money for the trouble, though it won't be too much trouble if someone lives in the area; it's about a 3-minute drive to daycare.

If that doesn't work, we've got some backup scenarios we can explore. But this seems like the most likely. We have another week; kindergarten starts Wednesday.

Speaking of, today was meet-the-teacher night. It was really great; the teacher seemed awesome, other parents and kids were nice, and AA looked right at home in the classroom. I'm feeling really good about her starting kindergarten now.

On to freelance. It's been really slow in the checks department (less than $1000 so far this month), but AS has booked some nice income, including 2 days of work at my office. She's now over $53K for the year! It's just that some places are being slower to pay than normal, so the money isn't coming in. It'll be nice when it does! AS is starting her teaching gig soon, so she won't be able to book as much work, but she'll probably still pull in a little bit here and there.

I noticed a random $23 charge on the CC today and asked the family about it; AS says it's this link aggregator she uses but they didn't indicate they were charging her anything. So she's requested a refund. Hopefully just a mistake and not a scam!

Other news, other news...work is going OK, I think I'm impressing the right people to maybe be up for a raise this year, but I got such a big boost with my title change, so who knows? NT should get a raise for how hard he's been working and how well the company's doing, but again, can't predict that.

Got a few semi-spendy things coming up, which the freelance income will be good for when it comes in. My alumni group is meeting for a sailboat ride this month; that part's free, but I promised donuts and coffee for everyone. NT, AS and I have a short staycation planned for early October, and we're considering throwing a Halloween party. And, of course, we're probably going to adopt our foster cat soon. Smile

Guess that's it!

4 Responses to “Reno, kindergarten, freelance, CC charges, etc.”

  1. scottish girl Says:
    1440139111

    I'm glad AA looks settled in kindergarten Smile

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1440165632

    Busy time! Kindergarten is usually such fun for those kids who have already adjusted to being away from parents. My sister is a KTG teacher...always like it when she shares some of the cute things they say. Smile

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1440213613

    I loved those kindegarten years too.

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1440213897

    Carpooling sounds like a good solution.

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