Well hello there. Posts are getting scarce. Is one post a month enough to bring the boys to the yard? Unlikely. I’ll need to work on that. Let’s get right to business, shall we?
Month 14 Highlights
Saved: $485 (This will slowly climb as I pay off our final $1500 in debt over the next month).
Extra Income from Side Hustles: $220. Facebook Sales + user testing income.
Debt Repayment: Mortgage Principal: $572. LOC: $1500
Expenses:
| Category | Nov | Relevant Notes of Noteyness |
| Mortgage Principal, Interest, Property Tax | 1310 | |
| Interest & Banking Fees | 25 | |
| Child Care | 344 | |
| Parking | 115 | |
| Auto Insurance | 92 | |
| Electric | 256 | |
| Home Phone, ISP and 2 Mobile Phones | 366 | For some reason, my mobile provider charges me twice in a month, then nothing the next on occasion. I also switched to Public Mobile to save $$. Next month should be less. Hurray! |
| Life Insurance | 156 | |
| Netflix | 14 | |
| Water & Sewer | 0 | |
| Home Insurance (pre-paid until June 2020) | 0 | |
| Groceries, Toiletries, Household Supplies | 1098 | Grrrr. |
| Fuel | 331 | |
| Auto Repair, Maintenance, Renewals, License | 401 | So we bought winter tires on Kijiji for our 2006 C-RV. However the rims did not fit, so we had to buy new ones. Bonus – we sold the rims to make some $ back! Also in here is a new wiper arm and blade. |
| Medical, Eyecare, Prescriptions,Vitamins | 150 | |
| Vacations | 0 | |
| Dental | 0 | |
| School Supplies | 34 | School Photos! |
| Home Improvement, Services, Supplies, Maintenance | 321 | This year we took time to have both our wood stove and our propane fireplace inspected and cleaned by professionals. |
| Education | 0 | |
| Health & Fitness, Sports | 74 | Hockey gear for the kiddo that wasn’t included in the program. |
| Haircuts | 58 | Getting to be less now that I’m not colouring my hair. 🙂 |
| Gifts & Holiday Expenses | 480 | Our anniversary dinner, and Christmas gifts. |
| Clothing | 112 | More spontaneous clothing purchases not on budget :/ |
| Charitable Donations | 153 | We participated in a few fundraisers this month. |
| Annual Memberships & Subscriptions | 90 | So. We did the week trial of Disney +. I thought it was “ok”. Hubs and M thought it was REALLY AWESOME! I was overruled. That said, we’ve been watching it quite often, so there’s that. We’ll see how the year goes. Not a very FI thing to do, I realize. But here we are. I have spoken. |
| Heat (Wood & Propane) | 0 | |
| Furniture & Decor | 0 | |
| UNKNOWN EXPENSE | 129 | Less than last month, but still annoying. |
| Allowance M | 11 | |
| Allowance Hubs | 338 | |
| Allowance T | 162 | |
| Dining Out – Family | 172 | Higher than necessary! |
| Entertainment – Family | 0 | |
| Lotto Tickets | 14 | |
| Alcohol | 38 | I’ve decided that alcohol sold in the grocery store is no longer a good thing. |
| Total Expenses | 6844 |
Well, that’s it for now. Not a bad month in terms of expenses, but always room for improvement (I’m supposed to be tackling the grocery/toiletry/household supply budget but I’m doing a terrible job). I don’t expect December to be great, however I hope to take some time during the holidays to set us up for success in January. Stay tuned for that.
Thanks for stopping by!!
I know it’s a pretty small cost, but hey, power of incremental change right! Have you looked to see if there are any no-fee bank accounts that would work for the family? That small cost is $4100 in 10 years as MMM would say.
MM! So nice to hear from you! You’re absolutely right. I’ve been paying CIBC $10.50 a month for FAR TOO LONG. I have a checking account with Tangerine, but I’m just taking WAY TOO LONG to transfer everything over. I really need to kick myself in the pants over this. I think I only have about 7 forms left to fill out to switch all of my automatic debits…I will try to get it done over the Christmas break!