Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Our daycare lady is dying. I found out today that she has cancer, and that it's gotten to a point where she's probably got a couple weeks. She wanted to be home, so she's out of the hospital. Please wish Grandma Jo a peaceful and love-filled rest of her life. She has lots of very supportive family, which I'm so glad of. We didn't get to know her very well yet and now we never will, but it's very very sad.

But I've got to suck it up and think about our options. Her daughter is keeping the daycare going for a while at least, but she's not licensed and I don't think I can get my flex money to reimburse unlicensed daycare. Plus, it doesn't seem like a very stable situation; how long is the daughter really going to keep it up? So I emailed a nearby center and we're going to look at the list of in-home providers we started just a few months ago. Our barber knows someone close by as well, so we're going to ask him for more information.

On to May goals. I've fallen down on nearly everything in the past week. I didn't weigh in last night, for one thing. We had a party on Saturday and paid for it with grocery money, so our budget's a bit out of whack, though still salvageable if we're careful over the next few weeks. I've looked at job listings but haven't applied for anything since I got the news about the one place I'd interviewed with. My "extreme couponing" for charity has fallen off, though I've got a bag full of past coupon circulars.

I did make money with a "side hustle"; namely, putting my stuff into and helping out with a friend's garage sale. After paying my share for ads and the food that we ordered, I made $40. But the main goal was to get rid of stuff and to hang out with my garage-sale gang, so it was a success. I'm putting the $40 toward the hotel room we got for my sister and her kids for their upcoming visit.

And our regular biweekly savings deposit added $25 to the EF plus 45 cents interest, bringing our 2011 progress to $1967.16 and our total EF to $10,479.11.

It's been a weekend of bad news in my state. Tornadoes hit Minneapolis and really wrecked a somewhat poor, struggling neighborhood north of us. The state House voted to send a constitutional amendment to the ballot in 2012 to outlaw same-sex marriage (which, by the way, is already not legal in MN; they just want to make it extra hard to ever make it legal by putting it in the state constitution). And former Gov. Pawlenty announced his candidacy for president. He took our progressive state with its solid infrastructure and left us much weakened in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy. He earned the nickname "Governor No" for his refusal to compromise or work with other elected officials in any way. Public programs have been slashed and property taxes have skyrocketed. Nothing has improved that I can see. I sure hope he doesn't get a chance to wreak similar havoc on the entire country.

I left my phone at home yesterday, and it wasn't until late last night that NT noticed I had a voicemail on it. I was informed I didn't get the job; I came a close second (or does everyone get told that who doesn't get job offers?) and blah blah blah.

I felt sad and disappointed -- mainly it's a blow to the ego when these things happen. What was it about me that didn't stand out? I wasn't a 100% perfect fit experiencewise, so I think that's probably what it came down to. I may never know though.

The guy said I could contact him, so I called him this morning, figuring I should stay courteous to someone who has influence in this incestuous job market. He's gone until the 26th, so I just left a friendly message thanking him for the chance to apply and asking him to keep me in mind for future opportunities.

Now that the ego is mending and disappointment seeping away, I have to say there are lots of upsides. Namely, though I don't feel my job is compensating me fairly, it is paying me about $9000 more than this other job would. Now I can think about booking that train trip in August, which I figured we would have to skip if I got this job. I can also breathe easier about other "austerity measures" we might have had to take.

Other money benefits of not taking a pay cut:
-I don't have to freak out that we may need to change daycare providers again if our current lady closes up shop. We're easily able to absorb a higher daycare cost at our current salaries.
-NT can feel better about looking for jobs even if they mean a slight pay cut for him, and we can still think creatively about job/school balance options for him in the future.

Plus, my job is probably going to get noticeably better in June, when we can finally replace my proofreader who's not very good with one who is extremely capable (she worked here before, so I know it for a fact). I can shove off some of the responsibility I was unwilling to turn over to my current proofer, and hopefully get to work on more creative stuff, and at a higher level on some other stuff. At least it should break up the monotony a bit.

And, thinking about taking this other job, I was already starting to miss my vacation time, which I've built up to over 3 weeks off per year. This "dream job" wouldn't include any official PTO for the first year, and God knows how much the second year.

So in a way, I've come to appreciate certain aspects of my current job. Doesn't mean I'm not going to keep looking, but it's nice to feel slightly less bitter and cheated!

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): $13,191
NT's Roth IRA: $3,517
AS's 401(k): $5,782
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $4,282
CJ's 401(k): $41,923
CJ's Roth IRA: $3,517
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $10,454
---
Total Assets: $571,282

Total Debt: $341,625

Current Estimated Net Worth: $229,657

April 2011 estimate: $224,905

Change in net worth: +$4,752

Summary: Weird, I just noticed that all of AS's assets end in -82! I mean, I round off to the nearest dollar, but still... Everything went up this month, so even though we didn't pay off much debt, we had a nice upturn in net worth! Chugging along to that nice quarter-million milestone soon, I hope.

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 sent another $25 off to NT's student loan to make it more likely we'll hit our May goal. $11 went to principal, which should be enough to tip us over the top once AS's student loans hit at the end of the month. $827 down, $173 to go on the May goal.

Last night at my weigh-in, I was back up to 151. No surprise, though it was disappointing to see my 140s disappear again so quickly. I didn't get to walk home every day, and I didn't make up for it with other workouts. There were also several social events where I ended up eating a lot and/or drinking beer, which I find to be really fattening compared with wine. We also had some beer around the house, which we hardly ever do, and I found myself drinking it occasionally. Oh well, this seemed an unusual week, so hopefully I'll be back under 150 in no time.

Our Roth IRA payments hit, so $300 more to that goal ($1500 total so far this year). One of my regular $15 donations also hit, so that's $605 total to that goal.

No word on the job yet; I sent my writing test in, and will definitely count it toward my creative goal (though if I also do other creative things this month, so much the better). If I get offered the job, it will probably be either this week or not for a few more weeks. The decider said he has some hectic weeks coming up, so if he doesn't make up his mind soon, it won't be for awhile.

I still haven't done a grocery tracking thing for this week because we had a few stray items we needed to pick up here and there. At present, it looks like we'll only go over my intended budget by a couple of bucks. And that's only because of two nights where we're having friends over and wanted to treat them to something special. So feeling pretty good about that. I may or may not post a big entry about the groceries this week; I find if I don't do it Saturday or Sunday, I become sort of "meh" about it. But I did enter all our purchases so far into the spreadsheet I'm keeping.

I found out my sister plus a niece and a nephew are coming to visit in June! We hardly ever get visitors from out of town, so I'm excited for AA to get to hang out with some extended family. Our place is really small and we think we'll want some down time at night away from my high-energy family, so I told them we'd pay for a hotel. I found a pretty good deal (for being in downtown Minneapolis) of about $320 for three nights. We'll pay for it with NT overtime and possibly AS extra freelance money.

True to form for Minnesota summers, our weekends are filling up quickly. So far for the next month and a half, only a couple weekends are completely free of events.
May 21-22: We're having a party Saturday night
May 28-29: NT and I are going to an all-day music festival one of the days
June 4-5: All three of us adults are going to my college reunion in New York, and leaving AA for the first time
June 11-12: FREE (so far, I think)
June 18-19: My family's visit
June 25-26: Twin Cities GLBT Pride parade & festival
July 2-3: Free so far, but it's the 4th of July weekend, so I'm sure there'll be something

AS got another job offer from the freelance place. We'd asked her not to take any more until after our June trip, so she asked if I'd like to do it in her name. I wasn't sure so she's just telling them no. But it did make me think that this place is kind of a cash cow with all their editing assignments; maybe if I get offered the low-paying dream job I interviewed for, I can get in good with them as well as AS and we can pull in almost enough money to make up for my salary cut!

I'm probably going on my first business trip (for this current employer) next week. Out of the blue I got a call. I have mixed emotions; it'll be nice to break the monotony of the job and get a trip to Memphis. On the other hand, I'll probably have to stay overnight without my spouses and baby for the first time since AA was born. And I've heard that you don't really get to see the fun bustling parts of Memphis; just a hotel and the client's offices. It also means the least-favorite (but most job-security-sustaining) part of my job, which I thought might be going away, will probably be here to stay. Very mixed emotions about that; this is the part of the job that I assumed would get me a raise, since I took it over after my boss left, but it hasn't gotten me a damn thing except a permanent headache. But will this trip somehow elevate me in my company's eyes and maybe get me a raise for the first time in four years? Doubtful. I guess there's a small chance.

We found out (AS finally just asked) that AA's daycare lady is in the hospital. They still didn't say what she had--very closemouthed family. We brought her flowers for them to take to the hospital. No idea what this will mean for us in the future -- whether she'll need to retire (or worse, whether she'll pass away), and whether her family will continue the business with or without her.

We took AA to a kids dance party at a grungy old bar near us -- so fun! We met up with an acquaintance and she mentioned she's gotten a couple of potty chairs, just to have around and maybe have her kid (a couple months older than AA) sit on it while the adults go. I can't believe it's almost time to start thinking about that! But NT and I looked around Target at lunch and saw a neat, cheap option that converts from a freestanding potty chair to a converter seat + stepstool, so we could really have either -- or switch from one to another as she gets a little older. We'll probably pick that up soon, I guess. Wow! I hope AA learns quickly, for her sake -- she hates having her diaper changed and lets us know!

I should start getting ready to go soon -- I've been pecking away at this entry between projects for about an hour now. And you better believe I'm going to Ctrl+C before I hit Save and Publish!

I sent a bit of extra money to NT's student loan. $27 went to principal. I "borrowed" the payment from June debt money since we have so much float in the bank account. I tried to estimate how much interest there would be so I'd pay off the desired amount of principal. But I underestimated and didn't pay as much principal as I wanted to. So I sent another $25 off to the loan; we'll see if that gets me to a comfortable place to hit my May goal.

Anyway, that makes $816 down, $184 to go on the May debt goal.

***

I had my second interview yesterday. Considering how intense it was (met with 5 people one-on-one over 2 hours) I felt pretty good after I got out. A few flubs here and there, but overall I think I articulated some good reasons I'd be a solid fit for the job. The middle interview was with my friend who recommended me, so that was really nice and alleviated a great deal of stress. Now I have a writing test to turn in by Friday morning. I glanced over it tonight and will let it percolate, then try and finish it tomorrow night after work.

It seems like SUCH an interesting job. I still don't know what the whole job offer package would be, so I don't know what I'd do if I got the job. I have been thinking of ways to reduce our budget or bring in extra money if I get the job offer at a huge salary cut. I even wonder if my current place would let me freelance for them if I leave. They do seem to stay on friendly terms with former employees.

Anyway, I'm still thinking too many steps ahead; I've got to ace this writing test first.

***

I keep meaning to write about this, but it's a weird situation so I don't really know what to say. Our daycare lady has been out sick for about three weeks. She has a big family and they've all been pitching in, but they're a cagy lot, and haven't said anything about what she's got, how long she'll be gone, etc. AA still seems happy and they all seem like good caregivers, so I'm not worried about that. I've just reached this awkward place where it's almost too late to ask more probingly how the main daycare lady is, you know?

Part of me is worried about her; I don't know her very well yet, but I want her to be OK. And a selfish part of me is wondering if we'll have to start looking for a new provider again soon. This place isn't ideal for several reasons, but AA just finally adjusted and stopped crying when we leave her, so I hate to think of her having to readjust so soon. (Plus, to be crass, there aren't many cheap options as close to downtown as we are.)

So, fingers crossed that it's just a lingering but nonserious illness...

***

On a completely different subject, I did track our grocery budget last weekend, and I wrote up a big entry detailing the cost of each meal, but I forgot to copy it before I hit Save and Publish, so I lost it. I'm interested but not THAT dedicated, so I wasn't about to go through the whole rigamarole again. But, at least I still have the raw data in my grocery spreadsheet, so I pasted that below. We didn't do great last weekend; I was hoping we'd stay between $105 and $120, but we hit $144.19, and that wasn't counting a diaper refill we need to pay for. But we got a ton of staples that will last us weeks, even months in some cases, so it sounds worse than it was. I think. We'll see if we can keep it under control for the next three weeks; we've still got a chance to catch up if we do.

Diced tomatoes $0.59
Diced chilies $0.59
3 zucchini $1.05
3 lg. potatoes $1.79
Red bell pepper $1.41
2 avocados $3.00
Ginger root $0.84
Romaine lettuce $1.69
Cilantro $0.50
3 lbs. onions $2.49
Grape tomatoes $2.50
Tater tots $1.75
Hashbrowns $2.19
5 bananas $1.02
2 mangoes $1.00
2 pts blueberries $3.98
Generic "cheerios" $1.99
2 boxes organic cereal (C) $5.00
Panko breadcrumbs 2.19
Bread (C) $2.59
Rice $6.39
Fruit turnover $2.69
Fruit danish $2.99
Brown rice $1.21
Banana cake $3.99
Veg chicken patties (C) $3.65
Veg chicken nuggets (C) $3.65
3 salmon filets $3.00
Veg turkey slices (BOGO w/ sausage) $0.00
Veg Italian sausage $3.89
String cheese $3.56
Cheddar $2.08
Vegan sour cream $2.89
Vegan butter $4.19
Vegan shortening $4.19
Milk $2.29
Vegan cheddar $5.69
TVP $1.24
3 pkgs tofu $3.97
12 eggs $3.29
BBQ sauce $2.50
2 jars salsa $2.00
Vegetable broth powder $2.68
Maple syrup $2.60
2 bags potato chips $5.00
4 frozen juices (C) $5.54
Coffee $9.17
Chocolate bar $2.29

Total food spending: $134.79

Toilet paper $1.79
Paper towels $2.29
Bar soap to make laundry detergent $5.98
Garbage bags $5.09
Tax $0.40
Tax minus bags credit $0.80
Co-op quarterly discount -$3.75
Bags credit (cashier error; should have been $0.10) -$3.20

Total nonfood/cat spending: $9.40

Last night I weighed in at 149, my first time under 150 since I got pregnant! Just 10 lbs. to go on my 2011 goal. Let's hope I can keep it up. I've been walking home from work or daycare most days, so getting about 30 minutes of exercise. I know I should be doing weight-training, especially on my upper body, but at least I'm doing something.

The other day I read an article about a very old man (113?) who had recently passed away. The article detailed his very long career and other things about his lifestyle and philosophy.

While he sounded economically comfortable, he wasn't super-wealthy as far as I could tell. It occurred to me that I don't remember reading any bios of extremely aged people that mentioned them being rich.

I've heard that economic factors play into overall longevity (and longer active/healthy years), which makes sense when you think about access to good food, education about health, and medical care. But I wondered how much effect wealth had on superlongevity.

Not much, it seems. Most of the articles I read focused on the New England Centenarian Study, but I also read one that surveyed Chinese superlongevity. Socieconomic status and education varied wildly and showed no easily explained pattern. In the Chinese study, about 50% reported having had a serious childhood illness or injury, and about 50% reported having gone hungry as a child. Nor did whether they lived alone, with family or in assisted living, according to a study of Georgia centenarians (though that one reported a vast majority were female and white). The dominant common characteristics, according to the New England study, were:
- Lack of obesity, especially in the men.
- No substantial smoking history.
- Ability to handle stress better than the majority of people.
- 15% had no significant changes in their thinking abilities.
- For women, a history of bearing children after the age of 35 years and even 40 years. (They think it's not the act of bearing a child in one’s 40s that promotes long life, but it may be an indicator that the woman’s reproductive system is aging slowly and that the rest of her body is as well.)
- First-degree relatives and/or grandparents who also achieve very old age, and many have exceptionally old siblings.
- Their offspring score low in neuroticism and high in extraversion.
- Genetics play a very strong role.
(http://www.bumc.bu.edu/centenarian/overview/)

Very interesting that one thing money can't buy is a super-long life. It's like those studies that indicate there's a "sweet spot" of wealth, and that after a certain point the correlation between money and happiness ends. (Although, I bet if scientists are able to isolate the superlongevity gene and apply it to other people somehow, that would be a very expensive procedure and the superwealthy, could well become the super-aged. But probably still not happy, LOL.)

Even overall longevity needn't be tied to economics necessarily. Areas of the country or world where the average lifespan is 10-15 years longer share common characteristics that don't have to do with money:
- Family - Family is put ahead of other concerns.
- No Smoking - Centenarians do not typically smoke.
- Plant-based diet - The majority of food consumed is derived from plants.
- Constant moderate physical activity - Moderate physical activity is an inseparable part of life.
- Social engagement - People of all ages are socially active and integrated into their communities.
- Legumes - Legumes are commonly consumed.
(This is from a Wikipedia entry on "blue zones," which is what these places are called. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Zone)

So, those are my Monday ramblings. Interview is tomorrow, so I think I'm both trying to distract myself from nervousness AND remind myself that I have interesting thoughts from time to time!

$25 went into EF savings, so that's $1941.71 saved to our EF so far this year (EF total is $10,453.66).

Also, good news on the job front: I got called in for a second interview at the previously mentioned place! They interviewed 5 or 6 people and have narrowed it down to 3. It's going to be time-intensive -- 2 or 3 hours with several different people. This is absolutely not my forte, but I'm trying to look forward to it as a potentially pleasant and interesting experience, so I won't get too nervous and tongue-tied the day of.

Also, at my current job, I had a lunch with three other employees who are also disgruntled, and we all aired our grievances. Pretty much the same stuff even though we have four different roles in the company ... stagnant salaries, ineffective (or actively evil) bosses, little decision-making power or control, not enough respect for our roles. It was good to feel solidarity but depressing to realize the problems are so widely endemic. (Two of the ladies sound like they're in much worse positions than me ... at least I have a sympathetic if ineffectual direct supervisor!)

But, on a slightly bright note, my supe came and asked me about possibly taking on some managing-editor responsibilities as we transition from my current backup proofreader to the one we're going to replace her with. I doubt it comes with any pay or job-title hikes, but it would be nice to feel some control over some projects maybe. I told him I was definitely interested.

There was also a merger, announced today, of our division with another one based in DC that basically does similar things. Too early to tell if this will affect me positively, negatively or at all ... but I hold out some small hope that maybe they'll be passing around some promotions or raises at some point. (Or maybe they'll lay a bunch of us off. So hard to tell from the chipper corporatespeak of our prez.)

***

Almost forgot the other tidbit of news. AS gets occasional freelance jobs and typically all the income goes into the communal pot to be used for whatever is needed at the moment. A huge part of our lawyer money was funded by her extra projects.

Anyway, her last one was a heavy copy-edit of a book for $900. She way underestimated how much work it would be -- she was basically deprived of sleep or a social life for a week. It coincided with a proof of a very long poetry anthology at her regular job, so she's basically been editing and proofreading from about 9:30 a.m. to anywhere from midnight to 4 a.m. every day for over a week!

She finally got the freelance book done (though she still has to put in a lot of overtime on the poetry book to try and get it out of the way for the tons of other books that are stacking up behind it). I figured she needed a big reward for the huge toll this took on her, so I said she could keep the full $900 to do with as she pleased. We occasionally get extra spending money of a couple hundred bucks each from freelance jobs and bonuses, if I'm feeling good about the progress on our debt and savings and feel we could use a reward, but rarely a big amount all at once like that. So I hope it makes up for the hell she went through. I've advised her to buy a new iPad, which she's always coveted!

AS's minutes finally ran out; that girl stretched her minutes like a champ! I bought her another 1000 for $107.78. So here are our costs so far:

NT's mid-April Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $32.87
AS's early-May T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78

FY2011 total: $140.65

We just ended the first month of our prepaid "fiscal year," so that means our average monthly cost so far is ... $140.65! However, AS and I won't need minutes for awhile, and NT will just need to refill in June. So that number will drop over time, and I'm convinced our monthly average this 12-month period is going to be our lowest yet in the long run.

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009. 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.

Our mortgage payments hit today:
US: $413 to principal
UK1: $262
UK2: $56
UK3: $58

So that's $789, $211 to go on the May debt-repayment goal.

The UK flat payment had semiannual management fees taken out of it, so after paying the mortgages I only had 20 pounds ($40) to transfer into savings. Still, progress is progress! That's $1916.71 in EF savings so far this year; total EF is up to $10,428.66.

I set the mostly random goal of $7000 because it seemed reachable just with UK income plus the $50 I put aside each month in the US account. However, the UK flat has been hit with expensive repairs a few times, so we may be a bit off schedule with this one. Well, we'll see how it goes. I'm kind of comfortable with our EF now, and part of me is tempted to start paying down the UK mortgages instead. They're our lowest-interest debt at 1.49% (variable), but on the other hand the UK savings account is earning us a few pence a month.

Bringing the money over to the US to pay down a higher-interest debt doesn't make too much sense to me because we'll get hit with exchange and transfer fees. Maybe if the exchange rate goes crazy again and a pound is worth $2, we'll think about doing that. Right now it's worth about $1.60. Plus, whether I'm putting the money in the UK account or paying down the UK mortgages, it feels like I'm working toward our future, when we'll move to England and need to purchase a bigger place than NT's teeny flat. It'd be nice to have a ton of equity and/or a nice down payment. Down payment probably even better since we may keep renting the place out; who knows?

It seems nearly impossible to think about getting the money into a smart investment vehicle in the UK. The tax complications might more than outweigh any profit we could see.

Any thoughts or opinions on what I should do with that money?

April saw a lot of progress on goals! The only one I made no progress on was making money from side hustles.

We did entertain at home once, just had our besties over for snacks and TV. I guess I'll count that as our small-group get-together, though it was effortless! We did have a very social month; it just all happened outside the home.

As for creative projects and books, I felt like I was very creative this month, but it was all mom stuff: helping decorate AA's room, getting her Easter basket and outfits together, taking photos, etc. I guess you could say I read a dozen books since AA's finally getting interested in books; however, they were all board books for toddlers! Still, I'm counting the cumulative effect of decorating and preparing for Easter as a creative project. I will try to do something a bit more sophisticated for May though!

On to May: I want to pay off at least $1000 in debt again this month. I can't wait till next month when I can start aiming a bit higher than that! If we keep paying just $1000 per month, we won't be rid of our debt for over 28 years, so that's obviously not a good plan. But for one more month, it will have to do.

Typically I would have mortgage progress to report already, but I guess since May 1 fell on a Sunday, the banks need an extra day to catch up.

I did have some health progress at my weigh-in last night. I lost 2 lbs. last week, down to 150 lbs. Just 11 more lbs. to reach my goal!

Just a note so I remember to update NT's pension value next time I do net worth.

Formerly:
#1: 12,663 pounds ($25,326)

Currently:
13,752.50 pounds ($27,505)

I'll relate the sad tale of my couponing for charity first:
I tried to get free dog treats using a sale and double coupons, but our prices must be higher than Couponmom's store, because it would have come to $1 per bag of treats. Not good enough, so I left the coupons for some dog owner to be pleasantly surprised.
Then I went to Walgreens to try the Splenda moneymaker, free maxi pads, bandage moneymaker and super-cheap Colgate. Here's where things went really wrong.

I used a $3 register rewards and 2 coupons, and my total was $8-something. Seemed high but I knew I was getting a $3 rebate and $3 register rewards, so I thought $2 for 2 tubes of toothpaste was an OK deal. (I forgot I'd actually paid $11-something if you counted the register rewards.)

So I was rooting through my bag and realized I didn't get the register rewards. I went back and it turns out if you use a register rewards for the same product, you don't get another one. (That was the maxipads deal.) So I got a $3 refund and returned the maxipads.

After I walked out, I started thinking that I'd ended up spending $5 cash and $3 register rewards, and that I'll get $3 back in rebate. That meant my two tubes of toothpaste cost $5. They were supposedly 2-for-1 AND I had a $1 off coupon, so that means they're ordinarily $6 each? Maybe, but that seemed high. I was going to check the receipt, but then I realized THEY'D TAKEN MY RECEIPT. Not only could I not check to see if I was overcharged for the toothpaste, I also couldn't send in the rebate for the bandages. SO I started out the day with $21.01 and ended it with $12.15. I spent almost $9 for a pack of bandaids and two tubes of toothpaste! Man, couponing is HARD.

It's still going to charity, so it's not that bad. But I was expecting to spend about 80 cents after rebates & coupons, so it's kind of a shocker.

Anyway did much better with the household grocery shopping. We'd had to get more milk and soymilk during the week, so we only had $109 to spend this week if we want to get caught up. I knew we were going to have to buy compostable diapers later this week, which is $16.50, so we only had about $92.50 for our regular weekend grocery trips.

Grand total? $66.40! There were hardly any good coupons, and the website for our grocery store was out-of-date on some of the deals, so I didn't think we'd do that well. But between sales and coupons we saved $19.98.

Here's how it breaks down by meal:

Pasta with vodka sauce
Fresh basil $3.40
1/2 cup almonds $1.10
(already have pasta, canned tomatoes, vodka, bread)
Total: $4.50

Vegan buffalo wings, potato salad, eggless salad sandwiches (picnic for May Day festival)
Scallions $0.59
Tofu $1.49
Vegan mayo $4.39
(already had potatoes, bread, wheat gluten, panko breadcrumbs, etc.)
Total: $6.47

Tofu sandwiches, roasted cauliflower
Tofu $1.49
Bread (C) $1.19
Cauliflower $1.99
Total: $3.18

Pasta w/broccoli & zucchini
1 zucchini $0.29
Broccoli $1.49
(already have pasta, herbs & spices)
Total: $1.78

Veggie burgers & sweet potato fries
Hamburger buns $0.79
5 sweet potatoes $4.44 (will have extra)

Tacos & salad
TVP $1.40 (will have extra)
2 pkgs taco shells/tortillas $2.50 (will have extra)
2 bags salad $4.00 (will have extra)
Lime $0.55
2 avocados $1.69
2 mangoes $2.00
2 tomatoes $1.73 (will have extra)
Taco seasoning $0.29
Total: $14.16

General Tso's mock duck
Scallions $0.59
Ginger root $0.64
(already have mock duck, rice, other ingredients)
$1.23

Other food/drink we'll use this week:
2 green bell peppers $1.00
7 bananas $1.69
2 pears $1.35
6 apples $3.48
4 eggs $1.28
Milk $2.29
Cheddar $3.29
2 cartons soymilk (C) $3.00

Other food/drink staples we may not use immediately:
Garlic $0.42
Apple cider vinegar $0.79
2x salsa $3.00
Cayenne $0.16
Club soda $0.75

Total of all food spending: $60.54

Nonfood/cat items:
Toilet paper $1.79
Paper towels $2.29
Aluminum foil (C) + tax $1.56
Tax -bags credit $0.22

Total nonfood spending: $5.86

AS's other student loan hit--$60 went to principal, making our April debt repayment total $1181. Just over a year to go on this particular student loan, then it'll be paid off! It's at $791, and it's so tempting to just pay it off in one fell swoop. But the interest rate is our second-lowest at 2.25%, so I know that extra debt repayment is serving us better elsewhere.

Our next big extra debt repayment won't be until June, since the May money had to go toward replenishing the lawyer fund after I used it to pay off another student loan.

Oh, and we made some progress on charitable giving! AS's job (a publishing house) had their semiannual benefit last night, and there was a silent auction where all proceeds went to the press. AS saved up her charity budget for a couple months and NT threw in some of his for us to use. We bid on a weekend at a resort but were outbid. Then we bid on a tiny iPod--size of a postage stamp, really--and tickets to a show plus CDs of the group. We won both! We were careful with our bids and stayed just under budget. So that's $590 total this year that we've given to good causes.

At the event, we met up with the friend who recommended me for the recent interview. It really reminded me how fun it was working with her! Now that we don't work in the same place, live kinda far apart and both have kids, we don't see one another as often as we'd like. It would be a really tough decision if I were offered the job. Basically, how much is it worth to me, to get a job doing something I'd love working with someone I love? Minimum $9000? Yikes. The money makes me happy when I'm not at work, but I spend so much time not being happy at work. It would be the other way around if I took this job.

Well, I'm getting WAY ahead of myself. AS forwarded me a very interesting job; only drawback is that it's 12 miles away and not accessible by bus or lightrail. So I'd need to get a car for that one. Still, the subject matter I'd be editing sounds interesting (to me--thuddingly dull to others, probably), so I'll apply next week and see what's what. They require you to give salary requirements, so I'll probably set my requirements a little higher than what I make now. That way a car wouldn't be a big bummer to our budget if I did get the job!

Heading out soon for happy hour (or what I've been mentally calling "unhappy hour") with a couple of employees. Discontent is spreading throughout the ranks, it seems, and some people want to have a bitch session about it. Suits me! If enough of us were disgruntled enough, we might even be able to force some change. Isn't that what they call "collective bargaining"?

Well, the Walgreens I went to was sold out of one item, and didn't appear to carry another. But they did have the Stayfree maxipads. They cost $2.99 (no sales tax), and I had a $1 off coupon that I'd printed off their website, so I paid $1.99. I also got a "register rewards" coupon for $3 off my next purchase at Walgreens. So all in all, I made $1.01 off the deal!

I dropped the maxipads off in a charity box at my job, since one of my co-workers is collecting personal-care items to donate to a homeless cause.

This weekend I'll go to the bigger Walgreens near my home, and I'll see if they have the other two items in stock. (I can use my $3 coupon to help pay for the purchase.) Also, although I can't print another coupon, I should be able to get another box of maxipads free by getting another $3 register rewards with $2.99 purchase!

One of AS's student loans hit, with $122 going toward principal. That makes our April debt repayment $1121 so far, exceeding the $1000 goal! AS has one more student loan that may hit tomorrow or Friday.

Today on my lunch break I'm going to Walgreens to try some super-couponing strategies that I got via Jeffrey's "Penny Experiment" Facebook feed. I'm going to buy 3 packages of Splenda, 1 pack of Stayfree maxipads and 1 package of Nexcare bandages. If all goes well, I should spend $6.43 and receive $6.99 in "register rewards" to use next time, as well as a mail-in rebate for $2.99. So in the long run I should come out $3.55 ahead! (We'll see how it goes.)

My plan right now is to take $20 per month from my charitable-donations money, keep it separate from all other money, and see how far I can stretch it to buy things for food shelves and homeless outreach programs. So the register rewards and rebate check will go back in the envelope to be used on more great deals.

AS and I are diving into the rabbit-hole a bit on couponing right now, both to get our grocery bill under control and to maximize our charitable giving. I think because it's so soon after watching a couple episodes of "Extreme Couponing," NT is a tad worried that he's going to look under the bed someday and see a huge stockpile of toothpaste and candy bars. If you're reading this, honey, I promise that will never happen!

At the weigh-in last night, I'd actually lost a full pound! Now I'm at 152, or 13 lbs. from my goal. I walked a lot last week and my portion sizes were pretty good, but I did eat chips a lot. However, I didn't eat chips ON TOP OF a bunch of other stuff, so calorie-wise I don't think I went nuts.

This weekend we went over and entered a bunch of commitments on our calendar, and I realized that the next 5 weeks are going to be full (and fun)! No weekend is completely devoid of social events. Plus there are several items during the workweek, both fun (charity event for AS's job) and not (dental appts. for me and NT). So I decided to be indulgently lazy yesterday, and watched TV & played videogames to my heart's content.

Close to bedtime, when I was thinking about the day's events, I had to laugh a little bit at what a lazy day looks like now versus what it looked like oh, say, 5 or 6 years ago, pre-kids, pre-husband, pre-budget.

Lazy day in the past: Roll out of bed maybe before noon, maybe not. Throw on some comfy clothes and stroll out with AS to have brunch (preferably somewhere that served Bloody Marys). Linger and get slightly tipsy. Come home, ignore all housework, watch movies or TV, read books, smoke a few cigarettes, maybe take a nap. Look through the fridge, decide to get pizza delivered, read and watch TV some more, have a few more smokes. Go to bed.

Lazy day yesterday: "Sleep in" until 8:30 am. Get AA's bottle while she's being changed, race around getting Easter basket and eggs ready, coax AA into pretty dress. Help her with Easter egg hunt and breakfast, taking pictures all the while. Change her into dress she can move around better in. Watch TV and play on the laptop while keeping an eye on AA. Make and eat lunch while AA is napping. Feed her lunch, peel orange and divide into small sections for her. Clean her hands and mouth over her vocal objections. Comfort her several times after nasty falls. Play videogames while keeping an eye on her. Change at least four diapers during course of day. Pick up Easter toys periodically only to have them scatter again. Slice & stew apples for AA's dinner. Pick peas up that have scattered everywhere during her meal. Wash huge pile of pots and pans that have accumulated over the day. Brush AA's teeth and put her to bed. Declutter the house in preparation for the cleaner. Watch TV and play videogames while drinking a couple glasses of wine.

And yes, I felt like I was being outrageously lazy! I did far less than AS and NT, who had work and homework respectively and both cooked and cleaned more than I did.

Our goal this week was to keep spending to $112. We spent $116.95. I think that's pretty darn good!

We spent a lot more on groceries and a lot less on nonfood items, but it balanced out. We pored over the store circular, printed out coupons that matched sale items we could use, and our main grocery store doubles most coupons on Saturday. We saved 40% on a bill that would have been $131 but instead was $79!

Here's how it broke out per meal. For many of the ingredients we took advantage of deals and bought more than we needed, so we'll be able to get more meals out of them. I'll try to note that, because otherwise some of our meals will seem rather expensive.

Pancakes & strawberries
Strawberries $1.99 (will have leftovers)
(already had pancake ingredients & maple syrup)

Mac & cheese w/ salad
5 lbs. macaroni $3.99 (will have leftovers)
3 pkgs shredded cheese $6.00 (will have leftovers)
Romaine lettuce $1.69
(already had sauce ingredients for vegan version; salad dressing)
Total: $11.68

Broccoli & mock duck stirfry with spring rolls
Broccoli $0.99
Mushrooms $1.89
Frozen edamame $2.49
Ginger root $0.56
Onions $2.29 (will have leftovers)
Rice $5.15 (will have leftovers)
(already have mock duck, spring rolls, spices)
Total: $13.37

Tofu "chik'n" & waffles & hoppin' John
2 pkgs tofu $2.98 (will have leftovers)
Black-eye peas $2.50
Diced tomatoes $0.59
(already have breading, waffle ingredients, rice)
Total: $6.07

Pasta w/ tomato spinach sauce
(already have all ingredients)

Lentil loaf, broccoli, chik'ny gravy and biscuits
Broccoli $0.99
(already have lentils, spices, flour, etc.)

Sweet & sour mock pork, szechuan green beans
Water chestnuts $1.09
1 green bell pepper $0.99
Pineapple $2.99
Green beans (fresh) $0.57
(already have mock pork, spices, will use rice from above)
Total: $5.64

Homemade veggie burgers & fries
Bread (C) $0.99
Black beans $2.53
(already have rest of burger ingredients, fries)
Total: $3.52

Other food/drink we'll use this week:
3 grapefruit $3.10
4 apples $2.94
4 pears $2.70
3 lbs. oranges $3.69
Can of tuna $1.99
6 eggs $1.92
Milk $2.29
4 Lean Cuisine meals (C) $5.96

Other food/drink staples we may not use immediately:
Garlic $0.45
4 boxes granola cereal (C) $8.00
Cornmeal $1.99
Yeast $0.59
2 pkgs fresh mozzarella $6.99
Fake sausage (C) $1.99
Vegan butter $3.29
Canola oil $3.49
Chili powder $3.84
Peppercorns $3.40
Tea $4.75
2 canisters Crystal Light (C) $2.50
5 frozen juices $5.00

Total of all food spending: $114.13

Nonfood/cat items:
Cat litter (reg. $8.59) FREE after rebate
Ziploc bags $2.09
Tax $0.16
Tax minus bags credit $0.57

Total nonfood spending: $2.82

Just a quick note before I head home. It's been a busy week and I can't WAIT to get some wine (didn't have enough spending money to get wine this week; I've been compensating with occasional mixed drinks via our liquor stash, but for some reason it doesn't feel quite as relaxing as a nice glass of wine). We get our spending money on payday, and NT already called to confirm I want him to stop by the liquor store on the way home.

$25 went to EF savings, and we also gained 86 cents in interest, so that makes $1876.71 saved so far this year, and $10,388.66 in the EF fund total.

I'm kind of excited for another week of tracking our grocery spending; it might get harder to keep costs down as we work through our small stockpile, but I think we can do it. NT saved the Rainbow Foods circular and AS will look for coupons online, so we'll see what we can do. We had one more purchase of child-safety cabinet locks come through, so our grocery money is $340.44 plus $3.32 on a Target giftcard. That means we want to try to stay under $112 this week, so this money can stretch over three weekends of spending.

Also looking forward to AA's first Easter as a mobile, alert person with good eyesight! (She was around last year but less than 2 months old, and we were so exhausted I don't even remember Easter.) I bought a basket for $2, a sippy cup with rabbit ears for $2, and the rest of her Easter treats are going to be homemade or from my mom's care package.

Happy Friday! I'll try to check in tomorrow with my grocery bill totals.

Just got back from the not-interview informal coffee thing, and though I felt fairly calm throughout, now the nerves (and possibly the caffeine) are kicking in. I think I did pretty well and managed to articulate a lot of the points that would make me a good match for the job, but of course there are things I would've said differently, things I left out, etc.

The worst blunder was that I printed out a resume right before the meeting, to have just in case. I've recently been paring it down ruthlessly and just got it on one page. I took off the big header with my name and contact info with the intention of replacing that with something smaller and simpler--but I hadn't actually added it back to the version I printed out. So I tried to make light of it while I wrote my contact info on it, saying I was just starting to job-search and was still in the process of working on my resume. We bonded a bit about how hard it was to get back into that mindset once you'd been at a job for a while.

I actually think it might be OK, because this was an informal meetup and I wasn't required to bring one. Plus, it really was out of the blue (though I had a week to prepare), since my friend who works there told me about it informally. I think it was better to have something even if it was missing a header. But of course that's one of those things I keep going back to and mentally smacking myself for.

I dunno. I've conducted a lot of interviews myself and been involved in hiring decisions, and I'm one of those people who will forgive a lot of slip-ups that experts tell you are the kiss of death, if I get a sense the candidate will be good. Including people forgetting to write thank-you notes after, being a little late to an interview, and once (OMG!) I hired someone even after they called an employee after the interview to ask if we drug-test. (And you know what? He turned out great and he's still at that company I used to work for.) So hopefully if he got a good sense overall, the resume-header thing won't be a big deal.

Fellow SA job-seekers, I forgot how weird it feels. It's like blind-dating or something!

I forgot to note that we contributed $300 to our Roths this week. With some of our goals on autopilot it's easy to forget to mention them! So that's $1200 toward our goal of $3600.

We had to buy diapers today, so that's $14.50 gone from the grocery/household budget. We've now got $334.63 left in the May 1-15 line item, or $111.50 per weekend for the next three shopping trips, if we want to get caught up. I still have high hopes we can catch up or come darn close.

We've already run out of bread and have grilled cheese sandwiches planned for Wednesday. AS said she'll try to bake a loaf from scratch, using ingredients we have on hand. I also realized we need another meal this week since an event I'd written on the menu isn't until next week. We already have ingredients to make bean burritos (in fact the rice and beans are already cooked from Sunday's Mexican casserole), so that's the plan.

It's cold and windy today. I may wuss out on walking home. I hate to lose my momentum. But, I skipped walking Friday, and still managed to get motivated Saturday and Monday, so I think it'll be OK.

I felt like there were a few other things to mention, but my brain is mush. Hard day at work, and already getting a bit nervous about my coffee chat with the prospective employer tomorrow.

Just calculated our net worth, and AS's is down to negative $3,927! Over $1,200 better than last month. It just needs to improve by $491 per month to get to positive by the end of the year. Seeing as how she contributes $325 per month to retirement and pays down $385 of debt per month minimum, I feel pretty good about our odds of meeting this goal!

Oh, and I weighed myself last night and showed an insignificant loss of .2 lbs. Basically I went from 152.8 to 152.6, so I'm still 153 if I round off. Ah well, at least I didn't gain! I walked at least 30 minutes 5 days last week, but didn't really pay attention to my eating. I still feel good about the week overall. NT lost over 4 lbs., so he must be getting close to his goal! I saw the loss, but didn't look at the weight number. I'll have to remember to ask him.

As for the other goals, I haven't made much progress. I do have an informal job-related chat scheduled for Wednesday (got recommended by a friend/ex-coworker). I'm excited to have my first interview-ish thing since I started looking for a job, and it sounds like a way more interesting job than the one I have, but the pay would be less--at least $9000 per year less (gross, not net, but significant anyway). I still want to hear more about it and practice my interviewing skills, though. (Plus, I would LOVE to work with this old friend; I don't really have any friends at my current job and that can tend to make one feel like a high-school outcast. Do I love it enough to sacrifice $750 per month? Hmmm...)

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 12,663 pounds ($25,326)
#2: 16,005 pounds ($32,010)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $12,751
NT's Roth IRA: $3,433
AS's 401(k): $5,600
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $4,042
CJ's 401(k): $41,481
CJ's Roth IRA: $3,433
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $10,363
---
Total Assets: $567,539

Total Debt: $342,634

Current Estimated Net Worth: $224,905

February 2011 estimate: $219,720

Change in net worth: +$5,185

Summary: Everything went up this month, so even though we didn't pay off much debt, we had a nice upturn in net worth!

I will update my "Individual Net Worth" page shortly so you can see how it breaks out per person.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are 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.

NT needed to buy some more minutes to keep his phone active. Since late March was the end of a 12-month period of prepaid costs, this is the first expense of the "fiscal year." (I divide it up into 12-month chunks to give me a way to come up with average monthly costs.)

NT's mid-April Net10 purchase (300 minutes): $32.87

We're in our first month, so that means our average monthly cost so far is ... $32.87! that was easy.


RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009. 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.

We needed to get Clorox wipes, a new water-filter sink mount, a printer cartridge and cat food, so total spending was a bit more than I hoped for. But I think on food we did a good job; we based meals on things we already had, and a lot of things were on sale. And we used coupons for many of our nonfood items and a couple food items.

We spent about $130 and used up most of our April grocery money (because we were already behind). Now we have $360 to stretch over the next three weekends of grocery shopping, and then we'd be caught up. I think we can do it if we keep paying attention and only buying what we need.

I counted up what we spent for each meal on the menu, so I'll list that first:

Fresh pasta & pesto w/ mushrooms
8oz. mushrooms $1.89
(already had pasta fixin's and pesto)

Mexican casserole
Green bell pepper $1.29
(already had rice, beans, olive oil, onion, corn, canned tomatoes, salsa, garlic, cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, soymilk, oil)

Pasta & spinach-tomato sauce
Frozen spinach $1.07
(already had pasta, tomato sauce, herbs & spices)

Thai red curry
Carrots $0.99
(already had tofu, peas, peanuts, rice, curry paste, coconut milk)

Grilled cheese sandwiches & oven-roasted cauliflower
Whole wheat bread $1.97
Cheddar $3.98
Cauliflower $2.49
(already had vegan cheddar for me)
Total: $8.44 (but we'll be able to use the cheese and bread for other stuff, too)

Crispy golden tofu, blackened sprouts, potatoes
Brussels sprouts $3.59
Red potatoes $2.75
(already had tofu, breading ingredients, oil)
Total: $6.34

Other food spending for things we'll use this week (breakfasts, snacks, beverages):
3x grapefruit $4.68
10x bananas $2.21
4x plum tomatoes $3.01
8x apples $3.64
1.5 lbs. red grapes $2.05
Garlic $0.39
2x soymilk $5.00
64 oz. milk $2.29
4 eggs $1.28

Pantry staples we needed but won't necessarily use this week:
.66 lbs. flour $1.18
1.42 lbs. arborio rice $3.82
2 lbs. sugar $3.58
Grated parmesan $2.23
Celery seed $0.31
Egg replacer $5.99
2x Newman's own spaghetti sauce (C) $3.00

Total food spending: $64.68

Nonfood/cat food spending:
Printer cartridge + tax $15.62
Bottle brush $2.19
2-pk Clorox wipes (C) $6.99
2-pk deoderant (C) $3.19
Toms toothpaste (C) $3.19
Brita water filter mount (C) $24.49
Cat food (C) $3.79
Gum + tax $1.18
Tax on nonfood + cat food - bags discount $3.38
Paper towels (C) $1.59

Total nonfood/cat food spending: $65.61

EDIT: Here is the Mexican casserole recipe!
Vegan Mexican Casserole
Makes 8 servings (I would say 6 but I have a big appetite LOL)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced in half moons
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cups cooked black beans
1 cup mild salsa
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup soymilk
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 450. Heat olive oil in a skillet with a lid over medium heat. Saute onion for 7 minutes, covered, stirring halfway through. Set aside. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine green pepper, corn, rice, tomatoes, beans, salsa and garlic. Stir together well. Coat a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray and spread bean mixture evenly over bottom of baking dish. To make the cornbread topping, stir together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Mix together oil and milk and gradually stir into dry mixture. Spread cornbread mixture evenly over bean mixture in baking dish and top with caramelized onions. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until knife inserted in center of cornbread comes out clean.

This morning for some reason I woke up with awareness that, if we gave up a lot of things, we could basically be debt free AND probably have a good chunk of AA's college education funded in less than 10 years. (Well, it's not like new information, but just a new way of thinking about it.)

But almost as quickly, I knew that just isn't how I want our lives to be right now. We have a really good income, and we work very hard for it. We're making progress on our debt, progress on our retirement and progress on AA's savings. As a general marker, I like the 50/30/20 goal (50% of total income toward needs, 30% toward wants, 20% toward savings). Our allocations of regular income are 55.84% to needs, 21.52% to wants, 22.64% toward either long-term savings or extra debt repay. That's pretty good.

It's true that anything could happen and we can't count on our lives or incomes staying the same, but as long as we're being fairly reasonable and not throwing all our money away, I usually feel comfortable the way we are. We've definitely expanded the luxuries side of our lifestyle as our income has grown and debt has shrunk; when I started here I think we put closer to 30%-35% to savings/extra debt repay. And I think that's OK. But it's good to be conscious and know that these are choices we're making. There's more than one way to live one's life, and we have the power to change if we decide we want to. (Not just with shrinking "wants" in order to tackle debt harder, but also if we someday want one of us to stop working and stay home for a while.)

Anyway, I'm going to take off soon. I had a hard couple days of work but they weren't irritating, with project managers of ill-timed projects jockeying for my time. So I feel much less drained than I usually do by Friday!

When we first contemplated having a baby, one thing we repeated often was that, since there were 3 of us, it would be easier for 2 at a time to go out on dates while the other played babysitter. That doesn't happen as often as it should; we're often tired or busy outside of work, and sometimes it may be a matter of feeling slightly guilty at leaving someone home with the baby.

But one of NT's favorite annual events is coming up in May, and one of AS's favorites is happening tonight, so that's spurred us to make date nights happen! AS and I are going to her event tonight, a fashion show/concert at a local nightclub. And NT and I are going to his fave, an all-day outdoor hip-hop music festival, at the end of May. Now AS and NT just have to figure out what they're going to do for their date!

So now I've got to go home and see if I have any clothes that I think are cutting-edge fashionable. I haven't been to this fashion event in years, and though I try to get nice clothes, I definitely don't take as many style chances now that I don't go out as much as I did in my 20s! And of course my postbaby body is heavier than it was during my nightlife days. But hopefully I'll be able to scrape something together.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

A regulary quarterly payment to one of NT's student loans, which are not in repayment yet but do accrue interest, hit today. Since I'd made some extra payments to it, some of this payment went to principal: $215, to be exact. That makes it $999 down, $1 to go on my April debt-repayment goal. LOL. I don't think that's ever happened before.

AS has one, maybe two, student loan payments that will hit before the end of the month, so I'll make this goal easily.

We had our estate-planning conference call today. We made a lot of progress: answered some questions, clarified some things and got some homework. Basically we need to make sure all our retirement accounts have the right beneficiaries, because those operate outside the probate system. We also need to find the deed to our U.S. condo, and the lawyer is going to help us get three-way joint ownership. Also, he's going to talk to some UK colleagues to find out the best way to handle NT's UK condo: set up joint ownership, or just have NT specifically mention in his will that he's leaving it 50% to me and to AS.

We also need tax ID and legal-entity names for two nonprofits that are getting a portion of our will if all three die and AA or another child isn't surviving: AS's employer (a nonprofit publishing house) and my alma mater (a small liberal-arts college). (Yes, you have to think of all outcomes in these matters!)

So after a long time, some real progress! This will give us some peace of mind that if something tragic or unexpected happens, we are all taken care of.

We already got AS's state tax refund (28 whole dollars!) so I put that aside for our various tax bills. I will mail out all our payments either Friday or Monday, to give as much time as possible to receive the CJ/NT federal refund and AS freelance check that will help pay for them. (If those don't arrive, I have tons of float money because I won't need the lawyer fund for a long time.)

Thanks to MonkeyMama's helpful advice on the forums, I decided I will save up gradually to pay our back taxes for 2008 and 2009, and will let the IRS and MN's revenue service figure out interest and penalties. I'm going to wait until after this tax season so as not to confuse matters. I'll pay the 2009 ones first because the bill is bigger, thus fees will be bigger.

***

I don't want to jinx it, but I think we're going to take a step in our estate planning tomorrow. We have a conference call at 10 a.m. to discuss the packet we sent in months ago. Our lawyer has rescheduled on us about three times. I believe it's because they're mainly on surrogacy cases, so they must rush to court as soon as a baby is born.

We've been talking more and more about AS trying to get pregnant. So hopefully I'll have news in a few months!

***

I've been thinking about AA's first real Easter (last year she was just a dour little lump on the day; I barely remember last April/May). My family always celebrated in a secular fashion; our big traditions were A) the Easter Bunny would leave a basket for each kid that had little candy and toys and a big chocolate bunny and largish stuffed animal and B) an Easter egg hunt (outdoors if it was nice; indoors if raining). I loved both those traditions. One thing we didn't do that I always envied other kids for was dressing up in fancy clothes and a hat.

AA is too young for the egg hunt, so I'm going to skip that. For her basket, we might give her a bit of candy, but she's too young to have much, so we bought AS a mini-muffin pan that she's going to use to make blueberry muffins. As for the toys and such, my mom usually sends a package with plastic eggs and other cheap little toys, so I'm going to see if we receive that in time. (If not, I'll buy a couple things the Saturday before Easter.) And if she doesn't send stuffed animals, AA has tons of stuffed animals in her room that have never even been brought out, so I'll just repurpose one of those and it'll be just as new to her as a new animal. The only thing we'll likely need to buy is a basket, and those are really cheap at Target (I could probably get one even cheaper at the thrift store).

AA has tons of cute dresses in the next size up, so I'll break out the 12-24-mos. bag soon and pick something out. And someone gave us a little white straw hat, so that will be her Easter bonnet!

I'm kind of excited. I think she's old enough that she'll notice a basket full of neat stuff sitting out when she gets up in the morning. She's been developing so fast lately--she just got a lot better at walking, and I think she's started saying words (they might be her own language, but she's definitely assigning sounds to things, so that counts!).

***

We had a constructive conversation about our grocery budget the other night. I guess I had not really conveyed my frustration that we kept going over into the next two weeks' -- or next month's -- line item. So we sat down and came up with some ideas to better control our spending.

Basically, we have $700 per month for all grocery/household spending, which includes baby expenses such as diapers and wipes, cat stuff like litter and food, and household items such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies. We also set aside $54 per month, which goes toward an annual $640 payment for a CSA share of vegetables and fruits which they deliver June through October. So our grocery/household budget is $754 per month, though we can only use $700.

First of all, there are certain expenses we discussed and decided we didn't want to cut back on just yet; we'll see if we can control our budget in other ways first. NT is very attached to getting eco-friendly toilet paper, paper towels, foil, cellophane and ziploc bags. As a vegan, I don't want us to skimp when it comes to humanely obtained animal products, especially now that AA is drinking cow's milk daily. However, we were all willing to limit use of fake-meat products, which we love, to about once a week, and only buying them when they're on special.

Second, we're going to look for coupons before shopping, and if there are any good ones, we'll structure meals around those ingredients. I don't expect this will help much because of our specialized diets, but it may do a little bit of good.

Third, we're going to keep our receipts for a week or two and make a spreadsheet to try and figure out where our funds get allocated. NT thinks about half our money goes to fresh fruit and vegetables; if this is the case, it should be pretty easy to catch up in the summer, when our CSA box starts coming every week. But I'd like to get the budget caught up before then.

Lastly, we're going to pay attention to how much money each meal costs that we put on the menu. Then we can start a list of cheap meals that we can throw into rotation whenever we need to scale back, and have a list of splurgy meals that we should only have when there's wiggle room in the grocery budget.

I think with all three of us working with a common understanding of what we're trying to accomplish, we'll be able to get back on track. It'll even be kind of fun, I think. (Except the no-fake-meats part.)

***

I think that's it! No progress on goals in the past couple days, but I do hope to report some progress very soon.

$25 went to savings and was allocated to the EF. That makes our progress $1850.85 for the year, with the total EF at $10,362.80.

Although I didn't work out Monday, as I said I was going to try to do in an earlier entry, I did walk all or part of the way home Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday AS and I weight-trained. On the other hand, I had snack binges on Tuesday and Saturday nights. So I wasn't sure what to predict for my weigh-in last night.

Well, pretty good news. I lost a bit of weight. I was a touch over 153 and now I'm just under 153. So no appreciable progress on the sidebar, but good to know the exercising was able to counteract those two nights of serious snacking.

Ow, my brain hurts. It's been a busy day at work, but I seem to be caught up for the day (fingers crossed). I tried to balance the budget just now but I saw a couple of charges I wasn't sure where to categorize and my brain just shut down. I'll do it tonight with some help from the family. Can't wait to go home, partake of a relaxing beverage and cook a nice meal.

Last night, AS got a call from the IRS regarding her response to their claim that she owed $1800 on her 2009 taxes. She gave them some additional info that wasn't in her letter, and the lady said OK, I'll take care of it. Clerical error on their part, and I have to say that it was pretty painless to get it fixed.

Today, I sent my confirmation back to the tax guy, along with a $325 check to cover their invoice. So they'll e-file my taxes and I just have to send a check to the MN government for what I owe them. I'll do that on April 15, along with sending a check for what AS owes the IRS, and an estimated 4th-quarter payment for her 2011 taxes.

Since she hasn't gotten her latest freelance check, and we don't expect to get our tax refunds for a while, we may have to use the lawyer fund to cover part of the above, but it's just temporary; I'll have it fully funded again as soon as those payments come in.

I promised myself we'd get a spending-money bonus when we got all this settled, so whatever is left over of AS's freelance check will get divvied up. I'm expecting about $320, so I'll probably give each adult $100 and put $20 into savings for little AA.

AS is also getting a $150 speaker's fee soon for a job-related function, and she's going to use that to get her dreadlock maintenance (once or twice a year they need to be separated and tied at the base so they continue to grow in individual locks).

Now that this year's taxes are settled, I'm back to planning our train trip for the late summer/early fall. Should be fun, but there's going to be a bit of wrangling to get the seating arrangement and car rental conditions we want. (Train bedrooms have a max occupancy of 2 adults and 2 kids, so we may have to purchase a separate seat for one of us, then just hang out in the bedroom car together anyway. And I want to rent the car in St. Louis but drop it off in Minneapolis, which is easy to do airport-to-airport but not as automatic for nonairport locations, for some reason.)

Thanks to MonkeyMama's helpful advice on the SA forum, I'm not feeling so intimidated about amending my past years' taxes. I've decided to put aside money little by little, then submit a revised form whenever I have enough money to cover one of the bills. I'll just figure out what tax I owe and let them send me a bill for interest and penalties, which MM says will be about 10%-12% per year for federal. (Probably about the same for MN tax, but I will owe them less so the fee will be negligable.) It'll feel good to have everything settled and feel more confident going forward that I'm preparing our taxes correctly.

OK, nothing else came in to work on, so I'm ditching this place a few minutes early! I got a notice that a package came, and I'm hoping it's some cute spring clothes that I ordered online. Usually I find it hard to think of something to spend my allowance on, but lately I've been blowing through it!