Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Hands down, it's the paid time off. Not only do they give a generous number of holidays, plus some extra days before or after holidays sometimes (which you can take another day if you have to work the actual day), but vacation accrues at a very satisfactory rate, for an American company.

Between carryover, increased accrual and other factors, I found out today that I have 26.5 vacation days and 10 sick days. These days, time off with the potential to do nothing is one of the most precious commodities to me! Even though I'll have to use quite a bit when our British visitors are in town this year, I'm going to make sure to carve out a few do-nothing days for myself.

It didn't end up too bad (the grocery budget); we still have $5 left and need to hit the Asian grocery, should be about $11 for what we need there. We left the water filter and floor cleaner and razorblades for another week.

At least it's a delicious week coming up:
Saturday lunch (today):
scrambled eggs/tofu, hash browns & facon
dinner:
penne vodka

Sunday lunch:
grilled cheese sammies, sauteed spinach & soup
dinner:
Seitan au jus sandwiches & fries

Monday
black bean & portabella stew w. quinoa
peach cobbler

Tuesday
burritos

Wednesday
Southern-fried tofu & waffles & broccoli

Thursday
spaghetti & tomato sauce

And just as quickly as we had it, our balanced grocery budget is out of whack. Not really sure what happened ... last weekend we were right on target. I actually had some surplus from the previous week, used that for some accumulated diaper charges, but that was fine. Then, a couple of random trips to Target etc. later during the week, we had eaten away about $30 of this Saturday's budget. And all of a sudden we need a water filter, extra wipes for daycare, floor cleaner, razor blades -- all the big ticket items seemed to hit at once. Now we're probably going to go over budget this Saturday, which means we'll start next Saturday with less than the budgeted amount, and if we have little needs that creep up on us over the week...

It's this constant struggle. I suppose I need to up the grocery budget, but it has to come from somewhere else, and I really don't want to eat into our already-smaller (thanks to dental & other issues) surplus this year, which if we're lucky will just barely get us to our annual goals.

Plus, I have this sneaking suspicion that we'll always be struggling, because we had much less money per week over the summer, and we were always struggling at about the same level. I tried upping it a bit and we're still at about where we were. So if I upped it, say, $25 per week, I have a feeling we'd still be struggling about the same amount. No, I think I'll keep it where it is.

I wouldn't normally balk at covering the overage with surplus money, but Xmas was kind of a budget killer, and plus I'm eager to see some movement on our goals. I swore I would be less uptight about spending, but we spent so much more than I expected from October through December, so I'm not sure a looser spending policy really works for us. So back to eating into next week's amount and hoping we catch up at some point.

This is seriously the one part of our budget that never seems to be comfortably managed. The only other variable spending is our weekly spending money, but that's not really a problem because it's optional stuff. If the money runs out, don't buy anything until the next week, or borrow knowing you'll have less money the next week. Either way, at some point you come to grips with your optional spending.

But grocery and household expenses have this weird emotional pull. It's a NEED but it's also a WANT. If you don't crave the food you buy and prepare, the temptation to eat out may be too great. And you want a certain amount of quality in some areas of food -- everyone has their sticking points. For some it's organic produce. For me, it's buying humane organic local eggs and dairy, and vegan cheese and margarine for myself. For NT, it's tons of fresh fruit and natural cleaning products. For him, too, I think, there's this feeling where if there's a slight need or danger of a shortage, he wants the ability to buy right away. He's gotten better about putting things off, but that's where the drainage of grocery budget happens during the week. For AS, there's the need to feel like the cupboards aren't bare -- she wasn't seriously poor at any point, but she had moments at a kid where she worried they would go hungry.

It's silly, I suppose, to quibble over a few dollars. But I feel like this is a dangerous category that could easily spiral out of control and even derail our big picture goals. So I'll continue to quibble.

I came to work today after 5 days (the weekend, plus a work-from-home day Monday, then surgery and recovery Tues.-Wed.) and my head is spinning.

I'd brought my work laptop home for working Monday, but of course didn't touch it the other days so completely forgot about it this morning. After some digging around, tech guy was able to find me a loaner, but it's a buggy little laptop with terrible scrolling ability.

Then, at some point I took a bathroom break, and as I pulled down my slacks I realized they were more snug than they had been this morning. My legs looked swollen, one of them noticeably more than the other! I contacted the pharmacy and my dentist to see if it could be one of the drugs I'm on, and they said it could be the antibiotic, though that would be an unusual reaction. So dentist wants me to monitor it and let him know tomorrow if it's gotten worse. I'm always slightly freaked out by unknown symptoms, so it's been a bit hard to concentrate. But I haven't felt too bad otherwise, and the swelling hasn't gotten worse yet, so that's something.

Then, I see a voicemail on my work phone from Monday. It's from the dentist's office, reminding me about the Tuesday appointment, and telling me that my portion of the bill would be ... $1615!

Wait, what? I read the insurance policy pretty thoroughly and my best estimate was $3400. That means I was off by $1785, and that my total bill (after my regular dentist does her thing) will be about $3261.

Which is such great news -- except, thinking my bill would be $5046, NT and I each set aside $2500 in our flex spending accounts. So now we've got $1739 more in flex than we need for this procedure!

I'm trying to look on the bright side: A) I'll only have to use THREE credit cards, not six, to pay this bill. B) This year, for the first time, you're allowed to keep a certain amount of flex spending for the next year. I'm not totally clear on the law, but I'm thinking NT and I will each be able to roll over $500, making it $1000? If so, we're only $739 over. That wouldn't be so bad; there's always a chance regular medical expenses and copays will eat that up over the course of a year and, if not, there's a $600 (or so) non-essential test that I've been opting out of that my doctor would like me to get. If we're getting to the end of the year and we haven't used much of this money, I may go ahead and get that test just so the money doesn't go to waste.

What a weird day. My head is spinning!

Well, I finally got my implant on Tuesday. It was unpleasant -- not painful, just weird and unpleasant -- and took about 2 hours. They had do do a "sinus lift" or "sinus augmentation" first, whatever that is, due to the bone loss caused by the infections that eventually led to the loss of the tooth.

I had a funny money moment when I saw a sign on their counter that payment was due at time of service unless other arrangements were made in advance. I'd only received one of the credit cards I intend to use, and I didn't have it on me. So I made up a quick fib that I hadn't received my health card (my FSA spending debit card) in the mail yet. I thought that would be easier to understand than trying to explain my scammy-sounding plans to charge chunks of $500 to various credit cards.

The receptionist said it was fine; I could call in and pay, or I could pay the next time I came in (I have a follow-up in two weeks). So that bought me some time to decide which would be less embarrassing, LOL. We got two more of the credit cards in the mail; just need a few more. I think the total cost will be $3400, but looking back at my notes it seems some of that was based on my interpretation of my dental insurance coverage, which might not be entirely accurate. I'll have to call and make sure what I actually owe. But assuming I'm right, even if I used my Discover card (which I need to spend $750 on) we'd be looking at 6 cards to use. I was picturing paying online, which is how I've handled these things in the past. I'm a self-conscious person, so whether I do this on the phone or in person, it's going to be kind of embarrassing. Might need to work myself up to it...

At least, if I doesn't work out, I'm not counting on the bonuses to be able to afford this. Most will be reimbursed by the flex spending we already had taken out of our paychecks. The rewards are just so I feel like I'm not spending a fortune on this!

Recovery seems to be going well. I took today off as well, and I'm really glad I did because one of the meds didn't agree with me last night and I got sick before bedtime, and spent the night on the couch feeling nauseous, not really getting any sleep. My mouth is sore and I'm trying to not talk or use it much. Because of the sinus part, I guess, my nose (mucus) is affected as well (bloody). My cheek has only swelled a little bit, but he said the worst swelling would probably be tomorrow or Friday. Great, I'll be back at work then!

I haven't felt around with my tongue and can't open my mouth wide enough to try and see it with a mirror. My regular dentist has to do something as well, so I imagine it's not completely tooth-looking yet.

Other than that wild card, finances are looking pretty much on track. I actually wish there was a bit more to do, since I'm just hanging out at home. But I'm reading a fascinating nonfiction book about the history of American con men and swindles, centered around one particular "mark" who got fleeced in the early 1900s and spent years tracking down all the men involved in the con. It's called "The Mark Inside" -- really good so far.

We've used up more of our surplus on cab rides to daycare -- it's just too cold in the mornings. Monday we used a cab both ways. Tomorrow we should feel better about using the stroller both ways. Can't wait for this deep freeze to leave! Using a cab so much seems extravagant, but I have to remind myself that it's $50-$60 total, compared with however much we'd be paying for insurance, gas and repairs on a car, not to mention the initial outlay of buying a car in the first place.

We had to move our meal plan around to put the softest meals on the first two nights after surgery, but other than that we've been sticking to it. This week I happen to be making three recipes I developed myself, either based on something I had at a restaurant or adaptation of a recipe I found online. Sunday we had tofu spring rolls with a delicious dipping sauce it took me years to copy from a now-closed restaurant; tomorrow we're having BBQ sauce pasta with tofu and veggies, a copy of a unique meal I had years ago at a restaurant; and tonight it's pinto beans and rice, a combination/enhancement of some online recipes that I at first ad libbed, then wrote down the recipe once I realized how good it was and how much we all loved it. It's no huge departure from Mexican food, but it's a really successful variation on some of our tried-and-true standard meals. Here it is if you're interested:

Pintos and rice bowl (makes 6 servings)

Beans ingredients:
2 cups dry pinto beans, soaked 24 hours, cooked until soft, left overnight in cooking water
1 T olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 t cumin
1.5 t paprika
1 t salt

Rice Ingredients
1 T olive oil
2 cups rice
1 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3T tomato paste mixed into 1/2 cup water
2.5 cups mock chicken broth
1.5 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1.5 tsp coriander
3/4 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp oregano

Optional Toppings:
Chopped tomatoes
Chopped avocado
Chopped onion
Chopped cilantro
Pickled jalapenos
Shredded cheddar cheese
Salsa & hot sauce

Instructions

In a saucepan or deep skillet, saute onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then add garlic. When they soften or brown, add beans, all other beans ingredients and some of the cooking water. Bring to boil, then lower to simmer while you prepare rice. The beans will soften further, almost into refried-beans texture.
Add oil to another (pref nonstick) saucepan and heat over medium/high. Add in rice and brown, stirring frequently, for about 3-4 minutes.
Add in onion and garlic. Cook onion rice mixture, stirring frequently, for about 4 minutes, or until onions are softened.
Add in broth and bring to a simmer.
Stir in tomato paste, salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, and coriander. Bring to a simmer.
Reduce heat to low, cover & simmer for 10 mins. Remove from heat & steam for another 5 mins. Fluff with fork.

Serve rice topped with beans and any of the optional toppings.

This week is very fake-meat heavy; there were some good sales/coupons, and plus we're all just really in the mood for that sort of meal (traditional meal where the meat is swapped out for a substitute); it's comforting, I think, since we all started out as omnivores.

Friday (last night)
General Tso's mock duck w/rice (N)

Saturday lunch
huevos/tofu scramble with refried black beans, rice & cheese

Saturday dinner
bangers, mash & beans

Sunday lunch
pancakes & facon with apple sauce

Sunday dinner
veggie burgers, fries & salad

Monday
mock duck satay with rice & tofu spring rolls

Tuesday (trivia)
BBQ pasta w/tofu & veggies

Wednesday
Italian sausage & peppers hoagies w/ fries

Thursday
pinto beans & rice w/avocado

Our favorite Vietnamese grocery store, where we got cheap staples such as tofu and soy sauce, is closing. They're having a clearance sale so we'll stock up on nonperishables. Also ramen noodles, which are a guilty-pleasure lunch now and then.

AS says there's a similar store just across the street on the same block, so I'm hoping they have good deals too. We never bothered to look since we liked this one so much!

Our building's water is off because a water main leading into it broke. We were warned, so we filled our bathtub and a few pots and pitchers as well; we have enough to make the toilet flush and to cook and drink and wash our hands, but we can't take showers. I'm dying for one, so I hope they fix it soon!

I handled our holiday grocery overspending with surplus money and various snowflakes, so that gave us a clean slate on the grocery budget starting the Saturday after Xmas. So far we are keeping slightly under our spending limit, which is great. I scored some great deals today, such as two free frozen juices (by stacking a coupon on a sale) and local apples for .99/lb. We didn't do too badly on food waste but did throw away some stuff. Not nearly as much as I was afraid we'd toss out.

Monday in Minnesota is supposed to hit record-low temperatures. My and AS's jobs are both doing work-from-home days. We do have to take the kids to daycare in order to get said work done, so we'll be taking a cab there and back, and then again when it's time to pick them up.

I was starting to build up a bit of surplus money with various eBay sales and other snowflakes, but it's been dribbling away about as fast as I accumulate it, on things like the upcoming taxi rides, and stroller rental at the Mall, and eBay fees from past sales, and so on. I'm glad for snowflakes even when they get eaten up by incidentals, because these types of expenses aren't precisely budgeted for and need to come from somewhere. But at the same time it's disappointing when we score a good snowflake and then don't get to put it toward debt repayment or savings!

Still, all of the credit rewards that will come from paying my dental bills are not spoken for. I'm trying to ignore the fact that they're coming; hopefully I can put each one toward some big-picture goal as we get them.

I have a faint hope that my company will give us a small bonus; they postponed our holiday party and a couple other things until the new fiscal quarter started, since we were doing so poorly last quarter, so I feel there's some chance we'll get a bonus. It's usually a $200 Amex card or thereabouts. If I get it, I'll use it for groceries and put a corresponding amount of grocery money aside for my 40th bday festivities in March. I really want to have a blowout party but it's not budgeted for, so I'll just have to scrape together money and see how much of a party I can afford.

Our January doesn't have many social or other obligations, and I'm LOVING it. So ready for a quiet month; the past few have been insane. Tomorrow we have one friend coming over; Tuesday is my dental implant surgery; next Saturday is haircut day for all of us; next Sunday is my "League of Ordinary Savers" meeting; the following Saturday AS has a work-related party. And that's IT, except for optional trivia every Tuesday. Compared with December, when there was seriously only one day on our calendar that DIDN'T have something scheduled, it feels amazing! Even when NT's college starts up again later this month, it's independent study this semester, so he won't be out late at classes several times a week.

I may try to revise my novel this month, and I might do another DietBet to take off the holiday poundage. Other than that, just going to try and enjoy my family and work on my New Year's resolution of being nicer and calmer in my interactions with people (family included). Mixed results so far, but the year is just beginning.

February doesn't look too bad so far, just our Puerto Rico vacation (5 days) and possibly AS going out of town later in the month for a book fair.

March is going to be slightly nuts again, with all five of our birthdays (probably mine is the only one we'll make a huge deal of since it's my 40th), and potentially THREE business trips (two for AS and one for NT). But knowing we have all that going on, I'm going to try really hard to not schedule much else for that month.

Do you use a budgeting or personal finance app, software or online account, e.g., Mint, Mvelopes, QuickBooks?

I had a friend ask for a recommendation, and I could name a few, but I couldn't really advise him, because I have my own system in Google Drive spreadsheets that I'm really attached to.

It's more hands-on than a lot of the other options out there, but I find being hands-on keeps me focused, motivated and enthusiastic about my financial goals.

That made me wonder: Do those of us interested enough in finances to blog about it tend to use DIY methods or specialized software/programs/apps?

I didn't see

this on my usual source for CC rewards, creditcards.com, but I was looking around for something I hadn't done before and found it on a couple of other sites.

If some of you feel like you've gone through all the usual companies too many times (Chase, Citi, etc.) this might be a nice one to do.

I wish I'd seen it before I applied for a ton of $100 rewards! I applied for one Discover card (and was approved), but I'd already applied for 9 other cards and didn't want to do two more Discover rewards.

All the mortgage payments hit! Surprising because of the New Year's holiday.

US: $472 to principal
UK1: $216
UK2: $44
UK3: $48

All told, $780 down, $120 to go on the January debt goal. Probably the only debt payments I'll make until the end of the month.

On an unrelated note, got approved for 3 more credit cards today. Just 4 more to go, which I'll try to get done by Friday.

Well, despite all the holiday overspending, I worked some math magic and managed to keep $1000 of surplus money for December. Today I transferred it over into savings to make sure I won't be tempted to spend it on anything except our renovation!

I realized recently that my tooth implant is coming up next week! I need to start applying for credit cards so I can charge my bills to them and recoup some of the costs.

There don't seem to be any big offers out there (besides the Chase Sapphire spend $3K get $400 -- and actually it's a bit sweeter because there's a 5K point bonus if you add someone to the card -- so could be $450), but there are still several "spend $500 get X" offers out there. I just need to decide whether I'm really going to commit to opening 10 cards, spending $500 on each and getting whatever back for each. With three adults, I could do it pretty easily if I divided it between Chase Freedom, Capital One, BankAmericard, NFL (Barclaycard), and Citi Dividend. Chase Freedom offers $200 for $500 of spending; the others offer $100 for $500.

I've never opened that many in quick succession, but I don't suppose there's any issue with it. I have 12 active cards between the three of us; I should probably close a few first, but for various reasons I need to keep them all open except two. (Five of them are permanent cards; three I want open until we go on our vacation in case there's any problem; two I'm waiting on the bonus points to hit the account.)

If I successfully opened 10 cards this month, we'd have 22 between three people. That's a crazy number, though I suppose as long as it was temporary it wouldn't be a big deal. I could close two of them today, another one in about a week probably, and another one near the end of the month. Three more can be closed in late February. That would take it down to 15, and then I could close the 10 new ones as soon as I received the bonuses (within a month or two) and that would bring it down to 5 cards.

It sounds like such a pain, and a potential hit to my credit score. But it would give us $1100 back for paying $5000 in dental bills, if we were approved for all 10 cards. And we're not going to need our credit score for a couple more years at least.

What to do, what to do?

The last time I had a slow period at work, I tried to line up my financial goals for next year, and this is what I came up with:

- pay off student loans ($12,200)
- cashflow NT's remaining tuition ($6,470)
- renovate US condo bathroom ($5,000)
- renovate UK condo (cashflowing $5400)
- add to medical EF (at least $900)
- slowly build moving fund (maybe only $50)
- start to rebuild EF after I use it for rest of UK renos (hopefully $6000 of it will be restored over the next year)
So in total, $36,020 of progress in 2014.

Today I had another slow period, so I took a more detailed look at my 2014 outlook (which is easier to do now that I have an annual budget worksheet!) and tried to see if that was realistic.

Most of them look doable. In an ideal world, if I didn't have to dip into our surplus at all, I could *almost* take care of adding $900 to the medical EF, cashflowing tuition, renovating the US bathroom and paying off student loans. Basically I'm $493 short for the year.

That's nothing; a couple of credit card rewards could make up the difference. We may still be getting a couple grand in tax refunds; that hasn't been figured in. But of course, there are unplanned expenses that eat at the surplus, such as household needs that can't be covered by the grocery budget, and swim lessons/other extracurricular activities for the girls.

Still, there are other possible windfalls, such as if any of us gets a raise, or if I overcalculated the effect of flex spending withholding on our net pay. So I think we could achieve those goals if nothing too drastic comes along to hijack our surplus.

The $50 for the moving fund will come from savings interest, so that should be no problem.

I believe we'll be able to cashflow $5400 of the UK renovations, but only if we save up until May. Add in another lost month of rental income for biannual management fees, and we'll only have 6 months of rental income to rebuild the EF. At $579 per month, we'll only get to $3475, not $6000, by the end of the year.

I could put the $900 of savings that would have gone into the medical EF into our more general EF instead, and scratch that goal off the list.

So if I achieve everything else on the list, building the EF and medical EF will be my next priority. But for now I'm going to downsize those goals:

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

Total goal: $33,491 of progress in 2014.

The last time I had a slow period at work, I tried to line up my financial goals for next year, and this is what I came up with:

- pay off student loans ($12,200)
- cashflow NT's remaining tuition ($6,470)
- renovate US condo bathroom ($5,000)
- renovate UK condo (cashflowing $5400)
- add to medical EF (at least $900)
- slowly build moving fund (maybe only $50)
- start to rebuild EF after I use it for rest of UK renos (hopefully $6000 of it will be restored over the next year)
So in total, $36,020 of progress in 2014.

Today I had another slow period, so I took a more detailed look at my 2014 outlook (which is easier to do now that I have an annual budget worksheet!) and tried to see if that was realistic.

Most of them look doable. In an ideal world, if I didn't have to dip into our surplus at all, I could *almost* take care of adding $900 to the medical EF, cashflowing tuition, renovating the US bathroom and paying off student loans. Basically I'm $493 short for the year.

That's nothing; a couple of credit card rewards could make up the difference. We may still be getting a couple grand in tax refunds; that hasn't been figured in. But of course, there are unplanned expenses that eat at the surplus, such as household needs that can't be covered by the grocery budget, and swim lessons/other extracurricular activities for the girls.

Still, there are other possible windfalls, such as if any of us gets a raise, or if I overcalculated the effect of flex spending withholding on our net pay. So I think we could achieve those goals if nothing too drastic comes along to hijack our surplus.

The $50 for the moving fund will come from savings interest, so that should be no problem.

I believe we'll be able to cashflow $5400 of the UK renovations, but only if we save up until May. Add in another lost month of rental income for biannual management fees, and we'll only have 6 months of rental income to rebuild the EF. At $579 per month, we'll only get to $3475, not $6000, by the end of the year.

I could put the $900 of savings that would have gone into the medical EF into our more general EF instead, and scratch that goal off the list.

So if I achieve everything else on the list, building the EF and medical EF will be my next priority. But for now I'm going to downsize those goals:

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

Total goal: $33,491 of progress in 2014.

For January I'm just aiming to pay the minimum on debt, so about $900.

My main financial focus will be saving up money for the bathroom renovation. If all goes well and we don't need to dip into the surplus, I should be able to have $4000 of the $5000 we need set aside by the end of the month.

AS's student loan payment hit today, with $133 going to principal. That takes us to $3236 of progress for December, exceeding the $3200 goal.

Our total payoff this year is $35,113. SO close to breaking the record we set in 2008, but not quite! Still, a really good year.

That takes our total debt payment since the journey began to at least $194,649 and possibly $196,319 (the records are a bit patchy from back then). We'll be hitting the $200K mark soon!

I've spent all morning on the computer, tidying up various financial things:
- Checked all our credit cards to plan future payments and also make sure the Target breach didn't cause any suspicious charges.
- Tried to cover our holiday overspending with current and upcoming credit card rewards. Got within $80, which we can hopefully cover by having a light grocery week.
- Put holiday money from the grandparents ($130 total) into the girls' mutual funds.
- Redeemed Barclay travel rewards ($1275 across 3 cards) to partially pay for our Feb. vacation (airfare and hotel for Puerto Rico!). That was a really great deal; spent about $1000 each to earn $425 each in travel rewards. They're super easy to redeem too. I recommend that card if you're planning a trip in the future.
- Figured out some Paypal stuff, including redeeming for my Dietbet and some Pinecone rewards.

Shudder -- Dietbet. I'm glad I'm not in it anymore; it's been a very indulgent week. I'm afraid there's going to be quite a bit of food wasted/thrown out, because I stuff myself on something, have leftovers once and then never want to look at it again. Oh well; we hardly ever throw out food, so it won't be the end of the world.

We might also need to throw out some veggies; we bought food to feed AS's mom, but it's hard to plan around when she's coming over, and she hasn't been coming over for lunch, just dinner, so we have way more than we needed. There are things like bean sprouts that you can't freeze or cook; if you don't use them in time they just go bad.

Well, we'll have a reckoning on Sunday after she's gone, clear out what isn't going to be eaten, see what ingredients are still salvageable, and try to create a menu out of those with minimal grocery shopping required.

It's been fun to break from all our normal routines of frugality, sensible eating and strict schedules. But part of me can't wait to get back onto them. Our routines may seem constricting but they really work for us!

Just chiming in because I liked seeing all the Christmas wishes from other states! Having a fabulous Christmas; the day went so fast, what with the girls' infectious excitement. I'm glad we donated a big box of toys last week, because with all the grandparent presents they got quite a big haul.

It's slowish at work right now and I'm too burnt out to work on my self-assessment like I should, so I thought I'd just spew random thoughts on here instead.

The first year of our big, ambitious, 3- to 4-year plan to get ready for a move (whether to UK or a bigger home in Mpls) is coming to a close. We've had incredible success even with some setbacks (mainly my dental work, but also NT's ER visit and some little bill increases here and there). Although I'm not keeping a formal tally of progress (only what we still need to accomplish), I know we needed about $100K of progress to happen over the 3-4 years, and I see we have just under $60K to go. That means we accomplished about 40% of our goals, when we only needed to hit 25% for a 4-year plan, or 33% for a 3-year plan!

Next year, if we can stay the course, we should be able to tackle the remaining student loan debt, pay for the rest of NT's college education, and get $5K of the US condo renovations and ALL of the UK renos done. The UK ones will require dipping into the emergency fund (about US$9925, in other words two-thirds of our EF) so rebuilding the EF will become a new goal. Still, about $5400 of the renos won't come out of the EF, so that will be progress. There will also be incremental progress on the medical EF and saving for the move.

So what I'm hoping to achieve next year:
- pay off student loans ($12,200)
- cashflow NT's remaining tuition ($6,470)
- renovate US condo bathroom ($5,000)
- renovate UK condo (cashflowing $5400)
- add to medical EF (at least $900)
- slowly build moving fund (maybe only $50)
- start to rebuild EF after I use it for rest of UK renos (hopefully $6000 of it will be restored over the next year)
So in total, I would like to get $36,020 more in progress in 2014.

Sounds kind of insane, but it makes sense; we essentially got to $40K in progress last year, and this year our take-home pay will be about $4K less because of upping our flex spending to cover my dental expenses.

If we did all that, all we'd need to do the following year(s) would be:
- finish building medical EF ($804)
- finish building the moving fund ($11,381)
- finish rebuilding the EF ($3,925)
- finish renovating the US condo ($8,500)
So, in 2015 we'd only have to scrape up about $24,610 to complete our big-picture goal! We could probably do that in about 8 months if we kept up the pace.

And if we did that, we could start saving toward my "pie in the sky" goal, which I haven't talked about much: saving an extra $68,000 so we could potentially achieve a home purchase and move without selling the UK flat. I've gotten used to the income it generates and love the idea of someday having a fully paid-for property that we can either continue to rent out or sell.

But. But. BUT.

Before I make all these ambitious predictions based on our current incomes, pace and lifestyle, I feel like some more soul-searching is required.

NT's October ER visit was (in the end) an important wake-up call about how hard we're all pushing ourselves. We've tried to make some changes, but I see that we're all still pushing ourselves to the brink of exhaustion with everything we've taken on. I have the easiest lot in life of the three of us and I feel I'm at 99% capacity, so it makes me wonder how the other two keep going at this pace.

Last night I had a bit of a heart-to-heart with AS and expressed some of my fears that we were not succeeding in being happy.

Her job is stressful on so many levels: WAY too much work, not enough pay, difficult co-workers, lots of take-home late-night work, lots of pressure to do after-work and weekend events, etc., etc. BUT it's giving her the international presence that may eventually lead to a move for us, and she does get to help produce great works of art.

NT's job has slowly sucked away his lunch hours, added on (unpaid) overtime that they no longer seem to give him comp time for, added the occasional Saturday shift, taken away the vibrant social life they used to share as co-workers, and now is making him go to Canada next year for off-site work. He is basically a dead-eyed zombie by the time he gets home, and then it's usually off to study or write papers. He is an incredible person to be handling full-time work, half-time college and two spouses and two kids. He just got a big bonus at work so you know he's doing well there, and he routinely gets As in almost all his classes. Something's gotta give, and it's definitely family; time with us and the kids is in short supply and of lower quality than it should be.

And me? I'm doing all right by comparison, but definitely suffering empathetically for both of them, as well as selfishly wishing I had more/better time with them. My work's not my dream job, but it's interesting, fairly well-paid and challenging and doesn't take over my life too much.

AS did assure me that her job is cyclical and that it's at a peak right now that will dwindle away by the end of January. Overall it's not ideal, but me assessing it right now isn't really accurate because it does get less crazy.

And NT's school commitment should be a lot less all-consuming next year. The spring semester will be just for his final project, with no classes and only a few in-person consultations with his adviser. The summer and fall semesters he just needs to top up his number of credits with any elective classes he wants, so hopefully those will be EASY and not require as much studying and writing.

So I think I should hang on until I see what next year looks like. And if it looks bearable, I'll also know that the following year could be even better, with NT out of college. Of course I know there's the possibility of big-expense shocks, like further injuries/tooth problems or even deaths in the extended family. But all you can work with is the data you have in front of you. I plan to plan as if it'll be a predictable couple of years.

But as AS said, you should consider all options. So part of my soul-searching as the new year approaches, and possibly into 2014, will be about the other possibilities besides the current path we're on:
- Cutting more pleasure spending (travel, spending money) and trying to supercharge our saving
- Cutting pleasure spending so that one (or all) of us could quit or scale back our jobs
- AS (and possibly me) taking on freelance work to supercharge saving -- temporarily adding even more stress, but with the end goal of getting to a more relaxed state sooner

Checked savings accounts and recorded interest and automatic deposits:

$75.30 of deposits and interest went into the medical EF savings account, bringing the medical EF to $3,296.31 ($1703.69 to go).

$6.83 in interest to the house/moving fund. That takes us to $4,568.54 ($11,431.46 to go).

I can't believe this year is almost over! It was very busy and productive and fun. Even with the constricted budget due to my upcoming dental expenses, I'm hoping to accomplish a lot financially in 2014. I suppose I should think and write about that in a more organized way soon!

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): $26,901
NT's Roth IRA: $6,367
AS's 401(k): $11,346
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $15,850
CJ's 401(k): $63,500
CJ's Roth IRA: $6,367
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): $4,562
---
Total Assets: $584,013

Total Debt: $244,649

Current Estimated Net Worth: $339,364

November 2013 estimate: $336,428

Change in net worth: +$2,936

Summary: Our retirement accounts dipped in value overall (only by about $300 total), so all the net worth gain is due to paying down debt.

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 thought to see if NT's spring semester had posted yet, and it had. $1953, which I set up payment for right away. After a couple months of inactivity, it feels good to get truckin' on our goals again!

My estimate is that we have about $6470 left to pay on NT's tuition, which will be divided between his summer semester and final fall one. Could be a bit more or less than my estimate, but I think that's close. Then he graduates! So excited to be done with both student loan debt and tuition around the same time, so we can put our money to other uses.

NT surprised me with a check stub for his bonus! It was only $4k, not $5k, but we cleared $2800, which was enough to pay off one more student loan with enough left over to cover holiday tips.

$2318 paid, taking us to $3103 down, $97 to go on our December goal.

It also takes our total student loan debt to $12,329! If we can manage about $1000 per month next year, it should be done for by the end of 2014.

YIPPEE!

Today the kids stay at daycare for a sleepover! Meanwhile us grownups are having our anniversary dinner a bit late at a fancy restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. AS and I went there last year around this time and remembered the view of the snow and holiday lights through the big glass windows was just gorgeous, plus the food and service were outstanding. This will be paid for by NT's first, smaller bonus.

Still waiting for the bigger bonus, from which I'll hopefully be able to pay off one of his student loans and also fund all our holiday tips! Word is it'll be distributed sometime next week. They let him contribute 4% of the bonus to his 401(k) with the 2% company match, which will give us another $100 if it's a $5K bonus like we think it is. Sweet!

Tomorrow I'm going to have my oldest daughter go through their toys and help me pick what we can donate to make room for the upcoming Xmas gifts. I've been prepping her for this and she seems very open to the idea. The challenge may be stopping her from donating things she may regret later. Maybe we'll sock them away somewhere to make sure she doesn't have a change of heart; however there's barely anywhere left to hide things with all the Xmas gifts stashed everywhere, so maybe we'll just take a leap of faith and donate. The church across the street has a van parked outside every Sunday for donations to their charity shop, so it's very handy.

I had a business trip this week, and I charged about $400 of expenses (including the hotel room) to my Chase Sapphire card. It'll help get to my rewards bonus, but I'll be reimbursed for it. That felt good!

Sunday is the bday party of one of AA's first friends from her first daycare, and it's also my college's local alumni party, which always takes place in a massive mansion of an eccentric rich alumna. Will be fun! Babysitting for the second event will also be paid for from the smaller of NT's bonuses. (And maybe there'll be enough left to pay for the little girl's bday present.)

We decided to plan a warm-weather vacay instead of a trip to Boston in 2014; we figure the girls will like it a lot better, and we'll appreciate a break from the MN winter. We're thinking mid-February. The budget is still the same, and $1200 of it will be funded with Barclay travel rewards from the three cards we got.

I recently got notice that our condo fees were going up 7.77% next year, and then aNOTHER notice that they'd been mistaken, they're actually going up over 8%! It was going to be $50 more per month, will be more than that now. It's not that we can't handle it, but it does make me afraid that it'll be harder to sell our unit eventually, when there are so many newer condo buildings with much smaller dues.

It does feel like we've been hemorrhaging money lately, though I know the bigger chunks have been planned (like Xmas spending) or unavoidable (like big medical costs). I've asked that we have as low-key a January as possible, partly to try and tone down the spending but also because our social and work calendars are filling up rapidly in all the other upcoming months. Our December calendar looks nuts, and February will be our vacation trip, and March is our 5-birthday month plus two business trips (one for NT and one for AS), and April may be another business trip for AS, and in May our UK friends will be visiting. Yikes!

One good thing is that I rolled over vacation days this year, so I'll have some extras to use just for me next year. Now to find time to use them!

Another good thing: Almost all Xmas gifts have been bought (mostly ordered online). We have a few more for AS's mom since she's coming to visit, and I need to ship my parents' once I receive my mom's, but that's about it. Then wrapping before Xmas, but that's always kind of fun. I just scored some free wrapping paper from my job, so that won't cost any more.

Next week should be semi-relaxing; not too much to do. I'm going to take AA on her first Xmas shopping trip to get gifts for all of us. She has a budget of $50 (not that she knows what that means, so I'll have to steer her toward cheap little trinkets. ) Then AS's mom arrives for a week's visit. She'll be staying at a hotel so it won't get too overwhelming, I don't think. Plus, maybe some free grandma babysitting for us.

All our mortgage payments hit today.
US: $470 to principal
UK1: $218
UK2: $47
UK3: $50

All told, $785 down, $2415 to go on the December debt goal.

Lots of financial doings yesterday:

We got another bill from NT's hospital visit. It seemed higher than what his insurance site had led us to believe. I took a closer look and realized they'd tacked on a $398 charge from 2011. NT reckons that's from a finger injury that he ended up getting worker's comp to pay for. He's going to call the hospital and see why it's showing up on a bill now.

Money in the mail: Got $20 from my mom for our anniversary, and a $3 check for a wine rebate. They will both go into surplus to hopefully help pay down debt.

Paid our second holiday tip, $30 to our condo association's holiday fund for the employees.

I raised the possibility of starting our oldest on an allowance next year when she turns 4. I think about it every year but we've always decided she's too young. I think she's much more able to grasp concepts now, so it'll be a good time to start. Thinking about doing the thing where we make her save 1/3 and donate 1/3, and then 1/3 is for spending.

We decided to use an offer that came in an issue of Kiplinger's to get 15 bottles of wine for $90 (that comes to $6 per bottle). All we have to do is cancel the membership it signs us up for after that. That'll be good for the holidays.

Speaking of Kiplinger's, I think the most recent issue finally tipped the scales for me on doing something with my cash besides stashing it in savings. snafu, you'll be so happy! I'm making it a New Year's goal to figure out how to divvy it up and put it in places where it will earn at least a little bit of money. I'm thinking my EF will go in online savings and the house down payment money (when we get some) into a Vanguard fund of some kind. Kiplinger's recommended a bond fund from them.

And, some non-financial but fun news tidbits:

I won NaNoWriMo! I completed a 50,000-word novel in less than 30 days. The writing is terrible, the plot kind of half-baked, but I got to stretch my creative muscles and my self-discipline.

I've lost all the weight I needed to in order to win the DietBet I'm in. As long as I don't *gain* any for the next week, I should at least get my $35 back and maybe win a bit extra!

AS heard that she might get to attend the London Book Fair in April next year! This would be great both for boosting her presence in England for potential future career prospects AND to get to see our friends for a bit. Our best UK friends are visiting us in May, so she'd get to see them two months in a row.

I still don't feel confident that NT is going to get the full bonus we're hoping for, but he's feeling confident so I'm going to plan December accordingly. I'm planning to use it to pay off one of NT's loans, which has $2318 left on it. Combined with the approximately $900 we pay just in minimum debt payments, I'm going to say the December goal is to pay off $3200 of debt.

Now that I've said it, I'll try to make it happen even if we don't get the bonus! Though it'll be nearly impossible without it.

I'm also depending on the bonus to fund our holiday tips to service providers. The first of them had to be paid today; our house cleaner won't come again until after Xmas. So I left him an $80 tip and hope to be able to fund that from NT's bonus when it comes!

We're giving our providers a slight raise this year (more than a slight one to daycare since they've given us so much extra this year):
$80 for house cleaner
$30 to bldg mgmt
$60 to diaper service
$300 to daycare
Card to our lawyer
Total: $470

AS's student loan payment hit, with $133 going to principal.

That takes debt progress to $910 for the month, just over the $900 goal.

I was hoping to use what little surplus we had this month for a snowflake toward one of the student loans, but lots of minor purchases ate it up. Winter gear for the kids, new litter box for the cat, batteries, bike stuff, etc., etc. I didn't even bother keeping track of specifics. I've got about $75 of surplus left, so if we haven't spent it by Nov. 30, it's going to student loan debt (it will count toward December debt progress).

I've had a crazy productive November, so I haven't been blogging m (uch. I'm 3000 words away from finishing a NaNoWriMo novel! I've never even gotten close to this before, so it's kind of astounding. I've been writing for at least two hours a night, every day this month.

We've also been doing DietBet (me and AS). I'm a little over 50% of the weight loss required halfway through, she's at a little less than 50%. If we can survive Thanksgiving weekend without gaining, I think we can make it.

Despite not getting to pay down much debt in November, I'm kind of feeling invincible right now! I know that feeling can either be dangerous or extremely helpful in accomplishing things in life. But I'm not feeling lucky -- just feeling that I'm capable of hard work and being reliable about sticking to something I set my mind to. For a while it only seemed to work for certain things, like budgeting and not eating out, but now it feels like I can just set myself to a task and it'll get done.

I want to preserve this feeling of confidence, because I have to write my annual self-assessment at work next month and I really want to talk myself up. I've worked harder and more strategically at work this past year than I ever have before.

It's been a really good month overall (except finding out about the extra dental procedure). NT went to an anniversary/transfer of power party at his company, and they handed out bonus checks on the spot. $500 after tax! And they still intend to issue a year-end bonus; NT reckons that could be as high as $5000 (before tax).

NT and AS requested that we set this smaller bonus aside to pay for a fancy anniversary dinner as well as babysitting for a couple of upcoming parties. I agreed as long as I could have the bigger bonus, which I've already pre-spent in my head! They agreed to that.

NT's big $4K medical claim finally processed in his insurance account. I was holding my breath, thinking they might make us pay up to our max out of pocket, but it was nowhere near. Cost to us for that particular expense: $579.97.

So I'm feeling pretty good! I had $3,250 set aside in case we had to pay the max out of pocket, and so far we're just going to owe $1,543.56. No new bills have come in for weeks, though I know that's a possibility. But since we already have four claims, we might be done! That would mean we have $,1706.44 left over.

I don't want to jump the gun and put that money toward debt (much as I'd love to), so instead I'm putting it into the medical EF. Plus 31 cents interest that was added to the account last week, that's $1,706.75 to the medical EF, taking it to $3,221.01! That's more than double what it was before, and just $1,778.99 short of the $5K goal. If I have to take some out to pay more medical bills, it'll be a bummer, but not a tragedy.

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): $26,874
NT's Roth IRA: $6,407
AS's 401(k): $11,313
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $15,729
CJ's 401(k): $63,901
CJ's Roth IRA: $6,407
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): $4,562
---
Total Assets: $584,313

Total Debt: $247,885

Current Estimated Net Worth: $336,428

October 2013 estimate: $326,715

Change in net worth: +$9,713

Summary: Big gain again this month! Mostly due to retirement fund increases (including an annual update to one of NT's UK pensions, and a bonus to his US 401(k)).

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.

Got the bad news this week that I *will* need the extra $2200 procedure on my mouth next year. Sigh. So that brings my estimated costs up over $5000. But, as I detail in

this post on my other blog, I have ways of making up about half that money in tax savings and CC rewards.

In other money in, money out news:

- Got an unpleasant jolt when I saw $80 in charges from the wine place we thought we'd canceled membership for, plus a $25 late charge on the credit card (since I hadn't even been checking that card's balance anymore)

- NT called the wine place and got an $80 refund! So I called the credit card company and got them to reverse the charges. It was a good feeling to see that unexpected $105 expense just disappear. (I'd paid the bill in a panic when I saw the late charge, so now I have to wait for a refund check, but still!)

- Our grocery co-op sent us a $20.02 profit sharing check. I never remember these are coming!

- NT sold (on eBay) a Wii set he found on the free table at our condo: We're netting about $80!

- Got some more free clothes from one of his co-workers, and she's going to check her ex's house to see if she has a snowsuit in AA's size!

- Our anniversary is coming up in December, and we found out that our daycare lady is having a sleepover with all the kids (NO extra charge!) just a few weeks after that. So we moved our celebratory dinner to the night the kids will be gone. Free babysitting and no curfew, woo hoo! She's getting an extra bump in her bonus this year; this is the third sleepover she's had for our older daughter and the first where she'll be keeping our younger kid as well.

- I keep forgetting to blog about this, but I'm transitioning over to an annual vs. monthly budget! It's pretty much in place, I'm just fine-tuning it a bit. Basically instead of one budget sheet that I paste into my "future checkbook" and adjust all the escrow stuff and dates, I have a 12-sheet spreadsheet with actual dates, where I don't save up for 12 months for annual expenses but rather just have more or less surplus each month depending on whether the big expenses are due. I think I'm going to like it once I get used to it!

- Our net worth next week should look really good if the market doesn't crash; I got an annual statement for one of NT's UK accounts that showed an increase, plus his company put an extra bonus in his U.S. 401(k).

- I joined a DietBet like FrugalTexan! One of my friends started it. I don't care if I win extra money, I just really want to make the goal weight so I get my $35 bet money back! I've been really strict about calories since it started, so hopefully I see some good results at my weigh-in Sunday. The bet goes over Thanksgiving (gulp)!

- I pretty much gave up drinking at home for the month. I still have a drink if I'm out somewhere, but no wine with dinner. I did it to A) cut calories and B) have more energy after the kids go to bed so I can work on my NaNoWriMo novel. But I've found a C) benefit -- more spending money left over! Wine only costs about $25 every three weeks (we take turns paying), but hey, that's $8 more per week I get to keep in my wallet.

Darnit! We just received our 2014 benefits guide at work, and I learned that there's a $2500 flex spending maximum for healthcare costs. My for-sure dental costs are $1200 and $1646, so the possible extra $2200 will have to be paid for after taxes.

I would cancel my scan this month to determine whether I need the extra procedure since I don't need to know before the open enrollment period ends now, but A) I'm still curious so I can finalize my 2014 budget some more, and B) I've got a weird hard lump in my gums that's probably a tooth fragment, but I wouldn't mind seeing what the dentist thinks about it.

All our mortgage payments hit today.
US: $470 to principal
UK1: $214
UK2: $45
UK3: $48

All told, that's a lucky $777 down, $123 to go on the November debt goal.

No other financial news that I can think of. This is Nov. 1 so I'm going to start trying to write my NaNoWriMo novel. I have some general idea but am missing a main plotline, so I'll need to do some scheming! Luckily I'm leaving work early and taking sick time, so that will give me time to think. (I'm not very sick, just run down and have a squirrely stomach.)