This & Thats...

Friday was my work Christmas Party and it was a blast - gorgeous venue, good food and a great band. Hubby and I stayed a lot longer that we had anticipated we would. It was good to relax and unwind a bit from the past 4 months.

We are both on vacation from work this week, so we've been catching up on our errands - such as taking my SUV in to get the "up" volume control fixed on the steering wheel, as it's still on warranty for 3 more months - they have had to order the part from the States, so it will have to go back in, once the part arrives. A pair of my glasses broke - so I ordered a new pair and can't wait to receive them, they look pretty cool, if I do say so, my self. We also took our bottles/milk jugs to the bottle depot and received $16 for them, which went to washing both vehicles, with $5 and change to spare, that went into a saving jar. We also fixed some things around the house.

I received my bonus, which after taxes, came to $630.50, so $620 went into our Savings account and $10.50 I left in our chequing account.

Hubby has been told that he will be getting his remaining holiday/sick time paid out at the end of December - as the new company officially takes over the new payment schedule as of Jan 1st. The paid out days work out to being 19 days they told him, so that extra money will also go into savings, once received.

As of January the new company pays weekly, every Friday. Since I pay the bills and do the budget, I think it will take a few months for me to become accostumed to Hubby's new pay, as the old owner paid 1x a month at the end of each month, but there was a small advance given to everyone on 15th of each month. Just a bit of a learning curve for me.

Our Christmas shopping is all done and except for a few grocery items to get on Friday or Saturday, we are set for Christmas, my favorite time of the year. Last night we drove around looking at Christmas lights, as I had even budgeted this gas money into the Christmas budget.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Liebster Blog

"Liebster" german for FRIEND :)

Thanks so much to B-Kat at http://slaythemonster.blogspot.com/! Please check out this fellow Canadian's blog. I'm not very computer savvy, so I'm doing this as best as I can. I don't know how to link the blogs properly, but here it goes: There are rules to receiving and accepting this award.

The Rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and Paste the Award to your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the word and love to other bloggers.
5. Have Fun!!

My 5 picks of PF Bloggers that have less than 200 followers...

http://homeownerby30.blogspot.com/ - LBC Teacher - her blogging inspired me to start to my own blog journey

http://bigcitybeerbudget.blogspot.com/ - a 20-something Canadian living in Ottawa.

http://countingallmystarsandsavingit.blogspot.com/ - young mother of 4

http://wemaybepoorbutwearehappy.blogspot.com/ - a very honest and heart warming account of a wonderful family

http://jessiesmoney.blogspot.com/ - a young, newly married couple's financially journey

An Oprah Life Class Question: Do you respect money?

It seems like such an obvious question with an obvious answer, and one I never actually thought about, before I saw this question posted on Oprah's Life Class show. She was saying that a sure sign of disrespect for money can be seen with how someone keeps their money in their wallet/purse. If it's all bunched up and strewn all over the place, then the money is not respected, also if you just keep paper money haphazardly in your pockets all scrunched up. I thought about this and realized my money is kept neatly in my wallet, inside of my purse. I also arrange them from smallest denomination to largest and my change is all securely kept inside a zippered portion of my wallet, so the bottom of my purse is not swimming in change. I also realized that I became more organized with my money, once I really started to watch and become more careful with my spending habits. Do you respect money?

Update on life around here

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm all set. We've scaled back a bit this Christmas because of Hubby's work situation, but all is good for now (Dec) and I'm hoping we are will have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas. We both have next week off, so I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with hubby.

Hubby's work situation - every day there seems to be different developments. Last night the NEW OWNER finally showed up in our City and had a dinner meet and greet with all the remaining staff at a local downtown restaurant. Hubby was offered a titled position and the pay - good and not so good - a raise of $2.50 an hour - however, his work schedule is only "x" amount of hours, which will be less than what he is currently working now and the new company has stated that they do not approve and pay for overtime or bonuses, so in the end, even with the $2.50 an hour raise - he'll be making less. Yes, we are thankful he has a job and I'm glad we've been living a mindfully frugal lifestyle for the past few years, so I think we are better prepared than some of is fellow workers, but it's still going to hurt.

I will be receiving a Christmas Bonus from my job this Christmas, so I will put that amount into Savings once it's received, which I believe will be this coming pay day on the 14th. It is $1,000, but once taxes are taken off, I figured the actual amount I'll be receiving will be about $620.

My parents came to visit last week for 3 days, so we had a good time and they and my in laws get along really well, so we all spent some quality time together visiting and laughing - it was a good time and felt almost like a mini Christmas. We also did a nice "free" thing - we went to one of the local Garden/Nursery Centers that decorate about 25 Christmas trees, all in different styles.

My work Christmas party is this Friday evening, so we'll be going to that and then on Sunday we have another event to go to. Next Monday, we have an appointment scheduled for my SUV to go in, as one of the volume controls is not working properly and since we only have 3 more months of warranty left on it, we want to get it fixed (hopefully it's covered by warranty).

With all the over time hubby worked in Nov, we've been able to put aside a good chunk of change aside, to cover the shortfalls that his new pay cheques starting in Jan will have. We should be good for at least 3 months and then after 3 months, my SUV vehicle payments will be done. So all in all, we will be fine, it will be tight still, but we'll just have to do what we have to do, to make it work.

Productive Weekend

Hubby has been working all the over time he can get, but the "conditions" at the new warehouse are not safe at all, and the new company does not want to hear about it - they just want the job done. Moral is not good - the way the new "rep" from the new company treats and talks to the guys is very demoralizing. A few have quit due to the verbal abuse so far. Hubby is sticking it out for at least another month - to try to make as much money as possible. He worked at the new warehouse location all weekend 9 hours on Saturday and 8.5 hours on Sunday and is now back at the "old" warehouse as of Monday, as they are wrapping things up there.

I worked on some decluttering of the basement, on the weekend, and sent 4 more boxes to Goodwill and threw out a bunch more stuff. So progress is being made in that department.

I also did the usual cleaning around the house and did some Christmas shopping. My parents and brother and sister-in-law will each get $25 gift cards, my 3 nieces will get $20 each and for hubby, he will just be getting Christmas Stocking Stuff this year. I'm trying to convince my parents to come for Christmas, but my Mom doesn't like going anywhere in the snow - so this could be a hard sell, as they would have an 8 hour drive to get here - in the snow. They did invite us to their house, but this year, with Hubby's work up in the air, we are just sticking close to home.

Sunday night, we did splurge, and get a medium pizza from Pizza Hut - it came to $18.89 with coupon. It was enough for 2 meals each for both of us, for Sunday night supper and Monday night supper. The only reason we splurged, is because I had $20 from gift money, from ages ago, still in my wallet.

I was also able to use (2) Gas Coupons for $20 each from Shell - both redeemed from Airmiles to put gas in my SUV, so now the tank is full.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, so I'm really looking forward to putting up the Christmas tree and decorations at the end of November. I love sitting in the dark with all the Christmas lights on, it's such a peaceful feeling for me and since we are trying not to keep our heat on much, we'll keep the fire going in our fireplace as much as possible. I've requested some Christmas CD's from the library, so we will be all set.

When to dip into the Emergecy Fund?

When is an emergency, really an emergency? I'm talking about when is it justifiable to use money inside of an Emergency Fund. I feel so darn guilty even thinking of having to use it in the New Year that I guess that's a good thing, at least I don't dip into it mindlessly - but still, when is it okay to do so? I know this will vary from person to person based on different situations, but what have been your experiences? I'm afraid that once we touch ours, we will never be able to rebuild it. I think this is why I really want to get our Line of Credit paid down as much as possible. It's not been a priority for us, because we keep current with our payments on it, the interest rate is really low and it's life and disability insured. By paying down the Line of Credit faster than we had previously expected, we will then free up extra money through the monthly budget. We still have a ways to go in paying it off, but the balance owing is decreasing, and that is always a good thing, because come the New Year and depending on hubby's work situation, we might not be able to throw extra onto it, so it's best to do whatever we can now.

Hubby has been able to get some overtime hours on Tuesday and Wednesday and hoping for some more tonight, as the merge between the 2 warehouses are now taking place. The new company is allowing over time for the next 2 weeks only. We are taking advantage of this, to make as much money as possible, so that we can bank the money.

Pity Party...

It just seems like I am spinning our wheels and not getting anywhere. All our costs are going up and I'm stressing on where we will be able to find the money. I do want to move away from the snow and unstable weather, I want to find a different line of work and I want hubby to just quit his job, where the new owners treat him and the other workers like they are sh*t. I'm just not in a good frame of mind right now. We probably won't move, I'll probably have to stay at my job - because lets face it - I've been there for almost 12 years and for right now it's secure, but most importantly it allows me to bring home a paycheque but I'm still going to hold out hope, that hubby finds another job. My pity party is happening right now and could very well last until the New Year. To top this off, I'm sure I've gained 20 lbs at least. I have to get a grip, I just can't seem to stop stressing about the money.

I know I will snap out of it. I need to be strong and just persevere - and I know I will, but for today and maybe a few tomorrows I'm going to allow my self to have a pity party. After all the bills have been paid, we had $3.40 left over from our paycheques, so I sent it towards our LOC (Line of Credit) this morning. it's not much, but it's something, and in a small way it did make me feel a little better to see that balance come down a little.

I will try to focus on some positive things in our life right now - "try" being the operative word.

This and That...

We were able to come up with an extra $731 to put towards our LOC this month. We could have stuck that in our Emergency Fund, but hubby and I discussed it, and decided to apply it to the LOC instead. This way, we are paying down our LOC a little bit faster, but it's still there if we need to use it (which hopefully we won't have to).

I'm also happy to say that our pantry is getting very bare - this is a good thing, as it's making us use what we already have and helps us save on our monthly food budget. Some of our meals - have been creative - but that's part of the fun of it.

In my quest to start decluttering the basement, I came across some jigsaw puzzles, so I've chosen one for us to start tonight, that has a fall theme. Since we have no money to go out, this will have to contribute to our free entertainment. Maybe we'll settle down with a coffee laced with bailey's and some popcorn to round off the evening.

Decluttering

I just can't seem to get into the blogging mood. I'm still reading many blogs every day, and finding continuous inspiration to keep on plugging along with doing our best to be financially responsible.

My goal from now until Christmas is to DECLUTTER - I'm great at not buying or lusting over the newest gizmos and knick knacks of today - but I'm terrible at getting rid of stuff that I have kept from the past (like 5, 10 and 15+ years past). Now this stuff I have, sitting in boxes from years gone by, have made many moves and I honestly couldn't have told you what was in those boxes - and there are alot of boxes. We are talking approximately 3 closets full and they occupy a good portion of our basement. So, after getting motivation from other blogs, I'm saying no more of holding onto these "things" that I will not wear again, and things that I feel I should keep because they were important to my parents - mainly mother - and out of guilt have kept them. Now my parents are still very much alive, but as I was setting up the piles of 'tossing' and 'donating' I could just imagine my mother's displeasure at me 'getting rid' of this stuff. But I'm to the point that I just don't care anymore. This is my new life and geesh I'm in my early 40's I shouldn't still feel guilty like a little kid. I was able to go through 6 boxes last night - 4 boxes are headed to the donation center today and 2 have ended up in the garbage - I feel a great sense of relief that I'm not holding onto this stuff just because...

I still have a lot more to do, but I've started, and that is a step in the right direction.

If we do end up moving, I definitely do not want to be moving these boxes again.

Financially Poor?

Do you consider yourself financially poor? I do not perceive myself as "financially poor" though I'm sure everyone has their own definition. Each year our income has been dropping for the past 3 years, since hubby's pay has been decreasing with cuts in pay and hours from his job. I'm sure some of our acquaintances might think we are "financially poor", as hubby and I turn down all invitations to go out to the movies, concerts, dinner, lunch, etc with the excuse that it's just not something that we can afford right now. In actuality - can we afford it? - short answer is Yes - do we chose to make the choice of saving our money instead - Yes. Priority for us, is making sure all our bills are paid in full each month, whether it be the mortgage, insurance, electric or credit card.

We have monthly contributions to our Retirement Plans and Emergency Funds automatically deposited. We treat these as bills. Then whatever is left over, can be for the expenses of life. We contribute to the local SPCA/Animal Shelter each month and when we are flush with cash in a month, we try to make an additional contribution to the SPCA/Animal Shelter, above and beyond what we already do.

Do we have lavish amounts of extra cash left over each month - No. But we are secure in knowing our bills are paid and we have savings building up. In fact, most months, we don't have any extra cash for even an extra loaf of bread at the grocery store, but that's okay, our priorities are taken care of. We are definitely not contributing to Consumerism. There are many things we would like to buy, but they are merely wants. So we will not be buying them.

Hubby and I sat down the other day and talked (fantasized) what we would do if we had extra money each month going forward and we were both on the same page, our frugal ways have now become habit and we would just put more into savings for retirement. We wouldn't be out buying the latest fancy gadgets or vehicles. Our minds have made the switch of successfully determining "Needs" vs "Wants".

We have a very simple, yet balanced life, and we are happy together. We have everything we "need". We have made great memories together and will continue to do so in the future.

We probably don't make as much as our peers on an annual basis, but we do have our priorities taken care off and in the end, and that is what matters.

As some financial experts like to say "It's not how much you make, it's what you do with it"

Bills are going up and pay is coming down

I hate inflation!!! Every year our bills go up a little bit and our pay comes down a little bit. If you've been reading this blog, then you know hubby's job, hence pay has become on uncertain entity. Yes, we are fortunate to have the money to pay these extras on the bills - now - but for how long. The more we have to pay on these bills, means less that we have, to put into savings. I remember when I was hired by my boss 11 years ago, he said that I would always get at least the cost of inflation in the form of a raise each January. That was true until the last 3 years.

We just received notice that our internet bill will be going up by almost $2 a month and we don't even have the fancy high speed internet. Our home and auto insurance renewal just arrived today and it's going up by $7 a month.

I feel blessed that we have the money for these increases, so for now, we can keep our internet and well, our auto and home insurance is a necessity. We have high deductibles to keep the cost as low as possible on that.

An option to consider? or scratch?

Hubby has survived another Friday of layoffs. Each day of work for him is one more day of pay, that we are thankful for. An option I'm leaning towards - not sure if hubby is on board 100% (more like 50%) (heck, I'm not even sure I'm on board 100%!) I'm thinking we could make a drastic change and sell our house, probably in the Spring/Summer time frame. We move to the Southern Okanagon, which is where we want to retire in 23+ years anyways - the weather is warm and hardly ever has any snow. The (2) towns we would likely rent in, does not have a lot of employment opportunities, but the major city about 25 mins away does, so we could both find work there and just commute, right now in the City we live in, we are both commuting 25-45 mins one way, for each of us, so the commute would not be an issue for us, plus the new commute in the Okanagan would be mostly on a highway,with beautiful views.

- I asked hubby to find out what the early payment penalty on the mortgage would be, and so he did phone on the weekend and found out, it would be $21,000. Realtor fees on top of that would be 7% on the first $100,000 + 3% on the remaining balance and than we would have to pay GST on the total commissions.

We bought our house in Dec of 2007 for $365,000, We had put 20% down for a down payment of $73,000, which left us with a mortgage of $292,000. Our mortgage is currently sitting at $282,896.31. Our interes rate on the mortgage is 5.15%.

With the down turn in the housing market, we figure we could currently list for $349,900 (have not consulted with a real estate agent yet, but this price is based on what a house across the street from us, listed for, just last week and they sold their house on Saturday, so just about a week on the market, it was listed for $349,900 and it's smaller than our house and doesn't have an extra bedroom and bathroom and hardwood floors, like ours does). So assuming we list for $349,900 and get $339,000, then we would be looking at a charge of approx $14,879 in commissions. Which means we would walk away with approx $20,224. Of course I would like to not pay any penalty fees on paying off the mortgage sooner, but it's an option.

We would not move unless, we were sure of work. If it doesn't work out, we move back to Alberta and move into our condo, that we currently rent out as part of our investment portfolio.

I don't know...I like to always have a plan of just in case, for whatever in life, so this is no different. Tomorrow is another day.

Week In Review

Another week has gone by and 2 more people have been laid off at Hubby's work. We are still watching our pennies closely and trying to stock pile groceries and house hold essentials, like Toilet Paper, Laundry Detergent, in the event of a lay off. We are continuing to save as much as we can.

This weekend, we went out of our "regular routine/comfort zone" and began "really" reading ALL the flyer's, not just the ones where we regularly shop. We took advantage of different sales at 5 different places, a little more work and perhaps a little more driving around, but I feel we were able to save a reasonable amount, to justify the time and driving to different stores.

We also stocked up on some block cheese (mozza lite and Cheddar lite) that was on sale, and this morning I shredded it up and put it into medium sized Ziploc bags. In the past I would have just bought the cheese already shredded, so a little step in saving some money.

I also have a bunch of pampered chef stone ware items, that have been given to me over the past years, which are still in their original boxes, so I'm going to try to use one tonight, when I make a baked pasta dish - with no name pasta, and a different spaghetti sauce, in a can, that I was able to pick up for a fraction of the cost of the jar spaghetti sauce, I usually use. So I'll add that with some of my shredded cheese and hopefully it will be tasty.

It is very cold in our house, but I've put on warm socks and have an extra sweater on and when I'm sitting down, a nice big blanket to cover up with, so that we won't have to turn on the heat. Once I put the oven on for the pasta bake, the house should heat up a little.

Bye for now...

Every Little Bit Helps

In our quest to use up what we have in the pantry and freezer, we are still amazed at our grocery bill, and seeing how expensive fruit, vegetables and basics like milk, butter, etc are. Even though we are trying to watch our pennies, we still want to eat somewhat healthy. We do eat 5-7 fruits and/or vegetables servings at least 5 days of the week and we make sure to have at least 1 good source of protein a day, along with getting in our minerals and vitamins on a daily basis. Plus, we try to drink 2.5 litres of water a day, we are pretty good at this, for at least 5 days a week. We have to work on it, all coming together for 7 days a week, but for now, we'll do what we can.

I'm amazed at what we have in the back of our pantry and frustrated with myself, for letting some things, sit there, unused, that have expired years ago. However, I have still used them all, within the past weeks, with the exception of a bottle of lemon juice,and we haven't gotten sick, so I feel better by using them up, but, I will definately make more of an effort in not letting things just sit around and not be used up.

Saturday's are always our "errand" day, this way we can cut down on the gas used in the vehicle - I think it is mucher higher here in Canada than the States to fill up your tank, so we are trying to be conscious of our driving routes and cluster everywhere we have to go. I use the odd coupon here and there, on stuff that we usually buy. I ended up with an amazing deal this weekend, Walmart had Gilette Gel underarm deoderant on sale for $1.97, reg price is $3.48 here, I had a manufactors coupon for $5 off if you bought any 3 Gillette products. So since, Hubby would be needing more deoderant in the next couple of weeks, I bought him 3 at $1.97, used the coupon and all in all, paid only 91 cents for all 3. That is the best deal I've ever had. In the future, I'm going to try to pair up any coupons I receive when the stores have extreme deals on that particular product. I plan on going through our flyers more diligently from now on, and maybe this extra time, will result in more savings in our pocket.

Work Saga Continues...

Hubby came home last night, and said 2 more people received their lay off notices yesterday. So far, we have been lucky, but we feel terrible for the people who have been laid off, as not only are/were co-workers, they were friends. There were only about 25 employees in total before with the company, and now with the previous layoffs last month plus these two of yesterday, the staff are slowly dwindling. Hubby is feeling quite under the weather this morning, and he's a guy who hardly, if ever, gets sick. I know the stress I feel, he must be feeling the stress 10x more. He's already been working on his resume and cover letter and checking out job opportunities in his field. The previous owner, had pulled him aside a few weeks ago and said his department will have jobs with the new owners - but can the previous owner be trusted? What if it's just a ploy to keep Hubby's dept around until the Jan 2nd deadline - as they do all the shipping and receiving for the company? So many questions - so little answers.

I'm Back...

I've been missing in action - alot has happened.

To start off, we were having a really hard time trying to rent out our condo (investment property) and between the months we had to pay for it sitting empty - the mortgage, the condo fees, advertising - we've had to really dip into our Line of Credit and isn't pretty. Right before our scheduled vacation, we finally had a renter - but only for 3 months and a reduced rate, but hey, at this point who cares. We still have to subsidize the monthly payments as the rent we are currently getting, will only pay for approx 1/3 of the costs, but that is okay. It's way better than NOTHING!!!. We just hope that our renter's work contract extends past October, otherwise, come November, he will head back to Ontario we will be looking for a new renter.

Vacation Time - we had a wonderful time and came in under budget by about about $1,000. We always save up for our vacation ahead of time, so the extra $1,000 will be/was distributed as follows - $751.25 went to finishing off our fence work, $190 is set aside to pay for the "annual fees" for our reward points credit cards that will be due this Fall and the remainder went to cover our little fur baby's vet bill - annual check up and shots.

Hubby's Job - 3 days after returning from vacation, his boss announced that the company had been sold to a competitor company, from another province (area of the country). This came as a shock to everyone, as this has been a family owned business for the past 38 years. Hubby has worked for them for 15 years. So of course, everyone's main question is - Does everybody have a job going forward? - not sure - so far, 4 people of been laid off. No one "higher up" is committing that jobs will remain the same. The "rumor" is the new company will be relocating, one of their warehouses to our city, but if they do, it will not be at the current location. The only thing that is for sure - so it is said, is that the matching RSPs will stop, effective Jan 1st. The new owners are saying that Jan 2nd is when people will know if they have a job and if so, at what pay. Now, hubby has been making a pretty good wage - but $8,000 net of that is through bonuses and overtime - if the new company does not "do overtime" then we are Royally Messed Up! So it's been quite stressful in our household. This has been a company where 98% of the employees have been there 10+ years. To say that it was a shock, is an understatement.

- We are fortunate, that as part of our financial planning, we have always updated, what our "Emergency Budget" Vs our "Normal Every Month Budget" would be, and we have always kept it current. We also have money that has been set aside for Emergencies - though I hope, we will not have to tap into it - it has taken a lot of work to build it up and over time it has become approx $20,000 of liquid monies that we could access immediately if need be. We also have our Retirement Savings that we could access if worst comes to worst. We currently also pay extra on our mortgage each month, to try to pay it off faster, so we could always stop the "extra" we are putting towards the mortgage, if we had to.

- At the abosolute extreme, we would sell our house and move into the condo that is our investment property.

- I am so glad that we don't have any credit card debt and that Hubby and I are on the same page. I'm hoping that by being prepared, that everything will work out, come Jan2nd. If it doesn't at least we have a plan.

- Right now, our plan is to try live below our "Normal Monthly Budget" and save as much as we can. Hubby is picking up as much overtime as he can get between now and the end of the year. Hubby will continue to participate in the work's matching RSP to the max, up until the end of December - when it's finished. We have decided to continue paying the extra each month on the mortgage until we know for sure what his paycheques will be in the New Year - assuming he will have a job.
The areas we are cutting back on are - groceries - I've had to become even more creative with what is currently in our pantry and freezer, no eating out at all and extending the times between our personal grooming - hair cuts and our dog's grooming. We didn't buy any firewood yet, we have been picking up stray pieces from business that use wood crates, pallets, etc. so right now, in 2 weeks, we already have( 2) 4 ft boxes filled. Hubby is having to take out all the nails and cut the wood down, but I'm impressed and appreciative of his efforts.

So there is our story for now...

The next 5 years...

Where do you see yourselves financially on 5 years? There is a bank commercial that plays on our local station that asks that this question, so it got me thinking. In 5years our mortgage will be a bit lower, our Registered Retirement Savings Account will hopefully be higher in value and both our vehicle loans will be paid off by them. We'll have more travel experiences under our belt, but other than that, I don't see too much different from where we are today, to where we will be in 5 years time.

Looking back on 5 years ago, alot has changed as in, I'm married now to my best friend, have a lovely detached bungalow (along with this comes a not so lovely mortgage), have an adorable little dog and have more in my retirement account and savings than before. We have a rental property (that really is more headache than I could have ever imagined).

What do your next 5 years look like?

The $682.50 weekend...

I know this is not being that frugal, but Hubby and I decided that for our Wedding Anniversary, which is in August, we would buy a season pass to the Mayfield Dinner Theatre, here in our City. We really enjoy their productions and the atmosphere is very relaxing, but elegant and the food is great. There are 5 shows for this season and they play out between September 2011 to August 2012. We've been talking about doing this for a few years now, but finally bit the bullet and did it. We purchased one of the cheaper packages, for $682.50, this is for Sunday Brunch with show (The evening dinners with show was quite a bit more). Hubby and I currently each have about $1,000 each, in each of our gift savings accounts, so we split the cost and are each contributing $341.25. Surprisingly, I'm not feeling guilty about spending this money. It's part of my living more in the now.

May Recap

The latter part of May has been busy, both at work and at home.

Our tenant in our rental condo, left the place in a terrible state, so we've been cleaning it up and repairing some of the damage.

Pay came and went and all the bills have been paid and a few dollars saved. We were able to put an extra $50 into our Retirement Savings this week, this is on top of our regular automatic contributions, and put an additional $80 into Savings and $200 towards Vacation.


I've been focusing on "living in the moment" and enjoying the here and now. This has led to some extra money having been spent, but all in all, a good month. We were fortunate enough to receive tickets to two different events, without any cost (only had to pay for parking which came to $5).

I think I focus too much on the future, so am trying to keep a balance of still focusing on the future, but also "living in the moment" and enjoying what today has to offer.

Here's to a very Happy June for everyone!

Chugging Along...

It doesn't seem like I have much to write about lately. Day by day is going at a steady pace, bills are getting paid and savings are growing a little each month. I am looking forward to our vacation which we have planned in August for a week and the nice thing is that we have all the money saved already for the hotel, gas, food and spending already. Actually the hotel is already paid for, as we were originally going to go for just 4 nights as that is we could afford, but they had a special on for 6 nights that worked out to being less than the 4 nights would have been, the only catch was that it had to be paid in full at the time we booked it, which we did.

Our rental property will be up for rent again in June. The current tenant has only been there for about 4 months, and she had signed a 15 month lease, but she ended up getting sick and now needs to move in with her daughter until she can get in a nurse assisted living environment. I'm trying not to stress (so much easier said than done) about finding another tenant. We have listed it on Kijji about a week and a half ago, but so far, we've only had one inquiry. This means that we will probably have to cover the cost of June's rent, etc if we don't have a renter. We have the money to cover it, but I really hope we have someone for sure by July.