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