Insurance

I'm not sure what automobile insurance is like outside of Alberta and BC but I can tell you that it's wayyyyyy cheaper in Alberta.

The renewal came up for the Kia so we got organized to switch the policy over - for comparable coverage it's going to be $418 more a year.  On top of that, they charge a premium to pay monthly, unlike Alberta where they just divide the premium by 12.

So, we paid the $1,346 upfront.

The Escape is up for renewal next month... So I'm sure it'll be about the same again. 

Planned Spending

Okay, so yesterday we looked at our day to day spending to see if that was in alignment.  Today I thought we would look at our planned spending.  

On average we spent about $1,770 each month that we had planned for (or had intended to plan for).  Again, I went through the categories generally last week, and I don't mean to re-hash it, the idea here is just to see what we need to be doing to be ready for 2016.  Remember, this isn't spent every month - we might have months of spending nothing and then need to replace a windshield for example.  The idea is that we're saving each month so that when something does come up, we've got the cash ready.

So, the reality is that we just cannot spend like this in 2016.

My employer paid top up is almost done, and we only have EI for the rest of the year.  I have no idea what I'll be doing for work come 2017 so we need to be modest.

I think though, we can start with what we have currently saved and match that up against what we would need if we DID spend like we did in 2016 and see what the gaps are.

We already know that we're not intending to spend the money that we still have in the baby fund, and that there's no foreseeable reason to spend like that in 2016 - Little Man only needs on crib after all.  We're 100% here anyways, so we don't need to worry about money for him.

Vacation and Christmas/Gifts has just been depleted.  Christmas this year was about $2,500, there would have been a big chunk in July and then the rest spread out throughout the year.  So - we won't be able to be as generous with each other or with our friends/family this year...well, generous in terms of cash spent, we can still be generous with our time and our love of course.  

I think that Emergency/Vehicle should be saved for - we're just about there anyways, and with two vehicles, this is pretty accurate year over year in terms of the cash availability we need to have.

Maintenance is the other biggy.  There's already enough for my annual professional designation membership and some for clothes but nothing for the physical maintenance of our home....good thing we're selling it lol.  I often draw from this account for big pantry stock-up Costco runs.  So, we might need to re-think how we do those, or doing them at all.

Are there any big cuts that you're making to your budget for 2016?

I haven't done a 2016 budget post outside of updating the Current Budget tab at the top because we're so in flux that I'm doing lump sum savings rather than automatic, but I think this post really helps cement what we have money for and what we don't.

Day to Day Spending

For those of you who have been following our journey for a while now, you know that Jordan and I have our fixed and variable spending money split into different accounts.  Our fixed account, or workhorse, does not have debit card access.  It's the account where bills like the mortgage are paid, and income like my EI and Jordan's salary is deposited.  It pays the day-to-day spending account $425/week.  Every once in a while, I review this amount and what's it for to make sure that it's aligned.  Given that we've had so many changes, I think it's time to look at it again.

If we look at our 2015 report from last week, I can pull out the categories that are from day-to-day spending rather than planned spending.

On average we spent just over $2,100/month on items that are intended to be covered by $1,842 ($425*52/12).     So, obviously we overspent what we had budgeted.

We have no credit card debt (I swear), but this is how it happens for sure.  The money came from cash we had stashed for planned spending - for example taking money from the home or vehicle maintenance accounts.

We do have some money in our planned savings accounts, it's clear why we don't have as much as I think we should.

So.  Do we change the budget, or do we spend differently?

I'm inclined to try to spend differently.

I talked about these categories generally in the 2015 spend review - but we need to get better about the $$ that goes in our mouths (or in the trash as the case may be).  I think the Alcohol, Medical, Entertainment, and Pets are all pretty reasonable on a month to month basis.  It's the Gas, Groceries, and Eating Out that we need to watch.  Does this sound like a post I've written before?

If it does, it's because our groceries and eating out spending has always been something that we've struggled to manage.

My mom is a champion at shopping with flyers (we don't have coupon's like the United States) - and I'm starting to get re-aquainted with them.  I'm hoping to pick up more of my mom's grocery spending tricks as I spend more time in her home.

As far as eating out, I need to decline to go out as often as invited and perhaps when we do go - have cash for our portion of the bill. This is hard because I felt like we were doing better here, but we're clearly not doing as well as I thought.  I'm wondering if we're going out less, but spending more when we do, or if it's something else.  Either way, I'm going to try to get more disciplined here.

Maybe if I started posted all the eating out transactions a month, or a week - that would help keep me disciplined?  I'll have to think about that.

So, I don't think I can reduce the $425/week but I'm also not prepared to increase it.  I would like to get it back down to $400, but we can't do that until we're spending differently unless we want to be pulling out credit cards again.

Child Care Benefit

Back in June I wrote about money I would be eligible for while on Maternity Leave, other than EI.  The Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) was one of them, and the BC Family benefit was the other.  At the time I had estimated I would be eligible for $125/month.  Since then, we've had a government change in BC and the UCCB benefit has increased to $160/month - wahoo!  So I'm receiving this, as well as $26.28 for the BC Family Benefit.

For the time being, we'e decided to deposit the money into Little Man's bank account, it's the same account that $100 will be withdrawn for his RESP.  The rest will stay in his very own savings account (Tangerine Children's Saving Account).  The hope is that the money will be there for him both for school, and for his first 'big thing' that he might want when he's older.  A pet, a car...that sort of thing. We'll also be depositing any Christmas or Birthday financial gifts he gets into his bank account, unless folks ask us specifically to put it towards his school - then it will go in his RESP.

It's important to us that we teach Little Man saving, planned spending, and sharing.  We don't have a full plan yet, but this is definitely the beginning of it.

RESPs

For my non Canadian readers, RESP stands for Registered Education Savings Plan.  It's a government sponsored plan where they will contribute 20% of what you contribute up to a maximum of $500/year for your kids education fund.  You can set these up as family or individual plans, though I think family makes more sense because then if one child doesn't go to school, another can use the money.  If you're kids never go to school you can pull the principal plus interest out, but lose the government grants.

So, I don't know if you are aware of another guaranteed way to get a 20% return on your savings for your children's education - but there's really nothing that beats the RESP in Canada.

It was really important to my mom that we get started right away, and don't let this be one of those things that you 'get to one of these days'.  So in December, I met with a Sunlife Advisor and set up a family RESP with Little Man as the beneficiary.  Due to a very generous financial gift, we were able to get the matching grant for 2015 - so we already have $3,000 for his education and he's not enough three months old yet.

We're going to continue to contribute $100/month as a base, and then hope to get the maximum each year when we can afford it.

2015 Variable Spend in Review

Phew!  2015!

This graph shows both what we spent each month in 2015 in each category, but the total sum of our spend over the whole year.

Gas is what it is - we drive a lot. Well, I think a lot in comparison to folks who didn't live 7 months apart and drove at least 600kms every weekend plus all the commuting for me was around 75kms a day until I went on leave.  We also had a family emergency later on in the year which had me and my mom driving quite a bit to different parts of BC.

Groceries & Eating Out 
I want to mention here that groceries includes house cleaning supplies, dog treats, diapers (when we buy disposables), basically everything that you can buy in a grocery store.  We also were buying groceries for my in Alberta and splitting costs with my mom in BC.  With so much time on the road this year, Im not surprised by the eating out.  Since being in BC, its pretty common for my family to eat out for lunches, and Jordan and I have tried to pick up the tab quite a bit.  Going into 2016, I think that these will go down quite a bit as we settle into a new routine here.  Also, we're just going to have less money - so there's that.

We really just started buying Alcohol again in the latter half of the year.  I'm breastfeeding, so won't be indulging very often and Jordan doesn't drink a lot without me.  So I see this staying pretty low.

Entertainment
This is netflix, movies, lottery tickets here and there for Jordan, sometimes wine making supplies.  If anything, I think this will go down....I can't see going to the theatre very often with a newborn, but really would love to take Little Man camping a few times in the summer.

Pets
This is sometimes dog food (but more often than nit that is tracked as groceries), the kennel from time to time, and treats or toys every so often.  I don't see a whole lot changing here.

I don't see anything changing for Medical, Education or Vehicle Maintenance.  Once a lose a bit more baby weight, Ill need to look through my wardrobe and see what still works and what doesn't so I think the Clothing category won't change a whole lot.  I'm tracking everything for Little Man under Baby, so his stuff won't go under clothing.  Speaking of the Baby category - this includes everything for Little Man from our Cloth Diapering supplies, to clothes, to toys, to his crib & dresser.  We're pretty set up now, we had a wonderful baby shower, and he was spoiled over the holidays too.  We of course have picked up some things from us - but I don't see any BIG baby purchases in the new year. Just clothes and diapers as he needs them I think...but what do I know, I've never had a baby before.

I tried to get a bit of a handle on Gifts this year, but we always splurge some in July and December.  We always have the money saved ahead of time so Im not worried about this too much.

We spent a lot in Home Maintenance  this year - in part because we were preparing our house to sell in Alberta, and in part because we've tried to contribute to my mom's house where we can as well.  This number will either go way, way down as we sell our home in Alberta - or go way, way up if we buy a fixer-upper in BC.  So time will tell here.

So there you have it.  This what Jordan, I and Little Man spent in 2015 on our variable and planned spending.

Are you happy with where your money went in 2015?  Are you making any changes if you weren't?

Monthly Spend Report October - December

The last time I did a monthly spend report was back in September.  I'm not going to go too in depth here because tomorrow I've written up a full 2015 in review, but I wanted to get this posted anyways. The average that's displaying is the annual average for comparison.  The other bit of information is I gave birth in October so wasn't hitting up the grocery store too much in November (thanks mom).