Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Assets:
NT's pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
10,725 pounds ($21,450)
NT's 401(k): $1,898
AS's 403(b): $2,214
CJ's 401(k): $25,220
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $182,000
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Total Assets: $507,282

Total Debt: $424,704

Current Estimated Net Worth: $82,578

June 2008 estimate: $81,447
Change in net worth: +$1,131

Summary: My 401(k) again lost value, so our assets went down a bit despite gains in AS's 403(b) and NT's 401(k). Our debt repayment was very modest this month, but it gave us a bump in net worth anyway.

Info from a couple sources leads me to believe that I'd struggle to sell our U.S. condo at the amount listed above; it would probably go for more like $175,000. But I noticed that a 2BR UK condo in the same development as NT's 1BR just sold for 185,000 pounds ($370,000). So I'm sure my valuation of his house is very conservative. Therefore I'm just going to leave both house values as is for the purposes of this tracking.

Note on the numbers above: House value estimates are conservative, and retirement totals don't include amounts currently unvested.

OK, I've decided to start looking at the worst-case scenario for my debt repayment efforts. I need to be realistic so I'm not too disappointed.

The facts? We've still got some significant expenses coming up for our UK rental flat. AS's student loans will be coming due, if not in August then definitely in September. Her income will be $500 lower for the next two months, and we don't know when she will get a new job, or whether it will be a significant jump in salary. NT and I can't count on more than a small cost-of-living raise this year.

And if all these factors are going to push back our goal of losing the CC debt, I don't want it to delay our plans to start trying to have children. That means I've also got to start saving up money for that, instead of waiting till all our CC debt is gone. Which will push back our goal date even further. It's like a debt-slowdown snowball.

That said, August may be our last month of big, exciting debt repayment in a long time. So I'm going to enjoy every second!

The goal for August is to pay off $3,500 in debt. I will also get our CC debt below $50,000 and our mortgage debt below $300,000.

As you all could probably guess, I made an $8 payment to my credit card so I could reach my July goal.

So, goal was $1,450, and $1,450 is what I paid off!

And, that's $52,892 to go on my Big-Picture Goal.

Stay tuned for my August goal!

Yesterday's breakfast was a fruit salad of pineapple, mango and banana.

For lunch, I had curried "no egg" salad: carrot, bell pepper, avocado and scallion blended in a food processor with salt, pepper, curry and coriander, with more bell pepper diced and stirred in. Then I brought lettuce leaves to wrap it in for eating. Not too bad.

Dinner that night was "pasta della California," a favorite recipe of ours from a cookbook called Veganomicon. NT made fresh pasta, and the topping was garlic, spices, arugula and avocado. Then I made some "smoky grilled tempeh" from the same cookbook and we put that on top. Wonderful.

That night we went to our friend's birthday gathering, and I had three glasses of white wine. Wow did it hit me! I felt a little draggy this morning but was able to sleep in till 11 a.m.

When we weighed ourselves this morning, AS and I had held steady and NT had dropped another pound.

For lunch today we had the raw corn salad with avocado dressing again, adding chopped kohlrabi this time since we got some in our farm-share box.

Right now I'm enjoying some fancy olives with various stuffings and spices and a glass of rose wine, and tonight we're having our favorite meal--homemade pizza on homemade crust.

Thus marks the end of our cleanse! I will add some more recipes to my new page, little by little.

Yesterday's breakfast was a smoothie of mango, banana and blueberry, followed by eating a banana. The all-fruit breakfasts are actually not a bad option for me. I may try to continue with something similar after the cleanse.

My annual review got canceled, so I had to fend for myself for lunch. I went to a place called Salad Creations and was very good: I ordered a create-your-own salad with romaine, tomato, cucumber, green bell pepper, carrot, mushroom and red onion, and a balsamic vinaigrette. I ordered the large and it was over $7! Yikes...that amount of those grocery items would have cost me pennies. But it was on-program and it was filling. Plus I haven't been using my spending money for anything, so I had plenty.

For dinner, we wanted hot sandwiches of some kind. I went online and found a recipe for a jerked tempeh sandwich with tomato-onion spread for me and NT. Then I went to the store for fresh-baked, organic whole wheat bread and fresh salmon for AS (which she marinated in chili oil, maple syrup and soy sauce--her favorite marinade). We also had a simple side salad of lettuce and spinach with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Mrs. Dash and Italian seasonings. The tempeh sandwich was delicious but hot! Brain-killingly hot! We may use the recipe again but we'll turn the heat down a LOT. And NT and I are not spice wimps at all.

This morning on the scales, I had drifted up about half a pound and NT had gained a full pound. We figure it had to be the bread! Even though it was healthy bread, it was the first bread we'd had since we started. Interestingly the fresh pasta a few nights ago did not have the same effect, nor did rice or buckwheat other days. So just bread stayed with us like that. Very interesting. We're having pizza Saturday night, so if I go up again Sunday morning, I'm going to know it's something about bread--yeast or flour--that causes it.

AS did not have the same problem--she dropped 1.5 lbs., bringing her total weight loss to 11 lbs.! She weight-trained a couple days ago, so I reckon her body is using more food to rebuild her muscles.

I still feel really good and will work to bring my weight down under 140 even if it doesn't happen during the cleanse. I'm looking forward to weight-training--I haven't had the time or energy during this period! Maybe that will push me over the edge.

Yesterday I had an apple and about a cup of dried dates for breakfast. I felt pretty hungry and had a few cherries right before I went on my noon walk; that helped a lot.

Lunch was a raw-er version of a favorite recipe of ours, "gunsmoke slaw." It's a spicy, smoky slaw that contains oil instead of mayo. I used red cabbage instead of green because it occurred to me the color might indicate more nutrients than pale green cabbage. It also had corn, scallions, an orange, shredded carrot, and a dressing of oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard powder, red pepper flakes, Mrs. Dash chipotle seasoning, salt, agave nectar and garlic. Dee-lish!

For dinner, NT made fresh pasta (I'm continually impressed by this feat) and a sauce of sundried tomatoes, canned tomatoes, white beans, fresh spinach, onion, garlic and spices. Oh yeah, and sprinkled with fresh basil from our garden! He also made us a grape-blueberry-mango smoothie for dessert.

I'm champing at the bit to be done with this cleanse! I feel like I've learned what I'm going to from it and I'm ready to get back on the path of regular, albeit much healthier, eating. But at the same time I want to finish it out, just to show we've got the determination. Plus, NT and AS lost another pound and I lost another half pound! AS is at 9.5 lbs. lost, NT's I think at 7 or 8, and I'm at 5. They've both gotten to slip into another set of numbers weightwise. Another half-pound and I can say I'm in my 130s instead of my 140s, so that's a big incentive to stay on it the rest of the time.

Today is my annual review at work, which is a lunch date with my boss. But we're going to Panera, which she says has really good salads, so hopefully I'll be able to stick to the plan somewhat.

Aargh! My personal-loan payment hit today, with $448 going to principal. That's just $8 shy of my goal!

So, $1,442 down, $8 to go on my July goal!

$52,900 to go on my Big-Picture Goal.

OK, I'm seriously considering sending $8 to one of my debts so I can say I hit my goal exactly. Is that psychotic? This particular debt accrues interest daily, so it would be too complicated to figure out how to get the balance right. But maybe my credit card...

Whew! I've been unusually busy at work, but things have slowed for a minute.

Yesterday for breakfast I just had an apple, a banana and some cherries. Then I had an avocado, sprinkled with salt and pepper and eaten out of the shell with a spoon, as a midmorning snack.

For lunch I didn't have anything prepared, so I went to Jamba Juice and ordered one of their just-fruit smoothies (Pomegranate Paradise). Not quite raw, since it contains juice from concentrate and various preservatives (all citric acids, so not too bad). Anyway, I got the biggest one which is 440 calories. Tasted like much more than that! And I got a buzz from all the sweetness. But, at least it didn't have sugar or corn syrup.

For dinner we made marinated baked portobello mushrooms for me and NT, marinated baked salmon for AS. It was a new marinade recipe and we loved it, especially on the mushrooms! On the side we had new potatoes, with a dill-mustard-lemon sauce, and green beans.

This morning NT and I had held steady in our weight but AS had lost another half a pound. And she was able to pull her belt in another notch!

We all feel like we're just barely hanging on until the cleanse is over. But even though we're listing all the foods we want to have when we're off it, we're also making plans to cut our portions. For instance, when we go to restaurants we've pledged to order a half portion or else box up half right when it gets to the table. And we're going to try and have salads at home to fill us up a little before we get to the main course.

Yesterday we didn't prepare anything fancy for breakfast, just brought a bunch of fresh fruit with us. I had a pluot (plum-apricot hybrid), an apple (Pink Lady--my fave), and two bananas. I'm starting to realize that I enjoy having several small breakfast items that I spread out over a couple hours, rather than one big breakfast at one sitting. I may try to copy that in the future. (Of course, big weekend brunch meals will be an occasional exception!)

Lunch was a salad of spinach, avocado, mango and red onion with the Italian-style dressing we had the first day of raw. Very yummy! I highly recommend the mango-avocado combination for a treat.

For dinner we made a "southwest skillet": cooked buckwheat (kasha), onion, green bell pepper, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, corn, cilantro, avocado and spices. Really delicious; this is a meal AS and I made several times a few years ago but then forgot about. I ate it too fast so my belly felt tight for a few hours.

Sorry I've been so lax about posting recipes; I'll try to get some done this week.

Today when we weighed ourselves, AS had lost 1.5 lbs. and I'd lost a half a pound. That brings our totals to 8 and 4.5. I really think some of this is actual weight loss and not just getting rid of water weight. Now if only we can maintain once we're off this! The success will hopefully spur us not to go totally nuts when it's over.

I am ending the no-drinking part of it a little early; a friend we love who's hard to get hold of is having a birthday happy hour on Friday. Only two days early, so I don't feel that bad.

This morning as we were getting ready, AS was saying that she was really missing coffee and caffeine for the first time during this cleanse. We go down on the elevator and in the condo lobby, there's a stand set up giving away free gourmet coffee! The smell was outrageously delicious. We barely escaped without succumbing to temptation! Luckily, coffee is thought to have some health benefits, so I'll have no compunction about getting right back into it at the end of this thing.

-NT is definitely going to college in the fall! He got accepted and confirmed enrollment. He also found out that 15 credits transferred from his UK schooling--a whole semester! I'd worried this college thing was going to cost more than the $40K I'd projected, but I think we'll be all right now.

-He's been working really hard these past couple weeks, but it should pay off next payday with at least 5 hours OT pay.

-We had some totally free entertainment last night with movies and music in the park right next to our condo. It's going on every Monday for the rest of the summer, so we might make a regular thing of it. We'll have to come early and bring books to read next time, because it was packed and we got a really poor spot on the lawn.

-Got a $10 check in the mail from NFOMySurvey.com. Straight to the travel fund! AS might join some of these things too now.

-I've gotten a couple small writing assignments at my job, where I'm a proofreader/editor. Maybe if they like the work, I can branch out a bit!

NT has been worrying we haven't been taking in much calcium on this diet. I realize raw foods makes it harder to get that, and iron. So we tried making a kale-carrot-apple juice, since kale is one of the best veggies for both calcium and iron. It was...well, we were prepared for it to taste like a wheat-grass shot, a flavor AS and I like but NT doesn't. But it also was thick and not very smooth, so the texture was unappealing. I think in a juicer it would be very tasty, but in a blender it was just too grainy.

Lunch was much better. We made an almond butter out of raw almonds and peanut oil. I'd always heard you had to soak nuts and seeds before eating raw, but then someone on a forum said to just use them, so we did! So far no ill effects. We got waaay too many almonds and looking at the receipt later it was $16! But then we saw a jar of raw almond butter and it was $23, so I consider we still got off easy. Anyway, we'll make sure we use every single one of those almonds.

Anyway, for lunch we had a Thai salad: lettuce, corn, cucumber, carrots, kohlrabi, cilantro and red bell pepper for the salad, with a dressing of almond butter (thinned with water), soy sauce, maple syrup, fresh lemon juice, fresh ginger, sesame oil (we only had toasted, but oh well), garlic and jalapeno. It was great! We agreed we'd have it again, though we'd probably use natural peanut butter instead, and maybe add some peanuts and cubed baked tofu to it.

Dinner was fajitas, and though it was probably only about 600 calories, we felt stuffed. AS had salmon in hers but NT and I just had zucchini, onion, green bell pepper and mushroom. We found some very healthy tortillas at our co-op, and we had some leftover wild rice/basmati pilaf in the freezer that we each had a bit of. Then lettuce, two diced avocados and a homemade salsa to top it all off. AS managed to stay away from the cheese even though she'd planned to have some!

I'd thrown some banana and pineapple, torn into pieces, into the freezer earlier in the day. I stuck those in the blender with some ice cubes and we had a nice frozen treat. The fruit wasn't frozen rock-solid so it had more of a soft-serve texture. Mmm...

This morning I'd dropped another half-pound. AS got three different readings, that she'd lost 1/2 pound, lost 2 pounds and stayed the same. We decided to go with the middle one and say she lost half a pound. We need a good scales, ours is rubbish. But we read somewhere that most commercial scales are about the same and none are really accurate. Anyone heard any different?

Here's what you've all been wondering, probably: Is the diet frugal? Welll...it's hard for us to say; we have a very generous "grocery/household" budget of $900 per month. We divide into $450 for the 1st to the 15th, $450 for the 16th through the end of the month. Since we won't need anything else till the 16th, I was able to see if one week of raw had blown our budget. We went $33 over. Mitigating factors: We have a CSA share so we get a box of veggies every Saturday, but we also had to make some household purchases such as an iron and a new water filter, not to mention those $16 almonds. So I'd say it's a break-even proposition for us. It's about our budget, but then we give ourselves a lot of money for food and household supplies.

Yesterday, we blended up some more of the oat groats, this time with more water and with banana, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. I topped mine with blueberries and raw agave nectar (which comes from cactus, I think). Much tastier, but I think we shouldn't have eaten groats that had been sitting in the fridge for two more days. All three of us felt rather bloated the rest of the day, and later we agreed that was the only explanation we could think of.

Lunch was "taco salad" (without my three favorite ingredients: burger crumbles, chips and shredded cheeze) of lettuce, corn, avocado and sprouted beans, topped with a homemade salsa of tomato, cilantro, lime juice, green onions, jalapeno and chipotle seasoning. Very tasty, but I can't wait to have the real thing again!

For dinner we had tofu and salmon in a pineapple/ginger/garlic sauce, wasabi mashed potatoes, and szechuan green beans. We also had a grape/blueberry/strawberry juice. Very great, but unfortunately our bloaty feeling from earlier didn't get any better. I don't blame this recipe though, and would have it again.

That night we went to our friends' house, and they'd just gotten a juicer so they were trying out different juices. I had a pure strawberry juice and a strawberry-apple. I liked the second one better because the strawberry on its own wasn't very sweet.

For momcents and CountingPennies and anyone else interested, I'll start posting recipes on a separate page. Let me know if there are any you're especially interested in; otherwise I'll probably just start at the beginning of the cleanse. I'll just post food recipes, because I think the drink recipes are self-explanatory. But let me know if they're not.

This morning I'd dropped half a pound, NT had lost another two and AS was holding steady. So I've lost 3.5 and they've each lost 6. I'm OK with that, but I'd love to drop below 140 by the end!

I think we're feeling a bit of fatigue from the diet, because of the concentration and willpower and planning it takes. We talked about quitting a week early this morning, but we agreed to soldier on (though AS said she'd need to have a bit of cheese on her fajitas tonight to give her some relief!)

Yesterday we wanted a lighter breakfast after having such filling breakfast and lunch. So we all just brought fresh fruit to work with us. I wasn't looking forward to going to work because my job brings in Friday treats, and usually it's some delicious junk food like doughnuts or cinnamon twists. To my surprise, they sent out an e-mail that they were making fruit smoothies! I went over and got a smoothie of fresh pineapple juice, banana, frozen strawberries and mixed berries, and pineapple. It was so satisfying I only wanted one banana for the rest of my breakfast.

Lunch was the rest of the sunflower-seed hummus and guacamole with veggies and crackers. NT said he loosened his hummus up with a bit of warm water and it was even better, so I did that. Yum!

For dinner we threw together a stir-fry of sorts, with a sauce of balsamic vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil over thawed frozen tofu, mushrooms and onions sauteed in ginger and garlic, and some steamed carrots and snow peas. We had it over brown basmati rice. Oh yeah, and we oven-toasted half a cup of sesame seeds and tossed them in. I'd never had that many sesame seeds in a dish, but the nutty toasted flavor was great! That one's a keeper once we work out the cooking times (the veggies weren't as crisp as we'd have liked).

AS and I had plateaued when we weighed ourselves this morning, but NT had dropped another pound. Well, he walked home from work and we didn't, so that makes sense. Overall, I've lost 3 lbs, he's lost 4 and AS has lost 6.

Eight days to go!

Yesterday we tried making raw porridge. We soaked oat groats for a couple days, rinsed them and put some in the blender with a bit of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and apple. It came out as sort of a pasty substance, so I added hot tap water, which both thinned it and made it slightly warm. Topped with blueberries and banana slices it was decent-tasting, but incredibly filling after such light breakfasts usually.

Lunch also felt really filling by contrast to our other lunches: raw sunflower-seed hummus, guacamole, and raw veggies and crackers to dip into them. (The crackers we got from our local raw-foods restaurant, $8 for three portions. Yikes!) Everything was absolutely delicious (especially the spicy, crunchy crackers), but especially after the filling oatmeal, we all felt really full and left half or more for the next day. I'd brought a banana to snack on but didn't need it.

Luckily, we had a pretty light cooked dinner planned; oven-roasted tempeh covered in chunky tomato sauce. We also saw some nice asparagus at the farmer's market so we steamed that and had it on the side. I also made grape-strawberry juice in the blender for NT and AS. I still felt rather full so I didn't make any for myself.

After such a filling day I didn't expect any weight loss. But this morning AS had dropped another 2 lbs. and so had I! Now her weight loss is 6 lbs. and mine is 3 lbs. Not sure about NT as he hasn't weighed himself since the first day, but I'm sure he has as well.

It actually seems like a bit too much weight loss for only 5 days, but we don't feel at all like we're starving ourselves. Anyway, I think some of it is loss of water weight; our raw diet is much lower-sodium, so I'm sure we're getting rid of some bloating from our regular diet. Still, I hope some of it ends up being permanent, even when we go back to mostly cooked foods!

I'm glad I'm doing this, because it gives me an excuse to write in my blog! Absolutely nothing is happening in my financial world (oh yeah, except news of another possible expense for our UK rental flat), and July has been a very depressing month debt-reduction-wise.

Anyway, breakfast yesterday was an assortment of fresh fruit. I had half an orange, a banana, half a cantaloupe and some pineapple. Lunch was a raw veggie curry: with a sauce of blended avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, jalapeno, garlic, dates and spices; tossed with tomatoes, red bell peppers, avocados, cauliflower and soaked raw sunflower seeds; and served on a bed of sprouts. Good but very spicy! And a little seemed to go a long way; I enjoyed the first half of my portion, but then it wasn't quite as tasty to me. Still, NT mentioned that when we're back on cooked food, he'd have it on rice. I think he's right; the rice would've helped the texture a lot. My afternoon snack was several handfuls of sprouted beans and another banana.

Dinner was great; we made marinated portobello mushrooms (and a marinated salmon fillet for AS), steamed broccoli tossed with lemon olive oil, and a wild rice/basmati pilaf. Our best friends came over for our regular Wednesday TV night and seemed to genuinely enjoy the dinner. We had to show off our Vitamix, so we made a carrot-apple-orange-pineapple juice. They're actually buying a juicer, so we'll be able to enjoy healthy juices at their house too!

Oddly enough, someone at NT's job started a raw foods cleanse this past weekend too. He didn't find out until yesterday. What are the chances? Our friends said Oprah just finished a cleanse. Something must be in the air...

Oh, and my weight is holding steady but AS dropped another pound!

Yesterday was the first day we went to having raw food for breakfast and lunch and a cooked meal for dinner.

For breakfast I had a banana, orange, strawberry and pineapple smoothie. Then I ate about 1/4 a cantaloupe. That was a pretty low-cal breakfast, so I snacked on mixed sprouted beans (available by the bag at my local co-op) and a few dried dates.

Lunch was strips of zucchini (meant to slightly resemble pasta) in a marinara sauce that we made with sundried tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, fresh basil, dried herbs and olive oil. We also each had a whole avocado.

Overall, I think we went a little light on calories. I was feeling a bit listless by the end of the day. The weirdest thing, though, is I didn't feel any real hunger pangs.

That night we all savored our delicious cooked meal of marinated baked tofu, wasabi mashed potatoes and steamed peas in pods. For the marinade I stuck to products that had very few ingredients listed on their packaging, and the potatoes I made without margarine and soymilk, just potatoes, wasabi powder and water. New recipes, ones we'll definitely turn to again!

AS and I weighed ourselves again this morning. I was holding steady but she had dropped another pound.

Ironically, all three of us have work lunch meetings during this cleansing period. Not a normal occurrence for any of our jobs, so Murphy decided to schedule them during weeks when we would struggle to find suitable food. AS has her lunch meeting today, so hopefully the 3 lbs. lost will inspire her to stick as close to raw as possible. NT's and my meetings are next week, near the end of the cleanse. By then I'll either want to cheat because I'm desperate, or I'll actually be enjoying the diet and want to stay as strict as possible. We'll have to wait and see!

I read an article in Yahoo! yesterday about a study that showed when people kept a food diary, they lost twice as much weight as those on the same program who didn't. I'm not going to clog up my finance blog with a food diary once my cleanse is over, but I may try to keep a diary another way, maybe in my Google documents. Here's a link to the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080709/hl_hsn/keepafooddiarylosetwiceasmuchweight

Yesterday was the second--and last--day of eating only raw foods. Tonight and for the rest of the cleanse, we'll be having a healthy, whole-foods dinner every night, staying raw for breakfast and lunch. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not going crazy for cooked foods like last time! I think the difference is having NT to help me prepare the food; it is a bit labor-intensive since it's all new, unfamiliar recipes and preparation techniques. Though I can't say enough about the Vitamix blender!

Yesterday's breakfast was half a cantaloupe and a big bowl of Rainier cherries (so expensive but delicious). For lunch we had raw chili--the sauce was blended sundried tomatoes, avocadoes, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic and spices with lime juice and olive oil stirred in, and the "meat" was chopped red and green bell peppers, green onion, avocado and tomato. Surprisingly tasty! I also snacked on dried dates.

For dinner we had raw corn salad--corn, red and green bell peppers, parsley, red onion, tomato--with avocado dressing--blended avocados, lime, cilantro, jalapeno. Mixed the dressing into the salad, served on a bed of mixed greens, and topped with slices of avocado. Yummy! A little later I made a frozen blueberry-banana treat in the blender. Consistency of ice cream and very sweet. We were going to have a juice or a smoothie later, but found we weren't that hungry.

We'd weighed ourselves on Sunday morning before this began. This morning we weighed ourselves again, and we'd all lost between 1 and 2 lbs. I didn't expect that! We all felt satisfied, even full, most of the time, and NT mentioned Monday that he couldn't imagine he was going to lose any weight feeling as full as he did. Well, weight loss will probably (and should) slow down from now on, with addition of some cooked foods. But hopefully continue!

The main goal--to appreciate whole foods more and stay away from junk food--is definitely being reached.

Yesterday was the first day of our 14-day raw foods cleanse. Our goals are to clear our systems of processed food, step back from our regular eating to maybe get used to lightening up our diet, and hopefully shed a couple pounds.

The first two days we're going completely raw, and then the rest of the time we'll be having cooked, but very healthy, dinners.

Luckily our Vitamix blender arrived, so we started Saturday off right with a pineapple, mango, banana and strawberry smoothie. Then we each had fresh fruit of our choice; I had cherries, NT had grapefruit and AS had an apple. A bit later I made a carrot-orange-apple juice for us all.

Lunch was a salad of greens, avocados, raw corn, red bell peppers and tomatoes, with a dressing made of garlic, olive oil, honey, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, salt and herbs.

For dinner, we treated ourselves to dinner at Ecopolitan, a raw-foods restaurant just blocks from our place. I had the "eco-burger," which was a mushroom-walnut patty on crunchy raw bread. The pickles, ketchup and mustard were amazing; they tasted just like the real thing but better. I also had a kale-apple juice.

So far, so good! I'm also giving up caffeine and alcohol for the duration, so I feel a bit sleepy today and might have a touch of a caffeine-withdrawal headache. But I'm munching on a bowl of Rainier cherries, so life's not too bad.

$63 to principal, meaning $994 down, $456 to go on my July goal.

Hmm. I have one more payment coming in July and the payoff amount is very unpredictable. I know it will pay over $400, but other than that I can't really predict.

I think I'll see where it gets me, and then maybe put another payment toward it or another debt if I'm a little short.

US$130 to principal. So that's $931 down, $519 to go on our July goal.

Due to our recent budget changes, we may struggle to meet this goal. It would be the first goal we didn't meet, so I may pull some money from somewhere else to get us there. I'll have to look at my budget and see what I can do.

Anyway, now there's $53,348 to go on our Big-Picture Goal.

So in late July 2007, I found out our true collective debt and learned that I would have to transfer money over to the UK just to cover minimum bills.

Once I updated my numbers and looked at them, and wrote a very morose Aug. 1 blog entry, I actually felt better pretty quickly. I was pretty sure we'd hit our lowest point and that things could only get better. The debt numbers were painful, but also somewhat fascinating. I looked at them and felt like I had a superhuman task ahead of me to pay it off, and I was interested to see if I could do it. I guess there was no other way to cope, so I just looked at it as a huge challenge that would be very, very satisfying to overcome, if I could do it.

I had gradually come up with my own budgeting system. I kept three unsent draft e-mails in my Yahoo account that I could access from work or home. One tracked projected income and specific expenses for a couple months in the future so I could make sure I always had enough in the bank for upcoming needs; I deleted items as they hit our checking account. One kept track of our current debt, divided by home, credit and education and totaled at the bottom. And another listed my general income and expense amounts so I could easily paste it at the bottom of my first e-mail when it was time to project further, and modify to real life as I went along.

I continued to set myself monthly goals for reducing my debt, and always set them as aggressively as I could depending on what I could see in my projected budget.

In early August I paid off my first debt since I'd started, the high-interest reserve line on my checking account.

When I learned NT's paycheck amount, I knew I'd be able to put over $1000 more toward debt and still have a little money for luxuries.

In September I calculated our collective net worth and discovered that it was positive by almost $55,000. Even though all we had were retirement accounts and homes, it felt encouraging. I knew the amount would increase as we paid off debt and added a bit to our retirement savings.

In October I paid off our second debt: NT's high-interest overdraft balance. I had started a page on my blog called "The Old Debt Graveyard" so I could record my paid-off debts and see the list grow.

In December, encouraged by our progress so far, I decided to make a big long-term New Year's goal: to pay off all our credit card and personal debt in two years. I also decided to count the loan from my Dad as personal debt, not house debt. So that brought our credit/personal debt up over $70,000. I continued to set monthly goals for my overall debt reduction, but I separately tracked the reduction in my credit/personal debt.

In January 2008, I paid off our third debt. In March, April and May I paid off three more debts. These were all small balances, but it was very satisfying to say I'd paid off 6 debts in less than a year! One of them was our trip to England, and it was paid for before we left for the trip. That was a first in my life, at least for a major trip.

We did suffer financial setbacks and unexpected expenses nearly every month, but we also got some nice windfalls. Overall we managed to maintain momentum through May 2008.

Now I'm hitting some doldrums that may delay my plan to be credit-card-free by 12/31/09. Our monthly income is taking a temporary hit; we have some management expenses coming up in England; some student loans will start coming due in August or Septempber; our ARM is going to adjust in November. There are definitely negative ways to look at my progress: We might be slowing down; we've only paid 7% of our debt off so far.

On the other hand, we've paid nearly a quarter of our credit card debt since January, and we've paid over $30,000 of overall debt in less than a year!

My specific number goals help me stay motivated, but they can also cause me to get discouraged when I don't meet them. I just try to remind myself that I am still making progress and that the numbers are just arbitrary. No matter how much or how little I accomplish, as long as I keep paying it off, putting a little toward retirement and not using my credit cards, I'm going to be better off than I would have been if I'd just continued to live as I had for years.

So, that's my story thus far. A work in progress, and hopefully, someday, a stunning success story. Long way to go, though. I hope this encourages some new members of the SA blogs; even though I'm not there yet, and it's taken a lot of focus and willpower to even get this far, it's been so worth the effort to me. I feel that I'm much better off than many Americans just by having changed my philosophy to taking control of my finances, paying off debt, saving up money for retirement and living within my means, no matter what.

OK, it wasn't too hard figuring out where to trim the fat in my budget. First, we have $300 per month that is "exercise incentive money"; basically we can "earn" extra spending money by exercising, and if we don't exercise enough, the leftover money goes into extra debt repay or fun-money savings. Cut that line item for the forseeable future; we'll just have to exercise of our own free will, and do with a bit less spending money.

Then, I cut two of my regular US credit card payments back to the minimum payment. That way, I only had to cut $150 out of the extra money I send to the UK each month. I really want to get that account breaking even without my help, so I can stop paying $50+ per month for the privelege.

Looking over my budget made me feel good. I mean, we may not think this all the time, but we have plenty of luxuries we pay for. High-speed Internet. Cable TV. Netflix. A generous grocery/household category. Monthly haircuts. Decent spending money. There are lots of places we could cut in a true financial crisis. We're really lucky we didn't have to touch any of these this time.

Anyway, if this is the LAST of my nasty surprises for awhile, my August UK transfer should still be pretty big and exciting, and may even push us to the point of breaking even in that account.

PS: I'll update my "Bills and Budget" page if anyone's interested.

Oh yeah, and if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading my rambles. It really is so good to work these things out in writing.

Credit card payment hit today: $301 toward principal. So that's $801 down, $649 to go on my July goal, and $53,478 to go on my Big-Picture Goal.

Got a bit of a shock when I checked my checking account today: AS's direct deposit came in $256.98 lower than usual. She checked into it, and it seems she's reached the point where her free tuition surpassed a certain dollar value, so the remainder must be taxed as income. The next five paychecks will be hit the same way, so that's a $1541.88 shortfall over the next three months.

Sigh. The sucker punches just keep coming, it seems. I'll have to rework my budget, but I know where this is going to hit hardest--our debt repayment. I just checked our tickets to Virginia, and the fare is nonrefundable. Guess canceling our trip isn't the way to make this up.

Ironically, AS's raise was also reflected in this paycheck. It probably kept this shortfall back by $30. Hard to see it as a plus at this point, though.

As soon as this shortfall ends, two student loans will start coming due, probably not at that rate but close. So really we're just starting the process a few months early.

Hmm...

Well, it's a good thing I'm relating my whole past history, because comparatively speaking this isn't that bad a blow. It just feels like one.

OK. In the last chapter I'd managed to get on a budget, but not much else.

So in late May 2007, about 2 months after we started, I finally sat down and figured out mine and AS's total debt. (NT's was still a mystery, and we were both avoiding it right now.) It was a bit of a shock to say the least: We had $40,803 in credit card debt, $32,118 in student loan debt, and $201,847 in home debt. The grand total? $274,768! I calculated how much our minimum payments would pay off, and it was a little over a thousand a month. At this rate I wouldn't be out of debt for 22 years.

In June 2007 I consolidated some of my credit card debts. I also rolled my $10,000 HELOC into it; the variable interest rate was at 11% and the payments didn't encourage me to pay more than the interest each month. Plus it didn't really qualify as home debt; I'd bought furniture and a computer with it. So my credit card debt went up and my home debt went down.

That same month, I dealt with the issue of the England trip we were determined to take the next year. I decided, rather than saving up for it, to add $5,000 to my debt total, then try to pay other, high-interest debts down more aggressively, to the tune of $5,000 extra before our trip. Then we'd at least break even on the trip. I started putting every bit that NT made as a temp toward debt. He got paid weekly, so even though the amounts were variable, at least I could see progress often.

July started out a good month because I completed my first monthly debt-payoff challenge, and NT got his full-time job. We still were getting very little spending money and only putting $500 extra toward debt each month, but I knew that would get better soon.

But the good news didn't last for long. Once NT had confirmed his new job, he felt able to let me in on his finances. He said he couldn't face it before, when he wasn't able to contribute at all.

It turned out he had not checked his account since he'd come to America. He had rental income getting direct-deposited and bills getting directly debited from that account. And he was pretty sure that the rental income was not covering the bills.

We logged in to his account and he was right; he was actually a few pounds away from reaching the limit on his overdraft account. His rental income was about $400 short of covering the minimum bills. His debts included $19,382 of credit debt (on four cards plus the overdraft) and $121,548 in home debt (a main mortgage plus two home-equity loans). We also knew he was going to college soon, and I estimated the tuition for four years would be about $40,000. So I went ahead and added that to his debt in my mind, bringing his total debt to $180,930, and our household total to $457,714.

So, to my rather glum thinking, after about four months of buckling down, I had paid off about $500 above the minimum but accrued $186,000 in debt and a new $400 monthly bill (to cover our minimum bills in England). Actually $450, because it cost $50 to do an international wire transfer. And my little family was nearly a half-million dollars in debt. Suddenly NT's great new job didn't seem like it would make a dent in our financial misery.

Whew! It's crazy even writing it down. Stay tuned for chapter 3, when we begin to claw our way out of the hole.

I've been noticing some new members joining SA blogs recently who are pretty freaked out by their financial situations. I thought it would help if I reintroduced myself and spilled my gruesome financial saga. It's not exactly a success story yet, but I have made some progress and gotten more upbeat about my finances!

If you have your own personal horror stories that have happy endings (or are headed that way), maybe you could share on your own blogs so these new members know they're not alone and that there's a light at the end of the tunnel (and that it's not the proverbial freight train bearing down on them)!

I just pulled my own head out of the sand about my finances 15 months ago. I was in charge of finances for both me and my partner AS. I'd tried off and on to keep a budget and pay down debts with little success over the years, and saving seemed impossible. I would transfer credit card balances around thinking that would help me pay them off faster, but all it would do was encourage us to charge up the first card again.

I was naive about finances and, like many other Americans, assumed that when I earned more I would be able to straighten everything out. Of course our raises would cover cost-of-living increases and little else, so the debt never really went away. Worst of all, even though we were charging on credit cards pretty freely much of the time, I never felt as if we were living well. I never felt prosperous, so the spending wasn't even comforting, and the bills were awful. But I wasn't sure how to stop.

Then my 2nd partner NT moved in. He wanted to decorate the condo and we wanted to let him, because we'd never done anything with it and it wasn't very nice. NT wasn't working at first, and AS had an inconsistent income from a freelance job where the employer kept stringing her along saying she'd hire her full-time soon. Eventually she left that and got a full-time job that also paid for her grad school, so things got a little better. Then NT got his work permit and started getting some temp work.

Still, we were all spending in different directions with no plan, no budget and no one in charge of finances (besides me making sure I paid bills on time, even if it meant dipping into the line of credit on our checking account). And those months with only one steady income had really put us further in the hole. One day in March 2007, I had a scary moment where I realized we were nearing the limit on our line of credit. I did a rough estimate of our monthly income and bills and saw that we only had enough income to cover basic bills yet were all spending what we wanted, whether it was me getting drinks after work, or NT buying furniture and housewares, or AS eating fast food every day for lunch.

I put the brakes on and let the other two know that we had to change our living, fast. I looked at our past month's statements and showed them we spent over $1200 on eating and drinking out. That shocked us all. Then I did a budget and showed them that we barely had enough income to cover bills and groceries, and that we'd have to quit all frivolous spending until we had more income coming in.

There were a few hitches, but generally we all buckled down and stopped spending. It was a huge lifestyle change for all of us. Luckily NT and I already liked to cook, so we were able to get by without going out at all. We would still get a bit of spending money here and there, whenever we had covered all our bills and had any money left over, but it wasn't much. It was kind of embarrassing the rare times we did go out with friends because they could see us discussing whether we could each afford one beer or two, and meanwhile everyone else is ordering three or four drinks plus food. But for the first time I had determination fueled by desperation. I really felt like if we didn't change this time, we were going to go under.

So I had our spending under control, and it wasn't fun but it was working. But there were so many unknowns in my financial world that were lurking around, worrying me. I didn't have a grasp of our total debt; I hadn't calculated it in over a year. And I knew there were some lingering financial activities going on in the UK for NT: I didn't know what they were and sort of assumed he was taking care of them, but I didn't know any of the details yet. And most of all, I knew deep down that just paying the minimums wasn't going to make our debt (however much it was) go away, but I didn't have a plan for paying it down. Also, NT was planning to go to college soon, and we'd already committed to visiting England for his sister's wedding in the future. Those were two big bills that I had no idea how I was going to pay.

How's that for a grim picture? Tune in to the next chapter when I calculate our huge debt totals and nearly have a heart attack!

Our four mortgage payments hit today:
US: $297 to principal
UK #1: $141 to principal
UK #2: $30 to principal
UK #3: $32 to principal
Total: $500 went to principal.

So that's $500 down, $950 to go on my July goal. No progress on my Big-Picture Goal, of course.

Good news: My UK mortgages had already gone down a bit due to an interest reduction. When I looked ahead on my US mortgage, I saw that next month's bill will be about $15 less, because apparently our escrow payment got reduced. Don't know why, it usually goes up, but I'm not complaining! I'm putting a little of the surplus into our education-expenses category and the rest into our travel savings.

I also put about $5 into savings today because AS got some medical reimbursement direct-deposited. I was also able to put about $35 into travel savings yesterday, because NT got a bit of OT pay and I received $5 from a survey company. (We have a lot to raise before our trip in October, so I'm putting every extra cent I can find into that fund.)

The first splurge I got last week but only got to try out recently, because I didn't want to distract AS from her grad school final project. It was Rock Band for Wii! $180--yowch. I'd been steadily accumulating leftover spending money in my sock drawer, but this purchase ate about two-thirds of that savings. Well, I was saving it for something fun, and what a game! You get a "drum set," drumsticks, microphone, guitar/bass, and a whole mess of cheezy and classic songs. We've been loving it so far.

OK, so Thursday night as I was eating a DELICIOUS new meal we'd come up with (marinated portobellos, pan-fried and then broiled; lemon-butter broccoli; and wild rice/white rice pilaf with onions, garlic, dried herbs and fresh thyme--let me know if you want any recipes BTW), my upper left back tooth started hurting. It got steadily worse that night and was throbbing like crazy the next morning. I called my dentists but they don't work on Fri-Sat-Sun. I'm scared of other dentists so I decided to wait it out.

We were having a party at our house Friday night, Saturday we were going to go up to the pool, and Sunday was the Twin Cities GLBT Pride parade/festival. Plus one of our friends was coming from out of town for Pride.

The party wasn't too bad; I explained my problem to people as they came in so they wouldn't think I was slurring from early drunkenness. I was able to taste all the delicious foods we made (homemade breadsticks with homemade marinara dip, trifle, stuffed red potato skins) and bought (matchstick potatoes, raspberry-mustard pretzel dip) if I chewed really, really cautiously on the right side of my mouth. My only drinking during the night was a periodic swish of whiskey over my tooth to help dull the pain.

Saturday it was just as bad, if not worse. AS looked on the Internet and found a dentist open on Saturdays and called to see if they could fit me in. She insisted I go, and both she and NT said they'd chip in their spending money for the bill. (Awww!) So I went and was reminded why I don't like most dentists. It's just hard for people to make you feel really comfortable. Plus this guy, when he couldn't figure out what was wrong, offered to file my teeth down in case it was a clenching problem. I politely declined! He did prescribe penicillin in case it was an infection. The charge was $70, but I noticed something that said there was a 5% discount if you paid in cash, so I asked about it. She had forgotten to take that off! $66.50, and she knocked it down to $66 because I didn't have the exact amount and she didn't have change. She said they'd reimburse if my insurance paid part of it, but we'll see if they bother to follow up. Not sure any of it's covered anyway. NT, AS and I split the cost three ways from our spending money. The prescription cost $10, which I took from our medical category in the budget (getting low, but there was enough for that at least).

Then came my other big splurge. I've been wanting a really great blender for years. Basically it seems you can get an OK blender for pretty cheap ($30-$100), but a really great one's gonna cost you. With our raw-foods cleanse coming up, we could really use one, because we're going to want to juice greens and make smoothies, and a Vitamix can apparently do both, really well.

So again, the three of us pooled together our spending money, pulled $100 from our farm-share savings, $18 from home improvement, and came up with the $429 for a refurbished Vitamix direct from the company, with 7-year warranty.

I'm excited, but I'm down to a few bucks of spending money, which hasn't been the case for a long time. I just have to do without little extras til Friday, which usually isn't that hard anyway.

Pride was fun at first; we watched the parade and hung out with friends. I only spent about $5 of my dwindling money on drinks. Then AS twisted her ankle coming downstairs. Probably due to that and my still-throbbing tooth (and grad-school stress, and alcohol), we had a spat and headed home. I'm sad we didn't get to see our out-of-town friend more, but he usually comes to town twice a year or more, so it'll be OK. (Oh yeah, and we made up, so that's OK too. )

Today I managed to get an appointment with my dentists, the ones I'm not scared of. They confirmed there is nothing noticeably wrong with my tooth and decided to numb me and give that tooth a good scraping and cleaning, because chances are a small particle of food caused the swelling and infection. They said the cleaning plus the penicillin should clear it up. I hope so! I don't know how much this will cost me (they estimated $60), but I do have a small ($75) emergency fund that will cover it if I don't have any other extra money when the bill comes.

Not a great weekend overall, but we have the blender to look forward to! Plus, even though we're low on spending money, I am proud to say that none of the above, not the splurges or the medical emergencies, will be going on credit cards. What would have been second nature for us before is now a thing of the past!!!

So here I am on Monday, tender-gummed, chagrined but excited about our two luxury purchases, and looking forward to the next couple days when some bills hit and I can show some progress on my debt paying.

OK, per mighty Merch (there's no "not so" in my opinion ), here are my thoughts on my Big-Picture Goal, which as most of you know is to pay off all credit cards and personal loans by 12/31/09.

In a perfect scenario I'd be one-quarter done by now. My starting balance was $70,251, so that means I should have paid off $17,563 by now, and have a balance of $52,688.

Instead, to date I've paid off $16,472, and I'm at $53,779.

That means I'm $1,091 behind schedule.

If all stays stable in my life, that number is not alarming, because a debt snowball has you paying off much less at first and then gradually increasing over time. However, I know for a fact that the second half of 2008 is going to be anything but stable:

- In August, AS will officially graduate from her Master's program, and her two deferred student loans will come due. I believe one of them had a monthly payment of about $200, and the other has only a slightly smaller balance (and I have no idea what the interest rate will be).

- In September, NT will (hopefully) be starting school, to finish his B.A. Now I'm hoping to borrow enough to cover the whole thing (and have already assumed $40K of imaginary debt in preparation), but there's a chance there will be expenses that need to be paid upfront.

- In November, our mortgage payments will go up. Whether we let our ARM adjust or we refinance to a fixed-rate loan before that, it's going up either way. I'm not getting a 5.0% loan with no fees and no points, and that's that. How much it will settle at, I have yet to learn.

Luckily there should be offsets to these bumps in our monthly bills:

- When AS has finished her capstone project (before Aug. 1, hopefully), she will begin her job search in earnest. She already has an application at the one place she wants to work more than anything. We're hoping that with her advanced degree she will command a better salary than she does now.

- NT and I should get cost-of-living raises this year. Mine should hit in September, and I can't remember right now when NT said his would be.

- And, if the above isn't enough, I'm hoping to scrape a few bucks off our phone bill in October by switching two of our phones to prepaid. Our grocery/household category could definitely shrink too, though I hope it doesn't come to that. Probably I wouldn't, because our quality of life is good where it is, and the due date on my goal doesn't have any real significance: I wouldn't die if I were a month or two late on finishing it.

So where does that put me in my Big-Picture Goal? Shakily optimistic, I guess.

Assets:
NT's pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
10,725 pounds ($21,450)
NT's 401(k): $1,702
AS's 403(b): $2,078
CJ's 401(k): $25,871
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $182,000
---
Total Assets: $507,601

Total Debt: $426,154

Current Estimated Net Worth: $81,447

5/28 estimate: $79,330
Change in net worth: +$2,117

Summary: My 401(k) lost $661 in value, so our assets went down a bit despite gains in AS's 403(b) and NT's 401(k). But our debt repayment gave us a bump in net worth anyway. We'll have to go faster than this to hit $100K by the end of the year, but I'm still happy to see progress.

Note on the numbers above: House value estimates are conservative, and retirement totals don't include amounts currently unvested.

I started my blog June 21, 2007, according to my sidebar.

Oh well. When I was a car owner, I would usually miss when the odometer rolled over to a number with a lot of zeroes, so I'm not really surprised.

To make up for it, looks like this is going to be a 4-post day, because I'm about to figure my net worth and send out that update.

So, happy belated first blogoversary to me!