Share Payout

A few months back I wrote about $10,000 in shares that my employer would be paying me out as part of the separation of my employment.  This past week, that cheque finally arrived!  The consensus on that post was to keep the cash liquid until things settled down with the sale of our house,...

a Playpen for Little Man

Little Man has started rolling over from tummy to back, and he's made it half way from back to tummy.  So far when I have wanted to give him space to play and learn and develop his muscles we have done so on a yoga mat on the floor with me siting with him.  We have three dogs in the house,...

Updating the Day to Day Plan

Five years ago or so, when Jordan and I merged our finances and decided to manage our spending with a joint day-to-day spending account that was different from our joint workhorse bill-payment account we decided that each Friday would be payday.  On that payday, we would buy gas and groceries...

EQ Bank

Has anyone heard of these guys yet? EQ Bank is a branch of Equitable Bank that has been around for some time in Canada.  It has been a mortgage lending facility and through the EQ branch will now be offering an online only savings account with only online access (no debit cards).  So much the way that ING (now Tangerine) started out in Canada, with plans to have increased offerings as...

Escape Insurance Due

Well, the insurance was due for the Escape - for a grand total of $1,183. That's a couple hundred less then the Kia.  So annually, for both vehicles it's a grand total of $2,529. So we need to be saving at least $210/month to be able to do the lump sum next year.  I had guessed about $250...

January Eating Out

Okay. Here it is. In January we ate out 21 times.  Yup, 21 times.  We spent just about $540 in restaurants and fast food joints.  Yuck. I felt like, it might help to do this left often, if I put the details out there, rather than just skipping over it in our monthly spend report...

January Spend Report

Here we go, January's spend summary. The categories highlighted in pink, are all in the day-to-day spending category that we budget $425/week for.  So for January we were over budget by about $244. We did go to Alberta twice if I'm remembering correctly, and it's hard not to eat out...

Spilled Milk

...or Wine as the case may be. We unpacked a load from my mom's small utility trailer earlier this week, and found a box that had some of my home made wine in it....It had frozen, and then thawed and the corks had popped. So sad! Thankfully it wasn't a full case, and the bottles are still intact. So...

Where the Budget Stands

Okay, so now that we're down to just EI and Jordan's salary, it feels like a good time to post the budget we're working with.  Now, this doesn't apply for February because we still have the Mortgage and the Line of Credit, and all the expenses (utilities, taxes) associated with having the house...

Employer Paid Top Up

How did 15 weeks go by already? Back in October, when I was waiting for Little Man to arrive, I mentioned that one of my benefits was a salary top up.  When on an eligible maternity leave, and approved for Employment Insurance, my employer tops up a mom's EI benefit to 70% of their salary for...

My Dad

Today would have been my dad's sixty second birthday if Lung Cancer hadn't taken him away from us almost four years ago.  We had gotten the confirmation weeks after my husband and I were married and just a few months later, he was gone.  I think about him so often, especially now that we have Little Man.  He was so ready for grandchildren and it breaks my heart that he didn't get the...