Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,753 pounds ($27,506)
#2: 16,005 pounds ($32,010)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $16,311
NT's Roth IRA: $4,152
AS's 401(k): $7,068
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $6,576
CJ's 401(k): $44,226
CJ's Roth IRA: $4,152
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $14,199
---
Total Assets: $585,300

Total Debt: $317,098

Current Estimated Net Worth: $268,202

February 2012 estimate: $262,142

Change in net worth: +$6,060

Summary: Healthy progress again this month, thanks to steady increases in our retirement, a big chunk put into our EF, and a couple thousand of debt paid down.

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.

Sometimes the easiest way to drastically change is to just do it out of the blue, rather than over-preparing and building it up in your head.

We'd vaguely thought about how eventually we'd like to have sit-down family dinners with AA, but it didn't seem feasible. We like home-cooked meals, often from scratch, and it usually takes at least an hour (usually a bit more) to cook. Knowing that, we usually focus on feeding AA after daycare and work, so we sometimes wouldn't start on dinner immediately and wouldn't eat until closer to 8 pm, near AA's bedtime.

Even if we did manage to cut down on cooking time, we figured, AA would be miserable waiting, because she's so used to eating right when she gets home.

But after the 2-year checkup, and reading about how family meals can help a child have a more balanced diet and healthier attitude toward food, we suddenly decided to have a family meal together the next night. One reason we were able to pull it together quickly was that I'd happened to cook the refried beans in advance.

So that night, I chopped the veggies, pressed the tofu and made the breading the night before, and AS made waffles, ready to pop in the toaster the next night.

Sure enough, the next night, all I had to do was bread and fry the tofu, steam and season the broccoli, and toast the waffles. Plenty of energy left over after AA had gone to bed to chop veggies for the lasagne the next night, and in fact AS put the lasagnes together that same night, so the next night all we had to do was pop them in the oven.

The next night AA went to bed early after her exciting birthday, but Sunday I started dinner early and we were able to eat together again! NT prepped his veggies for the next night and got his recipe out so he could put it together fast on Monday. I helped him a bit on Monday, but had plenty of time to chop mushrooms and onions to put in our grilled cheese sandwiches tonight, so those got put together faster. And tonight I chopped up broccoli, garlic and bread cubes for dinner tomorrow!

I know I'm being tedious listing this out, but I can't believe how well everything is coming together. I totally thought prepping the night before would just be adding more work to our lives, but in fact it takes away work from the next day, so it evens out. The only thing it adds is extra dishes to wash (Tupperware to store the pre-prep stuff), but since we have a dishwasher that doesn't add much actual work.

This is not only a good system if you need to get dinner on the table earlier to eat with your toddler, it could work for people who tend to be too hungry or tired themselves to put too much energy into cooking right after work. Once you eat and relax, prepping the next night's food at an unhurried pace is so easy. We've all had low-grade colds this whole time, yet we've managed to avoid the temptation to order in; no one's even suggested it!

And as for AA, the first night was really difficult; she wasn't expecting it, and it was weird. First she had to wait for food and we would only give her fruit to tide her over. Then she had to sit at the table versus running around between bites. And the TV was off, when usually she gets to watch Word World while she eats. She was pretty cranky and didn't eat much.

The next night, I showed her how to help me get napkins and utensils for everyone and put them on the table. That helped a bit. We started insisting she try two bites of everything (we used to say one, but she's two now!) and that annoyed her, but she had a waffle to comfort her.

The night after that, we again showed her how to set the table. I also held her up to show her everyone dishing lasagne onto their plates, and we applauded when each person had gotten all their food.

Sunday and Monday, she helped set the table again and ate at least two bites of everything on her plate without complaint and without much help.

Today we asked her to help set the table. I watched while she ran over to the drawer where our napkins were and counted out four, then took them over to the table so NT could help her set them out. When he put her in her booster seat, she sat calmly and watched me bring the food out, understanding that we were all going to eat soon.

The speed with which she takes on new tasks and new routines is kind of astounding. She doesn't freak out about not getting food right away (as long as we give her fruit), she's more open to trying new foods, she doesn't beg off my plate, she's more focused on eating her meal. She's patient about not getting down until everyone's finished eating, which she hated the first time. I mean, we're talking a complete lifestyle change in less than a week, and she's totally embraced it!

***

On to my other topic (if you're still reading at this point!): my charitable contributions.

We each get $50 per month to donate as we see fit. It can be to anything we consider a good cause.

I had gradually been talked into setting up regular monthly contributions for three places: an international aid org, a political organization and an environmental group. I had $10 of "free" charity money each month to do with as I see fit.

When I lost my wallet and canceled my cards, two of my regular donations went away, because they were linked to my card. (One of them has sent me a letter asking for new info, but the other one hasn't caught on yet.) I've been putting off updating my info because, frankly, it hasn't been very fun having my charity money siphoned off automatically each month. I realized that one of the reasons I was so adamant we put aside a fixed amount of money per month was so that if someone or some cause said "I need your help" and I was moved to help, I wouldn't have to wonder whether I had enough money to spare a donation. But with all my money tied to three organizations, it didn't really happen that way.

So I've decided to let my three regular donations lapse and just give money when the spirit moves me from now on.

The reason I thought of it was that a good friend from college posted on Facebook about her poor cat who has a large tumor and is having lots of expensive vet appointments to determine what it is and how to fix it. She mentioned that it had cost her a month and a half worth of rent so far and would end up being more.

I know this friend well enough to know that she's not rich, and she doesn't try to live beyond her means. She shares a place with three roommates, she hardly ever travels, she wears thrift-store clothes, she's never had a car. I also know she would never stop trying to save a pet, no matter how broke she got.

So I sent her a message on Facebook to see if I could donate to her cat's medical care, and she was so pleased. Probably as much by the thought as anything else. I set up a $55 check (all the charity money I'd accumulated since my automatic donations stopped) to mail out of my checking account.

And I thought, THIS is what I want. To feel that tiny bit of ability to help out when a need pops up. To scratch that itch when a cause crosses my path and I want to chip in.

It's partly selfish, but if it's more enjoyable to give money this way, why not? I don't give enough to make a huge difference anyway, so I might as well do it in a way that feels more meaningful to me.

I realized we have a bigger cushion than usual in the checking account, so I sent my extra payment to NT's student loan a bit early (usually I wait until our paychecks hit on the 15th of each month). $1065 went to principal, so that's $1887 down, $111 to go on our March goal.

Now there will be a big period of thumb-twiddling until AS's loan payments hit at the end of the month. But we'll easily hit our goal.

Boy, this post was boring. Even I'm bored.

It's funny; I didn't think much would change when AA turned two on Monday. But it's only Thursday and already there have been drastic changes:

1. The eve of her birthday, she started saying a word along with the letter for one or two letters, such as "C. Cat!" We were telling her that K was for "kangaroo," and she went and got two letter Os and started saying "oo"!

2. On her birthday, AA headed to her potty saying "pee-pee." Not unusual since we often "play" at going potty, sometimes with pants and diaper on, sometimes taking them off. But this time she wanted them off, and she actually peed into the potty a little bit, for the first time. Hasn't happened since, but this was impressive to us!

3. After her checkup on Tuesday, I started reading the materials the pediatrician gave me. They talked a lot about family dinners being an important part of eating, nutrition, etc. We don't do family dinners at present -- AA gets hungry as soon as she gets home, whereas adult dinner isn't usually ready until between 7 pm and 8:30 pm, depending on the complexity of the cooking and whatever else is going on. We usually eat in the living room in front of the TV.

So last night, I happened to be making burritos for which I'd premade the refried beans over the weekend. We decided to throw it together and eat early, at the table, with AA, TV off. We gave her fruit as a snack to help her wait.

She didn't do too well with the structure -- we are usually pretty loose with making her sit even at her little table, and so she kept whining to get down, and wouldn't eat most of it. But we made her stay until all of us finished eating, and she didn't freak out too bad. (We did let her have some snacks after, since she barely ate any, but we'll work on minimizing that.)

We are now working on a game plan to premake parts of dinner the night before, so we can get it to the table sooner and eat together. AS made up a lasagne last night that just needs to bake when we get home tonight.

4. Later last night, AA got a bit overexcited and slapped my face. She got her first time-out ever! (It only lasted 30 seconds, but I did make sure she didn't get up during it.)

Big changes in our family all of a sudden!

Of the four of us, three of our birthdays are in the first week of March. Then there's a lull, and then NT's is on the 21st. So, 3 of 4 birthdays are over for the year!

AA is two -- can you believe it? She's a little smartie, too -- recognizes and can say most of the letters of the alphabet, both uppercase and lower.

We only spent about half our $100 budget for her -- got her a stuffed animal (character from a favorite show), two boards where you use a magnet pen to trace letters and numbers and little ball bearings pop up where you touch it, and some CDs of kids songs by They Might Be Giants. Her grandparents got her tons of stuff, and her British grandad put 50 pounds in NT's account for her. It was supposed to be to buy her presents, but since we had $50 left over in our own budget for her, we put the 50 in savings and bought her some stuff "from" the British grandparents using our own money. She also got $2 from my mom and an Amazon gift card from another British grandparent. We taped her opening her presents; hard to get a 2-year-old to be equally excited by everything, but everyone will just have to understand.

We asked NT's family not to get us adults anything, and AS's mom is usually too disorganized to actually ship presents. No use telling my parents not to get anything -- they live for spoiling kids and grandkids. AS got an iPod nano, a couple books and DVDs, and $150 in iTunes cards. I got an Elvis jigsaw puzzle , some DVDs and $150 Target gift card. And $20 in my card that was sent separately. NT's gifts have already arrived but we don't know what he got yet. Oh, and we got some nunchuks for our Wii.

My parents are so hard to read sometimes. I chatted with them on Skype on Sunday and was telling them how we're trying to get AA to call me and AS "mom" and "mama" instead of both "mama." My dad sort of squirmed and said something like, oh, but when you're in public, people will think she has two moms. I made things very clear in a letter when this relationship started, and I try to be clear still, so that they know AS is my partner, her baby will be my son or daughter (aka their grandkid), etc. But it seems like they don't get it. Yet they spend hundreds of dollars on presents for AS, so they clearly do consider her to be part of the family. I'm just not sure in what capacity. They like her, they would've paid her airfare to come to the family reunion this summer, they always get her presents and send her cards for every holiday. So it doesn't bother me too much, but I'm just glad we don't live close enough to them that they might be around our kids when we're not, and say confusing things to them. Life is going to be confusing enough for our kids; we need a tight-knit team to support them and make them feel confident in their family structure!

Maybe when the official adoption happens after the birth, they will at least be able to comprehend that our kids legally do have three parents. Shrug. I should just be happy that we haven't faced any major opposition from any of our families over this.

Oh yeah, that reminds me -- remember when NT finally told his gran what was really going on, that AS was also part of the family? Well, AS got her own bday card from gran this year, and she signed it "Grandma." (She's a couple years older than my parents, so they have no excuse for not getting this!)

I guess that's all for now. No point to this post really, just babbling to run down the clock at work. Now I can fill out my timesheet and leave!

I finally got back into NT's UK account after misplacing my wallet and ordering a new secure key. First, can post some mortgage progress:

UK mortgage #1: $268 to principal
UK #2: $56
UK #3: $60

That makes it $822 down, $1176 to go on the March debt repayment goal.

Then, remember how I thought I had to transfer 800 pounds ($1600) out of savings to cover a bunch of flat expenses? Well, the mortgages hit and there was still over 670 pounds left. (50 of it is b-day money for lil AA from her grandparents.) We should get paid again before the next mortgage payments hit, and we've already paid all the expenses, so I must have messed up my calculations somewhat. I'm not complaining! I'll put it back in savings, then make sure to check the account before next month's mortgage payments, to make sure I haven't got it wrong.

Long story short, I transferred 625 pounds, or US$1250, back into EF savings! That brings our EF up to $14,173.29, just a few hundred short of where we started the year. That means we would need to put $647.41 per month in to hit our $20K goal. It's unlikely, but not impossible!

I redeemed points from my Citi ThankYou card that had the offer of 50,000 points ($500) if you spend $2500. Since I did have to spend $2500 to get there, I was actually able to redeem $525 of Amazon bucks.

We now have $1336 in our Amazon account. We also have another $525 coming from NT's Citi ThankYou card as soon as his statement posts (should be this week). So that will bring our Amazon balance up to $1861.

My dream was to have our Amazon bucks be available for all of 2012 for any unexpected wants or needs that couldn't easily be covered by anything else. (If we do end up using these credits to purchase the stroller, I plan on saving up the same amount in cash to have as our household reserve instead.)

However, we've already spent $1064 in Amazon gift card money in three months. So do I really think $1861 will satisfy my household for the next NINE months? Doubtful. I think having the balance there is too much of a temptation to find reasons to spend it. But maybe when it starts to run low, we'll find ways to economize so we don't run out in June. One thing's for sure, when this balance is gone, the CFO (that's me) is going to start casting a much more critical eye on any new purchase requests.

I spent an hour or so today laying out our transportation options for next winter, and we were able to agree unanimously:

We're not getting a car, but we are investing in a really sturdy 2-kid stroller, accessories, thermal cover, and better winter gear for the adults.

We were leaning toward this last week, but there was a slight hitch when we realized that the double stroller wouldn't fit through our condo door. However, we figured that we can see if we can keep it under the storage locker of our parking space. We'll offer the renters a discount if that's an option and they're willing to share. If it doesn't fit or they don't want to do that, we'll just stop renting it and keep the stroller there anyway. (It's in a garage, so relatively secure and out of the elements. We'll look into a wheel lock or something.)

We considered but dismissed taking a taxi during the winter and taking our carshare service during the winter. They both seemed like they would take a lot of wrangling and arranging; you can't set up recurring orders for either. We didn't really consider getting a daycare parent to take AA because it seems like a hassle getting someone else involved, especially since we had four other viable options that seemed better.

I'll paste our calculations and thoughts below, but a few advantages to our decision that aren't reflected there:
- We can pay for nearly all the expenses with the Amazon.com gift cards we've been collecting from credit card offers.
- We can still sell all of the accoutrements later at not much loss of value if we decide we made the wrong decision.
- I get a good amount of exercise by being forced to walk to daycare every day. Even more when it's winter! I would almost certainly need to implement an exercise regimen to make up for it.
- We just don't WANT a car! AS was saying that she really agreed with MonkeyMama that it seemed like an extreme solution in proportion to the problem. I agreed, but said I was worried for a couple days that we were being extreme NOT having a car. One of our very frugal friends wrote on my Facebook post to say "Yes, it's reasonable for a family of five to have a car." But then AS and I realized that people would say that about ONE person. Not many people know if they could survive happily without a car because they've never tried. We have, and we like it.

That said, here's the dorky spreadsheet I made to help us consider our options:

OPTION 1: Buy car
1x cost: purchase $6500
1x cost: smaller 2-kid stroller $200
Total: $6700

Monthly: gas $30
Monthly: insurance $120
Monthly: repairs EF $100
Monthly: tags/fees $15
Monthly: lose parking income $85
Savings: $90/month Hourcar -$90
Total monthly: $260

First year total cost $9820
Second & subsequent years $3120

Pros: more/easier mobility
Pros: could sell car in 4 years
Cons: most expensive out of pocket
Cons: most expensive annually
Cons: costs are unpredictable

***
OPTION 2: Buy bigger stroller & cover
1x cost: chassis, jogging attachment & bike attachment $795
1x cost: thermal cover http://www.strollerideas.com/waaslawistco2.html $150
1x cost: bivy $80
1x cost: bunting bag $85
1x cost: infant sling $85
1x cost: baby supporter $50
1x cost: winter gear for adults $450
Total $1695

Monthly: lose parking income? $85

First year total cost $2715
Second & subsequent years $1020

Pros: Cheapest annually
Pros: Could sell eventually
Cons: Most effort/hardest to get to/from daycare

***
OPTION 3: Take taxis
1x cost: 2-kid stroller $200

Daily: to daycare $6
Daily: from daycare $6
22 weekdays/month = $264
Max 6 months/year

First year total cost $1784
Second & subsequent years $1584

Pros: one-way rides
Cons: pricier than Hourcar
Cons: pickup timing unreliable

***
OPTION 4:
Take Hourcar
1x cost: 2-kid stroller $200

Daily: to daycare $4.50
Daily: from daycare $4.50
22 weekdays/month = $198
Max 6 months/year

First year total cost $1388
Second & subsequent years $1188

Pros: cheapest first year of all options
Cons: must pick up/drop off same place
Cons: availability?

Our U.S. mortgage payment hit, with $438 going to principal. (Our UK ones probably did too, but I'm still waiting for the security key I need for online access after losing my wallet and ordering a new one.) $1560 to go on the March debt repayment goal.

I tried calling NT's student loan company to escalate the issue of our October, November and December payments not being applied to his account yet. They said they would put me on hold to investigate, but instead I got disconnected (or they just hung up). It's beyond unbelievable at this point. Going on five months. I wonder if they'll hit a year and not have fixed this problem? I'll continue to call every month. I hate having it unresolved.

I talked over the car dilemma some more with NT at lunch, and later on the phone with AS. They're both very willing to look at all the options and price them out (in cost as well as time/convenience). I brought up MonkeyMama's suggestion that if we do buy a car, we only keep it for as long as the transportation issue with daycare remains, then sell it.

I also thought of a couple other options we should talk about/price out: taking a cab every day that it's unwalkable/dangerous, taking the car-share, and/or seeing if one of the other daycare parents would swing by to take AA to and from daycare every day during winter for a certain amount of money per month. (It's about 5 minutes away from daycare by car; wonder what would be a reasonable amount to offer.)

Then NT brought up that maybe there WERE sturdy double strollers and thermal covers that would fit over them, that we haven't really looked for. We'd never considered paying a ton for a stroller; most of our current ones are hand-me-downs (including our single jogging stroller, which we put a thermal cover on). The double jogging stroller alone, without front wheel or thermal cover, is $600 on Amazon. We don't even know if we could find a thermal cover to fit. But if we did, even if the total package cost $700 or $800, it would be way cheaper than getting a car. And if there were REALLY terrible days where we didn't think we could get through the snow, or where we'd feel in danger being exposed to the cold for a 20-minute walk, AS and I are capable of working from home. We did that a few days the first winter we had AA, before we found the thermal cover.

So, we're still thinking about it. We'll figure out what works best for our budget, lifestyle and ethos. It just might take a little discussion and research.

So we're doing some serious thought about purchasing a car. I know, I'm a dedicated carless person. I gave my last one back to my dad when I was 26; I'll be 38 tomorrow.

We haven't had a real Minnesota winter at all this year, and I'd been feeling pretty good about the prospect of hauling 2 kids around next year. The walk to daycare is about 0.6 miles, and I figured I could even train AA to be able to walk that distance eventually.

But the last two days gave me a small reminder of the physical hindrances of snow and ice. Next winter, Minnesota will probably be back to its old tricks. We haven't even had to deal with the extreme cold this year, but we probably will next year. The sweaty, cranky mess I become dragging one kid in a stroller through the gunk has convinced me that the scales are tipping toward it being kind of ridiculous to continue insisting on not owning a car.

So we're left with the looming prospect of car ownership and all the costs that come with it and, frankly, it's daunting. I know we can afford it, but we'll need to cut some beloved luxuries. I don't want to slow debt repayment more than I already have, and we can't afford to cut back our retirement contributions, so the money will have to come from somewhere else.

I'm nervous and a bit overwhelmed, but also kind of excited to have a new financial challenge.

So trying to think of car expenses, here's what I've come up with so far:
- Purchase: NT has started researching, and I think we can get a good used car for $5,000-$10,000. We probably don't need one until November, so we have some time to save up.
- Insurance: I did an anonymous quote based on a hypothetical car and got a quote of $121 per month.
- Gas: Based on mileage of cars we were looking at, and the length of the commute, I think we could squeak by on $25-$30 per month if we were super stingy with car use. (I imagine there's a certain "lifestyle creep" that comes with owning a car vs. being forced to take the bus, so we'll need to be careful with this -- or be prepared to pay extra gas costs with our "fun money.")
- Parking: Right now we rent our parking spot for $85 per month, so that would be an immediate hit to our budget. As for parking while at work, I know my company will do pretax parking reimbursement instead of bus pass reimbursement, but I imagine it's more than current bus pass costs ($85 per month pretax). I'll have NT check what his company does as well. It will behoove us to keep some bus passes in play too, since we want to keep driving to a minimum and we go to and leave work at different times. (I foresee me driving in the morning, dropping off AA at daycare and parking downtown; then NT taking the car in the evening to pick AA up and bring her home.) So this category is a big question mark that I need to think more about.
- Registration: All I can find for MN/Mpls car costs is mention of annual registration for $23 plus "registration tax." No mention if that tax is closer to $5 or $500. Another big question mark.
- Repairs: I assume the price of a cheaper car upfront will be more repairs, but I'm not sure what a reasonable amount is to set aside, if that can even be predicted. $100 a month?
- Tolls, emissions, parking tickets (aka things we won't need to worry about). No tolls on our short commute. No emissions inspections in MN anymore. We'll be mostly parking in our condo garage or in a downtown lot or garage, so we should avoid snow emergencies and other parking-ticket danger zones.
- Next car purchase: Several of you, especially MonkeyMama, emphasize that you should always be saving up for your next car so it doesn't take you by surprise when you need to replace your current one. Assuming we get an old car for $6000 and it lasts us 5 years, I guess that would be another $100 per month. Does that sound right?

Are there other things to think about? We've already got driver's licenses, and car seats for our kids.

What am I missing? What are your typical monthly car expenses and how much do they run you?

Ergh! Remember when I downgraded my cable not too long ago because they raised their prices? I swear it was only a few months ... I'm going to check. Anyway, I saved about $25 at the time, I think. But the bill just went up $5! That really burns me. No warning, no explanation, just took an extra $5 out of my checking account.

EDIT: My family will tell you when I'm on a tear, I don't let things go easily! I went through my checking account bill pay and figured out cable prices:

March to December 2010: $85.79
January to March 2011: $82.80 (I believe one of the taxes or other fees went down, but I can't remember)
April to July 2011: $88.11 (random price increase)
August 2011 to January 2012: $70.64 (we downgraded and got rid of all channels above 100, basically)
February 2012: $75.80 (another random price increase)

So basically from January 2011 to February 2012, they raised prices $10.31. We'd be paying $93.11 if we hadn't downgraded. It does seem a lot, doesn't it; to go from $82.80 to $93.11 in a little over a year?

Looking at the itemized bill, it looks like $1 was due to a DVR service increase and the other $4 was an increase of our internet price.

Since we don't have any intention of getting rid of high-speed internet, the only way we could cut down cost now would be to get rid of the DVR ($16.95 per month). Our basic cable is part of our association dues, so there's no way to cut that out. Our internet is $55.95 and taxes are $2.90.

AS's two student loans hit: $124 & $61 to principal, bringing us to $2886 of debt paid this month. Well above the $2500 goal.

I'm struggling to set my March repayment goal because I've got a couple of different concerns; not knowing how much we owe for taxes, not knowing exactly how much we need to finish preparing for baby, and suddenly seriously considering getting a car later this year. (I've been thinking about it off and on for the past month or two, but I haven't written anything because the reality hadn't really sunk in. Now it's hitting me and I'm not sure how much I should be putting to student loans vs. saving up for these unknowns.)

Since AS got a big freelance gig ($1475) that will probably pay out in March or April, and since we do have until April to pay our taxes, I'm going to still shoot for $1000 more than our minimum debt repayment for March. I really want to get student loan debt under $40,000 this year, and I haven't given up on that goal quite yet. We'll see how I feel when it comes time to set my April goal.

So the March goal is to pay off $1998 of debt.

More on the car dilemma shortly.

I feel weird and antsy today. I feel like there's a ton to do, but thanks to my "Getting Things Done" system, everything is either in the calendar or on my task list, or is already handled. I find it strange that I have very little to figure out or do despite such a busy time ahead of me:

- Tonight, dinner party with NT's co-worker and her BF. I did some prep work last night, so cooking tonight shouldn't be very stressful.
- Tomorrow we just need to burn a CD of songs we picked out for a gift for Saturday, and create a CD cover (print out something cute online).
- Saturday, our friends' child's 4th birthday party in the morning, haircuts in the afternoon, and a quick run for beverages in the evening to prep for the next day.
- Sunday, AS's baby shower at another friend's photo studio/office space. We'll have bought drinks the day before, and we're ordering pizzas that I'll pay for from our budget surplus. Once the shower is over we'll need to assess what baby supplies we still have to shop for (Freecycle, then Craigslist, then real stores!)

It seems like we get a small break for a few days, and then in March:
- Friday March 2 is my birthday and we're going out to eat with a group of friends.
- Sunday is AS's birthday, but we'll probably just bring home her favorite Spaghetti Factory dish for her (maybe we'll eat there if she feels like it).
- Monday March 5 is AA's 2nd birthday, so we just need to take (storebought) cupcakes in to her daycare. (Most of her presents are bought or planned; we just need to wrap them.)
- Tuesday is her 2-year checkup. It's in the morning, so I'll take her there before daycare and go in late to work.
- Wednesday is AS's work baby shower. I may or may not be able to attend since it's during the day, so will have to see how my workload looks.
- Saturday March 10 is AA's birthday party. We still need to plan snacks, party favors and/or games for that, but we have a while.

After that, our schedule is mercifully clear. NT's birthday is March 21 but he just wants a mellow dinner with us. And I may have a short business trip in early April. I kind of really hope nothing else comes up, because I'm feeling the need to relax as much as possible, and let AA bask in the glow of only-child-ness for a little longer.

AS's baby is due April 3!

True to Looking Forward's prediction, someone turned my wallet in to mall security, and they called me today!

It was a painful trip to the mall because the light rail was out in places, and the bus patch wasn't very well communicated so a bunch of us got off too early and had to wait for the next one, and then the next one filled up right before I got on and I had to wait for the NEXT one! Then back onto the lightrail and finally to the mall about 2 hours after I left home. The trip back wasn't as bad because I knew what to expect with the bus patch, but it still took me about twice as long as usual (about an hour and a half). Luckily I had the day off and no particular plans, though there were many many more pleasant things I could've been doing than taking public transportation for four hours.

But ... there was nothing missing from the wallet! Everything was there, including my $120. So the only after-effects were:
- Bought a replacement bus pass for $5 (they were able to load my balance from the old one).
- Bought a new wallet for $6.
- Have to wait for four credit cards to be re-sent in the mail.
- Have to wait for a new security key before I can access NT's UK accounts online.

Not too shabby! Other nonmaterial after-effects:
- I've decided to use my new wallet instead of my old one, because it's smaller and I can't pack as much crap into it as I did with the old one. Easier to visualize what's in there if I do lose it again.
- Also, I'm never carrying four credit cards at once. Maybe three. LOL.
- Also, I'm going to try not to have more than $20 cash in my wallet at any one time.

...At the Mall of America, no less. When I realized it was gone I started canceling my credit cards as fast as I could -- we were surrounded by stores so somebody could do some damage FAST!

I'm not TOO stressed, just bummed. That sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize it's gone -- not a nice feeling. What I lost:

- $120 cash
- 1 debit card
- 3 credit cards
- 1 flex-spending Visa card
- Driver's license
- Bus pass
- Security key for NT's bank account
- Health insurance card
- AAA card
- Photos (luckily not the only copies)
- Various receipts, business cards, etc.

Sigh.

So I canceled all the credit cards. We had a carshare for the day, and NT had to do all the driving since I didn't have my driver's license.

The rest is manageable, just annoying. New credit cards are in the mail, and I've got my bus pass number so I can hopefully get it renewed tomorrow. I'm on my dad's AAA, so he can probably get me a new card. I can get my healthcare stuff renewed. Then my driver's license renewed on Tuesday.

The cash ... I was planning to put in the bank to pay for some clothes I put on the credit card. NT and AS insisted I work that into the budget vs. denying myself spending money for a few weeks to make it up. It's lucky this happened before the baby came, because right now we have a fairly big budget surplus. It'll just mean $120 less in extra student loan repayment. In the long run, not a huge step back.

I added the things I need to do to my "Getting Things Done" system. I have tomorrow (mostly) off, so I can get some of it done then.

NT gave me an old wallet of his, some cash, and two tickets for a free bus ride. Hopefully enough to get me by until I replace everything.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,753 pounds ($27,506)
#2: 16,005 pounds ($32,010)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $15,896
NT's Roth IRA: $4,007
AS's 401(k): $6,770
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $6,226
CJ's 401(k): $42,867
CJ's Roth IRA: $4,007
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $12,923
---
Total Assets: $581,312

Total Debt: $319,170

Current Estimated Net Worth: $262,142

December 2011 estimate: $250,418

Change in net worth (over 2 months): +$11,724

Summary: Another good leap over the past two months! We're trucking along toward our $300K goal. Basically if we can get our assets $20K higher and our debt $20K lower this year, we'll make it!

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.

I sent off a HUGE payment to NT's student loan, and it posted right away in his account! $1889 went to principal, so that means we've paid off $2701 so far this month, surpassing the $2500 goal!

(By the way, a few payments from last year STILL aren't showing up, so the online account doesn't match my records. I show a remaining balance of $18,772; they say he still owes $20,345. I'm keeping careful records and will continue to harass them a couple times a month until those payments post. I don't want $1573 worth of payments to just go down the drain!)

In a previous post, I talked about the personal finance book "All Your Worth." The authors recommend the 50/30/20 approach to budgeting (50% of income to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to savings or extra debt repay). I myself track how my budget breaks down into these categories, and mine is currently at 51.48% needs, 20.69% wants and 27.92% savings/extra debt repay. I think it's a good allocation for me but sometimes it occurs to me that I ought to get my needs under 50%.

I noticed in "All Your Worth" that they have you start with your income minus taxes (but including any pretax deductions such as medical premiums and 401(k), of course). Well, I actually count our tax withholdings in the "needs" category. So out of curiosity, I subtracted the taxes from our gross income and from our "needs" category, and recalculated our budget from there.

According to the "All Your Worth" style of calculation, our ratio actually comes out 42.7 needs/ 24.4 wants/ 32.9 savings/debt! Now that's much better! Later in the year our "needs" are going to eat up a larger portion when the second baby starts daycare, so it's nice to feel like we're well under 50% right now.

I definitely feel like given our large student loan debt, it makes sense to have our debt repayment skew the "savings/debt" category higher. And while we always could find ways to use more "wants" money (we're a family of spenders vs. savers, for sure), I already feel like we're very indulgent in that category, so I don't feel any need to up that amount at this point.

Sometimes it's hard to believe I struggled so hard and did so badly with money my whole adult life, until about 5 years ago. It really is doable to retrain yourself, and this way is SO much happier and less stressful for me!

I feel like it's been a while since I just blogged randomly about stuff. I've actually got a free moment at work (we'll see how long it lasts) so here goes!

February is turning out to be hugely social! Looks like we'll routinely have two or three weeknight things going on plus events on the weekend. This week there's actually something happening every weeknight! Tonight NT is going to a basketball game our friend got an extra ticket for, while AS and I will head out to the DFL caucus with AA in tow. Usually Tuesdays are our one night out to trivia at a local bar, so even if we didn't have this going on we'd have been busy today. Tomorrow is the Birth Center hospital tour, Thursday is a happy hour for AS's work, and Friday I have some fellow college alumni coming to our house for dinner.

When February is over, we have four birthdays (everyone in my household is a March birthday) and then a due date of April 3 for the new little one!

This has also been a very sad month for several friends/acquaintances of mine. One woman lost her father; another dealing with her mother's declining health and dementia; another woman had to have a double mastectomy and will undergo chemo for breast cancer; and a friend of a friend whom I quite like even though I don't see her much lost her boyfriend to suicide! Such a helpless feeling that I can't do anything for them really, but I'm sending flowers to the last two. None of these are people I'm currently close to or see on a regular basis, but all people I'm fond of.

It's reawakened my appreciation of my healthy-so-far family and reminded me to appreciate every moment of my relationships. I definitely have noticed more words of affection being passed around in my household, so I think we've all been similarly affected.

Otherwise on the home front, I've been feeling the positive results of the "Getting Things Done" book; papers don't just hang around on surfaces anymore, at least not for more than a day. We're all on Google Calendar now and I'll soon show NT how to use Google Tasks and Google Docs for the GTD system. My goal is to eventually get even our menu and grocery list electronic, and eliminate those last two pieces of stray paper!

I started reading Elizabeth and Amelia Warren's book All Your Worth (thank you Paulette/Spondulicks for the recommendation!) and loving it. I don't think there will be much that I change about my current system, but only because it adheres pretty closely to her system. I'm only about halfway through, though, so maybe I'll get some new ideas. I do know that so far, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a simple system for getting their life under control. It's very accessible and friendly in tone.

It even articulated a thought I had recently, a little light-bulb moment. I was thinking about how it could be that so many people today can be so stupid and irresponsible about their money compared with how it seems older generations coped without getting into so much debt.

Then it occurred to me that probably the older generations weren't any smarter or more practical by nature, but just didn't have as many easy-credit traps available to them, so they simply couldn't get into as much debt.

The Warrens confirmed that, but in a much more factual and less hunch-y way. It was all this deregulation that happened I think they said in the 1970s that allowed banks and other lenders to loan money more freely; for a long time they had much stricter standards they had to follow about whether they thought the borrower would be able to pay it back.

Not only did they not need to rise to these standards anymore, but they also quickly discovered that they made much more profit if they DID loan to people who couldn't always pay in full on time; that way they got to charge all sorts of fees and penalties and made much more than they would have just charging interest.

They also pointed out that many more people used to be able to count on a pension in addition to other retirement funds. I think there were a few other things that had changed but I can't recall at the moment.

What they were saying is that we need to be a lot smarter now; instead of financial institutions being forced to look out for people to a certain extent, there's now extreme incentive for those same companies to outsmart, mislead and confuse people instead.

That said, I got a surprise bonus from a big financial company last night: Chase refunded my $69 fee from one of our Southwest cards, which we applied for only to get a big bonus in Amazon gift cards. I didn't ask for the fee back, so I'm surprised! It reminded me to cancel the other two cards since we've recently received our gift cards from those; hopefully they'll refund those fees as well!

I'm putting the $69 into an extra student loan payment this month; should be able to send nearly $2000 extra now! I'm enjoying putting together as big a payment as possible this month because between tax preparation, baby preparation and unpaid parental leave, I won't be paying quite as much extra off for a few months.

Whew, I haven't updated this since about November! Got a few transactions to record:

In December, AS bought another 1000 minutes for her phone, for $107.78. She made her last 1000 minutes last 7 months! Pretty impressive.

NT had to buy minutes in January to keep his phone activated. He has a surplus of minutes, so we try to use his phone instead of mine or AS's when we're all at home.

My poor old cheap phone started losing its battery longevity after 7+ years of good service. I bought another one from T-Mobile and transferred my SIM card to it. As is our practice, I'll count the amount of the cheapest option ($29) here, even though I chose to use $25 of my own money to get a more expensive phone that I liked better.

FY2011 spending so far:

NT's April Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $32.87
AS's May T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's June Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
NT's August Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
CJ's October T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's Oct Net10 fillup (200 min.=1 month svc): $22.26
NT's Nov Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
AS's December T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's Jan Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
CJ's February phone replacement: $29

FY2011 total: $540.99

We're in the 11th month of our prepaid "fiscal year," so that means our average monthly cost is now $49.18. Still slightly below our ideal $50-per-month average, so that's good.

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.

All 4 mortgage payments hit:
US: $437 to principal
UK1: $262
UK2: $55
UK3: $58

All told, $812 down, $1688 to go on the February goal!

Whoa, that month flew by! Had a feverish little one Sunday through yesterday, so I've been working from home and all off my game. Luckily AS's student loans are on autopilot and went through:
SM: $125 to principal
FM: $61
For a total of $186. So that makes our January debt repayment $2507, just squeaking past our $2500 goal!

For February, I'm going to aim for $2500. I'm going to use a paid tax preparer again, and we'll probably owe again this year, but we can cashflow all of that with our March and April budget surplus. I don't see a need to sock away the money now. Plus, if I'm aggressive this month, I should be able to bring our total student loan debt (current and estimated future) under $50,000!

I have so many other tracking things to update! I missed doing our net worth at the usual time, so I'll just try to do it the end of this month. I had to buy a cellphone to replace my dying one, so I need to update my prepaid costs average. All of our net pays changed slightly, so I need to get copies of everyone's paychecks and update my "absolute budget breakdown" spreadsheet. I need to update my daily "number crunch" worksheet, and see how we're doing on Citi ThankYou spending toward getting our bonuses.

They will have to wait, and be done sporadically as I get time. Work is crazy busy, and for some reason a lot of social engagements are getting sorted out for this month, so that many normally free nights are going to be spent going out or hosting people. I think it's partly the mild winter making people more willing to leave their homes, plus me semiconsciously wanting to be as social as possible before the new baby comes and knocks us all out for a couple months.

Luckily, all the above stuff I'm not keeping up on is mostly just things I track for fun or for my general knowledge. More important things are getting handled very handily thanks to my "Getting Things Done" system. It's a great system because even if things fall off my to-do list, there are project lists that I need to review once a week, so stuff gets put back on the list and I don't have it worrying me at the back of my mind. I still scribble notes to myself if I'm not at a computer, but I've gotten in the habit of doing frequent sweeps of my purse, wallet and coat when I AM at a computer, and that "stuff" gets entered into the system fairly regularly. I now open mail right away and either discard, file or act on it right away.

I'd better get a bit more done at work before I go home!

I subscribe to Kiplinger. Much of it isn't relevant but I like reading it, if only to get a sense how the other 1% lives. Once a year they publish a list of quick tips to "save thousands" making changes that take 15 minutes or less. Let's see how much I can save.

1. Ditch that expensive airline credit card. $0 n/a
2. Lower the interest rate on your plastic. $0 n/a don't carry a balance
3. Avoid bounced checks and costly overdraft charges. $0 n/a I'm careful not to overdraw
4. Set up bank alerts to avoid fraud and unexpected fees. $0 n/a check my account often enough on my own
5. Switch to energy-efficient lighting. $0 n/a (It's not that this wouldn't be a good switch, but our utilities are tied to our condo association dues and don't vary. This tip will cost, not save, us money if we take it.)
6. Sign up for automatic federal student loan payments. $0 already done
7. Install a water-saving showerhead. $0 n/a AND already done
8. Slay your energy vampires. $0 n/a (though I will look into the Belkin Conserve Smart AV that they recommend; if we get it this tip will cost us $29 vs. saving us any actual money)
9. Find a low refi rate and a good lender. $0 n/a (mortgage still under water)
10. Put in a programmable thermostat. $0 n/a can't do, wouldn't save us anyway
11. Score the best-priced seat in the house. $0 n/a This is another that would cost us if we took the tip, since we hardly ever go to shows or games.
12. Unsubscribe from deal emails. $100? I think that's how much I spent on restaurant gift cards and restaurants that I wouldn't have gone to otherwise. Then again, I still would've gone to restaurants on dates, so I probably would have spent the same amount, just on a familiar restaurant. So is this one technically $0?
13. Improve your fuel economy. $0 don't own a car, and the carshare service we occasionally use doesn't charge us for gas
14. Use a car-buying service to get a great deal. $0 n/a; would cost us a ton if we took this tip; $15,000?
15. Spot lower prices shopping online. $? This one is kind of interesting; they say a toolbar from FreePriceAlerts.com will alert you if it finds a better deal while you're shopping online. May need to check that out. They say annual savings $200.
16. Rent designer duds instead of buying. $0 N/A!
17. Haggle like an expert with spending apps. $0 n/a; this is another that would cost me a ton to use, because I have a super-cheap prepaid plan instead of a smartphone.
18. Listen to free audio books. $0 n/a; I never buy books for myself, just ask for them as gifts from family. Don't listen to audio books.
19. Lose your landline. $0 already done
20. Text for free. $0 n/a would need to have an iPhone or Android and a data plan, so this tip would cost me money if I followed it. (I will, however, pass along info about the "Textfree" app to a friend who was wondering about something like this for her smartphone.)
21. Dodge fees on treasury investments. $0 n/a don't buy bonds
22. Slash expenses with exchange-traded funds. $? It says you do this in your brokerage account; does my Vanguard Roth IRA count? Probably not, so I'm guessing $0 n/a
23. Sidestep taxes on bonds. $0 n/a I just don't see myself buying individual investment stuff at this point in my life and getting much out of it. They estimate $380 annual savings if you invested $50000, and I definitely don't have that kind of money to put in low-yield investments.
24. Switch to the latest generic drugs. $0 already done
25. Raise your deductibles. $50 I can't say outright this is n/a because I haven't looked at my homeowner insurance policy lately; possibly I do have a $500 deductible that I could raise to $1000. Kiplinger says you could save up to 25%, so the max I could save would be $50. No auto insurance so that part doesn't apply. They say I could save $584 but I think the most I could save is $50. I will look into it, though.
26. Reshop your life insurance. $0 n/a Currently the only life insurance we have is NT and I each have a plan with our employer that doesn't cost us anything.

So, let's see what I'll save if I take their (applicable) advice.
Unsubscribe from deal emails: $100
Spot lower prices shopping online: $200
Raise your deductibles: $50
Total: $350

If I actually saved this much, I'd certainly be happy. I suspect it won't be that much.

How about you? Will these Kiplinger tips help you save "thousands" this year?

The last of our Mexican purchases came through, so I was able to calculate our actual totals rather than estimating exchange rates.

We came in $662.93 under budget!

It was a short trip, and AA didn't cost much for sitting on our laps on the plane, and we budgeted a lot of money. So not that surprising. But we all felt like we got everything we wanted, and splurged WAY more on impulsive purchases and pricy food/drinks than we normally do, so it wasn't a trip where we felt like we were trying to hold back to economize.

I budgeted $5000 for the whole trip.

Airfare for 3, hotel for 5 nights, shuttle to & from hotel, and travel insurance: $2083.56

Supplies, food, drinks, trip to Isla Mujeres, souvenirs, misc.: $2253.51

Total: $4337.07

The leftover funds will go toward flying family here to see the baby this year, if anyone takes us up on the offer. We may have to help them out with hotel costs as well (our place is too small to comfortably put people up). We're extending this offer to both Virginia and England relatives (we live in Minnesota). So this is a big head start on saving up for all that!

I sent an extra payment to NT's effed-up student loan today, and when I logged in out of habit, the payment had already posted! Now, there are three payments from October-December of last year that still haven't, and a weird payment that doesn't match any of the other numbers that did post. Nevertheless, it's promising that the system is processing new payments so promptly. Hopefully the old payments will post correctly, retroactively, in my lifetime.

So the most recent payment put $1324 toward principal, bringing us to $2321 down, $179 to go on the January debt goal. AS's two student loan payments at the end of the month should just barely push us over the top.

Well, I added $25.46 to the US EF account. Then a couple of things happened:

-Our UK rental management company let us know we had a 300-pound windfall
-But they recommend we buy a 999-year lease, which will cost 600
-And the semiannual fees hit, plus some other random stuff, to the tune of 300-plus

Renters paid an extra month's rent, but somehow I need to transfer 800 pounds (US$1600) from UK savings to cover the lease renewal and 2 months of mortgage payments.

So, our EF starting point was $14,472.57, our goal is $20,000, and we're currently at $12,898.03. Need to save $7101.97 or $646 per month for Feb.-Dec. Not gonna happen, unless I divert extra money from student loan repayment. No, that goal is more important. So I already know we're probably going to fall short on our EF goal for a second year in a row.

So, to get back to a happy place, here are some pics from our Cancun trip!

Well, we got back from Cancun at 1:00 this morning! I was keyed up from the journey so stayed up a couple hours, then slept in until 10. (We took today off to recover from the long journey.)

We had a FABulously relaxing time. The weather was great except on the first full day (Saturday), and we didn't mind because even when it's stormy, it's a warm, picturesque place.

We spent like drunken sailors, but managed to stay under budget (mostly because I'd allotted a huge sum for spending money). Initially I thought we had $180 left over, but then I remembered that I'd been estimating as if 10 pesos = US$1. Actually it only equals 75 US cents. So for instance, if we spent 1000 pesos, I estimated $100, but it was only $75. So as these charges hit our credit cards, they're coming in 25% lower than my estimates.

We don't have much to show for our spending souvenir-wise: We got little wobbly-headed figurines for the kids in AA's daycare; a sweet little dress for her; a conch shell and a starfish; some snacks and treats for NT's work; some tequila, vodka and vanilla from the duty-free shop for ourselves; a CD of photos from an island resort we visited; a baseball cap for AA.

Most of the crazy spending was because the hotel we chose was deep into the hotel zone; getting a taxi to non-inclusive-resort locations to eat or shop away from our hotel was a minimum of 150 pesos ($11.50 plus tip). Usually more. There's also the problem that Cancun taxis don't have meters; you settle the price upfront before the driver pulls away, and they will ask for what they think they can get. One guy quoted 460 pesos to get to a certain place; the driver for the return trip asked for 250 pesos. We finally realized that our hotel had a chart of prices at the taxi stand, so we were able to quote (and get) the appropriate price. (Which is not to denigrate the citizens and workers of Cancun; it's just a certain part of the system that can be exploited and often is. Every worker in the hotel zone, from cleaners to taxi drivers, is insanely solicitous, helpful and friendly. And in downtown, which is less tourist-friendly, they don't speak as much English but are pretty darned patient and nice to stupid tourists who stumble in with about 20 words of Spanish between them.) The bus is much cheaper ... but ... we take the bus all the time in real life. This vacation was about the experience of luxury!

The other source of the spending was that we were in a high-end all-inclusive, but we hadn't paid for all-inclusive. So if we were lazy and wanted to eat their breakfast or dinner buffet, it was gonna cost us. One day we stayed on the beach and ordered drinks and snacks from a waiter who was coming around to the lounge chairs; we ended up spending 1250 pesos (almost $100) over the course of the afternoon. We splurged on a Thai restaurant where we had a little open-air dining... platform? ... covered with a grass roof and with a railing around it. We crossed a short bridge to get to our table, and we were out on the lagoon with the lights of the hotel zone ringing the quiet water in the distance. Un. Believable. It was like being in a dream.

So we paid for convenience, for the luxury of laziness, and once in a while we paid for an unforgettable experience.

This will be our last real vacation for the foreseeable future (meaning next year or so; though we'll try to manage a weekend here and there), so we're glad we lived it up. None of us has ever had such a relaxing vacation, nor one where we were able to unplug and truly leave work and responsibilities at home.

***

Came home to my half-installed "Getting Things Done" way of life, so part of today AS and I cleaned out the front closet so that our filing cabinets are forward-facing and fully accessible, then loaded all of our files (which we'd already labeled and organized) in there. The closet could use some fine-tuning, but everything fits and has a place, so that'll do for now. It was nice to go through the mail and stick it in my "inbox," then clear out my inbox when I had a chance and recycle or file or stick in my purse to take to work as needed. Tasks occurred to me and I added to the appropriate task lists, secure in the fact that I would deal with them when it was convenient to do so. AS spent some time getting her system going, so soon she should be fully on board with the process as well. If all goes well this week and I feel like the system is working for me, I'll show NT what I've learned and get him on board as well.

***

As I was balancing my Number Crunch spreadsheet, I noticed that my paycheck was nearly $150 less than usual, while AS's and NT's were slightly more. I checked mine out, and it showed that federal taxes were $150 more, state taxes $30 more, and my bus pass money wasn't taken out. Since the bus pass is $42.50 before tax, I find it hard to believe that it would cause such a huge jump in withholding. I'm guessing HR messed up more than just forgetting to take out my bus pass money, but I'll have to follow up with them tomorrow to find out. Since NT's and AS's actually went up a bit in the new year, I don't think it's an across-the-board tax hike that caused this. Really hoping we don't have to budget a $300-per-month drop in income unexpectedly!

***

Speaking of my incompetent HR department, the local HR lady who said there might be adoption reimbursement stopped me in the hall to say she might have been wrong about that. The headquarters HR guy told her there was no such thing. She was going to ask the guy she thought had gotten reimbursement for his adoption. He's a big-wig, so it has occurred to me that maybe they have "better" benefits than us peons. *Shrug.* I'd already budgeted for the adoption, so I'm not going to worry about it.

***

When I dipped into my work email to ask the HR manager about my paycheck, I noticed there was a short-notice, all-staff conference call with our CEO regarding "recapitalization" of our company. Sounds scary, but I won't know more until I get in to work tomorrow. I feel strangely blase (must be the lingering effects of Cancun!).

***

I got a packet from the accountant who handled my and NT's taxes last year. Last year I was freaked about him because he kept promising they would come soon and yet he didn't get them handled until the last minute. But, seeing the complicated stuff he did to report NT's UK income, I was glad he'd handled them. So I think I'm going with him again this year. Hopefully he'll be clearer about when I can expect them (if he'd said "April 14," I wouldn't have minded; it was that he kept making excuses and acting like they were just around the corner).

The new tax season reminds me that I didn't do anything about the past years where I was evidently meant to report NT's UK rental income and didn't. If there was a simple way to pay the US what we owe, plus interest, I'd just do it. But I'd have to either figure out how to revise the taxes myself, or hire someone out at several hundred dollars per tax year (2007-2009). The total of what we owe is probably about $1500 (if that), yet it would probably cost about that to get the problem rectified. So I've decided to ignore the problem. The chances of getting caught or audited are slim; if I do, I'll deal with it then.

***

I've been trying to redeem AS's Southwest points for $500 in Amazon gift cards; the points are there, but for some reason I can't order anything. I need to call them tomorrow, because I think I've exhausted every online recourse.

We made some good progress on spending $2500 on my and NT's Citi ThankYou cards; when we do, we'll get $500 worth of Amazon gift cards each. We still have a while before we get there, but we used the cards whenever possible on vacation.

What else? I'm kinda winding down now; brain is shutting down in preparation for overdrive at work tomorrow.

Oh, one thing is we may have had a windfall of about 300 pounds from NT's flat; something about a lease extension that they didn't need the money for after all. But the email telling us about it was very confusing because it also seemed to be recommending that we DO extend the land lease for his condo, and that it would cost about 500 pounds. In which case we'd be losing 200 instead of gaining 300. NT has to ask them to clarify. They're a good management company in that they've kept the place rented with very little hassle, but their email communications aren't very well crafted.

Oh yeah! In the course of decluttering for "Getting Things Done," we found a $75 gift certificate for a pilates/yoga/massage place that NT and I had gotten for AS for Xmas a year or two ago. We thought it was lost forever. It doesn't have an expiration date, so maybe she can still use it! Considering we just recently lost an entire year's supply of contact lenses and had to reorder ($275 or so), this is a nice surprise that seems to sort of redress the balance.

Hmm...oh, I have a bit of EF progress to record, but now I'm getting really sleepy, so I'll just update my sidebar later. $25 and 40some cents in interest.

Great to be back! I'll try to post photos of vacation this weekend!

A quick update of a whirlwind week. 2 things were happening simultaneously:

- Reading and implementing "Getting Things Done"

That started first. Then:

- A worrisome blob of blood in AS's ultrasound scan Thursday that looked like it could be a rare condition called vasa previa.

As we learned more about vasa previa and waited for a more sophisticated scan (which was set for today), we continued "Getting Things Done." It helped immensely to make time pass and keep us from fretting too much. Last night we finished gathering up every scrap of paper outside the menu, grocery list and NT's school stuff, and putting it all in manila folders, A-Z, active indiscriminately filed with inactive materials. (I even bought a $20 label maker as the author recommends, to make everything seem more official.) Everything "actionable" is either in a physical in-basket or on a Google tasks list. The next couple days I will try to clear out the closet enough to have our file cabinets easily accessible, and everything will go in there from now on.

AS is on board since she's already read "Getting Things Done" and knows what it entails. NT is very interested to learn as well; once I've practiced it for a couple weeks and can confirm that it IS do-able and DOES make for "stress-free productivity," I will show him how to get onto the system as well.

Still, even with all the exciting organization and decluttering, it was hard not to worry about the upcoming ultrasound. If it was vasa previa, a few things would change:
- We'd have to cancel our trip to Mexico (scheduled to start this Friday). AS couldn't be far from the hospital, since survivability (for the baby) absolutely depends on immediate admission upon labor, and there's always a chance of early labor in pregnancy.
- Parental leave calendars might change drastically if doctor decided that a scheduled C-section at 35 weeks was advisable.
- AS might be spending days or weeks in the hospital, before or after the birth, depending on how things progressed.
- Costs would likely skyrocket for us (a routine birth will be free under her health plan but we aren't sure about one with complications).
- Worrying would be likely to take an emotional toll on the entire household.

So, obviously, it was hard not to run through scenarios in my mind. The filing REALLY helped.

But, happily, today AS had her follow-up ultrasound, and doctors and techs confirmed that it's definitely NOT vasa previa nor anything worrisome at all. In fact, when she said we had a trip to Mexico planned, the tech said "Bon voyage!"

So, so relieved, I feel almost dizzy! But of course, there was a whole other set of to-do's that I'd put off since they might not be necessary:
- Buy swimsuit and sunblock
- Get summer clothes out of storage, and pack
- Research hospital locations near our Cancun hotel (still want to be prepared for other stuff)
- Add some missing TSA security info to our reservation online
- Give key to our friend who will be catsitting

Thanks to "Getting Things Done," I have an easily accessible list and it won't be hard to check things off and be good to go by Friday morning!

I had some random financial updates (both gripes AND good stuff) but I'll leave it for now; want to get home and celebrate the good news in person!

I am WIPED. Sunday and Monday nights I stayed up late finishing "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and starting to get organized per his plan. Then last night I randomly got no sleep. I'm a 6- to 8-hours-per-night girl; can function on 6, do well on 7 and thrive on 8 (or 9, when I get a chance). Each of these last three nights I've gotten 4.5 to 5.5 hours of sleep. Not good.

So I'll have to update you on my getting-organized progress when I'm more conscious and rational. At this point I feel like I'm hallucinating. But I wanted to quick update my debt progress, since our mortgage payments hit on Tuesday:

US: $436 to principal
UK1: $262 to principal
UK2: $55 to principal
UK3: $58 to principal

All told, $811 paid. That brings us to $997 down, $1503 to go on the January debt goal.

We had a very nice New Year's celebration. Hung out with our friends at their house, chatting and playing with our kids. We took out a car from our carshare service, and we were planning to leave at 10:30 (AS figured she'd be tired by then) and ring in the new year at home. A little before 10, we realized it was snowing quite heavily! So we left a bit early. I drove at a crawl since I didn't know how well the car would handle, we had lil AA in the car, and I was mindful there could be drunk drivers out. It went very smoothly, and we got home just in time to bring the car in at the planned time.

The snow stopped soon after and looks like it'll mostly melt tonight and tomorrow. Bizarre winter in Minneapolis!

We put AA to bed and drank champagne while we watched the new Simpsons DVDs we got for Xmas. I was going to switch to the ball dropping but midnight snuck up on us, so we didn't.

Anyway, I'm not quite tired yet, so I thought I'd check AS's student loan accounts and post some progress on our debt repayment goals. $125 and $61 hit on her two loans, so that's $186 down, $2314 to go on the January debt goal!

I got a bit further reading Getting Things Done. Hoping to finish it up tomorrow and start implementing its advice Monday and Tuesday. (I'll need to do some stuff at home and some at work, so Monday is a holiday and would be a good day to start. Tuesday will hopefully be a bit slow at work and allow me to work on getting set up there too.)

Finally I'm starting to feel sleepy, so I think I'll turn off the computer and watch TV until I'm ready to go to bed.

AS came and had coffee with me yesterday, and halfway through our nice break together, I started rattling off a few annoying little chores that I need to take care of -- deposit our Xmas gift checks, mail off some bills, update my records and autopay with our increased condo dues.

I then started complaining about how it kind of sucks to be an organized, functioning adult because I'm constantly running through little mini-lists of things to do.

That reminded us of the book Getting Things Done by David Allen, because one of his main points is that until you have an external system that you trust to keep you on top of everything, you'll always be reminding yourself -- often at inopportune times -- of the things you still need to do. Reminding yourself multiple times about one task, he argues, is a waste of energy and saps your mental resources unnecessarily.

I started reading the book years ago but never finished. (Ha!) I don't think I needed it that badly at that time -- some of the stuff he talked about wasn't very relatable. Well, I picked it up again last night and started from the beginning again. Now my life much more closely resembles his description. I have complex, multiple long-term goals, bigger (and more complicated) responsibilities at work, many more financial buckets and regularly recurring financial tasks that need to be kept on top of, and a more complicated social/personal life (thanks to having a kid and another on the way).

I do all right, I think; nothing gets completely neglected that absolutely needs to get done. But I'm very attracted to Allen's vision of getting all of this done while being able to have a clear head, not weighed down by all the pending things on my to-do list. I feel like I could concentrate on consuming and possibly even creating art; and just be more *present* in my times of relaxation, rather than being half-distracted by things that need to be done (but that I'm not planning on doing at that moment).

So, we'll see if in my current state of distraction I can actually commit to reading an entire book and then taking the time he recommends to implement his system.

I don't know just how I'm going to implement -- which "buckets" I'm going to use to store all of the projects and actions needed -- but even just the first couple chapters have me thinking about all the different balls I keep in the air. I'm kind of impressed with myself, compared with the me of 5 years ago or so. (I only started to really get my s$#@ together a few months before I started this blog.)

But now maybe it's time to take it to the next level. I hardly ever feel relaxed, even when I'm ostensibly lazing on the couch watching TV. I rarely let go completely even in the middle of a vacation where everything's taken care of and I don't need to be thinking or doing anything. I find it hard to fully focus on movies, books, play time with my daughter, date time with my partners. I hope that I can continue to accomplish everything I do now, but with a clearer head and more actual quality time *away* from thoughts of my responsibilities.

AS and I talked about maybe working together to implement his system in both our lives; she's done it halfway a few times and was encouraged by what she saw, even though she didn't follow through and put it permanently in place. Right now I'm just focusing on reading the book, doing the mental exercises he recommends, and hopefully by the time I'm done with the book I'll have a much clearer idea of how I should change the way I do things.