She's Here!!

She's here, she's here!

I'm not going to post photo's of her - but she was born a week and a bit ago and is absolutely perfect.

Money on Leave

The other day I mentioned that I've stripped back our budget to the bare bones in anticipation of waiting for Employment Insurance when I go on maternity leave.  We'll have several changes to our financial picture over the next 12 months or so. 

I'll be taking Maternity/Parental Leave for 6 months, then taking 3-5 weeks vacation (pending approval).  When I start vacation, Jordan's going to start his Parental Leave for the next six months.  The plan is to overlap for the month of August when baby is six months and Little Man is 3.5 years and really spend time as a family just connecting.  It will also serve as a transition before I go back to work full time.

Here's a rough ideal of the iterations we'll go through:

1. Prior to Maternity Leave - full salary for Jordan & I 
2. Maternity Leave Starts (wait for EI) - Jordan full salary, $0 for Jessie
3. EI starts - Jordan full salary, ~$500/week for Jessie (max benefit of $547 less taxes)
4. Work top-up starts - Jordan full salary, Jessie work tops up EI to 70% of salary for 15 weeks ~$1,700/month
5. Work top-up stops - Jordan full salary, ~$500/week for Jessie (max benefit of $547 less taxes)
6. Jessie Vacation Starts, Jordan Paternity Leave Starts - full salary Jessie, $0 for Jordan
7. Jordan EI Starts - full salary Jessie, ~$500 for Jordan
8. Jordan back to work - full salary Jessie, full salary Jordan

phew.

8 times.  8.

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, and while they have all been respectfully curious of him, I'm also not going to leave him alone to get run over when they start playing.  That said, it would be nice to be able to get up once in a while and get dishes done, or supper started with both hands.

So, we thought that a playpen would do the trick.  We still have money in the baby fund, but rather than jump the gun and purchase something new right away, I thought I would post in our towns local Facebook classifieds group.  Within an hour, I had three offers that ranged from free to $100 - so naturally I checked out the free option.

I was a bit sceptical at first, but it turns out that was for naught.  The playpen is perfect!  And Little Man seems to think it's pretty good too.

I just folded one of my quilts and laid it on the bottom along with some toys, and he's happy for a solid 20 minutes without being in my arms.  Woohoo!

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 15 weeks.  The idea is to help transition the family from regular salary, down to EI with a 'step'.  It's a huge help!  Normally, the employee must return to work for a minimum of six months after the leave or the benefit must be repaid.

In my case, I don't, because just before my Maternity Leave started, I was laid off.  As part of my termination package, I do not have to repay the benefit.

Not Little Man, but Super Cute!

The last Friday in January marked the end of my top up.  So going forward, it's just EI.  eek!  Good thing the house has sold so we will only have a mortgage payment for the month of February, well, until we buy our new home that is.

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.

Cloth Diapers

Lots, and lots of people have written on the pros and cons of cloth diapering.  Anyone who's looked into cloth versus disposables knows that cloth - over the long term - is far more cost effective than the alternative.  So for that reason, and for Jordan - because of the environmental impacts of disposables, we bit the bullet and jumped on the cloth wagon.

Isn't his little butt cute!!

I mean, really, that should be reason enough to cloth diaper.  The cute factors.

We got started by purchasing some covers, and pre-fold diapers, which are working really well for us.  We picked up a locking garbage can and liners that will keep the dogs all out.

My mom bought some material, a pattern, snaps etc. so that we can make some more covers ourselves.  We've started working on that, and will post some pictures once we have them made.

Upfront, we've spent about $750 plus maybe $100 or so on material etc.  I think, honestly, we could have spent a bit less but I also don't feel like we over spent by a great deal.  Little Man was crying and then nursing when we were shopping so Jordan and my mom picked out most of our stash and I love what they chose for us!

Does anyone else out there cloth diaper?

We're still doing disposables for overnights, and if we're going to town for more than an hour - but overall it's working out really well!

Life with a Newborn

So often I think about sitting down to write - it's passing thoughts really.  When we started our cloth diapering journey, as I'm dealing with some of the payments through my layoff, EI etc.  and then, Little Man wakes up, or fusses, or is just awake and fun and I would much rather play with him...but he had a good nap day not too long ago, and I've had a bit of a writing spurt.  I'm hoping to keep it up, but the reality is I probably won't write very frequently for a while longer yet.  I'm still here though, reading..and well, thinking about writing.

We are doing well, our little family.  Learning how to be parents, and doing so while sharing my mom's home as we wait for the sale of our home to go through and as we explore options for our new town in BC. I'm looking forward to sharing with you all, as much as we're able.

Welcome Little Man!

Guess what guys?!

We have welcomed our little baby boy into the world!  He's about four weeks old now and our first month with him has been a whirlwind.  He's absolutely perfect in every way.  I have to say, that our family has also been absolutely amazing.  I've had a tonne of support from both Jordan (who took the first two weeks off) and my mom, who's taken the subsequent couple of weeks off from work.  They've both been making sure I'm eating and taking care of myself so that we can all do our best to take care of our little man.

He's quietly napping on me at the moment, and i've worked out how to balance my mom's laptop on my knee while he does that so I'm quickly writing out this post, and looking to update my financial spreadsheets too.

You can expect that posts will be a bit sporadic for a bit, and I'm also thinking of updating the look/feel of the blog to welcome the Little Man into the fold (much like I did when I started including Jordan when I wrote and we moved from Jessie's Money, to Jessie's Money and Jordan's too).

EI Salary Top Up

I'm so happy to be writing two such positive posts in a row.  I checked my online paystubs this morning and found that my employer paid employment insurance top up has been approved and processed.

A small bonus here, is that when I did my calculations earlier in the year for planning - I forgot that I had already maxed out my CPP/EI premiums for the year - so the benefit is about $65/pay more than I thought it was going to be for the rest of 2015.  Woohoo!

If you read yesterday's post, you know that as part of my employer paid benefit maternity/parental leave benefit package, once approved for EI, I'm eligible for a top-up.  They 'top-up' my EI benefit to 70% of my pre-leave salary for 15 weeks.  Normally, in exchange for this benefit you have to guarantee that you'll work for them again for a minimum of 6 months after your leave of absence.  In my case, that requirement has been waived because of the termination.

So, 70% of my $78,750 salary is $55,125.   That divided by my employer's standard work week (1950) gives me an hour rate of $28.27.   My EI benefit (pre-tax) is $524 - to find an hourly rate I'll multiply that by 52 weeks and divide by 1950 hours which gives me $13.97/hour.

The difference between the two is $14.30 - so I take that and multiply it by 75 hours (two week pay period) to get my bi-weekly benefit of $1,072.19.  After taxes, we're left with just over $970 every two weeks for 15 weeks.

So yay!   My next project is to update my budget sheets, and work out turning our savings plans back on.

Photography

When Jordan and I were planning our wedding, I knew I wanted a photographer. I didn't want to go bankrupt over one, but I wanted someone who's job it was to catch all the moments I wouldn't see that day.

I had some people tell me I wasn't spending enough, and others tell me that their favorite photos were taken by friends and family - and it was a waste to pay someone.

I have to tell you, it was the best thing that Jordan and I spent money on that day.  The very best.  Not long after we were married, we found out that my dad had lung cancer.  A few short months after that, he passed away.

We have amazing photo's from that day, of my entire family, of my husband and I, of our grandparents, and of my dad.  A guy who hated having his picture taken.  My family still cherishes those photos, photos we never would have had otherwise.

I'm thinking about this today, because on the tail of yesterday's post about priorities, I found myself emailing that same photographer asking her about baby portraits for our budding little family.  I was looking at the cost - weighing it it my mind.  This isn't a safety or frustration issue here - this hits straight at my third budgeting for baby priority.

So here's the thing, even though it's going to cost us $500-$800 depending on the package we choose.  I still want to do it, I want to enjoy the moment, and the pictures captured afterward because you just don't know when it's going to be your last picture.

Priorities

People are very quick to tell you that babies don't have to cost a lot of money.  That we, as a population, spend far more then is actually necessary.

To be fair, by people, I mean people who are 20-40 years older than me - at least those are the ones in my life who generally make the comment; I'm sure others have other experiences.

The first time my grandmother said it to me, I responded with "you're right - they don't have to cost a lot.  Do you know what does impact finances - not working for a year."  She took a minute, and then agreed - because while she worked later on in life, while she was raising her five children - she didn't work, and didn't have to.  In fact, it was expected that she wouldn't.  There also weren't the options that exist now.  Sure, there were baby carriers - but not nearly the options that we have today.  There are more choices now, more options.

Here's the thing - I think it's okay to spend money.

It's a tool and while I think it's important to have a stash for emergencies, planned spending and all that good stuff, it's also okay to spend the money you do have for discretionary things on just that - things that are discretionary.

So, yes, my stroller was pretty pricey...but its the best stroller for my families needs.

Jordan and I decided pretty early on, that our decision making tree for baby would put money last, not first.  Don't get me wrong, I haven't completely lost my frugal wits, we just decided on what our priorities would be before making purchasing decisions.

1. Safety
2. Frustration Level
3. Money

Safety's first, always.  Next comes frustration level - I tend to run pretty hot.  I wasn't graced with patience a mile long like my mom, I'm more like my dad - short/quick temper & no grudges.  So, with that in mind, I knew that any equipment we bought for baby - be it a stroller or a car seat or something else, it had to be easy to figure out.  I'm going to be stressed already as a first time mom, scared, learning, and I don't want to buy something that I know would set me off.  Last, is money. 

We saved up for a long time for this baby, three years, and so while we do think about money and look for sales it's not as important as number one and number two on the list.

Time is Flying By

Wow...how is time moving by sooo quickly right now.

Today, I'm 31 weeks pregnant - so anywhere from 6-11 weeks left (ish) before baby arrives.  I only have four more weeks left of work before I start my scheduled vacation, which will convert to maternity leave once baby shows up.  Four more weeks, and I head to BC to join my husband and actually live together again!

Wow.

I'm pretty excited!

Budgeting for Baby

You know that Jordan and I have decided to hold off of buying a home in BC just yet, but I'm not sure if I've shared that we're also holding on selling our home in Alberta.  This is for a couple of reasons, but the largest is that it's not a good time to sell with the current oil prices/economy in AB.

There's a few more things there, but I'm not quite ready to share all of that yet.  I am though, ready to share our draft baby budget.  This is with carrying our home in Alberta, and living in BC with family.

I would really appreciate any thoughts or advice you have!

Income is income.. I'll be eligible for the maximum EI benefit and the UCCB payment which just increased from $100, to $160/month for care givers of children under 6 years old.


Onto monthly expenses - these are our normal expenses for maintaining our house in Airdrie.  I've reduced the utilities slightly, but not a lot just in case.  It will be winter, and while the house won't need to be heated to 20, it will need to stay at 10 Celsius so pipes don't freeze.

We'll still have cell phones, though our contracts are up for renewal in November so there will hopefully be a smaller bill by the end of the year.

We still have the car payment, mortgage, and our LOC payments.  I'm leaving our monthly spending at $1,700 (what it is now) because while we'll spend less on gas etc. with me at home, I'm assuming their will be baby expenses that will balance that out.

My employer will keep all my benefits going, I just have to pay for my Long Term Disability premium (which I'm happy to do).

We're able to keep doing some of our planned saving/spending, but at a much lower rate.

For the first 15 weeks of my maternity leave, my employer 'tops up' my EI to 70% of my salary.  That means that we'll have approximately an additional $900/bi-weekly during that time.  My plan is to bank all of that money - but maybe it would be better to drop that all on the LOC (~$6750 total) or maybe to add to our vacation or emergency funds?

What do you think?

Baby Spend - So Far

Stroller - UppaBaby Vista 2015 - $855 As most of you know, Jordan and I have been saving up for baby for years...little bits at a time.  We're now at that place where we can spend on baby things, and we are completely prepared for that in our budget, woohoo!  We had put away $10,000 over threeish years for both pre-baby, and post-baby.

Here's where we're at so far....and while we've been saving for a long time, that doesn't mean we want to spend money we don't need to - just about everything we've gotten on sale.

• The Crib was regularly $229.99 - saved $30
• The Dresser was it's regular price, but came with the change table top
• The Stroller was regularly $925 - saved $70
• Car Seat Adapter (not pictured) was regularly $75 - saved $5.60 

The last big thing will be the mattress for the crib which I'm planning on getting from Costco for about $130 (best price I've found for the mattress I want).  After that, we'll wait and see what we need after the baby shower :)

The Crib! $299

The Dresser/Change Table - $379

Chicco Key Fit 30 - $220

Other Monies on Leave

Yesterday when looking at our income while on Maternity Leave, I mentioned that I'll also be eligible to apply for the Canada Child Benefits which include:

• Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB)
• Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB)
• GST/HST credit, and
• Any other applicable provincial programs.

Due to income restrictions, Jordan and I will only be eligible for the National UCCB ($100/month).  We are though, also eligible for a program in British Columbia (BCFB), for which we'll receive about $25/month.

I figure - every little bit counts.

A short post today - but tomorrow I'll be posting the whole budget.

Income on Leave

In the last few months I've gone through countless iterations of our budgets for when I'm on maternity leave, for the new house, for carrying both mortgages for short time until our Alberta house sells....sooooo many budgets.

Before I delve into the current one, I thought I would share our income situation.

With Jordan's new job in BC, he got a bit of a raise.  Of course income taxes, benefit deductions and the like are all different too.  This has resulted in a larger than expected change to our net take home for him (woohoo) - a little more than $1,600/bi-weekly.

I'll be receiving my regular salary until I go on maternity leave in October - so we're banking a lot of that between now and then - but I will have benefits while on leave.

I plan on taking the full leave that I'm eligible for, which in Canada is 52 weeks.  For 50 of those weeks, I will receive Employment Insurance.

In Canada, Employment Insurance benefits is 55% of your average insurable weekly insurance, up to a maximum.  In 2015 that maximum is $49,500.  So, because my annual salary is larger than the maximum, and I have contributed fully to EI, I will receive the maximum benefit amount of $524/week.  Of course, there are income tax deductions on this.  I've used the Canada Revenue Agency's Salary Calculator to determine that my benefit will work out to be about $440/week or $880 bi-weekly.

I should also mention that my employer provides a generous top up.  They will top up, or supplement, my EI payment to 70% of my salary for 15 weeks.  This is an awesome benefit to help you transition down to EI benefits.

I'll also be eligible to apply for the Canada Child Benefits which include:

• Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB)\
• Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB)
• GST/HST credit, and
• Any other applicable provincial programs.

Phew!  I think I'll save writing about those for another day.

Big News!

Those moccasins aren't for the dogs...

Jordan and I have been keeping our lips zipped about this for a while, but now that we're at the halfway mark we wanted to share with you all that we're joining the ranks of personal finance bloggers with a baby!