Wow, what a week and a half it's been! Lots has been happening, and my sleep has been messed up. I got up before 6:30 am to vote before work Tuesday, then stayed up past 1:30 hoping to see whether our two horrible proposed amendments passed. (I finally went to bed when I heard they were doing a hand recount of some precincts -- I missed the good news that they'd both been voted down until I asked NT the next morning!) Then SL has been teething and restless, and she woke us up in the middle of the night a time or two this week.

So, I guess I'll start with the bad news and then get to the good!

The bad news is that I've majorly FAILED on my goal to work on a novel and my fitness goal to do weight training. I wrote about 1325 words before I realized it was just too hard with a toddler, an infant, a spouse in college and another who has to bring work home all the time. Any bits of time I found, I found it impossible to concentrate. I gave up by about Nov. 4.

And working out, I just keep honestly forgetting to do until it's late and I'm tired. I've got to remember not to make a bunch of ambitious goals in November! There are only about two and a half weeks between election day and Thanksgiving which are both BIG days in our home, and then after turkey day it's time to start getting ready for Christmas.

But, I don't mind too much about my goals because of all the good news!

First, I went ahead and booked my plane tickets to visit my parents in December, and I'm over halfway to paying for them through random windfall money. I found extra money in the haircut fund, won a $10 and a $25 gift card at work, got $82 profit sharing from our grocery co-op, AND I did a credit card deal when I booked the airfare. It's a $100 after first purchase deal, but with a $69 annual fee I'll only net $31. Still, for $366 worth of plane tickets, that's nearly 10% off the price. With all these random windfalls coming, I'm sure I can find another $160 here and there and fully fund the tickets without taking money from another budget item.

Next, the HUGE good news. We got a letter from our mortgage company that they canceled our private mortgage insurance! I didn't know this, but as part of Dodd-Frank, banks are required to cancel PMI once you pay your mortgage down to 78% of the original property value. We're still underwater, but apparently we met that other requirement! I checked and it's about $127 less per month. So that's a BIG boost to our budget. I can put it toward any of our goals, like our emergency fund or our house/moving fund.

It also means that over 50% of our regular debt payments now go to principal! Because of PMI, mortgage, escrow and of course because we're paying interest-only on a couple of the student loans, our minimum payments have always had less than 50% going to principal. (A great motivator for all my extra debt payment, believe me!) But eliminating PMI finally takes us below the 50% line.

We've had some other bits of good money news, but those are the best. I've got to go now; more minutes slipped by since I started this entry, and now we have to get ready to go to a potluck party!