Line of Credit Payment

           As I said in my last post, our focus this week was making a larger then normal payment towards the line of credit. Wednesday payday came and the first thing hubby and I did in the morning (before we even got out of bed lol) was make a payment of $2,049.34. As it stands right now we have we have exactly $14,000 left to pay. Even though I was so excited to be able to make a larger payment, seeing that there’s still $14k left made me a little depressed but at the same time more determined to get that ugly sucker down to 0! And I believe from here on out a payment of $2000 a month should be do-able since this month we had to pay $500 + on a credit card I had completely forgot until the bill came in (yes I was kicking myself). But I can honestly say all our credit cards are sitting at 0 balances, and both of us plan to keep it that way.

Actually this week it was kind of cute because I asked my computer-wiz hubby how to make a pie chart in excel so I can visually see our budget per month. And not only did he make a pie chart, he was able to make this awesome budget that calculates everything for me, breaks purchases down by category and is so colourful!! Needless to say my pencil and paper tracking sheet was in the recycling bin in no time lol. And he was said it was a great idea and was completely on board with using it. It’s a relief knowing how we are on the same page about sticking to a budget, since this time last year talking about money was something that always ended in a huge fight and left me really stressed out. I can’t wait to post my beautiful pie chart in a February overview at the end of the month. J

            Other then that my week has been so busy with work, this weekend is time for me to start and finish the mountain of chores and housework that was seriously neglected. I hope you all have a great weekend and are ready to watch some great Olympic hockey on Sunday!

Week in Review

This week was bill week. We had our mortgage come out at the beginning of the week and then we got our energy, power and Internet bills all arrive in the mail by Friday. Having those paid and out of the way (all our other bills were paid at the beginning of the month) let’s us focus on our line of credit! I got paid on Friday, which helped bump our chequing account back up after paying the bills and going grocery shopping for the week. Hubby’s paycheque for this coming week will be double what he normally gets paid since his promotion from back in October FINALLY went thru and he will be getting back paid for the difference. We talked about it yesterday and were on the same page with putting a bigger payment towards the LOC then what we normally put per month. We aren’t sure of the exact number after taxes but we are definitely going to stretch this week in terms of meals to make as big of a dent as possible. I'll definitely write a post about what we decide next week.

Speaking of meals, like I said we went grocery shopping yesterday. Spending $129.16 we picked up enough to last us way more then the week. And today, while hubby is out snow sledding, I took it upon myself to organize and take inventory of our big freezer to see what we could get creative with! I have about two weeks worth of meals that are possible. I just might need to buy small things like fresh veggies and milk but at least all the big-ticket items (i.e. meat) are accounted for!

** FYI to anyone that shops at the CO-OP grocery store (I think they are a Saskatchewan thing) and has a smart phone: download the app! I’ve gotten tons of free items and money back on my purchases. This week since we spent over $100.00 we got free toilet paper. And lets be real, nothing says Happy Valentines Day like free toilet paper! LOL But don’t fall into the trap of purchasing unnecessary things just to use the coupon because then you are defeating the purpose. This week just happened to be a higher grocery week for us since we had to buy our dog her food -- even though I had a coupon it’s still expensive.

Now I’m off to enjoy the peace and quiet until hubby gets back. Have a good long weekend and happy Family Day to those province that celebrate/haven’t celebrated it yet (am I the only one still confused about how this holiday works? Lol)

-M

Emergency Fund

When I first started getting serious about paying down our debt a few months ago, I searched for solace in other people on the Internet. I mean, I knew debt was a huge problem in our country (nay: the world) and I needed to know I wasn’t alone in making debt repayment a priority. This is how I found the awesome personal finance community. Real people, making real changes to their life style, and being really *gasps* honest!

Reading about how in debt some of these people really are and how much they have been able to pay down is so inspiration! But I was confused when people started discussing their emergency funds. I mean I knew what an EF was but I was and it’s purpose but I thought that the luxury of having a few thousand dollars just lying around was only something that could happen once you were out of debt. The more and more I read, the more I understood: if I really wanted to be truly debt free I need to stop having to rely on credit in case something happened. How is the debt ever going to go away if any progress you make gets racked up again? We need a safety net. So after discussing a bit with my husband we agreed each paycheque we would set up automatically transfers to a savings account we would open. If we didn’t see the money we wouldn’t be tempted to spend it. Now if you told me last year I would have close to $5000 in savings I would say your insane, and then tell you I need it to pay off my credit cards – which I would then max out again in a few shorts months, never learning any lesson.

I’m hoping by the end of this month we will have met our first goal of having $5000 in our savings account. We are pretty happy with that number and won’t be making extra payments to that account until we get our line of credit completely paid off (by extra payments I mean before if we every got any additional money we would split it 50/50: half going to debt and half going to our savings). We will keep those automatic transfers though as we’ve gotten into the habit of not having that money available to us and I don’t want to get used to it again, lol. And that’s just it, saving isn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Saving is just a habit, and I really am kicking myself for not realizing this earlier, but alas hindsight is 20/20.

-M

About Me & The Debt

I've been toying with the idea of making a blog for a really long time. Having been reading/obsessing over a lot of other money and debt blogs recently and I really look up how open and honest these people are. Anonymous or not: putting yourself and financial messes out there for anyone to judge takes guts! Now its my turn. I want to be held responsible for my actions when it comes to my money and archive this journey for myself (yes I'm putting this out for the world to read but pretty much only doing this for selfish reason, although feel free to come along for this interesting ride).

Now for an introduction: I am 23 years old, currently living in an extremely small town in Saskatchewan, Canada (like I'm talking less then 1000 people). Now for this big-city-Ontario girl this was a huge shock but the small town life and REALLY cold winters has its way of growing on you and I don't every see myself moving back (sorry Ontario, car insurance is so cheap here!). My husband is the real reason I moved out here though as his job requires us to move every 5 years or so. Husband: you read, now don't go thinking the debt I'm are going to be talking about in blog is wedding debt. Nope! We got married at 21 with not much to our name, so we planned our wedding in just 12 days, and had an extremely small ceremony and a BBQ dinner afterwards in his parents backyard. My dress: less the $60 (basically just a white summer dress) and I did my hair and makeup myself. It was the best day every and I won't change anything since it was so stress free.

Unfortunately our $16,049.34 of debt is strictly self indulgence...

Let that sink in a bit.

I was blessed by having my university degree paid for by my parents, I lived at home for 21 years rent free, I had a job since high school and after my University degree was finished I got a full time job right away making around $18,000 a year, we didn't have to pay for our move out here to Saskatchewan, my husbands parents gave us the downpayment on our house as a wedding gift... seriously how could this have happened?! So spoiled rotten and we still mess things up? This is where is stops though, it has to stop. I promise to never take money for granted every again and never get ourselves into this position every again.

Ready to start this journey with me? Let's go ;o)

- M