Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Yep, too tired to come up with a proper title.

What's happened since my last update? Not too much over the weekend, other than boxing up some stuff. We took it somewhat easy Saturday other than swim lessons, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning. Sunday we went to the Twin Cities Pride parade. It was the first parade AA (age 4) really loved. REALLY loved. She was keyed up and hyper the rest of the day.

One other thing: NT reserved a storage space for July and a moving van for this coming Saturday, so we're going to move out as much of our stuff as we don't need. Bookcases, record cabinets, excess furniture, books and papers and board games and clothes the girls won't need for a while.

Today was interesting. First of all, NT's paycheck didn't hit our account. First time any of our checks has EVER not hit on the last day of the month, and of course it happens at the start of the tightest financial month we've had (or are likely to have) for a long time.

He got his usual notice about his paystub being available, so I'm hoping it's just a slight delay and not a technical issue. If I don't see it first thing tomorrow morning, I'll have NT raise a stink, because we'll be overdrawn by July 9 without that paycheck.

On the up side, we heard from our contractor and his team will start on our kitchen tomorrow! Tonight we cleared out all the cabinets and drawers and cleaned all the shelves. Sooo much grime! We went through about 5 magic erasers. Ah well, it's a big chunk of work out of the way.

On the down side, I'll be recovering from dental surgery Wednesday AND just found out our water and A/C will be shut off for several hours by building management. So that'll be fun, with the contractors there and all.

We got a snowflake today; received $250 for the right-of-way option for the WV deal. At least we got something for it, even if they decide not to go through with it.

I also realized that the kids have at least $75 in their piggy banks that needs to get put in their mutual funds, so I decided I'll deposit it now and pay it into the mutual funds when things are not so tight. (We're doing the same thing with our own Roth IRA contributions.)

So all told, that's $325 to help the cashflow not be as tight July through September.

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy spending day. Not only will we pay the $1040 mortgage and $1080 daycare tuition, but $2413 for the first half of the contractor bill. That's a lot of money to flow out in one day!

However, I had a very frugal and strangely tasty breakfast today. I took the last spinach tortilla, the last of some potato salad, the last few slices of veggie lunchmeat, and some of the way-too-much salad greens. I stuffed the tortilla with the other stuff and wrapped it up. It was actually quite good, and I was proud of not letting any of those foodstuffs go to waste.

I'm doing pretty good not using my spending money; I've got nearly $400 saved up! And NT had a brilliant idea for the three weddings and one shower we need to attend: give Amazon gift cards, which we'll be getting from Chase SW soon! We'll also give them a personal touch, like an invitation to dinner or a promise of homemade cookies. It's such a great idea because I can then save up more of my spending money for the back-to-back UK visitors.

AS's student loan payment hit, with $137 going to principal. That takes us to $926 of debt paid for the month, exceeding the $900 goal.

Our total debt is $238,322: $227,597 in mortgages and $10,725 in student loans.

With the home deal, we'll be taking on a ton of new debt, but it's going to happen on July 31 at closing. So I think I'll treat July as a regular month of debt payment, and then start August with a new debt total that we can start to pay down.

Since we're just paying minimums for the time being, the July goal is another $900 of debt paid.

Nothing much happened on the home front today. I did tentatively schedule the floor guy for mid-July, but that's about it. Still waiting on broker for the list of things we need to provide for loan approval, the seller to write up the promissory note, and my other contractor to schedule his time to do bathroom/kitchen/etc. Hoping to get some movement on all fronts tomorrow!

This morning I saw that the $5K earnest money check had cleared my checking account! It was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. AS is laughing at me because every time something happens I say things like "It feels so real now" and "This is the craziest [week/month/year] ever!" But every step feels so huge and momentous since I haven't purchased a home in about 12 years (and it was less than half the price of this one!).

The broker emailed that they received underwriting approval of the loan today, but that "a few items" need to be taken care of, "nothing too crazy." I'm hoping it's just digging out some mortgage statements for the UK properties and stuff like that, but I won't find out until tomorrow.

Their approval is contingent on the additional loan (promissory note from the seller) having certain conditions: it can't have an early payment penalty, and it can't have a balloon until 10 years have passed. The first condition was one I was going to insist on anyway, but our purchase agreement had said the promissory note would have a 5 year balloon. But my realtor talked to the seller's agent and it sounds like it will be OK, except they may only agree to interest-only payments for the first two years, and after that it will be principal + interest. I asked for details about the amount of the two types of monthly payments, and the realtor has passed that question along to seller's agent, but I don't see a problem with that. I don't intend to have this loan for anywhere near 10 years!

Still haven't heard from the contractor when they'll be able to come in, so I'm starting to doubt they'll be able to finish by end of June. Hoping mid-July is still feasible! But, if it's not, we'll deal with it. We have a lot of different timelines running concurrently so it would be a miracle if there weren't a few hitches. The important thing to me is that we've got those upstairs renters, so there's no urgency to get rid of the condo other than really wanting to move into our new home. No financial urgency, so that's good.

Haven't heard from the floor contractor at all yet. I need to follow up with him.

NT put on some doorknobs and replaced another light fixture. I brought a box and some packing tape home from work. Every little bit of progress helps!

Just got notice that the gas company sent out our option checks; will only be about $250 but will definitely help our budget feel looser!

Getting closer to the home purchase and trying to sell our current home! For a while it's felt like hurry up and wait, but now things are really snowballing and moving quickly, I think.

- The appraisal went well; home actually appraised at $550K, well above the $464,500 we'll be paying for it. Good news! Now I'm wondering if we can refi the $407K main mortgage almost immediately and get out of PMI. But we don't even officially have that loan, so trying not to count my chickens just yet.

- Heard back from our main contractor; he's not sure about dates but feels confident he can fit us in really soon (we asked him to move us way up in the schedule from our initial consultation). Haven't heard much from our floor guy, but I'll bug him again in a day or two. Our realtor said he's really good, so I want to use him if possible!

- Since we've decided to try and list in July, before we close on our new home, we need to move some of our stuff so our condo looks less crowded. We found a storage place near the new house with good rates, so we're going to pack up stuff we don't need, rent a U-Haul and get that stuff out -- hopefully the July 4th weekend. Then we can move it all into the basement of the new place Aug. 1, so we'll only need to pay for a month of storage.

- Bought some things at Ikea and on Amazon: light fixtures for bedrooms and dining area, living-room lamp, sofa cover, duvet cover, shower rod. About $130 at Ikea and $130 on Amazon (using CC reward Amazon gift cards). We still have a couple hundred dollars' worth of credit on Amazon and should have another $500 coming in early July, so hopefully we can use it to buy any other staging/decorating stuff we need. We had so much gray paint left over that we've decided to do the whole condo in it; it's a really nice gray that seems to change color depending on decor and lighting, so I think it'll look OK. Lots of places for sale do all gray these days.

- This week (maybe tonight), going to map out a to-do list by date, so we know what's happening when (at least the stuff we can control; the contractors are wild cards). I think our main tasks are:
--paint bedrooms, kitchen and bath
--replace doorknobs
--replace toilet seat, towel racks and shower rod/curtain
--replace light fixtures in bedroom, dining room and kitchen
--box up and move out stuff we don't need (obtain boxes, rent truck, rent storage space, get friends to help us move)
--clean kitchen, bath & floor before contractors tackle each
--clean clean clean, especially the balcony floor
--buy a few more staging things to make it pretty
--get pictures taken (our friend will be able to do this; he's a photographer as well as a lawyer!)
--hold breath and hope for best!

So things are looking up a bit, but there are still too many variables for me to declare victory over my budget!

A couple of snowflakes came in:
- $25 Amex rewards
- $280 found in an old business checking account of AS's

I also moved things around in the budget quite a bit. Things are tight especially in July, August and September, when we have over $6K of tuition, $5K of renovation fees and other one-time expenses. So I had a mini-revelation today when looking at credit card statements; I typically pay the current balance twice a month, but had been looking at moving it to once a month. But I suddenly realized you don't need to pay the current balance to avoid paying interest: You just have to pay the full amount shown on the statement. So you can avoid interest for over a month. Yes, I'm kind of dumb about credit cards! When I was using them in debt I'd just pay the minimum every month, and after I paid them all off and started using them again, I'd pay them off every payday so I never felt like I was carrying a balance.

However, as long as I can avoid paying interest, I don't mind carrying balances for a little over a month.

By planning to pay credit card statement balances instead of current balances, I was finally able to get rid of the budget shortfalls June through October.

That's not to say there won't be other curveballs. I may have to bring more money to closing to cover the higher insurance cost; I have a $1400 surplus through the end of the year but if I had to pay it out in July, that would make things tight again. And the mortgage amounts are still just estimates; my mortgage may well end up a bit higher (or lower) than I'm currently budgeting for. And of course there are curveballs you can't predict until they happen.

I may have necessary repairs to the new home when we take ownership in August. There again I'd have to try and float credit card balances for an extra couple of months to pay that off in early 2015.

But it's not all potential expenses. I resolved this weekend to find more money; the main problem is there's not quite enough income in July-September to cover expenses. So I sent a few emails letting people know I'm available for freelance work. AS too is starting to tap her network for possible freelancing. Also, even though it appears the WV deal is in limbo, it sounds like they'll at least pay us each $250 soon to hold onto the option of a pipeline right-of-way. If we can bring in a bit more money before October, that would help considerably with not feeling so tight.

But I'm just happy there's a potential path where we won't have a shortfall for the next few months; we'd have had to take a reserve line loan, or pay interest on credit card balances, and I'm thrilled that we might avoid that!

I feel very good about our net worth increasing $9K this past month! Glad I got some good news, because I got two pieces of bad news and one good but challenging.

First, the insurance policy I found is more than my mortgage broker thought it would be, by over a thousand. This means closing costs probably won't cover it and I'll need to come up with more money at closing.

Second, AS got another medical bill from her procedure. I was expecting another hundred or two, but instead it's for $1400 more! She'll call the insurance company, but I don't have much hope it'll change. It wasn't a strictly necessary procedure so we were pleasantly surprised by the insurance co's estimate of what they would cover. Apparently they're wrong. So we didn't set enough money aside for it.

Our budget was looking doable with about a $2000 surplus through December. Now the surplus is more or less gone. Shouldn't be a problem, just a bummer that we won't be able to start renovating the new home until next year. I'm sure there will be some things that NEED to get done this year, so even if/when I get a raise for my new position, it'll probably go toward bare necessities at the new place.

This is what it feels to not have a cushion, and I don't like it much. Will enjoy building our cushion back up again next year. (Note that we DO have a $16K cushion, but it's money that I would really like to use for the UK renovations, so I try to pretend it's not there.)

Since our budget loosens up a lot in Oct./Nov./Dec., one thing I did to even things out for the next few months was to cancel our Roth contributions for July through November. I still have them on the budget, I just moved them down to December. Cancelling them altogether would be a last resort. If anything I would postpone them a bit longer instead.

Oh, and the good but challenging news: our best UK friends are coming to visit immediately after our UK relatives visit. Which is awesome! Except we don't have any vacation money in the budget, so entertaining will come out of our weekly spending money. After this weekend I'm going to buckle down even harder on stashing as much of my spending money as possible. No eating out, no new clothes, no movies or other entertainment (unless it's free). I'll chip in for the weekly wine and buy gifts when necessary (weddings and shower) but that's it. I want to have SOMEthing set aside when we have basically 4 weeks of visitors.

I do feel it was the right move to make an offer on this house, which is uniquely suited to our needs, but since it was nearly a year before I felt ready to do so, the next 6 months to a year are going to feel a bit stressful. I'll be glad to get to a point where speed bumps don't stress me out as much!

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): $30,812
NT's Roth IRA: $7,327
AS's 401(k): $13,420
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $19,658
CJ's 401(k): $73,009
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,327
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $145,000
House down payment fund (shared): $26,285
---
Total Assets: $614,456

Total Debt: $238,459

Current Estimated Net Worth: $375,997

May 2014 estimate: $366,696

Change in net worth: +$9,301

Summary: Big growth again this month! Some of the increase is due to upward movement in our retirement funds; the rest because we've been saving aggressively for a home.

I included U.S. savings for a home in our assets, since the money will go toward our down payment on the new home, which will become an asset. I did not include our UK savings, because the UK flat's value listed above is contingent upon the renovations that will wipe out our UK savings.

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 house purchase seems to be on track!
- Broker's office asked for a few more documents, which I provided
- Home insurance policy has been chosen and first year will be paid for at closing
- HOA appraisal happens tomorrow, and if that goes well, it will be the last inspection
- Got a copy of the renters' agreement and can confirm they're month-to-month with 45 days notice required
- Contractor got back to me with adjusted quote, which was to our liking, so I've asked him to look at what days might work, and I've asked NT to contact the condo front office to see if there's anything we need to do on that end
- Told realtor that we want to list our place sooner than Aug. 1, because we realize there's a narrow window between now and fall, especially with the 45-day requirement; our new goal is to list July 1 or as early in July as possible
- Left message with floor guy; will need to call him again if he doesn't get back to me soon (fixing the floor is key to home value)
- Earnest money was sent to seller today

I think that's about it on the home front; I'm braced for nasty surprises but there haven't been any recently. Fingers crossed it continues to go this smoothly.

On the job front, I may have scored some freelance writing for AS, which will help with her portfolio and resume as well as our budget if it works out. Her boss told everyone at work that she's leaving, which is a big relief and means she can start tapping her network for job leads.

And the big news -- my boss called me into his office yesterday and says he wants to make me a writer! And he says this comes with a significant bump in pay! I'm very excited and trying not to doubt myself; after all, he's basing this on the work that he's seen from me over the past few months, so he already knows and likes how I write.

I've been pretty good about stashing most of my spending money the past month or so, but the past week has seen a lot of frittering, including tomorrow:

- Liquor store coupon from CrowdCut ($20 for a $40 value, so pretty good deal); I'll use it to buy wine for a little party we're having this Wednesday
- Father's day for my dad $10 (postage and card; the gift was free, a copy of a book from AS's publishing house)
- Drinks/snacks at trivia $10 (nice and cheap because we won a small gift card to share
- Soda after free music show $4 (it was a gourmet local soda, and I wished I'd just gotten a $2 Diet Coke )
- Plants $10 (one for NT for Father's Day and one as a bday gift for one of AA's little friends)
- Soy ice cream (big tub) $5
- Brunch tomorrow for Father's Day $? maybe $30 for my share: me plus half of NT, AA & SL's

Whew! Mostly pretty frugal, but all told about $90, so exceeding my $80 weekly allowance and cutting into the money I'd saved up. But I have plenty of time to save up more before NT's family visits (which is why I'm trying to hoard money right now).

I do have a wedding shower and two weddings (will need gifts) this summer, and maybe a day trip to the organic farm that does our CSA share next weekend, and a couple of other things I'm willing to spend money on. But overall I've been resisting the urge to eat out at lunch or go out anywhere at night. I've been making do with last summer's wardrobe and don't think I'll need to buy any clothes. And I don't have any other gifts to buy that I know of right now. The long slog of March birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day is nearly over!

There are some free events tonight that I'd like to attend, but it was a busy weekend so far, and it's kind of stormy out, so I might just stay in and relax. Too bad because it's a once-a-year community art/performance extravaganza tonight, but it wouldn't kill me to skip it.

Today was the inspection and the meeting with contractor #2. Both went really well; the inspection raised some concerns with the house but nothing too expensive and no deal-breakers. Some may be fixed by the sellers or we may be able to wrangle a couple thousand off purchase price; if not we'll probably just deal with them ourselves as money comes available.

The contractor's quote was breathtakingly reasonable. He has to add a few things to it that we discussed and didn't get added, plus one more task we decided we couldn't do ourselves (installing closet doors in the bedroom). But seeing his rates for the other tasks I'm not worried. He definitely has an eye toward doing a good job so we'll hire him for more work in the new place, which seems good.

I took a run through the budget for the rest of the year, and it looks like we can fully fund the downsized renovations by early November. We need to do it all in the next couple months, so that means we'll need to float some of the work on credit. This contractor doesn't take credit cards, so we'll charge other things and defer paying them off until we have enough money to do so. I'm not sure when it would be OK to apply for a new 0% credit card, so I'll probably ask the broker his opinion.

It'll be a bit complicated, but no more so than the credit card churn or a lot of other budget things I've done. And, even if we're advised not to get another card and have to use our interest-bearing ones, we won't be carrying balances for very long. Even if there are necessary renos to the new place before December, it won't stretch it out too much longer.

It looks doable, and there's even some room for error. I'll still be glad when we're on a more routine budget, but I'm feeling pretty confident. I can't believe how quickly things have happened! So much has changed in the past month. Now that there's less uncertainty with financing, inspection and cost of renovations, I'm allowing myself to get more excited about the new home.

Whew, we met with the mortgage broker tonight. Although there are a few weird things to clear up (such as getting the additional loan written up as a promissory note; our lawyer friend said he would handle that), the credit and income and retirement stuff is all in order and so everything should go through as long as under-writer is cool with everything and inspection and appraisal go OK. Mortgage broker is very bullish on housing prices in our area, but he's not the appraiser or inspector so we shall see.

We got a nice rate of 3.75% locked in, so if the promissory note payments come in as estimated, our bills may be $100 or so less per month. Due to something with FHA and low rates, we don't have a loan origination fee. Somehow our closing costs came in a shade under $9000 which is what we said the seller would pay up to. (What would we have done if the loan origination fee pushed that over? I shudder to think.) So the good news is the appraisal will be covered in closing costs.

NT couldn't come and had to sign everything at home, so next step is to courier the papers back to the broker. If inspection on Friday goes well he'll schedule the appraisal.

Whew! I'm drained, but there were surprisingly few bumps tonight. This was the scariest of the hurdles left to clear, so I'm feeling a lot better.

Oh, and I did a League of Ordinary Savers blog post this week, about checking bills, receipts and paychecks to save money by preventing human error. Of course I'm preaching to the choir on SavingAdvice, but check it out if you want! Go to ordinarysavers.com (I'm too tired to make a link! ).

And we're only in the beginning of it! Let's see if I can remember everything, along with the price tags.

Yesterday NT got a quote back from the guy who's going to fix one of our windows: $282 (half due now, half when it's done).

Also yesterday, set up a meeting with the broker and gathered all the paperwork we need to bring (account statements, tax returns, etc.).

Also yesterday, NT and AS went to Home Depot and the hardware store for towel racks, door handles, toilet seat, new door for the balcony closet, stains, brushes, sandpaper, etc.: $212

Also yesterday, we had our second contractor come over and look at what we wanted done to renovate the bathroom and kitchen.

Today, I heard back from second contractor that he's ready with a bid and wants to go over it with us, so got that scheduled.

Tomorrow night AS and I go to meet with the broker. I'm glad we're seeing him soon, because I won't relax until I know we've got the mortgage. I imagine we'll also talk about the appraisal ($?).

Thursday we actually don't have anything specific scheduled to do with renovating or moving!

Friday afternoon we have the inspection of the new house ($500), and Friday evening second contractor will stop by to go over his bid with us ($?).

This was a tough weekend. We thought the seller would sign the final offer Friday. Then Saturday by 3:30. That time came and went. That night around 7:30, my agent forwarded an email where they were still saying nothing was wrong but that it hadn't been signed yet. Finally we decided that we wanted it to end, either way. So I had my agent give an ultimatum: A signed agreement by 6 p.m. Sunday or we withdrew our offer completely.

Lo and behold, she got the signed documents she needed by 11 am Sunday. I still don't know what their game was, but I'm glad we put a stop to it. We got the house!

So why aren't I using all caps and tons of exclamation points? Well, we still need to confirm that our financing is good, we still need to go through inspection and appraisal. We still need them to show up at closing and get the deal done. So I know there are lots of hurdles to jump still.

But I'm feeling much much better. One of the biggest ones is out of our way. I've emailed the broker so he can get his end of the deal in motion. Our agent has set up an appointment with an inspector.

I roughed out a budget based on when rents will be due and when mortgages and other payments will probably be due. It's looking very good; since the upper level renters will cover most of the new mortgage and utilities, our budget is actually not affected all that much. Also, we get our first month of rental income Aug. 1 but our mortgage will not start coming due until Sept. 1, so we'll be able to use the previous month's rental income to cover each next month's mortgage. This gives us plenty of time to plan if there are nonpayment issues.

Assuming everything goes as planned, it's very good news for NT's family as well: They're coming for about two weeks from England for a visit in late August, and hotel prices were daunting to them. Now they'll be able to stay in the basement and/or the lower unit (our friends may not move in until Sept. 1, so there would be only a day or two of overlap). This would save them well over a thousand dollars.

The home deal negotiations continue. Seller was supposed to sign the counter-counter-counter-counter-counter-offer agreement last night. He didn't, but his agent says he's confident he will sign today.

Fingers crossed please! I was ambivalent about this deal because I knew that carrying two mortgages and trying to sell our current place would be a massive strain on both our budgets and my sanity. But a funny thing happened along the way ...

The seller rented out the upper unit (the one we would live in). They weren't supposed to do this, but they apparently couldn't bear to not be making money. And they said if they had to kick out their new tenants, they would want our deal to include a forfeiture of the earnest money if the deal fell through.

The choice was easy for me. Having month-to-month renters in our unit is perfect, because it gives us time to renovate and stage our home. Having the lower unit empty is perfect because our friends can move in right away and start paying us rent. Plus, we can start storing our stuff in the basement of the new place to help the condo look less cluttered for selling. "Free" storage -- bonus!

The new renters would need 45 days notice if we wanted them to leave. They knew when they moved in that the house was being sold, so this wouldn't come out of the blue if we asked them to move in 3 months or whatever. If our condo doesn't sell easily, we can keep renting the new home while we wait. If it does sell, we'll just make sure the closing date gives us time to move out the renters and move ourselves in.

Before, I was looking at this as our monthly housing costs until the condo sells:
- Condo mortgage $1040
- Condo dues $700
- (Minus parking spot rental $85)
- New mortgage $3100
- New secondary loan $100
- Utilities on new home $400 (highest estimate)
- (Minus friends' rent $1100)

Total after rents: $4155 per month

Now, with all the same considerations, except $2200 for upper-unit rent and $200 less utilities because renters will share that expense?

$1755 per month! In other words, only $100 more than our current housing expenses of $1655.

So now I REALLY want this deal. I wasn't too bummed at the thought of it falling through before, but now I would be rather devastated if it does.

I repeat, oh man.

Well, negotiations are dragging on in this home deal. The seller countered our offer (which we were under the impression was not a counter so much as accepting *their* counter, so it's like they're countering their own counter!). They asked for more money and a few other conditions.

I was inclined to just say "no," flat out, since they've now reneged on the asking price they said they'd consider. But my realtor convinced me to look at it, and wait to talk to the broker about what the new terms would mean to our monthly payment.

Depending on what he says, there's a chance we will make another counter. More money would be absolutely off the table for me at this point, but we might consider a few of the other conditions, though not all of them. So I'm not even sure if it's worth countering, but if it looks like we can counter with an offer that would not add much to our already-stretched-thin monthly budget, I guess we'll try.

In a way, just saying "no" would have been a relief because the uncertainty is getting to us all, and this is just dragging that out further. But we've gone this far, so we might as well go a little bit more.

On the good side, we have decided to really cut our condo renovations down to a few essentials and see if it will sell with just those improvements. So that could potentially save thousands of dollars we were planning to spend.

The US mortgage hit, with $478 going to principal. So that brings me to $789 down, $111 to go on the June debt goal.

The house deal is still pending; we've sent the formal offer in and are waiting for the seller to respond. It's pretty much what they asked for in their counter offer, so it's likely they will accept, but you never know until it happens. Emotions are high right now but I'm trying to look at everything from the numbers side.

If seller accepts, we'll schedule an inspection in the next week and probably close at the end of July!

We're still waiting on estimates from our first contractor, who has been swamped at work. Now we have another contractor coming over Monday who comes very highly recommended by a co-worker, so we'll see what he says.

The UK mortgages hit today:
#1: $218 to principal
#2: $45
#3: $48
All told, that's $311 down, $589 to go on the June debt repayment goal.

Chugging along!

So the goal for June is once again to pay off at least $900 of debt.

The offer on the home is still in limbo, but there's a good chance we'll reach an agreement. So I'm not sure what will happen to our debt totals for a while!

I suppose you don't take on new debt until you actually close, which probably wouldn't be this month, so I'm just doing a normal debt goal this month and will think about how I'm going to structure it from now on.

I still do want to track it, because my goals are still to be debt-free except for mortgage, and eventually debt-free completely. But for a while the totals are going to go up and (hopefully) down pretty wildly, as we initially take on more mortgage debt, then sell the current US place and rid ourselves of that mortgage.

The current offer that's on the table, which we'll accept if we get more info and it works for us, is what I offered, plus $25K more that the seller will lend to us and require no payments for a year. Since cash flow is only a concern for the next couple of months, and I'd been prepared to take on more mortgage than what I've been approved for, I'm OK with that, but we need to find out the terms of the loan the seller is proposing. If interest terms and monthly payments are reasonable, we will probably accept. Broker says this doesn't violate FHA limits, so I guess we'll be good. Should learn more tomorrow.

We got this counter-offer this morning. We looked at two more homes today, just to see what else is out there. Neither place was right for us, so we went back to the home we'd made an offer on. The renters were gone so we could really get a good sense of it. It was even better than the first time through. It still needs an inspection, of course, but on the level of layout and space, it was great.

Right now there's just a lot of processing information from different sources and passing that along to everyone involved, plus running and rerunning the budget numbers to plan for how it's going to look if this works out, plus planning what we can do for renovations before we move (if we move). It's keeping me calm because it keeps me busy. But there's a lot of latent excitement waiting to burst through that I'm trying to keep under control so I can focus on the practical stuff that needs to be handled.

Edit to add kitchen & bath photos for CCF:

Update on the house conundrum:

After my broker told me we couldn't be approved for the dream home's asking price because we'd need 15% down, I felt very relieved, but also terribly disappointed. I started thinking (based on comments here and something he'd mentioned) about the FHA loan option. I looked it up and the loan limit for a duplex in my county is $407,800.

Out of curiosity, thinking we could try for a cheaper home at some point, I asked the broker if the 15% down requirement applied to duplexes if they fell within the FHA loan limit. He said no, as long as the loan didn't exceed $407,800, all you need is 3.5%. That was good news, because sometimes cheaper ones come up on the market (they just go really fast usually).

A while later it occurred to me to ask, what if we made an offer on the dream home where the loan amount was $407K? So with the $47K we could put down, that would take us to $454K, or $16K short of the asking price. To my surprise, he said yes, that would be fine, and he sent over an approval letter!

Well, that was fast! I told my friends and family, and we thought about it some more. As I said I would, I ran more budget projections and thought about worst-case scenarios. And, no matter how I squinted at the numbers, I couldn't get past the fact that if we didn't get the WV money and didn't sell the US condo quickly, we'd have a pretty tough first year and a half. Using up our savings meant saving up for the US and UK renos and just hoping not to have to put any emergencies on credit cards during that time. Plus, it meant not much fun money even if there were no emergencies, and one of the reasons we love the home is its prime location near restaurants, bars, shops, bowling alley, theaters ...

The thought of making that offer just made my whole body feel tense. At that point it was just NT and me, and he said that projection sounded worrisome to him. I agreed and said maybe we just shouldn't make an offer even though we were approved.

I went to pick up AS from something and told her on the way home. She offered a brilliant suggestion: Why not make an even lower offer and just offer to pony up what part of our savings we felt comfortable with?

I loved it. If we didn't use the UK reno money, just our US savings, the UK money could be our cushion while we slowly paid for the US renos and built savings back up. Then by next spring, when it was time to spend the UK money, we'd have US money to serve as a cushion. And when the UK renos were complete, we could rent it out again and start building up money over there, too.

So I asked the broker if I could make an offer of $438K -- $31K down plus $407K loan -- and he said yes. I told my real estate agent and she's reached out to the other agent. So we shall see!

I also did a mortgage calculator and believe that if the offer were accepted, the mortgage would be about $300 less per month than the original loan we were trying for. Further room in the budget!

I don't think they will accept the offer; it's $32K under asking price and we're stipulating that they'd have to pay closing costs, which is probably another $8K or so. But as soon as I made that decision, I realized the two bad feelings I'd had all week were gone -- the stomach-churning worry of stretching too thin, and the aching disappointment of not being able to put an offer on this lovely house. Now I feel like I've done my best without putting my family's finances under too much potential strain.

And, if it doesn't work out, we'll continue our search, but we'll look within the bounds of the FHA loan and the amount we feel comfortable putting down.

Wow, this site can get a bit intense-- and critical! Nonetheless, I think of it as my personal record of my financial life, so I'll go ahead and post.

This morning my stomach was in knots as the mortgage broker emailed and called with messages about how it was going really well, looked good, it was going through -- and then he called and said it couldn't happen.

The down payment on a duplex needed to be 15%, he said. Could I come up with another 5%? Well, no. I'd already gathered all my liquid assets for 10% down, plus my friends had chipped in a bit.

He said he'd go ahead and send a $400K approval letter, and that we'd be approved for a single-family home at that amount, but not a duplex because we didn't have the 15%.

I was disappointed, but also relieved. This would have cleaned out our savings and it would have taken a year to get back on equal footing if we didn't sell our condo and if the WV money didn't come through. The not knowing on both of those unlikely, but possible, scenarios was stressful.

I'm still glad we tried our hardest to get that place, because it would have been the perfect home for us. I don't think another one will come up and tempt us anytime soon, at least not one that isn't snatched up immediately by a commercial buyer. If it did, our hands would be tied unless it was $310K or less -- and the ones at that rate tend to either be in less desirable (to us) neighborhoods or commercial buyers would buy them before we had chance to make an offer.

So now, we'll go ahead with the US renovations, we'll leave the UK money in the UK account (for the time being), and we'll continue to save up money (but without cutting the budget to the bone; I'd only do that if a perfect place was right in front of us).

We're going to have dinner with our friends tomorrow night and talk about the future. Hopefully they will want to keep renting where they are and wait for a better time to buy together. I still think it's a good idea; I just never dreamed it would take such a hefty down payment to do it.

Still waiting to hear back from the mortgage broker about whether or not we can be preapproved. Meanwhile, I thought I'd take a real look at a basic budget for us and see what our surplus or shortfall is each month.

The basic budget includes debt payments, condo dues, daycare, cable & cellphones, groceries, car share, and NT's tuition.

June surplus: $2482.78
July surplus: $2085.47
August surplus: $2630.21
September surplus: $2865.21
October surplus: $4831.88
November surplus: $4928.54
December surplus: $4920.21
January (and after) avg. surplus: $5592.18

So it's pretty much like I thought. If we could keep new housing costs to $2000 per month and started paying the mortgage in August, then August and September would be very tight. (Like, we'd struggle if one of us lost a job.) But starting in October it would get progressively less tight. At that point one of us actually could lose a job and we could continue to pay all the bills (including both mortgages).

So if (worst case scenario) we didn't get the WV money, we didn't sell the condo, we didn't get raises and one of us lost our job and couldn't get another one right away, we could still survive indefinitely.

That's good to know! All four of those are unlikely but possible, so it's best to be sure. We still need to see what the real mortgage payment would be, and I've got calls in to the utility companies to figure out what the energy costs would be, to make sure the $2000 number is realistic.

AS's student loan payment hit, with $138 going to principal. That takes May debt repayment to $928, exceeding the $900 goal.

Our debt right now is at $239, 248. It's weird to think that this may be its lowest point for, well, quite a few years. Here's a snapshot, for posterity:
HOME DEBT
US Mortgage $152,912
UK Mortgage 1: GBP33334--pays off GBP134/mo $52,677
UK Mortgage 2: GBP7027--pays off GBP28/mo $11,104
UK Mortgage 3: GBP7399--pays off GBP30/mo $11,693
Total home debt $228,386
EDUCATION DEBT
AS loan $7,656
NT loan $3,206
Total student loan debt $10,862
TOTAL HOUSEHOLD DEBT $239,248

So, a lot's been going on, but I still don't know for sure whether I'm buying the house. Here's the update:
- Deposited the $5K loaned by our friends into savings. Now our savings accounts have just over $47K, enough for a 10% down payment on the $469,900 home (as long as we can get seller to pay closing costs).
- Found out that UK renos don't have to happen until NEXT July, and the current renter has renewed his lease until next May. This is GREAT news because it means we can indeed use the UK reno money for a down payment and build up the funds over the next year. Also our rental income is going up a bit, so that will help with saving up.
- Went back and forth with our realtor over whether the home we want is overpriced. I think we're all in agreement that because of the rent you could get by letting both units, the price makes sense. So we probably won't haggle other than trying to get seller to pay closing costs.
- Filled out a form for the mortgage broker and spoke to him. He said that we would easily qualify for that size loan BUT, because it's a duplex, the required down payment is 20%! Broker says he might be able to do some kind of second loan for the other 10% of the down payment. I should find out tomorrow.
- Made an appointment with our realtor to see the home again on Thursday evening.
- Found out the current renters are leaving. They could try to get us new ones, but I don't want the home tied up for 6 months to a year and then try to kick someone out. We'll probably ask them not to replace the renters, even though it will make the first couple months of mortgage payments tight.

So it looks like the new debt for buying this place would be:
$423K between the two mortgages
$5K to our friends
$15K or so on a 0% card for US renovations

$443K of new debt! But, hopefully we'd sell our current condo in a few months and clear out that $152K of debt, and if we got the WV deal ($50K), we could use it to clear up some of the debt (as well as help fund the UK renovation before it comes up).

But I figured out that if the worst-case scenario happened and neither of these things happened, we could probably still pay off our friends by the end of this year, and the US and UK renovations by October of next year. But I don't think our condo will sit on the market that long. We're willing to price it for the cost of the mortgage to make it move, and we now think our mortgage is less than the current value, so it should be fine. Once it goes away, that clears up $1750 per month that will speed up the paying off of our friends and renovations.

It feels scary, but it also feels like if we could do this now, we could make up the ground and be pretty much where we want to be for the foreseeable future.

I don't think I've really detailed what we're looking at! It's a duplex in the neighborhood we want, close to bus lines and car share cars. The first floor would be for our friends and is 2BR, 1 bath. The second and third floors would be ours and have 5 BRs, 3 baths (small bathrooms but a really big master bedroom). There's a mostly finished basement we would all share with laundry, a big all-purpose room, a kitchen area (!?), a bathroom and tons of storage closets and extra weird little rooms.

Our friends would have a big front porch and a smaller back deck. We would have a big 2nd story front porch and TWO smaller back decks. There's a decent back area that consists of a patio made of paver stones and a 2-car garage; we don't really have use for any of that but figure the space could be made over into a yard instead.

I still need to confirm utility costs tomorrow, but I reckon our costs wouldn't be much over $2000 per month. The mortgage will likely be about $2800, and our friends will pay us $1100. Our current place is $1750 including mortgage and association dues, so not a huge step up in cost, as long as we can ditch our current mortgage pretty soon.

I'll know more tomorrow and will update when I can!

The new home possibility is basically on hold until tomorrow when I can speak to a mortgage broker, though there have been a few more developments since that first heady discovery of the place.

Meanwhile, we've been painting up a storm! We've got the living/dining area, hallway, entryway and inside of front door all painted. That just leaves the two bedrooms, the bathroom and the kitchen. Oh, and when we replace the balcony door it will need painting, and the cabinets in the kitchen are going to get painted.

It looks all right with just oak baseboards, though I realize it would probably look even better with crisp white trim. I just don't know if we're up for all that work, and it would be expensive to hire someone to paint it all. (There's a LOT of oak in this place.) So I think we'll do everything we can before deciding, and see how much money we've spent and what it looks like with more things finished.

If we do purchase a new home this early in the process, we'll definitely be minimizing the staging in this place if possible. Looking at some of the other places in our building, really you just need enough furniture so people have a sense of space and where things might go. We'll see what we can get away with.

Developments on the possible new place: We looked at recently solds in the area and, though nothing quite compares, it seems to be a bit overpriced. We asked our real estate agent and she agreed. She's still analyzing data, but meanwhile she said she'd talk to the listing agent tomorrow and try to get more info about why it's priced the way it is.

Meanwhile, we're trying to prepare to hopefully get preapproved at the asking price, just in case. Between US and UK savings, we're about $5K short what we would need to qualify. Our friends really want this place too, so they loaned us that amount! I should be able to pay them back by mid-August. Or, if we don't get this house, we can return the money earlier than that. We just need it in the bank to have the equivalent of 10% down in there.

I've done the numbers and if we moved in by July, with first mortgage payment due in August, we'd struggle to make the first two mortgage payments and still pay our friends back. However, the place is a duplex and the part that my family would have is currently being rented, for slightly more than what we'd need to cover the mortgage payment. We believe they're month-to-month, so we might basically be able to choose the month we want them out. That would be helpful because we'd be able to pay our friends back and not have to come up with the money for the mortgage right away. We need to find out more about the rental situation before we make an offer.

There's a huge basement that would become available (clearly not being used by the slovenly upstairs renters), so we could start moving our excess stuff there right away, which would make staging our condo for sale a heck of a lot easier.

The other issue is that the down payment would wipe out the money we have saved for the UK and US renos. We found out that the UK renter is renewing his lease, so we've emailed to find out if that's contingent on renovating right away or if it actually pushes the reno date back a lot. That would be great news because we'd have time to save up the money for that again. We hope they'll get back to us tomorrow (today was a holiday in England too).

The US reno, however, needs to be done right away if we hope to sell and get out from under that mortgage payment (and the association dues!). So I see a couple of options, none of them ideal, but all of them workable and not ruinous in the long run:
- Ask my dad for a loan with the promise that we'd either pay him back when/if the WV money comes in, or by a certain date (sometime next year).
- See if we can take out a small home equity loan on the new place right away. You used to be able to do that during the housing boom, but there might be rules against it now. Same payoff plan; either as soon as we get the WV money or, if that doesn't happen, sometime next year.
- Put the renos on the CCs and (gulp) carry the debt for a while. Same payoff plan. (Hopefully we could find a 0% offer and pay it off before interest starts to hit.)

Any of the three would be taking on debt, but I feel confident I could pay it off in a couple months. If (as CCF brought up) one of us lost our jobs, we would still be able to pay the bills but wouldn't be able to pay off the debt for a while.

Anyway, August and September would be difficult if we had to carry mortgages on both places, but starting in October (when NT's tuition stops taking big chunks out of our pay) it would get quite a bit easier. And starting in January (when NT and I will get more take-home pay due to smaller flex spending deductions) it will get even easier. Next September, our daycare expense will decrease by about a third,

I'm curious to hear from the broker tomorrow to see if 10% down is a requirement across the board for places of this price. Because also, if we could do 5% or even 7% down, it gets a ton easier as well (because we'd be able to keep the money for at least one reno and might not have to borrow anything).

If the old place sells, it gets easy faster. And if the WV money comes, there's no problem. But I need to make my calculations as if neither of those things happen because even though both are likely, neither is 100% a sure thing.

And really, nothing is a sure thing yet. If this home falls through, here's our plan for the future:
- Slow down the home search, but focus on multifamily for the searching we do (now that we know the multifamily option could actually work).
- Continue the US reno, and see how long we can put off the UK reno so we can keep that money for a possible down payment in the future.
- If no other houses come up, making an offer early next year would be much easier.

But I really hope this place works out! It was the first place that satisfied most if not all our needs, and it was the only one so far I could imagine calling home.

On our first day of looking at multifamily places (in person), we found a place that would be absolutely perfect for us and our friends. x

It's too soon for our timeline, but if not one of a kind, it's one of not too many. There aren't that many places that tick all our boxes, even from online searches, so it was stunning to find one that did so and then some. We looked at several places, and when we got home, we all danced around what we thought, but soon discovered that we unanimously thought the same place was head and shoulders above the rest.

We're going to see how far we can stretch ourselves to make it work. I'm summoning all my mental strength and going to be doing a ton of budget projections to make sure we wouldn't be taking on more than we can afford.

If we stretched, it would only be for a couple of months to a year. But even that feels weird, so I'm going to look at the budget in detail to see what that would really mean.

Tuesday I talk to a broker to see if preapproval is an option with the assets and income we have. If we get preapproval, we make an offer.

If we make an offer and it's accepted, it's going to be a strange and crazy couple of months! But with five adults working together (us and our friends) I know we could pull it all together.

So, good vibes and thoughts please!

AS is finding humor in the fact that, now that my big writing job at work is winding down, I'm desperately looking for ways to keep the momentum going on our renovation/moving goals. It's true! In my defense, she's got her future employment to think about and NT has two more semesters of college until graduation. Right now all I've got to focus on is the home stuff.

So, here's what's going on in that area:

- 2 possible snowflakes could be coming that I can add to savings! A new co-worker referred me to his old company for a potential one-off freelance proofreading project. And, more exciting though much less money, a new acquaintance of mine has asked if I'll consult with her and her partner (boyfriend? husband? not sure) about their finances. And she wants to pay me for my time! So we'll see if either one comes to pass.

- Painted some splotches on the walls last night to get a sense of what paints we want to use. (Don't worry; I took "before" photos last week!) Our realtor really wants us to use gray throughout, but I feel like a bit of color at least in a bedroom or the bathroom would make the place feel more alive. Probably gray for the main living area and a darker gray for the kitchen; they're always flooded with sunlight during the day, so the gray won't look gloomy at all. Especially with bright white on the woodwork! But I know the realtor has strong opinions and much experience, so we'll see.

- Made an appointment with our realtor to go see some places this Saturday. It'll just be a quick jaunt, but should give us a more realistic view of whether the duplex option would really work.

- Added NT and I to AS's USB Visa. This is a first step in simplifying our credit card situation and hopefully helping our credit report.

- Left a message with a mortgage broker to get preapproved for a loan. Even if we're not able to make an offer in the next 90 days, I'd like to get a sense of what we really can borrow. And if the WV money comes sooner than anticipated, we'll be ready to go immediately if we see the right place.

We took it pretty easy this weekend, loving not having much to do. The summer weekends fill up quickly, so it was a treat that the first really nice (partly sunny and 60s-70s) weekend we've had this year was also nearly free of obligations.

I pulled out a few more things for the garage sale, which is in 2 weeks. I know we can still come up with more. We're going to try and have a rummage through the kids' toys while they're not around and pull out small stuff that we know they haven't played with for a while. I was trying to make the older one part of the process, but she's having a real problem letting go of anything. (Well, she did a good job the first time through, but we still need to get rid of much more. They have gifts pouring in from all sides and it's kind of out of control how many toys they have for their tiny bedroom.)

We met with our realtor and gave her all the info on what we're wanting to do, right down to the variables (with or without land deal money; multi-family or single-family).

She also gave us some advice on renovating and staging. Most of it was in line with the stager's and contractor's advice and what we were thinking anyway; as with anything, she differed on some points. We're taking some of her advice and ignoring some, we think.

It's been good though to talk to three people from three different sides of the process and hear that their advice has much in common, and matches much of our instincts. And I feel good about the things they've steered us away from, since most of the advice will actually save us money. (For instance, our realtor checked out our oven and said it didn't need replacing if we gave it a good clean.)

She did strongly suggest that we paint all the oak in the condo (cabinets, baseboards, built-in). It will take time but not much more money, so I think we're going to follow her advice on that. All of the places we've seen so far have them painted, so I think it's what's going in our area right now. That's something we can chip away at a little at a time, so we'll probably go for it.

I was going to paint samples on the walls this weekend, but AA (the 4-year-old) wants to help, so I think I'll wait and try to do it with her, little by little. It might drive the younger one nuts to not get to help, but I'll just try to get someone to take her for a walk or something to distract her.

The realtor did confirm that we should fix the window that's started collecting condensation between the two layers. It should only be a couple hundred dollars and, from what I remember of hiring someone to replace a living room window, is a pretty fast job.

So those are the things we'll be working on this week: putting up paint samples on the walls, decluttering and adding to the garage sale pile, and setting up an appointment to have the window replaced. If we feel ambitious, we could start looking for new light fixtures and lamps. We'll see if we get around to that. If the contractor gets back to us with a quote, we might put the kitchen renovation in motion, though who knows when it will be scheduled to start.

Things are moving ... slowly but surely!

I've pretty much gone on a spending diet for the past month and a half, after the spending spree that was March (aka birthday) month, and upon the prospect of the land deal kicking our new-home dreams into high gear. Ever since the prospect of that money was dangled in front of me, I've felt more determined to be able to achieve what I would with the money, whether or not I get it.

So not only has my family cut travel and charity out of our budget, but once I'd made up for my overspending of my personal money in March, I continued to minimize my discretionary purchases. I put in for wine every third week for the family, and I've accepted the occasional lunch or dinner invitation out. But other things I want, such as new clothes, more makeup, date nights, have just been put indefinitely on hold. I figure if I'm very good with my money for the next few months, I may be able to fund our hosting of NT's mom and sister in August without having to dip into funds that would otherwise go toward home savings.

Maybe it's the spending diet I'm on, or maybe it's just speculating about what will be next for our family once we're settled in our long-term home. But I've realized over the past month or so -- I'm still a spender deep down.

Not spending for spending's sake; but there are many things I think about and want to purchase, and would do so if I didn't feel like there were more pressing financial matters.

So at present, my view of the future (at least my ideal, though I know there are lots of variables not under my control) would be to buy the home and have enough in the budget to:
- increase retirement contributions (still need to figure out what we should be contributing but it's more than we do now)
- steadily rebuild the EF and medical fund
- pay off the remaining student loan debt at least a bit faster than the minimum
- pay the new mortgage at a pace so it would at least be paid off by the time I'm 65 (which would be 24 years from right now), whether that means a 15-year mortgage or just making extra payments every month

Those are my main priorities, and I would want to address all of them first. But if we had enough income where all of those were being addressed to a level I felt comfortable with, I know what I'd want to do with the remaining money: Spend it.

I've got such a long list, and I know AS and NT have held back on many of their own wants for a long time (there's only so much you can do with $80 apiece per week, even though it sounds like a lot). My wants that have not been fully satisfied for a while, in no particular order:
- Home decor/home improvement
- Wardrobe (clothes, shoes, accessories) and makeup
- Travel
- Eating out
- Good quality wine
- Gourmet cooking ingredients
- Larger-scale philanthropy
- Going to shows (movies, standup, plays)
- Vacation home (pie in the sky and not very high priority)

Things that are not on my wants list (or very low on it):
- Vehicles (car, scooter, motorcycle, RV, etc.)
- Tech stuff (as long as I have something functional and nice in each category; TV, computer, phone, etc.)

It's hard to think of things I DON'T want, I guess because I don't dwell on them! Let's see, guns, country club memberships, horses/riding, plastic surgery ... I'm sure there are other luxuries that are so far off my radar that I couldn't even come up with them after sitting here for 10 minutes staring off into space!

So I guess what I'm saying is, I haven't really changed the core of me that likes certain things that cost money, and I've even added things to the wants list that weren't there before I started our debt journey. But I never again want to be the kind of spender that leaves my future self in the lurch. I've experienced picking up the pieces after myself for the past 7 years, and it's a lesson learned that I'll never ever forget.

The other $186 (which I did as a separate transfer to safeguard against the chance of overdrawing before our paychecks hit) showed up in the savings account.

I'm still not updating my sidebar until I'm sure my entire sidebar won't disappear, but that takes us to $39,879.15.

$13,411 is earmarked for US renovations, $20,014 for UK renovations. That means we've saved up about $6454 for downpayment/closing/moving costs. Not much, but it's a start!

We've spent $89 so far on US renovations (on the trade show where we met our contractor, and on paint samples and brushes).

We need $28,796 more to get a $29,750 down payment (7% on $425K home) plus closing costs of $4,500 and moving costs of $1,000. (All speculative amounts, of course, just to give us something to work toward.)

Looking ahead the next couple weeks, not too much is scheduled to happen in our renovate/save/move world. Our friend is eager to start scoping out duplexes; not that we're ready to make an offer, but to see if it's even feasible. So we moved our realtor meeting to this Sunday and are going to ask if she can schedule some showings for the following weekend.

Our contractor-prospect hasn't gotten back to us with quotes yet; I imagine if he doesn't get in touch by this Wednesday, we'll nudge him to see when we can expect them.

No word on the WV land deal; it's now 16 days into the "30 to 90 days" the gas guy said might be needed for attorney to certify the title. That's assuming the last person on the right-of-way path has signed and is getting his title certified as well; haven't heard anything more about that guy, so it could potentially be longer if he hasn't signed yet. (And of course it could all fall through if he decides not to sign, but the gas guy seemed to think it would be signed soon.)

AS has hemmed the curtains and they look great, so that's the first thing off our renovation/staging list! Small step but feels good to have something done.

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): $29,903
NT's Roth IRA: $7,037
AS's 401(k): $12,720
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $18,678
CJ's 401(k): $70,008
CJ's Roth IRA: $7,037
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $145,000
House down payment/moving fund (shared): $24,081
---
Total Assets: $606,082

Total Debt: $239,386

Current Estimated Net Worth: $366,696

April 2014 estimate: $357,895

Change in net worth: +$8,801

Summary: Big growth, and we finally achieved $600K in assets! Some of the increase is due to upward movement in our retirement funds; the rest because we've been saving aggressively for a home.

I decided to include U.S. savings for a home in our assets, since the money will either go toward renovating (i.e. increasing the value of our current home) or to buying equity/adding value in a new home. I did not include our UK savings, because the UK flat's value listed above is contingent upon the renovations that will wipe out our UK savings.

I will update my "Individual Net Worth" page shortly so you can see how it breaks out per 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, I think I'll wait to update my sidebar info until this weird problem gets solved!

The transfer to savings I did yesterday showed up in the account. I needn't have worried about overdrawing my checking; it hasn't even been taken out of checking yet and it's already in savings! That's $2500 straight to the renovate & move fund.

Also, when we bought a number of paint samples and brushes on Tuesday ($55.93), I was able to cashflow with some money I realized didn't need to be sitting in checking, so that goes toward the $13,500 budgeted for renovations without being actually taken out of the money we've saved so far.

This takes our savings to almost $40,000 and reduces what we still need to save (in the event the land deal doesn't go through) to less than $30,000.

Messaged with my friend we're considering sharing a duplex with last night, and we agreed that we need to just start looking at some to see if that's even feasible. (The main reason my family wants to move is because we want a lot more space -- at least three more rooms' worth -- so if we can't get that in a duplex, that option is going to have to come off the table.)

So I moved the meeting with our realtor up to this Sunday, and I'm going to talk to her about getting a showing of three duplexes that are clustered together in a nearby neighborhood. They have varying amounts of space and levels of disrepair (and the prices vary by more than $100K), so we feel like this would give us a good idea of whether it's likely that we could find a duplex where one of the units could satisfy my family.

We're just $70 away from earning the Discover reward and about $1400 from earning the Southwest Visa one. I said it out loud last night and I'm writing it down here in an attempt to follow through: After these two rewards are earned, I'm going to stop doing the credit card churn until after we're settled in a new home. I don't want our credit report to look any crazier than it already does. Our scores are all in the very high 700s, so hopefully it won't harm our attempt to qualify for a mortgage, but I don't want to push our luck any more than we have!

So once these two cards are spent up and rewards received, we cancel them. The cards we keep, I'm going to add all of us to, so we can all use them for the intended purposes. These are the cards we intend to keep:
Chase Freedom (Just until we get our mortgage, since this is the longest-open card)
American Express (for 6% grocery rewards)
Target RedCard (for 5% Target rewards)
Amazon.com card (for 5% Amazon rewards)
USBank Visa (for 2-5% rewards in various other categories)

After we close on a house, I'll cancel the Chase Freedom and we'll just have 4 permanent cards with all 3 of us on every account.

I have been trying to organize my thoughts for a post on my other blog, ordinarysavers.com, but I feel like my own finances (at least the way I think about them) have been in such flux for the past few months, I'm not really sure how to write about money right now. But I think I'm starting to conceptualize a post about how to let go of priorities temporarily but try to do it responsibly.