Property Taxes

Up until today, we have been going on the assumption that our property taxes would be about $2,000/year - this is based on what our builder had been telling as about property in the area - so our budget has reflected a monthly amount of $167.  Thinking about it, this was probably a good guess based on the house before upgrades and on the 2010 tax rate. I had some time to call the City's tax...

The Credit Card is Paid Off!

It feels amazing to have this debt wiped out for the second time...and I hope, the last time.  I'm not sure how many of you caught my guest post on Krystal's blog a while back, but it described how we wound up here ni debt again and more importantly a theory on why it happened again.  I...

Organized for the New Year

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas/Holiday celebration with friends and family - I've enjoyed having a week off and am looking forward to another.  I spent some time this morning finalizing the transfer of all of our accounts to our new house and getting our 2012 budget confirmed.  Jordan...

think..think..think...

I feel a bit like Winnie the Pooh tonight - always had a lot going on, but had troubles focusing.  Financially there's a few interesting things going on, I'm getting a Profit Share from work and we got part of our damage deposit back from our landlord - but I've talked so much about it with Jordan and I'm not really motivated to go into great detail about it.  Emotionally I'm pretty...

Unexpected Laptop Issues

While my computer is packed, we kept Jordan's laptop out and available for our transition period of homelessness.  Unforutnatly, a couple of days ago we realized it had shifted in the vehicle (read dropped) and unforutnatly the hard drive crashed.  In to Memory Express we went - $250 later, we have a new hardware and new operating system. The good news is that $250 is a lot less money...

Officially Homeless

We handed over the keys to our rental last night to our landlord and don't have possession of our new home until December 8th - we are officially homeless. My gracious Maid of Honor and Best Friend has opened her doors to us and we've now taken over her spare bedroom - we brought more items that we had planned on because the weather dropped into freezing temperatures and we didn't need...

Tracking Bars Updated

Just a quick update this morning - We are now permitted to spend the funds we had been required (by our bank) to allocate to closing costs.  While Jordan and I knew that our closing costs would only be beer/pizza/uhaul rental (so max $500) we were required to have 1.5% of the value of the mortgage available for closing costs. Jordan and I have moved some money into our emergency fund, Christmas fund,...

Spending Update

Below are September and October spending recaps (I get the bills in the first week of the following month - that's why I have Oct/Nov below).  The October bill was a bit horrific...oops, but November was back on track with spending of just over $1,600. Our gas bill has gone up significantly as...

*eek* Hardwood

Hardwood went in yesterday and carpets are tomorrow! So exciti...

Home & Debt Update

If you follow me on Twitter you know that Jordan and I have our possession date - December 8th! You also know that to save money we gave notice for November 30th, which means we're pretty much going to be homeless for eight days.  At first we thought we might stay at a hotel because even...

Miss Me?

Life has gotten hectic lately! Work has been extremely busy and life has been a roller coaster. We have our possession date for the home - December 8th!  I'm far to frugal to have paid a full months rent for December so we're going to be homeless for 8 days - we'll be couch surfing and our dogs will be in a kennel. My dad is pretty sick so that's caused a bunch of stress...

Yellowknife

Is where I'm working for the next couple of days...

All Time Top Referring Blogs

I just want to say a big thank you to these inspirational blogs. Not only do they provide amazing advise and support they have welcomed me into the personal finance blogosphere family. Thanks! http://saving4later.blogspot.com/ http://www.givemebackmyfivebucks.com/blog-roll/ http://shakingthemoneytree.blogspot.com/ http://ndchicscents.blogspot.com/ http://girlmakescents.blogspot.com/ http://w...

Christmas Budgeting

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner?  Don't believe me...check out the Christmas Countdown Clock....at the time that I'm writing this post... wowza...only 62 days!! Jordan and I are going for an even more frugal Christmas than we normally have - trying to...

House Update Wednesday

Wow!  So it's been a few weeks since I've given you an update on the house...what a slacker. Sooo much has been done since my last update when I told you that the plumbing rough-ins were being done.  Since then the insulation and siding has been installed, the drywall has been installed and...

August and September Spend Report

I've been a bit of slacker lately with keeping up with my regular posts - so without further delay here is our spend report for August and September of 2011. I've cleaned up the categories a bit and made them more colourful - but other than that - it's the same basic spreadsheet. You can...

A Financial Year in Perspective

A little more than a year ago Jordan and I had merged our finances and were learning about each others money management styles.  There was one particular conversation that we had where we were both feeling a bit exasperated.  I felt like money was going down the drain and Jordan felt...

A, B, C's of Me

I've seen a few bloggers with this post, so I thought I would join in the fun! A-Age: 27 B-Bed Size - Queen C-Chore you hate – Folding Socks D-Dogs – We have Two! E-Essential start to your day – coffee!! F-Favourite Colour- purple G-Gold or Silver – white gold H-Height - 5'10" (always dreamed of being 6 feet, but never made it) I- Interests – reading, baking, finances, work J-Job Title- Human Resources...

Prioritizing

With possession of our new home about six weeks away - it's hard not to dream about all the things that we think would help turn our place into a home.  Some things we feel we need, others we know can wait - it gets a bit fuzzy in between when you're walking down the isles of Home Depot, Ikea...

Christmas Draws

I have a guest post over on Krystal's blog today, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, if you've come my way from there - welcome!  If you haven't seen my post there yet, I hope you check it out. It is that time of year where quite a few of us will start thinking about Christmas (if we haven't already). With Jordan and I buying a house, and getting out of consumer debt for the second time - I'm more...

School Lenders

Have you heard about Gail Vaz Oxlade's School Lender's Campaign? If you haven't heard of it yet, now is the time to find out what she's talking about.  She's asking everyone she knows, through her blog, twitter and facebook - to get involved.  She asserts that the lending system is broken and we all need to take action to implore our MP's to make a difference. You can - Join...

Accelerate - Vehicle or Mortgage

Over Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to talk to my family a lot about our upcoming Mortgage commitment - fixed or variable and accelerated or standard - there are so many options!  What we're stuck on right now is once everything is settled in the new house and we've paid off our credit...

Insurance!

I have a guest post over on Krystal's blog today, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, if you've come my way from there - welcome!  If you haven't seen my post there yet, I hope you check it out. For the last few years, I haven't had much luck when seeking out new insurance quotes.  I, unfortunately,...

Roommates

We knew this was coming, but I was hoping it was going to be a month later.  Our roommate has given us notice and is planning to be out for November 1st.  We should be taking possession of the new place in November and are tentivly planning on giving notice to our landlord for November...

quick debt load update

Things are getting pretty hectic on a personal level right now, so I won't be writing (at least I say that now) a lot in the short term.  That said, I did want to post a quick update. We've been sticking to our credit card debt pay off plan (just made $1,500 worth of payments this morning).  Jordan's...

travel, travel, travel

so....I have been travelling a lot! Sunday night I flew into Saskatoon and came home on Monday. This morning I flew into Fort McMurray and will go home tomorrow evening. Next weekend Jordan and I drive into BC for my grandmother's 75th birthday and then Monday/Tuesday I'll be in Burnaby for work....that...

House Update Wednesday

As of Tuesday September 20, 2011, the pluming is being done in your home today. A simple update, but a beautiful one! We probably won't be able to get inside to have any more pictures for a while, but here's one from last week that I don't think I shared...

Debt Update

So far so good in that we're sticking to the plan, as of today we're under $10,000 - here is the debt breakdown: This is what we have left for payments: You can see that Jordan and My credit card are now under their 1/3 balances and we're half way their for the joint credit card.  We've received...

House Update Wednesday

It has been a very exciting week for the house!  Last week they had started framing and so we've got some great photo's to share.  They finished the four walls on the main floor and the interior framing on the main floor on Saturday this week. Yesterday the builder got...

Wedding Budget

Two days before the wedding I lost my life. That's right, the little USB that I carry around with me everywhere - it's always in my purse, always.  and...I.Lost.It.  Thankfully my mom and my Maid of Honor helped keep my head on straight and we figured out who I owed money too and what the...

Guest Post: Top 3 Websites to Get Financial and Stock News

Melanie DeMonte is a retired stock broker who worked at the TSX for 15 years. She’s now a private financial adviser. As an important factor in the increasing or diminishing confidence levels of major players in the investment world- whose collective decisions can make or break the economy- the stock market, it turns out, does matter.  A major key to our economy making a full recovery is...

House Update Wednesday

We went out to see how things were progressing over the weekend and were a bit sad to see that the fifth house in the row of five that they are currently constructing was being framed, but the others were not.  We did see however, a huge pile of lumber in the front and in the back of the house. I'm...

Little Things

As part of 'the plan' Jordan and are are going through recent credit card transactions as well as our checking accounts and looking for auto transactions that may be adding to the debt load with out us being fully aware.  In the last two weeks we've found and cancelled the following things: The...

Fish Tacos

My best friend and I have decided to get together once a week and cook dinner together. The only rule is that it is supposed to be something new and interesting and we'll try to rotate houses and who picks what we're making. Last week we made Fish Tacos - they were amazing! Here's the receipe: Recipe...

September Budget

...no surprises here: September is a three pay month for me which is giving our debt repayment plan a significant boost!  This month we'll see all three credit card balances dip below the 1/3 mark of their total available credit limits as well as see Jordan's nearly paid off. I...

House Update Wednesday

 Gah!  This is the first week where nothing has changed....waiting is hard.   Tuesday's Update: Construction is still waiting on the city to complete their inspection on the back fill.  They are planning to commence framing within the week; however, if it continues to keep raining...

New Book!

On a side note... I'm reading this book, and it's amazing! The H...

Honey Moon Spending

This picture is like straight out of a postcard stand...but we actually took it with our new fancy camera. Jordan and I planned on spending about $3,000 while in Vegas (not including our flights)....here's how we did: The shows category includes tickets to see the Blue Man Group, Penn & Teller...

Credit Card Spending Check In

As part of our 'the plan', our credit card budget for the month of August is $500 for gas and groceries.  This is just a quick check in to see how we're doing: It's August 29th and we're at $543.47...oops.  We made it so so so close!  The budget for August was a bit of a  guess,...