Our regular biweekly transfer over into savings occurred, just $25 to the EF this time. Still, that's $635 saved, $15 to go on our December goal.

Just checked my personal loan account online again, to see if somehow my payment posted already...nope, have to wait, hopefully only until tomorrow morning!

First of all, many thanks for the responses to my last post, not only the kind congratulations and comments but also the suggestions and perspectives on daycare/babysitters/staying home. It's an issue that will require full examination of each option, and I'll take all of your opinions into account as I go along. I'm open to all points of view, so I appreciate anything you have to tell me!

My credit card payment hit, with $188 going toward principal. $986 down, $1914 to go on the December debt goal.

Also, I decided to send my Capital One personal loan payoff payment early! I have over $2000 in my checking account that is just reserved in case of medical expenses, so more than enough to keep the account in the black until payday on the 15th (since medical bills never need to be paid right away). I also took $600 from the emergency fund as planned to help with the payoff. Getting rid of this loan will also eliminate a $623 monthly bill, so it's well worth it. I'm hoping the payoff will post on Friday and I'll be able to do the happy dance as well as finally add something to the Old Debt Graveyard page again.

Yesterday, NT got a $50 holiday bonus from his job, so we added that to the laptop fund, and also counted and deposited our change jar (another $44) and the one-dollar bills I've been setting aside from my spending money ever since Ima Saver suggested it ($20 more!). We now have $1002.30, so we went to order our rejiggered Macbook Pro which is $999 with free shipping...except we forgot about sales tax! LOL. That's an extra $75, so we still need to raise $71.70. Ah well, we're getting there. NT is going to start setting aside his $1 bills too, and we have an office chair, some CDs and a couple other things we can try to sell.

Hmmm...I feel like there was one more thing I was going to blab about, but my pregnant brain has let me down again, and it's almost time to leave work, so it'll have to wait!

Today is the third anniversary of when AS, NT and I made our lifetime commitment to one another! This has been such a hectic fall and winter that it all but fell by the wayside. The first two years I looked up what kind of anniversary it was (paper, cotton) and made sure we all gave each other gifts to match, but this year the only thing we planned is dinner out tonight at a new, nice-looking Italian restaurant. NT did write the nicest note to us this morning though; reminded me that, during the first year of dating when NT was in England and we were in America, his letters and e-mails were the main thing that kept up our faith that this crazy idea was really going to work out. And it has, better than I ever could have imagined! Happy anniversary, sweeties.

And now, the return of pregnant brain. I was absent-minded and distracted during the first couple months of pregnancy, but by mid-September I was pretty much back to normal. Now, again, I find I'm doing stupid things, or having little slips of the memory or other brain functions that I take for granted. Today in the breakroom I was getting ice out of the freezer and somehow dumped the whole bin onto the floor. Then when I was updating my spreadsheets, I noticed my calculation of what should be in our savings account was over by $20. I'm always so careful with that, so I have no idea what happened! After some agonizing, I took the $20 out of my EF line item; the only other budget category is NT's schoolbooks, which I haven't touched in ages, so it must be something I did when I typed in the new EF total recently. Then again, when updating my Number Crunch worksheet, I came out with a dollar surplus that I couldn't account for. I just hope this new stupidity doesn't seep into my proofreading! It did make me realize that if I were truly out of commission ever, all my budgetary stuff is just in my head. I need to set up a binder of log-ins, bill due dates and other information so that NT and AS could muddle through if I couldn't handle finances for awhile.

Yesterday afternoon was slow at work, so I finally got around to calling some daycare providers. Our initial list only includes downtown providers that are right on our bus line or mere blocks away. All I can say is, yowch! I'd seen in several reports that Minneapolis rates for infants average $1200 per month, so I'd prepared for that amount. What I hadn't considered is that daycare outside downtown is probably cheaper, meaning to get to a $1200 average, downtown rates have to be significantly higher. The six places I contacted range from $1300 per month to--get this--$2246 a month!!

Actually, only one place I contacted was over $2000. The ones we can consider (because they cost less than AS's monthly salary) are $1300 to $1452.

It hurts, but I think we're still going with this option. AS has just started back at a job that she's truly passionate about, so money isn't the issue there; plus, for moving to England, her main option (not being a legal spouse) is going to be through employment or starting a business, so she needs work experience. It's essential to our big-picture future plans.

NT and I like our jobs a lot but they're not our lives' passions. However, the salaries are significantly higher than AS's. If we have a hope of raising a kid while continuing to accelerate debt payment and retirement savings, our jobs are both key. And in this uncertain economic environment plus shaky healthcare situation, having two jobs with healthcare options is much safer than just having one. I'll never forget what happened to my SAHM sister when she had a miscarriage while her husband was between jobs and healthcare for the new job didn't kick in soon enough.

So that's the deal now, but it's a situation that I'll revisit frequently to make sure it's really the best and smartest decision for our family.

Our four mortgage payments hit:
UK#1: $257 to principal
UK#2: $54
UK#3: $57
US: $373

And one of AS's loans hit:
$57 to principal

So in total we've paid $798 toward debt, leaving $2102 to go in our December goal. Still trying to decide whether to pay off my personal loan using the "float" money of healthcare funds and the laptop fund, or just wait till payday in two weeks. We'll see if I can stand the wait!

I also transferred the surplus of NT's UK flat-rental income over to his UK savings account, which came out to US$610. So just $40 to go on the savings goal.

If today stays slow at work, I'll get started on calling daycare providers. Gulp! I'm afraid they're going to be very reticent with their info, trying to get me in for a visit, and that I'll get annoyed. I'm also a little worried about prices. We'll definitely be paying a premium to find a provider that's convenient to our bus commute. Cheaper than buying a car still, though. At least I think so. If not, we may have to rethink our strategy!

I'm being real easy on myself this month extra goalwise, because there's so much to do, what with our anniversary, holiday party, Xmas, prenatal classes, and figuring out our leave with mine and NT's jobs.

1. Debt: Pay off at least $2900 of debt.
Balance as of 11/30: $384,013
Goal balance: $381,113

2. Savings: Save at least $650 (all for baby/Ef)

3. Fitness: free month.
4. Environmentalism: free month.
5. Creative/crafts: free month.
6. Philanthropy: free month.
7. Side hustles: free month.

8. Other:
A. Help AS with couch reupholstery.
B. Begin to contact daycare options we've collected.

This will be the last month with this goal format anyway; next year will be much more about debt repayment, staying frugal, and just trying to figure out the whole parenthood thing, so I don't think I'll need extra goals to have a full life.

Well, it's a mixed bag this month, so I'll just list it out. Things got exceedingly busy, so it certainly wasn't a case of procrastination on any of the goals I didn't meet.

Debt: Pay off at least $2200 of debt.
Goal balance: $384,134
Progress: DONE! $2321 paid
Balance as of 11/30: $384,013

Savings: Save at least $720 ($120 for AS's retirement; $600 for Xmas fund)
Progress: DONE! $890 saved ($240 for AS retirement, $600 for Xmas, $50 for EF

Creative/crafts: Participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo); goal is 50,000 words.
Results: Stalled at 9,214 words

Other: Help AS with couch reupholstery.
Progress: A bit. Measured cushions and other parts so we can start cutting out fabric soon.

Begin to contact daycare options we've collected.
Progress: None. I was going to do it today, but I didn't have a single moment of free time after writing my last blog post. Will get on this soon!

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I read everyone's latest posts last night, so I feel all caught up even if I didn't comment on many of them. Welcome back Pennywise!

Our Thanksgiving was great--much better than we'd hoped for. Went to my sister's in Ohio--she's closest to me in age, but she and her husband are the most religious/conservative of my family, and I haven't seen her since NT moved in.

I needn't have worried. My family doesn't like making people uncomfortable, and I bet my sister's family got positive advance notice from the family that has met NT and seen the three of us together. Everyone was so nice. When it came time for family photos, someone yelled, "OK, inlaws stand behind the couch--AS, you get in there." So I knew they regarded her as an inlaw even though we're not technically married. Then later someone suggested taking separate photos of each sister's family, and they had me, NT and AS pose together first. I was very happy--that's all I want from my family, to recognize us as a family unit so that they understand AS is going to be our baby's mom too.

And I only got into two political-esque conversations--both with my mouthiest brother-in-law--and felt I managed to extricate myself before either of us got too heated. That was one of my main goals for the trip too, since me & mine are the only liberals in my whole family! LOL. But politics aside, my family is very open-minded so I would almost call them socially liberal. More like mind-your-own-business, classic Republicans, which is a trait I admired in that political ideology (and still do admire when I see it).

My baby bump got to "meet" 9 of its 11 cousins, who range in age from 12 to 20 (I think). So baby will be like me; I'm much younger than all my cousins, who seem more like aunts and uncles to me.

Oh, and I gave my dad the undated checks for $1000 each and explained my plan for paying him off. He seemed really happy, though in typical dad fashion said "Oh, you don't have to worry about paying me back before the baby comes." I explained that was just my personal benchmark that I was going to try for. I noticed he flipped through and said "Are there six checks here?"--that told me that even though he would never hassle me about paying him back, he does remember how much he gave me and how much I still owe him, so it is important to him too. That made me feel good--I wouldn't want to be sweating over the money if he didn't even care about it.

My mom gave me $100 cash to put toward the trip expenses, and told me to just let them know how much more we needed. I'm waiting until the car rental charge comes through on my card, but I think we got the trip in at about $540, a little better than the $585 I was expecting. We paid for our own food, but my parents are covering car, insurance, gas, tolls and hotel.

Anyway, progress on the goals: AS's student loan hit and put $117 to principal, bringing our November debt payment to $2321.

Plus, I had AS research IRA options for the retirement money we've been saving for her while she was laid off, and she settled on eTrade. I was going to put one more chunk of $120 to her retirement in December, since she'll start her 403(b) with the new job in January. So I took out that $120 a couple days earlier than usual, which means it goes to the November savings goal, bringing it to $890.

We got an early Xmas card from NT's dad and stepmom, with US $120 in it! We're putting that toward the laptop we're saving up for. I also got a $120 check for the freelance proofreading I did a couple weeks ago. Our total saved is at $888. We're now leaning toward a reconfigured Macbook Pro which is $999, so we're getting really close! The change jar is half full and I've been saving my one-dollar bills from my spending money, so we'll add all that in when we get a bit closer.

OK, I've got loads of work on my desk and my boss is unexpectedly out due to complications her poor husband had due to the lymphoma treatment.

Another thrilling episode in the cost of my prepaid plan! I know these are really boring entries; they're mostly for my benefit so I can keep track.

NT filled up with 300 more minutes because his 60 days had nearly run out (not because he'd used up his minutes). Cost: $32.82

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March, meaning it's been 8 months. 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.

Initial layout to get us set up with phones and 2300 minutes: $241.63
NT's late-May Net10 fillup: $32.65
AS's late-June T-Mobile fillup, 1000 minutes: $107.40
NT's late-July Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT's late-September Net10 fillup: $32.82
AS's early-October T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT's late-November Net10 fillup: $32.82

So our total cost so far is $587.92.

So far, if I divide our total cost by 8, our new plan has cost us $73.49 per month. That's the lowest the average has been, and measurably better than our $85 average on the T-Mobile family plan.

I've still used just over half of my 1000 minutes and I don't need to re-up until March 2010 unless I run out of minutes before then.

(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 is to get my average cost below that, preferably to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.)

I did send off a $20 payment to my personal loan, just to make sure I'd hit my goal. $14 went to principal, so I hit the $2200 November goal and surpassed it by $4. LOL. There's also a chance a student loan will hit on the 30th, but now I don't have to worry.

I've spent all weekend, except for a nice Friday out, planning and planning and planning our near future. We have so many money-affecting balls in the air right now that I just had to get as much figured out as possible. So here's a rundown:

1. AS GOT HER JOB! She found out a few days ago. Couple of changes: It pays less than we thought ($25K instead of $30K), but rather than starting part-time in January, it starts Dec. 1 at full time. And there's a promise of a raise in July. So we're very happy, and my chances of paying my dad off by my due date are now extremely good. It does mean we won't be able to keep the baby out of daycare as long as we'd hoped, but otherwise great news.

2. Sat down with my healthcare plan (and NT's from last year, since he doesn't have his yet) and did some calculations. Turns out it looks like kind of a wash as to whether mine or NT's would be a better family plan, but it does seem to be better to have a family plan versus individuals with one of us taking on the baby, because the family deductible is triple whether there are two family members or three. So I signed NT up for my plan; we can drop it during his open enrollment if his is better.

I just second-guessed myself as I was writing this. NT generally does not need much health care, so I'm wondering if it really serves to pay a high monthly premium to have him on my plan. I might have to do the calculations again. Hmm. Maybe tomorrow; I don't know if I have the stamina tonight!

3. Based on the above knowledge about AS's job and health insurance, I tried to extrapolate out a budget basically for the next year, to get a sense of how healthcare, daycare and unpaid leave are going to affect us. There are still a lot of variables, but I think I got a rough, conservative estimate of each month's numbers, and it looks like the only tight month would be June-July, when NT and I will be taking turns staying home without pay.

4. If that's how our parental leave goes. I've gotten the OK from my boss to arrange my leave however I want, but we still need the thumbs-up from NT's job, and his position is much more intense than mine. So we're going to present two options to them: one where NT takes off two days per week for 15 weeks, and another where he takes all six weeks of his leave at one go. We also have preferences for which two days he'd have off based on his class schedule for next semester, but if they don't like those he can take other days off, but he may have to leave early some days and work later on others to make up for it. There are some days he may be watching the baby and need to get to class pretty early, so AS and I will then need to take off early some days, but our jobs are a lot more flexible, so we're not too worried about that.

5. We have some smaller events coming up in the next few weeks: Thanksgiving, our anniversary and a holiday party we're throwing. Thanksgiving travel will be paid by my dad, but we need to figure out money for eating during the drives to and from Ohio, if we don't want Taco Bell 3 times a day. We also want to eat out for our anniversary, which is Dec. 2, so I'm trying to find discretionary funds in the budget for that. And for our party, we'll need to replenish our liquor cabinet, because we barely have anything in the house right now. We have some discretionary spending in December and January that we could skip and redirect those funds to the above three events if needed; I just need to figure out how much we'll need for each.

6. AS and NT are both incredibly busy, with schoolwork, freelance work and preparing for the new job, so I've been handling much of the online Xmas shopping for us. I've been carefully bargain-shopping so I make sure we can get as much bang for our buck as possible (when you have a fixed amount it makes you think that way), but it's been time-consuming and kind of mentally exhausting. I'm making good progress, though.

7. On beyond the holidays, new job and parental leave, we have to keep in mind that we've promised our families that we'll bring the baby to see them next year. My and AS's parents live in Virginia and NT's in England, so two different trips. We not only have to make sure we save enough paid time off from being eaten up by parental leave, we need to have a plan for how to pay for the two trips. I still have a ways to go on figuring out the money aspect, but we did pick out some dates we'd like to go, and I figured out how much PTO we need to save up for those two trips.

I think that's all I worked on this weekend. We did end up buying an oven on the Sears card, so we need to come up with $800 within 12 months, but I'm not at all worried about that. AS made a list of contact info for the daycare centers within convenient bus or walking distance, so I'm going to start calling on Monday. We still need to figure out what we're getting our parents for Xmas, and hopefully get a holiday photo taken that we can turn into a card for our families, but those things can wait (though not too long) until after Thanksgiving.

Phew! It's no wonder that my NaNoWriMo novel has suffered this week, but all of the above planning is much more important than the NaNoWriMo goal, which is fun but essentially useless.

Ack, this has been a busy and eventful week, both financially and otherwise! Anyway, yesterday I would have transferred the remaining $400 of Xmas money into our savings account--except we're ready to start Xmas shopping! So it stayed in checking, but I did technically reach my savings goal, with $770 saved, $50 over my November goal.

Time to go check out net worth now. Where has the month gone??

Not as much as I'd hoped, though! One of AS's student loans hit, and only $75 went to principal, not the usual $80-something. Maybe it was because the bill was technically due the 14th (a Saturday), but didn't hit the account until today. So $2190 down, $10 to go on the November debt goal.

I know I've said this before and it's never happened, but I'm really not sure I'll make my monthly goal this time. My next payment is scheduled for Thanksgiving day, so as long as it goes out the Friday after, should hit the following Monday, which is the 30th. Should I take that chance or do a little extra payment on the personal loan? I have plenty of fluff money in the checking account. Hmmm...

OK, one non-money bit of news: My NaNoWriMo novel is up to 8099 words! I managed about 3300 words last night, my most prolific night to date. Now if I could keep up that pace for the rest of the month, I could actually achieve this! I had nearly a week of writer's block and lack of motivation, but hopefully that's over. If you divvy the month up evenly, I should have reached 25,000 words last night, but I'm trying not to think about that.

The other day NT asked if we'd have any money to give my dad for the personal loan when we see him at Thanksgiving. We won't, but it got me thinking. My dad doesn't trust the mail carrier they have due to recurring delivery problems, so he won't just let me send him checks for payment. I'll have to do a wire transfer from my bank account to his, which will incur a fee each time. I thought, maybe I should write out 6 checks for $1000 each, and leave the dates blank, and give them to my dad at Thanksgiving. I can e-mail him whenever I have $1000 ready for him so he can date and cash one of the checks. This way, I'll save money on transaction fees, and he'll have a concrete piece of evidence that I do intend to pay him the rest of the money, and soon. He's a very organized guy, so I know I can trust him to hold onto those checks and not lose them. Still considering it, but it seems like a good idea so far.

Got a surprise check in the mail this weekend, nearly $70 from our organic grocery co-op. AS and I bought a membership years ago, and we get special discounts, two $2.50 coupons per quarter, plus this profit-sharing check once a year. I always forget about the check so it's always a nice surprise! We're going to put half toward paying off my dad and half toward the laptop fund.

We've nearly decided to get a new oven! One of the big burners (the back one I used all the time for boiling pasta, grains and beans) went out a couple months ago. We've made some attempts to fix it and to find someone who can repair it, but the stove is 25+ years old so we're now leaning toward replacing it. Cleaning under the coils is a pain, so we'd want one of those flat-surface electric stoves. There are good ones to be had for $400-$700 at Sears, and we can do the no payments, no interest for 12 months thing. I'm confident we'd easily save up that much just with extra income streams once we finish saving for our laptop. We've bought a fridge and a dishwasher this way and didn't pay a cent in interest because we paid them off in plenty of time.

Speaking of extra income streams, the woman who wants me to do a little freelance proofreading asked my hourly rate. I'm stalling getting back to her because I have no idea! I know I get paid about $24 per hour (plus benefits) and that my company bills clients $150 per hour for my time, so I feel like it should be somewhere in between those. Not sure what to do. AS will help me come up with a price later if I haven't decided.

Had a delightful dinner at the home of some friends we see far too seldom this weekend. They have two small children and we really enjoyed seeing how happy and engaged the kids were, and how much the parents clearly liked having them around. At the end of the night, they gave us some baby equipment including a bouncy seat for infants, a breastfeeding pillow that helps support the baby, and a brand new copy of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I know we have lots still to get, but our front closet is filling up with loads of useful (and free!) supplies.

I was bummed on Friday because I didn't find any change on 5th St. But this morning on the way to work I found a penny, so my lucky streak is back as far as I'm concerned!

While trying to pick the health care coverage with the best pricing, I'm trying to factor in the worst-case scenario. So I'm ignoring the deductible, which only tells you the most you could pay for one medical event. Instead I'm adding the monthly premium and the out-of-pocket maximum for each option. That will tell me which plan would cost the least should I have expensive medical issues. (And judging from the past few years, and the fact I have the final trimester plus labor and delivery to get through in 2010, I should definitely plan to be reaching my out-of-pocket maximum.)

I have two options for medical, plus optional additional dental and vision plans. What I've done is tried to figure out the highest possible cost for each plan for me as an individual; for me and the baby; and for me, NT and the baby. Then when NT gets details of his job's options, I will figure out the highest possible cost for each option for just him; for him and the baby; and for him, me and the baby.

I'll then pair up the different ways that all three of us can be covered, adding together the maximum costs, for instance, of having just me on my work plan while NT and the baby are on his work plan. Then I'll compare, and the combination that results in the lowest maximum annual cost will be the option that I go with.

Sounds fail-safe, right? Although have you seen the movie or read the book Fail Safe? They think there's no way they could make a mistake, and next thing you know New York and Moscow are getting blown up. So we're watching the documentary "Sicko," and there are all these stories of people who had coverage, but when they were diagnosed with a serious condition, the insurance company found a way to disqualify treatment, such as calling a proven method "experimental," or to kick the person out of their coverage altogether, as they did with a woman by pointing out that she hadn't disclosed the "serious" condition of once having had a yeast infection on her application, so therefore she should never have been covered. I think she had cancer.

So I do realize that under the current conditions in the U.S., all this scrupulous planning to make sure I have enough money for the maximum out-of-pocket could be for naught if one of us were diagnosed with something serious, because there's a good chance the insurance company could find a way to deny payment for the treatment.

But what else can I do? I still have to make the best plans I can, and find the best deal, and try to have enough money in the bank to cover what the insurance companies say would be the most I'd have to pay.

And bide my time till we can move to England...hoping no health disaster befalls any of us between now and then.

Two paychecks in the checking account (mine and NT's) was a pleasant little surprise. Even though I've been at this job for 3+ years, I still tend to think that if the 15th hits on a Sunday, payday isn't till Monday, as it was at my old job. Maybe this time I'll remember, since I'm writing about it!

Making my loan payment early worked out well; I had plenty of float money in the checking account and my balance never got below $1200, even though my Number Crunch worksheet showed some red for awhile (because theoretically, if I'd had to withdraw all of my medical-expense money and all the money saved for the laptop fund before this payday, I would've overdrawn). Now my balance sheet is lovely and black all the way down for the next three months again!

The only trouble is, now it's over a month before my next loan payment (which will be my payoff)! Oh well, maybe I can float again next month. I'm very impatient to pay this off so I can start paying my dad off. (The back story on that: He gave me $12,000 for down payment on my & AS's condo. So far I've paid back $6,000 in six years; that's progress, but not nearly enough, so ideally, I'll pay back the other $6,000 before baby comes in early March.)

I think I'm going to update the Big-Picture Goal in my sidebar...it's eminently clear I won't be CC-free by the end of this year. Soo, I'm just going to move it out a year and try to reach the goal by the end of 2010! I'm going to list a couple other goals I have for debt, such as getting rid of one of AS's student loans by the end of 2011. Could happen! Anyway, it's something to shoot for. (I'm sure my baby is laughing maniacally and tenting its little fingers because it has other plans for my money, but oh well.)

I probably have a bit of freelance proofreading headed my way next week. Woo hoo! I haven't negotiated a price, because just between me and all of you, I'd do it for any amount of money! If it's just a little sum, I'll put it toward the laptop fund. If by chance it ends up being more, or if I get more work as a result of doing a good job, I'll put some toward the laptop fund and some toward paying my dad.

It's now a little over a week until AS finds out whether she'll get the job at the publishing house! We think her chances are good because she's worked there before; the head editor trusts her taste and instincts; and she left on good terms last time, has kept in touch ever since, and also has gotten a lot of impressive education and job experience in the meantime. However, she knows a little bit about the other person who's in the running for the job, and they also have an extremely impressive resume. So there is some chance she won't get it. But we're realistically optimistic.

While admiring Thriftorama's forethought in getting her new baby-to-be's college fund ready to go, I was struck once again with how clueless I am as to how to proceed financially once I'm ready to start saving and investing more than paying extra debt. I feel like our debt load is still outsized, so I'll be focusing on that for at least another two years. But at some point, we're going to have to get serious about retirement and college savings, and we'll have quite a bit of catchup to play since we're not doing much on those fronts in the meantime. But it's an extremely complex problem, since we'll be drawing U.S. income for several more years but plan on ultimately retiring in the UK (and raising our kids in the UK, which means they may want to go to college there). I'm ignorant of tax laws and haven't found any Web sites for dummies to figure out the best way to somewhat protect our assets so that when we withdraw in the UK, we won't be subject to taxation that we wouldn't in the U.S. I think this is a job for a financial planner. But how to find one with the areas of expertise we need? And how to find one whose judgment we trust? And when should I start forking over money for said expertise--should I wait until we're ready to get serious about retirement/education contributions, or should I start preparing now? I've been running in circles on this question regarding retirement for years now, and now that I've added college fund to the mix I'm more at a loss than ever!

Oh, and I found a nickel on the ground yesterday. And that concludes this edition of my financial news! LOL

I'm in creditcardfree's situation right now...my finances are pretty dull. Looking at my "Number Crunch" spreadsheet, which shows me all known activity for the next three months, all we have this week is to withdraw spending money on Friday, and on Sunday I get to move some line items down to the next month (money that I set aside for quarterly & yearly bills). Whoopee. The problem with trying to make an exciting game out of my finances is that I miss the action when nothing much is happening!

Learning from ccf's posting, I won't open up for questions. I'm trying to think what little financial things have happened recently that I haven't blogged about...

Well, I've done some tiny bits of philanthropy this past month; I donated $5 here and there to help promote the health care reform bills, I gave some money at work to buy treats for my boss (a newlywed whose husband has just been diagnosed with lymphoma), and today (in honor of Veterans Day) I donated $5 to an organization that helps homeless Minnesota veterans. I'm feeling the urge to give more, but hoping just $5 will help them a tiny bit (they can at least add me to the number of donors) and satisfy that itch. I don't want to put off philanthropy forever, but right now I feel like our money mostly needs to be doing other things.

I've been finding money nearly every day on the street that I walk to and from the bus stop and work, and to and from meeting NT for lunch. I've found 3 dimes in the past month, plus a bunch of pennies: 2 today (plus one at Target), 2 yesterday, plus several more, usually at least one a day.

I found out that one of NT's pensions has gained quite a bit of value since he gave me his info when I first took over his finances, so my next net worth update will be pretty. He also got a letter that he needs to cash out of this lottery thing that he'd bought into, because he can't be in it unless he's resident in the UK. I think he still has to find some info for it, but that will be nice once we get it; we'll have it deposited into his UK savings account, so it will add to the baby/emergency fund.

AS had a good interview on Monday, and should find out within two weeks whether she gets the dream job. We don't know how much it pays, but anything more than unemployment will feel like a big raise! (She nets $348 per week on unemployment, so I think that would be equivalent to $18K-$20K per year.) I've already figured our budget for January and February assuming no income for her, because I'd laid it out before the unemployment bill was signed, and I'm just going to keep it that way until I find out whether she'll be getting a salary or just more unemployment. This is great too in case she does get a job but there's a lag in receiving the first paycheck; we won't be hurting for that money because I've already made a workable budget without it. Anything AS does bring in for January and February will go directly to paying off my dad; we hope to have that debt settled before baby comes.

I've still been keeping track of baby expenses, and we're at $1089.23. I also factor in what I'm saving on birth control, but not what I'm saving on wine and booze. I'm counting medical bills at face value, even though so far I'm able to pay them with my health savings account, which is pretax money.

Speaking of healthcare, I'm anxiously awaiting the reveal of our 2010 options at work. I've gotten several hints that lead me to believe costs will be going up again, but who knows how much. Knowing how much well-baby visits are costing on the high-deductible plan, and knowing I have a labor & delivery coming up in 2010, I doubt I'll be doing the high-deductible again. I've decided what I'm going to do: figure out the max out-of-pocket for every plan offered by my and NT's employers and go with the lowest worst-case scenario. I'm not going to worry about whether it comes with HSA, FSA or nothing; I'm just going to look at the potential dollar amounts I would pay at worst under each plan. (NT is generally healthy as a horse, so for him I'm just going to pick the lowest premium, which will probably be at his own employer.) The only other thing that could possibly sway me is if my current doctor wouldn't be in NT's network, but I doubt that would be the case.

I'm also going to do the math on the max out-of-pocket that could happen from putting the baby on each plan, and make the decision ahead of time so there's no scrambling to decide when it enters the world.

I've returned to my old conundrum about the best places to invest for retirement considering we'll probably be retiring in England. Would a Roth IRA really benefit us, or would the UK be able to tax the portion that's untaxable in the U.S.? When exactly should I hire a financial adviser to help me make those decisions, and how will I find one who's an expert on expat retirement? We're nowhere near ready to accelerate our retirement contributions, but I have some dribs and drabs of retirement money for AS that I'm not sure what to do with: about $4000 in her old employer's 403(b), $515 in a CD that's coming due this month, $850 or so just in a very low-earning savings account. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to them!

Yay, they DO process payments on Saturdays! $1382 went to principal. So we're at $2115 of debt paid, $85 to go on the November goal.

The personal loan is down to $1732. It's going bye-bye next month no matter what! I'm super fired up to burn off as much debt as I can before baby comes. I hope this is the right way to go versus padding the EF more. Getting rid of this $623 monthly payment certainly can't hurt our post-birth budget, and paying off my dad like a grownup before I become a mommy will just be a big psychological boost.

Yesterday was my biweekly savings day, and I put $200 into the Xmas fund. (We put aside $600 each year, $200 going to buy presents for each of us. All extended-family and friend gifts come from our own spending money.)

I also sent a $1400 personal loan payment yesterday and it left my bank account today, 10 days earlier than usual. I have all this money for various line items in the checking account, and it will get replenished on payday (the 16th, which is when I was originally going to send this payment). I figure it saves me about $5-$10 interest and does no harm. The payment should hit Monday, but I'll check tomorrow just to see if they process payments on Saturdays!

Today Obama signed the law to extend unemployment benefits. That's very good news for several of my friends, who've been out of work and looking for ages with no success. It also takes the pressure off AS, whose original stimulus unemployment extension would run out at about the end of the year. However, hopefully she won't need it. The job she's been hoping for is showing some promise--she's got an interview with the boss (also her friend and a mentor) on Monday morning. Fingers crossed!

We had a second ultrasound today--they got the pictures they couldn't get last time, confirming the spine, lip and nose are all looking perfect. Baby looked even cuter than last time! It was putting its hands together, making faces, kicking its feet...we got some great pictures again. Now we won't see our little guy for about 4 months, when it comes out. The technician at one point said "Oh, I know what you're having! You sure you don't want to know?" LOL. It about drove AS crazy, but we said yes, we're sure. Then the tech said, "Oh, and remember that I know how to spot girl parts as well as boy parts, so don't assume it's a boy just because I saw something!" Hee hee, that's exactly what AS had been thinking.

I completely forgot I did this, but when I went online to check the UK mortgage balances yesterday, I noticed we did clear 25 pounds of profit from renting the UK flat this month, despite having to pay management fees. So I transferred it into UK savings and it gets counted toward the baby/emergency fund. (We would dip into the UK money as a last resort because of the currency-conversion and account-transfer fees, but it's there if we need it.)

So that counts as $50 in savings for the baby/EF. $170 saved in November so far.

My new, lower (but more to principal) mortgage payment hit, and $372 went to principal. Love it! That's $733 down, $1467 to go on the November debt goal.

Also, wrote about 450 more words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I need to go a lot faster if I'm going to hit 50,000 by the end of the month, but at least I've written SOMETHING two days in a row!

NT's three UK mortgages hit:
#1 $253 to principal
#2 $53 to principal
#3 $55 to principal

All told, $361 down, $1839 to go on my November goal.

Also, I wrote 685 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night! I've managed about one more sentence so far today, but I'm hoping to get some done when I get home tonight.

I transferred $120 into savings for AS's retirement, so just $600 to go on my November savings goal.

AS's $500 CD is coming up in mid-November, so I have to decide what to do next. Maybe with the money I've been putting into savings (I have about $850), plus that $500, it would be enough to start a Roth IRA for her.

Debt: Pay off at least $2200 of debt.
Balance as of 11/1: $386,334
Goal balance: $384,134
I hope to make my next-to-last payment on the personal loan this month.

Savings: Save at least $720 ($120 for AS's retirement; $600 for Xmas fund)
Progress: DONE! $776 saved
We have to pay the management company of NT's UK rental flat, so there will be little, if any, leftover money to put aside for the baby/EF.

Creative/crafts: 1. Participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 50,000 words in 30 days; wish me luck! I've started, but never finished, about 4 times.

Other: Help AS with couch reupholstery. Her mom sent us the fabric, so now it's up to us to save our bedraggled couch!

Other #2: Begin to contact daycare options we've collected. We need to start getting a sense of prices and availability for next year.

OCTOBER 2009 GOALS:

1. Debt: Pay off at least $2600 of debt.
Results: DONE! $2865 paid

2. Savings: Save at least $775
Results: DONE! $776 saved

5. Creative/crafts: Begin to brainstorm and plot novel idea.
Results: Uh, kinda. I lazily thought about ideas all month, and this morning before I got out of bed, I settled on a general plot and think I'll be able to write the opening scene today.

Overall, pretty much a success!

Now on to my November goals.

My credit card payment put $191 toward principal. I never know if they're going to send me the bill in time to get it out before the end of the month, but they did. Since it's a CC with a superlow fixed rate, I always pay it the second I get it, because I don't want to get anywhere close to the due date (which is something like Nov. 27).

So, that makes my October debt-payment total $2865. Woo hoo! That will be my last debt payment of the month, but I'm holding out hope that I'll do some serious novel-idea brainstorming tomorrow and actually accomplish all my goals, so I'm not going to post my monthly wrap-up just yet.

One of AS's student loan payments hit, and $61 went toward principal. That makes our October debt payment total $2674.

This student loan is such low-hanging fruit; now at $1855, I could have it paid off soo soon if I focused on it. However, at 2.5%, it's the next-lowest interest rate we have on our debt (after NT's 1.49% mortgages). So there's no way I'm diverting funds from my higher-interest debts to tackle that one!

Watched "Bank of Mom & Dad" again last night. It's a pretty good show, if anyone has SoapNet; about spoiled 20somethings in debt whose parents move in with them for a week to turn their finances around. Every week it's a new focus. Last night's was sad, though; the girl had a very unapproachable mom and had clearly replaced the love she missed with material things. I may not be able to communicate properly with my parents about a lot of things, but I could always get a hug if I needed one! It ended on a more positive note but only after lots of tears.

A student loan hit (AS's) and $115 went to principal. That means we've paid $2613 of debt in October, slightly exceeding our goal of $2600.

I might have a few more debt payments hit this week; we'll see.

Now that I'm aggressively paying down debt again, after focusing on the EF for much of the year, I keep looking ahead to what I might try for next. Recently I'm thinking that once I knock out all my personal and CC debt, I'd like to go after one of AS's student loans. Even though one of NT's has a slightly higher interest rate, his are in deferment while he's in school, so we're paying interest only on his. It would be nice to knock out one of AS's payments before his full payments hit; would help lessen the impact on our budget when they do hit.

Note to self:
One of NT's pensions is at GBP 14,721
AS's CD is at $516.25

That is all. We just got statements in the mail for these two accounts. I hardly ever get info on some of our accounts and don't know how to check them online, so I wanted to note these so I could update these totals on my next net worth calculation. NT's other pension is still a complete mystery, I think.

Yay, the blogs are back! I've been checking all day.

The automatic biweekly savings hit, with $25 going to the baby/EF. So we saved $776, $1 over our October goal of $775 LOL.

I've been home with a nasty cold for two days. I'm going in tomorrow as I think I can feel it letting up a little, but meanwhile I'm getting as much rest as possible. I'm one of those people who can lie around for days and not feel restless, except for feeling a little guilty about not helping out around the house and not being at work. So other than the guilty feelings, I'm having no trouble just lying in bed or on the couch all day long, which is exactly what my body is begging me to do. I make decaf tea or cereal or PB&Js, and that's about it. Hey, once I'm a mom I won't get to listen to my body this way, but being pregnant I'm being very easy on myself.

Sadly I had to cancel our regular night of reality TV with our friends. AS could have used the company, but I'm just not feeling up to it (sitting upright, talking, etc.) Right now I'm steeling my resolve to go take a shower.

Of course the first thing I did when I got into work was to check my personal loan balance online. $1765 of my payment went to principal! For the October goal, that means I've got $2498 down, $102 to go on my debt repayment goal.

The personal loan is down to $3114 now. I know I can get it down to $600 by mid-December, but we'll see what I can do to whittle it down even more.

I can safely say I won't hit my "Big-Picture Goal," which I set in the beginning of '08 before the economy got really bad and our finances rocky. That was to pay off ALL my "bad debt" by the end of this year. However, I will have done some real damage to that debt, and who knows? Maybe 2010 will be the magic year that we get rid of it once and for all.

A student loan (AS) hit today, with $82 going to principal. $733 down, $1867 to go on the October debt goal.

Most of my progress will happen tomorrow. The $1800 payment to my personal loan was taken out of my checking account this morning. Not sure how much is going to interest. Pins and needles! I believe this is the biggest payment to my personal loan, besides the times we had extra student loan money and put it toward this debt.

I figured out the other day that, should a $400 windfall come our way and no bumps in the road, we could actually pay this loan off this year! I'll probably be sorely tempted to pay it off with some EF money if the principal balance gets down that low this year.

And then my mind keeps wandering...if that happens, and we get a bit more windfall (tax refund?), we could have my dad paid off before the baby comes!

But I know there are lots of "ifs" in there, so I'll try to stay calm and just celebrate the progress that happens tomorrow.