Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Well, not a raise, but as good as one. I've been factoring in $575 per month starting in August for SL's daycare tuition. Then it occurred to me that our daycare lady might charge more for infants, as some places do. (She's in-home but has a lot of pro daycare experience and runs hers really professionally.)

So AS finally asked her how much it would be and she said $475! She's actually charging less since there are two of them. When AA starts going to school in a couple years, SL's will go up to $575 since we won't have two full-timers at that point.

So awesome! Right now I'm putting the surplus to our house down payment/moving fund. This may change in November when our mortgage rate adjusts; but I won't know probably until August or September. Of course, I may have underestimated AS's net take-home from her raise, so there's a chance we'll have more than we thought.

So now because of AS's raise and this unexpected daycare discount, I'm estimating we'll have $185.70 per month for that new savings goal. Of course, it would take us our whole lives to save $79,000 more at that rate, but we'll put any other windfalls or income increases or expense decreases into that fund as well. This is just a starting point. Last month, we had no money earmarked for an expensive international move. Now, we have $1000 saved and $185.70 per month designated to go there.

OK, so Banker Gurl's recent posts have gotten me intrigued about what (and how many) clothes I own. They're divided between hangers and drawers, laundry baskets, ironing pile and such, and I never really thought about it. Once in a while, if I get a windfall, I'll buy a few more things and get rid of things that are worn out or don't look good on me anymore, but I don't think I've ever analyzed my entire collection. Which is funny because AS and I have mentioned it in passing once or twice.

This was a great exercise because it also made me neaten up my drawers, toss a few things I haven't used for years, and realize that I'm probably going to need to fill a few gaps before winter comes.

So here's my total (I found it kind of hard to pick categories, so not sure if some of them make sense):

Tops:
T-shirts, camis & tanks: 17
Short-sleeve tops that are not Ts; blouses, dress shirts, vest, etc.: 12
Long-sleeve shirts (both pullover & button-down): 7
Pullover sweaters: 3
Cardigans, hoodies, suit coats, etc.: 10
TOTAL tops: 49

Bottoms:
Shorts: 1
Jeans: 4
Slacks & Khakis: 4
Skirts: 4
TOTAL bottoms: 13

Other (one-piece, underclothes, fitness, etc.):
Dresses: 13
Romper: 1
Long johns (thermal pants): 2
PJs: 2 sets
Undies: 11
Bras: 3
Swimsuit: 1
Fitness bottoms: 4
Fitness tops: 4
TOTAL other: 41

Shoes:
Sneakers: 3
Heels: 4
Sandals: 4
Flats: 6
Flip-flops: 2
Slippers: 1
TOTAL shoes: 20

Did not count: coats, winter gear, socks, tights, a couple things I keep at work, costumes

So not including the areas I didn't count, I have 123 articles of clothing.

Some of the areas seem skimpy -- 3 sweaters and I live in Minnesota?? -- but if I think about it, the cardigans etc. category is what I mostly wear. Indoor temps are typically pretty high in winter here, so dressing in layers is a must.

I did spot a few problem areas for winter:

- My slacks are going to be too big if I continue my fitness regimen. Even though I haven't lost a ton of weight this year, my fitness regimen (assuming I start back up and keep it up) has trimmed down my figure. My work pants were already on the too-big side last winter. If I keep up my progress they'll be falling down by the time cold weather hits.

- Same with my bras. It's time for a smaller cup size.

- All my shoes are getting in pretty bad shape except my workout sneakers, two pair of flats and one pair of sandals. And the flats that are still nice, one pair is purple and the other is a pair of ankle boots, so neither goes with a ton of things. I need a basic black and a basic brown pair that go with everything. My current ones won't last the winter, I don't think.

Everything else I feel is at a decent level. I don't have a ton of clothes compared with my closet in the past, but nor do I feel deprived or like I lack a bit of variety.

What do you think? How do my numbers compare with yours?

Ay-yi-yi.

All I can say is, after the weekend I had, I felt fortunate that I gained less than 2 lbs. at my weigh-in tonight. I knew I was going to be heavier, but I wanted to at least stick to part of my routine so I can hopefully get back on track soon.

Even though I didn't work out, I feel like I've been on my feet much of the weekend. Maybe that's why I didn't gain as much as the calorie counts and lack of workouts would warrant.

July 21:
10 min. workout: No. 10/21
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated (gulp) 2,824. 21/21
No night snacks: Sort of? No. I don't know, I felt like I was constantly eating until pretty late, so I don't know where dinner ended and snacking began. I'm going to say I did snack. 17/21

July 22:
10 min. workout: No. 10/22
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,945. 22/22
No night snacks: No, I needed to eat something for my antibiotics. 17/22

It was a mostly fun if hard weekend. Saturday was haircut day, as well as having our friends over to celebrate their 5-year anniversary. I ran around lugging bottles of wine and a massive box of Chinese takeout food and we all ate at our place. Then we rushed out to catch fireworks; the best Minneapolis fireworks are always late July, rather than on the 4th.

Lil AA fell out of her big-girl bed very early this morning; second time it's happened. NT positioned a beanbag chair by her bed tonight so if she does it again, hopefully it won't be such a bad shock for her. We're thinking about whether we can do anything else to help. She REALLY travels in her sleep.

Today we only had one Skype call to England, but I promised my parents one, so I spoke with them later in the day. We got a new bedframe and put it together; now we'll have more bedroom storage space. I made a new complex dish for dinner (seitan stroganoff; seitan is a fake meat made of wheat) that was a big hit with everyone, so I'll probably get practice getting better at it!

I don't really know why the weekend felt so overwhelming. Part of it was NT being somewhat out of commission after his surgery; partly the lost sleep due to AA falling; partly I had my own illness to deal with, along with antibiotics. Tomorrow is my last day of parental leave, so I'll try to take it easy, get back on working out and a sane amount of calories, and just generally find my equilibrium.

I've pretty much written off this week in terms of my health goals, but I'm still going to record everything so hopefully I can get back on track next week.

July 18:
10 min. workout: No. 10/18
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,851. 18/18
No night snacks: Success. 16/18

July 19:
10 min. workout: No. 10/19
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,461. 19/19
No night snacks: Success. 17/19

July 20:
10 min. workout: No. 10/20
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,847. 20/20
No night snacks: No, I needed to eat something because I started antibiotics. 17/20

I thought I'd share my menu and shopping list, since I like reading LuckyRobin's. This week we have more eating out scheduled than usual. We've been buying more fruit than usual because it's fresher and cheaper during the summer. Also, during the summer we hardly have to buy any vegetables because we get most of them from our CSA.

Friday dinner
Get takeout & take it easy. Pizza Luce

Saturday lunch
super Saturday scramble - tofu/eggs, diced potatoes, fried tomatoes, toast, facon
AS making cupcakes for fireworks display tonight

Saturday dinner
Friends' anniversary dinner (eat out or takeout)

Sunday lunch
Veggie burgers, lemon-butter broccoli

Sunday dinner
Seitan stroganoff over pasta; Harvard beets

Monday
Chikn-fried steak or chix patties, potatoes, carrot-walnut salad

Tuesday (NT has class until 8:30)
Bacon-avocado sammiches (tomato if we've got some), corn

Wednesday (NT has class until 9:00)
Parsley-breadcrumb pasta

Thursday (NT has class until 8:30)
Corn, cilantro, black beans, tortillas

Ideas for next week: Buffalo salad (if we get corn in CSA); something Mexican; portobello sammies & potato salad; BBQ

Grocery list (we divvy it by the stores we got to for each):

Rainbow:
cremini mushrooms
avocadoes
peaches
small bag Rainier cherries
apples
strawberries
blueberries
Silk soymilk (coupon)
veg burgers BOGO
bread (coupon)
white vinegar
grape jelly
spaghetti
Athenos feta BOGO
cheddar cheese
Smart Ones desserts (coupon)
cotton balls
gauze pads

Wedge:
nutritional yeast
sweet brown rice (1 C for pudding)
slivered almonds (1/2 C)
pistachios (1/2 C)
walnuts (1 c)
dried cranberries (1/4 c)
black beans
firm tofu
silken tofu
loo rolls
fig cookies
flour (all-purpose, unbleached)
coffee beans
vegan wide noodles

Target:
facon
pita chips

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

FY2012 total so far: $336.18

Since we're only in our fourth month of the "fiscal year," that means our average is $84.05 per month! I hope that will go down quite a bit since we all just filled up, but we also have been using more minutes because of the new baby: more calls to the proud grandparents, and people staying home with the baby = more use of cellphones vs. work phones.

But, it's netting out to be cheaper than our old family plan, just barely.

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.

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): $16,961
NT's Roth IRA: $4,213
AS's 401(k): $7,221
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $7,159
CJ's 401(k): $43,019
CJ's Roth IRA: $4,213
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $14,750
House down payment/moving fund: $1,000
---
Total Assets: $587,414

Total Debt: $308,822

Current Estimated Net Worth: $278,592

June 2012 estimate: $274,611

Change in net worth: +$3,981

Summary: Modest gains in all our retirement accounts and a modest amount of saving and debt repayment add up again! We need to increase our net worth by $4,282 per month to reach our goal by year's end, but considering this was a month when we didn't pay much extra on debt at all, this is a good result.

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.

Not doing too great this week so far:

July 16:
10 min. workout: No. 10/16
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,521. 16/16
No night snacks: Success. 15/16

July 17:
10 min. workout: No. 10/17
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,688. 17/17
No night snacks: Fail. Had drinks and sweets. 15/17

Hoping to at least hold steady on my weight this week! It's a social one, which can lead to both more eating and less exercising.

So last year I did the Chase Sapphire offer for a $500 bonus (which I eventually turned into a $1000 bonus after much threatening and wrangling). I decided to try again this year, even though the reward is down to $400, and I wasn't sure it would work to do the same card again.

Well, I checked my rewards balance tonight because I knew my statement would close today, and ... it worked! I just redeemed for a $440.96 check, which by the way is 79 cents over my budget shortfall. So that problem is totally cleared up; I don't need to take more money out of the medical fund for now.

So, if anyone did the Chase Sapphire last year and wants another offer, I recommend trying it again!

A small payment to NT's student loan hit, with $56 going to principal, so that's $881 down, $144 to go on the July goal. Hmm...there's only one more debt payment this month that usually pays about $125 to principal. I may send another small payment to make sure I hit my goal. I should be able to scrape together some money somewhere to do that.

We recently had about a $545 shortfall; we thought NT would be returning to full pay this past pay period, but didn't know that he gets paid oddly, so some of the unpaid time was still reflected in the new paycheck. We thought about cutting back our summer fun/vacation fund, but in the end we took the money out of medical savings (since the paycheck had been intended to pay part of NT's wisdom-teeth bill). Hopefully we can make it back up at some point.

We should have a couple of CC rewards coming in soon, to help offset this loss. (Actually, I just thought to check on them all, and my CapOne that I JUST opened and used up on a medical bill has already given me my reward! $105--I just requested a check. So that shortfall is already down to $440. Nice! The statement on my Chase Sapphire double-dip should be ready any day now (statements are dated the 17th of each month), so I'll finally know whether or not double-dips work.

Also, since the good CC cash rewards seem to have dried up, I'm having all 3 of us apply for Delta SkyMiles Amex cards, where we can get 30K points each for spending $500 in 3 months. If we transfer all the points into a single account, there's a chance we can use them to help purchase one of the UK tickets for our trip next year. If not, we can use the miles to save money on a future trip.

Back in June I posted pics of our problematic living space, and you all gave us excellent suggestions to fix it. I wouldn't say these are "before and after" pics, because we still have more that we want to do. But we've made some small, subtle changes that already make me feel less crazy when I look around the room ...

THEN: OK, so here's the view through the hallway from the foyer into the living space ... note record collection and random liquor bottles on left, AA's toy kitchen & the cat's house thingie that AA also plays with more than Noodles does.


NOW:

The liquor collection fits on two shelves, there's much less junk on top of the shelving unit, and you can probably see there's less clutter on the kitchen island.

THEN: Here's a view from the corner of the kitchen, looking over the island, that attempts to capture as much of the space in one shot as possible.


NOW:

Less kitchen clutter, one less entertainment shelving unit in the far corner.

THEN: Here's the kitchen straight-on ... very small space. The stuff that's out pretty much has to be out; we've used most of the cabinet space to its capacity.


NOW:

Found storage for most food stuff, moved coffee station to corner, moved our most-used spices out onto the counter.

THEN: Here's the dining room/crafts room. The sewing cabinet is behind the dining room table; the sewing machine lowers into it, which is super sweet because it's one less bit of "stuff" visible. To the left is my pet peeve, the sewing supplies storage unit.


NOW:

You can see AS's project in progress, cutting down on amount of fabric and storing it around pieces of cardboard for a more uniform look. (The stuff on top of the cabinet will get stowed away once our new bed frame arrives.) Also, no more kitchen supplies in this cabinet; it's all sewing or household supplies.

THEN: Here's the view of the DVD/CD/videogame storage that AS finds problematic. I will admit that the clock which was there when we had a much taller entertainment center looks sort of silly and off-center.


NOW:

We reduced our CD/DVD collection, getting rid of some, putting others in books. Some CDs are stored in the drawers under the TV, but once we get more shelves to put in that narrow CD shelving unit, most or all of them will fit there. I also moved the weights that were visible under the TV, to under the couch where they can't bee seen. This is very incomplete; we want to take down the clock and those little white pieces of paper and put in a single, striking piece of art in that big blank space.

THEN: This built-in cabinet is against the wall by the window, and in the lower right you can see the toy shelf and the board games shelf just peeking out behind the couch -- the couch is about 8 inches away from the shelf, so getting games is a pain, but we don't play them that often now that we have kids, so it doesn't matter too much. If we had room elsewhere, that's something I'd consider moving (the board games).


Closer view of the toys and games:


NOW:

We got rid of a TON of toys and books so that we could simplify here and put the rest away in the girls' room. We moved some of the puzzles and games under the couch. We still have a few DVDs we're getting rid of, and we'll be able to put more puzzles and games in the TV drawers once we move the CDs out of there.

THEN: And, just so you can see some of the more "necessary" clutter -- AA's blackboard, our rocking chair, the bassinet up on two chairs, the swing, the bouncy seat -- so you can see why I want to simplify elsewhere and give my eyes a rest! (To the left in this shot you can see the balcony door covered by the brown curtain.)


NOW:

A slight overall improvement, to my eyes.

If I get a chance today, I'll do a beginning-middle set of kitchen storage pics. That is more complete than the overall space, but there's still some work we're planning there.

July 11:
10 min. workout: No. 6/11
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,498. 11/11
No night snacks: Success. 11/11

July 12:
10 min. workout: Yes, 25 min. 7/12
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,186. 12/12
No night snacks: Success. 12/12

July 13:
10 min. workout: Yes, 25 min. 8/13
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,933. 13/13
No night snacks: Success. 13/13

July 14:
10 min. workout: Yes, 20 min. 9/14
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,766. 14/14
No night snacks: Slipped up a bit. It wasn't terrible; oven-roasted chickpeas w/olive oil, and a banana w/ peanut butter. 13/14

July 15:
10 min. workout: Yes. 10/15
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,421. 15/15
No night snacks: Success. 14/15

I did slip up a bit in the calorie department these past few days, but the longer workouts must have balanced it out. I weighed in at 136, 2 lbs. less than last week! Very very pleased, and motivated to keep it up this coming week.

July 9:
10-min. workout: Yep.
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,414.
No night snacks: Success.

July 10:
10 min. workout: I don't think I'm up to it tonight. Total so far: 6/10
Calorie counting: Yes, estimated 1,256. 10/10
No night snacks: No problem. Half the calories were in dinner, so I'm stuffed. 10/10

It's been a hectic couple of days!

I worked Monday and took today as parental leave instead, because NT got his wisdom teeth taken out and he needed a driver to take him there, wait there and drive him home.

Monday AS and I went to the sheriff's office and got fingerprinted as part of a background check for adopting each other's kids. It took ages and little SL absolutely hated the wait. I thought the other people waiting to get fingerprinted were going to scream themselves after a few minutes of her crying echoing through the dingy little hall we were in.

Today I got a carshare, we dropped AA off at daycare and took SL with us to the dental appointment. Surgery went well, and NT was only a bit slow and dazed from the anesthesia. I drove him to the pharmacy to get his painkiller and antibiotic and some mango sorbet (also picked up some junk food for me because I hadn't had time to eat). Then I got him home, changed the gauze in his mouth, got him some soft food and milk to eat so he could take his meds, fed SL her bottle, dropped the car off and walked home.

In another hour I had to go to the dermatologist, so I strapped SL in and took her with me. Also picked up some ibuprofen for NT, and mailed off a package as well as the background check packet.

Got home and rushed to make some lentil dal so NT could eat and take more painkillers. The second round of Percocet really hit him and he was finally able to nap. SL and I napped too, until it was time for me to pick up AA from daycare. I left SL with NT since she was fast asleep, walked to daycare, and AA and I walked back home. She's a good little walker but you have to keep on her to hurry, and she always wants to stop and touch flowers, grass, etc., which I can't say no to most of the time.

Then AS and I cooked a dinner of all soft foods so NT could eat it too: scrambled eggs/tofu, smashed new potatoes, and stewed apples. AS said she'd been skeptical they'd all go together but would actually have it again sometime!

AS and NT helped me clean up and get AA to bed, and then they went out to trivia night. So, don't think I have a workout in me, but I did a ton of walking and stayed under my calorie range, so I'm happy.

***

On the reorg front, we got rid of the CD bookcase, someone said he'll pick up the empty DVD cases tomorrow, and I Freecycled our bed frame and box spring for someone to pick up once our new one (which will give us more storage) arrives. Hope someone takes us up on it. I did notice a lot of other people offering mattresses, box springs and bed frames on Freecycle, but I don't get the "Taken" emails so don't know if people take that sort of thing.

We talked about a few more things we could do around the house. AS wants to sit down and sketch out a plan of everything; we are making progress but it's a bit haphazard at times.

***

In other health news, AS is working SOO hard to get her milk supply up, but it appears that work, plus SL sleeping through the night, have affected it too much. We bought a box of formula to have around. May make it a few more weeks without supplementing; if not, we'll do a combination for as long as AS can. Same thing happened to me around the 3.5/4 month mark with AA, and I hung on doing half-and-half for another 3 months.

At this point she'd only need to supplement with a bottle here and there; she's not much short but when she goes to work, she doesn't bring home as much as we pull out of the fridge and freezer.

The formula will be an added cost, BUT, not too much at first, and AA is going to get potty trained in September, so not buying compostable diapers in a few months will offset the formula costs in the grocery/household budget.

NT has a vasectomy scheduled for later in the month. I'm glad the wisdom teeth surgery didn't affect him much, since he'll have something else to recover from soon! The dental surgery was $705; not sure about the other one.

I'm putting off getting a dental checkup; should have gotten one in June, but I know I want to switch dentists again and just can't face the hassle and uncertainty, what with everything else going on.

I do have my annual physical this month. My job is offering $200 of flex spending next year if we check off a certain number of preventive health measures this year. I'm going to take the list to my OB/GYN and see how many she can do in one visit! I want that $200. (And then watch, next year will be a super cheap health year and I'll struggle to use it. I always have either way too much or way too little flex money.)

***

We've been trying really really hard to eat through our CSA and the pantry and cut down on grocery/household expenses. One week we only spent about $20 on food! This past week it was $110 or so; still really good for us. However, with diapers, wipes, cat food, a bike light and a bus pass, we still struggled. So far we're about $25 into our July 16-31 grocery amount, so we're still behind and need to be smart about our food spending this week. We've only let one thing from the CSA go to waste; some basil in the fridge that looks like it's about to go. AS might try to dry it before it goes bad, so maybe we won't even waste that! (Oh, and I tried a cilantro-scape pesto that was nearly unsalvageable, but that was a different kind of waste so I don't feel as bad about that.)

***

Still scheming and dreaming about saving money for a house/moving fund, but until we get all our medical bills for the summer settled, and see what our new mortgage payment will be in November, I can't really do anything tangible about it. Once those hurdles are out of the way, should start to see some real movement on that fund!

My job just got a huge new project from our biggest account, and I've noticed a ton of promotion announcements this past week. So I'm hoping in the spring we'll be doing well enough to talk raises! NT's work seems to be doing well enough for an Xmas bonus, and he hopes to get either a raise or more PTO soon.

So anyway, you can see why I'm exhausted. Physically ran around a lot today, and mentally I'm all over the place!

Got some fitness progress to catch up on:

10-min. exercise? No for July 5-6, yes for July 7-8. 5/8

Calorie counting? Yes for all four days:
July 5: estimated 1,313.
July 6: estimated 1,188.
July 7: estimated 2,516. (Date night!)
July 8: estimated 1,085.
8/8

Avoid night snacking? Yes for all four days. 8/8

My weight held pretty steady; I'm now at exactly 138, which is what I was rounding up to anyway. After the decadent desserts and drinks of date night, I feel lucky not to have slid backward!

***

The home declutter/reorg is gradually but steadily continuing.

- I got the CD/DVD jackets I ordered and put all of my and AS's discs in there, and threw away the cases. (Well, the DVD cases I put up on Freecycle, figuring someone who burns DVDs might want them. If I don't hear from anyone in the next day or two I'll throw them away.) I fit all the CDs and DVDs in one case except a few rows that I stored in the entertainment center drawers for now; when NT thins his collection and orders more shelves for the bigger storage unit, they should all fit there.

- I freecycled the now-empty storage unit and someone will be picking it up today or tomorrow. Once that's gone, it will leave a big blank wall that would be a great place for some original art. We know a couple artists and I'd love to support one of them, if they have something that would look good in our place.

- I put some of our board games under the sofa, and moved the remaining ones to the two lower shelves so that the one that's most visible is empty and clean. We'll try to keep it free of anything permanent and just store laptop, iPad and remotes there when not in use.

- NT ordered a higher bed frame for our king-size bed, which is now too low to the ground to store much under. Once that arrives, we'll be able to store some things under there (perhaps AS's larger bolts of fabric, for example).

- AS hemmed the balcony door curtains and sewed them together so they'd have a neater appearance. She'll do the matching window curtain soon.

All in all, the differences may be subtle, but it's feeling cleaner and more restful to us. I'll post before-and-after pics when we're at a better place.

***

One night last week, thinking about the need to save $80K to move to England, I started wondering how fast we could reach that goal if we deployed a "nuclear option"; pared our budget down to its bare bones and cut out all fun stuff, other savings and extra debt repayment.

The next day I got spreadsheet-happy and mocked up a drastically severe (for us) budget. All I kept were:
Mortgage
Groceries/household
Condo association dues
Daycare
Minimum student loan interest
Home insurance
Barber (but cut down frequency)
Diapers
Cell phones

I "cut":
Medical EF savings
Spending money
Cable and Internet
Netflix
Xmas & bdays
Housecleaning
CSA (farm share)
EF savings
Extra student loan repayment
Roth IRAs
Charitable giving
Travel
Car share

I was slightly shocked to see that we could raise over $4,000 per month (assuming no emergencies arose) and have the remaining $79K needed to reach $80K in a year and a half.

I showed it to AS and NT; they were suitably impressed. We're not going to implement this, at least not for the foreseeable future, but it's good to know that we have that ability. While this would be a difficult and not-fun exercise, it would be a good option if a chance to move to England did suddenly arise and we needed to turbo-charge our saving. At this point we're just going to see how much we can save while keeping our normal budget. If we do that for a year or so, maybe we can see how far we've gotten and re-consider the "nuclear option" then, which would be achievable in an even shorter window of time once we have some more of the $80K already saved up.

Speaking of the $1000 we already set aside for this house/moving fund, I decided to open a Barclays online savings account; it pays 1% interest and says it compounds daily. That's at least 10X the rate I get on my savings account that's linked to my checking account, so I think it's a good option. We decided we wanted zero risk on the house/moving fund, since the economy and markets are still so volatile.

***

And speaking of England, we semi-finalized our plans for a trip to bring the new little'un to meet her British grandparents. We decided to devote nearly a whole year's worth of vacation funds (and 9 days of PTO) so we can go for a full two weeks. At this point, plane tickets are so expensive that it would seem like a waste to go for less than that amount of time, but any more than that and we wouldn't have any vacation time to use around the winter holidays. We're going to go in late May or early June of next year, so we can take advantage of the Memorial Day holiday as part of it.

We figure airfare alone will be about $4K. Then we have to budget for travel insurance, rental car w/carseats, possibly a hotel for a few days (though we'll stay with people at least some of the time to economize), food/entertainment, and possibly boarding our kitty somewhere (or paying catsitters to come see him).

I reckon we can save $8500 between now and the trip, so after airfare (assuming we can get the price I'm counting on) that leaves $4500 for all of the above. If we're smart about planning, we'll be able to manage.

July 3:
10-min. exercise? Nope. I did walk a total of 60 mins. outside in the heat, but it wasn't vigorous. Hopefully it counted for something. Results: 2/3 days
Calorie counting? Yes: estimated 1,564. 3/3
Avoid night snacking? Yes. 3/3

July 4:
10-min. exercise? Yes. 3/4
Calorie counting? Yes: estimated 2,243. 4/4
Avoid night snacking? After that dinner? You bet. 4/4

***

After resolving we need to save up money if we're ever going to move, we actually sat down and tried to guesstimate what we might need for our two scenarios. We even checked out homes in our desired areas in Oxford, UK and Minneapolis, just to see what they would likely cost. (A lot of our other numbers are off-the-cuff guesses, which we hope to refine as one or the other of our two goals comes more into focus.) Anyway, here's our first rough set of numbers for each scenario:

Costs & offsets of moving: To UK (Oxford) in British pounds, then U.S. dollars
Home Price £ 325,000 $520,000
Upgrade US condo:
Kitchen £ 3,125 $5,000
Bathroom £ 3,125 $5,000
Floors £ 1,563 $2,500
Misc. (painting etc.) £ 625 $1,000
Moving expenses:
Immigration (lawyer, fees) £ 2,500 $4,000
Shipping £ 625 $1,000
Income interruption £ 5,000 $8,000
Interim lodging £ 1,875 $3,000
TOTAL COSTS £ 343,438 $549,500

Offsets:
New mortgage (assuming max amt we could prob qualify for) £ 225,000 $360,000
Profit from sale of UK flat £ 68,000 $108,800
TOTAL OFFSETS £ 293,000 $468,800

SAVINGS NEEDED £ 50,438 $80,700


Costs & offsets of moving: To U.S. (somewhere w/in Mpls)
Home Price $350,000
Upgrade US condo:
Kitchen $5,000
Bathroom $5,000
Floors $2,500
Misc. (painting etc.) $1,000
Moving expenses:
Immigration (lawyer, fees)
Shipping $1,000
Income interruption
Interim lodging $3,000
TOTAL COSTS $367,500

Offsets:
New mortgage (assuming 80% of cost of new home est. above) $280,000
Profit from sale of UK flat $108,800
TOTAL OFFSETS $388,800

SAVINGS NEEDED None, the above works out to a $21,300 surplus.

So basically what to infer from the above? If our calculations are anywhere near accurate, and we sold NT's UK flat, broke even on the U.S. one (after updating it) and borrowed as indicated for our new mortgage, to move to England we'd need to save an additional $80K cash, whereas to move within MN we'd actually have a $20K surplus with similar assumptions.

That means it would cost us an additional $100K to move to UK vs. staying in MN. Kind of staggering, until you look at how much we've managed to pay off of debt and raise our net worth in the past three years. If it's really worth it to us to do this, it's not an impossible sum of money.

Anyway, we've decided we should at least start saving toward that $80K mark for moving to the UK. If it turns out we can't move, it won't hurt to have set money aside. I'm thinking I'll open a money market account or online savings account so we at least make a bit of money on the savings.

We decided to take $1000 of the money we saved by my family refusing my offer to fly them out to see us, and start the fund with that. So, as I have the money in checking (just haven't opened a money market to put it in), that makes $1,000 down, $79,000 to go. There's no timeline to this goal yet; I'll put it out there if it becomes more clearly defined. Right now it's just, put as much money as possible toward the $80K goal, without disrupting any of our other goals or budget items.

The U.S. mortgage hit: $443 went to principal, taking us to $825 down, $200 to go on the July debt goal.

July 2 fitness results:
10-min. workout? Check.
Counted calories? Check; 1347.
No night snack? Check.

Our new HGTV obsession continues. Not only has it caused us to look at tweaking the design and organization of our place, it's also made our conversations about a future home slightly more concrete.

We know that at some point -- in a few years, when the girls are older -- we'll want a slightly larger place. It's been really hard to entertain that notion seriously, because we have two possible, very different paths. One is to move to England or possibly continental Europe permanently. The other is to resign ourselves that we won't be able to do that, and set down at least semipermanent roots here in Minnesota. (We love MN, but it's our second choice.)

But, watching HGTV (which focuses more on real estate and house-hunting than renovating existing places) has made us start to visualize it more realistically. We don't know which path we'll take, or when, but some of the issues will be the same either way. They are:
- Underwater mortgage on our U.S. condo.
- Unknown equity on UK flat.
- Money needed to get our U.S. condo into sale-ready condition.
- Money needed for moving expenses (much more, obviously, if we go the EU route).
- Money needed for down payment on new place.

Translation: Whichever route we take, we'll need cash, and lots of it.

We don't have a discrete moving/house fund set aside. I've always thought we could temporarily drain our EF if needed (i.e. if we couldn't sell our places timely and/or didn't have any/enough equity after the sale). But even factoring that in, we have less than US$15,000. That's just not a lot of money when thinking about all of the above. Whether we move to a bigger place in MN or to the UK, we'll be looking at purchasing a more expensive place than we currently have, and we're not even sure we can tap any equity on our current places.

Since AS was notified of an upcoming raise, I've been idly turning over in my mind where it should go (if our ARM doesn't adjust upward in November). Our budget is basically in balance, and pretty generous, but I'll be honest: We're not naturally thrifty, and there are spending areas we'd gladly increase -- clothing, eating out, grocery, gifts.

However, I was thinking more of putting the extra money to debt or savings. We've already raised our "wants" category recently by adding the carshare. Time to focus on practical things.

Now, talking to AS this morning, it seems clear that we should start building a moving/house fund with any additional money that comes our way, so we'll be in a more comfortable position in a few years when it's time to take the leap.

First, I want to rebuild our decimated medical fund to at least $5,000 and our emergency fund to $20,000. But once I get to those levels, unless they get depleted again and need rebuilding, I want to focus hard on saving for our future home.

AS intends to try and pick up freelance editing jobs again once her maternity leave is over, and we should be able to put most of that money into savings. Hopefully NT and I will be looking at raises and bonuses in the next year or so, and if nothing else changes in our financial life we'll be able to dump those into a home fund as well.

It's nice to have a new resolve and a new focus! We're a long way from being able to afford to move, but I believe we can do it if we all work together.

The UK mortgages hit:
#1: $268 to principal
#2: $56
#3: $58

All told, $382 down, $643 to go on the July debt repayment goal.

Also, we had US$600 in the UK checking account left over after the mortgage payments hit, which I was able to transfer into UK savings for the EF. That puts our EF savings at $14,724.41 -- FINALLY above our $14,472.57 starting point again! Let's see if it'll last -- seems like every time we make some progress, an unexpected expense hits. We have basically no hope of reaching the $20K goal this year -- we'll make it our 2013 goal and hope for the best!

***

I've been thinking about AS's raise of $84+ per month, which we're not allocating until we find out what our mortage will adjust to come Nov. 1. I looked around online to try and see if anyone had predictions on the future of ARM rates, and I did find one site that predicted rates would stay low through the end of the year (http://www.hsh.com/2month4cast.html). I would be ecstatic if our mortgage payment stayed about the same and we were able to allocate that raise money to something else!

***

We made some decent progress on trying to simplify our cluttered main living area. We tried putting some test sheets of fabric over all the open shelving. We didn't mind the one we put over the fabric cabinet, but the cumulative effect of cloth on all the shelves was a bit overwhelming. AS said it looked like portions of our place had been "redacted." LOL.

So, we're going forward with putting fabric over the sewing supplies, but our goal for the other shelves will just be to simplify so there's less to look at.

NT doesn't want to get rid of the jackets for his DVDs or CDs, but AS and I don't mind about ours. So I took all the DVDs that classified as ours -- all our belongings are more or less shared, but there were about 80 DVDs that NT doesn't care about that are only here because AS or I love them. I took those down and stored them away and ordered a 100-DVD storage book on Amazon. I also pulled out my CDs (about 40) and ordered a 48-CD holder. The three of us also went through our collections and eliminated about 40 DVDs and 15 CDs, which we'll Freecycle, eBay or give to friends. (I've already got a friend who wants our 7 Seinfeld box sets!)

NT is going to go through his CDs tomorrow and see if he can give up a few more.

With this slimming down, we're hoping to get all our CDs, DVDs and videogames to fit on the one larger shelving unit so we can get rid of the smaller unit. That will simplify that corner of the room.

We read a great article about how American kids are less self-sufficient and more pampered than ever before (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/07/02/120702crbo_books_kolbert) and one thing NT was struck by was talking about how much STUFF an American kid has. He'd suggested paring down the toys and books before but I'd kind of put him off. But in the new spirit of decluttering, and in light of this article, we've decided to have another go. That will help cut down on the toy shelf in the living room too; I've decided to keep just one row of books and have the other shelves only contain a few aesthetically pleasing toys. The rest will go in her room (and STAY there dammit! ).

Once I get rid of my DVD and CD cases, which are currently taking up a drawer in the TV table, we'll put some of our board games there. That will simplify the appearance of that shelf.

Once again I can't do pictures yet, since the Seinfeld and other DVDs to be gotten rid of are now out on countertops. We did get rid of the other stuff that was sitting out, but it's still a work in progress!

June debt results: paid off $1069, a bit over the $1000 goal. Ending balance $309,703

June fitness results: worked out 24 of the 30 days, counted calories 28 days, avoided night snacking 27 days. AND, I just weighed in at 138, 4 lbs. lighter than last week! First time I've been under 139 since before I was pregnant in 2009. This is a big boost that I really needed.

July goals:
Debt: Pay off at least $1025. This will hopefully be the last puny debt-repayment month; August we're on to our new budget where there should be about $1000 extra for debt each month!

Fitness: I'm so glad I had some significant weight loss this week, because it's inspired me to stay the course. So I'm still going to try for 10 minutes of vigorous exercise daily, calorie counting every day, and no night snacking save for my exceptions of fruit, veggies, peanut butter or tea.

To that end, here are my results for today, July 1:

10-min. workout: 20 min. playing wiffle ball w/AA in the park. Results so far: 1/31

Calorie counting: Estimated 1356. Results so far: 1/31

No night snacks: Success! Results so far: 1/31

10-min. workout: 20 min. cumulative biking during grocery shopping (some of it with a heavy backpack)
Final monthly tally: 24 out of 30 days

Calorie counting: Estimated 2240. (My target is 1280-1400.) I'm hoping I overestimated (was at a party and ordered delivery, so it's harder to tell), but I think this is about right. Man, it is SO easy to overdo it on any kind of festive day.
Final monthly tally: 28 out of 30 days (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Not so much. We came home from a party and ordered food; at least I kept it to much more of a minimum
Final monthly tally: 27 out of 30 days

***

I was looking for credit cards with good cash rewards that we haven't applied for, and there are very little. I almost had AS sign up for a Chase Sapphire double-dip before I even find out if mine worked, but this time I noticed explicit notes in the Ts & Cs about how it was for first-time customers only. So I didn't bother. Interested to see whether I get mine now.

So we've signed up for a Citi Dividend (one for NT and one for AS; $150 back for spending $500) and I for a Capital One ($100 back for spending $500). I'm going to apply for the same Citi Dividend as soon as I close a Citi card I already have open. Together, this may mean $550 back for spending collectively $2000.

But after that, there will be NO publicly mentioned large CC cash rewards with no annual fee that we haven't all three applied for. So I think we'll take it easy, scaling back to one or two cards per person, and just earn the regular rewards. (Unless the big money-makers come back, of course.)

***

Friday our June 30 paychecks hit, and I noticed NT's extra pay didn't show up. $150 possibly down the drain, if they don't pay him for it on his regular paycheck. However, the financial gods smiled on us and sent AS a $415 refund check from the doctor regarding the pregnancy/labor. That more than made the shortfall of NT not getting paid for that day. We weren't expecting this AS refund so it's as good as money to us. I'll use it to take some of the bite out of this year's necessary expenses.

I'm practically falling asleep as I write this, so I'll give my monthly goals tomorrow.

10-min. workout: Yes! Went down and up the stairs of my condo for 10 minutes.
Results so far: 23/29 (23 out of 29 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1952. (My target is 1280-1400.) Whoops! Going to a food truck for lunch really blew it for me.
Results so far: 27/29 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! Not even tempted.
Results so far: 26/29

Pretty pleased with my work this month, and with my better level of fitness, but not so much the scale. I know the scale is only part of the story, but you'd think the weight would come off if I increase my activity and decrease my eating. Sigh. We'll see how I feel at my weigh-in Sunday night.

10-min. workout: Yes! Hopped on the Wii Fit for 17 minutes of step aerobics, hula-hooping and boxing.
Results so far: 22/28 (22 out of 28 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1406. (My target is 1280-1400.) Nice! Two light days in a row. If I don't blow it this weekend, hopefully I'll show some nice weight loss at my Sunday weigh-in.
Results so far: 26/28 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! Not even tempted.
Results so far: 25/28

10-min. workout: Yes! A mix of various strength-training exercises.
Results so far: 21/27 (21 out of 27 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1062. (My target is 1280-1400.) Whaa? It really felt like a normal eating day with a slightly heavy dinner, but I checked my guesstimates a couple of times and didn't forget anything. AS pointed out dinner had a bunch of fiber-rich root vegetables, so maybe they made me feel more full.
Results so far: 25/27 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! Even though I knew I was under my calorie count, I just felt no urge to do so.
Results so far: 24/27

***

You know how Thriftorama says she just has to post a wish on her SA blog and it will come true? I just have to whine about not having enough money to make money mysteriously come my way.

First, I got a letter that our mortgage escrow payment is going down by $1.70 per month. Not much, but I'll take it!

Then, AS had her annual review and learned she'll get a $2,000 raise (and 6 more vacation days!) starting after parental leave is up! I usually calculate we'll get 50% of a raise, since otherwise the tax bite tends to be over my estimate. This way it's always better news than I plan. So I'm estimating another $84 per month in the budget!

And finally, NT let me know that he'll be working a Saturday, which isn't fun, but they'll pay him for it since he's only working three regular days that week. Also, he reminded me that since their fiscal year (and thus their paid time off) resets in July, he'll go back to full pay sooner than I had calculated. Estimated one-time cash influx from this: about $479!

All this extra money is getting socked away for healthcare expenses, which is fine because it makes our upcoming expenses that much less scary!

As for AS's raise, once we learn what our mortgage payment will adjust to in November (should find out around the end of September), we can see whether we'll need that money to cover a higher mortgage payment or can allot it to something else.

PS: Phew, I would've lost this entry except I always Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C before I hit Save and Publish.

10-min. workout: Yes! A mix of various strength-training exercises.
Results so far: 21/27 (21 out of 27 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1062. (My target is 1280-1400.) Whaa? It really felt like a normal eating day with a slightly heavy dinner, but I checked my guesstimates a couple of times and didn't forget anything. AS pointed out dinner had a bunch of fiber-rich root vegetables, so maybe they made me feel more full.
Results so far: 25/27 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! Even though I knew I was under my calorie count, I just felt no urge to do so.
Results so far: 24/27

***

You know how Thriftorama says she just has to post a wish on her SA blog and it will come true? I just have to whine about not having enough money to make money mysteriously come my way.

First, I got a letter that our mortgage escrow payment is going down by $1.70 per month. Not much, but I'll take it!

Then, AS had her annual review and learned she'll get a $2,000 raise (and 6 more vacation days!) starting after parental leave is up! I usually calculate we'll get 50% of a raise, since otherwise the tax bite tends to be over my estimate. This way it's always better news than I plan. So I'm estimating another $84 per month in the budget!

And finally, NT let me know that he'll be working a Saturday, which isn't fun, but they'll pay him for it since he's only working three regular days that week. Also, he reminded me that since their fiscal year (and thus their paid time off) resets in July, he'll go back to full pay sooner than I had calculated. Estimated one-time cash influx from this: about $479!

All this extra money is getting socked away for healthcare expenses, which is fine because it makes our upcoming expenses that much less scary!

As for AS's raise, once we learn what our mortgage payment will adjust to in November (should find out around the end of September), we can see whether we'll need that money to cover a higher mortgage payment or can allot it to something else.

First, fitness results for the past two days:

June 25

10-min. workout: NO! I've been uber busy and hopefully burning some calories, but haven't had time or energy left at the end of the day for a workout.
Results so far: 20/25 (20 out of 25 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1522. (My target is 1280-1400.)
Results so far: 23/25 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success!
Results so far: 22/25

June 26

10-min. workout: Nope. Same as above.
Results so far: 20/26

Calorie counting: Estimated 1567.
Results so far: 24/26

No night snacks: Success!
Results so far: 23/26

***

AS's student loan payment hit. Also, some money from the UPromise program hit! (I signed up for it but don't really get how to use it, but apparently I managed to rack up about $15 that transferred over to AS's student loan. Sweet!) All told, $142 went to principal. That means we paid $1069 of debt this month, exceeding the $1000 goal. Yippee! I'll take what I can get, because it's been a rough summer financially and it's only going to continue.

***

As I mentioned, we've had an expensive couple months and more to come, which is kind of painful when we're on reduced pay and already trimmed extra debt repayment and most travel out of the budget. We've got dental surgery and one other outpatient surgery for NT coming up, $700 for the teeth and $?? for the other. We've gotten insurance letters indicating we might owe about $2000 more for SL's birth -- darn! We'd already paid over a grand and I was kind of hoping that would be it. We have $2500 in our medical EF and another couple hundred in the checking account allotted to medical, but it looks like we're going to be wiped out completely and still have to come up with more money somehow. Years of medical savings have been decimated in just a few months, thanks also to my teeth problems, my skin problems and the cat's UTIs.

We also need to replace a window which is going to be about $300. Desperately hoping to cashflow that somehow so we don't have to resort to using our EF, which already is less than we started the year with.

One fun expense that's scheduled and we do have the money for, but isn't set in stone, is an August road trip (about $600 for hotel and car combined). Worse comes to worst, we could cancel that and harvest that money, but it's one of the few fun mini-trips we're able to take this year, so I'm hoping we find another way.

I'll be super glad when parental leave is over (in terms of money)! Then we'll have a big travel budget and big extra debt repayment line item, both of which can be dipped into when absolutely necessary for other things. Meanwhile, we just have to figure out a way to pay for everything.

I do have a small travel budget surplus since it sounds like none of my siblings are taking me up on the offer to fly them out here for a visit. (The one that is coming insisted on paying for everything herself.) I was hoping to keep it all for travel or other fun activities (like hiring babysitters for date nights), but the way things are going it might have to go toward yucky bills instead.

I also thought we should try to tap some credit card offers to ease the pain of the above. NT had $105 from a recent credit card so I'll put that toward medical expenses. If my Chase Sapphire double-dip works, I should be getting $400 in August that I can hopefully use to help pay these bills.

I asked NT and AS to each apply for a Citi Dividend card, which has a good $150 bonus if you spend $500. If they're both approved, that's another $300 we can use to these expenses. I might apply for that card, too, if it's still available once I'm done qualifying for my Chase Sapphire reward. If not, Capital One usually has a $100 bonus if you spend $500 offer available, and that would be better than nothing. Heck, the amount we're needing to spend, I might as well apply for the Citi AND the CapOne! If I did that and was approved, that would be another $250 we could put toward the medical fund.

Unfortunately, I think if any of us get holiday bonuses at least some of it will need to go toward bolstering our savings. It sucks to see it take such a nosedive! This is the first time it's happened this much since we even started HAVING savings (which granted has only been a couple years).

***

Anyhow, on a brighter note, I've started implementing some of your excellent suggestions about rearranging the house! I decided to start with the kitchen, since that was something I could do on my own. Some of the others will need the input and skills of NT and AS to complete.

I Freecycled some stuff (the George Foreman grill, the fondue set, some extraneous dishes) and rearranged a lot of the cabinets. I adhered to the no-mixing-food-and-utensils rule that some of you suggested. Sometimes a cabinet will have mixed use, but each shelf at least has a discrete purpose.

I moved a lot of the countertop stuff into cabinets, moved the coffee stuff into a corner where it's less imposing, and cleaned everything but the daycare calendar and the menu off the fridge. I moved AA's sippy cups into the cupboard and put away that big glass bowl they were in. I moved silverware and napkins over closer to the table and dishwasher, and the coffee appliances are now directly under the coffee itself. Everything makes a lot more sense and the surfaces look a lot cleaner. I'm holding off photos because we need to get some different sizes of storage containers for some of the stuff that moved, so I want to wait until the interior of the cupboards looks more organized. Plus we're still in the process of Freecycling and getting rid of things, so some of the surfaces are temporarily cluttered with stuff that's about to go away. When I do post, I think you'll all be pleased!

I also decluttered AA's toy shelf to some extent and hid the free-weights that were visible under the couch. We're still going to try and store stuff under the couch and bed, and we're going to test out covering the shelves with fabric we already have. If we like the effect but the fabric doesn't quite go with the room, then we'll know it's worth investing in some better-matching fabric. We just have to buy some Velcro and cut the fabric to try it out. (And AS will probably want to hem the fabric so it doesn't look too rough.) I'll post pics as soon as we get this all done.

That's all for now! I have to go tackle a big pile o' work.

June 23

10-min. workout: Yes! Biked 16 mins.
Results so far: 19/22 (19 out of 22 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1543. (My target is 1280-1400.) Not too bad considering one of my meals was from Burger King on the road!
Results so far: 20/22 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success!
Results so far: 20/22

June 23
10-min. workout: Yes! Did a melange of crunches, squats, jumping jacks, etc.
Results so far: 20/23

Calorie counting: Estimated 2136. What can I say? Vacation eating.
Results so far: 21/23

No night snacks: Failed, sadly. It wasn't late night snacking, but I had a choco-dipped pretzel, a peanut butter meltaway, and a cherry cream soda. Enough for a meal on their own!
Results so far: 20/23

June 24
10-min. workout: No, I don't think I'm going to manage today. I'm headachey and unmotivated.
Results so far: 20/24

Calorie counting: Estimated 2373. Two killers: Belgian waffles for breakfast & pecan pie for lunch dessert.
Results so far: 22/24

No night snacks: Success! Just counting up today's calories made me lose any temptation to add more.
Results so far: 21/24

Well, I just weighed in and my weight held steady, so at least I restrained myself enough to not lose ground. Vacations are hard!

10-min. workout: Yes! I was making a casserole, so while it was baking I jumped into my exercise clothes and did 5 minutes of jump-roping and 5 minutes of lower-body weight training.
Results so far: 18/21 (18 out of 21 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1387. (My target is 1280-1400.) I can't believe it -- I had wine AND a night snack (one of my allowed exceptions), and still came under my top number. In fact, without wine and a snack I was at less than 1100, and didn't even feel hungry. But I figured it wouldn't pay to go too far below my target, so I deliberately added some calories.
Results so far: 19/21 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! Since I was so far under my calorie goal, I did have an apple with dollops of peanut butter, but those are within my challenge parameters.
Results so far: 19/21

***

Tomorrow we're off on one of our brief, cheap vacations we've planned this year. Leaving around 5 p.m., we'll have drive-through for dinner and arrive at the cabin hopefully by 8. We're going to English Castle's state, just across the border, to some riverside cabins near Buffalo City, Wisconsin. Checkout is 10 am Sunday, and then we'll just make our leisurely way back home, maybe stopping off at some places (scenic or cheese-selling!) along the way.

This was going to coincide with the CSA farm's strawberry social, but with the weird weather their strawberries peaked too early and they moved the social up to last weekend. We'd already made plans for the Governor's Mansion & Father's Day, so we decided to just keep this cabin and find something else to do. We'll be looking for pick-your-own farms nearby; I've already printed out directions to one.

Other than that, we're bringing pancake fixin's, spaghetti & a jar of tomato sauce, and some veggie hot dogs w/ buns & condiments. We have to pick up our CSA share before we leave, so we'll bring some of the more perishable veggies with us and have them with either the spaghetti or the wienie roast.

It's SL's first trip away from home overnight, so we're looking for a low-key trip. We did the same when AA was about this age; we went to a nearby small city overnight just to test that we could do it. Honestly it's not as stressful this time because we're so much more practiced at being parents. They won't have a travel crib at the cabin, so we're just bringing the Moses basket that SL sleeps in most of the time. AA will be fine on a low bed or on the floor, depending on how the cabin looks.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter when we get on the road, so we haven't done much prep. But I'm hoping to get off early (summer hours) and be ready to hit the road by 5 pm. I suppose that means I should stop nattering and get ready for bed.

Today is my 5-year blogoversary! I'm such a dork I put it on my calendar so I wouldn't miss another one.

As many of you know, I started this blog in pretty bad shape. My shape's not perfect yet, maybe never will be, but I'm so much more in control of my finances, my current cashflow is great, and my future actually looks pretty stable!

This blog has been instrumental because it's given me a place to be accountable for my decisions, to weigh and sort various notions and find the ones that work best for my family and our financial health.

If I were just blogging in a vacuum it may have been much harder. It's the give-and-take, the respectful criticism, the heartfelt praise, and the feeling that attention is being paid that has made it easy to keep blogging here.

So THANK YOU. You helped save me and my family!

10-min. workout: Yes! I did an upper-body free-weights workout and some crunches.
Results so far: 17/20 (17 out of 20 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1570. (My target is 1280-1400.) True story: My food count came to EXACTLY 1400 calories. The wine I had with dinner (and during my kitchen photo session) was what did me in.
Results so far: 18/20 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! I feel a bit peckish but I don't want to go over my calorie range any more than I already have.
Results so far: 18/20

I can't believe I did this. LOL. snafu asked for it! This makes me tired just looking at it. Of course you don't have to pore over all of these, but if you see anything that jumps out at you that you'd like to comment on, feel free. But as stated before, be gentle. This is our home that we love!

To make sure I photographed EVERYthing, I first opened all my cabinets and doors. So then I had to take a photo of that. I don't know if it gets across just how weird it looked:


These are the drawers within the kitchen island. They hold 1) large utensils, measuring cups & spoons, 2) foil, saran wrap, potholders, etc., 3) pens, pads, random tools, etc. (junk drawer).


This is AS's baking cabinet, also under the kitchen island, holding mixing bowls, cooling racks, cookie cutters, sifter, etc.


The big double cabinet under the kitchen island holds pots & pans, pot lids, cutting boards, colanders and steamers.


This hard-to-reach cabinet is over the fridge. It holds seldom-used things: fondue pot, cupcake carrier, deep fryer. We do use these things, but only once or twice a year. I also see a couple bowls and a baggie cleaner that we haven't used in a long time. In front of it we've put the food processor as well as AS's pumping bags, bottles and other supplies.


This cabinet is over the microwave to the right of the fridge. Bottom shelf: bowls and plates. Middle shelf: coffee, tea, some baking ingredients. Top shelf: pasta maker, tortilla press, tortilla holder, kitchen scale, more baking ingredients.


This is the corner cabinet. Bottom shelf: cookbooks. Middle shelf: cookbook holder, some baking supplies, straws, some snacks for the toddler. Top shelf: crockpot, plastic cups, milk steamer/thermometer that might be for the espresso machine.


This cabinet is between the corner one and the sink. Mostly condiments, plus two martini pitchers.


Cabinet over the sink. As you can see, cups, mugs, cocktail glasses.


The cabinet to the right of the sink, over the dishwasher. Spices, canned foods, Asian noodles, drink mix. (We worked VERY hard to find a spice cabinet arrangement that worked for us; this one is pretty functional compared with our other attempts.)


Under the sink (the child-safety cupboard): cleaning supplies & garbage bags.


The drawers to the right of the fridge under the microwave. Bottom: napkins, some random tools like potato ricer, funnels, etc. Middle: bulk foods such as grains, beans, nuts & dried berries. Top: utensils.


This is the lazy-susan cabinet under the corner counter. Large space but very hard to get into the depths of it. Close-up pics to follow.


Right side of lazy-susan cabinet: cereal, cat food, pastry board


Left side of lazy-susan cabinet: tupperware, more cereal, bibs. In the lazy susan are pasta, pitchers, lunch containers.


Middle of lazy-susan cabinet: waffle iron, George Foreman, oh and some Girl Scouts cookies we seem to have forgotten about.


Cabinet above the stove: high up, but not impossible to get to if you drag a chair in. Chips, breakfast bars, salad bowl, popcorn bowl, salad spinner, serving bowls. A bunch of lesser-used but still occasionally necessary spices.


Since we store some stuff out on counters, I took pics of that as well. This is in the corner between the microwave and the sink. Salt, rice, sugar, couple of snacks, flour, onions, toaster, Clorox wipes, tea kettle.


Counter above the dishwasher: Coffee supplies. Coffeemaker, espresso machine, coffee grinder, steam pitcher, flavored syrups. Also, vitamins and other medicines for mama and baby, so they're easily remembered in the morning.


Drawer under the oven: baking sheets, muffin tins, loaf pans, etc.


I also took this pic of the bottom of the fabric storage, because here we keep the Kitchenaid mixer and mixing bowl.


Not pictured because it was in my previous post: the kitchen island which holds the Vitamix blender, the fruit bowl, and a pretty punch bowl that has turned into a repository for sippy cups, baby nail clippers, and some random bits of candy.

Sigh. So there you go. I have noticed a few random things during this process that we could get rid of, but most of it we do use, with varying degrees of frequency.

10-min. workout: Yes! I went down all 18 flights of stairs from our condo, then up all 18. That only took 6 minutes total, so I walked up and down the last flight of stairs for 4 more minutes.
Results so far: 16/19 (16 out of 19 days)

Calorie counting: Estimated 1429. (My target is 1280-1400.) Woo hoo! It feels like it's getting easier to stay close to my desired target and still feel satisfied.
Results so far: 17/19 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: Success! 2 cups of herbal tea kept me on track.
Results so far: 17/19

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): $16,579
NT's Roth IRA: $4,118
AS's 401(k): $7,000
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $6,884
CJ's 401(k): $42,755
CJ's Roth IRA: $4,118
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $14,124
---
Total Assets: $584,456

Total Debt: $309,845

Current Estimated Net Worth: $274,611

May 2012 estimate: $269,679

Change in net worth: +$4,932

Summary: Modest gains in all our retirement accounts and a modest amount of saving and debt repayment really add up! We're at about the halfway point of the year, and we're about halfway from our starting net worth ($250,418) to our goal net worth ($300,000). With parental leave more than half over, and hopefully the expensive repairs on the rental property out of the way, we should be able to meet our goal -- as long as the EU crisis doesn't completely tank our retirement accounts!

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.