The Accounting Hat: The little things

Oh budget – how I love thee. No really. I LOVE my budget. Like a lot.

We’ve done a lot of work on our budget the last bit; bedrest, maternity leave, working again, not working. There are also lots of little things we do to help the budget and stay on track. I thought I would share with you some of the little things we do.

·         When Brian’s out of the office he doesn’t usually have free coffee like he does at the office, so We have a thermos and I make him coffee every morning. It saves us about $3.00 a day, so about $15.00 a week. Not to say that he doesn’t buy coffee if he needs and extra pick me up, but its one little thing that makes a difference.

·         Manu planning: HUGE for the budget. I know what I need and what I have, and if I need to I can make some substitutions for something less expensive or something I already have at home.

·         Along with menu planning we cook for 4 every night. Leftovers are great for lunch! It means that Brian has a good filling lunch every day for lunch and I have something healthy to pull out for lunch and share with Gray if need be. It Brian from running out to get something quick, which doesn’t always mean budget friendly. We on average spend about $3.00 a portion for our meals, sometimes more, but I can guarantee that you won’t find something fast that’s that inexpensive for such great food.

·         Cloth diapers! Enough said. Yes it’s more work, but not too much more than just throwing a load of laundry in the washer. And if you don’t go crazy on buying cute covers, and if you find a system that works for you right away, they pay for themselves in the first year. We researched detergents that are great for diapers and then environment, and the budget too.

·         Solar Drying System, as Brian calls it. Most people call it a clothes line. We put it up mainly for cloth diapers, but we’ve also started drying most of our things on the line. Being home is great for getting things done during the week, however we now have time of use hydro here and it’s more expensive to use the washer and dryer during the day. So to adjust I try and get the laundry through the washer by 7am (when hydro goes up) and on the line, weather permitting of course.

·         Buy off brand products. Okay Okay Oreo’s are Oreo’s and nothing compares. However no name fizzy water with lime, no big difference. If you’re willing to give it a try you can find something that’s a bit cheaper that’s just as good as the name brand.

·         Revaluate Cable. Do you watch 500 channels of TV? Do you even have time to watch tv? Did you know that almost all major sporting events are available for live streaming online? And that you can watch most TV shows online now? So $40.00 a month for something you really don’t use isn’t a good deal. Brian and I got rid of cable for 18 months, and just recently got it back. But when we did get cable back, we got the basic bundle, 30 or so channels, for $10.00 a month. That’s cheaper than a coffee date. I can’t say if I would ever pay for full cable again. It’s almost too much money for that when we don’t watch much live TV anymore.

What do you do to save a bit of money? Any ideas for me?

 

 

The Accounting Hat: My Italian Vacation

I have to say I’m so excited for My Italian Vacation. It’s 30 years away but I’m saving for it alreaday. Well actually I already have the money saved.

Brian and I decided to focus a large portion of our savings on our retirement. To be honest, it’s not easy. We see friends who go on vacation after vacation or buying big ticket items all the time and instead we save. We don’t eat out much, but instead save enough money to eat out a few times over at our favourite gourmet restaurants.

Having worked in finance and with retirement advisors I know what you realistically need to retire with to live the same lifestyle that you do now. And to start saving later in life is a lot harder. Brian has money come off his pay ever time to go to his pension so we don’t even count that in our budget, and who knows how his pension will look in 30 years so we have to save above and beyond that.

The other side of the planning coin is life insurance. No one wants to think about the possibly of them not being here anymore, or worse, their spouse not being there anymore. But I need to know that Brian is taken care of, and goodness if we both pass away that Grayson is taken care of. It’s also a lot less expensive to get when you’re young.

The amount of money we save between RESP’s RRSP’s and the premiums for life insurance is more money than we save in a year for vacation. And the amount of money we put into our RRSP’s in a year will more than pay for my Italian vacation when it comes around in 30 years. As much as I would love to vacation a few times a year now, I love the idea that because we’re able to save now I can have some fabulous dream vacations when we retire.