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Archive for February, 2015

What gift would you bring?

February 28th, 2015 at 03:59 am

We are going to stay with friends in their apartment in Ft. Lauterdale.

We will of course treat them to dinner, but besides that, I think it is good tone to bring a gift for a people you are staying with for 3 days.

What would you get a couple in early/mid thirties living in a condo?

Vacation fund is gone - we owe 8K+, so need to come up with 14K before April 15

February 23rd, 2015 at 02:52 pm

DH finished doing our taxes - we will owe over 8K. Parts of it is extra income, but parts of it is much smaller interest deduction from our co-op for this year. I think this had something to do with the underlying mortgage refinance, so we are not getting many thousands of interest deduction as we got last year.

So we need to pay over 8K, than we still have one IRA to fund (5,500).

Our vacation or maternity or "do something cool fund is gone). That 5,700 will be going to current needs. All of DH's teaching income, for teaching 85 students, will go to taxes, not getting us any further ahead (no paying of student loan, so saving for maternity leave).

Well, what can you do. Frown

"Fortitude", cheese and lychee martini. What are you into right now?

February 22nd, 2015 at 04:19 am

Anyone else hooked on this show? Love it. Pretty unusual and each episode leads to more speculation. Visually beautiful too.
Trailer if you don't know it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egy3n-7DQAU

To go with DH's and I weekly viewing experience, when buying vodka today I bought icelandic one to make my lychee martini. That will go so well with my favorite cheese. Yum.

But of course I believe anything goes with Pyrenees bethmale chevre (or sometimes called chevre de Pyrenees).

Just thought I'd share something small, because I am sometimes curious about specific things people in different parts of the country or world like.

What are you into right now?

Don't understand some people.

February 21st, 2015 at 07:42 pm

I have a friend that keeps "liking" comments on facebook from crazy far right web sites. (the kind that refer to themselves as "patriotic Americans" and hate a lot of things very passionately.

The ironic thing is that she was an illegal immigrant, had a child out of wedlock, was on welfare for years, and after she got legalized had her education paid for by aid and so on.

Now, that she took advantage of all these benefits, got a chance for a decent life and has a good job, she is "liking" that sort of thing.

Does she not understand these people would hate her and her child and would have them deported back than if they had a chance? I wonder what the response on these sites would be if she posted her life story.

Car payment eyesore

February 19th, 2015 at 09:13 pm

I am waiting for DH's next teaching paycheck to make that last payment, and it seems like a forever wait. Now, the paycheck will hopefully come on 27 February - another 8 days to go.

I don't know why this is bothering me. I guess because I already emotionally have written it off as done, and yet, in reality, there it is.

Learning more about taxes, still haven't learned salary.

February 17th, 2015 at 03:32 pm

This weekend was spend on taxes. Re-calculating MAGI, than learning all we can about IRA re-characterization, back door ROTH steps and dangers, etc... Well, my DH was doing that, while I was keeping our 4 year old entertained (which is also a job).

On the income side, we still don't know how much DH is getting paid for teaching 2 large classes this semester. The university is not very clear about that. Kind of depends by number of students, but not completely. There is no clear chart for in-person classes. The semester is well under way. It is kind of odd to be accepting jobs without knowing the salary. DH did not want to call them until it was clear that they misses the first paycheck - which of course they did, as always! That place is insanely disorganized, in spite of being one of the top universities. So I don't completely trust them to calculate salary correctly. If you are not on top of them, they would not pay at all.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to know what you are getting paid for working.

No perfect month

February 4th, 2015 at 04:43 pm

I keep wanting to do a perfect month of tracking, to show how much money we can save (for purposes of knowing how much house we can afford, or how long I could stay home if I had a baby), but something always come up.

This month our child needs a new bed (he is really growing out of his toddler bed), of course a mattress, few sets of bedding, mattress protectors...
he dropped a glass blender and it broke so we need to buy a new one, my mom's milk frother broke, we gave her ours and now need to replace it...