Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

I've been wanting to write my big, huge news for a while, but we've been traveling to visit friends and family in England until yesterday, and today a very spoiled little AA has been demanding constant attention. Right now I'm letting her fume in the swing a little bit, hoping she'll get back to her sunny self soon!

Anyway, couple of payments hit. One of AS's student loans got $97 put to principal. And...drum roll, please...

$774 went to my last credit card, eliminating the remaining balance! That's right, we're finally, finally free of all credit card debt!

I made some rough calculations based on spotty recordkeeping from the bad old days. I believe at our lowest point we had about $82,500. Well, $5,000 was "estimated future debt" because I'd already promised NT we could visit England for his sister's wedding when I started the challenge. But we ended up funding the trip without creating any new debt. Also, I ended up transferring $7,402 of credit card debt by using student loan money to "pay" it. So, in actuality we paid off about $70,000 between mid-2007 and now to get where we are.

As this was my first really big milestone, I have to agree with fellow bloggers that it's a bit anticlimactic! But it feels really, really good to have that weight and embarrassment off my mind. I have lots and lots of things I want to do with our money now that our stupidest debt is gone, so now it's a matter of prioritizing wants, needs, donating, spending, saving and repaying, to try and use our money as smartly as possible to enjoy ourselves now while still preparing for the future.

Oh yeah, and I reached the October debt goal! Almost forgot about that. I've paid off $1,820 of debt, exceeding the $1,700 goal.

First of all, thanks for all your kind words on my previous post. I have decided to stop pumping, and it appears I'm nearly done with nursing too as a result. Made it 7 months so I'm pretty proud of myself! I know working moms who lasted much longer, but I also know some who found it too difficult to work into their busy lives.

So I'm not going to fight them taking away my room at work, but at my meeting with my boss this Friday I am going to ask for his advice on lodging some kind of complaint about how the situation was handled, to hopefully prevent this happening to any other women in the future.

I'm glad our meeting isn't today, because I feel quite woozy. Last night around 7, a slight scratchiness in the back of my throat suddenly escalated to full-body tender skin, a headache and fatigue. I went to bed at 10 p.m. and slept off and on until 7 a.m., but it was a terrible night's sleep. I was achey, and hot/sweaty or cold/shivering by turns. AA coughed what felt like the whole night, and three or four times she started crying in her sleep so that we had to get up and feed her, change her or help her get into a better position and get her pacifier in. This is unusual for her; she might cough or grumble enough to wake us up slightly, but she usually quiets down on her own. This morning she seemed groggy at first, but then she was in a really great mood, blabbing and smiling all over the place. So hopefully whatever she and I have will be really mild and shortlived, and not interfere with the trip!

I'm thinking I'll mail the UK taxes while we're actually there, to save some money on postage. I just have to finish filling them out; I should be able to knock it out in one night, so I'm not even going to try tonight.

An old college buddy saw my plea for financial advice on Facebook and met up with me this past weekend. He didn't have any specific advice, but he did think that I need to be including the UK rental income on my U.S. taxes. So, this year I'll probably try and find someone affordable to help me figure that out. Then if I've been doing the old ones wrong, I guess I'll have to send in revised taxes for '07, '08 and '09. I hope the fines won't be too steep! I think I'm OK on the UK taxes; I'm half considering trying to schedule an appointment with an adviser while we're over there, but I may not want to pile that on top of all the family and friend time. We'll see. I suppose if I knew for sure I was doing the UK taxes right, that would help me know what to include on the U.S. taxes if I find out I need to be doing that.

This friend also mulled over my retirement problems. He doesn't know the specifics of tax treaties, but he figured since we'll probably continue to make more money, and since tax rates will probably rise whether we live in the U.S. or the UK, that Roth IRAs would be the best place to start (pay the taxes now while we're in a lower bracket). So I'm going to look into that next year. Don't know if I'll be able to put away the maximum for each of us, but I should be able to manage some contributions.

Last week, I went to an informative free estate-planning seminar at a law firm. I got the invitation from my diaper-cleaning service! The lawyer broke down estate planning into four areas that you need to worry about: wills/trusts (including appointing a guardian for children in case of death), health care directives, power of attorney, and nonprobate assets. This will be on my radar to get done either late this year or sometime next year. I still have the meeting with the family planning lawyer later this month, so I'll see if what I learn from him affects any of what I've learned so far.

One thing that's in the back of my mind is that with the intent of immigration back to England someday, I do still need to keep proof of NT and I being in a marriage together. I want to meld our family with AS as much as possible, but I think the arrangement would send up red flags to immigration officials about whether NT and I were actually married or just in a marriage of convenience to be able to immigrate. So for the purposes of those applications, I need to keep some proof of our marriage that's just about the two of us.

I have so many ambitious goals for our money next year, but I know I won't be able to achieve them all! It's going to be hard to prioritize between maxing out Roth IRAs, upping our charitable contributions, paying down student loan debt, and saving up for some nice vacations.

On a positive note, I think we're going to have lots of money to decide how to spend this last quarter of 2010. NT looks to have two bonuses coming up before the end of the year, AS has just taken on another freelance project that pays $1100 (and she may get others before the year is over), and who knows? Maybe I'll actually be able to talk myself into a raise this Friday.

So...I had kind of a meltdown at work today. Basically the facilities manager casually informed me that A) someone would be moving into my boss's old office, which I'd been using for pumping and had requested to get moved in to, and B) that there wouldn't be anywhere for me to pump after that. Suffice it to say, after being overworked for three months with no reward, and after having my pumping station shuttled from room to room with periodic questions about how long I was going to keep doing it, I was like a pile of dry tinder waiting for a spark. I bawled quietly in my cubicle for about half an hour. AS saw my Facebook status and called, and I cried into the phone until she left work early. My new boss saw me in the hall and came over to talk to me, and I burst out crying again trying to talk to him. Very unusual for me. I'd been meaning to talk to him in a much calmer, more positive way next week, so this put a kink in my plans. I do think it got his attention, though, so maybe it won't turn out all bad. He did offer to find me somewhere else to pump, but by that point, I decided I should just quit now, instead of next month as I'd already planned. AS came and took me out for a bit, and then I went back and finished what was absolutely necessary. I still feel kind of headachey from that huge burst of emotion. But I'm in PJs, sitting around at home, so I feel better.

Anyway, despite that freaky incident, it was a good day on the money front. The following payments processed:
US mortgage: $386
UK mortgage #1: $259
UK mortgage #2: $56
UK mortgage #3: $57
Credit card: $191
All told, that's $949 down, $751 to go on my October goal.

AS got a $225 freelance check that I forgot she was getting, so I deposited that in the bank and will put it toward the credit card ASAP. I also noticed my and NT's paychecks were higher than usual, so I'll put any extra to the card debt as well. Right now, the CC is down to $774, but it won't stay there for long!

Our next mortgage payment will be $34 less, but we'll be paying $20 MORE to principal. That's because our ARM's interest rate is adjusting down, from 3.875% to 3.5%.

Oh, and we've now got over 2000 pounds in the UK checking account. A nice cushion so we don't have to be too cautious about our spending on the trip!

I thought this ( http://shine.yahoo.com/event/lifeslittlepleasures/9-signs-youre-happier-than-you-think-2392659/ ) was a thought-provoking article. I definitely agreed that the things that matched up in my life with the recommendations were sources of pleasure, while the things on the list that I'm missing have been voids that I'm conscious of. They're things I want to think about and work on, when my job hopefully gets more sane. And if my job doesn't, well, I either need to figure out a way to work in my other needs, or I need to find a different job.

Anyway, a great month for debt repayment; totally makes up for missing my August goal! I started September with $361,876 and ended it with $358,025 of debt, paying off $3,851. And also hitting the milestone of having paid more than $100,000 of debt off!

My October goal is to pay off at least $1700 of our debt. I'm actually hoping to do more than that; I want to get closer to $2000 and finish off the last of my credit card debt. But looking at the numbers I'm not 100 percent sure that's going to happen. Maybe 75 percent sure. Since I'd hate to miss another goal, I'm going to keep it conservative at $1,700. So my goal debt balance will be $356,325.

I'm on a roll this month! Two of AS's student loan payments hit: $115 and $59 to principal, so $174 total. That makes it $3851 of debt paid in September.

That'll be it for debt payments this month. October won't be nearly as impressive, what with me having to take unpaid time off for our England trip. Also, I set up that meeting with the family-planning lawyer, so car rental and lawyer fees will cost us a few hundred. However, NT may get a bonus and some OT pay, and AS might get her freelance check, so I'm still hoping to pay off the last of my credit card debt next month. Ooooh, I hope so!

I realized I was feeling stressed about the family time coming up in England; afraid that the trip would be more exhausting than relaxing, when I really need a vacation. I vented a ton to NT last night and it actually made me feel much calmer! I think bottling in my worries was making them much worse. Now I feel ready to face the trip with an open mind. Maybe his family will take pity and be less weird and stressful than mine and AS's were during our July DC trip.

This has been an exhausting, expensive week. This work situation (of basically doing my job and my former boss's for no extra money) is really getting to me. Everyone in the house has had some form of cold (the first of many presents from daycare, I assume) and NT, who's typically superhumanly healthy, got hit especially hard.

So after unsuccessfully trying to talk him into ordering food instead of cooking Monday, I took the bull by the horns and stopped off at one of our favorite Indian restaurants on Tuesday after work. Indian food? My treat? NT couldn't say no. He was in heaven.

That wiped out most of my spending money. Then I didn't feel like any of the leftovers in the fridge for a couple days (there were these two options I was never in the mood for--don't know why I was being stubborn!), so I bought lunch two days in a row. Then on Thursday, I bought a six-pack of beer for me and AS, knowing we had lots of crappy work staring us in the face.

So Thursday night, I was all out of personal spending money. AS had freelance work, NT had schoolwork, and I'd had to bring some editing home from my regular job. I proposed something I never do: We ordered delivery and I just "worked it into the budget." (For the time being I took it out of future grocery money, but we're so far into future grocery money that I may have to do something else.)

It felt so weird, but we were all run down with colds and work, and you can never quite take a full-on lazy night with a baby to feed, change and entertain, so we just did it. I have a large money surplus every month, so it's not like we can't afford it, but I just usually put that money either toward debt, savings or some PLANNED fun purchase, such as travel or gifts. Our spending money is the only money we use for piddling away on takeout food, and it's pretty much been that way for more than three years now.

We got more spending money on Friday, and we pitched in to get some wine and beer (and some fancy nonalcoholic beverages for our nondrinker friend) for dinner at our friends' place.

This freelance project AS just finished up will pay $700, and I've already decided half will go to debt and half we can use for clothes. So I "advanced" us the $350 to go clothes shopping. Saturday we went to the mall and hit up our usual places, Old Navy and H&M. H&M is on a really annoying all-skinny-pants, super-duper-eighties thing right now, so I found nothing, but Old Navy had some cheap, nice tops. We hit DSW and Payless for some new work shoes. NT got a gorgeous gray hoodie at Puma.

And finally we went to Sears out of desperation, because I couldn't find non-tapered pants anywhere (and with my proportions, believe me, they're not a good idea). Turns out Sears has a fairly nice, fairly cheap selection of clothes. Who knew? I think of them as the place to get appliances. So I finally found some trousers that aren't skin-tight all the way down, and AS found a nice embellished tank top. We resolved to go straight to Sears first the next time we have clothes money, because at that point we were too tired and nearly out of money so we didn't really look around much.

I did pretty well--I actually didn't try that hard to find on-sale stuff, but some of it found me. At Old Navy I got a long belted cardigan for $20 and two long-sleeve tees for $6.50 each. My Payless shoes I thought were going to be $30 a pair, but when they rang me up, one was $30 and one was $25. And my two pairs of trousers I thought would be $30 each, but one was only $10! I meant to spend $105 and spent $128 instead, but I've got some spending cash that I'll pay in on Monday, so it's all good.

Not sure how the other two fared, but I think they both stayed under their spending limits (they know they have to pay in some of their spending cash if they didn't). I know NT got a pair of Old Navy trousers for less than $5.

We also got a snack at the food court after all that shopping.

So, phew. Not frugal by many people's calculations. The reason I say it's way better than in the old days, though, is that it's all paid for. Even the unplanned food delivery on Thursday, though it was not budgeted for, I have money in the bank to pay for. And that is my main goal in life. Only buy stuff if I can afford it. This definitely felt like all stuff we could afford. If we couldn't, we'd have found cheaper solutions for all of the above. I have faith in our fiscal discipline and really believe that.

OK, today is going to be an intense day at work, so I may not get a chance to write again. I want to get this in before I'm completely swamped.

I sent another big payment ($745) to my credit card, and now it's down to $965! That's right, our total household credit card debt is down to three figures!

Eeeeeee!

Also, that makes $3677 of debt paid in September.

I feel so great!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 12,663 pounds ($25,326)
#2: 14,721 pounds ($29,442)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $9,929
AS's 403(b): $3,300
AS's IRA: $1,682
AS's 401(k): $842
CJ's 401(k): $33,529
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $8,584
---
Total Assets: $540,052

Total Debt: $358,944

Current Estimated Net Worth: $181,108

August 2010 estimate: $175,615

Change in net worth: +$5,493

Summary: All of our U.S. retirement funds posted gains. Add in the largish amount of debt I was able to pay down since the last net worth update, and we've got a pretty impressive increase on our hands! I don't think we'll crack $200K this year, but barring any more major losses in real estate value or our retirement investments, we should get there in early 2011.

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.

On payday (the 15th) I was able to put $1600 extra toward the credit card. That sucker is down to a $1710 balance! I don't think I'll manage to pay it off before our trip in October -- what a celebratory trip that would be! -- but I'm pretty sure I can get it done by the end of October.

Also, one of AS's student loan payments went through, with $91 going to principal.

So we've already paid $2932 of debt this month, surpassing my $2500 goal! Woo hoo!

Since AS is starting to think more seriously about trying to get pregnant next year, I finally got around to calling a family planning lawyer, and I emailed a couple financial advisers with a list of our myriad financial conundrums around taxes and retirement planning, asking which they could help us with.

One financial adviser got back to me; the other probably thought it was a joke or something. The guy I talked to I didn't like at all; first off he said the retirement and college-fund stuff didn't really matter since it was 18+ years in the future (so I guess I just shouldn't plan at all??), and second he was vague about pricing, but told me it would cost $1500-$2000 just to get started looking at the U.S. portion of mine and NT's taxes, not even dealing with AS's taxes or NT's UK taxes, and not even being the final number for looking at our taxes. Uhh...even if I'm making tiny mistakes on the tax preparation, I doubt any penalties could amount to what this guy would end up charging me! I think I'll muddle through another year, unless I can find someone who actually seems to care about the future and will give me a firm, reasonable price to consult on my taxes.

However, the lawyer was great. He's $185 an hour to consult, which seems like a good price to start getting our heads around what our legal challenges are. Even if we can't afford the next step once we get more details on pricing, at least we'll have a better idea of what we need to do to get our parenting rights sorted out. His firm works with all sorts of nontraditional families such as gay couples and surrogate situations, and he was confident he could get parental rights pretty firmly in place for all three of us. I'm hoping that has good ramifications for me and NT being able to take parental leave for AS's baby.

So, I'll probably set that meeting up pretty soon! The offices are a ways out, and I'll need to rent a car if I can't borrow one from a friend, so it might cost a little more. But my doctor recommended him, and a personal recommendation means so much to me when I'm about to entrust my family's future to someone, so it will be worth the extra cost.

Spent some money on prepaid stuff: I bought another 1000 minutes, and AS's phone is nearly dead, so I bought her a new one Our spending so far:

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

Total cost for the year: $442.86

We're nearing the end of the sixth month of our cellphone "fiscal year," so our average monthly cost for this year is $73.81. Still better than the average $85 we would spend on a family plan!

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, thanks so much for celebrating my $100K milestone with me!

We had a nice weekend all to ourselves, which was perfect after my awful week at work. We were talking today about when AS hopefully has a baby; how we're going to try and take some parental leave with her. NT is fairly sure his job will let him take leave; they're a smaller place and all very supportive of our family, so I think it's possible, though not guaranteed. My job? I think it'd be a harder sell, since I'm not going to be biologically involved or anything. But I'm thinking I could take sick leave for the first week or two. Wondering how I could approach my HR or supervisor about it. Most people know, sort of, about my relationship, but we're part of a much bigger company that's owned by an even bigger holding company, and lately they've been into trying to squeeze us for every drop of work they can get out of us...anyway, I still think I should be able to take sick leave, which I never use, as family health time or something. And as I told NT and AS, if they won't work with me, they might have a date with Mr. Letter of Resignation. They're really not offering me much these days, so it wouldn't take much to push me over the line...

Whoops, didn't mean to do that. Just changed the post title a bit to warn you. ;-) All I was going to write about was that we've been making AA's food from scratch. We're doing it mainly because it seems like the optimal healthy choice, but it also seems to be much cheaper. $2 worth of organic veggies can make nearly a week's worth of food, versus the prepared baby food that's like 60 cents for a tiny jar (more if you go organic).

It's pretty easy and kind of fun. I just cook the veggies or fruit in water until soft, puree with some of the cooking liquid in our Vitamix blender, and strain it through a sieve into a Tupperware. I did keep it for up to a week at first, but then I read that you should only keep baby food for up to 3 days. So now, if I think it's going to last more than that, I spoon it into an ice cube tray, pry the cubes out the next day, and store them in plastic baggies, pulling out a few cubes the night before for the next day's food.

We found out the daycare lady's been giving her regular baby food, which is fine except you're supposed to introduce new ingredients 4 days apart, and now I have no idea if that was happening. LOL, oh well. Someone else warned me that these experienced older daycare providers sometimes "go rogue" so I wasn't exactly surprised or upset. It made me feel better, actually, because sometimes I'd only go a couple days before introducing a new food and I'd feel all guilty, but I won't worry anymore. Anyway, we told her we'd bring homemade food for AA most days. It's gonna be a bigger deal when she's old enough for meat, because we want to keep her vegetarian except for fish! But we'll cross that bridge later.

It's been really fun introducing new foods. AA likes most of it; so far she's been iffy on green beans and potato (though it may have been the texture); rejected banana, avocado and butternut squash; and really liked sweet potato, peas and carrots. Oh, and she LOVES pears, apples and plums!

Tonight I made carrot puree (with a small potato blended in) and added some powdered ginger (her first spice!) to take to daycare. Should last her 3 days. She's got veggie medley (pea-carrot-sweet potato-potato) and plums defrosting for dinner.

If you have a good blender already, it's a really cost-conscious choice, and pretty healthy too!

My records aren't perfect from 2007, when we started straightening our financial life out. I'm not sure how much debt we began with at our lowest point. One of the calculations I've made estimates that our biggest total debt number sometime back in 2007 was $460,698.

You may notice that our balance under the September Debt Repayment Goal headline is now $360,635.

I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Ugh, ugh, ugh. Work hell continues. I made this payment days ago but haven't had the time or energy to blog about it.

I paid some extra toward my credit card debt. $350 straight to principal, making it $1241 down, $1259 to go. Almost halfway there on the September debt goal!

Total credit card debt is down to $3310!

Yesterday was a furlough for my company; well, I had to work part of it because our biggest client doesn't know we had furloughs. But I worked 4 hours at home and kept AA home from daycare, then dropped by AS's job so her co-workers could see the baby. So it was kind of fun. And I get another half-day (also unpaid) next week since I am required to take 8 hours off unpaid.

AA's been doing great. Our daycare lady says we don't really know what it's like to have an infant, she's so good and easy. She hardly sleeps at all during the day, which is weird, and she sleeps about 10 hours a night, straight through, which is equally strange.

Today we went yardsaling with a friend who was kind enough to drive us all around. AA had a great time! She spent a lot of the time in the car with one person keeping her company, but we brought her out with us a couple of times and she was very excited, grinning at everything and everyone.

I didn't keep track of everyone's spending since we used our own cash. I spent $10 on 4 DVDs, $4 on 6 books, $3 on a framed picture for AA's room, $3 on a beautiful big wooden abacus for her, 50 cents on a magnetic board with numbers and letters for her, $1 for a shirt for me, 25 cents for a stuffed toy, 50 cents for a sundress that's way too big for her (but it was so cute! maybe next summer...), and I think that's all. Oh, and I got a free book and a free cheesy framed picture of a pegasus with a ballerina for my friend who loves kitsch and unicorns. So less than $25. NT got some LPs that he thinks he can sell on eBay for a profit (got them from a collector/dealer, so we don't feel guilty about trying to "flip" them )

NT listed a bunch of his own plus the new records on eBay, so it reminded me to list some vintage dresses I've had hanging in my closet for 20 years. I listed them for really low, so either a bidding war will bring the price up or someone will get a fantastic bargain on some pretty clothes. Either way it's a win. I ended up only listing 2 of the 3, because AS said she could adjust the other one to fit me better. It's pretty cute and I could always use another dress.

Now we're watching one of the DVDs I bought: Beowulf & Grendel with Gerard Butler. So far cheezy and enjoyable. But I'd better go so I don't lose track of the plot!

So we once again took out a bit too much in loans for NT's college semester, so they sent us a $1869 refund. I'm putting it toward one of AS's student loans that has a very similar interest rate and is already in repayment, so that'll go a long way toward paying it off faster and getting that payment off our budget before NT's start coming due in a couple years.

Now AS's loan becomes another one of my big-picture goals that will have an asterisk next to it in the record books. Because I'm anal that way. Her loan, which I want to pay off by 12/2011, is suddenly going from $11,358 to $9,489! But NT's loans are going up by the same amount, so it doesn't change our overall debt picture. I think it's a smart (or at least not stupid) move though.

Today I did a bunch of bill-paying and housecleaning. One of the letters I opened was from my mortgage company, I presumed to tell me my ARM was going up. I was pleasantly surprised to see it's dropping for the second year in a row. New rate beginning 11/1: 3.5%! Our payment will be going down by $34.33 and we'll be paying a bit more in principal each month.

Anyway, now a bit of bad news: I missed my August debt-repayment goal. First one yet! I wanted to pay off $2000 but only paid $1872, so I was $128 short.

That's OK, I'm just setting my September goal even higher. This month I want to pay off at least $2500 of debt.

And, I've already made some progress:
AS student loan $59
My CC $80
US mortgage $384
UK mtg #1 $257
UK mtg #2 $54
UK mtg #3 $57

All told, that's $891 down, $1609 to go on my September goal.

Oh noes! I think I got my credit card bill too late to pay it in the month of August. This may be the first month that I don't reach my debt-repayment goal since I started this journey.

I blame my job; it's so hectic and overwhelming that I haven't been able to sit down with my payment schedule and really see that I'd need to make an extra payment early in order to meet my goal. I mean, little AA does take some time and energy, but she's such an easy baby that I don't think I'd be having any trouble if my job were normal again. She's in bed by 9:30 and sleeps through the night, but I'm equally exhausted and seldom get anything done, and then at work I don't even get breaks of more than 5 minutes to heat up some food or vent my frustration on Facebook! LOL. I even proofread while I'm pumping, and I've had to start supplementing with formula because I seldom get to pump as frequently as I should, so my milk supply is decreasing.

Ugh. Whatever. Anyway, one of AS's student loan payments hit; $119 to principal, so that's $1872 down, $128 to go on the August goal. I may have one more student loan payment to record on Monday, but my CC payment will be going out Monday, so it won't hit until Tuesday or Wednesday. I checked to see if I could make some sort of instant payment, but I couldn't figure it out. Darn.

I feel like I'm in the same boat with a few of you who seem to be leaking more money than usual this summer.

We had a party a couple weeks ago. It actually wasn't that expensive. We made our own food (tons of it) and bought some wine and beer, but other people brought wine and beer too, as we knew they would. We probably spent about $30 or $40 for alcohol and $20 or $30 for food ingredients (total guess).

We've also had a couple of babysitters this summer, at $40 a pop. I was just kind of cashflowing it in the budget, but we can't keep doing that, so the next one we're going to have to pay for with our spending money.

We rented a car and spent last weekend at some friends' vacation. With gas and insurance, less than $200.

Then AS needed money put aside for her dreadlock maintenance: $120. She only gets it about once a year, so it's not that big a deal. Besides, we're paying for it with freelance income of hers, which she typically just donates to the common good. She deserves to use some of it for herself once in a while. I also bought 3 dresses for her with part of the money, because I knew she needed dresses and would never get around to getting them for herself: about $80 total.

NT also wanted us to donate to Pakistan flood relief, so we sent $100 to UNICEF.

On the other side of the equation, I have a furlough day coming up, but NT's job has started paying OT because they can't afford to give him comp time anymore (plus I think it's illegal for an hourly employee...though he didn't mind getting time off instead of money). And AS has been getting some freelance work as well. So we're doing OK on the income side despite my stupid job. (I'm kind of over my job right now, because since my boss left I have twice the work with absolutely no reward. Add in the furloughs, the fact I haven't had a raise in three years, and the ever-rising cost of my health insurance plans, and I'm really getting diminishing returns for harder and more intense work. Bleh.)

I think that's about it...we're pretty behind in our grocery budget (meaning I keep taking money from the next month's line item to pay for this month's) but I think that'll be pretty easy to rectify this winter. We've been buying tons of fresh greens and fruits and lots of ice cream; winter comfort-food meals are actually a lot cheaper than summery cooking for us.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 12,663 pounds ($25,326)
#2: 14,721 pounds ($29,442)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $9,397
AS's 403(b): $3,300
AS's IRA: $1,682
AS's 401(k): $741
CJ's 401(k): $31,772
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $8,532
---
Total Assets: $537,610

Total Debt: $361,995

Current Estimated Net Worth: $175,615

July 2010 estimate: $173,902

Change in net worth: +$1,713

Summary: My 401(k) lost a few hundred bucks, but we paid off enough debt to still see a small gain in net worth. Nothing like when NT discovers forgotten pension plans, though!

AS and I hit an exciting milestone: positive combined net worth. Our finances have been tied together since she was 18 and I was 23, so I kind of consider them to still be combined. Well, my net worth hit $24,612 and hers is negative $24,547, so together we're at positive $65! Woo hoo, we're not dragging NT's down anymore. It's all uphill from here, I hope!

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

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 did manage to make an extra principal payment to my credit card: $925 to principal. So $1753 down, $247 to go on the August goal. It also brings my credit card balance (and thus our total credit-card debt) down to $3740! We seem to be on track to pay this off by the end of the year as planned.

It's already time to calculate net worth again, which I'll try to do tomorrow. This payment will give that a nice boost.

Work and social life are still crazy, so I've barely had time to do the bare minimum for both my financial planning and this blog. Hopefully things will calm down in the fall!

Time for an ever-exciting prepaid cost update! I just bought AS 1000 more minutes. Our spending so far:

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
Total cost for the year: $302.76

This is the end of the fifth month of our cellphone "fiscal year," so our average monthly cost for this year is $60.55. Not too shabby so far!

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.

One of AS's student loan payments hit, with $79 going to principal. That's $828 down, $1172 to go.

I'm hoping I'm at a good place to put a large extra payment to my credit card debt soon, but I've been so busy at work -- and so drained once I get home -- that I haven't been able to pay much attention to my finances. NT got some overtime pay, so I think it'll be OK, but I'll have to sit down and really take a look at the next couple weeks.

Overall, I need to make sure I'm on track to pay off my last credit card by the end of the year. It's been a fun summer, and there's more spendy fun to come, but I can't lose sight of my big goals for the year!

Wowee, it's never been this long past the first of the month before I was able to post our mortgage payments! Work is still crazy and I never seem to have the time or energy at home. I still read most people's entries but rarely comment, because I'm always trying to catch up on old ones.

Anyway, luckily my bills are all on autopilot. I even figured out a way to automate my checks to the daycare lady. So my mortgage payments hit, of course:
US: $383
UK#1: $256
UK#2: $54
UK#3: $56

So all told, $749 down, $1251 to go on the August debt goal.

I also put $100 into the medical fund (which is sort of like my emergency fund, except it's more likely to be spent someday) and saved some more UK money for the England trip (which is coming up -- just nine weeks away!)

I know it will probably disappear in a couple hours, but I'm posting some baby pics anyway. Maybe I'll try BA's technique if the old way doesn't work...

I surpassed my July debt repayment goal of $1100, putting $1,352 toward principal. I got our total debt down to $363,748.

For August, I'm going to go out on a limb and try to pay off $2,000 of debt. We'll pay nearly $1100 with just our minimum payments. I have what looks like a $1250 surplus in the August budget, so I'm going to try and put at least $900 of that toward my credit-card debt. It feels a little risky to say that, since we keep having unexpected expenses. But there's also a chance AS will get some freelance money in August, so on the other hand I might be able to pay even more than $2,000 this month.

My credit card payment and another of AS's student loan payments hit: $79 and $59 to principal, respectively, bringing July debt repayment to $1352.

Our $1800 balcony screen was installed yesterday. We did it mainly for little AA and her eventual friends, so we'd feel better about kids being on the 18th-floor balcony. (There's a railing, but psychologically...it's still a little nerve-wracking to take AA out there.) But it's also for our cat Noodles, because he likes being on the balcony but I've always been terrified he would forget where he was and leap for a bird or bug, and fall off the balcony. Also, when he was out there we had to keep either the screen or the door closed to keep bugs out, and he hates closed doors. Now, when it's nice enough to have the AC off, we can keep the door open, so he can come and go freely.

I was afraid it would make our small balcony seem cramped, but instead it's made it seem like another little room, rather than a small ledge. Very cozy and not cramped at all! AS and NT love it too. So, money well spent.

I've hardly gotten a chance to post all month, and suddenly, twice in one day! Work is a bit more manageable today than it has been since my boss left and I took over many of her responsibilities (in addition to keeping my own).

One of AS's student loan payments went through: $119 to principal, which means we exceeded our $1100 goal by $114! Our new balance is $363,886. We may have one or two more payments come in just under the wire to qualify as July progress, too.

Another blow to our budget surplus: NT's student loan semiannual interest payment, which I expected to be $400 or so, was $622. I keep forgetting to factor in the additional loan money we take out each semester! It's OK, but too many more hits and I may be regretting the fast and loose spending of this summer. Not yet though!

It's been a while since I posted a baby pic. This was taken last night; we have a rooftop pool on our condo and this is the second time we've taken AA into the water. We take her there after sunset so there's no danger of burning; the pool water is slightly heated so it's not too cool. She quite likes it, I think! Very quiet and observant, but she kicks her feet and seems very comfortable. She even smiled a bit this time.



Hmmm...Let me try again, but I don't know how to crop photos on my home computer!

NT's Net10 phone broke, so we were able to get him a new one, plus 300 minutes and a phone card with 200 more minutes for $21.56! (That's cheaper than the usual $32.82 for 300 minutes with no phone or extra phone card. So why won't we take advantage by just getting him a new phone every time and saving $11+ plus getting nearly twice as many minutes? Terrible tech support. He went phoneless for a week while they got their s#%* together.) Since the second year began in late March, here's what we've paid:

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
Total cost for the year: $194.98

It happened in late June, but I forgot to record it in the post-vacation madness. Now it's late July already! This is the end of the fourth month of our cellphone "fiscal year," so our average monthly cost for this year is $48.75. I expect that average to go up again soon when AS needs new minutes, but still, awesome that three people have had cellphone service for less than $50 per month so far!

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: 14,721 pounds ($29,442)
#3: 3,709 pounds ($7,418)
NT's 401(k): $9,308
AS's 403(b): $3,300
AS's IRA: $1,682
AS's 401(k): $634
CJ's 401(k): $32,315
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $8,482
---
Total Assets: $537,907

Total Debt: $364,005

Current Estimated Net Worth: $173,902

June 2010 estimate: $163,573

Change in net worth: +$10,329

Summary: All our retirement accounts and the EF showed modest gains (NT's 401k did especially well because his company dumped a $700 bonus in there). We also paid off over $1K of debt. But there was another huge leap this month, nearly as big as last month's, due to my finally confirming there was a third pension account in the UK that NT had forgotten he had.

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

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.

Wow, I can't believe I've only posted once this month! It's been so crazy since we got back from our trip; AA went into daycare, NT and I went back to work full time, my boss's last week was the week I came back from the trip. AS has had a bunch of freelance and work she's brought home from the office, so I'm too busy at work to post, and the computer is usually taken at home (plus I'm exhausted, and spending all the time I can with AA since I don't get to see her during the day). I actually missed recording a credit card payment earlier this month, which is totally unheard of for me!

That CC payment put $81 to principal, and one of AS's student loans just had $86 put toward principal. That makes $167 total, so $1095 down, just $5 to go on my July debt-repayment goal. Both of those payments made dents in my 2010 and big-picture goals as well, because these are the next two debts on my hit list.

Well, it's been a crazy couple of months in terms of money; there's been a lot of extra money coming in from all sides, and at the same time lots of money going right back out! Some of it definitely spent on "wants"; I've loosened up a lot to give us a break from my normal tightwaddery, since we can definitely afford it.

The money in included (let's see if I can remember it all): AS freelancing, NT work bonus, AS raise (much bigger than expected), my parents paying for some of our plane fare, me discovering another pension NT had forgotten about (3709 pounds--or US$7418 in my set ratio! Jeez! LOL), NT's job putting another bonus into his 401(k), refund for a medical overpayment, NT working a bunch of overtime so most of his parental leave was paid...I think that's all. Whew!

The money out: There was that weekend trip we had to celebrate AS's raise, on which we spent about $700 including rental car, hotel, dinners, shopping and touring a historical house. We went about $300 over budget on our family trip, because we took a bunch of younger family members to a 3-D movie, got room service for ourselves on the last night, and went on a bus tour of D.C. that was $35 per person. I signed up for one of those charities where you do regular payments; we pay $15 a month to buy food for poor children in other countries. We paid a friend to do one day of daycare because I ran out of time 1 day early because of AA's slightly early arrival: $100. We also paid that friend $40 to cat-sit while we were out of town. I had a $475 dental bill and AS bought several refills of contacts, that ran us a couple hundred. AS and I got bikes! Used, but still, with helmets and locks, about $500 total. We're getting the balcony screened in so kids and cats will be safe there: $1800.

We're also planning on spending some more before it's all over! We're planning some nights out that will require babysitting (from friends, but I still feel we should pay them), we're going to develop some nice photos to send back to family from the trip (and we might send thank-you gift certificates for hosting us). We've given in and decided to go with diaper cleaning service for the foreseeable future, which will run $19.50 per week (though we get 3 more weeks free if we commit to 24). We're going to paint AA's room and also one wall in our living room (so it matches our new couch better). We're probably going to get a new garbage disposal, and those seem to run about $100-$250. And we're going to rent another car in August to go visit our friends' vacation house for a weekend. Oh, and I had to go get an ultrasound for some lumps in my breast (harmless, it turns out, but the tests will cost me). And my doctor reminded me that I need to speak to a family law expert to try and solidify our parental rights despite our unusual family structure. (Which also reminded me that I want some financial advice from a professional, too.)

Phew! Money in, money out. I'm keeping track and it's all paid for, but it's still a bit overwhelming. But, I feel it's all deliberate, well-planned, appreciated spending. We're not just blowing it on things we don't notice or enjoy. That said, I really want to get back to paying down debt! It's hard to start pulling in the reins, especially telling NT or AS that we have to start being frugal again. It's easy to get used to a more free-flowing way of life. But I haven't forgotten that we're still in a lot of debt and somewhat behind in retirement. And have a baby, as well as an international move and another baby probably sometime in our future.

At least I don't feel alone. Thiftorama, North Georgia Gal and some others have mentioned a need to retighten belts. So, I'm going to go ahead with the spending we already have planned, but my desire after that is to start hitting the debt hard again. And just get our spending settle down to a more predictable pattern.

So glad to be back from my trip! Parts were fun, but staying with family can be exhausting. More details on it later, if I feel like it. Lots of interesting tidbits about money came up during the trip, actually.

Anyway, finally got a chance to check some accounts and the following payments were processed:
US mortgage $381
UK mortgage #1 $258
UK mortgage #2 $54
UK mortgage #3 $58
AS student loan: $118
AS student loan: $59

All told, $928 went to principal. So, just $172 to go on the July debt-repayment goal.