Money Talks

February and March will be a good money month for us.

Yesterday was G's pay day, a regular pay day without any big overtime payouts but G also received an expense claim deposited into our account. $2200, helped pay for hotels, meals and incidentals for a few trips G had. We had already paid for all those expenses, so this was just 'extra' money (or really to replace what we had to spend). So once that was deposited I promptly spent on a vacation we booked a few weeks ago. $2700 was sent to pay off G's credit card (the $500 difference is just taken from our regular budget). This completely paid for our trip to Iceland in October! Flights, hotels, and rental car is all booked and paid. So excited!! We have about $1100 in our vacation account right now that I was contemplating transferring out to help pay but with this refund I figured I would just leave the savings account as is. 

I will get my paid tomorrow, so I can transfer $800 to our annual spending account, brining that balance up to $3600. It seems like slow going to bring this balance up - but it's going. The next few windfalls should help, nearly max us out at our $7000 goal.

The first is an unexpected bonus at my work. I'm not exactly sure how much will get deposited after deductions, but according to my best calculations - we should end up with about $1700 next Friday. It'll go straight too our savings since I honestly was not expecting this at all. It was just announced this week and I had to read the email twice to make sure I read it right - lol. I guess we had a pretty good year!

The biggest windfall isn't really a windfall at all: income tax refund. We have all our T4's and other documentation in and I have entered in all our numbers. We should be getting a refund of $3400 between the two of us. I will file as soon as possible so we can get the refund in our hot little hands. If we haven't maxed out our $7000 savings account by the time we get the refund deposited, I will max it out and if there is any left I will start to pay off our remodel loan. 

Some other snowballs include: $40 for dog sitting, $130 for wellness expenses, G has another $200 of expenses that is pending. With all these big amounts and little amounts, hopefully by the time March is done our annual account should be maxed out. Once we hit our 'comfortable' level we will still continue our $200 bi-weekly transfer which will help keep the account replenished when we have to withdrawal for property taxes, car/house insurance, etc. That's the plan, now lets see how it actually all plays out! 

- M 

Back from Vacation

Technically we were back a week ago but had a good amount of housework to do (the weeds in the garden…) and I picked up three shifts at work that kept me busy. 

The vacation was amazing. Ugh I love the mountains. Definitely more laid back trip this time around, I didn’t feel rushed to do everything but at the same time we seen a lot.

Top of the Whistler's 

Patricia Lake

Kinney Lake

Mount Robson 

Left over pizza and wine ;)

The entire trip came too a little under $2400 (this balance includes some of the stuff that was prepaid: Airbnb and symphony tickets). That is 4 nights in Jasper and 2 nights in Edmonton. Our top categories were 1. Hotels: $733 2. Food: $529 3. Activities: $361. Could we have done things a lot cheaper? Yes of course! But this was the first time I actually didn’t hold back my spending on a vacation and I loved it. I enjoyed myself, indulged in desert every night at dinner, even ordered drinks one night! G and I have never done that because it is so expensive/overpriced. And you know what? That was the best damn Strawberry Bellini I’ve ever had. The reason I was able to relax so much is because as soon as we got home I transferred the balance that was on our credit card over from our vacation fund to pay it all off. Just like that our vacation was paid off without even emptying our savings completely.

Now I’ll just dream of the next vacation while our savings balance creeps back up.

- M

Vacation(s)

With me not working full time and G actually in a unit where he can take his vacation time we have a few trips planned for this year. G had 298 hours of vacation and even after booking the ENTIRE month of September off plus two weeks in June he still has 108 hours left. 

September is our big trip home (Windsor, Ontario) to see our family. G’s never been back since we moved and last time I went was two years ago for a wedding (we could only afford to send one of us). Our plane tickets have been purchases and we spent $229.27 for both of us! Thanks to our credit card perks and points we only had to pay taxes and fees. We were able to take that money from our vacation account savings. The only other major expenses: boarding our dog ($30 a night) and renting a car. Although both our parents have told us we can borrow their vehicles it’ll just be easier to rent a car. G and I are going to be doing our own separate things lots of the time so I could borrow my moms car and G can take the rental or vice versa. Just gives us more options.

The two weeks in June is a late anniversary trip to Edmonton and Jasper. There is a symphony we both really want to see in Edmonton and Jasper is just going to be a mid-week adventure. Last time we went was in Autumn and we had perfect weather so hopefully we are just as lucky.

I’m really looking forward to these trips! I’m happy we’ve made saving for vacations part of our budget even when we don’t have anything planned. That way these ideal trips can become reality without it straining our cashflow or going into debt. We contribute $100 bi-weekly (automatically) but snowball money into that savings account as well. As the numbers become more finalized for our trip in June, I will share our trip budget.

But now I leave you with a super cute photo of Mocha enjoying the beautiful weather!

I wish we could take her to Windsor but I don't know how she would be on a plane :(

- M 

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

Update: Raise, Transfer, Vacation & Surgery

Things have gotten a tiny bit busy around here (nervous laughter)… and I’m really surprised how well I’m handling everything. I’m not sure where I'm going with this post so I’m just going to start, sorry in advance if things get a bit jumpy.

We had an amazing time in Vegas, more so then I thought we would! We stayed at The Signature at the MGM and felt like royalty. I was so comfortable and there was a Jacuzzi tub – which was needed after walking up and down the Strip all day. The first day we got there we rented a car from the airport and drove to Red Rock Canyon where we hiked until evening. Other things we did: helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon & hike on Eagle Point. As someone who lives in very flat Saskatchewan seeing something like the Grand Canyon really takes my breath away. I’m surprised how well I did riding the helicopter but I think I was so distracted by the view to get nervous, lol. The tour we choose had us land at the bottom of the canyon for pictures and a quick picnic of snacks and champagne then flew to the top of the canyon for two hours of exploring. We could have gone on that glass walkway but we decided to spend the whole time up at Eagle Point and hike to the top – which I’m definitely glad we did. G also went on an air combat school flight, which was expensive but he really enjoyed it. I also shopped, a lot. I had been saving all my personal spending money, birthday money, etc for this trip and haven’t bought any clothes since back in the Spring. All the money I had saved up was converted to USD so it really forced me to make sure what I was buying was something I really loved and fit good. When I came home and started putting everything away in my closet I told myself it was going to be one-in-one-out, it actually ended up being more like one-in-two-out. The pile of donations keeps growing. Back to Vegas talk – we did gamble. We had a specific amount set aside that was our gamble money – and the rule was: once it was gone we don't gamble anymore. Turns out luck was on our side and with a nice 0, 00 split bet on Roulette we ended up leaving Vegas having doubled our money! Definitely glad we set limits though, we would watch some of the higher betting tables and I died a little inside… But what brought back to life by the food. More specifically the avocadoes, they were so fresh! By the time they make it to our grocery store up here (if they can even get them in) they really just cannot compare. We went to some fancier restaurants, some cheap ones, sometimes even cooking at the hotel (there was a kitchen in the hotel room), and we went to one buffet. The food and helicopter tour were definitely my favorites. We also did a couple of shows: one Cirque du Soleil, Penn and Teller (we got to meet them after the show too! So cool) and then had tickets to see the Red Bull Air Races (can you tell my husband likes planes? lol). Then the last day we rented a car again and drove out to the Houver Dam – what an amazing thing to see in real life. We had a really really fun time and we would definitely go again.

Giant drop right below my feet

My very unfortunate sunburn...  

We were happy to get home to our dog though. The day after we got back from our vacation, I went straight back to work and G took Mocha to the vet for her surgery. Everything went extremely well, even while healing she’s had no complications. The first few nights were hard for me. I would get upset and question if we did the right thing or not but as the days went on and she was taken off her pain medication she become more and more like herself. She even went into her toy bin the other day and got a few toys out for us to play with her, she hadn’t done that in such a long time! The vet called about two weeks afterwards and said that the lab results came back on her eyes and one eye lens had completely burst, which would have been extremely painful and that the other eye the retina was becoming detached and they same thing would have happened eventually. That news made me feel a lot better about the surgery. Around Hallowe’en I called her my Franken-puppy. <3

Recovery <3

Now for the big news! Last week G got his transfer notice, we had a hunch it was coming but I didn’t expect it this soon or for things to happen so fast! I’m really glad I’ve spent the summer declutter and organizing. I think it’s definitely going to make this progress go a lot smoother. Today we signed up with the relocation company so I’ve spent a good portion of the day reading their different help guides. We will have an actual meeting with our representative soon, I told G it was really important to me that I be there, so we will have to work it around my work schedule and his. We are really pleased with the town we got transferred too, although I’ll miss this one. I’m going to write a more detailed post once we get more information – as we literarily just found out that it got finalized. I’m excited and nervous all at the same time! This will be our first transfer and I’ve heard some horror stories from some of the other force spouses. I’m just going to try to keep a level head and make sure I understand everything related to this entire process. I’m going to be the annoying girl asking a million questions, lol. I’m sure our rep is going to love me :P

Gabe got his yearly salary raise, even though he is way over that amount as it stands right now with all the overtime he works. Nice though because at the new posting there may not be as much overtime. Oh! And we finally got his LaRonge expenses paid out today. $1300ish deposited into our account. Yay! Only took since July…

Okay, expect more random posts in the future. My mind is going a mile a minute with everything going on.

- M

PS: We are still going to be in Saskatchewan - so I won't have to change my blog name, haha

Parents Visit & Vacation Talk

Sorry I haven’t been writing these last few weeks. Things were kind of busy around here while preparing for my parents visits. I haven’t seen them in over two years so I’m sure you understand me wanting to spend some quality time with them, lol. They were here for a week, and since they drove all the way from Southern Ontario we didn’t really do much except relax and play cards. G and I cooked a homemade meal plus desert every single night. My mom doesn’t really cook all that much at home so I wanted to spoil them/show off (i.e. make them proud: which btw my mom commented saying these were some of the best meals she's had -- score!). That being said – our food budget is about 3x more this month, lol. I’m going to be happy if it we keep under $800. This is one of those moments I really don’t care though – I’m glad to feed my family good food and have nice memories & we can afford it. We ended up only spending $260 on groceries last month so we are sort of balancing out.

One nice thing my parents did was let us purchase USD at par! We bought $300 US for $300 CAD. I just did a quick calculation in Google and that would have cost us $400 CAD!! Ouch… Also the day they left G found a note from my mom that said, “Enjoy a nice dinner in Vegas” with a $100 bill tucked under. They had to hide it because they know we wouldn’t have taken it if they handed it to us, lol. Our vacation account is a little over $800, not that much considering our vacation is a month away but we are still owed the expenses from G’s La Ronge trip ($1366) which was approved a month ago – I’m hoping that comes in soon. Also this is all our ‘fun’ money, the hotel has been paid for so its really about how lavish or frugal we want our trip to be. We will be putting away as much as possible this month and next as we would rather have a surplus in our vacation savings account than a balance on our credit cards; but that’s really a no brainer. ;)

- M

Getting Better

            After the last post and emotions sort of calmed down G and I had a really good discussion about our future and his career. It’s nice to know we are both on the same page and that he knows I’m behind him 100%. The stress at work, although still there, has gone down and he has been coming home in better moods. He is working his final day shift today before an entire week off – which is much needed.

            Wednesday is our 3-year wedding anniversary and we have a nice weekend getaway in Regina planned for next weekend. A good friend of ours will be watching our dog; we got a super deal on a hotel and tickets to the symphony (back when we were dating G would always take me to the symphony for dates). We are both looking forward to it!

            Oh! And speaking of getaways: we booked our hotel for Vegas! J We transferred out $1500 from our vacation account and paid it on the credit card we booked it with right away (yay points and no interest!). Sad to see our account back at a sad $500, but we will start building it up again for the actual trip itself – that’s what it is there for after all.

My parents are also coming up in September to visit. It’ll be two years since I seen them last. Far too long and I know they are looking forward to it just as much as much as I am. I have the week booked off work while they are here, so it’ll be good quality time with them (the last time I couldn’t get the time off of work and only had a few hours a day to spend with them).

Lots to look forward too and lots to be grateful for.

- M