I Screwed Up

It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but I screwed up.  I was backing out of the carport, and turning to avoid the pickup that parked their (just out of the picture) and I caught the corner of the Escape on the pillar.

The carport is fine, the Escape is not.

Ugh.

The first quote I got to fix it is around $1,400.  Jordan's going to call around to see if we can do any better - but there is only two places in town that do body work of any kind.  It's the entire front bumper that needs to be replaced.

Moving

So begins the process of packing up our old house without a new house to put everything in.  

A while back I mentioned that Jordan and I were preparing for this by purchasing a 20 foot long container.  Fingers crossed that it winds up being large enough to hold everything - but if not, there is some space in my grandmother's home that could work in a pinch.

We'll be going into Alberta every weekend in February until the house is packed up and moved.  The first weekend we'll be just finishing getting everything from the basement up and into the garage and everything from upstairs down to the main floor.  Stairs suck when you're moving so if we can do this before even renting the moving truck, we'll be a lot better off.  Fingers crossed that the work I do with physio will help me be productive when we're moving...that and having Little Man with us will be interesting to see how much we can get done.

Plantar Fasciitis

Thank goodness for health benefits!

I don't think I've shared this before, but I happen to have chronic planter fasciitis.   For those not familiar, it's when the ligament that connects your heel bone to your toes gets inflamed.  It's been ongoing for me for going on three years.

I've previously met with three different doctors, completed 6 months of physio, two rounds of cortisone injections in my heel (talk about painful), and custom orthotics.  All to no avail.

I've just started physio again, with a new practitioner and am amazed at the results.  After one session with her, I've had more progress than with any other method.

The pain is ridiculous, when I'm walking, sitting, pretty much doing anything my heel/arch ranges from light throbbing to stabbing.

While on maternity leave and before my termination is processed, I still have access to my benefits, so now is as good as time as any to see if we can make any headway with the pain.  My first assessment/treatment appointment was an hour and cost $90 - $60 was covered by my plan and $15 by Jordan's.  There's a $75 annual deductible for Jordan's plan, so now that it's covered, all of my subsequent visits ($60/30 minutes) will be paid for 100%.  Which is excellent because she wants to see me 2-3 times a week for a while.

The greatest part is I was able to submit both online, and within two days was already reimbursed.

So yay benefits, and yay new physiotherapist.

Oh!  For anyone interested, she used ultrasound and then taped my heal/ankle to receive pressure on the tendon and it was amazing!  I couldn't believe a few cents of medical tape releived so much pain AND that no one else has thought to try it.

Foreclosure Sale

With the pending closing of the sale of our house, Jordan and I have been on the house hunt again...and we've just found a diamond in the rough that we're going to put an offer in on.  It's a bank foreclosure sale, so comes with some complications.

There are multiple offers going in, and no offer can include any conditions.  That means no conditions on financing, or inspections et.  The first offer has been accepted by the bank, so now it and any other offers need to go before the judge to see who will be awarded the sale. There are tenants in the house that will need to be evicted, and, the sale is going to happen before our house closes.

hmm...what else?

Well, we got in to see the house last week and it's a MESS.  It poses both the advantages of being sold at a price where all of the renovations we would do will bring the property's value back up to what it should be whereas if we bought a house that we wanted to do some cosmetic/preference changes it would be money spent that wouldn't really impact the value.

The house is within a stones through from a school, and a small convenient store.  It's nestled high on a bank that provides a beautiful view from a wraparound deck.  There's a large six foot fence that surrounds the .8 acre space.  A large garage/shop that is in really good shape (better then the house).  It has a lot of positives that make the prospect of doing the major reno completely worth it.

....

So I was really excited when I wrote all of that and it was just when we decided to put the offer in.  Well we found out on Thursday that we lost the house.  Another bid came in just $1,166 more than ours - I can't help but be so disappointed.  Jordan was doing such a good job of being analytical about it and I let my emotions get involved and started fantasizing and planning with what our lives would lookalike on that little big piece of dirt.

Ahh well, on to the next house.

Jordan's Retirement Savings

We got some great news a few weeks ago.  Jordan's employer is increasing the amount that they will match for his RRSP.  I mean, the really great news is that he's actually working somewhere that has a retirement program!  It's the first time ever.

The company establishes contributions based on previous years profitability and the employee's salary.  I'm not sure what the actual formal is, but last year it was matching up to $24/pay and 2016 it's increasing to $42 and change a pay.  I like round numbers so we're going to contribute $50/pay to get the full match plus a few extra bucks of our own.

Yay, it's like free money
Granted he has to stay with this company for five years to keep all of the employer contributions, but that's still pretty awesome considering his industry doesn't often have retirement benefits of any sort.

It's not 10% of his salary - which would be nice, but it gets us halfway there.  If we can get another $200/month in savings for his retirement that would be ideal. Our ability to swing that will depend a lot on what we wind up doing for housing here in BC and what I wind up doing for work in a years time.

Time will tell.

Insurance

I'm not sure what automobile insurance is like outside of Alberta and BC but I can tell you that it's wayyyyyy cheaper in Alberta.

The renewal came up for the Kia so we got organized to switch the policy over - for comparable coverage it's going to be $418 more a year.  On top of that, they charge a premium to pay monthly, unlike Alberta where they just divide the premium by 12.

So, we paid the $1,346 upfront.

The Escape is up for renewal next month... So I'm sure it'll be about the same again. 

Planned Spending

Okay, so yesterday we looked at our day to day spending to see if that was in alignment.  Today I thought we would look at our planned spending.  

On average we spent about $1,770 each month that we had planned for (or had intended to plan for).  Again, I went through the categories generally last week, and I don't mean to re-hash it, the idea here is just to see what we need to be doing to be ready for 2016.  Remember, this isn't spent every month - we might have months of spending nothing and then need to replace a windshield for example.  The idea is that we're saving each month so that when something does come up, we've got the cash ready.

So, the reality is that we just cannot spend like this in 2016.

My employer paid top up is almost done, and we only have EI for the rest of the year.  I have no idea what I'll be doing for work come 2017 so we need to be modest.

I think though, we can start with what we have currently saved and match that up against what we would need if we DID spend like we did in 2016 and see what the gaps are.

We already know that we're not intending to spend the money that we still have in the baby fund, and that there's no foreseeable reason to spend like that in 2016 - Little Man only needs on crib after all.  We're 100% here anyways, so we don't need to worry about money for him.

Vacation and Christmas/Gifts has just been depleted.  Christmas this year was about $2,500, there would have been a big chunk in July and then the rest spread out throughout the year.  So - we won't be able to be as generous with each other or with our friends/family this year...well, generous in terms of cash spent, we can still be generous with our time and our love of course.  

I think that Emergency/Vehicle should be saved for - we're just about there anyways, and with two vehicles, this is pretty accurate year over year in terms of the cash availability we need to have.

Maintenance is the other biggy.  There's already enough for my annual professional designation membership and some for clothes but nothing for the physical maintenance of our home....good thing we're selling it lol.  I often draw from this account for big pantry stock-up Costco runs.  So, we might need to re-think how we do those, or doing them at all.

Are there any big cuts that you're making to your budget for 2016?

I haven't done a 2016 budget post outside of updating the Current Budget tab at the top because we're so in flux that I'm doing lump sum savings rather than automatic, but I think this post really helps cement what we have money for and what we don't.