A lovely weekend, and thinking about house buying

The extra bonus day makes all of the difference! It's been relaxing (haven't really done much, as Sam has a cold), but productive.

• I made six dozen muffins yesterday
• Picked & juiced all of our lemons
• Picked all of the oranges (haven't tackled those yet)
• Made zucchini bread from our homegrown zucchinis
• Bought the boys new duvet covers. Sam's was 8 years old, and had some holes
• Dealt with our lease renewal, or rather, kicked off the email to see if we can renew our lease for another year. 
• Made 3 batches of homemade taquitos
• Dropped a few things off to be altered. This chore had been on my to do list for months, but I've struggled to get there when they were open. Woohoo!
• Returned some items at the mall

I've also worked out, enjoyed a few lovely dinners from M (salmon & corn, and a yummy shrimp & pasta veggie dish), and sat out in the sunshine reading my book. Relaxing & fabulous.

As it's time to think about renewing our lease, M & I have been discussing what the future holds for our housing situation here. We'd run the numbers a few months ago, and figured that we could potentially afford a $1.8M house (the very lowest possible price in our neighborhood, keeping the boys in the same school), once our stock options vest next year. This would align nicely with our rental agreement. However, when I looked up potential housing options for budget purposes, there's not a single home for sale in our school district for less than $2.4M. Wow. Quite a jump. Inventory is very limited where we are, to say nothing of the housing prices. This brings us back to what we plan to do next year when our lease expires. And, enormous amount of silent prayers & finger crossing that we can extend without too much of a jump on our existing rent this year.

I'm so grateful that we found an amazing neighborhood to live in (with extremely short notice) when we moved to California. But, now that we're stuck buying in the same district, it's very painful. Keeping the kids in the same school district is our number one priority, which means we have a lot of painful choices coming up. 

We could sell our house in Seattle (which is now cash flow neutral/slightly positive), and that would bring us quite a ways to closing the gap. From an investment perspective, I'm loathe to give it up. But, we have a year to decide, I suppose. Maybe more inventory will magically show up here. ;-)

What about you? What have you been up to on this long weekend (assuming you have one)? Has anyone tried any fun new recipes? I may try this recipe for homemade frozen pizzas.  

Tracking our yearly expenses

I changed up my budget for 2015, and created both a  monthly budget, as well as our less consistent yearly budget. I had hoped to fully fund the yearly budget in January, but then realized that we had an enormous tax bill. So, I continue to pay for most of our yearly expenses, as well as trying to get ahead before things like our 10th anniversary trip in Hawaii. (Sidenote: can't wait! :-)) I really need to start beefing up our savings account over the next few months.

Anyway, 2015 is approximately 38% over, and here's how we're tracking for our yearly spending:

Over:

• Taxes. Wow. Goal was $5K, ended up paying $40K. What a nice surprise that was.
• Charitable contributions (above & beyond our standard monthly deductions). Up about $500 more than planned, as we donated to the boys schools, to help them meet their fundraising goal.
• Clothing - we've spent 68% of our yearly budget. I'm an offender, and the boys cannot stop growing out of shoes. I have a bunch of stuff that I've yet to have time to return, so that should put us closer to on track I also don't plan to do much shopping for the remainder of the year. Hopefully the boys won't need much else.
• Gifts - at 55% of our budget. Need to carefully track for the remaining months.
• Health - at 64%. I was going to a gym class for a while there. I canceled when I noticed that I could only go every other or time or so due to work conflicts.

Under:

• House - at 28%. We are going to have to either replace our dining room chairs, or have them re-upholstered. Two of the four have holes in the fabric. They are 15+ years old, so to be expected, I suppose.
• Christmas - have't spent anything yet. :-)
• Personal - at 32%. I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my hair. I typically have it cut 2x/year, but the gray is really starting to show through, & I'm thinking I might start coloring it, which will change this budget dramatically.
• Auto. We've spent 30%, including an $800 service we had to have done last week.
• Travel - at 32%. I've purchased most of the flights for the year, but still my parents flights in October (to watch the boys while we're in Hawaii), as well as our Christmas flights. In addition to the actual trips we have coming up. 

On track:

• Boys college savings. We earmarked $5K for the year, and put it all in a few months ago. 
• Boys activities. We're at 35%. This includes soccer fees, etc.
• Boys (all) - at 39%. This is the placeholder bucket for all of the other random expenses that come up & don't fit into any other logical group. Class fees, etc.

All told, it was a bit of an experiment to move to a yearly budget, but I love it! It works out extremely well, and has given me a way to track uneven expenses without blowing our monthly budget. I feel like our monthly budget is more on track, because I can understand if we're actually over on things that we should be paying more attention to (dining out, groceries, etc). In the past, if I paid for a vacation, my entire monthly budget was blown out of the water. 

What about you? Do you track your yearly expenses? Do you have a similar system? How is it working for you?

May goals - way overdue

Given that the month is more than half over, I'll keep these basic this month:


Financial

• Reschedule financial planner meeting
• Stick to our budget
• Start planning our 2016 budget & schedule

Family

• Schedule dentist appts for everyone. 
• Get my youngest to try two new foods.
• Book my parents flight for our Hawaii trip + our Christmas flights
• Plan Ms' birthday & Father's Day
• Put together a nanny write up.

Fitness/health

• Lose 4 pounds
• Track my food/exercise
• Complete 900 minutes of cardio
• Complete 10 strength workouts & 3 stretching workouts

Work/career

• Continue to look for ways to streamline my work schedule
• Make a concrete list of goals for work (already have them, but they are too fuzzy). Break them down into an actionable plan.
• Work out 8 weekday mornings

Giving back

• Volunteer at school at least once, log my hours (my work will donate money in exchange)
• Pick & donate all fruit we can't eat to nonprofit

I'm super late, but how are you doing with your May goals? 

Soccer Sunday

Both boys played for Sam's team today. Sam had a great run at goalie. The team ended up losing, but it was a lovely afternoon cheering on mini soccer players.

I also managed to do yoga, go on a 30 minute bike ride to the library & grocery store with the kids, make pizza for tomorrow's dinner, wash the sheets, finish the laundry, menu plan, & just generally get prepared for life tomorrow. It feels nice to be organized again. :-)

Here are a few other thoughts for this Sunday. . . 

Happy I accomplished this week:

• Survived work. I'm covering for someone who is out on leave, and it's a project that I inherited at the last minute, with lost of launch dramas. It was very stressful, but I *mostly* stayed under control. :-)
• Adjusted our Hawaii dates & reservations, based on a schedule change on my parents side. 

Top goals for this week:

• Plan M's birthday & Father's Day
• Sort out the rest of our summer calendar
• Work out a minimum of five times.

And, that's it! How about you? What are you happy  you accomplished this week? 

A long weekend to celebrate my grandmother

I'm off to Portland today to head to the beach house & celebrate the life of my grandmother with my mother & sister. I'm hoping that it will be a good opportunity to remember all of the fun we had together, instead of a completely sad occasion. My grandmother was a huge part of my life growing up, and had a very big soft spot for my boys. She is missed very much.

I've had a problem with my computer not allowing me to log on to blog without breaking all of my settings for my work stuff, so I haven't been blogging much. I'm a blogger slacker! Since I do not plan to bring my laptop on this trip, I figured that now was as good a time as any to update. :-)

Here are a few things happening in our lives right now:

1. Finances look as good as expected, post the IRS/tax excitement. We've opted not to sell any stock to cover the bill, so our cash flow is tight at the moment. This should be okay as long as we keep our expenses in check. The stock is from our employer & vests regularly. If we choose to buy a house here (and, it's looking like that's going to happen in the next three years), the stock will make up our down payment.
2. I'm starting to freak out about extending our lease. We want to, but don't know if the owners are still interested in renting for another year. We live in a market with *very few* rental properties, and need to keep the kids in the same school district. *panic!*
3. My health is very good at the moment. I am grateful.
4. My weight is holding steady at 150. I'm not sure how/why, as I've been getting more exercise & eating well consistently. Getting old is hard! My goal is to get down to 140 pounds by our anniversary in October.
5. M & I are going to Hawaii to celebrate our 10th anniversary. I can't wait! I found an amazing deal via Costco - much cheaper than the hotel directly, and came with a rental car!
6. The boys are doing great. Lots of soccer, growing rapidly, and getting more tan by the moment. They are the picture of healthy, happy kids. My heart is full.
7. Speaking of which, the boys participated in a fundraiser at their school a couple of weekends ago. Sam ran 16 miles at a 9:00/mile pace. Nick ran 13. I was blown away by their stamina - so impressive!! 
8. I'm looking forward to seeing my mom & sister this weekend. We always get in a lot of walking/hiking/wine drinking & reminiscing when we are together. I know that losing my grandmother has been hard on my mom, so I'm glad that I can be there for her first Mother's Day without her mom.
9. We considered going to Yosemite for the upcoming long weekend (Memorial Day), but opted to do a few day trips to keep the expenses in check. (See #1)
10. And, work. My team was re-organized & I'm now going to be in charge of a significant portion of the business. My team quadrupled in size, and I'm going to be hiring senior level managers. All of this is fantastic in the long term - I actually see a path ahead for success and work/life balance. In the immediate term, I'm individually managing 20+ people, in three different time zones. Recruiting & getting everyone trained is my number one priority. I'm also going to Tokyo in a few weeks before all of the summer craziness.

I've missed my blogging, tracking, and posting, as well as keeping up with all of you. I hope to do a better job in May of spending time being more proactive with my goals & fitness!

Long time no see!

It's been way too long since I've updated my blog!

Here are a few things that have happened recently:

• I've had a fantastic mini weekend with M, worked, & worked some more. :-) 
• We paid our taxes -what a fun treat that was
• I'm *almost* done paying for all of our travel expenses for the summer
• We found a hotel for our ten year anniversary this October. They had a deal at Costco, and we saved $1300 & got a free car rental. Woohoo!
• I've worked too much (shocking, really)
• I've worked out a moderate amount

Things are going well generally, and my sister & BFF are coming to visit next weekend, which I'm very excited about.

Here's what's in store for today! It's supposed to be 80 today, so I'm looking forward to the sunshine:

1. Yoga
2. Pushups
3. 4-5 mile run
4. Haircut
5. Sam has a soccer game
6. Figure out our menu
7. Make a shopping list for the week
8. Get ingredients for drinks for the weekend
9. Go to the library
10. Produce stand
11. Go to Smart & Final to see if they have anything interesting. (Have a $25 off a $50 coupon from my credit card)
12. Premake a few meals. I have a *big/crazy* work week next week, so I need to be prepared.
13. Have a glass of wine on the patio with M. ;-) 

That will do - I'll also do an update on my April goals, finances, etc. How are you all doing against your monthly & yearly goals? I feel so out of the loop! :-)

Sunday night chit chat

We had a nice & relaxing day today. No sports or activities for the boys!! I finished my packing, went on a run, & prepared for the week. The only remaining item is to recalculate my budget for our monthly expenses & remove our rental property.

Thanks to Carla for the writing prompt tonight! :-) 

Reading: Nick & I biked to the library yesterday, but I'm saving my books for the 13 hour flight tomorrow, and on the way home. ;-) 

Watching: We don't have cable, so we watch whatever is free on Amazon Prime. Right now, we're about 2/3 of the way done with The Good Wife. 

Saving your pennies for: Our travel fund for the year. Yikes!

Spending your pennies on: I just finished paying for all of the summer camps + most of our summer flights.

Listening to: The sound of the boys playing a game on the Xbox.

Looking forward to next week: Uhhh, coming home from my trip on Saturday? I leave tomorrow & come home then, so I'm not very excited about the time away.

Creating: I'm not a very creative lady. We often do puzzles in the evening, but just finished our most recent Superman-themed puzzle. ;-) 

Cooking/Baking: M did all of the cooking tonight, minus the salad. He grilled chicken, made rice with tadiq & yogurt sauce. Yum!

Thinking about: That I'm going to be doing three international trips in three months. Groan. After that, I start all of the summer travels (for fun), which makes international travel hard. So, it's short term gain for family fun later in the year.

Adding onto your "to do" list for next week: I have to call for a dentist appointment and make the boys physical appointments. Other than that, I'm pretty much caught up, given that i won't be able to use my phone next week. No international plan. 

My goals for the week:

1. Manage my stress
2. Eat well (within my calories, even if I am eating out every meal for six days)
3. Get in three runs + one other workout
4. Get as much sleep as possible!

What about you? Hope you all had a great weekend!

Did you know that 2015 is more than 20% over?!

Wow! Maybe I should take another look at my goals for the year, and evaluate my progress. :-)

Here's what I have on my list of things to do today:

1. Make a menu for the week. I'll be out of town Monday-Saturday for work, so even more important that I put this together for M  & the kids. Otherwise, they tend to eat a lot of pizza.
2. Costco
3. Make a packing list. It's super cold in Seoul. Lows in the 20s. It's been 70+ in California, so I have a feeling I'm going to be very cold!
4. Hit the library for books for my trips.
5. Plan the boys schedule for next week (soccer, carpools, etc)
6. Run 3 miles
7. 30 pushups
8. Yoga (time permitting)
9. Rework our budget. I want to pull our Seattle rental house out of the budget, as it's just breaking into the cash flow positive and part of an asset now, and shouldn't be tracked in our regular budget.
10. Evaluate our travel for the year, and figure out what I still have left to spend.
11. Take Sam to his soccer game
12. Take Nick on a bike ride, since he doesn't have any sports. Maybe to the library?
13. Date night with M!!! :-) 
14. Check in on my 2015 goals

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish today? Happy Saturday!!

March is whizzing by!

We've had two birthday sleepovers, a week long conference in the city (me), a week long team offsite (me), and I leave for Seoul on Monday.

Money has flown out of the budget, like wild fire. I'm too tired to come up with a real post, so here is a list of recent happenings. :-)

• I've now paid for all summer camps - just over $5K!! 
• I've also paid for all summer flights (I think, need to go through & check my calendar)
• Taxes are due in less than a month. *gulp* We have the money allocated, but it's going to be painful to part with $40K.
• My parents are coming to stay with the boys for a long weekend, and M & I are going on a mini vacation. In three weeks! SO excited. :-)
• I did a 7 mile run/hike today. I'm very sore. :-)
• M & I are also having a date tomorrow, before I leave on my trip. He was in Kansas City all week for work, so we're tying to get a little time together.
• I'm planning on making this chicken & rice dish for dinner tonight. 
• I'm scared to do the budget! :-)

That's about it. How is March treating all of you? Hope it's great!

February budget summary

February was a surprisingly good budget month. For reference, I only track our monthly numbers in these posts. I'll do a more detailed run down of how we're doing with our yearly numbers (travel, house, kids, clothes, etc) in a separate post.

So, drumroll, we were under our monthly budget by $120. I'm shocked!

We were over in some categories:

• Childcare, by $414. I've started booking summer camps.
• Dining out by $212. A few birthday meals (mine & Sam's) killed us. 
• Toiletries, by $90. I stocked up before my Tokyo trip, and bought a bunch of over the counter medicine that I didn't have last time, plus face wash, etc. 

But, we were under in lots of other categories:

• Cleaning by $210. Our cleaning lady went out of town unexpectedly, and we took care of it ourselves.
• Gas by $153. 
• Groceries by $18. Helped that we were out of town for a long weekend
• Utilities by $444. Only because our billing cycles fell in January & March, due to the shortened February month.

We're having to make major updates to our monthly budget to accommodate our tax withholding changes, so look for a revised (and much smaller) monthly budget soon.

How did you do in February? Did you spend more or less than you'd planned? 

March goals!

March *has* to be a better month than February! I refuse to accept that February's lack of productivity was a sign of things to come. :-)

Here are the new & shiny goals for March:

Financial

• Meet with financial planner (scheduled)
• Figure out boys college accounts (potentially the Utah 529 plan - contingent upon our meeting with a financial planner).
• Stick to our budget
• Build plan for 2014 taxes (how to pay for them)
• Build plan for withholdings, to minimize 2015 taxes

Family

• Figure out Nick's birthday parties, keep both parties at/under budget
• Keep working with both boys on responsibility, friendship, & citizenship
• Continue working with my oldest on school. He's very smart, but bored at school, which is reflected in his (less than positive) attitude. 
• Get my youngest to try two new foods.
• Figure out spring break child care
• Book remaining summer camps
• Book summer flights

Fitness/health

• Lose 4 pounds
• Track my food/exercise
• Run 30 miles
• Complete 900 minutes of cardio
• Complete 10 strength workouts & 8 stretching workouts

Work/career

• Continue to look for ways to streamline my work schedule
• Make a concrete list of goals for work (already have them, but they are too fuzzy). Break them down into an actionable plan.
• Work out 8 weekday mornings
• Continue my "life plan" document, which I'm going to share with M. We've been talking a lot about it, but I need to finalize a few numbers & scenarios.

Giving back

• Volunteer at school at least once, log my hours (my work will donate money in exchange)
• Pick & donate all fruit we can't eat to nonprofit

House

• Sort through my closet. Donate, sell, toss.
• Sort through boys closets. Donate, sell, toss.

Personal/creative

• Plan/book date night with M
• Do something social with a friend. Maybe a hike.
• Read 4 books.
• Try a new recipe (with a focus on something that my youngest will actually eat)

So, a lot of repeats from last month, but I CAN DO THIS!!! It's not that hard. I know I can.

What's on your list of goals for March? 

February goals summary

Well, let me just start out by saying that February wasn't my best month. At all. A week long international work trip, a family trip, a death in the family, I was ill for a week. . . the list goes on. It wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped. But, here's what we accomplished.

Financial

• Meet with financial planner - No, but the appointment is set for March!
• Figure out boys college accounts (potentially the Utah 529 plan - contingent upon our meeting with a financial planner). - Ditto above.
• Stick to our budget - Shockingly, yes! Now that I have our yearly numbers set up separately, it's easier to track our standard monthly expenses. We came in within (and, under, for the record) $120. Given the size of our budget, that's pretty impressive!
• Hand off all tax paperwork by 2/10, to qualify for the "early bird" discount from our accountant - Yes. The "how much we owe" part is most certainly not a win. But, accomplished this specific goal.

Family

• Figure out boys birthday parties - Sam's date is set. Still need to email Nick's friends. 
• Keep working with both boys on responsibility, friendship, & citizenship - We're working on this. Plenty of room for improvement. 
• Get my youngest to try two new foods. - Yes. He tried a new restaurant this week (big news) & had jello for the first time, and foccacia bread. 

Fitness/health

• Lose 2 pounds - sweet mercy. No. May have gained two pounds. International travel, jet lag, & after work drinks are not my friend. 
• Track my food/exercise - Yes
• Run 20 miles - Nope. 15 miles
• Complete 700 minutes of cardio - In what i think might be my lowest month in YEARS, I hit 395 minutes of cardio. :-( :-( 
• Complete 10 strength workouts & 8 stretching workouts - I did 16 strength, but only 1 stretching workout.

Work/career

• Revamp my meeting schedule. We have an organizational shift, so some people are moving onto a new team, and I'm getting additional staff. - Yes, I've definitely made improvements. 
• Work out 8 weekday mornings - I managed 4. 

Giving back

• Volunteer at school at least once, log my hours (my work will donate money in exchange) -event got canceled. Schedule for this week! 
• Pick & donate all fruit we can't eat to nonprofit - mostly. A few oranges left that we need to pick

House

• Sort through my closet. Donate, sell, toss. - I've done a bunch. About 2/3 of the way there. 

Personal/creative

• Plan/book date night with M - Yes!
• Do something social with a friend. Maybe a hike. - well, got to spend a lot of time with my sister & best friend during President's Day weekend, so I'll call it a win. 
• Read 4 books. - Yes! The international trip helped. ;-) 
• Try a new recipe (with a focus on something that my youngest will actually eat) - Nope, can't think of any new recipes I tried. 

And, that's all for me. I hope you had a fantastic & productive February! What did you accomplish? 

Menu Plan Monday

I'm slowly recovering from my epic jet lag! Here's the menu for the week:

Monday - baked fish & pasta
Tuesday - tacos (of course!)
Wednesday - leftover homemade meatball pizza
Thursday -chicken & rice
Friday - Some sort of leftovers. Crazy kids activity schedule
Saturday - Sam's having a birthday sleepover, so I'm using a Groupon to pick up a few Papa Murphy's pizzas.
Sunday - Baked chicken risotto

That's about all that I can muster up. I did manage to make homemade pizza & cranberry muffins yesterday. That, combined with soccer finals, sucked up most of the weekend. Oh, and sleeping. Glorious sleeping.

What's on your menu for the week?