Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Savings for Xmas, personal loan, job/unemployment update, 2nd ultrasound

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:55:11 PST

Yesterday was my biweekly savings day, and I put $200 into the Xmas fund. (We put aside $600 each year, $200 going to buy presents for each of us. All extended-family and friend gifts come from our own spending money.)

I also sent a $1400 personal loan payment yesterday and it...

A little bit to the EF

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:59:49 PST

I completely forgot I did this, but when I went online to check the UK mortgage balances yesterday, I noticed we did clear 25 pounds of profit from renting the UK flat this month, despite having to pay management fees. So I transferred it into UK savings and it gets counted toward...

Progress on November debt goal

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:43:45 PST

My new, lower (but more to principal) mortgage payment hit, and $372 went to principal. Love it! That's $733 down, $1467 to go on the November debt goal.

Also, wrote about 450 more words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I need to go a lot faster if I'm going to hit 50,000 by the...

First debt payments in November

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:26:44 PST

NT's three UK mortgages hit:
#1 $253 to principal
#2 $53 to principal
#3 $55 to principal

All told, $361 down, $1839 to go on my November goal.

Also, I wrote 685 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night! I've managed about one more sentence so far today, but I'm hoping to get...

First savings in November

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:58:49 PST

I transferred $120 into savings for AS's retirement, so just $600 to go on my November savings goal.

AS's $500 CD is coming up in mid-November, so I have to decide what to do next. Maybe with the money I've been putting into savings (I have about $850), plus that $500, it would...

November 2009 goals

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:43:17 PST

Debt: Pay off at least $2200 of debt.
Balance as of 11/1: $386,334
Goal balance: $384,134
I hope to make my next-to-last payment on the personal loan this month.

Savings: Save at least $720 ($120 for AS's retirement; $600 for Xmas fund)
Progress: DONE! $776 saved
We have to...

October goals wrap-up

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:11:12 PST

OCTOBER 2009 GOALS:

1. Debt: Pay off at least $2600 of debt.
Results: DONE! $2865 paid

2. Savings: Save at least $775
Results: DONE! $776 saved

5. Creative/crafts: Begin to brainstorm and plot novel idea.
Results: Uh, kinda. I lazily thought about ideas all month, and this...

CC payment hit

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:29:19 PST

My credit card payment put $191 toward principal. I never know if they're going to send me the bill in time to get it out before the end of the month, but they did. Since it's a CC with a superlow fixed rate, I always pay it the second I get it, because I don't want to get anywhere...

More debt paid off, etc.

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:16:28 PST

One of AS's student loan payments hit, and $61 went toward principal. That makes our October debt payment total $2674.

This student loan is such low-hanging fruit; now at $1855, I could have it paid off soo soon if I focused on it. However, at 2.5%, it's the next-lowest interest...

Reached October debt goal

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:23:20 PST

A student loan hit (AS's) and $115 went to principal. That means we've paid $2613 of debt in October, slightly exceeding our goal of $2600.

I might have a few more debt payments hit this week; we'll see.

Now that I'm aggressively paying down debt again, after focusing on the...

Sticky note for later: retirement balances

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:16:57 PST

Note to self:
One of NT's pensions is at GBP 14,721
AS's CD is at $516.25

That is all. We just got statements in the mail for these two accounts. I hardly ever get info on some of our accounts and don't know how to check them online, so I wanted to note these so I could update...

Savings goal reached

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:52:10 PST

Yay, the blogs are back! I've been checking all day.

The automatic biweekly savings hit, with $25 going to the baby/EF. So we saved $776, $1 over our October goal of $775 LOL.

I've been home with a nasty cold for two days. I'm going in tomorrow as I think I can feel it letting...

October 2009 net worth

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:24:56 PST

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
10,725 pounds ($21,450)
NT's 401(k): $6,444
AS's 403(b): $2,888
AS's CD: $500
AS retirement savings: $725
CJ's 401(k): $30,022
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset):...

Personal loan payment hit!

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:50:49 PST

Of course the first thing I did when I got into work was to check my personal loan balance online. $1765 of my payment went to principal! For the October goal, that means I've got $2498 down, $102 to go on my debt repayment goal.

The personal loan is down to $3114 now. I know I...

Debt progress today; big leap tomorrow

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:14:12 PST

A student loan (AS) hit today, with $82 going to principal. $733 down, $1867 to go on the October debt goal.

Most of my progress will happen tomorrow. The $1800 payment to my personal loan was taken out of my checking account this morning. Not sure how much is going to interest....

Condo value: inconclusive

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:48:51 PST

A recent SA post about home values got me looking for what my condo would sell for. It's in one of two high-rise buildings with many similar units, so it's probably easier for me to determine my home's value than for homeowners with a unique house. (On the other hand, depending on...

Savings progress + first movements felt?

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:57:11 PST

The regular biweekly savings hit, with $25 going into the baby/EF. $751 saved, $24 to go on the October goal.

I think I'm feeling the baby move occasionally, but I can't really tell. Sometimes it just feels like a little muscle spasm, like an eye twitch in my lower belly. Other...

Prepaid costs plan update

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:47:51 PST

AS made her 1000 minutes last 3 months and 1 week, so that's a 1-week improvement over the last 1000! But seriously, I think there's no getting around the fact that while she's at home, and doesn't have a work phone with which to conduct calls during the day, her minutes are going...

Dipped into the baby/EF

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:41:14 PST

We went to the mall this weekend to use some Old Navy gift cards from MyPoints. We went to see if they had a maternity section, and they did--a small one, but I still found a pair of pants and two sweaters, all on sale. It was $30.99 more than the gift cards, so I was going to take...

Meet Noodles!

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:35:34 PST

On Thursday a friend posted photos of a cat that had been abandoned near her home for about a month. As always NT wistfully wished we could adopt him. We've always said that we can't get a cat in America because he might be too old when it's time to move back. (The quarantine can be...