Weather was much better so I walked home today. That's 8 workouts down, 17 to go on my 5-5-5 fitness goal!

***

Spondulicks' post about Zillow got me thinking about our home value. I think in terms of calculating net worth, I've got my head in the sand.

I call it $160,000 of value. I see that similar units in our condo are listed at $154,000-$159,000. But, actual sales seem to be much lower. It's hard to tell how accurate Zillow is because several sales are listed as "$500" which seem impossible. But the ones that aren't obviously wrong are being sold in the low $100Ks. If, like I say, I can trust the numbers, since some of them are suspect.

It got me a bit morose. We still owe more than $160K, and if the value is even lower, then we're going to be underwater indefinitely.

I thought about what it would mean to try and sell the thing at a loss and rent something comparable in our neighborhood. We currently pay $1780 or so per month if you count mortgage and association dues. Well, that's pretty comparable to rents for 2-bedroom places in our area, which seem to range from $1400 to $2100.

So that makes me feel a bit better. If we could go back in time and wait to buy until after the boom, obviously that's what we'd do. But there would be no way to sell this one and buy a new one without incurring a lot of losses and fees, and renting would be about the same as paying our current mortgage and dues. So I'm comfortable staying in our current place. I really hope values climb before we want to sell someday, though.

***

We've been looking around trying to schedule a couple of trips that are A) pretty cheap and B) can be done in a regular weekend. Because we don't have any vacation time after our parental leave, and we'll be taking reduced salaries for most of the summer due to said leave.

We have $3000 in vacation funds over the next couple of months. I'm setting $2000 aside to try and bring my sisters and nieces out to MN; most of them don't live near a major airport and so fares are very expensive. There IS a chance that some friends would let me borrow their condo for two of the nights my family would stay, which would save a few hundred bucks in hotel costs, but even just the airfare for my 2 sisters and 3 nieces I want to treat looks like it would be $2000 or more for the weekend we want.

Well, I don't know if they'll come if they have to pay part of it. They all have more kids and fewer incomes, and kids close to or in college. So I wouldn't blame them. Plus some of them hardly ever travel, so a plane ride would be a big, huge deal.

But anyway, setting that $2000 aside for now to see if I can get them out here for a visit. That leaves $1000 for us to try and have a bit of traveling fun on our own this year, without taking any days off work.

So one thing I came up with was visiting the farm that does our CSA. It's about 3 hours southeast of us, and one Saturday in June they have a "strawberry social," where you get to visit the farm, meet the workers, see how things are done, and get some strawberries and other treats. We did it the first year we joined the CSA, but it's such a long drive for a day trip that we haven't done it since.

So I looked around for cabins or cottages and found one in Wisconsin, about 2 hours from home and 1 hour from the CSA farm. I called today and they had a cabin available for that weekend for $100 per night, so $200 if we stay Friday and Saturday night and head home Sunday morning. I took it! Also reserved a car share for about $150. That includes gas and insurance, though the mileage is estimated so may end up being higher in the end. But still, looks like we got a weekend trip with fun thing to do for $350-$400!

We've still got another $600, so I've got a call in to a VRBO.com cabin owner to see if she has any availability in July or August. She charges about $165 per night and there may be a housekeeping fee or something, but even if it comes to $200 per night, we could still come close to budget because it would be $400 for 2 nights at the cabin and $150-$200 for the carshare.

For both of these trips, we'd use our own spending money for food and any other incidentals. Since we'll have a kitchen and likely won't be near any interesting restaurants, we'd probably cook most of our meals anyway, or buy cheap stuff like fast food while on the road.

So, this seems like a fun way to still feel like we're traveling this year! We live for vacations, so it would be a weird year if we didn't do anything.

And, Minneapolis is really fun during the warm months, so we'll try to take part in lots of activities to make us not miss traveling.

Plus, we've definitely got AS's mom visiting us in early June (well, she's kind of flaky, so I'll believe it when she actually gets here, though the ticket and hotel room are nonrefundable so I'm not paying for another trip if she doesn't make this one). And we might have some or all of my sisters and nieces out for a weekend. None of NT's family seems equipped to take an international trip this year, so I guess we'll try and save up for a trip to England next year.

So, it should be a pretty fun and busy summer. But I'll sure be glad to get back to having travel funds and vacation time next year!

A payment to NT's student loan hit, with $78 going to principal. Still no sign of my late-2011 payments yet. Sigh.

Anyway, that makes it $962 down, $138 to go on the May debt goal. AS's two student loan payments at the end of the month will push us over the top. Between now and then it's going to be a very boring month for debt repayment! At least I have my 5-5-5 challenge to distract me.

Today I was going to walk home from work. It looked pretty nice at 4:30. By 5 p.m. when I reached the front door, it was pouring rain!

I took the bus instead. BUT, I walked up the stairs when I got home. It was hard so soon after my first Gilad workout after a long time! But I took it slow and got it done.

So here's how I'm doing so far (I put an X for each time I did one thing once):

1. Walk to or from work (X)
2. Exercise to a Gilad program (X)
3. Do free-weight training (X)
4. Ride my bike (XX)
5. Walk up the stairs to my condo (XX)

So I guess that's 7 workouts done, 18 to go. Over one-fourth done with my goal!

I managed to workout to a Gilad program today, so now I've done all 5 things at least once!

NT and I biked to and from another grocery store today to pick up a couple more items from the week. 2 down, 3 to go on the biking portion of my challenge! Tomorrow I hope to do a Gilad workout, since that's the only one of my five that I haven't touched yet.

Tonight we weigh in, but I'm so happy with my level of activity, I really don't mind whether or not I lost any weight. I realize early in exercise you can either lose weight fast, or bulk up on muscle and not lose much at all. So either way I'll be happy.

I took Friday off in terms of working out, but today I biked to and from the grocery store with NT and helped him do the food shopping. (Usually he does this on his own every weekend.) It was hard work after taking many months off from biking, but fun actually. I had an endorphin high for hours afterward! I usually don't really feel that when working out, maybe because I don't do it often enough and usually feel too tired.

So now I've done four of my goal exercises once each. Hope to do something tomorrow and keep the momentum going!

So it looks like the big CC rewards are drying up. I've applied for the Chase Sapphire that now has a $400 bonus for spending $3000, but I'm hesitant because I've already gotten the $500 bonus (well, $1000 thanks to that weird offer where you emailed in and they doubled it). So would this be considered the same offer, and would I therefore be ineligible for the bonus? I wonder if I can just call/email and ask a customer service person. The T&Cs of the offer don't mention that rule, but every money blog I see says that rule just exists. What do you think? If I can't get the $400, I'd rather work on some smaller rewards.

Which brings me to my subject line. If you churn a couple of smaller rewards, you can actually get more bang for your buck than with the big ones, and only a bit more hassle of applying, paying and closing more cards. For example, Chase Sapphire has that $400 if you spend $3000 offer. Well, if you applied for the following, you could get the same (cash as well) for spending half that:

- Chase Freedom $200 for spending $500 (you can still find this offer by Googling)
- Capital One MasterCard $100 for spending $500
- Citi Dividend Visa $100 for spending $500

None have annual fees and they're three different companies, so there shouldn't be an issue getting approved for all three.

We've already churned the Chase Freedom in our household and I don't think we could get it again. But only AS has done the CapOne deal, and only I've ever had a Citi Dividend Visa (and that was years ago, and with no bonus). So I'm hoping we could get $200 out of CapOne and $300 out of Citi for spending $2500. And we can stagger these offers a bit so we're not struggling to spend that all in one time period.

I also sent AS an Amex offer from NT's account; it might have an annual fee so might not be worth it, but it's $150 for spending $1000, and NT would get a $75 bonus if she accepts, so really would be $225 for spending $1000. Unless there's an annual fee; then probably wouldn't be worth it. We'll see.

Yesterday I walked upstairs to my condo -- which is on the 18th floor -- after work. Wow! It was a brief but intense workout. Even going pretty slow, I was wobbly-legged and out of breath by the time I got to the top.

I got a notice that my next dental checkup is schedule for June -- I get them every 4 months since my problems started in '08 -- and it brought all my aggravation with the dental bills rushing back. I've had two appointments with the new dentist I switched to when my job switched insurance again. One was a regular checkup that cost over $200 -- they eventually refunded me $45 but it was still the priciest checkup I've ever had. The other was a brief exam after I'd had an infection -- about $300 and all they did was look around, file down one of my teeth (I've had that done before and it never cost much), and give me some special mouthwash.

They said the higher price was because I needed periodontal maintenance, not just a regular checkup, because of the problems on one part of my mouth.

I looked back at the receipts from the last dentist I had before I switched, and they were looking at the same mouth but just called my visits "periodic oral evaluation." So I think I need to try and find an in-network dentist who will regard my visits as regular checkups; clearly this wasn't a problem for my last dentist, nor the one before that.

I hate the gambling aspect of flex spending. Last year I had $200+ left over, and ended up getting glasses (which ended up being about $500 and eating into THIS year's; forgot that they'd charge for lenses and exam separate from frames). This year I'd reduced my flex spending so I wouldn't have so much left over. Well, I've already blown through it and then some. This ALWAYS happens -- either I have hundreds left over at the end of the year, or I use it all up in the first quarter. I wish there was a way you could just make purchases pretax when you need to, rather than trying to predict the unforeseeable.

I did strength training (pushups, situps, free weights, lunges, squats, etc.) last night, so one of 5 done on that one, and 2 out of 25 workouts done for the month!

I love that the challenge has morphed into thinking about a 5-year plan as well. I haven't thought that far into the future for a while. Our huge goal is to make a permanent move to England, but we're really at the mercy of the UK immigration system for that, and it's not being very merciful of late. Basically AS would have to charm an employer into filing paperwork saying there was no one in all of the European Union who could perform the job as well as she could. I mean, she's extremely charming, but it's a long shot at best. The only other way to get there that I can see would be for her to start a business, and the requirements are that she make a huge capital investment. So I don't really see us putting all our net worth on the line on a gamble like that, either.

So it feels weird to say it's a goal, when it's not one we can really work on. AS continues to build her reputation in her field, so there is a chance an English company will recruit her someday, but like I say, a long shot.

I would like to make the move before the kids get too old, so the acclimation isn't too traumatic for them. But, we're trying to raise them to be comfortable in new situations and around new people, so hopefully they'd be able to adjust at any age.

So OK, removing our big goal from our 5-year plan because it's just too big and nebulous and hard to work toward, what else would I like to see in 5 years?

* Be out of all debt except mortgages. (I'm actually hoping to eliminate student loan debt within 3 years.)
* If we haven't moved and bought a new house in England, cut our total debt to less than $200,000. I know housing in the areas of England we'd like to live is expensive, so if we have managed to move, I won't mind having a bigger mortgage for that.
* Get our combined net worth to half a million dollars.

That's all financial, of course. Personally and professionally, it's so hard to see where I want to go.

I'm not crazy about my job, but I feel like it might be the best I can do salary-wise with my qualifications. Also I'm extremely shy and nervous in new situations, so that makes it hard to impress at interviews. I do keep my eyes open for new opportunities, but I'm not taking any giant leaps of faith in the near future. At least not that I can foresee right now.

I'm basically content with my personal life but would like to be doing more in the creative/artistic/craftsy area (as you'll hear me say time and again).

Also I'd like to find a volunteer activity that suits my temperament and schedule.

I wouldn't mind feeling better about my appearance: being thinner, more in shape, having a more fashionable wardrobe.

But, you know, if I just manage to stay basically where I am, that's OK too. I feel like I put a lot of effort into keeping a happy, healthy, fun, organized home life. Especially with two young kids, that's my main priority. So I don't like to stress myself out thinking I should be doing a bunch more stuff.

Yesterday I managed to get out of work a bit early, so I walked home. One down on my 5-5-5 challenge!

Tonight I would like to either do weight training or a Gilad video. Both of those involve weights, so I need to space them apart and make sure I don't leave them all until the end of the month!

Gilads are the hardest to do because I take up the living room, and AA is fascinated so she gets in the way (or tries to imitate me -- which is very cute, but still gets in the way). Weight training I could probably do in the locked bedroom so she didn't get in the way and get brained accidentally. Maybe I'll save the Gilads for Mondays when I'm home with SL, and AA is at daycare ... hmm ... and weekends when she's taking her nap. That sounds good.

AS's student loan payment that was supposed to happen in April finally hit, with $62 going to principal. Just one more payment on that one and we're done!

All mortgage payments also hit:
US: $441 to principal
UK1: $266
UK2: $56
UK3: $59

All told, $884 down, $216 to go on the May debt goal.

For the 5-5-5 goal, I hope to leave a bit early today and walk home from work. If it's rainy or if I can't get out early, I'll try to walk up the stairs to my condo.

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I decided to try and double-dip the Chase Sapphire card. The 50,000-point offer is finally gone, but I signed up for one with 40,000 points ($400) if you spend $3000.

Then I thought to look around online. I saw lots of sites saying you can't get the same bonus offer twice, even if you're approved for the same card twice.

Now I'm wondering, does this count as the same offer? It is the same type of card, but a different number of points.

Well, it's a free experiment to try and see if I get the 40,000.

I thought about having one of us try to double-dip the Chase Southwest Visa offer; that one you get your points after one purchase, so it would be quickly evident whether or not it worked. However, that one comes with an annual fee, and since it's no guarantee you could get that refunded, it's too risky.

I wish I did know for sure, because if I knew that the Chase Sapphire deal wouldn't work, I'd just cancel that card and get working on something else. There are a couple offers that not all three of us have tried, so we could effectively double dip but use someone else's name on the card.

Speaking of canceling and opening cards, I got my free credit score through Amex (they give it to me once a year). Last time I checked, I was in the 780s. This time? 805, my highest credit score yet. So I guess that proves the credit card shuffle doesn't hurt you as long as you keep current on everything.

AS's final student loan payment didn't hit after all, probably just because of the timing of the weekend right at the end of the month. That's OK, because NT's tuition payment pushed us to $2959, well over the $2000 goal.

Not planning any big extra debt payment this month because of reduced income and wanting to pay to bring my sisters and nieces out this summer. However, AS's student loan should hit twice in May since it didn't make it into April, and when I send in estimated interest payment to NT's loan in deferment, typically some goes to principal. So I'm thinking I'll eke out about $1100 of debt repayment in May. A modest goal. Probably won't be an exciting goal until August, unless one of us gets a bonus or something else unexpected happens before then (unlikely).

My other May goal is to complete the 5-5-5 fitness challenge, and complete at least 5 types of exercise 5 times each this month.

My 5 things I'm going to try to do at least 5 times are:
1. Walk to or from work
2. Exercise to a Gilad program
3. Do free-weight training
4. Ride my bike
5. Walk up the stairs to my condo

I hope to post some progress tomorrow!

I'm excited that people are already on board the 5-5-5 fitness challenge! That will give me much more motivation.

A student loan of AS's hit, with $124 going to principal. Also, it appears those unwarranted late fees on one of NT's student loans were applied to principal, taking the balance down by $9. All told, it's $2959 paid toward debt this month. AS's other student loan should hit on Monday and tip us over the $3000 mark!

I wanted to kickstart my exercising in May -- or, even if it doesn't last, at least get more active for that month! To make it seem more fun, I came up with the 5-5-5 challenge.

The rules are simple: Do 5 types of exercises 5 times each in May (the 5th month of the year; get it?).

Or, if you already exercise enough and have other healthy habits you want to try out (meatless meals, meditation, whatever), you could make your 5 different activities anything you want.

My 5 things I'm going to try to do at least 5 times are:
1. Walk to or from work (30 min. walk)
2. Exercise to a Gilad program (got a bunch saved on my DVR)
3. Do free-weight training (both upper and lower body)
4. Ride my bike (any distance or duration of time counts)
5. Walk up the stairs to my condo (which is on the 18th floor)

If you want to join me, list your 5 activities on your blog, and we'll start May 1!

The other night I went on to the university site because I'd gotten second notice that my password was expiring. I didn't expect NT's summer class tuition to have been billed yet, but there it was. It's not due for ages, of course, but I figured, I've got the money to pay it now, so why not? Plus, since I can subtract it from our "estimated future debt," it would count toward our April debt goal, which I'd given up hope of reaching.

Tuition and fees were $2005, so that takes us to $2826 of debt paid for April, surpassing our $2000 goal!

When I entered that into our debt spreadsheet, I saw that it will now take less than 20 years to pay off our student loan debt at our current rate, and less than 37 months if we pay $1000 extra per month! So if we paid that amount extra, we'd be out of debt (except our mortgages) in May 2015.

The bad news is, with our reduced income due to parental leave, we won't be paying that much extra again until August. Still, if we manage the $1000-extra every month from then on, we could be debt-free except for mortgages by September 2015! And I'm not ruling out future windfalls; even though I don't know of any on the horizon, we've had lots of nice surprises over the past couple years. It would be amazing if we could accelerate our repayment even more and be out of student loan debt by the end of 2014. But I can live with 2015.

We do have money in our travel budget over the next few months that I could put toward debt, but I've decided to try and coax all my sisters and nieces out for a visit this summer by offering to pay their airfare and maybe for their hotels. (They all have more kids and fewer incomes, so I know I'm better off.) I was already going to put out the offer, but didn't care too much whether they accepted. Since my mom's health scare, though, I've gotten very family-minded all of a sudden. So I'm really going to work on them to try and get them out here.

NT said yesterday that he would really like to do a weekend at a rental cabin this year, since we aren't having any proper family trips (no vacation time due to parental leave). So I'm also going to leave money aside for that.

Oh, and thanks for those who asked about my mom. She seems to be doing better; I actually think her color is better than the last time I saw her, so the stent has done wonders for her blood flow. She's still weak and sedentary, but then she always has been. I'm a bit concerned that she doesn't have a diet or physical therapy regimen in place. But she's a very stubborn person deep-down, so I bet she'd resist it anyway.

Right now I'm trying to think how to help my dad out with the house. It's very messy (mom's a hoarder) and though my dad does the basics of laundry, dishes and keeping the floors clear of junk so there are safe walkways, I noticed a lot of grime and some cockroaches. I talked to him about hiring a cleaner and he was interested, but of course they couldn't really do a cleanup of my mom's clutter, because it would be very upsetting to her and not good for her heart. So I want to reach out to a few Virginia cleaning companies to see if there would be someone willing to ignore the hoarding aspect, for the most part, and just do what they could cleaning the surfaces that are visible. The kitchen and bathrooms are my main concerns. But also the living room carpet is a few shades darker than when they bought it!

Anyway, got to think about that some more. My mom is very resistant to change, so it would have to be handled with kid gloves. But I don't think it's realistic for my 82-year-old dad, who still works nearly full-time, to try and do all the housework AND take care of my basically helpless mother.

Well folks, it's been 6 days since I tracked spending, and my heart's just not into going back and figuring it out. When I agreed to join the challenge, I did not foresee a last-minute trip to Virginia in the middle.

The positive part, anyway, is that during my trip, I spent less than $40. $36 to take AS's mom out to dinner and $3 to buy a box of Pringles on the plane.

It's too bad, because this would have been a truly epic month for tracking spending. Not only did I send $4500 to the lawyer, buy plane tickets and hotel for two separate trips, and pay over a thousand dollars of various medical bills, but I also just paid for NT's summer class, which was over $2000. Believe me, we do not usually spend like this; we definitely spent way more than we brought in, which is unusual for us (obviously, or we'd be in a heck of a lot of trouble!).

Still, 19 days of tracking was pretty good; I've never done anything like that before. If we really need to tighten our belts at some point, I would use that as a way to keep us accountable.

Anyway, paying the tuition means I reduced our "estimated future debt" for college, which is part of our total household debt. That means we've reached our April debt goal after all! I didn't think we'd be doing that. I'll do the exact calculation in a post tomorrow.

I've been cooking up a May fitness challenge for myself, so I'll post about that as well. If anyone would like to join in, it would probably help me keep on the straight and narrow.

Dental bills (I just gave up and paid them; still hope insurance will come around and cover some of it): $517
Hotel for AS's mom's visit (she's coming in June, but I'm going to wait a bit to see if airfare goes down): $537.52
2 copies of SL's birth certificate: $41
Postage (certified) to send one copy to the lawyer: $3.85 (paid out of my spending money)

What can I say? These are crazy times. I kind of had a tantrum over the dental bill. And then when I went to book AS's mom's flight, it had gone up $70 from two hours before (when I couldn't book it because I needed some more info from her).

So, I'm going to wait until Monday or Tuesday to book the ticket. I think it's worth the gamble. It's hard to game the system, but several sites seemed to agree that prices slowly go up as you approach the weekend.

I took money out of the medical fund to cover the dental bills. I'm going to have to take money out of the UK portion of the EF to cover UK mortgages; there were unforeseen expenses that took a hit out of our monthly deposit from the management company.

Two days after our taxes were done, the packet for UK taxes came in the mail. Sigh. They're not due until October, but I usually do them early because they sit there hanging over my head until I can't stand it any more. We won't owe anything, that's for sure; we've had more expenses on the flat than usual, and we don't usually owe anything. (We do pay U.S. taxes on the profit.)

Anyway, after my tantrum (OK, maybe there was more than one), I vowed to AS to stop stressing about expenses. After all, this is why we worked so hard to turn our financial lives around -- so we wouldn't be struggling and we could afford life. Sometimes life gets expensive, but here we are, paying thousands of dollars in CASH and not going in debt a cent. We will even out and start to build up our reserves again.

Today's spending:

I booked a quick trip to visit my mom this weekend, and I'm taking AA, who can no longer fly free. The airfare cost $519.20, but I'll save $50 because I applied for a credit card they were offering, where you get a $50 statement credit if you're approved and use the card to book a flight. So only $469.20. I'm hoping my family will provide room and board for the most part, so I won't have to spend a ton more. NT will get a carshare to take us to the airport, but that's much cheaper than a cab (about $10 vs. $40). I'll get rides to and from the D.C. airport, and then I may break down and get a cab when I get home from the trip, because I'll have been up since about 3:30 am and will probably be vibrating with tiredness.

NT and I bought some groceries and some kids' socks (Thriftorama, weird coincidence huh?) today on our break, $31.48, but we used the Amex gift card, so nothing out of budget. I also bought some lunch for me (a giant plate of Indian food) and a mango lassi for NT, about $8 with tip. Used spending money for it.

I swear, I do not eat out this much, or buy impulsive plane tickets, or get tons of medical/dental stuff done, or send large retainers to lawyers, in an ordinary 30-day period. This is SUCH an out-of-the-ordinary month. I'm completely off my equilibrium, and I guess I spend when that happens. At least it's all cash spending. No credit, no loans, no new debt.

I sent $100 to NT's student loan just to make sure we covered the interest for the month. $56 went to interest, so the remaining $44 was applied to principal.

That's $865 down, $1135 to go. We have two regular student loan payments that will knock about another $185 off of principal.

Obviously, not going to make the April goal unless some miracle happens in the next two weeks. I held back most of the money I would be putting to this goal, to make sure we could cover all the other upcoming expenses without taking too much out of the EF.

If things go REALLY well this next month, I might even be able to cashflow all the non-medical expenses without borrowing from the EF. I will need to take money from the medical fund, but I keep those funds (mentally) separate from the EF, so it's not as painful.

But things would have to go VERY smoothly to avoid siphoning from the EF.

The $4500 check to the lawyer came out of our account this week, so we lost that big cushion that was there for over a year. We won't be able to "float" on that and pay things early; will have to wait until we actually have the funds in checking. Not a problem, but it will take some adjusting, since I'd gotten kind of blase about it.

Whew, let's see. Actual money out of the budget:
Dermatologist copay $20
Prescription $20
Student loan payment $100

Then, we bought some things with spending money:
AS got delivery of some kind $??
We went to weekly trivia night at a nearby restaurant and got drinks and snacks...$40?

On the upsides, our trivia team came in second place ($15 gift card) and my work gave me a $25 Target card for the new baby.

I'm thinking I'll use some travel money to visit my mom for a couple days. This weekend would work best, but I'm not sure I can find a good deal. If not, I'll try for the following week. I'll probably bring AA; I can't bring her for free since she turned two, but my mom loves grandbabies, so it'd make her really happy.

I'd miss little SL but, let's face it, she'll be just fine and won't miss me. And it would only be for a couple days.

Let's see if I can remember ...

AS medical bill $390
NT dental bill $70
Tax prep fee $325

Then there were some spending-money expenses:

I got me and AS coffee drinks on the way back from dropping AA off at daycare. $10. And they weren't even that good. I decided to try a new independent shop. Glad I tried it; now I know to stick to one of the other many fine indie coffee shops in the area. The important thing is, AA felt well enough for daycare! Her littlest friend there was beside himself with joy that she was back. Tonight at dinner she had almost a whole (tiny) bean burrito, and then nearly a whole apple and half a banana for snacks later. Yay for healthy kid!

We just missed the connecting bus to our pediatrician appointment, so AS paid for a cab: $9.

AS bought herself fries and a cookie at McDs on the way back from SL's pediatrician appointment. $5? I have no idea. Good news #2: SL had gained 3.5 oz. since her Thursday checkup. She's back on track and AS feels much better about nursing.

My sister JL called soon after we got back. Good news #3: My mom was discharged from the hospital and my parents were on the road heading for home in Va.! She had the X-ray and my sister said the bleeding was diagnosed as diverticulosis (or -itis, she kind of stumbled over the word so I'm not sure). I looked it up and it can be a serious medical event in an older person (my mom is 78), but compared with other things I feared (colon cancer was top of the list), it's such a relief. Plus, if it's treatable by diet, my dad is the right caretaker. He got diabetes recently and completely turned his diet around, so I know he could enforce healthy eating for my mom if he knew it was necessary.

I paid AS's first bill from the pregnancy (see above). We put it on NT's Chase Sapphire to work toward the reward.

NT paid $70 toward getting a cavity filled. It was just an estimate, so we may owe more later.

We sent a $325 check to our tax preparer. Considering we have an international component, and two self-employment sidelines in addition to full-time jobs, I consider this a bargain. At H&R, we used to charge poor folk that much to do their taxes because of the EIC worksheet and refund-anticipation loan. So it doesn't seem that bad to me.

We also sent off checks to pay the remainder of taxes owed ($645 AS federal, $292 CJ/NT state), as well as AS's first quarterly estimated 2012 tax payment ($250). If she doesn't go back to freelancing, I don't think I'll send any more because I don't think she'll owe any more. We'll play it by ear.

Remember that AS's health insurance would charge $350 per month to add SL? Well, NT asked his work and it would be $284 to add her to his. I tried to research mine without contacting work or going into my email, and I think it would be $131 to add SL to min. So I'm going to ask my job what the procedure is for adopting a kid and putting them on your healthcare. My adoption is a little different because neither birth parent is giving up their right, but it's a real adoption. I'm just not sure what would usually happen with an adoptive child. We don't have the process officially started yet I don't think, because we still owe our lawyers a birth certificate, and the hospital hasn't heard from the county why NT's name isn't on their records.

So I'm thinking if it's going to be a months-long possible delay before I can add SL to my insurance, we should switch her to NT's for the time being. It would save us about $65-$70 per month over AS's insurance. But ultimately it will be cheapest to add SL to mine. So I really hope we can get that going. Hopefully by end of July when we start paying daycare for two!

I go back to work tomorrow, 4 days a week. Not sure how I feel about that right now. What with the 10-day break, plus all the distractions (mostly negative with some positive), I've completely checked out. I didn't even think about work once. It'll be interesting to see if the break renewed my interest or just made it harder to be there.

I have a dermatologist appointment tomorrow; I kind of hate to spend money on a frivolous matter at a time when we've got so many expenses, but I'm kind of fed up with my face, which has been breaking out in angry red pimples on my cheeks off and on for about 6 months now. I haven't had serious acne since high school, so it's really annoying. I don't know if they'll be able to do anything about it, but I figure it's worth asking an expert.

Free tickets to the Twins game led to a veritable orgy of snacking at the game! $28.25 for a large beer, a Pepsi, a bag of mini-donuts, a big pretzel and a stick of cotton candy. (I did split some of the above with NT!) Twins lost and it drizzled several times, but NT and I still had fun. And AS was fine looking after both girls alone for the first time.

Then AS treated us to pizza delivery from one of our favorite places: $53.

All of the above was from our personal spending money, so no budgetary effect.

AA was finally better and had some slivers of pizza and milk! She's slowly returning to her happy, easygoing self. Hopefully she can go to daycare tomorrow.

The fenugreek seems to be working and SL getting more milk. Hopefully she's gained enough at the weigh-in tomorrow.

My dad called to say my mom is getting a barium enema and X-ray tomorrow; they don't want to do a colonoscopy unless they have to, since she's still quite fragile from a heart attack and having a stent put into an artery. Dad's hoping they will know enough from the X-ray to discharge her so she can go home. (She fell ill in W.Va. where they have a vacation home; they actually live in Va.) I'm still extremely worried what the X-ray might reveal, but at least the heart procedure seems to have had a positive effect; Dad says she's less short of breath than she has been in a long time.

I wrote out checks for my and NT's state tax, our prep fee to the tax guy, AS's federal tax, and her first quarterly estimated payment to the IRS. They're not really spending (except the tax prep fee), but I'll count them in tomorrow's tally. I'm starting to feel a bit more in control. We can deal with any healthcare costs that come along. We can add a year to repaying student loans if it means staying CC-debt-free. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I need to remember that my timeline is a personal benchmark, not a do-or-die deadline.

The worst part of having all these worries has been losing my enthusiasm for life. It sounds stupid, but I didn't feel like doing anything, food didn't taste as good, I didn't have any physical energy, I was cranky and easily overwhelmed by little things ... I still don't feel 100%, but I'm starting to be able to deal with my emotions and still enjoy the day-to-day.

Groceries: $71.30 (including $19 fenugreek supplement for AS nursing)
Also, $44.31 more at another store, but this time I remembered to give NT that Amex gift card, so that one wasn't out of pocket.

So effectively the spending total was $71.30.

Today was off-and-on pleasant. We had another lovely dinner, spinach-quinoa-strawberry-walnut salad and crostini with a tomato-basil topping. But I felt hectic, lackluster and/or out of sorts sporadically all day. AA had a huge coughing fit at about 9 p.m., so we sent her to bed with a teaspoon of honey, some Vick's vapor rub and the humidifier on in her room. Less than 5 minutes later she started shrieking, not her usual winding-down crying. NT went in and she'd thrown up. He gave her a bath while I changed the sheets, and she threw a tantrum of sorts (usually she likes baths especially when dad's in charge). But that seemed to tire her out because we can't hear any crying now.

Tomorrow is webcam chats with the UK grandparents. Every Sunday. Sometimes I just stay in another room. It's mostly to see AA anyway (hopefully these get cut short if she's still sick).

AS is on a crazy nursing-pumping regimen to try and get SL's weight (and her own supply) up. Just added fenugreek on the pediatrician's advice. We go in on Monday for another weigh-in.

When it rains, it pours. Oh yeah, that reminds me. Won tickets to the Twins baseball game tomorrow, but there's a 50%-80% chance of rain. See?

Spending money cash withdrawal: $240 (actually $200 because NT paid in for some credit card purchases)
Groceries (I actually used my own spending money because it was such a small amount): $5.85

So, actual money out of the budget was $240.

Yesterday a couple of money & other things happened:

- Got our tax documents in the mail. The guy misspoke on the phone; we actually owe $292 in state taxes and are getting $1656 federal refund, and we owe $325 for tax prep. So $1039 to the positive, and if you add in the $600 I was planning to pay, $1639 to the positive in our planning. Not quite as exciting as the $1900 positive I thought based on my phone conversation, but still good news.

- Our paychecks hit and I noticed that AS's was over $300 less than usual. She looked into it, and it turns out that adding SL to her health insurance will be $350 per month, and for some reason they took the whole amount out of one paycheck instead of spreading it over two. Or, maybe they're charging us for half of March since she was born March 29. Either way, we're out $320 net, and probably about $160 per paycheck from now on, or until we get SL switched to a more affordable coverage. NT and I are going to check with our jobs to see how much it would cost to add SL to one of ours. I don't think I'd be able to until the adoption is official, but I wonder if NT could do it immediately since he is the birth father. AlTHOUGH:

- Our lawyer told us to be sure and have NT & AS complete the Recognition of Parentage form to make sure NT's info would appear on the birth certificate, since AS is technically unmarried. We got a letter from the county confirming the birth certificate info so we could order birth certificates, but NT was not listed. AS was the only parent listed. AS has calls in everywhere, and it appears that the hospital did send the form to the county, but they are not finding record of SL's birth in the county's records yet, which is weird since they DID send us the letter about ordering a birth certificate. So it's a big old mess with a couple of unwieldy organizations, and we need to get it sorted out before the adoption can take place. Before, there wasn't a huge amount of urgency to the adoption, but now with the health insurance issue, it's more critical.

So, probably the "surplus" I got from the tax returns (which still might not be enough to keep from withdrawing EF money) will be steadily eaten away by health insurance costs unless we get this fixed. And we probably will still have some bills coming in from the doctors and hospital, since are still pending insurance claims to the tune of $6000 from just one of our providers (the doctor; as I recall from my delivery, the hospital, anesthesiologist and possibly some other groups all bill separately).

In other news, my mom is still in the hospital, and one of the two big issues is still undiagnosed. A colonoscopy on Monday should tell us more. Until then my emotions are sort of in a holding pattern; I know they could be telling us that she's very, very bad off, or that it's something fixable, although I don't think internal bleeding is ever going to be a simple painless fix, whatever it ends up being.

AA was even more feverish on Friday, so she stayed home again. She's got a rash and a cough today, but seems much happier and more energetic. I would love to have one day home with the new baby without a sickly toddler, so I'm really hoping she's better by Monday morning. I know I'm being selfish, but I'm so disappointed that I didn't enjoy my week home with AS and SL.

On the bright side, had a really fun night last night. I made Asian lettuce wraps with vegetarian beef crumbles, fried Cantonese noodles with bean sprouts and soy sauce, and we broke open a vino verde, a slightly fizzy white wine that I love. We had an impromptu silly game where we were trying to draw Rachel Maddow's face on AA's easel, and posted the results on Facebook for our friends to vote on. We watched the movie "Big" and had fajita-spiced popcorn.

$31.99 for prescriptions for me and AS
$25 (approx; they figure the exact amount later) for Hourcar to take SL to her 2-week appointment

Total: $56.99

AS, AA and I also got Noodles & Co.; we put it on AS's Chase to work toward rewards, but will pay it back in from our spending money. $21.48.

Definitely been a weird spending month, but I knew it would be with the new baby and the maternity leave. I didn't know my mom's still yet-to-be-fully diagnosed health crisis would knock the wind out of me, draining my energy and luring me to pick up restaurant/fast food stuff for comfort (and because I just don't care that much about cooking).

I do best when I'm distracted, so it's kind of good that I've had to care for AA, drive us around to the pediatrician, had a couple of visitors, etc.

I do feel calmer every day. It just took some getting used to. Of course if they find something really serious, I'll be a mess again.

Today, the only spending I'm aware of is NT bought some milk at Target, but he probably used a gift card. Oh, and he gave me some cash to pay in for a Kickstarter campaign he donated to, as well as for some postage he put on the credit card.

So there were some transactions, but none that will affect our bottom line.

We got some nice freebies too -- a couple we're friends with brought lasagne for a future dinner, and later another friend brought tonight's dinner (pesto pasta and salad), as well as wine, fruit and snacks. So nice how people reach out to take care of new parents.

It was especially nice because uncertainty about my mom is ongoing, and AA had a temperature and needed to stay home from daycare. I think she'll need to stay home tomorrow too, and we have another newborn checkup to go to as well, so I don't know if we'll drag her along or if I'll send AS to the appointment alone. Needless to say I'm not enjoying my one full week of parental leave. But very grateful for the kindness and support of friends and family.

Anyway, remember the big list of upcoming expenses and assets that I laid out to make sure we have enough to cover everything? Some things have changed, some negative but mostly positive to the bottom line.

* Parking spot renter must have taken pity on us, because her replacement check was not reduced as we told her she could do to cover the stop check fee. $30 to the positive.
* We hadn't factored any doctor bills for the pregnancy because we weren't sure it was 100% covered, but we got our first bill today: $390. There are still insurance claims pending to the tune of over $6000, but I'm hoping most of them will be covered. Still, $390 to the negative. (The good news is, this is an easy way to wrap up the Chase Freedom spending and get that $200 reward faster than we thought we would.)
* One gift card that I thought was worth $100 only had $20 on it. So that's $80 less in assets than I thought we had.
* Tax guy called to say NT and I don't owe any taxes and are instead getting about $1800 in state and federal refunds. I was figuring we'd end up paying about $600 in fees and taxes, but instead, even if he charged us $500, we'd net $1300. So $1900 to the positive.

Overall, we're $1460 better off than I thought. Pretty great, especially since there are still other uncertainties in life right now, so the more cushion in the bank account, the better.

A cost of staying home I hadn't thought about in a while: We go through toilet paper a lot faster!

Groceries (including TP): $11.43 (plus $1.51 that went on a gift card)
AS state tax owed: $3

Total: $14.43

Other than that, we did some spending with our pocket money ... I know NT got something on eBay for about $7, I bought a small soy latte ($5 with tip! Yikes!), and I got McD's breakfast for me and AS ($9.25; yikes again! I don't do fast food or coffeeshops often, so rising prices tend to startle me).


I've been comforting myself with junky treats, I know. My mom is in a hospital; I found out Monday during the day. I haven't written about it here because I've been using that energy to write to family and friends on Facebook, receiving and passing along updates. Anyway, it's probably pretty bad. Still some things we need to find out more about. I will write more at some point when I have more energy (and more details).

OK, I'll jump on the bandwagon and list my amounts so far:

2011 rewards minus fees:
$4,422.53

2012 rewards received:
$1200
2012 rewards expected:
$700
2012 total so far: $1900

Grand total for both years so far:
$6,322.53

The only out-of-pockets:
Netflix $7.99
Condo dues (includes utilities, maintenance, security, basic cable) $593.85

Total: $601.84

I also bought feminine products for $2.50 but used a gift card. And AS and I got delivery food for lunch ($33.77); we put it on the Chase Freedom we're currently working on to get a reward, but we will pay it back with the spending money that was included in Friday's expense tracking.

The only thing we bought yesterday was a pack of wipes and a box of tissues, $4.47, but we used a gift card, so out-of-pocket spending was $0!