Knitting

Slippers are always a fun knit!

Dishcloths are my go to projects.

Sleepy Bunny Buddy - super soft and cuddly!

A Christmas present in the making.

A shawl I made for a gift. Look at the colours.

Batting Down The Hatches

With the reset, I feel that I should start over with some, if not all of the frugal things that I have experience with. Then I can add in new ones that I find. First off, budgeting.

I prefer to call it a Spending Plan instead of Budget, but the truth of the matter is, if I don't have one, I don't do very well over the month. I don't mind if we go over in a particular category, say grocery spending, because even if I do, it saves us money in the Restaurant/Ordering Out category. But, without the Spending Plan mapped out in the first place, I spend all willy-nilly and next thing I know, we're behind in the cable bill again. It's not perfect, and the income minus expenses are at an all time negative right now, but it is my starting point.

I've added up all the debt we owe. It's disgusting. I should be ashamed, and I am somewhat, but I've reset, so it also becomes our starting point. It will get a wee bit worse over the next couple of months while I re-juggle the spending plan and get back to work and whatnot, but it is what it is.

One thing that I found really, really helped us in the past was having a meal plan. I put up an empty weekly dinner sheet on the fridge and get the family to put in requests, or at the very least, help fill the thing in. Then I have a much clearer picture of what I need to buy when I am at the grocery store. I haven't taken an inventory of our cupboards lately, so maybe I'll do that too. Throw out old, outdated stuff that is never going to get used, and see what I can use up to lower the grocery spending this week. I'll definitely need to replenish the freezer meats (we are out of or nearly out of everything), so I will be keeping my lids peeled for deals on meats until we can save up for another freezer meat order.

Upcoming in August:

DD1 has a birthday coming up. I have already decided what I would like to gift her. It should be around $50 so that's not too bad.

DH's brother is getting married. DH is in the wedding party, so there will be a tux rental (ugh) and a gift to be bought for the newlyweds. I'll also have to find something appropriate to wear, like a dress, and we'll have to spend a small amount of money at the reception I suppose.

Then there is back to school shopping. Kids will need new shoes, there will be fees, and probably a few school supplies will be needed. I will have to keep this spending down to as little as possible.

Hockey fees; These are due by the end of the month and I'm just not sure where this money is going to come from.

All of this along with our regular monthly bills, the little bit that we are behind in rent, the amounts we are behind in some of the other bills and the debt. Oh the debt.

I'll have to adjust and readjust the debt payments as I move forward in this, but for now I've started small automatic payments just to get things going in the right direction.

Wish us luck. We're going to need it.

Reset

It been ages since I wrote on this lovely little blog. I ventured out into the bigger world of domains, and ended up with a couple of blogs elsewhere; one just for blogging about life and money and the other one was about my adventures in business. I still own the domains, but only one of them is active at this time.

Here we are, halfway through 2016 and so much has happened.
I closed my business. I'm starting another. I'm knitting more these days than I ever have been since I broke my ankle three months ago. I've been off work and not able to do much other than think, dream and plan.

Three years and a bit since our last major financial fiasco, we are again heading into uncharted territory. At least we have lots of notice this time that DH's job may be ending. So I am hitting the reset button once again.

I've burned through most of our savings in the last three months, but in a month or so I should be given the all clear to head back to work. When I do, boy oh boy am I giving our budget and debt the what for!

Yes, I said debt. Somehow we have managed to rack that bad boy up again. We were doing okay, (or so I thought) by making minimum payments and such. Really what we were doing was thinking everything was going swimmingly along while barely keep our noses out of the water! All the time we were starting to drown without realising it. Of course something always gives. This time, the first crisis came in the form of my injury.

Now that I've hit the reset button, I am taking stock of what we owe (it made me throw up a little in my mouth), and what we own, what we have, what we need, and what we can do without. I'll be rethinking every little single thing that we all take for granted around her and making tough decisions. I don't want to be going through this ever three to five years.

I'm getting too old for this nonsense.

WMW 13 - Womens Money Week

Starting on Monday March 4, 2013, I will be taking part in Womens Money Week 2013. A whole week dedicated to blogging about a pre-determined list of topics.

Last year,Womens Money Week compiled The Ultimate List of Women Money Bloggers and several of my favourite blogs were included. (Some of us had to email them to ask to be included.) I found new blogs that I love from this list also. I'm not sure if they will be updating the list this year, or even making a new one, but either way, there is a tonne of women money bloggers to read.

My own interest in personal finance started when we were at an all-time financial low as a family. We had a staggering amount of debt, and the income flow had decreased to a trickle. We were in a rough situation. Then, I happened across Gail Vaz - Oxlade's television show, 'Til Debt Do Us Part. It was an eye opener for me. I became a student of my own finances, soaking up information on money matters in any way that I could. I read books, read blogs, watched shows and slowly but surely, I started cleaning up the financial mess that we had made.

I am not perfect with finances now, nor will I ever be. But I have learned a lot of things in the last four years on my financial awakening journey. We have gotten our consumer debt under control, and we have money in savings for our future. We can now deal with the curve balls that life throws at us without going into crisis mode. I'm still learning and growing and look forward to getting to where we want to be.

This next week is going to be great, with bloggers from everywhere participating. I'm looking forward to reading some great posts, getting some new ideas, and maybe, just maybe, passing on a few ideas of my own.