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Home > Partially kid-free weekend! and other random thoughts

Partially kid-free weekend! and other random thoughts

December 13th, 2013 at 10:33 pm

Today the kids stay at daycare for a sleepover! Meanwhile us grownups are having our anniversary dinner a bit late at a fancy restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. AS and I went there last year around this time and remembered the view of the snow and holiday lights through the big glass windows was just gorgeous, plus the food and service were outstanding. This will be paid for by NT's first, smaller bonus.

Still waiting for the bigger bonus, from which I'll hopefully be able to pay off one of his student loans and also fund all our holiday tips! Word is it'll be distributed sometime next week. They let him contribute 4% of the bonus to his 401(k) with the 2% company match, which will give us another $100 if it's a $5K bonus like we think it is. Sweet!

Tomorrow I'm going to have my oldest daughter go through their toys and help me pick what we can donate to make room for the upcoming Xmas gifts. I've been prepping her for this and she seems very open to the idea. The challenge may be stopping her from donating things she may regret later. Maybe we'll sock them away somewhere to make sure she doesn't have a change of heart; however there's barely anywhere left to hide things with all the Xmas gifts stashed everywhere, so maybe we'll just take a leap of faith and donate. The church across the street has a van parked outside every Sunday for donations to their charity shop, so it's very handy.

I had a business trip this week, and I charged about $400 of expenses (including the hotel room) to my Chase Sapphire card. It'll help get to my rewards bonus, but I'll be reimbursed for it. That felt good!

Sunday is the bday party of one of AA's first friends from her first daycare, and it's also my college's local alumni party, which always takes place in a massive mansion of an eccentric rich alumna. Will be fun! Babysitting for the second event will also be paid for from the smaller of NT's bonuses. (And maybe there'll be enough left to pay for the little girl's bday present.)

We decided to plan a warm-weather vacay instead of a trip to Boston in 2014; we figure the girls will like it a lot better, and we'll appreciate a break from the MN winter. We're thinking mid-February. The budget is still the same, and $1200 of it will be funded with Barclay travel rewards from the three cards we got.

I recently got notice that our condo fees were going up 7.77% next year, and then aNOTHER notice that they'd been mistaken, they're actually going up over 8%! It was going to be $50 more per month, will be more than that now. It's not that we can't handle it, but it does make me afraid that it'll be harder to sell our unit eventually, when there are so many newer condo buildings with much smaller dues.

It does feel like we've been hemorrhaging money lately, though I know the bigger chunks have been planned (like Xmas spending) or unavoidable (like big medical costs). I've asked that we have as low-key a January as possible, partly to try and tone down the spending but also because our social and work calendars are filling up rapidly in all the other upcoming months. Our December calendar looks nuts, and February will be our vacation trip, and March is our 5-birthday month plus two business trips (one for NT and one for AS), and April may be another business trip for AS, and in May our UK friends will be visiting. Yikes!

One good thing is that I rolled over vacation days this year, so I'll have some extras to use just for me next year. Now to find time to use them!

Another good thing: Almost all Xmas gifts have been bought (mostly ordered online). We have a few more for AS's mom since she's coming to visit, and I need to ship my parents' once I receive my mom's, but that's about it. Then wrapping before Xmas, but that's always kind of fun. I just scored some free wrapping paper from my job, so that won't cost any more.

Next week should be semi-relaxing; not too much to do. I'm going to take AA on her first Xmas shopping trip to get gifts for all of us. She has a budget of $50 (not that she knows what that means, so I'll have to steer her toward cheap little trinkets. Smile) Then AS's mom arrives for a week's visit. She'll be staying at a hotel so it won't get too overwhelming, I don't think. Plus, maybe some free grandma babysitting for us. Smile

1 Responses to “Partially kid-free weekend! and other random thoughts”

  1. SicilyYoder Says:
    1386983075

    I finished my Christmas shopping this week and have bags of gifts all over my living room into my open kitchen. I hate wrapping gifts, but I need to get it done this weekend.
    I used to do Gatorade resets and would use the Hilton Honor points.Some hotels let me and some didn't.

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