Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

I sent a $1425 payment to NT's student loan, and today the balance was ... $1426 lower? That's odd. The only thing I can think is that maybe interest hasn't hit yet for this month, and he had one little portion of the debt that was less than a dollar; it disappeared. I think they forgive debt that's less than a dollar. Anyway, I'll take it! That brings us to $2177 down, $123 to go on the May debt goal.

It brings our big-picture progress to $19,526.29. We're a fifth (20%) of the way toward our new, lower goal! And in only a seventh of the time allotted.

We've been doing some more unallocated spending recently; the bikes all need tune-ups, and the first one cost over $100, so I'm sure the other two will be about that as well. The hot water stopped working in our bathroom sink because of the faucet, so NT is going to try and fix it himself; otherwise we'll need a plumber. Either way it'll cost something. NT is going to get some alterations done to the nice suit he bought in England so it'll fit perfectly. I think there were a couple other things I agreed to, but I can't remember now! We are planning a fun weekend, visiting the farm that provides our CSA share, staying in a hotel, and pampering NT for Father's Day. But that's all coming out of allocated budget line items.

But, we've also been doing some frugal/free things and earning/saving money. AS got the last of her freelance checks we were expecting; $1375! We canceled three weeks of diaper pickups, so our nice diaper service canceled a full four-week invoice! $76 saved that I wasn't expecting at all. AS sold a dressmaker form that is too big now that she's lost some weight (and plus there's no room for it in our little condo) on Craigslist for $50. NT got a cat-litter rebate check for $7.99. And we needed a travel crib for our upcoming trips, so I put the word out on Facebook and got an old but sturdy one free from a co-worker.

Another co-worker (AS's) has been giving us hand-me-down clothes in 5T (for five-year-olds). We take 'em and put them in a box in the closet. I'm such a kid's clothing hoarder! I'll take any size clothes, and we divvy them up into boxes in the girls' closet. Then every few months, I get rid of outgrown clothes (or if the younger will be able to wear them eventually, I add them to a box for that age/size). It's a bit of effort to keep everything organized, but we've barely had to buy any clothes for the kids, ever.

Yesterday I had a startling realization. We've paid off over $180K in debt, but I'm impatient to get to (and celebrate) the $200K mark. For some reason I glanced at my "Debt starting point" page, and realized that, on paper, we have hit that mark. Our highest debt point was somewhere between $457K and $460K, and our current debt is $258,175! However, about $20K of this difference is because, when we began, the US dollar was much weaker against the UK pound, so our UK debts counted as $2 for every pound. Now the exchange rate is a bit closer and they're calculated at $1.60 per pound. So I don't count that in my debt payoff calculations. But, effectively anyway, our debt is $200K less than it was when I started 6 years ago!

If you read through my huge post yesterday there was a small note about how I was worried about a pending call from my client. Well, he finally emailed this morning, and it was just about wanting to come visit so he could meet with us and go over the new guidelines that have just been put in place. Whew! So now I can relax about budget disruptions and carry on with my plans.

Wow. The longer I wait before really blogging, the more it stacks up. But work is so busy, and getting into the swing of things at home is time-consuming, and jet lag is still somewhat draggin down energy levels. AS and NT actually got a cold and are in bed early tonight. I should go too, but I want to try and get some of these news tidbits and thoughts into my blog before the list grows even bigger!

So where do I start? I guess with my vacation, since that's what caused this build-up.

So England was wonderful. We didn't do anything earth-shattering, just spent time with family and friends, kept the little ones entertained, ate way too much, and saw a few sights (mostly nature-related vs. touristy places).

I noticed lots of ways Brits do everyday thrifty/environmental things that Americans might consider extreme frugality. NT's mom had no dishwasher, so we washed all our dishes by hand. She had a dryer but didn't seem to use it; she showed us how to use the clotheslines that were on pulleys, so we hung our clothes out whenever we washed them. Cars are small and much more fuel-efficient than American cars, which is necessary because their government doesn't subsidize the price as much as the U.S. does. Most homes in or near cities are row houses or "semi-detached" (essentially a duplex). Yards are tiny but beautiful. Houses are always, as far as we could tell, chilly in comparison to typical U.S. homes. Temps felt in the mid- to high 60s. I like to keep our home at 70 to 75, so it was a big shift. If AA didn't get dressed right away and ran around in her undies, her teeth would start to chatter! When we went to our friends' house for the second week, they -- two bachelor brothers living in a house-sized man-cave, basically -- did have a dishwasher that they actually used, but they didn't have a dryer and instead hung all their clothes to dry.

I thought it was so interesting. So many frugal and/or earth-friendly things that are unusual in America (outside like-minded communities like this site) are completely commonplace in Britain. I'd noticed little things on past visits, but this time I really paid attention and saw this pattern recur.

I've been contemplating trying to get sweatshop/slave/child labor out of more of my products, and clothing has been my first focus. So this trip, I went to several charity shops. It's really nice that most of their used clothing stores are for good causes like fighting cancer. Many are church or charity-based in MN, but many others are just consignment stores for private profit. Every used store I saw in Oxford was a charity shop. Anyway, I got some really nice dresses. Most were around 12 pounds ($20 or so), but one was 32 pounds. But the tag was still on it and it had originally been 65! I still probably wouldn't have spent that much if I hadn't had vacation funds to do it.

We stayed under budget! My math got shaky toward the end, but judging from what we had left in the bank accounts (400 pounds and $90), we had about $640 left of what we planned to spend. This is directly attributable to A) NT's mum paying for the rental car and B) NT's family paying for a lot of stuff the first week. But we knew those two facts by the beginning of the second week, and so we went a bit hog wild: NT bought a suit for about US$350, we bought hundreds of dollars' worth of snacks and other things. And we still came in under budget! Guess we don't know how to really go crazy anymore.

While we were there, NT visited his flat that he rents out. The management company showed him a lot of the wear and tear that's happened over the past 7 years or so with tenants. He was glad he saw and could confirm it needed a lot of work, because otherwise it would have been hard to swallow their number: They reckon it will take about 10,000 pounds ($16,000) to do a full renovation.

Now, we don't have to do it all at once. The new tenant just signed a year-long lease, so there are only a couple of things needed to make it livable for him; the rest can be stretched out over a couple of years.

There was good news to go along with this though: They reckon the place in its current state could sell for 140K pounds, and with the 10K reno it would be worth 160K pounds. So not only would it make it easier to rent in the future, it would contribute to our eventual profit for selling it.

When I got home, I checked what value I'd put on the place in my "big picture" calculations. 125K! That means if we put in 10K toward reno, we could come out 35K ahead of where I thought we were, or 25K after the reno costs.

I did realize I'd never calculated the management co.'s share of the profit (10% or 16K pounds). We could possibly avoid that by taking the place back for a year, but if our circumstances don't allow for that, we should calculate the fee anyway. Even with that, 9K ($14,400) better than we thought.

Aimed with that number, AS and I sat down and figured out that we could lower our big-picture goal number and move our timeline up 6 months!

Our original goal was to hit about $107K of combined progress in savings and non-mortgage debt repayment by end of December 2016; that would require average progress of $2229 per month. Our new goal is $94K by end of June 2016, and that will require $2237 per month.

Very exciting! And that still leaves about a $150 monthly surplus, and doesn't account for any windfalls coming our way.

So, I felt good enough about our financial position to make some unbudgeted purchases when we got back home. So far we've bought:
Sit-n-stand tandem stroller (used) $85
Swim class for AA $45
Gifts for our UK hosts $35
Gifts for our daycare lady $25
We also had to pay for a 3-month bus pass for $97

The vacation money left over in the UK account will go toward the immediate repairs needed at the flat. Not sure if that counts toward the 10K; I might have NT ask them if they think it'll be 10K above that or if these are included. If so, I could count it as big-picture progress, since saving for the reno is now part of our savings goal.

AS had a lot of time to think about her job during our trip, and she capped the vacation off with a visit to a UK publishing house she has dealings with. Through it all she realized she couldn't put up with the work levels and pay imbalance much longer. Her boss (also a friend) has acknowledged this, but today she decided to make it clearer that she was pretty close to a breaking point. They talked about solutions, and one he mentioned was a raise in the near future! So that could accelerate our progress even more.

I had a stressed out moment at work today where my main (and contentious) client casually mentioned in a group conference call that he'd be calling me later to discuss something. Well, this is rarely a good thing, so I started freaking about about possibly losing this account (easily 50% of my job) and getting laid off or fired. I don't think any of that would happen, but it made me nervous. We wouldn't struggle to live if we lost an income, but we'd struggle to make the debt and savings progress we need to if we're going to be able to move soon. Unlike AS, who is way under what she could be making, I feel I'm at about the peak of what I could earn with my limited skills. So although my job isn't perfect, I really don't want anything to change with it for a couple years.

So anyway, I'm not celebrating AS's likely future raise just yet. I need to talk to my client and satisfy my sudden insecurity. I hope he calls tomorrow! (Or, it could have been something minor that he's already forgotten about. Gah.) But it will probably end up to be nothing, and when AS's raise comes, we'll be on even better footing!

Quick update before I go to bed to try and lose the rest of my jet lag:

All the mortgage payments hit:
US: $444 to principal
UK1: $214
UK2: $45
UK3: $48

That takes us to $751 down, $1549 to go on the June debt goal!

I have so many things to blog about, but I want to get back on track with my routine and post monthly financial goals.

May was a good month:

The debt repayment goal was $3075, and we paid $3950.

The big-picture benchmark was to hit at least $11,135 (cumulative progress in student loan repayment, medical EF savings and house/moving fund savings), and we got to $18,100.29.

For June, I'm not 100% clear on how much money we'll put to debt, so I'm going a bit conservative and saying $2300 is our debt-repayment goal.

The June big-picture benchmark is $13,422. Of course, we're already past that at $18,100.29, so no stress there!

This is mostly for my reference; we got some new information that made us decide to change the big-picture goal number and shorten the timeline. Will definitely post a clearer explanation when I get a chance, but I just wanted to put this on the blog so I have a record of the original goal should I need it at some point.

Big-picture goal: $2229 per month to the goals below.
Jan. 2013 ending balance: $2,242.61
Feb. 2013 ending balance: $4,399.89
March 2013 ending balance: $12,441.20
April 2013 ending balance: $14,405.04
May 2013 goal: $11,145
Progress: Done for May! $18,100.29

Big-picture goals:

- $5K medical fund by sometime in 2013. Current balance: $1,487.34
STILL NEED: $3,512.39
Jan. 2013 progress: $75.26
Feb. 2013 progress: $0.28
March 2013 progress: $36.85
April 2013 progress: $101.80
May 2013 progress: $0.27

- Debt-free except mortgages by end of 2015; paying off all student loans and cashflowing the rest of NT's college tuition.
STILL NEED: $33,889 ($22,695 of student loan debt plus $11,194 more in tuition)
Jan. 2013 progress: $1,404
Feb. 2013 progress: $1,621
March 2013 progress: $7,454
April 2013 progress: $1,860
May 2013 progress: $3,197

- $56K in a moving to England / house down payment fund by the end of 2016. Current balance: $4,544.48
STILL NEED: $51,455.52
Jan. 2013 progress: $763.35
Feb. 2013 progress: $536
March 2013 progress: $550.46
April 2013 progress: $2.04
May 2013 progress: $497.98

Total need: $106,957 to achieve it all, or $2229 per month over the next 4 years (2013-2016)

The current monthly budget items that go toward this goal:
From regular budget $1727
AS student loan to principal $128
Rental income $538 (est.)
Savings interest $2 (est.)
Total: $2395

I couldn't resist checking AS's student loan account to see if the payment had posted. It had! $130 went to principal. That makes it $3950 of debt repayment for May, and brings out big-picture goals progress to $18,100.02.

AS's student loan is down to 4 figures, just under $10,000! That's her only debt in her name besides the US mortgage.

We've been re-energized to really try and get to England since being here, so I'm glad to be able to post some financial progress. Even though the money situation is only part of it, it's a big part of whether we'll be able to move here.

Edit: Oh, and I almost forgot, we had a wee bit of interest that counts as medical-fund savings: 27 cents. So our big-picture is $18.100.29.

Hi everyone! We're about halfway through our two-week vacation and having a wonderful time. The first week was spent with family in Exeter. We did lots of family-friendly activities like nature walks and amusement parks, and the girls got to spend tons of quality time with their British grandparents.

Yesterday we drove up to Oxford where we're spending the rest of our holiday with friends. It's much less structured so it'll be more relaxing, and we don't have to worry about making sure relatives get the maximum amount of quality time. (NT's parents are divorced and re-partnered with other people, so it was a delicate dance to make sure both sets of grandparents felt they got an equal share of the girls.)

I have an hour or so to myself while AS and the girls nap and NT is out food shopping with our friends. They're throwing a small party tonight so it's nice to have quiet time. It's perfect weather suddenly -- a break in the cold, windy days we've been having -- so I'm sitting out in the back garden enjoying the sun and the sound of birds and insects. I'll go in soon and get showered and changed for the party.

I'm afraid I've put on weight with all the delicious but starchy food we've been having. I'll have my official weigh-in next weekend when we get back, and we'll see if I have to go on the straight-and-narrow for a bit to get back down to my ideal weight. Hopefully I won't go too far off track.

So far we've only spent about a third of our vacation funds, so I think we're going to end the vacation under budget! The family kept paying for everything on our first leg of the journey, so we didn't spend as much as planned. We do want to go clothes and souvenir shopping, and we'll eat out a few times, but at most I think we'll break even. We haven't been taking out our weekly allowances either, so there will be three weeks' worth waiting for each of us when we go home.

Anyway, I'd better get going. I just wanted to check in since I had the time!

Tonight I sent off the tuition payment for NT's summer semester. It wouldn't even technically be due until we got back from vacation, but I figure why wait if we've got the money? The payment won't hit until tomorrow or Thursday, but unlike debt payments I don't have to wait to see how much actually goes to principal.

The payment was for $2039, which I can take out of "estimated future debt" and thus reduce our debt total. That confusing line item is nearly gone, so I won't have to talk about it much longer. College is going to cost about $11K more than the $40K I designated as "future debt," but luckily we're paying as we go now, so I know I won't have to add to student loans anymore.

Anyway, that takes our debt progress to $3820 for May, surpassing the $3075 goal!

It also takes big-picture progress to $17,970.02! At this point we're nearly four months ahead. That's good, because our goals were all estimates, so I wouldn't mind reaching the goal sooner in case we move sooner and/or saving more in case the move costs more than we estimate.

It's also good because I've been thinking about loosening the purse strings, just a tiny bit. We've all felt very run down and overworked for the past year or so, and while money can't fix every aspect of that, I'm going to try and be more willing to spend unscheduled money if certain purchases can ease our fatigue enough to be worth it.

Of course, me being me, I want at least a ballpark number. So, since we have about a $150 monthly budget surplus, that's what I'm going to aim for, about. But I'm going to try and not be too anal about that amount.

What do I think could ease our burdens? I think it could vary from month to month. Maybe we order food a bit more often vs. cooking. Schedule an extra housecleaning midmonth. Hire babysitters more often. Take a meditation class together. I'm just brainstorming. Obviously we can't do all of them, every month, but we could change it up and see what works.

***

In other news, we all have a springtime cold. I caught it last (almost thought I was getting off scott-free for a while), so I'm the sickest while everyone else is recovering pretty well. We leave for England Thursday night, so I REALLY hope I'm mostly better by then.

I stayed home sick (well, worked from home) today, but didn't get any preparation for the trip done. Mostly did work and monitored my work email, then took a nap in the late afternoon.

I've got to go in the next two days, to make sure everything's in good shape for me to leave. This will be the first time leaving my newish co-worker in charge of my main task, and it's for two full weeks! I've been training her since October, so I feel pretty good, but it's such a complex task and our client is so unpredictable yet picky, I can't help but be nervous.

We still have a few things to do. We have a housesitter coming (so our cat has company), so we're trying to get everything as clean as possible. I even threw some orange and lemon peels down the garbage disposal. Tomorrow I want to air out our mattress on the balcony, and vacuum it and Febreze it, and air out the condo in general. Luckily temperatures shot up (98 today!) so it won't be a problem to have the windows open a lot.

I'm nervous about having a stranger housesit, but I feel lucky we were able to find someone relatively local. We've met him twice and feel very good about him. He lives about an hour away from the Twin Cities and joined the housesitting site in hopes of trying out city living because he's contemplating a move here. He sings in a chorus here that actually rehearses at the church across the street sometimes, so he's already got ties to our neighborhood. (I just thought to Google him and found a video of him too!) So it's really the next best thing to having an actual friend housesit. And, we don't have to pay anyone to watch the cat.

We'll have a lot of prep work to do tomorrow, because we pretty much need to grab our bags and leave for the airport as soon as we get home from work Thursday. It's an international flight, and we want time to eat before we board, so we're going to try and get there about three hours before departure.

I wanted to have blog posts written for my League of Ordinary Savers website that I could time to post automatically while I'm gone, but I don't know if I'll have the time--or enough inspiration to come up with as many as I wanted to! We'll see. Dang cold is kind of sapping my ambition.

A big extra debt payment hit NT's student loan, and $1028 went to principal. That makes it $1781 down, $1294 to go on the May debt goal.

I didn't count on such a big payment since we're also paying for NT's summer semester this month. But we found that stroller and sold it for $500+, and we got a freelance check and put $500 of that to debt.

I will send off the tuition payment before we leave for England, so we'll hit our debt goal and then some. (Cashflowing tuition burns off "estimated future debt" from our total.)

This also brings our big-picture progress to $15,931.02!

Well, it's officially one week until we leave for England for two weeks! We decided to use up as much food we already have and buy as little as possible. This is one of those three-week grocery periods, so we ran out of grocery money. So it's especially fortuitous.

Here's our grocery list! It's less than a quarter as long as usual:

4 baking potatoes
whole milk
vegetarian burger crumbles
4 apples
2% milk
bread
4 ears corn
EB sticks (butter)
4 zucchini
3/4 cup walnuts
strawberries
salt
mangoes
parsley
cherry tomatoes
garlic powder
baby bellas
parmesan
macaroni
Florida Crystals

And our menu:

Friday dinner
spaghetti w/spinach-tomato sauce; garlic bread

Saturday lunch
Baked potatoes & "waldorf" salad (apples, lettuce, walnuts)

Saturday dinner
Veggie burgers, baked beans & corn on the cob

Sunday lunch
Mother's Day brunch out

Sunday dinner
Mac & cheese & cross-hatch zucchini

Monday
Sloppy joes, fries & strawberry-mango salad

Tuesday
Grilled cheese sandwiches, chix nuggets & cherry tomatoes

Wednesday
Easy pasta & sauce w/baby bellas

Thursday
eat at airport

Nice! This means we can probably bring at least $300 of grocery money to England to help pay for food there, without disrupting our regular grocery budget.

Whew! I went through a bunch of different sites to try and find affordable gift delivery, but every time, all the wire fees and shipping and handling and delivery charges would bring a $30 bouquet or gift to almost $60!

Finally I rooted around for a florist in my mom's area. They still do the Teleflora orders thing; clearly every florist available online is in on the whole nationwide network thing, but they had a local delivery charge of $8. Add in $1.50 tax, and I saved over $20 over the other sites.

The only other catch? I couldn't choose delivery before or on Mother's Day. *shrug* so I picked Monday. My mom is not going to be hurt if she gets her flowers a day late! It's just a day picked at random anyway, right?

This is why I usually get my parents DVDs or books for these holidays, or send them pics of the kids. But I didn't have any ideas this year and knew I had to get my order in soon or risk being way late, so I went the sucker's route.

All the mortgage payments hit:
US: $443 to principal
UK1: $216
UK2: $45
UK3: $48

All told, $753 down, $2322 to go on the May debt-repayment goal.

I also transferred flat rental profit, US$496, into savings for the house fund, and noted $1.98 of interest, bringing that fund to $4,544.48, and our big-picture progress to $14,903.02.

We emptied the girls' piggybank yesterday and I moved some funds around (on my spreadsheets) so UK money is allocated for our trip and US money that had been for the trip is allocated to savings. That means the girls have more funds in US accounts, so I added to AA's mutual fund and opened one for SL.

Just checked NT's college tuition bill, and it's $2,039.06. Should have enough to cashflow summer class AND pay a bit extra toward his existing student loans.

Looking like a good month! Plus, the second half of it will be all vacation.

April was a good month; our debt goal was $2500 and we paid down $2607. Our big-picture benchmark was $8916; we started the month already way ahead of that goal and ended it even farther ahead, at $14,405.04.

For May, we've got that $500 from the Craigslist sale plus our regular budget surplus, which is good because NT's tuition bill for the summer semester has arrived. I don't believe we have to pay it until June, but might as well if we've got extra money this month! Since it will reduce our "estimated future debt," we can still count it toward debt repayment as well as big-picture progress.

So the May debt repayment goal is to pay at least $3075 of debt, and the May big-picture benchmark is $11,145 (so we're already past it!).

This will be quick, but I have a lot to say (and ask!):

First, yesterday in front of the "free table" where residents of our condo leave unwanted possessions for anyone else to take and do with what they please, a neighbor had left a disassembled (but in perfect condition) double Chariot stroller, the kind that cost us (with accessories) $1100 new!

NT grabbed it, assembled it to see what was there, and listed it on Craigslist. A lady is coming by tonight to likely buy it for $535!

We had a few other Craigslist items that might sell tonight too. NT suggested giving part of the proceeds to charity, since it was so random. So whatever we make over $500 from this batch of items, we'll donate somewhere. $500 will go to student loans. Yay!

***

I watched a Frontline documentary on PBS about 401(k)s. The two main takeaways were that 1) actively managed funds are useless compared with index funds and 2) 401(k) fees can erode up to 60% of your potential compound growth over the course of your career!

I immediately went to my 401(k) and got out of the target-date fund I was in, and reallocated everything to three of the lowest-fee funds: two Vanguard indexes and an international stocks fund (higher cost than the Vanguards, but lower cost than the international fund my target-date had me in).

I suggest you look at the costs of your retirement funds, if you haven't already. The spread was staggering. In some cases I was paying $12 per $1000 annually; one of the Vanguards I picked will cost me 50 cents per $1000!

***

This leads me to a question: I checked NT's 401(k) options, and they aren't great. We do want to stay in up to the employer match, but I'm not sure what to do. Should I just pick some of the lower-cost ones, even if it means he's not greatly diversified in terms of risk? Keep in mind we also have my 401(k), AS's 401(k), three Roth IRAs, three pensions in the UK, and a small traditional IRA that's in cash. So I do feel we're diversified overall.

What do you think we should do? Here are NT's options along with their costs (I'll paste plain-text and create a screen grab too; not sure which will be more readable):



What I'm considering is dividing his money pretty much evenly between MFS Massacuhusetts Investors Trust (gross operating expense .78), Franklin Growth Series Fund (GOE .96), Victory Established Value Fund (GOE 1.06), JPMorgan Government Bond Fund (GOE 1.04), PIMCO Total Return Fund (GOE .85), and BlackRock Equity Dividend (GOE .99). Those are the least expensive of all his choices (besides the first listing, which I found out was a cash holding earning 0% while they charged us $6.90 per $1000 per year!) He doesn't have a lot of great options. My company at least had a couple Vanguards, one whose expense was only .05.

Investment /
Fund Investment Class / Historical as of Date / Ticker / NAV / Gross Operating Expense / One Month / Three Month / One Year / Three Year / Five Year / Ten Year / YTD / Month End
Ready Assets(7dayYield:0.00%) Capital Preservation 03/31/2013 MRAXX $1.00 0.69 N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.39% 1.58% N/A
MFS Massachusetts Investors Trust Fund A Large Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 MITTX $23.72 0.78 2.95% 10.43% 15.12% 11.24% 5.78% 8.98% 10.43%
Franklin Growth Series Fund A Large Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 FKGRX $54.64 0.96 3.04% 7.96% 8.66% 10.01% 6.91% 9.81% 7.96%
Victory Established Value Fund A Mid Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 VETAX $31.11 1.06 3.74% 13.25% 15.86% 13.19% 9.44% 12.71% 13.25%
Goldman Sachs Growth Opp A Mid Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 GGOAX $25.00 1.41 2.42% 9.12% 11.17% 12.18% 8.83% 11.41% 9.12%
Goldman Sachs Small Cap Value A Small Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 GSSMX $47.61 1.44 4.68% 12.53% 17.28% 14.76% 9.73% 11.94% 12.53%
Prudential Jennison Small Company Fund A Small Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 PGOAX $24.95 1.17 3.83% 11.28% 13.59% 12.88% 7.78% 13.07% 11.28%
Thornburg International Value Fund R4 International Stock 03/31/2013 THVRX $27.97 1.45 0.35% 2.41% 6.37% 4.63% -0.01% 11.86% 2.41%
Templeton Foreign Fund A International Stock 03/31/2013 TEMFX $6.95 1.21 -0.57% 1.16% 6.77% 4.39% 0.89% 9.26% 1.16%
Invesco Real Estate Fund A Specialty U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 IARAX $25.94 1.30 3.20% 6.54% 12.94% 15.13% 5.77% 12.71% 6.54%
Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund A International Stock 03/31/2013 ODMAX $35.33 1.36 -0.79% 0.11% 5.35% 6.94% 5.72% 21.03% 0.11%
JPMorgan Government Bond Fund A Government Bond 03/31/2013 OGGAX $11.57 1.04 0.29% 0.05% 3.78% 6.27% 5.55% 5.01% 0.05%
PIMCO Total Return Fund A Diversified Bond 03/31/2013 PTTAX $11.24 0.85 0.30% 0.51% 7.50% 6.49% 7.31% 6.19% 0.51%
BlackRock Global Allocation Fund A Balanced 03/31/2013 MDLOX $20.58 1.16 1.63% 4.26% 6.11% 6.08% 3.60% 10.74% 4.26%
BlackRock Eqty Dividend A Large Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 MDDVX $21.55 0.99 2.81% 8.35% 12.29% 11.84% 5.00% 10.47% 8.35%
Putnam Capital Opportunities Fund A Small Cap U.S. Stock 03/31/2013 PCOAX $14.07 1.27 3.76% 11.84% 10.40% 12.45% 9.89% 11.30% 11.84%

I'm home alone with the kids and just finished up a fun movie night with the older one. Spring has finally sprung in Minnesota and everyone's in a fabulous mood, including me.

I checked AS's student loan and the payment had hit, with $129 going to principal. That takes us to $2607 of debt paid in April, surpassing the $2500 goal. Woo hoo! (That loan, by the way, is now at $10,043. By this time next month, AS's non-mortgage debt in her name will be down to 4 figures.)

The payment also counts toward our big-picture goal, so that takes April progress to $14405.04. Even more way ahead of where we need to be. Which is a good place to be!

On to other musings:

We actually had a bit of money left in the grocery budget from the last two-week period, which is good since this budget has to last us three weeks (happens a couple times a year). We may spend a bit more than a third of what we have (still have a couple things to pick up tomorrow), but even if we come close I'm happy. For the last two weeks in May we'll be on vacation, so we can use vacation money for food, but if we're on track we can add some grocery money to our vacation budget, so that's why I'm trying to stay vigilant.

Just used Amazon instant video via our Wii game to rent a movie last week. It was pretty slick: $3.99 and you have it for 24 hours. I remember when I had video-store memberships, it was about $3 for a new release and you had to walk/drive/bus to a store, so this seems like a good deal. Many movies we want to watch are available on Netflix, but this expands our options.

I forgot to mention when it happened, but a few days after April 15 (US tax day), the forms for NT's UK taxes arrived. (How I wish I knew that eye-roll emoticon right now!) It's not due until early October, but still. STILL. I know I'll probably be doing two sets of taxes my whole life, so I'd better just get used to it.

I've been having a lot of fun planning mini-vacations for after we get back from England. It'll be nice to have other things to look forward to, though obviously not as momentous as our big two-week trip. Since we're using so much vacation time early in the year, we agreed we wouldn't do any other long vacations this year, so that actually frees up travel budget funds for a series of little fun things. Besides that, I asked my dad for Xmas if he'd give me some money to help us get to the family reunion, and instead he gave me a voucher to pay for the whole trip. I booked plane & hotel & car for $1262 for the four of us who can make it. I told my dad it was $1200. We'll pay for gas, food and any other transportation needed, because he offered WAY more than I asked for.

So we've booked thus far:
-May 16-June 1: Trip to England (Exeter, Oxford and possibly a couple day trips to London and some smaller towns)
-June 14-16: "Strawberry Social" at our CSA farm, plus whatever other fun we can find that weekend in Southern Minnesota
-June 24: Spa day in town while we send the kids to daycare
-July 15-16: Family reunion in Ohio

Other things we have our eye on so far:
-"Braham Pie Day" (a small-town MN festival) Aug. 2
-Dinner at the restaurant down the block, which is a fantastic gourmet place we've only eaten at once (a friend's wedding reception so we didn't have to pay)
-A hotel night where we get someone to stay overnight at our home with the kids

I'm sure we'll come up with other ideas. Should actually be a lot of fun to spread our travel budget over a lot of little indulgences vs. 1 or 2 big vacations.

Speaking of the UK trip, I have to do some fancy mental financial calculations soon. So we saved up the spending money for the trip in our US checking account, but we're planning on using NT's UK credit card, which is linked to his UK checking/savings account, to actually make purchases over there (to make sure we avoid any harsh transaction fees).

We have more than enough money to cover our vacation budget in UK savings, but it's all allocated to various things: the emergency fund, the house/moving fund and the girls' savings.

So I just have to decide how to reallocate UK and US money in a way that benefits us the most. The girls' money is the easy decision; if it's in US dollars I can use it to open/enlarge mutual funds. The house/moving fund, too. But we'll also need to use part of the EF money too. Currently I have US$5000 in our US savings and 6250 pounds (US$10000) in the UK account. I like those round numbers, and I like having two-thirds of the money in a harder-to-reach place. So I may continue to shuffle money after the trip to get the UK portion of the EF back to $10000. Like I say, it'll just take some fancy financial footwork and possibly a minor migraine to figure everything out on my spreadsheets.

I'll probably do the first part of the calculation May 1, when the last UK mortgage payments before the trip happen. Then I can see exactly how much we have in the UK accounts.

While we're in England, I'm thinking we should take advantage of the opportunity and meet with an immigration-focused lawyer, to get someone's take on what our real chances, and biggest obstacles, are. If so I'll take that money out of our regular budget surplus, not the travel budget. It would slow our big-picture progress, but in the long run could help us focus our efforts and maybe save us mental effort, time AND money. We'll see if I can get it together to schedule something.

Another related expense we'll have to take on eventually is getting the girls British passports. While there's no official dual-citizenship status that one can seek, Americans with a British parent are allowed to obtain a second passport, which we see as a helpful foothold should we ever move (or should the girls want to live there someday whether or not we do).

Listed a few things on Craigslist today, things that have been hanging around for a while: a rusty bike with a broken wheel (NT bought a new-to-him bike and gave me his old one, so I can ditch this one), a supportive device for babies for the Chariot stroller brand, a Bumbo infant seat, an Apple Airport device, an armchair we have no room for in our living room, and a baby monitor. If we get no nibbles on these, I'm happy to Freecycle them instead, but thought it was worth the 15 minutes of effort photographing and posting them to maybe make a few bucks. I did get a $25 offer for the Airport but am waiting until tomorrow to see if I get an offer closer to the $40 we're asking. If not, I'll try to bargain this guy up to $30.

AS made a fast $45 working a couple hours on a freelance editing project for a co-worker of mine. The lady also took me out to lunch and AS out to coffee, so it seems like she's nurturing a longer-term relationship to maybe use us for editing off and on. This could be a good source of lower-paying but faster and shorter jobs (as opposed to the grueling book-length freelance projects AS gets that pay well but really drain her energy and our together time).

OK, I think that's it. May make it an early night, since all I'm doing besides blogging is snacking and watching TV.

Let's see how many I can think of before I get too sleepy...

We had a hard week on our spending money finances last week, so we decided to divvy up the last $300 of our tax refund, just to give our pockets a boost. We had it set aside for computer repair, but that ended up being very inexpensive. Now I feel like a millionaire! I've been letting loose a tiny bit more, but I haven't blown it all, so maybe there is hope that I'm conditioning myself to not be a spender.

Still waiting for several AS freelance checks; I've kind of lost count. But, they'll come eventually. Still waiting for one more $100 credit card bonus too. That should hit this week and I'll be able to order a check. After our vacation I'm going to cancel a ton. Then we'll see if there are any good new deals or if we should just take it easy for a while. Oh! And I got my first $5 Amazon credit for Swagbucks. Only took me a year or so.

One of my co-workers asked if I knew any great copy editors, so of course I recommended AS. I figured whatever side projects she had, they wouldn't be entire books like the grueling freelance projects AS usually takes. She already gave her one assignment, a few hours' work at $30 per hour. And, she and I are having lunch tomorrow to talk about some possible projects for me, too! I wouldn't mind having some little one-offs to raise a bit of money for our goals. Even though we're ahead of where we need to be for our original timeline, it wouldn't hurt to still attack it and try to get even further.

AS and I both, concurrently but over separate things, had a bit of a freakout yesterday about staying in the condo for 3+ more years. For me, it's our younger kid's propensity to dump out every shelf, toybox and drawer she can get her hands on, so our small space is constantly cluttered no matter how much we tidy. (I decided to start leading her through the motions of cleaning and will try to do that frequently, so she starts to get the hang of it.)

For AS it's the fact that we've gotten one or two noise complaints from the neighbors below us. We think it's from the kids dropping things on the floor. This condo sells you on the pretty parquet wood floors, then you read the association rules which say you have to cover at least 75% of it with carpet. Well, we haven't done that, but between furniture and area rugs probably 50-60% is covered. Still, the girls find ways to drop and drag noisy things all the time. We haven't had a noise complaint in a few months, but we still wince every time anything happens. It tends to make one feel very closed-in and helpless in one's own home.

The weather is not helping (it's been snowing since 3pm today). Nor is the cat, who wakes us up early each morning scrabbling at the doorknob to get in, then tromping on our heads purring thunderously if we do let him in. Nor are the kids, who both require near-constant supervision and/or interaction when we are home. Nor is the fact we haven't had a proper vacation together since January 2012.

So we talked about ways to cut down on toys so SL has fewer things to dump out, and cut down on furniture so it doesn't feel as crowded in here. Take more of kids' stuff into their room so the common spaces don't feel dominated by them. But of course these are just Band-Aids for the bigger problem. Lipstick on a pig, as I put it to AS this morning. I know that, but if we really want to move and be happy, we need to A) make sure we've given it our best shot to get to England before we resign ourselves to Minnesota and B) save up money and let our properties appreciate as much as possible so we don't fall way back financially, and so we can afford to get a place we want to stay in for a long time, if not forever, whichever country we end up settling in.

So, we're going to try and spring-clean and make little improvements to make this place more livable, and we're going to try and get out more so we don't feel stuck in here. But mainly we just need to stick to the plan as long as possible so we're in a good position and not moving out of desperation.

Actually, letting our feelings kind of overwhelm us for a couple hours actually burned them off a bit. We both feel a bit calmer. We have a lot to look forward to, but we have a little bit of work to do to bring some equilibrium back into our present-day lives. It needs recalibrating every once in a while, a pattern some of you have no doubt detected on my blog over the years.

To end on a cheerier note after that vent, two friends posted on my League of Ordinary Savers page on Facebook to say that they had upped their retirement contributions several points because of me! That was so very gratifying. No matter what else happens with that project/hobby/whatever, I've actually improved some friends' futures!

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): $22,601
NT's Roth IRA: $5,278
AS's 401(k): $9,178
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $11,483
CJ's 401(k): $52,309
CJ's Roth IRA: $5,278
NT's flat: 125,000 pounds ($200,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $145,000
Emergency fund (shared asset): $15,000
House down payment/moving fund (shared): $4,047
---
Total Assets: $527,633

Total Debt: $264,430

Current Estimated Net Worth: $263,203

March 2013 estimate: $259,884

Change in net worth: +$3,319

Summary: Retirement funds stagnated; most increased less than the amount we contributed, or actually lost value. However, a good amount of debt payment still gave us a decent increase in net worth.

I will update my "Individual Net Worth" page shortly so you can see how it breaks out per person.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. I don't have a way to check NT's UK pensions or flat value, so their values stay static for the purpose of this update (unless I happen to get some info by chance). UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.60 for every British pound.

Well, that student loan payment hit. Watching the news about Boston I'm not feeling much like celebrating, but I want to log the progress anyway.

$1731 went to principal. Since it all went to the highest-interest portion of the debt, it brings the average interest rate to 4.27%. Still our highest-interest debt, but not by much. (The next-highest is actually our mortgage, at 3.5%; I just checked our other student loan that has a variable rate, and it has decreased from 3.8% to 3.3%.)

That takes our April debt progress to $2478, just $22 to go.

Big-picture progress is at 14,276.04.

If I can keep putting at least $1700 per month to that student loan and/or tuition for NT's classes, I should be able to pay off this loan and cashflow tuition (so not incur any more debt) for the rest of the year.

Still haven't had my official annual review with my boss, but the 2% raise hit the checking account, so I'm happy. Looks like I'll net $60 instead of my guess of $40 per month! It's going straight to extra student loan payment for a while, then eventually to saving for a house.

We had a miniscule amount of big-picture progress; $0.26 of interest earned in the regular savings account, which I'll put toward the medical EF (taking it to $1,487.61). It reminded me to check our house-fund savings account and we earned $2.04 of interest in there, which will go to the house fund (making it $4,046.50). That brings our big-picture progress to $12,545.04.

Had my second "League of Ordinary Savers" meeting on Sunday. A few people canceled so it was just three good friends, which was super fun. We mostly talked about "All Your Worth," the great personal finance book by Elizabeth Warren and her daughter. One of the main premises of the book is trying to achieve that 50/30/20 budget balance, so we talked a lot about all the categories, how to calculate them, how to get them in balance and where to put your money once you were ready to really focus on saving for retirement.

That evening AS and I watched a documentary about the explosion of the consumer debt problem, called "Maxed Out." Even though our family is out of consumer debt, hopefully for good, it was very chilling. Elizabeth Warren was in it a lot; I love that she's had a very consistent career of trying to stick up for the little guy against big financial institutions and crooked politicians. Anyway, watching the documentary made me really hope that my new group/blog/Facebook page will actually make a difference in a couple of people's lives.

We spent a bit more on groceries this weekend than I wanted, but we feel good about our chances of getting back on track next week. There are some very good sales on produce coming up, and we have some staples that we can eat through to make our list shorter. I don't think we'll be dipping into the next two weeks' grocery money.

AA had her very first completely dry diaper overnight this weekend! She seems to be naturally training herself out of going in the middle of the night. So someday soon maybe we won't have to buy pull-ups anymore.

This weekend I had several unexpected drains on my personal spending money. First, we were supposed to have a babysitter Saturday but she flaked. But we all paid in anyway, because we'd bought her tickets to a show that she was supposed to pay back with babysitting. We decided she's so flaky we'd just pay in the money for the tickets into the checking account anyway, and never ask her to babysit again. Then, AS and I went to a party and missed the bus on the way home, so we split the cost of a cab. I had the munchies when I got home, so I ordered late-night delivery. And, our daycare lady had a health scare this weekend, so we decided to pitch in $20 each and get her a food-delivery gift certificate.

Despite all that, I still have about $50! I have a dinner and drinks date with friends and potentially a lunch date with some other friends this week, so I think the $50 will just about cover it. Cutting it close, though. I'm so glad I barely spent any money the week before, which is why I had so much available for these unexpected purchases.

I sent off a nice big payment to NT's student loan Friday, but it hasn't hit yet. It's come out of our checking account, so I think it'll hit tonight; that's the pattern this account has followed lately.

One of SL's first-birthday presents was a $50 Target gift card. Well, she literally wants for nothing; she has more clothes and toys than we know what to do with. So we used the gift card for groceries and I put $50 of grocery money into savings for her. She's at $480 in her U.S. savings, almost enough to start a Pax mutual fund. I should empty their piggy bank so I can get that started for SL.

Wow, this month has been dead in terms of financial news and progress! But last night, we got a $101.54 check in the mail from American Express. It wasn't for our currently open Amex card and I couldn't think of anything it was for, so I called them to make sure it wasn't a scam. (Not sure what scam it could be, but always assuming someone has figured out a way to outsmart me!)

They confirmed it was a legit check, because a clinic NT went to had refunded some money to a paid off (and closed) credit card. We remembered he disputed a medical charge because it was supposed to be covered by workman's comp, but we thought the clinic had already paid us directly? Dunno, but we'll take it anyway! I'm putting it into the medical EF, so that's our first big-picture progress for April, and it takes us to $12,542.74 of progress. Takes the medical EF to $1,487.35.

Other than that, really not much happening! AS switched us back to Comcast for internet, and I have yet to find out what the monthly cost will be. She got some kind of intro deal that's temporary. Anyway, she's using $500 of freelance money to cover however much more it is than our budgeted amount, and when the $500 runs out, we'll talk about whether to cut back, fund it in our regular budget, or fund it with our spending money. The $500 may cover it for quite a while.

AS turned down a $1000 freelance job. It was hard for her, but I'm glad she gets to relax a bit more. She still brings work home, but at least she doesn't do that on top of freelancing at night.

The 15th should be exciting, because I get to send a big student loan payment, plus I may see how much my raise nets out to. But until then (and after that), probably a pretty boring month financially. I think AS is expecting three more freelance checks, but I'm never sure when they're going to come, so I don't count on them.

This Sunday I'm hosting another meeting of the "League of Ordinary Savers" group I started. It may just be me and two good friends, which would be kind of nice so I don't mind. We'll be discussing the book "All Your Worth," among other things. I've also tried to keep up with my ordinarysavers.com website and corresponding Facebook page; I've been doing about a post per week. I don't have a huge audience or many responses, but I'm having fun with it and that's the main thing!

Grocery budget is under control, spending money is back in balance, and we've been good about not using the carshare this month to try and get that line item caught up.

The main project I work on at my job just got renewed for another year, so I'm feeling good about job security.

My friend was happy about my publicizing his Facebook reading page Short Story Short. Not sure if I drummed up enough support to win one of the gift cards; I think his contest runs until the end of the month. Still time for you to "like" his page and tell him ceejay sent you!

Seriously, I think that's it for my financial news! I've been sick for the past few weeks, so just as well it's been a slow period. I think I'm finally getting better but I hesitate to say that because every time I have, I get sick again! I think I'm in one of those vicious circles where my body is more vulnerable from being sick, so I get sick again, and my body gets more and more susceptible as I get all these little illnesses. Hopefully it'll peter out soon. I've been trying to eat a lot of fruit to try and get more vitamin C.

OK, I'm done meandering.

Completely off-topic financially. Well, not completely, but mostly.

My friend asked his buddies to drum up support for his Facebook page,

Short Story Short. It's basically a site that gives weekly novella and short-story collection reading recommendations. He's trying to get more followers, so he's running a contest.

The person who gets the most people to "like" his page AND say who sent them wins a $500 Amazon gift card! There are also smaller 2nd and 3rd place prizes. The details are on the Facebook page.

So, if you want to support me in my attempt to win one of the prizes, "like" Short Story Short and tell them ceejay sent you. (I told him that's my blogger handle so I'd get credit for those referrals. ) Or, if you have a bunch of Facebook friends who would be interested in the page, you can compete yourself. Just make sure your friends say who recommended them when they join, so my friend can keep score.

OK, I've done my friend duty.

The mortgage payments all hit:
US: $441 to principal
UK1: $213
UK2: $46
UK3: $47

All told, $747 down, $1753 to go on the April debt goal.

We had no leftover money to add to savings because of the rental management's fees this month, so no big-picture progress.

However, my boss emailed me with good news today. He's behind on doing annual reviews, but has promised a lunch out for our review AND a 2% raise! This will probably only net about $40 per month, but since we're already at a comfortable place in our budget, this means more money toward our big-picture goals, so I'm very happy!

I was home sick yesterday and fell asleep for four hours with HGTV on, so when I woke up all I wanted to do was look at real estate online. Even though it's a few years away, I like seeing that there are lots of nice places within our projected price range (in both Oxford and Minneapolis, so wherever we end up). And any extra money we manage to save will give us more flexibility -- either a more expensive home, or a lower mortgage, or a less financially stressful transition between selling our existing homes and purchasing the new one.

One more chance to linger on the triumph that was March, before planning for a much more normal debt-paying month in April.

My March debt repayment goal was $6770, and I blew past that to $8208! It was by far our biggest month of debt repayment; the past record was $5901 in January 2011.

Our big-picture goal was to have $6687 worth of progress toward our three goals (medical EF, house fund, student loan repayment); instead we're at $12,441.20!

For April, I'm shooting for $2500 of debt repayment.

Our April big-picture goal would be to add another $2229 of progress and get to $8916. But we've already exceeded that! If all goes well, we'll now always be ahead of our monthly benchmarks for this goal.

AS's job finally got her withholding sorted out! In the end, NT kept his the same, I increased mine a bit and AS decreased hers a lot. We're netting $345 more per month in take-home pay.

This is great because our budget has had a $250 or so monthly shortfall to keep everything as-is and still meet our four-year big-picture goals. Now, we have a $106 surplus! Basically, if nothing changed for the next three years and nine months, we would coast easily into meeting all of our aggressive goals: $5,000 medical EF, all student loans paid off, remaining tuition paid in cash, and $56,000 in a moving-to-England or house-down-payment fund.

I'm going to continue to throw most windfall money at the goals so we can get ahead, just in case things happen and we have some lean months. Plus, if we get an opportunity to move to England before the four years are up (unlikely, but you never know), we'll know we got as financially prepared as possible.

NT's mom just deposited GBP500 (US$800) into his UK checking account to cover our rental car for the trip. The car only cost GBP318.42, so we'll be able to use the rest to help cover gas or other expenses. I paid off the UK credit card we used to book the car.

NT's rental management company took service fees out of his income this month, so we would have been about 20 pounds short of making the mortgage payments and would've dipped into savings. Luckily his mom's gift makes it so that doesn't have to happen.

She also deposited GBP100 (US$160) for the girls' birthdays, so I transferred that into savings and credited US$80 to each girl. Now AA is nearly at the $3000 benchmark in savings and investments ($2,952.83), but SL is a bit behind the $1000 benchmark I wanted hers to hit by this week ($701.00). But we have probably $100 in the piggy bank, so she'll get close when we deposit that. We'll catch up at some point.

In other money news, we are heading into the next month of groceries with over $50 left in the March grocery budget! However, our monthly invoice for the carshare hit, so we've now blown through April's carshare budget and dipped into May's. Apparently this is our new budgetary weak spot. Ah well, we won't need the carshare much in May since we'll be gone half the month, and we'll just try to be good in April and not get even farther behind.

I'm also happy to report that I've finished paying off my web hosting annual fee for my ordinarysavers.com site. Now my spending money is my own again! I'm so glad not to owe in anymore.

I'm not sure whether we'll get our paychecks Friday or Monday since the last day of the month is Sunday. I'm hoping it's Friday because I'm eager to see what our new net pay for the year will be. AS's company didn't adjust her withholding last pay period, so this will be the paycheck where I find out how much more we're going to get.

At least until my annual review, which should be coming up soon! My boss hinted at potential for a raise, which I don't think he'd have bothered to do unless he was already planning to give me one. Even a small one would be just fantastic.

Our little SL will be one year old on Friday. She's such a gorgeous little handful! Hard to believe she'll already be that old. I hope she's not too skinny when she gets weighed at the doctor's. She doesn't care much for formula, but she eats like a horse, so I think she'll plump up when we switch her over to cow's milk after her birthday. It'll probably taste much better.

AS's regular student loan payment hit and $131 went to principal. There have been lots of windfalls this month, but I don't foresee any more. So I believe this will be the final debt repayment number from March: $8208!

Big-picture progress is at $12,441.20, almost double where we need to be at this point!

I got another random check from the dentist I ditched for overcharging and being confusing about billing. $36.60 -- certainly not enough to make me go back to them, but I'll take it and add it to the medical EF. Along with 25 cents of interest, that's $36.85 more of big-picture goal progress, taking us to $12,310.20 progress for the year. The medical EF is at $1,385.81.

NT had his 40th birthday party this past weekend. It was a blast! Also quite a splurge, funded mostly with money we saved from his Xmas bonus (we also used bday gifts money and dipped into our charitable line item):
$350 to rent party space (a really cool photography studio)
$225 for DJ (a local figure and NT's favorite)
$190 for booze (we've got enough left over to save us buying wine for weeks!)
$150 for food (plus a few more snacks that NT used a Target gift card to get)
$100 for babysitter

$1015 total! But a fun, memorable night, and we could afford it, so no regrets.

We also used the carshare service to haul things to and from the party space, but we're taking that out of our regular carshare line item. (We had to use up April's amount, so we'll have to try to avoid using it for a while.)

I'm feeling a bit shaken because one of our friends (NT's co-worker) lost his sister today. It's just so sad; she was in her 40s or 50s. She got sick suddenly about a year ago and they tried just about everything. She kept getting to death's door and then having miraculous recoveries, but this time no miracle. Our friend is such a good brother and he's been consumed with trips to visit her through all the struggles. He would talk about our kids and show her pictures, and she wanted to meet them as soon as her immune system was strong enough for young visitors, but it never got there. I believe she leaves behind a couple of young kids herself. Even though I never met her, knowing all my friend has been through and then to get hit like this just makes me feel terrible.

Remember that lost student loan payment? (How could you forget when I harp on it every chance I get??) I've been halfheartedly checking NT's account every couple of days, fully expecting that it wouldn't hit and I'd have to call and do some more investigating when the next arbitrary deadline they gave me hit.

Well, today, there it was! There was a slight glitch in that they applied it evenly across the loan, even to the paid-off portion, so some parts are showing a negative balance. But I called them and it sounded like a routine thing to adjust, so hopefully it won't take them forever and a day this time. Nevertheless, since the negative balances count against the positive, we still show the full amount paid -- $1140 to principal!

That takes us to a rather heart-stopping $8077 of debt paid this month. I have no words. So pleased beyond belief.

It also takes our big-picture progress to $12,273.35 -- basically where I hoped to be by mid-June of this year!

And, it takes that Sallie Mae loan to less than $10K.

My financial life feels pretty slow and dull now that I'm not throwing big daily payments at the student loan! I'll see what else I can find to talk about instead.

I've been sick pretty much since Friday night, so I haven't gotten much done. I stayed home Monday and went in today, so I'm on the mend for sure. Saturday evening was the worst; I was really achy. Thank goodness that part didn't last long.

Our grocery budget finally, FINALLY seems to have come back into balance. Smart spending plus reduced diapers and formula has paid off at last. We have over $200 left for this Friday's shopping trip! We should be all right from now on; formula stops completely at the end of this month, and we won't buy groceries for two weeks in May (we'll be in England), and our CSA starts up in June, so we'll be getting produce every week from another part of our budget.

Something that is NOT working out: our new internet service. It's very patchy and unpredictable and sometimes slow. Sometimes it will randomly choose a site to lock us out of. Tonight it's my ordinarysavers.com site. Sometimes it's Netflix (though I'm watching a Netflix movie right now and it's working fine).I have to admit it's annoying. I'd probably stick it out for another 6-8 months until we make back in savings the money we spent on the modem, which we can now no longer get a refund for. But AS and NT really want to switch sooner.

AS accepted another $1000 assignment on the condition that she could put $500 toward the overage that better internet service would cost for the next couple years. The other $500 I can put toward debt.

I actually think we could probably get a good intro deal from Comcast to get us to switch back; after all, they offered me a temporary deal to stay with them. So her $500 might last a really long time. And who knows? Maybe we can sell the modem for a few bucks on Craigslist.

I'm glad we tried it, but the moral of the story is, sometimes saving a few bucks just isn't worth it.

What else? Well, I've come out of my malaise somewhat; at least I feel like writing on my ordinarysavers site, which is a good sign, since that's meant to be a somewhat creative outlet for me. I also did a bit of reorganizing of the girls' room, buying some rolling plastic chests of drawers that fit in their closet, to help handle some of their toys. (Of course SL's birthday is coming up next week, so let's hope everything still fits! We only got her three toys, but we know all the grandparents will go nuts.)

Speaking of birthdays, every year I wonder whether it's time to start giving AA an allowance. I almost started this year, but AS pointed out that it wouldn't mean much to her until she starts getting the concept of money, and doing her fair share around the house. Anyway, she and SL get most of our loose change put in their piggy bank, so they do get an allowance of sorts. I'm a bit behind my goal to have their accounts at $1000 per year of age, but it's just a rough rule of thumb I came up with. It'll be easy to make up at some point.

AS's "HR" (there isn't really one at her job) forgot to adjust her withholdings, so this past paycheck my net pay was less and hers was the same. Luckily I'd decided to only have about $20 more withheld each paycheck, so it was easy to absorb. Hopefully hers will be right next payday. I can't wait to start putting that extra money toward our goals. Should eliminate the shortfall for the monthly amount we need to hit our big-picture goals!

My boss hinted that I may be up for a raise this year! That would be exciting, because our budget is already coming into balance quite nicely. For the time being I would probably put it toward the student loan I want to get rid of ASAP, but at some point I might allocate it toward fun. Part of me wants to scrimp every extra bit so we have more than enough for our eventual move. But at the same time, our current life is pretty hard, and it would be nice to have a little more money to treat ourselves to something nice once in a while. I'll have to think about it.

One thing we'll really enjoy this year: We'd already decided to do staycations for the rest of the year since we're using so much money and PTO to go to England. I had also thought we might have to siphon money from our travel budget to stay on track with our big-picture goals. But now it's looking like we won't have to do that, so our staycations could be pretty lavish if we wanted to spend our money that way. Maybe we could even do one or two short weekend trips to Chicago or St. Louis or somewhere it's cheap to fly to from Minneapolis.

Or just stay in the city and visit fancy restaurants, like the one half a block away that we've only ever had drinks or appetizers at, except once when a friend had their wedding reception there.

Sigh ... I definitely have winter fatigue and frugal fatigue right now, can you tell?