Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

It's my birthday! I'm glad SavingAdvice got back online; I was kind of nervous I'd lose all my data!

I worked out today, so that's 1 workout down, 19 to go for the March goal.

It's bitterly cold today, so we skipped the kids' event at a nearby museum. I didn't want to have to wait for the bus, which are all off-schedule because of the icy roads. We already got exposed to enough cold yesterday when a bus was half an hour late! We went to a home & garden show to get ideas and contacts for our bathroom reno, then went out to dinner with our friends who watched the kids for us while we were at the expo.

Anyway, it's been nice to just relax at home today. I got lots of nice thoughtful gifts and extra pampering. I wanted something unique for dinner so I'm going to be making a modified Elvis sandwich: a fried banana/peanut butter/jelly/veggie bacon sandwich. With a salad so I don't feel completely unhealthy.

As I mentioned a few times before, our near financial futures are a bit uncertain at the moment. So I'm going to try very hard to restrain myself and not pay extra on the debt.

The minimum payments should take us to at least $900 down.

As I also mentioned, I'm setting myself a fitness challenge. 20 workouts in the exercise room in March. That's about 5 per week. Hopefully I can do it! I have promised myself a new pair of running shoes (out of my own spending money) if I make it.

Feel free to chime in with a fitness challenge of your own if you like! Misery loves company.

We're on the home stretch of this crazy batch of credit card bonuses!

CJ Capital One: reward received, canceled
NT Capital One: reward received, need to cancel
CJ BankAmericard: reward received, need to cancel
AS Chase Freedom: reward received, need to cancel
NT BankAmericard: waiting for reward points to post
CJ Citi Dividend: waiting for reward points to post
CJ Discover: waiting for rewards points to post
AS BankAmericard: waiting for rewards points to post
AS Citi Dividend: need to spend 132.29 more
NT Citi Dividend: need to spend 500
CJ Chase Southwest Visa: need to spend 184.16 more

So close! I was able to finish up 3 cards today; one needed about 7.75 more of spending and the other about 75. I realized that Comcast lets me pay a portion of my bill at a time, and we owe 83.07 in early March. So I put $8.07 on one card and $75 on the other. Handy! AS bought NT a bday present and it finished out the spending on one of hers.

Now we have $816.45 left to spend. $500 will go to my party, and we actually have a rare week with several social things planned: me, lunch w/co-worker tomorrow (expensed); AS, drinks with a friend tomorrow; and all three of us are going out for dinner with friends who are watching AA and SL while we go to a home & garden expo Saturday. Oh, and I'm going shopping for a dress and MAYBE a makeup lesson on Monday. We may be done with this batch by March 8 or 9!

I need to do a big round of cancellations soon. I also have the Barclay cards I was hanging onto until after our Puerto Rico trip. One of them I may have earned enough points to redeem a small reward, so I'm going to wait until the points from the trip spending posts. I may come up a little short but it's worth seeing before I cancel. I really love the cards that don't make you come up with a minimum amount before you redeem! I notice that CapOne and USBank don't make you wait, and maybe BankAmericard. Too bad Barclay isn't the same.

Since I paid extra on AS's student loan for the first time last month, I was keeping a close eye to see if it set up an automatic monthly payment. Usually even before the payment, it says what's due that month, but that number stayed at zero. So on Monday my impatience got the best of me and I set up a payment for the same amount. I got a warning that a regular scheduled payment would still go through, but I ignored it, figuring that was just a boilerplate message that didn't mean anything.

But today, two payments posted. Whoops! I had to pull money out of what I'm saving up for my bday party. That's OK, I've got plenty of time to come up with the money for that.

I'm kind of happy this happened, because I REALLY want to finish paying off our non-mortgage debt, but I've been telling myself that it's not a good time what with the future job insecurities, tax bill, etc. I know I might have to stick to the minimum payments for the foreseeable future. So this is one extra debt payment I get to enjoy before I crack down and start stashing money instead of sending it straight to the student loan companies.

Between the two payments, $299 went to principal. That takes us to $1576 paid for the month, surpassing the $1400 goal. Yay! I may not be able to knock out all our student loan debt this year, but that feels good.

And, I just realized this extra payment means that we will definitely get the total under $10K by the end of the year, even if we don't pay any extra. Double yay!

I've been noticing (and envious of) several SAers who are ramping up their exercise. I need to start working out more often so I'll be in good shape for my first 5K in April.

Would anyone like to join me in a March fitness challenge? We could all set our own goals if we were at different levels, or do the same as someone else if inspired.

I think I'm going to shoot for 20 days of exercise in the exercise room. Hopefully many of them will be jogging, but if I don't feel like jogging, I'll let myself do walking or the stationery bike or free weights.

Are you in?

- Checking all my credit card accounts to set up payments, I realized I forgot to count the first $50 baggage charge (for the way TO Puerto Rico) in my spending totals. That means we went over by more like $58 rather than $8! But, we'll each put in a bit and it won't be that bad. The good(?) news is that it's more spending on one of the rewards credit cards.

- In the week leading up to vacation and during it, we started to think that work problems would clear themselves up and/or unsatisfied employees (being cagy again, sorry) would find a way to make their job a good fit. Today made it clear that was not the case. There need to be some changes in our family. So the annual budget and goals will be a bit in flux until we see how everything nets out. I still see it as a positive thing.

- But, if we do net out at about the same take-home pay, I recalculated everything we need to do and some potential sources of extra bits of income, and it looks like we could just barely make our goals. That wold be nice (but not necessary).

- Paid the big dental bill and had NT submit for FSA reimbursement right away. Also went out for drinks tonight with AS and put that on a rewards CC (to be paid back with our spending money). One of AS's CCs posted her bonus points and I immediately redeemed as a statement credit. Here's where we stand on spending:
CJ Capital One: reward received, canceled
NT Capital One: reward received, need to cancel
CJ BankAmericard: reward received, need to cancel
AS Chase Freedom: reward received, need to cancel
NT BankAmericard: waiting for reward points to post
CJ Discover: need to spend 7.82 more
AS BankAmericard: need to spend 22.27 more
AS Citi Dividend: need to spend 132.29 more
CJ Citi Dividend: need to spend 74.51 more
NT Citi Dividend: need to spend 500
CJ Chase Southwest Visa: need to spend 215 more

So now we just need 951.89 more. Easy peasy.

- Cold snap is back with a vengeance. With windchills of -25 tomorrow morning and -38 Thursday, will probably have to take cabs again. Unwelcome spending, but safety first. Hopefully it's the last week we'll have to do that (I know I keep saying that)!

- I think that's all! Anyway, I'm too sleepy to remember if I had any other news.

Time to see where I am with bonus spending. We've been using cards for medical bills, some vacation spending, bday gift buying, and charitable donations. I now have an 11th card because I opened a SW one to pay for my additional dental expenses I didn't think were coming.

CJ Capital One: reward received, canceled
NT Capital One: reward received, need to cancel
CJ BankAmericard: reward received, need to cancel
AS Chase Freedom: waiting for reward points to post
NT BankAmericard: waiting for reward points to post
CJ Discover: need to spend 7.82 more
AS BankAmericard: need to spend 54.27 more
AS Citi Dividend: need to spend 132.29 more
CJ Citi Dividend: need to spend 134.37 more
NT Citi Dividend: need to spend 500
CJ Chase Southwest Visa: need to spend 2000

So all told, we need to spend $2828.75 more. We'll put my bday party on NT's Citi card, which will be well over the $500 needed. I'll put my new dental bill (1785) on the new SW Visa. That will leave just $543.75. I'm taking my co-worker to lunch (expensing it) this Friday, which will be about $40. We're planning to go to dinner this Saturday ($75-$90?), and I'll probably shop for a new dress on Monday ($50-$75?). AS and I still have about $140 left to spend on NT's bday and they have about $45 left to spend on mine. And I can pay the cable bill in early March ($83.07). At the low end of those estimates, we'd then need to spend $110.68. Worst comes to worst, we buy little gift cards for places we already spend at already (Amazon, Target) to push us over the edge. I doubt it will come to that, since we tend to use our spending money for little purchases here and there that can add up.

The first 10 cards need to be spent up by the end of March, but we have longer on the SW card. Of course I want to get it spent up and canceled ASAP so I have a better chance of getting the annual fee refunded! I don't think it'll be a problem.

It's been a lot of work keeping these all straight, but it's definitely taken the sting out of some unexpected as well as predicted expenses. Counting the gift card value we'll get from SW (minus the annual fee in case we can't get it canceled), we'll clear $1560. I can deal with some math headaches for that kind of haul!

Per Buendia's request.

SL (with AS) at the beach near our resort:


(It was a nice sandy beach and beautiful ocean, but I didn't get any good shots of that.)

AA at the pool:


Random shot of the pool:


Pics from NT's day trip to Old San Juan:

We're back! Overall we had a wonderful time. Puerto Rico is really nice. I tried to track expenses the whole time so we knew when to pull back on spending. It worked -- looks like we only went over budget by $8! I'll pay that in with my spending money, no problem.

The one thing that wasn't great is that it's not a very vegetarian-friendly culture. They tend to put a bit of pork in everything, even the plantains, beans and rice. We did find one vegetarian-friendly restaurant, a nice smoothie cafe and a few other places to eat. But I think if we go back, we'll try to rent a condo or some kind of accommodation that includes a kitchen. I would've liked to make my own vegan spin on the yummy Puerto Rican dishes I couldn't try! (You'll notice we're attempting a vegan PR feast this week.)

Needless to say, I'm glad to get back to home-cooked meals. We would've been a bit over budget on groceries, but we had money left from last week since we didn't do a full shopping trip before our trip!

Saturday lunch: creamy sun-dried tomato pasta

Saturday dinner: sesame tofu with rice & broc

Sunday lunch: mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, veg burgers/chix nuggets

Sunday dinner: mamposteao, lemon achiote tofu, mofongo

Monday: mushroom lentil bourgignon w/roasted potatoes & carrots

Tuesday: BLATs (veggie BLTs plus avocado) & roasted cauliflower

Wednesday: parsley breadcrumb pasta & salad

Thursday: Southern fried tofu, waffles & broccoli

Friday: franks & beans & salad

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 15,544 pounds ($24,870)
#2: 19,653 pounds ($31,445)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $28,609
NT's Roth IRA: $6,718
AS's 401(k): $12,187
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $17,183
CJ's 401(k): $67,554
CJ's Roth IRA: $6,718
NT's flat: 140,000 pounds ($224,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $145,000
Emergency fund (shared asset): $15,000
House down payment/moving fund (shared): $4,577
---
Total Assets: $592,666

Total Debt: $242,326

Current Estimated Net Worth: $350,340

January 2014 estimate: $346,402

Change in net worth: +$3,938

Summary: A good mix of debt paydown and modest market gains. I'm really glad, because there was a big increase last month and I figured there might have been a correction this month. We reached a milestone -- our cumulative retirement fund value is up over $200K!

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.

I'm on vacation! Just a quick entry to say that my guest post is up.

Surprise, surprise. I got a bill from the dental surgeon, whose office said I was only responsible for $1615, asking me for another $1785. $3400, much closer to what I was expecting to pay. Still expecting to pay $1646 at the other dentist for whatever it is they do to my implant, taking total to $5046. I think I predicted that exact number!

So, really glad I took out the full $5K in flex spending!

Of course, if I'd known this, I wouldn't have distributed cards to AS and NT and had all of us spending them up. I've only got 2 cards with $500 needed. In a fit of pique last night, I signed up for a Southwest Visa, where I pay a $99 annual fee but get $500 in gift cards for spending $2000. (And potentially the annual fee gets waived.) I'll use that to pay the dental bill.

Today I checked which credit cards don't charge foreign transaction fees, and of the reward cards remaining, only NT's CapOne (which needs only $300 more of spending) is fee-free. I did hold onto the Barclay cards just in case for this trip, so AS and I will bring those. But that means we won't be able to do much reward spending on the trip.

That's OK. I've avoided using the reward cards for grocery purchases (since we get 6% on our Amex) or Target or Amazon purchases (since we get 5% off with our specialty cards for those stores), but we can always use the cards for that if we need to top up to get the spending done in time to get the bonus.

My guest blog was accepted! I'll post a link once it's published. There was no talk of pay, which was fine for one post, but this is a professionally run site, so I won't be doing more posts for them if they don't pay anything. Still, it was really fun and exciting to get that attention from my ordinarysavers.com website.

We grownups decided to forgo Valentine's gifts for each other this year. What with our kid-free date last week, the Puerto Rico trip this coming week and birthdays in March, we didn't feel the need. I'll probably pick up a couple cheap treats for the kids tomorrow, though goodness knows they won't need them, what with daycare kids exchanging treats AND my parents sending them each a goodie bag.

There's been lots of scary yet exhilarating talk in our house of potential job changes. AS was rather stressed that if new jobs meant a net lower income, we wouldn't hit our target for moving out of the condo.

Job stress has been a major downer in our household. As much as I want to pay off our debt and move to a bigger home, I realized that a happier home life is more important to me by far.

So I promised AS that if our overall income lowered, I'd actually move debt payoff to the bottom of priorities. If that still didn't allow us to hit our goals, we could look at temporarily cutting out wants such as travel, housekeeping and charitable giving. I swore that renovating and saving up for a move would be the main priority. That made her feel much better.

One of the changes was NT looking for a job. He's updated his resume and identified three or four jobs to apply for. He did speak to a higher-up at his job who's still talking the talk about hiring help and/or giving him a raise, so he hasn't completely counted them out, but since they've been talking for a lo-o-ong time, he's going to still look for jobs just in case they're stringing him along. If he gets an offer, maybe that will spur them to act on their promises.

Either way, whether he gets help and a raise, or a new job that inspires him and isn't 50 hours a week, we'll be much better off soon!

The funny thing is I don't FEEL like I'm on fire; I'm doing everything slowly and reluctantly. I'm at work and having a slowish day, and I just don't have the energy to chase down extra work. So I thought I should try to get some non-work things done. So far I have:
- Canceled a credit card via online.
- Paid the home insurance annual bill by phone.
- Paid a random little bill from my old dentist by phone.
- Tried to call our parking-space renter, whose check is late.
- Called a prospective new babysitter for my bday party, then followed up via email when she wasn't sure if she was free.
- Tried to call a vegetarian chef we're trying to connect with in Puerto Rico (had my Spanish-speaking friend call him first in case he only spoke Spanish; she got in touch with him, but then when I called later, he wasn't there).
- Wrote the first draft of a blog post for a site that contacted me to invite me to be a guest blogger!
- Submitted a daycare receipt for reimbursement.

Phew! For feeling completely unmotivated, I'm not doing too badly.

I attended the first meeting of our condo's new finance committee last night. People had some very interesting thoughts to reduce our operating expenses and eventually (hopefully) our association dues. I hope I can contribute some thoughts too; I was mostly there to listen. It seems to be a grassroots group formed by homeowners frustrated by the yearly increases in our dues (this year it was 7.7%!). I'm glad I'm not the only one! We meet again in March.

We're doing pretty well meeting our spending requirements for the rewards cards. Now we just have left:
NT Cap One need 300.85
AS BOA need 366.93
CJ Citi need 134.37
CJ Discover need 135
AS Citi need 265.29
NT Citi need 500
NT BOA need 500
CJ BOA DONE
CJ Cap One DONE & cancelled
AS Chase DONE

So we just need to spend $2202.44 more. $500 could be for the party, $483 for NT's outstanding ER bill, and the rest could easily be used up with bday and other spending.

I canceled a Chase Sapphire that I got the bonus for (before this latest group of cards), so we're down to 18. Slowly but surely whittling that pile down!

So close to our vacation! Tonight I may go to trivia, tomorrow I have lunch with a friend, Thursday is a normal day and Friday is a half day with a daycare event in the afternoon. Saturday we get our hair cut and prepare for the trip, and EARLY Sunday morning we head to the airport. Can't wait! Today was another miserably cold morning, but it should be the last one for a while. Tomorrow morning should actually be in the positives!

Our grocery budget seems to be on track, and with our vacation coming up (when we won't need grocery money because we have spending money already set aside), we should actually be able to have some extra money stashed in the budget for household needs that tend to derail our weekly spending!

This is a bit late, but here goes:
Saturday lunch: leftovers
Saturday dinner: Pasta w/roasted red pepper sauce
Sunday lunch: "full English": eggs/tofu, baked beans, fried potatoes, fried tomatoes, veggie bacon/sausage, toast
Sunday dinner: "cheeseburger quesadillas" (cheese quesadillas w/veggie ground beef), lettuce and tomatoes, applesauce, fries
Monday: penne vodka
Tuesday: Fried rice w/pineapple, carrot, green pepper, shrooms, tofu; Pot stickers
Wednesday: spaghetti & spinach-tomato sauce
Thursday: szechuan "beef" & broccoli, rice
Friday: Tater tot hot dish

Looking over my budget I saw that we have several "escrow" line items making it seem like we're cutting it close when we're really not. So I went ahead and transferred the $1000 I was going to put into the renovation fund on payday (Friday). Feels good to have that fund done.

I also saw that we'd earned $5.40 of interest, which I counted toward the general house/moving fund.

This weekend has been some ups and downs, though mostly (if not all) in my head. Stupid faux-pas that will bug me for weeks because that's the way I am, even though it was totally negligible. Discussions of possible future outcomes that could positively or negatively affect our future. Sorry to be vague, not all of it is probably wise to discuss (since blogs are never guaranteed private, are they?). Anyway, I'm left unsettled, but mostly hopeful. One thing I feel OK about saying openly is that NT does feel he's getting the runaround for the 10th (or is it 100th?) time at his job, and it's the last straw. He started looking for a new job today. If his job comes through, great. If they don't, he'll already be working on his exit strategy. It's a win-win.

There are two amazingly tempting houses for sale in our neighborhood, well within our eventual price range. Too bad we're in no way equipped to make the down payment now, or even commit to definitely staying in Minneapolis yet. So we'll drool and then move on. It makes me hopeful that even if prices continue to rise, we'll still be able to find what we want at least at the top of our price range.

It looks like Monday will be bearable enough to not take cabs, so that's good.

I'm chalking most of this amorphous unease to low-level winter blues. I hope Puerto Rico next week helps to wash that away!

I was so impatient to make extra debt progress (I haven't sent any extra payments since December), I rejiggered the budget slightly so I could send my $500 extra payment to AS's loan now instead of waiting for the 2/14 paycheck.

It hit today, with $493 going to principal. This is the first extra payment to this particular loan. With a 3.25% fixed interest rate, there were always loans that needed paying off before it. But now, with NT's 3.4% loan not accruing interest (federally subsidized), this is the next debt in my sights.

That takes February progress to $1277 down, $123 to go. I can't tell if this payment wiped out the regular payment at the end of the month, but I'll make sure we pay the amount we normally would so we can meet the goal.

Yay!

On the down side of finances, temperatures are dropping again; 8 am will be -13, feels like -30. That's weather I don't feel comfortable walking a mile to daycare in, so we'll be taking a cab again unless the forecast is wildly off. This is I think the 6th time this year; we didn't take any cabs the two winters before! I'm getting sick of shelling out $10-$30 per day (depending on whether we need 2 cabs and where the parent is going after daycare). Trying to focus on how little we pay for transportation costs overall. But still, knowing I'm in danger of not hitting our annual goals, it does gall me.

NT ordered his smartphone from Ting last night. His prepaid minutes are almost used up on his old phone, so soon he'll transition to Ting. I'm interested to see how it works out! I'm so used to T-Mobile coverage, I hope Sprint isn't significantly worse. But, we'll keep our T-Mobile phones and could always go back to that if necessary.

Yesterday was a crappy day, both in my personal life (FB spat with a friend) and at work (corporate BS and feeling underappreciated). AS gave me lots of pep talks, and today I took action on every single thing that was bothering me. Even if my first steps to resolution don't turn into anything, I'm at least proud of myself for pulling out of my defeatist attitude and trying to change things.

Later today, however, I started feeling achy. I went home a half hour early and slept for 3 hours. I really hope this doesn't turn out to be anything, because our daycare lady is keeping our kids for a sleepover this Friday, and we have a fun date night planned! Also, we have our vacation coming up in less than 2 weeks. C'mon body, hang in there!

I've been very careful with my personal spending money so I could pay for comedy tickets I bought in December and my web hosting fee this month. If I don't spend any personal money tomorrow, I'll have made up the last amount and be back to getting my regular amount every week! I think that should be pretty easy; we have plenty of cereal and bread for breakfasts and plenty of leftovers for lunches.

Also, if we manage to not buy any more groceries between now and Saturday, we'll be on budget. We had about $5 left in this week's budget, and today I bought some cold medicine just in case, which wiped it out. I don't think we have any needs that can't wait until Saturday.

I'm thinking about attending my condo's finance committee meeting Monday. Apparently you can go and sign up to try and get on the committee. I'm very interested in finding ways to cut down on expenses so maybe our fees won't go up as much. And just learning what it's like to take part in the condo; I've never even attended a meeting and we've lived here over 10 years.

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I canceled another credit card. We're down to 19! I'm still waiting for one of NT's cards to confirm cancellation, and I've got the rewards check for another, so as soon as I deposit the check I'll cancel that card too.

Here's what we have left to spend:
NT Cap One 300.85
AS Citi 500
NT BOA 500
AS BOA 366.93
NT Citi 500
CJ Citi 221.13
CJ Discover 135
AS Chase 168.87
CJ BOA done
CJ Cap One done

In total, 2692.78 more spending needed. I've got home insurance premium coming up ($234), and bday restaurant expense ($500+). Also NT's hospital bill if we can get that paid ($483). That will only leave $1475 we need to spend. We could use some for bday gifts, and/or take a couple of the cards on our vacation as long as there won't be foreign transaction fees.

I know I said this would be our last round of CC rewards cards for a while, but if the Citi ThankYou reward is still there when we're done with these, I'd be tempted. Amazon gift cards will always come in handy! And we've got the bathroom reno coming up which will mean thousands of dollars in charges. We'll see.

The UK mortgage payments hit:
#1: $217 to principal
#2: $47
#3: $47

Total of $311 of debt repayment, so that makes it $784 down, $616 to go on the February debt goal.

I was also able to register a few hundred pounds toward saving up for the UK renovations.

Progress on my bday party front: I confirmed with the karaoke DJ that he's able to do it. Reasonable pricing gives me about $50 left over in my bday budget, which I'll probably use toward babysitting fees. I set up my invitation and am getting very excited for this party!

Oh, and I got an insurance statement for my dental surgery. I find the statements almost impossible to read, but it looks like they think I'm on the hook for $3200 after their coverage. The dentist office said I was only responsible for $1615. If insurance is right and not the dentist office, I'll be vindicated in my move to take out the full $5K in flex spending. Either way, really glad I don't have to worry!

The U.S. mortgage hit, with $473 going to principal. $927 to go on the February debt goal.

I checked Zillow last night to see if any homes had sold in our complex recently, and one sold early this month. Comparable size and number of bedrooms/bathrooms, not quite as high up: $145,000. That's what I currently have our home valued at in our net worth calculations, so that's good. We owe $154,3339, so still quite a bit underwater. Stilll, we should get the principal down to $145 in about a year and a half, and hopefully values will have crept up in that time, so I'm optimistic we'll be able to break even when we sell.

Saturday lunch: parsley breadcrumb pasta

Saturday dinner: pancakes, seitan sausage & fruit

Sunday lunch: kitsune ramen

Sunday dinner (bringing to Super Bowl party): vegan chili & stuffed jalapenos

Monday: cottage pie

Tuesday: pasta della California w/veggie buffalo wings

Wednesday: refried bean burritos

Thursday: spaghetti & tomato sauce

Friday: pizza delivery

February really snuck up on me! But I took a look at the budget quickly and decided my debt repayment goal is $1400. The regular minimum $900 plus a $500 extra payment I hope to achieve.

I also want to set aside the final $1000 for the bathroom renovation.

The spending budget for our Puerto Rico trip is $1737.70 (what we had left over of the $5000 budget after booking airfare and hotel). We'll be gone 6 days, so that's an average of $289 per day. I don't know what prices will be like in the resort or in San Juan, but this seems doable as long as we don't eat at high-end restaurants every meal and don't do a ton of expensive activities. I'm mainly interested in relaxing, soaking up the warmth and playing with the kids, so I don't think it'll be a problem. Some of last year's summer wear may be a bit loose since AS and I both lost weight since then, but I think we have enough to get by without buying too many new clothes. I may stop by a thrift store before we go to see if I can find shorts. And I probably need new flip-flops.

We'll also start shopping for birthdays in February, since all five occur in March. The budget is $800: $200 for gifts for each adult and $100 for each kid.

We may sign up for our first Ting phone this coming month too; NT only has about 90 minutes left on his prepaid phone. None of us use very many minutes, so they've lasted a really long time. I have over $300 saved up in the cellphone budget, which means it's been at least 6 months since any of us needed more minutes. As AS and I run out of minutes on our prepaids, we'll join him on a family plan. I'm cautiously excited about moving into the realm of smartphones, as long as our costs remain about the same as they have for prepaid.

I think those are the main financial things happening in February, besides the usual. I'll pay for my birthday party in March, taxes in April. We'll look at the Y schedule to sign the girls up for the next available swim lessons after our Puerto Rico trip, so that may be February or later.

I'm staying home today; the girls are kinda sick, and the snow was pretty heavy when it would have been time to take the stroller to daycare. And I DON'T want to pay for any more cab rides if I don't have to. We're taking it easy. Actually I feel a bit run down myself, but it could be psychosomatic, or just a result of jogging on the treadmill last night.

I called my home insurance company to talk about the negative impact of my credit report on my premium. It turns out $22 of the increase was due to the credit thing and the other $14 just a general price increase.

I explained why my credit report looked so different from 2010, the last time they pulled it, but they were firm that it was just an algorithm they didn't have any control over. So I went to an agent to see what else I could do to lower the price.

We increased my deductible from $500 to $1000 and lowered liability from $300K to $100K. That brought the price down from $263 to $234 for the year, so only $8 higher than last year. I can live with that. And actually I'm surprised my deductible was so low, but I guess it made sense when I first took out the policy and had virtually no liquid funds.

Looking at ways to spend up my credit cards, I realized one medical bill still hasn't come from NT's October ER visit. I know the amount from his insurance account online. Part of me wants to call them and ask to pay the bill even though it apparently isn't due yet. Another part of me thinks it'd be crazy to pay a bill before it even came. Still thinking through that one.

I had a real spending temptation: Elizabeth Warren, my favorite personal finance author and one of my favorite politicians, is coming to speak in Minneapolis (DFL fundraiser). The cheapest ticket was $125! I might have actually thought about borrowing ahead in my spending money to pay for it, but I've already been through that twice recently. Bought tickets to a comedy show for March and just finished paying that off earlier this month. Then my web hosting fees for my ordinarysavers.com website came due and I'm working on paying those down. So I just couldn't see going in the hole for another $125 right now. Especially when I'm keenly aware how much of our surplus money is going to be spent on my bday party.

Since we'll have the money saved up for our bathroom renovation by mid-February, I've started preparing mentally. Signed up for Houzz.com, a Pinterest-type site where designers post photos of renovated interiors. Started taping reruns of a show called "Renovation Realities," which shows real people going through DIY renos. We'll probably go to a home & garden show in late February or early March. At some point we'll need to agree on a vision, figure out what parts we think we can do ourselves, price out the things we want, and maybe schedule some time off work (or some babysitting if we'll be working on weekends) to actually go through with it.

I guess that's it for now!

At last, I can report some debt repayment -- the first student loan progress of the year. AS's regular student loan payment hit, and $133 went to principal.

That takes January debt progress to $913, exceeding the $900 goal.

And remaining student loan debt down to $12,063.

I'm so itching to get rid of this debt, but I'm trying to balance it with everything else. I may try to squeeze in a $500 extra payment in February; I'll need to look at bday and tax bills and make sure I'll have enough to pay those when they come due (mid-March and mid-April). I think I will.

At last, I can report some debt repayment -- the first student loan progress of the year. AS's regular student loan payment hit, and $133 went to principal.

That takes January debt progress to $913, exceeding the $900 goal.

And remaining student loan debt down to $12,063.

I'm so itching to get rid of this debt, but I'm trying to balance it with everything else. I may try to squeeze in a $500 extra payment in February; I'll need to look at bday and tax bills and make sure I'll have enough to pay those when they come due (mid-March and mid-April). I think I will.

Well, a bit late, but here's our week's plan. We do need to get a couple more ingredients, but hopefully we can still stay under budget.

Friday: veggie burgers, hashbrowns & salad

Saturday lunch: cold sandwiches & chips

Saturday dinner: vegan seitan sausages, bubble 'n' squeak, red wine gravy

Sunday lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, fries & salad

Monday: black bean & sweet potato burritos with salad

Tuesday: red wine asparagus pasta & garlic bread

Wednesday: vegan brats, coleslaw & baked beans

Thursday: spaghetti & tomato sauce

Friday: pizza

I feel like I need to regroup on my credit cards and the progress toward rewards every few days, because I've never had this many in play before!

NT Capital One 43.12 spent, 456.88 to go
AS Chase Freedom 252.01 spent, 247.99 to go
CJ Capital One 500 spent, reward received, cancel after paying off
NT Citi Dividend 0 spent, 500 to go
AS Citi Dividend 0 spent, 500 to go
CJ Citi Dividend 278.87 spent, 221.13 to go
NT BankAmericard 0 spent, 500 to go
AS BankAmericard 0 spent, 500 to go
CJ BankAmericard 500 spent, waiting for reward
CJ Discover 615 spent, 135 to go

So in total, need to spend $3061 more. I decided I'll have NT use one of his to pay my party food/drink bill, which will be more than $500, so that's one out of the way. We can put the $83 cable/internet bill on another one. And I can finish up my Citi Dividend with our annual homeowner's insurance bill. The rest will be easily used up with vacation and birthday spending, since we have a trip scheduled for February and our 5 bdays in March.

So I got my notice of our annual home insurance premium, and it's about $40 more than last year. Not a big jump, and I probably wouldn't have questioned it, but they included an insert about how they run a credit check, and adverse elements of my credit record had caused the bill to increase. Did not know credit cards could have anything to do with whether you're a risk-prone homeowner! They also included a sheet about a new rating method or something, where I might qualify for lower rates. So I'm going to call and see if I can get it closer to last year's bill. Mainly because I'm annoyed they raised it because of my credit card activity! Still, $40 per once is more than outweighed by the money we've made off the credit card companies (over $3K last year, and over $13K since we started).

I hate to jinx it, but we're on track with our grocery budget this week! I can hardly believe it because we blew the budget a bit and started with less money than usual. But we have a bit of money left after our main shopping trips, which means we have some recourse when the midweek budget-killers inevitably hit.

I filled out the forms to enter us in a 5K today! It takes place in April. It was $17 per person, which seemed fairly reasonable, and it's to support the Y, which is a great organization. We've all started trying to run on the treadmill, and we thought this would give us something to shoot for. I believe 5K is about 3.2 miles, and so far the longest I've made it is 2.35 miles, so I have a ways to go. Good thing it's several months away!

I'm excited about all the things coming up in February, March and April, but it makes me treasure our homey January even more. Other than one trip to a restaurant, a haircut and 2 dentist visits, I haven't been anywhere besides home and work. And we've only had people over a couple times (a games day with a friend, the Savers meeting, and a dinner with a friend). It's been divine! I definitely feel recharged and ready to re-enter my social life again.

Well, I'm really glad that I had my minibreakdown on here and got soothing words of wisdom from some of you!

I thought about it some more and decided, what the heck, I'm going to have the 40th birthday party I want. I probably won't make this big a deal out of my birthdays for another 10 years, so why not? I emailed a cute restaurant/sake brewery and reserved a space, then got in touch with a karaoke DJ to see if he can work that night. Looks good so far! I couldn't decide what budget to set so I looked at NT's 40th bday costs and saw that we spent just over $1000. So that's my limit too.

The space is free to reserve, so I'm going to preorder a certain amount food and drinks for guests, and then they can order more when stuff runs out or they want something different and put it on their own tabs. I like that I can set my spending up but still give people choices.

I'm also glad that I'd already committed to that idea when I got home last night, because I got AS's 1099, the last thing I really needed to get started on taxes, and I got a bit of a nasty shock. I'd neglected to remember that since she got a raise, her EIC, retirement credit, and a bunch of other credits designed to help lower-income families would have decreased dramatically. She still gets a small federal refund (I went ahead and e-filed that portion) but owes a bit on state.

Knowing that I'd been counting on AS getting a refund to cover my and NT's taxes, my heart was in my mouth as I hastily calculated ours. I got a few different numbers on the fly, but today work was slow and so I took more time to go over them. Last night my calculations got as high as owing $2400 total, but now it looks like the net we'll owe will be about $1150. After the shock of what I thought it would be, that's a relief!

I did contemplate canceling my bday party, but I still think the overall principle stands that I shouldn't deny something that's so meaningful to me. My goals are ambitious enough that even if I don't hit them, I'll still make a lot of positive progress this year.

At this point it looks like there's a bit of a shortfall, but I already found out that I'll most likely get a small cost-of-living raise in April, and NT is fairly confident that his job is going to follow through on their promise of a raise. Add in the CC bonuses and other extra income we expect, and it looks like we could still actually achieve our goals.

Anyway, last night was kind of blown because I was frantically flipping through forms and such. NT was doing homework and AS had brought work home. Tonight we've resolved to leave all our work aside for a little while, and just relax and have nice family time together. The taxes can wait; especially now that I know we owe, I see no reason to rush.

A couple days ago I talked about some wants and needs that were tugging at our surplus and endangering our goals for the year. Well, tonight I learned that both duvet covers have big holes in them that may be hard to fix. Also, our handheld vacuum has been making burny smells when we try to use it. I started feeling a bit frantic, wondering just how much our goals were in danger. So I sat down and did some projections for the year.

OK, so the tuition is already budgeted out, as well as the UK flat reno, EF and moving fund goals. So is the bathroom renovation. The only big uncertainty is whether we'll have enough to pay off student loans.

We have $12,196 of student loan debt. AS's student loan payments will put at least $1596 toward principal over the course of the year. That leaves $10,600 we need to come up with.

I went over our projected surplus for the year and there's a little less than $11,000 there. Less than $400 surplus, so I'm calling it $300, just to give us a tiny bit of fluff each month.

I went over the year and all aspects of living I could think of with NT, and had him consider the things that we would probably be wanting to purchase over the course of it that are unbudgeted-for. This is the list we came up with:

Duvet/comforter $40
Dual citizenship for girls $580
NT passport $250
CJ license $25
AS yoga $700
Swim lessons for both girls $480
2nd half of laptop $500
SL bed & mattress $120
Drill $50
Girls' new snow gear $150

Grand total? $2,895. So, at first glance, we come up pretty short what with the paltry $300 surplus.

But, I can predict we'll have at least $1000 of bonus credit card rewards (hopefully more, but we'll leave it there for now). AS said one of her out-of-town engagements will get her $1000. So that brings our surplus to $2300.

OK, $695 short. I kind of have faith in windfalls because we usually have a few. Setbacks, too, but they typically average out and we come out a little bit a head. Some potential sources for the rest of the money:
- NT possible raise
- My possible raise
- Tax refund (though I'm thinking we'll break even -- I need to do them soon)
- More credit card bonus offers later in the year
- Freelance jobs (we don't have any lined up, but it's possible we could scrape up one or two if needed)

So, I'm not too worried about the shortfall and feel we'll probably be able to achieve all of that. But I don't really see a big 40th bday party in the cards. Now that the space I wanted is no longer available, I've lost enthusiasm for it a bit. So I might just go to dinner with a few friends or have a party at the house. Hey, maybe I can gear up for a 41st bday bash instead!

Overall, I'm feeling relieved that achieving our goals still looks realistic. And if we find we have another need, now we have a list to go to and see if anything can be pushed to next year instead.

Oh, and the handheld vacuum? NT did some research and now thinks it needs a new filter. Only $7.

As everyone probably remembers, I had over $5000 of dental costs coming this year, so I withheld $5000 in my and NT's flex spending and also opened 10 credit cards requiring $5250 of spending in 3 months to get a total of $1150 in bonus cash rewards.

Then found out that the dental procedures would only come to $3260 or thereabouts.

Well today, I had my follow-up with the periodontist and found out that the next step doesn't happen for 5 and a half months! And the one coming up is no additional charge, part of the $1615 I already paid. This means the other $1645 I was planning to put on these CCs won't come until well after the 3-month period I have to spend up these CCs.

Well, it's not a big deal. I'll see if I can spend the rest without doing any unplanned spending. If not, I can cancel the cards without getting the bonus.

And if there are any bigger bonuses still available later in the year, I could consider opening another card to cover the second half of my dental costs.

Here's what I've spent and still need to spend on the cards (mainly for my own reference):
CJ Capital One spent $500 DONE
AS Chase Freedom spent $201.01 need $298.99 more
NT Capital One spent $0 need $500 more
CJ Citi Dividend spent $144.55 need $355.45 more
AS Citi Dividend spent $0 need $500 more
NT Citi Dividend spent $0 need $500 more
CJ BankAmericard spent $500 DONE
AS BankAmericard spent $0 need $500 more
NT BankAmericard spent $0 need $500 more
CJ Discover spent $615 need $135 more

So in total, would need to spend $3289.44 to reap all the possible bonus money. I should see if we can use them in Puerto Rico without incurring foreign transaction fees. (Seems like it's treated like a foreign country in some ways.) That would be about half the needed spending right there. Bdays are coming up in March with $800 budgeted. And depending when we start our bathroom remodel, maybe we could spend some money on paint or fixtures. If not, there are some little fixed expenses (haircuts, cable) that could add up if I put them on the cards.

The problem with the annual budget, I find, is that it puts in stark focus how we just barely have enough to meet our goals. The problem is the little unbudgeted-for things that pop up. Too many of them, and we'll be in danger of not meeting our goals. And we REALLY want to meet our goals; small space living (950 sq ft with 3 adults, 2 young kids and a cat) is really starting to chafe.

Our cat has been acting neurotic, either a UTI or mad at his new litter box, or on a hungry spurt and mad about his diet. Anyway, he's been managing to scatter litter over the whole house, and has peed in various non-litter places at least 5 times in the past couple months. Two of them were today, on the sofa. One of those was right in the space between NT and me as we watched TV.

We'll be calling the vet to see if we can get UTI meds tomorrow without going in, and if not, we'll bring him in. (Not ideal because he hates his carrier and we're not supposed to have pets in our building, so the elevator rides are nerve-wracking.)

But either way, the situation paints a clear picture of both problems: the cure will cost us $60-$100. And meanwhile, we live in a 950-square-foot litterbox that we're trapped in until we can scrape up enough money to get out. And that vet bill is just one of the many stumbling blocks we'll face.

Other expenses (both needs and wants) coming up that aren't budgeted for: my 40th birthday party: $300-$600. (Would like to have a bit of a blowout since it's a significant milestone.) My license renewal: $25. Cab rides if there's another major cold snap: $10-$15 per ride. AS yoga: $750 for the year. Textbooks: unknown. Later this year, new snow gear for the girls: unknown. I'm sure a hundred other little things will come up, and each one has to be dealt with, deciding whether it's better to spend the money or find a way around it (if possible).

As it stands, we have exactly enough surplus money to hit all our goals. Then we have $1150 coming in credit card rewards over the next few months. Incremental rewards coming in after that. Money from a guest appearance AS will be making at a conference. So we're still probably in good shape. But it's hard not to obsess.

We also need to carefully plan our vacation spending this year. After Puerto Rico in February, we have four more things to pull off: NT's best friends visiting for a week or so from UK in May. NT's mom and sister visiting for 10 days in August/September. We would like a grownups-only weekend away in late summer or early fall, Chicago being the most affordable option probably. We would like some kind of weekend cabin trip with the kids in the summer. We have $5000 planned in the budget for all four things. So not a ton of money for each. We'll have to make smart choices to stretch that money and put it to maximum advantage.

Some raises would be AMAZING good news. I really hope I and/or NT really do get one this spring. That would ease my anxiety considerably.

Oh, and I'm really glad now that my dental costs will be smaller and leave us a bunch of flex money: I just noticed my acne may be coming back, and the co-pay this year per visit is $40 instead of $20. The last time I went through this, I had at least 10, maybe 15 visits with the dermatologist, so this year that would be $400-$600. Thank goodness at least THAT isn't a source of financial anxiety!

Anyway, things are so far so good. I just wish I could stop stressing out about it!

So this is my first year that I'll be doing a performance review on a direct-report; she joined Oct. 2012 so I wasn't required to do one last year. I'm a bit nervous because she's a friend as well as employee, but I think I can be diplomatic yet straightforward and pull it all off.

Anyway, I'm getting emails about the manager side of the process this year, and I noticed that on March 3 "Manager consults with HR Rep re pay increases before holding meetings" and on April 15 "Pay increases appear on paychecks for eligible employees." So it's far from a sure thing (don't know whether there will be merit increases, cost of living increases, or both, and whether I'll be eligible), but at least there's a chance I'll get a raise this year! After the abysmal financial performance last quarter I wasn't sure, but I threw myself into the performance and budget-saving goals that were given at the time, so hopefully I qualify!

In other good money news, I ordered some style guides and dictionaries for work that I've been meaning to get to for a while. Now that I have all these rewards credit cards, it seemed as good a time as any! I ordered the cheaper online/desktop versions vs. print editions but it still came out to $115. I put all of it on a rewards card and will get fully reimbursed. 20% of the way toward earning the $100 reward with no out-of-pocket myself!

Oh, and I called the dentist to say I was planning to pay on 3 credit cards. The receptionist right away said that was fine, and to bring them when I come in for my follow-up because it would be easier to scan them than read the numbers over the phone. Must not be too unusual! (Actually, I wonder if people do it based on bill due dates or something, to try and manage the costs.)

We canceled a couple of credit cards and are down to 20! (Still a crazy high number.) I requested cancellation on one more, and another should be able to be canceled in late Jan. or early Feb. (whenever we can cash out the rewards), and three more will go after our Feb. vacation (want to keep them open since we charged everything to them).

We didn't have much food in the kitchen for Friday's dinner, which is typically just thrown together (we tend to plan our meals Sat.-Thurs., got out of the habit of planning a Friday one because the CSA drops off Thursday night in the summer and fall). We tossed out the idea of getting delivery, but I just bought my dad a b-day present with my spending money, plus I know the web hosting fee for my other blog is coming up this month.

So we looked around and found enough ingredients to make seitan (wheat meat), some slightly wrinkly but still usable potatoes, frozen peas and corn, leftover cranberry sauce from Xmas, and a box of Stovetop stuffing (AS and I bought out of curiosity because it's pork-flavored but vegan ). I can whip up gravy with veggie broth, oil and flour and maybe some onions. Voila! Actually a pretty sumptuous feast just from the odds and ends we have in our kitchen.

The rest of the menu:
Saturday lunch
BLATs & fries or hash browns
(BLATs are fake bacon, lettuce, avocado & tomato sandwiches)

Saturday dinner (AS out at lit event)
African stew & flatbread

Sunday lunch
NT & CJ Gandhi Mahal (Indian restaurant we have coupons for free lunch at); pasta or sandwiches for everyone else

Sunday dinner
tofu turkey cutlets, carrots, black walnut wild rice (parents sent us homegrown W.Va. black walnuts!)

Monday
ramen yakisoba (maybe w/leftover seitan from tonight)

Tuesday (trivia)
KFC bowl (veg buffalo wings, mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn & gravy)

Wednesday
Mandarin chikn-broccoli stir fry & rice

Thursday
spaghetti & tomato sauce