Fun & Sensible

A little while ago my mom sold some property and decided she wanted to give my brother and I a financial gift for something fun and sensible.  Giving money with strings can be tricky, but these are totally strings that I appreciate and value.

Jordan and I have made some progress on deciding what we're going to do.

• Drive out to visit Jordan's family in Vancouver (if he gets the time off) (~$350 for gas/road food)
• Buy Gym Memberships through Jordan's corporate discounted rate ($850)
• Pay for our Wills/POAs/Personal Directives ($735)
• Pay off the Escape ($2,700)
• Baby Fund ($1,000) - bringing the balance up to $5,000
• Summer Camping with Mom ($700)

A big thank you to my mom for helping Jordan and I achieve some of our big 2014 goals!  

Thank you so much, you're gift really means a lot to us.

Bottling Day!

 Last night was bottling day for my Reisling I bought from Costco a month or so ago.

Just wanted to share!

October Monthly Spend Summary

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!  We had 104 kids this year!!  Probably $100 or so of this months 'groceries' was Halloween candy.

Some categories were a bit higher, some a bit lower than the average.  As is typical when we spend less on eating out; we spent more on groceries - but consumption stays about the same.  We did have a couple of road trips (as we usually do in a month); which contributed to the eating out that we did do.

October Networth Update

October has been a very good month for our networth!

We were reimbursed for Jordan's dental surgery, received just over $600 for contents insurance from our hail damage claim, Jordan's increased commissions scale have been realized and my mom gave us a financial gift for something fun and sensible (that we have yet to spend, so it's added $1,500 to our networth for now).

 Today is also Jordan's pay day....and it looks like I have $650 to play with.  Here's where it's going:

• $150 to the Escape, bringing the balance down to $3,000 even
• $500 for Christmas

I really, really debated putting the whole $650 on the Escape...but that's been part of our...historical problem.  I put too much money on one kind of debt, than rack up another kind because I didn't have cash to pay for something we should have .  THEN it looks like we're crappy with  money, when really I just payed less interest (b/c the Escape has a higher interest rate then the LOC) ...annnd I shouldn't worry about looking like we're crappy with money, but there it is.

Another $1,500!!

So after months, and months, and months of waiting, arguing and sending in letters - we have finally been reimbursed for the last phase of Jordan's dental surgery.  A deposit just shy of $1,300 was deposited today and there's a bit of overflow so I have $1,500 to work with.

So...another SMASH on the Escape?

Well yes, but not the whole sum.

We're about to have to pay our $1,000 deductible for our hail claim for the house; and so I've tucked that amount away so we have it handy.

Here's where the $500 is going:

• AMEX - $117.89
• This is gas & 85 for a new wine kit....that came from my birthday money, not out of the day-to-day or work-horse budget.
• Escape - $500
• I borrowed a few extra bucks from the day-to-day account to round up the payment
• Remaining owing $3,250

annnd Friday is Jordan's pay day; so hopefully I'll be writing to tell you about another big SMASH once we see how big his commission pay is.

$1,500 SMASH

I don't usually do a blog post every time I pay debt down - which is just about every pay day - but I think sometimes because I often just tell you where we spend money; maybe you don't know that we pay down significant debt every month.

Today was my pay day; and I just paid:

• $94.01 on our Mastercard
• This was from my last physio appointment (reimbursable) and Netflix
• $98.44 on the AMEX
• This was Gas and a small grocery shop
• $750 on the Ford Escape
• This was because I enjoy paying this off with 'gazelle like intensity'
• $574.93 on the LOC (minimum is just over $400/month)
• While our focus is on paying the Escape off, we still have minimum payments to make.
• $73.55 on the Kia Rio
• This was because I like round numbers.

Here's where the non-mortgage debt stands after these payments are processed:

DIY - Christmas Cards

Every year, Jordan and I send Christmas cards to about 65 people.  The list started at over 100 (everyone we invited to our wedding three years ago), and has been whittled down over the years from moves/address changes that we weren't told about and from people who don't respond etc.  I imagine it will continue to get smaller over the years...but 65 is where it's at now.

This year, instead of buying cards, I'm making them using the crafting supplies that I've had stashed in the basement for way too long.  Like so many others, I had briefly hopped on the scrapbooking bandwagon long enough to collect more paper, scissors, stamps and stickers than I know what to do with.

This year, I'm using them!