Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Today we dropped AA off at her new daycare for the first time; she's 11 months so of course she was bawling at being left with strangers. I got a really good feeling from the place, the people running it and the kids, so even though AA freaked out, I felt good about leaving her there. But at the same time I feel tense, insecure and distracted; and as a result, I'm inwardly overreacting to other little things that are coming up at work. So now my shoulders ache, I feel kind of like crying, and I can't really focus on anything very well.

So, perfect time to ask my question of the month, since it has to do with parenting!

We've been blessed with a really easy baby, but she's starting to show signs of willfulness; little things such as frustrated mini-tantrums if something is taken away from her that she wants or if someone is changing her or dressing her (she hates that now). We've started discussing methods of discipline to make sure we're on the same page when it becomes necessary, but we don't really know what to expect until it happens.

I don't really have any yet, but I'd love it if you could share parenting and/or childcare success stories you've either experienced or witnessed. Tell about a time you (or someone you know, or your own parents) dealt well with a challenge. It could be weaning off of a bottle or pacifier; potty training; curbing naughty behavior; calming fear or anxiety in a child; motivating an unwilling student; dealing with bullying -- anything where you felt like a clever or commonsense approach brought a positive resolution to a challenging situation.

Some surprising twists in the miserable saga of my job, and my attempts to get respect/money/power there.

I wasn't going to tell anyone about my concerns over the new creative director, nor about the ridiculing of my appearance that very bad day a week or two ago. But my direct supervisor, a nice though seemingly ineffectual in the getting-me-stuff department kind of guy, set a meeting last Friday to get up to date on things, and I let it all hang out. I nearly cried a couple times but kept it to a voice quaver. I didn't tell him I was looking for a job, but when he said (again) that he just didn't think there was any money for raises, I mentioned that my ex-supervisor had told me that when she gave her notice (last year when the financials were MUCH worse at my job) the first thing they said was "Would more money change your mind?" I told my current supe that I didn't want to play hardball, but that it frustrated me because I felt that if I threatened to quit they would come up with more money to keep me, whereas if I played nice there were no raises to be had.

I also told him my concerns about our department being headed up by a man who seemingly either disliked me specifically or thought proofreading was a load of bollocks. I also told him about the insults I'd endured recently.

My supe was nice but basically told me A) He didn't think he could get me a raise or promotion, B) He didn't think the creative director meant anything by it and that he thought he did respect me and my work, and C) Wait three months, because a big shake-up on one of our major projects would probably result either in less stressful work for me OR even more responsibility with a strong case to be made for a promotion at that time.

I kind of said uh-huh, OK, and I must not have been very convincing, because my supe set up a lunch meeting for today. Free lunch is always nice though it wasn't going to change my mind or anything. Inwardly I thought, OK, if I'm still stuck here in three months at least there's a chance something will change, but I'm going to keep looking for another job.

I was home sick on Monday. Then yesterday, the mean creative director sticks his head around the side of my cubicle and says it's music to his ears hearing me type on my computer. I look at him like "what's the gag?" and he goes on to say he's glad to have me back in the office and he's glad I'm feeling better. He's even smiling! So that was weird, but I thought hey, at least my supe must have let him in a bit on how he was coming across to me. That's the first real sign of anything but irritation or utter indifference I've ever gotten from him, and even if it was put on, it was nice to hear. (Actually it was a bit humorous too, since it was so out of left field.)

So today was the lunch meeting with my supe. As soon as we sat down he hit me with some amazing news:

He and the creative director basically wrangled me a $1000 bonus that's going to show up in my next paycheck!

He said he spoke with creative director guy and basically told him I'd been doing a ton of extra work and was feeling really underappreciated and undervalued, so they got me a bonus since they couldn't get me a raise!

I did some quick math, and this bonus plus the $250 I got last month for being part of a team that did some award-winning work means that I basically got a 2.5% raise this year!

I know it's a one-time deal and not a real raise, but I'm counting it as progress on my annual goal. It took a lot of resolve to talk to my supe, because I'm shy, and awkward, and tend to stay away from confrontation these days. And getting some respect from my creative director wasn't on my list of goals, but it sure is good! Whether it's phony or real, either way, he is having to put some effort into his relations with me (as he should), so I feel a lot better. And I don't have to worry that he'll come out with any more personal remarks, because I bet you anything my supe found a way to bring that up!

Whatever I clear from the bonus (I'm estimating $600) is going straight to the lawyer fund. We're on track to have that completely built up to where we want it by July, if not sooner!

I wanted to let you all know about this right away, because you were so supportive on my earlier posts and helped me feel like I wasn't just overreacting. And now there has been some vindication!

All four mortgage payments hit today:
US $409 paid
UK1 $258 paid
UK2 $56 paid
UK3 $57 paid

All told, $780 down, $220 to go on the debt repayment goal. Hopefully we'll pay about $180 more via regular student loan payments over the course of the month, which means I have to come up with about $40 more out of the budget to meet the goal. I won't worry about that until a bit later in the month when I can see how various line items are doing.

The other bit of progress is that NT bought lunch and coffee for a homeless man outside the grocery store last weekend. So that's $10 more to the charitable goal.

EDIT: I forgot we also added $25 to the EF, so that's progress on a 2011 goal as well. We've saved $1344.49 of the $7000 I want to save.

It looks to be a busy day today at work. But as part of my "do the minimum" resolution, I'm not going to let that stress me out! I'll just do what I can at an unhurried pace and they'll have to deal with it if I don't get everything done. I have to say, it's been hard taking my effort down a notch, but it's getting easier! LOL. Anytime I feel like working harder, I just think about the new creative director laughing at me and ridiculing my clothing, and I'm cured of THAT impulse.

AS lost her prepaid phone. Luckily they suspended her phone number and her nearly 500 minutes until she ordered a new one, so all we had to pay for was the cost of a new phone. Not as bad as I thought it could be! (I used the budget to pay for the amount of the cheapest phone; AS opted for the next-higher-priced one and paid the difference out of her spending money, so I'm not counting that portion against our budget.)

CJ 1000 minutes late-March T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT 300 minutes late-March Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 300 minutes late-May Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 500 minutes + new phone late June: $21.56
AS 1000 minutes late-August fillup: $107.78
CJ 1000 minutes late-September fillup: $107.78
AS new phone + $25 phone card (200 min?): $32.32
NT 300 minutes early-October fillup: $32.87
NT 200 minutes late-December fillup: $32.87
AS late-January phone replacement: $29.88

Total cost for the year: $538.48

This happened 10 months into our cellphone "fiscal year," so our average monthly cost for this year is $53.85. Our best average yet!

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 goal for this year is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.

First off THANK you to those of you who braved my shared blog post topic. I didn't expect when I came up with the idea to do this that my first topic would be so BIG, but it's what was going on with me, and I appreciated the candor and bravery of everyone who shared. I've been avidly reading them all and feel really impressed with everyone's honesty as well as inspired by, moved by and totally in sync with various things that people shared. And I loved that there was as much celebration of what you wouldn't change as there was honesty about what you would. This is definitely something I'll try to do each month this year.

AS's last student loan payment squeaked in before the end of the month: $58 went to principal. That brings us up to $5901 of debt paid!!! I predict you will not soon see this level in my blog for the rest of the year.

Also, today I read a book! One of my goals that I thought I was going to fall short on this month. I chose one that looked do-able in a couple days, and it only took me a few hours. It was The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. I used to be a HUGE King fan, but in recent years I stopped reading because he just got so self-indulgent and his over-the-top writing style was making it hard to get into his newer books. This one was a bit more restrained, probably because it was written for a pulp-mystery series so he had to be brief. What's funny is that it wasn't pulpy at all; it was kind of folksy despite it being about a mysterious dead man. And it didn't have any supernatural elements, which honestly was kind of refreshing. I really enjoyed it and was glad to see he still has some thought-provoking, more disciplined writing in him.

I made good progress on my year's goals this month, so let me sum up (some will be repetitive from other entries):
-Paid off one of AS's student loans
-Saved $300 to Roth IRAs
-Increased EF by $1319.49
-Gave $35 to charities
-Got AS to within $6410 of having positive net worth
-Paid off $5901 of debt
-Lost about 2.5 lbs., getting to 153 lbs.
-Did some planning for trips we'll be taking
-Applied for 3 jobs
-Sent our estate-planning goals to our lawyer
-Read a book
-Organized a baby playdate
-Wrote a "share your thoughts" blog post

The only thing I didn't make progress on was making extra money with side hustles. (Which is an annual goal; I don't necessarily need to do it every month.) So I feel really good! Since I've completely failed to exercise this month, it feels like I'm falling down on everything, but I'm really not doing that badly. Especially since the extra monkeywrenches of finding a new parking-spot renter and a new daycare provider took time and attention away from my goals.

Now for February's debt goal:
Since I paid off that student loan, our MINIMUM principal payments come to less than $1000 ($957 to be exact). That would bug me, to pay off less than $1000, so I'm going to make sure I find money in the budget (by extra income or by skimping on another line item) to pay off at least $1000.

One thing I resolved to do this year was to write one blog post per month that invited anyone else in the community to write a post on the same topic.

Looking for a new job causes a lot of soul-searching in addition to Google searching. On the one hand, I've just delved into applying to jobs that fit very closely to my existing job duties and experience. But on the other, I'm trying to step back mentally and take stock of my past job history, the possibilities (whether likely or remote) that I see in my future, and just my life in general.

If I'm really honest with myself about what I like and don't like about all of the above, what I think I'm capable of (or think I could be capable of with some education or training), hopefully it will help me make the best decisions in the coming months.

So this is the question that's been coming to mind recently, especially today: What would I change--about myself, my job, my home, my life? I'm really interested to hear what others think when you take stock, so if you could write your own post, or just reply to mine, I'd be grateful.

Anyway, here's what I've come up with so far. Some things on the list aren't things I necessarily think are possible or know how to work toward; this is just a rough draft of thinking about a more ideal future.

What I would change about my job:

-I would work with people who respected me and were friendlier.
-I would work in an environment where the review and reward system, the management hierarchy, and the HR department were much more effective, where it was easier to make your voice heard when you had concerns or requests.
-I would either have it be easier, more straightforward and less stressful, OR I would want more money and a title that reflects the responsibilities I have.
-I would have my own office rather than a cubicle.

(What I wouldn't want to change is also important to consider: I wouldn't want to make much less money, and I wouldn't want to work much further from home. I'd still like to work with words in some capacity. I like having a private workspace so that when I do have downtime, I can entertain myself and/or do finances without worrying about people looking over my shoulder. And I wouldn't want to punch a clock; now that I have a kid but also in general, it's much more relaxing to not have to worry about coming in within a 5-minute window.)

As for what I actually would want to do, long-term I think I'd like to proofread or copy edit more creative, interesting things than what I do now. I wouldn't mind more writing assignments; I haven't gotten to write for over a year here, and I liked that. And I wouldn't mind branching into something entirely new, that isn't writing or editing, but I'm not sure if there are any areas I could move into where I wouldn't have to start at entry level all over again -- and at this point, I'm not feeling willing to take too much of a pay cut just to move into something different.

What I would change about myself/home/life:

-If I could wave a magic wand and become more confident, more able to navigate unfamiliar situations and rooms full of strangers without appearing nervous or tongue-tied, that is without a doubt the No. 1 thing I would change.
-I would be more energetic. Sometimes I just feel like such a slug, especially compared with my more industrious partners. I'd love to get more done in a week, be more creative, be tidier, work out more, go to more social and community events.
-Sure, there are some physical things I'd change. I wish I were more skilled at grooming so my hair looked sleeker and more professional. I know I should probably wear a bit of makeup to work. My wardrobe could still use some fine-tuning. These are things I can work on, so I probably will as I continue my job search.

But I still think the top thing (if only I could change it) would be to make myself more confident and outgoing.

The good news is, thinking about my home and home life, I can't really think of much that I would change (other than the above about being more creative, social and community-involved). Some parts are in process, but I like where things are now and where they seem to be going. I'm very comfortable with the lifestyle I have, my surroundings, etc., and I couldn't ask for a better family. If anything, my nice home life makes the bad work experience look even worse by comparison!

What about you?

One of AS's student loan payments went through with $121 going to principal. So that's $5843 to debt this month! This will be our biggest month maybe ever in terms of debt repayment.

AS donated $20 to the public transit nonprofit for our state, so that brings donations up to $35.

I'm kind of depressed about my job. There have been some bright spots: For instance, they took some of us out to a really nice restaurant for lunch for winning some awards on a project we'd worked on, and told us we'd get a $350 bonus in our next paycheck.

But on the other hand, people keep getting hired and promoted while I languish waiting for some kind of recognition for doubling my workload and responsibilities. And today a guy who really doesn't respect my role (proofreader) in the creative process got promoted to creative director. And then at the end of the day, he made fun of my winter gear. I mean outright laughed at and mocked my appearance. I came home and cried like I was in middle school again.

There aren't a ton of jobs out there in my field, and probably not many that pay very well. But I'll keep looking.

We finally weighed ourselves after missing 2 weekly weigh-ins, and there was good news despite no exercise. At first it seemed we'd lost tons of weight, but then NT noted it might be the new rug throwing things off. He and I weighed ourselves again on hardwood and were a couple pounds more than on the rug. However, even at the higher weight I'm at 153, and my Jan. 2 weight was 155.5. So I still lost 2.5 lbs. and am happy. 14 lbs. away from my 2011 goal of 139.

I calculated our net worth this weekend, and thanks to debt repayment and investing, it went up considerably. One of my goals is to get AS's net worth to positive. Well, it's gone up by $8257, so she's at negative $6410. So close! I calculate the minimum debt repayment and investing I have planned for her should bring her to positive net worth by October or November, as long as the stock and housing markets don't collapse again.

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): $10,812
NT's Roth IRA: $3,167
AS's 401(k): $5,095
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $3,316
CJ's 401(k): $39,090
CJ's Roth IRA: $3,167
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $10,085
---
Total Assets: $561,168

Total Debt: $345,898

Current Estimated Net Worth: $215,270

November 2010 estimate: $205,961

Change in net worth: +$9,309

Summary: I wasn't able to access NT's 401(k) account online AGAIN. Second month in a row, so I wrote to tech support for that website. Anyway, we still did really well thanks to gains in retirement investments plus paying off one of AS's student loans.

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.

Boy, life continues apace in the ceejay household!

It's been kind of a blur, but let me see if I can remember everything important...

First off, I made good on my plan of paying off one of AS's student loans! I transferred $1869 of extra student loan money from NT's loan -- so that portion didn't reduce our debt any -- and I took $4134 of lawyer money and paid the rest off.

So woo hoo! First student loan to hit the Old Debt Graveyard page. The lawyer fund has been decimated, but I have a plan for replenishing it, and AS already has two more freelance jobs that are going to bring in extra money. With the $4134 paid on the student loan, that makes $5722 in principal paid this month!

The daycare situation is looking up. We had an interview with another lovely old lady who runs an in-home daycare just 10 minutes by bus from home (about 30 minutes from my work). She only charges $40 more per week, and the only other difference is she doesn't provide formula (but AA is already 10.5 months old, so that won't affect us for long). We'll probably visit her one more time (we didn't have a chance to explain the three-parent thing, which would be weird not to mention before we start there), but she's available to take AA as soon as the other daycare ends, and her references checked out, so I think we're about good to go! Trimming $175 from the budget to afford her was easy: We took $50 from the medical fund line, $50 from the misc. line item, $50 from the travel budget and $25 from extra debt repayment. Really hoping this works out!! It will add about 20 minutes to the morning and to the evening process, but that's nothing compared to adding $1000 per month in cost, which was the only other option we'd found!

Just in case, we mocked up a few other budgets based on other scenarios of having to go with a more expensive daycare or having NT quit work and stay home with AA while still going to college. So we know other options are doable, they would just involve more-painful budget cuts and lifestyle choices.

With all this worrying and planning, it's been hard not to let my 2011 goals fall by the wayside. Well, healthy eating and exercising (and thus weight loss) have been a no-go so far this year. I've even forgotten to weigh in every Sunday! But the other goals are making a bit of progress. In brief:
--Pay off AS's DL student loan: DONE, as mentioned above!
--Save to Roths: we've saved $300 so far; $200 to AS's and $50 each to mine and NT's
--Give to charities: I've only donated $15 so far, but we have more money set aside so as soon as we feel more settled in our budget, we will make some more donations
--Get AS to positive net worth: What with the above payoff and Roth contribution, we made some big progress that will be reflected in my next net worth checkup (probably this weekend)
--Pay off debt: Lots of progress, as told above
--Go on trips: Hotel & airfare taken care of for our March vacation as well as some rough planning of what we'll do when we get to SF
--Get a raise or find a job: I sent out another resume this week; only my second, but at least I'm doing something. No word on a raise, so new job still seems the best option
--Estate planning: We sat down and hashed out some things, and I sent an email with our wishes to our attorney, so we just have to wait to hear from him on what we need to do next
--Read a book or creative project: Sorry, nope. I did finish a book I started back in October, but I'm not counting that. Still hoping to hit this for January!
--Make money with side hustles: I did decide to look into using the credit card for mortgage and association dues, to earn rewards money, but I haven't actually set it up yet
--Organize get-together: We had a playdate with several other parents and kids, so I'll call that one a success for this month!
--Write a shared blog topic: Haven't gotten on this, but it won't take me long once I do it. I have been thinking of what would be fun topics to hear everyone's take on, so it should be soon. It might be completely non-financial, depending what kind of mood I'm in when I do it!

Phew. Now that I write everything down, I'm not doing as badly as I felt. Considering it's been kind of insane at work and with the daycare drama, I'm actually pleased with the process so far!

Whew. I'm so busy at work but I just had to take a break and write about the craziness that's been going on here.

Financial progress for all my goals was chugging along for the first part of the year. There was the small hiccup of our parking-spot renter passing away, but last night we got a new renter for $10 more per month, up to $85.

NT's UK flat suddenly needed several repairs, which is going to eat into our EF savings, but we're already ahead in that area so I wasn't too worried.

Then last night--Kablooey! Our wonderful daycare lady, who is in her 60s, said she got an out-of-the-blue offer on her house, which (unbeknownst to us) had been on the market for several months. She's taking the offer, moving, and retiring from daycare in mid-February!

We're trying not to panic or make too big a deal over it, but here are the facts that make this an extremely significant financial event in our lives:
- Finding a new daycare provider in less than a month will be nothing short of a miracle.
- At $110 per week ($477 a month), our daycare is BY FAR the cheapest I've heard of or seen advertised anywhere near us. The centers in downtown Minneapolis, by contrast, start at $1200 per month and run all the way up to $2500! NT's been doing some research, and most in-home providers charge about $1000 per month.
- We don't have a car, so this severely limits our options. We could consider getting a car if that would be a cheaper option, but besides the cost of the car, gas, insurance and maintenance, we'd also have to factor in losing $85 per month in parking-spot rental. So that plus whatever price we could find for a farther-out daycare provider equalling less than the cost of a downtown center is highly unlikely.
- We should look at the option of having one of us stay home; we shouldn't rule anything out. The person who brings in the least money by far is AS (I'm talking her full-time job; her freelance income brings her overall income up considerably). But we need her building her career for our eventual move to England. She'll need to get to the UK on some kind of employment visa, and her current job is adding to her resume in a very good field, plus she's making international contacts. Still, with the full-time job bringing in just over $1750 per month, and daycare possibly increasing to $1200 or more, it feels like a hard choice. Even though I'm sure it's best for us in the long run.
- I saw one ad for a $150-per-week provider -- but she mentioned having a PCA license, not a daycare provider license, so I'm not sure if it would be eligible for flex spending reimbursement. And she hasn't gotten back to me anyway.
- Oh yeah, any consideration does have to include thinking about the $5000 of money I'm setting aside in dependent-care flex spending. Would I be able to stop contributions if I stopped using daycare or didn't use someone specifically licensed for childcare? I have to check that out.
- All of this is moot if we can't find daycare in three weeks. At that point we go into damage control, I guess. Working from home? Trying to get friends to watch AA for reasonable amounts?

Whatever happens, we seem to be look at at least a $600 chunk (probably much more) being taken out of our current budget and reallocated into either childcare or due to lost wages or car purchase. So we'll need to go over the budget and come to some agreement on what we would choose to cut first. Luckily there are lots of "wants" as well as extra money going to saving and debt repayment in our budget, but it's not going to be easy deciding what to eliminate.

So the new year is already looking completely unpredictable. I am fairly optimistic that we'll be able to work out some solution that won't leave us broke and/or miserable, but I'm also stressed and a bit overwhelmed.

We had a great date last night, first one without AA in over a month! We got a babysitter in, then went to a fancy cocktail bar in downtown Minneapolis, then to a sushi restaurant.

The sitter (one of our friends) said AA was upset that we were gone and kept trying to crawl down the hall to look for us. But the sitter did manage to take her mind off things and play and watch videos, and she went to sleep quickly as usual. Maybe she's getting through this stranger-fear stage!

Today we were meant to have an acquaintance come over to give us an in-home yoga session; he's an instructor trying to raise extra money for an upcoming trip to China. But he had to cancel, so I'm going to try and work out on my own (first time in weeks; I've been REALLY bad since Xmas). It's just as well because I spent a ton of money last night and would have had to dip into next Friday's spending money to pay him. We can reschedule for a week when I'm not going to pricy bars and restaurants!

Anyway, I'm really rambling away from the point of the post...

One of AS's student loan payments hit; $137 went to principal, meaning we surpassed our $1575 debt-repayment goal for January! In total, $1588 toward debt so far this month.

That brings AS's balance on this particular student loan down to $6003.

On Friday we got a $1869 check for the excess money on NT's latest student loan. I thought maybe I'd put that toward AS's student loan, since that's the highest interest loan that's currently in repayment. That would bring AS's student loan down to $4134.

Then I thought about the $5735 we have sitting in checking for lawyer fees. We've been accumulating this money through additional income streams. Now our ultimate goal is to have $9000 saved for lawyer fees, but the lion's share of this money won't be needed for over a year (if at all). And the extra income shows no sign of slowing, between AS's freelance editing and NT's overtime.

I currently pay about $147 per month on AS's student loan as well as an extra $700. About $35 per month goes toward interest. So I thought, what if I take $4134 of the lawyer money we've saved so far and pay of AS's student loan? To build up the savings again, I could take the $850 per month that would have gone to the student loan and have the lawyer fund built back up to today's level in five months. This would probably save us over $100 in interest, and wouldn't set us back for long in our saving for the legal procedures.

So, I think that's what I'm going to do. I might even get to $9000 with other income sources before the five months is up. Either way, once I've got the lawyer fund back to where it was (or all the way up to $9000) I can start hitting the next student loan.

So, the January debt repayment total is going to get very impressive! (But then, of course, debt repayment for the next five months decidedly unimpressive.)

With recent additions to my medical and emergency funds, I realized we are over $12,000! I've estimated our emergency budget (assuming we would have no jobs and would all need to purchase private health insurance) would be just over $4,000, so that means we have about three months of expenses in our EF savings!

OK, I calculate our British funds at a 2:1 dollar-to-pound ratio, so that total is a tad higher than real-life exchange rates. But I just calculated our funds with the actual exchange rate, and we have just over $11,000. So we're really close to having three months' expenses saved away.

When people tossed out the "and of course you should have three to six months' worth of living expenses set aside," I used to think that was such an impossible number. But we're getting there very soon!

My extra payment to AS's student loan went through, and $674 was applied to principal. Also, NT's mortgage payments hit; $258, $54 and $57 went to principal. All told, $1043 paid, so that's $1451 down, $124 to go on the January debt-repayment goal.

Once NT's UK mortgage payments hit, I was able to transfer the remaining funds into his savings. We had some money hanging out in checking for Xmas shopping, plus surplus from the last UK rent payment. I transferred GBP654.16 (US$1308.32 by my 2/1 ratio calculations). 20 pounds, or $40, of that was a gift for AA from her great-grandma, but the rest will be applied to our emergency fund. That makes our 2011 EF savings $1293.32 so far. Well on our way to the $7000 goal!

In other goal sort-of progress, AS found me another job to apply to. It's editing for a personal finance site--talk about a dream job--but it isn't full-time and probably doesn't come with benefits. I might apply anyway, just to see. It's the age-old dilemma: choosing between enjoyable, mentally fulfilling employment and a job that keeps you in the lifestyle to which you've become accustomed. I still haven't applied for the other two jobs she found for me.

We have a multiple-baby playdate scheduled for this weekend, so if it comes to fruition, that will be progress on one of my 2011 goals; to have small-group get-togethers each month.

Two exciting happenings on the home front: NT painted AA's nursery, so it finally looks like a nice kid's room vs. a bare-bones storage closet! And we had our first visit from the cleaner, so all those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies in the house are sparkly clean. It's really nice! Of all the luxuries we've been able to afford since sorting out our finances, this is one of the best.

Forgot to post my January debt repayment goal! I hope to pay off at least $1575 of debt this month.

To that end, our U.S. mortgage payment hit, with $408 going to principal. $1167 to go!

Made some progress on one of my 2011 goals: The new year has come with no sign raise or promotion at my current job, so AS found some employment opportunities online, and I spent my morning updating the information on my resume. I also looked around for job postings, but didn't find any as good as the two AS showed me, so I'll just work on applying to those two this week.

Oh, and our automatic deposit to the EF hit late last week, so that's $25 toward our $7000 goal. I think NT has some money in UK checking that I can transfer into UK savings to count toward the EF, but I have to wait until the UK mortgage payments hit to see how much is left for savings.

I weighed myself last night expecting the worst; I really stuffed myself this past week, and a minor health annoyance (plus sheer laziness) meant no workouts. Amazingly, I only gained .9 lbs! I'm at about 155.5, so I've made my 2011 goal of getting down to 139 just that little bit more challenging.

The issue with our recently deceased parking-spot renter resolved itself this weekend; the man's sister sent us a check for January rent and a note that she won't be needing the spot after this month. So glad she cleared that up for us! Now we can post a notice that we're renting out the spot beginning in February.

NT listed some books, DVDs and games on Half and eBay; the book sales will offset the cost of his new semester's purchases, while the game and DVD sales will help pay for the purchases enumerated in my last post. We've already sold some of the books, and there are bids on all the eBay stuff.

After a rescheduling, the cleaner finally came today. I've been at work so I don't know how it went. Hoping to see a big difference when I get home!

New Year's Eve was the mellowest I've had in my adult life. We had a few friends stop by early in the evening, and then one of our best friends came over to ring in the new year with videogames and snacks. He left soon after midnight and we stayed up a bit longer, then headed off to bed. It was exactly what I was in the mood for this time around!

New Year's Day, I heard AA stirring around 9 or 9:30 -- a bit late for her, but then again she'd stayed up later than usual. When I peeked in, she slowly turned her head and looked at me with a serious expression, and I could tell something was wrong because she usually breaks into a huge grin and bounces around when she first sees someone in the morning. I picked her up and her skin felt burning hot, so I took her temperature. 102.5. It was the first time she'd ever had a fever, so I called the nurseline and they gave us some tips and told us to take her to the ER if it reached 105.

We monitored it as it fell to about 101, then got complacent for a few hours, until just before bedtime when we took her temp again. 103.5! We put her down for a couple hours, checked it again and it was 104.5. For the rest of the night we took turns checking her temperature every two hours, and luckily it slid down from that high point until it was nearly normal in the morning, and completely normal by the afternoon of Jan. 2. Phew! Needless to say, AA was a bit tired and overly sensitive for the day, having been woken up so many times during the night, and she seemed to have a sore throat or something that put her appetite off, but she was well enough to go to daycare this morning. What a way to start the new year!

We made a bunch of purchases for the home this year and it's really improved the quality of living around here. I thought we'd taken care of everything we wanted for a while, but several strong wants (not quite needs) have been building up. Rather than being frustrated by the lack of these things, we've decided to go ahead and purchase everything. I'm using some of the money saved up for the lawyer; most of that money won't be needed until at least 2012, so we've got plenty of time to get to the full amount we need. AS still has a good connection with the place that's been sending her freelance work, and NT gets overtime pay pretty regularly, so I feel OK about it.

Today we purchased:
A crib/bed convertible thing (we have one of those drop-side cribs, which have recently been outlawed from selling due to safety concerns, so we've been wanting to replace it)
An area rug for the living room (so AA can practice walking with a softer surface to mess up on)
Electrical plug safety covers
Bumper for the edge of the coffee table (again for AA's walking safety)
Two humidifiers
Spice racks (to try and fix our miserably overcrowded, poorly organize spice cabinet)

Phew! I think that's nearly all. We're also on the lookout for an area rug for AA's room. Not only are our floors hard, we've realized, but slippery. AA needs a bit of purchase if she's going to get better at walking!

***

We had some sad news via a notice in the elevator a couple days ago, and we confirmed with building management: The man who rented our parking spot from us has passed away. We never met him in person; we made the agreement over the phone and he mailed us a check every month (or taped it to our door if he was in town). AS spoke to him one other time, a month or two ago, because we'd lost one of his checks, but other than that we didn't hear from him at all over the past four or so years that we've been renting to him.

We looked up his obituary and he was 71. He sounded a lot younger on the phone. He died of pancreatic cancer. It sounds like he was well-loved and active in the community.

Now we have to figure out what to do next. Do we owe someone a partial refund? Who's handling his affairs? Is his car out of the spot? We figure we'll call the building manager on Monday and see what she thinks -- she might have contact information for his next of kin. I suppose if he lived with someone in the building, they might want to keep the spot, but if he lived alone, I'm not sure what to do. Very strange, sad circumstances.

Hey, what do you know? AS's student loan payments did hit by the end of the month after all. $121 and $60 to principal, so $181 total.

That means $3219 was paid in December, and $29,240 total was paid in 2010!

I also made a weird discovery. One of AS's student loans, which I had listed in my debt spreadsheet as being at 4.5% fixed interest rate, actually has a 3.25% interest rate (fixed)! I have no idea how I've had that wrong all these years. I made the spreadsheet in 2007 and I guess never noticed that I had that number wrong.

So our interest rates are even better than I thought! Here's what we have at what rate:
$25,050 at 6.8% fixed (NT student loan)
$6,814 at 6.55% fixed (AS student loan)
$4,243 at 3.85% variable (NT student loan)
$170,944 at 3.5% variable (CJ/AS mortgage)
$13,568 at 3.25% fixed (AS student loan)
$1,030 at 2.25% variable (AS student loan)
$76,760 at 1.49% variable (NT mortgage)
$16,182 at 1.49% variable (NT HEL)
$17,038 at 1.49% variable (NT HEL)
And $19,991 of estimated future NT student loan debt (not borrowed yet)

Of course I don't expect interest rates to stagnate forever, and there are a lot of variable rates on there, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

I was thinking about ThriftoRama's post, about what personal finance books inspire her, and trying to remember if I have any.

You know, I don't think I've ever read a finance book. My impression of them might have been tainted years ago, when I dated a guy who loved "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" but whose own financial situation was a disaster. He was in his late 30s and had just gotten nowhere, despite that book sitting next to his toilet. In fact, I'm pretty sure he broke it off with me because he'd borrowed some money and was embarrassed that he couldn't pay it back!

I did subscribe to some personal finance blogs outside of SA, but the bloggers that are doing it for money get real repetitive after a while, so I don't read any of them anymore. I do get Kiplinger and Smart Money magazines and usually read them (although the investing articles are still mumbo jumbo to me).

The best ideas I get are just from reading SA blogs. Through all the day-to-day chatter runs a thread of really original ideas that just come out organically and are all the more useful for coming from people's everyday experiences. The immediacy of this kind of blogging, rather than spending time distilling and analyzing information until it's like a magazine article, is really valuable for getting insight into other people's personal finance philosophies and cherry-picking ideas and practices to try in your own life. (Plus, it's just really neat to get that glimpse of a part of people's lives that you don't usually in real life.)

I can tell a lot of people feel the same as me, because my blog recently topped 500,000 views! Kind of amazing for just three and a half years of blogging. Thanks for reading, everyone; and, to those of you who blog here as well, thanks for letting me read about your lives!

Oh, I REEALLLY don't want to go back to work tomorrow! I've been having such a great time. All the fun, food, presents and family & friends have been so wonderful.

I had to work a little late on the 23rd. But I had Xmas Eve off. We spent most of the day just cooking and playing new Wii videogames, and we went to our friends' place for a little gathering that evening. That was really fun, and walking between huge banks of snow to and from the bus stop at night was magical.

Xmas Day was fantastic; both of Neil's parents have finally figured out Skype, so they got to see Astrid in action for the first time since our October trip. She doesn't really know what's going on, but she's very interested by the pictures and voices coming out of the computer. It'll be neat when she can finally recognize her relatives. It inspired me to write to my sister to see if she could set up a webcam chat between me and my parents. She said she might try tomorrow. Which is good, because I never got around to calling my family this weekend! (Bad daughter.)

We got tons of presents, both from parents and from each other. Included were some new kitchen tools, tupperware and cookbooks. We knew we'd have to clear some space because our tiny, open-plan kitchen was already crammed to the gills. We got AS a marble pastry board that's huge, and heavy; and we got a bunch of other things too. But we took it super easy on Saturday, just playing videogames and hanging around. AA is determined to try and walk, so all she wants to do lately is stand up holding on to things. It's a little stressful because we have wood floors and sharp edges on our coffee table! I really need to remedy those things soon so we can enjoy watching her without wincing every time we think she's going to fall.

Then, today, we worked all day on clearing out the kitchen and tidying up in general. We have the housecleaners coming for the first time tomorrow, so we want as many clean surfaces as possible! The more clear areas there are to clean, the cleaner our house will be.

Anyway, we must've gotten rid of about 50 items, minimum. We still have some things hanging around while we try to Freecycle/give to our friends, but they're tucked out of sight. We're getting rid of at least 20 cookbooks!

It felt good, so I imagine this will propel us to get rid of some more things on Half, eBay, Craigslist and Freecycle. I always think we run a tight ship because of the space constraints, but I was kind of amazed at how much unused detritus we gathered up in just a few cupboards, so I'm sure we could do that in other rooms.

Soo yeah, just babbling and trying to ignore the fact that it's after midnight and I've got to go to work tomorrow. But, four-day week, and broken up by a few nice things: clean house when I come home tomorrow evening, one of NT's co-workers coming over for dinner Wednesday, AA getting to stay home with one parent or another most days. Then New Year's Eve we have a baby playdate in the afternoon and a low-key get-together in the evening.

I hope there isn't too much to do at work this week, because I'm kind of checked out there. If they don't offer me a raise by the end of this week, I've made a promise to myself to start looking for a new job. A hassle for sure, but necessary for my self-esteem to at least know that I tried to make the situation better. It sure would be nice if my boss just came through and got me one, but I have a feeling he won't, or that my job won't take him seriously unless I actually threaten to quit.

Sigh. OK, I'd better go. Happy holidays again! Thanks for letting me vent.

Considering I only worked out once this week and had much of the usual decadent Xmas fun, my 1.8-lb. gain is something I can deal with! Still .6 down from my starting point! Of course, I got some treats for Xmas that might delay significant progress for another week or two. ;-) But I can live with that, too.

Happy Boxing Day everyone!

OK, I'm going to post what I think are my finalized goals for 2011. (Hey, I still have a few days to change them if I want.)

This year there's a new wrinkle: I asked NT and AS if they wanted to record any goals here, and they each came up with one. If they come up with others I'll update the sidebar accordingly.

There's a mix of financial and non here, and it's a big list. I'm not going to be pessimistic and say I know I'm not going to reach them all. It's just a big list, that's all. But I feel like they're all important to at least strive for in 2011.

Thanks to Thrift-o-rama's great post recently, I'm also going to add a note here and there about how I plan to reach these goals.

CJ's goals:
*Pay off AS's DL student loan. Current balance is $6814. We pay about $100 per month in the minimum payment, plus I have $700 per month in the budget for extra repayment. So I hope to get this paid off by September at the latest. If we bring in extra money this year, could be sooner!

*Save $3600 to Roths. I have automatic debits set up for all three IRAs; $200 will go to AS's and $50 each will go to mine and NT's.

*Increase EF by $7000. I only put about $50 per month to the EF in U.S. money, but I plan to put all the extra income from NT's UK flat rental into his UK savings account and count that toward it. Most months we clear $500-$600, so this should be a no-brainer as long as there aren't any unexpected repairs or loss of rental income.

*Give $1800 to charities. I have $150 per month in the budget for this; each of us gets to decide where $50 of it goes.

*Get AS to positive net worth. Starting point: ($14,667). This should be pretty easy. Her minimum principal payments plus the extra student-loan payments plus IRA & 401(k) should change her net worth by at least $16,000. But putting it as a goal will help me keep it in mind and do something extra if need be.

*Pay off at least $20,000 of debt. Again, should happen easily. Our regular payments are more than $1000 to principal each month, and we plan to put an extra $700 per month.

*Get down to 139 lbs. NOW we get to the hard goals! LOL. Starting point TBD, but at present I'm at 153 lbs. So it'll be approximately 14 lbs. I've seen modest progress on weeks when I exercise regularly and eat semi-modestly, so I won't be trying anything extreme unless I'm having trouble sticking to moderation.

*Go on at least 2 trips (paid for in cash). I've already got tickets booked for one, and there are two others we're considering, so we may do more than two. Whatever we do, we'll only do if we have the money for it.

*Either get a raise or find new job. Super hard. My plan is, if they don't give me the raise I'm asking for, I'll start looking. I realize full-time well-paying editor jobs are few and far between, but I'm going to try my darnedest. If I find one, and I'm not eager to switch, I'll take the offer to my job and see if they can beat it.

*Complete estate-planning process (and pay for it in cash). This should be fine. We have about $5000 saved up and don't think we'll need nearly that much. We just need to come up with our answers to the big questions, and then contact our lawyer to get the process going.

*Either read a book or do a creative project each month. I do tend to crap out on this kind of goal, but I had to put it out there. I've barely read any novels since AA was born, and I'm not naturally craftsy or creative so it takes a little nudging to get me going in those areas. But I do feel it helps me be more well-rounded, and it's so satisfying when I finish!

*Make money with "side hustles." I hope to get some freelance editing, and I thought freelance writing could fulfill my creative goal, too!

*Organize at least one dinner party or other small-group get-together per month. We tend not to see people except at larger gatherings, where you don't get quality time with every single person. I thought it would be fun to invite a few people over for dinner once a month (or even invite them out somewhere) and strengthen our friendships a bit.

*Write a "Share Your Thoughts" blog post once a month. This one will require help from you! I love when there are more interactive things happening on the site, but there haven't been many this year. So I thought I'd post a topic or question once a month, give my thoughts, and then ask people to post their own entry on the topic (or just write a comment, if you don't have an SA blog). They will probably be mostly non-financial, more philosophical or about life experiences.

And now, NT and AS's goals:

NT
Get down to pre-holiday weight by end of January
Get down to 155 lbs.

AS
Make at least one thing per month (clothes, etc.)

That's it for now! Happy holidays to everyone, and good luck creating and accomplishing your own goals.

OK, I've already covered my goals enough times, but I'm about to delete my sidebar for this year, so I thought I'd paste my results into an entry!

These are my goals--all accomplished well within their timelines.

Build birthday fund of $600 by 2/28/10

Pay off loan to Dad by 3/8/10

Save at least $1000 for trip to Va. by 6/1/10

Save at least $3000 for trip to England by 7/1/10

Pay off 0% Sears card (stove) by 11/1/10

Build Xmas fund of $700 by 11/25/10

Pay off Amex credit card by 12/31/10

Also, I'm going to clear the sidebar of completed big-picture goals, so here they are for posterity:

COMPLETED BIG-PICTURE GOALS:
Pay off personal loan by 12/31/09
Original balance (6/15/07): $30,000
Progress: DONE!!! 12/4/09

Pay off loan to dad by 3/8/10
Original balance (11/1/03): $12,000
Progress: DONE!!! 2/16/10

Pay off Amex CC by 12/31/10
Balance at start of challenge (11/13/09): $11,202
Progress: DONE!!

Total of above goals: Pay off all credit card and personal loan debt by 12/31/10
Balance at start of challenge (1/1/08): $70,251
Progress: DONE!!
(Full disclosure: I transferred $7402 of this debt over to student-loan debt, so I didn't pay that portion off.)

Woo hoo! Now on to 2011!

I believe I posted about my 2-lb. weight gain at my Sunday-before-last weigh-in. Well, last Sunday I weighed myself having only worked out twice during the week, and I showed as having lost 3.5 lbs.! I think it's more that my earlier weigh-in was thrown off by a heavy meal shortly beforehand, but still, great news.

Cumulatively I'd gained 1.1 lbs. since I started trying to be healthy, so with this latest loss, my cumulative progress is a loss of 2.4 lbs.

I actually think I look like I lost more than that, because I had no muscle on my body, and so building muscle might be slowing my weight-loss numbers. So I feel pretty good. I'm within 8 lbs. of my estimated pre-pregnancy weight. More important, getting in shape has helped me get through the snow, which has been crazy-deep this winter. There are a few times going to daycare when I've been very thankful about my slightly strengthened leg muscles!

NT bought some minutes recently, which reminded me I forgot to update this record back in October. So I'm adding both purchases to my calculations:

CJ 1000 minutes late-March T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT 300 minutes late-March Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 300 minutes late-May Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 500 minutes + new phone late June: $21.56
AS 1000 minutes late-August fillup: $107.78
CJ 1000 minutes late-September fillup: $107.78
AS new phone + $25 phone card (200 min?): $32.32
NT 300 minutes early-October fillup: $32.87
NT 200 minutes late-December fillup: $32.87

Total cost for the year: $508.60

We're nearing the end of the ninth month of our cellphone "fiscal year," so our average monthly cost for this year is $56.51. Outstanding!

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 goal for this year is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.

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): $10,812
NT's Roth IRA: $3,036
AS's 401(k): $4,751
AS's trad. IRA: $1,682
AS's Roth IRA: $3,035
CJ's 401(k): $37,866
CJ's Roth IRA: $3,036
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $8,790
---
Total Assets: $557,762

Total Debt: $351,801

Current Estimated Net Worth: $205,961

November 2010 estimate: $191,983

Change in net worth: +$13,978

Summary: I wasn't able to access NT's 401(k) account online today, so I couldn't record the probable gains (based on AS and I making leaps in our accounts). But it hardly mattered in light of the big overall gain this month! My dad gifted us $12,900, and I put over $11,000 of that directly toward our net worth, including retirement savings and debt pay-down. So it's exhilerating but hardly surprising that our net worth has topped $200,000. A great way to end the year!

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.

Oh my, it's been ages since I posted! We've had an insane blizzard followed by a rather severe cold snap, and it's just thrown everything off for me--working out, eating; even my budgeting spreadsheet is so jumbled up with Xmas shopping debits that I'm probably going to just fudge some numbers to get it to work out once we're done with all this madness. I don't think I'll be too far off, but I'm bound to lose track of which purchases come out of which line item at some point, or double-count or omit something from my calcuations.

Anyway, AS's student loan payment hit. Since we'd made some extra payments earlier in the month, nearly all of this payment went to principal: $138. That means we've paid $3038 this month, exceeding our $3000 goal!

Other news...let's see if I can get to it all before I get hit with any work.

NT got news of his bonus and it should hit our bank account tomorrow. $3500 pretax!! Hard to say what it'll be after tax--I'm guessing $2100. We're each getting $100 out of it, plus we're giving tips to our barber and daycare lady, and most of the rest is going into our lawyer fund. I'm feeling really good about that fund; this should bring it up over $5500! Since my very maximum estimate for all that we want our lawyer to do is $9000, we're nearly two-thirds of the way there. And the $9000 is (I'm hoping) an extravagant overestimate.

We had our holiday party today, with some really good gourmet food, wine and champagne. I had fun hanging out with the contractor proofreader I helped hire--she seems nice but one or both of us is usually so busy that we barely ever talk. Turns out she's vegetarian too! We also got $250 each in Amex cards, and my boss also gave me another $150. I'm going to distribute that among us for fun spending, since it was COMPLETELY unexpected. I'm hoping this means my boss really values me and is going to fight for my raise (and I further hope he doesn't think this is an adequate replacement for a raise in my mind--it's very very nice, but it's not pacifying my desire for a real raise). Today's been super slow so I've taken the opportunity to order myself some Wii games with all this extra spending money. Hopefully some will arrive in time for Xmas vacation, because it's so enjoyable lazing around the house playing video games! I never liked them as a kid, but as an adult I find that trivial (yet slightly challenging) activities are an essential balance to all the work and stress of real life. And will hopefully help stave off senility!

I sent my dad some smaller-than-usual Xmas wish lists for us, assuming after the big cash gift that he and Mom might want to take it easy on gift buying. No dice--I got an email with pointed reference to our "very short list" asking what kind of gift cards he could get us to "fill in" the apparent gap. So, I sent him some more gift ideas. Jeez, I was just trying to make it easy on him and mom! LOL.

During the cold snap, I avoided taking AA out to daycare, so AS, NT and I took turns taking some time off to stay at home with her. My job was good about sending me files to proof from home, which I was very glad about--I don't have any paid leave left, so I had to try and telecommute for those days. I think it worked out OK.

I'd gained 2 lbs. at my Sunday weigh-in; no big surprise since I'd only worked out three times in the week and had been eating like I was about to go into hybernation. I calculated my net loss/gain since I started trying to be healthy and I've gained 1.1 lbs. All told, since it is the most decadent (and freezing/snowbound) time of year, it feels kind of good that I'm holding steady. I don't expect to lose too much weight until the new year, so as long as I don't gain 5-10 lbs. over Xmas I'll consider my quest to be successful so far.

We've got to plan our holiday menu this weekend! Unbelievably, we're already over budget on groceries since I reset the budget last month. We're just not good budgeters when it comes to food, and the addition of formula and some disposable diapers has ratcheted up our spending. If we can't turn this around after the new year, I guess I'll have to consider taking money out of another budget item and putting it toward groceries/household. It kind of bugs me, but good eating is a big priority for us, so I'd rather do that than deprive us of the foods we love. We've got the money for it.

All my Xmas shopping is done as of yesterday! I don't get gifts for many people; just AS, AA, NT and my parents.

I'm still working on 2011 goals and will post them sometime this month. I've invited AS and NT to come up with goals that I'll post and track if they want, so I'm also holding off in case they want to get in on it. NT's been swamped with end-of-semester stuff, but his last final is this Monday, so we'll all have a breather until mid-January, hopefully.

I still haven't booked our March trip to San Fran -- typicall by now I'd have all our reservations made! Either it's busier than usual or I'm managing my time really poorly. That's another thing I want to handle over the holidays.

Another thing we need to do is solidify our goals for our estate planning and send them to our lawyer. We had a great, informative meeting with him recently where he explained different things like wills and probate and trusts. We just need to sit down with what he told us and come up with a good plan that covers all scenarios.

Our pics from the photo shoot with our friend came in -- see below!! There's another one of us all in formation with our heads at different levels; I call it the "Bremen Town musicians" pose -- that one we made into a holiday card to send our families. NT's parents keep promising to upgrade their computers/internet access enough to use Skype webcam service, but they're all absolutely hopeless in the web-savvy department. Hopefully the jaw-dropping cuteness of these photos will spur them to figure it out already!

My extra payment, using my dad's gift, to one of AS's student loans went through. $2120 to principal! That makes it $2900 down, $100 to go on my December debt repayment goal.

Our Roth IRA money is finally showing up in those accounts; $3000 apiece. I feel so grown-up!

Last night we got a packet of questionnaires to fill out for our Friday meeting with the lawyer. The letter said they wanted it back by Dec. 6! We started going through them, but there are lots of big questions to answer, so I wrote to him saying we needed another day. Plus, the forms are geared toward couples, so some of the questions are confusing to try and answer. For instance, I have joint assets with AS and some with NT, and our checking account is in all three of our names. So there are going to be lots of scribbled notes trying to explain everything!

We got to preview the photos from our session with our friend and pick our favorite ones. They're so great! We picked out a couple for making holiday cards and other gifts for our families, and we'll probably get a few more later just for ourselves. I'll post one as soon as I get the final retouched version.

We went out for our anniversary dinner (a bit late) last night. I flaked on getting presents--felt so bad! So I bought all the cocktails. AA came with us and had a great time. She sat in a highchair, gnawed on a teething biscuit, charmed all the staff (including the owner), and went crazy for rice with a bit of sweet 'n' sour sauce. She's been off and on moody and refusing food and bottles, and this weekend she was kind of low-energy and had "the runs" (as my mom calls it), so I was glad she was eating and smiling. This morning she was cranky and refusing her bottle again, and now she hasn't had a poop in over 24 hours! I'm not sure what's going on with her, but the daycare lady didn't seem too worried, and I take my cue from her since she's so experienced. Anyway, she's got her regular checkup on Thursday, so if she doesn't get any worse, I think she can wait until then to see a doctor.

Blah, blah, blah -- I'm really rambling in this post! I think because I keep doing work and then coming back to it. Time to hit "Save and Publish" and be done with it.

Last week was rather iffy in the healthy eating department. Overall healthy meals with enough decadence mixed in that I was expecting no weight loss and wouldn't have been surprised by a small gain.

On the other hands, a couple of the workouts were more intense than the 10-minute ones I'd been doing in past weeks. Probably more like 20 to 30 minutes each on about four of them.

Apparently that was enough to make up for the bad food moments! I was down 1.4 lbs. according to the Wii Fit balance board.

I don't know my exact pre-pregnancy weight since I wasn't in a period of weighing myself regularly, but I estimate I was between 140 and 145, since that's where I'd been hovering. Now I'm 154, 9 lbs. more than my highest estimate. I would love to get to 145 before AA's first birthday in March! But even if I don't, just being within 10 lbs. of my possible pre-pregnancy weight is a great feeling.

I at least would love to hold steady through the decadent holiday season. Working out seems to be the key! We've got a mix of videos from Netflix, the fitness channel and free on-demand, so we're getting a bit of variety and aren't getting bored yet. My favorites are the Gilad programs from the fitness channel. They're evil, but he's kind of goofy and so it helps take my mind off how hard I'm working.

Working on the menu for the week. NT requested tater tot hot dish (a very Midwestern dish I'd never heard of till I moved to Minnesota!), so I was looking around and found a promising vegan one. But I think it needs some modification, so I thought I'd post my revised recipe here, so I have it easily accessible for when I need to cook it!

White sauce:

* 2 cups soy milk
* 3 T. Earth Balance margarine
* 2 T. flour
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 t vegetable broth powder

Casserole:

* 24 oz of mixed frozen veggies (carrots, green beans, peas, carrots)
* 8-10 oz mushrooms, 2/3 chopped onion & 3 minced garlic cloves, lightly sauteed
* 1 bag Morningstar burger-style crumbles
* 1 bag of tater tots, use only enough to cover the top of the casserole
* 1/2 bag of Daiya cheddar cheese & similar amount of regular shredded cheddar
* several small dabs of Earth Balance margarine

1. Lightly saute the mushrooms, onion and garlic (about 5 mins over medium-high heat).
2. Over medium-low heat, melt butter and add flour to create a roux in small saucepan, whisking constantly. When light brown and bubbly, remove from heat and add soy milk slowly while whisking.
2. Return sauce to medium heat and cook until it thickens. Add salt, pepper & veggie broth powder. Use a wire whisk constantly as sauce thickens.
3. Once thickened, remove from heat.
4. In a 9 x 9 inch casserole, mix the Daiya with 1/2 the frozen veggies, mushrooms, crumbles and white sauce. In another 9 x 9, mix the real cheese with the rest of the above.
5. Scatter the dabs of Earth Balance on top.
6. Top with 1 layer of tater tots, side-by-side, end-to-end.
7. Bake for 45 mins at 375 F.

So here's the menu for today through next Saturday:
Tonight: Crispy vegan beef with Brussels sprouts & water chestnuts stir-fry
Sunday lunch: Baked portobellos, tater tots & salad
Sunday dinner: Pizza
Monday: Mushroom-walnut loaf, carrots & spinach
Tuesday: Tofu franks & beans
Wednesday: Baked stuffed peppers & lemon-butter broccoli
Thursday: Stir-fry with frozen tofu, broccoli & cashews
Friday: Veggie burgers or ribs with corn & carrots
Saturday lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup & salad
Saturday dinner: Tater tot hot dish and sauteed spinach

Oh, and my dad's gift made it into my bank account Friday!! I opened three Roth IRAs and set up an extra student loan payment that same day.

I've been super-busy at work and haven't been able to post my mortgage payments that hit on Dec. 1:
US: $407 to principal
UK1: $260 to principal
UK2: $55 to principal
UK3: $58 to principal

In total $780 down, $2220 to go on my December debt-repayment goal.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do at my weigh-in on Sunday. I've worked out three times and plan to get my fourth and fifth in over the weekend. However, I had breaded, fried mushrooms on Tuesday, Chinese takeout last night, and am having a pastry at work today. Plus tonight is NT's office party and they'll be feeding us at a fancy restaurant...Most of my other food choices have been good this week, so maybe it will balance out. The most important thing is being conscious about what I'm putting in my body, because it's when I switch off my brain and eat whatever and whenever I feel like that I go off the rails.

I've eaten non-home-cooked food a couple other times this week, and today one of the project managers arranged for food to be brought in to celebrate a particularly complex project being almost over. So today I'll have three outside meals. Very unusual unless I'm in vacation! And we have our anniversary meal on Monday (yesterday was the actual date of our commitment ceremony but the week was too crazy to go out). I'll probably be glad to get back to home-cooked when it's over, because restaurant and bakery food is so over-the-top in terms of portions, salt, sugar, etc. (Not saying I don't enjoy it, but I couldn't do it all the time!)

Tonight we have a friend babysitting AA while we go to the holiday party, but Monday we're bringing her out on our anniversary date. She's usually really well-behaved and loves seeing new places and people, so it should be fun!

Speaking of AA, we had our photo shoot with our photographer friend this past weekend. I can't wait to see the results. AA was in a fantastic mood and I think he got lots of good shots of her laughing and smiling. He tried to take portraits of us but I feel like such a dork trying to pose for pictures, so I don't know how mine will turn out. And he got some group shots of the family.

We got a nice email from NT's dad about our anniversary, and a nice card from my parents...addressed only to me and NT. Sigh. Well, I don't care if they understand about our relationship, as long as they get that our kids belong to all three of us. When AS is pregnant I'll have to explain that I intend to adopt her and NT's kid and she'll adopt AA. Hopefully that will finally get it through my mom's head. (I don't think she's rejecting the notion on purpose; I think she's just kind of dense and confused about it.)

Ooh, as I was writing this I just got an email from my dad that he's transferring the funds today! I wonder if they'll hit today or tomorrow or Monday...so exciting!