Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

OK, one non-money bit of news: My NaNoWriMo novel is up to 8099 words! I managed about 3300 words last night, my most prolific night to date. Now if I could keep up that pace for the rest of the month, I could actually achieve this! I had nearly a week of writer's block and lack of motivation, but hopefully that's over. If you divvy the month up evenly, I should have reached 25,000 words last night, but I'm trying not to think about that.

The other day NT asked if we'd have any money to give my dad for the personal loan when we see him at Thanksgiving. We won't, but it got me thinking. My dad doesn't trust the mail carrier they have due to recurring delivery problems, so he won't just let me send him checks for payment. I'll have to do a wire transfer from my bank account to his, which will incur a fee each time. I thought, maybe I should write out 6 checks for $1000 each, and leave the dates blank, and give them to my dad at Thanksgiving. I can e-mail him whenever I have $1000 ready for him so he can date and cash one of the checks. This way, I'll save money on transaction fees, and he'll have a concrete piece of evidence that I do intend to pay him the rest of the money, and soon. He's a very organized guy, so I know I can trust him to hold onto those checks and not lose them. Still considering it, but it seems like a good idea so far.

Got a surprise check in the mail this weekend, nearly $70 from our organic grocery co-op. AS and I bought a membership years ago, and we get special discounts, two $2.50 coupons per quarter, plus this profit-sharing check once a year. I always forget about the check so it's always a nice surprise! We're going to put half toward paying off my dad and half toward the laptop fund.

We've nearly decided to get a new oven! One of the big burners (the back one I used all the time for boiling pasta, grains and beans) went out a couple months ago. We've made some attempts to fix it and to find someone who can repair it, but the stove is 25+ years old so we're now leaning toward replacing it. Cleaning under the coils is a pain, so we'd want one of those flat-surface electric stoves. There are good ones to be had for $400-$700 at Sears, and we can do the no payments, no interest for 12 months thing. I'm confident we'd easily save up that much just with extra income streams once we finish saving for our laptop. We've bought a fridge and a dishwasher this way and didn't pay a cent in interest because we paid them off in plenty of time.

Speaking of extra income streams, the woman who wants me to do a little freelance proofreading asked my hourly rate. I'm stalling getting back to her because I have no idea! I know I get paid about $24 per hour (plus benefits) and that my company bills clients $150 per hour for my time, so I feel like it should be somewhere in between those. Not sure what to do. AS will help me come up with a price later if I haven't decided.

Had a delightful dinner at the home of some friends we see far too seldom this weekend. They have two small children and we really enjoyed seeing how happy and engaged the kids were, and how much the parents clearly liked having them around. At the end of the night, they gave us some baby equipment including a bouncy seat for infants, a breastfeeding pillow that helps support the baby, and a brand new copy of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I know we have lots still to get, but our front closet is filling up with loads of useful (and free!) supplies.

I was bummed on Friday because I didn't find any change on 5th St. But this morning on the way to work I found a penny, so my lucky streak is back as far as I'm concerned!

While trying to pick the health care coverage with the best pricing, I'm trying to factor in the worst-case scenario. So I'm ignoring the deductible, which only tells you the most you could pay for one medical event. Instead I'm adding the monthly premium and the out-of-pocket maximum for each option. That will tell me which plan would cost the least should I have expensive medical issues. (And judging from the past few years, and the fact I have the final trimester plus labor and delivery to get through in 2010, I should definitely plan to be reaching my out-of-pocket maximum.)

I have two options for medical, plus optional additional dental and vision plans. What I've done is tried to figure out the highest possible cost for each plan for me as an individual; for me and the baby; and for me, NT and the baby. Then when NT gets details of his job's options, I will figure out the highest possible cost for each option for just him; for him and the baby; and for him, me and the baby.

I'll then pair up the different ways that all three of us can be covered, adding together the maximum costs, for instance, of having just me on my work plan while NT and the baby are on his work plan. Then I'll compare, and the combination that results in the lowest maximum annual cost will be the option that I go with.

Sounds fail-safe, right? Although have you seen the movie or read the book Fail Safe? They think there's no way they could make a mistake, and next thing you know New York and Moscow are getting blown up. So we're watching the documentary "Sicko," and there are all these stories of people who had coverage, but when they were diagnosed with a serious condition, the insurance company found a way to disqualify treatment, such as calling a proven method "experimental," or to kick the person out of their coverage altogether, as they did with a woman by pointing out that she hadn't disclosed the "serious" condition of once having had a yeast infection on her application, so therefore she should never have been covered. I think she had cancer.

So I do realize that under the current conditions in the U.S., all this scrupulous planning to make sure I have enough money for the maximum out-of-pocket could be for naught if one of us were diagnosed with something serious, because there's a good chance the insurance company could find a way to deny payment for the treatment.

But what else can I do? I still have to make the best plans I can, and find the best deal, and try to have enough money in the bank to cover what the insurance companies say would be the most I'd have to pay.

And bide my time till we can move to England...hoping no health disaster befalls any of us between now and then.

Two paychecks in the checking account (mine and NT's) was a pleasant little surprise. Even though I've been at this job for 3+ years, I still tend to think that if the 15th hits on a Sunday, payday isn't till Monday, as it was at my old job. Maybe this time I'll remember, since I'm writing about it!

Making my loan payment early worked out well; I had plenty of float money in the checking account and my balance never got below $1200, even though my Number Crunch worksheet showed some red for awhile (because theoretically, if I'd had to withdraw all of my medical-expense money and all the money saved for the laptop fund before this payday, I would've overdrawn). Now my balance sheet is lovely and black all the way down for the next three months again!

The only trouble is, now it's over a month before my next loan payment (which will be my payoff)! Oh well, maybe I can float again next month. I'm very impatient to pay this off so I can start paying my dad off. (The back story on that: He gave me $12,000 for down payment on my & AS's condo. So far I've paid back $6,000 in six years; that's progress, but not nearly enough, so ideally, I'll pay back the other $6,000 before baby comes in early March.)

I think I'm going to update the Big-Picture Goal in my sidebar...it's eminently clear I won't be CC-free by the end of this year. Soo, I'm just going to move it out a year and try to reach the goal by the end of 2010! I'm going to list a couple other goals I have for debt, such as getting rid of one of AS's student loans by the end of 2011. Could happen! Anyway, it's something to shoot for. (I'm sure my baby is laughing maniacally and tenting its little fingers because it has other plans for my money, but oh well.)

I probably have a bit of freelance proofreading headed my way next week. Woo hoo! I haven't negotiated a price, because just between me and all of you, I'd do it for any amount of money! If it's just a little sum, I'll put it toward the laptop fund. If by chance it ends up being more, or if I get more work as a result of doing a good job, I'll put some toward the laptop fund and some toward paying my dad.

It's now a little over a week until AS finds out whether she'll get the job at the publishing house! We think her chances are good because she's worked there before; the head editor trusts her taste and instincts; and she left on good terms last time, has kept in touch ever since, and also has gotten a lot of impressive education and job experience in the meantime. However, she knows a little bit about the other person who's in the running for the job, and they also have an extremely impressive resume. So there is some chance she won't get it. But we're realistically optimistic.

While admiring Thriftorama's forethought in getting her new baby-to-be's college fund ready to go, I was struck once again with how clueless I am as to how to proceed financially once I'm ready to start saving and investing more than paying extra debt. I feel like our debt load is still outsized, so I'll be focusing on that for at least another two years. But at some point, we're going to have to get serious about retirement and college savings, and we'll have quite a bit of catchup to play since we're not doing much on those fronts in the meantime. But it's an extremely complex problem, since we'll be drawing U.S. income for several more years but plan on ultimately retiring in the UK (and raising our kids in the UK, which means they may want to go to college there). I'm ignorant of tax laws and haven't found any Web sites for dummies to figure out the best way to somewhat protect our assets so that when we withdraw in the UK, we won't be subject to taxation that we wouldn't in the U.S. I think this is a job for a financial planner. But how to find one with the areas of expertise we need? And how to find one whose judgment we trust? And when should I start forking over money for said expertise--should I wait until we're ready to get serious about retirement/education contributions, or should I start preparing now? I've been running in circles on this question regarding retirement for years now, and now that I've added college fund to the mix I'm more at a loss than ever!

Oh, and I found a nickel on the ground yesterday. And that concludes this edition of my financial news! LOL

I'm in creditcardfree's situation right now...my finances are pretty dull. Looking at my "Number Crunch" spreadsheet, which shows me all known activity for the next three months, all we have this week is to withdraw spending money on Friday, and on Sunday I get to move some line items down to the next month (money that I set aside for quarterly & yearly bills). Whoopee. The problem with trying to make an exciting game out of my finances is that I miss the action when nothing much is happening!

Learning from ccf's posting, I won't open up for questions. I'm trying to think what little financial things have happened recently that I haven't blogged about...

Well, I've done some tiny bits of philanthropy this past month; I donated $5 here and there to help promote the health care reform bills, I gave some money at work to buy treats for my boss (a newlywed whose husband has just been diagnosed with lymphoma), and today (in honor of Veterans Day) I donated $5 to an organization that helps homeless Minnesota veterans. I'm feeling the urge to give more, but hoping just $5 will help them a tiny bit (they can at least add me to the number of donors) and satisfy that itch. I don't want to put off philanthropy forever, but right now I feel like our money mostly needs to be doing other things.

I've been finding money nearly every day on the street that I walk to and from the bus stop and work, and to and from meeting NT for lunch. I've found 3 dimes in the past month, plus a bunch of pennies: 2 today (plus one at Target), 2 yesterday, plus several more, usually at least one a day.

I found out that one of NT's pensions has gained quite a bit of value since he gave me his info when I first took over his finances, so my next net worth update will be pretty. He also got a letter that he needs to cash out of this lottery thing that he'd bought into, because he can't be in it unless he's resident in the UK. I think he still has to find some info for it, but that will be nice once we get it; we'll have it deposited into his UK savings account, so it will add to the baby/emergency fund.

AS had a good interview on Monday, and should find out within two weeks whether she gets the dream job. We don't know how much it pays, but anything more than unemployment will feel like a big raise! (She nets $348 per week on unemployment, so I think that would be equivalent to $18K-$20K per year.) I've already figured our budget for January and February assuming no income for her, because I'd laid it out before the unemployment bill was signed, and I'm just going to keep it that way until I find out whether she'll be getting a salary or just more unemployment. This is great too in case she does get a job but there's a lag in receiving the first paycheck; we won't be hurting for that money because I've already made a workable budget without it. Anything AS does bring in for January and February will go directly to paying off my dad; we hope to have that debt settled before baby comes.

I've still been keeping track of baby expenses, and we're at $1089.23. I also factor in what I'm saving on birth control, but not what I'm saving on wine and booze. I'm counting medical bills at face value, even though so far I'm able to pay them with my health savings account, which is pretax money.

Speaking of healthcare, I'm anxiously awaiting the reveal of our 2010 options at work. I've gotten several hints that lead me to believe costs will be going up again, but who knows how much. Knowing how much well-baby visits are costing on the high-deductible plan, and knowing I have a labor & delivery coming up in 2010, I doubt I'll be doing the high-deductible again. I've decided what I'm going to do: figure out the max out-of-pocket for every plan offered by my and NT's employers and go with the lowest worst-case scenario. I'm not going to worry about whether it comes with HSA, FSA or nothing; I'm just going to look at the potential dollar amounts I would pay at worst under each plan. (NT is generally healthy as a horse, so for him I'm just going to pick the lowest premium, which will probably be at his own employer.) The only other thing that could possibly sway me is if my current doctor wouldn't be in NT's network, but I doubt that would be the case.

I'm also going to do the math on the max out-of-pocket that could happen from putting the baby on each plan, and make the decision ahead of time so there's no scrambling to decide when it enters the world.

I've returned to my old conundrum about the best places to invest for retirement considering we'll probably be retiring in England. Would a Roth IRA really benefit us, or would the UK be able to tax the portion that's untaxable in the U.S.? When exactly should I hire a financial adviser to help me make those decisions, and how will I find one who's an expert on expat retirement? We're nowhere near ready to accelerate our retirement contributions, but I have some dribs and drabs of retirement money for AS that I'm not sure what to do with: about $4000 in her old employer's 403(b), $515 in a CD that's coming due this month, $850 or so just in a very low-earning savings account. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to them!

Yay, they DO process payments on Saturdays! $1382 went to principal. So we're at $2115 of debt paid, $85 to go on the November goal.

The personal loan is down to $1732. It's going bye-bye next month no matter what! I'm super fired up to burn off as much debt as I can before baby comes. I hope this is the right way to go versus padding the EF more. Getting rid of this $623 monthly payment certainly can't hurt our post-birth budget, and paying off my dad like a grownup before I become a mommy will just be a big psychological boost.

Yesterday was my biweekly savings day, and I put $200 into the Xmas fund. (We put aside $600 each year, $200 going to buy presents for each of us. All extended-family and friend gifts come from our own spending money.)

I also sent a $1400 personal loan payment yesterday and it left my bank account today, 10 days earlier than usual. I have all this money for various line items in the checking account, and it will get replenished on payday (the 16th, which is when I was originally going to send this payment). I figure it saves me about $5-$10 interest and does no harm. The payment should hit Monday, but I'll check tomorrow just to see if they process payments on Saturdays!

Today Obama signed the law to extend unemployment benefits. That's very good news for several of my friends, who've been out of work and looking for ages with no success. It also takes the pressure off AS, whose original stimulus unemployment extension would run out at about the end of the year. However, hopefully she won't need it. The job she's been hoping for is showing some promise--she's got an interview with the boss (also her friend and a mentor) on Monday morning. Fingers crossed!

We had a second ultrasound today--they got the pictures they couldn't get last time, confirming the spine, lip and nose are all looking perfect. Baby looked even cuter than last time! It was putting its hands together, making faces, kicking its feet...we got some great pictures again. Now we won't see our little guy for about 4 months, when it comes out. The technician at one point said "Oh, I know what you're having! You sure you don't want to know?" LOL. It about drove AS crazy, but we said yes, we're sure. Then the tech said, "Oh, and remember that I know how to spot girl parts as well as boy parts, so don't assume it's a boy just because I saw something!" Hee hee, that's exactly what AS had been thinking.

I completely forgot I did this, but when I went online to check the UK mortgage balances yesterday, I noticed we did clear 25 pounds of profit from renting the UK flat this month, despite having to pay management fees. So I transferred it into UK savings and it gets counted toward the baby/emergency fund. (We would dip into the UK money as a last resort because of the currency-conversion and account-transfer fees, but it's there if we need it.)

So that counts as $50 in savings for the baby/EF. $170 saved in November so far.

My new, lower (but more to principal) mortgage payment hit, and $372 went to principal. Love it! That's $733 down, $1467 to go on the November debt goal.

Also, wrote about 450 more words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I need to go a lot faster if I'm going to hit 50,000 by the end of the month, but at least I've written SOMETHING two days in a row!

NT's three UK mortgages hit:
#1 $253 to principal
#2 $53 to principal
#3 $55 to principal

All told, $361 down, $1839 to go on my November goal.

Also, I wrote 685 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night! I've managed about one more sentence so far today, but I'm hoping to get some done when I get home tonight.

I transferred $120 into savings for AS's retirement, so just $600 to go on my November savings goal.

AS's $500 CD is coming up in mid-November, so I have to decide what to do next. Maybe with the money I've been putting into savings (I have about $850), plus that $500, it would be enough to start a Roth IRA for her.

Debt: Pay off at least $2200 of debt.
Balance as of 11/1: $386,334
Goal balance: $384,134
I hope to make my next-to-last payment on the personal loan this month.

Savings: Save at least $720 ($120 for AS's retirement; $600 for Xmas fund)
Progress: DONE! $776 saved
We have to pay the management company of NT's UK rental flat, so there will be little, if any, leftover money to put aside for the baby/EF.

Creative/crafts: 1. Participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 50,000 words in 30 days; wish me luck! I've started, but never finished, about 4 times.

Other: Help AS with couch reupholstery. Her mom sent us the fabric, so now it's up to us to save our bedraggled couch!

Other #2: Begin to contact daycare options we've collected. We need to start getting a sense of prices and availability for next year.

OCTOBER 2009 GOALS:

1. Debt: Pay off at least $2600 of debt.
Results: DONE! $2865 paid

2. Savings: Save at least $775
Results: DONE! $776 saved

5. Creative/crafts: Begin to brainstorm and plot novel idea.
Results: Uh, kinda. I lazily thought about ideas all month, and this morning before I got out of bed, I settled on a general plot and think I'll be able to write the opening scene today.

Overall, pretty much a success!

Now on to my November goals.

My credit card payment put $191 toward principal. I never know if they're going to send me the bill in time to get it out before the end of the month, but they did. Since it's a CC with a superlow fixed rate, I always pay it the second I get it, because I don't want to get anywhere close to the due date (which is something like Nov. 27).

So, that makes my October debt-payment total $2865. Woo hoo! That will be my last debt payment of the month, but I'm holding out hope that I'll do some serious novel-idea brainstorming tomorrow and actually accomplish all my goals, so I'm not going to post my monthly wrap-up just yet.

One of AS's student loan payments hit, and $61 went toward principal. That makes our October debt payment total $2674.

This student loan is such low-hanging fruit; now at $1855, I could have it paid off soo soon if I focused on it. However, at 2.5%, it's the next-lowest interest rate we have on our debt (after NT's 1.49% mortgages). So there's no way I'm diverting funds from my higher-interest debts to tackle that one!

Watched "Bank of Mom & Dad" again last night. It's a pretty good show, if anyone has SoapNet; about spoiled 20somethings in debt whose parents move in with them for a week to turn their finances around. Every week it's a new focus. Last night's was sad, though; the girl had a very unapproachable mom and had clearly replaced the love she missed with material things. I may not be able to communicate properly with my parents about a lot of things, but I could always get a hug if I needed one! It ended on a more positive note but only after lots of tears.

A student loan hit (AS's) and $115 went to principal. That means we've paid $2613 of debt in October, slightly exceeding our goal of $2600.

I might have a few more debt payments hit this week; we'll see.

Now that I'm aggressively paying down debt again, after focusing on the EF for much of the year, I keep looking ahead to what I might try for next. Recently I'm thinking that once I knock out all my personal and CC debt, I'd like to go after one of AS's student loans. Even though one of NT's has a slightly higher interest rate, his are in deferment while he's in school, so we're paying interest only on his. It would be nice to knock out one of AS's payments before his full payments hit; would help lessen the impact on our budget when they do hit.

Note to self:
One of NT's pensions is at GBP 14,721
AS's CD is at $516.25

That is all. We just got statements in the mail for these two accounts. I hardly ever get info on some of our accounts and don't know how to check them online, so I wanted to note these so I could update these totals on my next net worth calculation. NT's other pension is still a complete mystery, I think.

Yay, the blogs are back! I've been checking all day.

The automatic biweekly savings hit, with $25 going to the baby/EF. So we saved $776, $1 over our October goal of $775 LOL.

I've been home with a nasty cold for two days. I'm going in tomorrow as I think I can feel it letting up a little, but meanwhile I'm getting as much rest as possible. I'm one of those people who can lie around for days and not feel restless, except for feeling a little guilty about not helping out around the house and not being at work. So other than the guilty feelings, I'm having no trouble just lying in bed or on the couch all day long, which is exactly what my body is begging me to do. I make decaf tea or cereal or PB&Js, and that's about it. Hey, once I'm a mom I won't get to listen to my body this way, but being pregnant I'm being very easy on myself.

Sadly I had to cancel our regular night of reality TV with our friends. AS could have used the company, but I'm just not feeling up to it (sitting upright, talking, etc.) Right now I'm steeling my resolve to go take a shower.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
10,725 pounds ($21,450)
NT's 401(k): $6,444
AS's 403(b): $2,888
AS's CD: $500
AS retirement savings: $725
CJ's 401(k): $30,022
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $6,656
---
Total Assets: $503,185

Total Debt: $386,701

Current Estimated Net Worth: $116,484

September 2009 estimate: $112,045

Change in net worth: +$4,439

Summary: Once again, retirement funds were up, and debt went down by quite a bit. Our baby/EF also went up despite me using some of the funds to buy maternity clothes.

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. 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.

Of course the first thing I did when I got into work was to check my personal loan balance online. $1765 of my payment went to principal! For the October goal, that means I've got $2498 down, $102 to go on my debt repayment goal.

The personal loan is down to $3114 now. I know I can get it down to $600 by mid-December, but we'll see what I can do to whittle it down even more.

I can safely say I won't hit my "Big-Picture Goal," which I set in the beginning of '08 before the economy got really bad and our finances rocky. That was to pay off ALL my "bad debt" by the end of this year. However, I will have done some real damage to that debt, and who knows? Maybe 2010 will be the magic year that we get rid of it once and for all.

A student loan (AS) hit today, with $82 going to principal. $733 down, $1867 to go on the October debt goal.

Most of my progress will happen tomorrow. The $1800 payment to my personal loan was taken out of my checking account this morning. Not sure how much is going to interest. Pins and needles! I believe this is the biggest payment to my personal loan, besides the times we had extra student loan money and put it toward this debt.

I figured out the other day that, should a $400 windfall come our way and no bumps in the road, we could actually pay this loan off this year! I'll probably be sorely tempted to pay it off with some EF money if the principal balance gets down that low this year.

And then my mind keeps wandering...if that happens, and we get a bit more windfall (tax refund?), we could have my dad paid off before the baby comes!

But I know there are lots of "ifs" in there, so I'll try to stay calm and just celebrate the progress that happens tomorrow.

A recent SA post about home values got me looking for what my condo would sell for. It's in one of two high-rise buildings with many similar units, so it's probably easier for me to determine my home's value than for homeowners with a unique house. (On the other hand, depending on the condition, the age of the appliances, and so on, values within our association can vary pretty widely.)

I found a handy site (trulia.com) that lists recently sold homes in a particular ZIP code. They listed six 2BR condos in my complex that had sold between January and late August of this year.

The three that had sold between January and April had been bought for $134K, $143K and $140K, for an average of $139K. Those are scary numbers because I have the condo valued at $160K!

But the three that sold from June to August went for $169K, $165K and $154K. That averages out to $162,500. Even though the most recent sale is significantly lower than the other two, that doesn't worry me too much because there are other factors. But to play it safe, I'm not going to move my own estimate of my home's worth up to $162.5. I'll keep it at $160K, especially since the market has not stopped roiling yet. (Plus, if we were to sell, I'm sure we'd have to do at least $2500 worth of repairs and upgrades to get it sellworthy.)

Kinda glad I missed that bottoming out of the values January-April. I didn't realize it had gotten that bad! (For comparison's sake, we bought for $207K; the home was originally for sale at $200K but we rolled closing costs in and it actually did get appraised at $207K.)

The regular biweekly savings hit, with $25 going into the baby/EF. $751 saved, $24 to go on the October goal.

I think I'm feeling the baby move occasionally, but I can't really tell. Sometimes it just feels like a little muscle spasm, like an eye twitch in my lower belly. Other times it feels kind of...magical or unearthly, like a little minnow or butterfly is brushing against my insides. It always comes and goes so quickly that it's hard to pin down, but I started noticing it yesterday and still feel it today, so I think that's what it is. Either way, the ultrasound is tomorrow, so I hope to see lots of activity then!

AS made her 1000 minutes last 3 months and 1 week, so that's a 1-week improvement over the last 1000! But seriously, I think there's no getting around the fact that while she's at home, and doesn't have a work phone with which to conduct calls during the day, her minutes are going to go faster. This situation should change next year, whatever job she ends up with.

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March, meaning it's been 6-1/4 months. We have 2 phones on T-Mobile prepaid and 1 on Net10 prepaid.

Initial layout: $241.63 to get us set up with phones and 2300 minutes.
NT's late-May Net10 fillup: $32.65 (He hadn't used up his previous 300, but they roll over as long as you re-up in time.)
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

So our total cost so far is $555.10.

So far, if I divide our total cost by 6.25, our new plan has cost us $88.82 per month (our monthly average is up from $74.55 per month as calculated in September). Still, that's close to our $85 average on the T-Mobile family plan.

I've still only used about 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.)

We went to the mall this weekend to use some Old Navy gift cards from MyPoints. We went to see if they had a maternity section, and they did--a small one, but I still found a pair of pants and two sweaters, all on sale. It was $30.99 more than the gift cards, so I was going to take it out of my next week's spending money.

Then I thought we should probably look around and see if there were more deals since we hardly ever get out to the mall, so we went to a maternity clothing store. There were several good items on clearance or sale, and I also got a pair of pants at full price since there were no clearance pants in my size. I was trying to pare down the shirts to fit within this week's and next week's spending money, but NT and AS put a stop to that. They pointed out that the EF is called the "BABY-slash-emergency fund," and that I wouldn't be buying clothes right now if I didn't need them. (It's true; my wardrobe is shrinking weekly.)

I tried to fight it for awhile, but I didn't want to put any of the clothes back since they all fit so well (and all had room to grow too), and I didn't really want to be without spending money for the rest of the month either. So I caved and am going to take this out of the baby/emergency fund. I spent $146.92 at the second store, so $177.91 total. I got 10 pieces in total--3 sweaters, a business jacket, two pairs of slacks and several shirts--so they were all good deals. And that should carry me through a good deal of the pregnancy; as long as I don't repeat a top during the week at work, I feel normal. And I should say they're all really cute, so I'm going to be happy wearing them.

It's amazing how hard it was to make that decision. I've got thousands of dollars in the bank, but unless it's specifically earmarked for something I just feel really weird spending it. Definitely not the me of three years ago.

On Thursday a friend posted photos of a cat that had been abandoned near her home for about a month. As always NT wistfully wished we could adopt him. We've always said that we can't get a cat in America because he might be too old when it's time to move back. (The quarantine can be several months.) Usually cats that friends try to find homes for are already mature, so it's not an option. But I could see that this cat was very young, nowhere near full-grown.

So at lunch NT and I went over the concerns we usually have. The first is the immigration problem, which this cat would be plenty healthy for. Another is that NT feels cats should be indoor/outdoor, not strictly indoor like American city and suburb cats are. But I pointed out that this cat would be 99% likely to be an indoor cat whoever took it in. Another issue was the cost, but I feel we're in a better place to afford unexpected expenses than we've ever been. And then there's our condo rules, which prohibit cats, but pffft. Our real estate agent, who lives in the other building, told us that many people have "secret cats." It's one of those stupid rules that they re-evaluate every couple years and just haven't gotten enough votes to overturn yet. The only person who comes in ever is the handyman, who is super mellow and has seen that we clearly break the flooring rules and doesn't care.

So NT called our friend (4 times in quick succession, as I learned later) and that night, she dropped off this little beauty, whom we named Noodles.



He's gotten over his jumpiness and hiding, and now his main problem, besides a case of worms that we're getting him treated for on Monday, is being a kitten. He needs to learn some boundaries, like AS's dreadlocks are not toys, but he's really really affectionate and cuddly and playful, so we're glad we got him.

Oh, and the people who found him kicked in $150 for vet bills. We got a quote of $260 from the local animal hospital for everything including neutering, so we'll only have to pay about $100! I've decided to take his food and litter costs out of groceries and his vet costs out of our medical-expenses fund, so hopefully it won't cost more, but if we start to struggle I'll put another $50 per month in each line item.

We're not usually this impulsive these days, but I think this was a good impulse. NT especially is sooo happy; we hardly see any cats and he really really loves cats.

Savings: I transferred $120 into savings for AS's retirement, and about US$606 into UK savings for the baby/emergency fund. In total, $726 saved, $49 to go on October savings.

Debt: The following payments hit--
US mortgage: $283 to principal
UK #1: $256
UK #2: $54
UK #3: $58
All told, $651 down, $1949 to go on the October debt goal.

So as I've been mentioning--repeatedly, cause I'm so excited about it--our mortgage rate is going to adjust for the better for our Nov. 1 payment (and the next 11 payments after that). Well, as I was checking the mortgage balance, I remembered that the site can give you details of the next payment, like how much is going to principal, how much to escrow, etc. I checked out our new payment. It's going to be about $190 smaller, and it's going to pay about $90 more in principal per month! That means not only is our principal balance going to go down $90 faster every month, but we're actually paying $280 less in interest each month. How sweet is that? We were paying about 45% of our total household debt payments toward interest, escrow and other fees, but now it's down to 40% in one fell swoop!

Brr, it feels like October all of a sudden this week! It'll be an exciting month--besides Halloween, we'll be seeing our lil' baby live on screen next week, and touring the birth center of the hospital we want to use. Also, we'll make our last mortgage payment at the 5.75% interest rate--starting Nov. 1 it goes down to 3.875% for a year!

October goals:

Debt: Pay off at least $2600 of debt.

Savings: Save at least $775 ($120 for AS's retirement; $655 for baby/EF)

Creative/crafts: Begin to brainstorm and plot novel idea for NaNoWriMo.

I'll still try and be conscious of the other areas--fitness, environmentalism, philanthropy and side hustles--but I'm not going to set any specific goals.

The second half of the year has been rather lame in the goals department. Well, except for the money goals they were mainly to help me feel stimulated and challenged by life vs. coasting by. Being pregnant is very stimulating and challenging, so I don't really need other tasks to keep me happy! I do need to get more exercise and eat healthy, but I'm going to see if I can do that on my own without a monthly challenge. So far I'm doing pretty well on the food front, but the exercise needs some work. AS and I went for walks after work yesterday and the day before, and I walk around with NT during lunch, so at least I get a bit.

Anyhoo, back to the rest of the goals. Did not catch up on posting food photos, but we have continued to take photos most days (except sometimes when we're eating out), so we could still collect and review them at the end of the year if we wanted.

NT's UK taxes are done, and we didn't owe any money. Nor were we anywhere close to making enough profit to hit the deductible (aka "personal allowance"), so as long as I can remember that there will be less stress each fall as I prep them.

As a result of not owing, I was able to exceed the savings goal, which I'd made very modest in case I needed that flat-rental money to pay Her Majesty's Revenue Service. $780 saved instead of our $170 goal!

And our debt repayment did really well, thanks to some payments hitting this month that sometimes don't clear until the first of the next month. Paid off $2478 instead of our $2200 goal!

Although I didn't have any specific other goals:

I did take a couple extra walks, ate fairly healthy and gained the right amount of weight for my pregnancy, so I feel OK about fitness.

Environment-wise, I've continued to use more environmentally friendly toiletries, and AS now makes our laundry soap, dish detergent and surface cleaners, saving on packaging and cutting down on chemicals. We're still very good about taking reusable shopping bags everywhere, even on vacation. And we reuse containers for our bulk-food purchases whenever possible, so that's another waste eliminated. We're also doing the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" toilet system (when we don't have guests), so we're saving a bit of water that way. (This doesn't save us money because we just pay one lump sum to our condo association, but we like the environmental aspect.) Oh, and we've been taking all the baby-related hand-me-downs offered to us, so hopefully our baby will have a lower carbon footprint than most.

Creatively I've been a bit slack, but, you know, I'm creating life!

I haven't done much philanthropy, but we've done some small things, like NT buying a homeless-sold newspaper in Wisconsin, and me buying a couple cans of tomatoes for the AIDS charity that sometimes collects outside our co-op. I have also been sending e-mails to my congressmen and the president about improving health care, which will probably help others much more than me (but I'm still all for it).

We've had a bit of profit from side hustles; sold some coats on eBay, and AS gets $10 per load to do laundry for this older lady in the building, and NT's been doing tons of Pinecone surveys. Oh, and AS and I both redeemed MyPoints for Old Navy gift cards.

I guess that's about it! October goals will come later when I need another break from this busy, busy day.

My credit card hit as expected, with $193 going to principal, making my September total $2478. Stay tuned later today for my September goals wrap-up and then setting my October goals.

Two posts in quick succession today! I completely forgot that I purchased more minutes for NT's cell phone last week, which means it's time to evaluate costs again.

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March, meaning it's been 6 months. We have 2 phones on T-Mobile prepaid and 1 on Net10 prepaid.

Initial layout: $241.63 to get us set up with phones and 2300 minutes.
NT's late-May Net10 fillup: $32.65 (He hadn't used up his previous 300, but they roll over as long as you re-up in time.)
AS's second 1000 minutes with T-Mobile (bought in June): $107.40. (We hope to get this batch to last longer than three months.)
NT's late-July Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT's late-September Net10 fillup: $32.82

So our total cost so far is $447.32.

So far, if I divide our total cost by 6, our new plan has cost us $74.55 per month (our monthly average is down from $103.63 per month as calculated in July). Woo hoo! That's a $10-per-month savings over our $85 average on the T-Mobile family plan.

AS will need to fill up in October, so that average will go up again, but not much. I've used about 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.)