AS's student loan payment hit, with $131 going to principal. That means we hit our October debt goal, surpassing the $3000 goal with $3008 paid.
Monthly interest to the house/moving fund: $3.36, taking house savings progress to $4,561.71.
Monthly interest to the medical EF: $0.25, taking that fund to $1,514.26.
We got the first bill from the ER -- $337.63 -- and paid immediately, splitting it between my and NT's new Barclay cards. It took both up over the $1000 spending threshold, so we'll be getting $800 in travel rewards soon!
I've been checking NT's insurance account almost every day, and one other claim has appeared so far. Looks like we'll be on the hook for $483.57 for that one, taking total OOP cost to $821.20. I would be truly amazed and overjoyed if these were the only two bills, but I'm prepared for a lot more.
I've already applied for two more rewards cards -- a Barclays for AS and a USBank for NT. AS has already been approved, so we can use her card to pay the next medical bill and she'll be halfway toward earning another $400 in travel rewards. NT hasn't been approved yet, but if he does, we just need to spend $500 to get $150 cash. Should be fairly easy to spend up even if we don't get any more medical bills, what with Xmas and our anniversary coming up in December, and the planned spending for those days.
I have a few things I want to accomplish in November, so I'm going to try and be disciplined. I want to get back to my goal weight (I'm 6 lbs. over it right now), get going on my other finance blog (haven't blogged there in over a month), and participate in NaNoWriMo. But, these are all optional things, so if I start to feel overwhelmed, I'll just take it down a notch. We'll see how it goes. It's been crazy busy at work so I've been exhausted when I get home, but I don't think it can stay at this pace much longer.
I've decided to drastically simplify my sidebar and not focus so much on how much progress I made/make each month, just the total numbers. I'll be working on that tonight.
Hit October goal! Big-picture progress, new medical claim, etc.
October 29th, 2013 at 04:10 am
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Overall, is the quality of life improving since your embracing simplicity? I'm always moving towards it, but simplicity is sort of an illusive thing when you share a life with a spouse and five kids and animals and friends are in and out. So if you've had a measure of success in that arena and can share some magic, please do.
October 29th, 2013 at 03:27 pm 1383060420
Momcents, there is a certain comfort to just focusing consciously on being kinder and easier on ourselves and each other. Being able to shrug when things don't go exactly as planned, being able to "tap out" and say "I gotta sleep in" or "Let's get takeout tonight." We actually haven't played our new cards very often, which is exactly what I wanted to happen. Just feeling like everything is more optional makes them seem less unpleasant, so we've continued most of our activities and frugal behaviors, but we feel like it's a choice instead of a mandate.
It's a tiny shift in attitude but significant in how we feel at home. Work is still the main sticking point for all of us. Mine is the most manageable and even it has been stressful and overwhelming recently. We're all taking steps to try and improve that, but of course we don't have as much autonomy as we do at home.
October 29th, 2013 at 11:55 pm 1383090933
October 30th, 2013 at 03:37 pm 1383147463