Life Update

Wow how time flies, I might have said that before.  It's crazy to see what we have accomplished over the last several years.

We struggled with infertility for four years before going through IVF.  We were eventually able to have boy girl twins who are now 2.5 years old.  We also recently had another baby girl - meaning I'm on maternity leave with three kids under three.  Pretty crazy to think that a couple of years ago I didn't even know if we would ever have children.

Our infertility journey cost us about $20,000.  Most of which we cash flowed, but my husband ended up getting laid off while I was pregnant with the twins.  We struggled with him being laid off and me having a reduced income on maternity leave.  Eventually he started a new job out of town, but was only able to come home on weekends, leave me alone with the newborn twins.  Life was pretty crazy and our budget was not my number one priority.

After maternity leave, I went back to work and my husband stayed home with our twins, leaving our budget still pretty tight.

Our dog got really sick and we decided to pursue treatment, however after a year battle, she passed away from cancer.

After staying home for eight months, my husband went back to work and we started paying for childcare.  That alone cost us around $1800/month.  It made me seriously wonder what we were spending money on before we had kids!

Now we have money on two lines of credits we have been paying off.  My original goal was to have the first line of credit paid off by the end of 2018.  My updated goal is to have it paid off by the time I go back to work in September 2019.

We've been on and off the debt train several times over the last several years.  We need to up our emergency fund.  I've found every time we get trackers there has been another major expense that has really knocked us off our horse.  We have decided that we need to up our emergency fund at the same time as paying off our debt and creating sinking funds.  This year we have been making pretty good progress while keeping a balance.  I'm looking forward to updating our journey and how its fitting into our crazy life.

November Debt & Update

Wow, I can't believe it is the end of November, where has this year gone? I started this blog to be accountable with my debt repayment and even though I haven't posted as often as I would have liked, we've made a good progress with our debt.

Here is a quick update:

Credit Card#1: $500 Paid off!

Credit Card#2: $1350 Paid off!

Line of Credit#1:$5800 Paid off!

Line of Credit#2:$11800 Paid off!

Car Loan:$25800 - Currently we are around $24 000

We've struggling with infertility and we have decided to start the IVF process in early 2015.  We are not willing to take on any debt for IVF, so we are stashing away money as fast as possible - it will be around $10 000. We are not making any extra payments on the car until after we have paid the for the IVF.  If we have money left over, then we will throw it on one of our 2015 goals.

I'm feeling pretty free to get to the point where we only have are car loan and we are going to be able to cash flow IVF! 

We Moved!

One of the things that has kept me busy from posting this year is building a new house and selling our old house.  We started the building process in January, and we finally moved in last week!

We managed to have a few days to pack up, move everything and clean our old house before we had to be out.  It was very rushed but my hubby and I made an awesome team, and we had lots of help from family.

We are settling in to our new house, and it's going to take us some time to unpack and set up, but it's already feeling like home!  We moved to a smaller community outside of the big city we were living in. Commuting to and from work is so much easier and less time.  Hubby and I also carpool, so he drops me off and picks me up from work.  It's very nice for me, I'm spoiled!

Our two dogs and cat are adjusting and have tons of room to play inside and outside, and there is an offleash dog park a block away!

Now that all the dust has settled regarding relators and lawyers fees, and now we can get back to paying off our debt and building up our savings!

Update - August Goals

Here is an update on my August Goals:

Stick to Our Budget: ½ half of August: FAIL

We took out $400 in cash from the first paycheck in August, thinking we were going to use the envelope system and split up the expenses. One thing lead to another, and the month flew by and the cash flew out of hubby’s wallet. The good news is, we only used the cash and we didn’t use credit cards, but the bad news is I have no idea where it went so I can’t tell how much money we spend eating out/groceries/ gas etc. New plan for the rest of the month is to only take out in cash the amount for our personal spending money (because I really don’t care to track it!) and track everything else through the debit account.

Here is the break down for the remainder of August:
Groceries - $159 (rounded to create a zero based budget)
Restaurant - $100
Gas - $200
Pets - $20 (just in case we need something, but I think we have enough food etc to last)

Pay off Credit Card #2: Still in progress – we look like we will be within a couple hundred of paying the $1540 off!

August Update #1

I have a couple of financial goals set for August.  I want to focus on the financial aspect of our lives this month because that is the only this we can really control.

Here are my two August financial goals:

Stick to Our Budget: Meaning when there is no money left, there is no money left.  No food money left? We aren’t going over and spending money eating out. No gas money, well we are going to have to budget that well because 32 kilometers is going to take me a long time if I am going to have to walk to work!

Pay off Credit Card #2: This is going to be a tough goal considering hubby added another $230 to his visa for tickets he bought me for our anniversary.  Very sweet, but very not in the budget. We are going to have to really scrimp and save to pay off the credit card this month, hopefully having extra food and gas money at the end of the month we can use towards the credit card.

The good news is I started working full time at the end of July after working part time for 6 months.  The bad news is there was a problem with payroll when I switched to full time and my first pay check this month was smaller than what I had in my budget.  It will be fixed on my next pay check, but because of taxes, it won’t work out quite the same.

This month hasn’t had the best start but I am determined to get it under control!

Here is what our planned spending budget looks like so far:

Food (including grocery and restaurant) $0/$600
Gas $0/$400
Household Goods $50
His Spending Money: $60/$120 (cash)
Her Spending Money $60/$120 (cash)
Pets: $81.77/$100

Debt Free Take Two

I have not blogged in a really, really long time. Unfortunately we had some major medical issues in our house and it's been a lot to deal with. After two surgeries, my husband is on the mend. Unfortunately, we are also still dealing with our fertility issues but have made progress and have started treatments.

We also managed to pay off our $12 000 line of credit and keep our credit cards paid off, until earlier this year when we both were off work because of my husbands surgery. We also decided to move this year and are in the process of building a house. Our down payment is on our line of credit until we sell our current house.

We took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and we are going "Gazelle Intense" this time!

In July this is where we started:

Credit Card#1: $500

Credit Card#2: $1350

Line of Credit#1:$5800

Line of Credit#2:$11800

Car Loan:$25800

We managed to complete Dave Ramsey's baby step #1 - $1000 emergency fund and pay off Credit Card #1.

My goal for August is to pay off Credit Card#2 but it might be a bit of a tight squeeze because we still have to make minimum payments on everything else.

It feels good to be back in the saddle and having a plan!!

Meal Plan Monday #2

Today is Canada day and we are home from work.  Dinner tonight is going to be easy and quick grilled - chicken and salad.  We used frozen chicken breasts for the longest time but have switched to fresh and it has made all the different.  I plan to chop up the chicken and add it to a huge salad with mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.

Our meal plan for the week of July 1st is:

• Grilled Chicken Salad
• Homemade Pizza
• Roasted Zucchini Pasta (emeals)
• Zucchini Pizza Casserole (Debbie Does Dinner)
• Shrimp and Broccoli Stirfry (emeals)

Budgeting Software: Why I love YNAB

Last fall I began looking for software I could use for budgeting.  I wanted something a little bit more fancy than a spreadsheet but easy to use for the average home budget. I tried a couple of different android apps, some of which I couldn' t even get set up and I found them very complicated.

Then I found YNAB (You Need A Budget). I read through the forums and downloaded the trial to see if I could make it would for my budget.  It was pretty easy to get set up and the few questions I did have got answered by reading the forums. By the end of my trial, I was hooked and decided to buy the program, which cost $60. I conveniently set up a budget category for purchasing YNAB and the money was in my checking account when I needed to purchase it.

Why I love YNAB:

1).  It's easy to set up and use

I had my whole budget set up in less than 30 minutes.  You create accounts to reflect your current chequing/saving accounts.  You also will need to create your budget for the month where you appoint each dollar to a category.  YNAB has tons of tutorials and help if you run into any problems. At the end of the day/week/month it is quick and easy to enter your purchases, or YNAB has a handy mobile app so you can enter them as you're checking out from a store.

2). It imports transactions from bank statements.

To be honest, I rarely used this feature because I preferred doing it manually.  The only reason I wanted to do it manually is so I could break down transactions further and really see what I was spending.  I'm a little bit of a numbers nerd when it comes to budgets and spreadsheets.  I also felt like it made me more accountable to what I was spending, kind of like a calorie journal for someone on a diet. For the rest of the people out there who really don't like budgeting and would like to spend as little time possible doing it, this is the feature for you!

 3). You can set up automatic payments.

This is one of my favourite features because I was able to enter in my paycheck amount once and have it automatically repeat every two weeks.  This was the same with the mortgage, car insurance and other payments where the same amount came out on the same day every month.  This made it easier to balance my budget and I spent even less time entering in transaction every month.

4). The categories show your balances.

 Whenever you look at your budget it tells you the amount you have budgeted, the amount you have spend so far this month and the amount you have left to spend.  At the end of the month you can choose to carry what you have left over/what you overspent to the next month's total budget or directly to the same category.  This makes it really handy for budgeting for things like Christmas - if you budget $50 one month and you don't spend it, it will add to the next months budget making your category total $100.

5). It has Four Rules to whip you into financial fitness.

One of the things I love the most about YNAB is the philosophy behind it. It helps you plan your budget and teaches you how to make your money work for you.  The rules are

Rule 1: Give every dollar a job: This means you work on a zero based budget there should be no dollars left over that haven't been allocated to a specific "job" or category in your budget.  There is still room for spending money, but it has to go into a category called something like "spending money", "play money" or "misc". This makes it possible to know how much of your income is going to needs and wants. Remember, your budget can always been adjusted, need to put extra gas in the car and have money left over from groceries?  Simply adjust your budget categories for the month, but every dollar still ends up with a job.

Rule 2: Save for a Rainy Day: This step is all about saving for both those planned and unplanned expenses.  You need to set aside some money to cover big bills (think taxes, insurance premiums or Christmas) and you need to have money put aside for an emergency fund (emergency car repairs, job loss). YNAB suggests having at least $1000 available to access in case of emergency.  $1000 is a great start, and building that up to 3-6month worth of expenses would be even better.

Rule 3: Roll with the punches:  This works closely with reason number 4 why I like YNAB.  It automatically adjusts next month's budget if you go over your budgeted amount.  This means if you are budgeting $200 in groceries and you end up spending $250, it will subtract that extra $50 from next month in order to balance your budget. This might sound a bit odd at first but if you do the math it makes sense.  Let's say you have $1000 in your bank account as your "rainy day" money.  You get paid $1000 and now have a total of $2000 in your bank account.  Then you budget the whole $1000 pay check but end up spending $1200.  You would only be left with $800.  Next month you get paid $1000 and have a total of $1800.  YNAB is going to tell you to budget $800 instead of $1000.  This way you build your $1000 fund back up before it's eaten away.  Sounds a bit confusing, but good news it, YNAB does all the math so you don't have too!

Rule 4: Live on Last month's income: I cannot wait until we reach this stage.  Imagine, it's the first of the month and every penny you are going to spend that month is already in your bank account.  No checking to see if you will get paid before your mortgage comes out or having to wait till pay day to pay utilities.  This step really puts you in the drivers seat of your money.  If something was to happen and you lost your job or had to take an unpaid leave, you'd have a month to figure out what to do.  This may be the hardest step to achieve, but it makes a huge difference in how you spend your money.

YNAB has changed the way we track our money and view it over the month.  We still use a spreadsheet and YNAB and will most likely continue to do so until we are out of debt and completed the fourth step.  Tracking everything in YNAB makes it super easy to look back on and compare month to month using their reporting section.

What programs do you use to track your spending?

Emeals

Hubby and I started using emeals about a month ago and we absolutely love it! It gives us a meal plan, with instructions and a grocery list for the week.

We've tried a couple of different meal plans and we really like the clean eating one.  It had a few recipes that I didn't think I or my hubby would like but they turned out delicious.  One was a cooked kale salad with cheese, rice, raisins and walnuts.  I am not one for kale and had never had it cooked.  It turned out really good and really filling. Recently we have switched to the classic menu in hopes it will save us a little bit of money and will have soon quick and easier recipes..  This week shrimp tacos in on the menu.

We don't tend to follow the menu every night so sometimes when I buy ingredients for a week, it lasts me a week and a half.  It's really nice to never have to think about what is for supper!

They also have a breakfast and lunch menu.  We subscribe to the lunch menu which is less customizeable than the dinner and is set for a family of 4. We only used it for a week before hubby went in the hospital and since he's been home and I've been working from home a far amount since, we haven't been using it.

We will be renewing the dinner subscription for sure! It was only $7 a month for three months ($5 a month if you sign up for 12.)  I think $7 is a reasonable amount to pay to keep our family at home and eating healthy. I wasn't to sure if I would use it when I signed up for three months, but it is definitely something that is going to be continued!

Meal Plan Monday #1

In order to hold myself responsible to sticking to our meal plans, I've decided to post our weekly meal plans.  Hopefully it will inspire some new ideas for you and will keep us on track!

Our meal plans consist of five dinners, Monday - Friday.  I do not meal plan for the weekend as we often go to my parents house or have another event where we aren't home.  I try to make a mix of tried and true and new recipes.

We strive for the following:

• One seafood/fish meal
• One pasta meal
• One veggie meal
• One beef meal
• One chicken meal

This doesn't always happen, especially when we are using emeals for the base of our meal plans, but aiming for this allows us to have a variety.  I'm pretty sure if I let my husband decide he would be cooking beef, pasta and beef and pasta (think hamburger helper) all the time!

Our meal plan for the week of June 24th is:

• Shrimp Tacos (emeals)
• Grilled Chicken Pitas (emeals)
• Hot dogs
• Chicken Club Pitas (emeals)
• Hamburgers and Corn on the Cob

TTC Post #7 - Had My HSG Test

Well I'm here to share my results from the HSG test which aren't great news.

We had to head to the hospital this morning and be there at 7:30 with the test starting at 8am.  We got there at about 7:15 and there were a few people ahead of us in line already.  They schedule 10 women at a time and only run the tests in the early morning. They led us in small groups to change and then we were lined up in our hospital gowns sitting in the hallway as we were called into the test room.

I was the 4th women in line and I got to see several women come out and most said it was a breeze.  I was glad that it sounded quick and painless.

When I got in, I was very nervous.  I had to lay on a bed while they inject the dye.  I won't go into graphic detail but they had trouble getting the dye into me and it was very painful because of this.  The doctor said they couldn't get dye into my right tube at all, it could be because it's blocked or because of the pain from the test making the dye not go in.  The doctor also said that my left tube looked strange, deformed.

This was not news I was expecting.  I was really upset.

The doctor said my fertility doctor would probably recommend I go for a laparoscopy so they can see my tubes better.  Hubby and I talked about this but because of the other conditions we are facing (low sperm count, not ovulating, PCOS) plus problems with the tubes, it seems more reasonable to go right to invitro fertilization (IVF).

Tough decision and I feel like my reality has changed a lot going from wanting to get out of debt to be a stay at home Mom with several children to wanting to get out debt to pay for IVF in hopes we can have one.

Should we be taking a vacation?

The obvious answer to this question is no. Obviously.

But (didn't you just know that word was coming), our friends are getting married this summer close to where my husband grew up.  We booked our flight a couple of months ago with the intention of spending 10 days traveling in Canada and driving into the States.

We had a planned a route that would have us stay in hotels for about 7 nights and drive more than 1500 km. Which would be fun for us, we love taking road trips.  And it was already planned so we should just not go on the next vacation after that right?

We decided to pay the airline fee to change our tickets and only stay 5 days.  We would forgo the vacation to the States and just focus on the wedding and family.  We are both a little disappointed but it has the potential to save us $1500 that we just don't have to spend.  I mean we could spend that money and cut back our debt payments but that really be the most responsible thing to do.

We are serious about paying off this debt, and sacrificing vacation this year one way it's going to happen faster!

I think the important question is: what are you willing to sacrifice now so you can have a better future and don't have to sacrifice later?

Our Upside Down Car Loan

Earlier this year hubby and I bought a new(er) car replacing both of our vehicles with a vehicle that has never been in an accident but came with a bigger car loan.  At the time of signing the loan I felt my stomach turn a little, I knew it was too much but it seemed like the right this to do.  We now owe $29 000 on a car that isn’t worth as much.  Before we owed $12 000 on a car that wasn’t worth that much.

We talked about looking into selling the car and buying something smaller both in size and in the loan amount.  Today we went to a dealership who said our car was only worth about $19 000 to trade in.  Ouch.  That’s a hit of $10 000 since January?  Well not quite since we started this loan with negative equity.

I’ve been listening to Dave Ramsey’s pod cast a lot lately and one of his most common pieces of advice is to sell the car especially if you can’t pay it off in two years.  At first I didn’t take the advice so seriously, thinking we just got this car and we got it to keep it for a long time.  We also downsized to only one vehicle.  After a while of thinking and listening to Mr. Ramsey, I really started thinking selling might be the best option because at least it would leave us with a smaller loan to pay off even if we took a bit of a hit.

Here you can’t find a half decent car for less than about $10 000.  If we bought a $10 000 car and traded ours in for $19 000, we’d still end up with a $29 000 loan but with an older car.

Our other option is to work our butt’s off and pay off this car as soon as we can.  Sitting down and figuring out what our budget looks like, fingers crossed we can pay off the car by spring of 2015.  Much better than the spring of 2020 that our loan was for.

I think Dave Ramsey has good advice, but it doesn’t seem like it will work in our situation. The best thing I think for us to do is to call it a stupid mistake, keep the car, work our butts off and get it paid for and never finance a car again!

Where did the last year go?

Last time I looked up, it was summer time 2012, and now here it is, summertime 2013.

As I read back through my posts, it's obvious we haven't made the best financial decisions. Last summer, my hubby and I took on a huge renovation project that took all of our time, and all of our money.  We didn't plan well enough and we found ourselves back in the hole with a $12 000 line of credit.  Since our line of credit climbed that high, we've managed to pay it down to $6 600.

We also found ourselves in a position of owning a car that (due to an accident where we not at fault) was worth $6 000 and still owed $12 000.  We decided earlier this year to trade in both of our vehicles for what would could get and buy a new(er) vehicle.  At the time it seemed like a good idea, but now we have a $29 000 car loan to add onto our debt.  Hubby is still glad we bought a new(er) vehicle, and I am too, but I think it could have waited.  Our fuel consumption has gone down with this new vehicle, so we are at least saving money there.

We've gotten back on track and back on a budget and we will have the line of credit paid off by Halloween. We also plan to shorten our car loan to 2 years from 7 years and will hopefully have that paid off by spring 2015.

Every thing is a learning curve and while we were off track for awhile, I feel much better being on track again.

TTC Post #6 - Booked for an HSG

Just a short post to say I received a call today that I am booked for my HSG on June 17th.  It happens to be the same day and my hubby's semen analysis appointment.  This is stressing me out a bit because he can't drive and I am supposed to drive him to his appointment.

I am quite nervous for the appointment but I have blind faith that it is going to be ok!

TTC Post #5 - Our First Appointment at the Regional Fertility Clinic

Hubby and I had our first appointment at the Regional Fertility Clinic today.  I was really nervous and I didn't know what to expect.  We also were going to see a male doctor which made me nervous.  Turns out, our doctor is fabulous! He has an excellent "bedside manner" and a good sense of humour.  The clinic was extremely organized and we felt like we had enough time to ask questions and make sure we understood everything.  The doctor is sending us for more tests, Hubby is to have another semen analysis (test #3) and I am to have an HSG test.  Why do men get the better end of the stick?

From the test we got back today, Hubby's semen analysis is better than it was last time (woot!) and he thinks I have PCOS (boo!).

My OBGYN didn't think I had PCOS originally.  I do have some of the symptoms (not ovulating, irregular periods, trouble loosing weight) but not all of them (no extra hair, not overweight).  I'm nervous that this is going to be another road block in the road to getting pregnant, but I am happy that I have something a bit more concrete to research.

As for the HSG test, I am a bit nervous for that.  Most women who have had this say it's nothing, but one I know said it's extremely painful.  

Finger's crossed we can complete our tests and they go well!

TTC Post #4 - We Got Into the Regional Fertility Program!

Very exciting news!  We have an appointment at the Regional Fertility Program at the end of May!  I'm very excited and counting down the days till we go.

Fingers crossed it's going to help!

Hubby is Home From the Hospital

This has been one crazy week.  Hubby (who is not epileptic) had a seizure on Thursday night and ended up in the hospital!  He dislocated both of his shoulders and he broke three bones in his right shoulder which required surgery.

My work has been really good and luckily I am able to work from home this week while I take care of him.  It's going to be a long couple of  months recovery and once his shoulder heals, he still won't be able to drive.

His doctor thinks he will be off of work for three months - this is where emergency funds are really important!

TTC Post #3 - Follow Up with OBGYN

Hubby and I had our follow up appointment with my OBGYN.  We received some news that we were expecting - I'm not ovulating and then we received some we weren't expecting - hubby has low sperm count.  Our OBGYN said he only specializes in female infertility so he is referring us to the Regional Fertility Program.

It's going to take several months to get into the clinic, but they will be able to help us further.  They offer all kinds of services so if we find out we need additional help, they run all types of fertility treatments.

I am just trying to relax and get through the wait, maybe I'll be pregnant before we get into the program.

I've Been Really Sick

My posts have been getting shorter and more infrequent as I've been been really sick for a couple of months.  I started having swollen tonsils in mid October and was on my first round of antibiotics by the end of October.  After my first round of antibiotics, I got sick again.  I started a second round, and then the same thing happened.  It took me four rounds of antibiotics in order to kick this throat infection.  I was pretty much going to be right after I got home from work everyday.  I ended up taking a whole week off of work just to rest.

Hubby and I booked a vacation to Mexico in January, which probably isn't the smartest decision financially, but I felt like I need the rest to feel better.  I am looking forward to getting out of the snow and letting the margaritas sunshine help me fight this throat infection again.