Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 15,544 pounds ($24,870)
#2: 17,268 pounds ($27,629)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $24,586
NT's Roth IRA: $5,967
AS's 401(k): $10,539
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $14,212
CJ's 401(k): $59,530
CJ's Roth IRA: $5,967
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): $4,555
---
Total Assets: $570,660

Total Debt: $251,802

Current Estimated Net Worth: $318,858

August 2013 estimate: $310,698

Change in net worth: +$8,160

Summary: Big gain this month! My 401(k) and AS's Roth both showed good progress, plus one of NT's UK pensions sent their annual statement with some decent growth.

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 wrote this post yesterday on my

I've been out of sorts since last night; I think it's just a mild reaction to my flu shot I got yesterday. But today on the way to work, I comforted myself with the thought that I'd be able to see AS's raise in our checking account and find out what the net take-home will be.

Alas, 'twas not to be. Her payroll company screwed up and didn't apply her raise, so her paycheck was the same as before. Her boss is going to have them apply it retroactively on the next paycheck, but that means it'll be a full month before I find out what her exact take-home pay will be. What a bummer after waiting for months for this day!

Luckily we weren't counting on her raise to get by; even though I had a rough estimate factored into our budget, we have a big enough cushion in checking that it's no big deal to wait and get that $100+ next payday instead.

So I was still able to pay the rest of NT's fall tuition. $1061 of big-picture progress! That takes us to $27,839.33 in total progress. Phew! We might be on track to get a third of the way to our goal in just one year, which indicates a potential to reach all our goals in three years instead of three and a half! Of course a lot could happen between now and then, as my tooth drama shows.

It's been a busy summer, full of more spending than we typically do (mostly because we decided to use our "travel" budget item to have home-based fun this summer). In addition, we're using more than one credit card to maximize rewards (both for bonuses and everyday points).

So it's not altogether shocking that my math hasn't been coming out right every time. Typically what I do is keep a budget line item for paying off each credit card twice a month. When we make a purchase, I add the amount to the line item and subtract it from whatever bucket it's coming out of. Then, twice a month, I double-check the account online to make sure my amount matches, and send off a payment for the balance in full.

Only these past few months, there have been several incidents where the amounts have been different. Not wildly so; I'll be $20 short on my budget than what I owe. And sometimes it's the other way around, and I've got a bigger number in my budget than the actual account balance.

It's never that I see unfamiliar purchases in there; everything looks in order. I just can't seem to get my totals to jibe on a regular basis.

It might even out in the end, but it's frustrating, because I don't always know where to take the extra money from, or allocate the unneeded money to. I might cover a deficit out of my (admittedly large) budget surplus that's usually used for debt or savings. I may decide that I probably double-calculated a carshare rental, and add the money back there. But it bothers me to haphazardly do this, even though it doesn't really affect me significantly. It just makes me feel like I don't actually have a handle on our spending.

Yesterday, between two cards, I was about $60 short. I had $50 coming to me for spending money, so I wiped that out and took the other $10 from our budget surplus. I figure it's my fault the numbers aren't adding up, so I should pay for it this time.

That was a great motivator, even though it's annoying to suddenly have no spending money until Friday. So I started a new practice: On each line item that will eventually become a payment to a credit card, I'm going to list all the purchases that comprise that amount, and keep adding to the description until it's time to pay the bill.

Another thing I'm going to do is not add "pending authorizations" to my line item until they actually come through. With the carshare, the amount they actually take out sometimes adjusts up or down from the pending authorization depending on whether we drove more or fewer miles than the standard estimate. With restaurants, what if I scribble the wrong "with tip" amount on my copy and there's a discrepancy when it comes through? There might be other potentially variable purchases too.

To remind myself that I still need to add pending purchases once they become final, I'll put those with a question mark on the line item. So this is what a typical line item used to look like:

Chase Freedom (need to set up) (75.20)

This is what it looks like now:

Chase Freedom (need to set up) (Hrcr 26.21, SebJoe 12.61, DGD 31.99, Hrcr 4.39, Hrcr? + Copperpot?) (75.20)

That way, I can always know whether I've accounted for a purchase, so I won't double-bill (or not bill) for something, and then be confused later and unable to backtrack.

It's only a bit more work and visual clutter on my budget, and hopefully it'll help me get control of our credit-card spending again.

I idly checked NT's student loan account, the one I just sent a payment to this morning. Even though the money hasn't officially left our checking account, it's already registered on the loan. $1073 went to principal.

That takes September debt progress to $1828, just over the $1820 goal. Wow, I did not expect to reach our goal three days into the month! The unexpectedly smaller tuition bill helped push us over the edge so soon.

This also takes big-picture progress to $26,778.33!

... and the U.S. mortgage payment hit the account today, with $448 going to principal. That takes us to $755 down, $1065 to go on the debt goal.

I went to see what I need to still pay on NT's tuition, expecting about $1200. I was pleasantly surprised to see we only owe $964! I compared this fall with last fall's charges to see the difference, and the tuition is a couple hundred less this year. Either tuition went down or NT is taking fewer credits (I'm guessing the latter). The point is, $250 more than I expected can go toward student loan debt!

I can afford to do either the student loan payment or the tuition payment now, and the other will have to wait until we get paid on the 15th. Since the student loan charges interest and the tuition payment isn't due yet, I'll do the debt payment first. That will hopefully post in a couple days. I haven't paid extra to this particular loan in a long time, so I can't remember how fast the payments post.

Today is my last day off; daycare was closed from last Wednesday to today. [EDIT: Daycare called; they're open! So I dropped the kids off a bit late and now have an unexpectedly free day.] We had a very fun, full long weekend with a kid-friendly activity every day. Wednesday we went to the wading pool and playground in the nearby park; Thursday the State Fair; Friday AA went to the library with NT while AS and I took SL to the sculpture garden; Saturday was the Renaissance Festival; Sunday we went to another park; and yesterday we went for ice cream and a walk around a lake. Today I'm home alone with the kids, so just taking it as easy as possible. I have a doctor's appointment downtown, so I'll drop the kids off for a visit to NT's office, then maybe take them to visit my office if they're still in a good mood.

The weather is suddenly crisp and cool today; it feels appropriate for back to school season. It is supposed to warm up in a couple days, but it's the first fall-feeling day so far. The summer went so fast! Luckily we have lots to look forward to.

Moneywise, I'm looking forward to AS's raise, which should take effect in her next paycheck, and our lower mortgage payment (which should also come with a higher portion going to principal) that starts on Nov. 1.

Tons of fun social events in September and October, and then we barrel into the winter holidays. Then we'll have a vacation (trip to Boston) sometime in the spring. Also in the spring, if I've saved up enough money, we'll redecorate and update our bathroom. Also, next year should be NT's last year of school, if he manages to keep up the pace!

And, this is looking ahead quite a bit, so things could change, but the following year (2015) should be all about getting close to finishing our big-picture goals, including updating the kitchen near the end of the year or beginning of the next. We discussed this weekend that AS should start seriously looking for UK employment at the beginning of 2016. Hopefully we'll then have a clearer picture of our future: Will we stay in Minnesota or move permanently to England?

I know winter will be so hard (it always is in Minnesota), but there's still something about the fall that's exciting and energizing.

Our U.S. mortgage payment is delayed because of the holiday, but it's a regular business day in England, so our UK mortgages hit:
UK#1: $214 to principal
UK#2: $45
UK#3: $48

All told, $307 down, $1513 to go on the September debt goal.

This is just a quick entry since it's late and I've got to work on getting to sleep. I'll write a longer one soon; I spent quite a bit of time this week working through a strategy to pay for my tooth procedures next year, but I don't have the energy to write about it right now!

Our debt payment goal for September is $1820. Should be able to put about $900 extra to one of the student loans.

The big-picture benchmark for September is $20,133. We're already beyond that at $25,705.33, and we'll get close to $28,000 in September! I like being a few months ahead because it gives us breathing room in case there are setbacks, and of course I'd love to reach our goals early so I can supercharge our savings for greater flexibility in our selling/buying/moving process.

Just got our annual letter about our adjustable mortgage rate. Beginning Nov. 1, it's going down from 3.5% to 3.125%. Our payment will go from $1,070.59 to $1,040.77!

This is good timing, because I've been thinking how to handle my upcoming dental costs, and I was thinking rather than save up snowflakes this year, I'd just put all possible snowflakes to debt and savings, and next year change my flex spending to have enough to pay for it. That'll mean a lower paycheck, but also a lower tax bill for 2014, so I think it's the way to go.

So $30 less for our mortgage per month will help us not feel the sting of the lower paycheck next year. A few other recent lower bills that I haven't worked into the regular budget yet: the diaper service going from $82 to $22 per month, and cable/internet from $76 to $65. So with the mortgage change that's $100 lower monthly bills. I reckon the increased flex spending will take a $200-per-month bite out of my take-home pay next year. So our budget surplus will only decrease by $100. I can deal with that, especially with AS's raise kicking in next month.

Or at least I'll be spending like I am!

I'd forgotten and/or blocked out that once the dental surgeon is done with the implant next year, my regular dentist have their own role to play: a crown and "abutment." At my regular checkup today, I got the estimate for that.

$1,646, none of it covered by my insurance apparently.

So the upcoming expenses are now:
$1200 (after insurance) implant
$2200 (after insurance) possible extra bone graft
$1646 (no insurance) crown and abutment

So it seems I have to plan for a minimum of $2846 and a maximum of $5046 next year. ($5000+ on one tooth! Can you believe it?)

This is going to take some thought ...

AS's student loan payment hit, with $132 going to principal. That takes August debt repayment to $1775, just over the $1750 goal.

Oh, and we earned a whopping 27 cents of interest on our savings account; that goes to the medical EF, taking it to $1,513.71. Can you tell it's my least favorite goal? But I will definitely fund it up to $5K at some point in the next three years.

Big-picture progress is now at $25,705.33.

A point of interest: total household debt is now at $253,630. I'm thinking as soon as October, we could be under the quarter-million mark! I think at that point, I'll celebrate by revising my sidebar and finally deleting the "massive debt" wording, because $250K doesn't seem that bad when most of it is mortgage debt on two homes.

I actually wrote this entry last night and lost it; not the usual way, just me being sleepy and stupid and clicking a link that took me off the page and lost what I'd written. Ah well, I was just grumbling about the heat wave and a summer cold that has come over all of us, to varying degrees. And how my family has had illness on nearly every major holiday since last Christmas! So I figure it's that jinx, come back in time for Labor Day. Hopefully it doesn't last long and we can still enjoy the weekend. Daycare is closed Wednesday through Tuesday, so I have a seven-day break from work.

I'll probably check in a few times over the vacation, at least to post my September goals and any progress I make.

I sent off an extra $100 payment to NT's student loan to make sure we hit our August goal. As I was setting it up, I realized there hadn't been any interest added this past month. I did some sleuthing and realized that, since I've paid off all his unsubsidized portions of the loan, the remaining, subsidized portion won't accumulate any interest while he's in school! I was just hitting the higher-interest portions first, not realizing this difference.

The balance is only $3200 now, but it's nice to think that we won't pay any interest on it as long as we pay it off before NT graduates next year. (Plus I think there's a certain grace period after he graduates.) So, long story short, I'm going to stop targeting this loan and work on the next-highest-interest student loan, his private loan. When I pay that off (probably sometime next year), I'll work on AS's student loan. Then, we'll see if I can pay off this loan before it has a chance to accumulate any interest.

Anyway, all $100 of the payment went toward principal, so that takes August debt repayment to $1643 down, $107 to go. Big-picture progress is now at $25,573.06.

***

I had a follow-up with my dental surgeon today and had the sutures removed. He said it looked good and will check it again in 2 weeks. No copay because apparently these checkups are included in their original price quote. Sweet!

I asked him if he thought I'd need that extra bone graft (the one I'd have to pay $2200 out of pocket for). He said he wasn't sure, that it would be decided next year at the time of the implant.

So I won't know for a while, but at least it gives me time to plan. I've tentatively decided that I'll save up the $1200 that I know I'll need to pay for the implant, but I think I can cashflow the other $2200 when the time comes, if need be. (It'll just mean a lot less goal progress that month.) I'll make a note in my budget and make sure I set aside $2200 for January, and then if I don't need it I can put it toward student loans or something.

(Hmm, or maybe I should set aside an extra $100 per month in flex spending next year. I can use it right away to pay the dental bill, and my paycheck will be less than $50 per month less. I'll still be able to cashflow the $2200 fairly easily in that case. And that would mean I can put this year's snowflakes toward other things!)

I'm still trying to figure out how much my ultrasound/mammogram appointment will cost me. From what I can tell from the inscrutable claim forms, the mammogram is 100% covered but the draining of the cysts they did during the ultrasound may cost me a couple hundred bucks. Not too bad, I suppose. I just don't like not knowing!

***

I feel like I'm in another period of waiting. Waiting for my teeth to stop bothering me. Waiting for AS's raise to kick in. Waiting for our debt to get under $250K (should happen this year!). But having a busy calendar this summer has helped me stay distracted. We had "grownup weekend" last Friday night through Sunday afternoon -- our good friends, also the girls' godfathers, took them to their house for the weekend -- and that was amazing. We did go to that super-classy restaurant next door to us. It was like being in a dream made of food -- 11 tiny courses of transcendent flavors and textures, plus the most skilled, attentive service we've ever gotten at a restaurant. You don't want to know how much it cost! But we had the money set aside so it's OK.

I've also been trying to get involved a bit in a local cause -- a case of police brutality that ended in a killing just blocks from our home. It's really made clear to me that there's a bigger problem with our police force, and it's a cause I'm getting more passionate about the more I learn. So we've been going to rallies and meetings and spreading the word among friends. I don't know if it will really change anything, but it feels good to try to do something about it.

I have a 6-day weekend around Labor Day because daycare is closed, and we've already got lots of plans, including trips to the State Fair and the Renaissance Festival. The following weekend my sister and niece are coming for a few days, and we've got tickets to the science museum we'll probably use. In the weeks after that there's a drag show AS and I are going to, NT and lil AA going "camping" in friends' backyard, a visit to a winery -- and then suddenly it's nearly October! We know at least one Oct. weekend will be spent at our friends' mansion and another celebrating a friend's b-day. Thank goodness the girls are much less tiring these days, or there's no way we could keep up this pace! I don't know how it keeps happening, really; for a while there it didn't seem like we saw our friends at all, and now fun things just keep coming up. With all of the above, most of the tickets have already been purchased, so the only upcoming expenses will be food and carshare and (for one or two of them) babysitting.

Work's had its ups and downs but overall seems to be going pretty well. AS and NT are way overworked in their jobs and trying to find ways to offload some of the extra work on other people, but it's a struggle for both of them in different ways.

AA finished up her first swim class and did really well, so we're enrolling her in a "preschool" level one where she goes in the water without a parent. That starts in September too. I still want to enroll her in a dance class sometime soon, but I'll wait until there's a break in swim; not ready to be one of those parents carting the kid all over for various classes yet!

I guess that's enough rambling for now. I'm starting to get pretty tired and will probably doze off soon.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,884 pounds ($22,214)
#2: 17,268 pounds ($27,629)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $24,200
NT's Roth IRA: $5,800
AS's 401(k): $10,210
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $13,580
CJ's 401(k): $57,767
CJ's Roth IRA: $5,800
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): $4,555
---
Total Assets: $564,560

Total Debt: $253,862

Current Estimated Net Worth: $310,698

April 2013 estimate: $308,089

Change in net worth: +$2,609

Summary: A relatively static month of retirement returns and savings, and modest debt paydown.

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 checked NT's student account this weekend and the balance for his fall semester was in there. It won't be due until next month, but I'd planned to pay part this month and part next, and I was itching to send this month's portion.

Technically I shouldn't have until our paychecks hit on the 15th, but we have so much float money in the bank from my "escrow" line items that there really is plenty in the bank. And no doubt that I'm getting paid Thursday. So I paid $2500 today! There's about $1200 left to pay, which I'll do next month.

When the payment hits our checking, we'll still have about $1300 of float. And when the CapOne 360 money comes back into our account (I closed the account that I opened only for a bonus once the 30 days were up) in the next day or two, that'll take our balance back up to $1800 or so. So I won't even be cutting it close, but I checked my budget a half dozen times to make sure I wasn't forgetting any big expenses expected to hit before payday.

Anyway, I had only $790 left of "estimated future debt" in my household debt total, so this wipes that confusing category out for good. I'll be cashflowing the rest of NT's education and it will count toward big-picture progress but not debt reduction. After I finish paying for fall, I only have three semesters to pay for next year: spring, summer and fall. Then he'll have graduated. Woo hoo!

So our August debt repayment is $1543 down, $207 to go, and our big-picture progress is at $25,473.06!

Other frugal/money-saving happenings:
- Our switch to weekly vs. semimonthly grocery budgeting seems to be working well so far; we're cutting it close this week but should be able to stay within budget.
- Took a survey that will get us a free tub of the delicious (but expensive) vegan margarine we love.
- On our diaper guy's advice, decided to go off cloth diapers and onto compostables. Since we have to use those for daycare and nightttime anyway, overall our fee will be smaller than it is now. I'll use the savings to snowflake toward medical debt until that's paid off, then add it into the general budget surplus.
- I get to take my one supervisee out to lunch this Thursday on the company dime, so free lunch for me too!

I'm coasting on 4 hours of sleep today, which I'm not very good at. I dozed off on the couch at 10:30 and got woken to come to bed at 1:30 am. Not unusual at all; I find a nap on the couch before bed helps combat my occasional insomnia. But not last night; I stayed awake once I got in bed, and finally got out at 3:30 to mess around on the computer since I wasn't getting the least bit sleepy lying there. I finally dozed off on the couch again at about 6 and got woken up a bit after 7 to get ready for work. TGIF!

Had some good frugal and other happenings lately:

- A friend signed up for the carshare we use and gave us as having referred her, so we got a $25 statement credit! I'm using that in my medical snowflake fund.

- Started spending on the two USBank cards we got recently; once we spend $500 on each we'll get $200 and $100 bonuses. Those will go to medical as well.

- AS recently got some kind of mail-order offer for 6 bottles of wine free with $11 shipping (so less than $2 each). The same company gave us a $100 credit to use, so we ended up getting 13 more bottles of wine for $70, or a bit more than $5 per bottle. About par with what we pay for our usual boxed wine, but much more variety and better quality too! AS does need to cancel an automatic membership before it kicks in; but NT might sign up as being referred by her and see what other deals we can get from them.

- Not for us, but we got free lodging for my sister and niece who are coming to visit in September. My niece is coming a day earlier and she'll stay with us that night, but more than one person for one night would be a real strain in our tiny home. We have friends who own a condo slightly bigger than ours, and they don't have kids. They said my family could stay with them the 3 nights they need to. No charge, and their condo is closer to ours than any hotels! And really fancy and upscale as well.

- Freecycled a bunch of baby stuff recently, and last night while AS and NT took the girls for a walk, I dumped two big bags of toys on the free table of our building. One thing gave us a bit of a pang, a train set that they play with occasionally and seem to like, but it's just too big and bulky, and the girls keep accumulating toys, so something had to go. I don't think they'll notice; they have so many other toys. I got rid of a lot of baby toys that the youngest one has outgrown, but luckily I'm not super-sentimental. Everything will find a good home, and our condo is a bit neater.

Last night while I was dealing with the insomnia, thoughts of retirement kept coming up due to an email exchange I had with a friend/co-worker who is a bit of a financial mess. So when I gave up on sleep and got on the computer, I played with a few things:

- I looked for a good financial calculator, and found one offered by the AARP. I really trust them because of their good advocacy for seniors, so I tried it out. It had a fair amount of customization options and I was left feeling pretty good about where we are. We'll need to up our retirement contributions once the house stuff is settled and the student loan debt paid off, but I think we're heading in the right direction.

- I realized I never know how much we actually have in retirement funds since I just add up all assets once a month (including the EF and our home values), so I did a quick calculation of that, as well as how much we add to our accounts each month, as well as how much we'd have if we kept adding the same amount every month (and didn't have any growth). The number was smallish, but of course we aren't planning to stay at that level of contribution, and we are planning to experience growth in our accounts, so for what it was, I found the number to be just fine.

- While using the AARP calculator, I found a link to the Social Security website, and realized I could create online logins for all of us so we could check our statements anytime we wanted. So I did that and looked at what we could expect to receive in Social Security benefits upon retirement. (That's if we stay in the U.S., but even if we move, I'm sure we'll receive a smaller amount based on what we contributed while we were here.)

I think that's all! I feel good that I'm at least on top of the financial side of things, since my diet, exercise and other blog have fallen by the wayside while I recover from my tooth extraction. Ah well, I'll get back on track in due time.

A year or two ago I downgraded my estimated value of our US condo to $145K. It had been a long time coming; I knew my estimate of $160K was too high. Even $145K seemed like the high end of sale prices for comparable units in our complex, but I figured if we upgraded the kitchen and bath, spruced up the flooring and made a few other small changes, we could possibly sell it for that much.

Well, I don't have any new actual sold homes of our size to confirm this yet, but there's a place listed for $169,900 that's comparable to ours -- it looks reasonably upgraded, but not crazy high-end. The Zillow estimate of its value is $144,577, and they have tended to value condos in our complex for less than they sell for. And I found a site called Homes.com that estimates our condo's value at $155,700.

I'll be keeping an eye on that new listing to see if it sells and if so, what the sale price is. We currently owe $157K on our home, so it would be very exciting if we could consider ourselves not underwater anymore, practically for the first time since we bought it (since we paid too much, and took out a home equity loan for what little we'd paid on it, and the real estate bubble burst not too long after we bought).

I'm still feeling out of it after my tooth extraction, though thank goodness very little pain or swelling has occurred. Today I feel kind of strange, but it may just be the constant distraction of having stitches and a new hole in my mouth! Amazing how much that can affect concentration. Anyway, I'm just doing the bare minimum this week and hoping I'll feel normal soon.

I realized I forgot to record interest on the house/moving savings account last month, so I have a whopping $6.81 to record! Even though savings interest is admittedly abysmal, I still get kind of excited because up until a few years ago, I never had the discipline or money (so I thought) to even have a savings account, so the idea of making money on money without doing anything is kind of cool.

Anyway, that takes house/moving/renovation progress to $5950.69, and big picture progress to $22,973.06. Almost a quarter of the way to our goal!

I'll have to think about this more when I have a clearer head, but I've been pondering the possibility of taking another route besides our current one. Currently we plan to sell both places, hopefully making a profit on the UK place and breaking even on the US one, in order to help fund the new home purchase. But I've also idly thought what it would be like to keep renting out the UK flat and try to save up more money for a down payment on a new home vs. trying to fund it from the sale of the old one.

The UK flat rents for £725 per month now (US$1160), and we clear about £360 ($580) in a good month with no extra fees or repairs. It'll be worth 160,000 when renovations are done in a year or two, and we think we'll clear about £100,000 ($160,000) after paying off the mortgages and giving the management company their share of the profit. So it would take 23 years to make in rent what we could make in a sale; but, at the end of the 23 years, we'd still have a (possibly even more valuable) property (with the mortgage paid off).

I'm still leaning toward selling it. The rental income would be nice, but so would a smaller mortgage on our next house. But we'll see where we are in a year or two. Anything could happen in terms of raises, jobs, windfalls, expenses, etc. If I actually start thinking about it seriously, I'll be asking your perspectives for sure, but right now it's completely idle speculation.

Well, today I got my tooth taken out. The dentist said it was really infected under there so it was the right decision to take it out. He also did the bone graft to build up bone in preparation for the implant.

So far the pain is not bad. I'm slurring like crazy to avoid messing with that part of my mouth and possibly irritating the surgery site. I've also been doing ice packs, ibuprofen and Vicodin. And antibiotics. And I need to remember to use a special mouthwash tonight. Lot to remember! But the dentist said it went well.

Today I paid a $54 co-pay and $166 estimated that I'll owe after insurance. This part of the process was $1100 and covered 80% by insurance.

Aside from some follow-up appointments, the next part (surgical implant) can't happen for at least 4 months. I asked him if it could wait 5 months, until my next year of dental coverage starts, and he said that would be fine. Good, because that means I'll have another $1500 of coverage.

I don't want to get too excited, and I'll ask the surgeon about it at my 2-week checkup. But he hasn't said anything about the "sinus augmentation" additional bone graft that he said might be necessary depending on certain circumstances. That portion was estimated at $2500.

If I don't need that part of the procedure, the remaining step is surgical implant, which is $2400. If my insurance covers it, it would be $1200 for them and $1200 for me.

If I do need the sinus thingie, that would be an additional $2500 of which insurance would only cover $300, since I'd have maxed out the $1500 at that point, so I'd be on the hook for $2200.

So without the sinus thing my cost would be $220 + $1200 = $1420.
With sinus thing, $220 + $1200 + $2200 = $3620.

Huge difference, so I'm really hoping it's off the table and not just that he assumed I already knew he was going to do it!

All our mortgage payments hit:

US: $446 to principal
UK1: $216
UK2: $45
UK3: $46

That makes $753 down, $997 to go on the August debt goal.

I noticed on our governor's Facebook page something about property taxes going down for the first time in over a decade! That will hopefully reduce the escrow portion of our mortgage payment next year. Probably only by a few bucks if anything, but it'd be nice.

I noticed that we'd accumulated $47.63 worth of rewards on our regular credit card, the Chase Freedom. So I took it as a statement credit and put the extra money toward my medical-bills snowflake fund. That takes it to $515.85. I'll continue to look for ways to scrape up money outside our regular budget.

I'm thinking about calling the dentist and asking if he thinks we could just go ahead with extraction vs. doing exploratory surgery to see how far up the crack in my tooth goes. A) My tooth is still bothering me, albeit much less since getting antibiotics, and I just don't think it'll ever be up to par again. B) It would likely cut down on the number of surgical interventions, since he's pretty sure it will need to be extracted. C) It will likely reduce the number of bills, and since Monday's surgery isn't even factored into the $6000 (min. $3000 after insurance) estimate, I really could use any reduction in bills.

Basically the only point of Monday's operation would be to see if the tooth is salvageable, but even if it's able to be temporarily saved, it'll continue to bother me and will likely cause problems in the future. So I'm comfortable assuming the tooth is cracked all the way up and just going forward with pulling it if my dental surgeon agrees.

Anyway, on to my new grocery plan. I still want to find a way to make our grocery budget work without further dissecting it into food/house/toiletry categories, since we buy a combination of all of those at the various stores we frequent.

So instead, I want to set a weekly budget vs. semi-monthly; I think that'll make it easier to keep an eye on spending.

I figured out that our grocery budget is $9000 per year (it sounds like so much!) without calculating the CSA, which we pay for separately. Figuring the non-CSA weeks need $30 more, I multiplied $30 by the number of non-CSA weeks (31) and got $930, which I subtracted temporarily from the annual total, leaving $8070. Dividing that by 52 weeks I got $155.

That means that CSA weeks we have $155, and when the CSA ends we'll have $185 per week (adding back in the $30 that I took out of calculations). Just to be safe I added all that up and it comes to $8990, so I think I'm on the right track.

I'll divvy the grocery money up on my spreadsheet by week and keep my family updated on what we have left for the week. This should help us make smarter choices about midweek one-off purchases and whether we can afford them.

Quick edit to July results; just to post some kind of progress on the medical EF, I checked my savings account and counted the 26 cents interest earned there. Whew!

Well, our August debt-repayment goal is going to be a relatively modest $1750, because while part of NT's tuition payment will wipe out "estimated future debt," that category will then be gone. There's only about $800 left in it, so the rest of the $2500 payment will go toward big-picture progress but won't reduce our debt total. Any tuition we pay after that last $800 is what NT's college will be costing above and beyond the $40K I estimated when he started the journey.

Anyway, once that's gone, our debt total will be our true and actual debt total. And hopefully it'll never go up unless we buy a house that costs more than our current mortgages!

The big-picture benchmark for August is $17,896; we're already at $22,966.25, so well past where we need to be. And the tuition payment should push us past the $25K mark this month!

Now on to groceries ... we actually had money left over at the end of the first July period (1st to 15th), so we had over $375 to get us through the second half of July, plus full boxes of CSA veggies every week. Yet somehow we piddled it all away and now have $12 left. I mean, at least we didn't go over our limit, but these months of summer CSA bounty are meant to be the ones where we spend less and get ahead a little so that winter months (where we have to buy produce out of pocket, out of season) are easier. We're using fewer diapers, we don't buy formula -- I'm not really sure where it went! The only reason we didn't go over is I made a menu for this week that mainly relies on CSA veg and pantry staples, so we only spent about $60. That means the week and a half before, we must have spent over $300! I could go through our credit card statements and figure out where it went, but the main thing is, it's gone, and we need to do better in August.

We do pretty well on the weekend shop, but I think one-off purchases to fill gaps during the week, and purchases of sporadic household maintenance/grooming needs, really kill us. I'm thinking about calculating how much we have for each week and divvying it up that way, so we know what our "absolute" limit is each week. Except, I'd need to figure out how much MORE we'll need in non-CSA months, and that gets kind of confusing. If I divide our annual fee by the number of weeks we actually receive boxes, it's about $31 per week. So maybe I should figure out how to allocate $30 more per week in non-CSA times than during CSA times. This is going to take some calculating!

AS's student loan hit, with $131 going to principal. That takes July debt repayment to $2639 and big-picture progress to $22,965.99!

That'll be it for this month, but we did pretty well.

AS brought her $500 check home with her from the trip she was on; she only needs $100 to cover dreadlock maintenance, and the rest I can save for my upcoming dental/medical bills. So far then I have $468 saved up, and another $300 coming from credit card bonuses maybe in a month or two. My informal goal is to get to $4000, but hopefully it'll be less than that (and god forbid it's more!).

Had my mammogram/ultrasound yesterday, and there was still some cause for concern after it. They sent a sample off for testing, and today I got a call that it was nothing! So I don't have to worry about that anymore. My HR confirmed that the mammogram should be covered 100% by insurance and the ultrasound 90%, so hopefully the total bill's not too bad.

AS is on a business trip, so everything seems a bit out of whack. But she has Wi-Fi and took her iPad, so we'll be able to talk via FaceTime every day. She's back Sunday evening.

She found out she gets a $500 honorarium for the trip in addition to transportation, room and board! We haven't discussed what it will be used for, but I'm hoping to put at least part of it toward snowflaking those upcoming dental costs.

NT is helping me save some spending money; I really wanted him to watch Les Miz with me this weekend, but it's not available on Netflix (of course; they never have anything I look for). It's $5 to rent on Amazon Instant Watch, so I figured I'd just buy it since I'll want to have a copy eventually anyway. I bought it at Barnes & Noble for $29; NT looked on Amazon and saw we could get a good used copy for $12. So he figures even if we spend the $5 to rent it, buying for $12 and returning the $29 copy will still save me $12! We'll still get to watch it this weekend, but I'll have a copy of my own too. That's good thinking.

We spoke to friends who went to the ultra-expensive restaurant down the street, and they reiterated how great it is. So we decided we'll go for it! Those same friends are taking our kids for two nights in August, giving us a rare "grownups weekend." So I think we'll splurge on this restaurant that weekend. I'll try to remember to commemorate with photos, since we probably won't be eating there again in the foreseeable future!

That will probably take the bulk of our remaining vacation funds, but we'll hopefully have a few hundred bucks to help offset spending on the rest of the summer fun we've got planned: a day trip to a small-town festival, the State Fair, the Renaissance Festival. It's amazing how easy it's been to spend our vacation money PLUS our regular spending money! At first all the little extras felt super-luxurious, but you do get used to it. However, I'm confident we'll be able to buckle down more starting in September, because we'll be motivated to save up for our next trip (sometime in the spring of next year).

Looking ahead to August financial goals, I'm thinking I won't have a very impressive debt-payment goal, since I'm going to use the bulk of our surplus to make a payment toward NT's tuition. I'll pay the rest of it in September. (September will be even less impressive in that regard.) At least part of the August payment will go toward "estimated future debt," but that category has less than a thousand bucks left, so most of this semester's tuition and all of the remaining tuition, while it'll count toward our big-picture goal, won't count toward debt repayment. That's OK, my accounting method of having "estimated" debt was a bit confusing to explain every time anyway.

AS's raise will hit in mid-September, so that will make everything a bit easier, even if I need to pay my dental bills out of our regular budget vs. through snowflakes.

There's a good chance I will be able to pay off the student loan of NT's that I've been hacking away at by the end of this year. That will leave just one for him and one for AS. I'm pretty sure I can knock those out by the end of 2014. I can't imagine! It just seems so crazy that we'll be debt-free except mortgages in less than two years. AND that NT will be done with school around the same time.

I can't believe I'm even considering it since I hate how AS's and NT's schooling ate into our time together, but I'm idly pondering a return to school myself when he's done -- for a bookkeeping or accounting certificate of some kind. Since I've come to love math so much over the past few years, and I feel like I should have more than one marketable skill, it seems like a good match. But we'll see if I still feel this way in a year and a half!

Thanks for your kind words on my last post about dental woes. Today it's about medical woes. I had my annual exam today, and I was determined NOT to discuss anything extra, because last year I got charged $60 instead of getting a free exam because something "diagnostic" was discussed. Unfortunately, my doctor A) brought up my past bone density issues and discussed how I didn't have to get an exam (I'm pretty sure this same conversation last year was what triggered the fee) and B) found a lump in my breast that wasn't there last year, and scheduled me for an ultrasound/mammogram appointment.

So I'm pretty sure I'm paying for today's appointment, AND for the ultrasound/mammogram (still researching possible cost of that), and depending what it turns up I could be looking at biopsy or worse. For the record, I'm not too worried since I've had harmless lumps before, but of course I can't predict what they'll find.

So I have about $180 left in this year's flex spending account. I'll use it to cover as much of the dental and other medical work as possible, but I don't think it'll go very far. Next calendar year if I am going to need more dental work, I'll up my FSA so I can at least pay for it pretax.

So far I have $68.22 of snowflake money saved, $45 from a Craigslist sale and the rest from a slight overpayment of my credit card (must have counted something twice or not counted a rewards redemption). I also applied for the two credit cards and so far AS's has been approved ($100 for spending $500) but I'm waiting to hear about mine (which will be $200 for spending $500 if I get it). It's a drop in the bucket of the $3000-$4000 I may need just for the procedures I know about so far, but little drops can add up.

The breast testing is tomorrow afternoon and the dental exploratory surgery is Aug. 5, so I should have a clearer picture after each of those (at least a clearer idea of what I need done, if not how much it will cost!)

My tooth where I had surgery five years ago has been bugging me off and on for about three weeks. Yesterday morning I finally decided I should check in with my surgeon, so I made an appointment for early August.

As yesterday wore on, the tooth pain became a constant throbbing and got worse and worse. So I called my regular dentist and got in an hour later.

She said it was either "perio" (which I think means gum infection?) or a vertical fracture in the tooth, but she couldn't see a crack. She wrote out a referral and sent me to my surgeon to see if he could fit me in that day.

He did -- luckily he was in the office doing paperwork on a day off -- and he saw a crack right away. He said if the crack doesn't go all the way up, the tooth can be saved -- he'll just do a bit of gum surgery to reduce the pockets. But if it does, the tooth has to come out.

The only way he can find out is by peeling back my gums and having a look. So that'll happen at the early-August appointment.

Dunno how much that investigative procedure will cost, but they gave me a cost estimate for the extraction and implant of a false tooth -- $6000.

My insurance will cover some of it, but I know they cover a max of $1500 per year, so even if I stretch it over two years, we're looking at $3000 for my share.

Ouch! I guess our goal progress will be delayed a bit if it turns out the extraction is necessary.

I think I'll try to snowflake at least part of the cost vs. taking it out of our regular budget. AS and I both got CC offers in the mail last week from USBank -- mine was spend $500 get $200, and hers was spend $500 get $100. I was already contemplating applying for these cards, but now I definitely will, and that's 10% of my dental cost right there! Any regular CC rewards payments I'll also save toward the procedure. I'll have to think about other ways to squeeze some extra money out of the universe.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,884 pounds ($22,214)
#2: 17,268 pounds ($27,629)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $24,082
NT's Roth IRA: $5,754
AS's 401(k): $10,069
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $13,245
CJ's 401(k): $57,525
CJ's Roth IRA: $5,754
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): $4,548
---
Total Assets: $563,625

Total Debt: $255,536

Current Estimated Net Worth: $308,089

April 2013 estimate: $301,126

Change in net worth: +$6,963

Summary: A nice month of retirement gains and debt paydown!

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.

For net worth calculations coming up this week, just got our annual letter in the mail about one of the pension funds.

NT's UK pension #3:
Was 3,709 pounds ($5,934)
Is 4,452 ($7,123)

The second, bigger extra student loan payment hit tonight, with $1153 going to principal! That takes us to $2508 of debt repayment, surpassing the $2400 July goal.

It also ups our big-picture progress, to $22,834.99.

Also, since I've been paying off the higher-interest portions first, the interest rate on that loan is down to 3.4%. That means our U.S. mortgage (3.5% variable) is officially our highest interest rate on any of our loans.

And, finally, it takes my household's total student loan debt to $19,385. That means our non-mortgage debt is under $20,000! We're getting so close!

I just couldn't wait until next week to send a big payment to NT's student loan, but I didn't want the bank account balance to be dangerously low either, so I just sent a portion of the payment this week. All $600 went to principal, so that's $1355 down, $1045 to go on the July debt goal.

It also takes the big-picture progress to $21,681.99.

Next week's payment will bring total student loan debt under $20K, but I'll wait to celebrate until it's official!

Well, I can't believe we're so far into summer already! Our calendar is packed to the gills with social activities, and even though that's really fun, it makes the time pass SO quickly!

We spent a cheap (less than $180) four-day weekend at our friends' vacation home. It's massive! 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a three-season porch that wraps around two sides of the house and is about the size of our condo(actually, we found out the square footage of the whole house equals 4.5x that of our condo).

In addition to massive, it's exquisitely decorated from top to bottom. Feels like living in an interior design magazine. We left with great appreciation but even more eagerness to upgrade our own home in a few years.

To that end, the first of the renovations to NT's flat have happened. Since the cost of renovations is included in the $43K goal for moving, I can count that expense as progress toward our big-picture goal.

New fridge freezer (£271.98 plus vat) $522.21
Night storage (£455 plus vat) $873.60

That's $1,395.81 of progress, bringing our $43K goal to $5,943.88 and our total big-picture progress to $21,081.99. Woo hoo, passed the $20K mark! The total big-picture goal will take $93,957, so that's over 22% of the way complete. If we continue at this rate we'll be done near the beginning of 2015 instead of the middle. I'd be happy to exceed our savings benchmark, since there's a good chance I've underestimated something or miscalculated somewhere.

I'm itching to pull the trigger on a big student loan payment, but the checking account would be tight until next Monday, so I'm trying to hold off until then.

In other news, we've stayed on budget this summer (which hasn't been too hard since our budget has been rather extravagant by our own standards). Groceries are actually a bit under budget, spending and fun money seems about on track.

My weight was creeping up over the past couple of months, so I'm back on calorie counting and lost 3 lbs. last week despite the holiday weekend. I've been keeping up my crunch/pushup/squat routine every night and every morning. The few times I haven't done it at night was because I genuinely forgot, not because I didn't feel like it. And each time I forgot, I doubled up on my morning exercises to make up for it. This is a great habit for a lazy staller such as myself because it takes barely any time and I have no excuses not to do it.

I'm sure I had other news, but I can't think of it right now. That's the big stuff anyway!