2017 Networth

Assets:

• Liquid Cash - $11,416
• This is everything we can easily liquidate incase of emergency without any penalties. TFSA's are included in this category for that reason.
• Retirement - $143,179
• The largest account in here is G's pension. We use the transfer value on his pension statement, as that is what we would be able to transfer to a LIRA (locked in retirement account) if he were to quit. The rest would be my pension and RRSPs.
• Hard Assets (House, Cars (private sale amounts) - $257,000
• House value is what we paid of the house plus a little extra to account for the new windows. Car values are calculated on a yearly basis - they are the private sale figures I was able to calculate online.

Liabilities:

• Mortgage - $154,621
• 16 years and 3 months left on our mortgage! We haven't made any extra payments to this debt but do have an accelerated bi-weekly payment - which helps a little.
• Consumer (Car & Remodel Loan) - $38,049
• Working on this... paid off the LOC though and stayed out of credit card debit!

Current Net Worth: $218,925

(Yearly Increase: $50,768)

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2017 was not a proud year for us financially. Even though we increased our networth, we took on extra debt (in the form of a remodel loan) and spent without much of a plan. We stopped budgeting for the majority of the year, only getting back into it at around August where we finally picked up speed again. It's funny how something as simple as a budget can keep you in check.

Regardless of my negative-Nancy financial outlook, 2017 was pretty amazing for me. Highlights for the year: Exploring Europe for 3 weeks with G and finally getting to see his homeland (Romania)/meeting his side of the family, having my parents come to visit us from Ontario, and our memories with Mocha.

I wouldn't change a thing. <3

- M

Using The Weather to Our Advantage

I made it thru the work week & G is back home from working up North for a few days. Still not feeling 100% but I got a good solid sleep last night, and slept in for once. I'm hoping the next few days like that will help me finally kick this cold for good. G is working nights this entire weekend, and I have no plans other than staying home - I doubt if I will even be able to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve, lol.

Not going anywhere is fine by me with the weather we have been seeing. Right now it's -45C outside. Although, that's not abnormal for Saskatchewan in the winter, it still really cold. So we are taking advantage of natures freezer and defrosting our deep freeze in the house. G and I took all the food out of the freezer and placed it into a cooler and boxes in the garage. Going thru all the food in there definitely inspired us to use up what we have. G was even the one that suggested it! So January is going to be one of those months for us. Deep freezer, regular freezer, pantry, etc: all going to get used.

We are starting off with a chilli weekend using stewing beef we found buried, cans of beans in our pantry and frozen corn. We also found a ton of frozen buns so those will get used aswell! I have $300 budgeted for food in January so I'm excited to see how this challenge will affect out grocery bill.

Stay warm!

- M

Still Sick

Stayed home from work today - last night was tough. I was exhausted by 6 and fighting to stay awake. I finally went to bed at 8. It's clear my body is fighting something so I messages my manager this morning and reset an alarm for when the local clinic opened. As soon as the alarm went off I called the clinic and got an appointment for later in the morning.

He put me on an inhaler and has an antibiotic prescription on stand-by if things get worse with my sinus'. I took just one round of my puffer and I'm hoping it'll improve things quickly. I have to use it for two weeks.

G leaves tomorrow for up north so I've been taking advantage of him being home. He even ran to get my ice cream! Love that man, lol

- M

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

Of Course I'm Sick

I'm officially on Christmas holiday until Wednesday aaaaaand I'm sick.

Yesterday was a nice day at work, everyone was in a good mood. We had 'formal' day at the branch and stayed after we closed to enjoy some of the goodies members had been dropping off throughout the week. Lots of wine, chocolates, cheese, crackers, etc. Some of the staff that weren't working that day even stopped in for our little feast - it was nice to catch up before the holidays and to wrap up a difficult week. Difficult week with staffing because everyone, and I mean everyone, was sick. And now it's my turn.

Started Wednesday with a cough, Thursday with an even nastier cough with coughing fits, yesterday more crackling cough, and today with everything moving to my sinus'. My head feels like a stone and my lungs/chest ache. Today and tomorrow I'm taking it easy in hopes that at least my cough will be gone for Christmas. G is working evenings so the couch and Netflix's are calling my name. 

I've started entering some information into our tax software. I recieved my T4 yesterday with my last paycheque for the year. Donation receipts I had printed and kept during the year, and our Graduate Retention program number I pull from last years notice of assessments. All my 'big' information is entered and it looks like a refund. G's we will have to wait as we don't get his T4 until the very last day in February. As other information comes in I can enter it so it's ready to go in March. < /nerd rant>

- M

Books?

I need book recommendations if anyone lurking has any suggestions! 

Currently reading: Into the Water

Gross Water

G made it in late last night after his flight was delayed. Air Canada had to find a new plane due to issues with the door on the original plane - yikes! Glad he made it home safe. I always get nervous, not the air traffic but driving home in the dark late at night. The wild life in our area has been horrible recently, even though hunters have been all around. I almost hit a buck driving to work a few days ago and someone I work with just had their car written off after hitting a deer. Only a few more days until the winter solstice though! Yay longer days :)

I spent the afternoon and evening yesterday preparing our pot-luck dish plus some holiday treats, catching up on laundry and finishing watching Mr Robot Season 3 (sooooo good!!). It's been frustrating doing laundry as our town is having issues with our water. The water itself is fine but in the winter it always turns a disgusting brownish colour. Needless to say: my whites aren't really white anymore, even with bleach, borax, etc... We have a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system installed in our house for our drinking water but the town is getting RO system that should be up and running in the Spring. Until then I haven't even wanted to take a bath because it looks like I'm bathing in sewage; not exactly relaxing, lol. Once the new treatment plant is up and running I'm treating us to new white fluffy thick towels! Until then, slightly yellowed sad towels will have to do. (And yes, I know I can get coloured towels but I prefer everything in my bathroom to be white, white, white! Easy to bleach and clean lol).

G and I have tomorrow off for medical appointments. I have a general doctors appointment in the morning and then we both see our eye doctor in the city for the afternoon. Nice to get two appointments scheduled the same day to get them out of the way. I'm not sure if my eye script will change or not, possibly just my right eye which is not as clear as the left. We will find our tomorrow regardless.

- M

Thank You

Hey everyone, sorry to have left the last post just hanging there but thank you to everyone who left their support. <3

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The weekend after Mocha passed, G and I planned an extremely spontaneous trip to Banff to get out of the house. It was the long weekend for Remembrance Day so we left Friday right after we were done work and came back Monday evening. We had an incredibly relaxing few days hiking around Lake Louise, and hot tubbing at our resort in the evening. We had the money to cover the trip in our Vacation savings account, so it didn't derail much. It really felt that we were spiralling, which I alluded to in my last post, but when I did our end of month balancing and Networth I was surprised to see a jump. 

We won't make our saving goal of $7000 by the end of the year but we have $2000 currently, which is still a nice cushion going into the New Year. I'l do a full Networth breakdown at the end of this month to wrap up 2017 but we surpassed $200,000 in October and in November our retirement account hit just above $140,000. These are huge milestones for us at 27 and 28 and really keep us motivated.

G has been killing the overtime game recently. He is currently in Toronto for a work assignment (coming home tonight). These were his days off so all the hours he's putting in are paid at double time, plus incidentals and meals. This in addition to a lot of other hours, will not get paid out until next year but will help to max out his CPP and EI deductions. The sooner those are done the better!

He has Christmas and Boxing Day off with me though and we are doing what we've done every year for the last three years: go see Star Wars! We rented a hotel in the city so we don't have to worry about driving back and forth. I love Christmas and have enjoyed making our own 'just-us' traditions - which makes being away from home (somewhat) easier. We will FaceTime with my family in the morning and open presents together, then leave in the afternoon. Speaking of presents, we came in under budget this year and I had everything organized/in the mail at the beginning of this week! Feels good once everything is sent off and literally out of our hands.

Tomorrow we have our last Christmas party (we had four this year!) to go too. It's a potluck meal, and we are going to bring broccoli salad. I picked up all the ingredients and will prepare it tonight. We are also doing a small swap/steal gift exchange, $20 values - should be fun!

- M