Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

I've tried every which way to max out AS's Roth, but the mistake I made when opening her SEP -- which I only realized after I opened it I'd opened as a traditional IRA -- has made it too difficult.

I had AS call several times -- once she was on the phone for over an hour. Finally I just started calling as her (sue me) because she was intimidated by all the technical lingo. I don't blame her! They finally said I needed to fill out a form to recharacterize SEP funds to Roth funds. I got the form but couldn't figure out some of the answers, so I called them. This time they said the form wouldn't work because the Roth was a "legacy" account and the SEP was a "new" account. So they made me upgrade the Roth and call them back a day or two later.

Today I called and at first the guy said the only way I could contribute to the Roth would be through an outside bank account. I re-explained my situation to him, he put me on hold, and came back to say I was right, recharacterization was the only option. But -- too bad, so sad -- it could only happen during market hours. I could call again during market hours and they'd handle it right away.

Guess what? I don't think I can stand another call. It's no longer worth it to me. I contributed the amount I would have used to max out AS's Roth and put it into her SEP instead, and there it will stay. At less than $1000, it's just not worth another phone call and possibly some complicated tax reporting. We'll start maxing out her Roth next year.

Grump grump grump.

I'll still work on maxing out mine and NT's before the April deadline. I think I can get pretty far even if I don't max them out completely.

Whew! Our staycation at the beginning of October turned into a "spendcation," and we're still going. I've been holding out buying more decor for our living and dining rooms, but the new seating looked so weird and out of place in the mostly empty room. Plus we're having a Halloween party which will be our first major gathering at the new house, so I'd love to have the two main rooms done.

So we spent much of our Friday off going to various thrift, antique and furniture stores. We also supplemented with shopping online. Some things still have yet to arrive, but what we have so far is making the living room look much better.

How am I paying for it? Well, I decided to take some of the money allotted for future stuff. I felt like it would be worth the saving-up later to have a finished-looking living room/dining room sooner.

I took $800 from utilities line item, realizing I probably have way more than I need set aside, since next year's budget includes monthly line items based on real amounts.

I took $1000 from our UK airfare savings. I reckon we'll still have enough to buy tickets by the end of this year.

I took the $1500 I had saved for lawyer/application fees for transferring part ownership of the duplex and applying for permission to build an accessory dwelling unit (granny flat) on our property. I can't really move forward on these things until our downstairs neighbor (the lawyer) finishes drawing up the contract for joint ownership. He's been dragging his feet on it, so I figure if it takes me a while to save up the fees for MY lawyer to review it once he's done, fair is fair. I've been holding onto that money for months and months. He can wait once he gives me the draft of the contract.

The rest of the money for our new decor/renovations is coming out of money I'd earmarked for maxing out the 2015 Roths by January. I have until April to max them out, so I could still hit that goal. So far I've only taken about $600 of that line item, but I might use more of it before we're done. (We seem to be pretty close, though.)

The result is going to be rooms that look great, are comfortable and make us happy. And I can re-fund those other budget categories.

What did we get for the money? Let's see if I can remember (some of these are rounded numbers).
Vintage side table $45
Materials to build a behind-sofa table $60
Wood blinds for living and dining rooms $600
Radiator covers (including shelving and window seat) for living and dining rooms $1150
Lucite floor lamp $350
Modern side table $150
Flannel drink coasters $25
Art (three small framed pieces) $150
Picture frames, wall clock, plants, bedroom curtains $180
Dining room ceiling light $400
Wall clock $70
Wooden robot decoration $30
Wooden ferris wheel decoration $95
Wine fridge $100
Drinks cabinet $425
Magazine rack (to hold laptops while charging) $60
Throw blankets $60
Decorative bowls $25

We also "borrowed" about $1000 from the UK tickets fund for our staycation meals out, as well as a couple other wants/needs (sneakers, Halloween costumes, school lunches, cat adoption fee, underwear, etc.) We're getting at least $1700 of shared spending money by the end of November, possibly more, so we'll be able to make that up pretty easily as well.

Feels heady and weird to spend allocated money on something other than what it was intended for! But at the same time, not stressful or scary like putting stuff on credit cards would be. This is after all our money, and we can change our minds about what order we do things in.

To end on a savings note instead, I put nearly $1000 more toward AS's retirement, and it appears all our accounts have recovered (possibly temporarily, if the bear market comes back) about 75% of the value lost during the downturn.

I had a staycation Friday through Monday (more on that when I get a chance!), and what with catching up on work and other stuff, I'm just now getting around to checking on our mortgage payments. They all hit:
US: $657 to principal
UK1: $224
UK2: $46
UK3: $49

All told, that's $976 of debt paid for the month. Our current debt stands at $484,730. (That includes $5000 loan from our friends, which would be erased if we signed a joint-ownership contract -- but so would a commensurate amount of our home equity, so it'd be a wash in terms of net worth.)

I'm really excited. I've known about capsule wardrobes since early this year and been really intrigued. The concept is, you set a limit to how many pieces of clothing are in use at one time, and you make sure the pieces all go together, so you can wear them in various combinations.

Maybe because this was a more finite way of getting part of my life in order (vs. renovating the house, which could go on for years and cost tens of thousands of dollars), but when I realized I didn't have many fall/winter clothes, I decided to seriously try this concept.

So yesterday I made a list of the 33 items I thought I'd need, and AS and I went on a breakneck shopping spree (we put the kids down earlier than usual and had about an hour and a half until the store closed).

I didn't get everything on the list and got a few things that weren't on my list, but when I got home and also pulled out my current items I intend to keep, I realized I was very very close. So today AS and I went to a few more stores over my lunch hour and got the last few items we needed to round out our capsules.

We did have to go in the hole on our shared spending, but we won't carry a credit card balance or anything. All it means is we'll be floating our purchases using money that's allocated elsewhere for a month or two, and then when more spending money comes through the budget we'll be able to cover other expenses. (Sounds complicated but it's really very easy to do if you've got a lot of money set aside for various things.)

I spent between $500 and $600 to get 20 things, and AS spent a bit less than that. (She had more existing pieces of clothing that worked with her capsule.) This is the first major investment in my wardrobe in a long time, and the most I've ever spent at one go. But hopefully many of the pieces will last through the season and be able to be brought out again next fall/winter.

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): $36,077
NT's Roth IRA: $6,906
AS's trad. IRA: $13,845
AS's Roth IRA: $22,484
AS's SEP IRA: $4,706
CJ's 401(k): $75,895
CJ's Roth IRA: $9,835
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $965,040

Total Debt: $485,706

Current Estimated Net Worth: $479,334

August 2015 estimate: $486,035

Change in net worth: -$6,701

Summary: Despite dumping a couple thousand into retirement and paying off nearly a thousand of debt, our net worth is down -- more than doubly as bad as the $2800 dip we suffered from July to August. We've now lost nearly $10K in net worth value over two months. For a short while, our assets were worth more than twice our debt amount. That is no longer the case, since our net worth is now less than our debt amount.

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 seen several of my fellow frugal bloggers over the past few weeks struggling with spending, sometimes incurring debt. I am so sympathetic! I have plans, but my resolve is getting tired. I've got the renovating/decorating bug bad, and it's hard to resist the idea of using some of the money we've got now, or putting some things on 0% credit. (I know! I know how bad that sounds coming from someone who spent the past 8 years paying off CC and student loan debt.)

One plan is to allot 35% of AS's paychecks to saving up for UK airfare, and not touch it until we have $5300. I've already relented somewhat on that, saying we could spend $600-$700 of what we've already saved up ($2349) on living-room furniture and still reach the airfare savings goal by the end of the year, based on what work AS has booked but not received payment for.

Another plan is to put every penny of my and NT's paycheck that doesn't cover our fixed budget categories toward Roth IRAs, with a goal to max all three out for 2015 by January or February. After that, I'll just allot enough to max us out for 2016 by the end of 2016, and any extra money from my and NT's paychecks can be used for other stuff. But January-February seems so far away!

I'm excited about maxing Roths for the first year ever, but it's HARD. The 35% of AS's pay that we use for shared spending money is great for extras such as date nights, kids' classes, wardrobe items that need replacing, and a few other irregular expenses and luxuries. But with diverting so much toward UK airfare, there's not enough left over to do any serious home improvement.

It's hard. I've got money in the bank: $4000 for home improvement; but I know some or all may be needed to get the basement bathroom up to code. $1500 for lawyer and city fees for the shared-ownership and accessory dwelling unit stuff that we'll be exploring soon. $15,200 in savings, but that's to pay taxes on the WV money.

All told, including the above, our checking account has over $12K and our savings account has over $15K. But it's all spoken for! I know I can't touch it.

Believe me, I'm not proud of feeling weak about this stuff. I'm staying the course. I'm staying the course. I'm staying the course.

Our living room furniture arrived! Well, some of it. When we had the living room renovated, we ordered a rug, a chair, a sofa, a chaise lounge and an ottoman. The last three we ordered a custom fabric for, so they told us we wouldn't get them until early October. It was a nice surprise when they called and let us know they were ready this week!

We're not quite ready to show before-and-after photos, though. We've managed to sell or give away most of our old furniture, but we still have a sofa and two end tables clashing with our new stuff. Plus, we haven't hung art up since the contractors painted the room -- been waiting to see how the other stuff looked.

We also haven't picked out end tables, lamps or any other decorative elements for the room, so at the moment it looks incomplete. We've started looking, so hopefully we'll make some decisions soon.

It'll be nice to have one whole room done! Meanwhile, we need to get the basement bathroom figured out, and then we can focus on the others. The dining room should be the cheapest reno of all the rooms. Basically we want new paint, a new light fixture, something to hold keys and sunglasses, and a window seat with a bit of storage under it. Oh, and we should figure out some art for that room as well. The floor needs redoing, but we think we'll focus on the other parts of the house for a while before we sink money into that.

The main-floor bathroom would be our next big reno, but with saving for the UK trip and making up retirement contributions, I'm doubtful we could do it this year. Maybe early next year.

Next year I'm hoping AS's income stays steady and NT and I get a raise. We have a lot of wants for the house! Including central AC, which in an older house with no vents can get rather expensive.

NT's UK rental income came in, and I was able to send 400 pounds to his mum. That leaves us owing her 1000 pounds by my calculations.

I peeked at my 401(k) as I've done every few days since the market stumbled. I'm back over $80K at least, though still under the high of $84K-$85K that I hit in early August. Performance wise, my holdings are still down about 5% from Aug. 11.

Our living room furniture will be coming next week! This puts us under the gun to A) replace the accessory stuff in the room (side tables, storage and art) and B) trim our foster cat's claws before then (he unwittingly gets them caught in our current old loveseat, pulling long strings from it, and our new furniture will have a similar material to the loveseat). To that end, we've trimmed two claws (we'll need to do just a couple at a time because it stresses him out) and listed the furniture we want to get rid of on FB and Freecycle. Only a few pieces have gone, so I'm going to try again on Craigslist and another FB site. When I get a chance! It's been a busy week.

We don't really have money carved out to buy the furniture, but we're ahead of where we need to be on saving for our UK plane tickets, so I'm thinking we take some from there and make it up later.

We had our basement bathroom inspection and our contractor has news about the results, but we haven't connected with him yet. Sounds like there does need to be work done, so I'm glad I resisted the temptation to spend the last $4K of WV money.

We're having a house meeting tonight to talk about various things, among them applying for city approval to turn our garage into an accessory dwelling unit (granny flat). I found the application online and my downstairs neighbor sounds interested in helping me investigate it. But I want to make sure no one has any concerns before we move forward.

I've started dieting and joined a pedometer challenge at work. I lost one pound last week, but I've been trying to eat less and walk more this week, so we'll see if the results are any better when I weigh in Sunday. Ideally I want to lose 15 lbs. (well, 14 now) before the whole Thanksgiving/Christmas season of decadence starts. So I'd need to lose a bit more than a pound a week!

It's a quiet night for me. I'm home alone with the kiddos, who so far only want to watch a movie and eat dinner on a blanket on the floor. I'm OK if they just want to veg out until bedtime. (Yep, they just asked me to put on another movie! )

Things have been going well, just not much to report on the financial front. One interesting thing is we seem to have more and more conversations about budgeting with various friends and acquaintances. At an alumni event, we were talking about our system and the other alums said they'd be interested if I hosted an event where I talked about it. So we'll see. I'll think about it even though I'm not good at public speaking.

AS wanted us to loan her mom some money. She asked about $800, I proposed $500 (which is what AS had left in her charitable giving fund from the WV windfall), and we settled at $700. (That also wiped out the $200 of my charitable giving that I'd been saving up to give to my college. We just got the first fundraising mailer of the annual drive this week. )

It bums me out because we've loaned and given money before and her situation never really improves permanently. In this case I was already reluctant, but especially enraged when I found out one of the reasons she was late on her rent was because she'd loaned her sister $500 and her sister wouldn't pay her back. (The sister, AS's aunt, and her husband make upwards of $200K, more than the three of us together and loads more than AS's mom.)

So, great, we're loaning money because someone who makes more than us foolishly borrowed money from a poor relation and couldn't pay it back. People. Come on.

Anyway, AS suggested to her mom that she consult me about setting up a budget. She PMed me on FB, I sent her my email address and she said she'd send me the details of her income and expenses. But she hasn't yet. So we'll see.

AS also told our downstairs neighbor, who is self-employed and hasn't paid or filed taxes in about three years, to get me to help him. He too has not approached me yet.

Another friend and her husband were talking at a party about how they save nothing and have no control of their finances. They're in their 40s and just got married (2nd marriage for at least one of them). Really cool people but you wonder what's going to happen to this generation that doesn't have the same safety net as previous generations, too much access to credit, and too little financial education. Hopefully I can help them sort it out a bit at some point!

My one friend I set up on spreadsheets similar to mine is still using them, over a year on! I'm so proud of her. I do still have access to the sheets and she asked me to help her with an issue recently, so I could see they were up to date. I couldn't help but notice that she still has about the same amount of debt as six months ago, but at least it isn't more, and her day-to-day budget is pretty under control. And she opened a Vanguard Roth that she puts a bit of money in on a regular basis. So that's kind of gratifying!

AS finally got some of the long-overdue freelance income, which was a relief; we hadn't had much spare money for a while. She's only been getting about $2K a month for the past few months, and a third of it goes to retirement/taxes and a third to the UK travel fund, so the rest has had to stretch.

With this latest influx I made up the shortage from going to the fair, paid for a delivery dinner night, and signed the kids up for swim classes again. I also sent AS and NT, who've both had big intense weeks, out for a date tonight. Hence being alone with the kids.

AS's teaching gig is going well. It's had its ups and downs but overall she seems to enjoy it. At least she's not terrified of the unknown anymore!

She also had an interview with a recruiter from the Fortune 500 company I mentioned in an earlier post. It sounds like an interesting job and one she could do, but on paper she's not at all qualified, so she's rather puzzled as to why they reached out. But, she sent her resume and some writing samples in anyway. We shall see. The salary is insane, high 90s to low 100s. Then again, if she's averaging $60K this year working about 2/3 time, it wouldn't be that big an HOURLY raise to make $90K working full time. But it would be a huge salary nonetheless. But none of us (including AS) is sure that a full-time corporate job is right for her. So we shall see!

We heard from our contractor that he hasn't heard from the city about the basement bathroom. He's going to follow up with them. We're kind of scared to spend the rest of our WV money until we know if anything needs to be done down there. I'm sure our contractor is eager to clear this up so he can get to work and get more of our money!

I've managed to send in all the October extra retirement money already, about $1450. I like staying a month ahead, but it makes me impatient, wondering when we'll be far enough ahead to put in the November amount. I just want to hurry up and max out our 2015 Roths. Once I do that I'll see if we're in a good enough place to put our retirement on autopilot and focus on other things.

We just heard from HMRC (the UK version of IRS) that we did get a late fee for turning in our 2014 taxes late. Jeez, we didn't even owe anything; they're harsh! It was 30 pounds and I had just enough in the UK checking account to pay it. This year we're going to try and file online; hopefully it works. The 2015 returns are due in early October, so we've got a reminder on the calendar to log in to their system Oct. 1 and make sure it works. If not, I can print out hard copies and hopefully get them in on time the old-fashioned way.

I guess that's about it. I've got some days off planned in October for various things, so I'm looking forward to that month. One is for my sister who's coming for a long weekend; another is for a long-weekend staycation with AS & NT (and the kids, though they'll be in school/daycare on the weekdays and have at least one sleepover with our downstairs neighbors).

We decided to have a Halloween party this year. We sent out the invite today, because with Halloween falling on a Saturday, I'm sure other people are pondering throwing parties. We want to get ours in front of people first! Lots of planning to do for that one, and it'll probably cost a fair bit of money for food, drinks, some decorations and some iTunes purchases.

I remember now that the weather is turning cool, I got rid of all clothing I didn't love. Now I have barely any slacks or sweaters. Methinks a trip to the discount outlet is in order this month or next! Probably I'll do it after AS receives more of the freelance money she's owed.

I feel like I've had lots of short weeks lately. Last week, I took Friday off to go the MN State Fair. This week, I took Thursday off and my job gave me Friday and (of course) Monday. So I had a three-day week and will have a four-day work week next week.

We've been running lean on shared spending money; AS hasn't tapered off too much, but my job in particular is being slow and clunky in getting her POs and checks. We've had enough to do some fun stuff, but this week we may go in the hole a little on shared spending. Luckily I'm confident the money is coming soon, just not WHEN.

For the State Fair, we probably spent $60 each on food and beer! We went without the kids and just made it a big foodfest, trying new offerings and old favorites.

The reason I took yesterday off is that daycare is closed, which means SL needed people to stay home with her. AS had a teaching-related appointment on Wed. and her first class on Thurs. So NT took Wed. off and I took off Thurs. Today, AS and I are both home with SL. Right now AS is attempting to have her "help" bake a pie.

We tried to plan a fun activity for each day, since we don't get much one-on-one time with either kid, but especially not with SL. So on Wednesday, NT took her to a nearby lake with a beach and let her play in the sand and water. Then he took her to our favorite pizza place for lunch. Yesterday, I took her to a kids' bookstore that has lots of pets wandering around and/or in cages. We browsed, read, hung out with the animals and bought a book each for her and AA. Then I took her to lunch at the cafe next door to the store. Today, she went grocery shopping with us, which is about a mile walk total, and is getting some hands-on kitchen experience. And we let her watch a ton of TV today, since she'd been out and about a lot the past couple days.

Our shared spending covered all of that, but with no new checks in the mail today, we'll have to go in the hole this weekend. We want wine for the long weekend, and we're heading out to the State Fair again, this time with the kids. Don't expect to spend as much because we already have some ride tickets, and we won't be able to stuff our faces quite as much. But a day at the Fair does add up.

Oh, and we need to pay for a carshare for an alumni event we're going to tomorrow. We have a line item for carshare, so we'll pay for it there. We've really gone through the carshare budget this month, though, so other rentals may have to come out of shared spending.

It's not a dire situation, though. AS is expecting $13K in freelance income through the end of the year, and that's without booking any new work, which she'll still do a bit of even with her teaching gig. $3900 of that will go to tax/retirement and $4550 toward our UK trip. But the other $4550 is up for grabs. If my company weren't being so disorganized, we'd have some of it by now!

Speaking of AS's work, her first class went really well. It's going to be interesting because she's using my NaNoWriMo novel for a semester-long mock publishing exercise, where they edit, print, develop a marketing plan, etc. Part of it is learning to correspond with authors, so I'll be helping AS with that (though she'll guide me on what to say if there are certain lessons she's trying to get across; I'm not a typical author so she may want me to act more typical in my correspondence).

Also speaking of her work, she got an interesting LinkedIn message from a local Fortune 500 company regarding a high-level job opportunity. She's not at all sure she's qualified or even wants it, but she emailed back to say she's interested in learning more. So more on that once we learn more about it!

I've been going kinda crazy on the food this summer. I haven't weighed myself, but my clothes tell me all I need to know about that. I've given myself until after the fair this Sunday. Then I'll weigh myself to see how bad it is, and start to formulate a plan to deal with it.

I guess that's it for now!

I checked in again tonight and the payment had posted. Guess I've just got to be patient with this new provider.


$656 went to principal, taking us to $976 of debt paid for the month, and taking our household debt down to $485,706.

I'll try to do a more interesting update this week, but right now I'm feeling very sleepy. Time to zone out and doze off.

Our new US mortgage holder doesn't post my payment right on the first, which drives me nuts. It's a pretty lo-tech website overall.

But the UK mortgage payments hit:
UK1: $222 to principal
UK2: $48
UK3: $50

All told, $320 paid toward debt, bringing our household debt to $486,362.

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): $36,811
NT's Roth IRA: $7,289
AS's trad. IRA: $14,557
AS's Roth IRA: $23,729
AS's SEP IRA: $6,041
CJ's 401(k): $80,072
CJ's Roth IRA: $8,926
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $972,717

Total Debt: $486,682

Current Estimated Net Worth: $486,035

July 2015 estimate: $488,922

Change in net worth: -$2,887

Summary: Well, as could be predicted, our net worth was down this month despite paying down some debt and dumping a few thousand dollars into our retirement accounts. Hopefully just a temporary slump.

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.

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.