Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Let's see if this works ...





Nope! Bummer! Well, I'll repost if the photo function is ever repaired. (No one got back to me on the forums when I asked about it.)

Phew, we finally figured out the after-school situation for our soon-to-be kindergartner (she starts tomorrow! eek!).

Initially we decided that AS would pick her up and take her to daycare on days that she could, and we enrolled AA in the school's after-school program the other two days (Tues. and Thurs.) of the week. For the first week, when AS wouldn't be available Wed. or Fri. to pick her up, we were arranging friends to step in.

When I told the daycare lady about this, she said she'd be able to pick AA up Mon-Wed-Fri. That was a surprise because previously we'd only talked about that happening if AA could get bussed slightly closer to daycare (e.g. to the daycare lady's sister's house). So then we thought to ask if she could pick her up all FIVE days.

So today we worked it out. For $155 more per month, the daycare lady or her husband will pick AA up every day after school.

Whew! Is it the absolute cheapest option? No, but it's the best-feeling one. Our daycare provider and her family are like OUR family. And frankly, her tuition is so cheap that an extra $155 doesn't feel like a big deal at all. With the 2 days a week at the school's after-school program, we would have been paying about $105 more per month anyway, so this is only a bit more expensive than our other option, and AS doesn't lose productivity on her freelancing in the afternoons getting AA from school to daycare.

As for the net effect to our budget, it's $155 more than we originally planned, but still $35 cheaper than full-time daycare for both kids.

We realized another expense we need to work into the budget is school lunches. It's not much; AA will probably only eat school lunch 1 or 2 days per week when there's a vegetarian option (besides grain-veggie salads, which are available every day but I don't think AA would go for). So it'll be maybe $20 per month. Our food budget may need to go up a bit to accommodate making lunches when usually we just relied on the daycare to feed AA, but we'll see. We might be able to just work it into the existing budget.

Even so, with AS's healthcare dropping from $170 last month to just $70 from now on, our overall budget is looking really good.

So, I'm really really happy!

We're still going around in circles on the question of after-school care for the kindergartner. Or rather, transportation to the after-school care. Although I suppose we should also be looking at alternatives to our chosen after-school care as well.

So basically, the school won't bus to our kids' daycare, 1.4 miles away. It's out of their zone, which goes for 2+ miles in the other direction but only about .6 miles in the direction of daycare.

We've already signed a contract with our current provider; $320 per month for after school on school days, as well as school closure days that the daycare is open. (Daycare is open a lot more than school is.)

The school has an after-school and non-school day program that supposedly doesn't fill up, so it's a possibility. $13.05 per day for after-school; $42.20 per day for non-school days. So cost-wise, it would end up similar to daycare; a bit cheaper in months with no school closures, more expensive in months with school closures.

The daycare lady is very willing to work with us, even though she doesn't have a car. Her sister lives close to the school and she mentioned having AA bus there, then the daycare lady or husband could come get her. My daycare lady may charge extra for this service as it would take away from her normal daycare activity.

AS works from home M, W & F this fall, and all days once the class she's teaching is over (assuming she doesn't do it for spring semester). However, she really WORKS and has a profitable business, and I know she gets a great deal done in the afternoons. And I know our kid doesn't like to play alone, so it would be mean to bring her home only to ignore her. Or, if she picked AA up at school and took her to daycare on the bus and came home, she'd lose about an hour of productive time, because that round trip takes about that much time on buses. And again, that would only work on days she wasn't teaching.

A daily taxi from daycare lady's sister to daycare would cost $7-$7.50 per trip including tip. Not sure how I feel about AA being in a taxi alone, but I don't think it's high-risk. Don't know how taxi companies feel about a kid traveling alone.

An ideal situation for me, if I could find it, would be to have another school parent who's driving in that direction anyway drop AA off. I feel that it would be reasonable to pay $5 a day for the 5-10 minutes it would take out of their day. $100 per month (about) would only take our total cost to $420 per month, less than we pay for full-time daycare. I reached out to the PTO head, but she hasn't been able to find someone. I wonder if I can ask the kindergarten teacher to ask around.

Yet another option worth considering: could we negotiate a different contract with the daycare lady, where she covers school closures and summer vacation, but AA does after-school care at the kindergarten on regular school days? I don't know if she'd be up for that, but she might. I'd really like AA to still go there as much as possible, and on non-school days, it would be ideal to drop off and pick up both kids at the same place vs. having two trips for no good reason. Plus, she really loves the daycare and all the kids that go there (including her sister).

For next week, if we haven't found a permanent workable solution yet, we're looking at maybe having a friend pick her up the first day and take her to daycare, or NT might be able to get off work early that day. AS could pick her up the second day, and one of our downstairs neighbors could possibly get her Friday. So if I hear confirmation from the friend and the neighbor, we might have a stopgap solution for the first week, which could buy us more time to figure it out.

Who knew it could be so complicated to figure out how to transport one person for 1.4 miles a day?

The living room reno is done! I'm holding off on photos until we have our new furniture in, but the reno part looks really nice. The contractor said he thinks it went over budget but not by much, so we just paid the 2nd half of $4000 and he'll let us know if we owe more.

He's eager to start planning the next reno, which is nice, but I don't know if we'll be able to do another whole room this year. We've got the UK trip to save up for. It has crossed my mind that NT usually gets a bonus in December...but I don't want to pre-spend that money in my mind, so not factoring that in.

But, depending on how much the living room went over and how much the basement bathroom ends up costing, we may have money to do some small improvements around the house. NT wants more electrical outlets; some walls have random holes and damage and could use patching up; NT's record room needs a ceiling light; the stairs to the third floor have some tacky horrible old carpet that should be replaced; we'd like the popcorn ceiling taken off the bedroom. Other than that, we'd like most of the rooms painted, but that's something we can handle ourselves.

But, I think I'll ask the contractor for a ballpark on renovating the main floor bathroom. I'd like a rough figure to focus on so we can start saving for it.

Anyway, enough rambling about renovations. We hit a snag with our kindergarten plans: The school says it won't bus AA to her daycare, 1.4 miles away. It's outside the zone. Apparently the school is near the edge of the zone; in the other direction they do bus nearly 2 miles.

We've gone through many scenarios, none of them ideal. Our main priority is to keep AA at our daycare for after-school care, which is going to take more effort than just having her do after-school care somewhere in the bus zone. I contacted the head of the PTO and asked her if she could help me find carpool options. If we find someone we'll offer some money for the trouble, though it won't be too much trouble if someone lives in the area; it's about a 3-minute drive to daycare.

If that doesn't work, we've got some backup scenarios we can explore. But this seems like the most likely. We have another week; kindergarten starts Wednesday.

Speaking of, today was meet-the-teacher night. It was really great; the teacher seemed awesome, other parents and kids were nice, and AA looked right at home in the classroom. I'm feeling really good about her starting kindergarten now.

On to freelance. It's been really slow in the checks department (less than $1000 so far this month), but AS has booked some nice income, including 2 days of work at my office. She's now over $53K for the year! It's just that some places are being slower to pay than normal, so the money isn't coming in. It'll be nice when it does! AS is starting her teaching gig soon, so she won't be able to book as much work, but she'll probably still pull in a little bit here and there.

I noticed a random $23 charge on the CC today and asked the family about it; AS says it's this link aggregator she uses but they didn't indicate they were charging her anything. So she's requested a refund. Hopefully just a mistake and not a scam!

Other news, other news...work is going OK, I think I'm impressing the right people to maybe be up for a raise this year, but I got such a big boost with my title change, so who knows? NT should get a raise for how hard he's been working and how well the company's doing, but again, can't predict that.

Got a few semi-spendy things coming up, which the freelance income will be good for when it comes in. My alumni group is meeting for a sailboat ride this month; that part's free, but I promised donuts and coffee for everyone. NT, AS and I have a short staycation planned for early October, and we're considering throwing a Halloween party. And, of course, we're probably going to adopt our foster cat soon.

Guess that's it!

NT's UK rental income hit his checking account. It was more than I was expecting, so I was able to transfer 450 pounds ($720) to his mum. That takes us to 700 pounds down, 1400 to go on what we owe her.

I really hope the income we got this month is the new total now that the place is rented at a higher rate! We'd be able to pay her back (and save up for our 2016 trip) more quickly.

Most of my news is no news. Our plumber pulled a permit for the basement bathroom and now we have to wait for the city to schedule an inspection. Trying to ignore the $4K set aside in our checking account and assume it's all going to the bathroom and the city, but my suspicion is that it's not going to be anywhere that much. So I'm tempted to schedule some more remodeling! But I know I shouldn't until we find out for sure how much the bathroom will cost.

Our living room is still 95% done. The contractor finally got the baseboards from the place that was making them, and he'll bring them sometime this week to install, as well as update a few electrical outlets. Then we'll be done.

We expect the bulk of the furniture in early October. We still need to make some purchases/choices on art, end tables, lamps, clock, etc. But we're kind of waiting until the other stuff is in here and we can see what kind of spaces look like they need filling. (I have been looking on Etsy for art and clocks, but haven't made any decisions.) For end tables and accessories, we'll probably shop thrift stores, Craigslist, antique stores, etc. (Partly to try and save money, partly because we might want some interesting, funky stuff to offset all the neutral grays we'll have going on.) But that all has to wait until the reno is done and the big pieces of furniture are here.

When we do have it furnished, we'll need to sell or Freecycle some stuff we've got. None of it is really great, but we might get an odd few bucks here or there. If I get antsy waiting for other stuff to happen, I might try to get some of that done in the next few weeks.

We found out today that AA's new elementary school won't bus her to our daycare--they say it's out of their bus zone. It's only about 2 miles, so we were really surprised. AS has started making calls to see if there's a way to get an exception or something. I hope we can figure it out, because we really want her to still get to be at the daycare a bit, at least while SL is still at the daycare!

My Roth contribution went through but we still haven't heard anything about AS's issue. I'll have her check in next week or something. I'd love a big bump in net worth at the end of the month, but I don't think the market is doing much. Oh well, it'll pick up again at some point.

Waiting for the next month of UK rental income so we can pay NT's mum another chunk of what we owe, but it's not there yet. The last month it hit on the 17th, so I hope it's there tomorrow.

So that's it. Lots of waiting, but nothing too urgent. Bit of the August malaise, too. As short as the summers here feel, the fall is always nice because it's time to get refocused. Maybe a Dietbet is in order; it's been a summer of eating excess.

Well, I'm being completely lazy for a second day! I actually feel completely over my cold, but when I saw the temperatures were going to be high 80s and 90s for the second day in a row, I backed out of my plan to go to an outdoor breakdance competition and stayed home instead. NT had volunteered there, so he still went, brave boy.

For lunch we had cold sandwiches and snacks. Dinner tonight I do have to turn on the oven, but it's just mock chicken nuggets, tater tots, broccoli and watermelon, so just heat, chop and/or serve; nothing complicated.

I noticed that because of a freelance check, we now have enough float in the budget for me to add another $926 of the September budget to my Roth. I still kept aside enough to max out AS's Roth, because Vanguard is aware of our problem and trying to fix it so that earlier accidental IRA contribution no longer counts toward our max.

I did a rough calculation and think we could max our our 2015 Roths by the end of January 2016! That's great news. Once we max out our 2015 limits, I'm going to up my and NT's 401(k)s so we're each contributing 10%. Right now I'm contributing 6% and getting a 25% (in other words 1.5%) match, so I'm at 7.5%. NT contributes 4% and gets a 50% (aka 2%) match, so he's at 6%. So that'll be a good bump, but I'm focused on Roths first since I think they're more advantageous.

Overall my accounts are only getting 2.5%-3% growth for the year. I don't know if it's just my investments or if the market is sluggish overall this year.

We're teaching our 5-year-old to play Sorry today. I'm so excited that she's learning a game I actually like to play! She already knows a couple games like Candyland but they're a bit boring for grownups. I remember getting my adult family members to play games with me a lot more often once I knew some more sophisticated ones. Now my kid gets to benefit from that increased enthusiasm.

We took in a foster kitty a couple weeks ago, and from his description he sounded like he'd be a hard case with lots of bad habits and health problems. And he looked kind of grouchy in the photos. We didn't think we'd get attached to him; we just volunteered to foster an FIV+ cat since ours is FIV+.

Well, we're all kind of falling in love with him. He's a big lumbering sweetie pie, a frequent cuddler, and totally good-natured in the face of our current cat Clue's hostility. He's wearing her down to the point where she hardly ever hisses. He's really talkative which I thought would bother me, but it's conversational vs. whiny so I've kinda gotten used to it. His other behavior issues are so far manageable and no worse than our current or lost cats' habits; in fact he seems more easygoing than either of them. I'm hesitant to commit to him so soon, but I think he might be a keeper!

The only drawback so far is he's so into hanging out with us that Clue has been around us less. But hopefully she'll realize he's no threat and wants to be her friend, and they can both hang out with us.

Looks like our mini-heat wave will break sometime tomorrow or Monday, and be in the high 60s to low 80s the next week or two. I'll admit it, this last heat wave made me ready for cooler weather. Yes, I'll eat my words once we're in the middle of the winter, but it's how I feel right now!

Yesterday I woke up with a scratchy throat and a general weak feeling. I figure I got the summer cold that's been going around. I had a few meetings and a bit of work that couldn't wait, so I went in and handled all that. I felt kind of dizzy in the last meeting, but didn't faint or anything. I came home and went to bed, and got dinner in bed as well. I went ahead and said I was taking today as a sick day as well.

I feel better today, just kind of run down, so I'm just taking advantage of the day off and lying around. I maybe have been due a personal health day. I'm a naturally lazy person and life is very busy with kids + work + budgeting + house.

We've had the permit pulled for the basement bathroom plumbing work. Our contractor poked one hole in the wall and those pipes looked OK anyway. The plumber he had pull a permit said he's done this type of thing before; usually the city just wants their permit money since the bathroom was done without one. He said often the city will look through one hole in the wall and if everything looks OK, they're happy. Fingers crossed! Would love to have some of the WV money left over after this thing.

We got AA's teacher assignment in the mail today and have been freaking out, looking for info on the web about her. We found a local newsletter where a parent who had 4 kids go through this teacher's class went on and on about how great she is, so we feel pretty good. I'm still a bit confused about how lunch is going to work for a vegetarian kid; I'm guessing she'll be able to have some school lunches and we'll pack sandwiches the other days. We've been spoiled by daycare so I hope we do get to take advantage of school lunches sometimes! They get free breakfast at school if they want, which is pretty sweet. The website says menu coming soon. We should be getting bus stop assignment in the mail next week, and there's also a "meet the teacher" night next week. It's becoming so real!

AS's freelance checks have only been trickling in slowly, so our discretionary spending has stayed low. AS bought some orthopedic stuff for her foot that's been bothering her; I bought a bra and backpack online to replace some things that have worn out.

I do have some of my individual spending money that's built up, so I'm treating the family to sushi delivery tonight.

Got some CC rewards, which I set aside to save up for the UK plane tickets next year.

I did work up the annual budget for next year, and so far it's looking really good. I entered estimated utilities based on the past 12 months. So far the biggest monthly surplus is $1530 in September 2016 and the smallest is $170 in December 2016. And that's just factoring in my and NT's paychecks, nothing for AS. If we get raises it could get even better, though I'm not counting on it since NT and I haven't gotten raises every year.

Most of the surplus will need to go toward catching up on retirement, at least for the first few months. I'm playing it by ear to see when I feel comfortable with where we are.

This whole issue with the housing inspector wanting us to ensure our basement bathroom is up to code has been frustratingly vague. AS and NT have talked to two contractors, the housing inspector and the plumbing inspector. No one is able to give us any specifics about what needs to be done. I even emailed the old property manager of our duplex to see if he and the seller knew anything about it. They both said the bathroom was there before they were involved in the property. (So how did they successfully rent the place for so long without having to deal with it? I don't get it.)

Despite not knowing what we need to do, we need to do it by Aug. 16 or face fines. It's a hilariously Kafka-esque situation. So today our contractor is going to smash some holes in the wall and try to see what's going on with pipes etc. I'm hoping against hope he can just confirm that it's up to code, and we'll just have to pay $100 for a city permit and maybe $1000 or so for the hole-smashing and subsequent repair of the walls.

Wish us luck!

It's alarmingly quiet for me today. I know I have a lot of active projects but nothing seems to be on my plate at the moment. Ah well, I've managed to get some flex spending receipts submitted and other bits of financial and organizational housekeeping. And now I guess I've got time to blog!

Lots of little financial bits of news.

- AS has still been booking work but we've been in one of those "dead zones" where checks aren't coming in. However, I'm proud of us that we're using the shared spending spreadsheet and, if there aren't available funds, no one is spending money. I like that we didn't need a big discussion: When the shared spending balance was big, we spent freely. When it was small, we pared down to things we really needed or wanted. Now that the shared spending fund is mostly wiped out, we've simply denied or delayed our wants until more funds become available. Very encouraged by how seamless and mutual the process has been.

- AS's annual salary has passed the $50K mark! Although she'll be slowing down in taking freelance projects now that her teaching gig (already figured into the $50K income) is starting up in a couple weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if she makes it to $60K this year. If so, she'll surpass NT's salary. She'll have to make it to $65K to surpass mine. It could happen, but I imagine this first year of teaching especially will take a lot of her time!

- AS still hasn't heard from Vanguard as to whether they can reclassify her mistaken IRA contribution so she can contribute up to the true limit in her Roth. I sent them another message today since it's been a week or so since the first query.

- In the meantime, I decided to contribute some to my Roth. I can always fill hers in later if it opens up again. I have enough float room in the budget to contribute $800 of the September Roth money, so I put that toward mine.

- A few weeks ago AS got notice that she's available for new healthcare coverage. She didn't ask for it, but she got it. It was very strange and disorganized; she got a letter daily for about a week, one saying she had until X to choose an option, then the next day saying the option had been chosen for her, etc. Her new premium is $71 per month instead of $172, so that's very welcome. However, if it's income-based and they see her salary next tax season, I don't think this great deal will stick around. But we'll enjoy it while we can! She'd already paid her August premium on her old healthcare, but we're supposed to get a refund at some point.

- This past weekend I took AA out to get the last of the school supplies from her list. I also let her pick out a new outfit for the first day of school. Besides shoes, socks and underwear, we really don't ever have to get the kids new clothes; between hand-me-downs and grandparent gifts, it's not necessary. But I remember how exciting it was to buy a new outfit every year for school, and I wanted to pass that experience down to my kids too. AA had never been in a changing room before! She really enjoyed it, but I think she gets that it was a special occasion. She also picked out a new full-size backpack and a lunch box (these days they're made of material similar to backpacks, not metal or hard plastic like in my day). All told it was $80-some (including the school supplies). I think we spent another $50-$60 the other trip, so in total, school stuff came to about $130 or $140.

- This will be the first month of reduced daycare tuition! It's only $190 less since we're still paying for AA to go to daycare after school and on school holidays, but it's now under $1000 for 2 kids, which is insanely good rates for our area. The rate goes up again over the summer when AA will be at daycare full-time, but we'll enjoy the break to our budget during the school year. When I saw how many school closures there are in a year, I was really glad we'd decided to go for this vs. just having AA come home after school -- not only does it help because AS doesn't have to worry about coverage when she's at her teaching gig, but she won't have to worry about watching AA on school closures; we'll just send her to daycare on those days. (Some days both daycare and school are closed, but that's around holidays where it's easy for one or all of us to get the day off work.)

- Our contractor is still not done with the living room, but only because the place that's making skirting to match existing, to cover the places where archway was removed and door was walled up, has been taking longer than expected. He thinks he'll get that done this week.

- Contractor isn't sure what we need to do to get our basement bathroom up to code. He suspects the walls will need to be broken into to prove that everything is properly vented. NT has left a message with the plumbing inspector in hopes of confirming that. We still don't know what our options are and how much they would cost, so I'm keeping that last $4000 of WV money in reserve for the time being.

- I'm thinking about starting to formulate my annual budget for 2016 today, if it stays slow at work. For both 2014 and 2015, I've created a 13-tab spreadsheet that has each month mapped out and an annual budget snapshot on the last tab. Even though things fluctuate, this makes it much easier to make those changes whenever they come up. And I don't have to save up incrementally for once-a-year items, such as Xmas gifts; I just put the amount we need on the December tab. That way they're already taken out of budget surplus and it doesn't feel like a surprise or a burden. I'm going to put in "real" utility numbers based on the past year's monthly costs (with a little padding on each number in case of fluctuation) rather than having a flat $400 each month. That means utilities will be higher in winter months and especially low in spring and early fall.

I added my September budget in to my spreadsheet, and unfortunately I don't currently have enough wiggle room before 9/15 to contribute all the retirement funds. I might later, when some checks come in. We'll see.

I did have enough leeway to make a small contribution to AS's Roth and max it out for the year, because I remembered it wasn't far off the limit. I went in and it said I could contribute $144.85, so I did. Then, I happened to glance at transaction history and realized that only came to a little over $4500 of Roth contributions for the year.

After doing a bit more digging, I realized that the traditional IRA I'd accidentally opened when I was trying to open an SEP for AS was showing $900+ of contribution. I did get them to transfer that to an SEP instead, so I'm hoping I can get them to fix that. Not sure how strict the rules are, but I emailed to ask. Oh well, if I can't max AS's out this year I'll just work on my and NT's next, and start afresh for her when I can.

The mortgage payments hit today (the U.S. one took longer but finally posted tonight):

US duplex: $653 to principal
UK1: $221
UK2: $46
UK3: $48

All told, that's $968 paid this month. That brings our mortgage debt to $486,682.

At last NT's mum gave us bank details so we could send her an installment of what we owe her. (Although this isn't mortgage debt, it is house-related since we used it to fix up the UK flat that we rent out, so it's not quite consumer debt.)

Anyway, we owe her 2100 pounds ($3360) and we paid 250 pounds today. That's 250 down, 1850 to go.

When we spoke to her today, she wasn't in any hurry. She said 250 per month would be fine or less if we wanted. We're going to aim for closer to 350 per month from now on; we just had to pay off the overdraft with this month's rental income.

Ugh, I am sweaty and tired! It's been an eventful day. Although it started with the grownups sleeping in until 10 am! Which was an event in itself. Miraculously (or maybe because of the motion-sensor compressed-air cat repellent outside our room) the girls didn't bug us at all.

So with that late start on the day, we still got a ton done. First, the living room reno is 99% done, so the contractor said we could move back into it. The last few bits he needs to do shouldn't be messy.

So we moved all his remaining equipment out onto our front porch. NT and AS moved the pieces we'd saved from the reno (a door and wooden arches, probably original to the 1913 house) out to the garage, to see if we can sell or donate them somewhere.

While NT and AS were doing that, I did the first round of grocery shopping, came home and we quickly cooked and ate lunch and put the kids down for naps. Then I vacuumed the whole main floor while NT dusted. We moved the living room stuff from the dining room back into the living room, the dining room furniture from the record room to the dining room, and a few extraneous living room pieces were shuffled into other rooms. We laid out our new carpet and put our new chair in there. It looks kinda weird because we still have our mismatched couch and loveseat, but in two months we'll be able to replace those with much more suitable furniture we ordered.

NT had installed our new TV last night, so he moved our old TV up to the book nook upstairs. We're not sure what to do with our DVD player or Wii game console; we really like the wireless look of the TV (we had an outlet installed high on the wall so it's hidden). We may just rip all our DVDs and store the movies electronically. As for the Wii, we don't play games very often anymore, so we'll see if we just eventually sell it or move it to the upstairs. Dunno. We could also add some electronics to the closet next to the TV, but it would require getting someone to drill through walls, so we're not sure yet.

Then AS and I did the rest of the grocery shopping. When we got back, NT took AA out to play in her wading pool (SL was still napping; she sometimes gets 4 hours on weekends!). I started cooking soon after; we had someone coming over so I'd added spring rolls and dipping sauce to the meal in addition to yakisoba. Both dishes require a lot of prep work. We loved the spring rolls and our guest had seconds of the yakisoba. Then NT and our friend went out to a music show and AS and I put the kids to bed, cleaned the kitchen halfway (there's still lots to do) and cleared the dining room. Now I'm sitting with a glass of wine, feeling too tired even to shower!

Last night we brought our foster cat home. He's a big fella, and was pretty friendly at the old foster home, but had a poop accident in the car (the old foster warned us he got upset in carriers and cars) and after getting cleaned up and put into the bathroom (his temporary home until we can introduce him to the other cat), he went under the clawfoot tub and has barely ventured out or eaten anything. Supposedly he's very chatty, playful and has a huge appetite, so I'm sure he'll get acclimated soon.

After settling him in last night and putting the kids to bed, we had a nice night around the fire with our neighbors. I made crispy oven green beans and they cut up an heirloom tomato from the garden. Now I laugh at how boring that sounds, but they were both delicious snacks. Our neighbor said he's almost done with the initial document for part ownership of the home, after which I can consult with a lawyer about it.

We chatted about plans for the garden and house as well. I'm eager to find out how much it would cost to get the basement bathroom up to code, so we can make a decision and get on with our lives one way or the other.

I'm excited to start another reno, but depending on how much the bathroom costs--and we have to start saving up for the England trip too--we might have to settle for making a few small cosmetic changes to get the maximum impact for the least money, and wait to do bigger renovations until next year. We'll see.

The goal: $486,000 in retirement assets by 2019

Balance as of 6/16: $244,790

New balance as of 7/31: $248,572

Progress: $3,782

So, $237,428 to go. If I were to hit the goal by 7/31/2019, I need to grow by $4,946 per month. And there's a good chance the goal will grow before 2019, since it's based on 2x AS's 2019 salary plus 3x my and NT's 2019 salary. If our salaries go up, the goal goes up. So clearly I need to get more aggressive if I'm going to get there!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($27,368)
#2: 20,501 pounds ($32,801)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $37,674
NT's Roth IRA: $7,681
AS's trad. IRA: $15,288
AS's Roth IRA: $24,853
AS's SEP IRA: $4,086
CJ's 401(k): $84,017
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,681
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $976,572

Total Debt: $487,650

Current Estimated Net Worth: $488,922

Last estimate (mid-June): $485,086

Change in net worth: +$3,836

Summary: Nice bump in net worth. Since I updated my net worth schedule and already noted July 1 debt repayment, the debt amount didn't change at all, so this is entirely retirement gains and new contributions. I would like to see our retirement account value increasing by $5K-$6K per month, but I'll take $3800 for now. I'll continue to get more aggressive about contributions as more money is freed up in our regular budget.

I'll update the Individual Net Worth page shortly, breaking it out by person.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. I don't have a way to check NT's UK pensions or flat value, so their values stay static for the purpose of this update (unless I happen to get some info by chance). UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.60 for every British pound.

I've missed blogging regularly, but I've been having a really fun, super spendy summer and just haven't made the time. I wish I could remember everything that's happened this month but I'll probably leave some things out. Plus it's kinda late so it would take me too long. So here's how my month's been in a nutshell:

- We've donated most of the $8,000 I earmarked for charity. I think I have $250 left. I'll probably give it to my alma mater. I just agreed to be on the alumni board of directors, so it would be a nice gesture.

- I moved the money earmarked for taxes into savings ($15,200). At least it'll earn a bit of interest sitting there instead of going straight to Uncle Sam!

- Our $8,000 first renovation is going well, a bit behind schedule but we're really happy with our contractor, his consistent communication and the work he and his guys are doing. We hope it'll be done by next week.

- We spent about another $6,000, mostly from the WV money, on furnishings for the living room. We got a large (9'x12') area rug, a large (50-some inch?) flatscreen TV and some hardware to mount it to the wall, a 93-inch sofa with matching chaise lounge and ottoman, and an armchair. The sofa/lounge/ottoman won't come until early October because we picked a fabric we really wanted (dark gray microfiber). The rug and TV are here but still packaged up and sitting in other rooms, waiting for the reno to be done. The armchair will arrive Tuesday.

- We still have about $4,000 of the WV money. We're not sure what to do with it because we got notice from the city that we do need to deal with the possibly non-code basement bathroom. We're going to have our contractor assess the situation after he finishes the living room. So we may have to use the money for that. If not, we may save it for our next planned reno, the main-floor bathroom. Or maybe we'll use some of it for living room accessories, and to spruce up the dining room (paint job and new light fixture). But I'm sort of assuming it'll have to get used for the basement issue.

- I sent an initial email to my lawyer about consulting on the possible transfer of part ownership of the duplex to our neighbors. He nicely responded that he has worked real estate law in the past but his current focus is surrogacy and family planning, but he'd be happy to consult or recommend a lawyer with a real estate focus. I'm still waiting for my neighbor to write up what he's thinking so I can send it my lawyer and see if he thinks it's something he could advise on. My friend's idea is an unconventional one, so we might need to ask for someone with more expertise in this field. The deal itself sounds OK to my inexperienced self, but I have questions about tax and insurance planning (and I'm sure there are concerns I'm not even thinking of). My friends say if we do this they'll probably leave their share of the home to my kids, so estate planning may not be much of a concern. We'll see. They're in no hurry, so I'm taking my time on this. I have $1500 set aside for consultations and also to possibly submit a plan to the county to turn our garage into an accessory dwelling unit (tiny home).

- AS is close to hitting a gross of $50K in her freelance position! Though $6K of that is the teaching gig that begins in late August and runs through January, and it will affect her ability to take other projects, so it seems she's nearing her annual salary. We'll see how it goes, but I imagine this teaching gig will be a lot of work. (She's freaking out about it, but I know she'll feel better once she's actually into it. It's the unknown that's so scary!)

- I was able to do our August budget surplus retirement contribution: about $2200. AS is only about $150 away from having her Roth maxed out. I'll work on mine next. I should be able to put even more toward retirement in September! I hope I can put it in early like I have for the past two months. Basically, anything left over from my and NT's paychecks after we cover our budgeted items goes into retirement for now. In September our daycare costs go down a bit as AA goes into kindergarten. Eek! She'll still do after-school at the daycare, but that's cheaper.

- We've been having fun with AS's paychecks. Everything after setting aside tax and retirement is up for grabs. We've been spending, spending, spending, ever so frivolously. Food, wine, car shares, clothes, you name it. (I'm still tracking every penny, of course, to make sure we don't spend more than we have.) It's been so so fun, after a year of extreme self-control and nearly a decade of being very moderate. But, I'm starting to eye our priorities, namely more home renovations and the trip to England and Spain next year. I proposed we put half of AS's net pay aside for those goals, and AS and NT agreed. We'll still have plenty to play with, though maybe not as madly as we have been this past month.

- We finally got rental income on the UK flat again, hooray! We'll be able to cover the August mortgage payments without transferring money and can pay NT's mum back the first bit of money (just 250 pounds this time, but the first payment will be an important reassurance that we're serious about paying her back, I think). Very happy that situation is beginning to sort itself out!

Financials aside, our summer has been going really well.

- We've been enjoying our back yard and the nearby neighborhood parks, the girls have been taking swim and dance classes and having a great time/learning a lot at both.

- We still eat together with our downstairs neighbors about twice a week. We've been doing it downstairs, since our dining room table is in NT's record room (our living room furniture is in the dining room), and our big front porch is only accessible if you walk through the construction zone.

- Our first cat Noodles still hasn't come home, so we're assuming he's not coming back (though we'd love it if he pulled one of those miracle journeys and returned to us). We decided we'd try fostering a cat and see how that goes. We're open to an FIV+ cat, since our cat Clue has the disease and that way we wouldn't have to worry about transmittal. We may get our first foster the last day of July.

- We're heading to my family reunion in Ohio this Friday, taking Friday and Monday off work, renting a minivan. It's a 12-hour drive, so we're doing 6 hours a day, approximately, staying in a different hotel each night. We'll get to the town where the reunion is (well, close by, since that town doesn't have a hotel) Saturday night; the reunion is Sunday afternoon; we head back Sunday evening and finish up the driving on Monday.

- Work is going really well for all of us. Well, NT is too busy again, and his days start super-early; that may not be a permanent job solution if they don't fix it, but it's good pay and not as bad as it was for a while. My job is great: I have a few high-profile projects that I seem to be nailing for the most part. All for two Fortune 500 clients of ours. I was worried for a while that I wasn't busy enough, but I'm not anymore! We have summer hours as long as you work 40 before you leave on Friday, so I've been trying to write for an hour at home after the kids go to bed. So far I've only worked enough extra hours to leave at 3pm on Fridays, but even that is nice! Maybe some week I'll manage to work enough to get out at 1pm. AS, as I mentioned, is doing great at her freelance work. Other than stressing about the teaching gig, I'd say it's the happiest she's ever been with her job.

- We had a family heart-to-heart last week about figuring out a way to make dinners less stressful (trying to get the kids to eat), come to a peaceful place about housekeeping/chores, and just generally be less critical/shouty with the kids and one another. (Not that it was horrible, but I'm pretty sensitive to any conflict in the home.) We've had to course-correct our parenting before, but I feel like this was a big breakthrough. Things have been calmer, the kids are getting plenty to eat even if they don't always finish everything, and I'm just enjoying my home life more. I'm sure we'll slip into bad habits from time to time, but I'm proud of all of us for putting in the work discussing our flaws and then figuring out ways to alleviate them.

- I finally wrote another blog post on my other blog, ordinarysavers.com! It took me about 6 months since my last post. I'm hoping to get back in the habit now, because a few of my friends have told me they really appreciate reading it and wish I'd update it.

I'm not sure if that's all my news, but that's plenty! Whew! It's after midnight and I need to start settling down for the night.

I've decided to update net worth at the end of each month instead of mid-Month. I only started that schedule randomly. It makes more sense to do it this way! I'm a couple days late on it; next month I'll try to do it Aug. 1 or thereabouts.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($27,368)
#2: 20,501 pounds ($32,801)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $36,967
NT's Roth IRA: $7,673
AS's trad. IRA: $15,258
AS's Roth IRA: $22,625
AS's SEP IRA: $4,082
CJ's 401(k): $83,166
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,673
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $972,736

Total Debt: $487,650

Current Estimated Net Worth: $485,086

Last estimate (mid-June): $420,169

Change in net worth: +$64,917

Summary: Even more awesome change in net worth! Our retirement accounts stagnated, but we got an update on NT's flat's value. Similar units are now selling at 200,000 pounds! I decided to shave 10% off that value for the purposes of the net worth, since it would cost something if we decided to sell it. Even with taking off 10%, our net worth still increased nearly $65K, and our assets are approaching $1M at a good clip.

I'll update the Individual Net Worth page shortly, breaking it out by person.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. I don't have a way to check NT's UK pensions or flat value, so their values stay static for the purpose of this update (unless I happen to get some info by chance). UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.60 for every British pound.

All the mortgage payments hit:
US: $652 to principal
UK1: $222
UK2: $47
UK3: $50

All told, $971 paid toward principal. That takes our total household debt to $487,650.

So, with all my non-home debt paid off, I'm actually considering discontinuing my monthly debt goal! I'll be paying the minimums on home debt for the foreseeable future as I focus on retirement savings and other priorities, so debt payment will be on autopilot. Plus all debt payments will happen at the first of each month; there are no mid-month payments to keep track of.

I'm thinking instead of the monthly goal structure, I'll just do an SA entry detailing each month's mortgage payments, how much went to principal and what's left.

My net worth updates on the 15th or so will be a good place to talk about retirement progress, so I'll either tack it on to that entry or do a separate post about retirement savings progress.

I'll still have plenty to blog about financially, but the structure that has framed my blog for so long is really not relevant. I can't believe it!

We've had a spendy-spend-spend week or so! I must admit, I'm kicking up my heels a bit and spending on stuff that seems frivolous. But it's all cashflowed spending that doesn't take away from the necessary bills or retirement savings.

A random assortment of the spending:

A $4000 down payment for the living room reno, which starts tomorrow. Tonight we need to clear everything out of the room. NT came up with a plan to have our dining room table in his record room and have the living room furniture in the dining room. I don't know if it will all fit, but we'll find out tonight.

$5000 to the environmental group I found that does work in WV. They called when they received the check and were over the moon about it. Seem like a really good group that's getting things done on both legislative and awareness raising levels.

$750 donated by NT to a local group he supports when he can. They run on a shoestring budget so that was a big donation for them.

$500 to wire enough money to the UK to cover our July mortgage payments.

$120 for a robot mop. We love our robot vac, and this was a super good deal!

$120 or so for an alumni gathering I threw at our place. Lots of snacks and booze left over for us too.

$30 for tickets to a drag/burlesque Pride-related show and $80ish for drinks there, plus $21 for a T-shirt.

$60ish for eating at and admission to a food truck festival a couple blocks from us.

$20 for a toy for each of the girls (which they definitely did not need but it was fun to let them choose -- they picked the exact same toy!).

$60 for the last round of groceries for my volunteer cooking gig. I'll be cooking tomorrow and they'll pick it up Tuesday, and then my obligation is over!

...and other odds and ends here and there. Phew! It really has been quite the week!

On the good side, the tax guy got back to me and estimates about $15K for federal + MN + WV. I have $18K set aside, so that's good news! He also says we have enough withholding to be able to keep it aside and just pay it in at tax time. Not sure if I will or not. We could get a bit of interest income, I suppose, if I transferred it over to savings. Would you bother if you had to decide, or just send it to the governments so you don't have to worry about it?

Whew! I've been cooking basically since I got home from work. I've got a huge pot of pinto beans simmering to make refried beans for making burritos tomorrow for Thursday's donation. Luckily I only have to worry about the cooking this week; the organization found people to pick the food up Wednesday and Thursday so we don't need to deliver it.

It's a really good organization so I'm happy to help, but it's been a lot of work! First figuring out things that will be good in big batches, then figuring out whether to double or triple recipes, then shopping for the ingredients and disposable containers, then cooking it all up. (Not to mention delivering it the first two days.)

The first week of stuff (for 2 meals) cost $140, and the second week $95. So it's cost nearly $60 per meal. Feeding 20 people each time, that comes to almost $3 per person per meal. I have one more meal to do next week.

I'm sure there are ways to do this more cheaply; I'm probably making rookie mistakes. But I'm using the money I likely would have donated to them anyway, so I don't have a problem with it.

Here's what I've made/am planning to make for the 5 days I volunteered for:

(last Wed.) Three-bean and tempeh chili, cornbread, lettuce/cucumber/tomato salad and 2 bottles of dressing.

(last Thurs.) Mac and cheese, veggie marinara pasta bake, mixed greens salad and 2 bottles of dressing.

(tomorrow) Potato salad w/chopped hard-boiled egg, pasta-veggie salad, sliced cantaloupe and watermelon.

(Thursday) Bean/cheese/veggie burritos, Spanish rice, chips and salsa.

(next Tuesday) Veggie baked beans, coleslaw and biscuits.

Everything is vegetarian and I made sure at least one substantial piece of each meal was vegan. I don't even know if they have any vegans or vegetarians working for them; I just don't feel comfortable buying or working with meat. (Even when I ate meat, I never cooked it beyond making tuna sandwiches with canned tuna.) My concession was making sure at least one thing had dairy and/or egg in it, since I know vegan food can feel unsubstantial if one is unused to it. At least basic dairy stuff doesn't require any special knowledge, though I had to ask NT for a refresher on how to hard-boil eggs!

I don't know if I'll do more if they ask me to; I don't mind the work but I'd like to use my charity money for other things as well. Also I don't have many more ideas for vegetarian meals that are accessible crowd-pleasers!

It started out bad but ended up really really good. The girls and cat woke me up early for a weekend (about 7am, which is normal for a weekday, but I'd stayed up super late and had quite a bit to drink at a party we threw).

I was really cranky and it definitely showed to the kids, but for some reason I assumed I'd overslept so I helped the kids bring NT his breakfast in bed: 2 croissants warmed in the oven and a cup of tea. They also presented him with two flowers (that he'd bought and put in a vase; we replaced them shortly thereafter). Only after I stumbled back downstairs did I really focus on a clock and realize that it was 7:30, not like 10am like I'd assumed! Which meant I'd gotten less than 5 hours of sleep. Oh well. I downed 3 cups of coffee and had breakfast and managed to stay awake for the rest of the day. NT laid in bed a while after his super-early breakfast treat.

We puttered around for a while and then I took the kids to dance class. I didn't stay in either room and watch, but it seems like they had a good time again. So far I'm just paying for individual drop-in classes; it keeps our schedule flexible for when we're busy (and in case the kids decide they hate it) and it's only $2 more per class.

Meanwhile, NT and AS went to a pizza place not too far away. After dance class, the kids and I met them there and had our lunch too. The bus boy brought some raw pizza dough for them to play with, and it occupied them for at least 20 minutes! Awesome idea.

After that we strolled toward the movie theater to see Inside Out. It was 2 hours until the movie time, so we wandered around a festival that happened to be going on that same day. (You're never far from a festival in MN in the summer!) The kids got balloon animals (tipped $1 each) and glitter tattoos (supposed to be $7 each, though we only had $12 cash and they let us get them anyway). Those were the only kid-friendly activities we could find; it was mostly local artists and artisans.

Then we went to the movie. I splurged on popcorn, soda, lemonade, Swedish gummy fish and peanut M&Ms. I think it was $17? At least movie tickets were only $6.50 for grownups and $6 for kids. Anyway, the movie was REALLY good, and the kids were remarkably attentive and quiet. It was SL's first movie-theater experience, so I was really happy with how she behaved especially.

We took the bus home, AA especially jacked-up on sugar (she'd gone through the whole bag of Swedish fish and a ton of lemondade!) but still being cute and funny. She showed her glitter tattoo off to anyone who would pay attention to her (movie cashier, bus driver, etc.) I asked her if this day was as fun as the winter carnival I took her and SL to last year, and she said "Yes" without hesitation. That has been the benchmark family fun day that no other one has lived up to yet, so it's saying a lot!

I am utterly exhausted, but it was a really fun day despite the terrible beginning.

The only thing that bums me out is not getting my dad a father's day gift this year. The day really snuck up on me. I'll email him and also try to think of a belated gift to send him.

Today I worked from home so I could nip out and deliver the second batch of food using the carshare near my house. It was fun, but I'm going to call the guy organizing this and see if I can just arrange to have the food picked up the other days. It's not just the cost of hiring the car, it's the inconvenience. Hopefully he'll understand.

I did get a fair amount of writing done for my job too, which felt good. I was able to turn some things around quickly and also turn one thing in earlier than probably anyone expected.

Our contractor's subcontractor came by tonight with an estimate for the first piece of work we want done, taking an archway out of the living room and removing/walling up a door. At first his quote seemed high -- $6500 -- but then he started going over everything that was included. Finding matching hardwood to fix the floors where the archway was, and doing it in a way where it wouldn't look like just squares of new flooring. Finding wood trim to go over the wall where the door was and having it match our existing hundred-year-old trim. Smoothing out the ceiling (it has a popcorn-type thing). Painting the whole living room. Hauling all the waste away. We decided it was a good deal.

We're also having him do some electrical work for $1500. Adding some outlets, including bringing electricity to our front porch.

So, $8000 total. I'm so glad I have the leftover WV money, because it means we can start right away, vs. waiting about two-three months to save up that amount. The work will start June 29 and likely take three weeks, though he said he'll keep it as clean as possible so we can still use the porch and dining room. I'm really excited about this project because I think it'll really open up the living room and make it look more like a cohesive room. I'll be sure to post before and afters when it's done so you can see what I mean!

Since he'll be painting, we need to decide what color we want. We're going to schedule a consultation with a local paint store, on the recommendation of our across-the-alley neighbor. She said it's just $150 and you get an in-home visit with expert color advice.

Our fence, which was meant to be finished weeks ago, is finally getting moving again. Our downstairs neighbors paid the first half, so we just need to pay the second half. But it's still not done, and plus our neighbor gave them a deposit midway through to get them going again, so he needs to get that back before we pay him. Weird stuff. But the fence looks pretty great so far! It's black chain-link. I hope they finish soon. Kids and dogs will benefit from being able to hang out in the back without us worrying about alley traffic.

Oh! I almost forgot. NT got an email from his UK property manager. Among other things, he said those flats are now selling for around 200K pounds. I have the place listed at 140K in my net worth calculations. I've decided I'll take 10% off as I did with the duplex, to cover what selling it would likely cost. But even then, I can value it at 180K. Our net worth is going to have another huge bump next month then!

One thing I haven't heard is whether we'll get any rental income this month or whether it's all going to cover the additional costs of the reno. If we don't we'll need to either borrow some to cover the mortgage payments or wire some money over. When I thought we'd get some money and only be about 20 pounds short, I thought we'd just borrow from NT's dad. But if we're not getting any income it'll be more like 100 pounds we need. Still galls me to pay $50 to send $160 over, but we might do that to avoid having to borrow that much from either of NT's parents, even short-term. We'll see. I asked him to ask the property manager.

Ever since last night I've been feeling unaccountably anxious. I even had insomnia for part of the night. I wonder if that's a typical reaction of suddenly getting rid of a former source of anxiety that you'd gotten used to having around?

Or it could be this volunteer task I've taken on. I agreed to prepare and deliver meals 5 days this month to a local volunteer organization I admire. There needs to be enough for 20 people who will be canvassing neighborhoods and then coming back to the offices to eat.

I'm providing food today and tomorrow, plus Wednesday and Thursday of next week and Tuesday of the following week.

As I was shopping for ingredients on Monday, it occurred to me that the amount of food I'd be making would make it very difficult for one person to transport by bus. (AS had agreed to deliver for me.) So for today, our downstairs neighbor is going to hire a car or get an Uber and help her. Tomorrow I think I'll work from home and use a carshare to take it over there.

For the other three days, I'm thinking I'll ask if they can pick up the food. I wasn't thinking it through how bulky and heavy a big meal for 20 people would be.

So maybe that's why I'm nervous, all the logistics and planning being more than I counted on. Or maybe it's work; I've got a lot of projects in the air but not too much to work on this week, which might be making me antsy.

Anyway, whatever it is, I know it will pass. I just hate being uneasy; I have no appetite and don't feel very focused.

So, I'll talk about the rest of the windfall from my dad:

It came to just over $80,000(!). As posted earlier, I used about $38,000 to pay off my non-home debt, leaving $42,000. I'm donating 10% of it: $5000 to an environmental nonprofit in that area, and $1000 each for me, NT and AS to donate as we please. (I'm using some of my money to buy groceries for the meals mentioned above.) That leaves $34,000.

My tax guy said he would get back to me with calculations on what to send to the IRS, MN and WV. For now, I've earmarked $18,000 for taxes, but I realize that could change.

I've set aside $1,500 to consult with lawyer, accountant and insurance agent about the pros, cons and possible ramifications of selling part of the duplex to my friends. I may also submit a rough plan to convert our 2-car garage into an accessory dwelling unit. (I don't think we'll be approved because of small lot-to-home size ratio and not enough parking spots, but I'd like to at least try.)

That leaves about $15,000. If I don't need to send any more than I calculate to the federal and state revenue departments, I've decide to use it to speed up the renovations we want to do on our home. It would make us so happy to be able to make some of the desired changes this summer and fall.

Speaking of which, we walked our contractor around (the one who did such good, reasonably priced and speedy work on the condo) and showed him a bunch of the things on our wish list. He helped us prioritize our top few projects, and his main assistant will be coming over Thursday to present estimates on one or more of them.

(Maybe it's the feeling of rapid change -- finally getting to renovate after a year of being stuck -- that's making me feel queasy? No idea.)

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($27,368)
#2: 20,501 pounds ($32,801)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $36,894
NT's Roth IRA: $7,705
AS's trad. IRA: $15,316
AS's Roth IRA: $22,728
AS's SEP IRA: $4,099
CJ's 401(k): $83,051
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,705
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $908,790

Total Debt: $488,621

Current Estimated Net Worth: $420,169

May 2015 estimate: $381,007

Change in net worth: +$39,162

Summary: Awesome change in net worth, though it could have been even better. I started a new retirement account for AS with nearly $4100 in it and added $1800 to her Roth as well as my and NT's regular 401(k) contributions, but we lost over $3000 total among our other retirement account values. We paid off over $39,000 of debt, but also added over $3000 of debt to the duplex mortgage when we refinanced.

I'll update the Individual Net Worth page shortly, breaking it out by person.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. I don't have a way to check NT's UK pensions or flat value, so their values stay static for the purpose of this update (unless I happen to get some info by chance). UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.60 for every British pound.

Well, it happened!

We got home from our weekend away yesterday and the checks had arrived. We deposited them right away. I couldn't pay everything off because it takes a business day to process deposits, but I had $12K in my account earmarked for future stuff, so I used that to make a $10K payment on my LOC.

This morning the deposit had cleared, so I went into each online account and paid off all our non-mortgage official debts. It took less than 20 minutes. It was amazing to me what a quick, quiet process it was; I half-expected balloons and confetti to drop and music to start playing!

Here's what I paid off between yesterday and today:
AS student loan $5,988
NT student loan $3,018
NT student loan $4,465
LOC (taken out to help pay off duplex 2nd mortgage) $14,379
Slate CC (taken out to help cover loss on sale of condo) $10,228
Total: $38,078

So...that's it! Our only non-mortgage debt is the loan from NT's mum, which we have a plan for paying through our UK account over the next five months. It's not on the official debt spreadsheet since it was just a bridge loan and we knew we'd pay it back quickly.

Progress this month: $39,379 of debt paid, exceeding the $39,300 goal!

We're in our friends' weekend home until Monday afternoon, but my downstairs neighbor messaged me that he signed for an envelope from WV today.

!!!

My dad called yesterday to say that he'd received the documents, and that the checks were cut. He made the energy guy read the amounts to him over the phone so he could assure us it was the full amount we were expecting.

This morning he emailed to say that the signed, notarized forms were in the mail to the energy company. As soon as they receive it they'll send out the checks.

This possibility has been looming over me for so long (well over a year) that I find it hard to believe it's finally going to happen!

I emailed my tax guy to get his take on how much to send to the IRS. I did a little calculator a while ago and came up with $20,000. I also saw on some tax advice website that income over my and NT's regular income would be taxed at the 28% rate (so $22,400), and the MN website says that bracket is 7.05% ($5,640). So if I don't hear back from the guy, should I just send the IRS $22K and MN $5600?

I decided to add July to my budget spreadsheet, and when I finished moving dates around etc., I realized I now had enough to fund AS's retirement for her second quarter (April-May). So I sent $1104.38 over to her Vanguard SEP. She is now caught up with contributing 10% of her freelance income to retirement!

The next step is to start throwing money at our Roths. They've had virtually no contributions this year, so I'm not sure we'll be able to contribute the max, but we'll see. I'll start with AS's, since she has the least in her total accounts, and see how far I can get this year. I have about $1000 that I can contribute in July.