Baby Check In: Part Two

Remember this post from last spring? I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've updated our report card to see if we've improved our grade at all. Let's check it out now. 

If you remember, last time there were ten items on the checklist. Amazingly we scored a 10/10 on five of them. We felt pretty good about the progress we'd made the following;

1) Earn More Money. Our jobs took off in 2009 and we've been soaring ever since. We're still non-profit workerS and still make WAY less than most people we know, but we have a tiny house, and low overhead (our electric bill is rarely more than $25), so a little can go a long way around here. 

2) Buy A House. We bought it, we live in it, we love it. Check!

3) Baby Prep. Well I can honestly say that we haven't gotten any dumber this past year so all of the research and knowledge we've accumulated about baby stuff still stands. In fact, we've done even more budgeting and reading since then so I'm happy to say we're solid with this one. 

4) Entertaining. Since throwing a party is one of my greatest joys in life, this part is really important to me. We've managed to have people over on several occasions, hosted a fantastic Easter celebration for our families last year, I hosted a small Valentine's Craft Day, and in a few weeks I'll be hosting a full scale bridal shower here, so we're still good on this front.

5) Room for Baby. Um, the room is still here LOL. It's full of more of our cast off crap, stuff from Christmas (yes I said Christmas) and a bunch of other junk, but it has yet to secede from the union in protest of being our dumping ground, so we still have a room for a baby.

Now for the things we didn't do so well on. 

Finish School 

Last Year NOT DONE ~ It's going to be a while before Scott is done with school. It's just so hard since he goes part time. Luckily, the grad program he's interested in is almost 100% online. We also hadn't counted on his having such a great job. I was considering grad school for a while, but in the latest conversations with my boss, it's looking less and less like I'll need it. Then the program I was interested in is no longer available. Basically the undergraduate degree I have being in Environmental Studies is a rare enough thing in my field and I'm often surprised how much more comprehensive my education was as compared to my co-workers - 95% of whom did not major in the field. So I do have that edge. I am determined to take a few classes in some of the newer disciplines and community education like the Master Gardener program. I've already taken the Smart Gardening workshop and some others. So I will definitely continue my education, just maybe less formally and we'll have to deal with Scott's continuation in school for now. Score 5/10

This Year  Thankfully there has been some improvement in this one but it's mostly circumstantial. As I get more entrenched at work, I've decided to stay there for as long as they'll have me and so, have decided not to bother with grad school. It wasn't as difficult as decisions as you might imagine. Who wouldn't like to pass on homework, expense, and stress?

As for Scott he's decided on an ultimate career change. After working in the library system for several years, it's become clear that he doesn't want to be a librarian anymore. What he would really like to do is take his experience and education in Art History, and basically do something similar to the job he does now, but in a museum setting. He's already more than 75% qualified for this job and needs only a few more classes to make it happen. So no grad school for him either. Hooray!

So looks like we're closer to the finish line here than we were before even though we haven't really done anything. I will happily grade myself with a C though and give us 7/10 on this one. 

4. Remodel Said House 

Last Year 90% DONE ~ We had a list of goals to accomplish in the house in what we call the first phase. You've seen how this place looked when we bought it. Every room needed to be cleared, cleaned, painted and furnished. We did that. We also wanted to buy a new stove - check, buy a washer and dryer - check, get the heat fixed - check, redo the kitchen and dining room floors - check, insulate the laundry room - check, buy dining room furniture - check, and basically make the house livable - check. We still need to put in all new windows, finish the new drawer and cabinet fronts in the kitchen, perfect the plumbing in the tub, tile the shower, new doors for the whole house, and put new countertops in the kitchen. I know this sounds like a lot, but I also know how far we've come. Almost there.... Score 9/10

This Year We were really generous on grading ourselves on this on last year, but sadly, I have to drop us down a bit this year. Having lived here for a whole year we've discovered that we have a lot to do still and that we're not quite 90% done. In fact, of that long list that appears at the end of last year's assessment, we've only accomplished buying butcher block countertops for the kitchen on Monday. We have yet to put them in! I'm going with a nice solid B for this one, but definitely not an A. Score 8/10

5.  Get Healthy

Last Year KINDA ~ I did lose some weight, I figured out what was going on with my body (I have PCOS) and I started treatment for it. My last blood tests showed some improvement and I started taking a daily multi-vitamin. Scott also started on a daily supplement, stopped drinking soda, and we've cut out meat consumption considerably. We still need to work on weight, regular exercise, and we both really need to go to the dentist & optometrist. We have to stop putting these appointments on hold. 6/10

This Year Um, yeah. I did manage to maintain the weight loss from last year and we're eating more fruits and vegetables because of our CSA box, but I cannot in good conscience, give us a much better score on this one. Score 7/10. Barely.

6. Money Management & Debt

Last Year ALMOST - Now that we're earning more than ever, finances are easier than ever. We really are amazed by how much we are able to accomplish and or save in a given month. And even though we went kind of crazy in December & January with holidays, purchases and a trip for me (I spent $130 on one meal for myself in Vegas!) we've still managed to make it happen. And this year was the very first time in memory that we could afford to take our entire tax return and bought something we wanted (a completely new laundry room) with it instead of paying off old bills. Things are a little tight as we still work to get adjusted to our new budget with the mortgage and all, but on paper, we are golden. We have well over $1000.00 a month to add to savings (a lot to us) and we have less than $5,000.00 in debt including all credit cards but not including our mortgage, my student loans, or my car. Speaking of cars one of our goals includes finally getting one for Scott so that's something else to think about . But I continue to be shocked by how far our earnings now go and our ability to put some away each month. Better than ever before. Score = 7/10

This Year It's great to be able to say that we don't have any new debt this year, but we haven't made as much progress saving and investing as we would have liked. Where we did make strides, however, is budgeting. We finally have a comprehensive budget and all of our bills are finally directly debited out of our account. I have no idea how we lived so long without this technology. It's wonderful. So a tiny bit of improvement on this one. Score 8/10

7. Travel 

 Last Year NOT DONE - We haven't done nearly as much traveling as we would have liked. We've done some smaller trips together - Mexico, South America, Napa, Central Coast, Northern California, Vegas etc.We just figured we had time for this since we weren't going to have kids. Looks like this one has passed us by. I can't imagine trying to go on a big trip at this point. Especially with all of the other ways in which we need to spend our money. Plus the dollar just doesn't go as far as it used to in many places abroad. Maybe we'll do a US trip that we've both been dreaming of for a while. We'll see. But we haven't done nearly enough traveling. Score 4/10

This Year Even though we still have lots more traveling we'd like to do, we did manage to take a lovely trip to New Orleans in December and we have a wonderful time. It was nice to get away and we're planning another excursion soon. For two people who did not go on vacation the first 5 years of our marriage, this is pretty good progress so at least I'll pass us for now. Score 7/10

This year's score is 87/100 or a nice solid by in contrast to last year's barely B at 81/100. We still have some work to do, but we're getting closer everyday.