Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

I recently declared a sort of open season for spending. Basically, we had a lot of money coming in, and so I wanted to satisfy a bunch of wants before the inevitable belt-tightening of preparing for baby #2.

So spend we have. I won't go into it all, because a lot of it is pretty frivolous and I'm not what you would call proud or boastful about that particular fact. But I can say that we have the money to pay for it all, and that we've managed to also put a bunch toward debt, and that I now have a fall wardrobe (I'd gotten rid of most of my clothes because they were either maternity stuff that I'd kept using, or were worn down beyond repair).

We have a couple more things on the list, but spending season will soon come to a close. Whew! It was kind of fun, but also a bit guilt-inducing. Not the way I'd want to live normally. On to some more boastworthy stuff!

One of my big goals for the year was to either get a raise or to get a new job, whether a better-paying or a more satisfying job didn't matter to me. I haven't succeeded on either front, but the other day I made another plea to my boss, and he seemed to think the time was right -- he has sprung into action. He wrote a very compelling memo about why he thinks I deserve a raise and promotion. The president of our division replied to him today -- favorably according to him -- so he has indicated that if our DC headquarters approves it, I should get something! Even if it doesn't work out, I'm really glad I tried again. The first time, no one seemed very receptive, so I didn't feel like pushing anymore. But AS encouraged me to have another go. I'll update the second I find anything out.

I just realized I haven't updated our Roth contributions progress for a long time -- it's on autopilot, $300 each month, so I forget. Well, we're at $2700 and on track to make our $3600 goal by mid-December!

Oh yeah, weight loss! I weighed in last night because I forgot on Sunday, and I'm down two more pounds, to 143! That's only 4 lbs. away from my goal. I've been reasonably good about my diet, and even though I haven't worked out with weights or anything, I've been walking a TON -- including a 45 min. walk home from a restaurant when we missed the bus Friday, and 5-6 hours of wandering around the Mall of America on Saturday. So excited that my goal is in sight!

There's been progress on the estate planning, too -- the lawyer's assistant wrote to say she's put our wills in the mail. Once we review them, we can sit down with our lawyer and sign them. I asked her for a cost estimate because this took a LOT longer than I thought it would. I'm kind of freaked but I also know we'll be able to come up with the money. It's important in case anything happens to anyone, since our family is not traditional in structure.

I wrote back to the assistant to let her know that AS is pregnant, so we'll want to proceed with planning the third-parent adoptions of AA and the yet-to-be-born little one. Considering it's taken over 9 months (so far) just to do the estate planning, I assume we should start now! I also want advice from the lawyer as to whether I have any legal rights as the adoptive non-blood parent regarding parental leave.

I think that's all! Life feels crazy right now, but in a very good way. AS is on a business trip to NY today and tomorrow, but that's the only sad thing right now. And as I kept telling her, I'm glad the trip got here so we can get it over with and be back together without it hanging over us! We got to see an early ultrasound of her (our) baby yesterday, and so it feels all the more real now. We also made a public announcement (Facebook), so no more having to change the subject when people ask us about our future plans. Yay!!

At my Sunday weigh-in, I was back to 145! I'm glad I shed my State Fair pounds so quickly. So 6 lbs. to go on my weight loss goal for the year. I went on a 13-mile bike ride Sunday, the longest of my life by far! Tonight I hope to do some weight training, though I didn't get much sleep last night so I hope I'm not flagging too much by the end of the day to work out.

$25 went into our EF, bringing our 2011 progress to $2833.51 and total EF to $11,345.46. Yawn.

But, I was able to send a big payment to one of NT's student loans, using most of AS's freelance check. $1112 went to principal, so our September debt repayment now totals $3140! And we have a couple of credit card rewards coming in the mail soon, I believe, so I may be able to throw still more at the debt before the month is up. AS has two regular student loan payments at the end of the month that will add to this number, too.

I'm hoping we can get our student loan debt down below $50K before our second baby comes! Obviously debt repayment will slow once we're dealing with unpaid leave, hospital costs and another daycare payment, so it would be nice to get over that hurdle beforehand.

Oh, and I had my meeting with my supervisor regarding another request for a raise/promotion. He was very optimistic and had me send him a list of my new job responsibilities that he could compile into a proposal to send upstairs. I sent him the list later that day, so fingers crossed he gets some results!

I was able to send off a big payment to one of NT's student loans yesterday, and it hit the account today with $1236 going to principal! That means we've put $2028 to debt this month, exceeding our $2000 September goal.

This also brings our student loan debt down to $59,540. Don't ask me why $59K feels so much better psychologically than $60K, but it does! Suddenly the light at the end of the tunnel got brighter.

And we're not done with debt repayment this month! AS got a big freelance check, and after I send a chunk to the IRS, I should still have over a grand to put toward student loans. Also, her final 50,000 Chase Sapphire points showed up, so I ordered a $530 check yesterday. I also ordered $150 from Citibank Mastercard because our bonus points hit from there. So some of that will probably go to debt, either this month or next depending on when we receive the checks.

In other ways this hasn't been a great week. (Why do short workweeks always seem to drag on even longer than regular weeks?) Yesterday at work it was announced that two more ladies at my job were getting promotions. Soon after I was asked to sign off on my contractor-proofreader's time sheet, and I was reminded that she makes quite a bit more than me. More than twice as much as me, so the fact that I have benefits doesn't balance the equation. She in fact makes $10 more per hour than the girl she replaced.

The combination of these factors had me quite down about my job, because they've always said they can't give raises and can't really do much about promotions, yet here are people getting promotions and fistfuls of money left and right.

So after complaining a lot at home last night, and starting to look at accounting classes at the community college as a possible exit strategy, I decided to email my supervisor and ask if he'd help me make another attempt to get a raise and promotion.

He emailed me back right away and said he would like to support me in that, and that he thought it was a good time to try again. So I'm slightly encouraged, and we're going to meet tomorrow morning to discuss it!

Fingers crossed for me. I could use the morale boost, and more money never hurts!

Our mortgage payments hit as usual, but I'm only just now getting to recording them:
US: $418 to principal
UK1: $260
UK2: $56
UK3: $58

In total, $792 down, $1208 to go on our September debt repayment goal!

I weighed in Sunday night and was up 2 lbs., to 147. Back up into overweight territory as well. I'm not too bothered because Sunday was the day we went to the Minnesota State Fair, which is just as bad as Thanksgiving for me in terms of gluttony. Plus I cheated on diet and exercise a few more days than usual last week because of a wedding and a couple other social or unusual situations. I feel pretty confident I'll get back into the swing of things this week.

We got our annual letter in the mail telling us how much our ARM's interest rate was going to change and how it would affect our mortgage payments, starting Nov. 1. I was dreading this one because I thought it must have to go up after several years of decreases. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our rate is going down again, from 3.5% to 3.25%! Our mortgage payments will be $21.66 lower beginning in November, and I'm sure a bit more will go toward principal, since that happens every time it goes down.

Yesterday I was suddenly inspired to get our UK taxes out of the way. It turned out to go much faster than in past years, because I was able to find all the info I needed electronically versus rooting through various piles of random paper. I also didn't drive myself crazy trying to read and decipher the instructions; the forms were nearly identical to last year's, so I just made sure to fill in the same pages and boxes I did last year. Now all we have to do is have NT sign, make a copy, and mail it off! Woo hoo. Very relieved to have that done for another year. Thanks to some repairs, we made less this year than last, so I know we won't owe any taxes.

Some automatic savings & interest ($25.45) went into the EF, so 2011 progress is at $2808.51, with total EF of $11,320.46. Still woefully behind on our $7000/$15,511.95 goal, but it sounds like NT's flat will have new renters as soon as it's redecorated, so we should start pulling in regular money again (though probably not enough to meet our goal; if we get close I'll be tempted to divert some US debt-repayment funds into EF before the end of the year!)

Charitable contributions are on track, up to $1115!

I did really well on creative & bookreading goals this month. I finished two books I'd started, an Agatha Christie and a true-crime book. I also read another Agatha novel on our vacation and got about 450 pages into The Count of Monte Cristo (1240 pages total). I also made a deck of flash cards for AA by printing out clip art and public domain photos, pasting them on index cards and covering them with laminating paper. Then I punched holes in the corners and strung them together on a metal ring. For me, pretty creative!

Anyway, for September I want to pay off at least $2000 of debt, and chip away at all my other goals.

We got in from our vacation last night and had today off. I didn't do too much other than work on my finances a bit, and catch up on Facebook and your blogs (it was a voluntary no-internet-use trip). Lots to read, so I didn't make comments! Anyway, I need to make sure there are no charges on the credit cards that I don't have a receipt for, but I believe we spent $100 less than our allotted vacation money! I was pretty sure we would go over, so I'm really pleased.

AS's two student loan payments hit the accounts while we were away. Between the two payments, $184 went to principal. That means we paid off $2241 of debt in August, surpassing the $2075 goal!

We weighed in last night, and I was expecting a bit of weight gain since I hadn't been able to stick to my dietary guidelines and only worked out once. But I guess the walking around and not overdoing it on most meals paid off; I had lost one pound! I'm now at 145 lbs., with only 6 lbs. to go on my 2011 weight loss goal.

The trip was short, but great. I'll try to do a more in-depth report (with pics) later, but it's getting late here. We seem to have come back to a number of obligations, some of which are going to cost money, others that just need time and attention:
- Wedding this Saturday. We need to find a sitter and a wedding gift, both of which will cost us.
- Wedding NEXT Saturday, with the same requirements. One of the brides (it's two women) graciously said we could bring AA and that there would be other kids, but she's not at the best age for it. Too mobile and independent to just sit there with us, but too young to let run around without constant supervision. So we're going to lean on NT's and AS's recent influx of money to try and get sitters and gifts for both weddings. At least both weddings are convenient by bus! We really lucked out there.
- UK taxes. They aren't due until October, but it always takes me a while to collect all the papers, sigh and groan a lot, fill out the forms, and get them sent off. At least most of the rental statements were sent to us via email; it's a LOT easier for me to search my cluttered inbox than our disaster of a closet. I would be a lot better off if I could settle on a good paper organization system, but I'm so electronically focused that, even though I'm required to keep hard copies of certain things, they're so disorganized that it's torture trying to find anything. I take full responsibility; AS and NT do try to help me on this front but I'm just hopeless.

Well, I've been sitting blankly for a couple minutes, so I think that's all I can write tonight. Glad to be back and if it's not too busy at work tomorrow, I'll try to write my goals for September!

I weighed in last night, and I was back down to 146! This time it feels "real" because I weighed in at my usual time, after dinner on a Sunday. I think the first time I hit 146 it was somewhat of a false reading.

I was really good on my diet and only cheated on my one designated cheat day. I missed one exercise day and didn't always hit the workout goals exactly, but I did work out in some capacity 4 of the 7 days (5 days was the goal last week).

This means I have just 7 lbs. to go on my weight-loss goal!

(Of course, I do realize I'm going on vacation in two days, where I usually tend to pack on a pound or two. I'm hoping that bringing exercise clothes, and continuing to track my meals and activity, will keep me a bit more honest on this trip.)

NT bought another 2 months of service for $33.38.

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

FY2011 total: $207.41

We're nearing the end of the fifth month of our prepaid "fiscal year," so that means our average monthly cost so far is $41.48. For maybe the first time, we're below our ideal $50-per-month average!

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

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

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 13,753 pounds ($27,506)
#2: 16,005 pounds ($32,010)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $12,966
NT's Roth IRA: $3,333
AS's 401(k): $5,524
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $4,456
CJ's 401(k): $37,804
CJ's Roth IRA: $3,333
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $11,295
---
Total Assets: $567,327

Total Debt: $335,594

Current Estimated Net Worth: $231,733

July 2011 estimate: $235,435

Change in net worth: -$3,702

Summary: Ugh, I knew I wasn't going to like this month's results. Despite over $2K of debt payoff, our retirement accounts lost so much value that we're down for the month. I imagine we've lost progress on AS's net worth goal as well. I think all this market volatility is just shortsighted silliness that will clear up in a month or two, so I think we'll gain it back soon. But I don't really know.

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 fairly conservative. 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 had a long awful dream last night. (I could tell it was long because I'd wake up out of it, go back to sleep and get right back into the same dream.) I dreamt that AS suddenly revealed/remembered/discovered that she had more student loans from her first college she went to. $400,000 more, in fact.

It was the worst dream, and it just went on and on. I kept going over calculations in my head and trying to figure out how we were going to be able to do any of the other things we wanted. I also kept questioning whether it was a mistake, but the answer always came back that it was real.

I was SO relieved to wake up for good, and realize it was not only not true, but also impossible for one college to cost that much for 2 years of attendance in the 1990s! :P

***

I saw MonkeyMama's update and realized I hadn't written about our CC rewards schemes in a while.

I'm annoyed with my cards too. The Amex that I'm supposed to get $100 reward on, plus 6% on groceries, we've been using for almost a month, and there's still only one transaction showing up online! Do you think I should call?

The Mastercard that we'll get $150 reward from has posted all of our transactions, but the reward hasn't come through. At least I feel like their online account site is functional!

We've gotten $1540 from Chase Sapphire so far and AS just finished spending her $3000, so we'll get another $530 once the billing cycle ends! I wrote back to them that I was slightly mollified and would only close 2 of the 3 Chase cards I have. I kept the one I wanted to keep anyway!

So now I have open a Chase Visa, an Amex and a Discover card, all joint w/NT. I also have a Citi Mastercard joint w/AS. AS has her Chase Sapphire that she'll close as soon as she gets the rewards check. Makes me realize I should add AS to another card, since the Mastercard doesn't have a very high limit! I should also close another card or two, but I'm waiting to see if the Amex grocery rewards are worth the annoying delay on their website. Chase and Discover have about the same rewards; Mastercard has only decent rewards after the bonus, so I'll probably close that one. Even more reason to get AS on another card, because once that and Chase Sapphire are gone she wouldn't have any!

***

Had an irritating session with Comcast yesterday. I'd recently downgraded and expected to save about $20, so when a bill came for $50 less I was pleased and surprised. Then I realized I'd manually paid at the beginning of the month forgetting I'd signed up for autopay with my credit card. The autopay had taken $62 in addition to my full $88 payment, so the $35 they were charging me would take this coming month's payment up to $97, almost $10 more than before I downgraded!

Since my condo assocation pays part of the cable bill, it was super confusing for the rep to go through all the transactions and try to figure out why I was getting charged more. But he told me the prorated bill I was supposed to get for the end of this month was about $71, so I said look, I've paid $62 already with my autopay, that means I should only owe $9. Can't you just make my account reflect that? So he said he would; I just have to check today and make sure it's reflected in my account.

He said my regular bill should be about $62 or $63, so that means we'll save about $25 compared with our old rate. Better than I hoped!

***

I keep forgetting to mention this, but AS was going to be on TV! Well, she probably still will, a bit, but today her best friend is getting ambushed by "What Not to Wear," a style makeover show. AS was supposed to go, but it would be an hour bus ride each way, and the filming was meant to end at 1:30, but her first real doctor's appointment starts at 2 today. So she backed out. They did a taped interview with her a couple weeks ago where she talked about how terrible her best friend dresses, so she'll probably still show up on the episode. I think it'll air this fall or winter; I'll be sure to let you all know!

AS has been hit with the morning sickness pretty hard. Today she couldn't come into daycare because they were cooking breakfast and the smells were too much. Then she spit up a bit (not much to vomit) in the gutter on the way to the bus stop. So she was extra glad she didn't have to go for 4 hours of preparation and filming!

***

Vacation is coming up and we couldn't be more pleased! AS obviously needs to get away from the daily grind, and NT has a cough/cold that's been dragging on for weeks, and I'm just really sick of work. My job had summer hours, but as a one-person department, I only got to take it once or twice, and I got attitude from the project managers even for that.

We fly to St. Louis next Wednesday night. We're staying Wednesday and Thursday night at a really nice hotel and will relax and maybe do a bit of sightseeing on Thursday. We really just flew down there so we could take a train trip to Chicago on Friday. We'll be in Chicago Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leaving Monday around noon on another train back to the Twin Cities.

Usually NT and I plan a ton of activities for our vacations, but this time we're really trying to resist, because we know we're all exhausted, and that AS especially needs a lot of downtime. We've even agreed to have a somewhat "unplugged" vacation and only check the internet if we need directions or other travel info. We'll bring lots of books and try to be as lazy as possible. (Of course we'll need to entertain AA, but she's not much bother at this age; she just likes you to be around while she runs around doing her own thing.)

***

Speaking of AA, I crossed a couple things off the wish list related to her. I ordered some toys that should be good for traveling, and I applied for a Pax World Balanced mutual fund for her! I opened it with $500, but I may add to it if I like it.

I wasn't sure the toys would get here in time, so I signed up for a one-month free trial of Amazon Prime, where you get free 2-day shipping on everything. I put a line item in my budget spreadsheet to cancel it a month from now so I don't get charged! I ordered a cute little critter with a variety of plastic buckles that she can practice opening and closing, and a puzzle where the pieces are attached to the board with ribbons so they won't get lost, and a magnetic tablet with a stylus so she can practice doodling without making a mess.

If today is slow at work, I'm going to look up clip art to print out and make flash cards with. I want to do a deck of various educational cards, laminate them and put them on a metal ring so AA has another fun thing to do on the trip. If I don't get a chance to finish, I may just bring a deck of playing cards, because a friend of ours said that kept his son occupied on trips when we was younger.

***

I think that's it! I'm still keeping up on my diet and exercise; I missed working out yesterday, but today was going to be a day off, so if I work out today it will balance out. I made an amazingly delicious corn soup with roasted corn-avocado guacamole last night; I'll post the recipe link if anyone is interested.

EDIT: Found the recipe link! I followed this to a T except I mashed the avocado instead of chopping because it was overripe. I'm sure it would be great chopped as well, but mashing worked great.

Thanks to Chase Sapphire, I was able to put a nice chunk of change toward debt! My extra payment to NT's student loan hit, with $1270 going to principal. That makes our August debt progress to $2057, with just $18 to go on our goal. AS's student loan payments will easily take us over the top at the end of the month.

We're getting close to having education debt under $60,000! For some reason that's an exciting milestone for me. Less than $20,000 per person sounds less insane somehow.

I made another couple of wish-list purchases (the stuff we agreed we could buy before we start throwing NT's raise straight toward debt and savings). We ordered new padding and cover for this beloved but worn-out butterfly rocking chair, and I got a padded cover for my uncomfortable bike seat. Today I might cross another item off the wish list: adding $250 to the $250 I have sitting in the checking account for lil' AA, and finally opening that mutual fund in her name.

I was fairly good at my diet and exercise plan this week, considering my knee is still pretty messed up. But at my weigh-in I had gained 3 lbs., back up to 149 (and back into "overweight" territory per Wii Fit). I missed one day of planned exercise and ate one off-plan meal that I hadn't scheduled. I think the real killer was that the cheat meal I did plan, I really overdid it--got to remember to be moderate even on my diet day off.

So, 10 lbs. to go again. Looks like I'm going to be on this plan a bit longer than I thought I would.

Anyway, on to savings: Our regular biweekly $25 deposit went in, bringing 2011 progress to $2783.06, and our total EF to $11,295.01. Slowly clawing our way back up after the big loss to redecorate NT's flat.

Now to the really good news: NT's first paycheck with raise hit our account on Saturday, and it was $265 more. I was hoping for $250 at best, so I'm happy! I forgot to mention in my last post that this officially knocks me out of my position as top breadwinner, by $1100 per year. I would love my job to give me a raise someday, but after 4+ years I don't really see it happening anytime soon. I did apply for another job, but I don't think they'll be able to match my current pay, so unless it sounds really exciting I don't know if I'd take it.

We talked over how to balance wanting to spend the raise with wanting to put it toward future goals, and AS came up with the idea of making a list of our wants. As we're writing them down, it really isn't that much; we should be able to knock them all out in a couple months of salary and be able to put the raise toward debt or savings soon.

We already ticked two off our list; one was a celebration dinner (we got delivery from one of our favorite gourmet pizza places) and the other was a new professional wardrobe for NT. He did really well with sales and got a bunch of good-quality clothes for just over $300.

Yesterday NT had his meeting with HR and supervisor to talk about the new role they want him to assume. We knew he would probably also get a firm salary offer, so he came in armed with some information about his current salary, ready to argue for higher if they offered him something that would actually be a downgrade from his current pay.

His official base salary was $41,200, but with all the overtime he works (which he'd no longer get paid for in the new position), he makes close to $45,000.

So he came home telling us of his meeting in a very offhand voice, throwing out some numbers that didn't quite make sense, and then handed us the offer letter.

$50,000! He didn't even have to bargain; they offered him effectively $5,000 more than he makes with overtime. Of course his rambling confusing account was purposeful so he could see our surprise when we looked at the letter.

So exciting; I was starting to think none of us would ever get a raise again, and then we get this big one! It's about $733 more per month gross; I'm hoping we'll net about $500 of that. I'm so proud of him for sticking with this job; it did look like a dead end for a while there, just getting overworked with no gain for him, but the wait was well worth it. When the second baby has to go into daycare, this will go a long way!

That wouldn't be until probably July or August of next year, so the next 11 months will probably be made up of me trying to put all the money toward debt repayment and savings, while NT advocates for using it for other things. But we're both aware of that, and I'm sure we can find a middle ground!

August is 1/3 over? You've got to be kidding me. It's felt like a whirlwind for the past few days.

One good piece of news: I weighed in Monday night (couldn't Sunday night because I was out of town) and had lost 4 lbs.! I'm cautiously optimistic about this number; I'd just gotten back from my business trip and hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I feel the number is a bit skewed. But if I'm good this week, maybe I can at least hold onto that loss.

The loss brings me to 146 lbs., and according to my Wii Fit, that takes me out of "Overweight" BMI and into "Normal"! That's even more motivation to try and keep going.

My fitness goal for tonight is just 20 minutes of yoga, so I'll try to fit that in. I'm so exhausted, though. Even though it was my turn to go to trivia, I let NT and AS go because I just feel like sitting quietly.

So, let's see if I can rush through my updates:

Looks like NT is finally getting his promotion and raise! He'll get the official job description and hopefully salary offer tomorrow. I spent some time figuring out what he actually made this year, because with the promotion he'll no longer be eligible for overtime pay, and we want to make sure he's not actually getting a pay cut! His base salary is $41,200, and we figured out he made nearly $45,000 over the past 12 months. That will be good info for him to take to the meeting tomorrow.

If NT gets a raise, I've promised he can get a few nice work outfits to upgrade his image a bit.

Saturday's dinner party went smashingly. Our vegan chef was a great guy, and we had a really fun crowd of people that got along well. Among them was kashi and her husband! She's awesome, of course. Fun to meet my first SA blogger, even if she's a latent one. I'll try to post some photos of the food.

Sunday was not so fun. We slept in and didn't have much time to hang out before I had to leave for my Memphis business trip. AS was hungry and out of sorts and there was a minor squabble between me and NT over money. But I got to the airport in plenty of time and had a pretty good time with my co-worker; we went to a restaurant and listened to a blues-rock band while we ate, then got a nice early night at the hotel. I spoke with NT and AS that night and felt much better.

Monday was an all-day meeting with my company's biggest client, a huge company. I think I comported myself well, asked smart questions etc. I'm not so great at the socializing during breaks, but it's not like I'm an account manager or anything. I learned a lot and have some hopes that my co-worker will be able to become an equal partner on my biggest (and least desirable) role at work, taking some of the pressure off me. (Once it became clear I wasn't going to get a raise, promotion or office with the extra responsibility, I lost any interest in taking ownership of this onerous task.)

Monday night I got home about 9:30 pm, had my successful weigh-in and a late dinner. Now I'm back on my diet program and hopefully my exercising too (the main reason I want to work out today is to not break my chain of working out every day it's been scheduled, even if I don't do exactly what's on the calendar).

AS's pregnancy seems to be going along. She's having normal symptoms such as food aversions, food cravings, nausea, irritability and tiredness. Today she had some cramps, but that's not an indicator either way; I had terrible cramps in my first trimester and had a perfectly healthy pregnancy. These early weeks I just feel like we're in a holding pattern; I don't want to do too much planning until she sees the OB. Hearing the heartbeat will go a long way toward allaying my nervousness. But I feel pretty optimistic. Just waiting to really unleash my excitement and adoration. But we already have a nickname for the embryo: Bunny.

I did draw up a rough calculation of what our budget might look like with $1000 more in child care, assuming a certain amount for NT's raise and a few other likely adjustments. It doesn't look too bad; we'd either have to cut down on spending money or extra debt repayment (or some from each). I figure whichever we cut back, we'll still probably bring in extra money here and there, and we could put it toward whichever budget item is lacking.

I was worried about the S&P downgrade affecting our mortgage when it readjusts in November, but the Fed has promised to keep interest rates low, so hopefully that will translate to a low rate on our ARM.

We have about $700 in extra money so far this month, and we may get more if NT gets OT pay next week, and if my Chase Sapphire rewards come. (That reminds me, I've got to get AS to get her spending up to $3000 before the 3-month period ends this month, or else we'll lose that $500. It would be a shame since she's got less than $500 to go! I think she still has to buy plane tickets for her business trip coming up, so that will push her over the edge if she does it in time. I can't remember when we got the cards but I believe it was mid-May.)

Anyway, much of this extra money will probably get put aside for NT's work wardrobe, AS's maternity wardrobe, and possibly so I can start a food website as I've been talking about for months. Oh, and maybe we'll set some money aside for baby-related purchases, though I'm hopeful we can get lots of hand-me-downs like we did with AA!

OK, I gotta go do yoga before I lose all motivation!

Ha! Miracles do happen.

As soon as I'd redeemed my 50,000 points and paid off all my Chase cards, I sent them this message:

"To Chase Customer Service,

"As my account no doubt reflects, I had an incident last month where one customer service representative promised me something (see message below), but when I tried to get what I was promised, subsequent customer service agents refused to honor this promise.

"As a result, the trust of my long relationship with Chase has been broken. I no longer feel I can do business with you.

"Please cancel all three of my accounts immediately.

"Ceejay74"

***

That was yesterday. I got a message they'd forwarded my message to the appropriate department and would get back to me soon.

Today, got this message:

"Dear Ceejay74,

"Let me begin by apologizing for any error that may have occurred.

"I am pleased to confirm the promised 50,000 additional rewards have been added to the account and are avaialble for immediate redemption.

"If you are still wanting to close your accounts please letus know.

"If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.

"Thank you,

"CM
E-mail Customer Service Representative"

***

Checked my account and, what do you know? The extra 50,000 points were in there!

Now I'm a bit tempted to at least keep my Chase Freedom card, which gets good rewards regularly. I do have a Discover card that gets the same type of rewards, so I could close Chase if I was still mad. But I gotta say, $500 goes a long way toward smoothing my ruffled feathers!

I'll redeem the points first and decide later.

Despite my knee still feeling messed up, I did pretty well getting back into diet and exercise after the trip. Last night I did 45 min. of relaxing yoga as my workout, feeling it would be easier on my knee than any aerobic exercise. I didn't break a sweat, but today I did feel some soreness in my muscles, so I think I got an OK workout.

Tonight I did 15 min. of free weights and 12 min. stretching. Again, not as much of a workout as I had on my goals list, but I feel good doing something instead of completely cutting out exercise until my knee heals up.

Foodwise I've been really good. Yesterday I was going to go out and get tabouli for lunch, but there was a huge storm with torrential downpour. I went downstairs to the convenience store and got raisins, cashews, almonds, peanuts and a banana. Not exciting, but got me through. For dinner we had salad, chickpeas in marinara sauce and sauteed greens (everyone else had pasta with their chickpeas marinara).

Today had the usual oatmeal with almond milk for breakfast, and leftover chickpeas marinara and salad. (I forgot dressing so I ate bits of the salad on the same fork as the chickpeas, which ended up being a really delicious combination!)

Dinner tonight I tried some new recipes for a baked Asian-flavored tofu and Chinese eggplant in garlic sauce, with brown rice. They were awesome, especially the eggplant. (Surprising since none of us are crazy about that veggie.)

I've started to think that AS's first-trimester food issues are going to be the exact opposite of mine. She can no longer stand creamy, melty things or sweet foods, whereas she loves garlic, onion and veggies. I was the opposite; couldn't stand Italian or Asian food or anything that smelled spicy or garlicky, but could eat tofu cream cheese in practically every meal. And Honey Nut Cheerios.

Poor NT now has two people with very strict and/or specific food needs, so he's said we should be in charge of the menu for the foreseeable future. Easier than trying to find meals that somehow satisfy both of us! LOL.

All our mortgage payments hit:
US: $417 to principal
UK1: $260
UK2: $54
UK3: $56

All told, $787 down, $1288 to go on the August debt goal.

As for EF savings, we got a 750-pounds-plus-VAT estimate on the redecorating that needs to happen on our UK flat before they can find new renters. NT reckons VAT might be 17.5%, bringing our little paint job to 881.25 pounds. We have 319.45 in the UK checking account that I would have put into EF savings but must now go into this. We get 573.74 in rental income from our current renters next month, but we need 254.29 for next month's mortgage payments, meaning we're 245.35 short ... and that's assuming the VAT is still comparable to what it was when NT lived in England years ago.

Long story short, I have to transfer 300 pounds (US$600 per the exchange ratio I use for my calculations) from the EF into checking to make sure we can cover both September mortgage and redecoration charges. We earned a small droplet of interest (a few pence), but we're still losing $599.72 of our EF. That takes our 2011 progress backward to $2758.06, and our total EF to $11,270.01. Ouch. That $7000 goal is looking more and more unrealistic, unless I slow debt repayments (which I really don't want to do). Hopefully the redecoration plus VAT won't come to 881.25 and we'll be able to put a bit of this back into the EF.

Between this and the recent medical/vet bills, it's been a spendy couple months. Makes all the difference to have this money set aside, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt at all to see the money going out.

We'll be able to put a goodly amount toward extra debt repay this month, so I'm setting my goal at $2075. I haven't checked our mortgage accounts yet, but I'm sure those payments have hit so I should have another entry soon.

One thing I was contemplating is paying off AS's super low interest, low balance student loan early, to free up cash flow for the baby-to-be. Then I realized that just paying the minimum, that loan will be paid off in 10 months anyway! So I think I'll keep paying the minimum for now.

I deliberately gave myself three days off from exercising (Fri.-Sun.) and two diet cheat days (Sat.-Sun.) instead of one. My cheats over the two days included toast, hash browns, battered fried veggies, a Reese's peanut butter cup, sweet tea, Honey Nut Cheerios, sweetener in my oatmeal, tortilla chips, pita bread, a peanut butter-cornflake cookie, black bean burger that probably contained wheat, a wheat bun, and french fries. Whew! Despite all that and three days without exercise, I lost 3 lbs. at my weigh-in last night, so I'm back down to 150 lbs. Kind of winging it with food today but I'm sticking to my dietary rules, because I want the progress to keep on coming! I somehow messed up my knee on the trip and am having another unrelated health complaint, so I don't know if I'll be able to do a regular workout tonight, but I may look on Netflix and try to find a basic yoga routine or something lower-impact.

On the charitable donations front, we've added $60 here and there and are up to $970 of contributions for 2011.

The debt repayment is going strong with $13,969 paid down in 2011. I need to figure out my August goal and get that up sometime today or tomorrow.

***

OK, that's all out of the way. Now for the big news. (Real-life friends who may be reading this, it's way off the record!) While NT, lil' AA and I were in Ohio for the reunion, AS called with some very interesting news.

Some interesting, fabulous, hopefully family-expanding news.

She took a home pregnancy test and it came back positive!!!

Well of course it's VERY early in the game, too early to count on anything, but we're all just over the moon. We don't want to blab to a bunch of friends like we did with my pregnancy, because then we were worried about having to break it to everyone if something went wrong. But I got permission from AS to blog about it. I have to get it out of my system somewhere!

She's in contact with her doctors (OB and heart doctor) and we'll know more in a few weeks, when she can go in for an appointment. The nurse's rough estimate over the phone was due date of April 6. That may change, but I like that date because it's two years, one month and one day after AA's birth!

After much celebrating, NT said that I was probably looking forward to all the financial calculations and forecasts that I'll now need to do in preparation for having a second kid. Aw, he knows me so well!

Anyway, that combined with my health complaints today equal me getting virtually nothing done at work. I know I'll pay tomorrow, but I can't help it!

Well, I made it through four days of workouts -- now I get three days off! Last night I went to the pool on our roof and did laps for 30 minutes. It was really tiring -- my arms aren't used to that kind of exercise. When I got back my entire upper body was in pain. I even felt a little hot-cold, like I had chills and a slight fever! I took ibuprofen and put on warm PJs and felt better in an hour or two. Today I'm sore but not immobilized, thank goodness!

Last night we fended for ourselves for dinner. I found some dry refried beans mix and cooked that up, salvaged the good bits of the too-ripe avocados and made guacamole with that, found a quick-cooking brown rice packet and microwaved it, and served it all on corn tortillas with salsa.

This morning I had oatmeal with stevia and cinnamon, and for lunch more chili with vegan cheese on corn tortillas.

Considering I did very little planning for this first week of the diet, I'm doing well. The big bag of corn tortillas was an unexpected lifesaver. But except for breakfasts and the one day I had tabouli, all of my meals have been either Tex or Mex or soulfood/creole style, which can all seem a bit similar after awhile, delicious as they are. I could use some variety next week. I'm working on coming up with some Italian and Asian ideas to add variety.

I feel like I did really well both in diet and exercise these first 4.5 days, which really makes me not want to sabotage any progress I might have made...I'm going to try to be very good this weekend dietwise. Knowing I have to record my eating in a log will hopefully keep me on the straight and narrow for the most part!

First the savings: $25 went into the EF, so 2011 EF progress is $3357.78, total EF is $11869.73.

And AS's other student loan hit, with $60 going to principal. That means our July debt payment is $1943, surpassing our goal of $1900! I'm very excited this payment made it just under the wire, because sometimes it gets bumped to the next month. I have automatic debit so I don't control that.

I noticed (because I'm a dork) that the payment was 9 cents less than usual. I checked the interest rate, and it's gone down from 2.25% to 2%! Of course with only $610 left on the loan it doesn't make any difference, but it is kind of interesting because several of our loans have variable interest rates, so I wonder if any others will go down a bit.

Anyway, now that I've hit our July goal, I may set up August tomorrow, since I'll be busy all weekend.

Maybe it's because my brain's not weighed down with refined carbohydrates, but I feel like I've got all these random thoughts swirling around in my head that I feel like writing about, but none of them really go together. So, time for a random brain dump, I guess!

***

Day four of the new regimen is going pretty well. I had a 30-min. brisk walk home after work, and did 15 min. of resistance exercises (free weights, situps, squats, etc.) For dinner, I had quinoa-tempeh-veggie medley with corn on the cob and sweet potato fries.

This morning for breakfast I tried the oatmeal without the applesauce, adding stevia for sweetness instead, and the texture was much better. I like frugaltexan's idea of adding dried fruit; may try that next week.

For lunch I had some of the leftover quinoa-tempeh mix and some of the creole blackeye peas from earlier in the week.

Tonight for dinner we're going to have to wing it; we have plenty of food left from the cook-off party, so we'll be able to figure it out. I'm thinking big salad of some kind for myself.

I need to do a 30-40 min. endurance-level workout tonight, so I'm thinking I'll hit either the pool or the treadmill. Don't think I'll be keeping a very heavy pace for that long, but I guess "endurance level" is whatever you can take at whatever level of fitness you're at!

I'm feeling pretty good; very light and healthy but not too deprived. I just need to brainstorm some other meals when I get back from our trip this weekend, so I don't feel like I'm eating the same thing all the time.

***

I got an email from our real estate agent with some good news about our local market; sales were up and number of new homes on the market was down. It emboldened me to try and assess our condo's value.

The first place I tried was Homes.com, which gave an estimate of about $162,000. I was feeling pretty good because that's $2,000 more than I currently value it at. But then I checked Zillow.com, and felt like I'd been suckerpunched. $123,000, down $8,000 over the past 30 days!

I mean, either way we're not moving or anything. But with the threat of interest rates rising because of this debt-default idiocy in Washington, I would love to at least have a fighting chance to refi at some point (we have an ARM that we've been lucky with so far; right now it's at 3.5%, lower than our introductory rate). Right now we owe $168,000 If the condo were worth $162,000 we'd break even on our mortgage vs. home value in 14 months. At $123,000, we wouldn't break even for years!

So I'm proclaiming my results "inconclusive" since there was such a discrepancy, but I have a sinking feeling Zillow might be closer to the truth. I'll look into it again in a few months and see if either one has changed.

***

NT's renters in England are moving out and the rental management company has asked for permission to redecorate so they can attract new renters. When he wrote back to say hopefully it would only be painting and such, they wrote back to say that the carpets were in pretty bad shape and should be replaced. Well, as far as NT knows, his flat had all hardwood floors, and he wrote back to say so. Of course now I'm all suspicious that his management company might be incompetent and/or trying to shake us down for unnecessary repairs, but there's not much we can do about it! At least we don't depend on the rent for anything but mortgage payments, and we have enough in UK savings to cover that for a while if things go bad. But I do like having that extra money from the rental to put into EF/future house savings at the beginning of each month; it's always painful to spend it on repairs, new appliances, etc. instead.

***

The vegan-chef-in-our-home dinner party thing is progressing nicely! The chef sent us a huge list of menu items to choose from, and we've had 5 people RSVP yes, which means with us we've got 8 of the 10 minimum we need. Exciting news on the SA front -- one of the yesses is "kashi," whom some of you old-timers may remember for having a SavingAdvice blog! She lives in Mpls and is vegan, and we're Facebook friends but have never managed to meet. So this will hopefully work out and I'll get to meet my first (albeit inactive) SA blogger!

***

This upcoming trip is going to be strange. NT and I are traveling to Ohio with little AA to a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. The plane leaves at 6:30 tomorrow. The lightrail to the airport goes right by my and NT's office buildings, but he has to go pick up AA from daycare before we leave. So he's getting out of work early to do that. We think he should bring the carseat and I'll bring the luggage; shouldn't be too much for just two nights and two days, but with a small child, things seem to pile up.

We think we're going to wing it in terms of food for her; we'll bring crackers, milk and her favorite applesauce packet treats, but other than that we'll just get what we can from restaurants and stores along the way. She's usually pretty flexible, and doesn't always need a lot of food (her appetite varies wildly from day to day, which I hear is typical of toddlers). Actually it'll probably be harder to find food for me (a vegan trying out a wheat-free, rice-free diet) than for her (can't go wrong with bananas, cheese or crackers).

So NT will pick up AA from daycare, bring her back downtown, and we'll take the lightrail together. We called the hotel and they can provide a travel crib, so that's one less thing.

NT keeps asking what we're going to eat and do for two days in Strasburg, a town of about 2,000 people. I keep telling him, fast food and reunion. Oh, and the day before the reunion we'll be at a corn festival that my sister and her family attend every year; I'm sure it's great but I can't imagine it's going to take all day. I guess we'll probably do some sitting around in the hotel rooms together. Play cards and chat. It's only a day and a half, so we'll live. I love my family, but the one and only reason I agreed to do this was to assuage my guilt and let my mom see AA; she's such a fiend for grandbabies and I know she's wistful that we don't live closer so she can see AA once in a while.

Meanwhile, AS decided to stay home this weekend. She is just really overloaded with obligations lately, both work and personal, and I think she'll benefit from a quiet weekend to herself. But it'll still be weird to be without her! We've been in different cities maybe a dozen times over the 14 years together. Separation is just not our thing.

I don't think most of my extended family knows about my unusual relationship situation. I've brought AS to reunions before so I'm sure a lot of them just think I'm a lesbian, so it might confuse them a bit when I show up with a husband and child! I've decided not to worry about it; if someone asks the right sort of questions they might get to the truth, but otherwise I just won't say much about my personal life.

***

I guess that's all my random thoughts. Oh, I realize I need to sit down with our various credit cards now in use, and make sure I pay off all the balances. But I think I can do that tomorrow. I don't like to wait the whole month since I do to-the-penny budgeting; it gets too complicated. Doing it every couple weeks works out much better.

Even after the expensive cook-off party, we have about $480 of extra money for July. Since the end of the month is going to be too hectic to have a detailed meeting about it, I suggested we just take an extra $20 each to help with the irregular eating situation this weekend, and put the rest toward student loan debt. They both agreed, so that's what we'll do!

Last night I tried jogging through the park on the way home, after briskly walking the first leg of my journey. I forgot what an instantly exhausting activity it is for the out-of-shape: I jogged until it hurt to take a breath and I was slightly dizzy feeling, checked my time -- 4 minutes had passed. 4 minutes! So I walked for a few minutes until I felt slightly back to normal, then forced myself to jog for a couple more minutes. The second I hit the hill that leads to home, I stopped and walked. Even that was an effort at that point. Good grief, that was sobering! I did have a semi-heavy backpack on, but even without it, I'm not sure how much longer I could've gone without a break.

Tonight's exercise is a resistance workout (I'm going to use free weights and also do squats, lunges, pushups etc.) I don't mind weight training; it can get kind of boring if I do it a lot but I haven't done it in months, so it'll be novel.

Last night's dinner was a success with everyone: broiled spicy tofu, creole-flavored blackeye peas, and a simple broccoli and cauliflower medley.

This morning I tried my oatmeal-applesauce-almond milk-cinnamon combo. The flavor was pretty good but I really couldn't get past the weird mushy texture; I think the applesauce did that. I think I'm going to take the applesauce home and bring in some no-calorie sweetener (stevia). That with the oatmeal, almond milk and cinnamon will hopefully be good.

Today for lunch I had more of the chili I made. This time I had a smaller portion and ate it over corn tortillas and vegan cheese, for a change. I have more for tomorrow; if I remember I'll bring diced onion in for another slight variation. I know I'm going to be eating similar things a lot, but I don't want to get bored too early in the game.

Tonight was supposed to be avocado-mango salad, but the mangoes had to be eaten earlier in the week because they were about to start going bad, and I'm afraid the avocado may have suffered the same fate. It felt awfully soft last night so I stuck it in the fridge. We'll cut them open and see if anything is salvageable, but I doubt it.

We're moving Thursday's meal to tonight: tempeh (another variation of soy) for me and NT, salmon for AS. We'll have sweet potato fries and some other kind of vegetable. We'd bought some Ore Ida frozen sweet potato fries with a double coupon, so we want to use those up. I checked the package and there is rice flour in the coating, but I don't think that's much of a cheat on my no-rice rule, as long as I don't do it often.

Not sure yet what we'll do for Thursday's meal; we'll have to look through the pantry tonight and figure it out.

Friday night, all day Saturday and most of Sunday NT and I will be in small-town Ohio for a family reunion, so I'll kind of be at the mercy of the limited options there. I will probably have to cheat all three days, though I'll try my best not to go crazy; I'd hate to have all my efforts so far be for naught. I am kind of fantasizing about getting hashbrowns and toast at the diner though.

One of AS's student loan payments hit, with $123 going to principal. That makes it $1883 down, $17 to go on the July goal! I'm rooting for her other student loan payment to process before I do my end-of-month wrap-up, because it would push us over the goal amount. I was thinking about it yesterday -- we have a family reunion this weekend and won't be back until late Sunday night, so I won't wrap up until Monday morning. That might mean the payment processes over the weekend and shows up in time!

For some reason when I was waking up this morning all dazed, it suddenly occurred to me that there are several regular SA bloggers who haven't written anything in a while, at least not that I can remember. Miclason, whitestripe, BA, ApprenticeBlissHunter ... are there others too? I hope they all check in soon! frugaltexan's been gone a while, but I know she's probably settling in at her new home and job.

I don't think I'll write every day about this; it might get kind of tedious. But while it's new to me it's basically what's on my mind.

Yesterday I ate a banana with dabs of peanut butter for breakfast, tabouli (Mediterranean bulgur & parsley salad) for lunch, cherries for a snack, and veggie-bean fajitas for dinner (served on corn tortillas with avocado, salsa, lettuce, tomato and vegan cheese). I had a massive plate for dinner, and I felt very full at first, but the feeling didn't stick around for long. For exercise I walked home from work, about 30 minutes (I tried to pick up the pace from my usual stroll).

For breakfast today, I was stumped, so I had ...a banana. With a little bag of roasted peanuts that I picked up at the convenience store. Basically what I had yesterday. I realized I needed to figure out vegan, wheat-free, sweetener-free, potato-free breakfast options. Uhh ... finally NT and I figured something out together over lunch. I went to Target and got a box of quick oats, a carton of sugar-free almond milk, a jar of applesauce and a shaker of cinnamon. I'll try putting that together tomorrow and hope for the best!

Last night I made chili with beans and TVP (a soy product that can sub in for meat) for lunches. As I was smelling and tasting it, I kept picking up the TVP, which isn't good on its own. I finally gave up and left it in the pot on the counter overnight and today at lunch, it smelled and tasted really good! The flavor finally soaked into the TVP.

Tonight we're having blackened tofu, blackeye peas and some kind of veggie (we have a ton to choose from after our cook-off).

For exercise today, I need to do something at an "endurance" pace, according to the little guide I'm following. I wasn't sure I'd have time to work out when I got home, so I brought sneakers and workout clothes in a backpack to work. I'll change into that, put my purse and other clothes in the backpack, and walk home, except as soon as I'm clear of the crowds, I'll jog the rest of the way. (The last half mile or so is through a park-like walkway and then a park, so much easier to move quickly than when I keep hitting stoplights and throngs of commuters.)

AS and I are trying to figure out a way to bike to work. We take AA to daycare in the jogging stroller, which NT then attaches to his bike when he picks her up at night. There seem to be two main options:

- We discovered a "NiceRide" station near daycare. You can rent bikes and drop them off at another station. So if we found stations near our jobs, we could do that. There's also a station right near our condo, so we could pick up another bike for the evening commute home. It's $5 for unlimited rides in a 24-hour period or $60 for the whole season, and if you turn in your bike within 30 minutes, no additional charges. Otherwise, you get charged by the hour for however long you have the bike out.

- NT and I were also discussing the possibility of getting a second stroller attachment and adding it to my or AS's bike. He reckoned it would cost about $30 and we'd probably have to special-order it at the bike store or online. (We would want to test-ride his bike with the stroller attached to make sure we could do it. NT is a much more practiced cyclist than either me or AS.) That way we could bike to daycare, detach the stroller, then ride to work on our own bikes. NT could pick up AA after work as usual.

Either way, so much logistical stuff to figure out. Might be worth it in the end, though, if it helps us get more exercise this summer and fall.

I weighed in last night and had gained nearly 3 lbs. -- back up to 153. Sigh. That's OK; I didn't binge or anything this past week, but I definitely didn't limit myself or watch my eating very closely. I knew I was going to try and be very disciplined very soon, so I was getting my kicks while I could.

Regular exercise and very healthy eating are something I always struggle with. Especially the exercise. I'm trying to go into this new chapter with confidence, but I also have a fair amount of skepticism since I always tend to fall off the wagon sooner or later. I now have 14 lbs. to lose before I get to my desired weight, so if I stuck to the diet really well and lost 2 lbs. per week, that would be 7 weeks. I think I can do this for that long, at least. And maybe some of the healthy habits will stick around longer than that.

Since Google Docs is such a good way to control my spending and organize other aspects of my life, I'm turning to it for this new challenge as well. I set up a spreadsheet with two tabs: one for workouts and one for food. I don't know if this will turn out, but here are screen shots:


Basically, on the workout log I'll create goals for each day and then on the next line I'll say what I actually did that day. The food log doesn't have goals because my goals are always the same: to not eat wheat, white rice, white potatoes, chips, beer, or sugar/high-calorie sweeteners. So for the food log I'll just write what I ate at each meal. Not going to try for calorie counts, but I may go into more detail if it seems to call for it.

Today I only have to do a moderate workout, so I'm going to count walking home. The next few days I'll have to do something more athletic. I may bring jogging clothes to work and try to jog through the park on the way home? Or go for bike rides after work, or go use the treadmill in the other condo building's exercise room. We'll see.

I gave myself Friday, Saturday and Sunday off because I'm going to Ohio for a family reunion. Most weeks I hope to not take three days off in a row.

Put another $20 into the EF as part of NT paying for his parents' gifts, so that brings 2011 progress to $3332.78 and the total EF to $11,844.73.

Totaled up the spending for our cook-off party; it came to $216.69. I'm glad we're paying for this with extra income so it doesn't have to come out of our budget! About $25 was for small gifts for the contestants, $75 for drinks (including four bottles of wine for the contestants and the $20 bottle of amaretto liqueur, which will come in handy at a future party, I'm sure). The other $116 was groceries; much of it was left over. The fresh stuff we'll try to use up this week; the nonperishable staples will all come in handy down the line (I think we bought all things we would cook with ourselves).

As we were wrapping up planning for this party, AS got a message from a Facebook friend. He has a friend who's a vegan chef, and sometimes he does dinner parties in people's homes. Turns out he's coming to Minneapolis for a few days. He asks for about $20 per person and cooks a seven-course all-vegan meal (including cocktails) right in your kitchen! We thought this sounded like such a unique opportunity, so we signed up with him. He requires at least 10 people in order to make it worthwhile, so we have to find 7 or more friends to go in on it. I don't think it'll be too hard; even though we don't know many vegans, we know lots of vegetarians, and besides, how could you beat $20 for a 7-course meal plus drinks?

We're still waiting for final confirmation from him, but if it happens, it'll be Saturday Aug. 6. It would be so great! This has been a whirlwind of a summer; I'm so glad I have this blog because I think it'll all be a blur in the fall. If I wonder what I did all summer, I just have to look back here.

As promised, a wrap-up of our cooking party, which was FABulous!

We asked four of our friends to be contestants. They cooked one at a time. We provided a bunch of ingredients they could all cook with, including a table laden with vegetables, but they each had a mystery bag that included three mystery ingredients. Once they looked at the ingredients and had a couple minutes to think about it, we started a timer for 40 minutes. (They were allowed to finish up the last couple things for a couple minutes after; we were much more lenient than the show we based this on.)

The first person had grass jelly juice (a drink we found in the Vietnamese grocery store), refrigerated crescent rolls and mushy peas (a standard British veggie).


He decided to make an Indian-spiced mixture with the peas and roll them up in the crescent rolls.


Then he served them with a dipping sauce that incorporated the grass jelly drink.


The next contestant had amaretto liqueur, fruit strip snacks and wasabi roasted peas.


He made a pesto pasta with amaretto and wasabi peas in the sauce, and a gazpacho soup sweetened with fruit strips.



The third person got nori (seaweed) sheets, tomatillos and Diet Cherry Coke.


She made sushi (using Minute Rice!):


She incorporated the tomatillos into the rice and Diet Cherry Coke into the dipping sauce.


The last contestant's mystery ingredients were frozen shelled edamame, BBQ Pringles and HP Sauce (a British condiment similar to steak sauce).


She put the edamame in a vegetable salad with a creamy onion dressing, and made a dip that used the HP sauce to dip the Pringles in. She also made crostini for dipping.



Although we knew our friends liked to cook, I thought the mystery ingredients would be way too hard, but they did an amazing job! Everything tasted and looked great. We had the rest of the guests rank their favorites in taste, presentation, creativity and overall favorite and handed out presents. As it happened there was pretty much one winner in each category (well, two people more or less tied for Taste, but one of them won the Overall category, so I gave the Taste prize to the other one). We awarded kitchen gadgets for each category and also gave each contestant a bottle of wine.

Not a frugal party, although we'll be able to incorporate the unused ingredients into our menu for the next week. But it was SO much fun! I'm really pleased that our friends stepped up to the plate. A couple of them said they were surprisingly nervous beforehand and that the clock was nerve-wracking, but that it was kind of a rush to figure out something delicious and make it.

$20 went into the EF as part of NT's slowly paying off his recent gifts to family. That brings our 2011 progress to $3312.78 and our total EF to $11,824.73.

I just realized I never calculated individual net worth after I did our collective net worth statement earlier this week. I'll do that now and add to this entry; I'm eager to see how close AS is to positive net worth!

UPDATE: Great progress this month! AS's negative net worth decreased by $1216; her net worth is now just negative $1400! Another month or two and she should be in the black.

The heat wave finally broke here in Minneapolis! It's now in the 80s and feels marvelous compared with the "95 feels like 115" type days we've been having here. This was the worst heat wave I've seen in my 13+ years here, I think.

Our party is coming up fast and we have lots of planning to do! At least, since we announced it on such short notice, our guest list looks small. That means fewer canapes and drinks to prepare or buy. Usually I like bigger parties but I'll be just as glad to have just a handful of people over, since this cooking-contest thing is totally new to us and we don't actually know how hard it's going to be to pull off! NT and I walked through the farmer's market and Target today and brainstormed potential mystery ingredients.

The day after the party, my new food and exercise regimen begins. The menu creation for this next week might be a bit harder than usual, since I'm taking many of the staples of our diet off my plate. I really hope these changes help kickstart my weight loss. And that I don't feel totally deprived. We shall see!

Today has been pretty slow at work, which has been great because I had a ton of stuff to do that's not work-related!

- Canceled AS's old Visa card she never uses (the annual fee [which we always weaseled out of anyway] was going up to $55 per year, so it motivated us to get rid of it)
- Paid AS's dental bill ($580 -- yikes, but the good news is we have a medical fund, plus this helps her get to the 2nd set of Chase Sapphire rewards points more quickly)
- Called my doctor to resolve an unanswered question from my annual checkup
- Did some MySurvey and MyPoints things
- Researched NT's and my new Amex card. It has a $75 fee but offers 6% back on groceries! I just want to make sure one or both of our main grocery stores we shop at qualifies. (It looks like Rainbow, the big chain we use, will qualify. The natural foods co-op may not, but I found a link to a story where some woman pressured them to add her local natural foods store and succeeded, so hopefully we can do the same.) Even if only one of our stores qualifies, we should be able to net $75 per year minimum after the $75 annual fee--and there's a $100 bonus that will offset the first year's fee!

Looks like I may delay closing our Chase accounts a bit longer. Yesterday we got a voucher in the mail for one free night at a new hotel, courtesy of our Chase Freedom card. We checked and there are two of the hotels in our area. I believe the offer will turn out to be for double occupancy only, but even so we'll probably take advantage; hotels are fun! I was thinking two of us could have a date night away at one of the areas -- probably AS and NT; it's been awhile since they had some time for just the two of them.

I saw some interest in the cooking-competition party I posted about yesterday, so I'll try to take pictures and give a detailed description of it once it happens! I've never done anything quite like this, so I'm not really sure how it will turn out. But it's very informal and all in good fun, so I think it'll be a nice change from the usual cocktail party.