Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

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!

If you see MonkeyMama's and CCF's blog posts, you'll see that Capital One 360 is running an offer through tomorrow only, to open a savings account & get a $76 bonus or checking account for a $100 bonus. I opened the checking account, and I can get $$ for referring folks; so here's the link to use me as a referral:

Our US mortgage payment hit, and $445 went to principal. That takes us to $755 down, $1645 to go on the July debt goal.

Excited to update all my spreadsheets with the new lower mortgage payment that takes effect Aug. 1!

I've dug for a bit more information about my client and the displeasure with how the guidelines are being applied, but even our president says she doesn't think it's a specific criticism of me, more the people who are doing the writing. I really hope people are being straight with me, because if so, it sounds like I don't have much to worry about in terms of job security.

And if my job is secure, then we can look forward to a real boost to our take-home pay Sept. 15, when AS's raise will hit her paycheck! Fingers crossed that everything is as solid as it seems.

AS decided to tackle our growing pile of unfiled paperwork, and came running when she opened a piece of mail from our mortgage company. Turns out they're lowering our payment by $17 starting Aug. 1 (because of lower escrow needs) AND they enclosed a check for $209! Good thing she decided to file!

After some discussion we decided to apply the $209 to our student loan debt. The extra $17 we'll just roll into our general surplus, which we can decide to use for fun or put toward one of our goals.

We've tentatively settled on Boston in the early spring for our next vacation, during NT's spring break (mid- to late March). Did a very quick scan of hotel prices and airfare and decided to shoot for saving $5000 by March, to cover transportation, lodging, food and entertainment. To do that we need to start setting aside money starting in October at the latest (preferably September). We've been using our travel line item to just have summer fun in Minnesota, so we just need to cut that off once the August money is spent.

Shouldn't be a problem. We do still have a lot of fun things planned for this summer, but none of them are very expensive. The one thing I'd love to do that's very indulgent is have dinner at the fine-dining restaurant half a block down from us; they don't post prices (!!) but I did some research online and reckon it would be $450 or $500 for all three of us to go. (I know, crazy, but I'd love to do it just once!) Everything else we want to do is little stuff like the occasional concert or small-town day trip, or free (like attending fireworks and parades).

The UK mortgage payments hit:
UK1: US$216 to principal
UK2: $46 to principal
UK3: $48 to principal

All told that's $310 down, $2090 to go on the July debt goal.

I won't find out what UK repairs so far have cost until later this month when we get our statement. We did get notice that they were taking place, and we didn't receive any rental income this month, so I know it's been at least 600 pounds ($950). I'll start a spreadsheet once I get the totals of the first repairs, so I can count them toward our big-picture goals and also see how close the management company's estimate was.

Since we won't have any more progress in June, I'm going to set our July goals.

For debt, I'm going to shoot for paying $2400 in July.

Our July benchmark for our big-picture goal is $15,659, but we're already past that with $19,686.18, so no problem there!

Although we won't be adding much to savings this month, we'll be doing some of the 10K pounds (estimated) of repairs needed to upgrade NT's flat in the UK. So I'll count those costs as progress against the big-picture goal. I'm going to keep track of the repairs and expenses as they come to see how close that 10K estimate is to the actual cost when they're done with everything.

Since we won't have any more progress in June, I'm going to set our July goals.

For debt, I'm going to shoot for paying $2400 in July.

Our July benchmark for our big-picture goal is $15,659, but we're already past that with $19,686.18, so no problem there!

Although we won't be adding much to savings this month, we'll be doing some of the 10K pounds (estimated) of repairs needed to upgrade NT's flat in the UK. So I'll count those costs as progress against the big-picture goal. I'm going to keep track of the repairs and expenses as they come to see how close that 10K estimate is to the actual cost when they're done with everything.

I'm up way too late because we went out with friends and I'm STUFFED. I really hope today doesn't mess up my weight loss attempts! Just got to try and be moderate for the rest of the week.

While out with our friends, we ended up spilling a lot of info about my financial management. It started with me advising my friend to start a Roth IRA and went from there. I hope it never comes back to bite me, but I feel like sharing my viewpoint more openly has had a positive impact on friends and acquaintances. A lot of people are surprised by various aspects of my story: the depths we reached at our lowest point, the strict financial rules we all abide by in my family.

I just don't want to become one-note in my conversations, like a lady I knew who got really obsessed with bodybuilding and from then on could talk of nothing else!

Anyway, checked AS's student loan when we got home, and her payment had hit. $131 went to principal, so that takes us to $2308 of debt payment for June, just over the $2300 goal.

It also takes our big-picture progress to $19,686.18. Getting close to the $20K mark!

Friday night there was a crazy big storm all across the Twin Cities and surrounding towns. For about 20 minutes there was a wall of water against our windows, and our balcony doors were bending inward in a most alarming way. NT heard a gurgling as he passed by the bedroom and realized that rainwater was being forced through the vents and edges of our windows. We put cloths and towels along them and swapped them out a couple times as they got saturated. It was so weird! Our power flickered but didn't go out. I knew from Facebook that trees were going down and power outages happening all over, but we didn't realize how bad it was until we were actually out and about the next day.

Saturday morning I tried to do part of our shopping at our co-op, and they were closed because their power was out. Several traffic lights were completely out, not even flashing red. Later that morning, AS and I went to a fascinating alumni event at a Russian art museum that featured women in Soviet art. The bus was detoured a couple times, and we could see trees down all over.

Saturday evening we went to an event called Secret City, featuring art, performances and various fun activities in several locations around Minneapolis. Before that we ate at a restaurant with outdoor seating, just enjoying the mild weather. We headed home around 9:30 (way past the girls' bedtime) just as clouds were gathering for another storm, though this one was just rain, no crazy wind.

Sunday AS and I went out for Open Streets, a community event where they block off 20-30 blocks of a major thoroughfare and people can walk, bike, even do yoga or play chess in the middle of the road. We dropped off our bikes for tune-ups, stopped at some shops and bought some clothes (AS and I have been on a tear recently since none of our summer clothes from the past few years really fit us anymore) and a gift for a kid's b-day party later that day. Oh and we grabbed some food; some restaurants along the way had food stalls set up outside. There were huge trees down in some people's lawns along the street, and power was still out in some stores including our co-op.

After that we drove to the kid's party, which had been moved to an indoor playground because of the storminess. We have the use of some friends' SUV for the next couple of weeks so we used that. On the way we saw still more trees down and traffic lights out.

Our friends have been gradually getting their power back, but some areas may not get theirs until Wednesday.

Today, we all had the day off, so we sent the kids to daycare and spent a rare kid-free day relaxing. We had brunch, went to a couple spas to see if they had walk-in availability (no one did), wandered around doing a bit of shopping, picked up our tuned-up bikes, had a late lunch with some cocktails, and then NT went to class while AS and I picked up the girls. It was such a nice relaxing day with lots of time outside, despite another brief rainstorm. We saw still more trees down though; trying to drive from daycare to the brunch restaurant, NT wanted to take a right turn but had to pass up four streets in a row that had large trees across them -- some with squished cars still under them! I've never seen anything like this since I moved to the Cities in 1997.

We weighed in Sunday and I was up another pound. I was bummed because I'd tried to lose weight by not night snacking and by doing 5 mins of extra exercise every morning and every night. I'm still going to do both of those things, but I've decided I need to get back into calorie counting to get my weight back down. Ah well, at least I know it works for me. It's tedious, but it's the surest way to get back on track. Today was my first day counting calories and I went way over my goal because of the two meals out, but most days the next week should be more under control.

Anyway, all of the above spending is way out of the ordinary for us these days, but it all comes out of buckets of money that have already been saved up, so even though it feels a bit weird and out of control, we're not actually overspending at all. But I'm paying attention and tracking everything, because I feel like it could be very easy to get used to spending this freely.

I just finished reading this book for a company "book club" discussion. (As a matter of fact, I stayed up till almost 2 a.m. last night to finish on time, so I'm exhausted and feeling a bit spacy at this point in the day!)

Anyway, it was fascinating. I haven't read all the endnotes and references to try and see how reputable the author's information is, but I found the overall premise -- that habits and the basal ganglia part of our brain control much more of our lives than we give them credit for (we think much more of our actions are based on conscious thinking and decision-making) -- so interesting. And I've heard similar things from various sources, so I don't think he's making it up.

His other point is that habits, though very powerful because they're unconscious, are also delicate, and can be fiddled with to change things around.

I may try to write a more coherent, detailed post about it on my ordinarysavers.com site sometime, maybe next week. I'm also going to try and examine some of my flaws and things I don't like about my own habits, to see if I can apply his theory to rewire some of them and produce more desirable behaviors. Duhigg says you can be scientific, trying to isolate the separate elements of the habits, experimenting with different substitutes until you find one that works. Could be interesting.

My weight has been creeping up lately, so one thing I'm trying to do immediately is install a strength training habit into my daily routine. AS was doing this before our vacation, and she's trying to get back into it. Since I rarely feel like getting into workout clothes and doing a full circuit of weight training, I'm trying AS's method of 5 minutes when I wake up, 5 minutes before I go to bed. Combine that with the 20 minutes walk to daycare and I've got my recommended half hour of exercise per day!

Currently, my goal (which I accomplished Wednesday and this morning, so far so good) is 25 ab crunches, 10 girl pushups and 10 squats, every morning and every night. I don't get out the mat or dress in workout clothes, just do them wherever I am in whatever outfit I happen to be in when I remember to do it.

I'm also trying to re-institute my rule of no late-night snacks. Herbal tea will be my substitute when the urge seems overhwelming. It worked last year when I was doing my big calorie-counting push, so hopefully it will work even if I don't get back into counting calories.

We'll see how it goes!

Checked the savings accounts ... $3.59 of interest on the house fund account. $25.30 of contribution plus interest on the EF account.

That takes us to $4548.07 on the house savings goal, and $1,513.18 on the medical EF.

It also takes us to $19,555.18 of big-picture progress!

AS got confirmation of her raise, which will take effect in September! It's going to be a great boost; I conservatively estimate another $250 per month in take-home pay. If we can keep things status quo from there, we could shave another 5 months off the time it takes to reach our goals.

I've heard a few rumblings about my main client's boss being displeased with the way people are using the guidelines that I enforce, so she's coming for the client meeting in July too. Everyone I've spoken to says it's nothing specifically negative about me, but since I'm the main conduit for enforcing the guidelines, I can't imagine I look great in their eyes. And since I'm getting all this information in oblique dribs and drabs, it's nerve-wracking. If only people in corporate America could just be straightforward and to the point for once -- it's always how I deal with people at work; I don't pull punches, and I don't avoid telling the truth, even though I'm an introvert and that would be the easy way out for me. If I, a shy awkward person, can be a straight-shooter in my business dealings, I just don't understand why more people can't be the same.

But, if it were really bad I assume I'd already be fired or called on the carpet by our president. So I have to assume that the blame is being equally placed with my client liaison, and with the people who are actually writing the turds that I try to help polish. I don't mind being told off; I just want to know what's wrong so I can help fix it. Ah well, I just have to try and relax and let things take their course; there's nothing I can think of to do except wait for that meeting and keep doing my job to the best of my ability.

If we were not saving for a home and/or move, I wouldn't even worry, what with the budget surplus we have. But that surplus is what's going to get us into a new home, either in Minneapolis or in England. So I really hope nothing happens to my job in the next couple years.

Sorry, I just have to get my worst fears out in writing! I know we'll be OK, and I don't think my job is actually in danger. But I know we'll be OK either way.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,884 pounds ($22,214)
#2: 17,268 pounds ($27,629)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($5,934)
NT's 401(k): $23,665
NT's Roth IRA: $5,600
AS's 401(k): $9,782
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $12,662
CJ's 401(k): $55,989
CJ's Roth IRA: $5,600
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): $4,544
---
Total Assets: $559,301

Total Debt: $258,175

Current Estimated Net Worth: $301,126

April 2013 estimate: $263,203

Change in net worth: +$37,923 (over 2 months)

Summary: I didn't do a net worth calculation in May because of our vacation, so this covers two months of progress. And, just like that, we're back up to $300K net worth! Retirement went up quite a bit, debt went down, but the biggest contributing factor was finding out that NT's home was worth 140K pounds instead of our estimated 125K. That right there added $24K to our assets.

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.

It's about 8 am and I'm doing some kid wrangling so NT can hopefully sleep in a bit more for Father's Day. Then we'll bring him a gift, a card and breakfast in bed!

We're in a "hotel" (it's a 2BR suite in a converted house) in a small town in Minnesota this weekend, about a 2.5-hour drive from Minneapolis. We came down to visit the farm where we get our CSA share; they had a small free event on Saturday. That was great; we petted baby goats, toured the fields, listened to a poet, ate strawberry rhubarb shortcake, picked strawberries and won a gift basket of goodies (fancy olive oil, vinegar, chocolate, pasta, sauce and salt).

Spending-wise I'm in vacation mode, so haven't been at all thrifty. I spent $50 on lefse, unusual jams and other Scandinavian treats at a specialty store. We bought a big bag of black lava salt (I tasted it and fell in love) for $12 and handspun, hand-dyed yarn for $20. We've also eaten out a lot (though at least dining is pretty cheap in this small town and on the road). This suite is about $150 per night for two nights and the carshare was nearly $200.

Today we're just having cereal and coffee for breakfast before we leave, but then we're treating NT to both lunch and dinner for Father's Day. Partly covered by my and AS's spending money and the rest through vacation and/or surplus line items. It's been a VERY indulgent weekend and we're loving it so far.

AS got some really good news before we left, too. It's not set in stone, but she's one step closer to a raise, and it could be a big 'un. Looks like we might net $250 more per month, minimum! It might not happen until later this year, but it's nice to look forward to.

Oops, NT is stirring, so I'd better get going on Father's Day!