Relax... Things get better

This week was hard.  We had received a message from our bank that they had seriously miscalculated our taxes.... By almost $2,000.00 for this year.  Talk about a hold crap moment! 

Because of this we figured we would be screwed... Completely.  They wanted to up our payments by $200.00 per pay (so twice a month = $400.00 a month).  I don't have $400.00 a month.  I would have to get a part time job, on top of my already part time job just to make this work!  Or Arnold would have to pick up a pager rotation every week... And that is not possible.

We spent much of the week very tense, very worried and very scared as Arnold tried to contact our bank.

Let me be real right now... We will never ever use this bank again if we can help it.  Their customer service is horrible!!

Arnold made an appointment to see this guy on Saturday but then the guy emailed him and said that he was all booked and to come on Thursday.  So Arnold went.  They were able to work out something so it only goes up by $75.00 per pay now.  Which is going to be hard but we will make it work.  I know we will.  It means less going to pay down credit cards but it will work.

On Friday, during my work time, I got a call from my name insurance company.  Turns out they were able to recover our $1000.00 deductible from Arnold's bike.  The guy who hit him, his insurance company paid up!  We are so excited!!!!  This means the whole bike situation is totally over.

The best part?  We can put that $1000.00 on our tax portion of our mortgage!

See?  Life does get better.

Marriage Monday ~ Money, Part 3

Last month we talked about Grocery Budget and how our family makes it work for us.  Not you, but our family.  US.  It works for US.  Please keep this in mind while reading these posts.

This month I'm writing about our budget. 

This took a while for it to come about and for it to finally be something that works for US.

When we first started DR (Dave Ramsey) I had SO many things on our budget list.  They were a list of:

Groceries
Books
Gas and Oil
Car Repairs and Tires
Clothing – Arnold
Clothing – Miranda
Clothing – boys
Baby-sitter
Christmas
hair care
blow money (spending money)
entertainment/dinning out
church tithing
medical (co pay and prescriptions)
household
Next big thing – Piano tuner
Next big thing – Camera
Next big thing – Computer/Photo drive
NOT included are things like bills/rent/CC's, anything paid for directly from our account 

- the last 3 things "Next big thing" were not part of the DR program but I needed them

Now our "budget"  looks like this:

Rent

Bank Fees

Offering

Internet

Resp

Insurance

Student Loan

Cell Phones

Mir Visa - CC

Arnold Visa - CC

Arnold MC - CC

Mir MC - CC

Mental Health

Food

Gas/oil/car

Entertainment/Eating Out

Education/Book Orders

Medical/Health

Christmas/Birthday

Commuting Cost

While there may be "more" lists they aren't as detailed as they were before.  We have found some things work better for and some don't.  For example... We save about 40.00 a month for Christmas/Birthday.  But during the summer months we kinda "lax" on that.  Not because we don't want to do it but because we don't have many birthdays or anything to go to or do.

About 2 months ago we added in our "Mental Health" fund.  It's $40.00 a month.  It's mainly for when I just can't handle cooking, we have nothing ready or I just need out of the house.  we use that to help with whatever the cost might be.  So if we have 20.00 left in our entertainment/eating out budget that's enough for a babysitter.  And Arnold and I can go out on the 40.00 from the mental health category.

We have also switched pays since we started DR.  When we had started we were paid on the 15th and the last day of the month.  Now we are paid every 2 weeks.  This means that there are 2 months where we get paid 3 times a month.

This just happen for us.  We were paid 3 times this month. Last year I didn't quite "get" it so this year I was really careful.  I put away the 2 weeks worth of grocery money, 2 weeks worth of gas money, part of our rent money and 2 of our things that have to be paid every month.  we had enough "left over" to put $500.00 on a CC and $500.00 into savings for this summer's boat trip.  And to help this summer if needed.

So here's the breakdown of our budget, so you have an idea:

Rent:  Our rent is taken out on the 1st of every month.  Our Rent budget include our utilities (which are included in our rent cheque).  We save the month before for the next month.  For example.  This month we have been putting some money away each pay to cover July's rent.

Bank Fees:  We pay more than we "should" but this covers anything and everything.  We have unlimited bank accounts (we currently have 6); up to 10 e-transfers a month (we use anywhere from 2 to 4 a month); and unlimited transactions.

Offering:  We have started to do our churches direct withdraw from our bank account.  It comes out on the last day of the month.

These three accounts (Rent, Bank Fees and Offering) are saved for in one account labeled "Rent" in our bank.

Internet:  My husbands work pays for a portion of our internet.  This is because Arnold is on at least 1 pager rotation a month (prime and secondary) and needs the internet at home in order to keep it working.  While it doesn't cover it all it does cover part of it.  We have this bill automatically taken out from our CC.  This was something that was needed to set it up.  And for us, it works well (not recommended by DR).  We take the first pay each month and put on the amount of our bill to the CC right away.  Then the bill come in and the amount we have put on "credits" the amount that is billed.  Then the money we get from hubbys work goes into our budget as well.  We have had to upgrade as we host a server in our house and we have enough people using the internet that it's needed.

RESP:  We started this when Kyler was born.  It's a Registered Education Savings Plan.  We put $25.00 per month per child away for this.  It's not something that we *should* be doing yet (according to DR) but this was something we needed so Arnold would feel more comfortable doing this program.  He wanted to know that even if it took us 18 years to pay everything off our kids would have something for school.

Insurance:  We pay this from our bank account every month.  It comes out on the 22nd or so.  It's for our liability, our car, Arnold's bike, and our contents. 

Student Loans:  My Student Loans were paid off last year (thank you for all your help!) and now we are plugging away at the loans Arnold has.  Which is a lot.  These will take us way more time than we want them too but that is ok.  We know why we got them and they are a loan we can handle for now.  Every few months Arnold does apply for "interest relief" because we can't afford the complete payment.  We have been blessed in the past few months to be able to put a little more on the loans.  A few hundred here and a few hundred there have helped us to get them down a bit more.

Cell Phones:  One thing you will see is we do NOT have a home phone on our bill. When we moved to Toronto we got a home phone and something happen and it fried!  So we figured, why keep 2 cell phones and a home phone.  So my cell is our "home phone".  Arnold's phone is truly the cell phone.  My phone doesn't stay at home however.  This has been a bit of an "issue" when hiring babysitters.  Our Babysitters need to have cell phones or something to contact people if help is needed.  We have left one of our phones at home every once and a while.

Mir Visa/Arnold Visa/Arnold MC/Mir MC:  These are our credit cards (duh!).  We made some serious mistakes years ago and are paying for them now.  Truly.  We are working on getting them paid off.  When we started the DR program we had 6 CC, a family loan and 2 student loans.  We are now down to 4 CC's and that's it :)  This does make me happy. I realize not for everyone but we are good with this.  The DR program recommends that you put your lowest amount CC first.  You pay that off then use the payments you would have paid to "snowball" to the next CC and get it paid off asap.  While I believe you can "live" without CC's in Canada I feel like we need to each have one.  I'm closing my VISA and Arnold will close his MC.  This way we have one VISA and one MC.  Each, that we are keeping, are the lowest interest rates of them all.  However... DH's VISA is our lowest balance.  We aren't paying that one off as fast as possible but it is on our list. 

Mental Health: As I explained above, this one was just added in to make sure I don't go crazy!

Food: Our Food budget is taken out in 2 week intervals.  I used to do shopping once a month  (see last post) but now I'm going weekly.  This is helping us out a lot more.  And it makes me putting money aside for it every month helpful.  Our food budget does include things like Food, cleaning products, possible needs for the house.

Gas/Oil/Car:  This budget is mainly for the Gas/Oil part.  See, we started, what most people call, a "sinking fund" for the Car.  We know one day we will need to replace it.  For now.  We have about $1,000.00 put aside to help repair the car, or help to buy a new one if we need to.  We just recently brought our car in to get the AC fixed (cause I don't want to melt in the car) and that came out of our car budget.  We will build it back up as "extra" cash comes in.  We never let it go under $500.00

Entertainment/Eating Out:  I don't know about you but I have never been able to go a whole month without eating out.  And with our crazy schedules sometimes it's good to have this as an option.  This covers going out to a movie (which we rarely do) and going to have dinner out.  If we go as a whole family (5-6 people depending on the day and time) it can cost us anywhere form $50-$80.00.  This isn't too bad, but sometimes I'm in shock how much we spend.  This helps us to realize we need to pick good days to go out.

Education/Book Orders:  We put this in when K went to school.  There were so many things I had forgotten about that I wanted to be able to do for K and Q at school.  They have a "Nutrition Program" where you pay $2.00 a week (Toonie Tuesday) and we get money to help run the program.  I've begun to learn more about it and know that at last 2 people in every classroom NEED this program.  They didn't have breakfast or anything so they can't make it to lunch.  If they have a lunch. This program helps our kids have food to eat.  We also have book orders.  Lately we have limited how much we can spend on it each month.  One month K picks a book (below $10.00 unless they pitch in their own money) and the next month Q does.  It's a great help for keeping the cost down.

Medical/Health:  This covers drugs :)  I am on BP meds and this covers my meds.  I get most of the cost covered by our health plan (taken right off Arnold's pay cheque) but I still have to pay the fee for getting it.  It also covers things like headache meds, drugs for my sinus cold last month, the kids meds when they have colds or are sick.  That kind of stuff.  This is something we do have a "cap" on.  We never have more than $100.00 in this budget.  It just doesn't make sense.

Christmas/Birthday:  This one, as I've said above, is hard.  We have K's bday in March, Q's bday in April, my bday in October, Arnold's bday in November.  And then Christmas.  So we don't "need" money in the summer time for birthdays but it changes now and then.  We are also beginning to experience friends birthdays and going to their parties.  We have had to increase our budget a bit.  We know that at Christmas we spend, maybe more than others.  So we take what we spent last year, add about $50.00 (since prices always climb) and we budget that out for 12 months.  Then add some extra for birthday times as well.  Every year it's different but generally we can handle it. all.

Commuting Costs:  This is part of the reason our "Gas" budget isn't as high.  And why we only have one "car".  Arnold has a bike that is a big part of our savings.  He saves about $5.50 a day by biking.  While that may not seem like a lot to you, and sometimes to him (mainly on days it's raining) he loves biking.  It keeps him in shape, he does something, most others don't and he loves setting an example to the kids of what he can do.  In a month, if Arnold bikes every week day, and there are no vacations, we save $110.00 a month.   This is in our budget, not as a saving, but knowing that we still need to spend money on it.  Arnold's bike needs new things all the time.  It's like another car (and sometimes I'm pretty sure it gets more KM's than our car does!).  We try to put aside $40.00 a month to help with the costs of repairs.  If it's not all used it gets socked away for the Bike Show in Toronto when we go and he gets new shoes/gloves/tubes/ect to stock up at home.  He also takes the TTC to get to work in the winter months (sometimes) so we pay for that, which means our costs go up in October until March.  They are between $95.00 to $110.00 (depending  on vacation times/days).

Anyway... this is our budget.  I know there is so much more I wish I could help you understand but I can only tell you what I have done.  If you have questions please let me know.  I'll do my best to answer them.  Remember this is what works for US.  Not the whole world but what works for US.

Next month I'm going to write about "sinking funds" and how important it is to have those around.  Even if you don't own a home!

Marriage Monday ~ Money, Part 2

Finally!  A Marriage Monday post that hasn't been forgotten, photo cop-out post or one of those things.  I'm ready to get back into this if I can.

Last month we talked about our first Marriage Monday Money post.  It was a super duper quick back story on why we are using the Dave Ramsey plan and what we are doing.

This month, as promised, I'm going to write about our grocery budget, and how we make that work for US.  While this plan may or may not work for you I'm hoping it gives you an idea of someone else does it.

I've written about this before... way back when.  It was a post called "Menu Planning"  I wrote all about how I menu plan for our family.  Since then things have been adjusted but the main idea is still the same thing.  PLANNING! 

That's right.  Planning.  You have to plan.

I've started doing these devotionals by Dave Ramsey on my "Youverson" Bible App.  The second day has this paragraph about planning:

"Jesus taught a similar lesson when He talked about discipleship in Luke 14:28-30.  He said no one building a tower would move forward on construction without sitting down to "count the cost".  After all, quitting halfway because the resources dried up would make the builder a laughingstock.  The foundation for his tower would become a monument to his incompetence."

While I don't feel like Dave is saying "only try once and if you fail you suck" more of a "keep trying, budgeting, and PLANNING so you don't fail"  While setbacks happen, and he knows it, we have to keep trying, over and over and over again!

We plan our grocery budget out a lot.  When I was writing the menu planning post (3 years ago) our budget was around $200.00 per 2 weeks.  I did 15 days at a time.   So around $400.00 to $450.00 a month for me.

Since then our family has changed.  We now have 3 adults living in the house.  We are trying to eat healthier (which sometimes means more money) and we are generally careful with what we have to get. 

Not only do we have 3 adults in our house but 2 little boys who eat almost more than their daddy (depending on the day and the meal).  Things got a little more expensive.

I now grocery shop almost the same way.  The flyers are still a great help, and I love knowing sales and not.  I do keep an eye out for our staples (ie, nutragrain bars, cereal, prepackaged rice crispy squares, pasta, sauces, soups, anything pantry wise).  If those are on sale we grab them right away. A great example is today.  We went grocery shopping and spent about $160.00 for 1 week.  *I should say our budget for foods is $185.00 per 7 days/week*  While we were shopping we picked up 2 boxes of KD; 4 boxes of prepackaged rice crispy squares; 2 boxes of cereals; 2 cans of "sloppy joe mix"; 4 cans of soup; 2 jars of seasoning (we need 1 this week and they were a good sale); and 2 freezer garlic breads that were on sale.  Everything was at least 50 cents to 4 dollars off what they normally are.

This is the reason our budget is higher.  We have made "wiggle room" for items we want to buy at a later/earlier date.  It helps us a lot.

I spend some time planning out my meals.  While I'm not as "fun new meals" in our house, I do try new things.  And of those things I do try I attempt to make most of them with things I currently have in my house, not things I have to go and spend lots and lots of money on!

I plan out my meals for 1 to 2 weeks.  We have now made "days" in our house.  Days that certain items are served in/on.  For example.  Tuesdays are "taco Tuesdays" we have chicken tacos, beef tacos, wraps, taco lasagna, ect.  Wednesdays are "Waffle Wednesdays".  I make waffles in the morning and I have them at lunch as well.  I do make a few extra and put them in the freezer for the weekends when the boys want a waffle and I'm not up to make them.  The take them out of the freezer, toss them in the toaster and we are good to go!.  Thursdays, I try, most of the time, to do a Crockpot meal or something super simple as Thursdays are our most busy day.  Fridays are "Burger Friday".  We have quino(sp) burgers, chicken burgers, beef burgers, veggie burgers, homemade burgers, ect.  Anything we can think of.  We keep trying to come up with something new to make it work!

When I'm choosing the meals I try to get some input. Today was the best.  I asked everyone on the way home what they would like to have for dinners this week.  I got a response from Jack of "do you have any meals that have leftovers?" Which made me suddenly realized the past few weeks our freezer meals for the guys have gone down to nothing!!!  So that's the plan this week.

Our week looks like this:

Sunday: Sloppy Joes tonight (way to use up the buns left over from Fridays burger night)
Monday: Chicken pot pie (to get leftovers for the guys)
Tuesday: Beef Taco Wraps
Wednesday: Ramen Noodles with veggies (Kyler wanted noodles and I wanted asparagus)
Thursday: Pork and Hashbrown skillet (something super easy)
Friday: Chicken burgers
Saturday: Perogies and Bacon


When I made up the meals, taking into consideration what everyone wanted/needed, we ended up with this.

Our grocery list was a bit different.  I didn't have time to flyer shop (I swear I normally do) so we went to my "trusted store" and got everything.  Then to M&M's to get the last few things which I know are cheaper and taste better there, and one last stop at Walmart (while doing something else there) to get some hashbrowns because for some reason our grocery store doesn't sell the small cut hashbrowns.

When we got all of our groceries anything that needed to be packaged up or put away was done as soon as we got in the door.  If it's something to make it last longer we do it.  For example, our asparagus was so "woody and dry" at the bottom I cut some off and placed it in a dish of water in the fridge.  We will rinse any fruit we can and get things ready to be eaten right away. 

We do our best to make sure our groceries are bought when we will use them, and only how much we will use.

When I was doing my past Menu Planning post I found that most of our food was put in the compost or out in the garbage.  We just weren't using it up like we should have.  We still have that problem with a few things, but generally with only buying what we need and when we need it, this helps a lot.  Once a week grocery shopping has made this easier and better for us to only purchase what we need.

I've also found it good for our marriage.  When we were pregnant with Otis I had Arnold start grocery shopping with me.  For me, it was hard to push the cart so Arnold came to do the heavy lifting and keep me grounded while doing this.  Now it's just something we "like" to do together.  I'm pretty sure I enjoy it more but that's how it works!

I like having Arnold with me.  We talk about what foods we are eating, how much things cost and where our money is going, how our weeks were, any plans we have for the rest of the week.  And we have been so blessed to have Jack home most Sundays.  He will watch the kids, once they have been fed and we can go out alone.  If not we use that time as a "teaching moment" for the kids to understand costs of things, where items are found, how things are spelled, brand vs non brand foods, how to unload the cart, how to load the grocery bags, and using their manners when talking with adults. 

It's been a good experience.

At the end of June I'm going to write about our budget and how it works for US.  Please remember this is not the be all and end all on these topic I cover.  I'm writing this to share with you how it works for our family and for our needs.  Not every family and every needs will be the same. 

Marriage Mondays ~ Money

The dreaded "M" word.  It's that one word that no one wants to have anything to do with.  Everyone wants LOTS of it and no one wants to know where it goes, and how it gets there.

I've talked about this before.  I've talked about our version of the Dave Ramsey Program.  How much we love doing this and seeing our credit cards go down and slowly our savings to go up!

This past year has really shown us what we need to have.  When we lost our baby things started to pile up.  Costs that we weren't ready for, and never should have to think about while expecting a baby, let alone your own children babies or not.  And slowly our Emergency Fund started to sink lower and lower.

We are so blessed to have family who loves us and cares for us in every way we can and have helped to pay for different parts of the funeral until we could.  It has been such a blessing.

Now we are back on our feet.  Our debts have been paid off and paid back and slowly we are getting there.  Slowly we are seeing the light.

Which brings me to why I'm posting about Money in my Marriage Mondays posts. 

I've been thinking a lot about how some people have *no* idea where their money is going, where it has come from and what is going to happen to it.  Some people just don't have a clue to what is happening in their own family.

When my dad was diagnosed with cancer my mom had a "field trip" to the basement to go through all the important papers they have.  All their taxes, files, etc..  So much stuff to go through and learn.  And that was about the point that Arnold and I chose to make sure we were BOTH in our on money.  And it has become part of our marriage.

When we were first married we had little to no money.  Isn't that always how it works?  Eventually we gained some more, lost LOTS more and slowly got ourselves on our feet.  We had bank accounts in 3 different banks.  It was crazy.  And just before we had gotten married I made the stupidest choice I have *ever* made.  I got a department store credit card.  I thought, hey why not?  It will help our credit.

It took FOREVER to pay off.  Like so much time.  Even now I'm never comfortable going to stores that ask me if I want their credit card.  Most of the time I follow it up with things like "no thank you I'm trying to pay off all of mine" or " are you crazy?  I don't have that kind of extra cash laying around to pay the interest rate you want!".  Generally people leave me alone after that.

Any who.. back to the point of writing this.  I'm hoping to do something called "Marriage Mondays Money Posts" on the last Monday of the month.  Just something about how our budgeting works for us.  not for everyone else mind you.  We each need to find something that works for us and go with it.  I read a lot about money and what people say to earn more, keep more when doing taxes and how to save that "$6000.00" a year with simple changes.  But it always leads me back to just being careful with my own money.

So first things first.  Dave Ramsey teaches us to get right with your 4 walls.  Make sure you can live within your means.  It's different for everyone.  We pay a lot in rent.  When most people find out how much we pay they are always shocked and ask why we don't buy our own house right now!  And generally speaking, we would/could but we don't have the credit or the down payment needed.  And to be honest, I don't want one yet. I'm not ready to commit to a place.  For example... From the time Arnold and I got married we moved 7 times.  It gets to the point that when I do my spring cleaning the boys ask if we are moving again.  They are just so used to it.  While we love our neighbourhood and we wouldn't want to move I'm not ready to commit to staying here.

For us (again different for everyone) our 4 walls meant having enough money to pay for food (I'll get into that later), to pay for rent,  and to pay for hydro/gas/water/electric.  Everything above and beyond that is "extras" that get put into your budget later.

So we have to make sure we can afford all those.  While it's not a lot to think about at first.  When Arnolds pay cheque comes in (as we are a 1.25 income family right now) we have to think about where our money is going and what we are/can do about it. 

I was talking to a friend who has started looking at her money as a family.  She can't understand where the money goes and how 1 pay cheque has to get them through the whole month!  I asked her what happen to the first pay?  I was told it's their "Rent" money.  Well... then I got it.  For a LONG time we did the same thing.  We paid our whole rent cheque out of our first pay of the month.  It was almost impossible for US to get that to work.  Slowly I realized if I saved part of the pay it wasn't so hard. 

Now we work like this:

about $400 - $500.00 of our rent comes from pay #1.  It gets set aside into an account and we add it all up later in the month.
The rest of our pay comes out of our second cheque so that we aren't scrounging to make it for a whole month on one pay.

Next time I'm going to talk about our grocery budget and how we make that work for US!  This may not work for you but it's what works for our family.  Hopefully, if nothing else, it gives you an idea of how we do it.

Money, Money, Money MOOOOONey, MONEY!

Got to love Money, right?  WRONG!

I hate how money runs our lives.  But it's still there and we still have to make it work every month.

My husband works.  Alot.  And makes good money for us.  I'm always so thankful when he gets paid.  Not because I know our bills our paid but because I know he is supporting our family.  I make a point of saying thank you to  him every 2 weeks when we get his pay cheque. 

The government gives us money for the boys.  We have money from Q, for being under 6 years old.  We get $100.00 a month from them for child care costs and then a bit more for having kids under 18. 

I make money as well.  I provide daycare for a few children.  Currently it's one child.  I have a little boy who comes on random days.  His mom is a nurse so I don't have him 5 days a week.  For example, this week I had him 2 days. 

My family has been working on budgets for a while.  This is the year of the budgeting in our extended family.  We need to budget and make it work for our own families.

Well this month I took a hard look at our budget and I took out any income I had.  The little boy I have for daycare, his mom is having another baby in January.  I will lose my income in December, or maybe before.  I am bringing in a new little girl for after and before school care but nothing compared to what I was bringing in before.  But with my income being so random we have taken it out of the budget and will be using it for certain repayment sections.

We may not be able to save as much for things that we wanted to before but we have a very realistic view of where our money is going.  For example, we have to get our Christmas/Birthday budget back up.  After the boys birthdays in April we somehow manage to "forget" to take that money out, or spend it elsewhere.  This year we need to keep it going.  SO now our budget that would have been spread over 11 months is being crammed into 3 months.  Since our budget couldn't possibly make that work normally we will be using some of our budget money and some of my income to make it topped up.  Say hello to the mason jar with Christmas ribbon on it!  That's how we are saving this time around.

Every 2 years we have a big "vacation" in our family.  Last year, Arnold and Kyler went to Alberta for a week.  They got to visit family out there and really have a great time.  It was Kylers graduation gift from going from SK to Grade 1.  And Kyler got to remember being on an airplane.

Next summer (2013) Quinton and Arnold will be going.  You never realize how much tickets cost until you are buying them yourself!  So our budget is $2000.00 for the tickets and spending money.  This means we have to save alot and have it saved up in time to get a good deal on tickets.  Quinton is SO excited to go on an airplane and to see his family.  This time around he wants to go and see some dinosaurs.  They are his new love.

So not only do we have Christmas/Birthday budget to fill and our Trip fund to fill but we have our normal expenses.  We have to stay current on all our bill payments and make sure we have everything under control.

This is easier said than done.  I always used to joke that I would love to get all our money for the year at the beginning and let me spend it as I need but I know it would never be able to do it all like that.

So this year (as my life revolves around school years) we are going to be super careful how our budget goes and where our income is placed.  So for now we are under strict budgets.  Hopefully we can make this work :)  As always, only if God allows us to use the money He has given us in the places He wants.

How do you make money?

A week ago this past Tuesday while at gymnastics, Kyler saw another little boy get a toy from their vending machines. It was a spiky glove. Don't ask.... Anyway Kyler wanted one but I'm personally not spending $2.00 on a spiky glove! So I told him he could work for the money.

The whole ride home consisted of things that Kyler says he can "do" in order to earn the money. I got home and asked Arnold what he thought. His responce... wash the car.

And that's what he did:

















My baby earned his first $2.00 and got his toy he wanted... now to figure out how to find 3 more jobs that the kids can do as Kyler wants another one and Quinton wants 2!!

Thank you Tax Refund!

I'd just like to say that today... we paid off our Sears CC! I remember the day I got the credit card. I was buying a sweater or something to wear to a bridal shower in Ontario. I was shopping with my Mother-In-Law and they offered it to me and I said sure.

Things went downhill from there. We put so much on it, paid so much off and then put more on it and more off and... well you know the cycle.

Today I paid it all off! and some. I was asked to tell her how much was the balance and I wasn't 100% sure so I guessed. I was 10 cents off. Hey I'm good with that.

I'm so excited to cancel that card, cut it up and rejoice! With having so much encouragement getting our money under control it's great to have this one paid off. I have so many people who hold us accountable and I love that. My Dad and I talk about money on a semi-regular basis. It's weird and yet nice to have that person I respect and look up to, hold me accountable in things I need to do or get done. And now I can say, Daddy, it's gone! 8 years later and the CC is finally gone!

Next up, my Visa card. We are going to knock it out of here sooner than later. My personal goal... November. My "budgeted goal" March next year. Here's hoping I can beat it!

The rest of our tax refund is going to Arnold and Kylers trip out west to see family members. With tickets being over 1 Grand for 2 people we can't get out to visit much. In fact, I now see why my parents paid for our tickets to come and visit them. There was just no way we could have put that kind of money together!

Hopefully anything else that we have come in will be paying off our next card.

Thank you tax refund, parents, and David Ramsey girls for helping us and encouraging us and partying with us today for paying this one off!!

March Break Day #5

Today was a world wind day. And not in prettyness!

I posted the shorten version of my day on Face book but here's the long version.

This morning I got up and did some blogging. The kids played with duplo after having some breakfast and we just hung out. Then I pulled out the craft supplies and we made some letters for our hats. The kids had a great time and I really enjoyed it. Kyler and Amber continued to play with the pipe cleaners for a while and Quinton headed off to play with other toys.

I had everyone get dressed and around 11am we headed out to Arnold's work. Arnold needed us to pick up a server for him from work to use at our church and it's really heavy so he couldn't bring it home on the TTC.

On our way there Amber said that the trip was going to be too long and that singing would help to shorten the time so we started to sing every song I could think of, and a few made up ones. It was alot of fun, but I have to admit, I now know why people made up songs like "If you are happy and you know it ....." and "The ______ on the bus go _______". they have never ending songs and they can go on F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

We got to Arnolds work and got let into the parking area. One of his friends was nice enough to help us in and we got to park for free. We headed up to Arnolds office and he got the server and the kids got to see his desk. Everyone took the elevator down and Arnold took the server to the car and the kids and I went out the front to get to the cross walk to cross to the other side to see the fish in the mall there.

When we arrived at the mall we went right to the fish store and they had 2 fish left. Not nice looking ones either (their eyes are bigger than their bodies... gross!). And we over heard them saying that tomorrow (Friday) would be their delivery day. So we are waiting. We went to get some lunch while we were there. The kids and Arnold had A&W and I had some fries from New York Fries. It was a good lunch. When we were done we stopped at MMMMMuffins (I remember this store from Sarnia's super old mall) and we got mmmmmini muffins of chocolate chip for the kids and I got a really good cornbread muffin.

We went 'under' the road with the kids to the TTC station so Arnold could double check something then back upstairs to get to Arnold's work and head home. On the way home, like just before the house, the car started to smoke. This has happen alot lately, like maybe once a week or so. It did it on Tuesday so I figured 2 times in one week must mean something! I called up Rob (our mechanic) and asked if I could bring the car over to see him. We turned around and went over. He checked the car (as always no smoke while we were there) and he touched the cover of the wheel and burned his hand! So he told me I couldn't leave with that car and he couldn't fix it while it was so hot.

We called a cab and headed home while the mechanics. The kids were so excited to be riding in a cab! They had never done it before (or at least from what they can remember). the cab driver really loved the kids!

We were pulling into our road and I realized that my house key was on the car keys.... back with the car! I pretended since it was such a nice day we would play in the back yard. I called Arnold and asked for the LL's number and called his cell for a while hoping to catch him at work (he lives down the road and works up the road a bit). But nothing worked! We ended up playing outside until Arnold got home from work. Even then we were walking to swimming lessons (see how this was a problem? Our swimming stuff was in the house). We walked to swimming and just as we got down the ramp to the Community Centre we met up with Arnold (biking for all his might to get to us before swimming started) and we headed inside for our lessons. We were there for about 1 minute before lessons started.

One of the walking trips outside (before swimming) was to walk down to the LL's house and see if his dad had a spare key, when we were on the way back Quinton had a ladybug land on him and he FREEKED. So bad that people came out of their homes to see why he was screaming! The 'bugs' are back!!

After swimming lessons we had a mini picnic to take up some more time before heading home. We had some juice boxes and some cookies then walked home. Once we got home the kids went outside and played while I took a 'break' on the couch (read: put my feet up for 2 minutes). Arnold headed out to get the van and I made supper. The kids and I had supper while Arnold picked up the car ($650.00 later).

We *switched* when Arnold got home. I took the car to choir and Arnold stayed home with the kids. They went for a bike ride, played outside and then came in and watched a movie. When I called at 8:30pm, Amber was awake watching TV and the boys were sleeping. Arnold got everyone in their PJ's (he missed bath night) and Q was asleep again when I got home. The two older ones were watching their movie and requesting Jello!

After Jello and their movie we put everyone in bed and I went off shortly after (around 9:30/10pm).

There were NO photos because the camera was locked up in the house all day.

Our Funny Moments:

We were talking about everyone's names and Amber told me her full name and Lisa's full name. I asked her what her Mommy's middle name was and this was her response:

"Becca"
Me - that's her middle name?
Amber - yep!
Me - what's her full name?
Amber - Mommy Becca Stewart

This was the same response for her daddy.

In the cab:

K - I have never been in a taxi before!
A - Me either!
Q - me too!
Me - yeah it's a first time for everyone
Q - I wanna drive!
Taxi driver - oh really?
Me - maybe when you are bigger
Q - me big big big big big to the ceiling I drive!
Taxi Driver - ok sounds good!

Our plans for today (Friday):

go to the sugar bush
nap
do laundry

David Ramsey... the good old DR

I love the DR program. I'm working on it and we are doing wonderful. We are slowly getting to where we need to be and doing great. One of the things he talked about this week are setting goals for the new year:

Career,
Financial,
Physical,
Intellectual,
Spiritual and
Family goals

He says having a timeline is a good idea. For those of you who followed our last blog I wrote a bit about having goals each year and did I accomplish them. Not really but we got some of them done. This year we are going to work on it a bit more. Arnold and I are going to sit down and see where we are and where we want to be in our goals. What about you? Where do you want to be?

Something I love Game:

Sorry no photos today mainly because you know what they look like but I LOVE my kids. They are so sweet and today was just perfect! We booked it out of the house early this morning and headed to school. Kyler delivered his christmas gifts to the Principal, Sectaries and his teachers. They were so surprised (at least the ones in the office) and were so grateful. I love how my kids reacted. Kyler even told the Secretaries "thank you for EVERYTHING!" It was so cute.

Blessings:

I am blessed so much by the people we know. Last night was our last Christmas Dinner with the Ladies Bible Study. We did it at Jaime's house and had so much fun. When we left I got a few cards and such from friends thanking us for hosting and being so great with them. I was so surprised. Everyone knows we do this because God blessed us and we want to bless others. We were blessed with some gifts. Some just for us but mostly for our family and it was wonderful. Thank you to everyone for letting us bless you :)

A Million and One things

Ever have those days where you have a million and one things going through your head? Not a million, not a million and two, just a million and one?

Today is that day. I can't seem to think straight. So again another random post, feel free to skip. I promise tomorrow will include some photos :)

*I keep getting worried about our housing situation. I know God is in control and I know He is the one to make everything happen and in His time but sometimes I wish His timing was mine
*I want to know when to start packing. We have alot of things in this house we need to go through
*I'm worried about December. It's always the crazy month out of the year and I could use a planner to remind me not to double/triple book myself and to keep me calm!
*I am excited for Kylers schooling. I love his teacher/school/friends and I'm so happy with how things are going. It's incredible! He is so cute and loves school so much. Tonight while doing his homework with his dad (btw I love that Arnold does his homework with him) Kyler was telling Arnold that Mr. Browns favourite colour was purple and that he was going to colour the space ship purple so Mr Brown would like it.
*I wish we could afford more things. It's not even things out of our reach, like buying a house, but today I came upstairs and said "When we have money..." and Arnold laughed and said "I need new undershirts" and I said "I need new shoes for Church that don't hurt my feet". How sad is it that we have such simple requests. Not to say that we don't have things, cause my sandles are working out ok and my shoes that hurt are cute but still.
*I love how productive I can be in 30 minutes or less. I got up from my computer at 8:30pm and did laundry, folded and put in the next load, spot washed all the clothes that needed it and put them in the washer, packed up a box of things, went through some things in the scrapbooking room and made mental notes for some items, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, filled the fridge with water for tomorrows C&C group, got the meat in the house for the next 3 days, emptied the recycle, updated the calendar for the next month and sat down to blog!
*I would like a housekeeper/organizer/packer to come and live with me for a week, I would pay them by feeding them and giving them an uncomfortable bed to sleep in but hey, who wouldn't want that
*I love my new sewing machine. I have now finished the IL's gift, fixed my pants I was steping on because they are too long, fixed arnold's pants and made covers for my apple sauce!
*I can't wait to put up our Christmas tree. I'm so excited for it and I can't wait to have it in the house... but on that note I want to have my living room cleaned up for the tree.
*I wish I could lose some weight, I mean who doesn't but in the last week from eating so many cookies I have gained back at least 6lbs of the almost 30 I have lost this year!
*I need/crave/want stability. I want to know how much money we will make every year, plan a budget, know where I'm going to live, how my landlord will be, what things will be like in the future.

I know there is more...... but I feel a bit better.

All by myself.....

Today I got to spend some time all by myself. I have to admit I love those days. Today was a bit harder. Trevor, our babysitter, came over and watch the kids freeky early in the morning :P We went over everything that needed to get done and I headed out. I got a call from my mom and she said dad was heading out and would be there in 3 hours. So my relaxed morning changed a bit to a very busy morning.

I first headed out to the mechanics. I paid him for what we still owed and we talked about the wheels for the car. He also did a bit of backing up for me since I swear I hear something. He heard a bit and promised to take a look at it next week when it was up getting the wheels changed.

Then I headed to walmart. I wanted to look at a few things there and pick up some stuff on sale. $220.00 later I wasn't even half done my grocery list but I had got some great deals on meat!

Next was M&M Meats. I LOVE that place. They have the best foods. A bit more money but totally worth it. I got talking to the guy about new stuff coming and I'm really excited to try some of it. $40.00 gave us 2 boxes of chicken fingers, 2 boxes of dip (so good) and 2 boxes of bacon! A good deal I think.

The last stop was at Price Chopper. It was the stop that got me the most stuff for less money. Odd how that works. I found everything on my list but 2 things (bacon bits and maranara sauce). I have to remember to do frozen and refrigerated things first then the cans and then the fresh stuff last, oh and breads. This way nothing gets smushed. This was a dent of $207.00. Not too bad.

I have to admit that was all of our grocery budget but still alot of fun. We do have a bit leftover as some of the things I want to use is for the boys and I for this weekend and that's more of an entertainment thing than anything else.

I got home and Trevor and the boys helped to unload the car and we got it all in the house. Then T stayed to help me unload everything around the house (ie kitchen downstairs and the garage freezer). It worked out really well as when we were done and Trevor was about to go my dad showed up! The boys had so much fun going from one person to another.

Now I'm alone with the boys. Arnold and my dad are off at Promise Keepers (promisekeepers.ca). I'm really excited for them. I'm just chilling at home with the kiddos and we are watching movies. Tomorrow I have big plans. hopefully pictures will come tomorrow as well :)

Budgets budgets and more budgets

I can't even count how many times we have done budgets in our house, how many times we are onboard to fix our money and spending habits and how many time we are going to do it this time. But I swear this time, it's not that we are 'going' to do it. It's that we HAVE to do it or we have some more issues that I don't even want to think about.

Our family consists of different thinkings on money:

Quinton - He thinks that money is there, and that everything can be bought with 'monies' ie pennies, dimes, nickles, ect. And that sometimes treasure is just spare change Papa had in his pocket.

Kyler - Knows things cost money. He is starting to realize (with our help) that he has to have money to buy things. Now how money works and how much you need of everything is TOTALLY not there yet but he is getting it. He gets an 'allowance' of 25 cents a week. He puts 5 cents into spending, 10 cents into saving and 10 cents into God. We started this a while ago and he is doing ok at it. Any extra/random change he finds he tosses into saving or the God container. We are really enjoying this. He knows that his God container could be used for cans for the food bank at church. It's great.

Arnold - wants to save. He always tells people that when he started university he had no credit cards and over $5000.00 in saving. When he ended university he had a wife, a credit card and no money in saving. Now he is a firm believer in 'sleep on it then get it' mentality. He also wants me to have whatever I want but he also wants to know we are safe as far as money goes. And he is my reason for doing what we do all the time.

Me.... well as I'm sure you can see I like to spend. But not on me. I like to buy good food, clothes for the kids, gifts for Christmas, dessert for when friends are over, things that make our home comfortable, and things that make my family happy. I like to show my love to people by way of gifts. The gifts don't have to be matterial (but more than not they are) but they cost money none the less.

Since I married Arnold ad weh had been together for just over a year or so we began to realize we had to get our money wasn't going to last forever and we really needed to be careful how we spent it. We did our own budgets, our own plans, or own everything for a while. It worked, but then with extra money I would want to spend it (see a pattern) and it just got worse and worse and worse. We bought a book by David Ramsey. It was GREAT! We desided when we moved (since we got it *just* before we moved) to Ontario and were own our own we would work on it and try doing it just as he suggested. While our plans didn't work out the way we wanted (we thought we would be on our own in 3 to 4 months instead of just over a year) and we never did start the program. We worked on it, really worked on it, in 2008. Arnold and desided we were going to buy a house and we had to get our money in order. I had *tried* starting it earlier (I think October) or so to get a handle on it and I'm glad I did. There were so many questions, concerns, things didnt' work perfectly for us. anyway we finally got it to work and really focused on it in Jan of 2008.

I am proud to say we paid off at least 3 of our 5 credit cards. It was great! We did so well (our tax refund helped ALOT) and then things went south, or into the red, depending on how you look at it. It was hard to handle. We had gotten off the DR program and were spending like crazy.

I can honestly say we feel as if we have hit rock bottom now. I'ts horrible and hard to take but I'm just not too sure what to do. We are focusing again on the DR program. We have had a 'new chance' at things. We have had to do some cashing in of my investments my parents made when I was little to stay afloat lately. I'm so frustrated. But I know that this time, with Gods help, and a whole lot of prayer and careful planning we can do this.

And so our crazy budgeting starts again. We are trying to scale back on everything. The DR program suggests cutting things you don't need. Well to be honest, we don't have much to cut back on. He suggests things like cut cable package (we don't have it), sell cars (we only have one and use it all the time) cut cells (we don't have a home phone) ect. Anyway he does great with his suggestions.

For those interested here's his site www.davidramsey.com

These are his babysteps. We are on #1 and part of #2


Baby Step 1

$1,000 to start an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund is for those unexpected events in life that you can’t plan for: the loss of a job, an unexpected pregnancy, a faulty car transmission, and the list goes on and on. It’s not a matter of if these events will happen; it’s simply a matter of when they will happen.

Baby Step 2

Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
List your debts, excluding the house, in order. The smallest balance should be your number one priority. Don’t worry about interest rates unless two debts have similar payoffs. If that’s the case, then list the higher interest rate debt first.

Baby Step 3

3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
Once you complete the first two baby steps, you will have built serious momentum. But don’t start throwing all your “extra” money into investments quite yet. It’s time to build your full emergency fund.

Baby Step 4

Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
When you reach this step, you’ll have no payments—except the house—and a fully funded emergency fund. Now it’s time to get serious about building wealth.

Baby Step 5

College funding for children
By this point, you should have already started Baby Step 4—investing 15% of your income—before saving for college. Whether you are saving for you or your child to go to college, you need to start now.

Baby Step 6

Pay off home early
Now it’s time to begin chunking all of your extra money toward the mortgage. You are getting closer to realizing the dream of a life with no house payments.

Baby Step 7

Build wealth and give!
It’s time to build wealth and give like never before. Leave an inheritance for future generations, and bless others now with your excess. It's really the only way to live!



I'm sure this will take us quite a long time but we are working on it. I strongly suggest you check out his site, and feel free to ask if you have any questions.

This time, with Gods help, we are going to do this!