Not just energy-wise, but also in terms of money.
Finally heard from the broker about what I need to bring to closing. Seller is covering $9K of closing costs, but our homeowner's insurance on the new place was much more than broker thought it would be (since we don't have auto insurance that we can bundle), so closing costs ran more than that. An estimated $1,836 more (broker is confident that he's within $100 of the final number).
We had a $1450 budget surplus through December, so that's gone, and we had about $300 more in savings than we thought we'd need to bring for closing. I also have cellphones as a $50 monthly line item when it's really more like $40 per month, so I changed that to $40 through the end of the year. So we can cover the additional closing costs, but that does it for us.
(Of course we do have about $17K in UK savings, but trying to pretend it doesn't exist. We also still have variable line items of groceries and spending money that could be reduced if necessary, but I don't want to touch them except as a last resort.)
Nothing else can be taken from our budget, so the only way to free up any money this year will be by increasing our income.
We don't have any definites in that area, but several promising possibilities:
- I may get a raise in August (probable)
- NT may get a raise in August or September (less certain judging from how his work has jerked him around in the past, though we think they've been scared straight by his co-worker quitting)
- AS may make more money once she leaves her current job at the end of August (very possible, since her salary compared with her experience and talents is woefully low)
- The WV money may come in (no idea how likely that is)
- NT may get a bonus in December (very likely; the only thing we don't know is how much, as it varies depending on company performance)
So, we're wiped out. But next year's budget is looking very good, so even if none of the above extra income materializes, we just have to scrape by for the next 6 months!
We are wiped out!
July 9th, 2014 at 04:47 pm
July 9th, 2014 at 06:30 pm 1404930647
- Paint kids' room
- Tape and paint kitchen
- Tape and paint bathroom
- Put handles on kitchen cabinets
- Replace toilet seat
- Install curtain rod and hang curtain in kids' room
- Clean all kitchen appliances thoroughly
- Move more stuff into storage
- Call the floor guy to schedule his part of the work
- Staging, and assessing whether we need any more staging elements (we're thinking nightstands in our bedroom, but we'll see) -- this includes adding protective runners to metal rocking chair, replacing brown couch cover with white, and adding art to walls and other finishing touches
- Get real estate pics taken
- Fill out paperwork to list our place
Anyway, doing physical things keeps the jitters away
July 9th, 2014 at 08:30 pm 1404937807
NT is the handyman of the house, so we'll be looking to him to do the cabinet handles, curtain rod and toilet seat. I don't mind taping and painting, so I'll probably work on the kitchen and bathroom as soon as the contractors are done (today or tomorrow). AS is going to paint the kids' room. We'll all help packing and moving stuff into storage, and cleaning and staging. We've all been just trying to fill in free time by chipping away at those chores. I'll call the floor guy next week. Our friend will take pics and our realtor will lead us through getting the place listed.