I had a weird dream last night that I was hosting some kind of fundraiser and, for reasons I couldn't really comprehend even in the dream, casually wrote a $10,000 check to the charity!

In the dream I was inwardly groaning, thinking about how I was going to have to get a bunch of extra work to replenish the checking account. But I wasn't panicking, which was interesting. I think it's because I now know how to handle even huge setbacks, so my dreams can't really use that to stress me out anymore.

I finished AS's taxes yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, I had it in my head that she owed about $1800 on federal. I think I got mixed up because recently we got a letter from the IRS claiming she owed about that much on her 2009 taxes (she's already faxed them records to prove that they incorrectly added a zero to one of her 1099s). Anyway, according to my second runthrough, which matched my first one (love when it matches up and I don't have to do a third, tiebreaker round), she owed $1617. Sounds like a lot, but less than I was thinking, AND, no penalty for underpayment! So we got an interest-free loan from the federal government, and we have until April 18 to pay them back. Woo hoo!

Then I did her state taxes. Usually, for some reason, people end up owing or getting a much smaller refund on their MN taxes compared with their federal, so I was really expecting to owe big-time. Turns out AS is due a $28 refund! That one I'll send off right away, so we can apply the $28 to our federal bill.

I've decided to send the IRS $400 as an estimated quarterly payment on 2011 taxes for AS. If it looks like she's getting as much or more freelance work this year, I'll up the amounts in subsequent quarters. I did pay off a student loan so her interest deduction will be lower next year.

Still haven't heard from my paid tax preparer, even though two weeks ago he said he hoped to get it to me in a couple days. I don't like having this taken out of my hands AT ALL. I'm so used to being the one in control on my taxes. If I get my copy from him and it looks easy to replicate what he does, I'm going back to doing it myself.

If we don't have to declare NT's UK income, I have high hopes that we'll about break even. We might owe a bit; I think I was pretty accurate in changing my withholdings after AA's birth, except I forgot our mortgage's interest rate dropped and thus our itemized deductions are much less this year.

I did see some mention about a "foreign income exclusion" with a minimum of $92,000 or something. We make about $15,000 on NT's flat, so if that's the case maybe we don't have to report, and won't have to revise our returns from previous years, paying penalties etc.

Although, one of the things on the questionnaire from the tax guy was about PMI. Is that deductible if you itemize?? I never have. So if he adds that to our itemized deductions, might be worth looking into whether it was deductible in past years. Can I revise to increase deductions, and if so, how far back? I'm not going to bother looking into it until I see whether he includes it on Schedule A.

(International friends, sorry for all the blabbing about U.S. tax law. I know it makes no sense.)

One of AS's student loans hit, with $124 going to principal. So we paid $1065 off so far in March, exceeding the $1039 goal. One more student loan payment may hit later today or tomorrow.

Weighed in last night and unfortunately gained 1 lb., so I'm back up to 151. Unfortunate but not at all surprising, since we ate out a lot last week and didn't get much exercise. Will try to do better this week!

EDIT: Almost forgot: I donated $20 and NT $25 to charity this weekend, bringing charitable donations up to $350 for the year!

NT and I made a little mural on AA's nursery wall of removable decals we bought at Target. Not hugely creative, but a bit. And it looks so cute! AA likes to point at the stickers when she's in her crib and babble...I think she's finally figuring out that making sounds is related to other things, not just for the fun of being noisy!

Speaking of AA, we're planning on leaving her with our best friends when we go on our next trip (to New York in early June for my 15-year college reunion). This will be the first time we're all three away from her for more than 8 hours! It will be almost 4 days. I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

We've got just over two months, so I'm hoping she gets past her stranger fear by then. She's been getting better, and she's much less fearful and clingy around these friends than anyone else. Even if she's not, I'm hoping this will be a good experience for her. We know several people who traveled without their babies when they were much younger, so I realize it's not a big deal. Just FEELS like a big deal.

I feel like I have more to say, but I should go do some work. Maybe I'll post again today!

$25 went to the EF, bringing us to $1186.47 saved for the year (our goal is $7000), and our total EF up to $9698.42!

I applied for two more jobs today, so hopefully that will bring me closer to my goal of getting either a raise or a new job.

I used an online graphics company to design some customized stationery for my mom (see my "best gift" entry from a few days ago), which NT pointed out counts as a creative project. It was mostly automated, but I did come up with the concept, and choose and crop the photo, and choose the layout and font colors!

I officially made some money with my side hustle! NT's job paid me the $720 for proofreading a book for them. (That also means the lawyer fund is fully funded, if we can manage to come up with other money to pay the tax bills.)

I wrote my "Share Your Thoughts" blog post for the month. Check it out and respond or write your own entry on the topic if you're interested!

I had to refill my phone. Since I last filled it in September, I guess I've been averaging about 167 minutes per month.

I started the "year" in late March 2010, so this marks the end of 12 months of prepaid. Rundown of expenses:

CJ 1000 minutes late-March T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT 300 minutes late-March Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 300 minutes late-May Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 500 minutes + new phone late June: $21.56
AS 1000 minutes late-August fillup: $107.78
CJ 1000 minutes late-September fillup: $107.78
AS new phone + $25 phone card (200 min): $32.32
NT 300 minutes early-October fillup: $32.87
NT 200 minutes late-December fillup: $32.87
AS late-January phone replacement: $29.88
CJ 1000 minutes late-March fillup: $107.78

Total cost for the year: $646.26

Divided by the 12 months, our average monthly cost for this year is $53.86. A very good average, much better than the first 12 months of prepaid or any month when all three of us were on a family plan. Compared with $85, which was the cheapest contract for 3 people I could find, we saved about $31 per month, or about $372, in the past year!

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009. 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.

While it was cooking the scent of cinnamon was really strong, so I was afraid it would overwhelm the other flavors. Totally didn't--this was a dead-easy and delicious sauce! I stuffed the tortillas with seasoned black beans, vegetarian "chik'n," corn and cheese (vegan for mine). I also made a tofu, black bean and cheese one for lil' AA, which she'll have today at daycare.

Here's a link for anyone who missed the original recipe post:
http://lookingforward.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/fire-and-fabulous-enchiladas-on-a-chilly_66537/
I made almost no changes except I used yellow onion, and added a dash of cayenne since I only had 4 oz. of green chiles.

Thanks Looking Forward!

(or gave, or heard of someone getting or giving)

I was pretty excited about the birthday gifts to my dad and mom this year.

My dad, who has coached girls' softball as well as helped run leagues for decades, decided to sponsor a team this past year. He didn't think they'd put his name on the shirts the way they do a business, so he was kind of embarrassed when he found out they did. But he was wearing the shirt this summer when we visited: "The BD Comets" it said, splashed across his chest. [Not his real name, but you get the idea.] It was comical but also endearing, because I love his commitment to girls' sports, even after all his daughters and even granddaughters grew out of playing softball. I asked him to send me one of the shirts, and when he did, he also sent ones for NT, AS and little AA.

So for his birthday, when we got our friend to do a photo shoot, we brought along the shirts and all posed together in them. I ordered a print of that shot and framed it to send to my dad. Total surprise. He loved it and wrote that he thought AA looked pretty tough and would probably be a great softball player.

My mom loves to write "snail mail" letters, so I wanted to do a stationery for her this year. I finally found a site that would let you design photo stationery (it was kind of hard to find, and not cheap, but once I had my heart set on it I would pay just about anything). I put her name and address at the top, and under her name, "#1 Grandma." At the bottom of the paper, I put a little picture of AA's face cropped from a picture my friend took at the same photo shoot, and under that I put "#12 Grandkid." Then on impulse I ordered envelopes, with her name and address in the return address spot, and the full picture of AA on the other side in a little box in the corner. She should get it by early next week, and I'm hoping to get a thank-you letter on the stationery so I can see it in person! This is something that ended up costing me a lot for the convenience, but with a bit of work and some computer skills, you could probably make a similar gift for pretty cheap.

All the memorable gifts I can think of have a personalized touch. Of course there are the huge gifts, such the early inheritance my dad gave us last year, or electronics, vacations, jewelry, etc. But the ones that make me smile with remembrance are the ones where someone put more thought and effort than money into them.

One of the best gifts I got as a kid was from my best friend at the time. I was really into writing fiction, so she gave me a basket with a bunch of little jars. Each jar had a herb or spice in it and a label, like "rose hips to help you write love scenes." I can't remember exactly what they were, but each spice corresponded with a type of scene or genre. There was also a candle in a jar so that I could "write scary stories in the dark" or something. I kept that gift on prominent display for years and years in my room. It was so thoughtful and playful that I just loved to look at it and think that someone had taken the time to make it for me.

NT, AS and I usually try to do gifts like this, though the past year has been so busy with work, school and baby that we've slacked off a bit on that and just bought one another things. But NT once had a friend make a short film starring him for our Valentine's gift; AS made me a beautiful framed heart out of egg cartons that I still have in my cubicle; and AS and I made an activity book of games like crosswords, word searches and connect-the-dots for NT that we wrote or made, all having to do with him, us or our relationship. Those are just a few examples of many personalized gifts over the years.

The very best gift I've ever heard of was from my sister to my mom. My mom sends birthday cards to just about everyone she's ever met. She keeps all their addresses in this book organized by date, and every couple of days she goes through and makes out cards to the people whose birthdays are coming up. One year my sister MA snuck the book out and made a copy of it and then returned it before my mom noticed. MA wrote a letter and sent it to every single address in the book; it said something like "If you're getting this, you've probably received a birthday card from my mom GL every year. She loves sending cards and doesn't expect anything in return. But I thought it would be a fun surprise if she got a huge number this year. So if you've ever been touched to receive a card from GL, please take a moment and send her one for her birthday this year."

About a week before her birthday, my mom started getting a trickle of cards, many from people who didn't usually send her one. She was pleasantly surprised, then, as her birthday came closer and the trickle turned into a flood, overwhelmed with delight. At some point my sister told her what she'd done, so it wouldn't be some big mystery why it was happening all of a sudden. My mom kept all the cards hanging up, lining the walls of the living room, for months. She was so pleased both by my sister's thoughtfulness and the kindness of so many acquaintances.

OK, I could ramble on for ages, but I would love to exchange ideas here, so we all have some inspiration for when we want to do something extra special for a loved one. And, it's a vaguely finance-related topic, because sometimes the best gifts don't cost much at all. (OK, my recent ones to my parents weren't cheap, but they CAN be, depending on what the gift is and how you go about it.)

So, what's the best or most memorable gift you ever gave, received or heard about?

I finally weighed in last night after 49 days (according to my naggy Wii Fit). To my surprise, I'd lost just over 3 lbs.! I'm now a shade under 150, but I'm calling it 150 lbs. That meants I'm just 11 lbs. away from my 2011 goal. The only reason I can think of is that I barely ate anything a couple of days when I was sick, and we actually got a ton of exercise in San Fran so it balanced out the decadent eating. I realize I can't expect weight loss like this if I continue to not exercise, but at least I didn't lose a ton of ground over the past couple months.

As for charitable giving, NT bought $10 worth of groceries for an AIDS charity that was collecting outside the store. I also realized that the amount I have left in my charity line items on the budget indicates that we've given more than I've kept track of. Occasionally one of us will donate spontaneously, so it's not surprising I forgot to log something here. I am confident that the line items in my budget are accurate, because I only touch those when a charitable donation goes through the checking account. So I'm updating charitable giving progress to match that, meaning we've donated $305 this year.

AS's negative net worth decreased by a bit this month despite a dip in investment values. She's at negative $5,135 now.

In the getting-job-or-raise category, I found a handful of jobs last night that I'm going to try and apply for this week. One of them is 87 miles away, meaning I would have over an hour's commute AND would need to buy a car, but the minimum salary is $12,000 more than I make. Will I seriously consider this one even if I hear from them? Not sure, but I'm trying not to limit my thinking too much during the applying process.

Now some other news that's not about my 2011 goals:

My lawyer-money line item is fully funded: $9000! Now, this includes $720 that I haven't actually received, for a freelance project I did for NT's company. But since I trust they won't welch on this, and I've already sent them the invoice, I'm considering the fund complete.

However, I know AS is going to have a large tax bill, and NT and I may as well. I sent ours off to a tax expert and should hear back pretty soon. AS's I just need to finish; if my estimate on her federal is correct, she owes over $1800, and I haven't calculated her state yet, but if she owes federal she will owe state (though hopefully not as much). I'm hoping NT and I only owe a few hundred, but there's also the possibility I may need to revise our '08 and '09 taxes if the tax pro confirms that I made mistakes by not including NT's UK flat income on past returns. Then we may owe a bit, plus I have no idea how much interest and penalties are, since I've never revised taxes past the due date before.

On the upside, I have $800 set aside. Most of it will go to pay the tax preparer, but I'm hoping that will only come to about $600, leaving $200 to pay the actual tax bill. Also, AS has just accepted another freelance assignment that pays about $800. NT will likely start raking in overtime again now that we're back from vacation, usually to the tune of $200 per month. And I have $845 in the April budget that was going to go in the lawyer fund, so instead it can go to paying the tax bill.

If all that guesstimating is accurate, that means we'll have $2045 for paying taxes, so we may not have to take too much out of the lawyer fund. And I planned to save $845 in May and $845 in June for the lawyer fund, so it should get replenished pretty quickly.

I'm cautiously optimistic! Once the lawyer fund is securely at $9000 and the taxes are all paid, that $845 per month can start going to debt repayment again. And our extra income can as well, although I want to send part of it to the IRS and MN in preparation for 2011 tax season so we won't owe as much. Oh, and I've promised myself that once all these financial obligations are met, a bit of our side-hustle income is going to line our pockets, for some extra fun money. We've all been working super hard, and who knows if our incomes will stay this good if I (and possibly NT, who is growing dissatisfied with his job too) switch jobs to something we love but is lower-paying? So I want to make sure everyone gets a bit of extra personal money as a reward once the considerable obligations above are fulfilled.

As I mentioned before, I was sick the whole week before our vacation. I stayed home two days but did work anyway. The other three days I dragged myself in and managed to work, but I felt awful. Some kind of stomach thing I probably caught from AA. NT was sick most of the week too, and AS was exhausted from work.

We left late Saturday morning and got in around 4 p.m. We stayed at Hotel Tomo, a boutique hotel in Japantown that's owned by Best Western. Cute Japanese-stye pop culture decoration. View from our floor:



We ate so-so food at the restaurant connected to our hotel. Then we all went up to the room to "take a nap," but ended up sleeping about 13 hours! After that we all felt much refreshed and were able to enjoy the trip. I'd been worried that I'd feel too tired to do anything, so I'm glad we used the first day and night just to sleep.

On Sunday we had breakfast at a Vietnamese restaurant with French influences, so I got to have some Asian dishes such as spring rolls as well as French pastries (beignets). AS watched AA in the room while NT and I browsed cute stores (check out the zebra ears we bought for AA):



Then we wandered around various neighborhoods, saw the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf:



... had Mexican food, caught a live outdoor performance of a kids Cuban band:



... and came back to the hotel room, where NT watched AA while AS and I went for delicious sushi and sake across the street (and brought some home for NT).

Monday, we tried another breakfast joint, and we loved this one so much that we went back twice more during the trip. It was called The Grove and it was on Fillmore St. Just a small coffeeshop with a limited menu, but all fresh, delicious, well-prepared food. Then we took a cable-car ride:



... went on a short cruise around the bay (passed by Alcatraz:



... and went under the Golden Gate Bridge:



Despite a light drizzle, it was enjoyable and exciting:



We went to Chinatown for lunch:



... and then went to the cable car museum, where you could see the actual cables that control all four lines:



We went back to the hotel room and ended up getting Italian/Mediterranean food and bringing it back to the room for dinner.

Tuesday we rented a car and drove to two beaches after our second breakfast at The Grove. First Muir Beach:



... then Stinson Beach:



As you can tell, it was chilly and drizzly so we didn't spend too much time there, but we walked around and picked up shells, and AA liked the wind and rain. Then we got lost for about an hour until I got GPS on my work BlackBerry and we figured out how to get back on track. We went to Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods. It was drizzling lightly so we bought ponchos, including one for AA that we wrapped all around her (she was also wearing a raincoat and had a blanket over her). She was not pleased but put up with it as long as we kept the stroller moving. Lucky we bought the ponchos, because it started pouring! Hard to look up at gigantic tall trees when it's raining, so we didn't spend much time there at all:



We were able to laugh about it and joke that we'd joined the National-Lampoon-style class of parents, taking their kids on disastrous vacations. AA was SO happy to get back into her warm dry carseat, laughing and talking and kicking her feet.

We were so tired and it was still rainy, so we just dropped the car back at the place and went out for food. We found a FANTASTIC Thai restaurant called Sweet Lime. AA loved all of the food and so did we, and the waitress was so nice, AA didn't want to leave.

Wednesday was designated spa day. Luckily it was sunny and beautiful. We took turns watching AA while the others went and got spa treatments of our choice (mine was a short massage and later a facial; NT got a "bliss" massage that started with a bath; AS got an oil/spice/yogurt massage treatment and then acupuncture). Then AS and NT took a bus to Haight Ashbury for a bit while AA and I napped in the hotel room. For dinner we walked over to Tenderloin and ate at a soul food restaurant called Farmer Brown (pretty good, but extremely limited vegan options).

Thursday we went back to The Grove for breakfast one last time, then took a shuttle to the airport. Our flight was delayed two hours but other than that uneventful. We ordered pizza delivery that night and relaxed, then went to breakfast together on Friday. AS went in to work for a few hours while NT and I got caught up on various things.

I feel so much better! It was a great vacation, perfect length and just the right amount of activities.

Logging a lot of progress today!

First, I sent an extra payment to one of NT's student loans that isn't in repayment yet. $146 went to principal, so that's $941 down, $98 to go on the March debt repayment goal.

$25 went into savings and I also earned $0.83 in interest, so that brings EF progress to $1161.47 for the year.

$300 went to the Roth IRAs, so $900 so far this year.

AS donated $20 to a nonprofit and I sent $15 to a charity, so charitable giving is up to $240.

We stayed within budget on the SF trip, and I just set up the payment to the credit card to pay it off, so that means one of the two trips have been made and paid for in cash (or will be in the next couple of days).

I finally finished the book I started in February, so that meets my March creative/reading goal. I read "Adrift" by Steven Callahan, a classic true-adventure survival tale about a man lost at sea in a small rubber raft for 76 days. Highly recommended if you love true-adventure books.

Got back from our San Francisco vacation last night! (MonkeyMama, did you see me waving to you from Japantown? ) It was fabulous. We spared no expense since it was only a five-day vacation; typically in the past we do a nine-day vacation and have to watch our spending, so this actually felt more luxurious than a longer vacay. I took today off too, so now I have a 3-day weekend in which to catch up on things and relax.

I was sick the entire week before, so I do have some things I'm behind on. I don't like being late on things, but I'm trying not to stress out too much because it's nothing earthshattering, or that I won't be able to catch up on today or tomorrow.

First off, my budgeting; I use a manual spreadsheet to track our balance, different line items, and future income and expenses, so if I don't update it every couple days it becomes a mess. I think it was the Wednesday before last that I updated it, so I've got a heck of a lot of work to do, especially with all the vacation spending. I may not get a to-the-penny balanced budget and will then need to take money out of (or add to, if I'm wrong in the other direction) one of my standing line items such as grocery/household or the lawyer fund, to get my bottom line back where it should be. That sometimes happens when it's been a while since I last updated it.

Besides the budget spreadsheet, I have to send in a character reference for my friend who's applying to the MN bar. (He's been a lawyer in other states but recently moved back here.) It was due Wednesday but I didn't notice the deadline when I was sick, then forgot to bring the form on vacation with me. But we called them while in SF and they said a day or two over the deadline wouldn't affect anything. Whew! I'll try to get it filled out and scanned/emailed or faxed from somewhere.

I'm a little late on the daycare check, in that it was due Monday. But they haven't had to watch AA this week so I doubt they noticed. They still owe me a receipt for the first four weeks anyway, which I've asked for three times now. I'll take the check over today. We're going to drop AA off at daycare today so we can have the day to relax. She was a fantastic travel companion, and I'm not sick of her by any means, but we'd like a few hours to ourselves today. We'll probably go get breakfast at this Cuban cafe that's only about a mile away from daycare, after we drop her off.

I also am overdue writing a check to my job for some shipping I did. It's so stupid because the shipping was back in 2007 or 2008 but they just got around to reconciling the books now. I'd honestly forgotten I'd had them ship some eBay sales back then. They tried to charge me for some 2010 shipments as well but when I questioned them, they said it was a mistake. That annoyed me and I decided to write the check only just before the deadline. However, the deadline was while I was on vacation, so now it's going to be late. Oops! Well, I guess if they waited three/four years, they can fudge the books for a couple days and get their check next week.

In a way I feel I've been on vacation for two weeks, since I was so out of it with whatever illness I got from my adorable daughter (or one of her cute little friends at her birthday party). One of my March resolutions was to blog more often; instead, this has been my worst month yet for blogging! However, I'm feeling pretty refreshed and hope to get my life back together over the next couple of days. One thing I do want to do is weigh in on Sunday night, see where I am weight-wise, and then decide what to do to kickstart my healthy eating/exercise/weight loss journey. If I've gained a lot of weight I might do something a bit more extreme like a raw-foods cleanse, but if I'm OK on weight then I'll just focus on toning up. I definitely look like I've put weight back on, but it could be that more of my muscle went away and I have more fat so that I look bigger. Hard to tell.

One great thing that happened while we were gone was a big thaw in MN that got rid of much of the snow. There's actually dead grass visible in big patches now! The big snowbanks have dwindled and look to be a couple inches high versus a couple feet. Maybe I'll get to walk and bike outside soon.

I had a dream last night that was so vivid. AS had invited me to a workshop about women and careers with some group she'd gotten involved in. NT had volunteered to make lunch, because they had men take turns cooking for the events. Anyway, the discussion at the workshop led me to make a pros-and-cons list of my job, and in the dream the "cons" side kept stretching longer and longer, while the "pros" side remained only a couple items. It got me curious to do this in real life; I don't think the list would be as imbalanced as it was in the dream, but it would be an interesting exercise nonetheless. I've already been thinking about it. Unfortunately, all the "pros" are about the conditions surrounding my job, such as the short commute and good location. The job itself pretty much sucks now. Too bad; when I started it was the best job I'd ever had, but most of the elements I liked have receded, while several things I don't like have been introduced.

Well, enough rambling. I was woken up early by our cat, who is being yowly and clingy since we got back. Now NT is up too, so we'll probably head out as soon as AS gets up. I'll try to write an entry about the vacation itself, and post some pictures, sometime this weekend. Good to be back in SA land as well as my real life!

Our mortgage payments hit on the first, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog about it.
US: $411 to principal
UK1: $268
UK2: $56
UK3: $60

All told, $795 down, $244 to go on the March goal.

Also, between regular U.S. savings deposit and UK savings (I guess I took out more than I needed for the repairs, because I had a surplus in the checking account that I moved back to savings), I added $305.24 to the EF. So $1135.64 down, $5864.36 to go on the 2011 EF savings goal.

Other progress this month:
- We hosted our monthly get-together, which was AA's first birthday party. (Smashing success, by the way! I was convinced she'd get overwhelmed and cranky, but it never happened.)

- I donated $60 to my alma mater, bringing the charitable giving total to $205.

- We decided to go to my 15-year college reunion, so I booked the trip yesterday. That means I'm in the process of paying for our second trip in cash (I won't count them as done until we actually go on the trips). The first trip is to San Francisco for 5 days (leaving in less than a week!), and the second trip is to New York (just north of NYC) for 3 days in June. If our finances continue along smoothly, we're going to try and go on a THIRD vacation later in the year! (We've decided to try shorter, less expensive, more frequent vacations, versus the two longer vacations per year that we had been doing.)

So, pretty good progress so far this month!

My little girl turned one today! About an hour ago was when she officially hit one year, in fact. I'm exhausted beyond belief, but she was extremely happy during the whole party and loved every minute of it, especially getting sung to and tasting her mama AS's cupcake with homemade frosting!

She's come so far, from this...



...to this!

I checked for the two pending payments this morning, and both hit with a Feb. 28 date stamp. AS's student loan put $61 to principal, but unfortunately the $100 I sent to NT's student loan went entirely to interest, which is no help to my goal. So my debt repayment for February was $961, $39 shy of my $1000 goal. First time our debt repayment has been under $1000 for the month, and second time I've missed my monthly target.

Well, I'm setting the March goal for $1039 ($1000 was going to be my original goal, but I want to make up that $39), and this time I'll make sure I pay enough to cover interest and dip into the principal of NT's loan.

As for my creative/reading goal, I left my book at work, so there was no chance of finishing a book for the month (unless I'd grabbed one of AA's picture books ). I wasn't in the mood to try and write a short story, so I looked around for quick craft projects. NT and AS suggested origami, so I found some good paper to work with and a pattern for a little origami frog. The first one turned out OK but I thought I could do better, so I made a second one. It was a fun project that took about 45 minutes, and it challenged my dexterity, so I count that as meeting my February creative goal!

Nearly everything else on my goals list showed some progress in February. To recap:
-Added money to the Roth IRAs
-Gave money to charities
-Improved AS's net worth
-Got a bonus and applied for new jobs
-Did a creative project
-Hosted a dinner party
-Wrote a shared-topic blog post

The only things I didn't do well in were meeting my debt goal, exercising/tracking my weight, and EF savings (we had to use some to pay for repairs to NT's UK flat).

In March, besides my new debt goal and the other financial goals, I'm going to focus on the trip to SF and all four of our birthdays. Our get-together this month will be AA's first birthday party this Saturday (can you believe she's almost a year old??). Should be a fun, action-packed month!

I'm not sure I'm going to hit my debt-repayment target!

One of AS's student loan payments hit, putting $120 to principal. That's $900 down, $100 to go.

AS has one more student loan payment that is supposed to process today, but it may not update the amount until tomorrow morning. I'm still going to count it as Feb. progress if it hits tomorrow and shows up as a Feb. 28 payment. However, that one will only put $58-$60 toward principal.

The month got away from me and I didn't remember to make an extra student loan payment until Friday. I set up a $100 payment to one of NT's student loans that's not in repayment yet. The account shows that a payment is processing, so hopefully it'll have hit by tomorrow with a Feb. 28 date. However, it just occurred to me today that since that loan does accrue interest (which I pay quarterly), my payment may go to interest rather than principal. I looked all over the site and it didn't say what they do with extra payments when the loan's not in repayment yet.

So I'm afraid that even if both the above payments show up tomorrow with a Feb. 28 date, it won't be enough to principal to meet my goal. Also, it would be the first month since I started that I've paid off less than $1000!

I'm also not doing well on my creative project/book reading goal. I have over 100 pages left in the book I'm reading, and I didn't do any creative projects. I have tonight to either finish the book or do something creative. Maybe I can dash off a short story?? We'll have to see. Lil' AA is home with a fever, but she's actually lower-maintenance when she's sick, so it's a possibility.

We had a really spend-happy weekend. Lots of money going out in all directions. First, we rented a car because AA got invited to two birthday parties, and one of them was not accessible by bus. While we had the car, we went to Costco and loaded up on supplies. Then we finished off most of the birthday shopping for all four of us, and NT and I also bought ourselves some clothes. Oh, and we had two unplanned meals of carry-out vs. cooking.

Whew! I just have to remind myself that even though some was unplanned, we had the money in the budget. The rental-car costs came out of our travel fund, the gifts from the birthday fund, and the food and clothes we paid for with our regular weekly spending money. We blew our grocery budget and had to borrow from the 2nd half of March, but hopefully some of the staples that we now won't have to buy for a while (olive oil, veggie burgers, canned tomatoes, razors) will help us reduce our shopping bills for the next few months and make it even out overall.

Costco was really annoying. I'd forgotten to bring my card, and it took forever to find my info in the system. Then, they wouldn't take Visa (???) and I don't carry my American Express card (in fact, I never use that account and have been meaning to close it, but I guess now I'll keep it), so NT had to get money out of their ATM (fees on both ends, of course). Then they check your receipt when you try to leave, like they think you might be trying to pull something over on them. Still, some of the deals are pretty great. Only time will tell if we saved ourselves money in the long run, though.

We have a busy busy month of March planned, but I hope to blog more than I have in recent months. I've been keeping up on everyone else's but I like posting my own entries more often. Just a matter of carving out that time; I used to always have time at work, but I need to get used to blogging from home since I'm usually too busy at work.

There's a Facebook offer where you just have to watch a trailer for a new TV show and you'll be able to print out a buy one/get one free Chipotle coupon.

Not sure how to share it with you, but I searched for Chipotle on Facebook and saw they had posted this link on their fan page, so you could try that:

http://www.facebook.com/americasnextgreatrestaurant?ref=ts&sk=app_10442206389

FYI: The coupon is good through March 3. So if you're on the February bring-your-lunch challenge, that gives you a couple days in March to take advantage without breaking your February commitment!

Well, I still haven't worked out or really tried to eat healthy this year (although I haven't been super-unhealthy either). Combination of laziness, lack of focus and a series of mild but unpleasant colds. I'm currently on the second week of a persistent cough, and if talking spurs coughing, I can't imagine what cardio exercise would do.

As a result I haven't bothered to weigh in; I know I should be doing it anyway, to keep weight loss top of mind, but I just haven't felt like it.

However, I've made some progress on other goals.

Charitable donations: AS donated $20 to a nonprofit, bringing our total to $145
AS's net worth: AS's negative net worth decreased by $802 since last time I checked, bringing her to negative $5608.
Read a book/creative project: I've started a book and hope to finish it by the end of February. It's interesting; I just never seem to find time!
Make money with side hustles: Finally some progress on this! NT's job, out of the blue, asked me to do a light proofread of a book they're reprinting. I'm charging $40 per hour and it's about 500 pages, so even going super-fast I'm going to make probably at least $800. This will go to the tax bill or lawyer fund.

Made some progress on the following goals:

Save to Roths - $300 more for a YTD total of $600

Give to charities - I sent $15 to one and $15 to another, and NT gave $50 to another, so that's $80 more for a YTD total of $125

Organize at least one get-together per month - we have a dinner party for four friends planned for this coming weekend. Vegan soul food -- I'm excited to start cooking!

Made money with "side hustles" -- well sort of; I got a $50 reward card from a savings program with my bank for hitting a savings goal.

Write one shared blog post per month - done!

I also recorded the biweekly savings transfer to the EF plus some interest: $25.91 total. On the downside, NT's flat has required some repairs that ate up the usual income. So not only do we not have UK money to add to EF savings, we had to pull money OUT of EF savings to cover the mortgage payments next month. So we lost $540 of EF progress. Offset by the small automatic savings and interest, that's a negative of $514.09, taking us back to $830.40. Now we suddenly seem far away from our $7000 goal! Since we won't make progress in UK funds for March, that means we'll need to save an average of $685 per month April to December to hit our goal. Hmmmm...

There's been lots of money in and money out news lately. I think we're all going to owe on taxes. I've only calculated AS's federal and we already owe over $1600. I have no idea how much her state plus my and NT's federal and state are going to add to that. Sigh, the lawyer fund is going to take a beating.

On the plus side, my bonus actually cleared $1100 after withholding versus the $600 I thought it would! And I've got a possible freelance job for NT's company that might pay pretty well. NT continues to rake in OT pay and AS continues to get freelance jobs. So I still have high hopes of fully funding the lawyer money this year even with the tax hit.

I'm thinking about setting up some of my bigger bills to be paid via credit card, namely my mortgage. I figure I could be getting rewards money for purchases I have to make anyway. Right now we charge our groceries and some other things to the credit card and pay it off every couple of weeks, so it seems like the same philosophy.

But I'm nervous to try it for some reason. Does anyone else do this? Any advice or cautionary tales?

Today we dropped AA off at her new daycare for the first time; she's 11 months so of course she was bawling at being left with strangers. I got a really good feeling from the place, the people running it and the kids, so even though AA freaked out, I felt good about leaving her there. But at the same time I feel tense, insecure and distracted; and as a result, I'm inwardly overreacting to other little things that are coming up at work. So now my shoulders ache, I feel kind of like crying, and I can't really focus on anything very well.

So, perfect time to ask my question of the month, since it has to do with parenting!

We've been blessed with a really easy baby, but she's starting to show signs of willfulness; little things such as frustrated mini-tantrums if something is taken away from her that she wants or if someone is changing her or dressing her (she hates that now). We've started discussing methods of discipline to make sure we're on the same page when it becomes necessary, but we don't really know what to expect until it happens.

I don't really have any yet, but I'd love it if you could share parenting and/or childcare success stories you've either experienced or witnessed. Tell about a time you (or someone you know, or your own parents) dealt well with a challenge. It could be weaning off of a bottle or pacifier; potty training; curbing naughty behavior; calming fear or anxiety in a child; motivating an unwilling student; dealing with bullying -- anything where you felt like a clever or commonsense approach brought a positive resolution to a challenging situation.

Some surprising twists in the miserable saga of my job, and my attempts to get respect/money/power there.

I wasn't going to tell anyone about my concerns over the new creative director, nor about the ridiculing of my appearance that very bad day a week or two ago. But my direct supervisor, a nice though seemingly ineffectual in the getting-me-stuff department kind of guy, set a meeting last Friday to get up to date on things, and I let it all hang out. I nearly cried a couple times but kept it to a voice quaver. I didn't tell him I was looking for a job, but when he said (again) that he just didn't think there was any money for raises, I mentioned that my ex-supervisor had told me that when she gave her notice (last year when the financials were MUCH worse at my job) the first thing they said was "Would more money change your mind?" I told my current supe that I didn't want to play hardball, but that it frustrated me because I felt that if I threatened to quit they would come up with more money to keep me, whereas if I played nice there were no raises to be had.

I also told him my concerns about our department being headed up by a man who seemingly either disliked me specifically or thought proofreading was a load of bollocks. I also told him about the insults I'd endured recently.

My supe was nice but basically told me A) He didn't think he could get me a raise or promotion, B) He didn't think the creative director meant anything by it and that he thought he did respect me and my work, and C) Wait three months, because a big shake-up on one of our major projects would probably result either in less stressful work for me OR even more responsibility with a strong case to be made for a promotion at that time.

I kind of said uh-huh, OK, and I must not have been very convincing, because my supe set up a lunch meeting for today. Free lunch is always nice though it wasn't going to change my mind or anything. Inwardly I thought, OK, if I'm still stuck here in three months at least there's a chance something will change, but I'm going to keep looking for another job.

I was home sick on Monday. Then yesterday, the mean creative director sticks his head around the side of my cubicle and says it's music to his ears hearing me type on my computer. I look at him like "what's the gag?" and he goes on to say he's glad to have me back in the office and he's glad I'm feeling better. He's even smiling! So that was weird, but I thought hey, at least my supe must have let him in a bit on how he was coming across to me. That's the first real sign of anything but irritation or utter indifference I've ever gotten from him, and even if it was put on, it was nice to hear. (Actually it was a bit humorous too, since it was so out of left field.)

So today was the lunch meeting with my supe. As soon as we sat down he hit me with some amazing news:

He and the creative director basically wrangled me a $1000 bonus that's going to show up in my next paycheck!

He said he spoke with creative director guy and basically told him I'd been doing a ton of extra work and was feeling really underappreciated and undervalued, so they got me a bonus since they couldn't get me a raise!

I did some quick math, and this bonus plus the $250 I got last month for being part of a team that did some award-winning work means that I basically got a 2.5% raise this year!

I know it's a one-time deal and not a real raise, but I'm counting it as progress on my annual goal. It took a lot of resolve to talk to my supe, because I'm shy, and awkward, and tend to stay away from confrontation these days. And getting some respect from my creative director wasn't on my list of goals, but it sure is good! Whether it's phony or real, either way, he is having to put some effort into his relations with me (as he should), so I feel a lot better. And I don't have to worry that he'll come out with any more personal remarks, because I bet you anything my supe found a way to bring that up!

Whatever I clear from the bonus (I'm estimating $600) is going straight to the lawyer fund. We're on track to have that completely built up to where we want it by July, if not sooner!

I wanted to let you all know about this right away, because you were so supportive on my earlier posts and helped me feel like I wasn't just overreacting. And now there has been some vindication!

All four mortgage payments hit today:
US $409 paid
UK1 $258 paid
UK2 $56 paid
UK3 $57 paid

All told, $780 down, $220 to go on the debt repayment goal. Hopefully we'll pay about $180 more via regular student loan payments over the course of the month, which means I have to come up with about $40 more out of the budget to meet the goal. I won't worry about that until a bit later in the month when I can see how various line items are doing.

The other bit of progress is that NT bought lunch and coffee for a homeless man outside the grocery store last weekend. So that's $10 more to the charitable goal.

EDIT: I forgot we also added $25 to the EF, so that's progress on a 2011 goal as well. We've saved $1344.49 of the $7000 I want to save.

It looks to be a busy day today at work. But as part of my "do the minimum" resolution, I'm not going to let that stress me out! I'll just do what I can at an unhurried pace and they'll have to deal with it if I don't get everything done. I have to say, it's been hard taking my effort down a notch, but it's getting easier! LOL. Anytime I feel like working harder, I just think about the new creative director laughing at me and ridiculing my clothing, and I'm cured of THAT impulse.

AS lost her prepaid phone. Luckily they suspended her phone number and her nearly 500 minutes until she ordered a new one, so all we had to pay for was the cost of a new phone. Not as bad as I thought it could be! (I used the budget to pay for the amount of the cheapest phone; AS opted for the next-higher-priced one and paid the difference out of her spending money, so I'm not counting that portion against our budget.)

CJ 1000 minutes late-March T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT 300 minutes late-March Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 300 minutes late-May Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT 500 minutes + new phone late June: $21.56
AS 1000 minutes late-August fillup: $107.78
CJ 1000 minutes late-September fillup: $107.78
AS new phone + $25 phone card (200 min?): $32.32
NT 300 minutes early-October fillup: $32.87
NT 200 minutes late-December fillup: $32.87
AS late-January phone replacement: $29.88

Total cost for the year: $538.48

This happened 10 months into our cellphone "fiscal year," so our average monthly cost for this year is $53.85. Our best average yet!

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009. 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 goal for this year is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.

First off THANK you to those of you who braved my shared blog post topic. I didn't expect when I came up with the idea to do this that my first topic would be so BIG, but it's what was going on with me, and I appreciated the candor and bravery of everyone who shared. I've been avidly reading them all and feel really impressed with everyone's honesty as well as inspired by, moved by and totally in sync with various things that people shared. And I loved that there was as much celebration of what you wouldn't change as there was honesty about what you would. This is definitely something I'll try to do each month this year.

AS's last student loan payment squeaked in before the end of the month: $58 went to principal. That brings us up to $5901 of debt paid!!! I predict you will not soon see this level in my blog for the rest of the year.

Also, today I read a book! One of my goals that I thought I was going to fall short on this month. I chose one that looked do-able in a couple days, and it only took me a few hours. It was The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. I used to be a HUGE King fan, but in recent years I stopped reading because he just got so self-indulgent and his over-the-top writing style was making it hard to get into his newer books. This one was a bit more restrained, probably because it was written for a pulp-mystery series so he had to be brief. What's funny is that it wasn't pulpy at all; it was kind of folksy despite it being about a mysterious dead man. And it didn't have any supernatural elements, which honestly was kind of refreshing. I really enjoyed it and was glad to see he still has some thought-provoking, more disciplined writing in him.

I made good progress on my year's goals this month, so let me sum up (some will be repetitive from other entries):
-Paid off one of AS's student loans
-Saved $300 to Roth IRAs
-Increased EF by $1319.49
-Gave $35 to charities
-Got AS to within $6410 of having positive net worth
-Paid off $5901 of debt
-Lost about 2.5 lbs., getting to 153 lbs.
-Did some planning for trips we'll be taking
-Applied for 3 jobs
-Sent our estate-planning goals to our lawyer
-Read a book
-Organized a baby playdate
-Wrote a "share your thoughts" blog post

The only thing I didn't make progress on was making extra money with side hustles. (Which is an annual goal; I don't necessarily need to do it every month.) So I feel really good! Since I've completely failed to exercise this month, it feels like I'm falling down on everything, but I'm really not doing that badly. Especially since the extra monkeywrenches of finding a new parking-spot renter and a new daycare provider took time and attention away from my goals.

Now for February's debt goal:
Since I paid off that student loan, our MINIMUM principal payments come to less than $1000 ($957 to be exact). That would bug me, to pay off less than $1000, so I'm going to make sure I find money in the budget (by extra income or by skimping on another line item) to pay off at least $1000.

One thing I resolved to do this year was to write one blog post per month that invited anyone else in the community to write a post on the same topic.

Looking for a new job causes a lot of soul-searching in addition to Google searching. On the one hand, I've just delved into applying to jobs that fit very closely to my existing job duties and experience. But on the other, I'm trying to step back mentally and take stock of my past job history, the possibilities (whether likely or remote) that I see in my future, and just my life in general.

If I'm really honest with myself about what I like and don't like about all of the above, what I think I'm capable of (or think I could be capable of with some education or training), hopefully it will help me make the best decisions in the coming months.

So this is the question that's been coming to mind recently, especially today: What would I change--about myself, my job, my home, my life? I'm really interested to hear what others think when you take stock, so if you could write your own post, or just reply to mine, I'd be grateful.

Anyway, here's what I've come up with so far. Some things on the list aren't things I necessarily think are possible or know how to work toward; this is just a rough draft of thinking about a more ideal future.

What I would change about my job:

-I would work with people who respected me and were friendlier.
-I would work in an environment where the review and reward system, the management hierarchy, and the HR department were much more effective, where it was easier to make your voice heard when you had concerns or requests.
-I would either have it be easier, more straightforward and less stressful, OR I would want more money and a title that reflects the responsibilities I have.
-I would have my own office rather than a cubicle.

(What I wouldn't want to change is also important to consider: I wouldn't want to make much less money, and I wouldn't want to work much further from home. I'd still like to work with words in some capacity. I like having a private workspace so that when I do have downtime, I can entertain myself and/or do finances without worrying about people looking over my shoulder. And I wouldn't want to punch a clock; now that I have a kid but also in general, it's much more relaxing to not have to worry about coming in within a 5-minute window.)

As for what I actually would want to do, long-term I think I'd like to proofread or copy edit more creative, interesting things than what I do now. I wouldn't mind more writing assignments; I haven't gotten to write for over a year here, and I liked that. And I wouldn't mind branching into something entirely new, that isn't writing or editing, but I'm not sure if there are any areas I could move into where I wouldn't have to start at entry level all over again -- and at this point, I'm not feeling willing to take too much of a pay cut just to move into something different.

What I would change about myself/home/life:

-If I could wave a magic wand and become more confident, more able to navigate unfamiliar situations and rooms full of strangers without appearing nervous or tongue-tied, that is without a doubt the No. 1 thing I would change.
-I would be more energetic. Sometimes I just feel like such a slug, especially compared with my more industrious partners. I'd love to get more done in a week, be more creative, be tidier, work out more, go to more social and community events.
-Sure, there are some physical things I'd change. I wish I were more skilled at grooming so my hair looked sleeker and more professional. I know I should probably wear a bit of makeup to work. My wardrobe could still use some fine-tuning. These are things I can work on, so I probably will as I continue my job search.

But I still think the top thing (if only I could change it) would be to make myself more confident and outgoing.

The good news is, thinking about my home and home life, I can't really think of much that I would change (other than the above about being more creative, social and community-involved). Some parts are in process, but I like where things are now and where they seem to be going. I'm very comfortable with the lifestyle I have, my surroundings, etc., and I couldn't ask for a better family. If anything, my nice home life makes the bad work experience look even worse by comparison!

What about you?

One of AS's student loan payments went through with $121 going to principal. So that's $5843 to debt this month! This will be our biggest month maybe ever in terms of debt repayment.

AS donated $20 to the public transit nonprofit for our state, so that brings donations up to $35.

I'm kind of depressed about my job. There have been some bright spots: For instance, they took some of us out to a really nice restaurant for lunch for winning some awards on a project we'd worked on, and told us we'd get a $350 bonus in our next paycheck.

But on the other hand, people keep getting hired and promoted while I languish waiting for some kind of recognition for doubling my workload and responsibilities. And today a guy who really doesn't respect my role (proofreader) in the creative process got promoted to creative director. And then at the end of the day, he made fun of my winter gear. I mean outright laughed at and mocked my appearance. I came home and cried like I was in middle school again.

There aren't a ton of jobs out there in my field, and probably not many that pay very well. But I'll keep looking.

We finally weighed ourselves after missing 2 weekly weigh-ins, and there was good news despite no exercise. At first it seemed we'd lost tons of weight, but then NT noted it might be the new rug throwing things off. He and I weighed ourselves again on hardwood and were a couple pounds more than on the rug. However, even at the higher weight I'm at 153, and my Jan. 2 weight was 155.5. So I still lost 2.5 lbs. and am happy. 14 lbs. away from my 2011 goal of 139.

I calculated our net worth this weekend, and thanks to debt repayment and investing, it went up considerably. One of my goals is to get AS's net worth to positive. Well, it's gone up by $8257, so she's at negative $6410. So close! I calculate the minimum debt repayment and investing I have planned for her should bring her to positive net worth by October or November, as long as the stock and housing markets don't collapse again.

Boy, life continues apace in the ceejay household!

It's been kind of a blur, but let me see if I can remember everything important...

First off, I made good on my plan of paying off one of AS's student loans! I transferred $1869 of extra student loan money from NT's loan -- so that portion didn't reduce our debt any -- and I took $4134 of lawyer money and paid the rest off.

So woo hoo! First student loan to hit the Old Debt Graveyard page. The lawyer fund has been decimated, but I have a plan for replenishing it, and AS already has two more freelance jobs that are going to bring in extra money. With the $4134 paid on the student loan, that makes $5722 in principal paid this month!

The daycare situation is looking up. We had an interview with another lovely old lady who runs an in-home daycare just 10 minutes by bus from home (about 30 minutes from my work). She only charges $40 more per week, and the only other difference is she doesn't provide formula (but AA is already 10.5 months old, so that won't affect us for long). We'll probably visit her one more time (we didn't have a chance to explain the three-parent thing, which would be weird not to mention before we start there), but she's available to take AA as soon as the other daycare ends, and her references checked out, so I think we're about good to go! Trimming $175 from the budget to afford her was easy: We took $50 from the medical fund line, $50 from the misc. line item, $50 from the travel budget and $25 from extra debt repayment. Really hoping this works out!! It will add about 20 minutes to the morning and to the evening process, but that's nothing compared to adding $1000 per month in cost, which was the only other option we'd found!

Just in case, we mocked up a few other budgets based on other scenarios of having to go with a more expensive daycare or having NT quit work and stay home with AA while still going to college. So we know other options are doable, they would just involve more-painful budget cuts and lifestyle choices.

With all this worrying and planning, it's been hard not to let my 2011 goals fall by the wayside. Well, healthy eating and exercising (and thus weight loss) have been a no-go so far this year. I've even forgotten to weigh in every Sunday! But the other goals are making a bit of progress. In brief:
--Pay off AS's DL student loan: DONE, as mentioned above!
--Save to Roths: we've saved $300 so far; $200 to AS's and $50 each to mine and NT's
--Give to charities: I've only donated $15 so far, but we have more money set aside so as soon as we feel more settled in our budget, we will make some more donations
--Get AS to positive net worth: What with the above payoff and Roth contribution, we made some big progress that will be reflected in my next net worth checkup (probably this weekend)
--Pay off debt: Lots of progress, as told above
--Go on trips: Hotel & airfare taken care of for our March vacation as well as some rough planning of what we'll do when we get to SF
--Get a raise or find a job: I sent out another resume this week; only my second, but at least I'm doing something. No word on a raise, so new job still seems the best option
--Estate planning: We sat down and hashed out some things, and I sent an email with our wishes to our attorney, so we just have to wait to hear from him on what we need to do next
--Read a book or creative project: Sorry, nope. I did finish a book I started back in October, but I'm not counting that. Still hoping to hit this for January!
--Make money with side hustles: I did decide to look into using the credit card for mortgage and association dues, to earn rewards money, but I haven't actually set it up yet
--Organize get-together: We had a playdate with several other parents and kids, so I'll call that one a success for this month!
--Write a shared blog topic: Haven't gotten on this, but it won't take me long once I do it. I have been thinking of what would be fun topics to hear everyone's take on, so it should be soon. It might be completely non-financial, depending what kind of mood I'm in when I do it!

Phew. Now that I write everything down, I'm not doing as badly as I felt. Considering it's been kind of insane at work and with the daycare drama, I'm actually pleased with the process so far!

Whew. I'm so busy at work but I just had to take a break and write about the craziness that's been going on here.

Financial progress for all my goals was chugging along for the first part of the year. There was the small hiccup of our parking-spot renter passing away, but last night we got a new renter for $10 more per month, up to $85.

NT's UK flat suddenly needed several repairs, which is going to eat into our EF savings, but we're already ahead in that area so I wasn't too worried.

Then last night--Kablooey! Our wonderful daycare lady, who is in her 60s, said she got an out-of-the-blue offer on her house, which (unbeknownst to us) had been on the market for several months. She's taking the offer, moving, and retiring from daycare in mid-February!

We're trying not to panic or make too big a deal over it, but here are the facts that make this an extremely significant financial event in our lives:
- Finding a new daycare provider in less than a month will be nothing short of a miracle.
- At $110 per week ($477 a month), our daycare is BY FAR the cheapest I've heard of or seen advertised anywhere near us. The centers in downtown Minneapolis, by contrast, start at $1200 per month and run all the way up to $2500! NT's been doing some research, and most in-home providers charge about $1000 per month.
- We don't have a car, so this severely limits our options. We could consider getting a car if that would be a cheaper option, but besides the cost of the car, gas, insurance and maintenance, we'd also have to factor in losing $85 per month in parking-spot rental. So that plus whatever price we could find for a farther-out daycare provider equalling less than the cost of a downtown center is highly unlikely.
- We should look at the option of having one of us stay home; we shouldn't rule anything out. The person who brings in the least money by far is AS (I'm talking her full-time job; her freelance income brings her overall income up considerably). But we need her building her career for our eventual move to England. She'll need to get to the UK on some kind of employment visa, and her current job is adding to her resume in a very good field, plus she's making international contacts. Still, with the full-time job bringing in just over $1750 per month, and daycare possibly increasing to $1200 or more, it feels like a hard choice. Even though I'm sure it's best for us in the long run.
- I saw one ad for a $150-per-week provider -- but she mentioned having a PCA license, not a daycare provider license, so I'm not sure if it would be eligible for flex spending reimbursement. And she hasn't gotten back to me anyway.
- Oh yeah, any consideration does have to include thinking about the $5000 of money I'm setting aside in dependent-care flex spending. Would I be able to stop contributions if I stopped using daycare or didn't use someone specifically licensed for childcare? I have to check that out.
- All of this is moot if we can't find daycare in three weeks. At that point we go into damage control, I guess. Working from home? Trying to get friends to watch AA for reasonable amounts?

Whatever happens, we seem to be look at at least a $600 chunk (probably much more) being taken out of our current budget and reallocated into either childcare or due to lost wages or car purchase. So we'll need to go over the budget and come to some agreement on what we would choose to cut first. Luckily there are lots of "wants" as well as extra money going to saving and debt repayment in our budget, but it's not going to be easy deciding what to eliminate.

So the new year is already looking completely unpredictable. I am fairly optimistic that we'll be able to work out some solution that won't leave us broke and/or miserable, but I'm also stressed and a bit overwhelmed.

We had a great date last night, first one without AA in over a month! We got a babysitter in, then went to a fancy cocktail bar in downtown Minneapolis, then to a sushi restaurant.

The sitter (one of our friends) said AA was upset that we were gone and kept trying to crawl down the hall to look for us. But the sitter did manage to take her mind off things and play and watch videos, and she went to sleep quickly as usual. Maybe she's getting through this stranger-fear stage!

Today we were meant to have an acquaintance come over to give us an in-home yoga session; he's an instructor trying to raise extra money for an upcoming trip to China. But he had to cancel, so I'm going to try and work out on my own (first time in weeks; I've been REALLY bad since Xmas). It's just as well because I spent a ton of money last night and would have had to dip into next Friday's spending money to pay him. We can reschedule for a week when I'm not going to pricy bars and restaurants!

Anyway, I'm really rambling away from the point of the post...

One of AS's student loan payments hit; $137 went to principal, meaning we surpassed our $1575 debt-repayment goal for January! In total, $1588 toward debt so far this month.

That brings AS's balance on this particular student loan down to $6003.

On Friday we got a $1869 check for the excess money on NT's latest student loan. I thought maybe I'd put that toward AS's student loan, since that's the highest interest loan that's currently in repayment. That would bring AS's student loan down to $4134.

Then I thought about the $5735 we have sitting in checking for lawyer fees. We've been accumulating this money through additional income streams. Now our ultimate goal is to have $9000 saved for lawyer fees, but the lion's share of this money won't be needed for over a year (if at all). And the extra income shows no sign of slowing, between AS's freelance editing and NT's overtime.

I currently pay about $147 per month on AS's student loan as well as an extra $700. About $35 per month goes toward interest. So I thought, what if I take $4134 of the lawyer money we've saved so far and pay of AS's student loan? To build up the savings again, I could take the $850 per month that would have gone to the student loan and have the lawyer fund built back up to today's level in five months. This would probably save us over $100 in interest, and wouldn't set us back for long in our saving for the legal procedures.

So, I think that's what I'm going to do. I might even get to $9000 with other income sources before the five months is up. Either way, once I've got the lawyer fund back to where it was (or all the way up to $9000) I can start hitting the next student loan.

So, the January debt repayment total is going to get very impressive! (But then, of course, debt repayment for the next five months decidedly unimpressive.)

With recent additions to my medical and emergency funds, I realized we are over $12,000! I've estimated our emergency budget (assuming we would have no jobs and would all need to purchase private health insurance) would be just over $4,000, so that means we have about three months of expenses in our EF savings!

OK, I calculate our British funds at a 2:1 dollar-to-pound ratio, so that total is a tad higher than real-life exchange rates. But I just calculated our funds with the actual exchange rate, and we have just over $11,000. So we're really close to having three months' expenses saved away.

When people tossed out the "and of course you should have three to six months' worth of living expenses set aside," I used to think that was such an impossible number. But we're getting there very soon!