Reducing Gasoline

Well - I hate to say it, but I am pretty sure we spend more money on gas than we do on groceries.  I am hoping to increase the times before fueling.  There are pretty much two ways to do that - drive less, or be more fuel efficient.  Hubby and I are trying to drive less by going out less on weekends - we also spend less money when we are at home and get more done.  It seems to be a win win.  I do still have to go to work everyday, and so does hubby.  We used to carpool to work but now we work in opposite ends of the city. My drive is 32km to work one way.  I also get to sit in traffic and warm up the car on cold days (we have no garage and I park outdoors at work as well).  I find I am filling up once a week.  I drive a dodge journey suv and it costs me $60-$70 to fill.

My hubby on the other hand, drives a pick up truck.  Not a super huge diesel one, but it does cost around $90 to fill.  He doesn't have such a long commute to work and we use the dodge for all of our errands, he only fills up once a week or less.

Looking at November, we spent $426 on gas.  Ouch.  

By comparison, we spend $231 on groceries in November! Groceries were so low this month because we had a lot of stuff in the freezer we were using.

I filled up the Dodge on Saturday November 26th and I want to see how long I can make it last.  It cost $53.00

December Savings Goals

Today is the last day of November, I thought it would be a perfect day to review November and set some Goals for December.  So here are my December goals:

• $350 for gas for both vehicles: In November we ended up spending $426 on gas!  That is crazy!  We do a lot of driving.  We are going to try and cut back our driving in December and try to make our gas last longer - including trying to drive more efficiently and just driving less/
• $300 for groceries and eating out: Eating out is one of our worst habits and we have cut it down a lot!  In November we spent $231 on groceries and $233 on fast food, restaurants and coffee shops.  The later, I have to say, was mostly me.  I started a new job with a fabulous cafeteria and there was a week or so I was buying lunch everyday and sometimes breakfast.  Hubby is a lot better when it comes to not eating out!
• Renew animal licenses - $80.  Our animals licenses need to be renewed by December 31st.  Luckily, I remember this one was coming and I was able to budget it into the budget!
• $200 Christmas gift budget: This year we decided to not set aside money for Christmas, it was going straight to debt.  Our Christmas money is coming right from our weekly expenses.  I still want to make my Christmas presents this year so I am hoping not to use all of this money, but it's budgeted just in case!  This also includes presents exchanged between hubby and me.
• Buy winter tires:  We need to do this soon! It really is an extra expense but I think it will be worth it from a safety perspective.  I haven't bought winter tires before, but our new car isn't as good in the snow as my last one so I really think I need them this year!
• Pay off the last credit card:  Hubby and I had a goal to have both credit cards paid off by the end of the year.  We have roughly $950 to pay on it.
• Set up automatic savings: We have been good about putting some money in savings, but we want to make it automatic and treat it just like a bill payment.  We will get this set up!

This month is going to be tight financially, we have a lot of big goals! But that will also having us spending more time with each other and less time getting caught up in commercial Christmas.  With the snow and the cold, it will be nice to stay home and watch a movie or play a game, or maybe even clean and organize!

My Birthday!

For my birthday, my hubby planned a special day.  I was worried about him spending a lot of money since we are on a tight budget.  He promised me that he was going to stick to our budget.

We made cinnamon buns at home for breakfast and he gave me my birthday present.  He got me Just Dance 3 for Wii.  I was excited about that (and he got it for a good price as well - he's learning well!). Then as we were sitting down for breakfast, he started playing a video he made for me of tons of pictures of us over the last several years.  It was such a sweet homemade gift!

Later that night he surprised me with reservation at Caesar's Steakhouse.  Caesar's was a very very nice restaurant, in fact, I don't think we have ever been to such a nice Steakhouse.  We were very fortunate to receive a gift certificate from relatives in order to afford having such a special night.


The food was really good and we had an amazing day, but the best present of all was the video that my hubby made for me.  It was a really sweet, and homemade birthday present!

Reducing Our Cable/Internet/Phone Bill

We have had our home phone, internet and cable through one provider since 2008.  The phone company we choose was just introducing cable at that time and in the beginning it didn't always run smoothly (understatement of the year). We stuck it out because it was better financially for us to have it bundled.

Recently, they sent us a noticed saying they were discontinuing the lower tier service and was a mandatory free upgrade. This was a bit of a nuisance to have the cable guy come out to our house as we worked full time and it was hard to take time off (especially at that time of year).  We made arrangements and my hubby took a day off of work for the cable guy to come out.  It was a day of lost wages, but we really weren't that behind - I mean we were getting a free cable upgrade - right?

Wrong!  When I got my next bill it was almost $40 more!  That is a lot of a "mandatory free upgrade"!  I called to ask and they said the hardware was the "free upgrade" but we had to pay for the upgraded service - talk about misleading! As they discontinued our previous cable, we basically had a choice of pay it or don't have cable (oh and then we wouldn't have a bundle so our other rates would go up too....).

Hubby and I mulled over what to do.  We decided since we were never watching tv and we both have cell phones, we would cancel our home phone and cable.  I was a little nervous about cancelling the home phone, not sure why - we rarely use it.

Hubby called up the provider to cancel and instead they offering up a really good rate less than half and what we were paying!  We decided to keep phone internet and cable after all.

That one phone call is saving us $1000 a year over what they wanted us to pay after the upgrade!

Now only if the mobile company would do the same thing.....

Reducing Our Debt

One of the points of this blog is to share my tips on how I save.  I haven't always been good at saving, and I've spent a lot of time saving on the wrong things!  Our family does have a lot of debt and our goal to is get rid of that debt!

Here is a current list of our debt:

Credit Card#1: $1400
Credit Card#2: $0
Line of Credit: $11920
Total: $13320

I am currently not including or mortgage or our car loan.  These are both on pre set up payments and they are the better of our debts (not saying they are great to have).  Our car loan and mortgage will be next on the list after we pay down this and get hubby through school.

Over the next 2 years we are going to have to find around $20 000 to send hubby to school.  Meaning if we want to pay off the above debt and send hubby to school it is going to cost us $33 000!!

My goal is to get rid of this as soon as possible.  So far we are doing pretty good.  This is what our debit looked like at beginning of October:

Credit Card#1: $2600
Credit Card #2: $300
Line of Credit#: $11985
Total: $14588

So we have paid about $1300 off in less than two month.  We are also making another $600 payment to credit card #1 as we speak - our goal is to have Credit Card #1 paid off by the end of the year!

I think posting this will help us stay on top of our budget!

$5000 Extra Income Goal

This is the year where we really get serious with our debts.  I have a goal to make an extra $5000 between now and the end of 2012.

Making this extra money will consist of a few different things.  In fact, "making" might even be the wrong word. I plan to use gift money (from birthdays/Christmas) towards this goal.  I also will include income from my second part time job.  We are also trying to sell some of the stuff we have lying around that we don't use anymore.  We seem have have a lot of furniture in the basement we aren't using.  There is also taking back bottles and perhaps the odd job or babysitting that might fit in.

My biggest question was about taxes - in Canada - what of this "extra income" is supposed to be claimed on our taxes?  After a couple hours of reading I seem to have figured out the basics.  First, I shall start by saying that I am certainly no accountant or tax guru so don't take my advice alone, make sure you do some research yourself:

Taxable income (income you need to claim on your taxes):

- Any "business" income:

 - that part time job (my work takes off taxes and sends a T4 so I don't have to worry about it).  

- Any "side" jobs - babysitting, snow shovelling, dog walking

- Any "capital gains" on personal items, ie: you bought a lamp for $10 and sold it for $20.

Non Taxable income:

-Gifts and inheritances

-Capital losses ie: you bought a lamp for $10 and sold it for $5 (this category covers most of the stuff you are probably selling at a garage sale).  

I was always told you needed to claim garage sale income on your taxes, but what I read from the CRA it says you don't have to as long as it's a capital loss.  Makes sense, you already paid taxes on the money you used to buy the items - you shouldn't have to pay taxes on it twice!

I will be updating my goal money every once and awhile so I can see if I make my goal!

Total to date: $100/$5000

Couples Massage Class

My hubby really likes to have massages.  He is often on his feet all day at work and after hours of physical labour he is tired and sore! While massages are great, they are expensive and sometimes inconvenient - I mean who wants to come home tired and sore and then try to find a massage appointment, and then get in the car and drive to the massage, and after relaxing for an hour, drive home?   I thought this year for his birthday I would get him a special present this year.  I got him a couples massage class from Chinook Learning Services.

We went on Wednesday and it was excellent!  The instructor is a registered massage therapist and was very helpful and friendly!  We spend 3 hours learning different techniques and giving our partners a long massage.  It was very nice and relaxing.

Now, for the price for one of us to have a massage, we both can look forward to lifelong massages at home.  We are no where near a professional level, but at least we have some understanding of how to give a good massage.  It was a really great class and it even made us feel closer as a couple!

This was a not too expensive gift that is going to keep giving.  It might even save us money after our massage benefits run out!

Homemade Applesauce

Homemade apple sauce is a treat!  Not only is it easier to make, and cheaper than the grocery store brands but it tastes way better and has no additives!

This fall, apples were on sale for $0.67 per pound at a local grocery store.  This is one of best prices I've seen around here as we don't live anywhere near orchards and most of the apples are from BC.  I bought 15 apples, and they cost me just over four dollars.

First I washed all of the apples.  I like to do this with all of my fruits and veggies even if I am going to peel them.

Then I peeled and sliced 12 apples into bite size pieces.  We bought this Starfrit Apple Peeler and it was the best thing I have ever had to peel apples!  It gets most of the peel, there only maybe one or two spots that it missed.  It also came with a corer/slicer that made slicing the apples super simple.  I did end up cutting the apple slices in half so they were a little smaller.

Once I had all the apples peeled and cut up, I put them into my crock pot.  It cooks down a lot so I tried to fill it as full as I could.  I didn't add any sugar but you can if you like your applesauce a little bit sweeter. You can also add lemon juice to keep the applesauce from turning a dark colour.

I turned the crock pot to high for about 4 hours.  Once the apples are very soft and mushy, I used a stick blender to make the apple sauce smooth.

I wish I had a picture for your but it got eaten before I managed to take a picture!  I guess I will know better for next time! 

You can freeze the apple sauce into ice cube trays and take out a few at a time for lunches.  That is, if you can make it last longer than mine did!

Leftover Pizza

Hubby and I cooked a turkey on Thanksgiving for our family.  I sent everyone home with leftovers but we still had lots and lots!  I decided to make some homemade pizza one night for dinner with our pizza.

Ingredients:

Pita pockets - for crust

Shredded cheese

Pizza sauce

Leftover turkey (or other left overs)

Veggies of choice chopped - we chose peppers, onion and spinach left over from Thanksgiving salad and canned mushrooms.

We used a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.  You can also use tin foil but don't use wax paper in the oven! (Saying from experience, it smokes and it melts - not good!)

Then simply just took the pitas (right from the freezer) and smothered them in sauce.  I got the pizza sauce on sale for $0.99 and the pitas were on sale for $1.39 for 6.

We chose which toppings we each wanted.  Hubby chose to have more meat, and I chose more veggies - go figure.  Then we topped it with cheese, which I chose more of, I love my cheese!

The canned mushroom's were on sale as well.  The cheese was leftover from the rosemary biscuits I made for Thanksgiving.

We baked the pizzas in the oven at 350F for about 10 minutes. (Until the cheese is melted and the pitas have browned and are crunchy.)

Voila! We had hot freshly baked individual pizzas made mostly from leftovers.   We just cut them with a pizza cutters and enjoyed.  It was lots of fun and easy for us to make.  I am sure kids would enjoy designing their own pizzas as well.

I've read about using pitas as pizza crust before but I hadn't tried it.  It turned out really good.  Hubby said it was better than takeout!  I guess it depends where you get your takeout but it was certainly cheaper than any takeout I have ever paid for!

Where Did I Go?

Okay, I admit it, I'm not the world's best blogger.  In fact, most of the time when I think of something to write, I write it out completely in my head.  The problem is, it's usually at night when I am falling asleep or first thing in the morning when I am in the shower.  It sounds so smart and cutting edge at the time, but later I either can't remember or I wonder why I thought it sounded good?

So, that brings me to my next point.  Why do I have a blog.  I want to track my progress and pass on my thoughts.  I've never been one to keep a diary - or I have kept it for one week and then not picked it up for a year - then ripped out what I wrote and started the cycle over again.

The last month has been super busy here.  I cooked thanksgiving dinner for my family (would would have been so easy to blog about with exciting pictures), I started a new job and I've been reading a lot of financial books to get a better idea about retirement and investing.  I know - such an exciting 22 year old!

This is my last week of being 22, on Saturday I will be 23!  Perhaps my 23rd year will bring me more wisdom, success and better blogging skills!