Final Shopping Totals

So, as I said in my last post my husband and I had quite the slip up last month. These are the final totals:

• XboxOne Titan Fall Pack: $519.99
• A video game (can't remember the name): $59.83

That was hubby's part of the damage. Only two items but holy cow game systems are expensive these days! To be fair, video games are he's main source of entertainment and many of his friends play online with him so I know he will get his monies worth. 

• ASOS Midi Black and White Floral Print Skirt: $73.83
• Ruche Midi Floral Skirt: $54.99
• Ruche Polka Dot Blouse $42.99
• Dior Rosy Glow Healthy Glow Awakening Blush: $38.25
• Dior Creme de Rose Smoothing Lip Balm: $24.65
• Benefit Boi-ing Concealer: $22.10
• Free samples with from Sephora order GlamGlow BrightMud Eye Treatment, Marc Jacobs Honey perfume, Be Delicious perfume
• Indigo Zipper Wallet with Heart: $19.50
• Clash of Kings (book): $15.16
• A Storm of Swords (book): $15.16

Yaaaaaa, I went a little bit overboard. That was my first time ordering from ASOS and I was kind of disappointed, well it's my fault really because I didn't do enough research and ordered the skirt in a size too big. I'm having it tailored at a local shop though because I do really like how it looks and the quality. Both items from Ruche though fit me like a glove! I think they are both items I'm going to get a lot of wear out of once the weather starts warming up (if that ever happens).

Sephora, oh Sephora... they were having their VIB 15% off semi-annual sale and I kept getting those stupid emails reminding me. So of course one day I 'innocently' started browsing the website. "Oh I could use this discount to purchase my concealer" -- I was not going to the city anytime soon, it's an expensive product that never goes on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart, and I was running out of my current one (see the excuses building up lol). So I'm trying to think of something else I need to purchase in order to get the free shipping and of course I get pulled into the Dior section of the site. $$$$$$$$$$$ I could already see the dollar signs being added to my cart, lol. However I narrowed it down to two items I had been wanting to try for years, and let me tell all of you... I have zero regrets. That lip balm is luxurious to put on before bed and the blush was made for my skin tone. I'm really happy I purchased them during the sale though and I will keep that in mind next time I need to purchase any of my more expensive makeup or skin care (although that doesn't happen that often because my products are mostly drug store).

My shopping binge came to an end with an order from Indigo/Chapters. I am currently reading, and obsessed with, A Song of Fire and Ice series (aka Game of Thrones). I started reading the first book last week and am flying thru it, so I ordered the next two books in the series which should keep me busy for the next little while. I also got a really cute pink wallet that was on clearance and a gift card for my mom for mothers day which I did not list.

Total damage: $886.45

That basically eliminated one of my pay cheques for the month. We could have been under the $10,000 mark in our Line of Credit if we put it towards that. We could have made an extra mortgage payment. We could have made 9 extra car payments. 14 full tanks of gas in our car. One round trip flight back to Ontario to see my family... Okay, that last one stung a bit.

Although all of the above could have been done if we had not spent that sort of money on stuff, hubby and I discussed it and we don't really have many regrets. All the orders were done thru our credits cards, yes, but we paid them off as soon as the balance showed up and we have zero owing on our cards. And we were still able to put over $4,000 towards our LOC over the last two months. Plus save over 10% of our income. It's all about balance for us, and in a strange way it's amped us up more to pay off our debt completely. This was really surprising to me considering when I tried in the past to pay off my credit cards and I would 'slip up' that would be all it took: the flood gates would open. I would say to myself "F-it, I'm never going to get this paid off might as well just shop to make myself feel better". And shop I would, lol. I felt good in the moment, but always felt worse then before when my statement would come in the mail. This time however it's sort of like, okay we treated ourselves after living with a really really tight budget the last 3 months, lets get this over with. And we will pay it off before summer. That's our goal. It was last August when we opened this LOC and got our first statement showing we owe $19,816.58. It drives me to be able to say we paid off nearly $20,000 of debt in less then one year.

We are going to make that happen people! I really determined now and I got a bunch of cute clothes to wear while doing it ;o)

-M

I'm back!

Nearly two months since my last post & do I have a lot to update.

These long Saskatchewan winters have definitely gotten the better of me and I kind of went into hibernation mode for these last fews weeks. But I am off work today and it's raining so I want to do nothing more then curl up with my laptop with a cup of tea and write down what's been going on with my life and more importantly: my finances!

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These last few months have actually been really good for us here considering all that's happened.

Mocha, my big fat adorable chocolate lab, was having a few issues with her lungs that we were nervous about so we had a full check up done on her. Although they actually didn't find any serious issues (other then pointing out the fact she needs to lose weight) the $600 bill was maybe the best money I could have spent. We've only had Mocha for a bit over one year, although it seems like she's been apart of our lives forever and both me and my husband love that dog more then I thought was humanly possible, and her previous owners didn't care for her as much as they should have. When we first adopted her she had a horrible limp and when ever she should lie down for a long time her hips would become so stiff it was difficult for her to walk. Of course we had her checked out at the local vet in town and he said to try giving her Glucosamine pills. Within a month of taking them she had improved 100%. Why the owners before her didn't do this? I have no idea. But what matters is she is getting the love and attention she deserve now. So hubby and I didn't mind spending the extra money because we had pretty much a complete check up done on her: X-ray's, heart worm, checked her thyroid, etc; and we know the only issues she has is the arthritis in her back legs, which we are doing everything to prolong the development of!

We got our taxes done! Oh boy was the CRA good to us this year ;o) First of all, I need to thank our accountant who did our taxes last year. She let us know that here in Saskatchewan they have a program called the Graduate Retention Program. You can read about it here: http://ae.gov.sk.ca/grp but basically it's a program where if you live and file a Saskatchewan tax return and have post secondary schooling the government will give you a tax credit! So after our talk and a little research on the internet both my husband and I filled out our forms and sent them off to get processed. Not too long after (we did this last summer so I can remember exactly how long it took to get back) we got our approval package in the mail. Now fast forward to beginning of this March, we go to do our taxes but they can't find our rebate associated with our SIN's. Turns out we needed to sent the paper work we got from the Saskatchewan government to the Canadian government so they can do the paperwork on their end. ANYWAYS: after a lot of confusion and some very patient phone calls with CRA everything ended up being attached and we just had to wait for a Notice of Reassessment to be processed. Fast forward again to about a week and a half later there was a mystery direct deposit from the government into our account for $800. First thing we agreed on was "Don't touch that money until we figure out what it is" because we were convinced it was a mistake lol. A few days later we got two letters from the Government, one was explaining that the $800 was part of hubby's reassessment from last years tax season! The other was a cheque for me (the same reassessment from last) but for $1800!! Whaaaaa! I guess because we had filed a Saskatchewan tax return last year we were able to get that Retention program refund for those years as well -- which we were not expecting at all. Thanks government!

So with those unexpected windfalls and overtime payment on one of hubby's cheque we were able to put $3043.55 towards our line of credit. Which puts us at *drum roll please* exactly $10,000 left! We have paid off $10,000 in 7 months :o) Half way mark!!

And guess what, I haven't discussed our 2013 taxes yet. We got the paper work from our accountant yesterday which breaks down our returns and I cried: hubby is getting back $1,047.34 and I'm getting a refund of $3,970.77. Someone pinch me because there must be a mistake. I read and re-read the paperwork that breaks down the numbers. I knew I was going to get some back because my parents always taught me to have extra income tax taken off my pay check so I never have to pay taxes and it's money I don't miss (they knew I was bad with money even at a young age lol), but it's the graduate program that sent my return waaaay high. I swear I could kiss my accountant. So we should be getting back a little over $5,000.00 before the end of the month. Can anyone take a wild guess where that money will be going? LINE OF CREDIT BABY. That means only $5000.00 left if everything goes well! And I have a feeling that with us being so close we can kick paying it down into overdrive. I've even noticed hubby was really excited, talking about how we can allocate the money we've been putting towards this debt after we have it paid off. Surprisingly he's first plan was to kick up our savings even more! I think my positive attitude is rubbing off on him, yay! It's so much easier when we work as a team.

Now, I know you may be thinking: wow things are looking really good for her right now. Well I need to confess we had a bit of a slip up last month. Hubby purchased a XboxOne and a game and I had a bit of fun online shopping at Sephora, ASOS and Ruche. This little shopping binge cost us a little under $1000. That's a big opps on our part.... Kind of embarrassing really, it's all paid for though and none of it went on credit. But this long winter kind of put hubby and I in a funk and it got the better of us. That's no excuse really but I'm not going to lie it made us feel really good, lol and the skirt I got were perfect! But it would have felt a whole lot better putting that money towards our LOC. Ahhhh, the balance of paying off debt and indulging :(

Anyways, I'm really sorry about skipping most of last month. I hope I didn't ramble too much during this post and it's somewhat easy to read lol.

Hope everyone is well!

- M