Had our weekly weigh-in tonight and I was down 2 lbs. to 139! Yay, glad to be in the 130s again and to be back at my starting weight for the year. Now I just have 10 lbs. to go on my goal. Which is to say I'm back to square one, but it's better than being completely off the board!

Now on to today's fitness tracking.

10-min. workout: Yes! We walked about 4 miles total today, to and from a friend's brunch, but that was pretty leisurely so I don't count it. However, I did 10 minutes of upper-body weights and ab exercises when we got home.
Results so far: 8/10 (8 out of 10 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1637. (My target is 1280-1400.) Not too bad!
Results so far: 10/10 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: I had some celery with peanut butter, which is one of my allowable exceptions, so it still counts as a success.
Results so far: 10/10

10-min. workout: Yes! NT and I went on two separate errands, totaling about 40 minutes of biking. Plus we walked a few miles to and from a local arts event with the girls in their stroller. Fun, exhausting day!
Results so far: 7/9 (7 out of 9 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1965. (My target is 1280-1400.) It was kind of a high-calorie day, but I feel like I more than made up for it with activity.
Results so far: 9/9 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! I didn't even have (free) wine or beer at the event, just water. I may have some tea, because that's becoming a comforting ritual.
Results so far: 9/9

10-min. workout: Yes! I had to pick AA up from daycare, and I had relatively comfy shoes on, so I jogged home (OK, walk/jogged; there are hills). Took almost exactly 10 minutes.
Results so far: 6/8 (6 out of 8 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1515. (My target is 1280-1400.) My lowest day so far! Very exciting. At first I felt hungry during the day, but the last meal really filled me up. Hopefully I'm getting acclimated to smaller, lighter meals.
Results so far: 8/8 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! I did have some fresh strawberries (those are in the calorie count above, and within the allowances for night snacks). I'm still pretty full from dinner, so I'll be fine with a cup of herbal tea.
Results so far: 8/8

10-min. workout: Yes! I was feeling tired and hungry when I got home, so I looked for the thing I could get out of the way the quickest. So I jumped rope for 10 minutes. Whew, tiring!
Results so far: 5/7 (5 out of 7 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1609. (My target is 1280-1400.) My third lowest day so far! I skipped wine tonight because I knew dinner was going to add up to be a bit heavy (veggie burger on toast, corn on the cob w/margarine, potato salad w/vegan mayo)
Results so far: 7/7 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! I'm still pretty full from dinner, so I'll be fine with a cup of herbal tea.
Results so far: 7/7

We budget $700 per month for groceries and household (including some but not all the diapers we use, plus wipes). ($754 if you count the amount I escrow to save up for our summer CSA vegetable farm share.) We don't even try to get all organic like LuckyRobin (whose post inspired this train of thought) and yet we still struggle to meet $700 per month. We're constantly going over this amount, and I've occasionally refreshed our funds with budget surpluses. We're not going to have many surpluses this year, probably, so it's even more paramount that we stick to it.

A couple months ago I started feeding our Amex card rewards, which is 6% for groceries, straight back into the grocery budget. That's about $40 per month. That's helped somewhat. Also, if anyone wants extras like ice cream or chips, they now pay that back in from spending money.

I'm hoping now that the CSA share is about to kick in, our weekly grocery expenses will get under control for the summer at least.

When SL starts going to daycare, she'll need compostable diapers during the day since our daycare lady doesn't do cloth ones. So, starting in August, I'm upping our budget to $750 per month. So, if you add $54 for the CSA and $40 in Amex rewards, our grocery/household budget will be at $844 per month.

Hopefully AA will potty-train this year and help ease the diaper costs that are one of the main sources of pain for our budget. We haven't been pushing her but plan to start in earnest in August if she hasn't shown any more interest in self-training before then.

10-min. workout: Yes! I walked upstairs to the condo and then checked my time -- it had only taken 4 minutes. So I walked down and up the last flight of stairs -- maybe the equivalent of another 18 floors? -- for 6 more minutes. My legs will feel it tomorrow! My arms are very sore from the sworkit.com workout yesterday
Results so far: 4/6 (4 out of 6 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1570. (My target is 1280-1400.) My second lowest day so far!
Results so far: 6/6 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! I'm a bit peckish, but since my calorie count is already over my limit, I won't even have fruit or veggies. My chamomile tea will get me through.
Results so far: 6/6

10-min. workout: Yes! AS told me about a cool website (also a mobile app) -- sworkit.com -- that generates workouts based on the amount of time you have. I asked for 10 minutes and got a pretty intense workout! I didn't know some of the exercise so I faked it or did something similar; I'll have to look up the exercises before I use this again. Good website though!
Results so far: 3/5 (3 out of 5 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1628. (My target is 1280-1400.) Not too bad! A half cup of lemonade and a cup of red wine pushed me over 1400.
Results so far: 5/5 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! I'm finishing a glass of wine I was too busy to drink earlier, but I won't have any late night snacks tonight.
Results so far: 5/5

Now to my two random refunds:

First, that dentist that charged me so much sent me a $228 check. No explanation, so I'm not sure which visit it's a refund for! I'm pleased, but maybe not enough to use them again. I think I'll try another place.

I'm going to put that money back into the medical fund; we'll probably need it for AS's and SL's hospital bills from the birth.

And second, this morning when AS's mom checked out of the hotel we'd paid for, they gave her an invoice that showed they'll be refunding $260! (Now I just have to remember which card I used!) Weird ... part of it seems to be a refund for the first night, since her flight was canceled and she didn't come in Friday night. Not sure why it was so much. Or why they refunded that, since it was a special nonrefundable online rate. But who's complaining?? It was nearly half of what we'd paid for the room. If I really do get that refund, I'll put it aside because NT's sister and stepmom, and maybe his brother-in-law and father, are thinking about coming to visit later this year, and we'll handle the hotel costs if they do. This $260 is a nice chunk of change toward that!

10-min. workout: Yes! I did quite a bit of walking today, some of it hauling SL in a carseat, but the real workout was a 10-min. walk carrying AS, who probably weighs about 35 lbs. My biceps felt quite worked out by the time I was done!
Results so far: 2/4 (2 out of 4 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 2610. (My target is 1280-1400.) Whoops! We took AS's mom out to eat at a local BBQ restaurant and then to an ice cream shop. That meal alone was probably about 1300 calories.
Results so far: 4/4 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my target, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! I can say with all certainty I do NOT want a snack tonight. May have a cup of chamomile to relax before bed.
Results so far: 4/4

10-min. workout: Nope. I did walk quite a bit yesterday, so I feel good overall, but nothing vigorous enough to count in this challenge. Once AS's mom leaves I'll devote myself to this part of the challenge.
Results so far: 1/3 (1 out of 3 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1717. (My target is 1280-1400.)
Results so far: 3/3 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my limit, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! Had a cup of peppermint tea
Results so far: 3/3

Also, finally lost some of the weight from May! I'm down to 141, which is still 2 lbs. over my starting weight for the year, and 12 lbs. higher than I want to be, but nice to see some movement on the scale.

And now ... I entered my May debt repayment to my "Past Goals and Results" page, and realized that our total payoff since May 2007 has been more than $150,000! I told AS and NT and their first reaction was "I can't believe we got in this much debt!" It's hard to imagine because for the past 5 years, we've had a completely different attitude toward money than we did for the first 10+ years of adulthood.

But, it means we've pretty much reduced our debt by one-third. Considering how much we started with, no small feat!

10-min. workout: Yes! In fact, I did 2 10-min. bike rides, so 20 min. total.
Results so far: 1/2 (1 out of 2 days)

Calorie counting: estimated 1549. My goal is 1280-1400. Much closer, but my 2 glasses of wine pushed me over the edge.
Results so far: 2/2 (my goal is to track, so even if I go over my limit, it counts as a success)

No night snacks: success! Had a cup of chamomile tea
Results so far: 2/2

AS's mom finally arrived for her visit. She's currently luxuriating in her hotel, after an exhausting journey and a ton of drama back home. (You wouldn't believe the stories she told last night ... but I won't go into it here.) When she's up, we'll take her to brunch.

10-min. workout: nope, didn't get one in today

Calorie counting: estimated 2150. My goal is 1280-1400. Whoops!

No night snacks: success! Had a cup of chamomile tea

Today was kind of a mess. I was meant to have summer hours (leave at 1 pm) but instead ended up staying nearly an hour later than a regular day.

Meanwhile, AS's mom who was supposed to fly in at 7 pm kept calling with updates on more and more delays (crazy storms out in the DC area) until finally they canceled her flight and booked her for tomorrow night. I don't even think they gave her any perks for delaying her trip 24 hours! Not to mention $118 of hotel went to waste (it was nonrefundable, and even if it weren't, we probably found out too late to cancel). Oh, and a $5 fee for canceling the carshare we were going to use to pick her up.

So hopefully she'll get in on time tomorrow night. She leaves Tuesday at noon, and this is going to be her only visit with her new grandkid this year, so I don't want it to get any shorter!

Oh well. She was in pretty good spirits the last time AS talked to her; she's very outgoing but doesn't get out much, I get the sense, so I think she just enjoyed being at the airport and chatting with lots of strangers.

All our mortgage payments hit:
US: $442 to principal
UK1: $263 to principal
UK2: $56 to principal
UK3: $59 to principal

All told, $820 down, $180 to go on the debt goal.

We had a bit left over in UK checking after the mortgage payments, for a change, so I transferred US$100 into EF savings. Getting close to our starting point for the year, but not there yet. Sigh.

On a brighter note, this was the first time ever that we paid more to principal than interest on our U.S. mortgage! Only by about 50 cents, but still feels momentous! Only took us about 9 years. I don't know if we'll be here long, though, if rates go up in November.

May went very well in the debt and fitness departments (though not in the savings, net worth or weight loss areas ...).

May goals:
Pay off at least $1,100 of debt.
Balance as of 5/30/12: $310,772
Goal balance: $310,823
Progress: DONE! $1151 down

5-5-5 FITNESS GOAL:
Do these 5 things at least 5 times:
1. Walk to or from work (XXXXX)
2. Exercise to a Gilad program (XXXXX)
3. Do free-weight training (XXXXX)
4. Ride my bike (XXXXX)
5. Walk up the stairs to my condo (XXXXX)
Progress: DONE!

My June debt repayment is very up in the air; will probably be minimal. Because I like debt goals I'm SURE I can reach, my goal is to pay off $1,000.

For June, as I mentioned, I have three healthy goals:
1. Do at least 10 minutes of VIGOROUS exercise per day.
2. Count all calories consumed (or, if that info not available, estimate).
3. Eliminate night snacking (exceptions: fruit, veggies, peanut butter, herbal tea).

I know PrettyCheapJewelry was probably looking more for a financial challenge, but I thought I'd share my fitness ones -- my financial ones aren't very "fun" or shareable.

These are my three goals:
- Do at least 10 minutes of intense exercise every day
- Count (or at least try to estimate) all calories consumed
- No night snacking unless it's fruit, raw veggies, sugar-free peanut butter or herbal tea

So, if any or all of these goals interest you, feel free to join me, and blog about your progress!

Caveat: I'm going easy on myself this weekend since we have AS's mom in town, though I will try to start the challenge. If I don't, it officially begins for me on Tuesday!

Lots of random little things have happened financially recently:

-We took part in a condo garage sale. We made $16 pretty early on and then not another penny. Spent $8 of it for 2 puzzles, a pair of snow boots and maybe something else. Since we'd been using the girls' piggy bank to make change, we just put the $8 or so of profit in with their money.

-Deposited said piggy bank and it was almost $100, so I made up the difference and moved it into savings for SL. She already has some money there. Once she has $1000, I'll open a CD for her.

-We took the clothes and some other stuff that didn't sell at the sale to the church donation van that parks across the street from us every Sunday.

-We took the books that didn't sell to a used bookstore. They took a few of the books and gave us $15, but we had a ton they didn't take. I looked at a few bookselling sites and confirmed that the books have pretty much no resale value. I looked up charities, and we're going to donate some of the books to the Women's Prison Book Project and the rest to the library. Both good causes.

-AS got a tax bill for $101.34 from the IRS; they claimed we'd overstated what she'd paid in estimated taxes. I checked back through my records and they were right! Part of the amount is to cover the balance of tax we owe, and a couple bucks of it is a late fee. Fair enough.

-NT's student loan account that wasn't showing payments finally caught up! ... mostly. The principal balance is suddenly much closer to my calculation of what it should be. They said they'd fix it by adjusting the original loan amounts or something, and I can't figure out what they did. Their balance is about $380 higher than what I estimated it would be. I was going to call and argue, but I have no real basis for my claim, whereas they have fancy computers and stuff. So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say I messed it up -- after all, I did make the tax mistake recently.

-I immediately sent a $400 payment. I don't want to have to change my spreadsheet to make the debt amount higher, so this will bring the actual principal in line with my version.

-I wasn't sure how I was going to pay for the tax bill and the student loan payment above, BUT I checked our paychecks today and found they were more than I'd bargained for. Turns out I'd underestimated NT's pay during his part-time parental leave, and I forgot that I'd adjusted my withholdings since I'll most likely be claiming SL on my and NT's tax return next year. So when I applied those changes throughout my spreadsheet for June and July, I was able to cover the above unexpected bills plus a little left over. Hooray!

-My tax adjustment is a permanent boost in our income, so I can figure that into the budget. Only about $60 per month, but believe me, I can put it to good use!

AS's two student loans hit, with $128 and $61 going to principal, so $189 total. That makes it $1151 paid toward debt this month, surpassing the $1100 goal.

Also, the smaller of the two payments was the final payment on that loan! That's right, another loan bites the dust!!

It's funny, because when I logged in, it still showed a 1-cent balance, but next payment due date was N/A. You better believe I called them to make sure that wasn't going to trigger a late fee if I didn't set up a payment! They assured me that the one cent would be forgiven with no payment and no danger of a late fee.

That takes AS down to just one student loan and her half of the mortgage she and I share. Here's how our remaining debt breaks down, with interest rate, if anyone is interested:

US Mortgage: $163,748 (3.25% var.)
UK Mortgage 1: $72,301 (1.49% var.)
UK Mortgage 2: $15,242 (1.49% var.)
UK Mortgage 3: $16,049 (1.49% var.)
AS SM student loan: $11,468 (3.25% fixed)
NT DL student loan: $15,620 (6.175% fixed)
NT FM student loan: $5,510 (3.8% var.)
NT Education (estimated future debt) $10,834 (interest n/a til borrowed)

TOTAL HOUSEHOLD DEBT $310,772

Today NT took me for a very hard (for me, not him) bike ride, which means ... I'm done! I did all 5 of my challenge activities 5 times:

Walked to or from work (or at least 30 min.)
Exercised to a Gilad (aerobic & weight training) workout
Did free-weight training
Rode my bike
Walked upstairs (18 floors) to my condo

Phew! I'm going to let my legs recover, then go shower and have some lunch.

It rained almost all day yesterday so I didn't ride my bike as planned. But today I did my 5th Gilad workout.

So I just need to do one more bike ride before June 1 and I'll have reached my fitness goal!

I'm still planning on a new goal for June, but I've decided to not require myself to do it until after AS's mom leaves. She's visiting the first weekend in June and leaves Tuesday morning. It's her first time flying out to see us, so we're probably going to spoil her (and by extension maybe ourselves) in the food and other indulgences (aka laziness) departments. So my June goal will begin the first Tuesday in June!

I weighed in tonight and was down a pound to 142. So, I'm ending the month 2 lbs. higher than I started it, but I'm glad my weight did go down a bit at the end. Gives me an extra boost to keep going in June.

Thursday I walked up the stairs to our condo after work. (This time I counted the stairs per flight and they are 14, so it's about 250 stairs total!) That activity is done, thank goodness! But I might still use that as part of my working out in June. Don't think it takes quite 10 minutes so it might not work on its own for my "10 minutes a day" rule for June; I'll have to time it and see.

Today I worked from home since my office was closed for the holiday (but my particular duties depend on our largest client's schedule, not our office schedule). So I was able to do a Gilad workout.

That makes it 23 workouts done, 2 to go for May. I still need to do one Gilad and one bike ride. I'd love to do my bike ride tomorrow and my Gilad on Sunday, but we'll see.

Last night AS and I did free weights together, so that completes the free-weight portion of my challenge. 21 of the 25 workouts are done. 2 out of my 5 categories are complete; I just need to walk up the stairs once more, ride my bike once more, and do two more Gilad workouts.

I started poking around Sparkpeople and decided that for June, I'll try to count all my calories (or estimate when I can't get exact numbers), eliminate night snacking, and try for at least 10 minutes of *vigorous* exercise every day. (In other words, my walking to daycare or other walking will be a nice addition but won't count toward my goal.)

I'll try to post everything here as well as on Sparkpeople, since I feel more supported on SavingAdvice than I ever could on another site.

Yesterday after work I walked up the stairs to our condo, so that's 4 out of 5 for that activity and 20 out of 25 for the challenge as a whole! I hope to do some free weights tonight after work.

I need to come up with a new challenge for June to hopefully keep the momentum going. I wish I could say I'll just work out naturally from now on, but I know that's not the case.

I was thinking about getting involved in SparkPeople -- I've joined but never done much with it. They recommend calorie counting, which I find so tedious for cook-from-scratch meals with tons of ingredients that don't have nutrition info labels, but maybe it would help me scale back my eating so that my working out actually had an effect on the scale.

This morning I did another Gilad workout, taking me to 19 workouts done, 6 to go for the month.

Unfortunately, I weighed in last night at 1.5 lbs. heavier. So far for the month, I've gained nearly 3 lbs.

Initially I was very discouraged. I mean, I'm still not thrilled. But, I'm trying to reframe this in a way that helps me not give up.

I could just decide this didn't work, stop working out, lose the benefits I've gained from these three weeks, and end my month heavier than I started it with nothing to show for it.

Or, I can finish the workouts for this month, and then craft a new plan for next month that includes diet as well as activity. I don't feel like I'm eating more, but clearly I'm sneaking in some extra calories that negate my workouts. Maybe some calorie-counting or something would help me get on track.

Friday I walked home, which means I've completed the walking portion of my challenge. Yesterday I took a bike ride with NT to the grocery store and back, and I also weight-trained with AS. So I've done 4 out of 5 on both of those activities. I guess that's 18 down, 7 to go on my challenge. What I still need to do:

3 Gilad workouts
1 weight training
1 bike ride
2 trips up the condo stairs

That seems doable, though I need to make sure I leave at least a day between each of the Gilad and weight-training workouts, so my muscles can recover.

Not sure if I'll do anything today; it would have to be either a bike ride or climbing the stairs, and both involve leaving the condo.

As promised, NT went on a bike ride with me this evening. It wasn't very long, but there was an uphill stretch at the beginning that definitely made me feel like I did enough.

That takes me to 15 workouts done and 10 to go. I feel like I'm on the home stretch and hope I don't lose steam now.

I guess that's all. I thought I had more to write, but I'm starting to wind down for the night.

Yesterday I hurried home and did a free-weight workout before I lost my motivation. That takes me to 14 workouts done and 11 to go. I might just make it! NT has said he'll go on a bike ride with me tonight, so hopefully I'll soon be able to report that I'm 3/5 done with my challenge.

I must say I have noticed a small difference in my physical fitness. This morning it looked like it might rain, and I'd forgotten my umbrella. So I was going extra fast with the stroller, and I noticed I didn't get out of breath and that it felt easier to go fast than it did a few weeks ago. I would love to say that this time, I'll be making workouts a permanent part of my life. We'll see -- I've gone through many bursts of activity in my life, sometimes even lasting over a year, but I've always copped out at some point. At least I do start trying again eventually ...

Anyway, feeling very restless with finances. Part of is that our budget (especially extra debt repayment) is scaled back while we're on parental leave, which is through July. It's already dragging and I have 2.5 more months to get through! Another reason is my sister who will definitely visit is dragging her feet deciding on a weekend, and thus I don't know if I'll be able to afford tickets for my other sisters and nieces if she ever does decide. (I want them all to come the same weekend, both because it will be more fun that way, and I'm going to be borrowing a friend's condo for them to stay for free, and don't want to impose on him by asking for TWO weekends of condo use.)

So yesterday I played around with my "absolute budget" spreadsheet, which shows our gross income and breaks everything down, including tax withholding.

I updated it with our probable budget numbers in August ... I couldn't quite get everything to match up, but I'll be able to once I see how our paychecks end up in August, when leave is over and healthcare for SL has been worked out.

Anyway, on this spreadsheet I divide our expenses into "Needs," "Wants" and "Savings/extra debt repay." I pay attention to the 50/30/20 ratio espoused by many, including Elizabeth Warren in her book "All Your Worth." I don't try to adhere strictly to that, but I do like when my numbers are somewhat in line with that ratio.

It looks like our budget come August will look like this:
Needs 55.89%
Wants 20.82%
Savings/extra debt repay 23.23%

Our needs are a little high, but otherwise it looks good. But wait! Then I thought about how Elizabeth Warren has you calculate it AFTER your tax withholdings. (I include tax withholding in our "Needs" category.) So I added a line to my spreadsheet that factored out taxes from the equation, and got these numbers:
Needs 48.01%
Wants 24.54%
Saving/debt 27.38%

Now THAT ratio I really like! I think our third category has to be higher than 20% because we're playing catchup from previous years of irresponsibility and brokeness: paying down excessive debt, building up an EF, accelerating our retirement contributions.

I also wondered how we're doing with our retirement contributions, since we pay into several different buckets and it's hard to tell at a glance. So I added ANOTHER line that calculated the percentage of post-tax income going to retirement: 10.92%. I can live with that! I'm still going to want to increase that ratio at some point in our lives because I feel we're a bit behind where we want to be, but that's pretty good for having two young kids and still paying off lots of debt.

Well, our "fiscal year" for our cellphones ended March 2012. Only NT had one more fillup before then, so our April 2011-March 2012 phone costs look pretty amazing:

NT's April Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $32.87
AS's May T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's June Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
NT's August Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
CJ's October T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's Oct Net10 fillup (200 min.=1 month svc): $22.26
NT's Nov Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
AS's December T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78
NT's Jan Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.38
CJ's February phone replacement: $29
NT's March Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.36

FY2011 total: $574.35

Averaged over the 12 months, that means our spending for 3 cell phones was $47.86 per month! That's gonna be hard to beat this next year, and since we all had to fill up recently, our average is going to look bad at first:

FY2012 Spending:
AS's April T-Mobile fillup (500 minutes): $53.90
NT's May Net10 fillup (300 minutes): $33.36
CJ's May T-Mobile fillup (1000 minutes): $107.78

FY2012 total so far: $195.04

Since we're only in our second month of the "fiscal year," that means our average is $97.52 per month! Of course that will go down quite a bit since we all just filled up, but we also have been using more minutes because of the new baby: more calls to the proud grandparents, and people staying home with the baby = more use of cellphones vs. work phones.

But, hopefully it will still net out to be better than our old contract.

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009, so our phone "fiscal year" begins each April. We have 2 phones on T-Mobile prepaid and 1 on Net10 prepaid. AS and I refill in 1000-minute increments and only need to refill when we run out or when it's been a year since our last fillup to stay active. NT needs to buy 300 more minutes every 60 days to keep his phone activated.

Our cellphone bill, for three phones on a family plan, used to range from $80-$95, depending on texts, calls to 411, etc. Usually it was close to $85. My ideal goal is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 is a savings.

Yesterday I walked up the stairs, so that officially takes me more than halfway to my fitness goal for the month! 13 workouts down, 12 to go.

Our monthly scheduled transfer of $25 into savings happened, so that takes our EF to $13,998.84. We started the year with $14,472.57, so we're still way behind even our starting point, and very far away from the $20K goal. I mainly depend on our UK rental property to add to the EF, and this year it's been one expense after another eating away at profits. Hopefully we've seen the end of it and can at least progress past our starting point of the year, but every time I think that, some new expense seems to crop up. So we'll see.

I took Sunday off from exercising, but yesterday I did a Gilad workout. This takes me to 12 workouts down, 13 to go. Almost halfway there!

Today I'll probably try to walk up the stairs as my workout. It's hard, but it's shorter compared with all the other workouts on my list.

I do have to be careful not to leave all my free-weight and Gilad workouts until right at the end. He does weight training in his workouts, so it would be overdoing it to have to do all of that on consecutive days! I have 6 left to do and 16 days in which to do them, so I should be all right if I do one every other day or so.

AS got her paycheck that was supposed to be minus SL healthcare (we switched her to NT's temporarily, until the adoption goes through and she can be put on mine). The total seemed really off, and it looks like they still charged us for her healthcare, or just got AS's regular premium really wrong.

I've been at a few jobs before my current one and so has AS. But I feel like we both have experienced so many irregularities with our paychecks, and if I hadn't gone on this debt-reduction journey, I wouldn't even have caught them all. You name it, it's been wrong on one of our paychecks: No bus pass deduction. Double the bus pass deduction. Way too much tax deducted. No nonsmoker waiver on healthcare premium. Flex spending not deducted.

I do think our HR situations are unusually flawed, but it makes me wonder if I missed similar mistakes on past employers' paychecks that cost me money. And whether other people do too.

I'm sure most of you on this site would notice an irregularity in a heartbeat, but if you haven't paid attention before, take a good look at your paystub and make sure everything looks right! Especially if you've had any kind of event that affects the deductions or your pay.

Friday I did get a second workout in, some weight training! Today we ended up walking home from the barbershop, which NT pointed out was the same distance as the walk to/from work for me. So I'm counting it as progress in that category.

So I think that's 11 workouts down, 14 to go. Almost to the halfway point!

Tomorrow we'll be out for a few days to the May Day festival, but hopefully I can get in a Gilad workout or something.

Lil' AA woke up early this morning, so AS got her ready while I got myself ready. As a result, we were out the door about 15 minutes earlier than usual. I decided I had time to walk to work! I wasn't planning on it; in fact I was going to do weight training tonight when I got home. So maybe I'll still do that when I get home.

That would make this my first time completing two of the activities on the same day. We'll see if I've got it in me!