Happy New Year

Followed Through

Well, I did what I said I was going to do.  I used our Tax Returns to slam down our Line of Credit.  Feels Great!  We're down to owing just $6,000 and nothing is owing on our credit cards either.  It'll just take a month or two and this should be cleared out as well.

Renovations are coming along though we are stalled waiting for a mudder/taper to move forward.  At least spring is in the air.  I love all this snow melting away.

2018 Tax Return

Just last week I was able to submit our tax returns for 2018 and it looks like we can be expecting a combined refund of about $4,300!  With all the renovations going on - it really couldn't come at a better time (despite the adage of this really just representing an interest free loan to the government).

The plan is to use it to knock back our Line of Credit so we can get that paid off ASAP. The LOC mostly has leftover expenses from our back yard landscaping this past summer.  Once we use the tax refund it'll take us just another month or two to get it completely paid off (again).  

Just for fun - here's a picture of the hottub/pergola/fence that we did over the summer which had a bit of an overrun. 

If you're expecting a tax refund this year, what are your plans for spending/saving it?

Renovations Update

We're getting to a really exciting stage with our basement renovation.  Framing is done, plumbing and electrical are mostly complete, insulation is done and drywall has started.  So things are really starting to take shape.  We've chosen our flooring and paint and some of the fixtures we've ordered have started to arrive.  My sink and counters for the wine room and our vanity are sitting in our storage room!

This is the luxury vinyl plank flooring we're going with and we're going with a grey carpet/walls.  Some of those color paint chips are for inspiration for the bathroom/laundry which we may do a different colour.  It's not pictured here but we've also chosen the tile for our Pellet Stove corner.  All in the flooring quote is $10,000 (installed) for around 1,200 square feet, plus stairs.  It's a bit more then we were hoping for - but the installer is also going to have to do some leveling work in the spaces where we are putting down the vinyl.

We're going to be tackling painting to add some sweat equity to the project and just need to confirm timelines with our contractor so we're ready for that.  It's going to be a lot of work for mostly Jordan as I'm usually on primary duty with the baby in the evening.

Monthly Spend (February, 2019)

February was a great spend month - groceries were really under control.  All of the freezer/meal planning that I did back in Nov/Dec really paid off.  I had prepped dozens of meals for when we brought our daughter home from the hospital.  The freezer is nearly empty now though, so I'm going to need to plan a big grocery shop/meal plan again.

Does anyone have any favorite make-at-home freezer meals?  Some of our favorites were shepherd's pie & pulled pork.

Outside of food spending - everything else was pretty in line.  We did go out of town twice - which is why there is some spending on 'vacation'. 

"Baby" needs to be updated to "Kids" - this is clothes, shoes, hair etc. etc.  anything specific for them.

How did you do on your February goals?

Monthly Spend (January 2019)

Here is the full monthly spend for January...

The budget for what I refer to as our day-to-day expenses is $400/week - I was trying to get this down to $300/week for the month of January but pretty much failed at that.  There are five weeks in January though, and so our average came in at $398 - so not perfect, but I'm happy that we didn't go over the normal budget.

The items not highlighted in grey have budgets of their own - we save monthly for things like vehicle/home maintenance, baby stuff, insurance, the renovation etc. 

So it looks like a lot  - but really we're pretty much on target. 

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.