Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

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.

A couple days ago I blogged about the financial unknowns that are making me impatient because I can't really set goals or finalize my budget until they're settled:

- What health bills will come in for the rest of the year
- When I can add SL to my healthcare
- What my paycheck will net out to once the above is established
- What AS's raise will actually net out to
- 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

Well, one is mostly settled, and one will be on the 15th.

NT got his financial aid package; they offered something like $22K, but we don't need that much since he doesn't need room & board and doesn't take a full course load.

They offered $2750 as a subsidized federal loan, something like $15K as unsubsidized federal, and the rest as a private loan. The $2750 subsidized had a great rate, something like 0% while he's in school and 3.5% once he graduates. The unsubsidized was at about 6.8, higher than any of our current debts, and the private didn't give an interest rate.

We decided to just take the $2750 at the great rate and decline the other two. I figured we could borrow from the EF and pay it back in gradually for the rest.

Then I checked his fall 2011 student account to see how much a semester costs us, and it was between $3000 and $4000. So the most we will probably need to cashflow is probably about $1250. The bill will come due in September, and we'll have $1100 ready to put toward extra debt repayment that I can just use for tuition instead. (I'll delete the amount from our "estimated future debt," which is part of our total household debt, so it will still feel like we're lowering our debt!)

Good to have that sorted out, and I think we picked a good option. Can't beat a 0% interest loan, especially when we have interest-bearing loans that we're still working on.

The other variable that will be settled soon is AS's paycheck; her boss confirmed that her raise will be reflected in her Aug. 15 paycheck. Soon 2 variables will be gone with just 4 more to go.

***

I checked my new Barclays online savings account, and we'd earned monthly interest of 71 cents! This may not sound like much, but it feels like a fortune to earn 71 cents on just $1000. My savings account linked to checking has $6000-$7000 in it at all times, and we earn 25 to 30 cents per month on that. I keep it because it's really easy to access the funds, but I may be lured away from the convenience by this much better rate. We'll see ... At the very least, it inspired me to snowflake a random amount of money I had sitting in my budget ($3.49) to the Barclays account.

***

I started thinking about the winter holidays recently, and how we usually tip our various service providers and send gifts to family. I really want to put most of any bonuses we receive into the house/moving fund, but I also want to make sure we're generous at Christmas. Plus, NT wants a big 40th birthday bash next March, and I was thinking we'd save some Xmas bonus money for that so it doesn't affect our budget. I think I'll sit down with NT and AS in the next month or two and plan out what we think we'll need to spend this year and for his birthday party. Then figure out what we can cover with our own spending money and what we'll need to come up with funds for.

***

Oh, and one more bit of great news:

I just confirmed a lunch date with CB in the City tomorrow! Very excited to have an SA meetup after getting to read about the recent California one.

All our mortgage payments hit today:
US: $444 to principal
UK1: $264
UK2: $56
UK3: $60

In all, $824 down, $1176 to go on the August debt repayment goal.

I was also able to transfer US$500 into UK savings, bringing the EF to $15,249.70. A pathetic amount of progress so far this year; essentially my 2013 goal will probably be the same as my 2012 goal, just trying to get the EF to $20K.

Fitness stuff for the last two days of July:
10-min. workout is a no for both days.
Calorie counting was a yes: 1,611 & 1,830
No night snacking: success for both days. And boy, I had a nearly uncontrollable craving both nights, but I didn't give in to it!

I hope to come back strong in August in my workouts; July was kind of a bust. But I somehow lost weight anyway, so I'm not too disappointed in myself!

I know I've mentioned most of these at one time or another, but I had some free time at the end of my workday and found myself going over them with impatience, because I love having my budget figured out to a penny, and that can't happen until we know:

- What health bills will come in for the rest of the year (expecting one for NT's operation and possibly more for AS's labor/delivery)
- When our adoption process will be complete, so I can add SL to my healthcare (the cheapest of our options; until this happens she'll be on NT's, which is about $70 more per month)
- What my paycheck will net out to once the above is established
- What AS's raise will actually net out to
- 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 (I think it'll depend on current interest rates)
- What our mortgage payment will be when the interest rate resets on Nov. 1

Nice to have it all in one list. I'll be able to check these off gradually over the remainder of the year.

Phew, I was working on this entry a long time and would have lost it all if I hadn't done a select-all and copy right before I clicked Save and Publish!

July 27:
10 min. workout: No. 12/27
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,939. 26/26
No night snacks: Fail. 19/27

July 28:
10 min. workout: Yes, 20 min. 13/28
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 2,324. 26/26
No night snacks: Success. 20/28

July 29:
10 min. workout: Yes, 11 min. 14/29
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,274. 26/26
No night snacks: Fail. 20/29 (But, I was under my minimum calories by 6 even with the snack, so I don't feel guilty.)

All told, the social week and weekend was rough. I didn't work out consistently, and socializing for me equates to more calories and more night snacks.

It's been a busy weekend! Friday night AS and NT went to see the Olympics opening ceremony at a private party in a bar. She got the tickets from work. All food and drink was free! I had a friend over, and we snacked quite a bit, but at least I kept my calories under 2,000.

Saturday I was busy from about 9 am until 6 pm, constantly. I tweaked the grocery list, did the first round of groceries on my bike, dropped that off, walked to the store to do the second round, came home and put the groceries away, fixed lunch, made pickles with CSA cucumbers, cooked rice and lentils for the next day's lunch, cooked seitan for the next day's dinner, did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, tidied the house for the babysitter, cooked a quesadilla for AA, showered and got dressed for date night. Whew!

We had an awesome night out. I won't say how much we spent, but let's just say it was paid for from our summer fun fund, which is now much depleted. We went to a movie, which we hardly ever do, got overpriced movie snacks, went to a fancy hotel bar for drinks and more snacks, took a pedicab home, paid the babysitter extra because we were out a LONG time, and ordered pizza after the babysitter left. I did actually restrain myself more than I did when I wasn't dieting, but it really added up.

Today I lazed around a lot, though I did fix lunch, get caught up on budgeting (we've got a lot of credit cards in play right now so it's a bit complicated), and worked out. And my weigh-in was amazing: I lost 4 lbs. from last Sunday! I'm now at 134, my lowest in a LONG time, and just 5 lbs. away from my 2012 goal!

We were watching a documentary called "Fat, Sick & Almost Dead" that was about two men who turned their health and weight around with 60-day juice fasts. AS and I were reminded that we like to do raw-food cleanses every so often, and we thought the juice fast sounded like an interesting way to do it. We wouldn't want to until AS has stopped nursing, of course, because part of it is a reduction in calories. But maybe this winter if we both (or all, if NT is interested) want to lose weight.

I spent a lot of time this weekend dreaming about moving to England. Two more things have spurred our desire even more to follow through on this goal: the wonderfully uplifting Olympic opening ceremony and, on the other side, the mass shooting in Aurora Colorado. We talked about moving on our date last night, and I said we should really think before each purchase, how badly do we want this, and would that money serve us better in the moving fund?

We sold our baby swing for $85, so today I transferred that money into our house/moving fund. $1,085 saved, $78,915 to go!

Right now it seems like we won't make progress for a while, because we have other financial goals of paying down student loan debt, getting our EF to $20K, renewing our medical fund to $5K, and saving for a trip to England in May. But we can still put a little bit away while doing these other things. And as these other goals are knocked down one by one, we can start to put more and more toward moving.

I think I'll do what I can without any real plan until the end of the year; we still have so many variables and unknowns coming up. Once I see where we are with all our goals, I can map out a strategy to attack them all; whether it's putting everything to one then another then another, like a debt snowball, or just rejiggering the amount I put toward each so that we feel we're approaching them all at a good pace.

AS's student loan payment hit, with $127 going to principal. That takes us over our $1025 goal with $1052 paid toward debt!

For August, we can start putting more toward debt now that we're all back to work full time (starting Monday). So my goal is to pay off at least $2000 of debt in August.

***

I didn't work out yesterday, BUT I did both the daycare drop-off and pickup, which involves a lot of walking and pushing, and I hauled the farmer's market produce around a lot. So I feel like it wasn't a lazy day. Still, this is turning out to be a bummer month for workouts.

July 26:
10 min. workout: No. 12/26
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,356. (Woo hoo!) 26/26
No night snacks: Success. 19/26

***

Two credit card rewards checks came in the mail: $105 and $440.96. I'm using them to cover the budget shortfall from my miscalculation of NT's paychecks. We'll earn two more soon: $150 each for me and NT from Citi Dividend cards. NT has already spent the required amount and I need to spend about $100 more on mine. That $300 of rewards will cover a window replacement we did recently.

It's a bit depressing that my recent rewards keep being needed for unexpected shortfalls and expenses, but I cheer up when I realize how our budget would otherwise have been damaged by these events, which were going to happen with or without the rewards!

Tonight we should be selling an infant swing via Craigslist. The buyer has promised $85, the same amount we paid for it when we bought it off of Craigslist. It's a great little swing, but SL is a very alert baby and prefers to be where the action is, so she only liked it for about a month.

Since we weren't expecting to get rid of the swing so soon, this is an unforeseen windfall. I should put it to the medical fund which is kind of skimpy these days, but I need the psychological boost that we're saving toward a new house/moving, so I'm going to put it in that fund instead.

AS let the publishing house she freelances for know that she was about to end her maternity-leave break, and they sent her a job offer right away. Another freelancer snatched it up before she had a chance to respond, but the editor promised she'd send AS more offers now that she knows she's available again. This is an amazing side hustle that can earn AS anything from $300 to $600 a pop, so this will boost the house fund immensely when it gets going again. I hate losing her company in the evenings, but we can't really turn up our noses at that kind of money when we have so many financial goals!

NT's summer semester ends next week, and his fall classes are going to be in the afternoon, so he won't be away most nights! I know he'll still have homework, but maybe I could start looking for freelance proofreading jobs to do in the evenings.

Our CSA is taking a break from deliveries this week to tend their crops. NT and I decided to continue with local food while it's in season, so we went to the farmer's market downtown today at lunch. (It's a combination of real local farms and grocery-store rejects, but it's easy to tell which is which now that we've been doing the CSA for a few years and know what's in season in Minnesota right now. Hint: Tropical fruits are not. )

We spent $26 and got:
Thai basil
Green tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes
New potatoes
Leeks
Onions
Garlic
Summer squash & zucchini
Green bell peppers
Portobello mushrooms (the only non-local purchase)
Baby bok choy
Purple kale
(plus free samples of hummus, Sun Chips and Pepsi!)

We were kind of brainstorming what we'd make, but mostly just buying what looked good and was reasonably priced. Now I have to make sure we plan our menu so none of this goes to waste! The greens and herbs are most delicate, so we've got to use those first. Tonight's dinner is already planned, and we're not cooking Friday night. I'm thinking:

Saturday lunch: Creamy kale pasta
Saturday dinner: N/A, date night
Sunday lunch: Rice-lentil salad, zucchini boats, leftover Harvard beets
Sunday dinner: Holy basil seitan w/sauteed bok choy & rice
Monday: Sauteed cherry tomatoes & basil over pasta; garlic-butter crostini
Tuesday: Gardein BBQ "ribs," fried green tomatoes, leeks & carrots, cornbread
Wednesday: Portobello sandwiches w/sauteed peppers & onions, potato salad
Thursday: Southern fried tofu, cross-hatch squash & biscuits
Friday: Depends on CSA box

We shouldn't have to buy much for this menu. We already have:
- At least 2 boxes of pasta, may need to get one more
- Vital wheat gluten so I can make seitan from scratch
- Fresh basil (non-Thai) and parsley growing on the balcony
- Thin baguette in the freezer
- Gardein "ribs" that I bought with my own spending money as a treat recently
- Leftover carrots from last week's CSA

We'll need to get:
- Maybe 1 box of pasta
- Maybe some nutritional yeast for southern fried tofu mix
- Brown rice
- Lentils
- 1 shallot
- Cornmeal
- Bread for sandwiches
- Tofu

Also on the grocery list so far:
Rainier cherries
apples
bananas
berries
Silk soymilk
lemon juice
foil
formula
bagels
English muffins
Tofutti cream cheese
Earth Balance buttery sticks
EB shortening?
toothpaste
Bonne Maman jam

I'm excited! I hope we can stay well under budget this month. We've got to use our CSA months to catch up on the budget so we don't fall farther behind when winter comes and we have to start buying grocery-store veggies again. Also, we're now buying disposable (well, compostable) diapers for SL going into daycare, and some formula to supplement the breastmilk. So we need to conserve our grocery dollars more carefully than ever. Plus, this is one of the half-months that has 3 weeks of grocery shopping instead of 2. Hmm, thinking about all that, I may skip Rainier cherries for a week, and probably the Tofutti cream cheese as well.

This morning as I was sitting at my desk, I suddenly felt a painful pinching sensation down my spine. Sometimes my back just goes out like that. It was pretty painful all day but manageable, but it didn't heal up enough to allow a workout; I couldn't think of a vigorous activity that wouldn't make it hurt worse.

July 25:
10 min. workout: No. 12/25
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,565. 25/25
No night snacks: Success. 18/25

I also went over a bit in calories, but only because there was a load of fresh fruits at work and I had a big bowl of pineapple, blackberries and strawberries.

It's too bad I went over because AS made an amazing-looking berry-peach cobbler that I just knew I shouldn't have. But I'll have some for my breakfast tomorrow, so that'll be something to look forward to!

Earlier today I saw a Facebook ad for a good sale at a fashion online store, so I signed in and got an offer for 50% off my first item, plus free shipping. AS and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary,* in a very low-key way since we're so busy this year, so I let her choose something to be her present. She got a handbag and it was only $19.95. As I was going through I scanned the terms & conditions, but as I submitted my order I saw something that concerned me. I went back into the Ts & Cs and saw that it's one of those sites where you have to make one purchase of $40 per month or else they'll charge you $40 anyway. Uh, no, I don't think I'll be spending $40 per month on fashion accessories! As soon as AS receives her bag, I'll cancel.

*(For those who are curious, AS and I had already been a couple for years when NT came into the picture. We've been with him about 7 years.)

AS's gift to me, besides the cobbler, was that she cleared off that fabric cabinet! It looks so much better with the bolts of fabric not piled on top. I'm so happy about it! To make it even better, NT rearranged his DJ equipment so it hardly blocks any of the window any more. Our place is slowly looking better and better.

Got a fun, busy summer ahead of us! Thank goodness for our shared Google calendar, because things keep getting added and it would be so hard to keep track. Especially with all the medical appointments we've all had this year, and the shared parental leave, and NT taking summer classes.

Tomorrow is AS's publishing house's regular happy hour; it's our good luck that it's outside the museum across the street from home! Close by AND kid-friendly, so AS and I can both go and bring the kids. And they have vegetarian hot dogs, which lil AA loves.

Friday AS and NT are going to an Olympics opening ceremony viewing party at the local British-themed pub, and I'm having a friend over to see the kids and watch a movie after they go to bed.

Saturday we'll be having an anniversary date; with NT if we can find a sitter, otherwise just me & AS.

Next week is NT's last classes until September, and then one of my sisters and her family comes on Saturday for a 4-day visit. Should be lots of fun, and they're staying at a hotel so we won't feel overwhelmed.

The weekend after that, we've got a little road trip planned to a small-town festival, leave on Friday & come back Sunday.

After that the calendar is mostly clear -- but we're almost into September! Wow, summers go so FAST in Minnesota. I'll never get used to that.

Finally my fitness results are starting to look better again. (I did need to snack tonight and last night for my antibiotics, but I'm now done with the pills, so I won't need to again.)

July 23:
10 min. workout: Yes! 11/23
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,431. 23/23
No night snacks: Necessary fail. 17/23

July 24:
10 min. workout: Yes! 12/24
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,439. 24/24
No night snacks: Same as above. 17/24

Also, last week I sent a small extra payment to NT's student loan to make sure I hit my monthly goal. (I just took it out of what I plan to pay next month, since we've got a cushion in the checking account.) $44 went to principal, so that takes us to $925 down, $100 to go. AS's student loan payment will hit soon and take us over the top!