Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

It's been awhile since I posted about this here (I keep track in my Google Docs and on my baby blog). I actually think (fingers crossed) that this year's medical expenses will be lower, because I finally think I chose the correct healthcare plan (after misunderstanding and picking the more expensive one two years in a row).

Things this list doesn't include: expenses for weird craving foods, cost of treating conditions that are PROBABLY pregnancy-related (I'm letting my baby be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt), savings on alcohol, tax savings on the portions of my medical bills that are paid for with my pretax health savings account (HSA). I am including things that are DEFINITELY pregnancy-related but could be construed as wants vs. needs. As you look through you'll no doubt see things that could have been avoided. I feel that I'm having a pretty frugal, but not bare-bones, pregnancy.

Date Type of (expense)/savings Amount
1/9/2009 Prenatal vitamins (16.10)
4/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
4/15/2009 Prenatal vitamins (24.69)
5/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
6/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
7/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
7/6/2009 Pregnancy test (6.99)
7/21/2009 Large pair of trousers (19.99)
7/30/2009 Dr. visit co-pay (10.00)
8/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
8/10/2009 Iron supplements (5.99)
8/11/2009 Iron supplements (5.49)
8/27/2009 Rx for prevention of UTIs (10.00)
9/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
9/6/2009 Prenatal classes (155.00)
9/10/2009 OB contract pmt (127.04)
9/16/2009 Belly band (16.99)
9/29/2009 1st visit tests + rest of OB contract (1012.62 total; 1st pmt) (377.43)
10/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
10/4/2009 Maternity clothes (177.91)
10/12/2009 Iron supplements (5.92)
11/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
11/2/2009 2nd pmt for tests, dr. visits & OB contract (268.78)
11/4/2009 Fleece zipup to supplement borrowed maternity coat (14.99)
11/10/2009 Iron supplements (5.92)
11/30/2009 2 new bras (one nursing, one larger strapless) (24.93)
12/1/2009 No birth control $20.00
12/7/2009 Maternity leggings (to use as long johns) (24.99)
12/15/2009 3rd pmt dr. visits & OB contract (254.70)
12/26/2009 Maternity clothes (including replacement fleece $11) [used gift cards] (70.00)
1/1/2010 No birth control (just $20 every 3 months now, w/ new health care) $20
1/6/2010 Prenatal vitamins & iron supplements (26.38)
1/7/2010 Exercise ball (for relief of back pain & labor pains) (23.64)
1/8/2010 4th pmt dr. visits & OB contract (178.96)

TOTAL (COST)/SAVINGS (1,652.83)

We got a bill from Sears a couple weeks ago and called to discover somehow we hadn't gotten put on the deferred interest and payments plan. They switched us onto it right away, but the rep advised us to pay the current bill, just to be sure we didn't get a late payment charge. It was just $13, but it hit yesterday, taking our balance down to $848.10.

That is all. Still waiting for my dad to cash that dang check.

We sold another textbook on Half.com and shipped it out today, so one more item is gone from our home...

I e-mailed my dad on New Year's Eve letting him know he could deposit one of the $1000 checks I gave him. Now I'm impatiently waiting for him to do it so I can knock a grand off our debt!

I called an in-home daycare that we happened to see a sign for; it's blocks from our condo. It's the only one within a mile of our place, as far as we know. The rate the lady gave me? $110 per week, or $477 per month. The least expensive daycare center we've been able to find within a reasonable distance charges $1300 per month! And she's got a July opening for an infant. So of course we've got our fingers crossed that the in-home place seems nice. We're going to look at a bunch of the professional centers and then visit this woman on the 18th.

We shipped out two books that we sold on Half.com today!

All the mortgage payments hit today:
US: $375 to principal
UK#1: $254
UK#2: $54
UK#3: $56
In total, $739 paid, $1260 to go on the January debt-repayment goal.

I transferred 440 pounds ($880 per the CJ exchange rate) from the UK checking account into UK savings. I'm going to keep putting this money aside as part of our EF, because even though that's not one of my stated goals this year, our emergency fund should definitely be bigger. This deposit takes it to $7651, or less than two months' expenses.

Speaking of savings, AS is interested in doing a CD ladder with our EF money. We'll probably just keep it in our savings account until the baby comes, see if we have to raid the funds in the first few months, but if not, we can start doing that this year. Maybe I could get her interested in finding the British equivalent of CDs and doing the same with the money in our UK savings account.

My automated biweekly deposit into savings actually hit on New Year's Eve, but I hadn't allocated it anywhere. I'm putting it into our birthdays fund, so $25 saved, $575 to go.

We got our 1040 instruction booklet in the mail, and looking through it, I'm thinking AS made enough money to qualify for part of the "making work pay" credit. NT and I will, but of course we've essentially already got it by having less money withheld from our paychecks. But AS has only had two paychecks this year. She made a couple thousand with her home-based business, enough I think for a partial credit, maybe $150 or $200. (You need to have made over $6K to get the full amount of $400.) The stimulus funds really helped us out last year, and it looks like we'll get one last treat from 'em!

Donated:
31 tops
3 pairs of jeans
2 ornaments
1 calendar
1 puzzle
1 computer game disc

Trashed:
4 shirts

1/2 total: 43

So we've already passed the goal, but we have a few more things to get rid of: Tomorrow we're shipping out a few books we just sold on Half.com, and we listed our older laptop on Craigslist. NT and I might take a necklace to the pawn shop in the next few weeks, and we have a few more items we might list on Craigslist or eBay. I may cut down my shoe collection (probably my old shoes will just have to be tossed, not donated, but it counts). Does it count if we declutter our fridge and throw out old condiments that are expired or no longer used? I may do that at some point...

Of course, we're just decluttering in order to bring stuff in, but it's necessary stuff. We just got our crib today from some friends who transitioned their youngest to a bed!

My big concrete goals are all financial for the next year. A huge amount of my concentration and effort is going to be devoted to preparing for baby, giving birth to baby and then keeping baby safe and happy and well. I'm excited and intimidated, energized and already exhausted just thinking about it. It's going to be an amazing time, I think.

But I do still have a number of pretty ambitious financial goals. I realize that these might not all get done, but this is what we're aiming for. I would say goals #2, #3, #4 and #5 are the most pressing. If we have to cut way back on birthdays and Xmas, and hold off a bit on paying off the Amex card, it won't be a very big deal. But we'll see how it goes.

#1: Build birthday fund of $600 by 2/28/10

#2: Pay off loan to Dad by 3/8/10 (baby's due date ). Balance as of 12/31/09: $6000

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

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

#5: Pay off 0% Sears card (stove) by 11/1/10. Balance as of 12/31/09: $861.10

#6: Build Xmas fund of $700 by 11/25/10

#7: Pay off American Express credit card (and thus, become CC-debt-free) by 12/31/10. Balance as of 12/31/09: $10,829

So um, we'll be trying to come up with $22,990.10 to reach all of these goals. In an ordinary year, that would be no problem; we bring home about $80,000 net per year, and we routinely put more than a third of our income toward debt or savings. But with the li'lest wild card entering the picture, it's going to get real interesting!

I'm still going to post monthly debt goals as a way to keep track of how much I'm paying off. My January goal: Pay off $1,999 of debt. Beginning balance: $380,860.

First, my December goals and results:

Debt: Pay off at least $2900 of debt.
Balance as of 12/30: $380,860
Goal balance: $381,113
Progress: DONE! $3153 down

Savings: Save at least $650 (all for baby/EF)
Progress: DONE! $660 saved

Other:
A. Help AS with couch reupholstery. Progress: AS is about halfway done with the project, but I realized there's not much more I can do to help her with it.
B. Begin to contact daycare options we've collected. Progress: DONE. Now we need to start taking tours and making some decisions.

I looked back at my New Year's goals for 2008 and 2009, because I knew I had at least one two-year goal that wrapped up this year.

In the beginning of 2008, my longer-term goals were to work out at least five days a week, pay off all my credit card and personal loan debt, and begin preparing myself mentally and financially for trying to have a baby.

The first goal was pretty much of a wash this year; working out regularly has always been a battle and this year my laziness won.

I didn't reach the second goal; I still have $16,829 in personal/CC debt. But I feel OK with not hitting it, because we had to contend with AS's year-long layoff, and I decided to build our emergency fund in preparation for the baby. We went from $0 to nearly $7,000, which is money that would have otherwise gone to pay down debt. Considering those factors, I still feel like we did pretty well, paying off or transferring to student-loan debt more than $50,000 of bad debt in two years.

The third goal, of course, we achieved! Got mentally and financially prepared, got pregnant, and we're going to have our baby in March.

My goals for 2009 were to improve in the areas of debt, savings, fitness, environmentalism, creative/crafts, philanthropy and (added later) additional income streams (or "side hustles"). To that end, I planned to have a monthly goal in each area. We also decided to try and photograph our dinner every day in 2009.

I had no problem setting and reaching the debt and savings goals. This is one part of my life that feels very stable, despite the gaping holes still remaining in our financial security. I hope budgetary control is as permanent as it feels. We paid off $29,005 of debt, going from $409,865 to $380,860; saved $6,771.28 for the emergency fund; and fully funded two vacations. Our collective net worth increased from $81,526 to $131,418.

I did OK on fitness for a few months, but sort of slacked off early on, and then pregnancy proved the perfect excuse to completely fall off the wagon. I know it's an excuse because several of my friends are pregnant, and they're still very active. Sigh, oh well.

We did really well on environmentalism; in fact, we improved our lifestyle so much early on that I sort of ran out of ideas. We now take reusable shopping bags 95% of the time; AS makes many of our household products out of bulk supplies, which reduces both packaging and toxic ingredients; we reuse and avoid using ziploc bags and bulk/produce bags; we're accepting any and all hand-me-downs to use for the baby; AS is recovering our couch so we don't have to throw it out; we buy carbon offsets for car rentals; we installed a variable-pressure shower head to save water. Any time we see an opportunity to make a change (as long as it doesn't complicate our lives too much more), we'll take it.

I tried some creative things, including beading, crop art, weaving, sewing and writing, but I found it hard to locate inspiration within myself to really dedicate myself to creative or craftsy activities.

Philanthropy was a bit difficult, since I haven't wanted to commit to an ongoing volunteer position and it's hard to find one-off ways to help. I donated little bits of money and other things (glasses, food) when opportunities arose, and got more involved (writing e-mails, spreading information) about political issues I was passionate about. But this is another area I wish I'd done a lot more in.

In terms of organized efforts to add income streams, I didn't do too well. But I did get two random freelance proofreading gigs right at the end of the year, so I accidentally did better than I thought I would. NT and I sold a bunch of things on eBay, and AS stretched her unemployment out over a full year with her freelance sewing and editing gigs. NT continues to do Pinecone surveys and donate the money to whatever we're saving up for or paying down, and AS has been keeping up on MyPoints and getting the occasional gift card to help out with grocery or clothing expenses.

Oh, and as most of you know, taking photos of dinner went really well until my first-trimester yuckiness hit; and then I was unable to get back into the habit once I did feel better. But we made it through more than half of the year, and it was a fun exercise!

So mixed results overall, but I don't feel discouraged; after all, it took many attempts and different strategies to finally settle into a budget-minded, fiscally smart lifestyle, so if I keep trying, maybe I will find similar grooves in these other areas.

My credit card payment went through, $185 of it to principal. That means we paid $3153 toward debt this month!

I've been really busy at work today, so we'll see if I get time to post my December and year-end results and my 2010 goals. Might have to end up doing it tomorrow; we'll see!

Another of AS's student loan payments hit, with $59 going to principal. $2968 paid in December so far.

My credit card payment left my bank account and will probably hit the CC account tomorrow, so I'm still going to hold off posting about full monthly results, yearend results and 2010 goals.

I went over my financial goals with NT and AS this past weekend, and they agreed that some are a bit up to chance with the baby coming, my and NT's income being affected with unpaid leave, and the details of AS's July '10 raise still unknown. But no disagreements about how I've prioritized them, so we'll get done what we can.

The tooth that needed an operation last year is suddenly acting up, throbbing and painful since yesterday afternoon. I've got an appointment for this afternoon to see my dentist; although they didn't do the operation, hopefully they can tell whether I have an infection or something else, or if I just knocked it and made the root sore (it's much closer to the surface since the operation). Either way, I don't know what they charge for last-minute appointments. I hate to see my medical fund go toward something non-baby-related, but this is one of the reasons I HAVE a medical fund that's separate from the baby/emergency fund: so I don't feel like I'm taking from baby.

I also have to figure out how to complete NT's open enrollment for health care today, and I have someone coming over in the early evening to look at a chair I'm selling on Craigslist. Not quite the lazy Tuesday I was envisioning, but at least I have the day off and don't have to fit these things into a regular work day, which would be stressful.

OK, I've got to go eat (groan, chewing is no fun), shower and face the day.

One of AS's student loans hit and $118 went to principal. That means we exceeded the December goal by $9. There are a couple more payments that should go through before the end of the month, so I'm going to hold off posting about my results.

I have today and tomorrow off, as well as half of Thursday and all day Friday. So I only have a day and a half of work this week! Last week I only worked two days. I've been lazing around like a champ. AS and NT have been spoiling me and doing almost all the cooking and cleaning. We've been watching tons of movies, playing some games we got as gifts and stuffing our faces. Just had my OB appointment and I gained 5 lbs. in 3 weeks. Probably just in the last week!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
14,721 pounds ($29,442)
NT's 401(k): $6,900
AS's 403(b): $2,888
AS's IRA: $1,481
CJ's 401(k): $30,658
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $6,771
---
Total Assets: $512,640

Total Debt: $381,222

Current Estimated Net Worth: $131,418

November 2009 estimate: $127,671

Change in net worth: +$3,747

Summary: I decided to do my net worth calculation at the usual time of month, and to count this as my year-end net worth, even though a couple small payments will go through by the end of the year. It seems more consistent this way.

Our retirement accounts barely increased at all, but of course we paid off my Capital One personal loan, so our net worth still saw a healthy increase.

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 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.

OK, it was just a modest goal, but feels good anyway.

The biweekly savings hit, just $25 going to the EF. So I saved $660 this month, exceeding my goal of $650. If I do any budgeting stuff on New Year's Eve, I'll have another $25 to add, but I have a feeling I'll just check my account on Jan. 1 or 2.

I'm excited this morning because I only have 2 more days of work this week, 2 the next week and 2 the week after that. Nice lazy end to a hectic year!

I maybe got screwed on a $70 eBay purchase; I realized it had been over a week with no notice my order had been shipped, and when I went onto eBay the user was no longer registered. I wrote to them last night, but I'm not even sure it went through since they're not registered, so I'm going to file a claim with eBay today. NT does tons of eBay and assures me he's never NOT gotten his money back, one way or the other. Only problem is that was sort of the centerpiece gift from me and AS, so we're going to have to come up with an alternative solution fast! Even better that I have all those days off.

And now for the aww moment. We've been talking about how we should each have a special song that we try to get the baby familiar with while in the womb, and last night we finally got around to making a little playlist and setting the laptop on my belly and playing each of our songs a couple times. Judging from the movement, the baby definitely heard something!

I chose "C'mon Everybody" by Elvis. I like that it's peppy and interactive (eventually the kid can clap and stomp when Elvis says to) and that the chorus is "C'mon everybody take a real deep breath and repeat after me/I love-a my baby, love-a my baby/Hey hey hey, and my baby loves me!"

NT picked "I Believe in Miracles" by the Jackson Sisters. It's his favorite song but it also has some cute and relevant lyrics: "I believe in miracles, baby/I believe in you" and also "Here we are together face to face/Forever in a place that I created/Just for you, you, you/...Believe in dreams and think they are real/And one day soon/The miracle will come true."

AS just decided on hers yesterday after thinking about a few different ones, and went with "Everyday" by Buddy Holly. Some of the lyrics are really cute and relevant in this one too: "Every day seems a little longer/Every way love's a little stronger/Come what may, do you ever long for true love from me?/Every day it's a-gettin' closer/Goin' faster than a roller coaster/Love like yours will surely come my way."

What's great is I'm not going to get sick of any of those songs, so I'll love playing them to my belly a few times a day.

It's been ages since there was any movement on this! One of AS's student loans hit, and $87 went to principal. $2791 down, $109 to go in December. I have two student loans and a credit card whose payments usually hit right around the end of the month, so as long as one or two of them go through before the 31st I'm good.

In other money news, AS got her first paycheck! Lower than I predicted by using one of those online paycheck calculators, but a bit more than unemployment. I teased her this morning that she's only making $1.50 more per hour working than she was sitting at home all day, but it's something she loves, so who cares? Besides she'll probably get a raise in July (well-timed since that's about when the baby will enter daycare).

NT received some kind of incentive check from one of his UK retirement accounts for agreeing to some kind of change in their policy. I don't understand British legalese and no one else in my house has any interest in legalese period, so we don't really get it. But 231 pounds we'll take! We're probably going to mail it to NT's mom to deposit into his UK account, since the stamp will cost less than the currency exchange fee our US bank would hit us with if we tried depositing it here.

Still haven't heard from NT's job about their open enrollment period; I REALLY hope it comes before the first of the year, so we can decide on the best route before paying a hefty premium to have him on my plan. (I went ahead and signed him onto mine but I have a feeling it will be financially better to have him sign up for his own plan and get dropped from mine; however we won't know that until his job unveils their new plan. Grr!) I also don't know anything about the premiums on AS's new health care, which will go into effect the first of the year (this month she's still on the private healthcare we got for her while she was unemployed), nor about her 403(b) options. I decided if the 403(b) doesn't kick in January, I'll just have her put another $120 into the IRA we set up for her, and keep doing that until her real retirement starts. It's a traditional IRA so we'll get a tax break on the money we put in it, so it's the same effect as having retirement taken pretax out of her paycheck except the benefit comes later.

In other news, baby expenses have hit $1,373.85 so far this year. I don't think that's too bad, and hopefully I picked a better healthcare option for 2010 that will result in less out-of-pocket; I didn't really understand the difference between high-deductible and high-premium (and still don't fully trust that I get it) but I think I have a better idea now.

Oops, time for my morning meeting!

Yesterday was our company holiday party, and we each got a free lunch (Mexican buffet) plus a bag of candy and a $100 Amex card. It can only be used at certain stores, and at first I was really bummed I couldn't use it for something practical at Target, but then I got to thinking that it's nice we're forced to spend it on a want rather than a need. So we're taking it to Old Navy after Xmas. If you use it before Dec. 31, apparently you can earn a few rewards bucks, so we're going to try and go the 26th or 27th.

I sat with some of my co-workers to eat. I hardly socialize with them since proofreading is a quiet, solitary job and I don't usually go to the happy hours. We were talking about fave cereals and I mentioned that Honey Nut Cheerios with soymilk was my No. 1 choice. I didn't know one of the ladies was in charge of Friday breakfast treats for today, but lo and behold, Cheerios and soymilk was one of the choices! Yay!

Also today, one of the project managers came to my desk with a big basket of groceries. One of our clients sent it to us, which is weird because I think they're not renewing our contract. Anyway, I'm one of only 3 people who work on the account, and the project manager said she and the writer weren't interested, so I got the whole thing. Best of all, it was all organic or whole-foodsy stuff, and it all happened to be vegetarian! Except for one item I put on the free table, it's all stuff we'd buy for ourselves anyway: tortilla chips, salsa, crackers, cookies, peanut butter, strawberry jam, Vermont cheddar and bread.

We took a few quick holiday photos with our photographer friend last night--one in front of the tree with NT and AS kneeling down, ears to my belly as if they were listening to the baby; and one on the couch with our cat (who with typical cat perverseness decided he didn't want to sit on our laps, even though normally that's all he wants in the world--we finally got him to "sit" there by holding a pen and letting him attack it--that's one of his other favorite things).

The spreadsheet hasn't really simplified yet, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Once all the pending transactions come through and I get paid for the freelance work, it should start to look more normal.

I'm impatiently waiting for AS's first paycheck, and for info on her health care and retirement plans, so I can start more accurately planning our 2010 budget. I did start a spreadsheet where I listed the financial goals I hope to achieve in 2010--it looks ambitious, but doable if we can manage to keep bringing in extra income, and if my calculations of what I think AS's paycheck is going to be are correct. I'm hoping my two recent proofing jobs will lead to a nice side income.

Reminds me, though--I should go update a Craiglist post and slash the price of the item. We listed a $200 office chair and asked for $100, but I'm going to reduce it to $75 and see if anyone bites. If not I'll keep reducing it until someone takes it, because we're not going to have an office once baby gets here.

My head is spinning with all the financial stuff I'm trying to keep track of right now! We still have (I think) a pending transaction from the Thanksgiving trip, plus waiting on my dad's check to fund that trip, plus waiting for CC bill to pay off rental car and some presents to me that I told AS & NT to charge to that card, plus numerous Xmas gift pending transactions, plus waiting to be told who to invoice for some freelance work I did that will be paying for our holiday party, plus keeping track of line items for Xmas shopping for each of us (and figuring out which Paypal & Amazon transactions come out of which spending category), plus needing to deposit several checks and some cash for the laptop fund. Whew! I'm not used to juggling so much all at once in our checking account, but so far I think I'm doing OK.

The good news is, we finally raised the money to pay sales tax on the laptop we'd saved up for. AS got paid for a couple of sewing jobs that have straggled in from her business, my parents sent us $20 for our anniversary, and NT did a Pinecone survey for $3. So NT ordered an iMac Pro last night, and it should come before Xmas. Woo hoo! Our current laptop is draggy and touchy, dropping the wireless connection every couple of minutes, flickering wildly if the screen has been idle for a minute, trying to eat CDs when we put them in to load to our iPods. Still, we hope to sell it for parts at least and be able to put that money toward something. We have an equally useless iMac with a busted CD drive that we hope to clear of its files and sell for parts as well. We'll probably put that money toward paying off my dad, because the sooner we pay him off, the sooner we can start saving for paying off the stove we bought on 12-months-no-interest from Sears, and for our meet-the-baby trips to Va. and UK next year!

Also, the aforementioned freelance work: Someone at my job, totally unrelated to the other woman who recently sent me some freelance proofing, asked me to help her with a side job she was doing. I've already worked 5 hours on it, so at least $200 coming, and I might get one more little chunk of proofreading before the project is done! We're going to put that money toward our holiday party and to help offset the cost of gifts for our families. (We probably could have covered it with our spending money over a couple weeks, but this way we won't be flat broke all month.) We've got most of our gifts ordered (except for NT's parents & sister & grandma, but we're just going to order restaurant GCs online for them). I still want to send out cards to my siblings; I don't get around to this most years, but since I had such a good time with them at Thanksgiving I feel motivated. I was hoping to get pics from NT's company holiday party to include, since they'd be festive, but I haven't seen anything yet. Well, we have our photographer friend coming Thursday, so he'll take some much more professional shots anyway and we can send those.

Yep, this has got to be the busiest December ever! We had to sit down last night and make a prep list for our party Saturday, because we have haircuts and a prenatal class that day, so we want all of our food and drinks sorted before then. We picked foods that can be made the day before, so all we have to do when we get home from haircuts is arrange them prettily.

I'm truly overcome with happiness right about now!! I checked the account first thing this morning and it was just GONE. I didn't realize that would happen, but since it's a personal loan and not a credit card, it's like the account was never there. It lets me log in and says zero balance, but when I try to look at past payments or any other info, there just is none!

Then I deleted the entire line from my debt spreadsheet. My credit card/personal debt is now down to two items: my last credit card with $11,104 left on it, and my loan to my dad with $6,000 still to pay.

Our minimum debt payments per month now total $2,422, including mortgage. That's the first time it's been less than $3,000 since I added NT's bills to mine and AS's!

I'm so glad to get rid of this loan because it was my last consolidation of other debts that I did. One of my first entries on this blog in 2007 was contemplating moving a few high-interest loans into this personal loan, but I was a little scared because in the past, every time I did a balance transfer, I would end up racking up the card's balance again anyway. That didn't happen this time.

The loan started at $30,000 in June 2007 with 8.99% fixed interest and a $623 fixed monthly payment for a five-year term. So it would have gotten paid off in 2012 if we hadn't paid extra. We paid it off in half the time!

Over the past year we got excess student loan money refunded to NT in checks, and we chose to put that toward this loan instead of the student loan. So $5301 of the balance is now sitting in a student loan, but one with a 6.8% interest rate and tax benefits. That loan is on the back burner because it hasn't come due and we only pay interest right now, but it's actually our highest-interest debt now that the Capital One loan is gone, so after paying off my dad, the credit card, and one of AS's student loans, it will be next in my sights, but probably not until 2012.

I guess that's about all I have to say about this loan. Time to happy-dance my way over to the Old Debt Graveyard and bury this sucker for good!! You can come with me if you want!

PS: Oh yeah, and that's $2704 down, $196 to go on my December debt goal. Almost forgot about that part.

Our regular biweekly transfer over into savings occurred, just $25 to the EF this time. Still, that's $635 saved, $15 to go on our December goal.

Just checked my personal loan account online again, to see if somehow my payment posted already...nope, have to wait, hopefully only until tomorrow morning!

First of all, many thanks for the responses to my last post, not only the kind congratulations and comments but also the suggestions and perspectives on daycare/babysitters/staying home. It's an issue that will require full examination of each option, and I'll take all of your opinions into account as I go along. I'm open to all points of view, so I appreciate anything you have to tell me!

My credit card payment hit, with $188 going toward principal. $986 down, $1914 to go on the December debt goal.

Also, I decided to send my Capital One personal loan payoff payment early! I have over $2000 in my checking account that is just reserved in case of medical expenses, so more than enough to keep the account in the black until payday on the 15th (since medical bills never need to be paid right away). I also took $600 from the emergency fund as planned to help with the payoff. Getting rid of this loan will also eliminate a $623 monthly bill, so it's well worth it. I'm hoping the payoff will post on Friday and I'll be able to do the happy dance as well as finally add something to the Old Debt Graveyard page again.

Yesterday, NT got a $50 holiday bonus from his job, so we added that to the laptop fund, and also counted and deposited our change jar (another $44) and the one-dollar bills I've been setting aside from my spending money ever since Ima Saver suggested it ($20 more!). We now have $1002.30, so we went to order our rejiggered Macbook Pro which is $999 with free shipping...except we forgot about sales tax! LOL. That's an extra $75, so we still need to raise $71.70. Ah well, we're getting there. NT is going to start setting aside his $1 bills too, and we have an office chair, some CDs and a couple other things we can try to sell.

Hmmm...I feel like there was one more thing I was going to blab about, but my pregnant brain has let me down again, and it's almost time to leave work, so it'll have to wait!

Today is the third anniversary of when AS, NT and I made our lifetime commitment to one another! This has been such a hectic fall and winter that it all but fell by the wayside. The first two years I looked up what kind of anniversary it was (paper, cotton) and made sure we all gave each other gifts to match, but this year the only thing we planned is dinner out tonight at a new, nice-looking Italian restaurant. NT did write the nicest note to us this morning though; reminded me that, during the first year of dating when NT was in England and we were in America, his letters and e-mails were the main thing that kept up our faith that this crazy idea was really going to work out. And it has, better than I ever could have imagined! Happy anniversary, sweeties.

And now, the return of pregnant brain. I was absent-minded and distracted during the first couple months of pregnancy, but by mid-September I was pretty much back to normal. Now, again, I find I'm doing stupid things, or having little slips of the memory or other brain functions that I take for granted. Today in the breakroom I was getting ice out of the freezer and somehow dumped the whole bin onto the floor. Then when I was updating my spreadsheets, I noticed my calculation of what should be in our savings account was over by $20. I'm always so careful with that, so I have no idea what happened! After some agonizing, I took the $20 out of my EF line item; the only other budget category is NT's schoolbooks, which I haven't touched in ages, so it must be something I did when I typed in the new EF total recently. Then again, when updating my Number Crunch worksheet, I came out with a dollar surplus that I couldn't account for. I just hope this new stupidity doesn't seep into my proofreading! It did make me realize that if I were truly out of commission ever, all my budgetary stuff is just in my head. I need to set up a binder of log-ins, bill due dates and other information so that NT and AS could muddle through if I couldn't handle finances for awhile.

Yesterday afternoon was slow at work, so I finally got around to calling some daycare providers. Our initial list only includes downtown providers that are right on our bus line or mere blocks away. All I can say is, yowch! I'd seen in several reports that Minneapolis rates for infants average $1200 per month, so I'd prepared for that amount. What I hadn't considered is that daycare outside downtown is probably cheaper, meaning to get to a $1200 average, downtown rates have to be significantly higher. The six places I contacted range from $1300 per month to--get this--$2246 a month!!

Actually, only one place I contacted was over $2000. The ones we can consider (because they cost less than AS's monthly salary) are $1300 to $1452.

It hurts, but I think we're still going with this option. AS has just started back at a job that she's truly passionate about, so money isn't the issue there; plus, for moving to England, her main option (not being a legal spouse) is going to be through employment or starting a business, so she needs work experience. It's essential to our big-picture future plans.

NT and I like our jobs a lot but they're not our lives' passions. However, the salaries are significantly higher than AS's. If we have a hope of raising a kid while continuing to accelerate debt payment and retirement savings, our jobs are both key. And in this uncertain economic environment plus shaky healthcare situation, having two jobs with healthcare options is much safer than just having one. I'll never forget what happened to my SAHM sister when she had a miscarriage while her husband was between jobs and healthcare for the new job didn't kick in soon enough.

So that's the deal now, but it's a situation that I'll revisit frequently to make sure it's really the best and smartest decision for our family.

Our four mortgage payments hit:
UK#1: $257 to principal
UK#2: $54
UK#3: $57
US: $373

And one of AS's loans hit:
$57 to principal

So in total we've paid $798 toward debt, leaving $2102 to go in our December goal. Still trying to decide whether to pay off my personal loan using the "float" money of healthcare funds and the laptop fund, or just wait till payday in two weeks. We'll see if I can stand the wait!

I also transferred the surplus of NT's UK flat-rental income over to his UK savings account, which came out to US$610. So just $40 to go on the savings goal.

If today stays slow at work, I'll get started on calling daycare providers. Gulp! I'm afraid they're going to be very reticent with their info, trying to get me in for a visit, and that I'll get annoyed. I'm also a little worried about prices. We'll definitely be paying a premium to find a provider that's convenient to our bus commute. Cheaper than buying a car still, though. At least I think so. If not, we may have to rethink our strategy!

I'm being real easy on myself this month extra goalwise, because there's so much to do, what with our anniversary, holiday party, Xmas, prenatal classes, and figuring out our leave with mine and NT's jobs.

1. Debt: Pay off at least $2900 of debt.
Balance as of 11/30: $384,013
Goal balance: $381,113

2. Savings: Save at least $650 (all for baby/Ef)

3. Fitness: free month.
4. Environmentalism: free month.
5. Creative/crafts: free month.
6. Philanthropy: free month.
7. Side hustles: free month.

8. Other:
A. Help AS with couch reupholstery.
B. Begin to contact daycare options we've collected.

This will be the last month with this goal format anyway; next year will be much more about debt repayment, staying frugal, and just trying to figure out the whole parenthood thing, so I don't think I'll need extra goals to have a full life.

Well, it's a mixed bag this month, so I'll just list it out. Things got exceedingly busy, so it certainly wasn't a case of procrastination on any of the goals I didn't meet.

Debt: Pay off at least $2200 of debt.
Goal balance: $384,134
Progress: DONE! $2321 paid
Balance as of 11/30: $384,013

Savings: Save at least $720 ($120 for AS's retirement; $600 for Xmas fund)
Progress: DONE! $890 saved ($240 for AS retirement, $600 for Xmas, $50 for EF

Creative/crafts: Participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo); goal is 50,000 words.
Results: Stalled at 9,214 words

Other: Help AS with couch reupholstery.
Progress: A bit. Measured cushions and other parts so we can start cutting out fabric soon.

Begin to contact daycare options we've collected.
Progress: None. I was going to do it today, but I didn't have a single moment of free time after writing my last blog post. Will get on this soon!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I read everyone's latest posts last night, so I feel all caught up even if I didn't comment on many of them. Welcome back Pennywise!

Our Thanksgiving was great--much better than we'd hoped for. Went to my sister's in Ohio--she's closest to me in age, but she and her husband are the most religious/conservative of my family, and I haven't seen her since NT moved in.

I needn't have worried. My family doesn't like making people uncomfortable, and I bet my sister's family got positive advance notice from the family that has met NT and seen the three of us together. Everyone was so nice. When it came time for family photos, someone yelled, "OK, inlaws stand behind the couch--AS, you get in there." So I knew they regarded her as an inlaw even though we're not technically married. Then later someone suggested taking separate photos of each sister's family, and they had me, NT and AS pose together first. I was very happy--that's all I want from my family, to recognize us as a family unit so that they understand AS is going to be our baby's mom too.

And I only got into two political-esque conversations--both with my mouthiest brother-in-law--and felt I managed to extricate myself before either of us got too heated. That was one of my main goals for the trip too, since me & mine are the only liberals in my whole family! LOL. But politics aside, my family is very open-minded so I would almost call them socially liberal. More like mind-your-own-business, classic Republicans, which is a trait I admired in that political ideology (and still do admire when I see it).

My baby bump got to "meet" 9 of its 11 cousins, who range in age from 12 to 20 (I think). So baby will be like me; I'm much younger than all my cousins, who seem more like aunts and uncles to me.

Oh, and I gave my dad the undated checks for $1000 each and explained my plan for paying him off. He seemed really happy, though in typical dad fashion said "Oh, you don't have to worry about paying me back before the baby comes." I explained that was just my personal benchmark that I was going to try for. I noticed he flipped through and said "Are there six checks here?"--that told me that even though he would never hassle me about paying him back, he does remember how much he gave me and how much I still owe him, so it is important to him too. That made me feel good--I wouldn't want to be sweating over the money if he didn't even care about it.

My mom gave me $100 cash to put toward the trip expenses, and told me to just let them know how much more we needed. I'm waiting until the car rental charge comes through on my card, but I think we got the trip in at about $540, a little better than the $585 I was expecting. We paid for our own food, but my parents are covering car, insurance, gas, tolls and hotel.

Anyway, progress on the goals: AS's student loan hit and put $117 to principal, bringing our November debt payment to $2321.

Plus, I had AS research IRA options for the retirement money we've been saving for her while she was laid off, and she settled on eTrade. I was going to put one more chunk of $120 to her retirement in December, since she'll start her 403(b) with the new job in January. So I took out that $120 a couple days earlier than usual, which means it goes to the November savings goal, bringing it to $890.

We got an early Xmas card from NT's dad and stepmom, with US $120 in it! We're putting that toward the laptop we're saving up for. I also got a $120 check for the freelance proofreading I did a couple weeks ago. Our total saved is at $888. We're now leaning toward a reconfigured Macbook Pro which is $999, so we're getting really close! The change jar is half full and I've been saving my one-dollar bills from my spending money, so we'll add all that in when we get a bit closer.

OK, I've got loads of work on my desk and my boss is unexpectedly out due to complications her poor husband had due to the lymphoma treatment.

Another thrilling episode in the cost of my prepaid plan! I know these are really boring entries; they're mostly for my benefit so I can keep track.

NT filled up with 300 more minutes because his 60 days had nearly run out (not because he'd used up his minutes). Cost: $32.82

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March, meaning it's been 8 months. 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.

Initial layout to get us set up with phones and 2300 minutes: $241.63
NT's late-May Net10 fillup: $32.65
AS's late-June T-Mobile fillup, 1000 minutes: $107.40
NT's late-July Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT's late-September Net10 fillup: $32.82
AS's early-October T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT's late-November Net10 fillup: $32.82

So our total cost so far is $587.92.

So far, if I divide our total cost by 8, our new plan has cost us $73.49 per month. That's the lowest the average has been, and measurably better than our $85 average on the T-Mobile family plan.

I've still used just over half of my 1000 minutes and I don't need to re-up until March 2010 unless I run out of minutes before then.

(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 is to get my average cost below that, preferably to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.)

I did send off a $20 payment to my personal loan, just to make sure I'd hit my goal. $14 went to principal, so I hit the $2200 November goal and surpassed it by $4. LOL. There's also a chance a student loan will hit on the 30th, but now I don't have to worry.

I've spent all weekend, except for a nice Friday out, planning and planning and planning our near future. We have so many money-affecting balls in the air right now that I just had to get as much figured out as possible. So here's a rundown:

1. AS GOT HER JOB! She found out a few days ago. Couple of changes: It pays less than we thought ($25K instead of $30K), but rather than starting part-time in January, it starts Dec. 1 at full time. And there's a promise of a raise in July. So we're very happy, and my chances of paying my dad off by my due date are now extremely good. It does mean we won't be able to keep the baby out of daycare as long as we'd hoped, but otherwise great news.

2. Sat down with my healthcare plan (and NT's from last year, since he doesn't have his yet) and did some calculations. Turns out it looks like kind of a wash as to whether mine or NT's would be a better family plan, but it does seem to be better to have a family plan versus individuals with one of us taking on the baby, because the family deductible is triple whether there are two family members or three. So I signed NT up for my plan; we can drop it during his open enrollment if his is better.

I just second-guessed myself as I was writing this. NT generally does not need much health care, so I'm wondering if it really serves to pay a high monthly premium to have him on my plan. I might have to do the calculations again. Hmm. Maybe tomorrow; I don't know if I have the stamina tonight!

3. Based on the above knowledge about AS's job and health insurance, I tried to extrapolate out a budget basically for the next year, to get a sense of how healthcare, daycare and unpaid leave are going to affect us. There are still a lot of variables, but I think I got a rough, conservative estimate of each month's numbers, and it looks like the only tight month would be June-July, when NT and I will be taking turns staying home without pay.

4. If that's how our parental leave goes. I've gotten the OK from my boss to arrange my leave however I want, but we still need the thumbs-up from NT's job, and his position is much more intense than mine. So we're going to present two options to them: one where NT takes off two days per week for 15 weeks, and another where he takes all six weeks of his leave at one go. We also have preferences for which two days he'd have off based on his class schedule for next semester, but if they don't like those he can take other days off, but he may have to leave early some days and work later on others to make up for it. There are some days he may be watching the baby and need to get to class pretty early, so AS and I will then need to take off early some days, but our jobs are a lot more flexible, so we're not too worried about that.

5. We have some smaller events coming up in the next few weeks: Thanksgiving, our anniversary and a holiday party we're throwing. Thanksgiving travel will be paid by my dad, but we need to figure out money for eating during the drives to and from Ohio, if we don't want Taco Bell 3 times a day. We also want to eat out for our anniversary, which is Dec. 2, so I'm trying to find discretionary funds in the budget for that. And for our party, we'll need to replenish our liquor cabinet, because we barely have anything in the house right now. We have some discretionary spending in December and January that we could skip and redirect those funds to the above three events if needed; I just need to figure out how much we'll need for each.

6. AS and NT are both incredibly busy, with schoolwork, freelance work and preparing for the new job, so I've been handling much of the online Xmas shopping for us. I've been carefully bargain-shopping so I make sure we can get as much bang for our buck as possible (when you have a fixed amount it makes you think that way), but it's been time-consuming and kind of mentally exhausting. I'm making good progress, though.

7. On beyond the holidays, new job and parental leave, we have to keep in mind that we've promised our families that we'll bring the baby to see them next year. My and AS's parents live in Virginia and NT's in England, so two different trips. We not only have to make sure we save enough paid time off from being eaten up by parental leave, we need to have a plan for how to pay for the two trips. I still have a ways to go on figuring out the money aspect, but we did pick out some dates we'd like to go, and I figured out how much PTO we need to save up for those two trips.

I think that's all I worked on this weekend. We did end up buying an oven on the Sears card, so we need to come up with $800 within 12 months, but I'm not at all worried about that. AS made a list of contact info for the daycare centers within convenient bus or walking distance, so I'm going to start calling on Monday. We still need to figure out what we're getting our parents for Xmas, and hopefully get a holiday photo taken that we can turn into a card for our families, but those things can wait (though not too long) until after Thanksgiving.

Phew! It's no wonder that my NaNoWriMo novel has suffered this week, but all of the above planning is much more important than the NaNoWriMo goal, which is fun but essentially useless.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
14,721 pounds ($29,442)
NT's 401(k): $6,620
AS's 403(b): $2,888
AS's CD: $516
AS retirement savings: $845
CJ's 401(k): $30,273
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $6,731
---
Total Assets: $511,815

Total Debt: $384,144

Current Estimated Net Worth: $127,671

October 2009 estimate: $116,484

Change in net worth: +$11,187

Summary: OK, we made a HUGE leap in net worth, but let me explain. I don't get regular info on NT's UK pensions, but I happened to look at a piece of mail we got, rather than just filing it away uncomprehendingly, and realized that one of his pensions had jumped quite a bit in the 3+ years since he gave me the initial balance. So that gradual increase is recorded as a big leap here.

I also paid off a healthy chunk of debt, and all our other retirement accounts increased modestly, so that all contributed to the change.

After Creditcardfree's post about getting close to six figures on their retirement funds, I got curious about ours. Turns out we're at $85,084, so quite a ways to go before we hit six figures. But it's better than nothing!

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 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.

Ack, this has been a busy and eventful week, both financially and otherwise! Anyway, yesterday I would have transferred the remaining $400 of Xmas money into our savings account--except we're ready to start Xmas shopping! So it stayed in checking, but I did technically reach my savings goal, with $770 saved, $50 over my November goal.

Time to go check out net worth now. Where has the month gone??

Not as much as I'd hoped, though! One of AS's student loans hit, and only $75 went to principal, not the usual $80-something. Maybe it was because the bill was technically due the 14th (a Saturday), but didn't hit the account until today. So $2190 down, $10 to go on the November debt goal.

I know I've said this before and it's never happened, but I'm really not sure I'll make my monthly goal this time. My next payment is scheduled for Thanksgiving day, so as long as it goes out the Friday after, should hit the following Monday, which is the 30th. Should I take that chance or do a little extra payment on the personal loan? I have plenty of fluff money in the checking account. Hmmm...