Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

All the mortgage payments hit:
US (condo): $493 to principal
US (duplex): $631
UK1: $219
UK2: $46
UK3: $48

All told, that's $1437 down, $113 to go on the January debt goal.

I weighed in on Jan. 1 to join PatientSaver's challenge. I'm right around 137. Could be better, could be worse. My goal weight is 127, and my birthday is March 2, so I figure I'll aim to lose 10 lbs. by then.

Last night I tried out my friend's elliptical that we recently got moved into the basement. I only did about 5 or 10 minutes; I'm pretty out of shape from being less active during my various holiday ailments. Still getting my energy back. But it was good to start the first day with some exercise. I'll try to do it again tonight.

AS is not seeking out work actively right now because she's been pretty busy; she worked most of the holiday days except the ones she was too sick to work. But even without seeking, she'll have at least a bit of work every week for the foreseeable future; two of her clients (my work and her old one) both have some ongoing/recurring assignments for her. And her other clients tend to offer jobs pretty regularly. She's got her tax and retirement for 2014 funded and is nearly done funding her first February paycheck replacement. I'm not sure if that's still how I'm going to handle things; we'll see what NT's and my paychecks look like Jan. 15 and that should let me know the minimum that AS needs to make each month. Anything extra I can set aside to help pay off the condo mortgage when the time comes.

The January goal is still to pay off the minimum amount of debt, so $1550.

We received our last paychecks of 2014. I'm hoping the next paychecks will show a net increase because of less flex spending being taken out, but we'll have to wait and see what it is exactly.

We ended 2013 with $244,516 of debt, having paid off $35,113. We ended this year at $675,788 in debt, so we effectively added $431,272 of debt.

I'm still waiting to state our 2015 goals until we have more clarity, but one thing that keeps coming to mind is that I'd like to end 2015 with less than $500K of debt.

AS's student loan payment hit, the last debt payment of the year. $141 went to principal, so that takes us to $1581 of debt paid this month.

On my "official" debt tally, we are now under $10K in student loan debt. However, we have another $4K loan that I'm not counting because we also have the money to pay it off. But chances are I'll use that money to either pay off the duplex seller or get out of the condo mortgage, so at that point the student loan will be added to the debt tally. So it's not very exciting to be under $10K on student loans on that spreadsheet; it's not real and probably won't last very long.

It's weird to go into 2015 without stated goals, but it's not because I have no direction. I have some pretty specific ideas of what I want to do, it's just that it's hard to predict how much progress I'll be able to make. Once a few more things shake out, I'll have a better sense. I'm still very optimistic about the future. We can definitely afford to keep paying all the bills and setting aside a bit of surplus money, and once the condo sells we'll be able to do a lot more than that.

Everyone is still sick here, but I'm still the least sick of everyone. I really got away with a milder form of whatever this is, at least I hope I don't get it worse later on.

Last night we chipped in with our tenants to buy the new season of Doctor Who on Amazon instant watch, so that's mainly what the grownups will be doing whenever the kids are asleep!

The whole CJ family is sick, so it's been a very low-key Xmas Eve. The kids were nearly better, so hopefully they'll be all the way mended for the gift-opening orgy tomorrow.

We spent $100 on each of them, but of course their many many grandparents went crazy, so they're going to have quite an exciting morning.

We have a big feast planned tomorrow, so I'm really hoping we have better appetites. We had a delicious meal downstairs at our friends' house; I could only manage one serving, and AS couldn't eat a bite. NT did eat but was in bed by 8:30pm. The girls only picked at their food and were so unbearable that we put them in bed at 7:15pm. They didn't fight it; I think they needed it.

I didn't have as much time, money or energy to really get super-involved in Xmas preparations this year, so I actually don't mind getting sick as much as I would on a typical year. I'm still getting time with my friends and family, and time off work. It's all good.

Oh! And my downstairs neighbors/tenants/friends gave me a rather extravagant Christmas present, to thank me for going through hell to get this home. They filled my nearly empty book nook with bookshelves from IKEA! I'm so excited, at least I would be if I had any energy. I'm going to love fixing it up and getting it just so; now that it doesn't look so bare I think I'm going to move a comfy chair in there and actually hang out in it sometimes.

Since everyone is reviewing 2014 and planning 2015, I thought I'd take a look back. Even though we completely threw out our initial plan for the year and went for a daring overreach to buy our dream home.

Here were the goals set for 2014 last December:

- pay off student loans ($12,196)
- cashflow NT's remaining tuition ($6,470)
- renovate US condo bathroom ($5,000)
- renovate UK condo (cashflowing $5400)
- slowly build moving fund (maybe only $50)
- start to rebuild EF after I use it for rest of UK renos (hopefully $4375 [$3475 UK rental + $900 US savings]) and medical EF (probably nothing in 2014)

What we achieved:
- Paid off only about $2000 of student loans; decided to stop paying extra so we could save faster for a home
- Cashflowed about $2000 of NT's tuition; the rest is sitting on a student loan. We have the cash to pay it off but will probably use that cash to get out of the condo and/or pay off part of the duplex seller loan
- renovated not only the bathroom but the rest of the condo, and paid for it all
- the UK reno got put off because our tenant renewed their lease; that's going to happen next year instead
- rather than building a moving fund, we used every scrap of US money we had to buy and move into the duplex
- we still have a decent EF (over $18K) but only because the UK renos haven't happened. They'll wipe out the EF and we'll need to rebuild in 2015

So, a real mixed bag. But, one goal that we weren't meant to achieve until next year or the year after was to buy a new home, so even though it knocked us for a loop, it's still a huge step forward for us.

I checked net worth at the end of 2013 compared with now, and we're at $12,904 higher. Not very much for a year's progress, unless you figure that I valued the duplex $27K less than we paid for it in our net worth, and also devalued the condo by $5K. So our other debt and retirement progress was good, even though I slowed our retirement contributions for the second half of 2014. 2015 should be much, much better in terms of net worth.

I'll only be able to post very general goals for 2015, initially. Once a few things get cleared up I should be able to refine and clarify them. But I'll try to post something before the end of the year.

I don't know why, but my June 1 post keeps attracting spam comments, week after week. I keep deleting them, but it's a pain. I would delete the post, but it has my before-and-after pics, so I'd like to keep it.

I wrote to Jeffrey and Nate on the forums and they never responded.

Grr...

He sent off his last final exam tonight (it was a take-home). And with that, the bachelor's degree is official!

Dazed and stunned and still trying to believe it's finished. Once it sinks in, it's going to feel amazing, knowing he doesn't have to start classes up again in January.

One more piece falling into place. He's also finally in serious talks about a raise in the new year. He's asked for $10K more; we'll see if they try to cheap out, but they really shouldn't. They can afford it, and he's that instrumental. So we'll see.

I have no more work this week, two days of work next week, and none the following week. It'll be nice to spend time at home.

We have an outrageously elaborate menu and grocery list this week. We were so far under budget last week that it probably won't cause us to go over, though. Looking forward to preparing exciting new dishes and sharing them with friends and family.

Xmas shopping is done, for the most part. AS has some more money to buy herself gifts, and we might get a pair of sneakers for the 2-year-old.

I'm just babbling. Still trying to process that NT has graduated!

NT got his bonus! He netted about $3400 on a $6K gross. A tiny bit went to 401(k) but the rest is tax withholding. of course it'll help us at tax time, but it always hurts a bit to see that much taken out!

We used $350 to tip our amazing daycare. The rest stays in the bank until we sell the condo.

On that front, still getting a showing or two a week. The two buyers who expressed vague interest before Thanksgiving haven't reappeared. We'll hang in at this price for a while longer since it would be very rough to lose any more than what we've planned for in a lump sum.

The main reason I don't want to go any lower is because we'll already be losing an estimated $27,700 if we sell for $5K below asking and cover half the buyer's closing costs. These two conditions seem to be standard for condos in our building, so we have to plan for them.

Besides having to come up with that lump sum, I'm also trying to scrape together $26,500 to pay off the secondary loan from the seller we bought the duplex from. That loan causes me more stress than almost anything in my life right now, and I want it gone at any cost. My broker said we might be able to roll it into a mortgage in March when we refinance, but what if we can't refinance? What if we can't refinance for that larger amount? Our credit scores are a lower than before due to all the activity and new debt, and with the condo still on our books, our debt-to-income ratio is really high. I don't want to wait another three months and then be disappointed.

So anyway, my goal is to come up with $54,200 so we can pay off the crazy seller and still have enough funding to take the loss on the condo when it sells.

So far I've accumulated money and credit by saving surplus amounts both large and small, by delaying payment on loans and holding that cash instead, and by signing up for a line of credit. Here's what I have so far:

Line of credit: $15,000.00 available to borrow
Reserve line: $5,500.00 available to borrow
Money owed to a friend that we can wait on: $80.00
Deposit into kids' Pax funds that can wait: $80.00
AS IRA contributions that can wait: $868.60
Deferred Roth IRA contributions: $3,600.00
Credit card balance (0% til Dec '15): $10,753.00
NT extra student loan: $4,470.73
Cash surplus: $6,248.72

So that's $46,601.05, or $7,598.95 short of where we need to be.

I'm not sure if/when we'll be able to borrow or save the additional funds. Selling the condo is our first priority, so I can't pay off the duplex seller until we have enough money to do both.

If we do sell the condo, I think we'll be able to come up with the other funds quickly: We'll have an extra $1700 per month from not paying condo mortgage & association dues, and I'll gladly carry balances on some of our lower-interest credit cards in order to gather enough funds to pay off the duplex seller.

Assuming we eventually get both things done, sell the condo and pay off the seller, we'll then have a bunch of debt to pay off and deferred retirement contributions to make up. My plan is to do it gradually over the next year or two using the money freed up by not carrying two mortgages and sets of utilities. If (and it seems like a big if at this point) we do get the WV land deal money in the spring, that would be enough to pay off the debts listed above and make up the retirement contributions.

So those are the "plans" I have; right now it's just a waiting and money-hoarding game while I wait for things to change.

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): $33,447
NT's Roth IRA: $7,167
AS's trad. IRA (V): $12,865
AS's trad. IRA (E): $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $19,243
CJ's 401(k): $75,334
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,167
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $140,000
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $1,028,197

Total Debt: $675,929

Current Estimated Net Worth: $352,268

November 2014 estimate: $363,981

Change in net worth: -$11,713

Summary: The market dipped down again and we lost about half the net worth we gained last month. Overall it's been a stagnant couple of months, then.

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..60 for every British pound.

...with a festive pic of my girls!



This was at a Christmas village thing happening in downtown. I wasn't going to take them because I'd heard it had an entrance fee and everything there cost money. But on Sunday, NT needed to finish a paper for school (his last one!), AS had to buckle down on a big freelance project, and it was 50 degrees out (very warm for MN in December). So I said to heck with it. I had no plans for my weekly spending money anyway.

It wasn't a great festival, but it had a merry-go-round, music and snacks, which is about all preschoolers need to have a fabulous time. I enjoyed seeing them so happy. I spent:

- $6 admission
- $10 on 3 rides on the carousel
- $3 on cider for the kids
- $1 to let the 4-year-old give to a street musician whose performance she was enjoying
- $14 on pizza and drinks at the Target cafe

NT gave me $10 of his spending money when I got back, I guess since I'd kept the kids out of their hair!

NT just introduced us to a sitcom from the '70s, The Good Life, and I'm hooked! It's about a couple who decides to leave the rat race and become completely self-sustaining. I thought it would quickly descend into lame jokes but each of the first four episodes has been packed with details about reusing, recycling, budgeting, bartering and backyard farming. And it's really charming and funny! Their next-door neighbors provide the counterpoint, but they mostly come off as materialistic and not really happy in their lives. Super interesting for members of this site, I'd say. Even though I'm not opposed to the "9 to 5" style of life, I love it.

AS was going to work 2 days at my job last week, but they needed her for four. It's going to make some other deadlines tough, but at least she made $640 more than expected! She's making real strides toward her next milestone; I'm going to have to make a new one soon, I think!

I splurged on two big purchases this past week. One was $105 on holiday cards, calendars and photos. It's for presents and cards to other people mainly; only some of the photos and one of the calendars are for me.

The other big splurge was on a Roomba! AS found a deal: $245 for one that's normally $100 more than that. I went ahead and took the plunge.

My plan for funding them is that my parents usually send us each $100 and some gift cards as well. If I use the gift cards for other budget line items I can repay these purchases.

If I don't get enough cash and gift cards from my parents, I'll gradually repay the remaining balance of these purchases with my own spending money.

They were big impulse buys, which I never feel all the way great about these days, but I'm still happy with both purchases and will pay them off without messing up other parts of the budget.

It's been a great December so far. We've been to a couple of holiday gatherings and have a few more planned, as well as a few people coming for dinner various nights. All relatively cheap outings except our anniversary dinner out this past Monday, which was $250 for the three of us but all paid for with plasma money and a couple random gift cards.

No news on the condo, but another showing this past weekend. At least people are still looking!

One more week of classes and then a couple of final exams, and NT is done with his BA!

Two more paychecks until we see the benefit of $4500 less in flex spending being taken out. It would be nice if NT got a raise in addition, since he's been promised several times, but we'll see.

We're hoping to see his annual bonus in his next paycheck; if not it'll be in the last one of the year. It'll be set aside for the time being to help us get out of the condo mortgage.

All those things will help make our finances easier, as will refinancing the duplex mortgage in March (if we can swing it). But the biggest relief to our budget will be selling the condo, even at a loss.

All the mortgage payments hit:
US condo: $492 to principal
US duplex: $630
UK1: $222
UK1: $46
UK3 $50
All told, that's $1440 down, $110 to go on the December debt goal.

AS is working at my job a few days this week. Also, she accepted a huge editing project for $1445. That means she's funded net pay and healthcare through January 2015! Her next goal is to fund retirement and taxes for the payments she's already received.

I hardly ever read news about sports figures, but

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just a quick check-in on a lazy day after Thanksgiving. AS's student loan payment hit with $137 going to principal.

That takes us to $1569, exceeding the goal of $1550.

Will set a new goal for December this weekend.

We have two people who have expressed interest in the condo and another showing tomorrow. Really hoping one of these turns into an offer.

I'm at 43,502 words on my NaNoWriMo novel (which explains why I've barely blogged for a while). I think I can get it done by the end of the month.

Three more weeks until NT finishes college!

That's the big news in a nutshell.

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): $33,536
NT's Roth IRA: $7,393
AS's trad. IRA (V): $13,240
AS's trad. IRA (E): $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $19,848
CJ's 401(k): $76,954
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,393
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $140,000
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $1,031,338

Total Debt: $667,357

Current Estimated Net Worth: $363,981

October 2014 estimate: $339,481

Change in net worth: +$24,500

Summary: The market turned upward again and we reversed the losses of last month plus added some value. One of NT's UK accounts sent a statement which boosted its value, and his company gave some bonus 401(k) money as well. All in all, a great month for net worth!

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..60 for every British pound.

She booked three separate jobs with different places today, to the tune of $1550! One of them will take her a long time, and one is in-house work for my job that doesn't take place until December. But still! This takes her so close to her goal of funding healthcare and replacing net pay from her old job through the end of January. Just $909.94 to go on that goal.

After that we'll start on funding her federal and state tax prepayments. I'd like to have those sorted out by early January so we can send in an early payment. Next we'll start on retirement. Then it'll just be a case of funding each month's net pay, taxes and retirement, starting with February.

Once we sell the condo, her pay will just be gravy. We'll use it to fix up the house, go on vacations and plump up our depleted emergency fund. But for now it's very much necessary to keep everything going, so I'm really grateful to have the peace of mind of so many paychecks accounted for in advance.

I'm at 14,065 words on NaNoWriMo. I don't think I'll get much done tonight because I'm exhausted, so that means I'll be about a day and a half behind going into tomorrow. Not too bad; I could make that up on a good day.

I had insomnia randomly last night. Didn't feel scared or stressed, so I'm not sure what it was about. I finally got out of bed and did some work before going in so I could leave early. It snowed about 6 inches today so all the buses were going slow, but it only took me 15 minutes longer than usual to get in.

After work I gave plasma for the second time. The first time was Friday (I had the day off) and it took about 4 hours as they did all the training and testing. This time it was more like an hour and a half. Not too shabby for $40! I get $40 the first four times; after that it goes down to $20 the first time in a week and $22 the second. I don't know if I'll do it when it's that little; I guess we'll see how my finances look then. I'm relieved that except for the waiting, it's easy and relatively painless.

They put it on a prepaid card and there are all these different fees, so I have to be careful to use it in a way that doesn't eat up the money. So now I have $80 on the card. I intend to earn as much plasma money as possible and use it for our anniversary Dec. 1.

We had two more agent previews followed by showings by those agents. Good ratings but no interest. At least I know agents are looking at the condo and deciding it's good enough to show.

AS got some more work and is partly into funding her January paychecks. Woo hoo!

I took SL for a mom-daughter date Sunday, since I've had so many one-on-one times with AA lately. SL is two so she doesn't need much to keep her entertained. We went to a local global shopping center. I spent $3 on candy for her (and a little bit for her to give her big sister later) and $2 on coffee for me. We wandered around and then hung out at the indoor play area.

I decided against a cooking class with my friends, which would have been $69 just for me. I'm still deciding on a play some acquaintances are putting on; it's one of my favorite plays I read in college, but I also have the anniversary to think about and just wanting to have some money left over for little things.

I will be glad when I can be looser with money, but I have to say that I'm enjoying finding free or cheap ways to enjoy myself. And my family is making me proud; they promised they'd make sacrifices if we could move into the new home earlier, and they've stuck to it with virtually no complaints.

That said, one of my favorite free activities is fantasizing about things I'll be able to afford again one day!

I'm at 6,017 words in NaNoWriMo. A bit behind, but at least I'm making progress. And it's all been in the after-kids'-bedtime hours, when my brain is the most tired and slow. I'm going to try and write 2000-4000 words tonight. We'll see how it goes.

I have this Friday off so I'll try to get some writing done in the daytime. I'm also going to the plasma place to see if I qualify. (My blood can be a bit low in iron at times so I bet it's a possible disqualifier.) If I do get to give, I can try to write some while it's happening.

My payment to the crazy seller was taken out of the checking account on the 4th! First time it's made it by the 5th, which is technically the grace period. Well, the first payment did, but he didn't know it was my payment so he thought I was late that first month. I'm just so relieved I don't have to email that unpleasant person this month. I have December's payment schedule to reach him Nov. 25, so hopefully it'll get to him by the 1st. AS says the mail carrier must hate him for his mail to be late all the time like that!

We had an agent preview the condo yesterday and that same guy scheduled a showing for this evening. At this point it's hard to get excited about showings, but this is the first non-agent one in two weeks, so I am a little hopeful.

NT has only 6 more weeks of college! 5 weeks of classes and then a week of finals.

I guess that's about it! Still holding steady on not spending, unless it's out of a fixed budget line such as groceries. We cook dinner every night, I bring in breakfast and lunch to work every day, barely go on any dates or to anything that's not free. Don't buy anything I don't absolutely need. I have four pairs of work pants and about six sweaters and I just cycle through them every week for work clothes. Every bit of extra money gets socked down to the bottom line to help minimize the loss when we sell the condo. I've got nearly $4000 saved so far. Holding the line now will help us recover faster and more strongly when the budget allows us to.

All our mortgage payments hit:
US condo: $491
US duplex:$628
UK1: $218
UK2: $47
UK3: $48

Takes us to $1432 down, $118 to go for the month of November!

Today we had a playdate/party that AA has wanted to throw for a long time. About six kids and six adults came. We had it in the morning so kids could nap afterward; afternoon/evening parties tend to cause meltdowns in preschool kids, we've found.

We served breakfast-y food: fruit, mini-pancakes, waffle sticks and banana bread. Juice and water for the kids, coffee for adults. Probably spent $5 more on groceries than we normally do. We bought $3 worth of party favors: a bag of superballs and a bag of toy ponies.

The party was princess- and pony-themed, so the night before I cut some construction paper into crown shapes, and let each kid decorate a crown with stickers before custom-taping it to fit their heads. NT found some coloring-book pages online and printed those out for kids to color.

I found a My Little Pony album and other kid-friendly playlists on Spotify.

It was great! For less than $10 we had a festive and fun party. It's so much better entertaining kids in the new home, because the intensity is spread out over several rooms and floors instead of all being in one or two rooms.

I stayed up late last night writing the first scene of my NaNoWriMo novel. Got 1679 words done, which is a bit more than 1/30th, so a good pace. It was slow getting started but hopefully will be easier now that I've described and introduced the main characters.

My dad emailed that a guy he lets hunt on his land in WV saw plastic markers in a line across the land, so maybe indicating where the pipeline would go. Not sure if that's progress or if that's been up for a while.

Not much else to report. Lots to look forward to over the next couple months, though! This month there's NaNoWriMo, a comedy show we've already paid for, a daycare sleepover for the kids, lots of days off for me, first Thanksgiving in the new home. December is our wedding anniversary, more days off, several holiday parties, NT's graduation from college, and Xmas and New Year's Eve. Fun fun fun!

We are still in the mode of minimum debt payments, so the November goal is the same as October: to pay at least $1550 of debt.

Other than that, no big news. NT's mini-bonus came in a couple hundred dollars more than I budgeted for, so that felt like another snowflake. Also, the CSA is splitting their shares into three seasons now. We're going to opt for the summer only, which is slightly shorter and slightly cheaper than this year's. Since that was already in the budget, I entered the lower number and counted the money saved as a snowflake. We now have nearly $4000 in the budget to help with selling the condo; it's just a drop in the bucket, but a much bigger drop than before, so I'm feeling more comfortable.

I booked my days off work and realized I'm only working 16 days in November (at least 2 of them from home and probable half days) and 14 in December! I may try and give plasma on my first day off, which is next Friday. We'll see if I can; sometimes I have low iron and I'm not sure if that will be a factor.

Halloween was so much fun and I only spent about $20. $10 of that was for a costume AA ended up not wanting to wear; she wore a fairy outfit from her play clothes. So Halloween COULD have been $10! Oh well, lesson learned. Our street is great for trick-or-treaters; we actually ran out of candy but the girls were back from their run, so I used some of the candy they'd collected to hand out to the remaining kids that came by.

AS is still doing great with her freelance work. She's almost done funding December. Once she finishes January, I'll go back and fill in money for taxes and retirement. Though I may put off the retirement contributions and use that money to help get out of the condo.

Speaking of that, the agent preview was just a realtor checking out the competition. At least he said our unit was better than the one he's selling, and we're priced $4K lower. No new showings though. I think slowdown is normal as fall turns to winter.

Yesterday I confirmed that my dental implant bill came in about $500 less than projected, leaving $500 in flex spending money. I could roll it over but chose to hunt around and submit some receipts, since we need the money more urgently now than we probably will next year.

Also, NT emailed me a letter from his company leadership announcing a surprise mini-bonus of $750 that will come with his Oct. 31 paycheck!

So, even assuming we only net 50% of the bonus, that's $875 minimum in found money. I'm setting it aside to help deal with condo sale if/when it happens.

Speaking of, we have an agent previewing the place tomorrow. I'm relieved since it's the first showing in probably over a week.

AS's student loan hit, with $141 going to principal. That takes us to $1565 paid this month, exceeding the $1500 goal.

I shall set up a November goal later this week.

Had a fun weekend, and not TOO spendy. Friday night the girls stayed with our friends/downstairs neighbors while we drove to Stillwater (40 mins away) for a wedding reception. We only stayed a couple hours so we could get back downtown and hang out somewhere. We dropped off the carshare and walked to a pizza place a couple blocks from home, where I had two appetizers, and NT and AS each had a drink and a slice. We had a gift card from a friend, so we only had to put in $5 each. The carshare to the wedding was about $35, and the gift was a $20 serving bowl that we bought with Amazon CC rewards.

We pay for carshare with a monthly budget item, but we're already partly into December's allotted amount. Typically carshare usage goes way down once it gets snowy and icy, so it's usually OK to go over budget in the summer and fall and make it up then.

Saturday we did grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning. Saturday night we had a potluck at the downstairs place; the ingredients for our dishes fit into our regular grocery budget, so it was a nearly free night of entertainment.

We talked briefly about Xmas and agreed that it might be a good year to just give each other the money budgeted for gifts so we could get exactly what we wanted, since things have been so tight lately. If we did it we'd promise to use the money just for ourselves, even if it's for practical things (I really could use new bras and slippers and PJs and work pants).

AS has gone to give plasma after hearing our friend talk about it; she made $100 over two sessions. It takes a while so it's not a good hourly rate, but you can work on laptops, read, etc., so it doesn't sound too bad. The first 5 sessions you get $50 each; after that the amount goes down. But I might consider trying it at some point. I wouldn't mind having a little bit of extra spending money.

Today we finished up grocery shopping at CVS; with coupons and savings we spent $43 for $80 worth of stuff! I splurged with some of my spending money at CVS and Target today. $7 for Halloween candy to give out, $3 for a silly witch hat to wear while handing out candy, $4 on party favors for a party/playdate AA is hosting next week, and $4 on some sweet treats for my kids. So $18 total, about half of my weekly spending money.

Earlier in the week, I suddenly decided to try and apply for an unsecured personal loan to cover getting out of my promissory note to the crazy seller. I put NT as a co-applicant; it didn't offer a third spot, plus it's still hard to say what AS's monthly income is. Unfortunately, I didn't get approved; our debt-to-income for just our two incomes is too high, and our incomes not quite big enough for what I applied for. (I tried for $35K thinking it would also help us pay off the condo mortgage if/when we sell.)

However, the lady did tell me that if we didn't have the condo mortgage we would probably qualify for about $25K, which would be almost enough to cover the promissory note. So maybe if we get an offer on the condo, we'd get approved for $25K. The interest rate is 5.99%, which is pretty good for unsecured debt I think. Our promissory note is 5.375, but only for a year, after which it goes up. So I'd gladly switch to an unsecured loan with a slightly higher rate.

Today I was looking over my budget and bank accounts and realized that when I switched the promissory note payments to the 25th, I'd somehow skipped Oct. 25 and had no payment scheduled for the Nov. 1 bill! I set one up right away that is scheduled to reach the seller on Oct. 30, so fingers crossed it does get to him faster than last month's.

No news on the condo. Showings have really dropped off. We have a week left in October, and our agent says 25% of sales in our complex do happen in the winter months, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that we'll sell yet this year. So, we sit tight for now.

Daycare tuition is going up by $20 per kid next year. But AA will only be full-time there until the school year starts; after that she'll do after-school there, which is half the amount of full tuition. So overall, our daycare costs will be less next year, just a bit more for the first eight months.

AS continues to pull in smaller jobs here and there and is nearly three-quarters of the way through funding December paychecks and healthcare.

NT has eight more weeks until he gets his BA! So so excited to have that out of the way.

AS and I are getting ready to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I've nearly got my book plotted out. It's a cheesy young adult supernatural-ish thriller/horror novel. I'm hoping it'll be fun to write!

I have to check my PTO; I believe I have quite a few days to use up before the end of the year. Maybe I could work on my novel and give plasma on days off!

No bite on the condo. Only one showing since we lowered the price and none scheduled at present.

I woke up this morning utterly convinced that I'd miscalculated my net worth in my post a few days ago. Sure enough, I went back and checked my math, and I was $10K off! So we lost $11K+ last month, not $1K+. Ah well. Part of that was reducing the condo value in the asset section.

I wrote a brief and trying-to-be-helpful email to the seller in advance of November's payment and got a faceful of unpleasant bluster spewed back at me. If it weren't for his attitude I wouldn't be so freaked out about this debt. I really want to get rid of it. My first big attempt will be in late Feb./early March, when I try to refinance our mortgage and see if there's enough equity to roll the promissory note in. So we have to put up with each other at least until then (or until/unless I come up with a plan to get rid of it sooner).

I'd built up about $2700 in the budget thru February to help get out from under the condo when/if we sell it, but I had to use a bit because I realized our phone bill will be a bit bigger now that AS is working from home. Not really a business expense; it's mostly from calling and texting with us and friends, calls that may have taken place on her work phone before. So our monthly bill will be $51.51 vs. $38. Not a huge deal, still super cheap for three people.

I may also pull from that money to help AS get a work computer (our home laptop is impossibly slow) and a hair appointment (her dreads would ideally be maintained a couple times a year but it's been over a year since her last appointment). A couple hundred dollars isn't going to get us out of our condo money pit much faster, so it's not that big a deal.

We had to use more of the housewarming money to call an electrician for lights not going on. Turned out to be a faulty breaker. $125. We're probably lucky that necessary maintenance has been less than $1000 so far. Considering the crazy seller and his DIY wiring and repairs. We have about $200 left now.

Other than the above, life is good. I believe it's 8 more weeks of classes for NT, and he's already acting more relaxed. I can't wait! We've been having dinner together with our housemates two or three times a week; sometimes they cook and sometimes we do. Fun and socializing with no extra cost! AS and I are planning our NaNoWriMo novels and our housemate CC is going to join us this year. We're helping each other develop our ideas and get motivated. I got a real office at work; still getting settled but I love the privacy already. The girls sleep so much better at the new house, which makes them learn faster and have better moods. We have some fun times coming up that shouldn't cost too much, including a wedding Friday, a potluck Saturday, Halloween the following Friday, a playdate the following Saturday.

Our wedding anniversary comes up in early December and right this second, I’m tempted to splurge on a nice dinner out. We’ll see how I feel closer to the actual date.

So our real estate agent emailed us a detailed run-down of what's been going on with selling units in our condo. She's so great! But the news was not. All the 2-bedrooms just dropped their prices, and the ones that sold, were sold for less than asking with the seller covering part of closing costs.

So we're following suit and dropping our price $5K, to $140K. Our agent thinks we might not sell this fall at our current price and would have to drop the price in the spring anyway since we'd have a stale listing. So we're hoping the drop now will precipitate a sale. There's still a glimmer of hope with one of the flaky buyers but we already offered them $140K with no nibble, so I told our agent to throw out $138K and see if it gets them interested again.

I'm figuring if we do sell in the next month, the best we can hope for is $135K and we pay 3% of closing costs. So the best case scenario is we lose $28,600 in getting out from under the mortgage.

Then there's the crazy seller of our new place that I really want to get out from under. Our payments are only $118.70 per month for the next year, but I can't stand working with him. So I want to come up with $26,500 ASAP to pay him off.

So, OK, we've got to come up with $55,100 to get out from under these two burdens. (I'm choosing to assume the condo will sell at the above numbers but am well aware that's not a guarantee.) I came up with a plan that could work, but it basically means no fun money [beyond basic spending money] for the next year and a very steady income from AS's freelance business. It also means using all of NT's year-end bonus (he found out he's not getting a raise this year, but we can count on the bonus at least). It assumes we can refi the house in February to save $450 per month by eliminating PMI. And it means using all the money we save by not having the condo mortgage and association payments.

It means no travel our housecleaning for the next year, too. So in its current form, the plan is going to require patience and careful budgeting and a deferral of two of our favorite luxuries.

But, it's a plan. It's somewhere to start, even though so many things could change over the next year. So now we just cross our fingers that the condo sells soon.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($27,368)
#2: 19,653 pounds ($31,445)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $31,033
NT's Roth IRA: $6,930
AS's 401(k): $12,979
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $18,605
CJ's 401(k): $70,465
CJ's Roth IRA: $6,930
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $140,000
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $1,018,560

Total Debt: $679,079

Current Estimated Net Worth: $339,481

September 2014 estimate: $351,278

Change in net worth: -$11,797

Summary: Debt repayment couldn't outpace the market downturn that hit all our retirement funds, especially since we haven't been contributing anything to our Roths. Also, I downgraded the value of the US condo to our current sale price (though it's going to end up being worth less than that with the money we have to pay to sell it).

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..60 for every British pound.

AS told me about a couple of class actions we qualify for, one against Red Bull and one for Truvia sweetener. You can Google them and find the online signup form if you bought either of these products. She also turned me on to a handy site, topclassactions.com, that gathers them for you to browse and also lets you sign up for a weekly email about new ones. Those were the only two I qualified for and I'll probably get about $17 total in like a year or two, but still, worth 5 minutes of my time!

We'll be spending more of NT's mom's housewarming money on repairs, this time servicing the radiator in AA's room that won't warm up and is leaking a bit. We should still hopefully have $300 or $400 left after that as a reserve fund for any other little house things that come up in the next couple months.

I was looking at next year's prospective budget. If we can sell the condo by then, and refinance the duplex mortgage to get rid of PMI, we should be in pretty good shape! After FrugalTexan's blog post about less strict budgeting, I'm fantasizing about that for myself as well. We won't be able to do it until things loosen up, and when we can, it'll probably take some trial and error to find a simplified system that works for us. But I'm looking forward to trying!

It's hard for me to imagine how it would happen exactly. I guess just keep an eye on checking account and credit card balances to make sure we're not in danger of going over budget. And setting certain things on autopilot as much as possible, like retirement and extra debt repayment. With AS's irregular freelance income the retirement thing won't be quite as automatic, but maybe if I just dump a certain percentage of every check she receives into her Roth and a certain amount into savings to pay taxes later, it wouldn't take a ton of tending.

Once we have the condo sold and the promissory note to the crazy seller paid off, that's when I'll feel like I can start to find our new equilibrium!

We heard from the pipeline company, in the form of $250 to re-up their right-of-way option for 6 months. AS looked over the contract and says this the only time they can do that; in April they'll either need to pay up, drop the option or renegotiate with all of the landowners. I don't think the third thing will happen because it took them months and months to get everyone in line the first time, so it'll either be all the money or nothing by April.

Also got $28 from cable company as a partial month refund.

I also realized I still had $168 set aside for the kids' swim lessons, but we missed the fall session and won't be signing up again until spring. So I put that into our surplus too.

I also transferred another $2000 onto the 0% card. So that's another $2K I can keep in the bank in case it's needed to get out from under the condo.

(If there was no money coming in from anywhere else I would need all of that credit card money, plus the tuition money I saved while taking out a student loan, plus the money I've been setting aside for Roth IRA make-ups. But I keep forgetting that if I do sell the condo, I won't have mortgage or association payments anymore. Since I'm budgeted out to February, that's quite a bit of money that would be added to the budget if we sold. So I might not have to use all the money set aside for these other things.)

On the other hand, I might do all of those things and stockpile the mortgage/association money to pay off the promissory note to the seller. He's a nightmare -- will only work from paper checks but wants me to send him 12 checks upfront. I want to mail one at a time. I have them set up automatically from my checking account but so far there's been a problem with both September and October's payments. And now I have an extra e-payment in limbo I sent him when he thought he hadn't received the October check, that he hasn't used or responded to let me know his intentions with it. He's a thoroughly unpleasant person just by email (I've never met or spoken to him) and I can't wait to get him out of my life forever.

So maybe I WILL keep the 0% credit card balance, the new student loan and forget about catching up on Roths, and just save up money once we sell the condo so I can pay him off in a lump sum as soon as possible.

Still deciding.

In other news, I broke down and bought some things that just weren't showing up for free any of the places free things tend to appear. 2 sweaters for work ($11) and two scarves and a hat for the kids ($12) at the thrift store. And 2 side tables for the living room, $30 on Craigslist. Not bad prices anyway.

I also spent $24 at a bar after my work friend's funeral, hanging out with co-workers. A bunch of us didn't just want to be alone after the service, so it was worth it to feel that camaraderie. Although with that plus the sweaters, I've overspent my weekly money. That's OK though. I don't have anything planned and nothing else I really need for a while. At the end of this month our kids are staying over at daycare Friday and part of Saturday, so we'll have a date night. And in November one of our favorite comedians is in town, so we've got to pay in for those tickets ($15 apiece).

Other than that, we've been finding frugal ways to have fun. Last night we made pizza from scratch for our friend/downstairs neighbor's birthday, and later this month we have an autumn-themed potluck with a bunch of friends coming. And November is NaNoWriMo, so I might take part in that again.