New job, new bike

So two little kids, a full time job, some medical issues, and a NEW JOB have led to a delay in updates. For the five people actively checking in, thanks!

Okay, where we last left off, Jane had some horrible trip on Airtran during Passover and will never be traveling like that again. I applied for a second job and got it, which has required more training and additional hours. I am still going to be working full-time at my current job, but once or twice a month I'll be working in a pediatric urgent care. HubbyJD supported my additional employment (he, jokingly, claims he made me get a second job because I wasn't working hard enough). A good part about this job is that I can bike to it since its about 1 mile from my apartment. A bad part is that I'll be doing it on weekends around midnight.

With this in mind, I started actually biking on our fold-up Schwinn and bought a Nashbar Kid Karriage, which was on sale with fresh shipping for under $100 with tax. I have now biked two four mile round trips to the gym, once alone and once with the kids. My legs are killing me, but I'm sure this will get better with time. I may eventually invest in an actual bicycle with gears since HubbyJD thinks we can all go biking together now .

What has our budget been doing? Subtracting medical expenses and getting hit TWICE by uninsured drivers (we had to pay the deductible), we are around $5,500 a month. There was a tax error on my part as well that resulted in us owing money. When I filled out my initial W-4 form in 2011, I worked half a year as a low paid resident, half as an attending, and HubbyJD only worked 5 months of the year. For 2012 we both worked the full year and, despite having an additional child, made too much money to get the student loan interest deduction or the loss on our rental house. Add in that I had not updated my W-4, my failure to take out enough money resulted in owing. (Fortunately, my bi-monthly housekeeper is a CPA student, filed our taxes for free, and is helping fix the W-4 issue, especially since we know have to project the income from my new job.)

On the plus side, our lease ended and we bought our car at the end. We anticipate selling one or two of our cars and buying older four-door stick shift models. We FINALLY completed the refinance of our out-of-state rental which resulted in a slightly decreased monthly payment - $60 so at least that frees up $250 in the budget. Let's see if my potentially new biking habit can shrink our gas budget some too. My bike investment so far was $35 for 2 children's helmets and $100 for the trailer - minus $75 in giftcards = $60, which we now are referring to as my mothers day present.