All Entries

My taxes are so easy now. I only have to report income from TIAA (interest payment from my retirement account) and Social Security. And I had a small amount of interest from my savings account, certainly not much. So as soon as my statement from TIAA became available, I was able to e-file quickly. (And there was no fee for state filing this year. I don't owe them anything, anyway.) I'm going to get back $911, which is the amount TIAA withheld.

I was able to do this a week...
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Yesterday DS3 bought a truck and a 4-wheeler! I was surprised since he hadn’t discussed it with me, but he’s 18 now and he used his own money.

When our DS1 was very young I read several articles about teaching kids money management skills. I was interested because I felt like WE were just learning money management skills at that time and I didn’t want to repeat the cycle of learning about money ‘the hard way’. [I ought to blog sometime about our ignorance and some...
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I can’t post comments on blogs. When I try it tells me to check the recaptcha, but there is none.
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Paid another $157 on my CC and the balance is now $5,314. Next week I’ll be able to add $500 to it. I can’t wait.

This recent payment allowed me to fill in three squares on my tracker.

But now that I think about it, the new billing cycle should start tomorrow and I’m sure the balance will be higher with the interest.

Well winter was one day for us I guess, we are back in the 70s 🤷🏾‍♀️

I’ tried sharing my tracker with you all, thanks for the...
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Our old dog had her teeth cleaned today. I'm so glad we had it done. You may recall we spent Christmas Eve at the emergency vet with her mouth pain. And while the estimate (with x-rays) was $975, no x-rays were needed, so it was only $666. She's home now and resting.

My DH also had an ear surgery follow-up today, but since it was post-op, no co-pay. We squelched the urge to go out to lunch, came home, and continued hacking away at last Sunday's ham. It's at the bone stage...
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Well hubby had his doc appoint with his regular doctor on thursday and he said from the mri he definatly had cancer but it looks like it hasnt migrated from the area...but they might do a bone scan to see just to make sure so hopefully he is right...he also had his biopsy done on friday and is doing great...so in next 2-3 weeks we will see the urologist and I guess see what the treatment plan is and what grade the cancer is...so will just deal with things as we find out more...not...
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Apparently, you can't type the word congratulations in the comments on someone's blog any more?!?

Anyway, Lucky Robin, Congratulations!! You did great paying off debt this month.


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I called the utility company today and explained my concern with the sharply higher electricity usage compared to last year. The rep asked if we had any space heaters, electric fireplaces, etc. I said we do have a space heater but it's the same one we've had for years. I also explained that we recently got a new dishwasher which is more efficient than the one it replaced and that we've also installed several LED lights so our usage should be lower.

She set up an appointment...
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$8000.00 Balance Forward
-1000.00 Payment Made
-----------------
$7000.00 New Balance

We were indeed able to make $2000 worth of payments this month. One payment two weeks ago and one today. It feels so good to watch that balance drop so much this month. If we can keep this up it will be paid off May 1st. Maybe sooner depending on our tax refund. It will feel so good to have this debt behind us for good.
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Advice, thoughts, opinions and experiences welcomed on this one!

First, the situation:

We're finally going to try and sell the UK flat this year. Now that Brexit details are becoming more concrete, we're hoping people will be less spooked and homes will move faster.

We'll probably list it in the spring, when the current tenants' lease is nearly up. It might be listed for 215K pounds but could sell for about 200K. We think management and real estate agent will take 3% of...
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This post is very late, because we couldn't get into NT's UK account for a couple of weeks, and then I just got busy and distracted!

All our mortgage payments hit in early January:
US: $763 to principal
UK1: $182
UK2: $39
UK3: $40

All in all, $1,024 went to principal this month.

Current household debt:
US Mortgage $373,430
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $29,056
UK Mortgage 2 $6,125
UK Mortgage 3 $6,450

TOTAL DEBT $424,061
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I noticed that my DS and DIL in Oregon did not yet cash the check I sent for their kids' college funds. I asked, and, indeed, they did not receive the check. It also seems they did not receive my Christmas package, only the gifts I ordered from Amazon. I put a stop payment on the check and I am sending a replacement today. I did the stop payment online and I am not sure what the fee will be.

It is so weird that neither mailing arrived. The package may have been stolen by...
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First week of the semester down. My classes seem good, but I'm doubting whether taking on that adjunct class on the movies was a great idea in addition to my regular load. The good news is that it's just an eight-week class, and two weeks are done.

I've been continuing to mostly feed us from the freezer. I think we could go another month. Tomorrow's delights will include a 13-bean soup in the Instant Pot.

My DH gets the packing out of his ear tomorrow, so we're hoping...
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Freezing. Tuesday we were told to buckle up and watch out for falling iguanas. Well yesterday it was in the 40s 🥶 and the iguanas 🦎 were everywhere 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

Having been born in Florida and lived here my entire life, 40s is like below zero for me. However, I put my PJs on, loaded my bed 🛌 with blankets and guess what? I was okay. I thought I’d wake up freezing and too nervous to get out of bed to turn the heat 🔥 on, but I didn’t.
The blankets...
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I plan to save an additional $2,020 for the year. I've decided to simply automate this, and add it to the Big Goal total. Prior to making this decision I had already increased our automated savings of $175 each pay period to $200. This works out to an additional $50 per month saved.

In order to make the $2,020 increase for the year, I will change the automatic savings amount to $260. This increases each savings deposit by $85, compared to last year.

$85 x 24 pay periods is...
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It snowed last night, so this morning I had to clean off the car to go to the gym. It's still snowing lightly, very prettily. It was not too bad -- I count it as extra exercise.

Even though I am doing well on keeping low on my variables, I have to cut off spending entirely now because my bills next month are so big. I have to pay my property tax, and a credit card bill that includes my semi-annual car insurance. In fact, I had to adjust my car payment down to $200 from $300...
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My 2020 goal #2 is to adopt a permanent health-enhancing habit each month. I’ve decided that my new health habit for January will be to fast one day each month. This is an uncomfortable change for me but I’m convinced that it’ll be an improvement.
For January, I am going to have the 31st be the fast day. Then if I can make it 2 days, I’ll knock out February’s day too. I’ve read that 3 days is optimal, but I just don’t know that I can do it.

NEW HEALTH HABIT #1:...
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Well, my Amazon order came today. Yes, I have been buying a lot of stuff recently, but it has all been planned and budgeted for. I got some new cooking and baking things, which was 2 skillets, a sauté pan, both of which are for induction cook tops but lined with ceramic for easy non-stick cooking (that copper stuff doesn't last), a pastry brush, 2 whisks, two dough scrapers (the pack of two was cheaper than buying one one), a set of 7 stainless steel measuring cups and 7 stainless...
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So we are looking at our US taxes that we need to do every year which can be a hassle...for 2.4 years I have been trying to get my itin number uppdated...finally we think we have sent them what they have asked for again..so hopefully gets processed need it for me to be on the taxes.
We don't pay state taxes obviously but we do federal taxes (hubby ex military) but with the changes they have made with SS from what we have read they count the entire amount now which means we will...
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One of our toilets was taking forever to fill. It wasn't running. It wasn't leaking. It just was filling really slowly. My wife finally asked if I could fix it so a couple of weeks ago, I stopped at Home Depot and picked up a new fill valve assembly and installed it. Everything seemed fine. It was working properly and filling in a normal amount of time.

Then 2 days ago DW texts me at work and says the toilet is running and she opened the back and the water level was rising over...
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