Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

I sent $100 to NT's student loan just to make sure we covered the interest for the month. $56 went to interest, so the remaining $44 was applied to principal.

That's $865 down, $1135 to go. We have two regular student loan payments that will knock about another $185 off of principal.

Obviously, not going to make the April goal unless some miracle happens in the next two weeks. I held back most of the money I would be putting to this goal, to make sure we could cover all the other upcoming expenses without taking too much out of the EF.

If things go REALLY well this next month, I might even be able to cashflow all the non-medical expenses without borrowing from the EF. I will need to take money from the medical fund, but I keep those funds (mentally) separate from the EF, so it's not as painful.

But things would have to go VERY smoothly to avoid siphoning from the EF.

The $4500 check to the lawyer came out of our account this week, so we lost that big cushion that was there for over a year. We won't be able to "float" on that and pay things early; will have to wait until we actually have the funds in checking. Not a problem, but it will take some adjusting, since I'd gotten kind of blase about it.

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): $16,464
NT's Roth IRA: $4,145
AS's 401(k): $7,076
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $6,683
CJ's 401(k): $43,980
CJ's Roth IRA: $4,145
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $14,799
---
Total Assets: $586,170

Total Debt: $314,105

Current Estimated Net Worth: $272,065

March 2012 estimate: $268,202

Change in net worth: +$3,863

Summary: Decent progress. I was the dead weight, because both of my retirement funds decreased a bit. NT and AS both posted small gains, we put some money away in the EF, and we paid down a good amount of debt. If our net worth increases by about $3492 per month for the rest of the year, we'll hit our $300K net worth goal. It's doable.

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.

Whew, let's see. Actual money out of the budget:
Dermatologist copay $20
Prescription $20
Student loan payment $100

Then, we bought some things with spending money:
AS got delivery of some kind $??
We went to weekly trivia night at a nearby restaurant and got drinks and snacks...$40?

On the upsides, our trivia team came in second place ($15 gift card) and my work gave me a $25 Target card for the new baby.

I'm thinking I'll use some travel money to visit my mom for a couple days. This weekend would work best, but I'm not sure I can find a good deal. If not, I'll try for the following week. I'll probably bring AA; I can't bring her for free since she turned two, but my mom loves grandbabies, so it'd make her really happy.

I'd miss little SL but, let's face it, she'll be just fine and won't miss me. And it would only be for a couple days.

Let's see if I can remember ...

AS medical bill $390
NT dental bill $70
Tax prep fee $325

Then there were some spending-money expenses:

I got me and AS coffee drinks on the way back from dropping AA off at daycare. $10. And they weren't even that good. I decided to try a new independent shop. Glad I tried it; now I know to stick to one of the other many fine indie coffee shops in the area. The important thing is, AA felt well enough for daycare! Her littlest friend there was beside himself with joy that she was back. Tonight at dinner she had almost a whole (tiny) bean burrito, and then nearly a whole apple and half a banana for snacks later. Yay for healthy kid!

We just missed the connecting bus to our pediatrician appointment, so AS paid for a cab: $9.

AS bought herself fries and a cookie at McDs on the way back from SL's pediatrician appointment. $5? I have no idea. Good news #2: SL had gained 3.5 oz. since her Thursday checkup. She's back on track and AS feels much better about nursing.

My sister JL called soon after we got back. Good news #3: My mom was discharged from the hospital and my parents were on the road heading for home in Va.! She had the X-ray and my sister said the bleeding was diagnosed as diverticulosis (or -itis, she kind of stumbled over the word so I'm not sure). I looked it up and it can be a serious medical event in an older person (my mom is 78), but compared with other things I feared (colon cancer was top of the list), it's such a relief. Plus, if it's treatable by diet, my dad is the right caretaker. He got diabetes recently and completely turned his diet around, so I know he could enforce healthy eating for my mom if he knew it was necessary.

I paid AS's first bill from the pregnancy (see above). We put it on NT's Chase Sapphire to work toward the reward.

NT paid $70 toward getting a cavity filled. It was just an estimate, so we may owe more later.

We sent a $325 check to our tax preparer. Considering we have an international component, and two self-employment sidelines in addition to full-time jobs, I consider this a bargain. At H&R, we used to charge poor folk that much to do their taxes because of the EIC worksheet and refund-anticipation loan. So it doesn't seem that bad to me.

We also sent off checks to pay the remainder of taxes owed ($645 AS federal, $292 CJ/NT state), as well as AS's first quarterly estimated 2012 tax payment ($250). If she doesn't go back to freelancing, I don't think I'll send any more because I don't think she'll owe any more. We'll play it by ear.

Remember that AS's health insurance would charge $350 per month to add SL? Well, NT asked his work and it would be $284 to add her to his. I tried to research mine without contacting work or going into my email, and I think it would be $131 to add SL to min. So I'm going to ask my job what the procedure is for adopting a kid and putting them on your healthcare. My adoption is a little different because neither birth parent is giving up their right, but it's a real adoption. I'm just not sure what would usually happen with an adoptive child. We don't have the process officially started yet I don't think, because we still owe our lawyers a birth certificate, and the hospital hasn't heard from the county why NT's name isn't on their records.

So I'm thinking if it's going to be a months-long possible delay before I can add SL to my insurance, we should switch her to NT's for the time being. It would save us about $65-$70 per month over AS's insurance. But ultimately it will be cheapest to add SL to mine. So I really hope we can get that going. Hopefully by end of July when we start paying daycare for two!

I go back to work tomorrow, 4 days a week. Not sure how I feel about that right now. What with the 10-day break, plus all the distractions (mostly negative with some positive), I've completely checked out. I didn't even think about work once. It'll be interesting to see if the break renewed my interest or just made it harder to be there.

I have a dermatologist appointment tomorrow; I kind of hate to spend money on a frivolous matter at a time when we've got so many expenses, but I'm kind of fed up with my face, which has been breaking out in angry red pimples on my cheeks off and on for about 6 months now. I haven't had serious acne since high school, so it's really annoying. I don't know if they'll be able to do anything about it, but I figure it's worth asking an expert.

Free tickets to the Twins game led to a veritable orgy of snacking at the game! $28.25 for a large beer, a Pepsi, a bag of mini-donuts, a big pretzel and a stick of cotton candy. (I did split some of the above with NT!) Twins lost and it drizzled several times, but NT and I still had fun. And AS was fine looking after both girls alone for the first time.

Then AS treated us to pizza delivery from one of our favorite places: $53.

All of the above was from our personal spending money, so no budgetary effect.

AA was finally better and had some slivers of pizza and milk! She's slowly returning to her happy, easygoing self. Hopefully she can go to daycare tomorrow.

The fenugreek seems to be working and SL getting more milk. Hopefully she's gained enough at the weigh-in tomorrow.

My dad called to say my mom is getting a barium enema and X-ray tomorrow; they don't want to do a colonoscopy unless they have to, since she's still quite fragile from a heart attack and having a stent put into an artery. Dad's hoping they will know enough from the X-ray to discharge her so she can go home. (She fell ill in W.Va. where they have a vacation home; they actually live in Va.) I'm still extremely worried what the X-ray might reveal, but at least the heart procedure seems to have had a positive effect; Dad says she's less short of breath than she has been in a long time.

I wrote out checks for my and NT's state tax, our prep fee to the tax guy, AS's federal tax, and her first quarterly estimated payment to the IRS. They're not really spending (except the tax prep fee), but I'll count them in tomorrow's tally. I'm starting to feel a bit more in control. We can deal with any healthcare costs that come along. We can add a year to repaying student loans if it means staying CC-debt-free. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I need to remember that my timeline is a personal benchmark, not a do-or-die deadline.

The worst part of having all these worries has been losing my enthusiasm for life. It sounds stupid, but I didn't feel like doing anything, food didn't taste as good, I didn't have any physical energy, I was cranky and easily overwhelmed by little things ... I still don't feel 100%, but I'm starting to be able to deal with my emotions and still enjoy the day-to-day.

Groceries: $71.30 (including $19 fenugreek supplement for AS nursing)
Also, $44.31 more at another store, but this time I remembered to give NT that Amex gift card, so that one wasn't out of pocket.

So effectively the spending total was $71.30.

Today was off-and-on pleasant. We had another lovely dinner, spinach-quinoa-strawberry-walnut salad and crostini with a tomato-basil topping. But I felt hectic, lackluster and/or out of sorts sporadically all day. AA had a huge coughing fit at about 9 p.m., so we sent her to bed with a teaspoon of honey, some Vick's vapor rub and the humidifier on in her room. Less than 5 minutes later she started shrieking, not her usual winding-down crying. NT went in and she'd thrown up. He gave her a bath while I changed the sheets, and she threw a tantrum of sorts (usually she likes baths especially when dad's in charge). But that seemed to tire her out because we can't hear any crying now.

Tomorrow is webcam chats with the UK grandparents. Every Sunday. Sometimes I just stay in another room. It's mostly to see AA anyway (hopefully these get cut short if she's still sick).

AS is on a crazy nursing-pumping regimen to try and get SL's weight (and her own supply) up. Just added fenugreek on the pediatrician's advice. We go in on Monday for another weigh-in.

When it rains, it pours. Oh yeah, that reminds me. Won tickets to the Twins baseball game tomorrow, but there's a 50%-80% chance of rain. See?

Spending money cash withdrawal: $240 (actually $200 because NT paid in for some credit card purchases)
Groceries (I actually used my own spending money because it was such a small amount): $5.85

So, actual money out of the budget was $240.

Yesterday a couple of money & other things happened:

- Got our tax documents in the mail. The guy misspoke on the phone; we actually owe $292 in state taxes and are getting $1656 federal refund, and we owe $325 for tax prep. So $1039 to the positive, and if you add in the $600 I was planning to pay, $1639 to the positive in our planning. Not quite as exciting as the $1900 positive I thought based on my phone conversation, but still good news.

- Our paychecks hit and I noticed that AS's was over $300 less than usual. She looked into it, and it turns out that adding SL to her health insurance will be $350 per month, and for some reason they took the whole amount out of one paycheck instead of spreading it over two. Or, maybe they're charging us for half of March since she was born March 29. Either way, we're out $320 net, and probably about $160 per paycheck from now on, or until we get SL switched to a more affordable coverage. NT and I are going to check with our jobs to see how much it would cost to add SL to one of ours. I don't think I'd be able to until the adoption is official, but I wonder if NT could do it immediately since he is the birth father. AlTHOUGH:

- Our lawyer told us to be sure and have NT & AS complete the Recognition of Parentage form to make sure NT's info would appear on the birth certificate, since AS is technically unmarried. We got a letter from the county confirming the birth certificate info so we could order birth certificates, but NT was not listed. AS was the only parent listed. AS has calls in everywhere, and it appears that the hospital did send the form to the county, but they are not finding record of SL's birth in the county's records yet, which is weird since they DID send us the letter about ordering a birth certificate. So it's a big old mess with a couple of unwieldy organizations, and we need to get it sorted out before the adoption can take place. Before, there wasn't a huge amount of urgency to the adoption, but now with the health insurance issue, it's more critical.

So, probably the "surplus" I got from the tax returns (which still might not be enough to keep from withdrawing EF money) will be steadily eaten away by health insurance costs unless we get this fixed. And we probably will still have some bills coming in from the doctors and hospital, since are still pending insurance claims to the tune of $6000 from just one of our providers (the doctor; as I recall from my delivery, the hospital, anesthesiologist and possibly some other groups all bill separately).

In other news, my mom is still in the hospital, and one of the two big issues is still undiagnosed. A colonoscopy on Monday should tell us more. Until then my emotions are sort of in a holding pattern; I know they could be telling us that she's very, very bad off, or that it's something fixable, although I don't think internal bleeding is ever going to be a simple painless fix, whatever it ends up being.

AA was even more feverish on Friday, so she stayed home again. She's got a rash and a cough today, but seems much happier and more energetic. I would love to have one day home with the new baby without a sickly toddler, so I'm really hoping she's better by Monday morning. I know I'm being selfish, but I'm so disappointed that I didn't enjoy my week home with AS and SL.

On the bright side, had a really fun night last night. I made Asian lettuce wraps with vegetarian beef crumbles, fried Cantonese noodles with bean sprouts and soy sauce, and we broke open a vino verde, a slightly fizzy white wine that I love. We had an impromptu silly game where we were trying to draw Rachel Maddow's face on AA's easel, and posted the results on Facebook for our friends to vote on. We watched the movie "Big" and had fajita-spiced popcorn.

$31.99 for prescriptions for me and AS
$25 (approx; they figure the exact amount later) for Hourcar to take SL to her 2-week appointment

Total: $56.99

AS, AA and I also got Noodles & Co.; we put it on AS's Chase to work toward rewards, but will pay it back in from our spending money. $21.48.

Definitely been a weird spending month, but I knew it would be with the new baby and the maternity leave. I didn't know my mom's still yet-to-be-fully diagnosed health crisis would knock the wind out of me, draining my energy and luring me to pick up restaurant/fast food stuff for comfort (and because I just don't care that much about cooking).

I do best when I'm distracted, so it's kind of good that I've had to care for AA, drive us around to the pediatrician, had a couple of visitors, etc.

I do feel calmer every day. It just took some getting used to. Of course if they find something really serious, I'll be a mess again.

Today, the only spending I'm aware of is NT bought some milk at Target, but he probably used a gift card. Oh, and he gave me some cash to pay in for a Kickstarter campaign he donated to, as well as for some postage he put on the credit card.

So there were some transactions, but none that will affect our bottom line.

We got some nice freebies too -- a couple we're friends with brought lasagne for a future dinner, and later another friend brought tonight's dinner (pesto pasta and salad), as well as wine, fruit and snacks. So nice how people reach out to take care of new parents.

It was especially nice because uncertainty about my mom is ongoing, and AA had a temperature and needed to stay home from daycare. I think she'll need to stay home tomorrow too, and we have another newborn checkup to go to as well, so I don't know if we'll drag her along or if I'll send AS to the appointment alone. Needless to say I'm not enjoying my one full week of parental leave. But very grateful for the kindness and support of friends and family.

Anyway, remember the big list of upcoming expenses and assets that I laid out to make sure we have enough to cover everything? Some things have changed, some negative but mostly positive to the bottom line.

* Parking spot renter must have taken pity on us, because her replacement check was not reduced as we told her she could do to cover the stop check fee. $30 to the positive.
* We hadn't factored any doctor bills for the pregnancy because we weren't sure it was 100% covered, but we got our first bill today: $390. There are still insurance claims pending to the tune of over $6000, but I'm hoping most of them will be covered. Still, $390 to the negative. (The good news is, this is an easy way to wrap up the Chase Freedom spending and get that $200 reward faster than we thought we would.)
* One gift card that I thought was worth $100 only had $20 on it. So that's $80 less in assets than I thought we had.
* Tax guy called to say NT and I don't owe any taxes and are instead getting about $1800 in state and federal refunds. I was figuring we'd end up paying about $600 in fees and taxes, but instead, even if he charged us $500, we'd net $1300. So $1900 to the positive.

Overall, we're $1460 better off than I thought. Pretty great, especially since there are still other uncertainties in life right now, so the more cushion in the bank account, the better.

A cost of staying home I hadn't thought about in a while: We go through toilet paper a lot faster!

Groceries (including TP): $11.43 (plus $1.51 that went on a gift card)
AS state tax owed: $3

Total: $14.43

Other than that, we did some spending with our pocket money ... I know NT got something on eBay for about $7, I bought a small soy latte ($5 with tip! Yikes!), and I got McD's breakfast for me and AS ($9.25; yikes again! I don't do fast food or coffeeshops often, so rising prices tend to startle me).


I've been comforting myself with junky treats, I know. My mom is in a hospital; I found out Monday during the day. I haven't written about it here because I've been using that energy to write to family and friends on Facebook, receiving and passing along updates. Anyway, it's probably pretty bad. Still some things we need to find out more about. I will write more at some point when I have more energy (and more details).

OK, I'll jump on the bandwagon and list my amounts so far:

2011 rewards minus fees:
$4,422.53

2012 rewards received:
$1200
2012 rewards expected:
$700
2012 total so far: $1900

Grand total for both years so far:
$6,322.53

The only out-of-pockets:
Netflix $7.99
Condo dues (includes utilities, maintenance, security, basic cable) $593.85

Total: $601.84

I also bought feminine products for $2.50 but used a gift card. And AS and I got delivery food for lunch ($33.77); we put it on the Chase Freedom we're currently working on to get a reward, but we will pay it back with the spending money that was included in Friday's expense tracking.

The only thing we bought yesterday was a pack of wipes and a box of tissues, $4.47, but we used a gift card, so out-of-pocket spending was $0!

Groceries: $37.34 + $27.97 (Also bought about $18 more using one of our gift cards, but I won't count that)
Haircuts for NT & AA: $40 (including tip)

Total: $105.31

OK, so I finally sat down and tried to come up with reasonable guesses as to how much all these upcoming expenses are going to cost us, and exactly how much we have available to spend. Here's what I came up with (keep in mind all but three smaller amounts are guesstimates):

EXPENSES
Pay renter to stop check: $30
Dental checkup bill: $226
Gum infection followup appt: $145
Dental surgery & followup: $600
AA & SL birth certificate copies: $52
AS birth certificate copy: $15
NT summer class tuition & fees: $2,707
NT/CJ tax prep & taxes: $600
Dermatologist appt: $139
Extra grocery money (we already spent all our Apr 1-15 money): $150

TOTAL UNBUDGETED UPCOMING COSTS (ESTIMATE): $4,664

ASSETS
Budget surplus: $1,432.80
AS/CJ skip haircuts: $40
Check from AS's birth father: $30
U.S. portion of EF: $4,398
Medical EF: $2,550
Amex gift card: $200
MasterCard gift card: $100
CJ medical flex spending acct: $154

TOTAL ASSETS: $8,904.80

So, if I subtract my guesstimated expenses from available cash assets, we have $4,240.80. That makes me feel a LOT better, because some of these expenses may end up being more!

Of course, not all the assets can be applied to just anything. For instance, I can't use gift cards to pay taxes, or flex spending to buy groceries. So I'll break down the assets and expenses into categories to see what the surplus is in each category.

MEDICAL COSTS:
Dental checkup bill: $226
Gum infection followup appt: $145
Dental surgery & followup: $600
Dermatologist appt: $139
MEDICAL ASSETS:
Medical EF: $2,550
CJ medical flex spending acct: $154
SURPLUS: $1,594

RETAIL COSTS:
Extra grocery money (we already spent all our Apr 1-15 money): $150
RETAIL ASSETS:
Amex gift card: $200
MasterCard gift card: $100
SURPLUS: $150

CASH-ONLY EXPENSES:
Pay renter to stop check: $30
AA & SL birth certificate copies: $52
AS birth certificate copy: $15
NT summer class tuition & fees: $2,707
NT/CJ tax prep & taxes: $600
CASH ASSETS:
Budget surplus: $1,432.80
AS/CJ skip haircuts: $40
Check from AS's birth father: $30
U.S. portion of EF: $4,398
SURPLUS: $2,496.80

So, this looks pretty good. I feel like I can relax while I have the next 10 days off work to help look after SL!

I think we're done for the day ...

$4500 retainer for adoption proceedings
$15 fee for copy of AS's birth certificate
$240 spending money (technically I only took out $150, because we were paying back for various personal expenses charged on cards that needed to come out of spending money, but ...)
Total:
$4755! (Should be our most expensive day by far)

With some of the spending money I withdrew, I did buy a few things, but to simplify I won't try to keep totals of these, though I'll note them if I think of it:
56 cents: 4 wallet photos of SL
$2.94: bag of chips (got 5 cents off for my reusable bag)
$41ish: 2 boxes & 1 bottle of wine (on sale -- equivalent of 9 bottles of wine, which makes it about $4.50 per bottle!)
$4.25: postage (mailed out retainer agreement, birth certificates, marriage license & $4500 check via certified mail)

Fee to order copy of AA's birth certificate: $26

Huh, I think that's it! I don't think anyone even bought anything with their cash.

One of my Facebook friends from college writes this as her status update occasionally. At our 15-year reunion, we were chatting and she mentioned that this is her mantra when things are difficult; it helps her feel grateful for the things that are still right in her world even when some things are going wrong.

So where I used to think she was writing it because she was happy, now when I see it I realize she's struggling with something, and I hope for things to go better.

I thought I was doing quite well being back at work, but today I realize I'm really struggling. With a number of financial issues dovetailing together at the same time, and the natural emotional issues of new-motherhood, and the exhaustion, it's a bit much. I'm feeling a bit fragile.

Last night I hit a breaking point when I realized that AS had put a $255 check from our parking-spot renter (for 3 months' rent) in my lunch bag. I hadn't really realized it was there, and it must have fallen out somewhere. After an unsuccessful search today we realized we need her to write a new check, and deduct the amount that it will cost her to stop the other check.

The sick feeling of losing another check, so soon after a couple weeks ago, combined with yet another stupid expense, kind of tipped me over the edge into a pessimistic, frightened, emotional place.

I detailed a lot of big, yet amount-unknown expenses coming up and how our big checking and savings account balances suddenly seem like they might not be enough. Today I learned we will also need to order extra copies of the kids' birth certificates for the adoption process; a small but unwelcome additional expense.

But, I have to remind myself that we also have some gift cards (including an Amex and a MasterCard, and some Amazon and Target credits), as well as credit card rewards (totaling $700) that should come in the next month or two. I also have a bit of money left in my flex spending account: about $150.

We have other recourse should we need to scrape together more money out of the budget. We could skip a housecleaning and save $120. We could skip a month of charitable giving and save $150. We could not take out spending money for a week and save $240. We could take out a student loan instead of cashflowing tuition. I could put off the dental surgery until our finances are more stable. We could even transfer money from our UK EF savings account. Not ideal options, but possibilities that are there if things turn out to be on the expensive side.

When I have more time and feel more lucid, I'll try to estimate all our upcoming expenses and all the available assets, and see how things come out.

Anyway, not everything has been bad on the financial front: We've been wondering whether we'll need to reduce our parking-spot renter's rent and share the spot with our new double stroller, or even stop renting altogether and take the spot back. Then we found a place in the other building's garage where people park bikes and things, and figured out we could put it there for free. NT also realized it will fold up, so we could actually get it into the elevator and into our condo if needed. But we put up a notice to see if anyone in our garage would rent us a piece of their spot, since that would be a much easier option.

NT got a call a couple days ago from someone who said she'd let us park our stroller in part of her spot for no charge! She's putting her condo on the market, so this situation probably won't last for long, but it's great to have it even for a short time.

When I initially calculated the cost of getting the big stroller relative to our other options (such as getting a car), I figured in a loss of $1020 of rental income per year. Now that that won't happen, and we got our stroller for $100 less than I estimated, our first year cost should be $1600 instead of $2715! And, if we can keep finding free ways to stow the stroller, subsequent years will be no cost instead of the anticipated $1020.

So, that's really good news. And I have many other things to be grateful for as well, namely the support of my spouses. They realize, I think, that I'm pretty overwhelmed, so they're taking over some red-tape-y things of the kind that I typically handle. AS is handling contacting our renter about stopping her check. NT is gathering the necessary documents for our adoption proceedings.

And SL is a lovely healthy little baby, and next week I get to spend a lot more time bonding with her than I got this week. That will do a lot of good for me, I think.

Cosmetics, ear plugs, Vitamin D drops for baby, peanut butter: $18.06 (it was more than that but I used a gift card for part of the balance)

I bought a bottle of wine too, and AS and NT got ice cream, but we paid for all of that with the spending money already reported on an earlier day.

Sung to the tune of the William Tell Overture...

It feels like a spendy coupla weeks are behind us and still coming up. Totally separate from my April daily expense calculations, let's see if I can get it out of my system so I can stop stressing about it.

* First there was the useless $30 stop check because I lost a check last week (P)
* The $220 or so dental bill has not been settled, so I may well end up paying that
* During the labor/delivery/hospital stay, we racked up:
* $200 or so eating out and getting hospital room service (P)
* $80ish for a carshare for 25 hours
* $69 for replacement pumping supplies (P)
* Stroller and accessories came to about $1100 (P)
* Yesterday I had to have a followup appointment after my gum infection; no idea how much that will cost, but so far not thrilled with my new dental insurance
* May need to get more gum surgery to fix problem; new insurance will cover 60% (gulp) of costs (oh, AFTER a $100 deductible)
* Today I may have lost the parking spot renter's check, so that will be $30 so the renter can stop THAT check
* We got the lawyer papers, which is GREAT, but it also means we need to mail off that nice $4500 cushion we've had in the checking account for over a year (P)
* NT's semester starts in May, and sometime we're going to need to cashflow that from our EF, greatly depleting (temporarily) our $6000+ cushion in the U.S. savings account
* AS state, federal & estimated 2012 quarterly tax bills need to be paid this month (P)
* Still haven't found out how much I owe my tax preparer, nor how much (if any) NT and I owe in to state and federal
* We want to bring AS's mom out this summer to meet SL (will need to get plane ticket and hotel room) (P)

Sigh. OK. At this point I'm thinking I don't send anything extra to the student loans until I know more about what's going on. I was going to use the medical and regular EF to cashflow tuition, but maybe some of it will be needed for my teeth? At this point I'm thanking whatever powers that be for Obamacare existing long enough for AS to have a free pregnancy and (hopefully) free delivery (looks like healthcare reform is going bye-bye in June).

I have $6500 in the U.S. portion of our EF, and a little over $1400 left in budget surplus (at least we've paid (or at least budgeted) for the things indicated above with a "P"). So about $8000 to cover dental bills, carshare, stopcheck, NT's summer semester, and NT and my unknown tax bills.

What with the $4500 lawyer money and the $6500 in EF/medical savings, I was feeling pretty flush there for a long time. Funny, isn't it, how quickly that big of a cushion can be depleted?

Oh well. It might not be as bad as it seems right now. I'll sleep on it.

OK, I think I captured everything! This is to participate in Brooklyn Girl's April challenge.

4/1
Groceries $62.07

Total: $62.07

4/2 Housecleaning $121.21
US Mortgage $1,195.26
UK Mortgage #1 approx. $355
UK Mortgage #2 approx. $75
UK Mortgage #3 approx. $79
Charity $25
Weekly spending money $240

Total: $2090.47

4/3
Carshare for baby's dr. appt $17.08
Baby supplies $35.25
Stroller accessories $79.95
Double stroller $796.45
Stroller accessories $99.95

Total: $1028.68

All our mortgage payments hit:
US: $439 to principal
UK1: $263
UK2: $56
UK3: $58

All told, $821 down, $1179 to go on the April debt goal.

I was also able to transfer 300 pounds ($600) to the EF, bringing our total to $14,798.55. If only we could do that every month, we'd get VERY close to our $20K goal!

Also, NT's dad put 100 pounds ($200) in his UK savings account for little SL. Along with the $200 we'd already saved for her, her net worth at 5 days old is $400. Not bad!

As for my weight goal, I somehow managed to lose 2 lbs. even during the hospital stay with all the sitting around doing nothing but eating. I'm at 140, so 1 lb. higher than I started the year and 11 lbs. away from my 129 goal.

I know, I know, what am I doing A) blogging about finances and B) awake? I'm having a hard time getting sleepy even though I'm so exhausted I'm kind of slow-thinking and -moving.

Oh well. SL has just fed and is dozing off, AS is enjoying some Percocet and her iPad, and NT & AA went home hours ago. Hopefully eventually I'll get sleepier.

So meanwhile, I checked in on AS's last student loan payment of the month. It posted, with $61 going to principal. (Only 2 more payments and this particular debt is paid off!) That takes us to $4064 of debt paid, far exceeding the $1998 we were expecting to eke out!

This was a great month for debt. We're now less than $6000 away from our 2012 goal of getting education debt under $40K; less than $15,000 away from our goal to get total debt under $300K this year.

We have a pretty big surplus in the budget for April, but several big expenses, such as the double stroller, taxes/tax preparation. The credit card bill from our hospital stay won't be huge, but we've ordered food in, bought some pumping supplies and rented a car for 24 hours, so it will add up. However, I'm thinking we'll be able to squeeze out $2000 of debt repayment. May through July will be much tighter, so I'm enjoying it while I can!

Uh oh, SL is stirring. She's probably going to be much crankier tonight than last night, and me not napping while I could. Ah well, at least I have the weekend to relearn how to sleep with a newborn, before I head back to work!

Hello all! I'm sitting in a hospital again, just over two years from the last time. This time I'm not too out of it to hop online.

AS's doctor decided to induce labor Wednesday morning. It was a long slow process, but luckily the epidural enabled her to sleep through parts of it. After 31 hours they saw that she and the baby were ready. AS's epidural was working so well that she wasn't sure how to push, but she got the hang of it after three practice pushes. After that, it was about three or four more and the baby just shot out! Compared with my 2 hours of pushing with no results, it looked like magic to me!

So anyway, here is our darling little SL. She was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches when she was born. Just 4 oz. and 1/2 inch bigger than her big sister was!






We are overwhelmed with how wonderful it is to have a little baby again. Of course she's still very sleepy and hasn't started giving us hell yet!



AA has been staying with our friends and having a blast. They took her to daycare yesterday and today as well, so part of her routine is still there.

NT went to get a carshare; we decided to get a 24 hour rental so we can have it to bring AA to visit SL today, and also still have it when AS and SL are discharged tomorrow. I'm going to stay the night in the hospital with AS and SL, and NT is going to spend the night at home with AA.

I've only managed to sleep about 5 hours Wednesday night and maybe 4 hours last night, plus a couple catnaps, so I'm very dazed and not very coherent. Just saving up my energy to notify friends, family, co-workers and lawyer, and to take care of SL.

I have this amazing feeling that my family is complete. It will feel even better once we get everyone back home and get to know one another better.

I miss my little AA, and it's strange to have another little creature who also commands all my love. Seeing them together is going to be crazy.

I might try to do a financial post about birth-related spending, or I may not get around to it. Suffice it to say for now that we have a buffer in the budget that can absorb the incidentals we've found ourselves spending on.

Can I blame pregnant brain even though I'm not pregnant myself?

Last night I thought I'd pay daycare tuition early so we wouldn't forget later. I made out the check and then stuck it under the flap of the box of diapers we were taking to daycare the next day.

After the usual bumpy, windy stroller journey with the box of diapers hanging from the stroller handle, can you guess what? Yes -- the check had disappeared!

I retraced my steps a few blocks on my way to the bus stop, but rather than go the whole way back and be late to work (with little hope of finding the check), I sucked it up and called in a stop on the check. $30 for a 6-month hold. Sigh. This is the first time in YEARS that I've paid a dime for banking, besides fees to transfer money to AS's mom.

Sitting on the bus after I hung up with the bank, I was grimly amused that I'd paid the "stupid tax." Then I thought, no, the stupid tax is lottery tickets. Then I though, hey! I haven't played Powerball in a while!

So I stopped at a convenience store and bought 5 lottery tickets. LOL. Suggestible much?

At least the store owner saved me $5. I asked for 5 Powerball tickets because that's the game I usually play (when I do play, which isn't very often), and he said I should play MegaMillions instead, because it's only $1 per ticket and the jackpot is really big now. I said OK, but then thought huh? I thought Powerball was $1 per ticket.

I had to Google Powerball price increase online. Apparently in January they doubled the price of a Powerball ticket from $1 to $2. I guess I haven't played in at least 3 months, because I had no idea.

Seems extreme! I usually like to buy a couple different sets of numbers each time, but now, it would cost $6 to play my occasional 3 numbers, $10 to play my very rare splurge of 5 numbers. Doesn't sound like a harmless couple of bucks anymore. Guess I'm switching to MegaMillions.

Even though I always snicker at myself for paying the stupid tax, I like playing the lottery occasionally, because it lets me fantasize about what I'd do with unimaginable wealth.

But, I feel like I need to do something fiscally smart to make up for my silliness and poor planning today. Hmmm...

One of AS's student loans hit with $127 going to principal. That takes our March debt repayment to $4003! Woo hoo! She has one more small student loan payment this month; let's see if I'm of sound enough mind to record it on time.

Made it through the work day somehow; luckily it was slow enough that I could do each thing I got as soon as I got it, so that puts me ahead for the week a little, hopefully. I was going to cook and save our pizza delivery for another day, but after working through lunch and braving the cold drizzle home, I gave in (it was scheduled on the menu so I didn't feel guilty).

I suddenly felt insecure that we had a bunch of gift cards laying around -- some in various wallets, some hidden around the house -- so I went and collected them and filed them in their own folder. If I can recall (too lazy to get the folder) I found:
$10 Punch Pizza card
$75 Tom Pham's Azian Kitchen cards
$30 Wild Rumpus (kids' bookshop)
$100 Barnes & Noble
$165 Target
$200 Amex card

I gave a $25 Target card back to AS so she could buy a couple more things before the birth but the rest are waiting there. That's not counting the $1800 in Amazon credits that we've accumulated from credit card rewards and family gifts. Oh, and I have $30 in my Amazon account. And we just redeemed a $30 credit for our diaper service that someone gave us at the shower. And I think AS has some iTunes credits in her iTunes account. And she just ordered a $25 CVS card from MyPoints. Yeesh!

Speaking of which, we decided not to use the Amazon credit to buy the stroller. NT applied for (and was approved for) a Chase Sapphire card (that's the spend $3000, get $500 cash deal, which rumor has it is going away soon). We'll charge the stroller on that when we get it. I think I can cover that with the budget surplus. I think the stroller & supplies will come to about $1250, so the Chase account will be nearly halfway there. The rest will be easily met by charging regular expenses over the three months we have.

With AS's Chase card yielding $200 as soon as we finish charging $500, and this new Chase card giving us $500 after we charge $3000, we'll actually only have to spend about $550 out of pocket, net, for the stroller and supplies. So I think it's a good call, and then we'll still have the Amazon credits for little emergencies that come up.

OK, weirdly enough I've finished all the work I can do right now. That never happens anymore. But it means I have time on my hands and I'm exTREMEly antsy, so here goes a probably long and rambling post.

Friday we thought the baby might come! AS went for her weekly visit and the baby wasn't hitting all its marks just right, so she got sent to the hospital for further monitoring. That's happened before, but this time the score was low enough (and her blood pressure was high enough) that they said if the score didn't improve, they would probably induce labor!

NT left work early and I emailed people warning that I might too. But the scores and blood pressure improved, so they sent her home.

This morning she had another checkup, and they said that with the high blood pressure and imperfect baby scoring, they would want to induce this week. She has an appointment with her regular doctor on Wednesday, so it may be that day or they may schedule it for soon after. Definitely before next Tuesday, which was the due date. Looks like we're most likely getting a March baby like we hoped!

I never had the nesting thing when I was pregnant; too tired and lazy. I feel like I've had the urge this time, though.

We packed an overnight bag for AA, in case she'll stay with our friends for a night or two. (They might also stay over at our place with her, depending on circumstances and what seems easier -- on them and on her.)

Our bag for the hospital is packed and ready, with a list tucked into the handle of things we need to grab at the last minute. (I don't think we got this far when I was pregnant; I didn't really think I'd deliver before my due date.) Although we'll likely be going before AS is in labor, we still like having everything ready so there's less running around when it's time to go.

We've notified our jobs and the lawyer. I'm going to wait to notify family until we know what day she'll be induced.

We've found another possible spot for our giant stroller (which we can't buy until we have somewhere to put it) and have emailed the building manager to see if that spot is OK to use. If not, we'll put up a notice in our garage to see if anyone will rent us part of their spot (we left notes on two cars closest to the door, but no one got back to us). If that doesn't work, we'll ask the people who currently rent our spot if we can have part of it for the stroller for a discount on their rent. If they don't want to share, we'll have to stop renting it to them.

I did some not-quite-baby-related stuff as well that I'd been putting off for a while, just to burn off nervous energy. I organized a big bag of miscellaneous notebooks, organizers, etc., put some on the free table and found places for everything else. I started to get our wills ready to take to the safe-deposit place at the bank. AS and NT need to make their physical assets lists and then we can take it to the bank. I sorted and put away the gifts from the baby shower, and got out cards so we could start doing thank-you cards for everyone who gave us stuff.

We tidied up for the housecleaner, who's coming today. It'll be nice to have a spic'n'span home for the baby (and for our friends if they decide to stay over with AA).

The diaper service regular pickup/dropoff is today; they're bringing a supply of smaller liners for the littlest one! Our service only went up by about $4 per week to add another baby.

This weekend I planned a menu of easy meals for the week, with two days designated for ordering delivery. Ordinarily if we don't cook, we have to use our personal spending money to eat out. But since I'm leaving two open days in anticipation of not being able to cook, I'm going to foot the bill using budget surplus money.

I also did all the prep work I could for the meals. We also bought a few frozen and canned meals to have on hand for when we're too tired or disorganized in coming weeks.

We used to keep the grocery list on the microwave and add to it as we ran out of stuff, then add more after we planned the menu each week on Friday/Saturday. The menu would be handwritten and stuck to the fridge.

The past few weeks, we've begun a shared spreadsheet in Google Docs where we put the menu and the grocery list. It's much easier to make changes, and we can rearrange the order of the items on the list to correspond with the layout of the stores.

Here's our menu for the week; everything can be moved around if necessary.

Monday
Pizza delivery

Tuesday
Crispy tofu, mango, avocado & iceberg lettuce salad

Wednesday
Enchiladas

Thursday
Spaghetti & jar pasta sauce

Friday
Asian delivery or takeout

Saturday lunch
Lunch"meat"-veggie-cheese sandwiches & chips

I pressed and cubed the tofu for the salad, and made the dressing, so all we have to do is fry the tofu, chop the mango & avocado & lettuce.

I made the enchilada sauce and cooked up some pintos, which I'll make into refried beans tonight. I may preassemble the enchiladas and put in the fridge; haven't decided.

Everything else is super easy.

Looking at it and thinking about inducing possibly Wednesday, maybe we should make one of our meals tonight and save the pizza delivery for later in the week.

My gum infection seems to have gone away, but my bite doesn't feel quite the same so my teeth may have shifted again. I'd go and get it looked at right away ordinarily, but I think it can wait until we're settled in. It's not too bad as long as I don't try to close my teeth together all the way.

I think that's it! I'm so excited. I'm feeling quite emotional and almost get weepy when I picture holding the new little one for the first time. Also I'm of course concerned for AS and hope she doesn't suffer too much during the labor. Nothing seems altogether real right now, as I wait for our new reality to begin.

My $2000 payment to NT's student loan hit; $1965 went to principal, so that's $3876 paid this month! Way over our $1998 goal (of course we had no idea the lawyer costs would be this low).

By my calculations, that loan is now at $15,742. The account says it's still over $17K, because they still have not posted three payments but have posted a payment that I never made. (I call them about once a month and they always say they've received the payments and will process them eventually, and credit us for the interest we've been overcharged.) But I think my calculation is pretty close.

With a bit of luck, we might be able to put nearly $1800 toward it in April, which would take it down to about $14K. May through July we'll only be able to put about $1000, which would take it to $13K. Starting in August, we should be able to put about $1000 per month toward it, so it could conceivably be paid off in Sept. 2013.

Of course, NT will be going back to school this summer, so I guess we have to choose either A) try to cashflow his tuition or B) keep taking out loans but paying as much as we can on them.

Given my recent frustration with student loan companies, I'm wondering if I should slow down repayment and focus on cashflowing tuition instead.

This would still have a positive effect on our debt totals. Some of you may remember that, when I started our debt journey, I didn't want to see our debt go up, even though we'd already committed to NT getting his degree.

So I added $40,000 of phantom education debt to our bottom line. Whenever he took out a student loan, I'd subtract it from the phantom debt and add a line item for the actual debt, so that our debt didn't go up when he took out loans.

He's still got $12,839 of phantom debt. So if I cashflowed tuition, I'd reduce the phantom debt by the same amount, since it would be debt we didn't have to take out after all.

I don't have to decide right now, because if I decide to cashflow, I could use money from the EF to pay tuition outright and then replenish it with the $1000 per month that would ordinarily go to student loan debt. So it's not like I really have to plan ahead if we change course and stop taking out new loans.

NT's other student loan (NOT the one that hasn't yet registered a couple payments they received 6 months ago) has been messing up too.

In December they sent us a late-payment notice and I discovered they hadn't added his most recent amount borrowed to the autopay for some reason. I got them to promise to add it to autopay and to apply the late fee to principal.

Then a few days ago, we got a late-payment notice; they had never added the loan to autopay as promised, and were once again charging us a $5 late fee.

I emailed and explained the situation, asked them to add it to autopay for real this time, and requested they refund the late fee again since it still wasn't our fault. They replied to say OK to all, but that I had to manually pay the late amount because they couldn't retroactively collect it via autopay.

I immediately did so. Today the amount I paid was deducted from checking -- twice! Sigh. I went onto the loan account and at least it was deducted twice. So I'm not going to argue, since the extra payment -- plus the late fee amount -- went toward principal.

So, unexpectedly, that's $24 more paid to student loans. Now we're at $1911 down, $87 to go on our March goal.

***

Now for the REALLY good news. I touched base with our lawyer to let him know the birth is coming up soon and to see when he wants to find about about it so he can start the adoption process. In the secretary's reply, she also mentioned she'd be sending us a retainer agreement soon, and gave us two options for payment:

-- A $3500 flat fee, nonrefundable, that would cover all the lawyer fees, and a $1000 refundable retainer to cover any court costs that might arise

-- A $3500 refundable retainer that would be applied to lawyer and court fees. The catch is that if the hourly lawyer fees + court costs ended up being higher than $3500, we would have to add to the retainer and pay the full amount. It could end up being less than $3500 or a great deal more, depending on how things went.

We opted for the first payment plan, because we're doing two unusual (third-parent) adoptions, so we feel complications (and thus lawyer fees) could easily crop up.

Since I saved up enough money to cover the high end of his very rough estimate during his initial consultation with us, I actually had $6500 set aside. Now that it looks like we'll get both adoptions for under $4500, I'm sending the extra $2000 straight to student loan debt.

I could put it in the EF, since I'm always grousing about being behind on that goal. But the simple truth is, having student loan debt bugs me more than not meeting my EF goals. I know we'll get there eventually with the EF, even if it's not this year. We've got over 3 months' expenses saved already, so it's not like we're unprotected should emergencies arise.

So woo hoo! The payment should hit the account in a couple of days!

I was having a tough week with a lingering cold that was cycling through various symptoms. Friday night I was so relieved that I'd managed to work the whole week and not get too far behind, and was thinking my cold was subsiding. My teeth were feeling tender, but that wasn't uncommon with a cold (I had surgery a few years ago and they've been sensitive ever since).

But by Saturday afternoon, the ache had turned into a throb and there was definite swelling. I knew it had turned into an infection.

I recently switched to a new dentist; my job changed insurance again and so this was my second switch in two years. I had my first checkup last month, and the bill was about $230! I'm still contesting that to see if they can get insurance to cover more of it. So I wasn't thrilled I'd have to see them on a weekend; if that was a checkup, what would an emergency visit cost?

But turns out they didn't have any after-hours contact info on their website or voicemail message. So I went to my insurance site and started dialing in-network dentists nearby, until I found one that had an emergency number. I explained I wasn't a patient but that they were in my insurance network. The paged dentist called me and, when I explained my history and symptoms, said he trusted that I knew an infection when I had one (I've had two before and this was mimicking that exactly). So he didn't ask to see me, but called in a scrip for antibiotics and a small amount of Vicodin to get me through the worst of the swelling and pain. (He sounded like a great guy; if my new dentist doesn't straighten out this dental bill, I may switch over to this practice for my next checkup and see if they're any better!)

I don't know how much it's going to cost (so far just $14 for the two prescriptions), but I'm sure much less than if I'd had to go see someone. So far the swelling and pain do seem to be lessening. Of course the Vicodin's made me pretty useless this weekend, but so was the pain before that.

I threw up this morning because I stupidly took the medicine on an empty stomach, but other than that I've been taking it OK. Unfortunately, either because I've been less active, or because the Vicodin is causing constipation, or because I have to eat before each dose, I gained 2 lbs. at my weigh-in tonight. I'm now 3 lbs. over my starting weight for the year. Sigh. My goal seems farther and farther off!

I added $25.26 to the EF, but I still haven't gotten back to our starting point for the year, due to the lease renewal and other expenses that ate up some savings.

So those two goals aren't going great so far this year. Another goal, to research some products to find out about they're made, I haven't even started on yet. But all the other stated goals are going great. Plus, I've achieved a few other things that weren't even on the list: implementing "Getting Things Done" (and thus lessening stress, clearing out clutter and filing years of disorganized papers); starting a family dinner routine; figuring out a way to avoid buying a car this year; and reading probably more books in the first three months than I did all last year.

And anyway, I'm finding it hard to care about a few more pounds on my body, or a few less bucks in the bank: We are so close to meeting our new little guy! AS is just over 2 weeks from her due date. She's getting more and more practice contractions, the baby is head-down and very low; feels like it could happen any day now! She's having weekly ultrasounds and extra monitoring because of her high blood pressure, but so far the baby has been doing great! There have been a few times she got sent to the hospital because they're being extra-cautious and will make any little irregularity in the testing get checked out, but every time, it's turned out to be nothing. This is one healthy, active, kicking, squirming, weight-gaining baby-to-be!

We've bought nearly everything we wanted to get before the baby came; we just need some breastpump supplies and new bottle nipples. We have a crib promised to us, and a two-kid stroller all picked out that we'll buy new; but neither of those are needed for the first month or two. (NT left some notes on cars in our condo parking garage to see if anyone would let us rent the space under their storage container to park the giant stroller; we won't buy one until we know where we can put it, since we know it won't fit through our condo door!)

AS has gathered a lot of the stuff for the hospital bag; some things we'll need right up until the day (like this laptop!) so we can't pack it all the way, but we could pull it together really fast now.

We need to talk to our friends CC and NJ who will look after little AA if we need to be at the hospital outside of daycare hours (which will probably be the case since both other adults want to be there for the full labor, though after that we could take turns staying at the hospital depending on how long the stay needs to be). They've already agreed to be there for us, but we need to make sure we're all on the same page.

We've also had lots of offers for rides to the hospital, so we should make sure we have everyone's cell numbers and times they'd be available to be called (some volunteered if it's during work hours, while others said call me anytime day or night).

While writing this, I realized I need to touch base with our lawyer, to find out when he needs to be alerted to the baby's birth to get the adoption going! I'll email him tomorrow.

So yeah, little things like being 13 lbs. off my weight goal instead of 11? Easy to put that in perspective! Heck, I've barely even worried about how my accountant is doing on my and NT's taxes.