Where the money goes!

Hi everyone!

Do you ever wander where the money goes after it comes into your life? It may seem like there is a lot but then all the little things in life that need to be bought in order to survive, and occasionally those things we decide we just want, truly add up. My husband and I both grew up in homes where money was always an issue. In his home, starting with nothing, his mom and dad really struggled and couldn't seem to find a way to get a head of the game. I love them to pieces but I often wondered if some of the beliefs they had stopped them in their tracks. Attitude can make such a difference! My mom and dad also started with nothing but chose a path that brought them to a standard of living that was much more comfortable. However, they also fell into the trap of spending more as they brought in more. I'm not sure in the end that they were any better off. But they had fun along the way! No stress around what needed to be paid.

We decided before we got married that we would strive to live a life that was as comfortable as possible, doing the kind of work we wanted to do, not just work to survive. It's taken a lot of sacrifice and our kids grew up knowing that they couldn't just have everything they wanted. We saved pennies (literally!), bought with intention and after much investigation, did without when the needs were more important than the wants, and learned how to live frugally but with style! It's truly paid off and although we are now at a point that we could just go out and buy what ever we want, we have embraced our thriftiness so much that it's now fun. My husband often says if we ever won the lottery, I'd still be the "deal queen". And he's right! I'd still look for the best savings.

So where does the money go? As we're building now, we thought we'd take some time to really track it. To make this work, I'll do what Carla over at My 1/2 Dozen Daily does each week ~ tracks her spending, then shows the world where the money went. I love this and will start today. Thanks Carla!

Here's our total for this "Budget Thursday" on a bright, sunny, hot and muggy July morning:

• We paid $349.03 for our property taxes. This is paid monthly and covers both our current residence, as well as our acreage. Once the new house is built, we'll go down to one tax bill each month but I do anticipate it will be about this amount or a bit higher. No savings there but our utilities will be less as we're going off the grid for water. And no home phone, just our cells. A savings of about $150 a month for both.
• We paid $125 for our cable/internet/phone bill. Standard amount, no increases, no extra charges. It was actually $121 but I like to "round" things up when I pay bills and we often end up with a credit along the way.
• We paid $125 for our cell phone plan for two phones, all inclusive. A bit higher this month as dh had a few long distance calls, which he will be reimbursed for. Again, paid out higher than the actual bill of $118.
• We paid $24.58 for groceries so far this week. Our fridge is pretty full and our cupboards as well but we needed some fresh meat and our big bag of rice was at the end.
• We paid $17.41 to our AMEX account. We only use our credit cards (MasterCard for gas and groceries and AMEX for Costco purchases) for convenience and never carry a balance. MasterCard has never been able to charge us interest and we've had our cards since 1982 ~ I'm sure they hate us but then they raise our limits so we can't be too bad in their books! AMEX once charged us because of a computer glitch that showed our payment being late on their end. They fixed it and then credited us the interest they charged. Then raised our limit! This amount paid yesterday was an odd amount but I like to keep our bank account even and each night, go in and move money either to savings or shoot little amounts to our cc's. I can sleep better cause the accounts are in "even" mode and the cc's are constantly getting little payments so that by the time we get our statement, it's small to pay off.
• We transferred $2.59 to our one savings to again, even it out! In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm just a bit OCD!!
• I bought a cranberry juice last night at the cafe across from  my office when I was meeting a client and needed a cold drink. With tip, my tab came to $2.50 altogether.

To recap, for the month of July, we have spent a total of $646.11. Seems like all those amounts aren't too bad, until you add them together. But nothing there to cut back on. Other than the juice and evening out our accounts, all of this was obligations in the form of utility payments, food and property taxes.

Do you keep a frugal budget?

Where does your money go?

Falling Behind.

One of my hopes for 2014 was to write daily in my blog, even if it's just a small snippet of daily life here in our little house in the big woods. I started quite nicely, creating a total of 7 blog posts in 6 short days. And then life happened!

My parents bought a beautiful time share back in 1993, which they used all the time and even gifted us several trips that we were so grateful to receive. When you have a house full of small children and a frugal budget, the opportunity to get away is heavenly! But in time, she stopped traveling and we found our own peace of heaven to visit, so it wasn't getting used as much. Then the company had some issues, ended up in court and had to sell, so all the terms changed and the fees went up drastically, beyond my mom's retirement budget. She tried to see her unit but it wouldn't sell as all the owners were trying to get out at the same time. Then the owners offered a buy out with a huge fee attached. My mom fussed for months without telling us her  dilemma, which was keep paying the ridiculous fees or accept the buyout. She talked with her lawyer and then made the decision, even though it meant her meager savings would be down to nil. Finally, in a moment of desperation, she contacted me, as she needed both my brother and I to sign off on the forms to accept the buyout as well. I went to her house on Friday afternoon, with a bouquet of flowers and some fruity danishes for our tea. We went over the forms and immediately I knew something was out of place. I called the company and discovered that the amount my mom thought she had to pay was actually not what she needed to send to end this mess. I confirmed the correct amount with the rep, then called back again, talked to a second individual who confirmed the details that the first shared with us. Got off the phone, showed my mom the correct figure and she burst in to tears. Such a worry she's carried and now she can sign off this burden without draining her entire savings account. We now have an agreement in place that any financial decisions that cause her to worry she needs to contact me so that I can make sure she's not being taken advantage of. The scary part of all this is if she had not confided in me and just sent the funds, they would have kept the amount instead of letting her know it was too much. Crooks! But now all is well and tomorrow, the documents go in the mail. Done. Fini! Yeah!!

Now we can get back to life again and stop worrying. One less thing for her to pay for each year and I'm hoping she'll consider taking the amount she was setting aside for this payment and put it in to her savings each month. Build it back up and take a trip when she's ready to again. 

Lottery Win!

No, we didn't win the $32,000,000 that is the current balance on Lotto 649. But we did win twice in the last 2 weeks. First, a free ticket last week. Then a win of $10 for having 3 numbers this week. The other numbers were so close to ours, it was scary. A bit of relief we didn't win big! What would we do then?

This lottery is the only one we've ever played, starting in the early 80's when we were first married. At that time, it was one draw a week for $1. In our budget and as a young married couple with a mortgage, fun to invest, knowing our chances were slim but our only vice, so we never looked back. Over the years, we've won continually, small  and larger amounts but not the jackpot. Now the draw is twice a week and it's no longer $1 per draw but for us now, still affordable and the only thing we buy that has no purpose, other than taking a chance to win.

With our 6 numbers firm in our head, we never miss a draw. Can't imagine if we ever forgot and then our numbers were drawn. What an awful feeling that would be! We are frugal, counting every penny and making careful purchases. Our only debt tiny is small, just a bit left on our mortgage and nothing else. But we still dream about winning more than the bits and bobs we've won to date. 

It would be so much fun to give money to the 2 charities I work for and hiring staff to fill up my team. It would so much fun to give each of our kids money to buy new homes so they are set for life and set up trust funds for our grand babies. It would be so much fun to fly everyone to a tropical location in January when the weather here is bitterly cold and the sunshine is in short supply for months. It would be so much fun to pay for our daughter's university tuition in full so she would have no debt at grad. It would be so much fun to pay off my friend's mortgage, so she wouldn't have to worry about making the payment each month. 

All of this would be fun but we do know there is a downside to winning money. Hopefully, our friends, family members and ourselves are sensible enough to remember, if it ever happened, that its' just money and we would still be us. 

With no one winning the lottery last night, it now stands at $40,000,000. Too large in my opinion, so hopefully, multiple winners will be lucky. 

Do you play the lottery? 

What would you do if you did win?

Jumbled Numbers ....

.... in my head ....

I can't sleep! The numbers are swirled all over the place. They won't stop moving. Just when I think I have them in order, I go back to them and start all over again. What numbers are jumbled in my tiny little head, you ask? These ones:

*the price of our land, now up for sale - a hard decision to make

*the small remaining amount owing on our house, which was up for sale on the weekend but we will take it down now today - knowing how much equity we have helps us figure out the size of the new house

*the phone number of the gentlemen who has expressed great interest in our land - waiting for him to call back with a time to view

*the proposed price we would be comfortable with to accept if he makes an offer

*the price we would hope to pay for a new piece of land we found yesterday, if it's still available, but with no online listing to be found, we've come up with what we think it would be worth, based on the other land we looked at yesterday

*the "best case scenario" cost of what it would cost to build on said land, if it is available and a decent price

*the number of months it would take to build a decent sized home

*the timing of when we would then sell this house - moving twice is not an option but thankfully our bank has already confirmed we would stay here as our equity more than covers a build

*the potential new equity we could achieve by building from the ground up vs. buying a house to reno or buying a house that needs no work - gaining equity at this point in our lives is important for our potential move to the West Coast - what we build here will buy comfortable there

As you may have guessed by now, we've switched gears a bit to explore the idea of building a new house from the ground up. On Saturday, we looked at several homes with a realtor. One that needs a ton of work and is way overpriced (his term but we totally agree), one that is so outdated that it lacked life and one that was charming and needed no work. But only gave us 100 square feet more than we have now, at a premium price, more than $150,000 above our home's value. And in that house, as much as we loved it, we'd lose a bedroom, a formal dining room and an office for dh. We'd gain a fireplace in the master bedroom, a walk-in closet too, a walkout basement for dd and grandson, a bit larger lot and a lake view. Keeping it on our list but I think in the end, we'd kick ourselves for paying higher for a beautiful look but less functionality.

Yesterday, we viewed 6 pieces of land in our County. The first 2 were right in town and the others were 5.5 minutes out, 3.5 minutes out and 1.5 minutes out. The last was our favorite but that is the one that we have no idea if its available. Realtor sign is on the land and out on the road but not online. Fingers crossed the realtor calls soon so we can bid it a fond farewell and keep looking. Or start figuring out if that is the right one. Excited about the idea of creating our dream home, to suite our needs now but also in the future when it's just the two of us. And build good equity for resale when we're ready. 

I hate that I often have numbers rumbling around in my head. Watching "Call the Midwife" and "Games of Thrones" and creating visual budgets in my brain at the same time. Because we live a very frugal life, the numbers are important to me. I can't let them get out of hand and we refuse to take on debt. We'd only go this route if the numbers work out in our favor. Selling our land is giving us that edge up we need to enter this project. Without it, we'd never entertain the idea as the cost of land around town is not cheap. 

Exciting new adventure! It may not work out in the end but giving it a try and we'll see how it all falls in to place. My parents raised me with the idea that if it's meant to be, it will unfold but if it's not, it's not worth the energy to fight it in to place. 

Happy Easter Monday! I'm off to start dinner prep. Big family dinner at our table tonight. 

52 Week Savings Challenge.

Borrowed this from Simply Stacia over at https://simplystaciablogs.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/52-week-money-challenge-save-1378-in-2013/comment-page-1/#comment-1198. We have our weekly travel account that we contribute to and our monthly emergency fund - new house fund - rainy day fund - if we ever lose our jobs fund account but this 52 Week Challenge will help us save for either for next Christmas or for our RRSP accounts. Set up the spreadsheet today and will transfer our first week of contributions tonight.

 

Thanks Stacia!

No Spend Days

We did this last year but did not do the best job of keeping track of them. Dh just downloaded Office for me before he went off to his rehearsal, so part of my afternoon at home by myself is to set up a series of spreadsheets for 2013. The first is our No Spend Days tracking sheets. The whole idea is that we will have set days that we will not spend anything on anything. We pay our bills online and usually do the whole month at once. We shop for food a couple of days a week - we like fresh, fresh, fresh. We buy gas once a week x two cars. Our mortgage payment and car payments come out automatically. It is our discretionary spending we need to work on. We are actually pretty good, compared to many but still want to do better.

 

So far, for 2013, this is what we have spent money on:

 

January 1st - No Spend Day - achieved as nothing was open!

 

January 2nd - Dh had to get gas to get to work. It was about $46 (including GST). Down from $56 as our gas has plummeted. Yeah!!

 

January 3rd - No Spend Day - we were both at work. No time to shop!

 

January 4th - Thrift Store trip. We spent $9.45 on clothes, all brand new, for our new granddaughter, including a wool dress from Old Navy, a Disney sweater, two warm hats and a hooded towel. We also found a little pink picture frame that says Baby, a larger frame, a fabric book, brand new in the bag, that turns into a backpack for a toddler for Beckett and two small storage bottles for my art studio. Pictures to follow. Groceries were

 

January 5th - new jeans for me, on sale for $15.48 (including GST), down from $50. I tend to wear my jeans until they wear out, so these will most likely last me at least 2 solid years. I am allowed to wear jeans at work, so this is a staple of my wardrobe. Not a bad deal at all! We also bought fondue fuel for $7.02 (including GST) and we spent $5.31 (including GST) at the Bulk Barn.

 

January 6th - No Spend Day - achieved as dh is at a rehearsal and I am at home!