Last Weekend

Last weekend was amazing. G had spent the previous two weeks in Manitoba for work, and although I am pretty much used to him being gone, those two weeks felt like forever. So I planned a little date weekend in Saskatoon for us.

We had dinner and drinks at the Cactus Club, went see Jumanji, stayed at a nice hotel, and spent the evening swimming in the pool all by ourselves. Sunday we spent the morning at the Remai Modern, then did our grocery shopping (for those that live outside a big city, going to the grocery store is a huge treat and really exciting, lol). We were home early in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day meal prepping an awesome dinner and we polished off a bottle of wine.

It was such a treat to spend that quality time together. Even gearing up for this week where we were working opposite shifts. Definitely money well spent in my mind.

Always curious 

- 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

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 

Catching Up: The Job

Hi! Remember me?

I have so much stuff to write about but never had the time (or made the time) to update. Now that the cold weather has arrived (we had a major snow storm this week: see photo of me on our back deck) and yard work is pretty much off my schedule (see photo of potatoes) I'm making more time to get back to writing.

October 6th: Almost at the top of my boots!

One of the piles of potatoes 

One of the first major things to happen was I got a full time maternity-leave position at my work! I was hired back in July and the term will be until December 2017. As soon as the job was posted I got a call from my manager (I was at home that day) letting me know and if I wanted more information to call the other manager as he was hoping I would apply. I had a conversation with him and officially put my name in for consideration. Now, this is a very familiar story for me so I didn't get my hopes up about the job but sure enough a few days after the posting closed I had an offer! Which I didn't take. Nope, instead I countered for more pay. Now let me tell you, this was my first time ever countering an employment offer before and I was SO nervous. I did my research though, had reasons to back up my offer, went into the meeting with a level head: and got my raise! Technically they came in lower than what I wanted (but I went in high & knowing what my tipping point was). Also they tried to tell me this new salary would start in 3 months after my 'training' period but I flat out told them "No". The manager filled that awkward empty silence with a "Okay, it'll start right away."

I told G later that night when I got home from work that I didn't even know who I was: confident, but relaxed and at ease. But he made me realize it's because I wasn't desperate for this job. Yeah, I wanted it - it's a step up from what I was doing before and in an entirely new department - but we put ourselves in a position where financially we don't need my income. I don't feel that stress anymore.

Not needing my new income for our budget is awesome because I'm able to throw 100% of it at our car debt! Car debt???? Oh... I'll explain that in the next post.

- M

Christmas

I hope everyone had Merry Christmas! Although G & I are not able to spend it with our families, we did have a very good day. In the morning I FaceTime’d with my mom, dad, sister and her boyfriend. We opened presents, laughed, my mom cried, I even got to watch them all try hot sauces my sister’s boyfriend had brought from the states! My dad was trying so hard acting like they weren't hot but you could see his face turning red, lol. We talked for about 2 hours - it was really nice.

G and I then started to get ready for a big Christmas plans. Originally we were going to have some people over but that got changed last week, so it was just going to be G and I. He had the day off and brought up going to Saskatoon to go see the new Star Wars movie - we haven’t been to the movies in such a long time so I thought it was a great idea! We even treated ourselves, getting tickets to the VIP theatre and seen the movie in 3D. The nightout: $66.24 ($43.98 for the tickets & $22.26 for popcorn, drink, M&M’s, a chocolate bar and a poutine). There was also the $42 in fuel but that was already built into this months budget (in fact we are $13 under budget). We both enjoyed the movie and had a nice time going to the city without a long list of places we need to go or things we need to buy. It was just a relaxing day; even seen a shooting star on the drive home - both of us made a wish.

So that was our Christmas! Even though we couldn’t spend it with our family in the traditional sense, I’m glad technology has come so far. This time of year always makes me a little sad and seeing their faces really helps. <3

- M 

Christmas Day 

Keeping me busy during the days off 

Lazy Weekend & Planning

This has been such a relaxing weekend. The week was really stressful at work – Wednesday I actually just came home (pretty much ready to cry with frustration), went straight into the bathroom and prepared a bubble bath for myself. G is such a good husband though – he completely took control of the cooking and cleaning this week made an awesome chicken chow mien stir-fry that was the perfect comfort meal. Friday I came home to laundry done (my weekend routine) and the house tidy. Hence the super relaxing weekend.

Yesterday I started looking into vacations for next year – the one back home I’m not worried about since our flights will be paid for with credit card points and we don’t need any accommodations (staying a few days at my parents house and then G’s parents). $2000 should be more than enough for food, shopping, thank you gifts, etc). I’m overestimating because I’d rather have more budgeted than not enough and we may spend a couple days in Toronto. So that takes care of that vacation/ family visit.

What about some personal time for G & myself? I started planning that vacation aswell. With the Canadian dollar so low going anywhere outside Canada really isn’t the smartest decision right now – it’s a good thing I live in a big beautiful country! J Flying somewhere isn’t an option either, as we will have used all our points and credit card perks for our flights back to Ontario. So we settled on somewhere we’ve already been and absolutely loved, Banff, AB! Last time we went it was summer/fall, this trip we are planning on December before Christmas. We are so excited to experience winter in the mountains; I have already done a lot of research on different activities available to do. Driving there is only about 8 - 9 hours tops, completely doable for us in one day. As for the budget – well I’m still trying to figure that part out. The more money saved up the better so I think I’m just going to go big or go home in terms of stocking money away. Like the Ontario vacation – if we use it to have a good time – great that’s what it’s there for; if not then the extra money is there to either keep in the vacation account for 2017 or to help fund another goal.

Although I’m thinking about vacations I’m still aware of our #1 goal right now: the Moving fund. We still are throwing extra money to that fund but I may back off a bit and start with a few hundred here and there to the Vacation fund (extra, as we already have automatic transfers setup for that account). Besides, if shit hits the fan in regards to this transfer, the Banff vacation can easily be dropped/moved forward. I’m just trying to get all our ducks in a row regarding our budget for next year – or should I say moose in a row?

Does anyone think I’m crazy/ taking on too much? It’s just nice to look forward to something even if the dates aren’t settled and won’t be for a while.

- M

Bad News/Good News

Tuesday I went to my friends’ acreage right after work. Her dog went missing last Tuesday afternoon and on Friday they found his body in a trap about a mile from their property. Friday morning another one of their dogs came limping back to the house, lip completely mangled, blood all over her face, eyes blood shot. My friend took that dog to the vet right away and her husband went into the bush with his gun (thinking it was coyotes). After about 10 minutes walking thru he found the other dogs’ body in a noose like trap. They didn’t know anyone was trapping near-by. The Conservation Officers for the area are involved – as they know who’s traps they were and its not his first time doing it illegally/without care. Her other dog somehow survived the trap that caught her but she is still recovering – what a fighter. So after work on Tuesday I picked up a flower arrangement I ordered into town and went to spend the evening with her. We had dinner, talked about what happened: she’s more at peace now knowing where he is and what happened to him. They buried him near a lilac bush where he would always bed– a very fitting final resting place. I left there after a few hours of visiting, drove back to town and gave Mocha a big hug when I got home.

On Wednesday I got a Christmas card from my grandparents with a $160 cheque. I deposited right away, then G & I agreed to move it over to our vacation account to help fund our trip back home to Ontario next year. Instead of $160 I moved over $200 just to squeeze our budget a bit. The account is sitting at just a little over $800.

Today, the good mail continued but this time it was our Energy bill (surprise, surprise). We are on an equalized payment plan with both our Power and Energy bills. Our Energy bill for the last year was $160/month. But they reassessed for 2016 and our monthly bill is going down to $115/month AND we have enough credit that we won’t have to pay our bill again until April – score! Now, we are used to the $160 in our budget and I don’t intend to start spending it on crap, so what’s the plan? From January until April I’ll snowflake $200 into the moving account (rounding up to once again squeeze the budget and I like round numbers better). That’s $600 extra dollars added to the account in the next three months. Then following months until we move I have a snowflake of $50 to help fund our moving expenses.

- M

PS: Any pet owners reading; hug your animals tight & maybe an extra treat <3

Moving?

The decluttering has continued this weekend: over 250 items gone. I know in my last post I said my closet was 100% but I went thru my accessories and got rid of a ton of necklaces and rings I haven’t worn or just aren’t my style anymore. I was able to sell many of them on the local buy and sell group so that’s a small win. I also got rid of a giant wicker basket that held flats and scarves. I didn’t get rid of any of that stuff since it’s all good, by just rearranging I was able to condense.

So, why the sudden declutter bug? Well, it’s been one of my goals all year but this past little while was because my parents were coming to visit so I wanted everything to look nice. But my parents have come and gone and I’m even more ramped up! That’s because my best friend is moving from an entire house to a one-bedroom apartment this week. She’s been really getting rid of anything that doesn’t add value. Seeing her progress (okay not seeing it but hearing about it) and being able to talk to someone about this kind of stuff has really made me excited to push myself a bit further.

But guess where her and her husband are moving too?

That’s right! They are moving to Saskatchewan!!!!!!!!!!!! Yayyyyyyyyy

I’m so excited! First thing I said was “We get to spend Christmas together!” which then followed “…. Are you prepared for the winter?” haha Her husband had been looking and applying to EMS jobs all across Ontario without any luck. They were getting really frustrated because he had great grades but no one was biting. They started looking at different provinces and I told them they should seriously think about Saskatchewan. It’s a growing province with a TON of jobs available (especially EMS), great place to raise a family (something really important to them) and I’m here (joking but kinda serious lol). Sure enough a couple of weeks after applying he had 5 call backs from cities and towns interested – this is after an entire summer applying in Ontario. One quick visit up and a few interviews later he choose the place he liked the 'feel of' the best and they will be about an hour and a half away from me!  I’m going to try to visit them either this weekend or next, depending on when they get here and get settled. G & I got them a $50 gift card for a grocery store in their town (figuring they are going to need to restock when they get here) and my parents got them a nice bottle of Saskatchewan wine to help welcome them.

(Back on track) Okay, so like I was saying, they are moving this week and driving all the way from Ontario to Saskatchewan. One trip and one trailer towed – she is in major declutter mode because of this. Her moving not only has gotten me in the mood to clean but also got me thinking about our next move. G has been discussing a transfer to a more specialized unit and I am 100% supportive. He has been talking to different sergeants and updating his HRMIS (our wish list of postings). The next transfer season isn’t until later this fall but it doesn’t hurt preparing for a move even if one isn’t on the table yet. Trying to keep any future stresses at a minimum when the transfer happens.

All this discussion between G and I has also lit the fire to getting a lot of project done around the house. I did the master-bath facelift just before my parents came, we painted the stairs and banister so they look fresh, and did some outdoor stuff (pruned trees, cut down a tree, fixed some of the siding, landscaping), did the living room remodel a while back. All little small project that really only needed our time and energy but we kept putting off. My house is looking really nice if I do say so myself, and more importantly it’s stayed that way for over a month now. Have I mentioned how much easier it is to clean without so much junk in the way? :P

- M

Using the Emergency Fund

Rereading my last post, I can't help but to laugh: I totally jinxed myself... We had to use our emergency fund, there was no way around it.

Lets catch you up to speed here. G took Mocha for her appointment last week and the results where good and bad. Good: no masses besides the one on her leg. Bad: cancer cells were found in her liver and spleen. They had her in for surgery the next day. She has been recovering well from her surgery even though they had a remove a large amount of skin from her leg. But the fact they were able to do the surgery at all is good news as they told us they may have to remove her entire leg: which is where, given her other conditions, G and I were going to draw the line (that was a really really tough conversation for the both of us to have). We are expecting to know what stage cancer she has sometime this week, to which they will recommend the next steps for her recovery.

We spent a little under $3000 on our dog this month, I had budgeted $500. Yes, this is an extremely bitter pill to swallow but it could have been worse. First thing 'extra' to get cut from the budget was our LOC payment, we moved over the minimum amount due so that was out of the way until next month - it is sitting at $9500 at the moment. Next thing we needed to get taken care of was about $1000 worth of expenses from G's trip up to La Ronge. He was in charge of paying for his hotel, which we were not expecting until he got there. Yes this will be 100% reimbursed but it was still not budgeted for and was sitting on a credit card. We paid this off, being able to cash flow this expense from our account (which was our plan since learning about this curve ball). Last but not least was the vet bills. This is were money was starting to wear real thin in our account and I knew no matter how I looked at it or calculated there was no getting around taking from our emergency fund. So we moved over $2000 from our $5000 EF. That on top of the $500 I already had budgeted and cash flowing the few hundred we had left, we were able to pay off the vet bills in full. Our chequeing account is sitting just a little below $700, so we still have a little bit of a buffer as the month is not over yet.

I will say during this really difficult time, I am so glad we didn't have to worry about money or the cost of getting her healthy. We just sort of rolled with the punches and stayed strong. It wasn't until we had Mocha in the backseat of our car and were on our way home after the surgery that I started bawling. All the emotions I was able to keep in check over the last few days came flooding in all at once. But once I let out all that emotion I could finally listen to G saying how good Mocha is recovering and financial, we got this. The emergency fund served its purpose, and we will begin to rebuild it once again so when the next round of punches comes our way, while its kicking our ass emotional, it won't be hurting us financially.

Mocha and her cone of shame :P 

- M

Living Within Our Means

I had a weird thing happened to me the other day. As I've talked about before, I work at the Credit Union here in town and with a job like that there are certain perks. One of those perks is a better interest rates on loans. For curiosities sake, I asked the loans manager what the interest rate was and explained the situation with our current LOC. I let him know how much was owing and by the Fall we would have it paid off - so that if we did get a loan thru my work I needed it to be open/flexible and not fixed with penalties for paying it early.

He kept repeating the amount and our plan to pay it off by Fall, and I kept confirming that yes, that was our plan and what we are on track to do. Then he said something I have never been asked: "Well, what do you live on?" There was kind of this awkward silence and then I said "We live within our means". That was followed by a blank stare.

I don't know why I was so taken aback by this question. I may be looking way to far into it but his tone was so judgmental, I felt embarrassed and sorry for bringing any of this up. And that is crazy! Why should I feel embarrassed for making our debt a priority? I understand it's not the norm in todays society but why make those that do feel bad about it?

G and I make good incomes but we live a lifestyle that is very balanced and actually well below our means. We weren't always there but have definitely smartened up over that last two years. So why not get rid of the car loan if we can pay it off early? Why not start thinking about paying off our mortgage when we are still only 24 & 25? That's something I shouldn't be embarrassed about.

For the record though, I don't share our financial snap shot to people or rub our situation in their faces because I know not everyone is going to be in the same circumstances. Only when I am ask specific question by close friends or family would I share the information I feel comfortable sharing. Or if you are reading my blog, lol; but my blog is anonymous so I feel more confident with sharing actual numbers and plans. What else did you expect from a financial blog though? :P

Have any of you been in an awkward situation such as mine? How did you handle it?

- M

Forest Fires

G volunteered to go up North to assist with the wildfires (and now some arson fires - seriously wtf is wrong with people?) that are having a huge impact, not only in the immediate areas, but smoke is traveling far into the US aswell. Today we learned he's going. He leaves next week for 7 days of 12 hour shifts. I am so proud of him. Nervous, I won't lie, but so freakin' proud. No one else in his detachment put there names on the list to go. We aren't 100% sure where he will be helping. La Ronge I'm guessing, but there are so many fires burning, he said he would go wherever they need him.

ND Chic asked in my last post what the air quality was like where we live. Although the fires aren't any where close, the smoke is horrible. There is also a lot of ash falling from the sky, which on my walks to work I've been coughing a lot more. That smokey smell has been giving me a pretty bad headache too and I find it's best to keep all the window closed. Here are some photos my husband took just outside of town:

It's so bizarre, G says it reminds him of Fallout (the video game). There have been many days where the sun is a blood orange colour from the smoke. I can't imagine what it is like up there for them, but I guess G will let me know...

Please keep rain in your thought as well as all those that are helping with the efforts and those that have been evacuated from their homes. I hope it doesn't continue on for much longer.

- M

Bad Luck

I don’t think I’ve talked about my dog’s health problems in detail since this is a financial blog but this is going to be a more personal post so I apologize in advance if this gets sappy.

I have discussed in the past how our dog has been diagnoses with diabetes. We have her on insulin, which she gets twice a day and we believed we were going to get it under control. One morning over a month ago, I went to take her downstairs with me to start our morning routine and I noticed her eyes were really wide and she was really cautious going down the stairs. I didn’t really understand what was going on at first until she started bumping into walls. I woke up G right away and we got her into see our vet that afternoon. Mocha (her name) had gone blind literally over night because cataracts forming due to her diabetes. Although this was difficult to deal with we knew that if we got her diabetes under control, cataract surgery was always an option. She does extremely well getting around the house, since she is familiar with the layout although she has knocked over her water bowl on a few occasion, lol.

So we kept doing the check ups. We bought a glucometer for at home insulin curves which we would call into our vet and they would recommend a bump in her insulin. She seems to be doing better although her levels aren’t where they needed to be. She wasn’t loosing anymore weight, instead, was gaining some back. She wasn’t drinking as much water nor having to go to the bathroom every two hours. We were positive.

Then one night we noticed her eyes were all red and she wasn’t really opening them. It was too late to call the vet so we were going to call in the morning if it hadn’t cleared up overnight. The next morning her eyes had gotten even worse. The only way I can describe how she was acting was drunk. Wobbling around everywhere, her third eyelid was so swollen and red, she was batting at her eyes and her head was tilting really badly to the side, she wouldn’t eat. I called the vet right away and got her an appointment that afternoon. They had never seen anything like it themselves and were calling the vet hospital in Saskatoon trying to get ahold of the ophthalmologist for advice. We went home that night with three different eye drops and a referral for the hospital in Saskatoon. The next morning her eyes were 100% better, she was back to her almost normal self and didn’t seem to be in pain. The diagnosis: complications for her diabetes, fluid retention buildup around her eyes. Since the drops worked, we were positive.

At this point, as you can imagine, G and I are both emotional exhausted. Every time Mocha has a complication and it's scary for us, she fights and pulls thru. I know she is just a dog so not everyone would understand, but she is our family and I am so proud of her and her strength.

On Thursday, G took Mocha to her appointment in Saskatoon. She seen the ophthalmologist and had a medical consult aswell as a full check up. The ophthalmologist was extremely positive about cataract surgery and was very detail in explaining everything to G, even sending home pamphlets for me to read. That afternoon when I got home from work, G and I were discussing the options and doing more research when he got a call from the vet who had gotten some of Mocha’s blood work and other test results back. The diagnosis: Mocha has cancer.

Two lumps on her body came back positive, and we need to go back to Saskatoon for testing to see how aggressive and if it’s spread anywhere else. I’m trying really hard to stay positive but this last bit of news has hit me hard, mainly because we were not expecting it at all. Right now, the cancer is our main priority. The vet seems to think that could be why the insulin hasn’t been helping regulate her either. We are all hoping that once the cancer is gone the diabetes will be more regulated aswell.

Hoping.

- M