Wedding Music!

We're planning on hiring a DJ for the wedding that can handle dinner music as well as party music afterwards.  We're still on the hunt for this - but hoping we can find someone for under $1,000.  Originally we were budgeting about $600 but it looks like we'll have to bring someone into my...

Wedding Bar Help!

One of the decisions that Jordan and I made early on was how we wanted to handle the liquor at the wedding.  We are going to have a bottle of red and white (Copper Moon) on each dinner table and a single bottle of champagne (Segura Viudas Brut - maybe)  for toasts. So there will be lots of...

Wedding Planning Update

Now that Christmas is over, my train of thought it changing to full-swing wedding planning. We got a few key items sorted out after we got engaged but then all things wedding came to a halt mid-November when we started gearing up for Christmas. According to this Easy Wedding Planning Plus Guide that my Maid of Honour bought me there's certain things you need to have done in order before the wedding...

Spending Update

I can't get into the nitty gritty details of Christmas spending, because far too many people that I bought for read (or have the potential to read) this blog. But, I will share this: We have made a few payments already including mom & dad paying me for the gifts I bought on their behalf's as...

House Fund Update

I'm pleased to share, that as of this Friday Jordan and I made it to.....(get ready for it).... $10,000  .....in our house-fund.  We're half-way to a respectable down payme...

Roommates - Le Sigh

It's been a while since I've had a roommate rant post, so after yesterdays events - I thought it was time. We have had quite a few trials with one of our roommates lately it seems, at least twice a month, mid-week - we get phone calls from neighbors complaining about loud music during the day.  Further to that, we often get woken up in the middle of the night with music or friends coming home...

Short Update

Like most years, I wish that Jordan and I had put away more than we did for Christmas. I won't have final numbers until the middle of next week or so - but it's looking a little rough that's for sure.  Are you in the same boat that we are, or are you pretty good at forecasting how much you'll spend at Christmas? I'm not just talking gifts - but we donate more, drive more, drink more...

Christmas Shopping

.....and we're done! and I'm sick! I have a horrible cold that has been chasing me all week.  It's caught up with me and I feel positively ill.  I'm pleased that our Christmas shopping is done already or I'm afraid I just wouldn't have the ener...

Saving Money Feels Good!

Our goals have changed so much (and so frequently) this year that I'm not going to do a 2010 goal recap post as so many people are right now.  Instead, we're just continuing to work towards our goals - and in January/February we should be able to really hash out exactly what we need for what goal - and make it happen in 2011! I just deposited $500 into each of our top priority goals right...

Emergency Fund - Replenish Plan

The first step to replenishing our emergency fund went smoothly.  Jordan's two year secured credit card was released of it's 'security' at the end of November.  We transferred that $500 directly to ING and we're well on our way to having a stash of cash. This need to rebuild our emergency fund quickly goes back to the peace of mind I wrote about in my doing it all post last week. ...

Changes to the Canada Pension Plan

I came accross an article in The Globe and Mail who published on October 28, 2010,  that discusses upcoming changes to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). I hadn't heard of any changes, so I started digging.  Before I share what I've learned, for my non-Canadian readers, The Government of Canada established the CPP program in 1966. It is an earnings related social insurance program...

Monthly Spend Report

Here it is again, our monthly spend report.  I'm really enjoying the process of categorizing and tracking all of our spending via our master card.  It makes it easier then writing everything down every day (though we are trying that for any cash expenditures). I am pretty pleased with the...

Choosing Your Winter Tires

I don't know that I've ever written a post on choosing winter tires, but folks who live where the winters look like this... ...you need to make a good choice. Now, I've always had winters and I rotate every change of season (winter-summer), it's also a good time to get your oil change and any other...

Negotiation Update

So the 2011 Ford Escape that we were meant to buy - was sold!  How frustrating! Luckily, the found a very similar model that had all the same features we wanted plus a remote starter (which we wanted but had cut previously when looking at numbers).  Further to that, now that it's December...

Networth Update

My detailed networth update can be found here, or you can follow the link from the badge below. If you click on the link to check out my NetworthIQ profile, you'll see that this is the first time I've combined Jordan and my networth 100%. As we took the vehicle debt on jointly it only makes sense to add in our joint cash flow as well as joint retirement savings.  Some other details on how...