Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

It's been quite a three days since I last posted here!

I'm tempted to leave my big news for last, but it did come first chronologically, soo....

On Wednesday my supervisor scheduled a check-in. It wasn't our usual day but I figured since I was traveling Thursday she was just having it a day early. (Even though we usually just skip it if we're busy on Thursday.)

I get in her office ready to talk about my work and she has a big grin on her face. She had good news for me: a promotion and a raise!

I am being promoted from copywriter to associate content director, and my 10% raise takes me to just over $75K annually!

I was so ecstatic, I almost forgot to ask what the job entails. She said a lot of it I'm doing already, but that we'll finalize the job description soon.

Then my mentor (my supervisor's boss) met with me. He said the same thing. He also said a lot of people went to bat for me, and that he basically made up a new title for me, which is why there isn't a job description. The next logical level was senior copywriter, and he felt like I was already doing work above that job description, so he made up a half-step to content director.

So yeah, feeling on top of the world. The amazing timing means that NT's company moving to biweekly paychecks should no longer have an impact on our budget, AND we'll have his two extra paychecks a year! The first one comes in April.

My raise is retroactive to Jan. 1, so my next paycheck will be awesome but not representative.

So I get home that night and ordinarily we'd toast a success like that with sparkling wine, but I'd designated it my no-drinking day. That was OK, I didn't really need a drink to make it feel special anyway! Plus I had to get to bed early so I could get up super early for my business trip.

The Memphis work trip went really well, good meeting with our client. My promotion won't be announced until Monday, so I kept it under wraps. I had a great time bonding with two co-workers, one of whom is friends with my fave band. (He showed me some texts from the lead singer and it felt like a new level of cyberstalking them. ) I feel closer to them and we also now feel determined to take creative risks together at work.

Meanwhile back in Minneapolis, AS had been seriously considering a membership at a co-working space. It seems like a great place, and they had a limited number of "founding member" spots, so she asked if she could bite the bullet and sign up. NT and I agreed, so she's now in. The place opens in March and her membership officially starts then. It was $1800 for a year. It would be more if she wasn't a founding member, and now her membership will never go up and she gets some added perks. Considering this will be a $25K+ quarter, it's a good time to make a big investment like this. It put our shared spending in the hole, but we know there are payments coming soon so we're not worried.

When I got home Friday (it was a 24-hour trip), AS and I talked about ways to apply our marketing/communications/writing chops to helping NT with his hat business (kind of a side hobby of his). We wrote up a lot of ideas, and that night we had a date at a new vegetarian restaurant in the neighborhood, so we took the opportunity to go over it. It was really fun and we figured out some next steps to hopefully help take his business a little farther.

On the making-friends front, not only did I get closer to my co-workers, I continued messaging with my new Canadian friend, and I have plans to hang out with another friend at Monday's show (the last one of my fave band's residency). While we were messaging about that, I mentioned two other acts I was considering checking out in March, and he told me about two others, one in February and one in March. So now we have four potential reasons to see each other--and four new musical acts I could check out. So feeling really good about my social prospects and branching out in my experiences.

Today hasn't been super thrilling -- had to catch up on menu planning and grocery shopping and budgeting. But I got all that done. Tonight I'll likely do a workout, then a bunch of work on my novel writing class assignment.

I did order a couple more things for our emergency preparedness kit: rope, water purification capsules, duct tape and a really long-shelf-life brand of bread.

Tomorrow AS and I have our ladies' brunch, and Monday I get to see my fave band one more time in January.

The kids actually had a snow day yesterday, which hardly ever happens in Minnesota! I could have taken them to daycare, but I decided to let them have a snow day the way I would've when I was a kid; playing in the yard, having hot cocoa, lazing around getting bored. So I stayed home so AS wouldn't be stuck taking care of them alone. It was a good day.

I did a sort-of work from home, half PTO day. My goal for the day was no phone or computer after work, so I logged off everything at 5:30. I kept an online recipe up while I cooked dinner, but after that I put my computer away.

I lazed around quite a bit myself during the day, but I also started working on the weekly assignment for my class, and that night I read more of the book on book-writing.

I'm doing well on my new impromptu goal of making friends; I've been Facebooking with the Canadian and texting with the other lady I met. I also found a couple of shows I might want to go to in March, which will be good things to invite people to.

I think that's about it for me. Today's goal is no drinking. I have one more week of doing each of my healthy goals once per week; in February it goes up to twice per week. It's felt really easy this month so we'll see how I do when I double the goal.

I talked to AS about her goals on the way to work, and she's taking a very similar approach this year, trying to create incremental habits that become part of her routine. It really does feel like the way to go!

Last night was a good 'un for making me feel less friend lite!

It didn't start out promising; three of the four friends who swore they'd come to the show flaked on getting their tickets far enough in advance, despite my warnings that these shows were selling out.

Then we had a blizzard in Minneapolis. AS and I took the light rail so we were fine, but I wondered if my last friend, a co-worker, would be able to get out in her car. But she made it! Even though we didn't hang out a ton that night, at least she was the first person I invited to attend these five shows who actually showed up. (This was the fourth show, so clearly there's been much flaking.)

When we got there, AS spotted another superfan from Canada she'd met last year at a show. She was there alone, so AS got her and introduced her to me, and we ended up spending the whole show together, first at a table and then standing right up by the stage (even though it was a sold-out show, the weather made it a light crowd, so I got SUPER close). She and I friended each other on Instagram and Facebook and she also connected me to a woman in Portland OR who's also a superfan of the group. So, while not in-town friends, I have a few more connections, and since the Canadian and I both tend to travel to see this band (we were both in NYC in 2017 but didn't know each other then!), there's a chance we'll get to meet in person again.

AS also encouraged me to text the lady I'd met at last Monday's show (I'd exchanged numbers but neither of us had gotten in touch). So I texted her a pic of the band and just said "Guess where AS and I are? " She wrote back pretty soon and suggested getting together for coffee, so this morning I threw out a few dates in February. So we'll see if that turns into anything, but at least it's promising!

Thursday I'm on a business trip and it's the first one that another co-worker has gone on, so there's some chance of bonding with him even though it's just an overnight trip and we probably won't want to stay out super late. Coincidentally he's good friends with the main members of my fave band, so not only is he nice, it would up my chances of getting to be around them!

My friend with the boyfriend has definitely bought her tickets for the last show next Monday, so hopefully she'll show up for that! And she's scheduled a brunch with a group of ladies for the Sunday before, so we might get to see each other two days in a row. (Plus I can put out feelers with some of the other women in the group, several of whom I'd gladly be closer friends with, to maybe set up some other fun times with them.)

I'm glad my little bit of effort has paid off so quickly; immediate progress is always a good motivator to keep doing something.

Over the weekend I reorganized the basement closet, making room for an eventual preparedness kit and bottled water. I also moved a bunch of yard sale stuff down there. After we have the sale in May, we'll have tons of room in that closet!

I missed the chat for my online class but read the transcript later. I also read some more of my novel-writing book and got through a lot of editing on my novel. I started the character arc spreadsheet but didn't make any progress. I haven't read the assignments for this week because I was hoping to do more with the characters, but I don't want to get behind, so I think I'll just move on to this week's exercises.

Today was my no-social-media-at-work day for the week. I mostly succeeded. I did go on Twitter briefly to see how the bus system was coping with our blizzard. And my work officially closed at 3pm, so I got on social earlier than usual. I still count it, though!

Couple other news items:
- I decided to cancel my web hosting for ordinarysavers.com. I have too many other goals this year and too many things I'm spending my money on. I downloaded a copy of all my entries so if I want to refer back to them or reuse them for anything, I can.

- NT got notice that his company is moving to biweekly instead of twice-monthly paychecks. This is a pain because his paychecks will be smaller, and several months are cutting it very close on expenses vs. income. In June we'll have three paychecks, so I may just have to float a small deficit or something. I'm not sure how I'll handle it yet. He gets his first paycheck of this sort this Friday...I'm not sure what it means that he's already had one paycheck at the twice-monthly rate...it's all very confusing! But I know we'll adjust eventually.

- One of my best friends, who I realized I spend a lot of my time and attention on, has a boyfriend now, and is going through a honeymoon phase where it's hard to find time to hang out. Which is totally fine and cool -- I tended to do that at the start of new relationships too -- except it's made me realize how much of my social life depended on her! I had another friend I hung out with quite a bit who moved to Indiana last year, and another who moved to Missouri the year before that.

I have lots of people I like, friendly acquaintances, but not people I can just call on to hang out with for hours. So I'm trying to think of people I can cultivate more of a hanging-out friendship with.

Oddly enough, one of the days my friend flaked on me, AS and I met two strangers at the show we were attending, and I got one of their numbers because we hung out all night with them and they were really fun. So I may text her and see if I get any response. Of course one meeting is too soon to tell if we'd become close friends, but maybe she'd want to hang out and we could see what happened.

I have a couple of other people I like very much who might hang out with me more if I put more effort into finding things for us to do together, so I'm going to try that as well. I do like hanging out with my downstairs neighbors but they've been super busy with new business ventures and are also dating someone. But maybe at some point they'll be good prospects again.

So hopefully I can fix this lack! It's one of those weird things that I didn't know I was letting other friendships languish until these three ladies withdrew from my life in one way or another. Now my friend with the boyfriend isn't gone, and I'm sure the relationship will reach an equilibrium soon, but I feel like I need to work on strengthening my social network now that I see its weaknesses.

I successfully completed my two other weekly tasks of no phone/computer after work Wednesday (the only exception was I watched a bit of a show on my phone when I couldn't get to sleep that night) and no social media at work on Thursday.

I also read about 1/3 of a book on novel-writing. AS and I went in on a deal from Writer's Digest where we got like 10 books (some physical some e-book) for $65 or so. I picked up one at random and ended up getting really into it. Some good advice so far! I've also been writing character arc descriptions for my novel-finishing class assignment, but it's more complicated than I first thought (writing them is making me question some bigger structural issues about my book), so I don't know if I'll complete the assignment. But I've got a few days (the next assignment posts Monday), so maybe I'll have a breakthrough this weekend. At least I'm working and thinking and trying to be creative; that's really the point of this anyway.

We didn't come under budget on groceries this week, but we're doing pretty well on shared spending money, so I ordered a couple more emergency preparedness items anyway: a butane-fueled burner and canisters of butane. Came to a little over $50. Next week I think I'll try to get a plastic bin and some of the water/groceries. This weekend I want to go down to the basement and see if I can clear out some space for storing our supplies.

AS got another payment, and our kitchen reno savings are now above $20K! She also accepted a quick-turn assignment that is her highest-paying to date (even higher than an entire semester of teaching): $7,000! Her first-quarter earnings look like they might hit $25K, which is crazy unprecedented. Her record quarter is a bit over $23K, and that was for a fourth quarter, which is 4 months long (Sep-Dec) vs. the 3 months (Jan-Mar) of the first quarter.

I don't know what this will mean for her annual salary. I do know her fourth quarter will be lower if she accepts a second teaching position, as she's considering, so maybe it'll end up that her earnings are front-loaded, sort of the opposite of what usually happens. I know I can't get used to this level of pay, but it is exciting!

As for vacations, we've pretty much decided not to attempt the UK this year, since we're saving so hard for the kitchen. We're contemplating a couple of other warm-weather holidays, such as tacking on a week at a Virginia beach location after my niece's wedding in August, or accompanying AS to Incline Village for her college residency in July if she decides to do that again. So we'll see. I haven't decided what my solo trip will be. I'm kind of waiting to see what shows my fave band books for the year and where; right now they don't have anything scheduled much past the current bunch of St. Paul shows that I've been going to. AS is vaguely considering a writer's retreat for her solo trip but that's not a solid decision as of yet. NT has his planned for March; he just needs to actually book it. I might want to tack some time onto one of my Memphis business trips this year and see if the family can join me down there; it's a neat city, plus AA really wants to see the MLK museum. So that's another possibility.

Over the weekend we received a few of the emergency supplies I ordered. I need to put in batteries, figure out how to use them and where to put them, etc. For now they're just in a box in the dining room. I'll try to keep the grocery budget low so I can get a few more this week.

I joined a live chat for my novel-finishing class and it made me consider some of my characters and how I could make them more interesting. I'm also going through my novel, getting reacquainted, reviewing AS's feedback and doing a light copyedit as I go. I've done 87 of 299 pages. (It started at about 306 pages, so it's also shrinking as I cut unnecessary copy.)

Yesterday my task was no drinking. Warm ginger juice and sleepytime tea again; it might be a new rut for now, but at least it's a healthy rut. Tonight my task is no phone/computer time after work and Thursday will be no social media at work.

I finally yesterday had a day where I did all four of my healthy habits that served me so well last year: morning strength-training exercises, no breakfast, at least 10K steps, no night snacks. I'd weighed in over 135, the highest I'd been in a while, and decided enough's enough; I have to stop making excuses and get back to what worked. Today I weighed in at 133.2, so hopefully I'm on the path back to getting under 130.

Our UK rental income hit that bank account, and AS got a nice freelance payment, so I put some money in savings. US$562 went into UK savings, which is our emergency fund; $300 went toward kitchen reno savings, and I've just started saving up for vacations, so $300 went into a vacation fund. NT is already starting to plan his next solo trip (Colorado in March) so I need to start putting money aside.

We're now at:
$9,562.50 EF
$19,900 reno fund
$300 vacay fund

Our EF goal is $10K, so we're really close! Our kitchen reno goal is $30K, so we've got a ways to go on that. Our total savings are at $29,762.50.

Other random happenings in the past few days:
- I moved a bunch of books and bookcases and taped off the baseboard so NT could finish painting my book nook. It was a dark dull green and then it was half and half (he started a few months ago but ran out of paint); now it's all a nice cream color. It's still a bit haphazard up there -- the furniture is mismatched, I have some boxes of papers I need to clear out, and the books aren't all organized -- but it looks way better. It's so low on my priorities list for home improvement, but this paint job makes it feel nicer. We chose paint colors for the bedroom, so that room will get a little lift next weekend. It's another space that needs a lot of work, but this is a quick way to make it a little better, since it'll likely be a year or more before we prioritize it.

- I went to see my fave band for the third time this month on Monday. Two more shows that I already have tickets to! I've had friends say they were going to the past ones and every single person flaked except AS. She can't go to the next one, but I have about five friends who say they're going, so hopefully at least one of them won't flake and I'll have someone to hang out with. If not, I'm going anyway.

- AS and I ordered new glasses. It came to about $525 each. Yikes! I would have thought it was crazy if PatientSaver hadn't said hers were $400. Mine is covered by flex spending, but now I only have about $70 of flex left for the year, so copays and any other expenses will pretty much need to be out of pocket. Here's hoping for a healthy year! But I think I made a good choice with glasses that will give me a new look. And I changed my hair style when I got my hair cut Saturday. I can't wait to get the glasses so I can start 2018 with a somewhat new look.

- AS now has nearly $18K worked or booked for the first quarter! As a reference point, she made about $13K in Q1 2017 and less than $6K in Q1 2016. Her previous high first quarter was $19.5K in 2015 (kind of a fluke). Since we're only midway through the first month, it's hard to imagine her not breaking that record. But she does have to be very careful about accepting things for the next three months because her time is almost all booked up, so it won't be a TON more, I don't think.

Hmm, I think that's all. 2018 is off to a brisk, but good, start for us!

I know my posts are very repetitive; when trying to establish habits it's kind of mind-numbing to track!

Thursday my task was no phone or computer time once I left work. I did succeed for the most part. I woke up and had about an hour of insomnia at 3 a.m., so at 4 I started watching a show on my phone and managed to get back to sleep after half an hour. I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to lose any more sleep, so I feel OK about that.

Yesterday I refined my emergency preparedness shopping list a bit, and after we did our weekly grocery shopping today (so I could see how much money we had left in the budget), I ordered the first few items for our kit. I used $69 of surplus grocery money and $40 of shared spending to buy:
- 2 first-aid kits (a larger home one and a small one for our "bug out bag")
- 2 flashlights
- 1 combo knife/whistle/firestarter
- 1 crank radio/flashlight/charger
- 10 foil mylar emergency blankets
- 75 "stormproof" matches and a waterproof container

I also looked into first aid/CPR classes in the area and found some Red Cross ones. AS and NT expressed interest in taking them too. We're thinking about taking a health day off work and taking one together; it runs from 9am to 3:30pm. I'm waiting to hear about business travel in February, and once I know what the days are, I'll see about taking a different day off and scheduling the Red Cross class. They're $80-$120 per person depending on level of detail and whether they include pediatric first aid, so we'll probably go with the higher-end ones that include pediatric. (There are free classes through other organizations but all are either filled up for the foreseeable or they're not geographically convenient for us.)

As for my novel writing class, I finished the "query hook" (brief teaser description of my novel) and gave feedback to quite a few fellow students on theirs. I went through a checklist and mentally answered the questions to make sure I didn't have any doubts about the message, purpose, what's special, etc. Now I'm going to start just going through re-reading my novel, making any easy changes that occur to me as I read, and deciding which of AS's edits to take. I'll start that a bit tonight and try to finish during my three-day weekend (I have Monday off for MLK Day).

Oh, and a couple bits of incremental progress on other goals: NT reached out to a designer to see if she'd consult with us on our kitchen redesign. And we pretty much decided we wouldn't go for a UK trip this year; we might tack a week at a beach or resort onto my niece's wedding in August. No firm plans other than that, but it's a bit of decision-making progress at least.

I've had a pretty good couple days in terms of my goals. I wrote the "query hook" blurb for my novel class and gave some classmates feedback on theirs. I at least opened my manuscript and figured out what version I'd be working from. (Turns out AS did edit about a quarter of it, so I'll use that version and review her changes.)

Yesterday was a no-social-media-at-work day, and I succeeded at that. It actually was pretty easy, so much so that occasionally I'd have a moment where I feared I'd clicked one of the sites automatically. But I never did.

Today was a no-drinking day. I liked the warm ginger drink and sleepytime tea last time, so I had those again.

Tomorrow is no phone or computer after work, so I've been kind of getting it out of my system today. But I do feel like I've been spending less time on social sites, at least, so maybe these random days away are helping me be less addicted to them.

I finished the UK taxes for another year. The next tax year finishes in early April. I would absolutely love to list and sell the UK flat before then so we'd only have one more year of taxes, but I don't think we'll be able to do that. Still, I've got a note on the calendar to check in with the management company in February to see if the housing market is any better.

I seem to have restarted some of my good habits, namely my A.M. strength training exercises. And AS and I have walked to work three days this week, though we're getting another cold snap that may thwart our walks. But NT is interested in subscribing to Gilad workouts on Amazon, so that could be another way to get in shape on these really cold days. He's almost over his cold, so hopefully soon we'll do that.

I've had the same hairstyle for a couple years now, but I've had a sudden urge to get bangs. Our regular haircut day is this Saturday, so I might as well take the plunge. I also need new glasses. So I've been looking for good frames and trying to picture them with bangs. I hope I find a cute style and cute glasses. It would be nice to have a new look, though I do like the one I've been sporting. It's just getting a tiny bit old.

I got my eyes tested last year but never got around to buying glasses (so many other expenses kept coming up). So I probably need a new test and prescription. For some reason I hate getting my eyes tested, but I know I need a new prescription; I actually can't read up close with my current glasses, and I can no longer compensate for seeing farsighted. (I think I have astigmatism now in addition to being nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. I'm trying to remember what the last doc said; I think it was that I needed progressive lenses?)

I got a free lunch today; my mentor/boss took me and my other boss out on a whim. I was kind of hoping there would be raise/promotion talk, but it was just a friendly get-together. Still enjoyed it though!

This weekend NT and I aim to get the walls of my book nook painted. He already painted some of the walls but there are a few with bookcases full of books against them. So I just need to help him take all those books out, move the cases, and tape off the edges. It's really not much painting once we get that done. It'll be nice to have it all one color, even if it's still not all that decorated. (I've just got random free/cheap furniture in there.)

I also want to continue my emergency preparedness planning this weekend and read through my novel, applying AS's edits and seeing how it hangs together. (Since I combined two years' NaNoWriMo into one, I've never read it all together to see if it flows OK.)

I guess that's all my news for now!

I spent several hours yesterday researching emergency preparedness and came up with a pretty comprehensive shopping list, which I'll purchase incrementally when we have spare money in the budget. I started looking at written plans and what documents we need to include in our kit, but I'll need to work on that some more.

I also need to do location-specific research on what disasters I should prep for and how. And I want to look for CPR and general preparedness classes I can take locally, hopefully for cheap or free.

I finished signing up for guitar lessons; I'll be going every Tuesday in February. They'll set me up with a loaner guitar to take home and practice with, which is great because it'll give me a chance to try it out and see if it's really something I want to continue before I commit to buying one myself.

I can pay for these lessons with my spending money, but if I wanted to continue, it would be more than my spending money can handle, so I'll need to chat with the family about it.

My online novel-finishing class officially opened today. I took a survey the teach posted and read and responded to messages on the class forum. This week I want to reread the novel I'm going to work on, because I haven't touched it in a while. I'll also complete the first two assignments: writing a short "query" blurb about the novel and answering a list of questions about the novel.

Other random happenings: NT was able to download the tax software to his computer, so I'll try to work on UK taxes this week.

And I got a notice that my ordinarysavers.com domain will be expiring soon. I need to decide whether I'm going to keep it active. I paid $100 for hosting last year and don't think I published a single new post, so I'd need to think about whether I really have enough new stuff to say about personal finance to make it worth my while. Especially with possible guitar classes eating up funds. Is there a way to archive a site so I don't lose the posts I did do, but don't have to pay to host it anymore? I wonder...

Last night I was successful in not using my phone or computer at all after work. Well, I did play music on my phone on the way home from work, but that was it. There were times I felt tempted but it wasn't too bad.

I didn't even take my phone to bed, which I usually do so I can watch a show on mute until I fall asleep. Luckily I didn't have trouble falling asleep and didn't wake up in the middle of the night like I do sometimes.

Today's task was to sign up for guitar lessons for February. I filled out an online request form and the store will get in touch with me, apparently. So I'm not quite signed up and won't check off that task, but at least I did what I could on it.

I also started NT's UK taxes (ugh), but couldn't get the software to download on my work computer (which is the main computer I use at home too). So I'll have to get NT to try and download it onto his. At least I gathered all the mortgage and rent info to plug into the software once we get it up and running. This just has to be done by the end of the month.

We're having a quiet day at home. We'd arranged play dates for both kids with friends, but one got sick and the other flaked. I don't want the kids to grow up, but one benefit will be when they can handle their own social life! There's so much work on our end to get them together with their friends. I was lucky when I was a kid and had friends on my same block.

Tomorrow's task toward a goal is to start researching emergency preparedness. I'm looking forward to it!

Today was the night I designated to not have any alcohol. I had a warm (nonalcoholic) ginger drink and a cup of sleepytime tea instead. I've developed a cold, so I didn't feel up to trying any other relaxation techniques, but I will try some on other nights.

The goal tomorrow is no phone or computer time after work. So once my work day is done, no more checking or using either device for the rest of the night.

We'll see how I feel about that, but so far, rotating my bad habits so I can have some but not all of them seems to be a good way to dip my toe into reducing/omitting them.

My goals this weekend are to book guitar lessons for February and start researching emergency preparedness. (I also hope to get the UK taxes done; they just need doing before the end of the month so we don't get fined.) We also have some activities for the kids planned, so it will be a brisk weekend! And poor Anitra has been trying to get the cigarette smell out of our basement since her mom left, and NT has a couple of meetings or other activities.

The good news side of things:

AS's mom's visit is over! It was challenging in many ways but it could've been a lot worse.

We're a little in the hole on shared spending but only because we had to reorder the kids' beds and request a refund, which hasn't come through. If it had, we'd actually be in the positive by about $500. Pretty amazing considering the holidays and everything.

AS's business has started with a rush of offers, and she's already worked or booked nearly $14,000 of jobs for the next couple months! As a reference point, her first quarter of last year grossed less than $13,000. And we're only 4 days into the quarter! I don't know if it will all get paid in the first three months, but I'm positive she'll book other work in the first quarter as well, so I think it's going to be a big 'un.

She also connected me with one guy she works for (who I actually connected her with initially, when he used to work at my company a couple years ago and used AS as a freelance writer). He's going to need a lot of freelance help and I figured I should pitch in a little extra to try and build up the kitchen reno savings, since my entire paycheck goes to bills, groceries, spending money, retirement etc. So we'll see how that is; if I can juggle it with my regular job without feeling burnt out, it would be awesome to have another income stream. If not, I can always bow out after the first assignment if it proves to be too much.

I think that's all for now; my sleepytime tea plus my cold has got me all dazed so I may be forgetting something.

I think one mistake I (and probably many other people) make with New Year's goals is try to go 100 MPH on the first day of the year, then get burnt out and/or so intimidated or overhwhelmed that I don't do some of the things.

So this year, I very deliberately plotted out my January with lots of little incremental tasks on my calendar.

Yesterday my task was not to do social media at work. Even though I left early and worked from home part of the day, I succeeded even at home. From when I got on the bus toward work until signing off at 5:30pm, I stayed off Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SavingAdvice, and for good measure I'm throwing in Yahoo email, Google news and my budgeting spreadsheets, because those are all big time sucks. The only things I allowed myself to look at were Google calendar and Slack (which my household has started using to communicate and plan). And I let myself briefly go into one spreadsheet to help AS with a specific task.

Today, obviously, I'm letting myself back on at work. But that's the point of these incremental goals. In February I'll go up to two days per week for each of these tasks.

Today my task is not to have any alcohol.

I'm also trying to be gradual but persistent about adding back in healthy habits that fell off over the past couple months of 2017. Although not part of my 2018 goals, I want to restore them because they served me so well last year. So I've restarted my weekday morning strength exercises (4 days in a row this week) and skipping breakfast most days (3 days but then I did have a little breakfast today).

I still haven't gotten back into the walking 10K steps habit--I'm going to try for that once temps get back in the teens and 20s, which should hopefully start this weekend.

And I haven't gotten back into not snacking at night; there are still so many snacks in the house from the holidays. As they start to get eaten down, I'll try not to bring more snacks into the house, and gradually I hope to get rid of the night-snacking habit.

Baby steps!

All our mortgage payments hit:
US: $711 to principal
UK1: $178
UK2: $37
UK3: $40

All told, that's $966 toward debt.

Current debt amounts:
US Mortgage $391,136
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $33,393
UK Mortgage 2 $7,039
UK Mortgage 3 $7,413
___
TOTAL DEBT $447,981

So here are my goals for 2018. As I've mentioned before, I tried to identify why some of last year's didn't work out, and apply what I learned to creating this year's. The main parameters:
1. It has to be something I'm genuinely interested in doing.
2. It can't depend on anyone else to get done; it has to be something I can control. (Exceptions are the net worth and retirement goals.)
3. There have to be concrete steps to the goal, ways to measure results, or some combination of the two.
4. Preferably, many of the goals will be about slowly creating and building up a habit. I'm interested in behaviors that will continue to benefit me, not just one-off achievements.

So here are my goals, along with the first step if applicable. I've also added reminders to my Google Calendar to prompt me to keep making progress on them, and assess them to see what the next step should be.

Creative - get a novel publishing-ready. Step 1 (Jan): online class (already enrolled)

Creative - learn guitar. Step 1 (Feb): private lessons @TwinTown (borrow guitar).

Health - limit drinking on everyday nights. Step 1: 1 day a week of 0-1 glasses.

Health - limit screen time outside of work. Step 1: 1 night a week of no computer/phone use after work.

Health - Try relaxation/destress tactics on nondrinking/no-screen-time days--tea? Meditation? Reading?

Pragmatic - emergency preparedness. Step 1 (Jan): research on cdc.gov, ready.gov & dps.mn.gov. Make a kit, make a plan, get informed. First aid training, e.g. CPR.

Work/professional development: Look for class on Agile; see if work will pay for it.

Work/professional development: Start to limit social/personal internet to bathrooms/breakrooms. Step 1 (Jan): Limit it for one day per week.

Financial: Retirement assets to $475K. Net worth to $650K. Bump NT's 401(k) up 2%.

Financial: Kids' savings up to at least $1K per year of age. (SL: $6,000. AA: $8,000.)

Home: Full kitchen renovation. See what other improvements we can save up for after that.

Vacations: UK or warm weather family trip. Solo trips for adults. Weekend at lake. Niece's wedding in Va. in August.

Whew, what a year. Besides my goals, my family and I did TON of traveling:
- I had 4(?) business trips to Memphis, 3 overnight and one for 3 days
- I took a solo trip to NYC for 4 days
- AS and I went to Wisconsin for 3 days
- We all went to a lake up north for 5 days
- We all went to Va. for a week
- NT went to Chicago overnight
- NT went to England for 10 days
- AS went to NYC for 4 days
- AS went to Va. for 2 weeks to take care of her mom
- AS went to Nevada for 4 days for work

I think that's it, anyway. Like I said, whew! This was the first time we tried taking solo trips for the adults (except required business trips) since we were married, and it's been really positive to indulge some of our individual interests. That said, I still love family trips, but I think we'll continue this solo-trip idea in 2018!

I felt like I developed a lot of healthy habits over the year but I also started drinking more, starting in mid- to late 2016 with the stressful election and continuing with the constant stressful stream of bad news out there. But I know that's not going to end any time soon, so I can't just self-medicate until it's over. Reducing the drinking will be one of my 2018 goals. I also have been glued to my phone the same amount of time, due to the same factors. Another of my goals will be to consciously unplug a little at a time, hopefully increasing over the course of the year.

I got way back into music over this year, mainly one band, but it also reawakened my love of older favorites and made me start listening a bit to new acts as well. I'm going to continue seeking out my favorite band and new acts, because it gave me a lot of joy. I'm even going to try guitar lessons and see if I like making music as much as I like listening to it!

I really feel like I acquitted myself well at work and gained a lot of visibility and respect with both co-workers and clients. That said, it didn't translate to any material gains or title change, so I'm really hoping this is the year for that. I'm getting much more involved in our huge client's annual report this year, which is a high-visibility project, and another client from that same company has been asking for some really creative stuff including videos that will hopefully get me even more attention. So I feel optimistic and determined to keep upping my profile, but what I really want is more money and a higher title.

The rest of my family is doing incredibly well too. NT got a new role at work at the end of this year that he's excited about, and he's been selling his hats and now T-shirts at lots of shows, which has a double benefit because he also has gotten to see a lot more live music. He hasn't made a ton of profit but it's at least a fun and challenging self-funded hobby.

AS had her lowest income in three years (only by a couple grand, so not much lower), but it was after she quit accepting jobs from my company for a while because they were really bad about paying. They've gotten better and she's agreed to work for us again, so this next year looks really promising. Anyway, what she made this year was totally sufficient, so anything she makes above that will just be icing on the cake. She also added another college where she teaches editing; she thinks there's an opportunity to package some of the things she teaches at her publishing and editing classes into one-off seminars and/or speaking engagements. I think that would be a really smart way to repurpose the great material she's worked so hard to develop for her classes. Even though the teaching doesn't pay too much by the hour, it's a really prestigious and challenging part of her work.

SL started kindergarten and absolutely loves it. She reads at probably a 2nd grade level, while our 2nd grader AA reads probably more at a 3rd grade level. Both have gotten more into art and AA joined the school choir. SL might be a mathematical genius, as well. She definitely has a grasp of time, dates, addition/subtraction, and geography that's well beyond where I was in kindergarten. This will be our last full year at our daycare, which is very sad, but I can tell our kids are really growing up fast, so it makes sense. AA will probably do something else for the summer but we'll have SL go there one more summer. When school starts again in fall 2018, we might use the school's after-school program for both, or see what the YMCA near their school offers. So August 2018 might be the end of our time at the daycare. Sniff! I never dreamed we'd find a place that we'd gladly keep our kids at forever. But we'll keep in touch with them; they're like family at this point.

Our extended family has hung in there this year; AS's mom having open heart surgery was scary, but she seems to be recovering for the most part. It's still up in the air as to whether she'll move to Minneapolis (more on that in a later post in a few days, probably). My mom and dad are doing pretty well, about where they were last year. One niece got married and another got engaged! NT's gran and dad are both having health issues but it doesn't seem to be too serious. His gran's boyfriend passed away, which was sad, but she seems to be hanging in there.

Living with our downstairs neighbors is still going well, though a few things are frustrating here and there. First, that they wouldn't consider turning the basement into an accessory dwelling unit for our other friend; even though they've only used it as a guest room about three times in the three years we've lived here. And the fact that the one who's a lawyer still hasn't given me a rough draft of the agreement to purchase their share of the home. I feel like I'm being fairly generous letting them veto the ADU idea even though they don't have any ownership and pay below-market rent for their unit. I'm not even sure it will work out, although I hope it will, but I need to get the agreement in front of a lawyer before I know for sure. I hate to have them draw this out forever and then maybe it doesn't work out and they're stuck deciding whether they just want to rent from us indefinitely or get their own place. They asked about getting a permanent bed for the basement and I told them not until we get the purchase agreement worked out, so hopefully that will spur some movement. I also don't intend to sign anything until I'm satisfied that back-tax issues have been cleared up, because I'm not tying myself financially to someone who may face future issues with the IRS. But all that said, we get along really well and work well together on various things, and we usually have dinner together twice a week. Plus we get free babysitting from time to time, and cat sitting! And we just love them like family, so even with the frustrations, it's an incredibly rewarding living arrangement.

I'm sure there's more to write about, but those are the highlights of the year as I'm thinking back on it right now. I hope everyone had an overall good 2017 and will have a wonderful 2018 too!

It was a mixed-bag year in terms of hitting my goals, but overall I'm happy.

Successes:
- Get assets above a million
Result: $1,030,555

- Get debt below $450K
Result: $448,947

- Get retirement above $350K
Result: $390,774

- Try about one new recipe per week (at least 50)
Result: I stopped counting somewhere around 54 new recipes but I tried at least a few more since then, so I bet I'm over 60.

Mixed:

- Attempt refi on US duplex if it appears home values are strong enough to give us 80% LTV
Result: I worked quite hard looking into it but it wasn't feasible.

- Increase 401(k)/SEP contributions up to 10% for NT, 10.5% for me and 11% for AS. (We started with NT at 8% with match, me at 9.5% with match, and AS at 10%)
Result: AS now putting 11% aside, CJ 10.5%, but we didn't increase NT's contributions.

- Continue home renovations
Result:
Did upstairs bathroom (complete redo)
Didn't get insulation for whole house
Saved up as much as we could for kitchen (complete redo) (currently saved $19,450)

- Re-establish nearly daily walking and no breakfast/snacks habits; get weight below 130
Result: I was really good with my habits until November, when I fell off both the walking and eating habits somewhat. I got my weight below 130 in early August and bounced above and below that mark until mid-November, when I bounced above and stayed there. I'm currently at 131.2. But considering I started the year at 137.4, I'm not too displeased with that result!

- Self-publish two novels (already written, need editing) and write at least one more
Result: Wrote one more novel, and did some work on editing another, but did not self-publish. I got stalled out waiting for AS to review one of them and she never got around to it.

Failures:

- Get net worth to $600K
Result: $581,608

- Declutter/reduce stuff, beginning with boxes of paper
Result: total failure. I was going to go through a few boxes today but my book nook where they're stored is a disaster area due to putting in new beds for the kids and bringing some of their old stuff out to my area. Just too chaotic so I'm not going to attempt it.

- Take a more active role in garden/yard maintenance
Result: total failure. At least I learned that I'm not at all interested in this area, so that's something.

Goal: $492,077 by 2019

As a reminder, this is just an incremental goal along the way to 8x income by retirement. This mini-goal aims to get us to a milestone by the time I turn 45 and AS turns 40.

The milestone (which changes whenever our salaries change) is to get me to 3x my current salary, which is now $68,291, so $204,873; NT to 3x his, which is now $62,100, so $186,300; and AS to 2x hers, which in 2017 was $50,452, so $100,904). AS's 2017 salary went down from $51,785, so the goal is a little smaller for now.

Current balance: $390,774

November 2017 balance: $379,984

Progress: $10,790

We had a big month! If every month were like this we'd reach our goal. Will I reach it during the false optimism of greedy traders post-tax reform, before the reality of trickle-down economics stalls our economy? Only time will tell.

Compared with end of 2016:
2016 $297,419
Change $93,355
I mean, that's pretty astonishing. We averaged a gain of $7780 per month.

To reach the interim goal by the end of our birthday month (March) in 2019, that's 15 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $101,303 -- $6,754 per month -- to reach it.

I'll also have a 2018 mini-goal which I'll post with all my 2018 goals soon.

We won't see any more movement on our assets or debt for the year, so I thought I'd total up our net worth a little early.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)
SW: 26,544 pounds ($33,180)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $61,822
NT's Roth IRA: $25,618
AS's trad. IRA: $19,105
AS's Roth IRA: $44,800
AS's SEP IRA: $22,231
CJ's 401(k): $123,753
CJ's Roth IRA: $29,728
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,030,555

US Mortgage $391,847
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $33,571
UK Mortgage 2 $7,076
UK Mortgage 3 $7,453
---
TOTAL DEBT $448,947


Current Estimated Net Worth: $581,608

November 2017 estimate: $569,850

Change in net worth: +$11,758

Summary: Another big leap! Were it not for devaluing our US duplex earlier in the year, we would have blown past our $600K net worth goal for the year. We didn't make it, but I'm happy with where we are. I have a feeling we now undervalue our duplex, but better that than the alternative. If I get anything I feel is definitive proof, I'll updated our home value next year.

Compared with the end of 2016, here's how our net worth numbers fared in 2017:
Total Assets:
2016 $992,419
2017 $1,030,555
Change $38,136

Total Debt:
2016 $460,445
2017 $448,947
Change $11,498

Net Worth:
2016 $531,974
2017 $581,608
Change $49,634

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. (I do have my eye on a comparable listing for the UK flat, but it's been on the market a long time.) UK pension values updated about once a year. UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.25 for every British pound.

It's my last day of work until next year! Well, I might have to do little bits of work from home, but nothing like last year when I worked 2-3 hours per day during my vacation, even on Xmas Eve.

I have to admit I'm flagging. But part of it is that there are no big deadlines or huge projects that need to be done. But there are lots of smaller ways I could get myself set up nicely for next year, so hopefully I'll get some work done today.

We hired a carshare and took the kids to see Santa for the first time last night. We didn't buy the photos (minimum $25) and they didn't let you take your own photos. But it was more about the experience. Plus everyone got to choose what they wanted for dinner, and walk around the festively decorated mall, which we hardly ever do. The kids had a great time.

One of my mothers-in-law (AS's mom) gets in today from Va. and is staying for two weeks in our basement. It could turn out very nice or very unpleasant but will probably end up somewhere in between. I'm just not worrying about it and will focus on trying to help AS not stress out about anything.

We didn't want to overdo it on gifts for her since she'll be lugging it back home, so we got her a $100 Walmart gift certificate, a sleep mask, a photo calendar, and more photos of the kids including school pictures. Oh and we might regift a little basket of nice candy that NT got from work.

We're still expecting some packages and I'm hoping they all get here before Xmas. 10 books and 3 gifts, I believe. But the kids have a lot of presents already, so it'll be fine if they come late. We had to buy the kids' presents for 3 sets of grandparents, an aunt, ourselves and Santa, so even with only a few gifts from each person, it really added up.

My dad's check came, and NT's parents and sister also sent some money. I allocated it mostly as planned. I bought some gifts for the kids in each person's name, set aside $175 each for the kids to go into their mutual funds, put some toward new furniture for the kids' rooms, and gave each adult $200 fun money. Added to the $150 each adult got from NT's bonus, it's a nice chunk of change!!

I almost immediately spent $130 of mine to buy 7 tickets to my favorite band's shows in January. They're playing every Monday in St. Paul, and I'm taking advantage because they spend a lot of time on the road touring other parts of the U.S., Europe and Australia these days.

I bought 2 tickets to one show I'll be bringing AS's mom to, 2 tickets to another that AS will definitely accompany me to, and 1 ticket each to the other three shows. I have friends lined up to go to almost all of them, so I don't think I'll attend any alone, but I will if I have to! I can buy more tickets if NT or AS decide they want to come to any of the other nights with me, but it's not NT's style at all, and AS has been to a lot of their shows with me this past year so she's kind of overdosed on them. She likes them but isn't a superfan like me.

I also spent $80 to enroll in an online class called "Finish your novel." It starts in January and is one of my 2018 goals. I'm planning to buy myself some music lessons for 2018 but haven't done it yet. I'll do a full goals post closer to the end of the year. (Or maybe later today, if I have some more down time at work!)

I found

this article about signing a prenup to be so interesting. I relate to how the woman is feeling from how I was in my 20s and 30s, but I very much relate to the man, who's in his 40s as I am. It's a scary thing to have assets and be around someone you love who doesn't understand how to accumulate or protect assets. I am so so so glad my partners and I came into our relationship at about the same level of cluelessness and similar amounts of debt (though NT had more assets). I would have a hard time entering into a marriage in my 40s with someone like this woman who doesn't care about money and squanders it.

NT's bonus came, and it was $250 more than last year! We did everything I laid out in my last post except we sent $2250 to renovation savings instead of $2000.

I've been thinking a lot about my 2018 goals and what could help me achieve them. One thing I kept going back to is that things that become habit by being gradually added to my routine tend to stick. In fact, I have several things I don't feel like need to be goals anymore because they're pretty much ingrained into my life. Now THAT is an achievement because it's making things stick.

My habits aren't all 100%; for instance, during vacations or the winter holidays, I let myself go on snacking and exercising. Not all the way gone, but I have many more cheat days than during the rest of the year. But they are things I can maintain in my everyday routine.

So I made an audit of all the good habits I've added to my life over the past year or so. Then I added some of the habits I've added since I started my journey to financial freedom, because even though I take them for granted now, they were once struggles for me. It felt important to recognize how comfortable my good habits can feel once they're truly part of my routine.

Then I did an audit of my bad habits. I wanted to see how many of them could be cleared up by my 2018 goals. I actually think my goals could help me at least cut back on some of these bad routines or habits, if not eliminate them entirely.

I'll get to my New Year goals in another post, but here are my habit audits:

Good habits already set:

- Intermittent fasting (no breakfast/no night snacks)
- Walking approx 10K steps per day (incl 3 mi to work most days)
- AM strength training
- NaNoWriMo every year
- Capsule wardrobe 2x year (fall/winter & spring/summer)
- Personal finance (keeping a budget, setting goals, blogging)
- Grocery & menu planning, including CSA every year; cooking nearly every meal at home, taking leftovers for lunch vs eating out
- Daily flossing
- Consistently use Google Calendar & work calendar to keep on top of schedule

Bad habits:
- Too much screen time (esp social media)
- Not enough book reading
- Too much alcohol
- Need screen to get to sleep most nights (watch show on phone)
- Biting/picking at nails, lips, fingers, etc.
- Don't pick up after myself enough at home; don't help out much with indoor/outdoor chores
- Desk & email boxes get cluttered
- Don't play with the kids enough
- Lose focus at work sometimes; have some unproductive days
- Grooming: could shower more often, dress professionally more often, wear makeup more often
- Don't brush teeth second time before bed

I don't expect to turn into a perfect person overnight, but I'm really hoping that some of my 2018 goals will help create new good habits, or decrease some of these bad ones!

NT got his letter about this year's bonus, and it's even a little bigger than last year! $7500, more than the $7K we got in 2016.

It will hit tomorrow, so I don't know how much we'll net, but last year we netted about $4500, so I'm hoping for a bit more than that. But I'll start there to be safe.

We talked about it a bit tonight, and I think this is how it'll go:
- $500 to our daycare providers (this will be our last full year with them so we want to give them a really nice bonus)
- $1000 to help pay for Ikea loft beds, mattresses and desks for the kids, to make a bit better use of their small rooms. We may make some other improvements, but we'll cashflow them from AS's checks (and plus my parents are sending us money instead of gifts for Xmas).
- $200 to buy $250 worth of gift cards from our favorite pizza place
- $150 each fun money for the adults, so $450
- $350 to help offset the cost of hosting AS's mom for two weeks
- $2000 (plus whatever more we net) to kitchen reno savings

So that's pretty good!

My dad called yesterday to let me know he was sending money instead of gifts this year. Good for him! The man is 86 and mom is 83, so it's about time they took it easier.

I wasn't listening too close to my dad but I think he said he was sending $600 for the kids and $600 for the adults, so $300 each for the kids and $200 each for the adults. I already bought about $50 worth of gifts in their name for the kids, leaving $250 per kid. I think I'll put $100 each toward sprucing up their rooms, and $150 each into savings.

The adults can have theirs as fun money. We're always scraping the bottom of our fun money these days, so we'll all welcome it! Especially NT, who has a big deficit because of his hat and T-shirt business, and me, because I've got FIVE shows I want to go to in January, plus some classes/lessons I want to take in January/February.

More on that soon ... still finalizing my 2018 goals, but I'm pretty excited about them.

The year is winding down quickly, and I definitely won't be hitting all my goals. Though I'm fairly happy about the number I did hit, it makes me want to go into 2018 with clear eyes about what works and what doesn't in terms of goalmaking.

One thing I've noticed is it has to be something that genuinely interests me so I have a motivation to do it. I work hard enough with the full-time job plus cooking and kids, so the last thing I want is extras that just feel like chores with no pleasure attached. I fell short of the decluttering and gardening goals because I just wasn't interested. (I am going to try and achieve some decluttering yet this month, but obviously the gardening ship has sailed. ) By contrast, I was very interested in the bathroom renovation and saving up for the kitchen reno. Even the failed refinance I put a lot of work into because I was very motivated to try and lower our monthly payment.

Another thing my goals need to be is not dependent on other people or forces beyond my control. For instance, I couldn't refi the duplex because I wasn't confident we had enough home value to have a 80% LTV. And my self-publishing goals depended on AS critiquing my manuscripts, so when she got super busy those languished. I also fell short of the net worth goal because I slashed our home value estimates, another force beyond my control. I do like having a desired net worth to hit, though, because it motivates me to track. So I'll probably set a similar goal this year. But other than market fluctuation stuff, I'm going to try and have my goals be things that only need ME to get them done, not luck or other people.

Another reason I would fall short is not having definite next steps or defined steps to get to a goal. So I think this is a second reason that fuzzier goals like "get into gardening" or "declutter" or even "self-publish" fell by the wayside. On the other hand, I know exactly what I need to do to write a novel (do an outline and participate in NaNoWriMo) and raise retirement (raise 401(k) every time we get a raise) and do renos (save money, decide what we want to do, get an estimate, schedule the contractor). So those goals were more successful.

With those parameters in mind I hope to come up with some really good goals that are fun AND achievable, but stretch me out of my comfort zone a bit. I'm excited!

I keep not getting around to my usual entry about debt payments! Let's see if I can actually finish this. All our payments hit for December:

US mortgage: $709 to principal
UK1: $180
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

All told, that's $968 of debt gone.

Current debt:
US Mortgage $391,847
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $33,571
UK Mortgage 2 $7,076
UK Mortgage 3 $7,453
___
TOTAL DEBT $448,947

I finished up my NaNoWriMo challenge on Nov. 27 this year (Monday). After being pretty behind on my word count most of the month, I had a couple of marathon days and cranked out the 50,000 needed to reach this goal.

I don't know if I'll ever return to this novel and attempt to revise it. It's pretty bad. I know what mistakes I made during the planning stages and the (especially) poor writing was a result of not having the scenes worked out in advance, so often I was just riffing and making up details as I went along. This leads to issues with continuity, pacing, and much more.

But at least I wrote it! Since I did not fulfill my other goal of self-publishing some previous novels (and probably won't reach that goal by the end of the year), it's nice to have ONE creative win to report.

Goal: $494,743 by 2019

As a reminder, this is just an incremental goal along the way to 8x income by retirement. This mini-goal aims to get us to a milestone by the time I turn 45 and AS turns 40.

The milestone (which changes whenever our salaries change) is to get me to 3x my current salary, which is now $68,291, so $204,873; NT to 3x his, which is now $62,100, so $186,300; and AS to 2x hers, which in 2016 was $51,785, so $103,570).

(AS's goal may revise downward for 2018 because it looks like she'll make a little less this year. But we're thinking 2018 will be a bigger income year for her, so it may go up again the following reset for 2019.)

Current balance: $379,984

October 2017 balance: $372,435

Progress: $7,549

We had a big month! If every month were like this we'd reach our goal.

To reach the interim goal by the end of our birthday month (March) in 2019, that's 16 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $114,759 -- $7,172 per month -- to reach it.

I'm suspicious of all the market gains, so I feel like we're going to see a fall soon. I guess it'll depend on timing as to whether we'll recover in time to get close to our interim goal. Only time will tell.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
AV: 17,967 pounds ($22,459)
SW: 26,544 pounds ($33,180)
FL: 6,462 pounds ($8,078)
NT's 401(k): $60,003
NT's Roth IRA: $23,824
AS's trad. IRA: $18,807
AS's Roth IRA: $44,069
AS's SEP IRA: $19,484
CJ's 401(k): $120,918
CJ's Roth IRA: $29,162
NT's flat: $212,500 (200,000 pounds value x1.25 -15%)
CJ/NT/AS house: $427,281 ($454,554 value -6%)
---
TOTAL ASSETS: $1,019,765

US Mortgage $392,556
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $33,751
UK Mortgage 2 $7,115
UK Mortgage 3 $7,493
---
TOTAL DEBT $449,915

Current Estimated Net Worth: $569,850

October 2017 estimate: $561,332

Change in net worth: +$8,518

Summary: Not as huge a jump as the previous two months, but still good. And, we got our debt below $450K! That means the only financial goals we haven't reached this year are getting NT's 401(k) up to 10% and getting our net worth above $600K. (And refinancing the duplex, which turned out to not be a good option.)

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. (I do have my eye on a comparable listing for the UK flat, but it's been on the market a long time.) UK pension values updated about once a year. UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.25 for every British pound.

AS got two freelance checks in the mail, totaling $2200. After taxes, retirement and reno savings, I was able to apply about $930 to the deficit, soo...it's gone! We actually have $170 in shared spending, the first time we've been in the black since maybe mid-June?

We have a big date night today (we hired a babysitter, which makes dates much more expensive than when we can get one of our friends to watch the kids for free). And I know there are some other expenses coming up (like me getting a proper pair of snowboots that are good for long walks, before the snow and ice hits this year, another date night for our anniversary next weekend, and I still need to get my niece a wedding gift and/or send her a check).

But, I also know AS is getting at least one more good check yet this month, possibly more. So even if the deficit comes back temporarily, I'm thinking income will outpace spending, hopefully even through Christmas and AS's mom's 2-week visit.

Hooray!!!

AS got a few payments this week, and our deficit is now at about $800! She's expecting many more payments before the end of the year, hopefully some of which will come before the end of November. It feels like we're close to the finish line!

We went about $300 over budget on groceries this past week, so without that we'd be even closer to paying it off! We had a potluck to buy ingredients for, plus we bought extra alcohol for both that and the Thanksgiving holiday, plus of course Thanksgiving meal items and some special snacks and foods for the long weekend. Yeah, we were very indulgent, but considering we probably saved $500-$700 from our grocery budget over the past few months, I don't feel too bad about it.

NT got some good news that because his company did $1M+ of business six of the months so far this year, they were giving everyone a $600 bonus. We netted $543 and even after sending a third of that to reno savings, it brought our deficit under $1500, to about $1312!

The fact they did well enough for this small bonus really bodes well for NT getting a bigger bonus at the end of the year. I hope so and I hope our deficit is gone by then so we can put a big chunk of it toward the kitchen reno savings!

My paycheck went down a small amount ($1.80) due to an increase in bus pass pricing. It will be reduced again in January because of health insurance premium increases (I haven't looked at the new pricing in detail but need to soon). I sure hope my sad little attempts to get a raise/promotion pay off at some point!

I made an uber-simple meal last week, and it was such a big hit with the kids that AA requested it again this week! It was cooked rice mixed with a little salsa and cilantro, spread in a baking dish, topped with a mixture of black and pinto beans, which was then topped with a mixture of shredded cheddar and mozzarella and put under a broiler for about 5-10 minutes. I served it with avocado pico de gallo, chopped fresh cilantro and onion, and hot sauce. Everybody loved it! We had a semi-unexpected dinner guest who's originally from Mexico so I was embarrassed by this really basic Mexican-esque dish, but he had two helpings and said he really liked it. Whew!