Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

I paid the portion of NT's tuition that we didn't take out a loan for. As many of you already know, when I started my journey out of debt, I added $40,000 of "estimated future debt" to our debt load. I knew NT needed to get a college degree, so I picked that as the max we would borrow. I didn't want it to hurt our debt progress when we took out loans, so I added it in before we'd actually borrowed it.

By cashflowing part of this semester, we saved having to take out that amount as a student loan, so I subtract that from our "estimated future debt."

We paid $1278, so that makes it $2,101 toward the September debt repayment goal, or $20 more than our month's goal!

Looking ahead, I can see that this degree is going to cost us more than $40,000. So at a certain point, the "estimated future debt" category will be gone, and we'll just have to cashflow it all to make sure we don't borrow, but it will mean slower reduction of our total household debt. But I'm confident we'll be in a good place to do so.

I'm going to lay out a long-term strategy at the end of this year for how I'm going to try and reach all my financial goals listed in the sidebar by 2016. I'll be sure to add the extra money I think I'll need for NT to complete his degree.

***

Doing well on the no-eating-out challenge! I haven't even bought extra treats while grocery shopping, which is tempting when I know I'm not allowed.

Sept. 14: success.
Sept. 15: success.

That takes me to 13 out of 15 successful days. Not like I eat out a ton regularly anyway, but this is a pretty good record for me! Tuesday I'll get drinks out, but I'll try to keep it to one. Other than that, I don't see too many strong temptations ahead of me this month. So hopefully I'll be able to buy a few key items for my winter wardrobe soon!

***

I challenged us to stay within $100 for the week's groceries. With diapers and formula, we'll be about $19 over that. And we have a couple bucks' worth of items that we didn't realize we needed. But, if we hadn't had to stock up on those, we'd be about $30 under budget! So I'm still proud of us. We can look forward to a time when we don't have to buy diapers or formula, and we'll be used to constraining our grocery shopping, so it'll hopefully be easy to stay within budget.

***

Some random good money news:

AS was working remotely at a coffee shop downtown on Friday. I overheard a project manager saying we could use an editor with Chicago style knowledge for a few hours. So I asked AS if she could put off some of her regular work and do it over the weekend, and she said yes! She ended up working 4.5 hours at $55 per hour! This will go straight into the moving fund when we get it, nearly $250. I'm proud of her for stepping in with no notice to contribute to the fund.

Our healthcare situation straightened out, faster than I thought it would! SL's healthcare was taken out of my paycheck and NT's check was back to normal. So that was about $40 I wasn't anticipating, PLUS my paycheck was nearly $10 more than I'd estimated, so that's about $20 per month more that we can put toward our goals.

NT is finding his Net10 phone plan doesn't work because he has tons of minutes left over each month, but he has to add more every 2 months to keep his number active. So I contacted T-Mobile to see if I could start a third prepaid plan for our household (I'd read somewhere there was a limit of 2) and they said it was OK.

NT just refilled, so we'll use his phone as much as possible for the next 2 months and then switch him to T-Mobile. There will be an initial outlay to buy a T-Mobile phone and 1000 minutes, but in the long run this should lower our monthly costs. And he'll have more flexibility and not have to refill at a certain time (1000 minutes with T-Mobile buys you a year of activation).

The no-eating-out challenge:
Sept. 12: success.
Sept. 13: success. (I'm currently stuffing my face with my favorite pasta comfort dish, so I definitely won't be eating out!)
So far: 11 out of 13 days.

Our daycare lady reported that she needs formula, diapers, pull-ups AND baby cereal Monday. So, yikes! That's at least $40 out of the grocery/household budget. I was going to have us aim for $100 or less of spending; now I want us to go for $60. I'll take a look at the shopping list before we go Saturday and see if there are things we can eliminate or put off until next week.

Since I got through the week with no eating out and minimal fun-money spending, I had over $30 to put in my clothing envelope! That's easily a bra or a pair of shoes. I tried on my winter slacks and they were baggy and not very professional looking, so I'm definitely going to have to get more. I do have one pair of slacks that fit me, plus jeans for Fridays, and it's not cold yet. So I have a bit of time. I think my main priorities are: 2 bras (one strapless and one with straps), 2 pairs of flats for work and 2 pairs of slacks. I have other nice-to-haves, but that would tide me over for the winter.

NT got out this week's spending money a day early because we might not have time for a break tomorrow. I put $20 in my theater-tickets envelope, leaving $60. I'm thinking I'll spend $20 on wine since it's my turn to buy, and I might spend $10 on drinks at trivia on Tuesday. With luck (and some restraint) I'll have $30 left over next Friday to put in my clothes envelope!

I applied for another credit card, a USBank FlexPerks Visa. You can get $150 statement credit for spending $500, and the annual fee is waived the first year. Then I went ahead and applied for NT and AS (shrug). If NT gets denied again, I'll take that as a sign that he needs to stop having applications and just build his credit for a while.

My fitness is going pretty well. I've got my regular bike rides on Saturdays to get groceries, and with my job's pedometer challenge, I've made sure to get more walking in. The first week's challenge is 6,000 steps a day, and it goes up throughout the month. So far I'm easily staying ahead of it.

Hmm. I think that's all. Oh, I wanted to talk about a "fall-back career option" thought process I've been having, but I'll save that for another entry when I'm less frazzled.

Sept. 10: success
Sept. 11: success

It's my turn to stay home with the kids for trivia night, so a bonus is that I won't be spending on drinks out!

A few weeks ago, I applied all three of us for Bank of America Visa cards with a "spend $500, get $100" deal. It was one of the few companies I hadn't scammed ... er, uh, taken advantage of an offer with.

AS and I got approved, and we also got our credit scores. I didn't keep them, but I believe hers was 800 and mine was 812! Even with all the opening and closing of credit cards, our scores are higher than ever.

NT got denied, and he got his score. It was a crushingly low ... 776. LOL. This must have been a picky credit card offer! Actually that's about as high as his score has ever been; he has a short credit history for his age, since they only track credit usage from his 6-7 years of living in the U.S. And for two out of those years, I've been opening and closing cards like crazy in his name.

So I won't say this busts the myth that it will harm your credit score, but here are three examples of scores staying stable or actually getting higher during a lot of credit card activity.

Anyway, we'll use the two new BoA visas to pay most of NT's $1000+ medical bill, and we'll get $200 back. Not bad! I haven't decided where to put that money; into the EF or back into the medical fund, probably. Meanwhile I'll start looking for other offers for us to apply to.

We finished charging up the three Delta Amex cards, so we'll soon have 90,000 miles plus whatever we already have in our frequent flyer accounts. We'll transfer them all into one account and try to pay for one of the UK trip plane tickets with them. Prices for the time period we want to go are staying pretty stable; $1050-$1011 for a one-stop flight; $1310-$1315 for a nonstop. I'm thinking even if we mostly pay for one ticket with miles, we'll still need to take a one-stop option to keep our airfare under $4000.

Today I had to dip a bit more into groceries to buy formula; it just wasn't going to last the week. I went ahead and got AA some shoes the next size up while I was at Target; I knew it was going to happen soon. Feels WEIRD to buy clothing for either of the kids; they both have massive wardrobes of clothing given to us. But shoes are one thing we don't get handed down very much, and doting friends and family prefer to buy cute little dresses and such.

I found a pair of sneakers for $14 and a pair of mary janes (that also have good grip on the soles and seem pretty comfortable) for $13. They're a bit big for her, so they should last a long time. And we do have a pair of snowboots we got as a hand-me-down, so we should be set for her for the winter.

That's all for now; I'm feeling very sleepy.

FY2012 Spending:
AS's April T-Mobile fillup (500 minutes): $53.90
NT's May Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.36
CJ's May T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
AS's June T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's July Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.36
NT's Sept Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.36

FY2012 total so far: $369.54

Since we're in the sixth month of the "fiscal year," that means our average is $61.59 per month. Down quite a bit from a few months ago; if AS and I can limit use of our phones, it should go down even more. (NT has way too many minutes left over each 60-day period and they just keep stacking up, so I'm debating seeing if T-Mobile will do a third prepaid plan for our household instead. The reason I did this is they said there was a limit two per household, but I'm not sure how strict that is.)

Anyway, we're netting out at a good average so far this fiscal year, though I'd like to see it go a bit lower.

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009, so our phone "fiscal year" begins each April. We have 2 phones on T-Mobile prepaid and 1 on Net10 prepaid. AS and I refill in 1000-minute increments and only need to refill when we run out or when it's been a year since our last fillup to stay active. NT needs to buy 300 more minutes every 60 days to keep his phone activated.

Our cellphone bill, for three phones on a family plan, used to range from $80-$95, depending on texts, calls to 411, etc. Usually it was close to $85. My ideal goal is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 is a savings.

No eating out:
Sept. 8: success.
Sept. 9: success (I think I can trust myself to go the next 20 minutes without ordering pizza! EDIT: done; it's after midnight! )

That makes 7 successful days out of 9.

I did really well this weekend, resisting several temptations to spend my fun money. I survived and didn't spend a dime of it!

Saturday we went to the party where I'd found out there was a cash bar. Well, true to my suspicions, the food wasn't free either; they had a trendy food truck out back where you could buy food. I was pretty thirsty and peckish by the end but managed not to buy anything.

Challenge #2 was that we were having so much fun with our friends they wanted to go to a bar afterward. I got a glass of water and didn't order food. My friend insisted on sharing one of his appetizers with me, but I definitely didn't push for that, so I still consider it a success. Didn't pay for it anyway!

Challenge #3: When we got home, AS said she was going to order from our favorite pizza place. I had a small snack from the freezer that did push me over my calorie limit but at least didn't cost me anything, then went to bed before she ordered so I wouldn't be tempted.

Today we went to a block party with those same friends. I found it pretty easy to resist the food and drinks available, but I was tempted by a cute T-shirt that was only $5. However, T-shirts are not an area of my wardrobe that I need to focus on to get ready for winter, so I resisted that too.

We went to our friends' studio for a quick photo shoot and then to their house for dinner. I'd brought vegan sloppy joe fixin's and salad, thinking it would be a light meal. But then my friend bought vegetarian baked beans and BBQ potato chips, two of my biggest weaknesses! So I ended up going overboard, and I think that's one of the reasons I gained 2 lbs. at my weigh-in tonight. Back up to 135, 6 lbs. away from my goal. But I think it was a bit of an aberration because of my eating being skewed toward the weekend. I'm hoping this will be easy to get past.

We need to dip a bit more into the grocery budget than I thought; I had to get milk and wipes for the girls while at the block party ($4.50) because of poor planning, and we'll need more pull-ups for AA, when I originally thought we'd be able to last until next Monday. It's also looking more likely that we'll need formula before Friday. So we'll start the next semimonthly period a bit short, but if we buckle down again for a couple weeks we should pull out of it. We are the LEAST behind on groceries that we've been for a while, so I'm still encouraged.

AA has successfully used the potty three times in the past week. Funnily enough, we used to be able to get her to use it about once a day before we were "officially" in potty training mode, so it's a bit trying. I am attempting not to see dollar signs for every pull-up she soils. I'll just focus on how beneficial to our household budget her eventual success will be!

Speaking of good budget news, I believe the healthcare switch for SL will show up on my and NT's Sept. 15 paycheck. I'd love to have our paycheck amounts stabilize for the rest of the year!

Sept. 7 no eating out: Success.

Tonight and tomorrow will be challenges, but I think I can make it. Tonight we're going to a party that we thought might have free drinks, but turns out it's got a cash bar. I'm going to have a drink or two before I leave home (don't worry, I'm not driving) and try not to buy any while I'm there. I'll eat something before I go; there's supposed to be food, but now I'm not sure if you have to pay for it or not.

Tomorrow we're going to a block party, so I'm sure I'll be tempted by delicious-smelling food trucks. After we're getting some photos done by our photographer friend, and he said we should "grab dinner" after that. I made sure to specify that I'd rather make food than eat out or get takeout, and he was agreeable to that. So we're bringing the fixin's for vegan sloppy joes and salad. It'll be really effortless so even if we're tired after the block party and photo shoot, it'll be nothing to fix dinner.

I'm glad North Georgia Gal suggested this challenge, because these are things I might have used my spending money for, but instead, if I succeed, I'll have money to put in my as-yet empty clothing envelope that I started 2 weeks ago.

I did 20 minutes of cycling to get the groceries, and then NT asked if I wanted to take a longer bike ride. We ran a few errands, and I think the total biking that second time was an hour. So I worked out 80 minutes today!

Today's goal was to get groceries in under $143. We saved over $40 shopping sales and using coupons, but we had to buy a big bottle of olive oil ($14) and a new door handle ($23) for our balcony door (the old one snapped off in my hand a few days ago). So we were $6.26 over and still had a few things to buy at the Asian store and Lunds (which had some amazing coupons we HAD to use). Then NT remembered that he'd taken $10 out of the budget already to buy things at the Asian market. We crossed a few things off that list, and got total spending between Lunds and Hai Nguyen down to $5, so we can deposit the other $5 back into groceries.

That means we're only $1.26 over budget. We do still need to get wipes ($3.50) and we MIGHT need to get formula ($20+, but we're going to wait and see if our current box lasts us until Friday). So, considering the balcony door handle mishap, we did pretty well. And I didn't try as hard to stick to just the bare minimum; we stocked up on pasta and cereal, for example. Next week we can buckle down and only get what we need, and we should be able to spend MUCH less on food than this week. We'll need diapers for both girls next week, as well as formula, and AA could use a couple new pairs of shoes (we don't have a clothing budget for the girls since usually we get everything we need through hand-me-downs and gifts, so we take it out of grocery/household if it's a necessity).

Anyway, this Lunds deal. We got a new Lunds in downtown, very handy to both work and home, but we hardly ever go there because it's such a high-end grocery store. Last week we noticed some really great coupons in the mail; one was for 99-cent orange juice, the other for a free baguette! We didn't get around to going, but this week we got another circular from them with a coupon for 99-cent pound of organic strawberries and 99-cent carton of 12 organic free-range eggs! Those are things we use every week, so we made sure we made a special trip. We'll be perusing their flyers VERY carefully from now on to see if more amazing deals come our way. When we redeemed those two today, our total went from about $8.50 to $1.98!

Sept. 5: success.
Sept. 6: success.

So far 4 out of 6 successful days.

I won't count today until I've officially made it through, but I've got leftover potato salad for lunch and will be picking up some groceries, plus my CSA share, to make enchiladas verdes tonight. NT is going to a show but AS and I are staying home with the kids so cheap night in!

I owe in $63 to the checking account for various personal CC purchases over the past couple weeks that I kept forgetting to deposit makeup money for; I'm supposed to get $80 for spending today so I'll deposit $3 and take out $20 and that will even me up. I have over $50 cash in my wallet, so it's not like I drastically overspent my personal money. I'll have $70+ spending money, will put $20 in my theater tickets fund and will try to spend as little of the remainder as possible so I can hopefully put it in my clothing fund!

Sept. 1: success.
Sept. 2: semi-fail. I had NT and AS bring me some of my favorite treats from the State Fair. I paid $19 and got a dinner, a breakfast and two lunches' worth of food. So at least it was pretty cheap!
Sept. 3: success ... NT bought me a latte at a coffee shop, but since he paid I guess it doesn't count
Sept. 4: one of my planned cheats: Tuesday night trivia. I bought 3 glasses of wine, more than usual! But we hosted trivia and got to split a $30 gift card so my wine only came to $20 with tax & tip.

So I'd say my record so far is 2 successful days out of 4.

Hmm ... I'm hoping to see a lot more simple, unqualified "success" days from now on! I'm committed to this challenge because I need some new clothes that fit me before it starts getting chilly.

All four mortgage payments hit today:
US: $445 to principal
UK1: $264
UK2: $56
UK3: $58

All told, $823 down, $1258 to go on my September debt-repayment goal.

I was able to transfer US$450 into UK savings, taking our EF to $15,724.93. Would need to save $4,275.07 more to reach our 2012 goal.

At my weigh-in Sunday, I'd managed to lose another pound! I'm down to 133; just 4 lbs. to go to reach my 2012 goal.

Here's my fitness tracking for the rest of August:

Aug. 28
10-min. workout: No. 6/28
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,810. 28/28
No night snacks: Fail. 21/28

Aug. 29
10-min. workout: No. 6/29
Calorie counting: No. 28/29
No night snacks: Fail. 21/29

Aug. 30
10-min. workout: No. 6/30
Calorie counting: No. 28/30
No night snacks: Success. 22/30

Aug. 31
10-min. workout: No. 6/31
Calorie counting: No. 28/31
No night snacks: Success. 23/31

So, as you can tell, I slacked off toward the end of the month. My weigh-in is tonight, so we'll see if I managed to maintain or lose. I went back and did a rough estimate, and I think I was calorie-heavy on the last three days, though I don't think I went over 2,000 on any of them. Yesterday I did 20 minutes of cycling and kept within my calorie limits.

For September, I'm dropping the daily calculation. I'll still count calories and post them on my SparkPeople page. Instead of the 10-minute fitness challenge (which I clearly floundered on this month), I'll take part in my work's pedometer challenge and yoga workshops. I'm also going to try and bike at least once a week (for groceries) and have a dance party with AA at least once a week. I'll also be picking up from daycare twice a week as well as dropping off every week, so that'll be an extra 40 minutes of walking pushing the heavy stroller per week. I won't be tracking these formally, so we'll see if I can just keep them up naturally.

I'm still going to try and stay away from night snacking, which has gotten a lot easier as I've become accustomed to it. Also we've found that AA can wait a bit for dinner now, so we don't prep everything the night before to get it on the table right at 6. Eating at 7 or 7:30 makes it a lot easier not to snack.

***

For debt, I'm going to be making a tuition payment in September, which will count toward reducing our "estimated future debt" that's counted in our debt total. So I reckon I can manage to put $2081 toward our debt in September.

***

I've gotten over the shock of the $1000+ medical bill we got in the mail yesterday, and the disappointment of our mortgage going up $22 per month. At least healthcare premiums will be about $80 less per month now that SL is switching to mine from NT's, so that helps.

Barring any more big medical bills in 2012, this is my ad hoc plan for the rest of the year.

I'm going to try and hit my stated goals rather than switch to rebuilding the medical fund.

- The student loan debt goal will be nearly met in September and I should be able to polish it off in October.

- The total debt goal still needs some work, but I think I can hit it in early December with our mortgage payments if I'm able to continue putting extra to the student loans in October and November.

- I don't think I'll hit the EF goal, but if NT gets a Christmas bonus it's possible. I think I could get it up to about $18K without a bonus, so if he got at least a $2K bonus we might just barely get our EF to where it needs to be.

- The net worth goal is pretty much out of my hands due to the stock market, but if I work on the other debt and savings goals the likelihood of meeting it does increase.

- My weight goal is still do-able; if I'm not making progress in September I may consider a juice/raw foods cleanse in early October to kickstart weight loss again.

***

Thinking ahead to 2013 and beyond, I have several ambitious financial goals that I want to achieve without disrupting our current spending levels too much, since everyone is basically content. If I feel we're moving too slowly toward our goals, I may lobby to cut out one expensive vacation in a year or two, or reduce our spending money, or take even drastic measures. However, first I'll see how we do without taking any of those steps.

My big-picture goals are:

- I want $20K in the EF; if not this year, then by early next year. We may have $2K to go by the end of this year.

- I'd like a $5K medical fund in the savings account, hopefully by sometime in 2013. Obviously we're starting from scratch on that.

- I want to be DONE with student loan debt by the end of 2015, so we'd need to get rid of $40K in 3 years.

- Ideally, we'd want $80K in a moving to England / house down payment fund by the end of 2016. We only have a bit over $1K saved so far, will probably have about $1500 by the end of this year.

Adding all that up, I would need to come up with $125,500 over the next 4 years (2013-2016) to achieve it all. If our budget stays the same for a while, we should have $1646 to put toward it each month, or $19,752 per year. That would mean a total of $79,036 over the 4 years, or $46,463 short of the goal. It would take us another 2.3 years to finish all the goals at that rate.

Clearly we'll need to try and generate extra income, and any raises or budget reductions (such as diaper service and daycare savings as the kids grow) will need to go to these big picture goals. I don't think we'll be able to make up such a huge shortfall, but all we can do is try. If we haven't made enough progress as we're approaching the 4-year mark, we can consider a drastic cut in lifestyle for a short period to make it up.

I've been mulling these things in a scattered way for a while now, so it's good to get it all down on screen and out of my head!

The good news was small bits of money, the big was bad. Let's get into the bad news first ...

Our medical fund is wiped out. NT's vasectomy bill came and it was over $1000. We had about $1300 in the medical fund and I was already going to transfer about $250 to cover lots of little medical expenses that have added up. I'd say our medical costs for the family have cost us $10K this year, not even counting our premiums. Really REALLY hope that's the last of the big medical bills this year. If we get any, I won't want to dip into the EF, so it'll mean cutting something nice out, like spending money. We now need to seriously prioritize building the medical fund back up.

Our mortgage interest rate and minimum payment are going up. Rate is going from 3.25% to 3.5%, and our payment is going up about $22 per month. Amount toward principal will decrease a bit, too. Bummer, our lucky streak with our adjustable rate mortgage has come to an end. At least it was a small amount.

OK, good news:

We had to stock up on groceries this week, having gone through virtually all our staples. I wanted to keep the bill to about $120 not counting diapers & wipes. I scouted coupons and sales and carefully planned the menu. We've spent about $100 so far and all we need now is cat litter and a few staples from the Asian grocery store. We may stay within my goal amount! The big shop came to $72 thanks to over $35 in coupon/sale savings, so we saved over a third off what it would have been full price!

Got a check from my freelance job already. That was REALLY fast. $130 that I was going to put to the house/moving/England fund, but may put toward medical expenses. I need to sit down and plan out what I'm going to do about the medical fund. I do want to add at least a little bit to the moving fund.

That's about all I have time for; we have company coming and I want to clean up, plus I have a fair amount of cooking to do before they come around 4 p.m.

I've been bad about tracking calories, but I'll try to go back and guesstimate what I had the past few days. I also haven't posted my menu and grocery list, and I already deleted part of it. Oh well.

Yay! I got home from trivia (where we won first place and a $30 gift card that paid half our bill) and decided to check NT's student loan account. My little snowflake payment hit, with $18 going to principal. That takes us to $2011 paid for the month!

I'll post next month's goals when I'm a bit more focused.

AS's student loan hit, with $127 going to principal. That takes us to $1993 down, $7 to go on the August goal. So close! I sent a $50 payment to one of NT's loans yesterday, so it should hit tomorrow with hopefully about $20 going to principal. I took the money from September's budget; just couldn't stand to miss our goal by such a small amount!

On to fitness.

Aug. 26
10-min. workout: No. 6/26
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,219. 26/26
No night snacks: Success; stuck to fruit and peanut butter. 20/26

Aug. 27
10-min. workout: No. 6/27
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,206. 27/27
No night snacks: Success; stuck to fruit and peanut butter. 21/27

Two really low calorie days! My general goalposts are 1280 to 1400. I didn't feel deprived, so hopefully it wasn't too low. I've been terrible about working out, but I plan to pick it up again in September.

I weighed in exactly the same on Sunday, not an ounce gained or lost. I'm OK with that. Hopefully I can move the needle this week by being very careful with my eating!

Remember my big list of financial unknowns coming up this year? Well, it's gotten shorter:

- What health bills will come in for the rest of the year (still expecting some)
- When I can add SL to my healthcare (I've got the paperwork with me today, so should be soon!)
- What my paycheck will net out to once the above is established
- DONE: What AS's raise will actually net out to
- DONE: What NT's financial aid package for fall semester is, and whether we should cashflow by borrowing from EF, or just take the student loans they offer
- What our mortgage payment will be starting Nov. 1

We'd already decided to take $2750 of financial aid for NT. Well, I was finally able to view the tuition bill, and it was $3879.64. Minus financial aid, that leaves us on the hook for $1,129.64. Almost all covered by what would have been our extra debt repayment for September, so totally do-able. I'll pay this off after our 9/15 paychecks hit.

With any luck, all these variables will be settled in September (with the possible exception of more medical bills) and I can fine-tune my budget for the rest of the year accordingly. So close!

I've been poking around real estate listings lately, mostly because of the article about prices recovering in Minneapolis. I started out looking for other units in our building that had sold (none have too recently), and ended up looking around our neighborhood to see what single-family homes are going for.

I ran across

this listing and was puzzled but intrigued. On the market for $93K but with a Zestimate of more than twice that. There are no photos of the interior, and some of the exterior shots are of a very unkempt lawn. I wonder what other things are probably wrong with it?

It's a block or two away from daycare, so I will probably take a small detour at some point, out of curiosity.

Our current plan is to stay in the condo for a few more years. If a path to England becomes clear, we'll hold off buying a larger home and just save up for a move. If at some point we think England is a long ways away, we may set down roots here in the form of a non-condo home. (We're kind of longing for a lawn and garden and such.)

But with such a cheap place in such a desirable neighborhood, it does feel kind of tempting to take a leap now. Our current mortgage is at $162K. I value our home at $160K in my calculations, but if I'm forced to be honest, in the past year they haven't sold for anywhere near that. It may get to that point again fairly quickly if the market really is improving, but I would guess the value is somewhere between $125K and $145K. Don't know if we could even sell it for that with its dated kitchen, bathroom and other finishings (compared with some of the more updated units for sale in our association).

The thought of ditching this mortgage for a less than $90K one, even if we were still on the hook for part of our underwater mortgage, is very tempting. But I'm sure if that house is so cheap, it would need a TON of work that we wouldn't be able to afford. We can't invest a ton into living here until we know whether or not it's for good. Buying w/intention of "flipping" in a few years seems like the kind of risky move we're just not equipped for. And then there's the problem of ditching the condo. And, I do still love our condo, so I think I'd only want to leave it for something I loved equally or more. Though the lower payments would help us get farther faster.

This is not really serious. But I am going to walk past the house at some point, just to see what's up.

Aug. 24
10-min. workout: No. 5/24
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,478. 24/24
No night snacks: Success. 19/24

Aug. 25
10-min. workout: Yes, 20 min. 6/25
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,061. 25/25 (Bummer! I'd managed to go two weeks without going over 2,000 calories per day. At least I wasn't MUCH over.)
No night snacks: Fail, went to a party and snacked/drank like crazy, then came home and had aNOTHER glass of wine! 19/25

Did the grocery shopping yesterday; not counting formula & diapers, we only spent $28! Not bad at all. This should hopefully get us on track for a while, if we continue to be really smart about meal planning.

We'll be potty-training AA in earnest come Labor Day. Initially that will mean more money because she'll be full-time on the compostable pull-ups instead of cloth. But I think she'll catch on pretty quick (we've been practicing on and off), so that will eventually mean a savings in diaper costs.

We decided to try SL on the generic formula since she seems so unpicky about everything. Sure enough, she sucked it down like she does everything else! This will be a big savings, too.

We went to parties Friday and Saturday night; took the bus to and from one; bus/lightrail to the other and some friends gave us a ride home. Nice frugal fun (except the babysitter Sat. night). Today we used some of our carshare budget to head out to a fun kids' bookstore where they have all sorts of live animals hanging around. Someone had given us a $30 gift card at AS's baby shower. We spent $28 and some change, so we got really close! We'll see if the daycare lady wants the $1 or so that's left, since she goes to that store regularly. We got two books for AA and one for SL, and a young adult book that I loved as a kid that I might save and give to them when they're older.

We just never go to book or toy stores! I was really at a loss what to get because they already have so many nice books, most of which we've gotten for free. But I found a cute, only slightly spooky Halloween book for AA, a cloth book that SL can chew on, and a picture book of sharks (AA loves them).

We're gonna switch meals so AS has time to make bread tonight for ratatouille tomorrow. So I'll be making stuffed poblanos and rice.

I'm also going to use up our CSA hot peppers by attempting to make hot sauce tonight. But I'm going to wait until the girls go to bed, in case it makes the air spicy (as seems to happen sometimes when making spicy food). AS might make zucchini bread tonight, and NT already made curry for lunches.

Friday dinner
party; hosts provided food

Saturday lunch
Veggie burgers, fries, coleslaw
Make zucchini bread for breakfasts

Saturday dinner
BLTs & corn on the cob

Sunday lunch
Thai curry w/ seitan & squash & 2 ears corn; rice
Find use for CSA hot peppers (pickling, harissa?)

Sunday dinner
Ratatouille with homemade bread

Monday
Stuffed poblanos (tomatillos, crumbles, corn) & rice

Tuesday
Garlic toss pasta w/ cherry tomatoes & parsley

Wednesday
Thai food delivery

Thursday
Chix parmesan w/ spaghetti & tomato sauce; side of green beans

Shopping lists:

Rainbow:
apples
berries
bananas
2 onions
carrots
bread
1 crushed tomatoes*
white vinegar
1 apple juice (c)
bagels

Wedge:
milk
paper towels
loo rolls
cumin

That's it! We cut to the bare minimum this week, because we're going to go a bit into next month's grocery money. The only things needed for our dinners are the bread, onions, cumin and crushed tomatoes. The fruits and bagels are for lunches and breakfast, the carrots are to make baby food, the vinegar is for laundry.

NT is going to bring some bananas from work that are too ripe for people to eat, and we'll have banana bread for breakfasts too. We've got chickpeas and curry sauce already, so he'll make curries for lunches and we'll also have leftovers from some of the dinners for lunch. There's also still some free hummus samples from the farmer's market and some of my homemade baba ganoush.

NT said I could forgo my turn to buy wine until next week. We have some partial boxes of white and red that will last us until next Friday. I drink less now that I'm counting calories anyway. So that's $10 extra of spending money that I get to keep for a while. I'm going to try not to spend it so I can pay for next week's wine.

***

Came home from the party tonight and NT checked the mail. We got packets from our lawyer with the adoption records! It was official when our hearing ended, but now it feels extra official. Now we REALLY should get a safe deposit box! We're accumulating more and more important documents.

I can take my copy to work and get SL added as a dependent on my healthcare on Monday. Nice monthly savings will result!

More interesting money articles on Yahoo! today. They're on a roll ...

This one is about rather outrageous kid allowances. We haven't started giving AA an allowance yet and haven't decided when to start or how to handle it. I do want to use it as an opportunity to start her financial education a lot earlier than mine started. I only got an allowance starting in 10th grade, and it wasn't combined with any lessons.

This is a rather depressing story about our shrinking middle... I've actually done great in terms of income and net worth over the past decade, but partly that's because of how badly we were screwing up before I came to this site. Most of us here are doing great with what we have, but just think how much better we'd be doing if more and more of the wealth didn't keep getting funneled to and hoarded by the top 1%!

And speaking of the top 1% hoarding wealth ...

***

We get our spending money out today, and I've already got it spent in my head!

I get $80, and I owe in $5, so I have $75 to spend essentially. $20 is going in an envelope for the play I want to see next year, $20 will go for my portion of babysitter wages for Saturday, about $15 will pay for wine for the week (we take turns and it's mine). That leaves $20. On Wednesday I'm treating my old boss and my family to Thai delivery; I hope to keep that to $50 with tax & tip.

That will leave me $30 in the hole for next Friday, so I'll only take out $50 then. $20 will go to the theater envelope, leaving me $30. Essentially I have $30 out of the next two weeks unallocated. Much tighter than usual! That's OK, I'll try to view it as a fun challenge to spend as little as possible for the next couple weeks. I really want to start saving up for a couple wardrobe updates!

We have a birthday party tonight and another one Saturday. Lots of my friends are turning or about to turn 40, so I expect a wave of parties. People are more likely to throw parties on the big 3-0, 4-0, etc. I told AS & NT that I didn't really want to chip in for gifts, so we're using a Barnes & Noble gift card to get them some cute novelty items, plus AS picked up a $2 "I'm the birthday boy" button at a thrift store for one of them. Glad to have one less expense to worry about! Also, tonight's party is kid-friendly (starts early & everything), so we only have to get a sitter for Saturday's.

***

Fitness tracking for the past few days:

Aug. 20
10-min. workout: No. 4/20
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,480. 20/20
No night snacks: Success. 17/20

Aug. 21
10-min. workout: No vigorous exercise, though I did walk home from work (30 min.). 4/21
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,636. 21/21
No night snacks: Fail (had wine at trivia). 17/21

Aug. 22
10-min. workout: Yes! 5/22
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,440. 22/22
No night snacks: Success. 18/22

Aug. 23
10-min. workout: No. 5/23
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,527. 23/23
No night snacks: Fail, though I kept it to a very small snack. 18/23

Clearly my 10-min. workout idea has run out of steam, at least for now. I need a new "trick" to get myself more active. These are the ideas I'm pondering for next month:
- My job is doing a yoga tutorial and pedometer challenge, so I think I'll sign up for those and try to really get into it.
- Bike riding on weekends, at least to do groceries but hopefully for pleasure too.
- Baby dance party at least one weeknight per week, where I play dance videos and dance around with AA and SL.
- Mild weight training regimen; at least two nights per week of upper body free weights, two nights per week of lower-body and ab exercises.

I have this weekend to ponder how to structure it and will post new fitness goals for September along with my debt-repayment goal.

Usually I flip through the top headlines (which are almost all fluff stories) on Yahoo and read one or two. Today there were several that dealt with interesting finance-related topics, so I thought I'd share:

High-end clothing hoarder who filled a 4,000-square-foot home with clothes

Most Americans toss out 40% of the food they purchase

On the flip side, Americans dealing with hunger

And finally, the top 10 cities where housing prices are on the rise. Minneapolis is #2, thank gawd! Would love to be less underwater than we are now (or breaking even would be even better!).

This time of the summer I always start to feel a financial pinch. We go out more, people visit more, maybe I'm just a bit freer with my spending money because I feel more social, less cautious/frugal and more up for fun outside the home.

We each get $80 every Friday for spending. It's a princely sum, I think, yet especially during the summer we find ourselves running through it quickly.

The money is for anything not covered by our regular budget: restaurants & takeout, booze, clothing, babysitters, movies, taxis, CDs/DVDs/etc., incidentals that fall outside the grocery/household category, gifts (we do save separately for Xmas and bday for the nuclear family, but extended family/friends, as well as anniversary/Valentine gifts, we have to cover ourselves), etc.

Most weeks I don't get much of the above, so a lot of times I'll find myself stashing most of the cash in my dresser. Then I might make a bigger purchase once I have some money saved, like a big order of vegan snacks online, or treating AS & NT to gourmet pizza delivery, or a wardrobe refresh of several outfits/shoes.

But lately, I don't have any money left over, which would make it hard to save up for a big purchase. I'm considering going to "The Book of Mormon," a Broadway comedy/musical coming to Minneapolis in February. Looks like tickets are in the $100-$120 range. I'd also want to bring AS or NT or both. So that would really add up.

It just occurred to me that maybe I should put an envelope in my dresser earmarked for the tickets, and put $20 per week in there. If I do that most weeks, I should have enough to treat us all to a night at the theater, something I never typically spend money on, so it would be a really special thing to do.

I should also try to save up some money for new winter clothes and/or alterations of my existing ones, since I've lost a bit more weight, and my clothes were already starting to be too big for me last winter. That will need to happen sooner than the theater, so I guess I'll start another envelope and stash everything left over at the end of each week.

We love the cash spending money system because it's the one part of our financial lives where no one has to be accountable to anyone else. But I think for these bigger purchases I'm going to have to plan a bit more than I usually do.

I'm late posting our meal plan because I've taken more of a backseat for a week or two, to rest up before I take the lead again when NT goes back to school. AS has really stepped up and with NT's help has done most of the cooking and meal planning! It's been really nice.

I think we'll have gone over budget on groceries (I still need to add it up after we buy canola oil), but we did stock up a bit on rice, flour, veggie "meats" that we had coupons for, and laundry detergent. Next week we should have to buy very little, since we have all the staples we need to build meals for the CSA veggies.

MENU:
Friday
Veggie burgers, cole slaw, green beans

Saturday lunch
Vegan Thai Lettuce Wraps and Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Roasted Peanuts

Saturday dinner
Breadcrumb pasta with cherry tomatoes
make baba for lunches, make seitan for mock duck sandwiches

Sunday lunch
Southern fried tofu, Succotash with edamame

Sunday dinner
Enchiladas

Monday
Pasta with sauteed zucchini, garlic, lemon and parsley


Tuesday
Barbecue mock duck sandwiches with corn on the cob and crosshatched squash


Wednesday
Pancakes, hash (bacon bits/garlic/potato/bell pepper/tomato/parsley)
defrost pizza dough

Thursday
Pizza

GROCERY LISTS:

Rainbow:
potatoes
apples
berries
pluots
bananas
garlic
lettuce
veggie burgers & facon (c)
Gardein burgers or chik strips (c)
bread (C)
panko breadcrumbs
coffee filters #4 (c)
pasta (c)
salsa
crushed tomatoes*
Ziploc bags (c)
degree deodorant (c)
hash browns (c)
frozen peas (c)
orange cheddar
muffins
bagels

Wedge:
sandwich fillings
firm tofu
6 eggs
peanuts (1/2 cup)
chickpeas
flour
rice
loo rolls
laundry detergent
1C black beans
chick peas
chili powder
paprika
oregano
sesame seeds
cheese strings
Australian cheddar

Hai Nguyen
rice vinegar

Target
veg/canola oil

***

Had a very good weigh-in last night; I lost over 3 lbs.! Back to 134 with 5 lbs. to go to reach my 2012 goal weight. I'm excited, because my goal is to lose those pounds before Thanksgiving and then hopefully just maintain through the food-happy winter holidays.

We do have some parties and other things planned, but I'm really going to try and behave so I don't stall or lose ground. One positive thing I'm doing is skipping the State Fair this year. For me, the reason to go is to eat fair food, and I always go overboard. I'm going to stay home with the kids (who are really too young to get much out of it) and send NT and AS with some tupperware and one or two food requests (versus the 5 or 10 things I'd normally eat while there).

I'll miss the fair, but it's the right thing to do this year.

Anyway, fitness tracking for the past couple days:

Aug. 16
10-min. workout: No. 3/16
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,447. 16/16
No night snacks: Success (just had fruit). 14/16

Aug. 17
10-min. workout: No. 3/17
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,705. 17/17
No night snacks: Success. 15/17

Aug. 18
10-min. workout: YES! 25 min. 4/18
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,752. 18/18
No night snacks: Fail, had 7 peanut M&Ms. 15/18

Aug. 19
10-min. workout: No. 4/19
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,433. 19/19
No night snacks: Success (just had fruit). 16/19

So overall, yay! I did notice less definition in my tummy last night; was actually afraid I'd gained weight. So I do need to get back into working out, even if it's just strength-training and crunches.

***

I got a nice little freelance proofing assignment from a co-worker doing some side work of her own; $130 for a little over three hours of light proofing. Yay! I'm going to put it to the house/moving fund if we don't need it for anything. That's a bit up in the air because:

On Saturday I came home from grocery shopping to see the bathroom sink half full of black, stinky liquid. NT (by far the handiest in our house) valiantly spent most of the day removing sections of pipe, cleaning, attempting to find clogs, calling the building management and Roto Rooter, etc. But we still have no bathroom sink. Now the Roto Rooter guy said it was due to a clog somewhere below us, and that they'd need to cut into a section of pipe somewhere else. This sounds like something our condo should be responsible for, not us, costwise. So I'm hoping my freelance money will go to the house fund, but it might have to go toward helping cover these costs if there are any.

AS hasn't gotten any more freelance offers since she just missed the last one, but she tends to get bigger-scope, higher-paying freelance jobs, so if she gets any this year it will be a big boost to the house/moving fund.

***

I liked the recent "frugal things I did today" topic, so let me try and think of the frugal things we did this weekend:

Did another big re-org of the kids' clothes, discarding a TON and rearranging the others. This is frugal because it unearths the usable clothing so we don't have to buy any. 99.9% of these clothes are gifts or hand-me-downs. So far we haven't had to buy winter boots or snowsuits for the girls, so accepting clothes from anyone and everyone who offers is a frugal deed, even if it leads to these big archaeological digs every couple months. We'll be giving the extras (4 big boxes!) away on Freecycle, helping someone else be frugal too. We're also getting rid of a crib bumper (now that AA's in a "big girl bed"), thermal cover for small stroller (we'll just use the big stroller if we need to take the girls out in one--NT's going to try and get some money for the cover) and some baby-carrying slings. NT listed the unused pacifiers on eBay, so hopefully we get something for those.

AS decided to cease pumping, and just nurse in the mornings and evenings for a little while longer. Breast pumps are called "single use" by the manufacturer, but AS used the one I used and it worked fine. I don't know if we could sell it, but we might try to get a few bucks on Craiglist. It was $250-$300 new and is still in good condition. If we can't sell it I'll try to Freecycle it, because as long as the user sterilizes the cups and tubes and/or gets new ones, I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't get another life.

SL has made great progress learning to eat rice cereal so is going to start on pureed vegetables tonight. Rather than get the expensive and wasteful little jars of baby food, I'll be cooking, pureeing and straining her veggies as I did with AA. This week we try peas!

I made homemade mock duck (aka seitan or wheat meat) last night; a double batch so we have some for next week too. We figured out that buying the vital wheat gluten and having me make it is about a quarter of the cost of buying canned mock duck.

I made a big batch of baba ganoush (eggplant-tahini puree) for NT and me to use for lunches this week. We had a lot of eggplant from the CSA and had plenty of other veggies to use for dinners, so it would have gone to waste. It will also taste good with CSA tomatoes, which we have way too many to use up with just dinners.

We got more curly parsley from the CSA than we could use, so I hung it upside down to see if it would dry as well as the oregano did. We don't have to buy dried parsley very often, but this would help us avoid it even longer!

I think that's it. I'll try to note the frugal things I do from now on; this is fun!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,884 pounds ($27,768)
#2: 16,005 pounds ($32,010)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $17,503
NT's Roth IRA: $4,406
AS's 401(k): $7,454
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $7,757
CJ's 401(k): $45,104
CJ's Roth IRA: $4,406
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $15,275
House down payment/moving fund: $1,089
---
Total Assets: $591,872

Total Debt: $306,785

Current Estimated Net Worth: $285,087

July 2012 estimate: $278,592

Change in net worth: +$6,495

Summary: The market smiled on us the same month I was able to put more extra money to debt again. I feel pretty good about meeting our 2012 goal of $300,000 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 very 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 $2 for every British pound, which was the exchange rate when I started keeping track. I maintain that ratio for the purpose of tracking progress, even though the exchange rate is now closer to $1.60 per British pound.

Today was our adoption! But I'll talk about that in a bit.

A big extra student loan payment hit, with $1042 going to principal. That makes $1866 down, $134 to go on our August goal. Sounds good, except we only have one more regular debt payment that usually puts about $127 to principal. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to send a small extra payment to make sure we hit our goal! I'll use some of next month's extra debt repayment money.

Now the fitness tracking. I've done really well with food, but utterly neglected working out. I've got to find a new way to trick myself into doing it! I'm not big into working out, so I always peter out if I don't add some new twist to make it seem more like a game and less like work.

Aug. 13
10-min. workout: No. 3/13
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,426. 13/13
No night snacks: Success. 11/13

Aug. 14
10-min. workout: No. 3/14
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,369. 14/14
No night snacks: Success. 12/14

Aug. 15
10-min. workout: No. 3/15
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,371. 15/15
No night snacks: Success. 13/15

It's not been a routine week so far, which is my flimsy excuse for working out -- but really I know I'm just bored and need a new game to focus on.

Anyway, Monday night we had a friend over for dinner, playing with the kids, and a game after kids went to bed. This is a newer friend; we've actually expanded our social circle a bit over the past couple years, and not just parents of other kids either. It's been really nice to feel like it's not just shrinking steadily. This friend is younger than us, around 30, and works with NT (he got her the job after we met her) as well as attending trivia with us on Tuesdays.

Tuesday was primary election night in Minnesota, so I voted after work and then spent the night glued to the computer watching for results. NT and AS went to trivia with friends and I stayed home with the kids.

Today I stayed home from work because ... we had our court date this afternoon! It went really smoothly (once I figured out which car we'd reserved and fought my way through downtown traffic, oh and we forgot a nipple for SL's bottle and didn't realize it until halfway through the hearing ... but other than that, TOtally smooth). Our lawyer had already cleared everything with the judge; once he explained our relationship she was fine with it, so the hearing was just a formality. Our lawyer asked us a bunch of questions, we kept the kids as quiet as possible, and the judge said like two words at the end and it was over really suddenly! It feels amazing to have legal rights in place for me as SL's mother and for AS as AA's mother. Best $4500 we ever spent.

We'll get our certified copies of the official record in the mail, so I won't be able to switch SL to my healthcare until we get that. But it should be pretty soon.

In other financial-variables news, we saw AS's first post-raise paycheck today, and it was $15.00 more than my guesstimate. (I did get the cents part right, which is really odd.) So that's $30 more per month that we can put in the house/moving fund (unless our mortgage goes up in Nov. and it needs to go there).

Let's see, other random updates:

We fixed another issue with our living space, the two mismatched rugs in front of the couch, by purchasing carpet tiles and making a custom-sized rug that stretches all the way to our rocking chair. It looks so much better and more uniform. I should do another photo soon. Not right now because there's laundry and mail scattered around.

AS's mom sent three big boxes of clothes and stuff for the girls. Mostly SL (who totally doesn't need anything because we still have all of AA's, but it's kind of fun to have new stuff) but some for AA as well. Now we have to either get rid of some or find more places to store them. NT and AS are looking through them now.

The pack 'n' play we got on Freecycle is really slanty and leans to one side. It's fine for SL now, but it won't cut it when she starts cruising (walking around holding the sides for support). So at some point we'll need to replace it. I think we'll try Freecycle again; the last time we requested one, we got three offers in two days!

Now that NT is out of school for a few weeks, I think we'll try to list a few odds and ends on eBay and/or Craigslist. NT already listed an old school book on Half. We've got some DVDs and books from our recent declutter that might get something. Oh, and SL has totally given up on pacifiers, and we have two unused ones still in packaging that are a pretty nice brand; might get a couple bucks for those.

The books I'll just take to the used-book store. They don't take much these days, but we might pick up a few bucks that way. The ones we can't sell there I'll donate to either the Women's Prison Book Project or the library.

Anything we make will go toward our new, as yet still tiny house fund!

I'm also taking a couple weeks off in the meal planning/cooking department. It's going to be almost all me again when classes start up, so I'm trying to take a bit of a break. I'll try not to be too meddlesome, though I've been trying to be hypervigilant about keeping the grocery list to a minimum. We've been doing REALLY well, keeping food spending under $100 most weeks (sometimes MUCH less), but the diapers, wipes and formula are killing our budget nonetheless. It's going to get crucial to make cheap meals once the CSA stops delivering produce in Sept./Oct.

That's all the news I can think of for now!

Well, we had a blast on our road trip and at the small-town festival we attended, and at the alumni gathering which was at a mansion on an island in a lake! Omigosh do I have some hilariously disgusting anecdotes about a string of bodily-excretion incidents involving our darling daughters (I'll spare you), but we made it through and still had lots of fun. We ate TERRIBLY and are all having serious digestive issues today as our bodies get back on an even keel. I weighed in and only gained a fraction of a pound, and I'm ecstatic about that considering all the factors.

Some catching up to do with fitness tracking (the calories are VERY rough estimates for some of the days, of course).

Aug. 8:
10-min. workout: Yes. 3/8
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,321. 8/8
No night snacks: Success. 7/8

Aug. 9:
10-min. workout: No. 3/9
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,651. 9/9
No night snacks: Success. 8/9

Aug. 10:
10-min. workout: No. 3/10
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,070. 10/10
No night snacks: Success. 9/10

Aug. 11:
10-min. workout: No. 3/11
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,931. 11/11
No night snacks: Success. 10/11

Aug. 12:
10-min. workout: No. 3/12
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,501. 12/12
No night snacks: Fail. 10/12

Today I've had a very light breakfast and lunch and feel MUCH better. I might end up snacking more than I need to tonight because we have a friend over (I do tend to drink & eat more when I'm having fun & not paying attention), but hopefully the overall calorie count will be OK.

Menu
Friday dinner
traveling
dry oregano before we leave

Saturday lunch
eat out

Saturday dinner
eat out

Sunday lunch
eat out

Sunday dinner
alumni gathering

Make cucumber limeade

Monday
Buffalo tofu sandwiches, chips w/ watermelon salsa

Tuesday
Chinese soy pepper steak; spicy garlic eggplant; Taiwanese sesame cucumbers; rice

Wednesday
Veggie franks, corn on the cob, watermelon on the grill

Thursday
Carrot fritters w/ (? - rice maybe); use up any other leftover veggies

Friday
depends on CSA

Ideas for coming weeks: chili mac, taco baked potatoes, crockpot enchiladas, pancakes for dinner

Grocery lists:

Rainbow
3 limes
cilantro
green onions
ginger
1 small shallot
apples
pineapple
soymilk
red cooking wine (c)
panko breadcrumbs
Franks hot sauce (c)
tortilla chips
moist toilet tissue (c)

Wedge
milk
yogurts
loo rolls
Field Roast franks
EB buttery sticks
Extra firm tofu x2
Vegenaise
coffee filters #4
basil
dill seed
thyme

CSA farm share contents:
Sweet Corn
Red Slicer Tomatoes
Mixed Peppers
Onions
Carrots
Asian Eggplant
Cucumbers
Oregano
Watermelon

I remember when paydays just could not come soon enough for me; I was always scraping the bottom of the barrel (i.e., my credit cards and line of credit) waiting for a cash infusion. Now, it doesn't really affect me as much; I have plenty of money for the things I need, and I don't spend on wants if I don't have money budgeted for them.

However, I'm really looking forward to Aug. 15, much more than usual. First, to have our day in court and hopefully complete the adoption process. Second, AS's raise will be reflected in her Aug. 15 paycheck, so one of our financial unknowns will be revealed.

I hope the adoption goes through and is effective immediately, so I can change the healthcare and know what MY paycheck will look like by the Aug. 31 paycheck!

We haven't gotten any new medical bills recently, which is another of our financial variables. I still think there's a chance we'll get more bills from the labor & delivery, or for NT's recent surgery. Still, every day that passes without a new bill makes it a bit less likely. If we don't get anything by the end of the year, I think we'll be safe. But that's nearly 5 months from now!

NT's tuition should be available end of this month or beginning of September. Our notification about our mortgage should also come at the beginning of September (actual adjustment, if any, will happen Nov. 1). OK, I'm just impatient for the next month to pass! I shouldn't feel that way because it's summer in Minnesota and warm weather is to be treasured, but I can't help it!

I keep forgetting to mention that my blog has topped 1 million visits! Every so often I'd check that number, but it was just like trying to catch the odometer turning over; half the time I'd miss the actual moment. So it was with my blog, but I'm still amazed at this milestone. This is one involved community!

Now for the ugly truth of my calories ...

Aug. 3:
10-min. workout: No. 0/3
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,888. 3/3
No night snacks: Fail. 2/3

Aug. 4:
10-min. workout: Yes, 20 min. 1/4
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,210. 4/4
No night snacks: Success. 3/4

Aug. 5:
10-min. workout: Yes, 20 min. 2/5
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,735. 5/5
No night snacks: Success. 4/5

Aug. 6:
10-min. workout: No. 2/6
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,807. 6/6
No night snacks: Success. 5/6

Aug. 7:
10-min. workout: No. 2/7
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,507. 7/7
No night snacks: Success (I stuck to fruit). 6/7

I'm rather stunned that vacation, restaurant and social eating can add 1,000 or more calories without much effort. I'm glad to be back to normal, and I'm really going to try to take it easy on the food amounts when we go away this weekend.

I had a couple hours of downtime today at work, so I printed out maps, driving directions, reservation info, dining options and more for our little weekend getaway. I find it never hurts to have too much vs. too little information, and since I had the time on my hands, I decided to go ahead. The packet of info is laughably thick for the small scale of our trip.

***

I keep forgetting to mention this too, but we have a court date set for our third-parent adoptions! It's Aug. 15. I'm not too nervous because it sounds like everything will be pretty much settled; we just have to show up. But I know I can't count on anything until it's over.

As soon as that's done, I can move SL to my healthcare, which is cheaper than NT's. Plus, we'll all feel a bit more secure.

***

Yesterday I had a meeting with a 401(k) adviser from Prudential. It counted toward a checklist of activities I can do to earn $200 of flex money for next year, so I mainly did it for that. I thought he was slightly dim because he asked to see my Prudential account, then proceeded to lecture me about gradually getting my contribution up to 15% (right now it's at 6%, plus a 50% match on 3% of that). He didn't even bother to ask me if I or my spouse had any other accounts we were contributing to. (Our retirement saving is at 9.1% of gross income, or 12.5% of gross excluding tax.) Of course I do want to up my percentage, but we're doing a heck of a lot better than 7.5% of $53K, which is the only part he bothered to think about!

I didn't bother to correct him because I was annoyed by that, and because I figured he'd try to sell me on putting all our money with Prudential.

Toward the end, I decided to go ahead and ask if he had any advice for what to do in preparation for moving to England. He actually had a decent-sounding answer! He said continue to build our U.S. accounts and keep the money in the U.S., only drawing down when it was time to retire vs. moving all the funds. He said it would just be U.S.-taxed assets at that point, so our Roth money wouldn't get extra taxed in the UK or anything as long as we kept it in U.S. accounts.

Of course I'll want to verify that, but it's the first piece of straight advice I've gotten from anyone about my situation, so I'm pleased to have something to start with. So overall the meeting wasn't a complete bust, though I struggled to keep a straight face when he advised me to check my spending and see if I was wasting money anywhere.

***

I can feel the calendar for August and September wanting to fill up, and I'm hesitating to commit to things. I'm thinking I'll skip some events so these months don't feel as hectic as the rest of the summer did. I wouldn't mind just hanging out at home and relaxing! But there are some things I can't avoid, and some I might decide are worth my time. We shall see. There's a volunteer event for a hunger relief org NT and I are kind of interested in, a launch party for a friend's literary magazine, another literary type event, one firm and one tentative plan to have dinner with friends, the adoption court date, the out-of-town thing this weekend, the state fair ... I'm feeling lazy just thinking about it all! We'll see.

I do plan to go back and record everything I ate, but the weekend with my sister, her husband and her three (high-school & college age) kids has been a whirlwind, so I just haven't gotten the computer time to go online and estimate calories.

I did go ahead and weigh in, even though we ate a late and pretty heavy dinner. 3 lbs. heavier, back up to 137. I'm not surprised, since I ate out for Friday lunch, Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, Sunday lunch and Sunday dinner. And had leftover restaurant food for Sunday breakfast. Tomorrow I'll eat out for lunch and dinner as well. And then Tuesday I'll get to go back to my routine, and what a relief. I'm enjoying the eating out and I'm making every meal count (eating something I love and don't usually get). But if I want to hit my weight goal, obviously I couldn't keep eating out like this even if I could afford it (I can't).

I did work out some; 20 min. biking on Friday, a lot of carrying around kids while walking on Saturday, and 20 min. more of biking today. But just not enough to counter the unusually heavy meals.

I was feeling a bit glum about the weight gain, and about an uncomfortable dinner with my difficult, contentious brother-in-law. But then I went onto Facebook and saw a notification for an online auction I'd bid on to purchase baked goods to help pay for a little boy's fight with cancer. The chef auctioning things off announced the close of bidding, and said if people wanted to make a memorial donation or express condolences to the family, they could go to a certain website. I went there and it turns out the little boy passed away today, the same day the auction was ending.

I didn't know the little boy, but I know how it feels to feel responsible for a little kid's existence and can sort of begin to imagine how it would feel to have that existence end way too soon. So really, any feeling of irritation for my BIL or annoyance over my weight gain were dwarfed in comparison.

I'm taking the family to the Mall of America tomorrow, and then hopefully just back to rest and play games Monday night. I don't plan to buy anything there, except food (I'll probably pick up their checks since BIL picked up an especially big tab tonight).

I love my extended family, but I love being around my nuclear family so much more. Looking forward to a mellow late summer/fall with them; our only big plans are the small-town fest and alumni party next weekend, and the State Fair in late August. And those plans mostly involve just hanging out with each other.

All right, I'm just babbling. I'm going to finish my chamomile tea and start getting sleepy now.

First off, thanks to CB in the City for a thoroughly enjoyable, interesting and fun lunch! I loved meeting a current SA blogger in real life and now feel even more as if we're all really connected.

Our menu's a bit up in the air; I have two meals planned for this weekend, but my sister & her family will be in town and they have a million ideas about places to eat. So I may scrap these two, rejigger our perishables for the rest of the week, maybe make lunches with some of the extra ingredients if they can't wait. But, it's good to have a couple meals planned just in case.

Friday dinner
Spicy bok choy (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-bok-choy-in-garlic-sauce/), fried tofu & rice
[make pesto w/CSA basil & freeze]

Saturday lunch
Eat w/Family: Fancy mac & tomato salad: macaroni w/fresh tomatoes, corn, basil, parsley, garlic, olive oil

Saturday dinner
Eat w/Family

Sunday lunch
Eat w/ Family: Eggplant parmesan sandwiches & chips

Sunday dinner
Eat w/ Family

Monday lunch & dinner
Eat w/ Family

Tuesday
Buffalo chikn salad (Morningstar wings; chopped salad of lettuce, tomato, carrot, corn; bleu "cheez" dressing)

Wednesday
Bean & "chorizo" burritos w/tomatillo salsa, tomatoes & corn

Thursday
BLATs ("bacon," lettuce, avocado & tomato sandwiches) & honey-mustard-parsley carrots

Friday
Going out of town; eat on the road

Grocery lists ("c" means we have coupon)

Rainbow
2 garlic
3 avocados
iceberg lettuce
fancy rolls for eggplant sandwiches
Silk
2 granola (c)
2 lbs. macaroni
large tortillas
bread (c)
Caribou coffee beans (c)
red wine vinegar (c)
Tabasco Buffalo sauce (c)
mozzarella shreds
frozen juice

Wedge
milk
yogurts
loo rolls
paper towels
pinto beans
tortilla chips
cheese strings
parmesan cheese

Target
cat litter
potato chips
buffalo wings (C)
facon

Hai Nguyen
2x tofu

This is what we should be getting from the CSA, which is why we don't need many veggies:
Sweet Corn
Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
Red Slicer Tomatoes
Onions
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Parsley
Bagged Carrots
Tomatillos
Eggplant
Hot Peppers
Bok Choy
Melon
Basil
Lipstick Peppers

Or should I say "diet tracking," since I've been good on the food side of things and horrible on the exercising side?

Aug. 1:
10-min. workout: No.
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,392.
No night snacks: Success.

Aug. 2:
10-min. workout: No.
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,514.
No night snacks: Success.

For some reason this week, I have not been able to convince myself to work out for 10 lousy minutes, and I have been fighting snack urges like crazy. I was starting to get some nice definition, so I hope I can wrangle myself back into workout mode. Might not happen til after this weekend, though, because I have family in town from Saturday to Tuesday.

It's looking to be a very expensive weekend. My family is all excited about various food things, so we're probably going to eat out/get delivery every meal, and not cheap places like fast food either. We've got about $100 left in the summer fun budget, and after that it's up to our spending money to cover our portion of the eating out. I'm just going to try and get the most cost-effective vegan option at each place and hope for the best! After I take out my spending money today, I'll have $140 of my own money (a bit less after my lunch with CB). So I should be OK, but it's amazing how fast it adds up when eating out. It'll be fun, though!

The next weekend we have one of our small-town festival road trips we planned. We leave Friday and start back Sunday, and we'll be stopping off Sunday afternoon to attend a get-together for alumni of my college at one of their homes. This is the woman whose family donated the governor's mansion to the state of Minnesota, so I imagine it's going to be quite lavish! The invite says casual, though, so I'm just going to wear a sundress and hope I don't look too out of place.