Category: Show Me the Money

So you know how I was hoping that March would finally be the month were we wouldn’t have to deal with yet another “big thing” hit to our budget? I found out yesterday that won’t be the case. As of March 6th I no longer have a paycheque coming in. It was the typical story … Continue reading The next big thing

And boy am I ever paying for it. One of the fun bits about living in a new construction project (especially one that’s built during a construction boom and labour shortage) is the delays in setting up and billing for basic services. Like electricity. We moved in January 5th. We had power the whole time, … Continue reading I got the Power

Neil and I made it through January, the first of 12 months in which we’re aiming to eat, drink and be merry on $1000/month in order to be free of our consumer debt by the end of 2009. So, how’d we do? Biggest Win: Sticking awfully close to our goal this month, which is MUCH … Continue reading Monthly Budget Wrap-Up 1

I’ve spent a few months now living in the Land of Responsible Choices, and really, since I rescinded my citizenship to the Land of AND, I haven’t had to face any choices that I’ve found particularly tough to work through. Until now. I am not going to Germany. I’m sure many of you are now … Continue reading Large Disapointment the First

We’re talking “broke,” “poor” and “choice” here gentle readers. Get your minds out of the gutter now. Anyhow, I hate the words broke and poor. Unless you’re using the word to describe a lack of funds that is impacting one’s ability to provide food, shelter and safety, I find using those words insulting to people … Continue reading the B-word, the P-word and the C-word

In coming up with our budget, we tried a ton of different systems to capture and manage the money in and the money out of our accounts. We’ve used financial planning software, complicated spreadsheets, online banking tools – and none of them worked. Despite the alleged “real-time” nature of online banking today, things don’t exactly … Continue reading Cashola

It took a lot of tweaking to get us to the budget we have now. When we looked at our budget, we found we actually have very few costs that we don’t have the power to increase or decrease by significant amounts each month. In fact, there are three: 1. Home (Mortgage, Strata fees, Taxes) … Continue reading So How Much is Enough?

The start of a new year is when a lot of people resolve to get their financial houses in order. And we can certainly be counted among them. Not that we’re just tackling this now. Over the past few months we’ve been working on sorting out our exact financial situation and trying out different budgeting … Continue reading Big Money