Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

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.

Last night was parents' night out, which is a wonderful day twice a year when our daycare lady and her husband keep all the kids for a sleepover on a Friday, and you pick them up Saturday late morning!

It was the first one since we'd had money to spare, so we went all out. First, I'd taken the day off because of a weird lull in my projects at work. (They'll pick up again on Monday.) AS and I went shopping and had lunch in downtown. I picked up the last few things my wardrobe was missing. I'd tried all the thrift store and discount store options that were within a reasonable distance, so I finally had to buy some stuff at higher prices than I care to pay for clothes. A cardigan for $37, 2 bras for $40 each, a pair of flats for $49, and 2 pairs of flip flops for $3 each (those were cheap at least!). But, now my wardrobe is in pretty good shape. Unless something wears out, I shouldn't need to buy anything for a while.

Then, we met up with NT and went to happy hour at a sushi place. We just stayed and stayed, ordering a series of small plates in lieu of dinner, as well as bottles of sake. We were there for over four hours! We spent $125 and tipped $25. Then we went for drinks at another place (I just had coffee at that point!). That place came to $46 with tip. So worth it to us!

Tomorrow there's a celebration called "Open Streets" where they block off traffic on a major road and let people walk/bike around. Local vendors set up stalls, musicians play, people take yoga on the street, etc. It's going to be really fun, and the street is only 3 short blocks from us!

Monday through Wednesday, we're doing a raw-foods cleanse. Today we bought a bunch of ingredients for the meals we have planned. I feel like a break from the indulgent eating and drinking will be good for us.

Monday we have a contractor coming over to look at our place while we tell him what we'd like to do with it. He'll help us figure out what's feasible and affordable, and from there we can develop a timeline and start saving up for each stage. That night, we're going to a raw vegan restaurant, and our neighbor is watching the kids and feeding them dinner.

Thursday there's a dads-only daycare event for Father's Day, and a happy hour for my alumni group. It's also technically 60 days from the WV option expiring. I wonder if my dad will hear anything from them?

Friday we have the day off, and we're renting a carshare and driving down to our friends' massive vacation home about 2 hours south of here. We'll drive back Monday afternoon (we have that day off too). I just realized I have a lot of 3- and 4-day weeks in a row all of a sudden!

The following week we have our CSA starting, with a box of fresh veggies to pick up every Thursday. That weekend we have a going-away party for a friend, and it's Father's Day on Sunday. NT still has to decide what he wants to do for it.

The next week we have a going-away party for a fellow alumna, and then it's GLBT Pride weekend with parade, festival and more.

And that's June! That's how summers go here in Minnesota. Everyone's so eager to get together and have fun. Luckily there are some quiet weeknights in there. Sometimes we accidentally overbook ourselves and don't even have that.

That wasn't much of a financial update. I did set up AS's 2nd-quarter tax payments today. I scheduled them for June 15. And I advised one of my two friends whose finances I consult on about what debt she should tackle next -- she's about to pay off her first credit card since we started!

Our fence isn't up yet, but the guy has set a date for this coming week to work on it. Excited!

There was a smash-and-grab burglary on our block, and now our downstairs neighbors want to install a security system. I'm just letting them decide what to do. They just need to do something to make themselves feel better, because the news really freaked them out.

Well, my first payment to the new duplex mortgage hit today, with $650 going to principal.

However, I forgot that when I refinanced, the principal went up by $3821. So overall, my debt balance is higher.

I'll still count my progress based on the old number, so that takes me to $1301 of debt paid, surpassing the smaller June goal by $1! It leaves me with $37,348 to go on the bigger June goal.

The line of credit and 0% credit card payments both hit:
LOC: $231 to principal
CC: $103 (all to principal)

That's $334 total paid toward debt today. That takes us to $651 down, either $649 or $38,649 to go to meet the June goal(s).

Nearly all the LOC payment went to interest, but that's because I made a couple of extra payments in May. Normally I think it would be about $150 to principal.

My new mortgage payment hasn't hit yet. I sent it out last Tuesday and dated the check 5/27, hoping it would hit promptly. Oh well, I'll try not to worry and give it another couple days. Can't wait to get it on autopay! I sent out the request for that as well.

All three UK mortgage payments hit:
UK1: $221 to principal
UK2: $46
UK3: $50

All told, that's $317 down, either $983 or $38,983 to go on the June debt goal.

We had to dip into the overdraft to make these payments since the renovation cleaned us out. We'll be able to pay it back in full with our second income check from the rental. (The first one will be funding the additional reno costs plus mostly covering the July mortgage payments. Once we get the payment from the management company, we'll be able to see if/how far we'll be short on mortgages so we can borrow or wire the money to cover it.)

It's been so nice to have money in the U.S. checking account again. I'll be really glad when our UK account is similarly in the black!

Taking some good advice from one of my last posts, I'm setting two possible goals.

Without the WV money coming through: pay at least $1,300 of debt.

If the WV money comes through: pay at least $39,300 of debt and be debt-free except for mortgages!

I hope I hope I hope it's the second outcome. But it still doesn't feel like a definite that I'm getting that money, so I'm hedging my bets.

This is a first, two possible goals. But then this is an unprecedented windfall that may or may not come through!

Our overpayment of property tax on the condo mortgage was finally refunded. This was the last piece of money connected with the two big closings last month: the sale of the condo and the refinance of the duplex.

I allotted a third toward making up AS's retirement contributions that were delayed, a third to debt payment, and a third to our shared spending money.

Of the $356 I sent to our highest-interest debt, the line of credit, $330 went to principal. That takes us to $998 of debt paid in May.

AS and I got the SEP/traditional IRA confusion sorted out, seemingly, so I'm going to dump more money into it for her. $2029.29 -- 10% of her earnings for the first quarter of 2015.

NT's student loan hit, with $42 going to principal. That takes us to $668 paid for the month of May.

Also, our new fridge got delivered today! I love it! We ended up getting the cheapest option of the most expensive type of fridge (36 inch wide, French door, bottom freezer, water dispenser). It was on sale but still more than I thought we'd end up paying. The extra cubic feet sold me! Especially during CSA months and the holidays, our fridge can get really stuffed with space-hogging fresh produce.

I spoke to my dad today, and he hasn't heard anything more about setting up a "closing" on the WV right-of-way deal. He said he'll give them until June 15 and then check in. They took the option in mid-April and told him they'd contact him for a closing within 60 days.

Our new fence should be installed within the next week or so. That will make the backyard one of the first places that feels really redone, so I will share before and after pics when it's up. The rest of our spaces have a long way to go but I'll try to take "before" pics of all of them before we really get going on them.

I realized my 20-year college reunion is next year in early June, and I really want to go. That may mean a trip to New York in early June as well as our England/Spain in late June/early July. We'll see!

A quick check-in before our day of shopping begins!

AS's student loan hit, with $142 going to principal. That takes us to $626 of debt paid, exceeding our $500 goal.

I have a few days before I need to set my June debt goal, but I'm already wondering; do I roll the dice, assume that my dad's WV deal is going to go through on schedule and that I'll be able to pay off all my non-mortgage debt? Or should I set a modest goal and just be elated if it turns out to be much, much more?

My debt goals are my own little motivator so it makes absolutely no difference in real life. Just something I'm idly wondering about.

After the great suggestions on one of my recent posts, I went back to the drawing board to think if there were other ways to pay the rental management company besides by wiring money. I suggested to NT either charging to his UK credit card or asking if they would take it out of our upcoming rental income.

They agreed to the latter, so we don't have to wire money! The only drawback is we'll be a bit short on July mortgage payments, probably only about 10 to 20 pounds. We're going to try and request an overdraft increase to cover that little bit. Then we should be all right for the July mortgage payments, and we can start paying NT's mum back with the second month of rental income. I think we can pay her back in 4 or 5 months. Hopefully by October since that's what we told her. We can always find another way to pay her back by then if we don't have enough rental income to get it done.

I also checked out credit cards with good travel rewards and bonus offers, and decided on a Capital One Venture card. $400 worth of travel if you spend $3000 in the first 3 months, plus you earn I think 1.5 or 2 points per dollar on spending; no annual fee the first year. NT applied for one first; if he's approved we'll put everything on that card and once it's clear we'll meet the spending requirement for the bonus, I'll apply for one and then AS. With home improvement stuff on top of regular spending it shouldn't be a problem to meet the amount for three cards as long as we stagger the opening of them. That could mean $1200+ off the airfare for our UK/Spain vacation next year!

***

It's been such a great holiday weekend. The kids go back to daycare tomorrow but we adults have one more day off tomorrow.

Friday, NT and AA went to a father-daughter test thing for a study being done at the university. They had fun; there were lots of toys and games worked in to the tests. SL and I did some of the grocery shopping and had some mom-daughter bonding time while AS worked on a freelance project.

That evening, after the kids' naps and dinner, AS kept working while the rest of us went for a walk, got some ice cream, and stopped by a playground for a little while. AS ordered cake and ice cream from a local pizza place later that night so she didn't feel like she missed out. She made good progress on the project and only had to work on it for short bursts the rest of the holiday weekend.

Saturday we had a leisurely day mostly at home. NT did the rest of the grocery shopping. AA, NT and I went for a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon, stopping very often to examine flowers and plants. We stopped by the doughnut shop but they were sold out, so we walked to a cafe and bought cookies. Then we passed a yard sale and AA bought a framed photo of a butterfly plus a cup of lemonade from some other kids. A free-standing hammock we'd ordered was delivered and NT set it up on the front porch. It was in high demand the remainder of the weekend! It's wonderful, very comfortable and sturdy.

Sunday NT was at a music festival all day. AS and I took the kids out for brunch at a nearby restaurant. It was raining but not too hard, and we had umbrellas so it wasn't unpleasant. AS and I played videogames at home and sporadically did some chores: laundry and dishes mostly.

Today we headed out to the playground again; it was cloudy but the weather held. We stopped at the pizza place after the playground and had lunch. While the kids napped, AS and I went to a thrift store that had a 50% off sale. We managed to find a lot of really nice stuff. Between us we got 10 tops, 9 pairs of jeans, a dress, a purse, and some costume jewelry for the kids for $95. Less than $4 per item! We stopped off at Subway for drinks because we were dying of thirst after hours of shopping and trying things on. When AS and I got home, NT and I took the kids (and our neighbors' dog) for a walk around the neighborhood. NT grilled veggie hot dogs and apples on the front porch for dinner.

Tomorrow we plan to drop the kids off at daycare, have breakfast together, and then have a full day of shopping: first to Warners Stellian to pick out a fridge, then to Ikea for various household goods (we've got a list so hopefully we don't get sucked into TOO many impulse purchases), and JCPenney for some clothes needs and wants (suit and shoes for NT, shoes for me).

It's nice to have money to play with again. I feel we're all being very intentional about spending it on things we want or need, or experiences that are relaxing or make us feel good. And I'm still tracking everything very closely to make sure we don't go over the amounts allotted.

I sent a third of the condo escrow to the line of credit, and this time it did decrease the amount I owe, by $60. That takes May debt payment to $484 down, $16 to go. Every little bit helps! Actually, I'm hoping to pay off all the non-mortgage debt in one fell swoop next month if/when the WV money comes through. But whatever I pay now saves us a bit of interest, plus I might have a bit of WV money left over if I pay some debt now. I figure any WV money left after taxes, charitable contribution and debt payoff, I'll split 50/50 between retirement and fun money.

Speaking of retirement, I figured out I had my 6/15 paychecks mislabeled as 6/16. What it means is I can do AS's first-quarter SEP contribution now instead of waiting until mid-June. But when I went to the new Vanguard account I just opened, it was called a traditional IRA and it had a $5500 limit. SEP retirement funds are supposed to be up to 25% of income. I figure I made a mistake when setting it up. I emailed Vanguard as AS so they'd contact her and hopefully convert it to an SEP. I'm not going to send her first-quarter payment to it until we get that figured out, even though it wouldn't be over the limit.

I'm a bit too keyed up to go to sleep just yet. I think I'm excited about my five-day weekend!

The kids are home Friday through Monday, and then us grownups took an extra day Tuesday to hang out together. We don't have any big plans, just some rough ideas; the playground and park if it's nice weather; going to the movies if there's a rainy day (which there will probably be a couple of).

We do have a plumber coming out tomorrow to look at this basement bathroom and see what's not up to code about it, and hopefully estimate how much it would cost to bring it up to code.

Also, NT and AA are going to the university to participate in a father-daughter study tomorrow.

Oh, and NT is at an all-day music festival Sunday. Nothing big for me to do, though. I just want to hang out with my family and relax.

Maybe I'll do a little shopping; I do need a couple pieces of clothing for work and I have some big client meetings coming up. And perhaps we can look at fridges and a few other smaller household needs.

I've been really busy at work, and several money things have happened that I haven't had time to blog about. Let's see if I can remember them all ...

The escrow from my old duplex mortgage came in! Over $3K. Most of it I used to make up for the money we had to put into new escrow, but there was about $450 more than I needed for that. I put one-third toward retirement, one-third into our shared spending money and a third toward debt payment.

(The debt payment only covered accrued interest on that $15K line of credit, but at least it means future payments will go more toward principal. And actually I noticed we now have some available credit on the line, so they did put most of it toward principal, but since I can see the accrued interest keeping the balance at nearly $15K, I'm not counting that way. So no debt paid off with that payment, but that's OK.)

And, since the money is in the bank now, I was able to open AS's SEP IRA (retirement account). I put $957 in there: 10% of the money she made from freelancing in the last quarter of 2014. As soon as I have enough money in the bank to do so, I'll add in the 10% she made in the first quarter of 2015, but right now I need to keep that in checking to make sure we can cover her 2nd quarter income tax prepayments. As soon as we have enough in the bank to cover both, I'll add to her SEP.

I wrote to the county about condo property taxes because we double-paid first half due to closing on the sale of it. The county got back and said they considered property taxes to be paid in full for the year and wouldn't be able to refund any until they were overpaid -- presumably whenever the new owners paid 2nd half taxes later this year or early next year! I wrote to the title company and they called the county and got it straightened out -- they should refund the overpayment sometime next week.

Then, I got the remainder of the condo mortgage escrow in the mail today. Only $193, but certainly welcome! I'm dividing it into thirds like I did the surplus from the duplex escrow refund.

NT's UK property manager wrote to ask for more money -- just 114 pounds this time ($182). Luckily we'd waited to wire the other amount he asked for, so we'll only pay the wire fee once. We still don't know what the council taxes will be that he mentioned, but it sounds like we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'll wire the money for the last two renovation expenses tomorrow -- I've got the day off work.

Good news about that though -- he also let us know he's found somebody to rent the place starting May 29 for 825 pounds per month -- 30 more than the 795 he initially projected. That means we'll be able to pay his mum back a bit more quickly and start saving up spending money for a trip over there.

Speaking of which, we decided when we're going to visit England next. In late June/early July of 2016. We've got a while to plan, which is good because we've got to save up airfare for 5 passengers now that neither girl can sit on our laps anymore.

We also talked about leaving the kids with their grandparents for a few days and checking out another European city with some of our Oxford friends, and the grandparents agreed. We've more or less settled on Barcelona. I'm excited -- the only European city I've visited outside the UK is Amsterdam!

NT ran a check to see how much it would cost if we were traveling THIS June/July instead of next. It probably doesn't have much to do with reality, but it gives us a rough number to start working toward. Get this: round trip airfare for 5 from US to England, plus round trip airfare for us three adults from England to Barcelona, came to about $9000! That's more than we've ever spent on an entire trip including hotel and food, and that's just for the airfare. It freaks me out a bit, but we really want to do it and can afford it, so we will. And hopefully the actual fares will be a bit less than that.

The good part is, NT's mum is paying for lodging for us while we're in UK, and we'll have money saved up in the UK account for dining and other spending, so the only other expenses we'll need to cover are a hotel in Barcelona and maybe rental cars. And, of course, we have well over a year to come up with the money, so we can start saving up a few months before we want to purchase the tickets.

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): $37,098
NT's Roth IRA: $7,888
AS's trad. IRA: $15,613
AS's Roth IRA: $21,399
CJ's 401(k): $84,582
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,888
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $905,760

Total Debt: $524,753

Current Estimated Net Worth: $381,007

April 2015 estimate: $377,561

Change in net worth: +$3,446

Summary: Modest gains and modest debt paydown equals a modest change.

Starting next month our retirement funds will increase faster. I can't wait!

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.

The garage sale finally happened. Not a ton of traffic, so we didn't make much. We spent $45 on supplies, snacks and sodas for the sale. We didn't sell many snacks or sodas, so a lot of that wasn't helpful money to spend. Sometimes drinks and snacks go over really big at sales, but not this one. We made a little over $100, which means we netted about $60.

Then we spent the rest of Saturday in a gardening flurry. Our backyard is (was) completely paved over with bricks, and we wanted at least a little patch of green out there. So we pulled up the bricks on about a third of the yard, tilled the sandy ground underneath, bought a ton of topsoil and tilled that in, and bought several rolls of sod and placed that. Now we have a small patch of grass that's going to look so nice! We used some of the pavers to build a raised border around the area we're going to use to plant fruits and veggies, and the rest we stuck in the garage for now. Then I weeded like a madwoman and pulled up a ton of deep-seated roots in the fruit/veggie bed. I believe our downstairs neighbors planted some stuff there today, but it's been raining off and on and I haven't had time to ask, so I'm not sure.

Sunday morning I hired a carshare and took the rest of the garage sale items that would fit (everything except a mattress, a table and a chair) to a donation drop site.

Then from about 2:30 to 7:30pm (counting travel to and from the campus), I was at NT's official graduation. Over a thousand grads in the ceremony, so it took ages! Kind of an anticlimax since he graduated in December, but fun at the same time. I took some nice pics of him in cap and gown on campus, to please his parents. That was the important part anyway.

AS got another check yesterday, for $525. We're thinking our next purchase will be a new fridge, since the one we have doesn't stay shut unless you really slam it or use the child-proofing latches that NT installed. But we have a ton of items on our wish list, so we should probably go through and vote again.

We also want a couple of date nights and minor personal items (clothing, shoes), so we'll use some of AS's money for that. And we still have to figure out what to do with the basement area that the city wants us to make un-rentable, and how much that will cost.

Feeling unstuck is such a wonderful feeling that we really don't care how long it takes to have all the wants we've withheld for so long. We're happy to take it slow.

I'm feeling SO much better, no longer stuck in a holding pattern. Yesterday and today were both big money days for AS: She got $3600 and $1400 respectively. Add in the $4K from earlier in the week and she received $9K this week!

NT has started shopping for some LONG-overdue work clothes -- dress shirts, slacks and a suit. He thinks he can keep it to about $600.

We went ahead and set aside money for the rental cars for our two upcoming road trips, and reserved hotels for the longer one. The rentals will be about $575 for the longer trip and $230 for the shorter one. The hotels came to less than $500 for three one-night stays in different cities.

The fence guy came by to finalize his estimate. It was very close to the initial one -- $2640. We're splitting 50/50 with our neighbors. And we should have the back yard fenced in within 3 weeks! I've taken some "before" photos so I can share them along with the "afters." I think it's going to make a world of difference.

Today I had off work and spent much of the day prepping for the garage sale tomorrow. AS helped me a ton. We lugged out boxes from various places, and tables from the porches. We bought sodas and snacks to sell at the sale as well. I spent $45 on sodas, granola bars, fruit snacks, posterboard and pricing stickers. Any food/drinks we don't sell will definitely get eaten up by the family.

It's the only expense for the sale -- our $10 registration to the neighborhood sale will be refunded because NT discovered we got left off the map. But there are enough sales around us that we're not too worried. They did give us a sign to put in our yard to signal that we're part of the sale.

Our neighbors contributed some items too. Instead of keeping track of what money came from whom, we agreed that any proceeds would go toward something shared -- probably plants or soil for the garden.

Now that we've been getting serious about fixing up the house together, I've been giving some thought to their wish that we sell a portion of it to them. I'm definitely in favor of that in theory. But I feel like I want to talk through the ramifications -- tax, insurance, estate planning -- with others before we finalize it. All this past year, I've felt reactive -- trying to make up for not having properly prepared before each big decision. I want to be knowledgable about this next step before we take it.

AS called me today at work to let me know at last some money had come in. It was a big 'un, too: a $4000 check!

Not long after, NT forwarded an email from his UK property manager letting him know they need more money. :/ We just can't borrow any more money from his mum--we're already nearly $3K in the hole with her--so we'll have to wire some of our newfound riches. NT asked them to make sure this was the last additional charge, because sending money from the U.S. costs money, and we don't want to have to pay multiple wire charges. The manager also said council taxes would be due soon, but he didn't have any details on that.

On the upside, he says the place will be rentable soon, and at 40 pounds more per month than before. So once it's all said and done, we should be able to pay off NT's mum in 5 or 6 months and start saving money in the UK account again.

NT also had to get his bike repaired, so that will come out of our shared money as well. About $46.

So here's how $4000 becomes a shadow of its former self:
Tax/retirement $1200
Our half of fence costs (est) $1,300
Send to UK for reno (min) $616.40
Bike repairs $46.48

Left over: $837.12

Still, that's a lot more shared spending money than we've had in a while!

I booked a rental car for our July trip to my family reunion, but we won't have to pay that until we actually rent it. I added a note to my budget sheet so it doesn't fall off the radar, but I don't need to take it out of shared money right now. We know AS has lots more money coming in that will definitely be here before July! I figured out how to use my company's discount on the rental and saved about $100!

Even though it's just a road trip through Indiana to Ohio for a gathering of family (most of whom I don't know terribly well, except my nuclear family), I'm excited at the thought of traveling again. Before that, we've got a weekend in June in our friends' giant home in Winona (small town south of us). So two trips coming up!

My stomach is about 90% better. It's hurting and grumbling now that I had dinner, but not nearly as angrily as the past couple days.

Cat's not back. It's only been 5 days, whereas he was gone 10 days last time. I hope he gets hungry sooner and comes home!

Garage sale is this weekend. I'm taking Friday off to prep for it. We don't really think we'll make much money but it's a good excuse to go through our house looking for things to get rid of. I'm more excited about decluttering than I care whether we make money!

NT's official graduation is Sunday. Kind of anticlimactic; this is mostly so his dad gets pictures of him. And he did work hard on that degree, so it's worth celebrating again.

It's been a few days of ups and downs, and I either haven't had a chance to blog or haven't felt like it.

- Down: Our Noodles ran off again! Even the first night, NT was leaving doors open and letting the cats hang out on the porches. AS and I were worried about that and she mentioned it but we didn't do anything. Well, the second night, he was suddenly gone! There was only one door open, to our front porch (second floor), so he must have gone that way.

I'm not as gutted this time because A) He's demonstrated an ability to find his way home, B) I know it was voluntary on his part this time (last time I thought he might have been shut out), and C) I was very worried about NT last time, but I feel like he was asking for it this time. That was Thursday night and Noodles hasn't shown up. I hope he gets back safe! I've already implemented a strict indoor policy for our remaining cat, and if/when Noodles gets back, he won't get another chance to disappear if I can help it.

Up: NT's work has been pulling in so much money that they gave everyone a $200 Visa gift card!

Down: AS still hasn't received any of the big checks we're expecting. Our small amount of discretionary money is gone mainly thanks to getting NT's cap and gown for his official graduation ceremony, and me and AS going out to brunch for Mother's Day.

Up: We got the property tax money refunded from the duplex refi. I was able to pay off that high-interest reserve line loan. I still need to receive the escrow refund to make my budget work, but I can float everything until mid-June at least, and they're supposed to mail out that refund by May 24 at the latest.

Down: I caught some kind of 24-hour bug and had to go home early yesterday and work from home today. It just wasn't a good time to take sick days, unfortunately. But I've been getting better gradually over the course of the day. And I got a fair amount of work done.

I think that's most of the news. I still feel a bit out of it so I may be forgetting something!

Just kidding; I'm not superstitious, but that doesn't stop me from feeling "lucky" when more than one good thing happens in a row. So first, this morning, I'm awakened to the good news that Noodles came back.

Tonight my broker emailed (that's right, he and the title company actually did their job without my nagging!) to say the property taxes had been paid, so they can refund that portion of my money that they'd been holding. They'll mail a check tomorrow and it'll be to me Friday or Saturday. (I should ask them to wire it and pay a fee like I had to! But I know that's not how it works.)

I hope this means tomorrow we start receiving some of AS's long-awaited freelance checks!

After a mysterious 9-day absence, our cat has returned. He just showed up this morning and meowed to be let in. We don't know where he went or why, but at least he's back! Scratch on his ear, some dust in his coat, and he's lost his paunch (looks like a fit cat now!), but otherwise unchanged. If anything, he was more loving with us than usual and more mellow with our newer cat Clue. (She, on the other hand, is very displeased he came back and keeps growling and trying to intimidate him. I guess she took ownership of the whole house while he was gone!)

Ah well. Just so happy my family is complete again!