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Home > December debt goal, finishing NaNoWriMo & other news

December debt goal, finishing NaNoWriMo & other news

December 1st, 2014 at 04:34 am

The goal in December is once again to pay the minimum on debt--at least $1550.

That's because any extra money gets stashed at the bottom line in anticipation of taking a loss on our condo if we sell. I think I only managed to set aside about $250 extra this month, and some of that may go to a dental bill, and possibly a new suit for NT if we can find a good deal.

No news on the two bites and new showing, but it is the weekend after a holiday. Hoping we hear something in the coming week.

I completed NaNoWriMo! I finished writing my novel and made it to a little over 50,000 words at about 2 a.m. the morning of the 30th. So I had 22 whole hours to spare. Smile AS finished hers later in the afternoon. It's a great exercise but we're SO glad to be done.

We all have tomorrow off to celebrate a milestone: 9 years of dating, and Tuesday marks 8 years of marriage. (But Monday worked out better to take the day off.) I've racked up $160 in plasma donating money on a prepaid card, and I also have a $25 Amex gift card from my work. We have a reservation at a nice restaurant and I'm perfectly happy to spend it all. We're also going to brunch in the morning (I can use my weekly spending money for that) and shopping during the day (we each have a Xmas budget we're allowed to spend on ourselves and the kids). It'll be a spendariffic day but all the money was carefully set aside, so I feel pretty good about it.

We have free babysitting from my friend whom I've been helping with budgeting. Our tenants/friends are giving us some free babysitting two other days this month. Three in one month--that's incredible! Since we don't have any money or time lately, we simply haven't been going out for fun this year. But one by one, the things that are causing time and money crunches are falling away, just by us being patient and waiting them out and being hypervigilant about our spending.

The biggest time-suck (besides AS's old job that she ditched) is NT's education, and he's done in three weeks (two more weeks of classes and one of tests--I know I keep repeating that, but we just cannot wait).

The biggest money issue is carrying the condo and association dues, and preparing to take a big loss when we do sell it. Once that biggie is out of the way, there are a few other things that will clear up our budget further: refinancing our main mortgage, NT getting a raise, less money toward flex spending and (later next year) daycare, AS possibly ramping up her freelance work.

But once NT has graduated and we sell the condo, things are going to be much rosier even without all the rest of that.

5 Responses to “December debt goal, finishing NaNoWriMo & other news”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1417440641

    Congrats on your relationship milestone and finishing your writing project!!

    Have you dropped the price on the condo again? It seems it has become a bit stagnant and is costing you each month you don't sell.

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1417461373

    Thanks! We haven't dropped the price; it's about as low as could "afford" to sell it for, with room to negotiate down $5K more and offer to cover half of the buyer's closing costs. If we dropped it anymore right now, we'd be struggling to find the money to get out from under the mortgage. (We'll struggle at the amount we're at, but I think we can swing it.)

    Things are slowing down because it's winter, but I'm encouraged we've had some interest recently and are still getting about a showing a week. Looking at the other listings in our association, our realtor thinks we're well-positioned. These things aren't moving fast at any price, but they are selling slowly but surely.

  3. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1417487508

    Congratulations on the relationship time points! Great going on your novel too!

  4. jokeabee Says:
    1417535923

    Have you considered renting out the condo for awhile? Even if rent doesn't cover the mortgage in full you'll have more incoming coming in than currently. And it might give the condo time to appreciate in value more so that you aren't losing as much.

    Great job on NaNoWriMo! Happy Anniversary!

  5. ceejay74 Says:
    1417536130

    Our condo association has rules regarding renting--there can only be x% of units rented, you can only offer a 6-month period of time, etc. If things get desperate we might look into it though. Most of our stuff isn't super fancy, but we did spend nearly $2K getting the floors redone, so it would be stressful to have people in there before it's sold. Still, they wouldn't be able to totally wreck them in just 6 months. I would worry that it wouldn't show as well with people living there, though.

    Basically, I go back and forth. Lots of pros and cons to consider.

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